Chapter I: Introductory

"Do be quiet, Jack. I wonder who can read, write, or think, with any hope of satisfactory results, whilst you are turning everything topsy-turvy and rummaging round in such a fashion. What restless plagues lads are, to be sure!"

"And all because a penny is lost, stolen, strayed, or otherwise mislaid. I am sure it is not worth all that fuss," said sister number two, while the young gentleman addressed, no ways affected, continued his search for the missing coin.

There were just the three of them in a cosy room, one of those universally useful apartments which are not too grand for working, studying, or playing in, as the case may be, but in which mothers and their young folk love to congregate. Florence, mostly called Flossie, on account of her lovely hair, which was just one mass of silken locks, was the eldest, and a girl of sixteen. She was generally considered "a little bit blue," being a hard worker at her books, and great in various branches of study unknown to girls when our mothers were at school.

One of the teachers had been heard to call Flossie the prop of her class; whereupon Master Jack, who was very fond of having a sly poke at girls in general, and his sisters in particular, said he had never known such an appropriate name for anybody.

"Floss is not only a prop but a perfect clothes-prop in every position," he said, in allusion to his sister's height, slimness, and length of limb.

At this moment Flossie was studying for an "exam." And, though very fond of her young brother, she did not like to be interrupted by Jack's "rampage" for his lost penny.

Madge, the second girl, though nearly two years younger, was a born housewife; full of motherly instincts, and doting on little children. She was still a child, despite those graver employments and abstruse studies which are supposed to promote the higher education of women in these enlightened days. She had been a doll-worshipper always, and now, at more than fourteen years of age, was the happy possessor of an immense family in wax, wood, cloth, and porcelain. Amongst these she was as busy as was Flossie at her books—furbishing up the whole lot, washing faces, repairing garments, tidying dishevelled locks, and otherwise making the multitude of dolls fit to be seen. Madge had brought down a doll's house, relegated a year before to the garret, and was setting it in order for the amusement of some very small cousins who were expected on the following day.

At first Jack had been helping Madge, but the loss of that precious penny—and a new one, too—had diverted his attention, and in the search for it, he had upset chairs, unmade beds, brought down miniature pictures, to the destruction of those works of art, and brought down upon himself, in addition, the wrath of his younger sister and playmate.

It was amusing to see how the ten-year-old lad's nature seemed compounded of the very opposite characteristics of the girls. At lesson time, he plodded away beside Flossie, who helped him with his declensions, gave him almost too-learned lectures on the beauties of Euclid, and piloted him tenderly across the Pons Asinorum.

At playtime, he entered into Madge's pursuits, believed in the reality of doll families and all their joys and sorrows. He even assisted at their toilettes by dressing the boy juveniles, propriety being duly considered, though under the roof of a doll's house. Madge was playfellow, sister, friend, little mother and comforter to Jack from and before the time he could toddle. Her great grief in those early days was that he would grow, and often was she heard to say, when remarking his progress upwards, "Oh, mamma, won't it be a pity when Jack is grown out of a baby!" He being the youngest of the family, and consequently the darling of all.

Father and mother both rejoiced in the close union among the children, which helped, especially in Madge's case, to keep the girls young—alas! A very difficult matter in these high-pressure days. And Jack had a good deal of quiet humour for a lad of his age. He professed to read Madge like a book, and declared that she made the coming of the little visitors an excuse to have a turn at the dolls, of which she was as fond as ever; moreover, that she still nursed them on the quiet, and caressed them with all the old tenderness when nobody was by, though in company she tried to look as grown-up as dear old Floss, who was, in many ways, nearly as old as Methuselah and as wise as Solomon.

An extra crash amongst the small furniture, and a half-penitent apology from Jack, and then Madge began to scold in earnest.

"I declare, you bad boy, you have undone nearly an afternoon's work, and done many a pennyworth of damage. I'll bring an action against you, Jack, and mamma shall be judge. And here's the porcelain doll that I called after you, and you were pretending to wash, left at the bottom of the bath. Of course it's drowned, for no person could be ten minutes face downwards and under water without being finished off. However, the little ones can play at burying him to-morrow—that's something."

This was too much even for Flossie's gravity. She and Jack burst into a fit of laughing at the idea of the drowned doll and funeral in prospective, in which Madge joined a moment after, despite her endeavours to look aggrieved at the sad consequences of Jack's negligence.

In removing the tin bath Madge discovered the new penny underneath it, and then Jack remembered that he had put it there himself for safety, because both his pockets were in an unsafe condition.

"And no wonder, Jack, considering the loads and loads of rubbish you put in. One of your jackets came from the cleaner's only yesterday, and mamma says it smells oily yet, and all through your carrying lumps of putty in it for weeks together."

Jack pulled a long face, and held out his hand for the recovered coin, which Madge at first refused to deliver up.

"Give me a kiss for it, and say you're sorry for all the fuss and the mischief you have caused," said she.

Madge held out her rosy lip; Jack drew back, shrugged his shoulders, and looked as if he were going to perform an act of penance. He gave the pretty lips a very rapid salute, snatched the coin from Madge, then pulled a wry face and polished his own mouth on the cuff of his coat.

"Is it such a terrible dose, Jack?" asked Madge, with just a suspicion of moisture in the corner of her eye, for she could not bear the young rebel even to pretend anything unloving towards her.

For answer she received a hug that would have been a credit to a Greenland bear, and quite a little shower of kisses from the boy, who added, "You knew it was only for fun, Madge. I would not vex you, dear." And she did, know it.

At this moment mamma came in.

"My dear children, what an untidy room! What! Up to the eyes in dolls and dolls' belongings, Madge. I suppose you are preparing for the small cousins. But I thought by this time the whole establishment would be in order. Flossie, how have you gone on working amid such a racket? What has it been about?"

"Jack's new penny. He lost it, and would not be pacified until at length it was discovered—but not without enough fuss and turmoil to make the room in this state—in the very place where he had himself put it. I offered him another, two others, but nothing save the particular penny would do. As if the loss of a penny were of any consequence."

"It is of consequence," said Jack. "I did not want to lose it. I never like to lose anything, if taking a little trouble will find it. Besides, I don't believe in being beaten when I know the thing must be somewhere about, so I was determined not to give in, until I got my penny back again."

"Right, Jack," said mamma, "and I am very glad your perseverance was rewarded by its recovery. Still, you had no occasion to make the whole room and its contents look as though the place was the scene of a recent earthquake. Flossie, dear, how have you managed to move your elbows? You might be besieged. Let me say to you, dear, also, never undervalue a penny. I once heard a story which told how the future of two lives hung on a single penny."

Flossie's book was closed, and her pen wiped and put away in a moment.

"I have just finished my work, mamma, and am longing for a chat with you by the fireside. Tell us the story about the penny. Do, there's a darling."

Mamma's cosy chair was drawn forward, and a little fireside circle formed instanter. But mamma protested that she never could tell a story in the midst of a litter, so Madge and Jack began to clear away with great rapidity. The girl, who was naturally methodical, put things in their places; the boy made bad worse by the unceremonious fashion in which he huddled the dolls, their clothing and furniture into the miniature mansion, and closed the door upon them.

In her eagerness to hear her mother's story Madge forgot to find fault with Jack, and soon the girls were seated at each side of the family tale-teller, and the lad stretched on the rug at her feet, his upturned, intelligent face lighted by the blaze of the cheerful fire, gas having been vetoed by unanimous consent.