Hoodie

"Any way don"t forget about trying to be good, and ask G.o.d to help you,"

she said.

The next day "Maudie"s G.o.dmother" went away. She had stayed longer than she had intended, and now her father and mother could spare her no longer. The children were greatly distressed at her going. Maudie cried gently, the boys more uproariously, and all three joined in reproaching Hoodie for not crying at all. Hoodie seemed quite indifferent to their remarks.

"Why should I cry?" she said. "It would be very silly to cry when Cousin Magdalen is going back to her father and mother. Crying isn"t any good."

"You don"t love Cousin Magdalen," said Maudie, "if you did you couldn"t help crying."

"I _do_ love her. I love her as many times as you do, ugl"----

She stopped--Magdalen was looking at her with a look that Hoodie understood. Hoodie ran to her and threw her arms round her neck.

"I _do_ love you, Cousin Magdalen," she whispered. "Don"t you believe me? I do love you, and I"m trying dedfully to be good, to please you and G.o.d, "cos of birdie coming back."

"I do believe you, dear," said Magdalen, and Hoodie glanced round with triumph.

I am coming now to a part of Hoodie"s history which I cannot prevent being rather sad. I wish, for some reasons, I could prevent it. But true stories must be told true, and even fancy stories must be told in a fancy true way, or else they do not suit themselves. When I was a little girl I never cared for the new-fashioned "Red Riding Hood" story; the one in which she was _not_ eaten up at the end after all, but saved by a wood-cutter at the last minute. Of course it was very nice to think of poor Red Riding Hood not being eaten up, if one could have managed to believe it. But somehow I never could, and even now whenever I think of the story the old original ending, dreadful as it was, always comes back to me. So now that I am telling you about--not Red Riding Hood--but my queer, fanciful, but still I hope lovable, Hoodie, I feel that I must go straight on and tell you what really happened, even though it makes you rather sad.

For some time after Miss King left, things went on pretty smoothly, very smoothly, perhaps I should say. Hoodie did not forget about trying to be good, especially in her bird"s presence. It became a sort of conscience to her, and as, by a law which is a great help in learning to be good,--though also a danger the more in learning _wrong_,--by the law of _habit_, every time one tries to keep under one"s ill temper, makes it easier for the next time, it grew really easier for Hoodie to check her naughty cross words and looks from the way she kept them down when beside her little pet. And Martin and every one began to think it had been a happy thing for Hoodie and those about her that her cousin had taught her how to tame and care for the pretty greenfinch.

It was so pretty, poor little birdie! It grew so tame that, with the window shut of course, it spent a great part of its time flying freely about the ante-room where stood its cage. It would "pouch" not only on Hoodie"s finger but on her shoulder, her head--anywhere she chose to place it. And in an instant, at the sound of her call, it would fly to her. Every morning it was her first thought, every night her last. And night and morning when she said her prayers, she never forgot to thank G.o.d for being "_so_ kind as to send birdie back again," and to beg Him to keep birdie safe and well.

One evening--how it happened I cannot tell,--it was very hot and sultry weather, with thunder about, and at such times people are careless about closing doors and windows--one evening, by some mischance which no one ever could explain, the window of "birdie"s room," as it had come to be called, was either left open, or flew open in some way. Hoodie was sure she had closed it when she went to bid her pet good night, but it was what is called a lattice window, and these are apt to fly open unless very firmly shut. Birdie was safe in his cage however, and the door of _that_ was fortunately--even when you hear what happened, children, you will agree with me that that part of it _was_ fortunate--quite fastened.

Early next morning, one of the servants who slept in an attic above the ante-room, heard a noise below. She was a kind-hearted girl, and her first thought was of Miss Hoodie"s bird. She got up at once, and hurrying down-stairs--it was not so very early after all, nearly six o"clock--ran to the ante-room. As she opened the door, to her horror a great big strange cat jumped out of the window.

"Oh dear, oh dear," said Lucy, "can he have got at birdie?"

The cage was not to be seen--but in another moment Lucy spied it on the floor, knocked down off the table by the cruel cat. He had not got at birdie--birdie lay in one corner, quite still as if dead, and yet when Lucy with trembling fingers unfastened the cage door and tenderly lifted out his little occupant, she could see no injury, not the slightest scratch.

"His heart"s beating still," she said, "perhaps it"s only the fright of the fall," and she was turning to the window to examine birdie more closely, when a sound behind her made her start, and turning round she saw in the doorway the bird"s little mistress, poor Hoodie herself. She was in her nightgown only--she had run from her room with her little bare feet, having heard Lucy pa.s.sing down-stairs, with an instinct of fear that some evil had befallen her pet.

"Lucy, Lucy," she cried, "what is the matter? It isn"t anything the matter with birdie. Oh, dear Lucy, _don"t_ say it is."

Her voice somehow, as Lucy said afterwards, sounded like that of a grown-up person--all the babyishness seemed to have gone out of it--she did not cry, she stood there white as a sheet, clasping her hands in a way that went to Lucy"s heart.

"Oh, Miss Hoodie," she replied, the tears running down her face, for she was very tender-hearted, "oh dear, Miss Hoodie, don"t take on so. I hope birdie"s not badly hurt. The cat didn"t touch him. It knocked over the cage, and it must have been the fall; but _perhaps_ he"s more frightened than hurt."

"Give him to me, Lucy," said Hoodie. "Let me hold him in my own hands.

Oh, birdie dear, oh, birdie darling, don"t you know me?" for birdie lay still and limp--almost as if dead already. Hoodie, forcing back the tears, whistled her usual call to him, and as its sound reached his ears, birdie seemed to quiver, raised his head, feebly flapped his wings, and tried, with a piteous attempt at shaking off the sleep from which he would never again awake, tried to rouse himself and to struggle to his feet.

"Oh, Lucy," cried Hoodie, "he"s getting better," but as she said the words, birdie fell over on his side, uttered the feeblest of chirps, and with a little quiver lay still--quite still--he was dead. The fright had killed him.

Hoodie looked up in Lucy"s face with tearless eyes.

"Is he dead?" she said.

"Yes, Miss Hoodie dear," said Lucy, softly stroking the ruffled feathers, "he is dead, but oh dear, Miss Hoodie, it isn"t so bad as if the cat had torn and scratched him all over. You should think of that."

But Hoodie could think of nothing in the shape of comfort. She held the little dead bird out to Lucy.

"Take him and bury him," she said. "He can"t love me any more, so take him away. All the loving"s dead. He was the only thing that loved me. I won"t try to be good any more. G.o.d is very unkind."

"Miss Hoodie!" exclaimed Lucy, considerably shocked. But Hoodie just looked at her with a hard set expression in her white face.

"You don"t understand," she said. "Take him away and bury him."

She turned to the door and left the room. She went slowly back to her own room, and got into her little bed again. Then, like the old Hebrew king, poor little English Hoodie "turned her face to the wall," and wept and wept as if never again there could be for her brightness in the sunshine, or love and happiness in life.

"My bird, my bird," she moaned. That was all she could say.

She refused at first to get up and be dressed. Then, with an idea perhaps that if she did so she would be more independent than if staying in bed, with papa and mamma and Martin and everybody coming to talk to her, and try to comfort her, she slowly got out of bed and let Martin dress her. But when it came to saying her prayers, she altogether refused to do so, and on this point there was no getting her to give in.

She did not refuse to eat her breakfast, because she had sense enough to know that sooner or later she would be obliged to eat, but the moment it was swallowed, she took her little chair and seated herself in the corner of the nursery, her face to the wall, crying, crying steadily, and hopelessly, turning like a little fury upon any one who ventured to speak to her, only moaning out from time to time--

"My bird, oh my bird!"

They were all very sorry for her. Maudie"s tears and those of the little boys had flowed freely when the sad story was first told to them; they had all rushed to Hoodie to try to kiss and comfort her. But her extreme crossness, or what any way looked like it to them, sent them away puzzled and hurt. Hoodie"s mother had proposed that the little girl should spend the whole day down-stairs with her, have dinner at the dining-room luncheon, and go a drive in the afternoon, but to all this Hoodie only replied by a determined shake of the head, as well as to her father"s offer of a new bird, or two if she liked, the prettiest that could be bought.

So they were all really at their wits" end.

It was very sad, but one must also allow that it was very tiresome.

Martin began to fear that the child would really make herself ill, and as was Martin"s "way," her anxiety began to make her rather cross.

"I wish Miss King had never put it into the child"s head to have a pet bird," she muttered to herself as she was washing up the tea-things that evening, glancing at Hoodie"s disconsolate figure still in the corner of the nursery. "Miss King may be all very well and kind, but she"s no knowledge of children, how should she have any? I think it"s much best to leave children to them that understands them; though indeed as for any one"s understanding Miss Hoodie----!"

Fortunately it did not occur to Hoodie to make any objection to going to bed, and it was a relief to every one to know of her being there and safely asleep, "forgetting her troubles for a while," as Martin said.

The next day was very little better. Hoodie did not cry quite so much, but she still sat in a corner doing nothing, and when any one attempted to speak to her, however kindly, she turned upon them with fierceness, like a little ill-tempered cat.

Yet it was not ill-temper; it was really misery, or at least it was ill-temper caused by misery. But as no gentleness and patience, no sympathy or attempt at comforting her did any good, but harm--and as any approach to reasoning with her, or scolding her, seemed to harden her already embittered little heart more and more, what was to be done, what could be done, but leave her alone? She continued determinedly to refuse, night and morning, to say her prayers, and refused, too, to say grace at the nursery table when it was her turn. But of all this Mrs.

Caryll wisely desired Martin to take no notice, and not to try to force the child to any formal utterance of words in which her heart had no part.

"It _must_ be all right again soon if only we are patient with her,"

said Hoodie"s mother, more cheerfully than she was really feeling, for she saw that Martin was very much worried and distressed about Hoodie, and she was anxious to encourage her.

"It is to be hoped so, ma"am, I"m sure," was Martin"s rather hopeless reply.

Somewhat to everybody"s surprise, on the third day Hoodie condescended to ask a favour. Might she go out for a walk alone with Lucy? Everybody was so enchanted at her seeming to take interest in anything or wishing for anything, that with some conditions her request was at once granted.

It was arranged that she should set off with Lucy and go wherever she wished, with the understanding that she would meet Martin and the other children at four o"clock at a certain point on the road, as it was not convenient that Lucy should stay out longer. To this Hoodie agreed.

"I"m going through the wood," she said. "I want to get some flowers that grow there, and Lucy must take a basket and a knife to dig them up, and then I"ll tell her what to do."

"Very well, Miss Hoodie," said Martin, but privately she told Lucy not to let the little girl go to the cottages at the edge of the wood, for Martin had never forgotten the fright of Hoodie"s escapade several months ago. "If she gets in the way of going to that young woman"s cottage, she"ll be for ever running off," she said. "So silly of the people to encourage her, when they might see we didn"t like it. We met the young woman the other day, and she actually stopped short in the road and began asking when Miss Hoodie was coming to see her again."

"But mamma says they"re very respectable people, Martin," said Maudie, who was standing by. "I don"t think she would mind if Hoodie did go to see them. Papa said one day he wished the young woman"s husband was one of our men. He"s so steady."

"Hold your tongue, Miss Maudie," said Martin with unusual sharpness. She knew that what the child said was true, but she had taken a prejudice against the little family in Red Riding Hood"s cottage, as the children always called it, and when a good conscientious woman of Martin"s age and character once takes a prejudice, it is rather a hopeless matter!

Poor Maudie slid away, feeling in her turn that things were rather hard upon her. She had been very patient and gentle with her strange-tempered little sister these three days, and had tried not to feel hurt at Hoodie"s indifference to all her small overtures of sympathy. And now to be told by Martin to hold her tongue when all she meant was to try to make things better, was not easy to bear.