Читать книгу The Birdikin Family - Arthur Hammond Marshall - Страница 8
ОглавлениеTHE BIRTHDAY GIFT
The birthdays of the young Birdikins were always made occasions of innocent enjoyment, and high were the anticipations of pleasure with which all four children awoke on the morning upon which Charles entered upon his thirteenth year. No lessons would be required of them, and Miss Smith would be released altogether from her usual attendance upon her young charges, being set free for the soothing occupation of darning their stockings and seeing to the buttons on their underwear, and at full liberty to use what leisure remained over for the pursuance of her own pleasure, so long as it was such as to meet with the approval of her employers.
'Well, my dear Charles,' said Mr. Birdikin when he had received his son's morning duty and congratulated him upon the attainment of another step in life's journey, 'as you have now reached the ripe age of twelve I conjecture that you will scarcely expect to receive the commemorative gifts with which such an occasion as we are now celebrating has been marked in your more immature years.'
Charles's face fell, and Mrs. Birdikin made haste to say, 'Your papa's remark, Charles, is made in a spirit of whimsicality. Pray accept from your mother this volume of virgin paper, bound, as you see, in blue morocco with your initials stamped upon it in gold, in which you are invited to set down such moral reflections as occur to you from time to time, or such as you may derive from your day's reading.'
To this handsome and timely gift were added those of Charles's brother and sisters, prepared under the advice of their parents and the supervision of Miss Smith. These were a volume of sermons by their kinsman, the Lord Bishop of P——chester, from Henry, a warm muffler knitted by her own hand from Clara, and from Fanny the Golden Rule, illuminated in colour by herself and suitably framed for suspension over her brother's bed.
When the expressions of pleasure drawn from the delighted lad over these tokens of fraternal affection had subsided, Mr. Birdikin said, still in that vein of drollery with which he was accustomed to temper the authority of a parent at such times of relaxation, 'For the enjoyment of your father's gift you must wait, my dear Charles, until the claims of appetite have been satisfied. Its immediate contemplation, however, need not be denied you. Come hither.'
Mr. Birdikin addresses Charles in a spirit of whimsicality
With this he led the expectant stripling to a window which commanded a view of the sweep of gravel in front of the mansion. Usually empty at this time of the morning, this was now occupied by the figure of Bodger, the coachman, who was leading a beautiful little Welsh pony, which at a signal from his master he now brought up to the window.
The delight of the fortunate lad at this munificent gift, which marked alike the generosity and the affluence of a fond parent, knew no bounds. Each child in turn was permitted to administer a lump of sugar to the pony, and when at last it was led away by Bodger and the family seated themselves at table it formed the subject of gleeful anticipation, in which all joined, though the enjoyment of the gift was at present to be confined to one.
This was explained by Mr. Birdikin, when he judged that the natural exuberance of childhood had had sufficient scope and that it was time that the voice of authority should be heard. 'I confess,' he said, 'that it was not without some hesitation that I decided to introduce Charles to the science of equitation at this early age. A moderate degree of skill in the use and management of the equine race is becoming to a gentleman, and I myself in my earlier years frequently took pleasure in bestriding a horse.'
'Papa on a horse!' ejaculated Fanny with a laugh. 'That would indeed be a sight to induce mirth.'
Mr. Birdikin's brow darkened. 'Pray subdue your tendency to untimely cachinnation, Fanny,' he said. 'With the increasing bulk that attends middle age in those whose duties call them to occupy their time in sedentary postures I relinquished the use of the saddle some years ago. But as a young man of some consequence I obeyed the wishes of my own father in joining in the pleasures of the chase, and was known far and wide as an intrepid pursuer of the vulpine species.'
'I well remember,' said Mrs. Birdikin, 'being carried in my father's chariot to a meet of the foxhounds. The mark made upon the heart of a modest but not unsusceptible maiden by the sight of your father seated erect upon his elegant steed led eventually to that happy union to which my children owe their being. Do you recollect, Mr. Birdikin, how one of the accidents attendant upon the manly sport led to your being deposited by your mettlesome mount in a duck-pond, and how the proximity of the carriage in which sat a young girl hitherto unknown to you enabled you to be conveyed back to your home with no further damage done than the spoiling of your fine scarlet coat and the risk of a rheumy distemper owing to your immersion, which was mercifully averted by an immediate retirement to the shelter of the blankets?'
'To that fortunate accident,' returned Mr. Birdikin with a courteous inclination of the head towards his helpmate, 'and to the handsome inheritance to which I succeeded not long afterwards I owe whatever satisfaction has hitherto attended me in my progress through this vale of woe.' He then explained that upon the demise of his father and his own approaching marriage he had thought it right to pretermit his pursuit of the dangerous sport of fox-hunting. 'But,' said he, 'I am not unmindful of the preoccupations that beset adventurous youth. You, my dear Charles, have already bestridden the homely and serviceable Jackass. You will now, under the tuition of our good Bodger, proceed somewhat farther by learning to control and guide your Pony; and it is my desire, if I am spared by Providence, to see you some day holding your own in the mimic contest of the chase on a Horse.'
'Indeed, Papa,' returned Charles, 'I shall do my utmost from henceforth to deserve the confidence you have so amiably displayed towards me, and trust you will no longer have to rebuke me for the thoughtless disposition which I am fully aware has given you cause for displeasure in the past.'
'There speaks my own son,' said Mrs. Birdikin, whose preference, if preference she had with regard to her offspring, was towards the mercurial Charles rather than to the more temperate Harry, in spite of the latter's closer resemblance to his worthy father. 'I conceive, Mr. Birdikin, that your birthday gift could not have been better bestowed than upon one who at so early an age shows himself anxious to leave the delinquencies of childhood behind him.'
'From henceforth,' said Clara, with the placable smile that so well became her childish features, 'I shall look to my brother for an example of that behaviour that is to be expected by our parents from all of us.'
'With that sentiment I would associate myself,' said Henry, 'while reserving to myself the right of resisting it should I not consider it of such a character as it would become me to follow.'
'You will always be at liberty,' remarked Fanny, 'to set your own example, which I do not myself propose to follow under any circumstances whatever.'
These several remarks may be taken as indicative of the widely different dispositions already showing themselves in the Birdikin children, and of the wisdom required from their parents in influencing them towards that stability of character to which all their efforts as right-living people not without consequence among their more highly-placed neighbours were directed.
For an account of the proceedings of a day so auspiciously begun we must postpone the expectations of our readers until a further chapter.
