TAMING MRS. TAGGART

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 6, 8 February 1906, Page 23

TAMING MRS. TAGGART

To an intense little person like Mrs. Richard Redding the events of every-day life hold possibilities of joy or pain qiuite incomprehensible to those of more phlegmatic temperament. Her husband, big and unemotional, who could have seen their pretty suourban home burn to the ground with less expenditure of nervous force than she gave to the purchase of a new drawingroom rug, found the infinite variety of her moods an unfailing source of interest. One crisp October evening she ran to meet him, evidently brimming over with news of great import. But he was late, and as both young people stood in wholesome awe of their cook, it was not until they were seated at the dinner table that he began, tentatively : ' Well, Dot, what now ? ' Then, as he tasted his first mouthful of soup, he went on : ' Oh, I see ! A new soup, isn't it ? ' ' Now, Dick,' his wife remonstrated, ' I've not been excited over a new soup for ages. You're always making fun of me, but this time you'll have to acknowledge that something really important has happened.' 'Do tell me ! ' he implored. ' You've got me all " nerved up," as; Aunt Melissa used to say.' ' Well,' said Dorothy solemnly,- ' Mrs. George Selden was hero to-day to tell me that I've been elected one of the managers of the Old Ladies' Home.' ' You don't say so ! ' exclaimed Dick, startled for once out of his habitual calm. " What on earth can they want of a kid like you ? ' ' I wish you wouldn't call me a " kid," Dick/ returned his wife reprovingly. ' Mrs. Selden says that they want to interest young people in the home, and they chose me to be a director because — because they thought the old ladies would like me,' she ended, blushing. 1 That's very strange,' said Redding gravely. Then, as she looked at him, half-puzzled, half-appealing, he dropped his bantering tone. 'Of course they'll like you. But can you manage the old ladies, or will they manage you ? ' "I don't know,' Dorothy faltered, ' but Mrs. Selden says that it's every one's duty to spend part of one's time in philanthropic work.' Redding laughed. ' Well, Dot, go ahead, and good luck ; but don't let the old ladies and their trials and tribulations get on your nerves.' A week later Dorothy met him with a troubled face. ' Oh, Dick,' she exclaimed, ' I've been at the home to-day ! I was put on a committee to go through the old ladies' closets and bureau drawers ; and to reconcile them to this invasion of their privacy >we decided to offer a prize of a five-dollar gold piece to the one who kept her room and belongings in the best order. Most of the inmates seemed delighted to throw open their rooms for our inspection, but we have a dreadful time with one of them. ' This Mrs. Taggart has always been a thorn in the flesh of the directors and matron, for she's been in a constant state of rebellion against the rules ever since she came to the home'; and this visit of inspection made her simply furious. She's an energetic little old woman, and though she is over seventy, her hair is black and smooth and shining, and her eyes as sharp as gimlets. ' They say she's a " perfect stayer " at working, so I believe .she left her things purposely in disorder. Her room contained the queerest collection of odds and ends you ever saw ; it was like nothing so much as a magpie's nest ; and among other articles was a most forlorn, moth-eaten fur cape. The other members of the committee decided that the cape was worthless and only breeded moths, so they confiscated it, and said that I must take it with me, because as we live in the country I could make a bonfire of it. I never was so scared, for the poor old woman glared like a wild animal deprived of its young. Oh, dear me, Dick, I wish I'd never gone in for philanthropy ! ' Redding consoled her as well as he >could, but on the day of the next Board meeting she was so late in coming home that he grew quite uneasy, and when at last she appeared, she threw herself into his arms, wailing : ' Oh, . Dick, since we took away her fur cape Mrs. Taggart has been acting worse than ever ! She was so angry at the old woman to whom we gave the prize— l suppose Mrs. Nixon did give herself airs— that one day,

when the others were at supper, she went into her room and. snipped every blossom irom a beautiful fuchsia that was the dear old soul's pride and joy.' Dick' chuckled, but Dorothy looked reproachful. 'How can you laugli, Dick ? ' she asked tragically. ' The managers decided that Mrs. Taggart must be punished by being sent to Coventry for a week or so, and to-day not one of them spoi.e to her. She was in the hall when we arrived, and the lust thing she did was to march straight up to me, lay her hand on my fur coa.t, and examine it closely. " 'Pears to me," she said, calmly,'" that youi jacket's a little mite longer than it was last time you was here, ain't it, Mis' Kedding,? " ' Dick laughed, and Dorothy said reluctantly : 'Of course it was absurd ot her to accuse me of piecing out the beautilul seal coat you gave me last winter with that forlorn old catskin "cape, and the other directors were in hts ot suued laughter , but when I looked down iat her ipoor wrinkled hand, all crippled with* rheumatism, smoothing the bolt fur so wisituily, and thought of all I have to make me so happy, and that I'd deprived her of the few relics of a time when life was bright for her, too, I ran out of the house, hid myself in the carnage, and cuea all the time that the other directors were Holding their meeting. They were very kind to me when they saw how badly I felt, and they explained how necessaiy it was that discipline should be maintained. I know they're right, but every time I think of that pathetic old hand I'm 'just heartbroken.' After dinner Dorothy said wistfully : ' Dick, dear, I've been thinking about Mrs. Taggart and I've made up my mind that what ails her is that she's just like me.' 'Just like you ! ' he echoed. ' The idea of that old termagant being like you ! What on earth do you mean ? ' . J ' I mean that she feels little troubles just the way I do, so we must have the same kind of disposition ' persisted Dorothy earnestly. ' The others are different Jhey are so glad to know that they will have a good home and care so long as they live that they don't mind little annoyances ; but when people are born like Mrs Taggart and me, it is the little things that count And Dick,' she added coaxingly, 'would you mind giving me the money you would have spent on a Christmas present for me, and letting me use it to buy Mrs Taega,rt a new fur cape.? ' Redding pulled out his pocket-book with delightful promptness. ' Oh, Dot, Dot,' he laughed. ' I knew how it would be ! Help yourself. But so long as clients continue numerous I shall not allow your vagaries to deprive me of the pleasure of giving my wife a Christmas present ' Dorothy hugged him. ' I'll take the cape to Mrs Taggart Christmas morning, and bring her back -with me to dinner ! ' she announced. ' Oh, come now, Dot,' her husband protested, 'that's, a little too much ! ' ' But, Dick,' she said softly, ' think if it were I who was left alone, and old and poor.' ' Don't Dot. I can't endure thinking of a little tender thing like you being left alone.' ' But I shall not always be young, Dick, and we do not know what may come to me " amid the changes, and chances of this morta. life." ' 'I wish you wouldn't be so fanciful,' he said, frowning impatiently, ' but you may bring on your old ladyOn the whole, I'm rather curious to see her ' he conceded. Christmas morning Mrs. Taggart, according to her invariable habit, had locked and double-locked her door electing to spend the day in gloom and semi-starva-tion, thereby reducing the kind-hearted matron to despair. When Mrs. Redding arrived, announcing her intention of taking the old woman home with her to spend the Miss Green shook her head. It's no use,' she averred. ' Mrs. Taggart won't ever come out of her room on holidays— not even on Fourth of July,' she added, as if that gunpowdery festival of noise and riot was specially dear to the hearts of nervous old ladies. But Dorothy persevered, and to Miss Green's surprise she heard the bolt drawn and the door cautiously opened. The truth was that the look of sympathy in Dorothy's eyes that day of ihe directors' meeting'had been unmistakable, and Mrs. Taggart could not resist the soft voice. Nevertheless, when Dorothy entered, tugging a large box, Mrs. Taggart regarded it suspiciously with the expression of some wary little animal not unacquainted with traps. ' I s'pose that's the " good warm shawl " you folks promised me to take the place of that handsome cape ! *

she snorted. ' Land, there don't anybody seem to think 1 I'd lihe to have a mite o' style about me if I am hvin' in a home, an' shawls ain't been worn in the flight o' ages ! ' 'It isn't a shawl, Mrs. Taggart,' Dorothy interposed timidly, ' and I hope you will like this cape, though I'm atraid yours may have been a present Irom some one you loved. My mother gave me a set of furs just before she died,' she continued, a shadow coming over her sweet face. ' I was only eight years old, but, I'll never forget how I felt when* motlis got into them and my aunt took them away.' 1 My husband bought me that cape last time ho ever went outdoors/ said Mrs. Taggart briefly. Then, as Dorothy took from the box a long cape of glossy black fur, the old woman gave a gasp of unqualnied amazement. ' You ain't goin' to give that to me ? ' ' \es, I am,' said Dorothy happily, ' and I want you to put it on and let me Uxke you home to dine with us.' Shq laid the cape over the bowed shoulders, but Mrs. 'Taggart pulled away from her and turned her back abruptly. 1 I'll come,' she said in a curiously muffled tone. Then she snapped, ' But I wish you'd get out o' here till I'm ready ! I do hate to hey folks al'ays and forever underfoot ! ' The words were not encouraging, but Dorothy smiled as she meekly retired to the reception-room to await the coming of her guest. When Mrs. Taggart at last appeared, she had evidently done her little best in honor of the occasion. The dinner passed off successfully, Mrs. Taggart having fortunately ' taken ' to Dick from the hrst ; and as for him, he was openly infatuated with the strenuous old woman. Soothed by* the influence of a dinner which was one of Katy's masterpieces, and pleased by Dorothy's exuberant and unaffected gratitude lor the promise of a receipt for plum pudding which had been a secret in the Taggart family for generations, Mrs. Taggart found herself left alone with her hostess after dinner. She listened for a time to Dorothy's pretty, gentle chatter and then she said, with visible effort . ' Mis' Redding, I s'pose I hey acted like sixty ever sence I come to the home, but the fact is, it's bad enough to be an inmate without having folks snoopin 1 round the whole endurin' time. Snoopin' is somethin' I never could stand. I had a neighbor once that was al'ays at it. ' Land,' she sniffed, with reminiscent rage, ' how I did despise that woman ! My husband al'ays said'that I was as good a housekeeper a,s he could wish to see, but course there was some days when everything was in the suds. An' sure as such' a day come, that woman would skitter 'cross my back yard, comin' kitty-cor-nerin' sot I couldn't see her in time to lock the door. Then .she'd set down, and I'd try to interest her in conversation ; but all the time her eyes'd be travellin' round takin' in every fly-track on the window, an' I was lucky if she didn't hatch up some kind o' an excuse to go all over the house from garret to cellar. ' Well, it does seem's if every one o' the managers was just like thet woman— present comp'ny excepted for they're al'ays an' forever a-snoopin'. I'm one o' them that when I see anythin' that needs to be done, I want to do it, an' as "the hired help to the home is slower'n cold molasses, I'm apt to whirl in an' wash dishes or peel potatoes, though we ain't expected to do nothin' but keep our own rooms in order. Well, I never come up from that kitchen, all tired and het up, that I don't meet a manager just comin' out o' my room. An' she'll al'ays say, in a kinder high an' mm Cm voice, " O Mis' Taggart, if you'd only keep your room in such exquisite order ez Mis' Nixon does hers >! " Huh, she don't ever do a hand's turn for anybody 'cent them plants o' hers ! ' 4 It does seem hard,' agreed Dorothy sympathetically, ' and I know just how you feel about people going into your room to examine your closet and bureau drawers, for I had the same experience when I was at boarding-school.' Mrs. Taggart looked interested. It was wonderful how much she and this lovely, dainty little creature had in common. ' As I've told you,' Dorothy went on, ' my mother died when I was a child, and my father and the servants combined to spoil me. I was sent to boardingschool at fourteen, and when I found I was expected to keep my own room in order I rebelled. I felt insulted at the matron's going through my belongings everyday, and giving me a black mark if she found anything out

of place. I was about to write my father to take me home, when fortunately one of the teachers learned of my intention. ' I wish I could explain it all to you as she did to me, but I'm afraid I can't,' said Dorothy, humbly. 'She told me a story of a girl who was visiting an army encampment hearing the officer tell one of the men that a tent-peg was an inch out of line. The girl said she didn't see what difference a little thing like that could make, but the officer told her that the most important truth a soldier had to learn was the absolute necessity of subordination and uniformity. Miss Gray said that men learned this more easily than women, who, as a rule, were undisciplined, but until they did learn to submit to discipline, for the good of the whole, they would never contribute to the world's progress. She talked to me for a long time ; but this story was what made the greatest impression, for the thought that all those brave soldiers had submitted to a surveillance much more severe than any 1 would ever be called on to undergo put an end to my rebellion.' Mrs. Taggart laid down an unwieldy crazy-quilt which she had insisted on bringing with her, in spite of Dorothy's suggestion that she give herself a day of complete rest. ' I wasn't brought to the home by my own shiftlessness, but by the breaking of a bank, Mis' Redding,' she had replied, austerely. *:I haven't ever been visitin' without my pick-up work, an' I ain't goin' to begin now.' She surveyed Dorothy meditatively before remarking, with some hesitation : " ' Well, I declare, if a pretty little creature like you, an' all them big, smart men can stand folks a-snoop-in', seems as if I might, doesn't it?' Then she broke out with startling energy, ' Land o' Liberty, let 'em snoop, if it's any comfort to 'em ! They won't never have no more trouble with me, Mis' Redding.' And to the unbounded astonishment of directors, matrons and inmates, they never did. — Exchange.