"Some day," she said, "I shall have a farm, with horses and cows and

pigs and little calves."

"Shall you like that?"

"Yes," said Anne. "I would. Only it can't happen till Grandpapa's dead.

And I don't want him to die."

x They were saying now that Colin was wonderful. He was only seven, yet he

could play the piano like a grown-up person, very fast and with loud

noises in the bass. And he could sing like an angel. When you heard him

you could hardly believe that he was a little boy who cried sometimes

and was afraid of ghosts. Two masters came out from Cheltenham twice a

Advertisement..

week to teach him. Eliot said Colin would be a professional when he grew

up, but his mother said he should be nothing of the sort and Eliot

wasn't to go putting nonsense like that into his head. Still, she was

proud of Colin when his hands went pounding and flashing over the keys.

Anne had to give up practising because she did it so badly that it hurt

Colin to hear her.

He wasn't in the least conceited about his playing, not even when

Jerrold stood beside him and looked on and said, "Clever Col-Col. Isn't

he a wonderful kid? Look at him. Look at his little hands, all over the

place."

He didn't think playing was wonderful. He thought the things that

Jerrold did were wonderful. With his child's legs and arms he tried to

do the things that Jerrold did. They told him he would have to wait nine

years before he could do them. He was always talking about what he would

do in nine years' time.

And there was the day of the walk to High Slaughter, through the valley

of the Speed to the valley of the Windlode, five miles there and back.

Eliot and Jerrold and Anne had tried to sneak out when Colin wasn't

looking; but he had seen them and came running after them down the

field, calling to them to let him come. Eliot shouted "We can't,

Col-Col, it's too far," but Colin looked so pathetic, standing there in

the big field, that Jerrold couldn't bear it.

"I think," he said, "we might let him come."

"Yes. Let him," Anne said.

"Rot. He can't walk it."

"I can," said Colin. "I can."

"I tell you he can't. If he's tired he'll be sick in the night and then

he'll say it's ghosts."




Most Popular