Hetty Gray | Page 3

lived through the
storm to be washed in by the sea alive always beats me when I think of
it, it seems so downright unnatural; and yet that's the way that
Providence ordered it, Mrs. Ford."
"I suppose all her folks were drowned?" said Mrs. Ford.
"Most like they were, for it was a bad wreck, as I've heard," said Mrs.
Kane. "Leastways, nobody has ever come to claim her, and no
questions have been asked. Unless it was much for her good I would
fain hope that nobody ever will claim her now. Wild as she is, I've
grown to love that little Hetty, so I have. Ah, here she is coming along,
as hungry as a little pussy for her milk, I'll be bound!"
Hetty came trudging along the garden path, her curls standing up in a
bush on her head, her little fat fingers stained green with grass, and her

pinafore, no longer green, filled with moon-daisies. She was singing
with her baby voice lifted bravely:
"Dust as I am I come to zee--"
"Dust indeed!" cried Mrs. Kane, "I never saw such dust. Only look at
her shoes that I blacked this morning!"
"Poor dear, practising her singing," said Mrs. Ford. "Well, little lass,
and what have you been seeing and doing all day long?"
"I saw big Ben poking his fire," answered Hetty after a moment's
reflection. "He put me out, and then I saw him hurting the horses' feet
with his hammer. I wanted the horses to come along with me, but they
shook their heads and stayed where they were. Then I tried to catch the
butterflies, and they flew right past my eyes. And I thought the yellow
lilies could fly too, and they wouldn't. Then I pulled their heads off--"
"And were you not at school at all?" asked Mrs. Ford. "Well, well,
Hetty, you are wild. If you saw my little boys going so good to their
school! What more did you do, Hetty?"
"I went into school, and schoolmistress put me in a corner. Then I drew
marks with my tears on the wall; and afterwards I said my spelling.
And I came home and got some daisies; and I saw Charlie Ford
standing in the pond with his shoes and stockings on."
"Oh my! oh my! well I never!" cried Mrs. Ford, snatching up her
bonnet, and getting ready to go home in a hurry. "Charley in the pond
with his shoes and stockings on! It seems, Mrs. Kane, that I've been
praising him too soon!"
While Mrs. Ford was running down the road after Charley, Mrs.
Enderby, up at Wavertree Hall, was directing her servants to carry the
table for tea out upon the lawn under the wide-spreading beech-trees;
and her two little daughters, Phyllis aged eight and Nell aged seven,
were hovering about waiting to place baskets of flowers and
strawberries on the embroidered cloth. Mrs. Rushton, sister-in-law of
Mrs. Enderby and aunt of the children, was spending the afternoon at
the Hall, having come a distance of some miles to do so.
Mrs. Enderby was a tall graceful lady, with a pale, gentle, but rather
cold face; her dress was severely simple and almost colourless; her
voice was sweet. Mrs. Rushton was unlike her in every respect, low in
size, plump, smiling, and dressed in the most becoming and elegant
fashion. Mrs. Enderby spoke slowly and with deliberation; Mrs.

Rushton kept chattering incessantly.
"Well, Amy," said the former, "I hope you will talk to William about it,
and perhaps he may induce you to change your mind. Here he is," as a
gentleman was seen coming across the lawn.
Mrs. Rushton shrugged her shoulders. "My dear Isabel," she said, "I do
not see what William has to do with it. I am my own mistress, and
surely old enough to judge for myself."
The two little girls sprang to meet their father, and dragged him by the
hands up to the tea-table.
"William," said Mrs. Enderby, "I want you to remonstrate with Amy."
"It seems to me I am always remonstrating with Amy," said Mr.
Enderby smiling; "what wickedness is she meditating now?"
Mrs. Rushton laughed gaily, dipped a fine strawberry into cream and
ate it. Her laugh was pleasant, and she had a general air of good
humour and self-complacency about her which some people mistook
for exceeding amiability.
"Isabel thinks I am going to destruction altogether," said she, preparing
another strawberry for its bath of cream; "only because I am thinking of
going abroad with Lady Harriet Beaton. Surely I have a right to arrange
my own movements and to select my own friends."
Mr. Enderby looked very grave. "No one can deny your right to do as
you please," he said; "but I hope