CHAPTER XVII.
After breakfast came family worship; it was the regular order of things at Woodburn. Then the captain smilingly bade his little girls go to their rooms and dress for company.
“Oh yes!” cried Lulu, dancing away to do his bidding. “Eva is coming, Gracie. Papa told me so.”
At that Gracie laughed, and exchanged a knowing glance with her father and Violet.
But Lulu, hurrying on ahead, did not see it. She turned round at the door, saying, “O papa, I forgot to ask what you want me to wear?”
“Ah! Suppose we go with them, Mamma Vi, and help them in the selection of dresses and ornaments,” he said.
“Agreed!” said Violet, and they all went gaily up stairs together.
“Some one seems to have already made a selection for you, Lulu,” remarked the captain as they entered her room, passing into it before going into Gracie’s.
“Why, so they have!” she exclaimed, running up to the bed. “Oh, what a lovely newwhite dress! an elegant sash too! Papa, are they presents from you?”
He nodded assent as she ran into his arms to hug and kiss him by way of thanks.
“Papa’s gift and papa’s taste,” said Violet. “He made the purchase entirely alone, and I must acknowledge that I could not have done better myself,” she added laughingly.
“They’re just as beautiful as they can be!” said Lulu, examining them again; “such lovely embroidery! and the very handsomest sash I ever saw.”
“Really, I feel encouraged to try again one of these days,” laughed her father.
“I hope Gracie has the same,” said Lulu, looking up inquiringly into his face.
“Just the same, except the color of the sash,” he replied. “I think she will find them on the bed in her room. Now I will leave you to put on your new finery, and when you are both dressed, come to me in the library and let me see how you look.”
“Oh, just wait a minute and let me hug you once more, you dearest, kindest papa!” cried Lulu, running to him again.
“Twice, if you wish, daughter,” he returned, laughingly submitting to her renewed embraces then hugging her so tight that she cried out, “Oh, not quite so hard, papa, you’ll squeeze the breath out of me!”
“I should be sorry to do that,” he said, kissing and releasing her.
“Oh, Gracie, what a dear, good father we have! what nice,nicesurprises he’s given me for my birthday!” exclaimed Lulu, as the door closed on him and Violet. “Did you know about them beforehand?”
“Yes, all but the lockets. Papa, mamma, and Maxie and I talked it all over together; when you weren’t by, you know; and it was such fun to think how surprised and glad you’d be. Now we’d better hurry and get dressed before Eva comes.”
A little later, hand in hand and arrayed in the new finery, they presented themselves before their father and Violet in the library, asking, “Will we do, papa?”
“I think so,” he said, regarding them with eyes full of fatherly pride and affection. “I certainly should not be ashamed to claim you anywhere as my own little daughters.”
“You would not be that, my dear, if you saw them in rags,” said Violet; “your fatherly heart would only go out to them in stronger affection because of their unhappy condition.”
“Yes, indeed, Mamma Vi,” said Max, who had just come in from the grounds; “but papa would go without a coat for himself before he would let his children be in rags.”
“Oh hark! I hear wheels! Eva has come!”cried Lulu, hurrying out through the hall to the front door, the others following.
To her surprise not only the Fairview carriage, but those of Ion and the Oaks were there on the drive, and her young friends Eva, Rosie, Lora, Sydney and Maud, and several others, all in holiday attire, came tripping in with merry greetings and good wishes.
And each one had a little birthday gift for her—flowers, fruit, confectionery or some trifle, the work of her own hands.
“Oh, girls,” cried Lulu, “I’m delighted to see you! It’s a surprise party to me. I wanted a party ever so much, but I didn’t know I was going to have it.”
“But Eva and I knew,” said Rosie, “it was told us as a great secret, and we’ve been in ever such a hurry to see how surprised and glad you’d be.”
The weather was delightful, the grounds were looking very lovely and inviting, every one preferred them to the house, and the day was spent in out of door sports, in some of which the captain joined, Max taking part also.
At dinner-time a table was set in a beautiful grove not far from the dwelling and spread with abundance of dainty and delicious viands, the children being unanimously of the opinion that it would be far pleasanter to eat there than within doors.
When their appetites had been fully satisfied, the captain gathered them about him in the shade of a beautiful magnolia, and entertained them with stories of seafaring life and foreign lands.
Then their sports were renewed.
They went into the bit of woods belonging to the estate and played hide and seek, and Poor Puss Wants a Corner among the trees.
The captain and Violet had left them for a time, having been summoned to the house to receive some callers, when a serious accident happened.
Rosie gave a sudden, piercing shriek, and cried out that a rattlesnake had bitten her. At the same instant several of the girls and Max also saw it gliding away through the grass. He seized a large stone, ran after and attacked it, while the frightened girls gathered round Rosie asking, “Where, where are you bitten?”
“On my ankle!” she cried. “Oh! oh! what shall I do? Oh, somebody run to the house and ask them to send for Cousin Arthur as quick as they can. But I’ll die before they can get him here! So it’s no use.”
But before her sentence was half finished several of them were flying toward the mansion.
Lulu was not one of them. She had dropped down on her knees beside Rosie, who was now seated on the grass, crying and wringing herhands. Without a word she rapidly tore off Rosie’s slipper and stocking, tied a handkerchief tightly round her leg, just above the wound, then put her lips to it and sucked away the poison.
“Oh, Lu, Lu, don’t! It’ll kill you!” cried Grace, in horror.
“Oh, Lu, how good in you! But how can you bear to do it?” sobbed Rosie.
But Lulu did not stop to answer either of them.
Meantime the cries and screams of the frightened girls had brought everybody running to see what was amiss. Among them was Dr. Arthur Conly himself.
He was a frequent visitor to Woodburn, being strongly attached to his Cousin Violet, a great admirer of the captain, and quite fond of the children, and had stopped in passing but a moment before the alarm.
“A rattlesnake! a rattlesnake! it has bitten Rosie!” was the terrible announcement of the girls whom he and the captain met on the threshold, and both gentlemen hastened at the top of their speed in the direction of the woods, guided to the spot by the continued cries of the children there, and knowing that the least delay might prove fatal.
They found Lulu still sucking the wound.
“Brave girl! It is the best thing that couldpossibly have been done!” exclaimed the doctor. “I trust and believe that you have saved her life.”
Max came panting up. “We’ve killed it!” he said. “Ajax came to my assistance with a pitchfork! Oh, Rosie, are you badly hurt?”
Rosie only sobbed in reply. She was thoroughly frightened. She didn’t want to die, and was very much afraid the bite might prove fatal.
“I think you may stop now, Lulu,” the doctor said, and the little girl rose from her knees looking very white and faint.
Her father caught her in his arms and carried her away to a rustic seat a few yards distant, while the doctor took charge of Rosie.
“Papa, I feel very—very—sick,” faltered Lulu, laying her head on his shoulder. “Do you think—it’ll kill me?”
“No, my dear, brave darling,” he answered, in moved tones; “the poison does no harm taken into the stomach, although it is deadly when it gets into the blood. I think you are sick from the mere thought of having swallowed it. But how did you come to know so well just what to do?”
“I read it once, papa, and I thought, now I’ll remember that, because Gracie or Max might get bitten, and though I’d hatedreadfully,dreadfullyto do it, I’d be glad to save their lives.”
“My own darling! my dear, brave, self-forgetful little daughter!” he said, holding her close to his heart, “you have made your father a proud and happy man to-day! proud and glad that his dear little girl has shown such presence of mind and willingness to sacrifice herself for another!”
She looked up with a flash of exceeding joy in her eyes, then dropping her head on his shoulder again, burst into a perfect storm of tears and sobs.
He knew it was simply the reaction from the excitement of what she had just gone through, and merely continued to hold her in a close embrace, soothing her with words of love and tenderest caresses.
Then when she had grown comparatively calm, he half led, half carried her back to the house and made her lie down on a sofa.
Rosie had been carried to an upper room, put to bed, and was being cared for by the doctor, Violet and her mother, who had just come to Woodburn, intending to spend the evening and take Rosie home, and had been met at the entrance with the news of the little girl’s injury.
Grace had followed her father and was close beside him when he laid Lulu down.
“Papa,” she sobbed, “is—is Lu hurt too?Oh, I was afraid she’d be killed doing that for Rosie!”
“No, pet; she is not hurt,” he answered, drawing the little weeper into his arms.
“Then what makes her look so white?”
“She feels a little sick; but will get over it very soon, I hope. Come in, my dears,” seeing the other young guests gathered about the door. “This seems an unfortunate ending to your day’s pleasure.”
They came in very quietly, looking sober and subdued, asking how Lulu was, and receiving the same reply he had given to Gracie.
“Where is Max?” asked the captain, but nobody knew.
“I think it was very brave in him to run after that snake and kill it,” remarked Maud Dinsmore.
Just then the boy appeared at the door. He was half breathless with excitement.
“The men have found another, and killed it, too,” he announced.
“Ah, I am glad to hear it!” said his father; “it was doubtless the mate of the first one, and now we may hope we will be troubled with no more of them.”
“What’s the matter with you, Lulu? you weren’t bitten too, were you?” asked Max in sudden alarm, as he caught sight of the pale face on the sofa pillow.
“No,” said his father; and several young voices began an eager recital of what she had done for Rosie.
Max’s eyes sparkled. “I’m proud of you, Lu,” he said, going to the side of her couch.
“’Twasn’t much; anybody could have done it,” she returned, coloring and looking embarrassed.
“But ’tisn’t everybody that would,” Max said. “So dreadfully disagreeable; not to say dangerous. Wasn’t it dangerous, papa?”
“No; unless she had a scratch or sore about her mouth; which I think she has not,” with a somewhat startled, anxious look at Lulu.
“No, papa; not a bit,” she said, and his countenance expressed relief.
“I must go and inquire about Rosie,” he said, rising and turning to leave the room. “But I shall be back again in a few minutes,” he added, catching an entreating look from Lulu.
When he returned Violet was with him. She went quickly to Lulu’s couch, and bending down over her kissed her several times, saying in tremulous tones, “You dear, dear child; how brave and self forgetful you were! We all think you have saved Rosie’s life; the doctor has strong hopes that she will get over it.”
“I am so glad to have been able to do it, Mamma Vi,” returned Lulu, putting her arms affectionately round Violet’s neck.
There was no more merry-making for that day. Tea was ready presently, and shortly after leaving the table all the young guests, except Rosie and Eva, took their departure. Max, Eva, Lulu and Grace spent a quiet evening together, and rather wearied with the excitement of the day, were ready to go early to bed.
Grace being the feeblest, was the most weary of all. Her father carried her up the stairs and into her room; nor did he leave her till her head rested on her pillow, and the sweet blue eyes had closed in sleep.
He was just turning to go, when the door leading into the children’s sitting-room softly opened, and Lulu looked up at him with entreating eyes.
He answered the look with a smile and nod of acquiescence, as he moved noiselessly across the floor, in her direction.
“You know I could never do without my good-night-talk on my birthday, dear papa,” she said, as he joined her, and, taking possession of an easy chair, drew her to his knee.
“No, certainly not,” he answered, caressing her. “I planned to make it a happy day to you, my darling, but could not foresee the danger that met you and your mates in the wood.”
“No, papa, and it was a very happy day till then. Oh, I am sorry for poor Rosie!”
“So am I; yet feel most thankful that thebitten one was not either of my beloved children. I think, too, that Rosie will recover, and at some not very distant day be none the worse for what has occurred.
“And the presence of mind, the promptness to act in an emergency, and the unselfish kindness shown by my dear eldest daughter, are a very great gratification to me.”
“Papa,” she said, her eyes shining with joy, “it is sweeter than the sweetest music to hear such words from you.”
He caressed her silently for a moment. Then he said, “You have made a good beginning of this new year of yours. I hope, my darling, you will go on being cheerful, pleasant-tempered and obedient, and doing any and every noble, unselfish deed for which you may have opportunity. These anniversaries are milestones on the road we are traveling, and at each one we should make a determined effort to press forward with redoubled energy towards the goal the Bible sets before us; to forsake evil ways, and to seek to be the children of God, honoring and serving him more and more faithfully as we draw nearer and nearer our journey’s end. ‘The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day!’ Ah, my dear child, the longing desire of my heart is to see you treading that path.”