“Come again soon, little dear,” whispered Dan, fastening his best green-and-gold beetle in her hat.
“Don’t forget me, Princess, whatever you do,” said the engaging Tommy, taking a last stroke of the pretty hair.
“I am coming to your house next week, and then I shall see you, Bess,” added Nat, as if he found consolation in the thought.
“Do shake hands now,” cried Jack, offering a smooth paw.
“Here are two nice new ones to remember us by,” said Dick and Dolly, presenting fresh whistles, quite unconscious that seven old ones had been privately deposited in the kitchen-stove.
“My little precious! I shall work you a bookmark right away, and you must keep it always,” said Nan, with a warm embrace.
But of all the farewells, poor Billy’s was the mostpathetic, for the thought that she was really going became so unbearable that he cast himself down before her, hugging her little blue boots and blubbering despairingly, “Don’t go away! oh, don’t!” Goldilocks was so touched by this burst of feeling, that she leaned over and lifting the poor lad’s head, said, in her soft, little voice,—
“Don’t cry, poor Billy! I will tiss you and tum adain soon.”
This promise consoled Billy, and he fell back beaming with pride at the unusual honor conferred upon him.
“Me too! me too!” clamored Dick and Dolly, feeling that their devotion deserved some return. The others looked as if they would like to join in the cry; and something in the kind, merry faces about her moved the Princess to stretch out her arms and say, with reckless condescension,—
“I will tiss evvybody!”
Like a swarm of bees about a very sweet flower, the affectionate lads surrounded their pretty playmate, and kissed her till she looked like a little rose, not roughly, but so enthusiastically that nothing but the crown of her hat was visible for a moment. Then her father rescued her, and she drove away still smiling and waving her hands, while the boys sat on the fence screaming like a flock of guinea-fowls, “Come back! come back!” till she was out of sight.
They all missed her, and each dimly felt that he was better for having known a creature so lovely, delicate, and sweet; for little Bess appealed to the chivalrous instinct in them as something to love, admire, and protect with a tender sort of reverence. Many a man remembers some pretty child who has made a place in his heart and kept her memory aliveby the simple magic of her innocence; these little men were just learning to feel this power, and to love it for its gentle influence, not ashamed to let the small hand lead them, nor to own their loyalty to womankind, even in the bud.
Mrs. Bhaer was right; peace was only a temporary lull, a storm was brewing, and two days after Bess left, a moral earthquake shook Plumfield to its centre.
Tommy’s hens were at the bottom of the trouble, for if they had not persisted in laying so many eggs, he could not have sold them and made such sums. Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes. Tommy certainly could not, for he spent his income so recklessly, that Mr. Bhaer was obliged to insist on a savings-bank, and presented him with a private one—an imposing tin edifice, with the name over the door, and a tall chimney, down which the pennies were to go, there to rattle temptingly till leave was given to open a sort of trap-door in the floor.
The house increased in weight so rapidly, that Tommy soon became satisfied with his investment, and planned to buy unheard-of treasures with his capital. He kept account of the sums deposited, and was promised that he might break the bank as soon as he had five dollars, on condition that he spent the money wisely. Only one dollar was needed, and the day Mrs. Jo paid him for four dozen eggs, he was so delighted, that he raced off to the barn to display the bright quarters to Nat, who was also laying by money for the long-desired violin.
“I wish I had ’em to put with my three dollars, then I’d soon get enough to buy my fiddle,” he said, looking wistfully at the money.
“P’raps I’ll lend you some. I haven’t decided yet what I’ll do with mine,” said Tommy, tossing up his quarters, and catching them as they fell.
“Hi! boys! come down to the brook and see what a jolly great snake Dan’s got!” called a voice from behind the barn.
“Come on,” said Tommy; and, laying his money inside the old winnowing machine, away he ran, followed by Nat.
The snake was very interesting, and then a long chase after a lame crow, and its capture, so absorbed Tommy’s mind and time, that he never thought of his money till he was safely in bed that night.
“Never mind, no one but Nat knows where it is,” said the easy-going lad, and fell asleep untroubled by any anxiety about his property.
Next morning, just as the boys assembled for school, Tommy rushed into the room breathlessly, demanding,—
“I say, who has got my dollar?”
“What are you talking about?” asked Franz.
Tommy explained, and Nat corroborated his statement.
Every one else declared they knew nothing about it, and began to look suspiciously at Nat, who got more and more alarmed and confused with each denial.
“Somebody must have taken it,” said Franz, as Tommy shook his fist at the whole party, and wrathfully declared that—
“By thunder turtles! if I get hold of the thief, I’ll give him what he won’t forget in a hurry.”
“Keep cool, Tom; we shall find him out; thievesalways come to grief,” said Dan, as one who knew something of the matter.
“May be some tramp slept in the barn and took it,” suggested Ned.
“No, Silas don’t allow that; besides, a tramp wouldn’t go looking in that old machine for money,” said Emil, with scorn.
“Wasn’t it Silas himself?” said Jack.
“Well, I like that! Old Si is as honest as daylight. You wouldn’t catch him touching a penny of ours,” said Tommy, handsomely defending his chief admirer from suspicion.
“Whoever it was had better tell, and not wait to be found out,” said Demi, looking as if an awful misfortune had befallen the family.
“I know you think it’s me,” broke out Nat, red and excited.
“You are the only one who knew where it was,” said Franz.
“I can’t help it—I didn’t take it. I tell you I didn’t—I didn’t!” cried Nat, in a desperate sort of way.
“Gently, gently, my son! What is all this noise about?” and Mr. Bhaer walked in among them.
Tommy repeated the story of his loss, and, as he listened, Mr. Bhaer’s face grew graver and graver; for, with all their faults and follies, the lads till now had been honest.
“Take your seats,” he said; and, when all were in their places, he added slowly, as his eye went from face to face with a grieved look, that was harder to bear than a storm of words,—
“Now, boys, I shall ask each one of you a single question, and I want an honest answer. I am notgoing to try to frighten, bribe, or surprise the truth out of you, for every one of you have got a conscience, and know what it is for. Now is the time to undo the wrong done to Tommy, and to set yourselves right before us all. I can forgive the yielding to a sudden temptation much easier than I can deceit. Don’t add a lie to the theft, but confess frankly, and we will all try to help you make us forget and forgive.”
He paused a moment, and one might have heard a pin drop, the room was so still; then slowly and impressively he put the question to each one, receiving the same answer in varying tones from all. Every face was flushed and excited, so that Mr. Bhaer could not take color as a witness, and some of the little boys were so frightened that they stammered over the two short words as if guilty, though it was evident that they could not be. When he came to Nat, his voice softened, for the poor lad looked so wretched, Mr. Bhaer felt for him. He believed him to be the culprit, and hoped to save the boy from another lie, by winning him to tell the truth without fear.
“Now, my son, give me an honest answer. Did you take the money?”
“No, sir!” and Nat looked up at him imploringly.
As the words fell from his trembling lips, somebody hissed.
“Stop that!” cried Mr. Bhaer, with a sharp rap on his desk, as he looked sternly toward the corner whence the sound came.
Ned, Jack, and Emil sat there, and the first two looked ashamed of themselves, but Emil called out,—
“It wasn’t me, uncle! I’d be ashamed to hit a fellow when he is down.”
“Good for you!” cried Tommy, who was in a sad state of affliction at the trouble his unlucky dollar had made.
“Silence!” commanded Mr. Bhaer; and when it came, he said soberly,—
“I amverysorry, Nat, but evidences are against you, and your old fault makes us more ready to doubt you than we should be if we could trust you as we do some of the boys, who never fib. But mind, my child, I do not charge you with this theft; I shall not punish you for it till I amperfectlysure, nor ask any thing more about it. I shall leave it for you to settle with your own conscience. If you are guilty, come to me at any hour of the day or night and confess it, and I will forgive and help you to amend. If you are innocent, the truth will appear sooner or later, and the instant it does, I will be the first to beg your pardon for doubting you, and will so gladly do my best to clear your character before us all.”
“I didn’t! I didn’t!” sobbed Nat, with his head down upon his arms, for he could not bear the look of distrust and dislike which he read in the many eyes fixed on him.
“I hope not.” Mr. Bhaer paused a minute, as if to give the culprit, whoever he might be, one more chance. Nobody spoke, however, and only sniffs of sympathy from some of the little fellows broke the silence. Mr. Bhaer shook his head, and added, regretfully,—
“There is nothing more to be done, then, and I have but one thing to say: I shall not speak of this again, and I wish you all to follow my example. I cannot expect you to feel as kindly toward any one whom you suspect as before this happened, but I do expect and desire that you will not torment the suspectedperson in any way,—he will have a hard enough time without that. Now go to your lessons.”
“Father Bhaer let Nat off too easy,” muttered Ned to Emil, as they got out their books.
“Hold your tongue,” growled Emil, who felt that this event was a blot upon the family honor.
Many of the boys agreed with Ned, but Mr. Bhaer was right, nevertheless; and Nat would have been wiser to confess on the spot and have the trouble over, for even the hardest whipping he ever received from his father was far easier to bear than the cold looks, the avoidance, and general suspicion that met him on all sides. If ever a boy was sent to Coventry and kept there, it was poor Nat; and he suffered a week of slow torture, though not a hand was raised against him, and hardly a word said.
That was the worst of it; if they would only have talked it out, or even have thrashed him all round, he could have stood it better than the silent distrust that made every face so terrible to meet. Even Mrs. Bhaer’s showed traces of it, though her manner was nearly as kind as ever; but the sorrowful anxious look in Father Bhaer’s eyes cut Nat to the heart, for he loved his teacher dearly, and knew that he had disappointed all his hopes by this double sin.
Only one person in the house entirely believed in him, and stood up for him stoutly against all the rest. This was Daisy. She could not explain why she trusted him against all appearances, she only felt that she could not doubt him, and her warm sympathy made her strong to take his part. She would not hear a word against him from any one, and actually slapped her beloved Demi when he tried to convince her that itmusthave been Nat, because no one else knew where the money was.
“May be the hens ate it; they are greedy old things,” she said; and when Demi laughed, she lost her temper, slapped the amazed boy, and then burst out crying and ran away, still declaring, “He didn’t! he didn’t! he didn’t!”
Neither aunt nor uncle tried to shake the child’s faith in her friend, but only hoped her innocent instinct might prove sure, and loved her all the better for it. Nat often said, after it was over, that he couldn’t have stood it, if it had not been for Daisy. When the others shunned him, she clung to him closer than ever, and turned her back on the rest. She did not sit on the stairs now when he solaced himself with the old fiddle, but went in and sat beside him, listening with a face so full of confidence and affection, that Nat forgot disgrace for a time, and was happy. She asked him to help her with her lessons, she cooked him marvellous messes in her kitchen, which he ate manfully, no matter what they were, for gratitude gave a sweet flavor to the most distasteful. She proposed impossible games of cricket and ball, when she found that he shrank from joining the other boys. She put little nosegays from her garden on his desk, and tried in every way to show thatshewas not a fair-weather friend, but faithful through evil as well as good repute. Nan soon followed her example, in kindness at least; curbed her sharp tongue, and kept her scornful little nose from any demonstration of doubt or dislike, which was good of Madame Giddy-gaddy, for she firmly believed that Nat took the money.
Most of the boys let him severely alone, but Dan, though he said he despised him for being a coward, watched over him with a grim sort of protection, and promptly cuffed any lad who dared to molest hismate or make him afraid. His idea of friendship was as high as Daisy’s, and, in his own rough way, he lived up to it as loyally.
Sitting by the brook one afternoon, absorbed in the study of the domestic habits of water-spiders, he overheard a bit of conversation on the other side of the wall. Ned, who was intensely inquisitive, had been on tenter-hooks to knowcertainlywho was the culprit; for of late one or two of the boys had begun to think that they were wrong, Nat was so steadfast in his denials, and so meek in his endurance of their neglect. This doubt had teased Ned past bearing, and he had several times privately beset Nat with questions, regardless of Mr. Bhaer’s express command. Finding Nat reading alone on the shady side of the wall, Ned could not resist stopping for a nibble at the forbidden subject. He had worried Nat for some ten minutes before Dan arrived, and the first word the spider-student heard were these, in Nat’s patient, pleading voice,—
“Don’t, Ned! oh, don’t! I can’t tell you because I don’t know, and it’s mean of you to keep nagging at me on the sly, when Father Bhaer told you not to plague me. You wouldn’t dare to if Dan was round.”
“I ain’t afraid of Dan; he’s nothing but an old bully. Don’t believe but what he took Tom’s money, and you know it, and won’t tell. Come, now!”
“He didn’t, but, if he did, Iwouldstand up for him, he has always been so good to me,” said Nat, so earnestly, that Dan forgot his spiders, and rose quickly to thank him, but Ned’s next words arrested him.
“IknowDan did it, and gave the money to you. Shouldn’t wonder if he got his living picking pocketsbefore he came here, for nobody knows any thing about him but you,” said Ned, not believing his own words, but hoping to get the truth out of Nat by making him angry.
He succeeded in a part of his ungenerous wish, for Nat cried out, fiercely,—
“If you say that again I’ll go and tell Mr. Bhaer all about it. I don’t want to tell tales, but, by George! I will, if you don’t let Dan alone.”
“Then you’ll be a sneak, as well as a liar and a thief,” began Ned, with a jeer, for Nat had borne insult to himself so meekly, the other did not believe he would dare to face the master just to stand up for Dan.
What he might have added I cannot tell, for the words were hardly out of his mouth when a long arm from behind took him by the collar, and, jerking him over the wall in a most promiscuous way, landed him with a splash in the middle of the brook.
“Say that again and I’ll duck you till you can’t see!” cried Dan, looking like a modern Colossus of Rhodes as he stood, with a foot on either side of the narrow stream, glaring down at the discomfited youth in the water.
“I was only in fun,” said Ned.
“You are a sneak yourself to badger Nat round the corner. Let me catch you at it again, and I’ll souse you in the river next time. Get up, and clear out!” thundered Dan, in a rage.
Ned fled, dripping, and his impromptu sitz-bath evidently did him good, for he was very respectful to both the boys after that, and seemed to have left his curiosity in the brook. As he vanished Dan jumped over the wall, and found Nat lying as if quite worn out and bowed down with his troubles.
“He won’t pester you again, I guess. If he does, just tell me, and I’ll see to him,” said Dan, trying to cool down.
“I don’t mind what he says about me so much, I’ve got used to it,” answered Nat, sadly; “but I hate to have him pitch into you.”
“How do you know he isn’t right?” asked Dan, turning his face away.
“What, about the money?” cried Nat, looking up with a startled air.
“Yes.”
“But I don’t believe it!Youdon’t care for money; all you want is your old bugs and things,” and Nat laughed, incredulously.
“I want a butterfly net as much as you want a fiddle; why shouldn’t I steal the money for it as much as you?” said Dan, still turning away, and busily punching holes in the turf with his stick.
“I don’t think you would. You like to fight and knock folks round sometimes, but you don’t lie, and I don’t believe you’d steal,” and Nat shook his head decidedly.
“I’ve done both. I used to fib like fury; it’s too much trouble now; and I stole things to eat out of gardens when I ran away from Page, so you see Iama bad lot,” said Dan, speaking in the rough, reckless way which he had been learning to drop lately.
“O Dan! Don’t say it’s you! I’d rather have it any of the other boys,” cried Nat, in such a distressed tone that Dan looked pleased, and showed that he did, by turning round with a queer expression in his face, though he only answered,—
“I won’t say any thing about it. But don’t you fret, and we’ll pull through somehow, see if we don’t.”
Something in his face and manner gave Nat a newidea; and he said, pressing his hands together, in the eagerness of his appeal,—
“I think you know who did it. If you do, beg him to tell, Dan. It’s so hard to have ’em all hate me for nothing. I don’t think Icanbear it much longer. If I had any place to go to, I’d run away, though I love Plumfield dearly; but I’m not brave and big like you, so I must stay and wait till some one shows them that I haven’t lied.”
As he spoke, Nat looked so broken and despairing, that Dan could not bear it, and, muttering huskily,—
“You won’t wait long,” he walked rapidly away, and was seen no more for hours.
“What is the matter with Dan?” asked the boys of one another several times during the Sunday that followed a week which seemed as if it wouldneverend. Dan was often moody, but that day he was so sober and silent that no one could get any thing out of him. When they walked he strayed away from the rest, and came home late. He took no part in the evening conversation, but sat in the shadow, so busy with his own thoughts that he scarcely seemed to hear what was going on. When Mrs. Jo showed him an unusually good report in the Conscience Book, he looked at it without a smile, and said, wistfully,—
“You think I am getting on, don’t you?”
“Excellently, Dan! and I am so pleased, because I always thought you only needed a little help to make you a boy to be proud of.”
He looked up at her with a strange expression in his black eyes—an expression of mingled pride and love and sorrow which she could not understand then—but remembered afterward.
“I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed, but I do try,” he said, shutting the book without a sign of pleasurein the page that he usually liked so much to read over and talk about.
“Are you sick, dear?” asked Mrs. Jo, with her hand on his shoulder.
“My foot aches a little; I guess I’ll go to bed. Good-night, mother,” he added, and held the hand against his cheek a minute, then went away looking as if he had said good-by to something very dear.
“Poor Dan! he takes Nat’s disgrace to heart sadly. He is a strange boy; I wonder if I ever shall understand him thoroughly?” said Mrs. Jo to herself, as she thought over Dan’s late improvement with real satisfaction, yet felt that there was more in the lad than she had at first suspected.
One of the things which cut Nat most deeply was an act of Tommy’s, for after his loss Tommy had said to him, kindly but firmly,—
“I don’t wish to hurt you, Nat, but you see I can’t afford to lose my money, so I guess we won’t be partners any longer;” and with that Tommy rubbed out the sign, “T. Bangs & Co.”
Nat had been very proud of the “Co.,” and had hunted eggs industriously, kept his accounts all straight, and had added a good sum to his income from the sale of his share of stock in trade.
“O Tom! must you?” he said, feeling that his good name was gone for ever in the business world if this was done.
“I must,” returned Tommy, firmly. “Emil says that when one man ’bezzles (I believe that’s the word—it means to take money and cut away with it) the property of a firm, the other one sues him, or pitches into him somehow, and won’t have any thing more to do with him. Now you have ’bezzled my property; I shan’t sue you, and I shan’t pitch intoyou, but Imustdissolve the partnership, because I can’t trust you, and I don’t wish to fail.”
“I can’t make you believe me, and you won’t take my money, though I’d be thankful to give all my dollars if you’d only say you don’t think I took your money. Do let me hunt for you, I won’t ask any wages, but do it for nothing. I know all the places, and I like it,” pleaded Nat.
But Tommy shook his head, and his jolly round face looked suspicious and hard as he said, shortly, “Can’t do it; wish you didn’t know the places. Mind you don’t go hunting on the sly, and speculate in my eggs.”
Poor Nat was so hurt that he could not get over it. He felt that he had lost not only his partner and patron, but that he was bankrupt in honor, and an outlaw from the business community. No one trusted his word, written or spoken, in spite of his efforts to redeem the past falsehood; the sign was down, the firm broken up, and he a ruined man. The barn, which was the boys’ Wall Street, knew him no more. Cockletop and her sisters cackled for him in vain, and really seemed to take his misfortune to heart, for eggs were fewer, and some of the biddies retired in disgust to new nests, which Tommy could not find.
“Theytrust me,” said Nat, when he heard of it; and though the boys shouted at the idea, Nat found comfort in it, for when one is down in the world, the confidence of even a speckled hen is most consoling.
Tommy took no new partner, however, for distrust had entered in, and poisoned the peace of his once confiding soul. Ned offered to join him, but he declined, saying, with a sense of justice that did him honor,—
“It might turn out that Nat didn’t take my money,and then we could be partners again. I don’t think it will happen, but I will give him a chance, and keep the place open a little longer.”
Billy was the only person whom Bangs felt he could trust in his shop, and Billy was trained to hunt eggs, and hand them over unbroken, being quite satisfied with an apple or a sugar-plum for wages. The morning after Dan’s gloomy Sunday, Billy said to his employer, as he displayed the results of a long hunt,—
“Only two.”
“It gets worse and worse; I never saw such provoking old hens,” growled Tommy, thinking of the days when he often had six to rejoice over. “Well, put ’em in my hat and give me a new bit of chalk; I must mark ’em up, any way.”
Billy mounted a peck-measure, and looked into the top of the machine, where Tommy kept his writing materials.
“There’s lots of money in here,” said Billy.
“No, there isn’t. Catch me leaving my cash round again,” returned Tommy.
“I see ’em—one, four, eight, two dollars,” persisted Billy, who had not yet mastered the figures correctly.
“What a jack you are!” and Tommy hopped up to get the chalk for himself, but nearly tumbled down again, for there actually were four bright quarters in a row, with a bit of paper on them directed to “Tom Bangs,” that there might be no mistake.
“Thunder turtles!” cried Tommy, and seizing them he dashed into the house, bawling wildly, “It’s all right! Got my money! Where’s Nat?”
He was soon found, and his surprise and pleasure were so genuine that few doubted his word when he now denied all knowledge of the money.
“How could I put it back when I didn’t take it?Do believe me now, and be good to me again,” he said, so imploringly, that Emil slapped him on the back, and declaredhewould for one.
“So will I, and I’m jolly glad it’s not you. But who the dickens is it?” said Tommy, after shaking hands heartily with Nat.
“Never mind, as long as it’s found,” said Dan with his eyes fixed on Nat’s happy face.
“Well, I like that! I’m not going to have my things hooked, and then brought back like the juggling man’s tricks,” cried Tommy, looking at his money as if he suspected witchcraft.
“We’ll find him out somehow, though he was sly enough to print this so his writing wouldn’t be known,” said Franz, examining the paper.
“Demi prints tip-top,” put in Rob, who had not a very clear idea what the fuss was all about.
“You can’t make me believe it’s him, not if you talk till you are blue,” said Tommy, and the others hooted at the mere idea; for the little deacon, as they called him, was above suspicion.
Nat felt the difference in the way they spoke of Demi and himself, and would have given all he had or ever hoped to have to be so trusted; for he had learned how easy it is to lose the confidence of others, how very, very hard to win it back, and truth became to him a precious thing since he had suffered from neglecting it.
Mr. Bhaer was very glad one step had been taken in the right direction, and waited hopefully for yet further revelations. They came sooner than he expected, and in a way that surprised and grieved him very much. As they sat at supper that night, a square parcel was handed to Mr. Bhaer from Mrs. Bates, a neighbor. A note accompanied the parcel,and, while Mr. Bhaer read it, Demi pulled off the wrapper, exclaiming, as he saw its contents,—
“Why, it’s the book Uncle Teddy gave Dan!”
“The devil!” broke from Dan, for he had not yet quite cured himself of swearing, though he tried hard.
Mr. Bhaer looked up quickly at the sound. Dan tried to meet his eyes, but could not; his own fell, and he sat biting his lips, getting redder and redder till he was the picture of shame.
“What is it?” asked Mrs. Bhaer, anxiously.
“I should have preferred to talk about this in private, but Demi has spoilt that plan, so I may as well have it out now,” said Mr. Bhaer, looking a little stern, as he always did when any meanness or deceit came up for judgment.
“The note is from Mrs. Bates, and she says that her boy Jimmy told her he bought this book of Dan last Saturday. She saw that it was worth much more than a dollar, and thinking there was some mistake, has sent it to me. Did you sell it, Dan?”
“Yes, sir,” was the slow answer.
“Why?”
“Wanted money.”
“For what?”
“To pay somebody.”
“To whom did you owe it?”
“Tommy.”
“Never borrowed a cent of me in his life,” cried Tommy, looking scared, for he guessed what was coming now, and felt that on the whole he would have preferred witchcraft, for he admired Dan immensely.
“Perhaps he took it,” cried Ned, who owed Dan a grudge for the ducking, and, being a mortal boy, liked to pay it off.
“O Dan!” cried Nat, clasping his hands, regardless of the bread and butter in them.
“It is a hard thing to do, but I must have this settled, for I cannot have you watching each other like detectives, and the whole school disturbed in this way. Did you put that dollar in the barn this morning?” asked Mr. Bhaer.
Dan looked him straight in the face, and answered steadily, “Yes, I did.”
A murmur went round the table, Tommy dropped his mug with a crash; Daisy cried out, “I knew it wasn’t Nat;” Nan began to cry, and Mrs. Jo left the room, looking so disappointed, sorry, and ashamed that Dan could not bear it. He hid his face in his hands a moment, then threw up his head, squared his shoulders as if settling some load upon them, and said, with the dogged look, and half-resolute, half-reckless tone he had used when he first came—
“I did it; now you may do what you like to me, but I won’t say another word about it.”
“Not even that you are sorry?” asked Mr. Bhaer, troubled by the change in him.
“I ain’t sorry.”
“I’ll forgive him without asking,” said Tommy, feeling that it was harder somehow to see brave Dan disgraced than timid Nat.
“Don’t want to be forgiven,” returned Dan, gruffly.
“Perhaps you will when you have thought about it quietly by yourself. I won’t tell you now how surprised and disappointed I am, but by and by I will come up and talk to you in your room.”
“Won’t make any difference,” said Dan, trying to speak defiantly, but failing as he looked at Mr. Bhaer’s sorrowful face; and, taking his words for a dismissal, Dan left the room as if he found it impossible to stay.
It would have done him good if he had stayed; for the boys talked the matter over with such sincere regret, and pity, and wonder, it might have touched and won him to ask pardon. No one was glad to find that it was he, not even Nat; for, spite of all his faults, and they were many, every one liked Dan now, because under his rough exterior lay some of the manly virtues which we most admire and love. Mrs. Jo had been the chief prop, as well as cultivator, of Dan; and she took it sadly to heart that her last and most interesting boy had turned out so ill. The theft was bad, but the lying about it, and allowing another to suffer so much from an unjust suspicion, was worse; and most discouraging of all was the attempt to restore the money in an underhand way, for it showed not only a want of courage, but a power of deceit that boded ill for the future. Still more trying was his steady refusal to talk of the matter, to ask pardon, or express any remorse. Days passed; and he went about his lessons and his work, silent, grim, and unrepentant. As if taking warning by their treatment of Nat, he asked no sympathy of any one, rejected the advances of the boys, and spent his leisure hours roaming about the fields and woods, trying to find playmates in the birds and beasts, and succeeding better than most boys would have done, because he knew and loved them so well.
“If this goes on much longer, I’m afraid he will run away again, for he is too young to stand a life like this,” said Mr. Bhaer, quite dejected at the failure of all his efforts.
“A little while ago I should have been quite sure that nothing would tempt him away, but now I am ready for any thing, he is so changed,” answered poor Mrs. Jo, who mourned over her boy and could not becomforted, because he shunned her more than any one else, and only looked at her with the half-fierce, half-imploring eyes of a wild animal caught in a trap, when she tried to talk to him alone.
Nat followed him about like a shadow, and Dan did not repulse him as rudely as he did others, but said, in his blunt way, “Youare all right; don’t worry about me. I can stand it better than you did.”
“But I don’t like to have you all alone,” Nat would say, sorrowfully.
“I like it;” and Dan would tramp away, stifling a sigh sometimes, for hewaslonely.
Passing through the birch grove one day, he came upon several of the boys, who were amusing themselves by climbing up the trees and swinging down again, as the slender elastic stems bent till their tops touched the ground. Dan paused a minute to watch the fun, without offering to join in it, and as he stood there Jack took his turn. He had unfortunately chosen too large a tree; for when he swung off, it only bent a little way, and left him hanging at a dangerous height.
“Go back; you can’t do it!” called Ned from below.
Jack tried, but the twigs slipped from his hands, and he could not get his legs round the trunk. He kicked, and squirmed, and clutched in vain, then gave it up, and hung breathless, saying helplessly,—
“Catch me! help me! I must drop!”
“You’ll be killed if you do,” cried Ned, frightened out of his wits.
“Hold on!” shouted Dan; and up the tree he went, crashing his way along till he nearly reached Jack, whose face looked up at him, full of fear and hope.
“You’ll both come down,” said Ned, dancing with excitement on the slope underneath, while Nat heldout his arms, in the wild hope of breaking the fall.
“That’s what I want; stand from under,” answered Dan, coolly; and, as he spoke, his added weight bent the tree many feet nearer the earth.
Jack dropped safely; but the birch, lightened of half its load, flew up again so suddenly, that Dan, in the act of swinging round to drop feet foremost, lost his hold and fell heavily.
“I’m not hurt, all right in a minute,” he said, sitting up, a little pale and dizzy, as the boys gathered round him, full of admiration and alarm.
“You’re a trump, Dan, and I’m ever so much obliged to you,” cried Jack, gratefully.
“It wasn’t any thing,” muttered Dan, rising slowly.
“I say it was, and I’ll shake hands with you, though you are——” Ned checked the unlucky word on his tongue, and held out his hand, feeling that it was a handsome thing on his part.
“ButIwon’t shake hands with a sneak;” and Dan turned his back with a look of scorn, that caused Ned to remember the brook, and retire with undignified haste.
“Come home, old chap; I’ll give you a lift;” and Nat walked away with him leaving the others to talk over the feat together, to wonder when Dan would “come round,” and to wish one and all that Tommy’s “confounded money had been in Jericho before it made such a fuss.”
When Mr. Bhaer came into school next morning, he looked so happy, that the boys wondered what had happened to him, and really thought he had lost his mind when they saw him go straight to Dan, and, taking him by both hands, say all in one breath, as he shook them heartily,—
“I know all about it, and I beg your pardon. It was like you to do it, and I love you for it, though it’s never right to tell lies, even for a friend.”
“What is it?” cried Nat, for Dan said not a word, only lifted up his head, as if a weight of some sort had fallen off his back.
“Dan didnottake Tommy’s money;” and Mr. Bhaer quite shouted it, he was so glad.
“Who did?” cried the boys in a chorus.
Mr. Bhaer pointed to one empty seat, and every eye followed his finger, yet no one spoke for a minute, they were so surprised.
“Jack went home early this morning, but he left this behind him;” and in the silence Mr. Bhaer read the note which he had found tied to his door-handle when he rose.
“I took Tommy’s dollar. I was peeking in through a crack, and saw him put it there. I was afraid to tell before, though I wanted to. I didn’t care so much about Nat, but Dan is a trump, and I can’t stand it any longer. I never spent the money; it’s under the carpet in my room, right behind the washstand. I’m awful sorry. I am going home, and don’t think I shall ever come back, so Dan may have my things.“Jack.”
“I took Tommy’s dollar. I was peeking in through a crack, and saw him put it there. I was afraid to tell before, though I wanted to. I didn’t care so much about Nat, but Dan is a trump, and I can’t stand it any longer. I never spent the money; it’s under the carpet in my room, right behind the washstand. I’m awful sorry. I am going home, and don’t think I shall ever come back, so Dan may have my things.
“Jack.”
It was not an elegant confession, being badly written, much blotted, and very short; but it was a precious paper to Dan; and, when Mr. Bhaer paused, the boy went to him, saying, in rather a broken voice, but with clear eyes, and the frank, respectful manner they had tried to teach him,—
“I’ll say I’m sorry now, and ask you to forgive me, sir.”
“It was a kind lie, Dan, and I can’t help forgiving it; but you see it did no good,” said Mr. Bhaer, witha hand on either shoulder, and a face full of relief and affection.
“It kept the boys from plaguing Nat. That’s what I did it for. It made him right down miserable. I didn’t care so much,” explained Dan, as if glad to speak out after his hard silence.
“How could you do it? You are always so kind to me,” faltered Nat, feeling a strong desire to hug his friend and cry. Two girlish performances, which would have scandalized Dan to the last degree.
“It’s all right now, old fellow, so don’t be a fool,” he said, swallowing the lump in his throat, and laughing out as he had not done for weeks. “Does Mrs. Bhaer know?” he asked, eagerly.
“Yes; and she is so happy I don’t know what she will do to you,” began Mr. Bhaer, but got no farther, for here the boys came crowding about Dan in a tumult of pleasure and curiosity; but before he had answered more than a dozen questions, a voice cried out,—
“Three cheers for Dan!” and there was Mrs. Jo in the doorway waving her dish-towel, and looking as if she wanted to dance a jig for joy, as she used to do when a girl.
“Now then,” cried Mr. Bhaer, and led off a rousing hurrah, which startled Asia in the kitchen, and made old Mr. Roberts shake his head as he drove by, saying,—
“Schools are not what they were when I was young!”
Dan stood it pretty well for a minute, but the sight of Mrs. Jo’s delight upset him, and he suddenly bolted across the hall into the parlor, whither she instantly followed, and neither were seen for half an hour.
Mr. Bhaer found it very difficult to calm his excited flock; and, seeing that lessons were an impossibilityfor a time, he caught their attention by telling them the fine old story of the friends whose fidelity to one another has made their names immortal. The lads listened and remembered, for just then their hearts were touched by the loyalty of a humbler pair of friends. The lie was wrong, but the love that prompted it and the courage that bore in silence the disgrace which belonged to another, made Dan a hero in their eyes. Honesty and honor had a new meaning now; a good name was more precious than gold; for once lost money could not buy it back; and faith in one another made life smooth and happy as nothing else could do.
Tommy proudly restored the name of the firm; Nat was devoted to Dan; and all the boys tried to atone to both for former suspicion and neglect. Mrs. Jo rejoiced over her flock, and Mr. Bhaer was never tired of telling the story of his young Damon and Pythias.
The old tree saw and heard a good many little scenes and confidences that summer, because it became the favorite retreat of all the children, and the willow seemed to enjoy it, for a pleasant welcome always met them, and the quiet hours spent in its arms did them all good. It had a great deal of company one Saturday afternoon, and some little bird reported what went on there.
First came Nan and Daisy with their small tubs and bits of soap, for now and then they were seized with a tidy fit, and washed up all their dolls’ clothes in the brook. Asia would not have them “slopping round” in her kitchen, and the bath-room was forbidden since Nan forgot to turn off the water till it overflowed and came gently dripping down through the ceiling. Daisy went systematically to work, washing first the white and then the colored things, rinsing them nicely, and hanging them to dry on a cord fastened from one barberry-bush to another, and pinning them up with a set of tiny clothes-pins Ned had turned for her. But Nan put all her little things to soak in the same tub, and then forgot them while she collected thistledown to stuff a pillow for Semiramis, Queen of Babylon, as one doll was named. This took some time, and when Mrs. Giddy-gaddy came to take out her clothes, deep green stains appeared on every thing, for she had forgotten the green silk lining ofa certain cape, and its color had soaked nicely into the pink and blue gowns, the little chemises, and even the best ruffled petticoat.
“Oh me! what a mess!” sighed Nan.
“Lay them on the grass to bleach,” said Daisy, with an air of experience.
“So I will, and we can sit up in the nest and watch that they don’t blow away.”
The Queen of Babylon’s wardrobe was spread forth upon the bank, and, turning up their tubs to dry, the little washerwomen climbed into the nest, and fell to talking, as ladies are apt to do in the pauses of domestic labor.
“I’m going to have a feather-bed to go with my new pillow,” said Mrs. Giddy-gaddy, as she transferred the thistledown from her pocket to her handkerchief, losing about half in the process.
“I wouldn’t; Aunt Jo says feather-beds aren’t healthy. I never letmychildren sleep on any thing but a mattress,” returned Mrs. Shakespeare Smith, decidedly.
“I don’t care; my children are so strong they often sleep on the floor, and don’t mind it” (which was quite true). “I can’t afford nine mattresses, and I like to make beds myself.”
“Won’t Tommy charge for the feathers?”
“May be he will, but I shan’t pay him, and he won’t care,” returned Mrs. G., taking a base advantage of the well-known good-nature of T. Bangs.
“I think the pink will fade out of that dress sooner than the green mark will,” observed Mrs. S., looking down from her perch, and changing the subject, for she and her gossip differed on many points, and Mrs. Smith was a discreet lady.
“Never mind; I’m tired of dolls, and I guess Ishall put them all away and attend to my farm; I like it rather better than playing house,” said Mrs. G., unconsciously expressing the desire of many older ladies, who cannot dispose of their families so easily however.
“But you mustn’t leave them; they will die without their mother,” cried tender Mrs. Smith.
“Let ’em die then; I’m tired of fussing over babies, and I’m going to play with the boys; they need me to see to ’em,” returned the strong-minded lady.
Daisy knew nothing about woman’s rights; she quietly took all she wanted, and no one denied her claim, because she did not undertake what she could not carry out, but unconsciously used the all-powerful right of her own influence to win from others any privilege for which she had proved her fitness. Nan attempted all sorts of things, undaunted by direful failures, and clamored fiercely to be allowed to do every thing that the boys did. They laughed at her, hustled her out of the way, and protested against her meddling with their affairs. But she would not be quenched and she would be heard, for her will was strong, and she had the spirit of a rampant reformer. Mrs. Bhaer sympathized with her, but tried to curb her frantic desire for entire liberty, showing her that she must wait a little, learn self-control, and be ready to use her freedom before she asked for it. Nan had meek moments when she agreed to this, and the influences at work upon her were gradually taking effect. She no longer declared that she would be engine-driver or a blacksmith, but turned her mind to farming, and found in it a vent for the energy bottled up in her active little body. It did not quite satisfy her, however; for her sage and sweet marjoram were dumb things, and could not thank her for her care.She wanted something human to love, work for, and protect, and was never happier than when the little boys brought their cut fingers, bumped heads, or bruised joints for her to “mend up.” Seeing this, Mrs. Jo proposed that she should learn how to do it nicely, and Nursey had an apt pupil in bandaging, plastering, and fomenting. The boys began to call her “Dr. Giddy-gaddy,” and she liked it so well that Mrs. Jo one day said to the Professor—
“Fritz, I see what we can do for that child. She wants something to live for even now, and will be one of the sharp, strong, discontented women if she does not have it. Don’t let us snub her restless little nature, but do our best to give her the work she likes, and by and by persuade her father to let her study medicine. She will make a capital doctor, for she has courage, strong nerves, a tender heart, and an intense love and pity for the weak and suffering.”
Mr. Bhaer smiled at first, but agreed to try, and gave Nan an herb-garden, teaching her the various healing properties of the plants she tended, and letting her try their virtues on the children in the little illnesses they had from time to time. She learned fast, remembered well, and showed a sense and interest most encouraging to her Professor, who did not shut his door in her face because she was a little woman.
She was thinking of this, as she sat in the willow that day, and when Daisy said in her gentle way—
“I love to keep house, and mean to have a nice one for Demi when we grow up and live together.”
Nan replied with decision—
“Well, I haven’t got any brother, and I don’t want any house to fuss over. I shall have an office, with lots of bottles and drawers and pestle things in it, andI shall drive round in a horse and chaise and cure sick people. That will be such fun.”
“Ugh! how can you bear the bad-smelling stuff and the nasty little powders and castor-oil and senna and hive syrup?” cried Daisy, with a shudder.
“I shan’t have to take any, so I don’t care. Besides, they make people well, and I like to cure folks. Didn’t my sage-tea make Mother Bhaer’s headache go away, and my hops stop Ned’s toothache in five hours? So now!”
“Shall you put leeches on people, and cut off legs and pull out teeth?” asked Daisy, quaking at the thought.
“Yes, I shall do every thing; I don’t care if the people are all smashed up, I shall mend them. My grandpa was a doctor, and I saw him sew a great cut in a man’s cheek, and I held the sponge, and wasn’t frightened a bit, and Grandpa said I was a brave girl.”
“How could you? I’m sorry for sick people, and I like to nurse them, but it makes my legs shake so I have to run away. I’m not a brave girl,” sighed Daisy.
“Well, you can be my nurse, and cuddle my patients when I have given them the physic and cut off their legs,” said Nan, whose practice was evidently to be of the heroic kind.
“Ship ahoy! Where are you, Nan?” called a voice from below.
“Here we are.”
“Ay, ay!” said the voice, and Emil appeared holding one hand in the other, with his face puckered up as if in pain.
“Oh, what’s the matter?” cried Daisy, anxiously.
“A confounded splinter in my thumb. Can’t get it out. Take a pick at it, will you, Nanny?”
“It’s in very deep, and I haven’t any needle,” said Nan, examining a tarry thumb with interest.
“Take a pin,” said Emil, in a hurry.
“No, it’s too big and hasn’t got a sharp point.”
Here Daisy, who had dived into her pocket, presented a neat little housewife with four needles in it.
“You are the Posy who always has what we want,” said Emil; and Nan resolved to have a needle-book in her own pocket henceforth, for just such cases as this were always occurring in her practice.
Daisy covered her eyes, but Nan probed and picked with a steady hand, while Emil gave directions not down in any medical work or record.
“Starboard now! Steady, boys, steady! Try another tack. Heave ho! there she is!”
“Suck it,” ordered the Doctor, surveying the splinter with an experienced eye.
“Too dirty,” responded the patient, shaking his bleeding hand.
“Wait; I’ll tie it up if you have got a handkerchief.”
“Haven’t; take one of those rags down there.”
“Gracious! no, indeed; they are dolls’ clothes,” cried Daisy, indignantly.
“Take one of mine; I’d like to have you,” said Nan; and swinging himself down, Emil caught up the first “rag” he saw. It happened to be the frilled skirt; but Nan tore it up without a murmur; and when the royal petticoat was turned into a neat little bandage, she dismissed her patient with the command—
“Keep it wet, and let it alone; then it will heal right up, and not be sore.”
“What do you charge?” asked the Commodore, laughing.
“Nothing; I keep a ’spensary; that is a place where poor people are doctored free gratis for nothing,” explained Nan, with an air.
“Thank you, Doctor Giddy-gaddy. I’ll always call you in when I come to grief;” and Emil departed, but looked back to say—for one good turn deserved another—“Your duds are blowing away, Doctor.”
Forgiving the disrespectful word, “duds,” the ladies hastily descended, and, gathering up their wash, retired to the house to fire up the little stove, and go to ironing.
A passing breath of air shook the old willow, as if it laughed softly at the childish chatter which went on in the nest, and it had hardly composed itself when another pair of birds alighted for a confidential twitter.
“Now, I’ll tell you the secret,” began Tommy, who was “swellin’ wisibly” with the importance of his news.
“Tell away,” answered Nat, wishing he had brought his fiddle, it was so shady and quiet here.
“Well we fellows were talking over the late interesting case of circumstantial evidence,” said Tommy, quoting at random from a speech Franz had made at the club, “and I proposed giving Dan something to make up for our suspecting him, to show our respect, and so on, you know—something handsome and useful, that he could keep always, and be proud of. What do you think we chose?”
“A butterfly-net; he wants one ever so much,” said Nat, looking a little disappointed, for he meant to get it himself.
“No, sir; it’s to be a microscope, a real swell one, that we see what-do-you-call-’ems in water with, and stars, and ant-eggs, and all sorts of games, you know. Won’t it be a jolly good present?” said Tommy, rather confusing microscopes and telescopes in his remarks.
“Tip-top! I’m so glad! Won’t it cost a heap, though?” cried Nat, feeling that his friend was beginning to be appreciated.
“Of course it will; but we are all going to give something. I headed the paper with my five dollars; for if it is done at all, it must be done handsome.”
“What! all of it? I never did see such a generous chap as you are;” and Nat beamed upon him with sincere admiration.
“Well, you see, I’ve been so bothered with my property, that I’m tired of it, and don’t mean to save up any more, but give it away as I go along, and then nobody will envy me, or want to steal it, and I shan’t be suspecting folks, and worrying about my old cash,” replied Tommy, on whom the cares and anxieties of a millionaire weighed heavily.
“Will Mr. Bhaer let you do it?”
“He thought it was a first-rate plan, and said that some of the best men he knew preferred to do good with their money, instead of laying it up to be squabbled over when they died.”
“Your father is rich; does he do that way?”
“I’m not sure; he gives me all I want; I know that much. I’m going to talk to him about it when I go home. Anyhow, I shall set him a good example;” and Tommy was so serious, that Nat did not dare to laugh, but said, respectfully,—
“You will be able to do ever so much with your money, won’t you?”
“So Mr. Bhaer said, and he promised to advise me about useful ways of spending it. I’m going to begin with Dan; and next time I get a dollar or so, I shall do something for Dick, he’s such a good little chap, and only has a cent a week for pocket-money. He can’t earn much, you know; so I’m going tokind of see to him;” and good-hearted Tommy quite longed to begin.
“I think that’s a beautiful plan, and I’m not going to try to buy a fiddle any more; I’m going to get Dan his net all myself, and if there is any money left, I’ll do something to please poor Billy. He’s fond of me, and though he isn’t poor, he’d like some little thing from me, because I can make out what he wants better than the rest of you.” And Nat fell to wondering how much happiness could be got out of his precious three dollars.
“So I would. Now come and ask Mr. Bhaer if you can’t go in town with me on Monday afternoon, so you can get the net, while I get the microscope. Franz and Emil are going too, and we’ll have a jolly time larking round among the shops.”
The lads walked away arm-in-arm, discussing the new plans with droll importance, yet beginning already to feel the sweet satisfaction which comes to those who try, no matter how humbly, to be earthly providences to the poor and helpless, and gild their mite with the gold of charity before it is laid up where thieves cannot break through and steal.
“Come up and rest while we sort the leaves; it’s so cool and pleasant here,” said Demi, as he and Dan came sauntering home from a long walk in the woods.
“All right!” answered Dan, who was a boy of few words, and up they went.
“What makes the birch leaves shake so much more than the others?” asked inquiring Demi, who was always sure of an answer from Dan.
“They are hung differently. Don’t you see the stem where it joins the leaf is sort of pinched one way, and where it joins the twig, it is pinched another.That makes it waggle with the least bit of wind, but the elm leaves hang straight, and keep stiller.”
“How curious! will this do so?” and Demi held up a sprig of acacia, which he had broken from a little tree on the lawn, because it was so pretty.
“No; that belongs to the sort that shuts up when you touch it. Draw your finger down the middle of the stem, and see if the leaves don’t curl up,” said Dan, who was examining a bit of mica.
Demi tried it, and presently the little leaves did fold together, till the spray showed a single instead of a double line of leaves.
“I like that; tell me about the others. What do these do?” asked Demi, taking up a new branch.
“Feed silk-worms; they live on mulberry leaves, till they begin to spin themselves up. I was in a silk-factory once, and there were rooms full of shelves all covered with leaves, and worms eating them so fast that it made a rustle. Sometimes they eat so much they die. Tell that to Stuffy,” and Dan laughed, as he took up another bit of rock with a lichen on it.
“I know one thing about this mullein leaf: the fairies use them for blankets,” said Demi, who had not quite given up his faith in the existence of the little folk in green.
“If I had a microscope, I’d show you something prettier than fairies,” said Dan, wondering if he should ever own that coveted treasure. “I knew an old woman who used mullein leaves for a night-cap because she had face-ache. She sewed them together, and wore it all the time.”
“How funny! was she your grandmother?”
“Never had any. She was a queer old woman, and lived alone in a little tumble-down house with nineteen cats. Folks called her a witch, but shewasn’t, though she looked like an old rag-bag. She was real kind to me when I lived in that place, and used to let me get warm at her fire when the folks at the poorhouse were hard on me.”
“Did you live in a poorhouse?”
“A little while. Never mind that—I didn’t mean to speak of it;” and Dan stopped short in his unusual fit of communicativeness.
“Tell about the cats, please,” said Demi, feeling that he had asked an unpleasant question, and sorry for it.
“Nothing to tell; only she had a lot of ’em, and kept ’em in a barrel nights; and I used to go and tip over the barrel sometimes, and let ’em out all over the house, and then she’d scold, and chase ’em and put ’em in again, spitting and yowling like fury.”
“Was she good to them?” asked Demi, with a hearty child’s laugh, pleasant to hear.
“Guess she was. Poor old soul! she took in all the lost and sick cats in the town; and when anybody wanted one they went to Marm Webber, and she let ’em pick any kind and color they wanted, and only asked ninepence,—she was so glad to have her pussies get a good home.”
“I should like to see Marm Webber. Could I, if I went to that place?”
“She’s dead. All my folks are,” said Dan, briefly.
“I’m sorry;” and Demi sat silent a minute, wondering what subject would be safe to try next. He felt delicate about speaking of the departed lady, but was very curious about the cats, and could not resist asking softly—
“Did she cure the sick ones?”
“Sometimes. One had a broken leg, and she tied it up to a stick, and it got well; and another had fits,and she doctored it withyarbstill it was cured. But some of ’em died, and she buried ’em; and when they couldn’t get well, she killed ’em easy.”
“How?” asked Demi, feeling that there was a peculiar charm about this old woman, and some sort of joke about the cats, because Dan was smiling to himself.
“A kind lady, who was fond of cats, told her how, and gave her some stuff, and sent all her own pussies to be killed that way. Marm used to put a sponge, wet with ether, in the bottom of an old boot, then poke puss in head downwards. The ether put her to sleep in a jiffy, and she was drowned in warm water before she woke up.”
“I hope the cats didn’t feel it. I shall tell Daisy about that. You have known a great many interesting things, haven’t you?” asked Demi, and fell to meditating on the vast experience of a boy who had run away more than once, and taken care of himself in a big city.
“Wish I hadn’t sometimes.”
“Why? Don’t remembering them feel good?”
“No.”
“It’s very singular how hard it is to manage your mind,” said Demi, clasping his hands round his knees, and looking up at the sky as if for information upon his favorite topic.
“Devilish hard—no, I don’t mean that;” and Dan bit his lips, for the forbidden word slipped out in spite of him, and he wanted to be more careful with Demi than with any of the other boys.
“I’ll play I didn’t hear it,” said Demi; “and you won’t do it again, I’m sure.”
“Not if I can help it. That’s one of the things I don’t want to remember. I keep pegging away, butit don’t seem to do much good;” and Dan looked discouraged.
“Yes, it does. You don’t say half so many bad words as you used to; and Aunt Jo is pleased, because she said it was a hard habit to break up.”
“Did she?” and Dan cheered up a bit.
“You must put swearing away in your fault-drawer, and lock it up; that’s the way I do with my badness.”
“What do you mean?” asked Dan, looking as if he found Demi almost as amusing as a new sort of cockchafer or beetle.
“Well, it’s one of my private plays, and I’ll tell you, but I think you’ll laugh at it,” began Demi, glad to hold forth on this congenial subject. “I play that my mind is a round room, and my soul is a little sort of creature with wings that lives in it. The walls are full of shelves and drawers, and in them I keep my thoughts, and my goodness and badness, and all sorts of things. The goods I keep where I can see them, and the bads I lock up tight, but they get out, and I have to keep putting them in and squeezing them down, they are so strong. The thoughts I play with when I am alone or in bed, and I make up and do what I like with them. Every Sunday I put my room in order, and talk with the little spirit that lives there, and tell him what to do. He is very bad sometimes, and won’t mind me, and I have to scold him, and take him to Grandpa. He always makes him behave, and be sorry for his faults, because Grandpa likes this play, and gives me nice things to put in the drawers, and tells me how to shut up the naughties. Hadn’t you better try that way? it’s a very good one;” and Demi looked so earnest and full of faith, that Dan did not laugh at his quaint fancy, but said, soberly,—
“I don’t think there is a lock strong enough to keep my badness shut up. Any way my room is in such a clutter I don’t know how to clear it up.”
“You keep your drawers in the cabinet all spandy nice; why can’t you do the others?”
“I ain’t used to it. Will you show me how?” and Dan looked as if inclined to try Demi’s childish way of keeping a soul in order.
“I’d love to, but I don’t know how, except to talk as Grandpa does. I can’t do it good like him, but I’ll try.”
“Don’t tell any one; only now and then we’ll come here and talk things over, and I’ll pay you for it by telling all I know about my sort of things. Will that do?” and Dan held out his big, rough hand.
Demi gave his smooth, little hand readily, and the league was made; for in the happy, peaceful world where the younger boy lived, lions and lambs played together, and little children innocently taught their elders.
“Hush!” said Dan, pointing toward the house, as Demi was about to indulge in another discourse on the best way of getting badness down, and keeping it down; and peeping from their perch, they saw Mrs. Jo strolling slowly along, reading as she went, while Teddy trotted behind her, dragging a little cart upside down.
“Wait till they see us,” whispered Demi, and both sat still as the pair came nearer, Mrs. Jo so absorbed in her book that she would have walked into the brook if Teddy had not stopped her by saying—
“Marmar, I wanter fis.”
Mrs. Jo put down the charming book which she had been trying to read for a week, and looked about her for a fishing-pole, being used to making toys outof nothing. Before she had broken one from the hedge, a slender willow bough fell at her feet; and, looking up, she saw the boys laughing in the nest.
“Up! up!” cried Teddy, stretching his arms and flapping his skirts as if about to fly.