Nannie

“ Then stooping down and kissing Nannie, he said, "I know one good girl that isn't sick."
The sun was just setting, leaving about half its great face to light the world.
In Jack's heart the sun was just rising.
Nannie's words kept sounding in his ears,—"Perhaps, perhaps they have received in this life their good things;" and those other words, "Therefore he is comforted, and thou art tormented."
CHAPTER VII. "THE LAMB IS THE LIGHT THEREOF."
annie, Nannie,—where's Nannie?" ”

“ If wishes would make any one good, Nannie would have been very good long before this time. "At anyrate," said Nannie, as she emptied the weeds into the ash-heap, "I will try. Father says there are weeds in our hearts, and we can pull them up. I mean to try."
We shall see in the next chapter how Nannie succeeds in pulling up the weeds.
CHAPTER II. "IF THY BROTHER SIN AGAINST THEE,
FORGIVE HIM."
ne bright sunshiny day, just when the snow had commenced melting, the children started in high glee to take advantage of its softened state to make a snow-man. ”

“ Nannie is an awfully nice girl,—I don't know what we'd do without her; since mamma died, she's all the time looking after us children, and making things go smoothly. She doesn't "boss" us a bit, and yet, somehow, she gets us to do lots of things. ”

“ Lift the latch quietly, though, for there is grief in the room, and noise comes harshly and gratingly upon a sorrowing ear. Nannie can not look up to greet you, neither can her mother welcome you now, though your silent presence may be grateful to them both. Winnie does not spring up in her cradle, with her merry laugh, and stretch out her little hands toward you. She will not twine her wee fingers in your yellow locks any more, nor try to pick the big moles off your hard hands. She is lying very still upon her soft pillow. ”

“ We were quiet for a moment or two,—that was dear mamma's name,—then Phil began again: "The nurse that's coming is a woman, and very efficient, I believe. Of course she'll have to have a certain amount of rest every day, and at those times somebody will have to take her place; so I'm going to try to be home early afternoons,—Nannie can't do everything, you know,—and sit with the pater while the nurse takes her nap. ”

“ Being particularly afraid of rats, she screamed and ran for the stairs. In her hurry she stepped on the front of her dress which threw her on her face on the stairs. She [86] dropped the pan of milk which turned over and went rattlety bang to the foot of the stairs and along the cellar floor.
“Now there will be the dickens to pay!” exclaimed Billy. “That maid has made such a racket, she will bring the whole household upon us. We must hide quickly. Nannie, run under the cellar stairs and squeeze yourself in the corner as far as you can. ”

“ So to Nanny-goat she hied, and said she—
"Sister Nanny, my little ones have gone out, and I am very lonely at home. Do let one of your dear kiddies come and sleep with me, for company. Will you, please?"
"Gladly will I, sister," said honest Nanny-goat, thinking no evil of her friend. ”

“ The study of my life's to bless,
⁠and please my dear my graceful Nanny.
How much unlike my fair to those,
⁠whose wanton looks are free to any,
I'd give the world could I disclose,
⁠the fifteenth part the worth of Nanny;
Let bucks and bloods in burnt champaign,
⁠toast Lucy, Charlotte, Poll, and Fanny,
At nothing so absur'd and vain,
⁠I'd smile and clasp my blameless Nanny.
GLASGOW,
Printed by J. & M. Robertson, Saltmarket, 1802.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. ”

“ Nanny walked on in silence for about half a block—then she spoke again.
[54]
“‘Mamma—I’m afraid a great many poor children want things more than I want my beads.’
“‘I’m afraid they do, Nanny.’
“‘Mamma, will you please go back with me and let me give that little girl my red cent? wouldn’t she be pleased, mamma? would she know how to spend it?’
“‘Suppose you spend it for her, Nanny. People that are cold are often hungry too—shall we go to the baker’s and buy her something to eat?’
“‘O yes!’ said Nanny. ”

“ Whether some enterprising mess sergeant thought the day’s menu would be improved by the addition of kid pie, whether some French family lured her away to be interned in their back yard, or whether, as one might more darkly suspect, the Adjutant had something to do with the matter; nobody knows. The bare fact confronts us: Nanny has disappeared. ”

“ When that got cold Nanny changed about, and put it in the muff and the other out. As for me I was in the muff all the time; and I was just wondering to myself what kind of a person the bead-woman would prove to be, when I heard Nanny say,—
“‘Mamma! did you see that little girl on those brown steps? She had no tippet, mamma, and not even a shawl, and her feet were all tucked up in her petticoat; and——’ and Nanny’s voice faltered—‘I think she was crying. I didn’t look at her much, for it made me feel bad, but I thought so.’
“‘Mamma! ”

“ At last in her mighty effort she drew her little knees up under her, lifted her little back, and away she went, creep! creep! creep! and with a very red face and a gurgle of delight grabbed her doll and cat. Then she tumbled down on her face again. But finally she got herself turned over, and lay there on the carpet, contented.
And there she still lay, gurgling and cooing over dolly, when Mama Nan came in, and Grandma Camp. Mama Nan stared at her baby, then at the rug where the ivory rattle and pillows lay, then at Mary Ellen again. ”

“ "Oh, Kathleen!" sighed Nancy as the two went into the kitchen together. "Is n't mother the most interesting 'scolder' you ever listened to? I love to hear her do it, especially when somebody else is getting it. When it's I, I grow smaller and smaller, curling myself up like a little worm. Then when she has finished I squirm to the door and wriggle out. Other mothers say: ”

“ do they know when we are well and happy? do they know when we recall their memories with the fondest love? In the silent hour of evening the shade of my mother hovers around me; when seated in the midst of my children, I see them assembled near me, as they used to assemble near her; and then I raise my anxious eyes to heaven, and wish she could look down upon us, and witness how I fulfil the promise I made to her in her last moments, to be a mother to her children. ”

“ So delicate and faint between the quilts lay the young mother, the little Fanchon, a shining wonder still in her face, and the exquisite touch of birth on her—for when a child is born the mother also is born again. ”

“ To remove this difficulty, children are taught to look down on their nurses, to treat them as mere servants. When their task is completed the child is withdrawn or the nurse is dismissed. Her visits to her foster-child are discouraged by a cold reception. After a few years the child never sees her again. The mother expects to take her place, and to repair by her cruelty the results of her own neglect. But she is greatly mistaken; she is making an ungrateful foster-child, not an affectionate son; ”

“ at the couch where infant beauty sleeps,
Her silent watch the mournful mother keeps;
She, while the lovely babe unconscious lies,
Smiles on her slumbering child with pensive eyes,
And weaves a song of melancholy joy—
“Sleep, image of thy father, sleep, my boy:
No lingering hour of sorrow shall be thine; ”

“ Even Michael, already half asleep, knew that she was perturbed, and he asked, "Can anything harm us, mother, after the night-lights are lit?"
"Nothing, precious," she said; "they are the eyes a mother leaves behind her to guard her children." ”

“ "Mamma, what was that I heard papa saying to you this morning about his lawsuit?"
"I cannot tell you just now. Ellen, pick up that shawl and spread it over me."
"Mamma! are you cold in this warm room?"
"A little, there, that will do. Now, my daughter, let me be quiet a while don't disturb me." ”

“ Each dainty little child ran up to its mother, or aunt, or particular friend; but Molly had no one to go to. ”

“ The chief personage in the house is my mother. She settles everything. She interviews Nikolai, the cook, and orders dinner; she sends us out for walks, makes our shirts, is always nursing some baby at the breast; all day long she is bustling about the house with hurried steps. One can be naughty with her, though she is sometimes angry and punishes us.
She knows more about everything than anybody else. She knows that one must wash every day, that one must eat soup at dinner, that one must talk French, learn not to crawl about on all fours, not to put one's elbows on the table; ”

“ Ah, May, you dear, bright month, have you ever seen a child who is sitting on its mother’s knee listening to fairy stories? As long as the child is told of cruel giants and of the bitter suffering of beautiful princesses, it holds its head up and its eyes open; but if the mother begins to speak of happiness and sunshine, the little one closes its eyes and falls asleep with its head against her breast. ”

“ "My son's my son till he gets him a wife,
My daughter's my daughter all her life." ”

“ The father’s face was flushed, and he hurried through his supper, being anxious to get away from the presence of those whom he had wronged. When he had gone out, the mother again tried to soothe the children, but their father’s absence only gave them the liberty to sob aloud; their mother, fearing that he might return and hear them, bade them go out to the barn and hunt the eggs, and be good children.
“We want to go to Sunday-school and learn to be good,” said they. Every word of this went straight to the heart of the mother. The children went and did what their mother had desired ”

“ It is only in the act of nursing that a woman realizes her motherhood in visible and tangible fashion; it is a joy of every moment. ”

“ "Of course you do, child," said mother. "Families were made to cling together, and stand by each other in every circumstance of life—joy or sorrow. Of course you need your family." ”

“ The girls gave their hearts into their mother's keeping—their souls into their father's; and to both parents, who lived and labored so faithfully for them, they gave a love that grew with their growth, and bound them tenderly together by the sweetest tie which blesses life and outlives death. ”

“ Here I have been your doll-wife, just as at home I used to be papa’s doll-child. And the children, in their turn, have been my dolls. I thought it fun when you played with me, just as the children did when I played with them. ”

“ All the babies breaking things and grabbing at the cake, and each mama going home thinking about the subtle superiority of her own child to every other child there." ”

“ My dear Princess, if you could creep unseen about your City, peeping at will through the curtain-shielded windows, you would come to think that all the world was little else than a big nursery full of crying children with none to comfort them. The doll is broken: no longer it sweetly squeaks in answer to our pressure, “I love you, kiss me.” The drum lies silent with the drumstick inside; no longer do we make a brave noise in the nursery. The box of tea-things we have clumsily put our foot upon; there will be no more merry parties around the three-legged stool. ”

“ Wilt thou see her? And in this sweet word [it was] as if He had said: I wot well that thou wouldst see my blessed Mother: for, after myself, she is the highest joy that I might shew thee, and most pleasance and worship to me; and most she is desired to be seen of my blessed creatures. And for the high, marvellous, singular love that He hath to this sweet Maiden, His blessed Mother, our Lady Saint Mary, He shewed her highly rejoicing, as by the meaning of these sweet words; as if He said: ”

“ O mother, mother, save your unhappy son! Let a tear fall on his aching head! See how they torture him! Press the poor orphan to your bosom! He has no rest in this world; they hunt him from place to place.
Mother, mother, have pity on your sick child! And do you know that the Bey of Algiers has a wart under his nose? ”

“ Let's hear the sound of the baby pianny," said Hannah, who always took a share in the family joys and sorrows. ”

“ for no matter how lost and soiled and worn-out wandering sons may be, mothers can forgive and forget every thing as they fold them in their fostering arms. Happy the son whose faith in his mother remains unchanged, and who, through all his wanderings, has kept some filial token to repay her brave and tender love. ”

“ The mother as a social servant instead of a home servant will not lack in true mother duty. ”

“ I will go back to the great sweet mother,
Mother and lover of men, the sea.
I will go down to her, I and none other,
Close with her, kiss her and mix her with me;
Cling to her, strive with her, hold her fast:
O fair white mother, in days long past
Born without sister, born without brother,
Set free my soul as thy soul is free. ”

“ And pathless was the dreary wild,
And mid the cheerless hours of night
A mother wander'd with her child:
As through the drifting snow she press'd,
The babe was sleeping on her breast. ”

“ The glorified spirit of the infant, is as a star to guide the mother to its own blissful clime. ”

“ First they ask me to tell the life of the child who is mother to the woman. Then they make me my own daughter and ask for an account of grown-up sensations. Finally I am requested to write about my dreams, and thus I become an anachronical grandmother; for it is the special privilege of old age to relate dreams. ”