"Very likely," said the parson. And then the baby came in, crowing and chuckling, and claiming his privileges, such as sitting in a high chair and feeding the cat, and mamma had enough to do to keep the merry fellow in order, or his fat little hands would have grasped all the silver, and pulled over the gla.s.ses.
After dinner, while the parson let the baby twist his whiskers or creep about his knees, mamma played some lovely German music, and Aunt Ellen crocheted. The short afternoon grew dusky. Baby went off to the nursery; the parson had lighted his cigar, and was going out for a walk, but mamma looked so anxious that he said,
"I will go look for the children, Kate."
"Really, I think you will have to give Rob a little scolding, my dear.
He should have told us where he was going."
"Yes, I suppose so," said the parson; when just then there was a gleeful cry--a merry chorus made up of Rob"s, Bertha"s, and Jip"s voices, and there they were, Bertha on the sled, and Rob was her horse.
"Where have you been, my son?" said the parson, trying to be severe.
"You should not have gone off in this manner for the whole day without asking permission."
Rob"s bright smile faded a little; but Bertha said, quickly, "Please, papa, don"t scold Rob. If you only knew--"
"Hush, Bertha!" said Rob; and red as his cheeks were, they grew redder.
"I am sorry you are offended, sir. I did not mean to be so long. We were detained."
"What detained you?"
"And where did you get your dinner?" asked mamma.
"Oh, we had plenty to eat."
"But you don"t intend us to know where you got it?"
"No, sir," said Rob, frankly.
"Now, papa, you _shall_ not scold Rob," said Bertha, putting her hand in his. "Come into your study. Go away, Rob; go give Jip his supper. Come, mamma;" and Bertha dragged them both in to the fire, where, with sparkling eyes and cheeks like carnation, she began to talk: "Mamma, you remember that scrimmage Rob got into with the village boys last Fourth of July, and how hatefully they knocked him down, and how bruised his eye was for a long time?"
"Yes, I remember, and I always blamed Rob. He should never have had anything to do with those rowdies."
"I didn"t blame him; I never blame Rob for anything, except when he won"t do what I want him to do. Well, the worst one of all those horrid boys is Sim Jenkins--at least he was; I don"t think he"s quite so bad now. But he has been punished for all his badness, for he hurt his leg awfully, and has been laid up for months--so his mother says; and she is quite nice. She gave us our dinner to-day. Somehow or other, Rob heard that Sim was in bed, and had not had any Christmas things, and that his mother was poor; and she says all her money has gone for doctor"s bills and medicine. And so it just came into his head that perhaps it would do Sim good to have a Christmas-tree on New-Year"s Day; and he asked Mrs.
Jenkins, and she was afraid it would make a muss, but Rob said he would be careful. And so he carried our tree over, and fixed it in a box, and covered the box with moss, and we have been as busy as bees trying to make it look pretty. And that is what has kept us so long, for Rob had to run down to the store and get things--nails and ribbons, and I don"t know what all. And Sim is not to know anything about the tree until to-morrow. And please give us some of the pretty things which were in our box, for we could not get quite enough to fill all the branches. Rob spent so much of his pocket-money on a knife for Sim that he had none left for candy; for he said the tree would not give Sim so much pleasure unless there was something on it which he could always keep."
Here little Bertha stopped for want of breath, and looked into the faces of her listeners.
The parson put his arm around her as he said, "I hardly think we can scold Rob now, after special pleading so eloquent as this; what do you say, mamma?"
"I say that Rob is just like his father in doing this kindly deed, and I am glad to be the mother of a boy who can return good for evil."
The parson made a bow. "Now we are even, madam, in the matter of gracious speeches."
So Sim Jenkins woke up on New-Year"s Day to see from his weary bed a vision of brightness--a little tree laden with its fruit of kindness, its flowers of a forgiving spirit; and as the parson preached his New-Year"s sermon, and saw Rob"s dark eyes looking up at him, he thought of the verse,
"In their young hearts, soft and tender, Guide my hand good seed to sow, That its blossoming may praise Thee Wheresoe"er they go."
LAFAYETTE"S FIRST WOUND.
The Marquis of Lafayette came to this country to give his aid in the struggle for liberty in 1777, and his first battle was that of the Brandywine. Washington was trying to stop the march of the British toward Philadelphia. There was some mistake in regard to the roads, and the American troops were badly beaten. Lafayette plunged into the heart of the fight, and just as the Americans gave way, he received a musket-ball in the thigh. This was the 11th of September. Writing to his wife the next day, he said:
"Our Americans held their ground firmly for quite a time, but were finally put to rout. In trying to rally them, Messieurs the English paid me the compliment of a gunshot, which wounded me slightly in the leg; but that"s nothing, my dear heart; the bullet touched neither bone nor nerve, and it will cost nothing more than lying on my back some time, which puts me in bad humor."
But the wound of which the marquis wrote so lightly, in order to re-a.s.sure his beloved wife, kept him confined for more than six weeks.
He was carried on a boat up to Bristol, and when the fugitive Congress left there, he was taken to the Moravian settlement at Bethlehem, where he was kindly cared for. On the 1st of October he wrote again to his wife:
"As General Howe, when he gives his royal master a high-flown account of his American exploits, must report me wounded, he may report me killed; it would cost nothing; but I hope you won"t put any faith in such reports. As to the wound, the surgeons are astonished at the promptness of its healing. They fall into ecstasies whenever they dress it, and protest that it"s the most beautiful thing in the world. As for me, I find it a very disgusting thing, wearisome and quite painful. That depends on tastes. But, after all, if a man wanted to wound himself for fun, he ought to come and see how much I enjoy it."
He was very grateful for the attention he received. "All the doctors in America," he writes, "are in motion for me. I have a friend who has spoken in such a way that I am well nursed--General Washington. This worthy man, whose talents and virtues I admire, whom I venerate more the more I know him, has kindly become my intimate friend.... I am established in his family; we live like two brothers closely united, in reciprocal intimacy and confidence. When he sent me his chief surgeon, he told him to care for me as if I were his son, for he loved me as such." This friendship between the great commander, in the prime of life, and the French boy of twenty, is one of the most touching incidents of our history.
=The Rock of Gibraltar.=--This great natural fortification, which among military men is regarded as the key to the Mediterranean Sea, abounds in caverns, many of which are natural, while others have been made by the explosion of gunpowder in the centre of the mountain, forming great vaults of such height and extent that in case of a siege they would contain the whole garrison. The caverns (the most considerable is the hall of St. George) communicate with the batteries established all along the mountain by a winding road, pa.s.sable throughout on horseback.
The extreme singularity of the place has given rise to many superst.i.tious stories, not only amongst the ancients, but even those of our own times. As it has been penetrated by the hardy and enterprising to a great distance (on one occasion by an American, who descended by ropes to a depth of 500 feet), a wild story is current that the cave communicates by a submarine pa.s.sage with Africa. The sailors who had visited the rock, and seen the monkeys, which are seen in no other part of Europe, and are only there occasionally and at intervals, say that they pa.s.s at pleasure by means of the cave to their native land. The truth seems to be that they usually live in the inaccessible precipices of the eastern side of the rock, where there is a scanty store of monkey gra.s.s for their subsistence; but when an east wind sets in it drives them from their caves, and they take refuge among the western rocks, where they may be seen hopping from bush to bush, boxing each other"s ears, and cutting the most extraordinary antics. If disturbed, they scamper off with great rapidity, the young ones jumping on the backs and putting their arms round the necks of the old, and as they are very harmless, strict orders have been received from the garrison for their especial protection.
Gibraltar derives its chief importance from its bay, which is about ten miles in length and eight in breadth, and being protected from the more dangerous winds, is a valuable naval station.
SANTA CLAUS VISITS THE VAN JOHNSONS.
Swing low, sweet chariot-- Goin" fur to car" me home; Swing low, sweet chariot-- Goin" fur to car" me home.
Debbil tought he would spite me-- Goin" fur to car" me home, By cuttin" down my apple-tree-- Goin" fur to car" me home; But he didn"t spite ah-me at all-- Goin" fur to car" me home; Fur I had apples all de fall-- Goin"--
"Oh, jess shut up wiff yo" ole apples, Chrissfer C"lumbus Van Johnson, an" lissen at dat ar wat Miss Bowles done bin a-tellin" me," said Queen Victoria, suddenly making her appearance at the gate which opened out of Mrs. Bowles"s back garden into the small yard where her brother sat with Primrose Ann in his arms.
The Van Johnsons were a colored family who lived in a Southern city in a small three-roomed wooden house on the lot in the rear of Mrs. Bowles"s garden, and Mrs. Bowles was their landlady and very good friend. Indeed, I don"t know what they would have done without her, for when she came from the North, and rented the big house, they were in the depths of poverty. The kind lady found them work, gave them bright smiles, words of encouragement, fruit, vegetables, and spelling lessons, and so won their simple, grateful hearts that they looked upon her as a miracle of patience, goodness, and wisdom. And as for Baby Bowles--the rosy-cheeked, sweet-voiced, sunshiny little thing--the whole family, from Primrose Ann up to Mr. Van Johnson, adored her, and Queen Victoria was "happy as a queen" when allowed to take care of and amuse her.
"Wat"s dat ar yo"s speakin"?" asked Christopher Columbus (so named, his father said, ""cause he war da fustest chile, de discoberer ob de family, as it war") as Queen Victoria hopped into the yard on one leg, and he stopped rocking--if you can call throwing yourself back on the hind-legs of a common wooden chair, and then coming down on the fore-legs with a bounce and a bang, rocking--the youngest Van Johnson with such a jerk that her eyes and mouth flew open, and out of the latter came a tremendous yell. "Dar now," said Christopher Columbus, "yo"s done gone an" woked dis yere Primrose Ann, an" I"s bin hours an"
hours an" hours an" hours gittin her asleep. Girls am de wustest bodders I ebber see. I allus dishated girls."
"Ain"t yo" "shamed yo"seff, Chrissfer C"lumbus," said Queen Victoria, indignantly, "wen bofe yo" sisters am girls? But spect yo" don"t want to lissen at wat Miss Bowles done bin a-tellin" me. Hi! Washington Webster"s a-comin", an" I"ll jess tell him dat ar secrek all by hisseff."
"No yo" won"t; yo" goin" to tell me too," said her big brother. "An" yo"
better stop a-rollin" yo" eyes--yo" got de sa.s.siest eyes I ebber see since de day dat I war bohn--an" go on wiff yo" story."
"Story?" repeated Washington Webster, sauntering up to them, leading a big cat--dragging, perhaps, would be the better word, as poor puss was trying hard to get away--by a string.
""Bout Mahser Zanty Claws," said Queen, opening her eyes so wide that they seemed to spread over half her face. "Miss Bowles says to-morrer"s Chrissmus, an" to-day"s day befo" Chrissmus, an" to-night Mahser Zanty Claws go "bout"--lowering her voice almost to a whisper--"an" put tings in chillun"s stockin"s dat "haved deirselbs."