So on for twenty-four hours, and then—
It is a pity to have to tell it, but at the end of that period, Mrs. Livesey changed her tune, and it came about in this way. The little people missed Sarah, and said so. They even cried after her, and would hardly be pacified, though they had new china mugs with "A Present from Oldford," in gilt letters on one side, and their Christian names on the other.
Gilt and white china mugs may be very pretty to look at, and treasures to children who have few, but they cannot tell stories or join in games, or comfort a little mite who has fallen down and bumped his head. They cannot kiss away tears from baby faces, or coax back smiles; and so, sadly missing Sarah, who did all these things, the youthful Liveseys begged to have her back again. Finding this impossible, they lifted up their voices and wept, to the surprise and indignation of Mrs. Livesey.
Adam excused them to their mother, saying, "It's no wonder. The girl has been so kind and gentle with them. I don't believe one of them has had a slap or a cross word since you went away."
Adam made this remark very innocently, thinking only of the pleasure a mother would feel in knowing that her children had been so tenderly dealt with.
Sarah took it differently, and rather sharply echoed the last words, "Since I went away! I suppose I'm the one to do the scolding and slapping, then, when it is done. I'm beginning to see this, that I might as well have stopped away altogether. It's 'Sarah did this,' and 'Sarah said that,' or 'taught the other,' till I'm beginning to feel as if nobody but Sarah could do anything right for you all now."
Truly the mother had dropped into her own old ways without loss of time, and more than one little hand and back had tingled under her fingers before the night of that first day, even though the children had been promised new garments and other good things. It was the old, active, bustling, quick-spoken Margaret back again, as they were all soon made to understand.
It was very natural for one innocent tongue after another to tell what Sarah had done and taught. But much would have been better left unspoken, for the effect produced was very unexpected.
A red spot became visible on Margaret's cheek, and her dark eyes had an angry light in them as she said at length, "I don't want to hear another word about Sarah, She has turned you all upside down while I've been away. I'm obliged to her for what she's done in most ways, but I don't want new fashions, so we'll go back to old ones."
As we already know, Mrs. Livesey was a warmhearted woman, who thought nothing too much to do for her husband and children. Like most such, she was quick-tempered and prone to jealousy, of a kind. She liked to be first and foremost in her home and with those she loved, and could ill bear to hear the praises of another.