Cornelli Part 6

Cornelli departed.

"The child certainly obeys you--that is something," said Miss Grideelen.

"Since you told her to, she always comes to table properly washed."

"That is true. But she has the most unheard-of manners," replied Miss Dorner.

"How shall one get rid of those and start the child on the right path?

I must ask you to help her in the morning, Miss Mina. Please comb her hair smoothly and part it the way I told you to."

"I did it, Miss Dorner, and I do it every morning," she answered, quite hurt. "Cornelli's hair is just like bristles and it is very hard to braid. When she jumps it all gets tangled again and she jumps every moment."

Cornelli now came back and ate her soup. Her seat was beside her cousin and faced the other lady.

"What is sticking to your dress here?" asked Miss Dorner, looking with disgust at the little skirt. Something was really hanging from the bottom. "Can this be hay or straw? It certainly does not look orderly.

I hope you have not come from the stable!"

"Yes, I have," replied Cornelli.

"How horrid! Indeed, I can even smell it. That is too much!" she exclaimed. "I am sure your father would not let you go there if he knew about it."

"Oh, certainly; he goes himself," Cornelli retorted.

"Do not reply impertinently. In the case of your father it is quite different," explained Miss Dorner. "I want to tell you something which you must remember. If you are allowed to go to the stable and you enjoy doing it, you can go. But when afterwards you come to your meals, you must first go to your room. Get properly washed there and also change your dress. Be sure not to forget."

"Yes," replied Cornelli.

"It is very strange what queer pleasures country children have,"

remarked Miss Grideelen. "Have you no books, Cornelli? Don't you like reading better than wandering around and going to the stable?"

"Oh no, I don't like it better, but I have some books," replied the child.

"What are you going to do in the afternoon, when you have no more lessons to study?" asked Miss Dorner.

"I always go to Martha," was the reply.

"Who is Martha?" inquired the cousin.

"A woman," said Cornelli.

"I can guess that," replied the cousin. "But what kind of a woman is she?"

"A good one," answered Cornelli quickly.

"What an answer!" The cousin turned now to Miss Mina: "Who is this woman? Can the child go to see her? Does anybody here know about her?"

she questioned.

"Oh yes, she is well known here and was here long before I came," was Mina's reply. "She nursed the mistress of this house in her last illness. She is a very good woman and always looks neat and clean. Our master likes her well."

"Now I have really found out something! You must learn to give proper answers, Cornelli, do you hear?" said the cousin. "You are like a wild hare which does everything in leaps and bounds. You can go to see the woman after finis.h.i.+ng your work for your teacher. I am sure you must have some to do for to-morrow."

Cornelli a.s.sented to this, and as soon as the ladies had left the room to retire to their bedrooms for the hottest hours of the day, she sat down at her little table in the corner. Here she wrote down a page with lightning speed, then taking up her book she read her lesson over and over again till she knew it by heart. Soon she was finished, and flinging the books into the drawer, she ran out of the house.

"Oh, Martha, I wish you knew how terrible it is at home now since Papa has gone," called Cornelli to her old friend, before she had even reached the top of the stairs. "I just wish Papa was back already and everything was again as before."

"What is it, Cornelli, what makes you so cross? Come, sit down here a while and tell me about it," said Martha kindly. She put a chair beside her own at the table where her mending lay neatly sorted out.

"Of course, you can't understand it, Martha," Cornelli continued, just as excited as before. "Here with you everything is always the same and n.o.body comes and orders everything to be changed. Now, I am not allowed to come in any more without getting washed; now, I cannot come out of the stable without changing my clothes. Then I must not wash my hands at the hydrant because I get splashed, and, oh, so many new things have to be done; so different from before."

"I am sure, Cornelli, that it is not at all bad that things should not always be the way they were before," said Martha reflectively. "I believe that the lady who is related to you wants the same thing from you that your mother would have wished had she lived. This is very good for you. Of course, Miss Mina and Esther mean well, but your relation knows much better what is to be done to make you grow up the way your mother would have desired. Just think how happy your father would be if you should resemble your mother and he be reminded of her every time he looked at you. You well know what great joy that would be to him."

Cornelli did know that her father would be very happy then, for he had made many remarks which she had understood. A short time ago he had said that his cousin found no likeness between his child and her mother, and Cornelli had observed the sad expression of his eyes when he had said it.

Cornelli shook her head. "You said once that my mother was different from anybody," she said. "So I can't ever be like her; you said so yourself, Martha."

"Yes, yes, I have said that," confirmed Martha. "But I have to explain something to you, Cornelli. If you can't become exactly like your mother, you certainly can become more like her than anybody else, for you are her child, and a child always has something from her mother.

I have seen you look at me just the way she did, with the same brown eyes; but not when you frown the way you do to-day. You must try to watch the two ladies very carefully in all they do and in the way they speak. They are your mother's kind, and that is why I am so glad that you can watch their manners and can try to imitate them. You can learn to resemble your mother in your ways, if you copy the ladies."

"Yes, I shall do that," agreed Cornelli. "Just the same, I am not terribly pleased that they are here and that everything has to be changed. Oh dear, I have just remembered that I have to be back now and drink some hot coffee and milk, because Miss Dorner says that the afternoons are so frightfully long in the country they have to be interrupted. At that time I always used to get from the garden some apples or cherries or whatever else there was, and they always tasted so awfully good. If I only could lengthen my afternoon, which seems too long to them! I never can do all I plan to do. Good-bye, Martha."

And with these words Cornelli ran away.

CHAPTER IV

THE UNWISHED-FOR HAPPENS

Esther, the able mistress of the kitchen, was standing in the garden picking green peas, which hung in cl.u.s.ters from the vines. They had ripened quickly in the sunny June weather.

"Come down here, Cornelli!" she called. "Just see how many peas there are! Why do you steal about so quietly nowadays, and why don't you run the way you used to?"

"I am not allowed to do anything any more," replied Cornelli, approaching her. "Mina is beginning to tell me that I even must not jump, for it might tangle my hair. I wish I had not a single hair left; then I could at least run and jump about."

"No, no, child; that would look too dreadful. Just imagine it! But don't get sad on account of that," Esther consoled her. "Just jump around as before! Your hair can always be put in order again. Why haven't you come into the kitchen lately to see if things taste right?"

"I am not allowed to; Miss Dorner says that is bad manners," Cornelli informed her.

"Oh, I see! Well, you might do worse things. However, you must obey!

Yes, you have to obey," Esther repeated. "Don't you go to Miss Mina any more, either, when she fixes the dessert?"

Cornelli shook her head.

Miss Mina had quickly understood the new order that had begun in the household and accordingly had suited herself to it. When she thought the ladies would not approve of an old custom, she dropped it quickly, and Cornelli had soon noticed her change of att.i.tude.

"I don't care if I never can go to the pantry any more, I don't care,"