"What is the matter?" said her father.
"Nothing, father," said Alice, "only a little headache; mother has tied my hair too tight."
"Loosen it," said her father.
Alice did loosen it, so that the string was just ready to come off.
When she arrived at her aunt"s, where her father left her, I was just escaping from my hateful confinement, and her aunt took hold of the hair as the string fell on the floor.
"Shall I tie it on again, Alice, or shall your pretty hair go just so? I don"t see the use of tying it, but, if you really wish it, my dear, just step up stairs, and Jane will do it for you very nicely.
Perhaps your mother would choose it to be tied; she is very particular. It is a pity to confine such beautiful curls, but, if it must be so, we can"t help it. Will you go up stairs? Here is the string; it dropped on the floor."
"No," said Alice, "it is of no consequence;" and she put the string into her pocket.
Again I fell upon her beautiful forehead, and kissed her rosy cheeks; and every one admired my beauty.
Alice tried to forget that she was breaking her promise, and enjoyed herself pretty well.
When she went home, her mother said, "Why, Alice, your hair is all over your face; how comes that?"
"The string was nearly off when I went in, and then it fell on the floor, and aunt said I looked better without it. Here is the string, which she picked up."
"I should have thought your aunt would have let you go up to Jane, and have it tied properly; you should have asked her leave."
"I suppose," said the father, "that Alice felt too shy. It is no matter for one day. Alice, I dare say, kept her promise as well as she could; and, next week, she shall have her box; a right pretty one it is."
Alice kissed her father and mother, and went to bed; but there was a little cloud between her and the all-pure Being to whom she prayed that night, and her precious tears wetted my locks, ere she went to sleep.
Alice felt that she had not been true to her promise, and her parents" entire trust was the most severe reproach. Still she could not quite make up her mind to say so; and she tried not to think so.
She had set her heart upon the little work box made and ornamented by her father whom she loved dearly. One day after another pa.s.sed away, and every day it became harder to confess her fault. How often I heard her sigh during these days! Nothing makes a perfectly light heart but entire uprightness.
One day, her father called her to him, and said, "Come, Alice, and tell me which color I shall use to ornament the border of your box--blue or green?"
"Just which you please, Father."
"But you know it is for you, and I want to know what you like best."
"If it should ever be mine, Father, I like blue best."
"Blue it shall be," said her father. "It will be finished to-morrow, and then your month for keeping your hair tied will end. I think your eyes are better, and you have learned also that you can keep a promise. You are my good child."
Alice could not speak. She ran out of doors into her garden where her father had made her a little arbor, and there, all alone, she struggled with herself, till courage and truth prevailed. Then she went back into her father"s study where she found him still at work on her box.
"Almost done, Alice," said he; "see how pretty it is." "It must not be mine, Father," said Alice, very quietly, for she was determined to command herself. "I have not kept my promise, Father. I have deceived you and mother. I don"t deserve the box. Give it to my cousin." Then she told her father the whole story, just as it was.
As she went on, she grew braver, and felt happier; so that she was able to look up into her father"s face, and say, very calmly, "I could not take any pleasure in your pretty box, for I know I do not deserve it. Please, dear Father, to tell Mother all about it, and put away the box, if you choose not to give it to some one else. It is very pretty, but it is not to be my box."
The tears began to come in her eyes, and she turned to go out of the room. Her father stopped her. "Come here, my Child," he said. "You did wrong, but you have done all you could to repair your fault. You will never again, I think, be guilty of falsehood. At the end of another month, if you feel sure of yourself, come to me for your box."
"No, Father, that would seem like being paid for speaking the truth.
I should never ask for the box."
"Would you rather I should give it to your cousin?"
"If you please, I should;" and then the tears ran fast down her cheeks. "You know my cousin Edith has very few pretty things. I should like her to have it."
"Take it, Alice, and give it to her yourself."
"As your present, Father, not as mine. You know it is not, and cannot be mine. I have been so unhappy at my untruth, that I think I shall never commit such a fault again."
Alice never did again, in the slightest thing, depart from the strictest truth and uprightness, in action as well as in word. It was common for her friends to say when there was a question about any thing that had occurred, "We will ask Alice. She always tells the exact truth."
At last, Alice was a woman; and I, of course, led a more sober life, as she became more serious. I grew so long and thick that, when she took out her comb, and shook her head slightly, I fell in curls all around her neck and shoulders, like a golden veil, and you could but just see her laughing blue eyes, and white teeth through me.
You may readily guess that the pretty Alice was beloved by all who knew her; and, ere long, the son of the village apothecary won her heart. He was a good-hearted fellow, but never fitted himself to be of much use in the world. He took Alice to a distant village, where, with his father"s a.s.sistance, he set up as an apothecary, on rather a small scale, of course; but Alice was used to simple fare and to helping herself.
All would have been well with them but for one thing--the husband became a drunkard; not immediately--his love for his wife kept him sober for some time. Nothing was more beautiful than the way they lived for a year or two; but the habit of drinking a little, a habit which he had formed in his father"s shop, and which he intended to cure, returned. The wretched man had not strength to resist it.
He became fretful, and Alice, for the first time in her life, became unhappy. She had never before heard any but the voice of kindness; and now, from him she loved best in the world she received sometimes sharp and disagreeable words. He was very sorry afterwards, and all would seem well again, but he did not really reform, and, many a time, my locks, falling over her innocent round cheek, were wetted with her tears.
Alice was good as an angel. She forgave her husband, believed him when he promised to leave off drinking, and never said a harsh word to him. James kept his promise for a month or two, but fell again, and then more hopelessly; for, after he had drunk a little, he feared his wife would know what he had done, and felt so unhappy that he drank more to drown his feelings; and, for the first time, he was brought home to his wife dead drunk.
Alice tended her husband as if he were only a sick man; she had him put into a nice bed, she washed and mended his soiled and torn clothes, she was near him to catch his first word when he recovered his senses, she never reproached him, she tried, by love, to win him back to sobriety and duty, she wept, she prayed for him.
He suffered all that man can from shame; he could not look her in the face; he had destroyed the charm and glory of life; he was unable, or rather he thought he was, to conquer his enemy; and, before six years were at an end, partly from broken and ruined health, and partly from utter misery, he fell into a rapid decline, and died.
Alice loved her husband; and never was sick man nursed with more loving, cheerful patience than was he. He wept over his sins; he asked her, with every returning and every setting sun, to forgive him and to pray G.o.d to pardon him.
She was an angel of pity and mercy to him, to the end. When she leaned over him to kiss him, he would pull her beautiful hair--for I was still beautiful--over his face which he was ashamed to show when he thought of his folly and wickedness. Many a time have I felt his hot tears of contrition as he pressed me against his sunken cheeks, and to his parched lips.
After her husband"s death, the vicar of the parish came to see Alice, and did all he could to comfort and aid her.
She found that her husband had died largely in debt; that, when all the stock in his shop was sold, and the creditors paid, there would be nothing left for herself and two children.
She did not want to go back to her old father"s house, and burden him with care and expense, and she resolved to open a little school for small children in the cottage in which she lived.
She had one spare room which she could let to an old lady who wanted just such a home as Alice could give her.
With a strong and hopeful heart, did Alice dedicate herself to the work before her, of supporting and educating her two orphan children. Alice"s strict honesty had made her give up to her husband"s creditors every thing she had, except the barest necessaries; and, now that she wanted to commence her school, she felt very much the want of a little cash to buy a few indispensable things.
The grocer and butcher had offered to supply her on credit, till her first payment from her scholars and boarder should come in. Still a little ready money was essential to her to begin. She would not borrow it, and was one day thinking what she should do, when her eye, wandering over a newspaper which the vicar had kindly lent her, fell on an advertis.e.m.e.nt offering a high price for handsome hair long and thick enough to make wigs.
Alice heard the good curate say that he was going to London on business in a day or two, and her determination was made in a moment.
I said that Alice had kept nothing that she could do without; she had, however, kept the white muslin gown she wore when she was married. She thought she could not give this up. "I shall never wear a white muslin gown again," she said, as she ripped out one of the breadths and made herself two or three plain caps of it.
The next day she rose early before the children were awake, and, standing before a very small looking gla.s.s which she had kept to dress her hair, she looked at me curling all over her precious head, and hanging down upon her shoulders.
"He loved these locks," said she, "and, for his sake, I would keep them; but they had better be devoted to the good of our children.
Some school books will be worth more than all these golden locks. I am glad the children are asleep, for they love to play with my hair, and it would grieve them to see me cut it off."