A FRIGHT.
Royal and Lucy formed a plan to go for blueberries in a wild piece of
pasture land, not very far from where they lived. They got several
other children to go with them. There was Rollo, who was then quite a
small boy, and a boy named Thomas, and Marielle.
They took some luncheon in a basket. Their plan was to eat their
luncheon, out of the basket, as soon as they got to the blueberry
ground. Then they were going to fill the basket with blueberries, to
bring home. Each one took a little tin mug to pick in, because they
could not conveniently all pick into the same basket.
They walked along very pleasantly together, till they came to the
pasture. Then they had to clamber along up rough and precipitous paths,
and among rocks and brambles. At last they came to the place where the
blueberries were found. Before they began to gather them, however,
they went into a little copse of trees, near the borders of a brook,
and sat down upon the stones to eat their luncheon.
The brook was pretty large, and it flowed among rocks and bushes; and
just opposite to where the children had stopped, it divided into two
parts, which formed an island between them. Royal and Thomas said that
they meant to go over to that island, and eat their luncheon there. So
they began to step along from one stone to another across the brook.
“I mean to go too,” said Rollo.
“And I,” added Lucy. And they rose from their seats, and attempted to
follow the two boys.
“Royal, stop for me,” said Lucy; “stop and help me over this deep
place.”
“O, you must jump over yourself,” said Royal, “as I did.”
“But it is too far for me to jump,” said Lucy. “I wish you would just
come and help me across.”
“Yes, come, Royal,” said Rollo.
But Royal had got over upon the island, and was lost from view among
the bushes. Rollo and Lucy called louder and louder; but Royal only
answered with a sort of shout, such that they could not hear what he
said, but only they knew that he was not coming back.
It was wrong for Royal and Thomas to do so. They were the oldest boys
of the party, and they ought to have acted as guides and protectors
of the rest. Instead of going off to seek their own amusement, and
leaving the rest of the party, they ought to have been willing to have
sacrificed their own wishes, in some respects, in order to please the
younger children.
“Come back, children,” said Marielle. “I would not go over upon the
island.”
“Why, Marielle,” replied Lucy, “it is a beautiful place there, and we
want to go very much. I don’t see why Royal couldn’t have come back and
helped us across.”
“Well,” said Marielle, “I’ll come and see if I can help you over.”
So Marielle went to the place. The children were standing upon a flat
stone, near the middle of the brook. The water which was beyond them
was not deep, and it was only a short distance to the next stone. The
boys had leaped across without any trouble, but Marielle hesitated.
“I am afraid to have you try to go across there,” said Marielle.
“Why, Marielle,” said Lucy, “you can jump across very easily; and then,
if you will take hold of our hands, we can get across too.”
“Yes, only I don’t know,” said Marielle, “but that those rocks are
slippery; and if you should slip in, and get one foot into the water,
then we should all have to go directly home, and it would spoil our
expedition.”
“O dear me!” said Rollo; “I wish Royal would come back.”
They shouted to Royal, several times, as loud as they could, but they
got no answer. He had gone across from the upper part of the island to
the main land again, and had disappeared among the bushes.
“I don’t think that he ought to have gone off and left us,” said Lucy.
“Now, how shall we find our way home?”
“O, he’ll come back again before long,” said Marielle. “We’ll begin to
get our blueberries, only we’ll stay pretty near here, and then he will
know where to find us.”
So Rollo and Lucy came back from the brook. They finished eating their
luncheon, and then they went back a little from the brook, to a place
where the berries were thick, and commenced gathering them. They put
the basket down in a central place, where it would be convenient for
them all to find it, to pour in what they should gather in their mugs,
and then they went to work industriously gathering the blueberries.
Marielle had emptied her mug once into the basket, and Rollo and Lucy
had filled theirs half full, when Royal and Thomas came back.
“Ah,” said Royal, “you don’t know what a beautiful place we found out
there, Lucy.”
“What kind of a place?” asked Lucy.
“O, there were some rocks there piled up very high, and a great tree
growing out of a crack in one of them.”
“I wish _I_ could see it,” said Lucy.
“It was a beautiful place,” said Royal.
Marielle secretly thought that it was not acting much like a gentleman
for Royal to go away and leave her and the two children alone, and then
come back and boast of the fine things that he had seen. But she said
nothing.
“And, Marielle,” said Royal, “we saw some other children out there
getting blueberries.”
“Did you?” said Marielle.
“Yes,” replied Royal; “they were near a very thick piece of bushes.”
“Were the blueberries pretty thick there?” asked Marielle.
“I don’t know,” replied Royal. “They seemed to be picking them pretty
fast.
“O Thomas,” continued Royal, “I’ll tell you how we might have had some
fun. We might have hid in the bushes, and growled like two bears, and
they would all have been frightened away.”
“Yes,” said Thomas, “so we might.”
“I’ve a great mind to go now,” said Royal.
“No, I wouldn’t frighten them,” said Marielle; “let them pick their
berries.”
“O, it will not frighten them much,” said Royal; “and after it is all
over, they will only laugh at it.”
“No, you mustn’t frighten them,” said Lucy.
“Yes,” said Royal; “let us go; we can creep along slyly by the bank of
the brook, and get into the bushes close to where they are.”
“No,” said Rollo, gesticulating with his hand, and speaking in a very
positive tone; “you _must not_ frighten them, Royal.”
“I shall go and tell them,” said Lucy, “that you a’n’t any bears at
all; that you are nothing but Royal.”
“No,” said Royal, “you must not tell them. If you do, I will run away
from you, and leave you here all alone; and I don’t believe that you
can find your way home.”
So Royal and Thomas went off, creeping slowly along by the bank of
the brook, until they came to a little copse of trees, which was near
where the children were gathering their blueberries. There were three
children--two girls and a boy. The oldest girl was about as old as
Marielle, the youngest about as old as Lucy, and the boy was between
them, in respect to age.
They were all barefoot, and they wore very old clothes. In fact, they
were poor, and had come to gather berries to sell, to get some money
for their mother.
If Marielle and Lucy had known these facts, they would have been still
more unwilling to have had Royal go and frighten these children; and
Royal himself would probably have altered his plan. And as it was,
Marielle and Lucy were very sorry to have him go.
“I wish he would come back,” said Lucy, “and not go and frighten those
poor children.”
“Yes,” said Marielle, “it seems cruel, while they are there enjoying
themselves so well, to go and put them all into pain.”
“O, he isn’t going to hurt them,” said Rollo; “he is only going to
frighten them a little.”
“Frightening them is hurting them,” said Marielle. “I am sure I think
being frightened is the worst kind of pain.”
“So do I,” said Lucy.
“One day,” added Marielle, “a dog ran after me in the road, and
frightened me terribly, and I fell down and hurt my head; but the
fright was a great deal worse than the pain in my head.”
Lucy said that she had a great mind to go and tell the children not
to be frightened. Marielle made no reply to this proposal. She would
not object to it; but, then, on the other hand, she did not dare to
encourage Lucy to go, or to do any thing herself to oppose Royal
openly; as she was afraid that he would go away and leave them, as he
had threatened to do. So she remained where she was, and they all went
on quietly, gathering berries.
After a short time, they suddenly heard an outcry, in the direction
towards which Royal and Thomas had gone. The bushes and trees were
in the way so much that they could not see any thing; but they
listened and heard several voices, uttering shouts or cries. A moment
afterwards, they saw the three children running across the pasture, at
some distance from them. They came into view from behind some trees,
and seemed to be running along as if going towards the bars by which
they had come into the pasture. Marielle and Lucy could not see them
very well; they could only get a glimpse of their heads, now and then,
as they ran along; for the ground was much broken between where they
were running and the place where Marielle and her party stood, and it
was covered with brakes and bushes.
“There they go,” said Lucy.
“Poor children,” said Marielle, “how they are frightened! I mean to run
and tell them that it is not a bear, if Royal _does_ go off and leave
us.”
So Marielle put down her mug by the basket, and ran off after the
girls, calling out, “Girls! Girls! Children!”
The oldest girl looked around, and saw Marielle pursuing her, and
supposed that she, too, had been frightened by the bear, and was
running away. So this only made them run the faster. The youngest of
the little girls had dropped her blueberries at first; but the boy and
the oldest girl had contrived to keep theirs until they were alarmed
anew by Marielle. And now they dropped their baskets too, and ran on as
fast as they could run.
[Illustration: “‘There they go,’ said Lucy.”--Page 146.]
Marielle found that she could not overtake them, and she was afraid to
leave Lucy and Rollo alone. So she came back to the place. Lucy and
Rollo had climbed up to the top of a little hillock, in order to see.
“Could not you make them hear you?” asked Rollo.
“Yes,” said Marielle, “they heard me, and looked round, but they would
not stop. They only ran away so much the faster.”
“Where do you think they will go?” said Lucy.
“I don’t know,” said Marielle, despondingly.
In a few minutes, they saw Royal and Thomas coming back. They did not
come by the same way that they went, but farther out towards where the
children had run away. They looked hurried, and Royal had an anxious
expression of countenance.
“What silly children,” he said, “to be frightened so much! I did not
think they would be frightened so much! Which way did they go?”
“They went off that way,” said Lucy and Rollo. “You have frightened
them entirely away.”
“I did not think they would be frightened so much,” said Royal.
Marielle said nothing; but, after a moment’s pause, she stooped down,
and began to gather berries again.
“I mean to go and find them, and tell them to come back,” said Royal.
“Come, Thomas, go with me.”
So Thomas and Royal went away, in the direction in which the children
had gone. They walked as fast as they could go. Royal was sorry for
what he had done. He had supposed that they would have been frightened
only a little, and would, perhaps, have run away a short distance,
and then stopped; and then he and Thomas were coming out of the woods
laughing.
But it is always very dangerous to attempt to frighten any body. It
is impossible to know beforehand what effects will be produced; for
terror is very seldom in proportion to its cause. Children in lonely
places, like that where these parties had gone to gather blueberries,
are very easily terrified; and, when fears are once aroused, it is very
difficult to quell them again. Royal did wrong in attempting to put
the children to any pain whatever, for his own amusement; but he did
not intend that the mischief should have been so great as it really
proved.
He hurried along after the children, feeling anxious and
self-condemned. He was in advance of Thomas, as he was very eager to
overtake the children. After going some distance, Thomas called out to
him,--
“O Royal, look here!”
Royal turned back, and Thomas pointed him to the place where the
children had dropped their baskets when they had been frightened the
second time, by Marielle. The baskets were tumbled down, and the
berries spilled all about. Royal looked upon them with a countenance
expressive of great concern.
“They have spilled all their berries,” said Thomas.
“Yes,” said Royal. “Let’s pick ’em up.”
So Royal began gathering up the berries as fast as he could, only he
did it carefully. Some were on the grass, and were clean and uninjured;
but others had rolled away into the dusty path, and were spoiled. Royal
worked a few minutes, and then he said to Thomas,--
“Thomas, I had better go on and find them, while you stay here and
finish picking up the berries.”
“No,” said Thomas, “I don’t want to be left here all alone.”
“Yes,” said Royal, “it will not be but a few minutes. We will all come
right back here. Because, if I stay here, I am afraid that they will
get away too far.”
Thomas reluctantly consented to remain, and Royal went on. Presently
he came to a path which led along to the bars. He followed the path,
sometimes walking fast, and sometimes running, until he came, at
length, in view of the bars; and there he saw the three children
perplexed and unhappy, and not knowing what to do. The youngest was
sitting down upon the grass by the side of the road, crying.
“Why, girls,” said Royal, when he came up near enough to speak, “what
made you run off so far?”
The older girl was silent; the younger continued to cry. The boy, after
a little pause, said,--
“We heard a terrible noise down there in the woods.”
“O, that wasn’t any thing,” said Royal; “it was only another boy and I.
But we didn’t mean to frighten you so much.”
“You did frighten us very much indeed,” said the boy.
“And you have made us spill all our blueberries,” said the oldest girl;
“and now I don’t know what we shall do.”
Here the little girl began crying and sobbing anew. Royal stood silent
and sad; he was shocked to see how much mischief he had done.
“Don’t cry, Jenny,” said the older girl. “We will go back and get our
baskets.” She spoke in a gentle, but a very melancholy tone.
“Yes,” said Royal, “we’ll go back; and I’ll help you pick some more
blueberries.”
The children began to go back slowly, following Royal. Royal told them
that Thomas was picking up the berries that they had spilled, and that
he would help them get some more.
“We can’t stop to get any more,” said the older girl. “We must go home
now. We were just ready to go when you frightened us.”
“But why need you go home so soon?” said Royal. “It is not but little
more than the middle of the afternoon yet. We shall have two hours
more, before sundown.”
“But we have got a great way to go,” replied the girl, “to sell our
berries. Mother told us to be sure and come home by the middle of the
afternoon, so as to have time to sell our berries; for if we do not
get a chance to sell them before night, then we have all our work for
nothing.”
“Why? Can’t you eat your berries?”
“Why, yes, we can eat them,” said the girl, “but we want to sell them.
But, then, we haven’t got any to sell now;--I forgot that;--so we may
as well stay as not. Only, then, mother won’t know what is become of
us. O dear! I don’t know what we _shall_ do.”
When they came to the place where Thomas was picking up the
blueberries, Royal went to work at once, very busily too. Little Jenny
said, in a mournful tone,--
“Now, my basket isn’t here, Mary; and I don’t know where it is.” And
she began to cry again.
The older girl, whose name, it seems, was Mary, told her not to cry.
“Never mind, Jenny,” said she. “Don’t cry; mother won’t blame us much,
when we tell her all about it.”
“But I can’t find my basket at all,” said Jenny.
“Why, you dropped it out there where you first began to run away,” said
Royal. “You go back there, and get it, while we are picking up these
blueberries.”
“No,” said Jenny, shaking her head.
“Yes,” replied Royal; “it is not very far.”
“No,” said Jenny; “I’m afraid to go there again.”
“Ho!” said Royal; “you need not be afraid. There’s nothing there. It
was only Thomas and I that made that noise.”
But Jenny was afraid to go; and so Royal said that he would go, and
come back with Jenny’s basket in a minute.
“And you finish picking these up, Thomas,” said he. “Pick ’em up very
carefully.”
So Royal went away. When he was gone, Mary, who had thus far stood
looking upon the scene in a sort of silent despair, now began to help
Thomas gather up the blueberries from the grass. Many of them had
rolled down into the dust, and got spoiled; but there was a large
portion which was not injured. These the children were rapidly putting
back into the basket again, when Marielle and Lucy, who had seen them
returning there, came over with Rollo from where they had been, to see
what was going on.
As soon as she, and Rollo, and Lucy, saw what they were doing, they
went to work too, to help gather up the blueberries; and they soon got
back into the baskets all that were fit to go. Before long, Royal
came back, too, with Jenny’s basket. He had waited to pick up her
blueberries, which had been spilled as well as the rest.
They found that so many of the berries had been lost or spoiled that
the baskets were not nearly as full as they were before. So Marielle
proposed to Rollo and Lucy that they should give Mary theirs. Rollo and
Lucy said that they should like to do that very much. Mary at first
refused to receive them; but Marielle insisted upon it, for she said,
“We have not got to go home yet, and we can gather plenty more.” So
they poured in the blueberries into the other children’s baskets, and
filled them full. And when they went away, Marielle went up to Mary,
and said to her in a low tone,--
“If you can’t sell your blueberries easily, come to our house, and
perhaps my mother will buy them.”
Then Royal, and Marielle, and their party, began again to gather
blueberries for themselves; but the occurrences of the afternoon had
shed such a gloom over the party, that they did not feel inclined to
stay very long. They gathered a few, and then they went home. Royal did
not say much; but he seemed really sorry for the mischief he had done.
Though he had spoiled the pleasure of the party, yet Marielle did not
reproach him. In fact, he seemed so sorry for it, and so disposed to do
all he could to make reparation, that in her heart she forgave him.