Miss Myrtle read to the children this afternoon an Account sent by her
married cousin, Mrs. Pingry. Mrs. Pingry wrote: “I spell it with a big
A, just for fun, because it is of so small a matter, but it was a
sunshiny matter for it caused some smiling, and it brought out real
kindness from several persons.
“Mr. Pingry goes in on the 8.17 train and attends to his furnace the
last thing, allowing twelve minutes to reach the station. When about
half-way there, yesterday, it occurred to him that he forgot to shut the
drafts. Just then he met Jerry Snow, the man at the Binney place, and
asked him to please call round our way, and ask for Mrs. Pingry, and say
Mr. Pingry had left the drafts open. Jerry said he would after going to
the post-office, but Mr. Pingry, fearing Jerry might forget, called
hastily at the door of Madam Morey, an elderly woman who does plain
sewing, and said he forgot to shut the furnace drafts; if she should see
a boy passing would she ask him to call at our door, and ask for Mrs.
Pingry, and tell her? Madam said she would be on the lookout for a boy,
while doing her baking.
“Now as Mr. Pingry was hurrying on, it came to him that he had not yet
made a sure thing of it, and at that moment he saw the woman who does
chore-work at the Binney’s, coming by a path across the field. He met
her at the fence, and asked if she would go around by our house and say
to Mrs. Pingry that Mr. Pingry had left the drafts all open. She agreed,
and Mr. Pingry ran to his train, a happy man.
“Now Madam Morey felt anxious about the furnace, and stepped often to
the window, and at last spied a small boy with a sled, and finding he
knew where we live, told him Mr. Pingry went away and forgot to shut the
furnace drafts and wished to send back word, and would the boy coast
down that way and tell Mrs. Pingry? The boy promised, and coasted down
the hill.
“Madam Morey still felt uneasy about the furnace, and not being sure the
boy would do the errand kept on the watch for another; and when the
banana-man stopped and made signs at her window ‘would she buy?’ she
wrote a few words on a bit of brown paper and went with him far enough
to point out the house and made signs, ‘would he leave the paper there?’
He made signs ‘yes?’ and passed on.
“Now at about half-past eight, our front doorbell rang and I heard a
call for me. I hurried down, and received the chore-woman’s message and
acted upon it at once.
“Sometime afterwards, as I was in the back-chamber, I heard voices
outside and saw six or eight small boys trying to pull their sleds over
a fence, and wondered how they happened to be coasting in such a place.
Presently I heard a commotion on the other side and went to the front
windows. All the sleds were drawn up near the steps, and the small boys
were stamping around like an army come to take the house. Seeing me they
all shouted something at me. They seemed so terribly in earnest, and
came in such a strange way, that I flew down, sure something dreadful
had happened—perhaps Willy was drowned! and I began to tremble. At sight
of me at the door they all shouted again, but I did not understand. I
caught hold of the biggest boy and pulled him inside, and said to him,
in a low, tremulous voice, ‘Tell me! What is it?’ He answered, in a
bashful way, ‘Mr. Pingry said he left the drafts open.’ ‘Thank you all!’
I said.
“Next, the banana-man, bobbing his head, and making signs, though I
shook my head ‘no.’ Finally up came Bridget with a slip of brown paper
having written on it, but no name signed: ‘Your furnace drafts are
open.’ Such a shout as went up from us!
“Grand company coming, I guess! exclaimed my sister, a short time
afterwards. Sure enough there stood a carriage and span. Jerry Snow, it
seems, forgot our furnace until he went to look at his own. He was then
just about to take Mrs. Binney out for an airing. He mentioned it to her
and she had him drive round with the message.
“By this time we were ready to go off, explode, shout, giggle, at the
approach of any one; and when Madam Morey stepped up on our piazza we
bent ourselves double with laughter, and my sister went down upon the
floor all in a heap, saying, ‘Do—you—suppose—she—comes—for that?’
“Even so. She had worried, thinking the hot pipes might heat the
woodwork, and half-expected to hear the cry of ‘fire!’ and bells
ringing, and could not sit still in her chair, and in the goodness of
her heart she left her work and came all the way over!
“Oh! we had fun with Mr. Pingry that evening. But now, my dear Miss
Myrtle, the funniest part of all was that Mr. Pingry did not forget to
shut the drafts!”
_Miss Fillissy-Follissy._