"After long storms and tempests overblowne,
The sunne at length his joyous face doth cleare;
So when as fortune all her spight hath showne,
Some blissfull houres at last must needs appeare;
Else should afflicted wights oft-times despeire."
--FAËRIE QUEENE.
Early next morning Ellen awoke with a sense that something pleasant had
happened. Then the joyful reality darted into her mind, and jumping out
of bed she set about her morning work with a better heart than she had
been able to bring to it for many a long day. When she had finished she
went to the window. She had found out how to keep it open now, by means
of a big nail stuck in a hole under the sash. It was very early, and in
the perfect stillness the soft gurgle of the little brook came
distinctly to her ear. Ellen leaned her arms on the window-sill, and
tasted the morning air; almost wondering at its sweetness and at the
loveliness of field and sky and the bright eastern horizon. For days and
days all had looked dark and sad.
There were two reasons for the change. In the first place Ellen had made
up her mind to go straight on in the path of duty; in the second place
she had found a friend. Her little heart bounded with delight and
swelled with thankfulness at the thought of Alice Humphreys. She was
once more at peace with herself, and had even some notion of being
by-and-by at peace with her aunt; though a sad twinge came over her
whenever she thought of her mother's letter.
"But there is only one way for me," she thought; "I'll do as that dear
Miss Humphreys told me--it's good and early, and I shall have a fine
time before breakfast yet to myself. And I'll get up so every morning
and have it!--that'll be the very best plan I can hit upon."
As she thought this she drew forth her Bible from its place at the
bottom of her trunk; and opening it at hazard she began to read the 18th
chapter of Matthew. Some of it she did not quite understand; but she
paused with pleasure at the 14th verse. "That means me," she thought.
The 21st and 22nd verses struck her a good deal, but when she came to
the last she was almost startled.
"There it is again!" she said. "That is exactly what that gentleman said
to me. I thought I was forgiven, but how can I be, for I feel I have not
forgiven Aunt Fortune."
Laying aside her book, Ellen kneeled down; but this one thought so
pressed upon her mind that she could think of scarce anything else; and
her prayer this morning was an urgent and repeated petition that she
might be enabled "from her heart" to forgive her Aunt Fortune "all her
trespasses." Poor Ellen! she felt it was very hard work. At the very
minute she was striving to feel at peace with her aunt, one grievance
after another would start up to remembrance, and she knew the feelings
that met them were far enough from the spirit of forgiveness. In the
midst of this she was called down. She rose with tears in her eyes, and
"What shall I do?" in her heart. Bowing her head once more she earnestly
prayed that if she could not yet _feel_ right towards her aunt, she
might be kept at least from acting or speaking wrong. Poor Ellen! In the
heart is the spring of action; and she found it so this morning.
Her aunt and Mr. Van Brunt were already at the table. Ellen took her
place in silence, for one look at her aunt's face told her that no
"good-morning" would be accepted. Miss Fortune was in a particularly bad
humour, owing among other things to Mr. Van Brunt's having refused to
eat his breakfast unless Ellen were called. An unlucky piece of
kindness. She neither spoke to Ellen nor looked at her; Mr. Van Brunt
did what in him lay to make amends. He helped her very carefully to the
cold pork and potatoes, and handed her the well-piled platter of
griddle-cakes.
"Here's the first buckwheats of the season," said he, "and I told Miss
Fortune I warn't agoing to eat one on 'em if you didn't come down to
enjoy 'em along with us. Take two--take two!--you want 'em to keep each
other hot."
Ellen's look and smile thanked him, as following his advice she covered
one generous "buckwheat" with another as ample.
"That's the thing! Now here's some prime maple. You like 'em, I guess,
don't you?"
"I don't know yet--I have never seen any," said Ellen.
"Never seen buckwheats! why, they're 'most as good as my mother's
splitters. Buckwheat cakes and maple molasses,--that's food fit for a
king, _I_ think--- when they're good; and Miss Fortune's always
first-rate."
Miss Fortune did not relent at all at this compliment.
"What makes you so white this morning?" Mr. Van Brunt presently went on;
"you ain't well; be you?"
"Yes," said Ellen doubtfully. "I'm well----"
"She's as well as I am, Mr. Van Brunt, if you don't go and put her up to
any notions!" Miss Fortune said in a kind of choked voice.
Mr. Van Brunt hemmed, and said no more to the end of breakfast-time.
Ellen rather dreaded what was to come next, for her aunt's look was
ominous. In dead silence the things were put away, and put up, and in
course of washing and drying, when Miss Fortune suddenly broke forth.
"What did you do with yourself yesterday afternoon?"
"I was up on the mountain," said Ellen.
"What mountain?"
"I believe they call it 'the Nose.'"
"What business had you up there?"
"I hadn't any business there."
"What did you go there for?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing! you expect me to believe that? you call yourself a
truth-teller, I suppose?"
"Mamma used to say I was," said poor Ellen, striving to swallow her
feelings.
"Your mother! I dare say--mothers always are blind. I dare say she took
every thing you said for gospel."
Ellen was silent, from sheer want of words that were pointed enough to
suit her.
"I wish Morgan could have had the gumption to marry in his own country;
but he must go running after a Scotch woman! A Yankee would have brought
up his child to be worth something. Give me Yankees!"
Ellen set down the cup she was wiping.
"You don't know anything about my mother," she said. "You oughtn't to
speak so--it's not right."
"Why ain't it right, I should like to know?" said Miss Fortune; "this is
a free country, I guess. Our tongues ain't tied--we're all free here."
"I wish we were," muttered Ellen; "I know what I'd do."
"What would you do?" said Miss Fortune.
Ellen was silent. Her aunt repeated the question in a sharper tone.
"I oughtn't to say what I was going to," said Ellen; "I'd rather not."
"I don't care," said Miss Fortune; "you began, and you shall finish it.
I will hear what it was."
"I was going to say, if we were all free I would run away."
"Well, that _is_ a beautiful, well-behaved speech! I am glad to have
heard it. I admire it very much. Now what were you doing yesterday up on
the Nose? Please to go on wiping. There's a pile ready for you. What
were you doing yesterday afternoon?"
Ellen hesitated.
"Were you alone or with somebody?"
"I was alone part of the time."
"And who were you with the rest of the time?"
"Miss Humphreys."
"Miss Humphreys! what were you doing with her?"
"Talking."
"Did you ever see her before?"
"No, ma'am."
"Where did you find her?"
"She found me, up on the hill."
"What were you talking about?"
Ellen was silent.
"What were you talking about?" repeated Miss Fortune.
"I had rather not tell."
"And I had rather you _should_ tell--so out with it."
"I was alone with Miss Humphreys," said Ellen; "and it is no matter what
we were talking about--it doesn't concern anybody but her and me."
"Yes, it does, it concerns me," said her aunt, "and I choose to know.
What were you talking about?"
Ellen was silent.
"Will you tell me?"
"No," said Ellen, low but resolutely.
"I vow you're enough to try the patience of Job! Look here," said Miss
Fortune, setting down what she had in her hands, "I _will_ know! I don't
care what it was, but you shall tell me or I'll find a way to make you.
I'll give you such a----"
"Stop! stop!" said Ellen wildly, "you must not speak to me so! Mamma
never did, and you have no _right_ to! If mamma or papa were here you
would not _dare_ talk to me so."
The answer to this was a sharp box on the ear from Miss Fortune's wet
hand. Half stunned, less by the blow than the tumult of feeling it
roused, Ellen stood a moment, and then throwing down her towel she ran
out of the room, shivering with passion, and brushing off the soapy
water left on her face as if it had been her aunt's very hand. Violent
tears burst forth as soon as she reached her own room, tears at first of
anger and mortification only; but conscience presently began to
whisper, "You are wrong! you are wrong!" and tears of sorrow mingled
with the others.
"Oh," said Ellen, "why couldn't I keep still? when I had resolved so
this morning, why couldn't I be quiet? But she ought not to have
provoked me so dreadfully, I couldn't help it." "You are wrong," said
conscience again, and her tears flowed faster. And then came back her
morning trouble--the duty and the difficulty of forgiving. Forgive her
Aunt Fortune! with her whole heart in a passion of displeasure against
her! Alas! Ellen began to feel and acknowledge that indeed all was
wrong. But what to do? There was just one comfort, the visit to Miss
Humphreys in the afternoon. "She will tell me," thought Ellen; "she will
help me. But in the meanwhile?"
Ellen had not much time to think; her aunt called her down and set her
to work. She was very busy till dinner-time, and very unhappy; but
twenty times in the course of the morning did Ellen pause for a moment,
and covering her face with her hands pray that a heart to forgive might
be given her.
As soon as possible after dinner she made her escape to her room that
she might prepare for her walk. Conscience was not quite easy that she
was going without the knowledge of her aunt. She had debated the
question with herself and could not make up her mind to hazard losing
her visit.
So she dressed herself very carefully. One of her dark merinos was
affectionately put on; her single pair of white stockings; shoes,
ruffle, cape--Ellen saw that all was faultlessly neat, just as her
mother used to have it; and the nice blue hood lay upon the bed ready to
be put on the last thing, when she heard her aunt's voice calling.
"Ellen! come down and do your ironing--right away, now! the irons are
hot."
For one moment Ellen stood still in dismay; then slowly undressed,
dressed again and went downstairs.
"Come! you've been an age," said Miss Fortune; "now make haste; there
ain't but a handful; and I want to mop up."
Ellen took courage again; ironed away with right good will; and as there
was really but a handful of things she had soon done, even to taking off
the ironing blanket and putting up the irons. In the meantime she had
changed her mind as to stealing off without leave--conscience was too
strong for her; and though with a beating heart, she told of Miss
Humphreys' desire and her half engagement.
"You may go where you like--I am sure I do not care what you do with
yourself," was Miss Fortune's reply.
Full of delight at this ungracious permission, Ellen fled upstairs, and
dressing much quicker than before, was soon on her way.
But at first she went rather sadly. In spite of all her good resolves
and wishes, everything that day had gone wrong; and Ellen felt that the
root of the evil was in her own heart. Some tears fell as she walked.
Farther from her aunt's house, however, her spirits began to rise; her
foot fell lighter on the green sward. Hope and expectation quickened her
steps; and when at length she passed the little wood-path it was almost
on a run. Not very far beyond that her glad eyes saw the house she was
in quest of.
It was a large white house; not very white either, for its last dress of
paint had grown old long ago. It stood close by the road, and the trees
of the wood seemed to throng it round on every side. Ellen mounted the
few steps that led to the front door, and knocked; but as she could only
just reach the high knocker, she was not likely to alarm anybody with
the noise she made. After a great many little faint raps, which, if
anybody heard them, might easily have been mistaken for the attacks of
some rat's teeth upon the wainscot, Ellen grew weary of her fruitless
toil of standing on tiptoe, and resolved, though doubtfully, to go round
the house and see if there was any other way of getting in. Turning the
far corner, she saw a long, low outbuilding or shed jutting out from the
side of the house. On the farther side of this Ellen found an elderly
woman standing in front of the shed, which was there open and paved, and
wringing some clothes out of a tub of water. She was a pleasant woman to
look at, very trim and tidy, and a good-humoured eye and smile when she
saw Ellen. Ellen made up to her and asked for Miss Humphreys.
"Why, where in the world did you come from?" said the woman; "I don't
receive company at the back of the house."
"I knocked at the front door till I was tired," said Ellen, smiling in
return.
"Miss Alice must ha' been asleep. Now, honey, you have come so far round
to find me, will you go a little farther and find Miss Alice? Just go
round this corner and keep straight along till you come to the glass
door--there you'll find her. Stop!--maybe she's asleep; I may as well go
along with you myself."
She wrung the water from her hands and led the way.
A little space of green grass stretched in front of the shed, and Ellen
found it extended all along that side of the house like a very narrow
lawn; at the edge of it shot up the high forest trees; nothing between
them and the house but the smooth grass and a narrow worn footpath. The
woods were now all brown stems, except here and there a superb hemlock
and some scattered silvery birches. But the grass was still green, and
the last day of the Indian summer hung its soft veil over all; the
foliage of the forest was hardly missed. They passed another hall door,
opposite the one where Ellen had tried her strength and patience upon
the knocker; a little farther on they paused at the glass door. One step
led to it. Ellen's conductress looked in first through one of the panes,
and then opening the door motioned her to enter.
"Here you are, my new acquaintance," said Alice, smiling and kissing
her. "I began to think something was the matter, you tarried so late. We
don't keep fashionable hours in the country, you know. But I'm very glad
to see you. Take off your things and lay them on that settee by the
door. You see I've a settee for summer and a sofa for winter; for here I
am, in this room, at all times of the year; and a very pleasant room I
think it, don't you?"
"Yes, indeed I do, ma'am," said Ellen, pulling off her last glove.
"Ah, but wait till you have taken tea with me half-a-dozen times, and
then see if you don't say it is pleasant. Nothing can be so pleasant
that is quite new. But now come here and look out of this window, or
door, whichever you choose to call it. Do you see what a beautiful view
I have here? The wood was just as thick all along as it is on the right
and left; I felt half smothered to be so shut in, so I got my brother
and Thomas to take axes and go to work there; and many a large tree they
cut down for me, till you see they opened a way through the woods for
the view of that beautiful stretch of country. I should grow melancholy
if I had that wall of trees pressing on my vision all the time; it
always comforts me to look off, far away, to those distant blue hills."
"Aren't those the hills I was looking at yesterday?" said Ellen.
"From up on the mountain?--the very same; this is part of the very same
view, and a noble view it is. Every morning, Ellen, the sun rising
behind those hills shines in through this door and lights up my room;
and in winter he looks in at that south window, so I have him all the
time. To be sure, if I want to see him set I must take a walk for it,
but that isn't unpleasant; and you know we cannot have everything at
once."
It was a very beautiful extent of woodland, meadow, and hill, that was
seen picture-fashion through the gap cut in the forest; the wall of
trees on each side serving as a frame to shut it in, and the descent of
the mountain from almost the edge of the lawn, being very rapid. The
opening had been skilfully cut; the effect was remarkable and very fine;
the light on the picture being often quite different from that on the
frame or on the hither side of the frame.
"Now, Ellen," said Alice, turning from the window, "take a good look at
my room. I want you to know it and feel at home in it; for whenever you
can run away from your aunt's, this is your home--do you understand?"
A smile was on each face. Ellen felt that she was understanding it very
fast.
"Here, next the door, you see, is my summer settee; and in summer it
very often walks out of doors to accommodate people on the grass plat. I
have a great fancy for taking tea out of doors, Ellen, in warm weather;
and if you do not mind a mosquito or two I shall be always happy to have
your company. That door opens into the hall; look out and see, for I
want you to get the geography of the house. That odd-looking, lumbering,
painted concern is my cabinet of curiosities. I tried my best to make
the carpenter man at Thirlwall understand what sort of a thing I wanted,
and did all but show him how to make it; but as the southerners say,'he
hasn't made it right no how!' There I keep my dried flowers, my
minerals, and a very odd collection of curious things of all sorts that
I am constantly picking up. I'll show you them some day, Ellen. Have you
a fancy for curiosities?"
"Yes, ma'am, I believe so."
"Believe so!--not more sure than that? Are you a lover of dead moths,
and empty beetle-skins, and butterflies' wings, and dry tufts of moss,
and curious stones, and pieces of ribbon-grass, and strange birds'
nests! These are some of the things I used to delight in when I was
about as old as you."
"I don't know, ma'am," said Ellen. "I never was where I could get them."
"Weren't you! Poor child! Then you have been shut up to brick walls and
paving-stones all your life?"
"Yes, ma'am, all my life."
"But now you have seen a little of the country, don't you think you
shall like it better?"
"Oh, a great deal better!"
"Ah, that's right. I am sure you will. On that other side, you see, is
my winter sofa. It's a very comfortable resting-place I can tell you,
Ellen, as I have proved by many a sweet nap; and its old chintz covers
are very pleasant to me, for I remember them as far back as I remember
anything."
There was a sigh here; but Alice passed on and opened a door near the
end of the sofa.
"Look in here, Ellen; this is my bedroom."
"Oh, how lovely!" Ellen exclaimed.
The carpet covered only the middle of the floor, the rest was painted
white. The furniture was common, but neat as wax. Ample curtains of
white dimity clothed the three windows and lightly draped the bed. The
toilet-table was covered with snow-white muslin, and by the toilet
cushion stood, late as it was, a glass of flowers. Ellen thought it must
be a pleasure to sleep there.
"This," said Alice, when they came out, "between my door and the
fireplace is a cupboard. Here be cups and saucers, and so forth. In that
other corner beyond the fireplace you see my flower-stand. Do you love
flowers, Ellen?"
"I love them dearly, Miss Alice."
"I have some pretty ones out yet, and shall have one or two in the
winter; but I can't keep a great many here, I haven't room for them, I
have hard work to save these from frost. There's a beautiful daphne that
will be out by-and-by, and make the whole house sweet. But here, Ellen,
on this side between the windows, is my greatest treasure--my precious
books. All these are mine. Now, my dear, it is time to introduce you to
my most excellent of easy chairs--the best things in the room, aren't
they? Put yourself in that--now, do you feel at home?"
"Very much indeed, ma'am," said Ellen, laughing, as Alice placed her in
the deep easy chair.
There were two things in the room that Alice had not mentioned, and
while she mended the fire Ellen looked at them. One was the portrait of
a gentleman, grave and good-looking; this had very little of her
attention. The other was the counter portrait of a lady; a fine
dignified countenance that had a charm for Ellen. It hung over the
fireplace in an excellent light, and the mild eye and somewhat of a
peculiar expression about the mouth bore such likeness to Alice, though
older, that Ellen had no doubt whose it was.
Alice presently drew a chair close to Ellen's side, and kissed her.
"I trust, my child," she said, "that you feel better to-day than you did
yesterday."
"Oh, I do, ma'am--a great deal better," Ellen answered.
"Then I hope the reason is that you have returned to your duty, and are
resolved, not to be a Christian by-and-by, but to lead a Christian's
life now."
"I have resolved so, ma'am, I did resolve so last night and this
morning; but yet I have been doing nothing but wrong all to-day."
Alice was silent. Ellen's lips quivered for a moment, and then she went
on--
"Oh, ma'am, how I have wanted to see you to-day to tell me what I
_should_ do! I resolved and resolved this morning, and then as soon as I
got downstairs I began to have bad feelings towards Aunt Fortune, and I
have been full of bad feelings all day; and I couldn't help it."
"It will not do to say that we cannot help what is wrong, Ellen. What is
the reason that you have bad feelings towards your aunt?"
"She don't like me, ma'am."
"But how happens that, Ellen? I am afraid you don't like her."
"No, ma'am, I don't, to be sure; how can I?"
"Why cannot you, Ellen?"
"Oh, I can't, ma'am! I wish I could. But, oh, ma'am, I should have liked
her--I might have liked her if she had been kind, but she never has.
Even that first night I came she never kissed me, nor said she was glad
to see me."
"That was failing in kindness certainly, but is she _un_kind to you,
Ellen?"
"Oh yes, ma'am, indeed she is. She talks to me, and talks to me, in a
way that almost drives me out of my wits; and to-day she even struck me!
She has no right to do it," said Ellen, firing with passion, "she has no
_right_ to!--and she has no right to talk as she does about mamma. She
did it to-day, and she has done it before. I can't bear it! and I can't
bear _her_! I can't _bear_ her!"
"Hush, hush," said Alice, drawing the excited child to her arms, for
Ellen had risen from her seat, "you must not talk so, Ellen; you are not
feeling right now."
"No, ma'am, I am not," said Ellen coldly and sadly. She sat a moment,
and then turning to her companion put both arms round her neck, and hid
her face on her shoulder again; and without raising it she gave her the
history of the morning.
"What has brought about this dreadful state of things?" said Alice after
a few minutes. "Whose fault is it, Ellen?"
"I think it is Aunt Fortune's fault," said Ellen, raising her head; "I
don't think it is mine. If she had behaved well to me I should have
behaved well to her. I meant to, I am sure."
"Do you mean to say that you do not think you have been in fault at all
in the matter?"
"No, ma'am, I do not mean to say that. I have been very much in
fault--very often--I know that. I get very angry and vexed, and
sometimes I say nothing, but sometimes I get out of all patience and say
things I ought not. I did so to-day; but it is so very hard to keep
still when I am in such a passion, and now I have got to feel so towards
Aunt Fortune that I don't like the sight of her; I hate the very look of
her bonnet hanging up on the wall. I know it isn't right; and it makes
me miserable; and I can't help it, for I grow worse and worse every day;
and what shall I do?"
Ellen's tears came faster than her words.
"Ellen, my child," said Alice after a while, "there is but one way. You
know what I said to you yesterday?"
"I know it, but, dear Miss Alice, in my reading this morning I came to
that verse that speaks about not being forgiven if we do not forgive
others; and oh! how it troubles me; for I can't feel that I forgive Aunt
Fortune; I feel vexed whenever the thought of her comes into my head;
and how can I behave right to her while I feel so?"
"You are right there, my dear; you cannot indeed; the heart must be set
right before the life can be."
"But what shall I do to set it right?"
"Pray."
"Dear Miss Alice, I have been praying all this morning that I might
forgive Aunt Fortune; and yet I cannot do it."
"Pray still, my dear," said Alice, pressing her closer in her arms,
"pray still; if you are in earnest the answer will come. But there is
something else you can do, and must do, Ellen, besides praying, or
praying may be in vain."
"What do you mean, Miss Alice?"
"You acknowledge yourself in fault--have you made all the amends you
can? Have you, as soon as you have seen yourself in the wrong, gone to
your Aunt Fortune and acknowledged it, and humbly asked her pardon?"
Ellen answered "no" in a low voice.
"Then, my child, your duty is plain before you. The next thing after
doing wrong is to make all the amends in your power; confess your fault,
and ask forgiveness, both of God and man. Pride struggles against it--I
see yours does--but, my child, 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble.'" Ellen burst into tears and cried heartily.
"Mind your own wrong doings, my child, and you will not be half so
disposed to quarrel with those of other people. But, Ellen dear, if you
will not humble yourself to this you must not count upon an answer to
your prayer. 'If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there
rememberest that thy brother had aught against thee,'--what
then?--'Leave there thy gift before the altar? go first and be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come.'"
"But it is so hard to forgive," sobbed Ellen.
"Hard! yes, it is hard when our hearts are so. But there is little love
to Christ and no just sense of His love to us in the heart that finds it
hard. Pride and selfishness make it hard; the heart full of love to the
dear Saviour _cannot_ lay up offences against itself."
"I have said quite enough," said Alice after a pause; "you know what you
want, my dear Ellen, and what you ought to do. I shall leave you for a
little while to change my dress, for I have been walking and riding all
the morning. Make a good use of the time while I am gone."
Ellen did make good use of the time. When Alice returned she met her
with another face than she had worn all that day, humbler and quieter;
and flinging her arms around her, she said--
"I will ask Aunt Fortune's forgiveness; I feel I can do it now."
"And how about _forgiving_, Ellen?"
"I think God will help me to forgive her," said Ellen; "I have asked
Him. At any rate I will ask her to forgive me. But oh, Miss Alice! what
would have become of me without you?"
"Don't lean upon me, dear Ellen; remember you have a better Friend than
I always near you; trust in Him; if I have done you any good, don't
forget it was He brought me to you yesterday afternoon."
"There's just one thing that troubles me now," said Ellen, "mamma's
letter. I am thinking of it all the time; I feel as if I should fly to
get it!"
"We'll see about that. Cannot you ask your aunt for it?"
"I don't like to."
"Take care, Ellen; there is some pride there yet."
"Well, I will try," said Ellen; "but sometimes, I know, she would not
give it to me if I were to ask her. But I'll try, if I can."
"Well, now, to change the subject--at what o'clock did you dine to-day?"
"I don't know, ma'am--at the same time we always do, I believe."
"And that is twelve o'clock, isn't it?"
"Yes, ma'am; but I was so full of coming here and other things that I
couldn't eat."
"Then I suppose you would have no objection to an early tea?"
"No, ma'am--whenever you please," said Ellen, laughing.
"I shall please it pretty soon. I have had no dinner at all to-day,
Ellen; I have been out and about all the morning, and had just taken a
little nap when you came in. Come this way and let me show you some of
my housekeeping."
She led the way across the hall to the room on the opposite side--a
large, well-appointed, and spotlessly-neat kitchen. Ellen could not help
exclaiming at its pleasantness.
"Why, yes--I think it is. I have been in many a parlour that I do not
like as well. Beyond this is a lower kitchen where Margery does all her
rough work; nothing comes up the steps that lead from that to this but
the very nicest and daintiest of kitchen matters. Margery, is my father
gone to Thirlwall?"
"No, Miss Alice, he's at Carra-carra; Thomas heard him say he wouldn't
be back early."
"Well, I shall not wait for him. Margery, if you will put the kettle on
and see to the fire, I'll make some of my cakes for tea."
"I'll do it, Miss Alice; it's not good for you to go so long without
eating."
Alice now rolled up her sleeves above the elbows, and tying a large
white apron before her, set about gathering the different things she
wanted for her work, to Ellen's great amusement. A white moulding-board
was placed upon a table as white; and round it soon grouped the pail of
flour, the plate of nice yellow butter, the bowl of cream, the sieve,
tray, and sundry etceteras. And then, first sifting some flour into the
tray, Alice began to throw in the other things one after another, and
toss the whole about with a carelessness that looked as if all would go
wrong, but with a confidence that seemed to say all was going right.
Ellen gazed in comical wonderment.
"Did you think cakes were made without hands?" said Alice, laughing at
her look. "You saw me wash mine before I began."
"Oh, I'm not thinking of that," said Ellen; "I am not afraid of your
hands."
"Did you never see your mother do this?" said Alice, who was now turning
and rolling about the dough upon the board in a way that seemed to Ellen
curious beyond expression.
"No, never," she said. "Mamma never kept house, and I never saw anybody
do it."
"Then your aunt does not let you into the mysteries of bread and butter
making?"
"Butter-making! Oh," said Ellen with a sigh, "I have enough of that."
Alice now applied a smooth wooden roller to the cake with such quickness
and skill that the lump forthwith lay spread upon the board in a thin
even layer, and she next cut it into little round cakes with the edge of
a tumbler. Half the board was covered with the nice little white things,
which Ellen declared looked good enough to eat already, and she had
quite forgotten all possible causes of vexation--past, present, or
future--when suddenly a large grey cat jumped upon the table, and,
coolly walking upon the moulding-board, planted his paw directly in the
middle of one of his mistress's cakes.
"Take him off--oh, Ellen!" cried Alice; "take him off! I can't touch
him." But Ellen was a little afraid.
Alice then gently tried to shove puss off with her elbow, but he seemed
to think that was very good fun, purred, whisked his great tail over
Alice's bare arm, and rubbed his head against it, having evidently no
notion that he was not just where he ought to be. Alice and Ellen were
too much amused to try any violent method of relief; but Margery,
happily coming in, seized puss in both hands and set him on the floor.
"Just look at the print of his paw in that cake," said Ellen.
"He has set his mark on it, certainly. I think it is his now, by the
right of possession if not the right of discovery."
"I think he discovered the cakes too," said Ellen, laughing.
"Why, yes. He shall have that one baked for his supper."
"Does he like cakes?"
"Indeed he does. He is very particular and delicate about his eating, is
Captain Parry."
"Captain Parry!" said Ellen. "Is that his name?"
"Yes," said Alice, laughing; "I don't wonder you look astonished, Ellen.
I have had that cat five years, and when he was first given me, my
brother Jack, who was younger then than he is now, and had been reading
Captain Parry's Voyages, gave him that name, and would have him called
so. Oh, Jack!" said Alice, half laughing and half crying.
Ellen wondered why; but she went to wash her hands, and when her face
was again turned to Ellen it was as unruffled as ever.
"Margery, my cakes are ready," said she, "and Ellen and I are ready
too."
"Very well, Miss Alice, the kettle is just going to boil; you shall have
tea in a trice. I'll do some eggs for you."
"Something--anything," said Alice; "I feel one cannot live without
eating. Come, Ellen, you and I will go and set the tea-table."
Ellen was very happy arranging the cups and saucers and other things
that Alice handed her from the cupboard; and when a few minutes after
the tea and the cakes came in, and she and Alice were cosily seated,
poor Ellen hardly knew herself in such a pleasant state of things.