WHAT FOLLOWED A LETTER
"It was all decided last night," said Betty, tucking her little feet
carefully under her gown and clasping her knees with her hands to keep
them warm, as she sat in Moppet's chair, which stood close by the fire,
where a log burned and crackled in the big chimney--a most unusual
luxury for those days, and granted only to Moppet's youth and slight
delicacy of constitution. "Father found the pass from General Washington
among his dispatches brought by the courier; and as it includes Mrs.
Seymour's maid, he arranged with her that I go instead, as Mrs. Seymour
kindly says she can procure another attendant in New York. I can scarce
believe it possible, Sally. Oh, fancy my having to live in a city
occupied by the British!"
"Ah," sighed Miss Moppet, pressing her head against Betty's knee, and a
spark of interest lighting up her doleful little face, "if only some of
them be like my good"--
"Oh, some of the Tories may be passably amusing," said Betty hastily,
giving Moppet a warning glance, as she checked the words on the child's
lips by a soft touch of her hand. "I doubt not that Gulian, my
brother-in-law, has fine qualities, else Clarissa had not been so fond
of him as to leave us all and go so far from us. But I trust that even
Gulian may not see fit to talk loyalist to me; my naughty tongue would
get me into trouble straightway."
"You must learn to control your tongue, Betty," said Moppet primly, with
a roguish twinkle of her eyes upward. "Miss Bidwell says mine is an
unruly member, and told me a most dire tale of a little girl whose
mother for punishment pricked her tongue with a hot bodkin."
"Ugh!" cried Sally, with a shudder, "that was in Puritan days, truly."
"I do not crave the hot bodkin," said Betty, laughing. "Miss Bidwell's
tales are a trifle gruesome, Moppet."
"But I always do love a flimming tale, Betty" (this was Moppet's
invariable rendering of the word "thrilling," which her lips had never
yet conquered), "and some of them are most bloody ones, I assure you.
Oh, Betty, Betty, what _shall_ I do when you are gone!" and with a
sudden realization of her loss, Moppet gave a quick sob which went to
Betty's heart.
"Nay, sweetheart, be a brave little maid," she answered, fighting a
small lump in her own throat. "I would I could take you with me; but as
I cannot, you must hasten to learn how to make better pot-hooks and
write me letters, which Aunt Euphemia will forward with hers. And,
Moppet, I think I shall give you in special charge to Sally; how will
that please you?"
"I love Sally," said the child simply, as the tender-hearted Sally knelt
down beside her. "Will you help console me with my primer and that
altogether dreadful sampler when my Betty is away?"
"Indeed will I," replied Sally, much amused with Moppet's view of the
sampler; "and you shall come and see me every fine day, and the wet ones
I am sure to be here with Pamela, who has proclaimed her intention of
adopting me when Betty goes. And now I must be going, for it is nearly
the dinner hour, and my mother says as I have dined here three days she
bespeaks my presence for one out of four. So farewell until to-morrow,
Betty, when I shall be here to see you start upon your travels."
Betty was busy enough all that day; indeed, nothing more than a confused
recollection remained with her afterward of trunk and two small boxes to
be packed; of Pamela's urging her acceptance of a new lute-string slip,
rose-colored, which had recently come to her from Boston; of Miss
Bidwell's innumerable stockings all tucked carefully away in one corner
of the hair-covered brass-nailed box, and even Miss Moppet's tenderly
cherished blue bag embroidered in steel beads, which had belonged to
their mother, but which Moppet insisted could be used by Betty with
great effect for her handkerchief at a ball.
"Ball, indeed," sighed Betty, whose brave heart was beginning to quail
at thought of an untold length of separation from her beloved family. "I
should think the hearts of the patriots imprisoned in New York would
scarce be occupied with balls in such times as these."
"You mistake," said Pamela, who, truth to tell, half longed for Betty's
opportunities, for was not her sister going somewhere near Josiah's
post? "I am sure Clarissa's letter which you read me bade you bring all
your best gowns and finery, and we have all heard how gay the army of
occupation make the city."
"Aye, to those who are Tories," said Betty, with curling red lips, "but
for me--oh, Miss Bidwell, if you put in another pair of stockings I
shall require as many feet as a centipede, who I read has hundreds of
them."
"Hundreds of feet?" echoed Miss Moppet. "Oh, Betty, do I live to hear
you tell a fairy tale as if it were real?"
"Read your primer, and you will learn many wonderful things," quoth
Betty, snatching up the child in her arms. "I shall take you straightway
to bed, for we must be up betimes in the morning, you know."
Very carefully and tenderly did Betty bathe Moppet's sweet little face,
comb and smooth the pretty curling hair, so like her own save in color,
and then run the brass warming-pan, heated by live coals, through the
sheets lest her tender body suffer even a slight chill. And when Moppet
was safely lodged in bed Betty sat down beside her to hold her hand
until she dropped asleep. But between excitement and grief the child's
eyes would not close, and she asked question after question, until Betty
finally announced she should answer no more.
Moppet lay still for some moments, and just as Betty was beginning to
fancy that the long, dark eyelashes worn curling downward in sleepy
comfort the dark blue eyes opened, and a dancing imp of mischief gleamed
from their depths in Betty's face.
"When you meet Captain Yorke, Betty," whispered Moppet, "be sure you
tell him how Oliver and Josiah hunted and hunted that morning, and how I
never, never told"--
"Moppet," said Betty, turning a vivid pink in the firelight, "how can
you!"--
"Yes," pursued Moppet relentlessly, "and you give him my love--heaps of
it--and I just hope he may never get taken a prisoner during the whole
war again."
"Go to sleep, dear," answered Betty, biting her lip; but her cheeks did
not grow cool until long after the soft, regular breathing told that her
little sister had gone into the land of dreams.
The Wolcott household was up early that cold winter morning, when Mrs.
Seymour's coach, with its pair of sturdy, strong gray horses, drew up at
the front door. It took some twenty minutes to bestow Betty's trunk and
boxes on the rumble behind, during which time Mrs. Seymour alighted and
received all manner of charges and advice from Miss Euphemia, who, now
that Betty was fairly on the wing, felt much sinking of heart over her
departure. Mrs. Seymour, a pretty young matron, whose natural gayety of
spirit was only subdued by the anxiety she was suffering in regard to
her only brother, now a prisoner in New York (and for whose exchange she
was bringing great influence to bear in all directions), listened with
much outward deference and inward impatience to the stately dame, and
turned with an air of relief to General Wolcott when he announced that
all was ready for their departure, and with much courtliness offered his
hand to conduct her to her coach.
"That you will take the best care of my daughter I am assured, madam,"
said the gallant gentleman. "It is our great good fortune to have found
this opportunity and your kind escort, for owing to the shortness of
time I have not been able to notify my son-in-law of Betty's coming. But
as you are going into the city yourself, I depend upon you to keep her
with you until you can place her safely in Gulian Verplanck's hands. I
trust that you have General Washington's pass close by you? It is quite
possible that you may need it even before you reach White Plains; there
are many marauding parties who infest the country beyond us."
"It is here, general," replied Mrs. Seymour, touching the breast of her
gown. "I thought it well to carry it about my person, as I am told that
even the Hessians respect General Washington's safe-conduct to enter New
York."
Betty, with crimson cheeks, but brave smiling eyes, threw her arms
fondly around Miss Euphemia, Pamela, Sally, and Miss Bidwell, all in
turn, but Moppet's soft cry as she buried her face in her hands made her
lip quiver, and as she bent her head for her father's farewell, a
reluctant tear forced itself down her cheek.
"The God of our fathers be with you, my daughter," he said, taking her
in his arms; "my love and blessing to Clarissa and her husband. Remain
with them until I find safe opportunity to have you return to us; advise
us often of your health and, I trust, continued well-being; keep a brave
heart as befits your name and lineage; fare you well, fare you well!"
Betty sank back trembling into her seat beside Mrs. Seymour, the door
was closed, and as the coach rolled off she caught a parting glimpse of
Miss Moppet lifted high in General Wolcott's arms, kissing her hand
fondly as she waved good-by.