A pair of handsome bays were coming in their best step down from the Square, drawing a carriage full of people who seemed in the very best of spirits.
"WHOA-A!" A click, a rapid pull-up with all Thomas"s best strength, and the horses fell back on their haunches just in time for the little lithe figure to dart under their pawing hoofs and be saved! Everybody leaned out of the carriage for a glimpse of the child.
"Why--why"--A young girl"s face paled, while the gray eyes flashed, and with one spring she was out and rushing after the small flying figure who in her fright had turned to flee the other way.
"Look out, Caryl!" called the others in the carriage after her.
"Oh, she"ll be killed," moaned a little girl leaning out as far as she dared over the wheels.
"And then she can"t ever get into the pretty new house," wailed another.
"Oh, what shall we do! Come back, Bessie!" she cried, tugging at her sister"s skirts. "Grandmamma, make her come into the carriage, I can"t hold her!"
But a crowd of people surging up around them at this moment, took off all attention from Bessie and everybody else but the little fugitive and her kind pursuer. Caryl made her way through the crowd with flushed face, her little brown hat hanging by its strings around her neck, pantingly dragging after her the little black girl.
"It"s our Viny," she said, "and something is the matter with Aunt Sylvia! Oh, Madam Grant!"
"My poor child," said a sweet-faced woman, reaching out a kind arm, while the children seized hold of Caryl at every available point, between them dragging her and her charge into shelter, "don"t be troubled. Drive just as fast as you can, Thomas, to No. 27, you know,"
she commanded hurriedly.
Then the first thing Caryl did was to turn upon Viny and unhook the precious brooch as a low sob came from her white lips. "If it had been lost!"
A soft hand stole under the little brown cloak to clasp her own; but Madam Grant said never a word. She knew what the young girl"s heart was too full for speech; that the mother"s brooch would speak more tenderly than ever she could, of forgiveness to the little ignorant black girl.
The children were all eyes at Viny and her costume, but they said never a word while she howled on steadily, only e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.n.g. in an occasional gust, "O Miss Sylvy--Miss Sylvy!"
Caryl, white as a sheet, rushed out of the carriage and into the old lodging house the instant the horses paused by the broken gate. Maum Patty was singing in the little kitchen the refrain she never indulged in except in her most complacent moods. Flinging wide the door, Caryl panted out, "Oh, what is it! Tell me at once!"
"Lawks!" exclaimed Maum Patty, startled from her peaceful enjoyment, and turning so suddenly in the old calico-covered chair that she sent her spectacles spinning into the middle of the floor. "Ma.s.sy, how yer look!
Tain"t wurth it--don"t! He hain"t spile"t it; I stopped him," she added exultingly.
"Stopped what?" echoed Caryl in bewildered distress. "Oh, do tell me!
Is"nt Aunt Sylvia sick? Tell me, Maum Patty," she pleaded. And she grasped the old woman"s arm in an agony of suspense.
"Ma.s.sy, no!" declared Maum Patty in her most cheery tones, "she"s ben a-laughin" fit to kill herself, an" I don"t wonder, for the little rascal looked as cunnin" as an imp. But I stopped him I stopped him!"
she added triumphantly.
Caryl had no strength to ask further, nor to stir. The reaction was too great, and she leaned up against the door for support.
"He shuck it, an" shuck it," said the old woman, laughing immoderately.
"Laws, how he shuck it--dat Jip did--yer aunt"s beyeutiful cap with the new puppel ribbons! Ye see it tumbled off; I dunno wedder she sneezed, or wot she did, but anyway, it tumbled off on de flo", and dat little pison scamp jumped up from his rug an" cotched it, an" she a-callin"
an"a-callin, fit ver die--I"ll snake dat Viny w"en I gets her.--Lawks, but I couldn"t help it! I laughed till I cried to see dat dog carry on.
Luckily I run up just when I did to pay my "specs to de Missis, for--I stopped him, I stopped him," she brought herself up to declare, wiping her eyes.
"Viny," said Caryl, in her little room, an hour after, when everything had been confessed and forgiven; when the delightful story had all come out, how they were really and truly to move that very afternoon; how Madam Grant had paid the rent in advance for the sunny rooms in the little cottage, and they were just driving around to surprise Aunt Sylvia when they witnessed Viny"s escapade; how the carriage was to come before very long to take dear Aunt Sylvia to her longed-for refuge; how the price of the lessons was to go for new furniture; how everything for the rest of their lives was to be cheery, winsome, and bright to the very last degree--when it was all finished, Caryl looked kindly down into the sorry little black face--"Yes, Viny," she said with the happiest little laugh, "I shall have to forgive you, for it"s the last naughty thing that you will ever do in the old home."
MARGARET SIDNEY.
Ole King Cole Was a merry old soul, And a merry old soul was he; He called for his pipe, And he called for his bowl, And he called for his fiddlers three.
"Ding Dong bell! p.u.s.s.y"s in the well!"
"Who put her in?"
"Little Tommy Green."
"Who pulled her out?"
"Big Jack Stout."
"What a naughty act was that, To drown poor p.u.s.s.y Cat!"
OUR TWO OPINIONS.
Us two wuz boys when we fell out-- Nigh to the age uv my youngest now; Don"t rec"lect what t"wuz about, Some small deef"rence, I"ll allow; Lived next neighbors twenty years, A-hatin" each other, me "nd Jim,-- He havin" his opinyin uv me, "Nd I havin" my opinyin uv him.
Grew up together "nd wouldn"t speak, Courted sisters "nd married" em, too; "Tended same meetin" house onct a week, A-hatin" each other through "nd through!
But when Abe Linkern asked the West F"r soldiers, we answered--me "nd Jim-- He havin" his opinyin uv me, "Nd I havin" my opinyin uv him.
But down in Tennessee one night There wuz sounds uv firin" far away, "Nd the Sergeant allowed ther"d be a fight With the Johnnie Rebs some time nex" day; "Nd as I wuz thinkin" of Lizzie "nd home, Jim stood afore me, long and slim-- He havin" his opinyin uv me, "Nd I havin" my opinyin uv him.
Seemed like we knew ther wuz goin" to be Serious trouble f"r me and him; Us two shuck hands, did Jim "nd me.
But nearer a word from me or Jim!
He went his way, "nd I went mine, "Nd into the battle"s roar went we-- I havin" my opinyin uv Jim, "Nd he havin" his opinyin uv me.
Jim never came back from the war again, But I haint forgot that last, last night, When, waitin" fur orders, us two men Made up, "nd shook hands afore the fight "Nd after it all, its soothin" to know That here be I, "nd yonder"s Jim-- He havin" his opinyin uv me, "Nd I havin" my opinion uv him.
EUGENE FIELD.