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Title: Jessie Carlton
The Story of a Girl who Fought with Little Impulse, the
Wizard, and Conquered Him
Author: Francis Forrester
Release Date: October 18, 2008 [EBook #26953]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSIE CARLTON ***
Produced by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Illustration: Jessie Talking to Rover.--Front]
GLEN MORRIS STORIES.
JESSIE CARLTON;
The Story of a Girl who fought with little Impulse, the Wizard,
AND CONQUERED HIM.
BY
FRANCIS FORRESTER, ESQ.,
Author Of "Guy Carlton," "Dick Duncan,"
"My Uncle Toby's Library," Etc.
BOSTON:
BROWN & TAGGARD.
NEW YORK: HOWE & FERRY.
1861.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860,
By HOWE & FERRY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the Southern District of New York.
RENNIE, SHEA & LINDSAY,
Stereotypers and Electrotypers,
81, 83 & 85 Centre-street,
New York.
R. CRAIGHEAD,
Printer,
81, 83 & 85 Centre-st.
NOTE
TO PARENTS, GUARDIANS, AND TEACHERS.
The purpose of the "Glen Morris Stories" is to sow the seed of pure,
noble, manly character in the mind of our great nation's childhood. They
exhibit the virtues and vices of childhood, not in prosy, unreadable
precepts, but in a series of characters which move before the imagination
as living beings do before the senses. Thus access to the heart is won by
way of the imagination. While the story charms, the truth sows itself in
the conscience and in the affections. The child is thereby led to abhor
the false and the vile, and to sympathize with the right, the beautiful,
and the true. To every parent, teacher, and guardian, who has affinity
with these high purposes, the "Glen Morris Stories" are most respectfully
inscribed by their fellow-laborer in the field of childhood.
Francis Forrester.
ORDER OF THE GLEN MORRIS STORIES.
I. Guy Carlton, the Story of a Boy who belonged to the "Try Company."
II. Dick Duncan, the Story of a Boy who loved Mischief.
III. Jessie Carlton, the Story of a Girl who fought with little
Impulse, the Wizard, and conquered him.
IV. Walter Sherwood, the Story of an easy, good-natured Boy.
V. Kate Carlton, the Story of a vain Girl.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Jessie And Impulse The Wizard. 11
II. Jessie's Two Cousins. 27
III. A Nutting-Party. 43
IV. Jessie's Great Sorrow. 59
V. The Broken Mirror. 76
VI. The First Slide of the Season. 92
VII. Jessie's First Great Victory. 108
VIII. Farewell to the Cousins. 122
IX. The Wizard in the Field Again. 136
X. Madge Clifton. 151
XI. Madge Clifton's Mother. 166
XII. Little Impulse beaten again. 180
XIII. The Skating-Party. 194
XIV. The Watch-Pocket finished. 209
XV. Thanksgiving Day. 222
ENGRAVINGS.
PAGE
Jessie and Emily Sailing Boats in the Quarry. 50
Jessie and Carrie Enjoying a Slide. 102
Mrs. Moneypenny Reading Jack's Letter. 148
Walter Sliding With Carrie and Jessie. 220
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY.
Jessie Carlton, only daughter of a New York merchant residing at Glen
Morris Cottage, Duncanville, a village near New York.
Emily and Charlie Morris, Jessie's two cousins, visiting at Glen Morris
Cottage.
Madge Clifton, Jessie's _protégé_.
Carrie Sherwood, one of Jessie's companions.
Mrs. Moneypenny, a poor widow, and her son Jack.
JESSIE CARLTON
CHAPTER I
Jessie and the Wizard.
On a bright afternoon of a warm day in October, Jessie Carlton sat in the
parlor of Glen Morris Cottage. Her elbows rested on the table, her face
was held between her two plump little hands, and her eyes were feasting on
some charming pictures which were spread out before her. A pretty little
work-basket stood on a chair at her side. It contained several yards of
rumpled patchwork, two pieces of broadcloth with figures partially worked
on them as if they were intended for a pair of slippers, a watch-pocket
half finished, and a small piece of silk composed of very little squares.
On the table close to her left elbow was a cambric handkerchief with some
embroidery just begun in one of its corners. A needle carelessly stuck
into it showed that Jessie had been working on it when her eyes were
attracted by the pictures she was now studying with such close attention.
After a few minutes the little girl moved her right arm for the purpose of
looking at another picture, when her thimble dropped from her finger to
the table with a loud ringing sound. She started to pick it up, and in so
doing pushed her scissors to the floor. The noise they made in falling led
Jessie to glance towards the sofa, and to say in a very soft whisper--
"Oh dear! I'm afraid those naughty scissors have waked Uncle Morris out of
his nap!"
Jessie was right. The noise had started Uncle Morris from a cozy little
nap into which he had fallen after dinner. It was not often that the
active old gentleman indulged himself in this way; but a long walk in the
morning had made him weary, and he had quietly roamed into dreamland as he
sat reading. He now opened his eyes, looked round the room, and seeing his
niece looking askance at him, said--
"What's the matter, Jessie? I heard something fall with a great crash,
what was it?"
Jessie laughed outright. It was not very polite, but she could not very
well keep the fun out of her face. It seemed so queer that her uncle
should call the noise made by the fall of a pair of scissors _a great
crash_. At last she said--
"There was no great crash, Uncle. Only my scissors fell from the table."
"Was that all? Why it sounded to me just like the crash of a tray full of
crockery ware. That was because I was half asleep, I suppose. Well, never
mind, I'm not the first old gentleman who has magnified a little noise
into a great one in his sleep--but what are you so busy about this
afternoon, little puss!"
As Uncle Morris put this question he arose, walked up to the table and
began to look at Jessie's work, for by this time she had begun stitching
on the cambric handkerchief again. Blushing deeply, she said--
"I am embroidering a pocket-handkerchief, Uncle."
"Indeed! how fond you little ladies are of finery!" said Uncle Morris,
smiling and patting Jessie's head.
"I'm not doing it for myself, Uncle," replied the child.
"Not for yourself, eh? Is it for papa, then?"
"No, Sir."
"For your brother Guy, perhaps?"
"No, Sir. Not for Guy," and looking slyly at her uncle, she added. "I
guess that you are not Yankee enough to guess whom it is for."
"For your brother Hugh, maybe?"
"You must guess again, Uncle."
"Well, maybe it is for your hero, Richard Duncan."
"O Uncle! Do you think I would embroider a handkerchief for a young
gentleman!" and Jessie pursed up her lips as though she was going to be
very angry.
"Don't be angry with your old uncle, my little puss," said Mr. Morris with
an air of mock penitence, "I had an idea that young ladies did such things
for young gentlemen sometimes. But who is it for? I give it up."
"You give it up! Why, I thought you belonged to the 'never give up
company.' Oh, fy! Uncle Morris, I'll get you turned out of the try company
if you don't mind. So you had better guess again," and Jessie held up her
fat finger and looked so funnily at Mr. Morris that the old gentleman's
heart warmed towards her, and giving her a kiss of fond affection, he
said--
"Then I guess it is for your poor old uncle."
"Beans are hot!" cried Jessie, clapping her hands. "You've guessed it at
last. But see my work, Uncle! Isn't it beautiful?"
"Very pretty, indeed, my dear," replied the old man, who now put on a
comical look, and added, "but I'm afraid I shall not live until it is
finished."
"Not live----!" Jessie was going to be alarmed, but her uncle's laughing
eyes checked her alarm, and catching his meaning from his expression, she
pouted and was silent.
"Don't put on that frightful pout, my little puss, for, really, I should
have to live as long a life as an ancient patriarch if I do not die before
you are likely to _finish_ the handkerchief. There are the quilt, the
slippers, the watch-pocket, the chair-cushion, and the handkerchief all
_begun_ for me, but nothing finished. That little wizard--his name is
Impulse, you know--which led you to drop the quilt that you might begin
the slippers, and the slippers that you might begin the chair-cushion,
will soon tempt you to drop the handkerchief for something else. I wish I
could catch the jolly little imp. I'd cane him smartly, and then I would
lead him to Parson Resolution's church, and marry him to that sweet little
fairy, Miss Perseverance, who is breaking her heart for the love of him.
Were he once thus married, I think his bride would teach him to help you
finish all the little gifts you have begun for me, and there would be some
hope that I should live long enough to sleep under your quilt, sit on your
cushion, walk in your slippers, put my watch in your pocket at night, and
blow my venerable nose in your embroidered pocket-handkerchief."
The reproof so pleasantly given in these quaint words found its way to
Jessie's heart. Her face became sober, she bit her lips, a stray tear or
two hung, like dew-drops in the web of a gossamer, on her long eyelashes,
she sighed and after a few moments of silent thought rose, planted her
right foot firmly on the floor, and said--
"Uncle Morris, I _will_ conquer that little wizard! I will _finish_ your
quilt right away, and then all the other things in their turn--see if I
don't."
Jessie had made just such a promise at least _ten_ times, since Glen
Morris Cottage had become her home. She had tried to keep it too, but,
somehow, _her habit of yielding to every new impulse which came over her_,
had hitherto led her to break it as often as it had been made. The little
wizard, as Uncle Morris facetiously called her changeful impulses, was her
tyrant. The jolly little rogue did, indeed, sadly stand in need of
matrimony with the forlorn Miss Perseverance. For poor Jessie's sake,
Uncle Morris was very anxious to see the wedding come off speedily.
Whether his wish was met or not, will appear hereafter.
To prove her sincerity Jessie put the cambric handkerchief in the bottom
of her work-basket. The other articles she placed, in the order in which
she had begun them, above it, and then sat resolutely down to her
patchwork quilt. As her bright little needle began to fly with the
swiftness of a weaver's shuttle, she said to herself--
"Now I _will_ finish Uncle Morris's quilt right off."
Uncle Morris had left the parlor, and Jessie had sewed steadily for at
least fifteen minutes, when her brother Hugh bounded into the room,
holding two letters in his hand, and said--
"Letters for Jessie Carlton and her mother. Postage one dollar, to be paid
to the bearer on delivery. Give me your half-dollar, Miss Carlton, and I
will give you your letter!"
"A letter for me!" cried Jessie, dropping her work and running to her
brother, capsizing her work-basket as she ran. "Give it to me! Give it to
me."
"Pay me the postage first," said Hugh, holding the letter over her head.
"There is no postage, you know there isn't, you naughty Hugh! Give me my
letter," and Jessie pulled Hugh's arm in the vain attempt to bring the
letter within her reach.
"No postage, indeed! Do you think Uncle Sam can afford to carry letters
for all the Yankee girls who may choose to write to each other, without
pay? Not he. Uncle Sam knows how to care for number one too well for that.
So hand over your half-dollar, Miss Jessie, and I will give you your
letter."
Jessie coaxed and scolded at her brother for nearly ten minutes, in vain.
Hugh loved to tease her, and so he kept on, now offering the letter, and
then holding it beyond her reach, until the poor child's patience being
all gone, she sat down and cried with vexation. This was certainly
carrying his fun too far. A little pleasant bantering at first, though not
_amiable_, might have been pardonable; but now that her feelings were hurt
he was very unkind to carry his nonsense any further. But this was one of
Hugh's faults. He was a great tease. Seeing his sister in tears, he said,
in a whining tone--
"Pretty little cry-baby! How beautiful you are, all melted into tears!"
Then dropping the whine from his tone, he added, "Here, Jessie, take your
letter!"
Jessie stretched out her arm to take the offered letter. Hugh drew it back
again and said--
"Bah! Don't you wish you may get it!"
"You unamiable boy! is that the affection which is due from a brother to
his sister? O Hugh! Hugh! I wish you had more love and less selfishness in
that idle soul of yours."
This just rebuke from the lips of Uncle Morris, who had been standing
unperceived for the last few minutes behind the half-open door, put an end
to all Master Hugh's idle, not to say wicked, teasing. He dropped the
letters into Jessie's lap, and with an angry scowl on his face left the
room.
The sunshine came back into Jessie's face in a moment. She looked her
thanks to Uncle Morris, while she nervously opened the envelope of her
letter. Having unfolded it, she read as follows:
Morristown, New Jersey, October 10th, 18--
Dear Cousin Jessie,
Pa and Ma have just given their consent to have me and my brother
Charlie visit you at Glen Morris Cottage. I am so glad I can hardly
hold my pen to write you about it. Charlie is jumping about the room,
and shouting hurrah, for joy. We are to start Thursday, in the
afternoon train, and shall get to your house to tea. With ten
thousand kisses for you, I remain,
Your affectionate cousin,
Emily Morris.
Miss Jessie Carlton.
"Oh, won't it be nice, Uncle Morris!" cried Jessie, after reading this
note. "What good times I shall have with my cousins! I'm so glad I don't
know what to do with myself."
"You are a happy little puss generally, and I am glad to see you made
happier than usual by this pleasant letter from your cousin. But are you
sure, my dear Jessie, that you will enjoy your cousins' visit?"
"Why, Uncle!" cried Jessie, with an air of surprise. "How can you ask me
such a question? I am sure I shall love my cousins very much, and we shall
enjoy ourselves very finely together."
"Well! Well! I hope it may be so," said Uncle Morris, with a sigh which
made Jessie think that the good old man's hope was not a very strong one.
She said nothing, however, and Uncle Morris asked--
"When are your cousins coming?"
Jessie looked at her letter and read, "'We are to start
Thursday,'"--pausing, and looking up, she exclaimed--
"Why, that's this very day! I declare they will be here this afternoon.
Won't it be nice!"
"Yes, to-day _is_ Thursday. Your letter has been delayed. Perhaps you had
better take your mamma's letter to her room. She may require time to make
preparations for her young guests. They will be here--let me see (looking
at his watch), in two hours. Run Jessie and tell your mother!"
Jessie hurried to her mother's apartment with the unopened letter and the
news. Mrs. Carlton's letter was from Emily's mother and contained the same
information.
Jessie was in ecstasies during the next two hours. To be sure, there was
that question and that sigh of Uncle Morris to cast a slight shadow on her
joy. But shadows never tarried long on Jessie's spirit, which was so
bright and joyous that it seemed as if it was made of sunshine. Happy
little Jessie Carlton!
Emily's letter had put all thought of her work out of Jessie's head. Her
patchwork lay on the floor beside the overturned work-basket, until her
mother going to prepare the parlor for company, picked both up and put
them away. In fact, Jessie's little wizard had her in his chains again.
She was once more the simple-hearted child of impulse.
Having fixed her hair and changed her dress, Jessie ran out on to the
piazza to watch for the coming of her cousins. First she seated herself on
the settee, which stood there, and made the air ring again with her joyous
song. After a few minutes, she sprang from her seat and seizing old Rover
by the head, began to tell him that her cousins were coming, and,
therefore, he must be the very best behaved dog in the world.[A] Then
seating herself lightly on old Rover's back, she patted his neck, and
said--
"Noble old Rover, won't you give your mistress a ride?"
Rover was a grand old dog, large and strong enough to carry a much heavier
miss than Jessie. He was good-natured too. Still he had no notion of being
used for a pony. So, after standing quite still for a moment or two, he
suddenly started and sent Jessie sprawling on the piazza, while he trotted
down the steps and made a bed for himself in the greensward, on the lawn,
as quietly as if nothing had happened. A knowing old dog was Rover.
Jessie picked herself up and began singing again. Scarcely had she trilled
out two lines before she saw Guy coming towards the house. With the light
spring of a fairy she bounded across the lawn, and meeting him at the gate
exclaimed--
"O Guy, cousin Emily and cousin Charlie are coming here to-night. Aren't
you glad?"
"To be sure I am. I'm glad of any thing that pleases my sister."
Jessie kissed him, and taking his hand, walked with him back to the
piazza, where she resumed her watching, beguiling the time by humming her
songs and by an occasional frolic with old Rover.
At last, the sound of wheels told her that the carriage was coming up from
the railroad station. A few minutes later it rolled along the road which
ran through the lawn and in front of the piazza. Four bright eyes peeped
over the door, which the coachman speedily opened. Mr. Carlton stepped out
first and then came Emily and Charlie. Never did cousins meet with warmer
greetings than they received from Jessie and Guy, and Mrs. Carlton, and
Uncle Morris. Never was little girl happier than Jessie, when, a few
minutes later, she had Emily all to herself, in her own sweet little
chamber, showing her the contents of drawer and trunk and doll-house, and
whatever else might be included in the term "playthings." When Emily and
Charlie went to bed that night, they were in ecstasies over the pleasant
things they had seen and felt on the first evening of their visit to Glen
Morris Cottage.
-----
[A] See Frontispiece.
CHAPTER II.
Jessie's Two Cousins.
The first few days of her cousins' visit were like a pleasant dream to
Jessie. She had so much to say, and so many things to show to her
visitors, that they could scarcely help sharing the joy which welled up
within her like a crystal stream from a mountain spring. Seeing them so
cheerful and happy, Jessie wondered more and more at the question her
uncle had asked her about enjoying their visit.
"I don't see what Uncle Morris meant," said she to herself one afternoon,
while her cousins were on the lawn laughing and playing with Guy, and she
was washing her hands by way of preparation for tea. "He looked and
sighed," she went on to say, "as if he thought I should be disappointed in
them. But I am not. They are the kindest, merriest cousins in the world. I
declare I'll ask Uncle Morris what he meant, the next time I see him
alone."
That next time came very soon, for as Jessie skipped down stairs, with
laughter twinkling in her eyes, and a song tripping from her tongue, she
met her uncle in the hall. Running right to him, she seized his arm,
peered curiously into his face, and said--
"Uncle Morris?"
"Well, little puss, what now?" replied the old gentleman, as he kissed her
rosy cheeks.
"I want you to tell me what you sighed and shook your head for, last week,
when I told you what good times I was going to have with my cousins?" said
Jessie, closely watching the expression of the old gentleman's face.
There was a merry twinkle in Uncle Morris's eyes, as he replied, "You have
a good memory for a laughing little puss. Well, I'm glad you have not yet
found out why I sighed. I hope you won't make the discovery, though I fear
you will before another week passes. There is a proverb which says, _It's
only the shoe that knows whether the stocking has holes in it or not._
Now, Jessie, if you can find out the meaning of this proverb, you will
know why I sighed. If you don't find it out in a week, I'll explain it to
you."
"How funny!" exclaimed the little girl; and then, putting on a thoughtful
air, she repeated the proverb slowly, in an undertone; after which, she
added aloud, "I don't see what shoes and stockings have to do with my
cousins and me. What a funny man you are, Uncle Morris!"
Uncle Morris had, by this time, reached the door leading to the back
piazza. He heard this exclamation, however, and turning round, with the
door-knob in his hand, he peeped through the opening, shook his forefinger
at her, and said--
"When Jessie knows her cousins as the shoe knows the stocking, she will be
able to tell why I sighed. Ha! ha! ha! Uncle Morris is a funny man, is
he?"
Just then a loud voice was heard ringing through the hall, and saying--
"Cousin Jessie! Cousin Jessie! come here quick! Your ugly old dog is
killing my sister!"
"Not quite so bad as that, I guess," said Jessie, when she reached the
front door, where she saw Emily sitting on the greensward, rubbing the
back of her head. Old Rover was standing on the piazza, uttering a low
growl at Charlie, by way of warning him not to throw any more stones at
his dogship.
"He's an ugly monster, that he is," said the boy, hurling another stone at
Rover, as he moved toward his mistress, and began to rub his nose against
her hands.
"Down, Rover!" said Jessie, patting the dog's head, and thus quieting his
temper, which was somewhat ruffled by the last stone, which Charlie had
sent right against his ribs.
"I _will_ stone him, if I want to," growled Charlie, pouting his lips,
puffing out his cheeks, and stamping his foot, as Guy laid his hand on his
right arm.
"No, no, Charlie, you must not stone old Rover. It is not kind to hurt a
poor, harmless dog, nor is it quite safe, either, for, you see, Rover has
big teeth, and he may bite you if you hurt him," said Guy, still holding
the angry boy.
"I don't care! He hurt my sister. I'll kick you if you don't let me stone
him as much as I like. Let me go, you ugly fellow!" and with these words,
Charlie kicked and struggled with such violence, that Guy could scarcely
hold him.
Meanwhile, Jessie, having sent old Rover to his kennel, was trying to
comfort Emily. The whole difficulty had grown out of her attempt to mount
the dog's back, in defiance of Guy's advice. He told her that Rover did
not like to do service as a pony, and that he would certainly throw her
off if she tried to ride him. But, urged on by Charlie, she had seated
herself on the dog, and had been thrown down just as Jessie had been, a
few days before. She was not much hurt, a slight bruise on the back of her
head being the only damage she had sustained. Jessie would have laughed
over such a trifle. But Emily was not like Jessie. She had been pleasant
thus far, since her coming to Glen Morris. But now, her good-nature being
played out, she began to show the selfish and ugly side of her character.
"Never mind that little hurt, dear Emily," said Jessie, as she passed her
hand lightly over the bruise. "If you will go into the house with me, I'll
get mother to rub a little _arnica_ upon it, and that will make it well
very soon."
"I won't go in; and if your father don't have that ugly dog killed, I'll
go home to-morrow, that I will!"
"What! have Rover killed? Oh, no! Pa won't do that, I'm sure," said
Jessie, a little startled at the idea of dear old Rover's death.
"I'll kill him!" screamed Charlie, who was still a sulky prisoner in Guy's
hands.
"You are a little fellow to play the part of a butcher!" said Mr. Morris,
who had now come to the front of the house, and had been quietly surveying
the scene, for a few moments past, from behind a large evergreen,
unperceived by all but Guy.
"I'm glad you are come, Uncle," said Guy, "for I did not know what to do
with this little lump of spunk. I guess that Jessie is glad, too, for she
seems puzzled to know what to do with Emily, who is as sulky as Charlie
here is spunky."
The presence of Uncle Morris quieted Charlie, and made Emily rise from the
grass. But nothing that he could say, after hearing the whole story, could
restore them to good humor. Charlie bit his thumb, and scowled; while
Emily, pushing Jessie from her side, kept rolling her pocket-handkerchief
into a ball, pouted, and refused to say a word, either to her uncle or
cousin.
In this wretched mood they went in to tea, sitting at the table like two
dark shadows falling across a room full of sunshine. Everybody was kind to
them. Jessie did her utmost to restore them to good humor. Uncle Morris
said funny things, hoping to make them smile. But it was no use. Smile
they would not; and when tea was over, they both slunk away to a distant
part of the room, and kept up their sulks until bedtime. Even then, when
Jessie tried to kiss Emily, she was rudely pushed aside.
"I don't want to kiss anybody in this house," muttered the ugly child; and
poor Jessie, shrinking from her, went to her uncle, laid her head upon his
shoulder, and wept.
"The shoe has begun to find holes in the stocking," said Uncle Morris,
passing his hand over Jessie's head, with great tenderness; "but never
mind, my little puss--cheer up. Your cousins will leave their bad tempers
in the land of dreams, I hope, and their good-nature will return with the
sun to-morrow morning. Dry your eyes, my sweet Jessie, and be thankful to
the Father above, that your cousins cannot rob you of your own sunny
temper."
Jessie did dry her eyes, and looking into her uncle's face, said, with a
nod of her pretty head, "Now I know why you sighed; and I know, too, what
your proverb meant."
"What did I sigh for, puss?"
"Because you knew my cousins had ugly tempers."
"That's so! But the proverb?"
"Meant that when I became better acquainted with my cousins, I should find
out their faults."
"Well done, my little puzzle-cracker. You _are_ good at guessing. But,
Jessie, what are you going to do? How will you treat your cousins
to-morrow?"
Jessie held down her head awhile, as if she was thinking her way through a
difficult idea. At last she looked up, with eyes full of tenderness, and
with a voice made musical by deep feeling, said:--
"I will be just as kind to them as I possibly can!"
"That's right, my Jessie," said her uncle, folding her to his bosom and
kissing her forehead, "that's right. There is nothing like kindness for
curing ugly children. It's the best medicine in the world to give them.
Give it to them, Jessie, in big doses. Maybe they will like it so well
that they will get cured of their ugliness; for, as the proverb
says,--_Flies are caught with syrup; not with vinegar._"
"Wouldn't it be nice, Uncle Morris, if we could make my cousins
good-natured while they are here? Wouldn't Uncle Albert and Aunt Hannah be
glad if we could send them home kind, and gentle, and good? Oh, I wish I
could get them to be good, as our Guy did Richard Duncan. Wouldn't it be
nice?"
"Try to do it, my dear. We will all help you, and so will the Great Father
above," said Mrs. Carlton, beckoning Jessie to her side and giving her a
kiss so full of a mother's holy love that it sent a thrill of bliss
through the happy heart of her child. Thus like a sunbeam did Jessie
brighten the life of her parents and her uncle. As she left the room to go
to bed, Uncle Morris followed her with his eyes, and when her light form
had glided up-stairs, he turned to his sister and said:--
"That child of yours is a treasure, my sister. I can't tell you how much
her loving little heart gladdens mine. Why, I have grown at least fifteen
years younger in my feelings since she came to Glen Morris. Like a
glorious little sun, she shines into the depths of my heart, melting all
the ice of age and chasing away the gloom of my past sorrows."
"Yes, Jessie is a lovely child," replied Mrs. Carlton. A big tear which
dropped upon her needle-work at that moment showed that the words of her
brother had stirred the deep fountains of love which were within her
heart.
But the two ugly cousins--what were they? Were they not like two black
clouds freighted with storms, and come to darken the light and disturb the
pleasure of that happy household? No wonder their sleep was troubled that
night. No wonder Emily awoke in a fright, caused by the terrible
nightmare. But Jessie's sleep was sweet and sound, and when her mother
stood over her bed, as she always did before retiring for the night,
Jessie smiled so sweetly in her slumber that her mother said:--
"Bless her! the smile of a seraph is on her lips."
As Uncle Morris foretold, Emily and Charlie left their sulks in dreamland.
It would have been well if they had left the _selfishness_, from which
their conduct of the evening before sprung, in the same place. But that
still clung to them like the leprosy, and though they wore bright faces,
they still carried fireworks in their bosom, ready to explode whenever a
spark might happen to touch them.
Jessie greeted her cousins with gentle words and loving kisses, just as if
she had never seen them in a fit of bad temper. Indeed, she made no
allusion whatever to the affair of the day before. This silence puzzled
the cousins, who expected, at least, a lecture from Uncle Morris and a
little coldness from Jessie. I think it also made them feel ashamed, for
they could not help saying to themselves,--
"It was rather mean in us to make such a fuss as we did yesterday."
Just after breakfast, while Jessie was showing Emily her six dolls,
neither of which had a perfect dress, for Jessie never _finished_ any
thing, and Charlie was playing with Guy's india-rubber ball in the hall,
Hugh plunged in at the front door, and, rushing into the sitting-room,
said:--
"Jessie, what will you give me if I tell you a secret?"
"A kiss," replied Jessie, gathering her lips into the form of a rose-bud.
"Pooh! what's a kiss. I wouldn't give you a red cent for a thousand
kisses. Won't you offer me something better for my secret?" said Hugh,
turning up his nose as if in scorn of the proffered kiss.
"I don't believe you have any secret that we care about knowing," said
Jessie. Then holding up her best wax doll, she said to Emily, "Isn't this
a beauty?"
"Yes, but why don't you coax Hugh to tell us his wonderful secret?" said
Emily, who felt quite curious to know what Hugh had to tell.
"Oh, he is only teasing us. You don't know what a tease he is," replied
Jessie, with an air of indifference.
"No, honor bright, I'm not teasing. I have a secret that would make you
girls pitch your dolls into next week, if you knew it," retorted Hugh.
"Well, what is it? Do tell us," said Jessie, beginning to believe that he
had something to tell worth knowing.
"What will you give me?" asked Hugh, still bent on tantalizing the girls.
"I've got nothing to give that you want," said Jessie, and then in a
coaxing tone she added, "come, Hugh, do tell us, there's a good, dear
Hugh."
"No, you don't come it over me with soft soap like that," replied the boy;
"I'm not a fly to be caught with maple molasses."
"If you was _my_ brother I'd _make_ you tell me," said Emily, her eyes
sparkling with rising passion as she spoke.
"You _are_ a spunky little lady, I declare," said Hugh, laughing; "but
here, Jessie, suppose you try to _guess_ my secret. It is something you
would give ever so much to know."
"_Really_, Hugh, have you a secret, _truly_?"
"Yes, _truly_. Honor bright, I tell you. It is a glorious secret. It will
make you ever so happy to know it."
"What is it about? Is somebody coming here? Do tell me, Hugh."
"Catch a weasel asleep and you'll catch me answering questions. But I see
you _won't_ buy, and you _can't_ guess my secret, so I'll be off," and in
spite of all the entreaties of Jessie and the biting speeches which Emily
made, master Hugh left the room, carrying his secret with him.
Jessie, sighed, and turning to her dolls, said, "Hugh is a great tease,
isn't he Emily?"
"He's a great ugly monster!" retorted Emily, who was in the habit of using
strong words, without much regard to their meaning. "If he was my brother
he shouldn't tease me so."
"Oh, Hugh only does it for fun. He is a dear good brother, after all,
only," and here Jessie lowered her voice almost to a whisper, "only I wish
he was as good as Guy."
"_For fun_, eh? I'd _fun_ him: I'd pull his hair, and hide away his books,
and steal his playthings, and call that fun, if he was my brother," cried
Emily.
"Oh, fy! cousin Emily. That would be wicked fun, and would make both you
and your brother unhappy," said Guy, who had just entered the room.
The girls looked on the speaker, who, before Emily had time to reply, went
on to say,--
"Girls, Carrie Sherwood invites you to go nutting with her this afternoon.
Richard Duncan, Norman Butler, Adolphus Harding, Walter, Hugh, Charlie,
you two young ladies, Carrie, and a young lady or two of her acquaintance,
are to make up the party. Carriages will call for you at one o'clock. You
must get ma to give you an early dinner, and be ready in time."
"That is what Hugh meant by his secret. Oh, I'm so glad," said Jessie,
clapping her hands. "Won't it be nice, Emily?"
Emily thought it would. The girls thanked Guy for his good news, and,
springing from the sofa, started to inform Charlie and Mrs. Carlton of the
proposed party. Charlie was delighted. Mrs. Carlton knew all about it,
because the whole matter had been quietly arranged a day or two before by
her and Mrs. Sherwood. Carried away by the idea of this delightful
excursion, Jessie left her six dolls, with their incompleted dresses, on
the sofa, on the chairs, and on the floor. Impulse, the merry little
wizard, had seized her, and she thought of nothing but the nutting-party
the remainder of the morning.
CHAPTER III.
A Nutting-Party.
A few minutes before one o'clock, a long, spring market-wagon, drawn by
two noble horses, stopped before the gate of Glen Morris Cottage. It
contained Carrie Sherwood and her party, all but the Carltons and their
visitors. Mr. Sherwood sat on the driver's seat. He went with the young
folks to drive, and, as he quaintly said, "to see that the hawks did not
pounce on his chickens;" by which figure of speech, I suppose, he meant
that he went to keep the young folks out of danger.
Jessie and her guests, together with Hugh and Guy, were all waiting when
the carriage drove up. Shouts of welcome greeted them from the wagon. They
gave back cheer for cheer as they sprang to their places, all but Charlie,
who stood near the front wheel pouting, and looking very sulky. Mr.
Sherwood, who had turned half round to watch the seating of his guests,
did not notice the boy, but supposing the party to be now complete, faced
his team, drew the reins tight, flourished his whip, and shouted--
"All aboard!"
"Charlie is not aboard yet," cried Emily.
"Come, Charlie! Jump up here!" shouted half a dozen voices.
"I don't want to," said Charlie, in a drawling tone.
"Don't you wish to go, my little fellow?" asked Mr. Sherwood.
"I want to sit on the coachman's seat," simpered the boy, as he stuffed
his finger into his mouth.
The driver's seat was not meant for two persons, and Mr. Sherwood was in
doubt whether to crowd Charlie into it or not. But seeing from the boy's
manner that he would spoil the pleasure of the party if he did not, and
being a very indulgent man, he at last consented. So pulling him up to the
footboard, he stowed him away by his side, and cracking his long whip,
drove off amidst a volley of cheers from the boys, the laughter of the
girls, and the waving of handkerchiefs by Mrs. Carlton and Uncle Morris,
from the piazza.
"I want to drive!" muttered Charlie, as soon as they were fairly started.
"You must eat a little more beefsteak, and grow a little taller, my boy,
before you undertake to drive such a span as this," replied Mr. Sherwood,
smiling at the boy's presumption.
"I _will_ drive!" growled Charlie, grasping the reins, and giving them a
jerk, which startled the spirited creatures into an uneasy gallop.
"Whoa there, steady Kate, steady!" said Mr. Sherwood, removing the boy's
hands and reining up his team.
After soothing his horses, and bringing them to a gentle trot again, Mr.
Sherwood took his reins in his right hand, and, grasping Charlie with his
left, suddenly jerked him over the driver's seat, into the bed of the
wagon, saying,
"Boys! take care of this little coachman!"
This was not so easily done. Charlie's ugly temper was up. He tried to
scramble back to Mr. Sherwood's side, but the larger boys held him firmly
in spite of kicks and blows which he dispensed without ceremony, until,
fairly tired out, he sat down on the floor of the wagon, biting his thumbs
and looking like a lump of ill-nature. This display of ugliness spoiled
the pleasure of the drive. It was worse than a shower of rain, for it
threw a black cloud over the spirits of the party, and made them all
unhappy.
They had not fully recovered their cheerfulness, when they came to
Duncan's pond, and in sight of old Joe Bunker's flagstaff, from the top of
which the stars and stripes proudly floated in the fine breeze of that
October afternoon.
"There's the bunting you gave old Mr. Bunker!" observed Guy to his friend
Richard.
"Yes, there it is, sure enough, and old Timbertoe is as proud of it as a
little boy is of his first pair of pantaloons," said Richard, laughing at
the oddity of his own comparison.
"Or, as Richard Duncan _was_, of that famous shot from his pea-shooter,
which hit Professor Nailer's long nose," said Norman Butler, chuckling and
rubbing his hands, at the recollection of that exciting scene at the
Academy, a few months before.
"Or, as my sister Jessie is of her Uncle Morris," said Guy.
Mr. Sherwood's loud whoa! whoa! and the stopping of the horses in front of
Joe Bunker's barn, put an end to this series of comparisons. This was the
place where they were to leave the horses; for butternut--trees were quite
numerous in some extensive pastures which were situated round the shores
of Duncan's pond. "Old Joe" welcomed the party, and put up the horses,
while the boys pulled out the baskets from beneath the wagon-seats, and
made ready for the nutting.
But Master Charlie was not yet rid of his sulks, and would not stir from
the wagon. He wanted to go home, he said; he didn't care for nuts, and
would not go with his companions. In vain did his sister entreat, Mr.
Sherwood command, and Jessie try her coaxing powers. Little Will, the
celebrated child-conqueror, was playing the tyrant over him; and the
unhappy boy gave himself up, hand and foot, to his enemy. He would not
quit the wagon.
"Never mind! leave him where he is, until his good-nature comes back, if
he has any," said Mr. Sherwood.
"I am afraid he will get into mischief after we are gone, if we do that,"
said Guy. "Perhaps I had better stay here and mind him."
"You shall do no such thing with my consent, Guy. Go with the rest, and
I'll put this cross urchin in charge of Mr. Bunker," replied Mr. Sherwood.
Then turning to the old sailor, he added:
"Look here, Mr. Bunker! We have a little bear in our wagon, that don't
seem to like nuts. Will you keep your eye on him while we go into the
pastures?"
"Ay, ay, Sir," said Old Joe, giving his waistband a hitch. "I'll keep a
bright lookout for him."
Leaving Charlie under the old sailor's care, the party now set out in
search of nuts. Laughter and pleasant words beguiled both time and
distance, and for the next two hours they wandered over the pastures, and
picked up an abundance of butternuts, which several pretty hard frosts,
followed by strong breezes, had scattered plentifully on the ground, or
prepared to fall quite readily from the trees.
In the course of the afternoon, the party separated into little groups,
and when it was nearly time to return to the wagon, it happened that
Jessie and her cousin, lured by the sight of a large butternut-tree in the
distance, found themselves apart from all the rest. Near the tree was an
old stone-quarry, with numerous lakelets in the hollows from which the
stone had been removed. Emily stepped into the quarry, and looked all
around. The lakelets, swept by the light breeze, charmed her eye, and
turning to her cousin, she cried:
"Jessie, come here! Here are some tiny ponds. Come look at them!"
Jessie joined Emily, and together the little girls stepped over the uneven
rocks until they reached one of the lakelets. There they launched small
pieces of wood, called them ships, and stood watching their mimic fleet in
great glee.
After spending some time in this way, they heard the voice of Guy
calling:
"Halloo! Halloo! Jessie! Emily! Halloo! Halloo!"
"We must go," said Jessie, "I guess they are going back to the wagon."
"No, don't go," replied Emily. "Let us frighten them a little--just a
little, by making them think we are lost."
"Wouldn't it be funny!" said Jessie, clapping her hands, and feeling
charmed with the idea of getting up an excitement among her companions.
Impulse, the little wizard, had followed her, even into that old quarry!
"It will be first-rate fun," said Emily. "How they will search for us! It
will be as good as a game of hide and seek."
"Halloo! Halloo! Jessie! Emily! It's time to go home! Halloo-o!" shouted
Guy again from the pasture. The wind being fair, his words were heard
quite distinctly by the two girls.
[Illustration: Jessie and Emily Sailing Boats in the Quarry. Page 51.]
"There is a little cave just big enough to hide in," said Emily pointing
to an excavation in the highest wall of the quarry. "Let us go into it!"
Still yielding to the voice of the little wizard, and thinking only of the
excitement which was to follow the supposition she was lost, Jessie
followed her cousin into what she called "a cave." There was water at the
bottom, but a flat piece of rock rising above the water enabled them to
get to the back part of their "cave," where they were pretty well
concealed from view.
Again the voice of Guy shouted Jessie's name. This was now followed by a
chorus of voices, all calling--
"Halloo!--halloo!--halloo-oo-oo!"
The voices drew nearer and nearer, until the callers stood on the edge of
the quarry.
"Where _can_ they be! I'm afraid they are lost! Oh, dear, what will mother
say, if we have to go home without them!" said Guy, distinctly enough for
Jessie to hear.
"Perhaps they have fallen into some old well," suggested Norman.
"I think not," said Mr. Sherwood. "I doubt if there is an old well in all
these pastures. They have most likely wandered back towards the pond."
"I don't see how that can be," rejoined Guy, "for I saw them running in
this direction half an hour ago. Besides, we found their basket under that
tree, and they would not have gone to the pond without telling some of us
to bring their basket."
"There's no telling what silly things girls will do. I guess they are gone
to the pond. Suppose we go and see."
This was Hugh's voice, and as no one proposed any thing else, the party
left the quarry, and, hallooing as they went, directed their steps towards
the pond.
"Let us run after them!" said Jessie, who now began to feel as if she had
carried the joke far enough.
"Hush! you little coward," said Emily, placing her hand over Jessie's
mouth. "They aren't half frightened enough about us yet."
Jessie tried to get her mouth away from her cousin's hand. In doing so she
stepped backwards, and, losing her balance, fell with a splash into the
water.
"Oh!" cried she, in a great fright. But the water was not deep, and the
side of the "cave" kept her from falling entirely down. Hence, a thorough
fright and wet feet and dress were the only evil results of her misstep.
"Pooh! what a silly little goose you are," said Emily, in a taunting tone
of voice. "If you had done as I told you, you wouldn't have got that
wetting."
"I'm afraid I have done too much as you told me already," replied Jessie,
crying, "and now I'm going right after our party, as fast as I can."
With these words Jessie stepped out of the cave, tripped across the
quarry, and ran out into the open pasture; Emily, not liking to play "lost
child" all alone, followed her. But their party was no longer either in
sight or within hearing, for an elevation in the ground rose between them
and the two girls.
"Guy! Hugh! Richard! here we are!" screamed Jessie, at the top of her
voice.
Vainly did she scream, however. The wind blew the sounds back upon
herself, and she began to run in the direction of the pond.
"Don't be in such a hurry," said Emily, hanging back.
"We _must_ hurry," replied Jessie, "or we shall be really lost. See, it's
almost sundown! And it is so damp and chilly that I am shivering with
cold. Come, Emily, do make haste, there's a dear, good cousin."
"If I am your _dear, good cousin_, you won't drive off and leave me,"
retorted Emily, still lingering and moving only at a snail's pace.
"Oh dear! what shall I do!" exclaimed Jessie, looking very wretched, and
she certainly felt as unhappy as she looked.
"Wait for me!" said Emily, "that's what you _ought_ to do!"
Thus urging her stubborn cousin, Jessie pressed forward as fast as she
could get her companion along.
Meanwhile the rest of the party had hastened towards Joe Bunker's stand.
On their arrival they found the old sailor at tea in his little cottage.
Rushing somewhat wildly into the room, Guy said,--
"Mr. Bunker, have you seen my sister since we left?"
"Your sister, skipper?" said the old salt. "Shiver my topsails if I've
seen any thing in the shape of a gal, except this old craft of mine here,
since you all left your wagon early this afternoon."
"Then she and her cousin are _lost_," said Guy, driving his hands deep
down into his pockets, casting his eyes to the ground, knitting his brows,
and walking out into the open air again.
"Are they there?" "Has the old cove seen them?" "What does old Timbertoe
say?" with half a dozen other questions, greeted Guy as he crossed the
threshold.
"Hasn't seen their shadow. They must be lost," replied Guy, doggedly.
"Is that spunky little Canada thistle you call Charlie in the house?"
inquired Mr. Sherwood.
"I didn't see him. Isn't he in the wagon?"
"No sign of him that I can see," replied Mr. Sherwood; "but here's Mr.
Bunker--Mr. Bunker, where is the little boy we left in your care?"
"I left him making sand-cakes down on the beach a few minutes ago," said
old Joe.
All eyes were now turned to the beach, but no Charlie was to be seen. Old
Joe looked uneasy as his eye swept the shore. Very soon he gave his
waistband an unusual hitch, brought down his wooden leg with great force,
and said:--
"As sure as my name's Joe Bunker, the little fellow is gone on a cruise in
the Little Susan!"
"Gone on a cruise? What, alone?" asked Mr. Sherwood, looking a little
pale.
"Yes, alone, or I'm no sailor."
Down to the shore of the pond they hurried. Sure enough, the Little Susan
was gone. Charlie, in opposition to Mr. Bunker's command, had gone aboard
and, sitting amidships, had rocked her to and fro until her painter had
got loose, and the wind, which blew off shore, had drifted the boat out on
to the pond, where she was now visible, with Charlie's head just above the
bulwarks, steadily setting down towards a a point about a mile distant.
"To the Point! Make for 'Long Point!'" shouted old Joe.
Away ran the boys, with old Joe hobbling after them, Guy only remaining
behind with the girls and Mr. Sherwood. Charlie's danger had for the
moment driven all thought of Jessie and Emily from their minds. Now,
however, they began to consider what was to be done to recover the lost
cousins.
"I see them!" shouted Guy, pointing to the hill-top in the distance, and
starting to meet them. They were just visible in the distance. He soon
reached them, very much to Jessie's relief. Tenderly kissing her he
said--
"Where have you been, Jessie?"
"We missed our way, and got lost in the woods behind that horrid quarry!"
said Emily. "It's a wonder we ever found the way back again."
"Oh, fy--" cried Jessie. She would have said more, and have contradicted
this wretched lie, but Emily put her hand before her mouth while she
poured a long story of pretended adventures into Guy's ears. Jessie was
shocked. She thought of her uncle's sigh, and of his quaint proverb, and
was silent.
It was fairly dark when the Little Susan, steered by Joe Bunker, with
Charlie and the other boys on board, touched her dock. The horses being by
this time harnessed to the wagon, the party with their freight of nuts,
were soon rolling homewards. Very little was said, after Emily,
interrupted by frequent "ohs!" from Jessie, had repeated her lie about
losing their way. All felt that the pleasure of the occasion had been
greatly marred by Charlie's conduct; and in spite of Emily's lie and
Jessie's silence, they also felt that if Jessie should speak she would
make it appear that Emily's story was not exactly true. But the reader
_knows_ that all the shadows which fell upon that excursion came from the
selfishness of the two visitors from Morristown.
CHAPTER IV.
Jessie's Great Sorrow.
At the tea-table Emily told a long story about herself and Jessie
wandering away into the woods, and getting sadly frightened. She was very
animated, and, but for Jessie's sad face, and her occasional look of
surprise, might have made herself believed. But that grave face, so
unusual to his darling Jessie, told Uncle Morris that Emily was palming
off a falsehood upon them. Guy also was sure she was telling a lie. When
she had finished her story, he said,
"But did you not hear us shout and halloo?"
"No, indeed. If we had, we could have easily answered back," said the
lying child.
"O Emily!" groaned Jessie.
"We shouted like one o'clock!" said Hugh.
"Pray tell us, Master Hugh, what shouting like one o'clock means?" asked
Uncle Morris, who had a very great dislike to unmeaning phrases.
"Well, very loud, then," replied Hugh, blushing.
"But you didn't shout loud enough for us to hear," said Emily, secretly
pinching Jessie, by way of imposing silence upon her.
"It's very strange," said Guy. "It was certainly not more than ten minutes
from the time we left the quarry, before we saw you coming over the top of
the hill in the pasture, so that you could not have been very far in the
woods when we were shouting like--like--"
"Like boys in search of two young ladies supposed to be lost or _hidden_,"
said Uncle Morris, helping Guy to a comparison, and at the same time
hinting his suspicions of the truth in the case.
Jessie blushed deeply and was about to speak, when Emily, growing fiery
red with anger, said:
"_Well_, if you don't choose to believe me, you needn't, but I don't think
it's very polite to talk to me as if you thought I was telling you a
lie."
Seeing that her young guest was fast losing her temper, and that Master
Charlie was nodding over his empty plate and tea-cup, Mrs. Carlton rose
from the tea-table, and addressing the two girls, said:
"Perhaps, as you are wearied with your excursion, my dears, you had better
retire now, and finish your talk about it to-morrow, when you are rested.
Come, Charlie, open your eyes and go to bed!"
"Let me alone!" growled the drowsy boy, as his aunt took his hand to lift
him from his chair, and lead him from the room.
Jessie sighed, and looked as if she too had a story to tell when she
kissed her Uncle Morris good-night. The old gentleman returned her kiss
very affectionately, and whispered,
"Jessie, you make me think of the proverb which says, _The day that the
little chicken is pleased, is the very day that the hawk takes hold of
him._ Good night, dear!"
Jessie was puzzled, and all the way up-stairs kept saying to herself,
"What can Uncle Morris mean? what can Uncle Morris mean?" And while
undressing she said still to herself, "I can't be the chicken, because I'm
not pleased--but stop--Yes, I was pleased this morning. Perhaps, then, I'm
the chicken. And the hawk--must--be--well--it must be Emily! Ah! I see
now. He thinks Emily has made me do some wrong to-day. And he is right
too. It was wrong to hide away in the quarry. It was worse to pretend not
to hear when the boys called us. That was _acting_ a lie. And it was wrong
for me to keep still when Emily made up that wicked story about our
getting lost. Oh dear! Oh dear! How sorry I am! I wish I hadn't hid away
in the quarry!"
"What makes you look so glum, Miss Solemn Face?" asked Emily, who, without
kneeling down to say her evening prayer, was getting ready for bed as fast
as her nimble fingers could move.
"I am thinking that I did wrong to-day," replied Jessie, sighing deeply
and standing motionless in the middle of the chamber.
"Fig's end! I never knew such a girl as you are. _Wrong_ indeed! Just as
if it was wrong to have a little fun," replied Emily, sneering.
"Fun is not wrong; but it was wrong to alarm Mr. Sherwood and the boys,
about our safety. I know they felt very bad when they thought we were
lost. It was wrong, too, for us to pretend not to hear when they called
us. That was _acting a lie_. And oh, Emily! how _could_ you make up that
wicked story, about our getting lost in the woods!"
Jessie spoke with such deep and solemn feeling, that Emily's conscience
was touched. A slight shudder passed over her as she buried her head in
the pillow, and drew the bed-cover close to her face. Her voice was a
little husky, too, when she replied:
"You are too fussy, by half, Jessie. Good-night!"
"Good-night!" said Jessie; and then dropping to her knees, beside the big
arm-chair, the well-taught child began to think over the events of the
afternoon. The longer she thought, the more guilty she felt. She could not
say her prayers, because her sin rose before her mind like a great, black
cloud. At last, she began to weep and sob, saying in half-audible
whispers:
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I wish I hadn't made believe I didn't hear!
Oh dear! oh dear! what shall I do?"
Emily got up a mock snore, by way of saying, "I'm asleep, and don't know
but that you are asleep too." But she was not asleep, nor did she feel
like sleeping in the least. In fact, she kept peeping over her pillow at
Jessie, and wondering why she felt so bad, until a voice within her,
whispered:
"If Jessie feels bad for yielding to your wishes, how ought _you_ to feel,
who led her astray, and who told such a shocking lie to hide your fault?
Emily Morris! Emily Morris! You are a wicked girl!"
Jessie now rose from her knees, bathed in tears. Wrapping herself in a
dressing-gown, she took the lamp in her hand, left the room, and went,
with slow and heavy steps, down-stairs. Leaving her lamp on the
hall-table, she went into the parlor. Every eye was lifted towards her,
with inquiring glances. She went directly to that sweetest of all earthly
nestling-places for a child in sorrow, her mother's arms, and whispered:
"O mother! I've been a naughty girl to-day!"
Mrs. Carlton drew her closer to her heart, kissed her with great
tenderness, and said:
"What has my child done?"
Jessie wept violently, and was silent, for her heart was too full of
emotion, to coin its thoughts into words. Mrs. Carlton, like a sensible
mother, said nothing until the floods of Jessie's grief passed away. Then
smoothing her head with her hand, she spoke in tones, so soft and
lute-like, that they sounded like sweet music in Jessie's ears, and said:
"Tell me, my dear, what troubles you so much?"
Thus soothed, Jessie raised her head, and said:
"I want Pa and Uncle Morris to hear, too."
Mr. Carlton laid aside his book, smiled, and said:
"I'm all attention, Jessie."
Uncle Morris drew his chair close to Jessie, patted her head, and said:
"That's right, my little puss, make a clean breast of it. Confession is
the pipe through which the great Father conducts the guilt of his little
ones, when, for his Son's sake, he buries it in the fountain of
forgetfulness."
Thus encouraged, Jessie gave a full account of how she came to hide in the
little cave with Emily. When she had finished her story, Uncle Morris
said--
"Ah, I see, the little wizard has been busy again. I'm sure it was he who
helped Emily to tempt my little puss. An _impulse_ acted upon you, Jessie,
and, without thinking, you hid in the cave, which was not a very grave
fault in itself; but, as most little faults will do, it led you to commit
a really serious evil; as you say, by pretending not to hear yourself
called, you _acted a lie_, which was a sin against God. You also filled
your party with alarm about you, which gave them great pain of mind. That
was an offence against them, because it was your duty to do all in your
power to afford them pleasure. The hawk did, indeed, catch my chicken on
the day that she was pleased. Do you understand my proverb, now, Jessie?"
"Yes, Uncle, but what shall I do?"
"Do, my child? There is only one way by which any of us can escape from
the chains of evil. Confess your _sin_ to God, ask his forgiveness for the
Great Shepherd's sake, and apologize to your friends for giving them
pain."
Jessie said she would do both of these things. Then her heart turned to
her cousin, and she said--
"But what shall I say to Emily?"
"Just tell her your own thoughts and feelings about the matter, my child.
Maybe, she will be led to see the wrong of her own conduct, and you may
yet be to her what your brother Guy has been to Richard Duncan."
After making this remark Uncle Morris took the old Family Bible and read a
psalm of penitence. Then he and the family kneeled down to pray. The dear
old man seemed to speak right to the Good Father in behalf of his
sorrowful little niece. And while he pleaded the love of the great
Shepherd for his precious lambs, Jessie felt as if a heavy burden rolled
away from her heart, the big black cloud passed from before her eyes, and
the sweet springs of joy and gladness once more poured their streams over
her happy spirit.
With a light step, Jessie tripped back to her chamber. Emily was still
awake. Thoughts such as she had never cherished before were rushing
through her brain and burning in her heart. She was strongly inclined to
speak to Jessie. But pride set a seal upon her lips, and she kept her eyes
closed in simulated sleep. As for Jessie, after whispering a prayer for
Emily and a song of praise for herself, she laid down beside her cousin
and slept as sweetly as a fairy in a blue-bell, or as a weary angel might
slumber in one of the bright bowers of Paradise. You may be sure her
dreamland was filled with images of love and beauty.
The next morning Jessie awoke wondering how Emily would feel about the
events of the day before. Finding her cousin was also awake, she said--
"Emily!"
"Good morning, Jessie," replied Emily, sitting up in the bed and looking
full in Jessie's face. "I hope you feel more cheery than you did last
night."
"I am very happy this morning," replied Jessie, her eyes sparkling with
delight as she spoke. "Shall I tell you how I came to be so?"
"As you please!" said Emily, shrinking from Jessie's proposal as if she
feared her story might bring back the guilty feeling of the night
previous.
Jessie told her cousin just what she had felt, and how she had confessed
her wrong, and how her sorrow had been rolled away. She did this so
simply, so sweetly, and so kindly, that Emily blushed, and the big tears
stood like dew-drops on her eyelashes. Jessie had found the way to her
cousin's heart.
But when she urged her to confess her faults and to join her in a note of
apology to the Sherwoods, the pride of Emily's heart rose within her, and
dashing away her tears, she said--
"_Apologize_, indeed! I won't do it!"
Just then the ringing of the first breakfast-bell warned them that it was
time to rise. They did so; and Jessie, seeing that her cousin did not wish
to talk any more, dressed herself in silence.
After breakfast Jessie went to her writing-desk, and wrote notes to the
members of the nutting-party. These notes were all alike except in their
different addresses. Here is a copy of the one for Mr. Sherman.
Glen Morris Cottage, October 25, 18--
Dear Sir--
When you thought I was lost yesterday, I was hiding with my cousin in
a little cave in the stone quarry. I only did it for fun. If I had
thought my hiding there would make you feel bad and spoil the
pleasure of our nutting-party, I would not have done it. I am sorry I
did it. Will you, and Walter, and Carrie, please excuse my fault?
Truly Yours,
Jessie Carlton.
Mr. Walter Sherwood, Sen.
When Jessie read one of her notes to Uncle Morris, the good old man patted
her head, and said--
"Nobly and sweetly written, my little puss. Never forget that next to
avoiding a fault, the noblest and most honorable thing you can do, is to
confess it and apologize for it. Still, I hope you may never have need to
write such a note again."
Having finished and sealed her notes, Jessie placed them carefully in the
bottom of her work-basket, intending to ask Hugh to deliver them for her
on his way to school in the afternoon.
It was Mrs. Carlton's wish that during her cousin's visit, her daughter
should spend part of every morning, sewing and reading. Hence, after the
notes were nicely put away, Jessie took out her famous piece of patchwork,
and began sewing. She laughed heartily as she did so this morning, because
she found pieces of paper pinned to the articles intended for Uncle Morris
with these words written on them in large letters--
"Beware of the devices of the little wizard!"
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed she. "Won't I beware? I'll sew, let me see; well,
I'll sew a strip long enough to go once around my quilt before I stir, let
the little wizard say what he will."
Stitch, stitch, stitch, went Jessie's bright, swift, little needle for the
next half-hour. Then her two cousins bounced into the room, shouting--
"O Jessie, come and see! There is one of the funniest little men out here
you ever did see. He's got no neck, and he wears the queerest sort of a
hat! He's playing on the bagpipe. Come, just a minute."
"Beware of the devices of the little wizard!" said the writing on the
patchwork. It caught Jessie's eye just as she was going to drop her work
and run out to see the funny little man. She felt as if something was
twinging her heart, but remembering her purpose, she brought her work to
her side, and said--
"I thank you, cousins, but you must excuse me until I've finished my
sewing."
"What a cross thing she is!" said Charlie, bouncing out of the room.
"Do come, just for a minute, that's all, cousin Jessie," said Emily in her
most coaxing tones.
Charlie's words wounded Jessie more than Emily's soothed her. Unwilling to
be thought cross, she dropped her work "just for a minute," and went out.
The queer little man excited her mirth greatly, and she soon forgot all
about her patchwork. When the little pipe-player moved off, Emily said--
"Let us follow him up to Carrie Sherwood's. Won't she be tickled to see
him?"
"Yes, do," said Charlie, "and I won't call you cross, Jessie, any more."
"We mustn't stay long, then," replied Jessie reluctantly, for a thought of
her sewing flashed across her brain.
"Of course, we won't," said Emily, as she took her cousin by the hand and
led her away. "We will only stay long enough to see Carrie laugh at the
queer little man."
They went to Carrie Sherwood's, and there they stayed until Walter's
return from school warned Jessie that it was nearly dinner-time. As she
re-entered the parlor she saw Uncle Morris point to her work lying as she
left it on the floor, and heard him say--
"The little wizard has been here again, I see, this morning. How fond he
is of Glen Morris Cottage."
Jessie blushed, ran to her Uncle's side, hid her face in his bosom, and
whispered--
"O Uncle, I never shall conquer that little wizard. He is too strong for
me."
"Never despair! my little puss. Try and try again. Make a new resolve, and
I'll warrant you that the wizard will find Glen Morris Cottage too hot to
hold him one of these days, and then he'll be off to the North Pole to
keep cool, and perhaps to marry Miss Perseverance!"
Jessie laughed at this conceit of her uncle's, and said--
"Uncle, I will try again, and I'll try real hard next time."
"Nobly spoken, my little lady," rejoined Mr. Morris. "Perseverance
conquers all things. It has won victories for warriors; freedom for
oppressed nations; and self-conquest for millions of men, women, and
children. Hold on to your purpose then, my Jessie, and you will yet be
crowned as the conqueror of your troublesome little enemy!"
Jessie sighed, and looked as if she wished the last battle had been
fought, and the crown already placed on her brow.
Poor Jessie! she is not the first miss who has found it hard work to
overcome Little Impulse, the wizard.
CHAPTER V.
The Broken Mirror.
When Jessie saw Hugh getting ready to go to school, after dinner, she
thought of her notes which were still lying very snugly in her
work-basket. There were four of them: one for Mr. Sherwood, one for
Richard Duncan, one for Adolphus Harding, and one for Norman Butler.
Taking them from beneath her working materials, she held them up, and
turning to Hugh, who was on his way to the door, said--
"Hugh, I want you to do me a little favor!"
"I dare say. You girls are always asking favors. But what now?"
"Not much, Hugh, I only want you to take these notes for me."
"Notes, eh?" said Hugh, taking the neatly folded letters in his hand, and
reading the addresses. After reading them all aloud, he placed them in a
pack and added. "Pretty business, I think, for a young lady like you to be
writing to the boys? Oh, for shame, Jessie Carlton! I thought you were too
modest to do that!"
"There's nothing improper in my notes, master Hugh! Uncle Morris read one
of them, and he says they are very sweet and proper. Will you please take
them for me?"
"Yes, if you will pay me the postage on them. You know that Uncle Sam gets
his pay beforehand, and I must have mine. So hand me over twelve cents,
and I'll carry your notes. Come, be quick! Hand over your money! It is
time I was gone."
"O Hugh, don't tease so," said Jessie.
"Do you call it _teasing_ to ask for your pay when you are going to work
for anybody!" asked Hugh, with a very tantalizing air.
Just then Guy passed through the parlor, and seeing that Jessie was
getting tired with her vexatious brother, he asked what was the matter.
She told him. He took the notes from Hugh, who was only too glad to give
them up, and said--
"I'll take them for you, Jessie."
"You are a dear, good brother, and I love you ever so much," said Jessie,
holding up her lips for a kiss.
Guy kissed his sister and hurried away to school, happy in the thought
that he was contributing to her pleasure, while Hugh went out with a cold,
uneasy heart, and murmuring to himself--
"I don't see why I should wait all the time on Miss Jessie; she's big
enough to carry her own letters."
Could Hugh have exchanged feelings with Guy, he would have learned that
little acts of love and kindness bring rich returns into the hearts of
those who perform them; and then, perhaps, he would have seen at least one
reason why he should "wait all the time on Miss Jessie."
It happened that afternoon to blow up cold and rainy, so that Jessie and
her young guests could not play out of doors. The bright fire in the grate
tempted them into the parlor, where they amused themselves in various
ways. At last, wearied with quiet games, master Charlie said--
"Let us play blind-man's-buff?"
"Oh yes, do, Jessie! It's such good fun," said Emily.
"I like it first rate," said Jessie. "Who will be blind-man first?"
"I will," said Emily, in a very positive tone of voice.
"No, you won't, either, I shall be blind-man first," said Charlie.
"Well, I say you _shan't_. There now!" cried Emily, stamping the floor
with her little foot.
"But I tell you I _will_!" retorted Charlie with anger.
"Hush! Charlie dear," said Jessie, in soothing tones. "Let Emily be
blind-man first, for, you know, polite boys always give way to young
ladies."
"Well, I won't, I don't want to be polite, I want to be blind-man first,
and I WILL," rejoined Charlie, as the fire flashed from his eyes.
"Then I won't play at all," said Emily, going to an ottoman and seating
herself in a very sulky mood.
Thus did these unamiable cousins spoil their own pleasure, and give pain
to Jessie by their selfish quarrel. In vain did she try to soothe and coax
them into good-nature for some time. At last, tired of the attempt, she
rose up, and said--
"Well, if you won't play, I'll go into the library and have a good talk
with my Uncle Morris."
This movement made Emily feel slightly ashamed of herself. She was
unwilling, too, to be left alone with her brother. So she jumped up, and
with a forced smile, said--
"Don't go, Jessie, I'll let Charlie be blind-man."
"I've a great mind not to play with you at all now," growled Charlie.
"Oh yes, do, there's a dear, good Charlie," said Jessie, as she approached
him, "See! here is the handkerchief, let me tie it over your eyes so that
you won't be able to see the least bit of a mite! I don't think you will
be able to catch me before tea-time."
This challenge did more to drive the sulks out of Charlie than the
coaxing. Charles held his head forward to be bound, while he replied--
"Can't I catch you! I'll bet a dollar I catch you in less than five
minutes!"
"Young ladies _don't bet_, and Uncle Morris says that boys _shouldn't_,
because it's wicked," said Jessie, while she busied herself tying the
handkerchief. When the knot was fast, she said--
"Now let us see how skilful my cousin Charlie can be!"
Up jumped Charlie, spreading out his arms, and darting now this way and
then that, as the steps and voices of the girls led him round the room.
Merrily rang out the laugh of Jessie, and the ohs and ahs of her cousin,
as they bounded past Charlie, ran round him, or darted out of the reach of
his nimble fingers. So spry were they, that ten minutes elapsed and the
blinded boy had not caught either of them. At last, he followed them close
to one end of the parlor until he found himself clasping the large mirror
which reached almost to the floor. Stepping back he tripped over a low
ottoman, fell backwards, and bumped his head. Half in vexation, and half
in sport he threw up his heels, and just as Jessie cried, "Mind the glass,
Charlie!" brought down his legs with a crash on the surface of the
mirror.
"Oh dear! He has broken the big mirror!" cried Jessie, in great distress.
"What will my father say!"
"Keep still, you stupid, mischievous boy!" said Emily as she tried to pull
the bandage from Charlie's eyes.
"I couldn't help it!" said he, as rising to his feet, and rubbing his
eyes, he stood staring on the ruin his feet had wrought on the lower half
of the mirror.
"My pa paid a good deal of money for that mirror," said Jessie, "and he
will be very angry with us, when he comes home to-night. I'm _so_ sorry."
"That's just like you, you stupid little monkey," said Emily, shaking
Charlie somewhat rudely by the shoulder. "You are always doing some
outrageous thing or another!"
"I couldn't help it! Let me alone!" muttered Charlie, shaking his sister's
hand from his shoulder.
"You _could_ help it," replied Emily.
"There, take that!" said Charlie, striking his sister a heavy blow on the
shoulder with his fist.
Emily was about to strike back, but Jessie stepped between them, and
separating them, said:
"O Emily! don't strike your brother! It's _so_ wicked, you know, for
brothers and sisters to fight." Then turning to Charlie, she added, "Don't
you know how mean it is for a boy to strike a girl? Boys should protect
girls, and not beat them. If you hit Emily again, I shall not be able to
love you any more."
Charlie turned away, and seating himself in a chair, began to suck his
thumb, while he gazed on the broken glass which was spread over the
carpet. Just then, old Rover, finding the parlor door ajar, pushed it
open, and walked up to his young mistress, wagging his tail, and rubbing
her hand with his nose, which was his way of saying, "I hope you are glad
to see me, this afternoon."
Jessie patted his head, and sat down wearing a very grave face. Rover
thought something was amiss, but not knowing how to inquire into the
matter, after a few more rubs of his nose upon his little lady's hand,
laid down, and looked wistfully into her eyes.
Rover's presence put a new idea into the evil mind of Emily. She turned it
over silently a few moments, and then said:
"Jessie! I have just thought of a capital way of getting out of this
scrape about the mirror."
"Have you?" replied her cousin. "I don't see how you can do that, unless
you can get some fairy to mend it for us, and I guess there are no good
fairies, to do such things for unlucky girls and boys, now-a-days."
"_Fairies_ indeed!" retorted Emily with a sneer. "I don't believe in
_fairies_. My plan is to tell your mother, that while Rover was playing
with us, he bounced against the mirror, and broke it to smash."
"O Emily! I would not tell such a wicked story to save my life!" rejoined
Jessie.
"Well, I would; I've got out of many a bad scrape, by fixing up some such
story as that. And it is so _natural_, you see, for a big dog to bounce
against a glass which is so near the floor as this one, that your folks
will easily believe it."
"O Emily! Emily! How can you talk so?" said Jessie, gazing at her cousin
with an expression of pity and surprise.
"She talks just right," said Charlie. "It's a first-rate story, and will
get us out of the scrape nicely. Bravo, Emily! I won't hit you again for
ever so long."
Jessie was horror-struck to hear her cousins talk in this cool and
hardened manner. To her mind a lie was of all things the most mean and
wicked. She had just shown her hatred of it, by her penitence for merely
acting a lie in fun. But this proposal to tell a downright lie, for the
purpose of escaping the consequences of an unlucky accident, looked like
asking her to commit a very shocking crime. She felt a shudder creep over
her, and shrinking from her cousins, as if they had been deadly serpents,
she pushed her chair back a yard or two, and said:
"Emily, I would die before I would tell such a lie. I hope you won't think
of doing it. It's _so_ wicked, Emily. If you could deceive my pa and ma,
you couldn't deceive God, who saw Charlie break the mirror. Don't do it,
Emily, please don't?"
"We will do it too, and if you peach on us, we'll say it was your fault
that Rover did it. How will you like that, Miss Jessie!" said Charlie.
"I will tell my father the exact truth about it," said Jessie, rising to
her feet.
"Very well, Miss Tell Tale," retorted Emily. "We'll fix you then. Charlie
and I will say that you threw the ottoman against the mirror, and broke it
yourself, won't we, Charlie?"
"Yes, and they will believe both of us, because they will think you are
lying to escape being whipped for your fault. Ah! ah! Miss Jessie, we'll
fix you, see if we don't!" and Charlie held up his finger, and grinned in
his cousin's face.
"My father knows I wouldn't tell a lie," replied Jessie firmly; "and I do
hope you won't, for oh! it is _so_ wicked, and _so_ mean. Nobody loves,
trusts, or believes a liar. Please Charlie, please Emily, let me tell pa
just how it happened. He won't be very angry. I know he won't. But if he
is, I will tell him to whip me, instead of scolding Charlie."
Charlie winced under this noble speech of Jessie's, and for a moment was
inclined to yield. But his sister's temper was roused, and she urged him
to stick to her, and to say that Jessie threw the ottoman, "and now," said
she, "I will go and tell my aunt directly."
Jessie turned pale; not with fear for herself, but because she shrank from
a conflict with her cousins, in her mother's presence. Fortunately, a
happy thought came into her mind, and rising, she whispered to herself,
"Yes, I will go and ask Uncle Morris to come in." And Jessie glided into
the library.
Her uncle was not there. He had left it an hour before, and feeling
slightly dozy had gone into the back parlor to catch a little nap on the
sofa. This parlor was separated from the one in which the children had
been playing only by folding-doors. Their noise at blind-man's-buff, had
roused him from his nap, and he had heard all that afterwards passed
between them. When, therefore, Emily went to tell Mrs. Carlton her great
lie, he thought it was time for him to interfere. So he passed round by
the hall into the front parlor, just as Jessie with her sad face was
returning from the library.
"Oh, I'm so glad you are here, Uncle Morris!" exclaimed Jessie, her face
brightening and growing much shorter. "Please come into the parlor."
The good old man kissed his niece with even unusual tenderness, and led
her into the parlor.
"Hoity toity!" cried he, as he looked on the fragments of the broken
mirror. "Somebody's been playing the mischief here. What's been the
matter?"
"Jessie did it!" said Charlie, with a dogged air.
"Yes, sir! Jessie threw an ottoman at me, and it struck the mirror. Didn't
she, Charlie?" said Emily, coming up to Uncle Morris, with Mrs. Carlton
behind her.
"Yes, Jessie did it, and no mistake!" said Charlie, boldly.
"O Jessie! how could you be so careless! That mirror cost a hundred
dollars, a few months ago. Your father will feel very angry," said Mrs.
Carlton with a grieved look.
"I did not break it, Ma!" said Jessie calmly.
"She did!" "She did!" said Charlie and his sister in the same moment.
"Ma, I did not break the mirror," rejoined Jessie, calmly. "If I had done
it, I would confess it. You know I wouldn't lie, Mother, don't you?"
"I certainly have great faith in your truthfulness, my child," replied
Mrs. Carlton; "but why are your cousins so positive in charging you with
it?"
Jessie stated the facts just as they had taken place. Her cousins repeated
their story. Mrs. Carlton was perplexed. Turning to Uncle Morris, she
said:
"Brother, what do you think? On which side is the truth?"
"On Jessie's, of course, sister. Could you question the truth of that pure
face! It would break my heart if Jessie could tell such a lie as these
wicked ones here have told! But she couldn't do it. It's not in her nature
to do it. Heaven bless her!"
He then stated what he had overheard from the sofa in the back parlor, and
closed by saying, "These children had better go home to-morrow. They are
wicked enough to corrupt an angel, almost. The proverb says, _eggs ought
not to dance with stones_, and I cannot endure to see Jessie in their
society any longer."
"I agree with you, brother, and will send them home to-morrow," replied
Mrs. Carlton.
Charlie and Emily were dumb with confusion and shame. I think a little
sorrow gushed up in Emily's heart, when through her fingers she saw Jessie
look with appealing and tearful eyes into Uncle Morris's face, and heard
her say in pleading tones:
"O Uncle! O Mamma! please let them stay another week; please do, for my
sake! Please let them stay! They will be good after this, I know they
will."
This plea won both Mrs. Carlton's and the old man's consent, and Jessie
kissing her cousins, said:
"There, you can stay. Aren't you glad?"
CHAPTER VI.
The First Slide of the Season.
After Uncle Morris and Mrs. Carlton had consented to permit the
self-willed cousins to remain a week longer at Glen Morris, the good old
man led Emily into the library and talked with her for over half an hour,
about the meanness and wickedness of lying. I cannot tell you exactly what
he said to her, because I don't know. That his words were weighty and
solemn, I have no doubt; for when Emily left the library her eyes were red
with weeping, and she went directly to her room and staid there alone
until the bell called her to tea.
Before Emily slept that night, she did what she had not done before during
her stay at Glen Morris. She kneeled at the bedside to say her prayers.
When she arose, Jessie threw an arm around her waist and kissed her. This
was done with so much tenderness, that Emily felt it to be a sign of her
cousin's sympathy with the new feelings and thoughts which were springing
up within her heart. Returning the kiss, she said:
"I'm sorry I told that lie about you to-day, Jessie."
"So am I," replied the simple-hearted girl; "it is always best to tell the
truth, and I hope you will never tell another story as long as you live."
"I won't, I'm resolved I won't; I told Uncle Morris so this afternoon, and
(here she lowered her voice to a whisper) I've been asking God to help me
keep my promise."
"That's the way! That's the way!" replied Jessie. "Uncle Morris says if we
mean to be good we must go to school to the Great Teacher who will both
teach us, and help us do the lesson."
With such words as these did Jessie encourage her cousin to enter that
beautiful path in which all the pure, noble, and good children in the
world are found.
The next day Emily was very quiet. She spent the morning helping Jessie
work on her famous quilt. Charlie was as rude and as ugly as ever; having
teased his sister for a long time in vain, to play out of doors with him,
the spoiled boy hissed at her, and said, "You are an ugly old cat!" Then
slamming the door after him, he went into the barn-yard, where the
screaming of the pigs, the gabble of the geese, and the clucking of the
hens, soon proclaimed that he was venting his ill-temper on the dumb
creatures who had their home there. Poor Charlie! the indulgence of his
mother, and the almost constant absence of his father from home, had made
him a very unhappy, mischievous boy, if, indeed, it had not wholly spoiled
him. If Charlie had known what was best for him he would have said to his
friends,
"Please don't let me have my own way."
Emily needed to make the same request, for she too, had long done pretty
much as she pleased; and, as we have seen, she was _pleased_ to do some
very bad things.
Two days before the time set for the cousins to return home, they went to
spend the day with Carrie Sherwood. Jessie, who was to join them after her
morning's sewing was done, sat down to her work in high spirits. The quilt
had grown large within a few days, and as she took it up this morning, she
said:
"The little Wizard hasn't been able to catch me for ever so many days. I
guess he won't trouble me much more now. See my quilt! (here she stood up,
and drawing the quilt from the basket, spread it out.) Two more rows of
patchwork will finish it. Ha! ha! only two more; I'm so glad. And won't
Uncle Morris be pleased when he sees it spread over his bed some night!
ha! ha!"
Here Jessie sat down and began to make her bright little needle fly almost
as swiftly as if it had been in a sewing-machine. While she sewed she
hummed the following words, which, as Uncle Morris said, had more truth in
them than poetry:
"I love to do right,
And I love the truth,
And I'll always love them,
While in my youth.
"And when I grow old,
And when I grow gray,
I will love them still,
Do wrong who may."
Having finished her song, Jessie rested her hands on her lap a moment, and
said:
"I love those words, I do. When I grow _gray_! ha! ha! Jessie Carlton a
little old woman with _gray hair_! Won't it be funny? I wonder if
everybody will love me then as everybody loves Uncle Morris now. Why not?
Everybody?--no, not _everybody_, for Charlie don't love him, and our Hugh
don't love him much. That's because they are naughty, though. Well, every
good person loves Uncle Morris, because he is so good and kind; and so, if
I am good and kind, when I am a little, gray old woman, everybody will
love me. Ha! ha! Won't it be nice to be called Aunt Jessie, and to be
loved, oh, so well!--but I must go on with my sewing."
Tap, tap, tap, said somebody's knuckles on the door.
"Come in," cried Jessie.
The door opened. Carrie Sherwood's little, red, round, laughing face
peeped in.
"O Carrie! is that you? Come in."
Carrie tripped in, and while her eyes flashed with excitement, she said:
"O Jessie, we have found a nice slide out on the edge of the brook. It is
the first time the ice has frozen hard enough to bear this fall, and we
are having such a nice time. Come and see it, just for a moment."
"A slide!" exclaimed Jessie, who dearly loved sliding. "Oh, I'm so glad.
I'll go with you just to look at it. I can't stay, you know, because I
must come back and sew until twelve o'clock."
Dropping her sewing, Jessie ran to a closet, equipped herself in cloak and
hood and, taking Carrie's hand, trotted out to see this first slide of the
season.
A short distance from Glen Morris Cottage a broad, shallow brook crossed
the public highway. A bridge led over the brook. Along the sides of the
buttresses of this bridge, the water had flowed back for several yards
over the bottom of a ditch or hollow, and being only an inch or two in
depth, the sharp frosts of the early days of November had frozen it solid,
though the brook itself was still babbling as if in proud defiance of the
frost-king.
To this ditch Carrie led Jessie. Emily and Charlie were already there
enjoying themselves finely.
"Isn't it nice?" said Carrie when they had fairly reached the spot.
"You shan't come on to my slide," growled selfish Charlie.
"Nor on to mine," cried his sister.
"You will let us slide after you, won't you, Emily?" asked Jessie.
"No, I want this slide all to myself," replied Emily.
"You can go down the brook and find slides for yourselves. You shan't use
ours," cried Charlie, as shaking his fist at the two girls, he added,
"I'll lick you both if you don't keep off."
"Well, I never saw any thing so selfish as that before, I declare," said
Carrie Sherwood, striking the ground with her foot, and looking very angry
as she spoke. "The next time I invite them to spend the day at my house
they shall certainly know it."
"Oh, never mind, never mind," said Jessie. "We can look at them, and that
will be almost as good as sliding ourselves. Perhaps they will get tired
presently, and then we can slide while they rest."
"No, we shan't get tired either, Miss Jessie," retorted Charlie. "We mean
to slide until dinner-time."
"And then you expect to eat dinner at _my_ house, I suppose. Really, you
are a very generous boy!" replied Carrie, in a bitter tone of voice.
"'Taint _your_ house. It's your father's. He!" said the ugly boy, grinning
at his young hostess.
"Well, if you were not Jessie's cousins, you should never step inside of
my house again--but here comes my brother. He'll _make_ you let me
slide."
Walter Sherwood now came up to the spot where his sister and Jessie stood.
Carrie told him the story of the selfishness of the two cousins, and ended
by saying:
"Won't you compel them to let us slide too, Walter?"
"If he touches me, I'll throw this big stone at him," growled Charlie,
looking very ugly and holding up a large stone, which he had just taken up
from the side of the ditch. Wasn't he a selfish little fellow?
"Please don't touch him," entreated Jessie. "I don't care much about
sliding, and Carrie won't mind waiting until to-morrow. Will you, Carrie
dear. The weather is so cold, there will soon be plenty of ice. Please
don't hurt Charlie, Walter."
"Don't be alarmed, my sweet Jessie," replied Walter, laughing. "I don't
want to touch your sting-nettle of a cousin. I'd about as lief grapple a
hedgehog. Let him and his selfish sister have their slides all to
themselves. You come with me. I know where there is far better sliding
than this, and I came on purpose to tell you so. Come, let us go, and
leave them to enjoy their slides, if such selfish creatures can enjoy any
thing."
"Please Walter, let my cousins go with us," whispered Jessie in Walter's
ear, as he took her hand.
"No, no, Jessie, I can't consent to that. They won't be a whit happier
there than here, and if we do take them with us, they will only spoil our
fun. I never saw two such thorns in my life. You can't go near them, but
they scratch you right off."
"They are going home, the day after to-morrow, and I'm glad of it," cried
Carrie, as she stepped up the bank after her brother and Jessie.
"So am I," said Walter, "and I'm thinking there will be plenty of dry eyes
at Glen Morris Cottage, when they go away. What do you say to that,
Jessie?"
"I'm sorry my cousins are so selfish," replied Jessie, "but Charlie is the
worst. I think if Emily was here without him, she would soon be a good
girl."
"Perhaps so. Yet I'm inclined to think you'll see apples growing on that
old hickory yonder, before she becomes _good_, as you call it. But let us
hurry into the pasture. Here, Jessie, mount these bars?"
As he spoke, Walter leaped over the rail-fence of a pasture, and giving
his hand to Jessie, she mounted the top bar.
"Now jump!" cried Walter.
Jessie did as she was told. Carrie followed. Then Walter led them along
the pasture, until they struck a bend in the brook where the water having
flowed over a flat basin, was very shallow. Along the edge of this basin
the water was frozen hard.
"Isn't this nice?" shouted Jessie, as she slid over the glass-like
surface.
"It's perfectly beautiful," replied Carrie, gliding along in an opposite
direction.
Walter made a slide for himself, just in front of the girls, and being all
brim-full of good-nature, they enjoyed themselves finely. But there were
two shadows that flashed on Jessie's joy now and then. The first was the
image of the quilt she had left on the parlor-floor; the second was her
regret that her cousins were so ugly. When the former image flitted before
her, a little voice in her breast whispered,
"In the chains of the little wizard again, eh?"
[Illustration: Jessie and Carrie Enjoying a Slide. Page 105.]
Then Jessie would sigh, look very sober, and pause, saying to herself, "I
really must go home and sew."
Before her purpose was fairly formed, however, Walter or Carrie would cry
out, "What, getting tired already! You are not half a slider."
"Just once more, and then I'll go," Jessie would say to herself. But
before that one more slide was through, she would purpose to add yet
another. Thus time fled until the morning was almost gone, and the quilt,
the little wizard, Uncle Morris, and even the ugly cousins, were nearly
forgotten, in the excitement of this pleasant sport.
This delight was, however, brought to an end by a loud scream, followed by
a shrill voice crying, "Charlie! _Charlie!_ Charlie! You'll be drowned! Oh
dear! Oh dear!"
This was followed by another scream. Walter guessed what was the matter at
once. He knew that near where the cousins were sliding, the trunk of a
tree formed a sort of bridge over the brook, and enabled the cow-boys to
pass dry-shod in summer. When the brook was low, it was a safe enough
bridge, but when it was full as it was then, it was what the boys called
"a pokerish place to cross." He surmised at once, that Charlie was
frightening his sister, by attempting to walk across the brook on this
rough and narrow bridge. So he told the girls, and then they all ran
towards the spot from whence the cry came.
A few minutes' run brought them in sight of Master Charlie standing erect
on the tree, right over the middle of the brook. Emily was standing at the
water's edge, screaming, and begging him to come back.
"Stop your screaming, you coward, or I'll lick you till you are dumb,"
shouted the wilful boy, shaking his fist at his sister, as Walter and the
two girls came up, on the other side of the brook.
Emily seeing them approach, called out to Walter, and said:
"Do make him come off that dreadful log, will you?"
"I'd like to see anybody _make_ me come off," said Charlie. As he spoke,
he turned round to see who had come. In doing this his foot slipped, and
losing his balance, he fell backwards into the brook.
The girls both screamed, for they were in great terror. Walter, however,
laughed heartily, and said:
"Don't be frightened! The water isn't deep enough to drown the little
fury. I hope it's cold enough to cool his courage, though."
As he spoke, Walter rolled up his pants, and then kicking off his boots,
he waded into the brook and led Charlie ashore. The little fellow
spluttered and shivered, but said nothing. The water had cooled his
courage, and for the present, his ugliness had all subsided. They led him
back to Glen Morris as quickly as possible, to get a change of clothes.
This mishap broke up their plan of dining and spending the afternoon with
Carrie Sherwood. Thus the selfishness of the two cousins, again robbed
both themselves and their friends of a promised pleasure. As for poor
little Jessie, she drew down her face and looked very sad, as she put her
quilt into the basket, when the bell rung for dinner. Sighing deeply she
said half-aloud,
"Conquered again. It _is_ no use. The little wizard _is_ my master, and I
won't try to resist him any more. What's the use of trying?"
"Tut, tut, tut! No use in trying, eh? Who says so?"
Jessie looked up, and her eyes met the pleasant smile of Uncle Morris, who
had entered the room, in his usual quiet way, unobserved by the dispirited
girl. She gave him back no answering smile, but drooping her head, stood
silently before him. Seeing her sadness and knowing the cause, Uncle
Morris said:
"Jessie, will you please be a school-ma'am for a moment, and let me recite
my lesson to you?"
Jessie smiled a faint smile, but said nothing.
"Well, silence gives consent, I suppose. So I will recite my lesson. It is
a fable and runs thus:
"Two robin redbreasts built their nests
Within a hollow tree;
The hen sat quietly at home,
The male sang merrily;
And all the little robins said,
'Wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee.'
One day--the sun was warm and bright,
And shining in the sky--
Cock Robin said, 'My little dears,
'Tis time you learn to fly;'
And all the little young ones said,
'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try.'
"I know a child, and who she is
I'll tell you by and by,
When mamma says, 'Do this' or 'that,'
She says, 'What for?' and 'Why?'
She'd be a better child by far,
If she would say, 'I'LL TRY.'"
When Uncle Morris paused, tears stood in Jessie's eyes, and a bright smile
played round her lips. Putting her hand into his, she said:
"And I'll try, too, Uncle. I'll try till I conquer."
CHAPTER VII.
Jessie's First Great Victory.
After dinner Jessie went to her room and sat awhile, on a cricket with her
head leaning on a chair. She was thinking. I cannot tell you exactly what
passed in her mind, while she was in that brown study, because she never
told me. You can guess, however, when I tell you that after thinking some
five minutes, she rose up, and going to her table, took a pencil and wrote
these words in big letters, on a sheet of note paper:
"I will not go out to play again until I have finished my quilt. This is
my strong resolution, and I mean to keep it, in spite of the little wizard
that tempts me so. He has beaten me a great many times, but he shan't do
it again, as true as my name is Jessie Carlton."
Taking the paper from the table, Jessie held it between her finger and
thumb, read it, and then left the room, saying to herself--
"There, that's a good resolution. I'll keep it in sight all the time; and
if the little wizard comes near me, I'll spear him with it just as Uncle
Morris says the fairies pierce the gnats with their bodkins. Let me see.
How long will it take to finish my quilt? Only two more rows of squares to
sew on. Well, I can sew one row this afternoon and the other to-morrow
morning. Oh good! I'll ask ma to get it into the quilting-frame to-morrow
afternoon, and have it finished while I work the slippers. Won't it be
nice if the quilt and slippers are both ready by Christmas! Perhaps I can
get the watch-pocket done too. Well, I'll try, see if I don't. I _can_
conquer little Impulse if I try, and I _will_. You shall see if I don't,
you dear, good Uncle Morris, you."
All this was said as Jessie walked down-stairs. She looked very
pleasantly, and trod the carpet with a very firm step, as she went to her
cosy little chair in front of the bright fire which glowed in the grate
that November afternoon. She was slightly chilled through sitting in her
chamber, but without stopping to get warm, she took up her work, and began
to ply her needle in good earnest.
Half an hour passed and Jessie was still busy as a bee over her quilt.
Then her uncle entered the room with his outside coat nicely buttoned up
to his chin, and his hat in his hand. He was equipped for a walk.
"Jessie, will you take a walk with your poor old uncle this fine
afternoon?" said he.
This was offering one of the strongest of possible temptations to Jessie.
A walk with Uncle Morris was to her a very great pleasure. Impulse
whispered "Let the quilt go, and accept your uncle's offer!" Jessie's arms
were even put forth in the act of dropping her work, when her eye rested
on her written resolution, which she had pinned on the top edge of the
work-basket. "I will finish my quilt," said she down in her heart. Then
putting her work back into her lap, and looking up at her uncle, who was a
little puzzled by her unusual manner, she said--
"I thank you, Uncle, but I can't go this afternoon."
"Not go! What does my little puss mean?" exclaimed Uncle Morris, greatly
surprised that his niece should decline his invitation.
Jessie took the paper from the basket, gave it to him, and, while a loving
smile played round her lips, said--
"Please, Uncle, read this."
The old gentleman put on his spectacles, glanced at the paper, and, as he
gave it back to her, smiled, and said--
"Ha, ha, I see! going to run the little wizard through the heart with the
spear of Resolution! Very good. I would rather see you conquer your enemy,
my dear Jessie, than to have your company, much as I love it. So good-by,
and may the Great Teacher help you to keep your resolution!"
"Good-by, Uncle!"
I can't tell you how happy Jessie felt at having resisted this strong
temptation. A warm current of joy flowed through her heart, and bore away
all regret which thinking on the loss of a pleasant walk might have
otherwise caused her to feel. Her eyes sparkled with delight. Her fingers
almost flew, and the quilt gained in size very fast.
But fifteen minutes more had not passed, when Emily and Charlie bounced
into the room.
"We want you to play with us," said Emily. "We are tired of playing
together without company, and want you."
"I want you to play horses. I've got some twine for a pair of reins, and
you two girls will make a capital span. Come, hurry up, Jessie!" said
Charlie, who had got over his ducking in the brook, and was as rude and
ready for mischief as ever.
"I'm very sorry," replied Jessie, "but I can't go with you. I must sew on
my quilt till tea-time."
"_Must_, eh! Who says you _must_?" replied Emily with a sneer.
"I have made a resolution to punish myself for going out this morning when
I ought to have stayed in," said Jessie, firmly.
"Pooh," said Charlie, "that's all nonsense. She is too proud to play with
us. She is a regular Miss Stuckup, and I won't own her for my cousin any
more;" and with this hard speech the boy left the parlor, walking
backwards, and making mouths as he went.
"I do think you ought to play with us, Jessie," said Emily. "You know we
have only one day more to spend with you, and it's very unkind of you to
stay in here and leave me to amuse myself as best I can. As to your
resolution, I s'pose you made it on purpose, because you didn't want to
play with us."
This unkind speech made Jessie feel very badly. She doubted for a moment
whether she had not erred in making her resolution before her cousins went
home. She felt inclined to drop her work, and go out with her very
ungracious cousins. But her second thoughts assured her that it was her
first _duty_ to conquer the habit which had caused her so much trouble. So
looking with moistening eyes at her cousin, she replied--
"I'm sorry, Emily, that I cannot go out with you, but I really can't do
it. You know my ma requires me to spend my mornings in sewing or reading.
I went out this morning without thinking, and without asking her consent.
To make up for that, I must sew this afternoon. This evening and to-morrow
afternoon, I will play with you as much as you please."
"I say you are a very ugly creature, and I don't like you one bit,"
retorted Emily, as with pouting lips and flashing eyes she bounced from
the room, slamming the door with a loud noise as she went out.
Poor Jessie felt wounded, and the big tears would flow from her eyes in
spite of her efforts to restrain them. Smarting under the cruel words of
her cousin, she felt an impulse to follow her, but again her eyes fell on
the paper, and she resumed her work, saying to herself--
"Jessie Carlton, you must not mind the hard speeches of your cousins. Your
resolution is right and good. Uncle Morris said so. Stick to it then, and
by the time the quilt and a few other things are done, as Uncle Morris
said, the little wizard will find Glen Morris Cottage too hot to hold him.
I'll keep my resolution."
Just then, smash went some glass somewhere in the rear of the house. The
crash was followed by a voice, which Jessie knew to be her cousin's,
saying--
"O Charlie, Charlie! what have you done!"
"I don't care! It's only the kitchen window," was the reply.
Again did Jessie's impulse move her to put down her work and run out to
see what was the matter. But her purpose came to her aid again, and she
kept plying her needle and saying:
"No, I won't go out. It's only that naughty Charlie throwing stones in at
the kitchen window. What a bad boy he is. I'm glad he is going home
soon."
Another quarter of an hour passed without interruption, when the door
opened and the bright face of Carrie Sherwood peeped in.
"Why, Carrie Sherwood!" exclaimed Jessie.
"Jessie Carlton!"
"Come in and sit down," said Jessie.
Carrie stepped in but did not sit down. "I've come," she said, "to invite
you and your cousins to spend the afternoon, and to take tea at our house.
Ma says that since no harm came to Charlie from his ducking, she would
like to have you come as you meant to do before he fell into the brook."
"I can't go with you till nearly tea-time," replied Jessie.
"Why not?"
"Because I _can't_."
"But _why_ can't you?"
"Because I've resolved to sew on this quilt until tea-time," said Jessie;
and pointing to the paper she added, "see! there is my resolution."
Carrie read the paper and laughed. "Well, you are a queer girl, Jessie
Carlton. You tie yourself up with a resolution nobody asks you to make,
and then say you can't move."
"But I made the resolution because I thought it was _right_," said Jessie,
solemnly.
"Oh! did you? Well, that alters the case, I suppose. But please break it
for _once_; _only_ this once, just to please me, you know. Come, there's a
dear, good Jessie; do come over to my house this afternoon."
Oh! how Jessie did long to drop her sewing, and go with her friend. There
was a mighty struggle in her heart for a few moments; but her purpose
triumphed at last, and in a calm, firm voice, she replied:
"No, dear Carrie, not until nearly dark. I must finish my quilt to-morrow
morning. You go and get my cousins and take them with you. I will come
over just as soon as it is too dark to see to sew without a light; and
that won't be a great while, you know, this short afternoon."
Carrie saw that her friend's mind was made up. So turning to leave the
room she said:
"Well, I suppose you are right; but mind you come as early as you can."
"That I will," rejoined Jessie.
Carrie left the room. The next moment she pushed the door open again, and
peeping in, said,
"Jessie?"
"Well, dear, what is it?"
"Ask your ma to let you stay till half-past nine, will you?"
"Yes."
"Good-by."
"Good-by till dark," replied Jessie, laughing at the idea of her friend
bidding her good-by just for an hour.
Jessie now felt very strong in her purpose. She had resisted no less than
four temptations to yield to her impulses in about an hour and a half.
This was doing nobly, and Jessie felt more self-respect than she had ever
felt before. She was certainly doing battle in real earnest with her old
enemy, the little wizard, as Uncle Morris facetiously called him. And she
had her reward for all her self-denial in the glad feelings which bubbled
up in her heart like springs of water in some cosy mountain nook.
Nothing else came to tempt Jessie the remainder of that afternoon. She
sewed until it was too dark to see in front of the fire; then she took her
seat close to the window, and it was not until she could no longer see to
take a stitch neatly that she began to put up her work.
"One more morning will finish it," said she, after taking a glance at her
work. "Oh! how glad I shall be when I have taken the last stitch. And
won't I be glad when it comes out of the quilting-frame, and is spread
upon Uncle Morris's bed. It's been a long time doing--Oh! ever so
long--thanks to the little wizard. But little wizard, little wizard, go
away! go away! We don't want you any longer in Glen Morris Cottage."
In this cheerful mood Jessie tied on her hood and cloak, and tripped over
to Carrie Sherwood's, where she spent one of the pleasantest evenings she
had enjoyed since the coming of her cousins to Duncanville. For some
reasons unknown to me, it pleased that selfish brother and sister to put
on their best and most approved behavior. Perhaps they caught a ray or two
of the joy which beamed, like sunshine, from Jessie's heart.
The next morning after breakfast, filled with the idea of finishing the
quilt before dinner, Jessie found a parcel in her work-basket directed to
Miss Jessie Carlton.
"What can it be?" said she, as she hastily untied the string, and unfolded
the wrapping-paper.
"A pair of ladies' skates! Oh, how glad I am! I wonder who sent them. Oh!
here is a piece of paper. What does it say?"
Holding the paper to the light she read as follows:
"From a fond father to his beloved daughter."
"From pa! Oh, how good of him! It's too bad he didn't stop to let me thank
him. But I'll thank him to-night. I've been wishing all this fall for a
pair of skates, because all the girls are going to have them. Suppose I
just step out and try them a little while."
Thus did Jessie talk out her thoughts to herself. Thus did the impulse
come over her to leave her morning's duty and repeat the fault of the day
before. It was fortunate, perhaps, that her cousins, knowing she meant to
sew, had rushed off to find a slide before she discovered her new skates.
Their persuasions, joined to her own impulse, might have overcome her and
brought her into bondage to the little wizard again. Without their
presence, I confess, the temptation to try the skates was a very strong
one. Jessie was getting ready to go out when her eye fell on the paper
which was still pinned to the basket's edge. She paused, blushed, put down
the skates, and said aloud:
"No, no, little wizard, I won't obey you. The quilt shall be finished, and
the skates shall wait until the afternoon."
"Three cheers for my little conqueror!" shouted Uncle Morris, who, coming
in at that moment, overheard this last remark.
"O uncle! I was _almost_ conquered myself," said Jessie.
"Never mind that, for now you are _quite_ a conqueror," rejoined her
uncle, smiling and patting her head.
Need I say that the quilt was finished that morning? It was; and before
Jessie sat down to dinner, she had the pleasure of seeing it put into the
quilting-frame by Maria, the seamstress of the household. And thus did our
sweet little Jessie win her first really decisive victory over the little
wizard which had hitherto been to her like the fisherman's wife, Alice, in
the fairy tale--the plague of her life.
CHAPTER VIII.
Farewell to the Cousins.
Scarcely had Jessie feasted her eyes on her quilt, snugly fixed between
the bars of the quilting-frame, before the dinner-bell rang out its
pleasant call. The happy girl skipped down-stairs with a light and merry
step. In the hall she met her brothers.
"O Guy!" she exclaimed, "I have finished my quilt! Aren't you glad!"
"To be sure I am," said Guy, kissing her rosy cheek, "and I expect you
will be so well-pleased with my old friend, Never-give-up, who helped you
finish it, that you will never give him the mitten again."
"Pshaw!" cried Hugh with a sneer, "I'll bet my new knife, that she gives
him the mitten before the week is out. Jessie isn't made of the right
stuff for your famous Try Company, any more than I am. She hasn't got the
perseverance of a kitten."
"And yet she has more of it, than Master Hugh Carlton, for he has never
finished any thing but his dinner, and she has finished her _quilt_," said
Uncle Morris, who as he was crossing the hall to the dining-room, heard
Hugh's unkind remark.
"There, Hugh, you are fairly hit now," said Guy, laughing.
"They who live in glass-houses shouldn't throw stones, should they, my
little puss?" said Uncle Morris, leading Jessie into the dining-room.
"Hugh is always teasing me," replied Jessie, "I wish he was more like
Guy."
Dinner was waiting, and taking their seats at the table, they all sat in
silence, while Uncle Morris reverently craved a blessing. He had hardly
finished, before Charlie and Emily rushed into the room, leaving traces of
their feet on the carpet, at every step.
"My dears, where have you been to wet your feet so?" asked Mrs. Carlton,
seeing that their boots were soaked with water.
"Oh! it's been thawing, Aunt, and we got our feet wet, sliding," said
Emily, as she took her seat at the table, panting and pushing the ringlets
back from her face.
"You had better put on dry socks and boots, before you eat," observed Mrs.
Carlton. She then touched the bell. The servant entered.
"Mary," said the lady, "take these children to their rooms, and change
their socks and boots!"
"Yes mem," said Mary, looking daggers at the two cousins.
"Can't I wait till after dinner, aunt?" asked Emily.
"No, my dear. You must go at once, lest you get cold by sitting still so
long with wet feet."
Emily pouted, but knowing her aunt would firmly enforce her command, she
rose, and taking her brother by the wrist, said:
"Come, Charlie, let us go up-stairs!"
"I don't want to," growled Charlie, pulling away his arm, and putting it
round his plate.
"Charlie!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton.
"I want my dinner!" was his surly reply.
Mary had now drawn near the ugly little fellow. Placing her heavy hand on
his shoulder, she seized him with a grip, which made him feel like a
pigmy, in the grasp of a giant. Having had a taste of Mary's anger, once
or twice before, and catching a glance from the kindling eye of Uncle
Morris, he yielded, and was led out of the room.
"The worst child of his age I ever knew," observed the old gentleman with
a sigh, as he proceeded to carve the chickens, which were smoking on the
hospitable table before him.
Jessie's face had clouded a little during this scene. The thaw of which
Emily had spoken, cut off her hope of trying her new skates. Leaning
towards Guy, who sat next to her at the table, she whispered:
"Is the ice _all_ gone, Guy?"
"I expect it is pretty much used up by the fog we've had all day."
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry!" said Jessie with a sigh.
Judging of her thoughts by her looks, Uncle Morris said, "Never mind,
Jessie. There will be plenty of ice to skate on, in a week or two."
"Skate! How can she _skate_? She hasn't got any skates!" said Hugh.
"Yes, I have," replied Jessie, smiling. "Pa sent me a beautiful pair this
morning."
This statement led to various remarks about skating, and winter weather in
the country. Meanwhile, the cousins came back to the table. Jessie soon
grew cheerful again, and the dinner passed without any other occurrence
worthy of notice.
After dinner, the fog having grown into a fine, drizzling rain, the
children found it impossible to go out of doors in search of amusement. It
was therefore agreed to invite Miss Carrie Sherwood to tea. Guy promised
to go after her. To add to the pleasure of the occasion, Jessie had her
mother's permission to use a sweet little tea-set of her own, and to have
tea with her cousins and Carrie by themselves in the parlor.
Carrie arrived in due time, snugly wrapped in hood and shawl. Her feet
were protected by rubbers. She declared that Guy was a capital _beau_. Guy
laughed at her compliment, and repaid it by saying that she was a nice
little _belle_, and then he ran off to school.
The afternoon passed rapidly, because, on the whole, it was pleasantly
spent. Emily, knowing it was the last day of her visit, seemed anxious to
do away with the bad impression she had previously made upon the mind of
her cousin and her friend. Charlie, too, was in his best mood most of the
time. Once, indeed, he came very near breaking up the harmony of the
party. Seeing a strap of Jessie's new skates peeping from beneath the
what-not where she had hidden them, he seized it, pulled out the skates,
and began to put them on.
"Please, Charlie, don't do that," said Jessie. "You can't skate on the
carpet, you know; please give them to me?"
"I won't!" retorted the wilful boy.
"Please do give them to me?" implored Jessie.
"I want to skate on the carpet, first," said Charlie, still trying to
buckle on the skates.
"Do ask him to give them to me?" said Jessie, addressing Emily.
"There, take your old skates!" cried the boy, throwing them violently
across the room.
The fact was, he did not understand the mystery of straps and buckles in
which the skates were involved. Hence his desire to try the skates was
borne away upon the current of his impatience, and thereby the little
party escaped a scene for the time being.
But it was only for a time. Charlie had been so used to have his own way
and to oppose the wishes of others, that he seemed to find his pleasure in
spoiling the delights of others. Hence, when the hour for tea arrived, and
Jessie's sweet little china tea-set, with its ornaments of gold and
flowers, was spread out upon a little round table, he drew near to it and
taking Jessie's seat, said:
"I'm going to play lady and pour out the tea."
"Nonsense, Charlie!" said his sister. "Take the next seat and let Jessie
have hers."
"I won't," muttered Charlie.
"Come, Charlie, do get out of your cousin's chair! Young gentlemen don't
pour out tea for ladies, you know," said Carrie in her most coaxing
tones.
"I don't care! I'm going to play lady and pour out the tea," replied the
boy in his most dogged manner.
"I never did see such a boy in all my life," whispered Jessie to her
friend.
"Nor I," rejoined Carrie; "my father says he's a young hornet."
"Oh dear! what shall I do?" sighed Jessie.
"Why don't you sit down?" said Charlie, as he began to handle the little
teapot.
"Charlie, get up!" exclaimed his sister, as she snatched the teapot from
his hand.
"Don't touch him. I'll call my uncle; he'll make him move," said Jessie,
moving towards the door.
She was too late; Emily's act had roused the fiery temper of the boy.
Placing his hands on each side of his chair, he leaned back, and lifting
up his feet to the edge of the table, kicked it over and sent the tea-set
crashing to the floor.
"Oh dear! Oh dear! He has broken my nice tea-set all to pieces!" cried
Jessie, pausing, gazing on the wreck, and bursting into tears.
The crash of the falling tea-things was heard by Uncle Morris. He entered
the room with a grave face. Charlie still sat on the chair, looking surly
and wicked at the ruin he had wrought.
"See what Charlie has done, Uncle!" exclaimed Jessie, sobbing. "I wouldn't
care if it wasn't poor Aunt Lucy's present that he has broken."
Aunt Lucy was dead. She had given this charming little tea-set to Jessie
only a few weeks before her death.
"How did he do it?" asked Mr. Morris.
"He kicked the table over, Sir, because we wanted him to let Jessie sit in
her place, and pour out the tea," said Carrie.
Just then Mrs. Carlton, and Mary the waiting-maid, both of whom had heard
the noise, entered the parlor. Turning to the latter, Mr. Morris said:
"Mary, put that ugly boy to bed!"
Charlie, frightened at Mr. Morris's manner, yielded to this command
without a word, and was led out of the room.
"I didn't know that so much ugliness could be got into so small a parcel
before that boy came here. He goes home to-morrow morning, however, and we
shall all witness his departure, I guess, with very dry eyes," said Mr.
Morris.
"He needs somebody to weep over him, though, brother," interposed Mrs.
Carlton, "for otherwise he will grow up into a very wicked and dangerous
manhood."
"Very true, sister. He is a spoiled child. I must write to sister Hannah
about him. If rigid training, and the rod of correction, be not soon
applied to him, he will become a spoiled man."
After telling Mrs. Carlton the cause of this disaster, the girls with her
aid began to repair the ruin wrought by ugly Charlie. Having replaced the
table, they picked up the pieces, and were relieved to find that, with the
exception of the knob of the teapot lid, and the handles of two cups,
which were off, nothing was broken. Uncle Morris said he had a cement with
which he could fasten on the knob and the handles. This relieved Jessie
very much. She smiled, and said:
"Oh, I am so glad! I want to keep that tea-set, for dear Aunt Lucy's
sake."
Of course the tea was all spilled, and the food scattered over the carpet.
These, however, were soon replaced from the well-supplied closets of the
kitchen and dining-room. In half an hour, the table was reset, and the
three girls were seated, quietly eating their supper.
Did they enjoy their feast? A little, perhaps, but the upsetting of the
table could not be forgotten. It chilled their spirits, and checked the
flow of their joy. Thus, as always, did the evil conduct of one
wrong-doer, act, like a cloud in the path of the sun, on the joy of
others.
Carrie Sherwood left early in the evening, and Jessie went to her chamber
with Emily to assist her in packing her trunk, so that she might be ready
for an early start in the morning. When the last stray article was nicely
packed, Emily threw herself back in the big arm-chair, and with a
long-drawn sigh, exclaimed:
"Oh dear!"
"What's the matter?" inquired Jessie.
"Oh! nothing. Only I'm glad I'm going home."
"So am I," was the _thought_ that leaped to Jessie's lips. She was,
however, too polite to utter it, and too sincere to say she was sorry, so
she sat still and said nothing.
Several minutes were passed in silence, a very unusual thing, I believe,
where the company is composed of young ladies. But Jessie did not know
what to say, and Emily was thinking, and did not wish to say any thing. At
last she looked up and said:
"Jessie, I'm afraid I haven't behaved well since I came to Glen Morris."
Jessie again thought with Emily, and again her politeness and sincerity
kept her silent. Emily went on.
"You have been very kind to me and Charlie. I'm sorry we haven't made
ourselves more agreeable to you."
"Oh! never mind that," said Jessie. "I hope you will come and see me
again, one of these days."
Emily then went on to tell Jessie about her thoughts and feelings. She had
not forgotten the advice of Uncle Morris, nor had Jessie's example been
without its influence over her. True, her old habits of self-will and
falsehood, had acted the part of tyrants over her. Yet she had been
secretly wishing to be like Jessie. These wishes, frail as they had proved
themselves to be, showed that good seed from Jessie's example had been
sown in her heart. Now that she was about to return home, all her better
feelings were awake, and she begged forgiveness of her cousin, promising
to do her best, hereafter, to be a good, truthful, affectionate girl.
All this and much more, she said to Jessie, before they slept that night.
These confessions and purposes did Emily good. They also cheered Jessie,
by causing her to hope that after all, she might be to her cousin, what
Guy had been to Richard Duncan.
The next morning, directly after breakfast, the hack drove up to the door,
and the cousins were borne away to the depot in care of Mr. Carlton. As
the carriage left the lawn, Uncle Morris patted his niece on the head, and
said:
"As vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so are self-willed guests
to those who entertain them."
"O Uncle Morris!" exclaimed Jessie, with an air of mock gravity, which
showed that, harsh as her uncle's remark sounded, she felt its justice. In
fact, the departure of the ungracious cousins was to the inmates of Glen
Morris, like the flight of the angry storm-cloud to a company of mariners,
after weary weeks of squalls and tempests.
CHAPTER IX.
The Wizard in the Field Again.
"I'm glad they are gone, and yet I'm sorry. Em seemed sorry to go, and she
cried when I kissed her good-by. I really think Em loves me after all; and
if it wasn't for that ugly Charlie, she would be a nice girl. But that
Charlie! Oh dear! I don't think there is another such boy anywhere. I
don't wonder my uncle compares him to a burr, a sting-nettle, and a
hedgehog. I'm sure he's been nothing but a plague to everybody, ever since
he came here. I'm glad _he's_ gone, anyhow. And yet, poor fellow, I pity
him. He must be miserable himself, or he wouldn't torment everybody else
so--but I must go to work, I s'pose."
Thus did Jessie talk to herself, after seeing her cousins off. She had
returned to the parlor, and seated herself in her small rocking-chair. She
now drew the two pieces of cloth for her uncle's slippers, from her
work-basket, and after handling them awhile with a languid air, put them
in her lap, sighed, and said--
"Oh dear! I do wish these slippers were done. This is a hard pattern, and
it will take me ever so many days to finish it. Heigho! I 'most wish I
hadn't begun them. Let me see if I have worsted enough to finish them."
Here Jessie leaned over and began to explore the tangled depths of her
work-basket. It was a complete olio. Old letters, pieces of silk, velvet,
linen, and woollen, scraps of paper, leaves of books, old cords and rusty
tassels, spools of cotton, skeins of thread and knots,--in short, almost
every thing that could by any sort of chance, or mischance, get into a
young lady's work-basket, was there in rare confusion. Jessie's love of
order was not very large. Her temper was often sorely tried by the trouble
which her careless habit caused her when seeking a pair of scissors, or a
spool of cotton. It was so to-day. She plunged her hand deep into the
basket, in search of the colored worsteds required for her uncle's
slippers. After feeling round awhile, she drew forth a tangled mess, which
she placed on her lap.
"Oh dear!" she said, in a complaining tone; "how these worsteds are
tangled!"
Nimbly her fingers wrought, however, and very soon the skeins were all
laid out on her knee.
"Let me see," said she, looking at her pattern; "there are one, two,
three, four--five--six colors, and I have only one, two, three, four,
five. Which is missing? Ah, I see: there is no _brown_. Must I hunt that
basket again? It's a regular jungle--no, not a _jungle_--a jungle is a
forest, mostly covered with reeds and bushes. This is a, a--a _jumble_.
Uncle, would call it a basket of confusion. Ha! ha!"
Vainly did Jessie explore her "basket of confusion." In vain did she upset
its contents upon the floor, and replace them by handfuls. The missing
skein of brown worsted could not be found. At last, with wearied neck, and
aching head, she threw herself back in her chair, and said--
"It's no use, there is no brown worsted there. But what's that?"
In leaning back, Jessie's eyes were arrested by a new book which was on
the mantle. Starting from her chair, she took down the book. It was a
story-book that Guy had borrowed of his friend Richard Duncan. The
pictures were beautiful, and Jessie, charmed by the promise of its opening
pages, gave herself up to the leadings of her excited curiosity, and soon
forgot all about worsted, slippers, cousins, and uncle. Little Impulse the
wizard had baited his trap with a choice book, and Jessie was in his power
again.
"Why, Guy! what brought you home so early?" asked Jessie, more than two
hours later, when her brother's entrance broke her attention from the
book.
"Early!" exclaimed Guy, looking at his watch; "do you call fifteen minutes
past twelve early?"
"Fifteen minutes past twelve!" cried Jessie, in great surprise; "it can't
be so late: your watch must be wrong, Guy."
"Then the village clock is wrong, for I timed my watch by it as I came
past," said Guy. "I guess you have been asleep, Sis, and didn't notice how
time passed."
"Asleep, indeed! do you think I go to sleep in the morning? not I. But
I've been reading your book, and was just finishing it when you came in.
It's real interesting," said Jessie.
"Yes, it's a nice book," replied Guy, as he left the room in response to a
call from Hugh, who was in the hall.
Jessie replaced the book, and sighed as she picked up the worsteds from
the floor, to think that she had done nothing to the slippers that
morning. However, as there was yet over half an hour to spare before
dinner, and as she could go on with her work for the present, without the
brown worsted, she began plying her needle with right good will.
Presently Uncle Morris came in. He had been out all the morning. Seeing
his niece so busy, he smiled, and said:
"Busy as the bee, eh, Jessie? Well, it's the working bee that makes the
honey. Guess the little wizard has lost heart now he has found out that my
little puss has a strong will to do right, and a strong Friend to help
her."
Jessie blushed and sighed. She was in what young Duncan would call a
"tight place." She knew that her uncle was mistaken; that she did not
deserve his praise, that by being silent she should, of her own accord,
confirm his mistake and thereby deceive him. And yet, it was hard to
confess her fault, under the circumstances. "What could Jessie do?"
At first she was silent. Her uncle perceiving by her manner that something
puzzled and pained her, turned to his chair, and without saying another
word took up the morning's newspaper and began reading.
The longer Jessie kept up his false impression, the worse she felt. Very
soon, however, the voice of the Good Spirit within her gained the victory,
and throwing the slipper into the basket, she rose, saying to herself, "I
will tell him all about it."
Going to her uncle's side, she threw an arm round his neck, gently drew
his head towards her and kissed him. Then she smiled through a mist of
tears, and said:
"Uncle, the little wizard hasn't left Glen Morris, yet."
"Hasn't he?" replied her uncle. "Why, I thought you pricked him so sorely
with your quilt needle that he had run off to Greenland, or to some other
distant land to escape your little ladyship's anger, or to woo Miss
Perseverance to be his bride."
"I wish he had," sighed Jessie; "but I fear he never will go. I wish he
didn't like Glen Morris so well."
Then the little girl told her uncle how Guy's book had lured her into the
wizard's power.
"Never mind, my child," said Uncle Morris, patting her head as he spoke,
"never mind. Never give up. Attack him again with your tiny spear. Resolve
that you will yet conquer him, as little David did big Goliath, in the
name of the Lord. A little girl can be what she wills to be, if she only
wills in the name of Him who is the teacher and the friend of children."
"I'll try, Uncle," said Jessie, with the fire of resolution kindling in
her eyes.
"Heaven bless you, my child!" said the old man solemnly, as he placed his
hands softly upon her head. "May you always be as frank and truthful as
you have now been in confessing a fault to me which you must have been
very strongly tempted to conceal. May Heaven bless you!"
Didn't Jessie feel glad then! She was glad she had resisted the temptation
to receive praise she did not merit; glad she had done right; glad her
uncle was pleased with her. Happy Jessie! Had she by silence deceived her
uncle, she would have felt guilty and ashamed. Now she was as peaceful and
hopeful as love and duty could make her.
After dinner, seeing Guy take his cap as if in great haste, Jessie
followed him to the door and said: "What makes you in such a hurry, every
day, Guy? You have not stayed to talk to me for ever so long."
"You have had company, you know, Jessie, and haven't wanted me," replied
Guy, evasively.
"But I have no company to-day," said Jessie. "Come, don't go yet, there's
a dear, good Guy. Come into the parlor and tell me a story."
"Not now," replied Guy, opening the door. Then after a moment or two of
silent thought, he shut the door and said, "If you will put on your cloak
and hood I'll take you with me."
"Oh, good, good!" exclaimed the little girl; and after running to her
mother for consent, she soon returned fitly equipped for a walk on that
breezy November afternoon.
It being Wednesday and no school, Guy had the afternoon before him. He led
his sister towards the village, telling her he was going to take her to
see a good old lady of whom, he said, he was very fond.
"Who is she? How did you find her out? Does Uncle Morris know her?" were
among the many questions which Jessie put to her brother. He did not see
fit to satisfy her, however, except to say, "Her name is Mrs.
MONEYPENNY."
"Mrs. Moneypenny! What a funny name?" exclaimed Jessie, laughing and
repeating the name.
"Yes, it is odd; but the lady who bears it, is a noble woman."
"Is she rich?"
"No, she is very poor, very poor indeed."
"Very poor, eh? But how came you to know her?"
"That's my secret."
"A secret! Please tell me about it, Guy?"
"Can't do it, Jessie. You know girls can't keep secrets," replied Guy,
laughing and looking archly at his sister.
"I can, Guy. Do tell me. I won't tell Hugh, nor Carrie Sherwood, no, nor
even Uncle Morris, though I can't see why you should keep a secret from
him."
Just then Guy and his sister were passing some open lots in the village
street. Several rough boys were standing round a small bonfire which they
had made out of the dead branches and leaves of trees, which the fall
winds had scattered over the streets and open lots. As soon as they saw
Guy, one of them cried in a jeering tone:
"There goes Mrs. Moneypenny's cow-boy!"
"Wonder how much he gets a week," shouted another boy.
"Perhaps he's gwine to be the old lady's heir," said the first.
"Guess he 'spects young Jack Moneypenny's gwine to die, down in the
Brooklyn hospital, and he wants the old ooman to adopt him. He! he!" said
a third speaker.
Loud peals of derisive laughter followed these remarks. Guy made no reply,
but grasping his sister's hand more tightly, he hurried past at a rapid
walk, and was soon out of hearing.
"Oh! I am so glad we are past those wicked boys," said Jessie, slightly
shivering with fear. "But what did they call you a cow-boy for, Guy?"
"I suppose I must tell you my secret now," said Guy. "Those boys have
partly let my cat out of the bag."
Guy then told his sister, that Mrs. Moneypenny was a poor widow, with a
son named Jack. She rented a cottage and a little piece of land. A cow, a
few hens, and Jack's labor, were all she had to depend upon. Jack, being a
steady boy, earned enough to keep them comfortable in their simple way of
living. But a great misfortune had overtaken them. Jack, while in
Brooklyn, with a lot of eggs and chickens, which he had taken in to sell,
had been knocked down and run over by a horse and wagon. His leg was
broken, and he was carried to the hospital.
This sad news was quickly sent to Jack's mother. Poor old lady! It seemed
as if her only stay was broken by this disaster. Being lame, she could not
go to her son, neither could she take care of her cow at home. She was in
deep distress, and wept many tears over poor Jack's sufferings, and her
own hard fate.
Guy happened to hear her case talked over at the post-office, the very day
the news of Jack's misfortune arrived. He heard a gentleman say, that she
must be sent to the alms-house, though, being a woman of spirit, he feared
she would break her heart and die, if she was. Full of pity for the old
lady, Guy went to her, and offered to take care of her cow and hens, as
long as Jack might be sick.
"It would have melted your heart," said Guy, as he finished his story,
"had you seen the old lady cry for joy at my offer. She looked so
thankful, and seemed so much relieved, that I felt as happy as an angel,
to think that by doing such a little thing as milking and feeding a cow
for a few weeks, I could shed so much light in the dwelling of a poor, but
noble woman."
Jessie's eyes swam with tears. She pressed Guy's hand, but spoke not. He
understood the meaning of that pressure. He knew that in her heart she was
saying, "My brother did right, and those boys were very wicked for calling
after him. I love my dear brother better than ever."
While such thoughts as these were passing in Jessie's mind, and Guy was
feeling the gladness which welled up within him like living water, they
reached the cottage. Mrs. Moneypenny received them with smiles of welcome.
She kissed Jessie, and said:
"You look as if you had a heart as kind as your brother's. May Heaven
bless you both!"
[Illustration: Mrs. Moneypenny Reading Jack's Letter. Page 153.]
Then the old lady began to talk about her "dear Jack." After telling them
he was "getting along nicely," she read a letter which he made out to
write in pencil, as he lay bolstered up in his bed. Having finished it,
the good mother sighed, and said:
"Dear Jack! How I do wish he could be brought home, so that I could take
care of him myself! There is no nurse like a mother. The poor fellow says
he wants some more shirts sent him, but I haven't another to send him, nor
any thing to make him one with. Ah, my children, poverty is not a pleasant
heritage; but never mind; life is short, and I and my poor Jack will have
mansions, robes, and riches in the better land. May you, my children, be
blessed with such treasures both here and hereafter!"
After Guy had "looked to the cow," in the hovel which answered for a barn,
he and his sister took their leave of the widow.
Jessie walked quietly home, looking very grave, and scarcely speaking a
word by the way. Once she turned to Guy and asked:
"How large a boy is Jack?"
"About my size," replied Guy.
Jessie had a big thought in her head--I mean a big thought for a little
girl. If you wish to know what it was, you must consult the next chapter.
CHAPTER X.
Madge Clifton.
When Jessie reached home she threw her hood and cloak carelessly on to the
floor. The cloak-stand was pretty well filled up, and she was in too much
haste, to take the pains needed to find a place on the hooks for her
garments. This was one of her faults. A new impulse had seized her, and
she thought of nothing else. Bounding into her mother's room, she said:
"Mother, will you let me make two shirts for poor Jack Moneypenny?"
Mrs. Carlton looked up from her work, and after a moment's glance at the
eager face of her daughter, asked:
"Who is Jack Moneypenny, my dear?"
Jessie, in her eagerness to carry her point, had forgotten to ask if her
mother knew any thing of the widow, or her son, Jack. This question
checked her ardor a little, and she told the story of the widow's
misfortune. Just as she was finishing her tale, however, she thought of
Guy's wish to keep his part in the affair a secret. So blushing deeply,
she added:
"Oh dear! what will Guy say? I promised to keep it all secret, and now I
have told all about it. He said girls couldn't keep a secret, and I
believe he is right. What shall I do, Mother?"
"Why tell him that you have told me, to be sure. Guy has no secrets with
his mother, and I am sure he does not wish his sister to have any."
"Has Guy told you about it, then?"
"Yes, he told me all his plans from the first. Guy never conceals any
thing from his mother."
"What made you ask me who Jack Moneypenny was, then, Ma, if you knew
before?"
"Only to teach my Jessie, that she ought to be less abrupt in her manners.
You should have stated your case first, and then have asked me your
question."
"So I should, Ma," said Jessie, musing a few moments, and gazing on her
foot, as she traced the outline of the carpet-pattern with it. Then
smiling, she looked up, and added, "but you know, Mamma, it is my way, to
speak first, and think afterwards."
"Not a very wise way, either," said Mrs. Carlton; "but about those shirts,
why do you wish to make them?"
Jessie told her mother about Jack's letter, and what the widow had said.
"Well," replied Mrs. Carlton; "I will give you the cloth, and cut out the
shirts, if you really wish to make them."
"I do, Mother, very much wish to do it. Only think how glad the widow will
be, and how comfortable the shirts will make the poor sick boy, in that
horrid hospital."
"Very true, my dear, but how about your uncle's slippers, and cushion, and
watch-pocket?"
A blush tinged Jessie's cheek again. The little wizard had once more
hurried her into a new plan before her old ones had been worked out.
Plainly she could not help poor Jack and keep her former resolution, not
to be turned aside from finishing her gifts for Uncle Morris. She was
fairly puzzled. It was right to make shirts for a poor boy. It was right
to keep her purposes too. Yet she could not do both. But did not the boy
need the shirts, more than Uncle Morris did his slippers? Would not her
uncle be willing to wait? No doubt he would, but then her promise to
finish the slippers before beginning any thing else, was part of a plan
for conquering a bad habit. Would it be right to depart from that plan?
Such were the questions which floated like unpleasant dreams through
Jessie's mind as she sat with her hands on the back of a chair-seat,
knocking her heels against the floor. Her mother, though she allowed her
to think awhile in silence, read her thoughts in the workings of her face.
When Jessie seemed to be lost in the fog of her own thoughts, Mrs. Carlton
came to her aid, and said:
"Jessie."
"Yes, Ma."
"I have been thinking that poor Jack needs those shirts directly, and that
you could not make him a pair in less than two, perhaps in not less than
three weeks. So I don't see how you can help him out of his present
trouble."
Jessie sighed, and said, "I didn't think of that."
"Well, I have a plan to propose. I will send him two of Guy's shirts
to-morrow, and you shall make two new ones for Guy, at your leisure."
"What a dear, good, nice mother you are," cried Jessie, running to Mrs.
Carlton, and giving her more kisses than I am able to count.
Thus did a mother's love find a key with which to unlock Jessie's puzzle,
and to enable her to help poor Jack, without breaking her purpose to
finish Uncle Morris's things, and thereby drive that plague of her life,
the little wizard, away from Glen Morris.
"I will work ever so hard, see if I don't, Ma," said she, as she patted
her mother's cheek. "I will finish the slippers, and get the shirts done,
too, before Christmas. Don't you think I can?"
"You _can_, I have no doubt, if you try my dear."
"Well, I'll _try_ then. I'll join Guy's famous Try Company, and will try
and try, and try again, until I fairly succeed."
Mrs. Carlton kissed her daughter affectionately; after which the now
light-hearted girl bounded out of the room, singing--
"If you find your case is hard,
Try, try, try again.
Time will bring you your reward,
Try, try, try again.
All that other people do,
Why with patience should not you?
Only keep this rule in view,
Try, try, try again."
"That's it! That's it, my little puss," said Uncle Morris, who was in the
parlor which Jessie entered singing her joyous roundelay. "Corporal Try is
a little fellow, but he has helped do all the great things that have ever
been done. There is nothing good or great which he cannot do. He will help
a little girl learn to darn her own stocking, or make a quilt for her old
uncle; and he will help men build big steamships, construct railroads over
the desert, or lay a telegraph wire under the waters of the ocean. Oh, a
great little man is Corporal Try!"
"I know it," replied Jessie, "and I've joined his company; so if you meet
little Impulse the wizard, please tell him not to come here again unless
he wishes to be beaten with a big club called good resolution."
"Bravely spoken, Lady Jessie! May you never desert the Corporal's colors!
Above all, may you always obtain grace from above whereby to conquer
yourself, which is the grandest deed you can possibly perform."
Jessie sat down to her work-basket, and took up one of the pieces of cloth
for her uncle's slippers. But as it was now late in the afternoon of a
dull November day, she could not see to embroider very well. So she
thought she would go out again and buy the brown worsted which was needed
in working out the figure on the slippers. Going to the window first, she
noticed that the sky looked cold and bleak. The wind, too, was whistling
mournfully among the branches of the trees, and round the corners of the
house. It was evidently going to be a cold night. Turning from the window
again, she said to her brother Hugh, who was sitting very cosily in a
large arm-chair before the glowing fire in the grate:
"Please, Hugh, will you run down to the village with me? I want to get
some worsted at Mrs. Horton's."
"Why didn't you get it this afternoon?" asked Hugh in his usual grumpy way
when asked to do any thing.
"I didn't think of it."
"Didn't think of it, eh? Well, I don't think I shall be your lackey this
cold afternoon. I'd rather sit here and keep my toes warm."
"Do go, dear Hugh, please do!" said Jessie in her mellowest tones. "I
shall want the worsted to-morrow morning."
"Oh, go to Greenwich! You are always wanting something. Girls want a
mighty sight of waiting on. I won't go."
Jessie turned away from her ungracious brother wishing, as she had so
often done, that he "was more like Guy." Had it been a little earlier in
the afternoon, she would have gone alone; but as it was nearly dark she
preferred company.
"Oh dear!" sighed she, "what shall I do? I wish Guy was in."
"Perhaps you would accept an old man's company," said her uncle, rising
and buttoning up his coat.
"I should be very, very glad to have it, but I don't want to trouble you,
Uncle," she replied.
"It's no trouble to go out with my little puss. Besides, by going, I can
give this drone-like brother of yours a practical lesson in that love and
politeness which he so much despises. I shall certainly be happier going
with you, than he will be in the indulgence of his selfishness before the
fire."
Hugh said something in a grumbling tone which neither his uncle nor sister
understood.
In a few minutes the good old man, having firm hold of Jessie's hand, was
breasting the cold wind as they walked smartly along the frozen road
leading to the village.
"You will have a chance to try your new skates to-morrow if it is as cold
as this all night," said Mr. Morris, as they crossed the bridge over the
brook.
"Won't that be nice?" replied Jessie; "Carrie Sherwood has a pair too, and
we will both try together. I guess I shall get some bumps though before I
learn to skate well. I wish we had some one to teach us how to use them."
"What will you give me, if I consent to be your teacher?"
"Oh, Uncle Morris! You don't mean it, do you?"
"To be sure I do. When I was young they called me the best skater in town.
I could go through all kinds of movements, and even cut my name on the ice
with my skates. I guess I haven't quite forgotten how I used to do it. But
what will you give me if I consent to teach you?"
"I will love you ever so much, and so will Carrie."
"But I thought you loved me ever so much already?"
"Well, so I do, Uncle. I love you better than I love anybody in the world,
except ma and pa. But I will love you better and better."
"That's pay enough," said Mr. Morris, warmly pressing the hand of his
niece. "The pure fresh love of a child's heart is worth more to an old man
like me than much gold. It makes my heart grow young again--but what have
we here?"
They had now reached a stone wall which fronted the estate of Esquire
Duncan. An angle in the fence had made a corner, in which was seated a
girl of about Jessie's age and size. She was clothed in rags; her feet
were bare. She had no covering on her head save her tangled hair. Her face
and arms were brown and dirty. She shivered in the piercing wind, and
traces of recent tears were visible in the dirt which covered her woe-worn
face.
"Poor little girl! I wonder where she lives?" exclaimed Jessie.
"Where do you live, my dear?" asked Mr. Morris, addressing the child.
"New York," replied the outcast curtly.
"How came you here?"
"Mother left me down yonder," said the girl, pointing to the four
cross-roads just beyond.
"Where is your mother now?"
"Don't know."
"What did she say when she left you?"
"She told me to sit on the trough of the pump while she went to buy some
bread. But she didn't come back, and I came over here out of the wind."
"How long since she left you?"
"Ever so long."
"Poor little girl! I'm afraid your mother brought you out here to cast you
off, and so get rid of you," said Uncle Morris.
"Guess not! Guess she got drunk somewhere," said the girl, in a manner so
cold and dogged that Mr. Morris shuddered.
Here, Jessie, whose eyes were swimming with tears, pulled her uncle's
hand. Taking him a little aside, she said--
"Please, Uncle, take her home, and let me give her something to eat."
"Better take her to the alms-house, I'm thinking," replied her uncle. "She
may be a wicked girl."
"Then we can teach her to be good," said Jessie.
This was a home thrust that went right to the good old man's heart. "The
alms-house," he thought, "is not a very likely place to grow goodness in.
It is too chilly and heartless. There will be little sympathy there with
the struggles and sorrows of a child like this; Jessie shall have her way
this time. She shall go with us."
After forming this purpose, he looked at his niece, and said--
"Perhaps you are right, Jessie. The poor creature shall go home with us,
at least, for to-night."
"Oh, I am _so_ glad, I'm _so_ glad," cried Jessie, clapping her hands,
then running to the shivering child, who had been watching them during
this conversation with a puzzled air, she said--
"Come, little girl, you are to go home with me. Uncle says so."
"I don't want to. I'll wait here for mother," replied the girl, shrinking
back into her corner, against the rough stone wall.
"My child," said Mr. Morris, "I fear your mother has left you here on
purpose, and that she will never come back. If she is in the place, you
shall go to her as soon as we can find her. If you stay here you will
freeze. Come with us and we will give you a supper, and let you warm
yourself before a rousing fire, while we search for your mother."
The idea of supper and a rousing fire took hold of the little outcast's
feelings. Gathering her rags close to her chilled body she stepped
forward, and said--
"I'll go with you."
"What is your name?" inquired Jessie.
"Madge!" said the child, curtly.
"Madge what?" asked Uncle Morris.
"Madge Clifton!" said the child.
"Which means, I suppose, Margaret Clifton," said the old gentleman. "A
pretty name enough, and I wish its owner was in a prettier condition. But
come, let us hasten out of this cold biting wind."
Poor little, shivering Madge! Waiting so long for her mother, alone and in
a strange place, had made her heart heavy and sad. Her limbs were so stiff
with cold she could scarcely walk, at first. But the kind looks of the
good old gentleman, and the loving words of Jessie, cheered her on; and in
a few minutes they entered the back door of Glen Morris Cottage.
CHAPTER XI.
Madge Clifton's Mother.
"What have you here, my brother?" asked Mrs. Carlton, as, in response to a
message from Mr. Morris, she entered the kitchen, where poor Madge sat on
a cricket before the range, looking, as Jessie afterwards said, "like a
cat in a strange garret."
"She's a heap o' rags and dirt, mem," interposed the servant, who did not
fancy the introduction of such an unsightly object into her prim-looking
dominions.
"She is a poor, starving, and half-frozen girl, without any kind mother to
take care of her and love her," said Jessie, who feared, from her mother's
looks, that poor Madge was as unwelcome a guest to her, as she was to the
kitchen-maid.
"She is a poor, little human waif, which has floated to our door on a sea
of trouble and misfortune, sister," observed Mr. Morris. "If _opportunity_
is the gate of _duty_, then we owe it to this little girl, and to the
Great Father who sent her to our doors, to relieve her wants, and if needs
be, provide for her in future."
This view of her relation to poor little Madge, somewhat softened Mrs.
Carlton's feelings. She was a very kind woman--in fact, she was nearly all
_heart_--but she was fastidiously neat. Madge's dirt and rags had repelled
her at first sight; had shut out from her thoughts, for the moment, the
recollection, that within that covering of filthy rags, there sat a human
creature, which, had it been loved, and taught, and trained as her own
child had been, might have been as loving, and as attractive as she. Her
brother's remark brought this view of Madge's case before her, but did not
wholly divest her of her first feelings. Jessie's instincts led her to see
that her mother was not quite prepared to take the outcast girl to her
affections, and trembling for the result, she followed up her uncle's
plea, by saying:
"We found her cold and hungry, sitting under a stone wall, waiting for her
mother, who has run away from her. If we had not brought her home, she
would have frozen to death before morning. Wouldn't that have been
terrible, Ma?"
"Poor thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton, her sympathy being now fully
aroused, "but, Brother, why did you not take her to the alms-house, where
they have the means of cleansing and clothing such unhappy outcasts?"
"Perhaps it would have been more prudent, my sister, to have done so; but
I took counsel of your child's heart, and not of my own prudence. This is
Jessie's _protégé_. When she pleaded in her behalf, I thought I would do
for Madge, what I and you would wish another to do for Jessie, should she
ever, by any sad reverse of fortune, become an outcast child."
"Halloo, what little dolly mop have you got here?" cried Hugh, who, at
this juncture, bounded into the kitchen to see what was going on.
"Poor little creature! She has had a hard road to travel, thus far, I
guess," said Guy, who accompanied his brother. Hugh looked at the child's
appearance only. Guy, like his uncle and Jessie, viewed her as a human
being in distress.
All this time, the object of these comments, stared strangely about,
looking, now at the things around her, and then into the faces of the
different persons in the group. At first, she seemed indifferent to their
remarks. But when Hugh called her a little dollymop, her large, black eyes
flashed angrily upon him. Guy's kind words and tones disarmed her,
however, and a pearl-like tear rolled down her cheeks.
"Well," said Mrs. Carlton, with a sigh of resignation to circumstances,
"the poor thing is here, and must be cared for." Then turning to the
servant, she added, "Take the poor child into the bath-room. Give her a
thorough cleansing and combing, while I look out some of Jessie's clothes
for her. Take those rags she has on, and throw them on the dirt heap!"
The party in the kitchen now broke up. Uncle Morris, the boys, and Jessie,
went into the parlor, where they found Mr. Carlton, who had just returned
from the city. He approved of what Uncle Morris had done, but thought it
best to inquire, at once, for Madge's mother at the village tavern. As
there was yet an hour to spare before tea, he took Guy, and started in
pursuit of the heartless mother.
Where was she? After leaving Madge at the pump, she had gone to the
tavern, and purchased some gin. After drinking a large glass of the fiery
liquor, she put down the glass and the money, looking so ravenously at the
sparkling decanter, that the landlord feared she was going crazy. Reaching
her skinny fingers out towards the bottle, she said, in a screeching
voice: "Give me another glass!"
Hardly knowing what he was about, the landlord filled her glass a second
time. She swallowed its contents at a single gulp, and demanded more.
Alarmed at her manner the man refused. Then her anger awoke. She poured
forth a volley of strange and fearful words. The passers-by came in to see
what was the matter. To be rid of her tongue and to save the reputation of
his house, as he said, the landlord called in his stable-boys, and they
hurled her into the street.
There she drew upon herself the attention of Jem Townsend and the crew of
idle boys which usually accompanied him. They gathered round the unhappy
woman, as she sat on the edge of the curb-stone cursing the tavern-keeper,
and began to tease her.
"Fuddled, eh?" said Jem Townsend, laughing. Then he added, "What do you do
here, Lady Ginswiller? Rather a cold seat this for a lady, eh? Better walk
into old Bottlenose's best parlor, hadn't ye?"
Upon this the poor maudlin creature cursed louder than ever. The wicked
urchins laughed and hooted in turn, until she rose in a fit of passion and
pursued them.
The boys ran down the village street, pausing now and then to quicken her
rage by some biting words. And thus they led her at last to the vicinity
of a low grocery. Drawn by the scent of rum, like the vulture to its
quarry, she staggered into the grocery, laid down her last sixpence on the
bar, and muttered, "Give me a drink of rum."
It was given her. She drank the wretched stuff, and reeling to the
door-step, fell down insensibly drunk. What a spectacle of pity! And yet
that poor, pitiable creature had once been a fair and lovely girl, as full
of life and hope as she was of health and beauty. But now, alas, how
fallen! What had done it? The wine cup, used in circles of fashion, began
the work of ruin. Rum and gin were doing their best to finish it.
Finding they could not rouse her, the boys ran off to Mr. Tipstaff, the
constable, and told him about her. That worthy repaired to the spot. Aided
by one or two others he dragged her to a magistrate's office; and he sent
her to jail as a common vagrant.
These facts were all told to Mr. Carlton and Guy by the landlord of the
hotel, who painted the poor woman in very dark colors. After calling on
the magistrate and requesting that the prisoner might be detained the next
day until it was ascertained certainly that she was Madge's mother, he and
Guy returned home with sad hearts. They talked the matter over as they
walked. Among other questions, Guy asked:
"Do _many_ women become drunkards, Pa?"
"Yes, a great many; though drunken women are not so common as drunken men,
by far."
"It always makes me feel bad to see a tipsy man; but when I once saw a
tipsy _woman_ in New York, it made me shudder. How do _women_ learn to
drink, Pa? They don't go to the tavern like men, do they?"
"Not at first, Guy. Usually they begin at home, or at parties, or when
stopping at the great hotels, where wine is drunk at the dinner-table. In
many families, also, wine is used at the table, and fathers and mothers
teach their daughters to drink it as a daily beverage. But generally, I
believe, ladies begin their habit of drinking wine at parties, taking it,
at first, not from choice, but because they don't like to be thought
singular."
"But I don't see how drinking a little wine at a party can teach a lady to
be a drunkard, Pa," remarked Guy.
"It does not do so, my son, in every case. But too often a lady will
acquire an appetite for wine, which gradually grows stronger and stronger
until she cannot control it. This appetite is not awakened in all who
drink, but it _may_ be. Hence, it is better for all, boys, girls, men, and
women, not to touch the drink that is in the drunkard's bowl."
"So I think, Pa," said Guy, "and therefore, I mean to be a tee-totaler as
long as I live."
"That's right, my son. It is always best to keep as far from a dangerous
place as possible."
When Mr. Carlton and Guy reached home, tea was ready, and they went at
once to the cheerful table. Jessie could scarcely wait while the blessing
was asked, so impatient was she to know if Madge's mother had been found.
As soon, therefore, as Uncle Morris ceased speaking, she broke forth and
said:
"O Pa! you don't know how nice Madge will look when she is washed and
dressed. Please tell me if you have seen her mother?"
"No, I have not _seen_ her," replied her father, smiling.
Jessie's face brightened. She had been fearing that Madge would have to go
away if her mother was found. Looking archly at her father, she said--
"I'm _so_ glad. _Now_ poor Madge can stay here!"
"Why, Jessie, you surprise me," said Mrs. Carlton. "Is it any thing to be
glad about, that a little girl has lost her mother?"
With a blush mantling her cheek: the little girl exclaimed--
"Her mother is a wicked woman, Ma, and don't make her happy, nor teach her
to be good. If Madge has lost her, and you let her live with us and be a
mother to her, she will be a good deal better off, and much happier than
she could be with her own mother."
"Spoken like a philosopher!" exclaimed Uncle Morris. "The loss of a
drunken mother is not, indeed, a thing to mourn over, especially if that
loss brings with it the gain of a home in which Love is the perpetual
President--but I suspect from your pa's looks that Madge's mother is not
wholly lost, yet."
"_Why!_ didn't pa say he couldn't find her?" said Jessie, looking with a
puzzled air at her father.
"Not exactly, my dear," replied Mr. Carlton. "I said I had not _seen_ her,
which is true; but I have _heard_ of her, as I suppose; for a strange
woman did go to the tavern about the time Madge was left, and is now in
jail as a drunken vagrant."
"Oh, how shocking!" exclaimed Jessie.
Mr. Carlton now told all he had heard about the supposed Mrs. Clifton, and
it was agreed that Uncle Morris should see her in the morning and learn if
she was, indeed, the poor child's mother.
After tea, Jessie hurried to the kitchen to look after her _protégé_. She
found her so changed by her washing and new dress, that notwithstanding
her high expectations, she could hardly believe her to be the same Madge
she had seen sitting there an hour before. But Madge it was, as bright and
good-looking a girl as could be found anywhere, in or out of Duncanville.
"Have you had enough to eat, Madge?" inquired Jessie, scarcely knowing how
to act the part of an agreeable hostess.
"Indade, miss, but she has eaten more like a hungry pig than a gal," said
Mary, before Madge had time to reply.
Jessie could not keep from laughing at Mary's not very complimentary
comparison. Hence, she turned her head so as not to hurt the little girl's
feelings. As soon as she could make her face straight and sober again, she
sat down beside Madge, and taking her hand, said--
"Would you like to see my doll?"
But Madge had other and higher thoughts than of dolls or playthings. She
was in a sort of wonder-world. She could not satisfy herself with regard
to the meaning of the change brought about in her during the last hour or
two. That pleasant kitchen, the neat dress she wore, the bath by which she
had been cleansed from the filth of poverty, the pleasant faces she had
seen, and the kind voices she had heard, all seemed to her like a gay
dream, and she was expecting, ay, and fearing too, that the next minute
she should awake and find herself sitting and shivering in the cold wind,
under the stone wall, waiting for her ungentle mother. But when Jessie
touched her hand and spoke so kindly to her, every thing seemed real, and
her heart sent up gushes of gratitude to the little friend who, like some
good fairy, had conjured away her rags, and pain, and cold, and hunger.
After gazing silently into Jessie's eyes a few moments, as if she was
trying to look into her soul, she said--
"Little girl, will you let me love you?"
"To be sure I will, and I will love _you_ too," replied Jessie, in tones
that seemed like angel's music to the little outcast, whose ears had long
been unfamiliar with loving words.
Then Jessie threw an arm round Madge and pressing her to her bosom, gave
her a kiss. Oh, how warmly did the outcast girl return it! She clung to
Jessie as the wild vine does to the supporting branch, and embraced her
with an ardor which told more eloquently than words could utter it, how
grateful she was for the love which Jessie had offered her.
When Madge withdrew her arms from Jessie, she sat back in her chair and
gazed at her long and silently. After a time the tears filled her eyes,
and in broken accents she asked--
"Does any one know where my mother is?"
Jessie told her she was probably in the village, and that she would, most
likely, see her in the morning. Madge begged hard to be taken to her that
night, but was finally persuaded to wait until the morrow.
"That child has a great deal of _heart_," said Uncle Morris, after hearing
Jessie's account of her interview with Madge. "We must do what we can to
rescue her from the influence of her drunken mother."
CHAPTER XII.
Little Impulse beaten again.
After breakfast the next morning, Jessie sat down to her work with a
resolute will. Her _impulse_, was to spend the hours playing with Madge.
But her purpose to act by rule was strong, and it conquered. Guy went out
for the brown worsted, which her meeting with Madge, kept her from buying
the previous evening. So giving her _protégé_ a seat on a cricket by her
side, she worked merrily, and with nimble fingers, on her uncle's
slippers. The tongues of the two girls, you may be sure, were as nimble as
Jessie's fingers.
While they were thus happily employed, Uncle Morris was out, looking after
the young outcast's mother.
Jessie had not been seated more than an hour before her brother Hugh, with
his friend, Walter Sherwood and his sister Carrie, came in, each armed
with a pair of skates, and well wrapped up, as was fitting they should be,
on a cold day in November. Carrie bounded into the room like a fawn, and
kissing her friend, exclaimed:
"O Jessie! this is a capital morning for skating! Walter has found a nice
safe place, and we have come to take you with us."
This was a strong temptation. Perhaps a stronger could not have been
offered, to incline her to break her purpose, and drop her work. There had
been no day since her skates had been given her, in which there had been
ice enough to try them. It was a new amusement, too, and her heart was set
upon it. Hence, an impulse came over her, to pitch the slipper into the
basket, seize her skates, and hurry away to the desired spot. In fact, she
half rose from the chair, and words of consent were rising to her lips,
when she thought of the little wizard, and reseating herself, replied:
"I would like to go ever so much, Carrie, but I must stay in until
dinner-time, and work on uncle's slippers."
"Bother the slippers! Who cares about them! Uncle don't need them, and why
should you be fussing over them," said Hugh.
"It's very pleasant to work for your good old uncle, I dare say, Miss
Jessie, but you can do that in the afternoon. We very much wish you to
join our party this morning," observed Walter.
"I know I _could_," replied Jessie; "but mother wishes me to sew or study
every morning until dinner-time, and I have resolved to do it. I have
broken my purpose a great many times, but I _must_ keep it now, much as I
want to go out skating. Can't you put off your party until the
afternoon?"
"Not a bit of it!" said Hugh. "Come Walt, come Carrie, let us be off."
"I think I will stay with Jessie this morning," replied Carrie; "and I
invite you, young gentlemen, to beau us to the skating-ground, this
afternoon!"
"If you won't go now, you may beau yourselves for all we," retorted Hugh
in his usual ungracious way, when treating with his sister.
"Don't say _so_, Hugh," responded Walter. "It's hardly polite. 'Spose you
and I go without the girls this morning, and _with_ them this afternoon?
Eh?"
"As you please!" growled Hugh, swinging his skates; "only let us be off
quick."
The boys now left, promising to go with the girls at half-past two in the
afternoon. Carrie laid aside her hood and cloak, which Jessie took, and
laid in a heap upon the table.
"My dear!" observed Mrs. Carlton, who looked into the room just at that
moment; "is _that_ the place for Carrie's things?"
A blush tinged Jessie's cheek. As I have said before, a want of regard for
order, was a fault which grew out of her impulsive nature. She did most
things in a hurry, and usually with some other object before her mind at
the same time. While her uncle had been trying to cure her of the habit of
yielding to her impulses, her mother had also been endeavoring to
stimulate her to cultivate a love of order. No wonder, then, that she
blushed as she went to hang her friend's hood and cloak on the stand in
the hall.
All this time, poor Madge had sat almost unnoticed. So taken up were they
all with their skating party, that they had overlooked the quiet maiden,
sitting so demurely on her cricket. But now the boys were gone, and the
two friends took their seats, Jessie's thoughts came back to the young
outcast, and turning to Carrie, she said:
"Carrie, let me introduce you to Madge Clifton."
"How do you do, miss?" said Carrie, bowing.
Poor Madge did not know much about introductions, and was unused to
company. So she only blushed, hung down her head, and replied:
"Pretty well, thank ye."
Jessie now took Carrie aside, and in whispers told her poor Madge's story,
after which they resumed their seats. Carrie's warm heart soon melted away
the poor outcast's fears; and while the two young ladies were merrily
prattling away, Madge listened with wonder if not with delight. In fact,
her life since last evening seemed more like a dream than a reality to
her. She was still in fairy-land.
Presently the postman came to the house bringing a letter addressed to
"Miss Jessie Carlton." The servant took it to Jessie on a small salver.
"Is it for me?" cried Jessie, taking it up and examining the address.
"Whom can it be from?" asked Carrie, leaning over to her friend's side to
see the handwriting.
"Oh, I know!" exclaimed Jessie. "It's from cousin Emily."
The letter was opened, and Jessie read aloud as follows:
MORRISTOWN, N. J., November 18, 18--.
MY DEAR JESSIE:
I got home nicely from your house. Ma was very glad to see us, and so
was pa. Charlie said he was glad to get home. I was some glad and
some sorry. It was pleasant to see pa and ma again, but I missed you,
oh! ever so much! When I went up to my room that night, I sat down
and cried. I thought over all the naughty things I had said and done
to you while I was at Glen Morris, until it seemed to me I was the
most wicked girl in the world. I thought of you and of dear Uncle
Morris and his good advice, until my heart seemed broken. Then I
kneeled down and asked God to make me a good girl like you. I begin
to believe he will, for I have been trying hard to be good ever
since. Mother says I am a very good girl already; but she don't know
what passes in my thoughts, nor how hard I have to strive to keep
down my ugly, wicked temper. Charlie is not quite so wicked as he
was, either, and I am trying to make him a good boy. I wish you would
come to Morristown and make me a good long visit. With much love to
yourself, and your good Ma, Pa, and Uncle Morris, I am
Your affectionate cousin,
EMILY MORRIS.
TO MISS JESSIE CARLTON.
"What a beautiful letter!" said Carrie. Jessie was silent. She was
thinking. She was secretly rejoicing, too. Such a joy was in her young
heart as had never welled up in it before. She had done Emily good. As Guy
had led Richard Duncan into right paths, so she had led Emily. Happy,
happy Jessie!
Just then she heard Uncle Morris's night-key lifting the latch of the hall
door. Away she bounded from her seat, almost overturning poor Madge in her
hurry. Rushing to her uncle as he was closing the door, she seized his arm
with one hand while she held up Emily's letter in the other, and in a
loud, earnest whisper, said:
"O Uncle! Cousin Emily is trying to be good. She says so in her letter."
Uncle Morris stooped to imprint a kiss on the upturned lips of the eager
child. Then patting her head gently, he said:
"It is not every sower of good seed that finds his harvest sheaf so
quickly as you have done. Perhaps the Great Husbandman has given my Jessie
hers to encourage her to sow, and sow, and sow again--but Jessie, I have
found your Madge's mother."
"Have you, _truly_?" asked Jessie, feeling her interest suddenly revived
in her _protégé_.
"Yes. Come with me to your mother's room and I will tell you all about
it."
This "mother's room" was up-stairs, and up they went. Finding Mrs. Carlton
there with her seamstress, they sat down, and Uncle Morris told his story.
Said he:
"I have seen Mrs. Clifton. She is sober this morning, and is quite a
well-bred, intelligent woman. She has been respectable; was well married
to a reputable man. But foolishly forsaking their quiet country home, they
went to the city in the hope of acquiring property. There her husband,
failing to get work, took to drinking and died. Mrs. Clifton buried him,
and, dreading to go back to her old home because of poverty, tried to
support herself by needle-work. In an evil hour she took to drinking;
first as a stimulant to labor, and then as a cordial to soothe her griefs.
Of course she soon sank very low, and made poor Madge go out to beg. At
last, stung with remorse, she resolved to quit the city, and, seeking work
in the country, become a sober woman again. Filled with this purpose she
travelled as far as Duncanville with her child, when her appetite for
drink came upon her. Leaving Madge at the Four Corners she sought the
tavern. The rest you know. _We_ found the child, and _she_ spent the night
in the lock-up."
"Poor thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton.
"Poor little Madge!" cried Jessie, who very naturally felt more for the
unfortunate child, than for the unhappy, but guilty mother.
"Yes," said Mr. Morris, "but pity alone won't do them much good. The
question is, what shall be done with them?"
"True," rejoined Mrs. Carlton, "but are you sure the woman's story is
true?"
"It agrees with the account Madge gave of herself, so far as the affair of
last evening is concerned. Being true in _one_ thing, I hope it is in all.
She has, however, given me references to her old friends in the country,
and professes to be very anxious to live a reformed life. I will write to
her friends, but, meanwhile, what shall we do with her?"
"Let her come here, and stay with Madge?" suggested Jessie.
Mrs. Carlton looked at her brother, and read in his eyes an approval of
her daughter's suggestion.
"Be it so," said she, "if you think best. I can keep her busy with her
needle, until we hear from her friends, and something offers. Perhaps a
few days spent in our quiet home, will confirm her in her feeble purposes
to reenter the way of sobriety."
"Spoken just like yourself!" said Mr. Morris, with an expression which
showed how greatly he loved and admired his sister. "I will go after the
poor creature directly."
"Oh, I'm _so_ glad Madge's mother is coming here to live!" cried Jessie,
clapping her hands, and running down-stairs to tell the good news to her
_protégé_.
The outcast child looked a gratitude she did not know how to express,
after hearing what Jessie had to say. She fixed her large, black eyes,
swimming in tears, upon her friendly hostess, and silently watched her
every motion.
"I think it's very kind of your mother, to take a stranger into her house
so," whispered Carrie.
"So it is," replied Jessie, who was now busy with her embroidery on the
slipper. "So it is, but my Uncle Morris says that it is godlike to be
kind, and that if we are kind and loving to poor people, the great God
will honor us, and care for us."
Carrie looked at the sweet face of Jessie with admiration for some time,
without saying a word. At last, to break the silence, she said:
"Won't we have a good time, skating this afternoon?"
"I hope so," said Jessie; "and we will take Madge with us, shall we?"
"Can you skate, Madge?" asked Carrie.
Madge shook her head. The child was nervous and uneasy about the coming of
her mother. She was afraid she might come to the house tipsy, and so
offend the friends who loved her so well.
"Can you _slide_ on the ice?" asked Jessie.
"Yes, ma'am," replied Madge, evidently getting to be more and more
absent-minded.
"She is thinking about her mother," whispered Carrie.
"Yes, don't let us trouble her," replied Jessie.
Quickly sped the bright needle, with its beautiful worsteds, along the
slipper, and quickly grew into shape the flowers which were to form the
pattern. A happy heart and a resolute will, make her fingers both nimble
and skilful.
By and by, Uncle Morris's night-key was heard opening the door-latch
again. Jessie started, listened a moment, then dropped her work, and
taking Madge's hand, said:
"Your mother is come!"
"Where is she?" asked the child, looking anxiously toward the door.
"Come with me, I'll show you," said Jessie, taking her by the hand.
They went into the hall. Uncle Morris was there, and so was Mrs. Clifton.
She was a short, slender, well-formed woman, with large, dark bloodshot
eyes. Her face was pale, her cheeks hollow, and her hair uncombed. She was
poorly dressed, and yet there was something about her, which told of
better things. As soon as she saw Madge, she ran to her, folded her
nervously to her bosom, and exclaimed:
"Oh! my child! pity your poor, wretched mother!"
Madge, finding her mother to be sober, grew cheerful. Her mother, after
being taken to the bath-room, and furnished with some changes of raiment,
was installed in the room with the seamstress, and then, as waters close
up, and flow on smoothly again, after a little disturbance, so did affairs
at Glen Morris move on once more, in their wonted quiet course.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Skating-Party.
"Now you can go skating with me, can't you?" inquired Carrie Sherwood, as
she pushed her little round face in at the door after dinner.
"Yes, _now_ I can go," replied Jessie. "I did ever so much on my slipper
this morning, and shall get it done by the last of the week."
"If you stick to it, but I know you _won't_," said Hugh, interrupting his
sister.
Jessie felt a little anger stir in her heart on hearing this fling at a
habit she was trying so so hard to overcome. But saying to herself, "never
mind, I deserve it," she merely gave Hugh a glance of reproof, and was
silent.
"I say, that's ungenerous, Mister Hugh," observed Guy, taking up his
sister's case. "You know Jessie is learning to stick to her purposes, and
that is more than anybody can say of you."
"Don't be too hard upon a fellow just for a joke," replied Hugh, wincing
under his brother's hit.
"Well, don't you throw stones at Jessie; at least, not so long as you live
in a glass house yourself," said Guy. Then turning to the girls, he added:
"Come girls, get ready, and I'll go with you to help Jessie try her new
skates."
"Oh, thank you, you dear good Guy!" replied Jessie, running to her brother
and giving him a sweet sisterly kiss.
"I think I'll go, too, if you'll let me," said Hugh.
"You may if you'll promise not to poke fun at us if we fall down," replied
Jessie.
"If you do poke fun, master Hugh," said Carrie, shaking her head at him,
"we will never consent to let you join our party again!"
"That will be _terrible_!" exclaimed Hugh, with mock gravity. "Why I'd
rather be drummed out of our Archery club than be turned off by the
ladies."
"Well, you may go this time, if you will carry my skates," said Jessie.
"Of course I will; and is there any thing else, in the small way, that
your most humble servant can do for you?" asked Hugh, bowing almost to the
ground.
A laugh greeted this act of mock humility, and then all parties prepared
to face the keen breeze in search of recreation on the ice.
"Where is Madge? is she ready?" shouted Jessie, as she stood at the foot
of the stairs, warmly muffled for her walk.
"Yes, Miss, here she is," replied Madge's mother, as she came to the top
of the stairs, leading her daughter by the hand.
Madge was dressed in an old plaid cloak, which had become too small for
Jessie, and in a scarlet hood which had been laid aside for the same
reason.
"A regular little red riding-hood, isn't she?" whispered Hugh, to his
brother, after taking a survey of the prim, little black-eyed miss before
him. Then looking sour and angry, he added, "But why does Jessie take the
beggar's brat out with her?"
"Hugh! Hugh! Don't talk in that way," replied Guy, putting his hand
playfully over his brother's mouth.
"Get out!" cried Hugh, pushing his brother's hand away and walking off in
high dudgeon, in search of Walter, who, for some reason, had not come with
his sister. His foolish pride had kindled anger in his breast.
Madge, with the usual quickness of girls of her age, had caught enough of
Hugh's words, and of the meaning of his act, to perceive that he was
disposed to treat her with scorn. A cloud flitted across her brow, and her
eyes flashed. It was clear that the proud, thoughtless boy had wounded her
feelings.
"Hugh! Hugh! Don't carry off my skates!" shouted Jessie, as her brother
turned into the main road, from the lawn.
Whirling the skates over the fence, he kept on without a word. The skates,
fortunately, fell on a heap of dry leaves and were picked up uninjured by
Guy, who, with the three girls, soon found the way to some hollows, in the
pasture, near the brook. These hollows, filled with shallow pools of
water, now solidly frozen, were excellent places for young misses to slide
and skate in.
Madge was not cheerful this afternoon. Hugh had wounded her pride, and
stirred her sleeping passions. It was very ungenerous conduct, in a lad of
his age, to treat an unfortunate child with scorn. Madge ought not to have
allowed her temper to be ruffled. But, alas, poor child! she had not been
taught to keep her evil temper under control. So she brooded over Hugh's
conduct. The more she thought of it, the more chafed and angry she felt.
Guy helped Carrie and his sister put on their skates. Jessie had never had
a skate upon her foot before. Carrie had learned to use them a little the
previous winter. Hence, she glided off something like a swan, while Jessie
hobbled and slipped, and tumbled for a long time in vain attempts to keep
upright on the ice.
Carrie was so taken up watching the laughable attempts of her friend, that
she took no notice of poor Madge. Guy and Jessie were so busy, the former
teaching, and the latter learning, that they too forgot her. Poor child!
this neglect stung the wound which Hugh's act had caused, and so, with
many a frown and pout, she quietly stole from the hollow to a deeper one
in which, by seating herself on a low stump, she could remain unseen.
"They is all proud," mused Madge, half aloud. "I heard that You, or Hugh,
whatever they call him, say 'beggar's brat.' I know he meant me, and I
know he went off cause I was with 'em. And there's them gals; they don't
care for me a bit. Drat 'em! I wish mother would go away from here."
This was very foolish talk for Madge. Had she looked on the kind side of
her new-found friends, and thought of their gifts to her, and of the
pleasant home they had given her and her mother for the time-being, and of
their gentle words, she would have seen so much to be grateful for, that
there would have been no room in her heart for unhappy feelings. But Madge
forgot all these things. She saw nothing but Hugh's scorn and Jessie's
neglect. With these she tortured herself. It was just as foolish as if she
had taken some sharp thorns and scratched her arms and cheeks with them.
While Madge was thus making herself miserable, Jessie was making rare
progress with her skating. After a few awkward falls and a few bumps and
bruises, she learned "_the how_," as Guy called it; and then, though still
awkward, oh! how joyously she sped across the little pond chasing after
Guy and Carrie, and shouting until the welkin rang again.
"Capital fun, isn't it?" said she, gliding ashore, and sitting down on a
stone almost out of breath.
"I call it nice sport for girls," replied Carrie, pausing on the edge of
the bank; "but you aren't tired yet, are you?"
"Yes, a little. Besides, too much of a good thing, as my uncle says,
destroys your relish for it. I guess I've skated enough for once," said
Jessie, stooping and unbuckling the straps of her skates.
"Pooh! Jessie's not half a skater!" rejoined Carrie; "but what has become
of your friend Madge?"
"Sure enough! Where is she? I had forgotten all about her."
But Madge had wandered still farther off, and was nursing her bad feelings
in a small grove which skirted the pasture. She was not visible from where
the girls and Guy were.
"O Guy! Madge is gone. Won't you please come and help me find her?" said
Jessie, putting on a very long and sorrowful face.
"I'll call her. She's not far off, I'll bet," replied Guy.
Then placing his hands to his lips as a sort of speaking trumpet, he
shouted--
"Madge! Ma-adge! Ma-a-adge!"
"Adge! Adge! Adge!" said an echo from the distant grove.
"Where can she be!" cried Jessie, now relieved of her skates and standing
on a hillock, peering eagerly all over the pasture.
"I guess she is only gone home. Never mind her," said Carrie. "She ain't
worth worrying about."
"Yes, she is," replied Jessie. "She is a poor unhappy girl, and I want to
make her good and happy. Uncle Morris says everybody that God made is
worth caring about, and I _do_ care for Madge. Oh dear, I wish I knew
where to find her."
"See there?" cried Guy, pointing to a group of boys near the distant
grove. "I think I see Madge among those fellows. I'll lose my guess if
that isn't Idle Jem and his crew. There's a girl among them for certain,
but how could Madge stroll all up there and none of us see or think of
her?"
"Let us go and see," said Jessie.
Quickly as their nimble fingers could loose the straps, Carrie and Guy
removed their skates. In a minute or two more, the three were hurrying
across the pasture toward the boys and girl, whom they saw.
Madge was, indeed, one of that group. Idle Jem and his crew, while
wandering across the pasture in search of the hickory-nuts which were
hidden under the dead leaves, had found her in the grove. They began to
jibe at her at once. The girl long used to the rough news and beggar boys
of the city, and out of temper, withal, jibed back at them with interest.
They goaded her with harsh words; and when Guy and the girls came within
hearing, she was using language such as the pure-minded Jessie had never
heard before.
"Hush, Madge!" said Guy, putting his hand on Madge's shoulder. "Don't
swear! It's wicked to talk so. You go home with Jessie and Carrie, I'll
take care of these boys."
That last phrase was an unlucky one for Guy. The wicked boys took it up as
a defiance.
"Take care of us, eh? That's the talk is it? How will you do it, old
fellow?" said Jem, sneering and chucking Guy's chin.
"Keep your hands off me, if you please," said Guy; "I want nothing of you
only to let that poor girl alone."
"It's none of your business what we say to that gal," said Noll Crawford.
"Yes, it is my business to see that you let her entirely alone," replied
Guy firmly. "So stand off, and let us take her quietly a way."
"Shan't do nothin' of the kind," said Peter Mink, running toward Madge,
whose eyes flashed fire.
Guy grasped him by the collar and hurled him back from Madge, amidst the
tears and cries of Carrie and Jessie who were both very much frightened.
"Oh! oh! a fight is it you want? Come I'll fight with ye!" said Idle Jem,
slipping up to Guy, and raising his fists as if for a battle.
"I never fight!" replied Guy. "Besides, we have nothing to fight about. I
only wish you to let my little friend, Madge, alone."
"She!" retorted Jem, "that swearing cat your friend, Master Guy Carlton.
Pooh! You don't have swearing gals among your friends, I know. That gal is
some beggar's brat, and we only want to have some fun with her."
Jem's tone was much lowered toward the latter part of his speech. His
hands, too, fell as if by instinct to his pockets. Peter Mink and Noll
Crawford drew back, the latter saying as he did so--
"Come, Jem, let's leave the spunky little gentleman and his friend, Madge,
to themselves. I'd rather pick up hickory nuts than listen to his gab."
"Discretion always is the better part of valor, as Uncle Morris says,"
thought Guy, as he walked away with his sisters, patting the head of old
Rover.
It was the coming up of old Rover which had cooled off Idle Jem and his
crew. The dog had been strolling about the pasture while Jessie was
skating. Having missed his young master and mistress on returning to the
pond, the faithful fellow had followed them. He came up just at the right
moment. His rows of big white teeth, and his low growl, taught the idlers
the discretion which Guy praised and which led them to cease their angry
jibes. With Guy alone they might have contended. But Rover was an enemy
they had not courage to face.
To the wounded pride and the ill temper of Madge, shame was now added. The
kind and gentle Jessie had heard her _swear_, had seen her face flushed
with passion, had had a glimpse into the dark corner of her evil nature.
Poor Madge! She sullenly refused to speak or to permit either of the party
to take her hand; but lagging behind the rest, she silently followed them
home.
Jessie bade her friend, Carrie, good-by in front of Mr. Sherwood's
cottage. As they kissed each other, Carrie put her mouth to Jessie's ear
and whispered--
"Jessie, shall I tell you what I think about Madge?"
"Yes."
"I wouldn't trouble my head about her any more, if I were you. She is a
terribly wicked creature!"
Jessie sighed, but said nothing. On reaching home finding no one at
liberty to talk with her, she went to her chamber and getting her writing
materials and her portfolio, went down into the parlor and wrote the
following answer to her cousin Emily's letter:
GLEN MORRIS COTTAGE, DUNCANVILLE, NOV. --, 18--.
DEAR COUSIN:
I was glad to receive your letter, and to learn that you were all
well at Morristown. I cannot tell you how happy it made me to hear
that you are trying to be good. I wish I was good all the time, but,
as Uncle Morris says, it is so much easier to do wrong than it is to
do right. I can't tell you how much I love our dear uncle, for he is
always helping me to be good. He says a good heart is God's gift, and
that we must ask him to give it to us for the sake of his dear Son.
Well, I ask for a good heart three times every day, and if you do so
too, God will hear you and bless you.
What do you think? Yesterday I found a poor girl named Madge in the
road near the pump at the four corners. You know the place. Well, I
asked Uncle Morris to take her home and he did. Her mother is here
too. I thought Madge was so nice, and would learn to be good _so_
easy, that I began to love her dearly. But to-day, she swore
dreadfully and wouldn't speak to me. Isn't it fearful? I'm afraid I
shan't be able to love her as I want to any more. Oh dear! I'm so
sorry. Well, you and I must try to be good. Give my love to uncle and
aunt, and to Charlie, and believe me to be
Your affectionate Cousin,
JESSIE CARLTON.
P. S. I've almost finished Uncle Morris's slippers. J. C.
CHAPTER XIV.
The Watch-Pocket finished.
"Well, Jessie, how do you like your black-eyed _protégé_?" asked Uncle
Morris, a few days after the events recorded in the last chapter.
"Pretty--well--but--but--"
"But what?" said Uncle Morris, with an arch glance, for he saw that Jessie
was loth to speak the thought that lingered in her mind.
"Well, I like Madge, Uncle, but as ma says, she is not quite an _angel_,"
and Jessie laughed as if there was something funny in her mother's
saying.
"I suppose she is not. Did my puss ever hear of angels being found, as we
found Madge, dressed in rags, and shivering under a stone wall?"
"No, uncle, but, but--"
"There you are _but_-ing again," said Mr. Morris. "Why not out with it at
once, and say that you did not expect to find so many faults in poor
Madge, as you have found?"
"Because I don't like to speak evil of her, and yet I do wish she wouldn't
have those ugly spells come over her. Sometimes she is so gentle and
grateful, that I begin to love her dearly. Then all at once, she will be
so cross and ugly, that I begin to repent having asked you to bring her
home with us."
Mr. Morris looked at his perplexed niece in silence for nearly a minute.
He was thinking how to impress her mind with the moral taught by her
disappointment respecting Madge. At last he very gravely said:
"Jessie!"
"What is it, Uncle?" asked Jessie, surprised at her uncle's manner.
"Shall I tell you plainly, why you _feel_ so much disappointed in poor
Madge?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Well, it is because your kindness to her was mixed with a good deal of
_selfishness_."
"O Uncle Morris!" exclaimed Jessie; "how can you say so?"
"Because I really think so;" replied Mr. Morris.
"Well, you are a funny man, if you think so, Uncle! How _could_ I be
selfish, in wishing you to bring that poor child home? I'm sure I didn't
expect to gain any thing by it." Here Jessie pouted a little, for she was
really piqued by what her uncle had said. Seeing this, Mr. Morris
replied:
"I hope my little puss is not going to be angry with her poor old uncle,
because he seeks to tell her the truth."
"Well, no; but really, I don't see how you can think me selfish, just for
wishing you to bring a poor, freezing child, to our house," and with this
remark, Jessie forced back the smile which usually played round her lips,
while she looked earnestly into her uncle's eyes.
"Will my little puss answer me a question or two?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Tell me then, my dear child, did you not expect to derive a great deal of
_pleasure_ from Madge's gratitude, and love, and obedience to yourself?
Did you not look upon yourself as her benefactor, her teacher, her
superior, and as having a right to claim such conduct from her, as would,
in some degree, pay you for your trouble and kindness? You expected her,
poor thing, to behave like an angel, for your sake. Instead of that, she
has, at times, let her evil nature and her bad habits break out, in a way
to give you trouble and pain, and to cause you to feel disappointment. Are
not these things so, my sweet little puss?"
"Yes, Sir. But--but _ought_ not poor people to be grateful and obedient to
those who help them?" asked Jessie, who, though she began to perceive that
a regard for her own pleasure had been mixed with the kindness to Madge,
was not quite ready to plead guilty to her good uncle's charge.
"They _ought_ certainly, and when they do, it is very right for those who
help them, to take pleasure in their gratitude. But that is a very
different thing, from doing good _for the sake of the pleasure or profit
we expect to derive from the conduct of those we benefit._"
Uncle Morris then went on to show Jessie, that really good people were
kind to the poor and wretched, because it is their duty to be so; that
they seldom found their reward, either in the gratitude of those they
helped, or in the smiles of men; that instead of finding such rewards,
they were often blamed and treated harshly by the public, and ungratefully
by their _protégés_; but that they had a rich reward, nevertheless. They
felt, he said, a very sweet satisfaction in themselves; they were smiled
upon by the Father and Saviour of men; and they would, in the better land,
be more than rewarded with mansions, robes, crowns, and honors, which
selfish people would forever envy but never enjoy.
This talk with her uncle did Jessie good. She afterwards bore Madge's
outbreaks of temper with more patience, and tried to set her such an
example as would make her feel her own faults far more than by scolding or
fretting.
Madge, who was very quick-witted, saw and felt the change in Jessie, and
she, too, tried to overcome herself, that she might not grieve a friend,
who loved her so truly and so well.
One morning Jessie awoke, and was surprised to see the lawn, the trees,
and the fences all white with snow. It was a beautiful sight. She had
never seen snow in the country before. Having dressed herself, she ran
down-stairs, and going to the piazza, clapped her hands, and cried:
"Oh, how pretty those evergreens look! That pine-tree is perfectly
beautiful!"
"Ah, Jessie, is that you?" said Guy, as he came round the winding path,
plunging through the soft snow with his thick boots, and dragging his sled
after him.
"Yes, I'm here," replied Jessie. "But where have _you_ been with your sled
before breakfast?"
"Been coasting, to be sure. There's a capital place in the lane that runs
past Carrie Sherwood's cottage. We couldn't do much this morning but tread
down the snow; but after breakfast, it will be fine. Will you go with me
then, Jessie?"
"I should like to, ever so much, but--"
"But what?"
"Well, I must work all the morning. That's my rule, you know. I'll go with
you in the afternoon, Guy."
"I don't want to tempt you to neglect a duty," replied Guy, knocking the
snow off his boots against the step of the piazza, as he spoke, "but
really, I'm afraid the coasting won't be worth the heel of an old shoe, by
the afternoon. You see, the sun is very bright, and the snow isn't apt to
stay long, so early in the season."
"I'm sorry," said Jessie, looking very downcast, "but I must give it up, I
guess. You see, I've finished uncle's slippers, and have almost done his
watch-pocket. I want to finish it ever so much before Thanksgiving, which
is to-morrow, you know."
"That's right, stick to it, Sister Jessie! I won't train in the little
wizard's company, so I advise you to lose this coasting treat, if the snow
does go, and thereby gain a victory for which Corporal Try would promote
you if he knew it."
With these words, Guy kissed his sister, placed his sled in the back-hall,
and went to the breakfast-room, to which he was shortly followed by
Jessie.
At breakfast, the boys discussed the question of the weather, and the snow
very earnestly. They wanted the snow to last, first, that they might enjoy
the sport of coasting, and then, that they might have a sleigh ride.
"How I should like a sleigh-ride," exclaimed Jessie, with brightening
eyes.
"Guess you won't have it just yet," said Hugh. "The sun will melt the snow
from the roads before noon, I guess, and its too light and loose for good
sleighing this morning."
"I'm sorry, for I do want to coast, and to ride in a sleigh, so much--ever
so much," said Jessie, sighing, and looking very sober--for her.
"Can't you _coast_ this morning, with the boys?" inquired Mr. Carlton.
"We don't want her," said Hugh, snappishly. "Girls are always in the way
when coasting is going on."
"Ill-natured as ever, I see, Master Hugh," observed Uncle Morris.
"I want her," said Guy, "and will take her this afternoon, if the snow
don't melt."
Jessie looked at her brother with eyes that seemed to say, "What a dear,
good brother you are!" Mr. Carlton asked:
"But why not take her this _morning_, Guy, before the snow melts?"
"Because she thinks it is not best to go, Sir," replied Guy.
"Ah! ah! Not best to go, eh? What's going on at home this morning,
Jessie?" asked Mr. Carlton, looking at his daughter, whose face was now
red with blushes.
"Because Corporal Try won't let her," replied Guy, laughing and coming to
her help. "He has given her a task which he wishes done before
Thanksgiving, and she means to do it, too, in spite of the little wizard,
who sits perched on my sled, in yonder hall, and saying, 'Come, let's have
a good time together, this morning.'"
"Bravo! If this was the proper place, I would propose three cheers for
Jessie Carlton, and her friend the Corporal," said Uncle Morris. Then
turning to Mrs. Carlton, he added, "By the way, sister, do you know that I
expect to hear of a wedding before long?"
"Indeed! Who are going to be married now?"
"No less a personage than that pesky little dwarf, who has given my little
puss so much trouble. I learn that he has popped the question to Miss
Perseverance, and if nothing happens, they will soon be joined in wedlock,
by Parson Good-Resolution."
Of course this quaint way of praising Jessie for her self-denial and
self-conquest caused a good hearty laugh all round the table. Jessie's
cheeks bloomed like roses, and her heart went pit-a-pat with joy-beats. A
happier breakfast party could scarcely have been found that morning in or
out of Duncanville.
To increase the flow of Jessie's delight, shortly after she had taken her
seat in her own pretty little chair, her uncle entered the parlor with
merriment in his eyes, and said:
"Sew away, my little puss. The north wind is on your side, and in spite of
the bright sun will keep the snow from melting, so that you may coast
after dinner with Guy and your friend Carrie, and take a sleigh-ride, too,
at three o'clock with a funny old gentleman named Morris. What do you say
to that my puss, eh?"
"I'm _so_ glad, I don't know what to say, Uncle. But, see here! (and
Jessie held up a purple velvet watch-bag, ornamented with steel beads.) I
shall have it all done by twelve o'clock!"
"If the little wizard don't hinder," suggested her uncle, laughing and
looking roguishly at her.
"Well, he won't," said Jessie, shaking her head. "He is too busy courting
Miss Perseverance to trouble his head about me. Ha! ha!"
Mr. Morris laughed heartily at Jessie's ready use of his quaint fancy
about the little wizard. He had no doubt about her firmness. But shaking
his finger at her he said, "Take care! the little wizard is a cunning
fellow, and knows how to ensnare little misses who have tasks to perform,"
and left the room.
Strong in purpose, and cheered by the hope of the afternoon's pleasure,
Jessie worked with such vigor on her watch-pocket, that she had put on the
last bead, sewed the last stitch, and trimmed off the last loose thread
before the clock struck twelve. Then she felt happier far than any child
ever did in the enjoyment of pleasures gained by the neglect of duty. She
had conquered a difficulty, had won a victory, had done a duty--had she
not a right to be happy?
I could almost wish myself a child again for the sake of tasting that
fresh, perfect, unmixed delight which welled up from Jessie's heart on the
afternoon of that clear December day. First came the play of coasting.
Taking her on his sled--"The Never-say-die"--Guy drew her to the lane near
Mr. Sherwood's cottage and amused her until the merry sleigh-bells caused
her to turn round. Then she saw a splendid sleigh drawn by two noble
horses, and driven by a man who, from the way he handled the whip and
reins, seemed born to be a coachman. Her mother and Uncle Morris were in
the sleigh. She stepped in. Carrie and Guy followed. Having wrapped
themselves up well in the buffalo robes, word was given to the driver, and
away they dashed down the road.
[Illustration: Walter Sliding With Carrie and Jessie. Page 227.]
Merrily jingled the dancing bells, swiftly trotted the lively horses,
smoothly glided the steel-shod sleigh over the snowy pathway, passing
houses, barns, and fields, as Guy said, with the speed almost of a
steam-engine. On they went, mile after mile, drinking in health and
spirits from the pure winter air and tasting that real enjoyment which is
found in innocent pleasures only. No wicked amusement ever did or ever can
yield such delight as Jessie and her friends tasted on that sleigh ride.
It was quite dark when they reached home again. They were a little chilled
with their ride, but the glowing fire which burned so cheerfully in the
parlor grate, soon restored them to warmth and comfort. The tea-table was
made cheerful by Jessie's account of the sports and pleasures of the
afternoon.
After tea Jessie took Guy into the kitchen, and taking the watch-pocket
from beneath her apron, said--
"Guy, I want you to go with me into Uncle Morris's chamber, and help me
fix a hook to hang this watch-pocket on. I want to give uncle a
surprise."
Guy gave his consent. Going to the nail-box he selected a small brass
hook, with a screw at the end, and a gimlet. Then taking a light, he went
up-stairs with his sister. Jessie pointed to the spot, over his bed, which
she thought the best place for the hook. Guy bored the hole, screwed in
the hook, and hung the pocket by its loop of braid upon it. Jessie clapped
her hands, and said--
"Isn't it pretty! Won't Uncle Morris be pleased! My _quilt_ covers his
bed. The _slippers_ I made him are under his chair, and now my
_watch-pocket_ hangs over his bedstead. I'll get his chair-cushion done
next, and then I guess he will allow that I'm fit to be an officer in your
Try Company. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
CHAPTER XV.
Thanksgiving Day.
The next morning was mild and clear. A bright sun shone gloriously forth,
and aided by light airs from the south, softened the snow and made every
thing, but the walking, as pleasant as nature ever is on a December day.
It was thanksgiving day, too--thanksgiving was appointed in December that
year--and all the inmates of Glen Morris arose in high spirits, expecting
to spend that festal day in calm and quiet enjoyment.
At the breakfast-table, Uncle Morris excited some surprise, by putting on
a very grave countenance, and saying--
"Some persons must have entered my room, last night!"
"Entered your room!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton, turning a little pale, and
forgetting what she was about, so far as to overflow the cup she was
filling with coffee.
"Did they steal any thing, Uncle?" asked Hugh, in a voice made husky by
the alarm he felt at the idea of burglars having been in the house.
"Mind, my dear, you are flooding the tea-tray with coffee," said Mr.
Carlton, pointing to the overflow of coffee in front of his lady.
"Did you see them?" inquired Jessie, also pale with alarm.
These questions were put so rapidly one after the other, that Uncle Morris
had no chance to explain himself for a few moments. Silence, however,
followed Jessie's question. Then the old gentleman relaxed his muscles,
smiled, and said--
"I neither saw nor heard the intruders; yet, I found unquestionable marks
of their having been in my room. They even made a hole in one of the
walls! Yet, strange as it may appear, they not only took nothing away,
but, on the contrary, they left one of the sweetest little chamber
ornaments behind them I ever saw. Such burglars are welcome to enter my
room every night!"
"O Uncle Morris! I know what you mean," said Jessie, laughing, and shaking
her forefinger at him.
Mr. Morris's last words and his changed manner, had, of course, relieved
all parties of their alarm, though none but Guy and his sister knew
precisely what he meant.
"I shouldn't wonder if you did. Even the bird knows where it finds food,
much more should intruders know where they intruded," replied Uncle
Morris.
Jessie then looked at her mother, and said--
"Ma, Uncle means me and Guy, by his intruders. We went into his room last
night to hang his watch-pocket over his bedstead."
"But what about the hole in the wall, Jessie? Did you and Guy dig that?"
asked Hugh.
"Ha, ha, ha! That's only Uncle Morris's fun. Guy bored a little hole with
his gimblet, to screw in the hook which was meant to hang the pocket on;
that's all," replied Jessie.
"No, that wasn't all, either," said Mr. Morris, "for my little puss left
the cutest little velvet watch-pocket I ever saw, hanging on the hook.
There was some witchery in it, too, for it kept me awake over an hour. It
seemed to hop down on to my pillow, and buzz in my ear, saying, 'I am a
love-gift. The little girl who made me, made your quilt, made your
slippers, and is going to make you a cushion. A pesky little creature
tried hard to hinder her from doing it, but her love for you was so
strong, she drove him away. I don't think there is any other old gentleman
in Duncanville, loved by either niece or daughter, half so well as you are
loved by the little miss whose nimble fingers made me!' Talking thus, the
pocket kept me from going to sleep, until I began to fancy that my Jessie
must have put a fairy into it."
"O Uncle Morris!" cried Jessie, with a glowing face and a heart dancing to
joy-beats, as it perceived the affection for her, which Uncle Morris only
partly concealed under his quaint and fanciful way of speaking. She craved
no higher reward, than these expressions of his love for her.
After breakfast and family prayers were over, Mr. Morris turned to his
niece, and said:
"Jessie!"
"Yes, Uncle."
"I am going to take a little walk, before I go to hear our minister's
Thanksgiving sermon. Will you go?"
"Oh yes, yes. Uncle, I should like it ever so much."
During this conversation, Mrs. Carlton had been looking out at the window.
The snow was dripping from the eaves, and from the trees. It looked soft
and soggy in the path, and she feared the walking would be too sloppy for
her daughter. So she said:
"It is hardly fit for Jessie to go out walking, Brother. The slosh will be
over her sandals, and she will get wet feet."
"Do you think so, Ma? Well, I'm sorry. But if I only had a pair of
rubber-boots, like Carrie Sherwood's, I could go in spite of the slosh.
Never mind,"--here Jessie's sigh showed how disappointed she felt,--"never
mind, uncle will have to take his walk alone."
Some misses would have fretted over such a disappointment as this. But
Jessie seldom fretted. She had too much good sense, and too much good
nature to fret. Perhaps this was one reason why she was loved so well.
When Mrs. Carlton had expressed her view of the bad walking, Uncle Morris
left the room, so that he did not hear all that Jessie said in reply. He
now returned, bearing in his hands a good-sized parcel, neatly tied and
addressed in his own handwriting, to "Miss Jessie Carlton." Giving it to
his niece, he said:
"Open Sesame! Perhaps you may find a talisman within this parcel, which
will incline your mamma to change her opinion about the fitness of your
walking out with me this morning."
Jessie untied the string, and on opening her parcel, looked up with eyes
full of pleasure, and exclaimed:
"A pair of rubber-boots!"
Then dropping the parcel, she ran to her uncle, and gave him, I don't know
how many warm kisses. After this, she took up the boots, and looking at
them admiringly, said:
"Oh, how nice! Now I can go out in sloppy weather, can't I, Ma! What a
dear, good uncle you are! What made you think of buying me these boots?"
"What made my little puss think of making me a watch-pocket, eh?" replied
Mr. Morris: "but come, try on your boots, and let us be going!"
Mrs. Carlton having no fears about the slosh now that Jessie's feet were
"_booted_," instead of being "_sandalled_," gave her consent, and a few
minutes later, Jessie was trotting along at the side of her uncle, in the
road which led toward the village. A hired man followed them at a little
distance, bearing a large basket well filled with mince-pies, and other
Thanksgiving luxuries for the table. Mr. Morris was going to distribute
them among certain poor families, to whom he had sent turkeys the day
before. It was part of his religion to do what he could to enable the
virtuous poor to share in the pleasures proper to Thanksgiving day.
The first cottage at which they called, was a very small one, occupied by
Mrs. Clifton and her daughter Madge. Having received proofs in letters
from her early friends that her story was true, Uncle Morris had hired
this cottage for her, and aided by Mr. Carlton, and a few other
kind-hearted men and women in Duncanville, had furnished it, and put her
in possession. Mrs. Carlton had interested the village ladies in her case,
and they had agreed to keep her supplied with sewing. The poor woman,
cheered by voices of kindness, and by the warm sympathies of her generous
patrons, had pledged herself to abstain from the drinks which had well
nigh ruined her. She had been in her new home for over a week, and was
getting along quite cheerily.
When Jessie and her uncle entered, Madge shrunk behind her mother. Ever
since the day on which Jessie heard her swear, she had acted as though
conscious that there was something between herself and Jessie which kept
them apart. I suppose that something was shame on her own part, and a
dread of being made wicked by being too intimate with her, on Jessie's
part. But whatever it was, Madge had felt uneasy in Jessie's presence from
that time to the present.
"Well, Mrs. Clifton, how are you getting on?" asked Mr. Morris, after
giving her a portion of the contents of the basket, carried by the hired
man.
"Pretty well, Sir, I thank you: indeed, Sir, I owe every thing to you,
Sir."
"No, not to me, my good woman, but to God and this child," said Mr.
Morris, pointing to Jessie; "but for her, your Madge would have gone to
the alms-house, and you, perhaps, would have been kept in prison. It was
to please my niece, here, that I took Madge to our house."
"A thousand blessings upon the dear child, and upon yourself, too, Sir,"
replied the woman with tears in her eyes.
Jessie's heart sent up gushes of sweet feeling at the sight of Mrs.
Clifton's gratitude. With some trouble she coaxed poor Madge to kiss her;
after which she and her uncle left the house.
"It is more blessed to _give_ than to _receive_," said Uncle Morris, as
they walked through the soft snow to the next cottage.
Jessie dwelt upon that remark, saying to herself, as she silently trudged
by her uncle's side--
"That is _so_, I really do believe. I always did like to _receive_, to
have those I love _give_ me something. But I really think I felt happier
in _giving_ Uncle Morris his watch-pocket, and in taking poor Madge home,
than I did in receiving my skates, or rubber boots, or any thing else I
ever had given to me. It's queer it should be so, but so it is. Yes, it
_is_ more blessed to _give_ than to _receive_. I'll remember that as long
as I live."
These musings were broken by their arrival at Mrs. Moneypenny's. Here they
found poor Jack, Guy's _protégé_. He had arrived from the hospital the day
before. His leg, though still sore and stiff, was healed. Long confinement
had made his face thin and pale. But he was very glad to find himself at
home again, and was very busy helping his mother get the turkey, sent the
day before by Uncle Morris, ready for the oven.
Here again Jessie found grateful hearts. After some other remarks, the old
lady said--
"That nephew of yours is a wonderful boy, Sir. There ain't another such
boy in all Duncanville. Only think, Sir, how he, a gentleman's son, has
milked and fed my cow, twice a day, ever since my Jack, there, was hurt!
Why, Sir, we should all have been in the alms-house if it hadn't been for
him. May the dear lad never know what trouble means!"
"I'd die for Guy Carlton, any day!" said Jack, his eyes glistening with
grateful tears as he spoke.
"Rather strong language that, my lad!" observed Mr. Morris.
"Well, I would, Sir. He's been so good to my poor mother, I'd do any thing
for him. I never knew such a boy as Guy Carlton," rejoined Jack, with a
warmth that defied contradiction, if it did not carry conviction.
Having again drawn on the contents of the basket for the supply of Mrs.
Moneypenny's table, they withdrew followed by a cloud of good wishes from
the hearts and lips of Jack and his mother.
Thus from cottage to cottage they passed, like angels of mercy, making
glad the hearts of the poor.
Returning from these visits to Glen Morris, they prepared for church,
where they heard a most excellent sermon, on the duty of gratitude to God.
Divine service over, they returned home, sat down at the plentiful table,
and feasted on the good things which usually make up a thanksgiving
dinner, in homes of wealth and comfort.
When the dessert was brought on, a little paper box was placed, by the
servant, beside Guy's plate. His name was written upon it in the
well-known handwriting of his uncle.
"What have you there, Guy?" inquired Hugh, who sat next to his brother.
"Perhaps it's a jack in the box!" suggested Mr. Carlton.
"A watch! A _gold_ hunting-watch! Oh, what a beauty! Just what I've been
wanting," exclaimed Guy, opening the box; "but what's this writing?"
On the inside of the case was this inscription: "Presented to Guy Carlton
in token of my admiration for his kindness to a poor widow in the time of
her distress.--Mr. Morris."
Guy blushed deeply as his brother read this inscription. He was not aware
that his uncle knew about his kindness to the widow. But the old gentleman
had heard all about it from the grateful woman's own lips. He now told the
story to the family. Mr. Carlton was delighted, and spoke words of
approbation that sank deep into Guy's heart, where they were treasured up
with more care than he would have kept ingots of gold.
But there was a frown on Hugh's face. He had no watch, and Guy now had
two. Hence, he felt envious. But before he had time to express himself, as
he was about to do, Guy took his old watch from his pocket and placing it
in Hugh's hand, said:
"There Hugh, I'll give you my old watch. It's a capital time-keeper!"
"Thank you," replied Hugh, repressing his frown, and trying to look
pleased.
"He don't deserve it," said Uncle Morris.
During this last act of Guy's, the servant placed a letter and another
box--a _very_ small one--beside Jessie's plate. Opening the letter, she
read thus:
CITY OF SELF CONQUEST, December, 18--.
DEAR MISS CARLTON:
Permit me to inform you that I have this day been wedded to Miss
Perseverance by the Rev. Mr. Good-Resolution. With your permission, I
and my bride will take up our abode with you at Glen Morris. I have
taken a new name in part, and with my bride's help, I hope to _help_
you more than I formerly _hindered_ you, to keep the rules of the Try
Company. The box contains a gift from a mutual friend, who wishes you
to admit me, in my new estate, to your friendship and confidence.
Very truly yours,
RIGHT IMPULSE.
"Ah, Uncle Morris, you wrote that, I know you did!" said Jessie, laughing,
and looking very archly at her uncle.
"Well, maybe it is an old man's folly that did it. But Jessie, I trust you
have now so far conquered yourself that henceforth your _impulses_ will no
longer be like little wizards tempting you astray, but that they will be
guided by _right resolutions_, and carried out with _perseverance_. You
will thus become a true member of the Try Company, and live both a good
and a useful life."
Jessie now opened her box. Taking a bright little object from its velvet
lining, she placed it on her finger, and holding it up, exclaimed:
"What a dear little thimble! Oh! isn't it pretty?"
It was a golden thimble with her name inscribed upon it. It came from her
uncle, as a token of his approval of her many efforts to bring her
impulses under the control of the law of duty.
"I hope," he said to her after receiving her caresses, "that your hardest
struggles with your old enemy are over. But no doubt the little fellow
will sometimes try to separate himself from his good resolutions and from
his bride Perseverance. When he does so, you will be in danger again. But
be brave! Be thoughtful! Be prayerful! Trust in the Great Teacher! Try,
and try again, and Uncle Morris will never have need to blush for his
niece, Jessie Carlton."
After dinner our young folks got up a grand romp in the parlor. Their
father and uncle joined them, and the jocund hours passed so swiftly, that
the dusk stole upon them unawares.
"Dear me! How early it is dark to-night," said Jessie, as panting with
excitement, she sat down in her own little chair.
"Hours fly on eagle's wings, when people are pleased and busy, as we have
been this afternoon," observed Uncle Morris in reply; "but hark! our
door-bell rings! Somebody is coming in. Boys, put the chairs to rights!"
Before the disordered room could be made fit for a reception, the servant
opened the door, and said:
"Mr. Carlton, will you please step to the door?"
Going to the door, Mr. Carlton found a man standing on the door-step with
a letter in his hand. A carriage stood in front of the piazza. Bowing to
Mr. Carlton, the man handed him the letter, and said:
"I have brought Miss Kate Carlton from New York, to stay with you, Sir.
She is in the carriage. This letter will explain the reasons of her
coming."
Though greatly surprised at the sudden appearance of his niece, Mr.
Carlton did not stop, either to read the letter or ask questions, but went
at once to the carriage, and offering his hand to his niece, said:
"I am happy to see you, my dear, at Glen Morris. Come into the house. John
will see to your baggage."
Kate put her fingers into her uncle's hand, and with a mincing step,
walked into the hall. Mr. Carlton asked the man who accompanied her, if he
would remain all night.
"No, Sir. I thank you. I must return by the last train, which will be
here, as soon as I can get to the station. Good night, Sir!"
"Good night," replied Mr. Carlton.
When Kate was conducted to the parlor, she was of course, greeted with
looks and expressions of great surprise. Jessie sprang to her cousin,
embracing her, and exclaiming:
"Why Kate Carlton, is that you?"
Guy took her hand kindly, and said, "I am glad to see you, Kate."
Hugh also gave her his hand, but his words were not gracious. He said:
"What, _you_ come here again, Kate Carlton!"
Uncle Morris kissed her, and spoke very kindly to her. Somehow, his
instincts told him that her sudden coming to Glen Morris, was caused by
some unexpected evil.
Kate returned these greetings very stiffly. She had a cold nature, which
did not readily respond to the emotions of others. She was tired, she
said, and would like to be shown to her room as soon as possible. Jessie
accordingly conducted her to Mrs. Carlton's room, who was as much
surprised to see her, as the others had been.
As soon as she left the parlor, Mr. Carlton, who had been reading the
letter which came with her, placed his hand upon his forehead, looked very
gravely at Mr. Morris, and said:
"Bad news! Bad news! My brother is a defaulter in the ---- Bank, of which
he was president. He left the city last night, for parts unknown. His wife
is half distracted, and has gone home to her father. She has sent Kate
here."
"A sad case!" remarked Mr. Morris, soothingly. "But are you sure it is
true?"
"Too true, I doubt not. This letter is from my friend, Mr. Estal, a
leading director in the bank. There can be no mistake. It is terrible. Had
my brother lost all his property by honorable misfortune, or had he died
as a good man dies, it would have been nothing to this. Now he is ruined
and disgraced. Terrible! Terrible!"
Mr. Carlton groaned as he uttered these words. His anguish was painful to
witness. His brother's crime pierced his heart. Happily he was able to
weep, and thus relieve the violence of his feelings.
"It is terrible indeed," replied Uncle Morris. "But while we deplore his
fall, let us be thankful that _our_ honor is unstained by his crime. Let
us also strive not to give way to useless grief, but let us spend our
energies in efforts to break the fall of his unfortunate wife and child,
whom he has dragged down with himself to poverty, if not to shame. If
_you_ will give Kate a home, I will see to her education, and will provide
her with clothing."
"Spoken like your noble self!" rejoined Mr. Carlton. "Of course, she shall
have a home, so long as I have one."
A free conversation, between all present, followed this remark, during
which Mr. Carlton tried to make his sons feel, that the most absolute
poverty if combined with integrity, is preferable to wealth allied with
dishonesty, and that it is better to die a pauper's death, than to be
guilty of a dishonorable act.
As for Jessie, her heart was swelling with generous impulses, towards poor
Kate. "I will be a sister to her," said she, in reply to a reference made
by Guy, to Kate's bad behavior during her visit, the previous summer, "and
will do my best to make her both happy and good!"
"Take care, Jessie!" said Guy, laughing. "Perhaps she will tempt the
wizard to forsake his bride, and to take to his old pranks again. What
will you do then?"
"I will try to keep on such good terms with Perseverance, his wife, as to
prevent that," replied Jessie. "See if I don't?"
"Good! I'll request Corporal Try to place your name in his roll of honor,"
said Guy; "but the tea-bell rings, let us go to tea!"
* * * * *
Concluding Note.
Jessie Carlton will appear again in future volumes of the Glen Morris
Stories, in which it will be seen whether her victory over the little
wizard was temporary or lasting; and whether she fulfilled her purpose, to
do her best to make Kate Carlton both happy and good.
THE ALDEN SERIES.
BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.
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By Joseph Alden, D.D.
II.
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III.
THE OLD REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER 37-1/2
By Joseph Alden, D.D.
IV.
DAYS OF BOYHOOD 37-1/2
FOURTEEN INTERESTING STORIES.
V.
LITTLE CLARA; OR, SELF-CONTROL, &c. 37-1/2
By Mrs. Anna Bache.
VI.
LITTLE DORA; OR, THE FOUR SEASONS 37-1/2
By a Lady of Charleston.
VII.
PEBBLES FROM THE SEA-SHORE,
OR LIZZIE'S FIRST GLEANINGS 37-1/2
By a Father.
VIII.
THE GOOD BOY'S AND GIRL'S PICTURE GALLERY,
WITH ENTERTAINING STORIES 37-1/2
By Morton.
May be had separately, or in neat boxes.
The above series of EIGHT BOOKS contain numerous Illustrations,
are printed on very fine paper, uniformly bound in neat scarlet
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LIBRARY OF BOOKS.
Interesting Juvenile Books,
Published By
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No. 76 Bowery, New York.
THE LU LU LIBRARY:
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PICTURE ALPHABET, SIMPLE STORIES,
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Neatly done up in Illuminated Paper Covers, each 10 cents,
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THE COLMAN SERIES.
New Books, neatly bound in scarlet cloth and gilt backs, with
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NEW AND TRUE STORIES Price 25 Cents.
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The above series of SIX BOOKS are all short, moral, and interesting
Stories, with many Engravings.
THE GLEN MORRIS STORIES,
A SERIES OF BOOKS DESIGNED TO SOW THE SEED OF PURE, NOBLE,
MANLY CHARACTER IN THE MINDS OF OUR GREAT NATION'S
CHILDHOOD; NOT IN PROSY, UNREADABLE PRECEPTS,
BUT IN A SERIES OF CHARACTERS WHICH MOVE BEFORE
THE IMAGINATION AS LIVING BEINGS
DO BEFORE THE SENSES.
BY FRANCIS FORRESTER, ESQ.
Author of "My Uncle Toby's Library," &c.
Beautifully Illustrated.
Each volume will contain about 256 pages, beautifully bound in fine
muslin, with gilt backs, price 60 cts.; and will be independent of itself,
but there will still be an identity of character throughout the Series.
The Volumes now ready are--
GUY CARLTON--A Boy who belonged to the "Try Company."
DICK DUNCAN--A Boy who loved mischief.
JESSIE CARLTON--A Girl who fought with a troublesome little
wizard, and conquered him.
WALTER SHERWOOD--An easy, good-natured Boy. [In preparation.]
KATE CARLTON--The story of a vain Girl. Ditto.
NOTICES OF THE PRESS.
"Among the excellent books prepared for juvenile readers, this series is
one of the best."--Worcester Spy.
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interest by many thousands of young readers. Older persons will sometimes
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"The Glen Morris Stories seem better fitted to imbue into the characters
and dispositions of the younger sons and daughters in our land, sound
moral and religious principles, than almost any other at present
extant."--N. Y. Churchman.
"Forrester blends amusement with instruction, while a high moral tone
pervades his works."--Barre (Mass.) Gazette.
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