The House in Town Part 16

CHAPTER V.

It was near dark by the time they got home, and Matilda was tired. Tea and lights and rest were very pleasant; and after tea she sat down on a cus.h.i.+on by Mrs. Laval's side, while Norton told over the doings of the day.

"Which room will Matilda have, mamma, in New York?" Norton asked.

"I don't know. Why are you anxious?"

"We want south windows for our plants."

"She shall have a south window," said Mrs. Laval fondly. "And I have had a letter from your grandmother, Norton. I think I shall go to town next week."

"Before December!" cried Norton. "Hurra! That is splendid. After we get into December and I am going to school, the days and the weeks get into such a progress that they trip each other up, and I don't know where I am. And there's Christmas. Mamma, don't send Pink to school! Let me teach her."

"I don't think you know very well where you are now," said his mother smiling. "What will you do with your own lessons?"

"Plenty of time," said Norton. "Too much time, in fact. Mamma, I don't think Pink would enjoy going to school."

"We will see," Mrs. Laval said. "But there is something else Pink would enjoy, I think. You have not got your allowance yet, Matilda. Have you a purse, love? or a porte-monnaie, or anything?"

"O yes, ma'am! Don't you remember, ma'am, you gave me _your_ pocket book? a beautiful red morocco one, with a sweet smell?"

"No," said Mrs. Laval laughing.

"It was before the sickness--O, long ago; you gave it to me, with money in it, for Lilac lane."

"Is the money all gone?"

"It is all gone," said Matilda; "for you remember, Mrs. Laval, Norton and I had a great many things to get for that poor woman and her house.

It took all the money."

"You had enough?"

"O yes, ma'am; Norton helped."

"Well then you have a pocket book; that will serve to hold your future supplies. I shall give you the same as I give Norton, five dollars a month; that is fifteen dollars a quarter. Out of that you will provide yourself with boots and shoes and gloves; you may consult your own taste, only you must be always nice in those respects. Here is November's five dollars."

"Mamma, November is half out," said Norton.

"Matilda has everything to get; she has to begin without such a stock as you have on hand."

"Mamma, you will give her besides for her Christmas presents, won't you?"

"Certainly. As I do you."

"How much will you give her, mamma? For I foresee we shall have a great deal of work to attend to in New York stores before Christmas; and Matilda will naturally want to know how much she has to spend."

"She can think about it," said Mrs. Laval smiling. "You do not want your Christmas money yet."

"We shall get into great trouble," said Norton with a mock serious face. "I foresee I shall have so much advising to do--and to take--that it lies like a weight on me. I can't think how Pink will settle things in her mind. At present she is under the impression that she must not keep more than one pair of boots at a time."

"You want several, my darling," said Mrs. Laval, "for different uses and occasions. Don't you understand that?"

"Yes ma'am, I always did"--

Matilda would have explained, but Norton broke in. "She thinks two overcoats at once is extravagant, mamma; I ought to give one of them away."

Matilda wanted to say that Norton was laughing, and yet what he said was partly true. She held her peace.

"You do not really think that, my darling," said Mrs. Laval, putting her arm round Matilda, and bending down her face for a kiss. "You do not think that, do you?"

It was very difficult to tell Mrs. Laval what she really did think.

Matilda hesitated.

"Don't you see," said the lady, laughing and kissing her again, "don't you see that Norton wants two overcoats just as much as he wants one?

The one he wears every day to school would not be fit to go to church in. Hey?" said Mrs. Laval with a third kiss.

"Mamma, there are reasons against all that; you do not understand,"

said Norton.

"It's very hard to say," Matilda spoke at length, rousing herself; for her head had gone down on Mrs. Laval's lap. "May I say exactly what I do mean?"

"Certainly; and Norton shall not interrupt you."

"I don't want to interrupt her," said Norton. "It is as good as a book."

"What is it, my love?"

Matilda slipped off her cus.h.i.+on and kneeling on the rug, with her hands still on Mrs. Laval's lap, looked off into the fire.

"The Bible says"--she began and checked herself. The Bible was not such authority there. "I was only thinking--Ma'am, you know how many poor people there are in the world?"

"Yes, dear."

"_She_ doesn't," said Norton.

"People that have no overcoats at all, nor under coats neither, some of them. I was thinking--if _all_ the people who have plenty, would give half to the people who have nothing, there would be n.o.body cold or miserable; I mean, miserable from _that_."

"Yes, there would, my darling," said Mrs. Laval. "People who are idle and wicked, and won't work and do not take care of what they have, they would be poor if we were to give them, not half but three quarters, of all we have. It would be all gone in a week or two; or a month or two."

Matilda looked at Mrs. Laval. "But the poor people are not always wicked?"

"Very often. Industrious and honest people need never suffer."

That would alter the case, Matilda thought. She sat back on her cus.h.i.+on again and laid her head down as before. But then, what meant the Bible words; "He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise"? The Bible could not be mistaken. Matilda was puzzled with the difficult question; and presently the warm fire and her thoughts together were too much for her. The eyelids drooped over her eyes; she was asleep. Mrs. Laval made a sign to Norton to keep quiet. Her own fingers touched tenderly the soft brown locks of the head which lay on her lap; but too softly to disturb the sleeper.