Datasets:
apapiu
/
simple_text_files

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
 Community
1
text
stringlengths
0
16.8k
'But will he understand what we say?' asked Peterkin, rather anxiously.
Margaret shook her head.
'I really don't know,' she replied. 'We had better talk in rather low voices. I don't think,' she went on, almost in a whisper, 'that he is fairy enough to hear if we speak very softly.'
Peterkin gave a sort of spring of delight.
'Oh!' he exclaimed, 'I am so glad you think he is fairyish, too.'
'Of course I do,' said she; 'that's partly what I wanted to tell you.'
We came closer to the window. Margaret looked at us again in her examining way, without speaking, for a minute, and before she said anything, Pete held out his brown-paper parcel.
'This is the poetry-book,' he said, 'and I've put a mark in the place where it's about my name.'
He pulled off his cap as he handed the packet to her, and stood with his curly wig looking almost red in the sunlight, though it was not very bright.
'Put it on again,' said Margaret, in her little queer way, meaning his cap. 'And thank you very much, Perkin, for remembering to bring it. I think I should like to call you "Perkin," if you don't mind. I like to have names of my own for some people, and I really thought yours was Perkin.'
I wished to myself she would have a name of her own for me, but I suppose she thought I was too big.
'I think you are very nice boys,' she went on, 'not "naughty" ones at all; and if you will promise not to tell any one what I am going to tell you, I will explain all I can. I mean you mustn't tell any one till I give you leave, and as it's only about my own affairs, of course you can promise.'
Of course we did promise.
'Listen, then,' said Margaret, glancing up first of all at the parrot, and drawing back a little into the inside of the room. 'You can hear what I say, even though I don't speak very loudly, can't you?'
'Oh yes! quite well,' we replied.
'Well, then, listen,' she repeated. 'I have no brothers or sisters, and Dads and Mummy are in India. I lived there till about three years ago, and then they came here and left me with my grandfather. That's how people always have to do who live in India.'
'Didn't you mind awfully?' I said. 'Your father and mother leaving you, I mean?'
'Of course I minded,' she replied. 'But I had always known it would have to be. And they will come home again for good some day; perhaps before very long. And I have always been quite happy till lately. Gran is very good to me, and I'm used to being a good deal alone, you see, except for big people. I've always had lot...
'Who?' we asked eagerly.
'The person I'm living with -- Miss Bogle -- isn't her name witchy?' and she smiled a little. 'No, no, not nurse,' for I had begun to say the word. 'She is only rather a goose. No, this house belongs to Miss Bogle, and she's quite old -- oh, as old as old! And she's got rheumatism, so she very seldom goes up and down s...
She stopped, out of breath almost.
'Do you think she's going to enchanter you?' asked Peterkin, in a whisper. 'Do you think she wasn't asked to your christening, or anything like that?'
Margaret shook her head again.
'Something like that, I suppose,' she replied. 'She looks at me through her spectacles so queerly, you can't think. You see, I was ill at Gran's before I came here: not very badly, though he fussed a good deal about it. And he thought the sea-air would do me good. But I've often had colds, and I never was treated like ...
Chapter VII
The Great Plan
AT that moment the clock -- a clock somewhere near -- struck. Margaret started, and listened, -- 'One, two, three.' She looked pleased.
'It's only a quarter to one,' she said. 'Half-an-hour still to my dinner. What time do you need to get home by?'
'A quarter-past will do for us,' I said.
'Oh, then it's all right,' she replied. 'But I must be quick. I want to know all that the parrot told you.'
'It was more what he had said to Mrs. Wylie,' I explained, 'copying you, you know. And, at first, she called you "that poor child," and told us she was so sorry for you.'
'But now she won't say anything. She pinched up her lips about you the other day,' added Peterkin.
Margaret seemed very interested, but not very surprised.
'Oh, then, Miss Bogle is beginning to bewitch her too,' she said. 'Nurse is a goose, as I told you. She just does everything Miss Bogle wants. And if it wasn't for the parrot and you,' she went on solemnly, 'I daresay when Gran comes home he'd find me turned into a pussy-cat.'
'Or a mouse, or even a frog,' said Peterkin, his eyes gleaming; 'only then he wouldn't know it was you, unless your nurse told him.'
'She wouldn't,' said Margaret, 'the witch would take care to stop her, or to turn her into a big cat herself, or something. There'd be only the parrot, and Gran mightn't understand him. It's better not to risk it. And that's what I'm planning about. But it will take a great deal of planning, though I've been thinking a...
'Any day, almost,' said Pete.
'Well, then, I'll tell you what. I'll be on the look-out for you passing every fine day about this time, and the first day I'm sure of nurse going to London again -- and I know she has to go once more at least -- I'll manage to tell you, and then we'll fix for a long talk here.'
'All right,' I said, 'but we'd better go now.'
There was a sound of footsteps approaching, so with only a hurried 'good-bye' we ran off.
We did not need to stroll up and down the terrace to-day, as we knew Margaret's nurse was away; luckily so, for we only just got home in time by the skin of our teeth, running all the way, and not talking.
I wish I could quite explain about myself, here, but it is rather difficult. I went on thinking about Margaret a lot, all that day; all the more that Pete and I didn't talk much about her. We both seemed to be waiting till we saw her again and heard her 'plans.'
And I cannot now feel sure if I really was in earnest at all, as she and Peterkin certainly were, about the enchantment and the witch. I remember I laughed at it to myself sometimes, and called it 'bosh' in my own mind. And yet I did not quite think it only that. After all, I was only a little boy myself, and Margaret ...
I think I really had a strong belief that some risk or danger was hanging over her, and I think this was natural, considering the queer way our getting to know her had been brought about. And any boy would have been 'taken' by the idea of 'coming to the rescue,' as she called it.
There was a good deal of rather hard work at lessons just then for me. Papa and mamma wanted me to get into a higher class after Christmas, and I daresay I had been pretty idle, or at least taking things easy, for I was not as well up as I should have been, I know. So Peterkin and I had not as much time for private tal...
Our best time for talking was when Peterkin came to meet me. But we had two or three wet days about then. And Margaret did not expect us on rainy days, even if Pete had been allowed to come, which he wasn't.
It was, as far as I remember, not till the Monday after that Wednesday that we were able to pass along Rock Terrace. And almost before we came in real sight of her, I felt certain that the little figure was standing there on the look-out.
And so she was -- red shawl and white pinafore, and small dark head, as usual.