t alone in the
search, for both Mr. and Mrs. Jameson were full of anxiety respecting
the child, and trusty men were sent in all directions to look after the
lost one; and when Mr. Jameson spoke to his lady on the imprudence of
having invited so young a child, she replied, that having given
permission to their son to ask a certain number of young people, she had
not attended to him when he named the bidden guests, taking it for
granted that a boy of thirteen would prefer companions of his own size
to a child of Reuben's tender age. And now it came out from Edward how
Marten had refused to come without his brother, and that Mr. and Mrs.
Mortimer were from home, and this, as might be expected, added not a
little to the distress of Mr. and Mrs. Jameson, for hitherto they had
thought the child had visited them with the permission of his parents,
and now that they heard that those parents were at Portsmouth, they were
more and more uneasy, and they blamed themselves not a little for having
been so indulgent in their direction to Edward. "But, indeed," said Mrs.
Jameson, "one could not have foreseen these circumstances, and when I
saw little Reuben seated by Mary at the dinner table, though I wondered
at his presence, yet he seemed so happy I believed all was right with
him." But the lesson was not lost upon Mr. and Mrs. Jameson, nor on
Edward, and I am happy to say, in future the latter was more ready to
ask advice of his parents than before this affair, for he too was very
uneasy about Reuben. As to Marten, without thinking of his hat, on
learning that the child could not be found in the house nor in the
pleasure grounds, he told one of the men who was sent with him by Mr.
Jameson, that he should go home as fast as he could to see if his
brother might not have made his way there, or at least be met with upon
the road. The distance from one house to the other was, as I said
before, four miles, and though poor Marten had little expectation that
the tender child could find his way so far, even if he knew the right
road, yet he understood the little one so well, that he felt convinced
he would at least attempt to get to his home, so that he considered it
useless to look for him in any other direction. And now we must leave
the unhappy and alarmed brother to speak of little Reuben, who was left,
as we mentioned, by Jenkins in the sitting-room with a few toys near
him. Never had Reuben been so left to himself before, but still for a