One day last summer I was loitering near
the churchyard, when a little girl, aged about eight, came from an
adjoining copse with some wild flowers in her hand. She was singing as
she walked and looked admiringly at the flowers she carried; but she
could see me watching her out of the corners of her eyes.
"Good morning," said I. "It is nice to be out gathering flowers on such
a day, but why are you not in school?"
"Why am I not in school?" in a tone of surprise. "Because the holidays
are not over. On Monday we open."
"How delighted you will be."
"Oh no, I don't think I shall be delighted," she returned. Then
I asked her for a flower, and apparently much amused she presented me
with a water forget-me-not, then she sauntered on to a small cottage
close by. Arrived there, she turned round and faced me, her hand on the
gate, and after gazing steadily for some moments exclaimed, "Delighted
at going back to school - who ever heard such a thing?" and, bursting
into a peal of musical child-laughter, she went into the cottage.
One would look for curtseys in the Flower Walk in Kensington Gardens as
soon as in the hamlet of this remarkably self-possessed little maid.
Her manner was exceptional; but, if we must lose the curtsey, and the
rural little ones cease to mimic that pretty drooping motion of the
nightingale, the kitty wren, and wheatear, cannot our village pastors
and masters teach them some less startling and offensive form of
salutation than the loud "Hullo!" with which they are accustomed to
greet the stranger within their gates?
I shall finish with another story which might be entitled "The Democrat
against Curtseying." The scene was a rustic village, a good many miles
from any railroad station, in the south of England. Here I made the
acquaintance and was much in the society of a man who was not a native
of the place, but had lived several years in it. Although only a
working man, he had, by sheer force of character, made himself a power
in the village. A total abstainer and non-smoker, a Dissenter in
religion and lay-preacher where Dissent had never found a foothold
until his coming, and an extreme Radical in politics, he was naturally
something of a thorn in the side of the vicar and of the neighbouring
gentry.
But in spite of his extreme views and opposition to old cherished ideas
and conventions, he was so liberal-minded, so genial in temper, so
human, that he was very much liked even by those who were his enemies
on principle; and they were occasionally glad to have his help and to
work with him in any matter that concerned the welfare of the very poor
in the village.
After the first bitterness between him and the important inhabitants
had been outlived and a modus vivendi established, the vicar
ventured one day to remonstrate with the good but mistaken man on the
subject of curtseying, which had always been strictly observed in the
village. The complaint was that the parishioner's wife did not curtsey
to the vicaress, but on the contrary, when she met or passed her on the
road she maintained an exceedingly stiff, erect attitude, which was not
right, and far from pleasant to the other.
"Is it then your desire," said my democratic friend, "that my wife
shall curtsey to your wife when they meet or pass each other in the
village?"
"Certainly, that is my wish," said the vicar.
"Very well," said the other; "my wife is guided by me in such matters,
and I am very happy to say that she is an obedient wife, and I shall
tell her that she is to curtsey to your wife in future."
"Thank you," said the vicar, "I am glad that you have taken it in a
proper spirit."
"But I have not yet finished," said the other. "I was going to add that
this command to my wife to curtsey to your wife will be made by me on
the understanding that you will give a similar command to your wife,
and that when they meet and my wife curtseys to your wife, your wife
shall at the same time curtsey to my wife."
The vicar was naturally put out and sharply told his rebellious
parishioner that he was setting himself against the spirit of the
teaching of the Master whom they both acknowledged, and who commanded
us to give to everyone his due, with more to the same effect. But he
failed to convince, and there was no curtseying.
It was sometimes pleasant and amusing to see these two - the good old
clergyman, weak and simple-minded, and his strong antagonist, the
aggressive working man with his large frame and genial countenance and
great white flowing beard - a Walt Whitman in appearance - working
together for some good object in the village. It was even more amusing,
but touching as well, to witness an unexpected meeting between the two
wives, perhaps at the door of some poor cottage, to which both had gone
on the same beautiful errand of love and compassion to some stricken
soul, and exchanging only a short "Good-day," the democrat's wife
stiffening her knee-joints so as to look straighter and taller than
usual.
XVI
LITTLE GIRLS I HAVE MET
Perhaps some reader who does not know a little girl her psychology,
after that account of the Alvediston maidie who presented me with a
flower with an arch expression on her face just bordering on a mocking
smile, will say, "What a sophisticated child to be sure!" He would be
quite wrong unless we can say that the female child is born
sophisticated, which sounds rather like a contradiction in terms.
