ELIZA
"IF you please, ma'am, mother says if 'Liza Brown isn't going to be
nursemaid at the Vicarage, couldn't you send our Polly? She's bigger
than 'Liza," added the girl, looking up at her former teacher as if to
challenge any contradiction of this assertion.
Miss Martin, the teacher of the National School, was silent with
amazement as she listened to the proposal. But she had long wanted
to have a word with her former scholar, Jessie Collins, and this was
too good an opportunity to be lost, and so, instead of expressing the
surprise she felt, she simply looked the girl over in her shabby fine
frock, and said—
"Surely your mother must know that I do not choose the Vicarage
servants, Jessie? And I have not heard that Eliza Brown was going for
more than a month, to help with the children while they are away at the
seaside."
Jessie nodded. "Yes, that's it," she said. "But 'Liza can't go; her
mother can't afford to buy her the new frocks. But mother will get
Polly a nice lot of new things!" and Jessie glanced complacently at her
own fine frock as she spoke.
"I have not heard anything about this, Jessie!" said her teacher; "but
I am sure of this, that the question of new frocks would be of far less
importance to the Vicar and Mrs. Parsons, than the character of the
girl they chose to be with the children," said Miss Martin, looking
earnestly at Jessie as she spoke.
"Well, nobody can't say a word against our Polly!" said Jessie, in a
defiant tone.
"Polly is a quiet, steady girl; and I wish you were like her," said her
teacher. "Are you in service now, Jessie?" she suddenly asked.
"No, ma'am, I ain't; and I don't think I shall go again."
"Why not? The place I recommended you for was a nice comfortable one, I
know."
"Well, I wasn't treated fairly, and I didn't stop," said Jessie, in a
sullen tone.
"Not treated fairly?" repeated her governess.
"Well, no," asserted Jessie; "mother bought me a new frock when I had
been there a month. I chose it myself, mother said I might; and the
missis said it was not at all suitable for a servant, so I just give
notice and left."
"But you have had another place since?" said the teacher, in a
questioning tone.
"Yes, but it was just about the same; she said I thought more about
finery than I did about my work; so I'm going to the new blacking
factory as soon as it opens."
"Oh, Jessie, I am very sorry to hear this, because you are placing
yourself in the way of temptations you may not be able to resist, and
may be sorry for it all the rest of your life."
"I don't like service," muttered the girl.
"My girl, everybody, in every station of life, has to endure things
they do not like, it is the way God teaches and trains us all, and it
would be much better for you to be in a respectable, comfortable home,
learning to be useful, than playing about the street as you have been
lately."
"Who said I ran the streets?" demanded the girl.
"I have seen it for myself, and I feel very sorry that a bright, clever
girl like you, who could be such a useful woman in the world by-and-by,
should just throw away all her chances which she will never have again."
"What chances?" asked Jessie, in a more gentle tone.
"The chances to learn all sorts of useful things; how to cook in the
most economical way. How to make a house clean and neat. A mistress is
always ready to teach her young maid these things, and while she is
learning them she is earning a character for herself too, that is of
more value than anything else, if she only does her work faithfully and
truly, as God's servant, as well as a household servant."
Jessie was evidently touched by the kindly tone in which these words
were spoken.
"Thank you, ma'am. I didn't know you cared about me now," she said.
"But I do care for you, and want to see you grow up a happy useful
woman, of whom I can be proud to say that she was one of my scholars
when she was a girl."
Tears had filled Jessie's eyes while her governess had been speaking.
"If it wasn't so hard," she murmured, "I'd like to please you like
that," she said.
"Nothing that is worth having is gained without hard work. Before I
could be a teacher, I had to learn many hard lessons, not from books
only; although I had to sit learning from books when I would gladly
have gone out for a walk, or to see my friends; so that I know what
hard work is better than you do."
"But you didn't have to go to service," muttered Jessie.
"No, God had fitted me to be a teacher, and opened the way for me to
learn to do my work properly. He has placed you where you can learn
to be useful by helping others to make their home nice and neat and
comfortable. Your strong, young arms can move a brush and broom much
better than some who are older and weaker, while they can teach you
many things you need to learn, if you are to be a capable, useful woman
by-and-by. Try to think of going to service in this way. We all have
to help each other in some way, and God wants many of the young girls
to use their strength to help those who are weaker and less able to
do housework. In doing this, you are helping mother and father too,
as well as yourself. Now, think over what I have said, and I hope you
will soon get another place. But if you should not do that just now,
remember that your old governess is always your friend, and ready to
help you whenever she can. Now, tell mother I hope she won't want to
take Polly away from school yet. She is a year younger than Eliza
Brown, although she is a bigger girl."
"All right, teacher," said Jessie, with a nod, "Polly shall stop at
school just as long as you want her to," she added, as though she had
the ruling of all such matters in her home.
Miss Martin looked after her, and sighed as she went out of the school,
for she feared that the influence at home was not likely to help the
girl to a right decision in the ordering of her life. And then her
thoughts turned to her other scholar, and she decided to send for Mrs.
Brown, and find out what truth there was in Jessie's report.
She knew the Browns had had a good deal of trouble. The father had
been ill, and out of work for some time, and she knew that Eliza was
delicate, and often under the doctor's care; but surely a managing
woman like Mrs. Brown, with the help she would get now from Fanny's
wages, would be able to get the girl decent clothes, so that she might
have the benefit of the Vicar's kind offer; and she called Selina from
her class, and told her to run home and ask her mother to come to the
school at four o'clock, as she wanted to speak to her as soon as the
girls were dismissed.
"I wonder what it can be!" said Eliza, anxiously, when she heard the
message. "I hope it isn't to say I am not wanted, now we have got such
a lot of things ready."
"You haven't got any new frocks," put in the chatterbox Selina.
"Never mind, they are coming, mother says," answered Eliza.
"Oh yes, they are coming!" said Mrs. Brown.
"The stuff will be here, I dare say, by the time I have finished all I
have got to do. Now, run back and tell your governess I will come at
four o'clock; and don't you chatter among the girls about things you
hear at home," added Mrs. Brown, as Selina went out.
Mrs. Brown reached the school just as the girls came trooping into the
playground, and she went on as soon as the crowd had passed, and Miss
Martin placed a chair for her near her own, for she thought she looked
very ill, and she said so.
"No, ma'am, I am not ill, but I think I got a bit overtired the day
Fanny came home for her holiday;" and she sighed as though the memory
of that day had a pain in it that could not be forgotten.
"It is about Eliza that I want to see you. I heard this afternoon that
you would not be able to let her go to the seaside after all," said
Miss Martin; and she looked as though she thought Mrs. Brown ought to
do anything rather than let her child lose such a chance as the Vicar
had offered.
Mrs. Brown coloured. "I wonder who could have said such a thing!" she
exclaimed. "We are working away—Eliza and I—to get her things ready,
and I hope we shall get the new frocks as well by the time they are
wanted," she added.
"Has there been any difficulty in this matter?" said the governess. "I
thought Fanny would be able to help you a little, for she told me what
nice new clothes you were making for her to take with her to her first
place; and, of course, she has her first month's wages now, and very
little use for the money."
The governess echoed exactly what her own thoughts had been, until she
saw Fanny and that watch. But however much Mrs. Brown might have been
pained by her daughter's behaviour, she did not wish the governess to
know anything about it, and so she made some confused allusion to her
husband's long illness, which left Miss Martin in doubt as to whether
Fanny had helped her mother or not; but at the same time the general
character of the family was so good, that she said—
"Now, Mrs. Brown, you must not let Eliza miss this chance of going to
the sea, and so I will ask you to accept the loan of five shillings for
a few weeks. You can repay it a shilling a week, as you can spare the
money; but I want you to get all Eliza will need to make her tidy and
comfortable. There is a warm woollen dress of my own that does not fit
me since I had it washed, but would, I think, make a nice one for the
seaside, if the weather should happen to be too cold for cotton frocks.
If you will come home with me, you might take it back with you."
"Oh, thank you, ma'am! Indeed, I shall be very glad to accept your
kind offer," said Mrs. Brown; and as she spoke, the tears filled her
eyes, and she looked up so gratefully at Miss Martin that the lady felt
quite glad she had remembered the old dress that had been a source of
vexation to her lately.
To Mrs. Brown it was a splendid gift. Just what Eliza needed, for
her own winter frock she had outgrown, and it was very shabby and
threadbare, while this was soft and warm, and just the colour suitable
for a seaside frock, and she carried home her parcel, feeling so
thankfully delighted, that she might have been walking on air rather
than common earth.
"More work, Eliza," she said, holding up her parcel as soon as she went
in.
"What is that?" asked little Selina, curiously. Mrs. Brown had not
noticed that the child was in the room.
"Now, Selina, was it you that told some of the girls at school that
I could not get new frocks for Eliza? I was very vexed to hear about
this to-day; and if ever you talk about home affairs at school again, I
have asked your teacher to punish you. Now you can go out to play," she
added. And the little girl, with drooping head, opened the back door
and went into the garden.
"Miss Martin has been very kind indeed, but she does not wish it to be
known, and so the girls must not go to school and chatter about it."
And then she opened the parcel, and showed Eliza the soft, warm dress
that would make her such a beautiful frock for the seaside.
"Oh, mother, it is too good for every day!" said the girl.
"Well now, I had a talk about that with Miss Martin, and she told me
to tell you to let Nurse decide when you ought to wear a warm frock.
You are not very strong, and the frock is to be worn when the days are
chilly; so remember to ask Nurse to tell you when you had better wear
it. And the next thing for us to do is to make it."
"Oh, mother, what a good thing it was we began to mend up Fanny's old
things!" said Eliza, as she turned over her governess's discarded dress
with a view to decide how much alteration would be required to make it
fit her. And when tea was over the dress was tried on, and then the
unpicking began, and everybody was busy doing something to make ready
for Eliza's visit to the seaside.
Her father was putting new thick soles on her boots, and Jack new
hinges to a small wooden box that would just hold her clothes, when
the postman's sharp rat-tat at the door startled them, and he brought
a parcel from Aunt Mary—"material to make Eliza a new best dress," she
said, in the letter that came with it. "You will be sure to get her
suitable cotton frocks," she wrote; "but the girl will want a new best
dress, I am sure, and as I sent Fanny one last year, it is Eliza's turn
now."
"Well, I am afraid I shall not be able to make it for you before you
go away," said her mother, with a sigh of relief, as she thought how
all their fears had been dispelled and Eliza provided for. The cotton
frocks would be bought the next day; but mother and daughter both
decided that the best dress could not be made until the others were
finished and everything else got ready. "I may not be able to make it
before you go," said her mother; "but you could wear one of your new
cotton frocks for the first Sunday, and I will let you have the best
one for the Sunday after, for you will want to go to church."
"Yes; I dare say I shall have to take that dear little Master Eustace,"
said Eliza. "He looks such a darling, sitting in the Vicarage pew, that
I shall like to have him sitting next to me at church."
"All right, my girl; there is nothing like being in love with your
work, whatever it is," said her father. "But you need not expect the
little chap is always going to behave like an angel; there will be
squalls sometimes, I dare say, and you will have to be patient and
gentle when you would like to scold and be angry. But you must just
think of mother, and what a deal she has to put up with from one and
the other of us here, and what a different home it would be if she got
angry and lost her temper every time we vex her."
Eliza nodded. "I will try to think of it, daddy, and think of how you
are all helping me to go away, and—"
"I don't know so much about that," interrupted her brother. "We shall
miss you more than we do Fan, I know, because you are always ready to
help anybody when you can; and so I'm not so glad you are going away, I
can tell you. Only I want you to have everything nice and comfortable
when you do go," added Jack.
They laughed at Jack; but there was no doubt he expressed the general
feeling of the family in what he said, for Fanny had always considered
herself first in anything she was asked to do for anybody else. If
it suited her mood just at the time, she would do what was asked of
her; but it she had to sacrifice any ease or pleasure, then she would
refuse, though it might be plainly her duty to do what was required.
Mrs. Brown had noticed this trait in Fanny's character before she left
home, but hoped that the discipline of being in service would help her
to overcome it; and it was this hope, so cruelly disappointed, that
had made Fanny's behaviour so deeply painful to her mother the day she
came home for her holiday, and she feared that nothing less than a very
severe lesson would be sufficient to teach Fanny what a mistake she was
making in choosing to gratify herself rather than seeking to be helpful
to others.
She made no remark about this when Jack was speaking, but she could not
help thinking of it, and could not contradict the children when, one
after the other, they each in their own way said that Fanny always took
care of herself first.
"Wait a bit, wait a bit, Jack," said his father, at last. "I like fair
play, and Fan isn't here to defend herself, and she hasn't been tried
yet, and so we can't say what she may do." Brown was very fond of his
elder daughter, and could not bear to hear her blamed. "What do you
say, mother?" he suddenly asked, turning to his wife.
"I am too busy to talk to-night," she said. "I want to get on with
Eliza's frock, for we cannot tell when she may be wanted to pack up and
be off," and so Mrs. Brown evaded saying one word about Fanny either of
blame or defence; but Jack held to his own opinion, and said it was a
good thing for the Vicarage children that it was Eliza instead of Fanny
who would look after them under Nurse's direction during their stay at
the seaside.
"They'll have a jolly time with Eliza, if the Nurse will only give
her a chance," said Jack. And as no one attempted to contradict this
assertion, the discussion dropped, and was apparently forgotten by all
but the girl's mother and father.