Mildred at Home: With Something About Her Relatives and Friends.. Finley Martha

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ her face grew bright with love and happiness. "No, I won't fret; how wicked it would be for one who has so many blessings! But, papa, I can't help feeling sorry for the little tender plants, plucked up so rudely by the roots and left to perish in the broiling sun. They were live things, and it seems as if they must have felt it all, and suffered almost as an insect or an animal would."

      Her father smiled, and smoothed her hair with softly caressing hand. "My little girl has a very tender heart, and is full of loving sympathy for all living things," he said. "Ah, Travilla. Glad to see you!" as at that instant that gentleman galloped up and dismounted.

      "So am I, sir," Elsie said, leaving her father's knee to run with outstretched hand to meet and welcome their guest.

      He clasped the little hand in his, and held it for a moment, while he bent down and kissed the sweet lips of its owner. "What news?" Mr. Dinsmore asked, when he had given his friend a seat and resumed his own.

      "None that I know of, except that I have come to your view (which is my mother's also) of the subject we were discussing yesterday, and have decided to act accordingly," Mr. Travilla answered, with a rarely sweet smile directed to little Elsie.

      "Oh!" she cried, her face growing radiant, "I am so glad, so very glad!"

      "And I, too," said her father. "I am sure you will never regret having come out boldly on the Lord's side."

      "No; my only regret will be that I delayed so long enrolling myself among His professed followers. I now feel an ardent desire to be known and recognized as His servant, and am ready to go forward, trusting implicitly His many great and precious promises to help me all my journey through."

      "'Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ'?" quoted Mr. Dinsmore inquiringly.

      "Yes," said Mr. Travilla, "for He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him; able to keep even me from falling."

      Chapter Third.

      AUNT WEALTHY

      Dr. Landreth and his party reached Philadelphia in due season, arriving in health and safety, having met with no accident or loss by the way.

      Mrs. Dinsmore found her father and the family carriage waiting for her and her baby boy at the depot.

      The others took a hack and drove to the Girard House, where Miss Stanhope, who had been visiting friends in the neighborhood of the city, had appointed to meet them, that they and she might journey westward in company. She was there waiting for them in a private parlor.

      The meeting was a joyful one to the two ladies, who, though always warmly attached, had now been separated for a number of years. They clasped each other in a long, tender embrace; then Mildred introduced her husband, and exhibited her baby with much pride and delight; Annis, too, for she had quite grown out of Aunt Wealthy's recollection, and had scarce any remembrance of the old lady, except from hearing her spoken of by the other members of the family.

      The travellers were weary with their journey, and there was much to hear and tell; so the remainder of that day was given up to rest and talk, a part of the latter being on the arrangement of their plans. Mildred proposed that they should take a week or more for rest and shopping, then turn their faces homeward.

      "You must allow some time for sight-seeing, my dear," said her husband. "It would be a great shame to carry Annis all the way out to Indiana again without having shown her the lions of Philadelphia."

      "Oh, certainly she must see them," said Mildred. "You can show them to her while Aunt Wealthy and I are shopping."

      "You intend, then, to shut me out of that business? How shall I know that you will not be ruining me?"

      "My dear," said Mildred, laughing, "you forget how rich you have made me. I shall have no occasion to ruin anybody but myself."

      "And as for me," remarked Miss Stanhope drily, "I have my own purse."

      "And father has sent money to buy Ada's things, mother's, and Fan's, too," added Annis. "But, Milly, I must have some share in the shopping, too. I expect to enjoy that as much as the sight-seeing."

      Mildred assured her she should have as much as she wanted, adding, "But there will be a good deal which will not be likely to interest you – napery and other housekeeping goods, for instance."

      "Your share of those things will interest me, and must be paid for from my purse," put in the doctor.

      "Quite a mistake," said Miss Stanhope; "those are the very things a bride or her parents are expected to supply."

      "But Mildred is no longer a bride. Milly, my dear, I want you to help me to select a dress for the bride that is to be."

      Mildred looked up with a pleased smile. "Just like you, Charlie; always thoughtful and generous!"

      Ada Keith was the coming bride. She and Frank Osborne had been engaged for some weeks, and expected to marry in the fall. This news had increased Annis's desire to get home. She wanted, she said, to see how Mr. Osborne and Ada acted, and whether they looked very happy.

      "And just to think," she added, "when they're married Fan will be Miss Keith, and we two will be the young ladies of the family."

      "Ah, indeed! How old may you be, my little maid?" laughed the doctor.

      "Most thirteen," returned the little girl, drawing herself up with an air of importance.

      "A very young young lady, most decidedly," he said with a humorous look, bending down to pinch her rosy cheek as he spoke.

      "I'm growing older every day," she answered demurely, edging away from him. "Father told me a year ago that I'd soon be a woman."

      "Quite soon enough, dear; don't try to hurry matters," said Aunt Wealthy. "You can never be a little girl again."

      Mildred, having brought a competent nurse with her thus far on her journey, a colored woman who would serve her in the care of little Percy while they remained in Philadelphia, then return to the South with Mrs. Dinsmore, was able to give herself to the shopping without distraction.

      As she had foreseen, the greater part of that work fell to her and Miss Stanhope, Dr. Landreth and Annis accompanying them constantly for a day or two only, after that for an hour or so when something was to be purchased in which they were specially interested.

      But the two ladies were equal to the demand upon them; Mildred had had a good deal of experience in shopping in the last few years, and Miss Stanhope was a veteran at the business – an excellent judge of qualities and prices – yet by reason of her absent-mindedness needed to have her knowledge supplemented by the collected wits of her niece.

      The old lady's odd ways and speeches often caused no little amusement to all within sight and hearing.

      One day she, her two nieces, and Dr. Landreth were in a large, handsomely appointed dry-goods store, looking at silks and other costly dress fabrics.

      They had made several selections, and while the doctor and Mildred paid for and saw the goods cut off and put up, Miss Stanhope moved on to the farther end of the room, where she saw, as she thought, an open doorway leading into another of similar dimensions and appearance.

      As she attempted to pass through the doorway she found herself confronted by a little old lady rather plainly attired. СКАЧАТЬ