Transcribed from the 1840 W. Birch edition .
OR,
LITTLE MARY’SSATURDAY’S WALK.
BY LADY CALLCOTT.
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PRINTED FORTHE BENEFIT OF THE KENSINGTON SCHOOLS IN PEEL STREET,
HOPE TERRACE, AND THEPOTTERIES.
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KENSINGTON:
PRINTED BY W. BIRCH, HIGHSTREET.
1840.
PRICE ONESHILLING.
“Come, Mary!” said Mr.Lumley to his little girl, one Saturday afternoon, “put onyour bonnet and your thick shoes. I am going toDavies’s cottage, and there is a basket for you to carry,with some work for Jane, and some jelly for hergrandmother. The lane is pretty clean, and thestepping-stones, even the rickety one, quite out ofwater.”
Before the last comfortable assurance could be heard, Mary wasready for the walk.
Papa at leisure on a fine Saturday afternoon to help her toenjoy her holiday would have been enough; but to go to old MollyDavies, and to see her favourite Sunday-scholar Jane, waspleasure indeed.
It was a charming afternoon,—one of the first that Maryhad called so that spring. The winter had been severe;there had been no fine Saturdays in February, scarcely one inMarch. But on this, the wind was soft, the sun was shining,the violets had no withered brown edges to their deep bluepetals, but looked and smelt as March violets should look andsmell. In the sheltered lane there were a few full-blownprimroses among the moss, the woolly stems of the cowslips werealready peeping up in the meadows, and innumerable buds of allMary’s favourite spring flowers seemed ready to open in thewarm sunshine.
“Oh, papa, how happy I am!” cried the little girl,as she shewed him a lap full of gay colours. “Hereare yellow pileworts, and grey lady’s-smocks, and woodsorrel, and cowslips, ready to blow; and, I declare,there’s a wood anemone quite blown. Oh! this yearthese darling anemones will answer to their pretty name ofpasque-flower, for they will be in full beauty by Easter.
“Do you know, papa, I feel as if it were more good inGod to create beautiful things p. 4to make us happy when we only look atthem, than even to give us needful and useful things, which areoften far from being beautiful or pleasant. I hope I am notfoolish or wrong to say so.”
“No, my little Mary. I remember the wise and goodMrs. W—y said the same thing, almost in your very words, tome some years ago, when she saw a bunch of spring flowers inwater on the table of a sick friend. I am glad you arelearning to see and love the goodness of God while you are young;it will make it easier to do your duty towards him for the restof your life.”
“Hush! dear papa. Hush one moment!—I amalmost sure I hear a willow-wren in the hedge; and thosewagtails! I declare they are catching flies already; andlook! there are the little tadpoles all gathering round thatgreen mossy stone, how merry they are in the clear water! But here we are at Davies’s cottage, and there’s athrush singing; and old Molly says the thrushes sing earlier inthe copse behind their house than anywhere e