writing to mother about.
Mother wrote to her last week, said Harry; you know she told father
if ever he gave up the cab work she would like to know. I wonder what
she says; run in and see, Dolly.
Harry scrubbed away at Hotspur with a huish! huish! like any old
hostler. In a few minutes Dolly came dancing into the stable.
Oh! Harry, there never was anything so beautiful; Mrs. Fowler says we
are all to go and live near her. There is a cottage now empty that
will just suit us, with a garden and a henhouse, and apple-trees, and
everything! and her coachman is going away in the spring, and then she
will want father in his place; and there are good families round, where
you can get a place in the garden or the stable, or as a page-boy;
and there's a good school for me; and mother is laughing and crying by
turns, and father does look so happy!
That's uncommon jolly, said Harry, and just the right thing, I should
say; it will suit father and mother both; but I don't intend to be a
page-boy with tight clothes and rows of buttons. I'll be a groom or a
gardener.
It was quickly settled that as soon as Jerry was well enough they should
remove to the country, and that the cab and horses should be sold as
soon as possible.
This was heavy news for me, for I was not young now, and could not look
for any improvement in my condition. Since I left Birtwick I had never
been so happy as with my dear master Jerry; but three years of cab work,
even under the best conditions, will tell on one's strength, and I felt
that I was not the horse that I had been.
Grant said at once that he would take Hotspur, and there were men on the
stand who would have bought me; but Jerry said I should not go to cab
work again with just anybody, and the governor promised to find a place
for me where I should be comfortable.
The day came for going away. Jerry had not been allowed to go out yet,
and I never saw him after that New Year's eve. Polly and the children
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