CHAPTER VII.
BOTH SIDES OF A STORY.
The little school was not resumed for some time. Not that Prudy hadforgotten it, by any means; but the next Saturday she had visitors, andthe following Wednesday an exciting event occurred. It concerned Susy'spony. Percy Eastman said he was called Wings "because he hadn't anyfeet." Susy was vexed at this remark, and Prudy, taking her part, said,"Percy is such a _pert_ boy;" adding next moment, "What _is_ pert?"
But Percy only meant that the pony sadly needed some new shoes; andthis was very true.
Now it happened that Mr. Parlin, being too busy to go himself, sent EddyJohnson and Charley Piper with Wings to the blacksmith's shop. It seemedto Susy that the boys were gone a long while, for it was Wednesdayafternoon, and she was impatient for a ride. She sat down to practise alittle, but her mind was out of doors, and the unwilling piano seemedcrying out to be let alone.
"I can't play," said Susy, decidedly; "and that's the truth."
At that moment a sweet little voice was heard, singing, "John's Brownbuddy;" and Dotty Dimple's head and shoulders were thrust into theroom.
"I've broked it," said she; "I've broked it all to smash."
"Broke what, for pity's sakes?"
"Your teapot," replied Dotty, in a very cheerful voice.
"O, I never did, in all my life, see such a child," wailed Susy. "Whatmade you go and meddle with my dear little gold-edged tea-set?"
Dotty looked like an injured lamb, brushed the wayward hair out of hereyes, and gazed wistfully into her sister's face.
"Is I your little comfort, Susy? Is I your little comfort?"
"No," cried Susy, wavering between a smile and a tear; "no, indeed! Tothink of _your_ being a comfort! O, my stars!"
"Well, then," continued the little one, in a soothing, cooing tone,"then I never broked it; it broked itself!"
So saying, she produced from the depths of her pocket the fragments ofthe gilt-edged toy. They were past the healing power even of Spalding'sglue, that was certain. At the painful sight, poor Susy's patience flewinto as many pieces as the teapot.
"O, you naughty, naughty thing, to say it broke itself!"
"Then it didn't," replied the little culprit, not a whit dismayed. "Then'twas Prudy. We was playing 'thimble-coop.' _She_ broked it all tosmash!"
"O, mother," said Susy, running out to the kitchen; "Dotty's making upfibs as fast as she can speak! You'll have to shut her up in thecloset."
"Not so fast, my dear. Let us wait till we hear both sides of thestory."
And, as it turned out, Dotty really did not deserve to be punished forwrong stories. She and Prudy had each assisted in breaking the teapot;one had knocked it off the bureau, and the other had stepped on it. ButDotty, who gloried in "a fuss," had begged to be the one to tell Susythe startling news. She wished to see her eyes flash, and hear herexpressions of surprise. She knew that, however angry Susy might be,there was one magical sentence which would always her to terms:"Dotty'll go out doors, 'out her hat, get cold, have the _coop_, andDIE!"
At the bare mention of such a fearful thing, Susy's anger was sure tocool at once. This time Dotty varied her method a little.
"See," said she, looking out of the window; "the boys has came."
Of course that was the last of Susy's thoughts about the teapot. Sherushed out of doors bareheaded, followed by Dotty. Eddy Johnson was justhitching Wings to a post near the gate.
"Have they _shoed_ him?" said Susy.
"_Shoed_ him? I should think they had; all of that," replied Eddy,indignantly.
"Booted him, more like," muttered Charley Piper, in the same tone.
"Why, what do you mean, boys?" said Susy, patting the pony, and gazingtenderly into his eyes.
"O, we don't mean anything, as I know of. You must run into the houseand ask your mother to come out here," said Eddy, mysteriously.
"Why, it's my own pony, that my own father gave me, and if there'sanything the matter with it I should think you might tell," cried Susy,her voice shaking with a vague dread of some terrible mishap.
"Well, may be there isn't anything ails him," returned Eddy, coolly. "Inever said there was; but your mother'll know!"
"O, Dotty Dimple, run into the house this very minute, please to,"exclaimed Susy, "and ask mother--if she's combing her hair, or_anything_--to come right out here as quick as she can run, and notwait! O, dear, dear, dear! Why, Dotty Dimple Parlin! you haven't startedyet! Quick! quick! quick!"
Dotty, who had only waited to be spoken to the second time, now ran insuch haste that she stumbled on the piazza steps; but, nothing daunted,jumped up and went on, delighted to know that this time something hadprobably happened. She startled her mother, and called her away from hertoilet, with the sudden cry that the boys and pony were 'most killed.
At the same time she had the pleasure of throwing Prudy into apanic,--dear little Prudy, who had been for the last five minutessearching her treasures in the hope of finding some toy which wouldreplace Susy's teapot.
Prudy and Dotty appeared at the gate in a very brief space; Prudy withher mouth in the shape of the letter O, and Mrs. Parlin not far off, inthe act of fastening her breastpin.
"Well, boys, what is it?" said the good lady, smiling. "I hardly thinkanything very serious has happened, either to you or the pony."
"_You_ tell," said Eddy to Charley; "I _dassn't_. The blacksmith's manmay be mad if I do. But he's abused this hoss, though," continued Eddy,not waiting to let Charley speak for him; "he's abused him awfully! It'sright up and down mean; and three of us boys seen him!"
Susy clasped her hands, and performed a "stamp-act" on the pavement.
"See there," said Eddy, pointing triumphantly to Wings' left hind leg;"see that--will you?"
True enough, there were two or three small wounds, out of which wasoozing thick dark blood. Susy looked as if her heart was breaking, butnot a word did she speak.
"Pete Grimes did that with his hobnail, cowhide boots!" said Eddy,sternly.
"With his hammer, you _mean_," interposed Charley.
"With his _boot_, sir," persisted Eddy, with increasing eloquence."Didn't I see him, me and Dan Murphy? Didn't we stand there by thecoal-bin, sir? He booted him well, Mis' Parlin. I'll tell you where hedid it; here on the left side, ma'am. Look where the hair sticks up!Pooty well mauled--ain't he, ma'am? Pete swore at him, too. Never heardsuch talk--did you, Charley?"
"No, ma'am, I never did," replied Master Charley, addressing Mrs.Parlin, who fancied she could detect on Wings' glossy hide the marks ofa boot, though there were no traces of the wicked oaths.
"It is a most abusive thing--if it is so," said she, with much feeling;for if anything could move her gentle heart to anger, it was cruelty toanimals. "What made Mr. Grimes behave so strangely, boys? Was the ponyrestless?"
"Restless? No, indeed, ma'am," replied Eddy, the orator; "as gentle as alamb, ma'am. It was Pete Grimes's wicked temper, and his wickeddisposition; that's what it was."
It was well for Susy that her over-strained feelings now found vent inwords and tears. "There is no grief like the grief which does notspeak." Her dumb agony gave way, and she wept and raved like a littlewild thing.
Mrs. Parlin ordered the boys to lead the pony around to the back door,and there she washed out his wounds, trying all the while to sootheSusy, whose heart was beating a quick-step, and who trembled in everylimb.
"Old Grimes is dead, that good old man!" repeated Prudy, with angryemphasis; "but it wasn't _his_ father. No, indeed; with the old bluebuttons down the back! Why, Peter is an awful man! I saw him once, andhis face looked as if he'd been rubbing it on a pen-wiper! There, Susy,don't you cry," she added, applying a moral lesson to her sister'swounded feelings, like a healing plaster; "he's dreadful wicked, and oneof these days he'll get hurt his own self; a horse'll strike _him_!"
"Yes, a horse'll strike _him_!" echoed Dotty Dimple.
"But what good will that do Wings?" moaned Susy. "Evil for evil onlymakes things worse."
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Her indignation did not lessen, but rather increased, the longer shereflected upon the subject. What right had a man to abuse anybody'shorse--more especially hers?
"Mr. Grimes ought to be 'dited, and sent to the Reform School or State'sPrison this very night," said she, in her wrath. Prudy thought preciselythe same; also Miss Dimple, who looked upon the whole affair as a joke,intended for her amusement.
When Mr. Parlin came home to tea, and heard the story, he did not blameSusy in the least for her indignation, but started off for theblacksmith's with the limping pony, saying he meant to "inquire into thebusiness."
"May I go with you?" cried Susy.
"Me, too?" said Prudy, echoed by Dotty.
"Only Susy," replied their father; "she may go if she likes."
Susy very much wondered what her father was going to do. As theyapproached the shop, she saw, standing at the door, the man whose facelooked as if it had been "rubbed on a pen-wiper."
"Mr. Grimes," said Mr. Parlin, in a pleasanter manner than Susy thoughtwas at all necessary, "Mr. Grimes, I believe I owe you for shoeing thispony."
While Mr. Grimes was making the change, Mr. Parlin added,--
"How happens it, my friend, that this little animal bears such marks ofill treatment? See how he limps. Look at this gash."
"O," said Mr. Grimes, "he lamed himself by kicking out against thecoal-box; he's a nervous thing."
Mr. Parlin then told the boys' story.
"It is not so, upon my word and honor, sir," replied sooty-faced Mr.Grimes, with great amazement. "I'll leave it to Mr. Fox."
Mr. Fox, and two or three other men, declared very positively that theyhad seen little Wings beating himself against the coal-box; and one ofthem pointed out to Mr. Parlin the blood-stain on the edge of the wood.
"You can't trust much to what boys say, especially such harum-scarumfellows as Ed Johnson," added Mr. Fox. "I shouldn't wonder, now, Grimes,if he and that Piper boy got their tempers up, and tried to spite you,for ordering them out of the shop. They were troublesome, and he had tospeak sharp," added Mr. Fox, addressing Mr. Parlin again.
"That's so!" exclaimed Mr. Grimes. "You take three little chaps, andhave 'em meddling with your nails, and sticking scraps of iron into thecoals, and it makes a man cross--or it frets _me_, and I told 'em toquit."
"Saucy little rogues," chimed in Mr. Fox, anxious for the honor of hisworkman.
"As for my striking the pony," continued Mr. Grimes, "I might havepatted him once or twice with the _handle_ of the hammer. I often dothat; but my blows wouldn't kill a fly."
After a little more conversation Mr. Parlin was satisfied that no realcruelty had been used towards Wings. Susy's heart rose like a feather.
"_Always wait till you hear both sides of a story!_" said Mr. Parlin, ashe and his daughter walked home.
"Just the words _mother_ said this very day," cried Susy, skippinglightly over the paving-stones. "It's so queer you and mother should_both_ talk so much alike."