CHAPTER I.
THE BIRTH-DAY PARTY.
"Who will be invited to your party?" asked Harriet of Anna Melville, theeldest daughter of my old friends, Col. and Mrs. Melville, who residedin the town of H., and to whom I had been making a visit of some weeks.
Anna was a lively good-tempered girl, who wanted only two days of beingtwelve years old. For the last week, she had scarcely been able to speakof any thing but the party which was to be given on her birth-day, andto which Harriet's question referred.
"Who?" said Anna in reply; "oh, all the girls I know. Let me see--thereare Helen Lamar, and Lucy Liston, and Mary and Ellen Leslie--"
"Ellen Leslie," exclaimed Emma, a younger sister of Anna who stood nearher listening, "Ellen Leslie--why, Anna, you surely will not ask her.You know she will get into a passion with somebody before the evening isover; or even if she should not, we shall all be so much afraid ofoffending her that there will be no fun."
"But, Emma, if we do not ask Ellen, Mary will not come, and you knownone of us would enjoy ourselves half so much if Mary were not here."
"No, we should not; but at any rate I will take care not to bring out myhandsome doll and my best teacups, for if Miss Ellen gets angry, shewill not mind breaking them."
Having overheard this dialogue, I felt no little curiosity to see thetwo sisters who were so differently regarded by their young friends.
The two days passed away slowly enough to the expecting children; butthey did pass, and the birth-day arrived. All was bustle and preparationat Col. Melville's. Anna superintended and directed and hurried everyone, and was dressed herself an hour before the time appointed for hervisiters. At length, just as she had become weary of watching for them,and was beginning to express her opinion that no one was coming, a groupwas seen approaching. Then came another and another, till twenty younggirls, neatly dressed, and with smiling, happy faces, were collected.Among the latest arrivals were Mary and Ellen Leslie. I had seen themfrom the windows before they entered the house, and was much pleasedwith their appearance. They wore very simple white dresses, and theirhair fell in natural ringlets over their shoulders, unconfined andwithout ornament of any kind. As they entered the parlor, all the girlswent forward to welcome them; but it was easy to see that the gladnesswhich all expressed was more for Mary than for Ellen--their greetingsbeing made something in this way:
"Oh, Mary! I am so delighted to see you--and Ellen too!"
But for the conversation between Anna and Emma Melville which I hadoverheard, I should not have known how to account for this difference,for Ellen was not at all less pleasing in appearance than Mary. Indeedshe would have impressed many persons more agreeably, for Mary'scountenance, though very gentle, was very serious, while Ellen's was gayand animated.
All was pleasantness in the little party for about an hour, when thechildren were called to tea. I did not go to the table till they wereseated. When I did, I saw that there was a cloud on Ellen Leslie's face,but what had caused it I could not discover. When tea was over, thevarious entertainments of the evening commenced. On one side of theparlor, around a table, was seated a group of girls playing what theycalled an historical game--that is, amusing themselves with cardscontaining questions and answers on historical subjects. In this game,the questions were held by one person, and the cards containing theanswers were distributed equally among the rest of the players. As aquestion was asked, any girl who found among her cards an answer whichseemed to her the correct one, read it. Sometimes two or three wouldbegin to read together, and so long as they could bear to be laughed atwithout losing their tempers, those who made the greatest mistakes,perhaps contributed most to the merriment of the party. At this gameabout eight or ten girls were engaged. A few others amused themselveswith dissected maps, and the rest gathered together in one corner of theroom with Emma's cups and saucers, baby-house and doll.
From the brightening up of Ellen Leslie's countenance when thehistorical cards were produced, and her evident desire to make one inthat game, I had felt quite sure that she was well acquainted with itssubjects, and so it proved. For some time her answers were ready andcorrect, while her laugh was first and loudest at the blunders made byothers. At length, the questions seemed to relate to a portion ofhistory on which Ellen was not so much at home, and once and again heranswer was followed by a laugh. In the first laugh which she thusexcited Ellen made a feeble effort to join, but it was very feeble. Atthe second, her face flushed, she looked gloomily down, and from thattime, though she sat with the cards in her hands, she did not answer aquestion or take any part in the game. After a while some wonder wasexpressed that no answers could be found to several of the questions.All around the table carefully examined their cards and declared theydid not have them, except Ellen--she remained silent, and held her cardswithout looking at them.
"Ellen, perhaps you have them," said Anna Melville.
"You can see," said Ellen, laying her cards down before Anna.
"Oh no!" said Anna quickly, "you look at them yourself."
"I do not suppose I should know the answers if I saw them," said Ellensulkily; "and besides, I am tired playing," and she rose from the table.As she moved off to a distant part of the room and seated herself alone,I glanced at Mary and saw her eyes fixed on her sister with such anexpression of sorrowing tenderness, that for her sake I determined totry whether I could not restore Ellen to a happier mood. I approachedher with a book of prints, and seating myself near her, drew a standtowards us and invited her to look at them with me. She looked as if shewould like to refuse, but ashamed probably to do this to one so mucholder than herself, she contented herself with remaining sulkily silent,scarcely glancing at first at the pictures as I turned the leaves andannounced the different subjects. At length, however, some anecdote Itold attracted her attention. She asked a question--she smiled--shelaughed aloud. Again I turned my eyes upon Mary Leslie. She was lookingat me with a countenance so full of thankfulness and lit up with sosweet a smile, that I no longer wondered at her young companions lovingher so tenderly.
Aunt Kitty's Tales Page 42
