“There, now, you careless boy, you have broken the pretty vase, but don’t cry now pet; come kiss your mother; Martha, (to the maid) take up those pieces of broken china, I am afraid they will hurt the children’s feet; Cousin Clara, do you recollect who it is that says, ‘Crystal and hearts are only valuable for their fragility,’ quite true.”
Tea was now announced, after which the whole party adjourned to the parlor, where the children commenced throwing the nuts over the floor; regardless of the plates, a proceeding at which little Rosa was greatly scandalized; particularly as Mrs. Cleveland, instead of admiring the carpet, merely remarked, “Really, Johnny, it is well your aunt’s carpet is not a very elegant one, or you would soon spoil it.”
“How much better it is, Cousin Clara, to have a plain carpet, children are so ruinous, and yet they are so sweet one cannot scold them.” Clara thought that if the sweetness of such spoiled children, as they were, was their only protection, it was a coin that would not pass current with every one.
We will not linger over the remainder of Mrs. Cleveland’s visit to Primrose Cottage, nor describe the many annoyances to which her children subjected Clara and her mother, nor will we tire the reader with the many pleasant anticipations which the former entertained of her visit to the city, which, in her simplicity, she imagined to be the most delightful place in the known world.
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CHAPTER II.
I remember its waking sigh,
We roamed in a verdant spot
And he culled for me, a cluster bright
Of the purple forget-me-not.