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diff --git a/28306.txt b/28306.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7a36aa --- /dev/null +++ b/28306.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1688 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Fairy, by +John Strange Winter and Frances E. Crompton and Mrs. Molesworth + +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 Christmas Fairy + and Other Stories + +Author: John Strange Winter + Frances E. Crompton + Mrs. Molesworth + +Release Date: March 11, 2009 [EBook #28306] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS FAIRY *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + + + +THE CHRISTMAS FAIRY + + by + John Strange Winter + & + Other stories + by + Frances E. Crompton + & + Mrs. Molesworth + +[Illustration] + + + + +A Christmas Fairy + +[Illustration: "A tall handsome lady came in, and Shivers flew to her +arms."] + + + + + +A Christmas Fairy + + by + JOHN STRANGE WINTER + AND OTHER STORIES BY + FRANCES E. CROMPTON + AND + MRS. MOLESWORTH + + London New York + Ernest Nister E.P. Dutton & Co. + + + Printed in Bavaria + 1878. + +[Illustration] + + + + +Contents + + + A Christmas Fairy _John Strange Winter_ 5 + Not Quite True _Mrs. Molesworth_ 15 + In the Chimney Corner _Frances E. Crompton_ 41 + + + + +A CHRISTMAS FAIRY + +By John Strange Winter. + + +IT was getting very near to Christmas-time, and all the boys at Miss +Ware's school were talking excitedly about going home for the holidays, +of the fun they would have, the presents they would receive on Christmas +morning, the tips from Grannies, Uncles, and Aunts, of the pantomimes, +the parties, the never-ending joys and pleasures which would be theirs. + +"I shall go to Madame Tussaud's and to the Drury Lane pantomime," said +young Fellowes, "and my mother will give a party, and Aunt Adelaide will +give another, and Johnny Sanderson and Mary Greville, and ever so many +others. I shall have a splendid time at home. Oh! Jim, I wish it were +all holidays like it is when one's grown up." + +"My Uncle Bob is going to give me a pair of skates--clippers," remarked +Harry Wadham. + +"My father's going to give me a bike," put in George Alderson. + +"Will you bring it back to school with you?" asked Harry. + +"Oh! yes, I should think so, if Miss Ware doesn't say no." + +"I say, Shivers," cried Fellowes, "where are you going to spend your +holidays?" + +"I'm going to stop here," answered the boy called Shivers, in a very +forlorn tone. + +"Here--with old Ware?--oh, my! Why can't you go home?" + +"I can't go home to India," answered Shivers--his real name, by the bye, +was Egerton, Tom Egerton. + +"No--who said you could? But haven't you any relations anywhere?" + +Shivers shook his head. "Only in India," he said miserably. + +"Poor old chap; that's rough luck for you. Oh, I'll tell you what it is, +you fellows, if I couldn't go home for the holidays--especially at +Christmas--I think I'd just sit down and die." + +"Oh! no, you wouldn't," said Shivers; "you'd hate it, and you'd get ever +so home-sick and miserable, but you wouldn't die over it. You'd just get +through somehow, and hope something would happen before next year, or +that some kind fairy or other would----" + +"Bosh! there are no fairies nowadays," said Fellowes. "See here, +Shivers, I'll write home and ask my mother if she won't invite you to +come back with me for the holidays." + +"Will you really?" + +"Yes, I will: and if she says yes, we shall have such a splendid time, +because you know, we live in London, and go to everything, and have +heaps of tips and parties and fun." + +"Perhaps she will say no," suggested poor little Shivers, who had +steeled himself to the idea that there would be no Christmas holidays +for him, excepting that he would have no lessons for so many weeks. + +"My mother isn't at all the kind of woman who says no," Fellowes +declared loudly. + +In a few days' time, however, a letter arrived from his mother, which he +opened eagerly. + + "My own darling boy," it said, "I am so very sorry + to have to tell you that dear little Aggie is down + with scarlet fever, and so you cannot come home + for your holidays, nor yet bring your young friend + with you, as I would have loved you to do if all + had been well here. Your Aunt Adelaide would have + had you there, but her two girls have both got + scarlatina--and I believe Aggie got hers there, + though, of course, poor Aunt Adelaide could not + help it. I did think about your going to Cousin + Rachel's. She most kindly offered to invite you, + but, dear boy, she is an old lady, and so + particular, and not used to boys, and she lives so + far from anything which is going on that you would + be able to go to nothing, so your father and I + came to the conclusion that the very best thing + that you could do under the circumstances is for + you to stay at Miss Ware's and for us to send your + Christmas to you as well as we can. It won't be + like being at home, darling boy, but you will try + and be happy--won't you, and make me feel that you + are helping me in this dreadful time. Dear little + Aggie is very ill, very ill indeed. We have two + nurses. Nora and Connie are shut away in the + morning-room and to the back stairs and their own + rooms with Miss Ellis, and have not seen us since + the dear child was first taken ill. Tell your + young friend that I am sending you a hamper from + Buszard's, with double of everything, and I am + writing to Miss Ware to ask her to take you both + to anything that may be going on in Cross + Hampton. And tell him that it makes me so much + happier to think that you won't be alone.-- + + "Your own MOTHER." + + "This letter will smell queer, darling; it will be + fumigated before posting." + +It must be owned that when Bertie Fellowes received this letter, which +was neither more nor less than a shattering of all his Christmas hopes +and joys, that he fairly broke down, and hiding his face upon his arms +as they rested on his desk, sobbed aloud. The forlorn boy from India, +who sat next to him, tried every boyish means of consolation that he +could think of. He patted his shoulder, whispered many pitying words, +and, at last, flung his arm across him and hugged him tightly, as, poor +little chap, he himself many times since his arrival in England, had +_wished_ someone would do to him. + +At last Bertie Fellowes thrust his mother's letter into his friend's +hand. "Read it," he sobbed. + +So Shivers made himself master of Mrs. Fellowes' letter and understood +the cause of the boy's outburst of grief. "Old fellow," he said at last, +"don't fret over it. It might be worse. Why, you might be like me, with +your father and mother thousands of miles away. When Aggie is better, +you'll be able to go home--and it'll help your mother if she thinks you +are _almost_ as happy as if you were at home. It must be worse for +her--she has cried ever so over her letter--see, it's all tear-blots." + +The troubles and disappointments of youth are bitter while they last, +but they soon pass, and the sun shines again. By the time Miss Ware, who +was a kind-hearted, sensible, pleasant woman, came to tell Fellowes how +sorry she was for him and his disappointment, the worst had gone by, and +the boy was resigned to what could not be helped. + +[Illustration] + +"Well, after all, one man's meat is another man's poison," she said, +smiling down on the two boys; "poor Tom has been looking forward to +spending his holidays all alone with us, and now he will have a friend +with him. Try to look on the bright side, Bertie, and to remember how +much worse it would have been if there had been no boy to stay with +you." + +"I can't help being disappointed, Miss Ware," said Bertie, his eyes +filling afresh and his lips quivering. + +"No, dear boy, you would be anything but a nice boy if you were not. But +I want you to try and think of your poor mother, who is full of trouble +and anxiety, and to write to her as brightly as you can, and tell her +not to worry about you more than she can help." + +"Yes," said Bertie; but he turned his head away, and it was evident to +the school-mistress that his heart was too full to let him say more. + +Still, he was a good boy, Bertie Fellowes, and when he wrote home to +his mother it was quite a bright every-day kind of letter, telling her +how sorry he was about Aggie, and detailing a few of the ways in which +he and Shivers meant to spend their holidays. His letter ended thus:-- + +"Shivers got a letter from his mother yesterday with three pounds in it: +if you happen to see Uncle Dick, will you tell him I want a 'Waterbury' +dreadfully?" + +The last day of the term came, and one by one, or two by two, the +various boys went away, until at last only Bertie Fellowes and Shivers +were left in the great house. It had never appeared so large to either +of them before. The school-room seemed to have grown to about the size +of a church, the dining-room, set now with only one table instead of +three was not like the same, while the dormitory, which had never before +had any room to spare, was like a wilderness. To Bertie Fellowes it was +all dreary and wretched--to the boy from India, who knew no other house +in England, no other thought came than that it was a blessing that he +had one companion left. "It is miserable," groaned poor Bertie as they +strolled into the great echoing school-room after a lonely tea, set at +one corner of the smallest of the three dining-tables; "just think if we +had been on our way home now--how different!" + +"Just think if I had been left here by myself," said Shivers--and he +gave a shiver which fully justified his name. + +"Yes--but----" began Bertie, then shamefacedly and with a blush, added, +"you know, when one wants to go home ever so badly, one never thinks +that some chaps haven't got a home to go to." + +The evening went by--discipline was relapsed entirely and the two boys +went to bed in the top empty dormitory, and told stories to each other +for a long time before they went to sleep. That night Bertie Fellowes +dreamt of Madame Tussaud's and the great pantomime at Drury Lane, and +poor Shivers of a long creeper-covered bungalow far away in the shining +East, and they both cried a little under the bed-clothes. Yet each put a +brave face on their desolate circumstances to the other, and so another +day began. + +[Illustration] + +This was the day before Christmas Eve, that delightful day of +preparation for the greatest festival in all the year--the day when in +most households there are many little mysteries afoot, when parcels come +and go, and are smothered away so as to be ready when Santa Claus comes +his rounds; when some are busy decking the rooms with holly and +mistletoe; when the cook is busiest of all, and savoury smells rise from +the kitchen, telling of good things to be eaten on the morrow. + +There were some preparations on foot at Minchin House, though there was +not the same bustle and noise as is to be found in a large family. And +quite early in the morning came the great hamper of which Mrs. Fellowes +had spoken in her letter to Bertie. Then just as the early dinner had +come to an end, and Miss Ware was telling the two boys that she would +take them round the town to look at the shops, there was a tremendous +peal at the bell of the front door, and a voice was heard asking for +Master Egerton. In a trice Shivers had sprung to his feet, his face +quite white, his hands trembling, and the next moment the door was +thrown open, and a tall handsome lady came in, to whom he flew with a +sobbing cry of "Aunt Laura! Aunt Laura!" + +Aunt Laura explained in less time than it takes me to write this, that +her husband, Colonel Desmond, had had left to him a large fortune and +that they had come as soon as possible to England, having, in fact, only +arrived in London the previous day. "I was so afraid, Tom darling," she +said in ending, "that we should not get here till Christmas Day was +over, and I was so afraid you might be disappointed, that I would not +let Mother tell you we were on our way home. I have brought a letter +from Mother to Miss Ware--and you must get your things packed up at once +and come back with me by the six o'clock train to town. Then Uncle Jack +and I will take you everywhere, and give you a splendid time, you dear +little chap, here all by yourself." + +For a minute or two Shivers' face was radiant; then he caught sight of +Bertie's down-drooped mouth, and turned to his Aunt. + +"Dear Aunt Laura," he said, holding her hand very fast with his own, +"I'm awfully sorry, but I can't go." + +"Can't go? and why not?" + +"Because I can't go and leave Fellowes here all alone," he said stoutly, +though he could scarcely keep a suspicious quaver out of his voice. +"When I was going to be alone, Fellowes wrote and asked his mother to +let me go home with him, and she couldn't, because his sister has got +scarlet fever, and they daren't have either of us; and he's got to stay +here--and he's never been away at Christmas before--and--and--I can't go +away and leave him by himself, Aunt Laura--and--" + +[Illustration] + +For the space of a moment or so, Mrs. Desmond stared at the boy as if +she could not believe her ears; then she caught hold of him and half +smothered him with kisses. + +"Bless you, you dear little chap, you shall not leave him: you shall +bring him along and we'll all enjoy ourselves together. What's his +name?--Bertie Fellowes! Bertie, my man, you are not very old yet, so I'm +going to teach you a lesson as well as ever I can--it is that kindness +is never wasted in this world. I'll go out now and telegraph to your +mother--I don't suppose she will refuse to let you come with us." + +A couple of hours later she returned in triumph, waving a telegram to +the two excited boys. + + "_God bless you, yes, with all our hearts_," it + ran; "_you have taken a load off our minds._" + +And so Bertie Fellowes and Shivers found that there was such a thing as +a fairy after all. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration: Not Quite True] + +by + +Mrs. Molesworth + + + + +_Part 1_ + + +HELENA FRERE and her two younger brothers, Willie and Leigh, were on the +whole very good children. They were obedient and affectionate and very +truthful. Perhaps it was not very difficult for them to be good, for +they had a happy home, wise and kind parents, and a quiet regular life. +None of them had ever been at school, for Mrs. Frere liked home teaching +best for girls, and the little boys were as yet too young for anything +else. Willie was only seven and a half, and Leigh six. Helena was nearly +ten. + +They lived in the country--quite in the country, and a rather lonely +part too. So they had almost no companions of their own age, and the few +there were within reach they seldom saw. One family in the +neighbourhood, where there were children, always spent seven months +abroad; another home was saddened by the only son being a cripple and +unable to walk or play; and the boys and girls of a third family were +rather too old to be playfellows with our little people. + +"It really seems," said Helena sometimes, "it really seems as if I was +never to have a proper friend of my own. It's much worse for me than for +Willie and Leigh, for they've got each other," which was certainly true. + +Still, she was not at all an unhappy little girl, though she was very +sorry for herself sometimes, and did not always quite agree with her +Mother when she told her that it was better to have no companions than +any whom she could not thoroughly like. + +"I don't know that, Mamma," Helena would reply. "It would be nice to +have other little girls to play with, even if they weren't quite +perfection." + +You can easily believe therefore that there was great excitement and +delight when these children heard, one day, that a new family was coming +to live in the very next house to theirs--only about half a mile off, by +a short cut across the Park--and that in this family there were +children! There were four--Nurse said three, and old Mrs. Betty at the +lodge, who was Nurse's aunt, and rather a gossip, said four. But both +were sure of one thing--that the newcomers--the children of the family, +that is to say--were just about the right ages for "our young lady and +gentlemen." + +And before long, Helena and her brothers were able to tell Nurse and +Mrs. Betty more than they had told them. For Mrs. Frere called at +Hailing Wood, which was the name of the neighbouring house, and a few +days afterwards, Mrs. Kingley returned her call, and fortunately found +the children's Mother at home. So all sorts of questions were asked and +answered, and when Helena and the boys came in from their walk, Mrs. +Frere had a whole budget of news for them. + +There were _four_ Kingleys, but the eldest was a girl of sixteen, whom +the children put aside at once as "no good," and listened impatiently to +hear about the others. + +"Next to Sybil," said their Mother, "comes Hugh; he is four years +younger--only twelve--and then Freda, nearly eleven, and lastly Maggie, +a 'tom-boy,' her Mother calls her, of eight." + +[Illustration] + +"I shall like her awfully if she's a tom-boy," said Helena very +decidedly, while Willie and Leigh looked rather puzzled. They had never +heard of a tom-boy before, and could not make out if it meant a boy or a +girl, till afterwards, when Helena explained it to them, and then Willie +said he had thought it must mean a girl, "'cos of Maggie being a girl's +name." + +"I hope you will like them all," said Mrs. Frere. "By their Mother's +account they seem to be very hearty, sensible children; indeed, she +says they are just a little wild, for she and Mr. Kingley have been a +great deal abroad, and the three younger children were for two years +with a lady, who was rather too old to look after them properly." + +"How dreadfully unhappy they must have been," said Helena, in a tone of +pity. + +"No," said her Mother, "I don't think they were unhappy. On the +contrary, they were rather spoilt and allowed to run wild. Of course I +am telling you this just as a very little warning, in case Hugh and his +sisters ever propose to do anything you do not think I should like. Do +not give in for fear of vexing them; they will like you all the better +in the end if they see you try to be as good and obedient out of sight, +as when your Father and I are with you. Do you understand, dears?" + +"Yes," said Helena, "of course we won't do anything naughty, Mamma," +though in her heart she thought that "running wild" sounded rather nice. + +"And you, boys?" added their Mother, "do you understand, too?" + +"Yes, Mamma," they said, Willie adding, "If you're not there or Nurse, +we'll do whatever Nelly says." + +"That's right," said Mrs. Frere. "Nelly, you hear?--the responsibility +is on your shoulders, you see, dear," but she smiled brightly. For she +felt sure that Helena was to be trusted. + +It had been arranged by the two Mammas that the three Kingley children +were to spend the next afternoon at Halling Park, the Freres' home. They +were to come early, between two and three, and their Mother and Sybil +would drive over to fetch them about five. Some other friends of Mrs. +Frere's were expected too, which would give Mrs. Kingley an opportunity +of meeting her new neighbours. + +"Must we have our best things on then, Mamma?" asked Helena, rather +dolefully. + +Mrs. Frere glanced at her. It was full summer-time--late in June. The +little girl looked very nice in a pretty pink-and-white cotton, though +it could not have passed muster as perfectly fresh and spotless. + +"No," she said, "a clean frock like the one you have on will do quite +well--or stay, yes, a white frock would be nicer. And tell Nurse that +the boys may wear their white serge suits--it is so nice and dry +out-of-doors I don't think they could get dirty if they tried." + +And, as I have said already, the little Freres were not at all "wild" +children. + +To-morrow afternoon came at last, and with it, to the delight of Helena +and her brothers, the expected guests. They arrived in a pony-cart, +driven by Hugh, who seemed quite in his element as a coachman, and they +all three jumped out very cleverly without losing any time about it. +Mrs. Frere and _her_ three were waiting for them on the lawn, but anyone +looking on would have thought that the Kingleys were the "at home" ones +of the party, for they shook hands in the heartiest way, and began +talking at once, while the little Freres all seemed shy and timid, and +almost awkward. + +Their Mother felt just a little vexed with them. Then she said to +herself that she must remember how very seldom they had had any +playfellows, and that it was to be expected they would feel a little +strange. + +"I daresay you will enjoy playing out of doors far more than in the +house, as it is such a lovely day," she said. "Your Mamma and Sybil will +be coming before very long, will they not?" she added, turning to Freda. + +"About four o'clock," Freda replied; "but I don't want four o'clock to +come too soon; we should like a good long time for playing first." + +Mrs. Frere smiled. + +"Well, it is scarcely half-past two yet," she said. "When four o'clock +or half-past four comes, I daresay you will _not_ feel sorry, for you +will have had time to get hungry by then." + +"All right," said Freda; "come along then, Nelly," for she had already +caught up Helena's short name. "Hugh and Maggie and I have got heaps of +fun in our heads." + +She caught hold of Helena's hand as she spoke and started off, the +others following. Mrs. Frere stood looking after them with a smile, +though there was a little anxiety in her face too. + +"I hope they will be careful," she thought; "I can trust Helena, but +these children _are_ rather overpowering. Still, it would scarcely have +done to begin checking them the moment they arrived." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +_Part 2_ + + +The grounds of Halling Park were very large, the lawns and flower-beds +near the house were most carefully kept, and just now in their full +summer beauty. The first thought of the little Freres was to show their +new friends all over this ornamental part, for the Halling roses were +rather famed, and Helena knew the names of the finest and rarest among +them. + +But Freda Kingley flew past the rosebeds without stopping or letting +Helena stop, and, excited by her example, the three boys and Maggie came +rushing after them, till the run almost grew into a race, so that when +at last the very active young lady condescended to pull up to take +breath, Helena was redder and hotter than she had ever been before in +her life. Indeed, for a moment or two, she was almost frightened--her +heart beat so fast, and there was such a "choky" feeling in her throat. +She could not speak, but stood there gasping. + +Freda burst out laughing. + +"I say," she exclaimed, "you're in very bad condition; isn't she, +Hugh?" + +Helena stared, which made Freda laugh still more, Hugh joining her. + +"I don't understand what you mean," said the little girl at last, when +she could speak. + +"Oh, it's nothing you need mind," said Hugh good-naturedly. "It only +means you're not up to much running--you've not been training yourself +for it. Freda was nearly as bad once, before I went to school; she +didn't understand, you see. But the first holidays I took her in hand, +and she's not bad now--not for a girl. I'll take you in hand if you +like." + +"Thank you," said Helena; "no, I don't think I want to be taken in hand. +I don't care to run so fast. Won't you come back again to see the +flowers near the house? And the tennis-court is very nice for +puss-in-the-corner or Tom Tiddler's ground." + +"We know a game or two worth scores of those old-fashioned things--don't +we, Freda?" said Hugh. "But I daresay the tennis-ground's rather jolly, +if it's a good big one; we can look it up later on. First of all I want +to see the stream. We caught sight of it; it looks jolly enough." + +"And there's a bridge across it," said Maggie, speaking for the first +time, "a ducky little bridge. It would be fun to stand on it and throw +stones down to make the fishes jump." + +Willie broke in at this. + +"The fish aren't so silly," he said. "The water-hens would scatter away, +I daresay, if you threw stones. But Papa doesn't like us to startle +them, so it would be no good trying." + +"Water-hens!" exclaimed the Kingley children all together. "What are +they like? Do let's go and look at them. We've never seen any." + +"And most likely we won't see them now," said Helena. "They're very shy +creatures. And we mustn't startle them, as Willie says." + +"Oh, bother!" said Freda; "it wouldn't hurt them for once. And who would +know? Anyway, let's go to the bridge." + +And off she set again, though not quite so fast. Indeed, it would have +been impossible to race as she had done across the lawn, for the way to +the stream from where they were standing, lay across very high ground, +though there was a proper path, or road, leading to the bridge if they +had not come by the "cross-country" route. + +It was very pretty when they got there, so wild and picturesque--you +could have imagined yourself miles and miles away from any house, in +some lonely stretch of country. Even the restless Kingley children were +struck by it, and stood still in admiration for about a quarter of a +minute. + +"I say, it's awfully jolly here," said Hugh. "I wish we had a stream and +a bridge like this in our grounds." + +But almost immediately he began fidgeting about again--leaning over, +till Helena felt sure he would tumble in, and twisting himself about to +see what there was to be seen below them. + +"I know what _would_ be fun," said Freda suddenly. + +"What?" exclaimed the others. + +"Wading," she replied. "If we clamber down the side of the bank--it +isn't so very steep--we could get right under the bridge. There's a bit +of dry ground at each side of the water, isn't there, Hugh? We could +make that our dressing-room, or our bathing-van, whichever you like to +call it." + +"But," interrupted Helena, "you couldn't undress; we've no +bathing-dresses, and----" + +"How stupid you are!" interrupted Freda, in her turn. "We'd have to take +off our shoes and stockings, of course, and we can't do that on the +sloping bank; under the bridge is just the place. And we can pretend +it's the sea, and that we're going to bathe properly, and shiver and +shudder and push each other in. Oh! it'll be great fun--come along, all +of you, do." + +And somehow she got them all to go--not that she had any difficulty in +persuading her own brother and sister; they were, as they would +themselves have expressed it, "up to anything"; but the three Freres +knew quite well that it was not the sort of play--especially for +Helena--that their Mother would have approved of. It was very muddy down +under the bridge, and the paddling about in cold fresh water, when one +is already overheated, is not a very wholesome thing to do. Nor were +they dressed for this sort of play. + +But Freda and Hugh had got the upper hand of them. Helena could not bear +to be laughed at, and Willie was terribly afraid of being thought "soft" +by a real schoolboy like Hugh. + +It was not so easy to get down by the bank without accidents, and before +they reached the "dressing-room," frocks and knickerbockers already told +a tale. + +"Never mind," said Freda, "it'll brush off when it's dry, and even if it +doesn't quite, you can't be expected never to get the least bit dirty. +Now let's get off our shoes and stockings as quick as we can," and down +she plumped and began unbuttoning her own boots without further ado. + +"I think I'd rather not wade," said Helena. + +"Oh, what rubbish!" cried Freda. "In I'll go first and show you how +jolly it is," and in another moment, in she went, paddling about on the +firmer ground in the middle of the stream, after some very muddy slips +or slides to get there. + +"It's all right once you get out here," she called back. "Awfully +jolly--as cold as ice; come along." + +[Illustration: "_It was not so easy to get down by the bank._"] + +And in a few minutes all six children were waddling about in the not +very clear water, for the stirred-up mud at the edge had quite spoiled +the look of things for the time being, and I am sure the waterfowl, and +the fish, and even the water-rats were extraordinarily frightened at the +strange things that were happening, poor dears! + +All went well, or fairly well, for some time, though little Leigh's face +began to look very blue, and his teeth chattered, and but for his fear +of being thought a baby, I rather think he would have begun to cry. + +Helena did not notice him for some time; she was feeling a little giddy +and queer herself, and found it not too easy to keep her skirts, short +as they were, out of the water, and herself on her feet. There were some +sharp pebbles among those that made the bed of the stream, and she had +never before tried walking barefoot out of doors, even on a smooth +surface, and therefore found it very difficult. + +But when at last she happened to catch sight of her little brother, she +started violently and nearly lost her balance. "Go back at once, Leigh," +she cried. "Look at him, Freda--he's all white and blue." + +Freda was a kind-hearted girl, and she too was startled. + +"I'll take him to the bank--he'll be all right when I've rubbed his +feet," she exclaimed, and she hurried forward. But for all her good +intentions she only made matters worse. + +Instead of taking hold of the child to help him, she managed to push him +over--and in another second Leigh was floundering in the mud at the edge +of the little stream! + + + + +_Part 3_ + + +[Illustration] + +POOR Leigh! What an object he was! + +At first the three Kingleys burst out laughing. + +But when Helena and Willie turned upon them sharply, they quickly grew +serious, for they were far from unkind children, and the sight of their +little friend's real distress and fear made them anxious to help to put +things to right. + +[Illustration] + +"He's as white as a sheet," said Helena, who was almost in tears. "And +shivering so. Oh! Leigh dear, do you feel very bad?" + +"N-no, don't cry, Nelly," said the little boy. "It's--it's my jacket and +knickerbockers I mind about." + +Freda turned him round promptly. + +"It's only on one side," she said; "and a lot of it will brush off the +jacket, at least, and after all, the knickerbockers can be washed. What +I mind about is you're shivering so. Sit down, young man--here's a nice +dry place, and I'll give your feet a good rub." + +So she did, using for that purpose one of her brother Hugh's long rough +stockings, quite heedless of his grumbling. She was certainly a very +energetic girl. In a few minutes Leigh's feet were in a glow, and the +colour crept back to his face again, and he left off shivering. + +"There now," she said, "you are all right again, or at least you will +be, when you've run home and got a clean jacket. After all, you're quite +dry underneath--the mud is thick and hasn't soaked through. Now, what +had we best do, Nelly?" + +"Get him home as quick as possible some back way, so that we won't meet +anyone, I should say," said Hugh, as he drew on his stockings, very glad +to have recovered his property. + +But just as he spoke, there came a well-known sound--well known at least +to the Frere children, for it was their Mother's voice calling them. + +"Nell-ly! Nell-ly! Will-ie! Will! where are you?" it said. + +They looked at each other. + +"It's Mamma," said Willie. + +"What can have made her come out so soon?" said Helena. "She was going +to wait till the other ladies came to tea, and then she said she and +Sybil would stroll out with them, and see what we were doing in the +garden. But I never thought they'd come down here--we scarcely ever do, +'cos Nurse thinks we'll fall into the water." + +Nurse's fears were not without reason, were they? + +"We mustn't be seen like this," said Freda, "that's certain. Let's +crouch in here quite quietly for a minute or two, till they're out of +the way--don't speak or anything. Hush! perhaps we can hear their +voices." + +Hiding from Mamma was a new experience to Helena and her brothers, and +they did not like the feeling of it. But just now there was nothing else +to do, and Freda had taken it all into her own hands. So they did as she +said. + +[Illustration] + +No sound of voices reached them for some moments, but they heard +footsteps overhead. Several people were crossing the bridge. "Goodness +gracious," said Freda, in a whisper, "we've only just hidden ourselves +in time. Do come closer, and don't speak, whatever you do," though no +one had been speaking but herself. + +Then the steps stopped, and a faint murmur was heard, but not loud +enough to distinguish the words; and then the newcomers' steps moved on +again. + +The children began to breathe more freely. + +"Better stay quiet another minute or two," said Freda. + +But Helena was not happy in her mind about little Leigh. + +"It's so damp and chilly in here under the bridge," she said to Freda. +"He's sure to catch cold unless he gets a run in the sunshine." + +"He must be awfully delicate then," said Hugh, with some contempt in his +voice. "You should see the wettings _we_ get--even Maggie, and she's a +_girl_." + +At this Leigh grew very red, and Helena found he was going to burst out +crying, which would not have been a very good way of showing he was a +man, I consider. + +But Freda told Hugh not to talk nonsense, for she was sensible enough to +know that what Helena said was true. + +"I'll peep out now," she said, "and if the coast is clear, I'll 'cooey' +to you very softly, like we do at 'I spy,' and then you can all come +out. I'll wait for you at the top of the bank. It's a bother to go up it +and down and up again--it's such slippery work." + +She peeped out as she said--cautiously at first; then again encouraged, +she made her way half way up the bank and glanced round her. + +It seemed safe enough. + +The group of ladies was to be seen at some little distance now; they +were returning towards the house by the proper road, which it would be +easy for the children to avoid. + +And in her satisfaction, Freda gave a loud "cooey"--much louder than was +needed, as her companions were close by. + +[Illustration] + +Out popped all the heads from below the bridge, but before their owners +had time to begin to climb the bank, they were stopped by a "Hush," and +an energetic shake of the head from Freda, who next, greatly to their +surprise, flopped straight down among the high grass at the top, and lay +there motionless and quite flat. + +The reason of this was soon explained. Again came the cry--"Nell-y! +Will-ie! Nell-y!" from Mrs. Frere, and a whistle, which Hugh Kingley +whispered to the others was his sister Sybil's. + +"They've heard Freda's 'cooey,'" he said. "What a goose she was to call +so loud!" + +Again there was nothing for it but to stay quiet, which was becoming +very tiresome. + +The Frere children began to think that their ideas of "great fun," and +the Kingleys', did not at all agree. + +"Wasting all the afternoon in this nasty damp hole, and risking Leigh's +getting really ill," thought Helena. + +And at last she sprang up and called out to Freda. + +"I won't stay here any longer," she cried. "Whether we are scolded or +not, I won't. It isn't safe for Leigh." + +"How cross you are!" said Freda coolly. "I was just going to tell you to +come out. I think it's all right now; they've moved on. We can make a +rush for the house across the grass somehow, can't we? There must be +some back way in, where we shouldn't meet anyone. Then you and I can +take Leigh up to the nursery and say he had an accident, which is quite +true--and when he's clean again he can come out to us and your Mamma +needn't know anything about it. The rest of us are all quite tidy--quite +as tidy as can be expected after running about." + +Helena did not reply. She was feeling too annoyed and vexed, and she did +not like Freda's wish to hide what had really caused their troubles. + +But she took Leigh by the hand--Freda, it must be allowed, taking him +kindly by the other, and they all set off as fast as they could to the +house. They could not go quite straight for fear of being seen; they had +to "dodge" once or twice, but in the end they got safely there without +meeting anyone more formidable than a tradesman's cart driving away from +the stables, or an under-gardener laden with a basketful of vegetables. + +Nurse looked grave, as she well might do, when she saw Leigh's plight. +But Freda had a very pleasant bright manner, and Nurse was quite +satisfied with her explanations. + +And as the run home had brought back the colour to the little boy's +cheeks, nothing much was said as to the fear of his having caught cold. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +_Part 4_ + + +SOME half an hour or so afterwards, all the party, the children +included, assembled on the lawn for tea. + +Nurse had seized the opportunity of Helena's running in with Leigh, to +"tidy her up a bit," and Freda too had not objected to a little setting +to rights, so that both the girls looked quite in order. + +And Willie and Hugh had also removed all traces of their adventures; +only Maggie was still rather rumpled and crumpled, but as she was +counted a tom-boy at all times, it did not so much matter. + +"What became of you all, this afternoon?" asked Mrs. Frere. "We walked +down to the bridge to look for you, as one of the men said he had seen +you going that way. And I am _sure_ I heard one of you 'cooeying'--did I +not? Yet when I called, no one replied." + +The children looked at each other. Mrs. Frere felt surprised. + +"What is the mystery?" she said, though with a smile. + +"Oh," began Freda, "there wasn't any mystery--we were only----" She +stopped, for she felt that Helena's eyes were fixed on her, and Freda +was not by nature an untruthful child. It was through her heedlessness +and wildness that she often got into what she would have called +"scrapes," from which there seemed often no escape but by telling +falsehoods, or at least allowing what was not the case to be believed. + +She grew red, and Mrs. Frere, feeling that it was not very kind to +cross-question a guest, finished her sentence for her. + +"Hiding?" she said. "Were you hiding?" though she wondered why Freda +should blush and hesitate about so simple a thing. + +"Yes," said Helena quickly, replying instead of Freda, "yes, Mamma, we +_were_ hiding--under the bridge." + +At the moment she only felt glad to be able to say what _in words_ was +true. + +For hiding they certainly had been. And Mrs. Frere, thoroughly trusting +Helena, turned away and thought no more about it, only adding that it +must have been rather dirty under the bridge; another time she would +advise them to find a cleaner place. + +"I suppose it was 'I spy' you were playing at," she said, and she did +not notice that no one answered her. + +The rest of the afternoon passed quietly enough. + +Hugh and Freda were rather unusually quiet, at which their Mother and +elder sister rejoiced. + +"I do hope," said Sybil, as she drove home with Mrs. Kingley, leaving +the younger ones to follow as they had come, "I do hope those Frere +children, though they are younger, will have a good influence upon Hugh +and the girls, Freda especially. She has been getting wilder and wilder. +And Helena is such a lady-like, well-bred little girl." + +"I hope so too," said her Mother. "I own I was a little afraid of our +children startling the Freres, but they seem to have got on all right." + +[Illustration] + +"Good night, dears," said Mrs. Frere to her three children an hour or so +later. "You were happy with your new friends, I hope? I think they seem +nice children, and they were very quiet and well-behaved to-day. Leigh, +my boy, you look half asleep--are you very tired?" + +"My eyes are tired," said Leigh, "and my head, rather." + +"Well, off with you to bed, then," she said cheerfully. She would not +have felt or spoken so cheerfully if she could have seen into her little +daughter's heart. + +Nurse too noticed that Leigh looked pale and heavy-eyed. + +She said she was afraid he had somehow caught cold. So she gave him +something hot to drink after he was in bed, and soon he was fast asleep, +breathing peacefully. + +"He can't be very bad," thought Helena, "if he sleeps so quietly." + +But though she tried not to be anxious about him, she herself could not +succeed in going to sleep. + +She tossed about, and dozed a little, and then woke up again--wider +awake each time, it seemed to her. It was not _all_ anxiety about Leigh; +the truth was, her conscience was not at peace; she felt as if she +deserved to be anxious about her little brother, for she saw clearly +now, how she had been to blame--first, for giving in to the Kingleys in +doing what she knew her Mother would not have approved of, and besides, +and even worse than that--in concealing the wrong-doing, and telling +what was "not quite true" to her trusting Mother. + +The tears forced their way into Helena's eyes when she owned this to +herself, and at last she felt that she could bear it no longer. + +She got softly out of bed without waking Nurse, and made her way to the +little room where Willie slept alone. + +"Willie," she said at the door, almost in a whisper, but Willie heard +her. He, too, for a wonder, was not able to sleep well to-night, and he +at once sat straight up in bed. + +"Yes, Nelly," he said, in a low, though frightened voice, "what is it? +Is Leigh ill?" + +"No," Helena replied; "at least, I hope not, though I'm awfully unhappy +about him. It's partly that and partly--everything, Willie--all we did +this afternoon. And worst of all," and here poor Nelly had hard work to +choke down a lump that began to come in her throat, "I didn't tell Mamma +the truth, when she asked what we were doing, you remember, Willie." + +"Yes," said Willie, "I remember. You said we were hiding, and so we +were." + +"But it wasn't quite true the way I let her think it," persisted Helena. +"Even if the words were true, the _thinking_ wasn't. And it has made me +so dreadfully unhappy. I didn't know how to wait till the morning to +tell her--I know I shan't go to sleep all night," and she did indeed +look very white and miserable. + +Willie considered; he had good ideas sometimes, though Helena often +called him slow and stupid. + +"I know what," he said. "You shall write a letter to Mamma--now, this +minute. I've got paper and ink and pens and everything, in my new +birthday writing-case, and I've got matches. Since my birthday, Papa +said I might have them in my room." + +For Willie was a very careful little boy. If there was no likelihood of +his "setting the Thames on fire," his Father had said once, "there was +even less fear of his setting the _house_ on fire," and though Willie +did not quite understand about the "Thames"--how could a _river_ +burn?--he saw that Papa meant something nice, so he felt quite pleased. + +And the next morning, the first thing Mrs. Frere saw on her toilet-table +was a note addressed rather shakily in pencil, to "dear Mamma." + +It was only a few lines, but it made her hurry to throw on her +dressing-gown and hasten to the nursery. + +"How is Leigh?" were her first words to Nurse. + +[Illustration: "_Willie at once sat straight up in bed._"] + +"He's got a little cold in his head, ma'am, but nothing much," was the +cheerful reply, and Mamma saw by the child's face that there were no +signs of anything worse. + +"But, Miss Helena," Nurse went on, "has had a bad night, and her head is +aching, so I thought it better to keep her in bed to breakfast." + +Poor Nelly! she had not much appetite for breakfast, and the first thing +she did when Mamma's dear face appeared at the door was to burst into +tears. + +But such tears do good, and still more relief was the telling the whole +story, ending up with-- + +"Oh, Mamma, dear Mamma, I couldn't bear to think I had told you what was +_not quite true_. And Willie feels just the same." + +For Willie had crept in too, looking very grave, and winking his eyes +hard to keep from crying. + +It was all put right, of course; there was really no need for their +Mother to show them where they had been wrong. They knew it so well. And +Leigh did not get ill, after all. + +Freda Kingley had had a lesson too, I am glad to say. + +That very afternoon she and Hugh walked over to Halling Park, to "find +out" if Leigh was all right. + +And this gave Mrs. Frere a good opportunity of showing the kind-hearted +but thoughtless children the risk they had run of getting themselves and +their little friends into real trouble--above all, by concealing their +foolish play, and causing Nelly and her little brothers for the first +time in their lives to act at all deceitfully. + +"You will be afraid to let them play with us any more," said Freda very +sadly, "and I'm sure I don't wonder." + +"No, dear," said her new friend. "On the contrary, I shall now feel sure +that I _may trust_ you and Hugh and Maggie." + +Freda grew red with pleasure. + +"You may indeed," she said; "I promise you we won't lead them into +mischief and--and if ever we do, we'll tell you all about it at once." + +Mrs. Frere laughed at this quaint way of putting it. + +"I don't think my children will be any the worse for a little more +'running wild' than they have had," she said. + +"And we won't be any the worse for having to think a little before we +rush off on some fun," said Freda. "I really never did see before how +very easy it would be to get into telling regular _stories_, if you +don't take care." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration: In the Chimney Corner] + +by + +Frances E. Crompton + + +"IT'S a welly anxietious thing, yoasting chestnuts is," Rupert said, +shaking his head seriously. + +Rupert is only four years old, but he is very fond of grand words. He +speaks quite plainly and nicely, Nurse says (excepting the _v_'s and +_r_'s), only, of course, he cannot remember always just the shape of the +big words; but he uses much grander ones than I do, though I am nearly +six. + +But he is the nicest little boy in all the world, and we do love each +other better than anybody else at all, after Mother and Father. + +We made what Rupert calls an "arranglement" about always being friends +with each other; that was the night we roasted the chestnuts. + +It was one of the most interesting things we had ever done--and then to +be allowed to do it alone! You see, this was the way. + +It was the dreadfullest day we can remember in all our lives. + +Because you know, first of all, Mother was so ill. And then there was a +birthday party we were to have gone to. + +And Sarah, who is the housemaid, said she didn't see why we couldn't go +just the same, and Nurse said very sharply: + +"I'm not going to let them go, I can tell you, with things as they are." + +And then she said, in another kind of voice: + +"Just suppose they had to be sent for to go in to the mistress----" + +And then she went away again into Mother's dressing-room. + +That was another horrid thing, that nobody seemed to be able to look +after us at all; we could have got into all sorts of mischief if we had +wanted, but everything was so dreadful that it made us not want. + +There were two doctors, who went and came several times, and someone +they called Nurse, but she wasn't our Nurse. + +And our Nurse could not be in the nursery with us, but kept shutting +herself up in Mother's dressing-room, and that made us be getting into +everybody's way. + +So at last, when evening came, Nurse sent us down to the drawing-room, +because somebody had let the nursery fire go almost out, and she told us +to stay there and be good, and Father said he would perhaps come and sit +with us by-and-by. + +But I don't know what we should have done there so long if Sarah had +not brought us a plate of chestnuts, and shown us how to roast them. + +(We feel sure that Nurse would not have allowed it by ourselves, and +would have called it "playing with fire," but Father looked in at us +once, and did not stop us at all, but only said we were very good, and +Cook and Sarah kept looking in too, and they were very kind, only rather +quiet and queer.) + +[Illustration] + +So that was how it was that we came to be allowed to be roasting +chestnuts in the drawing-room by ourselves, which does seem a little +funny, if you did not know about that dreadful day. + +"There's only two left now," Rupert said. + +We hadn't eaten all the plateful, of course, because so many of them, +when they popped, had popped quite into the fire, and we were not to try +to get them out. + +We had roasted one each for Sarah, and for Cook, and for Nurse, and for +Father, and of course the biggest of all for Mother. + +We thought she might enjoy it when she got better. And they were all +done, and there were only two left besides what we had eaten and lost. + +So we put them together on the bar to roast, and Rupert said: + +"One for you, and one for me. Yours is the light one, and mine is the +dark one." + +And I said: + +"Yes, and let us do them as Sarah did with two of them, and try if they +will keep together till they are properly done, and then it will be as +if we kept good friends and loved each other always." + +So that was what Rupert called the "anxietious" part, because, you know, +one of them might have flown into the fire before the other was roasted, +and we were so excited about it that I believe we should have cried. + +But they were the nicest chestnuts of all the plateful, and that was the +nicest thing of all that long day that had so many nasty ones in it. + +For the dark chestnut and the light one kept together all the time, and +split quite quietly and comfortably, and began to have a lovely smell, +and then we thought it was fair to rake them off. + +"Those chestnuts were welly fond of each other," said Rupert, in his +solemnest way, while they were cooling in the fender. "Like you and me, +Nella." + +[Illustration: "Rupert knelt down on the rug."] + +"And so we'll promise on our word-of-honours to be friends like them +and love each other for always and always," I said. + +And we held each other's hands, and when the chestnuts were cooled and +peeled, ate them up, and enjoyed them most of all the chestnuts. + +But after we had made that play last as long as we could, and it grew +later and later, it began to seem miserabler than ever. + +And nobody came to take us to bed, although it did feel so dreadfully +like bedtime, and nobody brought us any bread-and-milk, and chestnuts do +not really make a good supper, even if you have roasted them yourself. +And I tried to tell Rupert "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," but he grew +cross because I couldn't tell it as well as Mother. + +So I said: + +"Well, let us lie down here on the rug, and perhaps if we make believe, +it will seem like going to bed." + +But Rupert said, how could he go to bed without saying his prayers, and +he was so tired and cross that I said: + +"Well, you say yours, and I'll hear them." + +And so Rupert knelt down on the rug, and said his prayers, and I heard +them; at least, I mean, we tried; but I couldn't always remember what +came next, and then _he_ remembered that he wanted Mother, and burst out +crying. + +So I did not know what to do any more, and I could only huggle him, as +he calls it, and wipe his eyes on my frock, and we sat there and huggled +each other. + +And I think we fell asleep in the chimney corner after that. + +At least, the next thing we remember is being picked up by Father and +Nurse, and Nurse carried Rupert upstairs, and Father carried me. + +And I said: + +"We've tried to be good, Father, but we were obliged to go to sleep on +the floor--just there; we really and truly couldn't keep awake any +longer." + +[Illustration] + +And Father did not think it naughty, I am sure, for he kissed us both +ever so many times at the nursery door, with a great big hug, although +he went away without speaking. + +And Nurse undressed us as quickly as she could, and as Rupert calls it, +"'scused" our baths, for we were so dreadfully sleepy; and I did think +once that Nurse seemed to be crying, but I was too tired to notice any +more. + +And that was the end of the dreadfullest day we have ever known. + +It began to be happier quite soon next day, for Granny came, and stayed +with us, and had time to love us very much. + +We told her about the chestnuts, and she thought it ever so nice. + +And she told us something too, two things, and one was very beautiful, +and one was very dreadful. + +And the beautiful thing was that God had sent us a baby sister on that +dreadful evening. But then He saw that He could take better care of her +than even Mother and Nurse, and He loved her so much that He sent an +angel to fetch her away again. + +And though we were sorry not to have the little sister (and that was +another reason to make Rupert and me love each other all the more, +Granny said), yet she told us how beautiful it was to know that Baby +Lucy would never do a naughty thing, or say a naughty word, but always +be kept quite safe now. + +And the dreadful thing was--but I can only say it in a whisper--that +God had almost taken _Mother_ away, to be with Baby Lucy too. + +But He looked down at us, and at Father, Granny said, and was sorry for +us; and I think the time when He was sorry was when Rupert was crying, +and I was trying to hear his prayers, because He must have seen that I +could not be like Mother to Rupert, not however much I tried. + +And so He was sorry for us, and Mother stayed. + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Title page, "878" changed to "1878" + +A table of contents was created for this book by the transcriber. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Fairy, by +John Strange Winter and Frances E. 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