A VISIT TO MR. CHEMISTRY.
With her bird still warbling on her shoulder, Nelly bent her steps to
the cottage of her sister. Matty had cared little for her society of
late, but Duty and Affection had both taught Nelly to keep up all family
ties. She was going to tell Matty of her little adventure, but Nelly
found her too full of her own troubles to care about anything else.
"Such a provoking thing has happened!" exclaimed Matty, who was seated
on a very flimsy chair, which she had purchased from Mr. Fiction. It
gave such a loud crack as she leant back upon it, that Nelly expected to
see it come to pieces beneath the weight of her sister.
"O Matty, I wish that you would buy better furniture from General
Knowledge," cried Nelly; "I do believe that in a few weeks those
wretched chairs will be fit for nothing but firewood!"
"I did buy a pair of screens from General Knowledge," cried Matty; "I
brought them home several weeks ago, as you perhaps may remember."
"Yes, I recollect," replied Nelly; "they were handsome and valuable
screens. One was made of Botany _facts_, all carved over with leaves and
flowers; the other of Biography _facts_, covered with likenesses of
great men. They were really a beautiful pair, but I don't see them now,"
added Nelly, with an inquiring glance round the room.
"They're lost to me and my heirs for ever!" cried Matty, again tossing
herself backwards on her chair, which again gave an ominous creaking.
"How could they be lost?" exclaimed Nelly.
"Stolen--stolen by the robber Forgetfulness," answered Matty; "a regular
burglar he is! I neglected to lock my door at night--I never dreamed of
any danger--and in came the robber and carried away my pair of beautiful
screens."
"How very vexatious," exclaimed Nelly.
"Yes, indeed; where's the use of spending hours upon hours in
furnishing, and labouring to carry heavy things over brook Bother and up
the steep hill of Puzzle, if Forgetfulness sneak in at last and carry
the best goods away."
"What use, indeed," echoed Nelly; "the sad warnings of the misfortunes
which have happened to you and poor Lubin from Forgetfulness stealing
your facts, and Procrastination robbing him of his hours, must make each
of us more careful in guarding our treasures from such thieves."
"If Forgetfulness had only taken one of those worthless chairs instead,"
sighed Matty; "to think of losing the best facts, and keeping the
useless fictions."
"How now--what's the matter?" cried the cheerful voice of Dick, as he
entered Matty's cottage with a brisk lively step; "you look as doleful
as Miss Folly did just now when I met her with her red cockatoo on her
wrist, appearing so disconsolate and sad that I thought her most
particular friend, Lady Fashion, must have died of late hours or
tight-lacing!"
"Miss Folly disconsolate and sad!" exclaimed Matty; "ah, perhaps she had
heard that my poor little cottage had been robbed."
"That was not the cause of her melancholy," said Dick; "I daresay, were
the truth to be known, that Miss Folly herself had something to do with
the business; for many a day has she been seen in company with
Forgetfulness the burglar."
"I'm certain that Folly is perfectly innocent," cried Matty.
"Oh, I don't mean to accuse the fair lady; I only mention what I have
heard; you and she may settle the affair between you. But as regards her
present vexation, that, Nelly, all lies at your door. It seems that you
despised her cockatoo Parade, and would not part with Content in
exchange for it. But I've set all matters right; I've taken a fancy to
the creature, I've promised to buy it from Folly, and instead of prating
for ever, '_Ain't I fine?_' I'll teach it to cry, '_Ain't I clever?_'"
"And then you'll give it to me!" exclaimed Matty. "There's nothing that
I adore like Parade; often and often I've wished to have it. I'm quite
astonished that Nelly should prefer that dull, spiritless creature,
Content."
"I've done more yet to put Folly into good humour," said Dick, who,
though he heartily despised his sister's companion, yet liked to amuse
himself sometimes with her airs; "I've invited her to come this evening
and see my grand display of fireworks."
"Fireworks! oh, that will be charming!" exclaimed Matty, clapping her
hands.
"And I've desired her to bring Pride with her; nothing goes off well
without him."
Nelly, who had a disagreeable recollection of her late interview with
Pride, looked very grave on hearing of the invitation given to him by
her brother.
"Where did you get the fireworks?" asked Matty, who, in her pleasure at
the idea of seeing something new, had quite forgotten her loss.
"Where but from Mr. Chemistry? I knew that it was all nonsense in old
Learning to say that his goods were not yet for me. Pride and I were
laughing half the evening at the sage's old-fashioned notions. I suppose
that he thinks that no one can see the world till forced to look at it
through spectacles, like himself. 'You need an introduction, indeed!'
cried Pride; 'just step up boldly like a man. Mr. Chemistry, with his
gases, his retorts, his acids, and his alkalies, will be glad enough to
see the colour of your money without making uncivil observations.' Said
I, 'Mr. Pride, your advice is good, and I'll act upon it directly.' So
off starts I, brave as a lion; plank Patience still lay across brook
Bother, but I kicked it right into the stream."
"Oh, why did you do so?" exclaimed Nelly.
"Patience may do well enough for you," replied Dick, "but you see a chap
like me doesn't want it. Well, to go on with my story. I found Mr.
Chemistry hard at work beside an electric machine, and I stopped some
moments to watch the crackling sparks drawn from the whirling glass
wheel. At last the old fellow looked up, and saw me with my purse in my
hand. 'You're a young student,' says he. 'An old head on young
shoulders,' says I, looking as solemn and wise as Mr. Learning himself
could do. 'You'll need to undergo a short examination,' says he, 'upon
the first principles of my science.' Those words rather took me aback,
for I had not counted upon that. 'What's a simple body?' says he,
turning over to the first page of a book that was near him. 'A simple
body,' says I; 'why, that is my sister Matty, for she's hand and glove
with Miss Folly.'"
"O Dick, how could you speak so?" cried Matty.
"I set the old fellow laughing, and then, of course, I got everything my
own way. I told him that I did not want science but fireworks, and that
I knew that he had them in lots. I wished something that would go
hissing, and fizzing, and whizzing, and astonish and dazzle beholders.
To make a long story short, I carried off all that I wanted; and I
invite you both this evening to see my grand firework display."
"It will be delightful--quite charming," cried Matty; "and my darling
Miss Folly to be there!"
"Miss Folly and Pride too," said Dick; "but what makes our Nelly so
solemn and grave?" he added, clapping the lame girl on the shoulder.
"O Dick, I should like much--very much--to see your fireworks, but I
cannot--indeed, I cannot--go to meet Folly and Pride."
"What nonsense!" exclaimed Dick, impatiently; "if they're good enough
company for us, they're surely good enough company for you."
"Both my dear mother and Duty have warned me against such companions; I
may not go where they go."
"Stay at home then--no one wants you!" exclaimed Dick, who, puffed up as
he was by self-confidence, could not endure the slightest opposition.
"Set yourself up for a model child--lame, plain, and stupid as you are."
Poor Nelly's heart swelled as if it would burst at such undeserved
rudeness from her brother. She returned, however, no angry word, but
silently and quietly quitted the place. Her eyes were so much dimmed by
tears, that she could scarcely see her way back to her own little
cottage.
"It was a shame in me to speak so to Nelly," exclaimed Dick, who
repented of his unkind speech almost as soon as he had uttered it.
"You had better tell her so," said Matty, who, though frivolous and
careless, was not an ill-natured girl.
Dick turned to follow Nelly, and would doubtless have made all things
smooth with his sister, had he not met dark Pride at the door.
Ah, dear reader, have you never been stopped by Pride when going to beg
forgiveness of one to whom you knew that you had done a wrong, and
especially when that injured party was younger and less clever than
yourself?
Dick would not _demean_ himself, as he called it, in the presence of
watchful Pride, by telling his little sister that he was sorry for
having hurt her feelings. Pride came to talk about the fireworks, and,
in eager conversation with him, thoughtless Dick soon forgot the wound
which his overbearing temper had inflicted upon a gentle and loving
heart.