Auntie

“ Estcourt, after that, sent the carriage for her, but Auntie could rarely be prevailed on to accept it. She was poor in pocket and large in heart, and she tipped the coachman on such occasions half-a-crown, and half-a-crown to Auntie was a sum of money that she could ill afford to miss.
No one in the parish, rich or poor, secular or clerical, though of calling the old lady by other name than “Auntie,” yet was she aunt to no single person there, not indeed remotely connected with any. Those who wished to be so respectful called her Miss Jane, or Miss Auntie. ”

“ John, Auntie, who says we have passed from death unto life when we love the brethren? Then just as eyes which cannot see the light are called blind, mustn't it be that hearts which do not love are dead?"
"It seems to follow naturally your line of reasoning, Carol, though I cannot say the thought ever occurred to me before. There is one marked trait in all little children, they are so full of love."
"Yes, Auntie, especially darling Rosebud. She loves everyone. ”

“ There was silence for a minute round the bright fire, for Auntie had set the children thinking.
"I suppose we are all apt to be hard on someone!" ventured Rose, at last.
"Yes, I expect we are," said Aunt Ruth. "We all have our different ways of showing it, and the things that make us hard differ with each of our dispositions. But God seems to me to stand like 'a shadow of a great rock in a weary land,' with His everlasting love ready to enfold us and protect us and calm us."
"Why did you tell us this to-day, Auntie?" asked Tom. ”

“ Oh, my dear auntie, I do not see how I can live my whole life amid these people! I don’t see how you have done it and kept your beautiful poise and serenity! To be always among people whom I do not understand and whom I must guide and teach and lead on like children! ”

“ I know not whether she is in love, but she displays considerable affection for my uncle,—well, old chap, I come back to my old subject. Can you believe that a decent and high-minded woman—and they say that my auntie is such—can marry such a man just for the sake of marrying? ”

“ Auntie, who associated health with a brick-red complexion like her own, decided that he could not be a strong man. She spoke to her niece about him after dinner.
"He's chalk-white," she said.
Grace was not at all alarmed for her husband's health. "He's always like that," she said. "He's never had a day's illness. I do hope you and Gussie will like each other, Auntie. I can tell you, he's bent on pleasing you."
"He seemed agreeable," Auntie said. "Has he got nerves?" she asked.
"Nerves!" repeated Grace, opening her eyes. "Dear, no! Only like other people's. Why?" ”

“ It seemed quite incredible to him that he should ever have been able to hide under a sofa.
"But," said Auntie, critically, "I think I like you a great deal more now than I did then, if such a thing were possible, my darling." ”

“ And now come to think of it, "Auntie" had strictly forbidden her riding on top of hay carts, ever since she had read in the papers how some one had fell and broke their arm. Oh, she hoped and prayed Auntie would never find out this wretched morning's work. ”

“ I cannot rest till you come; I know and am sure you love poor old auntie, and would like to close her eyes when the hour comes; therefore, dear Willie, come without delay. Also bring with you half a pound of the snuff, the same mixture as before; they make it up at Figgs’s—get it there—not in paper, observe; in a canister, and rolled in lead, as will be poor auntie before long! Old Dobbs will have your room and bed comfortable, as usual; come by the cross coach, at eight o’clock. Tea, and anything else you like, will await you.
“Ever your fond old
“Auntie. ”

“ And we are, I think, the happiest children in the whole world, for we have not only our own dear mother, but our own dear auntie too—the auntie who was so good and kind to us when we were forlorn and misunderstood, and might so easily have got into naughty ways ”

“ She’s my aunt. I haven’t any folks ’cept her, I’m a norphan. I’m Millikins-Pillikins, my brother Hugh calls me; and the girls, too. But I’m not, really. I’m Grace Adelaide Victoria Tross-Kingdon. That’s my truly name. Nobody could call me all that, could they? Wouldn’t be time. Auntie Princie calls me just plain ‘darling’ or ‘dear.’ I’m a Minim. I don’t have to do lessons and things. I’m in the ‘kindy.’ Auntie Princie doesn’t approve of a kindergarten in this School for Young Ladies; but it’s a speriment the Board of Directioners wanted to try. Them’s the gentlemen auntie has to mind. ”

“ I shall be going down to Wales, then; I can leave you at your Auntie Margaret's, dear, before I go on to Liverpool. My plans will be unsettled——"
"You're not going to have me with you, then Uncle?"
"No, Olwen fach. For the present, not," he told her above the rustling of the papers. "I shan't require you for the work in hand for the next——Let me see, four or six months, perhaps. You will be able to go home; have a nice rest from work; help your Auntie in the house, see a little bit of your sisters and of your old friends." ”

“ She looked so changed from the well-satisfied, prosperous Auntie whom Grace had welcomed to her home two days before, that Mrs Mellish's resentment faded as she regarded her.
"You are sure you like best to travel alone?" she asked her, with anxious kindness.
Yes. Auntie preferred her own company. If a man got in at any of the stations, she said, so upset were her nerves, she would certainly be ill with the fright. ”

“ But my mother was a lady, auntie says, and I once lived in a big house with servants, and auntie was my nurse. I don’t know where it was or why I left it when mother died. Auntie does not tell me, and she is so kind, and I have forty pounds a year of my own, and maybe I shall learn a trade, or teach school in America, and some time marry respectably, but I’m not the kind of girl for a man like you to kiss and talk to.”
“Gertie, you are a brick!” came emphatically from the amused Godfrey, who felt a great desire to kiss the full lips again in his admiration of the child. ”

“ When auntie died she gave the best she had to her favorite nephew, with the understanding, of course, that I would never enter this mare in a race, and I meant to keep her for my own use, but every time I see her it reminds me of my poor, dead aunt, and I am determined to let some good man have her, but he must use her right. ”

“ He stopped, with his cheeks flaming, and Siddereticus patted his hand.
"You needn't worry yourself about that, my Fen," he said; "if she's the right sort of an Auntie, it won't make a bit of difference—in fact, she'll love you all the more." ”

“ I might have asked Auntie all about this kind of thing, of course. She has lived in New York always, and knows the ropes. You see, I’m staying with her until I go abroad in June. But, I just didn’t want to talk with her about it. I’m my own mistress, now! The moment I saw that Dancer of yours, I said to myself, ‘When I come into my own money, I shall have that man carve a piece of marble for me, and do something to elevate American art!’ And now the time is come. ”

“ Room was presently made for a wrinkled, white-wooled old auntie, blear-eyed, trembling, and thin-voiced. “Please, massa, can’t you gib me little piece ob meat?” and she laughed a low, oily gobble of a laugh, as though she thought her presuming to ask for it rather funny. “Why, auntie, I thought you were so old you didn’t eat any now?” “Bress ye, sah, I eats lots, an’ wen de cotton come, sah, I picks some for ye. Aint strong ’nuff to pick much, sah, but I picks little for ye, close to de house.” ”

“ Why, it's they who won't take any notice of me, auntie. I'm like my little dog,—a vulgar plebeian. What would they say, what would they think, if they could hear you call me Peggy?—that's as bad as Pete, isn't it?"
"I'm afraid it is;" and auntie laughed a little as she spoke.
The great summer hotel was not nearly full yet, for it was only the last of June; and as Peggy went down to luncheon, her hand closely clasped in "auntie's," whom should she meet face to face in the rather deserted-looking hall but "those girls"? ”

“ She has never been able to find the wife nor the son.”
“’Tis sad,” sighed Inna; “because she might have been so fond of the son.”
“Papa’s portrait is at Wyvern Court—that’s grand-auntie’s own place, you know. Grand-auntie says we shall be twin heiresses by-and-by.”
[p69]
“And your papa is—” here Inna flushed at her inquisitive question.
“Dead; and mamma too,” said grave-browed Olive.
“Do you like living at the farm with your uncle?” inquired sprightly Sybil.
“Yes; only I haven’t been there long—and—and a grand-uncle isn’t like a grand-auntie,” said Inna. ”

“ Morris began, "I had once a auntie—"
"Your auntie makes me sick," snapped Patrick. But Morris went on quite undisturbedly:
"I had once a auntie und she had awful kind feelings over a stylish floorwalker, und he was loving mit her. So-o-oh! They marries! Und they don't say nothings to nobody. On'y the stylish floor walker he writes on my auntie whole bunches of lovin' letters."
"She ain't married," Patrick reiterated. "She ain't."
"Well, she will be," muttered Nathan vindictively. "Und the new teacher will lick you the while you fights. It's fierce how you make me biles on my bones. ”

“ Not grannie, you know.—You mustn’t let it out.”
“I shall be careful. How is Mr Stoddart, then?”
“Not well at all. He was taken ill before you, and has been in bed and by the fireside ever since. Auntie doesn’t know what to do with him, he is so out of spirits.”
“If to-morrow is fine, I shall go and see him.”
“Thank you. I believe that’s just what auntie wanted. He won’t like it at first, I daresay. But he’ll come to, and you’ll do him good. You do everybody good you come near.”
“I wish that were true, Judy. I fear it is not. What good did I ever do you, Judy?” ”

“ And Milly ‘n’ I, we didn’t get but one tart and one piece o’ cake; for auntie had a party with ’em her own self. Do you think ’twas right when she made ’em for Milly and me?”
Here Flaxie’s eyes flashed.
“My child, we are talking of you now, not Auntie Prim.”
“Yes’m, I know it, and I’m real sorry I’m so naughty; but Auntie Prim makes me naughty.”
“Mary, Mary, you must not talk so about that good woman!”45
“Oh, I know she’s good, mamma. Why, she is the best woman in this town; she’s the best woman in the world! And she knows she’s good, and it makes her just as proud!” ”

“ Five years had passed, crowded with thought and work, and his aunt wondered whether he remembered that last request, or indeed had heard it in his sorrow.
"What are you thinking about, aunt? Are you afraid of my theology?"
"No, John, it's no that, laddie, for I ken ye 'ill say what ye believe to be true withoot fear o' man," and she hesitated.
"Come, out with it, auntie: you're my only mother now, you know," and the minister put his arm round her, "as well as the kindest, bonniest, goodest auntie ever man had." ”

“ To be married like Otto and Frances, [49] like Emilie and Van Raven: I think it dreadful. Or like you and Auntie: I should think it dreadful. Can’t you be happier together? Not even for Addie’s sake? I wish you could; it would make me so happy. I can’t bear it, when you and Auntie quarrel.... She was sweet and gentle to-night, but so very quiet. She is so nice.... That was a mad fit of hers, to go abroad so suddenly; but then she had had so much to vex her. Oh, those two old aunts: I could have murdered them! I can hear them now!... Poor Auntie! Do try and be a little nice to her.... ”

“ Father will only be away six months; he said so himself. And as for Auntie Anna, how do we know she isn’t quite a decent old lady? Some old ladies are awfully sporting. Do you remember Merton major’s aunt, Will? She used to give him whopping tips, whenever she came to see him; and he said he quite liked her!’
Christopher persisted in his gloomy view of the situation. ‘Our aunt is not the same as anybody else’s aunt,’ he said. ‘And then, there’s the adopted kid.’
‘Yes,’ admitted Peter, ‘no doubt she’ll be a trial. ”

“ TO LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS.
Once on a time there lived a little bit of a lady, who had a great many nephews and nieces. She was very little indeed, so all the children loved her, and said she was the best little Auntie in the world, and exactly the right size to play with them and tell them stories. Sometimes she told them stories about great and good men ”

“ She is got a awful auntie. Und she asks her auntie for a penny for buy hokey pokey. Und her auntie makes a mean laugh und says, 'What you think I am, anyway?' und Mamie, she tells it right out what she thinks over her auntie, like Teacher says, 'We shall all times tell what we thinks.' She lays on the bed now mit bangages on the head. It ain't [267] so awful healthy you shall tell truths on aunties."
This report also reached the rabbit ears of Isidore Cohen. And again he wondered that Miss Bailey should waste her time—and his—in folly. ”

“ It was only this morning they were saying what gay times you would have at Gore House now your cousins are at home, and that you would not think of us; but I knew better, Bertie."
"Why, Aunt Amy, I've scarcely ever spoken to my cousins: they're always out enjoying themselves; and I was longing to come here. Was it not good of Uncle Gregory to let me come, and give me such a long holiday? and look, auntie, two sovereigns for a Christmas present, and" (dragging in the hamper and parcel) "Aunt Gregory sent these—a workbox for Agnes, and a book for Eddie, and such a knife for me! ”