Percival Keene | Page 6

for the future? It was but one sacrifice more to make, one
more proof of her devotion and obedience. But there are few women
who, like my mother, would have recovered her position to the extent
that she did. Had she not shown such determination, had she consented
to have accompanied her husband to the barracks, and have mixed up
with the other wives of the men, she would have gradually sunk down
to their level; to this she could not consent. Having once freed herself
from her thraldom, he immediately sunk down to his level, as she rose
up to a position in which, if she could not ensure more than civility and
protection, she was at all events secure from insult and ill-treatment.

Such was the state of affairs when I had arrived at the important age of
six years, a comic-looking, laughing urchin, petted by the officers, and
as fall of mischief as a tree full of monkeys. My mother's business had
so much increased, that, about a year previous to this date, she had
found it necessary to have some one to assist her, and had decided upon
sending for her sister Amelia to live with her. It was, however,
necessary to obtain her mother's consent. My grandmother had never
seen my mother since the interview which she had had with her at
Madeline Hall shortly after her marriage with Ben the marine. Latterly,
however, they had corresponded; for my mother, who was too
independent to seek her mother when she was merely the wife of a
private marine, now that she was in flourishing circumstances had first
tendered the olive branch, which had been accepted, as soon as my
grandmother found that she was virtually separated from her husband.
As my grandmother found it rather lonely at the isolated house in
which she resided, and Amelia declared herself bored to death, it was at
last agreed that my grandmother and my aunt Amelia should both come
and take up their residence with my mother, and in due time they
arrived. Milly, as my aunt was called, was three years younger than my
mother, very pretty and as smart as her sister, perhaps a little more
demure in her look, but with more mischief in her disposition. My
grandmother was a cross, spiteful old woman; she was very large in her
person, but very respectable in her appearance. I need not say that Miss
Amelia did not lessen the attraction at the circulating library, which
after her arrival was even more frequented by the officers than before.
My aunt Milly was very soon as fond of me as I was of mischief;
indeed it is not to be wondered at, for I was a type of the latter. I soon
loved her better than my mother, for she encouraged me in all my tricks.
My mother looked grave, and occasionally scolded me; my
grandmother slapped me hard and rated me continually; but reproof or
correction from the two latter were of no avail; and the former, when
she wished to play any trick which she dared not do herself, employed
me as her agent; so that I obtained the whole credit for what were her
inventions, and I may safely add, underwent the whole blame and
punishment; but that I cared nothing for; her caresses, cakes, and
sugar-plums, added to my natural propensity, more than repaid me for

the occasional severe rebukes of my mother, and the vindictive blows I
received from the long fingers of my worthy grandmother. Moreover,
the officers took much notice of me, and it must be admitted, that,
although I positively refused to learn my letters, I was a very forward
child. My great patron was a Captain Bridgeman, a very thin,
elegantly-made man, who was continually performing feats of address
and activity; occasionally I would escape with him and go down to the
mess, remain at dinner, drink toasts, and, standing on the mess-table,
sing two or three comic songs which he had taught me. I sometimes
returned a little merry with the bumpers, which made my mother very
angry, my old grandmother to hold up her hands, and look at the ceiling
through her spectacles, and my aunt Milly as merry as myself. Before I
was eight years old, I had become so notorious, that any prank played
in the town, any trick undiscovered, was invariably laid to my account;
and many were the applications made to my mother for indemnification
for broken windows and other damage done, too often, I grant, with
good reason, but very often when I had been perfectly innocent of the
misdemeanour. At last I was voted a common nuisance, and every one,
except my mother and my aunt Milly, declared that it was high time