Weevil was frightened. He thought the child's mind had broken too; and
that was even more serious than the milk-jug. He stood and stared, and
made disjointed remarks about bright Dartmoor moons, and girls who would
sleep with their blinds up, and insanity which was sure to follow such
rashness. But Boodles only laughed the more.
"I'll tell you," she said. "The butter is very round, and I had it on a
plate. I must have tilted the plate, and it was roll, butter, roll.
First on the table, where it knocked the milk-jug off its legs. Then it
rolled on the floor, and out of the door. It's still rolling. I expect
it is nearly at Mary Tavy station by now, and it ought to reach
Tavistock about ten o'clock at the rate it was going. It's sure to roll
on to Plymouth, right through the Three Towns, and then across the Hoe,
and about the time we go to bed there will be a little splash in the
sea, and that will be the end of the butter, which rolled off the plate,
and broke the milk-jug, and started from the top of Dartmoor at
half-past eight by the clock in Lewside Cottage, which is ten minutes
fast--and that's all I can think of now," gasped Boodles.
"My poor little girl," quavered Weevil. "The butter is on the plate in
front of you."
"Well, it must have rolled back again. It wanted to see its dear old
home once more."
Weevil began to pick up the fragments of the milk-jug. "There is
something wrong with you, Boodle-oodle," he said tenderly. "I don't want
you to have any secrets, my dear. You are too young. There was a letter
for you just now?"
At that the whole story came out with a rush. Boodles could hold nothing
back that morning. She told Weevil about the fairy-tale, from the "once
upon a time" up to the contents of that letter; and she begged him to
play the part of good genie, and with his enchantments cause
blissfulness to happen.
Weevil was very troubled. He had feared that the radiant head would do
mischief, but he had not expected trouble to come so soon. The thing was
impossible, of course. Even radiant growths must have a name of some
sort. Aubrey's parents could not permit weeds to grow in their garden.
There were plenty of girls "true to name," like the well-bred roses of a
florist's catalogue, wanting smart young husbands. There was practically
no limit to the supply of these sturdy young plants. Boodles might be a
Gloire de Devon, but she was most distinctly not in the catalogue. She
was only a way-side growth; a beautiful fragrant weed certainly, like
the sweet honeysuckle which trails about all the lanes, and is in itself
a lovely thing, but is not wanted in the garden because it is too
common; or like the gorse, which as a flowering shrub is the glory of
the moor, but not of the garden, because it is a rank wild growth. Were
it a rare shrub it would be grown upon the lawns of the wealthy; but
because it is common it must stay outside.
"Boodles, darling, I am so sorry," the old man murmured.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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