Elserly, Once I told you that I loved you; in this matter of the
major's, I have been prompted solely by a sincere desire for your
happiness; and by acting in this spirit I have entirely taken the pain
out of my old wound. Mayn't I, therefore, as the major's most sincere
well-wisher, enjoy once more your friendship?"
Miss Elserly smiled sweetly, and extended her hand, and Hubert Brown
went home a very happy man. Yet, when he called again, several evenings
later, he was not as happy as he had hoped to be in Miss Elserly's
society, for the lady herself, though courteous and cordial, seemed
somewhat embarrassed and _distrait_, and interrupted the young man on
several occasions when he spoke in commendation of some good quality of
the major's. Again he called, and again the same strange embarrassment,
though less in degree, manifested itself. Finally, it disappeared
altogether, and Miss Elserly began to recover her health and spirits.
Even then she did not exhibit as tender an interest in the major as the
student had hoped she would do; but, as the major's truest friend, he
continued to sound his praises, and to pay Miss Elserly, in the major's
stead, every kind of attention he could devise.
Finally he learned that the major was in the city, and he hastened to
inform Miss Elserly, lest, perhaps, she had not heard so soon. The lady
received the announcement with an exquisite blush and downcast eyes,
though she admitted that the major had himself apprised her of his safe
arrival. On this particular evening the lady seemed to Mr. Brown to be
personally more charming than ever; yet, on the other hand, the old
embarrassment was so painfully evident that Mr. Brown made an early
departure. Arrived at home he found a letter from the major which read
as follows:
"MY DEAR OLD FELLOW.--From the day on which I met you in Colorado I've
been trying to live after your pattern; how I succeeded on the third
day, you may guess from inclosed, which is a copy of a letter I sent to
Florence by you. I've only just got her permission to send it to you,
though I've teased her once a week on the subject. God bless you, old
fellow. Don't worry on my account, for I'm really happy. Yours truly,
"MALLING."
With wondering eyes Hubert Brown read the inclosure, which read as
follows:
"Miss ELSERLY--Three days ago, while a fugitive from justice, yet
honestly loving you more than I ever loved any other being, I met Hubert
Brown. He has cared for me as if I was his dearest friend; he is going
to make good my financial deficiencies, and restore me to
respectability. He cannot have done this out of love for _me_, for he
knows nothing of me but that which should make him hate me, on both
personal and moral grounds. He says he did it because he loved you, and
because he wants to see you happy. Miss Elserly, such love cannot be a
thing of the past only, and it is so great that in comparison with it
the best love that _I_ have ever given you seems beneath your notice. He
is begging me to go back for your sake; he is constantly talking to me
about you in a tone and with a look that shows how strong is the feeling
he is sacrificing, out of sincere regard for you. Miss Elserly, I never
imagined the angels loving as purely and strongly as he does. He tells
me you still retain some regard for me; the mere thought is so great a
comfort that I cannot bear to reason seriously about it; yet, if any
such feelings exist, I must earnestly beg of you, out of the sincere and
faithful affection I have had for you, to give up all thought of me for
ever, and give yourself entirely to that most incomparable lover, Hubert
Brown.
"Forgive my intrusion and advice. I give it because the remembrance of
our late relations will assure you of the honesty and earnestness of my
meaning. I excuse myself by the thought that to try to put into such
noble keeping the dearest treasure that I ever possessed, is a duty
which justifies my departure from any conventional rule. I am, Miss
Elserly, as ever, your worshiper. More than this I cannot dare to think
of being, after my own fall and the overpowering sense I have of the
superior worth of another. God bless you.
"ANDREW MALLING."
Mr. Brown hastily laid the letter aside, and again called upon Miss
Elserly.
Again she met him with many signs of the embarrassment whose cause he
now understood so well; yet as he was about to deliver an awkward
apology a single look from under Miss Elserly's eyebrows--only a glance,
but as searching and eloquent as it was swift--stopped his tongue. He
took Miss Elserly's hand in his own and stammered:
"I came to plead for the major."
"And I shan't listen to you," said she, raising her eyes with so tender
a light in them that Hubert Brown immediately hid the eyes themselves in
his heart, lest the light should be lost.
BUDGE AND TODDIE AT AUNT ALICE'S.
[_The following is quoted, by permission, from Mr. Habberton's popular
book_, "OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN," _published by_ G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS,
_New York_.]
Mrs. Burton's birthday dawned brightly, and it is not surprising that,
as it was her first natal anniversary since her marriage to a man who
had no intention or ability to cease being a lover--it is not surprising
that her ante-breakfast moments were too fully and happily occupied to
allow her to even think of two little boys who had already impressed
upon her their willingness and general ability to think for themselves.
As for the young men themselves, they awoke with the lark, and with a
heavy sense of responsibility also. The room of Mrs. Burton's
chambermaid joined their own, and the occupant of that room having been
charged by her mistress with the general care of the boys between dark
and daylight, she had gradually lost that faculty for profound slumber
which so notably distinguishes the domestic servant from all other human
beings. She had grown accustomed to wake at the first sound in the boys'
room, and on the morning of her mistress's birthday the first sound she
heard was: "Tod!"
No response could be heard; but a moment later the chambermaid heard:
"T--o--o--od!"
"Ah--h--h--ow!" drawled a voice, not so sleepily but it could sound
aggrieved.
"Wake up, dear old Toddie, budder--it's Aunt Alice's birthday now."
"Needn't bweak my earzh open, if '_tis,_ whined Toddie."
"I only holloed in _one_ ear, Tod," remonstrated Budge "an' you ought
to love dear Aunt Alice enough to have _that_ hurt a little rather than
not wake up."
A series of groans, snarls, whines, grunts, snorts, and remonstrances
semi-articulate were heard, and at length some complicated wriggles and
convulsive kicks were made manifest to the listening ear, and then Budge
said:
"_That's_ right; now let's get up an' get ready. Say; do you know that
we didn't think anything about having some music. Don't you remember how
papa played the piano last mamma's birthday when she came down stairs,
an' how happy it made her, an' we danced around?"
"Aw wight," said Toddie. "Let's."
"_Tell_ you what," said Budge, "let's _both_ bang the piano, like mamma
an' Aunt Alice does together sometimes."
"Oh, yesh!" exclaimed Toddie. "We can make some awful _big_ bangsh
before she can get down to tell us to don't."
Then there was heard a scurrying of light feet as the boys picked up
their various articles of clothing from the corners, chairs, bureau,
table, etc., where they had been tossed the night before. The
chambermaid hurried to their assistance, and both boys were soon
dressed. A plate containing bananas, and another with the hard-earned
grapes, were on the bureau, and the boys took them and tiptoed down the
stair and into the drawing-room.
"Gwacious!" said Toddie, as he placed his plate on the sideboard, "maybe
the gwapes an' buttonanoes has got sour. I guesh we'd better try 'em,
like mamma does the milk on hot morningsh when the baddy milkman don't
come time enough," and Toddie suited the action to the word by plucking
from a cluster the handsomest grape in sight. "I _fink_," said he,
smacking his lips with the suspicious air of a professional wine-taster;
"I fink they _is_ gettin' sour." "Let's see," said Budge.
"No," said Toddie, plucking another grape with one hand while with the
other he endeavored to cover his gift. "Ize bid enough to do it all
myself. Unless," he added, as a happy inspiration struck him, "you'll
let me help see if your buttonanoes are sour."
"Then you can only have one bite," said Budge, "You must let me taste
about six grapes, 'cause 'twould take that many to make one of _your_
bites on a banana."
"Aw wight," said Toddie; and the boys proceeded to exchange duties,
Budge taking the precaution to hold the banana himself, so that his
brother should not abstractedly sample a second time, and Toddie doling
out the grapes with careful count.
"They _are_ a little sour," said Budge, with a wry face. "Perhaps some
other bunch is better. I think we'd better try each one, don't you?"
"An' each one of the buttonanoes, too," suggested Toddie. "_That_ one
wazh pretty good, but maybe some of the others isn't."
The proposition was accepted, and soon each banana had its length
reduced by a fourth, and the grape-clusters displayed a fine development
of wood. Then Budge seemed to realize that his present was not as
sightly as it might be, for he carefully closed the skins at the ends,
and turned the unbroken ends to the front as deftly as if he were a born
retailer of fruit.
This done, he exclaimed: "Oh! we want our cards on em, else how will she
know who they came from?"
"We'll be here to tell her," said Toddie.
"Huh!" said Budge; "That wouldn't make her half so happy. Don't you know
how when cousin Florence gets presents of flowers, she's always happiest
when she's lookin' at the card that comes with 'em?"
"Aw right," said Toddie, hurrying into the parlor,'and returning with
the cards of a lady and gentleman, taken haphazard from his aunt's
card-receiver.
"Now, we must write 'Happy Birthday' on the backs of 'em," said Budge,
exploring his pockets, and extracting a stump of a lead-pencil. "Now,"
continued Budge, leaning over the card, and displaying all the facial
contortions of the unpracticed writer, as he laboriously printed, in
large letters, speaking, as he worked, a letter at a time:
"H--A--P--P--E B--U--R--F--D--A--Happy Birthday. Now, you must hold the
pencil for yours, or else it won't be so sweet--that's what mamma says."
Toddie took the pencil in his pudgy hand, and Budge guided the hand; and
two juvenile heads touched each other, and swayed, and twisted, and
bobbed in unison until the work was completed.
"Now, I think she ought to come," said Budge. (Breakfast time was still
more than an hour distant.) "Why, the rising-bell hasn't rung yet! Let's
ring it!"
The boys fought for possession of the bell; but superior might
conquered, and Budge marched up and down the hall, ringing with the
enthusiasm and duration peculiar to the amateur.
"Bless me!" exclaimed Mrs. Burton, hastening to complete her toilet.
"How time does fly--sometimes!"
Mr. Burton saw something in his wife's face that seemed to call for
lover-like treatment; but it was not without a sense of injury that he
exclaimed, immediately after, as he drew forth his watch:
"I declare! I would make an affidavit that we hadn't been awake half an
hour. Ah! I forgot to wind up my watch last night."
The boys hurried into the parlor.
"I hear 'em trampin' around!" exclaimed Budge, in great excitement.
"There!--the piano's shut! Isn't that _too_ mean! Oh, _I'll_ tell
you--here's Uncle Harry's violin."
"Then whatsh _I_ goin' to play on?" asked Toddie, dancing frantically
about.
"Wait a minute," said Budge, dropping the violin, and hurrying to the
floor above, from which he speedily returned with a comb. A bound volume
of the _Portfolio_ lay upon the table, and opening this, Badge tore the
tissue paper from one of the etchings and wrapped the comb in it.
"There!" said he, "you fiddle an' I'll blow the comb. Goodness! why
_don't_ they come down? Oh, we forgot to put pennies under the plate,
and we don't know how many years old to put 'em for."
"An' we ain't got no pennies," said Toddie.
"_I_ know," said Budge, hurrying to a cabinet in a drawer of which his
uncle kept the nucleus of a collection of American coinage. "This kind
of pennies," Budge continued, "isn't so pretty as our kind, but they're
bigger, an' they'll look better on a table-cloth. Now, how old do you
think she is?"
"I dunno," said Toddie, going into a reverie of hopeless conjecture.
"She's about as big as you and me put togevver."
"Well," said Budge, "you're four an' I'm six, an' four an' six is ten--I
guess ten'll be about the thing."
Mrs. Burton's plate was removed, and the pennies were deposited in a
circle. There was some painful counting and recounting, and many
disagreements, additions and subtractions. Finally, the pennies were
arranged in four rows, two of three each and two of two each, and Budge
counted the threes and Toddie verified the twos; and Budge was adding
the four sums together, when footsteps were heard descending the stairs.
Budge hastily dropped the surplus coppers upon the four rows, replaced
the plate, and seized the comb as Toddie placed the violin against his
knee, as he had seen small, itinerant Italians do. A second or two
later, as the host and hostess entered the dining-room, there arose a
sound which caused Mrs. Burton to clap her fingers to her ears, while
her husband exclaimed:
'"Scat!"
Then both boys dropped their instruments, Toddie finding the ways of his
own feet seriously compromised by the strings of the violin, while both
children turned happy faces toward their aunt, and shouted:
"Happy Burfday!"
Mr. Burton hurried to the rescue of his darling instrument while his
wife gave each boy an appreciative kiss, and showed them a couple of
grateful tears. Then her eye was caught by the fruit on the sideboard,
and she read the cards aloud:
"Mrs. Frank Rommery--this is like her effusiveness. I've never met her
but once, but I suppose her bananas must atone for her lack of manners.
Why, Charley Crewne! Dear me! What memories some men have!"
A cloud came upon Mr. Burton's brow. Charlie Crewne had been one of his
rivals for Miss Mayton's hand, and Mrs. Burton was looking a trifle
thoughtful, and her husband was as unreasonable as newly-made husbands
are sure to be, when Mrs. Burton exclaimed:
"Some one has been picking the grapes off in the most shameful manner.
Boys!"
"_Ain't_ from no Rommerys an' Crewnes," said Toddie. "Theysh from me an'
Budge, an' we dzust tasted 'em to see if they'd got sour in the night."
"Where did the cards come from?" asked Mrs. Burton.
"Out of the basket in the parlor," said Budge; "but the back is the nice
part of 'em."
Mrs. Burton's thoughtful expression and her husband's frown disappeared
together, as they seated themselves at the table. Both boys wriggled
rigorously until their aunt raised her plate, and then Budge exclaimed:
"A penny for each year, you know."
"Thirty-one!" exclaimed Mrs. Burton, after counting the heap. "How
complimentary!"
"What doesh you do for little boys on your bifeday?" asked Toddie, after
breakfast was served. "Mamma does _lots_ of fings."
"Yes," said Budge, "she says she thinks people ought to get their own
happy by makin' other people happy. An' mamma knows better than you, you
know, 'cause she's been married longest."
Although Mrs. Burton admitted the facts, the inference seemed scarcely
natural, and she said so.
"Well--a--a--a--a--_any_how," said Toddie, "mamma always has parties on
her bifeday, an' we hazh all the cake we want."
"You shall be happy to-day, then," said Mrs. Burton; "for a few friends
will be in to see me this afternoon, and I am going to have a nice
little lunch for them, and you shall lunch with us, if you will be very
good until then, and keep yourselves clean and neat."
"Aw wight," said Toddie. "Izhn't it most time now?"
"Tod's all stomach," said Budge, with some contempt. "Say, Aunt Alice, I
hope you won't forget to have some fruit-cake. That's the kind _we_ like
best."
"You'll come home very early, Harry?" asked Mrs. Burton, ignoring her
nephew's question.
"By noon, at furthest," said the gentleman. "I only want to see my
morning letters, and fill any orders that may be in them."
"What are you coming so early for, Uncle Harry?" asked Budge.
"To take Aunt Alice riding, old boy," said Mr. Burton.
"Oh! just listen, Tod! Won't that be jolly? Uncle Harry's going to take
us riding!"
"I said I was going to take your Aunt Alice, Budge," said Mr. Burton.
"I heard you," said Budge, "but that won't trouble us any. She always
likes to talk to you better than she does to us. When are we going?"
Mr. Burton asked his wife, in German, whether the Lawrence-Burton
assurance was not charmingly natural, and Mrs. Burton answered in the
same tongue that it was, but was none the less deserving of rebuke, and
that she felt it to be her duty to tone it down in her nephews. Mr.
Burton wished her joy of the attempt, and asked a number of searching
questions about success already attained, until Mrs. Burton was glad to
see Toddie come out of a brown study and hear him say:
"I fink that placesh where the river is bwoke off izh the nicest
placesh."
"What _does_ the child mean?" asked his aunt.
"Don't you know where we went last year, an' you stopped us from seein'
how far we could hang over, Uncle Harry?" said Budge.
"Oh--Passaic Falls!" exclaimed Mr. Burton.
"Yes, that's it," said Budge.
"Old riverzh bwoke wight in two there," said Toddie, "an' a piece of
it's way up in the air, an' anuvver piece izh way down in big hole in
the shtones. _That'sh_ where I want to go widin'."
"Listen, Toddy," said Mrs. Burton. "We like to take you riding with us
at most times, but _to-day_ we prefer to go alone. You and Budge will
stay at home--we shan't be gone more than two hours."
"Wantsh to go a-widin'!" exclaimed Toddie.
"I know you do, dear, but you must wait until some other day," said the
lady.
"But I _wantsh_ to go," Toddie explained.
"And I don't want you to, so you can't," said Mrs. Burton, in a tone
which would reduce any reasonable person to hopelessness. But Toddie, in
spite of manifest astonishment, remarked:
"Wantsh to go a-widin'."
"_Now_ the fight is on," murmured Mr. Burton to himself. Then he arose
hastily from the table, and said:
"I think I'll try to catch the earlier train, my dear, as I am coming
back so soon."
Mrs. Burton arose to bid her husband Good-by, and was kissed with
more than usual tenderness, and then held at arm's length, while
manly eyes looked into her own with an expression which she found
untranslatable--for two hours at least. Mrs. Burton saw her husband
fairly on his way, and then she returned to the dining-room, led Toddie
into the parlor, took him upon her lap, wound her arms tenderly about
him, and said:
"Now, Toddie, dear, listen carefully to what Aunt Alice tells you. There
are some reasons why you boys should not go with us to-day, and Aunt
Alice means just what she says when she tells you you can't go with us.
If you were to ask a hundred times it would not make the slightest bit
of difference. You cannot go, and you must stop thinking about it."
Toddie listened intelligently from beginning to end, and replied:
"But I _wantsh_ to go."
"And you can't. That ends the matter."
"No, it don't," said Toddie, "not a single bittle. I wantsh to go badder
than ever."
"But you are not going."
"I wantsh to go so baddy," said Toddy, beginning to cry.
"I suppose you do, and auntie is very sorry for you," said Mr. Burton,
kindly; "but that does not alter the case. When grown people say 'No!'
little boys must understand that they mean it."
"But what I wantsh izh to go a-widin' wif you," said Toddie.
"And what _I_ want is, that you shall stay at home; so you must," said
Mrs. Burton. Let us have no more talk about it now. Shouldn't you like
to go into the garden and pick some strawberries all for yourself?"
"No; I'd like to go widin'."
"Toddie," said Mrs. Burton, "don't let me hear one more word about
riding."
"Well, I want to go."
"Toddie, I will certainly have to punish you if you say any more on this
subject, and that will make me very unhappy. You don't want to make
auntie unhappy on her birthday, do you?"
"No; but I do want to go a-widin'."
"Listen Toddie," said Mrs. Burton, with an imperious stamp of her foot,
and a sudden loss of her entire stock of patience. "If you say one more
word about that trip, I will lock you up in the attic chamber, where you
were day before yesterday, and Budge shall not be with you."
[Illustration: TODDIE SUDDENLY FOUND HIMSELF CLASPED TIGHTLY IN HIS
AUNT'S ARMS, IN WHICH POSITION HE KICKED, PUSHED, SCREAMED, AND ROARED,
DURING THE PASSAGE OF TWO FLIGHTS OF STAIRS.]
Toddie gave vent to a perfect torrent of tears, and screamed:
"A--h--h--h! I don't want to be locked up, an' I do want to go
a-widin'."
Toddie suddenly found himself clasped tightly in his aunt's arms, in
which position he kicked, pushed, screamed, and roared, during the
passage of two flights of stairs. The moment of his final incarceration
was marked by a piercing shriek which escaped from the attic window,
causing the dog Jerry to retire precipitately from a pleasing
lounging-place on the well-curb, and making a passing farmer to rein up
his horses, and maintain a listening position for the space of five
minutes. Meanwhile Mrs. Burton descended to the parlor, more flushed,
untidy and angry than one had ever before seen her. She soon encountered
the gaze of her nephew Budge, and it was so full of solemnity that Mrs.
Burton's anger departed in an instant.
"How would _you_ like to be carried up-stairs screamin' an' put in a
lonely room, just 'cause you wanted to go riding?" asked Budge.
Mrs. Burton was unable to imagine herself in any such position, but
replied:
"I should never be so foolish as to keep on wanting what I knew I could
not have."
"Why!" exclaimed Budge. "Are grown folks as smart, as all that?"
Mrs. Burton's conscience smote her not over-lightly, and she hastened to
change the subject, and to devote herself assiduously to Budge, as if to
atone for some injury which she might have done to his brother. An
occasional howl which fell from the attic-window increased her zeal for
Budge's comfort. Under each one, however, her resolution grew weaker,
and finally, with a hypocritical excuse to Budge, Mrs. Burton hurried up
to the door of Toddie's prison, and said through the keyhole:
"Toddie?"
"What?" said Toddie.
"Will you be a good-boy, now!"
"Yesh, if you'll take me a-widin'."
Mrs. Burton turned abruptly away, and simply flew down the stairs.
Budge, who awaited her at the foot, instinctively stood aside, and
exclaimed:
"My! I thought you was goin' to tumble! Why didn't you bring him down?"
"Bring who?" asked Mrs. Burton, indignantly.
"Oh, _I_ know what you went up-stairs for?" said Budge. "Your eyes told
me all about it."
"You're certainly a rather inconvenient companion," said Mrs. Burton,
averting her face, "and I want you to run home and ask how your mamma
and baby-sister are. Don't stay long; remember that lunch will be
earlier than usual to-day."