“All de dentlemen todedder!” said Harry, with a pompous look, as he stood ready to be lifted to the place of honor assigned him.
“Now are all packed in tight?” said Mr. Lee, as he drew up the reins in his hand.
“All right!” was the merry shout within, and away went the horses, as if they enjoyed the sport.
The swift motion through the cool air made Hatty glad to draw close round her the shawl she had thrown over her bare neck and arms; and Mrs. Lee reached forward to fold the baby’s blanket closely about it.
Hatty soon found Meg rather heavy, and she might have made the whole party uncomfortable by complaining,—but she had learned that one way of doing right is, to check all complaints about trifles, and to be as cheerful as possible.
After a while Meg slipped quietly down into the bottom of the carriage, and said she had a charming seat there on the baby’s strong basket. She did not say that she saw sister Hatty was weary, and wished to relieve her. Little Meg was learning something of Christian kindness; so true is it that where one child in a family is really trying to do right, all the others soon catch something of her spirit.
It was a real treat to the children to be fairly outside the town, among green fields and pleasant woods. Mrs. Lee had to keep her head bobbing this way and that way, to see a flock of turkeys that made Meg laugh; or a wild flower that pleased Hatty; or a “pretty moo cow” that Harry thought quite extraordinary.
Marcus, meanwhile, was sitting up beside his father, and trying to talk learnedly of “crops and fallow-land, good timber, and pretty fair orchards.” His father listened when he spoke, and quietly corrected his mistakes, without showing him the least sign of contempt, or making him feel his youth unnecessarily.
Mr. Lee saw that Marcus was bent upon appearing like a man, and he only tried to make him a sensible, accurate little man, instead of putting him down in a way likely to provoke him.
All Marcus’ _mannish_ ways went off, suddenly, when the carriage drew up at Mr. Sparrow’s door. He leaped from his seat, and without waiting to hand out the ladies and children, he gave a merry shout, and started off for the brook at a pace that most men find neither easy nor comfortable.