"Call off yer dog, and I won't say no more about it."

"Oh, ye won't, won't ye? I calls that wery considerate. But look 'ee here, I ain't agoin' to call Bob off, until ye begs my parding in a spirit o' humility, as t'old parson says. If ye don't, I'll hiss Bob on to ye, and ye'll be a raggeder nipper nor me afore Bob's finished the job to his own satisfaction."

Well, discretion is the better part of valour, and after grumbling out an apology, the postman was allowed to sneak off with a whole skin.

Then Ransey kissed Bob's s.h.a.ggy head, and opened his letter.

"Dear Sonnie,--Can't get home before four days. Look after Babs.

Your Loving Father."

That was all. The writing certainly left something to be desired, but it being the first letter the boy had ever received, he read it twice over to himself and twice over to Babs; then he put it away inside his New Testament.

"Hurrah, Babs!" he cried, picking the child up again, and swinging her to and fro till she laughed and kicked and crowed with delight--"hurrah, Babs! we'll all away to the woods. Murrams shall keep house, and we'll take our dinner with us."

It was a droll procession. First walked Bob, looking extremely solemn and wise, and carrying Ransey's fishing-rod. Close behind him came the tall and graceful crane, not quite so solemn as Bob; for he was catching flies, and his head and neck were in constant motion, and every now and then he would hop, first on one leg, and then on the other. Ransey Tansey himself brought up the rear, with a small bag slung in front of him, and Babs in a shawl on his back.

Away to the woods? Yes; and there was a grand little stream there, and the boy knew precisely where the biggest fish lay, and meant to have some for supper. The leveret could hang for a few days.

Arrived at his fishing-ground, where the stream swept slowly through the darkling wood, Ransey lowered his back-burden gently on the moss, and lay down on his face in front of her to talk Babs into the best of tempers.

This was not difficult to do, for she was really a good-natured child; so he gave her his big clasp-knife and his whistle, and proceeded to get his rod in order and make a cast. Bob lay down beside the tiny mite to guard her. She could whistle herself, but couldn't get Bob to do the same, although she rammed the whistle halfway down his throat, and afterwards showed him how she did it.

Well, there are a few accomplishments that dogs cannot attain to, and I believe whistling is one of them.

The fish were very kind to-day, and Ransey was making a very good bag.

Whenever he had finished fishing in about forty yards of stream, he threw down his rod and trotted off back for Babs, and placed her down about twenty yards ahead of him, fished another forty yards and changed her position again, Bob always following close at the boy's heels and lying down beside his charge, and permitting himself to be pulled about, and teased, and cuddled, and kissed one moment, and hammered over the nose with that tin whistle the next. Even when Babs tried to gouge his eye out with a morsel of twig, he only lifted his head and licked her face till, half-blinded, she had to drop the stick and tumble on her back.

"You's a funny dog, Bob," she said; "'oor tisses is so lough [rough]."

Of course they were. He meant them to be, for Bob couldn't afford to lose an eye.

I think the Admiral enjoyed himself quite as much as any one. He chose a bit of the stream for himself where the bank was soft, and there he waded and fished for goodness only knows what--beetles, minnows, tiny frogs, anything alive and easy to swallow.

I don't think, however, that the Admiral was a very good Judge of his swallowing capabilities. That neck of his was so very, very long, and though distensible enough on the whole, sometimes he encountered difficulties that it was almost impossible to surmount. Tadpoles slid down easily enough, so did flies and other tiny insects; but a too-big frog, if invited to go down head-foremost, often had a disagreeable way of throwing his hind-legs out at right angles to the entrance of the Admiral's gullet. This placed the Admiral in a somewhat awkward predicament. No bird can look his best with its beak held forcibly agape, and the two legs of a disorderly frog sticking out one at each side.

The crane would hold his head in the air and consider for a bit, then lower his face against the bank and rub one leg in, then change cheeks and rub the other in; but lo! while doing so, leg number one would be kicked out again, and by the time that was replaced out shot leg number two.

It was very annoying and ridiculous. So the Admiral would step cautiously on to the green bank, and stride very humbly down the stream to Ransey Tansey, with his neck extended and his head on a level with his shoulders.

"You see the confounded fix I'm in," he would say, looking up at his master with one wonderfully wise eye.

Then Ransey would pull out the frog, and the little rascal would hop away, laughing to himself apparently.

"Crok--crok--cray--ay!" the Admiral would cry, and go joyfully back to his fishing-ground.

But sometimes Mr Crane would swallow a big water-beetle, and if this specimen had a will of its own, as beetles generally have, it would catch hold of the side of the gullet and hang on halfway down.

"I ain't going another step," the beetle would say; "it isn't good enough. The road is too long and too dark."

So this disobliging beetle would just stop there, making a kind of a mump in the poor Admiral's neck.

When Ransey saw his droll pet stride out of the pool and walk solemnly towards a tree and lean his head against it, and close his eyes, the lad knew pretty well what was the matter.

There is nothing like patience and plenty of it, and presently the beetle would go to sleep, relax its hold, and slip quietly down to regions unknown. There would be no more mump now, and the crane would suddenly take leave of his senses with joy.

"Kaik--kaik--kay--ay?" he would scream, and go madly hopping and dancing round the tree, a most weird and uncanny-looking object, raising one leg at a time as high as he could, and swinging his head and neck fore and aft, low and aloft, from starboard to port, in such a droll way that Ransey Tansey felt impelled to throw himself on his back, so as to laugh without bursting that much-prized solitary suspender of his, while Bob sat up to bark, and Babs clapped her tiny hands and crowed.

Ransey got tired of fishing at last, and made up his rod. There was some sort of silent joy or happiness away down at the bottom of the boy's heart, and for a moment he couldn't make out what was causing it.

The big haul of fish he had caught? Oh, no; that was a common exploit.

Having smashed the postman with a mushy turnip? That was capital, of course, but that wasn't it. Ah! now he has remembered--father was coming home in four days. Hurrah! he must have some fun on the head of it. Ransey loved to have a good time.

But, duty first. Babs was a good little girl--or a "dood 'ittle dirl,"

as she phrased it--but even good girls get hungry sometimes. Babs must be fed. She held her arms straight out towards him.

"Babs is detting tired," she lisped.

So he took her up, kissed her, and made much of her for a minute, then set her against a tree where the moss was green and soft. With a bit of string and a burdock leaf he made her a beautiful bib; for though Ransey himself was scantily attired, the child was really prettily dressed.

And now the boy produced a pickle bottle from the luncheon bag, likewise a small horn spoon. The pickle bottle contained a pap of bread and milk; and with this he proceeded to feed Babs somewhat after the manner of cramming turkeys, until she shook her head at last, and declared she would _never_ eat any more--"Never, never, _never_!"

There was a turnip-field not far off. Now Bob was as fond of raw turnips as his master. He knew where the field was, too.

"Off ye go for a turmut, Bob; and mind ye bring a big 'un. I'll look after Babs till ye comes back."

Bob wasn't long gone. He had obeyed his master's instructions to the very letter--in fact, he had pulled more than six turnips before he found one to please him. [It is easy to teach a dog this trick, only stupid farmer folks sometimes don't see the fun of it. Farmer folks are obtuse.--G.S.] That "turmut" made Bob and Ransey an excellent luncheon, and Babs had a slice to amuse herself with.

The day was delightfully warm, and the wind soft and balmy. The sunshine filtered down through a great beech-tree, and wherever it fell the gra.s.s was a brighter green or the dead leaves a lighter brown. Now and then a May beetle would go droning past; there were flies of all sorts and sizes, from the gnats that danced in thousands over the bushes to the great rainbow-like dragonfly that darted hither and thither across the stream; gra.s.shoppers green and brown that alighted on a leaf one moment, gave a click the next, and hurled themselves into s.p.a.ce; a blackbird making wild melody not far off; the bold lilt of a chaffinch; the insolent mocking notes of a thrush; and the coo-cooing of wood-pigeons sounding mournfully from a thicket beyond the stream.

High up in that beech-tree myriads of bees were humming, though they could not be seen. No wonder that under such sweet drowsy influences Babs began to wink and wink, and blink and blink, till finally her wee head fell forward on her green-bough bib.

Babs was sound asleep.

Book 1--CHAPTER THREE.

"O EEDIE, I'VE FOUND A CHILD."

Ransey Tansey took his tiny sister tenderly up and spread her, as it were, on the soft moss.

"She's in for a regular forenooner, Bob," said the boy, "and I'm not sure I don't like Babs just as well when she is asleep. Seems so innercent-like, you know."

Bob looked as if he really did understand, and tried by means of his brown eyes and that f.a.g-end of a tail to let his master know that he too liked Babs best asleep, because then no attempts were made to gouge his eyes out with pieces of stick, or to ram the business end of a tin whistle halfway down his throat.

"Bob!" said Ransey.

"Yes, master," said Bob, raising his ears.

"Babs is a sailor's darter, ye know."