FIREFLY GOES TO SCHOOL.
"Puck found it handier to commence
With a certain share of impudence;
Which passes one off as learned and clever,
Beyond all other degrees whatever."
--SONG OF OLD PUCK.
Judge Lawless was in a rage! If you have ever seen an angry lion, an
enraged bear, or a young lady with "her mantle pinned awry," you may
conceive in some measure the state of mind in which that gentlemen trod
up and down his library floor, while he listened to Ranty's account of
Pet's exploit of the previous night.
Judge Lawless was a man of forty or so, and had been a widower for five
years. His face was not particularly prepossessing though extremely
handsome; his haughty, supercilious expression; his cold and somewhat
sinister eyes, and slightly sensual mouth, were, on the whole, rather
repelling. He prided himself, as a general thing, on his gentlemanly
urbanity; but on the present occasion he quite forgot all his customary
politeness, and paced up and down in a towering passion.
His son and heir, Master Ranty, had ensconced himself in a
velvet-cushioned easy-chair; and with his feet on a stool, and both
hands stuck in his coat-pockets, took things very coolly indeed.
"To think that my daughter should act in such an outrageous manner!"
exclaimed the judge, passionately; "making herself a town's talk, with
her mad actions. What other young lady in her station of life would
associate familiarly with those people at Dismal Hollow, who are a low
set as far as I understand; or ride through those infested woods after
night? I shall put an immediate stop to it, if I have to lock her up in
the attic on bread and water. I have a good mind to keep her on bread
and water for a month or so, and see if that will not cool the fever in
her blood! And you, sir," he added, stopping in his excited walk, and
turning furiously upon Ranty, "deserve a sound thrashing for playing
such a trick upon your sister. It would have served that young puppy
Germaine right if she had put an end to his worthless life. I never
liked that boy, and I command you instantly to cease your intimacy with
him. If your uncle chooses to make a fool of himself, adopting every
beggar's brat for a _protégé_, that's no reason why I should follow his
lead. Now, sir, let me hear no more of this. As the son of Judge
Lawless, you should look for better companionship than the grandson of
an old gipsy."
"I don't know where I'd find one, then," said Ranty, sturdily. "There
isn't a boy from Maine to Louisiana a better fellow than Ray Germaine.
He can beat me at everything he lays his hands to, from mathematics down
to pulling a stroke-oar; and there wasn't another boy at school he
couldn't knock into a cocked hat."
And with this spirited declaration, Master Ranty thrust his hands deeper
into his pockets, and planted his feet more firmly than ever on the
stool.
"How often must I tell you, sir," vociferated his father, in a voice of
thunder, "to drop this vulgar habit you have got of talking slang? I
presume your accomplished friend, Germaine, has taught you that, as well
as your manifold other acquirements," he added, with a sneer.
"No, he didn't," said Ranty, stoutly; "and he _could_ knock them into a
cocked hat, if not further, too! Ray Germaine's a tiptop fellow, and I
shouldn't wonder if he'd be a President some day. It will be the
country's loss if he ain't--that's all."
"Silence, sir!" thundered the judge. "How dare you have the brazen
effrontery to speak in this manner to me? You have improved under your
sister's tuition rapidly, since you came home! Go immediately to old
Barrens Cottage, and bring Petronilla here. I shall see that she does
not go there again in a hurry."
Ranty rose, with anything but a sweet expression, and went out, shaking
his fist grimly at the door, I am sorry to say, once it was safely shut
between them.
On reaching the cottage, he found Ray flushed and feverish with Pet and
Erminie sitting on either side of him.
"Pet, go home; father says so," was his first brusque salute.
"I won't then--not a step!" said the obstinate Pet.
"He'll be after you with a horsewhip mighty sudden, if you don't," said
Ranty. "I wish you could see how he's been blazing away all the morning.
I reckon he's stamping up and down the library yet, nursing his wrath to
keep it warm till he gets hold of you."
"Well," said the disrespectful vixen, "if he's a mind to get mad for
nothing, I can't help it. I shan't go."
"Oh, Pet! you'd better," said Erminie, anxiously. "He'll be so very
angry. I can take care of Ray, you know; and your father will scold you
dreadfully."
"La! I know that! I'm in for a scolding, anyway, so I may as well earn
it. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, you know."
"Oh, Pet! don't stand bothering here all day," broke in Ranty,
impatiently. "I've got to bring you home, anyway, and I suppose you
think a fellow has nothing to do but stay here and wait 'till you're
ready. Father will half-murder you, if you don't come right straight
along."
"Yes; go, Pet--please do," pleaded Erminie. "I had rather you would."
"Oh, well, if I'm to be turned out I suppose I must," said Pet, taking
her hat. "I'm ready, Ranty. Good-by, Minnie; I'll be back after dinner."
"I don't know about that," muttered Ranty, springing into the saddle.
"People ain't got out of attics so easily as you think."
A rapid gallop of half an hour brought them to Heath Hill, a
gently-sloping eminence, on which stood an imposing mansion of gray
sandstone, the aristocratic home of Judge Lawless, the one great
potentate of Judestown and environs.
The judge, from the window of the library, saw his son and daughter
approach, and flinging himself into the lounging chair Ranty had
vacated, he rung the bell, and ordered the servant who answered his
summons to send Miss Petronilla up-stairs directly.
"Now, you'll catch it, Pet," said Ranty, with a malicious chuckle.
"Will I? Wait 'till you see," retorted Pet, as, gathering up her
riding-habit in her hand, she prepared to follow the servant up-stairs.
With his face contracted into an awful frown, destined to strike terror
into the flinty heart of his self-willed little heiress, the judge sat,
awaiting her coming. In she came, her hat cocked jauntily on one side of
her saucy little head; her round, polished, boyish forehead laughing out
from between clusters of short, crispy, jetty curls; her black eyes all
ablaze with anticipated defiance; her rosy mouth puckered up, ready to
vindicate what she considered her legitimate rights. Not the least
daunted was Pet by her father's look, as swinging her riding-whip in one
hand, she stood erect and fearless before him.
"Well, Miss Petronilla Lawless," began the judge, in a measured,
sarcastic tone; "no doubt you are very proud of last night's
achievement. You think you have done something excessively clever
now--don't you?"
"Yes, I do," said Pet; "and so would you and everybody else--if I had
only shot a real nigger, instead of Ray Germaine. It wasn't my fault.
I'd just as lief shoot one as t'other."
"No doubt. The race of Joan D'Arc is not quite extinct, I see. How will
you like to have your name bandied from lip to lip 'till it becomes a
common by-word in every low tavern and hovel in Judestown?"
"Well, I shouldn't mind. I like to be talked about; and it isn't the
first time I have given them something to talk about, either."
"No; but it shall be the last," said the judge, rising sternly. "I
command you, now, to go no more to that cottage. If you dare to disobey
me, it will be at your peril."
"Why, where's the harm of going, I want to know?" demanded Pet,
indignantly.
"I am not in the habit of giving reasons for my conduct, Miss Lawless,"
said the judge, severely; "but in this instance I will say, it is
exceedingly unbecoming in a young lady to nurse a youth who is a
stranger to her. No other young lady would think for a moment of such a
thing."
"Well, I ain't a young lady," said Pet, "no more than Ray is a stranger.
And if I _was_ a young lady, and went and shot a young man, I ought to
help to nurse him well again, I should think."
"What you think, Miss Lawless, is of very little consequence, allow me
to tell you. Your duty is to do as I say, without presuming to ask
questions. I have hitherto excused your wild, rude conduct, and made
every allowance for your want of proper female training; but really,
your conduct is getting so outrageous there is no telling where it will
end. My intention is, therefore, to put a stop to it at once."
Pet's eyes flashed open defiance, and her face assumed a look of
resolute determination; but she prudently said nothing.
"I have resolved, therefore, Miss Lawless," said the judge, re-seating
himself, with a look of haughty inflexibility quite overpowering; "to
send you immediately to school. I wrote some time ago to a lady who
keeps a private boarding-school for young girls, and she has promised to
take charge of you at any time. It is an exceedingly strict
establishment, and the severe discipline there maintained will have the
good effect, I hope, of taming down your glaring improprieties. As I
feel that keeping you here any longer is like holding a keg of gunpowder
over a blazing furnace, I intend setting out with you this very
afternoon. You need dresses and various other things, I know, which I am
not altogether qualified to procure; I will, therefore, leave a sum of
money in the hands of Mrs. Moodie, sufficient to purchase you a complete
outfit, and such other things as you may want. It is useless for you to
remonstrate, Miss Lawless," said the judge, with a wave of his jeweled
hand; "for nothing you can say will move me from my purpose. I
anticipated violent opposition on your part, and I am quite prepared for
it. Go, I have said, this afternoon, and go you shall. If you attempt to
oppose my will, you shall receive the severe punishment you have already
merited."
The judge stroked his dark, glossy mustache, and looked threateningly at
Pet; but to his surprise that eccentric young lady offered not the
slightest opposition. When she first heard his intention of sending her
away to school, she had started violently, and her color came and went
rapidly; but as he went on, her eyes dropped, and an inexplicable smile
flickered around her red lips. Now she stood before him, with demurely
cast down eyes--the very personification of meekness and docility; had
he only seen the insufferable light of mischief blazing under their
long, drooping, black lashes, resting on the thin crimson cheeks, what a
different tale he would have read!
"Very well, sir," said Pet, meekly; "I suppose I can't help it, and have
got to put up with it. I don't know as I should mind going to school,
either, for a change. Mayn't I call and see Erminie before I go, papa?"
"Hem-m-m! ah--I'll see about it," said the judge, rather perplexed by
this unusual submissiveness, and intensely relieved, too, if the truth
must be told; for in his secret heart he dreaded a "scene" with his
stormy little daughter. "You may call in, for a moment, as we go past,
and say good-by; but once in school, you will form new acquaintances
among your own standing in society, and drop all the low connections you
have formed around here. The daughter of Judge Lawless," said that
gentleman, drawing himself up, "is qualified, by birth and social
position, to take her place among the highest and most exclusive in the
land, and must forget that she ever associated with--paupers!"
A streak of fiery red flamed across the dark face of Pet, and her black
eyes flew up, blazing indignantly at this insult to her friends. But the
next moment she remembered her _rôle_, and down fell the long lashes
again; and Pet stood as meek and demure as a kitten on the eve of
scratching.
"This is all, I believe, Miss Lawless," said the judge, resuming his
customary, suave blandness, and feeling intensely proud of his own
achievement in having awed into submission the hitherto dauntless Pet;
"you may go now, and if you have any trifling preparations to make
before starting, you will have sufficient time before dinner to
accomplish them. I shall expect when we reach Mrs. Moodie's, you will
try to behave yourself like a young lady, as my daughter will be
expected to behave. You must drop your rude, brusque ways, your slang
talk, amazonian bearing, and become quiet, and gentle, and ladylike, and
accomplished. You understand?"
"Yes, sir!" murmured Pet, putting her forefinger in her mouth.
"Very well, I hope you do. Go now."
With her long lashes still drooping over her wickedly-scintillating
eyes, her finger still stuck in her mouth, Pet meekly walked out of the
august "presence," and closed the library-door, but no sooner was she
safely outside, than a change most wonderful to behold came over the
spirit of her dream. Up flew the long eyelashes, revealing the dancing
eyes, all ablaze with the anticipation of fun and frolic; erect towered
the little form, as she turned; and facing the door, applied her thumb
to her nose, flourished her four fingers in a gesture more expressive
than elegant, and exclaimed:
"Oh! _won't_ I be good, though! won't I be lady-like! won't I forget my
friends! won't I be so quiet, and gentle, and good, that they'll make a
saint out of me pretty soon! won't I be a pocket-edition of 'St. Rose of
Lima!' Maybe I won't; that's all!"
Pet was as busy as a nailer until dinner was announced, packing up such
things as she wished to take with her to school.
Great was the amazement of Ranty, when at the dinner-table his father,
in pompous tones, announced his immediate departure with Pet. Ranty
glanced at her, as she sat quietly looking in her plate, and being
somewhat wider awake in respect to her than his father, inwardly
muttered:
"Pet's up to something; I can tell that whenever she looks particularly
quiet and saintly, like she does now; there's always 'breakers ahead,'
as uncle would say. Mrs. Moodie will find her hands full when she gets
our Pet. She'll discover she's caught a tartar, I'll be bound?"
Immediately after dinner, black Debby was ordered to dress Miss Pet for
her journey, while the judge went to his own apartment to make himself
as irresistible as possible. In half an hour both were ready. Pet was
handed into the carriage by her father, and waved a smiling adieu to
Ranty. The judge took his seat beside her, and the two superb
carriage-horses, flashing with silver-mounted harness, started off at a
rapid pace.
As they came within sight of the cottage, Pet who had been lying back
silently among the cushions, started up, exclaiming:
"Stop at the cottage, John; I'm going in there for a moment:"
The coachman drew up, and Pet sprung out.
"I will give you just five minutes to make your adieux," said the judge,
drawing out his watch; "if you are not back in that time, I shall go
after you."
Pet's eyes again defiantly flashed, but without deigning to reply, she
ran into the cottage.
Erminie met her at the door, and looked her surprise at seeing the
stately equipage of Judge Lawless stop at the cottage, and Miss Lawless
herself all arrayed for a journey.
"How is Ray?" was Pet's first question.
"Just as he was this morning. Where are you going, Pet?"
"He is no worse?"
"No. Are you going away?"
"Has the doctor been here since?"
"Yes, he has just gone. Where are you going, Pet?"
"Oh--to school!"
"To school! going away!" echoed Erminie in dismay.
"Yes; going to a dismal old boarding-school, where I am to walk, talk,
eat, pray, and sneeze by rule. Ain't it nice?"
"Oh, Pet, I am so sorry!"
"Well, I'm not! I expect to have a real nice time. Everybody mightn't
see the fun of it; but I do! I intend to finish my education, and be
back in a week!"
"Oh, Pet! I don't know what I shall do when you are gone; I will be so
lonesome," said Erminie, her sweet blue eyes filling with tears.
"Why, didn't I tell you I'd be back in a week? I will, too. There's an
old dragon there, Mrs. Moodie--I've heard of her before--and she's to
hammer learning into me. Oh, I'll dose her!"
"Won't you write me a letter, Pet?" said Erminie, who was sobbing now,
and clinging to her friend's neck.
"To be sure I will, and I'll bring it myself, to save postage. Don't you
be afraid, Minnie. I can take care of Pet Lawless, and won't let her be
put down by no one. Good-by, now; I've only got five minutes, and I
guess they're up by this time. Now don't cry and take on, Minnie; you'll
see I'll learn so fast that I'll be sent home finished in a week!"
And with these mysterious words, Pet gave Erminie a parting kiss, and
ran from the cottage just as the judge put his head out from the
carriage to call her.
The journey now proceeded uninterruptedly. They remained that night at a
hotel, and continued their journey next morning.
A little after noon, they reached the four-story building where Mrs.
Moodie kept her costly and exclusive boarding establishment for the
young female aristocracy of the land, and "trained up" (as her circulars
had it) the rising female generation in all the branches of an English,
French, musical, and religious education.
Judge Lawless and his daughter were shown into a magnificently-furnished
drawing-room, where a "cullud pusson" took the gentleman's card and went
off in search of the proprietress (if the word is admissible) of the
establishment.
Fifteen minutes later, the rustle of silk resounded in the hall. Pet
drew herself up straight as a ramrod, compressed her lips, cast down her
eyes, folded her hands, and looked the very picture of a timid, bashful,
shy little country-girl. Then the door opened, and magnificent in a
four-flounced plaid silk, with a miraculous combination of lace and
ribbons floating from her head, a tall, yellow, sharp-looking lady of
middle-age floated in, and with a profound courtesy to the judge that
made her four flounces balloon out around her, after the fashion of
children when making "cheeses," dropped into a sofa, half-buried in a
maze of floating drapery.
"This is Miss Lawless, I presume?" said Mrs. Moodie, with a bland smile
and a wave of her hand toward Pet.
"Yes, madam, this is my daughter; and I consider it my duty to tell you
beforehand that I am afraid she will occasion you a great deal of
trouble."
"Oh! I hope not! You are a good little girl--are you not, my
dear?"--with a sweet smile to Pet. "In what way, may I ask, my dear
sir?"
"In many ways, madam. She is, in the first place, unbearably wild, and
rude, and self-willed, and--I regret to say--disobedient."
"Is it possible? I really would never have imagined it!" cried the
lady, glancing in surprise and incredulity toward the shy, quiet looking
little girl, sitting demurely in her chair, and not venturing to lift
her eyes. "I think I have tamed far more desperate characters than this;
in fact, I may say I know I have. Oh! I will have no trouble with your
little girl! Why, she is one of the quietest looking little creatures I
think I ever saw."
The Judge glanced toward Pet, and was half inclined to fly into a rage
at discovering her so unlike herself, giving the direct lie, as it were,
to his assertions.
"Come over here, my love," said the lady, holding out her hand with a
bland smile to Pet. "I want to see you."
Pet, after the manner of little girls when they are frightened or
embarrassed, instead of complying, rubbed her knuckles into her eyes,
and pretended to cry.
"Get up, and do as you are told! How dare you act so?" said the judge,
forgetting his "company manners" in his rage at what he could easily see
was clever acting on Pet's part.
"Now, pray, my dear sir, don't frighten the poor little thing," cried
the dulcet tones of the lady. "Little girls are always nervous and
frightened when first sent to school. Come here, my love; don't be
afraid of me!"
"Go!" thundered the judge, with a brow like a thunder-cloud.
Pet, still sniffling, got up and went over to Mrs. Moodie.
"What is your name, my dear?" smiled the lady, taking Pet's little brown
hand in her own snowy fingers.
"Pet-Pet-ronilla," sobbed the elf.
"Now, you must not cry, dear; we will take the best of care of you here.
Of course, you will miss your papa for a few days; but after that we
will get along very nicely. Were you ever at school before?"
"Ye-es, ma-am."
"What did you learn, love?"
"I don't know."
"Petronilla?" sternly began the judge.
"Now, pray, my dear sir," remonstrated the silken tones of the lady,
"leave it to me. Just see how you are frightening the poor little thing.
You can read, my dear, of course!"
"Yes, ma-am."
"What books have you read, love? have you read many?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"What was their names?"
"'Jack and the Bean-stalk;' 'The Goose with the Golden Egg;' 'Little
Red--'"
"Oh! my dear, I don't mean those! Have you read nothing else?"
"No, ma'am; only a spelling-book."
"Can you write?"
"Yes, ma'am, when somebody holds my hand."
"Have you studied grammar and geography? I suppose not, though."
"She has, madam; at least she commenced," said the judge.
"Ah, indeed! What is English Grammar, love?"
"A little book with a gray cover," said Pet.
"No, no! What does English Grammar teach?"
"I don't know--it never teached me anything; it was Mr. Hammer."
"Oh, dear me! You are rather obtuse, I fear. Perhaps you know more of
geography, though. Can you tell me how the earth is divided?"
"It ain't divided!" said Pet, stoutly. "It's all one piece!"
"Ah! I fear your teacher was none of the best," said the lady, shaking
her head. "We shall have to remedy all these defects in your education,
however, as well as we can. I hope to send you a very different little
girl home, judge."
"I sincerely hope so," said the judge, rising. "Farewell, madam.
Good-by, Petronilla; be a good girl--remember."
"Oh, I'll remember!" said Pet, significantly, accepting her father's
farewell salute, with a great deal of _sang froid_.
Mrs. Moodie politely bowed her stately guest out, and then turning to
Petronilla, said:
"The young ladies are all in the class-room studying, my dear. Would you
prefer going there, or shall I have you shown to your room?"
"I'll go where the girls--I mean the young ladies are," said Pet,
following the rustling lady up-stairs.
"Very well, this way, then," said madam, turning into a long hall with
large white folding-doors at the end, through which came drowsily the
subdued hum of recitation.
"Well; I think I have done the bashful up beautifully!" mentally
exclaimed Petronilla. "I reckon I've amazed papa. Maybe I won't surprise
them some if not more, before this night's over. Oh! won't I dose them,
though?"
And, chuckling inwardly, our wicked elf followed the stately Mrs.
Moodie, who marched on ahead, in blissful ignorance of the diabolical
plot brewing in Pet's mischief-loving head.