THE BROKEN BOX.
Before we congratulate ourselves on Aunt Mary's return home, let us just
take a look at the disappointed Mabel, after her sister Julia had gone
to the tea-party.
It was in vain that her too indulgent mother tried to soften her
affliction, very injudiciously, we think, as every remark of hers only
elicited a fresh burst of feeling; and Mrs. Ellis felt it quite a relief
when the self-tormenting girl rose up hastily and retreated to her
bedroom, there to ponder over, not her own delinquencies, we fear, but
the wrongs inflicted on her by others.
A little voice which said, 'May I come in, Mabel?' roused her for a
moment, and she answered very crossly: 'What is it you want, Fred? I
wish you would not come teasing me. Go away; I don't want any of you.
'I only want to show you the nice box of puzzles papa has brought home
for me,' replied Freddy. 'I want you, Mabel dear, to help me to put it
together. I won't tease you.'
'I don't want to see your box, and I shan't open the door,' said the
ungracious girl. 'Take your box away, and get some one else to help you
to put your puzzle together,' she added; and poor Fred, thus rudely
repressed, turned to wend his way downstairs again. Unfortunately, his
foot caught the fringe of the door-mat, which caused him to fall heavily
and strike his head against the railing of the banisters, while the
pretty box, escaping from his hand, went right down the stairs into the
hall, where it burst open, and scattered the inclosed pieces right and
left.
Mabel was now quite roused, and fearing that her papa, attracted by the
noise, might come up to see what was the matter, rather than being moved
by any sisterly feeling, she reluctantly opened the door, and lifted up
the prostrate Freddy, who, although he had received a rather severe blow
on the forehead from coming in contact with the railings, was too much
of a man to cry, and seemed more anxious about the fate of his new
plaything, than desirous of obtaining either aid or sympathy; nor was he
very likely to obtain either from Mabel, though she took him into her
room to scold him for what he had done.
'Now just see what you have done,' said the selfish girl, 'by bringing
up that nasty box, and then letting it fall down the stairs. I hear
papa's voice in the hall; he will most likely come up here, and I shall
get scolded for your stupidity.'
'I will go down to him,' said Freddy, 'and then I can tell him all about
the box falling; papa needn't come up here.'
'How came you to let your box fall, Fred?' inquired Mr. Ellis, helping
the boy to pick up the scattered pieces.
'I caught my foot in the fringe of the bedroom mat, papa,' replied
Freddy; 'I am so sorry the box is broken.'
'Yes, so am I,' said his father; 'but why did you take it upstairs? that
is what I should like to know.'
As there was no answer returned to this question, Mr. Ellis stated the
truth himself.
'I suppose,' he continued, 'you went to show it to your sister
Mabel--was that it?'
'Yes, papa,' said the boy, still holding down his head; and kind papa,
seeing there was something wrong, would not then press further questions
on his little boy, though he remarked to his wife, when they were again
seated, that he should indeed be very glad when Mabel was under the care
of someone who knew how to manage her, for he was quite disgusted with
her exhibitions of temper.
'My sister will I dare say be here to-morrow,' said Mrs. Ellis; 'and I
will tell her what you wish respecting Mabel, though I know she does not
like the poor girl: and Mabel will find Oak Villa very different to
home, I am afraid.'
'That is not what I am afraid of,' replied Mr. Ellis; 'my fear is, that
Miss Livesay will find the girl so intolerable, that we shall soon have
her back on our hands again.'
'Oh, Arthur! you are so very severe in your remarks,' said the too
indulgent mother. 'My sister is very patient, and very kind to children,
though she is so firm.'
'Which I am sorry to say you are not, my dear; and it is this want of
firmness which occasions all the mischief,' said the gentleman; adding,
rather bitterly, 'You order a thing to be done, but you take no care to
see your orders enforced, and thus we are plagued with unruly children
and wilful servants.'
'Well, dear, you are always finding fault with me, whatever I do,' said
the poor self-afflicted lady, though she must have felt that what her
good husband had said was quite true; and well would it have been for
him, for herself, and indeed for the whole household, if, instead of
considering herself a martyr, she had set to work to amend the errors
which he had pointed out; but, alas! we don't see ourselves as others
see us.