Chronicles of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery (funny books to read .TXT) đ
- Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery
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âWhat do you suppose I caught him doing this time?â demanded Judith.
âIâI donât know,â faltered Salome.
âFiringâatâaâ markâonâtheâhenhouseâdoorâwithâ new-laidâeggs,â said Judith with measured distinctness. âHe has broken every egg that was laid to-day except three. And as for the state of that henhouse doorââ
Judith paused, with an indignant gesture meant to convey that the state of the henhouse door must be left to Salomeâs imagination, since the English language was not capable of depicting it.
âO Lionel Hezekiah, why will you do such things?â said Salome miserably.
âIâdidnât know it was wrong,â said Lionel Hezekiah, bursting into prompt tears. âIâI thought it would be bully fun. Seemsâs if everything whatâs fun âs wrong.â
Salomeâs heart was not proof against tears, as Lionel Hezekiah very well knew. She put her arm about the sobbing culprit, and drew him to her side.
âHe didnât know it was wrong,â she said defiantly to Judith.
âHeâs got to be taught, then,â was Judithâs retort. âNo, you neednât try to beg him off, Salome. He shall go right to bed without supper, and stay there till to-morrow morning.â
âOh! not without his supper,â entreated Salome. âYouâyou wonât improve the childâs morals by injuring his stomach, Judith.â
âWithout his supper, I say,â repeated Judith inexorably. âLionel Hezekiah, go upstairs to the south room, and go to bed at once.â
Lionel Hezekiah went upstairs, and went to bed at once. He was never sulky or disobedient. Salome listened to him as he stumped patiently upstairs with a sob at every step, and her own eyes filled with tears.
âNow donât for pityâs sake go crying, Salome,â said Judith irritably. âI think Iâve let him off very easily. He is enough to try the patience of a saint, and I never was that,â she added with entire truth.
âBut he isnât bad,â pleaded Salome. âYou know he never does anything the second time after he has been told it was wrong, never.â
âWhat good does that do when he is certain to do something new and twice as bad? I never saw anything like him for originating ideas of mischief. Just look at what he has done in the past fortnightâ in one fortnight, Salome. He brought in a live snake, and nearly frightened you into fits; he drank up a bottle of liniment, and almost poisoned himself; he took three toads to bed with him; he climbed into the henhouse loft, and fell through on a hen and killed her; he painted his face all over with your water-colours; and now comes THIS exploit. And eggs at twenty-eight cents a dozen! I tell you, Salome, Lionel Hezekiah is an expensive luxury.â
âBut we couldnât do without him,â protested Salome.
âI could. But as you canât, or think you canât, weâll have to keep him, I suppose. But the only way to secure any peace of mind for ourselves, as far as I can see, is to tether him in the yard, and hire somebody to watch him.â
âThere must be some way of managing him,â said Salome desperately. She thought Judith was in earnest about the tethering. Judith was generally so terribly in earnest in all she said. âPerhaps it is because he has no other employment that he invents so many unheard-of things. If he had anything to occupy himself withâ perhaps if we sent him to schoolââ
âHeâs too young to go to school. Father always said that no child should go to school until it was seven, and I donât mean Lionel Hezekiah shall. Well, Iâm going to take a pail of hot water and a brush, and see what I can do to that henhouse door. Iâve got my afternoonâs work cut out for me.â
Judith stood Salomeâs crutch up beside her, and departed to purify the henhouse door. As soon as she was safely out of the way, Salome took her crutch, and limped slowly and painfully to the foot of the stairs. She could not go up and comfort Lionel Hezekiah as she yearned to do, which was the reason Judith had sent him upstairs. Salome had not been upstairs for fifteen years. Neither did she dare to call him out on the landing, lest Judith return. Besides, of course he must be punished; he had been very naughty.
âBut I wish I could smuggle a bit of supper up to him,â she mused, sitting down on the lowest step and listening. âI donât hear a sound. I suppose he has cried himself to sleep, poor, dear baby. He certainly is dreadfully mischievous; but it seems to me that it shows an investigating turn of mind, and if it could only be directed into the proper channelsâ I wish Judith would let me have a talk with Mr. Leonard about Lionel Hezekiah. I wish Judith didnât hate ministers so. I donât mind so much her not letting me go to church, because Iâm so lame that it would be painful anyhow; but Iâd like to talk with Mr. Leonard now and then about some things. I can never believe that Judith and father were right; I am sure they were not. There is a God, and Iâm afraid itâs terribly wicked not to go to church. But there, nothing short of a miracle would convince Judith; so there is no use in thinking about it. Yes, Lionel Hezekiah must have gone to sleep.â
Salome pictured him so, with his long, curling lashes brushing his rosy, tear-stained cheek and his chubby fists clasped tightly over his breast as was his habit; her heart grew warm and thrilling with the maternity the picture provoked.
A year previously Lionel Hezekiahâs parents, Abner and Martha Smith, had died, leaving a houseful of children and very little else. The children were adopted into various Carmody families, and Salome Marsh had amazed Judith by asking to be allowed to take the five-year-old âbaby.â At first Judith had laughed at the idea; but, when she found that Salome was in earnest, she yielded. Judith always gave Salome her own way except on one point.
âIf you want the child, I suppose you must have him,â she said finally. âI wish he had a civilized name, though. Hezekiah is bad, and Lionel is worse; but the two in combination, and tacked on to Smith at that, is something that only Martha Smith could have invented. Her judgment was the same clear through, from selecting husbands to names.â
So Lionel Hezekiah came into Judithâs home and Salomeâs heart. The latter was permitted to love him all she pleased, but Judith overlooked his training with a critical eye. Possibly it was just as well, for Salome might otherwise have ruined him with indulgence. Salome, who always adopted Judithâs opinions, no matter how ill they fitted her, deferred to the formerâs decrees meekly, and suffered far more than Lionel Hezekiah when he was punished.
She sat on the stairs until she fell asleep herself, her head pillowed on her arm. Judith found her there when she came in, severe and triumphant, from her bout with the henhouse door. Her face softened into marvelous tenderness as she looked at Salome.
âSheâs nothing but a child herself in spite of her age,â she thought pityingly. âA child thatâs had her whole life thwarted and spoiled through no fault of her own. And yet folks say there is a God who is kind and good! If there is a God, he is a cruel, jealous tyrant, and I hate Him!â
Judithâs eyes were bitter and vindictive. She thought she had many grievances against the great Power that rules the universe, but the most intense was Salomeâs helplessnessâSalome, who fifteen years before had been the brightest, happiest of maidens, light of heart and foot, bubbling over with harmless, sparkling mirth and life. If Salome could only walk like other women, Judith told herself that she would not hate the great tyrannical Power.
Lionel Hezekiah was subdued and angelic for four days after that affair of the henhouse door. Then he broke out in a new place. One afternoon he came in sobbing, with his golden curls full of burrs. Judith was not in, but Salome dropped her crochet-work and gazed at him in dismay.
âOh, Lionel Hezekiah, what have you gone and done now?â
âIâI just stuck the burrs in âcause I was playing I was a heathen chief,â sobbed Lionel Hezekiah. âIt was great fun while it lasted; but, when I tried to take them out, it hurt awful.â
Neither Salome nor Lionel Hezekiah ever forgot the harrowing hour that followed. With the aid of comb and scissors, Salome eventually got the burrs out of Lionel Hezekiahâs crop of curls. It would be impossible to decide which of them suffered more in the process. Salome cried as hard as Lionel Hezekiah did, and every snip of the scissors or tug at the silken floss cut into her heart. She was almost exhausted when the performance was over; but she took the tired Lionel Hezekiah on her knee, and laid her wet cheek against his shining head.
âOh, Lionel Hezekiah, what does make you get into mischief so constantly?â she sighed.
Lionel Hezekiah frowned reflectively.
âI donât know,â he finally announced, âunless itâs because you donât send me to Sunday school.â
Salome started as if an electric shock had passed through her frail body.
âWhy, Lionel Hezekiah,â she stammered, âwhat put such and idea into your head?â
âWell, all the other boys go,â said Lionel Hezekiah defiantly; âand theyâre all betterân me; so I guess that must be the reason. Teddy Markham says that all little boys should go to Sunday school, and that if they donât theyâre sure to go to the bad place. I donât see how you can âspect me to behave well when you wonât send me to Sunday school.
âWould you like to go?â asked Salome, almost in a whisper.
âIâd like it bully,â said Lionel Hezekiah frankly and succinctly.
âOh, donât use such dreadful words,â sighed Salome helplessly. âIâll see what can be done. Perhaps you can go. Iâll ask your Aunt Judith.â
âOh, Aunt Judith wonât let me go,â said Lionel Hezekiah despondingly. âAunt Judith doesnât believe there is any God or any bad place. Teddy Markham says she doesnât. He says sheâs an awful wicked woman âcause she never goes to church. So you must be wicked too, Aunt Salome, âcause you never go. Why donât you?â
âYourâyour Aunt Judith wonât let me go,â faltered Salome, more perplexed than she had ever been before in her life.
âWell, it doesnât seem to me that you have much fun on Sundays,â remarked Lionel Hezekiah ponderingly. âIâd have more if I was you. But I sâpose you canât âcause youâre ladies. Iâm glad Iâm a man. Look at Abel Blair, what splendid times he has on Sundays. He never goes to church, but he goes fishing, and has cock-fights, and gets drunk. When I grow up, Iâm going to do that on Sundays too, since I wonât be going to church. I donât want to go to church, but Iâd like to go to Sunday school.â
Salome listened in agony. Every word of Lionel Hezekiahâs stung her conscience unbearably. So this was the result of her weak yielding to Judith; this innocent child looked upon her as a wicked woman, and, worse still, regarded old, depraved Abel Blair as a model to be imitated. Oh! was it too late to undo the evil? When Judith returned, Salome blurted out the whole story. âLionel Hezekiah must go to Sunday school,â she concluded appealingly.
Judithâs face hardened until it was as if cut in stone.
âNo, he shall not,â she said stubbornly. âNo one living in my household shall ever go to church or Sunday school. I gave in to you when you wanted to teach him
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