Now in this yard, just opposite the
kitchen-window, there was a huge sugar-cask, which, having been
converted into a reservoir, stood under a spout, and was at this moment
half full of rain-water. Curly, having first satisfied himself that Mrs
Bruce was at work in the kitchen, and therefore sure to see him,
mounted a big stone that lay beside the barrel, and pretended to lower
the baby into the water, as if trying how much she would endure with
equanimity. In a moment, he received such a box on the ear that, had he
not been prepared for it, he would in reality have dropped the child
into the barrel. The same moment the baby was in its mother's arms, and
Curly sitting at the foot of the barrel, nursing his head, and
pretending to suppress a violent attack of weeping. The angry mother
sped into the house with her rescued child.
No sooner had she disappeared than Curly was on his feet scudding back
to Annie, who had been staring over the garden-gate in utter
bewilderment at his behaviour. She could no longer resist his
entreaties: off she ran with him to the banks of the Glamour, where
they soon came upon Alec and the man in the act of putting the boat on
the slip, which, in the present instance, was a groove hollowed out of
a low part of the bank, so that she might glide in more gradually.
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