The winter was of the description least favourable to collective
boyish sports, as there was no snow and very little frost. The
Christmas holidays led to more walking than ever. The gravelled
roads of Belforest were never impassable, even in moist weather; and
even the penetralia of the place had been laid open to the Brownlows,
in consequence of a friendship which the two Johns had established
with Alfred Richards, the agent's son. They had brought him in to
see the museum, and he had proved so nice and intelligent a lad, that
Mother Carey, to the great scandal of her Serene Highness, allowed
Jock to ask him to partake of a birthday feast.
When Allen came home at Christmas, he introduced stilt walking, and
the Coffinkey world had the pleasure of communicating to one another
that "Mrs. Folly Brownlow" had been seen with all her boys walking on
stilts; and of course in the next stage, Mrs. "Folly" Brownlow
herself was said to have been walking on stilts with all her boys, a
libel, which caused Mrs. Robert Brownlow much pain and trouble in the
contradiction.
"Poor Caroline! walking seemed to be necessary to her health, and she
was out a great deal, but always walking along in the lanes on foot
with her little girls-—yes, I assure you, always on foot!"
It was thus that Caroline, with Babie and Armine, was descending a
hill on the other side of Belforest Park, fully employed in picking
the way through the mud from stone to stone, when a cry of dismay
came to them from a distance, and whilst they were still struggling
towards a gate, which broke the line of the high hedge, the two Johns
came back at speed, crying-—"Mother, Mother Carey! come quick, here's
Allen had a spill-—came down on his shoulder—-his stilt went into a
hole, and he went right over; they think he must have broken
something, he howls so when they touch him.
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