Chapter 19 - How to Make a Philzz

"But what became of the nursemaid?"

" It are gone!" Bruno solemnly replied.

"No. Oo couldn't touch it, oo know. If oo walked at it, oo'd go right froo!"

"When did oo guess it were Sylvie?" Bruno enquired.

"I didn't guess it, till it was Sylvie," I said. "But how did You manage the nursemaid? "

"Bruno managed it," said Sylvie. "It's called a Phlizz."

"And how do you make a Phlizz, Bruno?"

"The Professor teached me how," said Bruno. "First oo takes a lot of air--"

 

" That were me!" he gleefully proclaimed, in his own voice.

 

"And that weren't good tea!" said Bruno. " It wereso welly weak!"

 

"What's the matter, darling?" said Sylvie, with her arms round his neck.

" Hurtedmine selfwelly much!" sobbed the poor little fellow.

"I'm so sorry, darling! How ever did you manage to hurt yourself so?"

"Course I managed it!" said Bruno, laughing through his tears. "Doos oo think nobody else but oo ca'n't manage things?"

Matters were looking distinctly brighter, now Bruno had begun to argue. "Come, let's hear all about it!" I said.

"My foot took it into its head to slip--" Bruno began.

"A foot hasn't got a head!" Sylvie put in, but all in vain.

"I slipted down the bank. And I tripted over a stone. And the stone hurted my foot! And I trod on a Bee. And the Bee stinged my finger!" Poor Bruno sobbed again. The complete list of woes was too much for his feelings. "And it knewed I didn't mean to trod on it!" he added, as the climax.

"That Bee should be ashamed of itself!" I said severely, and Sylvie hugged and kissed the wounded hero till all tears were dried.

"My finger's quite unstung now!" said Bruno. " Why doos there be stones? Mister Sir, doos oo know?"

"They're good for something," I said: "even if we don't know what. What's the good of dandelions, now?"

" Dindledums?" said Bruno. "Oh, they're ever so pretty! And stones aren't pretty, one bit. Would oo like some dindledums, Mister Sir?"

"Bruno!" Sylvie murmured reproachfully. "You mustn't say 'Mister' and 'Sir,' both at once! Remember what I told you!"

"You telled me I were to say Mister' when I spoked about him, and I were to say 'Sir' when I spoked to him!"

"Well, you're not doing both, you know."

"Ah, but I is doing bofe, Miss Praticular!" Bruno exclaimed triumphantly. "I wishted to speak about the Gemplun--and I wishted to speak to the Gemplun. So a course I said 'Mister Sir'!"

"That's all right, Bruno," I said.

"Course it's all right!" said Bruno. "Sylvie just knows nuffin at all!"

"There never was an impertinenter boy!" said Sylvie, frowning till her bright eyes were nearly invisible.

"And there never was an ignoranter girl!" retorted Bruno. "Come along and pick some dindledums. That's all she's fit for!" he added in a very loud whisper to me.

"But why do you say 'Dindledums,' Bruno? Dandelions is the right word."

"It's because he jumps about so," Sylvie said, laughing.

"Yes, that's it," Bruno assented. "Sylvie tells me the words, and then, when I jump about, they get shooken up in my head-- till they're all froth!"

I expressed myself as perfectly satisfied with this explanation. "But aren't you going to pick me any dindledums, after all?

"Course we will!" cried Bruno. "Come along, Sylvie!" And the happy children raced away, bounding over the turf with the fleetness and grace of young antelopes.

 

"We could only but find six dindledums," said Bruno, putting them into my hands, "'cause Sylvie said it were time to go back. And here's a big blackberry for oosel f! We couldn't only find but two!" "Thank you: it's very nice," I said. And I suppose you ate the other, Bruno?"

"No, I didn't," Bruno said, carelessly. "Aren't they pretty dindledums, Mister Sir?"

"Yes, very: but what makes you limp so, my child?"

" Mine foot's come hurted again!" Bruno mournfully replied. And he sat down on the ground, and began nursing it.

 

Bruno brightened up in a moment. " That are a good plan!" he exclaimed. "I thinks my foot would come quite unhurted, if I eated a blackberry-- two or three blackberries--six or seven blackberries--"