Chapter VII. Jill's Mission
The good times began immediately, and very little studying was done thatweek in spite of the virtuous resolutions made by certain young personson Christmas Day. But, dear me, how was it possible to settle down tolessons in the delightful Bird Room, with not only its own charms todistract one, but all the new gifts to enjoy, and a dozen calls a day tooccupy one's time?
"I guess we'd better wait till the others are at school, and just go infor fun this week," said Jack, who was in great spirits at the prospectof getting up, for the splints were off, and he hoped to be promoted tocrutches very soon.
"_I_ shall keep my Speller by me and take a look at it every day, forthat is what I'm most backward in. But I intend to devote myself to you,Jack, and be real kind and useful. I've made a plan to do it, and Imean to carry it out, any way," answered Jill, who had begun to be amissionary, and felt that this was a field of labor where she coulddistinguish herself.
"Here's a home mission all ready for you, and you can be paying yourdebts beside doing yourself good," Mrs. Pecq said to her in private,having found plenty to do herself.
Now Jill made one great mistake at the outset--she forgot that she wasthe one to be converted to good manners and gentleness, and devotedher efforts to looking after Jack, finding it much easier to cure otherpeople's faults than her own. Jack was a most engaging heathen, andneeded very little instruction; therefore Jill thought her task wouldbe an easy one. But three or four weeks of petting and play had ratherdemoralized both children, so Jill's Speller, though tucked under thesofa pillow every day, was seldom looked at, and Jack shirked his Latinshamefully. Both read all the story-books they could get, held dailylevees in the Bird Room, and all their spare minutes were spent inteaching Snowdrop, the great Angora cat, to bring the ball when theydropped it in their game. So Saturday came, and both were rather theworse for so much idleness, since daily duties and studies are thewholesome bread which feeds the mind better than the dyspeptic plum-cakeof sensational reading, or the unsubstantial _bon-bons_ of frivolousamusement.
It was a stormy day, so they had few callers, and devoted themselves toarranging the album; for these books were all the rage just then, andboys met to compare, discuss, buy, sell, and "swap" stamps with as muchinterest as men on 'Change gamble in stocks. Jack had a nice littlecollection, and had been saving up pocket-money to buy a book in whichto preserve his treasures. Now, thanks to Jill's timely suggestion,Frank had given him a fine one, and several friends had contributed anumber of rare stamps to grace the large, inviting pages. Jill wieldedthe gum-brush and fitted on the little flaps, as her fingers wereskilful at this nice work, and Jack put each stamp in its proper placewith great rustling of leaves and comparing of marks. Returning, after abrief absence, Mrs. Minot beheld the countenances of the workers adornedwith gay stamps, giving them a very curious appearance.
"My dears! what new play have you got now? Are you wild Indians?or letters that have gone round the world before finding the rightaddress?" she asked, laughing at the ridiculous sight, for both were assober as judges and deeply absorbed in some doubtful specimen.
"Oh, we just stuck them there to keep them safe; they get lost if weleave them lying round. It's very handy, for I can see in a minute whatI want on Jill's face and she on mine, and put our fingers on theright chap at once," answered Jack, adding, with an anxious gaze at hisfriend's variegated countenance, "Where the dickens _is_ my New Granada?It's rare, and I wouldn't lose it for a dollar."
"Why, there it is on your own nose. Don't you remember you put it therebecause you said mine was not big enough to hold it?" laughed Jill,tweaking a large orange square off the round nose of her neighbor,causing it to wrinkle up in a droll way, as the gum made the operationslightly painful.
"So I did, and gave you Little Bolivar on yours. Now I'll have Alsaceand Lorraine, 1870. There are seven of them, so hold still and see howyou like it," returned Jack, picking the large, pale stamps one by onefrom Jill's forehead, which they crossed like a band.
She bore it without flinching, saying to herself with a secret smile, asshe glanced at the hot fire, which scorched her if she kept near enoughto Jack to help him, "This really is being like a missionary, with atattooed savage to look after. I have to suffer a little, as the goodfolks did who got speared and roasted sometimes; but I won't complain abit, though my forehead smarts, my arms are tired, and one cheek is asred as fire."
"The Roman States make a handsome page, don't they?" asked Jack, littledreaming of the part he was playing in Jill's mind. "Oh, I say, isn'tCorea a beauty? I'm ever so proud of that;" and he gazed fondly on a bigblue stamp, the sole ornament of one page.
"I don't see why the Cape of Good Hope has pyramids. They ought to go inEgypt. The Sandwich Islands are all right, with heads of the black kingsand queens on them," said Jill, feeling that they were very appropriateto her private play.
"Turkey has crescents, Australia swans, and Spain women's heads, withblack bars across them. Frank says it is because they keep women shutup so; but that was only his fun. I'd rather have a good, honest greenUnited States, with Washington on it, or a blue one-center with oldFranklin, than all their eagles and lions and kings and queens puttogether," added the democratic boy, with a disrespectful slap on acrowned head as he settled Heligoland in its place.
"Why does Austria have Mercury on the stamp, I wonder? Do they wearhelmets like that?" asked Jill, with the brush-handle in her mouth asshe cut a fresh batch of flaps.
"May be he was postman to the gods, so he is put on stamps now. ThePrussians wear helmets, but they have spikes like the old Roman fellows.I like Prussians ever so much; they fight splendidly, and always beat.Austrians have a handsome uniform, though."
"Talking of Romans reminds me that I have not heard your Latin for twodays. Come, lazybones, brace up, and let us have it now. I've done mycompo, and shall have just time before I go out for a tramp with Gus,"said Frank, putting by a neat page to dry, for he studied every day likea conscientious lad as he was.
"Don't know it. Not going to try till next week. Grind away over yourold Greek as much as you like, but don't bother me," answered Jack,frowning at the mere thought of the detested lesson.
But Frank adored his Xenophon, and would not see his old friend,Caesar, neglected without an effort to defend him; so he confiscated thegum-pot, and effectually stopped the stamp business by whisking away atone fell swoop all that lay on Jill's table.
"Now then, young man, you will quit this sort of nonsense and do yourlesson, or you won't see these fellows again in a hurry. You asked me tohear you, and I'm going to do it; here's the book."
Frank's tone was the dictatorial one, which Jack hated and always foundhard to obey, especially when he knew he ought to do it. Usually, whenhis patience was tried, he strode about the room, or ran off for a raceround the garden, coming back breathless, but good-tempered. Now boththese vents for irritation were denied him, and he had fallen intothe way of throwing things about in a pet. He longed to send Caesarto perpetual banishment in the fire blazing close by, but resisted thetemptation, and answered honestly, though gruffly: "I know I did, but Idon't see any use in pouncing on a fellow when he isn't ready. I haven'tgot my lesson, and don't mean to worry about it; so you may just give meback my things and go about your business."
"I'll give you back a stamp for every perfect lesson you get, and youwon't see them on any other terms;" and, thrusting the treasures intohis pocket, Frank caught up his rubber boots, and went off swinging themlike a pair of clubs, feeling that he would give a trifle to be able touse them on his lazy brother.
At this high-handed proceeding, and the threat which accompanied it,Jack's patience gave out, and catching up Caesar, as he thought, senthim flying after the retreating tyrant with the defiant declaration,--
"Keep them, then, and your old book, too! I won't look at it till yougive all my stamps back and say you are sorry. So now!"
It was all over before Mamma could interfere, or Jill
do more thanclutch and cling to the gum-brush. Frank vanished unharmed, but the poorbook dashed against the wall to fall half open on the floor, its gaycover loosened, and its smooth leaves crushed by the blow.
"It's the album! O Jack, how could you?" cried Jill, dismayed at sightof the precious book so maltreated by the owner.
"Thought it was the other. Guess it isn't hurt much. Didn't mean tohit him, any way. He does provoke me so," muttered Jack, very red andshamefaced as his mother picked up the book and laid it silently onthe table before him. He did not know what to do with himself, and wasthankful for the stamps still left him, finding great relief in makingfaces as he plucked them one by one from his mortified countenance. Jilllooked on, half glad, half sorry that her savage showed such signs ofunconverted ferocity, and Mrs. Minot went on writing letters, wearingthe grave look her sons found harder to bear than another person'sscolding. No one spoke for a moment, and the silence was becomingawkward when Gus appeared in a rubber suit, bringing a book to Jack fromLaura and a note to Jill from Lotty.
"Look here, you just trundle me into my den, please, I'm going to have anap, it's so dull to-day I don't feel like doing much," said Jack, whenGus had done his errands, trying to look as if he knew nothing about thefracas.
Jack folded his arms and departed like a warrior borne from thebattle-field, to be chaffed unmercifully for a "pepper-pot," while Gusmade him comfortable in his own room.
"I heard once of a boy who threw a fork at his brother and put his eyeout. But he didn't mean to, and the brother forgave him, and he neverdid so any more," observed Jill, in a pensive tone, wishing to show thatshe felt all the dangers of impatience, but was sorry for the culprit.
"Did the boy ever forgive himself?" asked Mrs. Minot.
"No, 'm; I suppose not. But Jack didn't hit Frank, and feels real sorry,I know."
"He might have, and hurt him very much. Our actions are in our ownhands, but the consequences of them are not. Remember that, my dear, andthink twice before you do anything."
"Yes, 'm, I will;" and Jill composed herself to consider whatmissionaries usually did when the natives hurled tomahawks andboomerangs at one another, and defied the rulers of the land.
Mrs. Minot wrote one page of a new letter, then stopped, pushed herpapers about, thought a little, and finally got up, saying, as if shefound it impossible to resist the yearning of her heart for the naughtyboy,--
"I am going to see if Jack is covered up, he is so helpless, and liableto take cold. Don't stir till I come back."
"No, 'm, I won't."
Away went the tender parent to find her son studying Caesar for dearlife, and all the more amiable for the little gust which had blown awaythe temporary irritability. The brothers were often called "Thunderand Lightning," because Frank lowered and growled and was a good whileclearing up, while Jack's temper came and went like a flash, and the airwas all the clearer for the escape of dangerous electricity. Of courseMamma had to stop and deliver a little lecture, illustrated by sad talesof petulant boys, and punctuated with kisses which took off the edge ofthese afflicting narratives.
Jill meantime meditated morally on the superiority of her own goodtemper over the hasty one of her dear playmate, and just when she wasfeeling unusually uplifted and secure, alas! like so many of us, shefell, in the most deplorable manner.
Glancing about the room for something to do, she saw a sheet of paperlying exactly out of reach, where it had fluttered from the tableunperceived. At first her eye rested on it as carelessly as it did onthe stray stamp Frank had dropped; then, as if one thing suggested theother, she took it into her head that the paper was Frank's composition,or, better still, a note to Annette, for the two corresponded whenabsence or weather prevented the daily meeting at school.
"Wouldn't it be fun to keep it till he gives back Jack's stamps? Itwould plague him so if it was a note, and I do believe it is, forcompo's don't begin with two words on one side. I'll get it, and Jackand I will plan some way to pay him off, cross thing!"
Forgetting her promise not to stir, also how dishonorable it was to readother people's letters, Jill caught up the long-handled hook, often inuse now, and tried to pull the paper nearer. It would not come at once,for a seam in the carpet held it, and Jill feared to tear or crumple itif she was not very careful. The hook was rather heavy and long forher to manage, and Jack usually did the fishing, so she was not veryskilful; and just as she was giving a particularly quick jerk, she losther balance, fell off the sofa, and dropped the pole with a bang.
"Oh, my back!" was all she could think or say as she felt the jar allthrough her little body, and a corresponding fear in her guilty littlemind that someone would come and find out the double mischief she hadbeen at. For a moment she lay quite still to recover from the shock,then as the pain passed she began to wonder how she should get back, andlooked about her to see if she could do it alone. She thought she could,as the sofa was near and she had improved so much that she could situp a little if the doctor would have let her. She was gathering herselftogether for the effort, when, within arm's reach now, she saw thetempting paper, and seized it with glee, for in spite of her predicamentshe did want to tease Frank. A glance showed that it was not thecomposition nor a note, but the beginning of a letter from Mrs. Minot toher sister, and Jill was about to lay it down when her own name caughther eye, and she could not resist reading it. Hard words to write of oneso young, doubly hard to read, and impossible to forget.
"Dear Lizzie,--Jack continues to do very well, and will soon be upagain. But we begin to fear that the little girl is permanently injuredin the back. She is here, and we do our best for her; but I neverlook at her without thinking of Lucinda Snow, who, you remember, wasbedridden for twenty years, owing to a fall at fifteen. Poor littleJaney does not know yet, and I hope"--There it ended, and "poor littleJaney's" punishment for disobedience began that instant. She thought shewas getting well because she did not suffer all the time, and every onespoke cheerfully about "by and by." Now she knew the truth, and shut hereyes with a shiver as she said, low, to herself,--
"Twenty years! I couldn't bear it; oh, I couldn't bear it!"
A very miserable Jill lay on the floor, and for a while did not care whocame and found her; then the last words of the letter--"I hope"--seemedto shine across the blackness of the dreadful "twenty years" and cheerher up a bit, for despair never lives long in young hearts, and Jill wasa brave child.
"That is why Mammy sighs so when she dresses me, and every one is sogood to me. Perhaps Mrs. Minot doesn't really know, after all. She wasdreadfully scared about Jack, and he is getting well. I'd like to askDoctor, but he might find out about the letter. Oh, dear, why didn't Ikeep still and let the horrid thing alone!"
As she thought that, Jill pushed the paper away, pulled herself up, andwith much painful effort managed to get back to her sofa, where she laidherself down with a groan, feeling as if the twenty years had alreadypassed over her since she tumbled off.
"I've told a lie, for I said I wouldn't stir. I've hurt my back, I'vedone a mean thing, and I've got paid for it. A nice missionary I am;I'd better begin at home, as Mammy told me to;" and Jill groaned again,remembering her mother's words. "Now I've got another secret to keep allalone, for I'd be ashamed to tell the girls. I guess I'll turn round andstudy my spelling; then no one will see my face."
Jill looked the picture of a good, industrious child as she lay with herback to the large table, her book held so that nothing was to be seenbut one cheek and a pair of lips moving busily. Fortunately, it isdifficult for little sinners to act a part, and, even if the face ishidden, something in the body seems to betray the internal remorse andshame. Usually, Jill lay flat and still; now her back was bent in apeculiar way as she leaned over her book, and one foot wagged nervously,while on the visible cheek was a Spanish stamp with a woman's facelooking through the black bars, very suggestively, if she had known it.How long the minutes seemed till some one came, and what a queer littlejump her heart gave when Mrs. Minot's vo
ice said, cheerfully, "Jackis all right, and, I declare, so is Jill. I really believe there is atelegraph still working somewhere between you two, and each knows whatthe other is about without words."
"I didn't have any other book handy, so I thought I'd study awhile,"answered Jill, feeling that she deserved no praise for her seemingindustry.
She cast a sidelong glance as she spoke, and seeing that Mrs. Minot waslooking for the letter, hid her face and lay so still she could hear therustle of the paper as it was taken from the floor. It was well she didnot also see the quick look the lady gave her as she turned the letterand found a red stamp sticking to the under side, for this unluckylittle witness told the story.
Mrs. Minot remembered having seen the stamp lying close to the sofa whenshe left the room, for she had had half a mind to take it to Jack, butdid not, thinking Frank's plan had some advantages. She also recollectedthat a paper flew off the table, but being in haste she had not stoppedto see what it was. Now, the stamp and the letter could hardly have cometogether without hands, for they lay a yard apart, and here, also, onthe unwritten portion of the page, was the mark of a small green thumb.Jill had been winding wool for a stripe in her new afghan, and the greenball lay on her sofa. These signs suggested and confirmed what Mrs.Minot did not want to believe; so did the voice, attitude, and air ofJill, all very unlike her usual open, alert ways.
The kind lady could easily forgive the reading of her letter since thegirl had found such sad news there, but the dangers of disobedience wereserious in her case, and a glance showed that she was suffering eitherin mind or body--perhaps both.
"I will wait for her to tell me. She is an honest child, and the truthwill soon come out," thought Mrs. Minot, as she took a clean sheet, andJill tried to study.
"Shall I hear your lesson, dear? Jack means to recite his like a goodboy, so suppose you follow his example," she said, presently.
"I don't know as I can say it, but I'll try."
Jill did try, and got on bravely till she came to the word "permanent;"there she hesitated, remembering where she saw it last.
"Do you know what that means?" asked her teacher, thinking to help heron by defining the word.
"Always--for a great while--or something like that; doesn't it?"faltered Jill, with a tight feeling in her throat, and the color comingup, as she tried to speak easily, yet felt so shame-stricken she couldnot.
"Are you in pain, my child? Never mind the lesson; tell me, and I'll dosomething for you."
The kind words, the soft hand on her hot cheek, and the pity in the eyesthat looked at her, were too much for Jill. A sob came first, and thenthe truth, told with hidden face and tears that washed the blush away,and set free the honest little soul that could not hide its fault fromsuch a friend.
"I knew it all before, and was sure you would tell me, else you wouldnot be the child I love and like to help so well."
Then, while she soothed Jill's trouble, Mrs. Minot told her story andshowed the letter, wishing to lessen, if possible, some part of the painit had given.
"Sly old stamp! To go and tell on me when I meant to own up, and getsome credit if I could, after being so mean and bad," said Jill, smilingthrough her tears when she saw the tell-tale witnesses against her.
"You had better stick it in your book to remind you of the badconsequences of disobedience, then perhaps _this_ lesson will leave a'permanent' impression on your mind and memory," answered Mrs. Minot,glad to see her natural gayety coming back, and hoping that she hadforgotten the contents of the unfortunate letter. But she had not; andpresently, when the sad affair had been talked over and forgiven, Jillasked, slowly, as she tried to put on a brave look,--
"Please tell me about Lucinda Snow. If I am to be like her, I might aswell know how she managed to bear it so long."
"I'm sorry you ever heard of her, and yet perhaps it may help you tobear your trial, dear, which I hope will never be as heavy a one ashers. This Lucinda I knew for years, and though at first I thought herfate the saddest that could be, I came at last to see how happy she wasin spite of her affliction, how good and useful and beloved."
"Why, how could she be? What did she do?" cried Jill, forgetting her owntroubles to look up with an open, eager face again.
"She was so patient, other people were ashamed to complain of theirsmall worries; so cheerful, that her own great one grew lighter; soindustrious, that she made both money and friends by pretty things sheworked and sold to her many visitors. And, best of all, so wise andsweet that she seemed to get good out of everything, and make her poorroom a sort of chapel where people went for comfort, counsel, and anexample of a pious life. So, you see, Lucinda was not so very miserableafter all."
"Well, if I could not be as I was, I'd like to be a woman like that.Only, I hope I shall not!" answered Jill, thoughtfully at first, thencoming out so decidedly with the last words that it was evident the lifeof a bedridden saint was not at all to her mind.
"So do I; and I mean to believe that you will not. Meantime, we can tryto make the waiting as useful and pleasant as possible. This painfullittle back will be a sort of conscience to remind you of what you oughtto do and leave undone, and so you can be learning obedience. Then,when the body is strong, it will have formed a good habit to make dutyeasier; and my Lucinda can be a sweet example, even while lying here, ifshe chooses."
"Can I?" and Jill's eyes were full of softer tears as the comfortable,cheering words sank into her heart, to blossom slowly by and by into herlife, for this was to be a long lesson, hard to learn, but very usefulin the years to come.
When the boys returned, after the Latin was recited and peace restored,Jack showed her a recovered stamp promptly paid by Frank, who was asjust as he was severe, and Jill asked for the old red one, thoughshe did not tell why she wanted it, nor show it put away in thespelling-book, a little seal upon a promise made to be kept.