The Little Lady of Lavender [A tale.] ... Illustrated, etc

Front matter

■ THE LITTLE LADY OF LAVENDER Frontispiece. HE JjTTLE jADY * .. ©F )AVEMDERo !^ BY. THBODORcAC-ELMSLIE J (8AYNTON- FOSTER) >' AUTHOR OF "A QUBBN -OP-ROS&S ." L a,v e_KjcJa.y ILLU^TWTED BY EOl/TH' SCAN NELL &HLE / /A. jtVutkJul pa^ae • i^ ckilddoocse- Lovely -j<ae£, r Wll^veoH. Sweet I nnocemte. K&s ■ recoil mwe , An yo utwA.yo/ • Se->wUcLh.eÆ.of ■ the vookq kedj-bs Qr&ee,, /V^/J/Ce-r^. TVuCK and Love. eiKcl T»"us.tay>e.- all. wortWyecJ LONDON WARD •&■ DOWNEY ii York Street; Covent Garden. WC TO MY MOTHER AND SISTERS THIS SKETCH OF CHILD-LIFE IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED CONTENTS

Chapter I Page

Davy's Little Champion i 1 Upon the grass, beneath the bright spring sunshine, There sat a gentle, pensive little maid, The soft spring air just breathed a perfume near her, " I bring the kisses of the flowers," it said.' ' A very old ogre lives in that tower, He eats nothing but mustard and batter ; And why should he choose such very odd fare ? I will tell you — he's mad as a hatter ! ' Mrs. Sale Barker.

Chapter II

In the Ogre's Castle 10 • Give me yet, indulgent Fate, Give me yet before I die A sweet, an absolute retreat Midst glens so lost and trees so high That no thing may e'er molest My unbroken loneliness ! ' ' Gentleness is more successful in all its enterprises than violence. ' Locke. CONTENTS VIII

Chapter III Page

Ever so Kind and Good ..... 28 ' It is constantly said that human nature is heartless. Do not believe it. Human nature is kind and generous ; but it is narrow and blind ; and can only with difficulty conceive anything but what it immediately sees and feels.' — Ruskin.

Chapter VIII

Mollie's Mistake ..... .81 ' The captive to release To God the lost to bring, To teach the way of life and peace, It is a Christ-like thing.' 'I pray you with all earnestness to prove, and know within yourselves, that all things lovely and righteous are possible for those who believe in their possibility. ' — Ruskin.

Chapter IX

Under the Greenwood Trees .... 93 1 They are idols of hearts and of households ; They are angels of God in disguise ; His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses, His glory still gleams in their eyes. Oh, those truants from home and from Heaven! They have made me more manly and mild, And I know now how Jesus could liken The kingdom of God to a child. ' Dickens, Children.

Chapter XIII

Poor Dickie! i "7 ' Two words indeed of praying we remember, And at midnight's hour of harm — ' ' Our Father," looking upward in the chamber, We say softly for a charm. We know no other words except " Our Father," And we think that, in some pause of angel's song, God may pluck them with the silence sweet to gather And hold them both within His right hand which is strong. " Our Father," if He heard us He would surely (For they call Him good and mild) Answer, smiling down this steep world very purely, " Come and rest with Me, my child ! " ' Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Chapter XIV

In Mrs. Harriss's Cottage . . . . .123 ' It is not by deliberate but by careless selfishness that the weight of national evil increases upon us daily.' — Ruskin. CONTENTS XI

Chapter XV Page

Trouble at the Rectory . . . . 133 • A simple child . . . that lightly draws its breath And feels its life in every limb, what can it know of death ? ' ' Let the serene Philosopher sit down, Knowing that sorrow is the gift of God, And bid the streams of consolation flow. '

Chapter XVI

Nurse and Patient . . . . . .140 ' Pray for her at eve and morn That heaven may long the stroke defer, For thou may'st live the hour forlorn AVhen thou wilt ask to die with her. ' Hood.

Chapter XVII

Good-bye! . . . . • • • .148 ' Child of the pure, unclouded brow, And dreaming eyes of wonder ! I shall not see thy sunny face Nor hear thy silver laughter, No thought of me shall find a place In thy young life's hereafter.' ' Ah ! how can it be good for me to lose My better self, my moral sustenance, One whom I followed in the heavenward path To which I now can see no other clue ? ' Lord Houghton. CONTENTS XII

Chapter XVIII Page

Chiefly about John Thomas "57 ' The happiest are those that have large sympathies for others. ' — Anon.

Chapter XIX

A Great Disappointment 165 ' Warm little hearts and wise little heads, Gentle, and loving, and kind ; This is the way to be happy, small friends, And that you will very soon find.' Mrs. Sale Barker.

Chapter XX

Lost in the Snow 175 ' Out of the bosom of the air, Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken, Over the woodlands brown and bare, Over the harvest fields forsaken, Silent, and soft, and slow, Descends the snow.' — LONGFELLOW.

Chapter XXI

Babes in the Wood 181 ' So the babes wandered on hand in hand through the dark forest, plucking the wild flowers and berries as they went. . . . Presently, tired out, they lay down under a great elm tree to rest, and the little robins came and covered the sleeping children with fallen leaves.' — Nursery Fairy Tales. CONTENTS XIII

Chapter XXII Page

The Master of 'The Turrets' . . . 193 1 From days laid waste, across disastrous years, From hopes cut down, across a world of fears, We gaze, with eyes too passionate for tears.' Swinburne.

Chapter XXIII

The Ogre's Christmas Gift . . . . .198 ' The soul must go out from itself if it would find materials of joy. It must love its neighbours, or it must love the works of God . . . if it would not be absolutely forlorn. — Dr. Hamilton.

Chapter XXVII

Mr. Bobby and 'Lucky Sam' . . . -251 Have pity, children, on the poor, Their days are full of woe ; They have few clothes, so little food, No home where they can go.' Mrs. Sale Barker. ' Had we the spirit of our Master, we should find life full of op portunities for blessing others. There are always opportunities where there are willing hearts.' — Anon.

Chapter XXVIII

Christmas Eve in London ..... 268 ' Christmas Eve ! Now, all you merry children, Hang up your stockings and sink to happy rest, Then, gliding through the room, the Christ Child passes, And, breathing near the sleepers, leaves them blest ! ' Mrs. Sale Barker. ' God will not fail His sons and daughters. He has not endowed them with affections and instincts to which He will not respond. His solitary children . . . are eminently His charge.' — John Pulsford. CONTENTS XV

Chapter XXIX Page

Christmas Day at Lavender . . . . .287 ' Christmas 1 hear the joy bells ringing, Glad hymns in the churches singing, Of His mercy, of His power, And the gifts good angels shower ! ' Mrs. Sale Barker. ' The spirit of true love, a Christian love, will incline us to look charitably upon the conduct of those around us. It will hide from view, throw a mantle, as it were, over the faults and failings of others, and thus cover them up. '

Chapter XXX

Happy ever After ! ...... 299 ' As the rays come from the sun, and yet are not the sun, even so our love and pity, though they are not God, but merely a poor weak image and reflection of Him, yet from Him they come.' — Charles Kingsley. 1 Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth In thy heart the dew of youth, On thy lips the smile of truth ; O, that dew like balm shall steal Into wounds that cannot heal, Even as sleep our eyes doth seal ; And that smile like sunshine dart Into many a sunless heart.' — Longfellow.

Chapter I Davy's Little Champion

' Upon the grass, beneath the bright spring sunshine, There sat a gentle, pensive little maid, The soft spring air just breathed a perfume near her, " I bring the kisses of the flowers " it said.' ' A very old Ogre lives in that tower, He eats nothing but mustard and batter, And why should he choose such very odd fare ? I will tell you — he's mad as a hatter ! ' Mrs. Sale Barker. The soft, golden sunshine of June streamed broadly through the branches of the tall chestnut-trees in the Rectory garden at Lavender, and fell in radiant bars of light upon the smooth green lawn before the old house. It fell too upon the little figures of two children who stood under the trees, talking very earnestly. The one was a little girl, whose birthdays had lately numbered seven, — a small maiden with a pretty, pensive face, thoughtful eyes of gray-blue, shaded by dark lashes, and a wealth of golden-brown curling hair that reached below her waist.

She wore a brown holland frock, very simply made — in fact it could hardly lay claim to a more digni fied appellation than 'blouse' — and a wide-brimmed coarse straw hat that very prettily framed her demure, earnest little face. And a very earnest little face it B CHAP. was, curiously so for such an exceedingly youthful person as was the little Lady of Lavender. The other child was a boy, some two years her senior. He was usually a very lively-looking individual, but on this June morning he certainly could not be so described. He was a little lad with a shock of red hair and a freckled complexion, but he possessed a very honest pair of brown eyes. His coat was thrown off, his shirt sleeves turned up, and in his hands he held a gardener's broom quite as tall as himself. He was speaking, and his voice was full of sorrow and anxiety. ' Sure, Miss Eva, 'twill break granny's heart.

She was that set on Davy, she was. An' he's growing a big lad — able to earn good wage. All for a bit of a rabbit too ! It do seem hard, miss ! Oh dear, what ever will we do ? ' And the youthful gardener, rubbing his fists into his eyes, turned away to hide the tears that filled them. ' What made David shoot the rabbit, Dickie ? ' the little girl asked, as she looked sympathetically at the down-bent ruddy head. ' Sure it was for granny's supper, Miss Eva ! ' answered Dickie with great simplicity. ' But it wasn't his. He shouldn't take what wasn't his ! ' objected the little listener. ' Squire Ransom he've got more rabbits and sich like than he knows what to do with. Davy says so, and Davy he knows. Squire Ransom is that mean and stingy, Miss Eva, he never gives the poor folk nothin'. He sends all his game away to Lunnon to be sold, and he never gives away a haporth of nothin'.

He's orful mean.' The little girl was silent. DA VY'S LITTLE CHAMPION I 3 'Joe he craved for a bit of rabbit, and granny she han't nothin' to give him o' the like,' continued Dickie. * So Davy he says " stay a bit," sez 'e. He goes out, and in half an hour back he comes with a fine little brown bunny and gives it to granny. " I hope ye'll enjoy that, Joe," he says. " It's cost me dear that there rabbit has," and then he goes out agin in the garden ; and not twenty minutes later, Miss Eva, down comes one of Squire Ransom's keepers and a pleece constable and takes him away for a poacher. They've put him in prison, Miss Eva, along with thieves and wicked people, and granny says they'll very like send 'im across the seas, and we will never see him again ! ' This recitation of his woes had worked Dickie up into a perfect fever of misery, and with the last words he burst into a torrent of tears, and bowing his red head on the top of his big broom, lamented freely. ' Don't cry, Dickie, don't cry ! ' said Eva hurriedly, and laid her little hand gently on the boy's shoulder. ' Grandfather will help you.

I will ask him to. Grandfather is very clever, you know, Dickie ; he is sure to be able to help you,' she added eagerly. Dickie looked up at her rather hopelessly. ' They say as Davy's no better than a thief,' he said with a sob in his voice. ' The rector he won't help thieves ! ' ' I think he will help Davy,' said Eva encouragingly. ' Grandfather always likes to help people that are in trouble. Stay here, Dickie, while I run into the house and find him.' The rector sat at a writing-table which was placed in the window of his pleasant study. It was a dimly lighted, old-fashioned room, with book-lined walls and narrow lattice windows. There was a perfume of mingled mignonette and sweet pea from the flowers CHAP. that grew in the border just outside, and straggling across the window frame were sprays of trailing honeysuckle and great clusters of little white seven -sister roses.

The snows of many winters had left their mark on the old rector's hair ; and the vicissitudes of a long and active life had lined his forehead ; but these things had not dimmed the brightness of his kind gray eyes nor made his handsome old face hard or stern. He was writing his sermon for the morrow, for this was Saturday morning, and had just paused to consider some question that could not be solved without due consideration, when his meditations were interrupted by his little granddaughter, who, coming into the room, advanced to where he sat and said in her thoughtful old-fashioned way — ' Are you very busy, grandfather dear ? Have you time to talk to me about something very 'portant ?' There was an unusual ring of anxiety in Eva's tone ; and, looking up, he saw that her face was grave and clouded. ' I have always time to talk to my little girl,' he said, as he pushed back his chair and lifted the child on his knee. 'What is it, Eva?' ' It's poor Dickie, grandfather dear ; at least its poor Davy too,' she explained rather confusedly. ' Poor Davy !' repeated the rector. ' Who has been talking to you about David Harriss, Eva?' he asked with some vexation in his voice. ' Dickie has.

Oh, grandfather dear, poor Dickie is so unhappy, and so is old Mrs. Harriss. Do you know that Davy is locked up in prison, and Mrs. Harriss thinks they will send him away over the sea and she will never see him any more.' DA VY'S LITTLE CHA.MPION I 5 ' Yes, I have seen Mrs. Harriss ; I am very sorry for her and for the lads,' said the rector. ' But Dickie should not distress you about these things, my child. Poor David ! He acted wrongly, and I fear he will suffer heavily for it,' he added, speaking more to himself than to the little girl. ' Won't Mr. Ransom forgive Davy if you ask him ?' said Eva suddenly. ' I called to see him yesterday and again this morning, but each time I received the same reply — " Not at home." Mr. Ransom lives in perfect retirement, Eva. He sees nobody. It is of no use my calling.' 'Will they send Davy over the sea?' ' That I cannot tell you, my dear.

He will take his trial — there is no help for it. I fear that the law will be hard on him too, for although only a lad he is an old offender. From what I understand he is a regular poacher ; I only wonder that he was not caught before now. I am very sorry for the lad — very grieved about it,' concluded the rector sadly. ' Isn't it dreadful, grandfather dear, to think that a boy like Davy should be locked up in prison and never see his friends any more. Oh, I think it's dreadful !' And with a little shudder Eva hid her face in her hands. ' You mustn't distress yourself, my child. You must not take things so terribly to heart!' cried the rector anxiously. He knew her tender heart, and thought that she was crying. He was very much surprised when an instant later she looked up quite brightly and said, slipping down from his knee — ' I think I will go and finish my gardening now, grandfather dear.

I want to go for a ride d'reckly after lunch. I'm going on the downs to get some bluebells. You won't want me this afternoon, grandfather dear ; THE LLTTLE LADY OF LAVENDER 6 CHAP. will you?' she added rather anxiously as she lingered in the doorway. ' No, my pet ; go and enjoy your ride.' The rector watched her run across the sunny lawn and disappear beyond a belt of shrubs, with the thought that a child's sorrow and a child's sympathy are but transient emotions after all; and that he had been mistaken in thinking Eva took things too much to heart. ' Dickie ! Dickie !' called Eva, standing on the sunlit grass, and shading her eyes with her hand as she looked around in search of him. ' Yes, Miss Eva,' replied a rather dismal voice, and Dickie came up a side path to the lawn, his big broom over his shoulder, traces of very recent tears on his freckled countenance. ' Yes, Miss Eva.' He looked at her eagerly, for there was that in her pretty face which inspired him with sudden hope. ' Dickie, can you keep a secret?' Eva asked, looking very solemn.

Oh yes, Dickie could keep a secret faithful. Only try him ! The boy's voice trembled with eager hope. ' You must not even tell your granny, Dickie.' ' No, not even granny ; I promise. What be the secret, Miss Eva, please? Is it — is it 'bout our Davy?' ' Yes, it's about Davy. Listen, Dickie. Grandfather says he has been to Squire Ransom's house, but he couldn't see him. He wasn't at home, though grand father went twice. Now this afternoon some one else is going. Who do you think some one else is, Dickie ?' Dickie couldn't guess. ' Dickie ! ' said Eva. She stood on tiptoe and whispered mysteriously into the eager boy's ear. ' Dickie, Pm going !' ' Oh, Miss Eva ! ' cried Dickie. ' Oh ! ' I DA I'Y'S LITTLE CHAMPION 7 He was too much taken aback to say more, but there was a world of expression in the ejaculation as he uttered it. ' Well, and why not ? ' asked Eva with wide open eyes. ' Why shouldn't I go, Dickie ? ' Instead of replying, Dickie asked another question. ' Have ye ever seen Squire Ransom, Miss Eva ? ' he said earnestly. ' No, I have not seen him,' answered Eva in some surprise. ' But why, Dickie ?

I suppose he is the same as other people, isn't he ? ' ' Bless yer heart, no, Miss Eva,' said Dickie with an awe-inspiring grimace. ' Why, he's a ogre, he is.' ' No, you don't say so ! ' cried Eva in a startled tone. It was small wonder that the little girl was startled, for she had read of ogres in fairy tales, and very awful people they seemed from all descriptions to be. She took Dickie's expression quite literally, and accordingly pictures of Squire Ransom as a stumpy, green-eyed monster with a hump on his back and an insatiable appetite for small children instantly arose in her imaginative little mind. ' How very drefful, Dickie ! ' she cried. ' Yes, its dreadful,' Dickie acquiesced dismally. ' Is he very horrible to look at ? ' Eva asked in an extremely anxious tone. ' Has he 'normous teeth and a green wig, like the picture of the Ogre Grindemup in my new fairy-tale book ? ' ' I ain't seen 'im, Miss Eva,' Dickie replied. ' But I dessay he's awful lookin'.

They say he's just savage for to speak to.' ' Has he — Dickie, has he eaten many children yet ? ' Eva asked tremulously. Dickie looked at her in some surprise. ' Eaten 'em, Miss Eva!' he repeated in a puzzled tone, THE LITTLE LADY OF LAVENDER CHAP. ' Oh yes,' said Eva. ' In my book it said that the ogre would devour ten or a dozen children every day. Is Squire Ransom that sort of ogre, Dickie?' ' Don't know 'bout that, Miss Eva,' Dickie replied cautiously ; ' but I guess the children don't give him no chance of eating of 'em, anyhow. They never goes nigh his house. They're too frightened. Don't you go, Miss Eva. Your grandpa he wouldn't like you to go ; and whatever would he say to me if harm come of it ? ' he added anxiously. Eva was silent for a moment. She was thinking of the ogre, and of the descriptions which she had read of Ogre Grindemup in the fairy-tale book.

Tears filled her pretty eyes and her lip quivered. She looked at Dickie. His face was very eager, but there was an expression of doubt in his eyes. He could not beg Eva not to go when he knew that by going she might save Davy — Davy his big brother who was the stay of the house and the bread-winner ; Davy whom granny and Joe were weeping for, and who was shut up in the dark prison awaiting a trial that must certainly end sadly for him and for those who loved him. And yet how could he ask his little mistress to go to that dreadful house, to brave the ogre in his castle ? So Dickie too was silent, and for a moment no sounds but the singing of the birds in the high trees overhead and the leaves gently rustling at the light touch of the westerly breeze fell upon the summer air. Then Eva spoke. ' Dickie,' she said, ' I'll go.' She uttered a little sigh. ' Don't 'e go if yer don't want to, Miss Eva,' Dickie said feebly. ' I do want to,' said the little girl. ' I — I am not very much afraid,' she added with a brave smile.

I DAVY'S LITTLE CHA.MPION 9 Not afraid of the ogre ! Dickie fairly gasped at her courage. ' Bless you, miss, you're a plucky one ! ' he cried admiringly. 'Well,' said Eva, ' I'm afraid I'm not very pluck)-, Dickie; but you see' — and here she gave another little sigh — ' I'm not 'zackly 'customed to ogres, and you know how it is when you aren't 'customed to things, Dickie.' ' They say as eels gets accustomed to being biled,' remarked Dickie reflectively. ' Oh no, poor things ! ' cried Eva with a little shudder. ' They couldn't possibly. But going to see ogres isn't so bad as being boiled, you know ? ' she added, half questioningly. ' No ? — well, p'r'aps not,' Dickie agreed in a rather doubtful tone. 'You ain't frightened, Miss Eva, are you?' he asked suddenly. ' No,' she answered, ' I'm not frightened now.

I was, just a little, a few minutes ago, but I'm not now. You see, Dickie, I shall ask God to take care of me, and I am sure He will.' ' Yes, Miss Eva,' said Dickie reverently. His young mind, trained with the rector's gentle care, shared her childlike faith.

Chapter II In The Ogre's Castle

'Give me yet, indulgent Fate, Give me yet before I die A sweet, an absolute retreat Midst glens so lost and trees so high That no thing may e'er molest My unbroken loneliness ! ' 'Gentleness is more successful in all its enterprises than violence.' — Locke. The village of Lavender, where lived little Evangeline Herbert with her grandfather the rector, was a tiny hamlet nestling at the base of the South Downs. These South Downs, a long, low range of hills, stretched far away for many miles until they reached a great town by the sea, which Eva had never visited but of which she had heard much. From all accounts this town was a very gay and fashionable place, a sort of London by the sea, and Eva, who knew no wider world than Lavender, thought that, from all the descriptions she heard, Brighton must indeed be a wonderful city.

The downs, in the locality of Lavender, were very richly wooded, and the copses of young pine and larch trees that covered their undulating slopes gave them a luxuriant and picturesque appearance. Beautiful woods they were, and the ' Lavender folk ' were exceedingly proud of them. Woods where all the year round, be it in summer's heat or winter's frost, one CHAP. II IN THE OGRE'S CASTIE 11 might well enjoy a ramble. Woods that in summer were blue with harebells and golden with primroses, where in spring the first sweet violets were to be discovered, and where in autumn the village children gathered the best blackberries and hazel nuts to be found for miles around. The old baronet to whom this property belonged, and who was called the Lord of the Manor, did not often visit his estate, but he did not neglect it, and the game, which was very plentiful, he caused to be carefully preserved.

Two years before that June morning when Eva and Dickie held their important conversation under the chestnut trees on the .Rectory lawn, the quiet villagers of Lavender had been startled by the arrival of a large company of London work-people, and they had been still more surprised when they heard what caused their visit. This was what they heard. The Lord of the Manor had sold a few acres — some eight or ten — to a certain Captain Ransom, a retired Indian officer, and Captain Ransom was about to build a house on this land in which he intended to live. ' He is an invalid,' said the foreman of the work people confidentially to his friend the landlord of The Blue Lion, as they partook of a sociable half-and-half in the seclusion of the inn parlour. ' Quite an invalid, I understand. And he wishes for retirement.' In due time Captain Ransom's house was finished and made ready for habitation ; and if the officer desired retirement he certainly found it, for ' The Turrets,' as his place was called, was built high on the downs quite two miles above the village, and was right in the middle of a large plantation of well-grown firs.

Rather a dismal spot some people would have called it, but Captain Ransom did not appear to think so, and LAD Y OF LA VENDER CHAP. 12 he built a very high wall all round his grounds, which quite hid his house from the outside world, excepting the little towers or turrets which gave it its name, and these one could see above the wall looking like so many sentry boxes, while here and there the top of an un usually high chimney was just visible. Captain Ransom came to his house, but so far as the Lavender people were concerned he might as well have stayed away. They never saw him, and it was reported that he had not been beyond his carefully walled -in grounds since the evening when he first arrived at The Turrets. Captain Ransom's servants were uncommunicative and rather grim, elderly people, and not at all inclined to gossip with the villagers, so that the inner life at The Turrets was quite unknown to the people of Lavender ; and because of this, Captain Ransom's household be came invested with an air of mystery, and all sorts of stories concerning its inmates were soon rife in the village.

It is a well-known fact that ignorance is the hotbed of superstition, and the simple village folk who saw a bogy in every white cow or horse they happened to pass after nightfall, and shivered at the sight of a twinkling glow-worm, were quite ready to believe that there was something very uncanny about the house on the downs, and that the less they had to do with the place the better it would be for them. This feeling grew and grew until any village child would sooner walk five miles round than pass The Turrets after nightfall, and it would have required an enormous bribe to induce any one of the Lavender folk, man, woman, or child, to cross the threshold of the mysterious house, even in the friendly light of day. So two years had passed away, and no one knew IN THE OGRE'S CASTLE 13 any more of Captain Ransom than on the day when he took up his residence at The Turrets, and he had gradually come to be regarded as a necessary evil, when there arose the scandal and the excitement in which David Harriss was the chief actor.

Captain Ransom rented some shooting from the Lord of the Manor, and when his keepers found David Harriss, gun in hand, potting the captain's rabbits, they very naturally mentioned the matter to their master. Equally naturally, or so it seemed to him, Captain Ransom communicated with the police at the small neighbouring town of Wurderton, and the result was that young Harriss was arrested and shut up in prison to await the autumn assizes. There was a strong feeling in favour of Harriss in the village. He was known to be ' a bit too free with his gun,' but after all he was only a lad — not seventeen, and ' the gentry ' had lots of game and to spare — that is, according to Lavender folk. Davy was a hardworking lad too, and a sober, and he was wonderfully good to his old granny and his little brothers.