"Let's 'ave a look at you," he said, and peered closely at the child. "Where'd you get that face, eh? What did you say your name was?"
"Harding's his name," said Beale. "Dickie Harding."
"Dickie Arden, I should a-said if you'd asked me," said the old man. "Seems to me it's a reg'lar Arden face he's got. But my eyes ain't so good as wot they was. What d'you say to stopping along of me a bit, my boy? There's room in the cottage for all five of us. My son James here tells me you've been's good as a son to him."
"I'd love it," said Dickie. So that was settled. There were two bedrooms for Beale and his father, and Dickie slept in a narrow, white washed slip of a room that had once been a larder. The brown spaniel and True slept on the rag hearth rug in the kitchen. And everything was as cosy as cosy could be.
"We can send for any of the dawgs any minute if we feel we can't stick it without 'em," said Beale, smoking his pipe in the front garden.
"You mean to stay a long time, then," said Dickie.
"I dunno. You see, I was born and bred 'ere. The air tastes good, don't it? An' the water's good. Didn't you notice the tea tasted quite different from what it does anywhere else? That's the soft water, that is. An' the old chap . . . Yes—and there's one or two other things—yes—I reckon us'll stop on 'ere a bit."
And Dickie was very glad. For now he was
