Grandmamma

“ I expected him to slap me in the face with the verses and say, “You bad boy! So you have forgotten your Mamma! Take that for it!” Yet nothing of the sort happened. On the contrary, when the whole had been read, Grandmamma said, “Charming!” and kissed me on the forehead. Then our presents, together with two cambric pocket-handkerchiefs and a snuff-box engraved with Mamma’s portrait, were laid on the table attached to the great Voltairian arm-chair in which Grandmamma always sat. ”

“ Grandmamma was not at all the sort of person most children think of when they hear of a grandmother in a story. She was not old, with white hair and spectacles and always a shawl on, even in the house, and very old-fashioned in her ways. ”

“ The Marquis gave me some conseils de mariage this afternoon.
"Remain placid," he said, "fermez les yeux et pensez à autrui—après vous aurez les agréments."
Grandmamma has not even kissed me. Her eyes resemble a hawk's still, but have the look of a tortured tiger as well sometimes. She has grown terribly feeble, and has twice had fainting-fits like the one that changed my destiny. I believe she is remaining alive simply by strength of will and that she will die when all is over. ”

“ What a pious woman, indeed, must be your grandmamma, that she could suspend her joy, her long-absent darling at her feet, till she had first thanked God for restoring her to her arms! But, in this instance, we see the force of habitual piety. ”

“ They dote on their every-day grandmamma. Their natures, not yet seared and hardened by the world, understand hers; and with something of the fresh perfume of Eden about them still, they recognize instinctively those blessed souls to whom God has given to love little children. ”

“ Her third and little fingers are bent with rheumatism, but she still polishes her nails and covers the rest of her hands with mittens. You can't exactly love grandmamma, but you feel you respect her dreadfully, and it is a great honor when she is pleased. ”

“ In the afternoon, when his father had gone back to the zemstvo, and his mother was clearing up after dinner, which she said her mother was not to do while she was there, the little boy went and stood by his other grandmother’s chair.
“Mother’s-mother,” he said, “little grandmamma told me that you knew some nice stories.”
“Yes,” said mother’s-mother, “I suppose I do. They are not like your little grandmamma’s stories. The stories of this commune are different. ”

“ When both the little girls had finished their breakfast grandmamma told them to call Mary to feed the birds.
‘May I take two bits of sugar, grandmamma?’ said Beatrice.
‘You may, dear; but be careful, for parrots bite sometimes; and you are a stranger to our parrot, and he may not like you.’
The parrot would not take any notice of the children, but swung backwards and forwards in his ring. Grandmamma told the children to ask Mary to place the two cages in the verandah where the sun was shining, for it was a fine sunny day, and grandmamma said that all birds except owls liked the sun. ”

“ Gurrage and Miss Hoad (the red-haired girl is the niece) came to call.
Grandmamma was seated as usual in the old Louis XV. bergère, which is one of our household gods. It does not go with the other furniture in the room, which is a "drawing-room suite" of black and gold, upholstered with magenta, but we have covered that up as well as we can with pieces of old brocade from grandmamma's stored treasures. ”

“ Soon after, papa was ordered with his regiment to Florida, to fight the Indians, and my delicate young mother accompanied him. Her friends had never forgiven her, never seen her; and grandmamma wept when she told me what she fancied must have been my mother’s grief at leaving her home without a word of tenderness for those whom she had loved so dearly. But she went, and months passed without any tidings from her.
“At last there came a letter, telling of my birth, and then they longed to see her again. The yearning was so sore that grandmamma would have gone herself, had it been possible. ”

“ But when grandmamma comes next autumn there will be many fresh joys and surprises both for Heidi and grandmother; without doubt a proper bed will be put up in the hay-loft, for wherever grandmamma steps in, there everything is soon in right order, outside and in. ”

“ That is one of the things you can do to help mother. You can amuse and entertain grandmamma, and then when mother's leisure hours come she will find her happy and pleased, and the life between them will seem like a renewal of the old days when they were both many years younger. ”

“ What's it all for, baby?"
"Ah, Jocunda! grandmamma is angry with me all the time now. I wish I could go once more to the convent and see my dear Mother Theresa. She is angry, if I but name it; and yet she will not let me do anything here to help her, and so I don't know what to do."
"Well, at any rate, don't cry, pretty one! Your grandmamma is worked with hard thoughts. We old folks are twisted and crabbed and full of knots with disappointment and trouble, like the mulberry-trees that they keep for vines to run on. But I'll speak to her; I know her ways; she shall let you go ”

“ We have children who call you Grandmamma; you live upstairs in the big house, in what used to be Grandmamma's room. The whole house is as it was in Papa's time, and we recommence the same life, only changing our rôles. ”

“ On Christmas-eve, grandmamma is always in excellent spirits, and after employing all the children, during the day, in stoning the plums, and all that, insists, regularly every year, on uncle George coming down into the kitchen, taking off his coat, and stirring the pudding for half an hour or so, which uncle George good-humouredly does, to the vociferous delight of the children and servants. ”

“ Why on earth did I write 'like our Mother dear'? She is not here, and therefore she need never have been mentioned. True, I love and respect Grandmamma, but she is not quite the same as--Why DID I write that? ”

“ “Go, my dear, and see how thy grandmamma does, for I hear she has been very ill; carry her a custard, and this little pot of butter.” ”

“ You will live with Grandmamma, but Mamma and the girls will remain here. You know, too, I am sure, that Mamma's one consolation will be to hear that you are doing your lessons well and pleasing every one around you. ”

“ I do hope I may always act just as mother does, she is so sweet and peaceful, never cross, never worried. Now, dear grandmamma is much more easily vexed. But then she is older and she has the Van Doren headaches.
Tap, tap came the call of the ebony stick. I ran up to grandmamma's room.
CHAPTER VI. A CANDY PULL.
Of all things in the world, what should grandmamma propose but my sending for Miss Muffet! Great-aunt Jessamine had gone away long before.
"I believe it was to-day that the girls meant to have the candy pull at Jeanie's, wasn't it?" grandmamma asked. ”

“ A grandmamma,{232} talking of past days, is a delightful and adorable member of any circle, but when she laments the dangerous speed at which trains go nowadays, every one younger than she feels she does not quite understand. ”

“ Her hair’s like snow, her steps are slow,
Her figure isn’t trim;
But, oh! and, oh! I love her,
This grandmamma of mine;
I wish that she for years may be
My own dear Valentine.—Selected
Tuesday
Write three sentences about your grandmother if you have one; if not, about your mother.
Wednesday
Valentine verses, for the children to copy:
[143]
I wish I were the tiny cup,
From which you take your tea;
For every time you took a sip,
You’d give a kiss to me.
If you love me as I love you,
No knife can cut our love in two.
The rose is red,
The violet’s blue;
Pinks are pretty,
And so are you. ”

“ "That is to run the better, my child."
"Grandmamma, what great ears you have got!"
"That is to hear the better, my child." ”

“ A girl who is old enough to be engaged, is quite old enough to object to be stared at as if she was a Clock.’
‘Audacious one!’ said Mrs Wilfer. ‘Your grandmamma, if so addressed by one of her daughters, at any age, would have insisted on her retiring to a dark apartment.’
‘My grandmamma,’ returned Lavvy, folding her arms and leaning back in her chair, ‘wouldn’t have sat staring people out of countenance, I think.’
‘She would!’ said Mrs Wilfer. ”

“ If she doesn't know me, I will go just the same every day, and put her to sleep—I'll be so glad just to be with her again—I—” He stopped abruptly, and started to walk out of the room, but in the little armchair just at Grandmother's door he fell, head forward, and burst into tears more tumultuous than even Grandmamma's own. ”

“ Alice and Beatrice thanked Mrs. Laurence and Ellen for the nice bread and butter and milk; for they were very hungry, and it was their tea-time.
Mrs. Laurence gave the children a piece of white honey-comb on a plate, for their grandmamma.
‘Grandmamma has some from her own bees,’ said Alice.
112‘I know she has; but my honey has a different taste, for my bees gather their honey from Mutter’s Moor, where there is so much heath and broom, and heath honey is reckoned the best.’
‘I will ask grandmamma to give me some of hers, for hers is very good. ”

“ Mamma. You may, my love. And since baby, who did not know any better, has broken your doll's face, it shall be put among her toys for her to play with. And we will ask grandmamma to let Jessie come home with us. You have been a kind little girl ”

“ The door opens—then, after admitting the entrance of two small figures, is carefully closed again, and the two small figures, with a military salute from the boy, a bob, conscientiously intended for a curtsey, from the girl, advance a step or two into the room.
"Grandmamma," say the two high-pitched baby voices, speaking so exactly together that they sound but as one. "Grandmamma, it's 'us.'"
Still no response. Grandmamma is not indifferent—far from it—but just at this moment her netting is at a critical stage impossible to disregard ”

“ The three years I have been writing about must have passed quickly to grandmamma. They were so peaceful, and after we got to know the Nestors, much less lonely. And grandmamma says that it is quite wonderful how fast time goes once one begins to grow old. She does not seem to mind it. ”

“ The poor man works, or ought to work, with his hands, the gentleman, or the educated man, with his head; but work is ordered for all—for the queen in her palace, and for little children at school.’
59
CHAPTER VII.
SAIL TO BRANSCOMBE—HORSES CARRYING COALS.
‘ALICE and Beatrice,’ said grandmamma one morning, ‘make haste and eat a good breakfast, for we are going to spend the day at Branscombe.’
‘Branscombe! Oh, how nice, grandmamma! But how are we going? ”

“ I think that's silly myself, but it's better than being hard. Of course mamma is worth a dozen of Uncle James, but—" Beth shrugged her shoulders, then added temperately, "You know mamma has her faults, Aunt Victoria, it's no use denying it. So what good did grandmamma do by staying? She just went mad and died! If she'd gone [Pg 202] away, and lived as you do, she might have been alive and well now."
"Ah, my dear child," said the old lady sorrowfully, "that never could have been; for I have observed that no woman who marries and becomes a mother can ever again live happily like a single woman. ”

“ "Dear child, let us enjoy all the beautiful things that we can see, and not think about those that we cannot," grandmamma replied as she followed the chair which Heidi was pushing further on. ”

“ At about nine o'clock there was a certain movement in those intimate, silent, almost melancholy indoor lines and colours, when Adeline took Klaasje to bed and Constance and Adeletje helped Grandmamma upstairs: the child and the old woman at the same hour, the one never outgrowing her first childhood, the other relapsing into her second, after so well knowing the many sad things that were to come, that had come, that had already faded away, even as all life, that comes and goes, fades away in the faded pallor of the past. ”

“ Late one evening, he entered the drawing-room in his black dress-coat and white waistcoat, to take Woloda (who was still dressing in his bedroom) to a ball. Grandmamma was also in her bedroom, but had given orders that, before setting out, Woloda was to come and say goodbye to her (it was her invariable custom to inspect him before he went to a ball, and to bless him and direct him as to his behaviour) . The room where we were was lighted by a solitary lamp. Mimi and Katenka were walking up and down, and Lubotshka was playing Field's Second Concerto (Mamma's favourite piece) at the piano. ”

“ The children call her grandma, and I heard Archie explaining to the gardener’s son, the other day, that she was really his grandmother, because she was the mother of his first father!
To me the past seems all a dream, and when I look about me upon my home, and hear the voices of my children shouting on the lawn, and see their father coming up the walk, and know that he will soon be at my side, bending over me in the old, teasing, loving way, I cannot realize that I am she who once plodded so drearily through the London fog and rain, hunting for work with which to get my daily bread. ”

“ The grandmother in such homes is the real mother of the flock: the mother who bore the children has no time to manifest mother-love; it is the grandmother who nurses the stone-bruises, picks out the slivers, kisses away the sorrows, gladdens young hearts by her simple stories, and rocks in her strong, old arms the babe, as she croons and quavers a song of love and duty. ”

“ Grandmama is like a wax figure, not a muscle quivers in her large, regular, white face, surrounded by the goffered ruche of her cap. For the last two years she has not even had a piece of knitting in her hands. She sits like a symbol of peaceful old age, free from strife and worry. She speaks in the same monotonous voice, whether she expresses joy or sorrow, and she talks as slowly as if the finding of each word was an effort. ”