VI.
DAISY A TEACHER.
ONE morning just after school commenced, a heavy shower came up; andwhen it was time for the recess, which was always given to the infantclass at eleven o'clock, the ground was still so wet that the littleones were forced to find amusement within doors or upon the piazza.
"What shall we play?" asked Rosie Pierson.
"Lady Queen Fair," said Bessie Norton: "we'll go out on the piazza andplay it."
"Yes," said Violet; "and Lily shall be Lady Queen Fair, and we'll dressher up a little. Miss Emily," as a third Miss Collins, who gave musiclessons to the girls, passed by, "may we have a rose to put in Lily'shair for Lady Fair?"
The young lady smiled, stopped and pulled a couple of roses from thevine which wound itself around one of the pillars of the piazza, andgave them to Violet, then passed on.
Time had been when Violet would have hoped, perhaps would have askedto be Lady Fair herself, and been sulky and displeased if the otherchildren had not agreed; but now she was very different, and more aptto prefer another before herself.
The roses were soon arranged, the one in the hair, the other in thebosom of the little Lady Queen, who took her dignities in the calmestmanner. Meanwhile some of the other children were drawing forward oneof the rustic chairs with which the piazza was furnished, to serve as athrone.
But the little queen, like many another royal lady before her, foundher throne by no means an easy one.
"Ow!" she said, rubbing her little round white shoulders where she hadscratched them against the rough bark of the twisted boughs which madethe back of the chair, "ow! this is not nice at all, or comfortal. Myfeet don't come to the floor, and if I lean back I'm all scratched. I'drather be a queen without a throne."
"Oh, no! You must have a throne," said Susy Edwards. "Queens have to."
"I don't see why," said Lily, rather pettishly; for she did not feelvery well that morning, and that and the close heat of the day made hermore fretful than usual. "I should think queens could do just as theyhave a mind to and make their subjiks do it too; and I don't see whatthey have to have their skin all scraped up for if they don't want to;"and Lily twisted her head to give an aggrieved look at the little fatshoulder with that red mark upon it.
"I'll fix you," said Lola. "I'll put Miss Collins' footstool under yourfeet and you shall have the big cushion behind you. Some one bring thecushion while I carry the stool."
The footstool was brought in a moment; but the cushion was not to befound.
"The big girls had it yesterday," said Fanny Satterlee. "I saw themwith it in their recess when I was going home. There comes Cora Primenow; let's ask her. Cora, what did the big girls do with that cushionyesterday when they had done with it?"
"The Lord knows; I don't," said Cora, playfully tapping Fanny on thehead with the roll of music in her hand.
"Oh!" exclaimed Lily.
Daisy did not speak; but as Cora's eye happened to fall upon her, herface said as much as Lily's "Oh!"
"What's the matter with you two?" asked Cora, looking from one to theother of the little girls, but still good-natured.
"You oughtn't to say that," said Lily.
"Ought not to say what?"
"The Lord knows," answered Lily.
"Well, don't He know?" asked Cora.
"No," said Lily, doubtfully, "I guess not. I don't believe He'd botherHimself with knowing about a worn-out old cushion what has a hole inthe cover, and such things."
"Yes, He does, too," said Cora, laughing; "are not the very hairs ofour head numbered?"
"Now, I _know_ you ought to be 'shamed," said Lily. "You're talkingBible; and that is not right, is it, Daisy?"
"No," said Daisy, as boldly as Lily herself could have done, forquoting Scripture in a careless manner was also a habit of many in theschool.
"You two saucy monkeys! correcting your elders," said Cora, muchamused. "I heard you both talking Bible to Miss Collins this morningwith all the rest of your class."
"We were only saying what we learned in Sunday school yesterday," saidLily. "That's not the same thing. I _know_ it's not right to talk Biblethat kind of a way. Papa says so, and he tells us not to do it."
"Your papa's saying so does not make a thing right or wrong," said Cora.
"Yes, it does, too!" said Lily. "My papa knows a whole lot, and hewouldn't tell a story for any thing. Cora, you'd better go to yourmusic lesson: I 'speck Miss Emily wants you."
"Oh, you are very considerate for Miss Emily, all at once," said Cora,more amused than ever; "but you haven't told me why I shouldn't say,The Lord knows, when He does know."
Lily looked at Daisy, who stood by the arm of her chair, for help. Thelittle one felt that Cora was wrong, but she did not exactly know howto answer, and she had noticed how careful Daisy was to honor the nameof God.
"Is it not taking the name of God in vain?" said Daisy.
"Upon my word!" said Cora. "Do you mean to call that swearing?"
"Well, yes," said Lily, taking up the word, "a kind of baby swearing, Is'pose; but you know it's not very good of you, Cora."
"Everybody says such things: they don't mean any thing," said Cora.
"Not _everybody_," answered Lily. "Daisy don't."
"Then Daisy's uncommonly good," said Cora.
"Yes, she is," replied Lily; "and I s'pose _everybody_ ought to beuncommonly good and never say them."
Cora laughed again.
"Everybody must mind their p's and q's before you: mustn't they, Lily?"and away she ran to her music lesson.
"Here's the cushion," said Rosie Pierson, running out from theschool-room. "I found it in the closet under the shelf where thosecareless big girls left it, I s'pose."
The cushion was put behind Lily's shoulders, but still the little queenfidgeted on her throne and declared she was not yet "comfortal."
"'Cause if I lean back against the cushion my feet won't touch thestool," she said.
"We'll put something else on the stool to make it higher," said NettiePrime, who was trying to arrange Lily satisfactorily: "what shall wetake? Oh, I know. Daisy, run and bring the big Bible off Miss Collins'table for Lily to put her feet on."
Daisy, who made a motion to start forward as Nettie began to speak,stood still when she heard what she called for.
"Make haste," said the latter, impatiently: "we won't have a bit oftime to play."
Daisy did not move, but stood with rising color, trying to make up hermind to speak.
"Oh! you disobliging thing!" said Violet, and she ran for the book.
"Oh! don't," said Daisy, as Violet came back and stooped to put theBible on the footstool; "I didn't mean to be disobliging, but we oughtnot to use the Bible to play with."
"Pooh!" said Violet: "Lily's little feet won't hurt it. It's all wornout, any way. The cover is real shabby."
"I didn't mean that," answered Daisy; "I meant because it is God'sbook, and we ought to treat it very carefully."
"Oh, fiddle! How awfully particular you are, Daisy!" said Minnie Grey."Why, girls, do you know, the other day, when I was playing paper-dollswith her and I turned up a Bible to make the side of a house, she tookit away, and when I put it back again 'cause it stood up better thanthe other books, she said she wouldn't play if I did so with the Bible."
"I s'pose Daisy would call that 'taking God's name in vain,'" saidanother, half reproachfully; "wouldn't you, Daisy?"
"I think it is something the same," answered Daisy, feeling as ifall the others were finding fault with her and thinking her "awfullyparticular," a crime which no little girl likes to have laid to hercharge.
"I don't see how," said Lola. "I know we ought not to play with theBible; but I don't see how it is taking God's name in vain."
"But the Bible is God's book, and He told it to the men who wrote it,and His name is in it a great many times," said Daisy, "and I think itseems like taking it in vain to play with it or to put things upon it,or to knock it about like our other school-books. And it
is not rightto say 'the Lord knows,' and 'mercy,' and 'gracious,' and such words,when we are just playing, or when we are provoked."
"What is the harm?" asked Rosie. "Mercy and gracious are not God'sname."
"Well, no," said Daisy, slowly, not exactly knowing how to explainherself. "And maybe I make a mistake; but it does seem to me as if itwas a kind of--of--"
"Of little swearing, as Lily says," said Lola.
"Yes," said Daisy. "Rosie thinks it is no harm; but even if it is notmuch harm, I don't see what is the good of it. We can talk just as wellwithout saying such words."
"I guess they are pretty wicked," said Lily. "The day mamma went away,I said 'good heavens,' and she said 'Lily! Lily!' very quick, like shedoes when I do something very naughty, and she asked me where I learnedthat; and I told her Elly said it. I didn't mean to tell a tale aboutElly; but mamma looked sorry, and she told me never to say it again. Iguess 'mercy' is 'most the same, and I guess I won't say it any more;and, Daisy, if I hear the other girls say those words, I'll help youcorrect 'em."
Lily promised this with an air of such grave importance that the otherchildren laughed. Not in the least abashed, Lily went on,--
"Papa's coming home day after to-morrow, and I'll ask him to tell me awhole lot about God's name, and why it is wrong to say those things;and then I'll tell all you girls. But I'm not coming to school any morewhen mamma comes home; so you'll have to come to my house, and I'llhave a swearing class, and teach you all about it."
Lily's words might have been taken with a different meaning from thatwhich she intended to give them; but the other children understood her,and that was enough.
"But, Daisy," said Lola, "how do you know so much about these thingswhen you don't know a great deal about every-day lessons, and have hadno one to teach you for so long?"
"I don't know," said Daisy. "I think my own mamma who was drowned usedto teach me in the home I used to have;" and the dreamy look came intoher eyes which they always wore when she spoke of her far-away home andthose she had loved there. "I think I've forgotten a good many things,"she added; "but you know I couldn't forget what mamma taught me aboutJesus and what He wanted us to do if we loved Him. And I think if we dolove Him we won't say words about His name, His heaven, or any thingthat is His, that are not very good and gentle, and that we are verysure He would like us to say."
"But you are so _very_ particular, Daisy," said Minnie; "I think youare most _too_ particular."
"I didn't think we could be too particular about doing what Jesuslikes," said Daisy.
The other children had all gathered about Daisy, and were listeningwith interest to what she said. Perhaps they heard her with morepatience than they would have given to any one else; for Daisy was akind of mystery to them, and they looked upon her as a sort of fairyor princess in disguise, and would not have been at all surprised tohear the most extravagant stories about her, for she was "just like astory-book child." Lily had said so one day when she was speaking ofher at home.
"No," said Lola, thoughtfully; "but it does not seem as if such littlethings could be wrong. I know it can't be right to play with theBible or say its words just when we are joking or for our own commontalk; but I don't see the harm of saying 'goodness,' or 'mercy,' or'heavens,' or those words which you never will say, Daisy; they are notGod's name, and I don't see how it is taking it in vain to say them."
Daisy looked thoughtful. She felt she was right, and wanted to explainherself; but she was rather shy and could not find words to do so.
But Lily, whom shyness never troubled, came to her aid.
"Never mind," she said: "I'll ask papa just as soon as he comes home,and he'll tell us all about it; and if he says it is naughty, why, itis, and we won't do it; and if he says it's good enough, why, we will.That's the way to fix it."
Here the bell rang.
"There, now," said Susy Edwards, "we have to go in, and we've wastedall our time talking, and never had a bit of good of our recess."
But I think Susy was mistaken, and that they had one and all gainedmore good from their talk than they could have done from any amountof play; for it had set more than one young mind thinking; and fromthis day, even the most careless among them would check herself whenshe found she was on the point of using these words which had grownso common among them, more from want of thought than from any wish ortemptation to do wrong.
THE SWEARING CLASS.