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diff --git a/16468-8.txt b/16468-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4dde2c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/16468-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7306 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pot of Gold, by Mary E. Wilkins + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pot of Gold + And Other Stories + +Author: Mary E. Wilkins + +Release Date: August 7, 2005 [EBook #16468] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE POT OF GOLD *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Lesley Halamek and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +SHORT STORY + + +THE POT OF GOLD + + +AND OTHER STORIES + + + +BY + +MARY E. WILKINS + +Author of "A New England Nun," "A Humble Romance," etc. + + + +_ILLUSTRATED_ + +BOSTON D LOTHROP COMPANY 1893 + + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY D. LOTHROP COMPANY. + + + + + + +SHORT STORY + + + +CONTENTS. + +THE POT OF GOLD +THE COW WITH GOLDEN HORNS +PRINCESS ROSETTA AND THE POP-CORN MAN. + I. THE PRINCESS ROSETTA + II. THE POP-CORN MAN +THE CHRISTMAS MONKS +THE PUMPKIN GIANT +THE CHRISTMAS MASQUERADE +DILL +THE SILVER HEN +TOBY +THE PATCHWORK SCHOOL +THE SQUIRE'S SIXPENCE +A PLAIN CASE +A STRANGER IN THE VILLAGE +THE BOUND GIRL +DEACON THOMAS WALES'S WILL +THE ADOPTED DAUGHTER + + + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + +Flax looks into the Pot of Gold _Frontis._ +The settle and the kettle +Drusilla and her gold-horned cow +A Knight of the Golden Bee +The princess was not in the basket! +The bee guards patrolled the city +"You!" cried the baron scornfully +Both the king and queen were obliged to pop +Going into the chapel +The boys read the notice +The prince and Peter are examined by the monks +The boys at work in the convent garden +The prince runs away +He picked up an enormous young Plantagenet and threw + it at him +They were all over the field +Then the king knighted him on the spot +There never was anything like the fun at the mayor's + Christmas ball +Their parents stared in great distress +"I will go and tend my geese!" +She sang it beautifully +A strange sad state of things +Nan returns with the umbrellas +Such frantic efforts to get away +Dame Elizabeth stared with astonishment +The count thinks himself insulted +The snow was quite deep +Two by two +The snow man's house +Puss-in-the-corner +To the rescue +"I'll put this right in your face and--melt you!" +Letitia stood before uncle Jack +School children in Pokonoket +Pokonoket in stormy weather +Toby and the crazy loon +Toby ran till he was out of breath +The patchwork woman +The patchwork girl +Julia was arrested on Christmas Day +Julia entertains the ambassador through the keyhole +The grandmothers enjoy the Chinese toys +"Six"--she began feebly +"What!" said Squire Bean suddenly +Little Patience obeys the squire's summons +Watching for the coach +"Just look here!" said Willy's sweet voice +The little stranger +She almost fainted from cold and exhaustion +A conveyance is found + + + + * * * * * + + +THE POT OF GOLD. + + + * * * * * + + + +THE POT OF GOLD. + + +The Flower family lived in a little house in a broad grassy meadow, +which sloped a few rods from their front door down to a gentle, +silvery river. Right across the river rose a lovely dark green +mountain, and when there was a rainbow, as there frequently was, +nothing could have looked more enchanting than it did rising from +the opposite bank of the stream with the wet, shadowy mountain for a +background. All the Flower family would invariably run to their front +windows and their door to see it. + +The Flower family numbered nine: Father and Mother Flower and seven +children. Father Flower was an unappreciated poet, Mother Flower was +very much like all mothers, and the seven children were very sweet and +interesting. Their first names all matched beautifully with their last +name, and with their personal appearance. For instance, the oldest +girl, who had soft blue eyes and flaxen curls, was called Flax Flower; +the little boy, who came next, and had very red cheeks and loved to +sleep late in the morning, was called Poppy Flower, and so on. This +charming suitableness of their names was owing to Father Flower. He +had a theory that a great deal of the misery and discord in the world +comes from things not matching properly as they should; and he thought +there ought to be a certain correspondence between all things that +were in juxtaposition to each other, just as there ought to be between +the last two words of a couplet of poetry. But he found, very often, +there was no correspondence at all, just as words in poetry do not +always rhyme when they should. However, he did his best to remedy +it. He saw that every one of his children's names were suitable +and accorded with their personal characteristics; and in his +flower-garden--for he raised flowers for the market--only those of +complementary colors were allowed to grow in adjoining beds, and, as +often as possible, they rhymed in their names. But that was a more +difficult matter to manage, and very few flowers were rhymed, or, if +they were, none rhymed correctly. He had a bed of box next to one of +phlox, and a trellis of woodbine grew next to one of eglantine, and a +thicket of elder-blows was next to one of rose; but he was forced +to let his violets and honeysuckles and many others go entirely +unrhymed--this disturbed him considerably, but he reflected that it +was not his fault, but that of the man who made the language and named +the different flowers--he should have looked to it that those of +complementary colors had names to rhyme with each other, then all +would have been harmonious and as it should have been. + +Father Flower had chosen this way of earning his livelihood when he +realized that he was doomed to be an unappreciated poet, because it +suited so well with his name; and if the flowers had only rhymed a +little better he would have been very well contented. As it was, he +never grumbled. He also saw to it that the furniture in his little +house and the cooking utensils rhymed as nearly as possible, though +that too was oftentimes a difficult matter to bring about, and +required a vast deal of thought and hard study. The table always stood +under the gable end of the roof, the foot-stool always stood where it +was cool, and the big rocking-chair in a glare of sunlight; the lamp, +too, he kept down cellar where it was damp. But all these were rather +far-fetched, and sometimes quite inconvenient. Occasionally there +would be an article that he could not rhyme until he had spent years +of thought over it, and when he did it would disturb the comfort +of the family greatly. There was the spider. He puzzled over that +exceedingly, and when he rhymed it at last, Mother Flower or one of +the little girls had always to take the spider beside her, when she +sat down, which was of course quite troublesome. The kettle he rhymed +first with nettle, and hung a bunch of nettle over it, till all the +children got dreadfully stung. Then he tried settle, and hung the +kettle over the settle. But that was no place for it; they had to go +without their tea, and everybody who sat on the settle bumped his head +against the kettle. At last it occurred to Father Flower that if he +should make a slight change in the language the kettle could rhyme +with the skillet, and sit beside it on the stove, as it ought, leaving +harmony out of the question, to do. Accordingly all the children were +instructed to call the skillet a skettle, and the kettle stood by its +side on the stove ever afterward. + +[Illustration: The Settle] + +The house was a very pretty one, although it was quite rude and very +simple. It was built of logs and had a thatched roof, which projected +far out over the walls. But it was all overrun with the loveliest +flowering vines imaginable, and, inside, nothing could have been more +exquisitely neat and homelike; although there was only one room and a +little garret over it. All around the house were the flower-beds and +the vine-trellises and the blooming shrubs, and they were always in +the most beautiful order. Now, although all this was very pretty to +see, and seemingly very simple to bring to pass, yet there was a vast +deal of labor in it for some one; for flowers do not look so trim and +thriving without tending, and houses do not look so spotlessly clean +without constant care. All the Flower family worked hard; even the +littlest children had their daily tasks set them. The oldest girl, +especially, little Flax Flower, was kept busy from morning till night +taking care of her younger brothers and sisters, and weeding flowers. +But for all that she was a very happy little girl, as indeed were +the whole family, as they did not mind working, and loved each other +dearly. + +Father Flower, to be sure, felt a little sad sometimes; for, although +his lot in life was a pleasant one, it was not exactly what he would +have chosen. Once in a while he had a great longing for something +different. He confided a great many of his feelings to Flax Flower; +she was more like him than any of the other children, and could +understand him even better than his wife, he thought. + +One day, when there had been a heavy shower and a beautiful rainbow, +he and Flax were out in the garden tying up some rose-bushes, which +the rain had beaten down, and he said to her how he wished he could +find the Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. Flax, if you will +believe me, had never heard of it; so he had to tell her all about it, +and also say a little poem he had made about it to her. + +The poem ran something in this way: + + O what is it shineth so golden-clear + At the rainbow's foot on the dark green hill? + 'Tis the Pot of Gold, that for many a year + Has shone, and is shining and dazzling still. + And whom is it for, O Pilgrim, pray? + For thee, Sweetheart, should'st thou go that way. + +Flax listened with her soft blue eyes very wide open. "I suppose if we +should find that pot of gold it would make us very rich, wouldn't it, +father?" said she. + +"Yes," replied her father; "we could then have a grand house, and keep +a gardener, and a maid to take care of the children, and we should no +longer have to work so hard." He sighed as he spoke, and tears stood +in his gentle blue eyes, which were very much like Flax's. "However, +we shall never find it," he added. + +"Why couldn't we run ever so fast when we saw the rainbow," inquired +Flax, "and get the Pot of Gold?" + +"Don't be foolish, child!" said her father; "you could not possibly +reach it before the rainbow was quite faded away!" + +"True," said Flax, but she fell to thinking as she tied up the +dripping roses. + +The next rainbow they had she eyed very closely, standing out on the +front door-step in the rain, and she saw that one end of it seemed +to touch the ground at the foot of a pine-tree on the side of the +mountain, which was quite conspicuous amongst its fellows, it was so +tall. The other end had nothing especial to mark it. + +"I will try the end where the tall pine-tree is first," said Flax to +herself, "because that will be the easiest to find--if the Pot of Gold +isn't there I will try to find the other end." + +A few days after that it was very hot and sultry, and at noon the +thunder heads were piled high all around the horizon. + +"I don't doubt but we shall have showers this afternoon," said Father +Flower, when he came in from the garden for his dinner. + +After the dinner-dishes were washed up, and the baby rocked to sleep, +Flax came to her mother with a petition. + +"Mother," said she, "won't you give me a holiday this afternoon?" + +"Why, where do you want to go, Flax?" said her mother. + +"I want to go over on the mountain and hunt for wild flowers," replied +Flax. + +"But I think it is going to rain, child, and you will get wet." + +"That won't hurt me any, mother," said Flax, laughing. + +"Well, I don't know as I care," said her mother, hesitatingly. "You +have been a very good industrious girl, and deserve a little holiday. +Only don't go so far that you cannot soon run home if a shower should +come up." + +So Flax curled her flaxen hair and tied it up with a blue ribbon, and +put on her blue and white checked dress. By the time she was ready to +go the clouds over in the northwest were piled up very high and black, +and it was quite late in the afternoon. Very likely her mother would +not have let her gone if she had been at home, but she had taken the +baby, who had waked from his nap, and gone to call on her nearest +neighbor, half a mile away. As for her father, he was busy in the +garden, and all the other children were with him, and they did not +notice Flax when she stole out of the front door. She crossed the +river on a pretty arched stone bridge nearly opposite the house, and +went directly into the woods on the side of the mountain. + +Everything was very still and dark and solemn in the woods. They knew +about the storm that was coming. Now and then Flax heard the leaves +talking in queer little rustling voices. She inherited the ability to +understand what they said from her father. They were talking to each +other now in the words of her father's song. Very likely he had heard +them saying it sometime, and that was how he happened to know it, + + "O what is it shineth so golden-clear + At the rainbow's foot on the dark green hill?" + +Flax heard the maple leaves inquire. And the pine-leaves answered +back: + + "'Tis the Pot of Gold, that for many a year + Has shone, and is shining and dazzling still." + +Then the maple-leaves asked: + + "And whom is it for, O Pilgrim, pray?" + +And the pine-leaves answered: + + "For thee, Sweetheart, should'st thou go that way." + +Flax did not exactly understand the sense of the last question and +answer between maple and pine-leaves. But they kept on saying it +over and over as she ran along. She was going straight to the tall +pine-tree. She knew just where it was, for she had often been there. +Now the rain-drops began to splash through the green boughs, and the +thunder rolled along the sky. The leaves all tossed about in a strong +wind and their soft rustles grew into a roar, and the branches and the +whole tree caught it up and called out so loud as they writhed and +twisted about that Flax was almost deafened, the words of the song: + + "O what is it shineth so golden-clear?" + +Flax sped along through the wind and the rain and the thunder. She was +very much afraid that she should not reach the tall pine which was +quite a way distant before the sun shone out, and the rainbow came. + +The sun was already breaking through the clouds when she came in sight +of it, way up above her on a rock. The rain-drops on the trees began +to shine like diamonds, and the words of the song rushed out from +their midst, louder and sweeter: + + "O what is it shineth so golden-clear?" + +Flax climbed for dear life. Red and green and golden rays were already +falling thick around her, and at the foot of the pine-tree something +was shining wonderfully clear and bright. + +At last she reached it, and just at that instant the rainbow became a +perfect one, and there at the foot of the wonderful arch of glory was +the Pot of Gold. Flax could see it brighter than all the brightness of +the rainbow. She sank down beside it and put her hand on it, then she +closed her eyes and sat still, bathed in red and green and violet +light--that, and the golden light from the Pot, made her blind and +dizzy. As she sat there with her hand on the Pot of Gold at the foot +of the rainbow, she could hear the leaves over her singing louder and +louder, till the tones fairly rushed like a wind through her ears. But +this time they only sang the last words of the song: + + "And whom is it for, O Pilgrim, pray? + For thee, Sweetheart, should'st thou go that way." + +At last she ventured to open her eyes. The rainbow had faded almost +entirely away, only a few tender rose and green shades were arching +over her; but the Pot of Gold under her hand was still there, and +shining brighter than ever. All the pine needles with which the ground +around it was thickly spread, were turned to needles of gold, and some +stray couplets of leaves which were springing up through them were all +gilded. + +Flax bent over it trembling and lifted the lid off the pot. She +expected, of course, to find it full of gold pieces that would buy the +grand house and the gardener and the maid that her father had spoken +about. But to her astonishment, when she had lifted the lid off and +bent over the Pot to look into it, the first thing she saw was the +face of her mother looking out of it at her. It was smaller of course, +but just the same loving, kindly face she had left at home. Then, as +she looked longer, she saw her father smiling gently up at her, then +came Poppy and the baby and all the rest of her dear little brothers +and sisters smiling up at her out of the golden gloom inside the Pot. +At last she actually saw the garden and her father in it tying up the +roses, and the pretty little vine-covered house, and, finally, she +could see right into the dear little room where her mother sat with +the baby in her lap, and all the others around her. + +Flax jumped up. "I will run home," said she, "it is late, and I do +want to see them all dreadfully." + +So she left the Golden Pot shining all alone under the pine-tree, and +ran home as fast as she could. + +When she reached the house it was almost twilight, but her father was +still in the garden. Every rose and lily had to be tied up after the +shower, and he was but just finishing. He had the tin milk pan hung +on him like a shield, because it rhymed with man. It certainly was a +beautiful rhyme, but it was very inconvenient. Poor Mother Flower +was at her wits' end to know what to do without it, and it was very +awkward for Father Flower to work with it fastened to him. + +Flax ran breathlessly into the garden, and threw her arms around her +father's neck and kissed him. She bumped her nose against the milk +pan, but she did not mind that; she was so glad to see him again. +Somehow, she never remembered being so glad to see him as she was now +since she had seen his face in the Pot of Gold. + +"Dear father," cried she, "how glad I am to see you! I found the Pot +of Gold at the end of the rainbow!" + +Her father stared at her in amazement. + +"Yes, I did, truly, father," said she. "But it was not full of gold, +after all. You was in it, and mother and the children and the house +and garden and--everything." + +"You were mistaken, dear," said her father, looking at her with his +gentle, sorrowful eyes. "You could not have found the true end of the +rainbow, nor the true Pot of Gold--that is surely full of the most +beautiful gold pieces, with an angel stamped on every one." + +"But I did, father," persisted Flax. + +"You had better go into your mother, Flax," said her father; "she will +be anxious to see you. I know better than you about the Pot of Gold at +the end of the rainbow." + +So Flax went sorrowfully into the house. There was the tea-kettle +singing beside the "skettle," which had some nice smelling soup in it, +the table was laid for supper, and there sat her mother with the baby +in her lap and the others all around her--just as they had looked in +the Pot of Gold. + +Flax had never been so glad to see them before--and if she didn't hug +and kiss them all! + +"I found the Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow, mother," cried +she, "and it was not full of gold, at all; but you and father and the +children looked out of it at me, and I saw the house and garden and +everything in it." + +Her mother looked at her lovingly. "Yes, Flax dear," said she. + +"But father said I was mistaken," said Flax, "and did not find it." + +"Well, dear," said her mother, "your father is a poet, and very wise; +we will say no more about it. You can sit down here and hold the baby +now, while I make the tea." + +Flax was perfectly ready to do that; and, as she sat there with her +darling little baby brother crowing in her lap, and watched her pretty +little brothers and sisters and her dear mother, she felt so happy +that she did not care any longer whether she had found the true Pot of +Gold at the end of the rainbow or not. + +But, after all, do you know, I think her father was mistaken, and that +she had. + + + + + + +THE COW WITH GOLDEN HORNS. + + +Once there was a farmer who had a very rare and valuable cow. There +was not another like her in the whole kingdom. She was as white as +the whitest lily you ever saw, and her horns, which curved very +gracefully, were of gold. + +She had a charming green meadow, with a silvery pool in the middle, to +feed in. Almost all the grass was blue-eyed grass, too, and there were +yellow lilies all over the pool. + +The farmer's daughter, who was a milkmaid, used to tend the +gold-horned cow. She was a very pretty girl. Her name was Drusilla. +She had long flaxen hair, which hung down to her ankles in two smooth +braids, tied with blue ribbons. She had blue eyes and pink cheeks, and +she wore a blue petticoat, with garlands of rose-buds all over it, and +a white dimity short gown, looped up with bunches of roses. Her hat +was a straw flat, with a wreath of rose-buds around it, and she always +carried a green willow branch in her hand to drive the cow with. + +She used to sit on a bank near the silvery pool, and watch the +gold-horned cow, and sing to herself all day from the time the dew was +sparkling over the meadow in the morning, till it fell again at night. +Then she would drive the cow gently home, with her green willow stick, +milk her, and feed her, and put her into her stable, herself, for the +night. + +The farmer was feeble and old, so his daughter had to do all this. The +gold-horned cow's stable was a sort of a "lean-to," built into the +side of the cottage where Drusilla and her father lived. Its roof, as +well as that of the cottage, was thatched and overgrown with moss, out +of which had grown, in its turn, a little starry white flower, until +the whole roof looked like a flower-bed. There were roses climbing +over the walls of the cottage and stable, also, pink and white ones. + +Drusilla used to keep the gold-horned cow's stable in exquisite order. +Her trough to eat out of, was polished as clean as a lady's china +tea-cup. She always had fresh straw, and her beautiful long tail was +tied by a blue ribbon to a ring in the ceiling, in order to keep it +nice. + +The gold-horned cow's milk was better than any other's, as one would +reasonably suppose it to have been. The cream used to be at least an +inch thick, and so yellow; and the milk itself had a peculiar and +exquisite flavor--perhaps the best way to describe it, is to say it +tasted as lilies smell. The gentry all about were eager to buy it, +and willing to pay a good price for it. Drusilla used to go around to +supply her customers, nights and mornings, a bright, shining milk-pail +in each hand, and one on her head. She had learned to carry herself so +steadily in consequence that she walked like a queen. + +[Illustration: DRUSILLA AND HER GOLD-HORNED COW.] + +Everybody admired Drusilla, and all the young shepherds and farmers +made love to her, but she did not seem to care for any of them, but to +prefer tending her gold-horned cow, and devoting herself to her old +father--she was a very dutiful daughter. + +Everything went prosperously with them for a long time; the cow +thrived, and gave a great deal of milk, customers were plenty, they +paid the rent for their cottage regularly, and Drusilla who was a +beautiful spinner, had her linen chest filled to the brim with the +finest linen. + +At length, however, a great misfortune befell them. One morning--it +was the day after a holiday--Drusilla, who had been up very late the +night before dancing on the village green, felt very sleepy, as she +sat watching the cow in the green meadow. So she just laid her flaxen +head down amongst the blue-eyed grasses, and soon fell fast asleep. + +When she woke up, the dew was all dried off, and the sun almost +directly overhead. She rubbed her eyes, and looked about for the +gold-horned cow. To her great alarm, she was nowhere to be seen. She +jumped up, distractedly, and ran over the meadow, but the gold-horned +cow was certainly not there. The bars were up, just as she had left +them, and there was not a gap in the stonewall which extended around +the meadow. How could she have gotten out? It was very mysterious! + +Drusilla, when she found, certainly, that the gold-horned cow was +gone, lost no time in wonderment and conjecture; she started forth to +find her. "I will not tell father till I have searched a long time," +said she to herself. + +So, down the road she went, looking anxiously on either side. "If +only I could come in sight of her, browsing in the clover, beside the +wall," sighed she; but she did not. + +After a while, she saw a great cloud of dust in the distance. It +rolled nearer and nearer, and finally she saw the King on horseback, +with a large party of nobles galloping after him. The King, who was +quite an old man, had a very long, curling, white beard, and had his +breast completely covered with orders and decorations. No convenient +board fence on a circus day was ever more thoroughly covered with +elephants and horses, and trapeze performers, than the breast of the +King's black velvet coat with jeweled stars and ribbons. But even +then, there was not room for all his store, so he had hit upon the +ingenious expedient of covering a black silk umbrella with the +remainder. He held it in a stately manner over his head now, and it +presented a dazzling sight; for it was literally blazing with gems, +and glittering ribbons fluttered from it on all sides. + +When the King saw Drusilla courtesying by the side of the road, he +drew rein so suddenly, that his horse reared back on its haunches, and +all his nobles, who always made it a point to do exactly as the King +did--it was court etiquette--also drew rein suddenly, and all their +horses reared back on their haunches. + +"What will you, pretty maiden?" asked the King graciously. + +"Please, your Majesty," said Drusilla courtesying and blushing and +looking prettier than ever, "have you seen my gold-horned cow?" + +"Pardy," said the King, for that was the proper thing for a King to +say, you know, "I never saw a gold-horned cow in my life!" + +Then Drusilla told him about her loss, and the King gazed at her while +she was talking, and admired her more and more. + +You must know that it had always been a great cross to the King and +his wife, the Queen, that they had never had any daughter. They had +often thought of adopting one, but had never seen any one who exactly +suited them. They wanted a full-grown Princess, because they had an +alliance with the Prince of Egypt in view. + +The King looked at Drusilla now, and thought her the most beautiful +and stately maiden he had ever seen. + +"What an appropriate Princess she would make!" thought he. + +"Suppose I should find the gold-horned cow for you," said he to +Drusilla, when she had finished her pitiful story, "would you consent +to be adopted by the Queen and myself, and be a princess?" + +Drusilla hesitated a moment. She thought of her dear old father +and how desolate he would be without her. But then she thought how +terribly distressed he would be at the loss of the gold-horned cow, +and that if he had her back, she would be company for him, even if his +daughter was away, and she finally gave her consent. + +The King always had his Lord Chamberlain lead a white palfrey, with +rich housings, by the bridle, in case they came across a suitable +full-grown Princess in any of their journeys; and now he ordered him +to be brought forward, and commanded a page to assist Drusilla to the +saddle. + +But she began to weep. "I want to go back to my father, until you have +found the cow, your Majesty," said she. + +"You may go and bid your father good-by," replied the King, +peremptorily, "but then you must go immediately to the boarding +school, where all the young ladies of the Court are educated. If you +are going to be a Princess, it is high time you began to prepare. You +will have to learn feather stitching, and rick-rack and Kensington +stitch, and tatting, and point lace, and Japanese patchwork, +and painting on china, and how to play variations on the piano, +and--everything a Princess ought to know." + +"But," said Drusilla timidly, "suppose--your Majesty shouldn't--find +the cow"-- + +"Oh! I shall find the cow fast enough," replied the King carelessly. +"Why, I shall have the whole Kingdom searched. I can't fail to find +her." So the page assisted the milkmaid to the saddle, kneeling +gracefully, and presenting his hand for her to place her foot in, and +they galloped off toward the farmer's cottage. + +The old man was greatly astonished to see his daughter come riding +home in such splendid company, and when she explained matters to him, +his distress, at first, knew no bounds. To lose both his dear daughter +and his precious gold-horned cow, at one blow, seemed too much to +bear. But the King promised to provide liberally for him during his +daughter's absence, and spoke very confidently of his being able to +find the cow. He also promised that Drusilla should return to him if +the cow was not found in one year's time, and after a while the old +man was pacified. + +Drusilla put her arms around her father's neck and kissed him +tenderly; then the page assisted her gracefully into the saddle, and +she rode, sobbing, away. + +After they had ridden about an hour, they came to a large, white +building. + +"O dear!" said the King, "the seminary is asleep! I was afraid of it!" + +Then Drusilla saw that the building was like a great solid mass, with +not a door or window visible. + +"It is asleep," explained the King. "It is not a common house; a great +professor designed it. It goes to sleep, and you can't see any doors +or windows, and such work as it is to wake it up! But we may as well +begin." + +Then he gave a signal, and all the nobles shouted as loud as they +possibly could, but the seminary still remained asleep. + +"It's asleep most of the time!" growled the King. "They don't want the +young ladies disturbed at their feather stitching and rick-rack, by +anything going on outside. I wish I could shake it." + +Then he gave the signal again, and all the nobles shouted together, +as loud as they could possibly scream. Suddenly, doors and windows +appeared all over the seminary, like so many opening eyes. + +"There," cried the King, "the seminary has woke up, and I am glad of +it!" + +Then he ushered Drusilla in, and introduced her to the lady principal +and the young ladies, and she was at once set to making daisies in +Kensington stitch, for the King was very anxious for her education to +begin at once. + +So now, the milkmaid, instead of sitting, singing, in a green meadow, +watching her beautiful gold-horned cow, had to sit all day in a +high-backed chair, her feet on a little foot-stool with an embroidered +pussy cat on it, and do fancy work. The young ladies worked by +electric light; for the seminary was asleep nearly all the time, and +no sunlight could get in at the windows, for boards clapped down over +them like so many eye-lids when the seminary began to doze. + +Drusilla had left off her pretty blue petticoat and white short gown +now, and was dressed in gold-flowered satin, with an immense train, +which two pages bore for her when she walked. Her pretty hair was +combed high and powdered, and she wore a comb of gold and pearls in +it. She looked very lovely, but she also looked very sad. She could +not help thinking, even in the midst of all this splendor, of her dear +father, and her own home, and wishing to see them. + +She was a very apt pupil. Her tatting collars were the admiration of +the whole seminary, and she made herself a whole dress of rick-rack. +She painted a charming umbrella stand for the King, and actually +worked the gold-horned cow in Kensington stitch, on a blue satin tidy, +for the Queen. It was so natural that she wept over it, herself, when +it was finished; but the Queen was delighted, and put it on her best +stuffed rocking-chair in her parlor, and would run and throw it back +every time the King sat down there, for fear he would lean his head +against it and soil it. + +Drusilla also worked an elegant banner of old gold satin, with +hollyhocks, for the King to carry at the head of his troops when he +went to battle; also a hat-band for the Prince of Egypt. This last was +sent by a special courier with a large escort, and the Prince sent an +exquisite shopping-bag of real alligator's skin to Drusilla in return. +She was the envy of the whole seminary when it came. + +The young ladies fared very delicately. Their one article of diet was +peaches and cream. It was thought to improve their complexions. Once +in a while, they went out to drive by moonlight; they were afraid +of sunburn by day, and they wore white gauze veils, even in the +moonlight, and they all had embroidered afghans of their own +handiwork. + +They used to sit around a large table over which hung a chandelier of +the electric light, to work, and some young lady either played "Home, +sweet Home, and variations," or else "The Maiden's Prayer," on the +piano for their entertainment. + +It seemed as if Drusilla ought to have been happy in a place like +this; but although she was diligent and dutiful, she grieved all the +time for her father. + +Meantime, the King was keeping up an energetic search for the +gold-horned cow. Every stable and pasture in the Kingdom was searched, +spies were posted everywhere, but the King could not find her. She had +disappeared as completely as if she had vanished altogether from the +face of the earth. It at last began to be whispered about that there +never had been any gold-horned cow, but that the whole had been a +clever trick of Drusilla's, that she might become a Princess. An +envious schoolmate, who had been very desirous of becoming Princess +and marrying the Prince of Egypt herself, started the report; and it +soon spread over the whole Kingdom. The King heard it and began to +believe it; for he could not see why he failed to find the cow. It +always exasperated the King dreadfully to fail in anything, and he +never allowed that it was his own fault, if he could possibly help it. + +At last the end of the year came, and still no signs of the +gold-horned cow. Then the King became convinced that Drusilla had +cheated him, that there never had been any such wonderful cow, and +that she had used this trick in order to become a Princess. Of course, +the King felt more comfortable to believe this, for it accounted +satisfactorily for his own failure to find her, and it is extremely +mortifying for a King to be unable to do anything he sets out to. + +So Drusilla was dismissed from the seminary in disgrace, and sent +home. Her jewels and fine clothes were all taken away from her, even +her rick-rack dress, and she put on her blue petticoat and short gown, +and straw flat again. Still, she was so happy at the prospect of +seeing her dear old father again, that she did not mind the loss of +all her fine things much. She did not ride the white palfrey now, but +went home on foot, in the dewy morning, as fast as she could trip. + +When she came in sight of the cottage, there was her father sitting in +his old place at the window. When he saw his beloved daughter coming, +he ran out to meet her as fast as he could hobble, and they tenderly +embraced each other. + +The King had provided liberally for the old man while Drusilla was in +the seminary, but now that he was so angry at her alleged deception, +his support would probably cease, and, since the gold-horned cow was +lost, it was a question how they would live. The father and daughter +sat talking it over after they had entered the cottage. It was a +puzzling question, and Drusilla was weeping a little, when her father +gave a joyful cry: + +"Look, look, Drusilla!" + +Drusilla looked up quickly, and there was the milk-white face and +golden horns of the cow peering through the vines in the window. She +was eating some of the pink and white roses. + +Drusilla and her father hastened out with joyful exclamations, and +there was the cow, sure enough. A couple of huge wicker baskets were +slung across her broad back, and one was filled to the brim with gold +coins, and the other with jewels, diamonds, pearls and rubies. + +When Drusilla and her father saw them, they both threw their arms +around the gold-horned cow's neck, and cried for joy. She turned her +head and gazed at them a moment with her calm, gentle eyes; then she +went on eating roses. + +When the King heard of all this, he came with the Queen in a golden +coach, to see Drusilla and her father. "I am convinced now of your +truthfulness," he said majestically, when the Court Jeweler had +examined the cow's horns to see if they were true gold, and not merely +gilded, and he had seen with his own eyes the two baskets full of +coins and jewels. "And, if you would like to be Princess, you can be, +and also marry the Prince of Egypt." + +But Drusilla threw her arms around her father's neck. "No; your +Majesty," she said timidly, "I had rather stay with my father, if you +please, than be a Princess, and I rather live here and tend my dear +cow, than marry the Prince of Egypt." + +The King sighed, and so did the Queen; they knew they never should +find another such beautiful Princess. But, then, the King had not kept +his part of the contract and found the gold-horned cow, and he could +not compel her to be a Princess without breaking the royal word. + +So the cow was again led out to pasture in the little meadow of +blue-eyed grasses, and Drusilla, though she was very rich now, used to +find no greater happiness than to sit on the banks of the silvery pool +where the yellow lilies grew, and watch her. + +They had their poor little cottage torn down and a grand castle built +instead: but the roof of that was thatched and over-grown with moss, +and pink and white roses clustered thickly around the walls. It was +just as much like their old home as a castle can be like a cottage. +The gold-horned cow had, also, a magnificent new stable. Her +eating-trough was the finest moss rose-bud china, she had dried rose +leaves instead of hay to eat, and there were real lace curtains at all +the stable windows, and a lace _portière_ over her stall. + +The King and Queen used to visit Drusilla often; they gave her back +her rick-rack dress, and grew very fond of her, though she would not +be a Princess. Finally, however, they prevailed upon her to be made +a countess. So she was called "Lady Drusilla," and she had a coat of +arms, with the gold-horned cow rampant on it, put up over the great +gate of the castle. + + + + + + +PRINCESS ROSETTA AND THE POP-CORN MAN. + +I. + +THE PRINCESS ROSETTA. + + +The Bee Festival was held on the sixteenth day of May; all the court +went. The court-ladies wore green silk scarfs, long green floating +plumes in their bonnets, and green satin petticoats embroidered with +apple-blossoms. The court-gentlemen wore green velvet tunics with +nose-gays in their buttonholes, and green silk hose. Their little +pointed shoes were adorned with knots of flowers instead of buckles. + +As for the King himself, he wore a thick wreath of cherry and +peach-blossoms instead of his crown, and carried a white thorn-branch +instead of his scepter. His green velvet robe was trimmed with a +border of blue and white violets instead of ermine. The Queen wore a +garland of violets around her golden head, and the hem of her gown was +thickly sown with primroses. + +But the little Princess Rosetta surpassed all the rest. Her little +gown was completely woven of violets and other fine flowers. There was +a very skillful seamstress in the court who knew how to do this kind +of work, although no one except the Princess Rosetta was allowed to +wear a flower-cloth gown to the Bee Festival. She wore also a little +white violet cap, and two of her nurses carried her between them in a +little basket lined with rose and apple-leaves. + +All the company, as they danced along, sang, or played on flutes, or +rang little glass and silver bells. Nobody except the King and Queen +rode. They rode cream-colored ponies, with silken ropes wound with +flowers for bridle-reins. + +The Bee Festival was held in a beautiful park a mile distant from the +city. The young grass there was green and velvety, and spangled +all over with fallen apple and cherry and peach and plum and pear +blossoms; for the park was set with fruit-trees in even rows. The blue +sky showed between the pink and white branches, and the air was very +sweet and loud with the humming of bees. The trees were all full of +bees. There was something peculiar about the bees of this country; +none of them had stings. + +When the court reached the park, they all tinkled their bells in time, +whistled on their flutes, and sang a song which they always sang on +these occasions. Then they played games and enjoyed themselves. They +played hide-and-seek among the trees, and formed rings and danced. The +bees flew around them, and seemed to know them. The little Princess, +lying in her basket, crowed and laughed, and caught at them when they +came humming over her face. Her nurses stood around her, and waved +great fans of peacock-feathers, but that did not frighten the bees at +all. + +The court's lunch was spread on a damask-cloth, in an open space +between the trees. There were biscuits of wheaten flour, plates of +honey-comb, and cream in tall glass ewers. That was the regulation +lunch at the Bee Festival. The Bee Festival was nearly as old as the +kingdom, and there was an ancient legend about it, which the Poet +Laureate had put into an epic poem. The King had it in his royal +library, printed in golden letters and bound in old gold plush. + +Centuries ago, so the legend ran, in the days of the very first +monarch of the royal family of which this king was a member, there +were no bees at all in the kingdom. Not a child in the whole country, +not even the little princes and princesses in the palace, had ever +tasted a bit of bread and honey. + +But, while there were no bees in this kingdom, one just across the +river was swarming with them. That kingdom was governed by a king who +was the tenth cousin of the first, and not very well disposed toward +him. He had stationed lines of sentinels with ostrich-feather brooms +on his bank of the river to keep the bees from flying over, and he +would not export a single bee, nor one ounce of honey, although he had +been offered immense sums. + +However, the inhabitants of this second country were so cruel and +tormenting in their dispositions, and the children so teased the +bees, which were stingless and could not defend themselves, that they +rebelled. They stopped making honey, and one day they swarmed, and +flew in a body across the river in spite of the frantic waving of the +ostrich-feather brooms. + +The other King was overjoyed. He ordered beautiful hives to be built +for them, and instituted a national festival in their honor, which +ever since had been observed regularly on the sixteenth day of May. + +Up to this day there were no bees in the kingdom across the river. Not +one would return to where its ancestors had been so hardly treated; +here everybody was kind to them, and even paid them honor. The present +King had established an order of the "Golden Bee." The Knights of the +Golden Bee wore ribbons studded with golden bees on their breasts, and +their watchword was a sort of a "buzz-z-z," like the humming of a bee. +When they were in full regalia they wore also some curious wings made +of gold wire and lace. The Knights of the Golden Bee comprised the +finest nobles of the court. + +In addition to them were the "Bee Guards." They were the King's own +body-guards. Their uniform was white with green cuffs and collar and +facings. On the green were swarms of embroidered bees. They carried a +banner of green silk worked with bees and roses. + +So the bee might fairly have been considered the national emblem of +Romalia, for that was the name of the country. The first word which +the children learned to spell in school was "b-e-e, bee," instead of +"b-o-y, boy." The poorest citizen had a bush of roses and a bee-hive +in his yard, and the people were very forlorn who could not have a bit +of honey-comb at least once a day. The court preferred it to any other +food. Indeed it was this particular Queen who was in the kitchen +eating bread and honey, in the song. + +[Illustration: A KNIGHT OF THE GOLDEN BEE.] + +But to return to the Bee Festival, on this especial sixteenth of May. +At sunset when the bees flew back to their hives for the last time +with their loads of honey, the court also went home. They danced along +in a splendid merry procession. The cream-colored ponies the King and +Queen rode pranced lightly in advance, their slender hoofs keeping +time to the flutes and the bells; and the gallants, leading the ladies +by the tips of their dainty fingers, came after them with gay waltzing +steps. The nurses who carried the Princess Rosetta held their heads +high, and danced along as bravely as the others, waving their +peacock-feather fans in their unoccupied hands. They bore the little +Princess in her basket between them as lightly as a feather. Up and +down she swung. When they first started she laughed and crowed; then +she became very quiet. The nurses thought she was asleep. They had +laid a little satin coverlet over her, and put a soft thick veil over +her face, that the damp evening-air might not give her the croup. The +Princess Rosetta was quite apt to have the croup. + +The nurses cast a glance down at the veil and satin coverlet which +were so motionless. "Her Royal Highness is asleep," they whispered to +each other with nods. The nurses were handsome young women, and they +wore white lace caps, and beautiful long darned lace aprons. They +swung the Princess's basket along so easily that finally one of them +remarked upon it. + +"How very light her Royal Highness is," said she. + +"She weighs absolutely nothing at all," replied the other nurse who +was carrying the Princess, "absolutely nothing at all." + +"Well, that is apt to be the case with such high-born infants," said +the first nurse. And they all waved their fans again in time to the +music. + +When they reached the palace, the massive doors were thrown open, and +the court passed in. The nurses bore the Princess Rosetta's basket up +the grand marble stair, and carried it into the nursery. + +"We will lift her Royal Highness out very carefully, and possibly we +can put her to bed without waking her," said the Head-nurse. + +But her Royal Highness's ladies-of-the-bed-chamber who were in waiting +set up such screams of horror at her remark, that it was a wonder that +the Princess did not awake directly. + +"O-h!" cried a lady-of-the-bed-chamber, "put her Royal Highness to +bed, in defiance of all etiquette, before the Prima Donna of the court +has sung her lullaby! Preposterous! Lift her out without waking her, +indeed! This nurse should be dismissed from the court!" + +"O-h!" cried another lady, tossing her lovely head scornfully, and +giving her silken train an indignant swish; "the idea of putting her +Royal Highness to bed without the silver cup of posset, which I have +here for her!" + +"And without taking her rose-water bath!" cried another, who was +dabbling her lily fingers in a little ivory bath filled with +rose-water. + +"And without being anointed with this Cream of Lilies!" cried one with +a little ivory jar in her hand. + +"And without having every single one of her golden ringlets dressed +with this pomade scented with violets and almonds!" cried one with a +round porcelain box. + +"Or even having her curls brushed!" cried a lady as if she were +fainting, and she brandished an ivory hair-brush set with turquoises. + +"I suppose," remarked a lady who was very tall and majestic in her +carriage, "that this nurse would not object to her Royal Highness +being put to bed without--her nightgown, even!" + +And she held out the Princess's little embroidered nightgown, and +gazed at the Head-nurse with an awful air. + +"I beg your pardon humbly, my Ladies," responded the Head-nurse +meekly. Then she bent over the basket to lift out the Princess. + +Every one stood listening for her Royal Highness's pitiful scream +when she should awake. The lady with the cup of posset held it in +readiness, and the ladies with the Cream of Lilies, the violet and +almond pomade and the ivory hair-brush looked anxious to begin their +duties. The Prima Donna stood with her song in hand, and the first +court fiddler had his bow raised all ready to play the accompaniment +for her. Writing a fresh lullaby for the Princess every day, and +setting it to music, were among the regular duties of the Poet +Laureate and the first musical composer of the court. + +The Head-nurse with her eyes full of tears because of the reproaches +she had received, reached down her arms and attempted to lift the +Princess Rosetta--suddenly she turned very white, and tossed aside the +veil and the satin coverlet. Then she gave a loud scream, and fell +down in a faint. + +The ladies stared at one another. + +"What is the matter with the Head-nurse?" they asked. Then the second +nurse stepped up to the basket and reached down to clasp the Princess +Rosetta. Then she gave a loud scream, and fell down in a faint. + +The third nurse, trembling so she could scarcely stand, came next. +After she had stooped over the basket, she also gave a loud scream and +fainted. Then the fourth nurse stepped up, bent over the basket, and +fainted. So all the Princess Rosetta's nurses lay fainting on the +floor beside her basket. + +It was contrary to the rules of etiquette for any one except the +nurses to approach nearer than five yards to her Royal Highness before +she was taken from her basket. So they crowded together at that +distance and craned their necks. + +"What can ail the nurses?" they whispered in terrified tones. They +could not go near enough to the basket to see what the trouble was, +and still it seemed very necessary that they should. + +"I wish I had a telescope," said the lady with the hair-brush. + +But there was none in the room, and it was contrary to the rules of +etiquette for any person to leave it until the Princess was taken from +the basket. + +There seemed to be no proper way out of the difficulty. Finally the +first fiddler stood up with an air of resolution, and began unwinding +the green silk sash from his waist. It was eleven yards long. He +doubled it, and launched it at the basket, like a lasso. + +[Illustration: THE PRINCESS WAS NOT IN THE BASKET!] + +"There is nothing in the code of etiquette to prevent the Princess +approaching us before she is taken from her basket," he said bravely. +All the ladies applauded. + +He threw the lasso very successfully. It went quite around the basket. +Then he drew it gently over the five yards. They all crowded around, +and looked into it. + +_The Princess was not in the basket!_ + + +II. + +THE POP-CORN MAN. + + +That night the whole kingdom was in a turmoil. The Bee Guards were +called out, and patrolled the city, alarm-bells rung, signal fires +burned, and everybody was out with a lantern. They searched every inch +of the road to the park where the Bee Festival had been held, for it +did seem at first as if the Princess had possibly been spilled out of +the basket, although the nurses were confident that it was not so. So +they searched carefully, and the nurses were in the meantime placed in +custody. But nothing was found. The people held their lanterns low, +and looked under every bush, and even poked aside the grasses, but +they could not find the Princess on the road to the park. + +Then a regular force of detectives was organized, and the search +continued day after day. Every house in the country was examined in +every nook and corner. The cupboards even were all ransacked, and the +bureau drawers. The King had a favorite book of philosophy, and one +motto which he had learned in his youth recurred to him. It was this: + +"When a-seeking, seek in the unlikely places, as well as the likely; +for no man can tell the road that lost things may prefer." + +So he ordered search to be made in unlikely as well as likely places, +for the Princess; and it was carried so far that the people had all +to turn their pockets inside out, and shake their shawls and +table-cloths. But it was all of no use. Six months went by, and +the Princess Rosetta had not been found. The King and Queen were +broken-hearted. The Queen wept all day long, and her tears fell into +her honey, until it was no longer sweet, and she could not eat it. The +King sat by himself and had no heart for anything. + +[Illustration: THE BEE GUARDS PATROLLED THE CITY.] + +But the four nurses were in nearly as much distress. Not only had they +been very fond of the little Princess, and were grieving bitterly for +her loss, but they had also a punishment to endure. They had been +released from custody, because there was really no evidence against +them, but in view of their possible carelessness, and in perpetual +reminder of the loss of the Princess, a sentence had been passed upon +them. They had been condemned to wear their bonnets the wrong way +around, indoors and out, until the Princess should be found. So the +poor nurses wept into the crowns of their bonnets. They had little +peep-holes in the straw that they might see to get about, and they +lifted up the capes in order to eat; but it was very trying. The +nurses were all pretty young women too, and the Head-nurse who came of +quite a distinguished family was to have been married soon. But how +could she be a bride and wear a veil with her face in the crown of her +bonnet? + +The Head-nurse was quite clever, and she thought about the Princess's +disappearance, until finally her thoughts took shape. One day she put +on her shawl--her bonnet was always on--and set out to call on the +Baron Greenleaf. The Baron was an old man who was said to be versed +in white magic, and lived in a stone tower with his servants and his +house-keeper. + +When the Head-nurse came into the tower-yard, the dog began to bark; +he was not used to seeing a woman with her face in the crown of her +bonnet. He thought that her head must be on the wrong way, and that +she was a monster, and had designs upon his master's property. So he +barked and growled, and caught hold of her dress, and the Head-nurse +screamed. The Baron himself came running downstairs, and opened the +door. "Who is there?" cried he. + +But when he saw the woman with her bonnet on wrong he knew at once +that she must be one of the Princess's nurses. So he ordered off the +dog, and ushered the nurse into the tower. He led her into his study, +and asked her to sit down. "Now, madam, what can I do for you?" he +inquired quite politely. + +"Oh, my lord!" cried the Head-nurse in her muffled voice, "help me to +find the Princess." + +The Baron, who was a tall lean old man and wore a very large-figured +dressing-gown trimmed with fur, frowned, and struck his fist down upon +the table. "Help you to find the Princess!" he exclaimed; "don't you +suppose I should find her on my own account if I could? I should +have found her long before this if the idiots had not broken all my +bottles, and crystals, and retorts, and mirrors, and spilled all the +magic fluids, so that I cannot practice any white magic at all. The +idea of looking for a princess in a bottle--that comes of pinning +one's faith upon philosophy!" + +"Then you cannot find the Princess by white magic?" the Head-nurse +asked timidly. + +The Baron pounded the table again. "Of course I cannot," he replied, +"with all my magical utensils smashed in the search for her." + +The Head-nurse sighed pitifully. + +"I suppose that you do not like to go about with your face in the +crown of your bonnet?" the Baron remarked in a harsh voice. + +The Head-nurse replied sadly that she did not. + +"It doesn't seem to me that I should mind it much," said the Baron. + +The Head-nurse looked at his grim old face through the peep-holes in +her bonnet-crown, and thought to herself that if she were no prettier +than he, she should not mind much either, but she said nothing. + +Suddenly there was a knock at the tower-door. + +"Excuse me a moment," said the Baron; "my housekeeper is deaf, and my +other servants have gone out." And he ran down the tower-stair, his +dressing-gown sweeping after him. + +Presently he returned, and there was a young man with him. This young +man was as pretty as a girl, and he looked very young. His blue eyes +were very sharp and bright, and he had rosy cheeks and fair curly +hair. He was dressed very poorly, and around his shoulders were +festooned strings of something that looked like fine white flowers, +but it was in reality pop-corn. He carried a great basket of pop-corn, +and bore a corn-popper over his shoulder. + +When he entered he bowed low to the Head-nurse; her bonnet did not +seem to surprise him at all. "Would you like to buy some of my nice +pop-corn, madam?" he asked. + +She curtesied. "Not to-day," she replied. + +But in reality she did not know what pop-corn was. She had never seen +any, and neither had the Baron. That indeed was the reason why he had +admitted the man--he was curious to see what he was carrying. "Is it +good to eat?" he inquired. + +"Try it, my lord," answered the man. So the Baron put a pop-corn in +his mouth and chewed it critically. "It is very good indeed," he +declared. + +The man passed the basket to the Head-nurse, and she lifted the +cape of her bonnet and put a pop-corn in her mouth, and nibbled it +delicately. She also thought it very good. + +"But there is no use in discussing new articles of food when the +kingdom is under the cloud that it is at present, and my retorts and +crystals all smashed," said the Baron. + +"Why, what is the cloud, my lord?" inquired the Pop-corn man. Then the +Baron told him the whole story. + +"Of course it is necromancy," remarked the Pop-corn man thoughtfully, +when the Baron had finished. + +The Baron pounded on the table until it danced. "Necromancy!" he +cried, "of course it's necromancy! Who but a necromancer could have +made a child invisible, and stolen her away in the face and eyes of +the whole court?" + +"Have you any idea where she is?" ask the Pop-corn man. + +The Baron stared at him in amazement. + +"Idea where she is?" he repeated scornfully. "You are just of a piece +with the idiots who broke my mirrors to see if the Princess was not +behind them! How should we have any idea where she is if she is lost, +pray?" + +The Pop-corn man blushed, and looked frightened, but the Head-nurse +spoke up quite bravely, although her voice was so muffled, and said +that she really did have some idea of the Princess's whereabouts. She +propounded her views which were quite plausible. It was her opinion +that only an enemy of the King would have caused the Princess to be +stolen, and as the King had only one enemy of whom anybody knew, and +he was the King across the river, she thought the Princess must be +there. + +"It seems very likely," said the Baron after she had finished, "but if +she is there it is hopeless. Our King could never conquer the other +one, who has a much stronger army." + +"Do you know," asked the Pop-corn man, "if they have ever had any +pop-corn on the other side of the river?" + +"I don't think they have," replied the Baron. + +"Then," said the Pop-corn man, "I think I can free the Princess." + +"You!" cried the Baron scornfully. + +But the Pop-corn man said nothing more. He bowed low to the Baron and +the Head-nurse, and left the tower. + +"The idea of his talking as he did," said the Baron. But the nurse was +pinning her shawl, and she hurried out of the tower and overtook the +Pop-corn man. + +"How are you going to manage it?" whispered she, touching his sleeve. + +The Pop-corn man started. "Oh, it's you?" he said. "Well, you wait a +little, and you will see. Do you suppose you could find six little +boys who would be willing to go over the river with me to-morrow?" + +"Would it be quite safe?" + +"Quite safe." + +"I have six little brothers who would go," said the Head-nurse. + +So it was arranged that the six little brothers should go across the +river with the Pop-corn man; and the next morning they set out. They +were all decorated with strings of Pop-corn, they carried baskets of +pop-corn, and bore corn-poppers over their shoulders, and they crossed +the river in a row boat. + +Once over the river they went about peddling pop-corn. The man sent +the boys all over the city, but he himself went straight to the +palace. + +He knocked at the palace-door, and the maid-servant came. "Is the King +at home?" asked the Pop-corn man. + +The maid said he was, and the Pop-corn man asked to see him. Just then +a baby cried. + +"What baby is that crying?" asked he. + +"A baby that was brought here at sunset, several months ago," replied +the maid; and he knew at once that he had found the Princess. + +"Will you find out if I can see the King?" he said. + +"I'll see," answered the maid. And she went in to find the King. +Pretty soon she returned and asked the Pop-corn man to step into the +parlor, which he did, and soon the King came downstairs. + +[Illustration: "YOU!" CRIED THE BARON SCORNFULLY.] + +The Pop-corn man displayed his wares, and the King tasted. He had +never seen any pop-corn before, and he was both an epicure and a man +of hobbies. "It is the nicest food that ever I tasted," he declared, +and he bought all the man's stock. + +"I can buy corn for you for seed, and I can order poppers enough to +supply the city," suggested the Pop-corn man. + +"So do," cried the King. And he gave orders for seven ships' cargoes +of seed corn and fifty of poppers. "My people shall eat nothing else," +said the King, "and the whole kingdom shall be planted with it. I am +satisfied that it is the best national food." + +That day the court dined on pop-corn, and as it was very light +and unsatisfying, they had to eat a long time. They were all the +after-noon dining. Right after dinner the King wrote out his royal +decree that all the inhabitants should that year plant pop-corn +instead of any other grain or any vegetable, and that as soon as the +ships arrived they should make it their only article of food. For the +King, when he had learned from the Pop-corn man that the corn needed +to be not only ripe but well dried before it would pop, could not +wait, but had ordered five hundred cargoes of pop-corn for immediate +use. + +So as soon as the ships arrived the people began at once to pop corn +and eat it. There was a sound of popping corn all over the city, and +the people popped all day long. It was necessary that they should, +because it took such a quantity to satisfy hunger, and when they were +not popping they had to eat. People shook the poppers until their arms +were tired, then gave them to others, and sat down to eat. Men, women +and children popped. It was all that they could do, with the exception +of planting the seed-corn, and then they were faint with hunger as +they worked. The stores and schools were closed. In the palace the +King and Queen themselves were obliged to pop in order to secure +enough to eat, and the nobles and the court-ladies toiled and ate, +day and night. But the little stolen Princess and the King's son, the +little Prince, could not pop corn, for they were only babies. + +When the people across the river had been popping corn for about a +month, the Pop-corn man went to the King of Romalia's palace, and +sought an audience. He told him how he had discovered his daughter in +the palace of the King across the river. + +The King of Romalia clasped his hands in despair. "I must make war," +said he, "but my army is nothing to his." + +However, he at once went about making war. He ordered the swords to be +cleaned with sand-paper until they shone, and new bullets to be cast. +The Bee Guards were drilled every day, and the people could not sleep +for the drums and the fifes. + +[Illustration: BOTH THE KING AND QUEEN WERE OBLIGED TO POP.] + +When everything was ready the King of Romalia and his army crossed +the river and laid siege to the city. They had expected to have the +passage of the river opposed, but not a foeman was stationed on the +opposite bank. All the spears they could see were the waving green +ones of pop-corn fields. They marched straight up to the city walls +and laid siege. The inhabitants fought on the walls and in the +gate-towers, but not very many could fight at a time, because they +would have to stop and pop corn and eat. + +The defenders grew fewer and fewer, some were killed, and all of them +were growing too tired and weak to fight. They could not eat enough +pop-corn to give them strength and have any time left to fight. They +filled their pockets and tried to eat pop-corn as they fought, but +they could not manage that very well. + +On the third day the city surrendered with very little loss of life +on either side, and the little Princess Rosetta was restored to her +parents. There was great rejoicing all through Romalia; in the evening +there was an illumination and a torch-light procession. The nurses +marched with their bonnets on the right way, and the Knights of the +Golden Bee were out in full regalia. + +The next day the Head-nurse was married, and the King gave her a farm +and a dozen bee-hives for a wedding present, and the Queen a beautiful +bridal bonnet trimmed with white plumes and hollyhocks. + +All the court, the Baron and the Pop-corn man went to the wedding, and +wedding-cake and corn-balls were passed around. + +After the wedding the Pop-corn man went home. He lived in another +country on the other side of a mountain. The King pressed him to take +some reward. "I am puzzled," he said to the Pop-corn man, "to know +what to offer you. The usual reward in such cases is the hand of the +Princess in marriage, but Rosetta is not a year old. If there is +anything else you can think of"-- + +The Pop-corn man kissed the King's hand and replied that there was +nothing that he could think of except a little honey-comb. He should +like to carry some to his mother. So the King gave him a great piece +of honey-comb in a silver dish, and the Pop-corn man departed. + +He never came to Romalia again, but the Poet Laureate celebrated him +in an epic poem, describing the loss of the Princess and the war +for her rescue. The Princess was never stolen again--indeed the +necromancer across the river who had kidnaped her was imprisoned for +life on a diet of pop-corn which he popped himself. + +The King across the river became tired of pop-corn, as it had caused +his defeat, and forbade his people to eat it. He paid tribute to the +King of Romalia as long as he lived; but after his death, when his +son, the young prince, came to reign, affairs were on a very pleasant +footing between the two kingdoms. The new King was very different from +his father, being generous and amiable, and beloved by every one. +Indeed Rosetta, when she had grown to be a beautiful maiden, married +him and went to live as a Queen where she had been a captive. + +And when Rosetta went across the river to live, the King, her father, +gave her some bee-hives for a wedding present, and the bees thrived +equally in both countries. All the difference in the honey was this: +in Romalia the bees fed more on clover, and the honey tasted of +clover: and in the country across the river on peppermint, and that +honey tasted of peppermint. They always had both kinds at their Bee +Festivals. + + + + + + +THE CHRISTMAS MONKS. + + +All children have wondered unceasingly from their very first Christmas +up to their very last Christmas, where the Christmas presents come +from. It is very easy to say that Santa Claus brought them. All well +regulated people know that, of course; but the reindeer, and the +sledge, and the pack crammed with toys, the chimney, and all the rest +of it--that is all true, of course, and everybody knows about it; but +that is not the question which puzzles. What children want to know is, +where do these Christmas presents come from in the first place? Where +does Santa Claus get them? Well the answer to that is, _In the garden +of the Christmas Monks_. This has not been known until very lately; +that is, it has not been known till very lately except in the +immediate vicinity of the Christmas Monks. There, of course, it has +been known for ages. It is rather an out-of-the-way place; and that +accounts for our never hearing of it before. + +The Convent of the Christmas Monks is a most charmingly picturesque +pile of old buildings; there are towers and turrets, and peaked roofs +and arches, and everything which could possibly be thought of in the +architectural line, to make a convent picturesque. It is built of +graystone; but it is only once in a while that you can see the +graystone, for the walls are almost completely covered with mistletoe +and ivy and evergreen. There are the most delicious little arched +windows with diamond panes peeping out from the mistletoe and +evergreen, and always at all times of the year, a little Christmas +wreath of ivy and hollyberries is suspended in the center of every +window. Over all the doors, which are likewise arched, are Christmas +garlands, and over the main entrance _Merry Christmas_ in evergreen +letters. + +The Christmas Monks are a jolly brethren; the robes of their order are +white, gilded with green garlands, and they never are seen out at +any time of the year without Christmas wreaths on their heads. Every +morning they file in a long procession into the chapel, to sing a +Christmas carol; and every evening they ring a Christmas chime on the +convent bells. They eat roast turkey and plum pudding and mince-pie +for dinner all the year round; and always carry what is left in +baskets trimmed with evergreen, to the poor people. There are always +wax candles lighted and set in every window of the convent at +nightfall; and when the people in the country about get uncommonly +blue and down-hearted, they always go for a cure to look at the +Convent of the Christmas Monks after the candles are lighted and the +chimes are ringing. It brings to mind things which never fail to cheer +them. + +[Illustration: GOING INTO THE CHAPEL.] + +But the principal thing about the Convent of the Christmas Monks is +the garden; for that is where the Christmas presents grow. This garden +extends over a large number of acres, and is divided into different +departments, just as we divide our flower and vegetable gardens; one +bed for onions, one for cabbages, and one for phlox, and one for +verbenas, etc. + +Every spring the Christmas Monks go out to sow the Christmas-present +seeds after they have ploughed the ground and made it all ready. + +There is one enormous bed devoted to rocking-horses. The rocking-horse +seed is curious enough; just little bits of rocking-horses so small +that they can only be seen through a very, very powerful microscope. +The Monks drop these at quite a distance from each other, so that they +will not interfere while growing; then they cover them up neatly with +earth, and put up a sign-post with "Rocking-horses" on it in evergreen +letters. Just so with the penny-trumpet seed, and the toy-furniture +seed, the skate-seed, the sled-seed, and all the others. + +Perhaps the prettiest and most interesting part of the garden, is that +devoted to wax dolls. There are other beds for the commoner dolls--for +the rag dolls, and the china dolls, and the rubber dolls, but of +course wax dolls would look much handsomer growing. Wax dolls have +to be planted quite early in the season; for they need a good start +before the sun is very high. The seeds are the loveliest bits of +microscopic dolls imaginable. The Monks sow them pretty close +together, and they begin to come up by the middle of May. There is +first just a little glimmer of gold, or flaxen, or black, or brown as +the case may be, above the soil. Then the snowy foreheads appear, and +the blue eyes, and black eyes, and, later on, all those enchanting +little heads are out of the ground, and are nodding and winking and +smiling to each other the whole extent of the field; with their pinky +cheeks and sparkling eyes and curly hair there is nothing so pretty as +these little wax doll heads peeping out of the earth. Gradually, more +and more of them come to light, and finally by Christmas they are all +ready to gather. There they stand, swaying to and fro, and dancing +lightly on their slender feet which are connected with the ground, +each by a tiny green stem; their dresses of pink, or blue, or +white--for their dresses grow with them--flutter in the air. Just +about the prettiest sight in the world, is the bed of wax dolls in the +garden of the Christmas Monks at Christmas time. + +Of course ever since this convent and garden were established (and +that was so long ago that the wisest man can find no books about it) +their glories have attracted a vast deal of admiration and curiosity +from the young people in the surrounding country; but as the garden is +enclosed on all sides by an immensely thick and high hedge, which no +boy could climb, or peep over, they could only judge of the garden by +the fruits which were parcelled out to them on Christmas-day. + +You can judge, then, of the sensation among the young folks, and older +ones, for that matter, when one evening there appeared hung upon a +conspicuous place in the garden-hedge, a broad strip of white cloth +trimmed with evergreen and printed with the following notice in +evergreen letters: + + "WANTED:--By the Christmas Monks, two _good_ boys to assist in + garden work. Applicants will be examined by Fathers Anselmus and + Ambrose, in the convent refectory, on April 10th." + +This notice was hung out about five o'clock in the evening, some time +in the early part of February. By noon, the street was so full of boys +staring at it with their mouths wide open, so as to see better, that +the king was obliged to send his bodyguard before him to clear the way +with brooms, when he wanted to pass on his way from his chamber of +state to his palace. + +There was not a boy in the country but looked upon this position as +the height of human felicity. To work all the year in that wonderful +garden, and see those wonderful things growing! and without doubt any +boy who worked there could have all the toys he wanted, just as a boy +who works in a candy-shop always has all the candy he wants! + +But the great difficulty, of course, was about the degree of goodness +requisite to pass the examination. The boys in this country were no +worse than the boys in other countries, but there were not many of +them that would not have done a little differently if he had only +known beforehand of the advertisement of the Christmas Monks. However, +they made the most of the time remaining, and were so good all over +the kingdom that a very millennium seemed dawning. The school teachers +used their ferrules for fire wood, and the King ordered all the +birch-trees cut down and exported, as he thought there would be no +more call For them in his own realm. + +When the time for the examination drew near, there were two boys whom +every one thought would obtain the situation, although some of the +other boys had lingering hopes for themselves; if only the Monks would +examine them on the last six weeks, they thought they might pass. +Still all the older people had decided in their minds that the Monks +would choose these two boys. One was the Prince, the King's oldest +son; and the other was a poor boy named Peter. The Prince was no +better than the other boys; indeed, to tell the truth, he was not so +good; in fact, was the biggest rogue in the whole country; but all the +lords and the ladies, and all the people who admired the lords and +ladies, said it was their solemn belief that the Prince was the best +boy in the whole kingdom; and they were prepared to give in their +testimony, one and all, to that effect to the Christmas Monks. + +[Illustration: The Boys Read the Notice] + +Peter was really and truly such a good boy that there was no excuse +for saying he was not. His father and mother were poor people; and +Peter worked every minute out of school hours, to help them along. +Then he had a sweet little crippled sister whom he was never tired of +caring for. Then, too, he contrived to find time to do lots of little +kindnesses for other people. He always studied his lessons faithfully, +and never ran away from school. Peter was such a good boy, and so +modest and unsuspicious that he was good, that everybody loved him. He +had not the least idea that he could get the place with the Christmas +Monks, but the Prince was sure of it. + +When the examination day came all the boys from far and near, with +their hair neatly brushed and parted, and dressed in their best +clothes, flocked into the convent. Many of their relatives and friends +went with them to witness the examination. + +The refectory of the convent where they assembled, was a very large +hall with a delicious smell of roast turkey and plum pudding in it. +All the little boys sniffed, and their mouths watered. + +The two fathers who were to examine the boys were perched up in a +high pulpit so profusely trimmed with evergreen that it looked like a +bird's nest; they were remarkably pleasant-looking men, and their eyes +twinkled merrily under their Christmas wreaths. Father Anselmus was +a little the taller of the two, and Father Ambrose was a little the +broader; and that was about all the difference between them in looks. + +The little boys all stood up in a row, their friends stationed +themselves in good places, and the examination began. + +Then if one had been placed beside the entrance to the convent, he +would have seen one after another, a crestfallen little boy with his +arm lifted up and crooked, and his face hidden in it, come out and +walk forlornly away. He had failed to pass. + +The two fathers found out that this boy had robbed birds' nests, +and this one stolen apples. And one after another they walked +disconsolately away till there were only two boys left: the Prince and +Peter. + +"Now, your Highness," said Father Anselmus, who always took the lead +in the questions, "are you a good boy?" + +"O holy Father!" exclaimed all the people--there were a good many fine +folks from the court present. "He is such a good boy! such a wonderful +boy! we never knew him to do a wrong thing." + +"I don't suppose he ever robbed a bird's nest?" said Father Ambrose a +little doubtfully. + +[Illustration: The Prince & Peter are examined by the monks.] + + +"No, no!" chorused the people. + +"Nor tormented a kitten?" + +"No, no, no!" cried they all. + +At last everybody being so confident that there could be no reasonable +fault found with the Prince, he was pronounced competent to enter upon +the Monks' service. Peter they knew a great deal about before--indeed +a glance at his face was enough to satisfy any one of his goodness; +for he did look more like one of the boy angels in the altar-piece +than anything else. So after a few questions, they accepted him also; +and the people went home and left the two boys with the Christmas +Monks. + +The next morning Peter was obliged to lay aside his homespun coat, +and the Prince his velvet tunic, and both were dressed in some little +white robes with evergreen girdles like the Monks. Then the Prince was +set to sewing Noah's Ark seed, and Peter picture-book seed. Up and +down they went scattering the seed. Peter sang a little psalm to +himself, but the Prince grumbled because they had not given him +gold-watch or gem seed to plant instead of the toy which he had +outgrown long ago. By noon Peter had planted all his picture-books, +and fastened up the card to mark them on the pole; but the Prince had +dawdled so his work was not half done. + +"We are going to have a trial with this boy," said the Monks to each +other; "we shall have to set him a penance at once, or we cannot +manage him at all." + +So the Prince had to go without his dinner, and kneel on dried peas in +the chapel all the afternoon. The next day he finished his Noah's Arks +meekly; but the next day he rebelled again and had to go the whole +length of the field where they planted jewsharps, on his knees. And so +it was about every other day for the whole year. + +One of the brothers had to be set apart in a meditating cell to invent +new penances; for they had used up all on their list before the Prince +had been with them three months. + +The Prince became dreadfully tired of his convent life, and if he +could have brought it about would have run away. Peter, on the +contrary, had never been so happy in his life. He worked like a bee, +and the pleasure he took in seeing the lovely things he had planted +come up, was unbounded, and the Christmas carols and chimes delighted +his soul. Then, too, he had never fared so well in his life. He could +never remember the time before when he had been a whole week without +being hungry. He sent his wages every month to his parents; and he +never ceased to wonder at the discontent of the Prince. + +"They grow so slow," the Prince would say, wrinkling up his handsome +forehead. "I expected to have a bushelful of new toys every month; and +not one have I had yet. And these stingy old Monks say I can only have +my usual Christmas share anyway, nor can I pick them out myself. I +never saw such a stupid place to stay in in my life. I want to have my +velvet tunic on and go home to the palace and ride on my white pony +with the silver tail, and hear them all tell me how charming I am." +Then the Prince would crook his arm and put his head on it and cry. + +Peter pitied him, and tried to comfort him, but it was not of much +use, for the Prince got angry because he was not discontented as well +as himself. + +Two weeks before Christmas everything in the garden was nearly ready +to be picked. Some few things needed a little more December sun, but +everything looked perfect. Some of the Jack-in-the-boxes would not pop +out quite quick enough, and some of the jumping-Jacks were hardly +as limber as they might be as yet; that was all. As it was so near +Christmas the Monks were engaged in their holy exercises in the chapel +for the greater part of the time, and only went over the garden once a +day to see if everything was all right. + +The Prince and Peter were obliged to be there all the time. There was +plenty of work for them to do; for once in a while something would +blow over, and then there were the penny-trumpets to keep in tune; and +that was a vast sight of work. + +One morning the Prince was at one end of the garden straightening up +some wooden soldiers which had toppled over, and Peter was in the wax +doll bed dusting the dolls. All of a sudden he heard a sweet little +voice: "O, Peter!" He thought at first one of the dolls was talking, +but they could not say anything but papa and mamma; and had the merest +apologies for voices anyway. "Here I am, Peter!" and there was a +little pull at his sleeve. There was his little sister. She was not +any taller than the dolls around her, and looked uncommonly like the +prettiest, pinkest-cheeked, yellowest-haired ones; so it was no wonder +that Peter did not see her at first. She stood there poising herself +on her crutches, poor little thing, and smiling lovingly up at Peter. + +"Oh, you darling!" cried Peter, catching her up in his arms. "How did +you get in here?" + +"I stole in behind one of the Monks," said she. "I saw him going up +the street past our house, and I ran out and kept behind him all the +way. When he opened the gate I whisked in too, and then I followed him +into the garden. I've been here with the dollies ever since." + +"Well," said poor Peter, "I don't see what I am going to do with you, +now you are here. I can't let you out again; and I don't know what the +Monks will say." + +"Oh, I know!" cried the little girl gayly. "I'll stay out here in the +garden. I can sleep in one of those beautiful dolls' cradles over +there; and you can bring me something to eat." + +[Illustration: THE BOYS AT WORK IN THE CONVENT GARDEN.] + +"But the Monks come out every morning to look over the garden, and +they'll be sure to find you," said her brother, anxiously. + +"No, I'll hide! O, Peter, here is a place where there isn't any doll!" + +"Yes; that doll didn't come up." + +"Well, I'll tell you what I'll do! I'll just stand here in this place +where the doll didn't come up, and nobody can tell the difference." + +"Well, I don't know but you can do that," said Peter, although he was +still ill at ease. He was so good a boy he was very much afraid of +doing wrong, and offending his kind friends the Monks; at the same +time he could not help being glad to see his dear little sister. + +He smuggled some food out to her, and she played merrily about him all +day; and at night he tucked her into one of the dolls' cradles with +lace pillows and quilt of rose-colored silk. + +The next morning when the Monks were going the rounds, the father +who inspected the wax doll bed, was a bit nearsighted, and he never +noticed the difference between the dolls and Peter's little sister, +who swung herself on her crutches, and looked just as much like a wax +doll as she possibly could. So the two were delighted with the success +of their plan. + +They went on thus for a few days, and Peter could not help being happy +with his darling little sister, although at the same time he could not +help worrying for fear he was doing wrong. + +Something else happened now, which made him worry still more; +the Prince ran away. He had been watching for a long time for an +opportunity to possess himself of a certain long ladder made of +twisted evergreen ropes, which the Monks kept locked up in the +toolhouse. Lately, by some oversight, the toolhouse had been left +unlocked one day, and the Prince got the ladder. It was the latter +part of the afternoon, and the Christmas Monks were all in the chapel +practicing Christmas carols. The Prince found a very large hamper, and +picked as many Christmas presents for himself as he could stuff into +it; then he put the ladder against the high gate in front of the +convent, and climbed up, dragging the hamper after him. When he +reached the top of the gate, which was quite broad, he sat down to +rest for a moment before pulling the ladder up so as to drop it on the +other side. + +He gave his feet a little triumphant kick as he looked back at his +prison, and down slid the evergreen ladder! The Prince lost his +balance, and would inevitably have broken his neck if he had not clung +desperately to the hamper which hung over on the convent side of the +fence; and as it was just the same weight as the Prince, it kept him +suspended on the other. + +He screamed with all the force of his royal lungs; was heard by a +party of noblemen who were galloping up the street; was rescued, and +carried in state to the palace. But he was obliged to drop the hamper +of presents, for with it all the ingenuity of the noblemen could not +rescue him as speedily as it was necessary they should. + +When the good Monks discovered the escape of the Prince they were +greatly grieved, for they had tried their best to do well by him; and +poor Peter could with difficulty be comforted. He had been very fond +of the Prince, although the latter had done little except torment him +for the whole year; but Peter had a way of being fond of folks. + +A few days after the Prince ran away, and the day before the one on +which the Christmas presents were to be gathered, the nearsighted +father went out into the wax doll field again; but this time he had +his spectacles on, and could see just as well as any one, and even +a little better. Peter's little sister was swinging herself on her +crutches, in the place where the wax doll did not come up, tipping her +little face up, and smiling just like the dolls around her. + +"Why, what is this!" said the father. "_Hoc credam!_ I thought that +wax doll did not come up. Can my eyes deceive me? _non verum est!_ +There is a doll there--and what a doll! on crutches, and in poor, +homely gear!" + +Then the nearsighted father put out his hand toward Peter's little +sister. She jumped--she could not help it, and the holy father jumped +too; the Christmas wreath actually tumbled off his head. + +"It is a miracle!" exclaimed he when he could speak: "the little girl +is alive! _parra puella viva est._ I will pick her and take her to the +brethren, and we will pay her the honors she is entitled to." + +Then the good father put on his Christmas wreath, for he dared not +venture before his abbot without it, picked up Peter's little sister, +who was trembling in all her little bones, and carried her into the +chapel, where the Monks were just assembling to sing another carol. +He went right up to the Christmas abbot, who was seated in a splendid +chair, and looked like a king. + +"Most holy abbot," said the nearsighted father, holding out Peter's +little sister, "behold a miracle, _vide miraculum_! Thou wilt remember +that there was one wax doll planted which did not come up. Behold, in +her place I have found this doll on crutches, which is--alive!" + +"Let me see her!" said the abbot; and all the other Monks crowded +around, opening their mouths just like the little boys around the +notice, in order to see better. + +"_Verum est_," said the abbot. "It is verily a miracle." + +"Rather a lame miracle," said the brother who had charge of the funny +picture-books and the toy monkeys; they rather threw his mind off +its level of sobriety, and he was apt to make frivolous speeches +unbecoming a monk. + +[Illustration: THE PRINCE RUNS AWAY.] + +The abbot gave him a reproving glance, and the brother, who was the +leach of the convent, came forward. "Let me look at the miracle, most +holy abbot," said he. He took up Peter's sister, and looked carefully +at the small, twisted ankle. "I think I can cure this with my herbs +and simples," said he. + +"But I don't know," said the abbot doubtfully. "I never heard of +curing a miracle." + +"If it is not lawful, my humble power will not suffice to cure it," +said the father who was the leach. + +"True," said the abbot; "take her, then, and exercise thy healing art +upon her, and we will go on with our Christmas devotions, for which we +should now feel all the more zeal." So the father took away Peter's +little sister, who was still too frightened to speak. + +The Christmas Monk was a wonderful doctor, for by Christmas Eve the +little girl was completely cured of her lameness. This may seem +incredible, but it was owing in great part to the herbs and simples, +which are of a species that our doctors have no knowledge of; and also +to a wonderful lotion which has never been advertised on our fences. + +Peter of course heard the talk about the miracle, and knew at once +what it meant. He was almost heartbroken to think he was deceiving the +Monks so, but at the same time he did not dare to confess the truth +for fear they would put a penance upon his sister, and he could not +bear to think of her having to kneel upon dried peas. + +He worked hard picking Christmas presents, and hid his unhappiness as +best he could. On Christmas Eve he was called into the chapel. The +Christmas Monks were all assembled there. The walls were covered with +green garlands and boughs and sprays of hollyberries, and branches +of wax lights were gleaming brightly amongst them. The altar and the +picture of the Blessed Child behind it were so bright as to almost +dazzle one; and right up in the midst of it, in a lovely white dress, +all wreaths and jewels, in a little chair with a canopy woven of green +branches over it, sat Peter's little sister. + +And there were all the Christmas Monks in their white robes and +wreaths, going up in a long procession, with their hands full of the +very showiest Christmas presents to offer them to her! + +But when they reached her and held out the lovely presents--the +first was an enchanting wax doll, the biggest beauty in the whole +garden--instead of reaching out her hands for them, she just drew +back, and said in her little sweet, piping voice: "Please, I ain't a +millacle, I'm only Peter's little sister." + +"Peter?" said the abbot; "the Peter who works in our garden?" + +"Yes," said the little sister. + +Now here was a fine opportunity for a whole convent full of monks to +look foolish--filing up in procession with their hands full of gifts +to offer to a miracle, and finding there was no miracle, but only +Peter's little sister. + +But the abbot of the Christmas Monks had always maintained that there +were two ways of looking at all things; if any object was not what you +wanted it to be in one light, that there was another light in which it +would be sure to meet your views. + +So now he brought this philosophy to bear. + +"This little girl did not come up in the place of the wax doll, and +she is not a miracle in that light," said he; "but look at her in +another light and she is a miracle--do you not see?" + +They all looked at her, the darling little girl, the very meaning and +sweetness of all Christmas in her loving, trusting, innocent face. + +"Yes," said all the Christmas Monks, "she is a miracle." And they all +laid their beautiful Christmas presents down before her. + +Peter was so delighted he hardly knew himself; and, oh! the joy there +was when he led his little sister home on Christmas-day, and showed +all the wonderful presents. + +The Christmas Monks always retained Peter in their employ--in fact he +is in their employ to this day. And his parents, and his little +sister who was entirely cured of her lameness, have never wanted for +anything. + +As for the Prince, the courtiers were never tired of discussing and +admiring his wonderful knowledge of physics which led to his adjusting +the weight of the hamper of Christmas presents to his own so nicely +that he could not fall. The Prince liked the talk and the admiration +well enough, but he could not help, also, being a little glum: for he +got no Christmas presents that year. + + + + + + +THE PUMPKIN GIANT. + + +A very long time ago, before our grandmother's time, or our +great-grandmother's, or our grandmothers' with a very long string of +greats prefixed, there were no pumpkins; people had never eaten a +pumpkin-pie, or even stewed pumpkin; and that was the time when the +Pumpkin Giant flourished. + +There have been a great many giants who have flourished since the +world begun, and although a select few of them have been good giants, +the majority of them have been so bad that their crimes even more than +their size have gone to make them notorious. But the Pumpkin Giant was +an uncommonly bad one, and his general appearance and his behavior +were such as to make one shudder to an extent that you would hardly +believe possible. The convulsive shivering caused by the mere mention +of his name, and, in some cases where the people were unusually +sensitive, by the mere thought of him even, more resembled the blue +ague than anything else; indeed was known by the name of "the Giant's +Shakes." + +The Pumpkin Giant was very tall; he probably would have overtopped +most of the giants you have ever heard of. I don't suppose the Giant +who lived on the Bean-stalk whom Jack visited, was anything to compare +with him; nor that it would have been a possible thing for the Pumpkin +Giant, had he received an invitation to spend an afternoon with the +Bean-stalk Giant, to accept, on account of his inability to enter the +Bean-stalk Giant's door, no matter how much he stooped. + +The Pumpkin Giant had a very large yellow head, which was also smooth +and shiny. His eyes were big and round, and glowed like coals of fire; +and you would almost have thought that his head was lit up inside with +candles. Indeed there was a rumor to that effect amongst the common +people, but that was all nonsense, of course; no one of the more +enlightened class credited it for an instant. His mouth, which +stretched half around his head, was furnished with rows of pointed +teeth, and he was never known to hold it any other way than wide open. + +The Pumpkin Giant lived in a castle, as a matter of course; it is not +fashionable for a giant to live in any other kind of a dwelling--why, +nothing would be more tame and uninteresting than a giant in a +two-story white house with green blinds and a picket fence, or even a +brown-stone front, if he could get into either of them, which he could +not. + +The Giant's castle was situated on a mountain, as it ought to have +been, and there was also the usual courtyard before it, and the +customary moat, which was full of--_bones_! All I have got to say +about these bones is, they were not mutton bones. A great many details +of this story must be left to the imagination of the reader; they are +too harrowing to relate. A much tenderer regard for the feelings of +the audience will be shown in this than in most giant stories; we will +even go so far as to state in advance, that the story has a good end, +thereby enabling readers to peruse it comfortably without unpleasant +suspense. + +The Pumpkin Giant was fonder of little boys and girls than anything +else in the world; but he was somewhat fonder of little boys, and more +particularly of _fat_ little boys. + +The fear and horror of this Giant extended over the whole country. +Even the King on his throne was so severely afflicted with the Giant's +Shakes that he had been obliged to have the throne propped, for fear +it should topple over in some unusually violent fit. There was good +reason why the King shook: his only daughter, the Princess Ariadne +Diana, was probably the fattest princess in the whole world at that +date. So fat was she that she had never walked a step in the dozen +years of her life, being totally unable to progress over the earth by +any method except rolling. And a really beautiful sight it was, too, +to see the Princess Ariadne Diana, in her cloth-of-gold rolling-suit, +faced with green velvet and edged with ermine, with her glittering +crown on her head, trundling along the avenues of the royal gardens, +which had been furnished with strips of rich carpeting for her express +accommodation. + +But gratifying as it would have been to the King, her sire, under +other circumstances, to have had such an unusually interesting +daughter, it now only served to fill his heart with the greatest +anxiety on her account. The Princess was never allowed to leave the +palace without a body-guard of fifty knights, the very flower of +the King's troops, with lances in rest, but in spite of all this +precaution, the King shook. + +Meanwhile amongst the ordinary people who could not procure an escort +of fifty armed knights for the plump among their children, the ravages +of the Pumpkin Giant were frightful. It was apprehended at one time +that there would be very few fat little girls, and no fat little boys +at all, left in the kingdom. And what made matters worse, at that time +the Giant commenced taking a tonic to increase his appetite. + +Finally the King, in desperation, issued a proclamation that he would +knight any one, be he noble or common, who should cut off the head of +the Pumpkin Giant. This was the King's usual method of rewarding +any noble deed in his kingdom. It was a cheap method, and besides +everybody liked to be a knight. + +When the King issued his proclamation every man in the kingdom who was +not already a knight, straightway tried to contrive ways and means +to kill the Pumpkin Giant. But there was one obstacle which seemed +insurmountable: they were afraid, and all of them had the Giant's +Shakes so badly, that they could not possibly have held a knife steady +enough to cut off the Giant's head, even if they had dared to go near +enough for that purpose. + +There was one man who lived not far from the terrible Giant's castle, +a poor man, his only worldly wealth consisting in a large potato-field +and a cottage in front of it. But he had a boy of twelve, an only son, +who rivaled the Princess Ariadne Diana in point of fatness. He was +unable to have a body-guard for his son; so the amount of terror which +the inhabitants of that humble cottage suffered day and night was +heart-rending. The poor mother had been unable to leave her bed for +two years, on account of the Giant's Shakes; her husband barely got a +living from the potato-field; half the time he and his wife had hardly +enough to eat, as it naturally took the larger part of the potatoes to +satisfy the fat little boy, their son, and their situation was truly +pitiable. + +The fat boy's name was Æneas, his father's name was Patroclus, and +his mother's Daphne. It was all the fashion in those days to have +classical names. And as that was a fashion as easily adopted by the +poor as the rich, everybody had them. They were just like Jim and +Tommy and May in these days. Why, the Princess's name, Ariadne Diana, +was nothing more nor less than Ann Eliza with us. + +One morning Patroclus and Æneas were out in the field digging +potatoes, for new potatoes were just in the market. The Early Rose +potato had not been discovered in those days; but there was another +potato, perhaps equally good, which attained to a similar degree of +celebrity. It was called the Young Plantagenet, and reached a very +large size indeed, much larger than the Early Rose does in our time. + +Well, Patroclus and Æneas had just dug perhaps a bushel of Young +Plantagenet potatoes. It was slow work with them, for Patroclus had +the Giant's Shakes badly that morning, and of course Æneas was not +very swift. He rolled about among the potato-hills after the manner +of the Princess Ariadne Diana; but he did not present as imposing an +appearance as she, in his homespun farmer's frock. + +All at once the earth trembled violently. Patroclus and Æneas looked +up and saw the Pumpkin Giant coming with his mouth wide open. "Get +behind me, O, my darling son!" cried Patroclus. + +Æneas obeyed, but it was of no use; for you could see his cheeks each +side his father's waistcoat. + +Patroclus was not ordinarily a brave man, but he was brave in an +emergency; and as that is the only time when there is the slightest +need of bravery, it was just as well. + +The Pumpkin Giant strode along faster and faster, opening his mouth +wider and wider, until they could fairly hear it crack at the corners. + +Then Patroclus picked up an enormous Young Plantagenet and threw it +plump into the Pumpkin Giant's mouth. The Giant choked and gasped, and +choked and gasped, and finally tumbled down and died. + +[Illustration: HE PICKED UP AN ENORMOUS YOUNG PLANTAGENET AND THREW IT +AT HIM.] + +Patroclus and Æneas while the Giant was choking, had run to the house +and locked themselves in; then they looked out of the kitchen window; +when they saw the Giant tumble down and lie quite still, they knew he +must be dead. Then Daphne was immediately cured of the Giant's +Shakes, and got out of bed for the first time in two years. Patroclus +sharpened the carving-knife on the kitchen stove, and they all went +out into the potato-field. + +They cautiously approached the prostrate Giant, for fear he might be +shamming, and might suddenly spring up at them and--Æneas. But no, he +did not move at all; he was quite dead. And, all taking turns, they +hacked off his head with the carving-knife. Then Æneas had it to play +with, which was quite appropriate, and a good instance of the sarcasm +of destiny. + +The King was notified of the death of the Pumpkin Giant, and was +greatly rejoiced thereby. His Giant's Shakes ceased, the props were +removed from the throne, and the Princess Ariadne Diana was allowed to +go out without her body-guard of fifty knights, much to her delight, +for she found them a great hindrance to the enjoyment of her daily +outings. + +It was a great cross, not to say an embarrassment, when she was +gleefully rolling in pursuit of a charming red and gold butterfly, to +find herself suddenly stopped short by an armed knight with his lance +in rest. + +But the King, though his gratitude for the noble deed knew no bounds, +omitted to give the promised reward and knight Patroclus. + +I hardly know how it happened--I don't think it was anything +intentional. Patroclus felt rather hurt about it, and Daphne would +have liked to be a lady, but Æneas did not care in the least. He had +the Giant's head to play with and that was reward enough for him. +There was not a boy in the neighborhood but envied him his possession +of such a unique plaything; and when they would stand looking over the +wall of the potato-field with longing eyes, and he was flying over the +ground with the head, his happiness knew no bounds; and Æneas played +so much with the Giant's head that finally late in the fall it got +broken and scattered all over the field. + +[Illustration: THEY WERE ALL OVER THE FIELD.] + +Next spring all over Patroclus's potato-field grew running vines, +and in the fall Giant's heads. There they were all over the field, +hundreds of them! Then there was consternation indeed! The natural +conclusion to be arrived at when the people saw the yellow Giant's +heads making their appearance above the ground was, that the rest of +the Giants were coming. + +"There was one Pumpkin Giant before," said they, "now there will be +a whole army of them. If it was dreadful then what will it be in the +future? If one Pumpkin Giant gave us the Shakes so badly, what will a +whole army of them do?" + +But when some time had elapsed and nothing more of the Giants appeared +above the surface of the potato-field, and as moreover the heads had +not yet displayed any sign of opening their mouths, the people began +to feel a little easier, and the general excitement subsided somewhat, +although the King had ordered out Ariadne Diana's body-guard again. + +Now Æneas had been born with a propensity for putting everything into +his mouth and tasting it; there was scarcely anything in his vicinity +which could by any possibility be tasted, which he had not eaten a +bit of. This propensity was so alarming in his babyhood, that Daphne +purchased a book of antidotes; and if it had not been for her +admirable good judgment in doing so, this story would probably never +have been told; for no human baby could possibly have survived the +heterogeneous diet which Æneas had indulged in. There was scarcely one +of the antidotes which had not been resorted to from time to time. + +Æneas had become acquainted with the peculiar flavor of almost +everything in his immediate vicinity except the Giant's heads; and he +naturally enough cast longing eyes at them. Night and day he wondered +what a Giant's head could taste like, till finally one day when +Patroclus was away he stole out into the potato-field, cut a bit out +of one of the Giant's heads and ate it. He was almost afraid to, +but he reflected that his mother could give him an antidote; so he +ventured. It tasted very sweet and nice; he liked it so much that he +cut off another piece and ate that, then another and another, until he +had eaten two thirds of a Giant's head. Then he thought it was about +time for him to go in and tell his mother and take an antidote, though +he did not feel ill at all yet. + +"Mother," said he, rolling slowly into the cottage, "I have eaten +two thirds of a Giant's head, and I guess you had better give me an +antidote." + +"O, my precious son!" cried Daphne, "how could you?" She looked in her +book of antidotes, but could not find one antidote for a Giant's head. + +"O Æneas, my dear, dear son!" groaned Daphne, "there is no antidote +for Giant's head! What shall we do?" + +Then she sat down and wept, and Æneas wept too as loud as he possibly +could. And he apparently had excellent reason to; for it did not seem +possible that a boy could eat two thirds of a Giant's head and survive +it without an antidote. Patroclus came home, and they told him, and he +sat down and lamented with them. All day they sat weeping and watching +Æneas, expecting every moment to see him die. But he did not die; on +the contrary he had never felt so well in his life. + +Finally at sunset Æneas looked up and laughed. "I am not going to +die," said he; "I never felt so well; you had better stop crying. And +I am going out to get some more of that Giant's head; I am hungry." + +"Don't, don't!" cried his father and mother; but he went; for he +generally took his own way, very like most only sons. He came back +with a whole Giant's head in his arms. + +"See here, father and mother," cried he; "we'll all have some of this; +it evidently is not poison, and it is good--a great deal better than +potatoes!" + +Patroclus and Daphne hesitated, but they were hungry too. Since +the crop of Giant's heads had sprung up in their field instead of +potatoes, they had been hungry most of the time; so they tasted. + +"It is good," said Daphne; "but I think it would be better cooked." +So she put some in a kettle of water over the fire, and let it boil +awhile; then she dished it up, and they all ate it. It was delicious. +It tasted more like stewed pumpkin than anything else; in fact it was +stewed pumpkin. + +Daphne was inventive, and something of a genius; and next day she +concocted another dish out of the Giant's heads. She boiled them, and +sifted them, and mixed them with eggs and sugar and milk and spice; +then she lined some plates with puff paste, filled them with the +mixture, and set them in the oven to bake. + +The result was unparalleled; nothing half so exquisite had ever been +tasted. They were all in ecstasies, Æneas in particular. They gathered +all the Giant's heads and stored them in the cellar. Daphne baked pies +of them every day, and nothing could surpass the felicity of the whole +family. + +One morning the King had been out hunting, and happened to ride by the +cottage of Patroclus with a train of his knights. Daphne was baking +pies as usual, and the kitchen door and window were both open, for the +room was so warm; so the delicious odor of the pies perfumed the whole +air about the cottage. + +"What is it smells so utterly lovely?" exclaimed the King, sniffing in +a rapture. + +He sent his page in to see. + +"The housewife is baking Giant's head pies," said the page returning. + +"What?" thundered the King. "Bring out one to me!" + +So the page brought out a pie to him, and after all his knights had +tasted to be sure it was not poison, and the king had watched them +sharply for a few moments to be sure they were not killed, he tasted +too. + +[Illustration: THEN THE KING KNIGHTED HIM ON THE SPOT.] + +Then he beamed. It was a new sensation, and a new sensation is a great +boon to a king. + +"I never tasted anything so altogether superfine, so utterly +magnificent in my life," cried the king; "stewed peacocks' tongues +from the Baltic, are not to be compared with it! Call out the +housewife immediately!" + +So Daphne came out trembling, and Patroclus and Æneas also. + +"What a charming lad!" exclaimed the King as his glance fell upon +Æneas. "Now tell me about these wonderful pies, and I will reward you +as becomes a monarch!" + +Then Patroclus fell on his knees and related the whole history of the +Giant's head pies from the beginning. + +The King actually blushed. "And I forgot to knight you, oh noble and +brave man, and to make a lady of your admirable wife!" + +Then the King leaned gracefully down from his saddle, and struck +Patroclus with his jeweled sword and knighted him on the spot. + +The whole family went to live at the royal palace. The roses in the +royal gardens were uprooted, and Giant's heads (or pumpkins, as they +came to be called) were sown in their stead; all the royal parks also +were turned into pumpkin-fields. + +Patroclus was in constant attendance on the King, and used to +stand all day in his ante-chamber. Daphne had a position of great +responsibility, for she superintended the baking of the pumpkin pies, +and Æneas finally married the Princess Ariadne Diana. + +They were wedded in great state by fifty archbishops; and all the +newspapers united in stating that they were the most charming and well +matched young couple that had ever been united in the kingdom. + +The stone entrance of the Pumpkin Giant's Castle was securely +fastened, and upon it was engraved an inscription composed by the +first poet in the kingdom, for which the King made him laureate, and +gave him the liberal pension of fifty pumpkin pies per year. + +The following is the inscription in full: + + "Here dwelt the Pumpkin Giant once, + He's dead the nation doth rejoice, + For, while he was alive, he lived + By e----g dear, fat, little boys." + +The inscription is said to remain to this day; if you were to go there +you would probably see it. + + + + + + +THE CHRISTMAS MASQUERADE. + + +On Christmas Eve the Mayor's stately mansion presented a beautiful +appearance. There were rows of different-colored wax candles burning +in every window, and beyond them one could see the chandeliers of gold +and crystal blazing with light. The fiddles were squeaking merrily, +and lovely little forms flew past the windows in time to the music. + +There were gorgeous carpets laid from the door to the street, and +carriages were constantly arriving, and fresh guests tripping over +them. They were all children. The Mayor was giving a Christmas +Masquerade to-night, to all the children in the city, the poor as well +as the rich. The preparation for this ball had been making an immense +sensation for the last three months. Placards had been up in the most +conspicuous points in the city, and all the daily newspapers had +at least a column devoted to it, headed with THE MAYOR'S CHRISTMAS +MASQUERADE in very large letters. + +The Mayor had promised to defray the expenses of all the poor children +whose parents were unable to do so, and the bills for their costumes +were directed to be sent in to him. + +Of course there was a great deal of excitement among the regular +costumers of the city, and they all resolved to vie with one another +in being the most popular, and the best patronized on this gala +occasion. But the placards and the notices had not been out a week +before a new Costumer appeared, who cast all the others into the shade +directly. He set up his shop on the corner of one of the principal +streets, and hung up his beautiful costumes in the windows. He was a +little fellow, not much larger than a boy of ten. His cheeks were as +red as roses, and he had on a long curling wig as white as snow. +He wore a suit of crimson velvet knee-breeches, and a little +swallow-tailed coat with beautiful golden buttons. Deep lace ruffles +fell over his slender white hands, and he wore elegant knee-buckles +of glittering stones. He sat on a high stool behind his counter and +served his customers himself; he kept no clerk. + +It did not take the children long to discover what beautiful things he +had, and how superior he was to the other costumers, and they begun to +flock to his shop immediately, from the Mayor's daughter to the poor +rag-picker's. The children were to select their own costumes; the +Mayor had stipulated that. It was to be a children's ball in every +sense of the word. + +So they decided to be fairies, and shepherdesses, and princesses, +according to their own fancies; and this new costumer had charming +costumes to suit them. + +It was noticeable, that, for the most part, the children of the rich, +who had always had everything they desired, would choose the parts of +goose-girls and peasants and such like; and the poor children jumped +eagerly at the chance of being princesses or fairies for a few hours +in their miserable lives. + +When Christmas Eve came, and the children flocked into the Mayor's +mansion, whether it was owing to the Costumer's art, or their own +adaptation to the characters they had chosen, it was wonderful how +lifelike their representations were. Those little fairies in their +short skirts of silken gauze, in which golden sparkles appeared as +they moved, with their little funny gossamer wings, like butterflies, +looked like real fairies. It did not seem possible, when they floated +around to the music, half supported on the tips of their dainty toes, +half by their filmy, purple wings, their delicate bodies swaying in +time, that they could be anything but fairies. It seemed absurd to +imagine that they were Johnny Mullens, the washwoman's son, and Polly +Flinders, the charwoman's little girl, and so on. + +The Mayor's daughter, who had chosen the character of a goose-girl, +looked so like a true one that one could hardly dream she ever was +anything else. She was, ordinarily, a slender, dainty little lady, +rather tall for her age. She now looked very short and stubbed and +brown, just as if she had been accustomed to tend geese in all sorts +of weather. It was so with all the others--the Red Riding-hoods, the +princesses, the Bo Peeps, and with every one of the characters who +came to the Mayor's ball; Red Riding-hood looked round, with big, +frightened eyes, all ready to spy the wolf, and carried her little +pat of butter and pot of honey gingerly in her basket; Bo Peep's eyes +looked red with weeping for the loss of her sheep; and the princesses +swept about so grandly in their splendid brocaded trains, and held +their crowned heads so high that people half believed them to be true +princesses. + +But there never was anything like the fun at the Mayor's Christmas +ball. The fiddlers fiddled and fiddled, and the children danced and +danced on the beautiful waxed floors. The Mayor, with his family and a +few grand guests, sat on a dais covered with blue velvet at one end of +the dancing hall, and watched the sport. They were all delighted. The +Mayor's eldest daughter sat in front and clapped her little soft white +hands. She was a tall, beautiful young maiden, and wore a white dress, +and a little cap woven of blue violets on her yellow hair. Her name +was Violetta. + +[Illustration: THERE NEVER WAS ANYTHING LIKE THE FUN AT THE MAYOR'S +CHRISTMAS BALL.] + +The supper was served at midnight--and such a supper! The mountains +of pink and white ices, and the cakes with sugar castles and +flower-gardens on the tops of them, and the charming shapes of gold +and ruby-colored jellies! There were wonderful bonbons which even the +Mayor's daughter did not have every day; and all sorts of fruits, +fresh and candied. They had cowslip wine in green glasses, and +elderberry wine in red, and they drank each other's health. The +glasses held a thimbleful each; the Mayor's wife thought that was all +the wine they ought to have. Under each child's plate there was a +pretty present; and every one had a basket of bonbons and cake to +carry home. + +At four o'clock the fiddlers put up their fiddles and the children +went home; fairies and shepherdesses and pages and princesses all +jabbering gleefully about the splendid time they had had. + +But in a short time what consternation there was throughout the city! +When the proud and fond parents attempted to unbutton their children's +dresses, in order to prepare them for bed, not a single costume would +come off. The buttons buttoned again as fast as they were unbuttoned; +even if they pulled out a pin, in it would slip again in a twinkling; +and when a string was untied it tied itself up again into a bow-knot. +The parents were dreadfully frightened. But the children were so tired +out they finally let them go to bed in their fancy costumes, and +thought perhaps they would come off better in the morning. So Red +Riding-hood went to bed in her little red cloak, holding fast to her +basket full of dainties for her grandmother, and Bo Peep slept with +her crook in her hand. + +The children all went to bed readily enough, they were so very +tired, even though they had to go in this strange array. All but the +fairies--they danced and pirouetted and would not be still. + +[Illustration: THEIR PARENTS STARED IN GREAT DISTRESS] + +"We want to swing on the blades of grass," they kept saying, "and play +hide-and-seek in the lily-cups, and take a nap between the leaves of +the roses." + +The poor charwomen and coal-heavers, whose children the fairies were +for the most part, stared at them in great distress. They did not know +what to do with these radiant, frisky little creatures into which +their Johnnys and their Pollys and Betseys were so suddenly +transformed. But the fairies went to bed quietly enough when daylight +came, and were soon fast asleep. + +There was no further trouble till twelve o'clock, when all the +children woke up. Then a great wave of alarm spread over the city. Not +one of the costumes would come off then. The buttons buttoned as fast +as they were unbuttoned; the pins quilted themselves in as fast as +they were pulled out; and the strings, flew round like lightning and +twisted themselves into bow-knots as fast as they were untied. + +And that was not the worst of it; every one of the children seemed to +have become, in reality, the character which he or she had assumed. + +The Mayor's daughter declared she was going to tend her geese out in +the pasture, and the shepherdesses sprang out of their little beds of +down, throwing aside their silken quilts, and cried that they must go +out and watch their sheep. The princesses jumped up from their straw +pallets, and wanted to go to court; and all the rest of them likewise. +Poor little Red Riding-hood sobbed and sobbed because she couldn't go +and carry her basket to her grandmother, and as she didn't have any +grandmother she couldn't go, of course, and her parents were very much +troubled. It was all so mysterious and dreadful. The news spread very +rapidly over the city, and soon a great crowd gathered around the new +Costumer's shop, for every one thought he must be responsible for all +this mischief. + +The shop door was locked; but they soon battered it down with stones. +When they rushed in the Costumer was not there; he had disappeared +with all his wares. Then they did not know what to do. But it was +evident that they must do something before long, for the state of +affairs was growing worse and worse. + +The Mayor's little daughter braced her back up against the tapestried +wall and planted her two feet in their thick shoes firmly. "I will +go and tend my geese!" she kept crying. "I won't eat my breakfast! I +won't go out in the park! I won't go to school. I'm going to tend my +geese--I will, I will, I will!" + +And the princesses trailed their rich trains over the rough, unpainted +floors in their parents' poor little huts, and held their crowned +heads very high and demanded to be taken to court. The princesses +were, mostly, geese-girls when they were their proper selves, and +their geese were suffering, and their poor parents did not know what +they were going to do, and they wrung their hands and wept as they +gazed on their gorgeously-appareled children. + +Finally, the Mayor called a meeting of the Aldermen, and they all +assembled in the City Hall. Nearly every one of them had a son or +a daughter who was a chimney-sweep, or a little watch-girl, or a +shepherdess. They appointed a chairman and they took a great many +votes, and contrary votes; but they did not agree on anything, until +some one proposed that they consult the Wise Woman. Then they all held +up their hands, and voted to, unanimously. + +[Illustration: "I WILL GO AND TEND MY GEESE!"] + +So the whole board of Aldermen set out, walking by twos, with the +Mayor at their head, to consult the Wise Woman. The Aldermen were all +very fleshy, and carried gold-headed canes which they swung very high +at every step. They held their heads well back, and their chins stiff, +and whenever they met common people they sniffed gently. They were +very imposing. + +The Wise Woman lived in a little hut on the out-skirts of the city. +She kept a Black Cat; except for her, she was all alone. She was very +old, and had brought up a great many children, and she was considered +remarkably wise. + +But when the Aldermen reached her hut and found her seated by the +fire, holding her Black Cat, a new difficulty presented itself. She +had always been quite deaf, and people had been obliged to scream as +loud as they could in order to make her hear; but, lately, she had +grown much deafer, and when the Aldermen attempted to lay the case +before her she could not hear a word. In fact, she was so very deaf +that she could not distinguish a tone below G-sharp. The Aldermen +screamed till they were quite red in their faces, but all to no +purpose; none of them could get up to G-sharp, of course. + +So the Aldermen all went back, swinging their gold-headed canes, and +they had another meeting in the City Hall. Then they decided to send +the highest Soprano Singer in the church choir to the Wise Woman; she +could sing up to G-sharp just as easy as not. So the high-Soprano +Singer set out for the Wise Woman's in the Mayor's coach, and the +Aldermen marched behind, swinging their gold-headed canes. + +The high-Soprano Singer put her head down close to the Wise Woman's +ear, and sang all about the Christmas Masquerade, and the dreadful +dilemma everybody was in, in G-sharp--she even went higher, +sometimes--and the Wise Woman heard every word. She nodded three +times, and every time she nodded she looked wiser. + +"Go home, and give 'em a spoonful of castor-oil, all 'round," she +piped up; then she took a pinch of snuff, and wouldn't say any more. + +So the Aldermen went home, and each one took a district and marched +through it, with a servant carrying an immense bowl and spoon, and +every child had to take a dose of castor-oil. + +But it didn't do a bit of good. The children cried and struggled when +they were forced to take the castor-oil; but, two minutes afterward, +the chimney-sweeps were crying for their brooms, and the princesses +screaming because they couldn't go to court, and the Mayor's daughter, +who had been given a double dose, cried louder and more sturdily: "I +want to go and tend my geese! I will go and tend my geese!" + +So the Aldermen took the high-Soprano Singer, and they consulted the +Wise Woman again. She was taking a nap this time, and the Singer had +to sing up to B-flat before she could wake her. Then she was very +cross, and the Black Cat put up his back and spit at the Aldermen. + +"Give 'em a spanking all 'round," she snapped out, "and if that don't +work put 'em to bed without their supper!" + +Then the Aldermen marched back to try that; and all the children in +the city were spanked, and when that didn't do any good they were put +to bed without any supper. But the next morning when they woke up they +were worse than ever. + +The Mayor and the Aldermen were very indignant, and considered that +they had been imposed upon and insulted. So they set out for the Wise +Woman's again, with the high-Soprano Singer. + +She sang in G-sharp how the Aldermen and the Mayor considered her an +imposter, and did not think she was wise at all, and they wished her +to take her Black Cat and move beyond the limits of the city. She sang +it beautifully; it sounded like the very finest Italian opera-music. + +"Deary me," piped the Wise Woman, when she had finished, "how very +grand these gentlemen are." Her Black Cat put up his back and spit. + +"Five times one Black Cat are five Black Cats," said the Wise Woman. +And, directly, there were five Black Cats, spitting and miauling. + +"Five times five Black Cats are twenty-five Black Cats." And then +there were twenty-five of the angry little beasts. + +"Five times twenty-five Black Cats are one hundred and twenty-five +Black Cats," added the Wise Woman, with a chuckle. + +[Illustration: SHE SANG IT BEAUTIFULLY.] + +Then the Mayor and the Aldermen and the high-Soprano Singer fled +precipitately out the door and back to the city. One hundred and +twenty-five Black Cats had seemed to fill the Wise Woman's hut full, +and when they all spit and miauled together it was dreadful. The +visitors could not wait for her to multiply Black Cats any longer. + +As winter wore on, and spring came, the condition of things grew more +intolerable. Physicians had been consulted, who advised that the +children should be allowed to follow their own bents, for fear of +injury to their constitutions. So the rich Aldermen's daughters were +actually out in the fields herding sheep, and their sons sweeping +chimneys or carrying newspapers; while the poor charwomen's and +coal-heavers' children spent their time like princesses and fairies. +Such a topsy-turvy state of society was shocking. Why, the Mayor's +little daughter was tending geese out in the meadow like any common +goose-girl! Her pretty elder sister, Violetta, felt very sad about it, +and used often to cast about in her mind for some way of relief. + +When cherries were ripe in spring, Violetta thought she would ask the +Cherry-man about it. She thought the Cherry-man quite wise. He was a +very pretty young fellow, and he brought cherries to sell in +graceful little straw baskets lined with moss. So she stood in the +kitchen-door, one morning, and told him all about the great trouble +that had come upon the city. He listened in great astonishment; he had +never heard of it before. He lived several miles out in the country. + +"How did the Costumer look?" he asked respectfully; he thought +Violetta the most beautiful lady on earth. + +Then Violetta described the Costumer, and told him of the unavailing +attempts that had been made to find him. There were a great many +detectives out, constantly at work. + +"I know where he is!" said the Cherry-man. "He's up in one of my +cherry-trees. He's been living there ever since cherries were ripe, +and he won't come down." + +Then Violetta ran and told her father in great excitement, and he at +once called a meeting of the Aldermen, and in a few hours half the +city was on the road to the Cherry-man's. + +He had a beautiful orchard of cherry-trees, all laden with fruit. +And, sure enough, in one of the largest, way up amongst the topmost +branches, sat the Costumer in his red velvet short-clothes and his +diamond knee-buckles. He looked down between the green boughs. +"Good-morning, friends," he shouted. + +The Aldermen shook their gold-headed canes at him, and the people +danced round the tree in a rage. Then they began to climb. But they +soon found that to be impossible. As fast as they touched a hand or +foot to the tree, back it flew with a jerk exactly as if the tree +pushed it. They tried a ladder, but the ladder fell back the moment +it touched the tree, and lay sprawling upon the ground. Finally, they +brought axes and thought they could chop the tree down, Costumer and +all; but the wood resisted the axes as if it were iron, and only +dented them, receiving no impression itself. + +Meanwhile, the Costumer sat up in the tree, eating cherries, and +throwing the stones down. Finally, he stood up on a stout branch and, +looking down, addressed the people. + +"It's of no use, your trying to accomplish anything in this way," said +he; "you'd better parley. I'm willing to come to terms with you, and +make everything right, on two conditions." + +The people grew quiet then, and the Mayor stepped forward as +spokesman. "Name your two conditions," said he, rather testily. "You +own, tacitly, that you are the cause of all this trouble." + +"Well," said the Costumer, reaching out for a handful of cherries, +"this Christmas Masquerade of yours was a beautiful idea; but you +wouldn't do it every year, and your successors might not do it at all. +I want those poor children to have a Christmas every year. My first +condition is, that every poor child in the city hangs its stocking for +gifts in the City Hall on every Christmas Eve, and gets it filled, +too. I want the resolution filed and put away in the city archives." + +"We agree to the first condition!" cried the people with one voice, +without waiting for the Mayor and Aldermen. + +"The second condition," said the Costumer, "is that this good young +Cherry-man here, has the Mayor's daughter, Violetta, for his wife. He +has been kind to me, letting me live in his cherry-tree, and eat his +cherries, and I want to reward him." + +"We consent!" cried all the people; but the Mayor, though he was +so generous, was a proud man. "I will not consent to the second +condition," he cried angrily. + +"Very well," replied the Costumer, picking some more cherries, "then +your youngest daughter tends geese the rest of her life, that's all!" + +The Mayor was in great distress; but the thought of his youngest +daughter being a goose-girl all her life was too much for him. He gave +in at last. + +"Now go home, and take the costumes off your children," said the +Costumer, "and leave me in peace to eat cherries!" + +Then the people hastened back to the city and found, to their great +delight, that the costumes would come off. The pins staid out, the +buttons staid unbuttoned, and the strings staid untied. The children +were dressed in their own proper clothes and were their own proper +selves once more. The shepherdesses and the chimney-sweeps came +home, and were washed and dressed in silks and velvets, and went to +embroidering and playing lawn-tennis. And the princesses and the +fairies put on their own suitable dresses, and went about their useful +employments. There was great rejoicing in every home. Violetta thought +she had never been so happy, now that her dear little sister was no +longer a goose-girl, but her own dainty little lady-self. + +The resolution to provide every poor child in the city with a stocking +full of gifts on Christmas was solemnly filed, and deposited in the +city archives, and was never broken. + +Violetta was married to the Cherry-man, and all the children came to +the wedding, and strewed flowers in her path till her feet were quite +hidden in them. The Costumer had mysteriously disappeared from the +cherry-tree the night before, but he left, at the foot, some beautiful +wedding presents for the bride--a silver service with a pattern of +cherries engraved on it, and a set of china with cherries on it, in +hand-painting, and a white satin robe, embroidered with cherries down +the front. + + + + + + +DILL. + + +Dame Clementina was in her dairy, churning, and her little daughter +Nan was out in the flower-garden. The flower-garden was a little plot +back of the cottage, full of all the sweet, old-fashioned herbs. There +were sweet marjoram, sage, summersavory, lavender, and ever so many +others. Up in one corner, there was a little green bed of dill. + +Nan was a dainty, slim little maiden, with yellow, flossy hair in +short curls all over her head. Her eyes were very sweet and round and +blue, and she wore a quaint little snuff-colored gown. It had a short +full waist, with low neck and puffed sleeves, and the skirt was +straight and narrow and down to her little heels. + +She danced around the garden, picking a flower here and there. She was +making a nosegay for her mother. She picked lavender and sweet-william +and pinks, and bunched them up together. Finally she pulled a little +sprig of dill, and ran, with that and the nosegay, to her mother in +the dairy. + +"Mother dear," said she, "here is a little nosegay for you; and what +was it I overheard you telling Dame Elizabeth about dill last night?" + +Dame Clementina stopped churning and took the nosegay. "Thank you, +Sweetheart, it is lovely," said she, "and, as for the dill--it is a +charmed plant, you know, like four-leaved clover." + +"Do you put it over the door?" asked Nan. + +"Yes. Nobody who is envious or ill-disposed can enter into the house +if there is a sprig of dill over the door. Then I know another charm +which makes it stronger. If one just writes this verse: + + "'Alva, aden, winira mir, + Villawissen lingen; + Sanchta, wanchta, attazir, + Hor de mussen wingen,' + +under the sprig of dill, every one envious, or evil-disposed, who +attempts to enter the house, will have to stop short, just where they +are, and stand there; they cannot move." + +"What does the verse mean?" asked Nan. + +"That, I do not know. It is written in a foreign language. But it is a +powerful charm." + +"O, mother! will you write it off for me, if I will bring you a bit of +paper and a pen?" + +"Certainly," replied her mother, and wrote it off when Nan brought pen +and paper. + +"Now," said she, "you must run off and play again, and not hinder me +any longer, or I shall not get my butter made to-day." + +So Nan danced away with the verse, and the sprig of dill, and her +mother went on churning. + +She had a beautiful tall stone churn, with the sides all carved with +figures in relief. There were milkmaids and cows as natural as life +all around the churn. The dairy was charming, too. The shelves were +carved stone; and the floor had a little silvery rill running right +through the middle of it, with green ferns at the sides. All along the +stone shelves were set pans full of yellow cream, and the pans were +all of solid silver, with a chasing of buttercups and daisies around +the brims. + +It was not a common dairy, and Dame Clementina was not a common +dairy-woman. She was very tall and stately, and wore her silver-white +hair braided around her head like a crown, with a high silver comb +at the top. She walked like a queen; indeed she was a noble count's +daughter. In her early youth, she had married a pretty young dairyman, +against her father's wishes; so she had been disinherited. The +dairyman had been so very poor and low down in the world, that the +count felt it his duty to cast off his daughter, lest she should do +discredit to his noble line. There was a much pleasanter, easier way +out of the difficulty, which the count did not see. Indeed, it was a +peculiarity of all his family, that they never could see a way out of +a difficulty, high and noble as they were. The count only needed to +have given the poor young dairyman a few acres of his own land, and a +few bags of his own gold, and begged the king, with whom he had great +influence, to knight him, and all the obstacles would have been +removed; the dairyman would have been quite rich and noble enough for +his son-in-law. But he never thought of that, and his daughter was +disinherited. However, he made all the amends to her that he could, +and fitted her out royally for her humble station in life. He caused +this beautiful dairy to be built for her, and gave her the silver +milk-pans, and the carved stone churn. + +"My daughter shall not churn in a common wooden churn, or skim the +cream from wooden pans," he had said. + +The dairyman had been dead a good many years now, and Dame Clementina +managed the dairy alone. She never saw anything of her father, +although he lived in his castle not far off, on a neighboring height. +When the sky was clear, she could see its stone towers against it. She +had four beautiful white cows, and Nan drove them to pasture; they +were very gentle. + +When Dame Clementina had finished churning, she went into the cottage. +As she stepped through the little door with clumps of sweet peas on +each side, she looked up. There was the sprig of dill, and the magic +verse she had written under it. + +Nan was sitting at the window inside, knitting her stent on a blue +stocking. "Ah, Sweetheart," said her mother, laughing, "you have +little cause to pin the dill and the verse over our door. None is +likely to envy us, or to be ill-disposed toward us." + +"O, mother!" said Nan, "I know it, but I thought it would be so nice +to feel sure. Oh, there is Dame Golding coming after some milk. Do you +suppose she will have to stop?" + +"What nonsense!" said her mother. They both of them watched Dame +Golding coming. All of a sudden, she stopped short, just outside. She +could go no further. She tried to lift her feet, but could not. + +"O, mother!" cried Nan, "she has stopped!" + +The poor woman began to scream. She was frightened almost to death. +Nan and her mother were not much less frightened, but they did not +know what to do. They ran out, and tried to comfort her, and gave her +some cream to drink; but it did not amount to much. Dame Golding had +secretly envied Dame Clementina for her silver milk-pans. Nan and her +mother knew why their visitor was so suddenly rooted to the spot, of +course, but she did not. She thought her feet were paralyzed, and she +kept begging them to send for her husband. + +"Perhaps he can pull her away," said Nan, crying. How she wished she +had never pinned the dill and the verse over the door! So she set off +for Dame Golding's husband. He came running in a great hurry; but when +he had nearly reached his wife, and had his arms reached out to grasp +her, he, too, stopped short. He had envied Dame Clementina for her +beautiful white cows, and there he was fast, also. + +He began to groan and scream too. Nan and her mother ran into the +house and shut the door. They could not bear it. "What shall we do, +if any one else comes?" sobbed Nan. "O, mother! there is Dame Dorothy +coming. And--yes--Oh! she has stopped too." Poor Dame Dorothy had +envied Dame Clementina a little for her flower-garden, which was finer +than hers, so she had to join Dame Golding and her husband. + +Pretty soon another woman came, who had looked with envious eyes at +Dame Clementina, because she was a count's daughter; and another, who +had grudged her a fine damask petticoat, which she had had before she +was disinherited, and still wore on holidays; and they both had to +stop. + +Then came three rough-looking men in velvet jackets and slouched hats, +who brought up short at the gate with a great jerk that nearly took +their breath away. They were robbers who were prowling about with a +view to stealing Dame Clementina's silver milk-pans some dark night. + +[Illustration: A STRANGE SAD STATE OF THINGS.] + +All through the day the people kept coming and stopping. It was +wonderful how many things poor Dame Clementina had to be envied +by men and women, and even children. They envied Nan for her yellow +curls or her blue eyes, or her pretty snuff-colored gown. When the +sun set, the yard in front of Dame Clementina's cottage was full of +people. Lastly, just before dark, the count himself came ambling up +on a coal-black horse. The count was a majestic old man dressed in +velvet, with stars on his breast. His white hair fell in long curls +on his shoulders, and he had a pointed beard. As he came to the gate, +he caught a glimpse of Nan in the door. + +"How I wish that little maiden was my child," said he. And, +straightway, he stopped. His horse pawed and trembled when he lashed +him with a jeweled whip to make him go on; but he could not stir +forward one step. Neither could the count dismount from his saddle; he +sat there fuming with rage. + +Meanwhile, poor Dame Clementina and little Nan were overcome with +distress. The sight of their yard full of all these weeping people +was dreadful. Neither of them had any idea how to do away with the +trouble, because of their family inability to see their way out of a +difficulty. + +When supper time came, Nan went for the cows, and her mother milked +them into her silver milk-pails, and strained off the milk into her +silver pans. Then they kindled up a fire and cooked some beautiful +milk porridge for the poor people in the yard. + +It was a beautiful warm moonlight night, and all the winds were sweet +with roses and pinks; so the people could not suffer out of doors; but +the next morning it rained. + +"O, mother!" said Nan, "it is raining, and what will the poor people +do?" + +Dame Clementina would never have seen her way out of this difficulty, +had not Dame Golding cried out that her bonnet was getting wet, and +she wanted an umbrella. + +"Why, you must go around to their houses, of course, and get their +umbrellas for them," said Dame Clementina; "but first, give ours to +that old man on horseback." She did not know her father, so many years +had passed since she had seen him, and he had altered so. + +So Nan carried out their great yellow umbrella to the count, and went +around to the others' houses for their own umbrellas. It was pitiful +enough to see them standing all alone behind the doors. She could not +find three extra ones for the three robbers, and she felt badly about +that. + +Somebody suggested, however, that milk-pans turned over their heads +would keep the rain off their slouched hats, at least; so she got +a silver milk-pan for an umbrella for each. They made such frantic +efforts to get away then, that they looked like jumping-jacks; but it +was of no use. + +[Illustration: NAN RETURNS WITH THE UMBRELLAS.] + +Poor Dame Clementina and Nan after they had given the milk porridge to +the people, and done all they could for their comfort, stood staring +disconsolately out of the window at them under their dripping +umbrellas. The yard was fairly green and black and blue and yellow +with umbrellas. They wept at the sight, but they could not think +of any way out of the difficulty. The people themselves might have +suggested one, had they known the real cause; but they did not dare to +tell them how they were responsible for all the trouble; they seemed +so angry. + +About noon Nan spied their most particular friend, Dame Elizabeth, +coming. She lived a little way out of the village. Nan saw her +approaching the gate through the rain and mist, with her great blue +umbrella and her long blue double cape and her poke bonnet; and she +cried out in the greatest dismay: "O, mother, mother! there is our +dear Dame Elizabeth coming; she will have to stop too!" + +Then they watched her with beating hearts. Dame Elizabeth stared with +astonishment at the people, and stopped to ask them questions. But she +passed quite through their midst, and entered the cottage under the +sprig of dill, and the verse. She did not envy Dame Clementina or Nan, +anything. + +"Tell me what this means," said she. "Why are all these people +standing in your yard in the rain with umbrellas?" + +[Illustration: SUCH FRANTIC EFFORTS TO GET AWAY.] + +Then Dame Clementina and Nan told her. "And oh! what shall we do?" +said they. "Will these people have to stand in our yard forever and +ever?" + +Dame Elizabeth stared at them. The way out of the difficulty was so +plain to her, that she could not credit its not being plain to them. + +"Why," said she, "don't you take down the sprig of dill and the +verse?" + +"Why, sure enough!" said they in amazement. "Why didn't we think of +that before?" + +So Dame Clementina ran out quickly, and pulled down the sprig of dill +and the verse. + +Then the way the people hurried out of the yard! They fairly danced +and flourished their heels, old folks and all. They were so delighted +to be able to move, and they wanted to be sure they could move. The +robbers tried to get away unseen with their silver milk-pans, but some +of the people stopped them, and set the pans safely inside the dairy. +All the people, except the count, were so eager to get away, that they +did not stop to inquire into the cause of the trouble then. + +Afterward, when they did, they were too much ashamed to say anything +about it. + +It was a good lesson to them; they were not quite so envious after +that. Always, on entering any cottage, they would glance at the door, +to see if, perchance, there might be a sprig of dill over it. And if +there was not, they were reminded to put away any envious feeling they +might have toward the inmates out of their hearts. + +[Illustration: DAME ELIZABETH STARED WITH ASTONISHMENT.] + +As for the count, he had not been so much alarmed as the others, since +he had been to the wars and was braver. Moreover, he felt that his +dignity as a noble had been insulted. So he at once dismounted and +fastened his horse to the gate, and strode up to the door with his +sword clanking and the plumes on his hat nodding. + +"What," he begun; then he stopped short. He had recognized his +daughter in Dame Clementina. She recognized him at the same moment. +"O, my dear daughter!" said he. "O, my dear father!" said she. + +"And this is my little grandchild?" said the count; and he took Nan +upon his knee, and covered her with caresses. + +Then the story of the dill and the verse was told. "Yes," said the +count, "I truly was envious of you, Clementina, when I saw Nan." + +After a little, he looked at his daughter sorrowfully. "I should +dearly love to take you up to the castle with me, Clementina," said +he, "and let you live there always, and make you and the little child +my heirs. But how can I? You are disinherited, you know." + +"I don't see any way," assented Dame Clementina, sadly. + +Dame Elizabeth was still there, and she spoke up to the count with a +curtesy. + +"Noble sir," said she, "why don't you make another will?" + +"Why, sure enough," cried the count with great delight, "why don't I? +I'll have my lawyer up to the castle to-morrow." + +[Illustration: THE COUNT THINKS HIMSELF INSULTED.] + +He did immediately alter his will, and his daughter was no longer +disinherited. She and Nan went to live at the castle, and were +very rich and happy. Nan learned to play on the harp, and wore +snuff-colored satin gowns. She was called Lady Nan, and she lived a +long time, and everybody loved her. But never, so long as she lived, +did she pin the sprig of dill and the verse over the door again. She +kept them at the very bottom of a little satin-wood box--the faded +sprig of dill wrapped round with the bit of paper on which was written +the charm-verse: + + "Alva, aden, winira mir, + Villawissen lingen; + Sanchta, wanchta, attazir, + Hor de mussen wingen." + +[Illustration: THEY FAIRLY DANCED AND FLOURISHED THEIR HEELS.] + + + + + + +THE SILVER HEN. + + +Dame Dorothea Penny kept a private school. It was quite a small +school, on account of the small size of her house. She had only twelve +scholars and they filled it quite full; indeed one very little boy had +to sit in the brick oven. On this account Dame Penny was obliged to do +all her cooking on a Saturday when school did not keep; on that day +she baked bread, and cakes, and pies enough to last a week. The oven +was a very large one. + +It was on a Saturday that Dame Penny first missed her silver hen. She +owned a wonderful silver hen, whose feathers looked exactly as if they +had been dipped in liquid silver. When she was scratching for worms +out in the yard, and the sun shone on her, she was absolutely +dazzling, and sent little bright reflections into the neighbors' +windows, as if she were really solid silver. + +Dame Penny had a sunny little coop with a padlocked door for her, and +she always locked it very carefully every night. So it was doubly +perplexing when the hen disappeared. Dame Penny remembered distinctly +locking the coop-door; several circumstances had served to fix it on +her mind. She had started out without her overshoes, then had returned +for them because the snow was quite deep and she was liable to +rheumatism. Then Dame Louisa who lived next door had rapped on her +window, and she had run in there for a few moments with the hen-coop +key dangling on its blue ribbon from her wrist, and Dame Louisa had +remarked that she would lose that key if she were not more careful. +Then when she returned home across the yard a doubt had seized her, +and she had tried the coop-door to be sure that she had really +fastened it. + +[Illustration: THE SNOW WAS QUITE DEEP.] + +The next morning when she fitted the key into the padlock and threw +open the door, and no silver hen came clucking out, it was very +mysterious. Dame Louisa came running to the fence which divided her +yard from Dame Penny's, and stood leaning on it with her apron over +her head. + +"Are you sure that hen was in the coop when you locked the door?" said +she. + +"Of course she was in the coop," replied Dame Penny with dignity. "She +has never failed to go in there at sundown for all the twenty-five +years that I've had her." + +Dame Penny carefully searched everywhere about the premises. When the +scholars assembled she called the school to order, and told them of +her terrible loss. All the scholars crooked their arms over their +faces and wept, for they were very fond of Dame Penny, and also of the +silver hen. Every one of them wore one of her silver tail-feathers +in the best bonnet, or hat, as the case might be. The silver hen had +dropped them about the yard, and Dame Penny had presented them from +time to time as rewards for good behavior. + +After Dame Penny had told the school, she tried to proceed with the +usual exercises. But in vain. She whipped one little boy because he +said that four and three made seven, and she stood a little girl in +the corner because she spelled hen with one _n_. + +Finally she dismissed the scholars, and gave them permission to search +for the silver hen. She offered the successful one the most beautiful +Christmas present he had ever seen. It was about three weeks before +Christmas. + +The children all put on their things, and went home and told their +parents what they were going to do; then they started upon the search +for the silver hen. They searched with no success till the day before +Christmas. Then they thought they would ask Dame Louisa, who had the +reputation of being quite a wise woman, if she knew of any more likely +places in which they could hunt. + +The twelve scholars walked two by two up to Dame Louisa's front door, +and knocked. They were very quiet and spoke only in whispers because +they knew Dame Louisa was nervous, and did not like children very +well. Indeed it was a great cross to her that she lived so near the +school, for the scholars when out in their own yard never thought +about her nervousness, and made a deal of noise. Then too she could +hear every time they spelled or said the multiplication-table, or +bounded the countries of Africa, and it was very trying. To-day in +spite of their efforts to be quiet they awoke her from a nap, and she +came to the door, with her front-piece and cap on one side, and her +spectacles over her eyebrows, very much out of humor. + +[Illustration: TWO BY TWO.] + +"I don't know where you'll find the hen," said she peevishly, "unless +you go to the White Woods for it." + +"Thank you, ma'am," said the children with curtesies, and they all +turned and went down the path between the dead Christmas-trees. + +Dame Louisa had no idea that they would go to the White Woods. She had +said it quite at random, although she was so vexed in being disturbed +in her nap that she wished for a moment that they would. She stood in +her front door and looked at her dead Christmas-trees, and that +always made her feel crosser, and she had not at any time a pleasant +disposition. Indeed, it was rumored among the towns-people that that +had blasted her Christmas-trees, that Dame Louisa's scolding, fretting +voice had floated out to them, and smote their delicate twigs like a +bitter frost and made them turn yellow; for the real Christmas-tree is +not very hardy. + +No one else in the village, probably no one else in the county, owned +any such tree, alive or dead. Dame Louisa's husband, who had been +a sea-captain, had brought them from foreign parts. They were mere +little twigs when they planted them on the first day of January, but +they were full-grown and loaded with fruit by the next Christmas-day. +Every Christmas they were cut down and sold, but they always grew +again to their full height, in a year's time. They were not, it is +true, the regulation Christmas-tree. That is they were not loaded with +different and suitable gifts for every one in a family, as they stood +there in Dame Louisa's yard. People always tied on those, after they +had bought them, and had set them up in their own parlors. But these +trees bore regular fruit like apple, or peach, or plum-trees, only +there was a considerable variety in it. These trees when in full +fruitage were festooned with strings of pop-corn, and weighed down +with apples and oranges and figs and bags of candy, and it was really +an amazing sight to see them out there in Dame Louisa's front yard. +But now they were all yellow and dead, and not so much as one pop-corn +whitened the upper branches, neither was there one candle shining +out in the night. For the trees in their prime had borne also little +twinkling lights like wax candles. + +Dame Louisa looked out at her dead Christmas-trees, and scowled. She +could see the children out in the road, and they were trudging along +in the direction of the White Woods. "Let 'em go," she snapped to +herself. "I guess they won't go far. I'll be rid of their noise, any +way." + +She could hear poor Dame Penny's distressed voice out in her yard, +calling "Biddy, Biddy, Biddy;" and she scowled more fiercely than +ever. "I'm glad she's lost her old silver hen," she muttered to +herself. She had always suspected the silver hen of pecking at the +roots of the Christmas-trees and so causing them to blast; then, too, +the silver hen had used to stand on the fence and crow; for, unlike +other hens, she could crow very beautifully, and that had disturbed +her. + +Dame Louisa had a very wise book, which she had consulted to find the +reason for the death of her Christmas-trees, but all she could find in +it was one short item, which did not satisfy her at all. The book was +on the plan of an encyclopedia, and she, having turned to the "ch's," +found: + + "Christmas-trees--very delicate when transplanted, especially + sensitive, and liable to blast at any change in the moral + atmosphere. Remedy: discover and confess the cause." + +After reading this, Dame Louisa was always positive that Dame Penny's +silver hen was at the root of the mischief, for she knew that she +herself had never done anything to hurt the trees. + +Dame Penny was so occupied in calling "Biddy, Biddy, Biddy," and +shaking a little pan of corn, that she never noticed the children +taking the road toward the White Woods. If she had done so she would +have stopped them, for the White Woods was considered a very dangerous +place. It was called white because it was always white even in +midsummer. The trees and bushes, and all the undergrowth, every flower +and blade of grass, were white with snow and frost all the year round, +and all the learned men of the country had studied into the reason +of it, and had come to the conclusion that the Woods lay in a direct +draught from the North Pole and that produced the phenomenon. +Nobody had penetrated very far into the White Woods, although many +expeditions had been organized for that purpose. The cold was so +terrible that it drove them back. + +The children had heard all about the terrors of the White Woods. When +they drew near it they took hold of one another's hands and snuggled +as closely together as possible. + +When they struck into the path at the entrance the intense cold turned +their cheeks and noses blue in a moment, but they kept on, calling +"Biddy, Biddy, Biddy!" in their shrill sweet trebles. Every twig on +the trees was glittering white with hoar-frost, and all the dead +blackberry-vines wore white wreaths, the bushes brushed the ground, +they were so heavy with ice, and the air was full of fine white +sparkles. The children's eyes were dazzled, but they kept on, +stumbling through the icy vines and bushes, and calling "_Biddy, +Biddy, Biddy_!" + +It was quite late in the afternoon when they started, and pretty soon +the sun went down and the moon arose, and that made it seem colder. It +was like traveling through a forest of solid silver then, and every +once in a while a little frozen clump of flowers would shine so that +they would think it was the silver hen and dart forward, to find it +was not. + +About two hours after the moon arose, as they were creeping along, +calling "Biddy, Biddy, Biddy!" more and more faintly, a singular, +hoarse voice replied suddenly. "We don't keep any hens," said the +voice, and all the children jumped and screamed, and looked about for +the owner of it. He loomed up among some bushes at their right. He was +so dazzling white himself, and had such an indistinctness of outline, +that they had taken him for an oak-tree. But it was the real Snow Man. +They knew him in a moment, he looked so much like his effigies that +they used to make in their yards. + +"We don't keep any hens," repeated the Snow Man. "What are you calling +hens for in this forest?" + +The children huddled together as close as they could, and the oldest +boy explained. When he broke down the oldest girl piped up and helped +him. + +"Well," said the Snow Man, "I haven't seen the silver hen. I never did +see any hens in these woods, but she may be around here for all that. +You had better go home with me and spend the night. My wife will be +delighted to see you. We have never had any company in our lives, and +she is always scolding about it." + +The children looked at each other and shook harder than they had done +with cold. + +"I'm--afraid our mothers--wouldn't--like to have us," stammered the +oldest boy. + +"Nonsense," cried the Snow Man. "Here I have been visiting you, time +and time again, and stood whole days out in your front yards, and +you've never been to see me. I think it is about time that I had some +return. Come along." With that the Snow Man seized the right ear of +the oldest boy between a finger and thumb, and danced him along, and +all the rest, trembling, and whimpering under their breaths, followed. + +It was not long before they reached the Snow Man's house, which was +really quite magnificent: a castle built of blocks of ice fitted +together like bricks, and with two splendid snow-lions keeping guard +at the entrance. The Snow Man's wife stood in the door, and the Snow +Children stood behind her and peeped around her skirts; they were +smiling from ear to ear. They had never seen any company before, and +they were so delighted that they did not know what to do. + +[Illustration: THE SNOW MAN'S HOUSE.] + +"We have some company, wife," shouted the Snow Man. + +"Bring them right in," said his wife with a beaming face. She was very +handsome, with beautiful pink cheeks and blue eyes, and she wore a +trailing white robe, like a queen. She kissed the children all around, +and shivers crept down their backs, for it was like being kissed by an +icicle. "Kiss your company, my dears," she said to the Snow Children, +and they came bashfully forward and kissed Dame Penny's scholars with +these same chilly kisses. + +"Now," said the Snow Man's wife, "come right in and sit down where it +is cool--you look very hot." + +"Hot," when the poor scholars were quite stiff with cold! They looked +at one another in dismay, but did not dare say anything. They followed +the Snow Man's wife into her grand parlor. + +"Come right over here by the north window where it is cooler," said +she, "and the children shall bring you some fans." + +The Snow Children floated up with fans--all the Snow Man's family +had a lovely floating gait--and the scholars took them with feeble +curtesies, and began fanning. A stiff north wind blew in at the +windows. The forest was all creaking and snapping with the cold. The +poor children, fanning themselves, on an ice divan, would certainly +have frozen if the Snow Man's wife had not suggested that they all +have a little game of "puss-in-the-corner," to while away the time +before dinner. That warmed them up a little, for they had to run very +fast indeed to play with the Snow Children who seemed to fairly blow +in the north wind from corner to corner. + +But the Snow Man's wife stopped the play a little before dinner was +announced; she said the guests looked so warm that she was alarmed, +and was afraid they might melt. + +[Illustration: PUSS-IN-THE-CORNER.] + +A whistle, that sounded just like the whistle of the north wind in +the chimney, blew for dinner, and Dame Penny's scholars thought with +delight that now they would have something warm. But every dish on the +Snow Man's table was cold and frozen, and the Snow Man's wife kept +urging them to eat this and that, because it was so nice and cooling, +and they looked so warm. + +After dinner they were colder than ever, even. Another game of +"puss-in-the-corner" did not warm them much; they were glad when the +Snow Man's wife suggested that they go to bed, for they had visions +of warm blankets and comfortables. But when they were shown into the +great north chamber, that was more like a hall than a chamber, with +its walls of solid ice, its ice floor and its ice beds, their hearts +sank. Not a blanket nor comfortable was to be seen; there were great +silk bags stuffed with snow flakes instead of feathers on the beds, +and that was all. + +"If you are too warm in the night, and feel as if you were going to +melt," said the Snow Man's wife, "you can open the south window and +that will make a draught--there are none but the north windows open +now." + +The scholars curtesied and bade her good-night, and she kissed them +and hoped they would sleep well. Then she trailed her splendid robe, +which was decorated with real frost embroidery, down the ice stairs +and left her guests to themselves. They were frantic with cold and +terror, and the little ones began to cry. They talked over the +situation and agreed that they had better wait until the house was +quiet and then run away. So they waited until they thought everybody +must be asleep, and then cautiously stole toward the door. It was +locked fast on the outside. The Snow Man's wife had slipped an icicle +through the latch. Then they were in despair. It seemed as if they +must freeze to death before morning. But it occurred to some of the +older ones that they had heard their parents say that snow was really +warm, and people had been kept warm and alive by burrowing under +snow-drifts. And as there were enough snow-flake beds to use for +coverlids also, they crept under them, having first shut the north +windows, and were soon quite comfortable. + +In the meantime there was a great panic in the village; the children's +parents were nearly wild. They came running to Dame Penny, but she was +calling "Biddy, Biddy, Biddy!" out in the moonlight, and knew nothing +about them. Then they called outside Dame Louisa's window, but she +pretended to be asleep, although she was really awake, and in a +terrible panic. + +She did not tell the parents how the children had gone to the White +Woods, because she knew that they could not extricate them from the +difficulty as well as she could herself. She knew all about the Snow +Man and his wife, and how very anxious they were to have company. + +So just as soon as the parents were gone and she heard their voices in +the distance, she dressed herself, harnessed her old white horse into +the great box-sleigh, got out all the tubs and pails that she had in +the house, and went over to Dame Penny, who was still standing out in +her front yard calling the silver hen and the children by turns. + +"Come, Dame Penny," said Dame Louisa, "I want you to go with me to the +White Woods and rescue the children. Bring out all the tubs and pails +you have in the house, and we will pump them full of water." + +[Illustration: TO THE RESCUE.] + +"The pails--full of water--what for?" gasped Dame Penny. + +"To thaw them out," replied Dame Louisa; "they will very likely be +wholly or partly frozen, and I have always heard that cold water was +the only remedy to use." + +Dame Penny said no more. She brought out all her tubs and pails, and +they pumped them and Dame Louisa's full of water, and packed them into +the sleigh--there were twelve of them. Then they climbed into the +seat, slapped the reins over the back of the old white horse, and +started off for the White Woods. + +On the way Dame Louisa wept, and confessed what she had done to Dame +Penny. "I have been a cross, selfish old woman," said she, "and I +think that is the reason why my Christmas-trees were blasted. I don't +believe your silver hen touched them." + +She and Dame Penny called "Biddy, Biddy, Biddy!" and the names of the +children, all the way. Dame Louisa drove straight to the Snow Man's +house. + +"They are more likely to be there than anywhere else, the Snow Man and +his wife are so crazy to have company," said she. + +When they arrived at the house, Dame Louisa left Dame Penny to hold +the horse, and went in. The outer door was not locked and she wandered +quite at her will, through the great ice saloons, and wind-swept +corridors. When she came to the door with the icicle through the +latch, she knew at once that the children were in that room, so she +drew out the icicle and entered. The children were asleep, but she +aroused them, and bade them be very quiet and follow her. They got out +of the house without disturbing any of the family; but, once out, a +new difficulty beset them. The children had been so nearly warm under +their snow-flake beds that they began to freeze the minute the icy air +struck them. + +But Dame Louisa promptly seized them, while Dame Penny held the horse, +and put them into the tubs and pails of water. Then she took hold of +the horse's head, and backed him and turned around carefully, and they +started off at full speed. + +But it was not long before they discovered that they were pursued. +They heard the hoarse voice of the Snow Man behind them calling to +them to stop. + +"What are you taking away my company for?" shouted the Snow Man. +"Stop, stop!" + +The wind was at the back of the Snow Man, and he came with tremendous +velocity. It was evident that he would soon overtake the old white +horse who was stiff and somewhat lame. Dame Louisa whipped him up, but +the Snow Man gained on them. The icy breath of the Snow Man blew over +them. "Oh!" shrieked Dame Penny, "what shall we do, what shall we do?" + +"Be quiet," said Dame Louisa with dignity. She untied her large +poke-bonnet which was made of straw--she was unable to have a velvet +one for winter, now her Christmas-trees were dead--and she hung it on +the whip. Then she drew a match from her pocket, and set fire to the +bonnet. The light fabric blazed up directly, and the Snow Man stopped +short. "If you come any nearer," shrieked Dame Louisa, "I'll put this +right in your face and--melt you!" + +"Give me back my company," shouted the Snow Man in a doubtful voice. + +"You can't have your company," said Dame Louisa, shaking the blazing +bonnet defiantly at him. + +"To think of the days I've spent in their yards, slowly melting and +suffering everything, and my not having one visit back," grumbled the +Snow Man. But he stood still; he never took a step forward after Dame +Louisa had set her bonnet on fire. + +It was lucky Dame Louisa had worn a worsted scarf tied over her +bonnet, and could now use it for a bonnet. + +The cold was intense, and had it not been that Dame Penny and Dame +Louisa both wore their Bay State shawls over their beaver sacques, and +their stone-marten tippets and muffs, and blue worsted stockings +drawn over their shoes, they would certainly have frozen. As for the +children, they would never have reached home alive if it had not been +for the pails and tubs of water. + +"Do you feel as if you were thawing?" Dame Louisa asked the children +after they had left the Snow Man behind. + +"Yes, ma'am," said they. + +Dame Louisa drove as fast as she could, with thankful tears running +down her cheeks. "I've been a wicked, cross old woman," said she again +and again, "and that is what blasted my Christmas-trees." + +It was the dawn of Christmas-day when they came in sight of Dame +Louisa's house. + +"Oh! what is that twinkling out in the yard?" cried the children. + +They could all see little fairy-like lights twinkling out in Dame +Louisa's yard. + +"It looks just as the Christmas-trees used to," said Dame Penny. + +[ILLUSTRATION: "I'LL PUT THIS RIGHT IN YOUR FACE AND--MELT YOU!"] + +"Oh! I can't believe it," cried Dame Louisa, her heart beating wildly. + +But when they came opposite the yard, they saw that it was true. Dame +Louisa's Christmas-trees stood there all twinkling with lights, and +covered with trailing garlands of pop-corn, oranges, apples, +and candy-bags; their yellow branches had turned green and the +Christmas-trees were in full glory. + +"Oh! what is that shining so out in Dame Penny's yard?" cried the +children, who were entirely thawed, and only needed to get home to +their parents and have some warm breakfast, and Christmas-presents, to +be quite themselves. "Biddy, Biddy, Biddy!" cried Dame Penny, and Dame +Louisa and the children chimed in, calling, "Biddy, Biddy, Biddy!" + +It was indeed the silver hen, and following her were twelve little +silver chickens. She had stolen a nest in Dame Louisa's barn and +nobody had known it until she appeared on Christmas morning with her +brood of silver chickens. + +"Every scholar shall have one of the silver chickens for a Christmas +present," said Dame Penny. + +"And each shall have one of my Christmas-trees," said Dame Louisa. + +Then all the scholars cried out with delight, the Christmas-bells in +the village began to ring, the silver hen flew up on the fence and +crowed, the sun shone broadly out, and it was a merry Christmas-day. + + + + + + +TOBY. + + +Aunt Malvina was sitting at the window watching for a horse-car which +she wanted to take. Uncle Jack was near the register in a comfortable +easy chair, his feet on an embroidered foot-rest, and Letitia, just as +close to him as she could get her little rocking-chair, was sewing her +square of patchwork "over and over." Letitia had to sew a square of +patchwork "over and over" every day. + +Aunt Malvina, who was not uncle Jack's wife, as one might suspect, but +his elder sister, was a very small, frisky little lady, with a thin, +rosy face, and a little bobbing bunch of gray curls on each side +of it. She talked very fast, and she talked all the time, so she +accomplished a vast deal of talking in the course of a day, and the +people she happened to be with did a vast deal of listening. + +She was talking now, and uncle Jack was listening, with his head +leaning comfortably against a pretty tidy all over daisies in +Kensington work, and so was Letitia, taking cautious little stitches +in her patchwork. + +"Mrs. Welcome," aunt Malvina had just remarked, "has got a little +colored boy as black as Toby to wait on table." + +Letitia opened her sober, light gray eyes very wide, and stared +reflectively at aunt Malvina. + +"It was dark as Pokonoket when we came out of church last night," said +aunt Malvina after a time, in the course of conversation. + +Letitia stared reflectively at her again. + +"There's my car coming around the corner!" cried aunt Malvina, and ran +friskily out of the room. Just outside the door she turned and thrust +her face, with the little gray curls dancing around it, in again for a +last word. "O, Jack!" cried she, "I hear that Edward Simonds' eldest +son is as crazy as a loon!" + +"Is?" + +"Yes; isn't it dreadful? Good-by!" Aunt Malvina frisked airily +downstairs, and out on the street, barely in time to secure her car. + +When Letitia heard the front door close after her, she quilted her +needle carefully into her square, then she folded the patchwork up +neatly, rose, and laid it together with her thimble, scissors, and +cotton, in her little rocking-chair. Then she went and stood still +before uncle Jack, with her arms folded. It was a way she had when she +wanted information. People rather smiled to see Letitia sometimes, but +uncle Jack had always encouraged her in it; he said it was quaint. +Letitia's face was very sober, and very innocent, and very round, and +her hair was very long and light, and hung in two smooth braids, with +a neat blue bow on the end of each, down her back. + +[Illustration: LETITIA STOOD BEFORE UNCLE JACK.] + +Uncle Jack gazed inquiringly at her through his half-closed eyes. +"What is it, Letitia?" + +"Aunt Malvina said 'as black as Toby,'" said Letitia with a look half +of inquiry, half of anxious abstraction. What Letitia could find out +herself she never asked other people. + +"Yes; I know she did," replied uncle Jack. + +"Then she said, 'Dark as Pokonoket.'" + +"Yes; she said that too." + +"And then she said, 'Crazy as a loon.'" + +"Yes; she did." + +"Uncle Jack, what is Toby, and what is Pokonoket, and what is a loon?" + +"Toby," said uncle Jack slowly and impressively, "lives in Pokonoket, +and keeps a loon." + +"Oh!" said Letitia, in a tone which implied that she was both relieved +and amazed at her own stupidity. + +"Yes; perhaps you would like to hear something more particular about +Toby--how he got married, for instance?" + +"I should, very much indeed," replied Letitia gravely and promptly. + +"Well, you had better sit down; it will take a few minutes to tell +it." + +Letitia carefully took her patchwork, her thimble, her spool of +cotton, and her scissors out of her little rocking-chair and laid them +on the table; then she sat down, and crossed her hands in her lap. + +"Now, if you are ready," said uncle Jack, laughing a little to himself +as he looked down at her. Then he related as follows: "Toby is a +little black fellow, not much taller than you are, and he lives in +Pokonoket, and keeps a loon. Toby's hair is very short and kinky, and +his mouth is wide, and always curves up a little at the corners, as +if he were laughing; his eyes are astonishingly bright; but all the +people's eyes are bright in Pokonoket. + +"Pokonoket is a very dark country. It always was dark. The most +ancient historians make no mention of its ever being light in +Pokonoket. + +"The cause of the darkness has never been exactly understood. +Philosophers and men of science have worked very hard over it, but all +the conclusion they have been able to arrive at is, it must be due to +fog, or smoke, or atmospheric phenomena. The most celebrated of them +are in favor of atmospheric phenomena, and they are probably correct. + +"The houses are always furnished with lamps, of course, and everybody +carries a lantern. No one dreams of stirring out in Pokonoket without +a lantern. The men go to their work with lanterns, the ladies take +theirs when they go out shopping, and all the children have their +little lanterns to carry to school. + +[Illustration: SCHOOL CHILDREN IN POKONOKET.] + +"On account of the darkness, there are some very curious customs in +Pokonoket. One is, all the inhabitants are required by law to wear +squeaky shoes. Whenever anybody's shoes don't squeak according to the +prescribed standard he is fined, and sometimes even imprisoned, if he +persists in his offense. A great many sad accidents are prevented by +this custom. People hear each other's shoes squeaking in the darkness +at quite a distance, and don't run into each other. Pokonoket +shoemakers make a specialty of squeaky shoes, and the squeakier they +are, the higher prices they bring; they can even put in new squeaks +when the old ones are worn out. It is a very common thing to see a +Pokonoket man with his little boy's shoes under his arm, carrying them +to a shoemaker to get them re-squeaked. + +"Another funny custom is the wearing of phosphorescent buttons. +Everybody, men, women and children, are required to wear +phosphorescent buttons on their outside garments. They are quite +large--about the size of an old-fashioned cent--and there are, +generally, two rows of them down the front of a garment. It is rather +a frightful sight to see a person with phosphorescent buttons on his +coat advancing toward one in the dark, till you are accustomed to it; +he looks as if he had two rows of enormous eyes. + +"Then, when the weather is stormy, everybody has to carry an umbrella +with his name on it in phosphorescent letters. In this way, nobody's +eyes are put out, and no umbrellas are lost. Otherwise, umbrellas +would get so hopelessly mixed up in a dark country like Pokonoket that +it would require a special sitting of Parliament to sort them out +again. + +"It may seem rather odd that they should, but the inhabitants of +Pokonoket are, as a general thing, very much attached to their +country, and could not be hired to leave it for any other. It is a +very peaceful place. There are no jails, and no criminals are executed +in its bounds. If occasionally a person commits a crime that would +merit such extreme punishment, he puts out his lantern, and rips off +his phosphorescent buttons, and nobody can find him to punish. + +"But commonly, folks in Pokonoket do not commit great crimes, and are +a very peaceful, industrious and happy people. + +"They have never had any wars amongst themselves, and their country +has never been invaded by a foreign foe; all that they ever have had +to seriously threaten their peace and safety was the Ogress. + +"A terrible ogress once lived in Pokonoket, and devoured everybody she +could catch. Nobody knew when his life was safe, and the worst of it +was, they did not know where she lived, or they would have gone in +a body and disposed of her. She had a habitation somewhere in the +darkness, but nobody knew where--it might be right in their midst. +There are a great many inconveniences about a dark country. + +[Illustration: POKONOKET IN STORMY WEATHER.] + +"Well, Toby who kept the loon, lived in a little hut on one of +the principal streets. He was a widower, and lived with his six +grandchildren who were all quite small and went to school. They were +his daughter's children. She had died a few years before of a disease +quite common in Pokonoket, and almost always fatal. It had a long name +which the doctors had given it, which really meant, 'wanting light.' + +"Toby was rather feeble and rheumatic, and it was about all he could +do to knit stockings for his grandchildren, and make soup for their +dinner. Almost all day, except when he was stirring the soup, which +he made in a great kettle set into a brick oven, he was sitting on a +little stool in his doorway, knitting, and the loon sat on a perch at +his right hand. The loon who was a very large bird, was crazy, and +thought he was a bobolink. _Link, link, bobolink!_' he sang all day +long, instead of crying in the way a loon usually does. His voice was +not anywhere near the right pitch for a bobolink's song, but that made +no difference. _Link, link, bobolink!_ he kept on singing from morning +till night. + +"Toby did not mind knitting, but he did not like to make the soup. It +had never seemed to him to be a man's work, and besides, it hurt his +old, rheumatic back to bend over the soup-kettle. That was what put +it into his head to get married again. He thought if he could find a +pleasant, tidy woman, who would stir the soup while he sat in the +door beside the loon, and knit the stockings, he could live much more +comfortably than he did. + +"Now Toby thought he knew of just the one he wanted. She was a widow +who lived a few squares from him. She was as sweet-tempered as a dove, +and nobody could find a speck of dirt in her house if he was to search +all day with a lantern. + +[Illustration: TOBY AND THE CRAZY LOON.] + +"Toby thought about it for a long time. He did not wish to take any +rash step, but his back got lamer and stiffer, and when one day the +soup burned on to the kettle, and he dropped some stitches in his +stocking running to lift it off, he made up his mind. + +"The very next morning after his six grandchildren had gone to school, +he put on his coat with phosphorescent buttons, lit his lantern, and +started out. _Link, link, bobolink_! cried the crazy loon as he went +out the door. + +"'Yes; I am going to bring home a pleasant and neat mistress for you, +and maybe you will recover your reason,' said Toby. + +"_Link, link, bobolink_! cried the crazy loon. + +"Toby limped away through the darkness. The wind was blowing hard that +morning, and as he turned the corner, puff! came a gust and blew out +his lantern. + +"He felt in every pocket, but he had not a match in one of them. He +hesitated whether to go back for one or not. Finally, he thought he +knew the way pretty well and would risk it. His back was worse than +ever that morning, and he did not want to take any unnecessary steps. +So he fumbled along until he came to the street where the widow's home +was; there were five more just like hers, and they stood in a row +together. + +"Much to Toby's dismay, there was not a light in either. + +"'Well,' he reflected, 'she is prudent, and is saving her oil, I dare +say, and I can inquire.' + +"So he felt his way along to the first house in the row--he could just +see them looming up in the darkness. He poked his head inside the +door. 'Mrs. Clover-leaf!' cried he, 'are you in there? My lantern has +gone out, and I cannot tell which is your house.' + +"There came a little grunt in reply. + +"'Mrs. Clover-leaf!' cried Toby again. + +"'I am here; what do you want?' answered a voice in the darkness. + +"It was so sharp that Toby felt for a moment as if his ears were being +sawed off, and he clapped his hands on them involuntarily. 'Bless me! +I had forgotten that Mrs. Clover-leaf had such a voice,' thought he. + +"'What do you want?' said the voice again. + +"It did not sound quite so sharp this time. He had become a little +used to it, and, after all, a sharp voice would not prevent her being +neat and pleasant and stirring the soup carefully. + +"So he said, as sweetly and coaxingly as he was able, 'I have come to +see if you would like to marry me, Mrs. Clover-leaf.' + +"'I don't know,' said the sharp voice, 'I had not thought of changing +my condition.' + +"'All you would have to do,' said Toby pleadingly, 'would be to stir +the soup for my grandchildren's dinner, while I knit the stockings.' + +"There came a sound like the smacking of lips out of the darkness +within the house. 'Oh! you have grandchildren; I forgot,' said the +voice; 'how many?' + +"'Six,' replied Toby. + +"'I shall be pleased to marry you,' cried the voice; and Toby heard +the squeaking of shoes, as if the widow were coming. + +"'When shall we be married?' said the sharp voice right in Toby's ear. + +"He jumped so that he could not answer for a minute. 'Well,' said he +finally--'I don't want to hurry you, Mrs. Clover-leaf, but the soup is +to be made for dinner, and if I don't finish the pair of stockings I +am on to-day, my eldest grandchild will have to go barefoot. A pair of +stockings only lasts one a week.' And Toby sighed so pitifully that it +ought to have touched any widow's heart. + +"The widow laughed. Toby felt rather hurt that she should. He did not +know of any joke. It was a curious kind of a laugh, too; as bad in its +way as her voice. But what she said the next minute set matters right. + +"'Let us go and get married, then,' said she, 'and I will go right +home and make the soup, and you can finish the stocking.' + +"Toby was delighted. 'Thank you, my dear Mrs. Clover-leaf!' he cried, +and offered her his arm gallantly, and they set off together to the +minister's. + +"The widow took such enormous strides that Toby had to run to keep up +with her. She was much taller than he, and her bonnet was very large, +and almost hid her face. Toby could hardly have seen her, if he had +had his lantern; still he could not help wishing that one of them had +one, but the widow said her oil was out, so there was no help for it. + +"Once or twice when she turned her head toward him, Toby thought her +eyes looked about twice as large and bright as phosphorescent buttons, +and he felt a little startled, but he told himself that it was only +his imagination, of course. + +"When they reached the minister's, there was no light in his house, +either, and it occurred to Toby that it was Fast Day. Once a week, +Pokonoket ministers sit in total darkness all day, and eat nothing. + +"When Toby called, the minister poked his head out of the study +window, and asked what he wanted. + +"Toby told him, and he and the widow stood in front of the study +window, and were married in the dark, and Toby gave a phosphorescent +button for the fee. + +"The widow took longer steps than ever on the way home, and Toby ran +till he was all out of breath; she fairly lifted him off his feet +sometimes, and carried him along on her arm. + +"_Link, link, bobolink_! sang the crazy loon when Toby and his bride +entered the house. + +"'Now let's have a light,' cried Toby's wife, and her voice was +sharper than ever. It frightened the crazy loon so that he left the +link off the end of his song, and merely said bobo-- + +"'Yes,' answered Toby, bustling about cheerfully after the matches, +'and then you will make the soup.' + +[Illustration: TOBY RAN TILL HE WAS OUT OF BREATH.] + +"'I will make the soup,' laughed his wife. + +"Toby felt frightened, he hardly knew why, but he found the matches, +and lit the lamp. Then he turned to look at his new wife, and saw--the +Ogress! He had married the Ogress! Horrors! + +"Toby sank down on his knees and shook with fear, his little kinky +curls bristling up all over his head. + +"'Pshaw!' said the Ogress contemptuously. 'You needn't shake! Do +you suppose I would eat such a little tough, bony fellow as you for +supper? No! When do your grandchildren come home from school?' + +"'Oh,' groaned Toby, 'take me, dear Mrs. Ogress, and spare my +grandchildren!' + +"'I should smile,' said the Ogress. That was all the reply she made. +She talked popular slang along with her other bad habits. + +"Toby wept, and groaned, and pleaded, but he could not get another +word out of her. She filled the great soup-kettle with water, set it +over the fire (Toby shuddered to see her), then she sat down to wait +for the grandchildren to come home from school. She was uncommonly +homely, even for an ogress, and she wore a brown calico dress that was +very unbecoming. + +"Poor Toby gazed at her in fear and disgust. He looked out of the +door, expecting every moment to see his grandchildren coming, one +behind the other, swinging their little lanterns. School children +always walked one behind the other in Pokonoket. It was against the +law to walk two abreast. + +"Finally, when the Ogress was leaning over the soup-kettle, putting +her fingers in, to see if it was hot enough, Toby slipped out of the +door, and ran straight to the minister's. + +"He stood outside the study window and groaned. + +"'What is the trouble?' asked the minister, poking his head out. + +"'Oh,' cried Toby, 'you married me to the--Ogress!' + +"'You don't say so!' cried the minister. + +"'Yes, I do! What shall I do? She is waiting for my grandchildren, and +the soup-kettle is on!' + +"'Wait a minute,' said the minister. 'In a matter of life and death, +it is permitted to light a lamp on a Fast Day. This is a matter of +life and death; so I will light a lamp and look in my Encyclopædia of +Useful Knowledge.' + +"So the minister lit his lamp, and took his Encyclopædia of Useful +Knowledge from the study shelf. + +"He turned over the leaves till he came to Ogre; then he found Ogress, +and read all there was under that head. + +"'H'm!' he said; 'h'm, h'm! An Ogress is an inconceivably hideous +creature, yet, like all females, she is inordinately vain, and is +extremely susceptible to any insinuations against her personal +appearance! H'm!' said the minister; 'h'm, h'm! I know what I will +do.' + +"Now it was one of the laws in Pokonoket that nobody should have +a looking-glass but the minister. Once a year the ladies of his +congregation were allowed to look at themselves in it; that was all. I +do not know the reason for this law, but it existed. + +"The minister took his looking-glass under his arm, and came out of +his house. 'Now, Toby,' said he, 'take me home with you.' + +"'But I am afraid she will eat you, sir,' said Toby doubtfully. 'You +are not as thin as I am.' + +"'I am not in the least afraid,' replied the minister cheerfully. + +"So Toby took heart a little, and hastened home with the minister. + +"_Link, link, bobolink_! cried the crazy loon as they went in the +door. + +"The minister walked straight up to the Ogress, who was standing +beside the soup-kettle, and held the looking-glass before her. + +"When she saw her face in all its hideous ugliness, the shock was so +great, for she had always thought herself very handsome, that she gave +one shriek and fell down quite dead." + + * * * * * + +Letitia gave a sigh of relief, and uncle Jack yawned. "Well, Letitia, +that's all," said he, "only Toby married the real widow, Mrs. +Clover-leaf, the next day, and she made the soup to perfection, and he +had nothing to do all the rest of his life, but to sit in the doorway +beside the crazy loon, and knit stockings for his grandchildren." + +"Thank you, uncle Jack," said Letitia gravely. Then she got her square +of patchwork off the table and sat down and finished sewing it over +and over. + + + + + + +THE PATCHWORK SCHOOL. + + +Once upon a time there was a city which possessed a very celebrated +institution for the reformation of unruly children. It was, strictly +speaking, a Reform School, but of a very peculiar kind. + +It had been established years before by a benevolent lady, who had a +great deal of money, and wished to do good with it. After thinking a +long time, she had hit upon this plan of founding a school for the +improvement of children who tried their parents and all their friends +by their ill behavior. More especially was it designed for ungrateful +and discontented children; indeed it was mainly composed of this last +class. + +There was a special set of police in the city, whose whole duty was to +keep a sharp lookout for ill-natured fretting children, who complained +of their parents' treatment, and thought other boys and girls were +much better off than they, and to march them away to the school. These +police all wore white top boots, tall peaked hats, and carried sticks +with blue ribbon bows on them, and were very readily distinguished. +Many a little boy on his way to school has dodged round a corner to +avoid one, because he had just been telling his mother that another +little boy's mother gave him twice as much pie for dinner as he had. +He wouldn't breathe easy till he had left the white top boots out of +sight; and he would tremble all day at every knock on the door. + +There was not a child in the city but had a great horror of this +school, though it may seem rather strange that they should; for the +punishment, at first thought, did not seem so very terrible. Ever +since it was established, the school had been in charge of a very +singular little old woman. Nobody had ever known where she came from. +The benevolent lady who founded the institution, had brought her to +the door one morning in her coach, and the neighbors had seen the +little brown, wizened creature, with a most extraordinary gown on, +alight and enter. This was all any one had ever known about her. In +fact, the benevolent lady had come upon her in the course of her +travels in a little German town, sitting in a garret window, behind a +little box-garden of violets, sewing patchwork. After that, she became +acquainted with her, and finally hired her to superintend her school. +You see, the benevolent lady had a very tender heart, and though she +wanted to reform the naughty children of her native city, and have +them grow up to be good men and women, she did not want them to be +shaken, nor have their ears cuffed; so the ideas advanced by the +strange little old woman just suited her. + +"Set 'em to sewing patchwork," said this little old woman, sewing +patchwork vigorously herself as she spoke. She was dressed in a +gown of bright-colored patchwork, with a patchwork shawl over her +shoulders. Her cap was made of tiny squares of patchwork, too. "If +they are sewing patchwork," went on the little old woman, "they can't +be in mischief. Just make 'em sit in little chairs and sew patchwork, +boys and girls alike. Make 'em sit and sew patchwork, when the bees +are flying over the clover, out in the bright sunlight, and the great +bluewinged butterflies stop with the roses just outside the windows, +and the robins are singing in the cherry-trees, and they'll turn over +a new leaf, you'll see!" sewing away with a will. + +[Illustration: THE PATCHWORK WOMAN.] + +So the school was founded, the strange little old woman placed over +it, and it really worked admirably. It was the pride of the city. +Strangers who visited it were always taken to visit the Patchwork +School, for that was the name it went by. There sat the children, in +their little chairs, sewing patchwork. They were dressed in little +patchwork uniforms; the girls wore blue and white patchwork frocks +and pink and white patchwork pinafores, and the boys blue and white +patchwork trousers, with pinafores like the girls. Their cheeks were +round and rosy, for they had plenty to eat--bread and milk three times +a day--but they looked sad, and tears were standing in the corners +of a good many eyes. How could they help it? It did seem as if the +loveliest roses in the whole country were blossoming in the garden of +the Patchwork School, and there were swarms of humming-birds flying +over them, and great red and blue-winged butterflies. And there were +tall cherry-trees a little way from the window, and they used to be +perfectly crimson with fruit; and the way the robins would sing in +them! Later in the season there were apple and peach-trees, too, the +apples and great rosy peaches fairly dragging the branches to the +ground, and all in sight from the window of the schoolroom. + +No wonder the poor little culprits cooped up indoors sewing red and +blue and green pieces of calico together, looked sad. Every day bales +of calico were left at the door of the Patchwork School, and it all +had to be cut up in little bits and sewed together again. When the +children heard the heavy tread of the porters bringing in the bales +of new calico, the tears would leave the corners of their eyes +and trickle down their poor little cheeks, at the prospect of the +additional work they would have to do. All the patchwork had to be +sewed over and over, and every crooked or too long stitch had to be +picked out; for the Patchwork Woman was very particular. They had to +make all their own clothes of patchwork, and after those were done, +patchwork bed quilts, which were given to the city poor; so the +benevolent lady killed two birds with one stone, as you might say. + +[Illustration: THE PATCHWORK GIRL.] + +Of course, children staid in the Patchwork School different lengths of +time, according to their different offenses. But there were very few +children in the city who had not sat in a little chair and sewed +patchwork, at one time or another, for a greater or less period. +Sooner or later, the best children were sure to think they were +ill-treated by their parents, and had to go to bed earlier than they +ought, or did not have as much candy as other children; and the police +would hear them grumbling, and drag them off to the Patchwork School. +The Mayor's son, especially, who might be supposed to fare as well +as any little boy in the city, had been in the school any number of +times. + +There was one little boy in the city, however, whom the white-booted +police had not yet found any occasion to arrest, though one might have +thought he had more reason than a good many others to complain of his +lot in life. In the first place, he had a girl's name, and any one +knows that would be a great cross to a boy. His name was Julia; his +parents had called him so on account of his having a maiden aunt who +had promised to leave her money to him if he was named for her. + +So there was no help for it, but it was a great trial to him, for +the other boys plagued him unmercifully, and called him "missy," and +"sissy," and said "she" instead of "he" when they were speaking of +him. Still he never complained to his parents, and told them he wished +they had called him some other name. His parents were very poor, +hard-working people, and Julia had much coarser clothes than the other +boys, and plainer food, but he was always cheerful about it, and never +seemed to think it at all hard that he could not have a velvet coat +like the Mayor's son, or carry cakes for lunch to school like the +lawyer's little boy. + +But perhaps the greatest cross which Julia had to bear, and the +one from which he stood in the greatest danger of getting into the +Patchwork School, was his Grandmothers. I don't mean to say that +grandmothers are to be considered usually as crosses. A dear old lady +seated with her knitting beside the fire, is a pleasant person to +have in the house. But Julia had four, and he had to hunt for their +spectacles, and pick up their balls of yarn so much that he got very +little time to play. It was an unusual thing, but the families on both +sides were very long-lived, and there actually were four grandmothers; +two great ones, and two common ones; two on each side of the +fireplace, with their knitting work, in Julia's home. They were +nice old ladies, and Julia loved them dearly, but they lost their +spectacles all the time, and were always dropping their balls of yarn, +and it did make a deal of work for one boy to do. He could have hunted +up spectacles for one Grandmother, but when it came to four, and one +was always losing hers while he was finding another's, and one ball of +yarn would drop and roll off, while he was picking up another--well, +it was really bewildering at times. Then he had to hold the skeins of +yarn for them to wind, and his arms used to ache, and he could hear +the boys shouting at a game of ball outdoors, maybe. But he never +refused to do anything his Grandmothers asked him to, and did it +pleasantly, too; and it was not on that account he got into the +Patchwork School. + +[Illustration: JULIA WAS ARRESTED ON CHRISTMAS DAY.] + +It was on Christmas day that Julia was arrested and led away to the +Patchwork School. It happened in this way: As I said before, Julia's +parents were poor, and it was all they could do to procure the bare +comforts of life for their family; there was very little to spend for +knickknacks. But I don't think Julia would have complained at that; he +would have liked useful articles just as well for Christmas presents, +and would not have been unhappy because he did not find some useless +toy in his stocking, instead of some article of clothing, which he +needed to make him comfortable. But he had had the same things over +and over, over and over, Christmas after Christmas. Every year each of +his Grandmothers knit him two pairs of blue woollen yarn stockings, +and hung them for him on Christmas Eve, for a Christmas present. There +they would hang--eight pairs of stockings with nothing in them, in a +row on the mantel shelf, every Christmas morning. + +Every year Julia thought about it for weeks before Christmas, and +hoped and hoped he would have something different this time, but there +they always hung, and he had to go and kiss his Grandmothers, and +pretend he liked the stockings the best of anything he could have had; +for he would not have hurt their feelings for the world. + +His parents might have bettered matters a little, but they did not +wish to cross the old ladies either, and they had to buy so much yarn +they could not afford to get anything else. + +The worst of it was, the stockings were knit so well, and of such +stout material, that they never wore out, so Julia never really +needed the new ones; if he had, that might have reconciled him to the +sameness of his Christmas presents, for he was a very sensible boy. +But his bureau drawers were full of the blue stockings rolled up in +neat little hard balls--all the balls he ever had; the tears used to +spring up in his eyes every time he looked at them. But he never said +a word till the Christmas when he was twelve years old. Somehow that +time he was unusually cast down at the sight of the eight pairs of +stockings hanging in a row under the mantel shelf; but he kissed and +thanked his Grandmothers just as he always had. + +When he was out on the street a little later, however, he sat down in +a doorway and cried. He could not help it. Some of the other boys had +such lovely presents, and he had nothing but these same blue woollen +stockings. + +"What's the matter, little boy?" asked a voice. + +Without looking up, Julia sobbed out his troubles; but what was his +horror when he felt himself seized by the arm and lifted up, and +found that he was in the grasp of a policeman in white top boots. The +policeman did not mind Julia's tears and entreaties in the least, but +led him away to the Patchwork School, waving his stick with its blue +ribbon bow as majestically as a drum major. + +So Julia had to sit down in a little chair, and sew patchwork with the +rest. He did not mind the close work as much as some of the others, +for he was used to being kept indoors, attending to his Grandmothers' +wants; but he disliked to sew. His term of punishment was a long one. +The Patchwork Woman, who fixed it, thought it looked very badly for a +little boy to be complaining because his kind grandparents had given +him some warm stockings instead of foolish toys. + +The first thing the children had to do when they entered the school, +was to make their patchwork clothes, as I have said. Julia had got his +finished and was busily sewing on a red and green patchwork quilt, +in a tea-chest pattern, when, one day, the Mayor came to visit the +school. Just then his son did not happen to be serving a term there; +the Mayor never visited it with visitors of distinction when he was. + +To-day he had a Chinese Ambassador with him. The Patchwork Woman sat +behind her desk on the platform and sewed patchwork, the Mayor in his +fine broadcloth sat one side of her, and the Chinese Ambassador, in +his yellow satin gown, on the other. + +The Ambassador's name was To-Chum. The children could not help +stealing glances occasionally at his high eyebrows and braided queue, +but they cast their eyes on their sewing again directly. + +The Mayor and the Ambassador staid about an hour; then after they had +both made some remarks--the Ambassador made his in Chinese; he could +speak English, but his remarks in Chinese were wiser--they rose to go. + +Now, the door of the Patchwork School was of a very peculiar +structure. It was made of iron of a great thickness, and opened like +any safe door, only it had more magic about it than any safe door ever +had. At a certain hour in the afternoon, it shut of its own accord, +and opened at a certain hour in the morning, when the Patchwork Woman +repeated a formula before it. The formula did no good whatever at any +other time; the door was so constructed that not even its inventor +could open it after it shut at the certain hour of the afternoon, +before the certain hour the next morning. + +Now the Mayor and the Chinese Ambassador had staid rather longer than +they should have. They had been so interested in the school that they +had not noticed how the time was going, and the Patchwork Woman had +been so taken up with a very intricate new pattern that she failed to +remind them, as was her custom. + +So it happened that while the Mayor got through the iron door safely, +just as the Chinese Ambassador was following it suddenly swung to, and +shut in his braided queue at a very high point. + +[Illustration: JULIA ENTERTAINS THE AMBASSADOR THROUGH THE KEYHOLE.] + +Then there was the Ambassador on one side of the door, and his queue +on the other, and the door could not possibly be opened before +morning. Here was a terrible dilemma! What was to be done? There stood +the children, their patchwork in their hands, staring, open-mouthed, +at the queue dangling through the door, and the Patchwork Woman pale +with dismay, in their midst, on one side of the door, and on the other +side was the terror-stricken Mayor, and the poor Chinese Ambassador. + +"Can't anything be done?" shouted the Mayor through the keyhole--there +was a very large keyhole. + +"No," the Patchwork Woman said. "The door won't open till six o'clock +to-morrow morning." + +"Oh, try!" groaned the Mayor. "Say the formula." + +She said the formula, to satisfy them, but the door staid firmly shut. +Evidently the Chinese Ambassador would have to stay where he was until +morning, unless he had the Mayor snip his queue off, which was not to +be thought of. + +So the Mayor, who was something of a philosopher, set about +accommodating himself, or rather his friend, to the situation. + +"It is inevitable," said he to the Ambassador. "I am very sorry, but +everybody has to conform to the customs of the institutions of the +countries which they visit. I will go and get you some dinner, and an +extra coat. I will keep you company through the night, and morning +will come before you know it." + +"Well," sighed the Chinese Ambassador, standing on tiptoe so his queue +should not pull so hard. He was a patient man, but after he had eaten +his dinner the time seemed terrible long. + +"Why don't you talk?" said he to the Mayor, who was dozing beside him +in an easy-chair. "Can't you tell me a story?" + +"I never did such a thing in my life," replied the Mayor, rousing +himself; "but I am very sorry for you, dear sir; perhaps the Patchwork +Woman can." + +So he asked the Patchwork Woman through the keyhole. + +"I never told a story in my life," said she; "but there's a boy here +that I heard telling a beautiful one the other day. Here, Julia," +called she, "come and tell a story to the Chinese Ambassador." + +Julia really knew a great many stories which his Grandmothers had +taught him, and he sat on a little stool and told them through the +keyhole all night to the Chinese Ambassador. + +He and the Mayor were so interested that morning came and the door +swung open before they knew it. The poor Ambassador drew a long +breath, and put his hand around to his queue to see if it was safe. +Then he wanted to thank and reward the boy who had made the long night +hours pass so pleasantly. + +"What is he in here for?" asked the Mayor, patting Julia, who could +hardly keep his eyes open. + +[Illustration: THE GRANDMOTHERS ENJOY THE CHINESE TOYS.] + +"He grumbled about his Christmas presents," replied the Patchwork +Woman. + +"What did you have?" inquired the Mayor. + +"Eight pairs of blue yarn stockings," answered Julia, rubbing his +eyes. + +"And the year before?" + +"Eight pairs of blue yarn stockings." + +"And the year before that?" + +"Eight pairs of blue yarn stockings." + +"Didn't you ever have anything for Christmas presents but blue yarn +stockings?" asked the astonished Mayor. + +"No, sir," said Julia meekly. + +Then the whole story came out. Julia, by dint of questioning, told +some, and the other children told the rest; and finally, in the +afternoon, orders came to dress him in his own clothes, and send him +home. But when he got there, the Mayor and Chinese Ambassador had +been there before him, and there hung the eight pairs of blue yarn +stockings under the mantel-shelf, crammed full of the most beautiful +things--knives, balls, candy--everything he had ever wanted, and the +mantel-shelf piled high also. + +A great many of the presents were of Chinese manufacture; for the +Ambassador considered them, of course, superior, and he wished to +express his gratitude to Julia as forcibly as he could. There was one +stocking entirely filled with curious Chinese tops. A little round +head, so much like the Ambassador's that it actually startled Julia, +peeped out of the stocking. But it was only a top in the shape of +a little man in a yellow silk gown, who could spin around very +successfully on one foot, for an astonishing length of time. There was +a Chinese lady-top too, who fanned herself coquettishly as she spun; +and a mandarin who nodded wisely. The tops were enough to turn a boy's +head. + +There were equally curious things in the other stockings. Some of them +Julia had no use for, such as silk for dresses, China crape shawls and +fans, but they were just the things for his Grandmothers, who, after +this, sat beside the fireplace, very prim and fine, in stiff silk +gowns, with China crape shawls over their shoulders, and Chinese fans +in their hands, and queer shoes on their feet. Julia liked their +presents just as well as he did his own, and probably the Ambassador +knew that he would. + +The Mayor had filled one stocking himself with bonbons, and Julia +picked out all the peppermints amongst them for his Grandmothers. They +were very fond of peppermints. Then he went to work to find their +spectacles, which had been lost ever since he had been away. + + + + + + +THE SQUIRE'S SIXPENCE. + + +Patience Mather was saying the seven-multiplication table, when she +heard a heavy step in the entry. + +"That is Squire Bean," whispered her friend, Martha Joy, who stood at +her elbow. + +Patience stopped short in horror. Her especial bugbear in mathematics +was eight-times-seven; she was coming toward it fast--could she +remember it, with old Squire Bean looking at her? + +"Go on," said the teacher severely. She was quite young, and also +stood in some awe of Squire Bean, but she did not wish her pupils to +discover it, so she pretended to ignore that step in the entry. Squire +Bean walked with a heavy gilt-headed cane which always went clump, +clump, at every step; beside he shuffled--one could always tell who +was coming. + +"Seven times seven," begun Patience trembling--then the door +opened--there stood Squire Bean. + +The teacher rose promptly. She tried to be very easy and natural, but +her pretty round cheeks turned red and white by turns. + +"Good-morning, Squire Bean," said she. Then she placed a chair on the +platform for him. + +"_Good_-morning," said he, and seated himself in a lumbering way--he +was rather stiff with rheumatism. He was a large old man in a green +camlet cloak with brass buttons. + +"You may go on with the exercises," said he to the teacher, after he +had adjusted himself and wiped his face solemnly with a great red +handkerchief. + +"Go on, Patience," said the teacher. + +So Patience piped up in her little weak soprano: "Seven times seven +are forty-nine. Eight times seven are"--She stopped short. Then she +begun over again--"Eight times seven"-- + +The class with toes on the crack all swayed forward to look at +her, the pupils at the foot stepped off till they swung it into a +half-circle. Hands came up and gyrated wildly. + +"Back on the line!" said the teacher sternly. Then they stepped back, +but the hands indicative of superior knowledge still waved, the coarse +jacket-sleeves and the gingham apron-sleeves slipping back from the +thin childish wrists. + +"Eight times seven are eighty-nine," declared Patience desperately. +The hands shook frantically, some of the owners stepped off the line +again in their eagerness. + +Patience's cheeks were red as poppies, her eyes were full of tears. + +"You may try once more, Patience," said the teacher, who was +distressed herself. She feared lest Squire Bean might think that it +was her fault, and that she was not a competent teacher, because +Patience Mather did not know eight-times-seven. + +So Patience started again--"Eight times seven"--She paused for a +mighty mental effort--she must get it right this time. "Six"--she +began feebly. + +"What!" said Squire Bean suddenly, in a deep voice which sounded like +a growl. + +Then all at once poor little Patience heard a whisper sweet as an +angel's in her ear: "Fifty-six." + +"Eight times seven are fifty-six," said she convulsively. + +[Illustration: "SIX"--SHE BEGAN FEEBLY.] + +"Right," said the teacher with a relieved look. The hands went down. +Patience stood with her neat little shoes toeing out on the crack. It +was over. She had not failed before Squire Bean. For a few minutes, +she could think of nothing but that. + +The rest of the class had their weak points, moreover their strong +points, overlooked in the presence of the company. The first thing +Patience knew, ever so many had missed in the nine-table, and she had +gone up to the head. + +Standing there, all at once a terrible misgiving seized her. "I +wouldn't have gone to the head if I hadn't been told," she thought +to herself. Martha was next below her; she knew that question in the +nines, her hand had been up, so had John Allen's and Phoebe Adams'. + +This was the last class before recess. Patience went soberly out in +the yard with the other girls. There was a little restraint over all +the scholars. They looked with awe at the Squire's horse and chaise. +The horse was tied after a novel fashion, an invention of the Squire's +own. He had driven a gimlet into the schoolhouse wall, and tied his +horse to it with a stout rope. Whenever the Squire drove he carried +with him his gimlet, in case there should be no hitching-post. +Occasionally house-owners rebelled, but it made no difference; the +next time the Squire had occasion to stop at their premises there was +another gimlet-hole in the wall. Few people could make their way good +against Squire Bean's. + +There were a great many holes in the schoolhouse walls, for the Squire +made frequent visits; he was one of the committee and considered +himself very necessary for the well-being of the school. Indeed if he +had frankly spoken his mind, he would probably have admitted that in +his estimation the school could not be properly kept one day without +his assistance. + +[Illustration: "WHAT!" SAID SQUIRE BEAN SUDDENLY.] + +Patience stood with her back against the school fence, and watched +the others soberly. The girls wanted her to play "Little Sally Waters +sitting in the sun," but she said no, she didn't want to play. + +Martha took hold of her arm and tried to pull her into the ring, but +she held back. + +"What is the matter?" said Martha. + +"Nothing," Patience said, but her face was full of trouble. There was +a little wrinkle between her reflective brown eyes, and she drew in +her under lip after a way she had when disturbed. + +When the bell rang, the scholars filed in with the greatest order and +decorum. Even the most frisky boys did no more than roll their eyes +respectfully in the Squire's direction as they passed him, and they +tiptoed on their bare feet in the most cautious manner. + +The Squire sat through the remaining exercises, until it was time to +close the school. + +"You may put up your books," said the teacher. There was a rustle and +clatter, then a solemn hush. They all sat with their arms folded, +looking expectantly at Squire Bean. The teacher turned to him. Her +cheeks were very red, and she was very dignified, but her voice shook +a little. + +"Won't you make some remarks to the pupils?" said she. + +Then the Squire rose and cleared his throat. The scholars did not pay +much attention to what he said, although they sat still, with their +eyes riveted on his face. But when, toward the close of his remarks, +he put his hand in his pocket, and a faint jingling was heard, a +thrill ran over the school. + +The Squire pulled out two silver sixpences, and held them up +impressively before the children. Through a hole in each of them +dangled a palm-leaf strand; and the Squire's own initial was stamped +on both. + +"Thomas Arnold may step this way," said the Squire. + +Thomas Arnold had acquitted himself well in geography, and to him the +Squire duly presented one of the sixpences. + +Thomas bobbed, and pattered back to his seat with all his mates +staring and grinning at him. + +Then Patience Mather's heart jumped--Squire Bean was bidding her step +that way, on account of her going to the head of the arithmetic class. +She sat still. There was a roaring in her ears. Squire Bean spoke +again. Then the teacher interposed. "Patience," said she, "did you not +hear what Squire Bean said? Step this way." + +Then Patience rose and dragged slowly down the aisle. She hung her +head, she dimly heard Squire Bean speaking; then the sixpence touched +her hand. Suddenly Patience looked up. There was a vein of heroism in +the little girl. Not far back, some of her kin had been brave fighters +in the Revolution. Now their little descendant went marching up to her +own enemy in her own way. She spoke right up before Squire Bean. + +"I'd rather you'd give it to some one else," said she with a curtesy. +"It doesn't belong to me. I wouldn't have gone to the head if I hadn't +cheated." + +Patience's cheeks were white, but her eyes flashed. Squire Bean +gasped, and turned it into a cough. Then he began asking her +questions. Patience answered unflinchingly. She kept holding the +sixpence toward him. + +Finally he reached out and gave it a little push back. + +"Keep it," said he; "keep it, keep it. I don't give it to you for +going to the head, but because you are an honest and truthful child." + +Patience blushed pink to her little neck. She curtesied deeply and +returned to her seat, the silver sixpence dangling from her agitated +little hand. She put her head down on her desk, and cried, now it was +all over, and did not look up till school was dismissed, and Martha +Joy came and put her arm around her and comforted her. + +The two little girls were very close friends, and were together all +the time which they could snatch out of school hours. Not long after +the presentation of the sixpence, one night after school, Patience's +mother wanted her to go on an errand to Nancy Gookin's hut. + +Nancy Gookin was an Indian woman, who did a good many odd jobs for the +neighbors. Mrs. Mather was expecting company, and she wanted her to +come the next day and assist her about some cleaning. + +Patience was usually willing enough, but to-night she demurred. In +fact, she was a little afraid of the Indian woman, who lived all alone +in a little hut on the edge of some woods. Her mother knew it, but it +was a foolish fear, and she did not encourage her in it. + +"There is no sense in your being afraid of Nancy," she said with some +severity. "She's a good woman, if she is an Injun, and she is always +to be seen in the meeting-house of a Sabbath day." + +As her mother spoke, Patience could see Nancy's dark harsh old face +peering over the pew, where she and some of her nation sat together, +Sabbath days, and the image made her shudder in spite of its +environments. However, she finally put on her little sunbonnet and set +forth. It was a lovely summer twilight; she had only about a quarter +of a mile to go, but her courage failed her more and more at every +step. Martha Joy lived on the way. When she reached her house, she +stopped and begged her to go with her. Martha was obliging; under +ordinary circumstances she would have gone with alacrity, but to-night +she had a hard toothache. She came to the door with her face all tied +up in a hop-poultice. "I'm 'fraid I can't go," she said dolefully. + +But Patience begged and begged. "I'll spend my sixpence that uncle +Joseph gave me, and I'll buy you a whole card of peppermints," said +she finally, by way of inducement. + +That won the day. Martha got few sweets, and if there was anything +she craved, it was the peppermints, which came, in those days, in big +beautiful cards, to be broken off at will. And to have a whole card! + +So poor Martha tied her little napping sunbonnet over her swollen +cheeks, and went with Patience to see Nancy Gookin, who received the +message thankfully, and did not do them the least harm in the world. + +Martha had really a very hard toothache. She did not sleep much that +night for all the hop-poultice, and she went to school the next day +feeling tired and cross. She was a nervous little girl, and never bore +illness very well. But to-day she had one pleasant anticipation. She +thought often of that card of peppermints. It had cheered her somewhat +in her uneasy night. She thought that Patience would surely bring them +to school. She came early herself and watched for her. She entered +quite late, just before the bell rang. Martha ran up to her. "I +haven't got the peppermints," said Patience. She had been crying. + +Martha straightened up: "Why not?" + +The tears welled out of Patience's eyes. "I can't find that sixpence +anywhere." + +The tears came into Martha's eyes too. She looked as dignified as her +poulticed face would allow. "I never knew you told fibs, Patience +Mather," said she. "I don't believe my mother will want me to go with +you any more." + +Just then the bell rang. Martha went crying to her seat, and the +others thought it was on account of her toothache. Patience kept back +her tears. She was forming a desperate resolution. When recess came, +she got permission to go to the store which was quite near, and she +bought a card of peppermints with the Squire's sixpence. She had +pulled out the palm-leaf strand on her way, thrusting it into her +pocket guiltily. She felt as if she were committing sacrilege. These +sixpences, which Squire Bean bestowed upon worthy scholars from time +to time, were ostensibly for the purpose of book-marks. That was the +reason for the palm-leaf strand. The Squire took the sixpences to the +blacksmith who stamped them with B's, and then, with his own hands, he +adjusted the palm-leaf. + +The man who kept the store looked at the sixpence curiously, when +Patience offered it. + +"One of the Squire's sixpences!" said he. + +"Yes; it's mine." That was the argument which Patience had set forth +to her own conscience. It was certainly her own sixpence; the Squire +had given it to her--had she not a right to do as she chose with it? + +The man laughed; his name was Ezra Tomkins, and he enjoyed a joke. He +was privately resolving to give that sixpence in change to the +old Squire and see what he would say. If Patience had guessed his +thoughts-- + +But she took the card of peppermints, and carried them to the appeased +and repentant and curious Martha, and waited further developments in +trepidation. She had a presentiment deep within her childish soul that +some day she would have a reckoning with Squire Bean concerning his +sixpence. + +If by chance she had to pass his house, she would hurry by at her +utmost speed lest she be intercepted. She got out of his way as fast +as she could if she spied his old horse and chaise in the distance. +Still she knew the day would come; and it did. + +It was one Saturday afternoon; school did not keep, and she was all +alone in the house with Martha. Her mother had gone visiting. The two +little girls were playing "Holly Gull, Passed how many," with beans in +the kitchen, when the door opened, and in walked Susan Elder. She +was a woman who lived at Squire Bean's and helped his wife with the +housework. + +The minute Patience saw her, she knew what her errand was. She gave a +great start. Then she looked at Susan Elder with her big frightened +eyes. + +Susan Elder was a stout old woman. She sat down on the settle, and +wheezed before she spoke. "Squire Bean wants you to come up to his +house right away," said she at last. + +Patience trembled all over. "My mother is gone away. I don't know as +she would want me to go," she ventured despairingly. + +"He wants you to come right away," said Susan. + +"I don't believe mother'd want me to leave the house alone." + +"I'll stay an' rest till you git back; I'd jest as soon. I'm all +tuckered out comin' up the hill." + +Patience was very pale. She cast an agonized glance at Martha. "I +spent the Squire's sixpence for those peppermints," she whispered. She +had not told her before. + +Martha looked at her in horror--then she begun to cry. "Oh! I made you +do it," she sobbed. + +"Won't you go with me?" groaned Patience. + +"One little gal is enough," spoke up Susan Elder. "He won't like it if +two goes." + +That settled it. Poor little Patience Mather crept meekly out of +the house and down the hill to Squire Bean's, without even Martha's +foreboding sympathy for consolation. + +She looked ahead wistfully all the way. If she could only see her +mother coming--but she did not, and there was Squire Bean's house, +square and white and massive, with great sprawling clumps of white +peonies in the front yard. + +She went around to the back door, and raised a feeble clatter with the +knocker. Mrs. Squire Bean, who was tall and thin and mild-looking, +answered her knock. "The--Squire--sent--for--me"--choked Patience. + +"Oh!" said the old lady, "you air the little Mather-gal, I guess." + +Patience shook so she could hardly reply. + +"You'd better go right into his room," said Mrs. Squire Bean, and +Patience followed her. She gave her a little pat when she opened a +door on the right. "Don't you be afeard," said she; "he won't say +nothin' to you. I'll give you a piece of sweet-cake when you come +out." + +Thus admonished, Patience entered. "Here's the little Mather-gal," +Mrs. Bean remarked; then the door closed again on her mild old face. + +[Illustration: LITTLE PATIENCE OBEYS THE SQUIRE'S SUMMONS.] + +When Patience first looked at that room, she had a wild impulse to +turn and run. A conviction flashed through her mind that she could +outrun Squire Bean and his wife easily. In fact, the queer aspect +of the room was not calculated to dispel her nervous terror. Squire +Bean's peculiarities showed forth in the arrangement of his room, as +well as in other ways. His floor was painted drab, and in the center +were the sun and solar system depicted in yellow. But that six-rayed +yellow sun, the size of a large dinner plate, with its group of lesser +six-rayed orbs as large as saucers, did not startle Patience as +much as the rug beside the Squire's bed. That was made of a brindle +cow-skin with--the horns on. The little girl's fascinated gaze rested +on these bristling horns and could not tear itself away. Across the +foot of the Squire's bed lay a great iron bar; that was a housewifely +scheme of his own to keep the clothes well down at the foot. But +Patience's fertile imagination construed it into a dire weapon of +punishment. + +The Squire was sitting at his old cherry desk. He turned around and +looked at Patience sharply from under his shaggy, overhanging brows. + +Then he fumbled in his pocket and brought something out--it was the +sixpence. Then he began talking. Patience could not have told what he +said. Her mind was entirely full of what she had to say. Somehow +she stammered out the story: how she had been afraid to go to Nancy +Gookin's, and how she had lost the sixpence her uncle had given her, +and how Martha had said she told a fib. Patience trembled and gasped +out the words, and curtesied, once in a while, when the Squire said +something. + +"Come here," said he, when he had sat for a minute or two, taking in +the facts of the case. + +To Patience's utter astonishment, Squire Bean was laughing, and +holding out the sixpence. + +"Have you got the palm-leaf string?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Patience, curtesying. + +"Well, you may take this home, and put in the palm-leaf string, and +use it for a marker in your book--but don't you spend it again." + +"No, sir." Patience curtesied again. + +"You did very wrong to spend it, very wrong. Those sixpences are not +given to you to spend. But I will overlook it this once." + +The Squire extended the sixpence. Patience took it, with another dip +of her little skirt. Then he turned around to his desk. + +Patience waited a few minutes. She did not know whether she was +dismissed or not. Finally the Squire begun to add aloud: "Five and +five are ten," he said, "ought, and carry the one." + +He was adding a bill. Then Patience stole out softly. Mrs. Squire Bean +was waiting in the kitchen. She gave her a great piece of plum-cake +and kissed her. + +"He didn't hurt you any, did he?" said she. + +"No, ma'am," said Patience, looking with a bewildered smile at the +sixpence. + +That night she tied in the palm-leaf strand again, and she put the +sixpence in her Geography-book, and she kept it so safely all her life +that her great-grandchildren have seen it. + + + + + + +A PLAIN CASE. + + +Willy had his own little bag packed--indeed it had been packed for +three whole days--and now he stood gripping it tightly in one hand, +and a small yellow cane which was the pride of his heart in the other. +Willy had a little harmless, childish dandyism about him which his +mother rather encouraged. "I'd rather he'd be this way than the +other," she said when people were inclined to smile at his little +fussy habits. "It won't hurt him any to be nice and particular, if he +doesn't get conceited." + +Willy looked very dainty and sweet and gentle as he stood in the door +this morning. His straight fair hair was brushed very smooth, his +white straw hat with its blue ribbon was set on exactly, there was not +a speck on his best blue suit. + +"Willy looks as if he had just come out of the band-box," Grandma had +said. But she did not have time to admire him long; she was not nearly +ready herself. Grandma was always in a hurry at the last moment. Now +she had to pack her big valise, brush Grandpa's hair, put on his +"dicky" and cravat, and adjust her own bonnet and shawl. + +Willy was privately afraid she would not be ready when the village +coach came, and so they would miss the train, but he said nothing. +He stood patiently in the door and looked down the street whence the +coach would come, and listened to the bustle in Grandma's room. There +was not an impatient line in his face although he had really a good +deal at stake. He was going to Exeter with his Grandpa and Grandma, to +visit his aunt Annie, and his new uncle Frank. Grandpa and Grandma had +come from Maine to visit their daughter Ellen who was Willy's mother, +and now they were going to see Annie. When Willy found out that he was +going too, he was delighted. He had always been very fond of his aunt +Annie, and had not seen her for a long time. He had never seen his new +uncle Frank who had been married to Annie six months before, and he +looked forward to that. Uncles and aunts seemed a very desirable +acquisition to this little Willy, who had always been a great pet +among his relatives. + +"He won't make you a bit of trouble, if you don't mind taking him. He +never teases nor frets, and he won't be homesick," his mother had told +his grandmother. + +"I know all about that," Grandma Stockton had replied. "I'd just as +soon take him as a doll-baby." + +[Illustration: WATCHING FOR THE COACH.] + +Willy Norton really was a very sweet boy. He proved it this morning +by standing there so patiently and never singing out, "Ain't you most +ready, Grandma?" although it did seem to him she never would be. + +His mother was helping her pack too; he could hear them talking. "I +guess I sha'n't put in father's best coat," Grandma Stockton remarked, +among other things. "He won't be in Exeter over Sunday, and won't want +it to go to meetin', and it musses it up so to put it in a valise." + +"Well, I don't know as I would as long as you're coming back here," +said his mother. + +After a while she remarked further, "If father should want that coat, +you can send for it, and I can put in Willy's other shoes with it." + +Willy noticed that, because he himself had rather regretted not taking +his other shoes. He had only his best ones, and he thought he might +want to go berrying in Exeter and would spoil them tramping through +the bushes and briers, and he did not like to wear shabby shoes. + +"Well, I can; but I guess he won't want it," said Grandma. + +At last the coach came in sight, and Grandma was all ready excepting +her bonnet and gloves, and Grandpa had only to brush his hat very +carefully and put it on; so they did not miss the train. + +Willy's mother hugged him tight and kissed him. There were tears in +her eyes. This was the first time he had ever been away from home +without her. "Be a good boy," said she. + +"There isn't any need of tellin' him that," chuckled Grandpa, getting +into the coach. He thought Willy was the most wonderful child in the +world. + +It was quite a long ride to Exeter. They did not get there until +tea-time, but that made it seem all the pleasanter. Willy never forgot +how peaceful and beautiful that little, elm-shaded village looked with +the red light of the setting sun over it. There was aunt Annie, too, +in the prettiest blue-sprigged, white cambric, standing in her door +watching for them; and she was so surprised and delighted to see +Willy, and they had tea right away, and there were berries and cream, +and cream-tartar biscuits and frosted cake. + +Uncle Frank, Willy thought, was going to be the nicest uncle he had. +There was something about the tall, curly-headed, pleasant-eyed young +man which won his boyish heart at once. + +"Glad to see you, sir," uncle Frank said in his loud, merry voice; +then he gave Willy's little slim hand a big shake, as if it were a +man's. + +He was further prepossessed in his favor when, after tea, he begged to +take him over to the store and show him around before he went to +bed. Grandma had suggested his going directly to bed, as he must +be fatigued with the journey, but uncle Frank pleaded for fifteen +minutes' grace, so Willy went to view the store. + +It was almost directly opposite uncle Frank's house, and uncle Frank +and his father kept it. It was in a large old building, half of which +was a dwelling-house where uncle Frank's parents lived, and where he +had lived himself before he was married. The store was a large country +one, and there was a post-office and an express office connected with +it. Uncle Frank and his father were store-keepers and postmasters and +express-agents. + +The jolly new uncle gave Willy some sticks of peppermint and +winter-green candy out of the glass jars, in the store-window, and +showed him all around. He introduced him to his father, and took him +into the house to see his mother. They made much of him, as strangers +always did. + +"They said I must call them Grandpa and Grandma Perry," he told his +own grandmother when he got home. + +He told her, furthermore, privately, when she came upstairs after he +was in bed to see if everything was all right, that he thought Annie +had shown very good taste in marrying uncle Frank. She told of it, +downstairs, and there was a great laugh. "I don't know when I have +taken such a fancy to a boy," uncle Frank said warmly. "He is so good, +and yet he's smart enough, too." + +"Everybody takes to him," his grandmother said proudly. + +In a day or two Willy wrote a letter to his mother, and told her he +was having the best time that he ever had in his life. + +Willy was only seven years old and had never written many letters, but +this was a very good one. His mother away down in Ashbury thought so. +She shed a few tears over it. "It does seem as if I couldn't get along +another day without seeing him," she told Willy's father; "but I'm +glad if it is doing the dear child good, and he is enjoying it." + +One reason why Willy had been taken upon the trip was his health. He +had always been considered rather delicate. It did seem as if he had +every chance to grow stronger in Exeter. The air was cool and bracing +from the mountains; aunt Annie had the best things in the world to +eat, and as he had said, he was really having a splendid time. He +rode about with uncle Frank in the grocery wagon, he tended store, +he fished, and went berrying. There were only two drawbacks to his +perfect comfort. One came from his shoes. Grandpa Perry had found an +old pair in the store, and he wore them on his fishing and berrying +jaunts; but they were much too large and they slipped and hurt his +heels. However he said nothing; he stumped along in them manfully, and +tried to ignore such a minor grievance. Willy had really a stanch vein +in him, in spite of his gentleness and mildness. The other drawback +lay in the fact that the visit was to be of such short duration. It +began Monday and was expected to end Saturday. Willy counted the +hours; every night before he went to sleep he heaved a regretful sigh +over the day which had just gone. It had been decided before leaving +home that they were to return on Saturday, and he had had no +intimation of any change of plan. + +Friday morning he awoke with the thought, "this is the last day." +However, Willy was a child, and, in the morning, a day still looked +interminable to him, especially when there were good times looming up +in it. To-day he expected to take a very long ride with uncle Frank, +who was going to Keene to buy a new horse. + +"I want Willy to go with me, to help pick him out," he told Grandma +Stockton, and Willy took it in serious earnest. They were going to +carry lunch and be gone all day. This promised pleasure looked so big +to the boy, as he became wider awake, that he could see nothing at all +beyond it, not even the sad departure and end of this delightful visit +on the morrow. So he went down to breakfast as happy as ever. + +"That boy certainly looks better," Grandpa Stockton remarked, as the +coffee was being poured. + +"We must have him weighed before he goes home," Grandma said, beaming +at him. + +"That's one thing I thought of, 'bout stayin' a week longer," Grandpa +went on. "It seems to be doin' Sonny, here, so much good." Grandpa had +a very slow, deliberate way of speaking. + +Willy laid down his spoon and stared at him, but he said nothing. + +"I don't see what you were thinking of not to plan to stay longer in +the first place," said aunt Annie. "I don't like it much." She made +believe to pout her pretty lips. + +"Well," said uncle Frank, "I'll send for that coat right away this +morning, so you'll be sure to get it to-morrow night." + +"Yes," said Grandpa, "I'd like to hev it to wear to meetin'. Mother +thinks my old one ain't just fit." + +"No, it ain't," spoke up Grandma. "It does well enough when you're at +home, where folks know you, but it's different among strangers. An' +you've got to have it next week, anyhow." + +Willy looked up at his grandmother. "Grandma," said he tremblingly, +"ain't we going home to-morrow?" + +"Why, bless the child!" said she. "I forgot he didn't know. We talked +about it last night after he'd gone to bed." + +Then she explained. They were going to stay another week. Next week +Wednesday, Grandpa and Grandma Perry had been married twenty-five +years, and they were going to have a silver wedding. So they were +going to remain and be present at it, and Grandpa was going to send +for his best coat to wear. + +Willy looked so radiant that they all laughed, and uncle Frank said he +was going to keep him always, and let him help him in the store. + +Before they started off to buy the horse, uncle Frank telegraphed to +Ashbury about the coat; he also mentioned Willy's shoes. + +The two had a beautiful ride, and bought a handsome black horse. Uncle +Frank consulted Willy a great deal about the purchase, and expatiated +on his good judgment in the matter after they got home. One of Willy's +chief charms was that he stood so much flattery of this kind, without +being disagreeably elated by it. His frank, childish delight was +always pretty to see. + +The next afternoon he went berrying with a little boy who lived next +door. At five o'clock aunt Annie ran over to the store to see if the +coat had come. + +"It has," she told her mother when she returned; "it came at one +o'clock, and Mother Perry gave it to Willy to bring home." + +"To Willy? Why, what did the child do with it?" Grandma said +wonderingly. "He didn't bring it home." + +"Maybe he carried it over to Josie Allen's and left it there." Josie +Allen was the boy with whom Willy had gone berrying. His house stood +very near uncle Frank's, and both were nearly across the road from the +store. + +"Well, maybe he did, he was in such a hurry to go berrying," said +Grandma assentingly. + +About six o'clock, when the family were all at the tea-table, Willy +came clumping painfully in his big shoes into the yard. There were +blisters on his small, delicate heels, but nobody knew it. His little +fair face was red and tired, but radiant. His pail was heaped and +rounded up with the most magnificent berries of the season. + +"Just look here," said he, with his sweet voice all quivering with +delight. + +He stood outside on the piazza, and lifted the pail on to the +window-sill. He could not wait until he came in to show these berries. +He would have to walk way around through the kitchen in those +irritating shoes. + +They all exclaimed and admired them as much as he could wish, then +Grandma said suddenly: "But what did you do with the coat, Willy?" + +"The coat?" repeated Willy in a bewildered way. + +"Yes; the coat. Did you take it over to Josie's an' leave it? If you +did, you must go right back and get it. Did you?" + +"No." + +"Why, what did you do with it?" + +"I didn't do anything with it." + +"William Dexter Norton! what do you mean?" + +[Illustration: "JUST LOOK HERE!" SAID WILLY'S SWEET VOICE.] + +Everybody had stopped eating, and was staring out at Willy, who was +staring in. His happy little red face had suddenly turned sober. + +"Come in, Sonny, an' we'll see what all the trouble's about, an' +straighten it out in a jiffy," spoke up Grandpa. The contrast between +Grandpa's slow tones and the "jiffy" was very funny. + +Willy crept slowly down the long piazza, through the big kitchen into +the dining-room. + +"Now, Sonny, come right here," said his grandfather, "an' we'll have +it all fixed up nice." + +The boy kept looking from one face to another in a wondering +frightened way. He went hesitatingly up to his grandfather, and stood +still, his poor little smarting feet toeing in, after a fashion they +had, when tired, the pail full of berries dangling heavily on his +slight arm. + +"Now, Sonny, look up here, an' tell us all about it. What did you do +with Grandpa's coat, boy?" + +"I--didn't do anything with it." + +"William," began his grandmother, but Grandpa interrupted her. "Just +wait a minute, mother," said he. "Sonny an' I air goin' to settle +this. Now, Sonny, don't you get scared. You jest think a minute. +Think real hard, don't hurry--now, can't you tell what you did with +Grandpa's coat?" + +"I--didn't--do anything with it," said Willy. + +"My sakes!" said his grandmother. "What has come to the child?" She +was very pale. Aunt Annie and uncle Frank looked as if they did not +know what to think. Grandpa himself settled back in his chair, and +stared helplessly at Willy. + +Finally aunt Annie tried her hand. "See here, Willy dear," said she, +"you are tired and hungry and want your supper; just tell us what you +did with the coat after Grandma Perry gave it to you"-- + +"She didn't," said Willy. + +That was dreadful. They all looked aghast at one another. Was Willy +lying--Willy! + +"Didn't--give--it--to you--Sonny!" said Grandpa, feebly, and more +slowly than ever. + +"No, sir." + +Grandma Stockton had been called quick-tempered when she was a girl, +and she gave proof of it sometimes, even now in her gentle old age. +She spoke very sternly and quickly: "Willy, we have had all of this +nonsense that we want. Now you just speak right up an' tell the truth. +What did you do with your grandfather's coat?" + +"I didn't do anything with it," faltered Willy again. His lip was +quivering. + +"What?" + +"I--didn't"--began the child again, then his sobs checked him. He +crooked his little free arm, hid his face in the welcome curve, and +cried in good earnest. + +"Stop crying and tell me the truth," said Grandma pitilessly. + +Willy again gasped out his one reply; he shook so that he could +scarcely hold his berry pail. Aunt Annie took it out of his hand and +set it on the table. Uncle Frank rose with a jerk. "I'll run over and +get mother," said he, with an air that implied, "I'll soon settle this +matter." + +But the matter was very far from settled by Mrs. Perry's testimony. +She only repeated what she had already told her daughter-in-law. + +"The bundle came on the noon express," said she, "and I told Mr. Perry +to set it down in the kitchen, and I would see that it got over to +you. He didn't know how to stop just then. It laid there on one of the +kitchen-chairs while I was clearing away the dinner-dishes. Then about +two o'clock I was changing my dress, when I heard Willy whistling out +in the yard, and I ran into the kitchen and got the bundle, and called +him to take it. I opened the south door and gave it to him, and told +him to take it right home to his grandpa. He said he guessed he'd open +it and see if his shoes had come, and I told him 'no,' he must go +straight home with it." + +That was Mrs. Perry's testimony. Willy heard in the presence of all +the family; then when the question as to the whereabouts of the coat +was put to him, he made the same answer. He also repeated that Grandma +Perry had not given it to him. + +"Don't you let me hear you tell that wicked lie again," said his +Grandma Stockton. She was nearly as much agitated as the boy. She did +not know what to do, and nobody else did. + +Grandpa Perry came over with three sticks of twisted red and white +peppermint candy, and three of barley. He caught hold of Willy and +swung him on to his knee. He was a fleshy, jolly man. + +"Now, sir," said he, "let's strike a bargain--I'll give you these six +whole sticks of candy for your supper, and you tell me what you did +with Grandpa's coat." + +"I--didn't do--any"--Willy commenced between his painful sobs, but his +grandmother interrupted--"Hush! don't you ever say that again," said +she. "You did do something with it." + +"I'll throw in a handful of raisins," said Mr. Perry. But it was of no +use. + +"Well, if the little chap was mine," said Mrs. Perry finally, "I +should give him his supper and put him to bed, and see how he would +look at it in the morning." + +"I think that would be the best way," chimed in aunt Annie eagerly. +"He's all tired out and hungry, and doesn't know what he does know--do +you, dear?" + +So she poured out some milk, and cut off a big slice of cake, but +Willy did not want any supper. It was hard work to induce him to +swallow a little milk before he went upstairs. His grandmother heaved +a desperate sigh after he was gone. + +"If it was in the days of the Salem witches," said she, "I'd know just +what to think; as 'tis, I don't." + +"That boy was never known to tell a lie before in his whole life--his +mother said so. He never pestered her the way some children do, lyin'; +an' as for stealin'--why, I'd trusted him with every cent I've got in +the world." That was Grandpa Stockton. + +During the next two or three days every inducement was brought to bear +upon Willy. He was scolded and coaxed, he was promised a reward if he +would tell the truth, he was assured that he should not be punished. +Monday he was kept in his room all day, and was given nothing but +bread and milk to eat. Severer measures were hinted at, but Grandpa +Stockton put his foot down peremptorily. "That boy has never been +whipped in his whole life," said he, "an' his own folks have got to +begin it, if anybody does." + +All the premises were searched for the missing coat, but no trace of +it was found. The mystery thickened and deepened. How could a boy lose +a coat going across a road in broad daylight? Why would he not confess +that he had lost it? + +Finally it was decided to take him home. He was becoming all worn out +with excitement and distress. He was too delicate a child to long +endure such a strain. They thought that once at home his mother might +be able to do what none of the rest had. + +All the others were getting worn out also. A good many tears had been +shed by the older members of the company. Poor Mrs. Perry took much +blame to herself for giving the coat to the boy, and so opening the +way for the difficulty. + +"Mr. Perry says he thinks I ought not to have given the coat to him, +he's nothing but a child, any way," she said tearfully once. + +It was Monday afternoon when Willy was shut up in his room, and all +the others were talking the matter over downstairs. + +Tears stood in aunt Annie's blue eyes. "He's nothing but a baby," +said she, "and if I had my way I'd call him downstairs and give him a +cookie and never speak of the old coat again." + +"You talk very silly, Annie," said Grandmother Stockton. "I hope you +don't want to have the child to grow up a wicked, deceitful man." + +Willy's grandparents gave up going to the silver wedding. Grandpa had +no good coat to wear, and indeed neither of them had any heart to go. + +So the morning of the wedding-day they started sadly to return to +Ashbury. Willy's face looked thin and tear-stained. Somebody had +packed his little bag for him, but he forgot his little cane. + +When he was seated in the cars beside his grandmother, he began to +cry. She looked at him a moment, then she put her arm around him, and +drew his head down on her black cashmere shoulder. + +"Tell Grandma, can't you," she whispered, "what you did with +Grandpa's coat?" + +"I didn't--do--any"-- + +"Hush," said she, "don't you say that again, Willy!" But she kept her +arm around him. + +Willy's mother came running to the door to meet them when they +arrived. She had heard nothing of the trouble. She had only had a +hurried message that they were coming to-day. + +She threw her arms around Willy, then she held him back and looked at +him. "Why, what is the matter with my precious boy!" she cried. + +"O, mamma, mamma, I didn't, I didn't do anything with it!" he sobbed, +and clung to her so frantically that she was alarmed. + +"What does he mean, mother?" she asked. + +Her mother motioned her to be quiet. "Oh! it isn't anything," said +she. "You'd better give him his supper, and get him to bed; he's all +tired out. I'll tell you by and by," she motioned with her lips. + +So Willy's mother soothed him all she could. "Of course you didn't, +dear," said she. "Mamma knows you didn't. Don't you worry any more +about it." + +It was early, but she got some supper for him, and put him to bed, and +sat beside him until he went to sleep. She told him over and over that +she knew he "didn't," in reply to his piteous assertions, and all the +time she had not the least idea what it was all about. + +After he had fallen asleep she went downstairs, and Grandma Stockton +told her. Willy's father had come, and he also heard the story. + +"There's some mistake about it," said he. "I'll make Willy tell me +about it, to-morrow. Nothing is going to make me believe that he is +persisting in a deliberate lie in this way." + +Willy's mother was crying herself, now. "He never--told me a lie in +his whole dear little life," she sobbed, "and I don't believe he has +now. Nothing will ever--make me believe so." + +"Don't cry, Ellen," said her husband. "There's something about this +that we don't understand." + +It was all talked over and over that night, but they were no nearer +understanding the case. + +"I'll see what I can do with Willy in the morning," his father said +again, when the discussion was ended for the night. + +Willy was not awake at the breakfast hour next morning, so the family +sat down without him. They were not half through the meal when there +were some quick steps on the path outside; the door was jerked open, +and there was aunt Annie and uncle Frank. + +She had Willy's little yellow cane in her hand, and she looked as if +she did not know whether to laugh or cry. + +"It's found!" she cried out, "it's found! Oh! where is he? He left his +cane, poor little boy!" + +Then she really sank into a chair and began to cry. There were +exclamations and questions and finally they arrived at the solution of +the mystery. + +Poor little Willy had not done anything with Grandpa's coat. Mrs. +Perry had not given it to him. She had--given it to another boy. + +"Last night about seven o'clock," said uncle Frank. "Mr. Gilbert +Hammond brought it into the store. It seems he sent his boy, who is +just about Willy's age, and really looks some like him, for a bundle +he expected to come by express. The boy was to have some shoes in it. + +"I suppose mother caught a glimpse of him, and very likely she didn't +have on her glasses, and can't see very well without them, and she +thought he was Willy. She was changing her dress, too, and I dare +say only opened the door a little way. Then the Hammond boy's got a +grandfather, and the shoes and the whole thing hung together. + +"Mr. Hammond said he meant to have brought the bundle back before, but +they had company come the next day, and it was overlooked. + +"Father and mother both came running over the minute they heard of +it, and nothing would suit Annie but we should start right off on the +night train, and come down here and explain. And, to tell the truth, +I wanted to come myself--I felt as if we owed it to the poor little +chappie." + +Uncle Frank's own voice sounded husky. The thought of all the +suffering that poor little innocent boy had borne was not a pleasant +one. + +Everything that could be done to atone to Willy was done. He was loved +and praised and petted, as he had never been before; in a little while +he seemed as well and happy as ever. + +The next Christmas Grandpa Perry sent a beautiful little gold watch to +him, and he was so delighted with it that his father said, "He doesn't +worry a bit now about the trouble he had in Exeter. That watch doesn't +seem to bring it to mind at all. How quickly children get over things. +He has forgotten all about it." + +But Willy Norton had not forgotten all about it. He was just as happy +as ever. He had entirely forgiven Grandma Perry for her mistake. Next +summer he was going to Exeter again and have a beautiful time; but a +good many years would pass, and whenever he looked at that little gold +watch, he would see double. It would have for him a background of his +grandfather's best coat. + +Innocence and truth can feel the shadow of unjust suspicion when +others can no longer see it. + + + + + + +THE STRANGER IN THE VILLAGE. + + +"Margary," said her mother, "take the pitcher now, and fetch me some +fresh, cool water from the well, and I will cook the porridge for +supper." + +"Yes, mother," said Margary. Then she put on her little white dimity +hood, and got the pitcher, which was charmingly shaped, from the +cupboard shelf. The cupboard was a three-cornered one beside the +chimney. The cottage which Margary and her mother lived in, was very +humble, to be sure, but it was very pretty. Vines grew all over it, +and flowering bushes crowded close to the diamond-paned windows. There +was a little garden at one side, with beds of pinks and violets in it, +and a straw-covered beehive, and some raspberry bushes all yellow with +fruit. + +Inside the cottage, the floor was sanded with the whitest sand; lovely +old straight-backed chairs stood about; there was an oaken table, +and a spinning-wheel. A wicker cage, with a lark in it, hung in the +window. + +Margary with her pitcher, tripped along to the village well. On the +way she met two of her little mates--Rosamond and Barbara. They were +flying along, their cheeks very rosy and their eyes shining. + +"O, Margary," they cried, "come up to the tavern, quick, and see! The +most beautiful coach-and-four is drawn up there. There are lackeys in +green and gold, with cocked hats, and the coach hath a crest on the +side--O, Margary!" + +Margary's eyes grew large too, and she turned about with her empty +pitcher and followed her friends. They had almost reached the tavern, +and were in full sight of the coach-and-four, when some one coming +toward them caused them to draw up on one side of the way and stare +with new wonder. It was a most beautiful little boy. His golden curls +hung to his shoulders, his sweet face had an expression at once gentle +and noble, and his dress was of the richest material. He led a little +flossy white dog by a ribbon. + +After he had passed by, the three little girls looked at each other. + +"Oh!" cried Rosamond, "did you see his hat and feather?" + +"And his lace Vandyke, and the fluffy white dog!" cried Barbara. But +Margary said nothing. In her heart, she thought she had never seen any +one so lovely. + +Then she went on to the well with her pitcher, and Rosamond and +Barbara went home, telling every one they met about the beautiful +little stranger. + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE STRANGER.] + +Margary, after she had filled her pitcher, went home also; and was +beginning to talk about the stranger to her mother, when a shadow fell +across the floor from the doorway. Margary looked up. "There he is +now!" cried she in a joyful whisper. + +The pretty boy stood there indeed, looking in modestly and wishfully. +Margary's mother arose at once from her spinning-wheel, and came +forward; she was a very courteous woman. "Wilt thou enter, and rest +thyself," said she, "and have a cup of our porridge, and a slice of +our wheaten bread, and a bit of honeycomb?" + +The little boy sniffed hungrily at the porridge which was just +beginning to boil; he hesitated a moment, but finally thanked the good +woman very softly and sweetly and entered. + +Then Margary and her mother set a bottle of cowslip wine on the table, +slices of wheaten bread, and a plate of honeycomb, a bowl of ripe +raspberries, and a little jug of yellow cream, and another little bowl +with a garland of roses around the rim, for the porridge. Just as soon +as that was cooked, the stranger sat down, and ate a supper fit for a +prince. Margary and her mother half supposed he was one; he had such a +courtly, yet modest air. + +When he had eaten his fill, and his little dog had been fed too, he +offered his entertainers some gold out of a little silk purse, but +they would not take it. + +So he took hold of his dog's ribbon, and went away with many thanks. +"We shall never see him again," said Margary sorrowfully. + +"The memory of a stranger one has fed, is a pleasant one," said her +mother. + +"I am glad the lark sang so beautifully all the while he was eating," +said Margary. + +While they were eating their own supper, the oldest woman in the +village came in. She was one hundred and twenty years old, and, by +reason of her great age, was considered very wise. + +"Have you seen the stranger?" asked she in her piping voice, seating +herself stiffly. + +"Yes," replied Margary's mother. "He hath supped with us." + +The oldest woman twinkled her eyes behind her iron-bowed spectacles. +"Lawks!" said she. But she did not wish to appear surprised, so she +went on to say she had met him on the way, and knew who he was. + +"He's a Lindsay," said the oldest woman, with a nod of her +white-capped head. "I tried him wi' a buttercup. I held it under his +chin, and he loves butter. So he's a Lindsay; all the Lindsays love +butter. I know, for I was nurse in the family a hundred years ago." + +This, of course, was conclusive evidence. Margary and her mother +had faith in the oldest woman's opinion; and so did all the other +villagers. She told a good many people how the little stranger was +a Lindsay, before she went to bed that night. And he really was a +Lindsay, too; though it was singular how the oldest woman divined it +with a buttercup. + +The pretty child had straightway driven off in his coach-and-four as +soon as he had left Margary's mother's cottage; he had only stopped +to have some defect in the wheels remedied. But there had been time +enough for a great excitement to be stirred up in the village. + +All any one talked about the next day, was the stranger. Every one who +had seen him, had some new and more marvelous item; till charming as +the child really was, he became, in the popular estimation, a real +fairy prince. + +When Margary and the other children went to school, with their +horn-books hanging at their sides, they found the schoolmaster greatly +excited over it. He was a verse-maker, and though he had not seen the +stranger himself, his imagination more than made amends for that. +So the scholars were not under a very strict rule that day, for the +master was busy composing a poem about the stranger. Every now and +then a line of the poem got mixed in with the lessons. + +The schoolmaster told in beautiful meters about the stranger's rich +attire, and his flowing locks of real gold wire, his lips like rubies, +and his eyes like diamonds. He furnished the little dog with hair of +real floss silk, and called his ribbon a silver chain. Then the coach, +as it rolled along, presented such a dazzling appearance, that several +persons who inadvertently looked at it had been blinded. It was the +schoolmaster's opinion, set forth in his poem, that this really was a +prince. One could scarcely doubt it, on reading the poem. It is a pity +it has not been preserved, but it was destroyed--how, will transpire +further on. + +Well, two days after this dainty stranger with his coach-and-four +came to the village, a little wretched beggar-boy, leading by a dirty +string a forlorn muddy little dog, appeared on the street. He went to +the tavern first, but the host pushed him out of the door, throwing a +pewter porringer after him, which hit the poor little dog and made it +yelp. Then he spoke pitifully to the people he met, and knocked at the +cottage doors; but every one drove him away. He met the oldest woman, +but she gathered her skirts closely around her and hobbled by, her +pointed nose up in the air, and her cap-strings flying straight out +behind. + +"I prithee, granny," he called after her, "try me with the buttercup +again, and see if I be not a Lindsay." + +"Thou a Lindsay," quoth the oldest woman contemptuously; but she was +very curious, so she turned around and held a buttercup underneath the +boy's dirty chin. + +"Bah," said the oldest woman, "a Lindsay indeed! Butter hath no charm +for thee, and the Lindsays, all loved it. I know, for I was nurse in +the family a hundred year ago." + +Then she hobbled away faster than ever, and the poor boy kept on. Then +he met the schoolmaster, who had his new poem in a great roll in his +hand. "What little vagabond is this?" muttered he, gazing at him with +disgust. "He hath driven a fine metaphor out of my head." + +When the boy reached the cottage where Margary and her mother lived, +the dame was sitting in the door spinning, and the little girl was +picking roses from a bush under the window, to fill a tall china mug +which they kept on a shelf. + +When Margary heard the gate click, and turning, saw the boy, she +started so that she let her pinafore full of roses slip, and the +flowers all fell out on the ground. Then she dropped an humble +curtesy; and her mother rose and curtesied also, though she had not +recognized her guest as soon as Margary. + +The poor little stranger fairly wept for joy. "Ah, you remember me," +he said betwixt smiles and tears. + +Then he entered the cottage, and while Margary and her mother got some +refreshment ready for him, he told his pitiful story. + +His father was a Lindsay, and a very rich and noble gentleman. Some +little time before, he and his little son had journeyed to London, +with their coach-and-four. Business having detained him longer than he +had anticipated, and fearing his lady might be uneasy, he had sent his +son home in advance, in the coach, with his lackeys and attendants. +Everything had gone safely till after leaving this village. Some miles +beyond, they had been attacked by highwaymen and robbed. The servants +had either been taken prisoners or fled. The thieves had driven off +with the coach-and-four, and the poor little boy had crawled back to +the village. + +Margary and her mother did all they could to comfort him. They +prepared some hot broth for him, and opened a bottle of cowslip wine. +Margary's mother gave him some clean clothes, which had belonged to +her son who had died. The little gentleman looked funny in the little +rustic's blue smock, but he was very comfortable. They fed the forlorn +little dog too, and washed him till his white hair looked fluffy and +silky again. + +When the London mail stopped in the village, the next day, they sent a +message to Lord Lindsay, and in a week's time, he came after his son. +He was a very grand gentleman; his dress was all velvet and satin, and +blazing with jewels. How the villagers stared. They had flatly refused +to believe that this last little stranger was the first one, and had +made great fun of Margary and her mother for being so credulous. +But they had not minded. They had given their guest a little pallet +stuffed with down, and a pillow stuffed with rose-leaves to sleep on, +and fed him with the best they had. His father, in his gratitude, +offered Margary's mother rich rewards; but she would take nothing. The +little boy cried on parting with his kind friends, and Margary cried +too. + +"I prithee, pretty Margary, do not forget me," said he. + +And she promised she never would, and gave him a sprig of rosemary out +of her garden to wear for a breastknot. + +The villagers were greatly mortified when they discovered the mistake +they had made. However, the oldest woman always maintained that her +not having her spectacles on, when she met the stranger the second +time, was the reason of her not seeing that he loved butter; and the +schoolmaster gave his poetical abstraction for an excuse. Mine host +of the "Boar's Head" fairly tore his hair, and flung the pewter +porringer, which he had thrown after the stranger and his dog, into +the well. After that he was very careful how he turned away strangers +because of their appearance. Generally he sent for the oldest woman to +put her spectacles on, and try the buttercup test. Then, if she +said they loved butter and were Lindsays, they were taken in and +entertained royally. She generally did say they loved butter--she +was so afraid of making a mistake the second time, herself; so the +village-inn got to be a regular refuge for beggars, and they called it +amongst themselves the "Beggars' Rest," instead of the "Boar's Head." + +As for Margary, she grew up to be the pride of the village; and in +time, Lord Lindsay's son, who had always kept the sprig of rosemary, +came and married her. They had a beautiful wedding; all of the +villagers were invited; the bridegroom did not cherish any resentment. +They danced on the green, and the Lindsay pipers played for them. The +bride wore a white damask petticoat worked with pink roses, her pink +satin shortgown was looped up with garlands of them, and she wore a +wreath of roses on her head. + +The oldest woman came to the wedding, and hobbled up to the bridegroom +with a buttercup. "Thou beest a Lindsay," said she. "Thou lovest +butter, and the Lindsays all did. I know, for I was nurse in the +family a hundred year ago." + +As for the schoolmaster, he was distressed. His wife had taken his +poem on the stranger for papers to curl her hair on for the wedding, +and he had just discovered it. He had calculated on making a present +of it to the young couple. + +However, he wrote another on the wedding, of which one verse is still +extant, and we will give it: + + "When Lindsay wedded Margary, + Merrily piped the pipers all. + The bride, the village-pride was she, + The groom, a gay gallant was he. + Merrily piped the pipers all. + When Lindsay wedded Margary." + + + + + + +THE BOUND GIRL. + + + This Indenture Wittnesseth, That I Margaret Burjust of Boston, in + the County of Suffolk and Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New + England. Have placed, and by these presents do place and bind out + my only Daughter whose name is Ann Ginnins to be an Apprentice + unto Samuel Wales and his wife of Braintree in the County + afores:^d, Blacksmith. To them and their Heirs and with them the + s:^d Samuel Wales, his wife and their Heirs, after the manner of + an apprentice to dwell and Serve from the day of the date hereof + for and during the full and Just Term of Sixteen years, three + months and twenty-three day's next ensueing and fully to be + Compleat, during all which term the s:^d apprentice her s:^d + Master and Mistress faithfully Shall Serve, Their Secrets keep + close, and Lawful and reasonable Command everywhere gladly do and + perform. + + Damage to her s:^d Master and Mistress she shall not willingly + do. Her s:^d Master's goods she shall not waste, Embezel, + purloin or lend unto Others nor suffer the same to be wasted or + purloined. But to her power Shall discover the Same to her s:^d + Master. Taverns or Ailhouss she Shall not frequent, at any + unlawful game She Shall not play, Matrimony she Shall not Contract + with any persons during s:^d Term. From her master's Service She + Shall not at any time unlawfully absent herself. But in all things + as a good honest and faithful Servant and apprentice Shall bear + and behave herself, During the full term afores:^d Commencing + from the third day of November Anno Dom: One Thousand, Seven + Hundred fifty and three. And the s:^d Master for himself, wife, + and Heir's, Doth Covenant Promise Grant and Agree unto and with + the s:^d apprentice and the s:^d Margaret Burjust, in manner + and form following. That is to say, That they will teach the + s:^d apprentice or Cause her to be taught in the Art of good + housewifery, and also to read and write well. And will find and + provide for and give unto s:^d apprentice good and sufficient + Meat Drink washing and lodging both in Sickness and in health, and + at the Expiration of said term to Dismiss s:^d apprentice with + two Good Suits of Apparrel both of woolen and linnin for all parts + of her body (viz) One for Lord-days and one for working days + Suitable to her Quality. In Testimony whereof I Samuel Wales and + Margaret Burjust Have Interchangably Sett their hands and Seals + this Third day November Anno Dom: 1753, and in the twenty-Seventh + year of the Reign of our Soveraig'n Lord George the Second of + great Britain the King. + + Signed Sealed & Delivered. + In presence of + SAM VAUGHAN Margaret Burgis + MARY VAUGHAN her X mark. + + +This quaint document was carefully locked up, with some old deeds and +other valuable papers, in his desk, by the "s:^d Samuel Wales," one +hundred and thirty years ago. The desk was a rude, unpainted pine +affair, and it reared itself on its four stilt-like legs in a corner +of his kitchen, in his house in the South Precinct of Braintree. The +sharp eyes of the little "s:^d apprentice" had noted it oftener and +more enviously than any other article of furniture in the house. On +the night of her arrival, after her journey of fourteen miles from +Boston, over a rough bridle-road, on a jolting horse, clinging +tremblingly to her new "Master," she peered through her little red +fingers at the desk swallowing up those precious papers which Samuel +Wales drew from his pocket with an important air. She was hardly five +years old, but she was an acute child; and she watched her master draw +forth the papers, show them to his wife, Polly, and lock them up in +the desk, with the full understanding that they had something to do +with her coming to this strange place; and, already, a shadowy purpose +began to form itself in her mind. + +She sat on a cunning little wooden stool, close to the fireplace, +and kept her small chapped hands persistently over her face; she was +scared, and grieved, and, withal, a trifle sulky. Mrs. Polly Wales +cooked some Indian meal mush for supper in an iron pot swinging from +its trammel over the blazing logs, and cast scrutinizing glances at +the little stranger. She had welcomed her kindly, taken off her outer +garments, and established her on the little stool in the warmest +corner, but the child had given a very ungracious response. She would +not answer a word to Mrs. Wales' coaxing questions, but twitched +herself away with all her small might, and kept her hands tightly over +her eyes, only peering between her fingers when she thought no one was +noticing. + +She had behaved after the same fashion all the way from Boston, as Mr. +Wales told his wife in a whisper. The two were a little dismayed at +the whole appearance of the small apprentice; to tell the truth, she +was not in the least what they had expected. They had been revolving +this scheme of taking "a bound girl" for some time in their minds; and +Samuel Wales' gossip in Boston, Sam Vaughan, had been requested to +keep a lookout for a suitable person. + +So, when word came that one had been found, Mr. Wales had started at +once for the city. When he saw the child, he was dismayed. He had +expected to see a girl of ten; this one was hardly five, and she +had anything but the demure and decorous air which his Puritan mind +esteemed becoming and appropriate in a little maiden. Her hair was +black and curled tightly, instead of being brown and straight parted +in the middle, and combed smoothly over her ears as his taste +regulated; her eyes were black and flashing, instead of being blue, +and downcast. The minute he saw the child, he felt a disapproval of +her rise in his heart, and also something akin to terror. He dreaded +to take this odd-looking child home to his wife Polly; he foresaw +contention and mischief in their quiet household. But he felt as if +his word was rather pledged to his gossip, and there was the mother, +waiting and expectant. She was a red-cheeked English girl, who had +been in Sam Vaughan's employ; she had recently married one Burjust, +and he was unwilling to support the first husband's child, so this +chance to bind her out and secure a good home for her had been eagerly +caught at. + +The small Ann seemed rather at Samuel Wales' mercy, and he had not +the courage to disappoint his friend or her mother; so the necessary +papers were made out, Sam Vaughan's and wife's signatures affixed, and +Margaret Burjust's mark, and he set out on his homeward journey with +the child. + +The mother was coarse and illiterate, but she had some natural +affection; she "took on" sadly when the little girl was about to leave +her, and Ann clung to her frantically. It was a pitiful scene, and +Samuel Wales, who was a very tender-hearted man, was glad when it was +over, and he jogging along the bridle-path. + +But he had had other troubles to encounter. All at once, as he rode +through Boston streets, with his little charge behind him, after +leaving his friend's house, he felt a vicious little twitch at his +hair, which he wore in a queue tied with a black ribbon after the +fashion of the period. Twitch, twitch, twitch! The water came into +Samuel Wales' eyes, and the blood to his cheeks, while the passers-by +began to hoot and laugh. His horse became alarmed at the hubbub, and +started up. For a few minutes the poor man could do nothing to free +himself. It was wonderful what strength the little creature had: she +clinched her tiny fingers in the braid, and pulled, and pulled. +Then, all at once, her grasp slackened, and off flew her master's +steeple-crowned hat into the dust, and the neat black ribbon on the +end of the queue followed it. Samuel Wales reined up his horse with a +jerk then, and turned round, and administered a sounding box on each +of his apprentice's ears. Then he dismounted, amid shouts of laughter +from the spectators, and got a man to hold the horse while he went +back and picked up his hat and ribbon. + +He had no further trouble. The boxes seemed to have subdued Ann +effectually. But he pondered uneasily all the way home on the small +vessel of wrath which was perched up behind him, and there was a +tingling sensation at the roots of his queue. He wondered what Polly +would say. The first glance at her face, when he lifted Ann off the +horse at his own door, confirmed his fears. She expressed her mind, +in a womanly way, by whispering in his ear at the first opportunity, +"She's as black as an Injun." + +After Ann had eaten her supper, and had been tucked away between some +tow sheets and homespun blankets in a trundle-bed, she heard the whole +story, and lifted up her hands with horror. Then the good couple read +a chapter, and prayed, solemnly vowing to do their duty by this +child which they had taken under their roof, and imploring Divine +assistance. + +As time wore on, it became evident that they stood in sore need of it. +They had never had any children of their own, and Ann Ginnins was the +first child who had ever lived with them. But she seemed to have the +freaks of a dozen or more in herself, and they bade fair to have the +experience of bringing up a whole troop with this one. They tried +faithfully to do their duty by her, but they were not used to +children, and she was a very hard child to manage. A whole legion of +mischievous spirits seemed to dwell in her at times, and she became +in a small and comparatively innocent way, the scandal of the staid +Puritan neighborhood in which she lived. Yet, withal, she was so +affectionate, and seemed to be actuated by so little real malice in +any of her pranks, that people could not help having a sort of liking +for the child, in spite of them. + +She was quick to learn, and smart to work, too, when she chose. +Sometimes she flew about with such alacrity that it seemed as if +her little limbs were hung on wires, and no little girl in the +neighborhood could do her daily tasks in the time she could, and they +were no inconsiderable tasks, either. + +Very soon after her arrival she was set to "winding quills," so many +every day. Seated at Mrs. Polly's side, in her little homespun gown, +winding quills through sunny forenoons--how she hated it. She liked +feeding the hens and pigs better, and when she got promoted to driving +the cows, a couple of years later, she was in her element. There were +charming possibilities of nuts and checkerberries and sassafras and +sweet flag all the way between the house and the pasture, and the +chance to loiter, and have a romp. + +She rarely showed any unwillingness to go for the cows; but once, when +there was a quilting at her mistress's house, she demurred. It was +right in the midst of the festivities; they were just preparing for +supper, in fact. Ann knew all about the good things in the pantry, she +was wild with delight at the unwonted stir, and anxious not to lose +a minute of it. She thought some one else might go for the cows that +night. She cried and sulked, but there was no help for it. Go she had +to. So she tucked up her gown--it was her best Sunday one--took her +stick, and trudged along. When she came to the pasture, there were her +master's cows waiting at the bars. So were Neighbor Belcher's cows +also, in the adjoining pasture. Ann had her hand on the topmost of her +own bars, when she happened to glance over at Neighbor Belcher's, and +a thought struck her. She burst into a peal of laughter, and took a +step towards the other bars. Then she went back to her own. Finally, +she let down the Belcher bars, and the Belcher cows crowded out, to +the great astonishment of the Wales cows, who stared over their high +rails and mooed uneasily. + +Ann drove the Belcher cows home and ushered them into Samuel Wales' +barnyard with speed. Then she went demurely into the house. The table +looked beautiful. Ann was beginning to quake inwardly, though she +still was hugging herself, so to speak, in secret enjoyment of her +own mischief. She had one hope--that supper would be eaten before her +master milked. But the hope was vain. When she saw Mr. Wales come in, +glance her way, and then call his wife out, she knew at once what had +happened, and begun to tremble--she knew perfectly what Mr. Wales was +saying out there. It was this: "That little limb has driven home all +Neighbor Belcher's cows instead of ours; what's going to be done with +her?" + +She knew what the answer would be, too. Mrs. Polly was a peremptory +woman. + +Back Ann had to go with the Belcher cows, fasten them safely in their +pasture again, and drive her master's home. She was hustled off to +bed, then, without any of that beautiful supper. But she had just +crept into her bed in the small unfinished room upstairs where she +slept, and was lying there sobbing, when she heard a slow, fumbling +step on the stairs. Then the door opened, and Mrs. Deacon Thomas +Wales, Samuel Wales' mother, came in. She was a good old lady, and had +always taken a great fancy to her son's bound girl; and Ann, on her +part, minded her better than any one else. She hid her face in the tow +sheet, when she saw grandma. The old lady had on a long black silk +apron. She held something concealed under it, when she came in. +Presently she displayed it. + +"There--child," said she, "here's a piece of sweet cake and a couple +of simballs, that I managed to save out for you. Jest set right up and +eat 'em, and don't ever be so dretful naughty again, or I don't know +what will become of you." + +This reproof, tempered with sweetness, had a salutary effect on Ann. +She sat up, and ate her sweet cake and simballs, and sobbed out her +contrition to grandma, and there was a marked improvement in her +conduct for some days. + +Mrs. Polly was a born driver. She worked hard herself, and she +expected everybody about her to. The tasks which Ann had set her did +not seem as much out of proportion, then, as they would now. Still, +her mistress, even then, allowed her less time for play than was +usual, though it was all done in good faith, and not from any +intentional severity. As time went on, she grew really quite fond of +the child, and she was honestly desirous of doing her whole duty by +her. If she had had a daughter of her own, it is doubtful if her +treatment of her would have been much different. + +Still, Ann was too young to understand all this, and, sometimes, +though she was strong and healthy, and not naturally averse to work, +she would rebel, when her mistress set her stints so long, and kept +her at work when other children were playing. + +Once in a while she would confide in grandma, when Mrs. Polly sent her +over there on an errand and she had felt unusually aggrieved because +she had had to wind quills, or hetchel, instead of going berrying, or +some like pleasant amusement. + +"Poor little cosset," grandma would say, pityingly. + +Then she would give her a simball, and tell her she must "be a good +girl, and not mind if she couldn't play jest like the others, for +she'd got to airn her own livin', when she grew up, and she must learn +to work." + +Ann would go away comforted, but grandma would be privately indignant. +She was, as is apt to be the case, rather critical with her sons' +wives, and she thought "Sam'l's kept that poor little gal too stiddy +at work," and wished and wished she could shelter her under her own +grandmotherly wing, and feed her with simballs to her heart's content. +She was too wise to say anything to influence the child against her +mistress, however. She was always cautious about that, even while +pitying her. Once in a while she would speak her mind to her son, but +he was easy enough--Ann would not have found him a hard task-master. + +Still, Ann did not have to work hard enough to hurt her. The worst +consequences were that such a rigid rein on such a frisky little colt +perhaps had more to do with her "cutting up," as her mistress phrased +it, than she dreamed of. Moreover the thought of the indentures, +securely locked up in Mr. Wales' tall wooden desk, was forever in +Ann's mind. Half by dint of questioning various people, half by her +own natural logic she had settled it within herself, that at any time +the possession of these papers would set her free, and she could +go back to her own mother, whom she dimly remembered as being +loud-voiced, but merry, and very indulgent. However, Ann never +meditated in earnest, taking the indentures; indeed, the desk was +always locked--it held other documents more valuable than hers--and +Samuel Wales carried the key in his waistcoat-pocket. + +She went to a dame's school three months every year. Samuel Wales +carted half a cord of wood to pay for her schooling, and she learned +to write and read in the New England Primer. Next to her, on the split +log bench, sat a little girl named Hannah French. The two became fast +friends. Hannah was an only child, pretty and delicate, and very much +petted by her parents. No long hard tasks were set those soft little +fingers, even in those old days when children worked as well as their +elders. Ann admired and loved Hannah, because she had what she, +herself, had not; and Hannah loved and pitied Ann because she had not +what she had. It was a sweet little friendship, and would not have +been, if Ann had not been free from envy and Hannah humble and +pitying. + +When Ann told her what a long stint she had to do before school, +Hannah would shed sympathizing tears. + +Ann, after a solemn promise of secrecy, told her about the indentures +one day. Hannah listened with round, serious eyes; her brown hair was +combed smoothly down over her ears. She was a veritable little Puritan +damsel herself. + +"If I could only get the papers, I wouldn't have to mind her, and work +so hard," said Ann. + +Hannah's eyes grew rounder. "Why, it would be sinful to take them!" +said she. + +Ann's cheeks blazed under her wondering gaze, and she said no more. + +When she was about eleven years old, one icy January day, Hannah +wanted her to go out and play on the ice after school. They had no +skates, but it was rare fun to slide. Ann went home and asked Mrs. +Polly's permission with a beating heart; she promised to do a double +stint next day, if she would let her go. But her mistress was +inexorable--work before play, she said, always; and Ann must not +forget that she was to be brought up to work; it was different with +her from what it was with Hannah French. Even this she meant kindly +enough, but Ann saw Hannah go away, and sat down to her spinning with +more fierce defiance in her heart than had ever been there before. She +had been unusually good, too, lately. She always was, during the three +months' schooling, with sober, gentle little Hannah French. + +She had been spinning sulkily a while, and it was almost dark, when +a messenger came for her master and mistress to go to Deacon Thomas +Wales', who had been suddenly taken very ill. + +Ann would have felt sorry if she had not been so angry. Deacon Wales +was almost as much of a favorite of hers as his wife. As it was, the +principal thing she thought of, after Mr. Wales and his wife had gone, +was that the key was in the desk. However it had happened, there it +was. She hesitated a moment. She was all alone in the kitchen, and her +heart was in a tumult of anger, but she had learned her lessons from +the Bible and the New England Primer, and she was afraid of the sin. +But at last she opened the desk, found the indentures, and hid them +in the little pocket which she wore tied about her waist, under her +petticoat. + +Then Ann threw her blanket over her head, and got her poppet out of +the chest. The poppet was a little doll manufactured from a corn-cob, +dressed in an indigo-colored gown. Grandma had made it for her, and +it was her chief treasure. She clasped it tight to her bosom, and ran +across lots to Hannah French's. + +Hannah saw her coming, and met her at the door. + +"I've brought you my poppet," whispered Ann, all breathless, "and you +must keep her always, and not let her work too hard. I'm going away!" + +Hannah's eyes looked like two solemn moons. "Where are you going, +Ann?" + +"I'm going to Boston to find my own mother." She said nothing about +the indentures to Hannah--somehow she could not. + +Hannah could not say much, she was so astonished, but as soon as Ann +had gone, scudding across the fields, she went in with the poppet and +told her mother. + +Deacon Thomas Wales was very sick. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel remained at +his house all night, but Ann was not left alone, for Mr. Wales had an +apprentice who slept in the house. + +Ann did not sleep any that night. She got up very early, before any +one was stirring, and dressed herself in her Sunday clothes. Then she +tied up her working clothes in a bundle, crept softly downstairs, and +out doors. + +It was bright moonlight and quite cold. She ran along as fast as she +could on the Boston road. Deacon Thomas Wales's house was on the way. +The windows were lit up. She thought of grandma and poor grandpa, with +a sob in her heart, but she sped along. Past the schoolhouse, and +meeting-house, too, she had to go, with big qualms of grief and +remorse. But she kept on. She was a fast traveler. + +She had reached the North Precinct of Braintree by daylight. So far, +she had not encountered a single person. Now she heard horse's hoofs +behind her. She began to run faster, but it was of no use. Soon +Captain Abraham French loomed up on his big gray horse, a few paces +from her. He was Hannah's father, but he was a tithing-man, and looked +quite stern, and Ann had always stood in great fear of him. + +She ran on as fast as her little heels could fly, with a thumping +heart. But it was not long before she felt herself seized by a strong +arm and swung up behind Captain French on the gray horse. She was in a +panic of terror, and would have cried and begged for mercy if she +had not been in so much awe of her captor. She thought with awful +apprehension of these stolen indentures in her little pocket. What if +he should find that out! + +Captain French whipped up his horse, however, and hastened along +without saying a word. His silence, if anything, caused more dread in +Ann than words would have. But his mind was occupied. Deacon Thomas +Wales was dead; he was one of his most beloved and honored friends, +and it was a great shock to him. Hannah had told him about Ann's +premeditated escape, and he had set out on her track as soon as he had +found that she was really gone, that morning. But the news which he +had heard on his way, had driven all thoughts of reprimand which he +might have entertained, out of his head. He only cared to get the +child safely back. + +So not a word spoke Captain French, but rode on in grim and sorrowful +silence, with Ann clinging to him, till he reached her master's door. +Then he set her down with a stern and solemn injunction never to +transgress again, and rode away. + +Ann went into the kitchen with a quaking heart. It was empty and +still. Its very emptiness and stillness seemed to reproach her. There +stood the desk--she ran across to it, pulled the indentures from her +pocket, put them in their old place, and shut the lid down. There they +staid till the full and just time of her servitude had expired. She +never disturbed them again. + +On account of the grief and confusion incident on Deacon Wales's +death, she escaped with very little censure. She never made an attempt +to run away again. Indeed, she had no wish to, for after Deacon +Wales's death, grandma was lonely and wanted her, and she lived most +of the time with her. And, whether she was in reality treated any more +kindly or not, she was certainly happier. + + + + + + +DEACON THOMAS WALES'S WILL. + + + In the Name of God Amen! the Thirteenth Day of September One + Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty & eight, I, Thomas Wales of + Braintree, in the County of Suffolk & Province of the + Massachusetts Bay in New England, Gent--being in good health of + Body and of Sound Disproving mind and Memory, Thanks be given to + God--Calling to mind my mortality, Do therefore in my health make + and ordain this my Last Will and Testament. And First I Recommend + my Soul into the hand of God who gave it--Hoping through grace to + obtain Salvation thro' the merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ my + only Lord and Dear Redeemer, and my body to be Decently inter^d, + at the Discretion of my Executor, believing at the General + Resurection to receive the Same again by the mighty Power + of God--And such worldly estate as God in his goodness hath + graciously given me after Debts, funeral Expenses &c, are Paid I + give & Dispose of the Same as Followeth-- + + _Imprimis_--I Give to my beloved Wife Sarah a good Sute of + mourning apparrel Such as she may Choose--also if she acquit my + estate of Dower and third-therin (as we have agreed) Then that + my Executor return all of Household movables she bought at our + marriage & since that are remaining, also to Pay to her or Her + Heirs That Note of Forty Pound I gave to her, when she acquited my + estate and I hers. Before Division to be made as herein exprest, + also the Southwest fire-Room in my House, a right in my Cellar, + Halfe the Garden, also the Privilege of water at the well & yard + room and to bake in the oven what she hath need of to improve her + Life-time by her. + +After this, followed a division of his property amongst his children, +five sons and two daughters. + + +The "Homeplace" was given to his sons Ephraim and Atherton. Ephraim +had a good house of his own, so he took his share of the property in +land, and Atherton went to live in the old homestead. His quarters had +been poor enough; he had not been so successful as his brothers, and +had been unable to live as well. It had been a great cross to his +wife, Dorcas, who was very high-spirited. She had compared, bitterly, +the poverty of her household arrangements, with the abundant comfort +of her sisters-in-law. + +Now, she seized eagerly at the opportunity of improving her style of +living. The old Wales house was quite a pretentious edifice for those +times. All the drawback to her delight was, that Grandma should +have the southwest fire-room. She wanted to set up her high-posted +bedstead, with its enormous feather-bed in that, and have it for her +fore-room. Properly, it was the fore-room, being right across the +entry from the family sitting-room. There was a tall chest of drawers +that would fit in so nicely between the windows, too. Take it +altogether, she was chagrined at having to give up the southwest room; +but there was no help for it--there it was in Deacon Wales's will. + +Mrs. Dorcas was the youngest of all the sons' wives, as her husband +was the latest born. She was quite a girl to some of them. Grandma +had never more than half approved of her. Dorcas was high-strung and +flighty, she said. She had her doubts about living happily with her. +But Atherton was anxious for this division of the property, and he was +her youngest darling, so she gave in. She felt lonely, and out of +her element, when everything was arranged, she established in the +southwest fire-room, and Atherton's family keeping house in the +others, though things started pleasantly and peaceably enough. + +It occurred to her that her son Samuel might have her own "help," a +stout woman, who had worked in her kitchen for many years, and she +take in exchange his little bound girl, Ann Ginnins. She had always +taken a great fancy to the child. There was a large closet out of the +southwest room, where she could sleep, and she could be made very +useful, taking steps, and running "arrants" for her. + +Mr. Samuel and his wife hesitated a little when this plan was +proposed. In spite of the trouble she gave them, they were attached +to Ann, and did not like to part with her, and Mrs. Polly was just +getting her "larnt" her own ways, as she put it. Privately, she feared +Grandma would undo all the good she had done, in teaching Ann to be +smart and capable. Finally they gave in, with the understanding that +it was not to be considered necessarily a permanent arrangement, and +Ann went to live with the old lady. + +Mrs. Dorcas did not relish this any more than she did the +appropriation of the southwest fire-room. She had never liked Ann very +well. Besides she had two little girls of her own, and she fancied +Ann rivaled them in Grandma's affection. So, soon after the girl was +established in the house, she began to show out in various little +ways. + +Thirsey, her youngest child, was a mere baby, a round fat dumpling of +a thing. She was sweet, and good-natured, and the pet of the whole +family. Ann was very fond of playing with her, and tending her, and +Mrs. Dorcas began to take advantage of it. The minute Ann was at +liberty she was called upon to take care of Thirsey. The constant +carrying about such a heavy child soon began to make her shoulders +stoop and ache. Then Grandma took up the cudgels. She was smart and +high-spirited, but she was a very peaceable old lady on her own +account, and fully resolved "to put up with everything from Dorcas, +rather than have strife in the family." She was not going to see this +helpless little girl imposed on, however. "The little gal ain't +goin' to get bent all over, tendin' that heavy baby, Dorcas," she +proclaimed. "You can jist make up your mind to it. She didn't come +here to do sech work." + +So Dorcas had to make up her mind to it. + +Ann's principal duties were "scouring the brasses" in Grandma's room, +taking steps for her, and spinning her stint every day. Grandma set +smaller stints than Mrs. Polly. As time went on, she helped about the +cooking. She and Grandma cooked their own victuals, and ate from a +little separate table in the common kitchen. It was a very large room, +and might have accommodated several families, if they could have +agreed. There was a big oven and a roomy fire-place. Good Deacon Wales +had probably seen no reason at all why his "beloved wife" should not +have her right therein with the greatest peace and concord. + +But it soon came to pass that Mrs. Dorcas's pots and kettles were all +prepared to hang on the trammels when Grandma's were, and an army of +cakes and pies marshaled to go in the oven when Grandma had proposed +to do some baking. Grandma bore it patiently for a long time; but Ann +was with difficulty restrained from freeing her small mind, and her +black eyes snapped more dangerously at every new offense. + +One morning, Grandma had two loaves of "riz bread," and some election +cakes, rising, and was intending to bake them in about an hour, when +they should be sufficiently light. What should Mrs. Dorcas do, but mix +up sour milk bread, and some pies with the greatest speed, and fill up +the oven, before Grandma's cookery was ready! + +Grandma sent Ann out into the kitchen to put the loaves-in the oven +and lo and behold! the oven was full. Ann stood staring for a minute, +with a loaf of election cake in her hands; that and the bread would be +ruined if they were not baked immediately, as they were raised enough. +Mrs. Dorcas had taken Thirsey and stepped out somewhere, and there was +no one in the kitchen. Ann set the election cake back on the table. +Then, with the aid of the tongs, she reached into the brick oven and +took out every one of Mrs. Dorcas's pies and loaves. Then she arranged +them deliberately in a pitiful semicircle on the hearth, and put +Grandma's cookery in the oven. + +She went back to the southwest room then, and sat quietly down to her +spinning. Grandma asked if she had put the things in, and she said +"Yes, ma'am," meekly. There was a bright red spot on each of her dark +cheeks. + +When Mrs. Dorcas entered the kitchen, carrying Thirsey wrapped up in +an old homespun blanket, she nearly dropped as her gaze fell on the +fire-place and the hearth. There sat her bread and pies, in the most +lamentable half-baked, sticky, doughy condition imaginable. She opened +the oven, and peered in. There were Grandma's loaves, all a lovely +brown. Out they came, with a twitch. Luckily, they were done. Her own +went in, but they were irretrievable failures. + +Of course, quite a commotion came from this. Dorcas raised her shrill +voice pretty high, and Grandma, though she had been innocent of the +whole transaction, was so blamed that she gave Dorcas a piece of her +mind at last. Ann surveyed the nice brown loaves, and listened to the +talk in secret satisfaction; but she had to suffer for it afterward. +Grandma punished her for the first time, and she discovered that that +kind old hand was pretty firm and strong. "No matter what you think or +whether you air in the rights on't, or not, a little gal mustn't ever +sass her elders," said Grandma. + +But if Ann's interference was blamable, it was productive of one good +result--the matter came to Mr. Atherton's ears, and he had a stern +sense of justice when roused, and a great veneration for his mother. +His father's will should be carried out to the letter, he declared; +and it was. Grandma baked and boiled in peace, outwardly, at least, +after that. + +Ann was a great comfort to her; she was outgrowing her wild, +mischievous ways, and she was so bright and quick. She promised to +be pretty, too. Grandma compared her favorably with her own +grandchildren, especially Mrs. Dorcas's eldest daughter Martha, who +was nearly Ann's age. "Marthy's a pretty little gal enough," she used +to say, "but she ain't got the snap to her that Ann has, though I +wouldn't tell Atherton's wife so, for the world." + +She promised Ann her gold beads, when she should be done with them, +under strict injunctions not to say anything about it till the time +came; for the others might feel hard as she wasn't her own flesh and +blood. The gold beads were Ann's ideals of beauty and richness, though +she did not like to hear Grandma talk about being "done with them." +Grandma always wore them around her fair, plump old neck; she had +never seen her without her string of beads. + +As before said, Ann was now very seldom mischievous enough to +make herself serious trouble; but, once in a while, her natural +propensities would crop out. When they did, Mrs. Dorcas was +exceedingly bitter. Indeed, her dislike of Ann was, at all times, +smouldering, and needed only a slight fanning to break out. + +One stormy winter day Mrs. Dorcas had been working till dark, making +candle-wicks. When she came to get tea, she tied the white fleecy +rolls together, a great bundle of them, and hung them up in the +cellar-way, over the stair, to be out of the way. They were extra fine +wicks, being made of flax for the company candles. "I've got a good +job done," said Mrs. Dorcas, surveying them complacently. Her husband +had gone to Boston, and was not coming home till the next day, so she +had had a nice chance to work at them, without as much interruption as +usual. + +Ann, going down the cellar stairs, with a lighted candle, after some +butter for tea, spied the beautiful rolls swinging overhead. What +possessed her to, she could not herself have told--she certainly had +no wish to injure Mrs. Dorcas's wicks--but she pinched up a little end +of the fluffy flax and touched her candle to it. She thought she would +see how that little bit would burn off. She soon found out. The flame +caught, and ran like lightning through the whole bundle. There was a +great puff of fire and smoke, and poor Mrs. Dorcas's fine candle-wicks +were gone. Ann screamed, and sprang downstairs. She barely escaped the +whole blaze coming in her face. + +"What's that!" shrieked Mrs. Dorcas, rushing to the cellar door. Words +cannot describe her feeling when she saw that her nice candle-wicks, +the fruit of her day's toil, were burnt up. + +If ever there was a wretched culprit that night, Ann was. She had not +meant to do wrong, but that, may be, made it worse for her in one way. +She had not even gratified malice to sustain her. Grandma blamed her, +almost as severely as Mrs. Dorcas. She said she didn't know what would +"become of a little gal, that was so keerless," and decreed that she +must stay at home from school and work on candle-wicks till Mrs. +Dorcas's loss was made good to her. Ann listened ruefully. She was +scared and sorry, but that did not seem to help matters any. She did +not want any supper, and she went to bed early and cried herself to +sleep. + +Somewhere about midnight, a strange sound woke her up. She called out +to Grandma in alarm. The same sound had awakened her. "Get up, an' +light a candle, child," said she; "I'm afeard the baby's sick." + +Ann scarcely had the candle lighted, before the door opened, and Mrs. +Dorcas appeared in her nightdress. She was very pale, and trembling +all over. "Oh!" she gasped, "it's the baby. Thirsey's got the croup, +an' Atherton's away, and there ain't anybody to go for the doctor. Oh, +what shall I do, what shall I do!" She fairly wrung her hands. + +"Hev you tried the skunk's oil?" asked Grandma eagerly, preparing to +get up. + +"Yes, I have, I have! It's a good hour since she woke up, an' I've +tried everything. It hasn't done any good. I thought I wouldn't +call you, if I could help it, but she's worse--only hear her! An' +Atherton's away! Oh! what shall I do, what shall I do?" + +"Don't take on so, Dorcas," said Grandma, tremulously, but cheeringly. +"I'll come right along, an'--why, child, what air you goin' to do?" + +Ann had finished dressing herself, and now she was pinning a heavy +homespun blanket over her head, as if she were preparing to go out +doors. + +"I'm going after the doctor for Thirsey," said Ann, her black eyes +flashing with determination. + +"Oh, will you, will you!" cried Mrs. Dorcas, catching at this new +help. + +"Hush, Dorcas," said Grandma, sternly. "It's an awful storm out--jist +hear the wind blow! It ain't fit fur her to go. Her life's jist as +precious as Thirsey's." + +Ann said nothing more, but she went into her own little room with the +same determined look in her eyes. There was a door leading from this +room into the kitchen. Ann slipped through it hastily, lit a lantern +which was hanging beside the kitchen chimney, and was out doors in a +minute. + +The storm was one of sharp, driving sleet, which struck her face like +so many needles. The first blast, as she stepped outside the door, +seemed to almost force her back, but her heart did not fail her. The +snow was not so very deep, but it was hard walking. There was no +pretense of a path. The doctor lived half a mile away, and there +was not a house in the whole distance, save the meeting house and +schoolhouse. It was very dark. Lucky it was that she had taken the +lantern; she could not have found her way without it. + +On kept the little slender, erect figure, with the fierce +determination in its heart, through the snow and sleet, holding the +blanket close over its head, and swinging the feeble lantern bravely. + +When she reached the doctor's house, he was gone. He had started for +the North Precinct early in the evening, his good wife said; he was +called down to Captain Isaac Lovejoy's, the house next the North +Precinct Meeting House. She'd been sitting up waiting for him, it was +such an awful storm, and such a lonely road. She was worried, but she +didn't think he'd start for home that night; she guessed he'd stay at +Captain Lovejoy's till morning. + +[Illustration: SHE ALMOST FAINTED FROM COLD AND EXHAUSTION.] + +The doctor's wife, holding her door open, as best she could, in +the violent wind, had hardly given this information to the little +snow-bedraggled object standing out there in the inky darkness, +through which the lantern made a faint circle of light, before she had +disappeared. + +"She went like a speerit," said the good woman, staring out into the +blackness in amazement. She never dreamed of such a thing as Ann's +going to the North Precinct after the doctor, but that was what the +daring girl had determined to do. She had listened to the doctor's +wife in dismay, but with never one doubt as to her own course of +proceeding. + +Straight along the road to the North Precinct she kept. It would +have been an awful journey that night for a strong man. It seemed +incredible that a little girl could have the strength or courage to +accomplish it. There were four miles to traverse in a black, howling +storm, over a pathless road, through forests, with hardly a house by +the way. + +When she reached Captain Isaac Lovejoy's house, next to the meeting +house in the North Precinct of Braintree, stumbling blindly into the +warm, lighted kitchen, the captain and the doctor could hardly believe +their senses. She told the doctor about Thirsey; then she almost +fainted from cold and exhaustion. + +Good-wife Lovejoy laid her on the settee, and brewed her some hot herb +tea. She almost forgot her own sick little girl, for a few minutes, +in trying to restore this brave child who had come from the South +Precinct in this dreadful storm to save little Thirsey Wales's life. + +When Ann came to herself a little, her first question was, if the +doctor were ready to go. + +"He's gone," said Mrs. Lovejoy, cheeringly. + +Ann felt disappointed. She had thought she was going back with him. +But that would have been impossible. She could not have stood the +journey for the second time that night, even on horseback behind the +doctor, as she had planned. + +She drank a second bowlful of herb tea, and went to bed with a hot +stone at her feet, and a great many blankets and coverlids over her. + +The next morning, Captain Lovejoy carried her home. He had a rough +wood sled, and she rode on that, on an old quilt; it was easier than +horseback, and she was pretty lame and tired. + +Mrs. Dorcas saw her coming and opened the door. When Ann came up on +the stoop, she just threw her arms around her and kissed her. + +"You needn't make the candle-wicks," said she. "It's no matter about +them at all. Thirsey's better this morning, an' I guess you saved her +life." + +Grandma was fairly bursting with pride and delight in her little gal's +brave feat, now that she saw her safe. She untied the gold beads on +her neck, and fastened them around Ann's. "There," said she, "you may +wear them to school to-day, if you'll be keerful." + +That day, with the gold beads by way of celebration, began a new era +in Ann's life. There was no more secret animosity between her and +Mrs. Dorcas. The doctor had come that night in the very nick of time. +Thirsey was almost dying. Her mother was fully convinced that Ann had +saved her life, and she never forgot it. She was a woman of strong +feelings, who never did things by halves, and she not only treated Ann +with kindness, but she seemed to smother her grudge against Grandma +for robbing her of the southwest fire-room. + + + + + + +THE ADOPTED DAUGHTER + + +The Inventory of the Estate of Samuel Wales Late of Braintree, Taken +by the Subscribers, March the 14th, 1761. + +His Purse in Cash £11-15-01 +His apparrel 10-11-00 +His watch 2-13-04 +The Best Bed with two Coverlids, three sheets, + two underbeds, two Bolsters, two pillows, + Bedstead rope £6 +One mill Blanket, two Phlanel sheets, 12 toe Sheets £3-4-8 +Eleven Towels & table Cloth 0-15-0 +a pair of mittens & pr. of Gloves 0-2-0 +a neck Handkerchief & neckband 0-4-0 +an ovel Tabel--Two other Tabels 1-12-0 +A Chist with Draws 2-8-0 +Another Low Chist with Draws & three other Chists 1-10-0 +Six best Chears and a great chear 1-6-0 +a warming pan--Two Brass Kittles 1-5-0 +a Small Looking Glass, five Pewter Basons 0-7-8 +fifteen other Chears 0-15-0 +fire arms, Sword & bayonet 1-4-0 +Six Porringers, four platters, Two Pewter Pots £1-0-4 +auger Chisel, Gimlet, a Bible & other Books 0-15-4 +A chese press, great spinning-wheel, & spindle 0-9-0 +a smith's anvil £3-12-0 +the Pillion 0-8-0 +a Bleu Jacket 0-0-3 + + AARON WHITCOMB. + SILAS WHITE. + +The foregoing is only a small portion of the original inventory of +Samuel Wales's estate. He was an exceedingly well-to-do man for these +times. He had a good many acres of rich pasture and woodland, and +considerable live stock. Then his home was larger and more comfortable +than was usual then; and his stock of household utensils plentiful. + +He died three years after Ann Ginnins went to live with Grandma, when +she was about thirteen years old. Grandma spared her to Mrs. Polly for +a few weeks after the funeral; there was a great deal to be done, and +she needed some extra help. And, after all, Ann was legally bound to +her, and her lawful servant. + +So the day after good Samuel Wales was laid away in the little +Braintree burying-ground, Ann returned to her old quarters for a +little while. She did not really want to go; but she did not object +to the plan at all. She was sincerely sorry for poor Mrs. Polly, +and wanted to help her, if she could. She mourned, herself, for Mr. +Samuel. He had always been very kind to her. + +Mrs. Polly had for company, besides Ann, Nabby Porter, Grandma's old +hired woman whom she had made over to her, and a young man who had +been serving as apprentice to Mr. Samuel. His name was Phineas Adams. +He was very shy and silent, but a good workman. + +Samuel Wales left a will bequeathing everything to his widow; that was +solemnly read in the fore-room one afternoon; then the inventory had +to be taken. That, on account of the amount of property, was quite an +undertaking; but it was carried out with the greatest formality and +precision. + +For several days, Mr. Aaron Whitcomb and Mr. Silas White were stalking +majestically about the premises, with note-books and pens. Aaron +Whitcomb was a grave, portly old man, with a large head of white hair. +Silas White was little and wiry and fussy. He monopolized the greater +part of the business, although he was not half as well fitted for it +as his companion. + +They pried into everything with religious exactitude. Mrs. Polly +watched them with beseeming awe and deference, but it was a great +trial to her, and she grew very nervous over it. It seemed dreadful to +have all her husband's little personal effects, down to his neckband +and mittens, handled over, and their worth in shillings and pence +calculated. She had a price fixed on them already in higher currency. + +Ann found her crying one afternoon sitting on the kitchen settle, with +her apron over her head. When she saw the little girl's pitying look, +she poured out her trouble to her. + +"They've just been valuing his mittens and gloves," said she, sobbing, +"at two-and-sixpence. I shall be thankful when they are through." + +"Are there any more of his things?" asked Ann, her black eyes +flashing, with the tears in them. + +"I think they've seen about all. There's his blue jacket he used to +milk in, a-hanging behind the shed door--I guess they haven't valued +that yet." + +"I think it's a shame!" quoth Ann. "I don't believe there's any need +of so much law." + +"Hush, child! You mustn't set yourself up against the judgment of your +elders. Such things have to be done." + +Ann said no more, but the indignant sparkle did not fade out of her +eyes at all. She watched her opportunity, and took down Mr. Wales's +old blue jacket from its peg behind the shed door, ran with it +upstairs, and hid it in her own room behind the bed. "There," said +she, "Mrs. Wales sha'n't cry over that!" + +That night, at tea time, the work of taking the inventory was +complete. Mr. Whitcomb and Mr. White walked away with their long +lists, satisfied that they had done their duty according to the law. +Every article of Samuel Wales's property, from a warming-pan to a +chest of drawers, was set down, with the sole exception of that old +blue jacket, which Ann had hidden. + +She felt complacent over it at first; then she began to be uneasy. + +"Nabby," said she confidentially to the old servant woman, when they +were washing the pewter plates together after supper, "what would they +do if anybody shouldn't let them set down all the things--if they hid +some of 'em away, I mean?" + +"They'd make a dretful time on't," said Nabby impressively. She was +a large, stern-looking old woman. "They air dretful perticklar 'bout +these things. They hev to be." + +Ann was scared when she heard that. When the dishes were done, she sat +down on the settle and thought it over, and made up her mind what to +do. + +The next morning, in the frosty dawning, before the rest of the family +were up, a slim, erect little figure could have been seen speeding +across lots toward Mr. Silas White's. She had the old blue jacket +tucked under her arm. When she reached the house, she spied Mr. White +just coming out of the back door with a milking pail. He carried a +lantern, too, for it was hardly light. + +He stopped and stared when Ann ran up to him. + +"Mr. White," said she, all breathless, "here's--something--I guess yer +didn't see yesterday." + +Mr. White set down the milk pail, took the blue jacket which she +handed him, and scrutinized it sharply by the light of the lantern. + +"I guess we didn't see it," said he finally. "I will put it down--it's +worth about three pence, I judge. Where"-- + +"Silas, Silas!" called a shrill voice from the house. Silas White +dropped the jacket and trotted briskly in, his lantern bobbing +agitatedly. He never delayed a moment when his wife called; important +and tyrannical as the little man was abroad, he had his own tyrant at +home. + +Ann did not wait for him to return; she snatched up the blue jacket +and fled home, leaping like a little deer over the hoary fields. She +hung up the precious old jacket behind the shed door again, and no one +ever knew the whole story of its entrance in the inventory. If she had +been questioned, she would have told the truth boldly, though. But +Samuel Wales's Inventory had for its last item that blue jacket, +spelled after Silas White's own individual method, as was many another +word in the long list. Silas White consulted his own taste with +respect to capital letters too. + +After a few weeks, Grandma said she must have Ann again; and back she +went. Grandma was very feeble lately, and everybody humored her. Mrs. +Polly was sorry to have the little girl leave her. She said it was +wonderful how much she had improved. But she would not have admitted +that the improvement was owing to the different influence she had been +under; she said Ann had outgrown her mischievous ways. + +Grandma did not live very long after this, however. Mrs. Polly had +her bound girl at her own disposal in a year's time. Poor Ann was +sorrowful enough for a long while after Grandma's death. She wore the +beloved gold beads round her neck, and a sad ache in her heart. The +dear old woman had taken the beads off her neck with her own hands +and given them to Ann before she died, that there might be no mistake +about it. + +Mrs. Polly said she was glad Ann had them. "You might jist as well +have 'em as Dorcas's girl," said she; "she set enough sight more by +you." + +Ann could not help growing cheerful again, after a while. Affairs in +Mrs. Polly's house were much brighter for her, in some ways, than they +had ever been before. + +Either the hot iron of affliction had smoothed some of the puckers out +of her mistress's disposition, or she was growing, naturally, less +sharp and dictatorial. Any way, she was becoming as gentle and loving +with Ann as it was in her nature to be, and Ann, following her +impulsive temper, returned all the affection with vigor, and never +bestowed a thought on past unpleasantness. + +For the next two years, Ann's position in the family grew to be more +and more that of a daughter. If it had not been for the indentures, +lying serenely in that tall wooden desk, she would almost have +forgotten, herself, that she was a bound girl. + +One spring afternoon, when Ann was about sixteen years old, her +mistress called her solemnly into the fore-room. "Ann," said she, +"come here, I want to speak to you." + +Nabby stared wonderingly; and Ann, as she obeyed, felt awed. There was +something unusual in her mistress's tone. + +Standing there in the fore-room, in the august company of the best +bed, with its high posts and flowered-chintz curtains, the best chest +of drawers, and the best chairs, Ann listened to what Mrs. Polly had +to tell her. It was a plan which almost took her breath away; for it +was this: Mrs. Polly proposed to adopt her, and change her name to +Wales. She would be no longer Ann Ginnins, and a bound girl: but Ann +Wales, and a daughter in her mother's home. + +Ann dropped into one of the best chairs, and sat there, her little +dark face very pale. "Should I have the--papers?" she gasped at +length. + +"Your papers? Yes, child, you can have them." + +"I don't want them," cried Ann, "never! I want them to stay just where +they are, till my time is out. If I am adopted, I don't want the +papers!" + +Mrs. Polly stared. She had never known how Ann had taken the +indentures with her on her run-away trip years ago; but now Ann +told her the whole story. In her gratitude to her mistress, and her +contrition, she had to. + +It was so long ago in Ann's childhood, it did not seem so very +dreadful to Mrs. Polly, probably. But Ann insisted on the indentures +remaining in the desk, even after the papers of adoption were made +out, and she had become "Ann Wales." It seemed to go a little way +toward satisfying her conscience. This adoption meant a good deal to +Ann; for besides a legal home, and a mother, it secured to her a +right in a comfortable property in the future. Mrs. Polly Wales was +considered very well off. She was a smart business-woman, and knew how +to take care of her property too. She still hired Phineas Adams to +carry on the blacksmith's business, and kept her farm-work running +just as her husband had. Neither she nor Ann were afraid of work, and +Ann Wales used to milk the cows, and escort them to and from pasture, +as faithfully as Ann Ginnins. + +It was along in springtime when Ann was adopted, and Mrs. Polly +fulfilled her part of the contract in the indentures by getting the +Sunday suit therein spoken of. + +They often rode on horseback to meeting, but they usually walked on +the fine Sundays in spring. Ann had probably never been so happy in +her life as she was walking by Mrs. Polly's side to meeting that first +Sunday after her adoption. Most of the way was through the woods; +the tender light green boughs met over their heads; the violets and +anemones were springing beside their path. There were green buds and +white blossoms all around; the sky showed blue between the waving +branches, and the birds were singing. + +Ann in her pretty petticoat of rose-colored stuff, stepping daintily +over the young grass and the flowers, looked and felt like a part of +it all. Her dark cheeks had a beautiful red glow on them; her black +eyes shone. She was as straight and graceful and stately as an Indian. + +"She's as handsome as a picture," thought Mrs. Polly in her secret +heart. A good many people said that Ann resembled Mrs. Polly in her +youth, and that may have added force to her admiration. + +Her new gown was very fine for those days; but fine as she was, and +adopted daughter though she was, Ann did not omit her thrifty ways for +once. This identical morning Mrs. Polly and she carried their best +shoes under their arms, and wore their old ones, till within a short +distance from the meeting-house. Then the old shoes were tucked away +under a stone wall for safety, and the best ones put on. Stone walls, +very likely, sheltered a good many well-worn little shoes, of a +Puritan Sabbath, that their prudent owners might appear in the House +of God trimly shod. Ah! these beautiful, new, peaked-toed, high-heeled +shoes of Ann's--what would she have said to walking in them all the +way to meeting! + +If that Sunday was an eventful one to Ann Wales, so was the week +following. The next Tuesday, right after dinner, she was up in a +little unfinished chamber over the kitchen, where they did such work +when the weather permitted, carding wool. All at once, she heard +voices down below. They had a strange inflection, which gave her +warning at once. She dropped her work and listened. "What is the +matter?" thought she. + +Then there was a heavy tramp on the stairs, and Captain Abraham French +stood in the door, his stern weather-beaten face white and set. Mrs. +Polly followed him, looking very pale and excited. + +"When did you see anything of our Hannah?" asked Captain French, +controlling as best he could the tremor in his resolute voice. + +Ann rose, gathering up her big blue apron, cards, wool and all. "Oh," +she cried, "not since last Sabbath, at meeting! What is it?" + +"She's lost," answered Captain French. "She started to go up to her +Aunt Sarah's Monday forenoon; and Enos has just been down, and they +haven't seen anything of her." Poor Captain French gave a deep groan. + +Then they all went down into the kitchen together, talking and +lamenting. And then, Captain French was galloping away on his gray +horse to call assistance, and Ann was flying away over the fields, +blue apron, cards, wool and all. + +"O, Ann!" Mrs. Polly cried after, "where are you going?" + +"I'm going--to find--Hannah!" Ann shouted back, in a shrill, desperate +voice, and kept on. + +She had no definite notion as to where she was going; she had only one +thought--Hannah French, her darling, tender, little Hannah French, her +friend whom she loved better than a sister, was lost. + +A good three miles from the Wales home was a large tract of rough +land, half-swamp, known as "Bear Swamp." There was an opinion, more or +less correct, that bears might be found there. Some had been shot in +that vicinity. Why Ann turned her footsteps in that direction, +she could not have told herself. Possibly the vague impression of +conversations she and Hannah had had, lingering in her mind, had +something to do with it. Many a time the two little girls had remarked +to each other with a shudder, "How awful it would be to get lost in +Bear Swamp." + +Any way, Ann went straight there, through pasture and woodland, over +ditches and stone walls. She knew every step of the way for a long +distance. When she gradually got into the unfamiliar wilderness of the +swamp, a thought struck her--suppose she got lost too! It would +be easy enough--the unbroken forest stretched for miles in some +directions. She would not find a living thing but Indians, and, maybe, +wild beasts, the whole distance. + +If she should get lost she would not find Hannah, and the people would +have to hunt for her too. But Ann had quick wits for an emergency. She +had actually carried those cards, with a big wad of wool between them +all the time, in her gathered-up apron. Now she began picking off +little bits of wool and marking her way with them, sticking them on +the trees and bushes. Every few feet a fluffy scrap of wool showed the +road Ann had gone. + +But poor Ann went on, farther and farther--and no sign of Hannah. She +kept calling her from time to time, hallooing at the top of her shrill +sweet voice: "Hannah! Hannah! Hannah Fre-nch!" + +But never a response got the dauntless little girl, slipping almost up +to her knees sometimes, in black swamp-mud; and sometimes stumbling +painfully over tree-stumps, and through tangled undergrowth. + +"I'll go till my wool gives out," said Ann Wales; then she used it +more sparingly. + +But it was almost gone before she thought she heard in the distance a +faint little cry in response to her call: "Hannah! Hannah Fre-nch!" +She called again and listened. Yes; she certainly did hear a little +cry off toward the west. Calling from time to time, she went as nearly +as she could in that direction. The pitiful answering cry grew louder +and nearer; finally Ann could distinguish Hannah's voice. + +Wild with joy, she came, at last, upon her sitting on a fallen +hemlock-tree, her pretty face pale, and her sweet blue eyes strained +with terror. + +"O, Hannah!" "O, Ann!" + +"How did you ever get here, Hannah?" + +"I--started for aunt Sarah's--that morning," explained Hannah, between +sobs. "And--I got frightened in the woods, about a mile from father's. +I saw something ahead I thought was a bear. A great black thing! Then +I ran--and, somehow, the first thing I knew, I was lost. I walked and +walked, and it seems to me I kept coming right back to the same place. +Finally I sat down here, and staid; I thought it was all the way for +me to be found." + +"O, Hannah! what did you do last night?" + +"I staid somewhere, under some pine-trees," replied Hannah, with a +shudder; "and I kept hearing things--O, Ann!" + +Ann hugged her sympathizingly. "I guess I wouldn't have slept much if +I had known," said she. "O, Hannah, you haven't had anything to eat! +ain't you starved?" + +Hannah laughed faintly. "I ate up two whole pumpkin pies I was +carrying to aunt Sarah," said she. "Oh! how lucky it was you had +them." "Yes; mother called me back to get them, after I started. They +were some new ones, made with cream, and she thought aunt Sarah would +like them." + +Pretty soon they started. It was hard work, for the way was very +rough, and poor Hannah weak. But Ann had a good deal of strength in +her lithe young frame, and she half-carried Hannah over the worst +places. Still both of the girls were pretty well spent when they came +to the last of the bits of wool on the border of Bear Swamp. However, +they kept on a little farther; then they had to stop and rest. "I know +where I am now," said Hannah, with a sigh of delight; "but I don't +think I can walk another step." She was, in fact, almost exhausted. + +Ann looked at her thoughtfully. She hardly knew what to do. She could +not carry Hannah herself--indeed, her own strength began to fail; and +she did not want to leave her to go for assistance. + +All of a sudden, she jumped up. "You stay just where you are a few +minutes, Hannah," said she. "I'm going somewhere. I'll be back soon." +Ann was laughing. + +Hannah looked up at her pitifully: "O Ann, don't go!" + +"I'm coming right back, and it is the only way. You must get home. +Only think how your father and mother are worrying!" + +Hannah said no more after that mention of her parents, and Ann +started. + +[Illustration: "A CONVEYANCE IS FOUND."] + +She was not gone long. When she came in sight she was laughing, and +Hannah, weak as she was, laughed, too. Ann had torn her blue apron +into strips, and tied it together for a rope, and by it she was +leading a red cow. + +Hannah knew the cow, and knew at once what the plan was. "O, Ann! you +mean for me to ride Betty?" + +"Of course I do. I just happened to think our cows were in the +pasture, down below here. And we've ridden Betty, lots of times, when +we were children, and she's just as gentle now. Whoa, Betty, good +cow." + +It was very hard work to get Hannah on to the broad back of her novel +steed, but it was finally accomplished. Betty had been a perfect pet +from a calf, and was exceedingly gentle. She started off soberly +across the fields, with Hannah sitting on her back, and Ann leading +her by her blue rope. + +It was a funny cavalcade for Captain Abraham French and a score of +anxious men to meet, when they were nearly in sight of home; but they +were too overjoyed to see much fun in it. + +Hannah rode the rest of the way with her father, on his gray horse; +and Ann walked joyfully by her side, leading the cow. + +Captain French and his friends had, in fact, just started to search +Bear Swamp, well armed with lanterns, for night was coming on. + +It was dark when they got home. Mrs. French was not much more +delighted to see her beloved daughter Hannah safe again, than Mrs. +Polly was to see Ann. + +She listened admiringly to the story Ann told. + +"Nobody but you would have thought of the wool or of the cow," said +she. + +"I do declare," cried Ann, at the mention of the wool, "I have lost +the cards!" + +"Never mind the cards!" said Mrs. Polly. + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pot of Gold, by Mary E. 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