Christian life -- Fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction; Motherless families -- Fiction
Bella turned away miserable enough. The chair was ruined, of course, as
well as the clothes, and she was old enough to understand the wicked waste
such an outburst of temper may cause.
"It was one of those mother saved up for and bought," she said to herself,
the tears welling up in her eyes, "and she was so proud of them.
I wish father had mended it at once, then it wouldn't have been lying
about in the scullery, in her way."
A voice from the garden, though, drove the other thoughts from her mind;
it was Margery's calling softly to her, "Bella, I'm so hungry. Give
Margery something to eat, she's so hungry."
Bella's misery deepened to anger against the cause of all this
wretchedness; the bad-tempered woman who was spoiling all their happiness.
"It isn't her house," she argued to herself; "it's father's house, and
ours, and I am sure he wouldn't have Margery or any of us go hungry.
It is cruel to starve a little thing like that, and I've a good mind to go
to the larder and get her something to eat."
But fear of the storm such an act would raise, and fear lest some of it
should fall on Margery, a feeling of respect too for her aunt's authority,
kept her from doing this, but did not lessen her determination to relieve
her little sister's wants, and an idea came to her that sent her quickly
to the garden with a brightened face.
"Tom," she said softly to the elder of her two brothers, "Margery is so
hungry, and I believe there won't be any dinner at all to-day.
Aunt Emma hasn't said anything about it, and she's in an awful temper."
Tom and Charlie groaned, "And we're starving!"
"I shall go and pull up a turnip to eat," said Charlie defiantly.
"I wish the apples were big enough to be any good."
"I wish I'd got a penny to buy some buns," said Tom.
Bella's face grew thoughtful. She had four-pence of her own in her
money-box, that she had been saving to buy herself a pair of gloves for
Sundays. She had long wanted them, and twopence more would enable her to
get them, but----
"I'll give you a penny each to buy some buns," she said impulsively,
"if you will do something first, and promise to be very careful."
Of course they both promised vigorously.
"Well, I want you to take Margery down the lane to Aunt Maggie, and ask
her if she will give her something to eat. I am sure she will, if she
knows how hungry she is. Then you can run and buy your buns, and you must
go back and fetch Margery again, and bring her home, without Aunt Emma's
knowing anything about it. It would only make her more angry."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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