Part 4 (2/2)
”I made mud pies on his front 'teps, an' we both of us got mad, an'
I throwed mud on him, an' he gave me some 'trawberries an' all these flowers, an' brought me home on Maggie Boy.”
She stopped out of breath. Mrs. Tyler and her niece exchanged astonished glances.
”But, baby, how could you disgrace mother so by going up there looking like a dirty little beggar?”
”He didn't care,” replied Lloyd, calmly. ”He made me promise to come again, no mattah if you all did tell me not to.”
Just then Becky announced that lunch was ready, and carried the child away to make her presentable.
To Lloyd's great surprise she was not put to bed, but was allowed to go to the table as soon as she was dressed. It was not long until she had told every detail of the morning's experience.
While she was taking her afternoon nap, the two ladies sat out on the porch, gravely discussing all she had told them.
”It doesn't seem right for me to allow her to go there,” said Mrs.
Sherman, ”after the way papa has treated us. I can never forgive him for all the terrible things he has said about Jack, and I know Jack can never be friends with him on account of what he has said about me. He has been so harsh and unjust that I don't want my little Lloyd to have anything to do with him. I wouldn't for worlds have him think that I encouraged her going there.”
”Well, yes, I know,” answered her aunt, slowly. ”But there are some things to consider besides your pride, Elizabeth. There's the child herself, you know. Now that Jack has lost so much, and your prospects are so uncertain, you ought to think of her interests. It would be a pity for Locust to go to strangers when it has been in your family for so many generations. That's what it certainly will do unless something turns up to interfere. Old Judge Woodard told me himself that your father had made a will, leaving everything he owns to some medical inst.i.tution. Imagine Locust being turned into a sanitarium or a training-school for nurses!”
”Dear old place!” said Mrs. Sherman, with tears in her eyes. ”No one ever had a happier childhood than I pa.s.sed under these old locusts.
Every tree seems like a friend. I would be glad for Lloyd to enjoy the place as I did.”
”I'd let her go as much as she pleases, Elizabeth. She's so much like the old Colonel that they ought to understand each other, and get along capitally. Who knows, it might end in you all making up some day.”
Mrs. Sherman raised her head haughtily. ”No, indeed, Aunt Sally. I can forgive and forget much, but you are greatly mistaken if you think I can go to such lengths as that. He closed his doors against me with a curse, for no reason on earth but that the man I loved was born north of the Mason and Dixon line. There never was a n.o.bler man living than Jack, and papa would have seen it if he hadn't deliberately shut his eyes and refused to look at him. He was just prejudiced and stubborn.”
Aunt Sally said nothing, but her thoughts took the shape of Mom Beck's declaration, ”The Lloyds is all stubborn.”
”I wouldn't go through his gate now if he got down on his knees and begged me,” continued Elizabeth, hotly.
”It's too bad,” exclaimed her aunt; ”he was always so perfectly devoted to 'little daughter,' as he used to call you. I don't like him myself.
We never could get along together at all, because he is so high-strung and overbearing. But I know it would have made your poor mother mighty unhappy if she could have foreseen all this.”
Elizabeth sat with the tears dropping down on her little white hands, as her aunt proceeded to work on her sympathies in every way she could think of.
Presently Lloyd came out all fresh and rosy from her long nap, and went to play in the shade of the great beech-trees that guarded the cottage.
”I never saw a child with such influence over animals,” said her mother, as Lloyd came around the house with the parrot perched on the broom she was carrying. ”She'll walk right up to any strange dog and make friends with it, no matter how savage-looking it is. And there's Polly, so old and cross that she screams and scolds dreadfully if any of us go near her. But Lloyd dresses her up in doll's clothes, puts paper bonnets on her, and makes her just as uncomfortable as she pleases. Look! that is one of her favourite amus.e.m.e.nts.”
The Little Colonel squeezed the parrot into a tiny doll carriage, and began to trundle it back and forth as fast as she could run.
”Ha! ha!” screamed the bird. ”Polly is a lady! Oh, Lordy! I'm so happy!”
”She caught that from the washerwoman,” laughed Mrs. Sherman. ”I should think the poor thing would be dizzy from whirling around so fast.”
<script>