20.4-CHAPTER XX Topsy part4-mt

CHAPTER XX

Topsy part4

In the former art,the child was quick enough. She learned her letters as if by magic, and wasvery soon able to read plain reading; but the sewing was a more difficultmatter. The creature was as lithe as a cat, and as active as a monkey, and theconfinement of sewing was her abomination; so she broke her needles, threw themslyly out of the window, or down in chinks of the walls; she tangled, broke,and dirtied her thread, or, with a sly movement, would throw a spool awayaltogether. Her motions were almost as quick as those of a practised conjurer,and her command of her face quite as great; and though Miss Ophelia could nothelp feeling that so many accidents could not possibly happen in succession,yet she could not, without a watchfulness which would leave her no time foranything else, detect her.

Topsy was soon anoted character in the establishment. Her talent for every species of drollery,grimace, and mimicry,—fordancing, tumbling, climbing, singing, whistling, imitating every sound that hither fancy,—seemed inexhaustible. In her play-hours, sheinvariably had every child in the establishment at her heels, open-mouthed withadmiration and wonder,—not excepting Miss Eva, whoappeared to be fascinated by her wild diablerie, as a dove is sometimes charmedby a glittering serpent. Miss Ophelia was uneasy that Eva should fancy Topsy'ssociety so much, and implored St. Clare to forbid it.

"Poh! let thechild alone," said St. Clare. "Topsy will do her good."

"But sodepraved a child,—areyou not afraid she will teach her some mischief?"

"She can'tteach her mischief; she might teach it to some children, but evil rolls offEva's mind like dew off a cabbage-leaf,—not a drop sinks in."

"Don't be toosure," said Miss Ophelia. "I know I'd never let a child of mine playwith Topsy."

"Well, yourchildren needn't," said St. Clare, "but mine may; if Eva could havebeen spoiled, it would have been done years ago."

Topsy was at firstdespised and contemned by the upper servants. They soon found reason to altertheir opinion. It was very soon discovered that whoever cast an indignity onTopsy was sure to meet with some inconvenient accident shortly after;—either a pair ofear-rings or some cherished trinket would be missing, or an article of dresswould be suddenly found utterly ruined, or the person would stumble accidentlyinto a pail of hot water, or a libation of dirty slop would unaccountablydeluge them from above when in full gala dress;-and on all these occasions,when investigation was made, there was nobody found to stand sponsor for theindignity. Topsy was cited, and had up before all the domestic judicatories,time and again; but always sustained her examinations with most edifyinginnocence and gravity of appearance. Nobody in the world ever doubted who did thethings; but not a scrap of any direct evidence could be found to establish thesuppositions, and Miss Ophelia was too just to feel at liberty to proceed toany length without it.

The mischiefs donewere always so nicely timed, also, as further to shelter the aggressor. Thus,the times for revenge on Rosa and Jane, the two chamber maids, were alwayschosen in those seasons when (as not unfrequently happened) they were indisgrace with their mistress, when any complaint from them would of course meetwith no sympathy. In short, Topsy soon made the household understand thepropriety of letting her alone; and she was let alone, accordingly.

Topsy was smart andenergetic in all manual operations, learning everything that was taught herwith surprising quickness. With a few lessons, she had learned to do theproprieties of Miss Ophelia's chamber in a way with which even that particularlady could find no fault. Mortal hands could not lay spread smoother, adjustpillows more accurately, sweep and dust and arrange more perfectly, than Topsy,when she chose,—butshe didn't very often choose. If Miss Ophelia, after three or four days ofcareful patient supervision, was so sanguine as to suppose that Topsy had atlast fallen into her way, could do without over-looking, and so go off and busyherself about something else, Topsy would hold a perfect carnival of confusion,for some one or two hours. Instead of making the bed, she would amuse herselfwith pulling off the pillowcases, butting her woolly head among the pillows,till it would sometimes be grotesquely ornamented with feathers sticking out invarious directions; she would climb the posts, and hang head downward from thetops; flourish the sheets and spreads all over the apartment; dress the bolsterup in Miss Ophelia's night-clothes, and enact various performances with that,—singing and whistling, and making grimaces at herself in thelooking-glass; in short, as Miss Ophelia phrased it, "raising Cain"generally.

On one occasion,Miss Ophelia found Topsy with her very best scarlet India Canton crape shawlwound round her head for a turban, going on with her rehearsals before theglass in great style,—MissOphelia having, with carelessness most unheard-of in her, left the key for oncein her drawer.

"Topsy!"she would say, when at the end of all patience, "what does make you actso?"

"Dunno,Missis,—Ispects cause I 's so wicked!"

"I don't knowanything what I shall do with you, Topsy."

"Law, Missis,you must whip me; my old Missis allers whipped me. I an't used to workin'unless I gets whipped."

"Why, Topsy, Idon't want to whip you. You can do well, if you've a mind to; what is thereason you won't?"

"Laws, Missis,I 's used to whippin'; I spects it's good for me."

Miss Ophelia triedthe recipe, and Topsy invariably made a terrible commotion, screaming, groaningand imploring, though half an hour afterwards, when roosted on some projectionof the balcony, and surrounded by a flock of admiring "young uns,"she would express the utmost contempt of the whole affair.

"Law, MissFeely whip!—wouldn'tkill a skeeter, her whippins. Oughter see how old Mas'r made the flesh fly; oldMas'r know'd how!"

Topsy always madegreat capital of her own sins and enormities, evidently considering them assomething peculiarly distinguishing.

"Law, youniggers," she would say to some of her auditors, "does you know you's all sinners? Well, you is—everybody is. White folks is sinners too,—MissFeely says so; but I spects niggers is the biggest ones; but lor! ye an't anyon ye up to me. I 's so awful wicked there can't nobody do nothin' with me. Iused to keep old Missis a swarin' at me half de time. I spects I 's thewickedest critter in the world;" and Topsy would cut a summerset, and comeup brisk and shining on to a higher perch, and evidently plume herself on thedistinction.

Miss Ophelia busiedherself very earnestly on Sundays, teaching Topsy the catechism. Topsy had anuncommon verbal memory, and committed with a fluency that greatly encouragedher instructress.

"What good doyou expect it is going to do her?" said St. Clare.

"Why, italways has done children good. It's what children always have to learn, youknow," said Miss Ophelia.

"Understand itor not," said St. Clare.

"O, childrennever understand it at the time; but, after they are grown up, it'll come tothem."

"Mine hasn'tcome to me yet," said St. Clare, "though I'll bear testimony that youput it into me pretty thoroughly when I was a boy."'

"Ah, you werealways good at learning, Augustine. I used to have great hopes of you,"said Miss Ophelia.

"Well, haven'tyou now?" said St. Clare.

"I wish youwere as good as you were when you were a boy, Augustine."

"So do I,that's a fact, Cousin," said St. Clare. "Well, go ahead and catechizeTopsy; may be you'll make out something yet."

Topsy, who hadstood like a black statue during this discussion, with hands decently folded,now, at a signal from Miss Ophelia, went on:

"Our first parents,being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the state wherein theywere created."

Topsy's eyestwinkled, and she looked inquiringly.

"What is it,Topsy?" said Miss Ophelia.

"Please,Missis, was dat ar state Kintuck?"

"What state,Topsy?"

"Dat state deyfell out of. I used to hear Mas'r tell how we came down from Kintuck."

St. Clare laughed.

"You'll haveto give her a meaning, or she'll make one," said he. "There seems tobe a theory of emigration suggested there."

"O! Augustine,be still," said Miss Ophelia; "how can I do anything, if you will belaughing?"

"Well, I won'tdisturb the exercises again, on my honor;" and St. Clare took his paperinto the parlor, and sat down, till Topsy had finished her recitations. Theywere all very well, only that now and then she would oddly transpose someimportant words, and persist in the mistake, in spite of every effort to thecontrary; and St. Clare, after all his promises of goodness, took a wickedpleasure in these mistakes, calling Topsy to him whenever he had a mind toamuse himself, and getting her to repeat the offending passages, in spite ofMiss Ophelia's remonstrances.

"How do youthink I can do anything with the child, if you will go on so, Augustine?"she would say.

"Well, it istoo bad,—Iwon't again; but I do like to hear the droll little image stumble over thosebig words!"

"But youconfirm her in the wrong way."

"What's theodds? One word is as good as another to her."

"You wanted meto bring her up right; and you ought to remember she is a reasonable creature,and be careful of your influence over her."

"O, dismal! soI ought; but, as Topsy herself says, 'I 's so wicked!'"

In very much thisway Topsy's training proceeded, for a year or two,—Miss Ophelia worryingherself, from day to day, with her, as a kind of chronic plague, to whoseinflictions she became, in time, as accustomed, as persons sometimes do to theneuralgia or sick headache.

St. Clare took thesame kind of amusement in the child that a man might in the tricks of a parrotor a pointer. Topsy, whenever her sins brought her into disgrace in otherquarters, always took refuge behind his chair; and St. Clare, in one way orother, would make peace for her. From him she got many a stray picayune, whichshe laid out in nuts and candies, and distributed, with careless generosity, toall the children in the family; for Topsy, to do her justice, was good-naturedand liberal, and only spiteful in self-defence. She is fairly introduced intoour corps de ballet , and will figure, from time to time, inher turn, with other performers.