"I came to tell the young gentlemen it was just the morning, sir," said
Will, who was feeling very uncomfortable. "It is as still as can be,
and the tide will suit. I should go, sir, directly after breakfast."
"And so we will," said Mr Temple. "There, finish dressing, Dick," he
said, as Will slid down the ladder and took it away. "I thought there
was to be no more of this petty anger, Arthur. You are old enough to
know better, and yet you behave like a fractious child. Don't tease
him, Dick; he can't bear it, I suppose."
Mr Temple left the room, and Dick went on hurriedly dressing, while
Arthur, flushed and uncomfortable, sat in his trousers on the edge of
the bed, his hair touzled and the pillow creases marked like a map on
his right cheek.
"Here, I say, get dressed, Taff," cried Dick, "and let's go down and
collect some sea-anemones before breakfast."
"I don't want to dress," said Arthur. "I'm always wrong. I'm a
miserable wretch, and nobody understands me. I sha'n't go to the
seal-cave to-day."
"Yes, you will," cried Dick, who was very sympathetic but very busy, for
he had suddenly awakened to the fact that he had put too much pomatum on
his hair. The result was that it looked shiny and greasy, and there was
nothing for it but to give it a good rub over with the sponge and then
towel it, which he was doing by holding the cloth over his head, and
sawing it vigorously to and fro.
"No, I shall not go," said Arthur despondently. "I shall stop at home."
"So shall I then," said Dick panting, and out of breath from his
exertions. "It's all right, Taff, I tell you. Get dressed. You'll
feel as different as can be when you've had your breakfast. That's
what's the matter with you. It makes you feel cross sometimes when you
are so precious hungry."
Arthur sat unmoved, making no effort to dress, and Dick, who was nearly
complete, wanting only his jacket, turned to him once more.
"Come on, Taff," he cried. "Get dressed, and let's find some anemones,
and put in a tub of salt-water. We can feed 'em on shrimps."
"I wish we were back in london," said Arthur bitterly.
"What! to have the fellows shouting `sweep!' and the girls beating the
mats and knocking their brooms against the area railings as you're
dressing. No, thank you. I like being here. Oh, I say, how lovely old
Mr Marion's flowers smell! Here's a lugger! Hi, Will, what boat's
that?"
"The _Grey Gull_, Thomson's boat," came up from the garden. "Been out
all night for pilchards. I'll go down and get some for bait."
"I never saw a pilchard," said Arthur, suddenly beginning to dress.
"Look sharp, then, and we'll go down and have a look. Here, I shall go
now. You can come on."
"That's always the way," said Arthur bitterly. "You never will wait for
me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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