"I declare! it's mean in your mother to keep you so dreadful close, just as
though you didn't know enough to take care of yourself!"
"Mother isn't mean; and you must not say so, Jane, or I shall go right
home."
"What! You're mad, are you? Well, I'm sure I don't care, if _you_ don't;
but I'm glad my mother don't do so, anyway!"
Susie now turned the conversation, and told Jane that Miss Wilson was
making new bonnets for her and Annie. After some questions as to what kind
of bonnets they were, and how they were trimmed, Jane asked,--
"When are they going to be done?"
"I suppose they are done to-day; but we shall not get them until some time
next week, for it is too late for father to go to-night, and he is very
tired besides."
"Why don't you go and get them yourself? I would."
"Oh, it's too far to go."
"Nonsense! It's only two miles."
"But mother did not send me: she would have sent me if she had wished me to
go."
"Pooh! she thought you would be afraid to go! I'll warrant she would be
glad enough to see the bonnets home. Come along, now! I'll go with you. You
know you can't go to meeting tomorrow if you don't get your bonnet."
"Oh, yes: we can wear our clean sun-bonnets."
"Wear your sun-bonnet to meeting! I'd stay at home first!"
"I wouldn't stay at home first! But I _would_ like a new bonnet, too. I
_would_ go and get it if I thought mother would like it."
"Like it! why, to-be-sure she will! Come along."
With hesitating steps Susie went on. Just before her was the point which
her mother had made the limit of her walk. She felt no desire to disobey
her mother; but the thought of surprising her by bringing home the new
bonnets unexpectedly was quite a temptation. Then it would be so pleasant
to have them, too; she wanted to see how they looked very much indeed. Why
could she not walk very fast and get back soon? She looked at the sun, to
see how much time there would be. It was almost setting; and she
exclaimed,--
"Jane! I can't go! See; it is almost sundown!"
"It will be light for two hours. There is time enough; we can run, and get
back before dark."
"What if I shouldn't get the bonnets after all? What would mother say?"
"You'll get them fast enough; and, even if you don't, you needn't tell her.
She'll never know it! Come along!"
Jane had said _one word too many now_. The frightened child had done the
best thing she could have done. The idea of deceiving her mother had put
the matter in an entirely new light, and she ran homeward, without one word
of reply, as fast as her little feet could carry her. As soon as she
reached the house she told the story to Annie and Mary, through whom it
soon reached the mother's ears. She had no more occasion to caution her
little girls to avoid Jane Smith.
"How much our mother knows! Don't she, Susie?" said Annie; "she told us
long ago that Jane was a naughty girl; but we didn't see how it could be!"
* * * * *