_THE BOX OF COINS_.
The reading went on for a good hour. Then the colonel rose from his
sofa and went out, and young Dallas turned to Esther. During this hour
Esther had been sitting still in her corner by her boxes; not doing
anything; and her face, which had brightened at William's first coming
in, had fallen back very nearly to its former heavy expression. Now it
lighted up again, as the visitor left his seat and came over to her. He
had not been so taken up with his reading but he had noticed her from
time to time; observed the drooping brow and the dull eye, and the sad
lines of the lips, and the still, spiritless attitude. He was touched
with pity for the child, whom he had once been accustomed to see very
different from this. He came and threw himself down on the floor by her
side.
'Well, Queen Esther!' said he. 'What have you got there?'
'Coins.'
'Coins! What are you doing with them?'
'Nothing.'
'So it seems. What do you want to do?'
'I wanted to amuse myself.'
'And don't succeed? Naturally. What made you think you would?
Numismatology isn't what one would call a _lively_ study. What were you
going to do with these old things, eh?'
'Nothing,' said Esther hopelessly. 'I used to hear papa talk about
them; and I liked to hear him.'
'Why don't you get him to talk to you about them again?'
'Oh, he was not talking to _me_.'
'To whom, then?'
Esther hesitated; the young man saw a veil of moisture suddenly dim the
grave eyes, and the lips that answered him were a little unsteady.
'It was mamma,' she breathed rather than spoke.
'And you liked to hear?' he went on purposely.
'Oh, yes. But now I can't understand anything by myself.'
'You can understand by yourself as much as most people I know. Let us
see what you have got here. May I look?'
He lifted a small piece of metal out of its nest, in a shallow tray
which was made by transverse slips of wood to be full of such nests, or
little square compartments. The trays were beautifully arranged, one
fitting close upon another till they filled the box to its utmost
capacity.
'What have we here? This piece has seen service. Here is a tree, Queen
Esther,--a flourishing, spreading tree,--and below it the letters, R.
E. P. F., if I read aright, and then the word "Reich." What is that,
now? "R. E. P. F. Reich." And here is a motto above, I am sorry to say,
so far worn that my reading it is a matter of question. "Er,"--that is
plain,--then a worn word, then, "das Land." Do you understand German?'
'No; I don't know anything.'
'Too sweeping, Queen Esther. But I wish I could read that word! Let us
try the other side. Ha! here we have it. "Lud. xvi."--two letters I
can't make out--then "Fr. and Nav. Rex." Louis the Sixteenth, king of
France and Navarre.'
'I know him, I believe,' said Esther. 'He was beheaded, wasn't he, in
the great French revolution?'
'Just that. He was not a wise man, you know.'
'If he had been a wise man, could he have kept his life?'
'Well, I don't know, Queen Esther, whether any wisdom would have been
wise enough for that. You see, the people of France were mad; and when
a people get mad, they don't listen to reason, naturally. Here's
another, now; what's this? "Zeelandia, 1792," not so very old. On the
other side--here's a shield, peculiar too; with the motto plain
enough,--"Luctor et emergo." A good motto that.'
'What does it mean?'
'It means, something like--"Struggle and come out," or "come
through,"--literally, "emerge." Our English word comes from it. Colonel
Gainsborough does not teach you Latin, then?'
'No,' said Esther, sighing. 'He doesn't teach me much lately, of
anything.'
Dallas cast a quick look at the girl, and saw again the expression of
quiet hopelessness that had moved him. He went on turning over the
coins.
'Do you want to learn Latin?'
'Yes.'
'Why?'
'Why do _you_ want to learn it, Pitt?'
'Well, you see, it is different. I must, you know. But queens are not
expected to know the dead languages--not Queen Esther, at any rate.'
'Do you learn them because it is expected of you?'
The young man laughed a little.
'Well, there _are_ other reasons. Now here's a device. Two lions
rampant--shield surmounted by a crown; motto, "Sp. nos in Deo." _Let us
hope in God_.'
'Whose motto was that?'
'Just what I can't make out. I don't know the shield--which I ought to
know; and the reverse of the coin has only some unintelligible letters:
D. Gelriae, 1752. Let us try another, Queen Esther. Ha! here's a coin
of William and Mary--both their blessed heads and names; and on the
reverse a figure three, and the inscription claiming that over Great
Britain, _France_ and Ireland, they were "Rex and Regina." Why, this
box of coins is a capital place to study history.'
'I don't know history,' Esther said.
'But you are going to know it.'
'Am I? How can I?'
'Read.'
'I don't know what to read. I have just read a little history of
England--that's all. Mother gave me that. But when I read, there are so
many things I don't know and want to ask about.'
'Ask the colonel.'
'Oh, he doesn't care to be troubled,' the little girl said sadly.
'Ask me.'
'_You!_ But you are not here to ask.'
'True; well, we must see. Ah, here's a pretty thing! See, Esther,
here's an elegant crown, really beautiful, with the fleurs de lys of
France, and the name of the luckless Louis XVI. "Roi de France and de
Navarre" but no date. On the other side, "Isles de France and de
Bourbon." These coins seem to belong to European history.'
'There's another box with Greek and Roman coins, and, the names of
Roman emperors; but I know _them_ even less still than I do these,'
said Esther.
'Your want of knowledge seems to weigh upon your mind, Queen Esther.'
'I can't help it,' said the little girl resignedly.
'Are you sure of that? I am not. Well, I wish I knew who this is.'
He had taken up a very small coin, much less than a three-cent piece,
and with the help of a magnifying glass was studying it eagerly.
'Why?' said Esther.
'It is such a beautiful head! Wonderfully beautiful, and old. Crowned,
and with a small peaked beard; but the name is so worn off. On the
other side "Justitia." Queen Esther, this box is a first-rate place to
study history.'
'Is it?'
'It is. What do you say? Suppose you let me come here and study history
with you over these old coins; and then you come over to my house and
learn Latin with me. Hey?'
He glanced up, and Esther looked at him with a wondering, grave,
inquiring face. He nodded in answer and smiled, a little quizzically.
'What do you mean, Pitt?'
'There was a wise man once, who said, the use of language is to conceal
one's thoughts. I hope you are not labouring under the impression that
such is _my_ practice and belief?'
'But would you teach me?' said the girl gravely.
'If your majesty approves.'
'I think it would be very troublesome to you?'
'I, on the contrary, think it would not.'
'But it would after a little while?' said Esther.
'When I want to stop, I'll let you know.'
'Will you? Would you?'
'Both would and will.'
The girl's face grew intense with life, yet without losing its gravity.
'When, Pitt? When would you teach me, I mean?'
'I should say, every day; wouldn't you?'
'And you'll come here to study the coins?'
'And teach you what I learn.'
'Oh! And you'll give me Latin lessons? Lessons to study?'
'Certainly.'
'And we will study history over the coins?'
'Don't you think it will be a good way? Here's a coin of Maria Theresa,
now: 1745, Hungary and Böhmen, that is Bohemia. This old piece of
copper went through the Seven Years' war.'
'What war was that?'
'Oh, we'll read about it, Queen Esther. "Ad usum," "Belgae, Austria."
These coins are delightful. See here--don't you want to go for a walk?'
'Oh yes! I've had one walk to-day already, and it just makes me want
another. Did you see my flowers?'
She jumped up and brought them to him.
'Here's the liverleaf, and anemone, and bloodroot; and we couldn't find
the columbine, but it must be out. Christopher calls them all sorts of
hard names, that I can't remember.'
'_Anemone_ is anemone, at any rate. These two, Esther, this and the
_Hepatica_, belong to one great family, the family of the
Crowfoots--Ranunculaceae.'
'Oh, but that is harder and harder!'
'No it isn't; it is easier and easier. See, these belong to one family;
so you learn to know them as relations, and then you can remember them.'
'How do you know they are of the same family?'
'Well, they have the family features. They all have an acrid sap or
juice, exogenous plants, with many stamens. These are the stamens, do
you know? They have calyx and corolla both, and the corolla has
separate petals, see; and the Ranunculaceae have the petals and sepals
deciduous, and the leaves generally cut, as you see these are. They are
what you may call a bitter family; it runs in the blood, that is to
say, in the juice of them; and a good many of the members of the family
are downright wicked, that is, poisonous.'
'Pitt, you talk very queerly?'
'Not a bit more queer than the things are I am talking of. Now this
_Sanguinaria_ belongs to the Papaveraceae--the poppy family.'
'Does it! But it does not look like them, like poppies.'
'This coloured juice that you see when you break the stem, is one of
the family marks of this family. I won't trouble you with the others.
But you must learn to know them, Queen Esther. King Solomon knew every
plant from the royal cedar to the hyssop on the wall; and I am sure a
queen ought to know as much. Now the blood of the Papaveraceae has a
taint also; it is apt to have a narcotic quality.'
'What is narcotic?'
'Putting to sleep.'
'That's a good quality.'
'Hm!' said Dallas; 'that's as you take it. It isn't healthy to go so
fast asleep that you never can wake up again.'
'Can people do that?' asked Esther in astonishment.
'Yes. Did you never hear of people killing themselves with laudanum, or
opium?'
'I wonder why the poppy family was made so?'
'Why not?'
'So mischievous.'
'That's when people take too much of them. They are very good for
medicine sometimes, Queen Esther.'
The girl's appearance by this time had totally changed. All the dull,
weary, depressed air and expression were gone; she was alert and erect,
the beautiful eyes filled with life and eagerness, a dawning of colour
in the cheeks, the brow busy with stirring thoughts. Esther's face was
a grave face still, for a child of her years; but now it was a noble
gravity, showing intelligence and power and purpose; indicating
capacity, and also an eager sympathy with whatever is great and worthy
to take and hold the attention. Whether it were history that Dallas
touched upon, or natural science; the divisions of nations or the
harmonies of plants; Esther was ready, with her thoughtful, intent
eyes, taking in all he could give her; and not merely as a snatch-bite
of curiosity, but as the satisfaction of a good healthy mental appetite
for mental food.
Until to-day the young man had never concerned himself much about
Esther. Good nature had moved him to-day, when he saw the dullness that
had come over the child and recognised her forlorn solitude; and now he
began to be interested in the development of a nature he had never
known before. Young Dallas was a student of everything natural that
came in his way, but this was the first bit of human nature that had
consciously interested him. He thought it quite worth investigating a
little more.