Mary-Mary Earns Some Money
ONE day Mary-Mary saw all her big brothers and sisters coming out of the kitchen looking very busy and important. Miriam had a bucket of water and a scrubbing-brush, Martyn had a broom, Mervyn had a set of shoe-brushes, and Meg had a packet of soap powder.
“What are you all going to do?” said Mary-Mary.
“Don’t worry us now,” said Miriam.
“We’re busy,” said Martyn.
“We’re going to do some work,” said Mervyn.
“And earn some money,” said Meg.
Mary-Mary looked at the bucket of water, the packet of soap powder, and all the different kinds of brushes, and thought they looked interesting.
“I’ll come too,” she said.
But all the others turned round together and said, “Oh, no, Mary-Mary—not you! Now do go away.”
So, of course, Mary-Mary followed them.
Miriam went to the back-door step and began scrubbing it. Mary-Mary watched her and thought it looked rather fun to dip the brush in the bucket like that and slosh water all over the step.
“Are you going to get money for doing that?” she asked, rather surprised.
“Yes,” said Miriam. “Threepence. When you’re as big as me you’ll be able to earn threepence too.”
“I’ll do it now,” said Mary-Mary, reaching for the brush.
“Oh, no, you won’t,” said Miriam. “You’ll upset the bucket.”
Mary-Mary stepped backwards and sat in the bucket by mistake. It upset.
“Now look what you’ve done,” said Miriam.
“I don’t need to look,” said Mary-Mary. “I can feel it. That water was very wet.”
Miriam went off to fill the bucket with more water, and Mary-Mary, with her skirt all wet and dripping, went away to see what the others were doing.
Martyn was sweeping up the mess round the dustbins.
“Will you get threepence for doing that?” asked Mary-Mary.
“Yes,” said Martyn; “so can you when you’re as big as me.”
“I’ll start now,” said Mary-Mary, reaching for the broom.
“No, you’re not big enough,” said Martyn. “You’d make yourself dirty.”
Mary-Mary stepped backwards and tripped over a pile of dust and tea-leaves. It flew up all round her, and as she was wet it stuck to her in quite a lot of places.
“I seem to have got rather dirty,” she said.
“I knew you would,” said Martyn, and he started sweeping it up all over again.
So Mary-Mary, with her skirt all wet and dripping, and covered with dust and tea-leaves, went away to see what the others were doing.
Mervyn was kneeling on the garden step polishing shoes. Mary-Mary stood and watched for a while. Two tins of polish lay open on the step, one very black and the other shiny brown. Mervyn dipped one brush into the polish and put it on the shoes, then he rubbed them with another brush and polished them with a soft cloth until they shone.
“Do you like doing that?” asked Mary-Mary.
“Not much,” said Mervyn, “but I’ll get threepence for it.”
Mary-Mary knelt down on the step beside him.
“Now I’ll do some,” she said.
“No, you won’t,” said Mervyn. “You’ll only get covered in polish. Get up, now.”
Mary-Mary got up, and the two tins of polish were stuck to her knees. She hadn’t looked where she was kneeling, and the very black one was stuck to her right knee, and the shiny brown one was stuck to her left knee. She took them off quickly before Mervyn noticed. He was polishing hard.
“When you’re as big as me you’ll be able to earn threepence, too,” he said. “Now do go away. You’ll only get covered in polish.”
Mary-Mary looked at her knees.
“I am already,” she said, and rubbed some of it off on to her hands.
So Mary-Mary, with her skirt all wet and dripping, covered with dust and tea-leaves, and with shoe-polish on her hands and knees, went away to see what Meg was doing.
Meg was in the garden washing her dolls’ blankets in a bowl.
“Why are you doing that?” said Mary-Mary.
“They were very dirty,” said Meg, “and if I wash all the dolls’ clothes as well I’m going to get threepence.”
Mary-Mary picked up the packet of soap powder.
“I’ll do some washing too,” she said. “I’d like to earn threepence.”
“You can’t,” said Meg. “You’re too little. Wait till you’re as big as me and then you can. Put down that packet—you’ll spill it.”
But Mary-Mary held the packet high above her head and wouldn’t put it down.
“You’re spilling it!” shouted Meg. “You’ve got it upside down. It’s running all over your hair.”
Mary-Mary put it down again.
“I wondered what was tickling my head,” she said.
“Go away now,” said Meg.
“No,” said Mary-Mary, and stayed where she was.
“Oh, well, then—stay if you must,” said Meg.
“No, I won’t,” said Mary-Mary. “I’m going away.”
So Mary-Mary, with her skirt all wet and dripping, covered with dust and tea-leaves, with shoe-polish on her hands and knees, and soap powder all over her head, went round to the front gate to see if anyone else might be doing anything interesting.
A cat was sitting washing itself on the wall outside. Mary-Mary opened the gate, stroked the cat, and looked around.
The coal cart was standing a few doors away, outside Mr Bassett’s house. The coalman wasn’t there, but Mr Bassett was walking round and round the cart talking to himself. Every now and then he stooped down and tried to look underneath it, but he was a big, fat man, and it was difficult for him to bend easily in the middle.
Mary-Mary wondered what he was doing, and who he was talking to. The coalman’s horse was eating out of a nosebag and didn’t seem to be taking any notice of him.
Mary-Mary moved a little nearer.
Mr Bassett straightened his back, looked at the horse with a worried face, and said, “Puss, puss.”
“It isn’t a cat. It’s a horse,” said Mary-Mary.
Mr Bassett turned and saw her.
“Ah, Mary-Mary!” he said. “You’re a much better size than I am. Do you mind looking under the coal cart and telling me what you can see there?”
Mary-Mary bent down.
“I can see a lump of coal,” she said.
“Anything else?” said Mr Bassett.
“Yes,” said Mary-Mary, “quite a lot of things.
There’s another lump of coal and a silver pencil and a piece of paper—”
“Isn’t there a cat there?” asked Mr Bassett.
“No,” said Mary-Mary.
“Are you sure?” said Mr Bassett.
“Yes, quite sure,” said Mary-Mary, “but there’s a cat sitting on the wall over there if you really want one.”
Mr Bassett looked up and saw the cat washing itself on the wall.
“Well I never!” he said. “It must have run out when I wasn’t looking. I saw it go under the cart as I came out of the gate, and I was afraid it might get run over when the coalman came back. I bent down to call it out, but it wouldn’t come. Then I felt something fall out of my pocket, but I was more worried about the cat.”
Mary-Mary liked Mr Bassett. It was kind of him to be so worried about the cat.
“Shall I fetch out what you dropped?” she asked. “I can get under the cart more easily than you can.”
“Won’t you get dirty?”
Mary-Mary looked down at herself
“I don’t think I could get much dirtier than I am,” she said.
“No, perhaps not,” said Mr Bassett. “It’s very kind of you.”
So Mary-Mary crawled underneath the back of the coal cart, and Mr Bassett stood by waiting.
“Oh!” called Mary-Mary, “there’s half a crown down here as well!”
“Good,” said Mr Bassett. “Bring out everything you see. I can’t be quite sure what fell out of my pocket.”
So Mary-Mary picked up the half-crown and the two lumps of coal and the piece of paper and the silver pencil, and crawled out again.
“Good girl,” said Mr Bassett. “Now let’s sort them out. These two lumps of coal belong to the coalman, so we’ll throw them back on the cart, and the silver pencil belongs to me, so I’ll put it in my pocket. The paper doesn’t belong to anybody, so we’ll throw it away, and the half-crown—well—I think the half-crown belongs to you, because you’ve earned it.”
“How did I earn it?” said Mary-Mary.
“By being just the right size to fetch it out,” said Mr Bassett. “What would you like to spend it on?”
Mary-Mary said, “I’ve been thinking all the morning that if I had threepence I’d spend it on an ice lolly.”
Mr Bassett began counting on his fingers.
“We could buy ten ice lollies with this half-crown,” he said, “but I think that’s too many, don’t you? Let’s go and spend it, anyway. Shall we go to that nice little teashop on the corner?”
“Oh, yes,” said Mary-Mary. “I’d like to go there very much. That’s where I go to watch the ladies sitting in the window drinking their coffee. It’s next to the ice-lolly shop. I’ve always wanted to look like one of those ladies.”
“Very well,” said Mr Bassett, “so you shall.”
Mary-Mary looked down at herself.
“I’m rather dirty to look like a lady,” she said.
“And I’m rather fat, and don’t look like a lady, either,” said Mr Bassett. “But if we feel right and behave right I don’t suppose anyone will notice what we look like. You don’t shout and throw things about, do you?”
“Not usually,” said Mary-Mary.
“Or lick your plate?”
“Not when I’m out,” said Mary-Mary.
“Nor do I,” said Mr Bassett, “so we ought to be all right.”
So Mary-Mary, with her skirt still rather damp, decorated with dust and tea-leaves, with shoe-polish on her hands and knees, soap powder all over her hair, and a smudge of coal-dust on the end of her nose, went walking politely down the road with Mr Bassett to the nice little teashop.
“We will order one very large ice-cream sundae, and one cup of tea,” said Mr Bassett.
“Which will be for which?” asked Mary-Mary politely.
“I shall order the ice-cream sundae for myself,” said Mr Bassett, “because I like ice-cream sundaes very much. But I am not allowed to eat them, because they make me too fat, so you shall eat it for me and I shall watch you.”
“I don’t like tea very much,” said Mary-Mary.
“Then I shall drink it for you,” said Mr Bassett, “and we shall suit each other very nicely.”
When Miriam and Martyn and Mervyn and Meg had finished the dustbins, polishing the shoes, and washing the clothes they were all very hot and tired.
“What shall we spend our threepences on?” said Miriam.
“Something cool,” said Martyn.
“Ice lollies,” said Mervyn.
“Good idea,” said Meg.
“But you’d better tidy yourselves up before you go out,” said Mother.
So Miriam and Martyn and Mervyn and Meg washed their hands and brushed their hair, and then they all set off together to buy their ice lollies.
Miriam chose a raspberry flavour, Martyn chose a strawberry, Mervyn chose an orange one, and Meg chose a lime.
Then they all stood in a row, sucking them, and looked into the window of the nice little teashop. And suddenly they all opened their eyes very wide and said, “Look!” all together, for there at the table in the window sat Mary-Mary, vlooking quite at home, just as if she were a lady drinking her morning coffee; only Mary-Mary wasn’t drinking coffee—she was eating a very large ice-cream sundae out of a very tall glass, with a very long spoon.
“It’s Mary-Mary!” they all said together.
“With shoe-polish on her hands!”
“And soap powder in her hair!”
“And coal-dust on her nose!”
“And a whacking great ice-cream sundae! Now, however did she get that?”
Mary-Mary waved to them all with the long spoon and felt very pleased to be sitting on the right side of the window for a change. But Miriam and Martyn and Mervyn and Meg didn’t seem to want to wave back to her, so she started talking to Mr Bassett again.
“It’s much nicer being on the inside looking out,” she said.
“Nicer than what?” said Mr Bassett.
“Being on the outside looking in,” said Mary-Mary.
“Oh, yes,” said Mr Bassett, “much nicer.”
He was sitting with his back to the window, so he hadn’t seen the others looking in.
“You know, I’m beginning to feel rather sorry for all my brothers and sisters,” Mary-Mary went on.
“Why is that?” said Mr Bassett.
“Well,” said Mary-Mary, “they earned threepence each today (that’s enough to buy an ice lolly), and they kept telling me I could earn threepence too when I was as big as they are. But if they’d been only as big as me they might have earned half a crown and been sitting in here with us, mightn’t they?”
“Yes, I suppose they might,” said Mr Bassett, “but, of course, there’s no need to tell them, unless you want to.”
“Oh, no, I won’t tell them,” said Mary-Mary, smiling to herself.
So Mary-Mary did earn some money after all, and that is the end of the story.
