Esther | Page 3

your mother is a little
sorry that Carrie is so unlike other girls; she told me once that she
thought it such a pity that she had let her talents rust after all the money
that had been spent on her education."
"You must have misunderstood my mother," I returned, somewhat
loftily; "I heard her once say to Uncle Geoffrey that she thought Carrie
was almost perfection. You have no idea how much Mr. Arnold thinks
of her; he is always holding her up as his pattern young lady in the
parish, and declares that he should not know what to do without her.
She plays the organ at all the week-day services, and teaches at the
Sunday school, and she has a district now, and a Bible-class for the
younger girls. No wonder she cannot find time to practice, or to keep
up her drawing." And I looked triumphantly at Jessie; but her manner
did not quite please me. She might not be clever, but she had a good
solid set of opinions to which she could hold stoutly enough.
"Don't think me disagreeable, Esther," she pleaded. "I think a great deal
of Carrie; she is very sweet, and pretty, and good, and we should all be
better if we were more like her; but no one is quite faultless, and I think

even Carrie makes mistakes at times."
"Oh, of course!" I answered a little crossly, for I could not bear her
finding fault with Carrie, who was such a paragon in my eyes. But
Jessie took no notice of my manner, she was such a wise little creature;
and I cannot help thinking that the less importance we attach to people's
manner the better. Under a little roughness there is often good stuff,
and some good people are singularly unfortunate in manner.
So Jessie went on in her gentle way, "Do you remember Miss
Majoribanks' favorite copy: 'Moderation in all things'? I think this
ought to apply to everything we do. We had an old nurse once, who
used to say such droll things to us children. I remember I had been very
good, and done something very wonderful, as I thought, and nursie said
to me in her dry way, 'Well, Miss Jessie, my dear, duty is not a
hedgehog, that you should be bristling all over in that way. There is no
getting at you to-day, you are too fully armed at all points for praise.'
And she would not say another word; and another time, when I thought
I ought to have been commended; she said, 'Least done is soonest
mended; and well done is not ill done, and that is all about it.' Poor old
nurse! she would never praise any one."
"But, Jessie--how does this apply to Carrie?"
"Well, not very much, I dare say; only I think Carrie overdoes her duty
sometimes. I remember one evening your mother look so disappointed
when Carrie said she was too tired to sing."
"You mean the evening when the Scobells were there, and Carrie had
been doing parish work all the day, and she came in looking so pale
and fagged? I thought mother was hard on her that night. Carrie cried
about it afterward in my room."
"Oh, Esther, I thought she spoke so gently! She only said, 'Would it not
have been better to have done a little less to-day, and reserved yourself
for our friends? We ought never to disappoint people if we can help it.'"
"Yes; only mother looked as if she were really displeased; and Carrie

could not bear that; she said in her last letter that mother did not
sympathize entirely in her work, and that she missed me dreadfully, for
the whole atmosphere was rather chilling sometimes."
Jessie looked a little sorry at this. "No one could think that of your
home, Esther." And she sighed, for her home was very different from
ours. Her parents were dead, and as she was an only child, she had
never known the love of brother or sister; and the aunt who brought her
up was a strict narrow-minded sort of person, with manners that must
have been singularly uncongenial to my affectionate, simple-minded
Jessie. Poor Jessie! I could not help giving her one of my bear-like hugs
at this, so well did I know the meaning of that sigh; and there is no
telling into what channel our talk would have drifted, only just at that
moment Belle Martin, the pupil-teacher, appeared in sight, walking
very straight and fast, and carrying her chin in an elevated fashion, a
sort of practical exposition of Madame's "Heads up, young ladies!" But
this was only her way, and Belle was a good creature.
"You are to go in at once, Miss Cameron," she called