Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil 
 
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 KSWYOftlt; 
 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
 
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Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1850, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The development of the moral sentiments in the 
 human heart, in early life, — and every thing in fact 
 which relates to the formation of character, — is deter- 
 mined in a far greater degree by sympathy, and by 
 the influence of example, than by formal precepts and 
 didactic instruction. If a boy hears his father speak- 
 ing kindly to a robin in the spring, — welcoming its 
 coming and offering it food, — there arises at once in 
 his own mind, a feeling of kindness toward the bird, 
 and toward all the animal creation, which is produced 
 by a sort of sympathetic action, a power somewhat 
 similar to what in physical philosophy is called induc- 
 tion. On the other hand, if the father, instead of feed- 
 ing the bird, goes eagerly for a gun, in order that he 
 may shoot it, the boy will sympathize in that desire, 
 and growing up under such an influence, there will be 
 gradually formed within him, through the mysterious 
 tendency of the youthful heart to vibrate in unison with 
 hearts that are near, a disposition to kill and destroy 
 all helpless beings that come within his power. There 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 is no need of any formal instruction in either case. 
 Of a thousand children brought up under the former 
 of the above-described influences, nearly every one, 
 when he sees a bird, will wish to go and get crumbs 
 to feed it, while in the latter case, nearly every one 
 will just as certainly look for a stone. Thus the grow- 
 ing up in the right atmosphere, rather than the receiv- 
 ing of the right instruction, is the condition which it 
 is most important to secure, in plans for forming the 
 characters of children. 
 
 It is in accordance with this philosophy that these 
 stories, though written mainly with a view to their 
 moral influence on the hearts and dispositions of the 
 readers, contain very little formal exhortation and in- 
 struction. They present quiet and peaceful pictures of 
 happy domestic life, portraying generally such conduct, 
 and expressing such sentiments and feelings, as it is 
 desirable to exhibit and express in the presence of 
 children. 
 
 The books, however, will be found, perhaps, after all, 
 to be useful mainly in entertaining and amusing the 
 youthful readers who may peruse them, as the writing 
 of them has been the amusement and recreation of the 
 author in the intervals of more serious pursuits. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAOK 
 
 I. — Birds, . ■ . 11 
 
 II.— The Grotto, 29 
 
 III. — The Inundation, 47 
 
 IV. — Planning, 66 
 
 V. — Carlo Lost, 85 
 
 VI. — Carlo Found, 104 
 
 VII.— Cordelia, 127 
 
 VIII.— The Wagon Ride, 147 
 
 IX. — Getting Home, . . . . .160 
 
 X. — The Drawing-School, 185 
 
ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 PAGS 
 
 The Yard at Mary Bell's — Frontispiece. 
 
 The Bank Swallows, 17 
 
 The Grotto, 37 
 
 Carlo, 53 
 
 The Launching, , .... 83 
 
 Go Home, . 88 
 
 Vert Savage, . . 118 
 
 The Peak, .138 
 
 The Flag of Truce, 160 
 
 Bringing the Boat, . . . . . .179 
 
 The Garden Stone, 187 
 
FRANCONIA STORIES 
 
 ORDER OF THE VOLUMES. 
 
 MALLEVILLE. RODOLPHUS. 
 
 WALLACE. ELLEN LINN. 
 
 MARY ERSKINE. STUYVESANT. 
 
 MARY BELL. CAROLINE 
 
 BEECHNUT. AGNES. 
 
SCENE OF THE STORY. 
 
 Franconia, a place among the mountains at the North. The 
 time is summer. 
 
 PRINCIPAL PERSONS. 
 
 Mrs. Henry, a lady residing at Franconia. 
 
 Alphonzo, commonly called Phonny, her son ; nine years 
 
 old. 
 Malleville, Phonny's cousin from New York ; seven years 
 
 old. 
 Wallace, Malleville's brother, a college student, visiting 
 
 Franconia in his vacations. 
 Mary # Bell, Malleville's friend, residing -with her mother, 
 
 in a retired place at a- little distance from Mrs. Henry's. 
 
 She is twelve or thirteen years old. 
 Caroline, a young lady of the village, nearly of the same 
 
 age with Mary Bell. 
 Parker, a village boy. 
 Antonio Bianchinette, commonly called Beechnut, a French 
 
 boy, about thirteen years old, living at Mrs. Henry's. 
 
MARY BELL 
 
 Chapter I. 
 Birds. 
 
 The freshet. A bridge carried away. 
 
 /^NE summer when Malleville was about 
 ^^ eight years old, and Mary Bell a little 
 more than fourteen, it happened that in the 
 month of June there was a very heavy and 
 long continued rain, which caused the river 
 that flowed through the valley in front of Mrs. 
 Henry's house, where Malleville lived, to over- 
 flow its banks, and spread its waters in every 
 direction over the meadows. All the brooks, 
 too, which descended from the mountains alone, 
 became roaring torrents, exhibiting everywhere 
 splendid spectacles of white cascades among the 
 rocks, and boiling whirlpools in the eddies. At 
 one place where a brook flowed under a bridge, 
 the water rose so high as to lift the bridge off 
 from its abutments, and float it away down the 
 Stream, The abutments of a bridge are the two 
 
12 Mary Bell. 
 
 Abutments. Mrs. Henry's house ;— Mary Bell's. 
 
 structures of stone- work, one on each bank, on 
 which the ends of the bridge rest for support. 
 The workmen usually build the abutments of 
 bridges as high as they suppose is necessary to 
 prevent the possibility, even in the highest 
 floods, of the structure above being reached by 
 the water. The abutments proved, however, 
 not to be high enough in this case, and the 
 bridge was carried away. As for the roads, 
 they were in many places entirely overflowed, 
 especially when they passed near the river. At 
 these points the roads were for a day or two 
 wholly impassable. 
 
 Mrs. Henry's house, where Malleville lived 
 at this time, was not very far from the river, 
 and was at some distance above the village — 
 perhaps about a mile. The house where Mary 
 Bell lived with her mother, was also about a 
 mile from the village, by a back road. There 
 was a sort of cross-road, winding pleasantly 
 among the vallies, which led from near Mrs. 
 Henry's to Mary Bell's. 
 
 Malleville had had an invitation to go and 
 spend the afternoon with Mary Bell, just at the 
 time when the great rain-storm came on. The 
 rain prevented her going. The storm which 
 commenced on Tuesday, continued for two 
 
Birds. 13 
 
 Going to visit Mary Bell. Swallows. 
 
 days, and then Malleville was obliged to wait 
 one day more for the waters to subside, and for 
 the roads to become dry. At length, on Friday 
 morning, Mrs. Henry thought it would be safe 
 for Malleville to go. Malleville wished to go 
 by the cross-road, it was so romantic and wild. 
 Phonny was to go with her. 
 
 When the time arrived, Mrs. Henry conclu- 
 ded to let Beechnut go with the children, as 
 Phonny, being about ten years old, and much 
 more remarkable for his self-confidence and 
 courage, than for judgment and discretion, 
 could not be relied upon for getting Malleville 
 safely along, in case they should encounter any 
 difficulties on the way, resulting from the over- 
 flow of the streams. Beechnut was at work at 
 this time in the garden. Phonny, accordingly, 
 went to call him. So Beechnut left his work, 
 came to the house, and they all set off to- 
 gether. 
 
 They had not gone very far before they came 
 to a place where there was a high and steep 
 sand -bank by the side of the road, with a num • 
 ber of swallow's nests in it. 
 
 The swallow is a bird which, besides its other 
 striking peculiarities, is very remarkable for the 
 variety and oddity of its fancies in respect to 
 
14 Mary Bell. 
 
 Swallow's nests. Bank-swallows. 
 
 places for building its nests. One tribe builds 
 under the eaves of barns. Their nests are made 
 of mud, which they form into rounded masses 
 close under an eave, or a cornice, in a barn, — 
 hollow within, and with a round hole for an en- 
 trance. They line the inside, of course, with 
 soft and fine straws and feathers. Others go 
 within the barn — entering at some open window, 
 or by any chink or crevice where they can gain 
 admission — and build their nests under or upon 
 the rafters of the roof. Others take possession 
 of chimneys, — of which they fortunately find 
 many vacant of smoke and disused, in the sea- 
 son in which they build their nests, — and there 
 in some angle or other, among the soot and 
 ashes, they contrive to build their little round 
 mud cabins. Others still, dig deep holes, hori- 
 zontally, in the face of a perpendicular sand- 
 bank, and make a little nest of straw and feath- 
 ers at the end of it. These last are called bank- 
 swallows. 
 
 Now it' happened that a party of bank-swal- 
 lows had taken possession of the bank already 
 referred to, which was situated at the entrance 
 of the cross-road, which led to Mary Bell's. 
 There was a house pretty near, where there 
 lived a boy named regularly Alfred; though 
 
Birds. 15 
 
 Alfred and Jemmy Gordon. 
 
 the name by which he was most commonly 
 known, was Hal. 
 
 When Beechnut and his party came in sight 
 of this sand-bank, they saw Alfred and another 
 boy at play upon it. These boys had cut steps 
 with a case-knife, in the hardened sand which 
 formed the face of the bank, and by this means 
 had climbed up to one of the swallow's holes, 
 and now seemed to be busy doing something or 
 other there : but just before Beechnut arrived 
 at the spot, they came down again, and began 
 to saunter carelessly along the road. 
 
 "Hallo, Hal!" said Phonny, as soon as he 
 came near. " What have you been doing 
 there ?" 
 
 " Stopping up a swallow's hole," said Hal. 
 
 As he said this, he stopped by the side of the 
 road, and stood gazing with an air of stupid cu- 
 riosity upon Beechnut's party, as they were 
 walking by. He held the case-knife in his 5 - 
 hands. The other boy came up to the place, 
 and proved to be a boy named Jemmy Gordon, 
 or rather a boy called Jemmy Gordon ; — for his 
 name, properly speaking, was James. 
 
 "What did you stop it up with?" asked 
 Phonny. 
 
 " Oh, with a bit of a sod," said Alfred. 
 
16 Mary Bell. 
 
 Beechnut's story of Twit and Chippeday. 
 
 " Are the swallows in there ?" asked Malle- 
 ville. 
 
 " I don't know," said Alfred. " They have 
 got a nest in there." 
 
 " Then Chippeday was right, after all," said 
 Beechnut. 
 
 " What do you mean by that ?" asked Jemmy. 
 
 "Why last evening," said Beechnut, "just 
 before sundown, as I was coming along home 
 from the village, there were two swallows play- 
 ing round here. By-and-by they stopped their 
 play, and lighted on the fence, and began to 
 talk about where would be a good place to 
 make a nest. One's name was Twit, and the 
 other's name was Chippeday." 
 
 The children gathered up nearer to Beech- 
 nut as he thus commenced his story, and stood 
 listening with grave and earnest attention. 
 
 " ' Let's make the nest in this bank/ says 
 Twit. ' No,' says Chippeday, ' see that house 
 out there!' 'And what of that house,' says 
 Twit, f There's a boy lives there,' says Chip- 
 peday. 'That's nothing,' says Twit. 'We'll 
 make our nest so high in the bank that4ie can't 
 reach it/ 'He'll climb up/ says Chippeday. 
 ' Then we will dig so far into the bank that he 
 can't reach in,' says Twit, 'if he does climb 
 
Birds. 
 
 Conversation between Twit and Chippeday. 
 
 17 
 
 up.' ' He'll contrive some way or other to 
 tease us/ says Chippeday, 'you may depend.' 
 
 THE BANK SWALLOWS. 
 
 " When the swallows had talked so far," con- 
 tinued Beechnut, "they stopped, and did not 
 seem to know what to say next. I stood per- 
 fectly still all the time for fear that I should 
 frighten them away. Presently says Twit, 
 
 " ' Hasn't the boy got a house to live in ?' 
 
 ' Yes,' says Chippeday. ' And a good bed to 
 
 sleep in?' says Twit. 'Yes/ says Chippeday. 
 
 'And a pillow to put his head upon?' says 
 
 B 
 
IS Mary Bell. 
 
 The swallows' play. Digging a nest. 
 
 Twit. ' Yes/ says Chippeday. * And a father 
 and mother to take care of him ?' says Twit. 
 ' Yes/ says Chippeday. ' Well / says Twit, ' it 
 can't be possible that a boy who has, for him- 
 self, a good house to live in, and a good bed to 
 sleep in, and a pillow to lay his head upon, and 
 a father and mother to take care of him, can 
 begrudge a pair of swallows one little hole in a 
 bank, with a few straws and feathers in it for a 
 nest, which they only want for three or four, 
 weeks, just till they get their little swallows big 
 enough to fly/ 
 
 " Just as Twit finished saying these words," 
 continued Beechnut, "she sprang forward, 
 touched Chippeday a little tap on the top of his 
 head with the tip of his wing, as he flew, just 
 for fun, and Chippeday sprang after him. 
 Away they went, first up in the air, then down 
 to the ground — this way and that way, and 
 round and round. First Twit chased Chippe- 
 day, and then Chippeday chased Twit, and 
 then they flew straight forward together, to see 
 which could fly the farthest. Twit came up to 
 the bank and danced against a little hollow in 
 it, where she thought there was a good place to 
 begin a nest, and when she had made a few 
 scratches there, away she went again, Chippe- 
 
Birds. 19 
 
 The party walk on. Caroline's Canary bird. 
 
 day after her. When she had flown about a 
 while longer, racing and chasing with Chippe- 
 day, she came back again and dug in a little 
 farther into the bank, and then away she 
 whirled again, shooting through the air like an 
 arrow. And so finding that they were not 
 going to work very steadily, I went along." 
 
 " Is that all ?" said Malleville, when she 
 found that Beechnut made a pause. 
 
 " Yes," said Beechnut, " only that I thought 
 at the time, that Twit had the best of the argu- 
 ment in respect to a boy's begrudging a pair of 
 swallows their little nest, but it seems that 
 Chippeday was right, after all." 
 
 So saying Beechnut began to walk on, Mal- 
 leville and Phonny followed him, while Alfred 
 and James remained standing in the road, in 
 the same attitude as while they were listening 
 to the story. 
 
 " Caroline has got a bird," said Malleville. 
 
 Caroline was a young lady of the village. 
 She was about fourteen years of age, and lived 
 in a very handsome house. Malleville had 
 often been to pay her a visit. 
 
 " It is a Canary bird," continued Malleville. 
 
 " Shut up in a cage ?" asked Beechnut. 
 
 " Yes," said Malleville, " a beautiful cage." 
 
20 Mary Bell. 
 
 Letting the swallows out. Jemmy and Alfred. 
 
 The party sauntered along slowly a few 
 steps farther, when Malleville said, 
 
 "Beechnut, I wish you would go and let 
 those poor swallows out, that the boys stopped 
 up in the hole." 
 
 " No," said Beechnut, " not yet." 
 
 And so he walked on a little farther. 
 
 He turned, occasionally, to look round at the 
 boys, and presently he stopped entirely. Phon- 
 ny and Malleville looked back too. They saw 
 that Jemmy had gone to the bank, and was at 
 work at the swallows' hole. Alfred remained 
 where he had been, in the road : and they heard 
 him call out to Jemmy in an undertone, "/ 
 wouldn't." 
 
 Jemmy seemed to pay no attention to Alfred, 
 but he looked toward Beechnut when he saw 
 that Beechnut had stopped. 
 
 " Beechnut," said he, " I have let them out." 
 • " I am glad of it," said Beechnut. 
 
 " You see," said Beechnut, speaking now to 
 Malleville and Phonny, " the difference between 
 Hal and Jemmy. They are both of them bad 
 boys, and always in mischief; and Jemmy is 
 the worst of the two, that is, he does the most 
 mischief. But when he finds that he is in the 
 wrong road, he turns about at once like a man, 
 
Birds. 21 
 
 The cascade. Beechnut's cautions. 
 
 openly and honorably. But Hal goes on, and 
 either does not turn at all, or waits until he can 
 get a chance to turn when people are not look- 
 ing at him." 
 
 So saying they walked along. In due time 
 they arrived in sight of the house where Mary 
 Bell lived, without having encountered any 
 serious difficulty on account of the water. 
 The brooks and streams were, however, all very 
 high, and at one place Beechnut left the road, 
 and took Malleville and Phonny quite a distance 
 along a rocky path by the side of a brook, to 
 show them a cascade. 
 
 When they arrived in sight of Mary Bell's 
 house, Beechnut said, 
 
 " Now you are safe for the rest of the way, 
 so good-bye. If Mary Bell shows you her pic- 
 tures, Malleville, take one good look at them for 
 me : and if you find a butterfly's nest in the 
 garden, don't give the little butterflies too much 
 cake." 
 
 "No," said Malleville, very seriously. "I 
 won't." 
 
 "Nor eat too much yourself," said Beechnut. 
 
 So saying Beechnut went away. 
 
 The house which Mary Bell lived in was not 
 very large, but it was very pleasant, and very J 
 
22 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mrs. Bell's house. 
 
 pleasantly situated. It was in a retired place 
 in the middle of a valley, and was surrounded 
 by trees and gardens. There was an ancient 
 stone wall in front of the house, grey with moss 
 and age, and half enveloped in shrubbery. 
 There was a small gateway in this wall ; with 
 a pathway from it that led to the house. 
 
 Phonny opened the gate, and he and Malle- 
 ville went through, and thence advanced along 
 the path towards the house. They saw nobody, 
 but the front door was open. Phonny, standing 
 with Malleville upon the step, before the door, 
 knocked upon the side-post, but nobody came. 
 
 "You must knock louder," said Malleville. 
 " They don't hear you." 
 
 Phonny knocked again, but not much louder 
 than before. 
 
 " I do knock as loud as I can," said he. " It 
 is because my knuckles are not hard enough. 
 
 " Let us get a stick," said Malleville. 
 
 Phonny looked about and found a stick. He 
 knocked with it, louder than before, but still no- 
 body came. 
 
 " I'll get a stone," said Phonny. 
 
 " No," said Malleville, " you must not get a 
 stone ; it will break the door." 
 
 " What shall we do then ?" asked Phonny. 
 
Birds. 23 
 
 The back yard. The garden. 
 
 " I'll tell you," said he, after a moment's 
 thought. 
 
 " We will go around to the other door." 
 
 So they went around the house to a very 
 pleasant back yard. The yard was very green. 
 There was a small garden by the side of the 
 house, which Malleville said was Mary Bell's 
 garden. There was a well at a little distance 
 from the door, with a path leading to it through 
 the grass. The door was open, as the front 
 door had been, and Phonny w T ent up to it and 
 knocked. Nobody answered. 
 
 " Let's go in, said Phonny.* 
 
 So saying, he pushed boldly in, Malleville fol- 
 lowing him timidly. 
 
 They went into the entry, and then opened 
 a door which ushered them into what was called 
 the sitting-room. There was nobody there. 
 They went into the kitchen. Every thing was 
 in very nice order, but there was nobody there. 
 From the kitchen they went out on a back- 
 stoop, which looked towards a garden. 
 
 " Here they are," said Malleville. 
 
 Phonny looked where Malleville pointed, and 
 saw Mary Bell and her mother, with Almira, 
 
 * See Frontispiece. 
 
24 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell's grotto and the water-fall. 
 
 the girl who lived with them, coming through 
 the garden. Mary Bell ran forward to wel- 
 come Malleville and Phonny. She seemed 
 very glad to see them. 
 
 " We have been down to my grotto," said 
 Mary Bell, " to see the water- fall. There is a 
 great water-fall to-day, because the brook is so 
 high." She then invited her visiters into the 
 house. 
 
 Phonny wished to go to the grotto and see 
 the water-fall, but Malleville chose rather to re- 
 main at the house, and look at some picture- 
 books which Mary Bell had promised to show 
 her. Accordingly, Phonny, who knew the way 
 to the water-fall very well, ran off through the 
 garden towards it, while Mary Bell took Malle- 
 ville up into her room. 
 
 The picture-books were in a drawer. Mary 
 Bell kept all her treasures in very careful order. 
 She had a table by a window, where she wrote 
 and read, and sewed, when she was in her cham- 
 ber, and several drawers near by, where the va- 
 rious articles which she possessed were all clas- 
 sified and arranged. She had one drawer full 
 of pictures and picture-books. She never al- 
 lowed her visiters to go to her drawers by them- 
 selves, to get things from them, or even to ex- 
 
Birds. 25 
 
 Mary Bell's treasures. Pictures. 
 
 plore their contents, but she went to them al- 
 ways herself, and took out a few things at a 
 time, and showed those only to her company ; 
 so that every time her visiters came, there was 
 something to show them which they had never 
 seen before. Thus it seemed to Malleville, who 
 had often been to visit Mary Bell, that the 
 stores and treasures contained in those drawers 
 were absolutely inexhaustible. 
 
 Malleville took the picture-books which Mary 
 Bell gave her, while Mary Bell herself took her 
 sewing, and then they went together down to 
 the stoop. Mary Bell established herself in a 
 chair, placing her work-basket upon a seat 
 which had been built by the side of the stoop, 
 while Malleville sat down upon the steps, and 
 began looking over the picture-books, talking to 
 Mary Bell from time to time about the pictures. 
 
 " Here is a picture of an elephant," said Mal- 
 leville. " What does he want of such a long 
 nose ?" 
 
 " It is his proboscis," said Mary Bell. " He 
 takes up things with it." 
 
 " Here is a picture of a horse," said Malle- 
 ville. He has not got any proboscis, though, to 
 be sure, his nose is pretty long. Why does not 
 he have a proboscis to take up things with ?" 
 
26 Mary Bell. 
 
 The horse and the elephant. Mary Bell's robin. 
 
 " Because he can put his head itself down to 
 the ground/' replied Mary Bell, " and take them 
 with his mouth," 
 
 " And why can't the elephant put his head 
 down too ?" asked Malleville. 
 
 "Because it is so large," said Mary Bell. 
 * The elephant is very large, and his head is 
 very large and very high up from the ground. 
 If his head were at the end of a long neck, so he 
 could let it down to the ground, I suppose he 
 would find it very hard to get it up again." 
 
 " Oh, here is a picture of a bird," said Malle- 
 ville. "Caroline has got a bird. Don't you 
 wish that you had a bird ?" 
 
 " I have got one," said Mary Bell. " There 
 he is." So saying she pointed to a plum tree 
 which stood beyond the fence on the other side 
 of the yard, where there was a robin upon a 
 branch, singing very merrily. 
 
 " Oh, but he will fly away pretty soon," said 
 Malleville. * 
 
 " True," said Mary Bell, " but then another 
 one will come to take his place." 
 
 " Exactly the same place ?" asked Malleville. 
 
 " Exactly the same place in my estimation," 
 said Mary Bell. 
 
 Malleville did not understand this very well, 
 
Birds. 27 
 
 The bird's nest. The old bird. 
 
 so she sat still a few minutes musing upon it, 
 and then said, 
 
 " But Caroline's bird has got a cage." 
 
 " And some of my birds have got nests," re- 
 joined Mary Bell, " and nests are better for birds 
 than cages." 
 
 " I should like to see a nest," said Malleville. 
 
 " Well," said Mary Bell, " I will show you 
 one. Come with me." 
 
 So saying, Mary Bell laid down her work, and 
 taking Malleville by the hand, she led her by a 
 little path through the grass around the corner 
 of the house to a little retired nook, where, in a 
 cool and sheltered place, there stood two or 
 three small fir-trees. 
 
 " Softly ;" said Mary Bell. 
 
 " Are the birds there ?" asked Malleville. 
 
 " The little ones are there all the time," said 
 Mary Bell, " and the great ones come some- 
 times to feed them. There comes one of the 
 old birds now," she continued, pointing to the 
 garden gate. 
 
 Malleville looked in that direction, and saw 
 the bird — which was a large robin — standing 
 upon the gate with something in his mouth. As 
 soon as the robin saw Mary Bell and Malleville 
 so near its nest, it flew back and forth among 
 
28 Mary Bell. 
 
 Malleville climbs up to see the young robins. 
 
 the trees, and seemed uneasy. Mary Bell and 
 Malleville stepped back out of the way. The 
 bird flew to the nest. Mary Bell held Malle- 
 ville up, but she could only get indistinct glimp- 
 ses of the bird among the thick branches of the 
 tree. Presently the robin flew away again. 
 Then Mary Bell led Malleville up to the tree 
 once more. 
 
 " Now we will climb up and see the nest," 
 said she. 
 
 So she brought out some steps from the kitch- 
 en and placed them at the foot of the tree.' Mal- 
 leville climbed up. When she was on the top- 
 most step she could look into the nest. There 
 were three young robins in it. Two of them 
 opened their mouths very wide. They heard 
 the sound of Malleville's movements among the 
 branches, and thought that it was their mother 
 coming to feed them some more. 
 
The Grotto. 29 
 
 Mary Bell's grotto. Her path. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 The Grotto. 
 
 Mary Bell's grotto was situated among the 
 rocks upon the banks of a brook, which came 
 running down through a wild but beautiful dell in 
 the midst of the woods behind the house. It was 
 at some little distance from the house, but there 
 was a very good path leading to it. This path 
 Mary Bell herself had made ; that is, so far as 
 it had been made at all — for in many places it 
 passed along over smooth surfaces of rock, or 
 along a shore of hard sand, where nothing arti- 
 ficial was necessary to make a good footway. 
 
 There was one thing peculiar about this path 
 to the grotto, and that is, that it was always 
 dry. The pleasure enjoyed by children, and 
 especially by girls, in the country is, in most 
 cases, very seriously restricted and impeded by 
 the fact that the grass is wet so often, so that it 
 is impossible to walk upon it. The dew, in 
 summer mornings, lasts sometimes till nearly 
 noon ; and often after a shower of rain, in the 
 afternoon, the drops of water remain treacher- 
 
30 Mary Bell. 
 
 The object of the path. 
 
 ously concealed in herbage and foliage for many 
 hours after all smooth surfaces are dry. Mary 
 Bell had, from this cause, often been kept at 
 home, especially at those seasons of the year 
 when the grass was luxuriant and high, and 
 when, of course, it was most pleasant to be 
 abroad ; and Mary Bell's plan of making a 
 path along the bank of the brook, originated at 
 first in her desire to have a walk leading some- 
 where from her mother's house, of such a char- 
 acter that she could pass over it at all times, 
 excepting when it was actually raining. 
 
 This object was very easily effected in going 
 along the bank of the brook, for the way was 
 very wild and rocky, and Mary Bell could lay 
 out her road for a considerable portion of the 
 distance, over smooth surfaces of rock, or along 
 sandy and pebbly shores, where no grass or 
 weeds were growing to intercept and hold the 
 drops of rain and of dew. In some places, it is 
 true, there were low bushes in the way, but 
 these Mary Bell cut down, by means of a large 
 pruning-knife which belonged to her mother. 
 Higher bushes overhung the path in many 
 places, but these she did not wish to disturb, for 
 they made her walk cool and shady. It is true 
 that the leaves and branches of these bushes 
 
The Grotto. 31 
 
 Mary Bell's road-building. Beechnut's help. 
 
 would become sometimes heavily laden with 
 drops of rain and of dew, — but this Mary Bell 
 thought was not of much consequence, since, 
 if she walked along quietly under them, without 
 touching or disturbing them in any way, there 
 would be no danger, she thought, that the drops 
 would fall down upon her. 
 
 Mary Bell found that the cutting down the 
 low bushes with a pruning-knife, was rather 
 hard work for her sometimes, for in many in- 
 stances the stems of these bushes were pretty 
 thick, and the wood quite hard. In fact, Mary 
 Bell often wished that she had a brother to help 
 her in some of her operations ; but she had not, 
 and it was, perhaps, on the whole, as well for 
 her that she had not, for she enjoyed her grotto 
 and the path which led to it, the more highly 
 on account of having made them both herself, 
 by her own patient and persevering industry. 
 
 In fact, a very little strength is sufficient to 
 accomplish very great and important results if 
 dexterously employed, and patiently and stead- 
 ily continued. Beechnut, who came sometimes 
 on errands to Mrs. Bell, gave Mary occasion- 
 ally some very useful advice in regard to her 
 operations. He showed her a way to bend 
 over the top of a bush, and then to cut into the 
 
32 Mary Bell. 
 
 The handspike. Mary Bell's stepping-stones. Her bridge. 
 
 stem with her pruning-knife, in such a manner 
 as to cut off the stem most easily. He made 
 her, too, what he called a handspike — which 
 was a lever of wood, by means of which any 
 one could easily pry and move the large flat 
 stones, which lay upon the ground in various 
 places. These flat stones Mary Bell contrived 
 to move, by means of her lever, so as to make, 
 in some places, a continued pavement of them, 
 that was tolerably smooth, where the rocks be- 
 neath them were too rough and uneven to walk 
 upon conveniently. In the same way, when- 
 ever she wished to have her path cross the bed 
 of the stream, she would pry the large stones 
 which lay in the water, some this way and 
 others that, so as to make them answer for 
 stepping-stones. In one case she actually built 
 a bridge. It was at a spot where there was a 
 large flat stone lying in the water. Mary Bell 
 pried up this stone, first one end of it, and then 
 the other, and supported these ends by other 
 stones which she rolled underneath. In this 
 manner, she at length raised the flat stone so 
 high, that there was room beneath it for the 
 passage of all the water of the brook, in ordi- 
 nary times ; though when the water was high, 
 after showers of rain in the summer, or when 
 
The Grotto. 33 
 
 Mary Bell's perseverance in her plans. 
 
 the snows were melting in the spring, this 
 bridge was often wholly submerged. 
 
 Mary Bell did not make this road up the 
 brook all at one time. It was the work, in 
 fact, of her play hours and her play days, for 
 more than two years. As she lived alone with 
 her mother, and thus generally had no play- 
 mate in her leisure hours, she was compelled to 
 rely upon her own resources for amusement; 
 and whatever the plans might be which she 
 adopted, she learned to pursue them with great 
 perseverance and steadiness, and thus she ac- 
 complished in the end what would at first have 
 seemed entirely impossible for such a child. 
 She was but about ten or twelve years old 
 when this work w T as done, for the making of 
 the road, and of the grotto at the end of it, took 
 place, it must be remembered, a long time be- 
 fore the period of Phonny and Malleville's visit 
 to Mrs. Bell, which is described in the last 
 chapter. 
 
 When Mary Bell first began to make her 
 road, she had no thought of a grotto : her only 
 object was to make a pleasant walk through 
 the dell, along the banks of the brook, so that 
 she could go there easily to see the waterfalls, 
 or to sit upon the rocks and read, or take her 
 C 
 
34 Mary Bell. 
 
 The building of the grotto. 
 
 company there on Saturday afternoons to play. 
 She found, however, at length, in a peculiarly 
 wild and picturesque part of the dell, a place 
 where she thought a grotto, such as she had 
 read about in one of her story-books, might 
 easily be made. It was a place in an angle of 
 a rock, under an overhanging precipice, where 
 by building a wall on one side, and that not 
 very high, a pretty complete enclosure would 
 be made, like a hut. She immediately resolved 
 on undertaking this work ; and by doing some- 
 thing upon it every time that she went to the 
 brook to play, the work advanced very steadily, 
 though slowly, until the grotto was made. She 
 first rolled all the loose stones which lay upon 
 the floor of the grotto, out of the way, selecting 
 from them such as were suitable for building 
 the wall, and laying them carefully in a line 
 where the wall was to be, for a foundation. 
 She afterwards carried up the wall to its proper 
 height, that is, until it met the projecting rock 
 overhead, which was to form the roof of her 
 grotto. She made this wall very thick, and built 
 it of flat stones, such as she found lying in great 
 abundance scattered over the ground. The 
 stones, being flat were not heavy, and yet they 
 made, when well laid together, a very substan- 
 
The Grotto. 35 
 
 Mary Bell's working dress. 
 
 tial wall ; and when it was built up to the roof 
 of the grotto, and wedged in at the top by 
 crowding in the upper stones very hard between 
 the top of the wall and the sloping roof of rocks 
 above, it formed a mass almost as solid as the 
 rock itself. 
 
 It was a great many weeks after this wall 
 was commenced before it was completed. At 
 one time, in fact, Mary Bell thought that it 
 never would be done ; but she persevered, and 
 finally finished it. Sometimes she had a little 
 help from her companions and playmates, when 
 they came to visit her, especially in the lighter 
 kinds of work. The heavy work, such as car- 
 rying flat stones and laying them upon the wall, 
 Mary Bell had to do herself alone, for she, only, 
 was properly dressed for such labors. She had 
 a coarse apron, and a pair of mittens of brown 
 linen, which she had made expressly for her 
 work about the brook ; so that she could lift 
 pretty heavy stones without doing either her 
 hands or her proper dress any injury. 
 
 Mary Bell had, however, at last, a great deal 
 of help from her playmates, in the light work 
 which was required in the finishing of her 
 grotto, after the wall was built. They col- 
 lected for her great quantities of moss, from 
 
36 Mary Bell. 
 
 Finishing the grotto. A mosaic. 
 
 various places up and down the brook, and this 
 moss Mary Bell crowded in between the stones 
 of the wall, both on the inside and outside, and 
 also into the seams and crevices of the natural 
 rock which formed the other two sides of it. 
 This moss soon began to grow so as to fill the 
 open spaces completely, and even in some de- 
 gree to cover the stones themselves. This 
 gave to the whole interior of the grotto a very 
 agreeable aspect and expression, and brought 
 the artificial side of the enclosure into keeping 
 and harmony with the natural sides ; so that 
 the whole had very much the appearance of a 
 small natural cave in the solid rock, with walls 
 hung with moss instead of tapestry. 
 
 The floor of the grotto was, in its natural 
 state, somewhat rough and uneven, and Beech- 
 nut one day recommended Mary Bell to pave 
 it in mosaic. Mary Bell had never heard of 
 a mosaic pavement ; and she asked Beechnut 
 what it was. He said that it was a pavement 
 of different colored stones, arranged in some 
 regular form so as to produce a pretty effect. 
 He had seen magnificent mosaic pavements, 
 he said, in France, before he came to Am- 
 erica. 
 
 " But I don't know how to make a pave- 
 
The Gro 
 
 TTO. 
 
 37 
 
 Beechnut's directions for making a mosaic pavement. 
 
 THS GBOTTO. 
 
 ment," said Mary Bell. " I don't know how to 
 fasten the stones." 
 
 " There will be no difficulty in that," replied 
 Beechnut, " you have only to put them close 
 together, and they will fasten themselves. 
 First," continued he, " you must cover over the 
 floor of your grotto with earth — " 
 
 " Where shall I get the earth ?" interrupted 
 Mary Bell. 
 
 " Oh, you must dig it out of a bank some* 
 where near, and bring it in some old basket. 
 
38 Mary Bell. 
 
 The stones for the pavement. 
 
 Men or boys would move it with a wheelbar- 
 row, but girls have to work with baskets." 
 
 " When you have carried earth enough into 
 the grotto," continued Beechnut, "you must 
 spread it over the floor, so as to make a smooth 
 and level surface. You must then look up and 
 down the brook, and get all the pretty stones that 
 you can find." 
 
 " How large must they be ?" asked Mary 
 Bell. 
 
 " About as large as my fist," said Beechnut, 
 doubling up his fist and showing it to Mary 
 Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell shut her own hand in the same 
 way, but she could not make it look much like 
 a fist. 
 
 " It is not necessary to be very particular 
 about the size of the stones," said Beechnut. 
 " Find stones that have one end about as large 
 as the palm of your hand ; it is of no conse- 
 quence if some are longer than the others, so 
 as to extend farther down into the earth. You 
 can dig away a little for the long ones, when 
 you set them in their places, as the paviers do, 
 in paving the streets of cities." 
 
 " When you have got the stones together," 
 continued Beechnut, " you must sort them out 
 
The Grotto. 39 
 
 Beechnut promises more instructions bye and bye. 
 
 into separate parcels, according to their colors • 
 the blue ones together, and the brown ones to- 
 gether, and so with the rest. It will be a good 
 plan to get one large, round, white stone for the 
 centre, if you can. But I cannot tell you any 
 more now. It is time for me to go home. 
 When you have got the stones all collected, I 
 will tell you what to do next." 
 
 " Very well," said Mary Bell, " you have told 
 me enough now. It will take me two or three 
 weeks to get all the stones. I don't go to my 
 grotto very often." 
 
 At the time that Beechnut held this conver- 
 sation with Mary Bell, he was sitting upon a 
 horse near the gate, by the house where Mary 
 Bell lived, ready to go away. He had come 
 there that day on an errand. He knew that 
 Mary Bell advanced very slowly with her work, 
 and that she did not need a great deal of instruc- 
 tion at a time, and accordingly as he had now 
 given enough to serve her for some days, and as 
 he had then no more time to spare for talking 
 with her, he concluded to go away. 
 
 Mary Bell found that it took even more time 
 than she had expected, to find enough stones of 
 the right kind. She found, however, a very 
 pretty white stone for the centre, the very first 
 
40 Mary Bell, 
 
 Collecting the stones. Mary Bell's visitors. 
 
 day that she began to look for stones. It was 
 quite heavy, but she succeeded at length in car- 
 rying it to the grotto, and in depositing it safely 
 by the door. The same day she found about 
 twenty other stones of a smaller size, which 
 seemed suitable to her purpose. These she car- 
 ried along very easily. They were of various 
 colors, and she placed them, one by one, in the 
 heaps where they respectively belonged. There 
 were four heaps, characterized by the predomi- 
 nant color of the stones which formed them. 
 
 A few days after this several girls from the 
 village came to see Mary Bell, and as usual 
 when they came to visit her, they wished im- 
 mediately to go to the grotto. When they found 
 that Mary Bell was going to make a paved floor, 
 and that she was collecting pebble-stones for 
 this purpose, they were all eager to help her. 
 So Mary Bell took them some distance down the 
 brook, to a place where there was a much larger 
 number of smooth pebble-stones in the stream, 
 than there were near the grotto. Here they 
 found an abundant supply. Mary Bell pulled 
 the pebbles out of the shore, and after letting 
 them lie there a short time to dry, the children 
 began to take them up — one in each hand. 
 There were five children besides Mary Bell, so 
 
The Grotto. 41 
 
 The stones all ready. Beechnut's promise. 
 
 that the whole party could carry twelve stones 
 at a time. They went to and from the grotto, 
 carrying stones in this manner, six times, so that 
 they carried seventy-two stones in all, which 
 constituted a great addition to Mary Bell's stock 
 of materials for the paving. 
 
 In fact, the supply seemed so abundant, that the 
 children insisted that there were stones enough, 
 and they began to urge Mary Bell to commence 
 the laying of them. They wished to see, they 
 said, how the mosaic pavement would look. 
 But Mary Bell said that she should not begin to 
 lay it until she had seen Beechnut again, in or- 
 der to get precise direction from him how to do 
 the work properly. After taking so much pains, 
 she said, to get her materials all together, she 
 did not wish to hurry through the work, and 
 so have it all wrong in the end. 
 
 When Beechnut heard that Mary Bell was 
 ready for his instructions in respect to laying 
 the pavement, he sent word to her one day, 
 that unless she wished to do all the work about 
 her grotto herself, without help, he would come 
 over with Phonny the next Saturday afternoon, 
 and help her place the stones. Mary Bell said 
 that she should like that plan very much in- 
 deed, and so it was arranged that Beechnut and 
 4 * 
 
42 Mary Bell. 
 
 Beechnut and Phonny come to make the pavement. 
 
 Phonny were to come. Although Beechnut 
 was at work at Mrs. Henry's on wages, still, 
 as has been stated in other volumes of this se- 
 ries, he always had the Saturday afternoon at 
 his own disposal, in order that he might have 
 some time to amuse himself in any manner he 
 pleased. It was in consequence of this arrange- 
 ment that he was enabled to promise to come 
 with Phonny the next Saturday afternoon. 
 
 When Beechnut arrived at Mrs. Bell's, he 
 told Mary that it would not be necessary for her 
 to go down with him to the grotto, for he and 
 Phonny would do the work of laying the pave- 
 ment themselves, without any help from her, — 
 unless she chose to go and see the operation. 
 
 Mary Bell did choose to go. There was, be- 
 sides, a girl from the village, who was visiting 
 Mary Bell that day, and she was very desirous 
 of going to the grotto, too, to see Beechnut make 
 the mosaic pavement. So they all went along 
 together. 
 
 Beechnut had brought a small iron crow-bar 
 with him, and Phonny had a garden trowel in 
 his hand. Phonny also took Mary Bell's hand- 
 spike, at Beechnut's request, which, being light, 
 he could carry in one hand, while he held the 
 trowel in the other. Mary Bell wondered 
 
The Grotto. 43 
 
 Beechnut's method of operations. 
 
 what was to be done with all these tools, but 
 she did not ask, as she did not wish to trouble 
 Beechnut to answer unnecessary questions. 
 
 When Beechnut arrived at the grotto he was 
 very much pleased to see what an excellent col- 
 lection of stones for a mosaic pavement Mary 
 Bell had succeeded in getting together. He im- 
 mediately commenced his work, and in the course 
 of three hours he made an entire change in the 
 appearance of the whole interior of the grotto. 
 He first loosened up a little of the earth in the 
 center of the floor, and then settled the round 
 white stone in its place there. Then he selected 
 a number of the very darkest stones in Mary 
 Bell's collection, for the purpose of forming a 
 dark ring around this central stone. Four of 
 these dark stones were of a blueish color ; the 
 others were brown. The blue stones he placed 
 at equal distances from each other, one in front, 
 another back, and the other two at the two 
 sides. The intervening spaces he filled with 
 brown stones, thus completing the ring. In 
 setting each stone in its place, he first made a 
 little bed for it by loosening the earth below it 
 with his trowel, doing this to a greater or less 
 degree, according to the bigness of the stone. 
 He then selected other stones and arranged 
 
44 Mary Bell. 
 
 The mosaic pavement finished. 
 
 them, with great taste and judgment, in such a 
 manner that by the time that he had paved 
 over a space two feet in diameter he had formed 
 the figure of a star, with the round white stone 
 for the center of it. He filled the space around 
 the star with stones of a uniform tint, and then 
 surrounded the whole with a square border, 
 which gave to the whole a very neat and fin- 
 ished appearance. This square border, how- 
 ever, was a foot or more on each side from the 
 walls of the grotto, so that the pavement, thus 
 far, did not cover the whole floor. There were, 
 however, now but very few stones remaining — 
 apparently not enough to finish the work. 
 Mary Bell asked if she should not try to find 
 some more. 
 
 But Beechnut said that he should not want 
 any more. The rest of the space would be 
 occupied by the seats, and it was not necessary 
 to have a pavement under the seats. 
 
 " Seats !" said Mary Bell, " I don't see how 
 I can make any seats." 
 
 "Oh, I am going to make them for you," 
 replied Beechnut. " That is the reason that 
 I brought down the hand-spike and the iron 
 bar." 
 
 Mary Bell did not understand this, for she 
 
The Grotto. 45 
 
 Beechnut's plan for seats. 
 
 did not see how seats could be made by the use 
 of such tools as those. She had no idea of any 
 seats for such a place except wooden benches. 
 Beechnut, however, intended to make stone 
 seats, so that the furniture of the grotto within 
 might be formed of as stable and enduring a 
 material as the outward structure. Accord- 
 ingly, when the mosaic pavement was finished, 
 Beechnut brought in several large flat stones 
 which he then embedded in a very firm man- 
 ner around the sides of the grotto, upon that 
 part of the floor which had not been covered 
 by the mosaic pavement. These flat stones 
 were for the foundations of the seats. He then 
 looked up and down the bank of the brook to 
 find stones suitable for seats, that is, such as 
 were of the proper width for a seat, and had 
 one of their surfaces smooth and convenient to 
 sit upon. Some of the stones which he selected 
 were pretty large and heavy; but yet, with 
 Phonny's help, and by means of the hand-spike 
 and the crow-bar, which were used as levers, 
 he succeeded in getting them along to the 
 grotto. 
 
 When the first of these great stones came to 
 the door, Beechnut said that he had made a 
 great mistake in not putting in his seats first, 
 
46 Mary Bell. 
 
 The grotto completed. 
 
 and making his mosaic pavement afterwards ; 
 since he could not well get such heavy masses 
 over so frail a pavement, without danger of de- 
 ranging it. Finally he protected the pavement 
 by bringing a great quantity of sand from the 
 brook, and spreading over it, and then covering 
 the sand with branches broken off from the 
 neighboring trees. He was now able to move 
 in the stones intended for the seats without any 
 difficulty ; and the sand was of permanent ser- 
 vice to the pavement besides, by working its 
 way down into the interstices between the 
 stones, thus consolidating the whole mass, and 
 making the surface firm. When the stone seats 
 were all got in and properly placed, and blocked 
 up to the proper height to sit upon, Mary Bell 
 gathered up the branches which had been spread 
 upon the floor, and making a broom of some of 
 them, she swept out the surplus sand from the 
 floor of the grotto, and brought the mosaic 
 pavement to view again. It looked now more 
 beautiful than ever. The company all sat 
 down upon the stone seats, and regarded the 
 whole work with great admiration. 
 
 Such was the origin and history of Mary 
 Bell's grotto. 
 
The Inundation. 47 
 
 Carlo. His character. 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 The Inundation. 
 
 Mrs? Bell had a dog named Carlo. He was 
 pretty large, and of a very dark brown color. 
 His hair was long, smooth, curling at the ends, 
 and very glossy. Carlo was a very sagacious 
 dog, but very sedate and sober. He was, more- 
 over, very independent. He would never come 
 at any body's call, or obey any body's orders, 
 but would do always just as he pleased. Some- 
 times when Mary Bell came home from school, 
 or from the village, he would seem overjoyed to 
 see her. He would run toward her, and leap 
 about her with every manifestation of the most 
 extravagant joy. At other times he would lie 
 motionless upon the great flat stone which 
 formed the door-step, with his chin upon his 
 paws, and merely watch Mary Bell's motions 
 with the eye that happened to be turned to- 
 ward her, exhibiting all the time an appearance 
 of the utmost indifference and unconcern ; and 
 if on such occasions Mary Bell undertook to 
 call him, and to awaken in him some feelings 
 
48 Mary Bell 
 
 Phonny's attempts to make Carlo obey. 
 
 of gladness and welcome, by encouraging words 
 and chirruppings, the only response to her ad- 
 vances, on the part of Carlo, which she could 
 ever obtain, was a gentle rap with his tail upon 
 the stone on which he was lying ; which gestic- 
 ulation seemed to say, " I hear you very well, 
 but don't choose to answer or come." 
 
 Phonny was very fond of Carlo, though he, 
 as well as every body else, failed entirely in all 
 his efforts to assert or maintain any power over 
 him. Phonny made a great variety of attempts 
 to induce Carlo to obey him, or to come when 
 he called, but wholly without success. 
 
 One day, for instance, when Phonny was vis- 
 iting at Mary Bell's, he came to the back door, 
 and there he saw Carlo standing at a little dis- 
 tance from the house, by the great gate, and 
 looking out into the road. Phonny began to 
 call the dog. Carlo turned his head and looked 
 at Phonny, but otherwise he did not move. 
 Phonny then began to call him again with 
 great vehemence, chirping and whistling to 
 him, patting his knee, and making other such 
 gesticulations as dogs are supposed to under- 
 stand ; addressing him all the time, too, in the 
 most encouraging and flattering manner, by the 
 words, " Good fellow !" " Nice Carlo !" and by 
 
The Inundation. 49 
 
 Phonny gets a piece of meat. Carlo's cunning. 
 
 various other complimentary epithets. Carlo 
 continued to look toward Phonny, but it was 
 with an unconcerned air, and he remained per- 
 fectly motionless. 
 
 * I'll make you come," said Phonny to him- 
 self; and so resolving, he went into the house, 
 and presently returned with a very fine piece 
 of meat, which he had begged of Mrs. Bell. He 
 held this bait out toward Carlo, and began call- 
 ing him again. Carlo did not move. Phonny 
 then advanced a little way toward him, think 
 ing, perhaps, that Carlo did not see the meat. 
 As he advanced, he paused occasionally and 
 called, but Carlo did not move. 
 
 " I'll let him smell of it," said he, " and then 
 he will come." 
 
 So he walked cautiously up to where Carlo 
 was standing, and held the meat out toward 
 him, intending just to let him smell of it to see 
 what it was, and then to retreat again, in order 
 that Carlo might follow him and get it. But 
 Carlo, who had perfectly understood the whole 
 game from the beginning, waited quietly until 
 the meat was near enough to him to allow him 
 to reach it without moving his body, and then 
 seized it by a sudden snap of his jaws, and swal- 
 lowed it in an instant, leaving Phonny utterly 
 
50 Mary Bell. 
 
 Carlo's visits to the grotto. 
 
 confounded. Carlo immediately replaced his 
 head in the same position as before, stood per- 
 fectly motionless, and looked at Phonny out of 
 one eye, with the most grave and innocent 
 expression of countenance that can be im- 
 agined. 
 
 Carlo was very fond of the water, and when- 
 ever Mary Bell went to the grotto, he was al- 
 ways very eager to accompany her. He always 
 found out by some sort of instinct, when she was 
 going, and then he immediately set off himself 
 at a full run ; and when at length Mary Bell 
 reached the grotto, she always found him there 
 before her, bathing himself in the brook in front 
 of it. 
 
 It happened so, on the day of Phonny and 
 Malleville's visit to Mary Bell, which we are 
 now describing. After Malleville had looked 
 at Mary Bell's picture-books and birds, she pro- 
 posed to Mary Bell that they should follow 
 Phonny down to the grotto. Mary Bell said 
 that she would go. So she went back to the 
 stoop and put away her work, and then both 
 the girls went into the house to get their bon- 
 nets and prepare for their walk. 
 
 When they came out again, Mary Bell led 
 the way to a sort of shed, in order to get her 
 
The Inundation. 51 
 
 Mary Bell's crook. Carlo's pleasure. 
 
 crook, as she called it. Her crook was a long 
 staff with a short curve in it at the upper end, 
 so that it had the form and appearance of the 
 crook of a shepherdess. This crook Mary Bell 
 almost always took with her when she went up 
 the grotto path, partly for the sake of its com- 
 pany, and partly to assist herself with it over 
 the difficulties of the way. It was pretty long, 
 and of a dark color, having been browned by 
 time. Mary Bell had found it growing near 
 her grotto, and having been struck with the ap- 
 pearance of the singular curve which the stem 
 presented, she cut it down and brought it home ; 
 and Beechnut had afterward taken off the bark, 
 and then smoothed and varnished it for her. 
 She had had it now for one or two years, and 
 it was her constant companion in her rambles 
 in the woods. 
 
 While Mary Bell was getting her crook, 
 Carlo came running into the shed with the ap- 
 pearance of great excitement and pleasure, and 
 after leaping up before Mary Bell and Malle- 
 ville several times, and running around them, 
 first this way and then that, he wheeled about 
 suddenly and went out at the door, and then 
 began running down the lane as fast as he could 
 g°- 
 
52 Mary Bell. 
 
 Carlo and the gate. 
 
 " He knows that we are going to the grotto/' 
 said Mary Bell. 
 
 " How does he know ?" asked Malleville. 
 
 " Why, I suppose," replied Mary Bell, " it is 
 because he sees that I am getting my crook. 
 Now he will run down and open the gate for us, 
 and wait there until we go through." 
 
 "Why, Mary Bell!" exclaimed Malleville. 
 " I never heard of a dog that could open a gate." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Mary Bell, " Carlo can at 
 any rate. He pulls it open with his paw. You 
 will see." 
 
 Malleville, however, did not see Carlo actu- 
 ally open the gate, for he ran along so fast that 
 he had got it open before the girls were near 
 enough to see. It was a small gate which 
 opened out of the lane toward a little path 
 which led down to the woods. The gate was 
 light, and it was not fastened. It was kept shut 
 by means of a weight hung to a chain. One 
 end of the chain was fastened to the gate, and 
 the other to a small post which had been set in 
 the ground for this purpose near the gate, on the 
 inside. Thus the gate could be easily pulled 
 open toward the lane, by any one coming in that 
 direction, and then, upon their passing through, 
 the weight would shut it again. Carlo had 
 
The Inundation. 
 
 53 
 
 Carlo's politeness to Mary Bell. 
 
 learned to open this gate with his paw, and 
 whenever he knew that Mary Bell was coming 
 through, he used to wait and hold it open for 
 her until she had passed. The only reward 
 that he obtained for this politeness was, that 
 Mary Bell used generally to stop and pat his 
 head a little with her hand, or with the end of 
 her crook, when she was going through. 
 
 When Malleville and Mary Bell came in sight 
 of the gate on this occasion, they found that it 
 was wide open, and that Carlo was standing 
 
 CARLO. 
 
 5* 
 
54 Mary Bell. 
 
 The brook in a freshet. Carlo in the water. 
 
 against it to keep it from being shut by the 
 weight and chain. As soon as Mary Bell and 
 Malleville had passed through, Carlo followed 
 them, and let the gate come to. He stopped a 
 moment for Mary Bell to pat him upon his head, 
 and to rub him with the end of her crook, and 
 then, as soon as she stopped doing so, he bound- 
 ed away along the path into the woods, as fast 
 as he could run, and soon disappeared from 
 view. 
 
 Mary Bell and Malleville followed him. The 
 path descended rapidly, among rocks and bushes, 
 until it came to the margin of the stream, which, 
 now swollen by the rains, was rushing on over 
 its rocky bed in a wild and impetuous torrent. 
 Malleville was very much impressed by the 
 sublimity of the scene. In fact, she was a little 
 afraid to go very near to the brook lest she 
 should fall in, and be swept away. Mary Bell, 
 however, kept hold of her hand and assured her 
 that there was no danger. Carlo at least was 
 convinced that there was no danger, for Mary 
 Bell and Malleville could see him, at a short 
 distance before them, through the trees, plung- 
 ing into the current here and there, and cross- 
 ing the stream continually so as to be now on 
 this side of it and now on that, as if he liked 
 
The Inundation. 55 
 
 Mary Bell calls him in vain. The bridge. 
 
 the water all the better for its abundance, and 
 for the tumultuous wildness of its motion. 
 
 Malleville, in fact, was quite concerned for 
 Carlo's safety, fearing lest he might get drowned. 
 She begged Mary Bell to call him back, and 
 Mary Bell did accordingly begin to call, with a 
 loud voice, and in very authoritative tones. 
 But all was in vain ; Carlo paid no heed to the 
 calls whatever. His disregard of Mary Bell's 
 commands, however, was not in this instance 
 owing to his spirit of disobedience, for the roar- 
 ing of the water in the brook, mingled with the 
 dashing sound produced close to Carlo's ears 
 by his plunges into it, prevented his hearing 
 Mary Bell at all. Finally Mary Bell gave up 
 the attempt to call the dog back, and she and 
 Malleville walked along quietly together. 
 
 They scrambled along over the rocks, some- 
 times not without considerable difficulty. 
 
 " There is a better road than this when the 
 water is not so high," said Mary Bell, " but now 
 all the low places in it are overflowed. The 
 bridge is overflowed." 
 
 " Then how can we get over ?" asked Malle- 
 ville. 
 
 " Oh, we need not go over at all," replied 
 Mary Be&. " My path goes across first by 
 
56 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell and Malleville on the bank. The whirlpool. 
 
 stepping-stones, and then it comes back by the 
 bridge : but we can keep on this side all the way 
 if we choose, and so not cross the brook at all. 
 Only we shall have some scrambling to do over 
 the rocks." 
 
 " No matter for that," said Malleville. " I 
 like to scramble over rocks." 
 
 Thus they walked along, keeping to the path 
 where it was not overflowed, and, where it was 
 overflowed, finding some other way around 
 or over the rocks upon the bank, and some- 
 times among the trees and bushes. They 
 stopped very frequently to admire the cas- 
 cades and water-falls which occured where 
 the rocks were steep or the water shallow, 
 and the whirling eddies which were formed 
 in the deep places. At one place there was 
 a great boiling whirlpool, where the water 
 seemed to move round and round in great 
 circles, and finally to escape in a great tor- 
 rent between two rocks below. Malleville 
 and Mary Bejl amused themselves for some 
 time in throwing sticks in above this whirlpool, 
 each of them throwing in one at the same in- 
 stant, and then watching them as they sailed 
 down into the whirlpool and revolved round and 
 round in it, in order to see which should first 
 
The Inundation. 57 
 
 They find Phonny and Carlo at the grotto. 
 
 make its escape through the outlet between the 
 two rocks, and go away down the stream. 
 They called these sticks their ships. Some- 
 times Malleville's ships beat in these contests, 
 and sometimes Mary Bell's. 
 
 At last, the children reached the grotto. 
 They found Phonny seated inside of it, upon one 
 of the stone seats. It was now a long time since 
 these seats had been placed there, and the moss 
 which Mary Bell had put in, all around them, 
 had grown so much that they seemed em- 
 bedded in verdure, and presented thus a very 
 beautiful appearance. Phonny had seen Malle- 
 ville and Mary Bell coming up the brook, and 
 he had been watching them from the grotto for 
 some time. Carlo too, who had become tired 
 of swimming about, had come to the grotto- 
 door, and was now lying there at his ease, 
 with his fore-paws extended out straight before 
 him. 
 
 Phonny said that he had been up the brook 
 a great deal farther, and that he had found some 
 beautiful cascades and water-falls ; and that in 
 one place he had found an island. Malleville 
 at once wished to go and see these places ; and 
 as Phonny said that there was no difficulty 
 about the way, the whole party set out to go up 
 
58 Mary Bell. 
 
 Phonny's island. The stepping-stones. 
 
 the brook, Phonny preceding them as guide- 
 There was indeed, as Phonny had said, no diffi- 
 culty about the way; but after they reached 
 the island which Phonny had discovered, they 
 became involved in quite a serious difficulty 
 and one too, of a very singular character. 
 The circumstances were as follows : 
 
 They found, when they arrived at the island, 
 that at that point the adjacent shores of the 
 brook were comparatively flat and low, so that 
 the island was, in fact, in ordinary times a sort of 
 rocky promontory, with trees and bushes upon 
 it. This promontory was, however, so near 
 the brook on one side, and so surrounded on the 
 other sides with low land, that the water had 
 now extended quite around it, and thus had 
 made it an island. It was, however, easy to 
 get to it by means of stepping-stones which 
 Phonny had pointed out, and so all the children 
 went over upon the island, and finding a pleas- 
 ant place upon the rocks on the side toward 
 the brook, they all went and sat down there. 
 Carlo followed them, and sat down too. 
 
 They had not sat there long, before they ob- 
 served that Carlo seemed to be watching the 
 water with a somewhat excited air, as if he saw 
 something unusual in it. 
 
The Inundation. 59 
 
 Carlo's strange excitement. 
 
 "What is the matter, Carlo?" said Mary 
 Bell. 
 
 " He sees something in the water," said 
 Phonny. " I expect it is a fish. A trout per- 
 haps." 
 
 So saying Phonny got up from his seat, and 
 began looking very intensely into the water, in 
 search of the trout. 
 
 Carlo rose also and began to bark. He 
 looked very wild too, and moved to and fro 
 very uneasily. 
 
 " What can it be ?" said Malleville. 
 
 " I'll tell you ;" said Phonny ; " it must be a 
 mink, or an otter, or some kind of wild animal, 
 drowned out of his hole by the deluge." 
 
 Carlo ran off round behind the island, and 
 presently came back again all covered with 
 water, and, standing directly in front of the 
 children he shook himself with the utmost en- 
 ergy, as dogs do when coming out of the water. 
 This, of course, sprinkled them all over, and 
 they jumped up, with screams and shouts of 
 laughter, to run away. Carlo immediately ran 
 off too, passing round behind the island again, 
 and disappearing as he had done before. 
 
 Just then Mary Bell happened to observe 
 that the water in the brook was much higher 
 
60 Mary Bell, 
 
 Difficulty. A consternation. 
 
 then it was when they had first sat down. A 
 stone upon which she had put her feet at first 
 was now entirely covered. 
 
 " Why Phonny," said she, " the brook is ris- 
 ing. What can that mean? Run! we must 
 get off this island as soon as we can." 
 
 The whole party accordingly hurried along 
 in the direction which Carlo had taken, round 
 to that side of the island which was toward the 
 land, but they found that it was too late. The 
 water, from some cause or other, had suddenly 
 risen, and had spread over all the low land of 
 the shore, in such a manner that it was not pos- 
 sible for them to escape. It seemed to be rising 
 higher and higher too, every minute. Carlo, 
 apparently half distracted, was swimming back 
 and forth from the land to the shore, barking, 
 and expressing in every way the extreme ap- 
 prehension and distress that he felt for the safety 
 of the children. 
 
 Malleville and Phonny were thrown into a 
 state of absolute consternation at "finding them- 
 selves, as they thought, about to be overwhelmed 
 by such an inundation, and began to cry and 
 scream in the most frightful manner. Even 
 Mary Bell at first looked somewhat alarmed. 
 She, however, soon recovered her composure, 
 
The Inundation. 61 
 
 Mary Bell's reproof. Phonny proposes to call for help. 
 
 and tried to quiet the children. She rebuked 
 them quite decidedly for the childish folly of 
 making such an outcry. 
 
 " Why, Mary Bell," said Phonny, in justifica- 
 tion of himself, as soon as he had so far recov- 
 ered the use of his faculties as to be able to 
 speak, " we shall all be drowned." 
 
 " No matter," said Mary Bell. " Drowning 
 is an easy death. At any rate, it is as easy to 
 drown still, as it is to drown screaming." 
 
 Phonny laughed. Malleville looked aston- 
 ished and bewildered, and they both became 
 still. 
 
 " But what shall we do ?" asked Malleville, 
 in a tone of despair. 
 
 " I am sure I don't know," said Mary Bell. 
 " I have not had time to think yet. But there 
 is one thing I know, and that is, that we are 
 not in any real danger. The water can not 
 possibly come up to the top of this island." 
 
 Mary Bell looked down at the shore again as 
 she said this. It was plain that the water was 
 rising quite fast. It had come up several inches 
 within a very few minutes. 
 
 " We'd better scream," said Phonny. " Then, 
 perhaps, somebody will hear us and come and 
 help us get off." 
 
62 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell's plan. Carlo goes for Joseph. 
 
 " No," said Mary Bell, " I'll send Carlo home 
 after Joseph. Joseph often sends him home 
 after things, and he will go and get them if he 
 is only in the mood for it. I'll send him for 
 Joseph himself." 
 
 So saying, Mary Bell turned to Carlo, who 
 just then came up to her from the water, and 
 said to him, not in a loud or severe tone, but in 
 the gentle and quiet manner in which she had 
 heard Joseph give him such commands, point- 
 ing at the same time with her finger in the 
 proper direction. 
 
 " Go home, Carlo. Go home and bring Jo- 
 seph." 
 
 Carlo plunged into the stream and swam to 
 the shore. As soon as he had got out of the 
 stream, and had secured a firm footing on the 
 land, he stopped a moment to shake the water 
 out of his hair, and then bounded away at the 
 top of his speed, down the brook. He went on 
 at a headlong rate, leaping chasms, clambering 
 up steep acclivities, and swimming across the 
 little bays and pools of water from the brook 
 which came in the way, until at length he 
 reached the gate which opened from the lane. 
 He pushed this gate open, and dashed through. 
 He ran then along the lane toward the house, 
 
The Inundation. 63 
 
 Carlo tries to make Joseph understand. 
 
 where, by great good fortune, he met Joseph just 
 coming out of the door to go into the garden. 
 He ran up to him, barking very loud, and when 
 
 f he saw that he had attracted his attention, he 
 turned and ran toward the brook, looking back 
 to see if Joseph was following him. But Jo- 
 seph, who had no idea that all this excitement 
 was any thing more than one of the fits of play- 
 fulness which Carlo occasionally assumed of his 
 own accord, went on toward the garden. Carlo 
 then came back, barking and leaping up to Jo 
 seph, and attempting to seize him by the arm. 
 Joseph ordered him down, and to enforce his 
 orders, he attempted to box Carlo's ears. As 
 Carlo was leaping and jumping about him all 
 the time, Joseph found it difficult to hit him, 
 and in his efforts to do this, his hat fell off. 
 Carlo seized the hat and ran, looking round 
 now and then to see if Joseph was following. 
 
 r Joseph did follow, of course, in order to re- 
 cover his hat. He picked up a stone to throw 
 at Carlo, to compel him to give up the hat. 
 But this only made Carlo run the faster. 
 
 At length Carlo reached the gate, and pulled 
 it open with his paw, and then ran through, 
 turning his head a moment, as he entered, to see 
 if Joseph was still coming. 
 
64 Mary Bell. 
 
 Joseph rescues the children. 
 
 By this time Joseph began to think that there 
 must be some cause for such singular behavior 
 on the part of the dog, and he determined to 
 follow him without any more hesitation or de- 
 lay. Carlo led him down to the brook, and 
 Joseph, the moment that he saw the very un- 
 usual height of the water, was immediately con- 
 vinced that something extraordinary had hap- 
 pened. He pressed on, accordingly, after Carlo, 
 as fast as he could go, and was thus conducted 
 to the place where his assistance was so much 
 needed. Carlo dropped the hat upon the ground 
 the moment that Joseph came in sight of the 
 children. 
 
 Joseph had no difficulty in rescuing the chil- 
 dren from their unpleasant situation. He wa- 
 ded out to the island, and brought them to the 
 shore, one after another, in his arms. In fact, 
 as the water on that side of the island was not 
 more than a foot deep, they might all have 
 walked to the shore themselves, without any 
 other inconvenience than giving their feet a 
 bathing. 
 
 Mary Bell was very much surprised that the 
 water should have risen in the brook so rapidly 
 and so suddenly, when the rain had ceased to 
 fall a day or two before, and the waters had ap- 
 
The Inundation. 65 
 
 Cause of the inundation. 
 
 peared to be subsiding. The cause was, that a 
 mill-dam, which was situated upon the brook, 
 about a mile above her grotto, had been under- 
 mined by the pressure of the freshet, and finally 
 gave way just about the time that she com- 
 menced her walk, so as to let all the water in 
 the mill-pond come down in a body. The in- 
 undation was just beginning to reach the island 
 at the time that the children took their seats 
 upon it. 
 
 E 
 
66 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell. Flowers. Her garden. 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 Planning. 
 
 It was a peculiar trait in the character of 
 Mary Bell, that in all her plans of amusement 
 and occupation she looked forward more than 
 most other girls of her age would have done. 
 She was not satisfied in anything that she did, 
 with mere present and momentary pleasure, but 
 almost always aimed at something lasting and 
 permanent in the results. Other girls, when 
 wandering with her in the woods, would be con- 
 tented to gather the wild flowers and the pretty 
 mosses which they found by the way, to 
 arrange in boquets ; but Mary Bell always 
 wished to get the roots of the plants which 
 pleased her, and these roots, when she had 
 brought them home, she would plant among 
 the stones around the wall, or under the old 
 stone walls, and among the bushes whicn ex- 
 tended along the lane. In her garden she took 
 greater interest in raising little oaks and apple- 
 trees, and other such permanent plants, than 
 in cultivating annual flowers, which, though 
 
Planning. 67 
 
 Th3 grove of oaks. Mary Bell's desire to learn. 
 
 sometimes very beautiful, were too frail and 
 ephemeral in their nature for her to attach any 
 great value to them. 
 
 Mary Bell had a little grove of oaks in one 
 corner of the garden, which she had raised from 
 the acorn. They were now four years old, and 
 higher than her head. She was going very soon 
 to have a seat made under them. She had sev- 
 eral apple and pear-trees growing in various 
 parts of the garden, which were now almost 
 ready to bear ; and an orange-tree, and a lem- 
 on-tree, in pots, which she had raised from the 
 seed. In fact, her long and patient labor upon 
 her grotto, and upon the road leading to it along 
 the brook, was a striking example of the inter- 
 est which she felt in operations of a permanent 
 and lasting character. 
 
 She took a great interest, too, in learning 
 every little accomplishment and art that she had 
 the opportunity to acquire, which might by any 
 possibility ever be of use to her. Whenever she 
 witnessed the performance of any art with which 
 the was unacquainted, such as any new mode 
 of netting, or drawing, or new style of embroid- 
 ery, or fancy-work of any kind, she always 
 watched the process with very close and care- 
 ful attention, in order that she might be able to 
 
68 Mary Bell. 
 
 Th > silk purse. Mary Bell and Caroline. 
 
 imitate it ; while other young ladies would 
 oftener be satisfied with begging a specimen of 
 the work itself from the one who was executing 
 it. One day, for instance, while Mary Bell was 
 visiting her friend Caroline, there was a lady 
 there from Nr.w York, Caroline's aunt Grace, 
 who was netting a beautiful silk purse, by a 
 new and ingenious stitch which she had just 
 learned at the city. Caroline and Mary Bell 
 both sat by the side of Miss Grace for some 
 time, while she was at her work, both very in- 
 tently interested in it, but in very different 
 ways. Caroline paid no attention to the pro- 
 cess, but was continually taking hold of that 
 part of the purse which was finished, and ex- 
 pressing her admiration of the figure, and of the 
 beautiful arrangement of the colors : while 
 Mary Bell, on the other hand, watched the mo- 
 tion of Miss Grace's fingers, examined very 
 closely the form of the needle, and the manner 
 in which the stitches were made by it. Instead 
 of asking Miss Grace to make her a purse, her 
 request would have been, if she had made any 
 request at all, that Miss Grace would allow her 
 to take the needle for a few minutes, and some 
 of the silk, and teach her the stitch, in order 
 that she might make purses for herself. Miss 
 
Planning. 69 
 
 Mary Bell tries to nett. 
 
 Grace observed, after a time, how deeply inter- 
 ested Mary Bell was in the process, and so she 
 put her work into Mary Bell's hands, saying, 
 
 " Try it, Mary Bell. You can do it very 
 easily." 
 
 But Mary Bell was afraid that she should 
 spoil the purse. * 
 
 " Oh, no," said Miss Grace. " And if you do 
 make the stitches wrong, it is of no conse- 
 quence, for I can easily take them out again." 
 
 So Mary Bell took the work into her hands, 
 and as she had previously studied every part of 
 the process so attentively, she knew exactly 
 what to do ; and with a very little additional 
 instruction from Miss Grace, she soon succeeded 
 perfectly well. 
 
 Miss Grace then proposed that Caroline 
 should make the attempt, but Caroline was 
 rather unwilling to try. 
 
 " I cannot do it," said she, " I know." 
 
 " But why should not you do it, as well as 
 Mary Bell ?" asked Miss Grace. " You have 
 been looking over me and seeing me work as 
 long as she." 
 
 It was true that Caroline had been looking 
 over as long as Mary Bell, but she had not been 
 seeing Miss Grace work at all. That was a 
 
70 Mary Bell. 
 
 Caroline's failure. The reason of Mary Bell's success. 
 
 part of the spectacle to which she had paid no 
 attention. However, as she did not quite like 
 to be outdone by Mary Bell, she took the netting 
 into her hands ; but when she had taken it, she 
 had not the slightest idea what she was to do. 
 
 After making some awkward and blundering 
 attempts, in which her aunt Grace in vain at- 
 tempted to guide her by continual explanations, 
 Caroline gave it up, and put the work back into 
 her aunt's hands, saying that she never could 
 learn to do any such thing as that, though some 
 how or other it was always very easy to Mary 
 Bell. 
 
 The reason why Mary Bell succeeded so much 
 better than Caroline in such attempts, was sim- 
 ply because she knew how, first to direct her at- 
 tention to the points on which success depended, 
 and then patiently and perseveringly to pursue 
 the course which her observation had thus dis- 
 covered. She was assisted, it is true/in doing 
 any new thing which presented itself, by the 
 habit of dexterity which her fingers had ac- 
 quired in learning how to do so many other 
 things before. For in respect to progress in 
 learning, it is the same with manipulations and 
 feats of dexterity as with attainments more 
 strictly intellectual. The more we have learned 
 
Planning. 71 
 
 All knowledge will come into use. 
 
 in times past the more easy it is to learn in 
 times to come. A boy who has learned to play 
 upon the flute, will afterwards learn to play 
 upon the bass-viol much more easily, on ac- 
 count of the flexibility, and the habit of obedi- 
 ence to his will, which his fingers will have ac- 
 quired. And it sometimes happens that when a 
 performer, skilled in playing on various instru- 
 ments of different kinds, is unexpectedly offered 
 a new one w T hich he had never seen before, 
 he will play upon it quite respectably at once, 
 without an)' previous practice at all. This 
 principle should operate as a great encourage- 
 ment to young persons, to be always at work 
 learning something, knowing that whatever it 
 is it will be certainly useful to them. For if 
 what they learn should prove to be of no special 
 service on its own account, it will be of advan- 
 tage in enabling them to learn something else 
 more easily. 
 
 Mary Bell had not only a great deal of per- 
 sonal dexterity in such arts and accomplish- 
 ments as we have been describing, but she 
 evinced also much skill in devising and arrang- 
 ing extended plans of amusement for the other 
 children ; though she always did this in a very 
 quiet and unobtrusive manner, so as not to 
 
72 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell's planning. The 
 
 bring herself particularly into notice in them, or 
 to make herself in any way the subject of ob- 
 servation. When she planned and executed 
 her grotto and the road leading to it, she was 
 quite young, and she then had no objection to 
 working diligently in the open air, lifting and 
 carrying stones, and digging in the ground. 
 But when she became eleven and twelve years 
 old, her taste changed in respect to such labors. 
 She began to consider them too masculine, that 
 is, too boyish, for her ; and though she still took 
 great interest in such improvements, she no 
 longer undertook to execute them with her own 
 hands. Still she would very often plan and 
 direct them, and even sometimes, though al- 
 ways in a quiet and unassuming way, superin- 
 tend the execution of them by the hands of 
 others. One of these plans, — the making of a 
 road up the Peak, — it is necessary here to de- 
 scribe, on account of certain occurrences con- 
 nected with it, which are tc be narrated in a 
 subsequent chapter. 
 
 The Peak was a lofty rocky pinnacle, which 
 almost overhung the village. It was the termi- 
 nation of a spur or projection which branched 
 from a range of mountains that was near. 
 The summit of it was a very pleasant place 
 
Planning. 73 
 
 f he view from the Peak. The pathway. 
 
 when it was once attained, as it afforded a mag^ 
 nificent point of view for the survey of the 
 whole surrounding country. From a great flat 
 rock, which was near the summit, one could see 
 the village, the pond, the outlet stream, winding 
 its way from the pond to the river, and the 
 river itself, meandering down the valley, look- 
 ing down upon the whole as upon a map. It 
 was, however, very difficult to get up to this 
 rock. There was indeed a sort of pathway 
 leading there, but in some places this pathway 
 was encumbered with bushes and brambles ; at 
 other places, where springs oozed from the 
 mountain, it was wet and miry. In one part 
 of the way there was a little brook which ran 
 along for a considerable distance in the middle 
 of the path — at a place, too, where there was no 
 room to walk on either side. Near the top of 
 the ascent, moreover, there was quite a long 
 way where the track led over heaps of loose 
 stones, which sank down, more or less, whenever 
 any body stepped upon them, and seemed some- 
 times as if they were all upon the point of slid- 
 ing down the hill together. 
 
 The plan of making a better road up to the 
 Peak was first proposed at a launching. One 
 of the bovs whose name was Parker, had con- 
 
74 Mary Bell. 
 
 The proposed lanching. The ways. The rollers. Delay. 
 
 trived, by the help of a sailor that was straying 
 through the country, and had stopped to work 
 for a while at his father's, to build and rig a lit- 
 tle ship, about two feet long. Parker was now 
 going to have a lanching of this ship. The 
 lanching was to take place on the banks of a 
 small brook which flowed through a pleasant 
 field in the rear of his father's garden. Parker 
 invited the girls and boys of his acquaintance 
 to come and see this lanching. When the 
 afternoon arrived the children all assembled, 
 girls and boys, some young and some old ; and 
 while Parker and his assistants were engaged 
 in fixing the ways as they are called, in their 
 places, getting the rollers ready, and making 
 the other necessary preparations, the children 
 sat on the stones and grassy banks around, 
 amusing themselves in watching the proceed- 
 ings of the ship carpenters and in conversation. 
 The Peak was very near them, towering 
 sublimely toward the sky. 
 
 Parker met with some unexpected difficul- 
 ties in completing his arrangements. This oc- 
 casioned delay. The children began to be im- 
 patient. Caroline, who was there with the 
 rest, endeavored to hurry the preparations, say- 
 ing, 
 
Planning. 75 
 
 Caroline and Mary Bell. Plan for amusing the children. 
 
 "Come, Parker, make haste. We are all 
 tred of waiting." 
 
 This only increased Parker's agitation and 
 perplexity, and hindered the work instead of 
 Aastening it. Caroline did not intend to pro- 
 duce any such effect. She merely spoke with- 
 out proper consideration. 
 
 Mary Bell, on the other hand, felt sponta- 
 \eously a desire rather to diminish than to in- 
 3rease the pressure upon Parker's mind; and 
 his she thought she could perhaps do, by turn- 
 ing the attention of the party who were wait- 
 : ng, away a little from the preparations for the 
 lanch, and amusing them with something else. 
 She concluded to begin with the younger chil- 
 dren. So she took Malleville and another girl 
 of about Malleville's age, by the hand, and led 
 them away a few steps to a place where the 
 path was very broad and smooth. 
 
 " Now," said she, " let us see how many dif- 
 ferent kinds of plants we can find growing 
 about here, and lay one specimen of each kind 
 down in this path, in a row. How many do 
 you think we can find ?" 
 
 " Oh, I can find a great many," said Malle- 
 ville. " I can find ten." 
 
 " They must be all pretty specimens," said 
 
76 Mary Bell. 
 
 The collection of plants. Waiting for the lanching. 
 
 Mary Bell, " and about as long as your thumb. 
 And you must not have two alike." 
 
 So saying, Mary Bell took out from the grass 
 two little sprigs of different kinds, and yet both 
 pretty and graceful in form, and laid them down 
 in the path, about six inches apart. This was 
 for the beginning of the row. 
 
 " Now," continued Mary Bell, " go on and 
 find as many as you can. But before you put 
 any down, examine all that are already in the 
 row very carefully, so as to be sure and not put 
 down two of the same kind." 
 
 Malleville and her playmate immediately be- 
 gan the work thus assigned them with a great 
 deal of apparent interest and pleasure. The 
 other younger children soon came to see what 
 was going on, and began eagerly, one after an- 
 other, to join in the work ; and at last, when 
 Mary Bell had got them all w T ell engaged in it, 
 she left them, saying that she would return by 
 and by and see how long a row they had made. 
 She then went back to the rest of the party. 
 
 She sat down with them upon the grassy 
 bank, and began to listen to their conversation. 
 They were nearly all girls ; all, in fact, except- 
 ing one. The boys, excepting this one, whose 
 name was Arthur, were all around the ship, 
 
Planning. 77 
 
 Caroline's impatience. Arthur's wish. Flying. 
 
 attending to the preparations for the lanching. 
 Caroline was the oldest of the girls who were 
 present, though there were others of nearly her 
 age. The girls happened just to have exhausted 
 the subject which they had been talking about, 
 when Mary Bell joined them, and then there 
 was a moment's pause. 
 
 " Oh dear me !" said Caroline. " How long 
 they are in getting their lanching ready. I 
 wish they would begin. But, Mary Bell, what 
 have you been setting those little girls to doing?" 
 
 Mary Bell laughed, but did not reply. 
 
 " How magnificent the Peak looks this after- 
 noon!" continued Caroline. 
 
 " Yes," said Arthur. " I wish we were up 
 there. If I could fly, I would go right up 
 now — " 
 
 Here Arthur suspended his sentence a mo- 
 ment, while he picked up a stone from the ground 
 near him, and throwing it with all his force into 
 the air, in the direction of the summit of the 
 Peak, he finished his speech by adding, as the 
 stone flew swiftly toward the sky, 
 
 " Like that." 
 
 " The path might be made a very good path, 
 quite easily, I think," said Mary Bell. 
 
 " Who could do it ?" asked Caroline. 
 
78 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell's proposal to make a path up to the Peak. 
 
 " The boys,'' said Mary Bell. 
 
 " The boys !" repeated Caroline, in a tone of 
 contempt. " They are too fond of play to spend 
 their time in such work as that, I can assure 
 you." 
 
 " I think they would like to do it," rejoined 
 Mary Bell, " if there was a plan formed, and the 
 work was arranged for them.'' 
 
 " Well, there is nobody to do that," replied 
 Caroline. 
 
 " Yes," said Mary Bell, " you could do it." 
 
 " Oh, no," said Caroline. " I am not good at 
 forming plans. And, besides, I don't believe 
 that the boys would do the work, if I should 
 form the plan. I'll ask them. Boys!" 
 
 "No, stop," said Mary Bell. "Don't ask 
 them yet. Wait till you have formed the plan. 
 Besides, they are too much engaged about the 
 ship now, to attend to any thing else." 
 
 " Well, what sort of a plan could I form," 
 asked Caroline. 
 
 " Why you might divide the path into four 
 or five parts," replied Mary Bell, " and let two 
 girls take a part." 
 
 " Two boys, you mean," said Caroline. " Girls 
 could not do the work." 
 
 " True," said Mary Bell, " but girls might 
 
Planning. 79 
 
 Conversation on the subject. Details of the plan. 
 
 take the responsibility. They could get their 
 brothers to do the work ; and then they might 
 carry up ckink and refreshments to them while 
 they were doing it." 
 
 " But some of us have not got any brothers," 
 said Caroline. 
 
 " Then we must get our cousins," replied 
 Mary Bell, " or some other friends among the 
 boys to do our share." 
 
 " Well," said Caroline, " I think it is a very 
 good plan." 
 
 " You might have each of the divisions of the 
 path marked at the beginning of it, by a stone 
 — a large stone, with a smooth face to it — for a 
 monument. The boys could easily set up such 
 a stone. The number of the division might be 
 marked on it, and the initial letters of the girls 
 that had the care of that division." 
 
 "Yes," said Caroline, "so we could." 
 
 " Only there must be a greater monument," 
 continued Mary Bell, " at the top, for your name 
 to be marked upon, alone ; because you would 
 have the general charge and supervision of the 
 whole work." 
 
 " Oh, no !" said Caroline. " I should not like 
 to have my name in such a public place." 
 
 " Why, it would not be your full name, you 
 
80 Mary Bell. 
 
 Monuments. The collation. Ready for the lanch. 
 
 know," rejoined Mary Bell, " only your initials, 
 perhaps only C, for Caroline, or C. R., for Car- 
 oline Regina, that is, Caroline the queen ; for 
 you would be queen of the whole affair. And 
 besides, the monument need not be in any very 
 public place. It might be a little secluded in 
 some situation near the end of the path." 
 
 Caroline had now become very much inter- 
 ested in the plan, and was quite eager to call 
 the attention of the boys to it at once. But 
 Mary Bell told her that they seemed to be now 
 almost ready for the lanching, and so persua- 
 ded her to wait until the time of the collation, 
 before bringing forward the plan. Parker had 
 arranged a collation in a little grove near by, 
 to which his company were to be invited as 
 soon as the lanching should have been accom- 
 plished. The end of the collation, Mary Bell 
 said, would be the very best possible time for 
 proposing any new plan. 
 
 Very soon after this, the whole party heard 
 the very welcome call from Parker, of 
 
 " Come, girls, we are all ready." 
 
 The place which had been chosen for the 
 lanching, was a point where the water, after 
 flowing smoothly in a straight channel for some 
 length, forming a sort of basin, turned suddenly 
 
Planning. 81 
 
 Arrangements for anchoring the ship. 
 
 to the left, and fell over rocky cascades. The 
 ways were laid at this bend, and were pointed 
 up the stream, so that the vessel should be sent 
 forward up the basin ; and as there was a long 
 reach of smooth water in this direction, the 
 boys thought that the ship would have space to 
 shoot forward as far as it pleased. In order, 
 however, to prevent its striking the land at the 
 upper end of the sheet of water, and also for 
 the purpose of bringing the lanch to a scien- 
 tific and proper termination, Parker had ar- 
 ranged an anchor at the bows of the vessel, 
 which was to be let go at the proper time, and 
 was expected to bring the vessel to a state of 
 rest. 
 
 Tt is obvious that as the vessel was too small 
 to allow of any living sailor being on board, 
 some plan different from the usual one must be 
 devised for letting go this anchor. The plan 
 which Parker contrived was this. 
 
 He stationed a boy upon the bank of the 
 brook, about mid- way of the space over which 
 the vessel was expected to glide, at a place 
 where there was a stone that he could sit upon 
 at his ease, and gave him the end of a black 
 thread to hold in his hand. The other end of 
 the thread was passed to the vessel, and there 
 
82 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mode of dropping the anchor. The lanch successful. 
 
 attached to a small stick, or little bar of wood 
 which was laid upon the bows. The anchor 
 was laid across this little stick, and the thread 
 was fastened to the farthest end of it in such a 
 manner that when the thread was pulled, the 
 stick would be lifted up and the anchor hove 
 overboard. All this arrangement was kept 
 profoundly secret from the girls, — as they were 
 not on any account to know by what means the 
 anchor was dropped. The boy who held the 
 end of the string was to assume an unconcerned 
 and indifferent air, as if he had no active part 
 to perform himself, but was a mere spectator ; 
 and when the command should be given by 
 Parker to let go the anchor, he was to give the 
 thread a gentle pull, holding the hand by which 
 he did it in a concealed position all the time, on 
 the farther side of him. Then the moment the 
 anchor was free, he was to drop the thread from 
 his hand without attempting to pull it to the 
 shore, but to let it float away instead, unseen, 
 in the water. 
 
 The plan succeeded admirably. The whole 
 party of girls and boys gathered around the ship 
 in a semi-circle, so arranged that all could see. 
 The after-block was knocked away, and the 
 vessel glided beautifully down its ways into the 
 
Planning. 
 
 83 
 
 The name. 
 
 Three cheers. 
 
 Picture of the lanch. 
 
 water. The instant that Parker saw that the 
 ship was safe in the water, he called out, 
 
 " Her name is the Caroline. Three cheers 
 for the Caroline." 
 
 The three cheers were given in the most en- 
 thusiastic manner, — the boys shouting, and wa- 
 ving their caps in the air, and the girls clapping 
 their hands. The boat glided beautifully- 
 through the water, going, however, more and 
 more slowly, as the impulse which it had re- 
 ceived in the lanch was gradually expended. 
 
 THE LANCHING. 
 
84 Mary Bell. 
 
 The ship comes to anchor in the roadstead. 
 
 At length Parker gave the order to let go the 
 anchor, when forthwith the whole party heard 
 a little plunge and saw the anchor fall. The 
 vessel was soon brought to a stand, and then 
 swinging around gracefully with the current, it 
 floated down a little way until it came to a 
 stand again in the middle of the water, at an 
 excellent roadstead, where it was held by its an- 
 chor quite securely. 
 
 The lanching being thus successfully accom- 
 plished, the children began to move in little de- 
 tached parties toward the grove where the col- 
 lation had been spread. Caroline hurried them 
 along, saying, 
 
 " Come, girls, come. Come to the collation. 
 And after the collation I am going to tell you 
 about a plan that I have been forming for ma- 
 king a good road up to the Peak." 
 
Carlo Lost. 85 
 
 Mrs. Bell's dog Carlo. Joseph's management. 
 
 Chapter V. 
 Carlo Lost. 
 
 Mrs. Bell's dog Carlo got lost about this 
 time, and Beechnut and Mary Bell had quite a 
 series of adventures in attempting to find him 
 again. The occurrences connected with this 
 affair have to be related here, at the time when 
 they took place ; though in consequence of this, 
 it becomes necessary to postpone, for a chapter 
 or two, the account of the execution of the plan, 
 which Mary Bell and Caroline formed for mak- 
 ing a pathway to the Peak. 
 
 The way in which Carlo got lost, was this. 
 Joseph, the young man who lived at Mrs. Bell's, 
 and with whom, perhaps, Carlo had more to do 
 than with any other person, was not particu- 
 larly fond of dogs, and took no special notice 
 of Carlo, and accordingly gained no great as- 
 cendancy over him. When Joseph went away 
 any where, Carlo might go with him or not, just 
 , as he pleased. Joseph himself had no wish 
 about it, one way or the other. He took no 
 notice of Carlo if he went, and he made no ob- 
 
86 Mary Bell. 
 
 Carlo's independence. Joseph's journey to Haverhill. 
 
 jection if the dog chose to stay at home. In a 
 word, Joseph was as independent as Carlo. 
 
 This may have been owing in part to the 
 fact, that it would have done no good for Jo- 
 seph to have expressed any wishes of his own 
 at any time, in respect to Carlo's accompanying 
 him, for Carlo would have paid no attention to 
 them whatever, if he had expressed them. 
 Whenever Joseph went away from the house, 
 to go of an errand into the village, or to his 
 work in the field, if Carlo took a fancy to going 
 with him, he would go, no matter how authori- 
 tatively Joseph ordered him to remain at home. 
 On the other hand, if he chose to remain at 
 home, no callings, or coaxings, or persuasions 
 whatever, could induce him to go. 
 
 One time Joseph was going in the wagon on 
 a journey to a large town named Haverhill, 
 which was situated so far from Franconia, that 
 it was not convenient to go and return the same 
 day. Joseph, accordingly, formed his plan for 
 spending the night at Haverhill, and setting out 
 on his return to Franconia on the day follow- 
 ing. - When the time arrived for his journey, 
 he rose and made his preparations for going 
 quite early in the morning, in order to set out 
 immediately after breakfast. Carlo said noth- 
 
Carlo Lost. 87 
 
 Carlo determines to go too. Joseph orders him home. 
 
 ing, but concluded quietly, in his own mind, 
 that he would go too. It was plain to him that 
 some expedition was on foot ; and although he 
 had no idea of the nature or object of it, except 
 that it was evident that the horse and wagon 
 were going, he determined to join it, whatever 
 its destination might be. Accordingly, on the 
 morning of the journey, when Joseph drove the 
 horse up to the fastening-post behind the house, 
 and tied him there, while he went in to break- 
 fast, Carlo went to the place, walked very de- 
 liberately under the wagon, and lay down there. 
 Joseph took no notice of this movement. In 
 fact, he was thinking of something else all the 
 time, and did not observe Carlo at all. 
 
 After breakfast, Joseph, having received his 
 last directions from Mrs. Bell, and having bid 
 her and Mary Bell good-bye, came out, unfas- 
 tened the horse, mounted into the wagon, and 
 drove away. He had not gone many steps, 
 before he heard Mary Bell's voice behind, call- 
 ing out, 
 
 " Carlo ! Carlo ! Come back, Carlo !" 
 Joseph looked round and saw Carlo trotting 
 along just behind the wagon. He was evidently 
 determined to pay no attention to Mary Bell's 
 calls. 
 
88 
 
 M A R Y B K L L 
 
 Carlo is determined not to go home. 
 
 " Carlo !" said Joseph, speaking in a very 
 stern and authoritative voice, " Gro home !" 
 
 Carlo paid no heed to this command, hut 
 continued on his way, following the wagon just 
 as before. 
 
 Joseph, still looking back toward Carlo, rein- 
 ed in his horse and stopped. Carlo stopped too. 
 Joseph looked at Carlo, and Carlo looked very 
 steadily and firmly at Joseph. 
 
 Josep^ reached back as far as he could, and 
 
Carlo Lost. 89 
 
 Various measures resorted to by Joseph. 
 
 struck at Carlo with his whip. Carlo did not 
 move. He did not even wink. He knew that 
 the whip lash was not long enough to reach him. 
 
 Joseph then turned his horse out to one side 
 of the road, in order that he might get out and 
 drive Carlo home. While he was doing this, 
 Carlo, keeping still at the same distance from 
 the wagon as before, walked leisurely out to 
 the side of the road, and sat down. Joseph de- 
 scended from his w 7 agon and advanced toward 
 Carlo, brandishing his whip and saying, "Go 
 home !" Carlo retreated slowly, so as just to 
 keep beyond the reach of the whip, but with his 
 face turned toward Joseph all the time. 
 
 Joseph then stooped down to pick up some 
 stones, and Carlo, w T ho had expected this move- 
 ment, and was consequently all prepared for it, 
 sprang away immediately, and retreated as far 
 as he thought was necessary to enable him to 
 dodge the missiles. Joseph threw two or three 
 stones. Carlo avoided them by bounding when 
 they came, first to one side of the road, and 
 then to the other, but he evinced no disposition 
 to go home. 
 
 Joseph did not know what to do next. Mary 
 Bell stood all this time at the great stone step 
 before the door, watching the contest. 
 
90 Mary Bell. 
 
 Joseph gives up the contest, and Carlo goes. 
 
 " Mary Bell," said Joseph, " can't you come 
 and get him home ?" 
 
 " I can come" said Mary Bell, " but how am 
 I to get him home ?" 
 
 This question, it was obvious, admitted of no 
 satisfactory reply ; and so Joseph, after stand- 
 ing perplexed and uncertain for a moment, 
 turned toward his wagon again, saying to him- 
 self in a fretful tone : 
 
 " Let him go then if he will. He'll get paid 
 for his obstinacy before he has trotted all the 
 way to Haverhill, I can assure him." 
 
 Joseph mounted into his wagon and drove 
 on, Carlo following him as before. Joseph was 
 still, however, quite unwilling to have Carlo 
 thus conquer in the contest, and after riding a 
 short distance farther he thought of one other 
 plan for getting Carlo home, which was to per- 
 suade the dog to get up into the wagon under 
 pretense of letting him ride, and then, when he 
 had thus secured him, Joseph thought that he 
 could easily turn round and take him home. 
 He accordingly stopped, and changing his tone 
 and manner altogether, he began with great ap- 
 pearance of friendship and good-will to urge 
 Carlo to come and jump into the wagon. But 
 Carlo, who suspected treachery, would not 
 
Carlo Lost. 91 
 
 Carlo is left behind at Haverhill. The grain-room. 
 
 come. He kept in fact as far behind the wagon 
 as he had done before — eyeing Joseph sus- 
 piciously, and paying no heed to his calls. So 
 Joseph gave up the contest, and Carlo went to 
 Haverhill. 
 
 Joseph finished his business at Haverhill on 
 the evening of his arrival, and on the following 
 morning set out on his return home. He did 
 not once think of Carlo until he had proceeded 
 two or three miles on his journey. Then sud- 
 denly remembering him he looked around, but 
 Carlo was not to be seen. He stopped the 
 horse and waited a few minutes, supposing that 
 the dog had fallen a little behind, and that he 
 should soon see him coming along the road. 
 But no Carlo appeared. Joseph then began to 
 consider whether it would be best to go back 
 and find him ; and after doubting and hesitating 
 on this point for a short time, he finally con- 
 cluded to go on. It must be, he thought, that 
 Carlo would come along of his own accord. 
 
 But Carlo could not come along, for having 
 gone into what they called the grain- room, in 
 the stable, at the tavern where Joseph had 
 spent the night, he had got accidently fastened 
 in, and was accordingly shut up there, a pris- 
 oner. He had slept during the night under the 
 
92 Mary Bell. 
 
 Manner in which Carlo became imprisoned. 
 
 wagon, considering it his duty to watch it, but 
 in the morning just about the time that Joseph 
 was finishing his breakfast, having had no 
 breakfast of his own, he had gone hunting about 
 the back-door for a bone, and having at length 
 found one he carried it at first to his place 
 under the wagon, intending to gnaw it there ; 
 but another smaller dog came and attempted to 
 take it away from him, and Carlo, rather than 
 quarrel, ran off* with his bone, not observing 
 particularly where he went, but only desirous 
 of finding some retreat where he could make 
 the best of his breakfast, such as it was, in 
 peace. Chance led him into the grain-room, 
 the door of which happened to be open. Chance 
 also led the ostler to shut the door soon after 
 Carlo entered, he not knowing that Carlo was 
 there. When Carlo had disposed of the bone 
 he tried to get out of the grain-room, but could 
 not. The door was fastened, and though there 
 was a window, it was up very high in the wall, 
 and entirely inaccessible. Carlo scratched at 
 the door for a time, and made piteous entreaties 
 for somebody outside to let him out ; but no- 
 body heard him. He concluded then that he 
 must wait patiently until some one should open 
 the door. So he lav down at a little distance 
 
Carlo Lost. 93 
 
 Carlo's attempts to find Joseph. His unconcern. 
 
 from the door, extended his paws before him, 
 reposed his chin upon his paws, and in that po- 
 sition allowed himself to sink into a sort of 
 semi-sleep. It was only a semi-sleep, for he 
 opened one eye from time to time to keep watch 
 of the door. 
 
 It was nearly noon before he was liberated, 
 and Joseph was then nearly half way home. 
 Carlo ran immediately to the place where he 
 had left the wagon, but it had disappeared. He 
 went to the stable and looked in the stall where 
 Joseph's horse had been placed, but the horse 
 was gone. He smelled all about the yard and 
 about the doors of the tavern, to find the traces 
 of Joseph's steps, but there were no traces of 
 them to be found. He tried to remember the 
 road by which he came into the village, but he 
 could not. It was dark in fact when he came 
 in the evening before, and besides that, he w T as 
 asleep in the wagon the last ten miles of the 
 way ; for he made no objection to getting into 
 the wagon to ride when Joseph had got so far 
 away from home as to preclude the possibility of 
 returning. Thus he had no means of knowing 
 what w r ay he should take in order to follow 
 Joseph and find him. He perceived at once 
 that it was a hopeless case, and as it was an es- 
 
94 M ary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell and her mother. Plans for recovering Carlo. 
 
 sential characteristic of his nature to take every 
 thing quietly and philosophically, he dismissed 
 the subject at once from his mind, and went to 
 amusing himself by playing tumble-over-and- 
 over, with another dog which just then came, 
 in attendance upon a farmer's wagon, into the 
 tavern yard. 
 
 Thus Carlo was lost. Mary Bell and her 
 mother were both extremely sorry, when Jo- 
 seph came back, to find that he had not brought 
 Carlo, and that he did not even know what had 
 become of him. Mrs. Bell at first thought of 
 sending Joseph back expressly to get him ; but 
 this would have been inconvenient, and some- 
 what expensive. It was uncertain too whether 
 this plan would succeed, if adopted, since no 
 one knew whether Carlo remained at the tavern 
 or had strayed away from Joseph somewhere 
 on the road. Finally, Mrs. Bell concluded to 
 wait until she should hear of some one going to 
 Haverhill, and so send by him, as a messenger, 
 to inquire for the dog, and to bring him home if 
 he could be found. 
 
 Such an opportunity did not occur for two 
 months. A little after the expiration of that 
 time, however, a wagoner whom Joseph knew, 
 was going to Haverhill, and to him the commis- 
 
Carlo Lost. 95 
 
 The wagoner finds Carlo at Haverhill. He claims him. 
 
 sion was intrusted. Joseph described the dog 
 to the wagoner, gave him the name of the tav- 
 ern where he had put up when Carlo went with 
 him, and asked the wagoner to inquire for Carlo 
 both at this tavern and also at other places on 
 the way, and to bring him home if he could 
 find him. 
 
 The wagoner very readily undertook the 
 commission. He inquired along the road, as he 
 went to Haverhill, if any one had seen such a 
 dog, but he could not hear any tidings of him. 
 As soon, however, as he arrived at the tavern, 
 he found Carlo very comfortably established 
 there, and quite as well contented, apparently, 
 at his new home, as he had been at the old one. 
 
 The wagoner immediately claimed the dog 
 as belonging to Mrs. Bell, supposing,. of course, 
 that he would be at once given up, in order 
 .that he might be restored to the proper owner. 
 But instead of this, an unexpected difficulty 
 arose. The tavern-keeper said that he must be 
 paid for the trouble and expense which he had 
 incurred in taking care of the dog, and feeding 
 him so long. He had perceived, he said, that 
 he was a valuable dog, and had presumed that 
 the owner would soon come after him ; and so 
 he had taken great care of him ; and now he 
 
96 Mary Bell. 
 
 A difficulty. The wagoner's report to Mrs. Bell. 
 
 must be paid for his trouble before he could let 
 the dog go. He asked half a dollar. 
 
 Half a dollar was certainly not a great sum 
 for such a service ; but the wagoner had not 
 been authorized to pay any thing whatever. In 
 fact, it had not occurred to Mrs. Bell that any 
 thing would be demanded, so that the emergen- 
 cy was wholly unprovided for. The wagoner 
 endeavored to persuade the tavern-keeper to 
 give up the dog without receiving the money ; 
 but the tavern-keeper would not do so, and the 
 wagoner was, consequently, compelled to re- 
 turn without him. 
 
 When he came to make his report to Mrs. 
 Bell, Mrs. Bell told him that he did perfectly 
 right not to pay the money, since he had not 
 received any directions to do so. She said, 
 however, that if she had known that the tavern- 
 keeper would have made any such demand, she 
 should certainly have sent the money to meet 
 it. It was right and propeT, she added, that the 
 tavern-keeper should receive something in com- 
 pensation for his trouble and expense, and she 
 admitted that half a dollar was a very reason- 
 able demand. It seemed to her, however, that 
 he might have had sufficient generosity to have 
 sent the dog home, trusting to the honesty and 
 
Carlo Lost. 97 
 
 Second expedition of the wagoner. The collar and chain. 
 
 fairness of the owner for the recovery of his 
 money, rather than to insist on keeping the dog 
 as a sort of captive held for ransom. She told 
 the wagoner, however, that he himself acted ex- 
 actly right, and she requested him to call upon 
 her the next time that he went to Haverhill, 
 and she would give him the money, and get 
 him to redeem Carlo, and bring him home. 
 
 It was more than three months after this be- 
 fore the wagoner went again. Mrs. Bell thought 
 that by this time Carlo would have forgotten all 
 about his former friends. Still she was very 
 anxious to recover him. She gave the wag- 
 oner a dollar, thinking it probable that the tav- 
 ern-keeper would expect more than he had 
 asked at first, having now kept the dog for a 
 double length of time. Mary Bell also bought 
 a collar in the village, and a long chain, so 
 that the wagoner could chain the dog in his 
 wagon, and thus prevent his jumping out and 
 running away on the road. She also put into 
 the wagon a large piece of meat, wrapped up 
 in a newspaper. This was for Carlo's dinner, 
 coming home. Having taken all these precau- 
 tions, Mrs. Bell and Mary confidently expected 
 to see Carlo as soon as the wagoner should re- 
 turn. Q 
 
98 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell watches for the wagoner. Hia return. 
 
 He returned in three days. Mary Bell 
 watched for him two hours, toward the latter 
 part of the third day, seated with her sewing, 
 in a small rocking-chair, on the great flat stone 
 step before the door. At length she saw the 
 white top of the wagon coming along the road. 
 She laid down her work and ran down the road 
 to meet the wagon. She saw nothing of Carlo. 
 She supposed, however, that he was in the 
 wagon, chained down in some concealed place 
 there. She began at length to fear that this 
 might not be the case, and her fears were con- 
 firmed by seeing the wagoner, before she got 
 near enough to him to speak, begin to shake his 
 head. Mary Bell knew then, that for some rea- 
 son or other, he had not brought Carlo. 
 
 When the wagon, which was a great white- 
 topped wagon, drawn by four horses, approached, 
 Mary Bell stood out at one side of the road. The 
 wagoner reined in his horses when he got near 
 to Mary Bell, and- stopped. 
 
 "What's the matter?" said Mary Bell. 
 « Where's Carlo ?" 
 
 " The man says," replied the wagoner, " that 
 he waited some time, and finding that your 
 mother did not send for the dog, and not want- 
 ing to keep him any longer himself, he let an- 
 
Carlo Lost. 09 
 
 The wagoner's report. Number Five. 
 
 other man have him that was willing to pay the 
 fifty cents." 
 
 " Who was the man ?" asked Mary Bell. 
 
 " The tavern-keeper did not know what his 
 name was/' said the wagoner. 
 
 " Did he know where he lived ?" asked Mary 
 Bell. 
 
 " Yes," said the wagoner, " he said he lived 
 in Number Five." 
 
 " Number Five ?" repeated Mary Bell. 
 
 " Yes," said the wagoner. " That is one of 
 the back towns among the mountains, off to the 
 northward and westward. And here's the dol- 
 lar. You can give the money to your mother, 
 and tell her about it. It is of no use to try to 
 find the dog any more, as we can't find out the 
 man's name that bought him." 
 
 So saying, the wagoner started his weary 
 team again, and drove on, leaving Mary Bell 
 by the side of the road, holding the dollar in her 
 hand, and saying with a deep sigh, as the wag- 
 oner drove away, 
 
 "Oh, dear me! I'm very sorry. I liked 
 Carlo very much, — though he wouldn't ever 
 mind me." 
 
 Mary Bell went into the house, and commu- 
 nicated to her mother the report which the 
 
100 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell's disappointment. Beechnut's proposal. 
 
 wagoner had made. Mrs. Bell was sorry to 
 receive such an account, but she was now dis- 
 posed to consider the dog as irretrievably lost, 
 and to dismiss the subject wholly from her mind. 
 
 The subject would probably have thus been 
 finally and forever dropped, had it not been that 
 Beechnut revived it once more, a week or two 
 after this time, one day when he happened to 
 be at Mrs. Bell's. 
 
 Beechnut had always taken a special interest 
 in Carlo, though he came so seldom to Mrs. 
 Bell's that Carlo did not appear to know him 
 very well. Beechnut was very sorry to hear 
 that Carlo was lost, and while Mrs. Bell was 
 making efforts to recover him, he had made 
 inquiries from time to time, as he had oppor- 
 tunity, in regard to what was done, and to the 
 prospect of success. When, at last, a few 
 weeks after the wagoner made his final report, 
 Mary Bell told Beechnut that the dog was lost 
 forever, Beechnut said that he thought he could 
 find him. 
 
 "Why what could you do?" asked Mrs. 
 Bell. 
 
 " Oh, I could form some plan or other," said 
 Beechnut. " What did the tavern-keeper say 
 about the man who took him ?" 
 
Carlo Lost. 101 
 
 Mode of naming townships. Beechnut plans an 3xpe<?'iaou. 
 
 " He said," replied Mary Bell, " that he did 
 not know what his name was, but that he lived 
 in Number Five. What did he mean by 
 that?" 
 
 "Why he meant township Number Five/' 
 said Beechnut. They call the townships back 
 among the mountains by a number, until they 
 get inhabitants enough to have a name. I think 
 I could go to Number Five and find Carlo there 
 somewhere." 
 
 " Why it may be a very large township," 
 said Mrs. Bell, " five or six miles each way." 
 
 " Yes," said Beechnut, " but I could find 
 Carlo if he is there. Only I should want some- 
 body to go with me that he knows, or else per- 
 haps I could not get him to come away, if I 
 should find him." 
 
 "Well," said Mrs. Bell, "I wish you would 
 take the wagon some day, and Joseph, and go 
 and try. Carlo knows Joseph." 
 
 " I should rather have Mary go," said Beech- 
 nut. " He likes Mary better than he does Jo- 
 seph." 
 
 Here there was a little pause. Mary Bell 
 did not know exactly what to say about go- 
 ing. 
 
 "Could not you go?" asked Beechnut. 
 
102 Mary Bell. 
 
 Arrangements. Carlo's value. Mrs. Bell's decision. 
 
 " Phonny and Malleville might go too, to keep 
 you company." 
 
 " I don't know," said Mary Bell. " Could I 
 mother ?" 
 
 "Would there be room for you all in the 
 wagon ?" asked Mrs. Bell. 
 
 " Yes," said Beechnut ; " I could put the 
 principal seat back a little, for Mary Bell and 
 the children to sit upon. Mary Bell could sit 
 in the middle, and Phonny and Malleville on 
 each side. Then I could make a driver's seat 
 for myself before. 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Bell, " I should like on 
 the whole to have you go." 
 
 " And how much," inquired Beechnut, " may 
 I give for Carlo, in case I have to buy him 
 back ?" 
 
 " Why, — you may give," — said Mrs. Bell, 
 pausing to weigh Carlo's value in her mind, — 
 " I would give three dollars, rather than not get 
 him back." 
 
 "Five, mother," said Mary Bell, "do say 
 five." 
 
 " Well," said Mrs. Bell. " I will say five. Or 
 rather you may take the wagon, and I will give 
 you five dollars when you set out. You must 
 pay your expenses out of the money, and you 
 
Carlo Lost. 103 
 
 Five dollars put at Beechnut's disposal. 
 
 musi not be gone more than one day : and all 
 the money, except what you expend yourselves, 
 you may use to buy back the dog." 
 
 The plan thus formed was duly executed. 
 An account of what occurred in the course of 
 the expedition, and the result of Beechnut's at- 
 tempt to recover the dog will be related in the 
 next chapter. 
 
104 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mrs. Henry's oonsent obtained. The day fixed. 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Carlo Found. 
 
 Beechnut easily obtained Mrs. Henry's per- 
 mission to go in search of Carlo, and to take 
 Phonny and Malleville with him. It was also 
 decided that instead of Mrs. Bell's wagon, he 
 should take his own, or rather Mrs. Henry's, as 
 that was already fitted up with the necessary 
 means for changing the position of the princi- 
 pal seat and putting in a driver's seat before, 
 according to the plan which Beechnut had sug- 
 gested to Mrs. Bell. Besides it was better to 
 take Mrs Henry's wagon, because it w 7 as more 
 convenient to set off from her house in the 
 morning, in commencing the journey; as 
 Beechnut could take in Phonny and Malleville 
 there, and then call for Mary Bell by the 
 way. 
 
 The day fixed upon for the expedition was 
 the first of September. Beechnut spent the 
 afternoon of the day before in making the prep- 
 arations. He adjusted the seats in the wagon, 
 according to the plan which he had proposed. 
 
Carlo Found. 105 
 
 Plans and arrangements for the expedition. 
 
 He filled a large basket with provisions of vari- 
 ous kinds, such as were suitable for an encamp- 
 ment, for he had determined not to stop at a 
 tavern either in going or returning, but to en- 
 camp instead, by the roadside, in order to save 
 as much of the money as possible, for the pur- 
 chase of Carlo. He was fully resolved, it is 
 true, not to pay any more than he was abso- 
 lutely compelled to pay, since he considered the 
 dog as still rightfully belonging to Mrs. Bell. 
 He wished, however, to have the means in his 
 hands to make whatever payment should be 
 demanded, in case he could not obtain the dog 
 by any other means. Besides making provision 
 for himself and his fellow-passengers, Beechnut 
 put. into the back part of the wagon a small bag 
 of oats for the horse. He intended to tie the 
 horse to a tree, at the place of his encampment, 
 and let him eat his oats there, while he himself 
 and the rest of the party were eating their din- 
 ner. 
 
 Beechnut arose very early on the morning of 
 the appointed day, as soon in fact as it was light, 
 and gave the horse his morning's provender. 
 He then opened the great barn-doors and backed 
 the wagon out. The children were already up, 
 and the girl in the kitchen was preparing their 
 
106 Mary Bell. 
 
 Setting out. The mountain axe. Phonny's impatience. 
 
 oreakfast. When the breakfast was ready, how- 
 ever, it was found that Phonny and Malleville 
 were both too much excited with the thoughts 
 of their expedition to have much appetite for 
 eating it. They got into the wagon at length 
 just as the sun was peeping above the horizon. 
 They were so impatient to have the journey 
 begin, that they climbed into the wagon them- 
 selves before Beechnut had unfastened the 
 horse. 
 
 "Come, Beechnut!" said Phonny, "we are 
 all ready/' 
 
 " Yes," said Beechnut, " and I am all ready 
 excepting the axe ; I must go and get the 
 mountain-axe." 
 
 This " mountain-axe" was a small and light 
 axe, which Beechnut kept expressly for the 
 purpose of taking with him on his excursions. 
 He had a place fitted for it in the wagon. 
 There was a sort of cleat fastened to the side 
 of the wagon, with a space just large enough to 
 receive the blade of the axe and hold it firmly, 
 while the handle extended along the side of the 
 wagon. By being thus secured, the axe was 
 kept from either injuring other things, or get- 
 ting injured itself by the jolting, on the road. 
 Beechnut had forgotten to put in the mountain- 
 
Carlo Found. 
 
 107 
 
 Discussion about the axe. Off. 
 
 Mary Bell. 
 
 axe, in the preparations which he had made 
 the day before, and so he went to get it now. 
 
 But Phonny was impatient to go, and so he 
 called out to Beechnut as he was walking to- 
 ward the shop where the tools were kept : 
 
 " Oh never mind the axe, Beechnut. We 
 shall not want it." 
 
 But Beechnut, paying no attention to this 
 call, went on. 
 
 " I think it is nonsense," said Phonny to Mal- 
 leville, " to stop for an axe." 
 
 Malleville thought that Beechnut knew best, 
 but she did not like to contradict Phonny, so 
 she said that Beechnut would only be gone a 
 minute. 
 
 He was, indeed, gone but a very short time. 
 When he returned, he put the axe in its place, 
 unfastened the horse, mounted into the driver's 
 seat, and turning the horse toward the road he 
 fairly commenced the journey. 
 
 " Now," said Phonny, " we're off." 
 
 " Yes," said Malleville, — " only we have got 
 to stop once more, for Mary Bell." 
 
 They found Mary Bell all ready when they 
 arrived at her mother's house, so that they were 
 detained only a very few minutes at the door. 
 Mrs. Bell was there to bid them good-bye. 
 
108 Mary Bell. 
 
 The ten half dollars. Uses for the axe. 
 
 She gave Beechnut the money. It was all in 
 half-dollars. There were of course ten of 
 them. She gave him the money in this form 
 in order that he might make out any payment 
 which should finally be agreed upon as the ran- 
 som of the dog, without any difficulty or em- 
 barrassment in respect to change. Beechnut 
 himself had suggested this plan to Mrs. Bell 
 several days before. The money being re- 
 ceived, and Mary Bell being established in her 
 seat, the whole party bade Mrs. Bell good-bye, 
 and went away from the door. 
 
 " Now we're off, really and truly," said Phon- 
 ny- 
 
 " Yes," said Malleville, " and we've got some 
 provisions, Mary Bell. We're going to en- 
 camp." 
 
 " Yes," said Phonnjr. " We've got every 
 thing that we need, and one thing that I think 
 we don't need, and that is an axe." 
 
 " Oh, we may need the axe," said Beechnut, 
 " before we come back." 
 
 " What for ?" asked Phonny. 
 
 " Oh, I could think of half a dozen purposes," 
 said Beechnut, "that we may have occasion to 
 use the axe for, on such an expedition." 
 
 " Oh, no," said Phonny, " not half a dozen. 
 
Carlo Found. 109 
 
 Beechnut argues the case with Phonny. 
 
 You might, perhaps, think of one or two ; — 
 such, for example, as to build a fire at our 
 camp." 
 
 "Yes," said Beechnut, "that is one. And 
 then there may come up a shower of rain when 
 we are in the middle of a long road through the 
 woods, so that there would be no place to go to, 
 and we should have to cut down small trees 
 and branches, and make a hut for shelter." 
 
 " Well," that is two" said Phonny. 
 
 "There may be a tree blown down across 
 the road," added Beechnut, " so that we should 
 have to cut it away before we could get by." 
 
 " Yes," said Phonny, " I did not think of that. 
 But then in that case we might borrow an axe 
 of some farmer near by." 
 
 " But there might not be a farmer," said 
 
 Beechnut, " within two miles of the place. 
 
 .Trees generally blow down across the road in 
 
 wild and solitary places, and not near farmers* 
 
 houses." 
 
 " Well," said Phonny, " that makes three." 
 
 " Then there may be some bridge broken 
 down," said Beechnut, "and I might want to 
 c it some poles to mend it with." 
 
 " Four," said Phonny. " Two more. You 
 said half a dozen." 
 
110 Mary Bell. 
 
 Cutting canes. Breaking down. Removing obstructions. 
 
 " Well," said Beechnut, pausing a moment to 
 think ; — " perhaps we shall see some curious 
 stick growing by the road-side, that you will 
 want for a cane ; and then you will ask me to 
 cut it for you with the axe." 
 
 " No," said Phonny, shaking his head. " No. 
 I shall not want any canes. And, besides, if I 
 do, I will cut them with my knife. You can't 
 have that to count. There are only four." 
 
 " Well — let me think," said Beechnut — " I'll 
 tell you ; the wagon may break down, and I 
 may need the axe to mend it, — for instance, to 
 make a new shaft or axletree, or a wedge to 
 drive in somewhere." 
 
 " I don't believe you could make an axletree," 
 said Phonny, pausing to think about it a little. 
 " However, I am willing," he added at length, 
 " to call that five." 
 
 " Now there is only one more wanted, to 
 make six," said Mary Bell. 
 
 " Then," said Beechnut, " there may be some 
 obstruction or other in the road, that we can- 
 not possibly remove, and so we may have to 
 drive round it, through the woods a little way, 
 and I may have to clear a passage by cutting up 
 the logs and bushes." 
 
 " No," said Phonny, " you have had that 
 
Carlo Found. Ill 
 
 Beechnut acknowledges himself vanquished. 
 
 once. That is the same thing as cutting away 
 the tree that had blown across the road." 
 
 " Why, that would be cutting off the trunk 
 of a fallen tree," said Beechnut, " whereas this 
 would be principally cutting down small trees 
 and bushes that were standing." 
 
 " It is all clearing the road," said Phonny. 
 " I don't think that that ought to count more 
 than one. You can't think of any sixth case." 
 
 " Well, I have thought of five," said Beech- 
 nut, " at any rate ; and it seems to me that all 
 the other imaginable and possible disasters which 
 might happen, ought to count as much as one, 
 and to make out my half a dozen, even if I can 
 not tell beforehand precisely what they are." 
 
 " No," replied Phonny, " I can not count any, 
 unless you tell me precisely what they are." 
 
 " Then I must give it up," said Beechnut, 
 " and acknowledge that I am beaten." 
 
 It was one of Beechnut's favorite modes of 
 amusing himself and the children that he played 
 with or talked with, to get into contests of this 
 kind with persons younger than himself, and 
 then allow them to beat him. 
 
 In this particular case, although Phonny re- 
 fused to permit Beechnut to reckon the possible 
 occurrence of some wholly unforeseen and un- 
 
112 Mary Bell. 
 
 The expedition moves on towards the mountains. 
 
 expected accident, among the six occasions for 
 the use of the axe, it turned out in the end, as 
 will hereafter appear, that Beechnut was right 
 in anticipating such a possibility. A case ac- 
 tually did occur, which required the use of an 
 axe, and which was entirely different from either 
 of the five possible emergencies which he had 
 enumerated. 
 
 Talking in this way about the various sub- 
 jects connected with their expedition, and about 
 the scenes and incidents which occurred upon 
 the road, as they traveled along, the party jour- 
 neyed on through a very picturesque and pleas- 
 ant country, which, however, grew more and 
 more wild and solitary as they proceeded. 
 They gradually approached the mountainous 
 country, and at length they entered a broad 
 and fertile, but very secluded valley, which was 
 bordered by mountains and forests on either 
 hand. There was a large stream flowing 
 through the midst of this valley, and the road 
 followed the banks of the stream, now on this 
 side, and now on that, crossing it by means of 
 rude bridges floored over with logs, upon which 
 the wagon jolted frightfully in passing. At 
 length Beechnut judged that it was nearly 
 noon, and he began to look out for a place oi 
 
Carlo Found. 113 
 
 The encampment. Beechnut's orders. 
 
 encampment. He easily found one. It was at 
 a point where a cool stream came running down 
 from the mountains, over a bed of moss-covered 
 stones. There was a level place near the road, 
 where the wagon could stand. Beechnut drove 
 the horse out of the road to this level place, and 
 then descending from the wagon, he helped 
 Mary Bell and the children to get out. 
 
 " Now," said Beechnut, " we have got to stay 
 here an hour and a half, so you will have plen- 
 ty of time. There is the basket of provisions. 
 You may set your table where you please, and 
 have the dinner when you please. I have 
 nothing to do but to take care of the horse. If 
 you wish to ramble about, either alone or to- 
 gether, you can go up or down the brook, or 
 along the road either way ; but you must keep 
 in sight of one or the other, either the road or 
 the brook, so as to be sure that you can find 
 your way back again. And remember that we 
 shall have to stay here an hour and a half. 
 You will be tired enough of staying, long be- 
 fore the time has expired, but that cannot be 
 helped. 
 
 "Why must we stay so long?" asked Mary 
 Bell. "• We can eat our dinner in half an hour." 
 
 ''For the sake of the horse," said Beechnut. 
 H 
 
114 Mary Bell. 
 
 An hour and a half in the woods. Going on. 
 
 " The horse must have an hour and a half to 
 rest, and to eat his oats leisurely. Besides," 
 continued Beechnut in conclusion, " I am going 
 to lie down and go to sleep, and I advise you all 
 to do the same." 
 
 " Hoh !" said Phonny. 
 
 The hour and a half passed away very pleas- 
 antly at the encampment, though we can not 
 give a particular account of what occurred. 
 At the end of the time, Beechnut and Phonny 
 harnessed the horse again, for Beechnut had 
 taken him entirely out of harness when they 
 first arrived, in order that he might rest and re- 
 fresh himself more perfectly, by being fully at 
 liberty. The party then all got into the wagon, 
 and set out upon their journey again. Beech- 
 nut said that he thought that they should get 
 into Number Five in the course of an hour. 
 
 After riding nearly an hour, they met a team- 
 ster coming along the road, driving a yoke of 
 oxen. The oxen were drawing a huge log, one 
 end of which rested upon the axletree of a pair 
 of heavy wheels, and the other dragged upon 
 the ground. 
 
 The teamster drove out to one side of the 
 road a little way, when he saw Beechnut's 
 wagon coming, in order to make room for the 
 
Carlo Found. 115 
 
 Conversation with the teamster. His surprise. 
 
 wagon to go by. As Beechnut advanced to- 
 ward him, the teamster stood leaning against 
 the neck of one of his oxen, looking at the 
 party in the wagon with a countenance expres- 
 sive of curiosity and surprise. When Beechnut 
 arrived opposite to the team, he stopped his 
 horse, and asked the stranger how far it was to 
 Number Five. 
 
 " To Number Five ?" repeated the teamster. 
 "You are in Number Five now. You have 
 been in Number Five for three miles back." 
 
 While saying this, the teamster was very 
 busily engaged in scrutinizing the wagon and 
 the party which it contained, with very earnest 
 attention. He looked first at the children, then 
 at the horse, and then at the wagon, which last 
 he surveyed carefully in every part, above and 
 below, and behind and before. He wondered 
 what could have brought such a party in such 
 an equipage back among the mountains. 
 
 " What part of Number Five is it that you 
 want to go to ?" resumed the teamster.. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," said Beechnut in a care- 
 less manner. " We are only riding about a lit- 
 tle. We want to see the town. Where do the 
 inhabitants live, — or are there no inhabitants." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said the teamster, " there are 
 
116 M ary Bell. 
 
 Beechnut's enquiries about dogs. 
 
 plenty of farmers scattered about among the 
 mountains." 
 
 " Do you happen to know of any body here- 
 abouts," said Beechnut, " that has got a good 
 dog that he would like to sell. I want to buy a 
 good dog." 
 
 " A dog ?" repeated the teamster, still more 
 surprised. 
 
 " Yes," said Beechnut. 
 
 " What kind of a dog do you want ?" asked 
 the teamster. 
 
 "Oh, I want a good-natured dog," replied 
 Beechnut — " pretty good size." 
 
 " For a watch dog ?" asked the man. 
 
 " Why — not exactly," said Beechnut. " We 
 want him to stay about the house and play with 
 the children, rather than to do much watching." 
 
 " There's a man over here, on the other side 
 of a pond, that you will come to pretty soon, 
 that's got a first-rate watch-dog. But I think 
 it probable he would be too savage for you. 
 They have to keep him chained all the day- 
 time." 
 
 " That can't be Carlo," said Mary Bell, in a 
 whisper to Malleville. 
 
 Beechnut, however, not knowing how far 
 Carlo might have acquired a savage character, 
 
Carlo Found. 117 
 
 The teamster describes a savage sort of dog. 
 
 through the influence of hard treatment among 
 his new keepers, thought that he would make 
 sure of the fact, by asking further questions. 
 
 " What color is the dog ?" asked Beechnut. 
 
 " He's of a very dark color," said the team- 
 ster. 
 
 " How long has that man had him ?" asked 
 Beechnut. 
 
 " Oh, he has had him a great many years," 
 replied the teamster. " / have known him five 
 or six years." 
 
 " And you don't know of any body else about 
 here that has got a good dog?" said Beech- 
 nut. 
 
 The man said that he did not; and then 
 Beechnut, thanking him for his information, 
 bade him good-bye, and drove on. 
 
 A short time after this, they came in sight of 
 the pond, and just beyond it was a small and 
 plain farm-house. Just before the wagon 
 reached this house, the children were startled 
 by the sudden leaping up of a great and fero- 
 cious-looking dog, that was chained to a tree 
 by the side of the house. The clanking of his 
 heavy chain, as he sprang forward to the ut- 
 most length of it, and the frightful sound of his 
 hoarse and heavy barking, was really terrific. 
 
118 
 
 Mary B*ll. 
 
 They see the savage dog. 
 
 They ride on. 
 
 " Mercy !" said Mary Bell. " What a dread- 
 ful dog!" 
 
 VEEY SAVAGE. 
 
 " You are a little too savage for us, old fel- 
 low, I think myself," said Beechnut, waving his 
 whip toward the dog. " Lie down and go to 
 sleep again." 
 
 " Yes," said Phonny ; " do you think that 
 Mary Bell and I look like thieves and robbers ?" 
 
 So they went on. 
 
 Beechnut stopped several times as he trav- 
 eled along, to talk with the people that he met 
 
Carlo Found. 119 
 
 They hear of a very " knowing dog." 
 
 by the way, or saw at work in their fields, and 
 made inquiries of them, similar to those which 
 he had addressed to the teamster. The people 
 told him of various dogs owned in the township, 
 but the descriptions which they gave of them, 
 did not correspond with the appearance and 
 character of Carlo. At last, however, a man 
 whom they found at work by the side of the 
 road, near his house, making a frame for a 
 shed, said that there was a man who lived 
 about two miles away, over on another road, 
 who had a very knowing dog, — the most know- 
 ing dog, he thought, in town. 
 
 "That's Carlo," whispered Mary Bell to 
 Malleville, " I verily believe." 
 
 " Is he kind ?" asked Beechnut. 
 
 " Yes," said the man. " I believe he is rather 
 too kind. He is not good for much for a 
 watch-dog, but he's very knowing. When 
 Uncle Jerry is out a-haying, I've heard say 
 that he would give his dog a tin- pail and send 
 him down to the spring to get a pail of water." 
 
 Mary Bell touched Malleville with her elbow, 
 but did not say a word. 
 
 "The dog," continued the farmer, "would 
 take the handle of the pail in his mouth, and 
 go to the spring and dip the pail up full of cool 
 
120 Mary Bell. 
 
 Uncle Jerry. Anecdote of the knowing dog. 
 
 water, and then bring it back to Uncle Jerry. 
 That's what I've heard say, but I never saw 
 him do it." 
 
 "Is the man's name Uncle Jerry?" asked 
 Phonny. 
 
 "We call him Uncle Jerry," replied the 
 farmer ; " his real name is Golding." 
 
 The farmer told Beechnut, moreover, in an- 
 swer to further questions, that the dog was of a 
 dark color and of rather large size, and that 
 Mr. Golding had brought him home from one 
 of his journeys two or three months before. 
 Beechnut concluded that this must be Carlo, 
 and so, after inquiring particularly where Mr. 
 Golding lived, he thanked the farmer for his 
 information, and drove on. 
 
 Mr. Golding's house was a rude sort of cabin, 
 situated under a hill, near a stream of water. 
 Beechnut, before he came in sight of the house, 
 charged Phonny very distinctly not to say a 
 word, or to take any part whatever in the pro- 
 ceedings, at the house, nor to take any notice 
 of Carlo, in case he should see him. Beech- 
 nut did not give any charges of this kind to 
 Mary Bell and Malleville, for he knew that 
 they would hear and obey whatever directions 
 he gave to Phonny, 
 
Carlo Found. 121 
 
 They arrive at Mr. Golding's house. Interview. 
 
 At length, the party came suddenly into sight 
 of Mr. Golding's house, at a turn of the 
 road. 
 
 Beechnut drove directly by. Phonny asked 
 him if he was not going to stop. 
 
 " You must not speak," said Beechnut, " or 
 ask any questions." 
 
 After Beechnut had passed the house, he 
 went on until he came to a broad place in the 
 road, and there he turned his wagon round and 
 then came back. He stopped before the house, 
 and got out of the wagon. A very rough- 
 looking man, with black shaggy hair and beard, 
 and with an axe in his hand, came out from a 
 shed at the side of the house to see who it was 
 that stopped, and what they wanted. 
 
 " Is this Mr. Golding ?" asked Beechnut. 
 
 " My name is Golding," said the man. 
 , " I understand," said Beechnut, that you have 
 got a pretty knowing dog, that you would be 
 willing to sell, and I should like to see him, and 
 perhaps buy him." 
 
 "Well," said Mr. Golding, doubtfully,— •" I 
 don't know. The dog is a first-rate dog. I 
 don't care particularly about selling him. I 
 could not take less than five dollars for him, at 
 any rate. He is a first-rate dog. Here Jack !" 
 
122 Mary Bell. 
 
 Jock. He proves to be Carlo. Beechnut claims him. 
 
 he added, turning round toward the shed and 
 speaking as if calling to the dog. " Here Jock ! 
 Come here !" 
 
 " Oh," said Malleville, in a whisper to Mary 
 Bell. " His name is Jock. It's another dog. 
 I was in hopes it was Carlo." 
 
 "Hush!" said Mary Bell. 
 
 "I call him Jock," said Mr. Golding, "but I 
 don't know what his real name is. I have not 
 had him very long." 
 
 Just then Jock appeared, walking very delib- 
 erately around the corner of the house. It 
 was really Carlo. The sight made it extremely 
 difficult for Mary Bell and Phonny to sit still. 
 
 " Yes," said Beechnut, as if talking to him- 
 self, but yet intending that Mr. Golding should 
 hear. " That's the dog." Then turning to 
 Mr. Golding, he said : 
 
 " The fact is, Mr. Golding, that we lost a dog 
 some months ago at Haverhill, and I thought 
 from the description that yours must be the 
 one. I did not come, however, to take him 
 away from you, but to buy him; and I am 
 willing to pay you what you gave for him, half- 
 a-dollar ; though as a matter of right, I suppose 
 we are entitled to take away our dog when- 
 ever we can find him." 
 
Carlo Found. 123 
 
 Carlo recognizes Mary Bell. He will not obey. 
 
 " But how do I know that he is your dog ?" 
 asked Mr. Golding, speaking in rather a surly- 
 tone. " You claim him, but what proof is there 
 that he is yours ?" 
 
 " Call him, Mary Bell," said Beechnut. 
 
 Mary Bell was very glad to hear this order. 
 She turned round eagerly toward Carlo and 
 called him. 
 
 The instant that Carlo heard the sound of 
 her voice his whole appearance changed. He 
 pricked up his ears, wagged his tail, and looked 
 excited. In a moment he ran toward the 
 wagon, leaped up into it at a bound, over- 
 whelmed Mary Bell with his caresses, fright- 
 ened Malleville, and in fact almost upset her in 
 her seat, and then leaping down again he began 
 to race round and round the wagon, first this 
 way and then that, as if he were distracted. 
 
 " Drive on, Mary Bell/' said Beechnut, " up 
 the hill. I will overtake you presently." 
 
 Mary Bell, who had the reins in her hand 
 all the time, began to drive on. The instant 
 that Carlo saw that the wagon was in motion 
 he set off upon the full run along the road, and 
 was soon lost to view. Mr. Golding called 
 "Jock! here Jock!" as- loud as he could call ; 
 and Beechnut vociferated "Carlo! here Car- 
 
124 Mary Bell. 
 
 Beechnut tries to buy him back. Negociatons. 
 
 lo !" in concert. But Carlo had got the idea 
 of going home again fairly into his head, and 
 away he bounded along the road, like the wind. 
 
 Beechnut took out one of his half-dollars, 
 and holding it in his hand, he told Mr. Gold- 
 ing that he would give him that, but that he did 
 not think he ought to give any more. 
 
 " Well," said Mr. Golding, with a sort of a 
 sigh. " The dog is well worth five dollars, — 
 any man's money. But since you say he is 
 yours, I suppose I must let him go. And, be- 
 sides, I expect it would be rather hard to get 
 him back again, now he has got a notion into 
 his head of going home." 
 
 "Yes," said Beechnut, "I expect it would." 
 
 So Beechnut gave Mr. Golding the half-dol- 
 lar, and the affair was settled. Before he went 
 away, however, he asked Mr. Golding if it was 
 true that he could send Carlo to a spring and 
 make him dip up a pail of water. 
 
 "Oh, yes," said Mr. Golding, "he will do 
 that. And once he saved my house from burn- 
 ing up, by putting it out when it got on fire." 
 
 " How was that ?" asked Beechnut. 
 
 " Why, he came into the kitchen one day," 
 said Mr. Golding, " and he found that a coal 
 had snapped out into the middle of the floor, 
 
Carlo Found. 125 
 
 Anecdote of Carlo. He runs forward. 
 
 and the boards were all in a blaze. Carlo be- 
 gan to bark, and run around the room, and pres- 
 ently he found an old woolen mat that was lying 
 at the door. He seized this with his teeth, and 
 dragged it over the place that was burning, and 
 so stifled the fire. We were all out in the field 
 at the time, but we heard him barking, and 
 thought that something was the matter, and so 
 we came in ; — and there we found Carlo jump- 
 ing about the mat in the middle of the room, 
 and barking at the smoke that was coming up 
 through it." 
 
 Beechnut laughed at this story, and then bid- 
 ding Mr. Golding good-bye, he walked on up 
 the hill. He found Mary Bell waiting for him 
 at the top of it, and as for Carlo, he was just in 
 sight, as far along the road as they could see, 
 standing in the middle of the road, and watch- 
 ing the wagon. The moment he saw Beech- 
 nut get into it, he bounded on again, and though 
 Beechnut drove very fast, and he and Mary Bell 
 and Phonny were all continually calling him, 
 they could not get any nearer to him than just 
 to keep him in sight, for nearly ten miles. 
 
 The party got home late that night, meeting 
 with no special adventures by the way, except 
 that when they stopped at their encampment 
 
126 Mary Bell. 
 
 Phonny loses his hat. The axe wanted to recover it. 
 
 going home, Phonny, in giving three cheers of 
 exultation for the recovery of Carlo, threw his 
 cap so high into the air, that in coming down it 
 lodged upon the top of a tall and slender tree, 
 which it was impossible to climb, because it had 
 no branches near the ground. So Phonny had 
 to ask Beechnut to bring his axe and cut the 
 tree down. This proved the wisdom of pro- 
 viding, as Beechnut had suggested, for the pos 
 sibility that other contingencies might occur, 
 requiring the use of the axe, besides the five 
 which he had enumerated. 
 
 The whole party arrived at Mrs. Bell's just 
 before dark. Beechnut left Mary Bell on the 
 great stone step of the door, with Carlo by her 
 side and nine of Mrs. Bell's half-dollars in her 
 hand, and then hastened home himself with 
 Malleville and Phonny. 
 
Cordelia. 127 
 
 Progress in making the path. Difficulties. 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 Cordelia. 
 
 During the interval which elapsed between 
 the losing and the finding of Carlo, the boys and 
 girls of the village had made considerable prog- 
 ress in the work of the new path up to the Peak. 
 When the plan was first formed, it was intended 
 to finish the work in one day : but this was 
 found impracticable. The young workmen 
 found a great deal more to do than they had 
 expected ; or rather, as they became interested 
 in the work, they extended their plans, and un- 
 dertook more than they had at first intended. 
 They assembled in small companies, each on 
 its own section of the road, on several succes- 
 sive Saturdays, and thus made a slow, but yet 
 very decided progress.- At length, however, 
 they began to grow tired of the work. They 
 had undertaken, in fact, more extensive im- 
 provements than they had strength and perse- 
 verance to execute, and thus had begun to get 
 somewhat tired and discouraged; so that it 
 happened that at the time when Beechnut and 
 
128 Mary Bell. 
 
 Beechnut's plan for getting it finished. 
 
 Mary Bell went in pursuit of Carlo, with Phon- 
 ny and Malleville, as described in the last chap- 
 ter, the operations on the road had been for two 
 or three weeks almost entirely suspended. Mary 
 Bell asked Beechnut, as they were riding home 
 from Number Five, what they could do to get 
 the work completed. 
 
 " Why you must have a plan for some sort 
 of grand celebration," said Beechnut, " to take 
 place as soon as the path is done. Then the 
 boys will work hard to finish the path, so as to 
 have the celebration." 
 
 " Yes," said Mary Bell. " That will be an 
 excellent plan, I think. I will talk with Caro- 
 line about it." 
 
 Caroline, when she came to be consulted by 
 Mary Bell, liked the plan of the celebration 
 very much. She immediately made it known 
 among the boys, and it infused into their minds 
 a new stimulus, and made them all very eager 
 for the completion of- the work. She asked 
 some of the older boys, how soon they thought 
 it would be safe to appoint the time for the 
 celebration. They said, the next week. But 
 Phonny, when he heard of the affair, begged 
 Caroline to put off the celebration till the week 
 after the next, for then he expected his cousin 
 
Cordelia. 129 
 
 A celebration appointed. Day fixed. Wallace. 
 
 Wallace in town, and he was very desirous that 
 Wallace should be present at the celebration. 
 Besides, Wallace would help them finish the 
 road, if any thing should remain to be done 
 after he arrived. So Caroline very willingly 
 postponed the day. In fact, she thought her- 
 self that it would be very pleasant to have 
 Wallace at the celebration. 
 
 Wallace was a young college student. He 
 had often been at Franconia in his vacations, 
 and he was well acquainted with Caroline and 
 with Mary Bell, as well as with most of the other 
 girls and boys of the village. He was very 
 young, although he was a college student, 
 being between thirteen and fourteen years of 
 age. 
 
 Wallace arrived at Franconia on Saturday 
 evening. The day fixed upon for the celebra- 
 tion was on the following Tuesday. On Mon- 
 day, Wallace went about the neighborhood to 
 make calls upon his old friends. He began at 
 the village, and went first to see several of the 
 boys who had been- his play-mates in former 
 years. He found some of them at home, and 
 some at stores and other places of business 
 where they were beginning to be employed as 
 voung men. He called next at Caroline's. 
 I 
 
130 Mary Bell. 
 
 Wallace's calls upon his friends. Caroline's. 
 
 She lived in a large and handsome white house, 
 in the center of the village. Wallace entered 
 at a gate and walked up a paved walk, with 
 beautiful trees and shrubbery on each side of it, 
 all of which were kept in fine order by the gar- 
 dener. He rang at the door of the house, and 
 was received by a domestic, who ushered him 
 into a very handsomely-furnished parlor. It 
 was rather dark when Wallace first went in, 
 but the girl opened the shutters and that made 
 it lighter. Wallace took a seat upon a splendid 
 sofa, and the girl went away, saying that she 
 would speak to Miss Caroline. 
 
 It was some time before Caroline appeared, 
 and Wallace amused himself by looking around 
 the room. Some of the furniture was new, 
 and some he recollected to have seen there be- 
 fore. There was a center-table in the middle 
 of the room, with beautiful books upon it, and 
 also a large and splendid lamp, with a large 
 globe of ground glass at the top. Then there 
 were carved chairs and sofas, and a magnifi- 
 cent piano, and handsome curtains at the win- 
 dows, and paintings upon the walls, and great 
 mirrors. Every thing was very splendid, but 
 Wallace became tired of looking at them long 
 before Caroline came. 
 
Cordelia. 131 
 
 The call at Caroline's. Conversation. 
 
 " I suppose she is waiting to dress herself 
 prettily," said Wallace, "but I would rather 
 that she would come quick." 
 
 Caroline appeared after a time, and she was 
 dressed very prettily indeed. She was natur- 
 ally very beautiful, and she had a great deal of 
 taste, so that her appearance was extremely 
 prepossessing. She shook hands very cordially 
 with Wallace, when she came in, and said that 
 she was extremely pleased to see him. 
 
 " I heard," said she, " that you were coming 
 about this time, and I was very glad, for I 
 want to invite you to attend the celebration of 
 the opening of our new road to the Peak to- 
 morrow." 
 
 Wallace said that he should be very happy 
 to be of the party. He conversed with Caro- 
 line some time longer in respect to the celebra- 
 tion and the road to the Peak, and said that 
 he was sorry that he had not been in Xown so 
 as to do his share in the construction of the 
 work. At the proper time he rose and took his 
 leave. 
 
 After making all his other calls, he went 
 round, on his way home, by the road which led 
 by Mrs. Bell's, to call and see Mary. As he 
 walked up into the yard, he saw Mrs. Bell sit- 
 
132 Mart Bell. 
 
 The call at Mary Bell's. Mary Bell in the garden. 
 
 ting at the window, in an easy chair : but she 
 looked pale and sick. Her eye brightened up, 
 however, at once when she saw Wallace. She 
 accosted him with great cordiality, and asked 
 him to walk in. "Come and see me a few 
 minutes first," said she, " and then you may go 
 and find Mary Bell. She is in the garden." * 
 
 So Wallace walked into the room where Mrs. 
 Bell was sitting, and began to talk with her 
 about his coming home from college, and how 
 long he was going to stay, and how his father 
 and mother were, in New York, when suddenly 
 Mary Bell herself came in from the garden. 
 She was dressed very plainly, and neatly, and 
 she had a sun-bonnet upon her head, the cape 
 to which hung down over her shoulders. Be- 
 neath this bonnet her happy face beamed with 
 an expression of excitement and pleasure, which 
 was called forth by the gratification it gave her 
 to see W an " ace again. Wallace went up to her 
 to shake hands with her, and said that he was 
 
 # It may seem strange that Mrs. Bell should always call 
 her daughter by her full name, Mary Bell, instead of simply 
 Mary. She acquired the habit of so doing in former yeara 
 to distinguish her from a certain Mary Erskine who lived for 
 a long time in her family, and whose history is given in an- 
 other volume. 
 
Cordelia. 133 
 
 The garden seeds. Mary Bell's plan for gathering them 
 
 very glad to see her. She gave him her hand, 
 saying at the same time, timidly, 
 
 "I was out in the garden, and I saw you 
 coming, and so I came in." 
 
 " What are you doing in the garden," asked 
 Wallace, " at this time of the year ?" 
 
 " Oh, I am gathering my mother's seeds," 
 said Mary Bell. " I always gather the seeds." 
 
 After a little time, Wallace went out into the 
 garden with Mary Bell to see what she was 
 doing. The seeds that she was gathering were 
 the seeds of common garden vegetables. Mary 
 Bell was accustomed to gather them, and lay 
 them in the sun to dry, and afterwards to rub 
 them out of their various husks and capsules, 
 and finally to put them up neatly in papers, to 
 be used the next spring. 
 
 " Are they really good for any thing ?" asked 
 Wallace, as he saw the seeds all arranged along 
 a bench in the garden. 
 
 " Certainly," said Mary Bell. " My mother 
 says that the seeds which I gather for her. save 
 her half a dollar every spring." 
 
 Wallace assisted Mary Bell for a little time 
 in putting up her seeds, and then they went to- 
 gether to find Carlo. Mary Bell had told Wal- 
 lace the story of the dog's getting lost and of 
 
134 Mary Bell. 
 
 Carlo. Talk about the celebration. Mra. Bell. 
 
 the adventures which she had had in going with 
 Beechnut to find him ; and so Wallace was cu- 
 
 ■v 
 
 rious to see the dog. As they walked along, 
 Wallace spoke of the celebration which was to 
 take place the next day, and said he hoped that 
 Mary Bell would be there. Mary Bell said that 
 she did not know whether she should go or not, 
 for her mother was not well. 
 
 " Oh, she will let you go," said Wallace. 
 
 " Yes. I suppose she would," said Mary 
 Bell, " if I should ask her ; but I am not going 
 to ask her until I see how she is to-night." 
 
 " Why you might tell her about it now," said 
 Wallace, " and ask her if you can go, in case 
 she is well enough." 
 
 "But I don't wish to have her know any 
 thing about it," said Mary Bell, " unless she is 
 well enough to have me go ; for if she knows 
 there is to be a celebration, she will think that 
 I wish to go, and so she will be uneasy all day, 
 in having me stay at home." 
 
 Wallace did not reply to this, but he thought 
 that Mary Bell was very considerate and kind. 
 He said, finally, that he hoped that she would 
 go, and after some farther conversation, he 
 bade Mary Bell good-bye, and went home. 
 
 The next morning.. Wallace sent Phonnv 
 
Cordelia. 135 
 
 Mary Bell is not to go. The celebration party. 
 
 very early to Mrs. Bell's, to ask Mary if she 
 was going. He charged Phonny to ask her 
 privately. In due time Phonny came back, 
 saying that Mary Bell had told him that her 
 mother was a little better, but that she was not 
 well enough to be left alone, and that Mary Bell 
 accordingly was not to go. Wallace was very 
 sorry. Malleville was very sorry too. She 
 said that she had a great mind not to go to the 
 celebration herself, but to go instead and keep 
 Mary Bell company, at home with her mother. 
 She concluded finally, however, to go to the 
 celebration, as Mrs. Henry thought it was not 
 best for her to go to see Mary Bell while her 
 mother was sick. 
 
 The celebration party met at one o'clock in 
 the afternoon, at a gateway which opened into 
 a path in a field leading to the Peak. The field 
 was a narrow, but beautiful, meadow, very green, 
 and bordered on the side opposite to the road, by 
 a grove of trees, which was in fact the margin 
 of the forest. The path led along under these 
 trees for a short distance, and presently turned 
 down into a little dell toward a brook. It was 
 at this brook that the work of the boys had 
 commenced, in making their road. 
 
 The work done here was the placing of some 
 
136 Mary Bell. 
 
 The new road. The stepping stones. The monuments. 
 
 stepping-stones, so as to make a way for getting 
 across the brook easily. There had only been 
 a fording-place before, made by the cows in 
 walking through the water. The children had 
 always had great trouble in jumping across this 
 brook, and often got their feet wet or their shoes 
 muddy. Now there were three heavy and solid 
 stones — all smooth and flat upon the upper sur- 
 face — placed at equal distances from each other, 
 one in the middle of the brook, and the others 
 near the banks. It was very easy to step from 
 one of these stones to the other. In fact, it was 
 so easy and so safe, that several of the little girls 
 when the party passed over, ran back and forth 
 over the stepping-stones several times. On the 
 side of a large stone half embedded in the bank, 
 very near the spot, the letters S. and L. were 
 painted with black paint. These letters were 
 not very large, but they were very distinct, 
 There was a circle around them. The letters 
 stood for Sarah and Louisa, the girls who had 
 had charge of this section of the road. 
 
 From the stepping-stones the path passed up 
 through the woods, in a gently ascending course. 
 The boys had cut down the bushes that were in 
 the way, and dragged off the old logs, and roots, 
 and stones, and dead branches, which had pre- 
 
Cordelia. 137 
 
 A. A. The pavement. The party reach the summit. 
 
 viously encumbered the path. At length the 
 road emerged from the wood, and came out 
 upon the steep side of a hill overgrown with 
 ferns and mosses, and with a surface sadly dis- 
 figured with cradle holes and hummocks. Here 
 there was another stone, marked A. A. One 
 of the letters was for Anna, and the other for 
 Augusta. A good deal of digging was required 
 to make the path good across this land, but the 
 work had been effectually accomplished, and the 
 whole party went on over this part of the road 
 with great satisfaction and pleasure. 
 
 The next section of the road led over a tract 
 which was covered with loose stones. The 
 boys had contrived to arrange the stones along 
 the path in this section so as to make quite a 
 respectable pavement. 
 
 Thus the party continued to advance over 
 one section after another of the road, stopping 
 sometimes to admire the improvements which 
 had been made, and at others to examine the 
 monuments, and to call over the names which 
 the initials denoted. At length, somewhat 
 tired, from the labor of the ascent, which was, 
 after all, pretty arduous, notwithstanding the 
 improved condition of the way, they reached 
 the summit, and putting the various baskets 
 
138 
 
 Mary Bell. 
 
 Arrangements for the collation. 
 
 and bags with which they were loaded on a 
 great flat stone, they sat down themselves upon 
 the rocks and upon mossy banks to rest. 
 
 The place which had been fixed upon for the 
 collation was round on the shady side of the 
 Peak, a little below the summit, where there 
 w r as a spring of cool water in a little sequestered 
 dell, with steep precipices overhung with mosses 
 and climbing vines, and dark evergreens, be- 
 hind it. Here the party assembled, and after 
 spending half an hour in opening their stores 
 
Cordelia. 139 
 
 Caroline's plan to go and see the waterfall. 
 
 and spreading their tables, they began the feast, 
 for which their exertions in climbing had given 
 them an excellent appetite. Caroline was, as 
 usual, the leader and directress of every thing, 
 and she made everybody happy by her good 
 humor, her playful wit, and the adroitness and 
 dexterity with which she performed the duties 
 of management. She kept everybody and 
 every thing under her direction and control, 
 and yet she accomplished her ends by means so 
 graceful and so winning, that everybody was 
 pleased. Wallace admired her very much , 
 and yet he was, after all, very sorry that Mary 
 Bell was not there. 
 
 After the collation was over, Caroline pro- 
 posed that the whole party, except the little 
 children, should make an excursion along the 
 rocks to see a waterfall about a quarter of a 
 mile distant. The little children, she said, 
 could not go very well, it was so far ; and be- 
 sides, they could not climb over the rocks. 
 They might stay, therefore, Caroline said, and 
 play about the Peak until the rest came back. 
 There were about six whom Caroline considered 
 little. Some of them were willing to stay, 
 others did not like the plan at all. They wished 
 very much to go and see the waterfall ; and 
 
140 Mary Bell. 
 
 Wallace remains behind. Caroline is displeased. 
 
 then more than that, they did not like to be 
 called little. 
 
 Wallace concluded on the whole that he 
 would stay with this party that was to be left 
 behind. There were, without him, enough boys 
 to wait upon all the girls that were to go. As 
 for Caroline herself, she had had, he thought, 
 abundance of attention all the day. She al- 
 ways contrived to have several of the boys in 
 close attendance upon her, and she had that 
 day managed in such a manner as to have Wal- 
 lace generally among them. On the whole, 
 Wallace concluded that some how or other, 
 though he scarcely knew why, he would rather 
 remain with the little girls. Caroline was 
 somewhat displeased at this. She could not, 
 however, decidedly object to it, for, as Wallace 
 said, it might not be quite safe to leave the little 
 girls at the Peak alone. She seemed, however, 
 notwithstanding this reasoning, to consider 
 Wallace's remaining behind, as in some sense 
 a personal slight, and in setting out for the 
 waterfall she went away at the head of the 
 company that were to go, with an air of of- 
 fended and haughty dignity. 
 
 The children left behind were somewhat 
 tired, and after rambling about the rocks a little 
 
Cordelia. 141 
 
 The children sit down. Wallace begins a story. The Palisades. 
 
 while, gathering mosses and flowers, they found 
 a very good place to sit down. After establish- 
 ing themselves pleasantly here, they called to 
 Wallace and asked him if he would not come 
 to tell them a story. Wallace came and sat 
 down beside them, saying, 
 
 " Yes, I will tell you a story. What shall it 
 be about ?" 
 
 " About New York," said one of the younger 
 girls. She had never been at New York, and 
 so she wished to hear something about the 
 manners and customs of the city. 
 
 "Well," said Wallace, "I will tell you 
 about an excursion we took from New York 
 up the Hudson river to the Palisades." 
 
 " The Palisades, you must know," continued 
 Wallace, "are a long range of precipices as 
 high as the Peak, and perfectly perpendicular, 
 that is, steep like a wall, toward the river. 
 They extend along the river a great many 
 miles, and nobody could possibly climb up to 
 the top of them from the side toward the water, 
 it is so steep." 
 
 "At the lower end of the Palisades," con- 
 tinued Wallace, "that is, where they begin, 
 there is a sort of gap or valley, very green and 
 pleasant, opening from the river to the country 
 
142 Mary Bell. 
 
 Bull's ferry. The excursion of Mr. James. Wallace with them. 
 
 beyond, and here there is a path that leads up 
 to the top of the Palisades. At the bottom of 
 this valley, on the bank of the river, there is a 
 good landing where there is a ferry that comes 
 from across the river. They call it Bull's 
 Ferry." 
 
 "Is it because they ferry the bulls across 
 there ?" asked one of the little children. 
 
 " No," said Wallace, " I presume not. Per- 
 haps the man that first established the ferry 
 was named Mr. Bull. I don't know how that 
 may be. I only know it is always called Bull's 
 Ferry ; and as it is only a short and pleasant 
 sail up the river from New York, and inasmuch 
 as when you get there you can climb to the top 
 of the Palisades, it makes it a very pleasant ex- 
 cursion to go to Bull's Ferry. A little while 
 ago when I was at New York, there was to be 
 an excursion to this Bull's Ferry, and I was in- 
 vited to go. The gentleman who had charge 
 of the excursion was named Mr. James, and 
 there were several girls and boys in the party, 
 all older than you. 
 
 " I was not much acquainted with the girls or 
 the boys myself," continued Wallace," and so I 
 did not talk with them a great deal. I sat and 
 observed them to see which I should like the 
 
Cordelia. 143 
 
 Wallace a stranger to the party. Cordelia. High wind. 
 
 best. I thought I would watch their actions 
 and see which of them would make me the 
 best wife, in case I were old enough to be mar- 
 ried." 
 
 Wallace felt some little curiosity to observe 
 whether the children would smile at the oddity 
 of this supposition, but they did not. They all 
 sat still and listened with an air of the most 
 serious and profound attention. 
 
 "There was one girl, 55 continued Wallace, 
 " named Cordelia. Her countenance wore a 
 very animated and beaming expression, and the 
 tones of her voice, and her laugh, were so full 
 of joyousness, that it was a constant pleasure to 
 hear her. I thought she must have a very con- 
 tented and happy disposition. I determined to 
 watch her and see what she would do. 
 
 " The wind blew very fresh when the steam- 
 boat moved from the wharf, and as it was early 
 in the morning, it was rather cold. Mr. James 
 found a place where he could pin up his cloak 
 upon some awning-posts, and so make a sort of 
 shelter. It was very difficult to pin up the 
 cloak, on account of the force of the wind, but 
 finally, he accomplished it, and when it was 
 done, a great many of the girls came eagerly 
 and gathered behind it. to enjoy the shelter. 
 
144 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mr. James makes a shelter. Cordelia's consideration. 
 
 Cordelia, however, was not there. There was 
 not room for all, so she took a seat upon a 
 camp-stool, in the best place that she could 
 find. By and by, when the steamboat came 
 pretty near to the end of the voyage, all the 
 girls who had been behind the cloak, jumped 
 up and ran forward to see the landing. Mr. 
 James then tried to take down the cloak, but 
 the wind flapped it in his face, and he could not 
 find the pins. Cordelia, seeing this, came over 
 to help him. 'Why, Mr. James!' said she. 
 ' You took all this pains to make a shelter for 
 them, and now they have every one gone off 
 and left you to take down the cloak alone !' " 
 
 " Why did not you go and help him, Mr. 
 Wallace ?" asked one of the little girls who 
 were listening to Wallace's story. 
 
 " I did," said Wallace, " and got there just in 
 time to hear what Cordelia was saying to Mr. 
 James. I then said to myself, ' Yes, she would 
 make a good wife. She is considerate, grateful, 
 and kind-hearted.' 
 
 " Some time after this," continued Wallace, 
 " after we had been up to the top of the Pali- 
 sades, and had come down again to the shore, 
 we were all amusing ourselves in a little cove 
 by the bank of the river. Two of the boys 
 
Cordelia. 145 
 
 Thomas wets his shoes. Cordelia's opinion. 
 
 were standing on the edge of the water, build- 
 'vzg a pier with small flat stones. One of them 
 stood where the rippling waves dashed up over 
 his feet, so as to wet his shoes and stockings. 
 The girls were sitting in various places on the 
 rocks around, looking on with interest and 
 pleasure, while the boys built their pier. They 
 seemed to be amused at seeing Thomas get his 
 feet so wet. Cordelia, however, looked anxious 
 and distressed. ' He ought not to do so,' said 
 she, speaking to herself; ' his shoes will be 
 spoiled, and they are new ones that his mother 
 bought for him yesterday.' I heard her say 
 this, for I was near by, although she did not 
 know it ; so I said to myself, ' Yes, she will 
 make a good wife. She is thoughtful and con- 
 siderate, and careful of property.' 
 
 " By and by we got through our visit at the 
 Ferry, and set out on our return home. We 
 sat upon the deck of the steamboat, looking at 
 the beautiful scenery on the shores of the river. 
 The wind had gone down, and the weather was 
 delightful. The beams of the sun, however, 
 were very powerful, and the girls of the party 
 seemed all very much afraid that they should 
 get sunburnt or tanned. They were covering 
 their faces very carefully with their veils. Cor- 
 
146 Mary Bell. 
 
 The veils. Cordelia shelters her flowers. Mary Bell. 
 
 delia had a bouquet of beautiful wild flowers, 
 which she had collected on the Palisades, and 
 she took her green veil off from her bonnet, and 
 covered her flowers with it, hoping by that 
 means to protect them from the sun till she 
 could get them home. I observed her and said 
 to myself, ' Yes ; I like Cordelia. She values 
 and enjoys the beauty which she sees around 
 her, and thinks but little of her own.' " 
 
 Just then Malleville started up suddenly, and 
 clapping her hands, called out, 
 
 " Why here comes Mary Bell !" The party 
 all turned in the direction where Malleville was 
 looking, and there they saw Mary Bell, and an- 
 other girl coming up the path together. Mrs. 
 Bell had become very much better, and having 
 accidentally heard of the celebration, had urged 
 Mary Bell to go up to the Peak, and enjoy at 
 least a part of the pleasure. Thus a very im- 
 portant accession was made to Wallace's party. 
 He enjoyed himself very much in talking with 
 them all, and in rambling about and telling more 
 stories, for about an hour, when at length Caro- 
 line returned with her company from the water- 
 fall, and then they all went down the hill to- 
 gether. 
 
The Wagon Ride. 147 
 
 Plan of the wagon ride. Beechnut and Wallace. 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 
 The Wagon Ride. 
 
 About a week after the celebration at the 
 Peak, Wallace formed a plan for a ride. He 
 procured two large covered wagons, and with 
 Beechnut's assistance, he arranged three com- 
 fortable seats in each. Each of these seats 
 would accommodate three passengers, so that 
 the whole party was to consist of eighteen per- 
 sons, nine in each wagon. It was expected 
 that by means of this arrangement, so many 
 could be together in one vehicle, that they 
 would have very merry times as they rode 
 along. 
 
 ( The whole party set off in the afternoon, im- 
 mediately after dinner. Beechnut was to go, 
 and he had charge of one wagon, while Wal- 
 lace had charge of the other. There were two 
 horses to each wagon, as one horse would not 
 have been sufficient to draw so heavy a load. 
 The day was delightful, as the sky was clear 
 and the air was cool. The country, too, was 
 very beautiful, though robed, of course, at this 
 
148 Mary Bell. 
 
 Scenery. Picturesque country. The apples. 
 
 season of the year, in brown, autumnal colors. 
 The party took a road which led along the 
 bank of the river, up the stream. The road 
 conducted them through a wild and romantic 
 valley, which presented everywhere a great va- 
 riety of enchanting prospects. Sometimes lofty 
 precipices were seen towering over the road 
 upon one hand, while the river meandered in a 
 foaming torrent along its rocky bed on the 
 other. Then, perhaps, after going on amid 
 such scenery as this for a time, the wagons 
 would suddenly enter a wood, dark, sombre, 
 and solitary, with birds singing in prolonged 
 and varied notes, on the tops of distant trees. 
 After a short time again, the party would 
 emerge from the wood as suddenly as they had 
 entered it, and find themselves in the midst of 
 fertile fields of ripened corn, or of orchards, 
 with vast multitudes of rose-colored or golden- 
 colored apples, adorning the trees. Whenever 
 among these orchards the children observed a 
 tree upon which the apples appeared to be par- 
 ticularly sweet and juicy, they stopped to gather 
 some of them. The farmers would always give 
 them as many as they wished to take. 
 
 They went on thus very pleasantly, all the 
 party enjoying the ride very much, until they 
 
The Wagon Ride. 149 
 
 The road and the river. The ferry. The bridge. 
 
 had reached the end of their excursion, and 
 were about setting out on their return ; and 
 then a difficulty occurred of a somewhat singu- 
 lar character, which resulted, in part, at least, 
 from what had taken place at the celebration 
 on the Peak. At the time when this difficulty- 
 occurred, the party were, in fact, only about 
 two miles from home in a straight line, — and 
 yet they could not get home without riding ten 
 or twelve miles. The reason of this was, that 
 after going up the river five or six miles, they 
 had crossed the river by a bridge in a lonely 
 place among the mountains, and had then come 
 down on the other side, until they were nearly 
 opposite to the place from whence they had 
 started. As, however, the river was between, 
 and as there was no bridge nearer than the one 
 that they had come over, they could not get 
 home without going back by the way that they 
 came. It is true, there was a ferry across the 
 river, as well as a bridge ; but the ferry was 
 several miles below where they were, so that 
 the best way to return was undoubtedly by the 
 bridge. Thus the party were now, by the road, 
 ten or twelve miles from home. 
 
 The object of the excursion had been to 
 ascend a high hill which was situated in this 
 
150 Mary Bell. 
 
 Situation of the wagons. How the company were seated. 
 
 region, and which commanded a very extensive 
 view. The party ascended the hill, and en- 
 joyed the prospect, and were now on their re* 
 turn. 
 
 Beechnut, with the wagon which he was 
 driving, was in advance. The two wagons 
 were accustomed to keep at some distance 
 apart, in order that the one which was behind 
 might not be incommoded by any dust that 
 might be raised by the other. Beechnut and 
 his party were, accordingly, so far in advance 
 that they only appeared in view from time to 
 time, at a distance, along the road. The wagon 
 in which Wallace was riding, followed. Parker 
 was driving it. He sat, of course, on the front 
 seat. Caroline sat upon one side of him, and 
 Augusta upon the other. Mary Bell and Mal- 
 leville were upon the middle seat, and Wallace 
 sat behind. The curtains of the wagon were 
 rolled up, so that all the party had an unob- 
 structed view on every side. 
 
 At length, in passing by a farm-house, Caro- 
 line said that she was thirsty, and she proposed 
 to Parker to stop the wagon in order that they 
 might all get a drink of water. 
 
 " Wallace will get us the water," said she, 
 " for he can get out most easily/' 
 
The Wagon Ride. 151 
 
 They stop for a drink. Wallace and the little girl. 
 
 " Yes," said Wallace ; " I can get out very 
 easily, indeed." 
 
 So saying, and, in fact, before Parker had 
 wholly stopped the horses, Wallace got out at a 
 sort of a side-door, which was between the 
 second and third seats, where there was an iron 
 step leading to the ground. He walked up to- 
 ward the farm-house, which was at a little dis- 
 tance from the road, to ask for some water. 
 
 He knocked at the door, and a little girl came 
 to see who was there. Wallace asked her » r 
 she would ~be~^S63 "enough to give him a mug 
 of water. She answered with much alacrity 
 that she would go and get some. She then 
 went into the house again, leaving Wallace at 
 the door. 
 
 Wallace turned around and looked toward the 
 wagon, which remained all this time standing 
 quietly in the road. It warf too far off for him 
 to speak, but he waved his handkerchief to indi- 
 cate to the party in the wagon that things were 
 in proper train for getting some water. He 
 remained standing in this position at the door 
 for some time, until at length he began to won- 
 der what the girl in the house was doing. 
 
 The fact was, that the girl found, on looking 
 at the water-pail, in the house, that the watei 
 
152 Mary Bell. 
 
 The girl goes for water. Malleville and Mary Bell. 
 
 in it had been standing for some time ; and not 
 wishing to offer any but good cool and fresh 
 water to so genteel a-looking stranger as Wal- 
 lace, she had concluded to go to the spring and 
 get some more. It was this that occasioned 
 the delay. 
 
 While she was gone, and Wallace remained 
 standing at the step, Malleville saw a flower 
 growing by the roadside, and she asked Mary 
 Bell to let her get out and gather it. 
 
 " Oh no, child," said Caroline, " sit still ; 
 Wallace will be back very soon, and then we 
 shall want to go directly on." 
 
 "Oh let her get out," said Parker. "After 
 Wallace brings the water and we have all 
 drank, he will have to go back to the farm- 
 house with the mug, so that there will be plenty 
 of time." 
 
 " Yes," said Mary Bell, " and I will get out 
 with her, and so help her to get back again." 
 
 Accordingly, Mary Bell and Malleville got 
 out together. Malleville climbed very slowly 
 down the step, and just as she reached the 
 ground, she saw Wallace coming down the 
 farmer's yard, with the mug of water in one 
 hand, and a tumbler in the other. 
 
 Malleville found several flowers, one after 
 
The Wagon Ride. 153 
 
 Malleville's interest in the flowers. Parker and Caroline. 
 
 another, growing in the grass, and she re- 
 mained gathering them until all in the wagon 
 had had their drink. Wallace then offered 
 some water to Mary Bell, and finally, after she 
 had drank, he began to go back toward the 
 house with the mug and the tumbler. Malle- 
 ville did not wish for any water. She was 
 too much occupied with her flowers to be 
 thirsty. 
 
 "Come, Malleville," said Mary Bell, "we 
 must get in." 
 
 " Yes," said Malleville, " in one minute. 
 Here is one more flower that I want to get." 
 
 " We shall have to wait for her," said Caro- 
 line. " I knew we should." Then suddenly, 
 as if a new thought just struck her, she added, 
 "" Drive on, Parker ; let us run away from them 
 a little way." 
 
 So Parker began to drive on. Caroline looked 
 around to see what Mary Bell and Malleville 
 appeared to think of being thus left behind. 
 Malleville, she observed, looked a little fright- 
 ened ; but Mary Bell stood quietly by the road- 
 side, smiling, and seeming to be entirely at her 
 ease. 
 
 Caroline, seeing that Mary Bell appeared so 
 unconcerned, directed Parker to drive forward, 
 
154 Mary Bell. 
 
 Caroline and Parker drive away. Caroline's jealousy. 
 
 saying, " We will go on far enough to frighten 
 her a little, at any rate." 
 
 Besides, she just then saw Wallace coming 
 down from the farm-house, and she determined 
 at once that it would be good fun to teaze him 
 and Mary Bell a little, together. She was good- 
 natured about it, it is true, intending only a lit- 
 tle harmless pleasantry ; and yet there was, after 
 all, a slight tinge of jealousy and ill-will in the 
 state of her feelings. She could not help fan- 
 cying, that Wallace liked Mary Bell better than 
 he did her, and she had not entirely forgiven 
 his coolness in not washing to accompany her 
 on the excursion to the water-fall, at the day 
 of the celebration upon the Peak. When she 
 came back from the water-fall, and found that 
 Mary Bell had come up the mountain and 
 joined Wallace and his party during her ab- 
 sence, she could not help suspecting that there 
 had been some secret understanding between 
 them in respect to Mary Bell's coming. She 
 was, however, wrong about this. Mary Bell 
 had not had the least idea of coming up until 
 half an hour before she left home, and Wallace 
 had no thought whatever of seeing her. The 
 meeting was wholly accidental. 
 
 The occurrences, however, left a trace of 
 
The Wagon Ride. 155 
 
 Parker drives on. Mary Bell's anxiety. 
 
 dissatisfaction and displeasure upon Caroline's 
 mind, and caused her to be more willing to 
 make some amusement for her party now, at 
 Mary Bell's expense. 
 
 " Drive on," said she to Parker. " Let us see 
 what they will do." 
 
 Mary Bell began to feel a little troubled. 
 Just then Wallace came to the place where 
 she was standing. 
 
 " They are going to run away from us," said 
 she. 
 
 " Never mind that," said Wallace, " they will 
 not run very far, I think." And then, in order 
 to show to Caroline's party that he was not 
 very much concerned at being thus left behind, 
 he began to examine Malleville's bouquet, as- 
 suming all the time a very unconcerned and 
 contented air. 
 
 " What pretty flowers !" said he. 
 
 " Yes," said Malleville, " but they are leaving 
 us behind. Come, let us run." 
 
 "Oh, no," said Wallace. "We will walk 
 along quietly. They will stop for us pretty 
 soon." 
 
 So Wallace began to walk along the road 
 very composedly, following the wagon and talk- 
 ing with Mary Bell. The horses were walking 
 
15G Mary Bell. 
 
 Wallace and Mary Bell run. The horses run too. 
 
 along slowly, too. The company in the wagon 
 were looking back at them, laughing and mak- 
 ing burlesque bows of salutation. / 
 
 Wallace took off his hat, and made very po- 
 lite bows in return. 
 
 " We had better run," said Mary Bell. " They 
 will not stop for us, unless we run and overtake 
 them. That is what they want to make us do." 
 
 " Well," said Wallace. " If you wish it." 
 
 So they began to run. 
 
 " They are coming, Parker," said the children 
 in the back part of the wagon. " Whip up. 
 They are coming, and they will catch us." 
 
 " Yes, whip up, Parker," said Caroline, " or 
 they will catch us." 
 
 So Parker whipped up his horses, and soon 
 got them into a canter, which, of course, carried 
 them forward much faster than Wallace and 
 Mary Bell could run. So Wallace stopped. 
 
 " You see it is of no use to run," said Wal- 
 lace. " We will walk along quietly, until they 
 get tired of their nonsense, and then they will 
 stop." 
 
 " I hope you are having a very pleasant walk, 
 ladies and gentleman," said Caroline, calling out 
 from the wagon. This call was responded to 
 by all who were in the wagon, with long and 
 
The Wagon Ride. 15^ 
 
 Wallace discouraged. His conversation with Mary Bull. 
 
 loud peals of laughter. Wallace waved his 
 handkerchief, as if in acknowledgment of Caro- 
 line's kind wishes, and sauntered slowly along 
 by the side of Mary Bell. 
 
 " I'll pay her for laughing at us, sometime or 
 other," said Malleville. 
 
 " They are walking along together as if they 
 enjoyed it," said Caroline, in the wagon. " But 
 we will make them alter their opinion before we 
 let them get in again, won't we, Parker ?" 
 
 " Yes," replied Parker, " that we will." 
 
 " Whip up," said Caroline ; " let us make 
 them run a little." 
 
 Parker whipped the horses and made them 
 trot on for a considerable distance. Wallace 
 and his party were left very far behind. 
 
 " Weli," said Wallace, "I don't see but that 
 we shall be obliged to give it up. Let us sit 
 down on this stone and consider what to do." 
 
 There was a large stone by the side of the 
 road at this point, and Wallace leading the way, 
 they all three went and sat down uppn it. 
 Mary Bell and Malleville both began to look 
 tired and anxious. 
 
 " There !" said Mary Bell, as soon as they 
 were seated on the rock, " they have stopped. 
 They are going to let us get in. Let us go." < 
 
158 Mary Bell. 
 
 Plans for getting home. Crossing the river. 
 
 Wallace and his company accordingly all rose 
 from their seats, went into the road again, and 
 began to hurry along toward the wagon. But 
 as soon as Parker and Caroline saw them com- 
 ing, they whipped up the horses again, and went 
 on as fast as ever. 
 
 Wallace and his party then slackened their 
 pace, knowing well that they could not overtake 
 the horses by running after them, and began to 
 consider what to do. 
 
 " They have made us walk now," said Wal- 
 lace, " about half a mile, and that is far enough 
 for any reasonable allowance of joking. I think 
 that the best plan for us is to give it up and not 
 try to overtake them any more." 
 
 " But then how shall we get home ?" asked 
 Mary Bell. " It must be ten miles or more." 
 
 " It is ten miles round by the road," replied 
 Wallace, " but we might go the other way, and 
 get across the river by some means or other. 
 It can not be more than two or three miles in a 
 straight course." 
 
 " But we can not get across the river," said 
 Mary Bell. 
 
 "Oh yes," said Wallace. "I can get you 
 across in some way or other. Or if I can not 
 do that, I can get another wagon of some oi 
 
The Wagon Ride. 159 
 
 A new plan. The flag of truce. 
 
 the farmers here, and take you home round by 
 the ferry." 
 
 Mary Bell did not know what to say to this 
 proposal. She was silent, and seemed much 
 perplexed. f 
 
 " There is one other plan," said Wallace, 
 after a short pause. " I think it possible that 
 Caroline and Parker will allow you and Malle- 
 ville to get into the wagon, if / will keep back. 
 Which should you rather do, — get into the 
 wagon without me, or stay with me and get 
 home in some other way ?" 
 
 Mary Bell hesitated. Presently she said that 
 she would rather stay with Wallace, if she 
 could choose ; but she thought that perhaps it 
 would be better for her to get into the wagon, 
 if they would allow her to do so. 
 
 " Very well," said Wallace, " we will try." 
 
 So saying, Wallace took out his white pocket- 
 handkerchief and tied it by one corner to the 
 end of his cane, as a signal that he wished to 
 communicate with the party in the wagon. He 
 waved it in the air, and then gave it to Malle- 
 ville that she might go forward a little way, 
 while he and Mary Bell remained stationary. 
 He hoped that Caroline would understand that 
 this was a signal that Malleville had a message 
 
160 
 
 Mary Bell. 
 
 Proposals sent by Malleville. 
 
 to communicate to her. Wallace also gave 
 Malleville her message, with directions, to go 
 forward and communicate it in case the wagon 
 should stop. 
 
 " What is that ?" said Caroline, in the wagon. 
 "It is a flag of truce, I verily believe. I 
 thought that we could bring them to terms. 
 Malleville is bringing it. Stop, Parker, and let 
 us hear what they have to say." 
 
 THE FLAG OF TRUCE 
 
 So Parker reined in the horses, and in due 
 time Malleville reached the wagon. As soon 
 
The Wagon Ride. 161 
 
 Malleville's proposal accepted conditionally. 
 
 as she was near enough to speak, she addressed 
 Caroline as follows : 
 
 " Wallace says he wants to know if you are 
 not willing to let Mary Bell and me get in; 
 and he says that he will stay back, and that 
 then you may make him walk three times as 
 far as you were going to make us all walk; 
 and that will be the same thing." 
 
 Caroline and all her party laughed very 
 heartily at this proposal. The whole affair was 
 to them nothing but amusement and pleasure ; 
 and, as is usually the case with those who 
 amuse themselves at the expense of other peo- 
 ple, they were entirely unconscious how much 
 pain and distress they occasioned to the suffer- 
 ers. They held a short consultation on the 
 proposal which Malleville had offered, and then 
 sent back word to Wallace, that they were 
 willing to let Malleville get in, but not Mary 
 Bell. Malleville, accordingly, returned with 
 the flag of truce, and delivered it back to Wal- 
 lace with Caroline's reply. 
 
 "Well," said Wallace. "Then you may go 
 and get in, Malleville, or you may stay with us, 
 whichever you please." 
 
 " Stay with us, Malleville," said Mary Bell. 
 
 "Well," said Malleville, "I will." 
 L 
 
162 Mary Bell. 
 
 The negociations broken up. Consultation. 
 
 So Wallace put his handkerchief back into 
 his pocket, and then took Malleville by the 
 hand and walked along with her leisurely, by 
 the side of Mary Bell. He did this to indicate 
 to the party in the wagon, that he concluded 
 not to accept their offer to admit Malleville into 
 the wagon alone. 
 
 " Well," said Wallace, after going on in this 
 manner a few minutes longer, " I think that we 
 have followed them long enough ; and now if 
 they do not stop before they pass that next bend 
 in the road, I shall then turn round and walk 
 the other way. 
 
 "Well," said Mary Bell, "I am willing. 
 Only," continued she, after a short pause, " they 
 will stop pretty soon when they find that we 
 are not coming, and wonder what has become 
 of us." 
 
 " Yes," said Wallace. 
 
 "And after they have waited some time," 
 said Mary Bell, " and we don't come, they will 
 be very much frightened." 
 
 " Yes," said Wallace. " They deserve to be." 
 
 " And they won't know what to do," said 
 Mary Bell. " They won't dare to go back 
 without us, and leave us here ten miles from 
 home. What will they do ?" 
 
The Wagon Ride. 163 
 
 Wallace and Mary Bell give up the pursuit. 
 
 " I don't know," said Wallace. " They must 
 contrive a way themselves to get out of their 
 own perplexities. It is as much as we can do 
 to get out of ours. I don't think it is worth 
 while for three persons on foot, who have been 
 deserted ten miles from home, to trouble them- 
 selves much about how those who deserted 
 them, and who have a wagon and a good pair 
 of horses, are to get home." 
 
 By this time the wagon began to disappear 
 around a turn in the road, at a little distance 
 from the place where Wallace and his party 
 were walking. As soon as it had- fairly gone 
 out of view, Wallace immediately turned round, 
 with Mary Bell and Malleville, and began to 
 walk the other way. 
 
 Mary Bell began to feel very seriously trou- 
 bled and distressed. She knew very well that 
 the responsibility and the duty of extricating 
 them all from the unpleasant situation in which 
 they were placed, devolved upon Wallace, and 
 consequently, that it was very reasonable that 
 his judgment should be allowed to determine 
 what was to be done. She was, however, ex- 
 tremely unwilling to give up yet all hope of 
 getting back into the wagon. She thought, too, 
 that Parker and Caroline would certainly stop 
 
164 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell's request refused. 
 
 for them very soon. So she ventured timidly 
 to ask Wallace if he was not willing to go on a 
 little farther. 
 
 " Why, Mary Bell," replied Wallace, " I am 
 extremely unwilling to refuse any thing you ask 
 of me ; but I think we have followed them long 
 enough. Besides," he continued, after pausing 
 a moment, " I think, on the whole, it is actually 
 better for you that I should act contrary to 
 your wishes in such a case as this ; for then 
 you do not incur any part of the responsibility. 
 You can tell your mother when you get home, 
 that you went on following the wagon as long 
 as I was willing to go ; and that you wished to 
 go on longer, but that I would not consent. 
 And so, if there is any blame, it will come 
 wholly upon me." 
 
 Mary Bell, finding that she could do no more, 
 resigned herself to her fate, which was to be 
 wholly dependent upon Wallace's ingenuity 
 and energy for the means of getting home. 
 She began to find, in fact, that it was very 
 pleasant to be in such a situation, now that her 
 mind was relieved from all sense of responsibil- 
 ity in respect to it. So she walked along with 
 a very light and happy heart, not knowing, and 
 not caring much what Wallace was going to do. 
 
Getting Home. 165 
 
 Caroline. The party in the wagon. 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 Getting Home. 
 
 In justice to Caroline, it must be admitted 
 that, in inducing Parker to drive on as she had 
 done, thus compelling Wallace and Mary Bell 
 to walk behind for so great a distance, she was 
 wholly unaware of the degree of pain which 
 she was occasioning them. The running away 
 from them was, of course, quite amusing to her- 
 self, and to all who were comfortably seated 
 with her in the wagon, and they did not con- 
 sider how much solicitude and mortification it 
 caused to those who were the sufferers by it. 
 There are a great many circumstances which 
 combine to make such an affair seem very dif- 
 ferent to the two parties that are concerned in 
 it, and to prevent the one from understanding 
 how it really affects the other. 
 
 There was, for example, in this case, a kind 
 of suspense and solicitude, weighing all the time 
 upon the minds of Wallace and Mary Bell, 
 which Caroline, since she did not share it, did 
 not consider. She herself had power to put an 
 
166 Mary Bell. 
 
 Their idea of the affair. Caroline's intention. 
 
 end to the affair at any time. She was, in fact, 
 almost every minute intending to stop the wagon 
 the next minute ; and although she did not thus 
 stop, yet the thought that it was in her power 
 to do so, gave a sort of composure to her mind, 
 which was in strong contrast with the uncer- 
 tainty, and the consequent solicitude and anx- 
 iety, which Mary Bell suffered, who was wholly 
 in the dark in respect to the termination of the 
 difficulty, and could not tell at all when her 
 troubles would end. 
 
 Then, besides, the way seemed very much 
 shorter to Caroline and her party, who were 
 riding comfortably in their wagon, than it did 
 to Wallace, Mary Bell, and Malleville, who 
 walked wearily behind, and whose bodily fa- 
 tigue was increased by the extreme mental un- 
 easiness produced by their mortification and 
 chagrin. If Caroline had had any distinct idea 
 of the degree of pain which she occasioned, or 
 even of the duration of time for which she con- 
 tinued it, she would have stopped long before 
 she actually did stop. The very air of calm- 
 ness and composure which Wallace and Mary 
 Bell very properly assumed, helped to deceive 
 Caroline, by concealing, as it did, the pain which 
 they were really suffering. And thus it hap- 
 
Getting Home. 167 
 
 Caroline stops the wagon. Her perplexity. 
 
 pened that she went on until Wallace's patience 
 was exhausted, and he refused to follow her any 
 farther. 
 
 It happened that Caroline's persistence in go- 
 ing on, came to an end very nearly at the same 
 time that Wallace's patience in following was 
 exhausted. Accordingly, very soon after the 
 wagon had turned at the bend in the road, 
 where it passed out of sight from the place 
 where Wallace and his party were walking, 
 Caroline asked Parker to stop and wait till they 
 came in sight again. 
 
 " And, in fact," she continued, " we may as 
 well stop and let them get in now. We will 
 not make them walk too far." 
 
 So Parker stopped the wagon. Caroline and 
 the party waited in it a few minutes, talking 
 together at their ease, and looking for Wallace 
 and the two girls to appear. They all sat with 
 their heads turned back, watching for some 
 time in vain, when Parker said, at length, 
 
 " Why don't they come ?" 
 
 "I don't know," said Caroline. "Perhaps 
 they have got tired, and are sitting down to 
 rest. They will come pretty soon." 
 
 So they waited in the wagon some time 
 longer, but nothing appeared. 
 
168 Mary Bell. 
 
 They wait for Wallace and Mary Bell. 
 
 "Jump down, Parker," said Caroline, and 
 run back to the turn of the road, and see what 
 has become of them." 
 
 Parker did so. When he reached the turn 
 of the road, he stood there a minute or two 
 looking earnestly along the road beyond, and 
 then turned and came slowly back, saying, as 
 he approached the wagon, 
 
 " I cannot see any thing of them." 
 
 " They have gone to hide somewhere in the 
 bushes," said Caroline, " to teaze us and frighten 
 us. But they will find they are mistaken. We 
 will wait here a little while, and then if they 
 don't come, we will go home without them." 
 
 So Caroline and her party waited ten min- 
 utes, but Wallace did not come. 
 
 " How provoking it is !" said Caroline. " It 
 is four o'clock, and time that we were on our 
 way home. I have a great mind to go on, and 
 leave them altogether." 
 
 " Then how could they get home ?" asked 
 Parker. 
 
 " I don't know," said Caroline, " and I don't 
 care. They have no business to keep us wait- 
 ing so long. Suppose you go back and call for 
 them," she added, after a moment's pause. 
 " Perhaps they will hear you, and answer." 
 
Getting Home. 169 
 
 Search for the missing party. Anxiety. 
 
 "Let us turn the wagon round and ride 
 back," said Parker. 
 
 " Very well," replied Caroline, " that will be 
 better." 
 
 So Parker drove on a short distance until 
 he came to a broad place where he could turn 
 the wagon. He then drove back slowly along 
 the road, all the party looking intently and 
 eagerly into the forests on either hand, and 
 calling out, sometimes one, and sometimes the 
 other, 
 
 WAL LACE ! • WAL LACE ! 
 
 And then again, 
 
 Ma— ry Bell ! Ma— ry Bell ! 
 
 The sounds of their voices were echoed back 
 from the mountain sides, but there was no 
 other responding. 
 
 They now began to be, in their turn, quite 
 seriously troubled. It was getting late, and it 
 was obviously imprudent to remain there much 
 longer, as they had now but little more than 
 the necessary time to get home before dark. 
 But then, on the other hand, the idea of going 
 away and leaving Wallace and Mary Bell, and 
 especially such a child as Malleville, in so lonely 
 a place, and so far from home — ten miles at 
 least, measured on any practicable road — 
 
170 Mary Bell. 
 
 Caroline goes on to find Beechnut. Waflace uid Mary Bell. 
 
 seemed wholly out of the question. They even 
 thought it possible that the missing party might 
 have strayed away into some bye-road, and so 
 got lost in the woods. Thus, they began to be 
 very seriously anxious and concerned, and were 
 utterly at a loss to know what to do. They 
 finally concluded that they must not remain 
 any longer where they were, and Caroline pro- 
 posed that they should drive on homeward as 
 fast as possible in hopes of overtaking the other 
 wagon, so as to tell the story to Beechnut, and 
 procure his aid ; for it was to Beechnut's judg- 
 ment and sagacity that the ultimate appeal was 
 made in all desperate emergencies. The par- 
 ties in the wagon all approved of this plan, and 
 so Parker, turning his horses' heads in the 
 direction of home, drove forward as fast as 
 possible. 
 
 In the mean time, Wallace and Mary Bell, 
 accompanied all the time by Malleville, walked 
 at their ease along the road down the river. It 
 was a very pleasant afternoon, and the road 
 soon leaving the woods, led them along the bank 
 of the stream, where they had upon one side 
 a beautiful view of the water, while upon the 
 other there was a green field, bounded at a little 
 distance by the margin of a grove. The place 
 
Getting Home. 171 
 
 Their pleasant walk along the bank of the river. 
 
 was very beautiful, though very wild and soli- 
 tary, and Mary Bell and Malleville, having now 
 giving up all thoughts of rejoining the party in 
 the wagon, and having full confidence that Wal- 
 lace would contrive some safe way or other for 
 getting them home, enjoyed their walk very 
 highly, talking with each other and with Wal- 
 lace as they rambled along. Malleville some- 
 times stopped to watch the fishes, swimming in 
 the water : she could see them very distinctly 
 as she looked down from the top of the bank 
 into the clear stream, which was rendered 
 doubly transparent now by the brilliant rays of 
 the autumnal sun reflected from the yellow 
 sands at the bottom. Sometimes she gathered 
 new flowers to add to her bouquet ; and once 
 she went down the bank to the margin of the 
 water to get a round smooth stone which she 
 saw there, and which she thought would make 
 an excellent " warming-stone." What Malle- 
 ville meant by a warming-stone, was a sort of 
 round smooth stone, which she was accustomed 
 to have in the winter to heat before the fire, 
 and carry, wrapped in a flannel, in her lap, to 
 keep her hands warm when she went to take a 
 sleigh-ride. 
 
 The river was not very wide, but the water 
 
172 Mary Bell. 
 
 The farm-houses. Wallace's plan. The boat and boat-house. 
 
 was pretty deep, though it flowed, in this part 
 of its course, in a smooth and tranquil current. 
 There were distant farm-houses to be seen 
 among the hills across the river, some of which 
 Mary Bell soon began to recognize as houses 
 situated not far from the place where Mrs. 
 Henry lived. She told Wallace and Malleville 
 that they were getting nearly opposite Mrs. 
 Henry's. If they were only upon the other 
 side of the river, she said, they could go di- 
 rectly home, and be there in a quarter of an 
 hour : but she did not see, she added, how they 
 were going to get across the stream. 
 
 " Oh, we shall have no difficulty in getting 
 across," said Wallace. "I have got the plan 
 all formed. I am going to take you over in a 
 boat." 
 
 " In a boat ?" asked Mary Bell. " How are 
 you going to get a boat ?" 
 
 " I am going to take ours," said Wallace. 
 
 He meant Mrs. Henry's. There was a brook 
 which flowed into the river near Mrs. Henry's 
 house, where Phonny and Malleville lived, and 
 the mouth of this brook formed a little harbor, 
 where there was a boat-house and a boat. 
 There was a very pleasant beach along the 
 river, near this place, the same that Phonny 
 
Getting Home. 173 
 
 The May-stone. Wallace proposes to swim across the river. 
 
 and Malleville built a fire upon, when they 
 were making maple sugar, as described in the 
 volume of Franconia stories, entitled Malleville. 
 Between the beach, upon the shore of the river, 
 and the brook, there was a point of land where 
 there was a great flat stone, called the May- 
 stone. The May-stone was a famous landing- 
 place for the boat, and the boat itself was often 
 left there, tied to a strong post which Beechnut 
 had set up upon the shore for this very pur- 
 pose. It was this boat which Wallace refer- 
 red to. 
 
 " But our boat is upon the other side of the 
 river," said Malleville. 
 
 " Yes," said Wallace, " and I am going across 
 to get it." 
 
 " But how are you going to get across ?" 
 asked Mary Bell. 
 
 " I am going to swim across," replied Wallace. 
 
 " To swim !" repeated Mary Bell, somewhat 
 alarmed. 
 
 " Yes," replied Wallace. " I can swim across 
 very easily, by taking off my jacket and my 
 shoes. I am going to find a good seat here 
 somewhere for you and Malleville, and then I 
 am going down the bank of the river a little 
 way, until I find a slab, or a piece of drift wood 
 
174 Mary Bell. 
 
 His plan. They come in sight of Mrs. Henry's. 
 
 of some kind or other, to take over with me. 
 Then I shall take off my shoes, my cap, and my 
 jacket, and tie them up in a bundle, and fasten 
 them upon the slab, up above the water. Then 
 I shall swim over the river, pushing the slab be- 
 fore me. When I land, I shall put on my jacket, 
 my cap, and my shoes again, and walk up to the 
 house. There I shall take off my wet clothes, 
 and put on dry ones. Then I shall come back 
 to the shore, and take the boat and come over 
 here. Then you and Malleville can get in, and 
 we can all go across the river together." 
 
 " That is a good plan," said Malleville. 
 
 Mary Bell said nothing. She was, in fact, a 
 little afraid to have Wallace attempt to swim 
 across so broad a river. 
 
 In a few minutes after this, the party came 
 to a rocky point upon the bank, and when they 
 got to the lower side of it, they found that Mrs. 
 Henry's house, and the mouth of the brook, and 
 the May-stone itself, were all in view. 
 
 " There's the boat," said Malleville, clapping 
 her hands. 
 
 They all looked and saw that the boat was 
 there, upon the farther side of the May-stone, 
 being fastened, apparently, by the painter to 
 the post upon the shore. 
 
Getting Home. 175 
 
 Wallace delivers his valuables to Mary Bell. 
 
 The rope by which a boat is tied is called the 
 painter. 
 
 "Now you must sit down upon the rocks 
 here," said Wallace to Mary Bell and Malle- 
 yille, " while I go down the bank a little way 
 to find my slab. Presently you will see me 
 swimming out from the shore, pushing the slab 
 before me." 
 
 " But you must keep my watch, for me, Mary 
 Bell," he continued. " It would spoil my watch 
 to get it wet." 
 
 So he took his watch out of his pocket, taking 
 the guard over his head at the same time. It 
 was a small gold watch, and very pretty. Wal- 
 lace placed the guard around Mary Bell's neck, 
 and put the watch into her hands ; and she, 
 after looking at it attentively a moment, placed 
 it securely within her belt-ribbon. She had 
 never had a gold watch in her hands before, 
 and was very much pleased to be entrusted 
 with such a charge. Wallace then took out 
 his pencil-case, and gave'her that also. 
 
 Malleville then wished to have something en- 
 trusted to her keeping, so Wallace gave her his 
 pocket-book, and also some silver money and 
 some keys. The money and the keys Malle- 
 
176 Mary Bell. 
 
 John Thomas and Carlo. Mary Bell's proposal. 
 
 ville put into her pocket, but the pocket-book 
 she held in her hand. 
 
 Just as these arrangements were completed, 
 Mary Bell seemed to observe something which 
 attracted her attention, on the other side of the 
 river. 
 
 " Who is that boy standing there ?" she asked 
 at length, after a little pause. — " He has got a 
 dog, too. — The dog looks like Carlo. — I believe 
 it is Carlo : and if it is, the boy must be John 
 Thomas. He is one of our neighbor's boys, and 
 Carlo goes off with him sometimes to play." 
 
 " Then he can bring the boat over for us," 
 said Wallace. 
 
 " Oh no," said Mary Bell, " he is not large 
 enough. He is a very small boy, no bigger 
 than Malleville. It would not be safe to trust 
 him in the boat." 
 
 Then after a moment's hesitation, she added, 
 " I should rather trust Carlo. Carlo might per- 
 haps bring the boat over." 
 
 Wallace laughed outright at this idea. He 
 supposed, in fact, that Mary Bell was in joke. 
 
 " If Carlo only knew that I was over here," 
 said Mary Bell, " and that I wanted the boat, to 
 get home, and if Thomas would put the end of 
 the rope in his mouth, he would swim across 
 
Getting Home. 177 
 
 ('ailing to John Thomas. Carlo's disposition. 
 
 and pull the boat after him. He is very 
 strong." 
 
 Mary Bell then standing up upon the rocks, 
 and perceiving that the boy on the other side 
 had observed them, and was looking at them, 
 called out with a loud voice. 
 
 John Thom — as! 
 
 There came back in reply a prolonged and 
 distant " Hal — loo !" 
 
 " Is that you ?" called Mary Bell. 
 
 The voice answered " Yes," in a tone loud 
 though distant, and long drawn out. 
 
 "Shall I try to make Carlo come over?" 
 said Mary Bell to Wallace. 
 
 "Yes," replied Wallace. "You may try, 
 but I do not think you can do it." 
 
 Mary Bell then began to call Carlo by name 
 many times, in the tone and manner which she 
 was accustomed to use to him whenever she 
 wished him to come, — though it must be con- 
 fessed that such callings were usually in vain. 
 In this ease, however, her voice seemed to have 
 a different effect. Carlo had, in fact, a great 
 contempt for play of every kind, and he knew 
 very well when children called him merely out 
 of idle caprice. When, on the other hand, any 
 real emergency occurred, and there was any 
 M 
 
178 Mary Bell. 
 
 His demeanor on this occasion. His excitemeni 
 
 actual service to be rendered, he felt, at once, 
 the dignity of the occasion, and all his ener- 
 gies were immediately aroused. In this case, 
 accordingly, as soon as he heard Mary Bell's 
 /oice, and perceived that she was separated 
 from him by the broad surface of the river, he 
 supposed that it was not a case of mere play. 
 He looked wildly across the water, barked, ran 
 this way and that along the edge of the May- 
 stone, stopped suddenly and looked at Mary 
 Bell again, and then seemed on the point of 
 leaping into the water. 
 
 Mary Bell then, called out again to John 
 Thomas, 
 
 " Untie the boat, John, and give Carlo the 
 end of the rope in his mouth." 
 
 John Thomas obeyed, calling to Carlo con- 
 tinually while he did so, in order to keep him 
 back from the water until the rope was ready. 
 Carlo was very much excited and very much 
 perplexed. He ran first to John Thomas and 
 the boat, and then back to the edge of the 
 May-stone to take a look at Mary Bell, darting 
 continually from one place to the other, and 
 barking all the time. At length, John Thomas 
 got the boat untied. He brought it around to 
 the river *ide of the Mav-stone. He then of- 
 
Getting Home. 
 
 179 
 
 He takes the painter and swims across the river. 
 
 fered the end of the rope to Carlo, saying, 
 " Seize it, Carlo !" pointing, at the same time, to 
 the water. Carlo seemed at once to understand. 
 He seized the end of the rope in his mouth 
 and leaped into the river. Mary Bell at the 
 same instant began to encourage him by calling 
 to him from the opposite shore, while Malleville 
 clapped her hands with delight, saying, " He is 
 coming with the boat ! He is coming ! He is 
 coming!" 
 
 BRIXOING THE BOAT. 
 
 As Carlo came on, aiming, as he did, directly 
 
180 Mary Bell. 
 
 He lands. He sprinkles Mary Bell. 
 
 across the river, the current began to carry 
 him down the stream. Wallace and his party 
 immediately began to move down too, so as to 
 keep opposite to him all the time, in order to 
 encourage and cheer him, and also to prevent 
 his wasting his strength by attempting to swim 
 up against the stream. He came on very 
 slowly, but in due time he reached the shore. 
 Wallace stood ready at the margin of the 
 water to take the rope. Carlo delivered the 
 rope to him as soon as he reached the land, and 
 then scrambling up upon the beach he ran to 
 Mary Bell, and standing directly before her he 
 stopped and shook himself with such prodigious 
 energy that he sprinkled her all over. 
 
 "Why, Carlo!" exclaimed Mary Bell, run- 
 ning back. " What a dog you are ! Who 
 would think that you would have sense enough 
 to bring a boat over the river, and not have 
 too much sense to sprinkle your drippings all 
 over me." 
 
 The rest of the story is, of course, soon told. 
 The party crossed the river readily in the boat, 
 with Carlo in the bow. When they landed, 
 Mary Bell asked John Thomas how he came to 
 be there. He said that he had come to get a 
 ride home with her when the party should have 
 
Getting Home. 181 
 
 Wallace and Mary Bell get safe home. Caroline. 
 
 returned from their ride in the wagons. He 
 did not expect, he said, that she would come 
 home in a boat across the river. He, of course, 
 lost his expected ride, for Mary Bell walked 
 home. Wallace went with her, and she gave 
 him back his watch and pencil-case AtJthe 
 door. 
 
 That evening, just after sunset, Malleville 
 was swinging upon the front-gate at Mrs. Hen- 
 ry's house, waiting for the wagons to come. 
 We left Caroline, it will be recollected, very 
 much perplexed to know what to do, and de- 
 termined to ride on as fast as possible to over- 
 take Beechnut in order to refer the difficulty to 
 him. Beechnut was, however, so far in ad- 
 vance that it was very hard to overtake him. 
 Parker drove as fast as he could, but he 
 reached the bridge, which was about half-way 
 home, before he saw any thing of the forward 
 wagon. At length, it came into view at some 
 distance before them. As soon as Parker was 
 near enough to be heard, he called out to 
 Beechnut to stop, and Caroline then, without 
 waiting to get any nearer, called out too, to tell 
 him that they had lost some of their party. 
 
 " How did you lose them ?" asked Beechnut. 
 
 " Why they strayed away from us," replied 
 
182 Mary Bell. 
 
 Her conversation with Beechnut. Beechnut goes on. 
 
 Caroline, " And did not come back. We waited 
 until we thought it was not worth while to wait 
 any longer, and then we came along." 
 
 "How came they to stray away?" asked 
 Beechnut. 
 
 " Why, to tell the truth," said Caroline, " we 
 began it by running away from them." 
 
 " O, aye !" said Beechnut, " that was the case, 
 was it" 
 
 " What had we better do ?" asked Caroline. 
 
 " Who are they ?" asked Beechnut. 
 
 The heads were so numerous in the two 
 wagons, that Beechnut could not tell who were 
 missing. 
 
 "Why, there was Wallace," said Caroline, 
 " and—" 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Wallace was one, was he ?" said 
 Beechnut. 
 
 " Yes," replied Caroline. . 
 
 "Oh, very well, then," said Beechnut, "we 
 have nothing more to do about it. We will 
 go on." 
 
 " Why, what do you mean by that ?" asked 
 Caroline. 
 
 " Why I mean," said Beechnut, " that there 
 is no possible situation in which you can place 
 Mr. Wallace, but that he will lake much better 
 
Getting Hume. 183 
 
 Caroline's anxiety. Her surprise at seeing Malleville. 
 
 care of himself, than you and I can take for 
 him." 
 
 So saying, Beechnut started his horses and 
 drove on. 
 
 When the wagons arrived near to Mrs. Hen- 
 ry's house, Beechnut turned off into another 
 road, to take those who were in his wagon to 
 their respective homes. The other wagon was 
 to go directly by Mrs. Henry's. Caroline 
 felt very anxious and unhappy, though she 
 could not help hoping to hear something of 
 her missing friends, when she should get to the 
 house. 
 
 Malleville saw them coming. "Now," said 
 she to herself, " I mean to pay them for hoping 
 that we were having a pleasant walk." 
 
 The moment, therefore, that the wagon came 
 within hearing, and before, in fact, Caroline 
 could see who it was that was swinging on the 
 gate, Malleville called out, mimicking Caroline's 
 manner, 
 
 " I hope, ladies and gentlemen, that you are 
 having a very pleasant ride." 
 
 "Why, Malleville," exclaimed Caroline. 
 "How did you get home? And have Wal- 
 lace and Mary Bell got home too?" 
 
 "Yes," said Malleville, "long ago." 
 
184 Mary Bell. 
 
 Caroline's note to Mary Bell. Wallace's opinion of it. 
 
 • "lam so glad," said Caroline ; " but how did 
 you get home ?" 
 
 " Guess/' said Malleville. She said this, how- 
 ever, in a tone which plainly indicated that she 
 did not intend to tell. So Parker drove on. 
 
 Early the next morning, a boy came to Mrs. 
 Bell's with a note for Mary. She opened it 
 and found it was from Caroline. It was as 
 follows : — 
 
 " My dear Mary Bell, — 
 
 " I am so ashamed of myself for running away from you 
 yesterday, that I do not know what to say or do. It was so 
 ungrateful, when "Wallace took so much pains to plan the ex- 
 cursion for us, and to get the wagons and the horses. And 
 then, too, to take advantage of his going away to get some 
 water for me. I can not write a note to him, and lam 
 ashamed to speak to him about it, but I wish you would tell 
 him how badly I feel. 
 
 " Your true friend, 
 
 "Caroline Keep." 
 
 Mary Bell sent the note itself to Wallace. 
 When Wallace had read it, he put it carefully 
 into his pocket-book, and said, 
 
 " Well, Caroline is a noble girl after all." 
 
The Drawing School. 185 
 
 flaying keep school. Malleville's punishment. 
 
 Chapter X. 
 The Dr a win g- S ch o ol. 
 
 At one time Mary Bell had a little drawing- 
 school. There were six scholars in her class, 
 and they met once a week in Mary Bell's 
 chamber. The circumstances which led to the 
 establishment of this class, were these : 
 
 One day when Beechnut was at work in Mrs. 
 Henry's garden, Phonny and Malleville were 
 playing keep school in a corner of the yard. 
 After continuing their play for some time, they 
 began to get tired of it, and accordingly they 
 proposed to go out into the garden and see 
 what Beechnut was doing. 
 
 Phonny had been the teacher in the school, 
 and Malleville the scholar. They got tired of 
 their play partly because Phonny compelled 
 Malleville to sit rather too long, by herself, 
 upon a certain stone step which was near at 
 hand, as a punishment for some imaginary of- 
 fense against the rules of his school. He for- 
 got, as children very often do in such cases, 
 that though it was very good amusement for 
 
186 Mary Bell. 
 
 Beechnut in the garden. Malleville's drawing. 
 
 him to send Malleville there, it was not very- 
 amusing for her to stay there so long. Malle- 
 ville became tired after a little time, and as 
 Phonny did not call her back, she rose from her 
 seat at length, of her own accord, and walked 
 away, saying that she did not wish to play 
 school any more. She said that she was going 
 out into the garden to see Beechnut. So they 
 both went out into the garden together. Mal- 
 leville happened to have her slate under her 
 arm. She had been using it in playing school. 
 
 Beechnut was at work in the garden putting 
 a little walk in order, by smoothing the surface 
 of it, trimming the edges, and raking away the 
 grass and weeds. The walk led down toward 
 a little brook which flowed through the back 
 part of the garden. There was a smooth stone 
 among the shrubbery near that part of the 
 path where Beechnut was working, which the 
 children were accustomed to use as a seat. 
 Malleville sat down upon this stone. 
 
 As her eyes fell upon her slate she saw a lit- 
 tle drawing there, one which she had made for 
 her drawing lesson in the school. She thought 
 that she would go and show it to Beechnut, and 
 ask him if he did not think that it was pretty 
 well done. 
 
The Drawing School. 
 
 187 
 
 The garden stone. 
 
 She shew9 her drawing to Beechnut. 
 
 THE OAKIiEN STONE. 
 
 So she walked to the place where Beechnut 
 was at work, and holding the slate out to him, 
 she said, 
 
 " See Beechnut !" 
 
 Beechnut turned his eyes toward the draw- 
 ing, going on, however, all the time with his 
 raking, and said, 
 
 " Yes, I see. Did you do that ?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Malleville; "in Phonny's 
 school. I did it all myself — alone/' 
 
 " Tt is not every pupil that can say that of 
 
188 Mary Bell. 
 
 Beechnut's coDjectures in respect to the drawing. 
 
 the drawings that she shows," said Beechnut, 
 going on with his work. 
 
 "What do you think it is?" asked Malle- 
 ville. She wished to obtain from Beechnut 
 some more decided expression of his opinion in 
 respect to her drawing. 
 
 " A pair of tongs ?" said Beechnut, speaking 
 m the tone of one making a guess. 
 
 " No," said Malleville. And so saying, she 
 began to look at her drawing again, to see 
 whether it resembled a pair of tongs. " No," 
 she continued, after thus looking at it a mo- 
 ment, " no, not that. Look at it again." 
 
 Beechnut stopped raking, looked at the draw- 
 ing a moment again, and then said in the same 
 inquiring tone. 
 
 " A tavern-sign between two tall posts ?" 
 
 "No," said Malleville, "not that." 
 
 "A round-table on two legs, then," said 
 Beechnut, in a tone of satisfaction, as if he 
 thought that now he had got it. 
 
 "No," replied Malleville, "nothing like 
 that." 
 
 " Then I can't guess," said Beechnut, de- 
 spondingly. 
 
 " It is a man," said Malleville. " There is 
 his head, and there are his legs," she added, 
 
The Drawing School. 189 
 
 Malleville's omissions. Beechnut makes a drawing. 
 
 pointing, as she spoke to the different parts of 
 the drawing. 
 
 "Only I forgot his eyes, and nose, and 
 mouth," continued Malleville, after a moment's 
 pause ; and so saying, she sat down upon her 
 stone again, and began to work very industri- 
 ously to put in these features, so essential to 
 the proper representation of a man. 
 
 "I forgot his face entirely," said Malle- 
 ville. 
 
 " You forgot something more important than 
 that," said Beechnut. 
 
 " What ?" inquired Malleville. 
 
 " His body," replied Beechnut. 
 
 Malleville looked at her drawing again, and 
 found it true, as Beechnut had represented, 
 that the body was wholly omitted in her draw- 
 ing. The legs grew out directly from the 
 head. 
 
 "Yes," said she, "so I have. Well, now 
 Beechnut," said she again, looking at her work 
 a moment with a very disconsolate expression 
 of countenance, " I wish you would draw me a 
 man, and then I can see how it ought to be 
 done." 
 
 Beechnut said that he would, and so taking 
 Malleville's slate and pencil, he made, in a few 
 
190 Mary Bell. 
 
 PhonDy and Malleville wish to learn to draw. 
 
 minutes, a very simple but spirited sketch of 
 two boys, running. One was running after the 
 other to get his cap. The foremost boy, who 
 was running away with the cap, carried it upon 
 the top of a long pole which he held in the air. 
 The drawing was made in a very bold and free 
 manner, and with very few strokes ; but there 
 was so much spirit and expression in the figures 
 and in the action, that Malleville was very 
 much amused with the work, and ran off to 
 show it to Phonny. 
 
 Beechnut could really draw very well indeed. 
 He had learned, as has already been stated, in 
 France, before he came across the ocean to 
 America. 
 
 After a little time, Phonny and Malleville 
 came back to Beechnut again, bringing the 
 slate with them. They came for the purpose 
 of asking Beechnut whether he would not teack 
 them to draw. 
 
 " Oh, no !" said Beechnut, " I can't do that ; 
 but I'll tell you what I will do for you." 
 
 " What ?" asked Phonny. 
 
 " I will show you how that boy got his cap ;" 
 replied Beechnut. 
 
 "Well!" exclaimed Phonny and Malleville 
 together, in a tone of great satisfaction. 
 
The Drawing School. 191 
 
 Beechnut's second picture. Two things lacking. 
 
 So Beechnut took the slate and made another 
 picture on the other side of it, representing the 
 recovery of the cap. The boy who was run- 
 ning away with it had tumbled down, and lay 
 now extended upon the ground. The pole was 
 of course down too, and the cap had fallen off 
 from the end of it — and the boy to whom the 
 cap belonged, was in the act of picking it up. 
 The boy who was getting his cap again, was 
 laughing, while the countenance of the one 
 who lay extended upon the ground, exhibited a 
 most ludicrous expression of vexation and dis- 
 tress. 
 
 Beechnut gave the slate to Phonny when the 
 picture was finished, and returned to his work. 
 The picture amused the children for some time. 
 At length they put the slate down upon the 
 stone, and came to Beechnut to ask him wh) 
 he was not willing to teach them to draw. 
 
 " Oh, there are two things lacking," said 
 Beechnut. 
 
 " What are they ?" asked Phonny. 
 
 " Why, I have not time, and you have not 
 patience," replied Beechnut. 
 
 Phonny and Malleville both insisted that they 
 had a great deal of patience, or at least that they 
 would have, if he would teach them to draw. 
 
192 Mary Bell. 
 
 Beechnut proposes Mary Bell for drawing teacher. 
 
 But Beechnut said that he could not undertake 
 any such thing. 
 
 " But," said he, " there is Mary Bell to teach 
 you to draw. She has got time. You must 
 form a class of half a dozen, and go to her 
 house Saturday afternoons." 
 
 " Well," said Phonny. " Let us do it, Mal- 
 leville." 
 
 " I think it would really be a good plan," con- 
 tinued Beechnut, "if Mary Bell will consent. 
 And then I can do something myself, perhaps, 
 to help." 
 
 " What could you do ?" asked Phonny. 
 
 " Why I will sharpen the pencils ; and then, 
 on rainy days, I will go around after the class, 
 in the great wagon, and carry them to the 
 school." 
 
 "Well!" said Malleville. "And come and 
 get us again at the end of the school ?" 
 
 " Yes," said Beechnut. " Then, besides," he 
 continued, " perhaps I would draw you some 
 patterns. I would agree to draw you patterns 
 for the tenth lesson." 
 
 " Why not for the first ?" asked Phonny. 
 
 " Oh, I should rather agree to draw them for 
 the tenth," said Beechnut, " for by that plan 1 
 should expect not to have to draw them at all." 
 
The Drawing School. 193 
 
 Beechnut will aid. Mrs. Henry approves of the plan. 
 
 " Why not ?" asked Malleville. 
 
 " Why, because," rejoined Beechnut, " I 
 don't suppose that you would have persever- 
 ance enough to get to the tenth lesson. I sup- 
 pose you would draw two or three lessons, and 
 that that would be the end of it." 
 
 Phonny and Malleville were very earnest in 
 assuring Beechnut that they certainly should 
 have perseverance enough to draw ten lessons 
 and more too ; and Beechnut said that he would 
 agree to draw a set of patterns, one for each of 
 the class, to be used for the tenth lesson, if the 
 class should ever get so far. He said, besides, 
 that he would draw up some rules for the class, 
 if Mary Bell should wish it. 
 
 " Oh, no !" said Phonny. " Mary Bell would 
 rather make her own rules." 
 
 " Very well," replied Beechnut. " Just as 
 she pleases about that." 
 
 Phonny and Malleville went immediately in, 
 and explained the plan to Mrs. Henry, who said 
 that she had no objection to it at all, — but con- 
 sidered it, on the other hand, a very excellent 
 plan, if Mary Bell was willing to have such a 
 class. Phonny and Malleville went that very 
 afternoon to ask her. She laughed at hearing 
 the proposal at first, and said that she could not 
 N 
 
194 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell's skill in drawing. She hesitates about the class. 
 
 be a teacher ; she knew too little about draw- 
 ing herself, she said, to attempt to teach any- 
 other persons. 
 
 Mary Bell could, in fact, draw very prettily. 
 She began to learn a number of years before 
 this time, at Mary Erskine's. Mary Erskine 
 was a girl who lived at Mrs. Bell's when Mary 
 Bell was a child, and who afterward married a 
 young farmer, and lived a mile or two from 
 Mrs. Bell's. It was there that Mary Bell had 
 begun to learn to draw, and though she had had 
 very little instruction, she had continued to 
 practice in a very careful and attentive manner 
 ever since, and had made great progress. In 
 fact, patience and perseverance, directed by 
 good taste and sound judgment, will enable a 
 person to make great progress in almost any 
 attempted attainment, with very little aid from 
 others. 
 
 Still Mary Bell, though she would have liked 
 very well to have had such a class as Beechnut 
 proposed, was distrustful of her powers, and she 
 seemed very reluctant to undertake the charge, 
 until at length Phonny, in giving an account of 
 Beechnut's conversation, came to mention the 
 proposal that Beechnut had made, to write some 
 rules for the guidance of the class. 
 
The Drawing School. 195 
 
 The rules. Beechnut to make them. 
 
 " Well," said Mary Bell, when she heard that, 
 " perhaps I will take the class, if Beechnut will 
 make the rules." 
 
 " But I told him," replied Phonny, " that you 
 would wish to make your own rules." 
 
 " Oh, no," said Mary Bell. " I would much 
 rather that he should make them. And you and 
 Malleville must find the scholars." 
 
 So Phonny and Malleville came home and 
 told Beechnut that the plan was all agreed to, 
 and that Mary Bell wished to have him make 
 the rules, and that they were to find the scholars. 
 
 " Very well," replied Beechnut. " I will make 
 the rules this evening, and give them to you to- 
 morrow. I will write them all down upon a 
 piece of paper." 
 
 When Beechnut made this promise, he fully 
 intended to have kept it, but he found in the 
 evening that it would be difficult to write all 
 that he wished to say, and so the next morning 
 he told Phonny and Malleville that he had 
 thought of a better plan, which was for them 
 to invite Mary Bell to come and take tea with 
 them that afternoon, and then for her to come 
 out with them, after tea, into the garden, where 
 he was at work, and he would explain fully, in 
 words, to her, the plan and arrangements which 
 
196 Mary Bell 
 
 Conversation about the class. Number of scholars. 
 
 he proposed that she should adopt. He could 
 explain every thing, he said, so much better in 
 words than he could in writing. 
 
 This plan appeared very reasonable to Phon- 
 ny and Malleville, and it was accordingly 
 adopted. Mary Bell came and took tea at 
 Mrs. Henry's, and after tea she went out with 
 Phonny and Malleville into the garden to find 
 Beechnut. The following conversation oc- 
 curred there : 
 
 " In the first place," said Beechnut, " I would 
 have only six in the class. Six are as many as 
 can stand together around you to see you draw ; 
 and it is very important that they should see you 
 draw." 
 
 " Yes," said Mary Bell, " I think that six will 
 be enough." 
 
 " When they come together the first time/' 
 continued Beechnut, "spend half an hour in 
 drawing six patterns for them. These patterns 
 must be some little landscapes suitable for be- 
 ginners. You can draw six in half an hour, — 
 such simple lessons as they need. You must 
 talk to them a great deal while you are drawing, 
 explaining every thing that you do, and the rea- 
 sons for it, so as to give them as many directions 
 as possible to guide them in their own work. 
 
The Drawing School. 197 
 
 Beechnut's directions. Paper and pencils. Rules. 
 
 " Then/' continued Beechnut, " give them all 
 pieces of paper of the same size, and also pencils 
 and every thing else that they need, and set 
 them up at the table. It is very important to 
 get them seated high enough, so that their arms 
 will rest properly upon the table. They can 
 not do any thing without that. 
 
 " Then I shall have to get some cushions for 
 the younger ones," said Mary Bell. 
 
 " Yes," said Beechnut, " and big books : or 
 perhaps you may find some low table in the 
 house." 
 
 " When they are all ready to begin," con- 
 tinued Beechnut, " you must tell them that they 
 can only have one paper for each lesson, and, 
 therefore, they must be careful in all that they 
 do upon it ; and that their work, when it is fin- 
 ished, must belong to you." 
 
 " To me !" said Mary Bell. 
 
 " Yes, to you," replied Beechnut. " You 
 must claim all the drawings that they make, as 
 your property. Tell the scholars that you are 
 going to paste them into a big book, and keep 
 them to look at as long as you live." 
 
 " Oh, no," said Malleville, who was standing 
 by all the time, and listening to the conversa- 
 tion ; " we shall want our drawings ourselves." 
 
198 Mary Bell. 
 
 They must draw in silence. Mary Bell may speak. 
 
 " Well," said Beechnut, " Mary Bell can do 
 as she pleases. I advise her, however, to let 
 you draw a picture for yourselves the last day, 
 but to tell the class that the rest of the drawings 
 that they make, are to be hers. She can give 
 them to you afterwards, if she pleases ; but if 
 you know that they are all to be at her disposal, 
 you will be a great deal more careful in your 
 work, and so make twice as much progress in 
 learning." 
 
 " Then," continued Beechnut, speaking again 
 to Mary Bell, " when the class are all ready to 
 begin their drawing, tell them that they are to 
 draw one hour, all in silence, unless you speak 
 to them. In that case, of course, they may an- 
 swer. Otherwise they must not speak a word." 
 
 " Must not they ask me any questions ?" said 
 Mary Bell. 
 
 " No," replied Beechnut, " not one. Nobody 
 can learn to draw until they can learn to work 
 industriously and patiently by themselves, with- 
 out having somebody looking over them all the 
 time, and encouraging them, and helping them, 
 and coaxing them along. They must learn to 
 act independently, and you may as well begin 
 with them at the beginning. You may speak 
 to them, if you please, if you see them doing any 
 
The Drawing School. 199 
 
 Six lessons. Plan for the patterns. Second set. 
 
 thing wrong, especially for one or two of the 
 first lessons ; but the sooner you begin to leave 
 them entirely to themselves, for the whole hour, 
 the better it will be for them." 
 
 " Your six patterns," continued Beechnut, 
 "will last your class six lessons, that is, six 
 weeks, for you will have only one lesson a 
 week." 
 
 "Why, no," replied Mary Bell, "for there 
 are to be six scholars, and so all the six patterns 
 will be needed the first day." 
 
 " That is true," replied Beechnut, " but by 
 letting the class change them among each other, 
 they will all have a new pattern the second day, 
 and so on for six days, without your having to 
 draw any new ones. At the end of that time, 
 each of the class will have drawn all the six 
 patterns which you made at first. But then by 
 that time you will have been able to draw six 
 more, for a second set, by drawing half an hour 
 at the beginning of every lesson. This second 
 set will be much more advanced than the first 
 set, for you will have had half an hour for each 
 one of the patterns. The scholars will want to 
 begin the second set before they have finished 
 the first, but you must not allow them to do so. 
 You must only let them have one pattern for 
 
200 Mary Bell. 
 
 Maiy Bell resolves to try. Her success. 
 
 each day, and require them to take pains with 
 it, and to draw it as well as they possibly can. 
 Thus the first set of lessons will last six weeks, 
 and the second set six weeks, which will make 
 twelve weeks ; and that is as long as the class 
 ought to be continued." 
 
 " Well," said Mary Bell, when Beechnut 
 paused, — " I am sure that the plan is a very 
 good one." 
 
 " And it is very easily executed," said Beech- 
 nut. " If you will carry it straight through, just 
 as I have planned it for you, you will have a fine 
 class ; and they will learn a great deal about 
 drawing." 
 
 " I don't think that I shall succeed very well," 
 said Mary Bell, " but I mean to try." 
 
 Mary Bell did try, and she succeeded admira- 
 bly well. She encountered, it is true, various 
 difficulties, many of which were entirely un- 
 foreseen ; but as she was patient and persever- 
 ing, and also very firm and decided, as well as 
 good-natured and gentle, she overcame all the 
 obstacles that appeared in the way, and the 
 class went on in a very pleasant and prosperous 
 manner. The lessons continued during the 
 whole twelve weeks. The children understood 
 
The Drawing School. 201 
 
 The parents of her pupils pleased. The parcel. 
 
 that the drawings that they made all belonged 
 to Mary Bell, to be disposed of, at the end of the 
 class, just as she should please ; and thus they 
 all took great pains with every lesson. Mary 
 Bell concluded, on the whole, however, at the 
 end of the course, to give back the drawings to 
 the pupils themselves again. So she numbered 
 them all in order, and put them up in neat 
 envelopes, and gave each one her own set to 
 carry home and show to her father and mother. 
 The parents were all very much surprised in- 
 deed to see what excellent progress the children 
 had made. 
 
 In fact, Mary Bell received, about two weeks 
 after the close of her class, a proof of the value 
 which the parents of her pupils attached to the 
 instructions that she had given them, which 
 afforded her a great gratification. She had 
 been out one afternoon just before tea, to take 
 a walk. It was a cold but still day in Decem- 
 ber. When she came in, she went up stairs to 
 put away her bonnet and cloak. She found 
 her mother up stairs, sitting by a fire in one of 
 the chambers. Her mother asked her if she 
 had found her parcel. Mary Bell asked what 
 parcel. Her mother told her that there was a 
 
202 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mrs. Bell's description of the parcel. Mary Bell opens it 
 
 parcel for her down in the sitting-room. Phon- 
 ny had left it there for her, she said. 
 
 " What is it ?" asked Mary Bell. 
 
 " I do not know," replied her mother. " Phon- 
 ny just came to the door and said that there 
 was something for you, and then he went di- 
 rectly away again." 
 
 "How big is the parcel?" asked Mary 
 Bell. 
 
 " Not very large," replied her mother. " It 
 feels pretty hard, but it is not very heavy." 
 
 " I mean to go down," said Mary Bell, " and 
 see what it is." 
 
 So saying, she ran down stairs in search of 
 her parcel. 
 
 She found, on opening it, that the article 
 within, whatever it might be, was very care- 
 fully put up in several envelopes, one within 
 the other. The innermost of these envelopes 
 was formed of a very delicate and white kind 
 of paper, called silk paper, on removing which 
 there appeared to view a beautiful little silver 
 tumbler, very elegant in its form, and highly 
 ornamented with engraved borders and designs. 
 On examining these engravings, Mary Bell was 
 equally astonished and delighted. At the top 
 there was a beautiful wreath of flowers passing 
 
The Drawing School. 203 
 
 Description of the silver tumbler. Engraved ornaments. 
 
 entirely around the margin, except that on one 
 side there was an open space, in the middle of 
 which there was carved in ornamented letters 
 the name Mary Bell. Below this there was a 
 series of six small landscapes extending around 
 the tumbler, in the center of it, which, on ex- 
 amination, Mary Bell found to be the very 
 landscapes which she had drawn for her class 
 for their first set of lessons, only now, being 
 elegantly cut in the silver, they appeared ex- 
 tremely beautiful. Below these landscapes, and 
 passing round the tumbler, near the bottom, 
 was another double wreath of flowers, or rather 
 two connected wreaths, the lower one of which 
 hung in six festoons, leaving six small spaces, 
 in which the names of Mary Bell's pupils were 
 inserted in small and delicate letters. These 
 names were Alphonzo, William, Augusta, Em- 
 ma, Lucy, and Malleville. 
 
 Within the tumbler was a little slip of paper, 
 on which was written : 
 
 " From the parents of Mary Bell's pupils in 
 Drawing." 
 
 Mary Bell liked her tumbler very much 
 indeed; she, however, told her mother that 
 she thought Beechnut deserved it more than 
 she. 
 
204 Mary Bell. 
 
 Mary Bell shews her present to Beechnut. 
 
 " Why ?" asked her mother. 
 
 "Because," said Mary Bell, "the drawing 
 class was his plan, and he contrived all the ar- 
 rangements for me, and told me exactly what 
 to do." 
 
 " Then I think," replied her mother, " that 
 you had better show your silver tumbler to him, 
 that he may see what a beautiful present he was 
 the means of procuring for you." 
 
 Mary Bell did accordingly carry the silver 
 tumbler, and show it to Beechnut the next day. 
 Beechnut was very much pleased to see it. It 
 gave him, in fact, a double pleasure. He was 
 glad, in the first place, that Mary Bell had re- 
 ceived such a present, and then he was still 
 more gratified at her coming to show it to him. 
 
 THE END.