Bessie on Her Travels

“My anxiety is all upsidedown about him,” said Maggie. “Maybe he wants money to pay a doctor. Bessie, when we go out to walk to-morrow morning, let’s ask nurse to come this way, and see if we can find these children. Maybe we could help them a little. We must have a whole lot of charity money, for you know we have not had much use for it on our travels.”

Accordingly, the next morning the children waited for Belle; and, as soon as she came, the whole flock started with Mammy and Jane on the road towards Lily Pond, the little girls having taken care to be provided with money. They found the boy and girl, not sitting on top of the fence this time, but near the lake; the boy lying flat upon a rock with a book in his hand, the girl sitting beside him, busy shelling pease.

They looked up as our party drew near, and the girl said with a pleased look, —

“Oh! it’s the little girls who bought all the lilies yesterday.”

“Yes, it is us,” said Maggie. “Have you more to sell us to-day? We meant to buy a whole lot, and have brought a basket in baby’s wagon.”

“We haven’t picked any to-day,” said the boy: “we don’t generally gather them till later, when it’s time for the gentle-folks to come riding this way; but we can get some for you right away. In a few days, when they’re more plenty, there’ll be lots of fellows up here after them; but they mostly take them down to the beach and around the town to sell.”

“We have a little pond of our own, where there are a few,” said the girl; “but we get most off of this one.”

“Where do you live?” asked Belle.

“Over yonder,” said the girl, pointing to a small farm-house standing among its out-buildings on the other side of the road. “Now, Johnny, I’m ready.”

Johnny went a few steps off, where the bushes grew thickly, and drew from among them two long, hooked sticks. One of these he gave to the girl, and kept the other in his own hand. While they had been talking, the girl had pulled off her shoes and stockings; and now, to the surprise of all the children, she waded into the water, while her brother stayed upon the rock, without offering to follow.

Sallie, so he called her, stepped out till the water touched her knees; and having gathered such lilies as she could reach with her hand, drew others towards her with the hooked stick. The long, slender stems yielded easily; and, as she plucked one after another, she tossed them towards her brother, who drew them in with his own stick.

How lovely and delicious they were, just fresh from their watery bed, with the drops still glittering like diamonds on the rich, creamy-white petals! how they filled the whole air with their fragrance!

“I think if I could carry flowers to heaven, I would like to take these,” whispered Bessie to Maggie and Belle, as all three hung delighted over their prize. “They look as if they were very large stars fallen down out of God’s sky, to tell us how sweet every thing is there.”

“O Bessie, you darling!” said Maggie. “What a lovely idea! That’s good enough to put in a book. Bessie, do you know that is talking prose?”

“What is prose?” asked Belle.

“You know what rhyme is,” said Maggie.

“Yes,” said Belle: “it means cat and hat, and mouse and house, and mean and queen.”

“That’s right,” said Maggie. “Well, if you say a nice thing in rhyme, that’s poetry; but if you say it in unrhyme, then it’s prose.”

“Oh!” said Belle, quite satisfied with Maggie’s explanation. “I wish I were as smart as you two. You write poetry, Maggie; and Bessie can talk prose: and I can’t do either.”

“Never mind,” said Maggie, consolingly. “Maybe you’ll be able to some day.”

“And you’re just good enough for us, any way,” said Bessie, with an affectionate kiss to her little friend; an example which was followed by Maggie.

“Why don’t you go in the water, and let your sister stay out?” said Belle to Johnny, rather reprovingly.

Johnny, who was a gentle-looking boy, colored a little, but answered quietly, —

“They say I ought not to wet my feet, and I want to keep well very much.”

“Yes,” said Sallie, who had just stepped out of the water, and was wringing out her dripping skirts: “it don’t hurt me to go in the water; but it’s not good for him.”

“Are you sick?” asked Bessie.

“No,” said Johnny, looking as if he thought the little girls were blaming him in their own minds for not taking the wetting himself, as indeed they were.

“He’s not just sick,” said Sallie; “but he’s not just strong, and we’re bound he shall go to school this winter, at least for one quarter. He’s an awful fellow for his books and learning.”

“Will one quarter make him too sick to go any more?” asked Bessie.

“Oh! I didn’t mean that,” said Sallie, sitting down on the rock, and spreading out her wet feet and dress to dry in the sun; “but, you see, we’re not sure we’ll put by enough money even to pay for one quarter. Shall I tell you about it?” she added, seeing her little customers looked interested.

“Yes,” said Bessie.

“Well, as I said, Johnny’s such a fellow for book learning, and he’s smart too; and these two winters he’s tried hard for going to the Common School down in the town; but it’s a terrible long walk, and so cold; and both years he’s been taken down sick, and had to give it up; and the doctor told father he was not to try it again. But there’s a young man lives just round the turn of the road who is learning to be a minister, and he’s ready to teach a few boys if they pay him for it; and father said he couldn’t afford to pay a dollar this winter, for it’s been a bad year with him; but he said we might keep all we could make ourselves to pay for Johnny’s schooling; but I don’t know as we’re likely to put by even enough for one quarter. So that’s the reason, you see, why I go in the water. I’m hearty, but Johnny takes cold easy, and then he coughs.”

“Yes, ‘one man’s meat is another man’s poison,’” said Maggie. “Well, you’re a good girl and a dutiful sister.”

“We’ll buy water-lilies of you every day,” said Bessie, “so we can help along. But we don’t come this way every day,” she added, thoughtfully.

“We could bring them to you, if you liked,” said Johnny. “We do take them every day to a lady down yonder,” and he pointed in the direction of the bluff on which Colonel Rush’s house stood, with several others.

This was agreed upon; and the nurse, saying they must be moving homeward, as it was time to go to the beach and bathe, they said good-by to Johnny and Sallie.

“I’ve a plan in my head,” said Maggie; “but then, I’ve learned experience by a very bad lesson, so I thought I’d better not mention it till I’ve advised with mamma.”

Maggie’s bad lesson was this, —

One day, just before they left home for the Southern trip, Maggie was standing on the front stoop, waiting for her mother and Bessie, with whom she was going out, when a poor-looking man spoke to her. He told a most pitiful story; and Maggie, full of sympathy, emptied her little purse into his hand. But this did not satisfy the beggar; and he asked “if the little lady had not an old coat to give a poor soldier.”

“I’ll ask mamma,” said Maggie, and off she rushed upstairs, leaving the beggar-man standing on the stoop by the open hall-door.

Mamma said she could not give old clothes away, unless she was sure the man was deserving: for she knew of many such who needed them; and told Maggie to go back at once and tell Patrick to shut the door, and she would see the man when she came down.

But when Maggie reached the foot of the stairs, the beggar was gone. So far from waiting for the old coat, it was soon found that he had walked off with a new one of papa’s, which lay on the hall table.

Poor Maggie was excessively mortified, and much distressed, not only at the loss of the coat, but at that of her little stock of spending money. Mamma made the last good to her; but told her she should not do so again if she acted without thought; and begged her to take counsel of some older person when she felt inclined to help those she did not know.

So Maggie had “learned experience,” and since that time had been careful to ask advice before she allowed her sympathies to run too far with her.

XV

“OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.”

They all bathed on the little beach near home that morning; and, as soon as they had gone back to the house, Maggie called Bessie and Belle, and they went together to mamma’s room to unfold Maggie’s plan and ask her consent to it.

What a pretty room that was! Mrs. Rush had taken a fancy to call it the “Lily Room,” and to furnish it accordingly. The carpet was green, and the furniture painted the same color, and ornamented with water-lilies wherever they could be put, – on the head and foot boards of the bed, on each drawer of the dressing bureaus, on the panels of the wardrobe and the backs of the chairs, in short, wherever there was room for them. Over the mantelpiece hung an oil-painting of the same lovely flowers; and now the room was filled with the natural blossoms brought in by the little girls that morning.

Mamma lay upon the couch, – this was covered with chintz printed with water-lilies, too, – resting after her salt-water bath. Her long hair was spread over the cushions to dry; and Maggie and Bessie were busy at it in a moment: it was their great delight to comb it and thread their fingers through it; and dearly mamma loved to feel their little hands twisting it into all manner of fantastic braids and loops.

Maggie told her story about the water-lily boy and girl, and then, saying that she thought there must be a good deal of “glove money” due the little box at home, asked her mother if she did not think it would be a “reasonable charity” to pay for Johnny’s schooling next winter.