December 7: "Lost in London" (from mrspencil)


The little boy was too small to see where his mother had gone in the crowd of Christmas shoppers. He looked around and saw a green skirt. He ran towards it and tugged on it.

"Ma!" he called. But the woman who looked down on him in confusion was not his mother. Frightened indeed, now, he burst into tears.

"Oh dear," said the woman. "You've lost your mother, have you?"

He nodded, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

"I'll help you find her," said the woman. The boy did not know it, but she was no ordinary woman. She was Mrs. Hudson, landlady to the most brilliant detective in London.

Now, Mrs. Hudson knew enough about children to suspect the lad had picked her out of the crowd because she looked somewhat like his mother from behind. She was looking for a woman of average height, then, and dressed in green. Likely dark-haired, too, like the boy.

She stood on tiptoe and scanned the crowd. There was a woman of that description by a display of toy trains, perhaps ten paces away. Mrs. Hudson took the boy by the hand and made her way through the crowd.

"Ma!" cried the little boy. This time, he was right.

"Thank you so much," said the mother.

"My pleasure." Mrs. Hudson smiled brightly.