Cousin Lucy's Conversations. Abbott Jacob

Anne looked out at the window to see who it was. It was Royal.

      “Is Lucy in there with you?” asked Royal.

      Miss Anne said that she was; and at the same time, Lucy, who heard Royal’s voice, ran to another window, and climbed up into a chair, so that she could look out.

      “Lucy,” said Royal, “come out here.”

      “O no,” said Lucy, “I can’t come now. Miss Anne is telling me stories.”

      Royal was seated on a large, flat stone, which had been placed in a corner of the yard, under some trees, for a seat; he was cutting a stick with his knife. His cap was lying upon the stone, by his side. When Lucy said that she could not come out, he put his hand down upon his cap, and said,

      “Come out and see what I’ve got under my cap.”

      “What is it?” said Lucy.

      “I can’t tell you; it is a secret. If you will come out, I will let you see it.”

      “Do tell me what it is.”

      “No,” said Royal.

      “Tell me something about it,” said Lucy, “at any rate.”

      “Well,” said Royal, “I will tell you one thing. It is not a bird.”

      Lucy concluded that it must be some curious animal or other, if it was not a bird; and so she told Miss Anne that she believed she would go out and see, and then she would come in again directly, and hear the rest that she had to say. So she went out to see what Royal had got under his cap.

      Miss Anne suspected that Royal had not got anything under his cap; but that it was only his contrivance to excite Lucy’s curiosity, and induce her to come out.

      And this turned out to be the fact; for when Lucy went up to where Royal was sitting, and asked him what it was, he just lifted up his cap, and said, it was that monstrous, great, flat stone!

      At first, Lucy was displeased, and was going directly back into the house again; but Royal told her that he was making a windmill, and that, if she would stay there and keep him company, he would let her run with it, when it was done. So Lucy concluded to remain.

      CONVERSATION III

      THE GLEN

      Behind the house that Lucy lived in, there was a path, winding among trees, which was a very pleasant path to take a walk in. Lucy and Royal often went to take a walk there. They almost always went that way when Miss Anne could go with them, for she liked the place very much. It led to a strange sort of a place, where there were trees, and high, rocky banks, and a brook running along in the middle, with a broad plank to go across. Miss Anne called it the glen.

      One morning Miss Anne told Lucy that she was going to be busy for two hours, and that after that she was going to take a walk down to the glen; and that Lucy might go with her, if she would like to go. Of course Lucy liked the plan very much. When the time arrived, they set off, going out through the garden gate. Miss Anne had a parasol in one hand and a book in the other. Lucy ran along before her, and opened the gate.

      They heard a voice behind them calling out,

      “Miss Anne, where are you going?”

      They looked round. It was Royal, sitting at the window of a little room, where he used to study.

      “We are going to take a walk, – down to the glen,” said Miss Anne.

      “I wish you would wait for me,” said Royal, “only a few minutes; the sand is almost out.”

      He meant the sand of his hour-glass; for he had an hour-glass upon the table, in his little room, to measure the time for study. He had to study one hour in the afternoon, and was not allowed to leave his room until the sand had all run out.

      “No,” said Lucy, in a loud voice, calling out to Royal; “we can’t wait.”

      “Perhaps we had better wait for him,” said Miss Anne, in a low voice, to Lucy. “He would like to go with us. And, besides, he can help you across the brook.”

      Lucy seemed a little unwilling to wait, but on the whole she consented; and Miss Anne sat down upon a seat in the garden, while Lucy played about in the walks, until Royal came down, with his hatchet in his hand. They then walked all along together.

      When they got to the glen, Miss Anne went up a winding path to a seat, where she used to love to sit and read. There was a beautiful prospect from it, all around. Royal and Lucy remained down in the little valley to play; but Miss Anne told them that they must not go out of her sight.

      “But how can we tell,” said Royal, “what places you can see?”

      “O,” said Miss Anne, “look up now and then, and if you can see me, in my seat, you will be safe. If you can see me, I can see you.”

      “Come,” said Royal, “let us go down to the bridge, and go across the brook.”

      The plank which Royal called a bridge, was down below the place where Miss Anne went up to her seat, and Royal and Lucy began to walk along slowly towards it.

      “But I am afraid to go over that plank,” said Lucy.

      “Afraid!” said Royal; “you need not be afraid; it is not dangerous.”

      “I think it is dangerous,” said Lucy; “it bends a great deal.”

      “Bends!” exclaimed Royal; “the bending does no harm. I will lead you over as safe as dry ground. Besides, there is something over there that I want to show you.”

      “What is it?” said Lucy.

      “O, something,” said Royal.

      “I don’t believe there is anything at all,” said Lucy, “any more than there was under your cap.”

      “O Lucy! there was something under my cap.”

      “No, there wasn’t,” said Lucy.

      “Yes, that great, flat stone.”

      “In your cap, I mean,” said Lucy; “that wasn’t in your cap.”

      “In!” said Royal; “that is a very different sort of a preposition.”

      “I don’t know what you mean by a preposition,” said Lucy; “but I know you told me there was something in your cap, and that is what I came out to see.”

      “Under, Lucy; I said under.”

      “Well, you meant in; I verily believe you meant in.”

      Lucy was right. Royal did indeed say under, but he meant to have her understand that there was something in his cap, and lying upon the great, flat stone.

      “And so you told me a falsehood,” said Lucy.

      “O Lucy!” said Royal, “I would not tell a falsehood for all the world.”

      “Yes, you told me a falsehood; and now I don’t believe you about anything over the brook. For Miss Anne told me, one day, that when anybody told a falsehood, we must not believe them, even if they tell the truth.”

      “O Lucy! Lucy!” said Royal, “I don’t believe she ever said any such a word.”

      “Yes she did,” said Lucy. But Lucy said this rather hesitatingly, for she felt some doubt whether she was quoting what Miss Anne had told her, quite correctly.

      Here, however, the children arrived at the bridge, and Royal was somewhat at a loss what to do. He wanted very much to go over, and to have Lucy go over too; but by his not being perfectly honest before, about what was under his cap, Lucy had lost her confidence in him, and would not believe what he said. At first he thought that if she would not go with him, he would threaten to go off and leave her. But in a moment he reflected that this would make her cry, and that would cause Miss Anne to come down from her seat, to see what was the matter, which might lead to ever so much difficulty. Besides, he thought that he had not done exactly right about the cap story, and so