A SAD STORY.
After dinner, Mrs. Parlin was seated on the lounge in the nursery,
looking very sad. Raising her eyes, she saw Dotty standing before her,
twisting a corner of her apron. The child had entered as quietly as her
own shadow, and her mother had not heard a footfall.
"My dear little girl, I am going to tell you a story."
"Yes, 'm."
Dotty looked steadily at her finger-nails.
"A true story about a child who let her temper run away with her."
"Yes, 'm," replied Dotty again, giving her mother a view of her rosy
right ear.
Mrs. Parlin saw that Dotty was very much ashamed. Her face did not look
as it had looked in the early morning. Then
"There was a hardness in her eye,
There was a hardness in her cheek:"
now she appeared as if she would be very much obliged to the nursery
floor if it would open like a trap-door and let her fall through, out of
everybody's sight.
"The little girl I am going to tell you about, Dotty, lived in this
state. Her name was Harriet Snow. Her father and mother were both dead.
She had occasional fits of temper, which were very dreadful indeed. At
such times she would hop up and down and scream."
Dotty tied the two corners of her apron into a hard knot. The story was
rather too personal.
"Was the little girl pretty?" said she, trying to change the subject.
"Not very pretty, I think. Her skin was dark; her eyes were black, and
remarkably bright. When I saw her, she was thirteen years old; and you
may know, Dotty, that by that time her face could not well be very
pleasant: temper always leaves its marks."
Dotty looked at her little plump hands, as if she expected to see black
spots on them.
"Sometimes Harriet beat her head against the wall so violently that
there seemed to be danger of her dashing her brains out."
Dotty looked up quite bravely. This dreadful little girl was worse than
_she_ had ever been! O, yes!
"Wasn't she crazy, mamma?"
Mrs. Parlin shook her head.
"No, I am afraid not, dear. Only, when she allowed anger to stay in her
heart, it made her feel blind and dizzy. Perhaps she was crazy for the
time."
Dotty hung her head again. She remembered how blind and dizzy she
herself had felt while screaming at Norah that morning.
"This little girl had no mother to warn her against indulging her
temper. When she had the feeling of hate swelling at her heart, nobody
told her what it was like. _You_ know what it is like, Dotty?"
Dotty's chin drooped, and rested in the hollow of her neck.
"I don't want to tell you, mamma."
"Like _murder_, my child."
Dotty shuddered, though she had known this before. Her mother had often
read to her from the Bible, that "whosoever hateth his brother is a
murderer."
"Well, there was no one to love this poor Harriet; she was not lovable."
"No, 'm, she was _hateable_!" remarked Dotty, anxious to say something;
for if she held her peace, she was afraid her mother would think she was
applying the story to herself.
"There was no one to love her; so a woman took her, and was paid for it
by the town."
"Town? Town, mamma? A _town_ is _houses_."
"She was paid for it by men in the town. I don't know whether this woman
tried to teach Harriet in the right way or not. It may be she had so
much to do that she thought it less trouble to punish her when she was
naughty than to instruct her how to be good."
"O, yes; I s'pose she struck her with a stick," said Dotty, patting her
forefingers together--"just this way."
"Harriet had the care of one of Mrs. Gray's children, a lively little
boy about two years old."
"Was he cunning? As cunning as Katie Clifford? Did he say, 'If you love
me, you give me hunnerd dollars; and I go buy me 'tick o' canny'?"
"Very likely he was quite as cunning as Katie. You would hardly think
any one could get out of patience with such a little creature--would
you, my daughter?"
"No, indeed!" cried Dotty, eagerly, and feeling that she was on safe
ground, for she loved babies dearly, and was always patient with them.
"I don't know but Harriet was envious of Mrs. Gray's little boy, because
he had nicer things to eat than she had."
"Well, it ought to have nicer things, mamma, 'cause it hadn't any
teeth."
"And she got tired of running after him."
"No matter if she did get tired, mamma; the baby was tireder than she
was!"
"And the parents think now it is very likely she was in the habit of
striking him when nobody knew it."
"What a naughty, wicked, awful girl!" cried Dotty, her eyes flashing.
"She had a fiery temper, my child, and had never learned to control it."
Dotty looked at her feet in silence.
"The baby was afraid of his little nurse; but he could not speak to tell
how he was abused; all he could do was to cry when he was left with
Harriet. But one day Mrs. Gray was obliged to go away to see her sick
mother. She charged Harriet to take good care of little Freddy, and give
him some baked apples and milk if he was hungry."
"With bread in?" suggested Dotty.
"Yes, I suppose so. Then she kissed her baby. He put his arms around her
neck, and cried to go too; but she could not take him."
"I s'pose he cried 'cause he 'xpected that awful girl was a-going to
shake him," said Dotty, indignantly.
"I cannot tell you precisely what Harriet did to him; but when the
father and mother got home, that darling boy was moaning in great pain.
They sent for the doctor, who said his spine was injured, and perhaps he
would never walk again; and, indeed, he never did."
"O, mamma! mamma Parlin!"
"Yes, my child; and it is supposed that Harriet must have hurt him in
one of her fits of rage."
Dotty's face had grown very white.
"O, mamma, what did the folks do with Harriet?"
"They took her to court, and tried her for abusing the little boy. They
could not prove that she was really guilty, though everybody believed
she was."
"I know what 'guilty' means, mamma; it means _hung_."
"No, dear; if she hurt the baby she was guilty, whether she was punished
for it or not."
"Well, she did it, I just know she did it!" exclaimed Dotty, greatly
excited. "That little tinty boy!"
"The judge pitied her for her youth and ignorance; so did the twelve men
called the 'jury;' and she was allowed to go free."
"Then did she 'buse somebody's else's baby, mamma?"
"I hope not. The last I heard of her she was married to a negro
fiddler."
"O!"
"Do you know why I have told you this sad story, my little daughter?"
"'Cause, 'cause--Harriet beat her head against the door, and hurt a
baby, and--and--married black folks!"
Dotty was very pale, and there was a tear in her voice; still her mother
could not be sure that her words had made much impression. She was
afraid her long story had been "love's labor lost."
But I believe it had not been. Not entirely, at least. Dotty thought of
Harriet all the afternoon, and walked about the house with a demureness
quite unusual.
"O, Prudy!" said she, when they two were alone in the parlor, looking
over a book of engravings, "I'm going to tell you something; 'twill
make you scream right out loud, and your hair stick up!"
[Illustration: "I'M GOING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING." Page 34.]
"Don't," laughed Prudy, "I've just brushed my hair."
"Once there was a girl, Prudy, lived in this state; and mother thinks
she was just like me. But she wasn't, truly. She was homely; and her
hair was black; and her mother was dead. The woman spatted her with a
stick where she lived. And she didn't love the baby any at all, 'cause
he had nicer things, you know; and I guess white sugar and verserves. So
she stuck a _spine_ into him--only think! In his crib! So he never
walked ever again! And his father and mother were gone away, and told
her to give him baked apples and milk--with bread in!"
"Why, that can't be true, Dotty Parlin!"
"Yes, _indeed_! Certain true, black and blue. Guess my mother knows!"
"What!" said Prudy, "just for baked apples and milk?"
"Yes. Her name was Harriet."
"What did you say she did it with, Dotty?"
"Mamma said a _spine_. They took her to the court-house; but they didn't
hang her, 'cause she--I've forgot what--but they didn't. They made her
marry a black man--that's all I know!"
"Well, there, how queer!" said Prudy, drawing a long breath. "If I was
Harriet I'd rather have been hung. Was he all black?"
"Yes, solid black. But I s'pose she didn't want to choke to death any
more'n you do."
"Dotty," said Prudy, with a meaning in her tone, "what do you suppose
made mamma tell you that story?"
"I don't know."
Dotty looked deeply dejected.
"Little sister," continued Prudy, taking advantage of the child's
softened mood, "don't you wish you didn't let yourself be so angry?"
"Yes, I do, so there!" was the quick and earnest reply.
Prudy was astonished. It was the first time this proud sister had ever
acknowledged herself wrong.
"Then, Dotty, what if you try to be good, and see how 'twill seem?"
"Won't you tell anybody, Prudy?"
"No, never."
"Well, I _will_ be good! I can swallow it down if I want to."
Observe what faith the child had in herself!
Prudy clapped her hands.
"There, don't you talk any more," added Miss Dimple, with a sudden sense
of shame, and a desire to conceal her emotions. "Let's make pictures on
the slate."
Prudy was ready for anything; her heart was very light. She was too wise
to remind Dotty of her new resolution; but she kept a journal, and that
evening there was a precious item to make in it.
I think, by the way, that Prudy's habit of keeping a journal was an
excellent thing. She learned by the means to express her thoughts with
some degree of clearness, and it was also an improvement to her
handwriting.
"_July 2d._ My sister Dotty thinks, certain, positive, she _will_ be
a good girl; and this is the day she begins. But I shall not tell
anybody, for I promised, 'No, never.'
"My mother told her about a girl that almost killed a dear little
boy because they asked her to give him baked apples and milk. I
heard my father say to my mother that he thought the story pierced
Dotty like _a two-leg-ged_ sword. So I don't think she will ever get
angry again. Finis."
Prudy always added the word "Finis" at the close of her remarks each
day, considering it a very good ending.