Mrs. Molesworth

“ That evening at tea, Mary and Artie told Leigh and nurse about meeting the Lavender Cottages children, and how tired poor Janie looked.
“Isn’t it a pity Ned couldn’t dror the carriage?” said Artie.
“Draw, not dror,” said Leigh. “How vulgar you are, Artie. No, I don’t see that it could do much good to Janie, for somebody’d have to drive, and so she’d still have the baby to carry. The big sister should take turns with her.”
“Yes, indeed,” said nurse. “That’d be much better than nonsense about harnessing boys. It’s a wonder those children weren’t driven into bits, that day you told us of.” ”

“ And it’d never do neither for the puppy to eat all as you eats, Master Artie. Puppies isn’t little young gentlemen and ladies, and every creature has its own ways. He’ll be all right in the stable, never you fear, and Mr Mellor’ll see as he has all he should.”
But still the three faces did not clear. Leigh moved away as if he were going to the gate, flicking his boots with a little whip he had in his hand, to seem as if he did not care, though in reality he was very nearly crying. And Artie’s and Mary’s faces grew longer and longer. ”

“ We’re going to call your little sister ‘Dolly.’”
“That’s not difficult,” said Mary. “Only it seems as if she was a dolly.”
“No it doesn’t,” said Leigh. “Your dolls have all got their own names. I like Dolly very much, papa, and I think we’ll better call her it now. ‘Baby’ is so common, there’s such lots of babies.”
“There’s a baby at the baker’s shop,” said Artie, who did not like being left out of the conversation. “It’s a lot bigger than our baby, it goes in a sitting-up perambulator all alone.” ”

“ He had been very anxious for Mary to love the baby a great deal, for sometimes “next-to-the-baby” children are rather jealous and cross at being no longer the pet and the youngest. It was a very good thing he and her mamma agreed that the baby had come as a birthday present to Mary.
The idea of holding her in her own arms was so delightful that again for a moment or two Mary felt as if she could not speak.
“And what do you two fellows think of your new sister?” said papa, turning to the boys. Leigh leant over the cradle and peered in very earnestly. ”

“ Soon it was time to go in to dinner, and Mary was so full of the thought of going to the town with mamma, that at first she sat with her spoon and fork in her hands, looking at her plate without eating at all.
“Why don’t you eat your dinner, Mary?” said Leigh.
“My nungryness has gone away with thinking of going out with mamma and buyin’ such lotses of things,” said Mary.
“How silly you are!” said Leigh. “Why, when I’ve something nice to think of, it makes me all the hungrier! If you don’t eat your dinner, I don’t believe mamma will take you.”
“Yes, Miss Mary, you must eat it,” said nurse. ”

“ Mamma took Mary into a large room which was all glass at the front, and was quite filled with pony-carriages. They did look so shiny and nice—some of them were wicker, and some were made of wood like big carriages. Mary would have liked to get into them all, one after the other, to see which was the most comfortable, and she could not help thinking how very nice it would be to be a pony-carriage man’s little girl. What lovely games she and Leigh and Artie could have in this big room! It would be even nicer than having a draper’s shop. ”

“ But I can’t think how Mrs Nurse could a’ let you do such a thing.”
“Nurse is ill; at least she’s hurt her leg,” said Leigh. “It’s Emma that’s with us.”
“Then she oughter be ashamed of herself,” exclaimed Janie, as if she was nineteen and Emma ten, instead of the other way about. “What’s the good of a big person to look after children if she’s as silly as them. I beg your parding, Master Leigh, but this ’ere precious baby’s had a narrer escape, and no mistake.” ”

“ Mary was quite sure that the baby understood all she said to her, and I do not think she would have been very surprised any day if Dolly had begun to talk.
“Why can’t she talk, mamma?” she asked her mother one morning.
“No little baby learns to do everything at once,” mamma answered. “She has to learn to walk and run and use her little hands the way you do. Just think what a lot of things babies have to learn; you must have patience.” ”

“ Very often it is not till children are quite big that they can tell their own thoughts, looking back upon them. And Mary did not know that she was going up the hill of knowing already, a little bit at a time, just as she fancied she would like to go.
Mary felt glad when she had settled it in her mind that it could not be a mistake about her birthday coming on a Thursday, and she lay quite still, watching the sunshine. It had got on to her bed by now, and it made all sorts of nice things on the counterpane. ”

“ But I must hurry on to see poor baby as quickly as possible. Come back to the house now, for it is too cold for you to be standing about, and as soon as I can I will let you know how your little sister is. All you can do now is to be as good as possible, and give no trouble while she is ill, even if your mamma and nurse cannot be with you at all.”
With these words he sprang up into his dogcart again and drove off quickly to the house, the children gazing after him.
Then Mary burst into a sad fit of crying again. “Oh Leigh! Oh Artie!” she said. “Does you think Baby Dolly’s going to die?” ”

“ Everything’s been so strange to-day. It’s Saturday, Mary. He doesn’t come on Saturdays. You shan’t go out with Emma if you don’t want. She’s a untrue bad girl; it’s a good deal her fault, though she’s not been half so wicked as me.”
“You’ve not been wicked, dear Leigh. You didn’t mean any harm,” sobbed Mary.
“And we’ve all been naughty for not telling,” added Artie.
“Oh, but what are we to do?” cried Leigh again. “The doctor’ll be coming and he won’t know, and p’raps he’ll give Dolly the wrong medicines with not knowing, and baby will get worser and worser. Oh, what shall we do?” ”

“ Mary’s face cleared at this.
“Oh, yes,” she said, “I ’amember. Does everybody’s teeth come like that? Doesn’t any babies have them all ready?”
“No,” said nurse; “why, even the Perrys’ baby that’s more than a year old hasn’t got all its teeth yet, and it can’t say many words. Don’t you trouble, Miss Mary, the teeth and the talking will come all right. There now,” as little Dolly looked up with a crow in nurse’s smiling face, “Miss Baby knows all about it, you see!”
Mary put her arms round baby and gave her another big hug. ”

“ Really, it was rather a wonder that she was not spoilt.
“My pet,” he said, “there is truly nothing to cry about. The puppy—what is it you call him, Fudge or Fuss—”
Mary could not help laughing a little. Fancy calling a puppy “Fudge.”
“No, papa dear; Fuzzy—that’s what we was going to call him.”
“Well, darling, Fuzzy shall be your very own. You shall go to see him in the stables whenever you like; I’ll tell Mellor. And he will go out walks with you—the puppy, I mean, not Mellor—as soon as ever he has learnt to follow.” This made Mary laugh again. ”

“ Mary’s face fell. She was frightened of the dog, you know, when nurse was not there for her to walk beside, for Emma only laughed at her. “I wiss poor Fuzzy wasn’t coming,” she said. “Rubbish,” said Leigh, and then he said more kindly, “You needn’t be frightened of him, Mary, you’ll see. He can’t knock you down to-day;” and then, as he ran off, he cried back to Emma, “If I don’t catch you up in the drive, turn to the right. We’re going round by the smithy and the Lavender Cottages—it’s the best road for the p’ram-bilator.” ”

“ And mamma and nurse are shut up in the night-nursery with baby, not to be disturbed by nobody,” said Leigh, forgetting his grammar in his distress. “I saw Emma, but she’s no good, she’d only tell stories to keep herself from being scolded. But I do think she looks frightened about baby. Oh dear, what shall I do? Darling Baby Dolly, and it’s all my fault. I see it now;” and Leigh flung himself on to the floor and burst out sobbing again.
“Leigh, Leigh, poor Leigh,” said Mary and Artie together. ”

“ Mary’s face grew very grave.
“I never thought of that,” she said solemnly. “It would be dedful for dear little baby Dolly to be hurted, though I’m kite sure Fuzzy wouldn’t mean it.”
“But when Dolly’s a good bit bigger, and when Fuzzy is quite a trained dog, he may come into the house sometimes, mayn’t he?” said Leigh.
“At Auntie Maud’s,” said Artie, “there’s free dogs always lying in the hall. They get up and come and sniff you when you go in. When I was a little boy I was frightened of them, but they never bit me.” ”

“ You often see pictures of it in children’s books; there are such pretty stories about the good dogs and the kind monks who live there.”
“Can you teach any dogs to do things like that?” asked Leigh.
“No; they have to be a particular kind,” answered papa; “but a dog like your puppy can be taught to fetch anything out of the water, from a bit of stick to a baby. He’s what you call a retriever: that means fetching or finding something. You can teach a good retriever almost anything.”
“I thought so,” said Leigh, nodding his head wisely. “I’ll see what I can’t teach Fuzzy.” ”

“ You see the newest things are at the front, that’s how we can remember things that have just happened and not things long ago.”
“No,” said Artie, “’tisn’t quite like that, Leigh. For I can remember what we had for dinner on my birthday, and that was very long ago, before last winter, much better than what we had for dinner one day last week.”
“I can tell you how that is,” said nurse, “what you had for dinner on your birthday made a mark on your mind because it was your birthday. Everything makes marks on our minds, I suppose, but some go deeper than others. ”

“ So of course I didn’t wake her.”
“Is she ill?” asked Leigh; and both he, and Mary and Artie, looked at nurse so anxiously that she felt sorry for them.
“I hope not,” she said. “I hope she’ll be all right when she wakes up. The best and strongest of babies have their little turns. Don’t look so troubled, my dears.”
Just then Emma, who had had her breakfast before, came into the room, and was crossing to the door which led into the night-nursery, when she was stopped.
“I’ll tidy the room myself this morning, Emma,” said nurse. “I don’t want any one to go in. Miss Dolly’s not very well.” ”

“ She saw that Mary was too little quite to understand.
“See if I can’t help you,” she said. “What would you like best of anything? Don’t you think a doll that could learn to speak and love you and play with you would be a nice birthday present?”
Artie and Mary looked puzzled. They had to think about it. But Leigh was quicker.
“Why, nurse,” he said, “a doll like that would be a living—oh nurse, I do believe—” but just as he was going to say more there came a tap at the door, and Robert, the footman, came in. ”

“ Poor nurse was very sorry. But she knew it would not do to be too sorry for Mary, for then she would go on crying. And once Mary got into a long cry it sometimes went on to be a very long one indeed. So nurse spoke to her quite brightly.
“My dearie,” she said, “you mustn’t cry on your birthday morning. It’s quite a mistake. Look up, dear. See, the sun’s coming out so beautiful again, and we’ll have Master Leigh and Master Artie calling for their breakfast. And you’ll have to be quick, for your papa gave me a message to say you were to go down to see him in the dining-room.” ”

“ That reminds me of Mary’s present from her father and mother, which, as I told you, was a doll’s perambulator. It was a great amusement to them all, not only to Mary. You have no idea what a lot of fun you can get out of a doll’s perambulator. It was not only the dolls that went drives in it; the children tried several other things which did not succeed very well. The kitten for one did not like it at all. Leigh caught it one day, when there was no one else to take a drive, for the dolls had all got very bad colds, and Doctor Artie had said that they must on no account go out. ”

“ Mary put up her little hand and stroked her mother’s forehead, on which some little curls of pretty brown were falling.
“Mamma dear,” she said, “your hair isn’t very tidy. Shall I call Larkin to brush it smoove?” and she began to scramble off the bed to go to fetch the maid.
“What a little fidget you are,” said her mother. “Never mind about my hair. I want you to tell me what you think of your little sister.”
“I think her sweet,” said Mary. “And her curls is somefin like yours, mamma. But Leigh says hers like little ducks, and Artie says hers like a pink monkey.” ”

“ Nothing but a sort of fluff of blue skirts and sash and white muslin pinafore and shaggy hair, with here and there a shoe or a little pink hand sticking out, was to be seen. Robert sprang forwards, meaning to be extra polite and set Miss Mary right side uppermost again, but in some mysterious way she managed to get on her feet by herself.
“No, zank you, Robert,” she said with dignity, as she stood there with a rather red face, smoothing down her pinafore. “I can get down alone.”
“Miss Mary, my dear,” said nurse. “I’m always telling you to ask me to lift you down. ”

“ Artie and Mary trotted along very peacefully, and now and then, when the road was smooth, Emma let them push baby for a little bit, and baby cooed and crowed when they talked to her. They went near the Perrys’ cottage and they met all the children—Janie as usual carrying the baby, Comfort pushing the old wicker carriage with the two other babies, and staring away at the open book in her hand at the same time, so that Janie had to keep calling out every minute or two to warn her where she was going. Ned was not with them, that was the only difference. ”