III.
_LITTLE PITCHERS._
Three young ladies sat talking over their work in the pleasantbow-window of Mrs. Stanton's sitting-room, while at a short distancefrom them two little curly heads bent over the great picture-book whichlay upon the table. The eyes in the curly heads were busy with thepictures, the tongues in the curly heads were silent, save when now andthen one whispered, "Shall I turn over?" or "Is not that pretty?" butthe ears in the curly heads were wide open to all that was passing inthe bow-window; while the three young ladies, thinking that the curlyheads were heeding nothing but their own affairs, went on chattering asif those attentive ears were miles away.
"Annie," said Miss Carrie Hall, "I am sorry to hear of the severeaffliction likely to befall your sister, Mrs. Bradford."
"What is that?" asked Annie Stanton, looking up surprised.
"I heard that Mrs. Lawrence, Mr. Bradford's Aunt Patty, was coming tomake her a visit."
"Ah, poor Margaret!" said Annie Stanton, but she laughed as shespoke. "It is indeed a trial, but my sister receives it with becomingsubmission."
"Why does Mrs. Bradford invite her when she always makes herself sodisagreeable?" asked Miss Ellis.
"She comes self-invited," replied Annie. "Margaret did not ask her."
"I should think not, considering the circumstances under which theylast parted," said Carrie Hall.
"Oh, Margaret has long since forgotten and forgiven all that," saidAnnie, "and she and Mr. Bradford have several times endeavored tobring about a reconciliation, inviting Aunt Patty to visit them, orsending kind messages and other tokens of good-will. The old lady,however, was not to be appeased, and for the last three or four yearshas held no intercourse with my brother's family. Now she suddenlywrites, saying she intends to make them a visit."
"I should decline it if I were in the place of Mr. and Mrs. Bradford,"said Carrie.
"I fear I should do the same," replied Annie, "but Margaret and Mr.Bradford are more forgiving. I am quite sure though that they lookupon this visit as a duty to be endured, not a pleasure to be enjoyed,especially as the children are now older, and she will be the morelikely to make trouble with them."
"I suppose they have quite forgotten her," said Carrie.
"Harry and Fred may remember her," answered Annie, "but the others weretoo young to recollect her at this distance of time. Bessie was ababy, Maggie scarcely three years old."
"Shall you ever forget the day we stopped at your sister's house on ourway home from school, and found Mrs. Lawrence and nurse having a battleroyal over Maggie?" asked the laughing Carrie.
"No, indeed! Nurse, with Maggie on one arm and Bessie on the other,fairly dancing about the room in her efforts to save the former fromAunt Patty's clutches, both terrified babies screaming at the top oftheir voices, both old women scolding at the top of theirs; while Fred,the monkey, young as he was, stood by, clapping his hands and settingthem at each other as if they had been two cats."
"And your sister," said Carrie, "coming home to be frightened half outof her senses at finding such an uproar in her well-ordered nursery,and poor little Maggie stretching out her arms to her with 'Patty vipme, Patty vip me!'"
"And Margaret quite unable to quell the storm until Brother Henry camein and with a few determined words separated the combatants by sendingnurse from the room," continued Annie, with increasing merriment. "Poormammy! She knew her master's word was not to be disputed, and dared notdisobey; but I think she has never quite forgiven him for that, andstill looks upon it as hard that when, as she said, she had a chance'to speak her mind to Mrs. Lawrence,' she was not allowed to do it."
"But what caused the trouble?" asked Laura Ellis.
"Oh, some trifling mischief of Maggie's, for which auntie undertook topunish her severely. Nurse interfered, and where the battle would havestopped, had not Henry and Margaret arrived, it is difficult to tell."
"But surely she did not leave your brother's house in anger for such alittle thing as that!" said Laura.
"Indeed, she did; at least, she insisted that Maggie should be punishedand nurse dismissed. Dear old mammy, who nursed every one of us, fromRuthven down to myself, and whom mother gave to Margaret as a treasurepast all price when Harry was born,--poor mammy, who considers herselfquite as much one of the family as any Stanton, Duncan, or Bradfordamong us all,--to talk of dismissing her! But nothing less wouldsatisfy Aunt Patty; and Margaret gently claiming the right to correcther own children and govern her own household as she saw fit, and Henryfirmly upholding his wife, Aunt Patty departed that very afternoon in atremendous passion, and has never entered the house since."
"Greatly to your sister's relief, I should think," said Laura. "Why,what a very disagreeable inmate she must be, Annie! I am sure I pityMrs. Bradford and all her family, if they are to undergo another visitfrom her now."
"Yes," said Annie. "Some sudden freak has taken her, and she haswritten to say that she will be here next month. You may well pitythem. Such another exacting, meddling, ill-tempered old woman it wouldbe difficult to find. She has long since quarrelled with all herrelations; indeed, it was quite wonderful to every one how Margaret andher husband bore with her as long as they did. I do not know how thepoor children will get on with her. She and Fred will clash before shehas been in the house a day, while the little ones will be frightenedout of their senses by one look of those cold, stern eyes. Do youremember, Carrie, how, during that last unfortunate visit, Maggie usedto run and hide her head in her mother's dress the moment she heardAunt Patty's step?"
"Yes, indeed," said Carrie. "I suppose she will be here at Christmastime too. Poor little things! She will destroy half their pleasure."
All this and much more to the same purpose fell upon those attentiveears, filling the hearts of the little listeners with astonishmentand dismay. It was long since Maggie's hand had turned a leaf of thescrap-book, long since she or Bessie had given a look or thought to thepictures. There they both sat, motionless, gazing at one another, anddrinking in all the foolish talk of those thoughtless young ladies.
They meant no harm, these gay girls. Not one of them but would havebeen shocked at the thought that she was poisoning the minds of thedear little children whom they all loved towards the aged relative whomthey were bound to reverence and respect. They had not imagined thatMaggie and Bessie were attending to their conversation, and they wereonly amusing themselves; it was but idle talk. Ah, idle talk, idlewords, of which each one of us must give account at the last great day!
So they sat and chatted away, not thinking of the mischief theymight be doing, until, at a question from Miss Carrie, Annie Stantondropped her voice as she answered. Still now and then a few wordswould reach the little ones. "Shocking temper"--"Poor Margaret souncomfortable"--"Mr Bradford very much displeased"--"patience quiteworn out" until Bessie said,--
"Aunt Annie, if you don't mean us to know what you say, we do hear alittle."
Aunt Annie started and colored, then said, hastily "Oh, I had almostforgotten you were there. Would you not like to go down-stairs, pets,and ask old Dinah to bake a little cake for each of you? Run then, andif you heard what we were saying, do not think of it. It is nothing foryou to trouble your small heads about. I am afraid we have been ratherimprudent," she continued uneasily when her little nieces had left theroom. "Margaret is so particular that her children shall hear nothinglike gossip or evil speaking, and I think we have been indulging inboth. If Maggie and Bessie have been listening to what we were saying,they will not have a very pleasant impression of Mrs. Lawrence. Well,there is no use in fretting about it now. What is said cannot beunsaid; and they will soon find out for themselves what the old ladyis."
Yes, what is said cannot be unsaid. Each little word, as it is spoken,goes forth on its errand of good or evil, and can never be recalled.
Perhaps Aunt Annie would have regretted her thoughtlessness still moreif she had seen and heard the little girls as they stood together inthe hall. They had no thought of old Dinah
and the cakes with thisimportant matter to talk over. Not think of what they heard, indeed!That was a curious thing for Aunt Annie to say. She had been rightin believing that Maggie must have forgotten Mrs. Lawrence. Maggiehad done so, but now this conversation had brought the whole scene ofthe quarrel with nurse to her mind. It all came back to her; but inrecollection it appeared far worse than the reality. Aunt Patty's loud,angry voice seemed sounding in her ears, uttering the most violentthreats, and she thought of the old lady herself almost as if she hadbeen some terrible monster, ready to tear in pieces her own poorfrightened little self, clinging about nurse's neck.
And was it possible that this dreadful old woman was really comingagain to their house to make a visit? How could papa and mamma think itbest to allow it?
Such mischief had already been done by idle talk!
"Maggie," said Bessie, "do you remember about that Patty woman?"
"Yes," answered Maggie, "I did not remember about her till Aunt Annieand Miss Carrie said that, but I do now; and oh, Bessie, she's _awful_!I wish, I wish mamma would not let her come. She's the shockingestperson you ever saw."
"Aunt Annie said mamma did not want her herself; but she let her comebecause she thought it was right," said Bessie.
"I wonder why mamma thinks it is right when she is so cross andtempered," said Maggie, with a long sigh. "Why, she used to scold evenpapa and mamma! Oh, I remember her so well now. I wish I didn't; Idon't like to think about it;" and Maggie looked very much distressed.
Bessie was almost as much troubled, but she put her arm about hersister and said, "Never matter, dear Maggie, papa and mamma won't lether do anything to us."
"But suppose papa and mamma both had to go out and leave us, as theydid that day she behaved so," said Maggie. "Nursey has so many to takecare of now, and maybe she'd meddle again,--Aunt Annie said she wasvery meddling too,--and try to punish me when I did not do any blame."
"Jane would help nurse _pertect_ us," said Bessie, "and if shecouldn't, we'd yun away and hide till papa and mamma came."
"She shouldn't do anything to you, Bessie. I wouldn't let her do that,anyhow," said Maggie, shaking her head, and looking very determined.
"How could you help it if she wanted to, Maggie?"
"I'd say, 'Beware, woman!'" said Maggie, drawing her eyebrows intoa frown, and extending her hand with the forefinger raised in athreatening manner.
"Oh!" said Bessie, "what does that mean?"
"I don't quite know," said Maggie, slowly, "but it frightens peoplevery much."
"It don't frighten me a bit when you say it."
"'Cause you don't have a guilty conscience; but if you had, you'd be,oh, so afraid!"
"How do you know I would?"
"I'll tell you," said Maggie. "Uncle John had a picture paper the otherday, and in it was a picture of a woman coming in at the door, and shehad her hands up so, and she looked as frightened, as frightened, anda man was standing behind the curtain doing so, and under the picturewas 'Beware, woman!' I asked Uncle John what it meant, and he said thatwas a wicked woman who was going to steal some papers so she could getsome money, and when she came in, she heard somebody say, 'Beware,woman,' and she was so frightened she ran away and was never seenagain. I asked him to tell me more about it, but he said, 'No, it was afoolish story, not fit for little people.' Then I asked him if foolishstories were only fit for big people, but he just laughed and pinchedmy cheek. But I coaxed him to tell me why the woman was so frightenedwhen the man did nothing but say those two words, and he said it wasbecause she had a guilty conscience, for wicked people feared what goodand innocent people did not mind at all. So if that old Mrs. Patty--Isha'n't call her aunt--don't behave herself to you, Bessie, I'll justtry it."
"Do you think she has a guilty conscience, Maggie?"
"Course she has; how could she help it?"
"And will she yun away and never be seen again?"
"I guess so," said Maggie; "anyhow, I hope she will."
"I wonder why mamma did not tell us she was coming," said Bessie.
"We'll ask her to-morrow. We can't do it to-night because it will beso late before she comes home from Riverside and we'll be asleep, butwe'll do it in the morning. And now, don't let's think about thatshocking person any more. We'll go and ask Dinah about the cakes."
But although they resolved to try to forget Aunt Patty for the present,they could not help thinking of her a good deal and talking of heralso, for their young hearts had been filled with dread of the old ladyand her intended visit.
The reason that Mr. and Mrs. Bradford had not spoken to their childrenof Mrs. Lawrence's coming was that it was not yet a settled thing; andas there was not much that was pleasant to tell, they did not think itbest to speak of her unless it was necessary. It was long since hername had been mentioned in the family, _so_ long that, as Mrs. Bradfordhad hoped and supposed, all recollection of her had passed fromMaggie's mind, until the conversation she had just heard had brought itback.
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Title decoration, chap. 4]