Page:Poor Cecco - 1925.djvu/34

26 spread Ida on the bottom of the wagon first, and all sat on her to keep their feet warm. At the last moment space had to be made for the Money-Pig, who insisted on coming too. The word “treasure” was quite enough to rouse him up.

“He thinks we’re going to find money, and he’s afraid he won’t get any!” whispered Tubby to Gladys, snuggling up close against her in the wagon. “He’s an awful miser. Did he give you a wedding present last week?”

“He did not,” said Gladys.

“When I marry,” said Tubby, spreading her skirts out, “I shall be married in Tubbyland and I shall have a Tubbyland wedding. Every one will give me presents. I shall wear a long satin train and roses and a blue veil.”

Bulka was staring gloomily in front of him. “You’ll look awfully stupid!” he said.

“Anyway,” said Tubby angrily, “I shan’t ask you! When is the wagon going to start?”

They were waiting for Anna, who, as usual, had a piece of string tangled round her wheels. Anna had to walk alongside, for they wouldn’t let her bring her meadow into the wagon, and she refused to leave it behind.

“Anna is so silly!” murmured Virginia May, watching Anna lift first one foot and then the other, very affectedly, while Poor Cecco got the string unwound. “It’s absurd to be so attached to a little piece of ground like that. It isn’t as if anything grew on it. She just likes to pretend