"I didn't mean to ask improper kestions."
"No, I don't s'pose you did, so I thought I'd better tell you," said
Frankie. "We'll talk about something else."
"They're all done," said Daisy, meaning the corks, "now we'll eat the
sugar."
But the dividing of the sugar proved a difficult matter; for the lump
was large and thick, and resisted the efforts of both pairs of little
hands.
"I'll crack it with this stone," said Frankie; and, suiting the action
to the word, he laid it upon the step and gave it a blow with the stone.
One part of the much prized morsel remained in very good condition,
but the rest suffered severely under this violent treatment, and was
reduced very nearly to powder.
"Just see what this horrid old stone did!" said Frankie, looking at his
work in much disgust.
"Never mind," said Daisy, "you can have the whole piece, and I'll eat
the mashed."
The swain made a feeble resistance to this generous offer, feeling in
duty bound to do so; but Daisy insisted, and he was so moved by the
magnitude of her self-sacrifice that he said,--
"Daisy, I shall make those other girls wait till you're dead, and marry
you first, 'cause you're the best of all the lot."
Here Carrie joined them, for she had soon quitted Nellie, telling her
that she was tired; but the true reason was that she feared her sister
might say something that would force her to confess that she had not
obeyed orders about the mice.
But, wherever she went, it seemed somehow as if things would be said to
make her feel self-reproached and uncomfortable.
"Oh! but you're a help, Miss Carrie, and your mother'll be proud to see
the forethought of you and Miss Nellie," said Catherine, when Carrie
brought out her last load to the kitchen.
"What dear, helpful little girls I have!" said mamma, with a loving
smile, as Carrie paused for a moment at the open door of the library,
not feeling as if she could pass it without seeming to notice her
mother, and yet ashamed and afraid to go in. "It almost helps me to
feel stronger to see you all so considerate and anxious to do all you
can for me."
Carrie smiled faintly in reply; then passed out upon the piazza. She
would be safe with Daisy and Frankie, she thought, from speeches that
would make her feel guilty and uncomfortable.
But no.
"What shall we do now?" asked Daisy, when the last crumb of sugar had
been disposed of.
"Where are the white mice? Let's play with them a little while," said
Frankie.
"Down in the garden-house," answered Daisy.
"What a funny place to keep them!" said Frankie. "Let's go and bring
them up here."
"Oh, no! we mustn't," said Daisy: "we can go and play wif 'em; but they
can't come here, 'cause mamma don't like 'em."
"We won't take them in the house, Daisy, only out here on the piazza."
"No, no," said Daisy, decidedly, "not out of the garden-house. Mamma
might see 'em, and they would make her feel, oh! dreffully! I should
fink we _wouldn't_ do any fing mamma don't like, would we, Carrie?" she
added, lifting her great, innocent eyes to her sister's face.
Carrie turned quickly away without an answer, and was glad when the
next moment the two little things ran hand in hand down the path which
led to the garden-house.
Carrie was not happy,--no, indeed, how could she be? A great many
uncomfortable feelings were in her young breast just then. Jealousy
of her little sister, whom she chose to consider more petted and
indulged than herself; envy even of her motherless little playmate,
Belle Powers; irritation which she dared not show against Nellie, for
bidding her take the mice to Catherine; fear that her secret would be
discovered, and the doubt what she was to do with the mice now that she
had them: all were making her very restless and miserable.
What though she did persuade herself that Nellie had no _right_ to give
her orders; what though mamma had never forbidden her to have the mice;
what though she did believe she could keep them safely hidden in some
place where they need never trouble her mother,--was she any the less
guilty and disobedient? And where should that place be that she was to
hide them, not only from mamma, but from every one else?
[Illustration]
[Illustration]