Tempest and Sunshine

With Fanny it was just the reverse. She got her lessons at home and played

all day at school! Sometimes a reprimand from Mr. Wilmot would bring the

tears into her eyes and she would wonder why it was she could not behave

and make Mr. Wilmot like her as well as he did Julia. Then she would

resolve not to make any more faces at that booby, Bill Jeffrey, for the

girls to laugh at, nor to draw any more pictures on her slate of the Dame

Sobriety, as she called Julia, and lastly, not to pin any more chalk rags

on the boys' coats. But she was a dear lover of fun and her resolutions

were soon for gotten. Her lessons, however, were generally well-learned,

and well recited; but she could not compete with Julia, neither did she

wish to. She often wondered how her sister could learn so long lessons,

and, secretly, she had her own suspicions on the subject, but chose to

keep them to herself.

Meantime the winter was passing rapidly and, to Mr. Wilmot, very agreeably

away. He liked his boarding place much and one of its inmates had almost,

without his knowledge, wound herself strongly around his heart. For a time

he struggled against it, for his first acquaintance with Julia had not

left a very favorable impression on his mind. But since that night she had

been perfectly pleasant before him and had given out but one demonstration

of her passionate temper.

This was one evening at the supper table. Zuba, a mulatto girl, brought in

some preserves and, in passing them, very carelessly spilled them upon

Julia's new blue merino. In the anger of the moment Mr. Wilmot and his

good opinion were forgotten. Springing up, she gave the girl a blow which

sent her half across the room and caused her to drop the dish, which was

broken in twenty pieces. At the same time she exclaimed in a loud, angry

tone, "Devil take you, Zube!" The loss of the dish elicited a series of

oaths from Mr. Middleton, who called his daughter such names as "lucifer

match," "volcano," "powder mill," and so forth.

For her father's swearing Julia cared nothing, but it was the sorrowful,

disappointed expression of Mr. Wilmot's face which cooled her down.

Particularly did she wish to recall what she had done when she saw that

Fanny also had received some of the preserves on her merino; but instead

of raging like a fury, she arose and quietly wiped it off, and then burst

into a loud laugh, which she afterward told her mother was occasioned by

the mournful look which Mr. Wilmot's face assumed when he saw that Julia's

temper was not dead, but merely covered up with ashes.