“I don’t see why it’s not just the same.”
“The same as what, as stealing?”
“You knew they were not yours, sir,” answered the child. “I don’t
suppose it was just stealing, but I think it was”--
“Well,” said Mr. Temple, seeing she hesitated.
“I had better go away,” said Bessie: “I feel pretty saucy and I might
say something you deserved;” with which she turned away, and ran after
Kate and Maggie.
Mr. Temple looked, as he felt, uncomfortable. The joke had proved
more serious than he had intended; and the remarks made by his two
companions, and their amusement at Bessie’s words, did not tend to make
him better pleased with the consequences of his own conduct.
Kate added her reproaches when she returned, after leaving Maggie and
Bessie in their father’s care, saying,--
“I had rather, for your own sake, that you had done this thing to any
other children than those two, George. They are both so truly just, and
have such a high sense of honor, which you have rudely shocked.”
“A child’s sense of honor,” repeated George, rather scornfully. “I am
sorry I teased them, and had no idea Maggie would take it so hardly;
but I am not troubled in regard to my self. A child’s opinion does not
signify much.”
“It does with me,” said Kate, “and I can tell you a story to the
point, and which may show you what a child’s sense of honor is worth. I
think they sometimes see the right and wrong more clearly than we do.”
“You seem to have great faith in these little friends of yours,” said
Mr. Temple.
“Yes,” replied Kate, “I have reason. They have been tried and not found
wanting, as you shall hear;” and Kate told the story of the prize
composition,--the hopes and fears regarding it, its loss and recovery,
and the noble way in which our little girls had acted.
“Capital!” said Charlie, as she ended. “They judge others only by the
rules by which their own conduct is guided; and there is a wise saying
in an old book we all know of, which we would do well to remember:
namely, ‘Take heed that ye offend not one of these little ones.’ I
take that to mean, not only that we are to set a good example to them,
and that we must so act and speak as not to confuse and disturb their
ideas of right and wrong; but also, that whoever purposely hurts or
grieves one of them, commits a sin in the eyes of Him who gave them His
special care and blessing. Which of us could have calmly borne ridicule
thrown upon some cherished work of our own, such as you cast, George,
on the simple verses of that shy, sensitive, little Maggie? Poor little
poetess! And I honor Bessie, baby though she is, for the way in which
she struggled with her temper, and removed herself from the temptation
to give way to it, and ‘say something you deserved.’ Could there have
been a more severe reproof than that?” and Mr. Maynard laughed again
at Bessie’s speech and manner, though he felt that this had become no
laughing matter.
“They have both forgiven him now,” said Kate, dryly; “and Bessie made
the excuse for him which she usually makes for others who do what she
considers wrong, that ‘maybe Mr. Temple had never been taught better,
and so didn’t know what was very true and honest, or he wouldn’t have
kept Maggie’s verses, when he knew they were hers, for such a very
unkind purpose as to tease her.’ ‘And maybe he didn’t know how very bad
I felt, and never thought much about doing unto others,’ added Maggie.
I cannot believe you meant to be as cruel as you were, George; for you
did not know how much Maggie dreads notice drawn upon herself. You
see,” she added, playfully, “I have myself so lately learned the lesson
how much suffering such thoughtlessness may cause another, that I feel
entitled to preach on the subject to others.”
Mr. Temple took the preaching in good part. He had a lazy kind of
good-nature which would not allow him to take offence readily; and,
besides, he was really sorry and vexed with himself for what he had
done. Perhaps he would have regretted it still more, had he seen part
of a letter written that afternoon by Maggie to Colonel Rush:--
“DEAR UNCLE HORACE,--I think there are a kind of people in the
world who seem to be created only for a very bad business,
namely, to tease poor children and make their shyness come
back to them when they have been trying very hard to cure
themselves of it. Of this nature is a man whose name I will
not mention, for some day you might know him and say ‘there is
the trecherous man who was so cruel to Maggie and I will not be
acquainted with him’ which would be a punishment I would not
wish even him to bear because I am trying to forgive him but it
is very hard. He picked up a poem I wrote on the boat to send
to you, and he kept it and said it before me just to plage me
and there was a verse in it about him which was not at all a
compliment and oh! dear Uncle Horace he said that too, and it
was dreadful I was so frightened. I am quite sure he knew it
was mine and Bessie is too and I don’t think it was very honest
not to give it right back do you? but to read it which was not
like what a gentleman should do. He made believe he thought it
was nice but he did not and was only making fun of it which
was a hard distress to bear and I think I shall never recover
it and feel as pleasant with that man as I would wish to feel
with all my fellow cretures. Miss Kate was very nice and took
me away and she is much improved and never teases any more
and now I love her dearly; but she never teased me so badly as
that man who I will not name and I pity Miss Temple for having
such a brother for she is a very nice young lady and deserves
better. When Harry and Fred are young men which I wish they did
not have to be I hope they will remember this and take pattern
by Mr. Maynard and not by M---- that other man I mean. But no
more on this melancorly subject so sad to think on but I will
tell you about Niagara Falls.
“N. B. Mr. Temple is a very good looking young man in his
appearance but I find all is not gold that glitters.”