to her feet and taking Daisy's hand in a patronizing manner. "She won't
feel much strange after one day, 'cause we'll all be good to her, and
she shall help us make our land of Egypt."
"Ah! that is what you are doing, is it?" said the General.
"Yes, sir," answered Lily; "we're just putting a pyramid over Moses in
the bulrushes, 'cause we hav'n't time to fix so many bulrushes till
recess. And part of it is knocked down. Lola did it, but she didn't
mean to, and if you peep in there between those stones you can see
a little bit of the ark and Moses' dear little china arm poking up.
Please to peek, sir."
The General did as he was requested, saying that he saw Moses quite
plainly.
"It isn't much matter if we do have to leave him now," said Lily; "he's
pretty nicely covered up."
"I think so," said the General, gravely; "and if I were Moses, with a
pyramid being built over me, I think I should prefer to have a small
breathing-hole left."
"Why, so he would," said Lily; "and now we can leave him nicely fixed,
and play he's very comfortable in his pyramid, even if it's not quite
done."
Lily being satisfied with the fate of Moses, all the rest were so; and
the bell now ringing, the little group turned towards the house. Daisy
wondering, as well she might, that a matter which was so easily settled
should call for such violent expressions of distress and alarm as she
had heard from two of the little girls.
"Why, Miss Collins," said General Forster, as that lady met them at the
door, "what a bouquet of flowers you have here! A Rose, a Violet, a
Daisy, and a Lily; as choice a nosegay as one could wish for."
"And the Lily is going to take care of the Daisy, and make her feel
to home, Miss Collins," said Lily, who still held Daisy's hand. "The
General said I could."
"No, he didn't," said Susy.
"Yes, he _did_, 'pon my word he did; least I said I would do it, and he
didn't say I couldn't: did you, sir?" said Lily, throwing back her head
to look up at the General's tall figure.
"And that comes to the same thing, does it, Lily?" he said, laughing;
"well, I suppose it does; and I promise you shall look after Daisy till
she feels no longer a stranger among you."
"She knows me, and Loly and Violet, as well as any thing," said Lily;
for the little girls had met several times before, and Lily felt
herself and the two Swans to be on rather intimate terms with Daisy
Forster.
"All right, then. I leave her to you. Good-morning, Miss Collins," and
with a bow to the lady, with whom he had before made all the necessary
arrangements for Daisy, a pleasant nod for the little ones, and a kiss
for Daisy, he went away.
Daisy felt rather lonely when he was gone, in spite of Miss Collins'
kind look, Lily's tight clasp of the hand, and Violet's, "We have real
nice times in school. Don't be afraid." For she was far more shy with
children than she was with grown people, probably because she had never
had any companions of her own age; and the number of young faces, most
of them strange, about her, made her long to be back again at Mrs.
Forster's side. And they all looked at her a good deal, for her story
was well known among them, and she was an object of great curiosity.
Lily observed this, as she took her seat with Daisy beside her, and
thought she must speak up for her charge.
"Miss Collins," she said, "please to make a rule."
"Well," said Miss Collins, smiling; for Lily was constantly asking for
new rules concerning things which did not suit her. She had begun with
this more than a year ago when she was only a visitor at the school;
and she was even now not a regular scholar, but only coming for a few
weeks. For her papa and mamma had gone on a journey, and Lily, being
lonely at home when Ella and the boys were at school, it had been
arranged that she was to go with Ella in the morning. So she was rather
a privileged person, and spoke her mind freely concerning that which
did not please her, which the other children thought rather a joke, and
were generally ready enough to fall in with Lily's rules. So now they
all listened.
"Please to make a rule that nobody must stare, ma'am," said Lily: "it
makes people feel so to be stared at,"--and Lily put up both hands to
her cheeks,--"specially if they are new."
"Very true," answered Miss Collins: "let us all try to remember the
Golden Rule, and then we shall neither stare nor do any thing else to
hurt another's feelings."
Then she struck the little bell which stood upon her table, and all
knew the school had begun, and they must be quiet.
Next calling Bessie Norton to her, Miss Collins gave her a number of
Bibles, and the little girl handed one to each of her classmates. Then
Miss Collins read a verse aloud, and the children followed, each in her
turn.
"Minnie Grey may take the Bibles," said Miss Collins when this was done.
Minnie rose, and went from one to another collecting the Bibles. But
instead of taking as many as she could conveniently carry at one time,
giving them to Miss Collins, and coming back for the rest, she went on
piling one on top of another, till one arm was quite full, when she
came to Daisy and held out her other hand for her book. As she did so,
the top one of the pile fell to the floor. Minnie stooped for it, and
down went two or three more.
"Oh! bother the old things," said Minnie, in a low voice, but very
impatiently.
Daisy had stooped to help her pick up the Bibles, but the glow her
cheeks wore when she raised her head again was not all owing to that.
Bother the old things! What old things? Why, the Bibles, God's own Holy
Word.
Daisy was very much shocked, and she looked up at Miss Collins,
expecting to hear her reprove such _wicked words_, _she_ thought them.
But Miss Collins had not heard Minnie's exclamation, though the noise
of the falling books had called her attention that way, and she said,--
"Minnie, my dear, you are careless with those Bibles: do you forget
whose books they are?"
"I don't care," muttered Minnie, but not so that the lady could hear.
Daisy heard again; and the thought passed through her mind, "What a
wicked little girl Minnie must be!"
And yet Daisy was mistaken. If she had asked Minnie's parents,
teacher, or playmates, they would all have told her that Minnie was
an uncommonly good and pleasant little girl; truthful, obedient,
industrious, and generous and obliging towards others. She had no
thought now that she was breaking one of God's commandments; and she
would have been both offended and grieved, if she had known what was
in Daisy's mind, believing herself, as she did, to be innocent of any
wrong.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
DAISY AT STUDY.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
V.
DAISY AT STUDY.
DAISY was soon at home with her schoolmates, and a great favorite among
them.
It was not strange that they liked and were interested in her. She was
such a gentle, modest, amiable little girl; watching and joining in the
games and lessons of the others with a kind of innocent wonder which
amused and touched them all. For Daisy was not at all accustomed to be
with children of her own age, and their ways were all new to her.
And of course she was behind all the rest in her studies. She could
not even read as well as Lily Ward; and had to begin with the simplest
lessons, such as Lily and two or three of the very youngest children
learned. At first this troubled her, and she feared the rest of the
class would laugh at her.
But she soon found she need not have been afraid of that, for the rule
of Miss Collins' infant class was the law of kindness; and any one of
the little girls would have thought it almost a crime to laugh or mock
at Daisy, for that which was her misfortune and not her fault.
They might now and then fall out a little among themselves, for they
were by no means perfect children; sometimes there would be some
selfishness shown, or even a few angry words pass from one to another;
but, on the whole, they agreed about as well as any twenty little
girls could be expected to do; and not one among them would have had
the heart purposely to do an unkind thing to another. Least of all to
Daisy Forster, whom they all looked upon with a kind of tender pity and
interest, because of her sad and romantic history; and who was at once
taken up by both teacher and scholars as a sort of twin pet with Lily,
for whom allowances were to be made, and who was to be encouraged and
aided as much as possible.
So Daisy found plenty of helpers, who, so far from laughing at her
mistakes and backwardness, were rather inclined to think her quick and
industrious, as indeed she was, trying hard to make up for lost time,
and "catch up" with those of her own age.
She was almost too eager about this, and had to be checked now and
then, for since the long illness which had followed the shipwreck,
Daisy had never been strong; and too much fatigue or study, or even
too much play, would make her nervous and sick, and her little head
would become confused and ache. So now and then Mrs. Forster would have
to take the books from her, and forbid more study, sending her out to
play, or to work in the plot of ground which had been given her for a
garden of her own.
She was not always pleased at this, and sometimes would be rather
fretful and impatient. But Mrs. Forster soon found a way to put a stop
to this.
One afternoon she found the little girl bending over her slate with
flushed and heated cheeks, anxious eyes, and trembling hands.
"Daisy," she said, quietly, "what are you doing? Miss Collins has not
given you lessons out of school, has she?"
"No, ma'am," said Daisy; "but I asked Ella Ward to set me a whole lot
of sums so that I could do them at home, and I can't make this one come
right. I know it is not right, 'cause Ella put the answers on the other
side of the slate, and mine won't come the same, all I can do."
Mrs. Forster took the slate from her hand.
"This sum is too hard for you, Daisy," she said: "you do not know
enough arithmetic for this."
"It is not any harder than the sums Lola and Violet and the other
girls as large as I am do," answered Daisy, looking ready to burst out
crying; "and I have to do arithmetic with the very little ones, like
Lily, and it makes me ashamed; so I want to go on all I can. _Please_
give me the slate again, Aunt Gertrude," she added, as Mrs. Forster
laid it beyond her reach.
"No, dear. I do not wish you to study out of school. I am glad you want
to improve, but you have as much to do there as is good for you; and at
home I want you to have rest and play. You are improving quite as fast
as could be expected, and for a time you must be content to go on with
those who are younger than yourself."
"But it makes me ashamed," pleaded Daisy, again.
"There is no reason for that," said Mrs. Forster, patting the hot cheek
she raised towards her. "The other children do not laugh at you and
make you uncomfortable, do they?"
"Oh, no, ma'am," said Daisy; "they are all so good to me, and when they
can't help seeing what a dunce I am" (here Daisy's tears overflowed),
"they always say kind things about how I never went to school before,
and how my own dear mamma was drowned, and there was nobody to teach me
till I came to you."
"You are not a dunce, dear," said the lady. "A child who idles away
her time when she should be studying, and does not care whether or no
she learns as much as is fit for her, is a dunce: not a little girl
who really wishes to be industrious, but does not know quite as much
as others of her own age only because God has not given her the same
advantages in time past. No one will think my Daisy a dunce. Now, we
must have no more studying at home, no more lessons than those Miss
Collins sets you."
Daisy did not look satisfied: on the contrary, she even pouted a little.
"Daisy," said Mrs. Forster, "suppose Uncle Frank were to give you some
beautiful and costly thing which would be of great use to you in time
to come if you took good care of it, say a watch: what would you do
with it?"
"Why! I _would_ take great care, oh! such care of it," said Daisy,
opening her eyes in some surprise at the question. She did not see what
that could have to do with her studies.
"I'd wind it up every night, and try to keep it right and safe every
way I could. But I don't know if I am quite large enough to have a
watch of my own, or take care of it; maybe the best way would be to ask
you or Uncle Frank to keep it for me till I was older."
"And suppose for a while he gave you no key to this watch, but let it
run down and be quiet?"
"I'd just put it away till he gave me a key, and be patient about it,"
said Daisy, wondering more and more.
"And if, by and by, when he gave you this key, you should go on winding
and winding the watch farther and faster than it was right for it to
go, till the wheels and springs were all spoiled and out of order,
would Uncle Frank think you cared much for his gift?"
"Why, no, Aunt Gertrude; and he wouldn't think I cared much for him,
either, to use his pretty present so."
"You are right, dear. And now I want my own little Daisy to see how it
is with herself. God has given to you a young mind, bright and quick
enough; but, for a while, He did not choose that it should do much
work. But now He has given you the key by which you may wind it and set
it to work; and if you use it without proper care, and so as to hurt
and wear out this precious gift, would it not seem as if you cared very
little about it, and did not respect and honor the Giver?"
"Yes'm," answered Daisy, beginning to see what Mrs. Forster meant; "but
I never thought about that."
"I believe I never thought about it before, dear," said Mrs. Forster,
smiling. "I am not afraid to praise you, Daisy; and I may safely say
that I have never seen any little child who showed such true honor and
reverence for her Maker, and all which belongs to Him. You must have
been well taught, my child; and to know and remember such lessons is
worth all the book learning in the world."
Daisy was pleased, as she always was when any one spoke to her of her
long-lost home, or praised the teaching she had received from those
who had loved and cared for her there. And from this time there was no
further trouble about the lessons; for it was enough for Daisy to know
that she was misusing any one of God's good gifts, to make her change
her ways. Many a lesson might have been learned, and, indeed, had been
learned, by those older and wiser than herself, from the loving care
and respect paid by this little one to her Creator's name, and to all
the works of His hand.
And it was a great trouble to her to hear the careless way in which
many of her schoolmates used sacred names and things. They did not
mean any harm; they did not think it any sin; but every day Daisy was
shocked and distressed by hearing such words as "mercy," "gracious,"
"goodness," and "good heavens," and the like, from the lips of the
other children, as they were about their play and study. It had
become a habit with nearly all in the school; one caught it from
another almost without knowing it; even Lily Ward, who once thought
the clergyman "preached a sermon at her" because she said "hush up,"
now and then followed the example of the others when any thing vexed
or surprised her. A few weeks at school had accustomed Lily to the
constant use of expressions which a year ago she would have considered
"real naughty words."
The older girls in Miss Sarah Collins' room had fallen into this bad
habit as much, if not more, than the little ones of the infant class.
And it was not only this carelessness of speech in which they were
all, large and small, to blame; but it seemed to Daisy so strange that
they could handle and treat the Bible, God's holy Word, with so little
reverence and respect, knocking it about among their other books as
if it were no better than these last, even using it, sometimes, for
purposes to which no book, even the most common one, should be put.
Daisy wondered that Miss Collins did not teach them better; but
either she did not notice all this, or she did not think it of much
consequence; certain it is that she did not check them, and the evil
seemed to Daisy to grow worse from day to day.
At first she did not like to speak herself. You may wonder that this
was so, since she had not feared to speak so plainly to General
Forster, who was a grown gentleman, so much older than herself; but she
had done that almost without knowing what she was saying, for, as you
know, his profane words had startled her so that he was surprised, and
he had almost forced her to tell him what had disturbed her.
And here she was with every thing strange around her, school,
schoolmates, and teacher all new to her; so it is not astonishing that
she was rather shy and felt afraid to interfere with the others, or to
tell them that she thought they were doing wrong.
But by and by there came a day when she could no longer hold her peace.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
DAISY A TEACHER.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
VI.
DAISY A TEACHER.
ONE morning just after school commenced, a heavy shower came up; and
when it was time for the recess, which was always given to the infant
class at eleven o'clock, the ground was still so wet that the little
ones were forced to find amusement within doors or upon the piazza.
"What shall we play?" asked Rosie Pierson.
"Lady Queen Fair," said Bessie Norton: "we'll go out on the piazza and
play it."
[Illustration]
"Yes," said Violet; "and Lily shall be Lady Queen Fair, and we'll dress
her up a little. Miss Emily," as a third Miss Collins, who gave music
lessons to the girls, passed by, "may we have a rose to put in Lily's
hair for Lady Fair?"
The young lady smiled, stopped and pulled a couple of roses from the
vine which wound itself around one of the pillars of the piazza, and
gave them to Violet, then passed on.
Time had been when Violet would have hoped, perhaps would have asked
to be Lady Fair herself, and been sulky and displeased if the other
children had not agreed; but now she was very different, and more apt
to prefer another before herself.
The roses were soon arranged, the one in the hair, the other in the
bosom of the little Lady Queen, who took her dignities in the calmest
manner. Meanwhile some of the other children were drawing forward one
of the rustic chairs with which the piazza was furnished, to serve as a
throne.
But the little queen, like many another royal lady before her, found
her throne by no means an easy one.
"Ow!" she said, rubbing her little round white shoulders where she had
scratched them against the rough bark of the twisted boughs which made
the back of the chair, "ow! this is not nice at all, or comfortal. My
feet don't come to the floor, and if I lean back I'm all scratched. I'd
rather be a queen without a throne."
"Oh, no! You must have a throne," said Susy Edwards. "Queens have to."
"I don't see why," said Lily, rather pettishly; for she did not feel
very well that morning, and that and the close heat of the day made her
more fretful than usual. "I should think queens could do just as they
have a mind to and make their subjiks do it too; and I don't see what
they have to have their skin all scraped up for if they don't want to;"
and Lily twisted her head to give an aggrieved look at the little fat
shoulder with that red mark upon it.
"I'll fix you," said Lola. "I'll put Miss Collins' footstool under your
feet and you shall have the big cushion behind you. Some one bring the
cushion while I carry the stool."
The footstool was brought in a moment; but the cushion was not to be
found.
"The big girls had it yesterday," said Fanny Satterlee. "I saw them
with it in their recess when I was going home. There comes Cora Prime
now; let's ask her. Cora, what did the big girls do with that cushion
yesterday when they had done with it?"
"The Lord knows; I don't," said Cora, playfully tapping Fanny on the
head with the roll of music in her hand.
"Oh!" exclaimed Lily.
Daisy did not speak; but as Cora's eye happened to fall upon her, her
face said as much as Lily's "Oh!"
"What's the matter with you two?" asked Cora, looking from one to the
other of the little girls, but still good-natured.
"You oughtn't to say that," said Lily.
"Ought not to say what?"
"The Lord knows," answered Lily.
"Well, don't He know?" asked Cora.
"No," said Lily, doubtfully, "I guess not. I don't believe He'd bother
Himself with knowing about a worn-out old cushion what has a hole in
the cover, and such things."
"Yes, He does, too," said Cora, laughing; "are not the very hairs of
our head numbered?"
"Now, I _know_ you ought to be 'shamed," said Lily. "You're talking
Bible; and that is not right, is it, Daisy?"
"No," said Daisy, as boldly as Lily herself could have done, for
quoting Scripture in a careless manner was also a habit of many in the
school.
"You two saucy monkeys! correcting your elders," said Cora, much
amused. "I heard you both talking Bible to Miss Collins this morning
with all the rest of your class."
"We were only saying what we learned in Sunday school yesterday," said
Lily. "That's not the same thing. I _know_ it's not right to talk Bible
that kind of a way. Papa says so, and he tells us not to do it."
"Your papa's saying so does not make a thing right or wrong," said Cora.
"Yes, it does, too!" said Lily. "My papa knows a whole lot, and he
wouldn't tell a story for any thing. Cora, you'd better go to your
music lesson: I 'speck Miss Emily wants you."
"Oh, you are very considerate for Miss Emily, all at once," said Cora,
more amused than ever; "but you haven't told me why I shouldn't say,
The Lord knows, when He does know."
Lily looked at Daisy, who stood by the arm of her chair, for help. The
little one felt that Cora was wrong, but she did not exactly know how
to answer, and she had noticed how careful Daisy was to honor the name
of God.
"Is it not taking the name of God in vain?" said Daisy.
"Upon my word!" said Cora. "Do you mean to call that swearing?"
"Well, yes," said Lily, taking up the word, "a kind of baby swearing, I
s'pose; but you know it's not very good of you, Cora."
"Everybody says such things: they don't mean any thing," said Cora.
"Not _everybody_," answered Lily. "Daisy don't."
"Then Daisy's uncommonly good," said Cora.
"Yes, she is," replied Lily; "and I s'pose _everybody_ ought to be
uncommonly good and never say them."
Cora laughed again.
"Everybody must mind their p's and q's before you: mustn't they, Lily?"
and away she ran to her music lesson.
"Here's the cushion," said Rosie Pierson, running out from the
school-room. "I found it in the closet under the shelf where those
careless big girls left it, I s'pose."
The cushion was put behind Lily's shoulders, but still the little queen
fidgeted on her throne and declared she was not yet "comfortal."
"'Cause if I lean back against the cushion my feet won't touch the
stool," she said.
"We'll put something else on the stool to make it higher," said Nettie
Prime, who was trying to arrange Lily satisfactorily: "what shall we
take? Oh, I know. Daisy, run and bring the big Bible off Miss Collins'
table for Lily to put her feet on."
Daisy, who made a motion to start forward as Nettie began to speak,
stood still when she heard what she called for.
"Make haste," said the latter, impatiently: "we won't have a bit of
time to play."
Daisy did not move, but stood with rising color, trying to make up her
mind to speak.
"Oh! you disobliging thing!" said Violet, and she ran for the book.
"Oh! don't," said Daisy, as Violet came back and stooped to put the
Bible on the footstool; "I didn't mean to be disobliging, but we ought
not to use the Bible to play with."
"Pooh!" said Violet: "Lily's little feet won't hurt it. It's all worn
out, any way. The cover is real shabby."
"I didn't mean that," answered Daisy; "I meant because it is God's
book, and we ought to treat it very carefully."
"Oh, fiddle! How awfully particular you are, Daisy!" said Minnie Grey.
"Why, girls, do you know, the other day, when I was playing paper-dolls
with her and I turned up a Bible to make the side of a house, she took
it away, and when I put it back again 'cause it stood up better than
the other books, she said she wouldn't play if I did so with the Bible."
"I s'pose Daisy would call that 'taking God's name in vain,'" said
another, half reproachfully; "wouldn't you, Daisy?"
"I think it is something the same," answered Daisy, feeling as if
all the others were finding fault with her and thinking her "awfully
particular," a crime which no little girl likes to have laid to her
charge.
"I don't see how," said Lola. "I know we ought not to play with the
Bible; but I don't see how it is taking God's name in vain."