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+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75955 ***
+
+
+Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.
+New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
+public domain.
+
+
+[Illustration: _Lolla; or, The Sin of Greediness._
+
+ She put in her finger, and scooping up a large mouthful,
+ she hastily swallowed it.]
+
+
+
+                               LOLLA;
+
+                                 OR,
+
+                      The Sin of Greediness.
+
+
+                                [BY]
+
+                      [_LUCY ELLEN GUERNSEY_]
+
+
+
+                            ——————————
+
+
+
+                           PHILADELPHIA:
+                   AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION
+                     NO. 1122 CHESTNUT STREET.
+                            ——————————
+                      NEW YORK: 599 BROADWAY.
+
+
+
+
+    ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
+
+     Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by the
+
+                    AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,
+
+     in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
+              for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
+
+    ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
+
+
+
+                              CONTENTS.
+
+                               ——————
+
+CHAP.
+
+    I.—LOLLA AT HOME
+
+   II.—LOLLA IN DORCHESTER
+
+  III.—THE MOUSE
+
+   IV.—"BREAD IN SECRET"
+
+    V.—THE ICE-CREAM
+
+   VI.—THE CONSEQUENCE
+
+
+
+                               LOLLA;
+
+                                 OR,
+
+                      THE SIN OF GREEDINESS.
+
+                               ——————
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+LOLLA AT HOME.
+
+"SEEMS to me Lolla does not eat any breakfast," said Aunt Delight,
+looking at a little girl who sat opposite to her at the table, with a
+well-filled plate before her, upon which, however, she did not seem to
+be making any impression.
+
+"She never does," said Lolla's mother. "She never seems to have any
+appetite in the morning. She complains that nothing tastes good to her;
+and she almost always gets up tired and feverish."
+
+"That is a pity," said Aunt Delight. "Little folks ought to be hungry
+in the morning, and to be as fresh and lively as birds and lambs are.
+We must see if we cannot cure that when we get her down in Dorchester."
+
+"I dare say the sea-air will help her," said Lolla's mother. "I
+remember how hungry it used to make me when I was a little girl. I am
+very uneasy about Lolla, sometimes. It seems so unnatural for a child
+to be so languid in the morning. But you are quite sure, Aunt Delight,
+that you do not want to take nurse with you?"
+
+"I am quite sure, my dear Laura. In the first place, I have no room for
+her; and in the second place, I have nothing for her to do."
+
+"Then who will take care of me, Aunt Delight?" asked Lolla, very much
+interested in the discussion.
+
+"I expect you will take care of yourself and of me too," replied Aunt
+Delight, smiling.
+
+Lolla looked as if she were doubtful whether to be pleased or alarmed
+at this project. But she was very much delighted at the idea of the
+long journey, and the summer in Dorchester with Aunt Delight, and not
+displeased at being spoken to as if she were something more than a
+baby: so she made no further objections.
+
+Lolla's father and mother lived in a very fine place near one of the
+great Western cities; but they were expecting to break up and remove to
+California during the summer, and it had been settled that Lolla was to
+go to Dorchester and spend a year at least with her mother's aunt, Miss
+Delight Wentworth, who had a pretty place of her own and was famous for
+her skill in nursing the sick and managing and teaching children. Lolla
+was considered rather a delicate child, and her mother had been out
+of health ever since her daughter was born; for which reasons it was
+thought best for both that they should be separated for a time.
+
+About ten o'clock, as Aunt Delight was passing through the kitchen, she
+saw nurse giving Lolla a large piece of loaf-cake.
+
+"Eating so soon after breakfast?" said Aunt Delight.
+
+"Why, you know, aunt, I did not eat any breakfast," replied Lolla, in
+rather a tone of apology.
+
+"She has got into a bad way about eating, that's a fact," said nurse.
+"She doesn't eat at meals, and she is always wanting something
+between-times; but her mother thinks there is no help for it. Now you
+will see that she won't want any thing at dinner; and by-and-by she
+will be asking for another piece of cake."
+
+"Do you think it is good for her to eat in that way?"
+
+"Well, no, I don't. She is spoiling her teeth, for one thing. But,
+being the only child for so long,—and delicate besides,—Mrs. Lane has
+got in the way of indulging her. She is a good child, too, in most
+things; but it won't do her any harm to have a change. She cares Were
+for eating than for any thing else."
+
+As nurse had predicted, Lolla had no appetite for her dinner,—at least
+for the solid parts of it; but she ate two plates of rich pudding,
+and then she had almonds and raisins, besides filling her pocket with
+the nuts, which she was munching all the afternoon. A large piece of
+fresh maple-sugar helped the almonds to fill up the interval between
+dinner and tea, when Lolla supped upon pound-cake, preserved melon and
+cottage-cheese.
+
+In the evening some friends came in, and about ten o'clock Lolla had
+her share of the supper prepared for them.
+
+As Aunt Delight noted all these things, she no longer wondered that
+Lolla did not sleep well and had no appetite for her breakfast. She was
+not one of those people who think that children should never have any
+thing that they like; but she made up her mind that when Lolla came
+under her own care she should make some change in her habits.
+
+
+"Well, Lolla, have you said good-by to all your pets?" asked Aunt
+Delight, as she met Lolla at breakfast on the day set for their journey.
+
+Lolla did not seem as languid as usual, this morning. Her cheeks had a
+little colour, her eyes were bright, and she ate her bread-and-butter
+as if she liked it.
+
+"Oh, yes, aunt. I have been out to the barn and the pasture to see
+the calves and the colts, and down by the river to see the little
+ducks, and over to Mrs. Merrie's to bid good-by to Fanny and Jenny. I
+have been up and running about ever since five o'clock; and I am so
+hungry,—you can't think! I believe it makes people hungry to get up
+early in the morning."
+
+"It is said to have that effect," replied Aunt Delight, smiling. "But
+finish your breakfast, my dear. We have no time to lose."
+
+The carriage came to the door, the last good-byes were said, and Aunt
+Delight and her little niece were soon speeding away over the Michigan
+Central Railroad.
+
+Lolla felt very sadly at leaving home, and cried bitterly at parting
+from father, mother and nurse. But children are usually easily diverted
+from their grief; and Lolla's tears were soon dried. She had never
+been upon the railroad before; and she enjoyed the rapid motion, the
+constant change of scene, and the novelty of staying in a great hotel
+over-night.
+
+She thought it rather hard that her aunt should refuse to buy oranges,
+candy and maple-sugar of all the boys who came upon the train,
+and a very unlucky circumstance that the package of rich cake and
+confectionery which her mother had put up for her should somehow have
+been lost directly, so that they had nothing left for their luncheon
+except biscuits, cold chicken and sponge-cake. But there was so much to
+see, and the change of air made her so hungry, that she did not feel
+disposed to complain: besides that, she felt too much awe of her aunt
+to go into one of her tantrums, as nurse used to call them.
+
+The travellers arrived at home late in the evening; and when Lolla
+entered her aunt's cottage in Dorchester, she was too sleepy to notice
+any thing, except that her room was of an odd shape, and her little low
+bed very comfortable.
+
+
+"Come, Lolla," said Aunt Delight, entering the room, next morning,
+just as Lolla was rubbing her eyes; "breakfast is almost ready. I have
+let you sleep late this morning, because you were tired. Here is your
+bath, all ready to brighten you up. Now let us see how soon you will be
+dressed."
+
+"Nurse used to dress me at home," said Lolla, rather doubtfully.
+
+"Yes, but nurse is not here; and, besides, you are old enough to wait
+upon yourself. You are eight years old, are you not?"
+
+"Yes, aunt,—on my last birthday."
+
+"Well, when I was as old as you, I dressed myself and my little brother
+every morning, besides putting my own room in order. You do not want
+to be a baby all your days, do you? Come; don't dawdle, but lace your
+boots quickly, and then put on the rest of your things, and I will
+fasten them for you."
+
+"Is this my room, aunt?" asked Lolla.
+
+"Yes, Lolla. How do you like it?"
+
+"I think it is beautiful," replied Lolla, looking around upon the neat,
+old-fashioned furniture, the pretty red-and-white matting, and the
+little book-case full of books. "I never had a room of my own before.
+What a funny window! It is like a little room by itself. Oh, aunt,
+what is that out there?" exclaimed Lolla, catching a glimpse through
+the curtains of something bright and blue, and speckled with large and
+small white dots. "That 'blue,' I mean."
+
+"That is the sea,—or the bay, rather," replied Aunt Delight, smiling at
+Lolla's excitement. "Don't you remember I told you, you would be able
+to see the ships and the bay from your window? See, there is a great
+steamer coming in. It must be the ocean steamer from Liverpool."
+
+There seemed some danger that Lolla would not get dressed at all, so
+much interested was she in watching the steamer, and the fishing-boats,
+and a large ship just going out of the bay; but Aunt Delight found no
+fault with her. She knew how interesting all these things must be to
+the little girl who had never seen ships or salt water before. At last,
+however, Lolla was dressed; and she was about to run down-stairs at
+once,—when her aunt stopped her.
+
+"It seems to me that you have forgotten something, Lolla," said she,
+gravely.
+
+"Have I?" asked Lolla, surveying her dress. "I don't see any thing,
+except my apron; and you know you said you would give me a clean one
+out of the trunk."
+
+"I was not thinking of your dress, but of something else."
+
+Lolla still looked puzzled.
+
+"Who has taken care of you all night while you have been asleep, and
+kept you from harm all through this long journey? And who is it you
+should ask to take care of you through the day?"
+
+"Oh, you mean saying my prayers," said Lolla. "But, aunt, I never said
+my prayers in the morning,—only at night."
+
+"Then you don't want God to take care of you in the daytime?" said Aunt
+Delight. "You think, perhaps, that you can do that for yourself?"
+
+"Somehow, there never seems to be any time in the morning," said Lolla.
+"One has to hurry so to get ready for breakfast."
+
+"Then one must get up earlier in the morning," said Aunt Delight.
+"But you will have plenty of time. I told Sarah to ring the bell five
+minutes before breakfast was ready. I will wait for you in my room."
+
+Lolla, did not feel very much like saying her prayers; but she did
+not like to dispute with her aunt: so she hastily repeated the Lord's
+Prayer, without thinking much of its meaning, and then joined her aunt
+in her own room, and they went down-stairs together.
+
+The breakfast-room would have been a large one if it had not been cut
+up into so many angles and corners. There was a large chimney, with a
+high, old-fashioned wooden mantel-piece, and a deep recess containing
+a book-case on each side of it. There was another deep recess, where
+stood a large, carved mahogany side-board. There was a corner cupboard,
+with glass doors, which seemed to be filled with china. There were
+two windows with deep window-seats, and a glass door opening into the
+garden. The walls were covered with old-fashioned paper ornamented with
+lilies and roses, with gayly-feathered birds flying about and perching
+on the flowers; and there were many pictures and prints, in black and
+gold frames.
+
+The breakfast-table was set for them, and looked very inviting, with
+its snowy cloth and shining china and silver.
+
+"Whose place is that, aunt?" asked Lolla.
+
+"That is Mr. Locke's place; but he will not be here this morning," said
+Aunt Delight. "He has gone over to Boston, and will breakfast with a
+friend. This is your chair."
+
+Lolla slipped into her chair. She was very hungry, and could not help
+taking a sly survey of the table, even while her aunt was saying grace,
+to see what they were likely to have for breakfast. There was a loaf
+of white bread, and another of brown, upon a beautifully-carved wooden
+plate. There was a silver egg-boiler, a pitcher of milk, and a dish of
+cold ham; and that was all.
+
+Presently, however, Aunt Delight rang her bell, and Sarah brought in a
+plate of hot toast, and a coffee-pot.
+
+"What is that, aunt?" said Lolla, pointing to the egg-boiler.
+
+"That is a boiler to cook the eggs," replied her aunt, as she opened
+the cover and took out the rack filled with eggs. "Did you never see
+one before?"
+
+"No," replied Lolla. "Mary always boils ours in a kettle; but I think
+this is a much nicer way. Our eggs are always too hard, or too soft, or
+something."
+
+She had another question on her tongue's end; but she did not quite
+like to ask it. At last, however, out it came.
+
+"Aunt Delight, don't you have any meat for breakfast? No beefsteak, or
+chicken, or any thing?"
+
+"Sometimes," replied her aunt. "Don't you call cold ham meat?"
+
+"Oh, yes," replied Lolla, feeling rather ashamed of her question. "Only
+I thought I would just ask, because—because—" Lolla paused in some
+confusion. She did not exactly know what to say.
+
+"I dare say you can make a breakfast on ham-and-eggs and
+bread-and-butter," said Aunt Delight.
+
+"Was it wrong to ask, aunt?"
+
+"Oh, no. But, Lolla, it is not usually considered very polite to make
+remarks upon what is on the table. Little girls should eat what is
+set before them, without saying very much about it. See here: you
+shall have your coffee in this silver cup, which belonged to your
+great-grandmother,—and her grandmother before her, for aught I know.
+Just think how many little girls must have drunk out of it before you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+LOLLA IN DORCHESTER.
+
+"NOW, Lolla, can I trust you to run about by yourself for a while?"
+asked Aunt Delight, when breakfast was done and family prayers were
+over.
+
+"I don't exactly know what you mean, aunt," said Lolla.
+
+"Can I trust you not to pick the flowers, or tread upon the
+flower-beds, or meddle with what does not belong to you? If so, you
+may go where you like about the house and garden; but you must not go
+outside the gate unless I give you leave. I suppose you will be like a
+kitten brought into a strange house: you will like to make acquaintance
+with every thing about you."
+
+"I won't meddle with any thing," said Lolla. "But why may I not go into
+the street, Aunt Delight?"
+
+"For this reason, among others: that you might easily get lost, and it
+would not perhaps be so easy to find you again."
+
+"May I go down to the gate and look-out?" asked Lolla.
+
+"Yes, if you do not go outside. By-and-by we will begin some lessons;
+for it will not do to play all the time. But to-day I am going to be
+busy about the house all the morning: so you will know where to find me
+if you want me."
+
+Lolla was pleased with the permission to go where she liked,—and
+pleased, too, with being trusted. She spent an hour or two very
+pleasantly in exploring the garden and greenhouses, and going about
+the house, where there seemed so many pictures, and books, and curious
+boxes, and china vases, and pots, and bowls. One pair of vases, which
+stood in the hall, especially excited her curiosity, they were so very
+large. They were nearly as tall as herself; she thought she could have
+got into one of them easily,—and had covers, which fastened with large
+metal hinges and hasps.
+
+Then she put on her hat again and went down to the gate, where she
+saw a little boy mounted on a Shetland pony not much larger than her
+father's great Newfoundland dog, and a girl driving a little donkey
+in a low wagon, and some cows in a field opposite, each with a thin
+blanket on to keep off the flies, and each one tethered to a stake by a
+long rope.
+
+"Well," thought Lolla, "they seem to take a great deal of care of their
+cows; but if I were a cow, I should rather be running about on the
+prairie than be tied up in that way."
+
+Just then she heard a church-clock strike eleven, and she remembered
+that it was more than two hours since she had had any thing to eat: so
+she sauntered slowly to the house, and went in at the back door.
+
+She found Aunt Delight in her neat little store-room, surrounded by
+shelves full of preserves and canned fruit, stone jars which reminded
+one of pickles and cake, bunches of sweet and medicinal herbs, and
+bottles and jugs of all shapes and sizes.
+
+"Please, aunt," said Lolla, "I want something to eat."
+
+"Do you?" said Aunt Delight. "For what?"
+
+Lolla smiled at the oddness of the question.
+
+"Because I am hungry, aunt."
+
+"Are you sure it is because you are hungry, or because you are used
+to eating just about this time? But never mind. Go to Sarah, in the
+kitchen, and ask her to give you a piece of bread-and-butter."
+
+"I don't like bread-and-butter very much," said Lolla. "Nurse used to
+give me a piece of cake."
+
+"I don't like little girls to be always eating sweet things," said Aunt
+Delight. "It is bad for their teeth and for their health. If you are
+really hungry, bread-and-butter will taste good to you. If you are not
+hungry, you do not want any thing."
+
+"Mother lets me have cake," persisted Lolla; "and I guess she knows
+what is good for me as well as anybody."
+
+"See here, Lolla," said Aunt Delight, sitting down, and drawing
+the little girl to her side: "I cannot have any argument with you
+about these things. Your mother has trusted you to me, to be taken
+care of and treated as I think best. She knows all about my ways of
+management,—because I brought her up till she was fourteen years old;
+and she knows I intend to do as I think right with you. When I tell
+you to do a thing, I do not expect you to tell me what somebody else
+does or thinks, but to be governed by what I think. Now go and get your
+bread-and-butter, if you want it; and if not, let it alone."
+
+"I don't want it," said Lolla, with an air of disgust. "I haven't any
+appetite for such things."
+
+"Very well," said Aunt Delight, smiling. "I dare say you will find
+your appetite by dinner-time. Do you want to go and play, or would you
+rather stay and help me? I am going to take my Indian curiosities out
+of the cabinet and dust them."
+
+Lolla did not exactly know what to do. She felt very much abused,
+and a good deal like sulking about it; but, then, she wanted to see
+the curiosities, and she had, besides, a feeling that sulking was
+not likely to answer a very good purpose: so she slowly followed
+Aunt Delight into the parlour, which was across the hall from the
+breakfast-room. She had peeped in before, but the blinds were closed
+and the curtains down, so that she could not see any thing.
+
+Aunt Delight drew up the curtains and opened the shutters.
+
+"What a pretty room!" exclaimed Lolla. "I do think, aunt, you have
+the most beautiful things! I don't see where you got so many splendid
+vases."
+
+"They have been accumulating for a long time," said Aunt Delight. "Some
+of our family have been in the India trade ever since there has been
+any India trade in Boston; and they are always bringing home things.
+See, here is my India cabinet."
+
+"A real India cabinet, just like the one in Rosamund!" exclaimed Lolla,
+forgetting all about the bread-and-butter question at once. "Are there
+any branches of coral in it?"
+
+"We shall see," said Aunt Delight, unlocking the little drawers. "There
+is no telling what we may find."
+
+No telling, indeed. What wonderful things there were in that cabinet!
+Shells and corals, curious gold and silver coins, butterflies and
+beetles looking as if made of jewels, little boxes and balls carved
+with figures, pictures upon rice-paper of birds and flowers and Chinese
+men and women. I could not begin to tell you half the things there were
+in that cabinet. Aunt Delight took them out and handed them to Lolla,
+who laid them carefully on the table set to receive them.
+
+Every article had a story to it, and Aunt Delight was ready to answer
+all Lolla's questions. She gave the little girl a number of pretty
+things for her own, and a beautiful little Japan work-box in the
+shape of a cabinet, covered with gilded figures of cranes flying and
+perching, and having drawers lined with a sweet-scented wood, which
+Aunt Delight said was sandal-wood.
+
+"There! We have made a good morning's work," said Aunt Delight, as she
+closed the last drawer. "Now put away the dust-pan and brush in the
+back entry, and, as you come back, look at the clock and tell me what
+time it is."
+
+"Why, aunt, it only wants a quarter of one!" exclaimed Lolla, in great
+surprise. "And Sarah has set the table. She says dinner will be ready
+in a quarter of an hour. I did not think it was nearly dinner-time: did
+you?"
+
+Aunt Delight smiled. "You will just have time to wash your hands and
+brush your hair nicely. Run upstairs, and don't waste any time."
+
+Lolla thought every thing tasted unusually good at dinner. She thought
+the air of Dorchester must make people very hungry. She had not cared
+any thing about roast beef and mashed potatoes for a long time, and
+seldom ate any meat at dinner when she was at home.
+
+Mr. Locke was at dinner. He was a pale, thin, delicate-looking young
+gentleman, who wore spectacles and ate very little; but he was pleasant
+and kind in his manners, and Lolla thought she should like him very
+much. She wondered how he came to be living with Aunt Delight, and
+thought she would ask by-and by.
+
+"Are you going to feel well enough to give some time to this little
+girl lessons, Mr. Locke?" asked Aunt Delight.
+
+"Certainly," replied Mr. Locke, smiling kindly upon Lolla. "When shall
+we begin?"
+
+"After a day or two. She will need a little time to run about and
+get used to her new home. Next week, I think, we will look up some
+school-books, and see what we can do."
+
+Lolla looked rather alarmed at the idea of lessons.
+
+"My mother never lets me go to school," said she; "I have the headache
+so much."
+
+"No one has said any thing about your going to school," returned Aunt
+Delight, dryly. "As to your headaches, I think they will be better
+after a while. You are growing a great girl, and cannot afford to waste
+all your time. Will you have some pudding?"
+
+For the next week Lolla did nothing but amuse herself. She played about
+the yard and garden, read story-books, looked at pictures, and, in
+short, did what she liked. Twice she went into Boston on the horse-cars
+with her aunt; and on one of these occasions they went into a shop and
+had some ice-cream, to Lolla's great satisfaction.
+
+"Won't you buy me some candy, Aunt Delight?" said she, as they passed
+through the shop.
+
+"Not to-day," replied Aunt Delight. "A saucer of ice-cream does very
+well for once, I think."
+
+"Father used always to buy me candy when we went into town," murmured
+Lolla.
+
+"My dear child, how much you do think about eating!" said Aunt Delight.
+"Seems to me I would try to find pleasure in other things, if I were
+you. Candy is very unsuitable for you now, and, besides, it is a very
+bad habit to fall into, that of thinking you must always have something
+to munch, like one of the little guinea-pigs we saw just now."
+
+"Oh, dear," said Lolla to herself, "how I do want some candy!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE MOUSE.
+
+"MISS DELIGHT, I think there must be mice in the store-room cupboards,"
+said Sarah to her mistress, one morning after breakfast. "I find the
+cake and biscuits crumbed and nibbled; and the crackers go away faster
+than they ought I am sure. And just see here how this syrup from the
+dish of plums I set away yesterday is trailed upon the shelf. Nasty
+little things! If there is any thing I do hate, it is a mouse."
+
+"You must shut Dragon into the store-room at night, and move the things
+away so that he can get about on the shelves," said Aunt Delight. "It
+is a long time since we have had any mice in the house. The old cat
+must be growing lazy."
+
+"I am not so sure about the mice, either," said Sarah, in a low tone.
+"I am afraid Philly has been at her old tricks again. Mice would not
+carry away whole slices of cake and lumps of sugar."
+
+"Hardly," said Aunt Delight. "But I don't like to suspect Philly,—she
+has done so much better lately; and I do think she is trying to be a
+good girl."
+
+"Well, we shall see," said Sarah. "I mean to keep a sharp look-out upon
+her. I don't know how it is, but I never can trust her."
+
+"Take care, Sarah," said Aunt Delight. "Remember, charity thinketh no
+evil. Do not begin With a prejudice against the child."
+
+"Well, I can't help it," said Sarah. "When I do like people, I do; and
+when I don't, I don't; and that is all about it. Now, I took to Lolla,
+from the first. I'll be bound you won't find any underhand sly ways
+about her. But Philly has such a down kind of look."
+
+"You must remember how differently the two children have been treated,"
+replied Aunt Delight. "Lolla has never had occasion to be afraid of
+any thing or anybody; but poor Philly has been a slave all her life,
+and her mother before her. I expected she would make us a good deal
+of trouble. You know we talked of that before she came to us, and we
+agreed to have patience with her faults as long as there was a prospect
+of doing her any good; and you must admit that she has improved."
+
+Sarah observed that there was room for improvement still.
+
+"That is the case with all of us," said Aunt Delight, dryly. "Well, say
+nothing, Sarah, at present. We shall soon find out about the matter."
+
+The next day but one, as Aunt Delight was passing through the pantry,
+she heard Sarah's voice in the pantry, and looked in to see what was
+the matter.
+
+"Just see here, ma'am," said Sarah. "Last night I found the plums
+all spilled on the shelf again. So I thought I would watch; and this
+morning, when Philly came in to put the spoons away, I thought she was
+a long time about it: so I followed her, and found her at the open
+cupboard-door, with a teaspoon in her hand sticking all over with the
+plum-syrup. If that is not proof, I don't know what is!" concluded
+Sarah, triumphantly. "I knew very well I should catch her at her
+tricks."
+
+"I didn't never touch the plums," sobbed Philly. "I only—"
+
+"Oh, you only—You only went 'snooping' in the closet," said Sarah,
+severely. "It's no use! I caught you at it!"
+
+"Wait a little, Sarah, if you please," said Aunt Delight, quietly. "Let
+me hear Philly's own story. That is but justice. Now, Philly, tell me
+all about it; and be sure you tell the truth. Don't be afraid: you
+shall not be condemned unjustly. How was it?"
+
+"I was jes puttin' away de spoons," began Philly, falling back into her
+native negro dialect; but Aunt Delight interrupted her.
+
+"Speak quite plainly, Philly, and then I shall know you think of every
+word you are saying. Go on."
+
+"I was just putting away the spoons," continued Philly, this time
+pronouncing her words carefully, "and I thought the row of teaspoons
+looked as if there was one gone; and I counted them, and there was; and
+I began to look round for it, and I saw that cupboard-door partly open:
+so I thought I would look in there, and there I found the spoon in the
+dish of plums; and I was just taking it out when Sarah came in."
+
+"A likely story, indeed!" said Sarah, with a sneer. "Didn't I put away
+the dish of plums myself last night? And shouldn't I have seen it if
+there had been a teaspoon in the dish? Don't tell me!"
+
+"I can't help it," said Philly. "I found it there, and I know I didn't
+put it there. That's all I know."
+
+"Come into my room, Philly," said Aunt Delight. "I will talk to you
+there."
+
+Philly followed willingly enough. She was beginning to have great
+confidence in Aunt Delight's justice as well as in her kindness. She
+answered all questions readily, and did not vary at all from her first
+story.
+
+"Well, Philly, I don't know what to think," said Aunt Delight, at
+length. "You have been such a good girl lately that I do not like to
+believe you are telling me a story. Appearances are against you; but
+that happens with innocent people, sometimes. It is a rule in law that
+people are to be supposed innocent till they are proved guilty: so,
+unless I see something else to condemn you, I shall say nothing more
+about this affair. Get your book now, and read to me while I turn down
+these glass-cloths for you to hem."
+
+"You are the most goodest lady I ever see," said Phillis to herself, as
+she went for her book. "I'd be ashamed to do any thing mean for such a
+nice lady."
+
+Every morning, besides her reading and spelling lesson, Phillis read a
+chapter in the Testament, or a psalm, to Aunt Delight. She was learning
+to love these Bible lessons, and often studied them over by herself.
+Her lesson this morning was the thirty-seventh Psalm. She read slowly
+and carefully, and at the sixth verse she paused for a moment.
+
+"Well," said Aunt Delight, "what are you thinking of, Philly?"
+
+"Nothing, only—sometimes it seems as though verses in the Bible were
+made on purpose for people."
+
+"Why, so they are," replied Aunt Delight. "All the verses in the Bible
+are made on purpose for people; and it often does seem to us that
+particular verses are made on purpose for us. I suppose they are. Do
+you find any verses in this psalm which suit you at present?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am: I did think those two last verses seemed to."
+
+"Read them again."
+
+Philly did so.
+
+"You think He will make your just dealing as to the plums clear as the
+noonday. Is that it?"
+
+"If it wasn't wicked to think so," said Philly, doubtfully. "You know
+you did say one day that God cared about us."
+
+"True: so I did. Well, my child, you have as much right to take God's
+promises to yourself as any one in the world. Read the next verse."
+
+
+Philly hemmed her towels as well as possible, earning great praise from
+Miss Delight for her neatness and quickness.
+
+Then, much comforted, she went down into the garden, where Aunt Delight
+had told her to do some weeding.
+
+"How good she is!" she said to herself. "It a'n't that she don't find
+fault sometimes; but she never does it just to be hateful, and she
+always praises what I have done right, if I have been ever so naughty.
+That's the kind of goodness I like."
+
+Philly was right. Kindness without justice is not worth much. She had
+rather hard times, as she would have said, all that day. Sarah, who
+had never liked her, had made up her mind that the child was guilty,
+and treated her accordingly. She would not allow her to go into the
+pantry or store-room, watched her as a cat watches a mouse, and kept
+all the time throwing out hints about thieves and liars, and people who
+deceived and cheated their best friends.
+
+It needed all Philly's philosophy and religion to boot to enable her
+to bear patiently with all this; but the poor child had learned how
+to bear her troubles and where to carry them. She believed that "God
+really did care," because Miss Delight said so; and this day she
+learned by her own experience that He did help as well as care. Three
+or four times that day she escaped to her own little attic, and every
+time she came down comforted.
+
+
+Miss Delight expected every person of her household to repeat two
+verses of Holy Scripture at morning prayers. The next morning Philly's
+two verses were these from the thirty-seventh Psalm:—
+
+"'Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring
+it to pass.'
+
+"'And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy
+judgment as the noonday.'"
+
+Something in Sarah's heart gave her a little pain just then, as if she
+had been stung.
+
+"May-be she did tell the truth, after all," said she to herself.
+"Anyhow, she is an orphan child, and hasn't a friend in the world
+except Miss Delight. I guess I'll wait and see before I say any more."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+"BREAD IN SECRET."
+
+FOR some time after she came to Dorchester, Lolla's health continued
+steadily to improve. She lost the heavy, languid look she had worn in
+the morning, had a good appetite not only for her breakfast, but for
+all her other meals, slept well, and ran about all day long as lively
+as a kitten. She had an hour and a half of lessons in the morning,
+which she said to Mr. Locke, and half an hour of sewing with Aunt
+Delight after dinner; and the rest of the time she was encouraged to
+play in the open air as much as she pleased. She found her way down
+to the beach, where she was never weary of the marvel of seeing the
+tide come in and go out. She learned the way to the few shops in the
+neighbourhood, so that she could do errands; and—greatest pleasure of
+all—she went several times to Savin Hill.
+
+Savin Hill is like a large mountain seen through the wrong end of the
+telescope. It has caves and precipices, rocks and cliffs, all made of a
+stone which looks very much indeed like petrified plum-pudding. There
+are evergreen trees called savin, Virginia creepers, and a slender,
+thorny vine with glossy leaves, very pretty to look at and very
+impossible to get through.
+
+Savin Hill runs out into the bay, and commands on all sides a beautiful
+view of the bay and shipping, South Boston, the Blue Hills, and the
+villages round about. I have spent many pleasant hours upon the little
+mountain, watching the ships and boats, the clouds and hills, and
+waiting till dark to see the revolving light in the far-off lighthouse
+flash out and fade as regularly as the pendulum of a clock.
+
+Two or three times Aunt Delight and Mr. Locke had gone up on Savin Hill
+with Lolla and Philly and had a little picnic. The two elders would
+sit on the rocks in the shade or the sunshine, as the day happened to
+be cool or warm, and read or talked while the little girls played with
+their dolls and made playhouses.
+
+Philly was a grand playmate. She was four years older than Lolla, but
+she was always ready to do any thing Lolla wanted of her,—to dress the
+doll, jump the rope, tell stories; or "make-believe" to any extent.
+
+Aunt Delight did not think it would do Lolla any harm to play with her.
+She had watched Philly for some months, and she saw that the child was
+really trying to improve,—that she had learned to have a sense of duty
+which made her careful to be good out of sight and alone as well as
+before other people. Since the affair of the spoon and the plums she
+had taken special pains to observe her, and she became convinced that
+whoever was to blame for the spilt syrup and crumbled cake, Philly was
+not. She was not so sure about some one else, but she kept her own
+counsel; for Aunt Delight was one of the people who could think of
+things and not talk about them,—a talent more rare than many persons
+suppose, and one we would advise our young readers to cultivate.
+
+By-and-by, however, Lolla's head began to ache once more, and again
+she had no appetite for her meals. She declared it was because Mr.
+Locke made her learn the multiplication-table; but Aunt Delight
+was of a different opinion. She had taught many little girls the
+multiplication-table without doing them any harm; and she had seen
+many more headaches come from improper eating and exposure than from
+lessons; and she came to the conclusion that Lolla was indulging in
+something which she ought not to have. She watched her closely, but
+quietly, and by-and-by she found out the truth, as you will see.
+
+Lolla had brought some money from home. Her father had been in the
+habit of giving her all his new three-cent and five-cent pieces to
+put in her little money-box, and these had amounted to a considerable
+sum; and, besides, she possessed other money, which had been given
+her from time to time by her uncles and cousins. She had very little
+temptation to spend at home, for she lived some distance from town, and
+she had all the sweet things she could eat, without buying them. She
+brought her money with her to Boston, intending to purchase some pretty
+thing that she fancied; but it all seemed likely to go in another
+direction. Lolla discovered that she could buy cakes and gingersnaps
+at the baker's, and candy and chocolate at the other shops; and she
+now kept on hand a constant supply of these articles, which she was
+munching at every opportunity when she could do so unobserved. Now,
+when a little girl eats two large ginger-cakes, a stick of chocolate,
+and a dozen or so of lemon-drops after she goes to bed at night, it is
+hardly necessary to blame the multiplication-table if she rises with a
+headache in the morning.
+
+Lolla hid away her store of dainties in two or three different
+places,—in one of the great covered vases in the hall, in the back
+part of a cupboard where she kept her shoes, and in the pockets of her
+dress. Something told her all the time that she was growing mean and
+deceitful and sly, and more and more fond of eating,—more like a little
+pig; but she persuaded herself that she could not help it, and that it
+was her aunt's fault in not giving her all she wanted.
+
+"Won't you ever tell as long as you live and breathe?" said she to
+Philly, one day, as they were playing in the lower part of the garden.
+
+"No," said Philly, without thinking. "Tell what?"
+
+"If I give you something," said Lolla, putting her hand in her pocket
+and pulling out two or three large lumps of sugar.
+
+"Oh, Lolla, you shouldn't eat hard sugar," said Philly. "I heard Miss
+Delight tell you it was bad for your teeth. Where did you get it?"
+
+"That is my business, and not yours," replied Lolla, pertly. "Aunt
+Delight is as full of notions as she can be. Lizzy Mercer said she knew
+she would be, because she is an old maid. I hope I shall never be an
+old maid."
+
+"Oh, Lolla! How can you say so?" exclaimed Philly. "I think she is as
+good as she can be. I am sure she is just like a mother to you."
+
+"She is not a bit like 'my' mother, I can tell you," said Lolla.
+"Mother always let me have all the cake I wanted."
+
+"Well, you know yourself it wasn't good for you," returned Philly.
+"Just see how much better you are than when you first came here."
+
+"I am 'not' better," said Lolla, pettishly. "My head aches all the
+time, lately. I know it is all that hateful arithmetic; but Aunt
+Delight won't believe me."
+
+"I guess it is the sweet stuff you eat," said Philly. "I am sure your
+aunt would not like it if she knew how you bought candy all the time."
+
+"You had better run and tell her," said Lolla, angrily. "I wish you
+would just mind your own business. I didn't come down here to be
+ordered about by a nigger."
+
+Lolla knew very well, when she used the ugly word, that nothing
+made Philly so angry or hurt her feelings so much as being called a
+"nigger." She thought Philly would fly into a passion, and that then
+she could tease her till she made her cry. She had done so before when
+they quarrelled, and, somehow, found a great pleasure in seeing Philly
+angry. This time, however, she did not succeed in her object. She
+was very much hurt, and her dark eyes snapped for a moment; but she
+restrained herself, and merely said,—
+
+"I shall not play with you if you talk that way." She turned and went
+into the house.
+
+"Just like you," Lolla called after her. "Now go and sulk up in your
+room all the afternoon."
+
+Philly did not answer, and Lolla began to consider whether she had been
+very wise in provoking one who could betray her secret. There was no
+help for it now, however; and she determined to make it up with Philly,
+and to be more careful in future.
+
+Philly was deeply hurt, for she was fond of Lolla, but she was very
+much troubled besides. She was pretty sure that the lumps of sugar came
+out of Miss Delight's pantry, and she was very much afraid that if they
+were missed she should be accused of taking them. The matter of the
+spoon had never been cleared up, and she feared if any more suspicion
+fell on her, Miss Delight would send her away. Think as she would, she
+could see no way out of her trouble. She could not make up her mind to
+tell Miss Delight or Sarah what had passed. She could not feel that it
+would be right, and, besides, she argued, "as like as not Miss Delight
+wouldn't believe me. She would naturally take part with her own niece,
+and Sarah thinks Lolla is perfect. Oh, dear! I thought when I got here,
+there would not be any more trouble; but seems to me there is trouble
+everywhere."
+
+Philly was right. There is trouble everywhere in this world. Happily,
+however, the Refuge from trouble is everywhere as well.
+
+
+"Sarah," said Philly, as they were drinking their tea that afternoon,
+"why doesn't Miss Delight keep things locked up, as my old missus used
+to do down in Georgia?"
+
+"Why should she?" asked Sarah. "There is nobody to meddle with things
+but you and me; and we don't either of us mean to rob her, do we?"
+
+Philly felt that it was kind in Sarah to include her in this question.
+"I'm sure I don't," said she.
+
+"Well, Philly, I don't believe you do," said Sarah. "I had my doubts
+of you a little while ago about those plums; but I have got eyes in my
+head. I have watched you, and I don't believe you meddle with things
+any more; though you know, Philly, you did when you first came here."
+
+"Yes, I know; but I didn't know any better then. I do try to be a good
+girl, Sarah."
+
+"Yes, I see you do; and I must say you make out better than some folks
+who have had more advantages. But you mustn't be proud of it, child: if
+you are, the first you know you will be doing something bad again."
+
+"It was queer, though, about that spoon: wasn't it?" said Philly,
+emboldened by Sarah's kindness. "You know, Sarah, a mouse wouldn't take
+a spoon; if he wanted the plums ever so much."
+
+"A mouse wouldn't do a good many things," said Sarah. "A mouse wouldn't
+leave the cover off the sugar-bowl and take out all the largest lumps.
+A mouse isn't apt to open cupboard-doors and leave them ajar. But
+we shall see. Every thing comes to the light some day. Come, hurry
+and wash up your dishes; and, if you are real smart, I will ask Miss
+Delight to let you go with me into Boston to-morrow."
+
+Philly hastened to obey, feeling very much comforted at finding that
+she had made a friend of Sarah, who had begun by disliking her so
+greatly.
+
+"I know what I know," said Sarah to herself; "and Miss Delight
+shall know it too, if she has not penetration to find it out for
+herself,—which I guess she has."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE ICE-CREAM.
+
+"OH, Aunt Delight, do let us go in and have some ice-cream," said
+Lolla, as they came opposite a pleasant-looking shop on Washington
+Street, where she had several times been with her aunt. "We have not
+had any for ever so long."
+
+"How long?" asked Aunt Delight.
+
+"Not since last week."
+
+"And how long is that?"
+
+Lolla was obliged to confess that it was no longer ago than the day
+before yesterday.
+
+"I cannot buy ice-cream every time we come into town. It is too
+expensive."
+
+"I thought you were rich enough to afford to get whatever you liked,
+aunt," said Lolla; "and it only costs twenty-five cents."
+
+"Well, I come into town, on an average, three times a week. Suppose I
+were to spend twenty-five cents every time: how much would that come to
+in a month?"
+
+"Three dollars, exactly," replied Lolla, after a little consideration.
+
+"Yes: enough to buy a nice Testament in large print for old Mrs.
+Prince, and a 'Silent Comforter' to hang on the wall for poor Jessie
+McMillen, who you know has not strength to hold a heavy book in her
+hand."
+
+"You might buy the book too," said Lolla. "I am sure you have money
+enough."
+
+"Perhaps you do not know just how much money I have; but, if I were as
+rich as the richest man in the world, it would not be right to spend
+money foolishly. Besides, it is a very bad habit to be constantly
+buying nice things to eat. It leads to selfishness, gluttony and
+extravagance. I am willing to indulge you to a reasonable extent;
+but if you tease me for ice-cream or candy every time you see a
+confectioner's shop, I cannot bring you to town with me any more."
+
+Lolla was silent. She knew by experience that when Aunt Delight
+said no, that was all that was to be said; but she felt very much
+dissatisfied, and she was really provoked when Aunt Delight bought a
+pretty photograph of some cliffs and boats, and some fishermen's huts
+upon the sea-shore.
+
+"That cost more than the ice-cream would have cost,—fifty cents more,"
+said Lolla; "and what is it good for, after all?"
+
+"Good to look at," replied Aunt Delight. "The ice-cream is eaten and
+gone, and that is the end. The photograph may be looked at every day
+for ten years, and be just as good at the end of the time. But this
+picture is not for myself, but for Jessie McMillen."
+
+"That is queerer yet," said Lolla. "I thought when people bought things
+for the poor they got somethings useful."
+
+"That depends upon circumstances, and also upon what you call useful,"
+replied her aunt. "Jessie's father can buy her the clothes and the food
+that are absolutely necessary for her; but he has no money to spare for
+any thing else. This picture will hang on the wall opposite her bed,
+and be a new pleasure to her every time she wakes up and looks at it,
+and all the more because it will remind her of the shores of Scotland,
+which she will never see again. I have had a long illness myself,
+and I know very well how pleasant is any thing which reminds one of
+out-of-doors and fresh air."
+
+"Come, Lolla," said Aunt Delight, after tea; "let us go up and carry
+Jessie her picture."
+
+Jessie McMillen was a Scotch girl who was dying slowly of a painful
+disease. Her father had come from Scotland not many months before,
+with his wife and his only daughter. He was a sober, steady man,
+who had been injured by an accident in a coal-mine, so that he was
+unable to work very hard; but his wife was skilful in fine washing and
+clear-starching, and Jessie understood housework and sewing: so there
+seemed every probability that they would be able to support themselves
+nicely.
+
+They took rooms in a little cottage near Savin Hill, and for a time
+did very well; but misfortune fell upon them. Mrs. McMillen took cold
+while hanging out her clothes one biting winter's day, and went into a
+quick consumption. It was while waiting upon her sick and dying mother
+that Jessie was seized with a pain in her chest. She thought little
+of the matter at first; but, between hard work and watching, the pain
+grew more and more severe; and when, after her mother was buried, she
+went to the doctor, he told her, as gently as he could, that there was
+nothing to be done for her. Since then she had gradually but surely
+grown worse, till she was now nearly helpless.
+
+Her father obtained work as a gardener, in which business he was
+very skilful, and some kind people of the neighbourhood interested
+themselves in the daughter, so that Jessie wanted for nothing. She had
+failed very much through the spring, and was now unable to sit up.
+
+Lolla could not regret the loss of her ice-cream when she saw how
+Jessie's eyes brightened at the sight of the photograph, and heard the
+little cry of joy which she uttered as she examined it.
+
+"It is just my grandfather's house in Scotland," said she. "I have
+been there a hundred times. And that woman is Maggie Lawlor, the old
+fishwife, who used to carry me on her back. I've often seen them make
+pictures of it when I was a little girl; but I never thought to see it
+again.
+
+"Many artists came to our village in summer to draw the rocks and the
+boats. One of them painted my picture when I was a wee thing like Miss
+Lolla, there. I mind well how I would have putten on my fine Sunday
+gown and hat; but he would have me in my old stout red petticoat. Oh,
+how pleased my father will be!"
+
+"I am very glad," said Aunt Delight. "I thought you would be pleased
+with a Scotch scene; but I had no idea that you would know the place."
+
+"It just seems like a gift from God," said Jessie, reverently. "Oh, I
+have so tried and prayed to dream of it all, but I never could; and now
+he has sent me this."
+
+"He is always good," said Miss Delight. "You will find that out more
+and more to all eternity, Jessie. And now about your eating: have you
+been able to take any food to-day?"
+
+"No, ma'am. I canna eat, though I try. Every thing turns against
+me,—especially every thing warm."
+
+"Do you like ice?"
+
+"Very much, ma'am; and Mrs. Tuttle was very good to send me some
+several times. I often fancy if the broth was frozen I could eat it."
+
+"I will see if something cannot be prepared," said Aunt Delight.
+
+
+The next morning, while Lolla was at her lessons, she heard a sound
+in the kitchen like the turning of an ice-cream freezer, which so
+distracted her attention that she missed half the questions in her
+arithmetic lesson, and had to study it over again. At last, however,
+she accomplished her task, and hurried down-stairs to see what was
+going on; and, behold! there was Philly, in a cool recess which opened
+out of the kitchen, turning the freezer as busily as possible.
+
+"What are you making, Philly?" asked Lolla.
+
+"I don't know. Something for Jessie McMillen," answered Philly, pausing
+in her work for a minute, and then beginning again with new vigour.
+
+"Pshaw! Always Jessie McMillen!" said Lolla, half to herself. "I wonder
+why I can't have something decent to eat, as well as that beggar."
+
+"Why, Lolla!" said Philly. "I don't see how you can talk so. I wish you
+could live where I did before I came here, for about three weeks. You
+would know what it is to have something good to eat. Jessie isn't a
+beggar, either; and you should not call her so."
+
+"Just like you, Philly!—Always contradicting every word I say. I should
+think Aunt Delight might teach you not to be quite so impudent. Just
+like niggers! I can't bear them."
+
+"Lolla," said Sarah, "if you call Philly a nigger again, I shall tell
+your aunt. I don't think that is much like a little lady, for my part."
+
+"Never mind, Sarah," said Philly. "Lolla will be sorry by-and-by. After
+all, I 'am' a nigger," she added; "and I needn't care about being
+called one. This stuff is all frozen now."
+
+"I'll tell Miss Delight," said Sarah. "I don't know whether she wants
+you to carry it to Jessie now or not."
+
+"Miss Delight," she asked, going to the door of the breakfast-room,
+"the milk porridge is frozen. Shall Philly carry it over directly?"
+
+"I will see," replied Aunt Delight, coming into the kitchen. She
+examined the contents of the freezer and put them into a small tin
+pail, which she set into another larger pail. She then packed the
+outside pail full of finely-powdered ice, and sprinkled in a little
+salt.
+
+"Now, Lolla," said she, "I want you to put on your things and carry
+this over to Jessie directly, that she may have it for her dinner. The
+sun is clouded over, and you can keep in the shade nearly all the way.
+When you come back, stop at the shop and bring me half a dozen lemons."
+
+"What is Philly going to do?" asked Lolla.
+
+"She is going to be busy at home. Don't waste any time. You can leave
+the pails, and tell Jessie to have them set in the cellar."
+
+Lolla set out on her errand in no very good humour. She had hoped
+when she saw the freezer that she was going to have ice-cream for her
+dinner; and it was a great disappointment to find that Philly was only
+making something for poor Jessie.
+
+Lolla was growing more and more fond of eating every day. She cared a
+great deal more for nice things than she used to do at home, where no
+one objected to her eating them every day and all day long. The fact
+of being obliged to indulge her appetite in secret gave a zest to her
+stolen feasts,—literally stolen, many times, I am sorry to say; for
+she fell more and more into the habit of pilfering from the pantry and
+from the store-room at every opportunity. She had heretofore been so
+sly and careful that Sarah had not been able to detect her in the act;
+but she was growing bolder every day. Nor was this the worst of it. She
+had spent all the money she had brought from home upon ginger-cakes,
+raisins, and other things of the kind. She could hardly believe it when
+she found her purse empty, and in her heart she accused some one of
+having robbed her; but, however that might be, it was all gone.
+
+It was a fault of Miss Delight's that she was rather careless of money.
+She was somewhat apt to leave her purse in her work-box or on her desk;
+and she had a habit of keeping loose pennies and small change in the
+corner of drawers and on the edges of shelves. Sarah often remonstrated
+with her about the matter, especially since Philly came to live at the
+cottage,—and Miss Delight had been more careful for a time; but, as her
+confidence in the child's honesty became established, she gradually
+fell into her old habits.
+
+It was with fear and trembling that Lolla first took to herself a penny
+to spend in molasses-candy; but, as she was not discovered, she grew
+bolder; and now it was a regular thing for her to look-out for the
+waifs and strays from her aunt's purse. At that very time she had five
+cents in her pocket which she was intending to spend at the store.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE CONSEQUENCE.
+
+LOLLA walked along under the trees, feeling rather fretful and
+dissatisfied, though she could not exactly tell why. She fancied the
+pail grew heavier every minute.
+
+"I wonder if that cover is on tight?" said she to herself. "It wouldn't
+be very nice for the ice and salt to get into the porridge, or whatever
+it is. I don't believe it will be good, anyway, when it gets there. It
+will be all melted."
+
+There are many low stone walls in the village of Dorchester, which are
+very nice to sit down upon, especially when, as it often happens, there
+is a large elm-tree exactly in the right place to keep off the sun.
+Lolla found just such a place in the retired lane through which she was
+passing, and sat down for a rest. She looked this way and that, and,
+seeing nobody, she pulled off the cover of the small pail.
+
+The frozen milk porridge looked very nice and inviting, and Lolla could
+not resist the temptation.
+
+"Nobody will know if I just taste it," said she.
+
+She had no spoon; but gluttons are not apt to be nice. She put in her
+finger, and, scooping up a large mouthful, she hastily swallowed it.
+It was certainly very nice,—as good as ice-cream; and, almost without
+thinking, Lolla took another mouthful.
+
+When I was a little girl and used to gather raspberries, I used to
+make it a rule not to taste one till I had gathered all that I wanted
+to take home; because I found by experience that it was much easier
+not to eat the first raspberry than it was not to eat the second.
+Lolla discovered the same thing with regard to the iced porridge.
+Having begun, she found it hard to leave off. She took mouthful after
+mouthful, intending that every one should be the last. Meantime, the
+warm air was rapidly melting the porridge, and making it run together
+as fast as she took it out: so that she did not discover what havoc she
+was making, till a deeper dig than usual uncovered the bottom of the
+pail. She was frightened to see that there was not a teacupful left.
+Then, indeed, she wished she had let it alone.
+
+"What shall I do now?" said she to herself. "There is no use in
+carrying that little bit to Jessie. She will know that aunt never sent
+such a small parcel as that; and, besides, the side of the pail shows
+how much there was in the first, place. Hateful stuff! I wish I never
+had seen it! Aunt ought to have sent Philly with it. But I may as well
+eat the rest, now that I have begun; and then what shall I do with the
+pails? Aunt told me to leave them there at Jessie's; and if I bring
+them back, she will surely suspect something. Oh, what shall I do?"
+
+Lolla thought and thought, but could come to no conclusion. At last,
+however, she hid the two empty pails among some weeds and brambles in a
+corner of the wall, and turned into the street that led to the store.
+
+"My aunt wants you to send her seven lemons," said she to the shop-man;
+"and I want five cents' worth of nice raisins."
+
+The lemons were done up in a parcel, and the raisins put into Lolla's
+pocket, from which they were soon transferred to her mouth. Then she
+undid the parcel, and took out the odd lemon, taking care to select the
+largest. She had fully intended to keep it for home consumption; but
+the smell was too inviting, and presently she found herself sucking it
+as she walked along.
+
+Lolla's stomach had been long accustomed to excesses; but a handful
+of raisins and the juice of a lemon upon the top of more than a pint
+of frozen milk was more than it could endure. Before she reached the
+cottage, Lolla found herself feeling very ill. Her head was dizzy, and
+she had a strange pain, as though she had swallowed some hot coals. She
+had hardly strength to open the gate; and it seemed to her that the
+walk which led up to the cottage was a mile long.
+
+"Oh, Lolla, I am glad you have come. Guess what we are going to have
+for dinner! Beautiful raspberry ice-cream! I froze it myself, after you
+went away. But what is the matter?" cried Philly, in alarm, as Lolla
+dropped on the nearest seat. "Oh, dear! Sarah, come here,—do! Lolla is
+dying, I do believe!"
+
+"Nonsense!" returned Sarah, sharply. "Don't call out like that, child!
+Here, Lolla, what is the matter? Why, you do look badly, sure enough!
+What have you been doing? Call Miss Delight, Philly, as quick as you
+can! She is in the greenhouse."
+
+Nobody enjoyed the raspberry-cream, or any thing else of the nice
+dinner Sarah had provided; for every one had their hands full with
+Lolla. Miss Delight held her in her arms, or rubbed her convulsed
+limbs; Sarah was busy with the bath and with hot mustard-poultices; and
+Mr. Locke was gone post-haste for the doctor; for Lolla was in a fit,
+and for a good while it seemed rather doubtful whether she would ever
+come out of it.
+
+"Has she eaten any thing more than usual?" asked the doctor.
+
+"Not that I am aware of," replied Miss Delight. "She was accustomed
+at home to eat every thing she took a fancy to, and at all times and
+seasons; but I have been careful of her diet since she came to me, and
+her health has greatly improved. Latterly, however, she has not seemed
+as well; and I have not been able to find out what was the matter."
+
+Philly heard this conversation, and it threw her into a state of great
+perplexity. She felt as though she ought to tell Miss Delight what she
+knew about Lolla's habits; and yet she hated the very name of tattling.
+At last she did the wisest thing in her power. She asked advice.
+Meeting Sarah on the stairs, she repeated to her what she had heard,
+and what she herself knew, of Lolla's habits.
+
+"Do you think I ought to tell Miss Delight?"
+
+"Of course you ought to tell her," returned Sarah. "It might make all
+the difference in the world. Tell her directly; or, if you don't want
+to, I will."
+
+"Oh, do!" said Philly, much relieved by the proposal. "That will be a
+great deal the best way."
+
+It happened, however, that the story told itself, so far as the cause
+of Lolla's present illness was concerned.
+
+"She must have drunk a quantity of milk, and then eaten something sour
+on the top of it," said Miss Delight. "But where could she get milk at
+this time of day?"
+
+"I guess she has been eating up Jessie's porridge," said Sarah. "Lolla
+is not to be trusted with any thing good to eat. I have been finding
+that out this long time, but I have not been quite sure till lately.
+But where could she get raisins? There are none in the house."
+
+"Look in her pocket, and see if there are any more," said Miss Delight.
+
+There were no raisins in Lolla's pocket; but there were the remains of
+the lemon; and now Lolla's sickness was fully accounted for.
+
+"Now, my little girl, if you can tell me what else you have eaten,"
+said the doctor, seeing that Lolla was able to speak. "Tell me the
+exact truth, that I may know what to do for you."
+
+"Oh, dear!" sighed Lolla. "I only ate a few raisins."
+
+"And what else?"
+
+"And—and—a lemon!"
+
+"Raisins and a lemon; and what else?"
+
+"Nothing," said Lolla, sullenly.
+
+"Where did you get the milk?" asked Miss Delight.
+
+"I didn't have any milk," said Lolla; and to this story she adhered,
+in spite of any thing and every thing that could be said to her. She
+was better for a little while; but in an hour or two she was attacked
+with illness in another form, and it was not till the next day that
+Miss Delight ventured to hope that she might be saved. All this time
+her mind was more or less wandering, and, besides, it was absolutely
+necessary to keep her quiet: so there was no chance of finding out the
+truth.
+
+
+The next evening Lolla was somewhat better; but it was many days before
+she was pronounced out of danger, and many more before she was able to
+leave her room and go about the house again. Meantime, Aunt Delight had
+learned from Jessie that Lolla had not been at her house at all, the
+day she was taken sick. She tried to make Lolla tell her the truth; but
+in vain.
+
+Lolla would not say a word. If she were questioned, she would begin to
+cry, declare that every one hated her and ill-treated her, that Aunt
+Delight had carried her away from her dear mother only to abuse her,
+and that as soon as she got better she would go to California, if she
+had to walk every step of the way. These "tantrums," as Sarah called
+them, usually ended in a fit of sickness. At last Miss Delight gave the
+matter up in despair.
+
+When Lolla began to go about the house once more, she found her
+position very much changed. No one found fault with her, or alluded in
+any way to the affair of the porridge; but she felt herself distrusted
+and constantly watched. The store-room was kept locked, and the
+sugar-bowl put out of reach. She was never allowed to go outside the
+gate by herself, never sent of errands as before; no one asked her for
+information about any thing, or paid any attention to her statements.
+
+All this was disagreeable enough; and, to add to her discomfort, she
+found herself restricted to the plainest food, and a very little of
+that. If she exceeded in the least, either in quantity or in quality,
+she speedily found herself in bed as sick as ever. This was a sad
+plight for a little girl who cared for nothing but eating and drinking.
+
+
+One evening she was sitting alone in the bay-window of the parlour,
+feeling very sad and lonely indeed. Her aunt and Philly had gone to
+church; Sarah had gone up to see Jessie, who was now not expected
+to live many days: so there was no one at home but herself and Mr.
+Locke, who had come in not long before and was sitting on the veranda.
+Lolla felt very unhappy. She thought it was because she was sick and
+alone, and because every one was unkind to her; but something in her
+heart told her that was not all. She thought of her dear father and
+mother, so many, many miles away, and remembered how kind and indulgent
+they had always been to her, and how often she had been undutiful to
+them. She thought how pleased she had been with the idea of coming to
+Dorchester, and how happy she had been for the first few weeks after
+her arrival, and how different it all was at present. She did not feel
+like having a "tantrum," but she put her head down on the end of the
+couch, and cried, quietly, but very bitterly.
+
+"What is the matter, Lolla?" said a gentle voice. Mr. Locke had come
+silently into the parlour and taken a seat beside her. "What is the
+matter, Lolla?" he repeated. "What makes you cry?"
+
+"Because I am so very, very unhappy!" sobbed Lolla.
+
+"And what makes you unhappy?"
+
+"A great many things."
+
+"Well, tell me some of these things. Perhaps I can help you to get rid
+of them. What makes you unhappy just now, for instance?"
+
+"Because I am sick, for one thing," replied Lolla.
+
+"Well, it is very sad to be sick; but sickness does not always make
+people unhappy. Jessie is very sick. She suffers far more than you
+do or can; and she will never be any better. I do not think she can
+live more than a few days; but she is not unhappy. She told me this
+afternoon that her heart was full of peace and joy; and I am sure her
+face shows it."
+
+"Then I am so lonely, with my father and mother away."
+
+"That is sad, too; but, Lolla, Philly's father and mother are both
+dead. She has not a friend or relation in the world out of this house;
+and she is not unhappy. You yourself, when you first came here, were as
+merry as the day was long."
+
+"It was very different then; and that is one trouble," said Lolla.
+"Every one was good to me then, and liked me; and now nobody likes me,
+or believes a word that I say: and Aunt Delight is as different as can
+be."
+
+"What do you suppose has made the difference in her?" asked Mr. Locke.
+
+Lolla hung her head, but, somehow, she felt as if she must answer even
+in spite of herself. At last she stammered out,—
+
+"I suppose it is because I was so naughty."
+
+"Ah, that indeed! I should not wonder if we had now got at the root of
+the whole matter. How were you naughty, Lolla?"
+
+Lolla would not answer.
+
+"But even the fact of your having been naughty need not of itself make
+you unhappy," continued Mr. Locke. "I have known many persons who had
+done very wrong things in their lives, and were nevertheless very happy
+afterwards. We read of the Apostle Paul persecuting the Christian
+church and helping at the murder of the martyr Stephen, and many of his
+converts at Philippi had been very wicked people: yet Paul was far from
+being an unhappy man amid all his trials, and he tells the Philippians
+to 'rejoice evermore,' to 'rejoice in the Lord always.' I don't think
+we have got at it quite yet, Lolla."
+
+"Well, I don't understand," said Lolla, interested in spite of herself.
+"I thought when people were wicked they always had to be unhappy."
+
+"And you are quite right, my child. As long as you 'are' naughty,
+you must needs be miserable; but you need not be miserable because
+you 'have been' naughty. That is quite another thing. As long as the
+Philippians continued to be wicked and unbelieving, there would be no
+use in telling them to rejoice; but they had seen their sin, repented
+of it and confessed it, and turned with their whole heart to God, and
+therefore they were happy even in the midst of trials such as we know
+nothing about. Now do you understand?"
+
+"It don't seem as if I could do any different," said Lolla, after a
+pause, and speaking earnestly. "I think sometimes I will tell aunt all
+about it; but, then, I can't, somehow. Oh, dear! I don't know what to
+do!" And again Lolla put down her head, and cried bitterly.
+
+"Lolla," said Mr. Locke, putting his hand upon her head, "there is one
+wrong thing you can help directly. Tell me, now: have you asked God to
+help you at these times?"
+
+"No," replied Lolla. "I did not think it would be of any use. I have
+been so naughty."
+
+"If we could not ask God to help us when we were wicked, we should
+remain wicked forever," said Mr. Locke,—"since nothing is more certain
+than that we can never make ourselves good without his help. He did not
+wait for that when he sent his Son to die for us.
+
+"'God commended his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners,
+Christ died for us.'"
+
+"Would he really help me, do you think, if I asked him now?—Really and
+truly?" asked Lolla, in a reverent whisper.
+
+"Yes: if you are honest in desiring it, I am sure that he will."
+
+"How do you know?" asked Lolla. "Is it in the Bible?"
+
+"It is in the Bible; and I know by my own experience, because he has so
+often helped me. He has enabled me to do things which I could no more
+have done by myself than I can fly to that bright star up yonder. But,
+Lolla, do you really want God to help you to be good?"
+
+"I really and truly do, Mr. Locke," replied Lolla; "but I don't believe
+I can," she added, despairingly. "I have thought a great many nights
+that I would tell Aunt Delight the very first thing in the morning; and
+when morning came it was just as hard as ever."
+
+"Ah! There was another mistake. You should have told her that very
+moment, and not have waited till morning. But, Lolla, there is some one
+else you should tell first,—some one against whom you have sinned more
+sorely than against your aunt. Think how you have displeased Him. There
+is nothing God hates more than a lie,—nothing which he will punish more
+severely if the liar does not repent. Yet he has spared your life. He
+would not let you die in your sin, but gives you a chance to repent and
+be forgiven. You must confess to him first, before you can ask him to
+forgive and help you.
+
+"'If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.'
+
+"'If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
+in us; but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive
+us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'
+
+"God will not only forgive the sin, but he will take it away. He will
+wash it out, and make your soul clean and pure. Lolla, shall we ask him
+to do so?"
+
+"Yes, please," whispered Lolla.
+
+Mr. Locke knelt down with Lolla in the recess of the window, and, in
+a short prayer which she could understand, he asked God to forgive
+her, to make her a better girl, and especially to give her strength to
+confess to her aunt.
+
+"Now, Lolla, you must act for yourself," said Mr. Locke. "God has given
+you the strength, and you must use it. Don't wait a moment. There is
+your aunt coming in now. Shall I make a beginning for you?" he added,
+seeing that Lolla was embarrassed.
+
+"Please do," said Lolla.
+
+"Lolla has something to tell you, Miss Delight," said Mr. Locke, as
+Aunt Delight came into the parlour. "She has made up her mind to tell
+you what made her sick."
+
+Before Lolla went to bed that night, she had told her aunt the whole
+story, and had received her forgiveness. When she awoke the next
+morning, her head ached and her eyes were heavy, but her heart was
+lighter than it had been for many a day.
+
+
+All that summer and fall Lolla was very delicate. She was reaping
+the fruits of her long course of greediness and indulgence; and the
+doctor said it would probably be a great while before she would be well
+again. She could eat only the simplest food,—not a particle of fruit or
+pastry, and the least indulgence was sure to make her sick for several
+days.
+
+In one way this was an advantage to Lolla. She lost the habit of
+wanting to eat at all times and seasons, and she learned to find her
+pleasure in other ways. She could not run about a great deal; and this
+forced her to turn for amusement to her books and her needle,—means of
+employment which she had always disliked and never touched except as
+tasks. She grew very fond of reading, and so skilful with her needle
+that she was able to give her aunt a great deal of help in her labour
+in the sewing-school.
+
+Lolla's stay in Dorchester was prolonged from year to year, and now she
+was a great girl, fifteen years old, well-educated for her age, able to
+make her own clothes and cook her own breakfast and dinner.
+
+She went to her new home in California, a useful, amiable, sensible
+girl, prepared to be a comfort to her parents, a pleasant companion as
+well as a useful example and teacher to the two little brothers she had
+never seen, and, better than all, a beautiful fruit-bearing branch of
+that true vine of which God is the husbandman, and Christ the stock,
+and all true Christians living members. There is nothing of the "little
+pig" left about her.
+
+Aunt Delight still lives in her cottage at Dorchester. She is an old
+woman, if one counts by years, but her heart is as young and her mind
+as bright as ever. She keeps her old servant Sarah, and Philly, now
+a tall, useful girl, and she has a pleasant companion in a soldier's
+widow, the daughter of a "far-away cousin," who has no other home.
+
+Mr. Locke is away in Asia, teaching the word of God among the Japanese.
+Lolla often hears from him. She thinks sometimes she should like to go
+too; but she has work enough at home to keep her fully employed for
+the present. Her mother's health is very delicate, and Lolla is nurse,
+housekeeper, teacher, and lady of the house, all in one: so she does
+the duty nearest to her, and trusts to God to give her the desire of
+her heart, if it is best for her to have it, or to make her contented
+without it, if he sees best to deny.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75955 ***
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+    <title>
+      Lolla; or, the sin of greediness, by Lucy Ellen Guernsey │ Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75955 ***</div>
+
+<p>Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is as printed.</p>
+
+<p>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
+public domain.</p>
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image001" style="max-width: 33.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image001.jpg" alt="image001">
+</figure>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter" id="image002" style="max-width: 25.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/image002.jpg" alt="image002">
+</figure>
+<p class="t4">
+<b><em>Lolla; or, The Sin of Greediness.</em></b><br>
+<b>She put in her finger, and scooping up a large mouthful,</b><br>
+<b>she hastily swallowed it.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h1>LOLLA;</h1>
+
+<p class="t3">
+OR,<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t1">
+The Sin of Greediness.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+[BY]<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t1">
+[<em>LUCY ELLEN GUERNSEY</em>]<br>
+<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+——————————<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+PHILADELPHIA:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+NO. 1122 CHESTNUT STREET.<br>
+<br>
+——————————<br>
+<br>
+NEW YORK: 599 BROADWAY.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t4">
+————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————<br>
+<br>
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by the<br>
+<br>
+AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION,<br>
+<br>
+in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States<br>
+for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.<br>
+<br>
+————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t3b">
+CONTENTS.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+——————<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>CHAP.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_1">I.—LOLLA AT HOME</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_2">II.—LOLLA IN DORCHESTER</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_3">III.—THE MOUSE</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_4">IV.—"BREAD IN SECRET"</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_5">V.—THE ICE-CREAM</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#Chapter_6">VI.—THE CONSEQUENCE</a></p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<p class="t2">
+<b>LOLLA;</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+OR,<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t1">
+THE SIN OF GREEDINESS.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p class="t3">
+——————<br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_1">CHAPTER I.</a></h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>LOLLA AT HOME.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"SEEMS to me Lolla does not eat any breakfast," said Aunt Delight,
+looking at a little girl who sat opposite to her at the table, with a
+well-filled plate before her, upon which, however, she did not seem to
+be making any impression.</p>
+
+<p>"She never does," said Lolla's mother. "She never seems to have any
+appetite in the morning. She complains that nothing tastes good to her;
+and she almost always gets up tired and feverish."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a pity," said Aunt Delight. "Little folks ought to be hungry
+in the morning, and to be as fresh and lively as birds and lambs are.
+We must see if we cannot cure that when we get her down in Dorchester."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say the sea-air will help her," said Lolla's mother. "I
+remember how hungry it used to make me when I was a little girl. I am
+very uneasy about Lolla, sometimes. It seems so unnatural for a child
+to be so languid in the morning. But you are quite sure, Aunt Delight,
+that you do not want to take nurse with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure, my dear Laura. In the first place, I have no room for
+her; and in the second place, I have nothing for her to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Then who will take care of me, Aunt Delight?" asked Lolla, very much
+interested in the discussion.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect you will take care of yourself and of me too," replied Aunt
+Delight, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla looked as if she were doubtful whether to be pleased or alarmed
+at this project. But she was very much delighted at the idea of the
+long journey, and the summer in Dorchester with Aunt Delight, and not
+displeased at being spoken to as if she were something more than a
+baby: so she made no further objections.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla's father and mother lived in a very fine place near one of the
+great Western cities; but they were expecting to break up and remove to
+California during the summer, and it had been settled that Lolla was to
+go to Dorchester and spend a year at least with her mother's aunt, Miss
+Delight Wentworth, who had a pretty place of her own and was famous for
+her skill in nursing the sick and managing and teaching children. Lolla
+was considered rather a delicate child, and her mother had been out
+of health ever since her daughter was born; for which reasons it was
+thought best for both that they should be separated for a time.</p>
+
+<p>About ten o'clock, as Aunt Delight was passing through the kitchen, she
+saw nurse giving Lolla a large piece of loaf-cake.</p>
+
+<p>"Eating so soon after breakfast?" said Aunt Delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you know, aunt, I did not eat any breakfast," replied Lolla, in
+rather a tone of apology.</p>
+
+<p>"She has got into a bad way about eating, that's a fact," said nurse.
+"She doesn't eat at meals, and she is always wanting something
+between-times; but her mother thinks there is no help for it. Now you
+will see that she won't want any thing at dinner; and by-and-by she
+will be asking for another piece of cake."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think it is good for her to eat in that way?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, no, I don't. She is spoiling her teeth, for one thing. But,
+being the only child for so long,—and delicate besides,—Mrs. Lane has
+got in the way of indulging her. She is a good child, too, in most
+things; but it won't do her any harm to have a change. She cares Were
+for eating than for any thing else."</p>
+
+<p>As nurse had predicted, Lolla had no appetite for her dinner,—at least
+for the solid parts of it; but she ate two plates of rich pudding,
+and then she had almonds and raisins, besides filling her pocket with
+the nuts, which she was munching all the afternoon. A large piece of
+fresh maple-sugar helped the almonds to fill up the interval between
+dinner and tea, when Lolla supped upon pound-cake, preserved melon and
+cottage-cheese.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening some friends came in, and about ten o'clock Lolla had
+her share of the supper prepared for them.</p>
+
+<p>As Aunt Delight noted all these things, she no longer wondered that
+Lolla did not sleep well and had no appetite for her breakfast. She was
+not one of those people who think that children should never have any
+thing that they like; but she made up her mind that when Lolla came
+under her own care she should make some change in her habits.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"Well, Lolla, have you said good-by to all your pets?" asked Aunt
+Delight, as she met Lolla at breakfast on the day set for their journey.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla did not seem as languid as usual, this morning. Her cheeks had a
+little colour, her eyes were bright, and she ate her bread-and-butter
+as if she liked it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, aunt. I have been out to the barn and the pasture to see
+the calves and the colts, and down by the river to see the little
+ducks, and over to Mrs. Merrie's to bid good-by to Fanny and Jenny. I
+have been up and running about ever since five o'clock; and I am so
+hungry,—you can't think! I believe it makes people hungry to get up
+early in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>"It is said to have that effect," replied Aunt Delight, smiling. "But
+finish your breakfast, my dear. We have no time to lose."</p>
+
+<p>The carriage came to the door, the last good-byes were said, and Aunt
+Delight and her little niece were soon speeding away over the Michigan
+Central Railroad.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla felt very sadly at leaving home, and cried bitterly at parting
+from father, mother and nurse. But children are usually easily diverted
+from their grief; and Lolla's tears were soon dried. She had never
+been upon the railroad before; and she enjoyed the rapid motion, the
+constant change of scene, and the novelty of staying in a great hotel
+over-night.</p>
+
+<p>She thought it rather hard that her aunt should refuse to buy oranges,
+candy and maple-sugar of all the boys who came upon the train,
+and a very unlucky circumstance that the package of rich cake and
+confectionery which her mother had put up for her should somehow have
+been lost directly, so that they had nothing left for their luncheon
+except biscuits, cold chicken and sponge-cake. But there was so much to
+see, and the change of air made her so hungry, that she did not feel
+disposed to complain: besides that, she felt too much awe of her aunt
+to go into one of her tantrums, as nurse used to call them.</p>
+
+<p>The travellers arrived at home late in the evening; and when Lolla
+entered her aunt's cottage in Dorchester, she was too sleepy to notice
+any thing, except that her room was of an odd shape, and her little low
+bed very comfortable.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"Come, Lolla," said Aunt Delight, entering the room, next morning,
+just as Lolla was rubbing her eyes; "breakfast is almost ready. I have
+let you sleep late this morning, because you were tired. Here is your
+bath, all ready to brighten you up. Now let us see how soon you will be
+dressed."</p>
+
+<p>"Nurse used to dress me at home," said Lolla, rather doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but nurse is not here; and, besides, you are old enough to wait
+upon yourself. You are eight years old, are you not?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, aunt,—on my last birthday."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when I was as old as you, I dressed myself and my little brother
+every morning, besides putting my own room in order. You do not want
+to be a baby all your days, do you? Come; don't dawdle, but lace your
+boots quickly, and then put on the rest of your things, and I will
+fasten them for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Is this my room, aunt?" asked Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Lolla. How do you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it is beautiful," replied Lolla, looking around upon the neat,
+old-fashioned furniture, the pretty red-and-white matting, and the
+little book-case full of books. "I never had a room of my own before.
+What a funny window! It is like a little room by itself. Oh, aunt,
+what is that out there?" exclaimed Lolla, catching a glimpse through
+the curtains of something bright and blue, and speckled with large and
+small white dots. "That 'blue,' I mean."</p>
+
+<p>"That is the sea,—or the bay, rather," replied Aunt Delight, smiling at
+Lolla's excitement. "Don't you remember I told you, you would be able
+to see the ships and the bay from your window? See, there is a great
+steamer coming in. It must be the ocean steamer from Liverpool."</p>
+
+<p>There seemed some danger that Lolla would not get dressed at all, so
+much interested was she in watching the steamer, and the fishing-boats,
+and a large ship just going out of the bay; but Aunt Delight found no
+fault with her. She knew how interesting all these things must be to
+the little girl who had never seen ships or salt water before. At last,
+however, Lolla was dressed; and she was about to run down-stairs at
+once,—when her aunt stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems to me that you have forgotten something, Lolla," said she,
+gravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Have I?" asked Lolla, surveying her dress. "I don't see any thing,
+except my apron; and you know you said you would give me a clean one
+out of the trunk."</p>
+
+<p>"I was not thinking of your dress, but of something else."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla still looked puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"Who has taken care of you all night while you have been asleep, and
+kept you from harm all through this long journey? And who is it you
+should ask to take care of you through the day?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you mean saying my prayers," said Lolla. "But, aunt, I never said
+my prayers in the morning,—only at night."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't want God to take care of you in the daytime?" said Aunt
+Delight. "You think, perhaps, that you can do that for yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somehow, there never seems to be any time in the morning," said Lolla.
+"One has to hurry so to get ready for breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"Then one must get up earlier in the morning," said Aunt Delight.
+"But you will have plenty of time. I told Sarah to ring the bell five
+minutes before breakfast was ready. I will wait for you in my room."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla, did not feel very much like saying her prayers; but she did
+not like to dispute with her aunt: so she hastily repeated the Lord's
+Prayer, without thinking much of its meaning, and then joined her aunt
+in her own room, and they went down-stairs together.</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast-room would have been a large one if it had not been cut
+up into so many angles and corners. There was a large chimney, with a
+high, old-fashioned wooden mantel-piece, and a deep recess containing
+a book-case on each side of it. There was another deep recess, where
+stood a large, carved mahogany side-board. There was a corner cupboard,
+with glass doors, which seemed to be filled with china. There were
+two windows with deep window-seats, and a glass door opening into the
+garden. The walls were covered with old-fashioned paper ornamented with
+lilies and roses, with gayly-feathered birds flying about and perching
+on the flowers; and there were many pictures and prints, in black and
+gold frames.</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast-table was set for them, and looked very inviting, with
+its snowy cloth and shining china and silver.</p>
+
+<p>"Whose place is that, aunt?" asked Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"That is Mr. Locke's place; but he will not be here this morning," said
+Aunt Delight. "He has gone over to Boston, and will breakfast with a
+friend. This is your chair."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla slipped into her chair. She was very hungry, and could not help
+taking a sly survey of the table, even while her aunt was saying grace,
+to see what they were likely to have for breakfast. There was a loaf
+of white bread, and another of brown, upon a beautifully-carved wooden
+plate. There was a silver egg-boiler, a pitcher of milk, and a dish of
+cold ham; and that was all.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, however, Aunt Delight rang her bell, and Sarah brought in a
+plate of hot toast, and a coffee-pot.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that, aunt?" said Lolla, pointing to the egg-boiler.</p>
+
+<p>"That is a boiler to cook the eggs," replied her aunt, as she opened
+the cover and took out the rack filled with eggs. "Did you never see
+one before?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Lolla. "Mary always boils ours in a kettle; but I think
+this is a much nicer way. Our eggs are always too hard, or too soft, or
+something."</p>
+
+<p>She had another question on her tongue's end; but she did not quite
+like to ask it. At last, however, out it came.</p>
+
+<p>"Aunt Delight, don't you have any meat for breakfast? No beefsteak, or
+chicken, or any thing?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes," replied her aunt. "Don't you call cold ham meat?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes," replied Lolla, feeling rather ashamed of her question. "Only
+I thought I would just ask, because—because—" Lolla paused in some
+confusion. She did not exactly know what to say.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say you can make a breakfast on ham-and-eggs and
+bread-and-butter," said Aunt Delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it wrong to ask, aunt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. But, Lolla, it is not usually considered very polite to make
+remarks upon what is on the table. Little girls should eat what is
+set before them, without saying very much about it. See here: you
+shall have your coffee in this silver cup, which belonged to your
+great-grandmother,—and her grandmother before her, for aught I know.
+Just think how many little girls must have drunk out of it before you."</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_2">CHAPTER II.</a></h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>LOLLA IN DORCHESTER.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"NOW, Lolla, can I trust you to run about by yourself for a while?"
+asked Aunt Delight, when breakfast was done and family prayers were
+over.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't exactly know what you mean, aunt," said Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"Can I trust you not to pick the flowers, or tread upon the
+flower-beds, or meddle with what does not belong to you? If so, you
+may go where you like about the house and garden; but you must not go
+outside the gate unless I give you leave. I suppose you will be like a
+kitten brought into a strange house: you will like to make acquaintance
+with every thing about you."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't meddle with any thing," said Lolla. "But why may I not go into
+the street, Aunt Delight?"</p>
+
+<p>"For this reason, among others: that you might easily get lost, and it
+would not perhaps be so easy to find you again."</p>
+
+<p>"May I go down to the gate and look-out?" asked Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you do not go outside. By-and-by we will begin some lessons;
+for it will not do to play all the time. But to-day I am going to be
+busy about the house all the morning: so you will know where to find me
+if you want me."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla was pleased with the permission to go where she liked,—and
+pleased, too, with being trusted. She spent an hour or two very
+pleasantly in exploring the garden and greenhouses, and going about
+the house, where there seemed so many pictures, and books, and curious
+boxes, and china vases, and pots, and bowls. One pair of vases, which
+stood in the hall, especially excited her curiosity, they were so very
+large. They were nearly as tall as herself; she thought she could have
+got into one of them easily,—and had covers, which fastened with large
+metal hinges and hasps.</p>
+
+<p>Then she put on her hat again and went down to the gate, where she
+saw a little boy mounted on a Shetland pony not much larger than her
+father's great Newfoundland dog, and a girl driving a little donkey
+in a low wagon, and some cows in a field opposite, each with a thin
+blanket on to keep off the flies, and each one tethered to a stake by a
+long rope.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," thought Lolla, "they seem to take a great deal of care of their
+cows; but if I were a cow, I should rather be running about on the
+prairie than be tied up in that way."</p>
+
+<p>Just then she heard a church-clock strike eleven, and she remembered
+that it was more than two hours since she had had any thing to eat: so
+she sauntered slowly to the house, and went in at the back door.</p>
+
+<p>She found Aunt Delight in her neat little store-room, surrounded by
+shelves full of preserves and canned fruit, stone jars which reminded
+one of pickles and cake, bunches of sweet and medicinal herbs, and
+bottles and jugs of all shapes and sizes.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, aunt," said Lolla, "I want something to eat."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you?" said Aunt Delight. "For what?"</p>
+
+<p>Lolla smiled at the oddness of the question.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am hungry, aunt."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure it is because you are hungry, or because you are used
+to eating just about this time? But never mind. Go to Sarah, in the
+kitchen, and ask her to give you a piece of bread-and-butter."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like bread-and-butter very much," said Lolla. "Nurse used to
+give me a piece of cake."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like little girls to be always eating sweet things," said Aunt
+Delight. "It is bad for their teeth and for their health. If you are
+really hungry, bread-and-butter will taste good to you. If you are not
+hungry, you do not want any thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother lets me have cake," persisted Lolla; "and I guess she knows
+what is good for me as well as anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Lolla," said Aunt Delight, sitting down, and drawing
+the little girl to her side: "I cannot have any argument with you
+about these things. Your mother has trusted you to me, to be taken
+care of and treated as I think best. She knows all about my ways of
+management,—because I brought her up till she was fourteen years old;
+and she knows I intend to do as I think right with you. When I tell
+you to do a thing, I do not expect you to tell me what somebody else
+does or thinks, but to be governed by what I think. Now go and get your
+bread-and-butter, if you want it; and if not, let it alone."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want it," said Lolla, with an air of disgust. "I haven't any
+appetite for such things."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," said Aunt Delight, smiling. "I dare say you will find
+your appetite by dinner-time. Do you want to go and play, or would you
+rather stay and help me? I am going to take my Indian curiosities out
+of the cabinet and dust them."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla did not exactly know what to do. She felt very much abused,
+and a good deal like sulking about it; but, then, she wanted to see
+the curiosities, and she had, besides, a feeling that sulking was
+not likely to answer a very good purpose: so she slowly followed
+Aunt Delight into the parlour, which was across the hall from the
+breakfast-room. She had peeped in before, but the blinds were closed
+and the curtains down, so that she could not see any thing.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Delight drew up the curtains and opened the shutters.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pretty room!" exclaimed Lolla. "I do think, aunt, you have
+the most beautiful things! I don't see where you got so many splendid
+vases."</p>
+
+<p>"They have been accumulating for a long time," said Aunt Delight. "Some
+of our family have been in the India trade ever since there has been
+any India trade in Boston; and they are always bringing home things.
+See, here is my India cabinet."</p>
+
+<p>"A real India cabinet, just like the one in Rosamund!" exclaimed Lolla,
+forgetting all about the bread-and-butter question at once. "Are there
+any branches of coral in it?"</p>
+
+<p>"We shall see," said Aunt Delight, unlocking the little drawers. "There
+is no telling what we may find."</p>
+
+<p>No telling, indeed. What wonderful things there were in that cabinet!
+Shells and corals, curious gold and silver coins, butterflies and
+beetles looking as if made of jewels, little boxes and balls carved
+with figures, pictures upon rice-paper of birds and flowers and Chinese
+men and women. I could not begin to tell you half the things there were
+in that cabinet. Aunt Delight took them out and handed them to Lolla,
+who laid them carefully on the table set to receive them.</p>
+
+<p>Every article had a story to it, and Aunt Delight was ready to answer
+all Lolla's questions. She gave the little girl a number of pretty
+things for her own, and a beautiful little Japan work-box in the
+shape of a cabinet, covered with gilded figures of cranes flying and
+perching, and having drawers lined with a sweet-scented wood, which
+Aunt Delight said was sandal-wood.</p>
+
+<p>"There! We have made a good morning's work," said Aunt Delight, as she
+closed the last drawer. "Now put away the dust-pan and brush in the
+back entry, and, as you come back, look at the clock and tell me what
+time it is."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, aunt, it only wants a quarter of one!" exclaimed Lolla, in great
+surprise. "And Sarah has set the table. She says dinner will be ready
+in a quarter of an hour. I did not think it was nearly dinner-time: did
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Delight smiled. "You will just have time to wash your hands and
+brush your hair nicely. Run upstairs, and don't waste any time."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla thought every thing tasted unusually good at dinner. She thought
+the air of Dorchester must make people very hungry. She had not cared
+any thing about roast beef and mashed potatoes for a long time, and
+seldom ate any meat at dinner when she was at home.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Locke was at dinner. He was a pale, thin, delicate-looking young
+gentleman, who wore spectacles and ate very little; but he was pleasant
+and kind in his manners, and Lolla thought she should like him very
+much. She wondered how he came to be living with Aunt Delight, and
+thought she would ask by-and by.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to feel well enough to give some time to this little
+girl lessons, Mr. Locke?" asked Aunt Delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly," replied Mr. Locke, smiling kindly upon Lolla. "When shall
+we begin?"</p>
+
+<p>"After a day or two. She will need a little time to run about and
+get used to her new home. Next week, I think, we will look up some
+school-books, and see what we can do."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla looked rather alarmed at the idea of lessons.</p>
+
+<p>"My mother never lets me go to school," said she; "I have the headache
+so much."</p>
+
+<p>"No one has said any thing about your going to school," returned Aunt
+Delight, dryly. "As to your headaches, I think they will be better
+after a while. You are growing a great girl, and cannot afford to waste
+all your time. Will you have some pudding?"</p>
+
+<p>For the next week Lolla did nothing but amuse herself. She played about
+the yard and garden, read story-books, looked at pictures, and, in
+short, did what she liked. Twice she went into Boston on the horse-cars
+with her aunt; and on one of these occasions they went into a shop and
+had some ice-cream, to Lolla's great satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you buy me some candy, Aunt Delight?" said she, as they passed
+through the shop.</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-day," replied Aunt Delight. "A saucer of ice-cream does very
+well for once, I think."</p>
+
+<p>"Father used always to buy me candy when we went into town," murmured
+Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear child, how much you do think about eating!" said Aunt Delight.
+"Seems to me I would try to find pleasure in other things, if I were
+you. Candy is very unsuitable for you now, and, besides, it is a very
+bad habit to fall into, that of thinking you must always have something
+to munch, like one of the little guinea-pigs we saw just now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear," said Lolla to herself, "how I do want some candy!"</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_3">CHAPTER III.</a></h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>THE MOUSE.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"MISS DELIGHT, I think there must be mice in the store-room cupboards,"
+said Sarah to her mistress, one morning after breakfast. "I find the
+cake and biscuits crumbed and nibbled; and the crackers go away faster
+than they ought I am sure. And just see here how this syrup from the
+dish of plums I set away yesterday is trailed upon the shelf. Nasty
+little things! If there is any thing I do hate, it is a mouse."</p>
+
+<p>"You must shut Dragon into the store-room at night, and move the things
+away so that he can get about on the shelves," said Aunt Delight. "It
+is a long time since we have had any mice in the house. The old cat
+must be growing lazy."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not so sure about the mice, either," said Sarah, in a low tone.
+"I am afraid Philly has been at her old tricks again. Mice would not
+carry away whole slices of cake and lumps of sugar."</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly," said Aunt Delight. "But I don't like to suspect Philly,—she
+has done so much better lately; and I do think she is trying to be a
+good girl."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we shall see," said Sarah. "I mean to keep a sharp look-out upon
+her. I don't know how it is, but I never can trust her."</p>
+
+<p>"Take care, Sarah," said Aunt Delight. "Remember, charity thinketh no
+evil. Do not begin With a prejudice against the child."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't help it," said Sarah. "When I do like people, I do; and
+when I don't, I don't; and that is all about it. Now, I took to Lolla,
+from the first. I'll be bound you won't find any underhand sly ways
+about her. But Philly has such a down kind of look."</p>
+
+<p>"You must remember how differently the two children have been treated,"
+replied Aunt Delight. "Lolla has never had occasion to be afraid of
+any thing or anybody; but poor Philly has been a slave all her life,
+and her mother before her. I expected she would make us a good deal
+of trouble. You know we talked of that before she came to us, and we
+agreed to have patience with her faults as long as there was a prospect
+of doing her any good; and you must admit that she has improved."</p>
+
+<p>Sarah observed that there was room for improvement still.</p>
+
+<p>"That is the case with all of us," said Aunt Delight, dryly. "Well, say
+nothing, Sarah, at present. We shall soon find out about the matter."</p>
+
+<p>The next day but one, as Aunt Delight was passing through the pantry,
+she heard Sarah's voice in the pantry, and looked in to see what was
+the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Just see here, ma'am," said Sarah. "Last night I found the plums
+all spilled on the shelf again. So I thought I would watch; and this
+morning, when Philly came in to put the spoons away, I thought she was
+a long time about it: so I followed her, and found her at the open
+cupboard-door, with a teaspoon in her hand sticking all over with the
+plum-syrup. If that is not proof, I don't know what is!" concluded
+Sarah, triumphantly. "I knew very well I should catch her at her
+tricks."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't never touch the plums," sobbed Philly. "I only—"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you only—You only went 'snooping' in the closet," said Sarah,
+severely. "It's no use! I caught you at it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a little, Sarah, if you please," said Aunt Delight, quietly. "Let
+me hear Philly's own story. That is but justice. Now, Philly, tell me
+all about it; and be sure you tell the truth. Don't be afraid: you
+shall not be condemned unjustly. How was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was jes puttin' away de spoons," began Philly, falling back into her
+native negro dialect; but Aunt Delight interrupted her.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak quite plainly, Philly, and then I shall know you think of every
+word you are saying. Go on."</p>
+
+<p>"I was just putting away the spoons," continued Philly, this time
+pronouncing her words carefully, "and I thought the row of teaspoons
+looked as if there was one gone; and I counted them, and there was; and
+I began to look round for it, and I saw that cupboard-door partly open:
+so I thought I would look in there, and there I found the spoon in the
+dish of plums; and I was just taking it out when Sarah came in."</p>
+
+<p>"A likely story, indeed!" said Sarah, with a sneer. "Didn't I put away
+the dish of plums myself last night? And shouldn't I have seen it if
+there had been a teaspoon in the dish? Don't tell me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help it," said Philly. "I found it there, and I know I didn't
+put it there. That's all I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Come into my room, Philly," said Aunt Delight. "I will talk to you
+there."</p>
+
+<p>Philly followed willingly enough. She was beginning to have great
+confidence in Aunt Delight's justice as well as in her kindness. She
+answered all questions readily, and did not vary at all from her first
+story.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Philly, I don't know what to think," said Aunt Delight, at
+length. "You have been such a good girl lately that I do not like to
+believe you are telling me a story. Appearances are against you; but
+that happens with innocent people, sometimes. It is a rule in law that
+people are to be supposed innocent till they are proved guilty: so,
+unless I see something else to condemn you, I shall say nothing more
+about this affair. Get your book now, and read to me while I turn down
+these glass-cloths for you to hem."</p>
+
+<p>"You are the most goodest lady I ever see," said Phillis to herself, as
+she went for her book. "I'd be ashamed to do any thing mean for such a
+nice lady."</p>
+
+<p>Every morning, besides her reading and spelling lesson, Phillis read a
+chapter in the Testament, or a psalm, to Aunt Delight. She was learning
+to love these Bible lessons, and often studied them over by herself.
+Her lesson this morning was the thirty-seventh Psalm. She read slowly
+and carefully, and at the sixth verse she paused for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Aunt Delight, "what are you thinking of, Philly?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing, only—sometimes it seems as though verses in the Bible were
+made on purpose for people."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, so they are," replied Aunt Delight. "All the verses in the Bible
+are made on purpose for people; and it often does seem to us that
+particular verses are made on purpose for us. I suppose they are. Do
+you find any verses in this psalm which suit you at present?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, ma'am: I did think those two last verses seemed to."</p>
+
+<p>"Read them again."</p>
+
+<p>Philly did so.</p>
+
+<p>"You think He will make your just dealing as to the plums clear as the
+noonday. Is that it?"</p>
+
+<p>"If it wasn't wicked to think so," said Philly, doubtfully. "You know
+you did say one day that God cared about us."</p>
+
+<p>"True: so I did. Well, my child, you have as much right to take God's
+promises to yourself as any one in the world. Read the next verse."</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Philly hemmed her towels as well as possible, earning great praise from
+Miss Delight for her neatness and quickness.</p>
+
+<p>Then, much comforted, she went down into the garden, where Aunt Delight
+had told her to do some weeding.</p>
+
+<p>"How good she is!" she said to herself. "It a'n't that she don't find
+fault sometimes; but she never does it just to be hateful, and she
+always praises what I have done right, if I have been ever so naughty.
+That's the kind of goodness I like."</p>
+
+<p>Philly was right. Kindness without justice is not worth much. She had
+rather hard times, as she would have said, all that day. Sarah, who
+had never liked her, had made up her mind that the child was guilty,
+and treated her accordingly. She would not allow her to go into the
+pantry or store-room, watched her as a cat watches a mouse, and kept
+all the time throwing out hints about thieves and liars, and people who
+deceived and cheated their best friends.</p>
+
+<p>It needed all Philly's philosophy and religion to boot to enable her
+to bear patiently with all this; but the poor child had learned how
+to bear her troubles and where to carry them. She believed that "God
+really did care," because Miss Delight said so; and this day she
+learned by her own experience that He did help as well as care. Three
+or four times that day she escaped to her own little attic, and every
+time she came down comforted.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>Miss Delight expected every person of her household to repeat two
+verses of Holy Scripture at morning prayers. The next morning Philly's
+two verses were these from the thirty-seventh Psalm:—</p>
+
+<p>"'Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring
+it to pass.'</p>
+
+<p>"'And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy
+judgment as the noonday.'"</p>
+
+<p>Something in Sarah's heart gave her a little pain just then, as if she
+had been stung.</p>
+
+<p>"May-be she did tell the truth, after all," said she to herself.
+"Anyhow, she is an orphan child, and hasn't a friend in the world
+except Miss Delight. I guess I'll wait and see before I say any more."</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_4">CHAPTER IV.</a></h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>"BREAD IN SECRET."</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>FOR some time after she came to Dorchester, Lolla's health continued
+steadily to improve. She lost the heavy, languid look she had worn in
+the morning, had a good appetite not only for her breakfast, but for
+all her other meals, slept well, and ran about all day long as lively
+as a kitten. She had an hour and a half of lessons in the morning,
+which she said to Mr. Locke, and half an hour of sewing with Aunt
+Delight after dinner; and the rest of the time she was encouraged to
+play in the open air as much as she pleased. She found her way down
+to the beach, where she was never weary of the marvel of seeing the
+tide come in and go out. She learned the way to the few shops in the
+neighbourhood, so that she could do errands; and—greatest pleasure of
+all—she went several times to Savin Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Savin Hill is like a large mountain seen through the wrong end of the
+telescope. It has caves and precipices, rocks and cliffs, all made of a
+stone which looks very much indeed like petrified plum-pudding. There
+are evergreen trees called savin, Virginia creepers, and a slender,
+thorny vine with glossy leaves, very pretty to look at and very
+impossible to get through.</p>
+
+<p>Savin Hill runs out into the bay, and commands on all sides a beautiful
+view of the bay and shipping, South Boston, the Blue Hills, and the
+villages round about. I have spent many pleasant hours upon the little
+mountain, watching the ships and boats, the clouds and hills, and
+waiting till dark to see the revolving light in the far-off lighthouse
+flash out and fade as regularly as the pendulum of a clock.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three times Aunt Delight and Mr. Locke had gone up on Savin Hill
+with Lolla and Philly and had a little picnic. The two elders would
+sit on the rocks in the shade or the sunshine, as the day happened to
+be cool or warm, and read or talked while the little girls played with
+their dolls and made playhouses.</p>
+
+<p>Philly was a grand playmate. She was four years older than Lolla, but
+she was always ready to do any thing Lolla wanted of her,—to dress the
+doll, jump the rope, tell stories; or "make-believe" to any extent.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Delight did not think it would do Lolla any harm to play with her.
+She had watched Philly for some months, and she saw that the child was
+really trying to improve,—that she had learned to have a sense of duty
+which made her careful to be good out of sight and alone as well as
+before other people. Since the affair of the spoon and the plums she
+had taken special pains to observe her, and she became convinced that
+whoever was to blame for the spilt syrup and crumbled cake, Philly was
+not. She was not so sure about some one else, but she kept her own
+counsel; for Aunt Delight was one of the people who could think of
+things and not talk about them,—a talent more rare than many persons
+suppose, and one we would advise our young readers to cultivate.</p>
+
+<p>By-and-by, however, Lolla's head began to ache once more, and again
+she had no appetite for her meals. She declared it was because Mr.
+Locke made her learn the multiplication-table; but Aunt Delight
+was of a different opinion. She had taught many little girls the
+multiplication-table without doing them any harm; and she had seen
+many more headaches come from improper eating and exposure than from
+lessons; and she came to the conclusion that Lolla was indulging in
+something which she ought not to have. She watched her closely, but
+quietly, and by-and-by she found out the truth, as you will see.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla had brought some money from home. Her father had been in the
+habit of giving her all his new three-cent and five-cent pieces to
+put in her little money-box, and these had amounted to a considerable
+sum; and, besides, she possessed other money, which had been given
+her from time to time by her uncles and cousins. She had very little
+temptation to spend at home, for she lived some distance from town, and
+she had all the sweet things she could eat, without buying them. She
+brought her money with her to Boston, intending to purchase some pretty
+thing that she fancied; but it all seemed likely to go in another
+direction. Lolla discovered that she could buy cakes and gingersnaps
+at the baker's, and candy and chocolate at the other shops; and she
+now kept on hand a constant supply of these articles, which she was
+munching at every opportunity when she could do so unobserved. Now,
+when a little girl eats two large ginger-cakes, a stick of chocolate,
+and a dozen or so of lemon-drops after she goes to bed at night, it is
+hardly necessary to blame the multiplication-table if she rises with a
+headache in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla hid away her store of dainties in two or three different
+places,—in one of the great covered vases in the hall, in the back
+part of a cupboard where she kept her shoes, and in the pockets of her
+dress. Something told her all the time that she was growing mean and
+deceitful and sly, and more and more fond of eating,—more like a little
+pig; but she persuaded herself that she could not help it, and that it
+was her aunt's fault in not giving her all she wanted.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't you ever tell as long as you live and breathe?" said she to
+Philly, one day, as they were playing in the lower part of the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Philly, without thinking. "Tell what?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I give you something," said Lolla, putting her hand in her pocket
+and pulling out two or three large lumps of sugar.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lolla, you shouldn't eat hard sugar," said Philly. "I heard Miss
+Delight tell you it was bad for your teeth. Where did you get it?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is my business, and not yours," replied Lolla, pertly. "Aunt
+Delight is as full of notions as she can be. Lizzy Mercer said she knew
+she would be, because she is an old maid. I hope I shall never be an
+old maid."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lolla! How can you say so?" exclaimed Philly. "I think she is as
+good as she can be. I am sure she is just like a mother to you."</p>
+
+<p>"She is not a bit like 'my' mother, I can tell you," said Lolla.
+"Mother always let me have all the cake I wanted."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you know yourself it wasn't good for you," returned Philly.
+"Just see how much better you are than when you first came here."</p>
+
+<p>"I am 'not' better," said Lolla, pettishly. "My head aches all the
+time, lately. I know it is all that hateful arithmetic; but Aunt
+Delight won't believe me."</p>
+
+<p>"I guess it is the sweet stuff you eat," said Philly. "I am sure your
+aunt would not like it if she knew how you bought candy all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"You had better run and tell her," said Lolla, angrily. "I wish you
+would just mind your own business. I didn't come down here to be
+ordered about by a nigger."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla knew very well, when she used the ugly word, that nothing
+made Philly so angry or hurt her feelings so much as being called a
+"nigger." She thought Philly would fly into a passion, and that then
+she could tease her till she made her cry. She had done so before when
+they quarrelled, and, somehow, found a great pleasure in seeing Philly
+angry. This time, however, she did not succeed in her object. She
+was very much hurt, and her dark eyes snapped for a moment; but she
+restrained herself, and merely said,—</p>
+
+<p>"I shall not play with you if you talk that way." She turned and went
+into the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Just like you," Lolla called after her. "Now go and sulk up in your
+room all the afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Philly did not answer, and Lolla began to consider whether she had been
+very wise in provoking one who could betray her secret. There was no
+help for it now, however; and she determined to make it up with Philly,
+and to be more careful in future.</p>
+
+<p>Philly was deeply hurt, for she was fond of Lolla, but she was very
+much troubled besides. She was pretty sure that the lumps of sugar came
+out of Miss Delight's pantry, and she was very much afraid that if they
+were missed she should be accused of taking them. The matter of the
+spoon had never been cleared up, and she feared if any more suspicion
+fell on her, Miss Delight would send her away. Think as she would, she
+could see no way out of her trouble. She could not make up her mind to
+tell Miss Delight or Sarah what had passed. She could not feel that it
+would be right, and, besides, she argued, "as like as not Miss Delight
+wouldn't believe me. She would naturally take part with her own niece,
+and Sarah thinks Lolla is perfect. Oh, dear! I thought when I got here,
+there would not be any more trouble; but seems to me there is trouble
+everywhere."</p>
+
+<p>Philly was right. There is trouble everywhere in this world. Happily,
+however, the Refuge from trouble is everywhere as well.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"Sarah," said Philly, as they were drinking their tea that afternoon,
+"why doesn't Miss Delight keep things locked up, as my old missus used
+to do down in Georgia?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why should she?" asked Sarah. "There is nobody to meddle with things
+but you and me; and we don't either of us mean to rob her, do we?"</p>
+
+<p>Philly felt that it was kind in Sarah to include her in this question.
+"I'm sure I don't," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Philly, I don't believe you do," said Sarah. "I had my doubts
+of you a little while ago about those plums; but I have got eyes in my
+head. I have watched you, and I don't believe you meddle with things
+any more; though you know, Philly, you did when you first came here."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know; but I didn't know any better then. I do try to be a good
+girl, Sarah."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I see you do; and I must say you make out better than some folks
+who have had more advantages. But you mustn't be proud of it, child: if
+you are, the first you know you will be doing something bad again."</p>
+
+<p>"It was queer, though, about that spoon: wasn't it?" said Philly,
+emboldened by Sarah's kindness. "You know, Sarah, a mouse wouldn't take
+a spoon; if he wanted the plums ever so much."</p>
+
+<p>"A mouse wouldn't do a good many things," said Sarah. "A mouse wouldn't
+leave the cover off the sugar-bowl and take out all the largest lumps.
+A mouse isn't apt to open cupboard-doors and leave them ajar. But
+we shall see. Every thing comes to the light some day. Come, hurry
+and wash up your dishes; and, if you are real smart, I will ask Miss
+Delight to let you go with me into Boston to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Philly hastened to obey, feeling very much comforted at finding that
+she had made a friend of Sarah, who had begun by disliking her so
+greatly.</p>
+
+<p>"I know what I know," said Sarah to herself; "and Miss Delight
+shall know it too, if she has not penetration to find it out for
+herself,—which I guess she has."</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_5">CHAPTER V.</a></h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>THE ICE-CREAM.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>"OH, Aunt Delight, do let us go in and have some ice-cream," said
+Lolla, as they came opposite a pleasant-looking shop on Washington
+Street, where she had several times been with her aunt. "We have not
+had any for ever so long."</p>
+
+<p>"How long?" asked Aunt Delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Not since last week."</p>
+
+<p>"And how long is that?"</p>
+
+<p>Lolla was obliged to confess that it was no longer ago than the day
+before yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot buy ice-cream every time we come into town. It is too
+expensive."</p>
+
+<p>"I thought you were rich enough to afford to get whatever you liked,
+aunt," said Lolla; "and it only costs twenty-five cents."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I come into town, on an average, three times a week. Suppose I
+were to spend twenty-five cents every time: how much would that come to
+in a month?"</p>
+
+<p>"Three dollars, exactly," replied Lolla, after a little consideration.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: enough to buy a nice Testament in large print for old Mrs.
+Prince, and a 'Silent Comforter' to hang on the wall for poor Jessie
+McMillen, who you know has not strength to hold a heavy book in her
+hand."</p>
+
+<p>"You might buy the book too," said Lolla. "I am sure you have money
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you do not know just how much money I have; but, if I were as
+rich as the richest man in the world, it would not be right to spend
+money foolishly. Besides, it is a very bad habit to be constantly
+buying nice things to eat. It leads to selfishness, gluttony and
+extravagance. I am willing to indulge you to a reasonable extent;
+but if you tease me for ice-cream or candy every time you see a
+confectioner's shop, I cannot bring you to town with me any more."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla was silent. She knew by experience that when Aunt Delight
+said no, that was all that was to be said; but she felt very much
+dissatisfied, and she was really provoked when Aunt Delight bought a
+pretty photograph of some cliffs and boats, and some fishermen's huts
+upon the sea-shore.</p>
+
+<p>"That cost more than the ice-cream would have cost,—fifty cents more,"
+said Lolla; "and what is it good for, after all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Good to look at," replied Aunt Delight. "The ice-cream is eaten and
+gone, and that is the end. The photograph may be looked at every day
+for ten years, and be just as good at the end of the time. But this
+picture is not for myself, but for Jessie McMillen."</p>
+
+<p>"That is queerer yet," said Lolla. "I thought when people bought things
+for the poor they got somethings useful."</p>
+
+<p>"That depends upon circumstances, and also upon what you call useful,"
+replied her aunt. "Jessie's father can buy her the clothes and the food
+that are absolutely necessary for her; but he has no money to spare for
+any thing else. This picture will hang on the wall opposite her bed,
+and be a new pleasure to her every time she wakes up and looks at it,
+and all the more because it will remind her of the shores of Scotland,
+which she will never see again. I have had a long illness myself,
+and I know very well how pleasant is any thing which reminds one of
+out-of-doors and fresh air."</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Lolla," said Aunt Delight, after tea; "let us go up and carry
+Jessie her picture."</p>
+
+<p>Jessie McMillen was a Scotch girl who was dying slowly of a painful
+disease. Her father had come from Scotland not many months before,
+with his wife and his only daughter. He was a sober, steady man,
+who had been injured by an accident in a coal-mine, so that he was
+unable to work very hard; but his wife was skilful in fine washing and
+clear-starching, and Jessie understood housework and sewing: so there
+seemed every probability that they would be able to support themselves
+nicely.</p>
+
+<p>They took rooms in a little cottage near Savin Hill, and for a time
+did very well; but misfortune fell upon them. Mrs. McMillen took cold
+while hanging out her clothes one biting winter's day, and went into a
+quick consumption. It was while waiting upon her sick and dying mother
+that Jessie was seized with a pain in her chest. She thought little
+of the matter at first; but, between hard work and watching, the pain
+grew more and more severe; and when, after her mother was buried, she
+went to the doctor, he told her, as gently as he could, that there was
+nothing to be done for her. Since then she had gradually but surely
+grown worse, till she was now nearly helpless.</p>
+
+<p>Her father obtained work as a gardener, in which business he was
+very skilful, and some kind people of the neighbourhood interested
+themselves in the daughter, so that Jessie wanted for nothing. She had
+failed very much through the spring, and was now unable to sit up.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla could not regret the loss of her ice-cream when she saw how
+Jessie's eyes brightened at the sight of the photograph, and heard the
+little cry of joy which she uttered as she examined it.</p>
+
+<p>"It is just my grandfather's house in Scotland," said she. "I have
+been there a hundred times. And that woman is Maggie Lawlor, the old
+fishwife, who used to carry me on her back. I've often seen them make
+pictures of it when I was a little girl; but I never thought to see it
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Many artists came to our village in summer to draw the rocks and the
+boats. One of them painted my picture when I was a wee thing like Miss
+Lolla, there. I mind well how I would have putten on my fine Sunday
+gown and hat; but he would have me in my old stout red petticoat. Oh,
+how pleased my father will be!"</p>
+
+<p>"I am very glad," said Aunt Delight. "I thought you would be pleased
+with a Scotch scene; but I had no idea that you would know the place."</p>
+
+<p>"It just seems like a gift from God," said Jessie, reverently. "Oh, I
+have so tried and prayed to dream of it all, but I never could; and now
+he has sent me this."</p>
+
+<p>"He is always good," said Miss Delight. "You will find that out more
+and more to all eternity, Jessie. And now about your eating: have you
+been able to take any food to-day?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, ma'am. I canna eat, though I try. Every thing turns against
+me,—especially every thing warm."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you like ice?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very much, ma'am; and Mrs. Tuttle was very good to send me some
+several times. I often fancy if the broth was frozen I could eat it."</p>
+
+<p>"I will see if something cannot be prepared," said Aunt Delight.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>The next morning, while Lolla was at her lessons, she heard a sound
+in the kitchen like the turning of an ice-cream freezer, which so
+distracted her attention that she missed half the questions in her
+arithmetic lesson, and had to study it over again. At last, however,
+she accomplished her task, and hurried down-stairs to see what was
+going on; and, behold! there was Philly, in a cool recess which opened
+out of the kitchen, turning the freezer as busily as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you making, Philly?" asked Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. Something for Jessie McMillen," answered Philly, pausing
+in her work for a minute, and then beginning again with new vigour.</p>
+
+<p>"Pshaw! Always Jessie McMillen!" said Lolla, half to herself. "I wonder
+why I can't have something decent to eat, as well as that beggar."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Lolla!" said Philly. "I don't see how you can talk so. I wish you
+could live where I did before I came here, for about three weeks. You
+would know what it is to have something good to eat. Jessie isn't a
+beggar, either; and you should not call her so."</p>
+
+<p>"Just like you, Philly!—Always contradicting every word I say. I should
+think Aunt Delight might teach you not to be quite so impudent. Just
+like niggers! I can't bear them."</p>
+
+<p>"Lolla," said Sarah, "if you call Philly a nigger again, I shall tell
+your aunt. I don't think that is much like a little lady, for my part."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, Sarah," said Philly. "Lolla will be sorry by-and-by. After
+all, I 'am' a nigger," she added; "and I needn't care about being
+called one. This stuff is all frozen now."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell Miss Delight," said Sarah. "I don't know whether she wants
+you to carry it to Jessie now or not."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Delight," she asked, going to the door of the breakfast-room,
+"the milk porridge is frozen. Shall Philly carry it over directly?"</p>
+
+<p>"I will see," replied Aunt Delight, coming into the kitchen. She
+examined the contents of the freezer and put them into a small tin
+pail, which she set into another larger pail. She then packed the
+outside pail full of finely-powdered ice, and sprinkled in a little
+salt.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Lolla," said she, "I want you to put on your things and carry
+this over to Jessie directly, that she may have it for her dinner. The
+sun is clouded over, and you can keep in the shade nearly all the way.
+When you come back, stop at the shop and bring me half a dozen lemons."</p>
+
+<p>"What is Philly going to do?" asked Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"She is going to be busy at home. Don't waste any time. You can leave
+the pails, and tell Jessie to have them set in the cellar."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla set out on her errand in no very good humour. She had hoped
+when she saw the freezer that she was going to have ice-cream for her
+dinner; and it was a great disappointment to find that Philly was only
+making something for poor Jessie.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla was growing more and more fond of eating every day. She cared a
+great deal more for nice things than she used to do at home, where no
+one objected to her eating them every day and all day long. The fact
+of being obliged to indulge her appetite in secret gave a zest to her
+stolen feasts,—literally stolen, many times, I am sorry to say; for
+she fell more and more into the habit of pilfering from the pantry and
+from the store-room at every opportunity. She had heretofore been so
+sly and careful that Sarah had not been able to detect her in the act;
+but she was growing bolder every day. Nor was this the worst of it. She
+had spent all the money she had brought from home upon ginger-cakes,
+raisins, and other things of the kind. She could hardly believe it when
+she found her purse empty, and in her heart she accused some one of
+having robbed her; but, however that might be, it was all gone.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fault of Miss Delight's that she was rather careless of money.
+She was somewhat apt to leave her purse in her work-box or on her desk;
+and she had a habit of keeping loose pennies and small change in the
+corner of drawers and on the edges of shelves. Sarah often remonstrated
+with her about the matter, especially since Philly came to live at the
+cottage,—and Miss Delight had been more careful for a time; but, as her
+confidence in the child's honesty became established, she gradually
+fell into her old habits.</p>
+
+<p>It was with fear and trembling that Lolla first took to herself a penny
+to spend in molasses-candy; but, as she was not discovered, she grew
+bolder; and now it was a regular thing for her to look-out for the
+waifs and strays from her aunt's purse. At that very time she had five
+cents in her pocket which she was intending to spend at the store.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<h3><a id="Chapter_6">CHAPTER VI.</a></h3>
+
+<p class="t3">
+<b>THE CONSEQUENCE.</b><br>
+</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>LOLLA walked along under the trees, feeling rather fretful and
+dissatisfied, though she could not exactly tell why. She fancied the
+pail grew heavier every minute.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if that cover is on tight?" said she to herself. "It wouldn't
+be very nice for the ice and salt to get into the porridge, or whatever
+it is. I don't believe it will be good, anyway, when it gets there. It
+will be all melted."</p>
+
+<p>There are many low stone walls in the village of Dorchester, which are
+very nice to sit down upon, especially when, as it often happens, there
+is a large elm-tree exactly in the right place to keep off the sun.
+Lolla found just such a place in the retired lane through which she was
+passing, and sat down for a rest. She looked this way and that, and,
+seeing nobody, she pulled off the cover of the small pail.</p>
+
+<p>The frozen milk porridge looked very nice and inviting, and Lolla could
+not resist the temptation.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody will know if I just taste it," said she.</p>
+
+<p>She had no spoon; but gluttons are not apt to be nice. She put in her
+finger, and, scooping up a large mouthful, she hastily swallowed it.
+It was certainly very nice,—as good as ice-cream; and, almost without
+thinking, Lolla took another mouthful.</p>
+
+<p>When I was a little girl and used to gather raspberries, I used to
+make it a rule not to taste one till I had gathered all that I wanted
+to take home; because I found by experience that it was much easier
+not to eat the first raspberry than it was not to eat the second.
+Lolla discovered the same thing with regard to the iced porridge.
+Having begun, she found it hard to leave off. She took mouthful after
+mouthful, intending that every one should be the last. Meantime, the
+warm air was rapidly melting the porridge, and making it run together
+as fast as she took it out: so that she did not discover what havoc she
+was making, till a deeper dig than usual uncovered the bottom of the
+pail. She was frightened to see that there was not a teacupful left.
+Then, indeed, she wished she had let it alone.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I do now?" said she to herself. "There is no use in
+carrying that little bit to Jessie. She will know that aunt never sent
+such a small parcel as that; and, besides, the side of the pail shows
+how much there was in the first, place. Hateful stuff! I wish I never
+had seen it! Aunt ought to have sent Philly with it. But I may as well
+eat the rest, now that I have begun; and then what shall I do with the
+pails? Aunt told me to leave them there at Jessie's; and if I bring
+them back, she will surely suspect something. Oh, what shall I do?"</p>
+
+<p>Lolla thought and thought, but could come to no conclusion. At last,
+however, she hid the two empty pails among some weeds and brambles in a
+corner of the wall, and turned into the street that led to the store.</p>
+
+<p>"My aunt wants you to send her seven lemons," said she to the shop-man;
+"and I want five cents' worth of nice raisins."</p>
+
+<p>The lemons were done up in a parcel, and the raisins put into Lolla's
+pocket, from which they were soon transferred to her mouth. Then she
+undid the parcel, and took out the odd lemon, taking care to select the
+largest. She had fully intended to keep it for home consumption; but
+the smell was too inviting, and presently she found herself sucking it
+as she walked along.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla's stomach had been long accustomed to excesses; but a handful
+of raisins and the juice of a lemon upon the top of more than a pint
+of frozen milk was more than it could endure. Before she reached the
+cottage, Lolla found herself feeling very ill. Her head was dizzy, and
+she had a strange pain, as though she had swallowed some hot coals. She
+had hardly strength to open the gate; and it seemed to her that the
+walk which led up to the cottage was a mile long.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lolla, I am glad you have come. Guess what we are going to have
+for dinner! Beautiful raspberry ice-cream! I froze it myself, after you
+went away. But what is the matter?" cried Philly, in alarm, as Lolla
+dropped on the nearest seat. "Oh, dear! Sarah, come here,—do! Lolla is
+dying, I do believe!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" returned Sarah, sharply. "Don't call out like that, child!
+Here, Lolla, what is the matter? Why, you do look badly, sure enough!
+What have you been doing? Call Miss Delight, Philly, as quick as you
+can! She is in the greenhouse."</p>
+
+<p>Nobody enjoyed the raspberry-cream, or any thing else of the nice
+dinner Sarah had provided; for every one had their hands full with
+Lolla. Miss Delight held her in her arms, or rubbed her convulsed
+limbs; Sarah was busy with the bath and with hot mustard-poultices; and
+Mr. Locke was gone post-haste for the doctor; for Lolla was in a fit,
+and for a good while it seemed rather doubtful whether she would ever
+come out of it.</p>
+
+<p>"Has she eaten any thing more than usual?" asked the doctor.</p>
+
+<p>"Not that I am aware of," replied Miss Delight. "She was accustomed
+at home to eat every thing she took a fancy to, and at all times and
+seasons; but I have been careful of her diet since she came to me, and
+her health has greatly improved. Latterly, however, she has not seemed
+as well; and I have not been able to find out what was the matter."</p>
+
+<p>Philly heard this conversation, and it threw her into a state of great
+perplexity. She felt as though she ought to tell Miss Delight what she
+knew about Lolla's habits; and yet she hated the very name of tattling.
+At last she did the wisest thing in her power. She asked advice.
+Meeting Sarah on the stairs, she repeated to her what she had heard,
+and what she herself knew, of Lolla's habits.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I ought to tell Miss Delight?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you ought to tell her," returned Sarah. "It might make all
+the difference in the world. Tell her directly; or, if you don't want
+to, I will."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do!" said Philly, much relieved by the proposal. "That will be a
+great deal the best way."</p>
+
+<p>It happened, however, that the story told itself, so far as the cause
+of Lolla's present illness was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>"She must have drunk a quantity of milk, and then eaten something sour
+on the top of it," said Miss Delight. "But where could she get milk at
+this time of day?"</p>
+
+<p>"I guess she has been eating up Jessie's porridge," said Sarah. "Lolla
+is not to be trusted with any thing good to eat. I have been finding
+that out this long time, but I have not been quite sure till lately.
+But where could she get raisins? There are none in the house."</p>
+
+<p>"Look in her pocket, and see if there are any more," said Miss Delight.</p>
+
+<p>There were no raisins in Lolla's pocket; but there were the remains of
+the lemon; and now Lolla's sickness was fully accounted for.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my little girl, if you can tell me what else you have eaten,"
+said the doctor, seeing that Lolla was able to speak. "Tell me the
+exact truth, that I may know what to do for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear!" sighed Lolla. "I only ate a few raisins."</p>
+
+<p>"And what else?"</p>
+
+<p>"And—and—a lemon!"</p>
+
+<p>"Raisins and a lemon; and what else?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing," said Lolla, sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where did you get the milk?" asked Miss Delight.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't have any milk," said Lolla; and to this story she adhered,
+in spite of any thing and every thing that could be said to her. She
+was better for a little while; but in an hour or two she was attacked
+with illness in another form, and it was not till the next day that
+Miss Delight ventured to hope that she might be saved. All this time
+her mind was more or less wandering, and, besides, it was absolutely
+necessary to keep her quiet: so there was no chance of finding out the
+truth.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>The next evening Lolla was somewhat better; but it was many days before
+she was pronounced out of danger, and many more before she was able to
+leave her room and go about the house again. Meantime, Aunt Delight had
+learned from Jessie that Lolla had not been at her house at all, the
+day she was taken sick. She tried to make Lolla tell her the truth; but
+in vain.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla would not say a word. If she were questioned, she would begin to
+cry, declare that every one hated her and ill-treated her, that Aunt
+Delight had carried her away from her dear mother only to abuse her,
+and that as soon as she got better she would go to California, if she
+had to walk every step of the way. These "tantrums," as Sarah called
+them, usually ended in a fit of sickness. At last Miss Delight gave the
+matter up in despair.</p>
+
+<p>When Lolla began to go about the house once more, she found her
+position very much changed. No one found fault with her, or alluded in
+any way to the affair of the porridge; but she felt herself distrusted
+and constantly watched. The store-room was kept locked, and the
+sugar-bowl put out of reach. She was never allowed to go outside the
+gate by herself, never sent of errands as before; no one asked her for
+information about any thing, or paid any attention to her statements.</p>
+
+<p>All this was disagreeable enough; and, to add to her discomfort, she
+found herself restricted to the plainest food, and a very little of
+that. If she exceeded in the least, either in quantity or in quality,
+she speedily found herself in bed as sick as ever. This was a sad
+plight for a little girl who cared for nothing but eating and drinking.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>One evening she was sitting alone in the bay-window of the parlour,
+feeling very sad and lonely indeed. Her aunt and Philly had gone to
+church; Sarah had gone up to see Jessie, who was now not expected
+to live many days: so there was no one at home but herself and Mr.
+Locke, who had come in not long before and was sitting on the veranda.
+Lolla felt very unhappy. She thought it was because she was sick and
+alone, and because every one was unkind to her; but something in her
+heart told her that was not all. She thought of her dear father and
+mother, so many, many miles away, and remembered how kind and indulgent
+they had always been to her, and how often she had been undutiful to
+them. She thought how pleased she had been with the idea of coming to
+Dorchester, and how happy she had been for the first few weeks after
+her arrival, and how different it all was at present. She did not feel
+like having a "tantrum," but she put her head down on the end of the
+couch, and cried, quietly, but very bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, Lolla?" said a gentle voice. Mr. Locke had come
+silently into the parlour and taken a seat beside her. "What is the
+matter, Lolla?" he repeated. "What makes you cry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am so very, very unhappy!" sobbed Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"And what makes you unhappy?"</p>
+
+<p>"A great many things."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, tell me some of these things. Perhaps I can help you to get rid
+of them. What makes you unhappy just now, for instance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I am sick, for one thing," replied Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is very sad to be sick; but sickness does not always make
+people unhappy. Jessie is very sick. She suffers far more than you
+do or can; and she will never be any better. I do not think she can
+live more than a few days; but she is not unhappy. She told me this
+afternoon that her heart was full of peace and joy; and I am sure her
+face shows it."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I am so lonely, with my father and mother away."</p>
+
+<p>"That is sad, too; but, Lolla, Philly's father and mother are both
+dead. She has not a friend or relation in the world out of this house;
+and she is not unhappy. You yourself, when you first came here, were as
+merry as the day was long."</p>
+
+<p>"It was very different then; and that is one trouble," said Lolla.
+"Every one was good to me then, and liked me; and now nobody likes me,
+or believes a word that I say: and Aunt Delight is as different as can
+be."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you suppose has made the difference in her?" asked Mr. Locke.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla hung her head, but, somehow, she felt as if she must answer even
+in spite of herself. At last she stammered out,—</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is because I was so naughty."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, that indeed! I should not wonder if we had now got at the root of
+the whole matter. How were you naughty, Lolla?"</p>
+
+<p>Lolla would not answer.</p>
+
+<p>"But even the fact of your having been naughty need not of itself make
+you unhappy," continued Mr. Locke. "I have known many persons who had
+done very wrong things in their lives, and were nevertheless very happy
+afterwards. We read of the Apostle Paul persecuting the Christian
+church and helping at the murder of the martyr Stephen, and many of his
+converts at Philippi had been very wicked people: yet Paul was far from
+being an unhappy man amid all his trials, and he tells the Philippians
+to 'rejoice evermore,' to 'rejoice in the Lord always.' I don't think
+we have got at it quite yet, Lolla."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't understand," said Lolla, interested in spite of herself.
+"I thought when people were wicked they always had to be unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"And you are quite right, my child. As long as you 'are' naughty,
+you must needs be miserable; but you need not be miserable because
+you 'have been' naughty. That is quite another thing. As long as the
+Philippians continued to be wicked and unbelieving, there would be no
+use in telling them to rejoice; but they had seen their sin, repented
+of it and confessed it, and turned with their whole heart to God, and
+therefore they were happy even in the midst of trials such as we know
+nothing about. Now do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"It don't seem as if I could do any different," said Lolla, after a
+pause, and speaking earnestly. "I think sometimes I will tell aunt all
+about it; but, then, I can't, somehow. Oh, dear! I don't know what to
+do!" And again Lolla put down her head, and cried bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"Lolla," said Mr. Locke, putting his hand upon her head, "there is one
+wrong thing you can help directly. Tell me, now: have you asked God to
+help you at these times?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Lolla. "I did not think it would be of any use. I have
+been so naughty."</p>
+
+<p>"If we could not ask God to help us when we were wicked, we should
+remain wicked forever," said Mr. Locke,—"since nothing is more certain
+than that we can never make ourselves good without his help. He did not
+wait for that when he sent his Son to die for us.</p>
+
+<p>"'God commended his love to us, in that while we were yet sinners,
+Christ died for us.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Would he really help me, do you think, if I asked him now?—Really and
+truly?" asked Lolla, in a reverent whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: if you are honest in desiring it, I am sure that he will."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?" asked Lolla. "Is it in the Bible?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is in the Bible; and I know by my own experience, because he has so
+often helped me. He has enabled me to do things which I could no more
+have done by myself than I can fly to that bright star up yonder. But,
+Lolla, do you really want God to help you to be good?"</p>
+
+<p>"I really and truly do, Mr. Locke," replied Lolla; "but I don't believe
+I can," she added, despairingly. "I have thought a great many nights
+that I would tell Aunt Delight the very first thing in the morning; and
+when morning came it was just as hard as ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! There was another mistake. You should have told her that very
+moment, and not have waited till morning. But, Lolla, there is some one
+else you should tell first,—some one against whom you have sinned more
+sorely than against your aunt. Think how you have displeased Him. There
+is nothing God hates more than a lie,—nothing which he will punish more
+severely if the liar does not repent. Yet he has spared your life. He
+would not let you die in your sin, but gives you a chance to repent and
+be forgiven. You must confess to him first, before you can ask him to
+forgive and help you.</p>
+
+<p>"'If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.'</p>
+
+<p>"'If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
+in us; but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive
+us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'</p>
+
+<p>"God will not only forgive the sin, but he will take it away. He will
+wash it out, and make your soul clean and pure. Lolla, shall we ask him
+to do so?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, please," whispered Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Locke knelt down with Lolla in the recess of the window, and, in
+a short prayer which she could understand, he asked God to forgive
+her, to make her a better girl, and especially to give her strength to
+confess to her aunt.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Lolla, you must act for yourself," said Mr. Locke. "God has given
+you the strength, and you must use it. Don't wait a moment. There is
+your aunt coming in now. Shall I make a beginning for you?" he added,
+seeing that Lolla was embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"Please do," said Lolla.</p>
+
+<p>"Lolla has something to tell you, Miss Delight," said Mr. Locke, as
+Aunt Delight came into the parlour. "She has made up her mind to tell
+you what made her sick."</p>
+
+<p>Before Lolla went to bed that night, she had told her aunt the whole
+story, and had received her forgiveness. When she awoke the next
+morning, her head ached and her eyes were heavy, but her heart was
+lighter than it had been for many a day.</p>
+
+<p><br></p>
+
+<p>All that summer and fall Lolla was very delicate. She was reaping
+the fruits of her long course of greediness and indulgence; and the
+doctor said it would probably be a great while before she would be well
+again. She could eat only the simplest food,—not a particle of fruit or
+pastry, and the least indulgence was sure to make her sick for several
+days.</p>
+
+<p>In one way this was an advantage to Lolla. She lost the habit of
+wanting to eat at all times and seasons, and she learned to find her
+pleasure in other ways. She could not run about a great deal; and this
+forced her to turn for amusement to her books and her needle,—means of
+employment which she had always disliked and never touched except as
+tasks. She grew very fond of reading, and so skilful with her needle
+that she was able to give her aunt a great deal of help in her labour
+in the sewing-school.</p>
+
+<p>Lolla's stay in Dorchester was prolonged from year to year, and now she
+was a great girl, fifteen years old, well-educated for her age, able to
+make her own clothes and cook her own breakfast and dinner.</p>
+
+<p>She went to her new home in California, a useful, amiable, sensible
+girl, prepared to be a comfort to her parents, a pleasant companion as
+well as a useful example and teacher to the two little brothers she had
+never seen, and, better than all, a beautiful fruit-bearing branch of
+that true vine of which God is the husbandman, and Christ the stock,
+and all true Christians living members. There is nothing of the "little
+pig" left about her.</p>
+
+<p>Aunt Delight still lives in her cottage at Dorchester. She is an old
+woman, if one counts by years, but her heart is as young and her mind
+as bright as ever. She keeps her old servant Sarah, and Philly, now
+a tall, useful girl, and she has a pleasant companion in a soldier's
+widow, the daughter of a "far-away cousin," who has no other home.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Locke is away in Asia, teaching the word of God among the Japanese.
+Lolla often hears from him. She thinks sometimes she should like to go
+too; but she has work enough at home to keep her fully employed for
+the present. Her mother's health is very delicate, and Lolla is nurse,
+housekeeper, teacher, and lady of the house, all in one: so she does
+the duty nearest to her, and trusts to God to give her the desire of
+her heart, if it is best for her to have it, or to make her contented
+without it, if he sees best to deny.</p>
+
+<p><br><br><br></p>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75955 ***</div>
+</body>
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+book #75955 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75955)