VII.
_A NEW FRIEND._
One morning Bessie was sitting on a large rock on the beach, looking atthe waves as they rolled up, one after another, and listening to thepleasant sound they made. The other children and Jane were playing alittle way off.
Presently a lady and gentleman came walking slowly along the beach. Thegentleman used crutches, for he had only one foot. They stopped at therock where Bessie sat, and the lady said, "You had better sit down,Horace, you have walked far enough."
The gentleman sat down beside Bessie, who looked at him for a minuteand then got up.
"I'll sit on that other stone," she said, "and then there'll be roomfor the lady: that is big enough for me."
"Thank you, dear," said the lady; and the gentleman said, "Well, youare a polite little girl."
Bessie liked his looks, but it made her sorry to see that he had onlyone foot. She sat opposite to him looking at him very gravely; and helooked back at her, but with a smile. Now that Bessie had given up herseat to the strangers, she felt they were her company and she mustentertain them, so she began to talk.
"Is your foot pretty well, sir?" she said.
"Which foot?" asked the gentleman.
"The one that is cut off."
"How can it be pretty well if it is cut off?" he said; "you see it isnot here to feel pretty well."
"I mean the place where it was cut off," said Bessie.
"It pains me a good deal," he said. "I am a soldier, and my foot washurt in battle and had to be cut off, but I hope it will feel betterone of these days. I have come down here to see what the sea air willdo for me."
"Oh, then you'll feel better, soon," said Bessie. "I used to feel very_misable_, but now I am most well."
"Why, is your foot cut off, too?" asked the gentleman.
"Oh, no; don't you see I have both my two?"
"So you have," said the gentleman, laughing as she held up two littlefeet; "but there is not half as much in those two tiny feet, as thereis in my one big one."
"I had yather have two little ones than one big one," said Bessie.
"So would I, but you see I cannot choose, and all the sea air in theworld will not bring me back my other foot."
"Don't you like the sea, sir?" asked Bessie, "I do."
"Why do you like it so much?"
"Because I like to see the waves, and I think it sounds as if it wassaying something all the time."
"What does it seem to say?"
"I don't know, sir. I listen to it a great deal, and I can't findout, but I like to hear it for all. I think it must be telling us toyemember our Father in heaven who made it."
"What a strange child," the gentleman whispered to the lady; "who isshe like?"
"I do not know, but she is lovely;" said the lady; "I should like totake her picture as she sits there."
"What is your name, fairy?" asked the gentleman.
"Bessie," said the little girl.
"Bessie what?"
"Bessie Bradford."
"Bessie Bradford! and what is your father's name?"
"His name is Bradford, too."
"But what is his first name?"
"Mr." said Bessie, gravely.
The gentleman laughed. "Has he no other names?"
"Oh, yes;" said Bessie, "all his names are Mr. Henry, Lane, Bradford."
"I thought so," said the gentleman, "she is the very image of HelenDuncan. And where is your father, Bessie?"
"Up in the house, yeading to mamma," said Bessie, looking away from himto the lady. She was very pretty and had a sweet smile. Bessie likedher face very much and sat gazing at her as earnestly as she had beforedone at the gentleman who presently said, "Well, what do you think ofthis lady?"
"I think she is very pretty," said Bessie, turning her eyes back to him.
"So do I," said the gentleman, "do you think that I am very pretty,too?"
"No," said Bessie.
"Then what do you think about me?"
"I think you are pretty 'quisitive," said the little girl, at whichboth the lady and gentleman laughed heartily; but Bessie looked verysober.
"Will you give me a kiss, little one?" asked the stranger.
"No," said Bessie, "I had yather not."
"Why, you are not afraid of me?"
"Oh, no!" said Bessie, "I am not afraid of soldiers; I like them."
"Then why won't you kiss me?"
"I don't kiss strangers, if they're gentlemen," said Bessie.
"And that is very prudent, too," said the soldier, who seemed very muchamused; "but then you see I am not quite a stranger."
"Oh, what a--I mean I think you are mistaken, sir," said Bessie.
"Don't tease her, dear," said the lady.
"But, little Bessie," said the gentleman, "do you call people strangerswho know a great deal about you?"
"No," said Bessie; "but you don't know anything about me."
"Yes, I do; in the first place I know that you are a very kind andpolite little girl who is ready to give up her place to a lame soldier.Next, I know that your father's name is Mr. Henry, Lane, Bradford, andthat yours is Bessie Rush Bradford, and that you look very much likeyour aunt, Helen Duncan. Then I know that you have a little sister,whose name is--let me see, well, I think her name is Margaret, afteryour mother; and you have two brothers, Harry and Fred. There isanother little one, but I have forgotten his name."
"Franky," said Bessie; "and we have baby, too."
"Ah, well, I have never made baby's acquaintance. And this is not yourhome, but you live in New York, at No. 15 ---- street, where I havespent many a pleasant hour. And more than all this, I know there is alady in Baltimore named Elizabeth Rush, who loves you very much, andwhom you love; and that a few days since you wrote a letter to her andtold her how sorry you were that her brother who was 'shooted' had hadhis foot cut off."
While the gentleman was saying all this, Bessie had slipped off herstone and come up to him, and now she was standing, with one littlehand on his knee, looking up eagerly into his face.
"Why, do you know the lady whom I call my Aunt Bessie?" she said.
"Indeed I do; and now if you are so sorry for Aunt Bessie's brother,would you not like to do something to help him?"
"I can't," said Bessie; "I am too little."
"Yes, you can," said the colonel, "you can give me a kiss, and thatwould help me a great deal."
"Why," said Bessie, again, "do you mean that you are Colonel Yush, dearAunt Bessie's brother?"
"To be sure I am," said the colonel; "and now are you going to give methe kiss for her sake?"
"Yes, sir, and for your own sake, too."
"Capital, we are coming on famously, and shall soon be good friends atthis rate," said the colonel as he stooped and kissed the rosy littlemouth which Bessie held up to him.
"Will you tell me about it?" she said.
"About what?"
"About how you was in that country, called India, which papa says isfar away over the sea, and how the wicked heathen named, named--I can'tyemember."
"Sepoys?" said the colonel.
"Yes, Sepoys: how the Sepoys, who you thought were your friends, made agreat fight, and killed the soldiers and put the ladies and dear littlebabies down a well. And how brave you was and how you was fighting andfighting not to let the Sepoys hurt some poor sick soldiers in thehospital; and the well soldiers wanted to yun away, but you wouldn'tlet them, but made the Sepoys yun away instead, and went after them.And then they came back with ever so many more to help them, and youand your soldiers had to go away, but you took all the sick men withyou and did not let them be hurt. And you saw a soldier friend of yourswho was dying, and he asked you not to let the Sepoys find him, andyou put him on your horse and carried him away, and the Sepoys almostcaught you. And how the very next day there was a dreadful, dreadfulbattle when more soldiers came, and your foot was shooted and yourside; and your foot had to be cut off in the hospital, and would notget well for a long, long while. And how
there was a lady that youwanted for your wife, and you came to our country to get her--oh, Iguess that's the lady!" Bessie stopped as she looked at the prettylady, and the colonel smiled as he said,--
"You are right, Bessie; and what more?"
"And when you were coming in the ship, there was a little boy who fellin the water and you forgot your lame foot and jumped in after him, andyour foot was hurt so much it had to be cut off some more. So pleasetell me all about it, sir."
Bessie said all this just as fast as her little tongue would go, andthe colonel sat watching her with a very amused look on his face. "Uponmy word, you are well posted, little one. I do not know that I couldtell the story better myself; how did you learn so much?"
"Oh, Aunt Bessie put it in the letters she yote to mamma, and mammatold us about it, and Harry yeads and yeads it; and Maggie made a niceplay about it. Harry gets on the yocking horse and plays he is ColonelYush, and Fred is the soldier that you helped."
"Very good," said the colonel, "and what are you and Maggie?"
"Oh! we are Harry's soldiers, I mean _your_ soldiers, and Franky is,too; and we have the nursery chairs for horses, and our dolls for sicksoldiers, and we have the pillows for Sepoys, and we poke them; andnurse don't like it, 'cause she says we make a yumpus and a muss in thenursery."
"I should think so," said the colonel, laughing heartily.
"Will you tell me the story?" asked Bessie.
"I think I had better tell you another, since you know that so well,"said Colonel Rush; "I will tell you one about a drummer boy."
But just as he began the story Bessie saw her father coming towardsthem, and in another minute he and the colonel were shaking hands andseeming so glad to see one another. Then Mr. Bradford turned and lookedat the pretty lady, and the colonel said, "Yes, this is the lady ofwhom you have heard as Miss Monroe, now Mrs. Rush. She has taken chargeof what is left of me."
"Isn't she _perfaly_ lovely, papa?" asked Bessie, as Mr. Bradford tookoff his hat and shook hands with the lady, and she saw a pretty pinkcolor come into her cheeks which made her look sweeter than ever. Papalooked as if he quite agreed with his little daughter, but he onlysmiled and said, "My Bessie speaks her mind on all occasions."
"So I see," said the colonel, looking very much pleased.
"Did I talk too much, sir?" asked Bessie, not knowing exactly whetherhe meant to find fault with her, for she was sometimes told at homethat she talked too much.
"Not one word," he answered; "and I hope you will often come and seeme at my rooms in the hotel, and talk to me there. I am very fond oflittle children."
"If mamma will let me," said Bessie; "but I can't come _very_ often,'cause I don't want to be away from Maggie."
"Oh, Maggie must come, too," said the colonel.
"Maggie is shy," said Bessie.
"Well, you bring her to my room, and we will see if I have notsomething there that will cure her shyness."
But papa called Maggie to come and see Colonel and Mrs. Rush, and whenshe heard that this was the brave English soldier about whom she hadmade the famous play, her shyness was forgotten at once, and she wasquite as ready to be friends as Bessie, though she had not much to say.
"You know, Bessie," she said afterwards, "we're so very acquainted withhim in our hearts, he is not quite a stranger."
The next morning, Mrs. Bradford went to the hotel to call on Mrs.Rush, taking Maggie and Bessie with her; and from this time the littlegirls and the colonel were the best friends possible, though Bessiewas his particular pet and plaything, and she always called him hersoldier. When he felt well enough, and the day was not too warm, hewould come out and sit on the beach for an hour or two. The moment hecame moving slowly along on his crutches, Bessie was sure to see him,and no matter what she was doing, off she would run to meet him. Aslong as he stayed she never left him, and her mother sometimes fearedthat the colonel might grow tired of having such a little child so muchwith him, but he told her it was a great pleasure to him; and indeedit seemed to be so, for though there were a great many people at QuamBeach who knew him and liked to talk to him, he never forgot the littlefriend who sat so quietly at his side, and had every now and then aword, or smile, or a touch of his hand for her.
Bessie had been taught that she must not interrupt when grown peoplewere speaking; so, though she was a little chatterbox when she hadleave to talk, she knew when it was polite and proper for her to bequiet.
If the colonel could not come down to the shore, he was almost sure tosend for Maggie and Bessie to come to his room, until it came to bequite a settled thing that they were to pass some time there every daywhen he did not go out, and many a pleasant hour did they spend there.He told them the most delightful and interesting stories of people andthings that he had seen while he was in India, being always careful notto tell anything that might shock or grieve them, from the day that hewas speaking of the sad death of a little drummer boy, when, to hisgreat surprise and distress, both children broke into a violent fitof crying, and it was some time before they could be pacified. Thensuch toys as he carved out of wood! He made a little boat with mastsand sails for each of them, which they used to sail in the pools thatwere left by the tide; and a beautiful set of jack-straws, containingarrows, spears, swords, trumpets, and guns.
One day he asked Harry to bring him some sprigs from the spruce tree,and the next time Maggie and Bessie came to see him, there was a tinyset of furniture,--a sofa and half a dozen chairs to match, all madeof those very sprigs. He used to lie and carve, while Mrs. Rush wasreading to him; and sometimes he worked while the children were there,and it was such a pleasure to watch him. Then he had some books withfine pictures, and oh! wonder of wonders, and what the children likedbest of all, such a grand musical-box, they had never seen one likeit. Mamma had a small one which played three tunes, but it was a babymusical-box to this, which was so very much larger, and played twenty.They never tired of it, at least Bessie did not; and she would sitlooking into it and listening so earnestly that often she seemed to seeand hear nothing else around her. Maggie was fond of it, too, but shecould not keep quiet so long as Bessie, and often wanted to be off andplaying out of doors long before her sister was ready to go.
There were many days when the colonel was suffering too much pain totalk or play with them, and they had to be very still if they went intohis room. Then Maggie never cared to stay very long, nor indeed didthe colonel care much to have her; for though she tried her best to begentle and quiet, those restless little hands and feet seemed as ifthey must be moving; and she was almost sure to shake his sofa, or togo running and jumping across the room, in a way that distressed himvery much, though her merry ways amused him when he was able to bearthem. Quiet little mouse of a Bessie went stealing about so softly thatshe never disturbed the sick man; and so it came about that she spentmany an hour in his room without Maggie. Maggie never half enjoyed herplay, if her sister was not with her; but she was not selfish, and didnot complain if Bessie sometimes left her for a while.