"Yes, miss, every drop," replied Nelly, with a weary little sigh.
"Nelly, would you like to learn to read?" asked Lucy, plunging at once into her errand.
"I don"t know, miss," was the rather doubtful reply.
"Why, wouldn"t you like to be able to read that nice hymn Miss Preston gave you, for yourself?"
"Yes, miss, I"d like to be able, but I don"t know if I"d like the learning."
Lucy laughed, as did Stella also, and Nelly herself.
"Well, as you can"t be able to do it without learning, don"t you think you"d better try?" asked Lucy.
"I don"t think mother would let me; and I must hurry now, or she"ll be angry at me keeping her waiting, with the baby to mind."
But just then a large dog, rushing down the hill, upset poor Nelly"s pail.
"Holy Mary!" she exclaimed, using the e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n she had been accustomed to hear from infancy, "there"s all my water spilt;" and seizing her pail, she had run down to refill it, before Lucy was able to begin an intended reproof.
The girls watched her refill her pail, and return towards the cottage by a nearer though steeper path. Mrs. Connor, a tall, bony, discontented-looking woman, had come to the door to look for Nelly.
Not seeing the young ladies, who were approaching the house from the other side, she screamed out in a harsh voice as Nelly approached:
"What have you been doing all this time, keeping me waiting with the child in my arms?"
"It was a dog," began Nelly, setting down her pail. But before she could finish her sentence she was roughly shaken, and sharp blows descended about her ears.
"I"ll teach you to spend your time playing with dogs when I"m waiting for you. There, be off, and mind the baby;" and Nelly, putting up her hands to her face, ran crying into the house.
Lucy stood for an instant pale with indignation, and then, the impulse of the moment making her forget all her aunt"s warnings as to being conciliatory, and her own prudent resolves, she announced her presence by exclaiming, in a voice unsteady with emotion: "Mrs. Connor, it"s a shame to beat Nelly like that, when she hasn"t been doing any harm. It was my fault she was so long, for I stopped her to speak to her, and then a dog overturned her pail."
Mrs. Connor was startled at finding there had been spectators of her violence; but she did not betray any shame she might have felt, and coolly regarding Lucy, she replied:
"Well, I don"t see what business it is of yours, anyhow. If young ladies hain"t nothin" better to do than meddle with other folks"
children, they"d better let that be!"
"What an impertinent woman!" said Stella, quite loud enough for her to hear. "Lucy, can"t you come away and let her alone?"
But Lucy, though a good deal discomposed by her reception, was determined not to be easily moved from her object; and having by this time remembered her conciliatory resolve, she said, as quietly as she could:
"Mrs. Connor, my father is Mr. Raymond, the clergyman. I came to see if you would let Nelly come to our house every day to learn to read.
It"s a great pity she shouldn"t know how."
"I don"t care who your father is," retorted the woman in the same insolent tone. "I don"t see what you"ve got to do with it, whether it"s a pity or not. The child"s lazy enough already, without havin"
them idees put into her head; and better people than her do without book-learning."
"Lucy, do come away! I shan"t stop to listen to her impudence,"
exclaimed Stella as she turned and walked away with a haughty air.
Mrs. Connor"s quick eye followed her, and she half muttered to herself, "A city gal!" Then, taking up the pail which Nelly had set down, she went into the house without vouchsafing another look at Lucy, who, seeing the uselessness of pressing her point, hastened to join her cousin.
"Now you see, Lucy, you only get yourself insulted trying to do any good to such people," said Stella triumphantly. "I remember one of Sophy"s friends once wanted her to go visiting poor people with her, and papa said he wouldn"t have her go on any account; it was all nonsense running all sorts of risks to do good to people who didn"t want it."
"But it wasn"t Mrs. Connor, but Nelly, that I wanted to do good to, and she can"t help what her odious stepmother does. Only think what it must be to live with her!"
"I"d run away! But you see Nelly herself didn"t seem to care about learning to read."
"Because she didn"t know the good of it," replied Lucy. "But what should you or I have done if we hadn"t been made to learn, whether we liked it or not?"
"That"s quite different. This girl will always have to work, I suppose, and would get on well enough without learning to read. I know mamma was always complaining that our servants were reading trashy novels, that filled their heads with nonsense and made them discontented."
"But you could have given them something better to read," suggested Lucy.
Stella said nothing in reply to this; nor did she enlighten Lucy as to the fact that in reading "trashy novels" the servants were only following their young mistresses" example. Lucy in the meantime was thinking what up-hill work doing good was, and how hard it was to know how to do it. Suddenly she remembered her motto; she had been forgetting that the difficulties of the way were to be met in a strength not her own. Perhaps it was because she had not first asked for that strength, that she had met with so little success; and she regretted having so soon departed from her resolution of "looking to Jesus" in everything.
But Stella soon roused from her "brown study," as she called it, by various questions as to Mrs. Harris"s route of travel, and also as to her travelling dress, which Lucy was very ill prepared to answer, having cast hardly a pa.s.sing glance at it, in her sorrow for her teacher"s departure. On their way home they overtook Mrs. Steele and Alick, to whom were soon related the particulars of their mission, Stella imitating Mrs. Connor"s tone and manner to the life, as she graphically reproduced the conversation, much to Alick"s amus.e.m.e.nt, though he ground his teeth with indignation on hearing of the violent treatment Nelly had received.
"What a woman! You mustn"t leave the poor child to her tender mercies.
What can she turn out, brought up under such a termagant? Suppose I try and bring the old lady round with a little judicious flattery?"
"I think I can manage the matter," said Mrs. Steele. "I shall make a bargain with Mrs. Connor, and promise to give her a day"s work once a fortnight, provided she will let Nelly come here for half an hour every day. But do you think the child herself will be willing to come?"
"Oh, I"m sure she"ll be willing to come where any one is kind to her, she has so little kindness at home," replied Lucy.
Mrs. Steele proved right. By her more judicious management and substantial inducement, Mrs. Connor was persuaded to give an ungracious a.s.sent to the plan proposed for Nelly"s benefit. But, as if to be as disagreeable as possible, even in consenting, she fixed upon the time which Lucy would least have chosen for the task. The only time when she could spare Nelly, she said, was in the evening, after the children were in bed. It was the time when Lucy most enjoyed being out, watering her flowers, or taking an evening walk, or row with the others. But the choice lay between doing the work then, or not at all; and when she thought how light was the task given her to do, and how slight the sacrifice, she felt ashamed of her inclination to murmur at it.
So Nelly"s education began with the alphabet; and though it was a drudgery both for teacher and pupil, reciprocal kindness and grat.i.tude helped on the task, and before many weeks had pa.s.sed Nelly was spelling words of two syllables, and had learned some truths, at least, of far greater importance.
VII.
_Temptations._
"Or rather help us, Lord, to choose the good-- To pray for naught, to seek to none but Thee; Nor by our "daily bread" mean common food; Nor say, "From this world"s evil set us free.""
The Sunday school was again a.s.sembled on another Sunday afternoon, some weeks later. The day was even warmer than the one on which our story opened, and all the church windows were opened to their widest extent, to admit every breath of air which came in through the waving pine boughs. Lucy had been promoted to teach a small cla.s.s of her own, in which Nelly Connor had willingly taken her place. She was indeed advancing faster in spiritual than in secular learning; for in the first she had the best of all teachers, to whose teaching her simple heart was open--the Holy Spirit Himself.
Bessie Ford had found another teacher, and beside her sat Stella, who, partly from finding her Sunday afternoons dull, and partly from feeling that it was her uncle"s wish that she should accompany Lucy to Sunday school, had overcome her objection to it so far as to go with her cousin. And having found out on the first Sunday how deficient she herself was in Bible knowledge, and never liking to appear inferior to others in anything, she took some pains to prepare her lessons, at least so far that her ignorance might not lower her in the eyes of her cla.s.smates. It was a poor motive, certainly; still, seeds of divine truth were gradually finding their way into her heart, which might in time germinate and bear fruit. And her stay in Mr. Raymond"s household, where "serving the Lord" was avowedly the ruling principle, had already exercised a healthful influence over her impressionable nature.
On this particular Sunday the interesting announcement was made, that the annual "picnic" or Sunday-school excursion was to take place on the following Wednesday, the place being a beautiful oak wood about a mile from the church, in the opposite direction from Mill Bank Farm.
As little groups cl.u.s.tered together on leaving the church door, there was a general buzz of talk about the picnic.
Lucy stopped Nelly Connor to ask her whether she thought her mother would let her go to the picnic.
Poor Nelly looked very doubtful as she replied, "I don"t know; I"m afraid not."
"Well, Nelly, I"ll see what can be done about it," said Lucy encouragingly.