“I like to draw upon my books, and I will!” replied Dora; “and if mamma scolds me I shall run away.”
“Well,” rejoined nurse, losing patience for once, as she afterwards confessed, “and it would be real kindness to us all, miss Dora, if you did.”
Whereupon Dora walked out of the nursery, highly offended.
A little while afterwards mamma asked for Dora to go out with her on to the sands. The child was nowhere to be found. Nurse supposed her to have gone into the drawing-room: mamma thought her still in the nursery. The house was searched in vain. Then nurse remembered the conversation which had taken place:—Dora had really run away!
The alarm and distress of the father and mother were beyond description. The child was only seven years old: what could have become of her? Servants were sent out in all directions—on to the sands; to the pier; into the streets: but she was nowhere to be found. Then nurse had a happy idea. You must know that in many country towns like Hastings, an old custom is kept up of having a Town-crier. When people lose anything, like a watch, a purse, or a dog, they employ this man. He goes about the town ringing a bell to attract attention, and then reads from a piece of paper, in a loud voice, a description of the thing lost; offering a reward for its discovery.
Nurse very sensibly thought a lost child might be cried about the town as well as anything else; and a handsome reward was offered for the recovery of this naughty little girl.
But what had become of Dora in the meantime? She had run out of the house suddenly in her fit of anger, carrying her doll in her arms, but without hat or jacket. At first she was delighted to find herself alone and free in the streets, and laughed as she thought how frightened nurse would be. But after walking for a little while, she discovered that she had lost herself: for she had only been at Hastings two or three days, and did not even know the name of the street she lived in. She had hoped to frighten nurse, but never thought of being frightened herself; yet that was what it had come to.
She sat upon a doorstep and began to cry. Presently somebody spoke to her. Then Dora thought of stories she had heard of children being stolen, and started up and ran away. So she wandered about for two or three hours, till at last the Town-crier came close to where she stood in a doorway. She heard him read the description of herself, and the people standing by recognised it also. The crier had a kind face; she let him take her by the hand, and thus was led home again, followed by a crowd of children.
