just going. We're all going, and Lily's nurse is going to take care of
us."
"No," said her mamma, far more decidedly than she was accustomed to
speak to Mamie, "I cannot allow it. I am afraid for you to go there."
Lily came forward as Mamie stood fuming and pouting. "Mrs. Stone," she
said respectfully, "mamma thinks it is safe when the waves are so low
as they are to-day, and she lets me go quite often with Tom or Nora,
and sometimes she takes me herself. Nora will take good care of us all."
"No, dear," said Mrs. Stone, who was rather a nervous, anxious mother;
"I should not know one moment's peace till Mamie came back. I really
cannot let her go. I think it a very unsafe place for children to play.
Why cannot you amuse yourselves on the beach?"
Now, having made up their minds to go to the breakwater, this proposal
did not suit any of the children; but probably Belle and Lily would
have submitted to the change of plan without murmuring, if Mamie had
done so.
But Mamie was the last to think of this; her mother's words and her
mother's wishes had little weight with the spoiled child when they
interfered with her own pleasure; and she shocked both Lily and Belle
by declaring passionately that she _would_ go to the breakwater, and
she was "not going to stay away for such old nonsense as that."
"Children!" exclaimed Mrs. Stone, who knew too well the uselessness of
contention with Mamie when she was in a contrary mood; "children! my
dear little girls! Lily! I do beg of you not to tempt Mamie down on
that dreadful breakwater! my dears, do give it up!"
"Don't you be afraid, ma'am," answered Lily, magnificently, but quite
oblivious in her indignation of her parts of speech; "don't you be
afraid; neither us nor my nurse will help her to disobey you; and Nora
never takes children when she knows their mothers don't want them to
go. She won't let Mamie go on the breakwater."
Mamie turned upon her angrily, with the words, "What business is it
of yours?" upon her lips; but as she did so, she caught Belle's eye
fixed reproachfully and anxiously upon her. She hesitated for one
second, then tried to go on, and to put from her the thought which came
to her mind; but somehow she could not, she _dared_ not; for Belle's
reproachful eye had recalled the recollection of that other All-seeing
Eye which even now was watching her. She was not yet penitent, not
yet even thoroughly ashamed and subdued; but she was afraid; afraid
to brave that Eye in the face of her forgotten resolution. She stood
silent, still looking vexed and unamiable, but making no reply, when
her mother said to Lily,--
"Be sure then to make Nora understand she is not to venture upon the
breakwater."
"Come on," whispered Lily, putting her arm through Belle's; "come on,
Belle, and leave her to be sulky by herself. A child who speaks that
way to her mother ought to be treated with lofty scorn;" and Lily threw
her head back, and looked very stern in an attempt to manifest the
feeling she spoke of.
Belle suffered herself to be drawn on a few steps, Mabel following;
but presently turning her head, and seeing Mamie still standing with
downcast looks, she stopped, and said,--
"Don't let's be offended with her for that, Lily; I think she's sorry
now, and she'll be good if we coax her. Come on, Mamie," in a louder
tone.
"Yes, come on," said Lily, forgetting her "lofty scorn," and already
reproaching herself for having been so severe with her young playmate;
"come on, there's lots of fun in other places. Shall we go to the
beach?"
With a mixed feeling of shame, repentance, and vexation, Mamie hung
back for a moment, half resolving that she would not go; but reflecting
that it would be "very stupid at home with nobody to play with," she
thought better of it, and followed the others.
Her thoughts, and those of her companions, were presently diverted from
her misdoings by Lily saying,--
"Oh, there now! You have no spades and pails, and the beach is not a
bit of fun without. You can buy them at the store. There's all your
fathers standing by the gate. Why don't you go and ask for money to buy
them?"
No sooner said than done. Mr. Powers, Mr. Stone, and Mr. Walton, who
were standing talking together, were immediately besieged by three
eager little voices, begging for money to buy the articles which Lily
had pronounced necessary for proper enjoyment of the beach. Their
demands were readily gratified; and Lily having called Nora, the whole
troop sallied down to the store, where Lily caused great amusement by
asking the salesman for "pades and spails." This mistake served as a
good joke for some time, and restored good humor and merriment to the
young party.
The beach proved quite as attractive as Lily had pictured it, and the
time was happily whiled away there till the hour for bathing arrived,
and people began to flock down for that purpose. Among them came the
older friends of our little girls; and now there was a new delight for
Lily and Belle, Mamie considering the pleasure of a surf bath, at the
best, doubtful; and Mabel positively refusing to try it.
Mabel chose to accept her mother's offer of driving home in the great,
red "beach wagon" which was waiting on the sands for those who wished
to use it; but the other children preferred to walk; and as little
Belle, as usual, went clinging to her father's hand, it came to pass
that Mamie and Lily were left to walk together, and they fell rather
behind the rest of the party.
"See here, Mamie," said Lily; "I didn't know you were really trying to
improve yourself. You know it didn't look much like it this morning
when you spoke so to your mother; but are you, really now?"
"Yes, I am," answered Mamie; "and I've taken a watchword to help me,
out of the Bible."
"That is a good plan," said Lily approvingly. "What is it?"
"The eyes of the Lord are in every place," repeated Mamie; "and
this morning when I was mad because mamma wouldn't let me go to the
breakwater, I just thought the eye of the Lord saw me then, and that
stopped me. But I think mamma might have let me go, don't you?"
"Well, yes, I think she might as well have let you go," said Lily,
trying to mingle a mild disapprobation of Mrs. Stone's objections
with the teaching of a due submission on Mamie's part, and a modest
consciousness of her own better fortune; "and my mamma always lets
me go with some one to take care of me. But then, Mamie, mammas are
different, you know, and their children can't expect to alter them."
"No," said Mamie, feeling, as perhaps Lily meant she should, that her
little companion was more blessed in an accommodating mamma than she
was, at least, in the matter of the breakwater; "no, but it is so
stupid in mamma to be afraid of nothing. She ought to know that 'the
eyes of the Lord' see me there, and He will take care of me."
Lily looked at her doubtfully. She had a feeling that it was not quite
proper for Mamie to speak of her Maker in this careless way, and still
she did not wish to take her to task about it; nor, if she had, would
she have exactly known how to express the feeling in words. But she
felt herself called upon, at least, to show her disapproval of the
manner in which Mamie spoke of her mother, and she said gravely,--
"I wouldn't call my mamma 'stupid,' anyway, whatever she wouldn't let
me do."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
IV.
_FORBIDDEN PLEASURES._
THEY were nearing the breakwater as Lily spoke these last words, and
the rest of the party paused when they came opposite to it, and Mr.
Norris held out his hand to his little daughter, saying,--
"We are going on the breakwater for a few moments, Lily, and Mr. Powers
is going to take Belle. Do you want to come?"
Lily assented, and seized upon her papa's hand, all the more eagerly
because she saw her brother Tom and the Stone boys upon the pier, and
Lily always liked to go where Tom was.
Mamie rushed up to her father.
"You come too, papa; you come too, and take me; will you?" she
exclaimed.
"Mamma does not wish you to go upon the breakwater, Mamie," answered
Mr. Stone. "I promised her this morning that I would not take you
there, nor allow you to go under any circumstances."
"It's not fair," whined Mamie, her good resolutions and her watchword
once more forgotten; "it's not fair! The other children are going, and
why can't I, with you to take care of me?"
"Because I _promised_ mamma, dear," said Mr. Stone. "I am sorry she has
this fear of your going upon the breakwater; but since it is so, we
must give way to it, for we do not wish to trouble her, and you know
she seldom crosses any of your wishes."
Ah! but Mamie had no thought for that now. She was crossed just at the
present moment, and she forgot all her mother's indulgence; and it only
seemed to her that she was very ill used, and her mamma very unkind
and provoking.
She begged and fretted, but all in vain; her father was usually firmer
with her than her mother was, and now having, as he said, given a
promise that he would not allow Mamie to go, he would not yield to her
desire.
In this mood she was led home, where she increased her own discontent
and longing for a forbidden pleasure by refusing to employ or amuse
herself in any other way; and standing sullenly at one end of the
long piazza, idly leaning against a pillar, and watching the distant
breakwater where she could see several figures, among whom she
distinguished Belle and Lily, sitting or clambering around.
"It was too bad," "too mean," "real hateful," she said to herself;
she "knew the breakwater was just the very pleasantest spot in the
whole place; it must be so grand to see the waves come up there;" and,
resolutely putting from her all better thoughts and feelings, she
nursed her ill-humor till she was thoroughly miserable.
And from that time the desire to go upon the breakwater took complete
possession of Mamie's mind. Not that she knew of any very special
attraction there; there were half a dozen play-grounds quite as
pleasant, some far more so than the forbidden spot; but I am sorry to
say that it was for that very reason, because it _was_ forbidden, that
she longed to go, and was determined to do so if she could possibly
find the way. To _worry_ her mother into withdrawing her refusal was
her first idea; but she soon found this was useless; all her teasing,
oft-repeated though it was, could not move Mrs. Stone. She believed the
place to be dangerous, was nervous and uneasy even when her great boys
were there, and nothing could persuade her to give Mamie the desired
permission.
Still it must not be supposed that Mamie exactly planned an act of
deliberate disobedience, and carried such a purpose about with her in
her heart. But she was rebellious and discontented; thought her mother
was "mean" and "foolish;" and nursed other undutiful feelings, and so
paved the way for sin when temptation and opportunity came. She was not
openly naughty and disobedient, as yet; and she forgot that the Eye
which saw all her actions, good and bad, marked quite as plainly every
thought of her heart.
She was playing with Lulu that afternoon, when Lily came rushing over
to her in a state of great excitement.
"Come over to our house, and see the very cunningest and queerest thing
you ever saw in your life," she said.
"What is it?" asked Mamie.
"Come and see," repeated Lily. "Can she come, Mrs. Stone?" to Mamie's
mamma, who sat upon the piazza near by.
Mrs. Stone gave the permission which Lily judged necessary, but which
Mamie probably would not have thought of asking; and the latter dropped
the tongue of the wagon which she was drawing, in the character of
Lulu's horse.
"Lulu do too," said the little one, who had no mind to be shut out from
the promised entertainment.
"O you pet! Could she come too, Mrs. Stone?" asked Lily. "We'd be very
careful of her, and it's a very safe place, just behind the house, that
we are going to."
Permission was given for this also; Mamie, who was very fond of her
little sister, and generally very good to her, also begging for it; and
the delighted baby was led away by her two proud young protectors.
Lily guided her guests to the back of "our house," as she called the
hotel where she boarded; and there were gathered not only Belle and
Mabel, but most of the other children who were staying there, even her
brother Tom and some boys quite as large among them, much interested
in a mixed brood of newly hatched chickens and ducklings which were
running about a coop.
Within was the mother hen, ruffling up her feathers till she was twice
her natural size, clucking and scolding at what she plainly considered
this unwarrantable intrusion upon her premises, and thrusting her head
through the bars of her coop in wild but vain efforts to follow her
nestlings.
"There!" said Lily, "did you ever see any thing so cunning? The little
ducks are rather ugly, but then they are funny; and it is so queer for
a hen to have ducks for her children. I never heard of any thing so
romantic. Now, you need not laugh, Tom. Does it not seem very strange?"
"Not so strange when you know that they gave the old hen duck's eggs,
as well as her own, to set on," said Tom.
"But the little ducks' heads don't fit; they are too big for them. Is
that because a hen set on them?" asked Belle, which question sent all
the large boys into a fit of laughter, whereupon poor Belle looked as
if she had half a mind to run away.
But Tom Norris kindly drew her to him, and told her that young
ducklings were always such awkward, top-heavy looking little things.
"They're not one bit pretty, only funny," said Lily; "but the chickens
are real cunning and pretty; dear little downy things. I'd like to have
one in my hands; can I, Tom?"
"No," answered Tom, "you must not touch them. Mrs. Clark would not like
it, for you might hurt it; and it would distress the old hen."
"She couldn't make much more fuss than she is making now, the cross old
thing!" said Lily, shaking her fist at the hen, "and we're not doing a
thing to her or her chickens."
"She's afraid we will, you see," said Tom. "Hi! and there's Lulu after
one now;" and dropping Belle's hand which had been confidingly nestling
in his, he darted upon the little one just as she had succeeded in
grasping a tiny chicken.
For Lily and Mamie, in their own excitement over the birds, had left
their hold of the child's hands, and being seized with the same desire
which Lily had expressed, she had improved her opportunities, and made
off after a chicken.
She had barely secured her prize when Tom's hand was upon her, not
rudely or roughly, but with a firm, though gentle hold; and Tom's voice
was telling her that she "must let the poor little chickie go."
"No, no. Lulu want it so. Lulu love it," lisped the little one in
coaxing tones, holding up the peeping, struggling thing against Tom's
cheek as if to persuade him by its downy charms to let her keep it.
"But Lulu hurts it, and it is God's little chickie, and He don't want
it to be hurt," said Tom, gently unclasping the fat, dimpled fingers,
and releasing the poor, terrified bird before it had received much
farther injury than a good fright.
"Lulu dest only 'queeze it a little; dest only," said the child,
with whom these last words, meaning "just only," were a favorite
expression; and the distressed tone of voice and grieved lip told that
she was taking the release of the chicken much to heart.
"But it hurts it to squeeze it," said Tom, taking her up in his arms;
"and Mrs. Clark will be angry if you hurt it or kill it."
"Tlart don't see," said Lulu, looking around her to make sure of the
truth of her argument.
"But God sees," said Tom, "and He wants Lulu to be good and not catch
the little chickens or ducklings."
"Does He say Lulu naughty dirl if she tuts 'em?" asked Lulu, raising
her eyes to the sky where she had been told God lived, as if she
expected to see Him.
"He says Lulu is naughty if she hurts the birdies, or don't mind what
she is told," said Tom.
"Den Lulu won't," said the little one; "but Lulu want de chittee
so-o-o," she added, with a long-drawn sigh which told that the
sacrifice was almost too much for her.
"That's a good girl. Don't you want me to give you some pretty shells?"
said Tom approvingly.
This attempt to divert her attention proved quite successful, and Tom
carried her away with all her smiles restored.
"What a dear, good little thing!" said one and another of the childish
group, all of whom had heard what passed.
"Yes, so she is," said Mabel; "but Tom might have let her have the
chicken a few moments. It was no such great harm, and it was real mean
and silly of him."
Lily turned upon her with threatening voice and manner.
"Don't you dare to talk that way of my Tom," she said. "He's _not_ mean
and silly, but he's wise as any thing, and knows a whole lot about what
is right; and he is un-meaner than any one you know!"
"I shall touch the chickens and ducks if I want to, and Tom shan't say
any thing about it," said Mabel, defiantly.
"It's none of my affairs if you do," returned Lily; "but you're not
going to talk horridly about my Tom."
That she would take very decided measures to prevent this, or, at
least, to punish any repetition of the offence, Lily plainly showed by
the very emphatic little nod of her head, with which she treated Mabel.
The latter turned pettishly away, knowing that Lily generally had the
best of it in any war of words, but she muttered as she did so,--
"I'll touch them when Tom's not here."
"She forgets 'the eyes of the Lord' are everywhere," said Mamie,
rather jauntily, for Lulu being her sister, she felt very proud of her
good behavior on this occasion, and as if it reflected some credit on
herself; "and she's not half as good as Lulu."
Lily turned her eyes upon her with a look in which Mamie read some
disapproval and questioning.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing much. I was only thinking," said Lily, not feeling quite
sure that she would be justified in calling Mamie to account for what
she felt to be a careless way of speaking. Moreover, one quarrel was
as much as she cared to manage at once; and, considering Mabel as the
greater offender of the two, she allowed Mamie to go unreproved for the
time.
But, having spoken her mind on the subject of Mabel's criticism of
Tom's conduct, her feelings were relieved, and she was ready to be
friends again, which she showed by saying,--
"Let's all go to the Rocks now if our mothers will let us. Come, Mabel,
make up, and come with us."
Mabel certainly meant to go with the others, but she was resentful,
and had no intention of "making up" so soon; and for some time she
held aloof from Lily, regarding her with frowning and angry looks, and
refusing to walk near her.
"The Rocks make the most splendid place to play in that you ever went
to," said Lily, with the confidence of one who was familiar with the
spot in question, and therefore fully entitled to express an opinion;
"and I'm going to take down some little boats Tom made me, and we'll
sail them in a lovely pool that I know of. But then everybody must be
pleasant and nice if they expect me to lend them to them," she added,
by way of a persuasive admonition to the still sullen Mabel.
But even this inducement did not move Mabel, and her good humor was not
restored till they reached the Rocks, and the charms of the wonderful
place made her forget all cause of offence.
Lily had not, indeed she could not, say too much in praise of these
magnificent rocks. They lay in a vast stretch along the coast, now low
and shelving to the water's brink, now abrupt and precipitous, rising
in huge masses piled one upon the other, or here and there standing
out boldly in some single, grand bluff. All over them were curious
natural steps worn in the solid stone. You might go some distance, and
imagine you had come to a place whence there was no outlet for farther
progress, and lo! turning to the right hand or the left, you would
seldom fail to find these stepping-places to help you onwards. A light
and active foot was an advantage, it is true; and now and then a good
jump was necessary, unless one was contented to turn ignominiously
back, and search for some easier way. But a rich reward for any amount
of hard scrambling awaited you when you had reached some choice spot,
and resting in a natural seat, carved by nature out of the stone,
looked out over the great expanse of blue ocean before you, or cast
your eye down the long line of coast where the white, curling waves
were breaking in masses of snowy foam.
Here in one spot, below where the great boulders lay massed in wild
confusion, the waters came rolling in, in one grand, massive sweep;
there, in another, they were boiling and churning as in some great
caldron; farther on still, where some huge rock rose frowning and
stern, thrusting itself into the sea far beyond its fellows, they were
broken into countless showers of spray which, now and then, caught the
sun's rays, and sparkled with all the colors of the rainbow.
But perhaps the whole beauty and grandeur of the place could scarcely
be felt by our little friends; and for them, the chief attractions were
the cosey nooks these rocks afforded for playing baby-house; the famous
hiding-places; and, most of all, the numerous pools either left by the
tide, or collecting on higher ground, after some recent rain. These
were extremely convenient for sailing vessels of various sizes and
shapes, building docks and piers, bathing any dolls which might be made
of such materials as would stand a bath, or which were past injury; in
short, there were various ways in which they might be, and were made
useful by the young frequenters of the spot.
And many of the salt-water pools were miniature gardens, filled with
tiny sea-plants of all lovely shades of green, purple, and brown, and
here and there of a bright red like coral; and among them lived curious
little fish and water animals, anemones, starfish, with others whose
names are too hard for you to remember.
None knew their advantages better than Lily, who jumped and sprang and
clambered like a goat,--I beg her pardon, a gazelle would have been
more complimentary. Nora and the other nurses who accompanied the young
party held their breath as they saw her almost fly from point to point,
graceful and fearless, seeming as if her tiny feet scarcely touched
the ground; but the children themselves looked on admiringly, and
were fired, by her example, with the desire to do likewise, rebelling
against the restraining hands which were laid upon them when they tried
to follow too rapidly.
Ah! those famous rocks made a capital play-ground with an endless
variety of entertainment.
"Miss Lily'll be satisfied now, I suppose, for here's where she always
likes to come and play," said Nora with a sigh of relief, as the
roguish sprite paused upon a high, bold rock, and snatching off her hat
turned towards the others and waved it triumphantly, calling out, "Come
on! Here's a _splendid_ place, with a great, big puddle and lots of
stones about."
"'Pears like a temptin' ob Probidence," wheezed old Daphne, Belle's
nurse, as puffing and blowing, with one eye fixed anxiously on her
little charge, who fearlessly followed Lily's guidance, she awkwardly
slid and rolled from ledge to ledge. "It's de uncanniest place eber
_I_ see. We don't hab none sech down Souf to home. De shore am smoof
and de water quiet and well-behaved most times down dere. None ob yer
splutterin' and fussin' like dis, nor sech awful hard walkin';" and
Daphne's injured groan and sniff but added force to her uncomplimentary
comparison; but it was with a hopelessly resigned expression of
countenance which much amused the other nurse-maids, that she, at last,
settled herself into a shady nook, declaring that "dese are de hardest
stones I _eber did_ see."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
V.
_THE DUCKLING._