Part 7 (1/2)
Edna accepted her punishment very meekly. She was very fond of sweets, and it was hard to go without anything of that kind for seven whole days. Ellen with all good intentions offered her a slice of bread and b.u.t.ter spread with sugar in the kitchen one day; but the child was too honest to accept it, and it is quite likely that this stanch upholding of her aunt's decree had its effect not only upon Ellen but also upon Louis.
”Say, Edna,” said the boy, when he heard the result of the affair, ”I'm awfully sorry you got into a fuss on my account.”
”O, I don't mind it much,” replied his cousin; ”I mind having Uncle Justus think me bad.”
Louis opened his eyes. ”You don't care what that old tyrant thinks, do you?”
”Why, yes,” was the reply; ”don't you? I don't like anybody to think I am wicked.”
”I don't care what some people think,” replied Louis, angrily. ”I wish my father and mother were here, he'd soon see whether I'd be shut up again just because I chose to play with a boy they didn't know. I'll run away next time, see if I don't.”
”Was that it?” returned Edna; ”but you know they said we mustn't make friends with strange children.”
”Didn't you make friends with Maggie Horn? Answer me that, miss,”
exclaimed Louis, triumphantly.
Edna was silent. She didn't exactly see the way clear to defend herself, although she knew there was a difference somewhere.
”Maggie Horn is nothing but a dirty little street child,” continued Louis; ”and I haven't the least doubt but that she tells stories and steals and all that, while Phil Blaney lives in a nice house, and--and--”
”As if that made him good,” answered Edna, scornfully. ”I just know that he is a great deal worse than Maggie, for she never had anyone to teach her, and Phil has had, so he is much worse.”
”He is not,” replied Louis, fiercely.
”He is, he is,” contradicted Edna, ”and you are a horrid, disagreeable boy to talk so about Maggie; I am not going to play with you, so there,” and picking up her doll, she stalked away.
”Yah! yah! 'I don't want to play in your yard,'” sang Louis after her.
Edna was very angry, the more so that she did not know how to defend Maggie. It was quite likely, she thought, that Maggie might do all sorts of wrong things, and it was also quite true that she had, herself, made friends with a strange girl. She could not puzzle it out, and she went down stairs to the sitting-room where Uncle Justus was. She sat down on a ha.s.sock by the fire, looking very thoughtful.
Once or twice she glanced up at her uncle.
After a while he noticed the questioning look on her face. ”What is it, little girl?” he asked.
”Uncle Justus,” she said, ”was I very bad when I talked to Maggie Horn, and got 'quainted with her? Louis says it was just as bad as for him to talk to Phil Blaney.”
”Why did you talk to Maggie and make her acquaintance?”
”'Cause I was so sorry for her,” replied Edna, simply.
”And why did Louis become intimate with Phil; was it to do him good?”
”No,” replied Edna, ”I don't believe he thought of that. I think it was because he thought Phil was fun.”
”And did you think about disobeying when you met Maggie?”
”O, no, of course not; Uncle Justus, you don't think I meant to, do you? We b.u.mped into each other, and when I saw how poor and thin she was I felt so sorry. You don't think I talked to her because I wanted not to mind Aunt Elizabeth, do you?”
”No, I do not think so; I believe all your thought was to help Maggie.
It was not willful disobedience, so you see there is a difference between the two cases.”