Kitty's Christmas tree E-Book

Lucy Ellen Guernsey

• Herausgeber: Librorium Editions
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

"I WONDER what keeps Kitty!" said Mrs. Tremain.
It was growing late of an October afternoon, and it was indeed quite time for Kitty to be at home from school. Mrs. Tremain had been twice to the door to look for her daughter, and still no Kitty was to be seen.
"I suspect some of the school-girls have coaxed her away!" answered Cousin Tilly. "That's the worst of Kitty. She can be coaxed into doing any thing. She is just her father over again, in that as well as in her looks!"
"I am sure I hope not!" said Mrs. Tremain, with an anxious expression. "I had hoped Kitty was gaining more firmness!"
And again she went to the door to look for Kitty. This time she saw her coming slowly with her hat pulled far down over her face, and her movements expressing any thing but high spirits. Mrs. Tremain went down to the gate to meet her daughter.

Leseprobe

Kitty's Christmas Tree;

OR,

The Net of the Flatterer.

LUCY ELLEN GUERNSEY

© 2025 Librorium Editions

ISBN : 9782385749491

CONTENTS. —————

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

KITTY'S CHRISTMAS TREE;

OR,

THE NET OF THE FLATTERER. ——————————

CHAPTER I.

"I WONDER what keeps Kitty!" said Mrs. Tremain.

It was growing late of an October afternoon, and it was indeed quite time for Kitty to be at home from school. Mrs. Tremain had been twice to the door to look for her daughter, and still no Kitty was to be seen.

"I suspect some of the school-girls have coaxed her away!" answered Cousin Tilly. "That's the worst of Kitty. She can be coaxed into doing any thing. She is just her father over again, in that as well as in her looks!"

"I am sure I hope not!" said Mrs. Tremain, with an anxious expression. "I had hoped Kitty was gaining more firmness!"

And again she went to the door to look for Kitty. This time she saw her coming slowly with her hat pulled far down over her face, and her movements expressing any thing but high spirits. Mrs. Tremain went down to the gate to meet her daughter.

"Why, Kitty, how late you are!" said she. "Do you know it is after five o'clock, and almost dark?" Then, catching a glimpse of Kitty's swollen and tearstained face, she exclaimed, "But, my dear child, what is the matter? What has happened?"

"Miss Oliver kept me after school!" replied Kitty, bursting into tears, and sobbing as if her heart would break. "She has given me three bad marks, and all these sums to do besides. And it was not my fault, either, and I think she is too bad?"

"Hush, hush, my dear! Don't say any thing about it just now, but go up-stairs, wash your face and make yourself neat for tea; after that I will hear the whole story. Come, now, don't cry any more, but do as I bid you, and come down as soon as you can. Cousin Tilly has been getting something very nice for your supper!"

Mrs. Tremain spoke very decidedly, though kindly and soothingly, and Kitty knew she must obey. She went up to her own pretty, nicely-furnished little room, and, putting away her cloak and hat, she drenched her face and head with cool water till the traces of her tears were removed and her short black hair curled up as tight as that of her aunt Baldwin's French poodle. She had hardly succeeded in reducing it to some sort of order when Cousin Tilly called to her from the foot of the stairs—

"Come, Kitty! Tea is ready and the waffles baked brown as a berry, just as you like 'em!"

"Cousin Tilly is real good, and so is mother!" was Kitty's reflection as she came down-stairs. "If it was some people, they would begin scolding me at once. I wonder if it was my fault, after all!"

All through tea-time Mrs. Tremain made no allusion to Kitty's school troubles, but chatted pleasantly about other things—about who had called, about Mrs. Benson's new twin babies, and Aunt Baldwin's letter—sometimes addressing her remarks to Kitty and sometimes to Cousin Tilly, who answered in dry, concise sentences, after her usual manner.

"Now, Kitty!" said Mrs. Tremain, when tea was over. "You and I will wash up the dishes and let Cousin Tilly go over to Mrs. Benson's and help to get her settled for the night. Olly Anne Phillips is going to sit up with her, but she cannot come before nine o'clock."

"Why does not Mrs. Benson have a regular nurse, mother, as Aunt Baldwin did when Georgy was born?" asked Kitty.

"For two reasons, my dear. In the first place, she cannot afford it. And in the second place, no such person is to be had. Mrs. Smith is nursing poor Mrs. Burchard over at the Corners, and Olly Anne Phillips cannot leave home in the day-time. So the neighbours must join together and take care of her as well as they are able. 'Bear ye one another's burdens,' you know, daughter."

"I am sure it is no great burden to wash up the tea-things," said Kitty. "I should like to do it very often, only Cousin Tilly will not let me for fear I should not turn all the cup handles the same way, I believe," added Kitty, laughing.

Her mother laughed too.

"Cousin Tilly has her little ways, but we should hardly know how to live without her," said she. "We must mind what we are about, or else she will scold us when she comes home."

While Mrs. Tremain and her daughter are gathering up and washing the cups and saucers, we will learn a little about who they were. Mrs. Tremain was a widow, with one little girl. She had had other children, but had lost them. Her husband had inherited a large property from his father, but he, too, was gone, and most of his property with him—all indeed, but the share which old Mr. Tremain's kindness or prudence had settled upon his daughter-in-law. Part of this property consisted in a comfortable, old-fashioned brick-house with a good garden and some pasturelands situated in the little village of Holford. Here Mrs. Tremain had come to live after the loss of her husband. And here she still lived, economically indeed, but in great comfort, and even elegance. The neighbours considered her rich, because she "lived on the interest of her money," and did not work for a living.

A good deal of Mrs. Tremain's comfort was owing to Cousin Tilly, as Mrs. Tremain and Kitty called her—Miss Crocker, as the minister and the neighbours said. Nobody knew exactly how Cousin Tilly was related to Mrs. Tremain. She did her work and received wages like any other servant, but she was treated with the greatest respect by both mother and daughter, sitting with them at the table and in church, and introduced to visitors as "my cousin, Miss Crocker." She never went visiting, nor wrote any letters, nor seemed to have any friends outside of Holford. People could not understand it at all, and yet it was no great mystery.

Miss Crocker was an orphan, with a little—a very little—property of her own, not enough to support her. She was not accomplished, nor highly educated in any way, and it did not suit her health to sit and sew. So, like a wise woman, she determined to do for a living what she could do best, namely, housework, which she understood to perfection. She had lived with her cousin, Mrs. Tremain, for many years, and found herself very happy. She earned enough to clothe herself comfortably in the plain way which she preferred; and her little property meantime was accumulating and making a comfortable fund against a time of helplessness and old age, in spite of the liberal way in which she gave to all good objects.