Citation
Dick's hero

Material Information

Title:
Dick's hero
Series Title:
Red nursery series
Creator:
Atkinson, Blanche
Meyerheim, Florence ( Illustrator )
American Sunday-School Union ( Publisher )
Morrison and Gibb ( Printer )
Place of Publication:
Philadelphia
Publisher:
American Sunday-School Union
Manufacturer:
Morrison and Gibb
Publication Date:
Language:
English
Physical Description:
128, [8] p., [1] leaf of plates : ill. ; 17 cm.

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Youth -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Heroes -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Gentry -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Friendship -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Courage -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Thieves -- Juvenile fiction ( lcsh )
Publishers' catalogues -- 1894 ( rbgenr )
Bldn -- 1894
Genre:
Publishers' catalogues ( rbgenr )
novel ( marcgt )
Spatial Coverage:
United States -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Target Audience:
juvenile ( marctarget )

Notes

General Note:
Publisher's catalogue follows text.
Statement of Responsibility:
by Blanche Atkinson ; with illustrations by Florence Meyerheim.

Record Information

Source Institution:
University of Florida
Holding Location:
University of Florida
Rights Management:
This item is presumed to be in the public domain. The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries respect the intellectual property rights of others and do not claim any copyright interest in this item. Users of this work have responsibility for determining copyright status prior to reusing, publishing or reproducing this item for purposes other than what is allowed by fair use or other copyright exemptions. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions may require permission of the copyright holder. The Smathers Libraries would like to learn more about this item and invite individuals or organizations to contact The Department of Special and Area Studies Collections (special@uflib.ufl.edu) with any additional information they can provide.
Resource Identifier:
026570421 ( ALEPH )
ALG1574 ( NOTIS )
225155525 ( OCLC )

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DICK’S

HERO

















iy

Uh
OE | ch mh i

Ta Hi
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ij iy Hf y

Vy ye

SUDDENLY A GRUFF VOICE SHOUTED, ‘‘ HANDS OFF,



THERE !”

frontispiece.) [See page $4.



THE RED NURSERY SERIES



DIck’s {fERO

BY

BLANCHE ATKINSON

Author of
‘*The Real Princess, and other Fairy Tales,’’ etc.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY FLORENCE MEYERHEIM

LONDON:
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION
57 & 59 LUDGATE HILL, E.C.



amen a alll



CHAP.
I.

Il.

III.

Iv.

Vv.

VI.

Vil.

VIII.

Ix.

X.

XI.

XIT.

CONTENTS

SOMETHING HAPPENS
THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY
DICK FINDS HIS HERO.

AT GRANNIE’S

THE SQUIRE’S VISIT

OUT UPON THE HEATIL.
ACTALK WITH REX

THE GARDENER’S WARNING
‘THE BUNCH OF GRAPES.

A TERRIBLE MOMEN1

AN ANGRY VISITOR . .

FAST FRIENDS. . .

PAGE
Ir

2I

109

11g



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

—+—

PAGE

SUDDENLY A GRUFF VOICE SHOUTED, ‘‘HANDS OFF,
THERE!” . . : . . . Frontispiece
“EFFIE IS TO GO WITH YOU FOR COMPANY,” SHE SAID . 17

“PLEASE, WHAT /S A HERO?” DICK ASKED, FIXING HIS
EYES ON THE LADY’S FACE . ; . : 25

“PLL SHOW YOU THE WAY, AND TOM, THE PORTER,
WILL BRING YOUR BOX” . . . . 33

“WHY, BLESS YOUR HEARTS! I BEGAN TO WONDER
WHAT HAD BECOME OF YOU” . . . . 47

STARING OUT INTO ‘THE NEW BEAUTIFUL WORLD
AROUND THEM. ; . : : 54
THEY PUSHED ONE OF THE GATES OPEN A LITTLE WAY. 67

REX WALKED BY THE PONY, AND TALKED TO HIS NEW
FRIEND. . . : ; . . 77

IN THE OTHER HAND HE HELD A MAGNIFICENT BUNCH
OF GRAPES ; . : . : . 95
“YOU YOUNG VAGABOND AND THIEF!” HE STORMED . 103
HE WAS CARRYING DICK IN HIS ARMS, . . 113

“DICK, DICK, HOW COULD YOU THINK SUCH A THING ??
SAID REX . ; ; : . . . 123







DICK’S HERO

CHAPTER I

SOMETHING HAPPENS.



OMETHING is going to
happen, Effie!” said Dick,
not looking at her, but
straight up into the tree at
the end of the narrow yard,
and through the green leaves at the bright
patches of sky behind.

“How do you know?” Effie said, munching
her bread-and-butter, and staring up into the
tree when she saw Dick’s eyes fixed upon it.
But as she could see nothing there but the fresh

green leaves fluttering against one another, she
11



12 DICK’S HERO

looked down again at her piece of bread, sighed
to see how little butter there was on it, and how
fast it was growing smaller, and set her sharp
little teeth once more into the crust.

“T don’t know “ow I know—but I feel it—in my
bones,” Dick said, ‘‘and all through me. I like
something to be going to happen.”

“Is it something nice?” Effe asked.

“Yes, of course/ It’s always something nice
when you feel it like this!”

‘Something nice to eat?”

Dick turned to Effie with quiet surprise. His
large, dreamy blue eyes made his white, thin face
look very small and pinched. This evening they
were larger than ever—perhaps because he had
been looking so far away through the green
leaves at the shining sky. But Effie did not
think about his big eyes nor his thin, white face.
She was used to them.

‘Something nice to eat?” she asked again.

“Oh no!” Dick cried. ‘What would be the
good of that? It would all be done so soon. |
want something to happen that will go on and on

for a long time-—and not get eaten up like a piece



SOMETHING HAPPENS 13

of bread-and-butter. And I heard father and
mother talking.”

“Oh!” Effie had finished her piece, and was
still hungry. Dick knew what she was thinking.
‘‘T don’t want any supper,” he said, pushing the
plate, which was on the step between them,
nearer to her. “I can’t eat it.”

He had only taken one bite, when the shining
glow between the fluttering leaves had caught his
sight, and he liked better to dream about that
than to eat bread-and-butter. Besides, Dick was
never hungry, nowadays, since his illness in the
winter.

The children were sitting on the step of the
back door. It was their favourite place. At
least, it was Dick's, and Effie always followed his
lead. Dick thought that their back yard was a
delightful place—because of the one old tree that
grew there.

When, some time before Dick was born, the
row of houses had been built, in one of which
Dick’s father kept a greengrocer’s shop, all the
other trees had been cut down to make room for

brick walls. But as this one tree did not interfere



14 DICK’S HERO

with the builders, it was left standing. Vear by
year, as there was more and more smoke in the
air, the leaves turned brown earlier, and the bark
and the branches looked blacker and_ blacker.
But Dick had never seen country trees, and so he
did not know that they were not all black, and
that they did not all lose their leaves in July.

He loved his tree. It was as good as a whole
forest to him. In the spring he used to watch
day by day for the buds to open; and when the
leaves were all shaken out, and the little black
sparrows could hide themselves among them;
when the wind made soft music, rustling the
leaves one against another, and waving the
branches backwards and forwards; even when
the rain came pattering down, washing some of
the soot off the leaves, and making a pleasant
‘little splashing noise ;—Dick would sit on the back
doorstep for hours, and dream happy dreams
about his tree.

It was sad to see the lovely leaves begin to
shrivel in the hot summer days; sadder still when
the time came to find some of them blown about
the vard, no better than crumpled bits of paper ;



SOMETHING HAPPENS 15

worst of all when the tree was bare and black,
and all the winter had to be waited through
before it would be any use to look for new leaves,
Still, Dick knew that they would come again.

This last winter Dick had been ill, and it was
only for a week or two that he had been able to
play with Effie again in the yard, and sit on the
doorstep and watch his dear tree.

When Effie had finished Dick’s supper as well
as her own, she said, ‘‘Tell me what’s going to
happen,” and she put her fat arm round Dick’s
neck, and leaned her curly head against his; and
Dick said,—

“T heard mother say to father, ‘ Well, I’m glad
they may go so soon, and it'll do the child good’
—I'm the child, Effie—because I’ve been ill. But
I don’t know where we are to go. I wonder if
there will be a tree there, because I would not
like to go if there isn’t.” Someone called, and
the children jumped up.

‘Come in, children! It’s time for you to go
to bed.” The mother’s eyes rested anxiously on
Dick's face. ‘Have you eaten your supper?”
she said.



16 DICK’S HERO

‘No, mother; I wasn’t hungry.”

“Well, well! How are you to get strong if
you don’t eat? But there! when you are in the
fresh country air you'll have an appetite again,
and come back as fat and rosy as Effie! ”

“In the country? Are we really going into
the country?” and Dick’s eyes opened wide.

“Yes,” their mother said. ‘You are going to
your grandmother’s, and Effie is to go with you
for company. You might be lonesome, for there
are not many people where your grandmother
lives.”

“Oh! but aren’t there lots of trees, and birds,
and flowers, and all sorts of things? Isn't it the
country where all the cabbages, and_ potatoes,
and strawberries, and everything, comes from?
Oh, mother !~is it the vea/ country we are going
to?”

‘Bless the boy! You'd think he’d been
promised a fortune! Yes, it’s the real country—
all fields and woods. But your grandmother will
be very kind to you, and with Effie to play with
you'll not be lonely.”

‘Are there zo streets, and houses, and lamp-







inh are
cS S55.
ECM GF

TENN EROS = SSS
BIS a

a.

“ErrIE IS TO GO WITIET YOU FOR COMPANY,” SHE SAID.













SOMETHING HAPPENS 19

- posts, and ’buses, and shops, and——” Effie was
interrupted by Dick’s eager explanation.

‘“There’s just one street for all the people, you
know ; and then all the rest is grass and trees—
isn’t it, mother?”

“You'll see to-morrow! Now, go to sleep,
and get a good rest. Your father has to go
early.”

“To-morrow!” Dick exclaimed, jumping on
the bed for joy. ‘Oh, I wish to-morrow was
now —this minute! And shall we stay all the
day there?”

‘Why, yes, to be sure—three or four days,
or maybe more, if it does you good, and if you
are good children and don’t give your grand-
mother any trouble. But she will send you
home again if you are naughty. Lie down,
now; I must go and put your clothes ready.”

“Oh, are we really going to live in the
country !—like the story-book I had for a prize
at school last Christmas? Mother, mother! do
tell me! How long will it take us to walk
there ?”

“You can’t walk, child. You are going by



20 DICK’S HERO

train.” Then his mother kissed him, and went
away.

But Dick was too much excited to sleep.
The last words about the train made him feel
that it was to be a real journey. ‘Didn't I tell
you that something was going to happen, Effie?”
he said in a few minutes; ‘and this is really
something that will go on and on!” But Effie

was fast asleep.



CHAP LE R=

THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY.

\ICK fell asleep at last, in-
tending to be up very early.
But when he awoke Effie
was dressed, and his mother

said, ‘‘Now you must be



quick, Dick! I wanted you to sleep as late as
possible, and there is only just time.”

He was hardly ready when his father whistled,
and Effie ran into the kitchen to say that Dick
must come. So he had not time to go out to
bid good-bye to his tree, as he meant to do.
He only looked up into the waving branches
through the window, and nodded his head, and
said, ‘Good-bye! I’m going into the country,”

and in two minutes more he was lifted into the
21



22 DICK’S HERO

little cart. His mother kissed him two or three
times, and said, ‘‘ Now be a good boy, and take
care of Effie!” His father shook the reins, the
pony started, and the cart clattered off.

Dick wondered why his mother’s kiss had
made him feel as if he did not want to leave
her, and why she put her hand to her eyes as
she turned away. He looked at her silently, as
long as he could see her standing at the shop
door. But when they turned the corner of the
street, Dick noticed that Effie was chattering to
him all the time. ‘Isn't it nice, Dick? I’ve
got my best frock on, and new stockings. And
your things and mine are all in that little box.
Mother put them in, and J helped her. And
grannie is quite old, and we are not to worry
her, mother says. Look, look! there are three
horses in that waggon. ... When wz the
station come, father?” -

In a short time they were at the station. The
father called a boy to hold the pony, and the
two children were put into a railway carriage,
with their box. The guard promised to see
that they got out at the right place, and in a



THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY 23

few minutes more their father and the station
seemed to fly away from them, and Dick and
Effie felt that they were really beginning a new
life.

There were three other people in the carriage.
One was a lady in a plain black dress, with a veil
over her head instead of a bonnet. She looked
kindly at Dick and Effie, and asked them where
they were going; and when they told her she
said, ‘‘That is a pretty place, but it is a long
way from here. Who is taking care of this
little girl ?”

“Oh, J am!” Dick said, smiling. ‘“ Mother
said I could take care of her, and mother
knows.”

“You don’t look very big or strong to be
such a hero,” the lady said. e

“Please, what zs a hero?” Dick asked, fixing
his eyes on the lady’s kind face. For the train
was going chiefly through tunnels, and when it
came out of the tunnels it was between grimy
brick walls, or along the backs of dingy streets,
and there was not anything pretty to look at out

of the window.



24 DICK’S HERO

“A hero is someone very brave and clever
and good,” she said. “I am sorry you do not
know what a hero is, my dear, because it helps
us to be brave and good when we find a hero
whom we can copy. I hope you will some day.
And when you do, you must remember what I
say, and try to be like your hero, and to do what
he does. And you must love him, and do
everything you can for him, even bear pain and
shame for his sake.” The train stopped, and
the lady got out. ‘Good-bye, dear children!”
she said, as she left the train.

Dick was sorry that she had gone. All
through the next tunnel he kept repeating to
himself: ‘When you find a hero you must try
to be like him, and you must love him and do
everything you can for him, even bear pain and
shame for his sake.”

“YT wonder if I shall find a hero in the
country?” he said aloud.

“Oh! look, look at the yellow flowers all
over the tree!” cried Effie, for she was next
to the window, and they were getting away

from smoke and blackness; and the laburnums,



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SSPLEASE, WITAT JS A HERO?” DICK ASKED, FIXING
HIS EYES ON THE LADY’S FACE.







THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY 27

and lilacs, and hawthorns, and _ flowering
chestnut -trees were in full bloom in all the
gardens.

Then how happy the children were! Dick
knelt on the seat, with his little white face
against the glass over the top of Effie’s head,
and they both kept crying out, “Oh! look,
look!” until they were tired. At least, Effie
was; and by-and-by, when the houses and
gardens had come to an end, and the train was
rushing along between green fields, all sprinkled
with daisies and buttercups, where the cows lay
in the sunshine, or the ‘horses stood under the
trees flicking the flies away with their long tails,
or looking gravely over a gate at the train as
it flew by, wondering why people were in such
a hurry on a warm day,— by that time Effie
had curled up her legs on the seat, and
dropped her head against Dick, and was fast
asleep.

But to the boy this wonderful green world
flying past him was an enchanted vision. He
could not take his eyes off it. There were many,

many trees, and they were fuller of leaves than



28 DICK’S HERO

his tree in the back yard at home. The rivers
were so clear that he could see the white stones
at the bottom, and the sunshine made the rippling
water sparkle like glass. The big blue sky,
was all blue; there was no smoke, there were
no grimy black walls, nor rows of houses and
chimneys. For a long time he had not seen
one house. Was this the country, where people
really lived ? or was he dreaming?

It seemed to Dick_a great many hours since
his mother had lifted him into the cart and
kissed him. He felt as if he had almost for-
gotten the narrow, noisy street, the back yard,
and its lonely tree. Suddenly tears came into
his eyes. How black, and sooty, and shabby
his dear tree would look beside these real
country trees! ‘But never mind!” he said
to himself. ‘You are my own tree, and I'll
love you always, and perhaps——”

The train stopped, and the guard appeared
at the door of the carriage.

“Now then, little ‘uns! Here you are; out
with you!” In an instant Effie was lifted out ;
the tin box followed, and Dick scrambled after



_ THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY 29

them. The guard nodded, blew his whistle,
and off rushed the train, leaving Effie, Dick,
and the box on the platform of a quiet country

station.



CHAPTER IIE

DICK FINDS HIS HERO.

‘ ‘ S the two children stood on the
platform of the little wayside
station, a young porter, with
red cheeks, came and _ stared
at them, and Effie rubbed her
eyes and stared at him.

Dick was not sure what he ought to do; but
after watching the train disappear he took
Effie’s hand and said, ‘Now we had _ better



go to grannie’s.”

‘““And who’s going to carry this tremendous
big box to grannie’s—eh, youngster?” said
the porter.

Dick tried to lift the box, but he was weak

and the box heavy. The young porter burst
30



DICK FINDS HIS HERO 31

into a rough laugh. He did not mean to be
unkind, but he liked a joke, and saw that Dick
was bewildered.

At that moment, when Effie was beginning
to cry, and Dick to look very forlorn and
frightened, a boy, bigger than Dick, handsome
and rosy, and finely dressed, ran on to the
platform. ‘Has a parcel come for us?” he
said.

‘No, Master Rex,” said the porter, touching

his cap.

‘“Tsn’t that it? What's that? and who are
these ?” He looked at Dick and Effie
curiously. ‘What is the little girl crying

for?” he said.

‘Because we don’t know the way to grannie’s,
and because the box is so heavy we can’t carry
it,’ Dick said.

The porter winked at Master Rex, and began
to laugh again. But Rex was very kind-hearted,
and did not like to see girls cry. He stooped
down and read the address on the box. ‘“ Why,
its only to Mrs. Jackson’s, over the hill!” he

said. “Come along! I'll show you the way.





32 DICK’S HERO

Tom, the porter, will bring your box. That’s
what he is here for.”

Rex looked down kindly at Effie. “You
needn’t cry any more,” he said. ‘I'll let you
see my pony, Billy! He's waiting for. me out-
side the ‘station.”

“We've got a pony, too,” Effie said, ‘and
he brought us to the train this morning.”

Rex seemed surprised. ‘Oh, I thought you
were foor children,” he said, glancing at them
again. “Mrs. Jackson lives in one of our
cottages, and she is only a poor woman. Do
poor people keep ponies in London?”

By this time the three children were in the
road, and Billy, Rex’s pretty grey pony, was
there, with the bridle thrown over the railings.

“Our pony is to draw the cart with the
vegetables,” Dick said. ‘ He isn’t a rich pony,
like yours. And we were in the cart with the
hampers and things this morning.”

Rex laughed, as he jumped on to Billy’s
back ; and very grand he looked, Dick thought,
as he switched the pony with his whip, and

made him caper about the road. Rex liked to





‘PLL SHOW YOU THE WAY, AND TOM, THE PORTER, WILL BRING
YOUR BOX.’

5
3







DICK FINDS HIS HERO - 35

show off his pony, and perhaps he liked to
show off himself too. Most boys do. Besides,
Rex had very few companions of his own age;
and the older people who were always with
him did not stand and look at him with wide-
open eyes and mouths, and show plainly that
they thought him a splendid fellow, as Effie
and Dick did.

So Rex felt very happy and good-tempered,
and in a minute or two he jumped off Billy,
and said, ‘Now, little girl, I will lift you on,
and you shall ride as far as the end of the
road.”

You may think how much Effie liked that!
Her face was all smiles and dimples as she
sat on the pretty grey pony, while Rex, in
his beautiful velvet jacket and cap, led Billy,
and looked up with his merry brown eyes,
smiling to see how pleased she was.

And pale, tired Dick came rather slowly
behind, still in a sort of dream. It was all so
wonderful! This fine, beautiful boy, so strong
that he had lifted fat little Effie to Billy’s back

as easily as possible, was as different from the



36 | DICK’S HERO

bigger boys he was used to see in the strcets
and at school at home, as the great shady trees
by the road-side were different from his tree
in the yard !

‘You've come from London, haven’t you?”
Rex said.

“Yes,” Effie answered.

“What's your name?”

“ Effie; and he is Dick.”

“Very well! If you are going to stay at
Mrs. Jackson’s I shall come and see you again
on my pony, and give you another ride if you
like. Are you going to stay here a long time ?”

“T don’t know ; perhaps Dick knows.”

Then Rex turned ; and something in the town
boy’s face made his heart give a little throb
of pain. Rex had never been ill in his life;
but once he had hurt himself in a fall, and he
remembered that he had felt giddy and sick
for a while afterwards.

‘“What has been the matter with you, Dick ?
Have you had a fall?” he said kindly, patting
out his hand to the other boy.

And as Dick put his thin fingers into Rex’s



DICK FINDS HIS HERO 37

warm, strong hand, and met the bright glance
of his friendly eyes, he knew the happiest feeling
that can come to any of us. He felt that he
held the hand of the best and strongest and
most beautiful creature he had seen in the
world. And that is what is called worship.

“JT have only been ill,” he said; “but I am
better now, and mother says that the fresh air
in the country will make me quite strong.
Are people never ill in the country?”

“Oh yes!” Rex said, laughing. ‘The old
people are ill and die sometimes, but I don’t
think the children ever do. Have you been
to school, Dick?”

“Yes; and Effie goes too.”

“ How jolly! My grandfather won’t let me
go to school, and I have a tutor, and lessons
are horrid things to do all by oneself. And
you live in London, don’t you ?”

“Ves,” Dick said again; and Rex went on
quickly, for he was very fond of talking, and had
not talked to anyone but Billy since breakfast-
time. “I wish /livedin London. I have never

even been there. My grandfather won't let me



38 DICK’S HERO |

go yet. He says it’s a wicked place, and that
the people who come from London are wicked.
But I don’t think so, and I’m sure you and Effie
don’t look wicked. Do you like London or
Heathborough best ?”



” Dick looked

round, with a gasp in his voice. He could not

‘Oh, I think this place is—is

find words to say how beautiful he thought
everything. “Why!” he cried, “there are
flowers here all over the ground! And in the
hedges, and in the fields, and on the trees! We
used to get some from the market, but they faded
very soon.”

‘Ohl Rex “broke win; ‘if: “you... jlike'? these
common flowers, I wonder what you will think
of ours at the Hall. You shall come and see
them some day. My grandfather likes flowers
too, and has built a lot of glass-houses to keep
them in, and there are just as many in the winter
as in the summer.”

“And may you gather them ?”

“No; not those in the glass-houses. But in
the garden I may, of course. Have you a

garden?”



DICK FINDS HIS HERO 39

“No; but I have one tree.”

Rex looked rather perplexed. ‘One tree?”
he repeated. ‘Do you mean a tree of your very
own—that you might cut down if you liked?
My grandfather owns all the trees, and fields,
and everything we can see. Is the tree yours,
in that way?”

Then Dick was a little puzzled too. “I don’t
know,” he said. ‘But if it isn’t mine, I don’t
think it is anyone else’s. And I call it mine
because I love it; so it’s the same thing, isn’t
itp

“You. are a queer little chap,” Rex: said:
“But I like you, and I like Effie. And I shall
come and see you, and take you to see our
flowers some day. My tutor has gone away
now, because it is holidays; and I have no
lessons, and no one to play with, and no one to
speak to all day but grandfather, and he is deaf.
So I am glad you have come to Heathborough. -
Now, you will have to get off Billy, Effie, for he
can’t get over the stile, and Mrs. Jackson’s
cottage is just across this field. Do you see?

Down the path, and across the brook at the



40 DICK’S HERO

bottom of the field, and up to that elm. Do you
psee?”

Rex had lifted Effie off the pony, and as she
stood patting his sleek coat, Dick gazed across
the field, still with the dreamy look which
troubled Rex somehow. This little Londoner
did not seem as if he belonged to the world of
everyday life.

“Don’t you think you can find your way
now?” Rex said. ‘See! You and Effie go on,
and I'll stay here and shout if you go wrong.
The cottage is just behind that big elm.”

“YT don’t know what an elm is,” Dick said,
blushing.

Then Rex laughed again. ‘ You funny chap!
Why, an elm’s a tree—that big tree. Now,
good-bye; I'll see you again soon.”

And when Dick and Effie got over the stile,
Rex waited, waving his hand encouragingly
every time they turned to look, until they had
gone down the path through the field, and
crossed the brook, and passed by the big elm-
tree, and were in sight of their grandmother's
cottage.



DICK FINDS HIS HERO 41

“Tsn’t Billy a beautiful pony—beautifuller than
ours ?” Effie said.

Dick’s eyes were shining with a happy light.

“Oh, Effie!” he said, “J know now what the
lady in the train meant—and I have got a real

hero.”



CHAPTER IV.

AT GRANNIE'S.

e “"ICTURE to yourself the
prettiest cottage .you ever
saw in your life! Let it

have white- washed walls,



and a deeply sloping thatched
roof—the kind of thatch that keeps the rooms
cool in summer and warm in winter. Then
imagine a wide porch before the door, with a
wooden seat on one side, and trailing honey-
suckle growing up the other side, with the flowers
peeping round the corner, and reaching up to the
low windows under the thatch.

In front of the cottage there must be a strip of
garden, divided from the lane by a hedge of elder-

bushes and privet; and behind it a tall elm-tree,
42



AT GRANNIE’S 43

and meadows that slope downwards to a little
brook. The garden must be gay with red
cabbage roses, and blue larkspurs, and many-
coloured phloxes, and carnations, and pansies,
all crowding together up to the cottage door and
making the air sweet with scents. Then you will
know what Mrs. Jackson’s cottage was like.

The door stood wide open, and Mrs. Jackson
had been out on the little pebble-covered path,
looking across the fields to see if her young
visitors were coming, many a time. She had
heard the train come in, for the station was not
very far away, and she knew that it only took a
few minutes to come up by the high-road and
across the fields. .

So she began to be anxious and wonder why
the children did not appear. She did not know
that, the last time she went out and looked for
them, Rex had just lifted Effie off his pony, and
that she and Dick were only hidden by the hedge
bounding the high-road.

“Dear me, dear me!” Mrs. Jackson said, as
she went back into her cottage and took another

look into the pot which stood by the fire—some-



44 DICK’S HERO

thing in the pot smelt very nice when she took
the lid off—‘ Dear me! it’s three minutes past
twelve, and they ought to be here! I wish I had
gone to meet the train... . But their mother
said that Dick was so steady and sensible he’d be
sure to find his way and come all right, and that
I needn’t trouble to go. ... She do think a
terrible deal about her Dick, to be sure. It’s
Dick this—and Dick that. Poor little chap!
they thought they was going to lose him when he
was ill, and I know what that is, and it makes
folk a bit foolish about a child... . But I wish
they'd come. The dinner will be spoiled. I'd
best lift off the potatoes.”

Mrs. Jackson was a little, round, rosy-faced
woman—exactly what Effie would be when she
grew old. She had just the same merry dark
eyes and curly hair—only her hair was of a
soft, silvery white, and was put neatly under
a close cap. Her cheeks were almost as smooth
and dimpled as Effie’s, and her forehead almost
as free from wrinkles; for she was happy, and
good, and kind; and had lived in this pretty

cottage nearly all her life, so there had been



:

AT GRANNIE’S 45

nothing to give her wrinkles, or to make her
look worn and sad.

“And the gooseberry pasty is done to a
turn,” she said, opening the oven door, ‘‘and

”

if them precious children don’t come soon



“Please, are you Grannie Jackson ?—because
we are Effie and Dick,” said a quiet little voice
behind her.

But, quiet as it was, it made Mrs. Jackson. jump.
And as she turned round, there in the sunshine,
framed in the open doorway as in a picture, stood
the two grandchildren whom she had never seen
till this moment, holding one another's hands.

The boy was the taller. As soon as his grand-
mother looked at him a mist came over her eyes.
Then she looked at Effie and held out her arms.

‘“Why, bless your hearts! I began to wonder
what had become of you! Come your ways in,
and let me look at you! Eh! yes, this is Effie,
sure enough! The very picture of her daddy
when he was a little ‘un... . And you are
Dick! And you've been ill... . Well, well!

We'll soon put some colour in those white
cheeks,”





46 DICK’S HERO

And the old woman kissed the children, and
cried a little over them; and then wiped her
eyes with her white and blue checked apron,
and kissed them again; and laughed, and said
that they must be hungry, and that she would
put the dinner on the table in five minutes.

A white cloth was already spread, and very
soon they sat down; and Effie at least ate
enough to please her grandmother.

Dick looked very happy, and said everything
was very nice; but he had: no appetite, and
seemed to be too eagerly looking about. to care
for his dinner.

‘How did you find your way here, children?”
Mrs. Jackson said presently.

“Oh, Rex brought us, grannie!” Effie cried.
“And he gave me a ride on Billy, and he is
coming to see us, and he says we are to go
and see him—and we think he is the nicest boy
we ever Saw.’ j

“Rex? Do you mean Master Rex, the -
Squire’s grandson, who lives at the Hall?”

“Yes,” Dick said. ‘He said his grandfather

owned all the fields, and trees, and cottages.







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““WHY, BLESS YOUR HEARTS! I BEGAN TO WONDER WHAT
HAD BECOME OF You.”







AT GRANNIE’S 49

But he didn’t tell us to call him ‘Master’ Rex.
Do you think he is a hero, grannie? I mean
a real hero, one you ought to bear pain and
shame for, you know?”

‘Now I wonder what the child means,” said
his grandmother to herself. But aloud she said,
‘“Master Rex is a very fine young gentleman,
and his grandfather is the richest man hereabouts,
and I don’t suppose he will let Master Rex make
companions of such as you, so don’t fill your
heads with any such-like notions. He’s the heir,
is Master Rex, and they say the Squire would
give him gold to eat if he wanted it. But
sometimes the boy do look a bit lonesome, for
all he’s so fine. You see, he’s no little sister
to play with, as you have, Dick.”

“Poor Rex! And has he no mother or
father?”

“No. They died when he was a baby. And
the Squire is getting on in years, and hard of
hearing, and I have heard say that the Hall is
a dull place for a boy.”

“Not as nice as a cottage, is it, grannie?

May I go into the garden?” Effie asked.
4



&o DICK’S HERO

After the dinner things were put away, and

the kitchen made neat and clean as a drawing-
room, Mrs. Jackson took her knitting in her
hand, and went out to the seat in the porch.
It pleased her very much to have he:° little
visitors. She smiled and nodded .her head as
she watched merry little Effe flit among the
flowers, now chasing a butterfly, now burying
her rosy face in a cluster of honeysuckle, now
skipping and jumping about the path, just to
show how happy she was.
_ Dick did not run and skip about much. But
he wandered from one plant to another, kneeling
down to look into the face of a purple pansy, or
stooping to get all the sweetness of a newly-
opened rose; and his blue eyes were dewy with
the delight which could find no words.

“Everything smells so clean,” he said,-as he
came to his grandmother's side, and sat down,
leaning his head against the wall of the porch,
and gazing between the honeysuckle sprays into
the soft blue summer sky. ‘The country seems
as if it was all just washed, sky and everything.

Even the grass smells like our clean clothes on



AT GRANNIE’S 51

Sunday morning. ... And your sparrows are
not black, like ours, grannie. See—those with
the long tails flying backwards and forwards
under the roof, are quite white on their necks.
If our ‘sparrows were washed, would they come
white, like yours?”

|»

“Dick, my” dear his grandmother said
solemnly, ‘are you eight years old, and don’t
know the difference between sparrows and

swallows?”



CHAPTER V.

THE SQUIRE'S VISIT.

RS. JACKSON’S cottage
contained only two rooms;
one downstairs, and one

upstairs. The stairs were



- nearly as straight and _nar-
row as a ladder, and opened by a door upon
the kitchen. But the bedroom was large and
airy. It had only one bed in it—as a rule;
but Mrs. Jackson had made up a cosy little bed
on an old couch in one corner, and there Dick
slept soundly the next morning, long after his
grandmother had gone down and set about her
-business.

“Nay! I'll let the childer sleep their sleep

out to-day at all events,” the old woman had said,
52



THE SQUIRE'S VISIT 53

looking down at the little sleepers. ‘‘There’s
nought like sleep for healing them that’s sick;
and it seems a shame to waken Effie, the bonnie
little lass! And maybe she would disturb Dick.
So Ill let ’em both rest a bit.”

And then the brisk old woman had made her
way down the steep stairs, and lighted the fire,
and filled the kettle from the pump, and fed her
fowls, and prepared breakfast ; and, in fact, done
what some of us would think a good day’s work
by the time that eight struck from the old grand-
father’s clock in the corner of the kitchen.

“Dear me! Why they’ve slept the clock
round,” she said, laughing to herself. But at
that moment she heard a merry chirping of
children’s voices, which sounded above the chirp
of the swallows under the eaves—and she trotted
up the stairs again.

The children were wide awake now, and
standing in their white nightdresses, with their
bare pink feet peeping from beneath, at the
open window, staring out into the new beautiful
world around them.

You see, Mrs. Jackson was a wise old woman,



54 DICK’S HERO

and she knew that sunshine and fresh air are two

of the best gifts God has given to men, and that













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STARING OUT INTO THE NEW BEAUTIFUL WORLD AROUND THEM,

if we all had plenty of sunshine and fresh air,
we should seldom want any other medicine.

So she had drawn up the white window-blind,



THE SQUIRE'S VISIT 55

and opened wide the latticed casement when
she went downstairs; and the instant the
children awoke they had scampered to the
window to breathe the sweet morning air.

“Why, grannie, it's much more beautifuller
than it was yesterday! Will it go on getting
better and better every day?” Dick said, as he
lifted his bright face for her kiss.

“JT don’t know,” she answered. ‘‘ But that’s
what you have got to do, my dear! Now be
quick, and come down to breakfast.”

There were delicious new-laid eggs for break-
fast. Master Rex himself could not have had
any better or fresher, for Grannie Jackson took
great care of her fowls, and often said that eggs
were the best meat.

After breakfast, when Effie was just going to
run out and play, grannie said, “It won't do to
play all the time, Effie, darling! That’s not good
for anyone—big or little. Come and help mea
bit first. You can sweep up the crumbs, and
take the scraps to the hens; and, when I’ve

done with you, there'll be time enough for

play.”



56 DICK’S HERO

Indeed, grannie was so kind that it was just
as good as the nicest play to help her, and the
children were almost sorry when she said, ‘‘ There!
Now you've been very good, but I'll do the rest
better by myself, and you can go out until dinner-
time.”

‘‘ May we go through the gate along the lane ?”
Effie asked.

“Yes, of course you may. That’s the way to
the Heath, and it’s the best place for you.
There’s no better air in England than there is
up there. And you can’t miss finding your way
back if you notice how you go. It’s always easy
to find this cottage by the one big elm near it.
That’s why it’s called Elm Cottage. Now, be
off! and don’t be late for dinner. . . . But there’s
no fear. The air on the Heath will make you
hungry by that time, I'll warrant... . Well,
Dick, laddie! What is it?”

Dick was hanging back; looking wistfully
across the meadows behind the cottage towards
the path by which he and Effie had come the day
before.

Effie had already skipped through the little



THE SQUIRE'S VISIT 57

gate which Mrs. Jackson held open, and was
calling eagerly, ““Come, Dick! oh, do come!”

“] thought that perhaps—he said he would



come to see us some day—and if we go that way,
we may miss him,” Dick stammered.

‘Miss him! What is the lad dreaming of ?”
Mrs. Jackson said.

“Rex—my hero. I wouldn’t miss him for
all the world, and he sazd he would come.”

‘“’Tut—tut—nonsense!” his grandmother said,
laughing. “He didn’t mean it. What a fine
young gentleman like that says, is nothing to
go by.”

“Isn't it, grannie? Then what zs something
to go by?” Dick said, fixing his earnest gaze
upon her face.

Mrs. Jackson didn’t know, so she said, ‘ Run
along! Master Rex won't come to-day, I'll
promise you. And if he did, he would ride
across the Heath, and by this lane. The other
road is only the way round to the station. So
you won't miss him.”

The cloud on Dick’s face vanished. He threw

his arms round Grannie Jackson, and kissed the



sone DICK’S HERO

kind old face, and then ran after Effie as merrily
as boys should, shouting as he ran, ‘I’m coming,
Effie! I’m coming !’—just as if Effie could not see
that he was coming as fast as he could run.

Mrs. Jackson stood at the cottage gate fora
minute or two, shading her eyes from the sun-
shine with her hand, as she watched her grand-
children. “Bless their little hearts!” she
murmured, when they disappeared round a bend
in the lane; and she had turned to go into her
garden, when the sound of wheels made her look
back.

An open pony-carriage was coming along the
lane towards. the cottage.

“Why! it’s the Squire himself!” she exclaimed
in surprise, for the old Squire was not often seen
so far from the Hall—and Mrs. Jackson waited
to drop her best curtsey as he passed.

But, instead of passing, the carriage drew up at
her gate, and the footman, jumping down, ran to
the side of the old Squire, and shouted in his ear,
“Tf you please, sir, this is Elm Cottage, and this
is Mrs. Jackson.”

“Ah! very well, very well!” said the old



THE SQUIRE'S VISIT 59

gentleman, and he looked curiously at Mrs.
Jackson, and then went on, ‘‘ Good-day, ma’am!
I want to see your two grandchildren, who came
from London yesterday to visit you,—Effie and—
let me see, what is the boy called?”

“Dick, sir!” Mrs. Jackson said, wondering

very much what the Squire could want to see

the children for, and feeling half-frightened and
half-proud of the honour. ‘But I’m afraid, sir,
you can’t see them, because they have just gone
up to the Heath. They must have passed you
in the lane.”

“They've just passed us in the lane, sir!”
shouted the footman; and the Squire said, ‘‘ What,
what! Was the pretty little girl in a white
pinafore ‘Effie’? And that boy who looked so
near death was that ‘ Dick’?”

“Yes, sir. But please God, sir, Dick isn’t
going to die, though he. has been near death ; at
least, not if I can help it.” And Mrs. Jackson
wiped away the tears that had come into her
eyes at the Squire’s words.

Perhaps that helped him to understand what

she had said, and he went on in a kind voice:





60 * DICK’S HERO

‘Well, well, my good woman! I daresay he will
soon be better in our fresh air. They look nice,
decent children. I wanted to see for myself, for
I don’t like Rex to take up with strange play-
mates, as he is inclined to do. The boy is a
little wilful—most boys are, perhaps—and_ he
wants to come and see your grandchildren, and
have them up at the Hall. He said there was a
nice little girl, and a boy with a look on his face
that nearly made him cry. I understand what
he meant now. ... Yes! I don’t think those
children will do him any harm. . . . Good-day,

”
!

Mrs. Jackson, good-day! .. . Home, John



CHAPTER. VI.

OUT UPON THE HEATH.

that soon ne Sauie Elton
had made these careful in-

quiries, the children them-



selves had renewed their ac-
quaintance with Master Rex.

The Squire had promised his grandson that he
would go and see Mrs. Jackson, and that if he
found that she was a decent kind of woman (for
though she had lived in his cottage for fifty years
he did not know her by sight), Rex might have
the children up to show them the gardens at the
Hall. The old man could not understand how
the lonely boy pined for playfellows. Ae did

not dislike to be alone most of the day; and as
61



62 DICK’S HERO

Rex had a pony and a dog, and every kind of toy
and game you can think of, the Squire fancied
that he ought to be content.

However, the boy teased him so much about

these little Londoners that the Squire went off to



see them for himself—as I have told you. Rex
was very impatient for him to come back. He
could not settle to do anything, and, at last, after
wandering about the grounds, he went to the
gate which led out upon the Heath, climbed to a
favourite place of his on the wall—from which he
could see a long way across the Heath—and
waited there for his grandfather's return. But as
the old gentleman had returned to the Hall by
another road, and by another entrance to the
grounds, of course Rex waited in vain.

All this time Effie and Dick were rambling
about the Heath, filled with delight and amaze-
ment at this strange and beautiful place. When
the narrow lane opened out upon the wide, sandy
common which stretched far away on all sides,
they each gave acry of joy. It looked so large
and free! The ground was covered with sweet

little flowers, growing so close together, and so



OUT UPON THE HEATH 63

tiny, that you could not help treading upon them ;
and it was all up and down in mounds and
hollows—like little hills and valleys; and you
could look away and away as it spread farther
and farther, until it seemed to touch the round,
blue sky.

The children ran on, up one little mound and
down another, shouting to one another for joy.
The sweet, fresh air blew in their faces, and bent
the green bracken which grew in clumps, tall and

strong

g, in every hollow.

Dick was the first to grow tired.

“Let us sit down, Effie!” he said at last. ‘J
want to think about it all. Ican’t tell what it is
like while we are running and shouting.”

“Oh yes! Here’s a lovely soft cushion of
dear little purple flowers, and they are so sweet!”
Effie said, throwing herself down, and putting her

cheek on some wild thyme. ‘I should like to



stay here all day—and all the next day!”
Dick sat down, and with his elbows on his
knees, and his chin in his hands, tried to ‘“ think

”

about it all.” For a time he was quiet; then he

began to talk again.







64 DICK’S HERO

‘“‘T wonder why the little low flowers all grow
together here, and not big, tall ones like those
in the lane, or fine ones like those in grannie’s
garden? And I wonder why God keeps the
sky so blue here, where there’s no one hardly
to see it, and lets it be so dirty in London,
where there’s sucha lot of people? And I
wonder why some of the people don’t come and
have cottages like grannie’s here, instead of stay-
ing in the streets always? . . . And I wonder—
I wonder—if it’s always so quiet here? Listen,
Effie: there isn’t a sound. Yes! ... Why, it’s
these big leaves by your head moving against each
other in the wind. There is no other noise. We
might be all alone in the world. And I can’t see
one house, Effie—not one! I can’t see the lane,
nor the elm-tree, nor grannie’s cottage. . . . Oh,
Efhe, get up and look! Can you see it?”

Suddenly a kind of terror at the silence and the
loneliness had fallen upon the little town boy.
His eyes gazed eagerly for some sign of the only
place they knew in this strange land, and widened
with dismay when they only met the same broad
expanse of sandy, flower-sprinkled heath.







OUT UPON THE HEATH 65

The children were in a little hollow and
could not see far; and even when on the level
part of the ground it is difficult for a stranger
to distinguish one side of the Heath from
another.

“Let us go home, Dick,” Effie said, catching
his hand, and scrambling to her feet. His fear
was quickly felt by the little girl also, and she
began to drag him along.

‘But I don’t know if we are going the right
way,” he said. ‘I can’t see anything else but
these little ups and downs; and we want the lane
and the elm-tree. Oh, Effie, do you think we
are lost? Ican't run so fast. Stop! It gives
me a pain in my side when | run fast; and per-
haps we are going the wrong way.”

Effie stopped, but there were tears in her eyes,
and she whimpered, ‘‘ What shall we do if we are
lost here, Dick? Mother says we must tell the
policeman where we live if we get lost, but there
isn’t a policeman, nor anybody, here. Do you
think anybody will find us?”

Of course, when Effie began to cry, Dick’s

courage came back. He was her big brother,
5



66 DICK’S HERO

and had to take care of her; and if he ad lost
the way back to the cottage he must not frighten
Effie, and let her cry. —

‘Oh yes,” he said, more cheerfully than he
felt, “somebody is sure to find us. If we don’t
go back in time for dinner, grannie will come to
look for us. . . . But perhaps we shall come to
the lane soon.” The poor children were walking
in a straight line away from it.

“JT wish we could see Rex and Billy,” Effie
said. ‘‘ He would be as good as a policeman, for
he showed us the way yesterday.”

“Yes,” Dick said; ‘‘and grannie told me that,
if he was coming to see us, he would come across
the Heath. So we may meet him, if we go on
—only we ought to be going towards grannie’s
now, and he would come the other way. Look!
here’s a road. Perhaps this leads into our
lane.”

It was the road across the Heath, and it did
lead into their lane; but they followed it in
exactly the wrong direction.

When they had walked on in silence for ten

minutes more, they saw that they were coming





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PUSHED ONE OF THE GATES OPEN

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OUT UPON THE HEATH 69

to the end of the open Heath, and that a high
wall with trees behind it ran along the side of
the road.

“This isn’t our lane, Effie!” Dick said,
stopping short. ‘I’m afraid we’ve come the
wrong way, and I’m so tired!”

Effie put the corner of her pinafore in
her mouth, and began to cry—more because
Dick looked unhappy than for any other
reason.

‘“There’s a house,” Dick cried, the next
moment. ‘We'll go and ask if this is the way
to Mrs. Jackson’s.” There were large iron gates
beside the house, and when the children got to
them they found them very difficult to open.
But they had pushed one open a little way, and
Effie had just squeezed through, and Dick was
about to follow, when a big black dog, lying in
the sunshine before the door of the house, sprang
up, and with an angry growl moved towards
Effie. |

The child screamed and rushed back, knocking
poor Dick down, as she made her way through

the small opening left by the gate.



70 DICK’S HERO

As for Dick—over-tired, anxious and startled
—he hardly knew what had happened, and
thought all was over when he found himself on
the ground, and a fierce black beast glaring at

him—not a yard away.





CHAPTER VII.

A TALK WITH REX.

ET off, Rover! Down, sir,
down! Hallo, Dick! is it
you? He won't hurt. He

only frightens people if he



doesn’t know them. Was
it Effie who screamed? What are you doing
here?”

It was Rex who spoke. He had heard Effie
scream, and, scrambling down from the wall, had
been just in time to call off Rover as he began
to sniff about the fallen little figure on the
ground.

Poor Dick thought the big, fierce-looking dog
was going to eat him. Of course Rover had no

such intention. He considered it his duty to
71





72 DICK’S HERO

pretend to be calmly asleep in the sun before the
lodge door, and then, if any stranger opened the
gates without ringing the lodge bell, to rush at
him with a terrific bark. As for hurting a child
like Dick—you would have hurt Azs feelings very
deeply to suppose him capable of such a thing!

But Dick and Effie did not know that. And
so when Dick got up, pale and trembling, and
saw Rex, in his velvet suit, with his curls, and
merry, smiling face and strong young figure,
standing before him, one hand holding the collar
which was round the neck of the black, shagg
dog—he thought him more a hero than ever.

All he said was, ‘We've lost ourselves and
wanted to ask the way”; and then he went a
little paler still, and would have fallen again, but
Rex caught him and made him sit down on the
steps of the lodge.

“Jane! Jane!” Rex shouted, hammering on
the door of the little cottage; “come here: I
want you!”

Jane, the under-gardener’s wife, quickly
appeared. She was a kind young woman,

and lifted Dick in her arms and carried him



A TALK WITH REX 73

into the kitchen, and laid him on the settle, with
a pillow under his head; and then she brought
some water, and moistened his lips and bathed
his face.

Effie stood by, already making friends with
Rover. Rex, as soon as he saw Dick open his
eyes and begin to smile, said,—

“He’s a friend of mine, Jane, so you must
take care of him. He came from London
yesterday, and he’s been ill. And they are
Mrs. Jackson’s grandchildren; and my grand-
father. has gone to see her to find out if they
are nice enough to come and play with me
sometimes. But I know they are, because I
like them. And _ they lost their way; and
then Rover frightened them as they were
coming in to ask you how they could get
back.”

Rex liked to show that he knew everything ;
and as Dick listened, he thought it was wonderful
how much Rex could tell, and how clearly he
explained the matter. He seemed to make the
whole morning’s adventure much plainer to Dick

himself than it had been before.



14 DICK’S HERO

“Well,” Jane said, “the little chap must just
rest a bit, anyhow, before Ze tries to walk back
to Elm Cottage! But old Mrs. Jackson ‘Il be
uneasy unless the children turn up soon. I’d
best send our Jackie with the little lass across
the Heath to tell her where he is, and in an
hour or two he can go home.”

“Yes, I daresay that will be all right,”
Rex said.

So when Jane had given Effie a drink of milk
and a piece of bread-and-butter, she called her
brother Jackie from the garden, where he was
weeding the strawberry-bed, gave him strict
orders what he was to do, and what he was to
say to Mrs. Jackson, and sent him off, with Effie
trotting contentedly at the side of the good-
natured lad, who liked a walk across the Heath
much better than weeding the strawberry-
bed before the strawberries were ripe. It
wouldn’t have been so bad if they had been
fit to eat.

By-and-by Dick began to look less white and ill.
Jane went into the back kitchen to get on with

her washing, and the two boys were left alone.

i



A TALK WITH REX 75

Rex did most of the talking. He told Dick
that he meant to be a soldier some day, and
was going ina few years to a school where they
taught you all the things soldiers ought to know.
And he told Dick that he could make Billy
jump; and that he had a fishing-rod, and had
once caught a trout that weighed a pound and a
half—but his tutor had never caught one nearly
so big. But Rex said he didn’t like fishing—
it was no fun. He wanted to play at soldiers.
He said he couldn't do that alone, because you
couldn’t drill yourself, and attack yourself, and
take yourself prisoner. Now if Effe and Dick
might come and be soldiers, he would soon have
a fine regiment.

Then Rex looked at Dick’s white, thin face on
the cushion, and stopped talking for two minutes.

He was just going to begin again, when Dick
said, ‘“Rex—am I to call you ‘Master’ Rex, as
grannie does?”

“No. It’s stupid when we are playing.
Besides, if you are my friend you needn’t say
‘Master.’ And while you are here I want

you to be my friend.”



76 DICK’S HERO

“Do you?” Dick said, his lips trembling with
joy. “Why do you want me to be your friend,
Rex?” ,

‘“Well—you see, I haven’t got a boy friend,
nor a little sister, nor anything of that kind, and
it’s awfully dull to have nobody but a tutor and
a deaf grandfather. He’s very kind to me—
grandfather is. But he isn’t as good as a
boy, you know. . . . You don’t mind being my
friend, do you, Dick?— because you look so
grave.” ;

“Oh!” Dick said, with a sigh of happiness,
“I like to be your friend better than anything
else in the whole world, because you are my
hero, and I mean to love you, and to try to be
like you, and to bear pain and shame for you—
if:l scan.”

Rex stared at him in perplexity, and then
laughed. ‘You are very funny,” he said at
last, ‘and you say queer things. And I wish
you didn’t look as if you saw things that aren't
there! But I do mean to be a hero some day,
Dick—like my father and my uncle. They were

soldiers. All heroes are soldiers, and they are



4h



REX WALKED BY THE PONY, AND TALKED TO HIS NEW FRIEND.








A TALK WITH REX 79

afraid of nothing, and they are strong and wise.
But I can’t be one yet.”

“Yes, you can!” Dick persisted, in his quiet
way. ‘You weren’t afraid of Rover. And
you are strong enough to lift Effie; and: you
are wise, because you know everything, and
make it all plain. You must be a hero, please,
ex. |

“All right! But

I must go; but I will come back after luncheon.”



Hallo! there’s the gong.

At luncheon Rex told his grandfather what
had happened, and that the little invalid boy
was at the lodge, in Jane’s care. Squire Elton
allowed him, at his request, to take Dick back
across the Heath on Billy, for he saw that Rex,
instead of being sulky and discontented—as he
often was—to-day was happy and _ interested,
because he had someone to think of as well as
himself.

Besides, the old Squire never refused his
grandson anything—except his wish to be sent
to the village school. And he said to himself,
“These children will soon go away again. It’s

not like associating with the village children.



80 DICK’S HERO

There can’t be much.harm done in a few days.
And perhaps the boy zs a little lonely in the
holidays!”

So Rex took Billy to the lodge. Dick had

eaten some dinner with Jane and Jackie, and



was better. He was very happy—as you may
imagine—when he found what. Rex meant to do.
Indeed, as the two boys went across the Heath
that summer’s afternoon, I hardly know which
was the happier—Dick, mounted on the pretty
grey pony—or Rex, who walked by Billy, and
talked to his new friend, leading the pony when
they came to any rough place, so that Dick
should not be shaken; just as if Dick were

the rich boy, and he the poor one.



CHAPTER. VILL.

THE GARDENER’S WARNING.

2 T the end of a fortnight Mrs.
Jackson said that Dick’s own
mother would not know the

child, he was so much im-



proved. I think, myself, that
his mother could still have recognised him
by the sweetness of his smile, and the dreamy
expression of his wide-apart, big blue eyes.
But, certainly, he did look very different from
the pale, pinched little creature who had left
the greengrocer’s shop in London only two
weeks before.

The pure country air, and the happy out-of-
door life, had done their usual work. Dick’s

face was growing round, and there was quite
6



82 DICK’S HERO

a nice colour in his cheeks. His legs and arms
no longer looked like sticks with clothes hung
on them. When the neighbours in the village
saw him, they no longer shook their heads and
said that he wasn’t long for this world. Grannie
Jackson no longer had tears in her eyes when
~ she looked at him. Indeed, she began to order
him about. She made him fill the kettle for
her, and even scolded him if he dawdled over
doing it: and that was a sure sign that she
considered him stronger.

Dick and Effie had never been so happy in
their lives. Every day it was as Dick had
said—the country seemed to grow more and
more beautiful as they saw and knew more of
it. Every day they found new wildflowers
in the hedges and fields, and new blossoms
opened in grannie’s gay little garden. Every
day they learned something new about the merry
birds who sang and twittered and fluttered
round; or about the bees, or the chickens, or
the cows and dogs and horses. ‘Town children
cannot make friends with animals and birds as

children in the country can.



THE GARDENER’S WARNING 83

This story would never come to an end if |
tried to tell you half of the new pleasures they
had; about the fun in Farmer Brown’s hayfield,
or about the games down by the brook, with
mimic boats and bridges of stones, which they
made for themselves.

But I must tell you that the greatest delight of
all was the time they spent with Rex.

It was settled that they should go to the Hall
every afternoon. Often Rex met them before
they had crossed the Heath, so eager was he for
the famous games they had together; and then
they would go into the grounds about the Hall,
and play on the beautiful lawns beneath great
shady trees; and ramble about the walks through
the plantations, and find a hundred delightful
things to do.

The strictly - kept flower-gardens were very
grand, and full of splendid flowers; but they were
not nice to play in; and there the children often
found a cross Scotch gardener, who was a terror
to.Dick and Effie. His name was Macfie. He
had a red beard, and bushy red eyebrows; and

hands that looked like spades—they were so hard



84 DICK’S HERO

and big. Even Rex was a little frightened of
Macfie, though he pretended not to be.

One day Rex took his new friends to see the
glass-houses he had told them about, where the
flowers were something wonderful; and where
they went on flowering all through the winter,
Rex said. It was beautiful to see the lovely
blossoms of many colours climbing about the
glass walls, and hanging from the glass roof; and
Dick said it was like a fairy palace.

“They don’t look veal, do they?” he said, in
an awestruck whisper, as the three children
passed along between rows of exquisite flowers.
“They look as if they were made of wax, and
painted.”

“Oh, but they are real enough. Feel them!”
said Rex.

Dick put out his hand timidly to touch a large
white lily. Suddenly a gruff voice shouted,—

‘Hands off, there! How dare ye think of
plucking one of my new lilies?” and up rose the
angry face of Macfie, who had been hidden from
the children as he bent over some other plant he

was carefully examining.



THE GARDENER’S WARNING 85

Macfie’s rough voice and red beard frightened
Dick too much for him to answer. Rex flushed,
and said,— :

“He wasn’t going to pluck it. I told him to
feel it to see if it was real. We're not doing any
harm.”

“Ye'd best not do any harm then, Master Rex.
Bringing a pack of bairns into my greenhouses
isn’t the way to do much good, I’m thinking.”

The children hurried on. Another house,
much warmer than the first, led out of it, and
Rex opened the door.

‘“Mind not to leave the doors open after ye,”
shouted the gardener.

Rex banged the door behind him when Dick
and Effie had gone through, and then exclaimed
indignantly,—

‘Just listen to him! What right has he to
order me about, and to talk about ‘his’ flowers
and ‘his’ greenhouses? I’d just like to spoil one
of his fine flowers for spite.”

‘But what would he do to you if you did,
Rex?” Dick asked, admiring, but terrified at

such boldness.



86 DICK’S HERO

‘He dare not touch me, but he would tell my
grandfather, and I don’t know what he would do.
He lets Macfie be a kind of king here—and |
hate him. He only grows such fine flowers and
fruit to take prizes at the show. I would just
like to pay him out some day.”

“Oh! look! look! Up there—overhead!”
Effie cried; and Dick, looking up where she
pointed, saw that all along the sloping roof hung
great bunches of beautiful purple grapes. He
had seen them sometimes in pictures, but never
real grapes. Still he knew what they were, even
before Rex spoke.

‘Oh, we get grapes all the time. Grandfather
says Macfie is the best grape-grower in the
county. We have them for dessert every evening.
Pll keep some for you to-night, and you shall
have them to-morrow. I can get as many as |
like... . Come along. We'll go on to the
fruit-garden and get some currants. Macfie
can’t count ¢kem, and I may gather any of the
garden fruit.”

In another moment the children would have

passed out of the place, and no harm would have



THE GARDENER’ WARNING 87

been done. Unfortunately, Macfie, watching
suspiciously from the other house, noticed that
they stood still to look at the grapes, and thought
‘it well to give them a word of warning. He
opened the door between the two houses, and
said,—

“Master Rex! I'll just warn ye no’ to bring
them twa city bairns into this hoose any more.
I’ve got my prize bunch of grapes yonder, and
a draught of cold air might spoil it—let alone
the chance of one of your visitors takin’ a fancy
to touch it. I'll just tell ye, laddie, that if
onybody—I don’t care who it is—touches my
prize grapes, Vl thrash the life oot 0’ him!”

With these terrible words Macfie’s red head
was withdrawn.

Rex burst into a shout of angry laughter.

“Td like to see him dave to thrash me,
indeed! As grapes—the old idiot! I see!
that’s his prize bunch—there, in the corner, all
tied up with bits of matting. Isn’t it a beauty?
Wouldn't it be good-fun to cut it off and gobble
it up?”

‘“Let’s go away, Rex!” Dick said, feeling



88 DICK’S HERO

frightened, but ashamed to show it when his hero
was so brave.

They went out of the vinery, Dick staying
behind to see that the door was safely closed.

Rex had thrown his arm round Effie’s neck.

““Wouldn’t you like some of those grapes?” he
said. ‘I mean to pay out old Scotchy.”

But Dick, even in his dreams that night, could
not forget the gardener’s fierce red face, and his
terrible words.



CHAPTER IX.

THE BUNCH OF GRAPES,

WC VE made up my mind to pay
out Macfie—and I'll do it,
Dick. You needn't try to

persuade me not to. When



I make up my mind to do
a thing—I do it.”

Rex, Dick, and Effie were sitting on the
ground at the foot of a fine chestnut-tree. Dick
and Effie held clusters of grapes in their hands ;
Rex was sharpening the end of a stick to a
point, and as he spoke he set his teeth together,
and hacked vigorously at the stick with a knife
blunted with hard usage.

Rex had brought the grapes with him for

his companions. He did not eat any himself.
89



90 DICK’S HERO

He said he could have as many as he wanted
any day. They were very delicious. Effie
sucked hers with perfect enjoyment—only wish-
ing that her supply was twice as large as
it was.

Dick looked troubled.

“Yes, I know you will do what you make
up your mind to do,” he said. “ But I wish
you wouldn’t make up your mind to do this.
Never mind him. We needn't go near him,
and if we don’t he never comes near us. And
it’s much nicer here under the big trees than
in his greenhouses.”

“There you are—talking just as he does!
They are not /zs greenhouses! They are my
grandfather’s, and his things will all be mine
some day, so it’s just the same as if they were
mine now. And I'll teach old Scotchy to
order me about! I mean to have those prize
grapes!”

“Oh, Rex, donwt/” Dick looked scared.
“Wouldn’t it be almost—almost—stealing—to
go and take just the bunch he’s taken such

care of 2?”



THE BUNCH OF GRAPES gI

‘““Nonsense! It would be ripping fun! It
would just teach him to treat me properly. I'll
tell you what I mean to do. You shall watch
him when we've found out where he is, and
I'll sneak off to the vinery. If he moves away,
you must make a signal to Effie. She shall
be at another point nearer to me, and she'll
make a signal to me, and then I sh all know
there’s danger and cut away, and the enemy
will never know who has been spying round
his camp. It’s just like real war, you know!”

Rex's eyes sparkled as he went on,—

“You and Effie are the scouts, and I’m the
detachment sent to surprise the enemy’s camp
and carry off the spoil.”

“And then shall we eat the grapes—those
. great big ones that we saw hanging up?”
Effie said.

“Yes, of course. We shall ‘divide the spoil’
equally —though not the danger. Yoz will be
in no danger, Dick, so cheer up, old fellow!
It will be jolly fun.”

“But don’t you remember what Macfie said ?

He said he'd thrash the life out of anyone who



92 DICK’S HERO

touched his grapes! he didn’t care who he was.
Oh, don’t go near them, Rex! Leave them
alone!”

Dick’s voice and eyes implored even more
than his words; but Rex was not to be moved.

“A nice fellow you are to talk about being
the friend of a hero!” he said, with scorn that
made Dick wince. ‘I believe you're afraid
that Macfie will thrash you by mistake. You
don’t think I’m such a cad as to let him do
that, do you? There'll be no danger for any-
one but me. Now, will you come along and
see where the enemy is and watch him?
Perhaps we can’t surprise him to-day. But it
must be soon, for the Show will be in a day
or two, and then he'll cut the grapes himself.”

‘Oh, I wish you would let him, Rex! Never
mind this time if he did order you about. Pay
him out wert time. It will do just as well,”
Dick said.

Rex sprang up.

“You are a regular coward,” he said angrily.
“You needn’t come atall! Effie and I will manage

quite well without you. Come along, Effie.”



THE BUNCH OF GRAPES 93

The little girl jumped up, and Rex put his
arm round her neck and walked away. Dick
rose also, and followed them a few paces. Rex
looked round and saw him.

“Go back!” he said, waving his hand with
a grand air. “I won’t have a coward joining
in such a dangerous business. You might turn
traitor!”

“Rex! Rex! You know I would do any-
thing you want me to do,” Dick pleaded.

“Go back,” Rex said. “I’m the general,
and I order you to the rear to protect the
women and children.”

With that stern command, away marched
General Rex and his faithful Effie, and were
soon out of sight beyond the plantation.

Dick threw himself on the mossy ground and
burst into tears. It must be quite true that
he was a coward. And oh! how brave Rex

was; and even Effie



a girl—was not afraid to
go with him and do as he told her! Perhaps
Rex would not let him be his friend any more. —
How dreadful that would be! Dick could not
bear to think of it.



94 DICK’S HERO

He was terribly distressed, and lay on the
grass, feeling as if he would never be able to
look at his hero again without shame. Why
had he not said he would help him to take
the grapes at once? The lady in the train
had said that if he had a hero he ought to
try to be like him. Ah! but it was impossible
to be like Rex, afraid of nothing, and as brave
as a lion!

After a time Dick sat up and listened, and
looked through the trees, wondering what was
happening. Had they found “the enemy” busy
somewhere else, and had- Rex gone to surprise
the camp? They would have been back by
this time if Macfie had been anywhere about
the vinery, for Rex did not want the gardener
to see him near his precious grapes. Oh! how
dreadful it would be if he should be caught in
the very act! Effie was only a little girl, and ~
might not understand and give the right danger-
signal.

Dick wished more and more that he had
gone when Rex first asked him. Very likely

he would never let him join in anything again,



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IN THE OTHER NAND HE HELD A MAGNIFICENT BUNCH OF GRAPES.







THE BUNCH OF GRAPES 97

now that he had shown himself a coward!
If it had been anything else! But to brave
the dreadful old Scotch gardener! and to do
what still seemed to Dick so very like stealing
another person’s property——He hid his face in
his hands. :

“Dick! Dick! Are you there keeping guard?
Hurrah! here we are, victorious, and aden with
spoil’!” shouted Rex, as. he burst upon Dick,
dragging Effie by one hand, while in the other
he held a magnificent bunch of grapes, already
rather the worse for his rough handling—some
of the exquisite bloom rubbed off, and some
of the grapes broken from the bunch in his
hasty rush through the plantation.

Dick jumped up, overjoyed—not at the sight
of the spoil, which indeed made him tremble
with horror, but that his hero still greeted him
as if no shame had come upon him.

‘‘Didn’t he see you?” he asked.

‘Not he!” Rex said gaily. ‘Effie kept a
look-out on the enemy. He was planting things
in the front flower-beds. I sneaked round and

carried off the plunder. Then I signalled to
7



98 DICK’S HERO

Effie, and she joined me and we retreated ‘in
good order.’ Now, we'd better eat them as
fast as we can, before he finds out. Hallo!
here’s someone coming. . . . Hide ’em!”

The beautiful prize grapes were hastily popped
into a hole in the tree, and covered with loose
leaves. One of the ‘servants from the Hall
appeared, coming quickly towards the place.
Rex went to meet him.

“You are wanted at the Hall immediately,
Master Rex,’

)

the man said. “Your aunt has
come and is asking for you. The Squire said
you was to come aé¢ once. Macfie said he'd
seen you go into the plantation, so I came

here to look for you.”





GHAGPT BE Rax.

A TERRIBLE MOMENT.

OTHER =~ my~ aunt!” ©+Rex

grumbled; “go and say I'm
coming. I won't be long,

Dick; but when Aunt Caroline



comes she stays all the after-
noon, and grandfather makes me show her round.
And she asks questions about my lessons, and
always wants to know if I don’t like Latin... .
I wish she hadn’t come to-day. If I’m not back
here in an hour you'd better go home. I may
have to stay to take tea with her.”

“And aren’t we to touch the grapes till you
come?” Effie said, with a pout.

“ No, of course we won't!” Dick exclaimed.
99



100 DICK’S HERO

“They are not ours—they’re his! He had all
the danger, and——’”

“Oh yes! eat them all up as fast as you can,”
Rex said. ‘7 don’t want them; and the sooner
the better, for fear old Scotchy should come to
look for them. Wouldn’t I like to see his face
when he misses his prize bunch!”

Laughing at the delightful thought of his
enemy’s dismay, Rex ran off.

Effie instantly took the precious grapes from
their hiding-place, and began to feast upon the
rich, luscious fruit.

“They ave good, Dick! Do have some,” she
said, again and again.

But Dick refused. The sight of the stolen
grapes—for so they still seemed to him—made
him very uncomfortable; and to think of eating
them, especially while Rex was not there to share
them, and talk in his grand way of “dividing the
spoil taken from the enemy,” was impossible.

“T’m going on into the wood, Effie,” he said.
“Tm going to choose another good look-out tree
for Rex. He said this one wasn’t far enough
from the garden.”



Full Text




DICK’S

HERO














iy

Uh
OE | ch mh i

Ta Hi
|
ij iy Hf y

Vy ye

SUDDENLY A GRUFF VOICE SHOUTED, ‘‘ HANDS OFF,



THERE !”

frontispiece.) [See page $4.
THE RED NURSERY SERIES



DIck’s {fERO

BY

BLANCHE ATKINSON

Author of
‘*The Real Princess, and other Fairy Tales,’’ etc.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY FLORENCE MEYERHEIM

LONDON:
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION
57 & 59 LUDGATE HILL, E.C.
amen a alll



CHAP.
I.

Il.

III.

Iv.

Vv.

VI.

Vil.

VIII.

Ix.

X.

XI.

XIT.

CONTENTS

SOMETHING HAPPENS
THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY
DICK FINDS HIS HERO.

AT GRANNIE’S

THE SQUIRE’S VISIT

OUT UPON THE HEATIL.
ACTALK WITH REX

THE GARDENER’S WARNING
‘THE BUNCH OF GRAPES.

A TERRIBLE MOMEN1

AN ANGRY VISITOR . .

FAST FRIENDS. . .

PAGE
Ir

2I

109

11g
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

—+—

PAGE

SUDDENLY A GRUFF VOICE SHOUTED, ‘‘HANDS OFF,
THERE!” . . : . . . Frontispiece
“EFFIE IS TO GO WITH YOU FOR COMPANY,” SHE SAID . 17

“PLEASE, WHAT /S A HERO?” DICK ASKED, FIXING HIS
EYES ON THE LADY’S FACE . ; . : 25

“PLL SHOW YOU THE WAY, AND TOM, THE PORTER,
WILL BRING YOUR BOX” . . . . 33

“WHY, BLESS YOUR HEARTS! I BEGAN TO WONDER
WHAT HAD BECOME OF YOU” . . . . 47

STARING OUT INTO ‘THE NEW BEAUTIFUL WORLD
AROUND THEM. ; . : : 54
THEY PUSHED ONE OF THE GATES OPEN A LITTLE WAY. 67

REX WALKED BY THE PONY, AND TALKED TO HIS NEW
FRIEND. . . : ; . . 77

IN THE OTHER HAND HE HELD A MAGNIFICENT BUNCH
OF GRAPES ; . : . : . 95
“YOU YOUNG VAGABOND AND THIEF!” HE STORMED . 103
HE WAS CARRYING DICK IN HIS ARMS, . . 113

“DICK, DICK, HOW COULD YOU THINK SUCH A THING ??
SAID REX . ; ; : . . . 123

DICK’S HERO

CHAPTER I

SOMETHING HAPPENS.



OMETHING is going to
happen, Effie!” said Dick,
not looking at her, but
straight up into the tree at
the end of the narrow yard,
and through the green leaves at the bright
patches of sky behind.

“How do you know?” Effie said, munching
her bread-and-butter, and staring up into the
tree when she saw Dick’s eyes fixed upon it.
But as she could see nothing there but the fresh

green leaves fluttering against one another, she
11
12 DICK’S HERO

looked down again at her piece of bread, sighed
to see how little butter there was on it, and how
fast it was growing smaller, and set her sharp
little teeth once more into the crust.

“T don’t know “ow I know—but I feel it—in my
bones,” Dick said, ‘‘and all through me. I like
something to be going to happen.”

“Is it something nice?” Effe asked.

“Yes, of course/ It’s always something nice
when you feel it like this!”

‘Something nice to eat?”

Dick turned to Effie with quiet surprise. His
large, dreamy blue eyes made his white, thin face
look very small and pinched. This evening they
were larger than ever—perhaps because he had
been looking so far away through the green
leaves at the shining sky. But Effie did not
think about his big eyes nor his thin, white face.
She was used to them.

‘Something nice to eat?” she asked again.

“Oh no!” Dick cried. ‘What would be the
good of that? It would all be done so soon. |
want something to happen that will go on and on

for a long time-—and not get eaten up like a piece
SOMETHING HAPPENS 13

of bread-and-butter. And I heard father and
mother talking.”

“Oh!” Effie had finished her piece, and was
still hungry. Dick knew what she was thinking.
‘‘T don’t want any supper,” he said, pushing the
plate, which was on the step between them,
nearer to her. “I can’t eat it.”

He had only taken one bite, when the shining
glow between the fluttering leaves had caught his
sight, and he liked better to dream about that
than to eat bread-and-butter. Besides, Dick was
never hungry, nowadays, since his illness in the
winter.

The children were sitting on the step of the
back door. It was their favourite place. At
least, it was Dick's, and Effie always followed his
lead. Dick thought that their back yard was a
delightful place—because of the one old tree that
grew there.

When, some time before Dick was born, the
row of houses had been built, in one of which
Dick’s father kept a greengrocer’s shop, all the
other trees had been cut down to make room for

brick walls. But as this one tree did not interfere
14 DICK’S HERO

with the builders, it was left standing. Vear by
year, as there was more and more smoke in the
air, the leaves turned brown earlier, and the bark
and the branches looked blacker and_ blacker.
But Dick had never seen country trees, and so he
did not know that they were not all black, and
that they did not all lose their leaves in July.

He loved his tree. It was as good as a whole
forest to him. In the spring he used to watch
day by day for the buds to open; and when the
leaves were all shaken out, and the little black
sparrows could hide themselves among them;
when the wind made soft music, rustling the
leaves one against another, and waving the
branches backwards and forwards; even when
the rain came pattering down, washing some of
the soot off the leaves, and making a pleasant
‘little splashing noise ;—Dick would sit on the back
doorstep for hours, and dream happy dreams
about his tree.

It was sad to see the lovely leaves begin to
shrivel in the hot summer days; sadder still when
the time came to find some of them blown about
the vard, no better than crumpled bits of paper ;
SOMETHING HAPPENS 15

worst of all when the tree was bare and black,
and all the winter had to be waited through
before it would be any use to look for new leaves,
Still, Dick knew that they would come again.

This last winter Dick had been ill, and it was
only for a week or two that he had been able to
play with Effie again in the yard, and sit on the
doorstep and watch his dear tree.

When Effie had finished Dick’s supper as well
as her own, she said, ‘‘Tell me what’s going to
happen,” and she put her fat arm round Dick’s
neck, and leaned her curly head against his; and
Dick said,—

“T heard mother say to father, ‘ Well, I’m glad
they may go so soon, and it'll do the child good’
—I'm the child, Effie—because I’ve been ill. But
I don’t know where we are to go. I wonder if
there will be a tree there, because I would not
like to go if there isn’t.” Someone called, and
the children jumped up.

‘Come in, children! It’s time for you to go
to bed.” The mother’s eyes rested anxiously on
Dick's face. ‘Have you eaten your supper?”
she said.
16 DICK’S HERO

‘No, mother; I wasn’t hungry.”

“Well, well! How are you to get strong if
you don’t eat? But there! when you are in the
fresh country air you'll have an appetite again,
and come back as fat and rosy as Effie! ”

“In the country? Are we really going into
the country?” and Dick’s eyes opened wide.

“Yes,” their mother said. ‘You are going to
your grandmother’s, and Effie is to go with you
for company. You might be lonesome, for there
are not many people where your grandmother
lives.”

“Oh! but aren’t there lots of trees, and birds,
and flowers, and all sorts of things? Isn't it the
country where all the cabbages, and_ potatoes,
and strawberries, and everything, comes from?
Oh, mother !~is it the vea/ country we are going
to?”

‘Bless the boy! You'd think he’d been
promised a fortune! Yes, it’s the real country—
all fields and woods. But your grandmother will
be very kind to you, and with Effie to play with
you'll not be lonely.”

‘Are there zo streets, and houses, and lamp-




inh are
cS S55.
ECM GF

TENN EROS = SSS
BIS a

a.

“ErrIE IS TO GO WITIET YOU FOR COMPANY,” SHE SAID.







SOMETHING HAPPENS 19

- posts, and ’buses, and shops, and——” Effie was
interrupted by Dick’s eager explanation.

‘“There’s just one street for all the people, you
know ; and then all the rest is grass and trees—
isn’t it, mother?”

“You'll see to-morrow! Now, go to sleep,
and get a good rest. Your father has to go
early.”

“To-morrow!” Dick exclaimed, jumping on
the bed for joy. ‘Oh, I wish to-morrow was
now —this minute! And shall we stay all the
day there?”

‘Why, yes, to be sure—three or four days,
or maybe more, if it does you good, and if you
are good children and don’t give your grand-
mother any trouble. But she will send you
home again if you are naughty. Lie down,
now; I must go and put your clothes ready.”

“Oh, are we really going to live in the
country !—like the story-book I had for a prize
at school last Christmas? Mother, mother! do
tell me! How long will it take us to walk
there ?”

“You can’t walk, child. You are going by
20 DICK’S HERO

train.” Then his mother kissed him, and went
away.

But Dick was too much excited to sleep.
The last words about the train made him feel
that it was to be a real journey. ‘Didn't I tell
you that something was going to happen, Effie?”
he said in a few minutes; ‘and this is really
something that will go on and on!” But Effie

was fast asleep.
CHAP LE R=

THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY.

\ICK fell asleep at last, in-
tending to be up very early.
But when he awoke Effie
was dressed, and his mother

said, ‘‘Now you must be



quick, Dick! I wanted you to sleep as late as
possible, and there is only just time.”

He was hardly ready when his father whistled,
and Effie ran into the kitchen to say that Dick
must come. So he had not time to go out to
bid good-bye to his tree, as he meant to do.
He only looked up into the waving branches
through the window, and nodded his head, and
said, ‘Good-bye! I’m going into the country,”

and in two minutes more he was lifted into the
21
22 DICK’S HERO

little cart. His mother kissed him two or three
times, and said, ‘‘ Now be a good boy, and take
care of Effie!” His father shook the reins, the
pony started, and the cart clattered off.

Dick wondered why his mother’s kiss had
made him feel as if he did not want to leave
her, and why she put her hand to her eyes as
she turned away. He looked at her silently, as
long as he could see her standing at the shop
door. But when they turned the corner of the
street, Dick noticed that Effie was chattering to
him all the time. ‘Isn't it nice, Dick? I’ve
got my best frock on, and new stockings. And
your things and mine are all in that little box.
Mother put them in, and J helped her. And
grannie is quite old, and we are not to worry
her, mother says. Look, look! there are three
horses in that waggon. ... When wz the
station come, father?” -

In a short time they were at the station. The
father called a boy to hold the pony, and the
two children were put into a railway carriage,
with their box. The guard promised to see
that they got out at the right place, and in a
THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY 23

few minutes more their father and the station
seemed to fly away from them, and Dick and
Effie felt that they were really beginning a new
life.

There were three other people in the carriage.
One was a lady in a plain black dress, with a veil
over her head instead of a bonnet. She looked
kindly at Dick and Effie, and asked them where
they were going; and when they told her she
said, ‘‘That is a pretty place, but it is a long
way from here. Who is taking care of this
little girl ?”

“Oh, J am!” Dick said, smiling. ‘“ Mother
said I could take care of her, and mother
knows.”

“You don’t look very big or strong to be
such a hero,” the lady said. e

“Please, what zs a hero?” Dick asked, fixing
his eyes on the lady’s kind face. For the train
was going chiefly through tunnels, and when it
came out of the tunnels it was between grimy
brick walls, or along the backs of dingy streets,
and there was not anything pretty to look at out

of the window.
24 DICK’S HERO

“A hero is someone very brave and clever
and good,” she said. “I am sorry you do not
know what a hero is, my dear, because it helps
us to be brave and good when we find a hero
whom we can copy. I hope you will some day.
And when you do, you must remember what I
say, and try to be like your hero, and to do what
he does. And you must love him, and do
everything you can for him, even bear pain and
shame for his sake.” The train stopped, and
the lady got out. ‘Good-bye, dear children!”
she said, as she left the train.

Dick was sorry that she had gone. All
through the next tunnel he kept repeating to
himself: ‘When you find a hero you must try
to be like him, and you must love him and do
everything you can for him, even bear pain and
shame for his sake.”

“YT wonder if I shall find a hero in the
country?” he said aloud.

“Oh! look, look at the yellow flowers all
over the tree!” cried Effie, for she was next
to the window, and they were getting away

from smoke and blackness; and the laburnums,
ea y
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SSPLEASE, WITAT JS A HERO?” DICK ASKED, FIXING
HIS EYES ON THE LADY’S FACE.

THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY 27

and lilacs, and hawthorns, and _ flowering
chestnut -trees were in full bloom in all the
gardens.

Then how happy the children were! Dick
knelt on the seat, with his little white face
against the glass over the top of Effie’s head,
and they both kept crying out, “Oh! look,
look!” until they were tired. At least, Effie
was; and by-and-by, when the houses and
gardens had come to an end, and the train was
rushing along between green fields, all sprinkled
with daisies and buttercups, where the cows lay
in the sunshine, or the ‘horses stood under the
trees flicking the flies away with their long tails,
or looking gravely over a gate at the train as
it flew by, wondering why people were in such
a hurry on a warm day,— by that time Effie
had curled up her legs on the seat, and
dropped her head against Dick, and was fast
asleep.

But to the boy this wonderful green world
flying past him was an enchanted vision. He
could not take his eyes off it. There were many,

many trees, and they were fuller of leaves than
28 DICK’S HERO

his tree in the back yard at home. The rivers
were so clear that he could see the white stones
at the bottom, and the sunshine made the rippling
water sparkle like glass. The big blue sky,
was all blue; there was no smoke, there were
no grimy black walls, nor rows of houses and
chimneys. For a long time he had not seen
one house. Was this the country, where people
really lived ? or was he dreaming?

It seemed to Dick_a great many hours since
his mother had lifted him into the cart and
kissed him. He felt as if he had almost for-
gotten the narrow, noisy street, the back yard,
and its lonely tree. Suddenly tears came into
his eyes. How black, and sooty, and shabby
his dear tree would look beside these real
country trees! ‘But never mind!” he said
to himself. ‘You are my own tree, and I'll
love you always, and perhaps——”

The train stopped, and the guard appeared
at the door of the carriage.

“Now then, little ‘uns! Here you are; out
with you!” In an instant Effie was lifted out ;
the tin box followed, and Dick scrambled after
_ THEIR FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY 29

them. The guard nodded, blew his whistle,
and off rushed the train, leaving Effie, Dick,
and the box on the platform of a quiet country

station.
CHAPTER IIE

DICK FINDS HIS HERO.

‘ ‘ S the two children stood on the
platform of the little wayside
station, a young porter, with
red cheeks, came and _ stared
at them, and Effie rubbed her
eyes and stared at him.

Dick was not sure what he ought to do; but
after watching the train disappear he took
Effie’s hand and said, ‘Now we had _ better



go to grannie’s.”

‘““And who’s going to carry this tremendous
big box to grannie’s—eh, youngster?” said
the porter.

Dick tried to lift the box, but he was weak

and the box heavy. The young porter burst
30
DICK FINDS HIS HERO 31

into a rough laugh. He did not mean to be
unkind, but he liked a joke, and saw that Dick
was bewildered.

At that moment, when Effie was beginning
to cry, and Dick to look very forlorn and
frightened, a boy, bigger than Dick, handsome
and rosy, and finely dressed, ran on to the
platform. ‘Has a parcel come for us?” he
said.

‘No, Master Rex,” said the porter, touching

his cap.

‘“Tsn’t that it? What's that? and who are
these ?” He looked at Dick and Effie
curiously. ‘What is the little girl crying

for?” he said.

‘Because we don’t know the way to grannie’s,
and because the box is so heavy we can’t carry
it,’ Dick said.

The porter winked at Master Rex, and began
to laugh again. But Rex was very kind-hearted,
and did not like to see girls cry. He stooped
down and read the address on the box. ‘“ Why,
its only to Mrs. Jackson’s, over the hill!” he

said. “Come along! I'll show you the way.


32 DICK’S HERO

Tom, the porter, will bring your box. That’s
what he is here for.”

Rex looked down kindly at Effie. “You
needn’t cry any more,” he said. ‘I'll let you
see my pony, Billy! He's waiting for. me out-
side the ‘station.”

“We've got a pony, too,” Effie said, ‘and
he brought us to the train this morning.”

Rex seemed surprised. ‘Oh, I thought you
were foor children,” he said, glancing at them
again. “Mrs. Jackson lives in one of our
cottages, and she is only a poor woman. Do
poor people keep ponies in London?”

By this time the three children were in the
road, and Billy, Rex’s pretty grey pony, was
there, with the bridle thrown over the railings.

“Our pony is to draw the cart with the
vegetables,” Dick said. ‘ He isn’t a rich pony,
like yours. And we were in the cart with the
hampers and things this morning.”

Rex laughed, as he jumped on to Billy’s
back ; and very grand he looked, Dick thought,
as he switched the pony with his whip, and

made him caper about the road. Rex liked to


‘PLL SHOW YOU THE WAY, AND TOM, THE PORTER, WILL BRING
YOUR BOX.’

5
3

DICK FINDS HIS HERO - 35

show off his pony, and perhaps he liked to
show off himself too. Most boys do. Besides,
Rex had very few companions of his own age;
and the older people who were always with
him did not stand and look at him with wide-
open eyes and mouths, and show plainly that
they thought him a splendid fellow, as Effie
and Dick did.

So Rex felt very happy and good-tempered,
and in a minute or two he jumped off Billy,
and said, ‘Now, little girl, I will lift you on,
and you shall ride as far as the end of the
road.”

You may think how much Effie liked that!
Her face was all smiles and dimples as she
sat on the pretty grey pony, while Rex, in
his beautiful velvet jacket and cap, led Billy,
and looked up with his merry brown eyes,
smiling to see how pleased she was.

And pale, tired Dick came rather slowly
behind, still in a sort of dream. It was all so
wonderful! This fine, beautiful boy, so strong
that he had lifted fat little Effie to Billy’s back

as easily as possible, was as different from the
36 | DICK’S HERO

bigger boys he was used to see in the strcets
and at school at home, as the great shady trees
by the road-side were different from his tree
in the yard !

‘You've come from London, haven’t you?”
Rex said.

“Yes,” Effie answered.

“What's your name?”

“ Effie; and he is Dick.”

“Very well! If you are going to stay at
Mrs. Jackson’s I shall come and see you again
on my pony, and give you another ride if you
like. Are you going to stay here a long time ?”

“T don’t know ; perhaps Dick knows.”

Then Rex turned ; and something in the town
boy’s face made his heart give a little throb
of pain. Rex had never been ill in his life;
but once he had hurt himself in a fall, and he
remembered that he had felt giddy and sick
for a while afterwards.

‘“What has been the matter with you, Dick ?
Have you had a fall?” he said kindly, patting
out his hand to the other boy.

And as Dick put his thin fingers into Rex’s
DICK FINDS HIS HERO 37

warm, strong hand, and met the bright glance
of his friendly eyes, he knew the happiest feeling
that can come to any of us. He felt that he
held the hand of the best and strongest and
most beautiful creature he had seen in the
world. And that is what is called worship.

“JT have only been ill,” he said; “but I am
better now, and mother says that the fresh air
in the country will make me quite strong.
Are people never ill in the country?”

“Oh yes!” Rex said, laughing. ‘The old
people are ill and die sometimes, but I don’t
think the children ever do. Have you been
to school, Dick?”

“Yes; and Effie goes too.”

“ How jolly! My grandfather won’t let me
go to school, and I have a tutor, and lessons
are horrid things to do all by oneself. And
you live in London, don’t you ?”

“Ves,” Dick said again; and Rex went on
quickly, for he was very fond of talking, and had
not talked to anyone but Billy since breakfast-
time. “I wish /livedin London. I have never

even been there. My grandfather won't let me
38 DICK’S HERO |

go yet. He says it’s a wicked place, and that
the people who come from London are wicked.
But I don’t think so, and I’m sure you and Effie
don’t look wicked. Do you like London or
Heathborough best ?”



” Dick looked

round, with a gasp in his voice. He could not

‘Oh, I think this place is—is

find words to say how beautiful he thought
everything. “Why!” he cried, “there are
flowers here all over the ground! And in the
hedges, and in the fields, and on the trees! We
used to get some from the market, but they faded
very soon.”

‘Ohl Rex “broke win; ‘if: “you... jlike'? these
common flowers, I wonder what you will think
of ours at the Hall. You shall come and see
them some day. My grandfather likes flowers
too, and has built a lot of glass-houses to keep
them in, and there are just as many in the winter
as in the summer.”

“And may you gather them ?”

“No; not those in the glass-houses. But in
the garden I may, of course. Have you a

garden?”
DICK FINDS HIS HERO 39

“No; but I have one tree.”

Rex looked rather perplexed. ‘One tree?”
he repeated. ‘Do you mean a tree of your very
own—that you might cut down if you liked?
My grandfather owns all the trees, and fields,
and everything we can see. Is the tree yours,
in that way?”

Then Dick was a little puzzled too. “I don’t
know,” he said. ‘But if it isn’t mine, I don’t
think it is anyone else’s. And I call it mine
because I love it; so it’s the same thing, isn’t
itp

“You. are a queer little chap,” Rex: said:
“But I like you, and I like Effie. And I shall
come and see you, and take you to see our
flowers some day. My tutor has gone away
now, because it is holidays; and I have no
lessons, and no one to play with, and no one to
speak to all day but grandfather, and he is deaf.
So I am glad you have come to Heathborough. -
Now, you will have to get off Billy, Effie, for he
can’t get over the stile, and Mrs. Jackson’s
cottage is just across this field. Do you see?

Down the path, and across the brook at the
40 DICK’S HERO

bottom of the field, and up to that elm. Do you
psee?”

Rex had lifted Effie off the pony, and as she
stood patting his sleek coat, Dick gazed across
the field, still with the dreamy look which
troubled Rex somehow. This little Londoner
did not seem as if he belonged to the world of
everyday life.

“Don’t you think you can find your way
now?” Rex said. ‘See! You and Effie go on,
and I'll stay here and shout if you go wrong.
The cottage is just behind that big elm.”

“YT don’t know what an elm is,” Dick said,
blushing.

Then Rex laughed again. ‘ You funny chap!
Why, an elm’s a tree—that big tree. Now,
good-bye; I'll see you again soon.”

And when Dick and Effie got over the stile,
Rex waited, waving his hand encouragingly
every time they turned to look, until they had
gone down the path through the field, and
crossed the brook, and passed by the big elm-
tree, and were in sight of their grandmother's
cottage.
DICK FINDS HIS HERO 41

“Tsn’t Billy a beautiful pony—beautifuller than
ours ?” Effie said.

Dick’s eyes were shining with a happy light.

“Oh, Effie!” he said, “J know now what the
lady in the train meant—and I have got a real

hero.”
CHAPTER IV.

AT GRANNIE'S.

e “"ICTURE to yourself the
prettiest cottage .you ever
saw in your life! Let it

have white- washed walls,



and a deeply sloping thatched
roof—the kind of thatch that keeps the rooms
cool in summer and warm in winter. Then
imagine a wide porch before the door, with a
wooden seat on one side, and trailing honey-
suckle growing up the other side, with the flowers
peeping round the corner, and reaching up to the
low windows under the thatch.

In front of the cottage there must be a strip of
garden, divided from the lane by a hedge of elder-

bushes and privet; and behind it a tall elm-tree,
42
AT GRANNIE’S 43

and meadows that slope downwards to a little
brook. The garden must be gay with red
cabbage roses, and blue larkspurs, and many-
coloured phloxes, and carnations, and pansies,
all crowding together up to the cottage door and
making the air sweet with scents. Then you will
know what Mrs. Jackson’s cottage was like.

The door stood wide open, and Mrs. Jackson
had been out on the little pebble-covered path,
looking across the fields to see if her young
visitors were coming, many a time. She had
heard the train come in, for the station was not
very far away, and she knew that it only took a
few minutes to come up by the high-road and
across the fields. .

So she began to be anxious and wonder why
the children did not appear. She did not know
that, the last time she went out and looked for
them, Rex had just lifted Effie off his pony, and
that she and Dick were only hidden by the hedge
bounding the high-road.

“Dear me, dear me!” Mrs. Jackson said, as
she went back into her cottage and took another

look into the pot which stood by the fire—some-
44 DICK’S HERO

thing in the pot smelt very nice when she took
the lid off—‘ Dear me! it’s three minutes past
twelve, and they ought to be here! I wish I had
gone to meet the train... . But their mother
said that Dick was so steady and sensible he’d be
sure to find his way and come all right, and that
I needn’t trouble to go. ... She do think a
terrible deal about her Dick, to be sure. It’s
Dick this—and Dick that. Poor little chap!
they thought they was going to lose him when he
was ill, and I know what that is, and it makes
folk a bit foolish about a child... . But I wish
they'd come. The dinner will be spoiled. I'd
best lift off the potatoes.”

Mrs. Jackson was a little, round, rosy-faced
woman—exactly what Effie would be when she
grew old. She had just the same merry dark
eyes and curly hair—only her hair was of a
soft, silvery white, and was put neatly under
a close cap. Her cheeks were almost as smooth
and dimpled as Effie’s, and her forehead almost
as free from wrinkles; for she was happy, and
good, and kind; and had lived in this pretty

cottage nearly all her life, so there had been
:

AT GRANNIE’S 45

nothing to give her wrinkles, or to make her
look worn and sad.

“And the gooseberry pasty is done to a
turn,” she said, opening the oven door, ‘‘and

”

if them precious children don’t come soon



“Please, are you Grannie Jackson ?—because
we are Effie and Dick,” said a quiet little voice
behind her.

But, quiet as it was, it made Mrs. Jackson. jump.
And as she turned round, there in the sunshine,
framed in the open doorway as in a picture, stood
the two grandchildren whom she had never seen
till this moment, holding one another's hands.

The boy was the taller. As soon as his grand-
mother looked at him a mist came over her eyes.
Then she looked at Effie and held out her arms.

‘“Why, bless your hearts! I began to wonder
what had become of you! Come your ways in,
and let me look at you! Eh! yes, this is Effie,
sure enough! The very picture of her daddy
when he was a little ‘un... . And you are
Dick! And you've been ill... . Well, well!

We'll soon put some colour in those white
cheeks,”


46 DICK’S HERO

And the old woman kissed the children, and
cried a little over them; and then wiped her
eyes with her white and blue checked apron,
and kissed them again; and laughed, and said
that they must be hungry, and that she would
put the dinner on the table in five minutes.

A white cloth was already spread, and very
soon they sat down; and Effie at least ate
enough to please her grandmother.

Dick looked very happy, and said everything
was very nice; but he had: no appetite, and
seemed to be too eagerly looking about. to care
for his dinner.

‘How did you find your way here, children?”
Mrs. Jackson said presently.

“Oh, Rex brought us, grannie!” Effie cried.
“And he gave me a ride on Billy, and he is
coming to see us, and he says we are to go
and see him—and we think he is the nicest boy
we ever Saw.’ j

“Rex? Do you mean Master Rex, the -
Squire’s grandson, who lives at the Hall?”

“Yes,” Dick said. ‘He said his grandfather

owned all the fields, and trees, and cottages.




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““WHY, BLESS YOUR HEARTS! I BEGAN TO WONDER WHAT
HAD BECOME OF You.”

AT GRANNIE’S 49

But he didn’t tell us to call him ‘Master’ Rex.
Do you think he is a hero, grannie? I mean
a real hero, one you ought to bear pain and
shame for, you know?”

‘Now I wonder what the child means,” said
his grandmother to herself. But aloud she said,
‘“Master Rex is a very fine young gentleman,
and his grandfather is the richest man hereabouts,
and I don’t suppose he will let Master Rex make
companions of such as you, so don’t fill your
heads with any such-like notions. He’s the heir,
is Master Rex, and they say the Squire would
give him gold to eat if he wanted it. But
sometimes the boy do look a bit lonesome, for
all he’s so fine. You see, he’s no little sister
to play with, as you have, Dick.”

“Poor Rex! And has he no mother or
father?”

“No. They died when he was a baby. And
the Squire is getting on in years, and hard of
hearing, and I have heard say that the Hall is
a dull place for a boy.”

“Not as nice as a cottage, is it, grannie?

May I go into the garden?” Effie asked.
4
&o DICK’S HERO

After the dinner things were put away, and

the kitchen made neat and clean as a drawing-
room, Mrs. Jackson took her knitting in her
hand, and went out to the seat in the porch.
It pleased her very much to have he:° little
visitors. She smiled and nodded .her head as
she watched merry little Effe flit among the
flowers, now chasing a butterfly, now burying
her rosy face in a cluster of honeysuckle, now
skipping and jumping about the path, just to
show how happy she was.
_ Dick did not run and skip about much. But
he wandered from one plant to another, kneeling
down to look into the face of a purple pansy, or
stooping to get all the sweetness of a newly-
opened rose; and his blue eyes were dewy with
the delight which could find no words.

“Everything smells so clean,” he said,-as he
came to his grandmother's side, and sat down,
leaning his head against the wall of the porch,
and gazing between the honeysuckle sprays into
the soft blue summer sky. ‘The country seems
as if it was all just washed, sky and everything.

Even the grass smells like our clean clothes on
AT GRANNIE’S 51

Sunday morning. ... And your sparrows are
not black, like ours, grannie. See—those with
the long tails flying backwards and forwards
under the roof, are quite white on their necks.
If our ‘sparrows were washed, would they come
white, like yours?”

|»

“Dick, my” dear his grandmother said
solemnly, ‘are you eight years old, and don’t
know the difference between sparrows and

swallows?”
CHAPTER V.

THE SQUIRE'S VISIT.

RS. JACKSON’S cottage
contained only two rooms;
one downstairs, and one

upstairs. The stairs were



- nearly as straight and _nar-
row as a ladder, and opened by a door upon
the kitchen. But the bedroom was large and
airy. It had only one bed in it—as a rule;
but Mrs. Jackson had made up a cosy little bed
on an old couch in one corner, and there Dick
slept soundly the next morning, long after his
grandmother had gone down and set about her
-business.

“Nay! I'll let the childer sleep their sleep

out to-day at all events,” the old woman had said,
52
THE SQUIRE'S VISIT 53

looking down at the little sleepers. ‘‘There’s
nought like sleep for healing them that’s sick;
and it seems a shame to waken Effie, the bonnie
little lass! And maybe she would disturb Dick.
So Ill let ’em both rest a bit.”

And then the brisk old woman had made her
way down the steep stairs, and lighted the fire,
and filled the kettle from the pump, and fed her
fowls, and prepared breakfast ; and, in fact, done
what some of us would think a good day’s work
by the time that eight struck from the old grand-
father’s clock in the corner of the kitchen.

“Dear me! Why they’ve slept the clock
round,” she said, laughing to herself. But at
that moment she heard a merry chirping of
children’s voices, which sounded above the chirp
of the swallows under the eaves—and she trotted
up the stairs again.

The children were wide awake now, and
standing in their white nightdresses, with their
bare pink feet peeping from beneath, at the
open window, staring out into the new beautiful
world around them.

You see, Mrs. Jackson was a wise old woman,
54 DICK’S HERO

and she knew that sunshine and fresh air are two

of the best gifts God has given to men, and that













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STARING OUT INTO THE NEW BEAUTIFUL WORLD AROUND THEM,

if we all had plenty of sunshine and fresh air,
we should seldom want any other medicine.

So she had drawn up the white window-blind,
THE SQUIRE'S VISIT 55

and opened wide the latticed casement when
she went downstairs; and the instant the
children awoke they had scampered to the
window to breathe the sweet morning air.

“Why, grannie, it's much more beautifuller
than it was yesterday! Will it go on getting
better and better every day?” Dick said, as he
lifted his bright face for her kiss.

“JT don’t know,” she answered. ‘‘ But that’s
what you have got to do, my dear! Now be
quick, and come down to breakfast.”

There were delicious new-laid eggs for break-
fast. Master Rex himself could not have had
any better or fresher, for Grannie Jackson took
great care of her fowls, and often said that eggs
were the best meat.

After breakfast, when Effie was just going to
run out and play, grannie said, “It won't do to
play all the time, Effie, darling! That’s not good
for anyone—big or little. Come and help mea
bit first. You can sweep up the crumbs, and
take the scraps to the hens; and, when I’ve

done with you, there'll be time enough for

play.”
56 DICK’S HERO

Indeed, grannie was so kind that it was just
as good as the nicest play to help her, and the
children were almost sorry when she said, ‘‘ There!
Now you've been very good, but I'll do the rest
better by myself, and you can go out until dinner-
time.”

‘‘ May we go through the gate along the lane ?”
Effie asked.

“Yes, of course you may. That’s the way to
the Heath, and it’s the best place for you.
There’s no better air in England than there is
up there. And you can’t miss finding your way
back if you notice how you go. It’s always easy
to find this cottage by the one big elm near it.
That’s why it’s called Elm Cottage. Now, be
off! and don’t be late for dinner. . . . But there’s
no fear. The air on the Heath will make you
hungry by that time, I'll warrant... . Well,
Dick, laddie! What is it?”

Dick was hanging back; looking wistfully
across the meadows behind the cottage towards
the path by which he and Effie had come the day
before.

Effie had already skipped through the little
THE SQUIRE'S VISIT 57

gate which Mrs. Jackson held open, and was
calling eagerly, ““Come, Dick! oh, do come!”

“] thought that perhaps—he said he would



come to see us some day—and if we go that way,
we may miss him,” Dick stammered.

‘Miss him! What is the lad dreaming of ?”
Mrs. Jackson said.

“Rex—my hero. I wouldn’t miss him for
all the world, and he sazd he would come.”

‘“’Tut—tut—nonsense!” his grandmother said,
laughing. “He didn’t mean it. What a fine
young gentleman like that says, is nothing to
go by.”

“Isn't it, grannie? Then what zs something
to go by?” Dick said, fixing his earnest gaze
upon her face.

Mrs. Jackson didn’t know, so she said, ‘ Run
along! Master Rex won't come to-day, I'll
promise you. And if he did, he would ride
across the Heath, and by this lane. The other
road is only the way round to the station. So
you won't miss him.”

The cloud on Dick’s face vanished. He threw

his arms round Grannie Jackson, and kissed the
sone DICK’S HERO

kind old face, and then ran after Effie as merrily
as boys should, shouting as he ran, ‘I’m coming,
Effie! I’m coming !’—just as if Effie could not see
that he was coming as fast as he could run.

Mrs. Jackson stood at the cottage gate fora
minute or two, shading her eyes from the sun-
shine with her hand, as she watched her grand-
children. “Bless their little hearts!” she
murmured, when they disappeared round a bend
in the lane; and she had turned to go into her
garden, when the sound of wheels made her look
back.

An open pony-carriage was coming along the
lane towards. the cottage.

“Why! it’s the Squire himself!” she exclaimed
in surprise, for the old Squire was not often seen
so far from the Hall—and Mrs. Jackson waited
to drop her best curtsey as he passed.

But, instead of passing, the carriage drew up at
her gate, and the footman, jumping down, ran to
the side of the old Squire, and shouted in his ear,
“Tf you please, sir, this is Elm Cottage, and this
is Mrs. Jackson.”

“Ah! very well, very well!” said the old
THE SQUIRE'S VISIT 59

gentleman, and he looked curiously at Mrs.
Jackson, and then went on, ‘‘ Good-day, ma’am!
I want to see your two grandchildren, who came
from London yesterday to visit you,—Effie and—
let me see, what is the boy called?”

“Dick, sir!” Mrs. Jackson said, wondering

very much what the Squire could want to see

the children for, and feeling half-frightened and
half-proud of the honour. ‘But I’m afraid, sir,
you can’t see them, because they have just gone
up to the Heath. They must have passed you
in the lane.”

“They've just passed us in the lane, sir!”
shouted the footman; and the Squire said, ‘‘ What,
what! Was the pretty little girl in a white
pinafore ‘Effie’? And that boy who looked so
near death was that ‘ Dick’?”

“Yes, sir. But please God, sir, Dick isn’t
going to die, though he. has been near death ; at
least, not if I can help it.” And Mrs. Jackson
wiped away the tears that had come into her
eyes at the Squire’s words.

Perhaps that helped him to understand what

she had said, and he went on in a kind voice:


60 * DICK’S HERO

‘Well, well, my good woman! I daresay he will
soon be better in our fresh air. They look nice,
decent children. I wanted to see for myself, for
I don’t like Rex to take up with strange play-
mates, as he is inclined to do. The boy is a
little wilful—most boys are, perhaps—and_ he
wants to come and see your grandchildren, and
have them up at the Hall. He said there was a
nice little girl, and a boy with a look on his face
that nearly made him cry. I understand what
he meant now. ... Yes! I don’t think those
children will do him any harm. . . . Good-day,

”
!

Mrs. Jackson, good-day! .. . Home, John
CHAPTER. VI.

OUT UPON THE HEATH.

that soon ne Sauie Elton
had made these careful in-

quiries, the children them-



selves had renewed their ac-
quaintance with Master Rex.

The Squire had promised his grandson that he
would go and see Mrs. Jackson, and that if he
found that she was a decent kind of woman (for
though she had lived in his cottage for fifty years
he did not know her by sight), Rex might have
the children up to show them the gardens at the
Hall. The old man could not understand how
the lonely boy pined for playfellows. Ae did

not dislike to be alone most of the day; and as
61
62 DICK’S HERO

Rex had a pony and a dog, and every kind of toy
and game you can think of, the Squire fancied
that he ought to be content.

However, the boy teased him so much about

these little Londoners that the Squire went off to



see them for himself—as I have told you. Rex
was very impatient for him to come back. He
could not settle to do anything, and, at last, after
wandering about the grounds, he went to the
gate which led out upon the Heath, climbed to a
favourite place of his on the wall—from which he
could see a long way across the Heath—and
waited there for his grandfather's return. But as
the old gentleman had returned to the Hall by
another road, and by another entrance to the
grounds, of course Rex waited in vain.

All this time Effie and Dick were rambling
about the Heath, filled with delight and amaze-
ment at this strange and beautiful place. When
the narrow lane opened out upon the wide, sandy
common which stretched far away on all sides,
they each gave acry of joy. It looked so large
and free! The ground was covered with sweet

little flowers, growing so close together, and so
OUT UPON THE HEATH 63

tiny, that you could not help treading upon them ;
and it was all up and down in mounds and
hollows—like little hills and valleys; and you
could look away and away as it spread farther
and farther, until it seemed to touch the round,
blue sky.

The children ran on, up one little mound and
down another, shouting to one another for joy.
The sweet, fresh air blew in their faces, and bent
the green bracken which grew in clumps, tall and

strong

g, in every hollow.

Dick was the first to grow tired.

“Let us sit down, Effie!” he said at last. ‘J
want to think about it all. Ican’t tell what it is
like while we are running and shouting.”

“Oh yes! Here’s a lovely soft cushion of
dear little purple flowers, and they are so sweet!”
Effie said, throwing herself down, and putting her

cheek on some wild thyme. ‘I should like to



stay here all day—and all the next day!”
Dick sat down, and with his elbows on his
knees, and his chin in his hands, tried to ‘“ think

”

about it all.” For a time he was quiet; then he

began to talk again.




64 DICK’S HERO

‘“‘T wonder why the little low flowers all grow
together here, and not big, tall ones like those
in the lane, or fine ones like those in grannie’s
garden? And I wonder why God keeps the
sky so blue here, where there’s no one hardly
to see it, and lets it be so dirty in London,
where there’s sucha lot of people? And I
wonder why some of the people don’t come and
have cottages like grannie’s here, instead of stay-
ing in the streets always? . . . And I wonder—
I wonder—if it’s always so quiet here? Listen,
Effie: there isn’t a sound. Yes! ... Why, it’s
these big leaves by your head moving against each
other in the wind. There is no other noise. We
might be all alone in the world. And I can’t see
one house, Effie—not one! I can’t see the lane,
nor the elm-tree, nor grannie’s cottage. . . . Oh,
Efhe, get up and look! Can you see it?”

Suddenly a kind of terror at the silence and the
loneliness had fallen upon the little town boy.
His eyes gazed eagerly for some sign of the only
place they knew in this strange land, and widened
with dismay when they only met the same broad
expanse of sandy, flower-sprinkled heath.




OUT UPON THE HEATH 65

The children were in a little hollow and
could not see far; and even when on the level
part of the ground it is difficult for a stranger
to distinguish one side of the Heath from
another.

“Let us go home, Dick,” Effie said, catching
his hand, and scrambling to her feet. His fear
was quickly felt by the little girl also, and she
began to drag him along.

‘But I don’t know if we are going the right
way,” he said. ‘I can’t see anything else but
these little ups and downs; and we want the lane
and the elm-tree. Oh, Effie, do you think we
are lost? Ican't run so fast. Stop! It gives
me a pain in my side when | run fast; and per-
haps we are going the wrong way.”

Effie stopped, but there were tears in her eyes,
and she whimpered, ‘‘ What shall we do if we are
lost here, Dick? Mother says we must tell the
policeman where we live if we get lost, but there
isn’t a policeman, nor anybody, here. Do you
think anybody will find us?”

Of course, when Effie began to cry, Dick’s

courage came back. He was her big brother,
5
66 DICK’S HERO

and had to take care of her; and if he ad lost
the way back to the cottage he must not frighten
Effie, and let her cry. —

‘Oh yes,” he said, more cheerfully than he
felt, “somebody is sure to find us. If we don’t
go back in time for dinner, grannie will come to
look for us. . . . But perhaps we shall come to
the lane soon.” The poor children were walking
in a straight line away from it.

“JT wish we could see Rex and Billy,” Effie
said. ‘‘ He would be as good as a policeman, for
he showed us the way yesterday.”

“Yes,” Dick said; ‘‘and grannie told me that,
if he was coming to see us, he would come across
the Heath. So we may meet him, if we go on
—only we ought to be going towards grannie’s
now, and he would come the other way. Look!
here’s a road. Perhaps this leads into our
lane.”

It was the road across the Heath, and it did
lead into their lane; but they followed it in
exactly the wrong direction.

When they had walked on in silence for ten

minutes more, they saw that they were coming


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67

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OUT UPON THE HEATH 69

to the end of the open Heath, and that a high
wall with trees behind it ran along the side of
the road.

“This isn’t our lane, Effie!” Dick said,
stopping short. ‘I’m afraid we’ve come the
wrong way, and I’m so tired!”

Effie put the corner of her pinafore in
her mouth, and began to cry—more because
Dick looked unhappy than for any other
reason.

‘“There’s a house,” Dick cried, the next
moment. ‘We'll go and ask if this is the way
to Mrs. Jackson’s.” There were large iron gates
beside the house, and when the children got to
them they found them very difficult to open.
But they had pushed one open a little way, and
Effie had just squeezed through, and Dick was
about to follow, when a big black dog, lying in
the sunshine before the door of the house, sprang
up, and with an angry growl moved towards
Effie. |

The child screamed and rushed back, knocking
poor Dick down, as she made her way through

the small opening left by the gate.
70 DICK’S HERO

As for Dick—over-tired, anxious and startled
—he hardly knew what had happened, and
thought all was over when he found himself on
the ground, and a fierce black beast glaring at

him—not a yard away.


CHAPTER VII.

A TALK WITH REX.

ET off, Rover! Down, sir,
down! Hallo, Dick! is it
you? He won't hurt. He

only frightens people if he



doesn’t know them. Was
it Effie who screamed? What are you doing
here?”

It was Rex who spoke. He had heard Effie
scream, and, scrambling down from the wall, had
been just in time to call off Rover as he began
to sniff about the fallen little figure on the
ground.

Poor Dick thought the big, fierce-looking dog
was going to eat him. Of course Rover had no

such intention. He considered it his duty to
71


72 DICK’S HERO

pretend to be calmly asleep in the sun before the
lodge door, and then, if any stranger opened the
gates without ringing the lodge bell, to rush at
him with a terrific bark. As for hurting a child
like Dick—you would have hurt Azs feelings very
deeply to suppose him capable of such a thing!

But Dick and Effie did not know that. And
so when Dick got up, pale and trembling, and
saw Rex, in his velvet suit, with his curls, and
merry, smiling face and strong young figure,
standing before him, one hand holding the collar
which was round the neck of the black, shagg
dog—he thought him more a hero than ever.

All he said was, ‘We've lost ourselves and
wanted to ask the way”; and then he went a
little paler still, and would have fallen again, but
Rex caught him and made him sit down on the
steps of the lodge.

“Jane! Jane!” Rex shouted, hammering on
the door of the little cottage; “come here: I
want you!”

Jane, the under-gardener’s wife, quickly
appeared. She was a kind young woman,

and lifted Dick in her arms and carried him
A TALK WITH REX 73

into the kitchen, and laid him on the settle, with
a pillow under his head; and then she brought
some water, and moistened his lips and bathed
his face.

Effie stood by, already making friends with
Rover. Rex, as soon as he saw Dick open his
eyes and begin to smile, said,—

“He’s a friend of mine, Jane, so you must
take care of him. He came from London
yesterday, and he’s been ill. And they are
Mrs. Jackson’s grandchildren; and my grand-
father. has gone to see her to find out if they
are nice enough to come and play with me
sometimes. But I know they are, because I
like them. And _ they lost their way; and
then Rover frightened them as they were
coming in to ask you how they could get
back.”

Rex liked to show that he knew everything ;
and as Dick listened, he thought it was wonderful
how much Rex could tell, and how clearly he
explained the matter. He seemed to make the
whole morning’s adventure much plainer to Dick

himself than it had been before.
14 DICK’S HERO

“Well,” Jane said, “the little chap must just
rest a bit, anyhow, before Ze tries to walk back
to Elm Cottage! But old Mrs. Jackson ‘Il be
uneasy unless the children turn up soon. I’d
best send our Jackie with the little lass across
the Heath to tell her where he is, and in an
hour or two he can go home.”

“Yes, I daresay that will be all right,”
Rex said.

So when Jane had given Effie a drink of milk
and a piece of bread-and-butter, she called her
brother Jackie from the garden, where he was
weeding the strawberry-bed, gave him strict
orders what he was to do, and what he was to
say to Mrs. Jackson, and sent him off, with Effie
trotting contentedly at the side of the good-
natured lad, who liked a walk across the Heath
much better than weeding the strawberry-
bed before the strawberries were ripe. It
wouldn’t have been so bad if they had been
fit to eat.

By-and-by Dick began to look less white and ill.
Jane went into the back kitchen to get on with

her washing, and the two boys were left alone.

i
A TALK WITH REX 75

Rex did most of the talking. He told Dick
that he meant to be a soldier some day, and
was going ina few years to a school where they
taught you all the things soldiers ought to know.
And he told Dick that he could make Billy
jump; and that he had a fishing-rod, and had
once caught a trout that weighed a pound and a
half—but his tutor had never caught one nearly
so big. But Rex said he didn’t like fishing—
it was no fun. He wanted to play at soldiers.
He said he couldn't do that alone, because you
couldn’t drill yourself, and attack yourself, and
take yourself prisoner. Now if Effe and Dick
might come and be soldiers, he would soon have
a fine regiment.

Then Rex looked at Dick’s white, thin face on
the cushion, and stopped talking for two minutes.

He was just going to begin again, when Dick
said, ‘“Rex—am I to call you ‘Master’ Rex, as
grannie does?”

“No. It’s stupid when we are playing.
Besides, if you are my friend you needn’t say
‘Master.’ And while you are here I want

you to be my friend.”
76 DICK’S HERO

“Do you?” Dick said, his lips trembling with
joy. “Why do you want me to be your friend,
Rex?” ,

‘“Well—you see, I haven’t got a boy friend,
nor a little sister, nor anything of that kind, and
it’s awfully dull to have nobody but a tutor and
a deaf grandfather. He’s very kind to me—
grandfather is. But he isn’t as good as a
boy, you know. . . . You don’t mind being my
friend, do you, Dick?— because you look so
grave.” ;

“Oh!” Dick said, with a sigh of happiness,
“I like to be your friend better than anything
else in the whole world, because you are my
hero, and I mean to love you, and to try to be
like you, and to bear pain and shame for you—
if:l scan.”

Rex stared at him in perplexity, and then
laughed. ‘You are very funny,” he said at
last, ‘and you say queer things. And I wish
you didn’t look as if you saw things that aren't
there! But I do mean to be a hero some day,
Dick—like my father and my uncle. They were

soldiers. All heroes are soldiers, and they are
4h



REX WALKED BY THE PONY, AND TALKED TO HIS NEW FRIEND.


A TALK WITH REX 79

afraid of nothing, and they are strong and wise.
But I can’t be one yet.”

“Yes, you can!” Dick persisted, in his quiet
way. ‘You weren’t afraid of Rover. And
you are strong enough to lift Effie; and: you
are wise, because you know everything, and
make it all plain. You must be a hero, please,
ex. |

“All right! But

I must go; but I will come back after luncheon.”



Hallo! there’s the gong.

At luncheon Rex told his grandfather what
had happened, and that the little invalid boy
was at the lodge, in Jane’s care. Squire Elton
allowed him, at his request, to take Dick back
across the Heath on Billy, for he saw that Rex,
instead of being sulky and discontented—as he
often was—to-day was happy and _ interested,
because he had someone to think of as well as
himself.

Besides, the old Squire never refused his
grandson anything—except his wish to be sent
to the village school. And he said to himself,
“These children will soon go away again. It’s

not like associating with the village children.
80 DICK’S HERO

There can’t be much.harm done in a few days.
And perhaps the boy zs a little lonely in the
holidays!”

So Rex took Billy to the lodge. Dick had

eaten some dinner with Jane and Jackie, and



was better. He was very happy—as you may
imagine—when he found what. Rex meant to do.
Indeed, as the two boys went across the Heath
that summer’s afternoon, I hardly know which
was the happier—Dick, mounted on the pretty
grey pony—or Rex, who walked by Billy, and
talked to his new friend, leading the pony when
they came to any rough place, so that Dick
should not be shaken; just as if Dick were

the rich boy, and he the poor one.
CHAPTER. VILL.

THE GARDENER’S WARNING.

2 T the end of a fortnight Mrs.
Jackson said that Dick’s own
mother would not know the

child, he was so much im-



proved. I think, myself, that
his mother could still have recognised him
by the sweetness of his smile, and the dreamy
expression of his wide-apart, big blue eyes.
But, certainly, he did look very different from
the pale, pinched little creature who had left
the greengrocer’s shop in London only two
weeks before.

The pure country air, and the happy out-of-
door life, had done their usual work. Dick’s

face was growing round, and there was quite
6
82 DICK’S HERO

a nice colour in his cheeks. His legs and arms
no longer looked like sticks with clothes hung
on them. When the neighbours in the village
saw him, they no longer shook their heads and
said that he wasn’t long for this world. Grannie
Jackson no longer had tears in her eyes when
~ she looked at him. Indeed, she began to order
him about. She made him fill the kettle for
her, and even scolded him if he dawdled over
doing it: and that was a sure sign that she
considered him stronger.

Dick and Effie had never been so happy in
their lives. Every day it was as Dick had
said—the country seemed to grow more and
more beautiful as they saw and knew more of
it. Every day they found new wildflowers
in the hedges and fields, and new blossoms
opened in grannie’s gay little garden. Every
day they learned something new about the merry
birds who sang and twittered and fluttered
round; or about the bees, or the chickens, or
the cows and dogs and horses. ‘Town children
cannot make friends with animals and birds as

children in the country can.
THE GARDENER’S WARNING 83

This story would never come to an end if |
tried to tell you half of the new pleasures they
had; about the fun in Farmer Brown’s hayfield,
or about the games down by the brook, with
mimic boats and bridges of stones, which they
made for themselves.

But I must tell you that the greatest delight of
all was the time they spent with Rex.

It was settled that they should go to the Hall
every afternoon. Often Rex met them before
they had crossed the Heath, so eager was he for
the famous games they had together; and then
they would go into the grounds about the Hall,
and play on the beautiful lawns beneath great
shady trees; and ramble about the walks through
the plantations, and find a hundred delightful
things to do.

The strictly - kept flower-gardens were very
grand, and full of splendid flowers; but they were
not nice to play in; and there the children often
found a cross Scotch gardener, who was a terror
to.Dick and Effie. His name was Macfie. He
had a red beard, and bushy red eyebrows; and

hands that looked like spades—they were so hard
84 DICK’S HERO

and big. Even Rex was a little frightened of
Macfie, though he pretended not to be.

One day Rex took his new friends to see the
glass-houses he had told them about, where the
flowers were something wonderful; and where
they went on flowering all through the winter,
Rex said. It was beautiful to see the lovely
blossoms of many colours climbing about the
glass walls, and hanging from the glass roof; and
Dick said it was like a fairy palace.

“They don’t look veal, do they?” he said, in
an awestruck whisper, as the three children
passed along between rows of exquisite flowers.
“They look as if they were made of wax, and
painted.”

“Oh, but they are real enough. Feel them!”
said Rex.

Dick put out his hand timidly to touch a large
white lily. Suddenly a gruff voice shouted,—

‘Hands off, there! How dare ye think of
plucking one of my new lilies?” and up rose the
angry face of Macfie, who had been hidden from
the children as he bent over some other plant he

was carefully examining.
THE GARDENER’S WARNING 85

Macfie’s rough voice and red beard frightened
Dick too much for him to answer. Rex flushed,
and said,— :

“He wasn’t going to pluck it. I told him to
feel it to see if it was real. We're not doing any
harm.”

“Ye'd best not do any harm then, Master Rex.
Bringing a pack of bairns into my greenhouses
isn’t the way to do much good, I’m thinking.”

The children hurried on. Another house,
much warmer than the first, led out of it, and
Rex opened the door.

‘“Mind not to leave the doors open after ye,”
shouted the gardener.

Rex banged the door behind him when Dick
and Effie had gone through, and then exclaimed
indignantly,—

‘Just listen to him! What right has he to
order me about, and to talk about ‘his’ flowers
and ‘his’ greenhouses? I’d just like to spoil one
of his fine flowers for spite.”

‘But what would he do to you if you did,
Rex?” Dick asked, admiring, but terrified at

such boldness.
86 DICK’S HERO

‘He dare not touch me, but he would tell my
grandfather, and I don’t know what he would do.
He lets Macfie be a kind of king here—and |
hate him. He only grows such fine flowers and
fruit to take prizes at the show. I would just
like to pay him out some day.”

“Oh! look! look! Up there—overhead!”
Effie cried; and Dick, looking up where she
pointed, saw that all along the sloping roof hung
great bunches of beautiful purple grapes. He
had seen them sometimes in pictures, but never
real grapes. Still he knew what they were, even
before Rex spoke.

‘Oh, we get grapes all the time. Grandfather
says Macfie is the best grape-grower in the
county. We have them for dessert every evening.
Pll keep some for you to-night, and you shall
have them to-morrow. I can get as many as |
like... . Come along. We'll go on to the
fruit-garden and get some currants. Macfie
can’t count ¢kem, and I may gather any of the
garden fruit.”

In another moment the children would have

passed out of the place, and no harm would have
THE GARDENER’ WARNING 87

been done. Unfortunately, Macfie, watching
suspiciously from the other house, noticed that
they stood still to look at the grapes, and thought
‘it well to give them a word of warning. He
opened the door between the two houses, and
said,—

“Master Rex! I'll just warn ye no’ to bring
them twa city bairns into this hoose any more.
I’ve got my prize bunch of grapes yonder, and
a draught of cold air might spoil it—let alone
the chance of one of your visitors takin’ a fancy
to touch it. I'll just tell ye, laddie, that if
onybody—I don’t care who it is—touches my
prize grapes, Vl thrash the life oot 0’ him!”

With these terrible words Macfie’s red head
was withdrawn.

Rex burst into a shout of angry laughter.

“Td like to see him dave to thrash me,
indeed! As grapes—the old idiot! I see!
that’s his prize bunch—there, in the corner, all
tied up with bits of matting. Isn’t it a beauty?
Wouldn't it be good-fun to cut it off and gobble
it up?”

‘“Let’s go away, Rex!” Dick said, feeling
88 DICK’S HERO

frightened, but ashamed to show it when his hero
was so brave.

They went out of the vinery, Dick staying
behind to see that the door was safely closed.

Rex had thrown his arm round Effie’s neck.

““Wouldn’t you like some of those grapes?” he
said. ‘I mean to pay out old Scotchy.”

But Dick, even in his dreams that night, could
not forget the gardener’s fierce red face, and his
terrible words.
CHAPTER IX.

THE BUNCH OF GRAPES,

WC VE made up my mind to pay
out Macfie—and I'll do it,
Dick. You needn't try to

persuade me not to. When



I make up my mind to do
a thing—I do it.”

Rex, Dick, and Effie were sitting on the
ground at the foot of a fine chestnut-tree. Dick
and Effie held clusters of grapes in their hands ;
Rex was sharpening the end of a stick to a
point, and as he spoke he set his teeth together,
and hacked vigorously at the stick with a knife
blunted with hard usage.

Rex had brought the grapes with him for

his companions. He did not eat any himself.
89
90 DICK’S HERO

He said he could have as many as he wanted
any day. They were very delicious. Effie
sucked hers with perfect enjoyment—only wish-
ing that her supply was twice as large as
it was.

Dick looked troubled.

“Yes, I know you will do what you make
up your mind to do,” he said. “ But I wish
you wouldn’t make up your mind to do this.
Never mind him. We needn't go near him,
and if we don’t he never comes near us. And
it’s much nicer here under the big trees than
in his greenhouses.”

“There you are—talking just as he does!
They are not /zs greenhouses! They are my
grandfather’s, and his things will all be mine
some day, so it’s just the same as if they were
mine now. And I'll teach old Scotchy to
order me about! I mean to have those prize
grapes!”

“Oh, Rex, donwt/” Dick looked scared.
“Wouldn’t it be almost—almost—stealing—to
go and take just the bunch he’s taken such

care of 2?”
THE BUNCH OF GRAPES gI

‘““Nonsense! It would be ripping fun! It
would just teach him to treat me properly. I'll
tell you what I mean to do. You shall watch
him when we've found out where he is, and
I'll sneak off to the vinery. If he moves away,
you must make a signal to Effie. She shall
be at another point nearer to me, and she'll
make a signal to me, and then I sh all know
there’s danger and cut away, and the enemy
will never know who has been spying round
his camp. It’s just like real war, you know!”

Rex's eyes sparkled as he went on,—

“You and Effie are the scouts, and I’m the
detachment sent to surprise the enemy’s camp
and carry off the spoil.”

“And then shall we eat the grapes—those
. great big ones that we saw hanging up?”
Effie said.

“Yes, of course. We shall ‘divide the spoil’
equally —though not the danger. Yoz will be
in no danger, Dick, so cheer up, old fellow!
It will be jolly fun.”

“But don’t you remember what Macfie said ?

He said he'd thrash the life out of anyone who
92 DICK’S HERO

touched his grapes! he didn’t care who he was.
Oh, don’t go near them, Rex! Leave them
alone!”

Dick’s voice and eyes implored even more
than his words; but Rex was not to be moved.

“A nice fellow you are to talk about being
the friend of a hero!” he said, with scorn that
made Dick wince. ‘I believe you're afraid
that Macfie will thrash you by mistake. You
don’t think I’m such a cad as to let him do
that, do you? There'll be no danger for any-
one but me. Now, will you come along and
see where the enemy is and watch him?
Perhaps we can’t surprise him to-day. But it
must be soon, for the Show will be in a day
or two, and then he'll cut the grapes himself.”

‘Oh, I wish you would let him, Rex! Never
mind this time if he did order you about. Pay
him out wert time. It will do just as well,”
Dick said.

Rex sprang up.

“You are a regular coward,” he said angrily.
“You needn’t come atall! Effie and I will manage

quite well without you. Come along, Effie.”
THE BUNCH OF GRAPES 93

The little girl jumped up, and Rex put his
arm round her neck and walked away. Dick
rose also, and followed them a few paces. Rex
looked round and saw him.

“Go back!” he said, waving his hand with
a grand air. “I won’t have a coward joining
in such a dangerous business. You might turn
traitor!”

“Rex! Rex! You know I would do any-
thing you want me to do,” Dick pleaded.

“Go back,” Rex said. “I’m the general,
and I order you to the rear to protect the
women and children.”

With that stern command, away marched
General Rex and his faithful Effie, and were
soon out of sight beyond the plantation.

Dick threw himself on the mossy ground and
burst into tears. It must be quite true that
he was a coward. And oh! how brave Rex

was; and even Effie



a girl—was not afraid to
go with him and do as he told her! Perhaps
Rex would not let him be his friend any more. —
How dreadful that would be! Dick could not
bear to think of it.
94 DICK’S HERO

He was terribly distressed, and lay on the
grass, feeling as if he would never be able to
look at his hero again without shame. Why
had he not said he would help him to take
the grapes at once? The lady in the train
had said that if he had a hero he ought to
try to be like him. Ah! but it was impossible
to be like Rex, afraid of nothing, and as brave
as a lion!

After a time Dick sat up and listened, and
looked through the trees, wondering what was
happening. Had they found “the enemy” busy
somewhere else, and had- Rex gone to surprise
the camp? They would have been back by
this time if Macfie had been anywhere about
the vinery, for Rex did not want the gardener
to see him near his precious grapes. Oh! how
dreadful it would be if he should be caught in
the very act! Effie was only a little girl, and ~
might not understand and give the right danger-
signal.

Dick wished more and more that he had
gone when Rex first asked him. Very likely

he would never let him join in anything again,
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IN THE OTHER NAND HE HELD A MAGNIFICENT BUNCH OF GRAPES.

THE BUNCH OF GRAPES 97

now that he had shown himself a coward!
If it had been anything else! But to brave
the dreadful old Scotch gardener! and to do
what still seemed to Dick so very like stealing
another person’s property——He hid his face in
his hands. :

“Dick! Dick! Are you there keeping guard?
Hurrah! here we are, victorious, and aden with
spoil’!” shouted Rex, as. he burst upon Dick,
dragging Effie by one hand, while in the other
he held a magnificent bunch of grapes, already
rather the worse for his rough handling—some
of the exquisite bloom rubbed off, and some
of the grapes broken from the bunch in his
hasty rush through the plantation.

Dick jumped up, overjoyed—not at the sight
of the spoil, which indeed made him tremble
with horror, but that his hero still greeted him
as if no shame had come upon him.

‘‘Didn’t he see you?” he asked.

‘Not he!” Rex said gaily. ‘Effie kept a
look-out on the enemy. He was planting things
in the front flower-beds. I sneaked round and

carried off the plunder. Then I signalled to
7
98 DICK’S HERO

Effie, and she joined me and we retreated ‘in
good order.’ Now, we'd better eat them as
fast as we can, before he finds out. Hallo!
here’s someone coming. . . . Hide ’em!”

The beautiful prize grapes were hastily popped
into a hole in the tree, and covered with loose
leaves. One of the ‘servants from the Hall
appeared, coming quickly towards the place.
Rex went to meet him.

“You are wanted at the Hall immediately,
Master Rex,’

)

the man said. “Your aunt has
come and is asking for you. The Squire said
you was to come aé¢ once. Macfie said he'd
seen you go into the plantation, so I came

here to look for you.”


GHAGPT BE Rax.

A TERRIBLE MOMENT.

OTHER =~ my~ aunt!” ©+Rex

grumbled; “go and say I'm
coming. I won't be long,

Dick; but when Aunt Caroline



comes she stays all the after-
noon, and grandfather makes me show her round.
And she asks questions about my lessons, and
always wants to know if I don’t like Latin... .
I wish she hadn’t come to-day. If I’m not back
here in an hour you'd better go home. I may
have to stay to take tea with her.”

“And aren’t we to touch the grapes till you
come?” Effie said, with a pout.

“ No, of course we won't!” Dick exclaimed.
99
100 DICK’S HERO

“They are not ours—they’re his! He had all
the danger, and——’”

“Oh yes! eat them all up as fast as you can,”
Rex said. ‘7 don’t want them; and the sooner
the better, for fear old Scotchy should come to
look for them. Wouldn’t I like to see his face
when he misses his prize bunch!”

Laughing at the delightful thought of his
enemy’s dismay, Rex ran off.

Effie instantly took the precious grapes from
their hiding-place, and began to feast upon the
rich, luscious fruit.

“They ave good, Dick! Do have some,” she
said, again and again.

But Dick refused. The sight of the stolen
grapes—for so they still seemed to him—made
him very uncomfortable; and to think of eating
them, especially while Rex was not there to share
them, and talk in his grand way of “dividing the
spoil taken from the enemy,” was impossible.

“T’m going on into the wood, Effie,” he said.
“Tm going to choose another good look-out tree
for Rex. He said this one wasn’t far enough
from the garden.”
A TERRIBLE MOMENT IOI

“Very well; but do have some grapes first.
They’re so good!”
Dick shook his head, and ran a little farther

o one tree after another

5

into the wood, examinin
to see whether it would suit Rex for climbing.
He was not a very good climber himself, but
he had got to know exactly what Rex liked.

Suddenly a loud, frightened cry, in Effie’s voice,
startled him. What could have happened to her?
He rushed back as fast as he could, until he was
in sight of the mossy bank under the chestnut-tree ;
and then he stood still—speechless with terror.

Macfie himself, his face redder than usual, his
eyes glaring with anger beneath his shaggy eye-
brows, stood with one hand—one big, hard hand
—on Effie’s shoulder, and the remnant of his
prize bunch of grapes in the other, shaking the
child furiously, as he shouted, ‘It is you, then,
you little London thief! Who gave them to
you? Who cut them down? Tell me, or I'll
shake the life oot of ye!”

Effie only screamed, and the moment the
enraged gardener saw Dick, he flung the little

girl from him and dashed at the boy.
102 DICK’S HERO

“Did you take yon grapes?” he shouted,
seizing him by the collar of his jacket, so that
Dick could hardly speak, not only for terror, but
because the man’s big fingers almost throttled
him.

“You'd best tell the truth now,” said Macfie.
“It won't do no good to add lying to stealing.
Did you take them?”

“No,” Dick said.

“Who did, then? Come, now, tell me all
about it, and I'll let you off. Who brought them
here if it wasn’t you?”

Macfie strongly suspected that young Master
Rex was the real culprit. He was furious with
vexation. Indeed, if he had come upon Rex at
that moment he might even have ventured to
give him the thrashing he had promised. He
now wanted to know for certain if that young
gentleman could be proved to the Squire to have
been the guilty party.

“Tell me who took them!” he shouted, as Dick
was still s‘lent. “If you don’t I shall know it
was yerself, and I’ll gi’e ye the best thrashing you

ever had in your life.”


“you YOUNG VAGABOND AND THIEF!” HE STORMED.

103

A TERRIBLE MOMENT 105

Dick shuddered. Effie, sobbing with fright,
had picked herself up, and when she heard these
terrible words, began : “Please, sir, it wasn’t
Dick—it was——”

‘Hush, Effie, hush!” Dick cried. ‘You

mustn't tell. Don’t say a word! Run away



home, do.”

And Effie, only too glad to get away from the
dreadful man who had seized her so roughly and
snatched the grapes from her, did not wait to
be told a second time to run home. Away she
scampered, not once looking back.

“You young vagabond and thief!” Macfie
stormed, once more shaking Dick until the child
was breathless. ‘You know all about it, then,
and she knows, and you won't let her say a word,
won't you! I'll teach you to speak. Wait one
minute.”

Holding Dick fast, the man dragged him along
till he found a stick suitable for his purpose.
Then, holding it over the trembling child, he
said,—

“Now! I'll give ye one more chance. Did

you take my grapes?”


106 DICK’S HERO

SNior?

“Will you tell me who did take them ?”

Now

The word came distinctly from the pale lips,
and Dick looked up at the man he feared so
horribly with almost a smile in his eyes. For he
had made up his mind; and in the midst of all
his terror, one thought made him glad at the
bottom of his heart. He had so wanted to do
something for Rex. Now the time had come,
and he could even bear pain and shame for his
hero’s sake, as the lady had said.

No one knew who had taken the grapes. If
only Effie could be kept quiet, no one ever
of



should know. Rex should not be punished
that he was determined.

But the child’s quiet defiance made the
gardener more angry than ever. Perhaps there
was enough reason for his anger. The beautiful
grapes which he had watched for weeks, and
protected, and tended—-the bunch which he had
counted upon as certain to take the first prize at
the coming flower-show—destroyed in a moment,

and devoured by these little London strangers!
A TERRIBLE MOMENT 107

It was certainly enough to have tried the
temper of a patient man. Macfie was not
patient. He did not think that Dick had
actually cut down the grapes. He did not
believe that he would have dared to do that.
He felt sure that Master Rex was the one to
whom the thrashing was due. But the Squire
would never believe a word against Master
Rex; and if this stubborn boy could not be
made to tell all about it, there would be no
chance of punishing the right person. Meanwhile,
he could relieve his just anger by punishing
someone.

Down came the stick, and Dick gave a little
cry of pain. Again—and yet again.

“Now will you tell me who did it?” said the
gardener.

‘No, not if you kill me!” Dick said, as firmly
as he could; and then his eyes closed, and all
the colour left his face, and he fell against the
man’s legs in a heap. He was not as strong as
other children, even yet, and he had turned faint
and sick with pain.

Macfie was frightened. When he picked Dick
108 DICK’S HERO

up, and found how light and thin he was, and
when he looked down at the small white face,
tear-stained and drawn with pain, he was sorry
that he had beaten Dick, and threw away the

stick.
CHAPTER XI.

AN ANGRY VISITOR.

RANNIE JACKSON J sat
ins w.thess-porcn: of asl
Cottage with her knitting,

Inside, the table was_ laid,



ready for tea, There were
_ four cups and saucers and four plates, because
sometimes Master Rex came back with the
children, and then he liked to have tea with them,
and some bread and honey, and always said it
was a much nicer tea than he had at home.
This always pleased Mrs. Jackson very
much, for she was proud of having Master Rex
coming to her cottage, and making such friends
of her little grandchildren. But, indeed, she

said to herself, it was no wonder he liked them
109
110 DICK’S HERO

for playfellows, for it would be hard to find two
better - behaved children anywhere than her
Dick and Effie. The old woman wondered
what she should do without them when they
had to go home; for it made her so happy to
see their sweet faces, and hear their pretty talk,
that these last three weeks had been as great a
pleasure to her as to the children themselves.

Before they came she had been rather afraid
of having the charge of them. She had
thought that they might be troublesome, and
get into mischief, and give her a lot of anxiety.
Instead of that they had been as good as gold,
and nothing but a help and comfort.

“Yes, their mother’s brought them up right
well,” said the old lady, as she sat knitting
busily, and thinking these pleasant thoughts.
“There’s some children one would not dare to
let out of one’s sight for an hour, or they’d be
in mischief, or trouble of one sort or another.
And there’s never been a word of complaint
from the Hall folk, though they are there
playing about every day, and I know how

strict that Mr. Macfie is over his gardens and

haere
AN ANGRY VISITOR 1II

places. . . . And it’s a real blessing to see
Dick getting to look more like other children,
bless ‘im! Why, that first day he came, he
looked as if he had just come here to die!
And now he’s getting a good appetite for his
food, and he isn’t tired as he used to be with
a bit of play. It’s a real blessing they came,
thank the Lord!”

The sun was shining on the gay little
garden, and the tall orange and white lilies

stood out brightly against the dark green

oC
>
hedge. The scent of the red roses and of the
honeysuckle filled the warm air; the buzz of
the bees among the carnations made a sleepy
sound; and somehow or other grannie’s
fingers dropped the knitting needles; her head
fell a little to one side, and her eyes closed.
This was why she did not hear the patter of
feet in the lane, nor the click of the garden-
gate, nor see Effie—her sun-bonnet hanging
on her shoulders, her face red, her curls tangled,
her eyes swollen with tears— until the child
was clinging to her dress, and crying, “ Wake,

wake, grannie! Let me hide from him! He's
112 DICK’S HERO

coming! He'll be here in a moment, and oh,
grannie, I think he’s killed Dick!”

When the old woman opened her eyes she
thought that her happy little Effie must be out
of her senses. ‘She lifted the child in her
arms and tried to soothe her, smoothing the hair
out of her eyes and kissing her hot cheeks.

“Don’t be frightened, my darling,” she said ;
“tell me what is the matter. You're quite safe
now. No one shall touch you. What’s the
matter? Where is Dick? and who has hurt
him?”

“Oh! he’s coming, grannie! I looked round
when I-was crossing the Heath and saw him !
And he’s carrying Dick now, so I think he’s
killed him. He said he’d thrash the life out of
anyone who touched the grapes, and I’ve eaten a
lot of them, but Dick wouldn’t have one, not even
to taste... . And Rex had gone, and then he
came and caught me... . Oh, grannie, here he
is!”

At that moment the garden-gate opened, and
up the narrow pebble-strewn path stalked a big

man with a red beard and shaggy eyebrows,




















c=
x SAN
SY



NY

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iy

‘



4

IN HIS ARMS,

HE WAS CARRYING DICK

AN ANGRY VISITOR IIs

whom Mrs. Jackson knew to be the great Mr.
Mache, the head gardener at the Hall. He was
carrying Dick in his arms.

He stalked right through the open door into
the cottage, and laid the boy, not unkindly, on
the wooden settle.

Mrs. Jackson followed, with Effie clinging to
her skirts. ‘“ What’s this all about?” she said.
“What have you been doing to my boy? Look
up, Dick, my dear! ... Bless his heart! He
can give me a smile still, but he’s as white asa
sheet! ... Now, Mr. Macfie! perhaps you'll
tell me what it means, for I’m fair bewildered
with the lot of ye!”

Indeed the old woman could hardly understand
his story, even when the gardener explained what
had happened; she would not for a moment
believe that her boy had stolen his grapes.

“Dick steal your grapes!” she said indig-
nantly. ‘Look at him! Has he got the face
of a thief? Would a thief look at you with
eyes like those? Did you steal his grapes, Dick,
my dear?”

Dick shook his head, and then looked quickly
116 DICK’S HERO

at Effie, and said, ‘“ Don’t tell, Effie! If you do,
Pll never forgive you!”

‘“There!” said Macfie, his anger blazing out
anew, ‘‘they both know who did it—if they didn’t
do it themselves. He’s that obstinate that he
deserves another thrashing.”

“ Deserve it or not, he'll not have it while I’m
here,” said grannie, with her arm round Dick,
and her eyes flashing.

Such words to 4z#—the head gardener at the
Hall !

Heath to her cottage, and was willing to let him

and after he had carried Dick across the



off—if the boy would only confess the truth!
Macfie grew more and more wrathful.

“Very well,” he said, “I shall tell the Squire
that these two little London vagrants Master Rex
has been so taken up with have stolen and eaten
my prize bunch of grapes. I caught the girl in
the act... . We'll see which of us he'll believe.
I'll have them forbidden to come once again near
the Hall; and the sooner you send them back
to the place they came from the better.”

With that he turned and strode away.

When he was gone, Mrs. Jackson burst into
AN ANGRY VISITOR 117

tears. ‘‘ Just to think of my grandchildren being
. called thieves breaks my heart! And maybe the
Squire will believe him. Oh, Dick, my dear,
why wouldn’t you let Effie tell him who did it?”

Dick looked tired. His back smarted, and he
seemed to ache all over with the blows the man
had given him. But there was a light in his
eyes. |

‘‘T won’t never tell anyone,” he said. “And I
don’t mind if the Squire does think I stole them
~—-nor if I am sent away—nor anything! Rex
will know. . . . I’m so tired, grannie! May I
go to sleep?”

She gave him a drink of tea; then covered him
with a shawl, and took Effie upstairs to wash her
face. When they came back, Dick was asleep,
with a happy smile on his lips.

Effie and her grandmother sat down to tea.

“TY don’t know why Dick wouldn’t let me tell
who did it,” Effie said, ‘for Rex wasn’t a bit
afraid of the horrid old man, and said that he
daren’t touch 4272,”

“Was it Master Rex, then?” grannie asked.

“ Yes; and he said it was because he wanted to
118 DICK’S HERO

‘pay out’ the gardener. And Rex made me
watch him while he went for the grapes. Dick
didn’t want him to take them. But Rex said he.
would, and so he did. And then he gave them

to us to eat, and Dick never had one.
CHAPTE R-2eLl,

FAST FRIENDS.

hour or two. When he
awoke, he wondered why he

felt so stiff and sore, and



why he was lying on the
settle, covered with grannie’s shawl, instead of
in bed.

The sun had got low down now behind the
trees, but through the open cottage door Dick
could still see the glowing pansies and lilies ;
and the white-throated swallows were. still
swooping across the little square window as
they flew backwards and forwards to their nests
beneath the thatch.

In her rocking-chair between the window and
119
120 DICK’S HERO

the fireplace sat grannie, with a gleam of light
resting on her silvery hair and soft cheeks. Effie
had gone to bed, and everything was quiet.
There was no sound but the ticking of the
grandfather's clock in the corner, and the
twittering of the swallows outside.

‘Grannie,” Dick said, ‘do you think that
the Squire will never let me see Rex again when
he knows about the grapes?”

At the sound of his voice grannie turned her
face to the window, and wiped her eyes with her
apron. Then she said, ‘“You must let me tell
the Squire the truth about the grapes, laddie.
I can’t bear that you should be sent away, and
have such a shame put on you when you don't
deserve it. I must go and tell the Squire to-
morrow, Dick, my dear.”

Dick’s face flushed, and he sat up eagerly.

“Oh! no, no!” he said; “please don't,
grannie. Has Effie told you? I’m so sorry;
but you mustn't tell. Then Rex would be
punished, and it would be no good to him that
[ve had the pain and shame for his sake.

Oh, grannie, don’t you know how nice it is to
FAST FRIENDS 121

do something for your hero? And I didn’t
think I ever could do anything for Rex, and he
has done so many things for Effie and me. I
know I never could be like him—brave and
strong, and not afraid of anything. He said I
was a coward, and so I am. But when I could
take the beating instead of him I was so glad;
and you won't spoil it all by telling the Squire,
will you?”

Grannie did not answer, and her apron was
before her face again as she wiped away the
tears which she could not keep back, so that she
did not see someone open the garden - gate and
run up the path.

“You won't tell, grannie, will you?” Dick
went on. ‘Promise me you won't... . The
only thing I mind is that perhaps I shan’t see
Rex before I am sent away.”

Suddenly he broke off with a cry of joy. Rex
dashed into the cottage, and up to the settle
where Dick lay, and threw his arms. round the
lad.

“Dick, Dick!” he said, ‘‘I heard you say that

perhaps you wouldn’t see me again. How could
122 DICK’S HERO

you think such a thing? Did you really believe
that I should let them all go on blaming you and
not tell? And you wouldn’t say who did it?
And you let that old brute thrash you because
you wouldn't tell? Oh, Dick, you're xot a
coward! you're a brick. I’m proud of you, and
I'll love you all my life, and never have any
friend like you.”

“Does the Squire know all about it now,
Master Rex?” grannie said; for it had hurt
her dreadfully that the Squire should believe
her grandson to be a thief.

)

‘Of course he does,” Rex said, sitting on
the edge of the settle, and smiling at Dick while
he spoke. “I forgot all about the horrid grapes
until old Macfie came up to the Hall to ask if he
could see grandfather ; and then I remembered,
and I went with grandfather to see the fun.
Macfie was in an awful wax, and he began
about you and Effie, and said that you had
stolen his show grapes and eaten them. And
then I said, ‘That's a lic. No one stole them.
7 took them, and gave them to Effie. They

were not your grapes, but grandfather’s, and he




















“DICK, DICK, HOW COULD YOU THINK SUCH A THING?” SAID REX.

123

FAST FRIENDS 125

lets me have whatever I want; don’t you, sir?’
And grandfather looked very grave, and said I
had no business to meddle with the vineries, and
that I had done very wrong. He also said it
was very ungentlemanly of me to speak like
that to Macfie, and that I must apologise to
him.

“T didn’t like that, but I suppose it was
caddish of me to tell him it was a lie. So I
said, ‘I beg your pardon, Macfie, if I was rude
to you. But you needn’t speak rudely about
my friends, Dick and Effie. And then Macfie
looked more waxy than ever, and said he had
caught Effie eating the grapes, and that you
wouldn’t let her tell who had given them to
her, so he had thrashéd you to make you tell—
and you wouldn't.

“Oh, Dick! you don’t know how sorry I was
then. I think I even cried; and I told Macfie
he was a brute, and that I was sorry I had
apologised to him, for you had tried to persuade
me not to touch his wretched grapes. And
then grandfather sent him away, and I said I

must come and tell you how sorry I was. So
126 DICK’S HERO

that’s all about it; only grandfather said I was
to tell you that he respects you, and that you
are the true hero, and not me.”

There was silence in the cottage for a minute
or two when Rex finished his long story.

Then Dick drew Rex’s hand under his cheek,
and said softly, ‘‘Do, please, be my hero still,
Rex

cg cd a % % *

A few days afterwards a message was brought
to Mrs. Jackson that the Squire wished to see
her at the Hall.

This was rather alarming. However, Mrs.
Jackson put on her Sunday gown and bonnet
and best black shawl, and went across the Heath
to the Hall.

The Squire said he wanted to ask her some
questions, but he did most of the talking himself ;
and when he did ask her a question, he hardly
ever heard the answer.

He said that he had come to the conclusion
that his grandson would be happier and more
contented if he had a companion. The boy had

grown so fond of her grandson that it seemed
FAST FRIENDS 127

as if it would be a good -thing to keep Dick
altogether at the Hall for a few years, if it
could be arranged. The Squire said that his
son’s tutor had often wished for Rex to have
a fellow - pupil, believing that he would learn
better with another boy than alone, but that
he had never seen how to manage it. He was
willing now that Dick should be brought up at
the Hall with Rex, and he, the Squire, would
see that he was provided for in the future.

It was not without some sorrow that Dick’s
father and mother consented to this. But the
Squire promised that he should often go home,
and in the end Dick went to live at the Hall,
and was Rex’s companion in his lessons and his
games. He had as happy a life as any boy
I have ever known. Of course, he often went
to Elm Cottage, and, as Effie was often there,
the brother and sister were not altogether
separated.

The last time I heard of Rex and Dick they
were still close friends, though miles of land and
water separated them. Rex was a soldier serv-

ing in India, and doing his best to show himself
128 DICK’S HERO

a true hero. Dick was what men call a poet,
and had written songs which everyone read.
One of the best, people said, was named “ My
Tree”; and another “ My Hero.”

THE END

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