"I saved up my pocket-money to get a little pig, to give to old Micky,
the cobbler. Dermot and I walked over to Ennisfellen fair to buy it,
and drove it home with a string tied to its leg. As fast as we pulled
one way it ran another, and just as we got to Micky's cabin the string
snapped, and off the pig bolted down the village, and ran straight into
the open door of the school. The children chased it round and round
beneath the forms, and caught it at last under the master's desk. Oh,
we have lively times at Kilmore! Then once Dermot and I ran away, and
went to see Cousin Theresa at Slieve Donnell. Nobody knew where we were
for two days, and people were hunting all over the country for us. They
thought we must have been drowned, or have fallen into the bog."
"But weren't your father and mother fearfully anxious?" asked Janie,
who had listened almost aghast to the recital of those wild escapades.
"Well, Father was rather cross about that, certainly. He was never
really very angry, though, until the last time, when I----"
But here Honor stopped. On the whole, she decided she would not relate
the story of Firefly. She could not quite understand the expression on
Janie's face, and she began to doubt whether her friend would
altogether sympathize with her. Instead, she plunged into a detailed
description of her elder brothers, telling how two were preparing for
the Army at Sandhurst, how another was at Oxford, and the fourth was
studying law.
"I suppose you are nearly always with your mother, as you are the only
girl," said Janie.
"Well, no," admitted Honor. "She's so delicate, and so often ill. I'm
afraid I give her a headache."
"My mother is delicate too," confided Janie. "She has most dreadful
neuralgia sometimes. I bathe her head with eau-de-cologne, mixed with
very hot water, and it always does her good. She calls me her little
nurse. Have you ever tried hot water with eau-de-cologne for your
mother's headaches?"
Honor had never dreamt of offering any help or assistance to anyone in
sickness. The idea was quite new to her, and that Janie evidently
expected her to be her mother's companion and right hand surprised her.
She had already met with many astonishments at St. Chad's, where most
of the views of life seemed different from her old standards. She
scarcely liked to confess that she was of so little use at home, and
hastily turned the conversation back to her brother Dermot.
"Do you think if I were to ask Miss Cavendish, she would let him call
to see me?" she suggested.
Janie shook her head.
"I'm quite sure she wouldn't," she replied. "The rules are so strict
about visitors. Nobody but our parents is allowed, except an occasional
uncle or aunt--never a brother. You'd better not suggest it."
"Then I shall have to go and see him."
"How could you, Honor? Don't be so unreasonable!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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