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<h3> CHAPTER II </h3> <h3> 'Mother Nature' </h3> A few evenings after this, as nurse was undressing the little girls for bed, Mrs. Stuart came into the nursery. She was going out to dinner, and looked very beautiful in her soft satin dress and pearls. She was tall and stately, with the same golden hair as Molly, but her face was somewhat cold in expression. Sitting down in an easy chair by the fire she asked,— 'What is the matter with Betty? is she in disgrace again?' Betty was standing in her long nightdress at the foot of her small bed; her hands were clenched, and there was a resolute, determined look upon her flushed face. 'One of her obstinate fits,' said nurse angrily; 'she generally goes to bed before Miss Molly, and because I have let her stay up a little later to-night she is as contrary as she can be! I can do nothing with her, a good whipping is what she wants!' Betty's blue eyes wandered from nurse's face to her mother's, as if seeking consolation there; her hands relaxed, and a slight quiver came to the little lips. 'Are you going to a party, mother? may I come and kiss you?' It was Molly who spoke. She was in the act of scrambling into bed, but upon receiving permission she made her way, a little shyly, across to where her mother was seated. 'Now keep your hands off my dress,' Mrs. Stuart said with a smile; but she put her arm round the little figure and kissed her, and sent her back to bed perfectly happy. All the children adored their mother, though it was adoration at a distance. 'Now come here, Betty; what have you been doing? How is it that I never visit the nursery without hearing complaints of your naughtiness?' 'I'm going to be good now,' said Betty, hanging her head, and coming slowly forward into the firelight. 'She has refused to say her prayers,' said nurse sternly. 'I will say them now'; and Betty raised her eyes to her mother somewhat wistfully. 'Why did you refuse to say them when nurse told you to?' 'Because Molly was saying her prayers.' 'Well, what had that to do with it?' Betty did not answer. 'Answer me.' The child looked round; nurse had left the room. She worked her little foot backwards and forwards in the long-haired rug rather nervously, and then, almost in a whisper, said,— 'God couldn't listen to both of us, and I wanted Him to listen to me.' Mrs. Stuart gazed perplexedly at her little daughter, then laughed. 'You are a little goose! Go and say your prayers at once, and get into bed. I have come here to talk to nurse.' Betty crept away. Her mother's amused laugh had hurt her more than nurse's scoldings. It was hard to have one's secret feelings brought to light and scoffed at, and her sensitive little soul felt this, though in a dim, uncertain way. 'I want to have God all to myself,' was her thought, as a few minutes later she laid her little head down on the pillow; 'I wonder if I'm very wicked. I won't say my prayers if He is not listening.' 'Now, nurse,' said Mrs. Stuart, as that worthy reappeared, 'I want to talk to you. Your master and I are going abroad after Easter; he is not well, and the doctors have ordered him away. I want to send you and the children into the country for the summer. I don't fancy them being at the seaside all that time. You were telling me some time ago of your old home; isn't it a brother of yours who has the farm? Yes? Well, do you think they have room to take you all in?' Nurse's face glowed with pleasure. 'He has no chick or child, ma'am, and the house is large and roomy; his wife was saying in a letter to me they should like lodgers in the summer. I'm sure it would please them to take us in; and the country round there is wonderfully healthy.' 'I think that would answer very well,' Mrs. Stuart went on thoughtfully; 'we may be away six months: and the children are looking pale, a country life will do them all the good in the world. Let them run wild, nurse, they will come back to their lessons all the better for it. Miss Grant told me this morning she would have to give up teaching—her mother is very ill—so, all things combined, I think this plan will work well. Will you write to your brother and find out if he can take you in the last week in April? Let me know when you have heard from him.' Mrs. Stuart rose as she spoke; her visits were never long, and nurse left the room with her. 'Betty,' said Molly, in an eager tone, 'did you hear? We're going into the country.' 'I heard; and no lessons, and we're to run wild; how lovely!' Betty's curly head bobbed up and down in excitement, then she said persuasively, 'Molly, let you and me keep it a secret together; we won't tell Douglas or the twins.' This required consideration. Molly sat up in bed and looked thoughtful. 'I never do have a secret with you,' pleaded Betty. 'You and Douglas have lots; I never have any one to have secrets with.' 'Well, I'll see,' and there was a little of the elder sister in Molly's tone. 'I'll tell you to-morrow morning. Oh, it will be jolly in the country, won't it? And nurse's home that she tells us about is like our story-books: it's full of calves, and lambs, and horses, and ducks, and chickens, and haymaking, and pigs!' 'And ponds, and apple orchards, and we shall have cream, and honey, and strawberries every day!' continued Betty. The little girls' voices were raised in their excitement, and they did not notice a door at the end of the room slowly open. 'What a row! Are you telling stories?' It was Douglas, who slept in a little room off the nursery, and who had been roused by the sound of talking. 'Hush! nurse will hear. Come and sit on my bed,' said Molly, 'and then you will hear all about it.' 'Oh, Molly, it was to be our secret!' 'Douglas won't tell. Besides, nurse is sure to tell us; she knew we were awake and listening.' Betty gave a little sigh, then joined eagerly in giving her brother the delightful information. He listened, rumpling up his fair curls, and blinking his blue eyes, which were already heavy with sleep. 'Easter is years off,' he said at last. 'Why, we are still in winter. I daresay we shan't go, after all.' 'We are in February now,' said Molly, looking a little disappointed at the calm way he received such rapturous news. 'If I go,' Douglas went on meditatively, 'I shall ask father to let me have a gun, and I shall shoot rabbits and birds every day.' 'Then you'd be a wicked, cruel boy!' pronounced Betty indignantly. 'I shall catch all the rabbits I can see and tame them.' 'Then I shall let them loose again,' retorted Douglas; and taking up Molly's pillow, he flung it with all his strength at Betty, who instantly returned it, and a pillow fight commenced. Molly joined delightedly in the fray; but, alas! in the height of the excitement, Betty backed into a can of water put ready for their morning bath. Over she went, head first, on the floor, and the whole contents of the can flooded her and the carpet together. Douglas precipitately fled into his little room, and Molly into her bed, so that when nurse came hastily in Betty again was discovered as chief offender. Whilst she was being hustled into a dry nightdress nurse relieved her vexed feelings by giving her a good scolding, and Betty eventually crept into bed wondering if she was really the 'wickedest, mischievousest child on earth,' or if grown-up people sometimes made mistakes. For the next few days nothing was talked of but the proposed country visit; but as weeks went on, and spring seemed still as far away, the children's excitement subsided, and the ordinary routine of lessons, walks, and play engrossed their whole attention. But Easter came at last, and then packing-up began. Miss Grant took her departure, and poor Sophy, the nursery maid, had her hands full enough, for nurse's command was to keep the children quiet, and not let them come near her when packing. Mr. Roper was leaving the library one afternoon about four o'clock, when he saw the disconsolate little figure of Betty seated on the stairs. 'Anything the matter?' he asked good-naturedly. 'We're going away to-morrow,' was the reply, 'and it is all topsy-turvy upstairs. Douglas and Molly have been lions for hours, and Bobby and Billy two monkeys, and I've been the man. I'm tired of being him, and they won't let me change. I've broken a jug and basin, and nearly pulled a cupboard over, and spilt a bottle of cod-liver oil all over Billy's hair, and upset nurse's work-basket, and then I ran away and hid, and came down here. You don't know how tiring it is to be hunted by four animals all at once.' Mr. Roper sat down on the stairs by her and laughed heartily. 'Poor little hunter!' he said, 'and how does nurse bear all this raging storm around her?' 'Oh, nurse is with mother, in the night nursery. Sophy is running after all of us. I don't know who she pretends to be, but when I left her she was sitting on the floor wiping Billy's hair and crying.' Betty's tone and face were grave, and Mr. Roper stopped laughing. 'Have you been thinking over tribulation any more?' he asked. Betty nodded. 'A lot,' she said emphatically, then shut up her little lips tightly; and Mr. Roper knew he was to be told no more. 'Are you going into the country, Mr. Roper?' he was asked presently. 'No, indeed. I am not rich enough to have such a holiday as is in prospect for you. I wonder what you will do with yourselves all the time? You must come back much the better and wiser, Betty, for it.' 'Why?' 'You will be six months older, and old Mother Nature is the best governess for little ones like you. She will teach you many a lesson, if you keep your eyes and ears open.' Betty's eyes were very wide open now. 'Does she live at the farm? I never heard nurse speak of her. We don't want another governess there. How do you know her?' 'I knew her when I was a little boy, and loved her. I love her now, but my work is in London, and I never get much chance of seeing her.' 'She must be very old,' Betty said meditatively. 'Very old; and yet every year she seems younger and more beautiful. You will see her at her best, Betty. I shall expect you to come home and tell me all about her.' 'Shall I give her your love and a kiss when I see her?' 'Yes,' said the young man, smiling down upon the earnest child beside him. A rush of feet behind them, and Molly and Douglas came tearing downstairs. 'Here she is! Where have you been? Bobby has cut his head open, and Sophy has rushed to nurse, and nurse is scolding away, so we came off. Mr. Roper, do you know we're going away to-morrow?' 'And will you come and see us one day, Mr. Roper?' 'Mr. Roper, does every farmer in the country go about in his night-shirt? Douglas says they do, and we have pictures of them.' 'And are there stags and wild boar to hunt? Do tell us.' Mr. Roper made short work of these questions, and departed. He was a reserved, reticent man, and did not understand the boisterous spirits of the little Stuarts. Betty was his favourite; he was always ready for a chat with her, but the others worried him. Nurse was very thankful when she got herself and her little charges all comfortably settled in the railway carriage for Tiverstoke the next day. Sophy was not going with them, but the longing to be in the old home again quite compensated nurse for the additional labour and responsibility she would have. The children had parted from their parents with great composure. Mrs. Stuart had reiterated parting injunctions to nurse, and their father had presented all five with a bright half-crown each, which gift greatly added to their delight at going. 'Not much affection in children's hearts,' said Mr. Stuart to his wife, as he watched the beaming faces gathered round the cab window to wave 'good-bye.' 'They will get through life the better for absence of sentiment and demonstrativeness,' replied Mrs. Stuart; and perhaps those words were an index to her character. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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