Children's Literature Part 137

Not I, for one! So here it goes," cried Hal, drawing out his knife; and he cut the cord, precipitately, in sundry places.

"Lads! Have you undone the parcels for me?" said Mr. Gresham, opening the parlor door as he spoke.

"Yes, Sir," cried Hal; and he dragged off his half-cut, half-entangled string--"here's the parcel."

"And here's my parcel, Uncle; and here's the string," said Ben.

"You may keep the string for your pains," said Mr. Gresham.

"Thank you, Sir," said Ben: "what an excellent whipcord it is!"

"And you, Hal," continued Mr. Gresham, "you may keep your string too, if it will be of any use to you."

"It will be of no use to me, thank you, Sir," said Hal.

"No, I am afraid not, if this be it," said his uncle taking up the jagged, knotted remains of Hal's cord.

A few days after this, Mr. Gresham gave to each of his nephews a new top.

"But how's this?" said Hal; "these tops have no strings; what shall we do for strings?"

"I have a string that will do very well for mine," said Ben; and he pulled out of his pocket the fine long smooth string which had tied up the parcel. With this he soon set up his top, which spun admirably well.

"Oh, how I wish that I had but a string!" said Hal: "what shall I do for a string? I'll tell you what: I can use the string that goes round my hat."

"But then," said Ben, "what will you do for a hatband?"

"I'll manage to do without one," said Hal and he took the string off his hat for his top. It soon was worn through; and he split his top by driving the peg too tightly into it. His cousin Ben let him set up his the next day; but Hal was not more fortunate or more careful when he meddled with other people's things than when he managed his own. He had scarcely played half an hour before he split it, by driving in the peg too violently.

Ben bore this misfortune with good humor. "Come," said he, "it can't be helped! But give me the string, because _that_ may still be of use for something else."

It happened some time afterwards, that a lady who had been intimately acquainted with Hal's mother at Bath, that is to say, who had frequently met her at the card table during the winter, now arrived at Clifton. She was informed by his mother that Hal was at Mr. Gresham's: and her sons, who were _friends_ of his, came to see him, and invited him to spend the next day with them.

Hal joyfully accepted the invitation. He was always glad to go out to dine, because it gave him something to do, something to think of, or, at least, something to say. Besides this, he had been educated to think it was a fine thing to visit fine people; and Lady Diana Sweepstakes (for that was the name of his mother's acquaintance) was a very fine lady; and her two sons intended to be very _great_ gentlemen.

He was in a prodigious hurry when these young gentlemen knocked at his uncle's door the next day; but just as he got to the hall door, little Patty called to him from the top of the stairs, and told him that he had dropped his pocket-handkerchief.

"Pick it up, then, and bring it to me, quick, can't you, child," cried Hal, "for Lady Di.'s sons are waiting for me?"

Little Patty did not know anything about Lady Di.'s sons; but as she was very good-natured, and saw that her cousin Hal was, for some reason or other, in a desperate hurry, she ran down stairs as fast as she possibly could towards the landing-place, where the handkerchief lay:--but alas!

Before she reached the handkerchief she fell, rolling down a whole flight of stairs; and, when her fall was at last stopped by the landing-place, she did not cry, but she writhed as if she was in great pain.

"Where are you hurt, my love?" said Mr. Gresham, who came instantly, on hearing the noise of some one falling down stairs.

"Where are you hurt, my dear?"

"Here, Papa," said the little girl, touching her ankle, which she had decently covered with her gown: "I believe I am hurt here, but not much," added she, trying to rise; "only it hurts me when I move."

"I'll carry you, don't move then," said her father; and he took her up in his arms.

"My shoe, I've lost one of my shoes," said she. Ben looked for it upon the stairs, and he found it sticking in a loop of whipcord, which was entangled round one of the bal.u.s.ters. When this cord was drawn forth, it appeared that it was the very same jagged, entangled piece which Hal had pulled off his parcel. He had diverted himself with running up and down stairs, whipping the bal.u.s.ters with it, as he thought he could convert it to no better use; and with his usual carelessness, he at last left it hanging just where he happened to throw it, when the dinner-bell rang.

Poor little Patty's ankle was terribly sprained, and Hal reproached himself for his folly, and would have reproached himself longer, perhaps, if Lady Di. Sweepstakes' sons had not hurried him away.

In the evening, Patty could not run about as she used to do; but she sat upon the sofa, and she said that "she did not feel the pain of her ankle so _much_ whilst Ben was so good as to play at _jack-straws_ with her."

"That's right, Ben; never be ashamed of being good-natured to those who are younger and weaker than yourself," said his uncle, smiling at seeing him produce his whipcord, to indulge his little cousin with a game at her favorite cat's-cradle. "I shall not think you one bit less manly, because I see you playing at cat's-cradle with a child six years old."

Hal, however, was not precisely of his uncle's opinion; for when he returned in the evening and saw Ben playing with his little cousin, he could not help smiling contemptuously, and asked if he had been playing at cat's-cradle all night. In a heedless manner he made some inquiries after Patty's sprained ankle, and then he ran on to tell all the news he had heard at Lady Diana Sweepstakes'--news which he thought would make him appear a person of vast importance.

"Do you know, Uncle--Do you know, Ben," said he--"there's to be the most _famous_ doings that ever were heard of, upon the Downs here, the first day of next month, which will be in a fortnight, thank my stars! I wish the fortnight were over; I shall think of nothing else I know, till that happy day comes."

Mr. Gresham inquired why the first of September was to be so much happier than any other day in the year.

"Why," replied Hal, "Lady Diana Sweepstakes, you know, is a _famous_ rider, and archer, and _all that_--"

"Very likely," said Mr. Gresham, soberly--"but what then?"

"Dear Uncle!" cried Hal, "but you shall hear. There's to be a race upon the Downs the first of September, and, after the race, there's to be an archery meeting for the ladies, and Lady Diana Sweepstakes is to be one of _them_. And after the ladies have done shooting--now, Ben, comes the best part of it! we boys are to have our turn, and Lady Di. is to give a prize to the best marksman amongst us, of a very handsome bow and arrow!

Do you know I've been practising already, and I'll show you tomorrow, as soon as it comes home, the _famous_ bow and arrow that Lady Diana has given me: but, perhaps," added he, with a scornful laugh, "you like a cat's-cradle better than a bow and arrow."

Ben made no reply to this taunt at the moment; but the next day, when Hal's new bow and arrow came home, he convinced him that he knew how to use it very well.

"Ben," said his uncle, "you seem to be a good marksman, though you have not boasted of yourself. I'll give you a bow and arrow; and perhaps, if you practise, you may make yourself an archer before the first of September; and, in the meantime, you will not wish the fortnight to be over, for you will have something to do."

"Oh, Sir," interrupted Hal, "but if you mean that Ben should put in for the prize, he must have a uniform."

"Why _must_ he?" said Mr. Gresham.

"Why, Sir, because everybody has--I mean everybody that's anybody;--and Lady Diana was talking about the uniform all dinner-time, and it's settled all about it except the b.u.t.tons; the young Sweepstakes are to get theirs made first for patterns; they are to be white, faced with green; and they'll look very handsome, I'm sure; and I shall write to Mamma to-night, as Lady Diana bid me, about mine; and I shall tell her to be sure to answer my letter, without fail, by return of the post; and then, if Mamma makes no objection, which I know she won't, because she never thinks much about expense, and _all that_--then I shall bespeak my uniform, and get it made by the same tailor that makes for Lady Diana and the young Sweepstakes."

"Mercy upon us!" said Mr. Gresham, who was almost stunned by the rapid vociferation with which this long speech about a uniform was p.r.o.nounced.

"I don't pretend to understand these things," added he, with an air of simplicity, "but we will inquire, Ben, into the necessity of the case, and if it is necessary--or if you think it necessary--that you should have a uniform, why--I'll give you one."

"_You_, Uncle!--Will you, _indeed_?" exclaimed Hal, with amazement painted in his countenance. "Well, that's the last thing in the world I should have expected!--You are not at all the sort of person I should have thought would care about a uniform; and I should have supposed you'd have thought it extravagant to have a coat on purpose only for one day; and I'm sure Lady Diana Sweepstakes thought as I do: for when I told her that motto over your kitchen chimney, WASTE NOT, WANT NOT, she laughed, and said that I had better not talk to you about uniforms, and that my mother was the proper person to write to about my uniform; but I'll tell Lady Diana, Uncle, how good you are, and how much she was mistaken."

"Take care how you do that," said Mr. Gresham; "for, perhaps, the lady was not mistaken."

"Nay, did not you say, just now, you would give poor Ben a uniform?"

"I said I would, if he thought it necessary to have one."

"Oh, I'll answer for it, he'll think it necessary," said Hal, laughing, "because it is necessary."

"Allow him, at least, to judge for himself," said Mr. Gresham.

"My dear Uncle, but I a.s.sure you," said Hal, earnestly, "there's no judging about the matter, because really, upon my word, Lady Diana said distinctly that her sons were to have uniforms, white faced with green, and a green and white c.o.c.kade in their hats."

"May be so," said Mr. Gresham, still with the same look of calm simplicity; "put on your hats, boys, and come with me. I know a gentleman whose sons are to be at this archery meeting, and we will inquire into all the particulars from him. Then, after we have seen him (it is not eleven o'clock yet), we shall have time enough to walk on to Bristol and choose the cloth for Ben's uniform, if it be necessary."