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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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36 you have, Bessie.’ ‘Child! what do you mean? What sorrowful eyes you fix on me! Well, but Missis and the young ladies and Master John are going out to tea this afternoon, and you shall have tea with me. I’ll ask cook to bake you a little cake, and then you shall help me to look over your drawers; for I am soon to pack your trunk. Missis intends you to leave Gateshead in a day or two, and you shall choose what toys you like to take with you.’ ‘Bessie, you must promise not to scold me any more till I go.’ ‘Well, I will; but mind you are a very good girl, and don’t be afraid of me. Don’t start when I chance to speak rather sharply; it’s so provoking.’ ‘I don’t think I shall ever be afraid of you again, Bessie, because I have got used to you, and I shall soon have another set of people to dread.’ ‘If you dread them they’ll dislike you.’ ‘As you do, Bessie?’ ‘I don’t dislike you, Miss: I believe I am fonder of you than of all the others.’ ‘You don’t show it.’ ‘You little sharp thing! you’ve got quite a new way of talking. What makes you so venturesome and hardy?’ ‘Why, I shall soon be away from you, and besides’- I was going to say something about what had passed between me and Mrs. Reed, but on second thoughts I considered it better to remain silent on that head. ‘And so you’re glad to leave me?’ ‘Not at all, Bessie; indeed, just now I’m rather sorry.’ ‘Just now! and rather! How coolly my little lady says it! I daresay now if I were to ask you for a kiss you wouldn’t give it me: you’d say you’d rather not.’ ‘I’ll kiss you and welcome: bend your head down.’ Bessie stooped; we mutually embraced, and I followed her into the house quite comforted. That afternoon lapsed in peace and harmony; and in the evening Bessie told me some of her most enchaining stories, and sang me some of her sweetest songs. Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine. |
