“Fairy and Charlie out, wife? Dear me, we shall have to go and look for them; why, they may fall into a chalkpit and break their necks. Where have they gone?” asked John, leisurely putting on his hat and scarf.
“I don’t know, but I fancy to Mount Harry; I heard Fairy talking about it.”
“Here, Jack, we shall have to go and look for them children, I think,” called out the shepherd to Jack.
“Of course we shall; I am lighting the lantern; let’s be off at once, father,” said Jack, who had made the necessary preparations for the search while his father was taking in the fact that the children were lost, and now stood with the lantern in his hand and his dog by his side at the open door.
“Where are we to go, father?” said Jack as they started.
“Well, your mother says they are gone to Mount Harry, so if we were to go along the Oatham-road and search those chalkpits as we go, that is the only place they are likely to have fallen down. If they are not there, and God forbid they should be, we shall know they have not come to much harm beyond a fright. When we have passed the chalkpits we can climb up Mount Harry and come back by the jail; I have my compass, we can’t go far wrong with that.”
Jack fell in with this plan at once; it was by far the best thing they could do; but then John Shelley, in his slow, methodical way, invariably hit upon the wisest plan of action in an emergency, as Jack very well knew. Accordingly, off they started, each with a lantern and the shepherd’s dog leading the way. Jack’s own dog was younger and not so steady as Rover, so he kept him at home. This Rover was a son of the Rover who had first discovered the fairies’ baby on his master’s doorstep that midsummer evening, but John Shelley called all his dogs Rover, and was rather scandalised when Jack insisted on naming his dog Bruce; it was an innovation, and the shepherd disliked anything new; however, in this he was persuaded to yield, Mrs. Shelley and Fairy taking Jack’s part, and saying two Rovers in one family at the same time would never do.
(To be continued.)
MILAN CATHEDRAL.