"I hope she will not talk as much of poor dear Mr. Cropsey as she used to do to us!" I remarked. "I have wished sometimes the good man had either not died at all, or else had died before she ever saw him!"
"I have only heard her mention him once!" said Mr. Cheriton. "I had some business with Mr. Arnott, and was asked to dine, and Mrs. Arnott remarked as she dispensed the hare soup, how much poor dear Mr. Cropsey would have enjoyed it. He was so fond of hare soup!"
We had no very grand doings at Christmas, as Mrs. Chloe continued very unwell and there was no master at home. However, every cottager received a good piece of beef and a pudding or materials for one; all the old women in the alms houses had doles of tea and snuff, and those who needed them had new gowns or red cloaks.
Amabel and I had a guinea apiece for a Christmas box from each of our aunts, and Mrs. Philippa formally made over to Amabel her cat, which had attached itself to her very much of late. I did not understand this proceeding at the time, but I did afterward.
We had another present which made us feel sadly. Mrs. Chloe had for a year and more, been embroidering a set of chairs, and a couch in chenilles and silks. They were designed with a great deal of taste and beautifully worked so far, but on Christmas morning, Aunt Chloe gave them to Amabel and myself to finish, saying that it hurt her chest to bend over the frame, and besides she was rather tired of them. We could finish these against Amabel should have a room to furnish, and she would begin a set for me in the spring, when her cough should be better. Meantime, she would work at her knitted counterpane, which really ought to be finished.
Mrs. Deborah approved of this motion of her sister's saying that she was sure such close application was bad for Chloe, but she went out of the room directly afterward, and we did not see her till church time.
Christmas was a very serious day to us in another way. It was the first day that Amabel and I partook of the sacrament after the forms of the Church of England. Mrs. Deborah had been anxious to have us do so: we had talked the matter over with Mr. Cheriton, and had read the books he had suggested to us. This is not the place to enlarge upon such matters. I may just say, however, that we both found great comfort in the ordinance and never afterward missed it willingly. Mr. Lethbridge officiated for the first time, and his manner was very serious and proper. Dr. Brown was present, and preached a short sermon, which was as old Elsie used to say like chips in porridge, neither good nor bad.
Aunt Chloe went to church with us. It was the last time she ever went, and she seemed to feel very deeply the solemnity of the occasion. There was a fair congregation, a good many of whom I fear got very drunk at the ale house afterward,—but nobody in those parts thought that a matter of any consequence, or indeed expected anything else. It was one of the serious charges brought against the Methodist preachers as showing that they were not what they ought to be, that they drank neither ale nor spirits, and discouraged the use of them among their converts.
On twelfth day the whole family were invited to a dinner and ball at Brayton, the house of the Thicknesse family. We had never been at a ball, and Molly and Jenny Thicknesse were great friends of ours. We promised ourselves much pleasure in the visit, and were specially desirous of seeing the shell-work with which the girls had been adorning their chapel and their own room. But fate was against us. The very day we were to go, Amabel was taken with a violent rheum and defluxion,* and it was clearly impossible for her to venture out.
* What we should call a cold in the head, then considered a matter of more consequence than now.