"I don't care--I'm just as mad as I can be. To keep me in just for a
little rain! I won't be good--I won't play with my dolls. I'm going to
whip every one of them, and put them to bed this very minute."
Such a little termagant as Bessie Hatch looked at that moment, with her
black eyes flashing, her hands clinched, and her cheeks like two flaming
poppies! Half irritated, half amused, Annie, the Irish nurse, regarded
her for a moment.
"Indade, but it's a swate timper you have, Bessie Hatch; and I hope for
your own sake it'll be minded afore you grow up. It's not I will be
lettin' you out, when your ma lift particular orders you wasn't to go if
it rained. Just hear how the storm's batin' agin the windows. Your
cousin won't expect you at all. Oh, bate your dolls as much as you
like!" as Bessie made an angry rush toward them; "it won't hurt their
feelin's much, I guess. There's Baby cryin'!" she added, suddenly, and
hastened toward the room at the end of the hall.
Bessie meantime had snatched her largest doll from the chair where she
was reposing, and belabored her soundly with a piece of whalebone that
lay near at hand. Then, after shaking her heartily, she tossed her on to
the bed, where she lay with her black eyes shut, as if overcome by her
feelings. She was a very handsome wax doll, with chestnut hair done up
like a lady's in puffs and curls. She had a somewhat haughty expression,
carried her head a little to one side, and was dressed in the "latest
style." Grace, a porcelain-headed doll, dressed simply in a blue muslin
and a white apron, received her punishment next, and was deposited by
Miss Augusta's side.
But Winnie, dear Winnie, Bessie's favorite doll, could she have the
heart to punish _her_ this way?--Winnie, with her golden-brown curls and
beautiful hazel eyes, and her dear little face rounded and moulded like
a child's. How lovely was her smiling mouth! With what confiding
affection she seemed to look up at Bessie, as the latter took her up in
a hesitating way! But the recollection of her lost pleasure came back to
her, and with it the spite and anger that had animated her a moment
before. Winnie received her whipping like the rest; but instead of
tossing her on the bed, Bessie set her back in her little chair, turning
her face to the window that she might not see it.
Somehow her anger seemed to have spent itself with that last whipping,
and a feeling of shame was creeping into her little heart. She had
intended to go through her baby-house, chastising all its inmates, but
instead she took a picture-book, and lay down on the lounge by the
window.
How quiet everything seemed! Annie had carried Baby down stairs to feed
him. She heard no sound but the murmur of the sewing-machine in the next
room, where Jane Kennedy, the seamstress, was working. She felt drowsy
and sleepy. Slowly her head sank down among the cushions of the lounge,
and the drooping eyelids closed.
A rustling sound near her made her open them with a start, and in a
minute more she was sitting bolt-upright, staring with all her eyes. For
there stood a little figure no taller than Winnie, dressed in a white
fleecy robe trailing on the ground. Her soft black hair reached to her
feet, and over it she wore a wreath that sparkled like dew-drops in the
sun.
[Illustration: "A FROWN WAS ON THE FAIRY'S BROW."]
Some fear mingled with Bessie's admiration as she gazed upon her. For a
frown was on the fairy's brow, and the dark eyes she fixed upon the
child were full of displeasure.
Tap, tap, tap, came the sound of little feet approaching. Bessie looked
round, then shrank back, terror-stricken. Well she might, for her dolls
Augusta and Grace had somehow found the use of their limbs, and were
rapidly nearing the lounge. But they paused not far from the fairy, and
reached out their little hands to her with a supplicating gesture.
"Kind fairy! good fairy!" they said, in shrill piping voices, "avenge
the wrong done to us. That child, who calls herself our mother, has
beaten us cruelly, just because she had nothing else to vent her spite
upon; we had done no harm in any way. Punish her, good fairy; make her
sorry for having treated us so."
"I will give her into your hands," said the fairy, gravely. "See that
you punish her as she deserves."
Bessie, who lay trembling and burning with mingled fear and shame, now
rallied her courage, and raised her head again. She could not help
laughing at the idea of her own dolls punishing her.
"You foolish little fairy!" she said, laughing; "I could manage them
both with one hand; and if--"
She stopped aghast, for the fairy raised her wand, and it flashed like a
dazzling sunbeam full in the child's eyes. She covered them with her
hands, glancing up just in time to see the fairy float away on her
silver wings.
But how came she, Bessie, on the floor, and why did it seem like a great
meadow stretching around her? The lounge had become a mountain, and the
ceiling of the room looked nearly as broad as the sky.
It was the same room, the same familiar objects, only how monstrous
everything had grown! Was that immense building in the corner her
baby-house?
Bessie's little head swam; her heart beat tumultuously. A light mocking
laugh near her made her glance quickly round.
Who was this tall figure in a trailing gray silk, looking down at her
with severe triumph in her black eyes? That chestnut hair, that
beautiful red and white complexion--could this be Augusta, her own doll?
With a scream of terror, Bessie was darting away, but waxen fingers
seized her tender little arm, closing tightly upon it. Oh, how they
hurt! She struggled and kicked, but could not get away.
"Let me go!" she cried out; "I'll pay you off well, Miss Augusta, if you
don't. Remember, you're my doll--"
"Pay me off!" cried Augusta, with another shrill laugh. "You poor silly
midget! don't you know how the fairy's wand has changed you? Why, you
don't reach to my knee. No; I am going to pay _you_ off, and handsomely
too. Grace, bring that piece of whalebone directly."
"If you dare!" cried Bessie; but Grace clattered up toward her, her
stolid countenance fairly beaming. Bessie tried to dodge behind Augusta,
but she held her tightly by both arms.
"Lay it well over her shoulders, Grace; make 'em tingle!" she cried; and
thick and fast fell the blows, while poor Bessie writhed and protested
and threatened in vain. When Grace's arm was tired, Augusta took her
turn. After beating Bessie to her heart's content, she seized the child
by her shoulders, and shook her till her head fairly turned round.
"There!" she said, tossing her on to the doll's bed in the corner; "lie
there, miss, till Winnie comes. Poor thing! she's gone away to cry
somewhere, but as soon as she comes back she shall have _her_ chance.
Come, Grace, we will go for a walk."
She walked haughtily away, followed by the admiring Grace. Poor Bessie
lay sobbing and crying. Her shoulders and back were smarting, her little
arms black and blue from the pressure of Augusta's fingers.
"I'll run away and hide somewhere," she said at last.
Creeping off the bed very cautiously, she was stealing away, when
something seized her again. She gave a cry of despair, and looking up,
saw Winnie's sweet face.
"Who are you?" she asked. "Are you a new doll?" holding her gently but
firmly.
"Oh, Winnie!" said Bessie, and hid her face in shame. Augusta came
mincing up with a triumphant air, and related the action of the fairy.
"Now it's your turn," she said, handing the whalebone to Winnie. But she
tossed it indignantly aside.
"Strike her! Never! No; I would rather remember her kindness to me.
Don't cry, little mother," she added, stooping to kiss her. "If the
fairy comes again, I will ask her to change you back."
"No, no!" cried Augusta and Grace, in a terrible fright, but Bessie did
not hear. She was sobbing with her face in Winnie's neck.
"Oh, Winnie! Winnie! how can you be so kind? I would rather you gave me
a beating."
But Winnie wiped her eyes, and smiled so brightly on her that Bessie's
heart began to revive a little. Ere long they were playing together, and
it would have been rare sport for any child to see Winnie wheeling
Bessie in a tiny tin cart no bigger than a match-box. Then they had a
grand game of hide-and-seek in the stocking basket Annie had left on the
floor. Grace soon joined them, while Augusta, quite gracious by this
time, sat eying them complacently from her arm-chair.
* * * * *
"Bessie! Bessie! your mamma's come in, and wants to see you."
Bessie started up, rubbing her eyes. She looked in a dazed sort of way
at Annie, then at the corner where she kept her dolls. There they sat,
all three in a row as usual.
"Who put them there--my dolls? Did they really whip me?" she asked,
confusedly. Then she blushed, and hung her little head.
"Who put thim there? Why, I reckon they got tired of lying on the bed,
and walked over to their chairs," said Annie, with a mischievous gleam
in her eye.
"_You_ put them there," said Bessie; but she wished she could feel quite
sure. Catching up her darling Winnie, she walked off to her mother's
room.
All the rest of that day Bessie treated Augusta and Grace with the
utmost respect; and when she had undressed them and put them to bed, she
lingered as if anxious to say something. At last she stooped down and
whispered: "I don't believe it's true; but I'll never whip you or get
into such a passion again. I didn't know how ugly it was till I saw you
behave so yourselves. And please, if it is true, don't ask the fairy to
make me little again, for I mean to be good now."
As for Winnie, darling Winnie, she lay all night in Bessie's arms, her
head hugged close to her breast. And the piece of whalebone stood
bolt-upright in Bessie's match-box, where she had stuck it that it might
always remind her of the lesson of that day.
[Illustration: THE CHILDREN'S WELCOME TO GENERAL GRANT.--DRAWN BY A. B.
FROST.--[SEE PAGE 94.]]