The Argosy — page 212: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Village Blacksmith. 195 Janet read the telegram, and rising hastily said: “Oh, Aunt Norah, we can never keep it from him! [I'll go upstairs and hide there ; but the children—they are sure to let it out.” “Not if I know it! You leave them to me; I'll settle them. _ Make a fire upstairs, and I’ll send you up some dinner. I must keep him here, or he'll get gossiping in the village.” | “ Mother, there is a telegram been sent to you. I met the girl, and she told me. Who is it from?” exclaimed Mary Jane, bursting in from the garden with the baby, which she had been airing, in her arms. ‘My word, my lady! Tl teach you to ask questions. Give me that baby, and you take that, and take yourself upstairs till I send for you. Just let me hear a sound from you, and you'll remember it till your dying day.” | “That” was a box on the ears, skilfully dodged by Mary Jane, | who retired whimpering upstairs, where she was amazed and com- | forted to find Janet was to share her banishment, but too fearful of } the consequences to indulge her curiosity by inquiring into the ' cause of her cousin’s exile. Mary Jane being thus summarily disposed of, there remained three | boys to be silenced. The baby and the idiot boy could not talk, so- they escaped scot-free. The boys were expected in from schook | every minute, and Mrs. Canter went to her garden gate to look for ) them. There they were, half-way up the lane, playing marbles ;. | and there, a little way behind them, was Mark Brown. If he over-- ) took them, Janet’s hiding-place would be known. ; “The young rascals! I'll teach them to play marbles in this | thaw,” said Mrs. Canter, picking up her dress and putting the skirt |} over her head so as to form a hood. She ran to meet her sons, | shouting to them as she went. ‘The boys heard her, picked up their | marbles, and flew past her into the house, knowing what to expect | on Monday morning, but unconscious that the presence of Mark | Brown in their rear had added to the enormity of their offence, or |) at least to its consequences. . Mrs. Canter caught Jack, the youngest of the three, as he tried: to slip past her, and lifting him up she tucked his curly head under | _her arm, and settled with him on her way to the house, where she | seated him howling on a chair by the wall; and seizing his brothers. | in turn, made them regret for a few minutes that marbles had ever been invented. “There ! perhaps youll come home from school straight to-mor- row. And now there is a gentleman coming to dinner, and if one of you dares to utter one word—mind, one word—from the time he } . €nters the house till the time he leaves it, you’ll never forget it as | long as you live! And you don’t one of you move till your dinner is ready.” The trio, howling in chorus, were seated in a row by the wall, and COMICOOOKS». EO