All that happened in a week

by Jane Helen Findlater

“Why, Janet, Belinda won’t ever need new robes at all; I can go on washing and washing them,” Peggy said.

There remained, however, all Belinda’s under-clothes to be washed; and before they were half finished, Peggy began to think that washing was rather hard work.

“My hands feel so queer, Janet,” she said, drawing them out of the soapy water. They looked indeed most strange; the skin was all crinkled up in the funniest way. “Oh, look!” Peggy cried in dismay.

Janet assured her they would come right in a very short time. “But I’m thinking you’ve washed enough, Miss Peggy, for one day; maybe I’ll finish it for you,” she said.

Peggy wasn’t altogether sorry. “Well, Janet, if you will be so kind as to finish for me, I will go and listen to my shell,” she said, “and perhaps my hands will stop feeling funny.”

There was a small library at Seafield where Peggy was allowed to play by herself. She liked the room much better than the drawing-room, because there were such lots of books with nice pictures in them. Those she liked best were Hume’s “History,” with pictures of the kings and queens, and Blair’s “Grave,” with illustrations by a man called William Blake. Peggy used to spread the large book upon the floor and pore over the pictures. She didn’t understand them, but that only made them more interesting. To-day, instead of looking at the pictures, she got her red shell, and sat down on the corner of the sofa holding the shell to her ear. The rushing sound in the shell was just like the noise of the sea outside, and Peggy listened to it for a long time. Then getting a little tired of this, she went to the window and looked out. The rain had stopped, and the sun was beginning to come out. The thrushes were singing as if they liked the rain, and Peggy thought it would be nice to go out and see what it felt like also. So she went out to the front door, and stood there looking out. Then she stepped out on to the gravel; then she ran a little bit down the avenue; then she came to the gate and looked out at the sea; and then a new thought struck her—why should she not look to see if she could find any lovely red shells on the beach? The tide was out; there was a stretch of sand with little pools and rocks covered with seaweed: surely in these pools or on the sands she might find a red shell for herself! This was stupid of Peggy, for shells like that the captain gave her come from tropic seas, not from our own sea; but she did not know this.

Out Peggy skipped along the shining sand. It was firm and nice to run on, and she wondered she had not done this long ago; it was far nicer than the garden. Her feet made tracks on the sand like the footprint Crusoe saw, she thought. Then she came to a pool with little seaweedy rocks in it. The first thing she saw there made her stand still with interest: it was a lot of things like little red flowers growing on the edge of the rock. But when she put her hand down and tried to get one, she found it was alive; and when she touched it, it drew in all its waving red feelers, and became like a lump of red-currant jelly fixed to the rock! “I hope I didn’t hurt it,” Peggy thought. She leant over the pool and watched it till it cautiously put out first one feeler and then another, and at last it looked as pretty as ever again and as much alive. Peggy wondered what it was called. Then down on the slushy sand at her feet Peggy saw a great big lump of jelly, six times as large as the little one in the pool. It didn’t look very nice, she thought, but she wondered if, when it was put into the water, it would bloom out like the other. The only way to find this out was to lift it into the pool, but Peggy hesitated about doing this. Then she saw a long flat stone like a slate lying near, and taking this in her hand, she tried to slip it under the “jelly beast,” as she called it. But the jelly beast didn’t seem to like being disturbed, and it sank down and down into the soft sand till it almost disappeared. Peggy became more and more anxious to get it. She dug her slate down into the sand, and at last, with a great effort, lifted the jelly beast, along with a great lump of sand, and flung it into the pool. Then she sat down to watch it. To her great joy it began, just like the other one, to put out one feeler after another, till it lay there at the bottom of the pond like a big pink rose. “Oh, it’s lovely; I do want to have it for my own!” she cried. “I wonder if I would be allowed to have it in my tub.” She bent down to look nearer, and under the fringe of seaweed suddenly she saw something shining red. She plunged her hand down and grabbed the prize. But, oh dear me! the next moment she screamed and screamed. It was a large red crab she had caught at, and the crab had caught her! Have you seen the crabs lying in the fish-shop windows twitching their claws? They look harmless enough, but with these claws they can hold on in the most terrible way, once they catch hold of you. Oh, how Peggy screamed! She ran towards the house splashing through the pools, with the big red crab hanging on to her hand. She was in an agony of pain and terror. The sound of her screams brought James running from the garden. Peggy ran straight to him, calling out for help; and James caught up a stone, and gave the crab such a blow on its claw that it let go in a moment, and fell to the ground. Peggy’s finger was bleeding a good deal, and he took out his own handkerchief and bound it up for her, and then took her other hand and led her, still sobbing, up to the house.

“We’ll gang into Janet, missie,” he said wisely. He knew that Janet was a more comforting person than Martin, and Peggy thought so too. Janet took her on her knee, and kissed her and wiped her eyes, and looked at the poor nipped finger till gradually Peggy stopped crying. Then Janet took her to the pump, and washed her face and hands, and began to tell her a funny story about a crab that had nipped her own finger once, till Peggy found herself laughing instead of crying.

When she was quite happy again, Janet said to Peggy that they would go together and tell Aunt Euphemia all about it. Peggy was a little frightened, but Janet said she must do it, and together they went into the drawing-room.