CHAPTER VI.
ANXIETY AT ROSEMOUNT.
The only really quiet part of the day at Rosemount was during themorning hours, when the children were busy writing letters home andlearning their lessons. To-day, however, a certain restlessness seemedto have taken possession of them all. Emma and Fani could not keep stilla minute. The latter tossed his papers about as if he couldn't make uphis mind which one he wanted. The former made all sorts of signs to himacross the table, and, in the midst of studying her French verbs, sheseemed to be suddenly seized with a desire for lead-pencils, for shebegan to sharpen all that she could get together, one after the other.Oscar was writing out his speech. Any one would have thought that he wascomposing a drama and acting it out as he went along; he kept throwingup his head, and gazing enthusiastically first at one inkstand and thenat another, as if he were summoning them all to great heroic deeds.
Aunt Clarissa, who generally sat in the room during the lesson-time tokeep order in the little company, had just been called out by Lina, themaid-servant, who was usually a most quiet and reserved young person,but who was now, evidently, much excited and almost distressed as sheasked to "speak a word with Mrs. Clarissa."
No sooner was the door closed than Oscar broke out eagerly:--
"Though neither you nor anybody knows where the Festival is to be thisevening, Fani, yet promise me, on your word of honor, that you willjoin us--Promise! at quarter before six, at the three oaks. Promise! andfrom there we march to the place of celebration."
Fani looked at Emma.
"Yes, of course you can promise. We shall be back by that time," saidEmma, decidedly. "You see, Oscar, we have something to do togetherbefore that; but we are going at two o'clock if we can get away."
"Go where you please; only promise to be back," said Oscar.
Fani promised that he would be at the three oaks before six o'clock.
"And you too, Fred; we have not too many at the best. Promise thatyou'll come too."
It was not so easy to get Fred's consent; he was always slow to make apromise. Perhaps he would come; but, if he had anything important toattend to, he couldn't come if he did promise, so he must be excused.
Oscar was determined to have his own way. Fred was obstinate and wouldnot yield. Emma and Fani were not at all loath to give up their studiesand join in the dispute.
In the other room, Lina, her cheeks flaming with excitement, wasdeclaring to Mrs. Clarissa that she would not stay another day in thehouse; no one would believe such things could happen who hadn't seenthem; she never heard of such things before in her life.
"Do try to speak plainly, so that I can understand what you mean," saidClarissa, who had not an idea what the girl was talking about.
"Well, I noticed it a little once or twice before," said the agitatedhouse-maid; "but I thought it came in at the open window. But to-day,just now, when I opened the drawer of the young gentleman's wash-standto clean it, out jumped a live frog. I opened another and there were alot of spiders crawling about! I slapped at them with a cloth and theyran into all the corners, and I couldn't get them out. Then I saw thatthe key was in the writing-desk, and I thought what if by chance any ofthe disgusting creatures had got in there; for what would Mrs. Stanhopesay? I opened one division and then another and another. Hu! how itlooked! I can't tell you how horrid it was! Snails, caterpillars,beetles, every sort of ugly living creature crawled out of everyplace,--it was all dirty and nasty and abominable! I cleaned and brushedand washed and scrubbed as well as I could; but it was so dirty and sosticky! Ugh! And it was done on purpose, too; that's the worst of it;and the nasty things have got into my clothes and my hair and all overme! That stupid young gentleman did it just to frighten whoever came andfound them there! I know he did!"
"No, Lina, you're mistaken," said Clarissa, when she could get in aword. "Come with me, and I'll see what can be done with the room. Theboy didn't mean to frighten any one. I'm only afraid he was trying tohide them where they wouldn't be found. Let's go and see."
The aspect of Fred's room was indeed alarming. All the drawers andshelves in the different pieces of furniture were pulled out, and allwere dirty and bore the marks of the creatures who had been kept inthem. On the floor lay the remains of the spiders and worms that Linahad destroyed. The windows also were spotted with the dead bodies ofinsects. Clarissa shook her head sadly.
"Call the lad to come up here," she said. "But do not make any more fussabout the matter. Listen to me, Lina; we must make this all clean andnice again without letting Mrs. Stanhope know anything about it. Do youunderstand?"
Lina muttered something to herself and went to call Fred. When the poorlad entered his room and saw the destruction of all his carefullypreserved treasures, he turned as white as chalk, and spoke not oneword.
"My dear boy," said Clarissa very gently, "you need not be frightened,but I must tell you that you cannot use these drawers nor this desk forthis purpose. Now, we will clean them all out, but remember that no morecreatures must be brought into the house."
"Oh, my collection! my whole collection!"
"Yes, you see this is not the way to go to work to make a collection.Don't be unhappy. I will see about your getting some more creatures. Butthe first thing is to get this room cleaned up, and I'm sure you won'twant to give us so much trouble again."
Fred glanced at the places where his most cherished treasures had beenstored. His rare oleander-worms and his priceless beetles all weredestroyed. The drawers all opened, the creatures all killed and spoiled.He went down stairs again, but he could not go back to the others andhave them ask him why he had been sent for. He went out into the garden,and down to the seat under the lindens by the river. The thought of hisspecimens, his precious specimens, was too much for the poor fellow. Hethrew himself on the ground and poured out his sorrows in sobs andtears.
In the afternoon, when the others all ran out rejoicing in the sunshine,he hid himself in a corner of the school-room, and wrote the followingletter:--
DEAR AUNTY:--You will cry when you read this, I am sure. It is all done for, my entire collection; all killed with a dust-cloth, squashed, smashed, driven out of windows, and into holes, and all by a maid-servant. As I had no boxes for them, I naturally put my specimens into the best places I could find for them. In the writing-desk in my room were ever so many little divisions, just the very thing to put different varieties into. When the maid came to clear up the room, she didn't know anything about their value, of course, and she thrust her hateful brush right in and destroyed them all. She is a savage, an ignorant savage. I did as you told me, dear aunty. Not one tiny little frog even have I carried in my pockets, not even a beetle; and this is the result. I will not tell you all the things I had found; I couldn't bear to describe them. Two such beauties of beetles--bright red wings, the body lilac blue, and glittering as any precious stone! Such a rare species! And an oleander-sphinx! And my magnificent caterpillar of the humming-bird moth!--you know, aunty, that one with yellow stripes and blue eye-spots. All trodden to death on the floor.
I must stop; the longer I think of it, the worse I feel. I will say one thing though. You may call a person "Aunty," but that doesn't make her one. When we first came here, I used to say to Fani, when he wanted anything, "Why don't you go and ask Aunt Clarissa?" and he answered more than a dozen times, "That isn't allowed here." So at last I understood, and as I didn't want to lead him to do anything out of the way, I didn't say it any more. But now you see the difference between a real aunt and a make-believe one. There is nothing in the world that we can't ask you. If you can't do it, you say so, and there's the end of it. But that's no reason for not asking another time; there is always something to ask, and you understand that, and don't expect us to stop asking just because you have to say no sometimes. Now, this whole trouble comes from this; for when I asked Fani to ask Aunt Clarissa to give me some t
wenty or thirty old boxes to keep my specimens in, he said it was not proper to ask for so many things, and I could pack them in paper. Just think of that! To wrap living creatures up in paper! Of course Fani doesn't understand anything about such things.
Now what I want you to do, dear aunty, is to write in your next letter that we are to come home; it is high time. It is four weeks since we came, and that is long enough to be away from home; for home is the best place in the whole world. There are plenty of boxes to be had there, and everything that you want, and there are nice places for things, and there isn't such danger of accidents. And if anything does go wrong, you are there, aunty, and in a minute it is set right again. Do write and say that we may leave here on Saturday, and then on Sunday we shall be at home again. How glad we shall be! Good-bye, dear aunty; your ever-loving nephew,
FRED.
The evening came; lovely and bright. Under the three oaks were assembledthe two Fink boys, the baker's son from Lucerne, the shoemaker'sapprentice from Uri, the hotel porter from Schwyz, and Feklitus! Oscarstood in the midst with his banner, and looked sharply in everydirection, for it was almost six o'clock and neither Fred nor Fani wasin sight. The clock struck; five, ten minutes passed, and they did notcome.
Oscar felt that it was useless to wait longer. Fred did not mean tocome; he had seen that in the morning; but Fani, where was he? As heasked himself this question, Oscar raised his fist threateningly in theair and muttered to himself:--
"Oh, that Emma! that Xanthippe!"
His original intention had been to march to the windmill to the music offife and drum, flute and harmonicon, but he had given up part of thisplan; chiefly, he said to himself, on account of his father's advice notto make any disturbance in a strange place; but also because he couldnot get a drum, and Feklitus would not play the flute.
Now it was time to move, and the procession began to march. The lad fromLucerne went first, playing briskly upon the harmonicon; the othersfollowed two and two, and Oscar in the middle held aloft the banner. Thestaff was quickly planted as previously arranged; the beautiful bannerfloated proudly over the land. Oscar took his stand by it, and theothers formed a circle, lying on the grass about him. With a loudringing voice he began:--
"Friends and brothers!"
"What does this mean? What is this all about?" suddenly thundered avoice behind him.
The boys sprang to their feet. Oscar looked round. Two bearded men inuniform stood close behind him and looked at him with threateningglances. In a flash Oscar turned about, made one great leap down thehill-side and away across the field like a madman. Behind him came theFinks, scarcely touching the ground. Down the other side ran theLucerner fast on the heels of the Schwyzer, who tripped, and both wentheadlong into a ditch. Feklitus was the only one who kept his ground. Heknew who he was; Fortunatus, the only son of Mr. Bickel. No one woulddare to meddle with him. He knew, too, that he was by no means nimble,and the sudden appearance of the men in uniform had given him a strangefeeling of heaviness in his legs. He had no mind to stay alone, however,and so he seized the shoemaker's boy by the collar, and held him as in avise.
One of the men now came up to them and said roughly,--
"Come along to the watch-house and explain what you have been about, andwhat it all means."
The Uri boy hid himself as well as he could. Feklitus, half-frightened,half-angry, answered,--
"We have done nothing. We are not to blame. It's all Oscar's doing."
"We don't know anything about that," said the man. "You come along withus. Our motto is, 'Taken together, hung together.'" Then he turned tohis comrade, and they began to whisper.
Feklitus was as pale as a ghost.
"Did you hear that? They are going to hang us," he said, grasping hiscompanion still more tightly.
"Let us run away," gasped the boy, hardly able to speak for choking.
Feklitus looked at the men; they were in earnest conversation with themiller. He sprang from the ground; fear gave him unwonted agility. Downthe hill he raced, his hair fairly standing on end with fright, and theUri boy after him. Neither looked back to see whether they were pursued,but they thought they heard footsteps behind them. On they ran--on, on;at last they separated; one this way, the other that; and then bothdisappeared. They had not been followed.
Oscar reached Rosemount all out of breath. He rushed up the steps, ranto his bed-room, took out his portfolio, threw himself on a seat beforethe table, and wrote the following, sobbing more and more as he wenton:--
DEAR AUNTY,--I want your help. Something has happened that may have very unpleasant consequences, and you are the only person that can help me; you will know how. I really did mean to be careful, just as my father bade me, and not do anything out of the way, and particularly not make a noise. You will not think that I did wrong to select the best of the mottoes. You know you said yourself that though we had no tyrants ourselves, yet, where there were any, it was a splendid verse. I cannot explain it all exactly, but we were taken by surprise in the middle of a perfectly harmless meeting. We succeeded in escaping, but I think perhaps we shall be prosecuted; and if my name comes out, they may write to papa from the court of justice here, and that would be horrible. You will stand by me, won't you, dear aunty? If a letter should come to my father, couldn't you get hold of it and read it and answer it yourself, without letting him know? You can explain to the gentlemen that we were only having a little Swiss celebration just among ourselves. Pray do help me, and not let the story get out. I hope you will write to-morrow and tell us to come home. We have been away long enough. I am sure papa and mamma would be glad, for we cannot do our lessons nicely here, at all. Everything is far better at home; things are better arranged, and the amusements are a great deal better. Do write to us to come home directly; and tell me too that you have done what I ask about the letter to papa. Best love, dearest aunty,
From your loving nephew,
OSCAR.
The letter was folded in haste, and the address quickly added; and thewriter ran with all his might to the post-office, a short distance fromthe house. He had to hurry, for it was nearly supper-time. As he cametearing along into the court-yard at Rosemount, on his return, hestarted back; for there stood one of the men in uniform, with thedeserted banner in his hand. He was waiting to be let in. The dooropened. He entered. Oscar drew back behind a great oak-tree. His heartbeat like a trip-hammer. What was going on inside there? Mrs. Stanhopewould know now all about it! What would she think of him after this!Perhaps she would send them all home with a letter of complaint to theirfather! His heart beat louder and louder. Perhaps the man came to fetchhim to be punished and imprisoned. Had he broken some law when he hadthe hole dug in front of the mill, when there was nothing but shortgrass there? Oh, if he had only followed his father's advice, and nottried to do anything in this strange country without leave! All theseanxious thoughts ran through Oscar's head, and the longer that dreadfulman stayed, the more alarmed he grew.
Clarissa had just finished her disagreeable task, and, assisted veryreluctantly by the indignant Lina, had at last succeeded in removing alltraces of Fred's unfortunate collection, when a tremendous ringing atthe house-door called her down stairs. It was the watchman with thebanner. Another strange occurrence. What would happen next? She wasreally frightened when she recognized Oscar's banner, and read the toodistinctly printed motto which embellished it. Clarissa looked anxiouslyat the different doors for fear that Mrs. Stanhope might come throughone of them. She asked the man what his business might be. He repliedthat they had discovered that the owner of the banner he held in hishand belonged at Rosemount, and also that they had come to theconclusion that all that affair was only boys' play, though at first themiller had thought otherwise because of the motto. This was why he hadinformed the police. Now, they merely wished to advise Mrs. Stanhope tobid
her young people keep such games within the limits of her owngrounds.
Clarissa still glanced anxiously towards the doors, while she assuredthe man that his advice would be followed, and pressed a coin into hishand as an acknowledgment of the trouble he had taken. Then shehurriedly took the banner, rolled it up, and carried it away. She wasdetermined, if possible, to keep from Mrs. Stanhope all knowledge ofthis day's occurrences. But would it be possible?
However, all was safe for the present; and, when the bell rang forsupper, Clarissa laid aside her anxiety and went cheerfully into thedining-room. Oscar and Fred followed each other with slow steps anddejected demeanor. Their usual vivacity had vanished, and, as theyseated themselves at the table, they hung their heads like hyacinthsnipped by the frost.
Elsli sat next to Fred; her cheeks were glowing with exercise, for shehad had to run fast all the way home to be in time for supper. She, too,hung her head over her plate to hide her heated face.
Emma and Fani were not there.
Mrs. Stanhope looked silently first at the empty places, then at thechildren.
Clarissa watched the door uneasily; no one came.
"I am willing to allow children all possible freedom," said Mrs.Stanhope, seriously; "but the order of the house must be maintained. Iam very much annoyed at unpunctuality at meals. Fani has never allowedhimself any such irregularity. I wonder how it happened now."
She looked from one brother to another as if expecting some explanation.They looked so uncomfortable that she took it as a sign of regret fortheir sister's delinquency, and so forbore farther remark.
After supper, Mrs. Stanhope went out as usual on the terrace, and theothers followed. It began to grow dark. Clarissa's anxiety becameunendurable; what could have happened to the children?
"Dear Mrs. Stanhope," she said, entreatingly, "do let me send some oneout to look for the children. I cannot rest for fear that they have metwith some accident."
"Where can we send? We have no clue to the direction they have taken,"answered Mrs. Stanhope in a tone of vexation. "It is very provoking.Fani never did such a thing before. I will go with you."
She rose and went through a long corridor to the court-yard. Clarissaand the children followed. There they found the servants all assembled:the footman, coachman, cook, and maids were holding a council. They weretalking over the children's absence, its possible cause, and Mrs.Stanhope's probable displeasure. When that lady came upon themunperceived, they tried to separate and escape; but it was too late. Shetold the men to go out into the street and to inquire in differentdirections whether anything had been seen of the lost children. Linacame forward to say that the cook knew that the young lady had gonefishing. It was a pity that all these young people were so cruel toanimals, the house-maid added; and therewith she shot an angry glance atFred, whom she hadn't forgiven for the trouble he had given her.
"For Heaven's sake!" cried Clarissa, in great alarm. "If those childrenhave gone out on the river, something terrible must have happened tothem! If we could only have the least idea which way they went!"
The cook, being appealed to, said that she had directed the young ladyto the fisherman's hut. It might be well to look for her there.
Clarissa started at once, calling the men to go with her and show herthe way.
Poor Elsli was more frightened now than any one else. She thought thatAunt Clarissa would now learn the story which she ought long ago to havetold her. By her daily visits she had become so familiar with all thewants and sufferings of the fisherman's family that she had been led onto undertake more and more, till at last she had come to do nearly allthe housework of the poor little dwelling. But gradually had grown uponher the conviction that Mrs. Stanhope would be extremely displeased ifshe knew of her conduct. In great agony she now started after AuntClarissa, crying out:--
"Oh, do let me go with you! I have something to tell you, and we cantalk as we go."
"My dear child, what a time to choose to tell me something! How could Ilisten now? Turn back directly. What will Mrs. Stanhope think to see yourunning away at such a time?"
Mrs. Stanhope only thought that Elsli was anxious about her brother, aswas very natural. She bade the children go to bed, since they could beof no use in finding the missing ones. They obeyed her in silence, andwent to their rooms. The boys fell asleep as soon as their heads touchedtheir pillows, and so happily lost remembrance of their troubles; butpoor Elsli sat on her bed with wide-open eyes, for the anxious fear inher heart made sleep impossible. She went over and over again the eventsof the last few weeks. She had not at first meant to do wrong, but shecertainly ought not to have repeated her visits to the fisherman's housewithout leave, especially as she knew that Mrs. Stanhope would probablyobject. Yet, how could she have left those poor people without help,when she found that she could do so much for them, and they reminded herso much of her family at home? Probably Mrs. Stanhope would send her andFani away, but she deserved it and Fani did not. The more the poor girlpondered over all this trouble, the more unhappy she became; and at lastshe burst into tears and sobbed out:--
"Oh, if I only had some one to help me. I cannot tell what to do!"
Then Elsli remembered that she could bring her trouble to her HeavenlyFather, and seek comfort and forgiveness from him. She had alreadyrepeated her daily evening prayer; but now she folded her hands again,and prayed, not as a form but from the bottom of her heart, that Godwould help her in her dire need, so that Fani should not be punished forher fault, and that she should not do wrong again, and that thefisherman's family should not suffer any more. Peace came as she prayed,and she lay down and slept at last.