Elsie's Motherhood

by Martha Finley

  Chapter Twenty-fifth.

  "She'd lift the teapot lidTo peep at what was in it,Or tilt the kettle if you didBut turn your back a minute."

  Meta Carrington had many excellent traits of character; was frank,generous, unselfish and sincere; but these good qualities were offset bysome very serious faults; she was prying and full of desire for whateverwas forbidden.

  The other children played contentedly with the toys provided for them;but Meta secretly nursed a great longing for those Mrs. Travilla hadchosen to withhold; and was constantly endeavoring to devise some planby which to get possession of them.

  She attempted to pick the lock with a nail, then with a knife, butfailing in that, seized every opportunity of doing so unobserved, to trythe keys from other doors in different parts of the house, till atlength she found one that would answer her purpose; then she watched herchance to use it in the absence of her mates.

  At length such a time came. The ladies had all gone out for an airing,the little ones, too, in charge of their nurses, Vi and the boys weresporting on the lawn, and Elsie was at the piano practicing; certain,faithful little worker that she was, not to leave it till the allottedhour had expired.

  Having satisfied herself of all this, Meta flew to the play-room, andhalf trembling at her own temerity, admitted herself to the forbiddentreasures.

  There was no hesitancy in regard to her further proceedings; for weekspast, she had had them all carefully arranged in her mind; she wouldhave a tea-party, though, unfortunately, there could be no guestspresent but the dolls; yet at all events, she could have the greatpleasure of handling that beautiful china and silver and seeing how atable would look set out with them. A pleasure doubled by the fact thatshe was enjoying it in opposition to the known wishes and commands ofher mother and the owner; for in Meta's esteem 'stolen waters weresweet' indeed.

  She selected a damask table cloth from a pile that lay on one of thelower shelves, several napkins to match, slipping each of these lastinto a silver ring taken from a little basket that stood alongside, andproceeded with quiet glee, to deck a table with them, and the sets ofchina and silver she most admired.

  "Beautiful! beautiful! I never saw anything so pretty!" she exclaimedhalf aloud, as, her task finished, she stood gazing in rapt delight atthe result of her labors. "Oh I think it's real mean in Aunt Elsie, tosay we sha'n't play with these, and to lock them up away from us. Butnow for the company!" and running into the closet again, she brought outseveral of the largest dolls.

  "I'll dress them for dinner," she said, still talking to herself in anundertone: "that'll be fun. What lots of lovely things I shall find inthese trunks; I'll look them over and select what I like best to havethem wear. I'll have time enough: it isn't at all likely anybody willcome to disturb me for an hour:" and as she opened the first trunk, sheglanced hastily at the clock on the mantel.

  She was mistaken. Time flew away much faster than she was aware of, andscarce half an hour had passed when a pair of little feet came dancingalong the hall, the door--which in her haste and pre-occupation Meta hadforgotten to lock--flew open, and Vi stood before her.

  The great blue eyes turning toward the table opened wide withastonishment. "Why, why, Meta!"

  Meta's face flushed deeply for a moment, but thinking the best planwould be to brave it out, "Isn't it pretty?" she asked, as unconcernedlyas she could.

  "Yes, oh lovely! but--where did you--aren't they my grandma's things? OMeta, how could you ever dare--"

  "Pooh! I'm not going to hurt 'em. And why should you think they werehers? can't other people have pretty things?"

  "Yes, but I know they're grandma's, I rec--recog--recognize them. Ohwhat shall we do? I wouldn't venture to touch 'em, even to put themback."

  "What a big word that was you used just now," said Meta, laughing, "It'most choked you."

  "Well when I'm bigger it won't," returned Vi, still gazing at the table."Oh how lovely they are! I do wish mamma would let us play with them."

  "So do I: and these dolls too. It's just delightful to dress and undressthem. Here, Vi, help me put this one's shoes on."

  The temptation to handle the tiny, dainty shoes and see how well theyfitted the feet of the pretty doll, was great, and not giving herselftime to think, Violet dropped down on the carpet by Meta's side andcomplied with the request. "Just to slip on those lovely shoes, now thatthey were there right before her, was not much," so said the tempter:then, "Now having done a little, what difference if she did a littlemore?"

  Thoughtless and excitable, she presently forgot mamma and her commands,and became as eagerly engaged as Meta herself in the fascinatingemployment of looking over the contents of the trunks, and trying nowone, and now another suit upon the dollies.

  "Now this one's dressed, and I'll set her up to the table," said Meta,jumping up. "Oh my!"

  Something fell with a little crash on the lid of the trunk by Vi's side,and there at her feet lay one of the beautiful old china plates brokeninto a dozen pieces.

  The child started up perfectly aghast, the whole extent of herdelinquency flashing upon her in that instant. "Oh, oh! what have Idone! what a wicked, wicked girl I am! what will mamma say!" And sheburst into an agony of grief and remorse.

  "You didn't do it, nor I either," said Meta; stooping to gather up thefragments, "the doll kicked it off. There, Vi, don't cry so; I'll putthe things all back just as they were, and never, never touch one ofthem again."

  "But you can't; because this one's broken. Oh dear, oh dear! I wish youhad let them alone, Meta. I wish, I wish I'd been a good girl and obeyedmamma!"

  "Never mind: if she goes to whip you, I'll tell her it was 'most all myfault. But she needn't know: it won't be a story to put them back andsay nothing about it. And most likely it won't be found out for yearsand years; maybe never. You see I'll just put this plate between theothers in the pile and it won't be noticed at all that it's broken;unless somebody takes them all down to look."

  "But I must tell mamma," sobbed Violet. "I couldn't hide it; I alwaystell her everything; and I'd feel so wicked."

  "Violet Travilla, I'd never have believed you'd be so mean as to telltales," remarked Meta, severely. "I'd never have played with you if I'dknown it."

  "I'll not; I didn't mean that. I'll only tell on myself."

  "But you can't do that without telling on me too, and I say it's realmean. I'll never tell a story about it, but I don't see any harm in justgetting the things away and saying nothing. 'Taint as if you werethrowing the blame on somebody else," pursued Meta, gathering up thearticles abstracted from the closet and replacing them, as nearly aspossible as she had found them.

  "Come, dry your eyes, Vi," she went on, "or somebody'll see you've beencrying and ask what it was about."

  "But I must tell mamma," reiterated the little girl, sobbing anew.

  "And make her feel worried and sorry because the plate's broken, when itcan't do any good, and she needn't ever know about it. I call that realselfishness."

  This, to Vi, was a new view of the situation. She stopped crying toconsider it.

  It certainly would grieve mamma to know that the plate was broken, andperhaps even more to hear of her child's disobedience, and if not toldshe would be spared all that pain.

  But on the other hand, mamma had always taught her children that wrongdoing should never be concealed. The longer Vi pondered the question themore puzzled she grew.

  Meta perceived that she wavered and immediately seized her advantage.

  "Come now, Vi, I'm sure you don't want to give pain to your mamma, or toget me into trouble. Do you?"

  "No, Meta, indeed I don't, but--"

  "Hush! somebody's coming," exclaimed Meta, locking the closet door,having just finished her work, and hastily dropping the key into herpocket.

  "Come, girls, come quick! we're sending up a balloon, from the lawn!"cried Eddie throwing open the door to make his announcement, thenrushing away again.

  The girls ran after him, in much excitement, and
forgetting for thetime the trouble they were in; for spite of Meta's sophistry herconscience was by no means easy.

  The ladies had returned and in dinner dress were gathered on theveranda. Mr. Travilla seemed to be managing the affair, with Mr.Dinsmore's assistance, while the other gentlemen, children and servants,were grouped about them on the lawn.

  Meta and Violet quickly took their places with the rest and just at thatmoment the balloon, released from its fastenings, shot up into the air.

  There was a general shout and clapping of hands, but instantly hushed bya shrill sharp cry of distress from overhead.

  "Oh! oh! pull it down again! pull it down! pull it down! I only got infor fun, and I'm so frightened! I shall fall out! I shall be killed! oh!oh! oh!"

  The voice grew fainter and fainter, till it quickly died away in thedistance as the balloon rose rapidly higher and higher into the deepblue of the sky.

  A wild excitement seized upon the little crowd.

  "Oh, oh, oh I which ob de chillins am up dar?" the mammies were asking,each sending a hasty glance around the throng to assure herself of thesafety of her own particular charge.

  "Who is it? who is it?" asked the children, the little girls beginningto sob and cry.

  "Oh it's Fank! it's Fank!" screamed Harold. "Papa, papa, please stop itquick. Fank, don't cry, any more: papa will get you down. Won't you,papa?" And he clung to his father's arm, sobbing bitterly.

  "Son, Frank is not there," said Mr. Travilla; taking the little weeperin his arms. "There is no one in the balloon; it is not big enough tohold even a little boy like you or Frank."

  "Isn't it, papa?" returned the child, dropping his head on his father'sshoulder with a sigh of relief.

  "Oh it's Cousin Ronald, it's just Cousin Ronald!" exclaimed thechildren, their tears changing at once to laughter.

  "Ah ha, ah ha! um h'm, um h'm! so it is, bairnies, just Cousin Ronald athis old tricks again," laughed Mr. Lilburn.

  "Oh there's nobody in it; so we needn't care how high it goes," criedEddie, jumping and clapping his hands, "See! see! it's up in the cloudsnow, and doesn't look as big as my cap."

  "Not half so big, I should say," remarked Herbert. "And there, it'squite gone."

  The dinner bell rang and all repaired to the dining-room.