We all called him in private "Tommy Torment;" but his mother called him
"My precious darling," and "My sweet, good boy," and spoiled him in a
truly dreadful way. Anyhow, he was not a nice boy, and we never saw more
of him than we could help.
He did not go to school even, for this seven-year-old boy was thought
too delicate, and was taught at home by a governess with sandy curls,
who brought books in a needlework bag that we all used to laugh at--I am
sure I don't know why; but her teaching could not have amounted to much,
for I went into the schoolroom one day, and found Tommy riding defiantly
on the rocking-horse, while poor Miss Feechim stood by him with an A B C
in one hand and a long pointer in the other, with which she showed him
the letters. When he said them correctly, Miss Feechim gave him a
sugar-plum out of the bag on her arm, but when he refused to look at
them, which he did as often as not, she only said, "Oh, Tommy!" and
shook her curls, and never attempted to make him mind her; and then he
laughed and called her names, and rocked his horse so violently up and
down that his poor mother came rushing up-stairs white with anxiety to
know what was the matter.
You can imagine after this we were not overjoyed when we heard from
Mother that Lady Mary was so ill her mother had taken possession of her,
and that we were to have the pleasure of Tommy Torment's company at the
seaside. Mother said she was very sorry, but she could not help it. The
doctor said Lady Mary must have complete rest, and no worries; and Lady
Mary had said she could not trust her precious treasure to any one else
but Mother. So, when we set off on our annual holiday, Tommy was stuck
into a corner of the omnibus.
Well, at first, and under Mother's eye, we really did think we had been
rather hard on Tommy Torment, he seemed so like other boys; but
presently, when the novelty had worn off, and he had become tired of
being good, the real Tommy appeared, and for at least a week we had
really what Nurse calls a "regular time of it." There was not a trick he
did not know; and the worst of it was that our boys became tricky too,
and we really did not know how to bear the rough usage we all received,
for we never had a moment's pleasure or peace of our lives; and what
with sand in our hair, wet star-fish down our backs, and seeing our
dolls shipwrecked in their best clothes off the steepest possible rocks,
we never felt secure for a moment, and we actually began to wish
ourselves back in the city, when Nurse fortunately rose to the occasion,
and, taking the law into her own hands, escorted the whole party up to
Mother, which brought matters to a climax; for our boys were so ashamed
of their cruelty and ungentlemanly behavior when Mother explained to
them what their tricks really meant, that they became their own true
selves, and we had the first good play together of the season the next
morning on the shore, though Tommy did his best to bother us, and to
draw off the boys again by promising to show them quite a new way of
managing a shipwreck.
But the boys would not join Tommy, and so he went off alone, and we saw
him five minutes after with Yellowboy, the sandy kitten, tied to the
mast of his ship, doing his very best to drown the poor little thing,
pretending he was rescuing it from the perils of the ocean.
I could fill pages were I to go on telling you only of Tommy's tricks;
but as that cannot be, I am just going to let you know how we cured him.
We simply let him alone. Mother only scolded him, or rather talked to
him, once, and that seemed to have no effect on him at all, though
Mother's "talkings" usually soften the hardest heart; so finally we all
agreed to go our own ways just as if he were not there, Nurse promising
to put all our toys and pets out of his reach, and to see that he came
to no real harm.
He actually bore a whole week of it before he repented. We used to watch
him from the corners of our eyes moping all by himself, and looking at
the toes of his boots, or at his ship, which he really could not sail
without our help, and felt so sorry for him. We longed to break our
resolution; but Mother and Nurse helped us to keep firm, and one Monday
morning Tommy came up to me and said, "Why won't you play with me,
Hilda?"
"Because you are cruel and ungentlemanly," I said seriously, "and
because you are selfish. We tried our best to be pleasant to you, though
we never wanted you here, and in return you made the boys horrid to us,
and never allowed us five minutes' peace. You spoiled a whole week of
our precious holidays, and we can't afford to waste any more time over
you. We can do without you perfectly well, and so please go away."
"But I am truly sorry, Hilda," he said, looking down. "I've been
'flecting" (he meant reflecting). "I'd much rather be agreeable and
nice, and I won't be selfish if you'd not look away from me and forget
me any more. If I'd your mother I'd be good perhaps, but I really think
my mother doesn't understand boys." And he sighed deeply, and put his
hands into his knickerbocker pockets.
"You'll not forget, and tease us again?" I asked firmly; "and you know I
must ask Mother too."
"I'll promise, really," said Tommy, giving me a very grubby little hand;
"only please do look at me as you look at Charley, and don't leave me
all to myself again. I do get so tired of myself, you can't think."
I could, for once I had been left alone just in the same way; but I
didn't tell Tommy this, and only went to Mother, and soon he was playing
quite happily with us, and remained such a good boy. Nurse used to look
out for spots on his chest every day when she bathed him, for she was
quite sure that he must be going to be ill, but he wasn't; and he
remained so good we were quite sorry to part with him, for he was really
funny, and full of life. But as his mother kept very weak, Tommy was
sent to school; and so, when we went back from the seaside, after the
holidays were over, we did not meet again for nearly a year.
When we did meet, we hardly knew him again, he was such a jolly little
fellow. And when he grew confidential, which he did the third day of the
holidays, he said to me very solemnly, "I say, Hilda, if any little boys
and girls are as rude and naughty as I used to be once, I know how to
cure them. I shall first talk to them nicely, as your mother talked to
me, and then I shall let them alone. It cured me, I know. You don't ever
call me Tommy Torment now, do you, Hilda?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------