“Perhaps ’e hasn’t,� answered the voice of the corporal; “but w’y, then, wouldn’t his folks be ’ere a-waitink for ’im? ’Owever, I’ll give ’im hevery chance. It’s now five-and-twenty minutes after three. I’ll give ’im huntil six, but if ’e doesn’t turn hup by then, we’ll start away for the shore without ’im.�
“Six o’clock!� thought the boy in the clock. The very time his mother had told him she was going to be home again “with something very nice for him.� And now she and his brave papa would walk right into the arms of these dreadful English soldiers, and he could not stop them!
Whang!
What a noise! It startled Brinton so much that he nearly knocked the clock over; and then he realized that it was only the clock striking half-past three.
Half-past three! He had been in there only half an hour, and already he was so tired he could hardly stand up. How could he ever endure it until four, until half-past four, five, six?
“If only something, some accident even, will happen to detain papa and mamma!� he thought. But how much more likely, it occurred to him, that his father, having but a short leave of absence, would hasten, and arrive before six.
“Tick-tock,� went the clock.
“How slow, how very slow!� thought Brinton, and he wished there were only some way of hurrying up the time, so that the soldiers would go away.
Still the soldiers stayed in the room, all but one, who had gone into the kitchen to watch from there.
“Tick-tock,� went the clock, and “whang—whang—whang—whang!� Only four o’clock. Brinton began to fear that he could not hold out much longer.