The Fairchild Family

by Mrs. Sherwood

  Story of an Unhappy Day

  Lucy and Emily]

  It happened that Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild had had nothing for a long timeto interrupt them in the care and management of their children; so thatthey had had it in their power to teach them and guard them from allevil influences. I will tell you exactly how they lived and spent theirtime; Emily and Lucy slept together in a little closet on one side oftheir mother and father's room; and Henry had a little room on theother side, where he slept. As soon as the children got up, they usedto go into their father and mother's room to prayers; after which Henrywent with Mr. Fairchild into the garden, whilst Lucy and Emily madetheir beds and rubbed the furniture; afterwards they all met atbreakfast, dressed neatly but very plain. At breakfast the children atewhat their mother gave them, and seldom spoke till they were spoken to.After breakfast Betty and John were called in and all went to prayers.Then Henry went into his father's study to his lessons; and Lucy andEmily stayed with their mother, working and reading till twelveo'clock, when they used to go out to take a walk all together;sometimes they went to the schools, and sometimes they went to see apoor person. When they came in, dinner was ready. After dinner thelittle girls and Mrs. Fairchild worked, whilst Henry read to them, tilltea-time; and after tea Lucy and Emily played with their doll andworked for it, and Henry busied himself in making some little things ofwood, which his father showed him how to do. And so they spent theirtime, till Betty and John came in to evening prayers; then the childrenhad each of them a baked apple and went to bed.

  Now all this time the little ones were in the presence of their fatherand mother, and kept carefully from doing openly naughty things by thewatchful eyes of their dear parents. One day it happened, when they hadbeen living a long time in this happy way, that Lucy said to Mrs.Fairchild, "Mamma, I think that Emily and Henry and I are much betterchildren than we used to be; we have not been punished for a very longtime."

  "My dear," said Mrs. Fairchild, "do not boast or think well ofyourself; it is always a bad sign when people boast of themselves. Ifyou have not done any very naughty thing lately, it is not becausethere is any goodness or wisdom in you, but because your papa and Ihave been always with you, carefully watching and guiding you frommorning till night."

  That same evening a letter came for Mr. Fairchild, from an old lady wholived about four miles off, begging that he and Mrs. Fairchild wouldcome over, if it was convenient, to see her the next day to settle somebusiness of consequence. This old lady's name was Mrs. Goodriche, andshe lived in a very neat little house just under a hill, with Sukey hermaid. It was the very house in which Mrs. Howard lived about fiftyyears ago, as we shall hear later on.

  When Mr. Fairchild got the letter he ordered John to get the horseready by daybreak next morning, and to put the pillion on it for Mrs.Fairchild; so Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild got up very early, and when theyhad kissed their children, who were still asleep, they set off.

  Now it happened, very unluckily, that Mrs. Fairchild, at this time, hadgiven Betty leave to go for two or three days to see her father, andshe was not yet returned; so there was nobody left in the house to takecare of the children but John. And now I will tell you how thesechildren spent the day whilst their father and mother were out.

  When Lucy and Emily awoke, they began playing in their beds. Emily madebabies of the pillows, and Lucy pulled off the sheets and tied themround her, in imitation of Lady Noble's long-trained gown; and thusthey spent their time till Henry came to the door to tell them thatbreakfast was ready.

  "And I have persuaded John," said Henry, "to make us toast and butter;and it looks so nice! Make haste and come down; do, sisters, do!" Andhe continued to drum upon the door with a stick until his sisters weredressed.

  Emily and Lucy put on their clothes as quickly as they could and wentdownstairs with their brother, without praying, washing themselves,combing their hair, making their bed, or doing any one thing they oughtto have done.

  John had, indeed, made a large quantity of toast and butter; but thechildren were not satisfied with what John had made, for when they hadeaten all that he had provided, yet they would toast more themselves,and put butter on it before the fire as they had seen Betty do; so thehearth was covered with crumbs and grease, and they wasted almost asmuch as they ate.

  After breakfast, they took out their books to learn their lessons; butthey had eaten so much that they could not learn with any pleasure; andLucy, who thought she would be very clever, began to scold Henry andEmily for their idleness; and Henry and Emily, in their turn, foundfault with her; so that they began to dispute, and would soon, I fear,have proceeded to something worse if Henry had not spied a little pigin the garden.

  "Oh, sisters," said he, "there is a pig in the garden, in theflower-bed! Look! look! And what mischief it will do! Papa will be veryangry. Come, sisters, let us hunt it out."

  So saying, down went Henry's book, and away he ran into the garden,followed by Emily and Lucy, running as fast as they could. They soondrove the pig out of the garden, and it would have been well if theyhad stopped there; but, instead of that, they followed it down into thelane. Now, there was a place where a spring ran across the lane, overwhich was a narrow bridge for the use of people that way. Now the pigdid not stand to look for the bridge, but went splash, splash, throughthe midst of the water: and after him went Henry, Lucy, and Emily,though they were up to their knees in mud and dirt.

  "_Away he ran into the garden, followed by Lucy andEmily._"--Page 39.]

  In this dirty condition they ran on till they came close to a housewhere a farmer and his wife lived whose name was Freeman. These peoplewere not such as lived in the fear of God, neither did they bring uptheir children well; on which account Mr. Fairchild had often forbiddenLucy and Emily and Henry to go to their house. However, when thechildren were opposite this house, Mrs. Freeman saw them through thekitchen window; and seeing they were covered with mud, she came out andbrought them in, and dried their clothes by the fire; which was, sofar, very kind of her, only the children should not have gone into thehouse, as they had been so often forbidden by their parents.

  Mrs. Freeman would have had them stay all day and play with theirchildren; and Henry and his sisters would have been very glad to haveaccepted her invitation, but they were afraid: so Mrs. Freeman let themgo; but, before they went, she gave them each a large piece of cake,and something sweet to drink, which she said would do them good. Nowthis sweet stuff was cider; and as they were never used to drinkanything but water, it made them quite giddy for a little while; sothat when they got back into the lane, first one tumbled down, and thenanother; and their faces became flushed, and their heads began to ache,so that they were forced to sit down for a time under a tree, on theside of the lane, and there they were when John came to find them; forJohn, who was in the stable when they ran out of the garden, was muchfrightened when he returned to the house, and could not find themthere.

  "Ah, you naughty children!" said he, when he found them, "you havealmost frightened me out of my life! Where have you been?"

  "We have been in the lane," said Lucy, blushing.

  This was not all the truth; but one fault always leads to another.

  So John brought them home, and locked them up in their play-room,whilst he got their dinner ready.

  When the children found themselves shut up in their play-room, andcould not get out, they sat themselves down, and began to think hownaughty they had been. They were silent for a few minutes; at last Lucyspoke:

  "Oh, Henry! oh, Emily! how naughty we have been! And yet I thought Iwould be so good when papa and mamma went out; so very good! Whatshall we say when papa and mamma come home?"

  Then all the children began to cry. At length Henry said:

  "I'll tell you what we will do, Lucy; we will be good all the evening;we will not do one naughty thing."

  "So we will, Henry," said Emily. "When John lets us out, how good wewill be! and then we can tell the truth, that we were naughty in themorning, but we were go
od all the evening."

  John made some nice apple-dumplings for the children, and when theywere ready, and he had put some butter and sugar upon them (for Johnwas a good-natured man), he fetched the children down; and after theyhad each ate as much apple-dumpling as he thought proper, he told themthey might play in the barn, bidding them not to stir out of it tillsupper-time.

  Henry and Lucy and Emily were delighted with this permission; and, asLucy ran along to the barn with her brother and sister, she said:

  "Now let us be very good. We are not to do anything naughty all thisevening."

  "We will be very good indeed," answered Emily.

  "Better than we ever were in all our lives," added Henry.

  So they all went into the barn, and when John fastened them in he saidto himself, "Sure they will be safe now, till I have looked to the pigsand milked the cow; for there is nothing in the barn but straw and hay,and they cannot hurt themselves with that, sure."

  But John was mistaken. As soon as he was gone, Henry spied a swing,which Mr. Fairchild had made in the barn for the children, but which henever allowed them to use when he was not with them, because swings arevery dangerous things, unless there are very careful persons to usethem. The seat of the swing was tied up to the side of the barn, abovethe children's reach, as Mr. Fairchild thought.

  "Oh, Lucy!" said Henry, "there is the swing. There can be no harm inour swinging a little. If papa was here, I am sure he would let usswing. If you and Emily will help to lift me up, I will untie it andlet it down, and then we will swing so nicely."

  So Emily and Lucy lifted Henry up, and he untied the swing, and let itdown into its right place; but as he was getting down, his coat caughtupon a bit of wood on the side of the barn, and was much torn. However,the children did not trouble themselves very much about this accident.First Emily got into the swing, then Henry, then Lucy; and then Emilywould get in again.

  "Now, Lucy," she said, "swing me high, and I will shut my eyes; youcan't think how pleasant it is to swing with one's eyes shut. Swing mehigher! swing me higher!"

  So she went on calling to Lucy, and Lucy trying to swing her higher andhigher, till at last the swing turned, and down came Emily to thefloor. There happened providentially to be some straw on the floor, orshe would have been killed. As it was, however, she was sadly hurt; shelay for some minutes without speaking, and her mouth and nose pouredout blood.

  Henry and Lucy thought she was dead; and, oh! how frightened they were!They screamed so violently that John came running to see what was thematter; and, poor man! he was sadly frightened when he saw Emily lyingon the floor covered with blood. He lifted her up and brought her intothe house; he saw she was not dead, but he did not know how much shemight be hurt. When he had washed her face from the blood, and givenher a little water to drink, she recovered a little; but her nose andone eye, and her lip, were terribly swelled, and two of her teeth wereout.

  When Emily was a little recovered, John placed her in a little chair bythe kitchen fire, and he took his blue pocket-handkerchief and tiedLucy and Henry to the kitchen-table, saying:

  "You unlucky rogues! you have given me trouble enough to-day--that youhave. I will not let you go out of my sight again till master andmistress come home. Thank God you have not killed your sister! Whowould have thought of your loosing the swing!"

  In this manner Henry and Lucy and Emily remained till it was nearlydark, and then they heard the sound of the horse's feet coming up tothe kitchen door, for Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild were come. John hastenedto untie the children, who trembled from head to foot.

  "Oh, John, John! what shall we do--what shall we say?" said Lucy.

  "The truth, the truth, and all the truth," said John; "it is the bestthing you can do now."

  When Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild came in, they thought their children wouldhave run to meet them; but they were so conscious of their naughtinessthat they all crept behind John, and Emily hid her face.

  "Emily, Lucy, Henry!" said Mrs. Fairchild, "you keep back; what is thematter?"

  "Oh, mamma, mamma! papa, papa!" said Lucy, coming forward, "we havebeen very wicked children to-day; we are not fit to come near you."

  "What have you done, Lucy?" said Mrs. Fairchild. "Tell us the wholetruth."

  Then Lucy told her parents everything which she and her brother andsister had done; she did not hide anything from them. You may be surethat Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild were very much shocked. When they heardall that Lucy had to tell them, and saw Emily's face, they looked verygrave indeed.

  "I am glad that you have told the truth, my children," said Mr.Fairchild; "but the faults that you have committed are very seriousones. You have disobeyed your parents; and, in consequence of yourdisobedience, Emily might have lost her life, if God had not been verymerciful to you. And now go all of you to your beds."

  The children did as their father bade them, and went silently up totheir beds, where they cried sadly, thinking upon their naughtiness.The next morning they all three came into their mother's room, andbegged her to kiss them and forgive them.

  "I cannot refuse to pardon you, my children," said Mrs. Fairchild;"but, indeed, you made me and your father very unhappy last night."

  Then the children looked at their mother's eyes, and they were full oftears; and they felt more and more sorry to think how greatly they hadgrieved their kind mother; and when Mrs. Fairchild kissed them, and puther arms round their necks, they cried more than ever.