Fairies -- Fiction; Great Britain -- History -- Edward VII, 1901-1910 -- Fiction; Siblings -- Fiction; Wishes -- Fiction
"Yes, I'll hand him over in just one minute," Anthea began, talking very
fast,--"but do let me just tell you he has a warm bath every night and
cold in the morning, and he has a crockery rabbit to go into the warm
bath with him, and little Samuel saying his prayers in white china on a
red cushion for the cold bath; and he hates you to wash his ears, but
you must; and if you let the soap get into his eyes, the Lamb"--
"Lamb kyes," said he--he had stopped roaring to listen.
The woman laughed. "As if I hadn't never bath'd a babby!" she said.
"Come--give us a hold of him. Come to 'Melia, my precious"--
"G'way, ugsie!" replied the Lamb at once.
"Yes, but," Anthea went on, "about his meals; you really _must_ let me
tell you he has an apple or banana every morning, and bread and milk for
breakfast, and an egg for his tea sometimes, and"--
"I've brought up ten," said the black ringleted woman, "besides the
others. Come, miss, 'and 'im over--I can't bear it no longer. I just
must give him a hug."
"We ain't settled yet whose he's to be, Esther," said one of the men.
"It won't be you, Esther, with seven of 'em at your tail a'ready."
"I ain't so sure of that," said Esther's husband.
"And ain't I nobody, to have a say neither?" said the husband of 'Melia.
Zillah, the girl, said, "An' me? I'm a single girl--and no one but 'im
to look after--I ought to have him."
"Hold your tongue!"
"Shut your mouth!"
"Don't you show me no more of your imperence!"
Everyone was getting very angry. The dark gipsy faces were frowning and
anxious-looking. Suddenly a change swept over them, as if some invisible
sponge had wiped away these cross and anxious expressions, and left only
a blank.
The children saw that the sun really _had_ set. But they were afraid to
move. And the gipsies were feeling so muddled because of the invisible
sponge that had washed all the feelings of the last few hours out of
their hearts, that they could not say a word.
The children hardly dared to breathe. Suppose the gipsies, when they
recovered speech, should be furious to think how silly they had been all
day?
It was an awkward moment. Suddenly Anthea, greatly daring, held out the
Lamb to the red-handkerchief man.
"Here he is!" she said.
The man drew back. "I shouldn't like to deprive you, miss," he said
hoarsely.
"Anyone who likes can have my share of him," said the other man.
"After all, I've got enough of my own," said Esther.
"He's a nice little chap, though," said Amelia. She was the only one who
now looked affectionately at the whimpering Lamb.
Zillah said, "If I don't think I must have had a touch of the sun. _I_
don't want him."
"Then shall we take him away?" said Anthea.
"Well--suppose you do," said Pharaoh heartily, "and we'll say no more
about it!"
And with great haste all the gipsies began to be busy about their tents
for the night. All but Amelia. She went with the children as far as the
bend in the road--and there she said--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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