Aunt Judys Tales | Page 6

young as he was; so, said he, in a
muttering voice:-
"'I don't care about twenty years hence; I want to be happy now!'
"This was unanswerable, as you may suppose; so the puzzled teacher
didn't attempt to make a reply, but said:-
"'Go on with your lessons, you foolish little boy!'
"See what it is to be obstinate," pursued Aunt Judy. "See how it blinds
people's eyes, and prevents them from knowing right from wrong! Pray
take warning, and never be obstinate yourselves; and meantime, let us
have a good hearty groan for the LESSON misery."
The little ones obeyed, and breathed out a groan that seemed to come
from the very depths of their hearts; but somehow or other, as the story
proceeded, the faces looked rather less amused, and rather more
anxious, than at first.
What could the little ones be thinking about to make them grave?
It was evidently quite a relief when Aunt Judy went on:-
"You will be very much surprised, I dare say," said she, "to hear of the
next misery I am going to tell you about. It may be called the DINNER
misery, and the little Victims underwent it every day."
"Did they give them nasty things to eat, Aunt Judy?" murmured No. 8,
very anxiously.
"More likely not half enough," suggested No. 5.
"But you promised not to make the story TOO sad, remember!"
observed No. 6.
"I did," replied Aunt Judy, "and the DINNER misery did not consist in

nasty food, or there not being enough. They had plenty to eat, I assure
you, and everything was good. But--"
Aunt Judy stopped short, and glanced at each of the little ones in
succession.
"Make haste, Aunt Judy!" cried No. 8. "But what?"
"BUT," resumed Aunt Judy, in her most impressive tone, "they had to
wait between the courses."
Again Aunt Judy paused, and there was a looking hither and thither
among the little ones, and a shuffling about on the small Derby chairs,
while one or two pairs of eyes were suddenly turned to the fire, as if
watching it relieved a certain degree of embarrassment which their
owners began to experience.
"It is not every little boy or girl," was Aunt Judy's next remark, "who
knows what the courses of a dinner are."
"I don't," interposed No. 8, in a distressed voice, as if he had been
deeply injured.
"Oh, you think not? Well, not by name, perhaps," answered Aunt Judy.
"But I will explain. The courses of a dinner are the different sorts of
food, which follow each other one after the other, till dinner is what
people call 'over.' Thus, supposing a dinner was to begin with pea-soup,
as you have sometimes seen it do, you would expect when it was taken
away to see some meat put upon the table, should you not?"
The little ones nodded assent.
"And after the meat was gone, you would expect pie or pudding, eh?"
They nodded assent again, and with a smile.
"And if after the pudding was carried away, you saw some cheese and
celery arrive, it would not startle you very much, would it?"
The little ones did nothing but laugh.
"Very well," pursued Aunt Judy, "such a dinner as we have been
talking about consists of four courses. The soup course, the meat course,
the pudding course, and the cheese course. And it was while one course
was being carried out, and another fetched in, that the little Victims had
to wait; and that was the DINNER misery I spoke about, and a very
grievous affair it was. Sometimes they had actually to wait several
minutes, with nothing to do but to fidget on their chairs, lean
backwards till they toppled over, or forward till some accident occurred
at the table. And then, poor little things, if they ventured to get out their

knuckle-bones for a game, or took to a little boxing amusement among
themselves, or to throwing the salt in each other's mugs, or pelting each
other with bits of bread, or anything nice and entertaining, down came
those merciless keepers on their innocent mirth, and the old stupid
order went round for sitting upright and quiet. Nothing that I can say
about it would be half as expressive as what the little Victims used to
say themselves. They said that it was 'SO VERY HARD.'
"Now, then, a good groan for the DINNER misery," exclaimed Aunt
Judy in conclusion.
The order was obeyed, but somewhat reluctantly, and then Aunt Judy
proceeded with her tale.
"On one occasion of the DINNER misery," resumed she, "there
happened to be a stranger lady present, who seemed to be very much
shocked by what the Victims had to undergo, and to pity them very
much; so she said