V.
DAISY AT STUDY.
DAISY was soon at home with her schoolmates, and a great favorite amongthem.
It was not strange that they liked and were interested in her. She wassuch a gentle, modest, amiable little girl; watching and joining in thegames and lessons of the others with a kind of innocent wonder whichamused and touched them all. For Daisy was not at all accustomed to bewith children of her own age, and their ways were all new to her.
And of course she was behind all the rest in her studies. She couldnot even read as well as Lily Ward; and had to begin with the simplestlessons, such as Lily and two or three of the very youngest childrenlearned. At first this troubled her, and she feared the rest of theclass would laugh at her.
But she soon found she need not have been afraid of that, for the ruleof Miss Collins' infant class was the law of kindness; and any one ofthe little girls would have thought it almost a crime to laugh or mockat Daisy, for that which was her misfortune and not her fault.
They might now and then fall out a little among themselves, for theywere by no means perfect children; sometimes there would be someselfishness shown, or even a few angry words pass from one to another;but, on the whole, they agreed about as well as any twenty littlegirls could be expected to do; and not one among them would have hadthe heart purposely to do an unkind thing to another. Least of all toDaisy Forster, whom they all looked upon with a kind of tender pity andinterest, because of her sad and romantic history; and who was at oncetaken up by both teacher and scholars as a sort of twin pet with Lily,for whom allowances were to be made, and who was to be encouraged andaided as much as possible.
So Daisy found plenty of helpers, who, so far from laughing at hermistakes and backwardness, were rather inclined to think her quick andindustrious, as indeed she was, trying hard to make up for lost time,and "catch up" with those of her own age.
She was almost too eager about this, and had to be checked now andthen, for since the long illness which had followed the shipwreck,Daisy had never been strong; and too much fatigue or study, or eventoo much play, would make her nervous and sick, and her little headwould become confused and ache. So now and then Mrs. Forster would haveto take the books from her, and forbid more study, sending her out toplay, or to work in the plot of ground which had been given her for agarden of her own.
She was not always pleased at this, and sometimes would be ratherfretful and impatient. But Mrs. Forster soon found a way to put a stopto this.
One afternoon she found the little girl bending over her slate withflushed and heated cheeks, anxious eyes, and trembling hands.
"Daisy," she said, quietly, "what are you doing? Miss Collins has notgiven you lessons out of school, has she?"
"No, ma'am," said Daisy; "but I asked Ella Ward to set me a whole lotof sums so that I could do them at home, and I can't make this one comeright. I know it is not right, 'cause Ella put the answers on the otherside of the slate, and mine won't come the same, all I can do."
Mrs. Forster took the slate from her hand.
"This sum is too hard for you, Daisy," she said: "you do not knowenough arithmetic for this."
"It is not any harder than the sums Lola and Violet and the othergirls as large as I am do," answered Daisy, looking ready to burst outcrying; "and I have to do arithmetic with the very little ones, likeLily, and it makes me ashamed; so I want to go on all I can. _Please_give me the slate again, Aunt Gertrude," she added, as Mrs. Forsterlaid it beyond her reach.
"No, dear. I do not wish you to study out of school. I am glad you wantto improve, but you have as much to do there as is good for you; and athome I want you to have rest and play. You are improving quite as fastas could be expected, and for a time you must be content to go on withthose who are younger than yourself."
"But it makes me ashamed," pleaded Daisy, again.
"There is no reason for that," said Mrs. Forster, patting the hot cheekshe raised towards her. "The other children do not laugh at you andmake you uncomfortable, do they?"
"Oh, no, ma'am," said Daisy; "they are all so good to me, and when theycan't help seeing what a dunce I am" (here Daisy's tears overflowed),"they always say kind things about how I never went to school before,and how my own dear mamma was drowned, and there was nobody to teach metill I came to you."
"You are not a dunce, dear," said the lady. "A child who idles awayher time when she should be studying, and does not care whether or noshe learns as much as is fit for her, is a dunce: not a little girlwho really wishes to be industrious, but does not know quite as muchas others of her own age only because God has not given her the sameadvantages in time past. No one will think my Daisy a dunce. Now, wemust have no more studying at home, no more lessons than those MissCollins sets you."
Daisy did not look satisfied: on the contrary, she even pouted a little.
"Daisy," said Mrs. Forster, "suppose Uncle Frank were to give you somebeautiful and costly thing which would be of great use to you in timeto come if you took good care of it, say a watch: what would you dowith it?"
"Why! I _would_ take great care, oh! such care of it," said Daisy,opening her eyes in some surprise at the question. She did not see whatthat could have to do with her studies.
"I'd wind it up every night, and try to keep it right and safe everyway I could. But I don't know if I am quite large enough to have awatch of my own, or take care of it; maybe the best way would be to askyou or Uncle Frank to keep it for me till I was older."
"And suppose for a while he gave you no key to this watch, but let itrun down and be quiet?"
"I'd just put it away till he gave me a key, and be patient about it,"said Daisy, wondering more and more.
"And if, by and by, when he gave you this key, you should go on windingand winding the watch farther and faster than it was right for it togo, till the wheels and springs were all spoiled and out of order,would Uncle Frank think you cared much for his gift?"
"Why, no, Aunt Gertrude; and he wouldn't think I cared much for him,either, to use his pretty present so."
"You are right, dear. And now I want my own little Daisy to see how itis with herself. God has given to you a young mind, bright and quickenough; but, for a while, He did not choose that it should do muchwork. But now He has given you the key by which you may wind it and setit to work; and if you use it without proper care, and so as to hurtand wear out this precious gift, would it not seem as if you cared verylittle about it, and did not respect and honor the Giver?"
"Yes'm," answered Daisy, beginning to see what Mrs. Forster meant; "butI never thought about that."
"I believe I never thought about it before, dear," said Mrs. Forster,smiling. "I am not afraid to praise you, Daisy; and I may safely saythat I have never seen any little child who showed such true honor andreverence for her Maker, and all which belongs to Him. You must havebeen well taught, my child; and to know and remember such lessons isworth all the book learning in the world."
Daisy was pleased, as she always was when any one spoke to her of herlong-lost home, or praised the teaching she had received from thosewho had loved and cared for her there. And from this time there was nofurther trouble about the lessons; for it was enough for Daisy to knowthat she was misusing any one of God's good gifts, to make her changeher ways. Many a lesson might have been learned, and, indeed, had beenlearned, by those older and wiser than herself, from the loving careand respect paid by this little one to her Creator's name, and to allthe works of His hand.
And it was a great trouble to her to hear the careless way in whichmany of her schoolmates used sacred names and things. They did notmean any harm; they did not think it any sin; but every day Daisy wasshocked and distressed by hearing such words as "mercy," "gracious,""goodness," and "good heavens," and the like, from the lips of theother children, as they were about their play and study. It hadbecome a habit with nearly all in the school; one caught it fromanother almost without knowing it; even Lily Ward, who once thoughtthe clergyman "preached a sermon at
her" because she said "hush up,"now and then followed the example of the others when any thing vexedor surprised her. A few weeks at school had accustomed Lily to theconstant use of expressions which a year ago she would have considered"real naughty words."
The older girls in Miss Sarah Collins' room had fallen into this badhabit as much, if not more, than the little ones of the infant class.
And it was not only this carelessness of speech in which they wereall, large and small, to blame; but it seemed to Daisy so strange thatthey could handle and treat the Bible, God's holy Word, with so littlereverence and respect, knocking it about among their other books asif it were no better than these last, even using it, sometimes, forpurposes to which no book, even the most common one, should be put.
Daisy wondered that Miss Collins did not teach them better; buteither she did not notice all this, or she did not think it of muchconsequence; certain it is that she did not check them, and the evilseemed to Daisy to grow worse from day to day.
At first she did not like to speak herself. You may wonder that thiswas so, since she had not feared to speak so plainly to GeneralForster, who was a grown gentleman, so much older than herself; but shehad done that almost without knowing what she was saying, for, as youknow, his profane words had startled her so that he was surprised, andhe had almost forced her to tell him what had disturbed her.
And here she was with every thing strange around her, school,schoolmates, and teacher all new to her; so it is not astonishing thatshe was rather shy and felt afraid to interfere with the others, or totell them that she thought they were doing wrong.
But by and by there came a day when she could no longer hold her peace.
DAISY A TEACHER.