CHAPTER XIV.

THE UNEXPECTED EVENT.

His shout may ring upon the hill, His voice be echoed in the hall, His merry laugh like music trill, I scarcely notice such things now.

Willis.

Some weeks after Frank had left home, while lady Harriet and Major Graham were absent at Holiday House, Harry and Laura felt surprised to observe, that Mrs. Crabtree suddenly became very grave and silent,--her voice seemed to have lost half its loudness,--her countenance looked rather pale,--and they both escaped being scolded on several occasions, when Harry himself could not but think he deserved it. Once or twice he ventured to do things that at other times he dared not have attempted, "merely as an experiment," he said, "like that man in the menagerie, who put his head into the lion's mouth, without feeling quite sure whether it would be bit off the next moment or not;" but though Mrs. Crabtree evidently saw all that passed, she turned away with a look of sadness, and said not a word.

What could be the matter? Harry almost wished she would fly into a good passion and scold him, it became so extraordinary and unnatural to see Mrs. Crabtree sitting all day in a corner of the room, sewing in silence, and scarcely looking up from her work; but still the wonder grew, for she seemed to become worse and worse every day. Harry dressed up the cat in an old cap and frock of Laura's,--he terrified old Jowler by putting him into the shower-bath,--and let off a few crackers at the nursery window,--but it seemed as if he might have fired a cannon without being scolded by Mrs. Crabtree, who merely turned her head round for a minute, and then silently resumed her work. Laura even fancied that Mrs. Crabtree was once in tears, but that seemed quite impossible, so she thought no more about it, till one morning, when they had begun to despair of ever hearing more about the business, and were whispering together in a corner of the room, observing that she looked duller than ever, they were surprised to hear Mrs. Crabtree calling them both to come near her. She looked very pale, and was beginning to say something, when her voice suddenly became so husky and indistinct, that she seemed unable to proceed; therefore, motioning with her hand for them to go away, she began sewing very rapidly, as she had done before, breaking her threads, and pricking her fingers, at every stitch.

Laura and Harry silently looked at each other with some apprehension, and the nursery now became so perfectly still, that a feather falling on the ground would have been heard. This had continued for some time, when at last Laura upon tiptoe stole quietly up to where Mrs. Crabtree was sitting, and said to her, in a very kind and anxious voice, "I am afraid you are not well, Mrs. Crabtree! Grandmama will send for a doctor when she comes home. Shall I ask her?"

"You are very kind, Miss Laura!--never mind me! Your grandmama knows what is the matter. It will be all one a hundred years hence," answered Mrs. Crabtree, in a low husky voice. "This is a thing you will be very glad to hear!--you must prepare to be told some good news!" added she, forcing a laugh, but such a laugh as Harry and Laura never heard before, for it sounded so much more like sorrow than joy. They waited in great suspense to hear what would follow, but Mrs. Crabtree, after struggling to speak again with composure, suddenly started off her seat, and hurried rapidly out of the room. She appeared no more in the nursery that day, but next morning when they were at breakfast, she entered the room with her face very much covered up in her bonnet, and evidently tried to speak in her usual loud bustling voice, though somehow it still sounded perfectly different from common. "Well, children! Lady Harriet was so kind as to promise that my secret should be kept till I pleased, and that no one should mention it to you but myself. I am going away!"

"You!" exclaimed Harry, looking earnestly in Mrs. Crabtree's face. "Are you going away?"

"Yes, Master Harry,--I leave this house to-day! Now, don't pretend to look sorry! I know you are not! I can't bear children to tell stories. Who would ever be sorry for a cross old woman like me?"

"But perhaps I am sorry! Are you in real earnest going away?" asked Harry again, with renewed astonishment. "Oh no! it is only a joke!"

"Do I look as if this were a joke?" asked Mrs. Crabtree, turning round her face, which was bathed with tears. "No, no! I am come to bid you both a long farewell. A fine mess you will get into now! All your things going to rack and ruin, with nobody fit to look after them!"

"But, Mrs. Crabtree! we do not like you to go away," said Laura, kindly. "Why are you leaving us all on a sudden? it is very odd! I never was so surprised in my life!"

"Your papa's orders are come. He wrote me a line some weeks ago, to say that I have been too severe. Perhaps that is all true. I meant it well, and we are poor creatures, who can only act for the best. However, it can't be helped now! There's no use in lamenting over spilt cream. You'll be the better behaved afterwards. If ever you think of me again, children, let it be as kindly as possible. Many and many a time I shall remember you both. I never cared for any young people but yourselves, and I shall never take charge of any others. Master Frank was the best boy in the world, and you would both have been as good under my care,--but it is no matter now!"

"But it does matter a very great deal," cried Harry, eagerly. "You must stay here, Mrs. Crabtree, as long as you live, and a great deal longer! I shall write a letter to papa all about it. We were very troublesome, and it was our own faults if we were punished. Never mind, Mrs. Crabtree, but take off your bonnet and sit down! I am going to do some dreadful mischief to-night, so you will be wanted to keep me in order."

Mrs. Crabtree laid her hand upon Harry's head in silence, and there was something so solemn and serious in her manner, that he saw it would be useless to remonstrate any more. She then held out her hand to Laura, endeavouring to smile as she did so, but it was a vain attempt, for her lip quivered, and she turned away, saying, "Who would ever believe I should make such a fool of myself! Farewell to you both! and let nobody speak ill of me after I am gone, if you can help it!"

Without looking round, Mrs. Crabtree hurried out of the nursery and closed the door, leaving Harry and Laura perfectly bewildered with astonishment at this sudden event, which seemed more like a dream than a reality. They both felt exceedingly melancholy, hardly able to believe that she had formerly been at all cross, while they stood at the window with tears in their eyes, watching the departure of her well-known blue chest, on a wheel-barrow, and taking a last look of her red gown and scarlet shawl as she hastily followed it.

For several weeks to come, whenever the door opened, Harry and Laura almost expected her to enter, but month after month elapsed, and Mrs. Crabtree appeared no more, till one day, at their earnest entreaty, Lady Harriet took them a drive of some miles into the country, to see the neat little lodging by the sea-side where she lived, and maintained herself by sewing, and by going out occasionally as a sick-nurse. A more delightful surprise certainly never could have been given than when Harry and Laura tapped at the cottage door, which was opened by Mrs. Crabtree herself, who started back with an exclamation of joyful amazement, and looked as if she could scarcely believe her eyes on beholding them, while they laughed at the joke till tears were running down their cheeks. "Is Mrs. Crabtree at home?" said Harry, trying to look very grave.

"Grandmama says we may stay here for an hour, while she drives along the shore," added Laura, stepping into the house with a very merry face. "And how do you do, Mrs. Crabtree?"

"Very well, Miss Laura, and very happy to see you. What a tall girl you are become! and Master Harry too! looking quite over his own shoulders!"

After sitting some time, Mrs. Crabtree insisted on their having some dinner in her cottage; so making Harry and Laura sit down on each side of a large blazing fire, she cooked some most delicious pancakes for them in rapid succession, as fast as they could eat, tossing them high in the air first, and then rolling up each as it was fried, with a large spoonful of jam in the centre, till Harry and Laura at last said, that unless Mrs. Crabtree supplied fresh appetites, she need make no more pancakes, for they thought even Peter Grey himself could scarcely have finished all she provided.

Harry had now been several months constantly attending school, where he became a great favourite with the boys, and a great torment to the masters, while, for his own part, he liked it twenty times better than he had expected, because the lessons were tolerably easy to a clever boy, as he really was, and the games at cricket and foot-ball in the play-ground put him perfectly wild with joy. Every boy at school seemed to be his particular friend, and many called him "the holiday-maker," because, if ever a holiday was wished for, Harry always became leader in the scheme. The last morning of Peter Grey's appearing at school, he got the name of "the copper captain," because Mr. Lexicon having fined him half-a-crown, for not knowing one of his lessons, he brought the whole sum in half-pence, carrying them in his hat, and gravely counting them all out, with such a pains-taking, good-boy look, that any one, to see him, would have supposed he was quite penitent and sorry for his misconduct; but no sooner had he finished the task and ranged all the half-pence neatly in rows along Mr. Lexicon's desk, than he was desired, in a voice of thunder, to leave the room instantly, and never to return, which accordingly he never did, having started next day on the top of the coach for Portsmouth, and the last peep Harry got of him, he was buying a perfect mountain of gingerbread out of an old man's basket, to eat by the way.

Meantime Laura had lessons from a regular day-governess, who came every morning at seven, and never disappeared till four in the afternoon, so, as Mrs. Crabtree remarked, "the puir thing was perfectly deaved wi' edication," but she made such rapid progress, that uncle David said it would be difficult to decide whether she was growing fastest in body or in mind. Laura seemed born to be under the tuition of none but ill-tempered people, and Madame Pirouette appeared in a constant state of irritability. During the music-lessons, she sat close to the piano, with a pair of sharp-pointed scissors in her hand, and whenever Laura played a wrong note, she stuck their points into the offending finger, saying sometimes in an angry foreign accent, "put your toe upon 'dis note! I tell you, put your toe upon 'dis note!"

"My finger, I suppose you mean?" asked Laura, trying not to laugh.

"Ah! fingare and toe! dat is all one! Speak not a word! take hold of your tongue."

"Laura!" said Major Graham, one day, "I would as soon hear a gong sounded at my ear for half an hour, as most of the fine pieces you perform now. Taste and expression are quite out of date, but the chief object of ambition is, to seem as if you had four hands instead of two, from the torrent of notes produced at once. If ever you wish to please my old-fashioned ears, give me melody,--something that touches the heart and dwells in the memory,--then years afterwards, when we hear it again, the language seems familiar to our feelings, and we listen with deep delight to sounds recalling a thousand recollections of former days, which are brought back by music (real music) with distinctness and interest which nothing else can equal."

During more than two years, while Harry and Laura were rapidly advancing in education, they received many interesting letters from Frank, expressing the most affectionate anxiety to hear of their being well and happy, while his paper was filled with amusing accounts of the various wonderful countries he visited; and at the bottom of the paper, he always very kindly remembered to send them an order on his banker, as he called uncle David, drawn up in proper form, saying, "Please to pay Master Harry and Miss Laura Graham the sum of five shillings on my account. Francis Arthur Graham."

In Frank's gay, merry epistles, he kept all his little annoyances or vexations to himself, and invariably took up the pen with such a desire to send cheerfulness into his own beloved home, that his letters might have been written with a sun-beam, they were so full of warmth and vivacity. It seemed always a fair wind to Frank, for he looked upon the best side of every thing, and never teazed his absent friends with complaints of distresses they could not remedy, except when he frequently mentioned his sorrow at being separated from them, adding, that he often wished it were possible to meet them during one day in every year, to tell all his thoughts, and to hear theirs in return, for sometimes now, during the night watches, when all other resources failed, he entertained himself, by imagining the circle of home all gathered around him, and by inventing what each individual would say upon any subjects he liked, while all his adventures acquired a double interest, from considering that the recital would one day amuse his dear friends when their happy meeting at last took place. Frank was not so over-anxious about his own comfort, as to feel very much irritated and discomposed at any privations that fell in his way, and once sitting up in the middle of a dark night, with the rain pouring in torrents, and the wind blowing a perfect hurricane, he drew his watch-coat round him, saying good humouredly to his grumbling companions, "This is by no means so bad! and whatever change takes place now, will probably be for the better. Sunshine is as sure to come as Christmas, if you only wait for it, and in the meantime we are all more comfortably off than St. Patrick, when he had to swim across a stormy sea, with his head under his arm."

Frank often amused his messmates with stories which he had heard from uncle David, and soon became the greatest favourite imaginable with them all, while he frequently endeavoured to lead their minds to the same sure foundation of happiness which he always found the best security of his own. He had long been taught to know that a vessel might as well be steered without rudder or compass, as any individual be brought into a haven of peace, unless directed by the Holy Scriptures; and his delight was frequently to study such passages as these: "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour."