Miss Mouse and Her Boys
CHAPTER I
'WHAT A LOT OF BOYS!'
It was before the days of sailor suits and knickerbockers. Nowadays boys would make great fun of the quaint little men in tight-fitting jackets, and trousers buttoning on above them, that many people still living can remember well, for it is not so very long ago after all.
And whatever the difference in their clothes, the boys of then were in themselves very like the boys of now – queer, merry, thoughtless fellows for the most part, living in the pleasant present, caring much less for the past or the future than their girl-companions, seldom taking trouble of any kind to heart, or if they did, up again like a cork at the first chance. But yet how dull the world, now as then, would be without them and their bats and balls, and pockets full of rubbish, and everlasting scrapes and mischief, and honest old hearts!
I always like to hear any one, young or old, man or woman or girl, say, as one often does hear said, 'I do love boys.'
There were five of them – of the Hervey boys. They began at thirteen and ended at three, or began at three and ended at thirteen, if you like to put it that way. But when they were all together in the nursery, or playroom as they called it more often – to see them, still more to hear them, you would certainly have said there were at least ten – above all if a scrimmage of any kind was going on, for then the number of legs and arms all belonging to everybody apparently, seemed to be multiplied in an astonishing manner.
You would, I think, have sympathised with a small person, almost as small as three-years-old Ger, whose first word's when the door was opened were, in an awe-struck whisper,
'Oh, what a lot of boys.'
She was dressed in pale grey, grey all over, made rather long in the skirt, and she had a little drawn bonnet of the same colour – a quaint little figure; but we are used to quaint little figures of her kind now – fashions repeat themselves, wise people say; and so they do in some cases, though not in all. I cannot believe that boys will ever again be buttoned up and choked as they used to be, above all in summer, when their hot, red faces seemed on the point of bursting out of their 'nankeen' suits, held together by brass buttons.
But the little grey figure standing at the doorway of the Herveys' playroom was pretty as well as quaint, though the small face was pale, and the eyes just a quiet grey like the colour of her clothes, and her dark-brown hair cropped quite short.
She was holding on tightly to the hand of a young lady, and as one of the scrimmagers caught sight of this same young lady, and immediately broke into a shout of welcome – 'Aunt Mattie – boys, don't you see Aunt Mattie?' and the noise became really deafening, our little girl squeezed the fingers she held still more firmly, and an almost frightened look crept into her eyes.
'Boys, boys,' exclaimed Aunt Mattie in turn, 'don't you see that – somebody you have never seen before is here? Do disentangle yourselves if you can – Archie, Hector – I can't tell which is which of you – and Ger, dear old Ger, as plump as ever, and – yes, that's right, Justin – you and Pat really should keep the pickles in order.'
Justin got red – redder even than he was already – as he pushed his way out of the scramble.
'If you knew what it was, auntie,' he said, in a tone half of despair, half of apology. 'The pickles get worse every day, and Pat's always asleep or nearly asleep over his books and plans. I really – '
'Well, never mind about that just now,' said his aunt. 'I must introduce you all properly,' and she led the little girl gently forward into the room, looking round for a seat, which was not so easy to find, as every chair was either upside down or else hoisted on to the top of another.
'I'll get you one down,' Archie called out when he saw the state of things. 'Get out of the way, Hec and Ger, can't you?'
But in getting out of the way, Hec tumbled over Ger, and Ger, who was really only a baby, though a very independent one, kicked out at Hec, which he thought more manly than crying, though one or other he must have done, of course, to relieve his feelings. Whereupon Aunt Mattie, not seeming very surprised, though in her heart she was startled at the look in the big grey eyes under the shade of the grey bonnet, picked him up, still kicking, and plumped him down between herself and the little grey person, who by this time was seated beside her, two chairs having somehow been got at.
Ger was too surprised to go on kicking, or to cry. He just opened his mouth wide and stared. Then 'Aunt-ie,' he began slowly, in a tone of reproach, 'thoo – '
But he got no further.
'Ger,' said auntie gravely, 'I'm ashamed of you. You haven't even said "How do you do?" or shaken hands with this young lady. She isn't accustomed to see little boys fighting and kicking each other.'
'I diddun fight,' said Ger, 'I on'y kicked. Hec begunned.'
'I!' exclaimed Hec, ready to swell up with indignation like an angry turkey-cock, 'I– I were fetchin' a chair and – '
'Stop, boys,' said Aunt Mattie again. 'Now let's go on nicely. This is Ger, and he wants to be very polite now and shake hands – eh, Ger?'
Ger's round blue eyes were fixed on the small stranger.
'Her's not a young lady,' he said at last. 'Ger 'ud rather kith her.'
The little girl leaned forward at once, and kissed his firm, plump cheek.
'Thoo ith tho thoft,' he said, and he stroked her cape and the chinchilla muff she was holding. 'I know – thoo's a mouse.'
He said the 's' quite plainly, for his lisp was a very changeable one, and already he was on the way to lose it altogether.
Everybody laughed. Ger liked the sound of the laugh – it was not making fun of him.
'Yeth,' he went on, 'uth'll call thoo' – with some effort – 'Mith Mouse.'
Miss Mouse leant forward a second time and kissed him again.
'You funny little boy,' she said. 'You may call me "Miss Mouse" if you please, but wouldn't you like to know my proper name?'
Ger shook his head.
'No thank thoo. I like Mith Mouse best.'
'But we'd like to know your real name,' said Archie. 'Wouldn't we – Justin and Hec, and – oh Pat's asleep over a book again, I suppose.'
'I'm not,' growled a voice from an opposite corner.
'Well then, behave properly. Come out of there, can't you? Aunt Mattie, make him.'
'Patrick,' said Aunt Mattie, and Pat got up and came slowly forward. He was not like Justin, and Hec, and Ger, who were all fair and ruddy; he was dark-haired and dark-eyed and pale, while Archie, the best-looking of the five, came between the two, for he had bright brown hair and merry hazel eyes.
'Now,' said Aunt Mattie, 'now, dear, you see them all – Ger, you have shaken hands with, or rather, kissed. Ger is three and three quarters, and his real name is Gervais. Hector is – let me see – six and a half – no, seven, just struck. Shake hands, Hec, if you're too big to be kissed.'
'I'm not,' said Hec, and he stretched up his rosy mouth to Miss Mouse, and then, like Ger, he stroked her chinchilla muff softly.
'And Archie,' Aunt Mattie proceeded. Archibald is nearly ten,' and Archie held out a rather grimy paw and shook hands heartily. 'Next comes Patrick, eleven past.' Pat's mouth was shut tight, and he only just touched the little girl's fingers. 'And, last and eldest, Justin, who is thirteen and – ' she hesitated.
'Thirteen and a quarter,' said Justin cheerily.
'Then,' said Miss Mouse, speaking almost for the first time, 'I come between Pat and Archie. I'm nine – nine past, my birthday was last Christmas.'
'Are you staying with Aunt Mattie?' asked Justin. 'When did you come? You weren't there on Sunday.'
The little girl turned to the young lady with a puzzled look.
'Don't they know?' she said in a half whisper.
Aunt