_UNCLE JOHN._
"A letter from Uncle John!" said mamma, at the breakfast-table. "I hope
Nellie is no worse. No, she is better; but the doctor has ordered sea
air for her, and they all want to come here, if we can find room for
them, either in this house or in the hotel."
"The hotel is full, I know," said Mr. Bradford; "I do not think there
is a room to be had. I wonder if Mrs. Jones can do anything for us."
"I think not," said Mrs. Bradford. "Old Mr. Duncan must be with them
wherever they go, for John is not willing to leave his father alone."
"We can ask her, at least," said Mr. Bradford.
So the next time Mrs. Jones came in with a plate full of hot cakes,
she was asked if she could possibly take in Mr. Duncan's family.
"Couldn't do it," she said. "If you didn't mind scroudging, I could
give 'em one room; but two, I can't do it. I've plenty of beds, but no
more rooms."
Maggie and Bessie looked very much disappointed. It would be such a
pleasure to have Grandpapa Duncan, and all the rest.
"Suppose we gave up this little dining-room, and took our meals in the
sitting-room," said Mr. Bradford; "could you put old Mr. Duncan in
here?"
"Oh, yes, well enough," said Mrs. Jones. "Didn't suppose you'd be
willing to do that, York folks is so partickler."
"We would be willing to do far more than that to accommodate our
friends," said Mrs. Bradford, smiling.
After a little more talk with Mrs. Jones, it was all settled; so mamma
sat down to write to Uncle John, telling him they might come as soon as
they chose.
"Mamma," said Maggie, "what did Mrs. Jones mean by 'scroudging'?"
"She meant to crowd."
"I sha'n't take it for one of my words," said Maggie; "I don't think it
sounds nice."
"No," said mamma, laughing, "I do not think it is a very pretty word;
crowd is much better."
The children went out in the front porch, greatly pleased with the
idea of having their Riverside friends with them. Dear Grandpapa
Duncan and Aunt Helen, merry Uncle John and little Nellie! Maggie went
hopping about the path, while Bessie sat down on the steps with a very
contented smile. Presently she said,--
"Maggie, if you was on the grass, what would you be?"
"I don't know," said Maggie; "just Maggie Stanton Bradford, I suppose."
"You'd be a grasshopper," said Bessie.
Maggie stopped hopping to laugh. She thought this a very fine joke; and
when, a moment after, her brothers came up to the house, she told them
of Bessie's "conundrum." They laughed, too, and then ran off to the
barn.
Maggie sat down on the step by her sister. "Bessie," she said,
"don't you think Mrs. Jones is very horrid, even if she does make us
gingerbread men?"
"Not very; I think she is a little horrid."
"I do," said Maggie; "she talks so; she called papa and mamma 'York
folks.'"
"What does that mean?" asked Bessie.
"I don't know; something not nice, I'm sure."
"Here comes papa," said Bessie; "we'll ask him. Papa, what did Mrs.
Jones mean by York folks?"
"She meant people from New York," said Mr. Bradford.
"Then why don't she say that?" said Maggie; "it sounds better."
"Well, that is her way of talking," answered Mr. Bradford.
"Do you think it a nice way, papa?"
"Not very. I should be sorry to have you speak as she does; but you
must remember that the people with whom she has lived are accustomed to
talk in that way, and she does not know any better."
"Then we'll teach her," said Maggie. "I'll tell her she doesn't talk
properly, and that we're going to teach her."
"Indeed, you must do nothing of the kind," said Mr. Bradford, smiling
at the idea of his shy Maggie teaching Mrs. Jones; "she would be very
much offended."
"Why, papa," said Bessie, "don't she like to do what is yight?"
"Yes, so far as I can tell, she wishes to do right; but probably she
thinks she speaks very well, and she would think it impertinent if two
such little girls were to try to teach her. It is not really wrong for
a person to talk in the way she does, if they know no better. It would
be wrong and vulgar for you to do so, because you have been taught to
speak correctly."
"And do we do it?" said Bessie. "Do we speak coryectly?"
"Pretty well for such little girls," said papa.
"Mrs. Jones laughs at us because she says we use such big words," said
Maggie; "and Mr. Jones does too. They ought not to do it, when they
don't know how to talk themselves. I like grown-up words, and I am
going to say them, if they do laugh."
"Well, there is no harm in that, if you understand their meaning," said
papa; "but I would not feel unkindly towards Mrs. Jones; she means to
be good and kind to you, and I think she is so; and you must not mind
if her manner is not always very pleasant."
"But she called you and mamma particular," said Maggie, who was
determined not to be pleased with Mrs. Jones.
"Well, if Mrs. Jones thinks we are too particular about some things,
we think she is not particular enough; so neither one thinks the other
quite perfect."
Maggie did not think this mended the matter at all. But just then
the nurses came with the younger children, and after their father had
played with them for a while, they all went for their morning walk on
the beach.
Two days after, the party came from Riverside, and, with some crowding,
were all made comfortable. They almost lived out of doors in this
beautiful weather, and so did not mind some little inconveniences in
the house.
Uncle John was always ready for a frolic. Now he would hire Mr. Jones'
large farm wagon and two horses, cover the bottom of the wagon with
straw, pack in Aunt Annie and the little Bradfords, and as many other
boys and girls as it would hold, and start off for a long drive. Then
he said they must have a clam-bake, and a clam-bake they had; not only
one, but several. Sometimes Uncle John would invite their friends from
the hotel, and they would have quite a grand affair; but, generally,
they had only their own family, with Mrs. Rush, and the colonel when he
was well enough to come; and the children enjoyed the smaller parties
much more than they did the larger ones. First, a large, shallow hole
was made in the sand, in which the clams were placed, standing on end;
a fire was built on top of them, and they were left until they were
well roasted, when they were pulled out and eaten with bread and butter.
When Mrs. Jones found how fond the children were of roast clams, she
often had them for their breakfast or supper; but they never tasted so
good as they did when they were cooked in the sand and eaten on the
shore.
One cool, bright afternoon, Mr. Bradford and Mr. Duncan went down to
the beach for a walk. The children had been out for some time: Maggie
was racing about with the boys; Bessie, sitting on the sand beside a
pool of salt water, looking into it so earnestly that she did not see
her father and uncle till they were quite close to her.
"What is my little girl looking at?" said her father, sitting down on a
great stone which was near.
"Such an ugly thing!" said Bessie.
Papa leaned forward and looked into the pool, and there he saw the
thing Bessie thought so ugly. It was a small salt-water crab which had
been left there by the tide. He was very black and had long, sprawling
legs, spreading out in every direction. He lay quite still in the
bottom of the pool, with his great eyes staring straight forward,
and did not seem to be in the least disturbed by the presence of his
visitors.
"What do you suppose he is thinking about, Bessie?" said Uncle John.
"I guess he thinks he looks pretty nasty," said Bessie; "I do."
"Bessie," said her father, "it seems to me that you and Maggie say
'nasty' very often. I do not think it is at all a pretty word for
little girls to use."
"Then I wont say it," said Bessie; "but when a thing looks--looks
_that_ way, what shall I say?"
"You might say ugly," said Mr. Bradford.
"But, papa, sometimes a thing looks ugly, and not nasty. I think that
animal looks ugly and nasty too."
"Tell us of something that is ugly, but not nasty," said Uncle John.
Bessie looked very hard at her uncle. Now Mr. Duncan was not at all a
handsome man. He had a pleasant, merry, good-natured face, but he was
certainly no beauty. Bessie looked at him, and he looked back at her,
with his eyes twinkling, and the corners of his mouth twitching with a
smile, for he thought he knew what was coming.
"Well?" he said, when Bessie did not speak for a moment.
"Uncle John," said she, very gravely, "I think you are ugly, but I do
not think you are nasty, a bit."
Uncle John laughed as if he thought this a capital joke; and Mr.
Bradford smiled as he said, "It don't do to ask Bessie questions to
which you do not want a straightforward answer."
"But I want to know about 'nasty,'" said Bessie. "Is it saying bad
grammar, like Mrs. Jones, to say it?"
"Not exactly," said Mr. Bradford, "and you may say it when a thing
is really nasty; but I think you often use it when there is no need.
Perhaps this little fellow does look nasty as well as ugly; but the
other day I heard Maggie say that Mamie Stone was a nasty, cross child.
Now, Mamie may be cross,--I dare say she often is,--but she certainly
is not nasty, for she is always neat and clean. And this morning I
heard you say that you did not want 'that nasty bread and milk.' The
bread and milk was quite good and sweet, and not at all nasty; but you
called it so because you did not fancy it."
"Then did I tell a wicked story?" asked Bessie, looking sober at the
thought of having said what was not true.
"No," said papa, "you did not tell a wicked story, for you did not mean
to say that which was not so. But it is wrong to fall into the habit
of using words which seem to say so much more than we mean. But do not
look so grave about it, my darling; you did not intend to do anything
that was not right, I am sure."--
"But, papa," said Bessie, "why did God make ugly things?"
"Because he thought it best, Bessie. He made everything in the way
which best fitted it for the purpose for which he intended it. This
little crab lives under the sea, where he has a great many enemies, and
where he has to find his food. With these round, staring eyes which
stand out so far from his head, he can look in every direction and see
if any danger is near, or if there is anything which may do for him
to eat. With these long, awkward legs, he can scamper out of the way,
and with those sharp claws, he fights, for he is a quarrelsome little
fellow. He can give a good pinch with them, and you had better not put
your fingers too near them. Under that hard, black shell, he has a
tender body, which would be hurt by the rocks and stones among which
he lives, if he had not something to protect it."
Uncle John took up a stick. "Here, Johnny Crab," he said, "let us see
how you can fight;" and he put the stick in the water and stirred up
the crab. The moment he was touched, the crab began to move all his
legs, and to scuttle round the pool as if he wanted to get out. But
Uncle John did not mean to let him come out until he had shown Bessie
what a nip he could give with those pincers of his. He pushed him back,
and put the stick close to one of his larger claws. The crab took hold
of it, as if he were very angry, and such a pinch as he gave it!
"See there, Bessie," said Uncle John, "are you not glad it is not one
of your little fingers he has hold of?"
"Yes," said Bessie, climbing on her father's knee as the crab tried to
get out. "I didn't know he could pinch like that."
"Or you would not have sat so quietly watching him, eh, Bessie?" said
Uncle John. "Well, romp,"--to Maggie, as she rushed up to them, rosy
and out of breath, and jumping upon the rock behind him, threw both
arms around his neck,--"well, romp, here is a gentleman who wishes to
make your acquaintance."
"Why, Uncle John, what a horrid, nasty thing! What is it?" said Maggie,
as her uncle pushed back the crab, which was still trying to get out of
the pool.
"There it goes again," said Uncle John,--"horrid, nasty thing! Poor
little crab!"
"Maggie," said Bessie, "we must not say 'nasty.' Papa says it means
what we do not mean, and it's unproper. Tell her about it, papa."
"No," said papa, "we will not have another lecture now. By and by you
may tell her. I think you can remember all I have said."
"Now see, Maggie," said Uncle John, "you have hurt the crab's feelings
so that he is in a great hurry to run off home. I am sure his mother
thinks him a very handsome fellow, and he wants to go and tell her how
he went on his travels and met a monster who had the bad taste to call
him 'a horrid, nasty thing.'"
"Oh," said Bessie, laughing, "what a funny Uncle John you are! But I
should think it would hurt the crab's feelings a great deal more to be
poked with a stick, and not to be let to go home when he wants to. I
don't believe he knows what Maggie says."
"I think you are about right, Bessie; I guess we must let him go."
So the next time the crab tried to come out of the pool, Uncle John put
the stick by his claw, and when he took hold of it, lifted him out of
the water and laid him on the sand. Away the crab scampered as fast as
his long legs could carry him, moving in a curious side-long fashion,
which amused the children very much. They followed him as near to the
water's edge as they were allowed to go, and then ran back to their
father.