"I am not at all afraid," said Lucy, impatiently. "Papa always lets me dress as I like."
"Let us go then," said her aunt.
The day was balmy and mild as possible, and the ride to Brookline was without accident, and perfectly pleasant. Lucy forgot all that her aunt had said, she was thinking how all the company would admire her fine dress and how mortified, and vexed, and surprised, the proud Miss Prince would be. At last they reached the beautiful seat of Mrs. Russel, and were received most kindly by that excellent lady. But what can express Lucy's disappointment to find there was to be no one besides themselves, not even Miss Prince, whom she was so sure of meeting, and that after Mrs. Russel had permitted a smile of pity to pass over her face as she looked at her dress, there was no more notice taken of it in any way.
Presently a walk in the garden was proposed, and they all proceeded to view the grounds. Emily went skipping about with a heart light with innocence and peace, smelling the sweet flowers, and eating the rich fruit which was ripening in profusion around her;—Lucy also took some fruit for she was very fond of it, and she thought she ate it very carefully; but presently she felt something wet upon her arm, and when she looked to see what it was she found she had dropped some of the juice on the front part of her dress, which had already taken out the color in several places.
Now this was her best and her favorite dress, it was a present from her father when she left New York to visit her aunt, and it was quite new. She felt very uncomfortable at this sad sight, and she already began to wish she had not put it on:—however she could do nothing to it, and she continued to walk slowly and carefully through the shrubs and flowers, until she saw the party all collected round a fish-pond at the bottom of the garden, viewing something very attentively.
"O the beautiful gold fish," exclaimed Lucy, "I had quite forgotten to ask about them, I dare say they are in that pond, and I do long to see them," and away she ran with all her speed, thinking only of the pretty gold fish which Emily had told her about so often; but the wind filled out the light folds of her beautiful silk dress, and as she passed a turning in the walk, the trimming was caught by the briars of a rose-bush and torn almost entirely off, before she could stop herself. Lucy stood aghast at this sad rent! the delicate trimming was quite in tatters, and the thought of what her aunt had said to her (for she now remembered it every word) made her ashamed to look her in the face; however, she pinned it on as well as she could, and again she walked slowly and carefully, quite forgetting the gold fish and every thing but her misfortunes and her shame, and wishing she had not been so self-willed and perverse. But when little children will not be guided by the experience and judgment of their best and wisest friends, and will try for themselves, they often learn through much suffering and trouble, and pay dearly for the instruction which they might have had for nothing.
While Lucy was thus sauntering along, one of Mrs. Russel's little girls came running up to her full of spirits. "Come with us dear Lucy," said she, "we are going to the bottom of the pasture-field to look into Mr. Barrel's beautiful garden, 'tis much handsomer than ours, and there is an opening in the fence so that we can see it all plainly through the cracks. There are a great many images in the garden. In one place there is an old woman feeding chickens, and she is holding up her apron of corn so naturally, exactly as our Betsey does when she feeds our little ones; and her gown is pinned away behind her, and shews her quilted petticoat and she does look so funny; and then in another part of the garden, there is a man raking hay, he looks as natural as life—come—this way, my dear, there is Emily just jumping over the stone-wall."
The pasture was very large. It was made perfectly dry by a ditch which was dug along on one side; this drained off all the water, so it was easy and dry walking. The girls went on jumping and springing, and Lucy once more forgot her troubles, and began to enjoy herself, while Emily felt so innocent and happy, that she could not express her delight. They came at last to the opening in the fence which gave them a good view of this fine garden; the flower beds were all laid out in squares, and diamonds, and circles, which were all bordered with beautiful green box. And Lucy saw the old man with his rake, who looked exactly as if he could move and was just going to turn his hay; and she saw the droll looking old woman holding up her apron of corn; and they were very much amused, discovering new beauties in this garden for a long time, but at last they were startled by hearing the snorting of a horse very near to them. They had not seen that there was any horse in the pasture before, but when they looked up they saw Mr. Russel's great black horse galloping up to them, rearing and kicking up his hind feet in the air, while John the stable-boy was running after him with a halter to catch him.
The little girls were very much frightened when they saw such a great loose horse so near to them, and they began to run towards the house as fast as their limbs would carry them, for they thought the black horse was close at their heels, and they did not stop to look behind them. Sarah Russel and Emily got on a great deal faster than Lucy, because her slippers were tight and her dress troublesome, but she used her utmost speed, and had nearly reached the stone wall over which the girls were jumping, when in attempting to leap across the ditch her foot slipped in, and down came poor Lucy flat upon her face. What a sad situation she was in! she had lost her shoe in the black muddy ditch,—her unfortunate silk frock was all covered with green slime, from the slippery grass on the banks,—she had hurt her ancle so badly she could scarcely stir,—and she expected every moment that the great black horse would be upon her, and trample her to death,—the other little girls thinking she had kept up with them had jumped over the wall and were gone out of sight and hearing, and she could not possibly get up alone.
"Oh! dear, what shall I do?" cried Lucy, "will nobody come to save me."