Milly and Olly Read online

  Produced by Andrew Templeton, Juliet Sutherland, Barbara Tozier andthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

  "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers intheir mouths"]

  MILLY AND OLLY

  New Revised Edition

  BY

  MRS. HUMPHRY WARD

  Illustrated by RUTH M. HALLOCK

  GARDEN CITY NEW YORKDOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY1914

  DEDICATION

  TO F.A., IN THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN OF FOX HOW, THIS REVIVAL OF ACHILD'S STORY WRITTEN TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO, UNDER THE SPELL OF ROTHAAND FAIRFIELD, IS INSCRIBED BY THE WRITER.

  PREFACE

  After many years this little book is once more to see the light. Thechildren for whom it was written are long since grown up. But perhapsthe pleasure they once took in it may still be felt by some of theMillys and Ollys of to-day. Up in the dear mountain country which itdescribes, the becks are still sparkling; "Brownholme" still spreads itsgreen steeps and ferny hollows under rain and sun; the tiny trout stillleap in its tiny streams; and Fairfield, in its noble curve, stillgirdles the deep valley where these children played: the valley ofWordsworth and Arnold--the valley where Arnold's poet-son rambled as aboy--where, for me, the shy and passionate ghost of Charlotte Brontestill haunts the open door-way of Fox How--where poetry and generouslife and ranging thought still dwell, and bring their benediction to thepassers-by. "Aunt Emma" in her beautiful home, unchanged but for itsvacant chairs, is now as she ever was, the friend of old and young; andthe children of to-day still press to her side as their elders didbefore them. The parrot alas! is gone where parrots may; but amid thevoices that breathe around Fox How--the voices of seventy years--hismimic speech is still remembered by the children who teased and lovedhim. For love, while love lasts, gives life to all things small andgreat; and in those who have once felt it, the love of the Fairfieldvalley, of the gray stone house that fronts the fells, and of them thatdwell therein, is "not Time's fool--"

  "Or bends with the remover to remove."

  MARY A. WARD.

  September 18, 1907.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I. Making Plans

  II. A Journey North

  III. Ravensnest

  IV. Out on the Hills

  V. Aunt Emma's Picnic

  VI. Wet Days at Ravensnest

  VII. A Story-telling Game

  VIII. The Story of Beowulf

  IX. Milly's Birthday

  X. Last Days at Ravensnest

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  "Two funny fair-haired children with their fingers in their mouths"

  "'I can't do without my toys, Nana'"

  "The flowers Milly gathered for her mother"

  "So they put Olly up on a tall piece of rock, and he sang"

  "He was quite sure that h-a-y spelt 'ham' and s-a-w spelt 'was'"

  "'Suppose we have a story-telling game'"

  "Haymaking"

  "'Haven't you got a bump?' asked Olly"

  CHAPTER I

  MAKING PLANS

  "Milly, come down! come down directly! Mother wants you. Do make haste!"

  "I'm just coming, Olly. Don't stamp so. Nurse is tying my sash."

  But Master Olly went on stamping, and jumping up and down stairs, as hisway was when he was very much excited, till Milly appeared. Presentlydown she came, a sober fair-haired little maiden, with blue eyes and aturn-up nose, and a mouth that was generally rather solemn-looking,though it could laugh merrily enough when it tried. Milly was six yearsold. She looked older than six. At any rate she looked a great dealolder than Olly, who was nearly five; and you will soon find out thatshe was a good deal more than a year and a half wiser.

  "What's the matter, Olly? What made you shout so?"

  "Oh, come along, come along;" said the little boy, pulling at hissister's hand to make her run. "Mother wants to tell us something, andshe says it's a nice something, and I kissed her like anyfing! but shewouldn't tell me without you."

  Then the two children set off running, and they flew down a long passageto the drawing-room, and were soon scrambling about a lady who wassitting working by the window.

  "Well, monkeys, don't choke me before I tell you my nice something. Siton my knee Olly. Now, Milly, guess--what have father and I just beentalking about?"

  "Sending Olly to school, perhaps," said Milly. "I heard Uncle Richardtalking about it yesterday."

  "That wouldn't be such a nice something," said Olly, making a long face."I wouldn't like it--not a bit. Boys don't never like going to school. Iwant to learn my lessons with mother."

  "I know a little boy that doesn't like learning lessons with mother verymuch," said the lady, laughing. "But my nice something isn't sendingOlly to school, Milly. You're quite wrong--so try again."

  "Oh, mother! is it a strawberry tea?" cried Milly. "The strawberries arejust ripe, I know. Gardener told nurse so this morning. And we can havetea on the lawn, and ask Jacky and Francis!"

  "Oh, jolly!" said Oliver, jumping off his mother's knee and beginning todance about. "And we'll gather them ourselves--won't you let us,mother?"

  "But it isn't a strawberry tea even," said his mother. "Now, look here,children, what have I got here?"

  "It's a map--a map of England," said Milly, looking very wise. Milly hadjust begun to learn geography, and thought she knew all about maps.

  "Well, and what happens when father and I look at maps in thesummertime?"

  "Why," said Milly, slowly, "you and father pack up your things, and goaway over the sea, and we stay behind with nurse."

  "I don't call _that_ a nice something," said Olly, standing still again.

  "Oh, mother, _are_ you going away?" said Milly, hanging round hermother's neck.

  "Yes, Milly, and so's father, and so's nurse"--and their mother began tolaugh.

  "So's nurse?" said Milly and Olly together, and then they stopped andopened two pairs of round eyes very wide, and stared at their mother."Oh, mother, mother, take us too!"

  "Why, how should father and I get on, travelling about with a pair ofmonkeys?" said their mother, catching hold of the two children andlifting them on to her knee; "we should want a cage to keep them in."

  "Oh, mother, we'll be _ever_ so good! But where are we going? Oh, dotake us to the sea!"

  "Yes, the sea! the sea!" shouted Olly, careering round the room again;"we'll have buckets and spades, and we'll paddle and catch crabbies, andwet our clothes, and have funny shoes, just like Cromer. And father'llteach me to swim--he said he would next time."

  "No," said Mrs. Norton, for that was the name of Milly's and Oliver'smother. "No, we are not going to the sea this summer. We are going to aplace mother loves better than the sea, though perhaps you childrenmayn't like it quite so well. We're going to the mountains. UncleRichard has lent father and mother his own nice house among themountains and we're all going there next week--such a long way in thetrain, Milly."

  "What are mountains?" said Olly, who had scarcely ever seen a hillhigher than the church steeple. "They can't be so nice as the sea,mother. Nothing can."

  "They're humps, Olly," answered Milly eagerly. "Great, big humps ofearth, you know; earth mixed with stone. And they reach up ever so high,up into the sky. And it takes you a whole day to get up to the top ofthem, and a whole day to get down again. Doesn't it, mother? Fraeuleintold me all about mountains in my geography. And some mountains have gotsnow on their tops all year, even in summer, when it's so hot, and we'rehaving strawberries. Will the mountains we're going to, have snow onthem?"

  "Oh, no. The snow mountains are far away over the sea. But these areEnglish mountains, kind, easy mountains, not too high for you and me toclimb up, and covered all over with s
oft green grass and wild flowers,and tiny sheep with black faces."

  "And, mother, is there a garden to Uncle Richard's house, and are thereany children there to play with?"

  "There's a delightful garden, full of roses, and strawberries andgrapes, and everything else that's nice. And it has a baby river all toitself, that runs and jumps and chatters all through the middle of it,so perhaps Olly may have a paddle sometimes, though we aren't going tothe sea. And the gardener has got two little children, just about yourage, Aunt Mary says: and there are two more at the farm, two dear littlegirls, who aren't a bit shy, and will like playing with you very much.But who else shall we see there, Milly? Who lives in the mountains too,near Uncle Richard?"

  Olly looked puzzled, but Milly thought a minute, and then said quickly,"Aunt Emma, isn't it, mother? Didn't she come here once? I think Iremember."

  "Yes, she came once, but long ago, when you were quite small. But now weshall see a great deal of her I hope, for she lives just on the otherside of the mountain from Uncle Richard's house, in a dear old house,where I spent many, many happy days when I was small. Great-grandpapaand grandmamma were alive then. But now Aunt Emma lives there quitealone. Except for one creature, at least, an old gray poll-parrot, thatchatters away, and behaves as if it were quite sensible, and knew allabout everything."

  "Hasn't she got any pussies, mother?" asked Olly.

  "Yes, two I believe; but they don't get on with Polly very well, so theylive in the kitchen out of the way--"

  "I like pussies better than pollies," said Olly gravely.

  "Why, what do you know about pollies, old man?"

  "Pollies bite, I know they do. There was a polly bited Francis once."

  "Well, and pussies scratch," said Milly.

  "No, they don't, not if you're nicey to them," said Olly; who was justthen very much in love with a white kitten, and thought there were nocreatures so delightful as pussies.

  "Well, suppose you don't make up your mind about Aunt Emma's Polly tillyou've seen her," said Mrs. Norton. "Now sit down on the rug there andlet us have a talk."

  Down squatted the children on the floor opposite their mother, withtheir little heads full of plans and their eyes as bright as sparks.

  "I'll take my cart and horse," began Olly; "and my big ball, and mywhistle, and my wheelbarrow, and my spade, and all my books, and the bigscrap-book, and--"

  "You can't, Olly," exclaimed Milly. "Nurse could never pack all thoseup. There'd be no room for our clothes. You can take your whistle, andthe top, and the picture books, and I can take my dolls. That'll bequite enough, won't it, mother?"

  "Quite enough," said Mrs. Norton. "If it's fine weather you'll see--youwon't want any toys. But now, look here, children," and she held up themap. "Shall I show you how we are going to get to the mountains?"

  "Oh yes," said Milly, "that'll be like my geography lesson--come, Olly.Now mother'll teach _you_ geography, like Fraeulein does me."

  "That's lessons," said Olly, with half a pout, "not fun a bit. It's onlygirls like lessons--Boys never do--Jacky doesn't, and Francis doesn't,and I don't."

  "Never mind about it's being lessons, Olly. Come and see if it isn'tinteresting," said Mrs. Norton. "Now, Milly, find Willingham."

  Willingham was the name of the town where Milly and Oliver lived. It isa little town in Oxfordshire, and if you look long enough on the map you_may_ find it, though I won't promise you.

  "There it is," said Milly triumphantly, showing it to her mother andOlly.

  "Quite right. Now look here," and Mrs. Norton took a pencil out of herpocket and drew a little line along the map. "First of all we shall getinto the train and go to a place called--look, Milly."

  "Bletchley," said Milly, following where the pencil pointed. "What anugly name."

  "It's an ugly place," said Mrs. Norton, "so perhaps it doesn't deserve abetter name. And after Bletchley--look again, Milly."

  "Rugby," said Milly, reading the names as her mother pointed, "and thenStafford, and then Crewe--what a funny name, mother!--and then Wigan,and then Warrington, and then Lancaster. Ox-en-holme, Kendal,Wind-er-mere. Oh, mother, what a long way! Why, we've got right to thetop of England."

  "Stop a bit, Milly, and let me tell you something about these places.First of all we shall get out of the train at Bletchley, and get intoanother train that will go faster than the first. And it will take uspast all kinds of places, some pretty and some ugly, and some big andsome small. At Stafford there is an old castle, Milly, where fiercepeople lived in old days and fought their neighbours. And at Crewe weshall get out and have our dinner. And at Wigan all the trees grow onone side as if some one had come and given them a push in the night; andat Lancaster there's another old castle, a very famous one, only nowthey have turned it into a prison, and people are shut up inside it.Then a little way after Lancaster you'll begin to see some mountains,far, far away, but first you'll see something else--just a little bit ofblue sea, with mountains on the other side of it. And then will comeWindermere, where we shall get out and drive in a carriage. And we shalldrive right into the mountains, Olly, till they stand up all round uswith their dear kind old faces that mother has loved ever since she wasa baby."

  The children looked up wonderingly at their mother, and they saw herface shining and her eyes as bright as theirs, as if she too was a childgoing out for a holiday.

  "Oh! And, mother," said Olly, "you'll let us take Spot. She can go in mybox."

  Now Spot was the white kitten, so Milly and mother began to laugh.

  "Suppose you go and ask Spot first, whether she'd like it, Olly," saidMrs. Norton, patting his sunburnt little face.