A Little Maid of Old Maine by Alice Turner Curtis (best mobile ebook reader .TXT) 📗
- Author: Alice Turner Curtis
Book online «A Little Maid of Old Maine by Alice Turner Curtis (best mobile ebook reader .TXT) 📗». Author Alice Turner Curtis
“How do you do?” she said, bowing as ceremoniously as if Luretta and Anna were grown up people of importance.
“Come and sit down, Melly, and watch for the Polly,” said Anna.
“And tell us about the fine dolls that are on board for you,” added Luretta quickly.
A little smile crept over Melvina’s face and she took a step toward them, but stopped suddenly.
“I fear ’twould not be wise for me to stop,” she said a little fearfully; but before she could say anything more Anna and Luretta had jumped up and ran toward her.
“Look!” exclaimed Anna, pointing to a flock of white gulls that had just settled on the smooth water near the shore.
“Look, Melly, at the fine partridges!”
Melvina’s dark eyes looked in the direction Anna pointed. “Thank you, Anna. How white they are, and what a queer noise they make,” she responded seriously.
Anna’s eyes danced with delight as she heard Luretta’s half-repressed giggle at Melvina’s reply. She resolved that Luretta should realize of28 how little importance Melvina Lyon, with all her dolls, and her starched skirts like wheels, really was.
“And are those not big alder trees, Melly?” she continued, pointing to a group of fine pine trees near by.
Again Melvina’s eyes followed the direction of Anna’s pointing finger, and again the minister’s little daughter replied politely that the trees were indeed very fine alders.
Luretta was now laughing without any effort to conceal her amusement. That any little girl in Maine should not know a partridge from a gull, or an alder bush from a pine tree, seemed too funny to even make it necessary to try to be polite; and Luretta was now ready to join in the game of finding out how little Melvina Lyon, “the smartest and best-behaved child in the settlement,” really knew.
“And, Danna, perhaps Melvina has never seen the birds we call clams?” she suggested.
Melvina looked from Anna to Luretta questioningly. These little girls could not be laughing at her, she thought, recalling with satisfaction that it was well known that she could spell the names of every city in Europe, and repeat the list29 of all England’s kings and queens. She remembered, also, that Anna Weston was called a tomboy, and that her mother said it was a scandal for a little girl to have short hair. So she again replied pleasantly that she had never known that clams were birds. “We have them stewed very often,” she declared.
Anna fairly danced about the neat little figure in the well-starched blue linen skirt.
“Oh, Melly! You must come down to the shore, and we will show you a clam’s nest,” she said, remembering that only yesterday she had discovered the nest of a kingfisher in an oak tree whose branches nearly touched the shore, and could point this out to the ignorant Melvina.
“But I am to visit Lucia Horton this afternoon, and I must not linger,” objected Melvina.
“It will not take long,” urged Anna, clasping Melvina’s arm, while Luretta promptly grasped the other, and half led, half pushed the surprised and uncertain Melvina along the rough slope. Anna talked rapidly as they hurried along. “You ought really to see a clam’s nest,” she urged, between her bursts of laughter; “why, Melly, even Luretta and I know about clams.”30
Anna had not intended to be rude or cruel when she first began her game of letting Luretta see that Melly and her possessions were of no importance, but Melvina’s ignorance of the common things about her, as well as her neatly braided hair, her white stockings and kid shoes, such as no other child in the village possessed, made Anna feel as if Melvina was not a real little girl, but a dressed-up figure. She chuckled at the thought of Luretta’s calling clams “birds,” with a new admiration for her friend.
“I guess after this Luretta won’t always be talking about Melvina Lyon and her dolls,” she thought triumphantly; and at that moment Melvina’s foot slipped and all three of the little girls went sliding down the sandy bluff.
The slide did not matter to either Anna or Luretta, in their stout shoes and every-day dresses of coarse flannel, but to the carefully dressed Melvina it was a serious mishap. Her starched skirts were crushed and stained, her white stockings soiled, and her slippers scratched. The hat of fine-braided straw with its ribbon band, another “present” from the Boston relatives, now hung about her neck, and her knitting-bag was lost.31
As the little girls gathered themselves up Melvina began to cry. Her delicate hands were scratched, and never before in her short life had she been so frightened and surprised.
She pulled herself away from Anna’s effort to straighten her hat. “You are a rough child,” she sobbed, “and I wish I had not stopped to speak with you. And my knitting-bag with my half-finished stocking is lost!”
At the sight of Melvina’s tears both Anna and Luretta forgot all about showing her a “clam’s nest,” and became seriously frightened. After all, Melly was the minister’s daughter, and the Reverend Mr. Lyon was a person of importance; why, he even had a colored body-servant, London Atus by name, who usually walked behind the clergyman carrying his cloak and Bible, and who opened the door for visitors. Often Melvina was attended in her walks by London, who thought his little mistress far superior to the other children.
“Don’t cry, Melvina,” pleaded Luretta. “We will find your bag, and we will wash the stains from your stockings and dress, and help you back up the slope. Don’t cry,” and Luretta put a protecting arm about the frightened Melvina.32 “Your hat has only slipped from your head; it is not hurt at all,” she added consolingly.
Melvina was finally comforted, and Anna climbed up the slope to search for the missing bag, while Luretta persuaded Melvina to take off her stockings in order that they might be washed.
“They’ll dry in no time,” Luretta assured her. “I can wash them out right here in this clean puddle, and put them on the warm rocks to dry.” So Melvina reluctantly took off her slippers, and the pretty open-work stockings, and curling her feet under her, sat down on a big rock to watch Luretta dip the stockings in the little pool of sea water near by, and to send anxious glances toward the sandy bluff where Anna was searching for the missing bag.
The sun shone warmly down on the brown ledges, the little waves crept up the shore with a pleasant murmur, and Melvina, watching Luretta dipping her white stockings in the pool, began to feel less troubled and unhappy; and when Anna came running toward her waving the knitting-bag she even smiled, and was ready to believe that her troubles were nearly over.
In spite of the sunshine dark clouds were gathering along the western horizon; but the girls did not notice this. Anna and Luretta had forgotten all about the sloop Polly, and were both now a little ashamed of their plan to make sport of Melvina.
“Here is your bag all safe, Melly,” called Anna, “and while Luretta is washing your stockings I’ll rub off those spots on your pretty dress. Can’t you step down nearer the water?” she suggested, handing the bag to Melvina, who put it34 carefully beside her hat and agreed promptly to Anna’s suggestion, stepping carefully along the rough shore to the edge of the water. The rocks hurt her tender feet, but she said nothing; and when she was near the water she could not resist dipping first one foot and then the other in the rippling tide.
“Oh, I have always wanted to wade in the ocean,” she exclaimed, “and the water is not cold.”
As Anna listened to Melvina’s exclamation a new and wonderful plan came into her thoughts; something she decided that would make up to Melvina for her mischievous fun. She resolved quickly that Melvina Lyon should have the happiest afternoon of her life.
“Melly, come back a little way and slip off your fine skirts. I’ll take off my shoes and stockings and we’ll wade out to Flat Rock and back. Luretta will fix your clothes, won’t you, Lu?” she called, and Luretta nodded.
The stains did not seem to come out of the stockings; they looked gray and streaked, so Luretta dipped them again, paying little attention to her companions.
“WE’LL WADE OUT TO FLAT ROCK”
Melvina followed Anna’s suggestion, and her starched skirts and hat were left well up the beach with Anna’s stout shoes and stockings, and the two girls hurried back hand in hand to the water’s edge.
Flat Rock was not far out from the shore, and Anna knew that the pebbly beach ended in soft mud that would not hurt Melvina’s feet, so she led her boldly out.
“It’s fun,” declared Melvina, her dark eyes dancing as she smiled at Anna, quite forgetting all her fears.
“It would be more fun if we had on real old clothes and could splash,” responded Anna; and almost before she finished speaking Melvina leaned away from her and with her free hand swept the water toward her, spraying Anna and herself. In a moment both the girls had forgotten all about their clothes, and were chasing each other along the water’s edge splashing in good earnest, and laughing and calling each other’s names in wild delight. Farther up the shore Luretta, a draggled stocking in each hand, looked at them a little enviously, and wondered a little at the sudden change in Melvina’s behavior.
“Now show me the clam’s nest!” Melvina demanded, as out of breath and thoroughly36 drenched the two girls stood laughing at each other.
“All right,” Anna responded promptly. “Come on down to the point,” and followed by Melvina, now apparently careless of the rough beach, she ran along the shore toward a clam bed in the dark mud.
“Look!” she exclaimed, pointing to the black flats-mud. “There is the clam’s nest—in that mud. Truly. They are not birds; they are shellfish. I was only fooling.”
“I don’t care,” answered Melvina. “I shall know now what clams really are.”
“And those birds are gulls, not partridges,” continued Anna, pointing to the flock of gulls near shore, “and come here and I will show you a real alder,” and the two girls climbed over a ledge to where a little thicket of alder bushes crept down close to the rocks.
“And those splendid tall trees are pines,” went on Anna, pointing to the group of tall trees on the bluff.
Melvina laughed delightedly. “Why, you know all about everything,” she exclaimed, “even if your hair is short like a boy’s.”
“I know all the trees in the forest,” declared37 Anna, “and I know where squirrels hide their nuts for winter, and where beavers make their houses in the river.”
The two girls were now beyond the ledge and out of sight of Luretta, and Anna was so eager to tell Melvina of the wonderful creatures of the forest, and Melvina, feeling as if she had discovered a new world, listened with such pleasure, that for the moment they both forgot all about Luretta.
At first Luretta had been well pleased to see that Melvina was no longer vexed and unhappy; but when both her companions disappeared, and she found herself alone with Melvina’s soiled and discarded skirts and the wet stockings, she began to feel that she was not fairly treated, and resolved to go home.
“Dan can play with Melvina Lyon if she likes her so much,” thought Luretta resentfully, and started off up the slope. Luretta was nearly as tidy as when she left home, so she would have no explanations to make on her return. As she went up the slope she turned now and then and looked back, but there was no sign of Anna or Melvina. “I don’t care,” thought the little girl unhappily. “Perhaps they will think I am38 drowned when they come back and don’t find me.” She had just reached the top of the slope and turned toward home when she saw London Atus hurrying along the path that led to the church.
“Perhaps he has been sent after Melvina, and can’t find her,” thought Luretta; and she was right; the colored man had been to Captain Horton’s house to walk home with his little mistress, and had been told that Melvina had not been there that afternoon; and he was now hurrying home with this alarming news.
Anna and
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