"Please,Helen,I've got my box and so many things to put into it and it's nearly Saturday already--and I want to show the Noahs to Mrs.Monk."This would have been a difficult sentence for the most clear-headed person to unravel,and Helen was,at that moment,trying to write a letter to an aunt whom she had never seen and for whom she had no sort of affection,so she answered him rather roughly:
"Oh,don't bother with your box,Jeremy.Can't you see I'm busy?""You may be busy,"said Jeremy,rising indignantly to his feet,"but I'm busy too,and my business is just as good as yours with your silly old letter.""Oh,don't bother!"said Helen,whereupon Jeremy crept behind her and pinched her stocking.A battle followed,too commonplace in its details to demand deion here.It need only be said that Hamlet joined in it and ran away with Helen's letter which had blown to the ground during the struggle,and that he ate it,in his corner,with great satisfaction.Then,when they were at their angriest,Helen suddenly began to laugh which she did sometimes,to her own intense annoyance,when she terribly wanted to be enraged,then Jeremy laughed too,and Hamlet yielded up fragments of the letter--so that all was well.
But the problem of the box was not solved--and,in the end,the only part of the toy village that Mrs.Monk ever saw was the youngest Miss Noah and one apple-tree for her to sit under.
II
The ritual of the journey to Cow Farm was,by this time,of course,firmly established,and the first part of the ritual was that one should wake up at three in the morning.This year,however,for some strange mysterious reason Jeremy overslept himself and did not wake up until eight o'clock,to find then that everyone was already busy packing and brushing and rushing about,and that all his own most sacred preparations must be squeezed into no time at all if he were to be ready.Old Tom Collins's bus came along at twelve o'clock to catch the one o'clock train,so that Jeremy might he considered to have the whole morning for his labours,but that was not going to be enough for him unless he was very careful.Grown-up people had such a way of suddenly catching on to you and washing your ears,or making you brush your teeth,or sitting you down in a corner with a book,that circumnavigating them and outplotting them needed as much nerve and enterprise as tracking Red Indians.When things were fined down to the most naked accuracy he had apparently only two "jobs":one to accustom Hamlet to walking with a "lead,"the other to close the green box;but of course Mary would want advice,and there would,in all probability,be a dispute or two about property that would take up the time.
It was indeed an eventful morning.Trouble began with Mary suddenly discovering that she had lost her copy of "Alice in Wonderland"and rushing to Jeremy's box and upsetting all Jeremy's things to see whether it were there.Jeremy objected to this with an indignation that was scarcely in the sequel justified,because Mary found the book jammed against the paint-box and a dry walnut nestling in its centre.She cried and protested and then suddenly,with the disgusting sentimentality that was so characteristic of her,abandoned her position altogether and said that Jeremy could have it,and then cried again because he said he didn't want it.
Then Jeremy had to put everything back into the box again,and in the middle of this Hamlet ran off with the red-checked Miss Noah between his teeth and began to lick the blue off her dress,looking up at the assembled company between every lick with a smile of the loveliest satisfaction.Then,when the box was almost closed,it was discovered by a shocked and virtuous Helen that Jeremy had left out his Bible.
"There'll be one there,"said Jeremy in an angry agitated whisper,hoping to escape the attention of Miss Jones.
"What's that,Jeremy dear?"said Miss Jones.
"Oh,fancy,Miss Jones!"said Helen."He's taking all his dirty old toys and even his old clown,and he's leaving out his Bible.""I'm not!"cried Jeremy,taking it and trying to squeeze it down between three walnuts and the toy pistol.
"Oh,Jeremy clear,that's not the way to treat your Bible.I'll give you some paper to wrap it up in,and you'd better take the things out again and put it in at the bottom of the box."Yes,obviously he would not be ready in time.
The matter of Hamlet and the "lead"was also very exhausting.Hamlet had never,in all his days,been tied to anyone or anything.Of course no one could tell what had been his history before he came strolling on to the Cole horizon,and it may be that once as a very small puppy he had been tied on to something.On the whole,that is probable,his protests on this occasion being of a kind so vehement as to argue some reminiscences behind them.Mrs.Cole had bought a beautiful "lead"of black leather;of course be had already a collar studded with little silver nails,and the point was very simply to fasten the "lead"on to the collar.Jeremy had been promised that he should conduct Hamlet,and it had seemed,when the promise had been made,as though it would be a very simple thing to carry out.Hamlet no sooner saw the cord than he began his ingenious protests,sitting up and smiing at it,suddenly darting at the recumbent Miss Noah and rushing round the room with her,finally catching the "lead"itself in his teeth and hiding with it under Miss Jones's skirt.