Warner, Susan, 1819-1885, Daisy, 1868, Ward Lock edition n.d.
Produced by Daniel FROMONT
DAISY
BY
ELIZABETH WETHERELL
AUTHOR OF
"THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD," "QUEECHY,"
ETC., ETC.
LONDON :
WARD, LOCK & CO., LIMITED
NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. MISS PINSHON
CHAPTER II. MY HOME
CHAPTER III. THE MULTIPLICATION TABLE
CHAPTER IV. SEVEN HUNDRED PEOPLE
CHAPTER V. IN THE KITCHEN
CHAPTER VI. WINTER AND SUMMER
CHAPTER VII. SINGLEHANDED
CHAPTER VIII. EGYPTIAN GLASS
CHAPTER IX. SHOPPING
CHAPTER X. SCHOOL
CHAPTER XI. A PLACE IN THE WORLD
CHAPTER XII. FRENCH DRESSES
CHAPTER XIII. GREY COATS
CHAPTER XIV. YANKEES
CHAPTER XV. FORT PUTNAM
CHAPTER XVI. HOPS
CHAPTER XVII. OBEYING ORDERS
CHAPTER XVIII. SOUTH AND NORTH
CHAPTER XIX. ENTERED FOR THE WAR
CHAPTER I.
MISS PINSHON.
I want an excuse to myself for writing my own life; an excuse
for the indulgence of going it all over again, as I have so
often gone over bits. It has not been more remarkable than
thousands of others. Yet every life has in it a thread of
present truth and possible glory. Let me follow out the truth
to the glory.
The first bright years of my childhood I will pass. They were
childishly bright. They lasted till my eleventh summer. Then
the light of heavenly truth was woven in with the web of my
mortal existence; and whatever the rest of the web has been,
those golden threads have always run through it all the rest
of the way. Just as I reached my birthday that summer and was
ten years old, I became a Christian.
For the rest of that summer I was a glad child. The brightness
of those days is a treasure safe locked up in a chamber of my
memory. I have known other glad times too in my life; other
times of even higher enjoyment. But among all the dried
flowers of my memory, there is not one that keeps a fresher
perfume or a stronger scent of its life than this one. Those
were the days without cloud; before life shadows had begun to
cast their blackness over the landscape. And even though such
shadows do go as well as come, and leave the intervals as sun-
lit as ever; yet, after that change of the first life shadow
is once seen, it is impossible to forget that it may come
again and darken the sun. I do not mean that the days, of that
summer were absolutely without things to trouble me; I had
changes of light and shade; but on the whole, nothing that did
not heighten the light. They were pleasant days I had in
Juanita's cottage at the time when my ankle was broken; there
were hours of sweetness with crippled Molly; and it was simply
delight I had all alone with my pony Loupe, driving over the
sunny and shady roads, free to do as I liked and go where I
liked. And how I enjoyed studying English history with my
cousin Preston. It is all stowed away in my heart, as fresh
and sweet as at first. I will not pull it out now. The change,
and my first real life shadow came, when my father was thrown
from his horse and injured his head. Then the doctors decided
he must go abroad and travel, and mamma decided it was best
that I should go to Magnolia with aunt Gary and have a
governess.
There is no pleasure in thinking of those weeks. They went
very slowly, and yet very fast; while I counted every minute
and noted every step in the preparations. They were all over
at last; my little world was gone from me; and I was left
alone with aunt Gary.
Her preparations had been made too; and the day after the
steamer sailed we set off on our journey to the south. I do
not know much about that journey. For the most part the things
by the way were like objects in a mist to me and no more
clearly discerned. Now and then there came a rift in the mist;
something woke me up out of my sorrow-dream; and of those
points and of what struck my eyes at those minutes I have a
most intense and vivid recollection. I can feel yet the still
air of one early morning's start, and hear the talk between my
aunt and the hotel people about the luggage. My aunt was a
great traveller and wanted no one to help her or manage for
her. I remember acutely a beggar who spoke to us on the
sidewalk at Washington. We staid over a few days in
Washington, and then hurried on; for when she was on the road
my aunt Gary lost not a minute. We went, I presume, as fast as
we could without travelling all night; and our last day's
journey added that too.
By that time my head was getting steadied, perhaps, from the
grief which had bewildered it; or grief was settling down and
taking its proper place at the bottom of my heart, leaving the
surface as usual. For twelve hours that day we went by a slow
railway train through a country of weary monotony. Endless
forests of pine seemed all that was to be seen; scarce ever a
village; here and there a miserable clearing and forlorn-
looking house; here and there stoppages of a few minutes to
let somebody out or take somebody in; once, to my great
surprise, a stop of rather more than a few minutes to
accommodate a lady who wanted some flowers gathered for her. I
was surprised to see flowers wild in the woods at that time of
year, and much struck with the politeness of the railway train
that was willing to delay for such a reason. We got out of the
car for dinner, or for a short rest at dinner-time. My aunt
had brought her lunch in a basket. Then the forests and the
rumble of the cars began again. At one time the pine forests
were exchanged for oak, I remember; after that, nothing but
pine.
It was late in the day, when we left the cars at one of those
solitary wayside station-houses. I shall never forget the look
and feeling of the place. We had been for some miles going
through a region of swamp or swampy woods, where sometimes the
rails were laid on piles in the water. This little station-
house was in the midst of such a region. The woods were thick
and tangled with vines everywhere beyond the edge of the
clearing; the ground was wet beneath them and in places showed
standing water. There was scarcely a clearing; the forest was
all round the house; with only the two breaks in it where on
one side and on the other the iron rail track ran off into the
distance. It was a lonely place; almost nobody was there
waiting for the train; one or two forlorn coloured people and
a long lank-looking countryman, were all. Except what at first
prevented my seeing anything else my cousin Preston. He met
me just as I was going to get down from the car; lifted me to
the platform; and then with his looks and words almost broke
up the composure which for several days had been growing upon
me. It was not hardened yet to bear attacks. I was like a poor
shell-fish, which having lost one coat of armour and defence,
craves a place of hiding and shelter for itself until its new
coat be grown. While he was begging me to come into the
station-house and rest, I stood still looking up the long line
of railway by which we had come, feeling as if my life lay at
the other end of it, out of sight and quite beyond reach. Yet
I asked him not to call me "poor" Daisy. I was very tired, and
I suppose my nerves not very steady. Preston said we must wait
at that place for another train; there was a fork in the road
beyond, and this train would not go the right way. It would
not take us to Baytown. So he had me into the station-house.
It wearied me, and so did all that my eyes lighted upon,
strange though it was. The bare room, not clean; the board
partition, with swinging doors, behind which, Preston said,
were the cook and the baker; the untidy waiting girls that
came and went, with scant gowns and coarse shoes, and no
thread of white collar to relieve the dusky throat and head
rising out of the dark gown; and no apron at all. Preston did
what he could. He sent away the girls with their trays of
eatables; he had a table pulled out from the wall and wiped
off; and then he ordered a supper of eggs, and johnny cake,
and all sorts of things. But I could not eat. As soon as
supper was over I went out on the platform to watch the long
lines of railway running off through the forest, and wait for
the coming train. The evening fell while we looked; the train
was late; and at last when it came I could only know it in the
distance by the red spark of its locomotive gleaming like a
firefly.
It was a freight train; there was but one passenger car, and
that was full. We got seats with difficulty, and apart from
each other. I hardly know whether that, or anything, could
have made me more forlorn. I was already stiff and weary with
the twelve hours of travelling we had gone through that day;
inexpressibly weary in heart. It seemed to me that I could not
endure long the rumble and the jar and the closeness of this
last car. The passengers, too, had habits which made me draw
my clothes as tight around me as I could, and shrink away
mentally into the smallest compass possible. I had noticed the
like, to be sure, ever since we left Washington; but to-night,
in my weary, faint, and tired-out state of mind and body,
every unseemly sight or sound struck my nerves with a sense of
pain that was hardly endurable. I wondered if the train would
go on all night; it went very slowly. And I noticed that
nobody seemed impatient or had the air of expecting that it
would soon find its journey's end. I felt as if I could not
bear it many half hours. My next neighbour was a fat, good-
natured old lady, who rather made matters worse by putting her
arm round me and hugging me up, and begging me to make a
pillow of her and go to sleep. My nerves were twitching with
impatience and the desire for relief; when suddenly the
thought came to me that I might please the Lord by being
patient. I remember what a lull the thought of Him brought;
and yet how difficult it was not to be impatient, till I fixed
my mind on some Bible words, they were the words of the
twenty-third psalm, and began to think and pray them over.
So good they were, that by and by they rested me. I dropped
asleep and forgot my aches and weariness until the train
arrived at Baytown.
They took me to a hotel then, and put me to bed, and I did not
get up for several days. I must have been feverish; for my
fancies wandered incessantly in unknown places with papa, in
regions of the old world; and sometimes, I think, took both
him and myself to rest and home where wanderings are over.
After a few days this passed away. I was able to come
downstairs; and both Preston and his mother did their best to
take good care of me. Especially Preston. He brought me books,
and fruit and birds to tempt me to eat; and was my kind and
constant companion when his mother was out, and indeed when
she was in, too. So I got better, by the help of oranges and
rice-birds. I could have got better faster, but for my dread
of a governess which was hanging over me. I heard nothing
about her, and could not bear to ask. One day Preston brought
the matter up and asked if Daisy was going to have a
schoolmistress?
"Certainly," my aunt Gary said. "She must be educated, you
know."
"_I_ don't know," said Preston; "but if they say so, I suppose
she must. Who is it to be, mamma?"
"You do not know anything about it," said aunt Gary. "If my
son was going to marry the greatest heiress in the State and
she is very nearly that; goodness! I did not see you were
there, Daisy, my dear; but it makes no difference; I should
think it proper that she should be educated."
"I can't see what her being an heiress should have to do with
it," said Preston, "except rather to make it unnecessary as
well as a bore. Who is it, mamma?"
"I have recommended Miss Pinshon."
"Oh, then, it is not fixed yet."
"Yes, it is fixed. Miss Pinshon is coming as soon as we get to
Magnolia."
"I'll be off before that," said Preston. "Who is Miss
Pinshon?"
"How should _you_ know? She has lived at Jessamine Bank,
educated the Dalzell girls."
"What sort of a person, mamma?"
"What sort of a person?" said my aunt Gary; "why, a governess
sort of person. What sort should she be?"
"Any other sort in the world," said Preston, "for my money.
That is just the sort to worry poor little Daisy out of her
life."
"You are a foolish boy!" said aunt Gary. "Of course, if you
fill Daisy's head with notions, she will not get them out
again. If you have anything of that sort to say, you had
better say it where she will not hear."
"Daisy has eyes and a head," said Preston.
As soon as I was able for it Preston took me out for short
walks; and as I grew stronger he made the walks longer. The
city was a strange place to me; very unlike New York; there
was much to see and many a story to hear; and Preston and I
enjoyed ourselves. Aunt Gary was busy making visits, I think.
There was a beautiful walk by the sea, which I liked best of
all; and when it was not too cold my greatest pleasure was to
sit there looking over the dark waters and sending my whole
soul across them to that unknown spot where my father and
mother were. "Home," that spot was to me. Preston did not know
what I liked the Esplanade for; he sometimes laughed at me for
being poetical and meditative; when I was only sending my
heart over the water. But he was glad to please me in all that
he could; and whenever it was not too cold, our walks always
took me there.
One day, sitting there, I remember we had a great argument
about studying. Preston began with saying that I must not mind
this governess that was coming, nor do anything she bade me
unless I liked it. As I gave him no answer, he repeated what
he had said.
"You know, Daisy, you are not obliged to care what she
thinks."
I said I thought I was.
"What for?" said Preston.
"I have a great deal to learn, you know," I said, feeling it
very gravely indeed in my little heart.
"What do you want to know so much?" said Preston.
I said, "everything". I was very ignorant.
"You are no such thing," said Preston. "Your head is full this
minute. I think you have about as much knowledge as is good
for you. I mean to take care that you do not get too much."
"Oh, Preston," said I, "that is very wrong. I have not any
knowledge scarcely."
"There is no occasion," said Preston stoutly. "I hate learned
women."
"Don't you like to learn things?"
"That's another matter," said he. "A man must know things, or
he can't get along. Women are different."
"But I think it is nice to know things too," said I. "I don't
see how it is different."
"Why, a woman need not be a lawyer, or a doctor, or a
professor," said Preston; "all she need do, is to have good
sense and dress herself nicely."
"Is dressing so important?" said I, with a new light breaking
over me.
"Certainly. Ribbands of the wrong colour will half kill a
woman. And I have heard aunt Randolph say that a particular
lady was ruined by her gloves."
"Ruined by her gloves!" said I. "Did she buy so many?"
Preston went into such a laugh at that, I had to wait some
time before I could go on. I saw I had made some mistake, and
I would not renew that subject.
"Do _you_ mean to be anything of that sort?" I said, with some
want of connection.
"What sort? Ruined by my gloves? Not if I know it."
"No, no! I mean, a lawyer or a doctor or a professor?"
"I should think not!" said Preston, with a more emphatic
denial.
"Then, what are you studying for?"
"Because, as I told you, Daisy, a man must know things, or he
cannot get on in the world."
I pondered the matter, and then I said, I should think good
sense would make a woman study too. I did not see the
difference. "Besides, Preston," I said, "if she didn't, they
would not be equal."
"Equal!" cried Preston. "Equal! Oh, Daisy, you ought to have
lived in some old times. You are two hundred years old, at
least. Now don't go to studying that, but come home. You have
sat here long enough."
It was my last hour of freedom. Perhaps for that reason I
remember every minute so distinctly. On our way home we met a
negro funeral. I stopped to look at it. Something, I do not
know what, in the long line of dark figures, orderly and even
stately in their demeanour, the white dresses of the women,
the peculiar faces of men and women both, fascinated my eyes.
Preston exclaimed at me again. It was the commonest sight in
the world, he said. It was their pride to have a grand
funeral. I asked if this was a grand funeral. Preston said
"Pretty well; there must be several hundred of them and they
were well dressed." And then he grew impatient and hurried me
on. But I was thinking; and before we got to the hotel where
we lodged, I asked Preston if there were many coloured people
at Magnolia.
"Lots of them," he said. "There isn't anything else."
"Preston," I said presently, "I want to buy some candy
somewhere."
Preston was very much pleased, I believe, thinking that my
thoughts had quite left the current of sober things. He took
me to a famous confectioner's; and there I bought sweet things
till my little stock of money was all gone.
"No more funds?" said Preston. Never mind, go on, and I'll
help you. Why, I never knew you liked sugarplums so much. What
next? burnt almonds? this is good, Daisy, this confection of
roses. But you must take all this sugar in small doses, or I
am afraid it wouldn't be just beneficial."
"Oh, Preston!" I said, "I do not mean to eat all this
myself."
"Are you going to propitiate Miss Pinshon with it? I have a
presentiment that sweets wont sweeten her, Daisy."
"I don't know what "propitiate" means," I said, sighing. "I
will not take the almonds, Preston."
But he was determined I should; and to the almonds he added a
quantity of the delicate confection he spoke of, which I had
thought too delicate and costly for the uses I purposed; and
after the rose he ordered candied fruits; till a great package
of varieties was made up. Preston paid for them I could not
help it and desired them sent home; but I was bent on taking
the package myself. Preston would not let me do that, so he
carried it; which was a much more serious token of kindness,
in him, than footing the bill. It was but a little way,
however, to the hotel. We were in the hall, and I was just
taking my sugars from Preston to carry them upstairs, when I
heard aunt Gary call my name from the parlour. Instinctively,
I cannot tell how, I knew from her tone what she wanted me
for. I put back the package in Preston's hands, and walked in;
my play over.
How well I knew my play was over, when I saw my governess. She
was sitting by my aunt on the sofa. Quite different from what
I had expected, so different that I walked up to her in a
maze, and yet seemed to recognise in that first view all that
was coming after. Probably that is fancy; but it seems to me
now that all I ever knew or felt about Miss Pinshon in the
years that followed, was duly begun and betokened in those.
first five minutes. She was a young-looking lady, younger-
looking than she was. She had a dark, rich complexion, and a
face that I suppose would have been called handsome; it was
never handsome to me. Long black curls on each side of her
face, and large black eyes, were the features that first
struck one; but I immediately decided that Miss Pinshon was
not born a lady. I do not mean that I think blood and breeding
are unseverable; or that half a dozen lady ancestors in a
direct line secure the character to the seventh in descent;
though they _do_ often secure the look of it; nevertheless,
ladies are born who never know all their lives how to make a
curtsey, and curtseys are made with infinite grace by those
who have nothing of a lady beyond the trappings. I never saw
Miss Pinshon do a rude or an awkward thing, that I remember;
nor one which changed my first mind about her. She was
handsomely dressed; but there again I felt the same want. Miss
Pinshon's dresses made me think always of the mercer's counter
and the dressmaker's shop. My mother's robes always seemed
part of her own self; and so in a certain true sense they
were.
My aunt introduced me. Miss Pinshon studied me. Her first
remark was that I looked very young. My aunt excused that, on
the ground of my having been always a delicate child. Miss
Pinshon observed further that the way I wore my hair produced
part of the effect. My aunt explained _that_ to be my father's
and mother's fancy; and agreed that she thought cropped heads
were always ungraceful. If my hair were allowed to fall in
ringlets on my neck, I would look very different. Miss Pinshon
next inquired how much I knew? turning her great black eyes
from me to aunt Gary. My aunt declared she could not tell;
delicate health had also here interfered; and she appealed to
me to say what knowledge I was possessed of. I could not
answer. I could not say. It seemed to me I had not learned
anything. Then Preston spoke for me.
"Modesty is apt to be silent on its own merits," he said. "My
cousin has learned the usual rudiments; and in addition to
those the art of driving."
"Of _what?_ What did you say?" inquired my governess.
"Of driving, ma'am. Daisy is an excellent whip, for her years
and strength."
Miss Pinshon turned to Preston's mother. My aunt confirmed and
enlarged the statement, again throwing the blame on my father
and mother. For herself, she always thought it very dangerous
for a little girl like me to go about the country in a pony-
chaise all alone. Miss Pinshon's eyes could not be said to
express anything, but to my fancy they concealed a good deal.
She remarked that the roads were easy.
"Oh, it was not here," said my aunt; "it was at the North,
where the roads are not like our pine forests. However, the
roads were not dangerous there, that I know of; not for
anybody but a child. But horses and carriages are always
dangerous."
Miss Pinshon next applied herself to me. What did I know?
"beside this whip accomplishment," as she said. I was tongue-
tied. It did not seem to me that I knew anything. At last I
said so. Preston exclaimed. I looked at him to beg him to be
still; and I remember how he smiled at me.
"You can read, I suppose?" my governess went on.
"Yes, ma'am."
"And write, I suppose?"
"I do not think you would say I know how to write," I
answered. "I cannot do it at all well; and it takes me a long
time."
"Come back to the driving, Daisy," said Preston. "That is one
thing you do know. And English history, I will bear witness."
"What have you got there, Preston?" my aunt asked.
"Some hoarhound drops, mamma."
"You haven't a sore throat?" she asked eagerly.
"No, ma'am not just now, but I had yesterday; and I thought
I would be provided."
"You seem provided for a long time " Miss Pinshon remarked.
"Can't get anything up at Magnolia except rice," said
Preston, after making the lady a bow which did not promise
good fellowship. "You must take with you what you are likely
to want there."
"You will not want all that," said his mother.
"No, ma'am, I hope not," said Preston, looking at his package
demurely. "Old uncle Lot, you know, always has a cough; and I
purpose delighting him with some of my purchases. I will go
and put them away."
"Old uncle Lot!" my aunt repeated. "What uncle Lot? I did not
know you had been enough at Magnolia to get the servants'
names. But I don't remember any uncle Lot."
Preston turned to leave the room with his candy, and in
turning gave me a look of such supreme fun and mischief that
at another time I could hardly have helped laughing. But Miss
Pinshon was asking me if I understood arithmetic?
"I think I know very little about it," I said hesitating. "I
can do a sum."
"In what?"
"On the slate, ma'am."
"Yes, but in what?"
"I don't know, ma'am it is adding up the columns."
"Oh, in _addition_, then. Do you know the multiplication and
division tables?"
"No, ma'am."
"Go and get off your things, and then come back to me; and I
will have some more talk with you."
I remember to this day how heavily my feet went up the stairs.
I was not very strong yet in body, and now the strength seemed
to have gone out of my heart.
"I declare," said Preston, who waited for me on the landing,
"she falls into position easy! Does she think she is going to
take _that_ tone with you?"
I made no answer. Preston followed me into my room.
"I won't have it, little Daisy. Nobody shall be mistress at
Magnolia but you. This woman shall not. See, Daisy I am
going to put these things in my trunk for you, until we get
where you want them. That will be safe."
I thanked him.
"What are you going to do now?"
"I am going downstairs, as soon as I am ready."
"Do you expect to be under all the commands this High
Mightiness may think proper to lay upon you?"
I begged him to be still and leave me.
"She will turn you into stone!" he exclaimed. "She is a
regular Gorgon, with those heavy eyes of hers. I never saw
such eyes. I believe she would petrify me if I had to bear
them. Don't you give Medusa one of those sweet almonds, Daisy,
not one, do you hear?"
I heard too well. I faced round upon him and begged him to
remember that it was my _mother_ I must obey in Miss Pinshon's
orders; and said that he must not talk to me. Whereupon
Preston threw down his candies, and pulled my cloak out of my
unsteady hands, and locked his arms about me; kissing me and
lamenting over me that it was "too bad." I tried to keep my
self-command; but the end was a great burst of tears; and I
went down to Miss Pinshon with red eyes and at a disadvantage.
I think Preston was pleased.
I had need of all my quiet and self-command. My governess
stretched out her hand, drew me to her side and kissed me;
then with the other hand went on to arrange the ruffle round
my neck, stroking it and pulling it into order, and even
taking out a little bit of a pin I wore, and putting it in
again to suit herself. It annoyed me excessively. I knew all
was right about my ruffle and pin; I never left them
carelessly arranged; no fingers but mamma's had ever dared to
meddle with them before. But Miss Pinshon arranged the ruffle
and the pin, and still holding me, looked in my face with
those eyes of hers. I began to feel that they were "heavy."
They did not waver. They did not seem to wink, like other
eyes. They bore down upon my face with a steady power, that
was not bright but ponderous. Her first question was, whether
I was a good girl?
I could not tell how to answer. My aunt answered for me, that
she believed Daisy meant to be a good girl, though she liked
to have her own way.
Miss Pinshon ordered me to bring up a chair and sit down; and
then asked if I knew anything about mathematics; told me it
was the science of quantity; remarked to my aunt that it was
the very best study for teaching children to think, and that
she always gave them a great deal of it in the first years of
their pupilage. "It puts the mind in order," the black-eyed
lady went on; "and other things come so easily after it.
Daisy, do you know what I mean by 'quantity'?"
I knew what _I _ meant by quantity; but whether the English
language had anything in common for Miss Pinshon and me, I had
great doubts. I hesitated.
"I always teach my little girls to answer promptly when they
are asked anything. I notice that you do not answer promptly.
You can always tell whether you know a thing or whether you do
not."
I was not so sure of that. Miss Pinshon desired me now to
repeat the multiplication table. Here at least there was
certainty. I had never learned it.
"It appears to me," said my governess, "you have done very
little with the first ten years of your life. It gives you a
great deal to do for the next ten."
"Health has prevented her applying to her studies," said my
aunt.
"The want of health. Yes, I suppose so. I hope Daisy will be
very well now, for we must make up for lost time."
"I do not suppose so much time need have been lost," said my
aunt; "but parents are easily alarmed, you know; they think of
nothing but one thing."
So now there was nobody about me who would be easily alarmed.
I took the full force of that.
"Of course," said Miss Pinshon, "I shall have a careful regard
to her health. Nothing can be done without that. I shall take
her out regularly to walk with me, and see that she does not
expose herself in any way. Study is no hindrance to health;
learning has no malevolent effect upon the body. I think
people often get sick for want of something to think of."
How sure I felt, as I went up to bed that night, that no such
easy cause of sickness would be mine for long years to come!