"We thought maybe your children might like to go to Sunday-School,"
said Maria, with a great deal of trepidation; "and we just came to ask them. That"s all."
"How did ye know but they went already?" the woman asked, looking at Maria from the corner of her eye.
"I didn"t know. I just came to ask them."
"Well, I just advise you not to mix yourself with people"s affairs till you _do_ know a little about "em. What business is it o" yourn, eh, whether my children goes to Sunday-School? Sunday-School! what a poke it is!"
"They did not come to _our_ Sunday-School," said Matilda, for her sister was nonplussed; "and we would like to have them come; unless they were going somewhere else."
"They may speak for themselves," said Mrs. Dow; and she opened an inner door, and called in a shrill voice--"Araminty!--Jemimy!--Alexander!--come right along down, and if ye don"t I"ll whip ye."
She went back to her washing-tub, and Maria and Matilda looked to see three depressed specimens of young human life appear at that inner door; but first tumbled down and burst in a st.u.r.dy, rugged young rascal of some eight or nine years; and after him a girl a little older, with the blackest of black eyes and hair, the latter hanging straight over her face and ears. The eyes of both fastened upon their strange visitors, and seemed as if they would move no more.
"Them girls is come to get you to their Sunday-School," said the mother. "Don"t you want for to go?"
No answer, and no move of the black eyes. Matilda certainly thought they looked as if they feared the lifting of no mortal hand, their mother"s or any other.
"Would you like to go to Sunday-School?" inquired Maria politely, driven to speak by the necessities of the silence. But she might as well have asked Mrs. Dow"s wash-tub. The mother laughed a little to herself.
"Guess you might as well go along back the road ye come!" she said.
"You won"t get my Araminty Jemimy into no Sunday-School o" yourn this time. Maybe when she"s growed older and wiser-like, she"ll come and see you. She don" know what a Sunday-School"s like. She thinks it"s some sort of a trap."
"I ain"t afraid!" spoke out black eyes.
"I didn"t say you was," said her mother. "I might ha" said you was cunnin" enough to keep your foot out of it."
"It is not a trap," said Matilda, boldly. "It is a pleasant place, where we sing, and learn nice things."
"My children don"t want to learn none o" your nice things," said the woman. "I can teach "em to home."
"But you don"t!" said black eyes. "You don"t _never_ learn us _nothing!_"
There was not the slightest sweet desire of learning evidenced in this speech. It breathed nothing but defiance.
"Alexander, won"t _you_ come?" said Matilda, timidly, as her sister moved to the door. For Maria"s courage gave out. But at that question the young urchin addressed set up a roar of hoa.r.s.e laughter, throwing himself down and rolling over on the floor. His mother shoved him out of her way with a push that was very like a kick, and his sister, seizing a wringing wet piece of clothes from the wash-tub, dropped it spitefully on his head. There was promise of a fight; and Matilda and Maria hurried out. They hastened their steps through the garden, and even out in the high road they ran a little to get away from Mrs. Dow"s neighbourhood.
"Well!" said Maria, "what do you think now, Tilly? I hope you have got enough for once of this kind of thing. I promise you I have."
"Hush!" said Matilda. "Some one is calling."
They stopped and turned. A shout was certainly sent after them from the gate they had quitted--"Girls, hollo!--Sunday-School girls, hollo!"
"Do you hear?" said Matilda.
"Sunday-School girls!--come back!"
"What can they want?" said Maria.
"We must go see," said Matilda.
So they went towards the gate again. By the gate they could soon see the shock head of Alexander; he had got rid of the wash-tub and his mother and his sister--all three; and he was waiting there to speak to them. The girls hurried up again till they confronted his grinning face on the other side of the gate.
"What do you want?" said Maria. "What do you call us back for?"
"I didn"t call you," said the boy.
"Yes, you did; you called us back; and we have come back all this way.
What do you want to say?"
Alexander"s face was dull, even in his triumph. No sparkle or gleam of mischief prepared the girls for his next speech.
"I say--ain"t you green!"
But another shout of rude laughter followed it; and another roll and tumble, though these last were on the snow. Maria and her sister turned and walked away till out of hearing.
"I never heard of such horrible people!" said Maria; "never! And this is what you get, Matilda, by your dreadful going after Sunday-scholars and such things. I do hope you have got enough of it."
But Matilda only drew deep sighs, one after another, at intervals, and made no reply.
"Don"t you see what a goose you are?" persisted Maria. "Don"t you see?"
"No," said Matilda. "I don"t see that."
"Well, you might. Just look at what a time we have had, only because you fancied there were two children at that house."
"Well, there _are_ two children."
"Such children!" said Maria,
"I wish Mr. Richmond would go to see them," said Matilda.
"It would be no use for Mr. Richmond or anybody to go and see them,"
said Maria. "They are too wicked."
"But you cannot tell beforehand," said Matilda.
"And so I say, Tilly, the only way is to keep out of such places. I hope you"ll be content now."
Matilda was hardly content; for the sighs kept coming every now and then. So they went down the hill again, and over the bridge, past the glen and the burnt mill, and began to go up on the other side. Now across the way, at the top of the bank that overhung the dell, there stood a house of more than common size and elegance, in the midst of grounds that seemed to be carefully planted. A fine brick wall enclosed these grounds on the roadside, and at the top of the hill an iron gate gave entrance to them.
"O Tilly," exclaimed Maria, "the Lardners" gate is open. Look! Suppose we go in."
"I should not like to go in," said the little one.
"Why not? There"s n.o.body at home; they haven"t come yet; and it"s such a good chance. You know, Clarissa says that people have leave to go into people"s great places and see them, in England, where she has been."
"But this is not a great place, and we have not leave," urged Matilda.