CHAPTER XII.
A NEW CHARGE.
Esther found out very soon that Mr. Trelawny's threat of making her his"little white slave" was not altogether an idle one.
She had laughed when he spoke the words upon a former visit to the Crag,but she soon found that he did take up a great deal of her time andcare, and very willingly was the service rendered that his helplessnessmade needful.
It seemed to be less irksome to Mr. Trelawny to be led about by thelittle girl than by any other person--even Mr. Earle; and, of course, agood deal of Mr. Earle's time was now taken up by lessons.
Esther found that her regular studies were very much interrupted by thedemands made upon her time by Mr. Trelawny; but on the other hand, shethought she was learning as much with him, as though she had been inthe schoolroom all the time. His mind seemed like a perfect storehouseof information; and as he took his leisurely walks abroad, he wouldteach Esther all manner of things--history, geography, physiology,geology, and all sorts of things with long names that Esther neverlearned. All she knew was that she was learning interesting things everyday of her life, and that the world seemed to be growing a bigger andmore beautiful and wonderful place than she had had the least idea ofbefore.
Mr. Trelawny was a wonderful teacher; but he expected his lessons to beunderstood and remembered. Again and again he would put a suddenquestion to his little companion, asking her about something he had toldher on a previous occasion, or making sure that she understood thebearing of some new piece of information he was giving her. Esther soonconquered her first shyness, and was not a bit afraid to ask questionsand to say when she did not understand. She found that Mr. Trelawny,though not quite so well used to teaching as Mr. Earle, was neverimpatient or vexed at being asked to explain himself. What did vex himwas for anybody to make believe to understand a thing he was saying, andthen show later on that it had not been understood at all.
As long as the fine weather lasted there were delightful things to do.Sometimes it was a long drive, which Mrs. St. Aiden generally shared;sometimes a sail in the _Swan_ with Mr. Earle and the boys, which wasalways a great pleasure. Then there was a great excitement for a fewdays in the place, for the mackerel had come into the bay in shoals; andthe _Swan_ went out with the other boats, and the little Polperrans wentin her, and they all had spinners, and caught mackerel by the dozen, andfine fun they had out of it till the fish disappeared as suddenly asthey had come.
Mr. Trelawny was getting quite strong again, but he was still forbiddento make any attempt to use his eyes, and went about with a bandage and ashade. Perhaps it was this that made him stoop a little in his walk, ashe had never done before. Certainly his hair had begun to grow whiterather quickly. He had never seemed to be an old man before. Esther hadnever thought of him as old until just lately, although he used tospeak of himself in a half-joking way as an old fellow; but he did beginto look old now, though he seemed strong and well in himself.
He liked to be out of doors as much as possible, and Esther was nearlyalways his companion. She found this interesting in many ways. One wasthat she had her lessons in a new and interesting fashion from him.Another was that she got to know a great many fresh people, and heard agreat many interesting things about them.
Mr. Trelawny owned a good deal of land all round the Crag, and thepeople who lived in the cottages were his tenants. He had known them allhis life, and they had known him. There had been Trelawnys at the Cragfor several hundreds of years. Esther found out that Mr. Trelawny, inspite of his gruffness, was very much respected and loved. She likedvery much to go with him to see the cottagers and fisher folk, andlisten whilst they talked to him and told him all about themselves,their troubles, their bits of good luck, their perplexities with theirsons and daughters, and all the different things which went to make upthe sum of their simple lives.
She grew fond of the simple people herself, who always had a smile andsoft word for "the little lady." She thought it must be very nice tohave Mr. Trelawny's power to help them in times of need, to advise themin their troubles, to rebuke those who wanted a sharp reproof, and towarn those who were in danger of falling into bad habits or idle ways.
Often after these visits Mr. Trelawny would talk to Esther a great dealabout the family they had just visited, telling her its history, whatsort of people they had shown themselves in the past, and what kind oftreatment they had required.
Some children might have been bored by this sort of thing, but Estherwas never bored. It seemed to her very interesting, and she alwayslistened with great attention.
"You must help me at Christmas time this year, little woman," he saidone crisp December day, as they were walking home together. "There are alot of old fashions we keep up at Christmas here. It's one of the relicsof old times that no Trelawny has had the disposition to do away with.Some people say that the time has gone by for that sort of thing, andthat it is obsolete and only a form of pauperization. Perhaps they maybe right. But in my day I shall change nothing. I'm too much the oldTory for that. And you will help me this year, won't you? You ought tosee how everything is done."
"I should like to," answered Esther eagerly; "what is it you do?"
"Give a great feed--dinner, the people call it--in the hall at the Crag,to which every tenant and his family is entitled to come, even to thebabies, if the mothers choose to bring them. No questions are asked,nobody is turned away. Every tenant has the right to be there, and toeat and drink to his heart's content. Five o'clock is the hour for thefeed, and after that they sing carols or old songs and make speeches. Icome in and drink a glass with them, as the Trelawnys have always done;and when they can eat and drink no more, there is a great giving ofpresents all round. Bran pies or a Christmas-tree for the children, andclothing or nets or tools for the grown folks. We keep it up till teno'clock, and then sing 'God save the Queen,' and send them all off totheir homes. It used to be done on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day,but now it's on Boxing Day, as we think that home is the right place forfolks on Christmas Day itself. You will have to be my right hand, littlewoman, in all the preparations we have to make."
Esther was skipping along gaily: her face was aglow.
"How nice!" she exclaimed; "I shall like to help and to see them all.May I come with you, Uncle Robert, when you go to see them atdinner-time?"
"Of course you may, my dear. Indeed I particularly wish you to be withme. I want to present you to the people then. It will be the bestopportunity for it."
Esther raised her eyes with a questioning look, but then, rememberingthat he could not see, she said softly,--
"I don't think I quite understand, Uncle Robert."
His clasp upon her fingers tightened; he did not speak for a while, andthen he said slowly,--
"No, childie, I know you don't. I am debating in my mind whether or notto tell you."
Esther looked up again with the same shade of perplexity in her eyes,but she asked no further question. She knew she would be told if Mr.Trelawny thought it well.
At last he spoke, but rather as though to himself and not to her. It wasas if he were debating some point in his own mind.
"I don't know why she should not be told. The Queen was no older whenshe found out that in all probability she would one day have a kingdomto rule, and her first wish and resolve were that she might grow up agood woman. I believe it would be the same with this child in a verylittle kingdom. I want her to grow up feeling what are the duties whichwill some day be hers."
Esther's heart was beating rather fast by this time. She felt as thoughsomething momentous was going to be spoken, and she was not wrong. Theyhad reached the terrace by this time, and with the shelter of the housebehind them, and the sunlight falling full upon it, the place was quitewarm--so warm that Mr. Trelawny seated himself under the veranda, anddrew the little girl between his knees.
"My dear," he said, "I suppose you are too young ever to have wonderedwho will live at the Crag after I am gone."
Esther did not speak.
It had certainly never entered her head to thinkabout such a thing as this.
"I am the last of the Trelawnys," continued the old man; "I have not asingle blood relation of that name to come after me. Once I thought itwould be otherwise. For three happy years I had a wife living with mehere, and a little boy who had just learned to call me 'daddy.' Thenthey were both taken away. It was all so long ago that the folks herehave almost forgotten, and some of them speak of me as a bachelor. But Ihave never forgotten. I never could care for anybody else. I have livedmy life alone, and I have nobody to come after me--nobody to love menow."
Esther suddenly raised the hand she held and carried it to her lips.
"We all love you, Uncle Robert," she said softly.
He stooped and kissed her, putting his arm round her and holding herclose. For with all her clinging, affectionate ways, Esther had neveryet spoken of loving her father's old kinsman.
"Thank you for telling me so, childie. Yes, I believe you, my dear.Esther, do you know that you are the only blood relation I have in theworld?"
She shook her head, and he felt the motion.
"But that is so, my child. Your father was my only kinsman. At one timeI looked upon him as my heir. Then he too was taken. I brought his wifeand child to be near me, but I do not think I at once formed any planfor the future. The estate and income are my own property. I can disposeof them as I will. But I want to find a successor who will love the oldplace, and who will be a merciful as well as a just monarch in thelittle kingdom which lies around the Crag."
He paused, and Esther neither spoke nor moved.
"Kingdom is perhaps an obsolete word in these leveling days, yet downhere amongst these simple folk the owner of the Crag wields no smallpower. It is a power I should fear to put into any but just andmerciful hands. Little Esther, do you think you could be a just andmerciful ruler here some day? Would you try--like our good and graciousQueen--to 'be good,' to love your people, to be a wise and God-fearingruler, if ever that power were to be entrusted to you?"
She hid her face upon his shoulder. She was startled, overcome, almostfrightened. He felt her shiver through all her little frame. He saw thatshe had understood, and that it was all a very solemn and sacred thingto her.
He held her very closely as he went on speaking.
"Little Esther, it is a great charge, and you are but a little girl now,but you will grow older every year; and I believe I shall be spared manyyears longer myself, though I do not expect ever to be the same man thatI was before my accident. I have talked to your mother about this, andshe is willing that you should continue to live with me, to learn theways of the place, and how to be its mistress one day. My will is drawnup, leaving all to you. I am just waiting till I have my sight back tosign it. I think you are learning every day to love and understand thepeople better and better. Perhaps some day you will take my name, so asto keep the old name with the old acres; but there is time enough tothink of that. You have always been used to having the charge ofsomething or somebody. It will only be adding a new one to the list. Doyou think your little shoulders are strong enough to bear the burden?Will you be my little girl now, and be good to the people when I amgone?"
Her tears came at that, not loudly or noisily, but raining down veryfast.
"O Uncle Robert, I will do what I can. I will try to be good. But,please, don't talk as though I were going to have it all. I can't bearthat. I only want to help you, and learn to do things as you do them."
"That is all I ask, my dear. I hope that is all that will be laid uponyou for a good many years to come. Indeed, you would never have the soleburden in your childhood and youth, of course. But I should like to feelthat you were growing up in the traditions of the place, knowing whatis before you, just as you would know it if you were in very truth thelittle niece or granddaughter that I call you."
For a few days after that talk Esther went about with a very grave face,and was absorbed in a multitude of new thoughts. But children quicklygrow used to an idea, and so it was here. The little girl never spoke ofit to anybody but Mr. Trelawny and her mother, but she began to have anunderstanding of the new charge which would one day in all probabilitybe hers; and she followed Mr. Trelawny about more assiduously than ever,waiting upon him, watching him, trying to forestall all his wants and tounderstand all that he was doing; whilst he, on his part, took her moreand more into his confidence, both feeling that a new and very tenderbond had been established between them.
The coming Christmas festivities kept the boys fully engrossed. They hadleave to go into Penzance with Mr. Earle to make their purchases, andthey were full of mystery and excitement for days before and after.
At last they could bear the burden of their great secret no longer, andpulling Esther into their room one day, a little before Christmas Day,they whispered the tremendous secret.
"Esther, we've got it; we got it all by ourselves. Nobody knows--noteven Mr. Earle. Would you like to see it? It is such a funny thing; butwe know what it must be, and we've bought it. It was very expensive, butwe don't care if only he likes it. Would you like to see it first?"
"What is it?" asked Esther, infected by the air of mystery around her.The boys' room was almost dark, for the light was fading fast. Puck wasquivering all over in his excitement. He seemed able to contain himselfno longer, and burst suddenly into speech.
"It's an electric eye--an electric eye for Mr. Trelawny. We found it atlast in a bicycle shop. Come here, Esther, and look. You know people dohave such accidents on bicycles. I expect they knock out their eyes andhave electric ones put in. It's rather big, but Mr. Trelawny has suchbig holes for his. I expect it'll go in.--Pickle, open the door andwe'll show her."
Pickle was fumbling under the carpet for a key, which was hidden in somecrevice in the boards and when that was brought to light a cupboard wasunlocked, and then suddenly one of the boys did something, andimmediately a bright ray of white light shone forth from a small glassball which had somewhat the look of an eye.
"There, there, look!" cried Puck, dancing up and down in his excitement;"there it is--an electric eye! Do you think he'll like it? Don't youthink he'll be pleased? Just see what a light it gives! He'd be able tosee with that in the dark as well as in the light."
Esther was immensely impressed, though rather perplexed. The eye wascertainly very wonderful, and could be turned on and off at will; butwhether it would help Mr. Trelawny in his present condition she did notfeel quite certain, but the boys had no manner of doubt.
"Won't it be jolly when he can go about without that horrid old shade,and without a stick, or anybody to lead him? I can't think why he didn'thave one before, but I suppose he couldn't find one. We hunted all over,and people only laughed when we asked. But one man told us he'd seensomething like one in the bicycle shop, and sure enough there it was.Sometimes it gets empty and has to be filled up, but Mr. Earle could dothat, I'm sure. He can do lots of things with electricity. I can't thinkwhy he hasn't made Uncle Bob an electric eye all this time, but I'm gladhe hasn't, because we shall so like to give it him."
It was hard work waiting for Christmas Eve, when the presentation was tobe made; but the preparations for the great feast took up much time andattention, and drew off the boys' thoughts from the engrossing subjectof the electric eye.
But when the dusk of Christmas Eve had really come, and when Mr.Trelawny suddenly appeared in their midst, showering parcels about himin the twilight, like a miniature snowstorm, then the boys made a rushupon him, and the electric eye was produced and exhibited, Pickle beingthe principal speaker, though Puck kept up a running, breathlesscommentary, almost choking in his excitement and ecstatic hopes.
Mr. Trelawny received the gift, and felt it all over. Then he turned hishead towards Mr. Earle, and said,--
"Come, Earle; we must retire and see what we can do with this wonderfuleye. You're a bit of a genius, according to these young men, and we'llsee whether you understand adjusting it or not."
Mr. Earle's face light
ed up, and he marched off with Mr. Trelawny,whilst the servants brought in lamps, and the children, in breathlessdelight, opened the parcels which had been showered upon them.
The fairies must surely have whispered in Mr. Trelawny's ears, for thesecret desire of every heart seemed to be gratified.
There were the daintiest of working and writing materials for Esther,together with just the very books she would have chosen for herself hadthe whole world's library been at her disposal. There were model boatsfor the boys, and tools, and knives, and charts, and books; and thechildren had little presents for one another, which had to be opened andexplained and admired; and Mrs. St. Aiden had not forgotten, or beenforgotten, and her couch was the center of the busy, happy group.
Then suddenly the door was thrown open and in stalked Mr. Trelawny,without his shade, and walking erect, with his eyes looking just as theydid of old, save that they were protected by a pair of spectacles withthick glasses.
The children did not know that there had been any previous rehearsal ofsuch a scene as this, and that Mr. Trelawny had been permitted to try touse his eyes by degrees for the last week or more. Even Esther did notknow this--it was to be kept for a Christmas surprise; and now, with theglint of the light upon the spectacles, it was small wonder that Puckbroke into a shout of triumph, and yelled at the top of his voice,--
"The electric eye; the electric eye! Three cheers for Uncle Bob and Mr.Earle and the electric eye!"
Esther had run forward and was grasping the hand of her kind old friend.Her eyes were brimming over with tears of joy.
"O Uncle Robert, can you really see?"
"Yes, my little maid; I can see everything clearly again, thank God!Let me have a good look at the face of my little woman, for once Ithought I should never see it again."
It was hard to say who was happiest that night--Mr. Trelawny with hisnewly-restored gift, which, if somewhat impaired, would still be strongand serviceable again; or the boys, in their conviction that they hadfound the means whereby this result had been achieved; or Mrs. St.Aiden, who had found a safe shelter for herself and her child under thecare of this kind and wealthy kinsman; or little Esther, who somehowfelt that, though another charge had been given her, yet the burdenwhich had rested rather heavily upon her since her father's death hadsomehow been wonderfully lightened. There was Uncle Robert now to carefor them and think for them, and she was so glad it should be so. Andshe somehow felt almost certain that the Crag would always be their homenow.
She was more sure of it upon the night of the feast, when Mr. Trelawnytook her by the hand and led her into the big hall that was filled fromend to end with people she knew, crowded together at the long tables.She did not understand all the speech that Mr. Trelawny made, for hespoke it in the broad dialect of the country and fisher folk. But theyunderstood, and they shouted and cheered; and then Mr. Trelawny put hishand upon her head, and said,--
"You must make them a little bow, my dear, and I will make a speech foryou. Don't you understand that they are paying homage to you? They areaccepting you as my little grand-daughter, who will one day rule here inmy stead, and they are promising to love and be loyal to you, as I hopeyou will be loyal and true to them."
And then Mr. Trelawny stooped and lifted her up in his arms and kissedher before them all; and Esther, as she ran away, overcome with all thehonor and notice she was receiving, felt as though such a wonderfulChristmas-tide could never come again.
THE END.