“Oh, let's fetch 'em!” cried Bruno, giving a little skip into the air.
“Here! Catch hold of my hand, and I'll help oo along. The grass is
rather thick down that way.”
I couldn't help laughing at his having so entirely forgotten what a
big creature he was talking to. “No, not yet, Bruno,” I said: “we must
consider what's the right thing to do first. You see we've got quite a
business before us.”
“Yes, let's consider,” said Bruno, putting his thumb into his mouth
again, and sitting down upon a dead mouse.
“What do you keep that mouse for?” I said. “You should either bury it,
or else throw it into the brook.”
“Why, it's to measure with!” cried Bruno. “How ever would oo do a garden
without one? We make each bed three mouses and a half long, and two
mouses wide.”
I stopped him, as he was dragging it off by the tail to show me how it
was used, for I was half afraid the 'eerie' feeling might go off before
we had finished the garden, and in that case I should see no more of him
or Sylvie. “I think the best way will be for you to weed the beds, while
I sort out these pebbles, ready to mark the walks with.”
“That's it!” cried Bruno. “And I'll tell oo about the caterpillars while
we work.”
“Ah, let's hear about the caterpillars,” I said, as I drew the pebbles
together into a heap and began dividing them into colours.
And Bruno went on in a low, rapid tone, more as if he were talking to
himself. “Yesterday I saw two little caterpillars, when I was sitting
by the brook, just where oo go into the wood. They were quite green, and
they had yellow eyes, and they didn't see me. And one of them had got a
moth's wing to carry--a great brown moth's wing, oo know, all dry, with
feathers. So he couldn't want it to eat, I should think--perhaps he
meant to make a cloak for the winter?”
“Perhaps,” I said, for Bruno had twisted up the last word into a sort of
question, and was looking at me for an answer.
One word was quite enough for the little fellow, and he went on merrily.
“Well, and so he didn't want the other caterpillar to see the moth's
wing, oo know--so what must he do but try to carry it with all his left
legs, and he tried to walk on the other set. Of course he toppled over
after that.”
“After what?” I said, catching at the last word, for, to tell the truth,
I hadn't been attending much.
“He toppled over,” Bruno repeated, very gravely, “and if oo ever saw a
caterpillar topple over, oo'd know it's a welly serious thing, and not
sit grinning like that--and I sha'n't tell oo no more!”
“Indeed and indeed, Bruno, I didn't mean to grin. See, I'm quite grave
again now.”
But Bruno only folded his arms, and said “Don't tell me. I see a little
twinkle in one of oor eyes--just like the moon.”
“Why do you think I'm like the moon, Bruno?” I asked.
“Oor face is large and round like the moon,” Bruno answered, looking
at me thoughtfully. “It doosn't shine quite so bright--but it's more
cleaner.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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