DUTY AND AFFECTION.
In the meantime, poor Nelly had been wearily wending her way along the
lane of Trouble, with her burdensome Division on her shoulder. She felt,
as many a little student has felt, quite out of humour for work; her
arms ached, and so did her head; the mud in the lane was so deep that
she could scarcely keep on her shoes, and she sometimes sank in it
almost up to her ankle.
Thus in sorrowful plight the lame girl at last reached the brook of
Bother. Its brown turbid waters looked rougher and deeper and dirtier
than they ever had done before. The stepping-stones had almost
disappeared!
Nelly Desley heaved a long weary sigh as she looked before her, and
rubbed her forehead very hard, as puzzled children are wont to do.
"Oh, this tiresome Division, how shall I ever manage it! I never saw
Bother so bad. _Nine's in fifty-nine_"--another violent rub; "I know
what will be _in_, a poor little girl will be in brook Bother!--and
_what's to be carried_? why this grate is to be carried, and a very
_great_ vexation it is."
Weary Nelly sat down, almost in despair, on a stone by the bank of the
stream. What object attracted her eye, some yards lower down the current
of the brook, round which the muddy waves were eddying and rolling?
"Why--can it be?--yes, there are Dick's three grates all together,
Division, Multiplication, and Subtraction!" Nelly started up in alarm:
"Oh, what can have become of my brother?"
A little reflection soon reassured Nelly. Dick, the most active of boys,
and a famous swimmer besides, could not have come to much harm in a
brook in which, though many have been ducked, no one has ever yet been
quite drowned. It seemed clear that the boy had found the weight which,
prompted by Pride, he had tried to carry, somewhat too much for his
strength; and, being unable to carry it across the waters of Bother, had
flung down his tiresome burden, which, by the force of its own weight,
had stuck fast in the mud of the brook.
"Well, if Dick has failed, I need not mind failing," cried Nelly. "I
think that I'll do what he has done, and fling away this horrid
Division,--oh, what a relief that would be! But still, would it not be
foolish--would it not be wrong--to give way so to impatience? My dear
mother bade me obey Mr. Learning for her sake, she wishes my cottage to
be properly furnished; I must not be a sluggard or a coward. I must do
my best to get over this Bother."
"Well resolved--bravely resolved," said a voice on the other side of the
brook; and from behind the clump of willows which drooped their long
branches in the stream, Nelly saw two beautiful maidens come forth. They
were like, and yet unlike, each other. Both were very fair to look on,
both of noble height and graceful mien; but the one had an air of more
stately dignity, such as might beseem a queen; and her large dark eyes
looked graver and more thoughtful than those of her sister. The other
had smiling soft blue eyes, beaming with tender love, and the sunlight
fell on her golden hair till it seemed like a glory around her.
These lovely maidens were no strangers to Nelly, almost from her infancy
she had looked upon them as friends; many sweet counsels and good gifts
had the lame little girl received from Duty and Affection.
"Oh, Duty!" exclaimed Nelly, who was rejoiced to find herself no longer
alone, "only show me how I can get across, and I will not mind labour or
trouble."
Duty retired for a few moments to her retreat behind the willows, and
then returned, bearing on her shoulder a narrow plank. With the help of
smiling Affection she placed this across the stream.
"This plank, dear child," said calm, stately Duty, "was cut from the
tree of Patience, and small as it seems, can well support your weight.
Boldly venture upon it; the stream runs fast to-day, you are no longer
able to ford it, but on the plank of Patience you safely can pass
across."
Giddy and tired as she felt, Nelly instantly obeyed the voice of Duty,
and placed her foot on the plank. Duty leant forward, and held out her
firm hand to aid her, and soon the trembling child and her wearisome
burden were safe on the bank nearest to the cottages of Head.
"Oh, I am so glad to be well over!" exclaimed Nelly, and with exceeding
pleasure she looked up in the face of Duty, and smiled.
"And now sit down and rest yourself, dear one," said Affection,
spreading a thick mantle on the grass, that its dampness might not hurt
the child.
"May I?" asked Nelly timidly of Duty.
The beauteous maiden bowed her head in assent. There was no sternness
now in her look; Duty is no enemy to innocent enjoyment--rather should
we say that there is no real enjoyment but that which is found by those
who take Duty for their guide and their friend.
"See, here is refreshment for you," said Affection, placing before the
wearied child a rich cluster of delicious fruit. How sweet is such
refreshment given by the hand of Affection, how doubly sweet after
efforts made at the call of Duty!
Never, perhaps, had Nelly Desley passed a happier hour than she did now
on the bank of that stream which she had crossed with such trouble and
fear. She now looked with pleasure at the waves as they rushed so
rapidly by her.
One thought only disturbed little Nelly. "Poor Dick! I wish that I knew
of his safety," said she.
"He is safe enough," replied Duty; "but there, as you may see, lie his
three grates in the mud of the stream."
"If he had only had the plank of Patience," exclaimed Nelly.
"It was offered to him as well as to you," said Duty with a graver air;
"and I thought at first that your brother would have gladly accepted my
offer. But there came to this shore of the brook a dark, ill-favoured
lad--"
"It must have been Pride!" exclaimed Nelly, who knew too well her
brother's companion.
"This Pride," continued Duty, "began to taunt and to scoff. 'Holloa!' he
shouted across the stream, 'will a genius like you stoop to be directed
by a woman! Duty is for slaves, and Patience for donkeys. Kick aside
that miserable plank, and clear the brook with a bound, as you've often
cleared it before.'"
"Dick is a wonderful boy for jumping," cried Nelly, who greatly admired
her brother.
"He jumped once too often," observed Duty; "this time he jumped not over
but into the brook, and mighty was the splash which he made!"
Even gentle Affection could scarcely help laughing at the recollection
of the scene.
"But he scrambled out!" exclaimed Nelly.
"Yes; very muddy, and wet, and cross, leaving all his three grates
behind him. I do not know whether Pride dried Dick's clothes, and wiped
off the mud, they both ran off as fast as they could; I think that your
brother was ashamed to be seen, after having so scornfully refused the
aid of Affection and Duty."
It was now time for Nelly to continue her walk and return to her own
little cottage. Her beautiful friends accompanied her all the way up
hill Puzzle, and made the steep way quite pleasant by their cheerful,
wise conversation. Tiring as her lonely expedition to the town of
Education had been, Nelly never in future times remembered without a
feeling of enjoyment her little adventure by the brook where she had met
with Duty and Affection.
Dick with some trouble recovered his grates from the stream. But he
never looked at them with pleasure, for they served to remind him of the
day when, prompted by foolish Pride, he had overtasked his powers, and,
spurning the plank of Patience, had gone floundering into brook Bother!