GOLDFISH AND KITTENS
Leaving Delight asleep, Marjorie wandered out to the dining-room, where
Mrs. Spencer was assisting the waitress in her duties. As Maggie was not
allowed to leave the sick-room, Mary, the waitress, did the cooking, and
this left many smaller offices to be performed by Mrs. Spencer.
"Can't I help you?" asked Marjorie, who was at her wits' end for
occupation.
Usually, she could entertain herself for any length of time, but the
strangeness of her surroundings, and a general feeling of homesickness
made books or games unattractive.
"Why, no, Marjorie; little girls can't help," said Mrs. Spencer, who
never thought of calling on Delight for assistance.
"Oh, yes, I can; truly I can do lots of things. Mayn't I put away that
silver?"
"No; you don't know where it belongs. But if want to help me, can't you
attend to Delight's canary? He hasn't had his bath, and Mary is too busy
to do it. Do you know how?"
"Oh, yes; I often give our bird his bath, and clean his cage, and give
him fresh seed and water. Where shall I find the birdseed?"
"In the small cupboard in Delight's playroom, the room where the bird is,
you know."
"Yes'm, I know."
Marjorie ran upstairs, interested in this work, and taking the cage from
its hook, set it on the table. She found the little bathtub and filled it
with water of just the right warmth, and taking the upper part of the
cage from its base, set it over the tub, which she had carefully placed
on a large newspaper.
"There," she said, "spatter away as much as you like, while I cut a nice
round paper carpet for your cage. I don't know your name, but I shall
call you Buttercup, because you're so yellow."
The bird cocked his black eye at her, and seemed to approve of his new
attendant, for he hopped into his bath, and splashed the water
vigorously.
"You're a nice little Buttercup," went on Midget; "some bad little
birdies won't jump in and bathe. There, I think that's enough; you'll
wash all your feathers off! Here you go back home again."
She replaced the cage, filled the seed and water vases, and hung it back
on its hook.
Midget was a capable little girl, and she took away the bathtub, and
tidied up all traces of her work, as neatly as Mary could have done. Then
she looked around for more worlds to conquer.
She saw the aquarium, a small round one, all of glass, in which were four
goldfish.
"I think I'll give you a bath," said Midget to the fishes, laughing at
the absurdity of the idea. But as she stood watching them, she observed
the green mossy slime that covered the stones and shells at the bottom of
the aquarium, and it occurred to her that it would be a good idea to
clean them.
"There's a small scrubbing-brush in the bathroom," she said to herself,
"and I can scrub them clean, and put in fresh water, and Mrs. Spencer
will be so surprised and pleased."
She was about to bring a bowl of water from the bathroom to put the
stones in while she scrubbed them, but she thought since there was
already water in the glass, she might as well use that, and then get
clean water for the fishes afterward.
"But I don't believe they'll like the soap," she thought, as, scrub-brush
in hand, she was about to dip the soap in the water. "So I'll lay them
aside while I scrub."
Marjorie had never had any goldfish, and knew nothing about them, so with
no thought save to handle them gently, she took them out of the water,
and laid them on the table in the sunlight.
She caught them by the simple process of using her handkerchief as a
drag-net, and with great care, laid them softly down on the felt
table-cover.
"There, fishies," she said, "don't take to your heels and run away. I'll
soon clean up these dirty old stones and shells, then I'll give you nice
fresh water, and put you back home again."
The stones and shells did look better, according to Midget's way of
thinking, after she had vigorously scrubbed the moss from them. They
shone glistening, and white, and she put them back in the aquarium and
filled it with clean water, and then went for the fish.
"Ah, taking a nap, are you?" she said, as the four lay quiet on the
table. But when she carefully put them back in the water, and they didn't
wriggle or squirm a bit, she knew at once they were dead.
"You horrid things!" cried Midget, "what did you go and die for, just
when I was fixing up your cage so nice? You're not really dead, are you?
Wake up!"
She poked and pinched them to no avail.
"Oh, dear!" she sighed, "whenever I try to be good and helpful, I'm bad
and troublesome. Now I must go and tell Mrs. Spencer about it. I wonder
what she'll say. I wish I could tell mother first, but they'd hear me on
the telephone. Perhaps the old things will come alive again. Maybe
they've only fainted."
But no sign of life came from the four victims, who calmly floated on top
of the water, as if scorning the clean white stones and shells below.
They looked so pretty and so pathetic, that Marjorie burst into tears,
and ran downstairs in search of Mrs. Spencer. That lady heard the tale
with a look of mingled amusement and annoyance on her face.
"I've heard you were a mischievous child," she said, "but I didn't think
you'd begin your pranks so soon."
"But it wasn't pranks, Mrs. Spencer," said Midget, earnestly. "I truly
wanted to be help, fill, and I fixed the bird's cage so nicely, I thought
I'd fix the fishes' cage too."
"But you must have known that fishes die out of water."
"No'm; I didn't. At least,--it seems to me now that I ought to have known
it, but I didn't think about it when I took 'em out. You see, I never had
any goldfish of my own."
"Well, don't worry about it, child. It can't be helped now. But I suppose
Delight will feel terribly. She was so fond of her goldfish."
"I'm sure Father will let me give her some more," said Midget, "but I
suppose she won't care for any others."
She went back to the library, where she had left Delight asleep, and
found her just waking up.
"Delight," she said, wanting to get it over as soon as possible, "I've
killed all four of your goldfish!"
"On purpose?" said Delight, still sleepy and uncomprehending.
"No, of course not. It was an accident. I just laid them on the table
while I cleaned the aquarium, and they fainted away and staid fainted. I
guess they must have been sick before."
"No, they weren't. They were awfully frisky yesterday. I think you're
real mean, Marjorie."
"I'm awful sorry, Delight, truly I am. But I'm 'most sure Father will let
me give you other fish to make up for them."
"But they won't be the same fish."
"No, of course not. But we'll get prettier ones."
"Oh, no, you needn't get any fish at all. I'd rather have a kitten."
"Oh, I can get you a kitten easily enough. James always knows where to
get them. What color do you want?"
"Gray; Maltese, you know. Will he get it to-day?"
"I'll ask Mother to ask him to-day. He'll get it soon, I know."
"All right; I'd heaps rather have that than fish. I'm tired of goldfish,
anyway. You can't cuddle them like you can kittens. And I never had a
kitten."
"You didn't! Why, Delight Spencer! I never heard of a girl that had
_never_ had a kitten! I'll ask Mother to see about it right away. Do you
want two?"
"Yes, as many as I can have. I ought to have four to make up for those
goldfish."
"You can have four, if your mother'll let you," said Midget. "Ask her."
"Oh, she'll let me. She never says no to anything I want. Does your
mother?"
"Yes, often. But then, I want such crazy things."
"So do I. But I get them. Go on and see about the kittens."
So Midget went to the telephone and told her mother the whole story about
the goldfish.
Mrs. Maynard was surprised at Marjorie's ignorance of fish's habits, but
she didn't scold.
"I do think," she said "that you should have known better; but of course
I know you didn't intend to harm the fish. And anyway we won't discuss it
over the telephone. I'll wait until we're together again."
"You'll have to keep a list of all my mischief, Mother," said Midget,
cheerfully; "and do up the scolding and punishing all at once, when I get
home."
"Yes, but don't get into mischief while you're over there. Do try,
Marjorie, to behave yourself."
"I will, Mother, but I'm so tired of staying here I don't know what to
do. Delight heard me say that, but I can't help it. I expect she's tired
of having me here."
"I am not!" declared Delight; "now ask her about the kittens."
So Marjorie asked her mother about the kittens, and Mrs. Maynard promised
to ask James to see if he couldn't find some that would be glad of a good
home.
And so anxious was James to please his dear Miss Marjorie, and so
numerous were kittens among James' circle of personal acquaintances, that
that very afternoon, a basket was set on the Spencer's porch and the door
bell was rung.
Mary opened the door and saw the basket, well-covered over.
"The saints presarve us!" she cried; "sure, it's a baby!"
She brought the basket in, and Mrs. Spencer turned back the folded
blanket, and disclosed four roly-poly kittens all cuddled into one heap
of fur.
"Oh!" cried Delight, "did you ever see anything so lovely! Midget, I'm
_so_ glad you killed the goldfish! These are a million times nicer."
"But you could have had these too," said Marjorie; "and anyway, I'll
probably put these in the aquarium and drown them, by mistake!"
"Indeed you won't!" said Delight, cuddling the little balls of fur. "Oh,
Mother, aren't they _dear?_"
"They are very cunning," answered Mrs. Spencer, "and I'm glad you have
them. Though four seems a good many. Don't you want to give them some
milk?"
"Oh, yes; and we'll teach them all to eat from one saucer, so they'll be
loving and affectionate."
The kittens showed no desire to be other than affectionate, and amicably
lapped up milk from the same saucer, without dispute.
There was one white, one Maltese, one black, and one yellow, and Marjorie
felt sure James had chosen the prettiest he could find.
"Now to name them," said Delight. "Let's choose lovely names. You'll help
us, won't you, Miss Hart?"
"You ought to call the white one Pop Corn," said Miss Hart, "for it's
just like a big kernel of freshly popped corn."
"I will," said Delight, "for it's like that; but as that's a hard name to
say, I'll call her Poppy for short. A white poppy, you know. Now the
black one?"
"Blackberry," suggested Marjorie, and that was the chosen name. The
yellow one was named Goldenrod, and the gray one Silverbell, and the four
together made as pretty a picture as you could imagine. The girls spent
an hour or more playing with them and watching their funny antics, and
then Miss Hart proposed that they, crochet balls of different color for
each little cat.
Mrs. Spencer provided a box of worsted and they chose the colors.
A red ball was to be made for Blackberry, and a light blue one for Poppy.
Goldenrod was to have a yellow one, and Silverbell a pink one.
Miss Hart showed the girls how to crochet a round cover, hooping it to
form a ball, and then stuffing it tightly with worsted just before
finishing it.
They made the four balls and tried to teach the kittens to remember their
own colors. But in this they were not very successful, as the kittens
liked the balls so much they played with any one they could catch.
When Mr. Maynard came home, true to his word, he sent Marjorie a gift.
The bell rang, and there on the doorstep lay a parcel.
It proved to contain two picture puzzles.
"Oh, goody!" cried Midget. "These are just what I wanted. I've heard
about them, but I've never had any, and Father told me last week he'd get
me one. One's for you, Delight, and one's for me. Which do you choose?"
"Left hand," said Delight, as Marjorie's hands went behind her.
"All right; here it is."
"But I don't know how to do puzzles. I never saw one like this."
"If you knew how to do it, it wouldn't be a puzzle. I don't know either;
but we'll learn."
"I'll show you how to begin," said Miss Hart. "Wait a minute."
She went out to the dining-room, and returned with two trays, oblong,
square-cornered and of fairly good size.
"Make your puzzles on these," she said, "and then you can carry them
around while working on them, if you want to. You can't do that, if you
make them right on the table."
So with the trays on the table in front of them the girls began. Each
puzzle had about a hundred and fifty pieces, and they were not easy ones.
Miss Hart showed them how to find pieces that fitted each other; but
would not help them after the first two or three bits were joined, for
she said the fun was in doing it themselves.
"But I can't!" said Midge, looking perfectly hopeless; "these pieces are
all brownish and greenish and I don't know what they are."
"I see," said Delight, her eyes sparkling; "you must find a face, or
something that you can tell what it is, and start from that."
"But there isn't any face here," said Midget; "here's one eye,--if it
_is_ an eye!"
"Begin with that," advised Miss Hart. "Find some more of a face to go
with it."
"Oh, yes; here's a nose and lips! Why, it just fits in!"
Soon the two children were absorbed in the fascinating work. It was a
novelty, and it happened to appeal to both of them.
"Don't look at each other's picture," warned Miss Hart, "and then, when
both are done, you can exchange and do each other's. It's no fun if you
see the picture before you try to make it."
"Some pieces of mine must be missing," declared Marjorie; "there's no
piece at all to go into this long, narrow curving space."
Miss Hart smiled, for she had had experience in this pastime.
"Everybody thinks pieces are lost at some stage of the work," she said;
"never mind that space, Marjorie, keep on with the other parts."
"Oh!" cried Delight. "I can see part of the picture now! It's going to be
a--"
"Don't tell!" interrupted Miss Hart; "after you've each done both of
them, you can look at the finished pictures together. But now, keep it
secret what the pictures are about."
So the work went on, and now and then a chuckle of pleasure or an
exclamation of impatience would tell of the varying fortunes of the
workers.
"Oh!" cried Delight. "I just touched a piece to straighten it, and I
joggled the whole thing out of place!"
Then Miss Hart showed them how to take a ruler and straighten the
edges,--if the edges were built; and how to crowd a corner down into a
corner of the tray, and so keep the pieces in place. So engrossed were
the two that Mrs. Spencer had difficulty to persuade them to come to
dinner.
"Oh, Mother," cried Delight, "do wait till I find this lady's other arm.
I'm sure I saw it a moment ago."
And Marjorie lingered, looking for a long triangle with a notch in the
end.
But at last they set their trays carefully away, at different ends of the
room, and even laid newspapers over them, so they shouldn't see each
other's puzzle.
"That's the most fun of any game I ever played," said Delight, as she
took her seat at the table.
"I think so too," said Midge; "are there many of them made, Miss Hart?"
"Thousands, my dear. And all, or nearly all, different."
"When we finish these," said Delight, "I'll ask my father to bring us
some more. I just love to do them."
"You musn't do too many," said Miss Hart; "that stooping position is not
good for little girls if kept up too long at a time."
"It did make the back of my neck ache," said Delight; "but I don't mind,
it's such fun to see the picture come."