A NEW PLAN
Esther was much better the next morning, but she was not well enough
to come down-stairs for several days, and when her father appeared he
agreed with Mrs. Carew that the little girl was not fit to undertake
the journey on horseback along the rough trail to Brandon.
Mrs. Carew was able to assure him, however, that he need not be
anxious about his little daughter, and he decided to go directly home,
leaving Esther to regain health and strength in Mrs. Carew's charge.
"I will come for you the first Monday in October, three weeks from
to-day," he told Esther, "and you must mind Mrs. Carew in everything
she bids you."
Esther promised tearfully. She did not want to stay, but she resolved
to herself, as she watched her father ride away, that she would do
everything possible to please Mrs. Carew and make friends with Faith.
She could hardly bear to think of the first day of her visit.
As she lay on the settle comfortably bolstered up with the soft
pillows, and a little fire crackling on the hearth, Esther looked
about the sitting-room and began to think it a very pleasant place.
Faith brought all her treasures to entertain her little visitor. Chief
of these was a fine book called "Pilgrim's Progress," with many
pictures. There was a doll,--one that Faith's Aunt Priscilla had
brought her from New York. This doll was a very wonderful creature.
She wore a blue flounced satin dress, and the dress had real buttons,
buttons of gilt; and the doll wore a beautiful bonnet.
Faith watched Esther a little anxiously as she allowed her to take
Lady Amy, as the doll was named. But Esther was as careful as Faith
herself, and declared that she did not believe any little girl that
side of Bennington had such a beautiful doll.
"I think your Aunt Priscilla is the best aunt that ever was. She gave
you this lovely doll, and your blue beads----" Esther stopped
suddenly. She had lost the beads, and she did not want to tell Faith.
She had resolved to hunt for them as soon as possible, and give them
back. She was sure she could find them when she could run about again.
Faith did not look at Esther. She wished Esther had not reminded her
of the beads. But Esther had been so grateful for everything that Mrs.
Carew and Faith did for her that they had almost forgotten her
mischief, and were beginning to like their little visitor.
"Yes, my Aunt Prissy is lovely," said Faith. "She is a young aunt. Her
hair is yellow and her eyes are blue; she can run as fast as I can,"
and Faith smiled, remembering the good times she always had when Aunt
Prissy came for a visit to the log cabin. "When I go to visit her I
shall see the fort where the English soldiers are," she added.
"Colonel Ethan Allen could take the fort away from them if he wanted
to; my father said so," boasted Esther; and Faith was quite ready to
agree to this, for it seemed to her that the tall, dark-eyed colonel
could accomplish almost anything.
"How would you and Faithie like to have your supper here by the fire?"
asked Mrs Carew, coming in from the kitchen. "Faith can bring in the
light stand and use her own set of dishes. And I will make you a fine
dish of cream toast."
Both the little girls were delighted at the plan. And Faith ran to
the kitchen and, with her mother's help, brought in the stand and
put it down in front of the settle. She spread a white cloth over
it, and then turned to the closet, from which she had taken the
blue beads, and brought out her treasured tea-set. There was a
round-bodied, squatty teapot with a high handle, a small pitcher,
a round sugar-bowl, two cups and saucers, and two plates. The dishes
were of delicate cream-tinted china covered with crimson roses and
delicate buds and faint green leaves.
One by one Faith brought these treasures to the little table, smiling
with delight at Esther's exclamations of admiration.
"My grandmother who lives in Connecticut sent me these for my last
birthday present," said Faith. "My Grandmother Carew, whom I have
never seen. And they came from across the big salt ocean, from
England."
"To think that a little girl in a log cabin should have such lovely
things!" exclaimed Esther. "I have a silver mug with my name on it,"
she added.
Mrs. Carew brought them in the fine dish of cream toast, and filled
the china teapot with milk so they could play that it was a real
tea-party. There were baked apples to eat with the toast, and although
Esther longed for cake she did not speak of it, and, bolstered up with
cushions, and Faith sitting in a high-backed chair facing her, she
began really to enjoy herself.
"My father made this little table," said Faith, helping Esther to a
second cup of "tea," "and he made these chairs and the settle. He came
up here with Mr. Stanley years ago, and cut down trees and built this
house and the barn and the mill; then he went way back where my
grandmother lives and brought my mother here. Some day I am to go to
Connecticut and go to school."
"Why don't you come to Brandon and go to school?" suggested Esther.
"Oh, do! Faith, ask your mother to let you go home with me and go to
school this winter. That would be splendid!" And Esther sat up so
quickly that she nearly tipped over her cup and saucer.
"I guess I couldn't," replied Faith. "My mother would be lonesome."
But Esther thought it would be a fine idea; and while Faith carried
the dishes to the kitchen, washed them with the greatest care,
and replaced them on the closet shelf, Esther talked of all the
attractions of living in a village and going to school with other
little girls.
"I feel as well as ever," declared Esther as the two little girls went
to bed that night; "but I do wish your mother thought sweet things
would be good for me. At home I have all I want."
"Mother says that is the reason you are not well," answered Faith.
"Hear the brook, Esther! Doesn't it sound as if it was saying, 'Hurry
to bed! Hurry to bed!' And in the morning it is 'Time to get up! Time
to get up!'"
"You are the queerest girl I ever knew. The idea that a brook could
say anything," replied Esther; but her tone was friendly. "I suppose
it's because you live way off here in the woods. Now if you lived in a
village----"
"I don't want to live in a village if it will stop my hearing what the
brook says. And I can tell you what the robins say to the young
robins; and what little foxes tell their mothers; and I know how the
beavers build their homes under water," declared Faith, with a little
laugh at Esther's puzzled expression.
"Tell me about the beavers," said Esther, as they snuggled down in the
big feather-bed.
"Every house a beaver builds has two doors," began Faith, "and it has
an up-stairs and down-stairs. One of the doors to the beaver's house
opens on the land side, so that they can get out and get their
dinners; and the other opens under the water--way down deep, below
where ice freezes."
"How do you know?" questioned Esther, a little doubtfully.
"Father told me. And I have seen their houses over in the mill meadow,
where the brook is as wide as this whole clearing."
Before Faith had finished her story of how beavers could cut down
trees with their sharp teeth, and of the dams they built across
streams, Esther was fast asleep.
Faith lay awake thinking over all that Esther had said about school;
about seeing little girls and boys of her own age, and of games and
parties. Then with a little sigh of content she whispered to herself:
"I guess I'd be lonesome without father and mother and the brook."
Mrs. Carew had heard Esther's suggestion about Faith going to Brandon
to go to school, and after the little girls had gone to bed she spoke
of it to Faith's father, as they sat together before the fire.
"Perhaps we ought to send Faithie where she could go to school and be
with other children," said Mr. Carew, "but I hardly know how we could
spare her."
There was a little silence, for the father and mother knew that their
pleasant home on the slope of the hillside would be a very different
place without their little maid.
"But of course we would not think of Brandon," continued Faith's
father. "If we must let her go, why, her Aunt Priscilla will give her
a warm welcome and take good care of the child; and the school at
Ticonderoga is doubtless a good one."
"Esther seems sorry for her mischief, but I should not wish Faith to
be with her so far from home. Perhaps we had best send some word to
Priscilla by the next traveler who goes that way, and ask her if Faith
may go to her for the winter months," said Mrs. Carew.
So, while Faith described the beaver's home to the sleepy Esther, it
was settled that as soon as it could be arranged she should go to stay
with her Aunt Priscilla in the village of Ticonderoga, across Lake
Champlain, and go to school.
"If 'twere not that some stray Indians might happen along and make a
bonfire of our house and mill we might plan for a month's visit
ourselves," said Mr. Carew.
"We must not think of it," responded his wife. For the log cabin home
was very dear to her, and at that time the Indians, often incited by
the British in command of the forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point,
burned the homes of settlers who held their land through grants given
by the New Hampshire government.
"More settlers are coming into this region every year. We shall soon
have neighbors near at hand, and can have a school and church," said
Mr. Carew hopefully. "Colonel Allen is not journeying through the
wilderness for pleasure. He has some plan in mind to make this region
more secure for all of us. Well, tell Faithie, if she has aught to say
of going to Brandon, that she is soon to visit Aunt Priscilla. I doubt
not 'twill be best for the child."