_THE GRAY MICE._
DURING the next few days Daisy, and not Daisy only, but also the other
children, found great pleasure and satisfaction in the white mice. They
were all very careful not to take them near the house where they might
trouble their mother, and Daisy was so particular about this, and so
grateful to mamma for allowing her to keep them, that whenever she saw
her go out in the garden, or even on the piazza which faced that way,
she would rush to the garden-house, put the cage containing her mice in
a corner behind a bench, throw over that a piece of old cocoa matting
with half a dozen garden-tools piled on top, and then come out in a
state of great excitement, shutting the door behind her, and holding
it fast with both hands till mamma was out of sight. One might have
thought, to see her, that some fierce dog or wild animal was behind
that door, able to unlatch it for itself, and eager to make a fierce
attack on her mother. As for taking them near the house, or letting
them annoy mamma in any way, that Daisy would not have thought of; and
she was so good that when a rainy day came, and she could not go out to
the garden-house, she never whimpered or fretted at all, but cheerfully
submitted to have her pets cared for by the boys.
After that first day of her new experiment, Nellie did not altogether
discard her lessons. Her half-hour of sewing, another of reading
history, and an hour's practising, mamma thought might as well be
kept up; but she no longer devoted herself to her books and writing
as she had done: indeed, this would have been quite impossible if
she properly fulfilled her new and pleasant duties as mamma's little
housekeeper. There seemed so much to be done; and Nellie was quite
amazed to find what a help she could be, and how interested she felt in
having things in nice order.
One morning, Mrs. Ransom said she would have the store-room cleaned,
and put in thorough order. But first various drawers, bins, boxes, and
other receptacles must be looked over; and this Nellie could do, with
Catherine to assist her, and move such articles as were too heavy or
cumbersome for her. Mrs. Ransom went herself to the store-room, and
gave both Nellie and the cook some general orders, but she was feeling
more than usually languid that day, and soon tired of the bustle; so
she returned to the library, telling Nellie to send to her if she was
in any difficulty, or at any loss to know what to do. Nellie determined
that mamma should be troubled as little as possible, and, with a
pleasant sense of responsibility and happiness, set about her task.
Catherine humored her as much as possible; for Nellie, with her
pleasant, gentle ways, was a favorite with all her inferiors, and every
servant in the house was ready to oblige her, or do her bidding.
Carrie and Daisy were very busy too, of course, and trotted many times
between kitchen, pantry, and store-room, carrying articles that were to
be thrown away or put in other places.
"There now, Miss Nellie, I think you can get along without me for a
bit," said Catherine, at last. "I have my bread to see to, and you
could be overhauling all these boxes and pots the while, and setting by
what you're sure Mrs. Ransom will want emptied. If ever I see sech an
untidy set as must have had this house afore us, and a shame to them it
is to be laving things this way, and they calling themselves ladies and
gentlemen."
And, with her arms full of "rubbish," away walked the good-natured
Irishwoman, whose tidy soul was, as she had said, sorely vexed by the
slovenly way in which the house had been left by those who had lived in
it before Mrs. Ransom's family.
"Here, Daisy," said Nellie, who thought it necessary to find incessant
occupation for the busy little fingers of her smallest "helper" lest
they should find it for themselves,--"here, Daisy dear, you may sort
those corks. Pick out all the large ones and put them in this jar, and
put the small ones in this. That will be a great help."
"I'd rafer help fissing sugar," said Daisy, raising herself on tiptoe
with one hand on the edge of the sugar-barrel, and peeping longingly
within its depths.
"Yes, I dare say you would," laughed Nellie, "but then the sugar is to
stay where it is. But I'll tell you, Daisy. Run and ask mamma if I may
give you the largest lump of sugar I can find when the corks are done."
Away scampered Daisy, and did not return for some minutes, her
attention being attracted on the way with something else than her
errand, for one thing at a time was not Daisy's motto.
Having at once eased her own mind on the subject of the sugar by
receiving mamma's permission to have "the largest lump that Nellie
could find," she thought that both sugar and corks would keep till
it suited her convenience to return to the store-room, and, seeing a
large parcel lying upon the hall-table, she was seized with a thirst
for information respecting its contents. She walked round and round it,
inspecting it on every side; then ran back to her mother.
"Mamma," she said, "there's oh! _such_ a big bundle on the hall-table."
"Yes, I know it," said mamma.
"And with writing on it," said Daisy. "I fink the writing says, Miss
Daisy Ransom, with somebody's respects."
"No," said her mother, smiling: "it says John Ransom, Esq."
"Is that our Johnny?" asked Daisy.
"No, it means papa," answered her mother.
"Are you going to open it, mamma. Papa is away."
"No, we'll leave it till papa returns. He will be here to-morrow
evening."
"I don't fink it's a good plan to wait. It makes people tired," said
Daisy, plaintively.
"But it is right to wait when papa did not tell us to open it," said
Mrs. Ransom. "Little girls must not be too curious."
"Is it kurous to make a little hole in the paper and peek in?" asked
Daisy, after a moment or two of deep reflection.
"Yes, curious and very naughty," said Mrs. Ransom. "That would be
meddlesome. Ask Nellie to tell you a story she knows about a meddlesome
girl."
Daisy obeyed, but with less alacrity than usual, lingering for three or
four moments longer about the parcel; although, with the fear of being
thought "curious and meddlesome," she did not venture to touch it. At
last with a long sigh she departed.
Meanwhile Nellie and Carrie were opening the various boxes, jars, &c.,
and inquiring into their contents.
"I wonder what's in this," said Nellie, who was standing on a chair,
and reaching down things from a shelf. "I thought I heard something
rustle in it. There it is again. Why! I wonder if there's any thing
alive in it," and she looked with some trepidation at a wooden box
which stood on the shelf before her. The lid was not shut down quite
tight, and again as she looked at it came that rustle from within.
Nellie took up the box rather gingerly; raised the lid a little, just
enough to peep within; then, with an exclamation, quickly closed it
again.
"Why! what is it?" asked Carrie, gazing up at her.
"There are mice in it, and one almost jumped out," answered Nellie,
crimson with the little start and excitement, although she was not in
the least afraid of mice. "I'm not quite sure, I had such a little
peep; but I think there's a big one, and some little tiny ones."
"How do you suppose they got in?" asked Carrie.
"I expect the cover has been left partly open, and then they have
gnawed a place large enough to pass in," said Nellie, turning the box
around in her hand. "See here," and she showed Carrie where the lid was
gnawed away.
"What shall we do with them?" asked Carrie.
"I don't know," said Nellie, "they'll have to be killed, I s'pose. They
must be put out of the way before mamma knows any thing about them, and
I think it is best not to tell her, Carrie. It would only trouble her
to know there had been any about the house."
"Oh! it's too bad," said Carrie. "Must they be killed?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so," said Nellie. "I am sorry too: they are such
cunning little things."
"Why couldn't we keep them, and take them down to the garden-house
where Daisy's white mice are?" asked Carrie.
"Oh, no!" answered Nellie: "it would never do, Carrie. I do not
believe they would stay there, and they might come back to the house,
and perhaps frighten mamma. They must be killed. Just take the box
to Catherine before Daisy comes back: she might let it out to mamma
without meaning to."
"What will Catherine do with them?" said Carrie, taking the box from
her sister's hand, and lingering with it.
"I don't know. Drown them, I suppose. I don't like to think about it,
but it can't be helped. Besides, mice _have_ to be killed, you know,
they are so mischievous. Tell Catherine not to speak about them before
mamma."
Carrie passed slowly out of the store-room, feeling very unwilling to
have the mice killed; not only from pity for the poor little creatures,
but also because she had a strong desire to keep them as pets.
Daisy had her white mice, and was allowed to keep them: why should she
not have these little animals, so long as they were kept out of mamma's
way? Belle Powers had her tame mouse: why could not she tame these as
well? And rebellious thoughts and wishes began to rise in Carrie's
breast as she lingered half way between the store-room and the kitchen,
unable, or rather unwilling, to make up her mind to do as Nellie had
told her, and carry the box to Catherine.
"I don't see why mamma need be so afraid of a harmless, cunning
little mouse," she said to herself. "I know grandmamma said she was
frightened into convulsions once, when she was a little girl, by a bad
servant-girl putting one down her back; but I should think she'd had
plenty of time to grow out of being afraid of them, now she's grown
up; and if she don't know it, I don't see why I can't keep them in
the garden-house, or--or--somewhere else. 'Cause I s'pose if I did
take them to the garden-house, there would be a fuss about it; and
the other children would say I ought not to keep them, and maybe tell
mamma. It's a shame to kill the dear, pretty little things. Belle
Powers' papa just lets her have every thing she wants. I wish my papa
and mamma did. And Daisy has her own way too, 'most always; and it's
not fair. I'm older than she is. If she can have white mice, I don't
see why I can't have gray ones. One isn't any more harm than the
other. Besides, I don't have to mind Nellie. She needn't be telling
me I _must_ take the mice to Catherine. She thinks herself so great
ever since she's been mamma's housekeeper; but I'm not going to
mind her when I don't choose to. I shan't let them be drowned now;
and--and--I've just a good mind."
Turning hastily about, Carrie ran down a short side entry which led to
a dark closet where Catherine kept wood for daily use; thrust the box
in a far corner; and then, with fast beating heart, returned to the
store-room.
"How long you stayed!" said Nellie. "I began to be afraid you were
waiting to see Catherine drown the mice, and yet I didn't think you
could bear to."
"No, I didn't," said Carrie, in a low tone, glad that Nellie had not
said any thing that would have forced her either to confess, or to tell
a deliberate falsehood. She persuaded herself that she was not acting
untruthfully now, but she could not make her voice as steady as usual.
Nellie did not notice it. She was just then absorbed in trying to
extract a small jar from one but little larger, into which it had been
thrust. Succeeding in her endeavors, she took up again the low song
which her words to Carrie had interrupted.
"I wish Nellie would stop that everlasting singing," said Carrie to
herself, feeling irritable and out of humor with every one and every
thing. "I've a good mind not to help her any more."
She had been pleasant, happy, and interested in her work, but a few
moments since. Can you tell what had made such a change in so short a
time?
"Daisy has forgotten about her corks and sugar, I think," said Nellie
presently, interrupting herself again in her song. "Oh, no! here she
comes;" then, as Daisy's little feet pattered into the store-room, "Did
you forget the corks, pet?"
"No, and mamma says I can have the biggest lump of sugar, Nellie; and
there's a very big bundle on the hall-table, but it's papa's."
"Is it?" said Nellie.
"Yes," answered the little one, settling herself to the task of sorting
the corks, "but I wasn't kurous or messeltome."
"Wasn't what?" asked Nellie.
"Messeltome. Mamma said to touch what wasn't ours, or to peek, was
messeltome; but I didn't do it. Tell me about that messeltome girl,
Nellie. Mamma said you would."
"Very well," said Nellie, understanding Daisy's definition.
"Tell it a long, long story,--tell me till your tongue is tired, will
you?" pleaded Daisy, for whom no story could ever be too long.
"I'll see," said Nellie; and she began her tale, but had made but
little headway in it when a servant came and told Daisy that Master
Frankie Bradford was waiting to see her.
"What shall I do?" said Daisy, in a state of painful indecision between
the conflicting claims of business and society. "The torks are not
done, and I didn't have my sugar."
"You can take the corks with you, and the sugar too: perhaps Frankie
would like to help you," said Nellie, dismounting from her perch, and
fishing out the largest lump from the sugar-barrel. "There, I suppose
you will want a lump for Frankie too."
"No," said Daisy, "mamma said only one lump. If Frankie does half the
torks he shall have half my sugar;" and away she ran, carrying corks
and sugar with her.
"What a dear, honest little thing Daisy is!" said Nellie, when she was
gone. "I don't believe she could be tempted to do the least thing she
thought mamma would not like, or take any thing she thought was not
quite fair. And she's so sweet and thoughtful about mamma. Just see how
much pains she's taken not to cry for little things since I told her it
troubled her."
Carrie turned away her face, feeling more uncomfortable than ever,
bitterly reproached by Nellie's unconscious words, no less than by the
uprightness and loving dutifulness of her almost baby sister.
Daisy found Frankie in the library with her mother. Mrs. Bradford had
sent her nursery maid to ask if Mrs. Ransom would drive with her in the
afternoon, and Frankie had decided to accompany her.
"Mamma said I could stay and play with Daisy, if you asked me," was the
young gentleman's first remark, after he had greeted Mrs. Ransom.
"Oh!" said Jane, the maid, much mortified, "Master Frankie, I'm
ashamed of you. Mrs. Bradford never expected he'd do that, ma'am."
"No, I suppose not," said Mrs. Ransom, smiling; "but Daisy will be very
glad to have you stay, and so shall I."
Daisy was called, as you have heard, and made her appearance in great
glee, delighted to see Frankie, and at once inviting him to share her
labors, and their reward.
The sugar had its attractions, but Frankie privately regarded the
cork business with disdain. Having come, however, with the intention
of making himself especially agreeable to Daisy, he did not refuse to
enter into partnership; and they were soon seated on the upper step of
the piazza, and busily at work.
"Frankie," said Daisy presently, luxuriating in thus having him all to
herself, and in this condescending mood, "would you rafer go to heaven,
or stay here and sort torks?"
"Well, I don't know as I care much about either," answered Frankie.
"I'd rather dig clams. But, then, I'd want you to dig them with me,
Daisy," he added, sentimentally.
The proposal was alluring certainly, but it had its objections in
Daisy's eyes; and she said, in a corresponding tone,--
"I b'lieve I couldn't. They might think I was a boy if I digged clams.
But, Frankie, if I went to heaven wifout you, would you cry?"
"No," answered Frankie, indignantly, "men don't cry about things like
that. Maybe I wouldn't laugh much that day, but I would not cry."
Daisy was silent for a moment, then suddenly put one of those startling
questions for which she was famous.
"Frankie, if I went in to bafe, and Jonah's whale came and swallowed me
up, how could God get my soul out of him?"
Frankie considered for a little; then not seeing his way clear to a
satisfactory answer, and unwilling to confess ignorance on any point,
he said gravely and reprovingly,--
"That's not a proper question for you to ask, Daisy."