“I must go home,” said Louise, with a little sigh at having to end the most pleasant visit she ever remembered. The two little girls had finished the lunch, and had played happily with “Lady Amy.” Mrs. Scott had left them quite by themselves, and not even the small cousins had come near the sitting-room1.
As Louise spoke2 she took off the blue velvet3 cap, which she had worn all the afternoon, and began to untie4 the hair ribbon.
“Oh, Louise! Don’t take off that hair ribbon. I gave it to you. It’s a present,” exclaimed Faith.
Louise shook her head. “Father won’t let me keep it,” she answered. “He wouldn’t like it if he knew that I had eaten anything in this house. He is always telling me that if people offer to give me anything I must never, never take it.”
[Pg 91]
Before Faith could speak Aunt Prissy came into the room.
“Tell your father I will come in and pay him for Faith’s shoes to-morrow, Louise,” she said pleasantly, “and you must come and see Faith again.”
“Yes’m. Thank you,” responded Louise shyly, and nodding to Faith with a look of smiling understanding, the crippled child made her way quickly from the room.
“Aunt Prissy, I like Louise Trent. I don’t believe she is a mischievous6 girl. Just think, she never had a doll in her life! And her father won’t let her take presents!” Faith had so much to say that she talked very rapidly.
“I see,” responded her aunt, taking up the rumpled7 hair ribbon which Louise had refused. “I am glad you were so kind to the poor child,” she added, smiling down at her little niece. “Tell me all you can about Louise. Perhaps there will be some way to make her life happier.”
So Faith told her aunt that Louise could not read. That she had never before tasted fruit cake, and that she had no playmates, and had never had a present.[Pg 92] “Why do you suppose she came to see me, Aunt Prissy?” she concluded.
“I cannot imagine. Unless it was because you are a stranger,” replied Aunt Prissy. “I have an idea that I can arrange with Mr. Trent so that he will be willing for me to make Louise a dress, and get for her the things she ought to have. For the shoemaker is no poorer than most of his neighbors. How would you like to teach Louise to read?”
“I’d like to! Oh, Aunt Prissy, tell me your plan!” responded Faith eagerly.
“Wait until I am sure it is a good plan, Faithie dear,” her aunt replied. “I’ll go down and see Mr. Trent to-morrow. I blame myself that I have not tried to be of use to that child.”
“May I go with you?” urged Faith.
“Why, yes. You can visit Louise while I talk with her father, since he asked you to come.”
“Has the Witch gone?” called Donald, running into the room. “Didn’t you know that all the children call the Trent girl a witch?” he asked his mother.
[Pg 93]“No, Donald. But if they do they ought to be ashamed. She is a little girl without any mother to care for her. And now she is your cousin’s friend, and we hope to see her here often. And you must always be polite and kind to her,” replied Mrs. Scott.
Donald looked a little doubtful and puzzled.
“You ought to be more kind to her than to any other child, because she is lame,” said Faith.
“All right. But what is a ‘witch,’ anyway?” responded Donald.
“It is a wicked word,” answered his mother briefly8. “See that you do not use it again.”
Faith’s thoughts were now so filled with Louise that she nearly lost her interest in the new dresses and shoes, and was eager for the next day to come so that she could again see her new friend.
Faith had been taught to sew neatly9, and she wondered if she could not help make Louise a dress. “And perhaps Aunt Prissy will teach her how to make cake,” she thought; for never to taste of cake seemed to Faith to be a real misfortune. For the first night since her arrival at her aunt’s home Faith went to sleep without a homesick longing10 for the cabin in the Wilderness11, and awoke the next morning thinking about all that could be done for the friendless little girl who could not accept a present.
[Pg 94]“We will go to Mr. Trent’s as soon as our morning work is finished,” said Aunt Prissy, “and you shall wear your new shoes and cap. And I have a blue cape12 which I made for you before you came. The morning is chilly13. You had best wear that.”
“I don’t look like Faith Carew, I am so fine,” laughed the little girl, looking down at her shoes, and touching14 the soft cloth of the pretty blue cape.
As they walked along Faith told Aunt Prissy of her plans to teach Louise to sew, as well as to read. “And perhaps you’ll show her how to make cake! Will you, Aunt Prissy?”
“Of course I will, if I can get the chance,” replied her aunt.
The shoemaker greeted them pleasantly. Before Mrs. Scott could say anything of her errand he began to apologize for his daughter’s visit.
“She slipped off without my knowing it. It shan’t happen again,” he said.
“But Faith will be very sorry if it doesn’t happen again,” replied Aunt Prissy. “Can she not run in and see Louise while I settle with you for the shoes?”
The shoemaker looked at ............