CHAPTER XXIII.
CISSY CARTER, BOYS' GIRL.
Now Prissy Smith was a girls' girl, while Cissy Carter was a boys'girl. That was mainly the difference between them. Not that Prissy didnot love boys' play upon occasion, for which indeed her fleetness offoot particularly fitted her. Also if Hugh John teased her she nevercried nor told on him, but waited till he was looking the other wayand then gave him something for himself on the ear. But on the wholeshe was a girls' girl, and her idea of the way to fight was slappingher dolls when they were naughty.
Now, Mr. Picton Smith said that most religion was summed up in twomaxims, "Don't tell lies," and "Don't tell tales." To these Hugh Johnadded a third, at least equal in canonicity, "Don't be dasht-mean." Inthese you have briefly comprehended all the Law and the Prophets ofthe house of Windy Standard.
Cissy Carter, however, was a tom-boy: you could not get over that.There was no other word for her. She never played with girls if shecould better herself. She despised dolls; she hated botany and thepiano. Her governess had a hard but lively time of it, and had it notbeen for her brother Sammy coaching her in short cuts to knowledge,she would have been left far behind in the exact sciences of spellingand the multiplication-table. As it was, between a tendency toscramble for scraps of information and the run of a pretty widelibrary, Cissy knew more than any one gave her credit for.
On one memorable occasion it was Cissy's duty to take her grandmotherfor a walk. Now the Dowager Mrs. Davenant Carter was the dearest andmost fairy-like old lady in the world, and Cissy was very proud towalk into Edam with her. For her grandmother had not forgotten howgood confections tasted to girls of thirteen, and there was quite anice shop in the High Street. Their rose-drops especially were almostas good as doing-what-you-were-told-not-to, and their peppermints foruse in church had quite the force of a religious observance.
But Mrs. Davenant Carter had a weak eye, and whenever she went out,she put a large green shade over it. So one day it happened that Cissywas walking abroad with her grandmother, with a vision ofrose-drop-shop in the offing. As they were passing one of the villasnearest to their house, a certain rude boy, Wedgwood Baker the name ofhim, seeing the lame old lady tripping by on her stick like a fairygodmother, called out loudly "Go it, old blind patch!"
He was sorry the minute after, for in one moment Cissy Carter hadpulled off her white thread gloves, climbed the fence, and had landedwhat Hugh John would have called "One, two, three--and a tiger" uponthe person of Master Wedgwood Baker.
I do not say that all Cissy Carter's blows were strictly according toQueensberry rules. But at any rate the ungallant youth was promptlydoubled up, and retreated yelling into the house, as it were fallingback upon his reserves.
That same evening the card of Mrs. Baker, Laurel Villa, Edam, wasbrought to the diningtable of Mrs. Davenant Carter.
"The lady declines to come in, m'am. She says she must see youimmediately at the door," said the scandalised housemaid.
Cissy's mother went into the hall with the card in her hand, and alook of gentle surprised inquiry on her face. There, on the doorstepwas Mrs. Baker, with a young and hopeful but sadly damaged Wedgwoodtagging behind her, like a weak-minded punt in tow of an ancientthreedecker.
"'LOOK AT HIM, MADAM,' SAID MRS. BAKER."]
The injured lady began at once a voluble complaint.
"Look at him, madam. That is the handiwork of your daughter. The poorboy was quietly digging in the garden, cultivating a few unpretendingflowers, when your daughter, madam, suddenly flew at him over therailings and struck him on the face so furiously that, if I had notcome to the rescue, the dear boy might have lost the use of both hiseyes. But most happily I heard the disturbance and went out andstopped her."
"Dear me, this is _very_ sad," faltered little Mrs. Carter; "I'm sureI don't know what can have come over Cissy. Are you sure there is nomistake?"
"Mistake! No, indeed, madam, there is no mistake, I saw her with myown eyes--a great girl twice Wedgwood's size."
At this point Mr. Davenant Carter came to the door with histable-napkin in his hand.
"What's this--what's this?" he demanded in his quick way--"Cissy andyour son been fighting?"
"No indeed, sir," said the complainant indignantly; "this dear boynever so much as lifted a hand to her. Ah, here she comes--thevery--ahem, young lady herself."
All ignorant of the trouble in store for her, Cissy came whistlingthrough the laurels with half-a-dozen dogs at her heels. At sight ofher Mrs. Baker bridled and perked her chin with indignation till allher black bugles clashed and twinkled.
"Come here, Cissy," said her father sternly. "Did you strike this boyto-day in front of his mother's gate?"
"Yes, I did," quoth the undaunted Cissy, "and what's more, I'll do itagain, and give him twice as much, if he ever dares to call _my_grandmother 'Old Blind Patch' again--I don't care if he is two yearsand three months older than me!"
"Did you call names at my mother?" demanded Cissy's father, toweringup very big, and looking remarkably stern.
Master Wedgwood had no denial ready; but he had his best boots on andhe looked very hard at them.
"Come, Wedgwood dear, tell them that you did not call names. You knowyou could not!"
"I never called nobody names. It was her that hit me!" snivelledWedgwood.
"Now, you hear," said his mother, as if that settled the question.
"Oh, you little liar! Wait till I catch you out!" said Cissy, going astep nearer as if she would like to begin again. "I'll teach you totell lies on me."
Mrs. Baker of Laurel Villa held up her hands so that the lace mittscame together like the fingers of a figure of grief upon a tomb. "Whata dreadful girl!" she said, looking up as if to ask Heaven to supporther.
Mr. Davenant Carter remembered his position as a county magistrate.Also he desired to stand well with all his neighbours.
"Madam," he said to Mrs. Baker, in the impressive tone in which headdressed public meetings, "I regret exceedingly that you should havebeen put to this trouble. I think that for the future you will have noreason to complain of my daughter. Will you allow me to conduct youacross the policies by the shorter way? Cissy, go to bed _at once_,and stop there till I bid you get up! That will teach you to take thelaw into you own hands when your father is a Justice of the Peace!"
This he said in such a stern voice that Mrs. Baker was much flatteredand quite appeased. He walked with the lady to the small gate in theboundary wall, opened it with his private key, and last of all shookhands with his visitor with the most distinguished courtesy. Some dayhe meant to stand for the burgh and her brothers were well-to-dogrocers in the town.
"Sir," she said in parting, "I hope you will not be too severe withthe young lady. Perhaps after all she was only a trifle impulsive!"
"Discipline must be maintained," said Mr. Davenant Carter sternly,closing, however, at the same time the eyelid most remote from Mrs.Baker of Laurel Villa.
"It shows what a humbug pa is," muttered Cissy, as she went upstairs;"he knows very well it is bed-time anyway. I don't believe he is angryone bit!"
When her father came in, he looked over at his wife. I am afraid hedeliberately winked, though in the interests of morality I trust Imay be mistaken. For how could a Justice of the Peace and a futureMember of Parliament demean himself to wink?
"Jane," he said to Mrs. Carter, "what does Cissy like most of all forsupper?"
"A little bit of chicken and bread-sauce done with broiled bacon--atleast I think so, dear--why do you ask?"
He called the tablemaid.
"Walbridge," he said sternly, "take that disgraceful girl up thebreast and both wings of a chicken, also three nice pieces of crispbacon, four new potatoes with butter-sauce, some raspberrytart withthick cream and plenty of sugar--and a whole bottle of zoedone. Butmind you, _nothing else_, as you value your place--not another bitefor such a bold bad girl. This will teach her to go about the countrythrashing boys two years older than herself!"
; He looked over across the table at his son.
"Let this be a lesson to you, sir," he said, frowning sternly at him.
"Yes, sir," said Sammy meekly, winking in his turn very confidentiallyat a fly which was having a free wash and brush-up on the edge of thefingerbowl, after completing the round of the dishes on the dinnertable.