Lucy ran to meet them. "Oh, you dear naughty children, what a fright
you have given us! Oh, Mr. Dodd, how good of you! Where _did_ you
find them?"
"Under that hedge, eating apples. They tell me they sailed for the
North Pole this morning, but fell in with a pirate close under the
land, so 'bout ship and came ashore again."
"A pirate, Mr. Dodd? Oh, I see, a beggar--a tramp."
"A deal worse than that, Miss Lucy. Now, youngster, why don't you spin
your own yarn?"
"Yes, tell me, Reggy."
"Well, dear, when I had written to mamma, and Johnny had folded
it--because I can write but I can't fold it, and he can fold it but he
can't write it--we went to the North Pole, and we got a mile; and then
we saw that nasty Newfoundland dog sitting in the road waiting to
torment us. It is Farmer Johnson's, and it plays with us, and knocks
us down, and licks us, and frightens us, and we hate it; so we came
home."
"Ha! ha! good, prudent children. Oh, dear, you have had no dinner."
"Oh, yes we had, Lucy, such a nice one: we bought such a lot of apples
of a woman. I never had a dinner all apples before; they always spoil
them with mutton and things, and that nasty, nasty rice"
"Hear to that!" shouted David Dodd. "They have been dining upon
varjese" (verjuice), "and them growing children. I shall take them
into the kitchen, and put some cold beef into their little holds this
minute, poor little lambs."
"Oh yes, do; and I will run and tell the good news.
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