 Section 1 of Harding's Luck. This is a Libre Rocks recording. Our Libre Rocks recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibreRocks.org. Recording by Sonja. Harding's Luck by Edis Naspet, Chapter 1, Part 1. Tinkler and the Moonflower. Dickey lived at New Cross. At least, the address was New Cross. But really, the house where he lived was one of a row of Howard Little Houses, built on the slope where one's green fields ran down the hill to the river and to the old houses of the Dead Fort merchants stood stately in their pleasant gardens and fruitful orchards. All those good fields and happy gardens are built over now. It is as though some bigot giant had taken a big brushful of yellow ochre paint and another full of mud-colour and had painted out the green in streaks of dull yellow and filthy brown, and the brownest the roads and the yellowest the houses. Milds and miles and miles of them and not a green thing to be seen except the cabbages and the greengrocer's shops and, here and there, some poor trades of creeping Jenny drooping from a dirty windowsill. There's a little yard at the back of each house. There's not the garden and some of these show green, but they only show it to the houses back windows. You cannot see it from the street. These gardens are green because green is the colour that most pleases and soothes man's eyes, and however you may shut people up between bars of yellow and mud-colour and however hard you may make them work and however little wage you may pay them for working, there will always be found among those people who are willing to work a little longer and for no wages at all so that they may have green things growing near them. But there were no green things growing in the garden at the back of the house where Dicky lived with his aunt. There were stones and bones and bits of brick and dirty old dishcloths matted together with grease and mud, worn out broom-heads and broken shovels, a bottomless pail and the mouldy remains of a hutch where one's rabbits had lived. But that was a very long time ago and Dicky had never seen the rabbits. A boy had brought a brown rabbit to school once, buttoned up inside his jacket and he had let Dicky hold it in his hands for several minutes before the teacher detected its presence and shut it up in a locker till school should be over. So Dicky knew what rabbits were like and he was fond of the hutch for the sake of what had once lived there. And when his aunt sold the poor remains of the hutch to a man with a barrel who was ready to buy anything and who took all the pails and the shovels, giving three pens for the lot, Dicky was almost as unhappy as though the hutch had really heard a furry friend and he hated the man who took the hutch away, all the more because there were empty rabbit skins hanging sadly from the back of the barrel. It is really was the going of that rabbit hutch that this story begins because it was then that Dicky, having called his aunt a beast and hid at her with his dirty little fist, was well slept and put out into the bereaved yard to come to himself, as his aunt said. He threw himself down on the ground and cried and wriggled with misery and pain and wished, ah, many things. What's the bloom in Roe now? the man next door suddenly asked, been hidden of you? They've took away the hutch, said Dicky. Well, there warn nothing in it. I didn't want it took away, way Dicky. Leaves more room, said the man next door, leaning on a spade. It was Saturday afternoon and the next door garden was one of the green ones. There were small, graffie-deaf adults in it and dirty-faced little prim-roses and an arbor beside the water-bud, bare this time of the year, but still a real arbor and an alder tree that in the hot weather had flat white flowers on it, big as tea-plates, and a lilac tree with brown buds on it. Beautiful. Say, matey, just you chuck it. Chuck it, I say. How in thunder can I get down with my diggin' with your odin' your head off? inquired the man next door. You get up and peck along in and ask your aunt if she'd be agreeable for me to do up her garden a bit. I could do it odd times, you'd like that? Not half, said Diggy, getting up. Come to yourself, eh? Sneered the aunt. You mind and let it be the last time you come your games with me, my beauty. You and your tantrums. Diggy said what it was necessary to say and got back to the garden. She says she aunt got no time to waste and if you have she don't care what you does with it. There's a dirty mug you've got on you, said the man next door, leaning over to give Diggy's face a rub with a handkerchief hardly cleaner. Now I come over and make a start. He threw his leg over the fence. You just peck about and be busy picking up all them fancy articles and next time your aunt goes to Buckingham Palace for the day we'll have a bonfire. Fifth of November, said Diggy, sitting down and beginning to draw to himself the rubbish that covered the ground. Fifth of anything you like, so long as she aunt about, said he, driving in the spade. I'll just any old doorstep it is. Never mind, we'll turn it over and we get some little seedsies and some little plantsies and we shan't know ourselves. I got a half penny, said Diggy. Well, I put one to it and you leg long and buy seedsies. That's what you do. Diggy went. He went slowly because he was lame and he was lame because his aunt had dropped him when he was a baby. She was not a nice woman and I'm glad to say that she goes out of this door almost at once. But she did keep Diggy when his father died and she might have sent him to the workhouse. For she was not really his aunt but just the woman of the house where his father had lodged. It was good of her to keep Diggy even if she wasn't very kind to him and as that is all the good I can find to say about her I would say no more. As much made out of a worn-out broom cut down to his little height he could manage quite well in spite of his lameness. He found the corn chandeliers a really charming shop that smelled like staves and had deep dusty bins where he would have liked to play. Above the bins were delightful little square-fronted drawers labeled rape, hemp, cannery, milled, mustard and so on and above the drawers pictures of the kind of animals and the things that the shop sold. Fat oblong cows that had eaten birdie's cattle food stout pillars of wool that offers as cheap spice at fat and brightest and best of all an incredible smooth plumage parrot rainbow collet cocking a black eye bright with the intoxicating qualities of paracits at a stick birdseed. Gimmie said Diggy leaning against the counter and pointing a grimy thumb at the wonder Gimmie a penrose or that there got the penny the shopper asked carefully Diggy splayed it, parted with it and came home nursing a paper bag full of rustling promises Why? said the man next door they're dying seeds it's parrot food that is it said they are something birdseed said Diggy downcast I thought it had come into flowers like birds same colors as what the pole parrot was don't you know and so it will like a snot said the man next door comfortably I'll set it along the sand soon as I've got it turned over I lay it'll come up something pretty so the seed was sown and the man next door promised two more pennies later for real seed also he transplanted two of the primroses whose faces wanted washing it was a grand day for Diggy he told the whole story of it that night when he went to bed to his only confidant from whom he did nothing the confidant made no reply but Diggy was sure this was not because the confidant didn't care about the story the confidant was a blackened stick about five inches long was little blackened belts to it like the belts on dog's collars also a rather crooked bit of something whitish and very hard go to suck or to stroke with your fingers or to dig holes in the soap with Diggy had no idea what it was his father had given it to him in the hospital where Diggy was taken to say goodbye to him goodbye had to be said because of father having fallen off the scaffolding where he was at work and not getting better you stick to that father had said looking dreadfully clean in the strange bed among all those other clean beds it's you and your very own my dad gave it to me and it belonged to his dad don't you let anyone take it away some old lady told the old man it'd bring us luck so long old chap Diggy remembered every word of that speech and he kept the treasure there had been another thing with it tied on with string but aunt Maude had found that and taken it away to take care of and he had never seen it again it was brassy with the white stone and some sort of pattern on it he had the treasure and he had not the least idea what it was with its bells that jangle such pretty music and its white spike so hard and smooth he did not know but I know it was a rattle a baby's old-fashioned rattle or, if you would rather call it that a curl and belts and we shall laugh the fairest flowers of Phil and Dale said Diggy, whispering comfortably in his dirty sheets and Greensford, oh Tinkler dear trill indeed be a fair scene the gayest colors of the rainbow amid the ague able green of fresh leaves I do love the man next door he is indeed a art of gold that was how Diggy talked to his friend Tinkler you know how he talked to his aunt and the man next door I wonder whether you know that most children can speak at least two languages even if they have never had a phone nurse or been to phone climes or whether you think that you're the only child who can do this believe me, you're not parents and guardians would be surprised to learn that dear little Charlie has a language quite different from the one he uses to them a language in which he talks to the cook and the housemate and yet another language spoken with the real accent too in which he converses with the boot boy and the grooms however had learned a second language from books the teacher at the school had given him six children of the new forest Quentin Dervet he awards the wake and three others all paper-backed they made a new world for Diggy and since the people in books talked in this nice of odd way he saw no reason why he should not to a friend whom he could trust I hope you're not getting bored with all this you see, I must tell you a little about the kind of boy Diggy was and the kind of way he lived or you won't understand his adventures and he had adventures no end of adventures as you would see presently Diggy woke, gay as the spring sun that was trying to look in at him Swiss Grammy winners perhaps he'll do some more to the garden today he said and got up very quickly he got up in the dirty comfortless room and dressed himself but in the evening he was undressed by kind clean hands and washed in a big bath half full of hot, silvery water with soap that smelled like the timber yard at the end of the street because going along to school with a silly little head full of artistic bird seeds and flowers rainbow colored he had let his clutch slip on a banana skin and had tumbled down and a butcher's cart had gone over his poor lame foot so they took the hurt foot to the hospital and of course he had to go with it and the hospital was much more like the heaven he read of in his books than anything he had ever come across before he noticed that the nurses and the doctors spoke in the kind of words that he had found in his books and in a voice that he had not found anywhere so when on the second day a round faced smiling lady in a white cap said well Tommy and how are we today he replied my name is Far from being Tommy and I am in luxury and affluence I thank you gracious lady at which the lady laughed and pinched his cheek when she grew to know him better and found out where he had learned to talk like that she produced more books and from them he learned more new words they were very nice to him at the hospital but when they sent him home they put his lame foot into a thick boot with a hurried clumpy soul in iron things that went up his leg his aunt and her friend said how kind but Dickie hated it the boys at school made game of it they had got used to the crutch and there was worse than being called old dot and go one which was what Dickie had got used to so used that it seemed almost like a pet name and on that first night of his return he found that he had been robbed they had taken his tinkler from the safe corner in his bed where the ticking was broken and there was a soft flock nest for a boys best friend he knew better than to ask what had become of it instead he searched and searched the house in all its five rooms but he never found tinkler instead he found next day when his aunt had gone out shopping a little square of cardboard at the back of the dresser drawer among the dirty dusters and clothes packs and string and corks and novelettes it was a pawn ticket Gretel one chilling Dickie knew all about pawn tickets you of course don't well I asked some grown up person to explain I haven't time I want to get on with the story until he had found that ticket he had not been able to think of anything else he had not even cared to think about his garden and wonder whether the artistic bird seeds had come up parrot colored he had spent a very long time in the hospital and it was August now and the nurses had assured him that the seeds must be up long ago he would find everything flowering you see if he didn't and now he went out to look there was a tangle of green growth at the end of the garden the garden was full of weeds for the man next door had gone off to look for work down Ashford way where the hop gardens are and the house was to let a few poor little pink and yellow flowers short-stunted among the green we had sowed the artistic bird seed and towering high above everything else I was three times as high as Dickie himself there was a flower a great flower like a sunflower only white it's as big as a dinner plate it was it stood up beautiful and stately and turned its green white face towards the sun the stalks like a little tree said Dickie and so it was it had great drooping leaves and a dozen smaller white flowers stood out below it on long stalks, thinner than that needed to support the moon flower itself it is the moon flower of course he said if the other kind sunflowers I love it I love it he did not allow himself much time for loving it however for he had business in hand he had somehow or other to get a shilling because without a shilling he could not exchange that square of cardboard with rattle on it for his one-trend tinkler and with the shilling he could this is part of the dismal magic of pond tickets which some grown-up would kindly explain to you I can't get money by the sweat of my brow said Dickie to himself nobody would let me run the errands when they could get a boy with both legs to do them, not likely I wish I'd got something I could sell he looked round the yard dirtier and nastier than ever known the parts that the man next door had not had time to dick there was certainly nothing there that anyone would want to buy especially now the rabbit hatch was gone except why, of course the moonflowers he got the old worn-down knife out of the bowl on the packaging sink where it nestled among potato peelings like a flower among foliage and carefully cut half a dozen of the smaller flowers then he limped up to a new costation and stood outside leaning on his crutch and holding out the flowers to the people who came crowding out of the station after the arrival of each train thick black crowds of tired people in too great a hurry to get home to their tease to care much about him or his flowers everybody glanced at them for they were wonderful flowers as wide as water lilies only flat the real sunflower shape and their centers were of the purest yellow gold color pretty aren't they one black-coated person would say to another and the other would reply no, yes, I don't know hurry up can't you it was no good Dicky was tired and the flowers were beginning to droop he turned to go home when a sudden thought brought the blotcher's face he turned again quickly and went straight to the pond brokers you may be quite sure he had learned the address on the cart by heart he went boldly into the shop which had three handsome gold balls hanging out above its door and in its window all sorts of pretty things rings and chains and broaches and watches and china and silk handkerchiefs and concertinas well young man said the stout gentleman behind the counter what can we do for you I want to pawn my moonflowers said Dicky the stout gentleman roared with laughter and slapped a stout leg with a stout hand well that's a good one he said as good a one as ever I heard why you little duffer let be dead long before you came back to redeem them that's certain you'd have them while they were alive you know said Dicky gently what are they don't seem up too much though I don't know that I ever saw a flower just like them come to think of it said the pawn broker who lived in a neat villa at broccoli and went in for gardening and a gentlemanly you'd needn't suppose I can't afford to re-guarden if I like sort of way they are moonflowers said Dicky and I want to pawn them and then get something else out with the money got the ticket said the gentleman cleverly seeing that he meant get out of pawn yes said Dicky and it's my own tinkler that my daddy gave me before he died when I was in hospital the man looked carefully at the cart alright he said at last hand over the flowers they are not so bad he added more willing to price them now that they were his things do look different when they are your own don't you think here I'm for you put these in a jug of water till I go home and get this out a pair of young men in spectacles appeared from a sort of dark cave at the back of the shop took flowers and ticket and was swallowed up again in the darkness of the cave oh thank you said Dicky fervently I shall live but to repay your bounteous generosity none of your cheeks at the pawn-brugger reddening and there was an awkward pause it's not cheek I meant it said Dicky at last speaking very earnestly you'd see some of these days I read an interesting note retrieve about a lion the king of beasts and a mouse that small and timorous animal which if you have not heard it I will now proceed to relight you're a rum little kid I don't think so the men where do you learn such talk it's the why they talk in books said Dicky suddenly returning to the language of sound you've been a tough I thought you'd understand my mistake no offense mean to say you can talk like a book when you like and cut it off short like that I can converse like lords and lindy said Dicky in the accents of the gutter and your noble, benevolent factoriness made me seek to express my feelings with the best words of me command fond of books I believe you said Dicky and there were no more awkward pauses when the pale young man came back with something wrapped in a bit of clean rag he said a whispered word or two to the pawn-brugger and rode the rag and looked closely at the rattle so does he said and it's a beauty too let alone anything else isn't he said Dicky touched by the sprays of his treasure tinklo I've got something else here that's got the same crest as your rattle crest said Dicky isn't that what you wear on your helmet in the heat and press of the tower nament the pawn-brugger explained that crests no longer live exclusively on helmets but on all sorts of odd things and the queer little animal drawn in fine scratches on the side of the rattle was, it seemed, a crest here, Humphrey's he added give it a rub up and bring that seal here the pale young man did something to tinkler with some pinky powder and a brush and a wash leather while his master fitted together the two halves of a broken white cornelion it came out of a seal he said I don't mind making you present of it oh, sir Dicky you're a real writer and he rested his crutch against the counter expressly to clasp his hands in ecstasy as boys in bookstead my young man shall stick it together with cement, the pawn-brugger went on and put it in a little box don't you take it out till tomorrow and it'll be stuck fast only don't go trying to seal with it or the sealing wax will melt the cement it'll bring you luck I shouldn't wonder it did in such luck as the kind pawn-brugger I never dreamed of but that comes further on in the story End of chapter 1 part 1 section 2 of Harding's Luck this is a Librirox recording our Librirox recordings are in the public domain for more information or told on tier please visit Librirox.org Harding's Luck by Edis Naspet chapter 1 part 2 Dicky left the shop without his moonflowers indeed but with his tinkler now widely shining and declared to be real silver and mind you take care of it my lad his white conelian seal carefully packed in his strong little cardboard box with metal corners also a broken-backed copy of Engelsby legends and one of Mrs. Markham's English history which had no back at all you must go on trying to improve your mind said the pawn-brugger Fussily he was very pleased with himself for having been so kind and come back and see me say next month I will, said Dicky a thousand blessings from a grateful heart I will come back I say you are good thank you, thank you, I will come back next month and tell you everything I have learned from the Perussell of your books Perussell said the pawn-brugger that's the way to pronounce it goodbye my man and next month but next month found Dicky in a very different place from the pawn-brugger shop and was a very different person from the pawn-brugger who in his rural retirement at broccoli, gardened in such a gentlemanly way Dicky went home his aunt was still out his books told him the treasure is best hidden under loose boards and as of course your house has a secret panel which his had not there was a loose board in his room saw to the gas he got it up and pushed his treasures as far in as he could along the rough crumbly surface of the lass and plaster not a moment too soon for before the board was coaxed quite back into its place the voice of the aunt screamed up come along down, can't you I can hear you pounding about up there come along down have hatched me a hapers of wood I can't get the kettle to boil without fire, can I when Dicky came down his aunt slightly slapped him and he took the half penny and limped off obediently it was a very long time indeed before he came back because before he got to the shop was no window to it but only shutters that were put up at night where the wood and coal were sold he saw a punch and judy show he had never seen one before and it interested him extremely he longed to see it and pack itself and display its oneness through more streets than he knew and when he found that it was not going to unpack at all but was just going home to its bed in an old coal-shouse he remembered the firewood and the half penny clutched tight and close in the sand seemed to have approached him warmly he looked about him and knew that he did not at all know where he was there was a tall, thin, ragged man lounging against a stable door in the yard where the punch and judy show lived he took a clay pipe out of his mouth to say what's up, matey? lost your way? Dicky explained it's Levener Terrace where I live, he ended Levener Terrace, Rosemary Street, Depford I'm going that way myself, said the man getting away from the wall we go back by the boat, if you like ever been on the boat? no, said Dicky like to? don't mind if I do, said Dicky it was very pleasant with the steamboat going along in such a hurry pushing the water out of the way and puffing and blowing and something beating inside it like a giant's heart the wind blew freshly and the ragged man found a sheltered corner behind the funnel it was so sheltered and the wind had been so strong that Dicky felt sleepy when he said have I been asleep? the steamer was stopping at a pier at a strange place with trees here we are, said the man have you been asleep? not enough I guess I'll have my man, we get off here is this Depford? Dicky asked and the people shoving and crushing to get off the steamer laughed when he said it not exactly said the man, but it's alright this year's where we get off you aren't had your tea yet my boy it was the most glorious tea Dicky had ever imagined fried eggs and bacon he had one egg and the man had three bread and butter and if the bread was thick so was the butter and cups of tea as you like to say thank you for when it was over the man asked Dicky if he could walk a little way and when Dicky said he could they set out in the most friendly way side by side I like it very much and thank you kindly said Dicky presently and the tea and all and the egg and this is the prettiest place ever I see but I ought to be getting home I should catch it if I treat as it is she was waiting for the wood to boil the kettle when I come out mother aunt not me real aunt only I call her that she any good and bad when she's in a good temper that aunt what she'll be in when you get back seems to me you've gone and done it mate why it's hours and hours since you and me got acquainted look the sun's just going it was over trees more beautiful than anything Dicky had ever seen for they were now in a country road with green hedges and green grass going beside it in which little round-faced flowers grew daisies they were even Dicky knew that I got a ticket said Dicky sadly I'd best be getting home I wouldn't go home not if I was used at the men I'd go out and see the world a bit I would what me said Dicky why not come I make your fair offer you come along on me and see life right in the back or alongside the sea ever see the sea no said Dicky oh no no I never well you come along on me I ended here have I like what you aren't too I give you a ride in a pleasure boat only you went to sleep and I give you a tea-fit for a hamperer and I you have that said Dicky well they'll show you the sort of man I am so now I make your fair offer you come along on me and be my little one and I be your daddy and a better dad I lay nor if I'd been born so what do you say matey the man's manner was so kind and hearty the whole adventure was so wonderful and new is it country where you're going said Dicky looking at the green hat all the way Prudinius said the man we trumpet taking it easy all around the coast where gents go for their outings they've always got a bit to spare then I lay you'll get some color in them cheeks or yours they're like Prudino come now what do you say is it a bargain it's very kind of you said Dicky but what call you got to do it it'll cost a lot my victuals I mean what call you got to do it the man got just head and hesitated then he looked up at the sky and then down at the road they were resting on a heap of stones at last he said you are sharp lad you are bloom and sharp well I want to see you matey I want company and as I get my living by the sweat of charitable ladies and gents it don't do no harm to have a little nipper alongside there comes down and somewhere if there's a nipper and I like nippers some looks don't but I do Dicky felt that this was true but we'll be beggars you mean he said doubtfully oh don't call names said the man and if kind people gives us a helping hand well so much the better for our parties if what they learn to me at Sunday school is any good well there it is take it or leave it the sun shot long golden beams through the gaps in the hatch a bird paused in its flight on a branch quite close and clung their swing a real life bird Dicky thought of the kitchen at home the lamp that smoked the dirty table the fender full of ashes and dirty paper the dry bread the taste of mice and the water out of the broken earthenware cup that would be his breakfast when he had gone to bed crying after his aunt had slept him I can't said he and thank you kindly mind you said the man carefully this ain't no kidnapping I enticed your way you come on your own free wish oh yes can you write yes said Dicky if I got a pen I got a pencil hold on a bit he took out of his pocket a new envelope a new sheet of paper and a new pencil ready sharpened by machinery it almost looked Dicky thought as though he had brought them out for some special purpose perhaps he had now said the man you take and write make it flat again the sole of my boot he lay face downward on the road and turned up his boot as the boots were the most natural writing deaths in the world now write what I say Mr. Beale, dear sir will you please take me on tramp with you I have no father nor yet mother to be uneasy can you spell uneasy that's right you are a scholar and I ask you let me come along with you got that all right I'll stop a bit till you catch up then you say if you take me along I promise to give you all what I earns or gets anyhow and to be a good boy and do what you say and I shall be very glad if you will your obedient servant what's your name eh? Dicky Harding get it wrote down then, done? I'm glad I wasn't born a table to be wrote on don't it make your legs stuff neither he wrote over took the paper and read it slowly and with difficulty then he folded it and put it in his pocket now we are square he said that is then true and legal in any police court in England that will and don't you forget it to the people who live in Rosemary Terrace the words police court are very alarming indeed Dicky turned a little pale and said why police? I ain't done nothing wrong what you told me no my boy said the man you ain't done no wrong, you done right but there's bad people in the world police and such as might lay it up to me as I took you away against a will they could put a man away for less than that at the end again my will said Dicky I want to that's what I say said the man chiefly so now we agreed upon it if you'll step it we'll see about a dust for tonight and tomorrow we'll sleep in the bed with the green curtains I see that there in a book said Dicky jumped he reward the wake the last of the English and I wondered what it stood for it stands for laying out said the man and so it does though that's not at all what the words of he award meant it to me laying out on the edge or a stick or such and looking up at the stars till you goes by by and jolly good business too find where they and then you've said a bit and resties a bit and someone gives you something to help you along the road and in the evening you as a glass of a let the public close and finds another set of green bad curtains and on Saturday you gets in an extra lot of frog and a Sunday you stays there you be and washes off your shirt do you have a benches a stick recognizing in this description a rough sketch of the life of a modern night errand when she's I believe you said the man why only last month a brood of a dog bit me in the leg at a back door sudden way and once I see an elephant why it a sticky thrilling not exactly why it with a circus he was but big once and a half size L.A. and you meet soldiers and parties in red coats riding on horses with spotted dogs and motors as run you down and take you out of before you know you're dead if you don't look alive adventures I should think so ah, said Dickie and the full silence fell between them tired asked Mr. Beard presently just a teeny bit perhaps said Dickie briefly but I can stick it we'll get some out with wheels for you tomorrow said the man if it's only a sugar box and I can tie the leg of yours up to make it look like as if it was cut off it's just a nasty boots that makes me tired said Dickie half with it said the man obligingly Downey said some of them stones and half with it try that too if you like you can keep to the grass the jury grass felt pleasantly cool and clean to Dickie's tired little foot across the road where water cut had dripped it was delicious to feel the cool mud squeeze up between your toes that was charming but it was pleasant too to rush the mud off on the wet grass Dickie always remembered that moment it was the first time in his life that he really enjoyed being clean in the hospital you were almost too clean and you didn't do it yourself that made all the difference yet it was the memory of the hospital that made him say I wish I could have a bath so you shall said Mr. Biel a regular wash all over this very night I always like a wash myself some looks think it pays to be dirty but it don't if you're clean they say honest poverty and if you're dirty they say serve you right we get a pale or something this very night you are good said Dickie I do like you Mr. Biel looked at him with a bright light rather clearly Dickie thought also he sighed heavily oh well as well as has no turning and things don't always what I mean to say you be a good boy and I do the right thing by you I know you will said Dickie with enthusiasm I know how good you are bless me said Mr. Biel uncomfortably well there it's about sunny or we'll never get there Mr. Biel may be a cruel wicked man who only wanted to get hold of Dickie so as to make money out of him and he may be going to be very unkind indeed to Dickie when once he gets him away into the country and is all alone with him and his having the paper and envelope and pencil already looks odd doesn't it or he may be a really benevolent person well you'll know all about it presently and here we are said Mr. Biel stopping in the side street open door from which yellow light streamed welcomingly now mind you don't contradict anything what I say to people and don't you forget you're my nipple and you got to call me daddy I call you father said Dickie I got a daddy of my own you know why said Mr. Biel stopping suddenly you said he was dead so he is said Dickie but he's my daddy all the same oh come on said Mr. Biel impatiently went in and of chapter 1 part 2 section 3 of Harding Sluck this is the lipplebox recording all lipplebox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit lipplebox.org recording by Sonja Harding Sluck by Edith Snaspid chapter 2 part 1 burglars Dickie fell asleep between clean, coarse sheets in a hard narrow bed for which four pins had been paid put your clover under your bolster like was your boots was the last instruction of his new friend and father there had been a bath or something equally cleansing in a pail near fire where ragged but agreeable people were cooking herrings, sausages and other delicacies on little grid irons or pans that they unrolled pots that were their luggage one man who had no grid iron cooked a piece of steak on the kitchen tongs Dickie thought him very clever a very fat woman asked Dickie to toast her herring for her on a bit of wood and when he had done it she gave him two green apples he laid in bed in her jolly voices talking and singing in the kitchen below and he thought how pleasant it was to be a tramp and what jolly fellows the tramps were for it seemed that all these nice people were on the road in this place where the kitchen was and the good company and the clean bed for four pins were the tramp's hotel one of many that are scattered over the country and called common lodging houses the singing and laughing went on long after he had fallen asleep and if later in the evening there were loud voice arguments or quarrels even Dickie did not hear them next morning quite early they took the road from some mysterious source Mr. Biel had obtained an old double perambulator which must have been made Dickie thought for very fat twins it was so broad and roomy artfully piled on the front part was all the furniture needed by travellers who mean to sleep every night at the inn of the silver moon that is the inn where they have the beds with the green curtains what's on that there Dickie asked pointing to the odd knobbly bundles of all sorts of shapes tied on to the perambulator's front all our truck what we want on the road said Biel and that pillory bundle on the seat that's our clothes I've bought you a little jacket to put on at nights if it's cold or wet and when you want to lift why, here's your carriage and you can sit up here and ride like the Lord Mayor and I'll be your horse the bundles will sit on your knee tell you what mate looks to me as if I took a fancy to you I have to you I know that, said Dickie settling his crutch firmly and putting his hand into Mr. Biel's Mr. Biel looked down at the touch swap me, he said helplessly then does it hurt you, walking? not like I did before I went to the hospital they said I'd be able to walk to rides if I wore that bare beastly boot but that hurts worse anything well said Mr. Biel you sing out when you get tired and I give you a ride oh look, said Dickie the flowers they're only weeds, said Biel they were in fact convolvuloses little pink ones with their tendrils and leaves laid flat through the dry earth by the wayside and in a water meadow below the road level pick white ones, twining among thick-wing oseous and bullows Dickie fed his hands with the pink ones and Mr. Biel let him they jaded directly, he said but I shall have them while they are alive said Dickie, as he had said to the pawnbroker about the moonflowers it was a wonderful day all the country's sights and sounds that you hardly notice because you have known them every year as long as you can remember were wonderful magic to the little boy from that foot the green hedge, the cows looking over them the tinkle of sheep-builds the bar of the sheep the black pigs in a stye close to the road the breathless rooting and grunting enter the shiny black-leaded cylinders that were their bodies the stubbly fields where barley stood in sheaves real barley, like the people next door but three gave to their hands the woodland shadows in the light of sudden water shoulders of brown upland pressed against the open sky the shrill thrill of the sky-luck song black cannery birds got loose the spender of distance you never see distance in Deptford the magpie that perched on a stump and cooked a bright eye at the travellers the thing that rustled along lengths through dead leaves in a beach-copper and was, it appeared, a real life snake all these made the journey a royal progress to Dickie of Deptford he forgot that he was lame forgot that he had run away a fact that had cost him a twinge or two of fear he forgot that he was lame that had cost him a twinge or two of fear or conscience early on the morning he was happy as a prince as happy knew come to his inheritance and it was Mr. Beale, after all who was the first to remember that there was a carriage in which a tired little boy might ride in you get's he said suddenly you'll be fair-nocked you can look about you just as well as sitting down he added laying the crutch across the front of the eepram-relator he had such a nipper for noticing, neither hi, there goes a rabbit see him, what's the road there see him Dickie saw and the crown was set on his happiness a rabbit, like the ones that his fancy had put in the mouldering hatch at home it's got loose, said Dickie trying to scramble out of the perambulator let's catch him and take him along he ain't loose he's wild, Mr. Beale explained he had never been caught lives out here with his little frenzies he added after a violent effort of imagination he knows in the ground, gets his own meals and lacks about on his own how beautiful, said Dickie wriggling with delight this life of the rabbit as described by Mr. Beale was the child's first glimpse of freedom I'd like to be a rabbit you much better be my little nipper, said Beale how am I to wear the room in pram if you goes on like us if you was a beck of heels they camped by cops for the midday meal set on the grass made a fire of sticks and cooked herrings in a frying pan produced from one of the nobly bundles it's better on 5th of November, said Dickie and I do like you I like you next to my own daddy and Mr. Beale backs the next door that's all right, said Mr. Beale it was in the afternoon that half-way up a hill they saw coming over the crest a lady and a little girl how'd you get, said Mr. Beale quickly walk as obvious you can and if they asked you, you say you and had nothing to eat since last night and then it was a bit of dry bread right you are, said Dickie enjoying the game in mind you call me father yes, said Dickie exaggerating a slameness in the most broaded way it was acting, you see in all children love acting Mr. Beale went more and more slowly and as the lady and the little girl drew near he stopped all together and touched his cap Dickie, quick to imitate, touched his could you spare a trifle mom said Beale very gently and humbly to ebbers along the road my little chap is lame like what you see it's an odd life for the likes of his mom he ought to be at home with his mother, said the lady Beale drew his curt sleeve across his eyes Ian got no mother, he said she was took by a sudden a chill it was and struck through her innards she died in the infirmary three months ago it was mom and as not able even to get a big of black for her Dickie sniffed poor little man, said the lady you miss your mother, don't you yes, said Dickie sadly but father is very good to me I couldn't get on if it wasn't for father oh well done little ones, said Mr. Beale to himself we lay under a steak last night he said aloud and where we lie tonight gracious only knows without some kind soul lends us a brilliant the lady fumbled in her pocket and the little girl, said to Dickie where are all your toys Ian got but two, said Dickie and they are at home one of them silver, real silver my grandfather added when he was a little boy but if you've got silver you oughtn't to be begging, said the lady shutting up her purse be a frown it only ponds for shilling, said Dickie and father knows what store I sat by it a shilling's a lot I grant you that, said Beale eagerly but I wouldn't go to take away the nipper's little bit of pleasure not for no shilling I wouldn't he ended nobly, with a fond look at Dickie you are kind father, said the lady yes, isn't he mother, said the little girl may I give the little boy my penny the two travelers were left facing each other the witcher by a penny and oh wonderful good fortune a whole half crown they exchanged such glances as might pass between two actors as the curtain goes down on a successful dramatic performance you did that bit fine, said Beale fine you did you been there before, aren't you no I never, said Dickie here's the stevele you stick to that, said Beale radiant with delight you are a fair masterpiece you are you earned it honest if ever a kid done pets you on the nipper she does and out with half a dollar a bit of all right I call it they went on up the hill as happy as anyone need wish to be they had told lies you observe and hatched by these lies managed to get half a crown and a penny and far from being ashamed of their acts they were bubbling over with merriment and delight at their own cleverness please do not be too shocked remember that neither of them knew any better to the other tramp lies and begging were natural means of livelihood to the little tramp the whole thing was a new and entrancing game of make-believe by evening they had seven and six pins us left four penny does out at this, said Beale so help me Bob we'll be riding in our own mochi before we know where we are at this rate but you said the bed was the green curtains, said Dickie well perhaps you are right lay up for a rainy day which this and not by no means there's a ace leg a bit out of the town if I remember right come on mate and Dickie for the first time slept out of doors have you ever slept out of doors night is full of interesting little sounds that will not at first let you sleep the rustle of little white things and the hatches the barking of dogs and distant farms the chirp of crickets and the croaking of frogs and in the morning the birds wake you and you curl down warm among the hay and look up at the sky that is growing lighter and lighter and breeze the chill sweet air and go to sleep again wondering how you have ever been able in one of those shut up boxes with holes in them which we call houses the new game of begging and inventing stories to interest the people from whom it was worthwhile to beg went on gaily day by day and week by week and Dickie by constant practice grew so clever at taking his part in the acting that Mr. Bea was quite dazed with admiration blessed if I ever see such a nipper he said over and over again and when they got near to highs and met with the red-risked man who got up suddenly out of the hatch and said he had been hanging off and on expecting them for nine on a week Mr. Bea sent Dickie into a field to look for mushrooms which didn't grow there especially that he might have a private conversation with the red-risked man a conversation which began thus couldn't get ear before couldn't get a nipper he's obvious, ear and no good no good, said Bea or you know, he's a wanna and no blooming error turns the ladies around his finger as easy as kiss your end clever as a train dog is and all out of his own head and to ear the way he does the patter to me on the road is as good as a gaffe any day to ear him my word I am sure as I add in better stick to the road and keep away from old ends like you Jim doing well, huh? said Jim not so dusty said Mr. Bea cautiously we muck along somehow and he's got so red in the face and plumped out so they'd soon say he doesn't want their dibs staff him a bit, said the red-risked man cheerfully Mr. Bea laughed then he spat thoughtfully then he said it's rum, I'd like to see the little beggar stroking up for it's both the market if he gets a bit fat he makes it up in cleverness you should ear him the horse and so on till the red-risked man said quite coarsely seems to me you are a bit dotty about this ear extreme double nipple I never knew you took like it before the fact is said Bea was in air of great candle it's as clever as does me it and as I'm silly about him but he's that clever I hope he's clever enough to do what he's told keep his mug shut that's all he's clever enough for anything said Bea and close as wax he's got a silver toy in a way somewhere it only pops for a bob and you think he'll tell me where it stowed not him and as such spells as never was and his straw wagging all day long but he's never let it out oh stow it said the other impatiently I don't want to ear no more about him if he's straight he'll do for me and if he ain't I'll do for him see and now you and me'll have a word or two particular and settle about this ear job I got the plan drawed out it's as easy job as ever I see seems to me Tuesday's as good a day as any tip-topper sad but tall but that's him he's in foreign parts for his health comes home end of next month little surprise for him you'll have to train it air primes he'll be there Monday and see here he's saying his voice to whisper when Dickie came back without mushrooms the red-whisket man was gone see that bloked us now said Mr. Biel yes said Dickie well you never see him if anyone asks you if you ever see him you never said eyes on him in all your born not to remember him might have passed him in a crowd see yes said Dickie again doesn't been half a pun to neither as to on the road Mr. Biel went on not half well now we are going in the train like ducks and after that we are going to air a rare old beano I give you my word Dickie was full of questions but Mr. Biel had no answers for them you just wait out on a bit there must lives longest sees most these were the sort of remarks which were all that Dickie could get out of him it was not the next day which was a Saturday that they took the train like ducks nor was it Sunday on which they took a rest and washed their shirts according to Mr. Biel's rule of life they took the train on Monday and it landed them in a very bright town by the sea its pavements were red brick and its houses are white stone and its bow windows and balconies were green and Dickie thought it was the prettiest town in the world they did not stay there but walked out across the downs where the skylights were singing and on a dip of the downs came upon great stone walls and towers very strong and gray what's that there said Dickie it's a castle like what the kings got at Windsor is it a king as lives here then Dickie asked no, nobody don't live here mate said Mr. Biel it's a ruin this is only house and rats lives in ruins did anyone ever live in it I shouldn't wonder said Mr. Biel and differently yes of course they must have come to think of it but you learnt all that as cool it's what they call history Dickie after some reflection said do you have a ear of ear wart I know the Jake wart once ear wart the wake he and a bloke you'd know he's in history, tell me if you like the tale of ear wart the wake lasted till the draughting perambulator came to anchor in a hollow place among thick furs bushes the bare thick stems of the furs headed up like a roof over their heads as they said it was like a little furs house end of chapter 2 part 1 section 4 of Harding's luck this is the lipple rocks recording all lipple rocks recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit lipple rocks.org recording by Sonja Harding's luck by Edis Nesbitt chapter 2 part 2 next morning Mr. Biel shaved he's not done since they left London Dickie had the mug and the soap it was great fun and afterwards Mr. Biel looked quite different that was great fun too and he got quite a different set of clothes out of his bundles and put them on and that was the greatest fun of all now then he said we are going to lay low ear all day we are and then come evening we are going to have albino that red in a chap would you never see up to a window what's got bells to it and you creep through you being so little and you go soft the mouse the way I'll show you and undo the side door there's a key and a chain and a bottom bolt the top bolts cut through and all the others are sold that won't frighten you will it no, said Dickie what should it frighten me for well it's like this said Mr. Biel a little embarrassed suppose you was to get pinched would I pinch me a dog there won't be no dog a man or a lady or somebody in the house supposing there was to nab you what did you say Dickie was watching us face carefully whatever you tells me to say he said the man slept his leg gently if that end the nipple over well if there was to nab you you just say what I tells you to and then first chance you get you slip away from him and you go to the station and if they comes after you you say you are going to your father at Dover and first chance you get you slip off and you come to that house where you and me slept at Gravescent I've got the dips for your ticket done up in this ear belt I'm going to put on you but don't you let on to anyone at Gravescent you are coming to see and if I don't get pinched then you just opens the door and to me in that red-headed bloke he comes in what for? asked Dickie to look for some toots you mislaid there a year ago when you was on a planning job and they won't let him have them back not by fair means they won't that's what for rats said Dickie briefly I aren't a baby it's burgling that's what it is you let jolly sight to fun of calling names that be anxiously never mind what it is that's what you do you know how to stick it on if you are pinched if you aren't you just lay low till he comes out with the plumbas toots see and if I'm nabbed what is it I am to say you must let on as a strange chap called you on the road a strange chap with a black beard and a red anchor chair and give you a licking if you didn't go and clamp in at the window say you lost your father in the town and this chap said he knew where he was if you see me you don't know me nor yet that red had a chap what you never see he looked down at the small earnest face turned up to his own you are a little nipple he said affectionately I didn't know as I ever noticed before quite what a little one you was think you can stick it you shan't go without your ones to matey there it's splendid said Dickie it is an adventure for a bold night he wore it when he dressed in the potters clothes and went to see King William he spoke in the book wars there you go said Mr. Biel but don't you go and talk to him like that if they pinches you that never let you lose again think they'd got a marquee in disguise so they would Dickie thought all day about this great adventure he didn't tell Mr. Biel so but he was very proud of being so trusted if you come to think of it burgling must be a very exciting profession and Dickie had no idea that it was wrong it seemed to him a holy delightful and sporting amusement while he was exploring the fox runs among the thick stems of the grass Mr. Biel lay at full length and pondered I don't more and half like it he said to himself oh yes, I know that's what I got him for alright but he's such a jolly little nipple I wouldn't like anything to happen to him so I wouldn't he took his boots off and went to sleep as usual and in the middle of the night Mr. Biel woke him up and said it's time there was no moon that night and it was very, very dark Mr. Biel carried Dickie on his back for what seemed a very long way along dark roads and the dark trees and over dark meadows a dark bush divided itself into two parts and one part came surprisingly towards them it turned out to be the red whiskered man and presently from a ditch another man came and they all climbed a chill, damp park fence and crept along among trees and shrubs along the inside of a high park wall Dickie, still on Mr. Biel's shoulders was astonished to find how quietly this big, clumsy looking man could move through openings in the trees and bushes Dickie could see the white park like a spoiled shadow dotted with trees that were like shadows too and on the other side of it the white face of a great house showed only a little paler than the trees about it there were no lights in the house they got quite close to it before the shelter of the trees ended for a little wood lay between the wall and the house Dickie's heart was beating very fast quite soon now his part in the adventure would begin yeah, catch out Mr. Biel was saying and the red whiskered man took Dickie in his arms and went forward the other two crouched in the wood Dickie felt himself lifted and caught at the window sill with his hands it was a damp night and smelled of earth and dead leaves the window sill was of stone very cold Dickie knew exactly what to do Mr. Biel had explained it over and over again all day he settled himself on the broad window ledge and held on to the iron window bars where the red whiskered man took out a pane of glass with strickel and a handkerchief so that there should be no noise of breaking or falling glass then Dickie put his hands through and unfastened the window which opened like a cupboard door then he put his feet through the narrow space between two bars and slid through he hung inside with his hands holding the bars till his foot found the table that he had been told to expect just below and he got from that to the floor now I must remember exactly which way to go, he told himself but he did not need to remember what he had been told for quite certainly and most oddly he knew exactly where the door was and when he had grabbed to it and got it open he found that he now knew quite well which way to turn and what passages to go along to get to that little side door that he was to open for the three men it was exactly as though in a dream he went as quietly as a mouse creeping on hands and knee the lame foot dragging quietly behind him I will not pretend that he was not frightened he was very but he was more brave than he was frightened which is the essence of prairie after all he found it difficult to breathe quietly and his heart bet so loudly that he felt almost sure that if any people were awake in the house they would hear it even upstairs in their beds but he got to the little side door and feeling with sensitive quick fingers found the well-oiled bolt and trotted back then the chain holding the loose loop of it in his hand so that it should not rattle he slipped its ball from the socket only the turning of the key remained and Dicky accomplished that with both hands for it was the big key kneeling on his one sound to knee then very gently he turned the handle and pulled and the door opened and he crept from behind it and felt the cool sweet air of the night on his face it seemed to him that he had never known what silence was before or darkness for the door opened into a closed box arbor and no sky could be seen or any shapes of things Dicky felt himself almost bursting with pride what an adventure and he had carried out his part of it perfectly he had done exactly what he had been told to do and he had done it well he stood there on his one useful foot clinging to the edge of the door and it was not until something touched him that he knew that Mr. Biel and the other men were creeping through the door that he had opened and at that touch a most odd feeling came to Dicky the last feeling he would have expected a feeling of pride mixed with a feeling of shame pride in his own cleverness and another kind of pride that made their cleverness seem shameful he had a feeling very queer and very strong that he Dicky was not the sort of person to open doors for the letting in of burglars he felt as you would feel if you suddenly found your hands covered with filth not good on his dirt but slimy filth and would not understand how you could have let it get there he caught at the third shape that brushed by him father he whispered don't do it go back and fasten it all up again oh don't father shut your mark whispered the red-wisket man Dicky knew his voice even in that velvet black darkness shut your mark or I'll give you what for don't father said Dicky and said it all the more for that thread I can't go back on my pal's matey that Mr. Beale you see that don't you Dicky did see the adventure was begun it was impossible to stop it was helped and had to be eaten as they say in Norfolk he crouched behind the open door and heard the soft pat pat of the three men's feet on the stones of the passage grew fainter and fainter they had wooden socks over their boots which made their footsteps sound better than those of padded pussy feet then the soft rustle pat died away and was perfectly quiet perfectly dark Dicky was tired it was long past this proper bedtime and the exertion of being so extra clever had been very tiring he was almost asleep when a crack like thunder brought him stuck staring awake there was a noise of feet on the stairs boots a blundering how it rushed people came rushing past him there was another sharp thunder sound and a flash like lightning only much smaller someone tripped and fell there was a clutter like paits and something hard and smooth hit him on the knee then another hurried presence dashed past him into the quiet night another no there was a woman's voice Edward you shan't let them go you shan't no and suddenly there was a light that made one wink and blink a tall lady in white carrying a lamp swept downstairs and caught at a man who sprang into being out of the darkness into the lamp light take the lamp she said and thrusted on him then was unbelievable quickness she bolted and chained the door locked it and turning sodigy what's this she said oh Edward quick he's one of them why it's a child some more people were coming down the stairs with candles and excited voices their clothes were oddly bright Dickey had never seen dressing gowns before they moved in a very odd way and then began to go round and round like tops the next thing Dickey remembers is being in a room that seemed full of people and lights and wonderful furniture with someone holding a glass to his lips a glass that smelled of public houses very nasty no said Dickey turning away his head better asked the lady and Dickey was astonished to find that he was on her lap yes thank you he said and tried to sit up but lay back again because there was so much more pleasant he had had no idea that anyone's lap could be so comfortable now a young man said a stern voice that was not a ladies just you tell us how you came here and who put you up to it I got in said Dickey feebly through the butler's pantry window and as he said it he wondered how he had known that it was the butler's pantry it is certain that no one had told him what for asked the voice which Dickey not perceived came from a gentleman in rumpled hair and a very loose pink flannel suit with corny things on it such a soldier self to let Dickey stopped this was the moment he had been so carefully prepared for he must think what he was saying he had said the lady gently it's a right poor little chap don't be frightened nobody wants to hurt you I'm not frightened said Dickey not now to let reminded the lady persuasively to let the man in watch man I don't know there were three or four of them said the gentleman in pink four or five which man dear the lady asked again the man has said he knew where my father was said Dickey remembering what he had been told to say so he went along of him and then in the wood he said it give me a dressing down if I didn't get through the window and open the door he said he left some tools here and let him have them you see said the lady the child didn't know he's perfectly innocent and she kissed Dickey's hair very softly and kindly Dickey did not understand then why he suddenly felt as though he were going to choke his head felt as though it were going to burst his ears grew very hot and his hands and feet very cold I know it right enough he said suddenly and hoarsely I'm gone if I hadn't wanted to he's feverish said the lady he doesn't know what he's saying look how flushed he is I wanted to said Dickey I thought it had to be a lark and it was too he expected to be shaken and put down he wondered where his crutch was Mr. Beale had had it under his arm how could he get a gravestone without a crutch but he wasn't shaking or put down instead the lady gathered him up in her arms and stood up holding him I shall put him to bed she said you shan't ask him any more questions tonight there's time enough in the morning she carried Dickey out of the drawing room and away from the other people to a big room with blue walls and blue and grey curtains and beautiful furniture there was a high four post bed with blue silk curtains and more pillows than Dickey had ever seen before the lady washed him with sweet-swelling water in a big basin with blue and gold flowers on it dressed him in a lace drunk nightgown which must have been her own for it was much too big for any little boy then she put him into the soft warm bed with a boss like a giant's pillow tucked him up and kissed him Dickey put thin arms around her neck I do like you he said but I won't far well where is he no you must tell me that in the morning drink him up she had it ready in a glass that sparkled in a pattern and then go sound asleep everything will be all right dear may heaven, said Dickey sleepily bless you generous bean factories a most extraordinary child said the lady returning to her husband I can't think who it is that he reminds me of where are the others I picked them off to bed there's nothing to be done said her husband we ought to have gone after this man they didn't get anything she said no dropped it all when I fired come on let's turn in poor Eleanor you must be worn out Edward said the lady I wish we could adopt that little boy I'm sure he comes of good people he's been kidnapped or something don't be a dear silly one said so Edward that night Dickey slept in sheets of the finest linen centered with lavender he was sunk downily among pillows and over him lay a down quilt covered with blue-flowered satin on the footboard of the great bed was carved a shield and a great dark on it Dickey's clothes lay a dusty furloughed little heap in a stately tapestry-covered chair and he slept and dreamed of Mr. Beal and the little house among the furs and the bed with the green curtains End of chapter 2 part 2 section number 5 of Harding's Luck this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Sandra Estenson section 5 of Harding's Luck by Edith Nezbit The Escape When Lady Talbot leaned over the side of the bed to awaken Dickey Harding she wished with all her heart that she had just such a little boy of her own and when Dickey awoke and looked into her kind eyes he felt quite sure that if he had had a mother she would have been like this lady only about the face he told himself not the way she's got up her hair nor nothing of that sort did you sleep well she asked him stroking his hair with extraordinary gentleness a fair treat he said was your bed comfortable ain't it soft neither he asked I don't know as I ever felt of anything quite as soft without it was the geese as hangs up along the Broadway Christmas time why the beds made of goose feathers she said and Dickey was delighted by the coincidence have you got here a little boy he asked pursuing his first waking thought no dear if I had I could lend you some of his clothes as it is we shall have to put you into your own she spoke as though she were sorry Dickey saw no matter for regret he bought me a little coat for when it was cold of a night lying out lying out where in the bed with the green curtains said Dickey this led to hearward and Dickey would willingly have told the whole story of that hero in full detail but the lady said after breakfast now it was time for our bath and sure enough there was a bath of steaming water before the fireplace which was in quite another part of the room so that Dickey had not noticed the cans being brought in by a maid in a pink print dress and a white cap and apron come said the lady turning back the bed clothes somehow Dickey could not bear to let that lady see him crawl clumsily across the floor as he had to do when he moved without his crutch it was not because he thought she would make fun of him perhaps it was because he knew she would not and yet without his crutch how else was he to get to that bath and for no reason that he could have given he began to cry the lady's arms were around him in an instant what is it dear whatever is it she asked and Dickey sobbed out only it got my crutch and I can't go to that there bath without it anything to do if it was only an old broom cut down to me ight I'm a cripple they call it you see I can't walk like what you can she carried him to the bath there was scented soap there was a sponge and a warm fluffy towel I ain't had a bath sensed gravesend and flushed at the indiscretion since when dear since Wednesday said Dickey anxiously he and the lady had breakfast together in a big room with long windows that the sun shone in at and outside a green garden there were a lot of things to eat in silver dishes and the very eggs had silver cups to sit in and all the spoons and forks had dogs scratched on them like the one that was carved on the footboard of the bed upstairs all except the little slender spoon that Dickey had to eat his egg with and on that there was no dog but something quite different why he said his face brightening with joyous recognition my tanklers got this on it just the very moral of it so yes Dickey had to tell all about Tinkler and the lady looked thoughtful and interested and when the gentleman came in and kissed her and said how were we this morning Dickey had to tell about Tinkler all over again and then the lady said several things very quickly beginning with I told you so Edward and ending with I knew he wasn't a common child Dickey missed the middle part because of the way his egg behaved suddenly bursting all down one side and running over into the salt which of course had to be stopped at all costs by some means or other the tongue was the easiest the gentleman laughed way don't eat the egg cup he said we shall want it again have another egg but Dickey's pride was hurt and he wouldn't the gentleman must be very stupid he thought not to know the difference between licking and eating and as if anybody could eat an egg cup anyhow he was glad when the gentleman went away after breakfast Dickey was measured for a crutch that is to say a broom was held up beside him and a piece cut off its handle then the lady wrapped flannel around the hairy part of the broom and a black velvet over that it was a beautiful crutch and Dickey said so also he showed his gratitude by inviting the lady to look how spry he was on his pins but she only looked a very little while and then turned and gazed out of the window so Dickey had a good look at the room and the furniture it was all different from anything he ever remembered seeing and yet he couldn't help thinking he had seen them before these high-backed chairs covered with flowers like on carpets the carved bookcases with rows on rows of golden beaded books the bow-fronted shining sideboard with handles that shone like gold and the corner cupboard with glass doors and china inside red and blue and goldy it was a very odd feeling I don't think that I can describe it better than by saying that he looked at all these things with a double pleasure the pleasure of looking at new and beautiful things and the pleasure of seeing again things old and beautiful which he had not seen for a very long time his limping survey of the room ended at the windows when the lady turned suddenly knelt down put her hand under his chin and looked into his eyes Dickey she said how would you like to stay here and be my little boy I'd like it right enough he said only I got to go back to father but if father says you may he won't said Dickey with certainty and besides there's Tinkler well you're to stay here and be my little boy till we find out where father is we shall let the police know they're sure to find him the police Dickey cried in horror why father he ain't done nothing no no of course not said the lady in a hurry but the police know all sorts of things about where people are I know and what they're doing they haven't done anything the police knows a jolly sight too much said Dickey in gloom and now all Dickey's little soul was filled with one longing all his little brain awaked to only one thought the police were to be set on the track of Beale the man whom he called father the man who had been kind to him and wheeled him in a perambulator for miles and miles through enchanted country the man who had bought him a little coat to put on o' nights if it was cold or wet the man who had shown him the wonderful world to which he awakens who has slept in the bed with the green curtains the lady's house was more beautiful than anything he had ever imagined not more beautiful than things that he almost imagined that he remembered the lady was better than beautiful she was dear her eyes were the eyes to which it is good to laugh her arms were the arms in which it is good to cry the tree-dotted parkland was to Dickey the land of heart's desire but father, Beale who had been kind and loved the lady left him alone with the book beautiful beyond his dreams three great volumes with pictures of things that had happened and been since the days of Hereward himself the author's charming name was green and recalled curtains and nights under the stars but even those beautiful pictures were the eyes of Mr. Beale father by adoption and love if the police were set to find out where he was and what he was doing somehow or other Dickey must go to Gravesend to that house where there had been a bath or something like it in a pail and were kindly tramp people had toasted herrings and given apples to little boys who helped then and by all the laws of fair play there ought to be someone now to help him the beautiful book lay on the table before him but he no longer saw it he no longer cared for it all he cared for was to find a friend who would help him and he found one and the friend who helped him was an enemy the smart pink fracked white capped white aproned maid who unseen by Dickey had brought the bathwater and the bath came in with a duster she looked malevolently at Dickey shove on yourself in she said rudely I ain't he said if she wants to make a fool of a kid ain't I got clever brothers and sisters inquired the maid her chin in the air nobody says you ain't and nobody ain't making a fool of me said Dickey oh no of course they ain't the maid rejoined people comes here without air shirt to their backs and makes fools of their betters that's the way it is ain't it ain't she arsed you to stay and be your little boy yes Dickey said I thought she had to stay triumphantly and you'll stay but if I'm expected to call you master whatever your silly name is I give you a months warning so I tell you straight I don't want to stay said Dickey at last oh tell me another said the girl impatiently and left him without having made the slightest use of the duster Dickey was taken for a drive and a little carriage drawn by a cream colored pony a perfect dream of a pony and the lady allowed him to hold the reins but even amid this delight he remembered to ask whether she had put the police on to father yet and was relieved to hear that she had not it was Markham who was told to wash Dickey's hands when the drive was over and Markham was the enemy with the clever brothers and sisters wash him yourself she said among the soap and silver and marble and sponges it ain't my work you'd better said Dickey or the lady will know the difference it ain't my work neither and I ain't so used to washing as what you are and that's the truth so she washed him not very gently it's no use getting your knife into me he said as the towel was plied I didn't ours to come here did I no you little thief stow that said Dickey and after a quick glance at his set lips she said well next door to anyhow I should be ashamed to show my face if I was you after last night there you're dry now cut along down to the dining room the servants halls good enough for honest people as don't break into houses all through that day of wonder which included real roses that you could pick and smell and real gooseberries that you could gather and eat as well as picture books a clockwork bear a musical box and a doll's house almost as big as a small villa an idea kept on hammering at the other side of a locked door in Dickey's mind and when he was in bed it got the door open and came out and looked at him and he recognized it at once as a really useful idea Markham will bring you some warm milk drink it up and sleep well darling said the lady and with the idea very near and plain he put his arms round her neck and hugged her goodbye he said you are good love you the lady went away very pleased when Markham came with the milk Dickey said you want me gone don't you Markham said she didn't care well but how am I to get away with my crutch mean to say you'd cut and run if you was the same as me bout the legs I mean yes said Dickey and not nick anything not a blooming thing he said well said Markham you've got a spirit I will say that you see said Dickey I want to get back to Farver bless the child said Markham quite affected by this why don't you help me get out once I was outside the park I'd do all right much as my place is worth said Markham don't you say another war getting me into trouble but Dickey said a good many other words and fell asleep quite satisfied with the last words that had fallen from Markham these words were we'll see it was only just daylight when Markham woke him she dressed him hurriedly and carried him and his crutch hairs and into that very butler's pantry through whose window he had crept at the bidding of the red-haired man no one else seemed to be about now she said the Gardner has got a few hampers ready fruit and flowers and the like and he drives him to the station for anyone's up they'd only go to waste if he wasn't to sell them see and he's a particular friend of mine hampers more or less so out with you Joe she whispered you there Joe outside whispered that he was and Markham lifted Dickey to the window as she did so she kissed him cheery old chap she said I'm sorry I was so short and you do want to get out of it don't you no error said Dickey anything about him selling the vegetables and things you're too sharp to live Markham declared and the next moment he was through the window and Joe was laying him in a long hamper half filled with straw that stood waiting I'll put you in the van along with the other hampers whispered Joe as he shut the lid then when you're in the train you just cut the string with this present of and out you gets I'll make it all right with the guard he knows me and he'll put you down at whatever station you say here don't forget his breakfast said Markham reaching her arm through the window it was a wonderful breakfast five cold rissoles a lot of bread and butter two slices of cake and a bottle of milk and it was fun eating agreeable and unusual things lying down in the room hamper among the smooth straw the jolting of the cart did not worry Dickey at all he was used to the perambulator and he ate as much as he wanted to eat and when that was done he put the rest in his pocket and curled up comfortably on the straw for there was still quite a lot left of what ordinary people consider night and also there was quite a lot left of the sleepiness in which he had gone to bed at the end of the wonderful day it was not only just body sleepiness the kind you get after a long walk or a long play day it was mind sleepiness Dickey had gone through so much in the last 36 hours that his poor little brain felt quite worn out he fell asleep among the straw carrying the clasp knife in his pocket thinking how smartly he would cut the string when the time came and he slept for a very long time such a long time that when he did wake up there was no longer any need to cut the string of the hamper someone else had done that and the lid of the basket was open and three or four faces looked down at Dickey and a girl's voice said why? it's a little boy and a crutch oh dear Dickey sat up the little crutch which was lying corner-wise above him and the hamper jerked out and rattled on the floor well I never did never said another voice come out dearie don't be frightened how kind people are Dickey thought the slender white hands that were held out to him a lady in black her figure was as slender as her hands drew him up put her arms round him and lifted him on to a black bentwood chair his eyes turning swiftly here and there showed him that he was in a shop a shop full of flowers and fruit Mr. Rosenberg said the slender lady oh do come here please this extra hamper a dark handsome big-nosed man came towards them it's a dear little boy said the slender lady who had a pale kind face dark eyes and very red lips it's a practical joke I suppose said the dark man our gardening friend wants a lithathon and I'll see he gets it it wasn't his fault said Dickey wriggling earnestly in his high chair it was my fault I fell asleep the girls crowded round him with questions and caresses I had to have cut the string in the train and told the guard he's a friend of the gardeners he said but I was asleep I don't know as I ever slept so sound before like as if I had sleepy stuff like they give me at the hospital I should not like to think that Markham had gone so far as to put sleepy stuff in that bottle of milk but I'm afraid she was not very particular and she may have thought it best to send Dickey to sleep so that he could not betray her or her gardener friend until he was very far away from both of them but why you know gentlemen why put both in baskets upsetting everybody like this he added crossly it was said Dickey slowly a sort of joke I don't want to go upsetting of people if you'll lift me down and give me my crutch I'll look it but the young ladies would not hear of his hooking it he may keep him mainly Miss Rosenberg they said and he judged that Mr. Rosenberg was a kind man or they would not have dared to speak so to him let's keep him till closing time and then one of us will see him home he lives in London he says so Dickey had indeed murmured words to this effect as policeman called it when they were not quite sure like said Mr. Rosenberg only you mustn't let him interfere with business that's all they took him away to the back of the shop they were dear girls and they were very nice to Dickey they gave him grapes and a banana and some Marie biscuits and they folded sacks for him to lie on and Dickey liked them and was grateful to them and watched his opportunity because however kind people were there was one thing he had to do to get back to Graveson lodging house as his father had told him to do the opportunity did not come till late in the afternoon when one of the girls was boiling a kettle on a spirit lamp and one had gone out to get cakes in Dickey's honor which made him uncomfortable but duty is duty and over the Graveson lodging house the Star of Duty shown and beckoned the third young lady and Mr. Rosenberg were engaged in animated explanations with a fair young gentleman about a basket of roses that had been ordered and had not been sent Kass, Mr. Rosenberg was saying Kass down and Thurth speedy delivery and the young lady was saying I'm extremely sorry sir it was a misunderstanding and to the music of their two voices Dickey edged along close to the grapes and melons holding on to the shelf on which they lay so as not to attract attention by the tap tapping of his crutch he passed silently and slowly between the rose filled window and the heap of bananas that adorned the other side of the doorway turned the corner threw his arm over his crutch and legged away for dear life down a sort of covered arcade turned its corner and found himself in a wilderness of baskets and carts and vegetables threaded his way through them in and out among the baskets fallen cabbage leaves under horses noses found a quiet street a still quieter archway pulled out the knife however his adventure ended he used that knife to the good and prepared to cut the money out of the belt Mr. Beale had buckled round him and the belt was not there he had dropped it somewhere or had he and Markham in the hurry of that twilight dressing forgot to put it on he did not know all he knew was that the belt was not on him and that he was alone in London without money and that at Gravesend his father was waiting for him waiting waiting Dicky knew what it meant to wait he went out into the street and asked the first good nature looking loafer he saw the way to Gravesend way to your grandmother said the loafer don't you come saucing of me but which is the way said Dicky the man looked hard at him and then pointed with a grimy thumb over his shoulder it's thirty mile if it's a yard he said got any chink waiting for me Guarn said the man you don't kid me so easy I ain't arsed in you for anything except the way said Dicky more you ain't hesitated and pulled his hand out of his pocket ain't kiddin sure father at Gravesend take your bible yes said Dicky then you take the first to the right and the first to the left and you'll get a blue bus as it'll take you to the elephant that's a bit of the way then you arsed again and here this will pay for the bus he held out coppers this practical kindness went to Dicky's heart more than all the kisses of the young ladies in the flower shop the tears came into his eyes well you are a pal and no air he said do the same for you some day he added the lounging man laughed well hold you to that matey he said when you're a ridin' in your carriage and pair-praps you'll take me on to be your footman when I am I will said Dicky quite seriously and then they both laughed the elephant and castle marks but a very short stage of the weary way between London and Gravesend when he got out of the tram Dicky asked the way again this time of a woman who was selling matches in the gutter she pointed with a blue box she held in her hand it's a long way she said in a tired voice nigh on 30 mile thank you Mrs said Dicky and set out quite simply to walk those miles nearly 30 the way lay down the old Kent road and presently Dicky was in familiar surroundings for old Kent road leads into the new crossroad and that runs right through the yellow brick wilderness where Dicky's aunt lived he dared not follow the road through those well-known scenes at any moment he might meet his aunt and if he met his aunt he preferred not to think of it outside the marquee of Granby stood a van and the horse's heads were turned away from London if one could get a lift Dicky looked anxiously to the right and left in front and behind there were wooden boxes in the van a lot of them and on the canvas of the tilt was painted in fat white letters fries tonic the only cure there would be room on top of the boxes they did not reach within two feet of the tilt should he ask for a lift when the Carter came out of the marquee or should he if he could climb up and hide on the boxes and take his chance of discovery on the lift he laid a hand on the tailboard hey Dicky said a voice surprisingly in his ear that you Dicky owned that it was with the feeling of a trapped wild animal and turned and faced a boy of his own age a school fellow the one in fact who had christened him dot and go one oh what a turn you give me he said thought you was my aunt don't you let on you seen me where you been asked the boy curiously oh all about Dicky answered vaguely don't you tell me aunt your aunt don't you know the boy was quite contemptuous with him for not knowing no no what she shot the moon the girl moved her says he don't remember where to she give him a pint to forget what I say who's living there now Dicky asked interested in his aunt's address swallowed up and he said in desperate anxiety no one don't live there it's shut up to let apply Robert seven nine six Broadway said the boy I say what'll you do don't know said Dicky turning away from the van which had abruptly become unimportant which way you going down home go past your old shop coming no said Dicky so long see you again some day I gotta go this way and he went it all the same the twilight saw him creeping down the old road the house whose backyard had held the rabbit hutch the garden where he had sowed the parrot food and where the moonflowers had come up so white and beautiful what a long time ago it was only a month really but all the same what a long time the news of his aunt's departure had changed everything the steadfast desire to get to Gravesend to find his father in a given way at any rate for the moment to a burning anxiety about Tinkler and the white stone had his aunt found them and taken them away if she hadn't and they were still there would it not be wise to get them at once because of course someone else might take the house and find the treasures yes it would certainly be wise to go to night to get in by the front window the catch had always been broken to find the treasures or at any rate to make quite sure whether he had lost them or not no one noticed him as he came down the street very close to the railings there were so many boys in the streets in that part of the world and the front window went up easily he climbed in dragging his crutch after him he got upstairs very quickly on hands and knees went straight to the loose board dislodged it felt in the hollow below oh joy his hands found the soft bundle of rags that he knew held Tinkler and the seal he put them inside the front of his shirt and shuffled down it was not too late to do a mile of the Graves and Road but the moonflower he would love to have one more look at that he got out into the garden there stood the stalk of the flower very tall in the deepening dusk he touched the stalk it was dry and hard three or four little dry things fell from above and rattled on his head seeds of course said Dickie who knew more about seeds now than he had done when he saved the parrot seeds one does not tramp the country for a month at Dickie's age without learning something about seeds he got out the knife that should have cut the string of the basket in the train opened it and cut the stalk of the moonflower very carefully so that none of the seeds should be if you were lost he crept into the house holding the stalk upright and steady as an echo light carries a processional cross the house was quite dark now but a street lamp threw its light into the front room there empty and dusty there was a torn newspaper on the floor he spread a sheet of it out kneeled by it and shook the moonflower head over it the seeds came rattling out dozens and dozens of them they were bigger than sunflower seeds and flatter and rounder and they shone like silver or like the pods of the plant we call honesty oh beautiful beautiful said Dickie letting the smooth shape slide through his fingers have you ever played with mother of pearl card counters the seeds of the moonflower were like those he pulled out tinkler in the seal and laid them on the heap of seeds and then knew quite suddenly that he was too tired to travel any further that night all those here he said there's plenty papers he knew by experience that as bed clothes newspapers were warm if noisy and get on in the morning of four people's up he collected all the paper and straw there was a good deal littered about in the house and made a heap in the corner out of the way of the window he did not feel afraid of sleeping in an empty house only very lordly and magnificent because he had the whole house to himself the food still left in his pockets served for supper and you could drink quite well at the wash house tap by putting your head under and turning it on very slowly and for a final enjoyment he laid out his treasure on the newspaper tinkler in the seal in the middle and the pearly counters arranged in patterns around them circles and squares and oblongs the seeds lay very flat and fitted close together they were excellent for making patterns with and presently he made with triple lines of silvery seeds a six pointed star with the rattle and the seal in the middle and the light from the street lamp shown brightly on it all that's the prettiest of the lot said Dickie Harding alone in the empty house and then the magic began end of section 5 chapter 3 the escape recording by Sandra Estenson