“But he doesn’t have to go on the sea,” said Aaron, “and p’r’aps be drowned.”
“He has to drive, and horses tumble down, and run away, and wheels come off and all sorts of things,” said Loveday, not to be outdone.
“But there are sharks and whales and--and torpedoes at sea,” went on Aaron; but Loveday pretended not to hear him; and suddenly it occurred to him that, if he aggravated her too much, she might begin to call him “Adolphus” again; so he hurriedly changed the conversation.
“I wish I could see some piskies at work--don’t you?” said Aaron.
“Oh yes!” sighed Loveday. “Do you think we could if we stayed up till twelve o’clock one night?”
“I don’t know; I never heard of anybody hereabouts seeing them. Perhaps they don’t come to these parts now.”
“I don’t think they do, or they would tidy Mr. Winter’s garden for him and weed his path. It is _very_ untidy, isn’t it? It looks just like a place no one lives in.”
Aaron nodded; he had never seen it in any other condition, so was not so much impressed as was Loveday.
“I wish I could make it nice for him. I’d like to make it look so nice--all in one night--that when he came out he’d be--oh! ever so s’prised, and he’d wonder and wonder who had done it, and he’d say: ‘Why, a fairy must have been here at work.’ That’s what father and mother say sometimes.”
Aaron looked at her with interest. He liked to hear her stories of her home, and what she did there. Some of them were very wonderful. But Loveday had no stories to tell that afternoon; she was very thoughtful and quiet, and sat for quite a long time without speaking. Aaron began at last to grow tired of staying still, and was just about to get up, when she suddenly turned to him, all excitement:
“I’ve been thinking, and I’ve thought of--oh, _ever_ such a nice plan. Let’s play that we are piskies, and come up in the night and tidy Mr. Winter’s garden for him, and make him think it is a fairy that has done it, and--and then we’d come again, and he’d think the fairies had been again. Shall we, Aaron? Oh, do say yes; and it will be a secret, and nobody must ever know, and everybody will wonder--and oh, it will be simply, simply splendid.”
Aaron listened eagerly, quite carried away by her enthusiasm. Loveday, with her ideas, her wild plans, and strange thoughts, was a constant wonder to him, and where she led he followed--if he could.