The Getting of Wisdom | Page 8

to
seem one of the blackest experiences life held.
"Why, she'll be in the train, stupid, 'ow can she?" said Sarah. "Do you
think trains give you dinners?"
"Oh, mother, please cut ever such a lot!" begged Pin sniffing valiantly.
Laura began to feel somewhat moved herself at this solicitude, and
choked down a lump in her throat with a gulp of tea. But when Pin had
gone with Sarah to pick some nectarines, Mother's face grew stern, and
Laura's emotion passed.
"I feel more troubled about you than I can say, Laura. I don't know how
you'll ever get on in life--you're so disobedient and self-willed. It would
serve you very well right, I'm sure, for not coming this morning, if I
didn't give you a penny of pocket-money to take to school."
Laura had heard this threat before, and thought it wiser not to reply.
Gobbling up the rest of her breakfast she slipped away.
With the other children at her heels she made a round of the garden,
bidding good-bye to things and places. There were the two
summer-houses in which she had played house; in which she had
cooked and eaten and slept. There was the tall fir-tree with the
rung-like branches by which she had been accustomed to climb to the
very tree-top; there was the wilderness of bamboo and cane where she
had been Crusoe; the ancient, broadleaved cactus on which she had
scratched their names and drawn their portraits; here, the high aloe that
had such a mysterious charm for you, because you never knew when
the hundred years might expire and the aloe burst into flower. Here
again was the old fig tree with the rounded, polished boughs, from
which, seated as in a cradle, she had played Juliet to Pin's Romeo, and
vice versa--but oftenest Juliet: for though Laura greatly preferred to be
the ardent lover at the foot, Pin was but a poor climber, and, as she
clung trembling to her branch, needed so much prompting in her
lines--even then to repeat them with such feeble emphasis--that Laura

invariably lost patience with her and the love-scene ended in a squabble.
Passing behind a wooden fence which was a tangle of passion-flower,
she opened the door of the fowl-house, and out strutted the mother-hen
followed by her pretty brood. Laura had given each of the chicks a
name, and she now took Napoleon and Garibaldi up in her hand and
laid her cheek against their downy breasts, the younger children
following her movements in respectful silence. Between the bars of the
rabbit hutch she thrust enough greenstuff to last the two little occupants
for days; and everywhere she went she was accompanied by a legless
magpie, which, in spite of its infirmity, hopped cheerily and quickly on
its stumps. Laura had rescued it and reared it; it followed her like a dog;
and she was only less devoted to it than she had been to a native bear
which died under her hands.
"Now listen, children," she said as she rose from her knees before the
hutch. "If you don't look well after Maggy and the bunnies, I don't
know what I'll do. The chicks'll be all right. Sarah'll take care of them,
'cause of the eggs. But Maggy and the bunnies don't have eggs, and if
they're not fed, or if Frank treads on Maggy again, then they'll die. Now
if you let them die, I don't know what I'll do to you! Yes, I do: I'll send
the devil to you at night when the room's dark, before you go to
sleep.--So there!"
"How can you if you're not here?" asked Leppie.
Pin, however, who believed in ghosts and apparitions with all her
fearful little heart, promised tremulously never, never to forget; but
Laura was not satisfied until each of them in turn had repeated, in a low
voice, with the appropriate gestures, the sacred secret, and forbidden
formula:
Is my finger wet? Is my finger dry? God'll strike me dead, If I tell a lie.
Then Sarah's voice was heard calling, and the boys went out into the
road to watch for the coach. Laura's dressing proved a lengthy business,
and was accomplished amid bustle, and scolding, and little
peace-making words from Pin; for in her hurry that morning Laura had
forgotten to put on the clean linen Mother had laid beside the bed, and
consequently had now to strip to the skin.
The boys announced the coming of the coach with shrill cries, and
simultaneously the rumble of wheels was heard. Sarah came from the
kitchen drying her hands, and Pin began to cry.

"Now, shut up, res'vor!" said Sarah roughly: her own eyes were moist.
"You don't see Miss Laura be such a silly-billy. Anyone 'ud think you