Elsie Dinsmore | Page 4

to leave the room.
"Mamma," asked Lora, "is not Elsie to be allowed to go too?"
"Elsie is not my child, and I have nothing to say about it. Miss Day,
who knows all the circumstances, is much better able than I to judge
whether or no she is deserving of punishment," replied Mrs. Dinsmore,
sailing out of the room.
"You will let her go, Miss Day?" said Lora, inquiringly.
"Miss Lora," replied Miss Day, angrily, "I have already told you I was
not to be dictated to. I have said Elsie must remain at home, and I shall
not break my word."
"Such injustice!" muttered Lora, turning away.
"Lora," said Louise, impatiently, "why need you concern yourself with
Elsie's affairs? for my part, I have no pity for her, so full as she is of
nonsensical scruples."
Miss Day crossed the room to where Elsie was sitting leaning her head
upon the desk, struggling hard to keep down the feelings of anger and
indignation aroused by the unjust treatment she had received.
"Did I not order you to learn that lesson over?" said the governess, "and
why are you sitting here idling?"

Elsie dared not speak lest her anger should show itself in words; so
merely raised her head, and hastily brushing away her tears, opened the
book. But Miss Day, who was irritated by Mrs. Dinsmore's interference,
and also by the consciousness that she was acting unjustly, seemed
determined to vent her displeasure upon her innocent victim.
"Why do you not speak?" she exclaimed, seizing Elsie by the arm and
shaking her violently. "Answer me this instant. Why have you been
idling all the morning?"
"I have not," replied the child hastily, stung to the quick by her unjust
violence. "I have tried hard to do my duty, and you are punishing me
when I don't deserve it at all."
"How dare you? there! take that for your impertinence," said Miss Day,
giving her a box on the ear.
Elsie was about to make a still more angry reply; but she restrained
herself, and turning to her book, tried to study, though the hot, blinding
tears came so thick and fast that she could not see a letter.
"De carriage am waiting, ladies, an' missus in a hurry," said a servant,
opening the door; and Miss Day hastily quitted the room, followed by
Louise and Lora; and Elsie was left alone.
She laid down the geography, and opening her desk, took out a small
pocket Bible, which bore the marks of frequent use. She turned over the
leaves as though seeking for some particular passage; at length she
found it, and wiping away the blinding tears, she read these words in a
low, murmuring tone:
"For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure
grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted
for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if when ye do well, and
suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even
hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us
an example that ye should follow His steps."

"Oh! I have not done it. I did not take it patiently. I am afraid I am not
following in His steps," she cried, bursting into an agony of tears and
sobs.
"My dear little girl, what is the matter?" asked a kind voice, and a soft
hand was gently laid on her shoulder.
The child looked up hastily. "O Miss Allison!" she said, "is it you? I
thought I was quite alone."
"And so you were, my dear, until this moment" replied the lady,
drawing up a chair, and sitting down close beside her. "I was on the
veranda, and hearing sobs, came in to see if I could be of any assistance.
You look very much distressed; will you not tell me the cause of your
sorrow?"
Elsie answered only by a fresh burst of tears.
"They have all gone to the fair and left you at home alone; perhaps to
learn a lesson you have failed in reciting?" said the lady, inquiringly.
"Yes, ma'am," said the child; "but that is not the worst;" and her tears
fell faster, as she laid the little Bible on the desk, and pointed with her
finger to the words she had been reading. "Oh!" she sobbed, "I--I did
not do it; I did not bear it patiently. I was treated unjustly, and punished
when I was not to blame, and I grew angry. Oh! I'm afraid I shall never
be like Jesus! never, never."
The child's distress seemed very great, and Miss Allison was extremely
surprised. She was a visitor who had been in the house only a few days,
and, herself