Chapter V: A Swiss Walk

"ARE you going to take us for a walk, Nurse? Oh Nurse, where are we going?" cried Willie, jumping about with delight after breakfast next morning.

"May we go to the lake?" asked Lucy.

"Oh no! We're going up the mountains," said Willie. "You'll take us, won't you, Nurse?"

"But I would much rather go down on the shore," said Lucy.

"But you can't, because I'm the eldest," said Willie. "And there is no sand on the shore, but only shingles, Papa says, and not nice shingles like those at the sea-side. I want a great deal more to go up the mountains."

"I wonder which is going to give way," said Nurse. "I can't take you to both places at the same time, you know."

Lucy said nothing, and Willie set himself with his back against the wall, looking rather cross.

"Master Willie is the eldest, to be sure," said Nurse, "and so he has the right to choose first. But then Miss Lucy is a little girl, and real gentlemen always give way to ladies."

"I am not a gentleman yet. I'm a boy," said Willie.

"But if gentlemen give way to ladies, boys should give way to girls," said Nurse.

"Lucy always wants to do what I don't like," said Willie.

"I don't," said Lucy, rather hurt. "I'll go up the mountains if you like. Only, please, don't let us go up quite so high as the snow, Willie, because I don't like to be cold."

Nurse kissed Lucy, and told her that there was no fear of their getting near the snow, and Willie felt rather small. He knew that he ought to draw back now, and offer to go on the shore. But, though he felt that he was acting like a selfish boy, his wishes were too strong, and he said nothing.

It was a lovely walk that they had, and Lucy soon ceased to be sorry that they had not gone down on the shore. They found a nice wide path, leading along the side of one of the mountains, and by-and-by they came to a stream of water, which ran through a little ravine, and crossed the road in front of them.

"Oh Nurse, how are we going to get across?" cried Willie.

"Why, I think I shall have to wade through and carry you both," said Nurse, laughing. "Or else we must turn back."

"Oh no, don't turn back!" said Willie. "Look, it isn't so wide up there on the grass. Could you not jump across? Or shall I get some big stones and put them in here?"

"Stepping-stones? Not a bad plan," said Nurse. "I don't see any large enough about here though."

"But I saw some a little way back; I am quite sure I did," said Willie. "May I go and see?"

"Yes, but we will all go," said Nurse. "I can't have you running about alone and losing yourself."

"I am sure I should not lose myself," said Willie.

But Nurse turned round, so he had to submit. Soon they found some large stones, just as Willie had thought, lying in the grass by the side of the path, and he was very glad he had seen them. Nurse took up two of the stones, and Willie lifted a third, which he could just hold with both hands; and even Lucy would carry a small one.

Then they came to the stream, and Nurse put down her two stones with care, and said, "Mind how you do it, Master Willie."

But Willie, instead of minding, threw his stone straight into the middle of the water, so that there came a great splash all over Nurse's dress.

"Oh Master Willie! How could you?" said Nurse gravely. "Just as I was speaking to you too."

"I didn't mean to wet you, Nurse; I can't help it."

"But you could have helped it if you had just thought for one moment before throwing the stone in," said Nurse. "My dress is quite wet, Master Willie, and I must go home now and change it."

Willie did not like that at all, and he began to cry. He cried so loud that Nurse was quite glad no one was by to see him acting so like a baby. The truth was, Willie felt he had been selfish about their choice of a walk that morning, and his feeling so made him ready to be cross about the least thing.

But Nurse would not go on. She could not walk in such wet clothes, and she also wanted Willie to learn not to do such careless things. Willie did not go on making a noise all the way home, but he sobbed to himself a little, and thought it very hard. And it never seemed to strike him that Nurse might think it rather hard on her part to have her clean dress made in such a mess. Only Nurse took it kindly, and did not make any fuss.

When Nurse had changed her wet clothes, she was quite ready to take them out again, and this time she said it should be to the shore.

"But I want to go up the mountain again," said Willie.

"Why, Willie, what a cross face!" said Mrs. Gray, looking up from her work. "Is that the way you are going to frown at the mountains while we are here?"

"Master Willie can't be happy unless he has things all his own way, ma'am," said Nurse.

Mrs. Gray asked what Nurse meant.

And Nurse told her how Willie had wanted to go up towards the mountains, and how Lucy had wanted to go down to the lake, and how Lucy had given way, and Willie had not even thanked her, and how he now wanted his own way over again.

"Willie, I thought you were a kinder little boy," said his Mamma. "I am sorry you can show so much temper. If you cannot be a cheerful and pleasant boy out of doors, you had better stay in with me this morning."

"Oh no—oh please, Mamma!" said Willie, in great alarm.

"Would you like to go on the shore with Nurse and Lucy, and will you not grumble any more?"

Willie hung his head, and at length said, rather faintly, "N-o!"

"But I want more than that, Willie. I can't have Nurse's and Lucy's pleasure spoilt by a fractious little boy."

"Mamma, I won't be cross," said Willie, with a great sigh.

And Lucy put her little arms round him, and said, "I'd rather go up the mountains again."

"No, we won't," said Willie. "We'll go right down on the shore, and look for pretty pebbles, and see if the tide is coming in."

"But you can't do that, Willie, because there are no tides in the lake," said Mrs. Gray.

"No tides!" Willie's eyes were wide open in surprise. "Does not the water come up and go down?"

"No; it is always the same, except that it is sometimes rough and sometimes smooth. That is one thing in which a lake is unlike the sea."

Willie was almost as anxious as Lucy herself now to see the lake. He was quite happy again, and, taking Lucy's little hand, he ran down the road towards the lake, with Nurse coming behind them, and they spent a very merry hour upon the shore, until it was time to go home to dinner.