Haymaking
It was only a few days after this that nurse took all the children to
tea at an old farmhouse about two miles off. They rode part of the way
in a farm waggon, and were all in the best of spirits, for it was
haymaking time,--a time of entrancing joy to all children, and to the
little Stuarts a new and delightful experience. They had tea out in
one of the fields under a shady elm, and were just separating after it
was over to have one more romp in the hay, when, to Betty's intense
surprise, who should come across the field but Nesta Fairfax! She
evidently knew Mrs. Crump, the farmer's wife, well, for she sat down
and began chatting away about all her family, and then she caught sight
of Betty.
'Why, it's my little friend!' she said, stooping down and kissing her;
'and are these your brothers and sisters?'
Betty got crimson with delight, and introduced one after the other with
great importance, and Nesta won all their hearts at once by joining
them in their frolic. Her laugh was as gay as theirs, and she could
run as fast as any of them.
'You're rather a nice grown-up person,' said Douglas approvingly, as at
last she took her leave; 'you aren't so dull and stupid as grown-up
people generally are! Will you come and see us one day at our farm?
I'll take you to see the sweetest white mice in the stable that Sam
keeps, and there's heaps of easy trees to climb in the orchard, if you
like climbing!'
'And I'll show you a baby calf only two days old,' put in Molly, 'and
three black and white kittens in a loft, with a lot of apples one end.
We've jolly things at our farm, if you'll only come.'
'And a see-saw and a swing,' added the twins.
'And what will Betty show me?' asked Nesta, amused.
'I think I'll show you the flowers, and the forget-me-nots and
watercress in the brook,' said Betty meditatively.
'Then I really must come, with such an enchanting programme before me,'
said Nesta; and she kissed them all round, told nurse she envied her
her little family, cracked some jokes with old Crump and his wife, and
departed, leaving behind her a breezy brightness and cheeriness that
she brought with her wherever she came.
'A pleasant young lady,' said nurse; 'who is she, Mrs. Crump?'
'Ah, well,' said Mrs. Crump, shaking her head solemnly; 'there's a sad
story attached to the family. My niece, what the master and I have
brought up like one of our own children, has got the sitivation as maid
to Mrs. Fairfax, and she knows all the ins and outs of their trouble as
no one else do. You see, this is how it is! They were a Lunnon
family, and come down here first for change of air. They took lodgings
in Mrs. Twist's farm; there were Mrs. Fairfax and the two young ladies,
and a dashing young gentleman, the son, who came down for a day or two
at a time, but he never stayed long. Mrs. Fairfax were proud as proud
could be, and very cold and stern-like except to her son, so Jane says,
and him she couldn't do enough for; her heart was just bound up in him!
Jane went back with them to Lunnon, but she says the way the young
gentleman went on were enough to break any mother's heart. He was fast
going to the bad; and yet his mother, though she would scold and fume
at times, never seemed to see it, and paid his debts, and let him have
his fling. Miss Nesta were engaged to be married, and Jane says her
lover did all he could to stand by her brother and keep him straight;
but it weren't no good whatever. And about two year ago the end came.
Mr. Arthur had some trouble over a gaming-table; that was the
beginning; then he went and signed a bank cheque that wasn't his--I
believe as how it is called forging, and the gentleman whose cheque it
was had him up in court; he wouldn't hush it up, and it was the talk of
all Lunnon, so Jane tells me. His mother would have paid up, though it
would have ruined her; but she weren't allowed, and he were sent to
prison across the seas for seventeen years. Jane says Mrs. Fairfax
seemed turned to stone; she shut up the Lunnon house, and went abroad
to some foreign place with a long name, I forgets it now; and then she
comes back and takes Holly Grange, which is as nice an old house as
ever you see, and belonged to a Colonel Sparks, who died only a
twelvemonth ago, and is about a mile from here, over against that wood
you see yonder. But I'm tiring of you with this long tale.'
'I like to hear it,' said nurse; and so did Betty, though a good deal
of it was incomprehensible to her. She sat with Prince in her arms on
the grass close by, and her quick little ears were listening to every
word.
'Well,' said Mrs. Crump, with a sigh, 'there ain't much more to tell.
Jane says Mrs. Fairfax shuts herself up and won't see a single visitor;
Miss Grace, the eldest daughter, who was never very strong, has become
a confirmed invalid, with very crotchety and fidgety ways, and makes
every one miserable who comes near her. Miss Nesta is the only one
that keeps bright; and Jane says her temper is that sweet, she bears
with all her sister's crossness and unreasonableness, and her mother's
icy coldness, like an angel. She have had her troubles, too, poor
thing! Jane tells me that it was Mrs. Fairfax made her break off her
engagement with her lover; he were some relative of the gentleman that
lost the cheque, and she wouldn't have the engagement go on on no
account. Jane says her lover had a talk with Mrs. Fairfax, and he were
rather a high and mighty gentleman, and he left the room as white as
death, and declared he would never set foot in the house again. Jane
thinks Mrs. Fairfax was beside herself at the time, and must have
insulted him fearful. Anyhow, it all came to an end. It's a world of
trouble, Mrs. Duff. But I feel very sorry for Miss Nesta. The other
ladies hardly ever leave the house or grounds, and they would like to
keep Miss Nesta in as well; but she comes across to me and has a chat,
and she reads a chapter and has prayers with grandfather. She's a very
good young lady, and no one would think, to look at her, what she have
come through.'
'Has she come through tribulation?' asked Betty, looking up suddenly.
'Well, I never did! To think of that child a-taking it all in!'
ejaculated Mrs. Crump. 'What do you know about tribulation, little
missy?'
'It means trouble or distress, I know;' and Betty's face was very
wistful as she spoke.
'Run along and play with the others,' said nurse quickly, 'and don't
worry your head over other people's troubles. There is plenty of it in
the world, but your time hasn't come for it yet.'
'I wish it would come,' said Betty softly, 'and then I could put myself
in that text.'
But only Prince heard the whispered words, and he wagged his tail in
sympathy.
It was that night that Betty added another clause to her evening
prayers. She generally said them aloud at nurse's knee, but it was not
the first time that she had said, 'I want to whisper quite a secret to
God'; and nurse always let her have her way.
'She is a queer little thing,' she told her brother; 'sometimes
naughtier and more contrary than all the rest put together, and
sometimes so angel-like that I wonder if she won't have an early death.
But there's no knowing how to take her!'
Betty's secret was this,--
'And please, God, forgive Prince his sins and take him to heaven when
he dies, and let me come through great tribulation, so that I may be
like your people in heaven.'
When haymaking commenced at Brook Farm the children's delight knew no
bounds. Every moment of the day they were out in the fields; and as
the great cart-loads of hay were driven off, they felt proud and
pleased with having helped in the work. Prince enjoyed it as much as
any one; but he never left his little mistress's side for long. One
evening, as the tired haymakers were resting, after having placed the
last load on the wagon, Betty, dancing by the cart, was inspired to
ascend the ladder which had been left against it.
'Come on,' she shouted to Douglas and Molly, 'and we'll have a ride
home.'
Up they went, unnoticed by any, and danced up and down with delight
when they reached the top. Then nurse discovered them, and in her
fright and anxiety at their risky position she rushed towards them and
screamed aloud. The horses, startled, swerved hastily aside, and
Douglas, dangerously near the edge, over-balanced himself, and fell
with a terrible thud to the ground. It was the work of a moment to
seize him and drag him from the wheels, which mercifully did not touch
him; but he was carried into the house stunned and insensible, and
Molly and Betty, with scared, white faces, were taken down and sent
indoors.
'It's your fault,' whispered Molly to the frightened Betty; 'you made
us come up, and now Douglas will die! I think he's dead already;
you'll be a murderer, and you'll be sent to prison and hung!'
And Betty quite believed this assertion, and crept up to the passage
outside Douglas's bedroom trembling with excitement and fright. She
crouched down in a corner, and Prince came up, put his two paws on her
shoulder, and licked her face with a little wistful whine. It was a
long time before nurse came out of the room, and then she wasted very
few words on the little culprit.
'Go to bed, you naughty child, and tell Miss Molly to go too. You are
never safe from mischief, and it's a mercy your brother hasn't been
killed.'
'Will he get better, nurse?'
But nurse made no reply, and both little girls were long before they
got to sleep that night, so fearful were their conjectures as to the
fate of their brother.
Douglas was only stunned for the time, and very much bruised and
shaken. Nurse kept him in bed for two or three days, and the two
little girls were unremitting in their care and attention. He accepted
their services with much complacency, and enjoyed his important and
interesting position.
'What would you two girls have done if I had died?' he asked. 'Who
would have been your leader then?'
'You're not my leader,' said Betty promptly. 'No one is my leader. I
lead myself.'
'I don't know what I should have done,' said Molly pensively. 'I
should have had to go about with Betty then. You see, I should have
her, and the twins have themselves. I don't think Bobby and Billy
would miss any of us much if we were to die. We should be equal if you
died, Douglas--two and two, but I'm glad you're going to get better.'
'You wouldn't have gone about with me, Molly,' said Betty, with a
decisive shake of her head, as she stooped to caress Prince at her
feet, 'because you would have been one too many. We are two and two
without you. I don't want any one with me but Prince. You would have
to be the odd one if Douglas died--like I used to be.'
'Prince is only a dog,' said Molly, with a little curl of her lip. 'I
wouldn't make two with a dog!'
Betty's eyes sparkled dangerously.
'Prince is ever so much nicer than you are--much nicer, and you're
jealous because he likes me and not you. He's my very own, and I love
him, and he loves me; and I love him better than all the people in the
world put together, so there!'
'You needn't get in a temper. He's a silly, stupid kind of a dog, and
Mr. Giles said yesterday if he caught him chasing his sheep round the
field, he would give him a good beating; and I hope he will, for he
nearly chased the sheep yesterday.'
'When you two have done fighting I should like to speak. My head
aches. I think I should like some of the jelly nurse made for me. It
will make it better.'
The little girls' rising wrath subsided. Both rushed to fulfil
Douglas's desire,--for had not nurse left them in charge, and had she
not also warned them against exciting him by loud talking and noise?
'I'm glad you will get better,' said Betty presently. 'I saw Miss
Fairfax in church yesterday, and she asked me how you were.'
'What were you doing in church?' demanded Douglas. 'It wasn't Sunday.'
'Prince and I go to church very often,' said Betty, putting on a prim
little air. 'We have several businesses there; but we don't tell every
one what we do.'
'Do you play the organ?' asked Douglas, a little eagerly.
'No, but we hear it played, and we sing, and we--well, we do lots of
other things.'
'I shall come with you next time you go,' and Douglas's tone was firm.
'No,' said Betty; 'you'll be one too many. I don't want Molly, and I
don't want you. I've got Prince, and I don't want no one else.'
It was thus she aired her triumphs daily; and it was by such speeches
that she revealed how much she had felt and suffered in times past by
being so constantly left out in the cold. And Prince was daily
becoming more and more companionable. Not one doubt did Betty ever
entertain as to his not understanding or caring for her long
confidences. He slept in a little basket at the foot of her bed. She
was wakened by his wet kisses in the morning, and he liked nothing
better than snuggling into bed with her. Tucking his little black nose
under her soft chin, he would place a paw on each of her shoulders, and
settle off into a reposeful sleep; whilst Betty would lie perfectly
still, gazing at him with loving eyes, and every now and then giving
him a gentle squeeze and murmuring, 'You're my very own, my darling,
and I love you.'