Esther's Charge: A Story for Girls

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  "They shouted and cheered; then Mr. Trelawny put his hand on her head." Page 310. _Esther's Charge._]

  ESTHER'S CHARGE

  A STORY FOR GIRLS

  BY

  E. EVERETT-GREEN

  AUTHOR OF "SQUIB AND HIS FRIENDS," "THE YOUNG PIONEERS," "IN THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY," ETC, ETC.

  _ILLUSTRATED_

  NEW YORK A. L. BURT, PUBLISHER

  CONTENTS.

  I. A Little Manager, 1 II. The Boys, 26 III. An Anxious Charge, 52 IV. The Sweets of Freedom, 78 V. At the Crag, 104 VI. The Shorn Sheep, 130 VII. Days of Sunshine, 156 VIII. The City of Refuge, 182 IX. The Magician's Cave, 208 X. Confessions, 234 XI. Mr. Trelawny, 262 XII. A New Charge, 291

  ESTHER'S CHARGE.

  CHAPTER I.

  A LITTLE MANAGER.

  "Where is Miss Esther, Genefer?"

  "I think she's at the linen-press, marm, putting away the things fromthe wash."

  "Tell her to come to me when she has done that. I want to speak to her."

  "Yes, marm, I will. Can I do anything else for you?"

  "No, thank you. I have all I want. But send Miss Esther to me quickly."

  Mrs. St. Aiden was lying on a couch in a very pretty, dainty, littleroom, which opened upon a garden, blazing with late spring and earlysummer flowers. The lawn was still green, and looked like velvet, andthe beds and borders of flowers were carefully tended, as could be seenat a glance. The gravel paths were rolled and weeded, and everything wasin exquisite order, both within and without the house. Everything alsowas on a very small scale; and the lady herself, who was clad in deepwidow's weeds, was small and slim also, and looked as if she weresomewhat of an invalid, which indeed was the case.

  Rather more than a year ago her husband had died after a very shortillness, and she had never been well since, although she was not exactlyill of any disease. She was weak and easily upset, and she had to dependa good deal upon her servants and her only daughter. She had never beenaccustomed to think for herself. Captain St. Aiden had always done thethinking and the managing as long as he lived, and the poor lady feltvery helpless when he was taken from her.

  When the servant had gone she took up again a letter which she had beenreading, and kept turning the leaves of it over and over again, sighing,and seeming troubled and perplexed. She also kept looking across theroom towards the door at short intervals, sometimes saying half aloudas she did so,--

  "I wish Esther would come!"

  Presently the door opened, and a little girl came into the room withvery quiet steps. She was dressed daintily in a white frock, with blacksash and bows. She had a grave little face, that was generally ratherpale, and looked small beneath the wide brow and big gray eyes. Perhapsit looked smaller for the flowing mass of wavy hair, a dusky chestnutcolor, that flowed over the child's shoulders and hung below her waist.It was very beautiful hair, soft and silky, with a crisp wave in it thatmade it stand off from her face like a cloud. It looked dark in theshadow, but when the sun shone upon it, it glistened almost like gold.Mrs. St. Aiden was very proud of Esther's hair, and considered it herchief beauty; but it was a source of considerable trouble to the littlegirl herself, for it took a great deal of brushing and combing to keepit in order, and tangled dreadfully when she played games. Then oftenthe weight and heat of it made her head ache, especially at night; andshe used to long to have a cropped head like other little children shesometimes saw, or, at least, to have only moderately long hair, like hertwo little friends at the rectory, Prissy and Milly Polperran.

  "Did you want me, mama?" asked Esther, coming forwards towards thecouch.

  "Yes, dear, I did. I want to talk to you about something very serious. Ihave a letter here from your Uncle Arthur. He wants to send his twolittle boys here for three years, because he has just got an appointmentthat will take him out of the country all that time. I don't know whatto think about it; it is so very sudden."

  It was sudden, and Mrs. St. Aiden looked rather piteously at Esther. Itseemed so hard for her to have to decide upon such a step in a hurry,and her brother wanted an answer at once. He had to make his ownarrangements very quickly.

  Esther was quite used to being her mother's confidante and adviser. Evenin her father's lifetime she had often been promoted to this post duringhis frequent absences. When he lay dying, he had taken Esther's hands inhis, and looking into her serious eyes, so like his own, had told herto take great care of mama always, and try to be a help and comfort toher. Her father had often called her his "wise little woman," and hadtalked to her much more gravely and seriously than most fathers do totheir young children. Esther, too, having no brothers or sisters, hadgrown up almost entirely with her elders, and, therefore, she haddeveloped a gravity and seriousness not usual at her age, though she wasby no means lacking in the capacity for childish fun on the rareoccasions when she was free to indulge in it.

  She was ten years old at this time, and she was not taller than manychildren are at seven or eight; but there was a thoughtful look upon thesmall face and in the big gray eyes which was different from what isgenerally to be seen in the eyes of children of that age.

  "Two little boys!" repeated Esther gravely; "they will be my cousins, Isuppose. How old are they, and what are their names, mama?"

  "The elder is nine, and the other rather more than a year younger. Hedoes not mention their names, but I know the elder is called Philip,after our grandfather. I'm not quite sure about the second. Arthur issuch a very bad correspondent, and poor Ada died when the second boy wasborn. You see it was like this, Esther. The grandmother on the mother'sside kept house for him, and took care of the children after theirmother died--she was living with him then. She died a year ago, andthings have been going on in the same groove at his house. But now comesthis appointment abroad, and he can neither take the boys nor leave themat home alone. They are not fit for school yet, he says. Of course theyare not ready for public school, but I should have thought theymight--well, never mind that. What he says is that they want taking inhand by a good governess or tutor, and suggests that they should come tome, and that I should find such a person, and that you should share thelessons, and get a good start with your education."

  Esther's eyes began to sparkle beneath their long black lashes. She hadan ardent love of study, and hitherto she had only been able to pick upsuch odd crumbs as were to be had from the desultory teaching of hermother, or from the study of such books as she could lay hands upon inthat little-used room that was called the study, though nobody everstudied there save herself.

  In her father's lifetime Esther had been well grounded, but since hisdeath her education had been conducted in a very haphazard fashion. Shehad a wonderful thirst after knowledge, and in her leisure hours wouldalmost always be found poring over a book; but of real tuition she hadnow hardly any, and the thought of a regular governess or tutor made hereyes sparkle with joy.

  "O mama! could we?"

  "Could we what, Esther?"

  "Have a governess or tutor here as well as two boys?"

  "Not in the house itself, of course. But he or she could lodge in theplace, I suppose, and come every day. Your uncle is very liberal in hisideas, Esther. He is going to let his own big house. He has had an offeralready, and he suggests paying over three or four hundred pounds ayear to me, if I will undertake the charge of
the two boys. Of coursethat would make it all very easy in some ways."

  Esther's eyes grew round with wonder. She knew all about her mother'saffairs, and how difficult it sometimes was to keep everything in thedainty state of perfection expected, upon the small income theyinherited. To have this income doubled at a stroke, and only two boys tokeep and a tutor's salary to pay out of it! Why, that would be awonderful easing of many burdens which weighed heavily sometimes uponEsther's youthful shoulders. She had often found it so difficult tosatisfy her delicate mother's wishes and whims, and yet to keep theweekly bills down to the sum Genefer said they ought not to exceed.

  "O mama, what a lot of money!"

  "Your uncle is a well-to-do man, my dear, and he truly says that termsat good private schools, where the holidays have to be provided for aswell, run into a lot of money. And he does not think the boys are fitfor school yet. He says they want breaking in by a tutor first. Theyhave had a governess up till now, but he thinks a tutor would be better,especially as there is no man in this house. I hope he does not meanthat the boys are very naughty and troublesome. I don't know what Ishall do with them if they are."

  The lady sighed, and looked at Esther in that half helpless way whichalways went to the little girl's heart. She bent over and kissed herbrow.

  "Never mind, mama dear. I will take care of the boys," she said, in herwomanly way. "They are both younger than I. I think it will be nice tohave regular lessons again. I think papa would have been pleased aboutthat. And perhaps I shall like having boys to play with too; only itwill be strange at first."

  "We could keep a girl, then, to help Genefer and Janet," said Mrs. St.Aiden. "The boys will have to have the big attic up at the top of thehouse, and the study to do lessons in. I hope they will not be verynoisy; and there is the garden to play in. But they must not break theflowers, or take the fruit, or spoil the grass, or cut up the gravel.You will have to keep them in order, Esther. I can't have the placetorn up by a pair of riotous boys."

  "I will take care of them, mama dear," answered Esther bravely, thoughher heart sank just a little at the thought of the unknown element aboutto be introduced into her life. She had had so little experience ofboys--there was only little Herbert at the rectory who ever came here,and he was quite good, and under the care of his elder sisters. Wouldthese boys let her keep them in order as Bertie was kept by Prissy andMilly? She hoped they would, and she said nothing of her misgivings toher mother.

  "Do you think you will say 'yes' to Uncle Arthur?"

  "I think I must, my dear. I don't like to refuse; and, of course, thereare advantages. Your education has been a difficulty. I have not thehealth myself, and we cannot afford a governess for you, and this is thefirst time Arthur has ever asked me to do anything for him. And, really,I might be able to keep a little pony carriage, and get out in thesummer, with this addition to our income. I always feel that if I couldget out more I should get back my health much quicker."

  Esther's eyes sparkled again at these words, and a little pink flushrose in her cheeks. It was the thing of all others she had always wishedfor her mother--a dear little pony, and a little low basket carriage inwhich she could drive her out.

  In father's days they had had one, and Esther had been allowed to drivethe quiet pony when she was quite a little child. But that belonged tothe old life, before the father had been taken away and they had comehere to live, right down in Cornwall, at this little quaint Hermitage,as the house was called. Since then no such luxury could be dreamed of.It had been all they could do to make ends meet, and keep the mothercontent with what could be done by two maids, and one man coming in andout to care for the garden. And even so, Esther often wondered how theywould get on, if it were not for all that Mr. Trelawny did for them.

  "O mama!" she cried, "could we really have a pony again?"

  "We will think about it. I should like to, if we could. It seems a pitythat that nice little stable should stand empty; and there is the littlepaddock too. The pony could run there when he wasn't wanted, and thatwould save something in his keep. I have always been used to my littledrives, and I miss them very much. But, of course, I shall not make upmy mind in a hurry. I should like to see Mr. Trelawny about it all evenbefore I write to Uncle Arthur."

  A little shadow fell over Esther's face. She felt sure she knew what wascoming.

  "I wish, dear, you would just run up to the Crag and ask Mr. Trelawny ifhe would come down and see me about this."

  The shadow deepened as the words were spoken, but Esther made only oneeffort to save herself the task.

  "Couldn't Genefer go, mama? It is so hot!"

  "It will be getting cooler every hour now, and there is plenty of shadethrough the wood. Have you had a walk to-day?"

  "No, mama; I have been busy. Saturday is always a busy day, you know."

  "Then a walk will do you good, and you will go much quicker thanGenefer. Bring Mr. Trelawny back with you if you can. You can tell him alittle about it, and he will know that it is important. You have time togo and come back before your tea-time."

  Esther did not argue the matter any more. She had never betrayed to anyliving creature this great fear which possessed her. She was halfashamed of it, yet she could never conquer it. She was more afraid ofMr. Trelawny than of anything in the world beside. He was like theembodiment of all the wizards, and genii, and magicians, and giantswhich she had read of in her fairy story-books, or of the mysterioushistoric personages over whom she had trembled when poring over thepages of historical romance.

  He was a very big man, with a very big voice, and he always talked in away which she could not fully understand, and which almost frightenedher out of her wits.

  It was the greatest possible penance to have to go up to his great bighouse on the hill, and she never approached it without tremors andquakings of heart. She fully believed that it contained dungeons,oubliettes, and other horrors. She had been told that the crags beneathwere riddled with great hollow caves, where monks had hidden in times ofpersecution, and where smugglers had hidden their goods and foughtdesperate battles with the excise officers and coast-guardsmen. Thewhole place seemed to her to be full of mystery and peril, and the fitowner and guardian was this gigantic Cornish squire, with his roilingvoice, leonine head, and autocratic air.

  He was always asking her why she did not oftener come to see him, butEsther would only shrink away and answer in her low, little voice thatshe had so much to do at home. And then he would laugh one of his big,sonorous laughs, that seemed to fill the house; and it was he who hadgiven her the name of the "little manager," and when he called her by ithe did so with an air of mock homage which frightened her more thananything else. At other times he would call her "Goldylocks," andpretend he was going to cut off her hair to make a cable for his yacht,which lay at anchor in the bay; and he would tell her a terrible storyabout a man who sought to anchor in the middle of a whirlpool, the cablebeing made of maidens' hair--only the golden strand gave way, and so hegot drowned instead of winning his wife by his act of daring boldness.This story was in verse, and he would roll it out in his big, melodiousvoice; and she was always obliged to listen, for the fascination wasstrong upon her. And then in the night she would lie shivering in herbed, picturing Mr. Trelawny and his yacht going round and round in thedreadful whirlpool, and her own chestnut-brown hair being the cablewhich had failed to hold fast!

  And yet Mr. Trelawny was a very kind friend to them. He was a relation,too, though not at all a near one, and had been very fond of Esther'sfather, who was his kinsman. When the widow and child had been left withonly a small provision, Mr. Trelawny had brought them to this prettyhouse at the foot of the hill upon which his big one stood. He hadinstalled them there, and he would not take any rent for it. And he sentdown his own gardener several times a week to make the garden trim andbright, and keep it well stocked with flowers and fruit.

  Once a week he always came down himself and gave an eye to everything.Mrs. St. Aiden looked forward to these visi
ts, as they broke themonotony of her life, and Mr. Trelawny was always gentle to the helplesslittle widow. But Esther always tried to keep out of the way when shecould, and the worst of it was that she was afraid Mr. Trelawny had asuspicion of this, and that it made him tease her more than ever.

  However, she never disobeyed her mother, or refused to do what was askedof her, and she knew that such a step as this one would never be takenwithout Mr. Trelawny's approval. Indeed, she saw that he ought to beasked, since the house was his; and, perhaps, he would not like two boysto be brought there. Esther had heard that boys could be verymischievous beings, and, though she could not quite think what they did,she saw that the lord of the manor had a right to be consulted.

  The Hermitage lay nestling just at the foot of a great craggy hill, thatwas clothed on one side with wood--mostly pine and spruce fir; but onthe other it was all crag and cliff, and looked sheer down upon thetumbling waves of the great Atlantic.

  Near to the Hermitage, along the white road, lay a few other houses, andthe little village of St. Maur, with its quaint old church and prettyvillage green. There were hills and moors again behind it, wild, andbleak, and boundless, as it seemed to the little girl whenever sheclimbed them. But St. Maur itself was a sheltered little place; the boomof the sea only sounded when the surf was beating very strong, and itwas so sheltered from the wind that trees grew as they grew nowhere elsein the neighborhood, and flowers flourished in the gardens as Esther hadnever seen them flourish in the other places where she had lived.Geraniums grew into great bushes, and fuchsias ran right up the housesas ivy did in the north, and roses bloomed till Christmas, and came onagain quite early in the spring, so that they seemed to have flowers allthe year round. That was a real delight to the little girl, who lovedthe garden above any other place; and with a book and an apple, croucheddown in the arbor or some pleasant flowery place, she would find apeace and contentment beyond all power of expression.

  As she climbed the path through the pine woods leading to Mr. Trelawny'sgreat house, she began to wonder what it would be like to have herprecious solitude invaded by a pair of little boys.

  "I wish they were rather littler, so that I could take care of them,"said Esther to herself. "I should like to be a little mother to them,and teach them to say their prayers, and wash their hands and faces, andkeep their toys nice and tidy. But perhaps they are too big to care forbeing taken care of. If they are, I don't quite know what I shall dowith them. But we shall have lessons a good part of the day, I suppose,and that will be interesting. Perhaps I shall be able to help them withtheirs. Only they may know more than I do."

  Musing like this, Esther soon found herself at the top of the hill, andcoming out of the wood, saw the big, curious house right in front ofher. She never looked at it without a little tremor, and she felt thethrill run through her to-day.

  It was such a very old house, and there were such lots of stories aboutit. Once it had been a castle, and people had fought battles over it;but that was so long, long ago that there was hardly anything left ofthat old building. Then it had been a monastery, and there were lots ofrooms now where the monks had lived and walked about; and the gardenswere as they made them, and people said that at night you could stillsee the old monks flitting to and fro. But for a long time it had been ahouse where people lived and died in the usual way, and Trelawnys hadbeen there for nearly three hundred years now.

  Esther had a private belief that this Mr. Trelawny had been there foralmost all that time, and that he had made or found the elixir of lifewhich the historical romances talked about, so that he continued livingon and on, and knew everything, and was strange and terrible. He alwaysdid seem to know everything that had happened, and his stories were atonce terrifying and entrancing. If only she could have got over her fearof him, she would have enjoyed listening; as it was, she always felthalf dead with terror.

  "Hallo, madam! and whither away so very fast?" cried a great deep voicefrom somewhere out of the heart of the earth; and Esther stopped short,with a little strangled cry of terror, for it was Mr. Trelawny's voice,and yet he was nowhere to be seen.

  "Wait a minute and I'll come!" said the voice again, and Esther stoodrooted to the spot with fear. There was a curious little sound of tap,tap, tapping somewhere underground not far away, and in another minute agreat rough head appeared out of one of those crevices in the earthwhich formed one of the many terrors of the Crag, and a huge man draggedhimself slowly out of the fissure, a hammer in his hand and severalstones clinking in one of his big pockets. He was covered with earth anddust, which he proceeded to shake off as a dog does when he has beenburrowing, whilst Esther stood rooted to the spot, petrified withamazement, and convinced that he had come up from some awfulsubterranean cavern, known only to himself, where he carried on hisstrange magic lore.

  "Well, madam?" he said, making her one of his low bows. When he calledher madam and bowed to her Esther was always more frightened than ever."To what happy accident may I attribute the honor of this visit?"

  "Mama sent me," said Esther, seeking to steady her voice, though she wasafraid to speak more than two or three words at a time.

  "Ah, that is it--mama sent you. It was no idea of your own. Alas, it isever so! Nobody seeks the poor old lonely hermit for his own sake. Somama has sent you, has she, Miss Goldylocks? And what is your errand?"

  "Mama asks if you will please read this letter, and then come and seeher and advise her what to do."

  Mr. Trelawny took the letter, gave one of his big laughs, and lookedquizzically at Esther.

  "Does your mama ever take advice, my dear?"

  Esther's eyes opened wide in astonishment.

  "Yes, of course she does. Mama never does anything until she has beenadvised by everybody."

  The big, rolling laugh sounded out suddenly, and Esther longed to runaway. She never knew whether she were being laughed at herself, and shedid not like that thought.

  "May I say you will come soon?" she asked, backing a little way down thehillside.

  "Wait a moment, child; I will come with you," answered the big man,turning his fossils out of his pocket, and putting them, with hishammer, inside a hollow tree. "Do you know what this letter says?"

  "Oh yes; mama read it to me."

  "Ah, of course. The 'little manager' must be consulted first. Well, andwhat does she say about it?"

  "Mama? Oh, I think----"

  "No, not mama; the 'little manager' herself. What do you want to doabout it?"

  Esther summoned up courage to reply sedately,--

  "I think perhaps it might be a good plan. You see, I should get a goodeducation then, and I should like that very much. It would be a greatadvantage in many ways----"

  But Esther left off suddenly, for Mr. Trelawny was roaring with laughteragain.

  "Hear the child!" he cried to the empty air, as it seemed; "she is askedif she likes boy-playfellows, and she replies with a dissertation on theadvantages of a liberal education! Hear that, ye shades of all thesages! A great advantage!--Yes, my dear, I think it will be a greatadvantage. You will learn to be young at last, perhaps, after beinggrown-up ever since you were shortened. A brace of boys will wake you upa bit, and, if I read between the lines correctly, this pair are goingto turn out a precious pair of pickles."

  Esther understood very little of this speech, but she tingled from headto foot with the consciousness that fun was being poked at her.

  "I think mama will do as you advise about it," she said, not being ableto think of anything else to say.

  The big man in the rough clothes was looking down at her with a twinklein his eyes. He got hold of her hand and made her look up at him.

  "Now tell me, child--don't be afraid to speak the truth--do you wantthese young cubs to come, or don't you? Would it make life pleasanter toyou or only a burden?"

  "I don't think I can quite tell till I've tried," said Esther, shakingall over, but striving to keep her fears to herself; "but I think itmight be nice to have two little boys
to take care of."

  "To take care of, eh? You haven't enough on your hands as it is?"

  "I used often to wish I'd a brother or a sister to play with; that wasbefore papa died. Since then I haven't had so much time to think aboutit, but perhaps it would be pleasant."

  "You do play sometimes then?"

  "Yes; when the little Polperrans come to see me, or when I go to seethem."

  "And you know how to do it when you try?"

  Esther was a little puzzled, and answered doubtfully,--

  "I know how to play the games they play. I don't know any besides."

  Mr. Trelawny suddenly flung her hand away from him and burst into agreat laugh.

  "I think I shall advise your mother to import these two young monkeys,"he said over his shoulder; and to Esther's great relief, she was allowedto walk the rest of the way home by herself, Mr. Trelawny striding onat a great rate, and muttering to himself all the while, as was hishabit.

  Later on, when he had gone back again, and Esther crept in hermouse-like fashion to her mother's side, she found her closing a lettershe had just written.

  "Mr. Trelawny advises me to have the boys, dear," she said; "so I havebeen writing to your uncle. I suppose it is the best thing to do,especially as Mr. Trelawny has undertaken to find a suitable tutor. Thatwould have been difficult for me; but he is a clever man, and knows theworld. He will be sure to select the right person."

  "Yes, mama," said Esther gently; but she shook in her shoes the while. Atutor selected by Mr. Trelawny might surely be a very terrible person.Suppose he came from underground, and was a sort of magician himself!