Meg's Resolve.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 958, 24 December 1881, Page 2 (Supplement)

Meg's Resolve.

A CHRISTMAS STORY FORCHILDREN. : „■■:, .By Australia. ... Y R'fijjSS OBBIE, are you asleep?" and a r /x 4 , cautiously around; you might have / mistaken, them for mice's.. in ■ theydim light, they wer'o Vo sharp arid 'bright: " No, I'm notnslccp, Meg. What is it ?" „,. "Hush I speak low, Robbie j I don't want hear," and Meg's .voice Bank to a ' Wt 1 whisper. ' V • ...•.•' "But tell me what it is, Meg.",';/: ' " Well,' Robbie, I've got a 'gestion to make.". : Meg meant suggestion, but then she ■was only seven years old,:and it was rather a big word for a small body to nse. '.' You'vo always got 'gestions to make, Meg!"

B "But this is such a grand one, Robbie," H "Well, then, tell us what it is," said RobHj bio again,'rather impatiently. B " Listeiij Robbie," and Meg put her mouth ■ close down to his car. " Mother was crying B to-day, and I know she was crying because Hj she hasn't got any money to buy us a plum B pudding for Christmas day. And Meg drew B the coarse' coverlid close up over her mouth WL# so that the faintest miirmur should not reach the patient mother, who toiled from morning ■ till night,. but even then could scarely earn ■ enough topay the rent of their poor home H and buy them bread. "My 'gestion is, I .-■'■ ' Robbie, we'll go and sing for pennies and ¥ ' bring them home to 'prise mother; there, ■ Bobbie I" and Meg drew a long breath of as--1 tonishment at her own cleverness in con--1 . ceiving such a brilliant idea, H , " That's'lino, Meg. When shall wc go»" H "To-morrow, Robbie." ■ . "Butwillmother'.letus? 11 Hj "We won't say a "word to her about it." H "Very well, Meg, let's go to sleep, or we B shan't wake early enough," returned: Robbie H- , in a fkowsy voice, delighted with the novelty H| .of the ".'gestion;." and the little ones were H soon fast locked in childhood's rosy slumber. BE ; Meg.and Robbie couldn't remember it, it Bl ■ was so long ago, but there was a time when BBft iherc'had been plenty of plum-pudding and HHr .other good things on Mrs. Grey's Christmas BVT table, but thoir father was dead now, and Tr ;they were very, very poor.. i They often wondered if they had a grandpapa and grandmamma, and uncles and aunts, .like other little .children. If they had, they had never seen them, so they made up their .minds they, must all bo dead, like poor papa. ; But Meg and Robbie had a grandpapa and grandmamma, who lived in a big house, and hadservants towaitonthem, andfine clothes to wear. They had unelea and aunts too, who were rich ladies and gentlemen, and who had carriages to ride in, and whose tables were spread with all the delicacies of the season, and little cousins who had beautiful toys to play with, and nurses to attend to all their wants.. But Meg and Robbie didn't bow anything at all about this; they wcro too young for Mrs. Grey to tell them how deeply : Bhehad offended her stern old father by for marrying their dear dead papa, and how he had turned her from his house, and forbidden her brothers and sisters to mention her name in his presence; and she was too proud to go near them in her poverty and distress, so this is how it came about that the children knew nothing of their grandpapaand grandmamma, [ and rich uncles and aunts. , On _ the morrow Meg mid Robbie were on the tiptoe of excitement, watching for an opportunity to put their plan into execution. It seemed as if their mother would never go out to tako home the work they knew she had promised for that particular evening, but at last Mrs. Grey folded up the rich cm- , broidery that was to deck the dainty limbs of V the fair young bride, who would never think, / as she. gazed with such delight on its delicate ./* tracery, of the weary vigils and sleepless Br nights it had cost the sad-eyed woman, who would just receive enough for all her toil to pay the rent which had fallen back these six weeks, ' " Come along, come along, Robbie," said Meg as soon as their Mother was out of sight, and she had tied her old straw hat under her dimpled chiri ; "come along, Robbie," and taking Robbie's hand away the little pair started on their pilgrimage, Through the busy, crowded streets they I threaded their way, stopping occasionally to gaze iu round-eyed wonder at the splendid things displayed in the shop windows. It was. not often they saw the grand shops in Bourkc street; they lived in a narrow street in the poor neighborhood of Collingwood, and only once or twice before in the whole course of their lives had they travelled as far as the great city; but Meg had chosen this crowded thoroughfare as the scene of her first attempt at earning money, as she knew that all the fashionable ladies and gentlemen • came to the grand shops to make their pur- \ chases, and she hoped that they would have ■i some pennies in their purses to bestow upon the two poor, little, children who had come

outto.sing for their Christmas pudding. When they, arrived opposite to Buckley and Nunn's, Meg came to a, limit; she had reached herdestination. Hero was the spot that she had selected to commence operations. Presently two ohildish voices rang out in clear, silvery tones the simple words of " Please give me a penny.". Meg considered this the most appropriate song' they could sing, and many a passer-by paused to smile on the pretty little minstrels and to drop the solicited penny into Robbie's outstretched hat. :

' If grandfather Dane could have, only seen from his great mansion the children of his ohce_ best loved'daughter accepting the charity of strangers, surely liis heart would have been touched ns it never had been before: '; ' ■' ■ '. "look at .that dear little hoy and girl singing, just'.there, mamma; aren't they pretty?" and thelady addressed turned' to ; aectyliat'haa attracted her own little Nik's attention. ~ ' : ■ Slie- was''.v tali, graceful lady, with a beautiful face, robed in costly satin and lace. She gave asurprised start as her eye rested oh Meg's eager, upturned face, What does sho see tliat makes her cheek grow pale and hfcr eyes fill with tears ? Her memory has wandered back;to her own childish days. out little Meg's dark blue orbs looks lPTforth tlie soul-lit gaze of her' darling,' lost sister Margaret, the same bright golden curls float over her marble brow Yes, lost Margaret speaks to her from every line of Megs baby face!' She waits, until the last notes of the song have died away, and then, stepping forward, she says, taking Meg's chubby little hand in her own delicately gloved one ."What is your name, littlo' one?" ■ ''Margaret Grey," replied Meg. bashfully, • She had never been.spoken to by such a grand lady in all her life. "And where do you live, darling ?" Meg stammered out the name of the street, and the number of their poor abode, wonderingly; -Whatever could ■ the lady want to' know for ? . ■ •' . _ And then, more wonderful still, the beautiful lady stooped ami imprinted a kiss on Meg's rosebud mouth, and moved away, leaving something in Meg's hand, and herself in a perfect state of bewilderment. No more siiiging for Meg that day I She ■ must run home as fast'as she could and tell mother all about the beautiful lady, for that k sliewas some fairy princess in disguise Meg ■ was thoronghly convinced in her 'own mind, t -Mrs. Grey was standing at the door, looking out for the children, when they returned panting and out of breath with the'extraordmary exertions they had made' to reach home as quickly as possible, . , " Mother, mother," shouted Meg as they nearcd the house, "I've seen a fairy!" and then went on to relate, as' well as' her wait of breath would allow, all nbout : their adventure and what the beautiful fairy lady had i said and done,