Five Happy Weeks | Page 4

was hesitating at the door. Six eyes followed hers. The
angel was a huge black cat, with green eyes, that shone like emeralds.
Mabel felt like getting down to pet her, and Edith who did not admire
cats, felt a cold chill creep down her back.
So, you see, the dog, the cat, the horses, the geese, the cow, and the
chickens, with the people who took care of them, composed Aunt
Maria's family.
After dinner, they had family worship. "We will have family prayers
before you are all tired and sleepy," their aunt said. The servants all
came in, and Mrs. MacLain read a chapter from John, and gave out a
hymn, which everybody sang. It was the beautiful hymn,
"Dear refuge of my weary soul, On Thee, when sorrows rise, On Thee,
when storms of trouble roll, My fainting hope relies."
It was a great comfort to Edith to sing this, for it was one of her

mamma's favorites. After the singing they all knelt in prayer and Aunt
Maria asked God to take care of this family that was divided for the
present. "Be with the sick mother, and make her well," she prayed, "and
bless these dear little ones under this roof."
So the children felt safe, and at home. It makes everybody feel safe and
at home even in a strange house, if there is prayer in it, and Jesus is
loved and worshipped there.
Bright and early next morning, Mabel was dressed and out of doors,
with a piece of corn-bread in her hand to feed the chickens and geese.
She felt the least bit of terror when the geese craned their long necks
and hissed at her, but they soon stopped this and became very friendly.
Folks talk about dumb creatures, but they are not very dumb, are they,
children? though they have not the gift of speech. They soon learn to
know who love them, and they testify their affection in many pleasant
ways. Now Luce was not a dog to strike up friendships with everybody,
but he and Johnnie seemed to like each other at first sight. Of course,
the very first evening, bedtime came early, and weary eyes were very
glad to shut. But before noon the next day Johnnie had discovered that
his new companion could perform ever so many tricks: he could
shoulder arms, stand on his hind feet, pretend to smoke a pipe, carry a
basket, and beg in the most enchanting manner. Johnnie played soldier
with Luce for flag-bearer, for nearly an hour, till his auntie called him
in.
"I think, dear," she said, "that I must have you read a while every
morning. Edie has promised to practise an hour a day, and Mabel is
going to sit by me and crochet. All work and no play would never do,
but all play and no work would make you all wish you had never seen
Locust Hall."
"Now, Aunt Maria, how can you say that! I am sure I should be
perfectly happy if I could play with Luce and do nothing else all day
long."
"Well, I'll let you try it, some day, on this condition: you will promise,

as an honorable boy, that no matter how tired you get, you will keep to
your part of the bargain."
Johnnie was about to promise, when Edith called out:
"Better think about it first, Johnnie. I once tried playing a whole day,
and it was tiresome enough, I can tell you, before I got through with it.
It was dreadful."
[Illustration]
"If we agree to do it, I'll keep to my part, Aunt Maria; but as Edith says,
I'll think about it first." So Johnnie went off to the library, and took
down a volume of stories about the Revolutionary war.
CHAPTER III.
VIOLETS AND ROSES.
A few days passed by, and there came a letter from papa saying that
mamma was feeling better. This was very delightful to the little girls
and Johnnie, though they had had a talk before it came about the duty
of being sorrowful under the circumstances. It happened this way: they
were outdoors playing May Queen.
"I never saw anything so sweet as these violets," cried Edith, in a
rapture. They were as sweet as they could be, little English violets,
white as snow, and perfuming the air. The flowers had come to
Virginia early in the new spring, and already there were early roses,
slender lilies of the valley, with tiny cups to catch the dewdrops, and
the fragrant yellow jasmine flinging its golden bells over every
roadside fence and tree. Old Uncle Moses had taken the children to the
woods, and there they had seen the jasmine in its glory, and the white
stars of the dogwood shining through