And it was only a telegram.

When Mam opened it, she said “Good gracious!”

“What is it, mother?” inquired Dorothy.

But Minkie had read it over Mam’s shoulder and it was just this:

“Schwartz arrived unexpectedly to-day. Have invited him to spend Christmas and New Year with us. Send victoria meet 2.15. Tom.”

Tom is the Old Man. His other name is Grosvenor. He isn’t really old, but Jim calls him the Old Man, or the Guv’nor, and we are all pretty free and easy in the stable, you know.

“Good gracious!” said Mam again, “he will be here in half an hour. Evangeline, run and tell James to drive to the station at once. Mr. Grosvenor is bringing a friend home with him.”

Now, it is to be observed, in the first place, that ladies are always flustered by telegrams. The Old Man said nothing about “bringing” [Pg 6]Schwartz by the 2.15, and Mam knew quite well that he expected to be detained at the office until the 5.30. Next, when two-legged people are in a hurry, they put the rush on to their four-legged helpers. I was just enjoying a nice wisp of hay when Jim banged in and rattled me into my harness, while Mole, the gardener, who also cleans the knives and boots, pulled the victoria out of the shed.

[Pg 6]

I was going through the gate in fine style when Minkie came flying.

“Don’t stop,” she said, and skipped inside.

Jim thought Mam had sent her, but Jim is always wrong when he imagines anything about Minkie. The fact was, as she told me afterwards, she had heard a lot of talk about this Schwartz, and she felt that it would be good for all parties if she took his measure a few minutes ahead of the rest of the family; so she jammed on a pirate cap and Dorothy’s fur coat, and slid across the lawn without any one’s being the wiser, except Dan, and he was sore with her on account of the escape of the telegraph boy. He tried to take it out of Tibbie, but she nipped up a tree, and the [Pg 7]parrot, who was watching him head downwards through the drawing-room window, yelled “Yah!” at him. That settled it. He came after me and jumped up at my bit.

[Pg 7]

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