The Happy Evening
Preparing the peas for supper]
Henry had just finished washing his hands and combing his hair, andEmily had only that minute changed her pinafore, when the distant soundof the carriage was heard.
Betty was preparing the peas for supper, and John laid the cloth, whenHenry and Emily ran out upon the lawn.
What a happy moment was that when the carriage stopped at the gate, andJohn opened the door and let down the step, and Lucy jumped out and ranto meet Emily and Henry. One would have thought that the children hadbeen parted a year instead of a day.
The chaise went on with Mrs. Goodriche, and all the family came intothe parlour.
"How nice the peas smell!" said Mr. Fairchild; "and I really want mysupper."
"So do I, papa," said Lucy.
"And so do I," whispered Henry to Emily.
"But you must not say so," returned Emily.
"No, no," said Henry firmly; "I know _that_; we agreed about _that_before."
John came in with a very large basket, well packed, out of the chaise;Lucy was running to begin to unpack it, when Mr. Fairchild said:
"Let us have our supper first, dear child, and the basket shall be ourdessert."
"Very well, papa," answered Lucy, "so we will;" and her young heart wasfilled with joy on account of the things that were in it, though shedid not know of one thing for herself.
John came in with a nice smoking leg of lamb; and he then went out andbrought some peas and young potatoes, to which he added a hot currentand raspberry pie. Everybody sat down; Mr. Fairchild said grace, andbegan to help those at the table from the lamb, whilst Mrs. Fairchildserved the peas. Lucy being helped, Mr. Fairchild said to Emily:
"Are you very hungry, my dear? Shall I give you much or little?"
"None, thank you, papa," was the answer.
"A few peas, my dear, then?" said her mother.
"None, thank you, mamma," replied Emily.
Mrs. Fairchild offered potatoes or tart.
"None, thank you, mamma," was Emily's answer to every offer.
Mrs. Fairchild seemed rather surprised, but was still more so whenHenry, who was always provided with a good appetite, gave exactly thesame answers which Emily had done. She supposed, however, that thechildren had supped already, and said:
"What did Betty give you, my dears?"
Emily told her mother, but coloured very much while speaking, andthere was something their parents thought rather odd in both theirfaces.
"What is it?" said Mr. Fairchild; "there is some little mystery here;let us hear it. What has happened? I trust that you have not beenplaying in the sun and made yourselves unwell."
"No, papa," replied Henry, "we are not"--he was going to say hungry,but that would not have been true. "We are not--we do not--we do notwish for any supper; do we, Emily?"
"What!" said Mr. Fairchild, with a smile, and yet at the same time alittle alarmed--"what! did you and Emily talk the affair over before,and agree together that you would not have any supper with us?"
"We did, papa," replied Henry bravely, "and when the things are takenaway we will tell you all about it."
"I do beg," said Mr. Fairchild, "that you will tell us all about it,even before we begin to eat; for there is your mamma looking anxious;Emily looking ready to cry, and Lucy, too, with her. What is this greatsecret?"
"I will tell you, papa," said Henry, getting up, and walking round tohis father's knee. "I opened the door, papa," he said; "it was notEmily's fault, she told me not to do it--and then she came out--and shewent to the top of the barn, and we went after her--and she chatteredto us--and then she went, and then we came after her--and then she saton the gate, and went on and came to the stile, talking all the way,almost as if she had been making game of us. Did she not, Emily?"
"Really, my dear boy," replied Mr. Fairchild, forcing himself to smile,"you must try to make your story plainer, or we shall be more in thedark at the end of it than we were at the beginning. All I nowunderstand is, that you and Emily climbed over the roof of the barnafter somebody. Well, and I hope you got no fall in this strangeexploit?"
"You are not angry, papa?" said Lucy. "Henry has often been on thethatch of the barn and never got hurt."
"I did not say I was angry, my dear," replied Mr. Fairchild. "I mightsay that it was neither safe nor prudent for little girls to scrambleup such places, and I might say, do not try these things again; but ifno harm was intended, why was I to be angry? But I must hear a morestraightforward story than Henry has told me; he has not given me thename of the person who went chattering before him and Emily; was it afairy, a little spiteful fairy, Emily? Did you let her out of a box, asthe princess did in the fairytale? And what has all this to do withyour refusing your suppers? Come, Emily, let us hear your account ofthis affair."
Poor Emily had been sadly put out by all that had passed between Henryand her father; and she, therefore, looked very red when she began herstory. But she got courage as she went on, and told it all, just as itis related in the last chapter; only she passed slightly over thewilfulness which her brother had shown in opening the cage door. Shefinished by saying, that as they had given away their suppers, they hadagreed together not to eat another; "and we settled not to tell ourreasons till the things were taken away."
"Yes, papa," added Henry, "we did."
"And this is all, my Emily?" said Mrs. Fairchild. "I will own that Iwas fearful there was something much amiss;" and she put out her handto her little girl and boy, and having kissed them, she added, "Now, mychildren, sit down and eat."
"And we will all sup together," cried Lucy, with her brightest,happiest smile, "and afterwards open the basket."
"And I will do more than give each of you a slice of lamb," said Mr.Fairchild. "I am going to-morrow to pay a visit to Mr. Darwell; I haveput this visit off too long; and I will call on Mr. Burke, Sir CharlesNoble's steward, and inquire about these poor people. What is the nameof the old woman, my dears?"
"Edward, papa," cried Henry.
"Edward," said Emily, "is the boy's name, not the old woman's--we didnot ask her name."
"I thought that was likely," answered Mr. Fairchild, smiling. "Well,Henry, I will tell you what must be done--you must be ready at sixo'clock to-morrow morning, and we will walk, whilst it is cool, to Mr.Burke's, and get our breakfast there, and you must help us to findthese poor people."
"Oh, papa!" said Henry: he could not say another word for joy.
After supper, and when everything but the candles was cleared from thetable, the basket was set on it, and Mrs. Fairchild began to unpack it.First she took out a number of parcels of rice, and sugar, and pepper,and mustard, and such things as children do not care to see. These wereput aside, and then came a smooth long parcel, which she opened; itcontained a piece of very nice muslin to make Lucy and Emily bestfrocks.
There was no harm in the little girls being very pleased at the sightof this; they had been taught to be thankful for every good and usefulthing provided for them. These, too, were put aside; and next came alarger parcel, tied up in a paper with care, and the name of "Lucy,from Mrs. Goodriche," written upon it. It was handed to Lucy; she didnot expect it, and her hands quite shook while she untied the string.It contained a beautiful doll, the size of Emily's famous doll; and Icould not say which of the two little sisters was most delighted. Thetwo largest parcels were at the bottom of the basket, and came last;one was directed with a pencil by Lucy to Emily, and the other toHenry; and when these were opened it was found out that Lucy had spentall her own money to make these parcels richer. Each contained abeautiful book with many pictures; and in Emily's parcel were a pair ofscissors for doll's work, and needles and cotton, and lots of brightpenny ribbon, and a bundle of ends of bright chintz for dolls' frocks.They were the very things that would please Emily most, and, as shesaid, would help so nicely to dress Lucy's doll.
Henry, besides his book, had a large rough knife, a ball of string, anawl, a little nail-passe
r, a paper of tacks, and some other littlethings which happened to be just what he wanted most of all things inthe world, for he was always making things in wood.
Well, that was a happy evening indeed; it had been a happy day, onlyMag had given some trouble; but, as Emily said, "Even Mag's mischiefhad turned out for some good, because the poor little children had gota supper by it."
The next day was almost, if not quite, as pleasant as the day before.Henry was out with his father; and Lucy and Emily had all the day givento them for dressing the new doll and settling her name; so they calledher Amelia, after Mrs. Howard.