Joshua Marvel. Farjeon Benjamin Leopold

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СКАЧАТЬ and defiant, and yet at the same time so singularly tender in her conduct. With Minnie every thing was right or wrong according to the way in which it affected herself. She recognized no general law as guiding such and such a principle or sentiment. There was this similarity and this difference between Minnie and Susan: they both ignored the world's opinion and the world's judgment of their actions. But where Susan would be meek, Minnie would be defiant; where Susan would offend through ignorance, Minnie would offend consciously, and be at the same time ready to justify herself and argue the point; which latter she would do, of course, only from her point of view. Supposing that it could be reduced to weights and measures, Minnie would have been content to place herself and her affections on one side of the scale, and all the world on the other, with the positive conviction that she would tip the scale.

      She was very affectionate and docile to Joshua; she looked up to him with a kind of adoration, and this tacit acknowledgment of his superiority was pleasing to his vanity. He was her hero, and she worshipped him, and showed that she did so; and he, too, dangerously regarding her as a child, received her worship, and was gratified by it. And so she drifted.

      Now as he entered the room, Minnie sprang towards him with a joyous exclamation, and taking his hand, held it tightly clasped in hers as she led him to a seat. The room was not so bare of furniture as it was when he first saw it. He looked round for Basil Kindred.

      "Father is not at home, Joshua," said Minnie. "He will be in soon, I dare say." She pushed him softly into a chair, and sat on the ground at his feet. "I am so glad you have come!"

      "But I don't think I have time to stay."

      "You mustn't go; you mustn't go," said Minnie, drawing his arm round her neck. "I shall be so lonely if you do."

      "But you were alone before I came in, Minnie."

      "Yes," returned Minnie; "but I did not feel lonely then. I shall now, if you go away."

      "Then I will stop for a little while," said Joshua, humoring her.

      "Always good!" said Minnie gratefully, resting her lips upon her hand, "always good!"

      "Why did you not feel lonely before I came, Minnie?"

      "I was thinking."

      "Of what?"

      "Of long, long ago, when father was different to what he is now."

      "It could not have been so long, long ago, little Minnie," – here came a little caressing action from the child, – "you are only-how old?"

      "Fourteen."

      "And fourteen years ago is not so long, long ago, little Minnie."

      Minnie repeated her caressing action.

      "To you it isn't perhaps, but it is to me. It seems almost," she said, placing Joshua's hand upon her eyes, and closing them, "as if I had nothing to do with it. Yet I must have had; for mother was mixed up with what I was thinking.

      "But I shall think of something else now that you are here," she said presently. "I am going to listen."

      With the hand that was free she took something from her pocket, and placing it to her ear, bent her head closer to the ground. She was so long in that attitude of watchful silence, that Joshua cried "Minnie" to arouse her.

      "Hush!" she said; "you must not interrupt me. I am listening. I can almost hear it speak."

      "Hear what speak?" asked Joshua, wondering.

      Minnie directed his fingers to her ear, and he felt something smooth and cold.

      "It is a shell," she said softly, "and I am listening to the sea."

      "Ah," said Joshua in a voice as soft as hers, "that is because I am going to be a sailor."

      "For that reason. Yes. Call me little Minnie."

      "Little Minnie!" said Joshua tenderly; for Minnie's voice and manner were very winsome, and he could not help thinking how quaintly pretty her fancy was.

      "Little Minnie, little Minnie!" whispered Minnie in so soft a tone that Joshua could scarcely hear it, – "little Minnie, little Minnie! The sea is singing it. How kind the sea is! and how soft and gentle I should like to go to sleep like this."

      "Does the shell sing any thing else, little Minnie?"

      "Listen! Ah, but you cannot hear! It is singing, 'Little Minnie, little Minnie, Joshua is going to be a sailor. Little Minnie, little Minnie, would you like to go with him?'"

      "And you answer?"

      "Yes, yes, yes! I should like to go with him, and hear the sea always singing like this. I should like to go with him because" – But here Minnie stopped.

      "Because what?"

      "Because nothing," said Minnie, taking the shell from her ear. "Now the sea is gone, and the singing is gone, and we are waiting at home for father."

      "What for, Minnie? What am I waiting at home for father for?"

      "To see him of course," answered Minnie.

      "And to wish him and you good-by," said Joshua.

      "Good-by!" echoed the child, with a sudden look of distress in her large gray eyes. "So soon!"

      "Yes. My ship sails to-morrow."

      "And this is the last day we shall see you," she said, her tears falling upon his hand.

      "The last day for a little while, little Minnie," he said, striving to speak cheerfully.

      "For how long?" asked the child, bending her head, so that her fair hair fell over her face.

      "For a year, perhaps, Minnie," he answered.

      "For a long, long year," she said sorrowfully. "You will not do as mother did, will you?"

      "How was that?"

      "She went away from us one afternoon, and was to come back at night. And it rained-oh, so dreadfully! – that night. We were lodging under some trees, father, mother, and I. Father was ill-very ill, but not with the same kind of illness that he has now sometimes. He had a fever. And mother went into the town to get something for us to eat-as you did that night when the bad boys threw a stone at father, and you brought him home. When father woke we went in search of her. But I never remember seeing mother again. And you are going away, and perhaps I shall never see you again."

      "What does the shell say, Minnie?"

      Minnie placed the shell to her ear.

      "I cannot make out any thing," she said in a voice of pain. "It isn't singing now; it is moaning and sighing."

      He took the shell and listened.

      "It will speak to me, because I am a sailor."

      "And it says?" asked Minnie anxiously.

      "And it says-no, it sings-'Little Minnie, little Minnie, Joshua is going to sea, and Joshua will come back, please God, in a year, with beautiful shells and wonderful stories for you and all his friends. So, little Minnie, little Minnie, look happy; for there is nothing to be sorrowful at.'"

      "Ah!" СКАЧАТЬ