Daffy

“ He shot Johnny King through the middle of his wig,
And knocked it right off his head, head, head.
Three straws on a staff,
Would make a baby cry and laugh.
Multiplication is vexation,
Division is as bad;
The Rule of Three perplexes me,
And Practice drives me mad.
Daffy-down-Dilly has come up to town,
In a yellow petticoat and a green gown. ”

“ The face, however, was pink and fresh as the hands when Doris presented herself at his door with a tap and “Daffy said to knock—but it couldn’t not be me when it’s me that’s having tea with you—your room isn’t so big as ours—and who is it washes your hands, because I think it’s high time——”
“It’s charcoal—what I draw with, you know. I’ll wash it off now, this minute.”
“Someone ought to wash you when you get as black as that. You have to have a master-mind—Daffy says so—when it’s really black. I’ll call Daffy—she’ll show you what a real good washing is.” ”

“ They won’t be all dead of oldness before then, will they, Daffy?”
“Don’t.” Daphne put her hand over the child’s mouth, but the mouth wriggled itself away to shout: “You are nasty, all of you. Cats! And Uncle Harold is the cattiest cat of all!”
“Don’t cry,” said Daphne, setting the Dormouse down on the bed; “its own Daffy will come back almost directly, and you shall have all the pretty pretties to play with. Don’t cry!”
“I’m not,” said Doris, winking hard. “I’d scorn to. But you’ll come back soon. Oh, no! ”

“ What shall we do, Daffy? Can't you do something? Yes, that's it. You can fix it. See him and reassure him. Tell him anything you want. Will you?"
"I'll think it over," agreed Daphne, slowly. "It will be difficult."
When they returned to the Bungalow it was very late. Townsend Brainerd was still reading by the student lamp. He had it in mind to utter an impatient reproof at young people's remaining out until this hour, but at Daphne's warning gesture and a look at Kenneth's face he closed his book and rose. ”

“ Daffy, mind you save me enough of Nancy Dawes's ribbon for a bow for my neck, three quarters will make a very decent one, but I had rather have a yard; and Daffy, when Lawyer Grant's wife comes in to ask how much ribbon it will take to trim her bonnet, mind that you tell her a yard extra. She has all her ribbons from the city, and they are just the thing for neck-ribbons. She never will know but it is all put on her bonnet, when the bows are cut up and twisted together; she never asks no questions, there's nothing mean about Lawyer Grant's wife ”

“ Lott smote gently on his leg with the new riding-whip. He had been silent and meditative all the way hither.
A smart maidservant conducted them to the dining-room, and there, in a minute or two, they were joined by Mr. Charles. No one could have surmised from this gentleman's appearance that he was the son of the little tradesman who stood before him; nature had given the younger Mr. Daffy a tall and shapely person, and experience of life had refined his manners to an easy assurance he would never have learnt from paternal example. ”

“ The other half he went without, because he saw Daphne’s face.
“May I have her?” he asked; “you’re awfully tired, and I’ll take all sorts of care of her.”
“Yes, yes,” said Doris, “do let me, Daffy.”
“It’s very kind of you,” said Daphne—“a little washing first, perhaps. London does come off on you so. I’ll send her down in a minute.”
“Only paws, Daffy,” he heard the stipulation as he got his length down through the trap door, “not faces. Faces isn’t fair more than three times in one day.” ”

“ Dat’s de way she used to speak to poor Daph.”
“Dear Daffy,” said Louise, bursting into tears, “I do not mean to be ever naughty to you again. Indeed, I am very, very sorry. I am going to be one of the Lord Jesus’ little children now, and you know he was always kind and gentle.”
[Pg 187] “Now de great Lord be praised!” said Daph, as she sank down quite overcome. “Daph do be too full of joy, to hear dose words from her own little dear. De Lord help her, and bring her to his beautiful home!” ”

“ You always do understand!" cried Daphne, casting herself upon him.
"She used to do this when she was a child," Brainerd explained to Kenneth over her shoulder, "and she doesn't know that she has grown. She hits you with all the lightsome abandon of a three-ton steam roller. And I'm hanged if I understand! But what matters that? Do I gather this is what you might call a secret, a clandestine wedding? Nobody to know? Not even the Colonel? It will break the Colonel's heart not to be at your wedding, Daffy." ”

“ For mercy's sake, didn't you have Rose to help you? You make such a fuss about being tired."
"It took about all Rose's time to wait on you," answered Daffy.
"That's a good one!" exclaimed Dolly; "all on earth I wanted was to be kept quiet, take my medicines, and have a little gruel now and then. You can't make me believe that."
"It takes a great many steps to do even that," said Daffy, meekly; "but you are weak yet, Dolly, and a little thing troubles you."
"Do you mean to tell me that sickness has injured my mind?" said the incensed milliner ”

“ Daffy-Down-Dilly
is quite a tall girl, standing eighteen inches high in her heel-less shoes (Fig. 145) . Her head, shown in Fig. 138, measures three inches from top to chin; this does not include the swirl of hair which rises in a peak above the head. Her hands, A (Fig. 144) , are two and a quarter inches long from wrist to tip of middle finger, and her feet, B (Fig. 144) , are two and three-quarter inches long.
Fig. 145—Daffy-down-dilly.
These are the proportions. Of course, for a smaller doll they should be smaller. ”

“ The house was comfortably furnished, the room she shared with Doris had none of the chill shabbiness of that lodging-house room. But the atmosphere almost choked her. It was like a prison, she thought.
“Nasty, nasty house,” said the Dormouse, as her hands were being washed. “Nasty aunts, nasty uncle. Daffy, let’s elope or go back to school.”
“I wish we could,” said Daphne’s heart. But Daphne said: “It will be all right when we’re used to it, my Dormouse. You see if it isn’t.”
“Cousin Jane may be,” said the Dormouse, “but not Aunt Emily. She’d never be nice, however used to her you got.” ”

“ Daph resisted stoutly when Louise first proposed to dress herself, and began by degrees to take some care of Charlie. “But,” thought the poor negro, “Daph may die some day, and the sweet little mistress do be right; she must learn to help herself a little, for nobody knows what may happen.”
“Here Daffy, I have made this for you all myself!” said Louise, joyfully, as she held up the apron, which after many days of secret toil she had completed.
“For Daph, Miss Lou! and all made [Pg 186] with those dear little hands. Now Daph do feel proud!” and tears filled the eyes of the honest creature. ”

“ And I can’t leave you here alone.”
“Yes, you can,” said Doris, eagerly. “I’ll play at being a mouse—not a dor one. I’ll be as good as anything. You go, my Daffy-down-dilly, my lovally lily, and get the boxes. Only go now, so as you get back before dark.”
And Daphne went, though with some misgivings. The trains were tiresome, the hour late, and the soft summer twilight was thick in the streets, where already the lamps were lighted, when the cabman, staggering under the biggest of the boxes, went before Daphne up the stairs to the trap door. ”

“ I hope her husband will call to settle the bill. Daffy, don't it make you laugh to see what a fuss widowers make trying to grieve for their wives? It is ridikilis! Mr. Sharp isn't a bad man to look at. How many children has he, Daffy?"
"Ten," said Daffy.
"Couldn't stand it," said Dolly. "Rose is enough of a pill for me. I shall certainly refuse him."
[Pg 90]
CHAPTER XV.
"Good afternoon, Dolly," said one of her neighbors, coming into the back room, and tossing off her shawl, which served the double purpose of cloak and bonnet. "Who is that pretty girl you have there in the shop?" ”

“ His method of coming to the issue of that problem-151- was entirely original. He presented himself next afternoon with the air of an invited guest, drove Mr. Pope who was suffering from liver, to expostulatory sulking in the study, and expressed a passionate craving for golf-croquet, in spite of Mrs. Pope's extreme solicitude for his still bandaged ankle. He was partnered with Daffy, and for a long time he sought speech with Marjorie in vain. At last he was isolated in a corner of the lawn, and with the thinnest pretence of inadvertence, in spite of Daffy's despairing cry of "She plays next!" ”

“ It was as well that she did, for as she spoke Doris, hastily swallowing an incredibly large mouthful of cake, said:
“They aren’t any old friend’s drawings. They’re Daffy’s very own—and they’re perfectly beautiful. So there.”
“I’m sorry,” said the man, “that I said they were rubbish. But they are.”
Daphne recognised the voice of truth.
“But if I were to study?” she said, a new note of respect in her voice, “to study very hard?”
“You really want to know? Well, I’m afraid you’d never do the least bit of good if you studied from now till Doomsday. They’re no good at all. ”

“ Perhaps I might find an active partner. But I am afraid of how it would work out. I'm getting a little old and tired, and I dislike the thought of fighting another man's ideas. Still, it would be a sensible way out, I suppose. But, Daffy dear, I am an old man; and lately all my hopes have been centred on two things. As long as I lived I wanted to keep the old ranch together just as it has always been, as your Aunt Allie and I lived in it and loved it in the old days. I feel that I want to keep the place for Aunt Allie as long as she needs it."
Daphne, puzzled at this speech, looked at him. ”

“ John Meigs should come in after that new bonnet of hern? It don't look well."
[Pg 66]
Dolly appreciated that argument, and Daffy had permission to carry her out of sight, into a back sitting-room, on the same floor.
"She does it remarkable, if she is making believe," soliloquized Daffy, as she laid Rose on the bed; "and she is pretty, too, I can say it now Dolly isn't round, pretty as a waxen doll, and not much heavier; she is not fit for hard work anyhow, with those bit-fingers. I shouldn't wonder if Dolly is too hard on the child, but I daren't say so. ”

“ Almost before she saw it she heard, and the door was open, its handle in her hand.
“Oh, here she is!” cried Doris’s little voice, and Doris’s arms and legs were curled round her sister. “Oh, Daffy, I thought you was never coming and——”
“It’s all right,” said Daphne to the cabman. “Thank you a thousand times. I hope if ever you’re in trouble someone will be as kind to you as you’ve been to me. Good night.” She got a hand free from Doris and held it out. ”

“ She was young, and, all said and done, a picnic was a picnic.
“Be a dormouse with all the pillows, while Daffy gets dressed,” she urged, springing up.
“All the blankets and sheets too,” said Doris. “I’ll be a dormouse that’s made itself a nest inside of a giant’s pin-cushion—but it’s all pinny inside so you can’t ’spect the dormouse to be quiet very long:, because whenever it sneezes the pins bite it.” ”

“ Daffy stooped near to Rose, ostensibly to pick up a spool of thread, but in fact to whisper, "Never you mind, Rose; it is always the darkest just before day."
A few weeks of returning health and successful bonnet-making made the amiable Dolly a little more [Pg 104] endurable to every body but our heroine; for she had settled it in her mind that scant fare and harsh treatment were the only means to keep Maria's child where she should be. ”

“ In the Postboy, Jan. 1, 1707-8, is the following curious advertisement:—"Daffey's famous Elixir Salutis by Catherine Daffey, daughter [Pg 174] of Mr. Thomas Daffy, late rector of Redmile, in the valley of Belvoir, who imparted it to his kinsman, Mr. Anthony Daffy, who published the same to the benefit of the community and his own great advantage. The original receipt is now in my possession, left to me by my father. My own brother, Mr. Daniel Daffy, apothecary in Nottingham, made the Elixir from the said receipt, and sold it there during his life. Those who know it, will believe what I declare ”

“ Colombe asked. “My dear, do. We shall have the time of our lives. New-mown hay, new-laid eggs and honey and cream and pigs and motors and tennis. You will come, won’t you—you and Doris?”
“I do like new-laid hay,” said Doris reproachfully. “You know I do, Daffy.”
“If I can,” said Daphne, and flushed a little at the lie; “but there’s Cousin Jane. I can’t leave her alone in London, like Jessica, or whoever it was, can I?”
“Well, anyhow you’ll come today, to see the house?”
“I can’t,” said Daphne, falsely. ”

“ Why, Mrs. Bond gets all hers and her children's aprons out of the silk, and de-laine, and thibet-cloth that ladies bring her for dresses; it is all right enough. We must take it out some way, when ladies beat us down to the lowest possible price for work; talk to me about its not being right—'self-preservation is the first law of natur,' as the Bible says."
[Pg 93]
Daffy did not dispute the questionable authority of the quotation, but rolling the responsibility of the anticipated sin she had assumed, off on Dolly's broad shoulders, proceeded to do her bidding. ”

“ She was here, free—with Doris. The door that had money on the other side would open if she pushed hard enough. She straightened her shoulders and threw back her head and set her face sternly, a little fiercely.
“What are you going to do?” the child asked anxiously through a mug of milk—“not go and tell aunts what you think they are? Don’t let’s, Daffy.”
Daphne laughed and began to clear away the breakfast things. There was plenty to do—the bed to make, the furniture to arrange, the room to sweep. ”