He desisted at once, and with a touch of his rough forelock,
looked sheepish, and said, "Please ma'am, he was meddling with our
lobster-pot."
"I wasn't doing any harm," said Conrade. "I was just looking in, and
they all came and shied stones at us."
"I don't care how the quarrel began," said Rachel. "You would not have
run into it if you had been behaving properly. Zack was quite right to
protect his father's property, but he might have been more civil. Now
shake hands, and have done with it."
"Not shake hands with a low boy," growled Francis. But happily Conrade
was of a freer spirit, and in spite of Rachel's interference, had sense
enough to know himself in the wrong. He held out his hand, and when the
ceremony had been gone through, put his hands in his pockets, produced
a shilling, and said, "There, that's in case I did the thing any harm."
Rachel would have preferred Zachary's being above its acceptance, but
he was not, and she was thankful that a wood path offend itself, leading
through the Homestead plantations away from the temptations and perils
of the shore.
That the two boys, instead of listening to her remonstrance, took to
punching and kicking one another, was a mitigated form of evil for
which she willingly compounded, having gone through so much useless
interference already, that she felt as if she had no spirit left to
keep the peace, and that they must settle their little affairs between
themselves. It was the most innocent diversion in which she could hope
to see them indulge. She only desired that it might last them past a
thrush's nest, in the hedge between the park and plantation, a somewhat
treasured discovery of Grace's. No such good luck. Either the thrush's
imprudence or Grace's visits had made the nest dangerously visible,
and it was proclaimed with a shout. Rachel, in hot haste, warned them
against taking birds'-nests in general, and that in particular.
"Nests are made to be taken," said Francis.
"I've got an egg of all the Australian birds the Major could get me,"
said Conrade, "and I mean to have all the English ones."
"Oh, one egg; there's no harm in taking that; but this nest has young
birds."
The young birds must of course be seen, and Rachel stood by with
despairing frowns, commands, and assurances of their mother's
displeasure, while they peeped in, tantalized the gaping yellow throats,
by holding up their fingers, and laid hands on the side of the nest,
peeping at her with laughing, mischievous eyes, enjoying her distress.
She was glad at last to find them coming away without the nest, and
after crossing the park, arrived at the house, tired out, but with
two hours of the boys still on her hands. They, however, were a little
tired, too; and, further, Grace had hunted out the old bowls, much to
the delight of the younger ones. This sport lasted a good while, but at
last the sisters, who had relaxed their attention a little, perceived
that Conrade and Hubert were both missing, and on Rachel's inquiry where
they were, she received from Francis that elegant stock answer, "in
their skins." However, they came to light in process of time, the two
mothers returned home, and Mrs. Curtis and Grace had the conversation
almost in their own hands. Rachel was too much tired to do anything but
read the new number of her favourite "Traveller's Magazine," listening
to her mother with one ear, and gathering additional impressions of Sir
Stephen Temple's imprudence, and the need of their own vigilance. To
make Fanny feel that she could lean upon some one besides the military
secretary, seemed to be the great object, and she was so confiding and
affectionate with her own kin, that there were great hopes. Those boys
were an infliction, no doubt, but, thought Rachel, "there is always
an ordeal at the beginning of one's mission. I am mastering them by
degrees, and should do so sooner if I had them in my own hands, and no
more worthy task can be done than training human beings for their work
in this world, so I must be willing to go through a little while I bring
them into order, and fit their mother for managing them."