MMMnawMi THEgROTHERAND^STER T^HoRM^q^EENE W823 G799$b THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY PRESENTED BY THE WILLIAM A. WHITAKER FOUNDATION THE BROTHER AND SISTER; OR, "What can it Matter?" The Hon. Mrs. GREENE, Author of '" Cnshions and Corners" " Gilbert's Shadotv," etc, % WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. LONDON AND NEW YORK : FREDERICK WARNE AND CO. 1887. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil http://www.archive.org/details/brothersisterorwOOgree CONTENTS. THE COUNTRY WALK THE OPEN GATE THE BROTHER AND SISTER ; OR, " WHAT CAN IT MATTER?" PART L THE COUNTRY WALK. VARY, Mary! listen, I have a piece of news f o r you ! " cried Willie Leo- nard, as he entered the cottage door, and looked round for his sister. " Ah, there you are at that everlasting washing-tub ! I suppose you '11 say now that you can't come with me ? " The Brother and Sister. " What 's your news, and where do you want me to go with you ? " asked Mary, raising a pleasant smiling face from the tub over which she was stooping. "If you can wait until I wring these couple of dresses out, and hang them on the wall to dry, I '11 go with you wherever you like." " Why not leave them where they are, and come out at once ? " urged Willie. " What can it matter whether you do them now or when you come home? A fellow can't have a morning to himself every day in the year; and, only think, I 'm almost certain I Ve spotted a wrens nest in the glen this morn- ing, besides a goldfinch's and a The Country JValk. linnet's ; so I want you to look sharp and have a good egg-hunt with me. I would have stopped to bag a few of them on my way to Farmer Stack's with the dairy cart, only I was late already." " I am quite sure you were late ; you need not tell me that as news," replied Mary, laughing, as she drew a long lilac skirt out of the tub, and began twisting it round and round in serpent-like coils, allowing the soapy water to stream into the wooden vessel beneath. " I 'd go with you now, and welcome, only I promised mother I would not stir out of the place until I had these two skirts hung up tadry. Suppose you go and hunt for the egg-basket, Fhe Brother and Sister. Willie, while you are doing nothing, for there is no other way one can carry them safely home." " Not I ; I'm far too tired to go hunting over the place for it, or any- thing else. And what can it matter whether we have the basket or not? I can carry the eggs in my hat, which is just as good a place, if not better." " That's all very well; but you know they fell out of your cap the other day when Sprat jumped sud- denly up at your arm, and, only it was in the field, they would have been all smashed and ruined. And if I were you," added Mary, shak- ing her head at the little rough- haired terrier who followed at her brothers heels, " I would not have The Country Walk. you bring Master Sprat with you egg-hunting ; he frightens the birds off their nests, and does no good." "What a Solomon you are, to be sure ! " sneered Willie, sitting down, and rocking himself to and fro in the low kitchen chair, while he watched with feverish impatience for the tub to be set aside, and his sister at liberty to join him. " Here, let me squeeze out those rags, Mary ; you go up and put on your hat. I am sure I could do it as well as you." And Willie, standing up again, took off his coat, and began to roll up his shirt-sleeves preparatory to the attempt. " Indeed you could do nothing of the kind. If you have only The Brother and Sister. patience to wait for five minutes more, I '11 have everything finished, and be ready to go with you. There now, don't go off in a rage, that 's a good fellow ! " Willie put on his coat again, and strode out of the cottage, followed by Sprat ; but he was too fond of his own pleasure to set off really without his sister, for Mary was far too pleasant a companion and too clever a seeker to be left behind. She had small hands, which could find their way through thorns and briers to the coveted nest ; and besides, she had never been de- ceived yet as to the eggs themselves. She knew by the touch and the weight whether the tiny bird was WAIT FIVE MINUTES. The Country Walk. nearly hatched, or even partially so, in which case the egg was always replaced in the nest ; for Mary and Willie were not nest robbers in the true sense of the word — they did not rifle the fledglings, nor deprive the mother of her expected brood — they were only egg collectors, tak- ing one here, another there, whose hollow shell contained no promise of a bird, and adding each new- found treasure of pale blue spotted with maroon, or emerald green dotted with brown specks, to those already in their possession, and never returning to any nest the second time, lest the timid mother might be frightened from her charge, and desert it altogether. The Brother and Sister. So Willie sauntered out into the lane, switching at the dandelions, and shying pebbles at the ducks, who, terrified by Sprat, waddled to and fro across the road, till at length Mary appeared in the doorway, with her large sun-hat on her head, and the linen dresses in her arms which she had been so industriously wash- ing for her mother. " That will do now," cried Willie, turning at the sound of her step ; "can't you throw those wretched things on the hedge, and not wait to climb up to the top of the wall ? If there is a short way and a long of doing things, you always choose the long one. I declare you are the most perverse creature that ever The Country Walk. lived ! What can it matter whether a thing is dried on a hedge or on a wall?" " It matters a great deal," replied Mary, good-humouredly. " A nice row you made the other morning because your shirt was torn on a thorn which was sticking some- where out of sight in the "hedge. And besides, the fowl fly up on the hedge, and ruin the clean things with their dirty feet." " Oh, of course, you 'd have an excuse ready for walking on your head, if you chose to do it ; you girls always will have your way in everything." Mary made no reply, but, running along the side of the lane, soon The Brother and Sister. reached the bleaching - wall ; she threw the dresses over her shoulder while she climbed the stile, and then, standing on the uppermost step, she shook them out and laid them along the top, the bricks being specially rounded for the purpose, so that no angles or rough corners might tear the linen. " Hand me up a couple or so of good heavy stones, that's a dear boy," she cried to her brother be- neath, "or they may slip off when they dry, and tumble into the field." " Now, Mary, what can it matter whether you put stones on them or not? I believe you are worrying me on purpose." " No, indeed, Willie, I am not. The Country Walk. The way to the Glen, But if you would only let me do as I ought to do at first, I should be ready in half the time ; if you don't hand me up the stones, I shall have togo down and get them for myself." Willie, seeing that Mary was re- The Brother and Sister. solute, and that nothing save the stones intervened between him and his promised pleasure, handed them up — somewhat sullenly, it must be confessed — and the dresses being securely fixed on the wall, he fol- lowed his sister over the stile into the field beyond. The way to the glen for which they were bound ran through a series of pasture -grounds, deliri- ously green, soft t(3 the feet, and pleasant to the eye, so Willie's tem- per soon recovered itself; and, lean- ing on his sister's arm, he discussed with her the merits of various eggs, their size, colour, &c, while both ardently looked forw r ard to the chance of finding the wren's nest — The Country IValk. a golden-crested wren too, as Willie described it — whose eggs were, to say the least, uncommon. The first few fields were trudged through almost unconsciously, so interested were they in their specu- lations, and no stiles or gates hav- ing so far obstructed their way, each pasture being only separated from the other by a row of trees, and never used for any other purpose but sheep-grazing ; but now, as they came to the middle field, a large stretch of pasture - ground sur- rounded on all sides by a stone wall, they beheld to their dismay that the gap which had been open all the winter was filled up with stones, and no way of entrance left The Brother and Sister. save by climbing the gate, which was an unusually high one and devoid of cross-bars, while the spikes at the top made it difficult for a man to cross, and almost im- possible for a girl. " Here ? s a pretty go S " cried Willie, angrily, as he gazed alter- nately at the newly-built gap and the high iron gate. " I 'd like to know what they 've done this for. Filling up a gap that 's useful to everybody, and sticking a gate in one's field that no one can climb over — such tomfoolery I But it 's just like Farmer Stack, throwing stumbling- blocks in every one's way." " He must have had some good reason for doing it, I suppose," ob- The Country Walk served Mary, quietly, though the bright glow of expectancy faded from her face, as she looked hope- lessly at the high granite wall before her. " Some good reason for fiddle- sticks ! " replied Willie, contemptu- ously. " But that 's just the image of you, Mary — when a fellow is vexed, always trying to prove that there's nothing on earth to make him angry. We may just as well turn round and go home now, for you could as soon think of climbing that gate, Mary, as I could climb over the moon." " Suppose we walk round by the road," suggested Mary, in a very humble voice : for when Willie was The Brother and Sister. angry he generally found something to carp at in her remarks. " Go round by the road ! Why, I think you are just a simpleton, Mary, and nothing else ; it's a good nour's walk round by the road, as you call it, to the place we are aiming for ; and as I 've walked that way once already this morning with the dairy cart, and shall have to go over every step of the ground again this evening, I Ve no mind to'give my legs all that additional work. No, let's go home." And Willie whistled to his dog, who, having slipped through the offend- ing bars, was standing on the op- posite side, barking energetically at them, to show the thing could be The Country Walk. done, if they only chose to follow his good example. 11 Did you try the gate to see whether it was locked ? " asked Mary, who did not like the idea of giving up the expedition ; besides, she knew Willie had only proposed it because he was angry. " What is the use of a gate, you stupid, unless it is locked?" But though Willie said this, he walked over and examined it with both hands and eyes. " I don't believe it is locked," he said presently ; " it seems to open and shut with some kind of spring, for there is no padlock or keyhole of any kind ; some new dodge of old Stack's, I suppose. I never The Brother and Sister. met such a fellow for dodges in all my life." Willie worked, and fiddled, and pressed at the spring with all his might, but it gave no promise of yielding. He was obliged, pre- sently, to call Mary to his aid, who had — for all he pretended to look down upon her — clever hands and clever brains, and very often before now Willie had found them of service to him. " Come on here, you silly," he cried testily ; " why do you stand gaping there, as if you expected the gate to walk open of its own accord ? One can't force a spring open all by oneself that would take a Goliath to move it. Here, do you press The Country Walk. against this tongue of iron, while I try to push it up out of the place it has got hitched in." Mary pressed with all her force against the spring, while her brother shoved, and kicked, and shook the gate in his vexation ; but it was all in vain, till at last one kick, more vicious than the rest, forced the latch from the bar in which it was caught, and the gate, immediately flying wide open, sent Mary sprawling upon her face on the ground. She was not much hurt, however, and the relief of having conquered the great difficulty which lay in their path prevented her from thinking of the few scratches she had received. She soon scrambled to her feet, The Brother and Sister. and once more the bright smile of anticipated joy beamed over her face. " Come on now," cried Willie, taking her by the arm. " I 'm glad I conquered the brute, though I ; m trembling all over from the force it took to open it. I thought I should never have done it, and that last kick I gave was more in a rage than anything else." " But you'll shut it again, won't you ? " asked Mary anxiously, for her brother had already begun to drag her forward. "I shut it ! Don't you wish you may catch me doing it? I 've just about as much notion of bothering myself to fasten Farmer Stack's The Country Walk. gates as I have of doing anything else to please him." " Indeed, Willie, you must go back and close it : they would not have taken so much pains to fasten it unless there was some reason for it." " There you go again with your ' reasons ; ' but I tell you there is neither right nor reason in the mat- ter ; it 's simply one of old Stack's whims, like his lawn-mowers and steam-ploughs, and all the rest of his new inventions, robbing people of their right of way. Come on, Mary, I say, and don't drag away from me so, for I won't shut the gate, and there 's an end of it." " Then I will try myself, and see The Brother and Sister. if I can't do it," replied Mary firmly; " for I am certain we ought to fasten it. They may be going to put the black bull into the field, for all you know : they kept him here all last summer ; and whether or not, I 'm certain, as we found it shut, we ought to fasten it." " Very good, do as you like," re- plied Willie, turning on his heel and whistling. "You know you are shutting it simply out of obstinacy, for what on earth can it matter whether the gate is fastened or not?" And Willie, not deigning to look behind him, walked straight on across the field. The Open Gate. PART II. W^THE OPEN GATE, 'ARY had a fair share of bodily strength and a great deal of determin- ation when anything of duty or prin= ciple was involved, and, rather than leave the gate of Farmer Stack's pasture-ground open, she was de- termined to exert both these attri- butes to the utmost. But it was all of no avail ; the gate swung back The Brother and Sister, every time she thought she had fastened it, and Willie was already nearly half the field in advance of her. She bruised all her shoulder trying to press in the holdfast, and worried and heated herself to a pitch that was most unusual for so placid a mind, and at length, sorely against her will, she was obliged to give it up, and follow Willie's footsteps across the meadow. "Well, you didn't shut it, did you?" asked Willie, not deigning to look back as he heard Mary pant- ing up behind him. "You ought to be Farmer Stack's own daughter, so you ought ; you 're so particular about trifles." Mary did not answer him. She The Open Gate. felt her temper was tro ubled, and she had no wish to quarrel or to spoil all the plea- sure of their ex- pedition bywran- gling; so she walked on be- Across the Meadow. The Brother and Sister. side her brother in silence, trying to grow calm again, and recover from the great exertions which had made the muscles of her arms and back ache again. Sprat had the happiest knack of diverting people's attention to him- self by tricks and exploits of all kinds ; and now, as if sensible of the silence existing between his young master and mistress, he seemed bent on attracting their notice. The grass, which had neither been grazed nor cut since the autumn of the previous year, was now a good height — so high that the blades came up to Master Sprat's shoulder ; but instead of walking through it like a sensible dog, he suddenly be- The Open Gate. Sprat and the Birds. gan leaping and bounding in front of them, raising his whole body from the ground, and seeming to fly over the intervening spaces, while the The Brother and Sister. ripe dandelion-heads sent off clouds of feathery dust as he knocked them hither and thither. But presently Master Sprat came to a standstill, and, pointing with his nose towards the ground, seemed all at once as if turned to stone, Not a muscle did he move, nor^ven wag his little stubby tail, but waited, with his eye fixed on one spot low down in the grass, till his master should arrive. " What is it, Sprat ? Good Sprat! Hie ! Seek it out ! " cried Willie, fancying it was a field-rat, or a hedgehog, or some such animal. But Sprat made no movement in advance, and as Willie drew nearer to examine the spot for himself, a The Open Gate. bird rose up out of the ground with a harsh frightened scream, and, mounting into the air above Wil- lie's head with a whirring sound, continued with shrill notes of terror to express her sense of alarm. "It is a partridge, Mary; just come here. We have actually lighted on a partridge's nest in the grass ! I know the eggs well. I say, what a rare piece of luck ! And ain't they beauties, just?" And Mary having joined her brother, they both stood for some minutes thoroughly enjoy- ing the excitement of the new dis- covery. From this moment all remem- brance of the gate or their temporary quarrel passed from the children's The Brother and Sister. minds. They took one egg — only one — from the nest, and, full of new-born zest for the expedition, pressed forwards, and crossing the gate which was at the far end of the field, and which was not so high or impracticable a one as the other, they were soon on the borders of the glen. It was now about the hottest part of the day, and the shade of the trees when they reached the pro- posed end of their journey was most refreshing. Willie revelled in it even more than Mary, for her large straw hat kept her head cool and sheltered her eyes from the sun, while Willie had been obliged long ago to remove his in order to The Open Gate. place the partridge's egg in safety ; nor could he grumble over this deficiency, as Mary had implored him, on setting out, to take the basket with him for this very pur- pose. The cool green atmosphere under the trees looked so inviting that Willie and Mary rested themselves awhile before prosecuting their egg- hunt, and, both being in high good humour, Willie rallied his sister on her obstinacy about the gate, while she snubbed him for his careless- ness and general want of method and order. "It is always the same cry with you, Willie," she said, as she tickled her brother's ear with a long blade The Brother and Sister. of grass, " ' What does it matter ? . or ' What can it matter ? ' or ' Why should it matter ? ' and then in the end it generally does matter a good deal, and some one or something comes to grief." " I never say anything of the kind," replied Willie, laughing. 11 Besides, even if I do, I 'm quite right to say it ; for what can it matter whether one puts the kettle on the right hob or the left ? or put their spoon into the right-hand corner of their mouth or the left? And yet if you saw me doing either one or the other, you 'd shout at me just as if I was making the most awful mull in the world. No, no ; you'll find out in the long run, The Open Gate, Mary, that my plan is the best, and the less one worries and fidgets themselves over such trifles, the longer one will live." " Unless you live for a hundred years longer than I do, you will never convince me of it," cried Mary, laughing. " And pray, supposing I were to outlive you by so many years, how am I to convince you of the fact when you will have been dead arid gone for a century. But that's the image of your reasoning, Mary — a compound of old women's saws and girls' logic ! " and Willie, yawning, lay back upon the mossy turf, while Mary still pursued her occupation of tracing lines upon his brow, nose, The Brother and Sister. and ears with the feathery tip of a ripe blade of grass. But by-and-bye the workmen' s bell in Farmer Stack's yard could be heard booming across the fields, announcing to the labourers that it was one o'clock and time for dinner, and bidding the wives in their cot- tages look sharp and see that every- thing was ready for the good man when he came home for his mid-day meal. When Willie and Mary heard it, they sprang to the ground, and looked into each other's faces with dismay ; so much time had been lost in crossing the fields, and look- ing after the partridges' nests, the morning had slipped by without The Open Gate. their knowing it, and now they would only have time to make a hurried search for the treasures which lay concealed in the thickets of "old Stack's glen," as Willie irreverently called it. He had " spotted," as he had told Mary already in the cottage, several of these prizes beforehand, and con- sequently they were not long in finding and taking possession of some really rare and pretty speci- mens of the genus " egg f ,f all of which were now placed in Willie's hat, both for security and conveni- ence, and, in addition to these, many other new nests were found ; for the glen was not a common resort for egg -hunters, and the The Brother and Sister. birds had, until now, built their nests and reared their young in comparative safety and seclusion. It seemed to the children as if ten minutes had scarcely gone by, when the bell from the farm swung out its summons again, and Willie knew he had now barely time to cross the fields and get home, so as to go with his father to the dairy fields, where forty or fifty cows had to be milked, and the cans full of the white frothing fluid to be driven home to Farmer Stack's dairy. •■ What a bother to have to stop now, just when I was in the very thick of nests of all kinds ! " cried Willie, testily, as he climbed over the arm of a branch, and let himself The Open Gate. swing down to the ground. " If you had not lost so much time over that confounded gate, we y d have had another half- hour to spend here. It 's too bad ! I wish you 'd be satisfied to do as I tell you, and not always fight up for your own opinion." Mary did not answer. She had sense enough to know that in Willie's present humour anything she said would only add fuel to his wrath, so she busied herself wrap- ping the eggs round in soft dry moss, and placing them again in the deep crown of her brother's hat. Still, they had not done a bad morning's work. They had secured the much-coveted egg of the golden- The Brother and Sister. Golden-crested Wren. crested wren, besides many other good and valuable specimens. And as Willie counted them over, and found they had a total of fifteen, The Open Gate. his brow somewhat relaxed, and, whistling for Sprat, who had been chasing rabbits in a neighbouring furrow, to follow him, they went out of the glen, and crossed over the gate which led them back into the pas- ture-field. " Well, Mary, where is the bull?" asked Willie, as, having helped his sister over the bars, he turned to survey the field. " Like all your other sage predictions, it has ended in smoke, and a nice chouse it would be now if we had to force open that gate a second time ! why, father would have started for the dairy field without me, and I should catch it pretty hot for my pains. The Brother and Sister. Come now, Mary, confess you were wrong : what could it matter ? " Mary shook her head, but still sought safety in silence; for, though Willie's arguments sounded plausi- ble, she knew they were unsound and hollow, and that she had right on her side, though she could not at the moment make it appear so. And yet the moment was near at hand which was to prove its truth to a demonstration, and give to her "girls' logic," as Willie had so con- temptuously called it, a weight which even Willie himself would be forced to recognize. Meanwhile, Willie pressed for- ward towards the open gateway, carrying the precious hat in his The Open Gate. ^mm The Grazing-Ground, tiand which contained the spoils of The Brother and Sister. the day ; his face was flushed with excitement, and his whole carriage exultant and triumphant. Mary followed closely at his heels, a little less triumphant, but still well pleas- ed with the day's success, till they both reached the gate, which still remained open as they had left it, and through which they passed again, Mary making one more in- effectual effort to close it as she went through. The pasture from this out was free of check or hindrance; nothing marked one field from another save rows of stately beeches, across whose stems, when necessary, an iron rail- ing could be temporarily fixed to separate the grazing-grounds. It The Open Gate. was a picturesque pasture also, for the sward was undulating and close, and dips and hollows gave shady nooks, where the sheep could huddle together on sunny days, or in stormy and uncertain weather. Willie began to lag a little in his pace as he drew nearer home, for the sun was beating down on his uncovered head, and making him feel faint and giddy. " Run on, that's a good girl," he cried to his sister, "and fetch me out the basket from the house, for I cannot stand this heat longer ; it is making me as sick as a dog; and, for goodness sake, call in Sprat, for his barking would drive a saint made" Mary turned as her brother spoke, The Brother and Sister. and looked into his face, for she was afraid he might be feeling more ill than he said, at the same time call- ing to the dog to come. "What can he be barking at? he is down somewhere in the hollow, and does not hear me. Sprat ! Sprat ! " she cried, pausing, and looking across the field. At this moment there was a strange sound like the muttering of distant thunder, and Willie paused too, and looked round, while his face grew whiter than before. "It could not be the bull?" he said, quickly ; for the sound was not unfamiliar to his ear, and the suggestion of his heart found vent in sudden words of terror. The Meadows, The Brother and Sister. " Oh, no, Willie ! how could it ? " cried Mary, running a few steps forward, and trying if it were pos- sible to catch a glimpse over the brow of the meadow. " Come back ! come back ! are you a madwoman ? " cried Willie, almost fiercely, as again the mutter- ing sound rose distinctly on the sultry afternoon air, followed almost immediately by a loud and brazen roar of anger. " Good heavens ! if it is the bull, we must cut and run for our lives," said Willie, in a tone which sounded to Mary so strange and unlike him- self, that she looked at him for a moment in unbelief and terror- struck suprise. The Open Gate. But in another instant all doubt on the subject was removed, as the huge black bull belonging to Farmer Stack came round the corner of the hillock, tearing up the gravel with his feet, and bellowing forth his anger and defiance. " Sprat, Sprat, you brute, come here, sir!" roared Willie, furiously; for the dog was leaping up at the animal's nose, and evidently driving it to desperation. But it was no use to shout or whistle : Sprat was far too excited to hear or see any one ; besides, there was the danger of attracting the bull's fury to them- selves. So Willie, turning, measured with his eye the distance between his home and the spot where they stood. The Brother and Sister. "If the bull takes it into his head to give us chase, we are lost," he said, turning, with white lips, to his sister; "we must only make for home as fast as ever we can, and trust to our legs to save us." But even while he spoke there was a loud yell of pain from the un- fortunate dog, and, looking to the corner of the field, they saw poor Sprat tossed high in the air above the horns of the furious animal. The cry of horror uttered spon- taneously by both Willie and Mary, as they heard their favourite's yell of pain, was perhaps the worst and most unfortunate occurrence that could have happened, for the bull seemed instantly to become aware The Open Gate. of their presence, and, in this dis- covery, to lose sight of all other surroundings, and to concentrate all his fury on the human occu- pants of the field. " Run, Mary! run for your life! he has seen us!" cried Willie, catch- ing his sister by the tippet, and dragging her forward. "If we could only reach the stile we should be safe ! " Not another word was said by either of them, but, distracted with fear, both children fled for their very lives. Mary was fleet of limb, and, unencumbered by the precious capful of eggs, she soon distanced her brother, and was making good speed towards the haven of safety. The Brother and Sister. But Willie, already sickened by the intense heat of the sun, and still unwilling to part with his much-prized treasures, strove vainly to keep up with his sister. His legs trembled and bent beneath him, and the sky and fields and the flying figure of Mary, all sped round and round before his eyes. At last he ventured to look over his shoulder, and saw, to his horror, that the bull was close upon him ; it was coming up at a furious gal- lop, at every step tearing up the grass and mould, and snorting threateningly. Away went the capful of eggs — the oval and spotted trophies of the day — flying and hopping over the The Open Gate. field in reckless disorder. For one brief moment this action was of service to the boy, for the animal, blind with rage, seemed for a time to imagine that in Willie's broad- brimmed straw hat his enemy lay at his feet. He rushed at it head downward, impaling it with fearful accuracy on his horn, but the next minute he was again on the boys track, bellow- ing furiously with disappointment, and intent on an immediate revenge. Willie, who at every step stum- bled and fell in the giddiness and terrible anxiety of his flight, heard Mary's voice call to him from the stile. She had reached it, while he —he, her elder brother, and superior The Brother and Sister. in strength and courage — was pant- ing hopelessly to overtake her. Why did she not come to his help ? Why did she not call some one to save him from this dreadful death ? " Willie, Willie, make haste, make haste ! " she cried : " a few steps more, and you will be safe. Father is running up the road, and will be in the field in a moment ! " But all the fathers in the world could not save Willie now, for the bull was actually at his heels, and the scattered mould and clay were rattling sharply about his ears ; he looked up, and saw Mary standing on the top of the stile, her arms stretched out to save him, but in the next moment he was driven The Open Gate. forward with a terrific impetus, and dashed headlong against the high laundry wall. Mary gave a yell as she saw her brother thrown forward, almost at her very feet, impaled, as it seemed certain to her, against the stone facing of the wall ; but happily this was not the case. He had been dashed against it, it was true, but the horns of the bull had missed their aim, and, in- stead of plunging into poor Willie's body, they had struck the wall above, and Mary saw that, before her brother could receive the neces- sary coup de grdce, the bull would have to recoil a step or two into the pasture behind. She never The Brother and Sister. stopped to reason — indeed, she never knew exactly why she did it —but, in this last moment of ex- tremity, she seized the lilac dress, which was hanging on the wall beside her, and flung it hastily down upon the head of the in- furiated bull. The aim was a good one, for the curved horns caught in the linen fabric as it fell, while the stones, which had held the dress in safety above, rattled down upon the animal's neck and shoulders. In his rage, he leaped aside, tossing his head aloft to rid himself of the un- looked-for encumbrance, but by this movement he only succeeded in entangling himself more ; for the The Open Gate. dress, still clinging tightly to the point of his horns, now fell over his eyes, and dangled down in front of his legs, to the very ground. Again he recoiled, moving back- wards, step by step, to shake him- self free from the blinding encum- brance, which now covered his whole head, while muttering with an awful but suppressed anger, "Willie! Willie! make haste. If you can only get up here and cross the stile, you are safe ! Here! here! I will pull you across I" cried Mary, wringing her hands hope- lessly, as she saw her brother lying, stunned and motionless, at the foot of the wall beneath. What was she to do now? Another The Bt other and Sister. moment and the golden opportunity might be lost. She gathered up her skirt in her hand, and, brave girl as she was, made ready to leap into the field again and face the danger she had so happily escaped, when all at once a strong hand pushed her aside, and some one jumped heavily from the top of the stile into the field below. It was her father, and in another moment Willie was lifted up and partially helped, partially dragged, over the wall into a place of safety on the other side. The bull, who at every fresh movement became more entangled in the linen noose, was soon secured, and a chain having been fastened The Open Gate. into the ring in his nose, he was led away across the meadow to his own pasture. Meantime, Willie was slowly be- coming aware that he was safe, and that his safety was not owing to his own prowess or his own skill, but to Mary's ready wit and dauntless bravery. He said little then ; in- deed, he scarcely spoke all that long evening, but lay on the settle in the kitchen, staring into the fire and sighing heavily to himself. But that night, when Mary crept into his room in the dark, to bring him a cooling drink and to wish him a comfortable and restful night, he stretched out his hand, now hot with fever from the shock of the The Brother and Sister, past danger, and drawing her down close to him, said into her ear, " Mary, you are the bravest and truest little brick in all the world ; if it was not for you and your 'girls' logic/ I should be dead and gone now. I 'm sorry I have nothing to give you in return, though I know you don't mind that; but this much I '11 promise you, old girlie, that, with Gods help, I '11 never worry you again with that most foolish of all my foolish sayings, 'What can it matter?'" THE END. DALZIEL BROS., CAMDEN PRESS, LONDON, N.W DQ23529337226