Amy Walton

“ It was a relief to Pennie just now to cuff and scold Jemima, and to pet the Lady Dulcibella, who was a wax doll with a lovely pink and white complexion, and real golden hair and eyelashes. She had everything befitting a doll of her station and appearance—a comfortable bed with white curtains, an arm-chair with a chintz cushion, private brushes and combs, and an elegant travelling trunk. ”

“ Then the excited children, with flushed faces, worked as hard as though the whole matter depended on them alone, and even Dickie, with tiny rake and sturdy legs planted wide apart, did brave service. Then the maids, with sun-bonnets tilted well forward on their foreheads, came out to toss a little hay, and giggle a great deal, and say how hot it was; then the surly Andrew threw sour looks of scorn at them, and the vicar, casting aside his black coat, did more real work than anyone. ”

“ It was Nancy who saw him, as she sat one morning learning a French verb, and staring meanwhile absently out of the schoolroom window. Her expression changed suddenly from utter vacancy to keen interest, and her monotonous murmur of “J’ai, Tu as, Il a,” to a shout of, “Oh, Davie, there’s Antony in the garden!”
“Nancy,” said Miss Grey severely, “you know it is against rules to talk in lesson time. Be quiet.”
“But I can’t really, Miss Grey,” said Nancy, craning her neck to get a better view of the culprit; “he’s poking up the potatoes like anything. Andrew will be so cross. ”

“ Then looking back, she saw how wilfully she had shut her eyes to Ethelwyn’s faults, plain enough to everyone else. That was all over now: she had broken something beside the mandarin that day, and that was Pennie’s belief in her. It was quite gone; she could never love her the least little bit again, beautiful and coaxing as she might be; like the mandarin, she had fallen all the lower because she had once stood so high. ”

“ Nancy, however, not the least dazzled by Ethelwyn’s appearance, was boiling with anger.
“I call that—” she began; but Pennie nudged her violently and whispered: “She’s a visitor,” and the outspoken opinion was checked.
David, too, turned the general attention another way just then; he came gravely up to Ethelwyn and inquired:
“Do you like animals?”
“Animals?” said Ethelwyn; “oh, you mean pets. Yes, I like them sometimes.”
“Then I’ll show you my pig,” said David.
“A pig!” exclaimed Ethelwyn in rather a squeaky voice of surprise; “what a nasty, dirty thing to have for a pet! Don’t you mean pug?” ”

“ Pennie noticed all this as she advanced slowly up the room, deeply conscious of the crumpled pinafore and the ink-spot.
“This is Pennie,” said her mother, and Ethelwyn immediately held out her hand, and said, “How do you do?” in rather a prim voice and without any shyness at all.
“Now I shall give Ethelwyn into your care, Pennie,” continued Mrs Hawthorn. “You may take her into the garden and show her the pets, or if she likes it better you may go upstairs and play with your dolls. Make her as happy as you can, and I shall see you all again at tea-time.” ”

“ Pennie’s whole soul went out towards beauty, and anyone with a pretty face might be sure of her loving worship and admiration. “All is not gold that glitters, Miss Pennie,” Nurse would say, or, “Handsome is that handsome does;” but it made no impression at all; Pennie continued to feel sure that what looked pretty must be good, and that a fair outside meant perfection within. ”

“ Five little Hawthorns, without counting the baby, had looked out of the nursery window and watched the pear-tree blossom, and the sparrows build their nests, and the pears fall; but by the time this story begins, four of them, whose names were Penelope, Ambrose, Nancy, and David, were schoolroom children, and learnt lessons of Miss Grey down-stairs. ”

“ He looked wildly round for a means of escape, and his eye fell on a bright ray of moonlight resting on the lattice window. He rushed towards it, scrambled up on to a box, from thence to the window-ledge, and thrust himself through the narrow opening. If the thing came after him now, he could go no further than the balustrade, unless he jumped down into the garden, “and that would kill me,” he thought, “Pennie has often said so.” ”

“ This was an encouraging idea, and though his knees trembled a good deal, he went on bravely until he came to the place where the stairs took a sudden sharp turn; but here he saw something which brought him to a standstill again, for underneath the garret door at the top there was a faint gleam of light. “That’s the glowworms,” thought Ambrose, “and she’s there still.” His spirits sank.
Could he go on? It must be now or never. With a tremendous effort he went quickly up the remaining steps, stood on tiptoe to unlatch the door, and pushed it open. ”

“ Miss Unity paused. She felt that she was getting on very well, and was surprised at her own success, for David had stopped crying, and was staring at her with absorbed interest. She went on:
“When once we let anger drive love quite out of our hearts all manner of bad things enter; but we don’t often succeed in doing it, because love is so great and strong. Do you know why you’re so unhappy just now?”
“Because I’ve lost Antony,” said David at once.
“Yes, that is one reason, but there is a bigger one. It is because you are angry with Nancy.”
David hung his head.
“You’re fond of Nancy, Davie? ”

“ She looked at the door leading into the bed-room—it was fast shut, and Nurse was walking up and down, singing to the baby in a low soothing tone. Dickie got up from the floor and stood upright with sudden resolve shining in her eyes: she would go to the circus in spite of them all!
Fortune favours the disobedient sometimes as well as the brave, and she met no one to ask where she was going on her journey through the passages; when she came to the top of the stairs she saw that the hall was empty and silent too—only the dog Snuff lay coiled up on the mat like a rough brown ball. ”

“ David’s eyes grew rounder and larger. Could this really be Miss Unity? He was deeply impressed.
“And they fight,” she went on, “until one is killed. Very often love is stronger, but sometimes it is anger that conquers, and then sad things follow. In this way, David, much evil has happened in the world from time to time.” ”

“ It would have been impossible to him to have forgotten to feed the dormouse for a week as Nancy did, or to have left Sappho the canary without any water, which Pennie to her great agony of mind was once guilty of doing.
David’s animals never missed their meals, or were neglected in any way; he was particularly proud of his sleek rabbits, which, together with a family of white rats, lived in the barn, and certainly throve wonderfully, if numbers mean prosperity. ”

“ When it’s a little bit dusky, you know, but not lighted up, and all the pillars look misty, and a long way off, and there are very few people. And then the boys sing, and you feel quite good and just a little bit sad; I can’t think why it is that I never feel like that in our church; I suppose it’s a cathedral feeling. That’s what I like best. Now you, Nancy.”
“Why,” said Nancy without the least hesitation. “I like that little Chinese mandarin that stands on the mantel-piece in Miss Unity’s sitting-room, and wags its head.” ”

“ Miss Unity was sadly perplexed by the result of her efforts; she seemed to have made matters worse instead of better, and she sat for some minutes in silent dismay by the side of the sobbing David. But having begun she felt she must go on, and taking advantage of a little lull she presently said:
“Was it a nice pig, David?”
“B–b–beautiful.”
“And you miss it?”
This was so evident a fact that David seemed to think it needed no answer, and Miss Unity continued:
“It’s sad to lose anything we know and love. Very hard to bear. It’s quite natural and right to be sorry.” ”

“ Pennie was very wretched, and felt she could not bear it much longer.
She was in the nursery one morning looking listlessly out of the window, when her attention was caught by a conversation going on between Nurse and Mrs Hawthorn, who was sitting there with Cicely in her arms.
“I know no more than that baby, ma’am,” said Nurse emphatically, as she had said a hundred times before, “why or wherefore Master Ambrose should take such a thing into his head. It’s easy to frame that he should get scared—when once he was up there in the dark, for he’s a timid child and always has been. ”

“ Do leave off.”
“You’ll only be away three days, Davie,” said Pennie, looking up from her book; “we can manage to take care of Antony that little while I should think.”
“Well,” said David, “Nancy’s got to be ’sponsible, because I took care of her mouse.”
“If I were you,” said Ambrose with a superior air, “I wouldn’t use such long words; you never say them right.”
“I say,” interrupted Pennie, putting down her book, “what do you all like best when you go to Nearminster? I know what I like best.”
“Well, what is it?” said Ambrose; “you say first, and then Nancy, and then me, and then David.” ”

“ Dickie and David were snugly in bed now, warm and safe, and Nurse was most likely searching everywhere for him. If they only knew!
“If ever I get back,” he said to himself, “I never will try to be brave again; it’s much better to be called a coward always.” He had hardly come to this conclusion before, with a tremendous whirring noise, something came banging up against the shut part of the window from within the garret. Ambrose gave one wild scream, let go his hold, and went rolling over and over quicker and quicker, down—down—down. ”

“ She has begun early.”
“Why does she only play when the wind blows?” asked Ambrose.
“She comes with the wind,” answered Pennie, “that is how she travels, as other people use carriages and trains. The little window in the garret is blown open, and she floats in and takes one of those big music-books, and finds out the place, and then sits down to the harp and plays.”
“What tune does she play?” asked David.
“By the margin of fair Zurich’s waters,” answered Pennie; “sometimes she sings too, but not often, because she is very sad.” ”

“ She is about Pennie’s age, and her name is Ethelwyn.”
“What a long one!” said Nancy; “must we call her all of it?”
“I think it’s a beautiful name,” said Pennie. “Almost as good as ‘Dulcibella.’ And then we might call her ‘Ethel,’ or ‘Winnie,’ they’re both pretty.”
“Well, you can settle that afterwards,” said their mother. “You must wait and see what she likes best to be called. And that reminds me to say that I hope my children will be hospitable to their guest. Do you know what that means?”
“I know,” said Ambrose, gulping a piece of bread and butter very quickly in his haste to be first. ”

“ He was carrying something which looked like a large cage covered with a cloth. Pennie stopped and waited till he came up to her.
“Why, whatever can that be, father?” she said. “Is it alive? Where are you taking it?”
“It is a little visitor for Ambrose,” he answered; “and I’m taking him upstairs to tea with you both. But you’re not to look at him yet;” for Pennie was trying to peep under the cloth.
When they got into Ambrose’s room she was relieved to find that he looked just like himself, though his face was very white and thin. ”

“ Straight in front of her there was a broad lawn sloping down to a sunk fence, and beyond that a meadow with tall elms in it, and after that another meadow where cows were feeding, and that was all. In the spring the meadows turned to gold and silver with the buttercups and daisies, and the rooks cawed noisily in the elms ”

“ Ethelwyn.
“Oh, dear me!” said Pennie, looking at herself in the glass over the nursery mantel-shelf; “it is ugly, and so uncomfortable. I wish I needn’t wear it.”
“It,” was Pennie’s new winter bonnet, and certainly it was not very becoming; it was made of black plush with a very deep brim, out of which her little pointed face peered mournfully, and seemed almost swallowed up. There was one exactly like it for Nancy, and the bonnets had just come from Miss Griggs, the milliner at Nearminster, where they had been ordered a week ago. ”

“ What can the child mean?” said the vicar looking inquiringly at Pennie.
But he got no answer to his question, for Pennie’s long-pent-up feelings burst forth at last. Casting discretion to the winds, she threw her arms vehemently round Ambrose, and blurted out half laughing and half crying:
“I made it up! I made it up! There isn’t any Goblin Lady. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! ”

“ But it means something more, for you might give Ethelwyn the biggest piece of everything, and yet she might not enjoy her visit at all. But if you try to make her happy in the way she likes best, and consider her amusement and comfort before your own, you will be hospitable, and I shall be very pleased with you all. I expect, however, she will be chiefly Pennie and Nancy’s companion, because, as she has no brothers and sisters, she may not care about the games you all play together. She has not been used to boys, and might find them a little rough and noisy. ”

“ They had no longer much time for looking out of the window, and the nursery was left in the possession of Dickie and Cicely the baby. Dickie, whose real name was Delicia, was three years old—a great girl now she thought—but she was still fond of kneeling up in the window seat and flattening her little nose against the glass. She could not see very much. Through the branches of the pear-tree a little to the left appeared the church tower, and a glimpse here and there of grey and white tombstones in the churchyard. ”

“ On the whole Miss Unity liked to have the grave little David with her better than the other children, though she sometimes felt when she found his solemn and disapproving gaze fixed upon her. David on his side had his opinions, though he said little, and he had long ago made up his mind that he did not like Miss Unity at all. So he was sorry to find, when the day came for leaving Nearminster, that she was going back to Easney with them instead of making her visit later in the year. It would not be nearly as pleasant as driving alone with his father and mother, he thought ”

“ He was in such raptures when he was told that the owl was to be his very own, that when the tea was brought in he could hardly be persuaded to touch it. Pennie, too, almost forgot her troubles in the excitement of pouring out tea, and settling with Ambrose where the owl was to live.
“The nicest place will be,” at last said Ambrose decidedly, “in that corner of the barn just above where Davie’s rabbits are. You know, Pennie. Where it’s all dusky, and dark, and cobwebby.” ”

“ I’d rather be Indian savages.” Indian savages was being performed with great spirit by Nancy, but the change was made, and the game went on, until Ethelwyn cast an envious eye upon Dickie, who, with a small pail and broom, was earnestly scrubbing at the carpet, under the impression that she was a cabin-boy washing the deck of a ship. “I should like to be cabin-boy,” said Ethelwyn.
But here the limit of endurance was reached, for Dickie grasped her little properties tightly and refused to give up office.
“Me will be cabin-boy,” was all she said when Pennie tried to persuade her. ”

“ A most beautiful lady, with long golden hair. Only she was very very proud and vain. So after she died she could not rest, but has to go flying about wherever the wind will take her. The only pleasure she has is music, and so she always tries to get in where there is anything to play. ”