Milly and Olly Read online

  CHAPTER II

  A JOURNEY NORTH

  Milly and Oliver lived at Willingham, a little town in Oxfordshire, as Ihave already told you. Their father was a doctor, and they lived in anold-fashioned house, in a street, with a long shady garden stretchingaway behind it. Milly and Oliver loved their father, and whenever he puthis brown face inside the nursery door, two pairs of little feet wentrunning to meet him, and two pairs of little hands pulled him eagerlyinto the room. But they saw him very seldom; whereas their mother wasalways with them, teaching them their lessons, playing with them in thegarden, telling them stories, mending their frocks, tucking them up intheir snug little beds at night, sometimes praising them, sometimesscolding them; always loving and looking after them. Milly and Ollyhonestly believed that theirs was the best mother in the whole world.Nobody else could find out such nice plays, or tell them such wonderfulstories, or dress dolls half so well. Two little neighbours of theirs,Jacky and Francis, had a poor sick mother who always lay on the sofa,and could hardly bear to have her little boys in the room with her.Milly and Oliver were never tired of wondering how Jacky and Francis goton with a mother like that. "How funny, and how dreadful it must be.Poor Jacky and Francis!" It never came into their, heads to say, "PoorJacky's mother" too, but then you see they were such little people, andlittle people have only room in their heads for a very few thoughts at atime.

  However, Milly had been away from her mother a good deal lately. Aboutsix months before my story begins she had been sent to school, to akindergarten, as she was taught to call it. And there Milly had learntall kinds of wonderful things--she had learnt how to make mats out ofpaper, blue mats, and pink mats, and yellow mats, and red mats; she hadlearned how to make a bit of soft clay look like a box, or a stool, or abird's nest with three clay eggs inside it; she had begun to add up andtake away; and, above all, she had begun to learn geography, andFraeulein--for Milly's mistress was a German, and had a German name--wasjust now teaching her about islands, and lakes, and capes, andpeninsulas, and many other things that all little girls have to learnabout some time or other, unless they wish to grow up dunces.

  As for Milly's looks, I have told you already that she had blue eyes anda turn-up nose, and a dear sensible little face. And she had very thickfair hair, that was always tumbling about her eyes, and making her look,as nurse told her, like "a yellow owl in an ivy bush." Milly loved mostpeople, except perhaps John the gardener, who was rather cross to thechildren, and was always calling to them not to walk "on them beds," andto be sure not to touch any of his fruit or flowers. She loved herfather and her mother; she loved Olly with all her whole heart, thoughhe was a tease, she loved her nurse, whom she and Olly called Nana, andwho had been with them ever since Milly was born; and she lovedFraeulein, and was always begging flowers from her mother that she mighttake them to school for Fraeulein's table. So you see Milly was made upof loving. And she was a thoughtful little girl too, tidy with herdress, quick and quiet at her lessons, and always ready to sit stillwith her fairy-book or her doll, when mother was busy or tired. Butthere were two things in which Milly was not at all sensible in spite ofher sensible face. She was much too ready to cry when any little thingwent wrong, and she was dreadfully afraid of creatures of all sorts. Shewas afraid of her father's big dog, she was afraid of the dear brown cowthat lived in the field beyond the garden, she was afraid of earwigs. Iam even ashamed to say she was afraid of spiders. Once she ran away asif a lion were behind her from a white kitten that pulled her dress withits frolicsome paws to make her play with it; but that, Milly would tellyou, was "when I was little," and she was quite sure she was a good dealbraver now.

  Now what am I to tell you about Olly?

  Olly was just a round ball of fun and mischief. He had brown hair, browneyes, a brown face, and brown hands. He was always touching and meddlingwith everything, indoors and out, to see what was inside it, or what itwas made of. He liked teasing Milly, he liked his walks, he liked hissleep in the morning, he liked his dinner, he liked his tea, he likedeverything in the world, except learning to read, and that he hated. Hecould only do one thing besides mischief. He could sing all kinds oftunes--quick tunes, slow tunes, and merry tunes. He had been able tosing tunes ever since he was quite a tiny baby, and his father andmother often talked together of how, in about a year, he should betaught to play on the piano, or perhaps on the violin, if he liked itbetter. You might hear his sharp, shrill little voice, singing about thehouse and the garden all day long. John the gardener called it"squealin'," and told Olly his songs were "capital good" for frighteningaway the birds.

  Now, perhaps, you know a little more about Milly and Olly than you didwhen I began to tell you about them, and it is time you should hear ofwhat happened to them on that wonderful journey of theirs up to themountains.

  First of all came the packing up. Milly could not make up her mind abouther dolls; she had three--Rose, Mattie, and Katie--but Rose's frockswere very dirty, Mattie had a leg broken, and Katie's paint had been allwashed off one wet night, when Olly left her out on the lawn. Now whichof these was the tidiest and most respectable doll to take out on avisit? Milly did not know how to settle it.

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

  "I think, Nana," she said at last to her nurse, who was packing thechildren's trunk, "I will take Katie. Mother always sends us away whenwe get white faces to make us look nice and red again; so, perhaps, if Itake Katie her colour will come back too, you know."

  "Perhaps it will, Miss Milly," said nurse, laughing; "anyhow, you hadbetter give me the doll you want directly, for it is time I packed allthe toys now. Now, Master Olly, you know I can't let you take all thosethings."

  For there was Olly dragging along his wheelbarrow heaped up with toyswith one hand, and his cart and horse with a box of bricks standing upin it with the other. He would not listen to what Milly said about it,and he would scarcely listen to nurse now.

  "I can't do without my toys, Nana. I _must_ do mischief if you won't letme take all my toys; I can't help it."

  "I haven't got room for half those, Master Olly, and you'll have ever somany new things to play with when we get to Ravensnest."

  "There'll be the new children, Olly," said Milly, "and the little riversand all the funny new flowers."

  "Those aren't toys," said Olly, looking ready to cry. "I don't knownothing about them."

  "Now," said nurse, making a place in the box, "bring me your bricks andyour big ball, and your picture-books. There, that's all I can spareyou."

  "Wait one minute," said Olly, rushing off; and just then Mrs. Nortoncalled nurse away to speak to her in the drawing-room. When nurse cameback she saw nobody in the nursery. Milly had gone out in the garden,Olly was nowhere to be seen. And who had shut down the trunk, which wasopen when she left it? Me-ow, sounded very softly from somewhere closeby.

  "Why--Spot! Spot!" called nurse.

  Me-ow, Me-ow, came again; a sad choky little mew, right from the middleof the children's trunk. "Master Olly and his tricks again," said nurse,running to the box and opening it. There, on the top, lay a quantity offrocks that nurse had left folded up on the floor, thrown in anyhow,with some toys scattered among them, and the frocks and toys were alldancing up and down as if they were bewitched. Nurse took out thefrocks, and there was the children's collar-box, a large roundcardboard-box with a lid, jumping from side to side like a box in afairy tale; and such dreadful pitiful little mews coming from theinside! Nurse undid the lid, and out sprang Spot like a flash oflightning, and ran as if she were running for her life out of the doorand down the stairs, and safe into the kitchen, where she cuddledherself up in a corner of the fender, wishing with all her poortrembling little heart that there were no such things in the world assmall boys. And then nurse heard a kind of kicking and scuffling in thechina cupboard, and when she opened it there sat Olly doubled up, hisbrown eyes dancing like will-o'-the-wisps, and his little white teethgrinning.

  "Oh! Nana, she _did_ make a funny me-ow! I
just said to her, Now,Spottie, _wouldn't_ you like to go in my box? and she said, Yes; and Imade her such a comfy bed, and then I stuck all those frocks on the topof her to keep her warm. Why did you let her out, Nana?"

  "You little mischief," said Nana, "do you know you might have smotheredpoor little Spot? And look at all these frocks; do you think I have gotnothing better to do than to tidy up after your tricks?"

  But nurse never knew how to be very hard upon Olly; so all she did wasto set him up on a high chair with a picture-book, where she could seeall he was doing. There was no saying what he might take a fancy to packup next if she didn't keep an eye on him.

  Well, presently all the packing was done, and Milly and Olly had gone tosay good-bye to Fraeulein, and to Jacky and Francis. Wednesday eveningcame, and they were to start early on Thursday morning. Olly beggednurse to put him to bed very early, that he might "wake up krick"--quickwas a word Olly never could say. So to bed he went at half-past six, andhis head had scarcely touched the pillow two minutes before he had gonecantering away into dreamland, and was seeing all the sights and hearingall the delicious stories that children do see and hear in dreamland,though they don't always remember them when they wake up. Both Milly andhe woke up very early on Thursday morning; and directly his eyes wereopen Olly jumped out of bed like an india-rubber ball, and began to puton his stockings in a terrible hurry. The noise of his jump woke nurse,and she called out in a sleepy voice:

  "Get into bed again, Master Olly, directly. It is only just six o'clock,and I can't have you out of bed till seven. You'll only be under myfeet, and in everybody's way."

  "Nana, I won't be in _anybody's_ way," exclaimed Olly, running up to herand scrambling on to her bed with his little bare toes half way into hisstockings. "I can't keep still in my bed all such a long time. There'ssomething inside of me, Nana, keeps jumping up and down, and won't letme keep still. Now, if I get up, you know, Nana, I can help you."

  "Help me, indeed!" said nurse, kissing his little brown face, or as muchof it as could be seen through his curls. "A nice helping that would be.Come back to bed, sir, and I'll give you some picture-books till I'mready to dress you."

  So back to bed Master Olly went, sorely against his will, and there hehad to stay till nurse and Milly were dressed, and the breakfast thingslaid. Then nurse gave him his bath and dressed him, and put him up toeat his bread and milk while she finished the packing. Olly was alwaysvery quiet over his meals, and it was the only time in the day when hewas quiet.

  Presently up rattled the cab, and down ran the children with theirwalking things on to see father and John lift the boxes on to the top;and soon they were saying good-bye to Susan the cook, and Jenny thehousemaid, who were going to stay and take care of the house while theywere away; and then crack went the whip, and off they went to thestation. On the way they passed Jacky and Francis standing at theirgate, and all the children waved their hats and shouted "Hurrah!hurrah!" At the station nurse kept tight hold of Olly till father hadgot the tickets and put all the boxes into the train, and then he andMilly were safely lifted up into the railway carriage, and nurse andfather and mother came next, with all the bags and shawls and umbrellas.

  Such a settling of legs and arms and packages there was; and in themiddle of it "whew" went the whistle, and off they went away to themountains.

  But they had a long way to go before they saw any mountains. First ofall they had to get to Bletchley, and it took about an hour doing that.And oh! what a lovely morning it was, and how fresh and green the fieldslooked as the train hurried along past them. Olly and Milly could seehundreds and thousands of moon-daisies and buttercups growing among thewet grass, and every now and then came great bushes of wild-roses, somepink and some white, and long pools with yellow irises growing along theside; and sometimes the train went rushing through a little village, andthey could see the little children trotting along to school, with theirbooks and slates tucked under their arms; and sometimes they went alongfor miles together without seeing anything but the white-and-brown cowsin the fields, and the great mother-sheep with their fat white lambsbeside them. The sun shone so brightly, the buttercups were so yellow,the roses so pink, and the sky so blue, it was like a fairy world. Ollyand Milly were always shouting and clapping their hands at something orother, for Milly had grown almost as wild as Olly.

  Sh-sh-sh-sh went the train, getting slower and slower till at last itstopped altogether.

  "Bletchley, Bletchley!" shouted Olly, jumping down off the seat.

  "No, my boy," said his father, catching hold of him, "we shall stop fivemore times before we get to Bletchley; so don't be impatient."

  But at last came Bletchley, and the children were lifted out into themiddle of such a bustle, as it seemed to Milly. There were crowds ofpeople at the station, and they were all pushing backward and forward,and shouting and talking.

  "Keep hold of me, Olly," said Milly, with an anxious little face. "Oh,Nana, don't let him go!"

  But nurse held him fast; and very soon they were through the crowd, andfather had put them safe into their new train, into a carriage marked"Windermere," which would take them all the way to their journey's end.

  "That was like lions and bears, wasn't it, mother?" said Olly, pointingto the crowd in the station, as they went puffing away. Now, "lions andbears" was a favourite game of the children's, a romping game, whereeverybody ran about and pretended to be somebody else, and where themore people played, and the more they ran and pushed and tumbled about,the funnier, it was. And the running, scrambling people at the stationdid look rather as if they were playing at lions and bears.

  And now the children had a long day before them. On rushed the train,past towns and villages, and houses and trains. The sun got hotter andhotter, and the children began to get a little tired of looking out ofwindow. Milly asked for a story-book, and was soon very happy reading"Snow White and Rose Red." She had read it a hundred times before, butthat never mattered a bit. Olly came to sit on nurse's knee while sheshowed him pictures, and so the time passed away. And now the trainstopped again, and father lifted Olly on his knee to see a great churchfar away over the houses, and taught him to say "Lichfield Cathedral."And then came Stafford; and Milly looked out for the castle, andwondered whether the castles in her story-books looked like that, andwhether princesses and fairy godmothers and giants ever lived there inold times.

  After they had left Stafford, Olly began to get tired and fidgety. Firsthe went to sit on his father's knee, then on mother's, then onnurse's--none of them could keep him still, and nothing seemed to amusehim for long together.

  "Come and have a sleep, Master Olly," said nurse. "You are just tiredand hot. This is a long way for little boys, and we've got ever so farto go yet."

  "I'm not sleepy, Nana," said Olly, sitting straight up, with a littleflushed face and wide-open eyes. "I'm going to keep awake like father."

  "Father's going to sleep, then," said Mr. Norton, tucking himself up ina shady corner; "so you go too, Olly, and see which of us can goquickest."

  When Olly had seen his father's eyes tight shut, and heard him give justone little snore--it was rather a make-believe snore--he did let nursedraw him on to her knee; and very soon the little gipsy creature wasfast asleep, with all his brown curls lying like a soft mat over nurse'sarm. Milly, too, shut her eyes and sat very still; she did not mean togo to sleep, but presently she began to think a great many sleepythoughts: Why did the hedges run so fast? and why did the telegraphwires go up and down as if they were always making curtsies? and wasthat really mother opposite, or was it Cinderella's fairy godmother? Andall of a sudden Milly came bump up against a tall blue mountain that hada face like a man, and cried out when she bumped upon it!

  "Crewe, I declare," exclaimed father, jumping up with a start. "Why,Olly and I have been asleep nearly an hour! Wake up, children, it'sdinner-time."

  Nurse had to shake Olly a great many times before he would open hissleepy eyes, and then he stood up rubbing them as if he would r
ub themquite away. Father lifted him out, and carried him into a big room, witha big table in it, all ready for dinner, and hungry people sitting roundit. What fun it was having dinner at a station, with all the grown-uppeople. Milly and Olly thought there never was such nice bread and suchnice apple-tart. Nothing at home ever tasted half so good. And afterdinner father took them a little walk up and down the platform, and atlast, just as it was time to get into the train again, he bought them apaper full of pictures, called the _Graphic_, that amused Olly for along way.

  But it was a long long way to Windermere, and poor Milly and Olly beganto get very tired. The trees at Wigan did make them laugh a little bit,but they were too tired to think them as funny as they would havethought them in the morning. They are such comical trees! First of all,the smoke from the smoky chimneys at Wigan has made them black, andstopped the leaves from growing, and then the wind has blown them allover on one side, so that they look like ugly little twisted dwarfs, asif some cruel fairy had touched them with her wand. But Olly soon forgotall about them; and he began to wander from one end to the other of thecarriage again, scrambling and jumping about, till he gave himself ahard knock against the seat; and that made him begin to cry--poor tiredlittle Olly. Then mother lifted him on to her knee, and said to him,very softly, "Are you very tired, Olly? Never mind, poor little man, weshan't be very long now, and we're all tired, darling--father's tired,and I'm tired; and look at Milly there, she looks like a little whiteghost. Suppose you be brave, and try a little extra hard to be good.Then mother'll love you an extra bit. And what do you think we shall seesoon? such a lovely bit of blue sea with white ships on it. Just youshut your eyes a little bit till it comes, I'll be sure to tell you."

  And sure enough, after Lancaster, mother gave a little cry, and Ollyjumped up, and Milly came running over, and there before them lay thedancing windy blue sea, covered over with little white waves, runningand tumbling over each other. And on the other side of it, what did thechildren see?

  "Mother, mother! what is it?" cried Olly, pointing with his little brownhand far away; "is it a fairy palace, mother?"

  "Perhaps it is, Olly; anyway, the hill-fairies live there. For those arethe mountains, the beautiful mountains we are going to see."

  "But how shall we get across the sea to them?" asked Milly, with apuzzled face.

  "This is only a corner of the sea, Milly--a bay. Don't you remember baysin your geography? We can't go across it, but we can go round it, and weshall find the mountains on the other side."

  Oh! how fast the train seemed to go now that there was something to lookat. Everywhere mountains were beginning to spring up. And when they hadsaid good-bye to the sea, the mountains began to grow taller and taller.What had happened to the houses too? They had all turned white or gray;there was no red one left. And the fields had stone walls instead ofhedges; and inside the walls there were small sheep, about as big as thelambs they had seen near Oxford in the morning.

  Oxenholme, Kendal, Windermere. How glad the tired children were when thetrain ran slowly down into Windermere station, and they could jump outand say good-bye to it for a long, long time! They had to wait a little,till father had found all the boxes and put them in the carriage thatwas waiting for them, and then in they tumbled, nurse having firstwrapped them up in big shawls, for it was evening now, and the wind hadgrown cold. That was a nice drive home among the mountains. How tall anddark and quiet they were. And what was this shining on their left hand,like a white face running beside them, and peeping from behind thetrees? Why, it was a lake; a great wide lake, with tiny boats upon it,some with white sails and some without.

  "Mother! mother! may we go in those boats some day?" shouted Olly, in alittle sharp tired voice, and his mother smiled at him, and said--"Yes,very likely."

  How happy mother looked. She knew all the mountains like old friends,she could tell all their names; and every now and then, when they cameto a house, she and father would begin to talk about the people wholived in it, just as if they were talking about people they knew quitewell. And now came a little town, the town of Wanwick mother called it,right among the mountains, with a river running round it, and a tallchurch spire. It began to get darker and darker, and the trees hung downover the road, so that the children could hardly see. On they went, andOlly was very nearly asleep again, when the carriage began to crunchover gravel, and then it stopped, and father called out--"Here we are,children, here we are at Ravensnest."

  And out they all jumped. What were those bright lights shining? Olly andMilly hardly knew where they were going as nurse took them in, and oneof Uncle Richard's servants showed them the way upstairs to the nursery.Such a nice nursery, with candles lit, and a little fire burning, twobowls of hot bread and milk on the table, and in the corner two littlewhite beds, as soft and fresh as nests! In twenty minutes Olly was inone of these little white beds, and Milly in the other. And you mayguess whether they were long about going to sleep.