VIII.
_THE LOCKET._
And this really proved the beginning of better things for Mabel. Notthat she improved so much all at once, or that she was not oftenselfish, perverse, and disobedient; or that she did not often trylittle Belle very much, and make it hard for her to keep her resolutionof being kind and patient. Nor must it be supposed that Belle alwayskept to this resolution, or that she and Mabel did not now and thenhave some pretty sharp quarrels; still, on the whole, they agreedbetter than had seemed probable on their first meeting.
And perhaps it was good for Belle, as well as for Mabel, that sheshould sometimes be obliged to give up her own will to another; andthere was no fear, while her papa and old Daphne were there to watchover her interests, that she would be suffered to be too much imposedupon.
But there could be no doubt that Mabel was less unruly and exacting.It might be that she was really happier with a companion of her ownage, or that she was shamed by Belle's example and kindness to her, orperhaps it was both these causes; but day by day Belle found it easierto be on good terms with her, and the two children were really growingfond of one another.
Other things which had a good effect on Mabel were going to schooland being now and then with Maggie and Bessie. She could not but seehow much happier and lovelier were those children who were obedient,gentle, and kind; and she learned much that was good without any directteaching. And even the "proverb-pictures" became to her what they wereintended to be to all, a source of improvement; for Maggie understoodbetter than Belle the art of "giving a lesson" without wounding thefeelings; and many a gentle reproof or wise hint was conveyed to Mabelby means of these moral sketches, in which she really took a greatinterest.
After the first novelty of school had worn off, Mabel tired of therestraint and declared that she would go no more; but in the mean timeher father had arrived, and he insisted that she should keep on.
For some days after this she gave Miss Ashton a good deal of trouble,and set at defiance many of her rules and regulations; but she soonfound that this did her no service, for Miss Ashton, gentle as she was,would be obeyed; and Mabel did not find the solitude of the cloak-roomagreeable when she was punished by being sent there, and concludedthat, "after all, she had the best time when she was good."
She was not at all a favorite with her school-mates,--this fractiousand self-willed little child; and Belle had to "take her part" andcoax a good deal before she could persuade them to regard her with anypatience, or to feel willing to accept her as a member of their circle.
"What have you there?" asked Mabel one day, coming into Belle's nurseryand finding her looking lovingly at some small object she held in herhand.
"It's my locket,--my new locket that papa gave me a few minutes ago,"answered Belle.
"Let's see it," said Mabel, making a grasp at it; but Belle was tooquick for her, and would not suffer her to seize her treasure.
"You can't have it in your own hands," she said; "for it was my ownmamma's, and I don't want any one to touch it, 'cept they loved her.Only Maggie and Bessie," she added, remembering that they had neverknown her mother, but that she would by no means keep the choicest ofher treasures from their hands, feeling sure as she did that theywould guard what was precious to her with as much care as she wouldherself.
"I'll show it to you, Mabel. Isn't it pretty?" and Belle held up asmall locket on a slight gold chain.
It was a little, old-fashioned thing, heart-shaped, and made of frettedgold with a forget-me-not of turquoises in the centre. It was verypretty,--in Belle's eyes, of the most perfect beauty; but its greatvalue lay in that it had belonged, as she told Mabel, to her own mammawhen she was a girl.
Belle Powers. p. 122.]
It was one of Belle's greatest pleasures to sit upon her papa's kneeand turn over with loving, reverent fingers the various articles ofjewelry which had once been her mother's, and which were to be herswhen she should be of a proper age to have them and take care of them."Mamma's pretty things" were a source of great enjoyment to her; andalthough Belle loved dress as much as any little girl of her age, itwas with no thought of decking herself in them, but simply fortheir own beauty and the sake of the dear one who had once worn them,that they were so prized. And now and then when her papa gave her sometrifle suitable for her, she seldom wore it, so fearful would she be oflosing it, or lest other harm should come to it. So now, as things wereapt to come to harm in Mabel's destructive fingers, she was very muchafraid of trusting the precious locket within them; and stoutly, thoughnot crossly, refused to let her have it.
Mabel begged and promised, whined and fretted; but the locket was stillheld beyond her reach, till at last she made a dive and had nearlysnatched it from Belle's hold.
But Daphne's eye was upon her, and Daphne's hand pulled her back as theold woman said,--
"Hi! dere! none ob dat, Miss Mabel. I ain't goin fur see my ole missus'tings took from my young missus, and me by to help it. I ain't goin furstan' dat, no way," and Daphne's grasp was rougher than it need tohave been as she held back the angry, struggling Mabel.
The child was in a great passion: she struck wildly at the nurse, andscreamed aloud, so that her mother came running to see what was thematter.
"There then, never mind," said Mrs. Walton, as Mabel, released fromDaphne's hold, rushed to her and complained that Belle would not lether touch her new locket,--"never mind, I will give you somethingpretty to look at."
"I want a locket like Belle's to keep for my own," said Mabel; "andthen I'll never let her see it."
"Pooh! I wouldn't look at it," said Belle, forgetting all her goodresolves, "if you showed it to me. I'd just squeeze my eyes tight shut,and never open them till you took it away. And I don't b'lieve the manin the locket-store has any like this."
But Mabel had hardly left the room with her mother before Belle wassorry, as usual, for the anger she had shown, and said remorsefully toDaphne,--
"There now, I went and forgot the Bible proverb papa gave me, anddidn't give 'a soft answer' to turn away Mabel's wrath, but just spokeas cross as any thing, and was real naughty. I'll just run after her,and let her touch my locket very carefully with her own hands."
And away she went, ready to make peace, even by doing that whichwas not pleasant to her; but the dear little thing was only partlysuccessful, for as Maggie afterwards said, when Belle told her thestory, "Mabel was of that kind of nature that if you gave her an inchshe took an ell;" and no sooner did Belle let her have the locket inher own hands than she wanted to have it about her neck and wear it.This was too much, even for the little peace-maker: she could not makeup her mind to give way in this, nor, indeed, could she have beenexpected to do so; and quiet was not restored till Mabel's motherwas worried into taking her out at once in search of such a locket asBelle's.
But the search proved quite fruitless, for no locket exactly likeBelle's could be found; and Mabel would not be satisfied with one thatwas different. In vain did she and her mother go from jeweller's tojeweller's; in vain did Mrs. Walton offer the spoiled child lockets farmore showy and costly than the one on which she had set her heart; invain did the shopman assure her that such as she desired were "quiteout of the fashion," an argument which generally went a good way withMabel: one just like Belle's she would have.
"Then we will have one made," said Mrs. Walton; and inquired when itcould be finished. But when the jeweller said it would take a week ormore, neither would this satisfy the naughty child, who was in a moodthat was uncommonly perverse and obstinate even for her.
"I shall have one to-day," she repeated; and was so very troublesomethat even the patience of her mistaken and spoiling mother at last gaveway, and the jeweller heartily wished himself rid of such a noisy,ill-behaved customer.
However, Mrs. Walton gave the order, and promised to bring Belle'slocket for the jeweller to see the pattern on Monday, this beingSaturday; and then returned home with her naughty child.
Belle had gone out,--gone to Mrs. Bradford's
to spend the day withMaggie and Bessie, as she always did on Saturday; and Mabel was left towhine and fret by herself till evening.
This gave her fresh cause of displeasure: she was vexed at her cousinfor leaving her alone, and when Belle returned she was greeted with,--
"Mamma is going to take your locket away from you on Monday, and takeit to the locket-man to make me one just like it."
"No," said Belle, backing from Mabel to her father's knee, and holdingfast with one hand clasped over the other upon the beloved locket, asif she feared it was to be snatched from her at once.
"You'll let me take it to the jeweller for a pattern, dear: won't you?"said her aunt. "Mabel wants one just like it."
Belle shook her head.
"No, Aunt Fanny," she answered: "I couldn't. It was my own mamma's, andI couldn't let it go from me; and I don't want anybody to have one justlike it."
She did not speak unkindly or pettishly, but with a quiet determinationin her tone, such as she sometimes showed, and which in some casesmight seem to be obstinacy. But it was not so now; and it was evidentthat the child had some deep and earnest reason for her refusal,--afeeling that the little treasure which had belonged to her mamma hadsomething so dear and sacred about it, that it could not be suffered topass into strange hands, even for a time; nor could she bear to have itcopied.
"The locket-man didn't know my own mamma, Aunt Fanny," she answeredagain to her aunt's persuasions: "maybe he wouldn't be so very gentlywith it. I couldn't,--I really couldn't."
Tears gathered in the eyes of the sensitive little one as she spoke,and there was a piteous tremble of her lip which forbade her aunt tourge her farther; but Mabel was not to be so put off.
"You cannot have it, Mabel," said Mr. Powers. "I will not have Belletroubled in this matter."
"What is it?" asked Mr. Walton, looking up from his evening paper, towhich he had until now given all his attention, too much accustomed tothe fretful tones of his little daughter's voice to pay heed to themwhen he could avoid it.
The trouble was soon explained; and Mr. Walton, who had latelyawakened to the fact that his Mabel had become a most troublesome anddisagreeable child, and that it was time for her to learn that shemust sometimes give up her own will and consider others, told her thatshe must think no more of this new whim; and that if she could not becontented with such a locket as he might choose for her on Monday, sheshould have none at all.
"Then I _won't_ have any at all," said Mabel, passionately. "And Iwon't eat any breakfast or dinner or supper, not for any days."
"Just as you choose," said Mr. Walton, coolly taking up his paper andbeginning to read again; while his wife looked pleadingly at him, butto no purpose; and Belle sat gazing in amazement at the child who daredto speak in such a way to her father. Indulgent as Mr. Powers alwayswas to his motherless little girl, she knew very well that he neverwould have overlooked such disrespect as that, nor could she havebelieved it possible that she should ever be guilty of it.
Astonishment and indignation at this novel mode of treatment held Mabelspeechless and quiet for a moment; then she set up a roar which wouldhave been surprising as coming from so small a pair of lungs, to anyone who had not known her powers in that particular.
But here again Mr. Walton, who, as Belle afterwards told her papa,seemed to be disposed to "turn over a new leaf about training up Mabelin the way she should go," interfered, and bade her go from the room,or be quiet.
She chose neither; and the matter ended by her father himself carryingher away, and giving orders that she should be put to bed.
Belle was very sorry for all this, and could not help feeling as ifshe somehow was to blame, although the matter of the locket was onetoo near her little heart to be given up. But she went to her unclewhen her own bed-time came, and begged that she might go and wish Mabelgood-night, and be friends with her once more.
But Mr. Walton thought it better, as did Belle's own papa, that thewilful child should be left to herself till the next day; and hedismissed Belle with a kind kiss, saying,--
"Mabel will feel better in the morning, dear, and then she will beready to make friends with you; but just now I am afraid she is stilltoo naughty to meet you pleasantly."