“Here she is! — here’s Susan!” they exclaimed, joyfully. “Here’s the Queen of the May.” “And here’s her crown!” cried Rose, pressing forward; but Susan put her finger upon her lips, and pointed to her mother’s window. Philip’s pipe stopped instantly.
“Thank you,” said Susan, “my mother is ill; I can’t leave her, you know.” Then gently putting aside the crown, her companions bid her say who should wear it for her.
“Will you, dear Rose?” said she, placing the garland upon her friend’s head. “It’s a charming May morning,” added she, with a smile; “good-bye. We sha’n’t hear your voices or the pipe when you have turned the corner into the village; so you need only stop till then, Philip.”
“I shall stop for all day,” said Philip: “I’ve no mind to play any more.”
“Good-bye, poor Susan. It is a pity you can’t come with us,” said all the children; and little Mary ran after Susan to the cottage door.
“I forgot to thank you,” said she, “for the double cowslips; look how pretty they are, and smell how sweet the violets are in my bosom, and kiss me quick, for I shall be left behind.” Susan kissed the little breathless girl, and returned softly to the side of her mother’s bed.
“How grateful that child is to me, for a cowslip only! How can I be grateful enough to such a mother as this?” said Susan to herself, as she bent over her sleeping mother’s pale countenance.
Her mother’s unfinished knitting lay upon a table near the bed, and Susan sat down in her wicker arm-chair, and went on with the row, in the middle of which her hand stopped the preceding evening. “She taught me to knit, she taught me everything that I know,” thought Susan, “and the best of all, she taught me to love her, to wish to be like her.”
Her mother, when she awakened, felt much refreshed by her tranquil sleep, and observing that it was a delightful morning, said, “that she had been dreaming she heard music; but that the drum frightened her, because she thought it was the signal for her husband to be carried away by a whole regiment of soldiers, who had pointed their bayonets at him. But that was but a dream, Susan; I awoke, and knew it was a dream, and I then fell asleep, and have slept soundly ever since.”
How painful it is to awake to the remembrance of misfortune. Gradually as this poor woman collected her scattered thoughts, she recalled the circumstances of the preceding evening. She was too certain that she had heard from her husband’s own lips the words, “I MUST LEAVE YOU IN THREE DAYS”; and she wished that she could sleep again, and think it all a dream.
“But he’ll want, he’ll want a hundred things,” said she, starting up. “I must get his linen ready for him. I’m afraid it’s very late. Susan, why did you let me lie so long?”
“Everything shall be ready, dear mother; only don’t hurry yourself,” said Susan. And indeed her mother was ill able to bear any hurry, or to do any work this day. Susan’s affectionate, dexterous, sensible activity was never more wanted, or more effectual. She understood so readily, she obeyed so exactly; and when she was left to her own discretion, judged so prudently, that her mother had little trouble and no anxiety in directing her. She said that Susan never did too little, or too much.
Susan was mending her father’s linen, when Rose tapped softly at the window, and beckoned to her to come out. She went out. “How does your mother do, in the first place?” said Rose.
“Better, thank you.”
“That’s well, and I have a little bit of good news for you besides — here,” said she, pulling out a glove, in which there was money, “we’ll get the guinea-hen back again — we have all agreed about it. This is the money that has been given to us in the village this May morning. At every door they gave silver. See how generous they have been — twelve shillings, I assure you. Now we are a match for Miss Barbara. You won’t like to leave home; I’ll go to Barbara, and you shall see your guinea-hen in ten minutes.”
Rose hurried away, pleased with her commission, and to accomplish her business. Miss Barbara’s maid Betty was the first person that was visible at the attorney’s house. Rose insisted upon seeing Miss Barbara herself, and she was shown into a parlour to the young lady, who was reading a dirty novel, which she put under a heap of law papers as they entered.
“Dear, how you STARTLED me! Is it only you?” said she to her maid; but as soon as she saw Rose behind the maid, she put on a scornful air. “Could not ye say I was not at home, Betty? Well, my good girl, what brings you here? Something to borrow or beg, I suppose.”
May every ambassador — every ambassador in as good a cause — answer with as much dignity and moderation as Rose replied to Barbara upon the present occasion. She assured her, that the person from whom she came did not send her either to beg or borrow; that she was able to pay the full value of that for which she came to ask; and, producing her well filled purse, “I believe that this is a very good shilling,” said she. “If you don’t like it, I will change it, and now you will be so good as to give me Susan’s guinea-hen. It is in her name I ask for it.”
“No matter in whose name you ask for it,” replied Barbara, “you will not have it. Take up your shilling, if you please. I would have taken a shilling yesterday, if it had been paid at the time properly; but I told Susan, that if it was not paid then, I should keep the hen, and so I shall, I promise her. You may go back, and tell her so.”
The attorney’s daughter had, whilst Rose opened her negotiation, measured the depth of her purse with a keen eye; and her penetration discovered that it contained at least ten shillings. With proper management she had some hopes that the guinea-hen might be made to bring in at least half the money.
Rose, who was of a warm temper, not quite so fit a match as she had thought herself for the wily Barbara, incautiously exclaimed, “Whatever it costs us, we are determined to have Susan’s favourite hen; so, if one shilling won’t do, take two; and if two won’t do, why, take three.”
The shillings sounded provoking upon the table, as she threw them down one after another, and Barbara coolly replied, “Three won’t do.”
“Have you no conscience, Miss Barbara? Then take four.” Barbara shook her head. A fifth shilling was instantly proffered; but Bab, who now saw plainly that she had the game in her own hands, preserved a cold, cruel silence. Rose went on rapidly, bidding shilling after shilling, till she had completely emptied her purse. The twelve shillings were spread upon the table. Barbara’s avarice was moved, she consented for this ransom to liberate her prisoner.
Rose pushed the money towards her; but just then, recollecting that she was acting for others more than for herself, and doubting whether she had full powers to conclude such an extravagant bargain, she gathered up the public treasure, and with newly-recovered prudence observed that she must go back to consult her friends. Her generous little friends were amazed at Barbara’s meanness, but with one accord declared that they were most willing, for their parts, to give up every farthing of the money. They all went to Susan in a body, and told her so. “There’s our purse,” said they; “do what you please with it.” They would not wait for one word of thanks, but ran away, leaving only Rose with her to settle the treaty for the guinea-hen.
There is a certain manner of accepting a favour, which shows true generosity of mind. Many know how to give, but few know how to accept a gift properly. Susan was touched, but not astonished, by the kindness of her young friends, and she received the purse with as much simplicity as she would have given it.
“Well,” said Rose, “shall I go back for the guinea-hen?”
“The guinea-hen!” said Susan, starting from a reverie into which she had fallen, as she contemplated the purse. “Certainly I DO long to see my pretty guinea-hen once more; but I was not thinking of her just then — I was thinking of my father.”
Now Susan had heard her mother often, in the course of this day, wish that she had but money enough in the world to pay John Simpson for going to serve in the militia instead of her husband. “This, to be sure, will go
but a little way,” thought Susan; “but still it may be of some use to my father.” She told her mind to Rose, and concluded by saying, decidedly, that “if the money was given to her to dispose of as she pleased, she would give it to her father.”
“It is all yours, my dear, good Susan,” cried Rose, with a look of warm approbation. “This is so like you — but I’m sorry that Miss Bab must keep your guinea-hen. I would not be her for all the guinea-hens, or guineas either, in the whole world. Why, I’ll answer for it, the guinea-hen won’t make her happy, and you’ll be happy EVEN without; because you are good. Let me come and help you to-morrow,” continued she, looking at Susan’s work, “if you have any more mending work to do — I never liked work till I worked with you. I won’t forget my thimble or my scissors,” added she, laughing—”though I used to forget them when I was a giddy girl. I assure you I am a great hand at my needle, now — try me.”
Susan assured her friend that she did not doubt the powers of her needle, and that she would most willingly accept of her services, but that UNLUCKILY she had finished all the needle work immediately wanted.
“But do you know,” said she, “I shall have a great deal of business to- morrow; but I won’t tell you what it is that I have to do, for I am afraid I shall not succeed; but if I do succeed, I’ll come and tell you directly, because you will be so glad of it.”
Susan, who had always been attentive to what her mother taught her, and who had often assisted her when she was baking bread and cakes for the family at the Abbey, had now formed the courageous, but not presumptuous idea, that she could herself undertake to bake a batch of bread. One of the servants from the Abbey had been sent all round the village in the morning in search of bread, and had not been able to procure any that was tolerable. Mrs. Price’s last baking failed for want of good barm. She was not now strong enough to attempt another herself; and when the brewer’s boy came with eagerness to tell her that he had some fine fresh yeast, she thanked him, but sighed, and said it would be of no use to her. Accordingly she went to work with much prudent care, and when her bread the next morning came out of the oven, it was excellent; at least her mother said so, and she was a good judge. It was sent to the Abbey; and as the family there had not tasted any good bread since their arrival in the country, they also were earnest and warm in its praise. Inquiries were made from the housekeeper, and they heard, with some surprise, that this excellent bread was made by a young girl only twelve years old.
The housekeeper, who had known Susan from a child, was pleased to have an opportunity in speaking in her favour. “She is the most industrious little creature, ma’am, in the world,” said she to her mistress. “Little I can’t so well call her now, since she’s grown tall and slender to look at; and glad I am she is grown up likely to look at; for handsome is that handsome does; she thinks no more of her being handsome than I do myself; yet she has as proper a respect for herself, ma’am, as you have; and I always see her neat, and with her mother, ma’am, or fit people, as a girl should be. As for her mother, she dotes upon her, as well she may; for I should myself if I had half such a daughter; and then she has two little brothers; and she’s as good to them, and, my boy Philip says, taught ’em to read more than the school-mistress, all with tenderness and good nature; but, I beg your pardon, ma’am, I cannot stop myself when I once begin to talk of Susan.”
“You have really said enough to excite my curiosity,” said her mistress; “pray send for her immediately; we can see her before we go out to walk.”
The benevolent housekeeper despatched her boy Philip for Susan, who never happened to be in such an UNTIDY state as to be unable to obey a summons without a long preparation. She had, it is true, been very busy; but orderly people can be busy and neat at the same time. She put on her usual straw hat, and accompanied Rose’s mother, who was going with a basket of cleared muslin to the Abbey.
The modest simplicity of Susan’s appearance and the artless propriety of the answers she gave to all the questions that were asked her, pleased the ladies at the Abbey, who were good judges of character and manners.
Sir Arthur Somers had two sisters, sensible, benevolent women. They were not of that race of fine ladies who are miserable the moment they come to THE COUNTRY; nor yet were they of that bustling sort, who quack and direct all their poor neighbours, for the mere love of managing, or the want of something to do. They were judiciously generous; and whilst they wished to diffuse happiness, they were not peremptory in requiring that people should be happy precisely their own way. With these dispositions, and with a well informed brother, who, though he never wished to direct, was always willing to assist in their efforts to do good, there were reasonable hopes that these ladies would be a blessing to the poor villagers amongst whom they were now settled.
As soon as Miss Somers had spoken to Susan, she inquired for her brother; but Sir Arthur was in his study, and a gentleman was with him on business.
Susan was desirous of returning to her mother, and the ladies therefore would not detain her. Miss Somers told her, with a smile, when she took leave, that she would call upon her in the evening at six o’clock.
It was impossible that such a grand event as Susan’s visit to the Abbey could long remain unknown to Barbara Case and her gossiping maid. They watched eagerly for the moment of her return, that they might satisfy their curiosity. “There she is, I declare, just come into her garden,” cried Bab; “I’ll run in and get it all out of her in a minute.”
Bab could descend, without shame, whenever it suited her purposes, from the height of insolent pride to the lowest meanness of fawning familiarity.
Susan was gathering some marigolds and some parsley for her mother’s broth.
“So, Susan,” said Bab, who came close up to her before she perceived it, “how goes the world with you to-day?”
“My mother is rather better to-day, she says, ma’am — thank you,” replies
Susan, coldly but civilly.
“MA’AM! dear, how polite we are grown of a sudden!” cried Bab, winking at her maid. “One may see you’ve been in good company this morning — hey, Susan? Come, let’s hear about it.”
“Did you see the ladies themselves, or was it only the housekeeper sent for you?” said the maid.
“What room did you go into?” continued Bab. “Did you see Miss Somers, or
Sir Arthur?”
“Miss Somers.”
“La! she saw Miss Somers! Betty, I must hear about it. Can’t you stop gathering those things for a minute, and chat a bit with us, Susan?”
“I can’t stay, indeed, Miss Barbara; for my mother’s broth is just wanted, and I’m in a hurry.” Susan ran home.
“Lord, her head is full of broth now,” said Bab to her maid; “and she has not a word for herself, though she has been abroad. My papa may well call her Simple Susan; for simple she is, and simple she will be, all the world over. For my part, I think she’s little better than a downright simpleton. But, however, simple or not, I’ll get what I want out of her. She’ll be able to speak, maybe, when she has settled the grand matter of the broth. I’ll step in and ask to see her mother, that will put her in a good humour in a trice.”
Barbara followed Susan into the cottage, and found her occupied with the grand affair of the broth. “Is it ready?” said Bab, peeping into the pot that was over the fire. “Dear, how savoury it smells! I’ll wait till you go in with it to your mother; for I must ask her how she does myself.”
“Will you please to sit down then, miss,” said Simple Susan, with a smile; for at this instant she forgot the guinea-hen; “I have but just put the parsley into the broth; but it soon will be ready.”
During this interval Bab employed herself, much to her own satisfaction, in cross-questioning Susan. She was rather provoked indeed that she could not learn exactly how each of the ladies was dressed, and what there was to be for dinner at the Abbey; and she was curious beyond measure to find out what Miss Somers meant, by saying that she would c
all at Mr. Price’s cottage at six o’clock in the evening. “What do you think she could mean?”
“I thought she meant what she said,” replied Susan, “that she would come here at six o’clock.”
“Ay, that’s as plain as a pike-staff,” said Barbara; “but what else did she mean, think you? People, you know, don’t always mean exactly, downright, neither more nor less than what they say.”
“Not always,” said Susan, with an arch smile, which convinced Barbara that she was not quite a simpleton.
“NOT ALWAYS,” repeated Barbara colouring,—”oh, then I suppose you have some guess at what Miss Somers meant.”
“No,” said Susan, “I was not thinking about Miss Somers, when I said not always.”
“How nice that broth does look,” resumed Barbara, after a pause.
Susan had now poured the broth into a basin, and as she strewed over it the bright orange marigolds, it looked very tempting. She tasted it, and added now a little salt, and now a little more, till she thought it was just to her mother’s taste.
“Oh! I must taste it,” said Bab, taking the basin up greedily.
“Won’t you take a spoon?” said Susan, trembling at the large mouthfuls which Barbara sucked up with a terrible noise.
“Take a spoonful, indeed!” exclaimed Barbara, setting down the basin in high anger. “The next time I taste your broth you shall affront me, if you dare! The next time I set my foot in this house, you shall be as saucy to me as you please.” And she flounced out of the house, repeating “TAKE A SPOON, PIG, was what you meant to say.”
Susan stood in amazement at the beginning of this speech; but the concluding words explained to her the mystery.
Some years before this time, when Susan was a very little girl, and could scarcely speak plain, as she was eating a basin of bread and milk for her supper at the cottage door, a great pig came up, and put his nose into the basin. Susan was willing that the pig should have some share of the bread and milk; but as she ate with a spoon and he with his large mouth, she presently discovered that he was likely to have more than his share; and in a simple tone of expostulation she said to him, “Take a POON, pig.”* The saying become proverbial in the village. Susan’s little companions repeated it, and applied it upon many occasions, whenever anyone claimed more than his share of anything good. Barbara, who was then not Miss Barbara, but plain Bab, and who had played with all the poor children in the neighbourhood, was often reproved in her unjust methods of division by Susan’s proverb. Susan, as she grew up, forgot the childish saying; but the remembrance of it rankled in Barbara’s mind, and it was to this that she suspected Susan had alluded, when she recommended a spoon to her, whilst she was swallowing the basin of broth.
Complete Novels of Maria Edgeworth Page 301