CHAPTER VII.

_THE HURT FOOT._

"Oh, oh!" said Belle.

She did not say it as if she were pleased; on the contrary, the tone had in it some pain and a good deal of fear. And that was not to be wondered at; for Belle was half-way up a stone-fence--that fence which divided Mrs. Ashton's garden from the ball-ground where Mr. Peters' boys played; and a large stone had slipped and hurt her foot, and the wall felt shaky and very much as if it might give still more.

There she stood, all crouched together, clinging to the topmost stones with her small hands, and afraid to go up or down lest the whole fence should fall on her.

"Oh, o-o-o-oh!" said she again, but not loud; for there were boys at play just beyond the wall, and, if they heard her, Harry and Fred Bradford would come and lift her down and take her to the house, and Miss Ashton and Mrs. Bradford would know how disobedient she had been.

For Belle remembered quite well that she and Bessie had been forbidden to go near this fence and watch the boys at their play; for both ladies feared that the balls might come over the wall and strike the little girls and hurt them. And, more than this, Mrs. Bradford had told her she must not go out of doors with those thin shoes on. So when Belle had made up her mind to disobey her kind friends, and to go near the ball-ground in spite of the orders she had received, she had not dared to ask Miss Ashton to change her shoes, or put on her cloak and hat for her, lest she should be asked where she was going. But after waiting till the lady was busy with Maggie's music-lesson, she had run out in the little prunella gaiters which were fit only for the house, and with her cloak half fastened, for she could not put it on properly herself. Now the damp, cold air was blowing about her, and making her feel very chilly and uncomfortable.

She had not told herself that she was going to be disobedient; but had said that she would just run down to the field, and peep over the fence at the boys. When she came there, however, the fence was quite too high for her to look over, and, remembering the clump of evergreen bushes which was just beyond, she thought she would climb to the top of the wall and sit there, herself hidden by the bushes, while she could see the boys quite well. That old summer-house would hide her from the house.

So Belle had thought, saying to herself, "Aunt Margaret"--so she called Mrs. Bradford--"did not know it was very safe behind the bushes, and the balls cannot hit me there. I guess she would let me if she knew."

Something kept saying to her, "Oh no, Belle! you know Aunt Margaret would not let you. You are very naughty, little Belle. What would your papa say if he knew what you were doing?" But she would not listen.

Ah! if Belle were so sure Mrs. Bradford would let her do this, why was she so afraid of being seen?

She was already sadly punished, for she now found that the bushes which hid her from the boys also hid them from her. She could hear their voices very well, and knew that they would hear her if she cried aloud; but she could not see one of them. And that stone had hurt her foot, oh, so badly! and there she was, afraid to move either way.

But it would not do for her to be found there; and at last she slipped down from the wall, and ran as fast as she could into the old summer-house. There she climbed up on the seat, and prepared to look at the foot that was hurt.

Very slowly and carefully, for fear of knotting the lace, she unfastened her shoe and pulled it off. Next the little sock was removed, and Belle turned up her small foot so that she might see the heel.

"Ow, ow!" she said when she saw it. "There's a great piece of skin off it. Ow, ow!"

She had almost forgotten the pain in her foot while she was running from the forbidden spot; but now, when she saw how badly it looked, it seemed to feel a good deal worse. She sat and gazed at it for some moments, and then, taking up her sock, she looked in it, turned it inside out, and shook it. Next she shook out her shoe, and felt all around the inside with her hand; next she looked all about the planked floor of the summer-house.

"Why! where has that skin gone to?" she exclaimed.

But although she had not found that for which she was looking, she found something else--something very bad indeed. Belle thought it worse even than that ugly graze upon her foot. There was a great hole in her sock; and, worse and worse, another--a jagged tear--in the little gaiter! She took up the shoe and the sock again, and sat with one in each hand, looking at them with a very sober face.

"There now!" she said at last. "I disobeyed my Aunt Margaret fee things. I came out with these shoes on, that's one; I came down to the ball-ground, that's two; and I climbed the fence, that's fee. She didn't tell me don't climb the fence, but I guess I knew she didn't want me too; so I'm 'fraid it was a disobey. Now I'll have to go and tell her, and then she'll look sorry at me; and I think perhaps she'll punish me, and perhaps papa will know it. Oh dear! I wish I hadn't, I wish I hadn't!" and Belle began to cry.

By and by she stopped crying, wiped her eyes, and began to put on her shoe and stocking. They had come off easily enough; but to put them on was another thing. At last the sock was pulled on after a fashion, all one-sided, and half an inch beyond her toes, for Belle was not used to dressing herself. But, do what she would, she could not put on the shoe. She pulled and pulled till she was quite red in the face, but all in vain; and at last she gave an impatient scream and threw the shoe from her.

"Bad old thing!" she said, and sat a moment frowning at it. But the shoe did not mind being looked cross at, at all; and presently Belle sprang to her feet, and went and picked it up, feeling rather ashamed.

"I am going to Miss Ashton," she said; "and she'll ask me where I went, and I'll tell her."

But just then she heard Bessie's voice. She had quite forgotten that the half-hour for the music-lesson must have gone by, and that it must be time to go home; and there was Bessie running down the garden path and calling to her.

"Belle, Belle! where are you, Belle?"

Bessie had not come to school that morning, for the weather had been so damp that her mother had not thought it safe for her to go out; but as it had cleared up before Jane went for the other children, she had given her leave to go with the nurse.

But, when they came to the school, Belle was not to be found; and some one saying she had been seen to run out in the garden, Bessie went in search of her, while Jane put on Maggie's things.

"Here I am, Bessie," said Belle, putting her head out of the summer-house.

Bessie ran to her, and great was her astonishment when she saw Belle standing there with her sacque all awry and half-buttoned, and her shoe held in her hand.

"What is the matter?" she asked.

"Oh, I was naughty!" said Belle. "I went and climbed up on the wall where your mamma told us not to go; and a great ugly stone hurt my foot, and tore my shoe and stocking, and oh, Bessie! I can't find the skin."

She showed Bessie the hurt foot, and then a new search was commenced for the missing piece of skin; but it was all in vain, and after much wonderment as to what could have come of it, Bessie begged Belle to come at once to the house.

"For Jane must have Maggie ready," she said; "and you will take cold barefeeted, Belle. We must go right home and tell mamma."

The garden-path was planked, like the summer-house floor, about half-way up to the house; and Belle went on pretty well over the smooth boards, which did not hurt the little stocking-foot, but when she came to the gravel walks it was not so easy. There the pebbles hurt; and she limped and hopped along till she came to the back stoop, where Miss Ashton and Jane met her, full of alarm at the state in which they found her.

Miss Ashton did not scold, but she looked very much grieved at Belle's disobedience; and she told Jane she must take her home as fast as possible, so that the hurt foot might be attended to, and something be given to her which might prevent her from taking cold.

As for putting on the walking shoe, or even the cut gaiter, that was quite out of the question. Miss Ashton rolled a soft handkerchief around the foot; and, wrapping a shawl over that, Jane took Belle in her arms, and hurried home as fast as Bessie's little feet could keep pace with her. But if Miss Ashton had not much to say, Jane found enough.

"To think of your doing such a thing, Miss Belle!" she said; "to be so naughty, and hurt yourself, and maybe make yourself sick, and give so much trouble to Mrs. Bradford. Now she'll be so worried, and that's very bad for her. You know she was worse the other day when Frankie fell down and cut his head."

"But that was most entirely your fault, Jane," said Maggie: "you ran in very suddenly, and screamed to mamma that Frankie was most killed; and papa said it gave her a shock, and people ought to tell her things quietly and gently, so as not to frighten her."

"I don't know what she'll say when I tell her," said Jane, "and your papa away, and all."

"You shan't tell her," said Belle. "I'll tell her myself."

"Yes," said Bessie. "It's best for Belle to tell mamma herself, Janey; and I will help her. I have thought how we can tell her in a manner that is not at all shocking, and she would rather we would tell her of ourselves when we have been naughty."

When they reached home, Jane carried Belle to the head of the stairs, where she put her down; and the three little girls arranged their plan for telling mamma.

Belle took off her hat, and putting the little gaiter, which she still held in her hand, in the hollow of the crown, held the hat against her bosom with both arms, so that the shoe was quite hidden. She, as well as the other two, wanted Mrs. Bradford to question them before she saw the shoe or the foot. It was not that they wished to keep anything back from her, but they feared to tell her too suddenly.

They all wished it was over, especially Belle; and the young faces were by no means as bright as they usually were, when they ran into mamma's room on their daily return from school. Belle kept behind the others until she came close to Mrs. Bradford, when, without putting up her face for the kiss which generally welcomed her, she sat down on a stool at the lady's side, still keeping her bandaged foot carefully out of sight.

Mrs. Bradford did not speak to her, or tell her to come and kiss her, as Belle half hoped, half feared she would do. She kept on with her work with a very grave face, and that work was a pretty little sacque, like some owned by Maggie and Bessie, which she was embroidering for Belle. The child knew it was for her; and she had been disobeying that dear, kind friend! She seemed to feel how naughty and ungrateful she had been, even more than she had done before.

"She looks as sorry as if she knew," said Belle to herself; "but then she can't know yet. No one saw me do it but God, and He never tells about people; but I guess He's pretty sorry too, 'cause I was so naughty. Maybe He won't be so sorry with me if I tell Aunt Margaret pretty quick. I'll just do it, if Bessie don't make haste."

Bessie was just preparing to tell her story; but, in order not to shock her mamma, she came to it in rather a roundabout way, not at all like her usual fashion of telling things. Sitting down upon the rug at Belle's side, she said, in a grave tone,--

"Mamma, Belle and Maggie and I have found out something to-day."

"Have you, dear?" said mamma very soberly, but she did not ask what it was, as Belle had hoped she would. It would make the confession so much easier, she thought, if Aunt Margaret would only question them a little; but she did not seem inclined to do so. And there was the cut shoe beneath the hat, which Belle had now allowed to slip carefully down into her lap, keeping both hands pressed on it, as if she feared it would jump out of its own accord and show itself before the proper time.

"Yes'm," said Bessie, in reply to her mother: "it; is something we did not know about before."

This time there was no answer; but Belle thought Mrs. Bradford looked at her as if she expected she would speak for herself, instead of letting Bessie do it for her. She shrugged up her shoulders, wriggled herself about on her seat, and felt more and more uncomfortable.

Bessie waited a moment, and then spoke again.

"We've found out the colour of the inside of people's heels, mamma," she said; while Belle looked with a very innocent air into the fire. Bessie went on, "Least we've found out the colour of Belle's, and I s'pose all people's are the same. It's a nice colour: it's pink."

"How did you find that out, dear?" asked mamma.

"Belle's foot is peeled, and we saw the inside of it. But, mamma, we couldn't find the skin."

"How did the skin come off your foot, Belle?" asked Mrs. Bradford, trying not to smile, and speaking for the first time to the little culprit, while Aunt Bessie, who sat by, turned her face aside.

"'Cause a big hole came in my stocking, ma'am," answered Belle.

"How was that? It was a very good little stocking when it was put on this morning."

"'Cause a big, larger hole came in my shoe, and it went foo and foo."

"But it was a very good shoe too, quite new," answered Mrs. Bradford. "How did a hole come in it already?"

"A stone came on it, Aunt Margaret; but--Aunt Margaret--I'm 'fraid it came on it 'cause I was naughty. I disobeyed you fee times, Aunt Margaret;" and Belle's voice had a piteous tone in it, as if she were about to burst into a cry again.

"And does my little Belle want to tell me all about it?" asked Mrs. Bradford, throwing down her work, and holding out her arms to the child.

Belle let hat and shoe slip to the ground, and in another moment had scrambled into Mrs. Bradford's lap. Ah, what a comfort it was to feel about her those kind arms, whose dear, loving clasp reminded her of those of her lost mamma! and to nestle her head against Aunt Margaret's shoulder, while she confessed with many a penitent sob how naughty she had been.

"I s'pose you'll have to punish me pretty much: won't you, Aunt Margaret?" said Belle, when her story was finished.

"My poor little girl, I'm afraid you have punished yourself more than I should," said Mrs. Bradford.

"Oh no, Aunt Margaret! I did not punish myself one bit. I did not go in the closet for a single moment," said Belle.

While Belle had been talking, Mrs. Bradford had taken off the bandage, and was looking at the little grazed foot. She still held it tenderly in her hand when the child said these last words.

"You have punished yourself without going in the closet," she said. "This poor little foot must have some salve on it, and be bound up; and you cannot wear a shoe for several days, lest it should be rubbed. So you will have to stay in the house and not go out at all.

"And, Belle," Mrs. Bradford went on more slowly now, "a telegram came from your father a short time ago, saying that he would be here to-night, and begging me to send you to the railroad depôt to meet him; but it will be late, and I am afraid to let you go out even in a carriage, after you have run so much risk of taking cold. He will have to be disappointed, my little girl; and I fear he will be sorry when he sees your foot, and hears how it was hurt."

Now, indeed, Belle felt that she was punished for her disobedience. The delight of having her father back again was almost lost sight of in her distress at not being able to go and meet him, and the thought that he would know how naughty she had been.

Mrs. Bradford put her on the sofa, and brought some salve and soft linen, and bound up the foot, after which Belle was carried down-stairs, so that she might have her dinner with the other children. But she could not eat; the thought of her father and his disappointment brought a great lump in her throat; and, though she tried hard not to cry, the tears would find their way out and roll down her cheeks. Maggie and Bessie did their best to console her, but all in vain; and when, at last, they went out for their walk, which mamma would not allow them to omit, they left her on the Library sofa in a very mournful state.

"If papa wouldn't look sorry, I wouldn't care so very much," said Belle, as Mrs. Bradford tried to comfort her. "I promised him to be good all the time, and I went and was naughty just when he was coming back."

"I am very sorry for you, dear," said Mrs. Bradford; "but I shall tell your papa you have been a good girl all the rest of the time; and this will help you to remember that your older friends know best."

"Yes'm," sobbed Belle. "But, Aunt Margaret, I don't think _myself_ gave myself such a great, large punishment as this. I don't think I could do it. I guess God did it, 'cause He knew I deserved it, for disobeying you so. Maybe He thought I wouldn't tell you, and you wouldn't know to punish me, so He better do it. I forgot He saw me, till my foot was hurt, and I was 'fraid on the fence."

"Yes," said Mrs. Bradford; "I think you are right, and that our Father in heaven meant to give His little girl a lesson. What lesson has my Belle learned this morning?"

"To mind you, my wise friend," said Belle.

"Yes; and what else?"

The child thought a moment, and then said, "That He sees me ev'ry day, and is sorry with me when I'm naughty. But, Aunt Margaret, what made you look so sorry at me, as if you knew, before I told you."

"I did know, Belle."

"Why, how? Did God tell you?"

"Aunt Bessie was coming along the street on the other side of the ball-ground, and she saw a little figure on the top of the fence; and she knew who it was, and felt frightened lest you should fall and be hurt; for she was too far away to be of any help. But God took care of the little girl who did not care for herself, and let her come down off the fence without being killed as she might have been. Aunt Bessie saw that you had come down safely, and then she came here and told me about it. She did not know that you were hurt, nor did I; and I felt anxious to know if you would come and confess your fault, and though I am sorry that you were disobedient, I do not feel half as badly as I should have done if you had tried to hide it."

"I'd have told you quicker, Aunt Margaret, only we were afraid you'd be too shocked, and Bessie made up that way to tell you."

"You were very considerate," said Mrs. Bradford, smiling as she remembered Bessie's roundabout fashion of bringing out her story.

Belle sat still with a grave face for a few moments, thinking of what her kind friend had said.

"Aunt Margaret," she then began, "God took good care of _me_; but He did not take very good care of my foot, did He?"

"Yes, Belle; this little foot might have been so crushed by that stone that you never would have been able to walk again; but God watched over it, and only let it be hurt enough to remind it not to run into naughty, disobedient ways. He has been very good to you, dear."

Just then, Patrick came to say some visitors were in the other room; and Mrs. Bradford, giving Belle a picture-book, told her to amuse herself with it till she came back.

Belle sat still for a few moments after Mrs. Bradford left her, not looking at the pictures, but thinking of her own naughtiness; and at last she said aloud,--

"I guess if God took so much trouble to punish me just enough to make me remember, and not enough to make me a lame girl all my life, I'd better punish myself a little too."

Belle sometimes punished herself when she knew she had been naughty, and her way of doing this was to shut herself up in the closet.

There was one which opened out of the library. It was not dark, but the little window which lighted it was high up in the wall, so that she could not see out; and there was nothing there to amuse her, for it was hung around with overcoats and hats, so that it was really disagreeable to her to shut herself up there, as she had done more than once since she had been at Mrs. Bradford's.

She slipped down from the sofa, and went into the closet, where she pulled the door to, and sat down upon the floor, still thinking how sorry papa would look. But presently she felt tired, and, looking around her, she saw a carriage-robe lying in the corner. She rolled up one end of this for a pillow, and curled herself up upon it; and there, a few moments later, Mrs. Bradford found her fast asleep. She called Jane, and had Belle carried to her crib, feeling very thankful that the little girl truly repented of her fault; for she saw she was quite in earnest about punishing herself. Belle took a long nap, and the children had been home some time. She awoke, and it was then nearly time for her papa to come. When at last he arrived, he did indeed look grieved to see the hurt foot, and hear how it had happened, but he was glad she had not tried to hide it.

"But, papa," said Belle, when she had finished her confession, "Bessie and I could not find that skin. I wonder what did become of it."

The children were all three greatly puzzled and disturbed at the disappearance of the piece of skin which had been scraped from Belle's foot; and late that night, when mamma was herself going to bed, and went to give her birdies a last kiss, Bessie roused a little as her mother leaned over her, and murmured sleepily,--

"I wonder what did become of Belle's skin."