TOAST FOR TEA.
"Did you hear the children say.
Life is rather out of tune?"
"Mine's very stupid," said Racey.
"Never mind, I dare say it'll be very nice," said Tom and I
encouragingly.
"It's about a fly," said Racey. "It was a fly that lived in a little
house down in the corner of a window, and when it was a fine day it
comed out and walked about the glass, and when it was a bad day it
stayed in its bed. And one day when it was walking about the glass there
was a little boy standing there and he catched the fly, and he thought
he'd pull off its wings, 'cause then it couldn't get away--that was
dedfully naughty, wasn't it?--and he was just going to pull off its
wings when some one came behind him and lifted him up by his arms and
said in a' awful _booing_ way--like a giant, you know--'If you pull
off flies' wings, I'll pull off your arms,' and then he felt his arms
tugged so, that he thought they'd come off, and he cried out--'Oh
please, please, I won't pull off flies' wings if you'll let me go.' And
then he was let go; but when he turned round he couldn't see
anybody--wasn't it queer?--only the fly was very glad, and he never
tried to hurt flies any more."
"But who was it that pulled the boy's arms?" said Tom, whose interest
had increased as the story went on.
Racey looked rather at a loss. "I don't know," he said. "I should think
it was a' ogre. It _might_ just have been the boy's papa, to teach him
not to hurt flies, you know."
"That would be very stupid," said Tom.
"Well, it _might_ have been a' ogre," said Racey. "I made the story so
quick I didn't quite settle. But I'll tell you another if you like,
_all_ about ogres, kite real ones and awful dedful."
"No, thank you," said Tom, "I don't care for your stories, Racey.
They're all muddled."
Racey looked extremely hurt.
"Then I'll never tell you any more," he said. "I'll tell them all to
Audrey, and you sha'n't listen."
"Indeed," said Tom, "I can listen if I choose. And when the new nurse
comes she won't let you go on like that. She'll be vrezy cross, I know."
Racey turned to me, his eyes filled with tears.
"Audrey, _will_ the new nurse be like that?"
I turned to Tom.
"Tom," I said, "why do you say such unkind things to Racey?"
Tom nodded his head mysteriously.
"It's not unkinder to Racey than it is to us," he replied. "I'm sure the
new nurse will be cross, because I heard Mrs. Partridge say something to
Uncle Geoff on the stair to-day about that we should have somebody
'vrezy strict.' And I know that means cross."
"When did you hear that?" I asked.
"'Twas this afternoon. Uncle Geoff hadn't time to come up. He just
called out to Mrs. Partridge to ask how we were getting on. And she said
in that horrid smiley way she speaks sometimes--'Oh, _vrezy_ well, sir.
Much better since their nurse is gone. They need somebody much
stricter.' Isn't she horrid, Audrey?"
"Never mind," I said. But that was all I would say. I would not tell the
boys all I was feeling or thinking; they could hardly have understood
the depth of my anger and wounded pride, though I really don't think it
was a very bad kind of pride. I had always been trusted at home. When I
was cross or ill-tempered, mother spoke seriously to me, sometimes even
sternly, but she seemed to believe that I wanted to be good, and that I
had sense to understand things. And now to be spoken of behind my back,
and before my face too, as if I was a regularly naughty child who didn't
want to be good, and who had to be kept down by strictness, and who
wanted to make the boys naughty too--it was more than I could bear or
than I would bear.
"Mother told me to make the boys happy," I said to myself, "and I
_will_. I'll write to Pierson--to-night, when nobody can see, I'll write
to her."
Tom and Racey saw that I was unhappy, though I only said "never mind,"
and when they saw that, it made them leave off quarrelling, and they
both came to me to kiss me and ask me not to look "so sorry."
Just then Sarah came up with our tea-tray. She spoke very kindly to us,
and told us she had begged Mrs. Partridge to send us some strawberry jam
for our tea. And to the boys' great delight, there it was. As for me, I
was too angry with Mrs. Partridge to like even her jam, but I did think
it kind of Sarah.
"I'm sure you deserve it, you poor little things," she said. "And I
don't see what any one has to find fault with in any of you. You've been
as quiet as any three little mice to-day."
"Sarah," I said, encouraged by her way of speaking, "have you heard
anything about the new nurse that is coming?"
Sarah shook her head.
"I don't think there's any one decided on," she said. "Mrs. Partridge
has written to somewhere in the country, and I think she's expecting a
letter. She said to-day that if to-morrow's fine, I must take you all
out a walk."
Then she arranged our tea on the table and we drew in our chairs.
"I wish we had a tea-pot," I said. "I know quite well how to pour it
out. It's horrid this way."
"This way," was an idea of Mrs. Partridge's. Since we had had no nurse,
she had been unwilling to trust me with the tea-making, so she made it
down-stairs and poured the whole--tea, milk, and sugar--into a jug, out
of which I poured it into our cups. It wasn't nearly so nice, it had not
the hot freshness of tea straight out of a tea-pot, and besides it did
not suit our tastes, which were all a little different, to be treated
precisely alike. Racey liked his tea so weak that it was hardly tea at
all, Tom liked his sweet, and I liked hardly any sugar, so the jug
arrangement suited none of us; Racey the best, perhaps, for it was
certainly not strong, and sweeter than _I_ liked, any way. But this
evening the unexpected treat of the strawberry jam made the boys less
difficult to please about the tea.
"It was rather kind of Mrs. Partridge to send us the jam," said Tom. He
spoke timidly; he didn't quite like to say she was kind till he had, as
it were, got my leave to do so.
"It isn't _her_ jam," I said. "It's Uncle Geoff's, and indeed I
shouldn't wonder if the strawberries were from our garden. I remember
mother always used to say 'We must send some fruit to Geoff.'"
"Yes," said Tom, "I remember that too." He was just about biting into a
large slice of bread and butter _without_ jam--I had kept to old rules
and told the boys they must eat one big piece "plain," first--when a new
idea struck him.
"Audrey," he said, "do you know what would be lovely? Supposing we made
toast. I don't think there's _anything_ so nice as toast with strawberry
jam."
Tom looked at me with so touching an expression in his dark eyes--he
might have been making some most pathetic request--that I really could
not resist him. Besides which, to confess the truth, the proposal found
great favour in my own eyes. I looked consideringly at the ready-cut
slices of bread and butter.
"They're very thick for toast," I said, "and the worst of it is they're
all buttered already."
"_That_ wouldn't matter," said Tom, "it'd be buttered toast. That's the
nicest of all."
"It _wouldn't_, you stupid boy," I said, forgetting my dignity; "the
butter would all melt before the bread was toasted, and there'd be no
butter at all when it was done. But I'll tell you what we might do;
let's scrape off all the butter we can, and then spread it on the toast
again when it's ready, before the fire. That's how I've seen Pierson do.
I mean that she spread it on before the fire--of course she didn't have
to scrape it off first."
"I should think not," said Tom; "it's only that horrid Mrs. Partridge
makes us have to do such things."
We set to work eagerly enough however, notwithstanding our indignation.
With the help of our tea-spoons we scraped off a good deal of butter and
put it carefully aside ready to be spread on again.
"The worst of it is it'll be such awfully thick toast," I said, looking
at the sturdy slices with regret. "I wish we could split them."
"But we can't," said Tom, "we've no knife. What a shame it is not to let
us have a knife, not even _you_, Audrey, and I'm sure you are big
enough."
"I've a great mind to keep one back from dinner to-morrow," I said, "I
don't believe they'd notice. Tom, it's rather fun having to plan so,
isn't it? It's something like being prisoners, and Mrs. Partridge being
the--the-- I don't know what they call the man that shuts up the
prisoners."
"Pleeceman?" said Racey.
"No, I don't mean that. The policeman only takes them to prison, he
doesn't keep them when they are once there. But let's get on with the
toast, or our tea'll be all cold before we're ready for it."
[Illustration: We made holes at the crusty side of the slices, and tied
them with string.]
It was no good thinking of splitting the slices, we had to make the best
of them, thick as they were. And it took all our planningness to do
without a toasting-fork. The tea-spoons were so short that it burnt our
hands to hold them so near the fire, and for a minute or two we were
quite in despair. At last we managed it. We made holes at the crusty
side of the slices, and _tied_ them with string--of which, of course,
there were always plenty of bits in Tom's pockets; I believe if he'd
been in a desert island for a year he still would have found bits of
string to put in his pockets--to the end of the poker and to the two
ends of the tongs. They dangled away beautifully; two succeeded
admirably, the third unfortunately was hopelessly burnt. We repeated the
operation for another set of slices, which all succeeded, then we spread
them with the scraped butter in front of the fire by means of the flat
ends of our tea-spoons, and at last, very hot, very buttery, very
hungry, but triumphant, we sat round the table again to regale ourselves
with our tepid tea, but beautifully hot toast, whose perfection was
completed by a good thick layer of strawberry jam.
We had eaten three slices, and were just about considering how we could
quite fairly divide the remaining two among the three of us,--rather a
puzzle, for Tom's proposal that he and I should each take a slice and
give Racey half, didn't do.
"That would give Racey a half more than us--at least a quarter more. No,
it wouldn't be a quarter either. Any way, that wouldn't do," I said.
"Let's cut each slice into three bits and each take two."
"And how can we cut without a knife?" said Tom.
"'How can he marry without a wife?'" I quoted out of the nursery rhyme,
which set us all off laughing, so that we didn't hear a terrible sound
steadily approaching the door. Stump, stump, it came, but we heard
nothing till the door actually opened, and even then we didn't stop
laughing all at once. We were excited by our toast-making; it was the
first time since we were in London that our spirits had begun to recover
themselves, and it wasn't easy to put them down again in a hurry. Even
the sight of Mrs. Partridge's _very_ cross face at the door didn't do so
all at once.
I dare say we looked very wild, we were very buttery and jammy, and our
faces were still broiling, our hair in confusion and our pinafores
crumpled and smeared. Then the fender was pulled away from the fire, and
the poker, tongs, and shovel strewed the ground, and somehow or other we
had managed to burn a little hole in the rug. There was a decidedly
burny smell in the room, which we ourselves had not noticed, but which,
it appeared, had reached Mrs. Partridge's nose in Uncle Geoff's bedroom
on the drawing-room floor, where, unfortunately, she had come to lay
away some linen. And she had really been seriously frightened, poor old
woman.
Being frightened makes some people cross, and finding out they have been
frightened for no reason makes some people _very_ cross. Mrs. Partridge
had arrived at being cross on her way up-stairs; when she opened the
nursery door and saw the confusion we had made, and heard our shouts of
laughter, she naturally became _very_ cross.
She came into the room and stood for a minute or two looking at us
without speaking. And in our wonder--for myself I can't say "fear," I
was too ready to be angry to be afraid, but poor Tom and Racey must have
been afraid, for they got down from their chairs and stood close beside
me, each holding me tightly--in our wonder as to what was going to
happen next, our merriment quickly died away. We waited without
speaking, looking up at the angry old woman with open-mouthed
astonishment. And at last she broke out.
"Oh, you naughty children, you naughty, naughty children," she said. "To
think of your daring to behave so after my kindness in sending you jam
for your tea, and the whole house upset to take you in. How dare you
behave so? Your poor uncle's nice furniture ruined, the carpet burnt to
pieces as any one can smell, and the house all but set on fire. Oh, you
naughty, _naughty_ children! Come away with me, sir," she said, making a
dive at Tom, who happened to be the nearest to her, "come away with me
that I may take you to your uncle and tell him what that naughty sister
of yours has put into your head--for that it's all her, I'm certain
sure."
Tom dodged behind me and avoided Mrs. Partridge's hand. When he found
himself at what he considered a safe distance he faced round upon her.
"Audrey isn't naughty, and you sha'n't say she is. None of us is
naughty--not just now any way. But if it was naughty to make toast, it
was me, and not Audrey, that thought of it first."
"You _impertinent_ boy," was all Mrs. Partridge could find breath to
say. But she did not try to catch Tom again, and indeed it would have
been little use, for he began a sort of dancing jig from side to side,
which would have made it very difficult for any one but a very quick,
active person to get hold of him. "You rude, impertinent boy," she
repeated, and then, without saying anything more, she turned and stumped
out of the room.
Tom immediately stopped his jig.
"I wonder what she's going to do, Audrey," he said.
"To call Uncle Geoff, I expect," I said quietly. "He must be in, because
she said something about taking you down to him."
Tom looked rather awestruck.
"Shall you mind, Audrey?" he asked.
"No, not a bit. I hope she has gone to call him," I said. "We've _not_
done anything naughty, so I don't care."
"But if she makes him think we have, and if he writes to papa and mother
that we're naughty, when they did so tell us to be good," said Tom, very
much distressed. "Oh, Audrey, wouldn't that be dreadful?"
"Papa and mother wouldn't believe it," I persisted. "We've _not_ been
naughty, except that we quarrelled a little this afternoon. I'll write a
letter myself, and I know they'll believe me, and I'll get Pierson to
write a letter too."
"But Pierson's away," said Tom.
"Well, I can write to her too."
This seemed to strike Tom as a good idea.
"How lucky it is you've got your desk and paper, and embelopes and
everything all ready," he said. "You can write without anybody knowing.
If I could make letters as nice as you, Audrey, I'd write too."
"Never mind. I can say it all quite well," I said, "but I won't do it
just yet for fear Mrs. Partridge comes back again."
I had hardly said the words when we heard a quick, firm step coming
up-stairs. We looked at each other; we knew who it must be.
Uncle Geoff threw open the door and walked in.
"Children," he said, "what is all this I hear? I am very sorry that all
of you--you Audrey, especially, who are old enough to know better, and
to set the boys a good example--should be so troublesome and
disobedient. I cannot understand you. I had no idea I should have had
anything like this."
He looked really puzzled and worried, and I would have liked to say
something gentle and nice to comfort him. But I said to myself, "What's
the use? He won't believe anything but what Mrs. Partridge says," and so
I got hard again and said nothing.
"Where is the burnt carpet?" then said Uncle Geoff, looking about him as
if he expected to see some terrible destruction.
I stooped down on the floor and poked about till I found the little
round hole where the spark had fallen.
"There," I said, "that's the burnt place."
Uncle Geoff stooped too and examined the hole. The look on his face
changed. I could almost have fancied he was going to smile. He began
sniffing as if he did not understand what he smelt.
"_That_ can't have made such a smell of burning," he said.
"No, it was the slice of toast that fell into the fire that made most
of the smell," I said. "It had some butter on. We were toasting our
bread--that was what made Mrs. Partridge so angry."
"How did you toast it?"
Tom, who was nearest the fireplace, held up the poker and tongs, on
which still hung some bits of string.
"We made holes in the bread and tied it on," he said.
At this Uncle Geoff's face really did break into a smile. All might have
ended well, had it not unfortunately happened that just at this moment
Mrs. Partridge--who had taken till now to arrive at the top of the
stairs--came stumping into the room. Her face was very red, and she
looked, as she would have said herself, very much "put about."
"Oh dear, sir," she exclaimed, when she saw Uncle Geoff on his knees on
the floor, "oh dear, sir, you shouldn't trouble yourself so."
"I wanted to see the damage for myself," he said, getting up as he
spoke, "it isn't very bad after all. Your fears have exaggerated it,
Partridge."
Mrs. Partridge did not seem at all pleased.
"Well, sir," she said, "it's natural for me to have felt upset. And even
though not much harm may have been done to the carpet, think what might
be, once children make free with the fire. And it isn't even that, I
feel the most, sir--children will be children and need constant looking
after--but it's their rudeness, sir--the naughty way they've spoken to
me ever since they came. From the very first moment I saw that Miss
Audrey had made up her mind to take her own way, and no one else's, and
it's for their own sake I speak, sir. It's a terrible pity when children
are allowed to be rude and disobedient to those who have the care of
them, and it's a thing at my age, sir, I can't stand."
Uncle Geoff's face clouded over again. Mrs. Partridge had spoken quite
quietly and seemingly without temper. And now that I look back to it, I
believe she did believe what she said. She had worked herself up to
think us the naughtiest children there ever were, and really did not
know how much was her own prejudice. No doubt it had been very
"upsetting" to her to have all of a sudden three children brought into
the quiet orderly house she had got to think almost her own, even though
of course it was really Uncle Geoff's, and no doubt too, from the first,
which was partly Pierson's fault, though she hadn't meant it, the boys
and I had taken a dislike to her and had not shown ourselves to
advantage. I can see all how it was quite plainly now--now that I have
so often talked over this time of troubles with mother and with
aunt--(but I am forgetting, I mustn't tell you that yet). But at the
time, I could see no excuse for Mrs. Partridge. I thought she was
telling stories against us on purpose, and I hated her for telling them
in the quiet sort of way she did, which I could see made Uncle Geoff
believe her.
All the smile had gone out of his face when he turned to us again.
"Rudeness and disobedience," he repeated slowly, looking at us--at Tom
and me especially, "what an account to send to your parents! I do not
think there is any use my saying any more. I said all I could to you,
Audrey, this morning, and you are the eldest. I _trusted_ you to do your
utmost to show the boys a good example. Partridge, we must do our best
to get a firm, strict nurse for them at once. I cannot have my house
upset in this way."
He turned and went away without saying a word--without even wishing us
good night. It was very, very hard upon us, and I must say hard on me
particularly, for I _know_ I had been trying my best--trying to be
patient and cheerful and to make the little boys the same. And now to
have Uncle Geoff so entirely turned against us, and worst of all to
think of him writing to papa and mother about our being naughty! What
_would_ they think?--that we had not even been able to be good for one
week after they had left us would seem so dreadful. I did not seem as if
I wanted to write to papa and mother _myself_--it would have been like
complaining of Uncle Geoff, and besides, saying of myself that I had
been trying to be good wouldn't have seemed much good. But I felt more
and more that some one must write and tell them the truth, and the only
person I could think of to do so was Pierson. So I settled in my own
mind to write to her as soon as I could; that was the only thing I could
settle.
In punishment, I suppose, for our having been--as she called it--"so
naughty," Mrs. Partridge sent Sarah to put us to bed extra early that
evening. Sarah was very kind and sympathising, but I now can see that
she was not very sensible. She was angry with Mrs. Partridge herself,
and everything she said made us feel more angry.
"I hope it will be fine to-morrow, so that I can take you out a walk,"
she said, when she had put us all to bed and was turning away. "By the
day after I suppose the new nurse will be coming."
We all three started up at that.
"_Will_ she, Sarah?" we said. "What have you heard about her?"
"Oh, I don't know anything settled," Sarah replied, "but I believe Mrs.
Partridge is going into the country to-morrow to see some one, and to
hear her talk you'd think her only thought was to get some one as hard
and strict as can be. 'Spare the rod and spoil the child,' and such like
things she's been saying in the kitchen this evening. A nice character
she'll give of you to the new nurse. My word, but I should feel angry if
I saw her dare to lay a hand on Master Tom or Master Racey."
I beckoned to Sarah to come nearer, and spoke to her in a whisper for
the boys not to hear.
"Sarah," I said, "do tell me, do you really think Mrs. Partridge will
tell the new nurse to whip Tom and Racey? They have never been whipped
in their lives, and I think it would kill them, Sarah."
"Oh no, Miss Audrey, not so bad as that," said Sarah. "But still, from
what I've seen of them, I shouldn't say they were boys to be whipped. It
would break Master Tom's spirit, and frighten poor Master Racey out of
all his pretty ways. And if you take my advice, Miss Audrey, you'll make
a regular complaint to your uncle if such a thing ever happens."
"It would be no use," I said aloud, but to myself I said in a whisper,
"I shouldn't wait for that."
It was quite evident to me from what Sarah had said that she did think
the new nurse would not only be allowed, but would be ordered to whip
us--the boys at least--if they were what Mrs. Partridge chose to call
naughty. And it was quite evident to me that any nurse who agreed to
treat children so could not be a nice person. There was no use speaking
to Uncle Geoff, he could only see things as Mrs. Partridge put them, and
of course I could not say she told actual stories. She did worse, for
she told things _her_ way. There was only one thing I was sure of.
Mother certainly did not want her dear little boys to be whipped by
_any_ nurse, and she had left them in my charge and trusted me to make
them happy.
All sorts of plans ran through my head as I lay trying not to go to
sleep, and yet feeling sleep coming steadily on me in spite of my
troubles.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]