CHAPTER VII

Praying

I DON'T think I ever remember a more miserable day than it was after Pixie was missing. Honey was inconsolable; the boys returned late at night, tired out, and thoroughly disheartened at their unsuccessful search; Fräulein and nurse were dissolved in tears, and both seemed perfectly helpless to make any suggestions.

"He may have been picked up by some steamer or fishing-smack," I said, trying to speak hopefully.

"I know he is drowned!" wailed Honey.

"And it will be your doing!" said Pat severely. "You left a baby in an open boat, with the tide coming in around him; and when you found he had disappeared you never troubled yourself, or told any one for a full hour after!"

Honey was too miserable to defend herself. Pixie was the darling of us all, and the boys were too alarmed to show any mercy. I tried to cheer her up, and then was assailed with—

"Oh, do shut up with your 'hopes' and 'perhaps,' Li! Your grins are as bad as Honey's snivels. I suppose you think a saint ought to show a stony front at a time like this!"

[Illustration: "HERE I IS, AND A BIG FISH."]

"I'm not going to imagine the worst, to please you," I said stoutly; "for I've been praying for Pixie ever since he was missing, and I believe God will send him back to us again."

"Cant!" muttered Doodle-doo; but Honey whispered—

"If God answers your prayer, Li, I'll become a Christian, like you."

And then, about half-past ten, when Fräulein was urging us to go to bed, and Pat had just returned from visiting the coastguard station on the cliff, we heard a knock at the door, and a rush of small feet along the passage.

"Hear I is, and a big fish for my supper! And Pixie saw a lot of fish caught in a net!" He marched in amongst us, his hat on the back of his head, hugging a slippery fish in his arms, which he deposited in triumph on Fräulein's lap. A fisherman followed him in, and explained that he had found him in the boat drifting out to sea, as we had feared, and had taken him on board his smack.

"The coolest little chap I h'ever set eyes on! Said he was going to touch the sky, and warn't half pleased at havin' to come back without a-doin' it."

Pixie could not understand the reason for such hugs and embraces as he received, and no one had the heart to scold him, until nurse said—

"And don't you think it was very naughty to go off in a boat like that, and give us all such a fright?"

Pixie looked round on us serenely.

"The boat ran away hisself. Pixie only sat quite still and bumped up and down."

"Weren't you frightened when you got out to sea?" asked Taters.

He shook his curly head. "O' course I wasn't. When the boat jumped up and down very high, I asked Jesus to come in and sit by me; and I fink he did. And I asked Jesus to take me frough the sky into heaven; but this man broughted me back before I got there. And Pixie is very tired, and he'll go to bed, and have the fish for his breakfus!"

Nurse carried him off, and we all followed his example; but before we got into bed, I said to Honey—

"Don't you feel very thankful Pixie is safe?"

"I should think I did! It's like a mountain's weight off me!"

"Well, then, aren't you going to do what you said!"

Honey looked doubtfully at me. "Yes, I really will, but not to-night; I'm too tired."

I lost patience with her. "You put off and off; and you'll never do it! I hate such shilly-shallying! Why can't you make up your mind one way or the other? Say downright you don't mean to change, instead of pretending you want to, and never doing it! I'm sick of your saying that 'by-and-by' you'll do it! If you don't take care, you'll put it off till too late, and then where will you be? You're as weak as water!"

"Thank you!" said Honey placidly, though I could tell by her face she was angry. "And you're a hypocrite if your temper can flare up over nothing so!"

I dashed into bed, and worked off my indignation under the bedclothes.

A quarter of an hour later, thoroughly ashamed of myself, I sprang up and went over to Honey's bed.

"I'm awfully sorry," I said penitently; "do forgive me! But you don't know how I long for you to be as happy as I am; and I'm so afraid you will never do it unless you make a start now. God has been so good in preserving Pixie's life."

Honey was not demonstrative—none of us were—but she gave my arm a squeeze.

"All right, Li! I don't really think you a hypocrite, but don't give me up yet. I really will start soon, but not to-night; and I have thanked God for sending Pixie back—I really have."

I crept back into bed a little comforted, and then I determined that I would pray three or four times every day that Honey and Thunder might become true Christians. "If God can answer one prayer, He will another," I argued; "and I expect He would much rather have them Christians than save Pixie from drowning; for I should think He would be glad to have such a darling in heaven!"

And so I prayed, and waited, and wondered why God did not answer my prayer sooner; for both Honey and Thunder seemed, in my eyes, to be as far off as ever.

"A letter from your mother!" said Fräulein one morning. "And we home shall go at once. The workmen have papered and washed the house, and your father and mother are also returning quickly."

I seized hold of Doodle-doo and spun him round and round the table in delight—

"Hurray! We've been here long enough. When shall we go? To-day?"

"I'll tell old Skim-milk, and see her face when she hears the news!"

And Doodle-doo rushed from the room to break the tidings to our landlady, whom we had nicknamed "Skim-milk" from the poverty of that article when brought to our table.

[Illustration: "THE HOUSE OF THE FATTEST OLD FURY THAT EVER LIVED ON THE BEST TITBITS OF HER LODGERS!"]

He returned chuckling.

"What did she say?" we demanded.

"She tossed up the tip of her nose. 'A blessed thing for me, afore my carpets get wored to rags, and my paint scratched off, and my house gets the name in the Terrace of containin' the vulgarest, noisiest, impertinentest set of children, big enough to know better!'"

"And what did you say?"

"I was very solemn. 'Do you know what name your house has got? The house of the fattest old fury that ever lived on the best titbits of her lodgers, and pried into their pockets and drawers for odd halfpence!' Then she looked round for a broomstick, and I walked off!"