Part 3 (1/2)

Mrs. Primmins trembled like a leaf.

”For fun!” said I, hanging my head,--”just to see how you'd look, papa; and that's the truth of it. Now beat me, do beat me!”

My father threw his book fifty yards off, stooped down, and caught me to his breast. ”Boy,” he said, ”you have done wrong: you shall repair it by remembering all your life that your father blessed G.o.d for giving him a son who spoke truth in spite of fear! Oh! Mrs. Primmins, the next fable of this kind you try to teach him, and we part forever!”

From that time I first date the hour when I felt that I loved my father, and knew that he loved me; from that time, too, he began to converse with me. He would no longer, if he met me in the garden, pa.s.s by with a smile and nod; he would stop, put his book in his pocket, and though his talk was often above my comprehension, still somehow I felt happier and better, and less of an infant, when I thought over it, and tried to puzzle out the meaning; for he had away of suggesting, not teaching, putting things into my head, and then leaving them to work out their own problems. I remember a special instance with respect to that same flower-pot and geranium. Mr. Squills, who was a bachelor, and well-to-do in the world, often made me little presents. Not long after the event I have narrated, he gave me one far exceeding in value those usually bestowed on children,--it was a beautiful large domino-box in cut ivory, painted and gilt. This domino-box was my delight. I was never weary of playing, at dominos with Mrs. Primmins, and I slept with the box under my pillow.

”Ah!” said my father one day, when he found me ranging the ivory parallelograms in the parlor, ”ah! you like that better than all your playthings, eh?”

”Oh, yes, papa!”

”You would be very sorry if your mamma were to throw that box out of the window and break it for fun.” I looked beseechingly at my father, and made no answer.

”But perhaps you would be very glad,” he resumed, ”if suddenly one of those good fairies you read of could change the domino-box into a beautiful geranium in a beautiful blue-and-white flower-pot, and you could have the pleasure of putting it on your mamma's window-sill.”

”Indeed I would!” said I, half-crying.

”My dear boy, I believe you; but good wishes don't mend bad actions: good actions mend bad actions.”

So saying, he shut the door and went out. I cannot tell you how puzzled I was to make out what my father meant by his aphorism. But I know that I played at dominos no more that day. The next morning my father found me seated by myself under a tree in the garden; he paused, and looked at me with his grave bright eyes very steadily.

”My boy,” said he, ”I am going to walk to ----,” a town about two miles off: ”will you come? And, by the by, fetch your domino-box. I should like to show it to a person there.” I ran in for the box, and, not a little proud of walking with my father upon the high-road, we set out.

”Papa,” said I by the way, ”there are no fairies now.”

”What then, my child?”

”Why, how then can my domino-box be changed into a geranium and a blue-and-white flower-pot?”

”My dear,” said my father, leaning his hand on my shoulder, ”everybody who is in earnest to be good, carries two fairies about with him,--one here,” and he touched my heart, ”and one here,” and he touched my forehead.

”I don't understand, papa.”

”I can wait till you do, Pisistratus. What a name!”

My father stopped at a nursery gardener's, and after looking over the flowers, paused before a large double geranium. ”Ah! this is finer than that which your mamma was so fond of. What is the cost, sir?”

”Only 7s. 6d.,” said the gardener.

My father b.u.t.toned up his pocket. ”I can't afford it to-day,” said he, gently, and we walked out.

On entering the town, we stopped again at a china warehouse. ”Have you a flower-pot like that I bought some months ago? Ah! here is one, marked 3s. 6d. Yes, that is the price. Well; when your mamma's birthday comes again, we must buy her another. That is some months to wait. And we can wait, Master Sisty. For truth, that blooms all the year round, is better than a poor geranium; and a word that is never broken, is better than a piece of delf.”

My head, which had drooped before, rose again; but the rush of joy at my heart almost stifled me.

”I have called to pay your little bill,” said my father, entering the shop of one of those fancy stationers common in country towns, and who sell all kinds of pretty toys and knick-knacks. ”And by the way,” he added, as the smiling shopman looked over his books for the entry, ”I think my little boy here can show you a much handsomer specimen of French workmans.h.i.+p than that work-box which you enticed Mrs. Caxton into raffling for, last winter. Show your domino-box, my dear.”

I produced my treasure, and the shopman was liberal in his commendations. ”It is always well, my boy, to know what a thing is worth, in case one wishes to part with it. If my young gentleman gets tired of his plaything, what will you give him for it?”