Mary: A Nursery Story for Very Little Children

by Mrs. Molesworth

safe. For, totell the truth, she was often a little frightened of the doggie knockingher over if she was walking along alone or with only Artie. "PoorFuzzy!" Mary was always very affectionate to Fuzz when she felt herselfwell protected; "don't you think, nursie, he'd like to puss it too? IfLeigh made him walk like a bear,"--for walking like a bear was one ofthe tricks Leigh had taught Fuzz,--"on his two behind legs, and then puthis two before legs on the pussing place; don't you think he could do ita little, nursie dear? And then we'd all have took turns?"

  Nursie laughed at Mary's funny idea.

  "I'm afraid Miss Dolly and the perambulator would soon all be in a heapon the road if Fuzzy was to have a try at pushing," she said.

  And Fuzz, who always seemed to know when they were talking of him, cameclose to nurse and looked up wistfully in her face with his bright sweeteyes as if he would say, "I'm rather afraid so too."

  Leigh gave him a pat.

  "_Pushing_ the p'rambulator," he said. "No, indeed. You know somethingbetter than that; don't you, Fuzz?"

  And Fuzz wagged his tail as much as to say, "Yes, indeed; _Leigh_ knowswhat I can do. But we'll keep our secret."

  No one paid any attention to what Leigh said however; no one had anyidea there was any secret to keep.

  So the little party finished their walk very happily, and returned homegreatly pleased with the new perambulator.

  It was about a fortnight later that something happened which I must tellyou about.

  All this time Leigh kept on patiently with his training or "breaking-in"of Fuzz. Whenever he had a chance of getting off to the stables alone,for half an hour or so, he harnessed the dog to the remains of a cartthat I told you of, and drove him up and down the paths. No one but thestablemen and the gardeners knew about it, and they only thought it wasa fancy of the boy's and never spoke about it.

  And Leigh told nobody--not even Artie--of what he had got in his head.

  He kept saying to himself he wanted to "surprise" them all, and that ifhe told Artie every one would be sure to hear of it.

  "And I must manage to try it first without nurse fussing," he thought."She'd never believe it would do. She's so stupid about some things."

  But at the bottom of his heart, I think he knew that what he was meaningto do was not a right thing for him to try without leave from thegrown-up people, and that it was the fear of their stopping it much morethan the wish to "surprise" everybody that made him keep his plan sosecret.

  So he said nothing, but waited for a chance to come.

  And before long the chance did come. It does seem sometimes as ifchances for wrong things or not-right things come more quickly and moresurely than for good things, I am afraid. Or is it, perhaps, that weare more ready to catch at them?

  Now I must tell you that Emma, the under-nurse, was not a very sensiblegirl. She was more taken up with herself and her dresses and chatteringto whoever would listen to her than with her own work and duties; andshe was very fond of calling nurse old-fashioned and fussy and toostrict, which was not right. She spoke of her in that way to Leigh, andmade him fancy he was too big a boy to be treated like a nursery child,which was very mischievous. But she was a good-natured girl, and shewas what is called "civil-spoken" to nurse and to the other servants, sonurse hoped she would improve as she got older, though she found herlazy and careless very often.

  Just about this time, unfortunately, poor nurse sprained her ankle. Itdid not make her ill, for it was not very bad and soon began to getbetter, but it stopped her going out walks for two or three days.

  The first day this happened was one of the afternoons that Leigh hadLatin lessons with a tutor, so only Artie and Mary went out a walk withBaby Dolly in the perambulator and Emma pushing it.

  Nurse spoke a great deal to Emma about being very careful, and not goingnear the field where the bull was, and not crossing the little bridgewhich was soon going to be mended, and about several other "nots." AndEmma listened to what she said, and that day all went well. Artie andMary trotted along very peacefully, and now and then, when the road wassmooth, Emma let them push baby for a little bit, and baby cooed andcrowed when they talked to her. They went near the Perrys' cottage andthey met all the children--Janie as usual carrying the baby, Comfortpushing the old wicker carriage with the two other babies, and staringaway at the open book in her hand at the same time, so that Janie had tokeep calling out every minute or two to warn her where she was going.Ned was not with them, that was the only difference. For Ned wasbeginning now to do a little work out of school hours.

  The Perrys all came to a stop when they met the other party.

  "How do you do?" said Mary and Artie politely. "How do you like our newp'ram-bilator?"

  "It do be a beauty, Miss," said Janie.

  Poor Janie looked tired and hot, though it was not a warm day; the babywas growing heavy.

  "Law," said Emma, "I'd never carry that child if I was you. Why don'tyou put it in the cart and make one of the others walk?"

  "Law" is not a pretty word; but Emma was not very particular when shewas alone with the children.

  "Comfort'd never get her reading done if she had to look after Sammywalking," said Janie. "And I'd have to push the carriage if the dearbaby was in it."

  "Where's Ned?" asked Artie. "And why doesn't he pull the carriage?"

  Emma stared.

  "Law, Master Artie--" she was beginning, but Janie, who did not seem atall surprised at the question, for of course she had seen Ned's attemptsto make a horse of himself, answered quietly--

  "It didn't do--not so very well, sir, and it gave me a turn, it did, tosee Sammy and Bertie a-tumblin' about, and all but overturned. No,'tweren't no good; so Ned, he's give it up."

  "What a pity!" said Artie and Mary together, "isn't our p'ram-bilatornice, Janie?"

  "'Tis indeed, the wheels _is_ beautiful _and_ the springs," said Janie,as she stood watching, while Artie pushed it up and down, to let her seehow it went; while even Comfort took her eyes off her book for a minuteor two to join in, the admiration. "And Miss Baby do be getting onfinely," the little nurse-sister added.

  "You've not come our way for a good bit, Miss," said Comfort to Mary."It's a nice road past the cottages and on to the wood--so smooth, I cango on reading all the way. No need to look to one side nor thet'other."

  And then the Perrys moved on, with a curtsey from Janie, which shemanaged with some difficulty on account of the fat baby, and a kind ofnod from Comfort, as she let her eyes drop on to her book again.

  That evening at tea, Mary and Artie told Leigh and nurse about meetingthe Lavender Cottages children, and how tired poor Janie looked.

  "Isn't it a pity Ned couldn't dror the carriage?" said Artie.

  "_Draw_, not _dror_," said Leigh. "How vulgar you are, Artie. No, Idon't see that it could do much good to Janie, for somebody'd have todrive, and so she'd still have the baby to carry. The big sister shouldtake turns with her."

  "Yes, indeed," said nurse. "That'd be much better than nonsense aboutharnessing boys. It's a wonder those children weren't driven into bits,that day you told us of."

  "Oh, but Ned was so stupid," said Leigh. "He hadn't got proper reins,and he fastened the rope in a perfectly silly way. _I_ could show himhow to do it properly. In Lapland, you know, nurse, and in some othercountry, even dogs pull carts quite nicely."

  "They must be a different kind of dog from ours then," said nurse. "Iknow dogs used to turn the spit with the meat to roast it before thefire, but they were a queer kind, and I suppose they were trained to itwhen they were little puppies."

  "Yes," said Leigh, "that's it. It's all the training. It's no goodunless you begin to teach a dog while he's a puppy."

  He did not say anything more just then; but that evening he said to Emmathat he was going out a walk with the little ones the next day, as hewould not have any lessons that afternoon.

  "I suppose nurse won't be able to go out to-morrow," he added.

  "No, not till
the day after, if then," said Emma. "But never mind,Master Leigh, I'll go any way you like to name, and we'll have a nicewalk, if it's a fine day."

  "I hope it will be a fine day," said Leigh.

  And the next morning, quite early, before his lessons, he took Fuzz aregular "exercising" up and down the long avenue leading to the stablesat the back of the house--cart and all--the dog had really learnt to gopretty well. But then a rough little wooden sledge, on wheels, is avery different thing from a