Fanny took down a cup and saucer from the dresser, and drawing a
little stand near the bed, she placed them on it, then measured out
her tea into an earthern tea pot, as she had often seen her
grandmother do; and the water boiled, Frank poured it on for her, and
they put it down to draw, as Mrs. Mills told them.
After a while, Jack came whistling into the house; but when he saw
Frank and Fanny there, he looked as though he wished he was any where
else.
Fanny went towards him, holding one little finger up.
"Hush, Jack, don't whistle so," she said, "your mother has the sick
head ache, and we are making a cup of tea to cure her."
Jack looked at her in surprise. He did not know what to make of it
all. There was the mark on her face, where the stone which he had
thrown that noon, had grazed the skin, and yet, here she was, making
tea for his sick mother.
He did not say a word, but turned and went out of the house. Frank
thought he saw something very like tears glistening in his eyes, and
he acknowledged to himself, that his grandmother was right, when she
had told him that he would be happier if he returned good for evil.
Mrs. Mills sat up, and drank her tea, and then Fanny washed the cup
and saucer, and she felt very large to think she was able to do
it. Then she put her bonnet on, and Mrs. Mills told her that she
should tell her grandmother what a kind little girl she was, and how
much good she had done her, and Fanny and Frank both felt very happy.
As they went out of the door, Fanny bent her head down to smell of a
beautiful damask rose that was blooming on a bush near the house. They
walked along without seeing Jack, but he saw them. When they were half
way through the orchard, he came running up behind them, and reaching
out his hand, and touching Fanny, said:
"Won't you take this rose." She turned around, and saw that he had
picked for her the very rose that she had admired so much, and as she
took it from him, he whispered,
"I hope you don't think that I meant to hurt you this noon, when I
threw that stone--I wouldn't hurt you for the world. I only threw it
to make you look around."
Fanny answered him very pleasantly, and then he bade them good night,
and went back to his mother.
When the children reached home, they told their grandmother what a
happy time they had had, and Fanny said if she was a king, and another
king wanted to fight with her, she would send some eggs and tea, and
see if that wouldn't make them good, just like it made Jack Mills.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VI.
THE NUTTING EXPEDITION.
One Saturday afternoon, Frank and his sister went into the woods,
provided with little baskets and bags, to gather walnuts. As they left
the village, they were regaled with a song from the Golden Crested
Wren, who was perched on the branch of an apple tree, and seemed to be
lamenting the rapid approach of winter.
[Illustration: THE GOLDEN CRESTED WREN.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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