Bob Strong's Holidays

  CHAPTER TWELVE.

  "THE DEVIL'S BIT."

  "Now, me dearie," said Mrs Gilmour, replacing her needle and thimble,with the reel of thread, in her little "housewife," and putting thatcarefully back into her pocket, "sure, we'll have a jollification on ourown account as our gentlemen have left us. We'll show them that we cando without them, sure, when we like."

  "How nice, auntie!" cried Miss Nellie, agreeing thoroughly in thesentiment her aunt had expressed, the desertion of the Captain and Bob,in addition to the fact of Dick having been also taken away, havingaffected the young lady more than she had acknowledged. "What shall wedo first to be `jolly,' as Bob says?"

  "I'll soon show you, me dearie," replied Mrs Gilmour. "Sure, you'llsay in a minute, Nell. Come now, me darlint, and help me."

  Then ensued a pleasant task, one in which Rover especially evinced thekeenest interest, the sagacious retriever watching their every movementwith an attention that never faltered.

  Needless almost to say, the agreeable occupation in question was that ofunpacking the hamper containing all the good things which Sarah hadpacked and Dick had brought from the house for their picnic in thewoods.

  Aye, it was in the woods; and under the woods, too!

  Encircled by a hedge of green shrubbery and thicket undergrowth, amidstwhich the wild-flowers of the forest stood out here and there, theirbrightest tints gleaming with a wealth of colouring which nature's gemsalone display, Mrs Gilmour selected a nice smooth stretch of velvetyturf for their table.

  On this, she proceeded to lay a damask cloth, whose snowy whitenesscontrasted vividly with its surroundings; for, a clump of silver birchesjoined in hand-clasp with a straggling oak overhead, sheltering thegrass-plot with their welcome shade from the heat of the noonday sun,while, over all, a lofty spreading elm extended its sturdy branches,like outstretched arms, above its lesser brethren below, as if sayingpaternally, "Bless you, my children!"

  Having daintily arranged the contends of the hamper to the bestadvantage on the open-air banqueting-table, an enormous veal-and-hampie, their chief dish, in the centre, Mrs Gilmour and Nellie surveyedtheir handiwork with much complacency.

  "Sure, and I don't think a single thing has been forgotten," observedthe former with pardonable pride, after a critical inspection of thevarious viands. "At most of the picnics I have participated in, eitherthe salt, or the mustard, or something else has been left behind; but,to-day, I believe Sarah has remembered everything!"

  "Yes, I'm sure she has, auntie dear!" cried Miss Nellie with equalenthusiasm. "Here's the kettle for us to boil; and the teapot, andteacups, too, all ready for our tea, auntie, after lunch."

  "She is a good girl, Sarah, and I will reward her for this," said MrsGilmour, giving a final pat to the table-cloth after smoothing it downand pulling the corners straight. "I'm afraid, though, dearie, we'llhave to wait a precious long time before Captain Dresser and the boyscome back; and, laying the table has made me feel quite hungry, Ideclare."

  "So am I, auntie," laughed Nell. "The sight of all the nice things istoo much. Let us go away and pick some wild-flowers till the otherscome back, eh, auntie?"

  "But, how can we leave the things here?" questioned the other. "Supposesome stranger, passing by, should take a fancy to our nice luncheon?What a terrible thing it would be to come back and find it gone! Again,too, just think, your friends the rabbits, dearie, might take it intotheir comical little heads to play at hide-and-seek amongst the dishes,besides nibbling what they liked. How would you like that, eh?"

  "Oh, auntie, how funny you are!" cried Nell, quite overcome at the ideaof the bunnies making a playground of their well-arranged table-cloth."But you can trust Rover to guard everything safely if we go away."

  "Are you sure, dearie?" inquired her aunt. "Quite sure?"

  "Certain, auntie, dear, nobody would dare to come near the spot whilehe's here, for he'd pretty soon bark, and bite, too! And, as for thepoor rabbits, one sniff of his would send them all scuttling back intotheir burrows. Hi, Rover!" Nell called out, after giving thistestimony on his behalf. "Lie down there, good dog, and watch!"

  Rover at once cocked an eye and looked in his young mistress's face.Next, he took note of her pointed finger, which she waved in a sort ofcomprehensive curve embracing the table-cloth with its appetisingdisplay of eatables; and then, as if he had made a mental list of allleft in his charge, he laid down in a couchant position at the head ofthe table, if such it could be called, with his nose between his paws,along which his eyes were ready to take aim at any intruder, saying, intheir fixed basilisk stare, "Now, you just touch anything, if you dare,my friend. I should like to see you attempt it!"

  "We can safely leave now, auntie," said Nellie; whereupon she and MrsGilmour strayed off through the bracken, hunting here and there forflowers on their way.

  Almost the first thing to catch their sight, before indeed they had leftthe little turfy dell where their paraphernalia was spread out withRover in charge, was the pretty rose-coloured blossom of the "raggedRobin," rising out of the grass. A little further off was a cluster ofthe lilac field madder, named after Sherard the eminent botanist, whoseherbarium is still preserved at Oxford. This plant is one of a largefamily, numbering over two thousand varieties, from which the well-knowndye, madder, is obtained, though, of late years, aniline colouringmatter has somewhat depreciated its commercial value.

  Mrs Gilmour presently picked up something better than either of these,at least in appearance. This was a little blue flower resembling theviolet, with glossy green leaves that were its especial charm.

  "I declare I've found a periwinkle!" she cried--"such a fine one too."

  "Oh, let me look, auntie!" said Nell, peeping into her hand. "Dear me,do you call that a periwinkle?"

  "Yes, dearie. Pretty, isn't it? It blooms all the year; and I've seenit down in Devonshire covering a space of nearly half an acre with itsleaves and blossoms. One of the poets, not Cowper my favourite, thoughone equally fond of the world of nature, describes the flower verynicely. `See,' he says--

  "`Where the sky-blue Periwinkle climbs E'en to the cottage eaves, and hides the wall And dairy lattice, with a thousand eyes!'"

  "What pretty lines, auntie, so very like the flower!" cried Nell whenMrs Gilmour finished the quotation. "But, do you know, auntie, Ithought when you said you'd found a periwinkle, you meant one to eat,like those periwinkles I've got in the aquarium you gave me."

  "Did you really, though, dearie?" said her aunt, smiling at her verynatural mistake. "It is because you feel hungry, I suppose. You mayeat this one if you like!"

  "No, no, auntie," laughed Nellie, "I'm not quite so hungry as that!But, oh, auntie, here are some of those lovely big daisies we saw whenwe first came in the park."

  "Those are the daisies that are called the `ox-eye' or moon daisy, mydear," explained Mrs Gilmour. "You might call them the first cousins--though only, mind you, a sort of poor relation--of the choice margueritedaisy that gardeners cultivate and think so highly of. Here, too,dearie, I see another old friend of mine, whose petals fall just likesnow-flakes on the grass."

  "It is almost like the honeysuckle," cried Nellie. "How sweet itsmells!"

  "Like its name, dearie," replied the other. "It is called the `meadow-sweet'; and a delicious perfume can be extracted from it by infusion inboiling water. The roots of the plant are long tubers, which, whenground to powder and dried, may be used as a substitute for flour,should you have any scarcity of that article!"

  "I'd rather have the real sort of flour, though, auntie."

  "So would I, too, dearie," agreed Mrs Gilmour. "I only told you incase you may be thrown on a desert island some day, when the informationmight be of use in the event of your being without bread."

  "But, supposing there was no meadow-sweet there either, auntie?"

  "Sure that would be a bad look-out," said Mrs Gilmour, joining inNell's laugh. "I think we'd better wait till you get to the desertisland!"
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  Wandering along, they plucked at their will masses of the wildconvolvulus, or "great bindweed," whose white blossoms, while theylasted, added much to the general effect of the bouquet Nellie wasmaking up with her busy fingers from the spoils of coppice and sward.

  These, in addition to the flowers they had just picked, now comprisedmany other natives of the wood and hedgerow, such as the purple bugloss,the yellow iris, the star thistle, the common mallow; and, a convolvuluswhich was brilliantly pink, in contrast to his white brother before-mentioned. Besides these, Nellie had also gathered some sprays of the"toad flax" and "blue succory," a relative of the "endive" tribe, whichproduces the chicory-root so much consumed in England, as in France, asa "substitute" for coffee. A splendid sprig of yellow broom and dearlittle bunch of hare-bells, the "blue Bells of Scotland," with two orthree scarlet poppies, a wreath of the aromatic ground ivy and somefern-leaves for foliage, completed her floral collection.

  Stopping beneath a group of trees further on, to listen to the song of athrush, which was so full of melody that they approached him quite closewithout his noticing them, Nell and her aunt were amused by seeing tworooks quarrelling over a worm which they had both got hold of at thesame time, one at either end gripping the unfortunate creature; andgobbling, and tugging, and cawing, at once!

  One of these rooks had a white head, which he seemed to cock on one sidein a strangely familiar way to Nell.

  "He's just like the Captain!" she exclaimed, tittering at the fanciedresemblance. "Look, auntie, why he actually seems to wink!"

  "I declare I'll tell him!" said Mrs Gilmour, enjoying the joke none theless at the fancied resemblance. "Sure he'd be hoighly delighted."

  Then, as they wound round back to the dell through the dense shrubbery,they re-crossed the little rivulet which they had twice passed overbefore.

  On the banks of this, although it was too small almost to have "banks,"properly speaking, Mrs Gilmour pointed out to Nell the "great waterplantain," with its sprigs of little lilac blossoms and beautiful greenleaves, like those of the lily of the valley somewhat. The plant issaid to be used in Russia as a cure for hydrophobia, the good ladyexplained; though she added that she could not vouch personally for itsvirtues.

  Not far from this, too, they found another very curious plant, called insome places the "cuckoo pint," and in others the "wake robin," or, morecommonly, "lords and ladies." The leaves of this are of a glossy dark-green and the flower very like the leaf; only, more curved and tintedinside, with a hue of pale buff that becomes pinkish at the extremities,the centre pistil being of the same colour. It belongs to the arumfamily.

  Following the course of the brook, Nellie, a little way on, spied out aregular bed of the forget-me-not; when Mrs Gilmour told her the oldlegend connected with the flower.

  How a knight and a lady were sitting by the side of a river; and, on thelady expressing a desire to have some of the bright blue blossoms "tobraid in her bonny brown hair," the gallant knight at once dashed in thestream to gratify her wishes. He secured a bunch of the flowers; but,on turning to regain the shore, the current overcame him; and, as theold song goes--

  "Then the blossoms blue to the bank he threw, Ere he sunk in the eddying tide; And `Lady, I'm gone, thine own love true, Forget-me-not,' he cried.

  "The farewell pledge the lady caught; And hence, as legends say, The flower's a sign to awaken thoughts Of friends who are far away!"

  "How nice!" cried Nellie-- "How very nice!"

  "Not for the poor knight, though," said her aunt. "However, here,dearie, is another plant not quite so romantic, the old brown scabious,or `turf-weed.' It is a great favourite with bees, while its roots aresupposed to have valuable medicinal properties, which the country peoplewell know and estimate at their right worth. In some places they callit the `Devil's bit'!"

  "How funny!" interposed Nellie. "Why do they give it such a strangename?"

  "Yes, it is rather a strange title; but I read once somewhere that thestory about it is, that the Spirit of Evil, envying the good which thisherb might do to mankind, bit away part of it and thence came its name,`Devil's bit.'"

  "Really, auntie," said Nell. "Does it look as if it had been bitten?"

  "Yes, the root does," she replied. "But, come, dearie, we must get backnow as fast as we can, or Captain Dresser and the boys will be therebefore us and eat up all the luncheon!"

  Without stopping to look at any more flowers or curious plants, theyretraced their steps towards the dell, Nellie humming the last line ofthe song of the forget-me-not, which she was trying to learn by heart--"Of friends who are far away! Of friends who are far away"--when,suddenly, they heard Rover's bark ringing through the woods, its echoesloud and resonant, like the sound of a deep-toned bell.

  "Come on, dearie," called out Mrs Gilmour, who was in advance,quickening her pace as she spoke, "come on quick, dearie! There's someone making off with our lunch; and, just think how hungry we are!"

  "Don't fear, auntie," said Nell reassuringly behind her; "Rover will notlet any one touch it, you may be certain!"

  Nevertheless, she hurried after Mrs Gilmour; and both arrived together,well-nigh breathless, at the spot where they had left their feast sonicely laid out.