Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER III.

SUNBEAM'S FIRST ADVENTURE.

N a vast city, filled with all sorts of people, rich and poor, healthy and sick, clean and

dirty, Sunbeam tried to make her way

through a dense fog, which was hanging over the houses and hiding the light even of the great and powerful Geni himself. How then could she hope, poor little weak creature that she was, to pierce the darkness that enshrouded her? Had she not been in earnest to do good, she would doubtless have contented herself with playing about among the clouds and amusing herself by taking a survey of all the beauties that surrounded her. But that was not her mission; it was no idle curiosity that had tempted her to quit her peaceful and happy home, her own lovely planet; she had determined to do good, and her only thought in the present moment was how that good was to be effected.

Looking up, as she had been directed, to the

Great Geni, she saw a long line of light darting forward in a slanting direction, and beckoning her to follow it. Sunbeam, gathering up her floating garments around her, did so, and her guide frayed her a passage through the murky atmosphere, and set her down at the corner of the strangest spot imagination could picture, in the crowded city of London. It was not a pleasing debut for our poor little friend, and the damp stones along which she glided sent a chill to her heart, but she went steadily on in that singular place. Strange sounds fell on her ear; strange sights met her eye; yes, all was very, very strange to her, but still she kept bravely on. It was a mews; that is to say, a kind of yard filled with stables and coach-houses for the convenience of gentlemen who lived in the neighbourhood, and who there kept their horses and equipages. Sunbeam looked round for the ray of light that had conveyed her thither; it had disappeared, but had left her other guides in the form of two mortal beings beautiful to look upon; one, a little girl, about ten years of age, another little sunbeam, and an elder sister about sixteen. When these two beings entered the mews, the strange sounds ceased, every gruff voice sank to a whisper; curious little eyes peeped shyly up into the sweet faces, and many a little voice whispered, 'Look, mother, look! here comes little miss.

They were simple words, simply spoken, but they conveyed a world of meaning for the initiated ear: they meant, 'We are sure to get something good.'

On went Sunbeam after her guides, peeping curiously in at the windows as she passed, and greeting with a friendly ray every object that met her wondering glance: and much she saw to astonish her; much she saw to grieve her; much she marvelled that aught human could live in the tiny stifling rooms that looked as though the sun had never cast a beam there before.

When her two newly-found friends had gone a little way up the mews, smiling at one little toddling creature, nodding to another, and selecting a third as the depository of the good things to be distributed among the children, they turned up a narrow sort of lane, with about half-a-dozen stables on each side. A fearful smell of manure greeted their nostrils, which arose from an immense. dunghill at the further end, and the two visitors to this strange place had to gather up their dresses around them, that they might not be soiled: but they did not seem to mind it; they appeared perfectly used to that sort of thing, and they picked their way over the dirty stones steadily and cheerfully, as though intent on some important errand. When the elder of the two laid her finger

could not bear to think of it; but when told that it was necessary for her brother's future benefit, she tried to dry her eyes and to feel reconciled to her loss; but when the day came for her to bid adieu to the playmate of her childhood, the large tears rolled down her cheeks, and she was fain to hide her face in her mother's bosom, that the sobs which choked her might not reach the ears of her brother, who was scarcely less affected than herself. But Guy was an unselfish boy, and he had been thinking all day long what he could invent for her to feel her sorrow less keenly. He knew that if she were fully occupied, she would be more cheerful; but he was afraid she would not take the same pleasure in watching the flowers, and in listening to the birds as she had done when they were together; so he came to the conclusion that it would be advisable to find out some fixed occupation for her; and just before he left her, he said he had a great favour to ask her, and that was to write a fairy tale for him. Muriel opened her large grey eyes, and in spite of her sadness, a smile flitted across her sweet face as she looked at him with astonishment; but he persisted in his request. 'Write me a fairy tale,' said he: 'I have found a title; let it be "Sunbeam."

'I fear you are asking more than Muriel will be able to perform,' said their mother, who, though

she perfectly understood the kind and considerate motive of Guy, was unwilling that her little girl should undertake any thing that might prove a task too great for her strength; but if my child tries to be cheerful, and to go about her usual occupations steadily and unrepiningly, I will see what I can do with the fairy tale; I will relate it, and she shall write you what she remembers of it every day.'

This arrangement pleased both the children mightily. A fairy tale! a fairy tale of their mother's composition! could any thing be more delightful? Guy left in comparative good spirits, and that very evening Muriel's mamma began the story of Sunbeam.

[graphic]
« PreviousContinue »