Dawson," she said brightly. "The organist at Hanford is ill, and I have been out there to play the organ at the morning and afternoon services; I was on my way home when I caught sight of you all in your pretty garden, and I couldn"t resist coming in to join you."
"I"m sure we"re very glad you did, miss," said Patience warmly.
"And you haven"t had any tea yet, Miss Grace, I"ll be bound now."
Miss Barley smiled and shook her head. "No, I have not, I am really on my way to it, but I would rather sit here for a few moments first, though, and talk to you."
"You can do both, miss, if you will," said Patience hospitably.
"I was about to clear the tea-things away, thinking they looked untidy, when Jessie stopped me. She was sure you would like a piece of apple-pie and cream, and I was sure you"d like a cup of tea with it; so the kettle is on and I"ll have a cup ready in a minute if you"ll excuse my leaving you. Thomas, give Miss Grace a chair," and Patience bustled away into the house delighted.
Mr. Dawson brought out another chair, and he and Jessie seated themselves one on each side of their visitor. Miss Barley withdrew her admiring gaze from the distant view.
"Don"t you love Sunday, Jessie?" she asked, laying her hand gently on the little girl"s shoulder. "A Sunday like this, when even the birds and the cattle, and even the flowers seem to be more glad and happy and peaceful than usual."
"Oh yes," said Jessie, losing all her shyness at once, "speshally now when granp and me have Sunday-school out here. We are going to have it every Sunday, ain"t we, granp? We shall have it out here when it is fine, but when winter comes we shall go in by the fire."
Miss Grace looked at Mr. Dawson inquiringly. "What a lovely plan,"
she cried enthusiastically. "Whose idea was it, yours, Mr. Dawson?"
and Thomas, blushing a little, told her all about it.
Just as they had finished, granny came out with the tea-tray, and spreading the table again with a tempting meal, drew it up before their visitor, and while Miss Grace ate and drank, they sat and talked to her, and presently Mrs. Dawson poured into her sympathetic ear all their difficulties about the school for Jessie. Miss Grace listened with the greatest attention, the matter seemed to interest her immensely, far more, in fact, than it did Jessie, indeed Jessie wished very much that they would talk of something else, for Miss Grace grew quite quiet and thoughtful, and ceased to notice the pretty things about her, or to talk of things that were interesting to Jessie, and Jessie was sorry. She became interested enough, though, presently, when Miss Grace, having finished her tea and risen to go, suddenly said--
"Well, Mrs. Dawson, I think you will have to let me solve the difficulty of Jessie"s education for you, and there is nothing I should like better. You see, our home is quite twenty minutes" walk nearer you than the school-house, and if you will let Jessie come to me, instead of going to school, I will teach her to the best of my ability, and enjoy doing so. At any rate, while she is a little thing. You see, she would not have to come and go twice a day, in fact, she need hardly come every day--but we can arrange the details later, if you agree to it. Now think it over well, and we will talk about it again in a few days" time. And don"t say "no," because you think it will be too much for me to do, for I should love to educate and train a little girl in the way _I_ think she should be trained.
It will be for me a most interesting experience. Now, Jessie, what do you say? Would you like to come to school with me?"
"Like it!" Neither Jessie nor her grandparents could find words to say how much they would like it, nor how grateful they were to Miss Barley; but at the same time they did feel it was too much for them to accept of her. Before, though, they had found words to express their feeling, or had stammered out half their thanks, the sound of the church bells came floating up across the fields, a signal to them all to part.
"I must fly," cried Miss Grace. "Do you think I can _run_ through the lanes without shocking any one? I must go home before I go to church, or my sister will be quite alarmed," and away she hurried as fast as she could.
Patience had only time to carry in the tea-things, and leave them to wash on her return, for she had herself and Jessie to dress and get ready.
They were in time though, after all, for their feet kept pace with their happy thoughts and busy tongues, and there was no lingering on the way that evening.
CHAPTER V.
HAPPY DAYS.
Granp and granny did not hold out very long against Miss Grace Barley"s plan, and in a short time all arrangements were made, and it was settled that Jessie was to go to Miss Barley"s pretty house by the green every morning at ten, and to leave it at twelve, so that she might meet her grandfather as he went home to his dinner.
Thomas Dawson was head gardener at "The Grange," Sir Henry Weston"s beautiful country-house, which lay a little distance beyond Springbrook station. Just outside the station were four cross-roads with a signpost in the middle of them to tell you where each one led.
If you stood close to the signpost and faced the station, the road exactly behind you led down to Springbrook green and village, while the one on your right led along a wide flat road to "The Grange," and on, past that, through villages and towns until at last it reached the sea; and the road on your left led past "Sunnyside Cottage," and then on to Norton. This was the road that Jessie knew best, the one she had first walked with her grandfather on her way home that first evening.
From Miss Barley"s house to the signpost was a very short distance, and here it was that Jessie and her grandfather were to meet every day and walk home together. Yet not every day, for Sat.u.r.day, being a busy day for most people, was to be a whole holiday from lessons.
Miss Grace Barley had to gather flowers for the church and arrange them in the vases on Sat.u.r.day mornings, and Miss Barley had extra things to do in the house and to go to Norton by train to do her shopping, and Jessie had to help her grandmother clean up the cottage and make all bright and neat for Sunday; so that it was nice and convenient for every one that Sat.u.r.day should be a holiday from lessons.
On that first morning, when Jessie stood at Miss Barley"s door and knocked, she felt very glad indeed to think that the day after to-morrow was Sat.u.r.day and a whole holiday, for she felt very shy and rather frightened, and she longed to be back at home again with her granny and grandfather. In fact, she was just edging towards the gate, with her mind almost made up to run home, when the door opened, and Miss Grace herself appeared. Miss Grace had on a hat and a large pair of gardening gloves, and in her hand she held a basket and the biggest pair of scissors Jessie had ever seen.
"Oh, Jessie!" she said, "you are just in time. I am going out to gather some flowers, and you will be able to help me. Come in, dear--no, we will not go in yet, we will go first and get the flowers, or the sun will be on them."
Jessie"s frightened little face grew quite cheerful again.
She thought this a delightful way of doing lessons, and marched along happily enough at Miss Grace"s side, soon forgetting all her shyness in helping her to pick out the handsomest stocks and the finest roses. When the basket was full Miss Grace led the way to a window which opened down to the ground.
"This is my very own sitting-room," she said, as she stepped through the open window; "don"t you think I ought to be very happy here?"
"Oh yes!" sighed Jessie, as she looked about her at the flowers, the pictures, and all the pretty things. "I shouldn"t ever want to go away from it if it was mine."
Miss Grace laughed. "Well, we are going to do our lessons here, and perhaps when twelve o"clock comes you won"t be the least little bit sorry to go away from it. But first of all I want you to help me arrange these flowers a little, and then go with me to carry them to a poor lady who is ill. Do you know the different kinds of roses by name, Jessie?"
Jessie did not. "Well, I will tell you some of them, and then you will be able to surprise grandfather. A gardener"s granddaughter should know all these things. That lovely spray of little pink roses you are holding is called "Dorothy Perkins." You will remember that, won"t you? And this deep orange-tinted bud is "William Allen Richardson.""
""William Allen Richardson,"" repeated Jessie. "I think Miss Perkins is much prettier than Mr. Richardson."
Miss Grace laughed. "You are a very polite little girl, Jessie.
Look at this one; this is called "Homer," but you need not call it Mr. or Mrs., but just plain "Homer.""
"I think it ought to be called "pretty Homer,"" said Jessie, smiling.
By the time they had arranged all the flowers in the basket, she knew quite a lot about the different kinds and their names. Miss Grace made everything so attractive, and it was wonderful what a lot of interesting things she saw as she went about, even when she walked only across the green to Mrs. Parker"s to leave the flowers.
Jessie did not see the poor dirty grey toad lying panting and frightened on the pathway, but Miss Grace did, and stooped and picked the poor thing up, and carrying it into her garden, placed it in a nice cool shady corner, underneath some bushes.
"Won"t it bite you, or sting?" asked Jessie, her eyes wide with alarm, but Miss Grace rea.s.sured her. "That poor gentle little frightened thing hurt me!" she cried; "it could not if it wanted to, and I am sure it does not want to. It will help to take care of my flowers for me. You are not afraid to stroke it, Jessie, are you?
Just look how fast its poor little heart is beating with fright!
Isn"t it cruel that any living creature should be as terrified as that!"
Jessie was ashamed for Miss Grace to know that she was almost as terrified of the toad as the toad was of her, so she stroked it, though very reluctantly, and the coldness of it made her jump so at first, that she thought she could never, never touch it again; but she tried not to be foolish, and she stroked its little head, and after that she did not mind it a bit, though she was glad Miss Grace did not ask her to carry it.
When they got back to the house they found two gla.s.ses of milk and a plate of biscuits in Miss Grace"s room awaiting them, and after they had taken them, Miss Grace took down a book and read to Jessie, and Jessie, who already knew her letters and some of the easiest words, read a little to Miss Grace, and before she thought that half of the morning was gone, twelve o"clock had struck, and it was time to dress and run off to meet her grandfather at the four cross-roads.
When Jessie got to her place by the signpost, her grandfather was just coming along the road towards her. In his hand he held a big bunch of white roses and beautiful dark-green leaves. "Oh, how lovely!" gasped Jessie, when she caught sight of them.
"They"m "Seven Sisters,"" said her grandfather; "they had overgrown the other things so much that I had to cut them back, and her ladyship told me to bring them home to you."
"Oh, thank you!" said Jessie delightedly. "What are the seven sisters called, granp? What is their real name? Of course they must have names."
Her grandfather did not understand her for the moment. "What are they called! Why, Rose, of course; but "Seven Sisters" is what they"re always known by."
"There couldn"t be seven all called "Rose," could there?" asked Jessie gravely. "They _must_ have a name each. Let me see, one could be "White Rosie," another "Pink Rosie," then there could be "Red Rosie," and "Rosamund "; that"s four."
"Perhaps the others is Cabbage Rosie, Dog Rosie, and Cider Rosie,"
said grandfather, chuckling.
Jessie burst into a peal of laughter as she thrust one hand into her grandfather"s. "What things you do say, granp," she protested, and clasping her bouquet in her other hand, she skipped along by the old man"s side. "Oh, I have learnt such a lot of things to-day," she said impressively. "There"s one rose called "Mr. Richardson,"
another called "Miss Perkins," and another called "Plain Homer," and now there"s "Seven Sisters," all with different names." Then she told him all about the toad, and the little story Miss Grace had read to her. "And to-morrow I am to learn to knit, and soon I"ll be able to knit your stockings, granp, and cuffs to keep your arms warm in winter, and a shawl for granny."
"My!" exclaimed grandfather, with pleased surprise, "we shan"t know ourselves, we shall be so warm and comfortable. But don"t you go overworking yourself, little maid." Jessie laughed gleefully.