THE LITTLE DIPPER.
"Well, mother," said Squire Lyman, one afternoon, "the new teacher has
got along, and by the looks of him I don't believe he is the man to
abuse our little girl. Patty, dear, open the cellar door for papa."
Mr. Lyman's arms were full of hemlock, which he had brought home from
the woods. Betsy liked it for brooms, and he and his hired men always
got quantities of it when they were hauling the winter's wood from the
wood lot.
"Yes, I know the Starbird family very well," replied Mrs. Lyman; "that
is, I used to know this young man's mother, and I presume he is quite
different from Mr. Purple."
Mrs. Lyman was sitting before the kitchen fire with the great family
Bible in her lap; but, instead of reading it, she was winding round it
some white soft wicking.
"Why, mamma, mamma, what are you doing?" exclaimed Patty. "How can papa
read to-night with the Bible all tied up?"
"I shan't hurt the good book, my dear." And as Mrs. Lyman spoke she cut
the wicking in two with the shears, and as it fell apart it let out the
precious volume just as good as ever. Then she took from the table some
slender sticks, and put on each stick twelve pieces of wicking, giving
each piece a little twist with her fingers.
"O, now I know," said Moses, who was watching too; "you're a goin' to
make candles--going to dip those strings in a kettle of something hot.
Yes, I know."
"Yes, and there's the kettle," said Patty.
Mrs. Lyman was very late this year about her candles. She dipped them
once a year, and always in the afternoon and evening, because there was
so much, so very much going on in that kitchen in the morning.
"Now, please, mamma," said Patty, "let me help."
Mrs. Lyman tipped two chairs face downward towards the floor,--"Like
folks trying to creep," said Patty,--and laid two long sticks from one
chair to the other, making a very good fence. Next she set the candle
rods across the fence, more than a hundred of them in straight rows.
"James," called she, going to the door; and while James was coming she
laid a large plank on the floor right under the candle rods.
"That's to catch the drippings," said the learned Moses; and he was
right.
Squire Lyman and James came in and lifted the heavy brass kettle from
the crane, and placed it on a board just in front of the brick hearth,
not far from the creeping chairs; and then Mrs. Lyman sat down to dip
candles.
In the first place, when she put the pieces of wicking into the kettle
of hot tallow and took them out again, they looked like greasy strings,
and nothing else. One after another she dipped them in and drew them
out, dipped them in and drew them out, and set them carefully back in
their places across the fence.
Patty and Moses looked on with great Interest.
"How slow they are!" said Moses. "I've kept count, and you've dipped
more'n a hundred sticks, and you haven't made one candle yet."
"Rome wasn't built in a day," said Mrs. Lyman, going back to the very
beginning, and dipping the first row over again.
"I don't know what Rome is," said Patty.
"Well, I wouldn't fuss with those strings," observed Moses; "why, this
makes twice, and they're no bigger round yet than slate pencils."
"I'd let 'em alone," said Patty, "and not try."
"Moses, you might as well run off and see if father wants you," said
Mrs. Lyman; "and, Patience, I know Dorcas would like some cloves
pounded."
In about an hour Patty was back again. The candles had grown, but only a
very little. They were no larger yet than _lead_ pencils. And there sat
Mrs. Lyman with a steady, sober look on her face, as if she had made up
her mind to wait and let them take their time to grow.
"What slow candles!" cried Patty.
"Patience, dear," said Mrs. Lyman, smiling.
"There, mamma, you said Patience, but you didn't mean me; you meant the
_good_ kind of patience."
"Yes, I meant the patience that works and waits. Now go and wash some
potatoes for to-morrow's breakfast, and then you may come again and
look."
"When Patty came the second time, she exclaimed, with delight,
"O, mamma, they're as big round as candy! Wish _'twas_ candy; wouldn't I
eat?"
Mrs. Lyman began again at the first row.
"Why, mamma Lyman, true's you live I can begin to see 'em grow!"
"You are right," said her mother. "People don't work and wait, all for
nothing, daughter."
"Yankee Doodle came to town," sang Patty, dancing the time to the tune,
as if she did not hear her mother's words. But she did hear them, and
was putting them away in her memory, along with a thousand other things
which had been said to her, and which she had not seemed to hear at the
time.
I wish Mrs. Lyman could have known this, for she sometimes thought it
was of no use to talk to Patty. I wish she could have known that years
afterwards the dancing child would be comforted in many a trouble by
these cheery words, "People don't work and wait for nothing, daughter."
For you see it all came back to Patty when she was a woman. She saw a
picture of her good mother dipping candles, with a steady, sober look on
her face; and that picture always did her good.
I wonder if the little folks, even in these days, don't hear and heed
more than they appear to? If so, their mammas ought to believe it, and
take courage.
"Mother, why do you pour hot water into that kettle? Won't water _put
out_ candles?"
"Perhaps not; perhaps it will make the tallow rise to the top," said
Mrs. Lyman, laughing.
"O, so it does. Isn't it _such_ fun to dip candles? They grow as fast as
you can wink. Mayn't I dip, please, mamma?"
"Who was it," replied Mrs. Lyman, with a quiet smile, "that said, 'I'd
let 'em alone, and not try?'"
"O, but, mamma, that was when they didn't grow, you know."
"Well, dear, I'll let you dip in a rod by and by; I can't stop now."
Patty waited, but the "by and by" did not come. Mrs. Lyman seemed to
have forgotten her promise; and about eight o'clock had to leave the
candles a few minutes to give Dorcas some advice about the fitting of a
dress. Dorcas was to take her mother's place; but just as she started
for the kitchen, there was an outcry from Mary, who had cut her finger,
and wanted it bound up.
"It's my by-and-by _now_," thought little Patty.
There was not a soul in the kitchen to attend to those candles. Deary
me, and the tallow growing so cold! Wasn't it Patty's duty to help?
Of course it was; and seating her little self with much dignity in the
chair from which her mother had just risen, and propping her feet on the
round, she took up the business where it was left off. It seemed the
easiest thing in the world to flash those round white candles into the
kettle and out again; but they were a great deal heavier than she had
supposed. After she had dipped two or three rods her arm felt very
tired. How could mamma do it so fast, without stopping one bit?
A bright thought seized Patty, as bright as all those dozen-dozen
candles burning in a row.
"Guess I'll dip 'em slow; then there'll be more tallow stick on."
Strange mamma hadn't thought of that herself; but mammas can't think of
everything, they have so much to do. Patty swayed a rod full of candles
from side to side in the kettle, not perceiving that they were melting
to their heart's cores. When she took them out they dripped great tears,
and as she held them up, wondering why they hadn't grown any, the
kitchen door opened, and some one walked in.
Who it was Patty could not see, for her face was turned away; but what
if it should be brother James, and he should call out,
"Well, Snippet, up to mischief, hey?"
The very thought of such a speech frightened her so that she set her row
of candles across the chairs in great haste, hitting them against
another row, where they stuck fast.
"Good evening, miss," said a strange voice.
Patty turned her head, and there, instead of James, stood a handsome
young gentleman she had never seen before. She knew at once it must be
the new teacher.
The first thing she did was to seize a row of candles, hit or miss, and
dashed them into the kettle.
"Beg pardon. I'm afraid I've come to the wrong door," said the stranger,
bowing very low, and trying his best not to smile.
"O, no, sir; yes, sir; thank you," replied bewildered Patty, almost
plunging head first into the kettle. But instead of that she suddenly
straightened up, and popped in another row of candles.
Mr. Starbird was so amused by the little creature's quick and
kitten-like motions that he stood still and watched her. He thought he
had never seen so funny a sight before.
"He smiles just as _cheerfully_," mused Miss Patty, with an airy toss of
the head. "Guess he thinks I'm smart! Guess he thinks he'll put me in
the C'lumby Norter [Columbian Orator] first thing _he_ does! Big girl
like this, sitting up so straight, working like a woman!"
With that she rocked forward, and nearly lost her balance; but no harm
was done; she only pushed the kettle half way off the board.
The gentleman thought it was about time to interfere, and let some of
the family know what the child was doing.
"Will you please point the way to the parlor, little miss?" said he,
with a bewitching smile.
Patty slid from her seat, and, in her confusion, was aiming straight for
the cellar door, when, alas! alas! one of her feet got caught in the
rounds of the chair, and she tumbled out headlong. In trying to save
herself, she put forth both hands, and struck against the kettle, which
was already tipsy, and of course turned over.
It was a critical moment. Mr. Starbird saw the kettle coming, and had
the presence of mind to spring the other way. A flood of hot water and
tallow was pouring over the floor, and little Patty screaming lustily.
Mr. Starbird thought she was scalding to death, and instead of taking
care of himself, turned about to save her. But before he could reach
her, she had darted through the bar-room door and disappeared--without
so much as a blotch of tallow on her shoes.
Gallant Mr. Starbird did not get off so well. His foot slipped on the
oily floor, and down he fell. Before he could get up the whole household
had come to the rescue, Rachel and John bringing tin dippers, and Mrs.
Lyman a mop; but Dorcas a roll of linen, for she knew the stranger must
be scalded.
He tried to make the best of it, poor man; and while Dorcas was doing up
both his blistered hands, he smiled on her almost as "cheerfully" as he
had smiled on the little candle-dipper. He found it very pleasant to
look at Dorcas. Everybody liked to look at her. She had a rare, sweet
face, as delicate as a white snowdrop just touched with pink, and she
did know how to do up sore fingers beautifully; she had practised it on
every one of the children.
Patty was so sorry and ashamed that she crept to bed in the dark, and
cried herself to sleep.
The next morning that unpainted kitchen floor was a sight to behold, and
Rachel said she did not think it would ever come clean again.
"See what I found in the kettle," said she.
Two rows of little withered candles, all worn out, and crooked besides.
"Did I do that too?" said Patty.
"I should think you did. What mischief will you be up to next?" said
Rachel, sharply.
"But, but, mamma _said_ I might dip."
"Why, yes, so I did," said the much-enduring mother, suddenly
remembering her own words. "Well, well, Rachel, we won't be too hard on
Patience. I'll warrant she'll never try this caper again."