Agnes Giberne

“ Hecla nodded, smiled, promised, and ran off, Elisabeth trying to catch her.
Miss Anne walked slowly back to the house, pausing on the way to look at her favourite flowers, and thinking hard about poor Frederick and Mary, obliged to leave their dear little child behind, and not knowing where to send her.
"If only we could take little Ivy in! I should love to have another," she whispered. "Children in the house make life so different!" ”

“ Grown-up people always won't say if they were naughty. And I do like to be told. What did you do that was naughty?"
"If I was naughty, my mother just smacked me, Miss Hecla."
"And did that make you very good directly?"
"If it didn't, it had ought to, Miss Hecla."
"I shouldn't like to be smacked. Auntie Anne doesn't smack me. Look at that big bird. Is it a rook? Why do the rooks say 'Caw' all day long?"
Elisabeth did not know. She supposed it was "their nature."
"I wish it was my nature. I don't see why we shouldn't say 'Caw, caw,' too, when we're happy! Elisabeth—what's a bob?" ”

“ Auntie Anne, weren't you ever naughty when you were a little girl?"
"Very often naughty, I'm afraid."
That was consoling. "I'm glad. Won't you tell me some day all about your being naughty?"
"Perhaps, some day. But you mustn't be glad, Hecla. You ought to be sorry when people are naughty."
"If it was a grown-up person that was naughty!" suggested Hecla. "But not if it was once you, auntie."
Miss Anne was puzzled, not seeing what the child meant.
"Here is Elisabeth," she said. "Now be sure you get back in good time. Elisabeth has to lay the cloth, you know, at one o'clock. ”

“ The man or woman who cannot say 'must' to himself or herself is a very poor sort of creature, and of very little use in the world. And if you don't learn to say 'must' to yourself now, while you are a child, you will find it doubly hard when you are grown-up."
Hecla crinkled her forehead seriously, and stared out of the window, where the sun shone and the birds sang in a most inviting way. And again the thought sprang up of Chris and the lovely boat he had promised. ”

“ Aunt Anne murmured.
"She's cleverer than me, isn't she—lots?" cried Hecla, overhearing what she was not meant to hear.
"Mummie always lets me dress myself," said Ivy.
"Then you shall do it another day," promised Miss Anne.
It was a lovely spring day, early spring, yet warm and sunny. They went outside the town; not towards the windmill, where Hecla had gone with Elisabeth one day, but in another direction, past the Vicarage and the old grey Church, and along a country road, with a little river beside it. ”

“ Hecla looked beseechingly into her companion's round, rosy face and honest eyes. Elisabeth was only sixteen years old, which is not really old, though Hecla looked upon her as very much grown-up indeed. She often wished to be sixteen herself, because she felt that then she would be able to do whatever she liked. Elisabeth had been in Miss Storey's service ever since leaving school at twelve years of age, and she was a careful, dependable girl. She was devoted to Hecla, and loved nothing better than taking the little girl out for a ramble. ”

“ Miss Anne came round to her side.
"You can quite well, if you choose, Hecla. It only means one little brave try to do your very best. Now I am going upstairs to get ready, and to dress Ivy; and then we shall start. I hope I shall be able to take you too—not have to leave you behind to do the sum, and to have a walk with Elisabeth later."
Hecla flung herself flat on the table, in a dire fright at the idea, grappling with her task. She could not endure the thought of not meeting Chris, of not having the boat; and now she realised that Miss Anne was in earnest. ”

“ And it was just because daddy and mummie do so love their little girl that they made her keep on wearing those tiresome ugly big spectacles. Don't you see? Not because we wanted to trouble our pet, but only because we loved her so."
Ivy smiled.
"And it is the same thing with our kind loving Father in Heaven, Ivy. Sometimes He sees that we need a trouble—something like wearing those spectacles—something that tries us and makes us sad—and yet He sees that if we don't have it, we shall not be strong and well in our spirits by-and-by. ”

“ So, though Hecla would no longer be all day long with Miss Storey and Miss Anne, she would be less than five minutes off. Ivy was delighted to have her dear Hecla with her in the new home. And Mr. and Mrs. Croft were so good, and kind, and gentle with her, that very soon it almost felt to Hecla like the days when she had her own mother and father.
"Mummie, why-because does Hecla kiss you so very, very much?" Ivy one day asked.
"I suppose, pet, it is because she is a tender-hearted little girl, and likes to be loved," Mrs. Croft replied. "And she is very fond of Ivy too, I am sure—isn't she?" ”

“ Miss Storey had an engagement to luncheon with some friends, and Miss Anne told Hecla that she had better do the sum directly after her early afternoon rest. "And then we will go out," added Miss Anne.
"I don't like sums, auntie," Hecla said, as she sat at the table, with one leg twisted round each front leg of her chair.
"I dare say not, clear. People seldom like things that they do badly. But we all have to do things we don't like." ”

“ The woman seemed fully to understand, and also to be much interested. She brought forward a number of fresh toys, costing exactly what Hecla wanted to give. Whether their prices really were so low as she named might be doubted. Elisabeth did doubt it, but she said nothing, and Hecla jumped with delight.
After a great deal of discussing and selecting and rejecting and counting up of pennies and farthings, the money was at last all spent; and the woman placed Hecla's purchases in a row, that she might see how nice they looked. They cost precisely three shillings, not one farthing more or less. ”

“ It's time to go home, and Miss Anne told me I was to be sure to be early, 'cause it worries Miss Storey so if we ain't."
"But we can't leave Trip. We can't possibly, Elisabeth. We must wait till he comes away. He'll get killed, if we go. Just look!—" As Trip, gasping for breath, reached the flock, and with a great fluttering and splashing, the geese once more skimmed across out of his reach. "Oh, you naughty naughty Trip. I know they'll kill him! He'll drown. Oh dear!"
"He'll take care of himself—never you fear. Miss Hecla, you've got to come. ”

“ Sometimes, you know, God tells us to do things that we would much rather not do."
"Why-because?"
"Always because He loves us, darling. We may be quite sure of that."
Ivy waited for more; quietly standing and waiting, as a grown-up person might have done; not fidgeting about, as Hecla would have done in her place. All her short life she had been much with her elders, and often she had a manner beyond her years. Yet she was a most happy little girl, full of enjoyment.
Mrs. Croft came round the table to where Ivy was, and sat down, putting her arm round the child. ”

“ Perhaps the aunts had done much the same in their childhood, and had forgotten; or, if Miss Anne remembered, she never said so. Perhaps they had been naturally less restless. There is a great difference between different children, just as there is a great difference between different grown-up people.
Hecla never for a moment dreamt what a trial her presence in the house was to her Aunt Millicent. She knew that she was always being told not to fidget, but she supposed that to be only because she had to learn to be proper and quiet. ”

“ Hecla sighed and nestled into that kind encircling arm.
"Mrs. Prue says—Mrs. Prue says—Ivy perhaps won't ever be properly herself again."
"Mrs. Prue is anxious, no doubt, as we all are; but I hope there is no fear of that. The doctor says Ivy is doing nicely now."
"Does he? I'm so glad." Then after a break. "And Elisabeth says—says—"
"Yes."
"She says, God doesn't love me, because I'm so naughty."
"Elisabeth is wrong. People often say that kind of thing, and it is a very great mistake. I think she only means that God is sorry. But He loves you always—always—even when you are naughty. ”

“ She don't know nobody."
"Doesn't she know Auntie Anne?"
"No—nor nobody."
"Won't she be quite well soon? Darling Mrs. Prue, please tell me!"
"Nobody can't tell. She may, and she mayn't," asserted Prue. "There's a lot o' mischief comes often after that sort o' accident, Miss Hecla. Why, dear me, I've had to do with a girl as fell into a river, and she wasn't never properly herself after, not all her life long she wasn't."
Mrs. Prue shook herself free and went off, and Hecla retreated into the dining-room. ”

“ Miss Storey was not really old. Many a woman of her age is still active and vigorous, and even young, and Miss Anne was many years the younger of the two. Still, they had lived so long in one particular way, that it was not easy for them to change.
And with the coming of little Hecla, an eager, affectionate, talkative, restless child of seven, accustomed to be made much of and to get her own way more than was perhaps wise, things were a good deal altered. ”

“ She was close to the edge; and the sudden movement caused her to over-balance herself. With a sharp cry, she fell backwards into the water, still clasping the bough, and was swept downward towards the covered way.
Hecla and Mildred screamed aloud; and Mildred rushed to the spot from which the little one had fallen—only to see her disappearing under the archway. Then she turned and tore down the stream, frantic with terror; and Hecla rushed thither also, shrieking wildly. ”

“ And a victory is always worth gaining. The harder the fight, the more the victory is worth.
Another thing sometimes puzzled Hecla. It was that when Ivy asked questions, the aunts never seemed to mind, and always took pains to answer her. While, if Hecla burst out with strings of questions, she was told not to chatter so much. She did not quickly find out the real reason—that Ivy asked because she really wanted to understand something, while Hecla's questions were merely because she wanted to talk, and did not care what she said or what replies came. ”

“ All little English children fall ill there; so their fathers and mothers dare not take them. Yet daddy has to go; and I know my little Ivy will be brave and good, and will wish mummie to go with daddy and to take care of him. And only think—" as she felt a heaving sob—"only think, sweet, what fun it will be for you to have Cousin Hecla to play with! She is only three or four years older than Ivy. You have never yet had another little girl belonging to you, in the same house. Won't that be delightful? You must take your new dolly, and you and Hecla can play with it together." ”