LITTLE ANNIE STEEL
WHEN I got to Mrs. Buxton's, I found her in the front garden cutting
cabbages. She was awfully surprised when I told her what I wanted to
do. First she said she couldn't let Annie go.
"I never should ha' had her, if I'd knowed she were so 'elpless. Her
mother, which was a widow when twenty, died sudden like, and Annie
oughter have gone to the infirmary, but my 'usband's people have never
none on 'em come to that. So to humour 'im, I says, 'Us will have the
lassie here,' and here she be, and no strength or back-bone in her. All
she do is to sit in a hunch like and cry. Can't walk a step, no more
than a baby. But there, miss, if you're set on it, come on in and us
will get her out into your cart easy enough."
So I tied Andy up to the gate-post and went in. The back kitchen was a
stuffy little place, and in a low chair sat Annie. She really looked
like a tiny old woman, only she had short fair hair standing out
straight. When I told her what we were going to do, she smiled such
a pitiful smile that it made me almost cry. She was as white as her
pinafore. She is only nine years old—just as old as Lynette, but she is
all doubled up. I had brought four cushions and a rug, and I made her
as comfortable as I could. Her grandmother lifted her right in. She is
as light as a feather. Her grandmother tied a cotton sun-bonnet on her
head, and then we were off.
I drove very slowly down the lane, for I was afraid of shaking her, and
then she began to talk. At first she lay still, looking up into the sky
and opening and shutting her mouth rather like a fish, and when I asked
her why she did that, she said:
"'Tis the air, miss; I haven't breathed none at all since I come to
granny's. Afore mother died, I always sat at open winder, but granny's
back winder don't open at all."
She told me she loved Hannah, and then she began exclaiming at
everything she saw in such a funny way.
"There be no houses, miss—what a hempty place. This be the real
country. I never seed it till I come to granny's, and then 'twas all
over so quick, and I never 'ave come outdoors since. Mother allays said
God lived in the country, not in the town. Mother 'ated London, she
did, she said 'twas so dirty, but we 'ave the sky in London, only not
much of it at a time. Oh! This must be like 'eving. The fields, and the
trees, and the flowers—I have seen picturs, but not so living as this."
I stopped at the gate of a field to let her see some rabbits play
about, and when a butterfly rested on the cart for a minute, she
screamed with delight. And then when she grew tired of exclaiming, I
began to talk to her. I told her how we got Andy, and she said to me,
when I had finished:
"Does God listen to everybody, miss, or is it only rich folks. I ain't
heard nothin' 'bout Him since I come to live with granny. Mother used
to have a distric' visitor, but I didn't like her. She were always
in such a hurry to get away, and she said I'd be better in a 'ome or
'ospital."
"Of course God hears us all," I said, surprised she was so ignorant.
"Don't you pray to Him?"
She shook her head.
"I used to say 'Our Father,' but I've clean forgotten how it goes on
arter 'kingdom come.'"
"Can you read?" I said.
She shook her head again.
"I did begin, but mother died afore I'd got to big words, and no one
has learnt me since."
"Oh, you poor little thing!" I said. "What can you do with yourself all
day?"
"I looks at picturs, and sews—I can sew. I'm doin' patches for a quilt
for granny."
"You ought to pray to God," I said.
"Why?"
"Oh, because He likes you to. He loves you. Do you know about Jesus
Christ?"
"Him what was killed on a cross? Mother telled me that."
"Do you know why He was killed?"
She shook her head.
"Something about saving sinners and the world," she said. "I've
forgotten. I b'lieve He was very good and kind. He's been dead hundreds
of years, hasn't He?"
"He isn't dead at all," I said, quite horrified. "Why, Annie, you don't
know as much as the infants in my class."
"No one never learns me," she said, in a whimpering voice.
So then I began to tell her as well as I could what Jesus had done for
her. She didn't know she was a sinner at all, but I think I made her
understand she was, after some time, and she was quite surprised when
I told her that Jesus was still alive, and still able to help us and
be with us and lead us along, though we couldn't see Him. She didn't
know the Cross had anything to do with her, and she drank it all in
with big eyes and open mouth, till I wished that some one better than
I was talking to her. I had to attend to my driving too, and every now
and then I got down and picked her some honeysuckle and wild flowers to
take back with her. And at last I felt we had been out long enough, so
I drove her back, and when we got to her house, she began to cry, and
she caught hold of my hand.
"You will come and take me out again—you won't forget me? Oh, do
promise you'll come another day!"
"I'll try and come this day week, Annie," I said, "and I'll come and
see you before that, and perhaps I can help you to read. I'll bring
some books with me."
Her granny lifted her out and seemed quite pleased.
"Well there, missy, 'tis very good of you, and it'll do her a power o'
good. Poor bit of a thing, 'twould be a mercy of the Lord to take her.
She'll never be no use to no one in this world."
I felt quite angry, but I didn't know what to say, and I saw that
Annie's face quivered all over at her horrid words, so I waved to her.
"Good-bye, Annie. I'll come to see you very soon."
Then I ran home and told father all about her. He said:
"I blame myself for not having discovered her. I have been to see Mrs.
Buxton, but she never told me she had a grandchild."
"She's ashamed of her," I said. "Hannah told me she thought a deformed
child was a disgrace to any one. Isn't it cruel of her? Do you think I
could teach her to read, father?"
"Yes, most certainly. Go to her as often as you like—only mind, ask
Mrs. Buxton's permission to do it."
When I told the others about Annie, they didn't laugh, and Lynette was
quite interested. She got some of her old dolls out, and told me to
take them to her.
Aunt C. said at tea:
"I think Grisel has had the most enjoyable day with the donkey."
"Oh, yes, aunt," said Aylwin quickly, "we know what you're going to
say—because she thought of other people's pleasure before her own. But
she's made that way, it's no credit to her. And don't you make her
conceited, because she thinks a lot too much of herself already."
"I don't!" I said angrily.
"Hush! Hush! No quarrelling!"
Aunt C. is always having to say that, so none of us went on with it.
The next morning came a big parcel by post addressed to "Master Denys
and Master Aylwin Marjoribanks."
They were awfully excited, and didn't notice Lynette's and my sniggles,
for I told her about it. Well, they went on unrolling and unrolling
paper after paper, and at last they came to a cardboard box; and when
they opened it, it was full of old cabbage-stalks, and a little piece
of paper was folded up at the bottom of the box, and they read it out:
"With thanks from Beatrice and Clarice."
Then Lynette and I danced round the table and laughed at them, for they
deserved it. And then I told them that I'd never taken the parcel to
the Hall at all, and they were awfully disappointed and very angry at
the "cheek of those girls," as they expressed it.
I told them they always liked playing jokes on other people, but never
liked to have them played on themselves. And Denys said he would
have his revenge, but he always says that when he comes off worst in
anything, and then he forgets all about it.
I was so interested in Annie Steel, that nearly every day I went to see
her, and she got a pink colour in her cheeks, and looked almost pretty.
Every Wednesday I take her out.
We're all hard at work earning money for a saddle for Andy. The boys
find Captain Rogers likes the most enormous lot of fish. They can't
keep him supplied, and he pays them very handsomely. I still send some
vegetables and flowers in to Lemworth market by Bob Tapson, and Lynette
makes toffee on and off—she gets tired of doing it very often. But the
money seems long in coming.
Mrs. Rogers brought Captain Rogers to tea yesterday afternoon, and
he made us open our money-box. We found we had fifteen shillings. We
had great fun. We had tea out on the lawn—a kind of picnic it was—and
Captain Rogers said we must try and make money quicker than we were
doing or we should never get our saddle. So then we asked him if he had
any plan, and he said Yes, he thought he had. He said he and his wife
were going to have an archery competition in their big field, and a lot
of grown-up people were coming to it, and also he was going to ask all
the children he knew for a children's competition, and he was going to
give a prize to the best shooter, and the prize-money was going to be
one guinea.
"So all you have to do is to win that prize," he said; "and I know a
place where you can get a good boy's saddle for thirty shillings or so."
We all set up a shout; it was lovely to think of. And then we told him
that we didn't know how to shoot with bows and arrows, but we supposed
we could learn. He said it was one of the few things left to him to do,
and that we must come over and practise in his field.
"And we can set up a target here and practise," said Denys. "I will
make it; only we have no bows or arrows. Are they expensive?"
"We'll ask Mrs. Ribbon," said Aylwin. "I bet you she'll have to own she
doesn't sell them."
"No," said Captain Rogers, "I'll lend you some of mine till after the
competition. Let me see, you'll want four, won't you? One apiece."
"Me too!" cried Puff, in an injured tone. "I want to shoot."
So Captain Rogers promised to send five bows round and a packet of
arrows. And Denys said, to save him trouble, he'd go back with him and
get them, so that we could start at once.
"And how is Andy behaving?" he asked.
"Just as uncertain as ever he was," I said. "Sometimes he's very good,
and then he suddenly plays up his old trick of coming to a standstill,
and not one of us, or all of us together, can make him move. He's not a
faithful animal—he never will be."
Captain Rogers laughed, and pulled a bit of my hair.
"Come here, you little old woman, and tell me what a faithful animal
is."
"One you can depend upon," I said; "a certain, sure animal, that is
always the same. Isn't that the meaning of faithful? We were talking
about it the other day."
"Yes," he said, "that's a very true description of faithfulness. I
think I would back you to be faithful, Grisel."
"Oh, I wish I was. But I'm not. You aren't properly faithful if you
aren't always faithful, like our knight—'semper fidelis.' I'm trying to
be a faithful servant, but I'm always forgetting."
"Whose servant?" he asked. "I think I would like you for a faithful
friend, Grisel."
"Christ's servant," I said to him in a whisper. "He comes first, you
know. But I'd like to be your faithful friend very much, Captain
Rogers."
"We'll make a compact now," he said; "and if I get into trouble and
want a friend, I shall know to whom I can turn."
Both the boys went back to the farm with Captain Rogers, and they came
home triumphantly with the bows and arrows. And all to-day they have
been making a target with straw and white calico and paint. I do hope
one of us will get the prize. We stand a good chance, as there are
four of us. Beatrice and Clarice are to be asked too, and some other
children from a long way off. I believe Captain Rogers hopes we shall
win.
* * * * *
It is some time since I wrote in this book, for I have been so busy.
First of all I must tell about our archery competition. We began to
practise hard for it the very minute the target was ready. We put it
up at the end of the lawn and shot at it from as far as we could get
away from it. And it's awfully exciting, and great fun. I thought I was
getting on splendidly, but I'm rather afraid I was very cross at being
called so often away from my practice. As it happened, Emma scalded her
leg, and had to be in bed for a whole day, and when she got up, she
couldn't move about. And so Aunt C. said Lynette and I must make our
beds, and dust the rooms, and help in the house as much as possible. It
seemed very provoking, because we did want to be good shooters. I can't
bear not doing things well.
Lynette kept running away, but I couldn't do that; and I helped all
I could, only I felt very cross the whole time. I don't think I was
at all good that week. When Wednesday came, I didn't want to take
Annie out for a drive, because Beatrice and Clarice came to spend the
afternoon with us, and all of them were shooting hard at the target. I
went off with Andy, wishing I hadn't promised to take Annie out every
week, but when I saw her little smiling face, I was ashamed of myself.
I was half an hour late. She said:
"Grannie said you wouldn't come. I knewed you would. I wakes in the
night and thinks o' my drive. You never disapp'int me, do you, miss?"
"I hope I never shall," I said.
Annie was very talkative. "I says my prayers proper when I goes to bed
and when I gets up," she said. "I telled granny 'bout it. I said to
her, I oughter speak and thank for all the nice things I was havin',
special to thank Him Who died on cross for me; and she said so I did
oughter, that 'twas more 'n I deserved to have a young lady come so
constant to see me. And please, Miss Grisel, you said las' time you
were here, you and me were both the Lord's servants, and please if I'm
one, what can I do for Him?"
Annie always makes me feel that she is really much better than I am,
though she has known about things for such a short time. She seems so
dead in earnest.
"I wants to do somethin' for Him," she said; "I loves Him so."
"I don't think Jesus wants us to do very big things for Him when we're
children, Annie," I said. "That's what father says. He wants us just
to do all day and speak all day as if He were in the room smiling and
watching us. Of course He is really in the room with us, you know, but
we can't see Him. I'm sure He must often want to turn away His head and
look the other way when we get cross and disobliging and grumbling. I
do forget about it so. I've been cross to-day myself."
"I cries and grumbles when my back is bad," Annie said thoughtfully.
"I'll hush up nex' time if He's near. And do you think He'd like me to
peel the taters for granny, and learn to mend grand-dad's socks? 'Cause
I sometimes tells of 'er I can't do nothin' when my back aches?"
"I'm sure He would like you to help your granny all you can, Annie,"
I said. And then I didn't want to be a hypocrite, so I told her how
cross I had felt when Aunt C. had asked me to do things, and we agreed
together that we must keep saying to ourselves:
"Jesus is in the room. He is watching to see what I'm going to do."
I felt quite happy when I came home from our drive. The others were
just having tea, and afterwards I ran out and practised with my bow and
arrow for a little, and once I hit the bull's-eye, but I couldn't do it
again, though I tried ever so.
[Illustration: HE SHOT SO STEADILY AND FIRMLY.]
At last the day came, and we all went off to the farm, and the field
was full of people, and there was the most lovely tea spread out under
the trees, and four boys and five girls, all strangers to us. Three
girls and a boy were the children of the Squire of Tenbury, a village
seven miles from us, and the others were a clergyman's family near
Lincoln. They had come by train. We liked them all, and they were quite
as excited as we were over the archery.
We began at once, and it was great fun taking it in turns; the boys lay
on the grass and cheered when any one did well. I was very nervous when
my turn came, and my hand shook as if I had the palsy. But I didn't
do badly, only of course I didn't win; I knew I shouldn't do that. I
don't think any of us were surprised when Denys was the winner. Somehow
I felt he would be. He stood up so straight, and shot so steadily and
firmly—just like a grave man. He said after, he felt it was a matter of
life or death, because he was determined to get the prize. And then we
all cheered like mad, and Mrs. Rogers gave him his prize in a pretty
bead purse.
We all came home wild with joy, for we had got our donkey, and
donkey-cart, and now we had got the money for the saddle. And none of
us need try to earn money any more.
It seemed too good to be true.