Page:Poor Cecco - 1925.djvu/92

80 distance, they looked at one another and drew closer to the blaze.

But presently their fire began to die down. Suddenly it gave a last little flicker, and went out. Now indeed they were in bad plight!

“This is getting beyond a joke!” said Poor Cecco. “I must study the situation!”

And he went and lay down by himself at a little distance, with his nose on his paws, thinking.

Jensina and Bulka sat in the long grasses and shivered. Bulka thought of Tubby and the toy-cupboard, and he began to feel very homesick. Big tears rolled down his nose, but he licked them up bravely as fast as they fell, so that Jensina should not see he was crying. The tears came so fast that he had to lick hard to keep up with them, and after a while this occupation in itself proved so exciting that he very nearly forgot his troubles, and when Poor Cecco returned he had just succeeded in catching the last tear of all on the tip of his red flannel tongue, while Jensina sat with her legs stretched straight out before her and her precious bundle on her lap.