Bessie at school

by Joanna H. Mathews

"Well, dear mamma, you know it is a pretty great trial to think you can't teach us now; but we'll try not to mind it so much as to make you feel bad, and maybe I can help Maggie to get used to the girls and the teacher, 'cause you know I am not so shy as she is, and I s'pose I'll 'come acquainted with them sooner than she will. And if we don't like the other girls very much, we won't mind it when we have each other—need we, Maggie?" and she took her sister's hand with a tender, protecting air, which was both amusing and touching to see.

So the little one herself was also taking it for granted that, since Maggie was to go to school, she was to go too.

It was only natural, as the mother knew. They had never been separated. One never half enjoyed a pleasure unless the other shared it; and all their childish troubles were made lighter and easier to bear, because they were together, and could give comfort and help to one another; and Mrs. Bradford was sure it would be as great a blow to Bessie as it had been to Maggie to know that they were to be parted even for two or three hours each day.

"But I mean to keep my Bessie at home with me," she said, trying to speak cheerfully; "and every day, when Maggie comes back, she will tell us all she has seen and learned; and it will be nice to watch for her, and have some little pleasure ready for her when she returns to us, will it not?"

"Mamma," said Bessie, struggling with herself, lest she too should break down in tears, and so distress her mother, but still speaking with a very quivering voice,—"Mamma, you never could mean that Maggie is to go to school without me, could you? You are making rather a bad joke, are you not?"

The beseeching voice, the pleading eyes, and trembling lips, went straight to the mother's heart, and would not let her smile at the innocent ending of Bessie's speech.

"I really mean what I say, darling," she answered. "Papa and I have talked it all over; and, although we know it is hard for you and Maggie to be separated even for a little while, we do not think it best for you to go. You are not very strong, and it would not be well for you to study much for a year or two. If you were with other children, you might try too hard, for you know you do not like to be left behind; and as you can read pretty well now, we think we will let you be a lazy little girl for this winter, and keep you at home to take care of mamma."

"Mamma," said Bessie earnestly, "you know I'd rather be with you than anywhere, even with my own Maggie; and I only want to go to school on 'count of Maggie's sake. But you have a great many people to take care of you, 'cause papa or grandmamma or one of the aunties stays with you all the time; and poor Maggie would be so very lonesome without any of her own people. And, mamma, it seems pretty queer to want a little girl to be lazy; but, if you'd like me to, I'll be so very lazy that Miss Ashton will say, 'Go to the ant, thou sluggard!'"

Mrs. Bradford could not help smiling; but she said, "That might do, dear, if Miss Ashton were to teach no one but yourself and Maggie; but she would probably think it would not answer to have a little girl in her class who could not do as the others did. She might say it would be a bad example, or that the rest might think it was not fair."

"But, mamma," pleaded Bessie, "don't you think if you told Miss Ashton how very fond Maggie and I are of each other, and how badly she would feel if she had to go without me, it might have a little persuasion for her? You know you were very kind to her when her father died, and maybe she would like to have some gratitude for you."