"Oh, Jack, I _am_ so glad to see you. I've got so tired of myself. Mrs. Jex has been showing me how to make crumpets, and you shall have one as soon as Charles comes in. If they're not very good you mustn't say so, because they're the first I've made, you see. What? Jim? No, he's not been here. What a troublesome boy he is!--always getting himself drowned or lost. Dear, dear, dear! What with you two, and Charles, and the vicar falling ill again--my hair will go quite white, I expect! And there's that Margaret never been near me all day, and if it hadn't been for Mrs. Jex and the crumpets I don't know what I would have done. . . . Thank you, Mrs. Jex, I'll come at once; but we must keep them hot for Charles, they do lie so heavy on your stomach when they're cold. He can't be long, Jack. You sit down there and look at that book." And the Little Lady went off to butter her crumpets, while Jack, at the end of his tether as regards Jim and his possible whereabouts, lay down contentedly on the hearthrug and lost himself in the book. When Eager came in at last, tired with a long round among outlying parishioners, he was surprised to find the boy there and still more surprised to learn why he had come. "Jim's a jimsa! He's always getting himself lost," was Gracie's contribution to the discussion, but it did not help much. "Where can he have got to, Jack?" asked Eager, with a touch of anxiety. "When did you see him last?" "I was reading in the kitchen, and when I looked up he'd gone. I looked in all the places I could think of, and then I came here." And that did not help much, either. "Well, I must have a bite. I'm famished. And then we'll have another look. Maybe he's at home by this time. He wouldn't be likely to go to Knoyle, would he?" Jack shook his head very decidedly. "He wouldn't go alone." "Seth Rimmer's?" "I d'n know. He might." "We'll call at Carne and then go along to Rimmer's. Oh-ho! hot buttered crumpets and coffee! And the crumpets made by a master-hand, unless I'm very much mistaken!" For Gracie had dumped them down before him herself with an air of triumphant achievement, and now stood waiting his first bite with visible anxiety. "Excellent!" said the Rev. Charles, smacking his lips. "If there's one thing Mrs. Jex does better than another, where all is well done, it's hot buttered crumpets." "They're not at all a bit heavy?" "Heavy? Light as snowflakes--hot buttered snowflakes! That's what they are. How do you find them, Jack?" "Fine!" "I _am_ glad. I was afraid they'd turn out a bit----" "You don't mean to tell me you made them!" "Yes, I did. All myself--with Mrs. Jex just looking on, you know!" "Well! Two more, please, just like the last! Best crumpets I ever tasted in my life!"