It happened that day that Juanita had business on hand which kept her a
good deal of the morning in the out-shed which formed part of her
premises. She came in every now and then to see how Daisy was doing; yet
the morning was on the whole spent by Daisy alone; and when Juanita at
last came in to stay, she fancied the child was looking pale and worn
more than usual.
"My love do not feel well?"
"Yes I do, Juanita--I am only tired. Have you done washing?"
"It is all done. I am ready for whatever my love pleases."
"Isn't washing very disagreeable work, Juanita?"
"I do not think what it be, while it is mine," the woman said
contentedly. "All is good work that I can do for the Lord."
"But _that_ work, Juanita? How can you do that work so?"
"When the Lord gives work, he give it to be done for him. Bless the
Lord!"
"I do not understand, though, Juanita. Please tell me. How can you?"
"Miss Daisy, I don't know. I can do it with pleasure, because it is my
Lord's command. I can do it with thanksgiving, because he has given me
the strength and the power. And I can do it the best I can, so as nobody
shall find fault in his servant. And then, Miss Daisy, I can do it to
get money to send his blessed word to them that sit in darkness--where I
come from. And I can do it with prayer, asking my Lord to make my heart
clean for his glory; like as I make soiled things white again. And I do
it with joy, because I know the Lord hear my prayer."
"I think you are very happy, Juanita," said Daisy.
"When the Lord leads to living fountains of waters, then no more
thirsting,"--said the black woman expressively.
"Then, Juanita, I suppose--if I get tired lying here,--I can do patience
work?"
"Jesus will have his people do a great deal of that work," said Mrs.
Benoit tenderly. "And it is work that pleases him, Miss Daisy. My love
is very weary?"
"I suppose, Juanita, if I was really patient, I shouldn't be. Should I?
I think I am impatient."
"My love knows who carries the lambs in his bosom."
Daisy's tired face smoothed itself out at this. She turned her eyes to
the window with a placid look of rest in them.
"Jesus knows where the trouble is," said the black woman. "He knows all.
And he can help too. Now I am going to get something to do Miss Daisy
good."
Before this could be done, there came a heavy clumping step up to the
house and a knock at the door; and then a person entered whom Juanita
did not know. A hard-featured woman, in an old-fashioned black straw
bonnet and faded old shawl drawn tight round her. She came directly
forward to Daisy's couch.
"Well I declare if it ain't true! Tied by the heels, ain't ye?"--was her
salutation. Juanita looked, and saw that Daisy recognized the visiter;
for she smiled at her, half pleasure, half assent to what she said.
"I heerd of it--that is, I heerd you'd gone up to the mountain and broke
something; I couldn't find out what 'twas; and then Hephzibah she said
she would go down to Melbourne Sunday. I said to her, says I,
'Hephzibah, I wouldn't go all that ways, child, for to do nothing;
'tain't likely but that some part of the story's true, if you and me
can't find out which;' but Hephzibah she took her own head and went; and
don't you think, she came back a cryin'?"
"What was that for?" said Daisy, looking very much interested.
"Why she couldn't find you, I guess; and she thought you was killed. But
you ain't, be you?"
"Only my foot and ankle hurt," said Daisy smiling; "and I am doing very
well now."
"And was you broke anywheres?"
"My ankle was broken."
"I declare! And you couldn't be took home?"
"No."
"So the folks said; only they said that young soldier had killed you. I
hope he got hurted himself?"
"Why Mrs. Harbonner, _he_ did not do it. It was an accident. It wasn't
anybody's fault."
"It wouldn't ha' happened if _I_ had been there, I can tell you!" said
Hephzibah's mother. "I don't think much of a man if he ain't up to
taking care of a woman;--and a child above all. Now how long are you
goin' to be in this fix?"
"I don't know. I suppose I shall have to lie still for four or five
weeks more, before my foot is well."
"It's tiresome, I guess, ain't it?"
"Yes--sometimes."
"Well I used to think, if folks was good, things wouldn't happen to 'em.
That's what I thought. That was my study of divinity. And when
everything on earth happened to me, I just concluded it was because I
warn't a bit too good to deserve it. Now I'm beat--to see you lie there.
I don't see what is the use of being good, if it don't get none."
"O Mrs. Harbonner!" said Daisy--"I am glad my foot was broken."
"Well, I'm beat!" was all Mrs. Harbonner could say. "You air, be you?"
"It hasn't done me any harm at all; and it has done me a great deal of
good."
Mrs. Harbonner stood staring at Daisy.
"The promise is sure," said Mrs. Benoit. "All things shall work together
for good to them that love God!"
The other woman wheeled about and looked at her for an instant with a
sharp keen eye of note-taking; then she returned to Daisy.
"Well I suppose I'll tell Hephzibah she won't see you again till
summer's over; so she may as well give over thinking about it."
"Do you think Hephzibah wants to learn, Mrs. Harbonner?"
"Well, I guess she does."
"Wouldn't she come here and get her lessons? Couldn't she come to see me
every day while I am here?"
"I 'spose she'd jump out of her skin to do it," said Mrs. Harbonner.
"Hephzibah's dreadful sot on seeing you."
"Mrs. Benoit," said Daisy, "may I have this little girl come to see me
every day, while I am here?"
"Miss Daisy shall have all, who she will," was the answer; and it was
arranged so; and Mrs. Harbonner took her departure. Lingering a minute
at the door, whither Juanita attended her, she made one or two enquiries
and remarks about Daisy, answered civilly and briefly by Mrs. Benoit.
"Poor little toad!" said Mrs. Harbonner, drawing her shawl tight round
her for the last time. "But ain't she little _queer_?"
These words were spoken in a low murmur, which just served to draw
Daisy's attention. Out of sight behind the moreen curtain, Mrs.
Harbonner forgot she was not beyond hearing; and Daisy's ears were
good. She noticed that Juanita made no answer at all to this question,
and presently shut the door.
The business of giving Daisy some fruit was the next thing attended to;
in the course of eating which Daisy marvelled a little to herself what
possible likeness to a _toad_ Mrs. Harbonner could have discovered in
her. The comparison did not seem flattering; also she pondered somewhat
why it could be that anybody found her queer. She said nothing about it;
though she gave Mrs. Benoit a little account of Hephzibah and the reason
of the proposed series of visits. In the midst of this came a cheery
"Daisy"--at the other side of her; and turning her head, there was
Preston's face at the window.
"O Preston!"--Daisy handed to Mrs. Benoit her unfinished saucer of
strawberries--"I am so glad! I have been waiting for you. Have you
brought my books?"
"Where do you think I have been, Daisy?"
"I don't know. Shooting!--Have you?"
Daisy's eye caught the barrel of a fowling-piece shewing its end up at
the window. Preston without replying lifted up his game bag and let her
see the bright feathers of little birds which partly filled it.
"You have!--Shooting!"--Daisy repeated, in a tone between disapprobation
and dismay. "It isn't September!"
"Capital sport, Daisy," said Preston, letting the bag fall.
"I think it is very poor sport," said Daisy. "I wish they were all alive
and flying again."
"So do I--if I might shoot them again."
"It's cruel, Preston!"
"Nonsense, Daisy. Don't you be too tender. Birds were made to kill. What
are they good for?"
With a wit that served her instead of experience, Daisy was silent,
looking with unspoken abhorrence at the wicked muzzle of the
fowling-piece.
"Did you bring me 'Sandford and Merton,' Preston?" she said presently.
"'Sandford and Merton'! My dear Daisy, I have been going all over the
world, you know--this part of it--and I was too far from Melbourne to go
round that way for your book; if I had, it would have been too late to
get here. You see the sun's pretty well down."
Daisy said no more; but it was out of her power not to look
disappointed. She had so counted upon her book; and she was so weary of
lying still and doing nothing. She wanted very much to read about the
house that Harry and Tommy built; it would have been a great
refreshment.
"Cheer up, Daisy," said Preston; "I'll bring you books to-morrow--and
read to you too, if you like it. What shall I bring?"
"O Preston, I want to know about trilobites!"
"Daisy, you might as well want to know about the centre of the earth!
That's where they belong."
"I should like to know about the centre of the earth," said Daisy. "Is
there anything there?"
"Anything at the centre of the earth? I suppose so."
"But I mean, anything _but_ earth," said Daisy.
Preston burst out laughing. "O Daisy, Daisy!--Hadn't you better learn
about what is on the outside of the earth, before we dig down so deep
into it?"
"Well, Preston, my trilobite was on the outside."
"Daisy, it wouldn't interest you," said Preston seriously; "you would
have to go deep into something else besides the earth--so deep that you
would get tired. Let the trilobite alone, and let's have Grimm's Tales
to-morrow--shall we? or what will you have?"
Daisy was patiently silent a minute; and then in came Dr. Sandford. In
his presence Preston was mute; attending to the doctor's manipulations
as gravely as the doctor himself performed them. In the midst of the
general stillness, Dr. Sandford asked,
"Who was speaking about trilobites as I came up?"
"Preston was speaking," said Daisy, as nobody else seemed ready to
answer.
"What about them?"
"He thinks they would not interest me," said Daisy.
"What do you know about trilobites?" said Dr. Sandford, now raising his
blue eyes for a good look into the child's face. He saw it looked weary.
"I have got a beautiful one. Juanita, will you bring it here, please?"
The doctor took it up and handled it with an eye that said, Daisy knew,
that it was a fine specimen. The way he handled it gratified her.
"So this is one of your playthings, is it, Daisy?"
"No, sir; it is not a plaything, but I like to look at it."
"Why?"
"It is so wonderful, and beautiful, I think."
"But do tell Daisy, will you, doctor," said Preston, "that it is a
subject she cannot understand yet. She wants me to bring her books about
trilobites."
"Time hangs heavy, Daisy?" said the doctor.
"No, sir--only when I have nothing to do."
"What have you done to-day?"
"Nothing, sir; except talking to papa and mamma,--and some business
about a little girl."
The sedateness of this announcement was inexpressible, coming as it did
after a little thoughtful pause. Preston burst out laughing. Dr.
Sandford did not so far forget himself. He only gave Daisy a rapid look
of his grave blue eyes.
"It would be a charity to give you more employment than that," he said.
"You like wonderful things, Daisy?"
"Very much, when I understand about them."
"I will agree to tell you anything you please--that I know--about any
wonderful things you can see to-morrow, looking from your window."
The Doctor and Preston went off together, and left Daisy, though without
books, in a high state of excitement and gratification. The rest of the
evening her little head was busy by turns with fancying the observations
of the next day, and wondering what she could possibly find from her
window to talk to the doctor about. A very unpromising window Daisy
considered it. Nothing was to be seen beside trees and a little strip of
road; few people passed by that way; and if there had, what wonder could
there have been in that. Daisy was half afraid she should find nothing
to talk to the doctor about; and that would be a mortification.
Daisy and Juanita were both apt to be awake pretty early. Lying there on
her back all day, without power to run about and get tired, Daisy's
sleep was light; and her eyes were generally open before the sun got
high enough to look at them. Juanita was always up and dressed earlier
even than that; how much earlier Daisy had no means of knowing; but she
was sure to hear the murmur of her friend's voice at her prayers, either
in the other room or outside of the house. And Juanita did not come in
to see Daisy till she had been awake a good while, and had had leisure
to think over a great many things. Daisy found that was a good time for
her own prayers; there was nothing to disturb her, and nothing to be
heard at all, except that soft sound of Juanita's voice and the clear
trills and quavers of the little birds' voices in the trees. There was
no disturbance in any of those sounds; nothing but joy and gladness and
the voice of melody from them all.
By and by, when the light began to kindle in the tops of the trees, and
Daisy was sure to be watching it and trying to get sight of some of the
bird singers which were so merry up there, she would hear another sound
by her bedside, or feel a soft touch; and there would be Juanita, as
bright as the day, in her way of looking bright, bending over to see
and find out how Daisy was. Then, having satisfied herself, Juanita
would go about the business of the morning. First her fire was made, and
the kettle put on for breakfast. Daisy used to beg her to leave the door
open, so that though she could not follow her with her eyes and see, she
could yet hear what Juanita was doing. She used to listen to hear the
kindling put in the stove, and the wood; she knew the sound of it; then
when the match was lit and applied she liked the rushing sound of the
blaze and kindling fire; it gave pleasant token that the kettle would be
boiled by and by. But first she listened to Juanita's feet brushing
through the grass to get to the well; and Daisy listened so hard she
could almost tell after a while whether the grass was dry or whether it
was heavy with dew. Juanita always carried the kettle to the well; and
when she came back Daisy could hear the iron clink of the stove as the
kettle was put on. Presently Juanita came in then from her kitchen, and
began the work of putting the house in order. How nicely she did it!
like the perfection of a nurse, which she was. No dust, no noise, no
bustle; still as a mouse, but watchful as a cat, the alert old woman
went round the room and made all tidy and all clean and fresh. Very
likely Juanita would change the flowers in a little vase which stood on
the mantelpiece or the table, before she felt that everything was as it
ought to be.
When all that was done, her next attention was to Daisy herself; and
Daisy never in her life had nicer tending than now. If Juanita was a
nurse, she was a dressing-maid too, of first-rate qualifications. It was
a real pleasure to have her ministering about the couch; and for that
matter, the whole work of the morning, as Juanita managed it, was a
regular and unfailing piece of amusement to Daisy. And in the midst of
it, every look at the black woman's noble, sweet face, warmed Daisy's
heart with something better than amusement. Daisy grew to love her very
much.
This morning all these affairs had been gone through as usual; and
leaving Daisy in a happy, refreshed state, Mrs. Benoit went off to
prepare her breakfast. Like everything else, that was beautifully done.
By and by, in she came with a tray and white napkin, white as napkin
could be, and fine damask too. For Juanita had treasures of various
sorts, besides old moreen curtains. On this tray for instance, there was
not only a fine napkin of damask; there was a delicate cup and saucer of
fine china, which Daisy thought very beautiful. It was as thin and fine
as any cup at Melbourne House, and had a dainty vine of leaves and
flowers running round it, in a light red brown colour. The plate was not
to match; it was a common little white plate; but that did not matter.
The tea was in the little brown cup, and Daisy's lips closed upon it
with entire satisfaction. Juanita had some excellent tea too; and if she
had not, there was a sufficient supply sent from Melbourne; as well as
of everything else. So to-day there was not only the brown toast in
strips, which Daisy fancied; but there were great red Antwerp
raspberries for her; and that made, Daisy thought, the very best
breakfast that could be eaten. She was very bright this morning.
"Juanita," she said, "I have found something for Dr Sandford already."
"What does Miss Daisy mean?"
"Don't you know? Didn't you hear him yesterday? He gave me something to
do. He said he would tell me about anything wonderful I could see in the
course of the day; and I have found something already."
"'Seems to me as all the Lord has made is wonderful," said the black
woman. "Does Miss Daisy think Dr. Sandford can tell her all about it?"
"Why I suppose he knows a great deal, Juanita."
"If he knowed one thing more,"--said the black woman. "Here he is, Miss
Daisy. He's early."
Certainly he was; but Dr. Sandford had a long ride to take that morning,
and could only see Daisy then on his way. In silence he attended to her,
and with no delay; smiled at her; put the tips of his fingers to her
raspberry dish and took out one for his own lips; then went quick away.
Daisy smiled curiously. She was very much amused at him. She did not ask
Juanita what she meant by the "one thing more." Daisy knew quite well;
or thought she did.
All that day she was in an amused state, watching to see wonderful
things. Her father's and mother's visits came as usual. Preston came and
brought her some books. Hephzibah came too and had a bit of a lesson.
But Hephzibah's wits were like her hair, straying all manner of ways. It
was very difficult to make her understand the difference between a, b,
ab,--and b, a, ba; and that was discouraging. Daisy toiled with her till
she was tired; and then was glad to lie still and rest without even
thinking of wonderful things, till Juanita brought her her dinner.
As the doctor had been early, so he was late to-day. It was near sunset
when he came, and Daisy was a little disappointed, fancying that he was
tired. He said nothing at first; attended to Daisy's foot in the
profoundest gravity; but in the midst of it, without looking up, he
asked,
"What wonderful things have you seen to-day?"
"I am afraid you are tired, Dr. Sandford," said Daisy very gently.
"What then?"
"Then it might tire you more to talk to me."
"You have seen something wonderful, have you?" said the doctor glancing
at her.
"Two or three things, sir."
"One at a time," said the doctor. "I _am_ tired. I have ridden nearly
seventy miles to-day, one way and another. Have you got a cup of milk
for me, Mrs. Benoit?"
Daisy eagerly beckoned Juanita and whispered to her, and the result was
that with the cup of milk came a plate of the magnificent raspberries.
The doctor opened his grave eyes at Daisy, and stood at the foot of her
couch picking up raspberries with his finger and thumb, as he had taken
that one in the morning.
"Now what are the wonderful things?" said he.
"You are too tired to-night, Dr. Sandford."
"Let us have number one. Promises must be kept, Daisy. Business is
business. Have you got such hard work for me? What was the first thing?"
"The first wonderful thing that I saw--or at least that I thought of--"
said Daisy, "was the sun."
The doctor eat half a dozen raspberries without speaking, giving an odd
little smile first in one corner of his mouth and then in the other.
"Do you expect me to tell you about _that_?" said he.
"You said business was business," Daisy replied with equal gravity to
his own.
"I am glad the idea of the universe did not occur to you," said the
doctor. "That might have been rather inconvenient for one evening's
handling. What would you like me to tell you about the sun?"
"I do not know anything at all about it," said Daisy. "I would like to
know everything you can tell me."
"The thought that first comes to me," said the doctor, "is, that it
ripened these raspberries."
"I know _that_," said Daisy. "But I want to know what it _is_."
"The sun! Well," said the doctor, "it is a dark, round thing, something
like this earth, only considerably bigger."
"_Dark!_" said Daisy.
"Certainly. I have no reason to believe it anything else."
"But you are laughing at me, Dr. Sandford," said Daisy, feeling very
much disappointed and a little aggrieved.
"Am I? No, Daisy--if you had ridden seventy miles to-day, you might be
tempted, but you would not feel like laughing. Business is business, I
must remind you again."
"But you do not _mean_ that the sun is dark?" said Daisy.
"I mean precisely what I say, I assure you."
"But it is so bright we cannot look at it," said Daisy.
"Something is so bright you cannot look at it. The something is not the
body of the sun."
"Then it is the light that comes from it."
"No light comes from it, that I know. I told you, the sun is a dark
body."
"Not laughing?"
"No," said Dr. Sandford, though he did laugh now;--"the sun, you see, is
a more wonderful thing than you imagined."
"But sir, may I ask any question I have a mind to ask?"
"Certainly! All in the course of business."
"How do you know that it is dark, sir?"
"Perfectly fair. Suppose that Mrs. Benoit stood behind your curtain
there, and that you had never seen her; how could you know that she has
a dark skin?"
"Why I could not."
"Yes, you could--if there were rents in the curtain."
"But what are you talking of, sir?"
"Only telling you, in answer to your question, how I know the sun to be
a dark body."
"But there is no curtain over the sun."
"That proves you are no philosopher, Daisy. If you were a philosopher,
you would not be so certain of anything. There is a curtain over the
sun; and there are rents or holes in the curtain sometimes,--so large
that we can see the dark body of the sun through them."
"What is the curtain? Is _that_ the light?"
"Now you are coming pretty near it, Daisy," said the doctor. "The
curtain, as I call it, is not light, but it is what the light comes
from."
"Then what _is_ it, Dr. Sandford?"
"That has puzzled people wiser than you and I, Daisy. However, I think I
may venture to say, that it is something like an ocean of flame,
surrounding the dark body of the sun."
"And there are holes in it?"
"Sometimes."
"But they must be very large holes to be seen from this distance?"
"Very," said the doctor. "A great many times bigger than our whole
earth."
"Then how do you know but they are dark islands in the ocean?"
"For several reasons," said the doctor looking gravely funny; "one of
which reasons is, that we can see the deep ragged edges of the holes,
and that these edges join together again."
"But there could not be holes in _our_ ocean?" said Daisy.
Dr. Sandford gave a good long grave look at her, set aside his empty
plate which had held raspberries, and took a chair. He talked to her now
with serious quiet earnest, as if she had been a much older person.
"Our ocean, Daisy, you will remember, is an ocean of fluid matter. The
ocean of flame which surrounds the sun is gaseous matter--or a sort of
ocean of air, in a state of incandescence. This does not touch the sun,
but floats round it, upon or above another atmosphere of another
kind--like the way in which our clouds float in the air over our heads.
You know how breaks come and go in the clouds; so you can imagine that
this luminous covering of the sun parts in places, and shews the sun
through, and then closes up again."
"Is _that_ the way it is?" said Daisy.
"Even so."
"Dr. Sandford, you said a word just now I did not understand."
"Only one?" said the doctor.
"I think there was only one I did not know in the least."
"Can you direct me to it?"
"You said something about an ocean of air in a state--what state?"
"Incandescence?"
"That was it."
"That is a state where it gives out white heat."
"I thought everything at the sun must be on fire," said Daisy looking
meditatively at the doctor.
"You see you were mistaken. It has only a covering of clouds of fire--so
to speak."
"But it must be very hot there."
"It is pretty hot _here_," said the doctor shrugging his
shoulders,--"ninety five millions of miles away; so I do not see that we
can avoid your conclusion."
"How much is ninety five millions?"
"I am sure I don't know," said Dr. Sandford gravely. "After I have gone
as far as a million or so, I get tired."
"But I do not know much about arithmetic," said Daisy humbly. "Mamma has
not wanted me to study. I don't know how much one million is."
"Arithmetic does not help one on a journey, Miss Daisy," said the doctor
pleasantly. "Counting the miles did not comfort me to-day. But I can
tell you this. If you and I were to set off on a railway train, straight
for the sun, and go at the rate of thirty-two miles an hour,--you know
that is pretty fast travelling?"
"How fast do we go on the cars from here to New York?"
"Thirty miles an hour."
"Now I know," said Daisy.
"If we were to set off and go straight to the sun at that rate of speed,
keeping it up night and day, it would take us--how long do you guess? It
would take us three hundred years and more; nearly three hundred and
fifty years, to get there."
"I cannot imagine travelling so long," said Daisy gravely. At which Dr.
Sandford laughed; the first time Daisy had ever heard him do such a
thing. It was a low, mellow laugh now; and she rather enjoyed it.
"I should like to know what a million is," she observed.
"Ten hundred thousand."
"And how many million miles did you say the sun is?"
"Ninety-five millions of miles away."
Daisy lay thinking about it.
"Can you imagine travelling faster? And then we need not be so long on
the journey," said Dr. Sandford. "If we were to go as fast as a cannon
ball, it would take us about seven years--not quite so much--to get to
the sun."
"How fast does a cannon ball go?"
"Fifty times as fast as a railway train."
"I cannot imagine that either, Dr. Sandford."
"Give it up, Daisy," said the doctor, rising and beginning to put
himself in order for travelling.
"Are you going?" said Daisy.
"Not till you have done with me!"
"Dr. Sandford, have you told me all there is to tell about the sun?"
"No."
"Would it take too long this evening?"
"Considering that the sun will not stay to be talked about, Daisy," said
the doctor glancing out of the window, "I should say it would."
"Then I will ask only one thing more. Dr. Sandford, how can you tell so
exactly how long it would take to go to the sun? how do you know?"
"Quite fair, Daisy," said the doctor surveying her gravely. "I know, by
the power of a science called mathematics, which enables one to do all
sorts of impossible things. But you must take that on my word; I cannot
explain so that you would understand it."
"Thank you, sir," said Daisy.
She wanted further to ask what sort of a science mathematics might be;
but Dr. Sandford had answered a good many questions, and the sun was
down, down, behind the trees on the other side of the road. Daisy said
no more. The doctor seeing her silent, smiled, and prepared himself to
go.
"Shall we finish the sun to-morrow, Daisy?"
"O, if you please."
"Very well. Good bye."
The doctor went, leaving Daisy in a very refreshed state; with plenty to
think of. Daisy was quite waked out of her weariness and disappointment,
and could do well enough without books for one day longer. She took her
own raspberries now with great spirit.
"I have found two more wonderful things to talk to Dr. Sandford about,
Juanita; that is three to-day."
"Does Miss Daisy think the doctor can tell her all?"
"I don't know. He knows a great deal, Juanita."
"'Seems he knows more than Job did," said Mrs. Benoit, who had her
private misgivings about the authenticity of all Dr. Sandford's
statements. Daisy thought a little.
"Juanita, Job lived a great while ago."
"Yes, Miss Daisy."
"How much did he know about the sun? does the Bible tell?"
"It tells a little what he didn't know, Miss Daisy."
"O, Juanita, after I get through my tea and when you have had yours,
won't you read me in the Bible all about Job and the sun?"
Mrs. Benoit liked nothing better; and whatever other amusements failed,
or whatever other parties anywhere in the land found their employments
unsatisfactory, there was one house where intent interest and unflagging
pleasure went through the whole evening; it was where Daisy and Mrs.
Benoit read "about Job and the sun." Truth to tell, as that portion of
Scripture is but small, they extended their reading somewhat.
Daisy's first visiter the next day was her father. He came with fresh
flowers and fresh fruit, and with "Sandford and Merton" too, in which he
read to her; so the morning went well.
"Papa," said Daisy when he was about leaving her, "do you not think Dr.
Sandford is a very interesting man?"
"It is the general opinion of ladies, I believe, Daisy; but I advise you
not to lose your heart to him. I am afraid he is not to be depended on."
"O papa," said Daisy, a little shocked, "I do not mean that he is a man
one would get _fond of_."
"Pray who do you think is, Daisy?" said Mr. Randolph, maintaining his
gravity admirably.
"Papa, don't you think Capt. Drummond is--and--"
"And who, Daisy?"
"I was thinking--Mr. Dinwiddie, papa." Daisy did not quite know how well
this last name would be relished, and she coloured a little
apprehensively.
"You are impartial in your professional tastes, I am glad to see," said
Mr. Randolph. Then observing how innocent of understanding him was the
grave little face of Daisy, he bent down to kiss her.
"And you are unfortunate in your favourites. Both at a distance! How is
Gary McFarlane?"
"Papa, I think he has good nature; but I think he is rather frivolous."
Mr. Randolph looked soberly at the little face before him, and went away
thinking his own thoughts. But he had the cruelty to repeat to Dr.
Sandford so much of this conversation as concerned that gentleman; in
doing so he unwittingly laid the foundation of more attention to Daisy
on the doctor's part, than he probably would ever otherwise have given
her. To say truth--the idea propounded by Daisy was so very novel to
the doctor that it both amused and piqued him.
Mr. Randolph had hardly gone out, when Hephzibah came in. And then
followed a lesson the like of which Daisy had not given yet. Hephzibah's
attention was on everything but the business in hand. Also, she had a
little less awe of Daisy lying on Mrs. Benoit's couch in a loose gown,
than when she met her in the Belvidere at Melbourne, dressed in an
elegant cambrick frock with a resplendent sash.
"C, a, spells ca, Hephzibah. Now what is that?"
"Over your finger?"
"Yes."
"That's--C."
"C, a. And what does it spell?"
"Did the stone fall right onto your foot?"
"Yes--partly on."
"And was it broke right off?"
"No. O no. Only the bone of my ankle was broken."
"It smarted some, I guess; didn't it?"
"No. Now Hephzibah, what do those two letters spell?"
"C, a, ca. That don't mean nothin'."
"Now the next. D, a--"
"What's D, a?"
"D, a, da."
"What's that?"
"Nothing; only it spells that."
"How soon'll you be up again?"
"I do not know. In a few weeks."
"Before the nuts is ripe?"
"O yes, I hope so."
"Well, I'll shew you where there's the biggest hickory nuts you ever
see! They're right back of Mr. Lamb's barn--only three fields to
cross--and there's three hickory trees; and the biggest one has the
biggest nuts, mother says, she ever see. Will you go and get some?"
"But, Hephzibah, those are Mr. Lamb's nuts, aren't they?"
"I don't care."
"But," said Daisy, looking very grave, "don't you know, Hephzibah, it is
wrong to meddle with anything that belongs to other people?"
"He hain't no right to 'em, I don't believe."
"I thought you said they were in Mr. Lamb's field?"
"So they be."
"Then they are his nuts. You would not like anybody to take them, if
they belonged to you."
"It don't make no odds," said Hephzibah sturdily, but looking down at
the same time. "He'll get it out of us some other way."
"Get it out of you?" said Daisy.
"Yes."
"What do you mean?"
"He gets it out of everybody," said Hephzibah. "Tain't no odds."
"But Hephzibah, if those trees were yours, would you like to have Mr.
Lamb come and take the nuts away?"
"No. I'd get somebody to shoot him."
Daisy hardly knew how to go along with her discourse; Hephzibah's
erratic opinions started up so fast. She looked at her little rough
pupil in absolute dismay. Hephzibah shewed no consciousness of having
said anything remarkable. Very sturdy she looked; very assured in her
judgment. Daisy eyed her rough bristling hair, with an odd kind of
feeling that it would not be more difficult to comb down into smoothness
than the unregulated thoughts of her mind. She must begin gently. But
Daisy's eyes grew most wistfully earnest.
"Would you shoot Mr. Lamb for taking away your nuts?"
"Just as lieves."
"Then how do you think he would feel about your taking his nuts?"
"I don't care!"
"But, Hephzibah, listen. Do you know what the Bible says? It says, that
we must do to other people just what we would like to have them do to us
in the same things."
"Then he oughtn't to have sot such a price on his meat," said Hephzibah.
"But then," said Daisy, "what would it be right for you to do about his
nuts?"
"I don't care," said Hephzibah. "'Tain't no odds. I'm a going to get
'em. I guess it's time for me to go home."
"But Hephzibah,--you have not done your lesson yet. I want you to learn
all this row to-day. The next is, f, a, fa."
"That don't mean nothin'," said Hephzibah.
"But you want to learn it, before you can go on to what does mean
something."
"I don't guess I do," said Hephzibah.
"Don't you want to learn to read?"
"Yes, but that ain't readin'."
"But you cannot learn to read without it," said Daisy.
Under this urging, Hephzibah did consent to go down the column of
two-letter syllables.
"Ain't you going with me after them nuts?" she said as soon as the
bottom of the page was reached. "I'll shew you a rabbit's nest. La! it's
so pretty!"
"I hope you will not take the nuts, Hephzibah, without Mr. Lamb's
leave."
"I ain't going to ask his leave," said Hephzibah. "He wouldn't give it
to me, besides. It's fun, I tell you."
"It is wrong," said Daisy. "I don't think there's any fun in doing
what's wrong."
"It is fun, though, I tell you," said Hephzibah. "It's real sport. The
nuts come down like rain; and we get whole baskets full. And then, when
you crack 'em, I tell you, they are sweet'"
"Hephzibah, do you know what the Bible says?"
"I don't want to learn no more to-day," said the child. "I'm going. Good
bye, Daisy."
She stayed no further instruction of any kind; but caught up her calico
sunbonnet and went off at a jump, calling out "Good bye, Daisy!" when
she had got some yards from the house. Daisy lay still, looking very
thoughtful.
"The child has just tired you, my love!" said the black woman.
"What shall I do, Juanita? She doesn't understand."
"My love knows who opened the eyes of the blind," said Juanita.
Daisy sighed. Certainly teaching seemed to take very small hold on her
rough little pupil. These thoughts were suddenly banished by the
entrance of Mrs. Randolph.
The lady was alone this time. How like herself she looked, handsome and
stately, in characteristic elegance of attire and manner both. Her white
morning dress floated off in soft edges of lace from her white arms; a
shawl of precious texture was gathered loosely about them; on her head a
gossamer web of some fancy manufacture fell off on either side, a mock
covering for it. She came up to Daisy and kissed her, and then examined
into her various arrangements, to see that she was in all respects well
and properly cared for. Her mother's presence made Daisy feel very meek.
Her kiss had been affectionate, her care was motherly; but with all that
there was not a turn of her hand nor a tone of her calm voice that did
not imply and express absolute possession, perfect control. That Daisy
was a little piece of property belonging to her in sole right, with
which she did and would do precisely what it might please her, with very
little concern how or whether it might please Daisy. Daisy was very far
from putting all this in words, or even in distinct thoughts;
nevertheless she felt and knew every bit of it; her mother's hand did
not touch Daisy's foot or her shoulder, without her inward consciousness
what a powerful hand it was. Now it is true that all this was in one way
no new thing; Daisy had always known her mother's authority to be just
what it was now; but it was only of late that a question had arisen
about the bearing of this authority upon her own little life and
interests. With the struggle that had been, and the new knowledge that
more struggles in the future were not impossible, the consciousness of
her mother's power over her had a new effect. Mrs. Randolph sat down and
took out her tetting work; but she only did a few stitches.
"What child was that I met running from the house as I came up?" she
asked, a little to Daisy's discomfiture.
"It was a little girl who belongs in the village, mamma."
"How comes she to know you?"
"It happened by accident partly, in the first place."
"What accident?"
"Mamma, I will tell you another time, if you will let me." For Daisy
knew that Juanita was not far off. But Mrs. Randolph only said, "Tell me
now."
"Mamma--it was partly an accident," Daisy repeated. "I found out by
accident that they were very poor--and I carried them something to eat."
"Whom do you mean by 'them?'"
"That little girl and her mother--Mrs. Harbonner."
"When did you do this?"
"About the time of my birthday."
"And you have kept up the acquaintance since that time?"
"I carried the woman work once, mamma. I had papa's leave to go."
"Did you ask mine?"
"No, mamma. It was papa who had forbidden me to go into any house
without leave; so I asked him to let me tell her about the work."
"What was this child here for to-day?"
"Mamma--she is a poor child and could not go to school; and--I was
trying to teach her something."
"What were you trying to teach her?"
"To read, mamma--and to do right."
"Have you ever done this before?"
"Yes, mamma--a few times."
"Can it be that you have a taste for low society, Daisy?"
Mrs. Randolph had been asking questions calmly while going on with her
tetting work; at this one she raised her eyes and bent them full, with
steady cold inquiry, on Daisy's face. Daisy looked a little troubled.
"No, mamma--I do not think I have."
"Is not this child very rude and ill-mannered?"
"Yes, ma'am, but--"
"Is she even a clean child?"
"Not _very_, mamma."
"You are changed, Daisy," said Mrs. Randolph, with a slight but keen
expression of disdain. The child felt it, yet felt it not at all to the
moving of her steadfastness.
"Mamma--it was only that I might teach her. She knows nothing at all,
almost."
"And does Daisy Randolph think such a child is a fit companion for her?"
"Not a _companion_, mamma."
"What business have you with a child who is not a fit companion for
you?"
"Only, mamma, to try to be of some benefit to her."
"I shall be of some benefit to you, now. Since I cannot trust you,
Daisy--since your own delicacy and feeling of what is right does not
guide you in such matters, I shall lay my commands on you for the
future. You are to have nothing to do with any person, younger or older,
without finding out what my pleasure is about it. Do you understand
me?"
"Yes, mamma."
"You are to give no more lessons to children who are not fit companions
for you. You are not to have anything to do with this child in
particular. Daisy, understand me--I forbid you to speak to her again."
"O mamma--"
"Not a word," said Mrs. Randolph.
"But mamma, please! just this. May I not tell her once, that I cannot
teach her? She will think me so strange!"
Mrs. Randolph was silent.
"Might I not, just that once, mamma?"
"No."
"She will not know what to think of me," said Daisy; her lip trembling,
her eye reddening, and only able by the greatest self-control to keep
from bursting into tears.
"That is your punishment"--replied Mrs. Randolph, in a satisfied, quiet
sort of way. Daisy felt crushed. She could hardly think.
"I am going to take you in hand and bring you into order," said Mrs.
Randolph with a smile, bending over to kiss Daisy, and looking at her
lips and eyes in a way Daisy wished she would not. The meek little face
certainly promised small difficulty in her way, and Mrs. Randolph kissed
the trembling mouth again.
"I do not think we shall quarrel," she remarked. "But if we do, Daisy, I
shall know how to bear my part of it."
She turned carelessly to her tetting again, and Daisy lay still; quiet
and self-controlled, it was all she could do. She could hardly bear to
watch her mother at her work; the thought of "quarrels" between them was
so inevitable and so dreadful. She could hardly bear to look out of her
window; the sunshine and bright things out there seemed to remind her of
her troubles; for they did not look bright now as they had done in the
early morning. She lay still and kept still; that was all; while Mrs.
Randolph kept at her work amusing herself with it an uncommonly long
time. At last she was tired; threw her shawl round her shoulders again,
and stood up to go.
"I think we can soon have you home, Daisy," she said as she stooped to
kiss her. "Ask Dr. Sandford when he comes, how soon it will do now to
move you; ask him to-night; will you?"
Daisy said "Yes, mamma," and Mrs. Randolph went.