Produced by Al Haines
[Illustration: Cover]
STORIES OF MANY LANDS.
BY
GRACE GREENWOOD,
AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF MY PETS," "RECOLLECTIONS OF
MY CHILDHOOD," "MERRIE ENGLAND,"
ETC.
NEW YORK:
JOHN B. ALDEN, PUBLISHER.
1885.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by
TICKNOR AND FIELDS,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District
of Massachusetts
DEDICATORY.
TO THE LITTLE COUSINS ANNIE, KITTY, AND CORDELIA
I dedicate this book to you, my dearest dears, with more love than I
have ink to write out, and more good wishes and fond hopes than any
printer would care to print.
You will see by these stories that the children of different countries
are pretty much alike. I doubt not, if you were in France now, you
would get along nicely with the little Monsieurs and Mademoiselles,
after some coy hanging back and reconnoitring,--that is, if you only
knew their "lingo." So with the little Signors and Signorinas of
Italy, and the small Dons and Donnas of Spain. You would find the
Dutch boys and girls, who look so sober and quaint, like men and women
cut short, to be real children after all. If you should visit Turkey,
you would find the little Turks and Turkesses full of young human
nature,--love, naughtiness, grace, caprice, mischievous tricks, frolic,
and all that. Should you even take a trip to China,--the country
that's right under us, you know,--you would get acquainted with the
Chinese young folks somehow, though you could only converse by signs.
The boys would look very funny to you, with their yellow tunics, and
queer hats, and long "pigtails,"--and the girls with their hair turned
up into a top-knot, their slanting eyes, and their tottering walk,--for
the rich young ladies there have no feet to speak of. They compress
their _feet_ instead of their _waists_, because, you see, they are not
Christians. So you could n't dance, jump the rope, play _croquet_, or
take a run on the great Chinese wall with them; but you could play with
puzzles, have tea-parties, and pick the tea-leaves right from the
bushes.
Children all the world over laugh and weep, quarrel and make up, play
hard, and eat heartily, love and try their mammas, pet and tease their
little brothers and sisters,--are a sweet care and a dear perplexity,
and are God's little folk, all of them. I think they have the best
share of His love and of this life's happiness wherever they are. But,
darlings, I want you to feel that you need not envy any children on
earth,--not the richest and proudest, not the daughters of a German
Grand Duke, with a kingdom so large that you could scarcely walk across
it in a long summer day, nor any East-Indian Princesses, twinkling with
diamonds, and rattling with pearls, and riding on elephants, nor
Turkish Princesses wearing baggy satin trousers and velvet jackets, and
walking on costly carpets, nor Chinese Princesses that don't walk at
all, nor Spanish Princesses who go to bull-fights in splendid
state-coaches, and wear long trains, and are every now and then
presented to the Queen, their mother, and allowed to kiss her hand, nor
even English Princesses who live in castles and palaces and see the
Queen every day. I really want you to feel that yours is a proud and
happy lot, in being true-born American girls, in having honest and
loyal parents, in having lived during our grand sad war for Union, in
having heard the ringing of the bells of peace, in having loved and
mourned the good, great President, Abraham Lincoln.
If in this volume I have chosen to tell you some stories about titled
people of foreign lands, it is that you may not be so set up by your
privileges as little citizenesses of the great Republic, as not to feel
kindly and humanly toward even little Lords and Ladies, who, being the
slaves of pomp, etiquette, and fine clothes, know nothing about freedom
and equality, and good, jolly times; who have no Star-Spangled Banner,
and no Fourth of July, and who have scarcely ever heard of George
Washington and General Grant.
Wishing you merry holidays, I kiss my hand to you.
GRACE GREENWOOD.
CONTENTS.
ABOUT ENGLISH CHILDREN.
HOW WE ACT; NOT HOW WE LOOK
A CHARADE
LITTLE FOOTMARKS IN THE SHOW
BABIE ANNIE TO COUSIN J----
THE DAY AT THE CASTLE
A CHARADE
FAITHFUL LITTLE RUTH
CHRISTMAS,--A MOTHER'S EXCUSE
ABOUT SOME SCOTTISH CHILDREN.
CASTLE AND COTTAGE
A CHARADE
JAMIE'S FAITH
A CHARADE
ABOUT SOME IRISH CHILDREN.
THE TRUE LORD
A REBUS
STORY OF A FRENCH SOLDIER.
THE CONSCRIPT
A CHARADE
ABOUT SOME SWISS CHILDREN.
THE DRUMMER-BOY
A REBUS
LITTLE CARL'S CHRISTMAS-EVE
A CHARADE
ABOUT SOME ITALIAN CHILDREN.
GIUSEPPE AND LUCIA
A CHARADE
HOME STORIES.
MY PET FROM THE CLOUDS
A CHARADE
THE TWO GEORGES
A CHARADE
THE LITTLE WIDOW'S MITE
A COUPLE OF CHARADES
BESSIE RAEBURN'S CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE
A CHARADE
ABOUT ENGLISH CHILDREN
HOW WE ACT; NOT HOW WE LOOK.
"O Tommy, what a funny little woman! come and see!" cried Harry Wilde,
as he stood at the window of his father's house, in a pleasant English
town. Tommy ran to the window and looked out, and laughed louder than
his brother. It was indeed a funny sight to see. In the midst of a
pelting rain, through mud and running water, there waddled along the
queerest, quaintest little roly-poly figure you can imagine. It was a
dwarf woman, who, though no taller than a child of seven or eight
years, wore an enormous bonnet, and carried an overgrown umbrella. Her
clothes were tucked up about her in a queer way, and altogether she was
a very laugh-at-able little creature. As she passed, she looked up,
and such an odd face as she had! The nose was large and long, as
though it had kept on growing after the other features gave out.
Indeed, it was so big that the eyes had got into a way of looking at it
constantly, which did not improve their beauty. The hair was bushy,
and of a lively red, but the mouth was quite sweet and good-humored,
and the little crossed eyes had a merry, kindly twinkle in them.
"Well," said Harry, "if I were such an absurd looking body as that, I
wouldn't show myself. I 'd hide by day, and only come out by night,
like an owl, would n't you, Tommy?"
"Yes," said the little boy, and then asked, "Did God make her, Harry?"
"Why yes, He made what there is of her, and then I suppose He concluded
it wasn't worth while to go on with her!"
"Harry! Harry!" cried the mother of the little boys, "you must not
talk so; it is wicked. That poor little dwarf may be of much use in
the world, and do a great deal of good, if she has a kind heart; and
she looks as though she had."
"I should like to know of what use such a poor wee thing can be," said
Harry, shrugging his shoulders.
"God knows," said Mrs. Wilde, "and He did not make her in vain."
The next day was Christmas. The rain was over, and it was clear and
cold.
"Hurrah!" cried Harry from the window, "here's our wee bit woman again.
Her hair is as fiery as ever. I wonder the rain didn't put it out.
She might warm her hands in it, if it weren't for carrying that big
basket."
Mrs. Wilde looked out. The dwarf was trudging slowly along, bearing a
heavy basket. The good lady was seized with a strong desire to know
more about the strange little creature; so she hurried to her room, put
on a bonnet and cloak, went out and followed after her, quietly. She
had to go a long way before her curiosity was satisfied; but at last
she saw the dwarf enter a miserable house, in the suburbs of the town.
Mrs. Wilde stole up to a window, and ventured to look in. She saw the
dwarf surrounded by a crowd of shouting children, to whom she was
giving Christmas-cake, toys, and clothes from her basket. She saw her
give food and medicine to a poor woman, who lay on a bed in a corner.
She heard her say, "Have the coals come?" and the woman answer, "Yes,
and the blankets; God bless you!" She saw her take up the baby, feed
it, and play with it,--so big a baby, that Mrs. Wilde thought it ought
to take turns in tending, with the good little dwarf. Then the lady
turned away in tears, and went home. When she had told Harry what she
had seen, he blushed deeply, and Tommy said: "God knew better than
brother what the funny little woman was good for, did n't He?"
A CHARADE
O be my _first_, my darling child,
Whatever may betide;
Meet falsehood with its best rebuke,
An open, earnest, honest look,
Clear-browed, and fearless-eyed.
Be like my _second_, thoughtful, wise,
And in life's summer prime,
Gather and hoard a goodly store
Of truth and love, and priceless lore,
To cheer its winter time.
But never let thy frank young heart
Consent to play my _whole_;
Let will and honor in it meet,
Let Duty ever guide thy feet,
And keep thy steadfast soul.
_Tru-ant_
LITTLE FOOTMARKS IN THE SNOW.
It was at a rectory, in the South of England, that two young children,
a boy and a girl, were looking out of a nursery window, on Christmas
morning,--the morning of the first snow. The girl, who was about seven
years old, was a beautiful, simple-hearted, amiable child, the daughter
of English parents, residing in India. Some months previous to this
winter morning she had been sent to England, on account of her delicate
health, and confided to the care of her mother's sister, Mrs. Graham,
the Rector's wife. Her name was Margaret Pelham; but she was called
Meggie and Meg, Peggy and Peg, and various other odd nicknames by her
English cousins.
Little Margaret's chief playmate at the Rectory was her cousin Archie,
a boy only two years older than herself, but feeling ever so much
bigger and wiser; for he was an only son, a clever and rather conceited
young gentleman. He was good-natured, and loved his cousin; but he
loved better to tease and hoax her. Having lived all her little life
in India, Meggie was exceedingly ignorant of customs and things in her
new home, and was continually making laughable mistakes, and asking the
most absurd questions. This "greenness," as he called it, gave Archie
immense delight, and he was never tired of mystifying and hoaxing the
sweet-tempered little girl, who never resented his quizzings and
practical jokes. Of course it never occurred to the silly boy that he
was just as ignorant about India as Meggie was about England.
This morning, the children being left for a time alone in the nursery,
he was having a rare time at his favorite amusement. Meggie had never
before seen snow, and was full of innocent wonder and admiration. "O
Cousin Archie!" she said, "the pretty white clouds we saw yesterday all
fell down in the night! Did you hear the noise?"
"Clouds!" cried Archie, with a snort of contemptuous laughter; "why,
you poor little Hindoo, that's _snow_, and it came down so slow and
soft that nobody heard it."
"O, is that snow?" said Meggie, laughing good-humoredly at her own
ignorance. "How beautiful it is! so soft and white. It looks just
like my little dovey's feathers. I think, Archie, the angels' beds
must be made out of snow, aren't they?"
"O yes, of course, it would be so warm and comfortable, you know."
"Yes, it looks nice and warm. I think God must send it down to keep
things from dying of cold. He puts the grass and flowers to bed so,
don't He?" said simple and wise little Meggie.
Archie could not stand this. He shouted and clapped his hands, and
even rolled on the carpet in an ecstasy of boyish fun, crying out, "O,
how jolly green! how jolly green!"
"What?" said Meggie, "_I_ don't see anything green. All is white, as
far as I can see. The trees and bushes look as though they had
night-gowns and night-caps on. How pretty the snow is, how clean and
soft! I should like to run about in it, wouldn't you, Archie?"
"O yes, it's prime fun," replied the mischievous boy, "but it's no
rarity to me. I 'm used to it, you know. But _you_ would delight in
it, especially with bare feet. That way it is jolly, better than
wading in a brook. Suppose you try it, Peg?"
It required little urging to persuade the simple child to take off her
shoes and stockings and run down with her cousin to the great hall
door. She threw on her little cloak, for she said to herself, "The
wind may blow cold, for all the warm snow on the ground."
The children met no one on their way. Archie, with some difficulty,
opened the door, then said, "Now, Peg, run quick, away out into the
pretty snow, and see how nice it feels, just like down."
Meggie did as she was bid, and Archie slammed the door after her, and
bolted it, laughing uproariously. You may be sure the poor little girl
soon found how cruelly she had been hoaxed, and ran back again. She
knocked at the door, crying, "O Cousin Archie, do let me in! The snow
isn't nice at all; it's so cold it freezes my feet. Do, do let me in."
But Archie only laughed and danced like a young savage for a minute
longer, then seemed to be trying to open the door, and called out in
some trouble that he could not move the bolt. Little Meggie sat down
on the door-step and waited patiently till she was almost frozen. At
last, after getting nearly exhausted in tugging at the heavy bolt,
Archie succeeded in shoving it back. He found his little cousin so
benumbed that he was obliged to carry her in his arms all the way to
the nursery. Then he sat her down by the fire, chafed her hands and
feet, and put on her stockings and shoes, saying many times, "I am
sorry, Meggie, dear; I am so sorry!"
"O, never mind, it was only a joke," said Meggie, and tried to smile,
though she suffered a great deal more than Archie knew of.
But Meggie's troubles were only begun. When they went down to
breakfast, Mrs. Graham, who had seen from the parlor window the tracks
of little bare feet in the snow, questioned the children about them.
Meggie owned up at once that she had run out barefoot in the snow,
because it looked so soft and nice, but said not a word about Archie's
having prompted her to the foolish act; and I really blush to say that
Archie himself was not frank and brave enough to acknowledge his fault.
The fact is, he was afraid of his father, who was a stern and godly
man, and had small mercy for the sins of little folks. Both the Rector
and his wife reproved Meggie for her thoughtlessness, and the gentle
little girl shed some silent tears; but, after all, I think Archie, who
sat trying to gulp down his breakfast with a bold face, suffered the
most. All day long he was unusually kind to his cousin, and she soon
got over her sadness, and was as merry and loving as ever.
The next morning, when the nursery-maid came to awake Archie, she told
him that his cousin had been taken very ill in the night,--so ill that
they had had to send for the doctor, who feared that she might never
get well. She had taken a violent cold, some way, he said.
Archie hurried on his clothes, and ran down to the nursery. He found
his mother sitting by Meggie's little bed, looking very sad and
anxious. He stole up to his cousin, and taking her little hand, hot
with fever, bent down and kissed it, with a burst of bitter tears,
sobbing out, "O Meggie, forgive me, do, do forgive me!"
"Forgive you for what, Archie?" asked Mrs. Graham.
"For being cruel and cowardly, mamma. It was I who sent Meggie out
into the snow, bare-foot, and then was afraid to take my share of the
blame. I was so miserable all day. I came near owning it when you
kissed me good night, but papa looked so solemn, I _could n't_. I did
n't say my prayers; I felt too _mean_ to pray."
"God forgive you, my son!" said Mrs. Graham, somewhat sternly; but
little Meggie murmured, in a sweet, faint voice, "O Cousin Archie, why
did you tell? Maybe I would have died, and nobody but us would ever
have known anything about it."
Meggie did not die, however. She got well after a long illness,--quite
well. But this was the last of Archie's hoaxing.
BABIE ANNIE TO COUSIN J----.
ACKNOWLEDGING THE CHRISTMAS-GIFT OF A CHAIN.
You should have seen me, when papa
Brought me your gift, an hour ago;
I almost hopped out of my shoes,
And raised a mighty bantam crow!
I shook my hair about my eyes,
I flung my chubby arms about,
I hugged it, and an eager score
Of "pretty pretties" sputtered out.
I grasp it, gloat upon it now,--
My fingers glide from link to link;
I like its shine, I like its feel,
I like its golden chink a-chink.
I thank you--_don't_ I thank you, though!
My darling, dashing, handsome cousin!
I 'll pat your whiskers, when we meet,
And give you kisses by the dozen.
I 'll promise not to pull your hair,
When on your shoulder next I mount,
Nor bore my fingers in your ears,
Too often bored on my account.
Those fingers light shall never leave
On velvet waistcoat one faint crease,
Nor give your profile, clear and fine,
Another needless touch of Greece.
I will not bend the killing bow
Of that nice neck-tie, "rich, but neat,"
Nor put a ruffle in your shirt,
Nor break the white plaits with my feet.
The sacred collar shall not bear
The impress of a touch of mine;
Your sparkling diamond studs, like dews,
Shall on the lawn inviolate shine.
I will not fumble for your seals,
Nor listen where your tick-tick lies,--
Nor dare to call in anger down
The heavy lashes of your eyes.
In short, I 'll be a tender sprig,
A greenwood blossom small and sweet,
To hang upon your button-hole,
Or breathe love's fragrance at your feet.
THE DAY AT THE CASTLE.
The Reverend Charles Rivers was the Rector of a small country parish in
the North of England. He was a good man, a true minister of Christ to
his people. He had a lovely wife, and four beautiful children, and
there was no happier or sweeter home in all the country round than the
modest little Rectory, embowered in ivy and climbing roses.
Four or five miles from the parish church, on a noble eminence, rise
the lofty towers of Glenmore Castle, which for centuries has been the
great family seat of the Lords of Glenmore. It is surrounded by
beautiful gardens, laid out in the French style, with hedges of box,
full ten feet high. Beyond these a noble wooded park stretches away on
all sides, for miles, taking in hill and valley, and a fairy little
lake. To the southward it is crossed by a lazy, loitering stream,
shadowed by willows, fringed with flags, and in the early summer
flecked by snowy water-lilies.
The Lord Glenmore of the time of my story was a handsome young
nobleman, married to a pretty London lady, very gay and fond of
splendor, but kind-hearted and gentle to every one.
Whenever Lord Glenmore came up from London to his northern
estate,--usually in the shooting season of the early autumn,--the happy
event was made known to his tenants and friends, by the running up of a
flag on the loftiest turret of the Castle.
Mr. Rivers had been his tutor, and his Lordship always hastened to
renew his intimacy with his old friend and instructor, for whom he had
a warm regard, running into the Rectory in his old, boyish,
unceremonious way, and frequently inviting the Rector and his wife to
dine at the Castle.
During one of these pleasant dinner-parties, Lord Glenmore, turning to
Mrs. Rivers, said: "I know from happy experience that you and your good
husband are always ready to lend a helping hand when one is in need.
Now Laura and I want a little help. We have had a rather embarrassing
arrival at the Castle,--the motherless little son and daughter of my
brother, Colonel Montford. They were sent over from India, at our
suggestion, but we hardly know what to do with them. They are shy and
homesick, and thus far have had little to say to any one but their
dusky old Ayah, their Indian nurse. Now, children can get on best with
children, and so, my dear madam, I beg that you will lend us
yours,--those charming little daughters, staid Margaret and roguish
Maud, and that fine lad Robert. As for wee Master Alfred, my baby
godson, I make no demand on him for the present. We think that if they
could spend a day at the Castle now and then, they would help to break
the ice between us and our unsocial little relations!"
Mr. and Mrs. Rivers willingly consented to their friends' request, and
the next day was fixed upon for the first visit, both Lord and Lady
Glenmore promising to do all in their power to entertain their young
guests.
Early on a lovely autumn morning the children at the Rectory were made
ready for the important visit. As soon as Lord Glenmore's carriage
appeared in sight, they ran into the nursery, their faces bright with
joyous anticipations, to bid their mamma good by. She was sitting with
the baby on her lap, and they all bent down to kiss "the dear little
fellow," ere they went.
"Why, mamma," said Margaret, "how hot Ally's lips are! is n't he well?"
"I am afraid not quite well," Mrs. Rivers replied; "he seems feverish.
Now, my dears, I hope you will be very good and gentle all day. You,
Margaret, must take good care of your sister, and Maud," she added, as
she bent forward to tie in a smoother knot the strings of the little
girl's hat, "you must not run quite wild with merriment. Robert, don't
put yourself on your dignity with young Montford, on account of his
shyness. Remember, almost everything is strange to him here, and he is
sad. I am sure he does not mean to be haughty."
"O yes," replied Robert, turning from the canine playfellow he was
affectionately patting, "I mean to treat him just the same as though he
were a true-born Briton. He isn't to blame for being only an
unfortunate Cawnpore boy, born among heathens and boa-constrictors and
Juggernauts, and not knowing how to skate, or make snowballs. Good by,
mamma, don't trouble yourself about me; I 'll carry myself 'this side
up with care.' By by, baby. No, no, old Rover, you can't come; you
would n't know how to behave with my lord's Italian greyhound, and my
lady's dainty King Charles Spaniel."
Mr. Rivers, after seeing the children off, entered the nursery, to find
his wife still troubled by the heat and crimson redness of the baby's
cheeks and lips, though the old Scotch nurse, who was holding him, said
cheerily: "Eh, dinna fash yoursel'. It's only a little teething fever,
the bairnie will soon be weel. Gang about your ain affairs, and trust
auld Elspeth."
But the mother dared not leave the little one till he was asleep. He
slept very soundly until noon, and when he awoke it was evident that he
was seriously ill. Mrs. Rivers again took him on her lap, but to her
grief perceived that he did not seem to know her. Soon, his sweet blue
eyes were rolled upward, his brow contracted, his lips were set, and
his tender limbs grew rigid. Medical aid was called at once, but the
little sufferer passed from one spasm into another, till almost ere
physician and parents were aware that he was going, poor little Alfred
was gone!
After the first wild burst of sorrow was over, Mr. Rivers said to his
wife, "Shall I send to the Castle for the children?"
"No, Charles," replied the good mother, "though I yearn for them
inexpressibly, I will not so sadly cut short their day of pleasure.
The night of sorrow will come speedily enough."
Early in the evening, Lord Glenmore's carriage came dashing through the
rustic gateway of the Rectory. Mr. Rivers was at the hall door
awaiting the children. Margaret noticed that her papa looked serious,
and that he kissed her with more than usual tenderness; but the others
were too much occupied with the pleasant stories they had to tell of
the day at the Castle, to remark on any change in him. They ran into
the silent house, laughing and chatting merrily. They found their
mamma in the little family parlor, sitting in the twilight, which
prevented them seeing that she was very pale, and that her eyes were
swollen with weeping.
They displayed before her presents of choice fruit and flowers from
Lady Glenmore, and some curious Indian toys which the little Montfords
had given them.
"O mamma," said Robert, "we have had such a glo-ri-ous day! Arthur
Montford and I got on famously together. I taught him all the English
plays I could think of, and he let me gallop about on his Shetland
pony,--a splendid wild one, mamma,--till I lost my hat, and was all out
of breath, and got thrown three times. Didn't hurt me, though.
Altogether, we had such prime sport, that I wished for that old Bible
hero, Aaron, no, Joshua, to command the sun to stand still, so that our
day would _never_ end."
"And, mamma," broke in little Maud, "dear Lady Glenmore, and her
sister, Lady Fanny, played and sung for us, and showed us pictures and
jewels, and Alice Montford has got such a world of dolls, and her nurse
is such a dark, dark woman, and talks such a queer language, Latin, I
suppose. I did n't pretend to understand it, but I told Alice my papa
could."
"Well, Margaret, dear," said Mr. Rivers, "what is _your_ experience?"
"O papa, it was indeed a charming day; but the best part was while the
ladies were dressing for dinner, when Lord Glenmore took us girls down
to the little lake on the other side of the Castle; and he was so kind
in leading us along by the water, helping us over the bad places, and
plucking flowers for us. He even sat down with us in the grass, and
told us stories, while we made daisy-chains. Then he took us in his
boat on the lake, and rowed about, and, O mamma, what do you think! as
we were passing a thick clump of flags, he parted them with his oar,
and showed us a swan's nest! I thought of Mrs. Browning's poem of
little Ellie, and _her_ 'Swan's Nest among the Reeds.' O, I had almost
forgot! Lord Glenmore intrusted to me the sweetest gift for baby
Alfred: see! this lovely coral necklace. He ordered it expressly from
London, for his little god-son, he said. That makes me think! how is
baby to-night, mamma?"
The time was come. Mrs. Rivers glanced at her husband; but he turned
away his head. He could not tell them. Then, calmly, though her voice
trembled a little, the mother began: "Listen, my darlings, I have
something important to tell you about baby."
The children gathered closer about her, and were very still.
"While you were away, a great Lord sent for little brother, too."
"What for? to adopt him as his heir?" asked Robert.
"Yes, my son; and Ally has gone to a mansion far grander than the
Castle, where the gardens are fairer, and the fields greener than any
you have ever seen; and, Robert, the sun never sets over that beautiful
land."
"Did he go in a carriage with a coronet on it, and two powdered footmen
behind?" asked Maud.
"No, love; but gentle beings, more good and beautiful than those kind
ladies of the Castle, bore him away, and will tend him, lovingly."
"I think he will miss nurse Elspeth, and cry for her, and they will
have to send him home again," said poor, bewildered little Maud.
"Why, mamma," cried Margaret, "we can't spare baby to the greatest lord
on earth!"
"But, my daughter, to the 'Lord of lords' we must spare him. He will
'lead' him as you were led to-day, 'beside the still waters, and cause
him to lie down in pleasant pastures,' and our darling will never know
pain, nor hunger, nor sorrow."
"O mamma, mamma, I know what you mean now!--baby is dead!"
Then went up the children's united voices, like one sad wail, "Baby is
dead!"
"Yes, my children," said their father, in a voice broken by grief, "our
precious little Alfred is gone. But, try to say, and try to help us
say, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name
of the Lord.'"
The poor children could not say it then, for their bitter crying; but,
before they went to bed, they sobbed forth the sacred words, as they
knelt by the crib where little Ally lay, still, and very pale, dressed
in a snowy muslin frock, with his waxen hands clasped on his breast,
and holding a tiny white rose-bud, an emblem of his sinless little life.
A CHARADE.
In the wet rice-swamps and canebrakes tall
My _first_ the driver wields;
It sounds among the dusky gang
In the snowy cotton-fields;
But fast comes on the day that ends
Its reign of blood and fear,--
Comes with the sound of breaking chains,
And the freedman's joyous cheer.
Be kind to such as are my _second_,
In spirit and in truth;
Have pity on their helpless age
And on their joyless youth.
Remember them whene'er you feast,
And on your downy bed,
For the sake of Him who "had not where
On earth to lay his head."
Good may my _third_ be in your hearts
Towards all of human kind,
Strong to reclaim the wandering,
And the lost lamb to find;
To help the suffering, and to bear
Thine own adversity;
To speak brave words for truth and right,
And strike for liberty.
My _whole_ is a mournful little bird,
That in the twilight dim
Complains how hardly he's been used,
Till all must pity him.
But not one word of what he did
Reveals the doleful wight,--
His _mother's_ story could we hear,
We might say, "Served him right!"
_Whip-poor-will._
FAITHFUL LITTLE RUTH.
Little Ruth Mason sat one sweet June morning in the church-porch, by
the side of her old grandfather, who stood reverently leaning on his
staff, with his hat in his hand. They were both watching from that
ivied porch a touching and impressive scene,--the burial service in the
old churchyard.
Mr. Mason had been for many years the sexton of the parish, and though
now too old to discharge the duties of the office, he felt such a
loving interest in the parish church, one of the finest in England,
that he could not keep away from it. Every day he visited the scene of
his old labors, and kindly gave the new sexton the benefit of his long
experience. Sometimes he might be seen kneeling in silent prayer in
the noble chancel, the sunlight that streamed through the stained
windows falling in tender glory on his venerable head. Sometimes he
would linger by the hour in the beautiful churchyard, beside the graves
of his wife, his son, and his son's wife, all the dear ones God had
given him, except one little granddaughter. This last remaining object
of his affection and care was a lovely and loving child, of a
peculiarly thoughtful mind, and of a sweet, constant, religious nature.
She had been carefully trained by a good grandmother, and was prudent
and industrious beyond her years. When not in the little village
school, she was almost always with her grandfather, his little
companion, pupil, and house-keeper.
This interesting orphan child was most kindly regarded by many of the
good village people. She seemed so lonely and helpless in the old
sexton's desolate cottage,--but a poor place at best. Yet she was
hardly an object of pity. Her father and mother had died in her
infancy, and after her first childish grieving for her grandmother was
past, she seemed quite happy and content with the care and
companionship of her grandfather. It was with difficulty that she had
been persuaded now and then to leave him to spend an afternoon at the
pleasant Rectory, when the Rector's kind wife sent for her, to amuse a
sickly little daughter, who was very fond of her, and in whom Ruth's
health, strength, and cheery spirit excited a pathetic wonder and
delight.
It was the burial of this child, poor little Lilly Kingsley, which Ruth
and her grandfather were beholding from the shadowy church-porch on
that lovely June morning. Mr. Mason stood with his head bowed,
intently listening to the solemn burial service, and reverently
wondering at the providence of God, which had passed by him, so old,
feeble, and almost useless, and taken from the good Rector and his wife
their one only darling.
Ruth had wept bitterly over the body of her little friend, as she had
seen it that morning, in the coffin, almost covered with white flowers,
and nearly as white as they; but now she watched the mournful
ceremonies with a rapt and eager interest, too profound for tears. Her
young spirit was struggling with the mystery of death, and thoughts of
immortality. She knew that the wasted little body let down into the
dark grave was not all of her poor playmate, and she strove to picture
a little angel like Lilly, only blooming, and happy, and free from
pain, borne upwards through the still summer night, by tender angels,
who looked back very pityingly on the grieving parents, bending over
the death-bed of their risen darling.
So lost was the child in these thoughts, that she did not speak nor
move till the service was over, and the weeping group that had stood by
the grave had passed out of the churchyard.
A few days after this funeral, little Ruth coming home from school,
found the Rector in earnest conversation with her grandfather. She
courtesied timidly to the clergyman, but he drew her to his knee,
looked kindly into her beautiful dark eyes, and said, "How would Ruth
like to live always at the Rectory, and fill the place of our little
lost daughter?"
Ruth's sweet face flushed with delight, and she answered, "O, sir, I
should dearly love such a beautiful home, and _you_ would too, would
n't you, grandpapa?"
The Rector looked at Mr. Mason, and the old man, drawing the child to
him, said tenderly, "My dear little girl, your old grandfather cannot
leave this cottage, in which he was born, and in which he has always
lived, until he goes to his long home."
"Then _I'll_ not go," cried Ruth, impulsively flinging her arms about
his neck. "I 'll never, never leave you. Who would take care of you
if I were gone?"
The Rector smiled; but the old man answered gravely, "I know I shall
miss you, dear, very much; but the Lord will care for me, and He it is
who has provided this home for my darling. I bless His name for His
loving-kindness. You have always been a good, obedient child to me,
and I know you will obey me, even when I send you away from me,--for
your best good, mind, my darling."
Ruth still wept, and begged to be allowed to stay with him; but her
grandfather was firm, and she yielded at last. He led her to the
Rectory, kissed and blessed her, and placed her in the arms of Mrs.
Kingsley, then hobbled out of the gate, and back to his desolate
cottage, as fast as his poor old limbs could carry him.
Ruth was very sad all the afternoon, though everybody was kind to her,
and her new mother strove tenderly to comfort her. As evening came on,
her heart would go back to the humble old home, and the white-haired,
feeble old man, who she knew must be thinking of her, and missing her
so sadly. At length, Mrs. Kingsley conducted her to a pleasant little
chamber, which was henceforth to be her own. The good lady helped her
to undress, put on her a dainty little ruffled nightgown, and knelt
with her by her bedside while she said her prayers. After praying in a
broken voice for her poor old grandpapa in his loneliness, the child
remembered to ask God's blessing on her new parents. After seeing her
in her snowy little bed, Mrs. Kingsley removed Ruth's clothes to a
closet near by, and brought out a complete suit of garments suited to
her new condition. They were very neat and pretty, and Ruth, who loved
all beautiful things, smiled on them through her tears, and reaching
out her hand, felt of them with simple, childish delight. Then a
strange, thoughtful look passing over her face, she said, "Mamma!" Mrs.
Kingsley started. It was the first time she had heard that name since
her Lilly died, though she had asked Ruth to call her by it when she
was first brought to the Rectory. But she answered, with a smile,
"What, my daughter?"
"Why, mamma, laying off my faded clothes and putting on those lovely
new ones will be like Lilly, leaving the poor, pale body she used to
have, for her glorious angel body, won't it?"
"Yes, darling," replied the mother, to whose heart the simple
illustration brought a sweet, wonderful realization of the blessed
change; and as she stooped and kissed Ruth good night, a tear fell on
the little girl's cheek.
The adopted child slept tranquilly till nearly morning, when she awoke
suddenly, probably from a dream of the home she had left, but thinking
that she heard a voice above her, saying solemnly, "Ruth, little Ruth,
why hast thou forsaken My servant, thy grandfather?"
She was not frightened, yet she could not sleep again, but sat up in
her little bed, impatiently waiting for the day. In the first gray
light of dawn she rose, went to the closet, took out her old clothes,
and dressed herself in them, and casting scarcely a look on the new
clothes or round the sweet little chamber, she stole softly down
stairs. She found a housemaid in the hall, who, not knowing the plans
of her master and mistress in regard to the little girl, let her out,
and she ran swiftly home. She found the cottage door unfastened, for
the poor have little fear of burglars. Entering quietly, and finding
her grandpapa still asleep, she lay down by his side, and when he
awoke, her dear arms were about his neck, and her loving eyes smiling
into his. At first, he forgot she had been away; but after a moment,
he remembered, and exclaimed, "You here, little Ruth? Why did you come
back, against my wish?"
"Because the Lord sent me back," she answered, gravely.
"Why, child, what do you mean?" he asked.
"Grandpapa, dear, this is how it was: There was a voice, such a sweet
and solemn voice, that came and sounded right by me, in the darkness,
and it said, 'Ruth, little Ruth, why forsakest thou My servant, thy
grandfather?' and I was sure it was the Lord's voice, the very same
that spoke to little Samuel, and I could not stay after I heard it. I
will never leave you to live and die alone, even if the queen wants to
adopt me. Why, grandpapa, if God had meant you to be without me, He
would have taken me, instead of little Lilly Kingsley. So don't send
me away from you, dear grandpapa; it would be wicked."
The good old man, with tears in his dim eyes, replied, "No, my darling
little girl shall not be sent away again; it does seem to be the Lord's
will that you should stay with me as long as I stay."
And so she stayed,--the faithful little Ruth. Her good friends at the
Rectory were sorry to lose her, but not displeased with her, and were
more kind than ever to her and her grandfather. The next Sunday, as
she knelt with him among the poor, she was glad in her heart that she
was not shut away from him in the Rector's crimson-cushioned pew.
It was on a Sunday a few weeks later, that her grandfather, after their
frugal dinner, called her to go with him to the churchyard, saying, "A
year ago to-day, Ruth, your dear grandmother died; let us go and spend
an hour or two by her grave."
They took the family Bible, and read and talked a long time, sitting on
the daisied grass, under the pleasant shade of a willow. At last, the
good old man seemed to grow weary, and bowing his white head on the
grave, with one arm flung over it, he fell asleep while Ruth was
singing a hymn which her grandmother had taught her. Then Ruth stole
away, and wandered about the churchyard, reading the inscriptions on
the tombstones, till the people began to enter the church for evening
service. Then she returned to her grandfather, and touched him on the
shoulder, to wake him. But he did not move. She called his name, but
he did not seem to hear her. Just then the Rector came up, and seeing
Ruth's trouble, bent down to look into the face of the old man. He
raised the withered hand that lay on the mound, and held it a moment,
looking anxious and sad. When he laid it down, he put his arms about
Ruth, and said, tenderly, "My dear child, your grandfather is
awake--_in Heaven_. He will never wake on earth. The Lord has taken
him."
With a piteous cry Ruth flung herself by the side of her dead
grandfather, and called him by many fond names, weeping bitterly; and
strong men wept in pity for her bereavement, and stood with uncovered
heads as her grandfather was lifted and borne to his old home.
[Illustration: Ruth]
From that old home he was carried forth to be laid by the side of his
dear old wife; but from that lonely cottage little Ruth was led
weeping, yet grateful, to her new home by the Rector and his wife,
henceforth to be to them a dear and cherished child. Few were the
tears she shed in that beautiful home, and tenderly were they wiped
away; and if the Lord ever spoke to her again in her peaceful little
chamber, through the darkness, it was in "the still, small voice" of
blessing, love, and comfort.
CHRISTMAS,--A MOTHER'S EXCUSE.
It comes again, the blessed day,
Made glorious by the Saviour's birth,
When faintly in a manger dawned
The light of God which fills the earth
On this sweet morn, in years gone by,
Around one happy hearth we came,
And wished each other joy and peace,
Embracing in the dear Lord's name.
Now o'er a weary, wintry waste,
My heart a loving pilgrim wends
Her pious way, this holy time,
To greet you, O belovéd friends!
Fondly I long to take my place
Beside your hearth, its joy to share,--
To sun me in the summer smiles
Of the dear faces gathered there.
But baby eyes upraised to mine,
And baby fingers on my breast,
Steep all my soul in sweet content,--
Charm even _such_ longings into rest.
Yet, dear ones, let my name be breathed
Kindly around the Christmas tree,
And my soul's presence greet, as oft
In Christmas times ye 've greeted me.
No unadorned and humble guest
Comes that fond soul this blessed even
She bears a jewel on her breast
That radiates the light of heaven.
A rose, that breathes of Paradise,
Just budded from the life divine,
A little, tender, smiling babe,
As yet more God's and heaven's than mine.
Born in the Saviour's hallowed month,
A blessed Christ-child may she be,
A little maiden of the Lord,
Room for _her_ by the Christmas tree!
ABOUT SOME SCOTTISH CHILDREN.
CASTLE AND COTTAGE.
It would seem that little Bertha Blantyre had everything that her heart
could wish. She was an only daughter, and a pretty, blooming, petted
darling. Her father was a rich lord, and, what was better, a good and
kind-hearted man. Her mother was a noble lady, and, what was more, a
gentle and loving woman, and even little Bertha had from her cradle the
title of "Honorable," which is as much as our great Congressmen can
boast. Yet I am sorry to say, this little lady was not always as happy
and grateful as she should have been, but was sometimes sadly
discontented, believing that other children were far happier than she.
All such little girls as had brothers and sisters to play with them,
and run about with them in the woods and over the moors, she envied
bitterly, even though they were the children of poor peasants,--never
thinking it possible that they might be envying her at the same time.
Lord Blantyre resided principally at Blantyre Castle, on a noble
estate, among the heathery hills of Scotland. The Castle was very
ancient, with towers, and turrets, and a massive gateway, but it had
many modern additions which beautified it, and gave it a cheerful,
almost home-like look. Through the old moat there slowly ran a bright,
clear stream, in which grew hosts of water-lilies, and other aquatic
plants. Beyond this were soft, green, close-shaven lawns and
shrubberies, and gardens full of fountains and statues and fairy-like
bowers; the stables, full of beautiful horses and ponies; the kennels,
where a pack of noble stag-hounds was kept; the dairy, the
poultry-yard, and the pretty little houses of the gold and silver
pheasants. Around all was a great wooded park, filled with fleet
spotted deer.
In this park Bertha often walked with her mother, or was whirled along
in a small open phaeton, drawn by two lovely white ponies, which Lady
Blantyre herself drove.
In the wildest and most remote part of the park lived the gamekeeper,
who, with his wife, had been born and bred on the estate, and from
childhood had been in the service of the noble family. Lady Blantyre
never passed the cottage of Robert MacWillie in her drives without
stopping to inquire after the health of his wife, who had once been her
maid, and of their fine brood of little ones. During these visits
Bertha became acquainted with the young foresters, and as she was of a
simple and amiable disposition, and not a bit haughty or conceited, she
liked them all heartily. But she especially took to a little girl
about her own age, named Lilly, and a boy a year or two older, called
Hughie.
One day as Lady Blantyre and Bertha were driving along the shore of a
miniature loch or pond, near Robert MacWillie's cottage, they saw
Hughie and Lilly playing in a burn, or brook, which emptied into the
little loch. Hughie was constructing a dam, with stones and turf and
heather-branches cemented with clay, and Lilly was sailing a tiny boat,
loaded with pebbles and flowers. Both were barefoot, and plashing
fearlessly in the burn. Lady Blantyre checked her ponies, and after
watching the children awhile, called them to the side of her phaeton.
Hughie took off his Glengary cap, and held it in his hand, and Lilly
was about to pull from her head a wild-looking wreath of daisies and
purple heather-blooms, when Bertha exclaimed, "Don't take it off! it is
so pretty; who made it?"
"Brother Hughie," answered Lilly, blushing.
"How good he must be! Do you like playing and wading in the water and
picking wild-flowers?"
"Yes," said Lilly, looking down, and drawing figures in the sand with
her rosy little toes. "Hughie is gude. I like playing wi' the burn,
and flowers are bonny wee things"; then, looking up timidly, she
offered to her friend a bunch of water-lilies, which Hughie had waded
far out into the pond up to his short kilt to obtain.
"Thank you," said Bertha. "O how sweet they are, a thousand times
sweeter than those that grow in the moat, are n't they, mamma?"
Lady Blantyre smiled, for there was really no difference, the lilies at
the Castle having been brought from this very pond.
"How long have you been at your great work there?" she asked of Hughie.
"For maist a week, my Lady; but for the last twa days Domine MacGregor
has been down wi' an ill turn, and I hae (have) lost na time at schule
(school), so I hae got on weel wi' it. It will soon be done noo."
"And what do you intend to do with it when it is finished?" asked the
lady.
"I canna say, but I think we 'll play flood-time wi' it."
"What is that?"
"Your ladyship sees that wee-bit island; weel, we'll put on it some
doggies and a cat."
"Not my wee puss, Winkie?" cried Lilly in alarm.
"No, auld black Tammy will do, and a chicken or twa, and we 'll watch
the water rise and rise, till the puir creatures huddle togither and
greet and cackle and howl, then I 'll loup (leap) intil the burn, and
one after anither rescue them a'."
"O, how grand that would be!" exclaimed little Bertha, her eyes
flashing with excitement.
"Rather cruel sport," said Lady Blantyre, shaking her head, yet smiling
in spite of herself.
"Is it?" said Hughie, his countenance falling, "then I 'll no do it. I
'll but drive a' the duckies and fulish geese down here, and see them
gae quacking and skirling over the dam. I hope _they'll_ no object to
the sport."
"Probably not," said her ladyship, pleasantly.
"O mamma," said Bertha, looking up wistfully into her face, "how I
should love to play so with water and pebbles, and little boats, and
ducks and geese, and dams, all day long! How happy they must be!"
"Perhaps little Lilly thinks it would be a very happy thing to be in
your place, my daughter," said Lady Blantyre.
"_Do_ you think so?" asked Bertha, wonderingly.
"Ay," answered Lilly, in a low, almost awestruck tone, "I think that to
be Miss Bertha, and bide in a braw (fine) Castle, wad be next to being
an angel, or a bonnie fairy princess."
All laughed at this, but on the way home Bertha was very thoughtful and
sad. Every time she spoke, it was to bewail her hard lot in being
allowed to take the air only in walks with her governess, or drives
with her mamma, in being obliged to wear fine clothes, to learn music
and dancing, "and other tiresome things," and never being free to run
wild on the hills and heaths, wade in the ponds, and plash in the
burns, like the little MacWillies.
Her mother tried to show her that, as her station was different from
theirs, her education and habits should be different, and that she had
a great deal to be thankful for, and might be very happy, if she would.
"Well, I think I ought at least to have a little brother to play with
me. I think God might have given me _that_, and kept back some of the
other things."
At this little burst of petulance, Lady Blantyre sighed and was silent
for some moments. Then she said: "Would my little daughter like to try
living at the cottage of the MacWillies for a day or two, just like one
of their own?"
"O yes, mamma, and play with Lilly and Hughie?"
"With Hughie and the other children. I must have Lilly with me at the
Castle, to make up for the loss of my little Bertha."
"O!" said Bertha, looking a little disappointed; then she added,
eagerly, "But, mamma, may I indeed do just like them?--go without a
bonnet, take off my shoes and stockings, and wade in the burn, and
patter in the nice soft clay?"
"Yes, if Lilly will consent to take your place, and play the little
lady at the Castle."
In the afternoon Lady Blantyre sent for Mrs. MacWillie, and between
them they arranged that their little daughters should change places on
the morrow; and that night both Bertha and Lilly went to bed with their
hearts full of happy anticipations, and each pitying the other.
Early in the morning, Lilly was brought to the Castle, and Bertha
conveyed to the cottage. Lilly wanted to take with her her pet kitten,
but was told that poor little Winkle would be rather too vulgar a
visitor for Lady Blantyre's drawing-room. Bertha proposed to take her
pretty King Charles spaniel, but was told that the gamekeeper's rough
mastiffs and terriers would make nothing of taking him by the neck and
shaking the life out of him. So she concluded to leave Frivole behind.
When she reached the cottage, the little MacWillies came around her,
full of wonder and shy admiration. They said nothing to her, but they
whispered among themselves, and their eyes looked very big and watched
her constantly.
"Come here, Sandy and Effie!" she said to a little boy and girl, who
stood with their hands behind them, gazing at her as if she really had
been a fairy princess. "Do come to me; I am your sister now, don't you
know?"
But they only drew back, and as she started toward them, scampered away
and hid behind their mother.
"Come, Hughie," said the little lady, "let us go down to the burn. You
must make me a wreath like Lilly's, and play with me just as you do
with her, won't you?"
Hughie gladly promised, and away they went hand in hand. But the lad
could not quite forget that his playmate was the Honorable Miss Bertha
Blantyre, so he took the choicest roses from his mother's garden to
make a wreath for her, and for the life of him he could not be as free
and merry with her as with his sister. However, he was very kind and
amusing, and Bertha was in high glee. The first thing she did when
they reached the burnside, was to sit down and pull off her shoes and
stockings, then she ran up and down the sandy shore of the loch,
throwing pebbles and daisies into the water, sailing Lilly's little
boat, and laughing and singing like some wild creature. Then she
helped Hughie at his dam awhile, patting the soft clay with her dainty
little hands.
"O dear!" she exclaimed at last.
"What's the matter, my bonnie leddie?" said Hughie, rather
patronizingly.
"My feet smart so! See how big and red they look."
"Sae they do. You hae burned them. The sun is hot this simmer day,
and the sand as weel, and ye ken (know) ye are no used to gang without
your shoon (shoes); wade a bit, noo, and cool your small saft feet."
Bertha thrust one foot into the water, but drew it out instantly,
exclaiming, "Ugh, how cold!"
"Ay, gin (if) ye only dip the tips o' your toes, like a fearsome cat;
but gin ye rin bravely intil the water, like a spaniel dog, ye'll no
find it cauld," said Hughie, taking her hand and leading her in. But
Bertha still thought it cold; she caught her breath, and shrieked at
every step, frightened not only at the rising water, but at the tiny
fishes within it, and even at the insects skimming along its surface.
As Hughie was leading her out, she trod on a stone and cut one of her
delicate feet quite severely. Then, when she reached the shore, she
found that she could not get on her stockings and shoes, and with her
eyes full of tears she said, "Ah me! what shall I do? I can't walk
barefoot among the heather, my feet are so sore already."
[Illustration: Hughie and Bertha]
"O, dinna fash yoursel' (don't trouble yourself) about that, I 'll
carry you in my twa arms," said Hughie; and the sturdy little fellow
took her and carried her to the cottage.
After having had her foot bound up, and her face bathed in cream, for
that was also burned, her pretty wreath having proved a very poor
protection from the sun, Bertha was invited to share the midday meal of
the children. Being very hungry, she gladly sat up to the table and
took her share of milk and oatmeal cakes, or bannocks. She liked the
milk, but the bannocks scratched her throat and almost brought the
tears to her eyes. She wondered how the others could eat them so
ravenously.
After dinner the children did their best to amuse their visitor, by
playing games, running, leaping, and tumbling about, all very kindly
meant, but rough, noisy, and almost terrifying to Bertha, who was not
sorry when the younger ones ran out of the house to play under the
trees. Hughie sat by her side on the settle, and told her stories,
till she fell asleep. She was very weary, and slept a long while,
against some cushions which Hughie placed behind her. When she awoke,
she looked around wonderingly, and, missing the dear faces of her
mother and nurse, burst into tears.
"What's the matter wi' my bonnie bairn?" asked Mrs. MacWillie, tenderly.
"I--want--to--go--home!" sobbed Bertha.
"And ye shall gae hame; sae dinna greet (weep), my lammie," said the
good woman.
In a very few minutes the gamekeeper, who, by the way, had watched the
children all the morning, from behind some thick bushes by the loch, to
see that no harm befell them, came to the door with the family
carriage,--a two-wheeled vehicle, called a "dog-cart," drawn by a
shaggy old pony. Bertha was helped into this, and, having taken a kind
but rather hasty leave of her rustic friends, was driven, in a little
lazy, shuffling trot, towards the Castle. About half-way, who should
they meet but Lady Blantyre, driving Lilly MacWillie home in her
pony-phaeton! She did not seem to see the dog-cart at all, but dashed
by it at a furious rate.
Little Lilly had scarcely had a better day than Bertha. From the first
hour of her visit to the Castle she had felt ill at ease, and almost
homesick. Everything there was so strange and magnificent, that all
the kindness she met with failed to make her feel happy and
comfortable. Lady Blantyre devoted herself to her amusement; she
showed her the conservatories and the aviaries, and led her through the
long picture-gallery. This last was an awful place to Lilly; she was
frightened at the array of old-time Blantyres,--fierce soldiers in
armor, grim judges in enormous wigs, and grand ladies in vast hoops and
stupendous head-dresses.
At lunch, Lady Blantyre had her little guest sit beside her, and
pressed her to eat of delicate wild-fowl and luscious fruit. But Lilly
was scared out of the little appetite she had, not by his lordship, who
sat opposite, but by the solemn footman who stood behind her chair.
After lunch, Lady Blantyre played and sung for her, and showed her
Bertha's books and toys.
At length she left her alone for a time, while she went to dress. When
she returned to the drawing-room she could not see the child anywhere;
but presently she heard a stifled sob behind the curtain of a window,
looking towards the gamekeeper's cottage. She went to Lilly, and put
her arms about her, saying, "What are you grieving about, my dear?"
"Let me gae hame! I maun gae hame!" (I must go home) said Lilly.
"So you shall, darling," replied the lady.
When Lady Blantyre returned from the cottage, she found Bertha in the
nursery, sitting on the lap of her kind nurse Margery.
"Well, has my little daughter learned content from this day's
experience?" said the lady, smiling.
"Yes, mamma," replied Bertha. "I find that one must belong to the
MacWillies, to do as they do, and like it; but somehow, I wish I had
been used to their ways from the first, that is, if you and papa had
been so too. It seems to me that God meant that all people should live
nearly alike, and only have houses just big enough to hold them
comfortably, like the nests of the birds; and that all children should
run among the hills, and play with the brooks. Did n't he?"
"Perhaps he did, my child."
As for Lilly, she spoke her mind that night, to her pet kitten, as she
hugged it in her arms before dropping to sleep. "Are ye na glad that
we are na fine ladies, eh, Winkie?"
A CHARADE.
My _first_ is fair, as when it graced
The bowers of Paradise;
It glows in Cashmere's vale, and climbs
Where snowy Alp-peaks rise:
It glads the peasant-woman's heart,
And the Queen's imperial eyes.
My _second_ is a sacred name,
A name of high renown,
By poets sung, yet common 'tis,
As daisies on the down,
Though ladies grand and royal dames
Have worn it as a crown.
When William's ship rocked in the bay,
Impatient to be gone,
And William took his seaward way
Across our dewy lawn,
To pluck my _whole_ to give her love,
Rose Mary with the dawn.
_Rose-mary._
JAMIE'S FAITH.
Margaret Grey was a widow, who, with three young children, lived in a
small cottage on the estate of Lord Dundale, in Scotland. When her
husband died, Margaret had been compelled to give up the land he had
farmed, with the exception of a little garden, and a patch of pasturage
on which she supported a cow and a shaggy Highland pony, called Rab.
This last was a very important member of the family, as without him the
widow could not have conveyed to market the butter and eggs, on the
proceeds of which the frugal little household subsisted. For his part,
Rab seemed fully conscious of his own important and responsible
position in the widow's family, gave up all frisking and frolicking
ways, and conducted himself in a staid and sober manner on his way to
and from the market-town, and assumed towards the children in their
little rides a sort of protecting, patronizing, paternal character,
which was really edifying to behold.
Lord Dundale was a young man, very handsome and stately, but gentle and
gracious, and much beloved by his family and tenants. The children on
his estate looked up to him with loving reverence, as to a superior
being, from whom nothing but good and happiness were to be expected by
the deserving. For them his youth, beauty, and elegance had especial
poetic charms; their sweet, simple affection, their timid, grateful
devotion, were laid at his feet,--so that when moving among them he
trod on unseen flowers. They loved to hear and to tell of the grand
and beautiful things at that fairy palace, the Castle,--a noble old
edifice, with massive towers, a moat, a lofty gateway, and an ancient
drawbridge and portcullis, which stood high in the midst of great
forest-trees.
Lord Dundale, being in delicate health, was able to spend but a few
months of each year in Scotland, the climate being too severe for him;
but he loved the place of his birth, and was never so happy as when,
like Rob Roy, he could say, "My foot is on my native heath."
To his tenants his yearly visit to his Scottish estate was always a
season of festivity: they hailed the signal of his return, the running
up of a flag on the highest tower of the Castle, with shouts of hearty
rejoicing.
The cottage of the Grey was on a shady lane, through which the young
lord often rode in the pleasant autumn mornings or evenings, sometimes
with a gay party of ladies and gentlemen, guests at the Castle,
sometimes, when the hour was early, quite alone, and sometimes with one
beautiful dark-eyed lady, fresh as a rose and proud as a lily, who it
was said was one day to be the mistress of Dundale Castle. The Grey
children, little Effie and Jamie, noticed that when the young lord rode
by himself, or with ever so large a party of riders, he never failed to
acknowledge their bows and courtesies with a nod and a pleasant word
and smile; but that when he and the dark-eyed lady together ambled
slowly past, he did not seem to see their wistful little faces at all.
So, in their secret hearts, they took something very like a spite
against the beautiful Lady Evelyn, and hoped their young lord would
change his mind.
One autumn evening, as Margaret Grey rode homeward from the
market-town, she noticed that Rab, the pony, was languid and slow, that
he hung his head dejectedly, and made no effort to browse along the
hedge-rows as usual. She supposed that he was tired with his day's
work, but trusted that he would be well in the morning. Alas! when the
morning came, poor, faithful old Rab was found dead, stretched out
stiff and cold in his paddock!
Effie and Jamie grieved passionately over their lost friend and
playfellow. They sat down beside him on the grass, and, looking at his
poor, helpless feet, worn in their service, wept bitterly that they
would carry them along the lane and up the hillside no more; they
patted half fearfully the shaggy neck; which would arch to their
caresses never again; they drew back with a shudder, after touching the
cold lips which had so often eaten the sweet clover from their hands,
and turned with a sense of strange wonder and awfulness from the
death-misted eyes, which had always shone upon them with an almost
human affection.
Margaret Grey wept also,--fewer tears than her children, but sadder.
She had many sweet and mournful memories connected with poor Rab. Her
dear old father gave him to her on her eighteenth birthday. She
remembered many a joyful gallop on his back, through the lanes and over
the moors. She remembered how sometimes she rode him slowly, with his
rein on his neck; for young Angus Grey walked by her side and told her
pleasant news,--always pleasant and interesting, though always about
the same thing. She remembered how once he checked Rab's rein under
the shade of a hawthorn-tree, and asked her to be his wife. She
remembered, too, how Rab had borne her to the Kirk, to be married to
Angus Grey; and she thought of three other Sundays when he had carried
her and her baby to the christening; and of yet one other time, when he
had drawn slowly away from her door a hearse, whereon lay the beloved
husband and father. She thought, too, with tender anxiety, that now
the last help of the widow, her humble fellow-laborer, was taken from
her; and the grim wolf of want and hunger seemed to stand in poor dead
Rab's place. Even the baby seemed to feel something of her anxiety and
distress, and put up its pretty lip to cry; so to comfort it and to
calm herself by her usual household labor, she returned to the cottage,
leaving Effie and Jamie still sitting beside old Rab. Their grief had
somewhat moderated; yet they sobbed as they talked of the virtues of
the deceased, and wondered what life would be without him.
"Ah, Jamie," said Effie, "inna you wish the Lord was here now? You ken
mither told us how He cured sick folk, and how He once made a mon alive
again that had been dead four days. He could make our Rab alive wi' a
touch of His finger, gin (if) He would try, Jamie."
Wee Jamie was a simple-hearted child, scarcely four summers old: his
little brain was easily bewildered. For him there was but one Lord,
the good and generous young nobleman at the Castle. Of _his_ power and
goodness Jamie could believe anything, and though he opened his eyes
wide at his sister's story, his face grew radiant with joy, as just at
that moment he caught sight of Lord Dundale trotting slowly down the
lane on his beautiful thoroughbred bay mare. In a moment he was over
the fence, in the road, in the very path of the rider, crying out in an
agony of entreaty, "Stop, stop, my lord! our Rab is dead; ye maun
(must) make him alive again!"
Lord Dundale checked his horse, and looked down on his little
petitioner in silent astonishment, while Mrs. Grey ran out of the
cottage, with baby in her arms, and, catching hold of Jamie, strove to
lift him out of the way. But the little fellow resisted sturdily,
crying still, "Let him make Rab alive! He _maun_ make him alive!"
"But, my little fellow," said the Earl, smiling, "if Rab is really
dead,--and I am very sorry to hear it,--_I_ cannot make him alive: how
could you think of such a thing?"
But Jamie stood his ground, answering, "My mither says you once made a
big mon alive after he had been dead four days. Rab is only a sma'
pony, and he's been dead but a wee bit while; so it's na a hard job for
you. Dinna say you will na do it."
"What _can_ the little lad mean, Mrs. Grey?" asked Lord Dundale,
utterly bewildered.
"I dinna ken (do not know), my lord," she replied, "unless, Heaven save
us! he takes you for the Lord of lords. I didna think the bairn was so
heathenish and so daft (foolish). You maun forgie (must forgive) the
poor child."
Lord Dundale dismounted, and, taking the little fellow by the hand, by
a few simple questions, soon found that this was indeed Jamie's strange
delusion.
"My poor little laddie," he said, "you are wofully mistaken. I cannot
bring your dear old pony back to life. You can never play with him, or
feed him, or ride him among the heather or along the burnside again.
Rab's work is done, and it is time he should rest. But, Jamie, I can
give you another pony in his place, one that I hope may serve your good
mother as well as Rab, and that you and Effie must love for my sake.
And now good by. I hope Jamie will yet know well the Lord most great
and good and loving, the only true Lord of life and death."
Taking a kindly leave of Mrs. Grey, the young Earl then rode on, but in
the course of the day the groom of the Castle galloped down to the
widow's cottage, leading the new pony, a handsome, sturdy little
animal, and so gentle and docile that not only Jamie but timid little
Effie could ride him with safety; and even the baby, when set on his
back, played with his mane and answered his whinny with a triumphant
crow.
So Jamie's faith, though mistaken, was rewarded; and his innocent,
fervent little prayer was answered, not by a Divine miracle, but by a
generous human heart, which also found its reward in proving the truth
of the Master's words,--"It is more blessed to give than to receive."
A CHARADE.
If my studious Lillian,
This charade will careful scan,
With knit brow and red lips pursed,
She will then unconscious show
To all such as care to know
An example of my _first_.
My _second_ is what divine truths are,
And Alpine heights that gleam afar,
And hills of Scottish heather;
And what are _not_ all human blisses,
The little loves of little misses,
Winds, waves, and April weather.
If from my _second_ some sad dawn
You find your favorite palfrey gone,
Don't lock the door, and don't
Sit down and cry. To chase the thief
Despatch my _whole_: it's my belief
He 'll catch him, or--he won't.
_Con-stable._
ABOUT SOME IRISH CHILDREN
THE TRUE LORD.
Philip Alfred Reginald, Lord Alverley, only son and heir of the Earl of
Ellenwood, was taking a morning walk in the park of Alverley Castle, in
the beautiful county of Wicklow, Ireland. He was a very little lord
indeed, only about six years old, and he was accompanied by a very
stout nurse, Mrs. Marsham, quite a dignified and important personage.
The family had but the day previous arrived from London, after an
absence of four years.
Philip was an only child, fondly beloved by his parents, and, as the
heir to a great estate, much petted and flattered by all about him. He
was a pretty child, always richly and daintily dressed, and had much
the air of a little courtier, or the pet page of some gay young queen.
This morning, as Mrs. Marsham led him down one of the broad walks of
the park, they encountered a little peasant lad, who looked a good deal
impressed, but saluted the small nobleman with a bashful bow, and was
about hurrying on, when the lordling asked, condescendingly, "What is
your name, little boy?"
"Arty O'Neill, may it please your lordship," was the reply.
"What, a son of Norah O'Neill?" asked Mrs. Marsham.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Why, then, my lord, he is your foster-brother. Norah O'Neill, the
lodge-keeper's wife, was your first nurse, and a very good creature she
is, I believe," said Mrs. Marsham, attempting to move on.
But Philip, who had always, in spite of his grandeur, felt a little
lonely, was caught by the term "foster-brother," and held back to
examine the boy more attentively, and to ask him several childish
questions.
In spite of his uncouth dress, Arthur or Arty was a fine-looking little
fellow, and though modest, was by no means awkwardly shy; so the small
folk got along very well together. The next day Philip insisted on
making a visit to the lodge, where he was greeted by his old nurse
Norah with an exhibition of true Irish emotion,--tears, laughter, and
passionate caresses, that rather annoyed than gratified him. "What a
fine little gentleman he has grown, bless God," she exclaimed, wiping
her eyes with her apron.
"Yes," replied Mrs. Marsham, "and your Arty is also a fine, sturdy
little lad. Was he not a delicate baby?"
"Ah, yes indeed, ma'am; we did n't think to raise him till he was well
past three. Then he grew stout and rosy, and sturdy on his legs, the
saints be praised!"
A day or two later, the weather not allowing of walking, Philip felt
lonely, and sent for Arty to come and play with him. The child went,
and returned to the lodge at night quite loaded with playthings, the
gifts of the little lord and his mother. After this he was often sent
for from the Castle, and gradually became a decided favorite with Lord
and Lady Ellenwood, and consequently with all their retainers. As for
Philip, he soon grew devotedly fond of his peasant playmate, and
declared he could not live a day without him; and, as his will was
already law at the Castle, even this whim for a companionship quite
unsuited to his rank was indulged.
Norah O'Neill dressed her son in his best for those grand visits; but
even his holiday suit was soon pronounced too rude for his new
position, and an entire new wardrobe was provided for him. It was a
pretty page-like costume, and singularly becoming, so much so that Lady
Ellenwood, after regarding him with a pleased smile for some minutes,
remarked to Mrs. Marsham, "Really, that child has something superior
about him; I certainly should not take him for a peasant boy."
"Indeed, my lady, you surprise me. The child is well enough for an
O'Neill, but he lacks the _noble look_, after all. I can see the
common bird through all the 'fine feathers.' Only mark, my lady, the
vast difference between him and my little lord."
"Ah, yes, I can see that Philip is the more dainty and delicate, but
Arty is, in some respects, the handsomer child of the two; and, in
truth, I think he has quite a high-bred look. There is a certain
resemblance to my own family, which struck me when I first saw him. He
has decidedly a Cavendish nose, and I have heard my old nurse say that
my hair was once of that same golden auburn. I have never seen a child
of any rank that my heart has been so drawn towards as towards this
same little O'Neill. Surely we must do something for him."
This partiality for the lodge-keeper's child did not prove a mere fine
lady's passing freak. Like little Philip, she grew more and more fond
of little Arty; and when, after a six months' stay in Ireland, the
noble family returned to London, little Arthur, really though not
formally adopted, went with them. He received his earliest instruction
with Philip from a kind governess, with the best of care and the most
affectionate counsel. Lady Ellenwood was very gracious and motherly
towards him, and the Earl always kind; yet he never forgot his humble
Irish parents, whom he was allowed to visit every year.
Thus years went on, and Arty was regarded as a beloved member of that
high family,--as the chosen friend, the brother elect, of his young
master. They were taught by one tutor, and finally sent to school
together, always keeping along hand in hand, in the utmost brotherly
good feeling, with a great, tender love between them,--a love neither
tainted by haughty condescension on the one side, nor by flattering
subserviency on the other. It was a beautiful and marvellous affection.
At length the lads were spending their last vacation at home, in the
old Castle in Wicklow. They were nearly sixteen, and as fine looking,
gallant lads as the country could boast. Such loving, inseparable
companions were they, that they were playfully named "David and
Jonathan."
The pleasure of this visit to the Castle was only marred by the illness
of Mrs. O'Neill, who was thought to be in a decline. Arthur, though so
far removed from his simple life by the patronage of the great, had
always been a good and dutiful son, while Philip had ever evinced a
remarkable fondness for the warm-hearted foster-mother, whose sad blue
eyes dwelt on his merry face with a singular expression of yearning,
sorrowful tenderness.
It was the sixteenth birthday of Philip, Lord Alverley, and his happy
parents gave a ball in honor of the occasion. All the "best people" of
the country were present, and all was brightness, music, and
gayety,--joyous hearts keeping time to light, dancing feet. But, in
the midst of the festivities, the young lord of the _fête_ and Arthur
were summoned from the ball-room by Terence O'Neill, the lodge-keeper,
who came to tell them that his poor wife had taken a turn for the
worse, and was sinking rapidly, and that she desired to see her two
dear lads before she should pass away.
Without a moment's hesitation the friends set out together for the
Lodge. Terence O'Neill left them there and hastened away to summon the
parish priest. So it happened that the lads found themselves alone by
the bedside of Norah O'Neill. They sank on their knees beside her and
burst into tears. The dying woman gazed at them with a look of wild,
passionate love, which seemed struggling with a strange fear, or
remorse.
"O my poor lads!" she said, "I have loved ye both, yet ye have both
much to forgive. When the priest comes I will tell you before him all
my sin,--all the wrong I have done ye both."
They looked bewildered, but waited silently and patiently for the
coming of Terence and the priest. But the anxious minutes went on, and
no one came. At last Norah half raised herself in bed and hoarsely
whispered, "He does not come, and I am dying! I must confess to _you_,
boys; but if you can't forgive, don't curse your poor broken-hearted
mother when you know all. You, Arthur, _are not my son_, though you
were nursed at my breast, and became like the very pulse of my heart.
_You are the Earl's own son; and you, Philip, are not Lord Alverley;
you are my first-born, my only son._ I changed you in your cradles.
The Countess was very ill for weeks, the Earl never left her to visit
her poor, puny baby. It was sickly; I was sure it would die; I was
tempted to put my own healthier child in its place. I meant a kindness
to my lord and lady, yet I have never known an hour's peace since that
day. Nobody knew my secret, not even my husband, for he was away in
England, with some harvesters, at the time. He never suspected. I
never dared lisp a word of it to the priest. I shut it all close in my
heart, where it stung like a serpent and ate like a poison. It is
killing me. O my poor, dear, injured lads, can you forgive me before I
die?"
There was an agony of supplication in the straining eyes and in the
broken sob.
Philip spoke first, very tenderly: "As for myself, mother, I forgive
you, though you have wronged me by making me a party to a great wrong;
but it was very wicked of you to keep so noble a boy as Arthur so long
out of his rights."
"O no," cried Arthur, "I have really suffered no wrong. God so
wonderfully overruled the evil for good. I have had all the happiness
I could have had as the heir of Ellenwood Castle, and added to it, your
love, my more than brother. So, mother dear, I too forgive you, fully
and freely, and do not despair of God's forgiveness, now that all is
well between us three."
Norah O'Neill lifted her bowed head and stretched out her arms with a
cry, half joy, half sorrow, then fell back on her pillow. A mist
gathered over her eyes, and she spoke no more, but her hands groped
about till they found a hand of each of her boys. These she raised one
after the other to her lips, and, meekly kissing them, she died.
The poor lads had never looked upon death before: they were both
awe-struck, silent, and motionless for a while. Then Philip bent down
and closed his mother's eyes, and pressed his lips on her forehead.
But Arthur spoke first. Laying his hand on Philip's shoulder, he said,
in a tone of eager imploring, "Dear brother, we two only know of this
sad revelation. Let us bury it in our hearts, and let all be as though
this had never been. You are far better suited to your present
position than I am. You are one of Nature's noblemen. It would make
me wretched beyond expression to have to take from you wealth, title,
parents, everything. I would rather die. Let us both keep a life-long
silence about this sad affair. I beg, I implore you."
"O Arthur!" cried Philip, reproachfully, "I did not look for this from
_you_. Though a peasant born, it seems, I am not base enough to do
anything so dishonorable as that. You are the last one I would wrong.
I will strip myself of everything that belongs to you. You shall have
your birthright."
"I will not take it, Philip."
"You _must_ take it, and you will yet see it is right for you to take
it. But we have never quarrelled yet, and we must not begin by the
side of our dead mother. Ah! here comes O'Neill, _my father_. We will
not tell him all now."
The lodge-keeper, coming too late with the priest, was so absorbed by
his grief that he noticed nothing unusual in the manner of the lads,
scarcely knew when they took leave of him and returned home.
On the way, Arthur again urged Philip to conceal the strange secret
just revealed to them. Philip said no word in reply, but shook his
proud young head very firmly. As soon as they reached the Castle,
Philip strode with the step and bearing of a man to the ball-room, at
the head of which stood the Earl and Countess in a gay circle of
friends. They pleasantly welcomed back the lads, but all were struck
by the paleness of the two faces,--by the look of heroic determination
in Philip's, and by Arthur's expression of agonized entreaty, as he
clung to the arm of his friend.
With strange clearness and calmness of voice, Philip spoke: "My Lord,
and my dear Lady, I have something strange and startling to tell you,
and I desire to say it before all these guests of ours. _I am not your
son and heir._ There was a fraud perpetrated upon you in my infancy,
by the nurse, Norah O'Neill, my unhappy mother. But you suffer no loss
now; you rather gain, for here, in our dear Arthur, is your _real_ son,
the true Lord Alverley."
After a time of blank amazement and incredulity, followed by scores of
eager questions, which Philip calmly answered, the truth of the strange
story was admitted, and the Earl and Countess turned to embrace their
new-found son. But the painful excitement of the scene had been too
much for that grateful, generous heart. With a piteous look at Philip,
and a gasping sob, the poor boy fell in a swoon at the feet of his
parents.
Well, the strange, perplexing change about was arranged after a while,
even to the names of the lads, and Philip became plain Arthur O'Neill,
and Arthur found himself Philip Alfred Reginald, Lord Alverley, &c.
It was long before he was fully reconciled to the greatness thrust upon
him at the expense of his best friend. He hated his title like a born
Democrat. Indeed, it was said that when he was first my-lorded by his
brother's valet, he flew into a most unbecoming rage. He took to his
new condition more kindly, however, when he found that Philip was not
desperate or unhappy, that he was not too proud to accept from him such
aid in life as an older brother might give. They went to the
University and travelled over the Continent together. Then Arthur
O'Neill entered the army, and his regiment was soon after ordered to
India.
Seas rolled between the foster-brothers for years, yet their hearts
were not divided. "Many waters cannot quench love," neither can the
floods of death drown it. The "golden auburn" locks of the last Earl
of Ellenwood were scarcely touched with silver when the coffin-lid hid
them from sight.
Colonel O'Neill fell in the wilds of Afghanistan. One was "the true
lord," one was a hero; both were noblemen.
A REBUS.
Entire, I circle Kitty's wrists
Or deck small Percy's breast,
Or Annie's night-robe, or beneath
Mamma's soft cheek am prest.
_Behead_ me, and I wander free,
In wood or meadow fair,
Leap down the rock on mosses soft,
Tall ferns, and maiden-hair;
Or linger in the sedgy deep,
And baby-lilies rock to sleep.
_Behead_ again, and to your door,
If I presume to come,
I warn you, bid the porter say,
"To _him_ I'm not at home.
Heaven save me from the visitations
Of all that sort of poor relations!"
_Frill-rill-ill._
STORY OF A FRENCH SOLDIER.
THE CONSCRIPT.
In the wars of the great Napoleon, thousands of French soldiers were
raised by conscription,--that is, taken by lot from the working classes.
These conscripts, though they generally made good soldiers, often went
with great unwillingness and even sorrow from their humble homes and
their loved ones, to endure the hardships of weary campaigns, to risk
life and limb in desperate battles, for they scarcely knew what, with
people against whom they had no ill-will.
On a cloudy morning in early May, a company of conscripts were marched
away from a pleasant little hamlet in the South of France. For some
distance on their way they were followed by loving friends, some
weeping and some bravely striving to cheer them up.
At last these fell off, and the conscripts pursued their march in
melancholy silence. On the brow of a hill, their road passed the gates
of an old chateau, the seat of the ancient lords of the manor, the
Counts De Lorme. The present Count, an old man, had lately been
permitted to return from exile in England, to his half-ruined estate;
but, in acknowledgment for this act of clemency, he had felt obliged to
offer to the service of the Emperor his only son, who was now a captain
in the grand army.
Just outside the gates, on this morning, stood Count De Lorme,
evidently awaiting the conscripts. He addressed a few words to the
sergeant, who brought his men to a halt, and called forward one Jean
Moreau, a tall, sturdy young man, with a frank, honest face, now sadly
overcast.
"Well, Jean," said the old nobleman, kindly shaking the conscript's
hand, "you must go, it seems, this time. I am sorry we could not buy
you off again; but you are built of too tempting soldier-stuff to
remain a peaceful village blacksmith."
"Yes, _Monsieur le Comte_," said the sergeant, "it is n't often we find
such stalwart fellows nowadays. The villagers all speak well of him,
and seem to begrudge him even to the Emperor."
"Yes," replied the Count; "Jean is a good boy. I know him well; he was
the foster-brother of my son. Here, Jean, is a letter to the Captain.
You may meet him somewhere. You may possibly serve in the same
regiment. If so, I commend him to you. He is not so strong as you
are, and he is brave to rashness. Watch over him, I pray you."
"Ah, _Monsieur le Comte_, believe me, I would gladly give my life for
dear Captain Henri."
"I _do_ believe you, Jean. Adieu!"
"Adieu!"
Jean Moreau, the handsome young blacksmith, left in his native hamlet a
widowed mother, a good, sensible woman, formerly nurse at the chateau,
but who, since the Revolution, had adopted the calling of a
_blanchisseuse_, or laundress. "Mother Moreau," as everybody called
her, had another son than Jean, fortunately too young to be drafted as
a conscript. Years before, this good woman had taken home a poor
little orphan girl, who had grown up to be as a daughter to her, and
more than a sister to Jean. Marie Lenoir, the pretty young
_blanchisseuse_, was in truth his betrothed wife. The little bouquet
of May rosebuds and forget-me-nots in his button-hole was her parting
gift. As on the hill by the chateau he turned for his last look at the
dear little hamlet, nestled in the pleasant valley, he was not ashamed
to press those flowers to his lips,--not ashamed of the tears that fell
on them. He was too manly to fear being thought unmanly.
Months went by,--months of sad anxiety to Mother Moreau and Marie
Lenoir, for they heard very unfrequently from Jean, and knew that he
was always in danger. He did not take kindly to a soldier's life, but
he tried faithfully to do his duty, so could not be altogether unhappy.
After he had once seen the great Emperor, he felt the enthusiasm which
that wonderful man always inspired, and longed to do something grand to
merit his praise. Then, by a strange and happy chance, he found
himself in the same regiment with his beloved foster-brother, Captain
De Lorme.
At length there rang over France the news of the great battle of
Austerlitz, where the Emperor commanded in person, and defeated his
foes with fearful slaughter. After a time of painful suspense, the
Count De Lorme had word that his son had been badly wounded, and set
out at once for the hospital in which the young officer had been left.
But many weeks went by, and no tidings, good or evil, came to the
friends of the conscript. Mother Moreau, who was a brave woman, inured
to trouble, kept up a hopeful heart; but Marie Lenoir rapidly lost the
roses from her cheeks and the spring from her step, while the laughing
light of her soft brown eyes gave place to a look of sadness and fear.
But where was Jean? Not dead, as his friends feared. Not buried
forever out of their loving sight, in the soldier's crowded and bloody
grave. He was lying at the same hospital which had received his
foster-brother, very ill from several severe wounds; and when at last
he rose from his bed, and staggered out into the court, one sleeve of
his military coat hung limp and empty at his side. If Jean Moreau had
not given his life for Captain Henri, he had laid down in his service
what was almost as dear,--his good right arm. This was the story of
it. In a part of the field where the battle raged most fiercely,
Captain De Lorme's company, in which Jean was then enrolled, was
engaged. At one time they were right under the eye of the Emperor, and
fought with renewed ardor and courage.
The enemy was in great force here, and desperate charges were made on
both sides. Seeing the standard-bearer of his regiment fall, and the
banner in the hands of the enemy, Captain De Lorme dashed forward to
recover it. This he did, and was gallantly fighting his way back to
the French ranks, when he fell, pierced in the breast by a ball, and
bleeding from more than one bayonet-thrust. In an instant there stood
over him the tall, powerful form of the young blacksmith. Flinging
down his musket, and seizing the sword which the wounded officer had
dropped, he kept off all assailants, or cut them down with terrible
strokes of that keen and bloody weapon, flashing about him, here,
there, on every side, like red lightning. Lifting the fainting young
noble, together with the standard, and bearing them on his left arm,
Jean actually fought his way out of the enemy's ranks, step by step,
defending both his precious charges. He received several wounds, but
none that disabled him, till a musket-ball went crashing through the
bones of his right arm, and it dropped helpless at his side. When at
last he fell, and closed his brave eyes in a long, deep swoon, which he
believed the sleep of death, he was at the foot of a little eminence on
which Napoleon sat on his war-horse, surveying the terrible scene of
carnage,--the surging sea of battle that raged around him. Jean
wondered if the smoke of the cannon veiled from his calm eyes the agony
of dying men, and if their groans came to his ears between the volleys
of musketry, in the pauses of stormy battle music.
As soon as Jean was able to leave his ward, he was permitted to visit
his captain, who, however, was still very low from a fever induced by
his wounds. For the most time he was unconscious or delirious, and
recognized no one. The old Count was with him, but evidently knew not
who had saved the life that flickered faintly in the breast of his son,
and Jean was not the man to inform him.
About a fortnight later, near the close of a weary day, two discharged
and maimed soldiers approached the secluded hamlet of De Lorme. The
elder was crippled by a shot in the knee, the younger had lost an
arm,--his right arm. He was pale and thin from illness, and on one
cheek was a bright red seam, from a deep sabre-cut. So Jean, the
handsome young conscript, came home.
He had borne his misfortune very cheerfully at first, but now at every
step he grew gloomy and lost courage. To his comrade, Jaques Paval, he
frankly confided his trouble.
It was a fear that, maimed and disfigured as he was, his Marie would no
longer be willing to accept him for her husband. This fear grew so
strong on him, that, when they came in sight of the dear old cottage,
he paused in an olive-grove, and sent his friend forward to prepare his
betrothed and his mother for the sad change they must see in him.
[Illustration: He paused in an olive-grove.]
Jaques found Marie leaning over the gate, looking down the street. She
was always looking out for returned soldiers now. She seemed
disappointed that Jaques was not Jean, but greeted him kindly, and soon
drew from him all he had to tell of her doubting lover. Calling Mother
Moreau, and Jean's young brother, she ran before them down the street,
and soon cheered the sinking heart under the olive-trees with a glad
embrace and a welcome home. Then came the young brother, laughing loud
to keep from crying, and affecting not to see that dangling
coat-sleeve, or to miss the grasp of the lost right hand. Then the
mother, thanking God, as she fell on the breast of her son, putting the
hair from his scarred forehead and blessing him. Pretty Marie had
shrunk a little from that ugly red mark on his cheek, but the mother
kissed that very spot most tenderly, with murmurs of pitying love.
The next day, Jean generously offered to free Marie from her
engagement; but she would not be freed, reproaching him with tears for
thinking so poorly of her as to suppose she would forsake him when he
needed her most.
"But, Marie," he said, "we shall be so poor. My pension will be small,
and I can do little with only a left arm."
"But, Jean, I am young and strong, and--"
"God and the saints will help us," interposed Mother Moreau.
Jean and Marie responded by silently crossing themselves; and the
marriage was fixed for the first Sunday of the next month.
On the evening before the wedding the Count De Lorme, who had lately
returned to the chateau, sent word to Mother Moreau, that, with the
permission of the wedding-party, he would be present at the church, to
give away the bride.
With that perfect punctuality which is a part of true politeness, he
came at the exact time appointed; and, leaning on his arm, there came a
slight, pale young officer, Captain Henri, now Colonel De Lorme. With
respectful eagerness Jean stepped forward to greet him, and, in his joy
and faithful devotion, would have kissed the hand held forth, but that
De Lorme, with a sudden impulse of affection, extended his arms, and
the brothers in heart embraced. This is a custom in France with men,
but only when they are equal in rank. At this moment the young noble
caught sight of that mournful empty sleeve. A look of pain crossed his
face; he gently lifted the sleeve and pressed it to his lips.
"Jean," he said at last, in a soft, unsteady voice, "I bring you good
news! The Emperor himself witnessed your gallant conduct in rescuing
me and our colors, and if you had not been disabled, you would have
been promoted. As it is, you will receive the pension of a lieutenant.
And, Jean, I give you joy, _mon frère_ (my brother), _he_ sends you
_this_, the highest reward of a brave soldier of France, the best
wedding present for a hero."
With these words the young Colonel placed on the breast of the poor
conscript a shining ornament,--the grand cross of the Legion of Honor!
So the wedding of Jean and Marie was a merry one after all. The good
old Count not only gave away the bride, but gave with her a nice little
_dot_, or portion. All the villagers who were rich enough gave them
presents, and the poor gave blessings, which doubtless turned into good
things in time.
Marie Moreau proved such an energetic, devoted wife, that Jean felt
that he had more than got his right arm back again; yet he was no
idler, for he found that with practice he could do many things with his
left arm, and at length adopted the business of a vine-grower.
As he grew older, his beard grew heavier, so that in a few years little
Henri, his son, had to part, with his chubby fingers, the thick, crisp
hair, to get at that sabre-scar, when he wanted to hear the story of
the hard fight for the young captain and the banner, and of the great
Emperor on the hill overlooking everything with his keen, gray,
unflinching eyes.
A CHARADE.
My _first_ is often caught in church,
Is dear to dog and cat,
Oft shuns the couch of kings, to bless
The slave upon his mat;
And like the "willow," in the song,
Is "all around my hat."
My _second_ an exclamation is,
A single, simple sound,
That tells of fear, surprise, or joy,
For friends, or treasures found;
And sometimes holds a world of woe
Within its little round.
My _third's_ a lordly name, a land
For which the Genoese
Went forth upon his god-like quest,
And ploughed through unknown seas,
And gave to Europe old a world
Of golden mysteries.
My _whole_, a mighty conqueror,
Filled earth with his renown;
His life-bark rode on Fortune's flood;
Till the heavens began to frown,
And it struck upon a rock at last,
In storm and night went down.
_Nap-o-leon_
ABOUT SOME SWISS CHILDREN.
THE DRUMMER-BOY.
A scene very similar to those we so often witnessed during the sad days
of our war, occurred one sweet June morning, about sixty years ago, in
a quaint little village in Switzerland, on the borders of France. A
company of recruits were about departing to join a regiment in a
neighboring town, from whence they were to march to Italy, where
Napoleon, then First Consul, was conducting one of his great campaigns.
Around these recruits, all of them young, gathered their friends and
relatives, with tears and embraces and touching words of farewell.
About a young drummer-boy, named Leopold Koerner, gathered a little
group on whose grief few could look without tears. First, around the
lad's neck clung his pretty blue-eyed sister, Madeline; then his
younger brother Heinrich, ever till this day a merry, light-hearted
little fellow. Then came their sturdy old grandmother, trying to put a
brave face on the matter, and winking vigorously to keep back the
tears. Leopold's father had been killed in the great French
Revolution,--his widow had died soon after, "of a decline," it was
said; but doubtless sorrow helped her on toward the great, sweet rest.
The children were left to the sole care of their grandmother. She was
poor and old, but she had a stout, faithful heart,--she was devout and
determined, and battled with want and poverty like a true soldier of
the Lord. She kept the children together, and brought them up "in the
way they should go."
It was for the sake of relieving this noble old friend of some of her
heavy care, more than from any love of a soldier's life, that Leopold,
at the age of fourteen, enlisted as a drummer.
At parting with her darling, the good woman said little, but to charge
him to remember his father's honesty and bravery, his mother's
goodness, and the love of the true hearts left behind him. "Make all
thy noise with thy drum, lad; neither boast nor swear, and remember,
the better man the better soldier."
"Keep up good heart, brother," said Heinrich, with a quivering lip,
"thou wilt come back to us some day, safe and sound, a grand
officer,--the General of all the drummers."
"Adieu, dear Leopold," sobbed Madeline; "O, what can I do without thee?
I pray the holy saints and angels to turn the bullets away from thee.
Take with thee our mother's prayer-book. The _Forget-me-nots_ pressed
in it are from her grave. I shall cry my prayers now; but they will
all be for thee. Adieu! adieu!"
Just then came the command, "Forward, march!" Leopold hastily thrust
his sister's gift into his bosom, kissed her for the last time, and
with a sad wave of the hand to his old friends, moved on in his place,
sturdily beating his drum, a tear-drop falling at every stroke.
Leopold first saw real hard fighting in Italy, at the great battle of
Marengo. In the early part of the engagement, as his regiment was
marching past a little hill, on which were a group of mounted officers,
Leopold's boyish eye was caught by the figure of a tall, handsome young
general, mounted on a magnificent white horse. He was very singularly
and splendidly dressed, in a rich Eastern-looking uniform, of scarlet,
azure, and gold. At his side hung a diamond-hilted sword, suspended by
a girdle of gold brocade. On his head he wore a three-cornered
chapeau, from which rose a long, white ostrich plume, and a superb
heron feather. The band that held these was clasped with brilliants of
great value.
"Ah, there is the great General Bonaparte!" cried Leopold, to a
comrade. "I knew him at a glance."
"Which, my lad?"
"Why, that splendid officer, talking to the pale little man, in a gray
surtout and leather breeches."
"Ah, no, my little comrade," replied the other drummer, laughing, "that
is Murat, General of Cavalry,--the little man in the gray surtout is
General Bonaparte. However, you need not blush for your hero; he is a
wonderful fellow at the head of a charge. Wherever his white plume
goes, victory follows. You should see Bonaparte watch it, gleaming
above the fight, as the French cavalry goes thundering up against
Austrian bayonets or batteries. They say the mad general sometimes
shouts to the Austrian dragoons, 'Ho! who of you wants Murat's jewels?
Let him come and take them!' And they come one after another, to go
down under his sword, which falls upon them swift and sure as the
lightning. Ah! he is a terrible fellow."
Leopold found a battle to be something yet more awful than he had
imagined. The roar of artillery, the rattle of musketry, the clang of
swords and bayonets, the stormy gallop of cavalry, the groans and
shrieks of wounded and dying men, appalled his very soul. But though
his cheeks grew deathly white, and his eyes large and wild, he had not
one cowardly impulse to fly from his duty. Again and again, he gave
the quick drum-beat for the advance.
In the height of the battle, Murat dashed forward in one of his
overpowering cavalry charges. Leopold, in the midst of the horrors of
the fight, gazed with wonder and admiration at the plumed and jewelled
officer, on his magnificent white horse, with its trappings of gold and
azure. It was like a beautiful vision in that awful place, and a wild
huzza broke from the boy's lips. Just then a cannon-ball rushed before
him, like a small whirlwind, and carried away his drum, in a thousand
fragments. He saw the same ball pass harmlessly between the legs of
the white horse of Murat, who was then engaged in a hand-to-hand combat
with a tall Austrian dragoon. Relieved from duty, the boy stood
watching the fiery general, forgetful of danger, scarcely hearing the
horrible singing of the bullets through the air. He saw the tall
dragoon go down, and another dash forward to fill his place. While
General Murat was dealing with him, Leopold saw an Austrian officer
spur forward, and wheel sharply a powerful black horse, with the intent
to attack the rash French hero from behind. While his followers were
engaging those of Murat, he plunged forward, with his gleaming sword
lifted high in air. Leopold never know how he did it, but he broke
frantically through the ranks of infantry, in among the furious,
trampling cavalry, at the last moment, seized the Austrian's black
horse by the bit, and throwing his whole weight upon it, brought him to
his knees. As he did so, he screamed at the top of his voice, "This
way, General Murat!" The consequence was, that the sword that would
have struck down his general, fell on his own presumptuous arm, nearly
severing it from his shoulder. But on the instant, the white-plumed
hero wheeled, with his avenging sword uplifted, and the next thing the
drummer-boy saw, as he lay bleeding on the ground, was a great black
horse dashing riderless away.
General Murat saw at once the great service Leopold had done him, and
all that the daring act had cost the poor lad. He paused there, and
stood guard over the boy, till he had seen him carefully removed to the
rear. Then with his sword in one hand, a pistol in the other, and the
bridle in his teeth, he dashed forward again in a last wild, tremendous
charge, which carried the day for the French.
The next morning, Leopold found himself an inmate of the crowded
hospital, surrounded with the wounded and the maimed, the fevered and
the dying. But he was especially well cared for, at the command of
General Murat, to whose interest perhaps it was owing that his arm was
saved, as at first the surgeons were for taking it off, and so making
an end of a troublesome job. But with skilful treatment, aided by the
lad's youth, good habits, and patience, the great wound healed at last.
One day, while Leopold yet lay on his cot, forbidden to stir, and
feeling very lonely and homesick, the dreary hospital was illuminated
by the entrance of General Murat, accompanied by his beautiful young
wife, who was a sister of General Bonaparte. After bowing graciously
to the other patients, they came to the little drummer-boy. The
General inquired kindly after his wound, and Madame Murat thanked him
in the sweetest manner for saving the life of her husband.
"Glory gives you a rough hand-shake at first, eh, my lad? But, never
mind; it is a brusque way she has," said the General, smiling.
"I am thankful that she did not shake my hand off altogether, my
General," replied Leopold. "I fear as it is, 't will be long ere I can
hope to help drum the way to another victory."
"Ah, well, my child, when you get strong enough to handle the
drum-sticks, we may find better work for you. We shall see. Adieu!"
"Adieu, my General! Adieu, Madame!"
Well, when Leopold applied for his old position in his regiment, he was
informed by his Colonel that he was to be sent to the Polytechnic, a
military school in Paris, to be educated for a cavalry officer, under
the patronage of General Murat. This was a great up-lift in life for a
poor peasant-boy; but he received the news with modest gratitude and
joy, unmingled with the faintest trace of pride or conceit.
He obtained leave to visit his home on his way to Paris, and never
forgot that humble home or its inmates, as he got on in his profession.
He proved to be a good student, and grew up into a fine, soldier-like,
honorable man.
General Murat and his wife continued to befriend him, even after they
became king and queen of Naples.
In the battles of the Empire, the young lieutenant of cavalry so
distinguished himself that he rose to a high rank. So one day, before
his brown hair was turned gray, and before his good grandmother's white
head had been hidden in the grave, Leopold Koerner entered his native
village a General,--though not as his brother Heinrich had prophesied,
"the General of all the drummers."
This was not his first visit home after leaving the Polytechnic. Once
he had returned to purchase, with his well-saved pay, a small property
for his brother, who had chosen the peaceful calling of a miller; and
once again, to give away in marriage his sweet sister Madeline, who
became the wife of the village Notary.
At this time Leopold offered to return to the bride her mother's
prayer-book, which he had always worn, he said, over his heart, on
weary marches, and into battle.
"No, my brother," said Madeline, "I will not take it. Wear it still,
to remind thee of our mother and of Heaven. Prayer is a soldier's best
breastplate."
A REBUS.
Entire, at an army's head I stand,
Marches and sieges I command,
The foremost fighter of the time:
_Behead me_, on the mimic stage
I pass for fine, poetic rage,
Passion and agony sublime.
_Behead again_, complete the fall,
From a mighty Major-General
To an insect most exceedingly small.
'T is marvellous, yet we have seen
Such magic changes before, I ween.
_Grant-rant-ant._
LITTLE CARL'S CHRISTMAS-EVE.
"Come in!" shouted together the host and hostess of a little German
wayside inn, near the banks of the Rhine, and not far below the city of
Basle, and the borders of Switzerland. It was Christmas-eve, and a
tempestuous night. The wind was raving round the little inn, and
tearing away at windows and doors, as though mad to get at the brave
little light within, and extinguish it without mercy. The snow was
falling fast, drifting and driving, obstructing the highway, blinding
the eyes of man and beast.
The "come in" of the host and hostess was in answer to a loud, hurried
rap at the door, by which there immediately entered two travellers.
One, by his military dress, seemed a soldier, and the other appeared to
be his servant. This was the case. General Wallenstein was on his way
from Carlsruhe, to his home in Basle. He had been delayed several
hours by an accident to his post-carriage and by the storm, and now
found himself obliged to stop for the night at this lonely and
comfortless little inn.
When the officer threw aside his plumed hat and military cloak of rich
fur, and strode up to the fire, with his epaulettes flashing in the
light, and his sword knocking against his heels, cling, clang, the
gruff host was greatly impressed with his importance, and willingly
went out to assist the postilion in the care of the horses. As for the
old hostess, she bustled about with wonderful activity to prepare
supper for the great man.
"Ho, Carl!" she cried, "thou young Rhine-sprite, thou water-imp, run to
the wood for another bundle of fagots! Away, haste thee, or I 'll give
thee back to thy elfin kinsfolk, who are ever howling for thee!"
At these strange, sharp words, a wild-looking little boy started up
from a dusky corner of the room, where he had been lying with his head
pillowed on a great tawny Swiss dog, and darted out of the door. He
was coarsely dressed and bare-footed; yet there was something uncommon
about him,--something grand, yet familiar in his look, which struck the
traveller strangely.
"Is that your child?" he asked.
"No indeed," said the old dame; "I am a poor woman, and have seen
trouble in my time, but, blessed be the saints! I 'm not the mother of
water-imps."
"Why do you call the boy a water-imp?"
"I call him so, your excellency," said the woman, sinking her shrill
voice into an awe-struck tone, "because he came from the water, and
belongs to the water. He floated down the Rhine in the great flood,
four years ago come spring, a mere baby, that could barely tell his
name, perched on the roof of a little chalet, in the night, amid
thunder, lightning, and rain! Now, it is plain that no human child
could have lived through that. My good man spied him in the morning
early, and took him off in his boat. I took him in for pity; but I
have always been afraid of him, and every flood-time I think the Rhine
is coming for his own again."
The traveller seemed deeply interested, and well he might be; for in
the very flood of which the superstitious old dame spoke his only
child, an infant boy, had been lost, with his nurse, whose cottage on
the river-bank below Basle had been swept away by night.
"Was the child quite alone on the roof of the chalet?" he asked in an
agitated tone.
"Yes," said the hostess, "all but an old dog, who seemed to belong to
him."
"That dog must have dragged him up on to the roof, and saved him!"
exclaimed the general; "is he yet alive?"
"Yes, just alive. He must be very old, for he is almost stone blind
and deaf. My good man would have put him out of the way long ago, but
for Carl; and as he shares his meals, and makes his bed with him, I
suppose it is no loss to keep the brute."
"Show me the dog!" said the officer, with authority.
"Here he lies, your excellency," said the dame. "We call him
_Elfen-hund_" (elf-dog).
General Wallenstein bent over the dog, touched him gently, and shouted
in his ear his old name of "Leon." The dog had not forgotten it; he
knew that voice, the touch of that hand. With a plaintive, joyful cry,
he sprang up to the breast of his old master, nestled about blindly for
his hands, and licked them unreproved; then sunk down, as though faint
with joy, to his master's feet. The brave soldier was overcome with
emotion; tears fell fast from his eyes. "Faithful creature," he
exclaimed, "you have saved my child, and given him back to me." And
kneeling down, he laid his hand on the head of the poor old dog and
blessed him.
Just at this moment the door opened and little Carl appeared, toiling
up the steps with his arms full of fagots, his cheerful face smiling
brave defiance to winter winds, and night and snow.
"Come hither, Carl," said the soldier. The boy flung down his fagots
and drew near.
"Dost thou know who I am?"
"Ah no,--the good Christmas King, perhaps," said the little lad,
looking full of innocent wonderment.
"Alas, poor child, how shouldst thou remember me!" exclaimed General
Wallenstein, sadly. Then clasping him in his arms, he said, "But I
remember thee; thou art my boy, my dear, long-lost boy! Look in my
face; embrace me; I am thy father!"
"No, surely," said the child, sorely bewildered, "that cannot be, for
they tell me the Rhine is my father."
The soldier smiled through his tears, and soon was able to convince his
little son that he had a better father than the old river that had
carried him away from his tender parents. He told him of a loving
mother who yet sorrowed for him, and of a little blue-eyed sister, who
would rejoice when he came. Carl listened, and wondered, and laughed,
and when he comprehended it all, slid from his father's arms and ran to
embrace old Leon.
The next morning early General Wallenstein, after having generously
rewarded the innkeeper and his wife for having given a home, though a
poor one, to his little son, departed for Basle. In his arms he
carried Carl, carefully wrapped in his warm fur cloak, and if sometimes
the little bare feet of the child were thrust out from their covering,
it was only to bury themselves in the shaggy coat of old Leon, who lay
snugly curled up in the bottom of the carriage.
I will not attempt to tell you of the deep joy of Carl's mother, nor of
the wild delight of his little sister, for I think such things are
quite beyond any one's telling; but altogether it was to the
Wallensteins a Christmas-time to thank God for, and they did thank him.
A CHARADE.
My _first_ the softest, loveliest grace
Nature to beauty gives;
While love and truth and modesty
Stay in the heart, it lives.
My _second_ is so like my first,
My first its shadow seems;
It sweetens all the sunny day,
All night in fragrance dreams.
My _whole_, sweet one, I love to trace,
Soft glowing in that tell-tale face,
When Arthur whispers in your ear
Those "nothings" I must never hear:
Ah! then it comes, all warm and clear,
Your answering blush, Rose, my dear.
_Blush-rose._
ABOUT SOME ITALIAN CHILDREN.
GIUSEPPE AND LUCIA.
In a little mountain town not far from the beautiful lake of Como, in
the North of Italy, in the early part of the last war between the
Austrians and the Italians, a poor peasant-woman lay dying. Beside her
bed stood a fine, sturdy-looking lad, some fourteen years of age,
listening reverently to the last words of his mother. On the bed, with
her face hidden against that dear mother's breast, lay a little girl of
six or seven, trying to keep down her sobs, and to take into her
half-broken little heart the fond farewells, the tender and solemn
advice of the beloved one who was going home to God.
The dying mother grieved to leave her poor children alone in the world,
for they were fatherless, and had no near relatives; but she believed
that the same Heavenly Father who was calling her from them would care
for them and bring them home to her at last. To the tender love of
that Father, and to the protection of the holy saints, she commended
them, kissed them and blessed them, and went softly to sleep, to awake
in Heaven.
After the burial of their mother, Giuseppe and Lucia found themselves
nearly penniless. They had no friends except among the poor, so they
must help themselves, or suffer extreme poverty. The boy possessed a
great deal of musical talent, and played well upon several instruments.
He resolved that somehow he would make this talent serve for the
support of himself and his little sister. He could have enlisted as a
drummer, but he regarded the Austrians, who then held that part of
Italy, as the cruel oppressors of his country. He had an especial
horror of them, from the fact that his father had been shot several
years before, for joining an unsuccessful rising against them in Milan.
At last, Giuseppe Benedetti fixed upon a calling. With the small sum
of money which a sale of the cottage furniture brought he purchased a
set of puppets, or _marionettes_,--quaint little figures, that would
dance very nimbly if not gracefully to the notes of the pipes, which he
played like a master. This is a rather rude, but quite an inspiring
musical instrument, belonging mostly to the mountain regions of Italy.
Those who play it are called _pifferari_, or pipers.
When all was ready, Giuseppe and Lucia took an affectionate leave of
their kind neighbors, and set bravely out on their travels, to seek
their fortune. They tramped from town to town, sometimes getting very
weary and discouraged, but often having very pleasant times together,
and never suffering from actual want. One day they found themselves
within a few hours' walk of Mancini, the little village in which their
mother had died, and concluded to revisit it. At noon, they stopped to
rest in an olive-grove by the wayside. After eating their simple
dinner of brown bread and fresh figs, and drinking from a cool spring
near by, Lucia, who never tired of the wonderful performances of the
marionettes, asked her brother to play for them, and sat watching the
dancing of the miniature men and women with true childish delight.
In the midst of their enjoyment, they were startled by the tramp of
horses and men coming up the road. Giuseppe ran forwards, and looked
down on a band of some two hundred Italian soldiers, led by a
noble-looking man, mounted on a fiery white horse; but wearing, instead
of a showy uniform, a red-flannel shirt, gray trousers, and a slouched
felt hat. As this officer saw Giuseppe standing on the high bank, with
little Lucia behind him, peering timidly between his legs, he reined up
horse, and asked in a voice sweet and sad, yet grand and commanding, if
there was a spring of water near by. Giuseppe replied by offering to
show him the one he had found, and soon conducted him and his men to a
little green nook, where the water gushed up sweet and fresh. The lad
noticed that the noble-looking leader waited till all his soldiers had
quenched their thirst before he drank.
When he was ready to resume the march, he thanked the peasant-boy, and
kindly asked his name.
"Giuseppe Benedetti."
"Ah, _Giuseppe_! that is my name also," said the officer.
"Yes, General, Giuseppe _Garibaldi_," said the lad, smiling.
The General started, and asked how he knew him.
"My father served under you at the siege of Rome, and he had a picture
of you."
"Ah, your father, I remember him; where is he now?"
"He was shot at Milan, General."
The noble face of Garibaldi grew stern, but softened again as he looked
pityingly on the orphans. After giving them a little money--he was
himself too poor to give them much--he turned away and began consulting
with one of his officers in regard to their march. Giuseppe understood
that their plan was to go on to Mancini, where they expected to raise
some more men, and to camp for the night near the village. After a few
energetic words away he dashed, followed by his brave, devoted band.
When they were gone, Giuseppe and Lucia lay down on the soft turf, and
talked of all they had seen and heard, till, overcome by the heat and
lulled by the murmur of the brook, they fell asleep. They slept till
late in the afternoon, when they were awakened by the tramp of soldiers
again coming up the road.
"Here comes more of our brave Italians," exclaimed Lucia.
"No, these are Austrians," said Giuseppe, looking down upon them from
the olive-grove. "I know them by their hateful colors, black and
yellow. I 'm afraid they are after Garibaldi. If they overtake him
they will cut his little band to pieces, for here is a whole regiment
of the bloodthirsty tyrants."
Just then an Austrian officer caught sight of the lad, and leaped his
horse up the bank, followed by a file of soldiers. "Tell me, my boy,"
he said, with a terrible scowl, "have you seen anything of Garibaldi
and his men?"
Giuseppe stood quite still, but replied not a word. The officer drew
his sword and threatened him with instant death, yet still he would not
speak. But poor Lucia could not see her brother murdered; she flung
herself between him and the officer, crying out, "Yes, we _did_ see
him; but please don't hurt him, or any of his brave soldiers."
[Illustration: Giuseppe and Lucia]
The Austrian laughed a cruel sort of a laugh, and asked, "Which way did
they go?"
Poor Lucia could not say any more for sobbing, but pointed with her
hand up the road,--never in her innocence thinking of misleading him.
It was enough; in another moment he was leading on his men, with the
hope of soon surprising and destroying the Italians.
When they were out of hearing, Giuseppe flung himself on the ground,
crying bitterly. "Ah, little Lucia," he said, "how could you betray
our General, the hope of Italy? Why did you not let the Austrian kill
me?"
"O brother, brother," replied the child, weeping, "how _could_ I let
him? I love _you_ better even than Garibaldi; besides, he is such a
great fighter, may be he will kill them all."
"No, no," groaned the poor lad, "they are too many for him, if they
take him by surprise."
Suddenly he sprang up, his face looking all bright and eager, and said,
"Little sister, now you have done our General so much mischief, are you
brave enough to try to save him?"
"Why, what can such a little thing as I do?"
"I will tell you. You can stay here with the pipes and marionettes,
while I run over the mountain by a little path,--a cross-cut I
know,--and warn Garibaldi that the Austrians are after him. I will be
back by midnight, I hope, but you must stay here till I come; there
will be moonlight, and it will not be cold. Dare you stay alone?"
"Yes," answered Lucia, firmly, though turning quite pale; "the blessed
Mother of our Lord will watch over me, and may be our mother will come
with her. I think she 's a saint; I am sure she ought to be made one."
With a tender kiss on the lips of his heroic little sister, Giuseppe
sprang away and soon disappeared over a ridge of the mountain. After
some narrow escapes in pursuing his perilous path along precipices and
over torrents, he reached Mancini in time not only to warn Garibaldi,
but to allow him to march back through a deep ravine and intercept the
Austrians. Taken by surprise, and in the dim evening light mistaking
Garibaldi's dashing little band for a large force, they made little
resistance, but such as were not killed in the first charge, fled or
surrendered. After sending his prisoners to one of his secret mountain
strongholds, Garibaldi despatched a trooper with Giuseppe to the
olive-grove, whore Lucia had been left alone. They found her safe,
quietly sleeping, with her sweet little face upturned in the soft
moonlight. The trooper took her up before him, on his strong, black
horse, and the three returned to Garibaldi's camp.
Giuseppe and his little sister remained with the brave mountain men for
several weeks. The little girl became a great pet with the rough but
kindly soldiers, and many a night she sat with them beside the
camp-fire, sometimes on Garibaldi's knee, and sung sweet, wild songs,
while Giuseppe played on his pipes, and the funny little marionettes
danced right merrily.
But at last, General Garibaldi found for the good little girl a home
with a kind lady, who promised to bring her up as her own child. That
home was in a pretty villa, on the lovely shore of Lake Como. Giuseppe
remained with Garibaldi, and became a soldier.
After the Austrians had been driven from Milan, he entered that city in
the suite of his beloved general. One day, he went to the spot just
outside the walls, where a few years before his poor father was shot.
He picked a wild poppy, and put it in his bosom, thinking that it might
be it had received its rich red color from the life-blood of that brave
father. Then, as he looked over the beautiful city, and saw waving
from every public building the banner of the gallant King of Sardinia,
instead of the ugly flag of Austria, he thanked God for Victor Emanuel,
Garibaldi, and liberty.
A CHARADE.
My _first_ we wish our dear ones' lives to be,
And all the joys and loves that Hope discloses,
And fairy-tales, and picnics by the sea,
Purses, and golden curls, and times of roses,
And lashes dark, to shade a beauty's glances,
And rides, and sails, and pantomimes, and dances.
My _second_ is the place where thousands meet,
Like ships at sea, who never meet again,--
Fair maids, and soldiers brave, and children sweet,
And ruddy boys, and silver-haired old men;
The surging mob, the monks' procession holy,
Gay bridal trains, and funerals moving slowly.
My _whole_, he was a Southern leader brave,
Whose flaming sword to Richmond barred the way;
'Mid smoke and shot, he saw his banners wave,
He rode victorious, joying in the fray.
Till fickle Fortune set the hero learning
'Tis a long lane, or street, that knows no turning.
_Long-street._
HOME STORIES.
MY PET FROM THE CLOUDS.
How odd it was! Such a funny little event! I have often told the
story to my one little chick, but it has always seemed to me too absurd
to put into print; yet you see I have finally made up my mind to tell
you all about it.
I was seven years old that summer,--seven, "going on" eight, as we
country children used to say. It was the term during which I commenced
the study of geography,--dear old Peter Parley's charming little book,
which first formally introduced me to the great world we live in, or
rather on, and first made me realize that it was round, and all that.
It was on an afternoon in the early part of July, I am not sure,
though, that it was n't in the latter part of June, that it
happened,--the singular event I am going to tell you about. It had
been dreadfully hot all day,--so hot that the very hillsides seemed to
pant, like the sides of the poor cattle, in the parched pastures. I
thought it extremely lucky that my geography lesson that day was in
Greenland. I don't believe I could have been equal to a lesson in
Mesopotamia. I remember saying to Bob Linn, at recess, that I wished I
was a seal, riding on an iceberg; and he said he wished he was a white
bear, climbing the North Pole and sliding down backwards. That was so
like Bob Linn. He used to climb the lightning-rod of the
meeting-house, and ring the bell at very improper hours, till Deacon
Jones tarred it,--the rod, not the bell. I wonder where he is
now,--Bob, not the Deacon. He was the first schoolmate to whom I told
what had happened that July, or June afternoon. As I think I have
said, it was a very hot day; but, just before school was dismissed,
there came up a refreshing thunder-shower. How we revived, in the
cool, moist air, like the poor wilted field-flowers! The shrunken
stream in the glen grew, and took heart, and went tumbling down the
rocks, in its old, headlong spring-fashion. The cattle stopped panting
and whisking off flies, and stood dripping and chewing, while a smile
of brightening greenness ran over the faded face of the pasture.
I had a half-mile walk home. One of the girls who lived nearer the
school-house invited me to stay all night with her; but I thought that
I, who was old enough to study about oceans, avalanches, earthquakes,
and volcanoes, ought not to be afraid of such rain, thunder, and
lightning as we had in our free, enlightened, and Christian country.
So I thanked her "no," which was very well; for, if I had stayed, that
wouldn't have happened that did happen,--or, at least, I would n't have
seen it. Well, I set out for home, bravely breasting the wind, and
really enjoying the rain, in spite of my new sun-bonnet getting every
minute more limp and flappy. I remember wondering if it was raining at
that very time in China, right under my feet. If so, study on it as I
would, I could n't make it seem any other way than that it rained
upwards there. I was thinking of such things, and not expecting
anything particular to happen, till I got in sight of home, past the
old Phillips place, where it did happen. It was here I first noticed
over my head the blackest of black clouds, big with barrels of rain. I
started into a run, to get out of the way, when--now it is coming, what
I was going to relate! No, I must first tell you that there was near
me then no house, nor tree, nor even bush, that it could have dropped
or jumped off from. Now it really is coming! Well, right down before
my eyes, straight out of that cloud, fell--_a little frog_!! There, it
is out! I like to take people by surprise, and not, like some
story-tellers, drag my listeners all "round Robin Hood's barn" before I
get at a thing.
I stood stock still for a moment, in wonder and astonishment. Then,
half afraid, I picked the little creature up out of the sand. He was
of a greenish-brown, brightening to gold in the sun. His limbs were
extremely delicate, and his eyes were as bright as diamonds. I carried
him gently home, and ran with him in the greatest excitement to my
mother, exclaiming, "O mamma! do look at this lovely little frog! It
is n't human! It came right down to me out of the sky. I do believe
it is an angel-frog!"
My mother laughed, but, on being told the story of Froggy's descent
from the clouds, said it was a great marvel and mystery where he came
from, and how he got there. Glad of a chance to display my learning, I
said, "Why, mamma, you know the stars are round balls, like our earth,
swinging in the air; and may be he was whirled off one of them, or
maybe he jumped off the horn of the moon last night, and has been
travelling ever since. Poor little fellow! how tired he must be!"
When my father came in, he gave it as his opinion that the frog had
been carried up by a waterspout, from a lake about twenty miles
distant, kept up and borne along by currents of air. At all events, he
was a hero and an adventurer, and I resolved to keep him as a
curiosity. So I put him in a large rain-water trough, at the back of
the house, where he lived in apparent content, the monarch of all he
surveyed. During dry times, I kept him well supplied with fresh water
from the well, and I frequently threw in broad dock-leaves, for him to
take shelter under from the heat. He soon grew to know me, and would
actually come at my call from the farthest end of the trough. He was
very shy of others, and I was not sorry, for I wanted all his
affection, and was proud of his discernment. This was thought so
singular that I was often sent out with visitors, to show off my pet.
I don't believe that the keeper of the hippopotamus can be prouder of
his mud-loving monster than I was of my lively little friend.
My brother Will built for him a neat little ship, on which he sailed
about, being captain, crew, cabin-boy, and all. One morning, while I
was playing with him, he hopped down the hatchway. I shut him into the
little cabin, and was careless enough to forget to let him out before
going to school. When I came home, I found him lying on the cabin
floor, still and lifeless! He had been suffocated in the close, hot
air. I am not ashamed to own that I cried heartily over the poor limp
little body. I wrapped it tenderly in a plantain-leaf, and laid it
beside my last lost kitty.
In the evening, when I told my father of my loss, he by no means made
light of it, knowing my pet was no common frog.
"Poor fellow!" he said, "it was as bad for him as the 'Black Hole of
Calcutta.'" I did n't know what that meant then; I know now, but
haven't time to tell you. Besides it is n't a pleasant story. Then
papa added, "Perhaps, after all, it is only a case of suspended
animation. Your little frog may have only been in a swoon. If you
open his grave in the morning, you may find that he has come to."
That was a pleasant hope to go to bed on, and you may believe I rose
bright and early in the morning, to run with my shingle-spade to the
cemetery of all my dead pets. With an anxious heart, I removed the
earth, and unfolded the plantain-leaf. Sure enough, there was my pet,
"alive and kicking!" He hopped out on to a full-blown dandelion, and
looked about him as pert and knowing as ever. I caught him up, and ran
with him into the house, crying, "Froggy is resurrected!--Froggy is
resurrected!"
After this, nothing especial happened to him for some months. He grew
in intelligence and lively graces, but not in size, remaining precisely
the same pretty, tiny creature as at the first. This fairy-like,
unchangeable youthfulness, and his little, piping note, "most musical,
most melancholy," made me still half believe that he was a frog of
another and a higher race than ours,--star-born, or a native of
cloud-land. After the frosty nights of November, I used to remove the
thin ice from his tank, so that he could swim freely, and he did not
seem to suffer much from the rigors of the season. But, on the first
morning in December, I found to my grief that the shallow water in the
trough was frozen solid, and--Froggy with it! I could see him tightly
imprisoned in the clear ice, about midway from the surface. His limbs
were extended, showing that he had bravely kicked against his hard fate
to the last. I gave him up, then, and went into the house
disconsolate. But my mother was still hopeful. Under her directions I
heated the kitchen shovel, and with it thawed out a block of ice some
inches square, with Froggy in the centre. This I placed on the hearth
before the fire. You see I did not dare to break the ice, for fear of
breaking with it the frozen limbs of my pet. I watched the melting of
the block with affectionate interest. It was slow work, but it came to
an end at last, and Froggy was free. Still, for a time he lay
motionless, and I feared he was dead. Then, one limb twitched, then
another, and then he was alive all over, and began to hop away from the
fire. I rejoiced over him with great joy, put him in a tub of water,
with a piece of bark to sail on, and began laying plans for keeping him
in-doors all winter. But my mother said it was impossible,--that there
was but one way to save the life of my pet, and that was to take him
down to the millstream and fling him in. There the water was deep, and
the frogs lived under the ice, cosey and comfortable all winter.
"O mamma," I said, "I can't make up my mind to do that. He would miss
me so, and I don't believe that the other frogs would treat him well.
He is n't of their kind, you know."
"I think it more likely," she answered, "that they will have sense
enough to perceive his superiority, and will treat him
accordingly,--perhaps make a Prince or President of him. He will come
among them as a distinguished stranger,--a travelled adventurer."
This consoled and determined me. I put on my cloak and hood, and set
out at once, for fear I should lose courage. I ran all the way,
talking to my funny little pet, and saying, I doubt not, many silly
things, but which, I am sure, went no further.
When I came to the bank of the stream, I thought perhaps he would hop
in of his own accord. I bade him farewell, and held him out over the
water. But I suppose it looked big and dreary to him, for he did not
stir. I even fancied that he looked at me reproachfully for thinking
that he would be so willing to leave me. I was obliged to give him a
toss, and the next instant he disappeared forever under the dark,
wintry waters, among the reeds and rushes.
So now you know all I know about My Pet from the Clouds.
A CHARADE.
FOR WILLIE WINKIE
So Will, my lad, you beg that I'll
Concoct you a charade;
Well, dear, here goes: My _first_ is first
Your favorite little maid;
The hearts of roses too are it,
And vine-blooms under which I sit;
And childhood's dreams, and sinless thoughts,
And tones attuned to love,
"The uses of adversity,"
The cooings of the dove,
And Lilly's eyes, and Kitty's lips,
And Tommy's 'lassed finger-tips.
My _second_ was the royal name
Of England's conquering foe.
Who set his foot on Saxon necks
Eight hundred years ago;
The name too of a poet-king,
Who still rules many a land;
No soldier he, but a knightlier soul
Did ne'er shake spear or brand.
My _whole_ is no exotic rare,
A common flower found everywhere;
In form 't is somewhat like the pink,
But its scent is finer, I declare,
Than musk, or your patchouli.
You 've guessed it now, I really think,
So I'll refrain from wasting ink.
Sweet Will, I am
Yours truly,
GRACE GREENWOOD.
THE TWO GEORGES.
A TRAGEDY.
The summer that I was eight years old I went to school, at our little
brown country schoolhouse, alone; my elder sister going to a select
school in the village, where she actually studied grammar and wrote
compositions! Our school-mistress was Miss Grey, quite a pretty young
lady, but folks said not a good teacher. They said she had "no
government," and certainly we had a very easy time of it. She was what
is called "absent-minded," and often forgot to hear some of our
lessons, and we thought it would n't be polite to remind her of them.
She had a soft and mournful voice, and a droopy sort of a look,
especially about her hair. She dressed a little queer sometimes, and
played on the accordion, so it was whispered about that she wrote
poetry. I know she read it a good deal, and novels too. She had in
her desk a very long romance, called "The Children of the Abbey," which
she used to read at noontime and recess. She read it through, and then
she appeared to read it backward, for it lasted nearly all summer. It
seemed to me that the story went on and on, till it came to the last
page of the book, then turned round and went the other way.
I said I went to school alone; yet after a while I had company, which
no one else would have thought of much account, but which was quite a
comfort to me. One day I made a purchase with my own money. It was
only a little pocket-handkerchief, but such a handkerchief! On it was
printed, in bright blue, a picture of General George Washington, in
full regimentals, with his sword in his hand, flanked by the Ten
Commandments, and with a scroll labelled "Constitution" for his base.
At first I looked upon that stern face, with its strong, tight mouth,
like a steel-trap just sprung, with a good deal of reverence; but as I
grew familiar with him I became fond of him, and part of the time
treated him as a doll; indeed, he seemed to me more real than any doll
I ever had, and far dearer. I folded him carefully every morning and
laid him in my dinner-basket, over my rations, grieving that I was
obliged from limited space to fold under his legs, giving them an
amputated look. But I laid him out at full length in my desk, and
often lifted the cover to take an admiring look at him, during the day.
At night, I laid him in one of my dolls' beds, and actually "tucked in"
the "Father of his Country," calling him "George, my boy," and telling
him to be good, and not to get up in the morning and go to hacking away
at cherry-trees, with that sword of his.
He was two in one,--George I. and II. He was little George, or the
great General, just as the occasion demanded. On the Fourth of July, I
remember, he appeared in all his glory to deliver an oration to "a
large and appreciative audience" of dolls and kittens. He spoke in
this wise: "Fellow-Citizens, and your wives and daughters, I 'm a
warrior, not an orator. I only want to say--to say--to tell you that
if it had n't been for me you would n't have had any Fourth of July the
year round, nor any parades, nor rockets, nor squibs, nor star-spangled
banners, nor pumpkin-pies, nor ginger-pop. We should all have been
British, or Irish, and worn red coats, and ate blood-puddings, and
drank ale, and hurrahed for King George forevermore. This is the
truth, fellow-citizens, for I cannot tell a lie,--you know I cannot
tell a lie. But I don't want to brag over you, and if you will still
be good Yankee Christians, brave and industrious, I will still be the
father of your country, world without end, Amen! Band, please strike
up 'Hail Columbia!'"
By the middle of the summer the poor General's face became as badly
soiled as ever it was after a long march, over dusty summer roads. Yet
I declined to have him washed, fearing that, after all, his colors
might not be "true blue."
One Monday morning my mother sent by me a note to Miss Grey, inviting
her to accompany me home that day, and spend a week with us. With my
head full of thoughts of this invitation, I hurried away to school
earlier than usual, and for the first time left General George behind
me, lying on his bed in my chamber. I missed him sadly during the day,
but came home in triumph at night, bringing Miss Grey with me. I took
her at once about the premises, to show her my pets. I exhibited with
much pride my tame hawk Toby, but she was afraid of him; though I
assured her that he was a hawk of most exemplary character, and
civilized to such a degree that he respected the rights of all the
mother-hens and ducks, and never asked for spring-chickens, but
contented himself with frogs, like a Frenchman. Then I took her to the
woodshed, to see my cat, with almost a barrelful of young kittens.
What a lovely sight it was! Then I led her to where my speckled hen
kept house in a coop, with half a dozen cunning little chicks. The
hen-mother was frightened as we came near, and called to her little
ones to come in out of danger; but they would n't mind, and she was
very angry, and ruffled up her feathers, and scolded furiously at their
disobedience. "I think biddies are very unamiable creatures," said
Miss Grey. I said nothing, but I thought to myself, "Ah, Miss Grey, if
you were a mother, with ever so many children, playing around the door
so peacefully, and you shut up in jail, for no crime but scratching up
food in gardens for them, and you should love them _dreadfully_, and
should see two giantesses, a big giantess and a middling-sized
giantess, come tramping right in among them, and you not able to help
them only by ruffling up your feathers and scolding, you 'd be a little
unamiable too, perhaps, for I've heard my mother say that hen nature
was a good deal like human nature." Then I showed her our gray goose's
nest, with an egg in it. But when I expected her to be astonished, she
only said, "Why, I thought the egg of the fowl that saved Rome was much
larger than this." Now this goose laid the largest eggs of any goose
in the neighborhood. "Did you expect it to be as big as the _roc's_
egg in 'Sinbad the Sailor'?" I asked.
As we were passing through the yard, going to the stable, to see my
brother's little colt, we encountered the week's washing, hanging on
the line, and right before my eyes swung my handkerchief, with the
beloved portrait almost washed out! Indeed, scarce a ghost of the
great and worthy George remained. I caught it off and burst into
tears, crying, "O, it's all faded out,--it's all faded out!"
"Why, you silly child," said Miss Grey, "don't cry so for a little
scrap of a handkerchief like that."
"It ain't only a handkerchief," I sobbed, "it's General Washington and
my boy George both together. I 've seen you cry, Miss Grey, over the
'Children of the Abbey,' and mother says they never lived; but General
Washington did live, and was the Father of his Country; and then there
were all the Ten Commandments, too. I declare Nancy is as bad as Moses
was, when he smashed the tables of stone."
But Miss Grey only laughed at my sorrow, and went into the house. When
I followed her, I whispered to mother, "Have we got the 'Children of
the Abbey'? If we have, please give it to Miss Grey to amuse herself
with."
Then I went up stairs and laid out my dead George, and had my foolish
little cry out. After all, my great General had faded and wilted away
into an unsightly little rag of a handkerchief. What a fall was there!
We have seen some very like it in these days.
I had no heart to keep him by me any longer, so I gave him to my little
brother, who put him to every possible use except that of a
handkerchief. That was a hard campaign for the feeble old General.
Sometimes he did service as the sail for a boat; sometimes green
apples, or rabbit feed, or worms for bait were tied up in him. His
feet, with what was left of the Constitution, were torn off and rammed
into a small cannon's mouth for wadding; and, finally, he went up on
the tail of a kite. In mid-air he became detached, and dropped into a
tall thorn-tree. Here he got stuck fast, and so remained till he
fluttered himself to pieces bit by bit.
A CHARADE.
My _first_ the poet Cowper loved,
A creature soft and fleet;
To vote my _second_ to valiant puss,
The long-tailed sages meet.
It calls to prayer; at dead of night
Rouses the city street;
And to the bridal train sends out
A greeting wild and sweet.
My _whole_ would shine all dewy bright
In your golden hair, Bell, to-night.
_Hare-bell._
THE LITTLE WIDOW'S MITE.
On a nice little farm, on the shore of one of our beautiful Western
lakes, lives a noble young German girl named Bertha Johansen, but
oftener called "little woman," for her womanly qualities, and her
staid, quaint ways; and for a while, among her family-friends, still
oftener called "little widow," for a reason I will give by and by.
Early in the war against the Rebellion, Bertha's father and three
brothers enlisted in one regiment, and were very soon marched away to
the front, taking with them the tender, tearful blessings of the lonely
little household left behind. The good wife and mother, Ernestine
Johansen, took upon her brave heart and strong hands the entire
business of the little farm, having for a while only the assistance of
a young adopted son, an orphan nephew, who had lived with the Johansens
from his infancy. But after having seen his uncle and cousins go forth
so bravely to their grand though dreadful duty, the lad Heinrich grew
discontented and unhappy. He had a man's heart in his boyish
breast,--a heart full of patriotic ardor and devotion; and at last his
good aunt consented that he too should go to the war, in the only
capacity in which he could be accepted, as a drummer boy, in a regiment
just ready to march to the front.
Bertha had grieved deeply, though quietly, in the brave, uncomplaining,
submissive spirit peculiar to her, at bidding adieu to her dear
father,--to Gustave, and Fritz, and Carl, her brothers,--but she
grieved no less at parting with Heinrich Holberg. The two children had
always been to each other the best and dearest of friends. Almost from
her babyhood, Heinrich had called Bertha his "little wife," and she had
early learned to play the character, in the most demure and charming
manner. She had for him a tender and clinging affection; she believed
in him with all her heart, and he was not altogether unworthy of such
love and confidence,--he was a very good boy, as boys go.
Well, Heinrich marched away with the rest of the admirable German band,
proudly and gayly they said,--the pluckiest of drummer-boys. But he
had seemed neither proud nor gay, a few hours before, when he had run
down to the little lakeside farm, to take leave of his aunt and cousin.
He had looked pale and very sad. He had said farewell in a voice
choked with sobs, and when he ran down the little garden walk to the
road, great tears were dropping fast on the bright buttons of his new
uniform. His "little wife" went to her little chamber, knelt down
beside her little bed, and said a little prayer for him,--then dashed
the bitter dew from her sweet violet eyes, and went about her household
duties, like the dear little woman that she was.
Alas, it was the same old sad story! The father was killed at
Pittsburg Landing, and the oldest brother wounded and taken captive: he
afterwards died in Libby Prison. The second brother returned home,
after a year's hard marching and fighting, a pale, wan invalid, with
one sleeve of his worn blue coat hanging empty. The third brother is
now an officer in the triumphant Union army, and let us thank God for
him, for his work is nearly done.
The sorrow of the little German household did not end with the death of
the beloved father, and of brave Gustave, and the loss of the good
right arm of poor Fritz. Heinrich was also taken prisoner, in a sudden
night attack on his regiment in Tennessee, and carried off by one of
the robber bands of the barbarous Forrest. His tender age, and gentle,
prepossessing ways, won him no pity. He was shut up, with thousands of
others, in one of those horrible slaughter-pens of the South, called a
"stockade," where he languished for many months, bearing all his
hardships with the utmost sweetness and patience, feeling that his
suffering was but a drop to the great ocean of human agony and despair
around him.
Heinrich had been religiously brought up, and while many brave men
about him lost all faith and hope, and believed themselves forgotten by
the God who made them, he believed that over their loathsome
prison-yard hovered hosts of pitying angels, and that above and around
the vast field of fraternal strife brooded an infinite fatherly love,
and "the peace of God that passeth all understanding." He had never a
doubt but that Heaven was very near to their prison-pen,--that the
"many mansions" of the Father would be all open to those martyrs of
freedom,--that there rest and sweet refreshment awaited them,--that
there pitiless hate and cruel wounds, hunger and fierce heat and bitter
cold, would torture them no more forever.
From the time of his capture, nothing more was heard of poor Heinrich
in his sad home on the Lake shore, and he was at last given up as dead
by all his friends, except little Bertha. She had a "feeling," she
said, that he was living still, and would come back one day, if only
she could keep up heart for him. He might be so weak and ill, she
thought, that he would die if she once should give him up,--but not
till then. O little woman, great was thy faith! Bertha knew not that
she was already called by neighbors and friends "the little widow."
She would have passionately rejected the title. She "could not make
him dead."
She had little time for fretting about her absent friend. Her mother's
brave spirit had bent under the successive burdens of sorrow, and her
bodily strength for a while gave way. Carl, the invalid soldier, had
much difficulty in managing the affairs of the farm, and nearly all the
cares of the household came upon Bertha. O, nobly she bore herself
under them. She so completely took the place of her sick mother, that
all went well in that humble and peaceful home, till the bitterest
trouble was past, and the good mother rallied and was able to take part
of the burden of labor and care, which, however cheerfully borne, was
quite too heavy for such young shoulders.
Bertha's wise little head was perplexed. There was to be a great
Sanitary fair in the city near by, and she felt a passionate desire to
contribute something towards the great and good work. What could she
do? She was not rich enough to give money; she could not paint nor
embroider; she had not the skill to manufacture elegant trifles; she
was not old or pretty or fashionable enough to stand behind one of the
tables. What could she do?
At last it occurred to her that she could contribute to the refreshment
department a roll of butter of her own churning, from the milk of her
own little snow-white cow. So, with her good mother's consent, she
saved all the cream off the rich milk of her pet for a week, and
dedicated the golden product to the soldiers. She had two churnings,
and the result was five pounds of delicious butter. Her pleasant work
was done in the open air, before the side-door of the cottage, in sight
of the beautiful lake. On the day of her second churning, her thoughts
were peculiarly sweet and cheerful. She sung as gayly as the robin,
nestling in the vine-leaves over the cottage window. Her soul was as
serene as the sky, her heart as tranquil as the lake, sleeping in the
still sunshine.
As Bertha worked with all the strength of her vigorous little arms, and
with a gay good-will, little jets of cream now and then spirted up
around the dasher, sometimes sprinkling her round, rosy face, and once
or twice reaching her smiling lips to dissolve in sweetness there; and
she said to herself, "How many sweet and beautiful things have gone to
make up this golden cream!--the tender bloom of the early summer clover
and daisies, and dew and sunshine, and by and by, when it hardens into
more golden butter, and goes to the 'Sanitary,' won't more beautiful
things still be added to it?--pity, and love, and patriotism, and the
blessing of God?" Then her thoughts wandered, and her face clouded,
and she murmured, "O our poor sick and wounded soldiers! O the poor
prisoners! O my poor, dear Heinrich!"
Just then she heard her mother call her in an eager, trembling voice.
She ran into the cottage to see, seated in the neat kitchen, a young
soldier, in a faded and tattered uniform,--a pale, emaciated figure,
childlike in weakness, but old in suffering.
Bertha knew him rather by heart than by sight, and, falling on his
neck, cried, "Dear, dear Heinrich! I have always said the Lord would
bring you back, and He has, has n't he?"
"Yes, little wife, all that the Rebels have left of me."
The drummer-boy's story was sad and strange but such stories are
painfully common now-a-days. He had escaped from the stockade with a
party of friends; they had been chased by bloodhounds and all retaken.
Heinrich escaped again, alone; he was befriended, fed, guided by loyal
negroes; he made his way, on foot, through the mountains of Tennessee,
and, after countless hardships and adventures, reached the glorious
Northwest, and his home. He was ill with a disease brought on by
starvation and exposure, and though he had no battle-wounds to show,
there were, on his neck and arms, the terrible marks of the
bloodhound's teeth,--surely honorable scars. On the whole, Bertha
Johansen thought her cousin Heinrich a hero, and I think she was right.
But to return to the Sanitary butter,--"the little widow's mite."
Bertha made it up into beautiful rolls, which she printed with a stamp
representing buttercups and clover-flowers, and it looked deliciously
tempting. "There is only five pounds," she said, as she walked towards
the Fair Grounds, bearing her offering in a neat basket, covered with a
snowy napkin. "Only five pounds; how I wish there were fifty. If our
dear Lord were only here on earth, He could easily make them fifty. If
He could multiply loaves of bread, I suppose He could rolls of butter.
But, O dear, He _is n't_ here!"
Dear Bertha, our Lord is always on earth, in the hearts of good men and
women,--is always ready to work through them His miracles of love and
mercy.
Bertha presented her humble gift most modestly to one of the lady
managers, who received it very graciously. This lady was one of
Bertha's neighbors, and knew of her beautiful life of duty, obedience,
and cheerful self-sacrifices.
She told the simple story of the child to some friends about her, and
showed the five rolls of golden butter. A group of gentlemen soon
gathered near. "I will give a dollar a pound for that butter," said
one. "I will give two," called out another. Then there was a laugh.
Then other bids were made,--three, four, five dollars. It was getting
to be a nice little frolic, and those grave business men entered into
it like boys. Higher and higher they went, till at last Bertha's
butter was knocked down at fifty dollars,--ten dollars a pound.
As the purchaser laid down a roll of "greenbacks" for the golden rolls
of butter, a gust of wind caught the bills and blew them over the
counter, where the lady secured them. "So riches fly away in your
Sanitary Fairs," said the gentleman, smiling. "Yes," replied the lady,
"but with _healing_ on their wings."
A COUPLE OF CHARADES
I.
My _first_ is the sweet diminutive
Of a name we love to hear;
The name of one--while here we live
We find not earth or Heaven can give
A friend more true and dear.
My _second_ should bring pride and joy
To parent-hearts, alway,--
Should bear the fresh soul of the boy
Into the earnest man's employ,
And ne'er from honor stray.
My _whole_ has ever stood for one
Who rears, with toil and care,
Block after block, stone after stone,
On city street, or prairie lone,
A building plain, or fair.
But now the name once honest, stands
For one who has not feared
To seek to level with the sands
The glorious structure, by the hands
Of Washington upreared.
II.
The stealthy fox, the prowling rat,
The serpent, Heaven-accursed,
The cruel tiger, and the cat,
The weasel, and the vampyre bat,
Have all been called my _first_.
My _second_ is a shadowed place
Of forest bloom and song,
Where mosses creep o'er the rock's stern face,
Vines climb and swing in wildest grace,
And a streamlet laughs along.
My _whole_ upbore the traitor's crest,
And gloried in his crime;
Yet England took him to her breast,
Which once received a like brave guest,--
Our Arnold, of old time.
BESSIE RAEBURN'S CHRISTMAS ADVENTURE.
CHAPTER I.
Bessie Raeburn was a very nice little girl indeed, truthful, trustful,
generous, and affectionate. But she was by no means without some spicy
little faults of her own. She was impulsive to rashness, and decidedly
self-willed. She was given to odd little romantic fancies and secret
schemes, which sometimes got her into trouble, when she attempted to
carry them out. She was an only child, and much petted and indulged in
a happy and luxurious home, having everything which a reasonable little
lady in short frocks and long curls could ask for. Yet she was not
contented; having a foolish ambition to distinguish herself by doing
something quite out of the ordinary line of little girls,--something
that would make people stare, and say "wonderful!" "surprising!" "a
most extraordinary child!" She liked to say "I dare!" and "I 'm not
afraid!" "I don't _fear_ anything there is," she would say, "not even
lions, or spiders, or bears, or bumblebees,--but I don't like them near
me; they are disagreeable."
She learned to read when very young, and took most eagerly to books of
travel and adventure. She passionately longed for adventures of her
own, and often planned out exploits of a most perilous and surprising
character.
One Christmas-eve, when Bessie was between seven and eight years of
age, a wild little scheme came into her head, as she sat curled up on a
sofa in the library, listening to her father, while he read to her
sweet young mother a very sad account of the poor of New York,
especially of the poor children, and of the noble efforts that were
being made by a few good men and women to alleviate their wretched
condition, to clothe them, teach them, and lift them into a better life.
"Ah, Charles," said Mrs. Raeburn, "what a sad, comfortless Christmas
many of those poor little creatures will have,--children as dear to
their parents as our little girl is to us. Only to think of it! cold,
hungry, ignorant, helpless, and hopeless. It is dreadful."
"Why, mamma," exclaimed Bessie, "won't they have any Christmas gifts?"
"No, darling; I fear many must be without all the good and pleasant
things by which we remind one another that our dear Lord's birthday has
come round again."
"What, mamma! No toys, no nuts, no candies?"
"None, my child."
"Why, then, how can they wish one another a _merry_ Christmas? I
should think they would all have a _crying_ Christmas together. I
should think they would feel as though _they_ had no Lord Jesus; as
though he only belonged to the rich people. And yet, mamma, he was
dreadful poor, and spent the first day of his life in a manger, with
cows and things; though, to be sure, he had beautiful presents, those
the wise old gentlemen that came from down East brought him, you know."
"Yes, dear, he was very poor, and in remembering him we should not
forget the poor around us, and should always be ready to assist, as far
as we can, the worthy and honest unfortunates who need our help. But
it is your bedtime. You will wish to be up bright and early to-morrow."
Bessie sprang up promptly, and kissed her father good night. At the
foot of the stairs she paused, and called him in her pretty imperious
way, and he came to her, like the good, obedient papa that he was.
Bessie kissed him again, and called him "a dear, handsome old darling,"
and then, with another last coquettish kiss through the balusters, she
bounded laughingly past her mamma, up the stairs, into her little room
and behind the door, from which point of vantage she emerged with a
terrific "boo!" intended to startle her mamma out of her senses,--but I
don't think it did.
Mrs. Raeburn, having heard her daughter repeat her simple prayer,
kissed her and returned to the library; and soon after the maid, having
seen her nicely in bed, and put everything in order for the morning,
left her quite alone. And then the wonderful scheme that had flashed
into her brain down stairs was thought over and resolutely arranged,
and a famous little plot of mischievous benevolence it was, as you
shall see.
Amid all the joyful excitement and merry confusion of Christmas
morning, Bessie found time to think over her plan; and she would set
her red lips very firmly whenever she felt her courage giving way the
least in the world. She _would_ be a heroine for once,--would have a
real adventure of her own to relate to a wondering and admiring circle,
that very Christmas night.
While mamma and servants were occupied in preparations for a large
dinner-party, Bessie found opportunities for packing a little basket
with tiny tarts, apples, nuts, and candies; then she put on her pretty
winter coat, trimmed with fur, and her new velvet hat, with a long
scarlet plume, the pride of her heart, and her warm tippet and soft
gloves and high Balmoral boots. Then she took from her drawer a dainty
_porte-monnaie_, well filled with bright new pennies and small silver
coin, and containing a little compartment lined with crimson satin,
wherein two gold dollars dwelt together in state, like a Mongolian king
and queen. Then taking her basket on her arm, and thrusting her hands
into her little muff, she stole down stairs on tiptoe, and made her
escape from the house, unperceived by any one.
Mr. Raeburn lived in the aristocratic part of the city of New York; and
Bessie, thinking that she could not there carry out her plan in a
perfectly satisfactory manner, hailed a down-town stage. Driver and
passengers looked surprised to see a child taking a trip all alone; but
Bessie had such an old, authoritative manner, that they supposed that
all was right. After a long, long ride, she alighted somewhere in the
neighborhood of the poorest and least respectable part of the city. I
may as well tell you now, if you have n't guessed it, Bessie was bound
on a mission, a charitable visit to the poor,--the miserably poor, of
whom she had heard her father read. She anxiously looked around her
for a beggar-child, who should act as her guide to some home of
unmerited misfortune, where virtuous poverty pined, and wept, and
waited. Alas! there were plenty of sad little mendicants on the
streets that day, but Bessie was not easily satisfied. "It must be a
little girl," she said to herself, "very, very poor,--pale, and thin,
and ragged, and sorrowful, but still pretty, and mild-looking. And she
must have a pretty name too, like the little girls that beg in magazine
stories, or sell matches, and are stolen by gypsies, and sing ballads
for dreadful organ-grinders, and all that." It was a long time before
she found one at all to her mind, but finally she was accosted by a
little girl, who looked wretched enough, to be sure,--tattered, and
sickly, and starved. She was not quite up to the mark as to
prettiness, though she had soft, sorrowful eyes and a delicate mouth.
Hunger, cold, and ill-treatment are not very favorable to beauty. Then
the name she gave was decidedly unromantic,--_Molly Magee_. But the
poor child told a piteous story, which soon brought tears to Bessie's
gentle eyes,--how her father was dead of fever, and her mother a
suffering invalid; how she was obliged to beg in the streets, from
morning till night, to obtain food for that poor dear mother, three
darling little brothers, and two sisters, twins and _blind_! It was a
hard case, surely, and Bessie offered at once to go home with her
petitioner, to see what she could do towards alleviating the family
distress. The little mendicant hesitated at first, and attempted to
dissuade her, but at last, as Bessie obstinately insisted on her own
plan of benevolence, she yielded, and rather sullenly led the way
homeward. Ah, what a way it was! down one dirty street and up
another,--through vile courts and alleys reeking with filth, swarming
with idle, loud-voiced men, wretched-looking women, slatternly girls,
and forlorn children. Bessie's heart grew sick and her courage failed
her. If she had known the way back, she would gladly have made an
inglorious retreat!
The guide at last conducted her down a flight of slippery steps,
leading to the basement of a squalid old tenement-house, in the five
stories of which more than as many families were packed, layer on
layer, and Bessie found herself in the very bosom of the distressed
family of her humble little friend. This home of virtuous poverty was
not exactly what she looked for. It was darker, dirtier, more confused
and noisy; it smelt worse. There were the "three darling little
brothers," to be sure, and they were quite satisfactorily ragged. But
Bessie looked in vain for the twin-sisters, whose blindness had so
engaged her sympathies. But she said to herself, "Perhaps they, too,
have gone out begging, with a pair of twin dogs to lead them." The
invalid mother was surely on the mend, for she looked quite stout, and
her face was flushed, though that might be from fever. She sat by an
old stove, smoking a short black pipe.
[Illustration: Bessie]
"Well, Molly, what have you brought us?" exclaimed this interesting
invalid, in a voice by no means agreeable.
"_I_ have n't got anything," was the reply; "but here's a rich little
miss, as says she has got something for us; she _would_ come herself,
instead of giving it to me."
The woman took her pipe from her lips, and fixing a pair of hard,
hungry eyes upon Bessie, as she stood smiling kindly, with her basket
on her arm, like a dear little Red Ridinghood, broke out with, "And
what put it into the head of such a fine lady to come anear the likes
of us the day?"
"I wanted to see how poor people live," replied Bessie, honestly, "and
I have brought you something for Christmas," she continued, stepping up
a little timidly, and offering her basket.
The woman caught it eagerly, and turned its contents into her lap.
"And is this all?" she growled. "A pretty dinner, _indade_, for a
starving family; nuts and candies and the like! No bread, not the
_laste_ taste of butter or _mate_."
"O, I thought you would have such common things," said Bessie; "but I
have some money to buy them with."
At this, a tall figure sprang up from a heap of rags in a dark corner,
and came forward,--a very dirty, disreputable-looking man. Bessie, who
had taken him for a sick man, was surprised to see that he also had a
fine color in his cheeks, and even in his nose, but she noticed that he
seemed very weak in his legs. "Hello! my little angel," he cried;
"give _me_ the money," and rudely caught the _porte-monnaie_ from
Bessie's hand.
His right to it was disputed by the woman, and they two quarrelled over
pennies, dimes, and dollars, as "the three darling little brothers"
quarrelled over apples, nuts, and candies.
"Who is that man?" asked Bessie, beginning to be frightened.
"It's father," replied Molly.
"Why, you told me your father was dead. What makes you tell such
stories?" exclaimed Bessie, greatly shocked.
"_She_ makes me," said Molly. "May be you would tell stories, rather
than be beaten half to death."
At last the disreputable-looking man, having secured the lion's share
of the money, snatched up an old hat and staggered towards the door.
He stopped a moment beside Bessie, saying, "I 'm obliged to you,
darling. This will get me something good for Christmas."
"Some new clothes?" asked Bessie.
"No, miss; something better nor clothes."
"Food?"
"No; something better nor food."
As he held a big bottle in his hand, Bessie next suggested "Medicine?"
"Why, bless your swate sowl, do I look like a sick man?"
"No, sir; but I thought you walked as though something was the matter
with your legs."
Patrick Magee gave a loud, foolish laugh, as he stumbled up the
slippery steps, and reeled down the dirty alley. When he was gone,
Bessie proposed to take leave of her pensioners, saying, "I must go
home now, or I shall miss my dinner, and they will be troubled about
me. Will you show me as far as Broadway, Molly?"
"Not so fast, if you plase, miss," said Mrs. Magee. "You have _seen_
how poor people live; now I want you to _feel_ how they are clad, this
biting winter weather. Take off your fine clothes, just, and change
with Molly there."
"O please, madam, I would rather go home," cried poor Bessie. "Do let
me go! Mamma has often said, that, if I could be poor for one hour
even, I would know better how to pity the poor; but I really think I
have _seen_ enough to-day. I am very sorry for you, indeed. I 'll ask
papa to help you, and give you all you want; only let me go home."
"So you shall, my pretty bird, but you must drop your fine feathers
first. Off with them! And, Molly, take off all thim lovely holiday
clothes of yours. Sure, exchange is no robbery."
Poor Bessie saw it was vain for her to resist, to plead, or to cry. In
a very short time she found herself divested of every article of her
nice warm apparel, and clad in the dirty, coarse, tattered street
clothes of Molly Magee.
To do the beggar-child justice, she seemed shocked at this cruel
proceeding, this wicked outrage, and pleaded for Bessie as long as she
dared. But Bridget Magee, a bad-tempered woman at the best, had been
drinking bad whiskey all the morning, and the brutal rage of
drunkenness blazed in her hard black eyes. Molly was evidently in
mortal fear of her, and could only give Bessie stolen glances of regret
and sorrow. Very pretty she looked in Bessie's beautiful dress, though
her face was far sadder than before. In the midst of her trouble,
Bessie noticed this, and thought how different was the poor child from
all the rest of the household of Magee. When the change was completed,
Mistress Bridget whispered for a minute or two to the eldest of the
three little boys, and then, turning to her victim, said, with a
horrible laugh, "There now, ye poor little simpleton, follow where
Larry will _lade_ ye. Be off wid ye! I 'm thinking ye know a little
more about poor folk than you did a bit ago, when ye came prancing into
a _dacent_ house to show off yer grand airs and yer finery. It's an
adventure as will be good for your proud young stomach, miss."
As Bessie, too much frightened and shocked to speak, was hastening out
after Larry, Molly sprang forward, caught her hand, kissed it, and
sobbed out, "O, forgive me! forgive me! I did n't think they would
treat you so, or I wouldn't have let you come!"
The next instant the poor girl was dashed backwards by a sudden blow
from her mother's heavy hand, and Bessie saw her no more.
Master Larry Magee, a sharp-eyed and fleet-footed little vagabond,
hurried Bessie off in a different direction from that in which she had
come, and by many different and devious ways, for his object evidently
was to confuse her, so that it would be impossible for her to act as a
guide to the den of thieves in which she had been robbed. There was
little danger. Poor child, she had not even thought to take note of
the name of the miserable little alley to which she had been conducted
by the melancholy Molly.
At first, in her joy at having escaped alive from that dreadful Irish
ogress, Bessie was hardly sensible of the cold; but at length it
pierced through her thin and ragged garments, and struck chills to her
very heart. It seemed to clutch at her bare throat, and to snip her
ears, under the old cotton handkerchief which covered her head. Her
hands, muffless and gloveless, grew stiff, and the rosy tips of her
fingers changed to a dismal purple; while her poor little toes, peering
through great holes in shoes and stockings, looked as piteous as little
baby birds, left unbrooded to the storm, in dilapidated nests.
After a long, bewildering, winding walk, or rather run, the two
children reached a wide, respectable-looking street, when they came
suddenly upon a policeman, at sight of which officer Master Larry
halted, wheeled, and executed a brilliant retreat down a dark alley.
But Bessie, who in her innocence believed in a policeman, as a sort of
street guardian-angel, went confidently up to this one, the star on his
breast shining as the star of hope to her, related to him her wonderful
Christmas adventure, and begged him to conduct her home. To her
surprise and grief, he refused to believe a word of the story, but,
taking her for the little vagrant she seemed, gruffly ordered her to
"move on," adding, "You can't gammon _me_: I 've heard too many such
yarns."
My private opinion is, that that policeman was a crusty old bachelor,
with not a chick nor child,--not even a little sister to his name.
With her feelings a good deal hurt, and her feet benumbed with cold,
poor Bessie tottered on, she knew not whither. Happily, at the very
next corner, she encountered another policeman,--a cheery, kindly,
family-looking man. To him Bessie sobbed out her piteous story; and
he, having a little girl of his own at home, was touched by her
distress, and, looking into the clear depths of her innocent blue eyes,
believed her. Immediately calling a cab he put her in, and got in
himself, and taking off his warm blue overcoat, wrapped her in it,
which was the street guardian-angel's way of brooding; and so they went
away up town, to a large brown-stone house on Madison Avenue,--Bessie's
home,--where they found everybody in great distress. Papa and mamma
were almost wild with anxiety, for Bessie had been gone four long
hours, and a dozen police officers were already searching for her, and
street-criers were tramping up and down, ringing bells, and shouting
dismally, "A child l-o-s-t!"
Mr. and Mrs. Raeburn with difficulty recognized their daughter in her
ragged disguise. They were shocked by her appearance, fearing she
might be made ill by the exposure. They were pained and indignant at
hearing all she had suffered, but they both said it would prove a good
experience, if it should teach her to be less rash, venturesome, and
self-assured. They hoped, they said, it would cure her of forming
secret schemes, even of benevolence, and of an unchildlike ambition to
act in matters of importance independent of the aid and advice of her
parents. It did all this, I believe; and if you care to hear, I will
tell you, by and by, what other good thing came out of that Christmas
adventure.
That night, Bessie Raeburn added to her usual prayer these words: "O
Father in Heaven, I thank thee more than ever for my warm bed, and
everything so comfortable. Forgive me for running off, and giving dear
papa and mamma so much trouble. Make those wicked people sorry for
what they have done, and then forgive _them_. And please put it into
Mrs. Magee's heart to send home my muff, if she keeps all the other
things. And bless my good policeman, and pity and help poor Molly
Magee. Amen."