In Grandma's Attic (11 page)

21

What Grandma Lost

“I am going to wash some of your sweaters,” Grandma said. “If you’ll get your mittens, I’ll wash them, too.”

“I can’t find them, Grandma,” I told her.

“Haven’t you looked for them?” Grandma asked. “You wore them to school today, didn’t you?”

“No, I haven’t had them for a couple of days,” I replied. “I don’t know where I left them.”

“Now that was a careless thing to do,” Grandma scolded. “It seems as though you could put your mittens in your pocket where they’d be safe.”

Then she laughed. “I guess I shouldn’t scold you about mittens,” she said. “I lost something a lot bigger than that when I was your age.”

Of course I was anxious to hear about it, so when Grandma had finished the sweaters, she sat down with her sewing and began the story.

It was in the spring, I remember. It was an unusual day, because both Reuben and Roy were sick. Ma was quite concerned about them, and she hadn’t paid much attention to me that morning. It wasn’t until I was ready to go out the door that she really noticed me.

“Where are you going, Mabel?” she asked.

“Why, I’m going to school,” I replied. “It’s time to leave.”

“Oh, no, Mabel,” Ma said. “You can’t go by yourself. You’ve never walked all that way without one of the boys. You’ll just have to stay home today too.”

“Oh, Ma!” I cried. “I don’t want to stay home! I feel just fine. I can take Nellie and the buggy; then I won’t be alone.”

Ma looked doubtful, but she had the boys on her mind, so she said, “Well, go ask Pa about it. If he says it’s all right, I suppose you can.”

I hurried out to the barn, sure that Pa would see things my way. But he was reluctant too.

“I’d take you to school myself, Mabel,” he said. “But with both boys sick, I’m behind in the chores this morning. I’m not sure you can handle Nellie.”

“Oh, Pa,” I said. “You know I can. I’ve even driven her to town when you were along. She knows the way to school, even if I didn’t show her.”

Pa regarded me thoughtfully for a moment.

“I guess you can’t start any younger,” he said. “Just be careful, and don’t try any fancy tricks.”

“Oh, I won’t, Pa,” I assured him. “I’ll be extra careful.” I ran back to the house to tell Ma that I could go, and Pa hitched Nellie to the buggy.

I felt pretty proud, I can tell you. I didn’t know of another girl at school who was allowed to bring a horse and buggy by herself. A lot of the boys did, of course. In fact, some of them just rode their horses to school.

As Nellie clip-clopped along the road, I began to imagine what the boys would think if I should come riding up to the schoolhouse on my horse. They would certainly take notice of me, I was sure. The more I thought about it, the better the idea seemed to me. I began to wonder how I could manage it. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I was conforming to the things that would make me popular instead of doing what my father wanted. The temptation to be noticed by the boys was irresistible.

I had often ridden Nellie around the farm, so that was no problem. But what could I do with the buggy?

By the time we came to Carter’s Grove, I had forgotten about Pa’s warning against fancy tricks. I decided that this would be a good place to leave the buggy for the day. I would put it off the road among the trees and get it on the way home.

It didn’t take long to unhitch Nellie, but it was a little harder to push the buggy off the road. It was only a small one, but I wasn’t very big. Nevertheless, I managed to push it to a spot where I thought it would be safe for the day. Then I climbed on Nellie’s back and continued on to school.

I was right about causing a stir at school. The girls all gathered around, and even some of the boys looked pretty envious. I tied up Nellie, and when we children went in to school, the teacher even mentioned it.

“Your father must trust you, Mabel, to let you come alone with the horse. You must be very careful and go straight home after school.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied. “I will.”

But I was beginning to feel ashamed of myself. Pa had trusted me, and he certainly hadn’t expected that I would leave the buggy along the side of the road. However, the pleasure of having Nellie at school kept me from worrying about it for long. I would hitch up the buggy on the way home, and no one would need to know about it.

Sarah Jane and I rode Nellie around the school grounds at noon and had a wonderful time. I even hoped that Reuben and Roy would have to stay home another day so that we could do it tomorrow.

As soon as school was out, I started straight for home. I didn’t know how long it would take me to get Nellie hitched to the buggy again because I had never done it by myself before. Pa had expected that one of the boys at school would help me.

I hurried as fast as I could get Nellie to move, and soon we were back in Carter’s Grove. When we reached the spot where I had left the buggy, we stopped, but I didn’t get down from Nellie’s back. I just sat there and looked at the trees.

The buggy was gone! I glanced around to see if someone was playing a joke on me, but no one was in sight.

Nellie stood patiently, waiting until I was ready to go on. There was no use standing in Carter’s Grove any longer. Someone had obviously come along during the day and taken the buggy. Maybe they had even taken it home—and I was sure to have something waiting for me when I got there.

I was a pretty unhappy little girl. Besides having to face Pa, the boys would hear about it and never let me forget it.

Fortunately Pa was out in the field when I got home, and he didn’t see me come in on Nellie. I put her in the barn and quickly ran to the house. Ma was relieved to see me.

“Did you get along all right, Mabel?” she asked. “I worried about you all alone with the buggy.”

I nodded and went into my room to change my clothes. Ma would really have worried if she had known that I didn’t even have the buggy! I knew she would find out, but it seemed better to wait as long as possible to break the news. I was so worried about what I would tell Pa that I must have looked sick, for after a while Ma felt my forehead. “Dear me,” she said. “I hope you aren’t coming down with what the boys have. Do you feel bad?”

“No, Ma,” I replied. “I feel fine. I’m a little tired, I guess.”

I got busy setting the table for supper and helping Ma around the kitchen. Long before I was ready for it, Pa came in to wash.

“I see you got back safely, Mabel,” he said with his face in the wash dish. “You should have called me to unhitch for you. Where did you put the buggy anyway?”

“I guess I lost it, Pa,” I said in a small voice.

Pa stopped splashing water, and there was silence in the kitchen. “You guess what?” he said in a puzzled voice.

“I guess I lost it,” I repeated in a smaller voice. Pa lifted his head slowly and turned to look at me in disbelief. The water ran off his beard, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Will you kindly tell me how you lost a
buggy?”
he roared. “Nellie hasn’t run fast enough to part with a buggy since she was a colt. How could you lose a buggy?”

By this time I was sobbing, and Ma had taken me on her lap.

Pa began to mop his face with the towel and stomp toward the door.

“I declare,” he said, “if I had thought you could lose a buggy right out from under you, I never would have let you go this morning.

“Maryanne,” he said to Ma, “how could that child possibly lose the buggy between here and the schoolhouse? I just can’t believe it. Maybe you know something about girls that I don’t know,” he ended in disgust.

“Let’s just calm down and find out what happened,” said Ma. “Now, tell us, Mabel, where did you put the buggy when you got to school?”

Bit by bit I managed to sob out the story of what I had done. Pa ate his supper in silence, every so often stopping to look at me as though he couldn’t believe that any daughter of his could be so foolish.

As soon as prayers were over, Pa clamped his hat on his head and started out to find the buggy. I waited fearfully for the sound of Nellie’s hooves on the road. So far Pa had not mentioned what my punishment was to be, but I was sure that it would not be a light one.

Finally, after what seemed hours to me, Pa returned with the buggy. He had found it, he said, in Carter’s Grove. Some of the older boys had seen it there, and thinking I needed taking down a peg, had pushed it into the woods a little farther. They were sure that I could find it, but since I hadn’t gotten off Nellie or looked beyond the spot where I had left it, I had not seen it.

Pa sat down and looked at me soberly.

“Mabel,” he said, “since you can’t seem to get over the habit of being so thoughtless, we can’t let you go to school alone again. If the boys have to stay home, you’ll have to stay too. Maybe when you’ve grown up a little more, we can trust you. But for now you’ll have to be watched like a little girl.”

Then he kissed me and sent me to bed. I felt much worse than if he had paddled me good, but it certainly made me think about my foolish tricks.

Grandma looked at me with a smile. “Now, see if you can’t find those mittens at school tomorrow,” she said. “And try to be more careful from now on.”