Sunflowers And A Rushlight
by
CHAPTER I.
“A MAN NAMED SOLOMON.” JAEL AND THE CHINA POODLE. JOHNSON’S DICTIONARY. NAIL-SPOTS. FAMILY BEREAVEMENTS. A FAMILY DOCTOR. THE BOOKS IN THE ATTIC. A PUZZLING TALE. “A JOURNEY TO GO.”
Doctor Brown is our doctor. He lives in our village, at the top of the hill.
When we were quite little, and had scarlet-fever, and measles, and those things, Dr. Brown used to be very kind to us, and dress his first finger up in his pocket-handkerchief with a knot for the turban, and rings on his thumb and middle finger, and do–“At the top of a hill lived a man named Solomon,” in a hollow voice, which frightened me rather.
And then he used to say–“Wise man, Solomon! He lived at the top of a hill,” and laugh till his face got redder than usual, and his eyes filled with laughter-tears, and twinkled in the nice way they do, and I was not frightened any more.
Dr. Brown left off being our doctor once. That was when he and Grandmamma quarrelled. But they made it up again.
It was when I was so unhappy–I tried to help it, but I really could not–about my poor dear white china-poodle (Jael broke him when she was dusting, and then she swept up his tail, though I have so begged her to keep the bits when she cleans our room, and breaks things; and now he never never can be mended, all the days of my life):–it was when I was crying about him, and Grandmamma told Dr. Brown how silly I was, to make me feel ashamed, that he said–“There are some tempers, which, if they haven’t enough people to love, will love things.”
Margery says he did not say tempers but temperaments. I know it began with temper, because it reminded me of Jael, who said “them tears is all temper, Miss Grace,” which was very hard, because she knew–she knew quite well–it was about my poodle; and though accidents will happen, she need not have swept up his tail.
Margery is sure to be right. She always is. Besides, we looked it out in Johnson’s Dictionary, which we are rather fond of, though it is very heavy to lift. We like the bits out of books, in small print; but I could not understand the bits to the word temperament, and I do not think Margery could either, though she can understand much more than I can.
There is a very odd bit to the word temperamental, and it is signed Brown; but we do not know if that means our Dr. Brown. This is the bit: “That temperamental dignotions, and conjecture of prevalent humours, may be collected from spots in our nails, we concede.”–Brown.
We could not understand it, so we lifted down the other volume (one is just as heavy as the other), and looked out “Dignotion,” and it means “distinction, distinguishing mark,” and then there is the same bit over again, but at the end, is “Brown’s Vulgar Errors.” And we did not like to ask Dr. Brown if they were his vulgar errors, for fear he should think us rude. I thought we might perhaps ask him if they were his errors, and leave out vulgar, which is rather a rude word, but Margery thought it better not, and she is sure to be right. She always is.
But we should have liked to ask Dr. Brown about it, if it had not been rude, because we think a good deal of spots on our nails. All we know about them is that you begin at your thumb, and count on to your little finger, in this way,
“A Gift, a Beau,
A Friend, a Foe,
A Journey to go.”
I like having a Beau, or a Friend; Margery likes a Gift or a Journey to go. We neither of us like having Foes.