Ornamental Orphan

It was quite popular in Victorian times to carry Portraits of one's Family.

We at Mrs. BO will present a series of portraits of the Orphans, in order that we may spread the Search far and wide for the Perfect Families with whom to place our little dears.

Our first Portrait is of Jack R. Abbott, an unfortunately-named lad, given his rather marked resemblance to a bunny...

Story Book Victims

Once upon a time...Mrs Blathersby asked the children of the orphanage to tell their favorite Fairy Tale or Fable. And being that most of the unfortunates at the orphanage are mentally unsound their favorites stories all celebrate those with decidedly tragic or unhappy endings (at least their versions do). One of the stories told by the children is the story of the hapless Humpty Dumpty and his fall from the wall and the mess he made.

His widow was fined, you know, for the cost of the cleanup.


Click to go to the auction

2009

May all your orphans be adopted and this coming year be a bright one for all :o)
Martha (Ayala Art)

A Brown Apple: Eunice Brown

This is the story of Eunice Brown and why not a one of Mrs.Blatherby's Orphans has even tasted a Brown Apple...

Eunice tended to her apple orchard with her parents since she was a little girl. When her parents passed away she stayed with the orchard by herself, tending to it. She never married, and that alone made people suspicious of her. But being labeled a witch takes a little more suspicion, and there was indeed quite a bit more to Eunice's story.

The orchard had to be taken care of, and pests big and small had to be kept away. Years of working on the orchard made most of this work easy, and methodical. Inspects, squirrels and crows were all predictable vermin, a scarecrow here, a trap there, and the problem was kept under control. However, there was another kind of vermin that Eunice had to face, it was the children. Smarter than your average squirrel the children were hard to keep away from the orchard. They would sneak behind Eunice's back, or come under the cover of the night, and steal her apples.

One summer day Eunice caught two children stealing her apples, and she chased them through the orchard, screaming and waving a cane. She was in poor health already, and the chase took a toll. While in pursuit, Eunice suddenly grasped her chest and fell to the ground, a minor stroke perhaps, she never knew. While she lay unconscious a nearby crow swooped down upon her still body and picked her right eye right of the eye socket! The children watched the entire scene in horror from a safe distance. They would later recall, much to the disbelief of everyone else, that as the crow took air Eunice suddenly woke up, snatch the bird in mid-flight and claimed her eye back.

From that point on anyone who heard the story kept well away from the witches orchard. To this day Eunice keeps her eye handy, just in case any curious children should wander in.

Lydia Turnpike...

A new orphan has arrived at MRSBO.

rs.Blathersby awoke at a quarter past midnight to urgent knocking at the orphanage door. Many years living at the orphanage lent MRSBO an uncanny ability to tell the age of who was knocking at the door. It had all to do with the pattern, tone and pitch. The younger the visitor the more rapid and disorderly the knocking, and lower the pitch since the knocker is banging on the lower part of the door and such. That night MRSBO was certain the late night visitor was an older, cultured person of authority. But much to her surprise waiting at the door was a small girl, standing calmly in the embrace of the night. Lydia Turnpike didn't say much, and MRSBO didn't insist on any answers, it was not the first time she opened her doors to a child dressed in black, likely still mourning their parents death.

Lydia kept to herself, she didn't play with the other children. She stayed in the darkest corners of the orphanages rooms, and refused to play outside. When questioned about her past, or her strange behaviour she was known to hiss back in response. Most unusual were her crystal blue eyes that seemed ageless. Many a time when a prospective foster parent came to sift among the pickings for a child they would be captivated by her eyes, losing themselves for many awkward moments. At which point the spell would be broken by Mrs.Blathersby's hand on their elbow, gently escorting them towards a more suitable orphan. Naturally the children quickly learned to stay out of her way, from fear. Still, their curiosity kept them wondering who Lydia really was. The girl didn't make this easy, she didn't even have any possession other than her strange looking bag which was never seen without her.

While the children were unable to find out anything about Ms. Turnpike's past, they did find curious things around the orphanage. Every morning the children would find that some mirrors were turned around. Mrs. Skimpole, the cook often complained about garlic going missing, even a day after new supplies came in. And most disturbingly Leroy the caretaker was often heard whispering to Mrs.Blathersby that he found yet another rat, squirrel, or rabbit in the garden, dead and shriveled up as if its blood had been drained.

Oh curiouser and curiouser this house becomes every time an orphan comes...

MRSBO NUN CHALLENGE

How the Devil Took Sister Catalina

Catalina Maria Bocconcini was born in a hovel in the North of Spain. As Catalina grew up in a strict and religious family she became a stern and righteous girl. The young girl refused such earthly delights as running outside with the children and making flower garlands to crown her head, instead she sat in the dark, memorizing passages and reciting them back to the sinful children as they ran past her window.
One year when Catalina was ten, a terrible sickness spread through her village. This sickness made the vain girls hair fall out. It kept the scornful boys in their beds, shaking with fever. And even took Catalina's own parents from her. Her prayers were answered, and only good Cataline Maria Bocconcini was spared God's wrath.

And luckily for her, a passing flock of nuns found the child, the lone survivor, in a doorway of a house which was no longer hers. The nuns took her in, and took care of her, in hopes of not only saving her, but also growing their numbers. They were surprisingly successful in convicing the girl to become and active member of their covenant, she became an extremely passionate nun. So great was her devotion to nunnery that she caused much turmoil amongst the other nuns by trying to rule and correct any nun who wasn't behaving in a perfectly orthodox way. It wasn't long before the other nuns realized that Catalina had to be forced to leave, to save the increasingly troubled covenant. But the Sister wasn't ready to give up her devotion, when her bad name spread across all of Spain she was forced to seek a new covenant elsewhere.

She soon found Mrs. Blathersby's Orphanage where the Order of the Black Hearts served the Lord by caring for the children. She was reluctantly accepted, as all newcomers are. Even though Sister Catalina was a stranger in her new covenant, none of her fervor has died down, and she was soon seen shouting and arguing as well as she could. However, the other nuns had a hard time understanding her Spanish tongue, and it wasn't long before her angry orthodox preaching was thought to be a manifestation of the devil himself.

Fearful of what the clearly possessed Sister was capable of, the other nuns tied her down to her bed, and when Sister Catalina Maria's protests got louder they sewed her lips shut. Sadly, this worked too well to quiet her down, because the makeshift sewing caused her an infection. The other nuns saw her suffer and develop a fever quickly, and they rejoiced to see her body fighting off the devil, so they did not seek a doctor, but instead prayed over her. Within a week Catalina laid dead in her bed, no one ever questioned that she was taken by the devil.