The Sunday after the funeral, the young ladies appeared at church, with
very serious and sorrowful countenances; and afterwards, with Miss Arden
and Miss Damer, Jane was often a subject of conversation: they loved to
recall her to remembrance; and the proofs she had left of her regard
were particularly prized by them.
But serious impressions seldom remain long upon the minds of very young
people. Miss Bruce was almost the first to return to her old pursuits
with gaiety of heart.
One evening, unknown to the teacher, she had strolled to the front
garden gate, apparently on the watch for mischief. Isabella, who was
intent upon learning her lessons for the following day, had likewise
passed the boundary of the play-ground, and had sauntered the same way.
Miss Bruce in a moment caught her hand, opened the gate, and ran with
her into the lane.
"Where are you taking me to?" exclaimed Isabella; "you have frightened
me so!"
"Nonsense! I only want you to go with me to the cake shop: we shan't be
five minutes away."
"But I have no business at the cake shop. And don't you see that I am
learning my lessons! You will make me forget all! 'Five times nine,
forty-five.' O, dear, I shall forget every thing!"
"What a dunce!" cried Miss Bruce; "only at forty-five! I will teach you
ten times further; and to add, and to subtract, if you will come with
me. I do believe Miss Wilkins is there! Come along, or we shall be
finely punished!" Saying this, Miss Bruce dragged Isabella down the
lane, whilst she struggled to make her escape.
"I will not go, Miss Bruce! you have no right to take me! I declare you
have made me drop my questions!"
"Never mind; I will give you question and answer too. Don't you see that
stile? and that nice white cottage by that large pool of water, where
those children are throwing stones? We have only to turn down by those
tall trees, and we shall be there in a moment."
"I dare not go: I know Mrs. Adair will be so angry!"
"I am determined you shall come! you are the most stupid little thing in
England!" As Miss Bruce said this, she took firm hold of her companion's
frock and arm, and drew her towards the water. Isabella in vain tried to
escape. By this time, they had almost reach the pool; a boy, who had
been amusing two children, making circles with stones in the water,
stepped from the edge of the pond, and marching boldly up to Miss Bruce,
as boldly asked her, "what business she had to tease the little lady?"
"Do you think, Sir, I shall answer a rude, vulgar boy like you?"
The boy looked at her with contempt, and stooping to Isabella, said,
"Do, little lady, tell me what this great girl is holding your frock
for?"
"She wants me to go with her for cakes, and I want to learn my lessons."
"O, you are the ladies, then, from the great school! I thought I had
seen you before. I see how it is; this great girl is like Jack Ranger;
she wants to get you into a scrape, that you may be marked as well as
herself! But I'll defend you, never fear! It is not a crab-stick that
can frighten me! Come with me, and see who dares to hinder us!" He now
caught her hand, and tried to draw her from her companion.
"You shall not go with her, against your mind, were she as big as
Hercules! We are English, and are not to be conquered." Miss Bruce
suddenly let go her companion's frock, and gave the boy a violent slap
upon the face. "Go home, you little ragged creature, mend your coat, and
do not talk to ladies."
The boy instantly recovered himself from the blow; and looking at Miss
Bruce with scorn, exclaimed, "I am not a mender of old clothes, Miss!
Take that for your pains, and your boarding-school manners!"
The blow he returned made blood to gush violently from Miss Bruce's
nose. Isabella screamed; the children cried out, "very well, Tom! I
would not be you for something."
A pretty woman, but with a stern countenance, now came forth from the
cottage, and asked what the rout was about.
"Only our Tom and the lady boxing," cried the children.
"For shame of yourself, Sir! How dare you behave so to your betters?"
"I would have struck her," said the boy, sullenly, "had she been as tall
as the steeple, and as great as King George But come, little Miss, with
me, and let that great girl do what she likes."
He now ran off with Isabella.
"Very well, Sir! but I shall tell your father of this, or my name's not
Grace Johnson! But come into the cottage, Miss; and let us see what we
can do with your frock, for it is in a sad state."
Miss Bruce followed the cottager, a little ashamed of her appearance;
but more afraid of consequences. She was, however, one of those
self-willed young ladies, who think upon a thing one moment, and act
upon it the next.
When Isabella and her champion arrived at the garden-gate, behold it was
locked! What was to be done was now the consideration.
"We'll tell the truth at once," said the boy: "it may be blamed, but, as
the copy says, it never can be shamed. But don't look so down, Miss:
never mind a bit of a thrashing! Father gives me many a one; but I never
flinch!"
"If I am not afraid of that, I am afraid of Mrs. Adair looking serious;
and not wishing me good-night. But do look and see if you can see
monitrix."
"Monitrix! what, in the name of goodness, is that? Have you a great dog
at school?"
"O dear, no; I mean the lady who hears my lessons before I say them to
Miss Adair."
"Is that all!" The boy stepped on one side, and looked up at the house.
"No, I see nobody; there is not a creature in the windows. But I'll tell
you what, you shall stop here, and I'll go to the lady of the school.
You shan't get anger, if I can help it; and I have helped it many a time
at our school, that the lads know, to my sorrow."
The boy hastily ran to the front door, and rang the bell. In the mean
time Isabella crept under the court railing to conceal herself. When the
servant opened the door, he asked if the lady was in.
"Do you mean my mistress?"
"To be sure I do; the mistress of the school; and must see her in a
moment."
Mrs. Adair was passing through the hall; and made her appearance, with a
countenance not a little forbidding.
"What do you want with me?" she asked.
"Only, madam," and here the boy hesitated; "I beg your pardon, madam;
somehow, I have a little lady here: and I don't know what to do with
her."
"You mean something respecting one of my scholars; what is it? for I am
at a loss to understand you."
"Bless me! surely she's not run away!"
The boy sprang to the gate, and quickly returned.
"She is quite snug; I thought she had given me the slip. A great girl,
ma'am, ran away with her. She did not come down to the pond of her own
free good will. This is as true as truth is. She pulled, and the great
girl pulled; but with all her might, madam, the little lady could not
get away. So then I marched up to the big girl; and asked her what
business she had with the little one? So she was angry and vexed with my
ragged coat; and made my face ring again: and I gave her a good hard
blow in return, and ran off with little Miss. I looked up for Miss
Monitrix, but could not find her; so here she is, under the rails."
This was all a puzzle to Mrs. Adair; but she stepped into the lane with
the boy, and there she saw Isabella, seated, in great trouble, upon a
stone. The affair was now explained. Isabella was taken to Elizabeth,
with the assurance that no one would be angry with her; but that she
must not mention the affair to any person.
Mrs. Adair now proposed going with the boy to his father's. There was an
expression of honest warmth in his countenance, which, in a moment,
changed her own manner; and, as they were going down the lane, she asked
how far they were from his father's house.
"'Tis but a cottage, madam. Grandmother says we were once well off in
the world; but things will go wrong some how or another: but I'll make
good what I wrote to-day."
"And what was it, my good boy?"
"Only to work while I am able, madam; and then when I am old, I will
rest from my labour. But there is our cottage. I wish you could have
seen my own mother, for she was a nice woman. Don't you see that clump
of trees, and a barn with red tiles, and a little boy wheeling a barrow?
That's my own brother, ma'am, and there's my father at the stile,
looking about him."
As they drew nearer the cottage, they saw the man and his son step over
the stile into the field, followed by a female.
"Well, I declare," said the boy, "there is mother with her bonnet! I
wonder what they are all after! And there's grandmother come to the
door!"
He now called out: "Grandmother! here is the lady from the great school,
coming to look for Miss."
"Then I fear, madam, you are coming to look for what you will not find.
Whilst my daughter went down to the pond, to the children, she slipped
off. My son thinks that the young lady is gone to London in one of the
stage-coaches. If so, Tom, I fear thou wilt be well paid."
"Ah, grandmother, that's nothing new! If my own mother was living, it
would not be so."
"With your permission," said Mrs. Adair, as she entered the cottage, "I
will take a seat till your daughter returns."
"Certainly, madam; here is a comfortable seat. But we are not the
neatest people in the world," said the old woman, as she took up a
child's frock from the floor. Mrs. Adair looked round, and thought she
had never been in any place that had so little the appearance of
comfort.
The boy looked at her, and seemed to read her countenance.
"It was not always so, madam: I remember we were once happy folks; but
it was a sad day for Dick and I, when father's wife took place of
father's love."
"Thou shouldst think well of thy father's wife, and honour his choice.
Stepmothers, child, have a hard task: they cannot please, do what they
will."
"Grandmother," said the boy, "kindness makes kindness, all the world
over. But, come what will, when uncle comes home, Dick and I will go to
Plymouth, if we walk barefoot. I am sure he would break his heart, if he
had not me to fight his battles; but I will never forsake him by land or
by sea."
"Go to the children, and take care of them," said the old woman.
"And come to my house at four o'clock on Saturday afternoon, and ask for
Mrs. Adair."
The boy made a bow in a blunt manner; but, as he waved his hand in
passing her, she thought there was an appearance of good breeding, that
would not have disgraced a boy in a much higher sphere.