“You seem to be so fond of her,” said she, “that I am going to make you head nurse for a little while; but all you will have to do is to see that she does not get into mischief. Just keep an eye upon her, will you?”
I smilingly consented to perform this slight service: and skillfully manœuvering her way out without attracting the child’s attention, Mrs. Morfield closed the door behind her, and left me absorbed in a train of very pleasant fancies. I thought it very probable that she would ask me to make her a visit of a week at least; she must be so lonely, with no companions but those riotous boys—for her husband, having just become initiated into the mysteries of farming, spent his whole time out of doors, directing, arranging, and often hard at work himself. He was only visible at meal times, and I did wonder what had possessed his wife to marry him, he was so little of a companion; but she appeared quite satisfied with him, and looked upon all he did with admiring eyes. I intended, during my visit, to be the tenant of the pretty room in which I sat, and I pictured myself early in the morning throwing up the sash, and leaning out to catch the sweet air of summer as it played amid my hair, while a perfect burst of melody swept around from the birds, who always took up their station in those grand old trees—or at evening, when I wandered over the lawn, or rested, with a book in my hand beneath one of those spreading oaks—oh, it would be so delightful!
Here my attention was suddenly brought back to realities by a loud squeal which proceeded from the mouth of my forgotten charge. The young lady, having grown tired of amusing herself with an old shoe, glanced about for further employment, and not being at all pleased to see a stranger substituted for her mother, gave vent to her indignant feelings in a succession of particularly edifying screams. I was at first quite surprised, having been deluded into the belief that she was an excellent kind of a child, who would maintain almost the same position for a whole day at least. I did not suppose it necessary to feel the least responsibility concerning her; but I soon found that nothing was further from her intentions than to be neglected in this manner. Having a mortal aversion to strangers, the child crept rapidly toward the door, crying all the time, and it seemed almost impossible to pacify her. But at length I succeeded in placing her on my lap, where I tried very hard to convince her that the cross which I wore, and two or three rings, were the greatest curiosities that had refreshed her sight in a long time. For a little while she condescended to be duped by the lavish encomiums which I bestowed upon these articles; but soon recollecting that she had seen very much such things before, she broke forth anew. I then resorted to the very original amusement of shaking a thimble on a pair of scissors; but quite enraged at the idea of my attempting to quiet her in this manner, she screamed louder than ever, and I was obliged to surrender my poor curls to her savage grasp.
She even deigned to laugh and be quite amused with this employment for some time, especially when she saw my evident reluctance to be so tortured; but after a while I grew more accustomed to it, and endured her pulls with so much philosophy that she left off in high dudgeon. She then became quite interested in the excitement of scratching at me with her nails, and crying between spells; but finding this performance any thing but pleasant, I placed her on the bed and gave her a small box of tapers from the writing-table, which she opened and shut, and scattered about with evident satisfaction. Finding the young termagant so quietly disposed, I ventured to glide back to my window, and wondered what could keep Mrs. Morfield so long—not feeling exactly satisfied with this baby-tending. But then as her sunny face rose up before me all my anger vanished, and I felt quite sorry and concerned to think that she was probably busy in the kitchen with the awkward Kitty, in order to get a presentable tea for her visiter. The baby was now so quiet and well-behaved, that I almost regretted the hard thoughts I had entertained toward it; and in a more pleasant frame of mind, I took up the last number of “Graham,” which lay upon the table, and was soon deeply buried in its fascinating pages.
The quiet, however, was of short duration; I was startled by a noise of something falling, and on glancing at the bed, it was empty! In horror and despair I sprung to the other side, and there lay my young torment, quite purple in the face, with the tapers scattered around, and one of the large, ruffled pillows under her. I fully expected to be imprisoned and tried for murder, and hesitating to have my fears confirmed, I caught up the child to see if it still breathed. My touch immediately restored life and animation; having fortunately fallen with the pillow under her, she had not been hurt in the least—but extremely frightened and angry at her unceremonious descent, she held her breath for some time with passion, (an exploit in which good babies are very apt to indulge,) but she now sent forth screams that were absolute music in my ears, as they assured me beyond a doubt that my tormentor was still in the land of the living. The tapers were bitten quite flat in various places, and several had disappeared—whether down her throat or not I could not tell; but I gathered up the remainder, and devoted myself to the task of quieting the child.
I was now fairly in for it; I reasoned with myself a short time, and became convinced that the fault must be entirely my own—I was the one to blame, for its own mother had praised it as an excellent baby, and she surely ought to know—my bad management was the sole cause of its present behavior. My ambition was concerned to restore its good humor; Mrs. Morfield would be far better pleased to be relieved from the trouble of tending it, and animated with new energy, I seized it in my arms, and began dancing wildly around the room. The young lady regarded me with a look of approval, and sucked her fingers in quiet content. It was very solid, and appeared to me the heaviest baby I had ever carried, still I toiled on as long as I was able, but the moment I sunk into a seat she began to scream; and as I had at length found the means of quieting her, I endeavored to keep up for a short time longer—hoping every moment that Mrs. Morfield would enter the door and relieve me. I wondered that she did not hear the child cry; it seemed as though such screams must pierce the thickest wall; but the time passed on, and I was still imprisoned with my tormenting charge. At length I was obliged to give up—I really could not lug her around any longer; and sinking down in a kind of despair, I was entertained with an interminable fit of crying.
In the midst of this ebullition I happened to look out upon the lawn, and seeing a peacock pass leisurely along, I resolved to turn it to some account. Resting my heavy burden on one arm, with the other I pointed out the bird, knocked on the glass to it, talking as much nonsense in the meantime as I had ever heard in my whole life. The young lady was highly delighted—she stopped crying, and gazed with rapture on the brilliant color of the feathers. But at last, the peacock grew tired of spreading out his tail, and walked slowly away to my great annoyance, and also to that of my charge—who, finding that no more was to be seen, resumed her customary music. If ever a full sense of the beautiful dawned upon me, it was at the sight of a black hen and a brood of little chickens, who very obligingly supplied the absence of the peacock, and quarreled over some crumbs which had been thrown beneath the window. The child appeared to be fascinated by any thing that had the power of life; on the disappearance of the hen and chickens she transferred her raptures to a grave-looking cat; and I even hailed with delight the appearance of a grasshopper, if he took a pretty high spring.
But at last everything was gone; there seemed to be a strange perverseness among the live-stock that afternoon—not a peacock refreshed my sight, not a chicken could I spy, not even a grasshopper beamed upon my eagerly strained vision; and evidently regarding me as the cause, the child screamed furiously, and struggled to escape from my hold. Oh, how my poor arm did ache with tending that little termagant! I was hot and exhausted with my efforts to amuse her, the afternoon was now rapidly passing away, and as yet I had tasted none of my expected felicity. The child was screaming; I sat quite listless and passive in a large easy-chair, regarding my burden with a look of hopeless weariness, and wondered if this could possibly be the excellent baby who had only wanted an eye kept upon it. An eye, indeed! Eyes, arms, tongue, feet, breath, every thing had been spent in vain; and now, in a state of desperation, I resolved to be freed from my odious bondage, and flung wide open the door leading into the hall, that Mrs. Morfield might reap the full benefit of her child’s inexhaustible lungs.
This manœuvre answered the expected end; my hostess soon made her appearance with a troubled look, and relieving me of the torment, she clasped it fondly in her arms, saying in a soothing voice:
“Did they leave it, darling? No, they shouldn’t plague my baby, no they shouldn’t—mother’s own pet! Ah, oh, you naughty girl!” with a pretended slap, “I’ll teach you to plague my darling!”