Holiday House Part 7

A long time elapsed afterwards without anything going wrong; and it was quite pleasant to see such learning of lessons, such attention to rules, and such obedience to Mrs. Crabtree, as went on in the nursery during several weeks. At last, one day, when Lady Harriet and Major Graham were preparing to set off on a journey, and to pay a short visit at Holiday House, Laura and Harry observed a great deal of whispering and talking in a corner of the room, but they could not exactly discover what it was all about, till Major Graham said very earnestly, "I think we might surely take Laura with us."

"Yes," answered Lady Harriet, "both the children have been invited, and are behaving wonderfully well of late, but Lord Rockville has such a dislike to noise, that I dare not venture to take more than one at a time. Poor Laura has a very severe cough, so she may be recovered by change of air. As for Harry, he is quite well, and therefore he can stay at home."

Now, Harry thought it very hard that he was to be left at home, merely because he felt quite well, so he immediately wished to be very ill indeed, that he might have some chance of going to Holiday House; but then he did not exactly know how to set about it. At all events, Harry determined to catch a cold like Laura's, without delay. He would not, for the whole world have pretended to suffer from a cough if he really had none, because uncle David had often explained that making any one believe an un-truth was the same as telling a lie; but he thought there might be no harm in really getting such a terrible cold, that nothing could possibly cure it except change of air, and a trip to Holiday House with Laura. Accordingly Harry tried to remember every thing that Mrs. Crabtree had forbid him to do "for fear of catching cold." He sprinkled water over his shirt collar in the morning before dressing, that it might be damp; he ran violently up and down stairs to put himself in a heat, after which he sat between the open window and door till he felt perfectly chilled; and when going to bed at night, he washed his hair in cold water without drying it. Still, all was in vain!

Harry had formerly caught cold a hundred times when he did not want one; but now, such a thing was not to be had for love or money. Nothing seemed to give him the very slightest attempt at a cough; and when the day at last arrived for Lady Harriet to begin her journey, Harry still felt himself most provokingly well. Not so much as a finger ached, his cheeks were as blooming as roses, his voice as clear as a bell, and when uncle David accidentally said to him in the morning, "How do you do?"

Harry was obliged, very much against his will, to answer, "Quite well, I thank you!"

In the meantime, Laura would have felt too happy if Harry could only have gone with her; and even as it was, being impatient for the happy day to arrive, she hurried to bed an hour earlier than usual the night before, to make the time of setting out appear nearer; and she could scarcely sleep or eat for thinking of Holiday House, and planning all that was to be done there.

"It is pleasant to see so joyous a face," said Major Graham. "I almost envy you, Laura, for being so happy."

"Oh! I quite envy myself! but I shall write a long letter every day to poor Harry, telling him all the news, and all my adventures."

"Nonsense! Miss Laura! wait till you come home," said Mrs. Crabtree.

"Who do you think is going to pay postage for so many foolish letters?"

"I shall!" answered Harry. "I have got sixpence, and two pence, and a half penny, so I shall buy every one of Laura's letters from the postman, and write her an answer immediately afterwards. She will like to hear, Mrs. Crabtree, how very kind you are going to be, when I am left by myself here. Perhaps you will play at nine pins with me, and Laura can lend you her skipping rope."

"You might as well offer uncle David a hobby-horse," said Frank, laughingly, throwing his satchel over his shoulders. "No, Harry! you shall belong to me now. Grandmama says you may go every day to my play-ground, where all the school-boys a.s.semble, and you can have plenty of fun till Laura comes back. We shall jump over the moon every morning, for joy."

Harry brightened up amazingly, thinking he had never heard such good news before, as it was a grand piece of promotion to play with real big school-boys; so he became quite reconciled to Laura's going away for a short time without him; and when the hour came for taking leave, instead of tears being shed on either side, it would have been difficult to say, as they kissed each other and said a joyous good-bye, which face looked the most delighted.

All Laura's clothes had been packed the night before, in a large chaise seat, which was now put into the carriage along with herself, and every thing seemed ready for departure, when Lady Harriet's maid was suddenly taken so very ill, as to be quite unfit for travelling; therefore she was left behind, and a doctor sent for to attend her; while Lady Harriet said she would trust to the maids at Holiday House, for waiting upon herself and Laura.

It is seldom that so happy a face is seen in this world, as Laura wore during the whole journey. It perfectly sparkled and glittered with delight, while she was so constantly on a broad grin laughing, that Major Graham said he feared her mouth would grow an inch wider on the occasion.

"You will tire of sitting so long idle! It is a pity we did not think of bringing a few lesson-books in the carriage to amuse you, Laura," said the Major, slyly. "A piece of needle-work might have beguiled the way. I once knew an industrious lady who made a ball dress for herself in the carriage during a journey."

"How very stupid of her to miss seeing all the pretty trees, and cottages, and farm-houses! I do like to watch the little curly-headed, dirty children, playing on the road, with brown faces, and hair bleached white in the sun; and the women hanging out their clothes on the hedges to dry; and the blacksmith shoeing horses, and the ducks swimming in the gutters, and the pigs thrusting their noses out of the sty, and the old women knitting stockings, and the workmen sitting on a wall to eat their dinners! It looks all so pretty, and so pleasant!"

"What a picture of rural felicity! You ought to be a poet or a painter, Laura!"

"But I believe poets always call this a miserable world: and I think it the happiest place I have ever been in, uncle David! Such fun during the holidays! I should go wild altogether, if Mrs. Crabtree were not rather cross sometimes."

"Or very cross always," thought Major Graham. "But here we are, Laura, near our journey's end. Allow me to introduce you to Holiday House! Why, you are staring at it like a dog looking at a piece of cold beef! My dear girl, if you open your eyes so wide, you will never be able to shut them again!"

Holiday House was not one of those prodigious places, too grand to be pleasant, with the garden a mile off in one direction, and the farm a mile off in another, and the drawing-room a mile off from the dining-room; but it was a very cheerful modern mansion, with rooms enough to hold as many people as any one could desire to see at once, all very comfortably furnished. A lively, dashing river, streamed past the windows; a small park, sprinkled with sheep, and shaded by fine trees, surrounded the house; and beyond were beautiful gardens filled with a superabundance of the gayest and sweetest common flowers. Roses, carnations, wall flowers, holly-hocks, dahlias, lilies, and violets, were a.s.sembled there in such crowds, that Laura might have plucked nosegays all day, without making any visible difference; and she was also made free of the gooseberry bushes and cherry-trees, with leave to gather, if she pleased, more than she could eat.

Every morning, Laura entered the breakfast-room with cheeks like the roses she carried, bringing little bouquets for all the ladies, which she had started out of bed early, in order to gather; and her great delight was to see them worn and admired all the forenoon, while she was complimented on the taste with which they had been selected and arranged. She filled every ornamental jar, basin, and tea-cup in the drawing-room, with groups of roses, and would have been the terror of any gardener but the one at Holiday House, who liked to see his flowers so much admired, and was not keeping up any for a horticultural show.

Laura's chief delight, however, was in the dairy, which seemed the most beautiful thing she had ever beheld, being built of rough transparent spar, which looked exactly like crystal, and reminded her of the ice palace built by the Empress of Russia. The windows were of painted gla.s.s; the walls and shelves were of Dutch tiles, and in the centre rose a beautiful jet d'eau of clear bright water.

Laura thought it looked like something built for the fairies; but within she saw a most substantial room, the floor and tables in which were so completely covered with cheeses, that they looked like some old Mosaic pavement. Here the good-natured dairy-maid showed Laura how to make cheese, and afterwards manufactured a very small one about the size of a soup plate, entirely for the young lady herself, which she promised to take home after her visit was over; and a little churn was also filled full of cream, which Laura one morning churned into b.u.t.ter, and breakfasted upon, after having first practised printing it into a variety of shapes. It was altered about twenty times from a swan into a cow, and from a cow into a rose, and from a rose back to a swan again, before she could be persuaded to leave off her amus.e.m.e.nt.

Laura continued to become more and more delighted with Holiday House; and she one day skipped about Lady Harriet's room, saying, "Oh! I am too happy! I scarcely know what to do with so much happiness. How delightful it would be to stay here all my life, and never to go to bed, nor say any more lessons as long as I live!"

"What a useless, stupid girl you would soon become," observed Lady Harriet. "Do you think, Laura, that lessons were invented for no other purpose but to torment little children?"

"No, grandmama; not exactly! They are of use also to keep us quiet."

"Come here, little madam, and listen to me. I shall soon be very old, Laura, and not able to read my Bible, even with spectacles; for, as the Scriptures told us, in that affecting description of old age, which I read to you yesterday, 'the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened:' what then do you think I can do, because the Bible now is my best comfort, which I shall need more and more every day, to tell me all about the eternal world where I am going, and to shew me the way."

"Grandmama! you promised long ago to let me attend on you when you grow old and blind! I shall be very careful, and very--very--very kind. I almost wish you were old and blind now, to let you feel how much I love you, and how anxious I am to be as good to you as you have always been to me. We shall read the Bible together every morning, and as often afterwards as you please."

"Thank you, my dear child! but you must take the trouble of learning to read well, or we shall be sadly puzzled with the difficult words. A friend of mine once had n.o.body that could read to her when she was ill, but the maid, who bargained that she might leave out every word above one syllable long, because they were too hard for her; and you could hardly help laughing at the nonsense it sometimes made; but I hope you will manage better."

"O certainly, grandmama! I can spell chrononhotonthologos, and all the other five-cornered words in my 'Reading Made Easy,' already."

"Besides that, my dear Laura! unless you learn to look over my bills, I may be sadly cheated by servants and shop-keepers. You must positively study to find out how many cherries make five."

"Ah! grandmama! n.o.body knows better than I do, that two and two make four. I shall soon be quite able to keep your accounts."

"Very well! but you have not yet heard half the trouble I mean to give you. I am remarkably fond of music, and shall probably at last be obliged to hire every old fiddler as he pa.s.ses in the street, by giving him sixpence in order to enjoy some of my favourite tunes."

"No, grandmama! you shall hear them all from me. I can play Malbrook, and Auld Robin Grey, already; and Frank says if I practise two hours every day for ten years, I shall become a very tolerable player, fit for you and uncle David to hear, without being disagreeable."

"Then that will be more than seven thousand hours of musical lessons which you have yet to endure, Laura! There are many more things of still greater importance to learn also, if you wish to be any better than a musical snuff-box. For instance, when visitors come to see me, they are often from France or Italy; but perhaps you will not mind sitting in the room as if you were deaf and dumb, gazing at those foreigners, while they gaze at you, without understanding a syllable they say, and causing them to feel strange and uncomfortable as long as they remain in the house."

"No! I would not for the world seem so unkind and uncivil. Pray, let me learn plenty of languages."

"Very well! but if you study no geography, what ridiculous blunders you will be falling into! asking the Italians about their native town Madrid, and the Americans if they were born at Petersburgh. You will be fancying that travellers go by steam-boats to Moscow, and travel in a day from Paris, through Stockholm to Naples. How ashamed I should be of such mistakes!"

"And so should I, grandmama, still more than you; for it would be quite a disgrace."

"Do you remember, Laura, your uncle David laughing, when he last went to live at Leamington, about poor Mrs. Marmalade coming up stairs to say, she did not wish to be troublesome, but should feel greatly obliged if he would call at Portsmouth occasionally to see her son Thomas. And when Captain Armylist's regiment was ordered last winter to the village of Bathgate near this, he told me they were to march in the course of that morning, all the way to Bagdad."

"Yes, grandmama! and Mrs. Crabtree said some weeks ago, that if her brother went to Van Dieman's Land, she thought he would of course in pa.s.sing, take a look at Jerusalem; and Frank was amused lately to hear Peter Grey maintain, that Gulliver was as great a man as Columbus, because he discovered Liliput!"

"Quite like him! for I heard Peter ask one day lately, what side Bonaparte was on at the battle of Leipsic? We must include a little history I think, Laura, in our list of studies, or you will fancy that Lord Nelson fought at the battle of Blenheim, and that Henry VIII. cut off Queen Mary's head."

"Not quite so bad as that, grandmama! I seem to have known all about Lord Nelson and Queen Mary, ever since I was a baby in long frocks! You have shewn me, however, that it would be very foolish not to feel anxious for lessons, especially when they are to make me a fit companion for you at last."

"Yes, Laura! and not only for me, but for many whose conversation will entertain and improve you more than any books. The most delightful accomplishment that a young person can cultivate, is that of conversing agreeably; and it is less attended to in education than any other. You cannot take a harp or piano about with you, but our minds and tongues are always portable, and accompany us wherever we go. If you wish to be loved by others, and to do good to your a.s.sociates, as well as to entertain them, take every opportunity of conversing with those who are either amiable or agreeable; not only attending to their opinions, but also endeavouring to gain the habit of expressing your own thoughts with ease and fluency; and then rest a.s.sured, that if the gift of conversation be rightly exercised, it is the most desirable of all, as no teaching can have greater influence in leading people to think and act aright, than the incidental remarks of an enlightened Christian, freely and unaffectedly talking to his intimate friends."

"Well, grandmama! the moral of all this is, that I shall become busier than any body ever was before, when we get home; but in the meantime, I may take a good dose of idleness now at Holiday House, to prepare me for settling to very hard labour afterwards," said Laura, hastily tying on her bonnet. "I wonder if I shall ever be as merry and happy again!"

Most unfortunately, all the time of Laura's visit at Holiday House, she had been, as usual, extremely heedless, in taking no care whatever of her clothes; consequently her blue merino frock had been cruelly torn; her green silk dress became frightfully soiled; four white frocks were utterly ruined; her Swiss muslin seemed a perfect object, and her pink gingham was both torn and discoloured. Regularly every evening Lady Harriet told her to take better care, or she would be a bankrupt in frocks altogether; but whatever her grandmama said on that subject, the moment she was out of sight, it went out of mind, till another dress had shared the same deplorable fate.

At last, one morning, as soon as Laura got up, Lady Harriet gravely led her towards a large table on which all the ill-used frocks had been laid out in a row; and a most dismal sight they were! Such a collection of stains and fractures was probably never seen before! A beggar would scarcely have thanked her for her blue merino; and the green silk frock looked like the tattered cover of a worn-out umbrella.

"Laura," said Lady Harriet, "in Switzerland a lady's wardrobe descends to many generations; but n.o.body will envy your successor! One might fancy that a wild beast had torn you to pieces every day! I wonder what an old clothesman would give for your whole baggage! It is only fit for being used as rags in a paper manufactory!"

Poor Laura's face became perfectly pink when she saw the destruction that a very short time had occasioned: and she looked from one tattered garment to another, in melancholy silence, thinking how lately they had all been fresh and beautiful; but now not a vestige of their former splendour remained. At last her grandmama broke the awful silence, by saying,

"My dear girl! I have warned you very often lately that we are not at home, where your frocks could be washed and mended as soon as they were spoiled; but without considering this you have, every day, destroyed several, so now the maid finds, on examining your drawers, that there is only one clean frock remaining!"

Laura looked gravely at the last clean frock, and wondered much what her grandmama would say next.

"I do not wish to make a prisoner of you at home during this very fine weather, yet in five minutes after leaving the house, you will, of course, become unfit to be seen, which I should very much regret, as a number of fine people are coming to dinner, whom you would like to see.