A Grandmothers Recollections

A Grandmother's Recollections

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Title: A Grandmother's Recollections
Author: Ella Rodman
Release Date: March 3, 2004 [EBook #11427]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A GRANDMOTHER'S RECOLLECTIONS.
BY ELLA RODMAN.
1851.

A GRANDMOTHER'S RECOLLECTIONS.
CHAPTER I.
The best bed-chamber, with its hangings of crimson moreen, was
opened and aired--a performance which always caused my eight little
brothers and sisters to place themselves in convenient positions for
being stumbled over, to the great annoyance of industrious damsels,
who, armed with broom and duster, endeavored to render their reign as
arbitrary as it was short. For some time past, the nursery-maids had
invariably silenced refractory children with "Fie, Miss Matilda! Your
grandmother will make you behave yourself--she won't allow such
doings, I'll be bound!" or "Aren't you ashamed of yourself, Master
Clarence? What will your grandmother say to that!" The nursery was in
a state of uproar on the day of my venerable relative's arrival; for the
children almost expected to see, in their grandmother, an ogress, both
in features and disposition.
My mother was the eldest of two children, and my grandmother, from
the period of my infancy, had resided in England with her youngest
daughter; and we were now all employed in wondering what sort of a
person our relative might be. Mamma informed us that the old lady was
extremely dignified, and exacted respect and attention from all around;
she also hinted, at the same time, that it would be well for me to lay
aside a little of my self-sufficiency, and accommodate myself to the
humors of my grandmother. This to me!--to me, whose temper was so
inflammable that the least inadvertent touch was sufficient to set it in a
blaze--it was too much! So, like a well-disposed young lady, I very
properly resolved that mine should not be the arm to support the
venerable Mrs. Arlington in her daily walks; that should the children
playfully ornament the cushion of her easy-chair with pins, I would not
turn informant; and should a conspiracy be on foot to burn the old
lady's best wig, I entertained serious thoughts of helping along myself.
In the meantime, like all selfish persons, I considered what demeanor I
should assume, in order to impress my grandmother with a conviction
of my own consequence. Of course, dignified and unbending I would

be; but what if she chose to consider me a child, and treat me
accordingly? The idea was agonizing to my feelings; but then I proudly
surveyed my five feet two inches of height, and wondered how I could
have thought of such a thing! Still I had sense enough to know that
such a supposition would never have entered my head, had there not
been sufficient grounds for it; and, with no small trepidation, I prepared
for my first appearance.
It went off as first appearances generally do. I was to have been seated
in an attitude of great elegance, with my eyes fixed on the pages of
some wonderfully wise book, but my thoughts anywhere but in
company with my eyes; while, to give more dignity to a girlish figure,
my hair was to be turned up on the very top of my head with a huge
shell comb, borrowed for the occasion from mamma's drawer. Upon
my grandmother's entrance, I intended to rise and make her a very stiff
courtesy, and then deliver a series of womanish remarks. This, I say,
was to have been my first appearance--but alas! fate ordered otherwise.
I was caught by my dignified relative indulging in a game of romps
upon the balcony with two or three little sisters in pinafores and
pantalettes--myself as much a child as any of them. My grandmother
came rather suddenly upon me as, with my long hair floating in wild
confusion, I stooped to pick up my comb; and while in this ungraceful
position, one of the little urchins playfully climbed upon my back,
while the others held me down. My three little sisters had never
appeared to such disadvantage in my eyes, as they did at the present
moment; in vain I tried to shake them off--they only clung the closer,
from fright, on being told of their grandmother's arrival.
At length, with crimsoned cheeks, and the hot tears starting to my eyes,
I rose and