Chapter XIII: The King's Daughters in the Country

"Her father sent her in his land to dwell,
Giving to her a work that must be done;
And since the king loves all his people well,
Therefore she, too, cares for them, every one.
And when she stoops to lift from want and sin,
The brighter shines her royalty therein.
She walks erect through dangers manifold,
While many sink and fail on either hand;
She dreads not summer's heat nor winter's cold,
For both are subject to the king's command.
She need not be afraid of anything,
Because she is the daughter of a king."

_Anon._

While all these sad things were happening Winnie and I were enjoying a happy summer at my beloved home in the blessed country.

It is not to be imagined that Winnie dropped all her wild ways and became a saint at once. She had been sobered by her sad experience in plotting and scheming for the little prince; but since her full forgiveness her elastic spirits rose to the surface, and her cheerful disposition asserted itself in many playful pranks and merry, tricksy ways.

We did not forget our promise to work for the Elder Brother, but for a time we did nothing but rest fully and completely.

She was delighted with the country. The fresh air and free, wholesome life acted upon her like wine. She climbed walls and trees, leaped brooks, whistled, shouted, rode on the hay-carts, helped in the kitchen and in the garden, drove Dobbin about the country roads, went berrying, and was a prime favorite with all the boys, though I regret to say that at first, perhaps on this very account, the country girls were a little jealous and envious of her. But not a whit cared Winnie for this. She tramped over the fields and through marshes, with her botanist's can swung across her shoulder by a shawl-strap, searching for specimens. She boated and bathed, taking like a duck to the water, and learning to swim more quickly than any other person I had ever known. She loved to work in our old-fashioned garden, pulled weeds diligently, and seemed to love to feel the fresh earth with her fingers. Our flowers were all such as had grown there in my grandmother's time. It seemed to me that she must have modeled it on Mary Howitt's garden, for we had the very flowers which she describes in her poems.

"And there, before the little bench,
O'ershadowed by the bower,
Grow southernwood and lemon thyme,
Sweet-pea and gillyflower;

"And pinks and clove carnations,
Rich-scented, side by side;
And at each end a holly-hock,
With an edge of London-pride.

"I had marigolds and columbines,
And pinks all pinks exceeding;
I'd a noble root of love-in-a-mist,
And plenty of love-lies-bleeding."

There was a bed of herbs, too, which my mother cherished--sweet-marjoram and summer savory, sage, rue, and rosemary.

Winnie took a great interest in all of these plants. The country girls thought it odd that she should care for the wild plants which were so common in our vicinity, not knowing Winnie's enthusiasm for botany, and her desire to make a large collection to show the princess. An unusually ignorant girl met her on one of her botanizing expeditions, and Winnie asked her if maiden-hair grew in our region. "Of course it does!" the girl replied, indignantly; "you didn't s'pose we all wore wigs, did you?"

It was some time before Winnie could control herself and explain that the maiden-hair of which she was in search was a kind of fern.

"Do you want it for a charm?" the girl asked.

"No," replied Winnie; "what will it do?"

"If you put it in your shoe and say the right kind of a charm, you will understand the language of the birds."

"Then I shall certainly try it," said Winnie, "for that would be great fun."

Another day mother brought the same girl into the garden, where Winnie was at work, to give her some vegetables.

"Did you try the charm?" the girl asked.

"Yes, indeed," Winnie replied.

"And did it work?"

"Oh, famously! There is a wood-pecker in the old tree just outside of my window, and he wakes me by his drumming every morning. This morning I understood for the first time just what he has been saying. It was 'Wake up, wake up! little rascal, little rascal, little rascal!'"

The girl stared at Winnie in open-mouthed astonishment. "You must be a witch," she said.

"That's what they call me--Witch Winnie."

They were standing beside mother's bed of herbs, and the frightened girl pulled up a stalk of rue and held it at arm's length, as though it were a protection. "Don't come nigh me! don't work any of your tricks on me!" she said.

Winnie explained that she was only in sport, but the girl was only half reassured, and still clung to the spray of rue.

Miss Prillwitz afterward explained that rue, like vervain, was supposed to "hinder witches of their will," probably from the fact that it was once used in the Church of Rome, bound in fagots, as a holy-water sprinkler, and is spoken of in old writings as the "Herb of Grace."

In this way Witch Winnie's name was revived again, and was applied to her by her new friends, even though they did not believe in her uncanny powers.

The princess came to us later in the season for a visit of a month, and we came to know her intimately and love her dearly. She brought five of the boys from the Home with her, for mother was pleased with the enterprise, and father had said that he guessed it wouldn't break him to give those city children a taste of what the country was like, and if we women folk could stand them he supposed he could.

Winnie took the boys in charge and led them off with her on her long tramps and to row in the safe, flat-bottomed boat. They had great sport, crabbing, bathing, swimming, and fishing, and their vacation did them a world of good. These were the boys for whom the princess had planned the industrial classes, but Mr. Trimble lay at the hospital injured, it was thought, unto death by the explosion at Rickett's Court, and that plan was postponed for the present.

The boys attracted much attention in the Sabbath-school and wherever they appeared. Many questions were asked, and Miss Prillwitz was requested to explain the plan of the Home, in public and in private at the sewing society, and at the Fourth of July picnic.

We were not all ignorant country bumpkins at Scup Harbor, and we were not all poor. There were plenty of farmers, who dressed coarsely and fared plainly, who had bank accounts that would have bought out many a New Yorker of fashion. They were not selfish either. I have heard somewhere of a stingy deacon who, on hearing of a case of heart-rending distress, prayed for it in this wise:

"O Lord, 'giving doth not impoverish Thee, neither doth withholding enrich Thee,' but giving doth impoverish us, and withholding doth enrich us; therefore do Thou attend to this case, good Lord; do _Thou_ attend to this case."

Now this story may not be exaggerated, but I can only say that he did not live in our section of the country. Our deacons were soft-hearted, though horny-handed men, and though they had the poor of their own church and vicinity to look out for, and performed that office well, they decided that Scup Harbor was rich enough to extend a helping hand to New York, since New York was either too poor or too hard-hearted to care for its own.

Accordingly a collection was taken up in church that made Miss Prillwitz's heart sing for joy; and the Ladies' Benevolent Sewing Society voted to have a box of clothing ready for the Home by cold weather.

The grown people were not the only ones interested; there were girls among us of gentle manners and hearts, and who were far better educated than Milly Roseveldt. Some of these heard of Miss Prillwitz's eminence as a scientist, and helped me to organize a class for her in Natural History, and the remainder of the summer took on an aspect of mental improvement as well as of physical recreation. Miss Prillwitz mapped out a course of work and reading for each of us to carry on after her return to the city, and the circle arranged to meet at the homes of the members, and read essays and discuss different scientific subjects.

Winnie was surprised at the amount of intelligence and information displayed, and soon acquired a sincere respect for country girls. It was at one of our meetings after the princess had returned to New York that she noticed that Ethel Stanley, the daughter of a wealthy dairy farmer, wore a little silver cross with a purple ribbon knot.

"Has it come here, too?" she asked; "are you a King's Daughter?"

"Oh yes," replied Ethel; "I belong to the Helpful Ten, and there is a Cheer-Up Ten at the Corners. What do you call your link?"

"The Seek-and-to-Save Ten," Winnie replied; and she explained the mission of our Circle, and how we hoped to help the Elder Brother in his search for the little lost princes. Ethel was delighted. "I think we might help you," she said; "we are Methodists, but we don't mind working for you if you will let us. I suppose you are all Episcopalians in New York?"

"Oh dear, no!" exclaimed Winnie, "we are everything; Tib is a Congregationalist, and Emma Jane is a Unitarian, Adelaide is Presbyterian; 'Trude Middleton is a Dutch Reformer; Rosario Ricos is Catholic; Puss Seligman is a Jewess; Little Breeze comes from Philadelphia Quaker stock, though she is so gay you wouldn't think it; Cynthia Vaughn is a Baptist; Milly Roseveldt is the only Episcopalian; and I'm a--heathen."

"No you are not," I protested; "you are a follower of the Elder Brother, Winnie, and that means you are a Christian." She gave my hand a little squeeze, and Ethel exclaimed, "I should think your society would go to pieces; I don't see how you can work together with such different views."

"That depends," said Winnie, thoughtfully, "whether in the future we all pull in different directions, and tear our charity to pieces between us, or whether each of us uses all her force to bring in people from our different church organizations to help in the work, and make it widely and purely undenominational. I mean to write a little parable on that subject some day, for I feel full of it."

"Do!" we all exclaimed; "write it for the next meeting at Ethel's."

"I don't know; it would hardly be a scientific essay, you know."

"I am not sure about that," replied Ethel; "I think it might be called a scientific method of carrying on charitable enterprises. Please write it, and I will invite our Ten, and the Cheer-up Ten from the Corners, and the Loyal Legion, and the Missionary Society, and all the girls I know generally."

The plan was carried into effect, and at the next meeting Winnie read us this fable, which she called

A FISH STORY.[A]

[A] NOTE.--This allegory was first published in _Good Company_, of 1880.

"Once upon a time the fishes and salt-water animals down in the bay decided to organize a Home for Sea-urchins.

"The circumstances of the remarkable agitation which suddenly spread among the peaceful denizens of the deep became known to me by my inadvertently getting a spray of sea-fern in one of my bathing-sandals. I suddenly discovered that I could understand the voices of the little creatures that I had so often watched from Tib's father's dory, or sported among when I took my sea-bath. I lay in the dory one afternoon, looking down into the clear depth of the water, watching the tricks and manners of a sea-anemone, and thinking how similar her behavior was to that of a reigning belle at a popular watering-place, when it dawned upon me that she _was_ the belle of the cove, surrounded by a circle of obsequious masculine admirers, prominent among whom were the hermit-crab, the octopus, the jelly-fish, the lobster, the conger-eel, the king-iyo, and the stickleback--"

"Now, Winnie," I objected, "you never saw an octopus or a king-iyo in our cove, and you can't make me believe it!"

"My dear Tib," Winnie replied, "didn't I tell you this was a fish story? Pray do not interrupt again. The animals that I have mentioned were all aspirants to the hand of the Sea-Anemone, and the first remarks which I overheard and comprehended were her confidences to her friend the Gold-Fish, in which she intimated that she considered the Jelly-Fish the most amiable, the Lobster the richest, the King-iyo (a titled foreigner from Japan) the most _distingue_, and the Conger-Eel the most polite; but, after all, the Hermit-Crab was really the best, and she liked him more than any of the others, with the exception of the Octopus, who was so fascinatingly wicked.

"The next time that I looked into the cove was during a meeting of the managers of the Sea-Urchins' Home.

"The Sea-Anemone had just been unanimously elected to the presidency on account of her popularity.

"The Cuttle-Fish had been created secretary in recognition of his remarkable facility in throwing ink, while all official documents were stamped by the Seal.

"The Electric-Eel was made visiting physician; and the Shark, surgeon and lecturer on vivisection.

"The Hermit-Crab, who had been detailed to make observations on the _modus_ in which such societies were carried on among human beings, made the following report:

"MISS PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-FISHES:

"Your committee have made a careful investigation of the subject assigned them, and agree that while man's faculties have not been cultivated to so high an extent as those pertaining to fishes, he is still a moral and intellectual animal. We believe that if he were put in possession of the advantages accorded to our race, and were submerged in salt-water for several centuries, his brain would undoubtedly become so pickled as to reduce it in size and intensify its quality. Favorable conditions of brain-pickling are all that is necessary, in our opinion, to develop some of the most advanced specimens of this _genus_ into a low form of _mollusk_.

"The opinions of the Hermit-Crab were considered a marvel of liberality and generous thinking. He proceeded to explain the society-forming instinct of the human race as a professor of our own species might lecture on the concretions of deep-sea corals, and continued swimmingly, as fishes usually do, until a white-whiskered Sea-Lion begged leave to make a motion, in the language of a motto of conduct which he had often heard shouted to seamen by their commanders: 'When you are in the navy, do as the knaves do.' 'Let us,' he added, 'act upon this principle of conformity, by doing amongst men as the many do, and immediately organize a fair to meet the salaries of our officers and pay the debt on the society building.'

"'But none of us need salaries,' objected the Lobster, 'and we have no debt.'

"'As to declining a salary because I do not need it,' replied the Sea-Lion, 'I can only say that I find no such example set by the race whose customs we are following; and without a debt, or at least a deficit in the accounts of our treasurer, the respectability of our society may well be questioned.'

"A committee of Codfish aristocrats was at once authorized to secure a debt of magnificent proportions, at whatever cost, and the salary of each member of the society was set according to his own estimates. Frequent meetings of the managers were appointed for the purpose of drawing the salaries, and as the care of the Sea-Urchins could with the utmost ingenuity be made to take up but a small portion of the time, each of the managers seized upon these meetings as opportunities to air their own particular opinions. The Lobster, who was something of an autocrat, and had determined from the outset to run the concern, took the entire business management into his own claws, greatly incensing the ladies on the debt committee by intimating that they knew nothing of business, and that his office-boy, the Craw-Fish, could have devised a debt of far nobler proportions. The King-iyo, or three-tailed fish of Japan, trusted that the philosophy of the Orient was to have its full recognition in the principles of the society, and that the Sea-Urchins would be instructed in Buddhism. The Octopus, who had been one of the most desperate characters in the bay, carried his change of heart so far as to assert that no one could be considered as religious, or even respectable, who had not been extremely wicked, and urged that only the most depraved and hopeless young Sea-Urchins be admitted into the Home. While the Octopus raved over essential wickedness, and the King-iyo of philosophy, the Jelly-Fish dabbled in humanitarianism, and asserted that brains were not to be tolerated, thought was to be considered a crime, and a heart the only organ necessary for the spiritual body. All books on theology and philosophy should be sold for old paper, and the proceeds invested in charlotte russe for tramps and criminals. Every measure in the least savoring of logic or common sense must be vetoed.

"The Stickleback, who luxuriated in controversy, and in making himself generally disagreeable, summed up the remarks of those preceding him as the merest vaporing of idiocy, and denounced every system of belief held by his fellow-managers, before hearing it, with the same impartiality. Antagonism, he asserted, was the only rational attitude for any fish under all circumstances. The Conger-Eel, managing to gain possession of the floor, endeavored to pour oil on the troubled waters. He was sure that if the heterogeneous, and even antipathetic, ideas held by the different managers were only presented in writing, they would, properly mingled, blend as sweetly as lemon juice and loaf sugar in a cooling summer libation. The Cuttle-Fish, was unanimously elected chairman of a committee for eliciting and reconciling the opinions of the managers in a printed constitution. He opened the ball with a statement of his own views, which he passed to each member in turn, asking them to add their several criticisms and corrections. When the paper had gone the rounds it was read in open session by the Hermit-Crab, who summed up everything that had gone before, in a paper entitled 'A Historical Review of the Documents, beginning with the King-iyo's criticism of Mr. Snapping-Turtle's attack on Mr. Shrimp's vindication of Mr. Jelly-Fish's Apology of Mr. Conger-Eel's Deprecatory Answer to Mr. Lobster's satire on Mr. Stickleback's Challenge to Mr. Octopus's Dogmatic Denunciation of Mr. Shark's strictures on Miss Sea-Anemone's conciliatory explanation of Mr. Cuttle-Fish's exposition of the views of the society.'

"Of course this paper satisfied no one, and the meeting plunged at once into a whirlpool of ruinous discussion.

"The Stickleback bristled his spines and glared angrily about him, shrieking, 'Antagonism! Nihilism!'

"'Fanaticism, Sensationalism!' yelled the Octopus.

"'Dogmatism! Absolutism!' replied the Lobster, hurling clams about him in the belief that they were works on combative theology.

"'Asceticism! Monasticism!' groaned the Hermit-Crab, retreating into a pipe bowl and blocking the entrance with a pearl-oyster.

"'Humanitarianism!' warbled the Jelly-Fish, as he choked three sea-melons and a quart of sea-mushrooms into the mouth of a sick Grampus.

"'Paganism! Barbarianism!' retorted the King-iyo, punching the Jelly-Fish.

"'Optimism! Universalism!' sweetly chanted the Conger-Eel, but as he spoke the entire convention broke up and floated away, leaving the little Sea-Urchins crying for their supper, and only a debt of colossal proportions to mark the site of the proposed Home."

"And how do you propose to avoid the fate of the Fish Society?" Ethel asked, after the storm of applause which followed Winnie's paper had subsided.

"By recognizing, from the first, that we unite only for this special purpose, and that we all have very varied and contradictory opinions, which we will make no attempt to reconcile or ventilate. I think we can make our very differences an element of strength, if it is acknowledged from the outset that we are to be different. As Corresponding Secretary of our Ten I have received the most encouraging reports from the girls. They are all working hard for the Home, and all working in different ways, and each seems to think that the Home belongs to her individually--as it really does--and that her organization is responsible for its success. I am sure that when we next meet, the girls will accept Mrs. Middleton's proposition to have the Home of the Elder Brother entered as one of the Dutch Reformed charities, and I hope that each of the other girls will take measures to have it recognized as one of the charities of her particular church organization. I have a letter from Little Breeze, saying that the Friends' Meeting in Philadelphia, of which her mother is a member, propose to own a bed in the Home; and Puss Seligman writes that the Hebrew Charitable Association, of which her brother is Vice-President, have voted to hold themselves responsible for every child of their race whom we entertain. Cynthia Vaughn reports that the Church of ----burgh, Pennsylvania, will keep us in coal on condition that a delegation of the children go to the Baptist Sunday-school. Miss Prillwitz has already divided the Home into detachments, sending the children, as far as possible, to the churches which their mothers prefer, and there is a strong division of Baptists."

"I think," said Ethel, "that our Methodist Church would like to have a share in the work. I am sure that father will be glad to supply you with milk and butter as his own private subscription."

The President of the Loyal Legion then spoke up, and proposed that their organization furnish barrels and make the rounds of the farms in procession, soliciting apples and potatoes, which they would freight to the Home, on condition that a Loyal Legion Temperance Society be organized among the children of the Elder Brother, to be considered as a branch of the Scup Harbor Legion.

The Cheer-up Ten from the Corners held a brief meeting in the orchard, and returned to report that they had decided to adopt one of our children to clothe. They desired that the child of the poorest parents be assigned them, and promised that if the proper measurements were sent, they would keep it respectably dressed in garments of their own make.

I suggested little Georgie, a child rescued from Mrs. Grogan, whose mother could only furnish fifty cents a week from her scanty earnings for his support; and our convention broke up for that day, after partaking of strawberries and cream, singing a good old hymn, slightly altered for the occasion by Winnie.

"Here we raise our Ebenezer,
Hither by God's grace we come;
And we hope, by His good pleasure,
Long we may remain a Home."

* * * * *

NOTE.--The Messiah Home, 4 Rutherford Place, New York, a charity founded for children by children, whose beautiful work suggested to the author this simple story, has been greatly helped by circles of the King's Daughters, several of whom have adopted children to clothe after the manner of the Cheer-up Ten. The writer commends this work to any other circles of the King's Daughters eager to do the work of the Elder Brother.