A Modern Cinderella, Amanda Minnie Douglas [free ereaders .txt] 📗

set one's nerves a-tingle. The outside crowd began to disperse, but the man loitered about, so she did not dare go back.

Then they brought out some tables on the lawn and began to arrange them. Oh, how daintily pretty it was! She recognized some of the girls, and in spite of her courage, sighed as she turned away.

Those were the sisters for whom the coach and four waited, with the footman and outriders, and who would be made welcome at all the grand functions of life, while the Cinderellas were relegated to the chimney corner. And the godmother must come out of fairy land, if she came at all, and transformed one with a wand. That was why the glories were so unsubstantial, and why the dream must end at midnight.

The babies were clamoring for supper. The house was all alone. She lifted them out and helped them up the steps, then gave them each a biscuit while she prepared their bread and milk. The ladies came home from their Whist. Mrs. Borden had won the first prize and they were talking as eagerly as boys over a baseball score. There was Jack, dirty and tousled as any tramp.

"Wash him up Marilla and put him in some clean clothes or we'll be late for dinner. Come, be quick, child."

That was the portion of the Cinderellas.


CHAPTER IX

THE LITTLE THORNS

They were all very glad to be home again. The house was so clean and orderly and there were so many closets and drawers in which to pack away things. Bridget had scoured and scrubbed and polished windows largely to pass away time, for the people next door had been away as well and the maids on a vacation earning money at seasides.

"Oh, I'm so glad to see you again!"

Marilla was hugging Bridget and her tone was full of delight.

"Ah, dear, an' it's glad enough I am to get ye back, but you've not grown very fat an' rugged looking, but them babies do beat all! They're quite ginteel one may say, an how they do run and talk! You'll have your hands full, I'm thinkin', if they're goin' to copy Jack!"

"Oh, Bridget, they're real sweet, only they're noisy when your head's tired. It sounds worse indoors. There was a big out of doors and grass, and people passing and some children came in to play. But now you have to look after them all the time."

"Marilla! Marilla!"

No, she could not waste her time in the chimney corner.

"Put on the babies' things and take them out walking, they'll drive me crazy."

She walked them round to Loraine place. Would she dare call? Oh, how her heart yearned to see them all again! but the blinds were drawn; perhaps no one was at home.

Then as they were going down the street, just at the corner, a lady and two girls about her size crossed. The lady and one of them lived about a block further down Arch street. The other she had known at the seaside. She smiled with a sudden pleasant surprise. The girl simply stared. Marilla's face was scarlet. Was it possible she was not to know any of these girls if she should meet them? This one did not live here, she knew that.

Then Aunt Hetty came home looking thinner and more dried up than ever, but glad to get back to her room. She would not come down to dinner but M'rilla could bring her up some toast and tea.

So instead of having a cozy time with Bridget she carried the small waiter up stairs. The tea was in the pot; Aunt Hetty had the kettle boiling on the gas stove. The toast was on a hot plate.

"Sit down a minute, I've hardly seen you. Did you have a nice time? I suppose the twins will be on the everlasting trot, now they can walk so well, and as for talking--well I'm glad I don't have to live with them; that I'm clear this end of the house. You see that they don't come up stairs. It's nice to be in your own place, though the folks where I staid were very good and pleasant, I s'pose they thought I might remember them in my will," and she gave a shrill sort of cackle. "Now I tell you there isn't much fun in living to be old, and I seem to have lost my spunk. It's just a kind of drowsing life away. Now tell me what you did! My, but this toast tastes good! Better than all their flummery."

"Oh, there were a good many nice things and pretty houses and gay people, and a big place where they all went to meals. And Jack is better than he used to be, he had the nicest little playmate and was out of the house most of the time. But I must run down, for Bridget said my dinner was ready. I'll come up again when the babies are in bed; can I bring you anything?"

"Well, yes, a glass of hot milk. No, bring it in a cup with a handle--it is so much nicer to hold. You're a good willing girl, Marilla."

"I thought you never would get down," Bridget said, almost crossly. "If you have to wait on that old woman and all the rest of us you'll wish you were in the grave. My! You look all tired out. Now, here's a nice bit of chicken that I laid aside for you. I'm not goin' to have you fed on leavings. And it wasn't nice down there?" nodding her head.

"Oh, Bridget, such a kitchen and such a table, and no white cloth on it! They, the servants didn't seem to care, and they were nice and clean at the Home, and you're--well, you have things as nice as in the dining room, and to have things shoveled out of the kettle on your plate or cold on a dish! Sometimes puddings were good, and the creams and frozen things were clean and nice. But I'm so glad to get back to you. And the lovely bath room! We didn't have any in the cottage. Why it saves half the work taking care of babies."

"You bet it does, I couldn't and wouldn't live in such a muxy kitchen. If I couldn't have things to suit I'd take French leave, though I guess I'd call it Irish leave. And people, women, think it a fine thing to go off and live that way. But the boss got very tired of it."

Marilla laughed faintly. She was almost too tired to eat, but the chicken was so tasty, and the fresh home-made bread delightful. And the cheery voice put heart in the girl. Then the dessert was delicious.

"I promised to take Aunt Hetty a cup of milk. I'll see first if Mrs. Borden wants me. But I'll dry the dishes for you."

"No, dear, I did the most of them while you were up stairs."

The babies had been put to bed. They did have an unlimited capacity for sleep, now that they were well. Jack was perched on his father's knee detailing some wonderful adventures. No, they did not need her.

"I'm going in next door awhile," said Bridget on her return. "Mrs. Dawson's girl left in a huff, and she asked me if I knew anyone. And there was my friend, Maggie Brady, just out of a place and a nice tidy girl; a good cook, too. So they both suited. Maggie's mother and mine lived in the same town. It's nice to have a friend at hand. And when ye's through with the old lady I'd run to bed. You look tired as a wagon wheel that's run round and round."

Marilla laughed and took a bottle of milk with her. Aunt Hetty drank a good cupful, hot, and the remainder was set out on the window sill. Then she settled herself in bed with two pillows under her head; she could hear better she thought.

"Now, you open that book at the mark and read to me. 'Twon't be very interesting, for you can't know what's gone before. And no doubt I'll fall asleep--I always snore a little at first, and when you hear that you may light the burner in the other room and turn it very low and put the window down from the top and skip off to yourself."

She was very tired but she read quite awhile before the gentle snoring began, and she was glad enough to go to bed.

They had been home just a week when school opened. It was a comfort to get rid of Jack. They began to settle into quite regular living.

"I've just had a fright," said Mrs. Borden, coming up to her sister's room. "A man has been here inquiring about school children and I _did_ stretch the truth a little. You see, now children have to go to school until they are fourteen. I simply can't let Marilla go. I didn't adopt her nor consider her in any sense my own. A child like that isn't worth more than her board and clothes. What good would she be to us if we had to get her off at nine in the morning, and then have only an hour in the afternoon. The twins _must_ be taken out, and there's so much running up and down. She's a nice honest, truthful child and a born nurse girl. But if I had to send her to school, I'd trot her off to the Home."

"There is so much to do this winter. When you come to that, she knows enough for ordinary, and later on she could go to evening school. There's so much shopping and planning, and we must be out a good deal. The twins mightn't take to a new girl. Let us keep her if we possibly can."

Miss Borden's lover was to return before Christmas and wanted every thing ready for a speedy marriage. It would be in church with a very small reception afterward. And that was hardly three months' distance.

Marilla was coming home with the babies one afternoon when two lady callers and a girl were saying adieu and coming down the steps. Yes, that was Ada Brant who had been at Bayside in the summer and at first had been quite friendly with her. Now she looked as if she had never known her.

Maybe that was the way all the girls would feel to one who had been bound-out from an institution. There they had all been on an equality. And somehow the Bordens had not really put her down. Then that lovely Miss Armitage. Why, there had been a place for her at the table, and Jane had waited on her as if she had been a guest!

Perhaps it would be different now. Then came a very bitter knowledge to Marilla Bond. Five years more of this, and wouldn't people remember she had been Mrs. Borden's nursemaid? Why, even now she would be glad to be Miss Armitage's maid. What made the difference?

She was to hear more of it that evening. After the babies came in from their outing they were washed, undressed, and a nice warm wrapper put over their nightgown, and then fed. Afterward laid in their crib. They didn't go to sleep at once but kicked and laughed and chatted in a regular frolic. Phlegmatic babies can be easily trained. Then Marilla came down and waited on the table as Bridget sent various things up