"So much for night and going to bed, about which there is nothing
more to relate, as the little Victims were uncommonly good sleepers,
and seldom awoke till long after daylight.
"Well now, what do you think? By the time they had had a good night,
they felt so comfortable in their beds, that they were quite
contented to remain there; and then, of course, their tormentors
never rested till they had forced them to get up! Poor little
things! Just think of their being made to go to bed at night, when
they most disliked it, and then made to get up in the morning, when
they wanted to stay in bed! It certainly was, as they always said,
'very, very hard.' This was, of course, a winter misery, when the
air was so frosty and cold that it was very unpleasant to jump out
into it from a warm nest. Terrible scenes took place on these
occasions, I assure you, for sometimes the wretched Victims would sit
shivering on the floor, crying over their socks and shoes instead of
putting them on, (which they had no spirit for,) and then the savage
creatures who managed them would insult them by irritating speeches.
"'Come, Miss So-and-So,' one would say, 'don't sit fretting there;
there's a warm fire, and a nice basin of bread-and-milk waiting for
you, if you will only be quick and get ready.'
"Get ready! a nice order indeed! It meant that they must wash
themselves and be dressed before they would be allowed to touch a
morsel of food.
"But it is of no use dwelling on the unfeelingness of those keepers.
One day one of them actually said:-
"'If you knew what it was to have to get up without a fire to come
to, and without a breakfast to eat, you would leave off grumbling at
nothing.'
"NOTHING! they called it NOTHING to have to get out of a warm bed
into the fresh morning air, and dress before breakfast!
"Well, my dears," pursued Aunt Judy, after waiting here a few
seconds, to see if anybody would groan, "I shall take it for granted
you feel for the GETTING-UP misery as well as the GOING-TO-BED one,
although you have not groaned as I expected. I will just add, in
conclusion, that the summer GETTING-UP misery was just the reverse of
this winter one. Then the poor little wretches were expected to wait
till their nursery was dusted and swept; so there they had to lie,
sometimes for half-an-hour, with the sun shining in upon them, not
allowed to get up and come out into the dirt and dust!
"Of course, on those occasions they had nothing to do but squabble
among themselves and teaze; and I assure you they had every now and
then a very pleasant little revenge on their keepers, for they half
worried them out of their lives by disturbances and complaints, and
at any rate that was some comfort to them, although very often it
hindered the nursery from being done half as soon as it would have
been if they had been quiet.
"I shall not have time to tell of everything," continued Aunt Judy,
"so I must hurry over the breakfast, although the keepers contrived
to make even that miserable, by doing all they could to prevent the
little Victims from spilling their food on the table and floor, and
also by insisting on the poor little things sitting tolerably upright
on their seats--NOT lolling with both elbows on the table-cloth--NOT
making a mess--not, in short, playing any of those innocent little
pranks in which young creatures take delight.
"It was a pitiable spectacle, as you may suppose, to see reasonable
beings constrained against their inclinations to sit quietly while
they ate their hearty morning meal, which really, perhaps, they might
have enjoyed, had they been allowed to amuse themselves in their own
fashion at the same time.
"But I must go on now to that great misery of the day, which I shall
call the LESSON misery.
"Now you must know, the little Victims were all born, as young kids,
lambs, kittens, and puppy-dogs are, with a decided liking for jumping
about and playing all day long. Think, therefore, what their
sufferings were when they were placed in chairs round a table, and
obliged to sit and stare at queer looking characters in books until
they had learned to know them what was called BY HEART. It was a
very odd way of describing it, for I am sure they had often no heart
in the matter, unless it was a hearty dislike.
"'Tommy Brown in the village never learns any lessons,' cried one of
them once to the creature who was teaching him, 'why should I? He is
always playing at oyster-dishes in the gutter when I see him, and
enjoying himself. I wish _I_ might enjoy myself!'
"Poor Victim! He little thought what a tiresome lecture this clever
remark of his would bring on his devoted head!
"Don't ask me to repeat it. It amounted merely to this, that twenty
years hence he would he very glad he had learnt something else
besides making oyster-dishes in the streets. As if that signified to
him now! As if it took away the nuisance of having to learn at the
present moment, to be told it would be of use hereafter! What was
the use of its being of use by-and-by?
"So thought the little Victim, young as he was; so, said he, in a
muttering voice:-
"'I don't care about twenty years hence; I want to be happy now!'
"This was unanswerable, as you may suppose; so the puzzled teacher
didn't attempt to make a reply, but said:-
"'Go on with your lessons, you foolish little boy!'
"See what it is to be obstinate," pursued Aunt Judy. "See how it
blinds people's eyes, and prevents them from knowing right from
wrong! Pray take warning, and never be obstinate yourselves; and
meantime, let us have a good hearty groan for the LESSON misery."
The little ones obeyed, and breathed out a groan that seemed to come
from the very depths of their hearts; but somehow or other, as the
story proceeded, the faces looked rather less amused, and rather more
anxious, than at first.
What could the little ones be thinking about to make them grave?