Tell Me a Story Read online

how it came about. There was one part of theday, I daresay it was the hour that the nursery children were asleep,when it was convenient for Louisa to be sent down-stairs to sit besideher mother in the drawing-room, with many injunctions to be quiet. Hermother was generally writing or "doing accounts" at that time, and notat leisure to attend to her little girl; but when Louisa appeared at thedoor she would look up and say with a smile, "Well, dear, and what willyou have to amuse yourself with to-day?" At first Louisa used toconsider for a minute, and nearly every day she would make a differentrequest.

  "A piece of paper and a pencil to write," she would say on Mondayperhaps, and on Tuesday it would be "The box with the chess, please,"and on Wednesday something else. But after a while her answer came tobe always the same--"Your big workbox to tidy, please, mamma."

  Mamma smiled at the great need of tidying that had come over her bigworkbox, but she knew she could certainly trust Louisa not to _un_-tidyit, so she used just to push it across the table to her withoutspeaking, and then for an hour at least nothing more was heard ofLouisa. She sat quite still, fully as absorbed in her occupation as hermother was in hers, till at last the well-known tap at the door wouldbring her back from dream-land.

  "Miss Louisa, your dinner is waiting," or "Miss Louisa, the little onesare quite ready to go out;" and, with a deep sigh, the workbox would beclosed and the little girl would obey the unwelcome summons.

  And next day, and the day after, and a great many days after that, itwas always the same thing. But nobody knew anything about these queerfriends of hers, except Louisa herself.

  There were several families of them, and their names were as original asthemselves. There were the Browns, reels of brown wood wound with whitecotton; as far as I remember there were a Mr and Mrs Brown and threechildren; the Browns were supposed to be quiet, respectable people, wholived in a large house in the country, but had nothing particularlyromantic or exciting about them. There were the De Cordays, so namedfrom the conspicuous mark of "three cord" which they bore. They were aset of handsome bone, or, as Louisa called it, _ivory_ reels, and sheadded the "De" to their name to make it sound grander. There were twopretty little reels of fine China silk, whom she distinguished as theChinese Princesses. Blanche and Rose were their first names, to suitthe colours they bore, for Louisa, you see, had learnt a little Frenchalready; and there were some larger silk reels, whom she called the"Lords and Ladies Flossy." Altogether there were between twenty andthirty personages in the workbox community, and the adventures they had,the elegance and luxury in which they lived, the wonderful stories theytold each other, would fill more pages than I have time to write, orthan you, kind little girls that you are, would have patience to read.I must hasten on to tell you how it came to pass that this queer fancyof Louisa's was discovered by other people.

  One morning when she was sitting quietly, as usual, beside her mother, afriend of Mrs no, we need not tell her name, I should like you bestjust to think of her as Louisa's mamma--well then, a friend of Louisa'smamma's came to call. She was a lady who lived in the country severalmiles away from Smokytown, but she was very fond of Louisa's mamma, andwhenever she had to come to Smokytown to shop, or anything of that kind,perhaps to take her little girl (for she too had a little girl as youshall hear) to the dentist's, she always came early to call on herfriend. Louisa's mamma jumped up at once, when the servant threw openthe door and announced the lady by name, and then they kissed eachother, and then Louisa's mamma stooped down and kissed the lady's littlegirl who was standing beside her, but Louisa sat so quietly at hercorner of the table, that for a minute or two no one noticed her. Shewas just thinking if she could manage to creep down under the table andslip away out of the room without being seen, when her mamma called her.

  "Louisa, my dear," she said, "come here and speak to Mrs Gordon and toFrances. You remember Frances, don't you, dear?"

  Louisa got down slowly off her chair and came to her mamma. She stoodlooking at Frances for a minute or two without speaking.

  "Don't you remember Frances?" said her mamma again.

  "No," said Louisa at last, "I don't think I do." Then she turned awayas if she were going back to her place at the table. Her mamma lookedvexed.

  "Poor little thing," said Mrs Gordon, "she is only rather shy.Frances, you must make friends with her."

  "Louisa, I am not pleased with you," said her mamma gravely, and thenshe went on talking to Mrs Gordon.

  Frances followed Louisa to the table, where all the reels were arrangedin order. There was a grand feast going on among them that day: one ofthe Chinese princesses was to be married to one of the Lords Flossy, andLouisa had been smartening them up for the occasion. But she did notwant to tell Frances about it.

  "I am only playing with mamma's workbox things," she said, looking up atFrances, and wishing she had not come. She had taken a dislike toFrances, and the reason was not a very nice one--she was envious of herbecause she had such a pretty face and was very beautifully dressed.She had long curls of bright light hair, and large blue eyes, and shehad a purple velvet coat trimmed with fur, and a sweet little bonnetwith rosebuds in the cap, and Louisa's mamma would never let her haverosebuds or any flowers in _her_ bonnets. To Louisa's eyes she lookedalmost as beautiful as a fairy princess, but the thought vexed her.

  "Playing with your mamma's workbox things," said Frances, "how veryfunny! You poor little thing, have you got nothing else to play with?"

  She spoke as if she were several years older than Louisa, and this madeLouisa still more vexed.

  "Yes," she answered, "of course I have got other things, but I likethese. _You_ can't understand." Frances smiled. "How funny you are!"she said again, "but never mind. Let us talk of something nice.Perhaps you would like to hear what things _I_ have got to play with. Ihave a room all for myself, _filled_ with toys. I have got a largedoll-house, as tall as myself, with eight rooms; and I have sixteendolls of different kinds. They were mostly birthday presents. But I amgetting too big to care for them now. My birthday was last week. What_do_ you think papa gave me? Something so beautiful that I had wantedfor such a long time. I don't think you _could_ guess."

  In spite of herself Louisa was becoming interested. "I don't know, I'msure," she said; "perhaps it was a book full of stories."

  Frances shook her head. "O no," she answered, "it wasn't. _That_ wouldbe nothing particular, and my present _was_ something particular, veryparticular indeed. Well, you can't guess, so I'll tell you--it was aPrincess's dress; a _real_ dress you know; a dress that I can put on andwear."

  "A Princess's dress!" repeated Louisa, opening her eyes.

  "Yes, to be sure," said Frances. "I call it a Princess's dress, becauseit is copied from one the Princess Fair Star wore at the pantomime lastChristmas. It was there I saw it, and I have teased papa ever sincetill he got it for me. And it _is_ so beautiful; quite beautiful enoughfor a queen for that matter. My papa often calls me his queen,sometimes he says his golden-haired queen. Does yours?"

  "No," said Louisa sadly; "my papa sometimes calls me his pet, andsometimes he calls me `old woman,' but he never says I am his queen. Isuppose I am not pretty enough."

  "I don't know," said Frances, consideringly, "I don't think you're uglyexactly. Perhaps if you asked your papa to get you a Princess'sdress--"

  "He wouldn't," said Louisa decidedly, "I know he wouldn't. It would notbe the least use asking him. Tell me more about yours--what is it like,and does it make you feel like a real princess when you have it on?"

  "I suppose it makes me _look_ like one," replied Frances complacently,"and as for feeling, why one can always fancy, you know."

  "Fancying isn't enough," said Louisa. "I know I should dreadfully liketo _be_ a princess or a queen. It is the first thing I would ask afairy. Perhaps _you_ don't wish it so much because every one pets youso, and thinks you so pretty. Has your dress got silver and gold onit?"

  "O yes, at least it has silver--silver spots," began Fran
ces eagerly,but just then her mamma turned to tell her that they must go. "Thelittle people have made friends very quickly after all, you see," shesaid to Louisa's mamma. "Some day you must really bring Louisa to seeFrances--it has been such an old promise."

  "It is not often I can leave home for a whole day," said Louisa's mamma;"and then, dear, you must remember not having a carriage makes adifference."

  Louisa's cheeks grew red. She felt very vexed with her mamma