weather-beaten old face, that even the grumpiest people smiled a little
when they met him, and everybody he spoke to stepped along a bit more
cheerful, just because the hearty way he said "_Good_ morning!" made
the day seem really good.

"He's cold," said Tippy. "Let's tap on the window and beckon him to come
in and warm himself before he starts back to town."

She caught up Georgina's hand to make it do the tapping, thinking it
would please her to give her a share in the invitation, but in her touchy
frame of mind it was only an added grievance to have her knuckles knocked
against the pane, and her wails began afresh as the old man, answering
the signal, shook his bell at her playfully, and turned towards the
house.

As to what happened after that, Georgina's memory is a blank, save for a
confused recollection of being galloped to Banbury Cross on somebody's
knee, while a big hand helped her to clang the clapper of a bell far too
heavy for her to swing alone. But some dim picture of the kindly face
puckered into smiles for her comforting, stayed on in her mind as an
object seen through a fog, and thereafter she never saw the Towncrier go
kling-klanging along the street without feeling a return of that same
sense of safety which his song gave her that morning. Somehow, it
restored her confidence in all Creation which Jeremy's teeth had
shattered in their fall.

Taking advantage of Georgina's contentment at being settled on the
visitor's knee, Mrs. Triplett hurried for a cloth to wipe up the bread
and milk. Kneeling on the floor beside it she sopped it up so
energetically that what she was saying came in jerks.