"There!" said my grandmother, in her most severe voice, "there"s the child who runs away! Look at her."
Then my uncle began to question me. Where had I been? where was my shoe? how did I tear my dress? what did I do it for? what did I think I deserved? and various other questions. Before long, I was weeping bitterly, and feeling that imprisonment for life would be a fitting punishment for my crimes.
Then came my sentence in the stern voice of my grandmother: "I think a suitable punishment for a naughty girl will be to go to bed without her supper." This was a.s.sented to by my uncle, and I was sent off in disgrace, to go to bed.
Now I had a healthy young appet.i.te, and the long tramp had made me very hungry, so that the punishment--though very mild for my offense--seemed to me almost worse than anything.
I was tired enough, however, to fall asleep, but after some hours I awoke, ravenous with hunger. All was still in the house, and I knew the family must have gone to bed. A long time I lay tossing and tumbling and getting more restless and hungry every minute.
At last I could stand it no longer, and I crept out of bed and carefully opened the door--my room was off the kitchen. The last flickering remains of the fire on the hearth made it light enough to see my way about.
Softly I crept to the pantry, hoping to find something left from supper; but my grandmother"s maid was well trained, and I found nothing; the cookie jar, too, was empty, for tomorrow was baking-day.
I was about turning back in despair when my eyes fell on a row of milk pans, which I knew were full of milk.
The shelf was too high for me to reach comfortably, but I thought I could draw a pan down enough to drink a little from it, and not disturb anything. So I raised myself on tiptoe and carefully drew it towards me.
You can guess what happened; and if I had known more I should have expected it. As soon as I got the pan over the edge the milk swayed towards me, the pan escaped from my hands, and fell with terrific clatter on the floor, deluging me with milk from head to foot.
Terrified out of my wits, I fled to my room, jumped into bed, covered my head with the bedclothes, and lay there panting. There was a moment"s silence, and then my grandmother"s voice,--
"What was that? What has happened?" and my uncle"s answer, "I"ll bring a light and see."
Alas! a light revealed wet milk tracks across the kitchen, leading to my room. In a minute it was opened by my grandmother, who drew me out into the kitchen, and stood me up on the hearth--uttering not a word.
I was utterly crushed; I expected I knew not what, but something more than I could guess, and to my uncle"s "Why did you do it, child?" I could only gasp out with bursts of frantic tears, "I was so hungry!"
My grandmother, still silent, hastened to get me dry clothes, then left me standing on the warm hearth, sobbing violently, and feeling more and more guilty, as I saw what trouble I had made.
Then she got clean sheets and made up my bed afresh. While she was doing this, my uncle went in and spoke to her very low. But I think I must have heard or guessed that he said my sentence had been too severe, and I was not so much to blame for trying to get a simple drink of milk, for when my grandmother came out, went into the pantry and brought me a slice of bread and b.u.t.ter, I was not surprised, but fell upon it like a half-starved creature.
Then I was sent to bed again, and it being nearly morning, the maid was called up, and I heard her scrubbing the floor and reducing the kitchen to its usual condition of shining neatness.
I never tried to run away again; my grandmother never scolded me, but my shame as I put on the new shoes and took the new schoolbooks was punishment enough. I tried harder after that to please my grandmother, and really learned a good deal of sewing, and could knit beautifully before I went home.
"Poor little mamma!" said Kristy, as her mother paused, "you didn"t have much fun, did you? I can just fancy how you looked, all dripping with milk. Tell me another."
"Well, I"ll tell you something that happened to Jenny soon after that.
Jenny had often told me about an old aunt she had, whom she and her two cousins used to go to see very often. She wanted me to go with her sometimes, but I didn"t know her aunt, and I was shy, and didn"t like to visit strangers, so I never went."
CHAPTER VII
HOW AUNT BETTY MADE HER CHOICE
One morning three cousins were walking slowly down the village street towards the house of their Aunt Betty, where they had been invited to dine. They were eager and excited, for there was something peculiar about the invitation, though none but Jenny knew exactly what it was.
Jenny began:--
"Well, I do wonder who"ll get it!"
"Get what?" asked Grace.
"Why, don"t you know? Didn"t your mother tell you?" said Jenny, in surprise. "Aunt Betty didn"t mean to have us know, but mamma told me."
"I don"t know what you mean," said Grace.
"Nor I," put in Ruth.
"Why," said Jenny eagerly, "you know Aunt Betty has not been so well lately, and her doctor says she must have some one to live with her besides old Sam, and she"s made up her mind--mamma says--to take one of us three and give her all the advantages she can while she lives, and leave her something when she dies. Mamma says, probably her whole fortune, or at any rate a big share. It"s a grand chance! I do hope she"ll take me!"
"But," said Ruth, "I don"t understand; why should she leave everything to one, after spending so much on her?"
"Oh, to make up to her for giving up so much," said Jenny. "She"s so cranky, you know!"
"It won"t be much fun to live with her," said Grace thoughtfully. "But think of the advantages! I"d have all the music lessons I want, and I"m sure she"d let me go to concerts and operas. Oh! Oh!"
"I"m not so sure of that," said Jenny. "She wouldn"t want you going out much; for my part I"d coax her to travel; I"d love to go all over the world--and I"m just dying to go to Europe, anyway."
"What would you choose, Ruth?" asked Grace.
"I don"t know," answered Ruth slowly, "and it"s no use to wish, for of course she won"t choose me. I don"t think she ever cared much for me, and I do make such stupid blunders. It seems as if I was bound to break something or knock over something, or do _something_ she particularly dislikes every time I go there. You know the last time I went there I stumbled over a stool and fell flat on the floor, making her nearly jump out of her skin--as she said--and getting a big, horrid-looking b.u.mp on my forehead."
The girls laughed. "You do seem to be awfully unlucky, Ruth," said Jenny magnanimously, "and I guess the choice will be one of us two."
"Well, here we are!" said Grace, in a low tone, as they reached the gate of the pretty cottage where Aunt Betty lived. "Now for it! Put on your best manners, Ruthie, and try not to upset the old lady"s nerves, whatever you do!"
"I shall be sure to do it," said Ruth sadly, "I"m so awkward."
Grace and Jenny laughed, not displeased with the thought that the choice would be only between two.
These three girls, so eager to leave their parents and live with Aunt Betty, had comfortable homes, all of them; but in each case there were brothers and sisters and a family purse not full enough to gratify all their desires. Aunt Betty had always been ready to help them out of any difficulty; to give a new dress or a new hat when need became imperative, or a little journey when school work had tired them. So she had come to be the source of many of their comforts and all their luxuries. To live with Aunt Betty, so near their own homes that they would scarcely be separated from them, seemed to them the greatest happiness they could hope for.
Old Sam, the colored servant who had lived with Miss Betty, as he called her, since she was a young woman, and was devoted to her, opened the door for them, a broad grin on his comely face.
"Miss Betty, she"s a-lookin" fur you-all," he said; "you"re to take off your things in the hall."
"Why! Can"t we go into the bedroom as usual?" asked Grace, who liked a mirror and a brush to make sure that every curl was in place.
"No, Miss Grace," said Sam, "y"r aunt said fur you to take "em off here."
Rather sulkily, Grace did as she was bid, and then, bethinking herself of the importance of the occasion, she called up her usual smile, and the three entered the sitting-room where their aunt awaited them.
Aunt Betty was a pleasant-faced lady of perhaps sixty years, but though rather infirm so that she walked with a cane, she was bright and cheery-looking. She was dressed in her usual thick black satin gown and lace mitts, with a fine lace kerchief around her neck and crossed on her breast, and a string of fine gold beads around her throat.