They had been promoted to this for some months now, and no
accident had happened; and on those days--few and far between, it must
be allowed--on which they had not been found deserving of their
breakfast number two, I think the punishment of not "helping Grandmamma
to wash up" had been quite as great as that of missing the treat itself.
For very often, while deftly getting through her task, Grandmamma would
talk so nicely to the children, telling them stories of the time when
she was a little girl herself, and of all the changes between those
far-away days and "now"; of the strange, wonderful places she had
visited with Grandpapa; of cities with mosques and minarets gleaming
against the intense blue sky of the East in the too splendid, scorching
sunshine that no one who has not seen it can picture to himself; of
rides--weary endless rides--night after night through the desert; or
voyages of months and months together across the pathless ocean. They
would sit, the little brother and sister, staring up at her with their
great solemn blue eyes, as if they would never tire of listening--how
wonderfully wise Grandpapa and Grandmamma must be!--"Surely," said
little Pamela one day with a great sigh, "surely Grandmamma must know
_everyfing_;" while Duke's breast swelled with the thought that he too,
like his father and grandfather before him, would journey some day to
those distant lands, there, if need were, like them "to fight for the
king.
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