Madge Clifton.
When Jessie reached home she threw her hood and cloak carelessly on to the
floor. The cloak-stand was pretty well filled up, and she was in too much
haste, to take the pains needed to find a place on the hooks for her
garments. This was one of her faults. A new impulse had seized her, and
she thought of nothing else. Bounding into her mother's room, she said:
"Mother, will you let me make two shirts for poor Jack Moneypenny?"
Mrs. Carlton looked up from her work, and after a moment's glance at the
eager face of her daughter, asked:
"Who is Jack Moneypenny, my dear?"
Jessie, in her eagerness to carry her point, had forgotten to ask if her
mother knew any thing of the widow, or her son, Jack. This question
checked her ardor a little, and she told the story of the widow's
misfortune. Just as she was finishing her tale, however, she thought of
Guy's wish to keep his part in the affair a secret. So blushing deeply,
she added:
"Oh dear! what will Guy say? I promised to keep it all secret, and now I
have told all about it. He said girls couldn't keep a secret, and I
believe he is right. What shall I do, Mother?"
"Why tell him that you have told me, to be sure. Guy has no secrets with
his mother, and I am sure he does not wish his sister to have any."
"Has Guy told you about it, then?"
"Yes, he told me all his plans from the first. Guy never conceals any
thing from his mother."
"What made you ask me who Jack Moneypenny was, then, Ma, if you knew
before?"
"Only to teach my Jessie, that she ought to be less abrupt in her manners.
You should have stated your case first, and then have asked me your
question."
"So I should, Ma," said Jessie, musing a few moments, and gazing on her
foot, as she traced the outline of the carpet-pattern with it. Then
smiling, she looked up, and added, "but you know, Mamma, it is my way, to
speak first, and think afterwards."
"Not a very wise way, either," said Mrs. Carlton; "but about those shirts,
why do you wish to make them?"
Jessie told her mother about Jack's letter, and what the widow had said.
"Well," replied Mrs. Carlton; "I will give you the cloth, and cut out the
shirts, if you really wish to make them."
"I do, Mother, very much wish to do it. Only think how glad the widow will
be, and how comfortable the shirts will make the poor sick boy, in that
horrid hospital."
"Very true, my dear, but how about your uncle's slippers, and cushion, and
watch-pocket?"
A blush tinged Jessie's cheek again. The little wizard had once more
hurried her into a new plan before her old ones had been worked out.
Plainly she could not help poor Jack and keep her former resolution, not
to be turned aside from finishing her gifts for Uncle Morris. She was
fairly puzzled. It was right to make shirts for a poor boy. It was right
to keep her purposes too. Yet she could not do both. But did not the boy
need the shirts, more than Uncle Morris did his slippers? Would not her
uncle be willing to wait? No doubt he would, but then her promise to
finish the slippers before beginning any thing else, was part of a plan
for conquering a bad habit. Would it be right to depart from that plan?
Such were the questions which floated like unpleasant dreams through
Jessie's mind as she sat with her hands on the back of a chair-seat,
knocking her heels against the floor. Her mother, though she allowed her
to think awhile in silence, read her thoughts in the workings of her face.
When Jessie seemed to be lost in the fog of her own thoughts, Mrs. Carlton
came to her aid, and said:
"Jessie."
"Yes, Ma."
"I have been thinking that poor Jack needs those shirts directly, and that
you could not make him a pair in less than two, perhaps in not less than
three weeks. So I don't see how you can help him out of his present
trouble."
Jessie sighed, and said, "I didn't think of that."
"Well, I have a plan to propose. I will send him two of Guy's shirts
to-morrow, and you shall make two new ones for Guy, at your leisure."
"What a dear, good, nice mother you are," cried Jessie, running to Mrs.
Carlton, and giving her more kisses than I am able to count.
Thus did a mother's love find a key with which to unlock Jessie's puzzle,
and to enable her to help poor Jack, without breaking her purpose to
finish Uncle Morris's things, and thereby drive that plague of her life,
the little wizard, away from Glen Morris.
"I will work ever so hard, see if I don't, Ma," said she, as she patted
her mother's cheek. "I will finish the slippers, and get the shirts done,
too, before Christmas. Don't you think I can?"
"You _can_, I have no doubt, if you try my dear."
"Well, I'll _try_ then. I'll join Guy's famous Try Company, and will try
and try, and try again, until I fairly succeed."
Mrs. Carlton kissed her daughter affectionately; after which the now
light-hearted girl bounded out of the room, singing--
"If you find your case is hard,
Try, try, try again.
Time will bring you your reward,
Try, try, try again.
All that other people do,
Why with patience should not you?
Only keep this rule in view,
Try, try, try again."
"That's it! That's it, my little puss," said Uncle Morris, who was in the
parlor which Jessie entered singing her joyous roundelay. "Corporal Try is
a little fellow, but he has helped do all the great things that have ever
been done. There is nothing good or great which he cannot do. He will help
a little girl learn to darn her own stocking, or make a quilt for her old
uncle; and he will help men build big steamships, construct railroads over
the desert, or lay a telegraph wire under the waters of the ocean. Oh, a
great little man is Corporal Try!"
"I know it," replied Jessie, "and I've joined his company; so if you meet
little Impulse the wizard, please tell him not to come here again unless
he wishes to be beaten with a big club called good resolution."
"Bravely spoken, Lady Jessie! May you never desert the Corporal's colors!
Above all, may you always obtain grace from above whereby to conquer
yourself, which is the grandest deed you can possibly perform."
Jessie sat down to her work-basket, and took up one of the pieces of cloth
for her uncle's slippers. But as it was now late in the afternoon of a
dull November day, she could not see to embroider very well. So she
thought she would go out again and buy the brown worsted which was needed
in working out the figure on the slippers. Going to the window first, she
noticed that the sky looked cold and bleak. The wind, too, was whistling
mournfully among the branches of the trees, and round the corners of the
house. It was evidently going to be a cold night. Turning from the window
again, she said to her brother Hugh, who was sitting very cosily in a
large arm-chair before the glowing fire in the grate:
"Please, Hugh, will you run down to the village with me? I want to get
some worsted at Mrs. Horton's."
"Why didn't you get it this afternoon?" asked Hugh in his usual grumpy way
when asked to do any thing.
"I didn't think of it."
"Didn't think of it, eh? Well, I don't think I shall be your lackey this
cold afternoon. I'd rather sit here and keep my toes warm."
"Do go, dear Hugh, please do!" said Jessie in her mellowest tones. "I
shall want the worsted to-morrow morning."
"Oh, go to Greenwich! You are always wanting something. Girls want a
mighty sight of waiting on. I won't go."
Jessie turned away from her ungracious brother wishing, as she had so
often done, that he "was more like Guy." Had it been a little earlier in
the afternoon, she would have gone alone; but as it was nearly dark she
preferred company.
"Oh dear!" sighed she, "what shall I do? I wish Guy was in."
"Perhaps you would accept an old man's company," said her uncle, rising
and buttoning up his coat.
"I should be very, very glad to have it, but I don't want to trouble you,
Uncle," she replied.
"It's no trouble to go out with my little puss. Besides, by going, I can
give this drone-like brother of yours a practical lesson in that love and
politeness which he so much despises. I shall certainly be happier going
with you, than he will be in the indulgence of his selfishness before the
fire."
Hugh said something in a grumbling tone which neither his uncle nor sister
understood.
In a few minutes the good old man, having firm hold of Jessie's hand, was
breasting the cold wind as they walked smartly along the frozen road
leading to the village.
"You will have a chance to try your new skates to-morrow if it is as cold
as this all night," said Mr. Morris, as they crossed the bridge over the
brook.
"Won't that be nice?" replied Jessie; "Carrie Sherwood has a pair too, and
we will both try together. I guess I shall get some bumps though before I
learn to skate well. I wish we had some one to teach us how to use them."
"What will you give me, if I consent to be your teacher?"
"Oh, Uncle Morris! You don't mean it, do you?"
"To be sure I do. When I was young they called me the best skater in town.
I could go through all kinds of movements, and even cut my name on the ice
with my skates. I guess I haven't quite forgotten how I used to do it. But
what will you give me if I consent to teach you?"
"I will love you ever so much, and so will Carrie."
"But I thought you loved me ever so much already?"
"Well, so I do, Uncle. I love you better than I love anybody in the world,
except ma and pa. But I will love you better and better."
"That's pay enough," said Mr. Morris, warmly pressing the hand of his
niece. "The pure fresh love of a child's heart is worth more to an old man
like me than much gold. It makes my heart grow young again--but what have
we here?"
They had now reached a stone wall which fronted the estate of Esquire
Duncan. An angle in the fence had made a corner, in which was seated a
girl of about Jessie's age and size. She was clothed in rags; her feet
were bare. She had no covering on her head save her tangled hair. Her face
and arms were brown and dirty. She shivered in the piercing wind, and
traces of recent tears were visible in the dirt which covered her woe-worn
face.
"Poor little girl! I wonder where she lives?" exclaimed Jessie.
"Where do you live, my dear?" asked Mr. Morris, addressing the child.
"New York," replied the outcast curtly.
"How came you here?"
"Mother left me down yonder," said the girl, pointing to the four
cross-roads just beyond.
"Where is your mother now?"
"Don't know."
"What did she say when she left you?"
"She told me to sit on the trough of the pump while she went to buy some
bread. But she didn't come back, and I came over here out of the wind."
"How long since she left you?"
"Ever so long."
"Poor little girl! I'm afraid your mother brought you out here to cast you
off, and so get rid of you," said Uncle Morris.
"Guess not! Guess she got drunk somewhere," said the girl, in a manner so
cold and dogged that Mr. Morris shuddered.
Here, Jessie, whose eyes were swimming with tears, pulled her uncle's
hand. Taking him a little aside, she said--
"Please, Uncle, take her home, and let me give her something to eat."
"Better take her to the alms-house, I'm thinking," replied her uncle. "She
may be a wicked girl."
"Then we can teach her to be good," said Jessie.
This was a home thrust that went right to the good old man's heart. "The
alms-house," he thought, "is not a very likely place to grow goodness in.
It is too chilly and heartless. There will be little sympathy there with
the struggles and sorrows of a child like this; Jessie shall have her way
this time. She shall go with us."
After forming this purpose, he looked at his niece, and said--
"Perhaps you are right, Jessie. The poor creature shall go home with us,
at least, for to-night."
"Oh, I am _so_ glad, I'm _so_ glad," cried Jessie, clapping her hands,
then running to the shivering child, who had been watching them during
this conversation with a puzzled air, she said--
"Come, little girl, you are to go home with me. Uncle says so."
"I don't want to. I'll wait here for mother," replied the girl, shrinking
back into her corner, against the rough stone wall.
"My child," said Mr. Morris, "I fear your mother has left you here on
purpose, and that she will never come back. If she is in the place, you
shall go to her as soon as we can find her. If you stay here you will
freeze. Come with us and we will give you a supper, and let you warm
yourself before a rousing fire, while we search for your mother."
The idea of supper and a rousing fire took hold of the little outcast's
feelings. Gathering her rags close to her chilled body she stepped
forward, and said--
"I'll go with you."
"What is your name?" inquired Jessie.
"Madge!" said the child, curtly.
"Madge what?" asked Uncle Morris.
"Madge Clifton!" said the child.
"Which means, I suppose, Margaret Clifton," said the old gentleman. "A
pretty name enough, and I wish its owner was in a prettier condition. But
come, let us hasten out of this cold biting wind."
Poor little, shivering Madge! Waiting so long for her mother, alone and in
a strange place, had made her heart heavy and sad. Her limbs were so stiff
with cold she could scarcely walk, at first. But the kind looks of the
good old gentleman, and the loving words of Jessie, cheered her on; and in
a few minutes they entered the back door of Glen Morris Cottage.