active 19th century Lady

“ Emily.—“Now, mama, pray keep your promise; the fire is burning brightly, and here are our little stools, and a chair for you, and we are quite in the humour for being reminded of the golden-crested wrens; besides, I want something to make me forget poor Clara—her story has made me quite sad.” ”

“ Emily.—“O mama, what must poor Clara have felt when she heard all this! And did she not run into the room and kneel to her papa and mama, and entreat them not to send her away from them, and promise to be the very best little girl in all the world if they would but let her stay; and did she not keep her promise, and were not she and her mama happy ever afterwards? But O the black frock!”
“You shall hear, my Emmie. Clara did [Pg 49] nothing of all that you suppose. She saw that her papa would not believe her promises, and her conscience told her that he was right. ”

“ Many were the silver coins which were grasped in the old gipsy’s hand that day. With the cunning of her tribe, she knew how to adapt her language to the temper of each party that she addressed. To the young and trifling she presented herself as a shrewd and flattering fortune-teller; to the old and grave, as a starving beggar, with an orphan grand-child depending on her for support ”

“ Lady Aubrey changed colour—‘Are you sure there are no others lurking near the house?’
“‘I have seen none, my lady.’
“‘Well, let her come,’ said Lady Aubrey: ‘but do you, Andrews, stay near.’ The old man soon returned, followed by the slight and almost shadowy form of the gipsy girl. The next instant Julia had sprung to her neck. Keziah looked timidly towards Lady Aubrey as if doubting whether she might venture to return the grateful child’s caresses; but the moist eyes and kindly smile that met her glance encouraged her, and kissing Julia’s forehead and hands, she burst into a flood of tears. ”

“ Glanville could now only shake her head distrustfully, and say, ‘God grant it, my poor child! you are laying up misery for yourself, which will, I fear, last longer than that you are causing me. O Clara! you will often think of these things!’ Clara did not know all that her mama meant, but she felt that she had been cruel and perverse, and no doubt determined sincerely at the moment, that she would never vex her mama again ”

“ At other times they would watch together the parent squirrels climbing over their nest, followed by their young ones, to be carefully practised in balancing their feeble limbs on the waving branches of the firs, and, their daily exercise over, to be led back to rest and shelter; often too the young gipsy would teach her little favourite to plat baskets of rushes and variously tinted mosses. At these times, Keziah’s promise was more than kept: Julia was ‘comforted,’ and not unhappy ”

“ Clara paused for a moment at her door—she thought she heard her sigh, but she was not sure; so she passed on, saying to herself, ‘When I come back I may kiss her, and be certain that I hear her voice, and I [Pg 52] will ask her forgiveness, and will show her that I can keep my promise, and I will make her happy!’ Comforted by this thought, Clara tripped on with a lighter heart and step. She found her papa waiting to lift her into the carriage. ‘God bless you, my child! you were a good girl not to wake your mama, she has had a sadly disturbed night.—O Clara! try to please her when you come home ”

“ Well then, one day soon after your squirrel had escaped from his cage, we were standing under a fir-tree, watching the little fellow as he was scraping the fir-apples with his teeth, and sending down showers of the outside shell upon our heads. All at once we heard the quick [Pg 56] soft chirp, scarcely louder than a grasshopper’s, which you had learned to know so well, and looking up, we saw a pair of golden-crested wrens pop into a snug little nest, which hung from the twig of a cedar close by. ”

“ Be a good girl whilst you are absent, and try to be good when you return home. Wish your mama good-bye—she is not allowed to be disturbed as early as you must set off.’
“Clara said not one word—she received her papa’s kiss with downcast eyes, stood still for a moment, and then sprung to her mama, buried her head in her bosom, raised her little face with her eyes shut to restrain her bursting tears, received her mama’s fond kiss on her quivering lips, and then ran out of the room. ”

“ Perhaps, when we were once separated, she might remember all the pain she has given me; and as she would not have an opportunity of breaking her resolutions when they were only just formed, they might acquire strength, and she might return to be once more a comfort to me. I think she loves me, though her strange perverseness makes her often give me such bitter pain. ”

“ At last you turned round, and said, ‘Mama, how dearly the little birds must love God!—they fly up in the sky so often to see him. Emmie wishes she was a little bird too.’”
[Pg 10]
THE FIRST RIPE STRAWBERRY.
“Now, Emily and Edwin, bring your little stools close by me, and Charlie shall climb into my lap, and we will have a good gossip over this bright fire.”
Emily.—“O that will be so nice, mama! I do love a gossip; and what shall we talk about?”
Edwin.—“Let us talk about next summer; I am so fond of next summer, because then there will be fruit and flowers and young birds.” ”

“ Caroline cast a beseeching look on the [Pg 33] blushing, hesitating Ellen. “Papa,” said she, timidly, “I think I could remember a few notes.”—“Well, you may at least try,” said her papa; and as he took the key from the drawer in which it had so long lain useless, Ellen once more heard it turn in the lock of the pianoforte, and heard also once again the sigh which accompanied the action, but with feelings how different from her former ones! ”

“ The prospect of the races had drawn the gipsies to the spot. The number of the idle and the thoughtless which such a scene attracts, the pauses between the heats, to relieve the tediousness of which any amusement of the moment is eagerly caught at, promised a rich harvest to the tribe of whom fortune-telling was one of the most profitable callings. ‘I must have the loan of your puppet for the day, Keziah,’ said the old woman on the first morning of the races; ‘a pretty face at one’s back pays well on a race-course.’
“Keziah and Julia exchanged sorrowful looks ”

“ A great horrid hornet came rushing over our heads, pounced upon it, carried it away in its frightful arms, settled upon a laurel leaf just by, and began to devour it with a crackling noise, till Emmie threw her basket at it, and then it soared in the air, and carried the poor bee off far over our heads to some tall tree, where I dare say it eat it up, honey and all, in a minute.”
Emily.—“Now, mama, it is your turn, [Pg 17] and I am sure you must have a great deal to remind us of, for you were quite as much interested about the young birds as we were.” ”

“ Out sprung naughty pussy from the shrubbery where she had been watching, and we could scarcely pick [Pg 57] them up quick enough to save them from her claws. Poor little things! we did not mean to hurry you out of your nice soft nest; we only wished to have one peep at your pretty bead-like eyes, your funny chuffy faces, and your little green bodies, not an inch long.”
“But now, mama,” said Edwin, “we were obliged to save them from that savage pussy,”—“we were; so we took them into the house and put them in the canary’s cage—but ah! ”

“ All at once, she loosed her hands from those of her companions, drew a deep breath, whilst her forehead and neck became flushed with crimson, stood one moment irresolute, and then exclaiming, ‘There are none of them here, and you all look as if you might be my own mama’s friends!’ ran to Mrs. Carleton, and first burying her face in her lap, and then raising it, and looking beseechingly in her face, added, ‘You would not be afraid of the gipsies if they were [Pg 92] to come, would you?—There are so many of you!—You will not let them have me, will you? ”

“ She paused behind the open door, for she had not quite brought down her stubborn spirit to own her fault, and to beg her mama’s pardon. At this moment, her papa came into her mama’s room, and she could not help hearing the conversation which passed between them.
“‘What has happened to distress you, my love?’ said her papa; ‘I know Clara has been wearing you out by her perverseness. You will never regain your strength while that child gives you such perpetual vexation. Do pray consent to her going from home ”

“ I shall not be able to speak to him civilly, or to look at him with common patience—But, Ellen, could you not play still?”—“O Caroline! how can I before a stranger?—You know I shall be quite sure to cry; and” added she, her sweet eyes filling with tears, “I should not wonder if my dear papa cried too.”
[Pg 31]
The little girls were now interrupted by the entrance of the two gentlemen. During tea, the conversation turned on the general’s new house. “Have you completed the furnishing it?” asked Colonel Ross. “There is only one thing I believe materially wanting ”

“ A year has passed away, and the warm-hearted General Malcolm is no more. His landed property has descended to a distant relation, but his will contained a bequest of the sum of ten thousand pounds to “Ellen Ross, as a token of affectionate admiration, and to enable her to increase the comforts of her beloved father.”
[Pg 35]
THE YOUNG BIRDS.
“Mama,” said Emily, “I was so much interested in the story of Ellen Ross, that I quite forgot to claim your promise of telling us all you remember about the young birds of last summer ”

“ Emily.—“And it would indeed have been silly to have minded, for the next day there was one for each of us, and the day after a great many; and the day after that, mama let us fill our little basket to surprise old nurse with a treat at our tea-time.—O when will it be summer again?”
Edwin.—“It will be Charles’s turn to [Pg 13] be feasted now instead of me; for, poor little boy, he only knows about oranges and figs and sweetmeats, and perhaps remembers a very little about grapes and peaches and morella cherries.” ”

“ I have some little children who are fond of listening to me while I tell them stories; but I always find, that when they are very much pleased with one, they ask these questions: “Is it all true, mama? ”

“ If she gets well, thou canst make her pick sticks for thee to feed the fires, and she will be some company for thee, and may be, hinder thee from getting so [Pg 77] mopish as thou hast done of late, by being left so much alone.’
“Keziah received her charge most gladly, and from that hour Julia was carried on the young gipsy’s back by day, and folded in her arms, with her cloak wrapped closely round her, by night. To guard her little charge from fresh cold, Keziah spread a tent each night, under which they slept. ”

“ Now I cannot help fancying that other little boys and girls may have the [Pg 4] same love for true stories that mine have; so I think I will write some and try. Would you then like to hear about some real children who are now alive, and at the moment you read of them, most likely either playing or learning their lessons, either good or naughty, just as they are going to be described to you? You would.—Well then, Emily, Edwin, and Charles, are my children, and I will make you know them as well as if they were your own playfellows ”

“ It requires too great a sacrifice of time, unless there is a certainty of success.”—“I should not have thought that your daughter disliked music,” said General Malcolm, almost unconsciously glancing at the picture of her mother, whose talent had so often charmed him ”

“ The drawing was full of taste, and the kiss full of affection with which it was received, and Colonel Ross left the room to write an acceptance of General Malcolm’s offered visit.
The afternoon came, and with it General Malcolm. Ellen presided at the dinner-table in compliment to the day, and then retired to the drawing-room to await her young friend’s arrival.
“Poor Caroline!” thought she, “how disappointed she will be! I cannot expect [Pg 30] she will be comforted as completely as I am, when I tell her how very, very much dear papa seems to enjoy having his old friend with him. But, ah! ”

“ Carleton. It was written in pencil, and from her daughter Emma. ‘Dear mama,’ she wrote, ‘all of us, and our governess too, feel quite certain that the poor child you have brought home did not really belong to the old gipsy, but had been stolen. We judge from her [Pg 90] whole manner, and the things we find, that she has been taught ”

“ Carleton’s carriage: one of them made a desperate plunge, and in an instant the old gipsy was trampled beneath its feet. A scream of horror burst from Mrs. Carleton’s lips, whilst all the young men instantly dismounted and crowded round the unfortunate gipsy. ‘Is she killed? O tell me! Is the child injured?—Do speak,’ continued Mrs. Carleton.
“‘The old woman is certainly stunned, [Pg 86] and I fear her forehead has been severely kicked. The child is not hurt ”

“ The nurse looked perplexed; she had many directions to give, and this was an office of which she was particularly fond.
“‘O do trust me, nurse, while you go in,’ said Julia eagerly; ‘the beach is [Pg 68] very wide here, and I promise I will not go near the edge ”