Nell and Nan; or, Trying to be good

Front matter

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Shelf.

Chapter I

a teacher’s parting words.

66 "I70U will find many paths in going through J- life, girls ; be sure you • choose the right one ! ” These were the prim, precise words of a plain little woman, as she stood upon the platform of a wayside Station, waiting for the train that was to bear her many, many miles from the scenes in which she had been so actively engaged as a teacher for several years.

“But how shall we know which is the right one?” inquired a sprightly-looking little girl of fifteen years.

The teacher gave an almost startled look at the speaker, for she had merely spoken the words bv way

of keeping up the conversation. She had expected

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anything serious she might say to light upon silent soil, as it had done heretofore; for Miss Percy had the misfortune to be one of those lukewarm Christians who know the way of salvation plainly enough, but had let herself drift into a state of inactivity because it seemed to suit the circumstances by which she was surrounded.

A faint flush stole over her cheek, and for a moment she realized what she might have accomplished had she begun sooner and been faithful and earnest enough. But it was too late now to repair that; and just then catching the shrill cry of the approaching locomotive, she added, hurriedly :

“ There is a picture in Mr. Newton’s parlor, called ‘ Many Ways.’ Go and see it, girls, and if there is anything about it that you do not understand, ask him. He will help you to choose the right one. Good-bye, darlings.” Then the conductor seized her hand, there was a whisk of her skirts, and she was gone.

A dozen or more girls took out their pocket handkerchiefs and waited a moment expectantly, then slowly returned them; for the car had been so nearly filled that Miss Percy had been obliged to take a seat upon the opposite side.

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“ I say, Nannie, let’s go to Mr. Newton’s, and see that picture before we forget it,” said the young girl who was interested in the right path, as she and her sister turned down a back street on their way to their home.

“ What’s the use, Nell ? I dare say we will find out the right way by the time we become women.”

“But I want to know now, Nan. I am fifteen and you are thirteen, and we couldn’t begin younger. Besides, it is so nice to be good. Everybody respects you. ‘ A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,’ comes from the Bible, and it is true, Nan. Nothing would please me so much as to hear everybody saying, ‘What good girls Nell and Nan Clark are ! ’ I think I should be just as happy as I want to be if everybody loved and respected me because I am good — don’t you ? ”

“I don’t know. It always seems to me that good people have such miserable times. Now I want a good time, and am bound to have it.”

“ Well, don’t you suppose we can have a good time and be good too? I think I should enjoy doing all kinds of good things just for the fun of it, and then to have everybody praising one — oh, that would be

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“ Go ahead, then, and I will follow you, as you know I always do. But seems to me we ought to have some other motive than the love of praise.”

“ Let us go and see that picture first ) then we can tell better where to begin.”

“ I reckon we know how to be good, Nell Clark, without bothering with any picture. We’ve got to do missionary work.”

“How?”

“ Why, get people to go to church.”

“We don’t go ourselves only when we feel like it.”

“ No, we must begin right away, I suppose.”

“And gather children into the Sunday-school, and interest ourselves in beggars, and all that.”

“And read our Bibles, and a heap more of things,”* added Nan.

“I shall go and see the picture, whether you go or not, since Miss Percy advised it. I shall tell Mrs. Newton that our teacher wished us to look at it.”

“ Go on, then, but there is no use in it, I know. It will take more than a picture to set us in the right path, I am thinking.”

“You are the greatest girl to reason that I ever saw.”

“And you are the most impulsive one. I have to

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do the thinking for us both. If you think we can sail right smoothly on, you will be mistaken. For my part, if I undertake it, I expect to have a rough time of it.”

“But I do want to be good, Nan, oh, so very much. I have felt dissatisfied with my aimless, fruitless life for some time, and I am for trying better things, even if I fail. It will not be all rough, I know; for * Virtue has its own reward/ as we write in our copy books.”

They were at the parsonage gate now, and found Mrs. Newton scrubbing the pavement. With flushing cheeks Nellie made known her errand.

“Go into the parlor and look at the picture as long as you like; but excuse me, please, as I am always very busy Saturday mornings.”

“ Yes, -ma’am, and so is mother,” said Nell, faintly, remembering for the first time that she and Nannie ought to be at home, taking care of the baby, or paring the potatoes for dinner.

“ Mr. Newton has just gone out,” continued Mrs. Newton, as she led the way into the parlor, and opened the shutters.

“ I don’t believe she half likes us bothering her when she is busy,” said Nan, as soon as they were left alone.

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“ Oh, yes, she does — she don’t care ; but I’m glad Mr. Newton is out, as I am half afraid of him. See, here is the picture ” — and the girls stood before a curious-looking painting. There, were many, many paths, some beset with thorns and rocks, and checked by the flow of swollen waters, and others strewn with flowers along which shone precious stones of every hue. One path particularly attracted the girls ; for it was paved with gold, and as people eagerly pressed into it, they gathered up the yellow treasure by handfuls, and smiled, and gloated over it.

“But that isn’t the right way, I know,” laughed Nellie.

“ The path strewn with flowers and skirted by these tall, shady trees suits me the best,” said Nan. “ See how happy the people seem, almost flying along, literally laden down with flowers, with the privilege of resting as long as they like by the way.”

“ But it isn’t the right path, I know; for see how weary the travelers look near the end of the way, and the flowers they have gathered lie broken and withered around them. Here is the right path, I feel most sure.”

“ Where?”

“ Don’t you see this one filled so completely with

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rocks and sharp stones that one can scarcely see the way through ? But it must be the right one, because — see, at almost every turn there stands some one to take one by the hand, and smile, and cheer. See how these people are clapping their hands.”

“ But the travelers look so tired,” suggested Nannie.

“ Of course, there are difficulties in the right path ; we must expect it. The cheers of lookers-on will keep me up, 1 am sure.”

“ Well, I hope as much, but I must confess I feel the undertaking to be more of a task than I did before seeing this picture. It’s my opinion we will soon become tired of it.”

“ I never will.”

“ Then I am sure I shall not, for father says I have more stability than you.”

“ Let us go, now,” said Nell. And they went out to where Mrs. Newton was still scrubbing the pavement.

“ Isn’t it hard work for you, all this long stretch of bricks?” asked Nellie.

“ Yes,” ‘replied Mrs. Newton; “but it has to be done. I am getting to be an old woman now, almost three-score and ten, and I am not so spry as I used to be.”

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“No, ma’am/’ said Nellie, pityingly; and the two girls passed on down the street.

“ First rock in the way jumped over, and I don’t see anybody clapping their hands,” laughed Nannie.

“I don’t know what you mean,” said Nellie.

“Why, didn’t you see how poor Mrs. Newton’s hands trembled as she held that broom ? And don’t you know how stout and rugged we are ? We ought to have taken the broom and finished the scrubbing for her.”

“ But I can’t bear to work.”

“ Of course not. That was the first rock in our path, and we just jumped right over it. Oh, Nell,” and Nan laughed heartily.

“ I believe you see into the ‘ path ’ business better than I,” replied her sister.

“ Maybe I do, and maybe I don’t,” said Nannie, plucking the long spears of grass by the wayside.

“ Perhaps we can help mother.”

“She is always done her morning’s work by this time, Nell; but we ought to have taken Baby Charlie to the Station with us. Mother looked so tired.”

“ If we are going to bother over such little petty things as work, we won’t get much time for missionary labor. I am quite sure mamma would be willing

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to dispense with our help for the sake of having us engaged in such a grand work. Why, Nan, just think how many mothers willingly give up their sons to go as foreign missionaries. They feel it is their duty to give them up.”

“Well, if mother will give us up so easily, I don’t care, for I don’t like housework any better than you do. So, where shall we begin ? ”

“I don’t know. We must hunt for something to do, I suppose.”

Chapter II. Hunting For Something To Do

£ £ TTAVE you needed us this morning, mamma?”

asked Nellie, as the girls entered the house and found dinner waiting for them.

“Of course; I always need you. I didn’t think it would take you all the forenoon to see Miss Percy off.”

“ How lovely ! new peas and strawberries,” chirped Nannie, as she took her seat and turned over her plate.

“ Yes, to be sure,” said her mother ; “ but who shelled the peas, and who picked over the strawberries ? ”

“ It is too bad, mamma ; but we will try to do better next time,” Nell apologized.

“ Promises will amount to nothing, child, unless you make some effort. There is Pliebe Wolcott next door, who does half her mother’s work.”

If there was a girl in the village that the girls detested it was this same Phebe Wolcott, whom their mother was always holding up for an example; so they drew down their faces and made no reply.

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“ After dinner I want you girls to wash the dishes, and then look after Charlie while I take a nap. My head aches severely after such a hard morning.”

“ Yes, ma’am,’'* assented both girls. But after the dishes were washed, and they had Baby Charlie out under the arbor, Nellie said, quite seriously :

“I am afraid mother is going to be the biggest rock in our way.”

“ Nell Clark, aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

“She doesn’t sympathize with us one bit in any new undertaking.”

“ Well, how can she, when she don’t know a breath about it ? ”

“ I dare not tell her ; for I know she would tell us there was enough work at home without our gadding around doing missionary work.”

“ You don’t know any such thing.”

“ She’d discourage us, I know.”

“ I don’t believe it.”

“ But didn’t she at the dinner-table ? The idea of her holding up that horrid Pliebe Wolcott, when she knows we despise her.”

“ Mamma was tired.”

“ Don’t I know she was, and I love my mother

B

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just as much as you do, Nan Clark. I only wish she was a little different, that is all.”

“ How ? ”

“ Why, I wish I could only feel free to go to her with everything. It would be such a help.”

“I dare say mamma would appreciate it, if we only would.”

“No, she would only say, ‘ Don’t bother me, child,* and that would be the last of it.”

“ Mamma is a Christian.”

“I know she is a member of church. But she never talks to us of Jesus; and one night she got up, when I caught her on her knees, as if she was scared.”

“ It’s mamma’s way.”

“ I wish she wouldn’t scold so much.”

“Now, Nell Clark, that’s too bad. Our mother doesn’t scold half so much as most women. Think of Mrs. Wolcott, for instance. No wonder Phebe does so much work. She has to do it. I wouldn’t change our mother for any one else in the world.”

“ Neither would I.”

“She’s just the darlingest and most precious mother in the world.”

“ Of course she is.”

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“ Then what are you blowing about, Nell Clark ? I think you are just horrid this afternoon.”

“ I don’t want to blow ; I only want to be good.”

“ A queer way to commence, talking about your own mother so. You know mamma is a model. Keeps her house as neat as wax and all our clothes in repair until we are the envy of half the village. People say she is the best manager in town.”

“Yes, mamma is everything,” answered Nellie, with tears in her eyes, “but ”

“ But what?”

“ There, there, we’ll say no more about it. I never shall be as good as mamma, if I try all my days, I know.” And Nellie began to toss the baby until he was crowing with delight.

“ You are not going to give up missionary work?”

“ No, no, not if we can find anything to do. I don’t know where to begin.”

“ Perhaps something will come to us.”

“ No, it never does. We’ve got to hunt something to do. If we only lived in some city now, instead of this poky old village.”

“ But we ought to be thankful everybody is so good.”

“ Yes ; but it is no place to do missionary work.”

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“There’s the Harnier children.”

“True, I had forgotten them.”

“ Don’t go to Sunday-school.”

“ I wonder what’s the reason ? Their father has a good trade and plenty of work, but they never have anything to wear.”

“ Sheer shiftlessness on the part of their mother.”

“ I’m glad our mamma is not like Mrs. Harmer.”

“ So am I.” And Nan smoothed the folds of her clean bright gingham.

“ There are six of those Harmer children, all old enough to go to Sunday-school. They would be quite an addition, and the superintendent and our teacher would be ever so pleased, Nan.”

“ Of course they would.”

“ I am for going over there this very afternoon and see if we can’t get them to begin to-morrow.”

“ That will be nice.”

“I wish mamma would come and get the baby.”

“ Let us put him in his coach and take him along. Mother won’t care.”

So little Charlie was tucked snugly away under his sky-blue afghan, and the girls were fairly started on their way after something to do.

They found Mrs. Harmer at home, up to her

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eyes in work, though it was three o’clock in the afternoon.

“ How do you do, girls ? And here is the baby,” cried Mrs. Harmer, apparently much pleased with her callers. “ I suspect your mother was done her work hours ago ; but then I have twice as many to do for as she has, and my girls are not the help to me that you are to your mother. Here, let me wipe off that chair before you sit down, as I fear Teddy smeared it when he was there eating bread and molasses.” And giving no one a chance to put in a word edgeways, Mrs. Harmer commenced rolling down her sleeves.

“ Please don’t let us interrupt you,” said Nell ; " we’ve only come in for a few minutes.”

“Oh, it will not hurt me to rest a while; for I’m all but dragged out. There, Tommy, Ben and Teddy, clear out; as you are enough to frighten anybody with your dirt and impudence.”

“Just wanted to see who was here,” said Ben, thrusting his hands into his pockets and staring at the girls.

“ Please, Mrs. Harmer, don’t send them away, for that’s what we came for, to see the children.”

“ Why, law, now you don’t say. Tommy, roll

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down your pants and run out for Letitia and Mary Annie. The girls will feel mortified enough, because they are not yet dressed for the afternoon.”

The girls soon made their appearance in disheveled hair, soiled, tattered dresses, and barefooted, and sat themselves down on the edge of chairs as if they did not know what to do with themselves; and their looks showed plainly enough that they could not imagine what such “stuck-ups” as the Clark girls wanted with them.

“ See here, girls,” said Mrs. Harnier, “ Nellie and Nannie have come over to see you. Do you think you can entertain them while I go on with my work? Them ginger cakes in the kitchen need tending to this minute.”

No sooner had Mrs. Harmer flown to the kitchen than Nan blurted out her errand, but not soon enough to escape Mrs. Harmer, who was back just in time to catch the last words.

“ Want ’em to go to Sunday-school with you, do you? Well, now, that is kind, and I am so sorry that they’ve got nothing to wear. Just see here.” And Mrs. Harmer quickly opened a cupboard door and disclosed a set of shelves every one packed with sewing. There were pretty new dresses for the girls,

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and whole suits for the boys ; but they couldn’t get made.

“ Haven’t you a machine, Mrs. Harmer ? ”

“ Law, yes, but its out of order half the time ; the boys bother with it so. Only yesterday I caught Teddy and Ben a-playin’ with my machine for dear life. The big wheel was their windmill, as they called it.” And Mrs. Harmer laughed heartily at the remembrance.

u It’ll be winter-time before we git our new ginghams done,” said Letitia, sulkily.

“ There, none of your sass. I reckon Nellie and Nannie here help their mother sew ! ”

“ Some,” stammered Nell.

“ Mother prefers us to take care of the baby while she sews,” said Nan.

“ There, do you hear that? Nellie and Nannie here take care of the baby, and leave the whole house to their mother. I do suspect she’s sewing this minute. But it is hard to do any sewing or any thing else when two or three young ones are tumbling under your feet all the time.”

“ Mamma, I’ll take care the children don’t bother you after this, if you will only hurry and get our dresses done,” spoke up Mary Annie. “ As Letitia says, we always get our summer dresses made up for winter, and our winter ones for summer”

“ I don’t know but what it would pay me better to hire my sewing done, if your father was only willing. He says, girls, that it costs more nowadays to get garments made than it does to buy the material.”

“That’s what mamma says,” said Nellie, quietly.

“ I shall have to try to do it myself some way. I think Letitia and Mary Annie will be ready to go to Sunday-school with you by to-morrow week.”

“Oh, thank you; and when will the younger ones be ready ? ”

“ A couple of weeks later, I think.”

“ Oh, that will be ever so nice,” said Nellie, gratefully. “ And now, Nannie, we must go, as mother may be wanting us.”

Chapter III. Some Missteps

* * AT OW, if we are going to be good, we must go -k * to church this morning,” were the first words that Nellie said upon waking the next morning.

“ We ought to have been up long before this, helping mamma,” said Nannie, springing out of bed and beginning to dress herself hastily.

“ It is so nice to lie here and build plans for the future, especially when they are such worthy ones. Nan, shall you wear your white dress this morning or your pink lawn?”

“ My lawn, I guess. But there goes the breakfastbell ; do hurry, Nell, mamma has breakfast all ready.”

“ Then I shall wear my blue,” said Nellie, composedly, as she slowly began to dress.

“You are the biggest poke I ever knew, Nellie Clark. I shall just go down-stairs and leave you.”

“ But I thought we were going to read a chapter in the Bible together every morning?”

“ We can’t this morning.”

“ What’s the reason ? ”

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“ And keep mamma waiting breakfast for us?”

“ But she oughtn’t to mind if we are reading the Bible,” said Nellie.

“ It seems to me, Nell Clark, you are thinking more about what mamma ought to do than what you ought yourself. If that’s your game, I’m not with you,” said Nan, indignantly.

“ I don’t mean anything of the kind,” said Nellie, with tears in her eyes. “ You and mamma are always misunderstanding me. I wish papa was home. I know he would appreciate my efforts, if nobody else does.”

“ I didn’t mean to be cross,” said Nan, kindly ; “ but we had better give up our readings in the morning, and have them at night, rather than to keep mamma waiting for us, unless we can manage to wake up an hour or two earlier.”

“ I am sure I meant to get up real early this morning, and I had no idea it was so late.”

“ Nor I. Shall we commence our reading to-ni^ht, Nellie?”

“ I suppose we shall have to. It seems to me when anybody wants to be good everything goes against them.”

“You mustn’t get discouraged already, Nell.”

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Nellie made no reply, but quietly followed her sister down-stairs.

“Girls,” said Mrs. Clark, as they 'took their seats at the table, “ I am going to church this morning, and want you to stay at home and take care of Charlie.”

Nellie looked over at Nan, but Nan had nothing to say.

“ Why, mother, we were going to church this morning/’ at last stammered Nell.

“ Indeed! I wonder when you began to be such church lovers? I thought you were particularly fond of remaining at home hot Sundays, and that Mr. Newton’s sermons were nothing but prosy affairs at the best,” said their mother.

“ We thought we would try it again,” said Nellie, with a blush.

“ Well, you can try it this evening — and then you go to Sunday-school, while I do not.”

The girls said no more, but remained home with the baby, with the best grace they could.

“ I am discouraged,” said Nellie.

“ I am not,” said Nannie, “ for I reckon the sermon will do mamma more good than it will us. Besides, we can go to-night.”

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“But nobody hardly goes there hot summer evenings. It will not be like going this morning.”

“Why, I don’t suppose we are going to show ourselves to the people, but to hear what good we can. Besides, it will encourage Mr. Newton more. He is always growling about young people taking no more interest in evening meetings. For my part, I would just as soon go this evening as this morning.”

“Well, I won’t mind this time, then. Perhaps, if mamma finds out that we are trying to be good, she will take turns with us after this. I wish I knew how to tell her.”

“ I guess she will find it out for herself, if we let our light shine,” said Nannie.

“ I want to be so good that everybody will find it out,” said Nellie.

Nannie hummed softly to herself for a time, and then began to lay plans with her sister for the future until their mother came home.

“ Why, girls ! ” said Mrs. Clark, “ where is lunch ? I supposed you would have it all on the table. You knew I would have my best clothes on.”

“ We never thought,” stammered Nellie.

“It seems to me you never think. Your thoughts for a day or two past seem to be away up in the

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clouds. Here, give me Charlie, and see how nicely you can spread lunch. Plenty of the cold roast, and rice pudding for dessert, you know.” And Mrs. Clark swept up into the parlor with the baby.

' “ Oh, Nellie, we are growing worse instead of better ! ” said Nannie, amid the rattle of the dishes.

Nellie made no reply, but there were tears in her eyes.

“ We don’t know how, and might as well give it up.”

“ But, Nannie, we will never go to heaven unless we find out the way,” said Nellie, sadly.

“ Let us ask mother.”

“ I don’t like to.”

“ Our Sunday-school teacher, then.”

“ Oh, we will get into the right path after a while, I presume, if we persevere.”

“ Nellie, let us gather a bouquet for the table.”

“ What’s the use ? ”

“ It would please mother.”

“Nan, do you know your Suuday-school lesson?”

“ Haven’t looked at it.”

“Good children always pay attention to such things.”

“ We won’t get much time to-day, I am thinking.”

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“ No, not if you poke about in that manner, smoothing out every crease in every napkin; and you’ll not have time for the flowers, either.”

“Oh, well, let them go, then. I never thought about our lessons. I wonder when we ever took so much thought before?”

“ But we are going to be good now.”

The girls found, after the dinner work was squared up and they were all dressed for Sunday-school, that they had just fifteen minutes to look over their lessons.

At it they both went, but not being particularly interested in the back lessons, it was hard to get a right start; and at the end of the time both owned that they knew no more than they did when they began.

“The time is too short,” said Nannie. “We ought to take an hour at least on these lessons.”

“ We will begin in time, then, for next Sunday.”

“ I believe you will be a Christian, some time, Nellie. Nothing seems to daunt you.”

“Thank you, Nan; that is the most encouragement I have received since we began.” And a deep color glowed on Nellie Clark’s cheek.

Poor child ! she was indeed in earnest, and did not lack perseverance; but, for want of right training, she did not know how to get into the true path.

Chapter IV. More Stumbling

ELLIE and Nannie felt that they were indeed

1M beginning to be good when, hymn-books in hand, they entered the family pew of the old church that warm Sunday evening.

“For,” thought Nellie, “we do not have to come. We might just as well have stayed home, or taken a long walk.” And seeing Mrs. Deacon Perry with her head bent forward on the railing of the pew before her, Nellie bowed, too, much to Nannie’s astonishment, who sat bolt upright in her seat, thinking over to herself, “ Well, you don’t catch me making such a show as that until I am more certain that I am really good. It will be time enough then.”

But Nellie was all unconscious of these thoughts, and now raised her head with a very tranquil look indeed.

The girls had sweet voices, and both sang. All went well enough until the text was announced and the preacher was fairly under way with his sermon. Then the lady ahead of them, who sat under a

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window, gave a jump and began clawing the back of her neck. Presently she had a great black bug in her hand, that had been attracted into the church by the light, and nervously flung it from her. It fell directly at Nellie’s and Nannie’s feet.

Nellie gathered up her skirts, and Nannie stretched out her foot to step on it.

But it eluded her and scampered quickly over to the old lady, where the girls soon saw it racing up her sleeve.

Nannie looked at Nellie, her eyes dancing with suppressed merriment.

But Nellie puckered up her mouth with such a look of righteous horror, that Nannie giggled outright.

“For shame,” whispered Nellie; and then, as she saw the old lady again grabbing for the bug, she stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth, and really spurted out a laugh which was worse than Nannie’s giggle.