Daisy
take with you what you are likely to want there."
"You will not want all that," said his mother.
"No ma'am, I hope not," said Preston, looking at his package demurely.
"Old Uncle Lot, you know, always has a cough; and I purpose delighting
him with some of my purchases. I will go and put them away."
"Old Uncle Lot!" my aunt repeated. "What Uncle Lot? I did not know you
had been enough at Magnolia to get the servants' names. But _I_ don't
remember any Uncle Lot."
Preston turned to leave the room with his candy, and in turning gave
me a look of such supreme fun and mischief that at another time I
could hardly have helped laughing. But Miss Pinshon was asking me if I
understood arithmetic?
"I think--I know very little about it," I said hesitating. "I can do a
sum."
"In what?"
"On the slate, ma'am."
"Yes, but in what?"
"I don't know, ma'am--it is adding up the columns."
"Oh, in _addition_, then. Do you know the multiplication and division
tables?"
"No, ma'am."
"Go and get off your things, and then come back to me; and I will have
some more talk with you."
I remember to this day how heavily my feet went up the stairs. I was
not very strong yet in body, and now the strength seemed to have gone
out of my heart.
"I declare," said Preston, who waited for me on the landing, "she
falls into position easy! Does she think she is going to take _that_
tone with you?"
I made no answer. Preston followed me into my room.
"I won't have it, little Daisy. Nobody shall be mistress at Magnolia
but you. This woman shall not. See, Daisy--I am going to put these
things in my trunk for you, until we get where you want them. That
will be safe."
I thanked him.
"What are you going to do now?"
"I am going downstairs, as soon as I am ready."
"Do you expect to be under all the commands this High Mightiness may
think proper to lay upon you?"
I begged him to be still and leave me.
"She will turn you into stone!" he exclaimed. "She is a regular
Gorgon, with those heavy eyes of hers. I never saw such eyes. I
believe she would petrify me if I had to bear them. Don't you give
Medusa one of those sweet almonds, Daisy--not one, do you hear?"
I heard too well. I faced round upon him and begged him to remember
that it was my _mother_ I must obey in Miss Pinshon's orders: and said
that he must not talk to me. Whereupon Preston threw down his candies,
and pulled my cloak out of my unsteady hands, and locked his arms
about me; kissing me and lamenting over me that it was "too bad." I
tried to keep my self-command; but the end was a great burst of tears;
and I went down to Miss Pinshon with red eyes and at a disadvantage. I
think Preston was pleased.
I had need of all my quiet and self-command. My governess stretched out
her hand, drew me to her side and kissed me; then with the other hand
went on to arrange the ruffle round my neck, stroking it and pulling it
into order, and even taking out a little bit of a pin I wore, and putting
it in again to suit herself. It annoyed me excessively. I knew all was
right about my ruffle and pin; I never left them carelessly arranged; no
fingers but mamma's had ever dared to meddle with them before. But Miss
Pinshon arranged the ruffle and the pin, and still holding me, looked in
my face with those eyes of hers. I began to feel that they were "heavy."
They did not waver. They did not seem to wink, like other eyes. They bore
down upon my face with a steady power, that was not bright but ponderous.
Her first question was, whether I was a good girl.
I could not tell how to answer. My aunt answered for me, that she
believed Daisy meant to be a good girl, though she liked to have her
own way.
Miss Pinshon ordered me to bring up a chair and sit down; and then
asked if I knew anything about mathematics; told me it was the science
of quantity; remarked to my aunt that it was the very best study for
teaching children to think, and that she always gave them a great deal
of it in the first year of their pupilage. "It puts the mind in
order," the black-eyed lady went on; "and other things come so easily
after it. Daisy, do you know what I mean by 'quantity?'"
I knew what _I_ meant by quantity; but whether the English language
had anything in common for Miss Pinshon and me, I had great doubts. I
hesitated.
"I always teach my little girls to answer promptly when they are asked
anything. I notice that you do not answer promptly. You can always
tell whether you know a thing or whether you do not."
I was not so sure of that. Miss Pinshon desired me now to repeat the
multiplication table. Here at least there was certainty. I had never
learned it.
"It appears to me," said my governess, "you have done very little with
the first ten years of your life. It gives you a great deal to do for
the next ten."
"Health has prevented her applying to her studies," said my aunt.
"The want of health. Yes, I suppose so. I hope Daisy will be very well
now, for we must make up for lost time."
"I do not suppose so much time need have been lost," said my aunt;
"but parents are easily alarmed, you know; they think of nothing but
one thing."
So now there was nobody about me who would be easily alarmed. I took
the full force of that.
"Of course," said Miss Pinshon, "I shall have a careful regard to her
health. Nothing can be done without that. I shall take her out
regularly to walk with me, and see that she does not expose herself in
any way. Study is no hindrance to health; learning has no malevolent
effect upon the body. I think people often get sick for want of
something to think of."
How sure I felt, as I went up to bed that night, that no such easy
cause of sickness would be mine for long years to come!
CHAPTER II.
MY HOME.
The next day we were to go to Magnolia. It was a better day than I
expected. Preston kept me with him, away from Aunt Gary and my
governess; who seemed to have a very comfortable time together.
Magnolia lay some miles inland, up a small stream or inlet called the
Sands River; the banks of which were studded with gentlemen's houses.
The houses were at large distances from one another, miles of
plantation often lying between. We went by a small steamer which plied
up and down the river; it paddled along slowly, made a good many
landings, and kept us on board thus a great part of the day.
At last Preston pointed out to me a little wooden pier or jetty ahead,
which he said was my landing; and the steamer soon drew up to it. I
could see only a broken bank, fifteen feet high, stretching all along
the shore. However a few steps brought us to a receding level bit of
ground, where there was a break in the bank; the shore fell in a
little, and a wooded dell sloped back from the river. A carriage and
servants were waiting here.
Preston and I had arranged that we would walk up and let the ladies
ride. But as soon as they had taken their places I heard myself
called. We declared our purpose, Preston and I; but Miss Pinshon said
the ground was damp and she preferred I should ride; and ordered me
in. I obeyed, bitterly disappointed; so much disappointed that I had
the utmost trouble not to let it be seen. For a little while I did not
know what we were passing. Then curiosity recovered itself. The
carriage was slowly making its way up a rough road. On each side the
wooded banks of the dell shut us in; and these banks seemed to slope
upward as well as the road, for though we mounted and mounted, the
sides of the dell grew no lower. After a little, then, the hollow of
the dell began to grow wider, and its sides softly shelving down; and
through the trees on our left we could see a house, standing high
above us, but on ground which sloped towards the dell, which rose and
widened and spread out to meet it. This sloping ground was studded
with magnificent live oaks; each holding its place in independent
majesty, making no interference with the growth of the rest. Some of
these trees had a girth that half a dozen men with their arms
outstretched in a circle could not span; they were green in spite of
the winter; branching low, and spreading into stately, beautiful heads
of verdure, while grey wreaths of moss hung drooping from some of
them. The house was seen not very distinctly among these trees; it
showed low, and in a long extent of building. I have never seen a
prettier approach to a house than that at Magnolia. My heart was full
of the beauty this first time.
"This is Magnolia, Daisy," said my aunt. "This is your house."
"It appears a fine place," said Miss Pinshon.
"It is one of the finest on the river. This is your property, Daisy."
"It is papa's," I answered.
"Well, it belongs to your mother, and so you may say it belongs to
your father; but it is yours for all that. The arrangement was, as I
know," my aunt went on, addressing Miss Pinshon--"the arrangement in
the marriage settlements was, that the sons should have the father's
property, and the daughters the mother's. There is one son and one
daughter; so they will each have enough."
"But it is mamma's and papa's," I pleaded.
"Oh, well--it will be yours. That is what I mean. Ransom will have
Melbourne and the Virginia estates; and Magnolia is yours. You ought
to have a pretty good education."
I was so astonished at this way of looking at things, that again I
lost part of what was before me. The carriage went gently along,
passing the house, and coming up gradually to the same level; then
making a turn we drove at a better pace back under some of those great
evergreen oaks, till we drew up at the house door. This was at a
corner of the building, which stretched in a long, low line towards
the river. A verandah skirted all that long front. As soon as I was
out of the carriage I ran to the farthest end. I found the verandah
turned the corner; the lawn too. All along the front it sloped to the
dell; at the end of the house it sloped more gently and to greater
distance down to the banks of the river. I could not see the river
itself. The view of the dell at my left hand was lovely. A little
stream which ran in the bottom had been coaxed to form a clear pool in
an open spot, where the sunlight fell upon it, surrounded by a soft
wilderness of trees and climbers. Sweet branches of jessamine waved
there in their season; and a beautiful magnolia had been planted or
cherished there, and carefully kept in view of the house windows. But
the wide lawns, on one side and on the other, grew nothing but the
oaks; the gentle slope was a play-ground for sunshine and shadow, as I
first saw it; for then the shadows of the oaks were lengthening over
the grass, and the waving grey wreaths of moss served sometimes as a
foil, sometimes as an usher to the sunbeams. I stood in a trance of
joy and sorrow; they were fighting so hard for the mastery; till I
knew that my aunt and Miss Pinshon had come up behind me.
"This is a proud place!" my governess remarked.
I believe I looked at her. My aunt laughed; said she must not teach me
that; and led the way back to the entrance of the house. All along the
verandah I noticed that the green-blinded long windows made other
entrances for whoever chose them.
The door was open for us already, and within was a row of dark faces
of men and women, and a show of white teeth that looked like a
welcome. I wondered Aunt Gary did not say more to answer the welcome;
she only dropped a few careless words as she went in, and asked if
dinner was ready. I looked from one to another of the strange faces
and gleaming rows of teeth. These were my mother's servants; that was
something that came near to my heart. I heard inquiries after "Mis'
Felissy" and "Mass' Randolph," and then the question, "Mis' 'Lizy, is