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[Illustration: Front cover]
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FIVE HAPPY WEEKS.
BY
MARGARET E. SANGSTER.
_American Tract Society_,
150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
FIVE HAPPY WEEKS.
CHAPTER I.
"GOOD-BY, MAMMA!"
"I don't see how I can do such a thing," said mamma, shading her eyes
with a hand so white and thin that you could almost see through it.
"I never, never can go away, for five weeks, and leave these children;
I should not have a moment's peace."
"But, my darling," said papa, "the doctor says it is the only thing that
will restore your health. The children will be nicely taken care of, and
I am sure they will be as good and obedient as possible while you are
gone."
"You are going too, William; you seem to forget that. And we have never
been away from them before. What if Edith or Mabel should be sick, or
Johnnie should fall and break his arm, or--"
"Don't conjure up dreadful possibilities, Helen," said papa; "I'll tell
you how we will manage it. This house shall be shut, and we'll take
grandma and the children with us as far as Norfolk, and leave them there
with your Aunt Maria, while we make our trip. And we will stop for them
on our way home. What do you think of that plan?"
"Well," said mamma, with a faint smile, "I think I'll leave it to you.
It tires me to have to reason things out. Auntie would be kind to them,
I know, and I should feel easier if this house were shut up altogether."
Mrs. Evans had been ailing all the long cold winter, and as Spring began
to approach, she drooped more and more, until her husband and her
friends feared she would die. Then Dr. Phelps advised a short journey to
Florida and Mexico. He said she needed sea-air, and change, and flowers.
So it was settled that she should attempt it.
The children were having a frolic in the play-room while this talk had
been going on. Johnnie and Mabel had been arranging a little basket of
fruit for their mother, oranges, apples and grapes, and now they were
disputing as to which should present it to her.
"I ought to, I'm the oldest," said Johnnie. "I'm the biggest and the
strongest, and I will take it in to mamma myself."
"The bigger and the stronger ought to yield to the smaller and the
weaker," said a sweet voice. The children looked round, and saw a little
lady whom they all liked. She was Miss Simms, the dressmaker. Her face
was as round as an apple, she had two bright black eyes, and when she
laughed the dimples seemed to chase each other over her cheeks.
"I'm so glad you've come," said Mabel, running away from the fruit to
put her two fat arms as far round Miss Simms as they would reach.
"I am glad, too; it's jolly," said Johnnie. "But I'd like to know why
you think the bigger ought to give up to the littler. That's what I
can't understand. In the history books they never do it. The strong
always whip the weak."
"Well," said Miss Simms, "I'm not much of a scholar, and I've never read
many history books, as you call them, Master Johnnie; but I've read my
Bible, and I get my learning out of that. I'll tell you some of my
verses, and you can see what you make of them.
"'Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee
turn not thou away.'
"'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.'
"'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of
God.'
"'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even
so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.'
"There," finished Miss Simms, "if that is the law and the prophets,
Johnnie, oughtn't you to give up to Mabel and Edith, once in a while?"
"I don't ask him to very often," said Edith.
"Well, I do!" said Mabel.
"Yes, Miss Simms, I believe I ought to, more'n I have," said Johnnie,
quite earnestly. "I'm bound to be a gentleman; and a gentleman is always
polite to the ladies. I've seen that with father and mother many a time.
So, Mabel, you take mamma her fruit;" and with that, Johnnie handed her
the basket, and made a low bow.
Miss Simms seated herself in the window, took out her scissors and a
great roll of patterns, and then said,
"Edith, dearie, will you ask your grandma or Aunt Catharine, if they
know where the merino is for your new dresses?"
"Are we to have new dresses?" said Edith; "it's the first I've heard of
it."
"Oh, children don't know everything in _this_ house," said Miss
Simms, laughing. Grandma came bustling in with bundles nearly as big as
herself.
"You had better measure Edie first, as she is on the spot; and then I'll
help sew on her skirt, while you are cutting out for Mabel."
"I'm glad I'm not a girl," said Johnnie, "always having to bother with
new frocks."
"Mrs. Evans is wise to go South now," said Miss Simms to grandma. "I've
been hoping she would, it's far too bleak for her here."
Edith opened her blue eyes very wide, and then they filled with tears.
She hid her head in her grandma's bosom.
"Why, child, you little goose, it is to make your dear mother well. And
you three small folks are going part way with her."
At this Edith's sudden tears dried up very quickly, and her face made
itself into a question mark.
"You three children, and I myself, are going to see your Aunt Maria, in
Virginia."
Johnnie began to turn somersaults to show his delight at the news. He
ran off for further information, and came back saying, "I never heard
anything so splendid in my life. We are to start a week from to-day
Edith. Mamma's going South to get well, and we're going South too, to
get acquainted with our Aunt Maria."
The children thought they must pack up their treasures at once; and as
everybody was just then too busy to notice them very much, they made a
remarkable collection. Edith brought out her Paris doll, and its
wardrobe, her baby carriage hung with blue satin, and its pillows
trimmed and ruffled with lace, her favorite books, and her best china
tea-set.
"I could not travel in comfort without Miss Josephine," she said with
much dignity, as she seated herself in the parlor, with her treasures
around her. "I could not stir a step without her."
Mabel brought her Maltese kitten, and her Spitz dog, and tied a cherry
ribbon round Fido's neck, and a blue one round Queenie's.
"Now I am ready to go!" she said.
As for Johnnie, he had so large a collection of must-haves, and
can't-do-withouts, that he went to ask his father's advice. Mr. Evans
came into the parlor, and laughed as he looked at his little girls, and
their anxious faces.
"My dears," he said, "we are not to be off for a week yet, and when we
start we cannot carry much baggage. The old Romans called baggage
_impedimenta_, because it hindered them on their way; and that is
just what it is, a hinderance. We must leave all our treasures at home."
"Even Queenie and Fido? They will break their hearts," said Mabel.
"Even Miss Josephine?" said Edith. "She will pale away and die without
me!"
"If I could take my wheelbarrow and my box of tools, I would be
satisfied," exclaimed Johnnie.
"Now, children," Mr. Evans explained, "you are going to see a good many
new things; and if you leave your property at home, it will be safe, and
will seem new and delightful when you get back. Fido and Queenie will go
to Aunt Catharine's and pay a visit too."
"I don't believe the week will ever come to an end," sighed Edith, and
she repeated the sigh a dozen times that busy week. But it did. Miss
Simms cut and basted and fitted. Friends came to help. The furniture was
covered. The house was securely fastened. At last they all went on board
the Richmond steamer, on which they spent two very sea-sick nights and a
day. After that it stopped at the Norfolk wharf. It lay there some
hours, but before it started again, Aunt Maria came with a great roomy
carriage, and took away the children. At the last moment grandma had
decided not to go, so the brother and sisters felt rather forlorn when
they went away with the strange auntie.
"Good-by, mamma!" cried three brave little voices, however, and three
handkerchiefs were waved, as they saw mamma smiling back cheerfully to
them from the deck of the "Old Dominion."
"In five weeks we'll see her again. It seems like for ever," said Edith
to Johnnie.
"Five weeks," said Aunt Maria, "is a very short while, when people are
having a really happy time. Just make up your minds to make each other
as happy as you can, my dears; you are going to see my family pretty
soon."
"There's the thea-thickness going back," little Mabel murmured.
"Never cross a bridge till you come to it, Mabel. It's a poor way to
fret over troubles that are five weeks off. I have known people who were
very sea-sick coming, and not in the least so going back. It may be that
way with you, little one; so look on the bright side."