Bluff Crag | Page 8

yet, if I sit here I shall go mad with the suspense.'
"'Come, then, take a walk along the beach,' I replied; 'we will be within
reach of the doctor's voice quite as well. I know he will take some time
to set the leg; for when our stable-boy, Reuben, got his leg broken, the
doctor took a long time to set it.'
"'And did Reuben's leg get well again--quite well, I mean?' inquired
Vea earnestly; 'was he able to walk with it as he did before?'
"'Oh yes; he could use it quite as well as before,' I replied. 'Indeed, papa
used to say Reuben was quicker at going a message after the accident
than before.'
"'Oh, I am so glad to hear that,' said Vea, sighing. 'I do hope it will be
the same with Patrick. Poor Patrick! Aunt Mary has so often said he
would need to get some severe lessons to make him think. She was
always telling him that he would find out the path of transgressors is
hard, instead of pleasant, as he seemed to fancy. I don't think there is
such a miserable girl as I am in the world?' And here Vea began to cry.
"After comforting her as well as I could, she was at last prevailed upon
to take a short walk along the beach in the direction where some
children were playing. As we walked along I told her that my mother
often said, when we fancied ourselves ill-used and very unhappy, if we
looked about us we would generally find that there was somebody even
more miserable than we were ourselves. By this time we had come up
to the children, and found three of them in earnest conversation. We

were not long in discovering that the youngest was in evident distress,
and her companions were listening to her words with deep interest.
"'I wouldn't stand it, if I were you, Polly,' said the eldest girl, who was
standing in front of the group.
"'But what can I do, Martha?' replied the girl, rocking herself to and fro,
and weeping afresh.
"'Do? I would run away,' replied the other. 'I would go into service, or
beg my bread from door to door, rather than bear what you have to
bear.'
"'But don't you think you had better speak to teacher, Polly?' said the
other girl softly, looking from under her sun-bonnet with great
dreamy-looking blue eyes; 'I wouldn't do anything rash before speaking
to teacher. You remember what she said to us last Sunday, that all our
trials were sent from our Father in heaven.'
[Illustration: POOR POLLY.]
"'Yes, Rachel, I heard her say that,' replied Polly; 'and I try to think
about it; but oh! my step-mother would make anybody angry; and then
my temper rises, and I speak out, and then I am beaten. I wouldn't mind
that, however, if she would only beat me; but when I see her raise her
hand to strike little Willie, who never was angry in his life, but was
always gentle and good--always, always.'
"'Is there anything I can do for you, little girl?' said Vea, stepping
forward, forgetting for the time her own trouble while witnessing the
distress of another. 'Why does your companion want you to run away?'
"'It's to escape from her step-mother, miss,' replied the girl called
Martha. 'She uses her shameful, she do, and all for what? Because
Polly's father made so much of her afore he was lost.'
"'And was your father lost at sea, Polly? Oh, how dreadful!' said Vea,
seating herself on the stones beside her. 'And have you no mother of

your own?'
"'No, miss; mother died when Willie was a year old,' said Polly.
"'And do you remember her quite well?' asked Vea.
"'Oh yes, quite well, miss. It was a terrible night that, just before she
died. Father was away to the town for some tackle, and I was left all
alone with her and Willie. She hadn't been very well for some weeks,
but nobody thought she was going to die. Even the very doctor had said
that morning so cheerily to father she would weather through. She had
been lying sleeping with Willie in her arms, but a sudden squall shook
the door, and made it and the window-frame rattle, and that startled her,
and she wakened. Then I couldn't help seeing she was much worse; and
I tried to keep from crying, for she seemed wild-like, and the doctor
had said she was to be kept quiet. Then she looked up in a moment, and
said, "Polly, promise me you'll look after Willie when I die. Never let
any harm come to Willie, mind that; and take care of father, but look
well after Willie." She never