Ben Weatherstaff, called out Mary, finding her breath. She stood
below him and called up to him with a sort of gasp. Ben Weatherstaff,
it was the robin who showed me the way!
Then it did seem as if Ben really would scramble down on her side of
the wall, he was so outraged.
Tha young bad un! he called down at her. Layin tha badness on a
robin not but what he s impidint enow for anythin . Him showin thee
th way! Him! Eh! tha young nowt she could see his next words burst
out because he was overpowered by curiosity however i this world did
tha get in?
It was the robin who showed me the way, she protested obstinately.
He didn t know he was doing it but he did. And I can t tell you from
here while you re shaking your fist at me.
He stopped shaking his fist very suddenly at that very moment and his
jaw actually dropped as he stared over her head at something he saw
coming over the grass toward him.
At the first sound of his torrent of words Colin had been so surprised
that he had only sat up and listened as if he were spellbound. But in
the midst of it he had recovered himself and beckoned imperiously to
Dickon.
Wheel me over there! he commanded. Wheel me quite close and stop
right in front of him!
And this, if you please, this is what Ben Weatherstaff beheld and which
made his jaw drop. A wheeled chair with luxurious cushions and robes
which came toward him looking rather like some sort of State Coach
because a young Rajah leaned back in it with royal command in his great
black-rimmed eyes and a thin white hand extended haughtily toward him.
And it stopped right under Ben Weatherstaff s nose. It was really no
wonder his mouth dropped open.
Do you know who I am? demanded the Rajah.
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