The barbarous babes

WE were all sitting so happily one evening when Mother told us. She had been reading aloud to us, as she always does on Sundays after tea, and it was the Water-Babies. It is a most lovely story, and makes you want to drown dreadfully, but we had just got to the end. “That’s all,” Mother said, and shut the book. Then she stopped a minute. “Chicks, Mother has got to go a long journey too, to the Other-end-of-Nowhere, like little Tom.”

Well, we all thought Mother was joking, and we laughed. Teddy was sitting on her lap, because he is the littlest, and we all snuggle down on the rug around. The Dustman had come to him rather, because it was past his bedtime, only he stays up later on Sundays. “Teddy going to the Other-end-of-Nowhere,” he said, in a very sleepy way.

We all laughed again at that. “Yes, and Mother is Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby,” Humphrey said. Mother didn’t answer.

“Are we really going away, Mother?” I asked.

I looked up then, and I was most astonished. Mother’s eyes were full of tears. “Little Tom had to go alone,” she said, “and poor Mother must go alone too, without her Water-babies.”

All at once I got frightened. I clutched Mother’s hand hard and sat still. I didn’t seem able to speak at all. “But how long for, Mother?” Humph asked. “Fwee days?” Because Mother does sometimes go away from Friday to Monday with Father, although we all grumble very much.

We couldn’t see Mother’s face at all, for she was kissing Teddy’s head. He was quite asleep by now. “No, for a much longer time than that,” she said; “for more than three months—for the whole winter.”

“Oh no, no, no!” Humph and Violet called out; but I still couldn’t speak. I seemed to have expected it somehow. “But why, Mother, why?” Humphrey said. “We haven’t been very naughty.”

Then Mother told us. She said that when she was so ill last month (the time that Violet went calling all alone) our doctor had said that he thought she mustn’t be in England for the cold weather. And yesterday, when she went up to London with Father, she had been to see a very great doctor, and he had said just the same, and that she must start off almost directly.

“But take us, take us too, Mother,” Humph begged. Still I couldn’t say anything.

“I can’t, my little son, I can’t. We aren’t rich enough. It is difficult for Father even to find the money for Mother to go alone.”

“Think how nice it will be when I come back again,” Mother said presently. “It will be getting summer, and we’ll go for lovely picnics in the woods. And there will be surprises in my box, such surprises for each one of you!”

“Mother going away for two, five, six, a million years!” Teddy shouted suddenly. He clapped his hands and laughed as if it were something nice.

Well, I couldn’t help it; it seemed more than one could bear. “Be quiet, you hateful, horrid idiot!” I said. “If you are glad Mother is going, every one isn’t.”

“Hush, hush, Molly!” Mother said. “Teddy is so little, he doesn’t understand.” She laid her hand on my head. Then no one said anything for a long time. Violet had started off to cry, and Humph was crying too, though he pretended he wasn’t, so he wouldn’t blow his nose, but kept on kind of snorting. It couldn’t have been that his handkerchief was dirty, because it was Sunday. As for me, I was behind Mother’s chair, and no one could see me. Teddy was the only happy one; he’d gone to sleep again.

“Oh, children, children!” all at once Mother said. “Don’t make it harder for me. Mother hates to go.”

Well, I hadn’t thought about it that way before. There was Mother going all alone, and at least I’d got the Count of Aulon, (he’s my rat), besides the others.

“You’ll—you’ll get quite strong there, Mother, won’t you? and be able to run races and—and all sorts of things, when you come back?” My voice was hardly funny at all.

But suddenly Mother began to cry; she really did. “My little ones! oh, my ‘preshun cats!’” she whispered. That’s what we like her to call us when we are very cuddly. And for a minute we all sort of cried together.

“Why, this will never do; Mother is the biggest baby of you all,” Mother said, and she smiled. “Soon there will be a big pond on the carpet, and you will be really water-babies. Wouldn’t Teddy be surprised to wake up and find himself swimming about the drawing-room. Come, we must put the wee man to bed.” As Mother laughed, of course we all laughed too.

Well, in the next few days we got more used to the idea of Mother’s going away, and it didn’t seem quite so dreadful. She told us that she was going to a place called Algiers, where there were black people, real live ones walking about the streets in funny clothes, and that she’d draw pictures of them for us, and of course that was very interesting. But still we were pretty miserable—all except Teddy. It seemed as if I couldn’t forgive him. He didn’t mind a bit more than he had done the first evening, even when he was quite awake. I began to think he hadn’t got any heart, like Nero. Now Humph, though at times you’d think he cared about nothing but what sort of pudding there was going to be for dinner, yet when big sort of things come, you just find out he does. And he is most awfully brave too, Humph is. Once he chopped a piece off his finger and the blood was simply pouring out, and all he said was, “Tie on the bit, quick; it must kneel by first attention.” I don’t know what he meant, but there’d been a gentleman staying who talked a lot of doctoring stuff with Father, so I expect it was some of that. Anyway, it was very brave.

The days before Mother went seemed each about as long as five ordinary days, and yet very short too. It was a funny thing. At last the morning came for her to start. We had to get up very early, because she and Father were going by the 7.45 train, and so the lamp was lit at breakfast, and that always makes you feel queer and choky. Mother couldn’t eat anything, and Father was sort of scolding her all the time to get her to; and we were sitting as close to her as we could squeeze, all dressed anyhow, and not having had time to brush our teeth—at least, Humph and I hadn’t. As for Ted, Fräulein hadn’t dressed him at all, but had just brought him down to say goodbye in his little scarlet dressing-gown, which is made out of my old winter jacket; he sat on Mother’s lap and tried to hold a fork with his toes, and he still seemed quite happy. I’d have liked to shake him if I hadn’t been so miserable myself.

At last there was a ring at the bell, and it was the fly. “Now do try to drink up your coffee, my dear,” Father said; but Mother said, “I can’t, I can’t.” “Well, we must start at once,” Father said. It was all very well for him, for he was going to London with Mother and down to the ship to see her off.

Mother got up though, and put Teddy into the big chair by the fire, kissing him all the while. He had still got the fork in his toes. “Look, look, Teddy eat breakfast with his feet!” he called out, pointing to them. He didn’t seem able to think of anything else.

Mother went out into the hall with the rest of us clinging to her, and down the garden path to the fly. Just as she was getting in, Father or some one asked if she’d got her keys, and Jane the housemaid had to go tearing indoors for them. While we were waiting, Fräulein looked round and gave a little cry. There was Teddy creeping down the garden, his little toes all curling up as they touched the ground, and no fork at all.

“Ach, you naughty, naughty Kindchen! Go in out of the cold. You will have your death,” cried Fräulein, and she rushed back and carried him into the house and then came out again shutting the front door.

It took two or three minutes for Mother to get settled in the fly and the luggage to be arranged, and then we all hugged her in a sort of a heap and they began to drive off, Mother kissing her hand out of the window. I didn’t see that though, Humph told me afterwards, because I was running indoors as hard as I could tear and as it was I could only just hold in the crying until I got to the bathroom. I’ve discovered that you can pull out a bit of the wood that’s round the bath and creep in sort of behind, so it’s a lovely place for times of trouble. At least, I didn’t exactly discover the place, but I saw it when the man came to mend the taps; he was a very nice man and gave me some putty.

Well, when I got into the bathroom, I was very surprised to see that the bit of wood had been pulled out already and was lying on the floor, and then when I began to crawl in I was still more surprised because there was a funny noise coming from inside, like the guinea-pig makes when he is excited. I was so astonished that I stopped crying.

I crawled quickly, though it’s very squeezy, but, of course, that’s really a great ’vantage because no grown-up could possibly come after. And when I got to the end, there was a large curled-up heap; I couldn’t see much because it’s almost dark, but I thought it must be a dear dog, so I put out my hand to feel. It was something soft, but not like a dog, more like a person; then I felt some curly hair. “Teddy!” I called out, most amazed, because I didn’t know any of them knew of this place but me. (I hadn’t meant to be mean in not telling, but one must keep somewhere for times of great trouble.)

The funny noise was still going on, and then I remembered it’s what Teddy does, when he cries very hard; he hardly ever cries at all though, that’s how I’d forgotten. “What is the matter, Ted?” I said. I couldn’t cuddle him because there wasn’t room, but I stroked him as well as I could lying on my stomach.

“Go in out of the cold,” he said. “Go in out of the cold. Mother gone away for a million years. Go in out of the cold.”

I felt I loved him ever so much more to find he really did mind about Mother going away. “But, Teddy, you’d have only seen Mother for a minute more, if Fräulein hadn’t sent you in out of the cold,” I told him.

Then he began to squeak with crying more than ever. “I was g—going to c—creep under the c—carriage-seat and be a st—stowboy on the ship. And c—come out at the place with b—black people. I’d g—got a c—crust of bread in my d—dressing-gown pocket all r—ready. Mother g—gone away for a m—million years.”

Wasn’t that a good plan? I should never have thought Teddy could have invented anything so sensible. I said, “Did you make it all up yourself?” and he said, “Yes,” very pleased, because he saw that I admired it. What made me feel dreadful though, was that all these days I’d thought he didn’t care and was going to grow up like Nero.

Just then we heard Fräulein calling, “Teddy, Teddy, where are you?” as if she were in a great state of mind. So I said we must come else she’d discover the secret place. We crawled out and I shut up the little door carefully. Then I shouted, “Teddy’s in here, Fräulein.”

I thought that Fräulein would be cross, but she wasn’t; I suppose it was to sort of make up for Mother’s going, besides she’s nearly always nice to Teddy. She just laughed and said, “Du böser Bube; you have me so frightened.”

She took hold of Ted’s hand and was taking him away to dress him, but he caught hold of me. “Molly get me up to-day,” he said.

I was pleased. You see it had often made me feel rather horrid Teddy’s being so much fonder of Fräulein than he is of me. Another thing I didn’t like was that when Teddy was a baby, a real baby I mean, I used to cuddle and nurse him heaps, but lately he’d said it was silly and that I didn’t do it to Humph. He wouldn’t even let me kiss him.

It was when I was dressing Ted that I found out something. He was telling me more about his plan for going with Mother and how he had meant to wait hidden in the carriage until she got into the train, and then scramble under the seat of the train when she wasn’t looking. “You see I thinked I could do it, because everybody says I’m so small. You don’t call it a silly plan?”

“No, it was a lovely plan,” I said.

“I was ’fraid you call it silly. And if I think of lots and lots of lovely plans, will you soon, in three, eight, a million days let me play in the games with you and Humph?”

“But you do sometimes.”

“Yes, but you think I’m a bother.”

I did feel horrid, because he is rather a bother, but we hadn’t meant him to find it out. “There’s nobody for me to play with,” he said, beginning to squeak again, “Violet’s always doing her dolls and Mother’s gone away for a million——”

“We’ll have a new game, and there will be a real part for you, like Humph’s,” I said quickly.

Teddy clapped his hands and jumped for joy. “And will you knock me about and tortoise me just like you do Humph?” He meant torture only he didn’t quite know the right word.

I said “Yes,” and I began to think of a game that minute. “I’ve got a lovely one out of the book Mother has been reading to us,” I said. “I’ll be the Sweep Grimes, and you’ll be little Tom. I shall always shout at you with horrid words and beat you dreadfully and send you up the most difficult wiggly chimneys.”

“And light straw under if I don’t go up quick enough.” Ted jigged up and down, so that I could hardly brush his hair; he hugged me all of himself.

Humph and I get excited over our games sometimes, but I don’t think we ever were so excited as Ted got. I believe he never thought about anything else. He used to ask me to come up and say good-night to him, because of course he goes to bed earlier than us, and then he’d hug me and whisper, “Fräulein doesn’t know, but I haven’t really had my broth but just a mouldy crust, and I’m not really wearing my new pyjamas but just old rags, and this isn’t really a bed at all but just a heap of dirty straw;” and I’d say in an awful Grimesy voice, “Be quiet, else I’ll kick you out to sleep in the street.”

All the same, it was through this game that Teddy got into such trouble. One afternoon it was very cold and there was a horrid wind, so Fräulein said that Teddy had better not come for a walk with the rest of us, because of getting croupy. “I will lend you my German picture-book, with the pictures that move, as a treat,” she said, “and you must be very good.” Then she asked Jane to give an eye to him every now and then.

We hate going out for walks, it’s so dull, and this one was particularly horrid. We were very glad to get back, and we rushed to the schoolroom fire.

“Why, where’s Teddy?” Fräulein said. “He must have gone to the dining-room.”

He wasn’t in the dining-room either, nor in the kitchen. Jane’s sister had come to tea (the one who has got a beautiful tooth that unscrews), and they were all talking and laughing very loud.

“Where’s Master Teddy?” Fräulein said.

“Oh, he was looking at a book not a minute ago as good as gold, Miss,” Jane said, and went on talking. The servants do get rather different when Mother and Father are away, though Jane is most kind. Last Sunday she let me warm the sort of scissors thing for her that she curls her hair with, and she has promised to lend it to me one day. It will be lovely for tortures.

Fräulein began calling, “Teddy, Teddy,” but he didn’t answer. She went and looked in all the bedrooms and seemed to get quite frightened. “Ach Herzliebchen!” she kept muttering, “if harm should have befallen thee and die Mutter away.” I wondered if he could have started paying calls like Violet!

At last I opened the drawing-room door. We hadn’t thought of looking there directly because we never use the room when Mother is away. And what I saw surprised me so that I stood quite still.

There was a dust-sheet laid out on the floor very neatly, and it was all covered with soot. A lot of soot had got on the carpet, too, around. All the vases on the mantelpiece were covered with soot and standing quite deep in it, and the pictures near had a layer of soot on the tops. Even the chairs had a good lot of soot on them. And there in the middle, hanging down in the fireplace were a pair of bare and very sooty legs.

“Teddy,” Fräulein called loud and angrily. She had come in behind me without my noticing her. There was a sort of scuffle, and Teddy came tumbling down the chimney into the fender, bringing a whole cloud of soot with him. He had only got his shirt on, and he had the hearthbrush in one hand and the poker in the other. He was dirtier than any one I ever saw; he did look beautifully real though.

“It wanted sweeping awfully, couldn’t have been done for a million years,” he spluttered, very pleased.

Well, Fräulein was furious. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so angry, certainly not with Teddy. And now the awful part comes. She caught hold of Teddy and whipped him, really whipped him, not fun!

Teddy was so astonished that for the first two slaps he never made a sound; then he simply howled. He sobbed with squeaks all the way into the bathroom, and all the time Fräulein bathed him and all the time she dried him, and when she carried him into the schoolroom and put him in front of the fire, he was still sobbing. Fräulein went to get him out some clean clothes and things but he stood there, wrapped in a big bath towel, sobbing and sobbing and squeaking until I couldn’t bear it.

I went and put my arm round him. I’d thought it rather a shame all the time, because I don’t see that he’d been so very naughty. No one had ever told him he mustn’t climb up chimneys and sweep them. Of course it was very silly of him, and I knew Mother wouldn’t like the soot all over the drawing-room carpet, especially when it’s Persian and the best one in the house, not to mention the chairs and pictures and it’s being a trouble for the servants. Still I’m sure Mother wouldn’t have whipped Teddy. So I put my arms round him and whispered, “Never mind, Ted, it’s all right now. It’s all right.” Fräulein came into the room, but she didn’t say anything. She gave me his shirt and knickerbockers to put on, and went off to get his stockings. I believe she was rather sorry she’d done it herself.

At last Teddy began to speak, though he was still sobbing. “Th—there’s one th—thing, though, she th—thinks she h—hurt me, but she d—didn’t; no, not a bit.”

“Well, if I didn’t, why are you crying, then?” Fräulein said, who had come in suddenly.

Teddy didn’t answer. He went on sobbing, but much less. Suddenly he whispered in my ear, “She didn’t h—hurt me h—half as much as you often do when we’re Grimesing,” and then he smiled a little bit.

So I said, “Shall I be Grimes now?” and he nodded. Fräulein had gone away again by now.

“And we’ll pretend you swept a chimney at a very grand house and made rather a mess.” Then I went on in the awful voice, “You scamp, I’ll thrash you within two inches of your life.”

“With a rope end?” Teddy said. He began to look quite happy. “I saw a piece in the stable-yard yesterday, Molly,” he went on, sort of coaxingly.

“Shall I go out and get it to knock you with?” I asked him.

“Oh, Molly!”—he put both his arms round my neck and gave a little shriek for happiness—“Oh, Molly, I do love you!”