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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jessie Carlton, by Francis Forrester
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Jessie Carlton
+       The Story of a Girl who Fought with Little Impulse, the
+       Wizard, and Conquered Him
+
+Author: Francis Forrester
+
+Release Date: October 18, 2008 [EBook #26953]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSIE CARLTON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank, Juliet Sutherland and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Jessie Talking to Rover.--Front]
+
+
+
+
+GLEN MORRIS STORIES.
+
+JESSIE CARLTON;
+The Story of a Girl who fought with little Impulse, the Wizard,
+AND CONQUERED HIM.
+
+BY
+FRANCIS FORRESTER, ESQ.,
+
+Author Of "Guy Carlton," "Dick Duncan,"
+"My Uncle Toby's Library," Etc.
+
+BOSTON:
+BROWN & TAGGARD.
+NEW YORK: HOWE & FERRY.
+
+1861.
+
+
+
+
+Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860,
+By HOWE & FERRY,
+
+In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
+for the Southern District of New York.
+
+RENNIE, SHEA & LINDSAY,
+Stereotypers and Electrotypers,
+81, 83 & 85 Centre-street,
+New York.
+
+R. CRAIGHEAD,
+Printer,
+81, 83 & 85 Centre-st.
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+TO PARENTS, GUARDIANS, AND TEACHERS.
+
+The purpose of the "Glen Morris Stories" is to sow the seed of pure,
+noble, manly character in the mind of our great nation's childhood. They
+exhibit the virtues and vices of childhood, not in prosy, unreadable
+precepts, but in a series of characters which move before the imagination
+as living beings do before the senses. Thus access to the heart is won by
+way of the imagination. While the story charms, the truth sows itself in
+the conscience and in the affections. The child is thereby led to abhor
+the false and the vile, and to sympathize with the right, the beautiful,
+and the true. To every parent, teacher, and guardian, who has affinity
+with these high purposes, the "Glen Morris Stories" are most respectfully
+inscribed by their fellow-laborer in the field of childhood.
+
+                                                      Francis Forrester.
+
+
+
+
+ORDER OF THE GLEN MORRIS STORIES.
+
+  I. Guy Carlton, the Story of a Boy who belonged to the "Try Company."
+ II. Dick Duncan, the Story of a Boy who loved Mischief.
+III. Jessie Carlton, the Story of a Girl who fought with little
+     Impulse, the Wizard, and conquered him.
+ IV. Walter Sherwood, the Story of an easy, good-natured Boy.
+  V. Kate Carlton, the Story of a vain Girl.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                                  PAGE
+     I.  Jessie And Impulse The Wizard.    11
+    II.  Jessie's Two Cousins.             27
+   III.  A Nutting-Party.                  43
+    IV.  Jessie's Great Sorrow.            59
+     V.  The Broken Mirror.                76
+    VI.  The First Slide of the Season.    92
+   VII.  Jessie's First Great Victory.    108
+  VIII.  Farewell to the Cousins.         122
+    IX.  The Wizard in the Field Again.   136
+     X.  Madge Clifton.                   151
+    XI.  Madge Clifton's Mother.          166
+   XII.  Little Impulse beaten again.     180
+  XIII.  The Skating-Party.               194
+   XIV.  The Watch-Pocket finished.       209
+    XV.  Thanksgiving Day.                222
+
+
+
+
+ENGRAVINGS.
+
+                                               PAGE
+Jessie and Emily Sailing Boats in the Quarry.    50
+Jessie and Carrie Enjoying a Slide.             102
+Mrs. Moneypenny Reading Jack's Letter.          148
+Walter Sliding With Carrie and Jessie.          220
+
+
+
+
+PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS IN THIS STORY.
+
+Jessie Carlton, only daughter of a New York merchant residing at Glen
+Morris Cottage, Duncanville, a village near New York.
+
+Emily and Charlie Morris, Jessie's two cousins, visiting at Glen Morris
+Cottage.
+
+Madge Clifton, Jessie's _protege_.
+
+Carrie Sherwood, one of Jessie's companions.
+
+Mrs. Moneypenny, a poor widow, and her son Jack.
+
+
+
+
+JESSIE CARLTON
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Jessie and the Wizard.
+
+
+On a bright afternoon of a warm day in October, Jessie Carlton sat in the
+parlor of Glen Morris Cottage. Her elbows rested on the table, her face
+was held between her two plump little hands, and her eyes were feasting on
+some charming pictures which were spread out before her. A pretty little
+work-basket stood on a chair at her side. It contained several yards of
+rumpled patchwork, two pieces of broadcloth with figures partially worked
+on them as if they were intended for a pair of slippers, a watch-pocket
+half finished, and a small piece of silk composed of very little squares.
+On the table close to her left elbow was a cambric handkerchief with some
+embroidery just begun in one of its corners. A needle carelessly stuck
+into it showed that Jessie had been working on it when her eyes were
+attracted by the pictures she was now studying with such close attention.
+
+After a few minutes the little girl moved her right arm for the purpose of
+looking at another picture, when her thimble dropped from her finger to
+the table with a loud ringing sound. She started to pick it up, and in so
+doing pushed her scissors to the floor. The noise they made in falling led
+Jessie to glance towards the sofa, and to say in a very soft whisper--
+
+"Oh dear! I'm afraid those naughty scissors have waked Uncle Morris out of
+his nap!"
+
+Jessie was right. The noise had started Uncle Morris from a cozy little
+nap into which he had fallen after dinner. It was not often that the
+active old gentleman indulged himself in this way; but a long walk in the
+morning had made him weary, and he had quietly roamed into dreamland as he
+sat reading. He now opened his eyes, looked round the room, and seeing his
+niece looking askance at him, said--
+
+"What's the matter, Jessie? I heard something fall with a great crash,
+what was it?"
+
+Jessie laughed outright. It was not very polite, but she could not very
+well keep the fun out of her face. It seemed so queer that her uncle
+should call the noise made by the fall of a pair of scissors _a great
+crash_. At last she said--
+
+"There was no great crash, Uncle. Only my scissors fell from the table."
+
+"Was that all? Why it sounded to me just like the crash of a tray full of
+crockery ware. That was because I was half asleep, I suppose. Well, never
+mind, I'm not the first old gentleman who has magnified a little noise
+into a great one in his sleep--but what are you so busy about this
+afternoon, little puss!"
+
+As Uncle Morris put this question he arose, walked up to the table and
+began to look at Jessie's work, for by this time she had begun stitching
+on the cambric handkerchief again. Blushing deeply, she said--
+
+"I am embroidering a pocket-handkerchief, Uncle."
+
+"Indeed! how fond you little ladies are of finery!" said Uncle Morris,
+smiling and patting Jessie's head.
+
+"I'm not doing it for myself, Uncle," replied the child.
+
+"Not for yourself, eh? Is it for papa, then?"
+
+"No, Sir."
+
+"For your brother Guy, perhaps?"
+
+"No, Sir. Not for Guy," and looking slyly at her uncle, she added. "I
+guess that you are not Yankee enough to guess whom it is for."
+
+"For your brother Hugh, maybe?"
+
+"You must guess again, Uncle."
+
+"Well, maybe it is for your hero, Richard Duncan."
+
+"O Uncle! Do you think I would embroider a handkerchief for a young
+gentleman!" and Jessie pursed up her lips as though she was going to be
+very angry.
+
+"Don't be angry with your old uncle, my little puss," said Mr. Morris with
+an air of mock penitence, "I had an idea that young ladies did such things
+for young gentlemen sometimes. But who is it for? I give it up."
+
+"You give it up! Why, I thought you belonged to the 'never give up
+company.' Oh, fy! Uncle Morris, I'll get you turned out of the try company
+if you don't mind. So you had better guess again," and Jessie held up her
+fat finger and looked so funnily at Mr. Morris that the old gentleman's
+heart warmed towards her, and giving her a kiss of fond affection, he
+said--
+
+"Then I guess it is for your poor old uncle."
+
+"Beans are hot!" cried Jessie, clapping her hands. "You've guessed it at
+last. But see my work, Uncle! Isn't it beautiful?"
+
+"Very pretty, indeed, my dear," replied the old man, who now put on a
+comical look, and added, "but I'm afraid I shall not live until it is
+finished."
+
+"Not live----!" Jessie was going to be alarmed, but her uncle's laughing
+eyes checked her alarm, and catching his meaning from his expression, she
+pouted and was silent.
+
+"Don't put on that frightful pout, my little puss, for, really, I should
+have to live as long a life as an ancient patriarch if I do not die before
+you are likely to _finish_ the handkerchief. There are the quilt, the
+slippers, the watch-pocket, the chair-cushion, and the handkerchief all
+_begun_ for me, but nothing finished. That little wizard--his name is
+Impulse, you know--which led you to drop the quilt that you might begin
+the slippers, and the slippers that you might begin the chair-cushion,
+will soon tempt you to drop the handkerchief for something else. I wish I
+could catch the jolly little imp. I'd cane him smartly, and then I would
+lead him to Parson Resolution's church, and marry him to that sweet little
+fairy, Miss Perseverance, who is breaking her heart for the love of him.
+Were he once thus married, I think his bride would teach him to help you
+finish all the little gifts you have begun for me, and there would be some
+hope that I should live long enough to sleep under your quilt, sit on your
+cushion, walk in your slippers, put my watch in your pocket at night, and
+blow my venerable nose in your embroidered pocket-handkerchief."
+
+The reproof so pleasantly given in these quaint words found its way to
+Jessie's heart. Her face became sober, she bit her lips, a stray tear or
+two hung, like dew-drops in the web of a gossamer, on her long eyelashes,
+she sighed and after a few moments of silent thought rose, planted her
+right foot firmly on the floor, and said--
+
+"Uncle Morris, I _will_ conquer that little wizard! I will _finish_ your
+quilt right away, and then all the other things in their turn--see if I
+don't."
+
+Jessie had made just such a promise at least _ten_ times, since Glen
+Morris Cottage had become her home. She had tried to keep it too, but,
+somehow, _her habit of yielding to every new impulse which came over her_,
+had hitherto led her to break it as often as it had been made. The little
+wizard, as Uncle Morris facetiously called her changeful impulses, was her
+tyrant. The jolly little rogue did, indeed, sadly stand in need of
+matrimony with the forlorn Miss Perseverance. For poor Jessie's sake,
+Uncle Morris was very anxious to see the wedding come off speedily.
+Whether his wish was met or not, will appear hereafter.
+
+To prove her sincerity Jessie put the cambric handkerchief in the bottom
+of her work-basket. The other articles she placed, in the order in which
+she had begun them, above it, and then sat resolutely down to her
+patchwork quilt. As her bright little needle began to fly with the
+swiftness of a weaver's shuttle, she said to herself--
+
+"Now I _will_ finish Uncle Morris's quilt right off."
+
+Uncle Morris had left the parlor, and Jessie had sewed steadily for at
+least fifteen minutes, when her brother Hugh bounded into the room,
+holding two letters in his hand, and said--
+
+"Letters for Jessie Carlton and her mother. Postage one dollar, to be paid
+to the bearer on delivery. Give me your half-dollar, Miss Carlton, and I
+will give you your letter!"
+
+"A letter for me!" cried Jessie, dropping her work and running to her
+brother, capsizing her work-basket as she ran. "Give it to me! Give it to
+me."
+
+"Pay me the postage first," said Hugh, holding the letter over her head.
+
+"There is no postage, you know there isn't, you naughty Hugh! Give me my
+letter," and Jessie pulled Hugh's arm in the vain attempt to bring the
+letter within her reach.
+
+"No postage, indeed! Do you think Uncle Sam can afford to carry letters
+for all the Yankee girls who may choose to write to each other, without
+pay? Not he. Uncle Sam knows how to care for number one too well for that.
+So hand over your half-dollar, Miss Jessie, and I will give you your
+letter."
+
+Jessie coaxed and scolded at her brother for nearly ten minutes, in vain.
+Hugh loved to tease her, and so he kept on, now offering the letter, and
+then holding it beyond her reach, until the poor child's patience being
+all gone, she sat down and cried with vexation. This was certainly
+carrying his fun too far. A little pleasant bantering at first, though not
+_amiable_, might have been pardonable; but now that her feelings were hurt
+he was very unkind to carry his nonsense any further. But this was one of
+Hugh's faults. He was a great tease. Seeing his sister in tears, he said,
+in a whining tone--
+
+"Pretty little cry-baby! How beautiful you are, all melted into tears!"
+Then dropping the whine from his tone, he added, "Here, Jessie, take your
+letter!"
+
+Jessie stretched out her arm to take the offered letter. Hugh drew it back
+again and said--
+
+"Bah! Don't you wish you may get it!"
+
+"You unamiable boy! is that the affection which is due from a brother to
+his sister? O Hugh! Hugh! I wish you had more love and less selfishness in
+that idle soul of yours."
+
+This just rebuke from the lips of Uncle Morris, who had been standing
+unperceived for the last few minutes behind the half-open door, put an end
+to all Master Hugh's idle, not to say wicked, teasing. He dropped the
+letters into Jessie's lap, and with an angry scowl on his face left the
+room.
+
+The sunshine came back into Jessie's face in a moment. She looked her
+thanks to Uncle Morris, while she nervously opened the envelope of her
+letter. Having unfolded it, she read as follows:
+
+                          Morristown, New Jersey, October 10th, 18--
+
+  Dear Cousin Jessie,
+
+  Pa and Ma have just given their consent to have me and my brother
+  Charlie visit you at Glen Morris Cottage. I am so glad I can hardly
+  hold my pen to write you about it. Charlie is jumping about the room,
+  and shouting hurrah, for joy. We are to start Thursday, in the
+  afternoon train, and shall get to your house to tea. With ten
+  thousand kisses for you, I remain,
+
+                                           Your affectionate cousin,
+                                                       Emily Morris.
+                                                Miss Jessie Carlton.
+
+"Oh, won't it be nice, Uncle Morris!" cried Jessie, after reading this
+note. "What good times I shall have with my cousins! I'm so glad I don't
+know what to do with myself."
+
+"You are a happy little puss generally, and I am glad to see you made
+happier than usual by this pleasant letter from your cousin. But are you
+sure, my dear Jessie, that you will enjoy your cousins' visit?"
+
+"Why, Uncle!" cried Jessie, with an air of surprise. "How can you ask me
+such a question? I am sure I shall love my cousins very much, and we shall
+enjoy ourselves very finely together."
+
+"Well! Well! I hope it may be so," said Uncle Morris, with a sigh which
+made Jessie think that the good old man's hope was not a very strong one.
+She said nothing, however, and Uncle Morris asked--
+
+"When are your cousins coming?"
+
+Jessie looked at her letter and read, "'We are to start
+Thursday,'"--pausing, and looking up, she exclaimed--
+
+"Why, that's this very day! I declare they will be here this afternoon.
+Won't it be nice!"
+
+"Yes, to-day _is_ Thursday. Your letter has been delayed. Perhaps you had
+better take your mamma's letter to her room. She may require time to make
+preparations for her young guests. They will be here--let me see (looking
+at his watch), in two hours. Run Jessie and tell your mother!"
+
+Jessie hurried to her mother's apartment with the unopened letter and the
+news. Mrs. Carlton's letter was from Emily's mother and contained the same
+information.
+
+Jessie was in ecstasies during the next two hours. To be sure, there was
+that question and that sigh of Uncle Morris to cast a slight shadow on her
+joy. But shadows never tarried long on Jessie's spirit, which was so
+bright and joyous that it seemed as if it was made of sunshine. Happy
+little Jessie Carlton!
+
+Emily's letter had put all thought of her work out of Jessie's head. Her
+patchwork lay on the floor beside the overturned work-basket, until her
+mother going to prepare the parlor for company, picked both up and put
+them away. In fact, Jessie's little wizard had her in his chains again.
+She was once more the simple-hearted child of impulse.
+
+Having fixed her hair and changed her dress, Jessie ran out on to the
+piazza to watch for the coming of her cousins. First she seated herself on
+the settee, which stood there, and made the air ring again with her joyous
+song. After a few minutes, she sprang from her seat and seizing old Rover
+by the head, began to tell him that her cousins were coming, and,
+therefore, he must be the very best behaved dog in the world.[A] Then
+seating herself lightly on old Rover's back, she patted his neck, and
+said--
+
+"Noble old Rover, won't you give your mistress a ride?"
+
+Rover was a grand old dog, large and strong enough to carry a much heavier
+miss than Jessie. He was good-natured too. Still he had no notion of being
+used for a pony. So, after standing quite still for a moment or two, he
+suddenly started and sent Jessie sprawling on the piazza, while he trotted
+down the steps and made a bed for himself in the greensward, on the lawn,
+as quietly as if nothing had happened. A knowing old dog was Rover.
+
+Jessie picked herself up and began singing again. Scarcely had she trilled
+out two lines before she saw Guy coming towards the house. With the light
+spring of a fairy she bounded across the lawn, and meeting him at the gate
+exclaimed--
+
+"O Guy, cousin Emily and cousin Charlie are coming here to-night. Aren't
+you glad?"
+
+"To be sure I am. I'm glad of any thing that pleases my sister."
+
+Jessie kissed him, and taking his hand, walked with him back to the
+piazza, where she resumed her watching, beguiling the time by humming her
+songs and by an occasional frolic with old Rover.
+
+At last, the sound of wheels told her that the carriage was coming up from
+the railroad station. A few minutes later it rolled along the road which
+ran through the lawn and in front of the piazza. Four bright eyes peeped
+over the door, which the coachman speedily opened. Mr. Carlton stepped out
+first and then came Emily and Charlie. Never did cousins meet with warmer
+greetings than they received from Jessie and Guy, and Mrs. Carlton, and
+Uncle Morris. Never was little girl happier than Jessie, when, a few
+minutes later, she had Emily all to herself, in her own sweet little
+chamber, showing her the contents of drawer and trunk and doll-house, and
+whatever else might be included in the term "playthings." When Emily and
+Charlie went to bed that night, they were in ecstasies over the pleasant
+things they had seen and felt on the first evening of their visit to Glen
+Morris Cottage.
+
+-----
+
+  [A]  See Frontispiece.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+Jessie's Two Cousins.
+
+
+The first few days of her cousins' visit were like a pleasant dream to
+Jessie. She had so much to say, and so many things to show to her
+visitors, that they could scarcely help sharing the joy which welled up
+within her like a crystal stream from a mountain spring. Seeing them so
+cheerful and happy, Jessie wondered more and more at the question her
+uncle had asked her about enjoying their visit.
+
+"I don't see what Uncle Morris meant," said she to herself one afternoon,
+while her cousins were on the lawn laughing and playing with Guy, and she
+was washing her hands by way of preparation for tea. "He looked and
+sighed," she went on to say, "as if he thought I should be disappointed in
+them. But I am not. They are the kindest, merriest cousins in the world. I
+declare I'll ask Uncle Morris what he meant, the next time I see him
+alone."
+
+That next time came very soon, for as Jessie skipped down stairs, with
+laughter twinkling in her eyes, and a song tripping from her tongue, she
+met her uncle in the hall. Running right to him, she seized his arm,
+peered curiously into his face, and said--
+
+"Uncle Morris?"
+
+"Well, little puss, what now?" replied the old gentleman, as he kissed her
+rosy cheeks.
+
+"I want you to tell me what you sighed and shook your head for, last week,
+when I told you what good times I was going to have with my cousins?" said
+Jessie, closely watching the expression of the old gentleman's face.
+
+There was a merry twinkle in Uncle Morris's eyes, as he replied, "You have
+a good memory for a laughing little puss. Well, I'm glad you have not yet
+found out why I sighed. I hope you won't make the discovery, though I fear
+you will before another week passes. There is a proverb which says, _It's
+only the shoe that knows whether the stocking has holes in it or not._
+Now, Jessie, if you can find out the meaning of this proverb, you will
+know why I sighed. If you don't find it out in a week, I'll explain it to
+you."
+
+"How funny!" exclaimed the little girl; and then, putting on a thoughtful
+air, she repeated the proverb slowly, in an undertone; after which, she
+added aloud, "I don't see what shoes and stockings have to do with my
+cousins and me. What a funny man you are, Uncle Morris!"
+
+Uncle Morris had, by this time, reached the door leading to the back
+piazza. He heard this exclamation, however, and turning round, with the
+door-knob in his hand, he peeped through the opening, shook his forefinger
+at her, and said--
+
+"When Jessie knows her cousins as the shoe knows the stocking, she will be
+able to tell why I sighed. Ha! ha! ha! Uncle Morris is a funny man, is
+he?"
+
+Just then a loud voice was heard ringing through the hall, and saying--
+
+"Cousin Jessie! Cousin Jessie! come here quick! Your ugly old dog is
+killing my sister!"
+
+"Not quite so bad as that, I guess," said Jessie, when she reached the
+front door, where she saw Emily sitting on the greensward, rubbing the
+back of her head. Old Rover was standing on the piazza, uttering a low
+growl at Charlie, by way of warning him not to throw any more stones at
+his dogship.
+
+"He's an ugly monster, that he is," said the boy, hurling another stone at
+Rover, as he moved toward his mistress, and began to rub his nose against
+her hands.
+
+"Down, Rover!" said Jessie, patting the dog's head, and thus quieting his
+temper, which was somewhat ruffled by the last stone, which Charlie had
+sent right against his ribs.
+
+"I _will_ stone him, if I want to," growled Charlie, pouting his lips,
+puffing out his cheeks, and stamping his foot, as Guy laid his hand on his
+right arm.
+
+"No, no, Charlie, you must not stone old Rover. It is not kind to hurt a
+poor, harmless dog, nor is it quite safe, either, for, you see, Rover has
+big teeth, and he may bite you if you hurt him," said Guy, still holding
+the angry boy.
+
+"I don't care! He hurt my sister. I'll kick you if you don't let me stone
+him as much as I like. Let me go, you ugly fellow!" and with these words,
+Charlie kicked and struggled with such violence, that Guy could scarcely
+hold him.
+
+Meanwhile, Jessie, having sent old Rover to his kennel, was trying to
+comfort Emily. The whole difficulty had grown out of her attempt to mount
+the dog's back, in defiance of Guy's advice. He told her that Rover did
+not like to do service as a pony, and that he would certainly throw her
+off if she tried to ride him. But, urged on by Charlie, she had seated
+herself on the dog, and had been thrown down just as Jessie had been, a
+few days before. She was not much hurt, a slight bruise on the back of her
+head being the only damage she had sustained. Jessie would have laughed
+over such a trifle. But Emily was not like Jessie. She had been pleasant
+thus far, since her coming to Glen Morris. But now, her good-nature being
+played out, she began to show the selfish and ugly side of her character.
+
+"Never mind that little hurt, dear Emily," said Jessie, as she passed her
+hand lightly over the bruise. "If you will go into the house with me, I'll
+get mother to rub a little _arnica_ upon it, and that will make it well
+very soon."
+
+"I won't go in; and if your father don't have that ugly dog killed, I'll
+go home to-morrow, that I will!"
+
+"What! have Rover killed? Oh, no! Pa won't do that, I'm sure," said
+Jessie, a little startled at the idea of dear old Rover's death.
+
+"I'll kill him!" screamed Charlie, who was still a sulky prisoner in Guy's
+hands.
+
+"You are a little fellow to play the part of a butcher!" said Mr. Morris,
+who had now come to the front of the house, and had been quietly surveying
+the scene, for a few moments past, from behind a large evergreen,
+unperceived by all but Guy.
+
+"I'm glad you are come, Uncle," said Guy, "for I did not know what to do
+with this little lump of spunk. I guess that Jessie is glad, too, for she
+seems puzzled to know what to do with Emily, who is as sulky as Charlie
+here is spunky."
+
+The presence of Uncle Morris quieted Charlie, and made Emily rise from the
+grass. But nothing that he could say, after hearing the whole story, could
+restore them to good humor. Charlie bit his thumb, and scowled; while
+Emily, pushing Jessie from her side, kept rolling her pocket-handkerchief
+into a ball, pouted, and refused to say a word, either to her uncle or
+cousin.
+
+In this wretched mood they went in to tea, sitting at the table like two
+dark shadows falling across a room full of sunshine. Everybody was kind to
+them. Jessie did her utmost to restore them to good humor. Uncle Morris
+said funny things, hoping to make them smile. But it was no use. Smile
+they would not; and when tea was over, they both slunk away to a distant
+part of the room, and kept up their sulks until bedtime. Even then, when
+Jessie tried to kiss Emily, she was rudely pushed aside.
+
+"I don't want to kiss anybody in this house," muttered the ugly child; and
+poor Jessie, shrinking from her, went to her uncle, laid her head upon his
+shoulder, and wept.
+
+"The shoe has begun to find holes in the stocking," said Uncle Morris,
+passing his hand over Jessie's head, with great tenderness; "but never
+mind, my little puss--cheer up. Your cousins will leave their bad tempers
+in the land of dreams, I hope, and their good-nature will return with the
+sun to-morrow morning. Dry your eyes, my sweet Jessie, and be thankful to
+the Father above, that your cousins cannot rob you of your own sunny
+temper."
+
+Jessie did dry her eyes, and looking into her uncle's face, said, with a
+nod of her pretty head, "Now I know why you sighed; and I know, too, what
+your proverb meant."
+
+"What did I sigh for, puss?"
+
+"Because you knew my cousins had ugly tempers."
+
+"That's so! But the proverb?"
+
+"Meant that when I became better acquainted with my cousins, I should find
+out their faults."
+
+"Well done, my little puzzle-cracker. You _are_ good at guessing. But,
+Jessie, what are you going to do? How will you treat your cousins
+to-morrow?"
+
+Jessie held down her head awhile, as if she was thinking her way through a
+difficult idea. At last she looked up, with eyes full of tenderness, and
+with a voice made musical by deep feeling, said:--
+
+"I will be just as kind to them as I possibly can!"
+
+"That's right, my Jessie," said her uncle, folding her to his bosom and
+kissing her forehead, "that's right. There is nothing like kindness for
+curing ugly children. It's the best medicine in the world to give them.
+Give it to them, Jessie, in big doses. Maybe they will like it so well
+that they will get cured of their ugliness; for, as the proverb
+says,--_Flies are caught with syrup; not with vinegar._"
+
+"Wouldn't it be nice, Uncle Morris, if we could make my cousins
+good-natured while they are here? Wouldn't Uncle Albert and Aunt Hannah be
+glad if we could send them home kind, and gentle, and good? Oh, I wish I
+could get them to be good, as our Guy did Richard Duncan. Wouldn't it be
+nice?"
+
+"Try to do it, my dear. We will all help you, and so will the Great Father
+above," said Mrs. Carlton, beckoning Jessie to her side and giving her a
+kiss so full of a mother's holy love that it sent a thrill of bliss
+through the happy heart of her child. Thus like a sunbeam did Jessie
+brighten the life of her parents and her uncle. As she left the room to go
+to bed, Uncle Morris followed her with his eyes, and when her light form
+had glided up-stairs, he turned to his sister and said:--
+
+"That child of yours is a treasure, my sister. I can't tell you how much
+her loving little heart gladdens mine. Why, I have grown at least fifteen
+years younger in my feelings since she came to Glen Morris. Like a
+glorious little sun, she shines into the depths of my heart, melting all
+the ice of age and chasing away the gloom of my past sorrows."
+
+"Yes, Jessie is a lovely child," replied Mrs. Carlton. A big tear which
+dropped upon her needle-work at that moment showed that the words of her
+brother had stirred the deep fountains of love which were within her
+heart.
+
+But the two ugly cousins--what were they? Were they not like two black
+clouds freighted with storms, and come to darken the light and disturb the
+pleasure of that happy household? No wonder their sleep was troubled that
+night. No wonder Emily awoke in a fright, caused by the terrible
+nightmare. But Jessie's sleep was sweet and sound, and when her mother
+stood over her bed, as she always did before retiring for the night,
+Jessie smiled so sweetly in her slumber that her mother said:--
+
+"Bless her! the smile of a seraph is on her lips."
+
+As Uncle Morris foretold, Emily and Charlie left their sulks in dreamland.
+It would have been well if they had left the _selfishness_, from which
+their conduct of the evening before sprung, in the same place. But that
+still clung to them like the leprosy, and though they wore bright faces,
+they still carried fireworks in their bosom, ready to explode whenever a
+spark might happen to touch them.
+
+Jessie greeted her cousins with gentle words and loving kisses, just as if
+she had never seen them in a fit of bad temper. Indeed, she made no
+allusion whatever to the affair of the day before. This silence puzzled
+the cousins, who expected, at least, a lecture from Uncle Morris and a
+little coldness from Jessie. I think it also made them feel ashamed, for
+they could not help saying to themselves,--
+
+"It was rather mean in us to make such a fuss as we did yesterday."
+
+Just after breakfast, while Jessie was showing Emily her six dolls,
+neither of which had a perfect dress, for Jessie never _finished_ any
+thing, and Charlie was playing with Guy's india-rubber ball in the hall,
+Hugh plunged in at the front door, and, rushing into the sitting-room,
+said:--
+
+"Jessie, what will you give me if I tell you a secret?"
+
+"A kiss," replied Jessie, gathering her lips into the form of a rose-bud.
+
+"Pooh! what's a kiss. I wouldn't give you a red cent for a thousand
+kisses. Won't you offer me something better for my secret?" said Hugh,
+turning up his nose as if in scorn of the proffered kiss.
+
+"I don't believe you have any secret that we care about knowing," said
+Jessie. Then holding up her best wax doll, she said to Emily, "Isn't this
+a beauty?"
+
+"Yes, but why don't you coax Hugh to tell us his wonderful secret?" said
+Emily, who felt quite curious to know what Hugh had to tell.
+
+"Oh, he is only teasing us. You don't know what a tease he is," replied
+Jessie, with an air of indifference.
+
+"No, honor bright, I'm not teasing. I have a secret that would make you
+girls pitch your dolls into next week, if you knew it," retorted Hugh.
+
+"Well, what is it? Do tell us," said Jessie, beginning to believe that he
+had something to tell worth knowing.
+
+"What will you give me?" asked Hugh, still bent on tantalizing the girls.
+
+"I've got nothing to give that you want," said Jessie, and then in a
+coaxing tone she added, "come, Hugh, do tell us, there's a good, dear
+Hugh."
+
+"No, you don't come it over me with soft soap like that," replied the boy;
+"I'm not a fly to be caught with maple molasses."
+
+"If you was _my_ brother I'd _make_ you tell me," said Emily, her eyes
+sparkling with rising passion as she spoke.
+
+"You _are_ a spunky little lady, I declare," said Hugh, laughing; "but
+here, Jessie, suppose you try to _guess_ my secret. It is something you
+would give ever so much to know."
+
+"_Really_, Hugh, have you a secret, _truly_?"
+
+"Yes, _truly_. Honor bright, I tell you. It is a glorious secret. It will
+make you ever so happy to know it."
+
+"What is it about? Is somebody coming here? Do tell me, Hugh."
+
+"Catch a weasel asleep and you'll catch me answering questions. But I see
+you _won't_ buy, and you _can't_ guess my secret, so I'll be off," and in
+spite of all the entreaties of Jessie and the biting speeches which Emily
+made, master Hugh left the room, carrying his secret with him.
+
+Jessie, sighed, and turning to her dolls, said, "Hugh is a great tease,
+isn't he Emily?"
+
+"He's a great ugly monster!" retorted Emily, who was in the habit of using
+strong words, without much regard to their meaning. "If he was my brother
+he shouldn't tease me so."
+
+"Oh, Hugh only does it for fun. He is a dear good brother, after all,
+only," and here Jessie lowered her voice almost to a whisper, "only I wish
+he was as good as Guy."
+
+"_For fun_, eh? I'd _fun_ him: I'd pull his hair, and hide away his books,
+and steal his playthings, and call that fun, if he was my brother," cried
+Emily.
+
+"Oh, fy! cousin Emily. That would be wicked fun, and would make both you
+and your brother unhappy," said Guy, who had just entered the room.
+
+The girls looked on the speaker, who, before Emily had time to reply, went
+on to say,--
+
+"Girls, Carrie Sherwood invites you to go nutting with her this afternoon.
+Richard Duncan, Norman Butler, Adolphus Harding, Walter, Hugh, Charlie,
+you two young ladies, Carrie, and a young lady or two of her acquaintance,
+are to make up the party. Carriages will call for you at one o'clock. You
+must get ma to give you an early dinner, and be ready in time."
+
+"That is what Hugh meant by his secret. Oh, I'm so glad," said Jessie,
+clapping her hands. "Won't it be nice, Emily?"
+
+Emily thought it would. The girls thanked Guy for his good news, and,
+springing from the sofa, started to inform Charlie and Mrs. Carlton of the
+proposed party. Charlie was delighted. Mrs. Carlton knew all about it,
+because the whole matter had been quietly arranged a day or two before by
+her and Mrs. Sherwood. Carried away by the idea of this delightful
+excursion, Jessie left her six dolls, with their incompleted dresses, on
+the sofa, on the chairs, and on the floor. Impulse, the merry little
+wizard, had seized her, and she thought of nothing but the nutting-party
+the remainder of the morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+A Nutting-Party.
+
+
+A few minutes before one o'clock, a long, spring market-wagon, drawn by
+two noble horses, stopped before the gate of Glen Morris Cottage. It
+contained Carrie Sherwood and her party, all but the Carltons and their
+visitors. Mr. Sherwood sat on the driver's seat. He went with the young
+folks to drive, and, as he quaintly said, "to see that the hawks did not
+pounce on his chickens;" by which figure of speech, I suppose, he meant
+that he went to keep the young folks out of danger.
+
+Jessie and her guests, together with Hugh and Guy, were all waiting when
+the carriage drove up. Shouts of welcome greeted them from the wagon. They
+gave back cheer for cheer as they sprang to their places, all but Charlie,
+who stood near the front wheel pouting, and looking very sulky. Mr.
+Sherwood, who had turned half round to watch the seating of his guests,
+did not notice the boy, but supposing the party to be now complete, faced
+his team, drew the reins tight, flourished his whip, and shouted--
+
+"All aboard!"
+
+"Charlie is not aboard yet," cried Emily.
+
+"Come, Charlie! Jump up here!" shouted half a dozen voices.
+
+"I don't want to," said Charlie, in a drawling tone.
+
+"Don't you wish to go, my little fellow?" asked Mr. Sherwood.
+
+"I want to sit on the coachman's seat," simpered the boy, as he stuffed
+his finger into his mouth.
+
+The driver's seat was not meant for two persons, and Mr. Sherwood was in
+doubt whether to crowd Charlie into it or not. But seeing from the boy's
+manner that he would spoil the pleasure of the party if he did not, and
+being a very indulgent man, he at last consented. So pulling him up to the
+footboard, he stowed him away by his side, and cracking his long whip,
+drove off amidst a volley of cheers from the boys, the laughter of the
+girls, and the waving of handkerchiefs by Mrs. Carlton and Uncle Morris,
+from the piazza.
+
+"I want to drive!" muttered Charlie, as soon as they were fairly started.
+
+"You must eat a little more beefsteak, and grow a little taller, my boy,
+before you undertake to drive such a span as this," replied Mr. Sherwood,
+smiling at the boy's presumption.
+
+"I _will_ drive!" growled Charlie, grasping the reins, and giving them a
+jerk, which startled the spirited creatures into an uneasy gallop.
+
+"Whoa there, steady Kate, steady!" said Mr. Sherwood, removing the boy's
+hands and reining up his team.
+
+After soothing his horses, and bringing them to a gentle trot again, Mr.
+Sherwood took his reins in his right hand, and, grasping Charlie with his
+left, suddenly jerked him over the driver's seat, into the bed of the
+wagon, saying,
+
+"Boys! take care of this little coachman!"
+
+This was not so easily done. Charlie's ugly temper was up. He tried to
+scramble back to Mr. Sherwood's side, but the larger boys held him firmly
+in spite of kicks and blows which he dispensed without ceremony, until,
+fairly tired out, he sat down on the floor of the wagon, biting his thumbs
+and looking like a lump of ill-nature. This display of ugliness spoiled
+the pleasure of the drive. It was worse than a shower of rain, for it
+threw a black cloud over the spirits of the party, and made them all
+unhappy.
+
+They had not fully recovered their cheerfulness, when they came to
+Duncan's pond, and in sight of old Joe Bunker's flagstaff, from the top of
+which the stars and stripes proudly floated in the fine breeze of that
+October afternoon.
+
+"There's the bunting you gave old Mr. Bunker!" observed Guy to his friend
+Richard.
+
+"Yes, there it is, sure enough, and old Timbertoe is as proud of it as a
+little boy is of his first pair of pantaloons," said Richard, laughing at
+the oddity of his own comparison.
+
+"Or, as Richard Duncan _was_, of that famous shot from his pea-shooter,
+which hit Professor Nailer's long nose," said Norman Butler, chuckling and
+rubbing his hands, at the recollection of that exciting scene at the
+Academy, a few months before.
+
+"Or, as my sister Jessie is of her Uncle Morris," said Guy.
+
+Mr. Sherwood's loud whoa! whoa! and the stopping of the horses in front of
+Joe Bunker's barn, put an end to this series of comparisons. This was the
+place where they were to leave the horses; for butternut--trees were quite
+numerous in some extensive pastures which were situated round the shores
+of Duncan's pond. "Old Joe" welcomed the party, and put up the horses,
+while the boys pulled out the baskets from beneath the wagon-seats, and
+made ready for the nutting.
+
+But Master Charlie was not yet rid of his sulks, and would not stir from
+the wagon. He wanted to go home, he said; he didn't care for nuts, and
+would not go with his companions. In vain did his sister entreat, Mr.
+Sherwood command, and Jessie try her coaxing powers. Little Will, the
+celebrated child-conqueror, was playing the tyrant over him; and the
+unhappy boy gave himself up, hand and foot, to his enemy. He would not
+quit the wagon.
+
+"Never mind! leave him where he is, until his good-nature comes back, if
+he has any," said Mr. Sherwood.
+
+"I am afraid he will get into mischief after we are gone, if we do that,"
+said Guy. "Perhaps I had better stay here and mind him."
+
+"You shall do no such thing with my consent, Guy. Go with the rest, and
+I'll put this cross urchin in charge of Mr. Bunker," replied Mr. Sherwood.
+Then turning to the old sailor, he added:
+
+"Look here, Mr. Bunker! We have a little bear in our wagon, that don't
+seem to like nuts. Will you keep your eye on him while we go into the
+pastures?"
+
+"Ay, ay, Sir," said Old Joe, giving his waistband a hitch. "I'll keep a
+bright lookout for him."
+
+Leaving Charlie under the old sailor's care, the party now set out in
+search of nuts. Laughter and pleasant words beguiled both time and
+distance, and for the next two hours they wandered over the pastures, and
+picked up an abundance of butternuts, which several pretty hard frosts,
+followed by strong breezes, had scattered plentifully on the ground, or
+prepared to fall quite readily from the trees.
+
+In the course of the afternoon, the party separated into little groups,
+and when it was nearly time to return to the wagon, it happened that
+Jessie and her cousin, lured by the sight of a large butternut-tree in the
+distance, found themselves apart from all the rest. Near the tree was an
+old stone-quarry, with numerous lakelets in the hollows from which the
+stone had been removed. Emily stepped into the quarry, and looked all
+around. The lakelets, swept by the light breeze, charmed her eye, and
+turning to her cousin, she cried:
+
+"Jessie, come here! Here are some tiny ponds. Come look at them!"
+
+Jessie joined Emily, and together the little girls stepped over the uneven
+rocks until they reached one of the lakelets. There they launched small
+pieces of wood, called them ships, and stood watching their mimic fleet in
+great glee.
+
+After spending some time in this way, they heard the voice of Guy
+calling:
+
+"Halloo! Halloo! Jessie! Emily! Halloo! Halloo!"
+
+"We must go," said Jessie, "I guess they are going back to the wagon."
+
+"No, don't go," replied Emily. "Let us frighten them a little--just a
+little, by making them think we are lost."
+
+"Wouldn't it be funny!" said Jessie, clapping her hands, and feeling
+charmed with the idea of getting up an excitement among her companions.
+Impulse, the little wizard, had followed her, even into that old quarry!
+
+"It will be first-rate fun," said Emily. "How they will search for us! It
+will be as good as a game of hide and seek."
+
+"Halloo! Halloo! Jessie! Emily! It's time to go home! Halloo-o!" shouted
+Guy again from the pasture. The wind being fair, his words were heard
+quite distinctly by the two girls.
+
+[Illustration: Jessie and Emily Sailing Boats in the Quarry.  Page 51.]
+
+"There is a little cave just big enough to hide in," said Emily pointing
+to an excavation in the highest wall of the quarry. "Let us go into it!"
+
+Still yielding to the voice of the little wizard, and thinking only of the
+excitement which was to follow the supposition she was lost, Jessie
+followed her cousin into what she called "a cave." There was water at the
+bottom, but a flat piece of rock rising above the water enabled them to
+get to the back part of their "cave," where they were pretty well
+concealed from view.
+
+Again the voice of Guy shouted Jessie's name. This was now followed by a
+chorus of voices, all calling--
+
+"Halloo!--halloo!--halloo-oo-oo!"
+
+The voices drew nearer and nearer, until the callers stood on the edge of
+the quarry.
+
+"Where _can_ they be! I'm afraid they are lost! Oh, dear, what will mother
+say, if we have to go home without them!" said Guy, distinctly enough for
+Jessie to hear.
+
+"Perhaps they have fallen into some old well," suggested Norman.
+
+"I think not," said Mr. Sherwood. "I doubt if there is an old well in all
+these pastures. They have most likely wandered back towards the pond."
+
+"I don't see how that can be," rejoined Guy, "for I saw them running in
+this direction half an hour ago. Besides, we found their basket under that
+tree, and they would not have gone to the pond without telling some of us
+to bring their basket."
+
+"There's no telling what silly things girls will do. I guess they are gone
+to the pond. Suppose we go and see."
+
+This was Hugh's voice, and as no one proposed any thing else, the party
+left the quarry, and, hallooing as they went, directed their steps towards
+the pond.
+
+"Let us run after them!" said Jessie, who now began to feel as if she had
+carried the joke far enough.
+
+"Hush! you little coward," said Emily, placing her hand over Jessie's
+mouth. "They aren't half frightened enough about us yet."
+
+Jessie tried to get her mouth away from her cousin's hand. In doing so she
+stepped backwards, and, losing her balance, fell with a splash into the
+water.
+
+"Oh!" cried she, in a great fright. But the water was not deep, and the
+side of the "cave" kept her from falling entirely down. Hence, a thorough
+fright and wet feet and dress were the only evil results of her misstep.
+
+"Pooh! what a silly little goose you are," said Emily, in a taunting tone
+of voice. "If you had done as I told you, you wouldn't have got that
+wetting."
+
+"I'm afraid I have done too much as you told me already," replied Jessie,
+crying, "and now I'm going right after our party, as fast as I can."
+
+With these words Jessie stepped out of the cave, tripped across the
+quarry, and ran out into the open pasture; Emily, not liking to play "lost
+child" all alone, followed her. But their party was no longer either in
+sight or within hearing, for an elevation in the ground rose between them
+and the two girls.
+
+"Guy! Hugh! Richard! here we are!" screamed Jessie, at the top of her
+voice.
+
+Vainly did she scream, however. The wind blew the sounds back upon
+herself, and she began to run in the direction of the pond.
+
+"Don't be in such a hurry," said Emily, hanging back.
+
+"We _must_ hurry," replied Jessie, "or we shall be really lost. See, it's
+almost sundown! And it is so damp and chilly that I am shivering with
+cold. Come, Emily, do make haste, there's a dear, good cousin."
+
+"If I am your _dear, good cousin_, you won't drive off and leave me,"
+retorted Emily, still lingering and moving only at a snail's pace.
+
+"Oh dear! what shall I do!" exclaimed Jessie, looking very wretched, and
+she certainly felt as unhappy as she looked.
+
+"Wait for me!" said Emily, "that's what you _ought_ to do!"
+
+Thus urging her stubborn cousin, Jessie pressed forward as fast as she
+could get her companion along.
+
+Meanwhile the rest of the party had hastened towards Joe Bunker's stand.
+On their arrival they found the old sailor at tea in his little cottage.
+Rushing somewhat wildly into the room, Guy said,--
+
+"Mr. Bunker, have you seen my sister since we left?"
+
+"Your sister, skipper?" said the old salt. "Shiver my topsails if I've
+seen any thing in the shape of a gal, except this old craft of mine here,
+since you all left your wagon early this afternoon."
+
+"Then she and her cousin are _lost_," said Guy, driving his hands deep
+down into his pockets, casting his eyes to the ground, knitting his brows,
+and walking out into the open air again.
+
+"Are they there?" "Has the old cove seen them?" "What does old Timbertoe
+say?" with half a dozen other questions, greeted Guy as he crossed the
+threshold.
+
+"Hasn't seen their shadow. They must be lost," replied Guy, doggedly.
+
+"Is that spunky little Canada thistle you call Charlie in the house?"
+inquired Mr. Sherwood.
+
+"I didn't see him. Isn't he in the wagon?"
+
+"No sign of him that I can see," replied Mr. Sherwood; "but here's Mr.
+Bunker--Mr. Bunker, where is the little boy we left in your care?"
+
+"I left him making sand-cakes down on the beach a few minutes ago," said
+old Joe.
+
+All eyes were now turned to the beach, but no Charlie was to be seen. Old
+Joe looked uneasy as his eye swept the shore. Very soon he gave his
+waistband an unusual hitch, brought down his wooden leg with great force,
+and said:--
+
+"As sure as my name's Joe Bunker, the little fellow is gone on a cruise in
+the Little Susan!"
+
+"Gone on a cruise? What, alone?" asked Mr. Sherwood, looking a little
+pale.
+
+"Yes, alone, or I'm no sailor."
+
+Down to the shore of the pond they hurried. Sure enough, the Little Susan
+was gone. Charlie, in opposition to Mr. Bunker's command, had gone aboard
+and, sitting amidships, had rocked her to and fro until her painter had
+got loose, and the wind, which blew off shore, had drifted the boat out on
+to the pond, where she was now visible, with Charlie's head just above the
+bulwarks, steadily setting down towards a a point about a mile distant.
+
+"To the Point! Make for 'Long Point!'" shouted old Joe.
+
+Away ran the boys, with old Joe hobbling after them, Guy only remaining
+behind with the girls and Mr. Sherwood. Charlie's danger had for the
+moment driven all thought of Jessie and Emily from their minds. Now,
+however, they began to consider what was to be done to recover the lost
+cousins.
+
+"I see them!" shouted Guy, pointing to the hill-top in the distance, and
+starting to meet them. They were just visible in the distance. He soon
+reached them, very much to Jessie's relief. Tenderly kissing her he
+said--
+
+"Where have you been, Jessie?"
+
+"We missed our way, and got lost in the woods behind that horrid quarry!"
+said Emily. "It's a wonder we ever found the way back again."
+
+"Oh, fy--" cried Jessie. She would have said more, and have contradicted
+this wretched lie, but Emily put her hand before her mouth while she
+poured a long story of pretended adventures into Guy's ears. Jessie was
+shocked. She thought of her uncle's sigh, and of his quaint proverb, and
+was silent.
+
+It was fairly dark when the Little Susan, steered by Joe Bunker, with
+Charlie and the other boys on board, touched her dock. The horses being by
+this time harnessed to the wagon, the party with their freight of nuts,
+were soon rolling homewards. Very little was said, after Emily,
+interrupted by frequent "ohs!" from Jessie, had repeated her lie about
+losing their way. All felt that the pleasure of the occasion had been
+greatly marred by Charlie's conduct; and in spite of Emily's lie and
+Jessie's silence, they also felt that if Jessie should speak she would
+make it appear that Emily's story was not exactly true. But the reader
+_knows_ that all the shadows which fell upon that excursion came from the
+selfishness of the two visitors from Morristown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+Jessie's Great Sorrow.
+
+
+At the tea-table Emily told a long story about herself and Jessie
+wandering away into the woods, and getting sadly frightened. She was very
+animated, and, but for Jessie's sad face, and her occasional look of
+surprise, might have made herself believed. But that grave face, so
+unusual to his darling Jessie, told Uncle Morris that Emily was palming
+off a falsehood upon them. Guy also was sure she was telling a lie. When
+she had finished her story, he said,
+
+"But did you not hear us shout and halloo?"
+
+"No, indeed. If we had, we could have easily answered back," said the
+lying child.
+
+"O Emily!" groaned Jessie.
+
+"We shouted like one o'clock!" said Hugh.
+
+"Pray tell us, Master Hugh, what shouting like one o'clock means?" asked
+Uncle Morris, who had a very great dislike to unmeaning phrases.
+
+"Well, very loud, then," replied Hugh, blushing.
+
+"But you didn't shout loud enough for us to hear," said Emily, secretly
+pinching Jessie, by way of imposing silence upon her.
+
+"It's very strange," said Guy. "It was certainly not more than ten minutes
+from the time we left the quarry, before we saw you coming over the top of
+the hill in the pasture, so that you could not have been very far in the
+woods when we were shouting like--like--"
+
+"Like boys in search of two young ladies supposed to be lost or _hidden_,"
+said Uncle Morris, helping Guy to a comparison, and at the same time
+hinting his suspicions of the truth in the case.
+
+Jessie blushed deeply and was about to speak, when Emily, growing fiery
+red with anger, said:
+
+"_Well_, if you don't choose to believe me, you needn't, but I don't think
+it's very polite to talk to me as if you thought I was telling you a
+lie."
+
+Seeing that her young guest was fast losing her temper, and that Master
+Charlie was nodding over his empty plate and tea-cup, Mrs. Carlton rose
+from the tea-table, and addressing the two girls, said:
+
+"Perhaps, as you are wearied with your excursion, my dears, you had better
+retire now, and finish your talk about it to-morrow, when you are rested.
+Come, Charlie, open your eyes and go to bed!"
+
+"Let me alone!" growled the drowsy boy, as his aunt took his hand to lift
+him from his chair, and lead him from the room.
+
+Jessie sighed, and looked as if she too had a story to tell when she
+kissed her Uncle Morris good-night. The old gentleman returned her kiss
+very affectionately, and whispered,
+
+"Jessie, you make me think of the proverb which says, _The day that the
+little chicken is pleased, is the very day that the hawk takes hold of
+him._ Good night, dear!"
+
+Jessie was puzzled, and all the way up-stairs kept saying to herself,
+"What can Uncle Morris mean? what can Uncle Morris mean?" And while
+undressing she said still to herself, "I can't be the chicken, because I'm
+not pleased--but stop--Yes, I was pleased this morning. Perhaps, then, I'm
+the chicken. And the hawk--must--be--well--it must be Emily! Ah! I see
+now. He thinks Emily has made me do some wrong to-day. And he is right
+too. It was wrong to hide away in the quarry. It was worse to pretend not
+to hear when the boys called us. That was _acting_ a lie. And it was wrong
+for me to keep still when Emily made up that wicked story about our
+getting lost. Oh dear! Oh dear! How sorry I am! I wish I hadn't hid away
+in the quarry!"
+
+"What makes you look so glum, Miss Solemn Face?" asked Emily, who, without
+kneeling down to say her evening prayer, was getting ready for bed as fast
+as her nimble fingers could move.
+
+"I am thinking that I did wrong to-day," replied Jessie, sighing deeply
+and standing motionless in the middle of the chamber.
+
+"Fig's end! I never knew such a girl as you are. _Wrong_ indeed! Just as
+if it was wrong to have a little fun," replied Emily, sneering.
+
+"Fun is not wrong; but it was wrong to alarm Mr. Sherwood and the boys,
+about our safety. I know they felt very bad when they thought we were
+lost. It was wrong, too, for us to pretend not to hear when they called
+us. That was _acting a lie_. And oh, Emily! how _could_ you make up that
+wicked story, about our getting lost in the woods!"
+
+Jessie spoke with such deep and solemn feeling, that Emily's conscience
+was touched. A slight shudder passed over her as she buried her head in
+the pillow, and drew the bed-cover close to her face. Her voice was a
+little husky, too, when she replied:
+
+"You are too fussy, by half, Jessie. Good-night!"
+
+"Good-night!" said Jessie; and then dropping to her knees, beside the big
+arm-chair, the well-taught child began to think over the events of the
+afternoon. The longer she thought, the more guilty she felt. She could not
+say her prayers, because her sin rose before her mind like a great, black
+cloud. At last, she began to weep and sob, saying in half-audible
+whispers:
+
+"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I wish I hadn't made believe I didn't hear!
+Oh dear! oh dear! what shall I do?"
+
+Emily got up a mock snore, by way of saying, "I'm asleep, and don't know
+but that you are asleep too." But she was not asleep, nor did she feel
+like sleeping in the least. In fact, she kept peeping over her pillow at
+Jessie, and wondering why she felt so bad, until a voice within her,
+whispered:
+
+"If Jessie feels bad for yielding to your wishes, how ought _you_ to feel,
+who led her astray, and who told such a shocking lie to hide your fault?
+Emily Morris! Emily Morris! You are a wicked girl!"
+
+Jessie now rose from her knees, bathed in tears. Wrapping herself in a
+dressing-gown, she took the lamp in her hand, left the room, and went,
+with slow and heavy steps, down-stairs. Leaving her lamp on the
+hall-table, she went into the parlor. Every eye was lifted towards her,
+with inquiring glances. She went directly to that sweetest of all earthly
+nestling-places for a child in sorrow, her mother's arms, and whispered:
+
+"O mother! I've been a naughty girl to-day!"
+
+Mrs. Carlton drew her closer to her heart, kissed her with great
+tenderness, and said:
+
+"What has my child done?"
+
+Jessie wept violently, and was silent, for her heart was too full of
+emotion, to coin its thoughts into words. Mrs. Carlton, like a sensible
+mother, said nothing until the floods of Jessie's grief passed away. Then
+smoothing her head with her hand, she spoke in tones, so soft and
+lute-like, that they sounded like sweet music in Jessie's ears, and said:
+
+"Tell me, my dear, what troubles you so much?"
+
+Thus soothed, Jessie raised her head, and said:
+
+"I want Pa and Uncle Morris to hear, too."
+
+Mr. Carlton laid aside his book, smiled, and said:
+
+"I'm all attention, Jessie."
+
+Uncle Morris drew his chair close to Jessie, patted her head, and said:
+
+"That's right, my little puss, make a clean breast of it. Confession is
+the pipe through which the great Father conducts the guilt of his little
+ones, when, for his Son's sake, he buries it in the fountain of
+forgetfulness."
+
+Thus encouraged, Jessie gave a full account of how she came to hide in the
+little cave with Emily. When she had finished her story, Uncle Morris
+said--
+
+"Ah, I see, the little wizard has been busy again. I'm sure it was he who
+helped Emily to tempt my little puss. An _impulse_ acted upon you, Jessie,
+and, without thinking, you hid in the cave, which was not a very grave
+fault in itself; but, as most little faults will do, it led you to commit
+a really serious evil; as you say, by pretending not to hear yourself
+called, you _acted a lie_, which was a sin against God. You also filled
+your party with alarm about you, which gave them great pain of mind. That
+was an offence against them, because it was your duty to do all in your
+power to afford them pleasure. The hawk did, indeed, catch my chicken on
+the day that she was pleased. Do you understand my proverb, now, Jessie?"
+
+"Yes, Uncle, but what shall I do?"
+
+"Do, my child? There is only one way by which any of us can escape from
+the chains of evil. Confess your _sin_ to God, ask his forgiveness for the
+Great Shepherd's sake, and apologize to your friends for giving them
+pain."
+
+Jessie said she would do both of these things. Then her heart turned to
+her cousin, and she said--
+
+"But what shall I say to Emily?"
+
+"Just tell her your own thoughts and feelings about the matter, my child.
+Maybe, she will be led to see the wrong of her own conduct, and you may
+yet be to her what your brother Guy has been to Richard Duncan."
+
+After making this remark Uncle Morris took the old Family Bible and read a
+psalm of penitence. Then he and the family kneeled down to pray. The dear
+old man seemed to speak right to the Good Father in behalf of his
+sorrowful little niece. And while he pleaded the love of the great
+Shepherd for his precious lambs, Jessie felt as if a heavy burden rolled
+away from her heart, the big black cloud passed from before her eyes, and
+the sweet springs of joy and gladness once more poured their streams over
+her happy spirit.
+
+With a light step, Jessie tripped back to her chamber. Emily was still
+awake. Thoughts such as she had never cherished before were rushing
+through her brain and burning in her heart. She was strongly inclined to
+speak to Jessie. But pride set a seal upon her lips, and she kept her eyes
+closed in simulated sleep. As for Jessie, after whispering a prayer for
+Emily and a song of praise for herself, she laid down beside her cousin
+and slept as sweetly as a fairy in a blue-bell, or as a weary angel might
+slumber in one of the bright bowers of Paradise. You may be sure her
+dreamland was filled with images of love and beauty.
+
+The next morning Jessie awoke wondering how Emily would feel about the
+events of the day before. Finding her cousin was also awake, she said--
+
+"Emily!"
+
+"Good morning, Jessie," replied Emily, sitting up in the bed and looking
+full in Jessie's face. "I hope you feel more cheery than you did last
+night."
+
+"I am very happy this morning," replied Jessie, her eyes sparkling with
+delight as she spoke. "Shall I tell you how I came to be so?"
+
+"As you please!" said Emily, shrinking from Jessie's proposal as if she
+feared her story might bring back the guilty feeling of the night
+previous.
+
+Jessie told her cousin just what she had felt, and how she had confessed
+her wrong, and how her sorrow had been rolled away. She did this so
+simply, so sweetly, and so kindly, that Emily blushed, and the big tears
+stood like dew-drops on her eyelashes. Jessie had found the way to her
+cousin's heart.
+
+But when she urged her to confess her faults and to join her in a note of
+apology to the Sherwoods, the pride of Emily's heart rose within her, and
+dashing away her tears, she said--
+
+"_Apologize_, indeed! I won't do it!"
+
+Just then the ringing of the first breakfast-bell warned them that it was
+time to rise. They did so; and Jessie, seeing that her cousin did not wish
+to talk any more, dressed herself in silence.
+
+After breakfast Jessie went to her writing-desk, and wrote notes to the
+members of the nutting-party. These notes were all alike except in their
+different addresses. Here is a copy of the one for Mr. Sherman.
+
+                               Glen Morris Cottage, October 25, 18--
+
+  Dear Sir--
+
+  When you thought I was lost yesterday, I was hiding with my cousin in
+  a little cave in the stone quarry. I only did it for fun. If I had
+  thought my hiding there would make you feel bad and spoil the
+  pleasure of our nutting-party, I would not have done it. I am sorry I
+  did it. Will you, and Walter, and Carrie, please excuse my fault?
+
+                                                        Truly Yours,
+                                                     Jessie Carlton.
+                                           Mr. Walter Sherwood, Sen.
+
+When Jessie read one of her notes to Uncle Morris, the good old man patted
+her head, and said--
+
+"Nobly and sweetly written, my little puss. Never forget that next to
+avoiding a fault, the noblest and most honorable thing you can do, is to
+confess it and apologize for it. Still, I hope you may never have need to
+write such a note again."
+
+Having finished and sealed her notes, Jessie placed them carefully in the
+bottom of her work-basket, intending to ask Hugh to deliver them for her
+on his way to school in the afternoon.
+
+It was Mrs. Carlton's wish that during her cousin's visit, her daughter
+should spend part of every morning, sewing and reading. Hence, after the
+notes were nicely put away, Jessie took out her famous piece of patchwork,
+and began sewing. She laughed heartily as she did so this morning, because
+she found pieces of paper pinned to the articles intended for Uncle Morris
+with these words written on them in large letters--
+
+"Beware of the devices of the little wizard!"
+
+"Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed she. "Won't I beware? I'll sew, let me see; well,
+I'll sew a strip long enough to go once around my quilt before I stir, let
+the little wizard say what he will."
+
+Stitch, stitch, stitch, went Jessie's bright, swift, little needle for the
+next half-hour. Then her two cousins bounced into the room, shouting--
+
+"O Jessie, come and see! There is one of the funniest little men out here
+you ever did see. He's got no neck, and he wears the queerest sort of a
+hat! He's playing on the bagpipe. Come, just a minute."
+
+"Beware of the devices of the little wizard!" said the writing on the
+patchwork. It caught Jessie's eye just as she was going to drop her work
+and run out to see the funny little man. She felt as if something was
+twinging her heart, but remembering her purpose, she brought her work to
+her side, and said--
+
+"I thank you, cousins, but you must excuse me until I've finished my
+sewing."
+
+"What a cross thing she is!" said Charlie, bouncing out of the room.
+
+"Do come, just for a minute, that's all, cousin Jessie," said Emily in her
+most coaxing tones.
+
+Charlie's words wounded Jessie more than Emily's soothed her. Unwilling to
+be thought cross, she dropped her work "just for a minute," and went out.
+The queer little man excited her mirth greatly, and she soon forgot all
+about her patchwork. When the little pipe-player moved off, Emily said--
+
+"Let us follow him up to Carrie Sherwood's. Won't she be tickled to see
+him?"
+
+"Yes, do," said Charlie, "and I won't call you cross, Jessie, any more."
+
+"We mustn't stay long, then," replied Jessie reluctantly, for a thought of
+her sewing flashed across her brain.
+
+"Of course, we won't," said Emily, as she took her cousin by the hand and
+led her away. "We will only stay long enough to see Carrie laugh at the
+queer little man."
+
+They went to Carrie Sherwood's, and there they stayed until Walter's
+return from school warned Jessie that it was nearly dinner-time. As she
+re-entered the parlor she saw Uncle Morris point to her work lying as she
+left it on the floor, and heard him say--
+
+"The little wizard has been here again, I see, this morning. How fond he
+is of Glen Morris Cottage."
+
+Jessie blushed, ran to her Uncle's side, hid her face in his bosom, and
+whispered--
+
+"O Uncle, I never shall conquer that little wizard. He is too strong for
+me."
+
+"Never despair! my little puss. Try and try again. Make a new resolve, and
+I'll warrant you that the wizard will find Glen Morris Cottage too hot to
+hold him one of these days, and then he'll be off to the North Pole to
+keep cool, and perhaps to marry Miss Perseverance!"
+
+Jessie laughed at this conceit of her uncle's, and said--
+
+"Uncle, I will try again, and I'll try real hard next time."
+
+"Nobly spoken, my little lady," rejoined Mr. Morris. "Perseverance
+conquers all things. It has won victories for warriors; freedom for
+oppressed nations; and self-conquest for millions of men, women, and
+children. Hold on to your purpose then, my Jessie, and you will yet be
+crowned as the conqueror of your troublesome little enemy!"
+
+Jessie sighed, and looked as if she wished the last battle had been
+fought, and the crown already placed on her brow.
+
+Poor Jessie! she is not the first miss who has found it hard work to
+overcome Little Impulse, the wizard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+The Broken Mirror.
+
+
+When Jessie saw Hugh getting ready to go to school, after dinner, she
+thought of her notes which were still lying very snugly in her
+work-basket. There were four of them: one for Mr. Sherwood, one for
+Richard Duncan, one for Adolphus Harding, and one for Norman Butler.
+Taking them from beneath her working materials, she held them up, and
+turning to Hugh, who was on his way to the door, said--
+
+"Hugh, I want you to do me a little favor!"
+
+"I dare say. You girls are always asking favors. But what now?"
+
+"Not much, Hugh, I only want you to take these notes for me."
+
+"Notes, eh?" said Hugh, taking the neatly folded letters in his hand, and
+reading the addresses. After reading them all aloud, he placed them in a
+pack and added. "Pretty business, I think, for a young lady like you to be
+writing to the boys? Oh, for shame, Jessie Carlton! I thought you were too
+modest to do that!"
+
+"There's nothing improper in my notes, master Hugh! Uncle Morris read one
+of them, and he says they are very sweet and proper. Will you please take
+them for me?"
+
+"Yes, if you will pay me the postage on them. You know that Uncle Sam gets
+his pay beforehand, and I must have mine. So hand me over twelve cents,
+and I'll carry your notes. Come, be quick! Hand over your money! It is
+time I was gone."
+
+"O Hugh, don't tease so," said Jessie.
+
+"Do you call it _teasing_ to ask for your pay when you are going to work
+for anybody!" asked Hugh, with a very tantalizing air.
+
+Just then Guy passed through the parlor, and seeing that Jessie was
+getting tired with her vexatious brother, he asked what was the matter.
+She told him. He took the notes from Hugh, who was only too glad to give
+them up, and said--
+
+"I'll take them for you, Jessie."
+
+"You are a dear, good brother, and I love you ever so much," said Jessie,
+holding up her lips for a kiss.
+
+Guy kissed his sister and hurried away to school, happy in the thought
+that he was contributing to her pleasure, while Hugh went out with a cold,
+uneasy heart, and murmuring to himself--
+
+"I don't see why I should wait all the time on Miss Jessie; she's big
+enough to carry her own letters."
+
+Could Hugh have exchanged feelings with Guy, he would have learned that
+little acts of love and kindness bring rich returns into the hearts of
+those who perform them; and then, perhaps, he would have seen at least one
+reason why he should "wait all the time on Miss Jessie."
+
+It happened that afternoon to blow up cold and rainy, so that Jessie and
+her young guests could not play out of doors. The bright fire in the grate
+tempted them into the parlor, where they amused themselves in various
+ways. At last, wearied with quiet games, master Charlie said--
+
+"Let us play blind-man's-buff?"
+
+"Oh yes, do, Jessie! It's such good fun," said Emily.
+
+"I like it first rate," said Jessie. "Who will be blind-man first?"
+
+"I will," said Emily, in a very positive tone of voice.
+
+"No, you won't, either, I shall be blind-man first," said Charlie.
+
+"Well, I say you _shan't_. There now!" cried Emily, stamping the floor
+with her little foot.
+
+"But I tell you I _will_!" retorted Charlie with anger.
+
+"Hush! Charlie dear," said Jessie, in soothing tones. "Let Emily be
+blind-man first, for, you know, polite boys always give way to young
+ladies."
+
+"Well, I won't, I don't want to be polite, I want to be blind-man first,
+and I WILL," rejoined Charlie, as the fire flashed from his eyes.
+
+"Then I won't play at all," said Emily, going to an ottoman and seating
+herself in a very sulky mood.
+
+Thus did these unamiable cousins spoil their own pleasure, and give pain
+to Jessie by their selfish quarrel. In vain did she try to soothe and coax
+them into good-nature for some time. At last, tired of the attempt, she
+rose up, and said--
+
+"Well, if you won't play, I'll go into the library and have a good talk
+with my Uncle Morris."
+
+This movement made Emily feel slightly ashamed of herself. She was
+unwilling, too, to be left alone with her brother. So she jumped up, and
+with a forced smile, said--
+
+"Don't go, Jessie, I'll let Charlie be blind-man."
+
+"I've a great mind not to play with you at all now," growled Charlie.
+
+"Oh yes, do, there's a dear, good Charlie," said Jessie, as she approached
+him, "See! here is the handkerchief, let me tie it over your eyes so that
+you won't be able to see the least bit of a mite! I don't think you will
+be able to catch me before tea-time."
+
+This challenge did more to drive the sulks out of Charlie than the
+coaxing. Charles held his head forward to be bound, while he replied--
+
+"Can't I catch you! I'll bet a dollar I catch you in less than five
+minutes!"
+
+"Young ladies _don't bet_, and Uncle Morris says that boys _shouldn't_,
+because it's wicked," said Jessie, while she busied herself tying the
+handkerchief. When the knot was fast, she said--
+
+"Now let us see how skilful my cousin Charlie can be!"
+
+Up jumped Charlie, spreading out his arms, and darting now this way and
+then that, as the steps and voices of the girls led him round the room.
+Merrily rang out the laugh of Jessie, and the ohs and ahs of her cousin,
+as they bounded past Charlie, ran round him, or darted out of the reach of
+his nimble fingers. So spry were they, that ten minutes elapsed and the
+blinded boy had not caught either of them. At last, he followed them close
+to one end of the parlor until he found himself clasping the large mirror
+which reached almost to the floor. Stepping back he tripped over a low
+ottoman, fell backwards, and bumped his head. Half in vexation, and half
+in sport he threw up his heels, and just as Jessie cried, "Mind the glass,
+Charlie!" brought down his legs with a crash on the surface of the
+mirror.
+
+"Oh dear! He has broken the big mirror!" cried Jessie, in great distress.
+"What will my father say!"
+
+"Keep still, you stupid, mischievous boy!" said Emily as she tried to pull
+the bandage from Charlie's eyes.
+
+"I couldn't help it!" said he, as rising to his feet, and rubbing his
+eyes, he stood staring on the ruin his feet had wrought on the lower half
+of the mirror.
+
+"My pa paid a good deal of money for that mirror," said Jessie, "and he
+will be very angry with us, when he comes home to-night. I'm _so_ sorry."
+
+"That's just like you, you stupid little monkey," said Emily, shaking
+Charlie somewhat rudely by the shoulder. "You are always doing some
+outrageous thing or another!"
+
+"I couldn't help it! Let me alone!" muttered Charlie, shaking his sister's
+hand from his shoulder.
+
+"You _could_ help it," replied Emily.
+
+"There, take that!" said Charlie, striking his sister a heavy blow on the
+shoulder with his fist.
+
+Emily was about to strike back, but Jessie stepped between them, and
+separating them, said:
+
+"O Emily! don't strike your brother! It's _so_ wicked, you know, for
+brothers and sisters to fight." Then turning to Charlie, she added, "Don't
+you know how mean it is for a boy to strike a girl? Boys should protect
+girls, and not beat them. If you hit Emily again, I shall not be able to
+love you any more."
+
+Charlie turned away, and seating himself in a chair, began to suck his
+thumb, while he gazed on the broken glass which was spread over the
+carpet. Just then, old Rover, finding the parlor door ajar, pushed it
+open, and walked up to his young mistress, wagging his tail, and rubbing
+her hand with his nose, which was his way of saying, "I hope you are glad
+to see me, this afternoon."
+
+Jessie patted his head, and sat down wearing a very grave face. Rover
+thought something was amiss, but not knowing how to inquire into the
+matter, after a few more rubs of his nose upon his little lady's hand,
+laid down, and looked wistfully into her eyes.
+
+Rover's presence put a new idea into the evil mind of Emily. She turned it
+over silently a few moments, and then said:
+
+"Jessie! I have just thought of a capital way of getting out of this
+scrape about the mirror."
+
+"Have you?" replied her cousin. "I don't see how you can do that, unless
+you can get some fairy to mend it for us, and I guess there are no good
+fairies, to do such things for unlucky girls and boys, now-a-days."
+
+"_Fairies_ indeed!" retorted Emily with a sneer. "I don't believe in
+_fairies_. My plan is to tell your mother, that while Rover was playing
+with us, he bounced against the mirror, and broke it to smash."
+
+"O Emily! I would not tell such a wicked story to save my life!" rejoined
+Jessie.
+
+"Well, I would; I've got out of many a bad scrape, by fixing up some such
+story as that. And it is so _natural_, you see, for a big dog to bounce
+against a glass which is so near the floor as this one, that your folks
+will easily believe it."
+
+"O Emily! Emily! How can you talk so?" said Jessie, gazing at her cousin
+with an expression of pity and surprise.
+
+"She talks just right," said Charlie. "It's a first-rate story, and will
+get us out of the scrape nicely. Bravo, Emily! I won't hit you again for
+ever so long."
+
+Jessie was horror-struck to hear her cousins talk in this cool and
+hardened manner. To her mind a lie was of all things the most mean and
+wicked. She had just shown her hatred of it, by her penitence for merely
+acting a lie in fun. But this proposal to tell a downright lie, for the
+purpose of escaping the consequences of an unlucky accident, looked like
+asking her to commit a very shocking crime. She felt a shudder creep over
+her, and shrinking from her cousins, as if they had been deadly serpents,
+she pushed her chair back a yard or two, and said:
+
+"Emily, I would die before I would tell such a lie. I hope you won't think
+of doing it. It's _so_ wicked, Emily. If you could deceive my pa and ma,
+you couldn't deceive God, who saw Charlie break the mirror. Don't do it,
+Emily, please don't?"
+
+"We will do it too, and if you peach on us, we'll say it was your fault
+that Rover did it. How will you like that, Miss Jessie!" said Charlie.
+
+"I will tell my father the exact truth about it," said Jessie, rising to
+her feet.
+
+"Very well, Miss Tell Tale," retorted Emily. "We'll fix you then. Charlie
+and I will say that you threw the ottoman against the mirror, and broke it
+yourself, won't we, Charlie?"
+
+"Yes, and they will believe both of us, because they will think you are
+lying to escape being whipped for your fault. Ah! ah! Miss Jessie, we'll
+fix you, see if we don't!" and Charlie held up his finger, and grinned in
+his cousin's face.
+
+"My father knows I wouldn't tell a lie," replied Jessie firmly; "and I do
+hope you won't, for oh! it is _so_ wicked, and _so_ mean. Nobody loves,
+trusts, or believes a liar. Please Charlie, please Emily, let me tell pa
+just how it happened. He won't be very angry. I know he won't. But if he
+is, I will tell him to whip me, instead of scolding Charlie."
+
+Charlie winced under this noble speech of Jessie's, and for a moment was
+inclined to yield. But his sister's temper was roused, and she urged him
+to stick to her, and to say that Jessie threw the ottoman, "and now," said
+she, "I will go and tell my aunt directly."
+
+Jessie turned pale; not with fear for herself, but because she shrank from
+a conflict with her cousins, in her mother's presence. Fortunately, a
+happy thought came into her mind, and rising, she whispered to herself,
+"Yes, I will go and ask Uncle Morris to come in." And Jessie glided into
+the library.
+
+Her uncle was not there. He had left it an hour before, and feeling
+slightly dozy had gone into the back parlor to catch a little nap on the
+sofa. This parlor was separated from the one in which the children had
+been playing only by folding-doors. Their noise at blind-man's-buff, had
+roused him from his nap, and he had heard all that afterwards passed
+between them. When, therefore, Emily went to tell Mrs. Carlton her great
+lie, he thought it was time for him to interfere. So he passed round by
+the hall into the front parlor, just as Jessie with her sad face was
+returning from the library.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you are here, Uncle Morris!" exclaimed Jessie, her face
+brightening and growing much shorter. "Please come into the parlor."
+
+The good old man kissed his niece with even unusual tenderness, and led
+her into the parlor.
+
+"Hoity toity!" cried he, as he looked on the fragments of the broken
+mirror. "Somebody's been playing the mischief here. What's been the
+matter?"
+
+"Jessie did it!" said Charlie, with a dogged air.
+
+"Yes, sir! Jessie threw an ottoman at me, and it struck the mirror. Didn't
+she, Charlie?" said Emily, coming up to Uncle Morris, with Mrs. Carlton
+behind her.
+
+"Yes, Jessie did it, and no mistake!" said Charlie, boldly.
+
+"O Jessie! how could you be so careless! That mirror cost a hundred
+dollars, a few months ago. Your father will feel very angry," said Mrs.
+Carlton with a grieved look.
+
+"I did not break it, Ma!" said Jessie calmly.
+
+"She did!" "She did!" said Charlie and his sister in the same moment.
+
+"Ma, I did not break the mirror," rejoined Jessie, calmly. "If I had done
+it, I would confess it. You know I wouldn't lie, Mother, don't you?"
+
+"I certainly have great faith in your truthfulness, my child," replied
+Mrs. Carlton; "but why are your cousins so positive in charging you with
+it?"
+
+Jessie stated the facts just as they had taken place. Her cousins repeated
+their story. Mrs. Carlton was perplexed. Turning to Uncle Morris, she
+said:
+
+"Brother, what do you think? On which side is the truth?"
+
+"On Jessie's, of course, sister. Could you question the truth of that pure
+face! It would break my heart if Jessie could tell such a lie as these
+wicked ones here have told! But she couldn't do it. It's not in her nature
+to do it. Heaven bless her!"
+
+He then stated what he had overheard from the sofa in the back parlor, and
+closed by saying, "These children had better go home to-morrow. They are
+wicked enough to corrupt an angel, almost. The proverb says, _eggs ought
+not to dance with stones_, and I cannot endure to see Jessie in their
+society any longer."
+
+"I agree with you, brother, and will send them home to-morrow," replied
+Mrs. Carlton.
+
+Charlie and Emily were dumb with confusion and shame. I think a little
+sorrow gushed up in Emily's heart, when through her fingers she saw Jessie
+look with appealing and tearful eyes into Uncle Morris's face, and heard
+her say in pleading tones:
+
+"O Uncle! O Mamma! please let them stay another week; please do, for my
+sake! Please let them stay! They will be good after this, I know they
+will."
+
+This plea won both Mrs. Carlton's and the old man's consent, and Jessie
+kissing her cousins, said:
+
+"There, you can stay. Aren't you glad?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+The First Slide of the Season.
+
+
+After Uncle Morris and Mrs. Carlton had consented to permit the
+self-willed cousins to remain a week longer at Glen Morris, the good old
+man led Emily into the library and talked with her for over half an hour,
+about the meanness and wickedness of lying. I cannot tell you exactly what
+he said to her, because I don't know. That his words were weighty and
+solemn, I have no doubt; for when Emily left the library her eyes were red
+with weeping, and she went directly to her room and staid there alone
+until the bell called her to tea.
+
+Before Emily slept that night, she did what she had not done before during
+her stay at Glen Morris. She kneeled at the bedside to say her prayers.
+When she arose, Jessie threw an arm around her waist and kissed her. This
+was done with so much tenderness, that Emily felt it to be a sign of her
+cousin's sympathy with the new feelings and thoughts which were springing
+up within her heart. Returning the kiss, she said:
+
+"I'm sorry I told that lie about you to-day, Jessie."
+
+"So am I," replied the simple-hearted girl; "it is always best to tell the
+truth, and I hope you will never tell another story as long as you live."
+
+"I won't, I'm resolved I won't; I told Uncle Morris so this afternoon, and
+(here she lowered her voice to a whisper) I've been asking God to help me
+keep my promise."
+
+"That's the way! That's the way!" replied Jessie. "Uncle Morris says if we
+mean to be good we must go to school to the Great Teacher who will both
+teach us, and help us do the lesson."
+
+With such words as these did Jessie encourage her cousin to enter that
+beautiful path in which all the pure, noble, and good children in the
+world are found.
+
+The next day Emily was very quiet. She spent the morning helping Jessie
+work on her famous quilt. Charlie was as rude and as ugly as ever; having
+teased his sister for a long time in vain, to play out of doors with him,
+the spoiled boy hissed at her, and said, "You are an ugly old cat!" Then
+slamming the door after him, he went into the barn-yard, where the
+screaming of the pigs, the gabble of the geese, and the clucking of the
+hens, soon proclaimed that he was venting his ill-temper on the dumb
+creatures who had their home there. Poor Charlie! the indulgence of his
+mother, and the almost constant absence of his father from home, had made
+him a very unhappy, mischievous boy, if, indeed, it had not wholly spoiled
+him. If Charlie had known what was best for him he would have said to his
+friends,
+
+"Please don't let me have my own way."
+
+Emily needed to make the same request, for she too, had long done pretty
+much as she pleased; and, as we have seen, she was _pleased_ to do some
+very bad things.
+
+Two days before the time set for the cousins to return home, they went to
+spend the day with Carrie Sherwood. Jessie, who was to join them after her
+morning's sewing was done, sat down to her work in high spirits. The quilt
+had grown large within a few days, and as she took it up this morning, she
+said:
+
+"The little Wizard hasn't been able to catch me for ever so many days. I
+guess he won't trouble me much more now. See my quilt! (here she stood up,
+and drawing the quilt from the basket, spread it out.) Two more rows of
+patchwork will finish it. Ha! ha! only two more; I'm so glad. And won't
+Uncle Morris be pleased when he sees it spread over his bed some night!
+ha! ha!"
+
+Here Jessie sat down and began to make her bright little needle fly almost
+as swiftly as if it had been in a sewing-machine. While she sewed she
+hummed the following words, which, as Uncle Morris said, had more truth in
+them than poetry:
+
+                       "I love to do right,
+                         And I love the truth,
+                       And I'll always love them,
+                         While in my youth.
+
+                       "And when I grow old,
+                         And when I grow gray,
+                       I will love them still,
+                         Do wrong who may."
+
+Having finished her song, Jessie rested her hands on her lap a moment, and
+said:
+
+"I love those words, I do. When I grow _gray_! ha! ha! Jessie Carlton a
+little old woman with _gray hair_! Won't it be funny? I wonder if
+everybody will love me then as everybody loves Uncle Morris now. Why not?
+Everybody?--no, not _everybody_, for Charlie don't love him, and our Hugh
+don't love him much. That's because they are naughty, though. Well, every
+good person loves Uncle Morris, because he is so good and kind; and so, if
+I am good and kind, when I am a little, gray old woman, everybody will
+love me. Ha! ha! Won't it be nice to be called Aunt Jessie, and to be
+loved, oh, so well!--but I must go on with my sewing."
+
+Tap, tap, tap, said somebody's knuckles on the door.
+
+"Come in," cried Jessie.
+
+The door opened. Carrie Sherwood's little, red, round, laughing face
+peeped in.
+
+"O Carrie! is that you? Come in."
+
+Carrie tripped in, and while her eyes flashed with excitement, she said:
+
+"O Jessie, we have found a nice slide out on the edge of the brook. It is
+the first time the ice has frozen hard enough to bear this fall, and we
+are having such a nice time. Come and see it, just for a moment."
+
+"A slide!" exclaimed Jessie, who dearly loved sliding. "Oh, I'm so glad.
+I'll go with you just to look at it. I can't stay, you know, because I
+must come back and sew until twelve o'clock."
+
+Dropping her sewing, Jessie ran to a closet, equipped herself in cloak and
+hood and, taking Carrie's hand, trotted out to see this first slide of the
+season.
+
+A short distance from Glen Morris Cottage a broad, shallow brook crossed
+the public highway. A bridge led over the brook. Along the sides of the
+buttresses of this bridge, the water had flowed back for several yards
+over the bottom of a ditch or hollow, and being only an inch or two in
+depth, the sharp frosts of the early days of November had frozen it solid,
+though the brook itself was still babbling as if in proud defiance of the
+frost-king.
+
+To this ditch Carrie led Jessie. Emily and Charlie were already there
+enjoying themselves finely.
+
+"Isn't it nice?" said Carrie when they had fairly reached the spot.
+
+"You shan't come on to my slide," growled selfish Charlie.
+
+"Nor on to mine," cried his sister.
+
+"You will let us slide after you, won't you, Emily?" asked Jessie.
+
+"No, I want this slide all to myself," replied Emily.
+
+"You can go down the brook and find slides for yourselves. You shan't use
+ours," cried Charlie, as shaking his fist at the two girls, he added,
+"I'll lick you both if you don't keep off."
+
+"Well, I never saw any thing so selfish as that before, I declare," said
+Carrie Sherwood, striking the ground with her foot, and looking very angry
+as she spoke. "The next time I invite them to spend the day at my house
+they shall certainly know it."
+
+"Oh, never mind, never mind," said Jessie. "We can look at them, and that
+will be almost as good as sliding ourselves. Perhaps they will get tired
+presently, and then we can slide while they rest."
+
+"No, we shan't get tired either, Miss Jessie," retorted Charlie. "We mean
+to slide until dinner-time."
+
+"And then you expect to eat dinner at _my_ house, I suppose. Really, you
+are a very generous boy!" replied Carrie, in a bitter tone of voice.
+
+"'Taint _your_ house. It's your father's. He!" said the ugly boy, grinning
+at his young hostess.
+
+"Well, if you were not Jessie's cousins, you should never step inside of
+my house again--but here comes my brother. He'll _make_ you let me
+slide."
+
+Walter Sherwood now came up to the spot where his sister and Jessie stood.
+Carrie told him the story of the selfishness of the two cousins, and ended
+by saying:
+
+"Won't you compel them to let us slide too, Walter?"
+
+"If he touches me, I'll throw this big stone at him," growled Charlie,
+looking very ugly and holding up a large stone, which he had just taken up
+from the side of the ditch. Wasn't he a selfish little fellow?
+
+"Please don't touch him," entreated Jessie. "I don't care much about
+sliding, and Carrie won't mind waiting until to-morrow. Will you, Carrie
+dear. The weather is so cold, there will soon be plenty of ice. Please
+don't hurt Charlie, Walter."
+
+"Don't be alarmed, my sweet Jessie," replied Walter, laughing. "I don't
+want to touch your sting-nettle of a cousin. I'd about as lief grapple a
+hedgehog. Let him and his selfish sister have their slides all to
+themselves. You come with me. I know where there is far better sliding
+than this, and I came on purpose to tell you so. Come, let us go, and
+leave them to enjoy their slides, if such selfish creatures can enjoy any
+thing."
+
+"Please Walter, let my cousins go with us," whispered Jessie in Walter's
+ear, as he took her hand.
+
+"No, no, Jessie, I can't consent to that. They won't be a whit happier
+there than here, and if we do take them with us, they will only spoil our
+fun. I never saw two such thorns in my life. You can't go near them, but
+they scratch you right off."
+
+"They are going home, the day after to-morrow, and I'm glad of it," cried
+Carrie, as she stepped up the bank after her brother and Jessie.
+
+"So am I," said Walter, "and I'm thinking there will be plenty of dry eyes
+at Glen Morris Cottage, when they go away. What do you say to that,
+Jessie?"
+
+"I'm sorry my cousins are so selfish," replied Jessie, "but Charlie is the
+worst. I think if Emily was here without him, she would soon be a good
+girl."
+
+"Perhaps so. Yet I'm inclined to think you'll see apples growing on that
+old hickory yonder, before she becomes _good_, as you call it. But let us
+hurry into the pasture. Here, Jessie, mount these bars?"
+
+As he spoke, Walter leaped over the rail-fence of a pasture, and giving
+his hand to Jessie, she mounted the top bar.
+
+"Now jump!" cried Walter.
+
+Jessie did as she was told. Carrie followed. Then Walter led them along
+the pasture, until they struck a bend in the brook where the water having
+flowed over a flat basin, was very shallow. Along the edge of this basin
+the water was frozen hard.
+
+"Isn't this nice?" shouted Jessie, as she slid over the glass-like
+surface.
+
+"It's perfectly beautiful," replied Carrie, gliding along in an opposite
+direction.
+
+Walter made a slide for himself, just in front of the girls, and being all
+brim-full of good-nature, they enjoyed themselves finely. But there were
+two shadows that flashed on Jessie's joy now and then. The first was the
+image of the quilt she had left on the parlor-floor; the second was her
+regret that her cousins were so ugly. When the former image flitted before
+her, a little voice in her breast whispered,
+
+"In the chains of the little wizard again, eh?"
+
+[Illustration: Jessie and Carrie Enjoying a Slide. Page 105.]
+
+Then Jessie would sigh, look very sober, and pause, saying to herself, "I
+really must go home and sew."
+
+Before her purpose was fairly formed, however, Walter or Carrie would cry
+out, "What, getting tired already! You are not half a slider."
+
+"Just once more, and then I'll go," Jessie would say to herself. But
+before that one more slide was through, she would purpose to add yet
+another. Thus time fled until the morning was almost gone, and the quilt,
+the little wizard, Uncle Morris, and even the ugly cousins, were nearly
+forgotten, in the excitement of this pleasant sport.
+
+This delight was, however, brought to an end by a loud scream, followed by
+a shrill voice crying, "Charlie! _Charlie!_ Charlie! You'll be drowned! Oh
+dear! Oh dear!"
+
+This was followed by another scream. Walter guessed what was the matter at
+once. He knew that near where the cousins were sliding, the trunk of a
+tree formed a sort of bridge over the brook, and enabled the cow-boys to
+pass dry-shod in summer. When the brook was low, it was a safe enough
+bridge, but when it was full as it was then, it was what the boys called
+"a pokerish place to cross." He surmised at once, that Charlie was
+frightening his sister, by attempting to walk across the brook on this
+rough and narrow bridge. So he told the girls, and then they all ran
+towards the spot from whence the cry came.
+
+A few minutes' run brought them in sight of Master Charlie standing erect
+on the tree, right over the middle of the brook. Emily was standing at the
+water's edge, screaming, and begging him to come back.
+
+"Stop your screaming, you coward, or I'll lick you till you are dumb,"
+shouted the wilful boy, shaking his fist at his sister, as Walter and the
+two girls came up, on the other side of the brook.
+
+Emily seeing them approach, called out to Walter, and said:
+
+"Do make him come off that dreadful log, will you?"
+
+"I'd like to see anybody _make_ me come off," said Charlie. As he spoke,
+he turned round to see who had come. In doing this his foot slipped, and
+losing his balance, he fell backwards into the brook.
+
+The girls both screamed, for they were in great terror. Walter, however,
+laughed heartily, and said:
+
+"Don't be frightened! The water isn't deep enough to drown the little
+fury. I hope it's cold enough to cool his courage, though."
+
+As he spoke, Walter rolled up his pants, and then kicking off his boots,
+he waded into the brook and led Charlie ashore. The little fellow
+spluttered and shivered, but said nothing. The water had cooled his
+courage, and for the present, his ugliness had all subsided. They led him
+back to Glen Morris as quickly as possible, to get a change of clothes.
+
+This mishap broke up their plan of dining and spending the afternoon with
+Carrie Sherwood. Thus the selfishness of the two cousins, again robbed
+both themselves and their friends of a promised pleasure. As for poor
+little Jessie, she drew down her face and looked very sad, as she put her
+quilt into the basket, when the bell rung for dinner. Sighing deeply she
+said half-aloud,
+
+"Conquered again. It _is_ no use. The little wizard _is_ my master, and I
+won't try to resist him any more. What's the use of trying?"
+
+"Tut, tut, tut! No use in trying, eh? Who says so?"
+
+Jessie looked up, and her eyes met the pleasant smile of Uncle Morris, who
+had entered the room, in his usual quiet way, unobserved by the dispirited
+girl. She gave him back no answering smile, but drooping her head, stood
+silently before him. Seeing her sadness and knowing the cause, Uncle
+Morris said:
+
+"Jessie, will you please be a school-ma'am for a moment, and let me recite
+my lesson to you?"
+
+Jessie smiled a faint smile, but said nothing.
+
+"Well, silence gives consent, I suppose. So I will recite my lesson. It is
+a fable and runs thus:
+
+               "Two robin redbreasts built their nests
+                      Within a hollow tree;
+               The hen sat quietly at home,
+                         The male sang merrily;
+               And all the little robins said,
+                         'Wee, wee, wee, wee, wee, wee.'
+
+               One day--the sun was warm and bright,
+                         And shining in the sky--
+               Cock Robin said, 'My little dears,
+                         'Tis time you learn to fly;'
+               And all the little young ones said,
+                         'I'll try, I'll try, I'll try.'
+
+               "I know a child, and who she is
+                         I'll tell you by and by,
+               When mamma says, 'Do this' or 'that,'
+                         She says, 'What for?' and 'Why?'
+               She'd be a better child by far,
+                         If she would say, 'I'LL TRY.'"
+
+When Uncle Morris paused, tears stood in Jessie's eyes, and a bright smile
+played round her lips. Putting her hand into his, she said:
+
+"And I'll try, too, Uncle. I'll try till I conquer."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+Jessie's First Great Victory.
+
+
+After dinner Jessie went to her room and sat awhile, on a cricket with her
+head leaning on a chair. She was thinking. I cannot tell you exactly what
+passed in her mind, while she was in that brown study, because she never
+told me. You can guess, however, when I tell you that after thinking some
+five minutes, she rose up, and going to her table, took a pencil and wrote
+these words in big letters, on a sheet of note paper:
+
+"I will not go out to play again until I have finished my quilt. This is
+my strong resolution, and I mean to keep it, in spite of the little wizard
+that tempts me so. He has beaten me a great many times, but he shan't do
+it again, as true as my name is Jessie Carlton."
+
+Taking the paper from the table, Jessie held it between her finger and
+thumb, read it, and then left the room, saying to herself--
+
+"There, that's a good resolution. I'll keep it in sight all the time; and
+if the little wizard comes near me, I'll spear him with it just as Uncle
+Morris says the fairies pierce the gnats with their bodkins. Let me see.
+How long will it take to finish my quilt? Only two more rows of squares to
+sew on. Well, I can sew one row this afternoon and the other to-morrow
+morning. Oh good! I'll ask ma to get it into the quilting-frame to-morrow
+afternoon, and have it finished while I work the slippers. Won't it be
+nice if the quilt and slippers are both ready by Christmas! Perhaps I can
+get the watch-pocket done too. Well, I'll try, see if I don't. I _can_
+conquer little Impulse if I try, and I _will_. You shall see if I don't,
+you dear, good Uncle Morris, you."
+
+All this was said as Jessie walked down-stairs. She looked very
+pleasantly, and trod the carpet with a very firm step, as she went to her
+cosy little chair in front of the bright fire which glowed in the grate
+that November afternoon. She was slightly chilled through sitting in her
+chamber, but without stopping to get warm, she took up her work, and began
+to ply her needle in good earnest.
+
+Half an hour passed and Jessie was still busy as a bee over her quilt.
+Then her uncle entered the room with his outside coat nicely buttoned up
+to his chin, and his hat in his hand. He was equipped for a walk.
+
+"Jessie, will you take a walk with your poor old uncle this fine
+afternoon?" said he.
+
+This was offering one of the strongest of possible temptations to Jessie.
+A walk with Uncle Morris was to her a very great pleasure. Impulse
+whispered "Let the quilt go, and accept your uncle's offer!" Jessie's arms
+were even put forth in the act of dropping her work, when her eye rested
+on her written resolution, which she had pinned on the top edge of the
+work-basket. "I will finish my quilt," said she down in her heart. Then
+putting her work back into her lap, and looking up at her uncle, who was a
+little puzzled by her unusual manner, she said--
+
+"I thank you, Uncle, but I can't go this afternoon."
+
+"Not go! What does my little puss mean?" exclaimed Uncle Morris, greatly
+surprised that his niece should decline his invitation.
+
+Jessie took the paper from the basket, gave it to him, and, while a loving
+smile played round her lips, said--
+
+"Please, Uncle, read this."
+
+The old gentleman put on his spectacles, glanced at the paper, and, as he
+gave it back to her, smiled, and said--
+
+"Ha, ha, I see! going to run the little wizard through the heart with the
+spear of Resolution! Very good. I would rather see you conquer your enemy,
+my dear Jessie, than to have your company, much as I love it. So good-by,
+and may the Great Teacher help you to keep your resolution!"
+
+"Good-by, Uncle!"
+
+I can't tell you how happy Jessie felt at having resisted this strong
+temptation. A warm current of joy flowed through her heart, and bore away
+all regret which thinking on the loss of a pleasant walk might have
+otherwise caused her to feel. Her eyes sparkled with delight. Her fingers
+almost flew, and the quilt gained in size very fast.
+
+But fifteen minutes more had not passed, when Emily and Charlie bounced
+into the room.
+
+"We want you to play with us," said Emily. "We are tired of playing
+together without company, and want you."
+
+"I want you to play horses. I've got some twine for a pair of reins, and
+you two girls will make a capital span. Come, hurry up, Jessie!" said
+Charlie, who had got over his ducking in the brook, and was as rude and
+ready for mischief as ever.
+
+"I'm very sorry," replied Jessie, "but I can't go with you. I must sew on
+my quilt till tea-time."
+
+"_Must_, eh! Who says you _must_?" replied Emily with a sneer.
+
+"I have made a resolution to punish myself for going out this morning when
+I ought to have stayed in," said Jessie, firmly.
+
+"Pooh," said Charlie, "that's all nonsense. She is too proud to play with
+us. She is a regular Miss Stuckup, and I won't own her for my cousin any
+more;" and with this hard speech the boy left the parlor, walking
+backwards, and making mouths as he went.
+
+"I do think you ought to play with us, Jessie," said Emily. "You know we
+have only one day more to spend with you, and it's very unkind of you to
+stay in here and leave me to amuse myself as best I can. As to your
+resolution, I s'pose you made it on purpose, because you didn't want to
+play with us."
+
+This unkind speech made Jessie feel very badly. She doubted for a moment
+whether she had not erred in making her resolution before her cousins went
+home. She felt inclined to drop her work, and go out with her very
+ungracious cousins. But her second thoughts assured her that it was her
+first _duty_ to conquer the habit which had caused her so much trouble. So
+looking with moistening eyes at her cousin, she replied--
+
+"I'm sorry, Emily, that I cannot go out with you, but I really can't do
+it. You know my ma requires me to spend my mornings in sewing or reading.
+I went out this morning without thinking, and without asking her consent.
+To make up for that, I must sew this afternoon. This evening and to-morrow
+afternoon, I will play with you as much as you please."
+
+"I say you are a very ugly creature, and I don't like you one bit,"
+retorted Emily, as with pouting lips and flashing eyes she bounced from
+the room, slamming the door with a loud noise as she went out.
+
+Poor Jessie felt wounded, and the big tears would flow from her eyes in
+spite of her efforts to restrain them. Smarting under the cruel words of
+her cousin, she felt an impulse to follow her, but again her eyes fell on
+the paper, and she resumed her work, saying to herself--
+
+"Jessie Carlton, you must not mind the hard speeches of your cousins. Your
+resolution is right and good. Uncle Morris said so. Stick to it then, and
+by the time the quilt and a few other things are done, as Uncle Morris
+said, the little wizard will find Glen Morris Cottage too hot to hold him.
+I'll keep my resolution."
+
+Just then, smash went some glass somewhere in the rear of the house. The
+crash was followed by a voice, which Jessie knew to be her cousin's,
+saying--
+
+"O Charlie, Charlie! what have you done!"
+
+"I don't care! It's only the kitchen window," was the reply.
+
+Again did Jessie's impulse move her to put down her work and run out to
+see what was the matter. But her purpose came to her aid again, and she
+kept plying her needle and saying:
+
+"No, I won't go out. It's only that naughty Charlie throwing stones in at
+the kitchen window. What a bad boy he is. I'm glad he is going home
+soon."
+
+Another quarter of an hour passed without interruption, when the door
+opened and the bright face of Carrie Sherwood peeped in.
+
+"Why, Carrie Sherwood!" exclaimed Jessie.
+
+"Jessie Carlton!"
+
+"Come in and sit down," said Jessie.
+
+Carrie stepped in but did not sit down. "I've come," she said, "to invite
+you and your cousins to spend the afternoon, and to take tea at our house.
+Ma says that since no harm came to Charlie from his ducking, she would
+like to have you come as you meant to do before he fell into the brook."
+
+"I can't go with you till nearly tea-time," replied Jessie.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because I _can't_."
+
+"But _why_ can't you?"
+
+"Because I've resolved to sew on this quilt until tea-time," said Jessie;
+and pointing to the paper she added, "see! there is my resolution."
+
+Carrie read the paper and laughed. "Well, you are a queer girl, Jessie
+Carlton. You tie yourself up with a resolution nobody asks you to make,
+and then say you can't move."
+
+"But I made the resolution because I thought it was _right_," said Jessie,
+solemnly.
+
+"Oh! did you? Well, that alters the case, I suppose. But please break it
+for _once_; _only_ this once, just to please me, you know. Come, there's a
+dear, good Jessie; do come over to my house this afternoon."
+
+Oh! how Jessie did long to drop her sewing, and go with her friend. There
+was a mighty struggle in her heart for a few moments; but her purpose
+triumphed at last, and in a calm, firm voice, she replied:
+
+"No, dear Carrie, not until nearly dark. I must finish my quilt to-morrow
+morning. You go and get my cousins and take them with you. I will come
+over just as soon as it is too dark to see to sew without a light; and
+that won't be a great while, you know, this short afternoon."
+
+Carrie saw that her friend's mind was made up. So turning to leave the
+room she said:
+
+"Well, I suppose you are right; but mind you come as early as you can."
+
+"That I will," rejoined Jessie.
+
+Carrie left the room. The next moment she pushed the door open again, and
+peeping in, said,
+
+"Jessie?"
+
+"Well, dear, what is it?"
+
+"Ask your ma to let you stay till half-past nine, will you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Good-by."
+
+"Good-by till dark," replied Jessie, laughing at the idea of her friend
+bidding her good-by just for an hour.
+
+Jessie now felt very strong in her purpose. She had resisted no less than
+four temptations to yield to her impulses in about an hour and a half.
+This was doing nobly, and Jessie felt more self-respect than she had ever
+felt before. She was certainly doing battle in real earnest with her old
+enemy, the little wizard, as Uncle Morris facetiously called him. And she
+had her reward for all her self-denial in the glad feelings which bubbled
+up in her heart like springs of water in some cosy mountain nook.
+
+Nothing else came to tempt Jessie the remainder of that afternoon. She
+sewed until it was too dark to see in front of the fire; then she took her
+seat close to the window, and it was not until she could no longer see to
+take a stitch neatly that she began to put up her work.
+
+"One more morning will finish it," said she, after taking a glance at her
+work. "Oh! how glad I shall be when I have taken the last stitch. And
+won't I be glad when it comes out of the quilting-frame, and is spread
+upon Uncle Morris's bed. It's been a long time doing--Oh! ever so
+long--thanks to the little wizard. But little wizard, little wizard, go
+away! go away! We don't want you any longer in Glen Morris Cottage."
+
+In this cheerful mood Jessie tied on her hood and cloak, and tripped over
+to Carrie Sherwood's, where she spent one of the pleasantest evenings she
+had enjoyed since the coming of her cousins to Duncanville. For some
+reasons unknown to me, it pleased that selfish brother and sister to put
+on their best and most approved behavior. Perhaps they caught a ray or two
+of the joy which beamed, like sunshine, from Jessie's heart.
+
+The next morning after breakfast, filled with the idea of finishing the
+quilt before dinner, Jessie found a parcel in her work-basket directed to
+Miss Jessie Carlton.
+
+"What can it be?" said she, as she hastily untied the string, and unfolded
+the wrapping-paper.
+
+"A pair of ladies' skates! Oh, how glad I am! I wonder who sent them. Oh!
+here is a piece of paper. What does it say?"
+
+Holding the paper to the light she read as follows:
+
+"From a fond father to his beloved daughter."
+
+"From pa! Oh, how good of him! It's too bad he didn't stop to let me thank
+him. But I'll thank him to-night. I've been wishing all this fall for a
+pair of skates, because all the girls are going to have them. Suppose I
+just step out and try them a little while."
+
+Thus did Jessie talk out her thoughts to herself. Thus did the impulse
+come over her to leave her morning's duty and repeat the fault of the day
+before. It was fortunate, perhaps, that her cousins, knowing she meant to
+sew, had rushed off to find a slide before she discovered her new skates.
+Their persuasions, joined to her own impulse, might have overcome her and
+brought her into bondage to the little wizard again. Without their
+presence, I confess, the temptation to try the skates was a very strong
+one. Jessie was getting ready to go out when her eye fell on the paper
+which was still pinned to the basket's edge. She paused, blushed, put down
+the skates, and said aloud:
+
+"No, no, little wizard, I won't obey you. The quilt shall be finished, and
+the skates shall wait until the afternoon."
+
+"Three cheers for my little conqueror!" shouted Uncle Morris, who, coming
+in at that moment, overheard this last remark.
+
+"O uncle! I was _almost_ conquered myself," said Jessie.
+
+"Never mind that, for now you are _quite_ a conqueror," rejoined her
+uncle, smiling and patting her head.
+
+Need I say that the quilt was finished that morning? It was; and before
+Jessie sat down to dinner, she had the pleasure of seeing it put into the
+quilting-frame by Maria, the seamstress of the household. And thus did our
+sweet little Jessie win her first really decisive victory over the little
+wizard which had hitherto been to her like the fisherman's wife, Alice, in
+the fairy tale--the plague of her life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+Farewell to the Cousins.
+
+
+Scarcely had Jessie feasted her eyes on her quilt, snugly fixed between
+the bars of the quilting-frame, before the dinner-bell rang out its
+pleasant call. The happy girl skipped down-stairs with a light and merry
+step. In the hall she met her brothers.
+
+"O Guy!" she exclaimed, "I have finished my quilt! Aren't you glad!"
+
+"To be sure I am," said Guy, kissing her rosy cheek, "and I expect you
+will be so well-pleased with my old friend, Never-give-up, who helped you
+finish it, that you will never give him the mitten again."
+
+"Pshaw!" cried Hugh with a sneer, "I'll bet my new knife, that she gives
+him the mitten before the week is out. Jessie isn't made of the right
+stuff for your famous Try Company, any more than I am. She hasn't got the
+perseverance of a kitten."
+
+"And yet she has more of it, than Master Hugh Carlton, for he has never
+finished any thing but his dinner, and she has finished her _quilt_," said
+Uncle Morris, who as he was crossing the hall to the dining-room, heard
+Hugh's unkind remark.
+
+"There, Hugh, you are fairly hit now," said Guy, laughing.
+
+"They who live in glass-houses shouldn't throw stones, should they, my
+little puss?" said Uncle Morris, leading Jessie into the dining-room.
+
+"Hugh is always teasing me," replied Jessie, "I wish he was more like
+Guy."
+
+Dinner was waiting, and taking their seats at the table, they all sat in
+silence, while Uncle Morris reverently craved a blessing. He had hardly
+finished, before Charlie and Emily rushed into the room, leaving traces of
+their feet on the carpet, at every step.
+
+"My dears, where have you been to wet your feet so?" asked Mrs. Carlton,
+seeing that their boots were soaked with water.
+
+"Oh! it's been thawing, Aunt, and we got our feet wet, sliding," said
+Emily, as she took her seat at the table, panting and pushing the ringlets
+back from her face.
+
+"You had better put on dry socks and boots, before you eat," observed Mrs.
+Carlton. She then touched the bell. The servant entered.
+
+"Mary," said the lady, "take these children to their rooms, and change
+their socks and boots!"
+
+"Yes mem," said Mary, looking daggers at the two cousins.
+
+"Can't I wait till after dinner, aunt?" asked Emily.
+
+"No, my dear. You must go at once, lest you get cold by sitting still so
+long with wet feet."
+
+Emily pouted, but knowing her aunt would firmly enforce her command, she
+rose, and taking her brother by the wrist, said:
+
+"Come, Charlie, let us go up-stairs!"
+
+"I don't want to," growled Charlie, pulling away his arm, and putting it
+round his plate.
+
+"Charlie!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton.
+
+"I want my dinner!" was his surly reply.
+
+Mary had now drawn near the ugly little fellow. Placing her heavy hand on
+his shoulder, she seized him with a grip, which made him feel like a
+pigmy, in the grasp of a giant. Having had a taste of Mary's anger, once
+or twice before, and catching a glance from the kindling eye of Uncle
+Morris, he yielded, and was led out of the room.
+
+"The worst child of his age I ever knew," observed the old gentleman with
+a sigh, as he proceeded to carve the chickens, which were smoking on the
+hospitable table before him.
+
+Jessie's face had clouded a little during this scene. The thaw of which
+Emily had spoken, cut off her hope of trying her new skates. Leaning
+towards Guy, who sat next to her at the table, she whispered:
+
+"Is the ice _all_ gone, Guy?"
+
+"I expect it is pretty much used up by the fog we've had all day."
+
+"Oh dear, I'm so sorry!" said Jessie with a sigh.
+
+Judging of her thoughts by her looks, Uncle Morris said, "Never mind,
+Jessie. There will be plenty of ice to skate on, in a week or two."
+
+"Skate! How can she _skate_? She hasn't got any skates!" said Hugh.
+
+"Yes, I have," replied Jessie, smiling. "Pa sent me a beautiful pair this
+morning."
+
+This statement led to various remarks about skating, and winter weather in
+the country. Meanwhile, the cousins came back to the table. Jessie soon
+grew cheerful again, and the dinner passed without any other occurrence
+worthy of notice.
+
+After dinner, the fog having grown into a fine, drizzling rain, the
+children found it impossible to go out of doors in search of amusement. It
+was therefore agreed to invite Miss Carrie Sherwood to tea. Guy promised
+to go after her. To add to the pleasure of the occasion, Jessie had her
+mother's permission to use a sweet little tea-set of her own, and to have
+tea with her cousins and Carrie by themselves in the parlor.
+
+Carrie arrived in due time, snugly wrapped in hood and shawl. Her feet
+were protected by rubbers. She declared that Guy was a capital _beau_. Guy
+laughed at her compliment, and repaid it by saying that she was a nice
+little _belle_, and then he ran off to school.
+
+The afternoon passed rapidly, because, on the whole, it was pleasantly
+spent. Emily, knowing it was the last day of her visit, seemed anxious to
+do away with the bad impression she had previously made upon the mind of
+her cousin and her friend. Charlie, too, was in his best mood most of the
+time. Once, indeed, he came very near breaking up the harmony of the
+party. Seeing a strap of Jessie's new skates peeping from beneath the
+what-not where she had hidden them, he seized it, pulled out the skates,
+and began to put them on.
+
+"Please, Charlie, don't do that," said Jessie. "You can't skate on the
+carpet, you know; please give them to me?"
+
+"I won't!" retorted the wilful boy.
+
+"Please do give them to me?" implored Jessie.
+
+"I want to skate on the carpet, first," said Charlie, still trying to
+buckle on the skates.
+
+"Do ask him to give them to me?" said Jessie, addressing Emily.
+
+"There, take your old skates!" cried the boy, throwing them violently
+across the room.
+
+The fact was, he did not understand the mystery of straps and buckles in
+which the skates were involved. Hence his desire to try the skates was
+borne away upon the current of his impatience, and thereby the little
+party escaped a scene for the time being.
+
+But it was only for a time. Charlie had been so used to have his own way
+and to oppose the wishes of others, that he seemed to find his pleasure in
+spoiling the delights of others. Hence, when the hour for tea arrived, and
+Jessie's sweet little china tea-set, with its ornaments of gold and
+flowers, was spread out upon a little round table, he drew near to it and
+taking Jessie's seat, said:
+
+"I'm going to play lady and pour out the tea."
+
+"Nonsense, Charlie!" said his sister. "Take the next seat and let Jessie
+have hers."
+
+"I won't," muttered Charlie.
+
+"Come, Charlie, do get out of your cousin's chair! Young gentlemen don't
+pour out tea for ladies, you know," said Carrie in her most coaxing
+tones.
+
+"I don't care! I'm going to play lady and pour out the tea," replied the
+boy in his most dogged manner.
+
+"I never did see such a boy in all my life," whispered Jessie to her
+friend.
+
+"Nor I," rejoined Carrie; "my father says he's a young hornet."
+
+"Oh dear! what shall I do?" sighed Jessie.
+
+"Why don't you sit down?" said Charlie, as he began to handle the little
+teapot.
+
+"Charlie, get up!" exclaimed his sister, as she snatched the teapot from
+his hand.
+
+"Don't touch him. I'll call my uncle; he'll make him move," said Jessie,
+moving towards the door.
+
+She was too late; Emily's act had roused the fiery temper of the boy.
+Placing his hands on each side of his chair, he leaned back, and lifting
+up his feet to the edge of the table, kicked it over and sent the tea-set
+crashing to the floor.
+
+"Oh dear! Oh dear! He has broken my nice tea-set all to pieces!" cried
+Jessie, pausing, gazing on the wreck, and bursting into tears.
+
+The crash of the falling tea-things was heard by Uncle Morris. He entered
+the room with a grave face. Charlie still sat on the chair, looking surly
+and wicked at the ruin he had wrought.
+
+"See what Charlie has done, Uncle!" exclaimed Jessie, sobbing. "I wouldn't
+care if it wasn't poor Aunt Lucy's present that he has broken."
+
+Aunt Lucy was dead. She had given this charming little tea-set to Jessie
+only a few weeks before her death.
+
+"How did he do it?" asked Mr. Morris.
+
+"He kicked the table over, Sir, because we wanted him to let Jessie sit in
+her place, and pour out the tea," said Carrie.
+
+Just then Mrs. Carlton, and Mary the waiting-maid, both of whom had heard
+the noise, entered the parlor. Turning to the latter, Mr. Morris said:
+
+"Mary, put that ugly boy to bed!"
+
+Charlie, frightened at Mr. Morris's manner, yielded to this command
+without a word, and was led out of the room.
+
+"I didn't know that so much ugliness could be got into so small a parcel
+before that boy came here. He goes home to-morrow morning, however, and we
+shall all witness his departure, I guess, with very dry eyes," said Mr.
+Morris.
+
+"He needs somebody to weep over him, though, brother," interposed Mrs.
+Carlton, "for otherwise he will grow up into a very wicked and dangerous
+manhood."
+
+"Very true, sister. He is a spoiled child. I must write to sister Hannah
+about him. If rigid training, and the rod of correction, be not soon
+applied to him, he will become a spoiled man."
+
+After telling Mrs. Carlton the cause of this disaster, the girls with her
+aid began to repair the ruin wrought by ugly Charlie. Having replaced the
+table, they picked up the pieces, and were relieved to find that, with the
+exception of the knob of the teapot lid, and the handles of two cups,
+which were off, nothing was broken. Uncle Morris said he had a cement with
+which he could fasten on the knob and the handles. This relieved Jessie
+very much. She smiled, and said:
+
+"Oh, I am so glad! I want to keep that tea-set, for dear Aunt Lucy's
+sake."
+
+Of course the tea was all spilled, and the food scattered over the carpet.
+These, however, were soon replaced from the well-supplied closets of the
+kitchen and dining-room. In half an hour, the table was reset, and the
+three girls were seated, quietly eating their supper.
+
+Did they enjoy their feast? A little, perhaps, but the upsetting of the
+table could not be forgotten. It chilled their spirits, and checked the
+flow of their joy. Thus, as always, did the evil conduct of one
+wrong-doer, act, like a cloud in the path of the sun, on the joy of
+others.
+
+Carrie Sherwood left early in the evening, and Jessie went to her chamber
+with Emily to assist her in packing her trunk, so that she might be ready
+for an early start in the morning. When the last stray article was nicely
+packed, Emily threw herself back in the big arm-chair, and with a
+long-drawn sigh, exclaimed:
+
+"Oh dear!"
+
+"What's the matter?" inquired Jessie.
+
+"Oh! nothing. Only I'm glad I'm going home."
+
+"So am I," was the _thought_ that leaped to Jessie's lips. She was,
+however, too polite to utter it, and too sincere to say she was sorry, so
+she sat still and said nothing.
+
+Several minutes were passed in silence, a very unusual thing, I believe,
+where the company is composed of young ladies. But Jessie did not know
+what to say, and Emily was thinking, and did not wish to say any thing. At
+last she looked up and said:
+
+"Jessie, I'm afraid I haven't behaved well since I came to Glen Morris."
+
+Jessie again thought with Emily, and again her politeness and sincerity
+kept her silent. Emily went on.
+
+"You have been very kind to me and Charlie. I'm sorry we haven't made
+ourselves more agreeable to you."
+
+"Oh! never mind that," said Jessie. "I hope you will come and see me
+again, one of these days."
+
+Emily then went on to tell Jessie about her thoughts and feelings. She had
+not forgotten the advice of Uncle Morris, nor had Jessie's example been
+without its influence over her. True, her old habits of self-will and
+falsehood, had acted the part of tyrants over her. Yet she had been
+secretly wishing to be like Jessie. These wishes, frail as they had proved
+themselves to be, showed that good seed from Jessie's example had been
+sown in her heart. Now that she was about to return home, all her better
+feelings were awake, and she begged forgiveness of her cousin, promising
+to do her best, hereafter, to be a good, truthful, affectionate girl.
+
+All this and much more, she said to Jessie, before they slept that night.
+These confessions and purposes did Emily good. They also cheered Jessie,
+by causing her to hope that after all, she might be to her cousin, what
+Guy had been to Richard Duncan.
+
+The next morning, directly after breakfast, the hack drove up to the door,
+and the cousins were borne away to the depot in care of Mr. Carlton. As
+the carriage left the lawn, Uncle Morris patted his niece on the head, and
+said:
+
+"As vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so are self-willed guests
+to those who entertain them."
+
+"O Uncle Morris!" exclaimed Jessie, with an air of mock gravity, which
+showed that, harsh as her uncle's remark sounded, she felt its justice. In
+fact, the departure of the ungracious cousins was to the inmates of Glen
+Morris, like the flight of the angry storm-cloud to a company of mariners,
+after weary weeks of squalls and tempests.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+The Wizard in the Field Again.
+
+
+"I'm glad they are gone, and yet I'm sorry. Em seemed sorry to go, and she
+cried when I kissed her good-by. I really think Em loves me after all; and
+if it wasn't for that ugly Charlie, she would be a nice girl. But that
+Charlie! Oh dear! I don't think there is another such boy anywhere. I
+don't wonder my uncle compares him to a burr, a sting-nettle, and a
+hedgehog. I'm sure he's been nothing but a plague to everybody, ever since
+he came here. I'm glad _he's_ gone, anyhow. And yet, poor fellow, I pity
+him. He must be miserable himself, or he wouldn't torment everybody else
+so--but I must go to work, I s'pose."
+
+Thus did Jessie talk to herself, after seeing her cousins off. She had
+returned to the parlor, and seated herself in her small rocking-chair. She
+now drew the two pieces of cloth for her uncle's slippers, from her
+work-basket, and after handling them awhile with a languid air, put them
+in her lap, sighed, and said--
+
+"Oh dear! I do wish these slippers were done. This is a hard pattern, and
+it will take me ever so many days to finish it. Heigho! I 'most wish I
+hadn't begun them. Let me see if I have worsted enough to finish them."
+
+Here Jessie leaned over and began to explore the tangled depths of her
+work-basket. It was a complete olio. Old letters, pieces of silk, velvet,
+linen, and woollen, scraps of paper, leaves of books, old cords and rusty
+tassels, spools of cotton, skeins of thread and knots,--in short, almost
+every thing that could by any sort of chance, or mischance, get into a
+young lady's work-basket, was there in rare confusion. Jessie's love of
+order was not very large. Her temper was often sorely tried by the trouble
+which her careless habit caused her when seeking a pair of scissors, or a
+spool of cotton. It was so to-day. She plunged her hand deep into the
+basket, in search of the colored worsteds required for her uncle's
+slippers. After feeling round awhile, she drew forth a tangled mess, which
+she placed on her lap.
+
+"Oh dear!" she said, in a complaining tone; "how these worsteds are
+tangled!"
+
+Nimbly her fingers wrought, however, and very soon the skeins were all
+laid out on her knee.
+
+"Let me see," said she, looking at her pattern; "there are one, two,
+three, four--five--six colors, and I have only one, two, three, four,
+five. Which is missing? Ah, I see: there is no _brown_. Must I hunt that
+basket again? It's a regular jungle--no, not a _jungle_--a jungle is a
+forest, mostly covered with reeds and bushes. This is a, a--a _jumble_.
+Uncle, would call it a basket of confusion. Ha! ha!"
+
+Vainly did Jessie explore her "basket of confusion." In vain did she upset
+its contents upon the floor, and replace them by handfuls. The missing
+skein of brown worsted could not be found. At last, with wearied neck, and
+aching head, she threw herself back in her chair, and said--
+
+"It's no use, there is no brown worsted there. But what's that?"
+
+In leaning back, Jessie's eyes were arrested by a new book which was on
+the mantle. Starting from her chair, she took down the book. It was a
+story-book that Guy had borrowed of his friend Richard Duncan. The
+pictures were beautiful, and Jessie, charmed by the promise of its opening
+pages, gave herself up to the leadings of her excited curiosity, and soon
+forgot all about worsted, slippers, cousins, and uncle. Little Impulse the
+wizard had baited his trap with a choice book, and Jessie was in his power
+again.
+
+"Why, Guy! what brought you home so early?" asked Jessie, more than two
+hours later, when her brother's entrance broke her attention from the
+book.
+
+"Early!" exclaimed Guy, looking at his watch; "do you call fifteen minutes
+past twelve early?"
+
+"Fifteen minutes past twelve!" cried Jessie, in great surprise; "it can't
+be so late: your watch must be wrong, Guy."
+
+"Then the village clock is wrong, for I timed my watch by it as I came
+past," said Guy. "I guess you have been asleep, Sis, and didn't notice how
+time passed."
+
+"Asleep, indeed! do you think I go to sleep in the morning? not I. But
+I've been reading your book, and was just finishing it when you came in.
+It's real interesting," said Jessie.
+
+"Yes, it's a nice book," replied Guy, as he left the room in response to a
+call from Hugh, who was in the hall.
+
+Jessie replaced the book, and sighed as she picked up the worsteds from
+the floor, to think that she had done nothing to the slippers that
+morning. However, as there was yet over half an hour to spare before
+dinner, and as she could go on with her work for the present, without the
+brown worsted, she began plying her needle with right good will.
+
+Presently Uncle Morris came in. He had been out all the morning. Seeing
+his niece so busy, he smiled, and said:
+
+"Busy as the bee, eh, Jessie? Well, it's the working bee that makes the
+honey. Guess the little wizard has lost heart now he has found out that my
+little puss has a strong will to do right, and a strong Friend to help
+her."
+
+Jessie blushed and sighed. She was in what young Duncan would call a
+"tight place." She knew that her uncle was mistaken; that she did not
+deserve his praise, that by being silent she should, of her own accord,
+confirm his mistake and thereby deceive him. And yet, it was hard to
+confess her fault, under the circumstances. "What could Jessie do?"
+
+At first she was silent. Her uncle perceiving by her manner that something
+puzzled and pained her, turned to his chair, and without saying another
+word took up the morning's newspaper and began reading.
+
+The longer Jessie kept up his false impression, the worse she felt. Very
+soon, however, the voice of the Good Spirit within her gained the victory,
+and throwing the slipper into the basket, she rose, saying to herself, "I
+will tell him all about it."
+
+Going to her uncle's side, she threw an arm round his neck, gently drew
+his head towards her and kissed him. Then she smiled through a mist of
+tears, and said:
+
+"Uncle, the little wizard hasn't left Glen Morris, yet."
+
+"Hasn't he?" replied her uncle. "Why, I thought you pricked him so sorely
+with your quilt needle that he had run off to Greenland, or to some other
+distant land to escape your little ladyship's anger, or to woo Miss
+Perseverance to be his bride."
+
+"I wish he had," sighed Jessie; "but I fear he never will go. I wish he
+didn't like Glen Morris so well."
+
+Then the little girl told her uncle how Guy's book had lured her into the
+wizard's power.
+
+"Never mind, my child," said Uncle Morris, patting her head as he spoke,
+"never mind. Never give up. Attack him again with your tiny spear. Resolve
+that you will yet conquer him, as little David did big Goliath, in the
+name of the Lord. A little girl can be what she wills to be, if she only
+wills in the name of Him who is the teacher and the friend of children."
+
+"I'll try, Uncle," said Jessie, with the fire of resolution kindling in
+her eyes.
+
+"Heaven bless you, my child!" said the old man solemnly, as he placed his
+hands softly upon her head. "May you always be as frank and truthful as
+you have now been in confessing a fault to me which you must have been
+very strongly tempted to conceal. May Heaven bless you!"
+
+Didn't Jessie feel glad then! She was glad she had resisted the temptation
+to receive praise she did not merit; glad she had done right; glad her
+uncle was pleased with her. Happy Jessie! Had she by silence deceived her
+uncle, she would have felt guilty and ashamed. Now she was as peaceful and
+hopeful as love and duty could make her.
+
+After dinner, seeing Guy take his cap as if in great haste, Jessie
+followed him to the door and said: "What makes you in such a hurry, every
+day, Guy? You have not stayed to talk to me for ever so long."
+
+"You have had company, you know, Jessie, and haven't wanted me," replied
+Guy, evasively.
+
+"But I have no company to-day," said Jessie. "Come, don't go yet, there's
+a dear, good Guy. Come into the parlor and tell me a story."
+
+"Not now," replied Guy, opening the door. Then after a moment or two of
+silent thought, he shut the door and said, "If you will put on your cloak
+and hood I'll take you with me."
+
+"Oh, good, good!" exclaimed the little girl; and after running to her
+mother for consent, she soon returned fitly equipped for a walk on that
+breezy November afternoon.
+
+It being Wednesday and no school, Guy had the afternoon before him. He led
+his sister towards the village, telling her he was going to take her to
+see a good old lady of whom, he said, he was very fond.
+
+"Who is she? How did you find her out? Does Uncle Morris know her?" were
+among the many questions which Jessie put to her brother. He did not see
+fit to satisfy her, however, except to say, "Her name is Mrs.
+MONEYPENNY."
+
+"Mrs. Moneypenny! What a funny name?" exclaimed Jessie, laughing and
+repeating the name.
+
+"Yes, it is odd; but the lady who bears it, is a noble woman."
+
+"Is she rich?"
+
+"No, she is very poor, very poor indeed."
+
+"Very poor, eh? But how came you to know her?"
+
+"That's my secret."
+
+"A secret! Please tell me about it, Guy?"
+
+"Can't do it, Jessie. You know girls can't keep secrets," replied Guy,
+laughing and looking archly at his sister.
+
+"I can, Guy. Do tell me. I won't tell Hugh, nor Carrie Sherwood, no, nor
+even Uncle Morris, though I can't see why you should keep a secret from
+him."
+
+Just then Guy and his sister were passing some open lots in the village
+street. Several rough boys were standing round a small bonfire which they
+had made out of the dead branches and leaves of trees, which the fall
+winds had scattered over the streets and open lots. As soon as they saw
+Guy, one of them cried in a jeering tone:
+
+"There goes Mrs. Moneypenny's cow-boy!"
+
+"Wonder how much he gets a week," shouted another boy.
+
+"Perhaps he's gwine to be the old lady's heir," said the first.
+
+"Guess he 'spects young Jack Moneypenny's gwine to die, down in the
+Brooklyn hospital, and he wants the old ooman to adopt him. He! he!" said
+a third speaker.
+
+Loud peals of derisive laughter followed these remarks. Guy made no reply,
+but grasping his sister's hand more tightly, he hurried past at a rapid
+walk, and was soon out of hearing.
+
+"Oh! I am so glad we are past those wicked boys," said Jessie, slightly
+shivering with fear. "But what did they call you a cow-boy for, Guy?"
+
+"I suppose I must tell you my secret now," said Guy. "Those boys have
+partly let my cat out of the bag."
+
+Guy then told his sister, that Mrs. Moneypenny was a poor widow, with a
+son named Jack. She rented a cottage and a little piece of land. A cow, a
+few hens, and Jack's labor, were all she had to depend upon. Jack, being a
+steady boy, earned enough to keep them comfortable in their simple way of
+living. But a great misfortune had overtaken them. Jack, while in
+Brooklyn, with a lot of eggs and chickens, which he had taken in to sell,
+had been knocked down and run over by a horse and wagon. His leg was
+broken, and he was carried to the hospital.
+
+This sad news was quickly sent to Jack's mother. Poor old lady! It seemed
+as if her only stay was broken by this disaster. Being lame, she could not
+go to her son, neither could she take care of her cow at home. She was in
+deep distress, and wept many tears over poor Jack's sufferings, and her
+own hard fate.
+
+Guy happened to hear her case talked over at the post-office, the very day
+the news of Jack's misfortune arrived. He heard a gentleman say, that she
+must be sent to the alms-house, though, being a woman of spirit, he feared
+she would break her heart and die, if she was. Full of pity for the old
+lady, Guy went to her, and offered to take care of her cow and hens, as
+long as Jack might be sick.
+
+"It would have melted your heart," said Guy, as he finished his story,
+"had you seen the old lady cry for joy at my offer. She looked so
+thankful, and seemed so much relieved, that I felt as happy as an angel,
+to think that by doing such a little thing as milking and feeding a cow
+for a few weeks, I could shed so much light in the dwelling of a poor, but
+noble woman."
+
+Jessie's eyes swam with tears. She pressed Guy's hand, but spoke not. He
+understood the meaning of that pressure. He knew that in her heart she was
+saying, "My brother did right, and those boys were very wicked for calling
+after him. I love my dear brother better than ever."
+
+While such thoughts as these were passing in Jessie's mind, and Guy was
+feeling the gladness which welled up within him like living water, they
+reached the cottage. Mrs. Moneypenny received them with smiles of welcome.
+She kissed Jessie, and said:
+
+"You look as if you had a heart as kind as your brother's. May Heaven
+bless you both!"
+
+[Illustration: Mrs. Moneypenny Reading Jack's Letter. Page 153.]
+
+Then the old lady began to talk about her "dear Jack." After telling them
+he was "getting along nicely," she read a letter which he made out to
+write in pencil, as he lay bolstered up in his bed. Having finished it,
+the good mother sighed, and said:
+
+"Dear Jack! How I do wish he could be brought home, so that I could take
+care of him myself! There is no nurse like a mother. The poor fellow says
+he wants some more shirts sent him, but I haven't another to send him, nor
+any thing to make him one with. Ah, my children, poverty is not a pleasant
+heritage; but never mind; life is short, and I and my poor Jack will have
+mansions, robes, and riches in the better land. May you, my children, be
+blessed with such treasures both here and hereafter!"
+
+After Guy had "looked to the cow," in the hovel which answered for a barn,
+he and his sister took their leave of the widow.
+
+Jessie walked quietly home, looking very grave, and scarcely speaking a
+word by the way. Once she turned to Guy and asked:
+
+"How large a boy is Jack?"
+
+"About my size," replied Guy.
+
+Jessie had a big thought in her head--I mean a big thought for a little
+girl. If you wish to know what it was, you must consult the next chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+Madge Clifton.
+
+
+When Jessie reached home she threw her hood and cloak carelessly on to the
+floor. The cloak-stand was pretty well filled up, and she was in too much
+haste, to take the pains needed to find a place on the hooks for her
+garments. This was one of her faults. A new impulse had seized her, and
+she thought of nothing else. Bounding into her mother's room, she said:
+
+"Mother, will you let me make two shirts for poor Jack Moneypenny?"
+
+Mrs. Carlton looked up from her work, and after a moment's glance at the
+eager face of her daughter, asked:
+
+"Who is Jack Moneypenny, my dear?"
+
+Jessie, in her eagerness to carry her point, had forgotten to ask if her
+mother knew any thing of the widow, or her son, Jack. This question
+checked her ardor a little, and she told the story of the widow's
+misfortune. Just as she was finishing her tale, however, she thought of
+Guy's wish to keep his part in the affair a secret. So blushing deeply,
+she added:
+
+"Oh dear! what will Guy say? I promised to keep it all secret, and now I
+have told all about it. He said girls couldn't keep a secret, and I
+believe he is right. What shall I do, Mother?"
+
+"Why tell him that you have told me, to be sure. Guy has no secrets with
+his mother, and I am sure he does not wish his sister to have any."
+
+"Has Guy told you about it, then?"
+
+"Yes, he told me all his plans from the first. Guy never conceals any
+thing from his mother."
+
+"What made you ask me who Jack Moneypenny was, then, Ma, if you knew
+before?"
+
+"Only to teach my Jessie, that she ought to be less abrupt in her manners.
+You should have stated your case first, and then have asked me your
+question."
+
+"So I should, Ma," said Jessie, musing a few moments, and gazing on her
+foot, as she traced the outline of the carpet-pattern with it. Then
+smiling, she looked up, and added, "but you know, Mamma, it is my way, to
+speak first, and think afterwards."
+
+"Not a very wise way, either," said Mrs. Carlton; "but about those shirts,
+why do you wish to make them?"
+
+Jessie told her mother about Jack's letter, and what the widow had said.
+
+"Well," replied Mrs. Carlton; "I will give you the cloth, and cut out the
+shirts, if you really wish to make them."
+
+"I do, Mother, very much wish to do it. Only think how glad the widow will
+be, and how comfortable the shirts will make the poor sick boy, in that
+horrid hospital."
+
+"Very true, my dear, but how about your uncle's slippers, and cushion, and
+watch-pocket?"
+
+A blush tinged Jessie's cheek again. The little wizard had once more
+hurried her into a new plan before her old ones had been worked out.
+Plainly she could not help poor Jack and keep her former resolution, not
+to be turned aside from finishing her gifts for Uncle Morris. She was
+fairly puzzled. It was right to make shirts for a poor boy. It was right
+to keep her purposes too. Yet she could not do both. But did not the boy
+need the shirts, more than Uncle Morris did his slippers? Would not her
+uncle be willing to wait? No doubt he would, but then her promise to
+finish the slippers before beginning any thing else, was part of a plan
+for conquering a bad habit. Would it be right to depart from that plan?
+
+Such were the questions which floated like unpleasant dreams through
+Jessie's mind as she sat with her hands on the back of a chair-seat,
+knocking her heels against the floor. Her mother, though she allowed her
+to think awhile in silence, read her thoughts in the workings of her face.
+When Jessie seemed to be lost in the fog of her own thoughts, Mrs. Carlton
+came to her aid, and said:
+
+"Jessie."
+
+"Yes, Ma."
+
+"I have been thinking that poor Jack needs those shirts directly, and that
+you could not make him a pair in less than two, perhaps in not less than
+three weeks. So I don't see how you can help him out of his present
+trouble."
+
+Jessie sighed, and said, "I didn't think of that."
+
+"Well, I have a plan to propose. I will send him two of Guy's shirts
+to-morrow, and you shall make two new ones for Guy, at your leisure."
+
+"What a dear, good, nice mother you are," cried Jessie, running to Mrs.
+Carlton, and giving her more kisses than I am able to count.
+
+Thus did a mother's love find a key with which to unlock Jessie's puzzle,
+and to enable her to help poor Jack, without breaking her purpose to
+finish Uncle Morris's things, and thereby drive that plague of her life,
+the little wizard, away from Glen Morris.
+
+"I will work ever so hard, see if I don't, Ma," said she, as she patted
+her mother's cheek. "I will finish the slippers, and get the shirts done,
+too, before Christmas. Don't you think I can?"
+
+"You _can_, I have no doubt, if you try my dear."
+
+"Well, I'll _try_ then. I'll join Guy's famous Try Company, and will try
+and try, and try again, until I fairly succeed."
+
+Mrs. Carlton kissed her daughter affectionately; after which the now
+light-hearted girl bounded out of the room, singing--
+
+                "If you find your case is hard,
+                              Try, try, try again.
+                Time will bring you your reward,
+                                  Try, try, try again.
+                All that other people do,
+                Why with patience should not you?
+                Only keep this rule in view,
+                                  Try, try, try again."
+
+"That's it! That's it, my little puss," said Uncle Morris, who was in the
+parlor which Jessie entered singing her joyous roundelay. "Corporal Try is
+a little fellow, but he has helped do all the great things that have ever
+been done. There is nothing good or great which he cannot do. He will help
+a little girl learn to darn her own stocking, or make a quilt for her old
+uncle; and he will help men build big steamships, construct railroads over
+the desert, or lay a telegraph wire under the waters of the ocean. Oh, a
+great little man is Corporal Try!"
+
+"I know it," replied Jessie, "and I've joined his company; so if you meet
+little Impulse the wizard, please tell him not to come here again unless
+he wishes to be beaten with a big club called good resolution."
+
+"Bravely spoken, Lady Jessie! May you never desert the Corporal's colors!
+Above all, may you always obtain grace from above whereby to conquer
+yourself, which is the grandest deed you can possibly perform."
+
+Jessie sat down to her work-basket, and took up one of the pieces of cloth
+for her uncle's slippers. But as it was now late in the afternoon of a
+dull November day, she could not see to embroider very well. So she
+thought she would go out again and buy the brown worsted which was needed
+in working out the figure on the slippers. Going to the window first, she
+noticed that the sky looked cold and bleak. The wind, too, was whistling
+mournfully among the branches of the trees, and round the corners of the
+house. It was evidently going to be a cold night. Turning from the window
+again, she said to her brother Hugh, who was sitting very cosily in a
+large arm-chair before the glowing fire in the grate:
+
+"Please, Hugh, will you run down to the village with me? I want to get
+some worsted at Mrs. Horton's."
+
+"Why didn't you get it this afternoon?" asked Hugh in his usual grumpy way
+when asked to do any thing.
+
+"I didn't think of it."
+
+"Didn't think of it, eh? Well, I don't think I shall be your lackey this
+cold afternoon. I'd rather sit here and keep my toes warm."
+
+"Do go, dear Hugh, please do!" said Jessie in her mellowest tones. "I
+shall want the worsted to-morrow morning."
+
+"Oh, go to Greenwich! You are always wanting something. Girls want a
+mighty sight of waiting on. I won't go."
+
+Jessie turned away from her ungracious brother wishing, as she had so
+often done, that he "was more like Guy." Had it been a little earlier in
+the afternoon, she would have gone alone; but as it was nearly dark she
+preferred company.
+
+"Oh dear!" sighed she, "what shall I do? I wish Guy was in."
+
+"Perhaps you would accept an old man's company," said her uncle, rising
+and buttoning up his coat.
+
+"I should be very, very glad to have it, but I don't want to trouble you,
+Uncle," she replied.
+
+"It's no trouble to go out with my little puss. Besides, by going, I can
+give this drone-like brother of yours a practical lesson in that love and
+politeness which he so much despises. I shall certainly be happier going
+with you, than he will be in the indulgence of his selfishness before the
+fire."
+
+Hugh said something in a grumbling tone which neither his uncle nor sister
+understood.
+
+In a few minutes the good old man, having firm hold of Jessie's hand, was
+breasting the cold wind as they walked smartly along the frozen road
+leading to the village.
+
+"You will have a chance to try your new skates to-morrow if it is as cold
+as this all night," said Mr. Morris, as they crossed the bridge over the
+brook.
+
+"Won't that be nice?" replied Jessie; "Carrie Sherwood has a pair too, and
+we will both try together. I guess I shall get some bumps though before I
+learn to skate well. I wish we had some one to teach us how to use them."
+
+"What will you give me, if I consent to be your teacher?"
+
+"Oh, Uncle Morris! You don't mean it, do you?"
+
+"To be sure I do. When I was young they called me the best skater in town.
+I could go through all kinds of movements, and even cut my name on the ice
+with my skates. I guess I haven't quite forgotten how I used to do it. But
+what will you give me if I consent to teach you?"
+
+"I will love you ever so much, and so will Carrie."
+
+"But I thought you loved me ever so much already?"
+
+"Well, so I do, Uncle. I love you better than I love anybody in the world,
+except ma and pa. But I will love you better and better."
+
+"That's pay enough," said Mr. Morris, warmly pressing the hand of his
+niece. "The pure fresh love of a child's heart is worth more to an old man
+like me than much gold. It makes my heart grow young again--but what have
+we here?"
+
+They had now reached a stone wall which fronted the estate of Esquire
+Duncan. An angle in the fence had made a corner, in which was seated a
+girl of about Jessie's age and size. She was clothed in rags; her feet
+were bare. She had no covering on her head save her tangled hair. Her face
+and arms were brown and dirty. She shivered in the piercing wind, and
+traces of recent tears were visible in the dirt which covered her woe-worn
+face.
+
+"Poor little girl! I wonder where she lives?" exclaimed Jessie.
+
+"Where do you live, my dear?" asked Mr. Morris, addressing the child.
+
+"New York," replied the outcast curtly.
+
+"How came you here?"
+
+"Mother left me down yonder," said the girl, pointing to the four
+cross-roads just beyond.
+
+"Where is your mother now?"
+
+"Don't know."
+
+"What did she say when she left you?"
+
+"She told me to sit on the trough of the pump while she went to buy some
+bread. But she didn't come back, and I came over here out of the wind."
+
+"How long since she left you?"
+
+"Ever so long."
+
+"Poor little girl! I'm afraid your mother brought you out here to cast you
+off, and so get rid of you," said Uncle Morris.
+
+"Guess not! Guess she got drunk somewhere," said the girl, in a manner so
+cold and dogged that Mr. Morris shuddered.
+
+Here, Jessie, whose eyes were swimming with tears, pulled her uncle's
+hand. Taking him a little aside, she said--
+
+"Please, Uncle, take her home, and let me give her something to eat."
+
+"Better take her to the alms-house, I'm thinking," replied her uncle. "She
+may be a wicked girl."
+
+"Then we can teach her to be good," said Jessie.
+
+This was a home thrust that went right to the good old man's heart. "The
+alms-house," he thought, "is not a very likely place to grow goodness in.
+It is too chilly and heartless. There will be little sympathy there with
+the struggles and sorrows of a child like this; Jessie shall have her way
+this time. She shall go with us."
+
+After forming this purpose, he looked at his niece, and said--
+
+"Perhaps you are right, Jessie. The poor creature shall go home with us,
+at least, for to-night."
+
+"Oh, I am _so_ glad, I'm _so_ glad," cried Jessie, clapping her hands,
+then running to the shivering child, who had been watching them during
+this conversation with a puzzled air, she said--
+
+"Come, little girl, you are to go home with me. Uncle says so."
+
+"I don't want to. I'll wait here for mother," replied the girl, shrinking
+back into her corner, against the rough stone wall.
+
+"My child," said Mr. Morris, "I fear your mother has left you here on
+purpose, and that she will never come back. If she is in the place, you
+shall go to her as soon as we can find her. If you stay here you will
+freeze. Come with us and we will give you a supper, and let you warm
+yourself before a rousing fire, while we search for your mother."
+
+The idea of supper and a rousing fire took hold of the little outcast's
+feelings. Gathering her rags close to her chilled body she stepped
+forward, and said--
+
+"I'll go with you."
+
+"What is your name?" inquired Jessie.
+
+"Madge!" said the child, curtly.
+
+"Madge what?" asked Uncle Morris.
+
+"Madge Clifton!" said the child.
+
+"Which means, I suppose, Margaret Clifton," said the old gentleman. "A
+pretty name enough, and I wish its owner was in a prettier condition. But
+come, let us hasten out of this cold biting wind."
+
+Poor little, shivering Madge! Waiting so long for her mother, alone and in
+a strange place, had made her heart heavy and sad. Her limbs were so stiff
+with cold she could scarcely walk, at first. But the kind looks of the
+good old gentleman, and the loving words of Jessie, cheered her on; and in
+a few minutes they entered the back door of Glen Morris Cottage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+Madge Clifton's Mother.
+
+
+"What have you here, my brother?" asked Mrs. Carlton, as, in response to a
+message from Mr. Morris, she entered the kitchen, where poor Madge sat on
+a cricket before the range, looking, as Jessie afterwards said, "like a
+cat in a strange garret."
+
+"She's a heap o' rags and dirt, mem," interposed the servant, who did not
+fancy the introduction of such an unsightly object into her prim-looking
+dominions.
+
+"She is a poor, starving, and half-frozen girl, without any kind mother to
+take care of her and love her," said Jessie, who feared, from her mother's
+looks, that poor Madge was as unwelcome a guest to her, as she was to the
+kitchen-maid.
+
+"She is a poor, little human waif, which has floated to our door on a sea
+of trouble and misfortune, sister," observed Mr. Morris. "If _opportunity_
+is the gate of _duty_, then we owe it to this little girl, and to the
+Great Father who sent her to our doors, to relieve her wants, and if needs
+be, provide for her in future."
+
+This view of her relation to poor little Madge, somewhat softened Mrs.
+Carlton's feelings. She was a very kind woman--in fact, she was nearly all
+_heart_--but she was fastidiously neat. Madge's dirt and rags had repelled
+her at first sight; had shut out from her thoughts, for the moment, the
+recollection, that within that covering of filthy rags, there sat a human
+creature, which, had it been loved, and taught, and trained as her own
+child had been, might have been as loving, and as attractive as she. Her
+brother's remark brought this view of Madge's case before her, but did not
+wholly divest her of her first feelings. Jessie's instincts led her to see
+that her mother was not quite prepared to take the outcast girl to her
+affections, and trembling for the result, she followed up her uncle's
+plea, by saying:
+
+"We found her cold and hungry, sitting under a stone wall, waiting for her
+mother, who has run away from her. If we had not brought her home, she
+would have frozen to death before morning. Wouldn't that have been
+terrible, Ma?"
+
+"Poor thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton, her sympathy being now fully
+aroused, "but, Brother, why did you not take her to the alms-house, where
+they have the means of cleansing and clothing such unhappy outcasts?"
+
+"Perhaps it would have been more prudent, my sister, to have done so; but
+I took counsel of your child's heart, and not of my own prudence. This is
+Jessie's _protege_. When she pleaded in her behalf, I thought I would do
+for Madge, what I and you would wish another to do for Jessie, should she
+ever, by any sad reverse of fortune, become an outcast child."
+
+"Halloo, what little dolly mop have you got here?" cried Hugh, who, at
+this juncture, bounded into the kitchen to see what was going on.
+
+"Poor little creature! She has had a hard road to travel, thus far, I
+guess," said Guy, who accompanied his brother. Hugh looked at the child's
+appearance only. Guy, like his uncle and Jessie, viewed her as a human
+being in distress.
+
+All this time, the object of these comments, stared strangely about,
+looking, now at the things around her, and then into the faces of the
+different persons in the group. At first, she seemed indifferent to their
+remarks. But when Hugh called her a little dollymop, her large, black eyes
+flashed angrily upon him. Guy's kind words and tones disarmed her,
+however, and a pearl-like tear rolled down her cheeks.
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Carlton, with a sigh of resignation to circumstances,
+"the poor thing is here, and must be cared for." Then turning to the
+servant, she added, "Take the poor child into the bath-room. Give her a
+thorough cleansing and combing, while I look out some of Jessie's clothes
+for her. Take those rags she has on, and throw them on the dirt heap!"
+
+The party in the kitchen now broke up. Uncle Morris, the boys, and Jessie,
+went into the parlor, where they found Mr. Carlton, who had just returned
+from the city. He approved of what Uncle Morris had done, but thought it
+best to inquire, at once, for Madge's mother at the village tavern. As
+there was yet an hour to spare before tea, he took Guy, and started in
+pursuit of the heartless mother.
+
+Where was she? After leaving Madge at the pump, she had gone to the
+tavern, and purchased some gin. After drinking a large glass of the fiery
+liquor, she put down the glass and the money, looking so ravenously at the
+sparkling decanter, that the landlord feared she was going crazy. Reaching
+her skinny fingers out towards the bottle, she said, in a screeching
+voice: "Give me another glass!"
+
+Hardly knowing what he was about, the landlord filled her glass a second
+time. She swallowed its contents at a single gulp, and demanded more.
+Alarmed at her manner the man refused. Then her anger awoke. She poured
+forth a volley of strange and fearful words. The passers-by came in to see
+what was the matter. To be rid of her tongue and to save the reputation of
+his house, as he said, the landlord called in his stable-boys, and they
+hurled her into the street.
+
+There she drew upon herself the attention of Jem Townsend and the crew of
+idle boys which usually accompanied him. They gathered round the unhappy
+woman, as she sat on the edge of the curb-stone cursing the tavern-keeper,
+and began to tease her.
+
+"Fuddled, eh?" said Jem Townsend, laughing. Then he added, "What do you do
+here, Lady Ginswiller? Rather a cold seat this for a lady, eh? Better walk
+into old Bottlenose's best parlor, hadn't ye?"
+
+Upon this the poor maudlin creature cursed louder than ever. The wicked
+urchins laughed and hooted in turn, until she rose in a fit of passion and
+pursued them.
+
+The boys ran down the village street, pausing now and then to quicken her
+rage by some biting words. And thus they led her at last to the vicinity
+of a low grocery. Drawn by the scent of rum, like the vulture to its
+quarry, she staggered into the grocery, laid down her last sixpence on the
+bar, and muttered, "Give me a drink of rum."
+
+It was given her. She drank the wretched stuff, and reeling to the
+door-step, fell down insensibly drunk. What a spectacle of pity! And yet
+that poor, pitiable creature had once been a fair and lovely girl, as full
+of life and hope as she was of health and beauty. But now, alas, how
+fallen! What had done it? The wine cup, used in circles of fashion, began
+the work of ruin. Rum and gin were doing their best to finish it.
+
+Finding they could not rouse her, the boys ran off to Mr. Tipstaff, the
+constable, and told him about her. That worthy repaired to the spot. Aided
+by one or two others he dragged her to a magistrate's office; and he sent
+her to jail as a common vagrant.
+
+These facts were all told to Mr. Carlton and Guy by the landlord of the
+hotel, who painted the poor woman in very dark colors. After calling on
+the magistrate and requesting that the prisoner might be detained the next
+day until it was ascertained certainly that she was Madge's mother, he and
+Guy returned home with sad hearts. They talked the matter over as they
+walked. Among other questions, Guy asked:
+
+"Do _many_ women become drunkards, Pa?"
+
+"Yes, a great many; though drunken women are not so common as drunken men,
+by far."
+
+"It always makes me feel bad to see a tipsy man; but when I once saw a
+tipsy _woman_ in New York, it made me shudder. How do _women_ learn to
+drink, Pa? They don't go to the tavern like men, do they?"
+
+"Not at first, Guy. Usually they begin at home, or at parties, or when
+stopping at the great hotels, where wine is drunk at the dinner-table. In
+many families, also, wine is used at the table, and fathers and mothers
+teach their daughters to drink it as a daily beverage. But generally, I
+believe, ladies begin their habit of drinking wine at parties, taking it,
+at first, not from choice, but because they don't like to be thought
+singular."
+
+"But I don't see how drinking a little wine at a party can teach a lady to
+be a drunkard, Pa," remarked Guy.
+
+"It does not do so, my son, in every case. But too often a lady will
+acquire an appetite for wine, which gradually grows stronger and stronger
+until she cannot control it. This appetite is not awakened in all who
+drink, but it _may_ be. Hence, it is better for all, boys, girls, men, and
+women, not to touch the drink that is in the drunkard's bowl."
+
+"So I think, Pa," said Guy, "and therefore, I mean to be a tee-totaler as
+long as I live."
+
+"That's right, my son. It is always best to keep as far from a dangerous
+place as possible."
+
+When Mr. Carlton and Guy reached home, tea was ready, and they went at
+once to the cheerful table. Jessie could scarcely wait while the blessing
+was asked, so impatient was she to know if Madge's mother had been found.
+As soon, therefore, as Uncle Morris ceased speaking, she broke forth and
+said:
+
+"O Pa! you don't know how nice Madge will look when she is washed and
+dressed. Please tell me if you have seen her mother?"
+
+"No, I have not _seen_ her," replied her father, smiling.
+
+Jessie's face brightened. She had been fearing that Madge would have to go
+away if her mother was found. Looking archly at her father, she said--
+
+"I'm _so_ glad. _Now_ poor Madge can stay here!"
+
+"Why, Jessie, you surprise me," said Mrs. Carlton. "Is it any thing to be
+glad about, that a little girl has lost her mother?"
+
+With a blush mantling her cheek: the little girl exclaimed--
+
+"Her mother is a wicked woman, Ma, and don't make her happy, nor teach her
+to be good. If Madge has lost her, and you let her live with us and be a
+mother to her, she will be a good deal better off, and much happier than
+she could be with her own mother."
+
+"Spoken like a philosopher!" exclaimed Uncle Morris. "The loss of a
+drunken mother is not, indeed, a thing to mourn over, especially if that
+loss brings with it the gain of a home in which Love is the perpetual
+President--but I suspect from your pa's looks that Madge's mother is not
+wholly lost, yet."
+
+"_Why!_ didn't pa say he couldn't find her?" said Jessie, looking with a
+puzzled air at her father.
+
+"Not exactly, my dear," replied Mr. Carlton. "I said I had not _seen_ her,
+which is true; but I have _heard_ of her, as I suppose; for a strange
+woman did go to the tavern about the time Madge was left, and is now in
+jail as a drunken vagrant."
+
+"Oh, how shocking!" exclaimed Jessie.
+
+Mr. Carlton now told all he had heard about the supposed Mrs. Clifton, and
+it was agreed that Uncle Morris should see her in the morning and learn if
+she was, indeed, the poor child's mother.
+
+After tea, Jessie hurried to the kitchen to look after her _protege_. She
+found her so changed by her washing and new dress, that notwithstanding
+her high expectations, she could hardly believe her to be the same Madge
+she had seen sitting there an hour before. But Madge it was, as bright and
+good-looking a girl as could be found anywhere, in or out of Duncanville.
+
+"Have you had enough to eat, Madge?" inquired Jessie, scarcely knowing how
+to act the part of an agreeable hostess.
+
+"Indade, miss, but she has eaten more like a hungry pig than a gal," said
+Mary, before Madge had time to reply.
+
+Jessie could not keep from laughing at Mary's not very complimentary
+comparison. Hence, she turned her head so as not to hurt the little girl's
+feelings. As soon as she could make her face straight and sober again, she
+sat down beside Madge, and taking her hand, said--
+
+"Would you like to see my doll?"
+
+But Madge had other and higher thoughts than of dolls or playthings. She
+was in a sort of wonder-world. She could not satisfy herself with regard
+to the meaning of the change brought about in her during the last hour or
+two. That pleasant kitchen, the neat dress she wore, the bath by which she
+had been cleansed from the filth of poverty, the pleasant faces she had
+seen, and the kind voices she had heard, all seemed to her like a gay
+dream, and she was expecting, ay, and fearing too, that the next minute
+she should awake and find herself sitting and shivering in the cold wind,
+under the stone wall, waiting for her ungentle mother. But when Jessie
+touched her hand and spoke so kindly to her, every thing seemed real, and
+her heart sent up gushes of gratitude to the little friend who, like some
+good fairy, had conjured away her rags, and pain, and cold, and hunger.
+After gazing silently into Jessie's eyes a few moments, as if she was
+trying to look into her soul, she said--
+
+"Little girl, will you let me love you?"
+
+"To be sure I will, and I will love _you_ too," replied Jessie, in tones
+that seemed like angel's music to the little outcast, whose ears had long
+been unfamiliar with loving words.
+
+Then Jessie threw an arm round Madge and pressing her to her bosom, gave
+her a kiss. Oh, how warmly did the outcast girl return it! She clung to
+Jessie as the wild vine does to the supporting branch, and embraced her
+with an ardor which told more eloquently than words could utter it, how
+grateful she was for the love which Jessie had offered her.
+
+When Madge withdrew her arms from Jessie, she sat back in her chair and
+gazed at her long and silently. After a time the tears filled her eyes,
+and in broken accents she asked--
+
+"Does any one know where my mother is?"
+
+Jessie told her she was probably in the village, and that she would, most
+likely, see her in the morning. Madge begged hard to be taken to her that
+night, but was finally persuaded to wait until the morrow.
+
+"That child has a great deal of _heart_," said Uncle Morris, after hearing
+Jessie's account of her interview with Madge. "We must do what we can to
+rescue her from the influence of her drunken mother."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+Little Impulse beaten again.
+
+
+After breakfast the next morning, Jessie sat down to her work with a
+resolute will. Her _impulse_, was to spend the hours playing with Madge.
+But her purpose to act by rule was strong, and it conquered. Guy went out
+for the brown worsted, which her meeting with Madge, kept her from buying
+the previous evening. So giving her _protege_ a seat on a cricket by her
+side, she worked merrily, and with nimble fingers, on her uncle's
+slippers. The tongues of the two girls, you may be sure, were as nimble as
+Jessie's fingers.
+
+While they were thus happily employed, Uncle Morris was out, looking after
+the young outcast's mother.
+
+Jessie had not been seated more than an hour before her brother Hugh, with
+his friend, Walter Sherwood and his sister Carrie, came in, each armed
+with a pair of skates, and well wrapped up, as was fitting they should be,
+on a cold day in November. Carrie bounded into the room like a fawn, and
+kissing her friend, exclaimed:
+
+"O Jessie! this is a capital morning for skating! Walter has found a nice
+safe place, and we have come to take you with us."
+
+This was a strong temptation. Perhaps a stronger could not have been
+offered, to incline her to break her purpose, and drop her work. There had
+been no day since her skates had been given her, in which there had been
+ice enough to try them. It was a new amusement, too, and her heart was set
+upon it. Hence, an impulse came over her, to pitch the slipper into the
+basket, seize her skates, and hurry away to the desired spot. In fact, she
+half rose from the chair, and words of consent were rising to her lips,
+when she thought of the little wizard, and reseating herself, replied:
+
+"I would like to go ever so much, Carrie, but I must stay in until
+dinner-time, and work on uncle's slippers."
+
+"Bother the slippers! Who cares about them! Uncle don't need them, and why
+should you be fussing over them," said Hugh.
+
+"It's very pleasant to work for your good old uncle, I dare say, Miss
+Jessie, but you can do that in the afternoon. We very much wish you to
+join our party this morning," observed Walter.
+
+"I know I _could_," replied Jessie; "but mother wishes me to sew or study
+every morning until dinner-time, and I have resolved to do it. I have
+broken my purpose a great many times, but I _must_ keep it now, much as I
+want to go out skating. Can't you put off your party until the
+afternoon?"
+
+"Not a bit of it!" said Hugh. "Come Walt, come Carrie, let us be off."
+
+"I think I will stay with Jessie this morning," replied Carrie; "and I
+invite you, young gentlemen, to beau us to the skating-ground, this
+afternoon!"
+
+"If you won't go now, you may beau yourselves for all we," retorted Hugh
+in his usual ungracious way, when treating with his sister.
+
+"Don't say _so_, Hugh," responded Walter. "It's hardly polite. 'Spose you
+and I go without the girls this morning, and _with_ them this afternoon?
+Eh?"
+
+"As you please!" growled Hugh, swinging his skates; "only let us be off
+quick."
+
+The boys now left, promising to go with the girls at half-past two in the
+afternoon. Carrie laid aside her hood and cloak, which Jessie took, and
+laid in a heap upon the table.
+
+"My dear!" observed Mrs. Carlton, who looked into the room just at that
+moment; "is _that_ the place for Carrie's things?"
+
+A blush tinged Jessie's cheek. As I have said before, a want of regard for
+order, was a fault which grew out of her impulsive nature. She did most
+things in a hurry, and usually with some other object before her mind at
+the same time. While her uncle had been trying to cure her of the habit of
+yielding to her impulses, her mother had also been endeavoring to
+stimulate her to cultivate a love of order. No wonder, then, that she
+blushed as she went to hang her friend's hood and cloak on the stand in
+the hall.
+
+All this time, poor Madge had sat almost unnoticed. So taken up were they
+all with their skating party, that they had overlooked the quiet maiden,
+sitting so demurely on her cricket. But now the boys were gone, and the
+two friends took their seats, Jessie's thoughts came back to the young
+outcast, and turning to Carrie, she said:
+
+"Carrie, let me introduce you to Madge Clifton."
+
+"How do you do, miss?" said Carrie, bowing.
+
+Poor Madge did not know much about introductions, and was unused to
+company. So she only blushed, hung down her head, and replied:
+
+"Pretty well, thank ye."
+
+Jessie now took Carrie aside, and in whispers told her poor Madge's story,
+after which they resumed their seats. Carrie's warm heart soon melted away
+the poor outcast's fears; and while the two young ladies were merrily
+prattling away, Madge listened with wonder if not with delight. In fact,
+her life since last evening seemed more like a dream than a reality to
+her. She was still in fairy-land.
+
+Presently the postman came to the house bringing a letter addressed to
+"Miss Jessie Carlton." The servant took it to Jessie on a small salver.
+
+"Is it for me?" cried Jessie, taking it up and examining the address.
+
+"Whom can it be from?" asked Carrie, leaning over to her friend's side to
+see the handwriting.
+
+"Oh, I know!" exclaimed Jessie. "It's from cousin Emily."
+
+The letter was opened, and Jessie read aloud as follows:
+
+                               MORRISTOWN, N. J., November 18, 18--.
+
+  MY DEAR JESSIE:
+
+  I got home nicely from your house. Ma was very glad to see us, and so
+  was pa. Charlie said he was glad to get home. I was some glad and
+  some sorry. It was pleasant to see pa and ma again, but I missed you,
+  oh! ever so much! When I went up to my room that night, I sat down
+  and cried. I thought over all the naughty things I had said and done
+  to you while I was at Glen Morris, until it seemed to me I was the
+  most wicked girl in the world. I thought of you and of dear Uncle
+  Morris and his good advice, until my heart seemed broken. Then I
+  kneeled down and asked God to make me a good girl like you. I begin
+  to believe he will, for I have been trying hard to be good ever
+  since. Mother says I am a very good girl already; but she don't know
+  what passes in my thoughts, nor how hard I have to strive to keep
+  down my ugly, wicked temper. Charlie is not quite so wicked as he
+  was, either, and I am trying to make him a good boy. I wish you would
+  come to Morristown and make me a good long visit. With much love to
+  yourself, and your good Ma, Pa, and Uncle Morris, I am
+
+                                           Your affectionate cousin,
+                                                       EMILY MORRIS.
+                                             TO MISS JESSIE CARLTON.
+
+"What a beautiful letter!" said Carrie. Jessie was silent. She was
+thinking. She was secretly rejoicing, too. Such a joy was in her young
+heart as had never welled up in it before. She had done Emily good. As Guy
+had led Richard Duncan into right paths, so she had led Emily. Happy,
+happy Jessie!
+
+Just then she heard Uncle Morris's night-key lifting the latch of the hall
+door. Away she bounded from her seat, almost overturning poor Madge in her
+hurry. Rushing to her uncle as he was closing the door, she seized his arm
+with one hand while she held up Emily's letter in the other, and in a
+loud, earnest whisper, said:
+
+"O Uncle! Cousin Emily is trying to be good. She says so in her letter."
+
+Uncle Morris stooped to imprint a kiss on the upturned lips of the eager
+child. Then patting her head gently, he said:
+
+"It is not every sower of good seed that finds his harvest sheaf so
+quickly as you have done. Perhaps the Great Husbandman has given my Jessie
+hers to encourage her to sow, and sow, and sow again--but Jessie, I have
+found your Madge's mother."
+
+"Have you, _truly_?" asked Jessie, feeling her interest suddenly revived
+in her _protege_.
+
+"Yes. Come with me to your mother's room and I will tell you all about
+it."
+
+This "mother's room" was up-stairs, and up they went. Finding Mrs. Carlton
+there with her seamstress, they sat down, and Uncle Morris told his story.
+Said he:
+
+"I have seen Mrs. Clifton. She is sober this morning, and is quite a
+well-bred, intelligent woman. She has been respectable; was well married
+to a reputable man. But foolishly forsaking their quiet country home, they
+went to the city in the hope of acquiring property. There her husband,
+failing to get work, took to drinking and died. Mrs. Clifton buried him,
+and, dreading to go back to her old home because of poverty, tried to
+support herself by needle-work. In an evil hour she took to drinking;
+first as a stimulant to labor, and then as a cordial to soothe her griefs.
+Of course she soon sank very low, and made poor Madge go out to beg. At
+last, stung with remorse, she resolved to quit the city, and, seeking work
+in the country, become a sober woman again. Filled with this purpose she
+travelled as far as Duncanville with her child, when her appetite for
+drink came upon her. Leaving Madge at the Four Corners she sought the
+tavern. The rest you know. _We_ found the child, and _she_ spent the night
+in the lock-up."
+
+"Poor thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton.
+
+"Poor little Madge!" cried Jessie, who very naturally felt more for the
+unfortunate child, than for the unhappy, but guilty mother.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Morris, "but pity alone won't do them much good. The
+question is, what shall be done with them?"
+
+"True," rejoined Mrs. Carlton, "but are you sure the woman's story is
+true?"
+
+"It agrees with the account Madge gave of herself, so far as the affair of
+last evening is concerned. Being true in _one_ thing, I hope it is in all.
+She has, however, given me references to her old friends in the country,
+and professes to be very anxious to live a reformed life. I will write to
+her friends, but, meanwhile, what shall we do with her?"
+
+"Let her come here, and stay with Madge?" suggested Jessie.
+
+Mrs. Carlton looked at her brother, and read in his eyes an approval of
+her daughter's suggestion.
+
+"Be it so," said she, "if you think best. I can keep her busy with her
+needle, until we hear from her friends, and something offers. Perhaps a
+few days spent in our quiet home, will confirm her in her feeble purposes
+to reenter the way of sobriety."
+
+"Spoken just like yourself!" said Mr. Morris, with an expression which
+showed how greatly he loved and admired his sister. "I will go after the
+poor creature directly."
+
+"Oh, I'm _so_ glad Madge's mother is coming here to live!" cried Jessie,
+clapping her hands, and running down-stairs to tell the good news to her
+_protege_.
+
+The outcast child looked a gratitude she did not know how to express,
+after hearing what Jessie had to say. She fixed her large, black eyes,
+swimming in tears, upon her friendly hostess, and silently watched her
+every motion.
+
+"I think it's very kind of your mother, to take a stranger into her house
+so," whispered Carrie.
+
+"So it is," replied Jessie, who was now busy with her embroidery on the
+slipper. "So it is, but my Uncle Morris says that it is godlike to be
+kind, and that if we are kind and loving to poor people, the great God
+will honor us, and care for us."
+
+Carrie looked at the sweet face of Jessie with admiration for some time,
+without saying a word. At last, to break the silence, she said:
+
+"Won't we have a good time, skating this afternoon?"
+
+"I hope so," said Jessie; "and we will take Madge with us, shall we?"
+
+"Can you skate, Madge?" asked Carrie.
+
+Madge shook her head. The child was nervous and uneasy about the coming of
+her mother. She was afraid she might come to the house tipsy, and so
+offend the friends who loved her so well.
+
+"Can you _slide_ on the ice?" asked Jessie.
+
+"Yes, ma'am," replied Madge, evidently getting to be more and more
+absent-minded.
+
+"She is thinking about her mother," whispered Carrie.
+
+"Yes, don't let us trouble her," replied Jessie.
+
+Quickly sped the bright needle, with its beautiful worsteds, along the
+slipper, and quickly grew into shape the flowers which were to form the
+pattern. A happy heart and a resolute will, make her fingers both nimble
+and skilful.
+
+By and by, Uncle Morris's night-key was heard opening the door-latch
+again. Jessie started, listened a moment, then dropped her work, and
+taking Madge's hand, said:
+
+"Your mother is come!"
+
+"Where is she?" asked the child, looking anxiously toward the door.
+
+"Come with me, I'll show you," said Jessie, taking her by the hand.
+
+They went into the hall. Uncle Morris was there, and so was Mrs. Clifton.
+She was a short, slender, well-formed woman, with large, dark bloodshot
+eyes. Her face was pale, her cheeks hollow, and her hair uncombed. She was
+poorly dressed, and yet there was something about her, which told of
+better things. As soon as she saw Madge, she ran to her, folded her
+nervously to her bosom, and exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! my child! pity your poor, wretched mother!"
+
+Madge, finding her mother to be sober, grew cheerful. Her mother, after
+being taken to the bath-room, and furnished with some changes of raiment,
+was installed in the room with the seamstress, and then, as waters close
+up, and flow on smoothly again, after a little disturbance, so did affairs
+at Glen Morris move on once more, in their wonted quiet course.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+The Skating-Party.
+
+
+"Now you can go skating with me, can't you?" inquired Carrie Sherwood, as
+she pushed her little round face in at the door after dinner.
+
+"Yes, _now_ I can go," replied Jessie. "I did ever so much on my slipper
+this morning, and shall get it done by the last of the week."
+
+"If you stick to it, but I know you _won't_," said Hugh, interrupting his
+sister.
+
+Jessie felt a little anger stir in her heart on hearing this fling at a
+habit she was trying so so hard to overcome. But saying to herself, "never
+mind, I deserve it," she merely gave Hugh a glance of reproof, and was
+silent.
+
+"I say, that's ungenerous, Mister Hugh," observed Guy, taking up his
+sister's case. "You know Jessie is learning to stick to her purposes, and
+that is more than anybody can say of you."
+
+"Don't be too hard upon a fellow just for a joke," replied Hugh, wincing
+under his brother's hit.
+
+"Well, don't you throw stones at Jessie; at least, not so long as you live
+in a glass house yourself," said Guy. Then turning to the girls, he added:
+"Come girls, get ready, and I'll go with you to help Jessie try her new
+skates."
+
+"Oh, thank you, you dear good Guy!" replied Jessie, running to her brother
+and giving him a sweet sisterly kiss.
+
+"I think I'll go, too, if you'll let me," said Hugh.
+
+"You may if you'll promise not to poke fun at us if we fall down," replied
+Jessie.
+
+"If you do poke fun, master Hugh," said Carrie, shaking her head at him,
+"we will never consent to let you join our party again!"
+
+"That will be _terrible_!" exclaimed Hugh, with mock gravity. "Why I'd
+rather be drummed out of our Archery club than be turned off by the
+ladies."
+
+"Well, you may go this time, if you will carry my skates," said Jessie.
+
+"Of course I will; and is there any thing else, in the small way, that
+your most humble servant can do for you?" asked Hugh, bowing almost to the
+ground.
+
+A laugh greeted this act of mock humility, and then all parties prepared
+to face the keen breeze in search of recreation on the ice.
+
+"Where is Madge? is she ready?" shouted Jessie, as she stood at the foot
+of the stairs, warmly muffled for her walk.
+
+"Yes, Miss, here she is," replied Madge's mother, as she came to the top
+of the stairs, leading her daughter by the hand.
+
+Madge was dressed in an old plaid cloak, which had become too small for
+Jessie, and in a scarlet hood which had been laid aside for the same
+reason.
+
+"A regular little red riding-hood, isn't she?" whispered Hugh, to his
+brother, after taking a survey of the prim, little black-eyed miss before
+him. Then looking sour and angry, he added, "But why does Jessie take the
+beggar's brat out with her?"
+
+"Hugh! Hugh! Don't talk in that way," replied Guy, putting his hand
+playfully over his brother's mouth.
+
+"Get out!" cried Hugh, pushing his brother's hand away and walking off in
+high dudgeon, in search of Walter, who, for some reason, had not come with
+his sister. His foolish pride had kindled anger in his breast.
+
+Madge, with the usual quickness of girls of her age, had caught enough of
+Hugh's words, and of the meaning of his act, to perceive that he was
+disposed to treat her with scorn. A cloud flitted across her brow, and her
+eyes flashed. It was clear that the proud, thoughtless boy had wounded her
+feelings.
+
+"Hugh! Hugh! Don't carry off my skates!" shouted Jessie, as her brother
+turned into the main road, from the lawn.
+
+Whirling the skates over the fence, he kept on without a word. The skates,
+fortunately, fell on a heap of dry leaves and were picked up uninjured by
+Guy, who, with the three girls, soon found the way to some hollows, in the
+pasture, near the brook. These hollows, filled with shallow pools of
+water, now solidly frozen, were excellent places for young misses to slide
+and skate in.
+
+Madge was not cheerful this afternoon. Hugh had wounded her pride, and
+stirred her sleeping passions. It was very ungenerous conduct, in a lad of
+his age, to treat an unfortunate child with scorn. Madge ought not to have
+allowed her temper to be ruffled. But, alas, poor child! she had not been
+taught to keep her evil temper under control. So she brooded over Hugh's
+conduct. The more she thought of it, the more chafed and angry she felt.
+
+Guy helped Carrie and his sister put on their skates. Jessie had never had
+a skate upon her foot before. Carrie had learned to use them a little the
+previous winter. Hence, she glided off something like a swan, while Jessie
+hobbled and slipped, and tumbled for a long time in vain attempts to keep
+upright on the ice.
+
+Carrie was so taken up watching the laughable attempts of her friend, that
+she took no notice of poor Madge. Guy and Jessie were so busy, the former
+teaching, and the latter learning, that they too forgot her. Poor child!
+this neglect stung the wound which Hugh's act had caused, and so, with
+many a frown and pout, she quietly stole from the hollow to a deeper one
+in which, by seating herself on a low stump, she could remain unseen.
+
+"They is all proud," mused Madge, half aloud. "I heard that You, or Hugh,
+whatever they call him, say 'beggar's brat.' I know he meant me, and I
+know he went off cause I was with 'em. And there's them gals; they don't
+care for me a bit. Drat 'em! I wish mother would go away from here."
+
+This was very foolish talk for Madge. Had she looked on the kind side of
+her new-found friends, and thought of their gifts to her, and of the
+pleasant home they had given her and her mother for the time-being, and of
+their gentle words, she would have seen so much to be grateful for, that
+there would have been no room in her heart for unhappy feelings. But Madge
+forgot all these things. She saw nothing but Hugh's scorn and Jessie's
+neglect. With these she tortured herself. It was just as foolish as if she
+had taken some sharp thorns and scratched her arms and cheeks with them.
+
+While Madge was thus making herself miserable, Jessie was making rare
+progress with her skating. After a few awkward falls and a few bumps and
+bruises, she learned "_the how_," as Guy called it; and then, though still
+awkward, oh! how joyously she sped across the little pond chasing after
+Guy and Carrie, and shouting until the welkin rang again.
+
+"Capital fun, isn't it?" said she, gliding ashore, and sitting down on a
+stone almost out of breath.
+
+"I call it nice sport for girls," replied Carrie, pausing on the edge of
+the bank; "but you aren't tired yet, are you?"
+
+"Yes, a little. Besides, too much of a good thing, as my uncle says,
+destroys your relish for it. I guess I've skated enough for once," said
+Jessie, stooping and unbuckling the straps of her skates.
+
+"Pooh! Jessie's not half a skater!" rejoined Carrie; "but what has become
+of your friend Madge?"
+
+"Sure enough! Where is she? I had forgotten all about her."
+
+But Madge had wandered still farther off, and was nursing her bad feelings
+in a small grove which skirted the pasture. She was not visible from where
+the girls and Guy were.
+
+"O Guy! Madge is gone. Won't you please come and help me find her?" said
+Jessie, putting on a very long and sorrowful face.
+
+"I'll call her. She's not far off, I'll bet," replied Guy.
+
+Then placing his hands to his lips as a sort of speaking trumpet, he
+shouted--
+
+"Madge! Ma-adge! Ma-a-adge!"
+
+"Adge! Adge! Adge!" said an echo from the distant grove.
+
+"Where can she be!" cried Jessie, now relieved of her skates and standing
+on a hillock, peering eagerly all over the pasture.
+
+"I guess she is only gone home. Never mind her," said Carrie. "She ain't
+worth worrying about."
+
+"Yes, she is," replied Jessie. "She is a poor unhappy girl, and I want to
+make her good and happy. Uncle Morris says everybody that God made is
+worth caring about, and I _do_ care for Madge. Oh dear, I wish I knew
+where to find her."
+
+"See there?" cried Guy, pointing to a group of boys near the distant
+grove. "I think I see Madge among those fellows. I'll lose my guess if
+that isn't Idle Jem and his crew. There's a girl among them for certain,
+but how could Madge stroll all up there and none of us see or think of
+her?"
+
+"Let us go and see," said Jessie.
+
+Quickly as their nimble fingers could loose the straps, Carrie and Guy
+removed their skates. In a minute or two more, the three were hurrying
+across the pasture toward the boys and girl, whom they saw.
+
+Madge was, indeed, one of that group. Idle Jem and his crew, while
+wandering across the pasture in search of the hickory-nuts which were
+hidden under the dead leaves, had found her in the grove. They began to
+jibe at her at once. The girl long used to the rough news and beggar boys
+of the city, and out of temper, withal, jibed back at them with interest.
+They goaded her with harsh words; and when Guy and the girls came within
+hearing, she was using language such as the pure-minded Jessie had never
+heard before.
+
+"Hush, Madge!" said Guy, putting his hand on Madge's shoulder. "Don't
+swear! It's wicked to talk so. You go home with Jessie and Carrie, I'll
+take care of these boys."
+
+That last phrase was an unlucky one for Guy. The wicked boys took it up as
+a defiance.
+
+"Take care of us, eh? That's the talk is it? How will you do it, old
+fellow?" said Jem, sneering and chucking Guy's chin.
+
+"Keep your hands off me, if you please," said Guy; "I want nothing of you
+only to let that poor girl alone."
+
+"It's none of your business what we say to that gal," said Noll Crawford.
+
+"Yes, it is my business to see that you let her entirely alone," replied
+Guy firmly. "So stand off, and let us take her quietly a way."
+
+"Shan't do nothin' of the kind," said Peter Mink, running toward Madge,
+whose eyes flashed fire.
+
+Guy grasped him by the collar and hurled him back from Madge, amidst the
+tears and cries of Carrie and Jessie who were both very much frightened.
+
+"Oh! oh! a fight is it you want? Come I'll fight with ye!" said Idle Jem,
+slipping up to Guy, and raising his fists as if for a battle.
+
+"I never fight!" replied Guy. "Besides, we have nothing to fight about. I
+only wish you to let my little friend, Madge, alone."
+
+"She!" retorted Jem, "that swearing cat your friend, Master Guy Carlton.
+Pooh! You don't have swearing gals among your friends, I know. That gal is
+some beggar's brat, and we only want to have some fun with her."
+
+Jem's tone was much lowered toward the latter part of his speech. His
+hands, too, fell as if by instinct to his pockets. Peter Mink and Noll
+Crawford drew back, the latter saying as he did so--
+
+"Come, Jem, let's leave the spunky little gentleman and his friend, Madge,
+to themselves. I'd rather pick up hickory nuts than listen to his gab."
+
+"Discretion always is the better part of valor, as Uncle Morris says,"
+thought Guy, as he walked away with his sisters, patting the head of old
+Rover.
+
+It was the coming up of old Rover which had cooled off Idle Jem and his
+crew. The dog had been strolling about the pasture while Jessie was
+skating. Having missed his young master and mistress on returning to the
+pond, the faithful fellow had followed them. He came up just at the right
+moment. His rows of big white teeth, and his low growl, taught the idlers
+the discretion which Guy praised and which led them to cease their angry
+jibes. With Guy alone they might have contended. But Rover was an enemy
+they had not courage to face.
+
+To the wounded pride and the ill temper of Madge, shame was now added. The
+kind and gentle Jessie had heard her _swear_, had seen her face flushed
+with passion, had had a glimpse into the dark corner of her evil nature.
+Poor Madge! She sullenly refused to speak or to permit either of the party
+to take her hand; but lagging behind the rest, she silently followed them
+home.
+
+Jessie bade her friend, Carrie, good-by in front of Mr. Sherwood's
+cottage. As they kissed each other, Carrie put her mouth to Jessie's ear
+and whispered--
+
+"Jessie, shall I tell you what I think about Madge?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I wouldn't trouble my head about her any more, if I were you. She is a
+terribly wicked creature!"
+
+Jessie sighed, but said nothing. On reaching home finding no one at
+liberty to talk with her, she went to her chamber and getting her writing
+materials and her portfolio, went down into the parlor and wrote the
+following answer to her cousin Emily's letter:
+
+                    GLEN MORRIS COTTAGE, DUNCANVILLE, NOV. --, 18--.
+
+  DEAR COUSIN:
+
+  I was glad to receive your letter, and to learn that you were all
+  well at Morristown. I cannot tell you how happy it made me to hear
+  that you are trying to be good. I wish I was good all the time, but,
+  as Uncle Morris says, it is so much easier to do wrong than it is to
+  do right. I can't tell you how much I love our dear uncle, for he is
+  always helping me to be good. He says a good heart is God's gift, and
+  that we must ask him to give it to us for the sake of his dear Son.
+  Well, I ask for a good heart three times every day, and if you do so
+  too, God will hear you and bless you.
+
+  What do you think? Yesterday I found a poor girl named Madge in the
+  road near the pump at the four corners. You know the place. Well, I
+  asked Uncle Morris to take her home and he did. Her mother is here
+  too. I thought Madge was so nice, and would learn to be good _so_
+  easy, that I began to love her dearly. But to-day, she swore
+  dreadfully and wouldn't speak to me. Isn't it fearful? I'm afraid I
+  shan't be able to love her as I want to any more. Oh dear! I'm so
+  sorry. Well, you and I must try to be good. Give my love to uncle and
+  aunt, and to Charlie, and believe me to be
+
+                                           Your affectionate Cousin,
+                                                     JESSIE CARLTON.
+
+  P. S. I've almost finished Uncle Morris's slippers. J. C.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+The Watch-Pocket finished.
+
+
+"Well, Jessie, how do you like your black-eyed _protege_?" asked Uncle
+Morris, a few days after the events recorded in the last chapter.
+
+"Pretty--well--but--but--"
+
+"But what?" said Uncle Morris, with an arch glance, for he saw that Jessie
+was loth to speak the thought that lingered in her mind.
+
+"Well, I like Madge, Uncle, but as ma says, she is not quite an _angel_,"
+and Jessie laughed as if there was something funny in her mother's
+saying.
+
+"I suppose she is not. Did my puss ever hear of angels being found, as we
+found Madge, dressed in rags, and shivering under a stone wall?"
+
+"No, uncle, but, but--"
+
+"There you are _but_-ing again," said Mr. Morris. "Why not out with it at
+once, and say that you did not expect to find so many faults in poor
+Madge, as you have found?"
+
+"Because I don't like to speak evil of her, and yet I do wish she wouldn't
+have those ugly spells come over her. Sometimes she is so gentle and
+grateful, that I begin to love her dearly. Then all at once, she will be
+so cross and ugly, that I begin to repent having asked you to bring her
+home with us."
+
+Mr. Morris looked at his perplexed niece in silence for nearly a minute.
+He was thinking how to impress her mind with the moral taught by her
+disappointment respecting Madge. At last he very gravely said:
+
+"Jessie!"
+
+"What is it, Uncle?" asked Jessie, surprised at her uncle's manner.
+
+"Shall I tell you plainly, why you _feel_ so much disappointed in poor
+Madge?"
+
+"Yes, Sir."
+
+"Well, it is because your kindness to her was mixed with a good deal of
+_selfishness_."
+
+"O Uncle Morris!" exclaimed Jessie; "how can you say so?"
+
+"Because I really think so;" replied Mr. Morris.
+
+"Well, you are a funny man, if you think so, Uncle! How _could_ I be
+selfish, in wishing you to bring that poor child home? I'm sure I didn't
+expect to gain any thing by it." Here Jessie pouted a little, for she was
+really piqued by what her uncle had said. Seeing this, Mr. Morris
+replied:
+
+"I hope my little puss is not going to be angry with her poor old uncle,
+because he seeks to tell her the truth."
+
+"Well, no; but really, I don't see how you can think me selfish, just for
+wishing you to bring a poor, freezing child, to our house," and with this
+remark, Jessie forced back the smile which usually played round her lips,
+while she looked earnestly into her uncle's eyes.
+
+"Will my little puss answer me a question or two?"
+
+"Yes, Sir."
+
+"Tell me then, my dear child, did you not expect to derive a great deal of
+_pleasure_ from Madge's gratitude, and love, and obedience to yourself?
+Did you not look upon yourself as her benefactor, her teacher, her
+superior, and as having a right to claim such conduct from her, as would,
+in some degree, pay you for your trouble and kindness? You expected her,
+poor thing, to behave like an angel, for your sake. Instead of that, she
+has, at times, let her evil nature and her bad habits break out, in a way
+to give you trouble and pain, and to cause you to feel disappointment. Are
+not these things so, my sweet little puss?"
+
+"Yes, Sir. But--but _ought_ not poor people to be grateful and obedient to
+those who help them?" asked Jessie, who, though she began to perceive that
+a regard for her own pleasure had been mixed with the kindness to Madge,
+was not quite ready to plead guilty to her good uncle's charge.
+
+"They _ought_ certainly, and when they do, it is very right for those who
+help them, to take pleasure in their gratitude. But that is a very
+different thing, from doing good _for the sake of the pleasure or profit
+we expect to derive from the conduct of those we benefit._"
+
+Uncle Morris then went on to show Jessie, that really good people were
+kind to the poor and wretched, because it is their duty to be so; that
+they seldom found their reward, either in the gratitude of those they
+helped, or in the smiles of men; that instead of finding such rewards,
+they were often blamed and treated harshly by the public, and ungratefully
+by their _proteges_; but that they had a rich reward, nevertheless. They
+felt, he said, a very sweet satisfaction in themselves; they were smiled
+upon by the Father and Saviour of men; and they would, in the better land,
+be more than rewarded with mansions, robes, crowns, and honors, which
+selfish people would forever envy but never enjoy.
+
+This talk with her uncle did Jessie good. She afterwards bore Madge's
+outbreaks of temper with more patience, and tried to set her such an
+example as would make her feel her own faults far more than by scolding or
+fretting.
+
+Madge, who was very quick-witted, saw and felt the change in Jessie, and
+she, too, tried to overcome herself, that she might not grieve a friend,
+who loved her so truly and so well.
+
+One morning Jessie awoke, and was surprised to see the lawn, the trees,
+and the fences all white with snow. It was a beautiful sight. She had
+never seen snow in the country before. Having dressed herself, she ran
+down-stairs, and going to the piazza, clapped her hands, and cried:
+
+"Oh, how pretty those evergreens look! That pine-tree is perfectly
+beautiful!"
+
+"Ah, Jessie, is that you?" said Guy, as he came round the winding path,
+plunging through the soft snow with his thick boots, and dragging his sled
+after him.
+
+"Yes, I'm here," replied Jessie. "But where have _you_ been with your sled
+before breakfast?"
+
+"Been coasting, to be sure. There's a capital place in the lane that runs
+past Carrie Sherwood's cottage. We couldn't do much this morning but tread
+down the snow; but after breakfast, it will be fine. Will you go with me
+then, Jessie?"
+
+"I should like to, ever so much, but--"
+
+"But what?"
+
+"Well, I must work all the morning. That's my rule, you know. I'll go with
+you in the afternoon, Guy."
+
+"I don't want to tempt you to neglect a duty," replied Guy, knocking the
+snow off his boots against the step of the piazza, as he spoke, "but
+really, I'm afraid the coasting won't be worth the heel of an old shoe, by
+the afternoon. You see, the sun is very bright, and the snow isn't apt to
+stay long, so early in the season."
+
+"I'm sorry," said Jessie, looking very downcast, "but I must give it up, I
+guess. You see, I've finished uncle's slippers, and have almost done his
+watch-pocket. I want to finish it ever so much before Thanksgiving, which
+is to-morrow, you know."
+
+"That's right, stick to it, Sister Jessie! I won't train in the little
+wizard's company, so I advise you to lose this coasting treat, if the snow
+does go, and thereby gain a victory for which Corporal Try would promote
+you if he knew it."
+
+With these words, Guy kissed his sister, placed his sled in the back-hall,
+and went to the breakfast-room, to which he was shortly followed by
+Jessie.
+
+At breakfast, the boys discussed the question of the weather, and the snow
+very earnestly. They wanted the snow to last, first, that they might enjoy
+the sport of coasting, and then, that they might have a sleigh ride.
+
+"How I should like a sleigh-ride," exclaimed Jessie, with brightening
+eyes.
+
+"Guess you won't have it just yet," said Hugh. "The sun will melt the snow
+from the roads before noon, I guess, and its too light and loose for good
+sleighing this morning."
+
+"I'm sorry, for I do want to coast, and to ride in a sleigh, so much--ever
+so much," said Jessie, sighing, and looking very sober--for her.
+
+"Can't you _coast_ this morning, with the boys?" inquired Mr. Carlton.
+
+"We don't want her," said Hugh, snappishly. "Girls are always in the way
+when coasting is going on."
+
+"Ill-natured as ever, I see, Master Hugh," observed Uncle Morris.
+
+"I want her," said Guy, "and will take her this afternoon, if the snow
+don't melt."
+
+Jessie looked at her brother with eyes that seemed to say, "What a dear,
+good brother you are!" Mr. Carlton asked:
+
+"But why not take her this _morning_, Guy, before the snow melts?"
+
+"Because she thinks it is not best to go, Sir," replied Guy.
+
+"Ah! ah! Not best to go, eh? What's going on at home this morning,
+Jessie?" asked Mr. Carlton, looking at his daughter, whose face was now
+red with blushes.
+
+"Because Corporal Try won't let her," replied Guy, laughing and coming to
+her help. "He has given her a task which he wishes done before
+Thanksgiving, and she means to do it, too, in spite of the little wizard,
+who sits perched on my sled, in yonder hall, and saying, 'Come, let's have
+a good time together, this morning.'"
+
+"Bravo! If this was the proper place, I would propose three cheers for
+Jessie Carlton, and her friend the Corporal," said Uncle Morris. Then
+turning to Mrs. Carlton, he added, "By the way, sister, do you know that I
+expect to hear of a wedding before long?"
+
+"Indeed! Who are going to be married now?"
+
+"No less a personage than that pesky little dwarf, who has given my little
+puss so much trouble. I learn that he has popped the question to Miss
+Perseverance, and if nothing happens, they will soon be joined in wedlock,
+by Parson Good-Resolution."
+
+Of course this quaint way of praising Jessie for her self-denial and
+self-conquest caused a good hearty laugh all round the table. Jessie's
+cheeks bloomed like roses, and her heart went pit-a-pat with joy-beats. A
+happier breakfast party could scarcely have been found that morning in or
+out of Duncanville.
+
+To increase the flow of Jessie's delight, shortly after she had taken her
+seat in her own pretty little chair, her uncle entered the parlor with
+merriment in his eyes, and said:
+
+"Sew away, my little puss. The north wind is on your side, and in spite of
+the bright sun will keep the snow from melting, so that you may coast
+after dinner with Guy and your friend Carrie, and take a sleigh-ride, too,
+at three o'clock with a funny old gentleman named Morris. What do you say
+to that my puss, eh?"
+
+"I'm _so_ glad, I don't know what to say, Uncle. But, see here! (and
+Jessie held up a purple velvet watch-bag, ornamented with steel beads.) I
+shall have it all done by twelve o'clock!"
+
+"If the little wizard don't hinder," suggested her uncle, laughing and
+looking roguishly at her.
+
+"Well, he won't," said Jessie, shaking her head. "He is too busy courting
+Miss Perseverance to trouble his head about me. Ha! ha!"
+
+Mr. Morris laughed heartily at Jessie's ready use of his quaint fancy
+about the little wizard. He had no doubt about her firmness. But shaking
+his finger at her he said, "Take care! the little wizard is a cunning
+fellow, and knows how to ensnare little misses who have tasks to perform,"
+and left the room.
+
+Strong in purpose, and cheered by the hope of the afternoon's pleasure,
+Jessie worked with such vigor on her watch-pocket, that she had put on the
+last bead, sewed the last stitch, and trimmed off the last loose thread
+before the clock struck twelve. Then she felt happier far than any child
+ever did in the enjoyment of pleasures gained by the neglect of duty. She
+had conquered a difficulty, had won a victory, had done a duty--had she
+not a right to be happy?
+
+I could almost wish myself a child again for the sake of tasting that
+fresh, perfect, unmixed delight which welled up from Jessie's heart on the
+afternoon of that clear December day. First came the play of coasting.
+Taking her on his sled--"The Never-say-die"--Guy drew her to the lane near
+Mr. Sherwood's cottage and amused her until the merry sleigh-bells caused
+her to turn round. Then she saw a splendid sleigh drawn by two noble
+horses, and driven by a man who, from the way he handled the whip and
+reins, seemed born to be a coachman. Her mother and Uncle Morris were in
+the sleigh. She stepped in. Carrie and Guy followed. Having wrapped
+themselves up well in the buffalo robes, word was given to the driver, and
+away they dashed down the road.
+
+[Illustration: Walter Sliding With Carrie and Jessie. Page 227.]
+
+Merrily jingled the dancing bells, swiftly trotted the lively horses,
+smoothly glided the steel-shod sleigh over the snowy pathway, passing
+houses, barns, and fields, as Guy said, with the speed almost of a
+steam-engine. On they went, mile after mile, drinking in health and
+spirits from the pure winter air and tasting that real enjoyment which is
+found in innocent pleasures only. No wicked amusement ever did or ever can
+yield such delight as Jessie and her friends tasted on that sleigh ride.
+
+It was quite dark when they reached home again. They were a little chilled
+with their ride, but the glowing fire which burned so cheerfully in the
+parlor grate, soon restored them to warmth and comfort. The tea-table was
+made cheerful by Jessie's account of the sports and pleasures of the
+afternoon.
+
+After tea Jessie took Guy into the kitchen, and taking the watch-pocket
+from beneath her apron, said--
+
+"Guy, I want you to go with me into Uncle Morris's chamber, and help me
+fix a hook to hang this watch-pocket on. I want to give uncle a
+surprise."
+
+Guy gave his consent. Going to the nail-box he selected a small brass
+hook, with a screw at the end, and a gimlet. Then taking a light, he went
+up-stairs with his sister. Jessie pointed to the spot, over his bed, which
+she thought the best place for the hook. Guy bored the hole, screwed in
+the hook, and hung the pocket by its loop of braid upon it. Jessie clapped
+her hands, and said--
+
+"Isn't it pretty! Won't Uncle Morris be pleased! My _quilt_ covers his
+bed. The _slippers_ I made him are under his chair, and now my
+_watch-pocket_ hangs over his bedstead. I'll get his chair-cushion done
+next, and then I guess he will allow that I'm fit to be an officer in your
+Try Company. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+Thanksgiving Day.
+
+
+The next morning was mild and clear. A bright sun shone gloriously forth,
+and aided by light airs from the south, softened the snow and made every
+thing, but the walking, as pleasant as nature ever is on a December day.
+It was thanksgiving day, too--thanksgiving was appointed in December that
+year--and all the inmates of Glen Morris arose in high spirits, expecting
+to spend that festal day in calm and quiet enjoyment.
+
+At the breakfast-table, Uncle Morris excited some surprise, by putting on
+a very grave countenance, and saying--
+
+"Some persons must have entered my room, last night!"
+
+"Entered your room!" exclaimed Mrs. Carlton, turning a little pale, and
+forgetting what she was about, so far as to overflow the cup she was
+filling with coffee.
+
+"Did they steal any thing, Uncle?" asked Hugh, in a voice made husky by
+the alarm he felt at the idea of burglars having been in the house.
+
+"Mind, my dear, you are flooding the tea-tray with coffee," said Mr.
+Carlton, pointing to the overflow of coffee in front of his lady.
+
+"Did you see them?" inquired Jessie, also pale with alarm.
+
+These questions were put so rapidly one after the other, that Uncle Morris
+had no chance to explain himself for a few moments. Silence, however,
+followed Jessie's question. Then the old gentleman relaxed his muscles,
+smiled, and said--
+
+"I neither saw nor heard the intruders; yet, I found unquestionable marks
+of their having been in my room. They even made a hole in one of the
+walls! Yet, strange as it may appear, they not only took nothing away,
+but, on the contrary, they left one of the sweetest little chamber
+ornaments behind them I ever saw. Such burglars are welcome to enter my
+room every night!"
+
+"O Uncle Morris! I know what you mean," said Jessie, laughing, and shaking
+her forefinger at him.
+
+Mr. Morris's last words and his changed manner, had, of course, relieved
+all parties of their alarm, though none but Guy and his sister knew
+precisely what he meant.
+
+"I shouldn't wonder if you did. Even the bird knows where it finds food,
+much more should intruders know where they intruded," replied Uncle
+Morris.
+
+Jessie then looked at her mother, and said--
+
+"Ma, Uncle means me and Guy, by his intruders. We went into his room last
+night to hang his watch-pocket over his bedstead."
+
+"But what about the hole in the wall, Jessie? Did you and Guy dig that?"
+asked Hugh.
+
+"Ha, ha, ha! That's only Uncle Morris's fun. Guy bored a little hole with
+his gimblet, to screw in the hook which was meant to hang the pocket on;
+that's all," replied Jessie.
+
+"No, that wasn't all, either," said Mr. Morris, "for my little puss left
+the cutest little velvet watch-pocket I ever saw, hanging on the hook.
+There was some witchery in it, too, for it kept me awake over an hour. It
+seemed to hop down on to my pillow, and buzz in my ear, saying, 'I am a
+love-gift. The little girl who made me, made your quilt, made your
+slippers, and is going to make you a cushion. A pesky little creature
+tried hard to hinder her from doing it, but her love for you was so
+strong, she drove him away. I don't think there is any other old gentleman
+in Duncanville, loved by either niece or daughter, half so well as you are
+loved by the little miss whose nimble fingers made me!' Talking thus, the
+pocket kept me from going to sleep, until I began to fancy that my Jessie
+must have put a fairy into it."
+
+"O Uncle Morris!" cried Jessie, with a glowing face and a heart dancing to
+joy-beats, as it perceived the affection for her, which Uncle Morris only
+partly concealed under his quaint and fanciful way of speaking. She craved
+no higher reward, than these expressions of his love for her.
+
+After breakfast and family prayers were over, Mr. Morris turned to his
+niece, and said:
+
+"Jessie!"
+
+"Yes, Uncle."
+
+"I am going to take a little walk, before I go to hear our minister's
+Thanksgiving sermon. Will you go?"
+
+"Oh yes, yes. Uncle, I should like it ever so much."
+
+During this conversation, Mrs. Carlton had been looking out at the window.
+The snow was dripping from the eaves, and from the trees. It looked soft
+and soggy in the path, and she feared the walking would be too sloppy for
+her daughter. So she said:
+
+"It is hardly fit for Jessie to go out walking, Brother. The slosh will be
+over her sandals, and she will get wet feet."
+
+"Do you think so, Ma? Well, I'm sorry. But if I only had a pair of
+rubber-boots, like Carrie Sherwood's, I could go in spite of the slosh.
+Never mind,"--here Jessie's sigh showed how disappointed she felt,--"never
+mind, uncle will have to take his walk alone."
+
+Some misses would have fretted over such a disappointment as this. But
+Jessie seldom fretted. She had too much good sense, and too much good
+nature to fret. Perhaps this was one reason why she was loved so well.
+
+When Mrs. Carlton had expressed her view of the bad walking, Uncle Morris
+left the room, so that he did not hear all that Jessie said in reply. He
+now returned, bearing in his hands a good-sized parcel, neatly tied and
+addressed in his own handwriting, to "Miss Jessie Carlton." Giving it to
+his niece, he said:
+
+"Open Sesame! Perhaps you may find a talisman within this parcel, which
+will incline your mamma to change her opinion about the fitness of your
+walking out with me this morning."
+
+Jessie untied the string, and on opening her parcel, looked up with eyes
+full of pleasure, and exclaimed:
+
+"A pair of rubber-boots!"
+
+Then dropping the parcel, she ran to her uncle, and gave him, I don't know
+how many warm kisses. After this, she took up the boots, and looking at
+them admiringly, said:
+
+"Oh, how nice! Now I can go out in sloppy weather, can't I, Ma! What a
+dear, good uncle you are! What made you think of buying me these boots?"
+
+"What made my little puss think of making me a watch-pocket, eh?" replied
+Mr. Morris: "but come, try on your boots, and let us be going!"
+
+Mrs. Carlton having no fears about the slosh now that Jessie's feet were
+"_booted_," instead of being "_sandalled_," gave her consent, and a few
+minutes later, Jessie was trotting along at the side of her uncle, in the
+road which led toward the village. A hired man followed them at a little
+distance, bearing a large basket well filled with mince-pies, and other
+Thanksgiving luxuries for the table. Mr. Morris was going to distribute
+them among certain poor families, to whom he had sent turkeys the day
+before. It was part of his religion to do what he could to enable the
+virtuous poor to share in the pleasures proper to Thanksgiving day.
+
+The first cottage at which they called, was a very small one, occupied by
+Mrs. Clifton and her daughter Madge. Having received proofs in letters
+from her early friends that her story was true, Uncle Morris had hired
+this cottage for her, and aided by Mr. Carlton, and a few other
+kind-hearted men and women in Duncanville, had furnished it, and put her
+in possession. Mrs. Carlton had interested the village ladies in her case,
+and they had agreed to keep her supplied with sewing. The poor woman,
+cheered by voices of kindness, and by the warm sympathies of her generous
+patrons, had pledged herself to abstain from the drinks which had well
+nigh ruined her. She had been in her new home for over a week, and was
+getting along quite cheerily.
+
+When Jessie and her uncle entered, Madge shrunk behind her mother. Ever
+since the day on which Jessie heard her swear, she had acted as though
+conscious that there was something between herself and Jessie which kept
+them apart. I suppose that something was shame on her own part, and a
+dread of being made wicked by being too intimate with her, on Jessie's
+part. But whatever it was, Madge had felt uneasy in Jessie's presence from
+that time to the present.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Clifton, how are you getting on?" asked Mr. Morris, after
+giving her a portion of the contents of the basket, carried by the hired
+man.
+
+"Pretty well, Sir, I thank you: indeed, Sir, I owe every thing to you,
+Sir."
+
+"No, not to me, my good woman, but to God and this child," said Mr.
+Morris, pointing to Jessie; "but for her, your Madge would have gone to
+the alms-house, and you, perhaps, would have been kept in prison. It was
+to please my niece, here, that I took Madge to our house."
+
+"A thousand blessings upon the dear child, and upon yourself, too, Sir,"
+replied the woman with tears in her eyes.
+
+Jessie's heart sent up gushes of sweet feeling at the sight of Mrs.
+Clifton's gratitude. With some trouble she coaxed poor Madge to kiss her;
+after which she and her uncle left the house.
+
+"It is more blessed to _give_ than to _receive_," said Uncle Morris, as
+they walked through the soft snow to the next cottage.
+
+Jessie dwelt upon that remark, saying to herself, as she silently trudged
+by her uncle's side--
+
+"That is _so_, I really do believe. I always did like to _receive_, to
+have those I love _give_ me something. But I really think I felt happier
+in _giving_ Uncle Morris his watch-pocket, and in taking poor Madge home,
+than I did in receiving my skates, or rubber boots, or any thing else I
+ever had given to me. It's queer it should be so, but so it is. Yes, it
+_is_ more blessed to _give_ than to _receive_. I'll remember that as long
+as I live."
+
+These musings were broken by their arrival at Mrs. Moneypenny's. Here they
+found poor Jack, Guy's _protege_. He had arrived from the hospital the day
+before. His leg, though still sore and stiff, was healed. Long confinement
+had made his face thin and pale. But he was very glad to find himself at
+home again, and was very busy helping his mother get the turkey, sent the
+day before by Uncle Morris, ready for the oven.
+
+Here again Jessie found grateful hearts. After some other remarks, the old
+lady said--
+
+"That nephew of yours is a wonderful boy, Sir. There ain't another such
+boy in all Duncanville. Only think, Sir, how he, a gentleman's son, has
+milked and fed my cow, twice a day, ever since my Jack, there, was hurt!
+Why, Sir, we should all have been in the alms-house if it hadn't been for
+him. May the dear lad never know what trouble means!"
+
+"I'd die for Guy Carlton, any day!" said Jack, his eyes glistening with
+grateful tears as he spoke.
+
+"Rather strong language that, my lad!" observed Mr. Morris.
+
+"Well, I would, Sir. He's been so good to my poor mother, I'd do any thing
+for him. I never knew such a boy as Guy Carlton," rejoined Jack, with a
+warmth that defied contradiction, if it did not carry conviction.
+
+Having again drawn on the contents of the basket for the supply of Mrs.
+Moneypenny's table, they withdrew followed by a cloud of good wishes from
+the hearts and lips of Jack and his mother.
+
+Thus from cottage to cottage they passed, like angels of mercy, making
+glad the hearts of the poor.
+
+Returning from these visits to Glen Morris, they prepared for church,
+where they heard a most excellent sermon, on the duty of gratitude to God.
+Divine service over, they returned home, sat down at the plentiful table,
+and feasted on the good things which usually make up a thanksgiving
+dinner, in homes of wealth and comfort.
+
+When the dessert was brought on, a little paper box was placed, by the
+servant, beside Guy's plate. His name was written upon it in the
+well-known handwriting of his uncle.
+
+"What have you there, Guy?" inquired Hugh, who sat next to his brother.
+
+"Perhaps it's a jack in the box!" suggested Mr. Carlton.
+
+"A watch! A _gold_ hunting-watch! Oh, what a beauty! Just what I've been
+wanting," exclaimed Guy, opening the box; "but what's this writing?"
+
+On the inside of the case was this inscription: "Presented to Guy Carlton
+in token of my admiration for his kindness to a poor widow in the time of
+her distress.--Mr. Morris."
+
+Guy blushed deeply as his brother read this inscription. He was not aware
+that his uncle knew about his kindness to the widow. But the old gentleman
+had heard all about it from the grateful woman's own lips. He now told the
+story to the family. Mr. Carlton was delighted, and spoke words of
+approbation that sank deep into Guy's heart, where they were treasured up
+with more care than he would have kept ingots of gold.
+
+But there was a frown on Hugh's face. He had no watch, and Guy now had
+two. Hence, he felt envious. But before he had time to express himself, as
+he was about to do, Guy took his old watch from his pocket and placing it
+in Hugh's hand, said:
+
+"There Hugh, I'll give you my old watch. It's a capital time-keeper!"
+
+"Thank you," replied Hugh, repressing his frown, and trying to look
+pleased.
+
+"He don't deserve it," said Uncle Morris.
+
+During this last act of Guy's, the servant placed a letter and another
+box--a _very_ small one--beside Jessie's plate. Opening the letter, she
+read thus:
+
+                              CITY OF SELF CONQUEST, December, 18--.
+
+  DEAR MISS CARLTON:
+
+  Permit me to inform you that I have this day been wedded to Miss
+  Perseverance by the Rev. Mr. Good-Resolution. With your permission, I
+  and my bride will take up our abode with you at Glen Morris. I have
+  taken a new name in part, and with my bride's help, I hope to _help_
+  you more than I formerly _hindered_ you, to keep the rules of the Try
+  Company. The box contains a gift from a mutual friend, who wishes you
+  to admit me, in my new estate, to your friendship and confidence.
+
+                                                   Very truly yours,
+                                                      RIGHT IMPULSE.
+
+"Ah, Uncle Morris, you wrote that, I know you did!" said Jessie, laughing,
+and looking very archly at her uncle.
+
+"Well, maybe it is an old man's folly that did it. But Jessie, I trust you
+have now so far conquered yourself that henceforth your _impulses_ will no
+longer be like little wizards tempting you astray, but that they will be
+guided by _right resolutions_, and carried out with _perseverance_. You
+will thus become a true member of the Try Company, and live both a good
+and a useful life."
+
+Jessie now opened her box. Taking a bright little object from its velvet
+lining, she placed it on her finger, and holding it up, exclaimed:
+
+"What a dear little thimble! Oh! isn't it pretty?"
+
+It was a golden thimble with her name inscribed upon it. It came from her
+uncle, as a token of his approval of her many efforts to bring her
+impulses under the control of the law of duty.
+
+"I hope," he said to her after receiving her caresses, "that your hardest
+struggles with your old enemy are over. But no doubt the little fellow
+will sometimes try to separate himself from his good resolutions and from
+his bride Perseverance. When he does so, you will be in danger again. But
+be brave! Be thoughtful! Be prayerful! Trust in the Great Teacher! Try,
+and try again, and Uncle Morris will never have need to blush for his
+niece, Jessie Carlton."
+
+After dinner our young folks got up a grand romp in the parlor. Their
+father and uncle joined them, and the jocund hours passed so swiftly, that
+the dusk stole upon them unawares.
+
+"Dear me! How early it is dark to-night," said Jessie, as panting with
+excitement, she sat down in her own little chair.
+
+"Hours fly on eagle's wings, when people are pleased and busy, as we have
+been this afternoon," observed Uncle Morris in reply; "but hark! our
+door-bell rings! Somebody is coming in. Boys, put the chairs to rights!"
+
+Before the disordered room could be made fit for a reception, the servant
+opened the door, and said:
+
+"Mr. Carlton, will you please step to the door?"
+
+Going to the door, Mr. Carlton found a man standing on the door-step with
+a letter in his hand. A carriage stood in front of the piazza. Bowing to
+Mr. Carlton, the man handed him the letter, and said:
+
+"I have brought Miss Kate Carlton from New York, to stay with you, Sir.
+She is in the carriage. This letter will explain the reasons of her
+coming."
+
+Though greatly surprised at the sudden appearance of his niece, Mr.
+Carlton did not stop, either to read the letter or ask questions, but went
+at once to the carriage, and offering his hand to his niece, said:
+
+"I am happy to see you, my dear, at Glen Morris. Come into the house. John
+will see to your baggage."
+
+Kate put her fingers into her uncle's hand, and with a mincing step,
+walked into the hall. Mr. Carlton asked the man who accompanied her, if he
+would remain all night.
+
+"No, Sir. I thank you. I must return by the last train, which will be
+here, as soon as I can get to the station. Good night, Sir!"
+
+"Good night," replied Mr. Carlton.
+
+When Kate was conducted to the parlor, she was of course, greeted with
+looks and expressions of great surprise. Jessie sprang to her cousin,
+embracing her, and exclaiming:
+
+"Why Kate Carlton, is that you?"
+
+Guy took her hand kindly, and said, "I am glad to see you, Kate."
+
+Hugh also gave her his hand, but his words were not gracious. He said:
+
+"What, _you_ come here again, Kate Carlton!"
+
+Uncle Morris kissed her, and spoke very kindly to her. Somehow, his
+instincts told him that her sudden coming to Glen Morris, was caused by
+some unexpected evil.
+
+Kate returned these greetings very stiffly. She had a cold nature, which
+did not readily respond to the emotions of others. She was tired, she
+said, and would like to be shown to her room as soon as possible. Jessie
+accordingly conducted her to Mrs. Carlton's room, who was as much
+surprised to see her, as the others had been.
+
+As soon as she left the parlor, Mr. Carlton, who had been reading the
+letter which came with her, placed his hand upon his forehead, looked very
+gravely at Mr. Morris, and said:
+
+"Bad news! Bad news! My brother is a defaulter in the ---- Bank, of which
+he was president. He left the city last night, for parts unknown. His wife
+is half distracted, and has gone home to her father. She has sent Kate
+here."
+
+"A sad case!" remarked Mr. Morris, soothingly. "But are you sure it is
+true?"
+
+"Too true, I doubt not. This letter is from my friend, Mr. Estal, a
+leading director in the bank. There can be no mistake. It is terrible. Had
+my brother lost all his property by honorable misfortune, or had he died
+as a good man dies, it would have been nothing to this. Now he is ruined
+and disgraced. Terrible! Terrible!"
+
+Mr. Carlton groaned as he uttered these words. His anguish was painful to
+witness. His brother's crime pierced his heart. Happily he was able to
+weep, and thus relieve the violence of his feelings.
+
+"It is terrible indeed," replied Uncle Morris. "But while we deplore his
+fall, let us be thankful that _our_ honor is unstained by his crime. Let
+us also strive not to give way to useless grief, but let us spend our
+energies in efforts to break the fall of his unfortunate wife and child,
+whom he has dragged down with himself to poverty, if not to shame. If
+_you_ will give Kate a home, I will see to her education, and will provide
+her with clothing."
+
+"Spoken like your noble self!" rejoined Mr. Carlton. "Of course, she shall
+have a home, so long as I have one."
+
+A free conversation, between all present, followed this remark, during
+which Mr. Carlton tried to make his sons feel, that the most absolute
+poverty if combined with integrity, is preferable to wealth allied with
+dishonesty, and that it is better to die a pauper's death, than to be
+guilty of a dishonorable act.
+
+As for Jessie, her heart was swelling with generous impulses, towards poor
+Kate. "I will be a sister to her," said she, in reply to a reference made
+by Guy, to Kate's bad behavior during her visit, the previous summer, "and
+will do my best to make her both happy and good!"
+
+"Take care, Jessie!" said Guy, laughing. "Perhaps she will tempt the
+wizard to forsake his bride, and to take to his old pranks again. What
+will you do then?"
+
+"I will try to keep on such good terms with Perseverance, his wife, as to
+prevent that," replied Jessie. "See if I don't?"
+
+"Good! I'll request Corporal Try to place your name in his roll of honor,"
+said Guy; "but the tea-bell rings, let us go to tea!"
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+Concluding Note.
+
+Jessie Carlton will appear again in future volumes of the Glen Morris
+Stories, in which it will be seen whether her victory over the little
+wizard was temporary or lasting; and whether she fulfilled her purpose, to
+do her best to make Kate Carlton both happy and good.
+
+
+
+
+THE ALDEN SERIES.
+
+BOOKS FOR CHILDREN.
+
+I.
+CHOICE STORIES FOR THE YOUNG                      37-1/2
+By Joseph Alden, D.D.
+
+II.
+RUPERT CABELL, AND OTHER TALES                    37-1/2
+By Joseph Alden, D.D.
+
+III.
+THE OLD REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER                     37-1/2
+By Joseph Alden, D.D.
+
+IV.
+DAYS OF BOYHOOD                                   37-1/2
+FOURTEEN INTERESTING STORIES.
+
+V.
+LITTLE CLARA; OR, SELF-CONTROL, &c.               37-1/2
+By Mrs. Anna Bache.
+
+VI.
+LITTLE DORA; OR, THE FOUR SEASONS                 37-1/2
+By a Lady of Charleston.
+
+VII.
+PEBBLES FROM THE SEA-SHORE,
+OR LIZZIE'S FIRST GLEANINGS                       37-1/2
+By a Father.
+
+VIII.
+THE GOOD BOY'S AND GIRL'S PICTURE GALLERY,
+WITH ENTERTAINING STORIES                         37-1/2
+By Morton.
+
+May be had separately, or in neat boxes.
+
+The above series of EIGHT BOOKS contain numerous Illustrations,
+are printed on very fine paper, uniformly bound in neat scarlet
+cloth, gilt side and back, and are recommended as a choice little
+LIBRARY OF BOOKS.
+
+
+
+
+Interesting Juvenile Books,
+
+Published By
+HOWE & FERRY
+No. 76 Bowery, New York.
+
+THE LU LU LIBRARY:
+
+Twelve beautiful books for small children, comprising--
+
+PICTURE ALPHABET,         SIMPLE STORIES,
+PICTURE MULTIPLIER,       THE JOURNEY AND VISIT,
+NEW STORIES FOR GIRLS,    BOAT BUILDERS, &c.,
+NEW STORIES FOR BOYS,     GRANDFATHER'S STORIES,
+STORIES FOR CHILDREN,     CHILD'S GEM,
+LITTLE STORY-BOOK,        YOUNG DREAMER,
+
+Neatly done up in Illuminated Paper Covers, each 10 cents,
+  or per set                                              $0.75
+
+Same Twelve Books as above, half bound, cloth backs, each
+  12 cents, or per set                                     1.00
+
+Same Twelve Books as above, scarlet cloth, gilt backs, each
+  18 cents, or per set                                     1.75
+
+THE COLMAN SERIES.
+
+New Books, neatly bound in scarlet cloth and gilt backs, with
+Illustrations--viz.:
+
+NEW AND TRUE STORIES                Price 25 Cents.
+HOLIDAY STORIES                           25 "
+STORIES OF AFFECTION                      25 "
+PEARL STORY BOOK                          25 "
+THE PET BUTTERFLIES                       25 "
+THE TALISMAN                              25 "
+
+The whole neatly put up in boxes         $1.50
+
+The above series of SIX BOOKS are all short, moral, and interesting
+Stories, with many Engravings.
+
+
+
+
+THE GLEN MORRIS STORIES,
+
+A SERIES OF BOOKS DESIGNED TO SOW THE SEED OF PURE, NOBLE,
+MANLY CHARACTER IN THE MINDS OF OUR GREAT NATION'S
+CHILDHOOD; NOT IN PROSY, UNREADABLE PRECEPTS,
+BUT IN A SERIES OF CHARACTERS WHICH MOVE BEFORE
+THE IMAGINATION AS LIVING BEINGS
+DO BEFORE THE SENSES.
+
+BY FRANCIS FORRESTER, ESQ.
+
+Author of "My Uncle Toby's Library," &c.
+
+Beautifully Illustrated.
+
+Each volume will contain about 256 pages, beautifully bound in fine
+muslin, with gilt backs, price 60 cts.; and will be independent of itself,
+but there will still be an identity of character throughout the Series.
+
+The Volumes now ready are--
+
+GUY CARLTON--A Boy who belonged to the "Try Company."
+DICK DUNCAN--A Boy who loved mischief.
+JESSIE CARLTON--A Girl who fought with a troublesome little
+                wizard, and conquered him.
+WALTER SHERWOOD--An easy, good-natured Boy.       [In preparation.]
+KATE CARLTON--The story of a vain Girl.           Ditto.
+
+NOTICES OF THE PRESS.
+
+"Among the excellent books prepared for juvenile readers, this series is
+one of the best."--Worcester Spy.
+
+"The form of instruction used in this series is significant of
+success."--Ladies' Repository.
+
+"They are written in Francis Forrester's best style, and will be read with
+interest by many thousands of young readers. Older persons will sometimes
+steal a chance to read them. They are spirited, and full of good
+instruction."--Zion's Herald.
+
+"The Glen Morris Stories seem better fitted to imbue into the characters
+and dispositions of the younger sons and daughters in our land, sound
+moral and religious principles, than almost any other at present
+extant."--N. Y. Churchman.
+
+"Forrester blends amusement with instruction, while a high moral tone
+pervades his works."--Barre (Mass.) Gazette.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jessie Carlton, by Francis Forrester
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