Witch Winnie Part 19

"No, I have not finished," replied Stephen Trimble, nervously taking up a tool and beginning to remove a screw.

"You are tampering with the machine; put it down!" and the man seized it angrily.

"Let go!" shouted Stephen Trimble, "you touch it at your peril; the b.u.t.ton is under your hand!"

The warning came too late--there was a blinding flash, then a crash as though the heavens had fallen; then blackness and silence.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE KING'S DAUGHTERS IN THE COUNTRY.

"Her father sent her in his land to dwell, Giving to her a work that must be done; And since the king loves all his people well, Therefore she, too, cares for them, every one.

And when she stoops to lift from want and sin, The brighter shines her royalty therein.

She walks erect through dangers manifold, While many sink and fail on either hand; She dreads not summer's heat nor winter's cold, For both are subject to the king's command.

She need not be afraid of anything, Because she is the daughter of a king."

_Anon._

[Ill.u.s.tration: {Drawing of woman sitting on fence.}]

While all these sad things were happening Winnie and I were enjoying a happy summer at my beloved home in the blessed country.

It is not to be imagined that Winnie dropped all her wild ways and became a saint at once. She had been sobered by her sad experience in plotting and scheming for the little prince; but since her full forgiveness her elastic spirits rose to the surface, and her cheerful disposition a.s.serted itself in many playful pranks and merry, tricksy ways.

We did not forget our promise to work for the Elder Brother, but for a time we did nothing but rest fully and completely.

She was delighted with the country. The fresh air and free, wholesome life acted upon her like wine. She climbed walls and trees, leaped brooks, whistled, shouted, rode on the hay-carts, helped in the kitchen and in the garden, drove Dobbin about the country roads, went berrying, and was a prime favorite with all the boys, though I regret to say that at first, perhaps on this very account, the country girls were a little jealous and envious of her. But not a whit cared Winnie for this. She tramped over the fields and through marshes, with her botanist's can swung across her shoulder by a shawl-strap, searching for specimens. She boated and bathed, taking like a duck to the water, and learning to swim more quickly than any other person I had ever known. She loved to work in our old-fashioned garden, pulled weeds diligently, and seemed to love to feel the fresh earth with her fingers. Our flowers were all such as had grown there in my grandmother's time. It seemed to me that she must have modeled it on Mary Howitt's garden, for we had the very flowers which she describes in her poems.

"And there, before the little bench, O'ershadowed by the bower, Grow southernwood and lemon thyme, Sweet-pea and gillyflower;

"And pinks and clove carnations, Rich-scented, side by side; And at each end a holly-hock, With an edge of London-pride.

"I had marigolds and columbines, And pinks all pinks exceeding; I'd a n.o.ble root of love-in-a-mist, And plenty of love-lies-bleeding."

There was a bed of herbs, too, which my mother cherished--sweet-marjoram and summer savory, sage, rue, and rosemary.

Winnie took a great interest in all of these plants. The country girls thought it odd that she should care for the wild plants which were so common in our vicinity, not knowing Winnie's enthusiasm for botany, and her desire to make a large collection to show the princess. An unusually ignorant girl met her on one of her botanizing expeditions, and Winnie asked her if maiden-hair grew in our region. "Of course it does!" the girl replied, indignantly; "you didn't s'pose we all wore wigs, did you?"

It was some time before Winnie could control herself and explain that the maiden-hair of which she was in search was a kind of fern.

"Do you want it for a charm?" the girl asked.

"No," replied Winnie; "what will it do?"

"If you put it in your shoe and say the right kind of a charm, you will understand the language of the birds."

"Then I shall certainly try it," said Winnie, "for that would be great fun."

Another day mother brought the same girl into the garden, where Winnie was at work, to give her some vegetables.

"Did you try the charm?" the girl asked.

"Yes, indeed," Winnie replied.

"And did it work?"

"Oh, famously! There is a wood-p.e.c.k.e.r in the old tree just outside of my window, and he wakes me by his drumming every morning. This morning I understood for the first time just what he has been saying. It was 'Wake up, wake up! little rascal, little rascal, little rascal!'"

The girl stared at Winnie in open-mouthed astonishment. "You must be a witch," she said.

"That's what they call me--Witch Winnie."

They were standing beside mother's bed of herbs, and the frightened girl pulled up a stalk of rue and held it at arm's length, as though it were a protection. "Don't come nigh me! don't work any of your tricks on me!"

she said.

Winnie explained that she was only in sport, but the girl was only half rea.s.sured, and still clung to the spray of rue.

Miss Prillwitz afterward explained that rue, like vervain, was supposed to "hinder witches of their will," probably from the fact that it was once used in the Church of Rome, bound in f.a.gots, as a holy-water sprinkler, and is spoken of in old writings as the "Herb of Grace."

In this way Witch Winnie's name was revived again, and was applied to her by her new friends, even though they did not believe in her uncanny powers.

The princess came to us later in the season for a visit of a month, and we came to know her intimately and love her dearly. She brought five of the boys from the Home with her, for mother was pleased with the enterprise, and father had said that he guessed it wouldn't break him to give those city children a taste of what the country was like, and if we women folk could stand them he supposed he could.

Winnie took the boys in charge and led them off with her on her long tramps and to row in the safe, flat-bottomed boat. They had great sport, crabbing, bathing, swimming, and fishing, and their vacation did them a world of good. These were the boys for whom the princess had planned the industrial cla.s.ses, but Mr. Trimble lay at the hospital injured, it was thought, unto death by the explosion at Rickett's Court, and that plan was postponed for the present.

The boys attracted much attention in the Sabbath-school and wherever they appeared. Many questions were asked, and Miss Prillwitz was requested to explain the plan of the Home, in public and in private at the sewing society, and at the Fourth of July picnic.

We were not all ignorant country b.u.mpkins at Scup Harbor, and we were not all poor. There were plenty of farmers, who dressed coa.r.s.ely and fared plainly, who had bank accounts that would have bought out many a New Yorker of fashion. They were not selfish either. I have heard somewhere of a stingy deacon who, on hearing of a case of heart-rending distress, prayed for it in this wise:

"O Lord, 'giving doth not impoverish Thee, neither doth withholding enrich Thee,' but giving doth impoverish us, and withholding doth enrich us; therefore do Thou attend to this case, good Lord; do _Thou_ attend to this case."

Now this story may not be exaggerated, but I can only say that he did not live in our section of the country. Our deacons were soft-hearted, though h.o.r.n.y-handed men, and though they had the poor of their own church and vicinity to look out for, and performed that office well, they decided that Scup Harbor was rich enough to extend a helping hand to New York, since New York was either too poor or too hard-hearted to care for its own.

Accordingly a collection was taken up in church that made Miss Prillwitz's heart sing for joy; and the Ladies' Benevolent Sewing Society voted to have a box of clothing ready for the Home by cold weather.

The grown people were not the only ones interested; there were girls among us of gentle manners and hearts, and who were far better educated than Milly Roseveldt. Some of these heard of Miss Prillwitz's eminence as a scientist, and helped me to organize a cla.s.s for her in Natural History, and the remainder of the summer took on an aspect of mental improvement as well as of physical recreation. Miss Prillwitz mapped out a course of work and reading for each of us to carry on after her return to the city, and the circle arranged to meet at the homes of the members, and read essays and discuss different scientific subjects.

Winnie was surprised at the amount of intelligence and information displayed, and soon acquired a sincere respect for country girls. It was at one of our meetings after the princess had returned to New York that she noticed that Ethel Stanley, the daughter of a wealthy dairy farmer, wore a little silver cross with a purple ribbon knot.

"Has it come here, too?" she asked; "are you a King's Daughter?"

"Oh yes," replied Ethel; "I belong to the Helpful Ten, and there is a Cheer-Up Ten at the Corners. What do you call your link?"

"The Seek-and-to-Save Ten," Winnie replied; and she explained the mission of our Circle, and how we hoped to help the Elder Brother in his search for the little lost princes. Ethel was delighted. "I think we might help you," she said; "we are Methodists, but we don't mind working for you if you will let us. I suppose you are all Episcopalians in New York?"