Читать книгу The Birdikin Family - Arthur Hammond Marshall - Страница 5
ОглавлениеTHE RESULTS OF DISOBEDIENCE
The parish in which Byron Grove, Mr. Birdikin's country seat, was situated, was served by a curate of the name of Guff, who was possessed of a considerable family of young children. It speaks well for the unworldliness and condescending kindness of Mr. Birdikin that he should not object to the young Guffs consorting at times with his own children, upon whom he impressed it that poverty was no crime where conduct was satisfactory, and that on no account were the curate's children to be twitted or quizzed on account of their inferiority.
One fine afternoon, two of the Guff children, Thomas and Lucy, were invited to Byron Grove to play with Charles, Henry, Clara, and Fanny. It was usual for Miss Smith to be with the children when they thus disported themselves, but that afternoon Mrs. Birdikin had requested of the governess that she should go through her linen-cupboard with her, and Miss Smith, sensible of the compliment, had put her services at the disposal of her kind employer, adjuring her young charges not to lead their visitors into mischief nor be drawn into the same themselves.
'Well, what shall we do?' cried Charles brightly as the six children found themselves in the handsome grounds surrounding the stately residence. 'My own preference is for a game of tag, if our young guests have no better suggestion to offer.'
'I opine,' said Henry, 'that in view of the sacred character of their parents' calling Thomas and Lucy would prefer a less frivolous occupation. Can we not play at visiting the sick poor? The strawberries are now in season, and those of us who are deputed to bring delicacies to the sufferers can first visit the kitchen-garden.'
All the children clapped their hands at this, except Clara, who said, 'Are you not aware, brother, that our parents have forbidden us to regale ourselves with fruit from the garden except under the supervision of Miss Smith?'
'It would ill become me,' replied Henry, 'to counsel disobedience to a direct command of our parents; but I apprehend that the prohibition would not apply to a diversion of which they could not but approve. You, Thomas, shall take the part of the sick labourer, if you are willing, in what is only a game, to divest yourself of that degree of gentility to which you can lay claim. You, Fanny, shall be the labourer's wife and Clara their daughter. Charles and Lucy will represent the Squire and his lady, and I will content myself with playing the part of the apothecary summoned to attend the sufferer.'
'Will the apothecary himself partake of the delicacies to be conveyed to the sick poor?' inquired Fanny. But Henry made no reply to this question.
The children then devoted themselves to adapting one of the summer-houses, of which there were several in the spacious grounds of Byron Grove, to the simulacrum of a sick-chamber. Miss Smith, relieved for a few minutes from her attendance upon Mrs. Birdikin, who was accustomed to partake of a glass of sherry wine and some light and delicately prepared viands at this time of the afternoon, now came into the garden, and, finding the six children so innocently employed, retired with a word of commendation to her chamber until it should be time to attend again upon Mrs. Birdikin. Her frame was not robust, and her anxiety to save her kind employer undue exertion had led her to take upon herself the heavier duties of the afternoon's occupation, while Mrs. Birdikin sat upon a low chair and directed her. But, though her body was aching, her heart was full of thankfulness at the consideration with which she was treated in this pious and superior family, and, after lying for a few minutes prone upon her bed, she returned to take up the part assigned to her, little thinking of what was going on among those whom she would otherwise have been supervising.
No sooner had the summer-house been arranged for the scene of the little drama so happily projected, and Thomas, Fanny, and Clara left there to prepare for their parts, than Fanny said, 'Let us hide from them.' She ran out of the arbour, followed by Thomas, but Clara remained there, being unwilling, even in play, to depart from the strict rectitude enjoined upon the Birdikin children from their earliest years.
No high degree of censure, however, would have been merited for what would have been no more than an additional mystification introduced into a game of make-believe, but Fanny's next step was a definite invitation to her young guest and companion to an enterprise by no means innocent. This was to climb on to the roof of the arbour, a proceeding involving not only indelicacy on the part of a female, however young, but danger to life and limb for both of them.
It may be urged that Thomas, being the son of a clergyman, who, although not beneficed, was yet the official guardian of parochial behaviour, should have protested. It would have been well if he had reflected for a moment that what in Fanny might have been a venial fault, in him, admitted so generously to the companionship of children vastly superior to himself in station, could only be looked upon as presumption. Alas! the careless boy gave way instantly to the temptation, and even assisted Fanny to clamber up to the roof of the arbour, where they ensconced themselves, concealed by a yew which overhung it, and waited for the return of their playmates.
In the meantime the other children had repaired to the strawberry-beds with their baskets, which they piled up with the luscious fruit, filling their mouths at the same time to an extent far in excess of the requirements of the little drama they were enacting.
They then returned to the summer-house, now supposed to be the homely cot of a tiller of the soil. There they were met by Clara, who had in vain tried to persuade Thomas and Fanny to descend from their hiding-place. She at once disclosed their situation, to the intense annoyance of Fanny, whose ruse was thus discovered. 'Tell-tale!' she cried, and before the word was well out of her lips she had slipped from the precarious slope of the roof and fallen upon Henry, whom she bore to the ground, upsetting the basket he was carrying and ruining her freshly-washed and ironed cotton frock with the juicy fruit, upon which she subsided in a sitting posture.
Fanny's fall had been broken by her collision with her brother. Not so that of Thomas, whom her sudden movement had also dislodged. He fell sheer to the ground, and, instead of rising at once to take part in the angry dispute now proceeding amongst the rest, he lay there groaning.
He fell sheer to the ground and lay there groaning
In response to the cries of the frightened children Miss Smith came running out, followed by John the footman, who lifted Thomas in his arms and bore him into the house, where it was discovered that his discreditable prank had resulted in a broken leg. It was not until Dr. Affable had been sent for and put the limb into splints that Thomas was sent home in Mr. Birdikin's carriage with a note to the curate begging that he should not be further punished for his delinquency and stating that Mr. Birdikin would himself defray the cost of the requisite medical attendance in view of Mr. Guff's straitened circumstances.
This large-hearted generosity towards the curate's child was all the more meritorious since Mr. Birdikin judged it necessary to take a severe view of the misconduct of his own children. As he had no mind to differentiate the degrees of blame attached to each, all were soundly whipped and sent supperless to bed. The tears of all indicated that repentance had come home to them; but Fanny, who had been chiefly responsible for the misconduct that had had such serious results, confided to her sister that her only regret was that she had not eaten her share of the strawberries before sitting on them.
