The Story of the White-Rock Cove | Page 6

both my parents
laughed; but my mother said she quite agreed with me, it would be far
better.
Then we carried the vase up, and placed it on the table in the window
of the east bed-room; and my mother flitted about, putting little
finishing touches here and there to complete the arrangements for the
comfort of her visitors, whilst I received a commission to inspect

portfolios, envelope-cases, and ink-bottles, and to see that all were
freshly replenished.
These matters being finally disposed of, I persuaded my mother to
ascend to the more remote part of the house, where a room next to my
own had, at my earnest request, been prepared for my cousin, and in the
decoration of which I felt peculiar interest. There was a twin bedstead
to my own, and various other pieces of furniture corresponding;
moreover, in an impulse of generosity I had transferred certain of my
own possessions into Aleck's apartment, with a noble determination to
be extremely liberal.
My mother noticed these at once, but I was a little disappointed that she
did not commend my liberality.
"You see, mamma," I explained, "there's my own green boat with the
union-jack, and the bat I liked best before papa gave me my last new
one, and the dissected map of the queens of England."
"Yes, I see, Willie," replied my mother; proceeding in the meantime to
certain readjustments urgently called for, by the critical position of the
bat standing on the drawers against the wall, and the boat nearly falling
from the mantelpiece.
"There, my child," she said; "the bat will do better in the comer, and the
ship upon the drawers. And now the puzzle: why, Willie, this is the
very one of which I heard you say there were three pieces missing; and
then Mrs. Barbauld you think childish for yourself!"
My countenance fell, for I had been indulging in the cheap generosity
of giving away second-bests, and I could see my mother did not admire
such liberality. Indeed, after a moment's consideration, I was ashamed
of it myself, and hastened with alacrity to hide Mrs. Barbauld, and the
Queens of England, and one or two other trifles, in the obscurity of my
own room; whilst my mother decided upon the best position for a
couple of prettily-framed pictures which she had had brought up, and
fastened an illuminated text, similar to one in my own room, opposite
the bed--"The things which are seen are temporal; the things which are

unseen are eternal"--and placed a little statuette of a guardian angel,
with the scroll underneath, "He shall give His angels charge over thee,"
over the bed-head.
"What a good thought, mamma," I said, when she had finished her
arrangements; "that looks exactly like mine."
"Just what I want it to look, Willie. You and Aleck are to be as like
brothers to each other as may be. You have never had brother or sister
of your own, Willie--not that you can remember [there had been one
infant sister, whose death, when about a month old, had been my
parents' greatest sorrow]--but now that your cousin is likely to stay a
long time with us, I hope that you and he will be as much as possible
like brothers to each other."
Then my mother, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, drew me
towards her, and quietly talked to me about some of the new duties as
well as temptations which would come with new pleasures, bidding me
remember that I was to try never to think first of myself, but to be
willing to consider others before myself. We had been reading the 13th
of First Corinthians that morning together, and her observations seemed
to me as if drawn straight from that source; indeed, before long she
reminded me of it, bidding me remember it supplied the standard we
ought to aim at, and telling me that strength would be always given, if I
sought it, to help me to be what I wanted to be; it was only those who
did not heartily strive who got beaten in the conflict.
It is not to be supposed that this was all uttered in a set speech; I am
giving the substance only of a few minutes' quiet talk which we had up
there in the bed-room together that morning before luncheon, and
which I confess to having felt at the time rather superfluous, my delight
in the anticipation of my cousin's arrival convincing me that there
would be no fear of my finding anything but happiness in my
intercourse with him.
My mother, on the contrary, as I afterwards had reason to know, was by
no means without anxiety. She knew that hitherto I had been
completely shielded from every possible