THE ARBORETUM.
Willy was now called away to accompany his parents to Mr. Joseph Strutt's. He received them with kindness, and Willy thought him very good-natured, for he took him over all the rooms and showed all his curiosities. There were birds stuffed, and shells and paintings; in a word, so many things, and they filled so many rooms, that Mr. J. Strutt had scarcely any room left for himself. They then begged that he would show his celebrated garden.
"It is not my garden," said he, "I have given it away to the good people of this town, but I will go and show it you with pleasure; but let us go in the evening, the weather will be cooler, and you will see a greater number of people walking."
This was agreed upon, and in the evening Mr. J. Strutt called upon them at the inn, and accompanied them to the Arboretum. When they came to the gate, Willy thought it looked more like a park than a garden gate. There were a number of people walking about, and when they met Mr. J. Strutt, you could tell by their countenances that they knew him, they looked so much pleased, and so respectful, but they did not bow or courtesy to him, because they knew that he did not like to be publicly noticed. He had told them, once for all, 'If you make a fuss about me I shall think myself troublesome, and shall not walk in your garden so often as if you let me alone, and take no more notice of me than of any other person.' As they were walking about, Willy observed a family passing by, one of whom was a blind woman; this put him in mind of the market girl's mother; then there was a little boy and girl with her, who might be about the age of her youngest children, and an old woman, who might be their grandmother. But there was no market girl with them, and Willy thought it could not be them, they lived so far off. Some time afterwards they passed by again, and then a young woman had joined them, but she was so much better dressed that Willy thought it could not be her. However, he peeped under her close straw bonnet, and found that it really was his old friend, and he cried out, "Oh! Mamma, there they are, all of them;" then, taking hold of the market girl by the hand, he said, "Don't you know me?"
"Oh! how do you do? I am very glad to see you," said she; "I thought I should meet you here." Then, seeing Mr. Strutt, she added, "How lucky you are! there is Mr. Joseph Strutt himself giving his arm to your Mamma. So, then, you have made his acquaintance.
"But," added she, "I must make you acquainted with my little brother and sister too.
"Did not I tell you," said she, addressing them, "that I met with a nice little boy on the railroad yesterday; well, this is he."
The children were at first very shy, and only answered yes. Then Willy and his parents made acquaintance with the poor blind woman and her old mother, whom the children called Granny.
Willy's Mamma talked a good deal to these two women, and told Mr. J. Strutt all about them.
"Is Mr. Joseph Strutt here?" asked the blind woman. "Oh, if I could but see him! Betsey," whispered she to her little daughter, "lead me towards him, that I may hear him speak." Mr. J. Strutt, who was nearer to her than she thought, took her by the hand, saying, "With God's blessing you shall see me one of these days, when your eyes are cured; and I shall go and see you when you come to our hospital, and I shall take care that you are comfortable."
Willy then went to play on the grass with the two children, and when they were tired they sat down on a soft smooth bank under the shade of some spreading trees, which was very pleasant, for they had made themselves hot with running to catch each other. Then Willy asked them how they came to be here, when they lived so far off?
"Oh! it's by the railroad," said Johnny: "you must know that every Sunday that Father can make a holiday, he takes us all to see Granny, who lives at Derby. Did not Martha tell you yesterday that we were to come to-day? for though it is not Sunday, we are come, because Father had some business to do at Derby."
"She did not tell me," said Willy, "for I thought I never should see you in all my life, and I wanted sadly to see you, because your sister Martha told me so much about you."
"That's very good of you," said Johnny. "Well, what was I telling you? Oh, it was about coming to see Granny. You must know that every time we come she makes a large cake for us to take home. And one day it happened that I went to market to help Martha, because she had so many baskets to carry; and then, instead of going home with her, I staid to sleep with Granny, and I saw her make the cake. You cannot think how funny it was; she slapped it over and over again; she said, the more it was beaten, the better it would be; and very nice it was after it had been baked in the oven."
"Oh! it was so nice," cried little Betsey; "I remember it, Johnny, as well as you."