“So am I,” said September, dryly. “There were a good many grown people who didn’t, I can assure you.”
“A book of adventures the Brown children were for ever poring over.”
CHAPTER X.
NIPPIE NUTCRACKER.
THINGS went better after this visit of September’s. Cool nights began. The noons were still hot, but with a different heat. Something of life and freshness breathed in the air. Thekla’s wheel, set out under the spreading boughs of an oak-tree, hummed as it turned, like a great bumblebee. It had been silent of late, as if languid with August’s warmth. Now its voice came back, and it sang merrily as ever. Leaf-shadows fell from overhead, dappling the fair hair of the little spinner, and the fleece of the lamb which lay at her feet. “Lamb” it was still called, though fast getting into sheephood. Thekla had a real motherly feeling toward it; and, as parents go on calling their boys and girls “the children” when gray hairs and wrinkles have replaced the curls and roses of youth, so the lamb was likely to remain a lamb in her eyes for ever, should it live to become a patriarch of the flock.
“Miss N. Nutcracker, the Celebrated Philosopheress, will lecture at Beech-tree Hall.”
One thing only marred the pleasure of this happy month,—the dear old Grandfather was poorly. Without disease or pain, patient always, gentle, even happy, his strength ebbed daily. Some days he would not rise from his bed at all; on others, he would have his oaken chair drawn out into the sunshine near Thekla’s wheel, and would sit there for hours basking in the warmth, and regarding the little girl with fond, wishful eyes. Thekla took tender care of him. Love showed her how. Love is a wise instructor, you know; and teaches in six lessons what Time, slow old pedagogue, takes a lifetime to impart.
As the end of September drew near, Grandfather seemed a little brighter; and, in her great wish to please and cheer him, a queer idea popped into Thekla’s head. It was nothing less than to tell him all about the Months and the moments, and let him join the story-listening group. She consulted Max; and he thought it a capital plan, provided October made no objections.