Celeste Belmont's house[ P 20]
CHAPTER V.
GARDENING.
One day I observed my mother put on her things very slily, call her governess and tell her to put on her things also, and come out. I thought to myself, "What can this mean? My mother has put on her clothes, called the footman and ordered the carriage, and has taken her governess with her." I guess it is something that I am not to know; for if it were not, I certainly would have gone with her. As I did not feel very well, I thought that I would lie down on my bed and take a nap. In a couple of hours my mother came home, and coming into the room where my baby-house was, took me out of the bed, without saying a word to me about her having been out. I burned all the time to know what she had been out for. I could hardly eat my dinner, and when tea came I could eat nothing. The next day, at twelve, a man rang at the hall-door, and my mother ran down to let him in, a thing that she had never done before, and which made me so curious that I could not stand. In a few minutes my mother came running up stairs, and put a little bundle into my hands. I opened it very quickly, and what did I see but a little hoe, rake, spade and wheelbarrow! I thought that I could never thank my mother enough. When she saw how pleased I was, she told me that I should have a piece of ground, and she would get me some seeds, and she would also immediately make me a gardening dress, so that I could commence the next day. Oh, how I longed for the morrow to come, and when the morning dawned I was almost crazy. My mother put on my dress, and giving me my tools took me into the garden, where I took my first lesson in gardening. I thought it was delightful. My mother told me that I should soon get along very fast, and that I should plant some flower and vegetable seeds. I felt very smart, and began to work away quite industriously, making improvement in the looks of my garden. When my mother appeared and told me breakfast was ready, I could hardly believe it, the time had passed so quickly. The next morning my mother waked me at half past five, and dressing me took me out. As we were going along to the garden we saw by the road-side a flock of geese, and as we passed along they set up a tremendous hissing. Oh, how frightened I was; but my mother laughed at my fears, and told me not to be afraid, as they would not hurt me. When I got to the garden, I was all of a tremble, and for five minutes I could not do any thing. I got the garden all finished that morning before breakfast, and so I went in, and changing my dress went out to take a walk. As I went along the paths, I could not help feeling overcome. It was a beautiful spring morning, the dew was on the grass, and the birds were singing their morning song of praise to the Maker of all things, as they soared towards heaven. When my breakfast bell rang, I came in and told my mother of my pleasant walk, and she seemed very glad. The next morning my mother showed me how to plant seeds, after which she watered them, as she said the watering-pot was too large for me, but that she was going to buy me one, so that I could water my plants when they came up. In a day or two my mother, her governess and I went into the city and bought me a little watering pot, and a little book that treated of gardening, which I put with my other books. One morning, about two weeks after planting my seeds, I was surprised to see several little green things which I thought were weeds, and I was just going to pull them up, when I happened to think that perhaps they might not be weeds after all, and that I would stop and ask my mother. My mother appearing up the gravel walks just then, I asked her what they were, and she told me that they were the plants just beginning to come up, and that I must water them every morning carefully, and soon they would come up higher and higher; then the leaves would come out, and at last little buds would shoot forth and turn into flowers. But in order to have them do so, I must keep all the weeds away from them, water them morning and evening, and put up sticks for the running ones.
CHAPTER VI.
BLACKBERRYING.
At six the next morning we both got up (that is, my mother and I), and began dressing ourselves. "Stop, Josephine," said she, "don't put on that dress, as you are not going out into the garden this morning." "Why not," said I, but I began to take off my dress. "Because," said my mother, "Geraldine Norton has invited me to a blackberrying, and you are to go." "Oh mother, I am so glad that I don't know what to do with myself; but what dress am I to wear?" "Oh, wear your purple calico." In half an hour we were dressed, had our breakfast eaten, and were ready to go. I was so impatient to be off, that I thought that we should never go. Pretty soon Celeste (my mother) said she saw them coming; and sure enough there they were, a whole troop of boys and girls, with their pails and baskets. Celeste took me up in her arms and ran with me down the carriage-way, not without having brought her pail and mine. We next called for a dozen more girls and boys at their houses. At eight o'clock we had got about a couple of miles from the place. Antoinette Leland suddenly screamed out, "Here he comes, here he comes!" "What comes?" cried they all. "The bull, the bull," said Antoinette, and sure enough there was a monstrous large bull coming in double quick time right behind them. Such a scampering! Pell-mell went the whole troop to escape the pursuer. At last we saw a little cave not very far off, and all made a rush for that , when my mother screamed out to George Glover, "Throw off that red scarf, George, or else the bull will gore you to death. Look, see how he foams and how madly he paws the ground!" The scarf was off in an instant, and the bull rushing upon it, began tearing it into a thousand pieces. When he was doing this, we had time to get out of his sight before he made another attempt to attack us. We soon got to the berrying place, and then we began to pick and talk in earnest. The theme of the conversation was about the bull, and how nicely they got away from him. George Glover made a wreath of leaves and presented it to Celeste, telling her that she was his guardian angel. Celeste gave him a box on the ear, but they both laughed heartily. In a few moments they heard screams, and beheld one of the girls rolling down the hill, and all her berries spilt. One of the boys, however, stopped her, and all joined in filling her basket again. At noon we all had dinner, (each of the party bringing something,) under a group of trees. The dinner was an excellent one. We brought clear cool water from the spring, and squeezed berries into it; we had meats and every thing that we could want to make a gipsy dinner. One of the boys, Charles Hammond, to improve the repast, took a jews-harp out of his pocket, and played several tunes, beginning with "God save the Queen," and ending with an air from "Linda di Chamounix." His performance was loudly cheered. Bella Barker, one of the gayest of the girls, then got up and made a speech, which was also clapped and cheered. The dinner was then finished, and we went to pick some more berries to make up for the ones we had eaten. On our way home, my mother and all the rest stopped to pick wild flowers, when Lorgnette Edwards ran forward to gather a little blue and white flower which was a little before her. Suddenly she began to scream, and running to the place where she stood, we found ourselves in no very pleasant situation, as we had got upon a marshy place, and were over our shoes in mud and water. We all began scrambling out as fast as we could, and turned our faces the other way. We went to a little spring that we saw, and taking off our shoes and stockings, gave them a washing out, for we said that we preferred to have wet stockings and shoes on our feet to muddy ones. After going a little way we saw a wild cherry tree, up which the boys soon scrambled, and threw down the fruit into our aprons. We got home about six o'clock, having been gone eleven hours. I felt very tired, and was glad to have my supper, and get into bed.