THE INN.
In the mean time they went to an inn at Derby. Willy had never been at an inn, and knew not what it meant. He supposed it was the house of one of his father's friends, to whom they were to pay a visit. The landlady was extremely civil, and asked them what they would like to have for dinner. She said she had a nice young chicken and some green peas, and a gooseberry tart, with a custard, which she thought would please little master. Willy replied, "Oh, yes, that it will, thank you, Ma'am;" and when she went away, he asked why she did not sit down and stay with Mamma?
"She is not a friend of mine," replied his mother, "I never saw her before."
"Then why do you come to her house, if you don't know her, Mamma? You said you could not go to Mr. Strutt's, because you did not know him."
His mother then explained to him, that this landlady kept a large house called an inn, or hotel, on purpose to receive travellers, and then made a bill, and that they paid her for all they ate or drank, and for the use of the room they sat in, and the bed rooms they slept in. "This house," said she, "cost her a great deal of money, and she has besides to pay for all we eat and drink."
"Oh yes," said Willy, "the nice dinner we are going to have must cost her a great deal of money, and she would not have enough if we did not pay her."
"So you see, Willy, she takes money out of her pocket to spend for us, and we put money into her pocket to pay her back again."
Willy was thoughtful for a minute or two, and then asked his Mamma whether she paid the landlady just as much money as she spent for her?
"Her bill comes to a little more," said his mother, "for if I paid her only just what she spent for us, she would gain nothing by us."
"But she would not lose either," said Willy; "if she spent a sovereign for us, and you paid her a sovereign, she would neither gain nor lose."
"I am glad to find you understand accounts so well," said his mother. "But you must know that this landlady keeps an inn on purpose to gain money; she wants money to pay for all she and her children eat and drink, and for their clothing and their schooling, and I know not how many things besides; now all that I pay her more than she spends for me she puts in her pocket, and keeps to spend for her own family."
"And does everybody who comes to the inn," asked Willy, "pay her a little more?"
"Yes, certainly."
"Then all the little mores must make a great deal," observed Willy. "Oh, how nicely that is contrived! We get good dinners and beds, and all we want, when we go to the inn, and the landlady gets the money she wants to spend for her family; so everybody gets something good."
He then ran about, examining all the furniture, which was new to him: he admired the flowers on the carpet, and was amused with the spring blinds, and the round dumb waiters, laughing heartily when he was told that they were called dumb waiters because they could not speak; and when dinner came he got one placed beside him, and then whispering to his Mamma, begged she would send away the live speaking waiter, and make use of the dumb one. So the knives and forks and plates were placed on the dumb waiter, and then Willy, who had heard his father and mother ask the waiter for a knife or a plate, said in joke, "Come, waiter, bring me a plate," and then added, "The waiter is deaf as well as dumb, and besides that, he cannot move."
"Oh yes, he can," said his Mamma; "at least, if he cannot walk, he can run, for the dumb waiter runs on castors;" and she pushed it towards Willy.
"Oh, but I mean it cannot move of itself, like an animal; then it cannot feel, but I am sure it can make other people feel, for when you pushed it, it gave me a good blow upon the shoulder."
Willy was to sleep in a little bed in his Mamma's room: that was a great pleasure, and the new bed was another treat. Then everything was new to him in the room, and it was a long time before he could go to sleep, so much was he taken up with the hangings of the bed, which, instead of being plaited full like the flounce of a gown, were drawn up in festoons and bordered by a fringe; then it was red damask, not white, like his own little bed at home; and the paper, instead of having green and white stripes like that of his nursery, was covered all over with flowers, which seemed to him much prettier, and there was an odd sort of wash-handstand which stood like a naughty boy in the corner; but one after another all these things seemed to fade away, he saw nothing distinctly, and at last he fell asleep.
The next morning, while they were at breakfast, the landlady came again, and said she hoped they liked their breakfast, that the eggs were quite fresh, for her little daughter had brought them in from the hen-house that morning.
Willy could not help looking at the landlady's pockets, to see if they were big enough to hold all the money that was paid her, but he saw nothing but a bunch of keys hanging by her side; then he thought so much money would be too heavy for her to carry about, 'so I dare say she keeps it in a lock-up drawer, as Mamma does, and that the keys on that bunch lock up the drawer;' however, he said nothing. Then, he thought, this little girl she talks about is one of those she buys clothes and food for with the money that is paid her. 'I wish I could see her.' After breakfast his Mamma told him he might go and play in the garden of the inn, if he would not meddle with any thing. It was a pretty garden, with a great deal of ripe fruit and many gay flowers in it; but what pleased him most was the sight of a little girl gathering gooseberries in a small basket; he asked her whether she was the little girl who had brought in the eggs that morning, and when she said that she was, they soon got acquainted. Willy asked her whether she would let him help her. "That I will," said Anna (for that was her name), "if you will not eat any of the fruit; can you be trusted?"
"To be sure," answered Willy, a little offended that he should not be thought trustworthy; "why I am very nearly as old as you are, and have as good a right to be trusted."
"Ay, that you may be," said Anna, "but I have known boys a great deal older than you are come and steal apples in our orchard, and only call it fun. But stealing can't be fun any way, I'm sure. Now, Mamma knows me and trusts me; but I don't know you, so I don't know whether I ought to trust you; however, if you promise not to eat any of the fruit you gather, I will."
This was agreed upon, and Willy gathered the gooseberries so fast that the basket was soon full; but when Anna came to examine them, she found a great many of them were not ripe. "Look here," said she, "here is one, and another, and another, quite green!"
"Why they are all green," cried Willy, "they are not red, but green gooseberries."
"Yes, but when green gooseberries are ripe they are soft, and look rather yellowish, like these," said she, showing him some ripe ones: "well, I am afraid I shall be scolded!"
Willy felt very sorry, and said, "But I will tell your Mamma that it was I who gathered them, and then she will scold me, and not you."
"Yes," said Anna, "she will scold me for letting you gather fruit when you did not know which were ripe and which unripe."
The two children looked rather dismal, till at length a bright thought struck Anna. "I remember," said she, "Mamma told me to gather some unripe green gooseberries, if I could find any, to make some gooseberry fool; now perhaps we may just find enough in the basket if we pick them out;" so they emptied the gooseberries into a large leaf, and picked out all those which were unripe; and Willy learnt to distinguish a ripe from an unripe gooseberry, and he said, "I shall never forget it; I was so much vexed for fear of getting you scolded."
"But take care," said Anna, "if you pinch them so hard to feel if they are ripe, you will hurt the gooseberries."
"Hurt them," said Willy, smiling, "why they cannot feel."
"Well," said Anna, "I mean spoil them;" and just as she said so Willy showed her a beautiful large gooseberry, which he held between the tips of his fingers, saying, "I am sure I need not pinch this to know whether it is ripe, it is so large and yellow, and looks as if you could see through it."
"But take care," said Anna, "you do not let it fall by holding it so slightly, for it is so ripe that if it fell on the ground I dare say it would burst, the skin is so thin."
So Willy grasped it tighter between his fingers to prevent it from falling, but he did not consider that if he squeezed it tight the skin might break; and so it happened; his finger and thumb met together in the middle of the gooseberry all wet and sticky!
"Well, now you may as well eat it," said Anna, "for no use can be made of it." But Willy was so much vexed, that he had no wish to eat the gooseberry; he felt angry with himself for being so awkward, and fearful that he should get Anna into trouble. However, he just sucked his fingers to get rid of the wet, and he could not help thinking what a pity so fine a gooseberry should be lost, the juice tasted so very nice.
Anna, who saw how really sorry he was, now tried to console him, and laughed at the loss of one gooseberry; she then covered the basket over nicely with leaves, and took out another, and, wishing to put Willy into good spirits again, said, "This is to be filled with cherries, and now you may help me better still, for you can easily climb up this low tree and gather the cherries which I cannot reach from the ground." Willy knew how to climb, and Anna held her apron spread out, and stood right under Willy that he might throw the bunches of cherries into it. The cherries being all ripe, Willy had not the trouble of examining them; and, delighted with scrambling from one branch of the tree to another, he was soon as merry as ever. Willy had not even wished to eat a gooseberry; he was so anxious to prove to Anna that he could be trusted, that he thought of nothing else; but now these cherries looked so plump and so red, that he longed to taste them, and he was beginning to forget the affront he had received from Anna; but he did not give way to the temptation, for he had learnt to command himself; but he hung two of the cherries over each of his ears, calling them ear-rings, and threw down some very fine ones for Anna to put on her ears, saying, "That is not eating the cherries, you know," and they laughed heartily at each other's fine ear-rings. Who should come into the garden just then but their two Mammas, and the landlady gave them leave to eat some of the cherries they had gathered. Oh, how glad they were, the cherries were so sweet and nice, and they had longed for them so much!
They then all went to the strawberry bed, and Willy was obliged to take care that what he gathered was ripe, for the strawberries which looked quite red on one side were often white on the other. "I wonder both sides don't ripen at the same time," said he.
"Why, it is the sun ripens them," answered Anna, "and there is only one sun to shine on one side of the strawberries."
"Yes," said Willy; "but though there is only one sun, it moves about, and shines on one side of the strawberries in the morning, and on the other side in the afternoon, so they might be both ripe together."
"So they will, in time," said Anna; "but the sun cannot get at them under these leaves, either morning or afternoon."
"I think," said Willy, jokingly, "that these strawberries are cunning little things, and hide themselves as much as they can under the leaves for fear of being gathered; for if I lift up a leaf, I always find a strawberry underneath."
"Let them stay there till both sides are ripe," said Anna, "and that they will be in a few days if you leave them alone, for they don't want much sun. Strawberries want more water than heat."
"What a deal you know about fruit and gardens," said Willy.
"That is because I live in the country, and am used to gardening."
"Well," observed Willy, "it is like resting to pick strawberries after gathering cherries. I declare my neck quite ached with looking up to the cherries, and now I have nothing but looking down for the strawberries."