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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16268.txt b/16268.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef759d4 --- /dev/null +++ b/16268.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4766 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story of Jessie, by Mabel Quiller-Couch + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Story of Jessie + +Author: Mabel Quiller-Couch + +Release Date: July 12, 2005 [EBook #16268] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF JESSIE *** + + + + +Produced by Lionel Sear + + + + + +THE STORY OF JESSIE. + +BY MABEL QUILLER-COUCH. + + +CONTENTS + + + +Chap. + +I A LETTER FOR SUNNYSIDE COTTAGE. + +II JESSIE ARRIVES. + +III SHOPPING AND TEAING. + +IV A GARDEN SUNDAY-SCHOOL. + +V HAPPY DAYS. + +VI TAKEN BY SURPRISE. + +VII THE JOURNEY AND THE ARRIVAL. + +VIII THE NEW HOME. + +IX MISS PATCH. + +X CHARLIE REACHES HOME. + +XI TOO LATE. + +XII SPRINGBROOK AGAIN. + + + + +THE STORY OF JESSIE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +A LETTER FOR SUNNYSIDE COTTAGE. + +Thomas Dawson was busy in the kitchen trying to make the kettle boil, +and to get the fire clear that he might do a piece of toast. He had +already tidied up the grate and swept the floor, and as he stood by +the table with the loaf in his hand, about to cut a slice, his eye +wandered down through the dewy, sunny garden, where every tree and +bush was beginning to show a little film of green over its brown +branches. + +But before he could notice anything in the garden, his attention was +attracted by the sight of Daniel Magor, the postman, standing at the +gate and fumbling with the latch. Thomas dropped the loaf and the +knife, and went out to meet him, leaving the house-door wide open to +the beautiful morning sunshine, which poured in in a wide stream +right across the kitchen, lighting up with golden radiance the +flowers in the window, the old-fashioned photographs on the wall, the +china on the dressers, and the cat lying asleep on the scarlet +cushion in the arm-chair by the fire. + +When he saw Thomas coming the postman ceased fumbling with the latch +and waited, holding two letters in his hand. + +"Lovely weather, Mr. Dawson. You ain't to work this morning!" he +remarked in a tone of surprise. + +Thomas shook his head slowly. "No, my wife is bad, she've been bad +all night with a sick headache. She's better this morning, but I +stayed home to get her some breakfast, and tidy up a bit. +When anybody's sick they don't feel they want to do much." + +"You'm right," agreed the postman feelingly. "I gets sick headaches +very bad myself, and when I wakes with one it seems to me I don't +care whether folk gets their letters or not. I am glad I didn't feel +like that this morning, Mr. Dawson, for it's good to be alive on such +a day, and I've got two letters for you." + +"Both of 'em for me!" said Thomas in surprise, and holding out his +hand to take them. "I don't think I've had two to once in my life +before." + +The postman laughed. "If folks didn't get more than you do we +postmen would soon be out of a job, I reckon!" But Thomas was gazing +at his letters with such a perplexed, preoccupied air, that he did +not reply, and Daniel, with a long, inquiring look at him, said +"Good-morning," and went on his way. + +"One is the seed-list," muttered Thomas to himself, as he retraced +his steps through the garden under the budding May-trees, "but it +passes my understanding to know who can have sent the other. +It--it can't be from--from her," he added, with sudden thought, +speaking as though it pained him even to put such a thought into +words. + +The old cat, hearing his footsteps on the path, roused herself and +went out to meet him, but for once he paid no heed to her, and +passing into the house sat himself down in the chair by the window, +while he still gazed with troubled eyes at the outside of the +envelope, and the blurred post-mark which told him nothing. +Moments passed before he could summon up courage to open it, for in +his heart he felt almost certain who the writer was, and he dreaded +to read what might be written; and when at last he did make up his +mind, his hand trembled so as he tore open the envelope, that his +misty eyes could scarcely make out what was written, or take in the +meaning. + +"Dear Father and Mother "--for seconds he was unable to read beyond +that beginning, so strange yet familiar it seemed after all these +years of silence--"I hope you will not refuse to open a letter from +me, and I hope that you will try to forgive me for all that's past, +and for what I am about to do. You would if you knew all. I wrote +to you and told you I had married Harry Lang. I hope you had the +letter and read it. I was happy enough for a time, but Harry has had +no work to speak of for more than a year, and though we've sold all +the little I'd got together, we have been nearly starving many a +time. At last, though, Harry has got a good job offered him in a +gentleman's racing stables. It is a fine berth to have got, the +wages is good, and there are rooms to live in, and we can't refuse it +after all we have been through, but they won't allow no children. + +"If work hadn't been so hard to get, and we starving, we would have +waited for something else, for it nearly kills me to part with my +Jessie, but I've got to, and, dear father and mother, I hope you will +forgive me, but I am sending her to you. She is all I've got, and I +am nearly crazy at losing her, but I don't know what else to do. +Life is very hard sometimes. I know you will be good to her, and you +can't help loving her, I know. She is very good and quiet, and she +will not give mother very much trouble, and I pray with all my heart +she may be a better child, and more of a comfort to you than I have +ever been. + +"Your broken-hearted but loving, + +"Lizzie. + +"P.S.--She is five years old and strong and healthy. I had her +christened Jessamine May to remind me of the jessamine and the +May-trees at home, for I love my old home dearer than any place in +the world. Forgive me, dear father and mother, and be good to my +precious darling." + +For minutes after he had reached the end of the letter, poor Thomas +Dawson sat with tears running fast over his weather-worn cheeks. +"My little maid," he kept saying to himself, with a sob in his +breath, "my Lizzie starving! starving! and me with a plenty and to +spare!" It was his own child he was thinking of, his own Lizzie, the +little maiden who had been the apple of his eye, the joy and pride of +his life--and this was what she had come to! + +The kettle sang and boiled on the hob, the fire burnt clear, but the +loaf lay on the table uncut, and still the old man sat staring before +him at the letter spread on the table, heeding nothing until a +thought came which roused him completely--though only to a deeper +sense of trouble. "However am I going to break the news to mother," +he groaned. "Oh, my! but it'll upset her something cruel--and that +lazy, good-for-nothing fellow that she could never abide, have +brought it all upon us!" + +His thoughts and his wonderings, though, were brought to a sudden +stop by the touch of a hand on his shoulder. "Why, Thomas, you were +so quiet I thought you must be asleep, or ill, or something, and I +was so worried I had to get up at last and come down and see." +Then, as her husband turned to her, and she caught sight of his face, +she grew really alarmed. "What is it? What has happened? There is +trouble, I can see it. Tell me what it is, quick, for pity's sake. +Don't 'ee keep me waiting." + +He rose, and gently putting her into the chair he had been occupying, +he handed her Lizzie's letter. "That's the trouble, mother," he +said; "it might have been worse--that's all I can say. You must read +it for yourself, it'd choke me to do so if I was to try," and he went +away to the door and stood there gazing out at the sunny garden where +the daffodils bowed gently before the soft breeze, and the crocuses +opened their golden cups to the sun. But he saw nothing, all his +mind was given to his wife, and the letter she was reading, and to +wondering how she would bear it, and what he could say to comfort +her. + +At last a long low cry reached him, and he turned hastily back into +the kitchen; but, instead of seeing her white and shaken and weeping, +as he was prepared to see her, the face that looked up to him was +quivering with eagerness and love and joy. + +"She's sending us her little one, father!" she gasped in a voice +quavering with glad excitement. "Lizzie's little girl, our own +little grandchild! We shall have a child about the place again, +something to love and work for. You see, Lizzie turns to us in her +trouble, poor girl, and it must be a terrible trouble to her," with a +momentary sadness dimming the joy in her eyes. "But, oh, I am so +thankful, so happy." Then, springing to her feet, "I am well now! +this is the medicine I wanted. Father, when do you think she will +come? I must get the place all nice and tidy, and a room ready for +her, in good time too, and it seems to me I'd best set to work at +once or I shall never get a half done!" + +Thomas did not say much, his heart was too full for speech, but the +inexpressible relief he felt showed in his face and his blue eyes. +"I'm glad you takes it like that, mother," he said simply, "I was +afraid." + +"Afraid! afraid of what? That I shouldn't want her!" + +But at that moment the kettle boiled over with a great hiss, and +brought them back to everyday affairs again. + +"Well, any way," said Thomas, with a happy smile on his pleasant old +face, "we can allow ourselves time for a bit of breakfast, or maybe +when she does come we shall be past speaking a word to show her she's +welcome," and while both of them laughed over his little joke, he +made the long-delayed cup of tea, and, though both were too excited +to eat, they sat down together to their breakfast. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +JESSIE ARRIVES. + +Unwell though she had been, Mrs. Dawson would not let her husband do +a single thing indoors to help her in preparation for the little +newcomer. + +"No. Men is only in the way," she said decidedly. "I shall get on +twice as fast if you leave me the place to myself." So, knowing that +she meant what she said, Thomas went out and set to work in the +garden, for, of course, that must be made trim, too, for the little +five-year-old grandchild. He forked over the earth in all the beds, +tied up to a stick every daffodil that did not stand perfectly +upright by itself, trimmed the sweetbriar hedge, and swept the paths. + +"If I'd got the time," he called in to Patience, "I would give the +gate a coat of paint." + +"I wish you could," she called back, "and the front door, too, it'd +be the better for it. To a stranger, I dare say it'll look shabby." + +Evidently they expected the new-comer to be a very critical little +person. + +"I can whitewash the back porch," thought Thomas, "and I'll do it +without saying anything to mother. It will be a bit of a surprise to +her." + +But while he was putting on the last brushful or two, a thought came +to him which sent him hurrying into the house in quite a flurry. + +"Mother!" he called up the stairs, "mother! we don't know when she's +coming, Lizzie didn't say--and what's to prevent her coming to-day?" + +Patience dropped her scrubbing-brush and sat down on the top stair, +overcome with excitement and surprise. "To-day! this very day! +Oh dear! oh dear! how careless of Lizzie not to tell us! The poor +child might come at any time, and nobody be there to meet her, and we +can't write and ask, for she didn't give us any address to write to. +Lizzie did use to have some sense before she took up with that Harry +Lang, but now--" + +Patience lapsed into silence because she could not find words which +would sufficiently express her feelings. She was tired and irritable +too, and she never could endure uncertainty. + +Thomas had been standing by all this while, thinking deeply. +"Well," he said at last, "it's my belief she'd send her off as soon +as she could after she'd wrote the letter, for if Lizzie had a hard +thing to do, she was one as couldn't stop to think much about it, or +she'd never do it at all. She's put London on the top of her letter, +and the London train comes in at four-fifteen, and I'm thinking I'd +better go and meet it, any way, and then, if the child don't come by +it, I can tell Station-Master I'm expecting my little grandchild, but +I don't know exactly when, and when she do come, will he keep her +safe if I ain't there in time. I can't think of nothing better than +that." + +Patience rose briskly, with a look of relief on her face. There was +something very wonderful in the thought that before another night she +might be holding her own little grandchild in her arms. "What a +head-piece you have got, father!" she cried admiringly. "Well, I +mustn't stay here talking, or I shan't be ready. If I'd got the time +I'd have whitened the ceiling and put a clean pretty paper on the +walls of the little room." + +"Little room!--are--are you giving her--Lizzie's room?" There was a +note of shock or dismay in Thomas's voice. + +"Yes," said Patience shortly. "The child must have a room, of +course, and there isn't any other!" she answered shortly, because it +hurt her to say what she had to, and she knew it would hurt Thomas +even more to hear it. Lizzie's little bedroom had never been looked +into by him since Lizzie had run away and left them, and Patience +herself had only gone in now and then, when, for the sake of her own +pride in her cottage, and to prevent her neighbour's comments, the +window had to be cleaned and a fresh muslin blind put up. + +She returned to the room now, and with a few deft touches, a turn and +a twist or two, she moved the little bed and the bits of furniture +out of their usual positions, and into some they had never occupied +before. "Now it won't remind him so much," she said softly to +herself, "it looks quite different," and she went out leaving door +and window wide, for the sun and the soft breeze to play through. + +With this new joy and the music she carried in her heart, her hands +and feet flew through their work, so that by three o'clock the +spotless stairs were scrubbed, and the neat kitchen made even neater, +and Patience herself was ready to change her gown and put herself +tidy. + +Thomas was still busy in the garden. She did not know what about, +but soon after she had gone up to her room she heard him calling her. + +"What is it, father?" she called back. "I am up-stairs." + +"I--I've got a little rose-bush that I've been bringing on in a pot, +I--I thought," he concluded shyly, "I--thought the little maid would +fancy it, perhaps, in her room." + +A mist of tears dimmed Patience's eyes for a moment. "Bless his dear +old heart," she said to herself softly, "how he thinks of +everything." Aloud, she said heartily, "Why, of course she would, +father. She'd be sure to love it, a real plant of her own! Will you +put it up there, on the window-ledge? I've got my dress off, and I +can't come for a minute," she added casually, in a tone very +different from the eagerness with which she listened to hear if he +did so. + +"It would be a good time for him to break through, and go into the +room again," she thought to herself. But Thomas did not fall in with +her little scheme. + +"I'll put it on the top stair, where you can see it," he called up, +"and I'll go and tidy myself now, and make a start for the station. +I shan't be so very much too soon." + +"Only half-an-hour or so," said Patience to herself with a smile. +Aloud she said, "I think you're wise, father, then you'll be able to +take it easy on the way, and to explain to Station-Master all about +it, in case she don't come, and I expect you'll find she won't be +here for a day or two." + +They kept on telling each other that, to try and prevent themselves +from counting on it too much. + +"No, I don't see how she can come to-day, but I'll step along to see +the train come in; it'll satisfy our minds. We shouldn't feel happy +to shut up the house and go to bed if we didn't know for certain." + +So Thomas started off with a calm, businesslike air, outwardly, but +inside him his heart was beating fast with expectation, and his step +grew quicker and quicker as soon as he was out of sight of his own +cottage windows. + +He slackened his pace a little when he came within sight of the +station, for it looked as quiet and sleepy as though no train was +expected for ages yet; and the eager, shy old man felt that the men +at the station would laugh at him for arriving more than half-an-hour +before any train was due. For a moment he decided to turn away and +walk in some other direction until some of the time had passed, but +the seats on the platform looked very restful, and the platform, +bathed in the soft afternoon sunshine, looked wonderfully peaceful +and inviting. There was not a sign of life, or a sound or a +movement, except that of the little breeze ruffling the young leaves +on the chestnuts in the road outside. + +"I'll explain to Mr. Simmons that I come early so as to be able to +tell him about the little maid, while he'd got a few spare minutes +before the train came in," he decided, and, with a sigh of relief, +made his way into the station. He was tired after his exciting, busy +day, and glad to sit down alone, to think over all that the day had +brought them, and was likely to bring them. + +Mr. Simmons, the station-master, must have been tired too, though his +day had been neither busy nor exciting, for when at last he did +appear, he was stretching and yawning as though the nap he had been +having in his office had not been quite long enough for him. + +When he saw Thomas his eye brightened, and he joined him at once, for +he dearly loved a gossip, and he had in his mind a long story that he +was impatient to pour out to somebody. The story was so long and so +interesting that the whistle of the fast-approaching train was heard +long before it was ended, and of his own story Thomas had not been +able to tell a word. + +"Is that the London train?" he asked eagerly, starting to his feet. + +"It is, sir. Are you going by it?" + +"No--o, oh no," said Thomas. His face flushed and his hands shook as +a carriage door opened here and there and a passenger got out. + +"Are 'ee expecting somebody?" asked the station-master, with just a +touch of impatience in his voice. He did not approve of this reserve +in Thomas, just after he had confided all that story to him too. + +"Well, I hardly know," said Thomas slowly. "I am, and I ain't." +A dull sick feeling of bitter disappointment filling his heart as he +saw that beyond the two men who had sprung out at once, no one else +was appearing. "I was going to tell 'ee about it, only the train +corned in. I'm--I'm expecting my little granddaughter. She may come +any day, by any train, so far as we know, for they--her mother, at +least, forgot to say which." + +The station-master, seeing that his presence was not required by the +new arrivals, stood ready to listen to Thomas's story. "Didn't tell +you when to expect her!" he exclaimed in surprise. + +"No--o," said Thomas reluctantly. He shrank from talking about it, +for fear Mr. Simmons would ask questions he did not want, or was +unable, to answer. "She overlooked it, I reckon; and there hasn't +been time to write and get an answer, so I thought I'd just step up +and see this train in." + +"Well, we may as well go the length of her and make sure," said Mr. +Simmons, "if the child is very young, she may be afraid to move, or +p'raps she doesn't know that this is where she ought to get out." + +Fresh hope rose in Thomas's heart as they made their way along the +whole length of the train. The guard and the porter paused in their +gossip to turn and look at them, the engine-driver hanging lazily +over the side of his box watched them idly. Thomas, who was filled +now with fear that the engine would start off at a wild pace before +they had time to search the carriages, was somewhat relieved by the +lazy look of them all. + +"Do you know if there was any little girl on board booked to +Springbrook?" Mr. Simmons asked the guard as they drew near him. + +"Why, yes, I b'lieve there was," answered the man casually. "Got in +at St. Pancras. Hasn't she got out?" + +"No." + +Thomas hurried on more quickly. If she was booked for Springbrook, +and wasn't in the train, no one knew what might have happened to her. +She might have fallen out, or been stolen, or she might have got out +at the wrong station, and a terrible fear weighed on him as he +hurried on. + +"Hi! Mr. Dawson, come here! Is this of her, do you think?" + +Thomas ran along the platform to the carriage where the +station-master stood, and both looked in. The compartment was empty, +save for a little figure, huddled up fast asleep in one corner. +Thomas looked at her, and his eyes grew misty. "Ye--es, that's of +her," he answered. He hesitated, not because he doubted, for, though +the little face was flushed and tear-stained, and the dark hair all +rumpled about it, it might have been his own little Lizzie again. + +The men looked from the child to each other helplessly. "What had we +best do?" said the station-master, in a tone lowered so that it might +not waken the little sleeper. "If she opens her eyes and sees us all +here she'll be frightened." + +"And if I touch her it'll wake her up with a start," said her +grandfather anxiously. But before they had settled the knotty point, +the engine-driver, growing tired of waiting, let off a shrill whistle +from his engine and with the sound the little sleeper stirred, opened +her eyes, and sat up suddenly. The porter hastily disappeared from +the doorway, the station-master left the carriage too, but the guard +remained, and nodded and smiled at her reassuringly. + +"You remember me, don't you, little one! I've brought you all the +way home, and here we are, and here is grandfather come to see you." + +Jessie sat up and looked from one to the other with troubled eyes. +"I want mother," she said at last, with piteously trembling lips. + +"Oh, now, you ain't going to cry again, are you?" cried the guard, +pretending to be shocked. "Good little girls don't cry. 'Tis time +to get out, too, the train is going on, and you'll be carried away, +if you don't mind what you're about, and then how will mother ever be +able to find you? Come along, get up like a good little maid." + +Poor Jessie, really frightened at the thought of such a fearful +possibility, turned piteously to her grandfather, who had been all +this time standing by awkwardly, wondering what he could do or say. +But at that look he forgot himself and his doubts, and the guard and +everything but the pitiful frightened look on the little face. + +"Come along with grandfather," he said coaxingly, dropping on his +knee beside her. "Come along with me, dear, and I'll take care of +you till mother comes. Granny is home waiting for 'ee with a +bootiful tea, and there's flowers, and a kitten, and a fine little +rose-bush in a pot that grandfather picked out on purpose for 'ee. +Wouldn't you like to come and see it all?" + +"Will Jessie have roses?" she asked eagerly, her eyes growing bright +and expectant. + +"Yes, I shouldn't be surprised if there's one nearly out already. +Let's go home quick, and see, shall we? It had got a bud on it when +I left, maybe it'll be out by this time, if not you can be sure it +will be to-morrow." + +The engine gave another shrill whistle, the train jerked and +quivered. Thomas hastily gathered up Jessie in his arms, shawl and +all. "Where's your box, and all the rest of it?" + +"Haven't got any." + +"Haven't got any! Your clothes, I mean, frocks and hats and boots +and suchlike." + +"I've got on my boots," putting out her feet, and showing a very +shabby broken pair, "and there's a parcel there, my old frock is in +it, and my pinny, that's all." + +Thomas picked up the parcel, and hurried out of the already +slowly-moving train. + +"Tickets, please," said the man at the gate. + +"Have 'ee got your ticket?" Thomas inquired anxiously. + +"Yes," she nodded; "but you must put me down, please; it is in my +purse, and my purse is in my pocket, and I can't get at it while you +are holding me." + +Her grandfather did as he was told, and Jessie, freeing herself from +the great shawl which enveloped her, shook out her frock, and diving +her hand into her pocket, drew out an old shabby purse. The clasp +was broken, and it was tied round with a piece of string, but her +little fingers quickly undid this, and from the inside pocket drew +out her railway ticket and a ha'penny. In giving the porter the +ticket she had some trouble not to give him the ha'penny too. + +"I can't give you my money," she explained gravely, "for it is all +I've got, but I had to put it in there with the ticket, because +there's a hole in my purse that side, do you see?" and she showed it +to the man, pushing her finger through the hole that he might see it +better. "It was mother's purse, but she lost a sixpence one day, and +then she gave it to me. It does all right for me, 'cause I only have +pennies," she explained gravely as she put her purse back into her +pocket again. + +The porter agreed. "'Tis a nice purse for a little girl," he said +quite seriously; "there's heaps of wear in it yet, by the look of +it." + +Thomas Dawson stood by, his face all alight with smiles and interest. +"What a clever little maid 'tis," he thought, "and what a happy +little soul to be so ready to talk like that right away." + +"Now, my dear, are 'ee ready? We must hurry on, or granny'll think +you ain't come, and she will be wondering what's become of me. +Shall I carry you again?" + +"No, thank you, I'd like to walk, but I'd like you to hold my hand. +Mother always does; she's afraid I'll get lost with so many people +about." + +"Well, you won't be troubled with too many people hereabouts," said +her grandfather, laughing, but he was only too glad to clasp the +little hand thrust into his, and they walked on very happily together +talking quite as though they were old friends. + +"We are nearly home now, 'tisn't so very much further. Are 'ee +tired, dear?" + +"No--o, not so very," she answered, but in rather a weary voice. +"Are you too tired to carry me?" + +Her grandfather laughed, but before he could reply, or pick her up, +she drew back a little. "Is my face clean?" she asked anxiously. +"I must have a clean face when I see granny. Mother told me granny +doesn't like little girls with dirty faces. Do you, granp?" + +"I like some little girls, no matter what their faces is like," he +said warmly, but recollecting himself, he added quickly, "Of course I +like 'em best with nice clean faces and hands and tidy hair. +Every one does." + +"Mother said you didn't mind so much," she added brightly. + +"Did she! did she now! Just fancy her thinking that!" The old man's +face quite lighted up at the thought of Lizzie's remembering. +"Yes, I used to dip the corner of my handkerchief in the brook +sometimes and wash her little face for her, so as she might go home +to her mother looking clean. Look, here is a little brook, shall I +wash yours over a bit, like I used to mother's?" + +"Oh, please, please," cried Jessie delightedly. + +So by the wayside they stopped and made quite a little toilette, her +face and hands were washed, and her hair put back neatly under her +shabby hat, and then they went on again. + +Patience Dawson, looking anxiously out of the window, saw them at +last arrive at the gate, and her heart almost stood still with +excitement and nervousness. "Why, it might be five and twenty years +ago, and Thomas be bringing in Lizzie herself!" she gasped. Her face +flushed, tears suddenly brimmed over and down her cheeks. She longed +to run down the garden and take the little child in her arms and hold +her to her heart, but a sudden shyness came over her and held her +fast. She could only stand there and watch them and wait. + +She saw her husband looking eagerly from window to door, expecting to +see her; she saw the little child face turned excitedly from side to +side, exclaiming at the sight of the flowers, and sniffing in the +scent. + +"Oh, granp, smell the 'warriors'!" she heard her cry in a perfectly +friendly voice. "You sniff hard and you'll smell them. Oh, my!" + +"She's friends with him already, same as Lizzie was. I wish I knew +how to--" But her wish she only sighed, she did not put it into +words. + +"Never mind the flowers now, little maid; here's granny inside +waiting for us." Then he put her down on her feet, and led her over +the threshold. + +Patience, dabbing the tears from her eyes with her handkerchief, +stepped forward to meet them. "I'd begun to wonder what had become +of 'ee, father," she said. "I s'pose the train was late. +Well, dear," stooping to kiss her little grandchild, "how are you? +Have you got a kiss for granny?" + +"Yes," Jessie nodded gravely, "and my face is very clean," she added, +as she put it up to be kissed. But she turned and slipped her hand +into her grandfather's again as soon as the kiss was given, for she +felt a little awed and shy with this granny, who seemed so much more +grown-up and stern than did the grandfather. + +Her shyness did not last very long, though; by the time granny had +taken her up to her room and shown her the rose-bush, and taken off +her hat and brushed out her hair, and brought her down to tea and +lifted her into her seat at the table, much of her shyness had worn +off, and the sight of the mug with pictures on it, and the little +plate "with words on it," loosened her tongue again, and set it +chattering quite freely. + +The meal lasted a long time that night, for Jessie was full of talk, +and neither her "granp," as she already familiarly called him, nor +her granny could bear to interrupt her, especially after she had +slidden down from her high seat at the table, and clambered on to her +grandfather's knee; for to them her presence seemed like some +wonderful dream, from which they were afraid of waking. + +At last, though, the little tongue grew quiet, the dark curly head +fell back on granp's shoulder, and then the bright eyes closed. + +"I reckon I'd best carry her right up to bed," said Thomas softly. +"If I hand her over to you she'll waken, as sure as anything." + +Patience only nodded, she could not speak, her heart was so full, and +rising she followed him up the stairs, carrying the lamp. At the +door of Lizzie's old room she expected him to stop and hand the +sleeping child over to her, but, apparently without remembering what +room it was, he walked straight in, and very tenderly laid his +burthen on the bed. Then, with a glance at the rose-bush on the +sill, he crept softly out and down the stairs again. + +Patience stood by her little sleeping grandchild with tears of joy in +her eyes. "She's broke his will," she said gladly, "for her sake +he's forgotten. P'raps now he'll get over the trouble, and forget, +and be happier again." + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +SHOPPING AND TEAING. + +The next morning some of Jessie's shyness had returned, but it +vanished again at the sight of the mug with the pictures and the +plate with the "words" on it. At the liberal dishful of bacon and +eggs she stared wide-eyed. + +"You can eat a slice of bacon and an egg, can't you, dearie?" asked +her granny. + +"Yes, please!" with a sigh of pleasure. "May I?" + +"Why, of course," said granny heartily. "Why not? Do you like +eggs?" + +Jessie nodded. "I had one once, a whole one, but that was for my +dinner. We don't ever have eggs for breakfast at home," she added +impressively. + +"Don't you?" answered her grandfather gravely, "then what do you +have? Something you like better, I s'pose?" + +He did not ask from curiosity, that was the last thing he would have +been guilty of; he only wanted to show an interest and to hear her +talk. + +"We don't have nuffin', 'cepts when father has got work, then father +has a bloater. Me and mother have one too, sometimes, then. +But when father is out of work we only has bread." + +Patience turned pale, and Thomas groaned. Jessie looked up with +quick sympathy. "Have you hurted your toof, granp?" she asked +gravely, little dreaming that it was she herself who had given him +pain. + +"No, my dear, granp's all right. Try and make a good breakfast now. +You've got to get as plump and round as the kitten over there." + +Patience had laid down her knife and fork, and sat staring before her +with miserably troubled eyes. "It seems wrong to be eating, when-- +when there's others--one's own, too--going hungry!" + +"Nonsense now," said Thomas gruffly; "don't 'ee talk like that, +mother, it's foolish. We've got to think of ourselves and those +about us, and it's our duty to eat and drink and be sensible, whether +we likes it or not." He spoke gruffly, because he felt that if he +spoke in any other way, he or Patience would break down. + +Jessie came to their help, though. "My rose is nearly out, granp," +she announced proudly, as soon as she was able to lift her thoughts +from the wonderful experience of having an egg _and_ bacon for +breakfast. "I saw it all showing pink. I expect by the time we've +finished our breakfases it will be right wide out. You come up and +see too, will you?" + +And sure enough when breakfast was really done, she took his hand in +hers and led him up and into the room he had shunned so long. + +"I don't think it will be full out until to-morrow," he decided; but +Jessie couldn't help thinking he had made a mistake, and many times +that day she climbed the stairs to see, and was quite troubled when +at last she had to go to bed, for fear the bud would open while her +eyes were shut. + +"I think it is a very slow rose," she said, shaking her head sagely +as her granny was undressing her. "I am sure it _ought_ to have been +out by this time." + +And then, after all her watching, the bud burst into full bloom +before Jessie was awake the next morning. When she opened her eyes +and saw it she felt quite vexed. "I wish I had put you back in a +dark corner," she said to it, "then you wouldn't have opened till I +was awake." + +"The little maid is a born gardener," chuckled her grandfather, when +he was told of it; "'tis the folk that talks to their flowers that +gets the best out of them." + +"If talking'll do it, her rose-bush will be covered thick, then," +laughed her grandmother. + +"I wish I could send some of my roses to mother," sighed Jessie; +"mother loves roses," and the tears came into her eyes. "Granny, do +you think my roses will all be gone before mother comes for me?" + +"Your--mother! Is she coming?" Patience was so taken aback that she +spoke in almost a dismayed tone, and Jessie, with her loving little +heart and quick ears, noticed it and was hurt. It sounded to her as +though her granny did not want her mother; and her chin quivered and +her eyes filled, for she wanted her mother very much, and every one +else should want her too, she thought. + +Her grandfather saw the poor little quivering lips and tear-filled +eyes, and understood. "The rose may be past," he said cheerfully, +"for the time, any way, but we'll have flowers of some kind ready for +mother whenever she comes. 'Tis you and I, little maid, will see to +that, won't we? We must make it our business to have something +blooming all the year round, then we'll be sure to be right." + +Jessie looked up at him gratefully, and the tears changed to smiles. +Something told her that granp would be glad to see mother whenever +she came. The thought of growing flowers for her was a lovely one, +too; it seemed to bring her mother nearer; and, though granny and +granp were so kind, oh, she did want her so very, very much. +She wanted her to see the garden and the house, and the kitten, and +to have bacon and eggs for breakfast, and milk in her tea, and nice +butter on her bread. + +Then, in the midst of these thoughts, something that granny was +saying caught her attention, and, for the moment, drove all other +thoughts out of her head. + +"I've been thinking I'd better go into Norton this afternoon, and do +some shopping," she remarked to granp, "for the child must have some +clothes, and as soon as possible, too; and I reckon I'd better take +her with me, though she really isn't fit, her boots and her hat are +so shabby; but it'll be better to have her there to be fitted, +especially the first time." + +"Oh, she doesn't look so bad," answered granp cheerfully. "If she +keeps smiling at folks they won't notice her hat nor her boots +neither." + +Granny was not so sure of that. Her pride was a little hurt at the +thought of taking such a shabbily-clad little granddaughter into the +shops where she was well known. However, hats and boots required to +be tried on, so there was nothing for it but to make the best of +things, and Jessie was to be taken to Norton. + +What a day of wonders that was to Jessie! It seemed almost as though +there were too many good things crowded into one twenty-four hours. + +As soon as it was decided that they were to go, her grandfather went +off and borrowed Mrs. Maddock's donkey and the little cart, to drive +them in, for Norton was more than a mile and a half away, and that +was too far, they thought, for Jessie's little feet to walk. So the +cart was brought, and granny and grandfather sat on the little wooden +seat, while Jessie sat on a rug in the bottom of the cart, at their +feet. She liked it better there, she thought, for there was no fear +of her falling out, and she could look all about her and feel quite +safe and comfortable all the time. Granp gave her the whip to hold, +but she had no work to do, for Moses, the donkey, behaved so well, he +never once needed it all the way to Norton. + +Jessie was very glad, for she could not bear to think of anything +being punished on such a lovely afternoon. The birds were singing, +the hedges were covered with little green leaves, just bursting +forth. Here and there a blackthorn bush was in full flower, and +filled Jessie with delight. She sat very quiet, looking about her +with a serious happy face, drinking it all in, and evidently thinking +deeply. Her grandfather watched her with the keenest interest. + +"I reckon it looks funny to you, don't it, little maid, after all the +streets and houses and bustle you've been accustomed to?" he asked at +last. + +Jessie nodded. "There's such lots of room, and no peoples," she said +soberly, "and at home there was such lots of peoples and no room. +Where are they all gone, granp?" + +"Gone to London, I reckon," answered granp, with a laugh. +"You'll find it quiet, and you'll miss the shops, little maid." + +"Shops!" said granny indignantly; "we shall be in Norton in a little +while now, and there's shops enough there to satisfy any one, I +should hope." + +But when they reached the little town, and Jessie was lifted down +from the cart, and put to stand in the street while granny +dismounted, she looked about her, wondering greatly where the shops +could be. There did not seem to be many people here either. +Two sauntered up to look at the donkey-cart, and to pass the time of +day with Mr. Dawson, but that was all. There were no omnibuses, no +motors, no incessant tramp, tramp, tramp, of horses' hoofs, making +the never-ceasing dull roar to which she had been accustomed all her +life, and Jessie missed it. Suddenly she felt very lonely and +forlorn. The world was so big and empty and silent, and her mother +so very, very far away. There seemed to be nobody left to see, or +care, or hear, no matter what happened. + +But just at the moment when her tears were nearly brimming over, she +heard her grandfather say proudly, "Yes, this is Jessie, my little +grandchild, Lizzie's little girl," and turning her head she saw him +holding out his hand to her, and all was well once more. +With granp's big hand holding hers so closely she could not feel that +no one heard or cared, and the day looked all bright and sunny again. + +She felt sorry when her grandfather mounted into the little cart to +drive home, and she almost wished she was going with him; but granny, +taking her by the hand, led her quickly down the street and into a +draper's shop. + +Jessie felt rather shy when her grandmother led her in, for though +she had spent a lot of time looking at shop windows with her mother, +she had very seldom been inside one, and when she had gone in the +places had been so full of people always that no one had paid any +heed to her, which was what she liked. But here she and her +grandmother seemed to be almost the only customers that afternoon, +and all the assistants looked at them as they entered. They all +smiled, too, and most of them said, "Good-afternoon, Mrs. Dawson," in +a very friendly way, which only made Jessie feel even more +uncomfortable, for she realized suddenly that her boots were cracked, +and her hat very shabby, and that she had no gloves at all; and she +wished very much that they could get right away up to the far end of +the shop, where it seemed quite empty and quiet. + +Mrs. Dawson apparently wished the same, for though she gave a smile +and a greeting to all, she walked sturdily through the shop, ignoring +the chairs pulled out for her by the polite shop-walker, and made +her way to the very end, where a pleasant-faced attendant stood +alone, rolling up ribbons in a leisurely way. + +"Well, Mrs. Dawson," she said brightly, "you _are_ a stranger. +I hope you are well? And who is this little person? Not your +granddaughter, surely?" + +"Yes, it is. This is Lizzie's little girl," said Mrs. Dawson, a +faint flush rising to her cheeks. "She is come to stay with us for a +good long spell." + +"Well, the country air will do her good. She looks rather thin." + +"She does," agreed Mrs. Dawson, looking at Jessie with kindly anxious +eyes, "but she looks healthy, I think, don't you?" Already it gave +her a pang to hear any one say that her Jessie did not look well. + +"Oh yes!" agreed the girl reassuringly. "What can I get for you +to-day, Mrs. Dawson?" + +"Well," said Mrs. Dawson thoughtfully, "it seems to me I want a good +many things. What I want mostly is some clothes for Jessie. Living +in the country, she ought to have something that'll wear well, strong +boots, and a plain sun-hat, and some print for washing-frocks." + +Jessie's eyes opened wider and wider. Were all those things really +to be bought for her? It seemed impossible; but the girl, who did +not seem at all overcome, went off as though it were quite an +ordinary matter, and presently she returned with an armful of pretty +soft straw hats with wide drooping brims, and tried them one by one +over Jessie's curls. + +"I declare, any of them would suit her; but I think she'd look sweet +in that one," she said at last, and granny agreed. + +"What would you trim it with?" she asked; "a bit of plain ribbon, I +should think." But the girl shook her head. + +"Oh no, if I was you I'd have a little wreath of flowers round it; it +would make ever so pretty a hat, and would last her for Sundays right +on till the late autumn. I'll show you some;" and dragging out a big +drawer, she displayed a perfect garden of dainty blossoms, daisies, +roses, forget-me-nots, moss, ferns, and flowers of every kind that +ever grew, and many kinds that never did or could grow. + +Jessie's eyes, though, were caught by a wreath of feathery moss with +little blue forget-me-nots peeping out of it here and there, and when +she was asked which she liked best, she decidedly picked out that +one. To her great delight her granny's taste agreed with her, and +the wreath and the hat and a piece of white ribbon were put aside +together. + +"Now," laughed Mrs. Dawson, "I've got to get her another for every +day. That's a pretty fine thing! I reckon you think there's no +bottom to my purse!" + +"Now, Mrs. Dawson, you won't regret spending that money, I am sure," +said the attendant coaxingly; "and this one shan't cost more than +eighteenpence, trimming and all," and she produced a big +shady-brimmed, flexible straw, for which was shown as trimming a +pretty soft flowered ribbon, to be loosely twisted around the crown. +Then came a length of blue serge for a warm dress, and two pieces of +print, one with blue flowers all over it, and the other with pink +ones. Jessie thought them both perfectly lovely, and while they were +being chosen she slid off her chair and went and leaned against her +grandmother. She did not feel at all afraid of her now; she felt +that she wanted to kiss her for all her kindness, and to tell her how +grateful she was. She did not do that, she was still too shy, but +Mrs. Dawson seemed to understand, for she put her arm very fondly +about her, and drew her very close. + +"Now, if only you could sew," she said, "you'd be able to help me +finely with all this, but I s'pose I shall get it done somehow. I +must let other things go for the time." + +Jessie longed eagerly to be able to help, but she couldn't sew at +all, she had never even tried. She thought, though, that she might +be able to do some of the other things granny mentioned, and she made +up her mind to do her best. She wouldn't say anything to any one, +but she would try, and she grew quite excited at the thought. + +"I wish mother knew," she sighed presently, when the assistant had +gone off to get the boots for her to try on. "Mother tried to get me +a new hat, but she hadn't got any money. She would be so glad to +know what lots of nice new things I am having." Then, as she saw the +girl approaching from a distant part of the shop, she put up her arm +to draw her grandmother's head down to her own level. "Mother cried +when she sent me away," she whispered solemnly, "because she couldn't +get me any new clothes." + +When the assistant reached them again, with her arms full of boots, +she found Mrs. Dawson rubbing her eyes and nose violently with her +large white cotton handkerchief. + +"You haven't got a cold, I hope," the girl asked sympathetically, but +Mrs. Dawson reassured her. + +After the boots had been fitted, a pair of felt slippers was brought +and added to the collection; then sundry yards of calico and flannel, +and brown holland, some stockings, and what Jessie thought the most +wonderful of all, a pair of cotton gloves and some little +handkerchiefs with coloured borders. + +By the time all this was done both Mrs. Dawson and Jessie felt that +they had had enough shopping for one day. "And if I have forgotten +anything, well, Norton isn't so far off but what we can come again," +laughed Mrs. Dawson, refusing to listen to anything the +pleasant-faced girl tried to tempt her with. + +"Shawls, umbrellas, caps, sheets--" + +"No, none of them, thank you," said granny decidedly. + +The proprietor of the shop came up. "Now, I am sure, Mrs. Dawson, +you must want something for the master?" he urged smilingly. + +"No, I don't," said granny. "Thomas has got to make the best of what +he has got. All I want now is a cup of tea, and I must go and get +it, and see about making our way home." + +"Well," said Mr. Binns, "I am sure this little person can find a use +for one of these," and he picked up a little silk scarf with a flower +worked in each corner, and laid it across Jessie's shoulders. + +Jessie looked up, speechless with delight. "Well, I never!" Mrs. +Dawson exclaimed; "now, that is kind of you, Mr. Binns. I'm sure +Jessie'll be proud enough of that, won't you, Jessie?" + +"Oh yes, thank you," said Jessie earnestly. "I'll--I'll only wear it +for best." + +At which Mr. Binns and Mrs. Dawson and the pleasant-faced girl all +laughed, Jessie didn't know why, and then granny said "good-bye," and +she and Jessie made their way out into the street. The afternoon sun +was fading by this time, and the shadows had grown long. + +"I do want my tea badly, don't you?" said granny again. + +"Yes," sighed Jessie, for she was really very tired, "but it doesn't +matter," she hastened to add. It was what she used to say to her +mother to comfort her when there was little or no food in the house. + +"But it does matter," said granny decidedly; "we have a longish walk +before us, and we shan't get anything for another couple of hours or +so, if we don't have it now. So we'll go and have a nice tea at +once. Come along," and she led the way further down the street until +they came to a baker's shop, from which there floated out a delicious +smell of hot cakes and pastry. + +Behind the shop there was an old-fashioned, low-ceilinged room with +small tables and chairs dotted about it. At one of these Mrs. Dawson +and Jessie seated themselves, and soon a kindly-faced woman brought +in a tray with a brown teapot of tea, a jug of milk, and a goodly +supply of cakes and bread and butter. + +Jessie had never been in such a place before, and she felt there +could be nothing grander or more interesting in the whole world. +In the shop outside people were coming and going, and one or two came +in and seated themselves at other little tables, and Jessie sat and +watched it all with the greatest interest, while she ate and drank as +much as ever she wanted of the nice bread and butter and fascinating +cakes. + +"I wish mother could see me now," she sighed at last. "And oh, +wouldn't it be nice if she was here, too. She'd love a beautiful tea +like this." + +Patience Dawson did not know what reply to make, her feelings brought +a sob to her throat, and the old ache back to her heart. + +"Oh, I expect she is having quite as good a tea as we are," she said +at last, for want of something else to say. But Jessie shook her +head sagely. + +"I don't 'spect she is; we didn't have tea--only sometimes, and we +never had cake, never!" + +"Well, p'raps mother and you and me will all come here together one +day," she said, trying to speak cheerfully, though she little +expected such a thing to happen. + +"And granp too?" said Jessie eagerly. + +"Oh yes, granp too, of course." But her grandmother noticed that she +never once expressed a wish that her father should join them. + +When at last the meal was over, and Mrs. Dawson had paid the bill and +talked a little with the woman who had served them, they made their +way slowly into the street. + +"I think," said Mrs. Dawson musingly, standing still and turning +things over in her mind, "I think we had better go home by train; +'tis a good step, a mile and a half, for you to walk, and for me, +too, with all these parcels; it isn't nearly so far to walk home from +the station." So two days following Jessie arrived at Springbrook +station, and when she got out of the train the station-master and the +porter both recognized her and smiled at her. + +"Why, you've become quite a traveller, missie," said Mr. Simmons +jokingly; "supposing we had let you sleep on! where would you have +been by this time, I wonder?" + +"I don't know," answered Jessie, looking quite alarmed. + +"I hope you've got your purse safe, missie," said the porter, as he +passed her. + +"Yes, thank you," answered Jessie gravely, putting her hand down and +feeling it in her pocket. + +"Good-night!" they all said to each other as they parted, which +Jessie thought was very polite and friendly of them. Then she and +her granny stepped out into the road, and walked quickly through the +fast-deepening twilight to the little cottage where the light was +already glowing a welcome to them from the kitchen window, and +grandfather was waiting supper for them. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +A GARDEN SUNDAY-SCHOOL. + +Springbrook village lay near Springbrook station. It was a very +small village, but those who lived in it thought it a very pretty +one. It consisted of the church, the vicarage, the doctor's house, +three or four small private houses and a number of picturesque +cottages. + +The church stood at one end of the village in the middle of a +beautiful churchyard and burying-ground, surrounded by fine trees-- +flowering chestnuts and sweet-scented limes, while every here and +there blossomed beautiful red May-trees, lilacs, laburnums, syringas +and roses. From this, the one street--lined on either side by little +cottages, with here and there a small shop--led to the green, around +which stood in irregular fashion pretty houses and large cottages +with gardens before their doors. The doctor lived in one of these +houses, and the curate, Mr. Harburton, in another, and Miss Barley +and Miss Grace Barley in a third, and all the houses looked out on +the green and the road and across at each other, but all those who +dwelt in them were so neighbourly and friendly, this did not matter +at all. + +Jessie thought the houses by the green were perfectly lovely, they +had creepers and roses growing over them, and window-boxes full of +flowers. She thought the green was lovely too, and almost wished +that she lived by it that she might be able to see the donkeys and +the ducks which were usually standing about cropping the grass, or +poking about in the little stream which ran along one side of the +green. She thought the ivy-covered church, with the trees and the +hawthorns all about it, one of the most beautiful sights in the +world, and nothing she loved better than to walk with granp along the +sweet-scented roads along by the green and through the village street +to church. + +Mrs. Dawson did not go in the morning, as a rule. "Grandfather must +have a nice hot dinner once a week," she declared, so she stayed at +home to cook it; but they all went together to the evening service, +and Jessie dearly loved the walk to church in the quiet summer's +evening, with granp and granny on either side of her, and home again +through the gathering twilight, sweet with the scent from the gardens +and hedges. + +Sometimes, when they got home, granny would give them their supper in +the garden, if the weather was very warm, and Jessie loved this. +While granny was helping her on with her big print overall, +grandfather would carry out two big arm-chairs, and a little one for +Jessie, and there they would sit, with their plates on their laps and +their mugs beside them, and eat and talk until darkness or the +falling dew drove them in. + +Sometimes they repeated hymns, verse and verse, first grandfather, +then granny, and by and by, as she came to know them, Jessie herself +would take her turn too. Sometimes they would repeat a psalm or two +in the same way, or a chapter, and before very long they had taught +Jessie some of these also, so that, to her great delight, she could +join in with them. + +Then came bedtime, when she knelt in her little white nightgown +beside her bed and repeated-- + + "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, + Look upon a little child, + Pity my simplicity, + Suffer me to come to Thee + Fain I would to Thee be brought; + Dearest God, forbid it not; + But in the kingdom of Thy grace + Grant a little child her place. + +"Pray God bless dear father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, +and all kind friends and relations, and help me to be a good girl, +for Christ's sake. Amen." + +Then, with one look at her rose to see if there were any more buds on +it, and a glance into the garden to see if grandfather was still +there, she lay down in her little white bed, and with a kiss from +granny and a last good-night she would be asleep almost before granny +had reached the foot of the stairs. + +Then when morning came Jessie was just as glad to open her eyes and +spring out of bed as she had been to spring into it, for life was +full of all sorts of delights, indeed she would have liked nothing +better than for it to go on and on always in the same happy way. +With Mrs. Dawson, though, things were different. Granny began to +grow very troubled about Jessie's education. + +"It is time she was learning," she said anxiously, many a time. +"I know she ought to go to Sunday-school regularly, but I don't know +how it is to be managed. She can't walk there and back three times a +day, I am sure. If she walked there and back in the morning, and +there and back in the afternoon, she wouldn't be fit to go with us in +the evening too. She would be tired out. We couldn't go to church +in the evening either, for one of us would have to stay with her." + +Grandfather sat for a few moments meditating deeply over this +problem, then, "_I_ can teach her myself for a bit on Sundays," he +exclaimed triumphantly, his dear old face lighting up at the thought +of it. "I know enough about the Bible and Prayer-book for that. +It would do me good too." + +"But there's her other schooling. What can we do about that?" + +"I s'pose she'll have to do as the other children do," said +grandfather gravely, "and walk there and back twice every day. +Some of the bigger ones would let her walk with them, then she would +be safe enough. We will begin our Sunday-school next Sunday"--his +blue eyes lighting up with pleasure at the thought of it. +The day-school was quite a secondary matter to him, with the idea of +that other filling his mind. "We can sit in the garden while the +fine weather lasts. It would be lovely there, and good for the +little maid too." + +So, when Sunday came, grandfather's big chair and Jessie's little one +were carried out into the garden, and placed side by side, near the +porch, and a little table was carried out, too, for grandfather's +Bible and Prayer and hymn-books, and then, looking very pleased but +serious, the pair seated themselves. The dear old man was a little +bit shy and embarrassed, and very nervous when it actually came to +the point, and for a moment he looked more like a new shy pupil than +the teacher. Jessie was much the more composed of the two. + +"When are you going to begin, granp?" she demanded anxiously. + +"Now. I think we will begin with learning you the Lord's prayer," he +said huskily, feeling that something was expected of him, and he must +not fail. "Now, 'Our Father--'" + +"I know that already," said Jessie reproachfully; "but why is it +called the 'Lord's Prayer,' granp? Did the Lord have to say it when +He was little?" + +"No. He told it for all little children to say, all the world over, +and big children too, and men and women." + +Jessie looked awed and puzzled. "How did everybody all over the +world know about it, granp? They couldn't all hear Him say it," she +asked. + +"No, and they don't all know it yet, though it's nearly one thousand +nine hundred years ago since the Lord spoke it. But they will in +time," said the old man softly, as though speaking to himself. +"He left word with His people that they were to teach each other, and +they did. You see there wasn't such a great many heard Him, but +those that did went about and taught others, and then those they +taught taught others again, and--" + +"And then some one taught you, and," her face growing suddenly +bright, "I'll have to teach somebody. Who shall I teach, granp? +Granny knows it, doesn't she?" + +Her grandfather smiled. "She knew it before she was your age, +child," he said gently. + +"Then I'll teach mother." + +"Your mother knew it too before she was so old as you are." + +"Did she?" said Jessie, surprised. "She never said anything to me +about it, then." + +"Well, hadn't we best be getting on with the lesson?" asked +grandfather; "time is passing, and we haven't hardly begun yet." + +Jessie settled back in her chair, and leaning her head against her +grandfather, listened quietly while the old man talked reverently to +her of her Father in heaven. + +"Is He mother's 'our Father,' too, granp?" she asked at last. + +"Yes, child, mother's and father's." + +"Then He'll take care of her, won't He, and see that she doesn't cry +too much for me?" + +"Yes. He soothes all the sorrows and wipes away all the tears of +them that love and trust Him. Now shall we read a hymn? +I like the hymns dearly, don't you, little maid?" + +"Oh yes, I love them," said Jessie, sitting up and clasping her hands +eagerly. "Let's sing it, granp, shall we?" + +"Go on, then. You take the lead." + +"What's the lead, granp?" she asked anxiously. + +"You start the tune. You begin and I'll join in." + +But Jessie grew suddenly shy. "No, I--I can't," she said nervously, +sliding her soft little hand into her grandfather's rough one as it +lay on his knee. "You begin, granp, please--no, let's begin +together, and we'll sing 'Safe in the arms of Jesus,' shall we? +I know all of that." + +So together rose the old voice and the young one, the first quavering +and thin, the other tremulous and childlike, and floated out on the +still warm summer air. Mrs. Dawson, reluctant to disturb them, +waited in the kitchen with the tea-tray until they had ended, and the +tears stood in her eyes as she listened. + +"Bless them!" she murmured tenderly, "bless them both." + +When the last notes had died away, and grandfather had closed the +books and laid them one on top of the other, and their first +Sunday-school might fairly be said to be closed, Jessie, looking up, +saw her grandmother standing in the doorway, holding a snowy +tablecloth in her hand. + +"Tea-time!" cried Jessie delightedly, springing to her feet. +"I'll carry away the books, granp, and help granny to bring out the +tea-things. Now don't you move, you sit there and rest, we will do +it all by ourselves." + +So the old man, well pleased, sat on and watched his little +granddaughter. There was nothing she loved better than to be busy, +helping some one. + +Such a tea it was, too, that she helped to bring out. First came +granny with the tray, with the old-fashioned blue and white tea-set, +Jessie's mug and a jug of milk, then followed Jessie with a plate of +bread and butter. When all this was arranged, back they went again, +soon to reappear, Mrs. Dawson with a delicious-looking apple-pie and +a bowl of sugar, while to Jessie was entrusted, what she considered +the most precious burthen of all--a dish of cream. And there, amidst +the scents of the mignonette and stocks, the roses and jessamine, the +Sunday twitter of the birds and hum of the bees, they sat and slowly +enjoyed their Sunday meal, lingering over it in the full enjoyment of +the peace and calm of the hour and the scene. And oh, how good the +tea tasted, and the apple-pie and cream, and the bread and butter, +all with the open-air flavour about them, which is better than any +other. + +Then, having eaten and drunk all they wanted, they sat back in their +chairs and talked and listened to the birds and the bees, and gazed +about them at the flowers close by and the hills in the distance, +looking so far away and still and mysterious in the fading afternoon +light. And as they sat there, little dreaming of what was about to +happen, a graceful woman's figure came slowly along the sunny road to +their gate and there paused. + +"Why, it's Miss Grace Barley, I do declare!" cried Mrs. Dawson, +rising hurriedly to her feet. "Go and open the gate for her, father, +do. Why, whatever is she doing here, at this time of day? Sunday, +too, and all. It is very kind of her, I am sure." + +Patience began hurriedly gathering together the tea-things and +carrying them into the house, Jessie helping her. + +"Wouldn't Miss--the lady like some tart, granny?" she asked, as she +saw her grandmother beginning to pick it up. To her it seemed that +every one must hunger for anything so delicious. Somehow, too, it +did not seem very kind to carry it all away from under their +visitor's very eyes. + +"Well, now, I declare, I never thought of that," said granny pausing +and replacing the pie on the table, "at any rate, I can but ask her. +I'll put the kettle on, in case she hasn't had any tea." + +Meanwhile Thomas had let their visitor in and welcomed her warmly, +and they came slowly up the path together, looking at the flowers as +they passed. Jessie stood by her little chair, watching the lady. +She knew she was the Miss Grace Barley who lived in one of the pretty +houses by the green, and she thought she looked as pretty as the +house and just right to live in it. + +When they came close Miss Grace smiled at her, then stooped and +kissed her. "You are Jessie, I know," she said kindly. "I have seen +you in church with your granny and grandfather." + +"Yes, miss," said Jessie shyly, not quite knowing what to say, but +feeling that something was expected of her, "and I have seen you +there." + +Mrs. Dawson came out of the house, and Miss Grace shook hands with +her. "You must wonder to see me here at this time of day, Mrs. +Dawson," she said brightly. "The organist at Hanford is ill, and I +have been out there to play the organ at the morning and afternoon +services; I was on my way home when I caught sight of you all in your +pretty garden, and I couldn't resist coming in to join you." + +"I'm sure we're very glad you did, miss," said Patience warmly. +"And you haven't had any tea yet, Miss Grace, I'll be bound now." + +Miss Barley smiled and shook her head. "No, I have not, I am really +on my way to it, but I would rather sit here for a few moments first, +though, and talk to you." + +"You can do both, miss, if you will," said Patience hospitably. +"I was about to clear the tea-things away, thinking they looked +untidy, when Jessie stopped me. She was sure you would like a piece +of apple-pie and cream, and I was sure you'd like a cup of tea with +it; so the kettle is on and I'll have a cup ready in a minute if +you'll excuse my leaving you. Thomas, give Miss Grace a chair," and +Patience bustled away into the house delighted. + +Mr. Dawson brought out another chair, and he and Jessie seated +themselves one on each side of their visitor. Miss Barley withdrew +her admiring gaze from the distant view. + +"Don't you love Sunday, Jessie?" she asked, laying her hand gently on +the little girl's shoulder. "A Sunday like this, when even the birds +and the cattle, and even the flowers seem to be more glad and happy +and peaceful than usual." + +"Oh yes," said Jessie, losing all her shyness at once, "speshally now +when granp and me have Sunday-school out here. We are going to have +it every Sunday, ain't we, granp? We shall have it out here when it +is fine, but when winter comes we shall go in by the fire." + +Miss Grace looked at Mr. Dawson inquiringly. "What a lovely plan," +she cried enthusiastically. "Whose idea was it, yours, Mr. Dawson?" +and Thomas, blushing a little, told her all about it. + +Just as they had finished, granny came out with the tea-tray, and +spreading the table again with a tempting meal, drew it up before +their visitor, and while Miss Grace ate and drank, they sat and +talked to her, and presently Mrs. Dawson poured into her sympathetic +ear all their difficulties about the school for Jessie. Miss Grace +listened with the greatest attention, the matter seemed to interest +her immensely, far more, in fact, than it did Jessie, indeed Jessie +wished very much that they would talk of something else, for Miss +Grace grew quite quiet and thoughtful, and ceased to notice the +pretty things about her, or to talk of things that were interesting +to Jessie, and Jessie was sorry. She became interested enough, +though, presently, when Miss Grace, having finished her tea and risen +to go, suddenly said-- + +"Well, Mrs. Dawson, I think you will have to let me solve the +difficulty of Jessie's education for you, and there is nothing I +should like better. You see, our home is quite twenty minutes' walk +nearer you than the school-house, and if you will let Jessie come to +me, instead of going to school, I will teach her to the best of my +ability, and enjoy doing so. At any rate, while she is a little +thing. You see, she would not have to come and go twice a day, in +fact, she need hardly come every day--but we can arrange the details +later, if you agree to it. Now think it over well, and we will talk +about it again in a few days' time. And don't say 'no,' because you +think it will be too much for me to do, for I should love to educate +and train a little girl in the way _I_ think she should be trained. +It will be for me a most interesting experience. Now, Jessie, what +do you say? Would you like to come to school with me?" + +"Like it!" Neither Jessie nor her grandparents could find words to +say how much they would like it, nor how grateful they were to Miss +Barley; but at the same time they did feel it was too much for them +to accept of her. Before, though, they had found words to express +their feeling, or had stammered out half their thanks, the sound of +the church bells came floating up across the fields, a signal to them +all to part. + +"I must fly," cried Miss Grace. "Do you think I can _run_ through +the lanes without shocking any one? I must go home before I go to +church, or my sister will be quite alarmed," and away she hurried as +fast as she could. + +Patience had only time to carry in the tea-things, and leave them to +wash on her return, for she had herself and Jessie to dress and get +ready. + +They were in time though, after all, for their feet kept pace with +their happy thoughts and busy tongues, and there was no lingering on +the way that evening. + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +HAPPY DAYS. + +Granp and granny did not hold out very long against Miss Grace +Barley's plan, and in a short time all arrangements were made, and it +was settled that Jessie was to go to Miss Barley's pretty house by +the green every morning at ten, and to leave it at twelve, so that +she might meet her grandfather as he went home to his dinner. + +Thomas Dawson was head gardener at "The Grange," Sir Henry Weston's +beautiful country-house, which lay a little distance beyond +Springbrook station. Just outside the station were four cross-roads +with a signpost in the middle of them to tell you where each one led. +If you stood close to the signpost and faced the station, the road +exactly behind you led down to Springbrook green and village, while +the one on your right led along a wide flat road to "The Grange," and +on, past that, through villages and towns until at last it reached +the sea; and the road on your left led past "Sunnyside Cottage," and +then on to Norton. This was the road that Jessie knew best, the one +she had first walked with her grandfather on her way home that first +evening. + +From Miss Barley's house to the signpost was a very short distance, +and here it was that Jessie and her grandfather were to meet every +day and walk home together. Yet not every day, for Saturday, being a +busy day for most people, was to be a whole holiday from lessons. + +Miss Grace Barley had to gather flowers for the church and arrange +them in the vases on Saturday mornings, and Miss Barley had extra +things to do in the house and to go to Norton by train to do her +shopping, and Jessie had to help her grandmother clean up the cottage +and make all bright and neat for Sunday; so that it was nice and +convenient for every one that Saturday should be a holiday from +lessons. + +On that first morning, when Jessie stood at Miss Barley's door and +knocked, she felt very glad indeed to think that the day after +to-morrow was Saturday and a whole holiday, for she felt very shy and +rather frightened, and she longed to be back at home again with her +granny and grandfather. In fact, she was just edging towards the +gate, with her mind almost made up to run home, when the door opened, +and Miss Grace herself appeared. Miss Grace had on a hat and a large +pair of gardening gloves, and in her hand she held a basket and the +biggest pair of scissors Jessie had ever seen. + +"Oh, Jessie!" she said, "you are just in time. I am going out to +gather some flowers, and you will be able to help me. Come in, +dear--no, we will not go in yet, we will go first and get the +flowers, or the sun will be on them." + +Jessie's frightened little face grew quite cheerful again. +She thought this a delightful way of doing lessons, and marched along +happily enough at Miss Grace's side, soon forgetting all her shyness +in helping her to pick out the handsomest stocks and the finest +roses. When the basket was full Miss Grace led the way to a window +which opened down to the ground. + +"This is my very own sitting-room," she said, as she stepped through +the open window; "don't you think I ought to be very happy here?" + +"Oh yes!" sighed Jessie, as she looked about her at the flowers, the +pictures, and all the pretty things. "I shouldn't ever want to go +away from it if it was mine." + +Miss Grace laughed. "Well, we are going to do our lessons here, and +perhaps when twelve o'clock comes you won't be the least little bit +sorry to go away from it. But first of all I want you to help me +arrange these flowers a little, and then go with me to carry them to +a poor lady who is ill. Do you know the different kinds of roses by +name, Jessie?" + +Jessie did not. "Well, I will tell you some of them, and then you +will be able to surprise grandfather. A gardener's granddaughter +should know all these things. That lovely spray of little pink roses +you are holding is called 'Dorothy Perkins.' You will remember that, +won't you? And this deep orange-tinted bud is 'William Allen +Richardson.'" + +"'William Allen Richardson,'" repeated Jessie. "I think Miss Perkins +is much prettier than Mr. Richardson." + +Miss Grace laughed. "You are a very polite little girl, Jessie. +Look at this one; this is called 'Homer,' but you need not call it +Mr. or Mrs., but just plain 'Homer.'" + +"I think it ought to be called 'pretty Homer,'" said Jessie, smiling. + +By the time they had arranged all the flowers in the basket, she knew +quite a lot about the different kinds and their names. Miss Grace +made everything so attractive, and it was wonderful what a lot of +interesting things she saw as she went about, even when she walked +only across the green to Mrs. Parker's to leave the flowers. + +Jessie did not see the poor dirty grey toad lying panting and +frightened on the pathway, but Miss Grace did, and stooped and picked +the poor thing up, and carrying it into her garden, placed it in a +nice cool shady corner, underneath some bushes. + +"Won't it bite you, or sting?" asked Jessie, her eyes wide with +alarm, but Miss Grace reassured her. "That poor gentle little +frightened thing hurt me!" she cried; "it could not if it wanted to, +and I am sure it does not want to. It will help to take care of my +flowers for me. You are not afraid to stroke it, Jessie, are you? +Just look how fast its poor little heart is beating with fright! +Isn't it cruel that any living creature should be as terrified as +that!" + +Jessie was ashamed for Miss Grace to know that she was almost as +terrified of the toad as the toad was of her, so she stroked it, +though very reluctantly, and the coldness of it made her jump so at +first, that she thought she could never, never touch it again; but +she tried not to be foolish, and she stroked its little head, and +after that she did not mind it a bit, though she was glad Miss Grace +did not ask her to carry it. + +When they got back to the house they found two glasses of milk and a +plate of biscuits in Miss Grace's room awaiting them, and after they +had taken them, Miss Grace took down a book and read to Jessie, and +Jessie, who already knew her letters and some of the easiest words, +read a little to Miss Grace, and before she thought that half of the +morning was gone, twelve o'clock had struck, and it was time to dress +and run off to meet her grandfather at the four cross-roads. + +When Jessie got to her place by the signpost, her grandfather was +just coming along the road towards her. In his hand he held a big +bunch of white roses and beautiful dark-green leaves. "Oh, how +lovely!" gasped Jessie, when she caught sight of them. + +"They'm 'Seven Sisters,'" said her grandfather; "they had overgrown +the other things so much that I had to cut them back, and her +ladyship told me to bring them home to you." + +"Oh, thank you!" said Jessie delightedly. "What are the seven +sisters called, granp? What is their real name? Of course they must +have names." + +Her grandfather did not understand her for the moment. "What are +they called! Why, Rose, of course; but 'Seven Sisters' is what +they're always known by." + +"There couldn't be seven all called 'Rose,' could there?" asked +Jessie gravely. "They _must_ have a name each. Let me see, one +could be 'White Rosie,' another 'Pink Rosie,' then there could be +'Red Rosie,' and 'Rosamund '; that's four." + +"Perhaps the others is Cabbage Rosie, Dog Rosie, and Cider Rosie," +said grandfather, chuckling. + +Jessie burst into a peal of laughter as she thrust one hand into her +grandfather's. "What things you do say, granp," she protested, and +clasping her bouquet in her other hand, she skipped along by the old +man's side. "Oh, I have learnt such a lot of things to-day," she +said impressively. "There's one rose called 'Mr. Richardson,' +another called 'Miss Perkins,' and another called 'Plain Homer,' and +now there's 'Seven Sisters,' all with different names." Then she +told him all about the toad, and the little story Miss Grace had read +to her. "And to-morrow I am to learn to knit, and soon I'll be able +to knit your stockings, granp, and cuffs to keep your arms warm in +winter, and a shawl for granny." + +"My!" exclaimed grandfather, with pleased surprise, "we shan't know +ourselves, we shall be so warm and comfortable. But don't you go +overworking yourself, little maid." Jessie laughed gleefully. +She loved to think of all she was going to do for her grandfather and +grandmother. + +"Oh no," she said. "You see, I am very strong, and I like to have +lots to do." + +And "lots" she did do, in her staid, old-fashioned way. "I don't +know whatever I should do without Jessie," granny would often remark +to grandfather as the months went by, and Jessie became more and more +useful about the house. + +"It puzzles me to know how we ever got on before she came," +grandfather would answer; and, as time went by, and Jessie grew +taller and stronger and more and more capable, they wondered more and +more frequently how they could ever have managed without her. + +Jessie, too, often wondered how she had ever lived and been happy +without her grandfather and grandmother, and "Sunnyside Cottage," and +the garden, and the flowers, and her own rose-bush. At first she had +thought a great deal about her mother, and wondered when she would +come for her; and every nice new thing she had she wanted her to +share, and every flower she had she wanted to save for her. But she +saved them so often, and then had to throw them away dead, that at +last she ceased to do so; and by and by, as the months passed, she +grew accustomed to enjoying things without her mother; and at last +she gave up wondering when she would come. In fact, for some time +before she gave up expecting her, Jessie had begun to hope that when +her mother did come, she would not want to take her away with her, +but would live there always with herself, and granny, and granp. + +Of her father's coming she never spoke but once, and that was when, +with a frightened face, she said to her grandmother, "Granny, if +father comes for me you won't let him take me away with him, will +you?" And granny had reassured her with a sturdy-- + +"Why, bless your heart, child, your father isn't likely to want you, +I can tell you, and he wouldn't dare to come here and show himself to +me, I reckon; don't you be afraid, now, granny'll take care of you." + +So Jessie tried not to be, and as the years went by, and nothing was +heard from either of her parents, her fears lessened, though she +could never think of her father without a shudder of dread lest he +should some day come to take her away. + +Three years had passed peacefully away, and Jessie was about eight +years old when the next letter from Lizzie came to her parents. + +Jessie never, to the end of her life, could forget the morning that +letter reached them. It was a wet, dark November morning, and she +had been lying awake for a long time listening to the patter-patter, +swish-swish of the rain pouring against her window. She had heard +her grandfather go down and open the front door as usual, and light +the fire in the kitchen; then she heard him fill the kettle at the +pump and put it on to boil. After that he went out again to open the +hen-house door, and carry the hens their breakfast. She heard her +grandmother go down the stairs, and a few moments later she heard +heavy footsteps come splashing up the wet garden path, and very soon +go down again. + +Jessie got up and dressed herself, and made her way down. She had +been singing to herself while she was dressing, so had not noticed +anything unusual in the sounds and doings below stairs. But as she +went down she did notice that the house seemed very quiet and still, +and that there was no smell of breakfast cooking. Usually at this +time her grandfather was busy in the scullery cleaning boots and +knives, or doing some job or other, while her grandmother bustled +back and forth, talking loudly, that her voice might reach above the +frizzling of the frying-pan. But to-day there was a strange, most +marked silence, broken only by the singing of the kettle, the plash +of the rain outside, and a curious sound which Jessie could not make +out, only she thought it sounded as though some one was in pain. + +When she reached the foot of the stairs, she knew that she was right, +and she stood and looked, with her heart sinking down, down, +wondering with a great dread what could have happened. Her +grandfather was sitting in his usual seat at the end of the table, +holding a letter in his hand, while her grandmother stood beside him, +her hand leaning heavily on his shoulder; and both their faces looked +white and drawn, and full of trouble. Tears sprang to Jessie's eyes +at sight of them. Neither was speaking, but every now and then there +burst from the old man that strange sound that Jessie had heard, and +it was like the cry of a hurt animal. + +When she heard it again, and knew whence it came, Jessie flew to him +in terror. "Oh, granp, what is it?" she cried. "Who has hurt him?" +she cried, turning to her grandmother almost fiercely. "Who has done +anything to granp--and you?" she added, when she caught sight of her +grandmother's face. + +Patience Dawson's hand slipped from her husband's shoulder down to +Jessie's, and crept caressingly round the little girl's neck, while +the old man threw his arm around her to draw her nearer to him. + +"'Tis your mother, child," cried Patience, her words seeming to +tumble from her anyhow. "She's dead! Our only child, and took from +us for ever, and never knowing how much we loved and forgave her, and +how we've hungered night and day for a sight of her--and now I shall +never, never see her again!" and then poor Patience broke down, and +kneeling beside her husband and grandchild, bowed her head on the +table and wept uncontrollably. + +At the sight of their trouble Jessie's own tears fell fast. +"Mother," she cried, scarcely grasping the real state of the case, +and all it meant to her. "Mother! dead? Granp, mother isn't really +dead, is she? Won't I--won't I never see her any more," the truth +gradually forcing itself on her mind--"won't she ever come and live +here with us, and see my rose--and--and all the things I've been +saving for her?" Her little face was white now, and her lips +quivering with the pain of realization. + +Her grandfather shook his head. "She won't ever come to us; never, +never no more," he sighed heavily. "But maybe," he added a moment +later, speaking slowly and with difficulty, "maybe she sees and knows +now, better than she has all these years--and is happier." + +"Why didn't she write, why didn't she tell us where she was?" wailed +Patience despairingly. "I would have wrote at once and told her how +we'd forgiven everything." + +"Poor maid," said Thomas Dawson softly, "I reckon she had her +reasons; her letter tells us that, without putting it into so many +words. Read it again, mother, read it to the child--I can't." + +Patience took up the letter, but it was some time before she could +control herself sufficiently to begin. + + "My dearest Father and Mother, + + "This is to tell you I am very ill, dying. The doctor says that + if I want to let any one know, I must do so at once. You are + the only ones that care, and I am writing to you to say + good-bye for ever. I have always hoped that some day I should + see you again, and my dear home, and my dearest, dearest child. + I am sure you will forgive me the wrong I did, and my cruel + behaviour. I couldn't die happy if I didn't feel sure of that; + but, dear father and mother, I know your loving hearts. + No words can tell how I've pined and longed for my little + Jessie, my own little baby, all these years. At first I + thought I should have died for want of her, but I knew she was + happy--that was my only comfort--and I could not have found + clothes nor food for her. I was going to write to you as soon + as we were settled, but Harry lost that situation almost at + once, and since then we have been on the tramp and never had a + home. It has been a cruel life, and I have often thanked God + on my knees that my darling was spared it. I know you love + her and have taken care of her. Don't let her forget me, dear + father and mother, and don't ever let her go from you. She is + yours--I give her to you, and I thank you with all my heart for + all you've done for her. Give her my love--oh, that I could + kiss her dear little face again! Good-bye, dear father and + mother, I can never forgive myself for all the misery I have + caused you; but I know you will forgive me, and believe I loved + you all the time. The woman here is kind to me, and she has + promised to keep this letter safe, and send it to you when I am + gone. Good-bye." + "Your loving daughter," + "Lizzie." + +The letter, which had been placed in an envelope and directed by +Lizzie's own hand, came in a larger envelope, and with it a slip of +paper on which was written in a good firm hand, "Your poor daughter +died this morning. Yours truly, Mary Smith." + +The letter bore the Birmingham postmark, but no other clue. + +"We don't even know where she died," sobbed Thomas, "that I may go +and bring her home to bury her," and this thought hurt the poor old +man cruelly. + +"If you did know, he probably wouldn't let you have her poor body, +not if he thought you wanted it," cried Patience bitterly. She could +not bring herself to mention her son-in-law by name. "He would hurry +her into her grave rather than she should come back to us," and then +she burst into bitter weeping again. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +TAKEN BY SURPRISE. + +After that first outburst of grief, Thomas Dawson did not speak much +of his trouble, but it was none the less deep for that. In fact, it +was so deep, and the wound was such a cruel one, it was almost more +than he could bear. + +The thought of his dead daughter never left him. Through the day, +when he was at work, through the long evenings when he sat silent and +sad, gazing into the fire, and through the nights when he lay +sleepless, he brooded over the wrongs his daughter's husband had done +them all, and was full of remorse for his own hard-heartedness--as he +called it now--in not having forgiven her at once when she ran away +from her home. And more than all was he haunted by the thought of +her lonely death after her cruelly hard life. He pictured her lying +in her pauper's grave in an unknown burial-ground, away amongst +strangers, unknown, uncared for, unremembered, and these thoughts +aged him fast. + +Jessie was too young to notice it, but those older saw how he began +to stoop, how his feet lagged as he walked, how the colour had faded +from his hair and from the bright blue eyes, which had been such a +noticeable feature of his face. All the life and fun had gone out of +him too; even Jessie could not rouse him. + +Patience bore her grief in another way, it was merged to some extent +in her anxiety about her husband. With regard to Lizzie she felt +less anxiety and pain about her now than she had done when Lizzie had +been alive, and living a miserable life with the weak, ne'er-do-well +husband who had been the ruin of her happiness and theirs. +Trouble left its mark on Patience too, she became gentler and +quieter, she seemed to lose some of her strength and spirit, and to +lean more and more on her little granddaughter. And Jessie, pleased +and proud to be useful, and trusted and able to help, turned to with +a will, and by degrees took a great deal on her young shoulders. + +She still went to Miss Grace Barley to be taught, for the hours +suited them all well, and though her grandmother protested often that +it was too much for Miss Grace to do, and declared that Jessie must +go to the school along with the others, Miss Grace begged to be +allowed to keep her. + +"Jessie can repay me by coming and being our maid by and by," she +said laughingly--"that is if she wants to go out into service, and +you can spare her, Mrs. Dawson." + +"I shall have to some day," said Mrs. Dawson, with a sigh and a +smile; "she will have to support herself, of course, when she grows +up, and it's our duty to see she has the training." + +So it became the dream of Jessie's life to be Miss Barley's maid, to +live in the "White Cottage," and have the joy and honour of keeping +it in the beautiful order in which she had always seen it. + +It had been a curious, uncommon education that the child had had, but +the results were certainly satisfactory. She could darn and sew +beautifully, make and mend, knit and patch, and read and write, cook +a little, and do all manner of housework, while she was quite clever +in her knowledge of flowers and their ways. + +Every Saturday morning she devoted herself to helping her grandmother +clean the cottage and prepare for Sunday. It was her task to polish +all the knives and forks, to dust the bedrooms and the kitchen. +Her grandmother would not let her do the harder work, such as +scrubbing the floors or tables, though Jessie often longed to try; +but while granny was busy washing the floors, it was Jessie's great +delight to mount on a chair and clean the little lattice windows of +the kitchen and parlour. + +When she was about ten years old her other longings were unexpectedly +realized, and the scrubbing fell to her to do too, for one chill +autumn morning Mrs. Dawson found herself too unwell to get up. +She had been ailing for a week or two. "'Tis the damp and cold got +into my bones," she had said, making light of it, "and they'll just +have to get out again, that's all. There is nothing like moving +about for working it off. If I'd sat still as some folks do, I +shouldn't be able to move at all by this time." + +But on this morning even she was forced to give in. "I think the +cold has touched my liver," she said feebly, "and I don't feel fit +for nothing. I'll stay in bed for a bit, that's the best way," and +indeed she felt far too unwell to do anything else. Thomas called at +the doctor's house on his way to work, and came home early to dinner +to hear his report. + +"He says it's the yellow jaunders," said Jessie, in an awed voice, +looking very grave and alarmed, "and he says I must not be frightened +if granny turns orange colour. Do you think she has been eating too +many oranges, granp? She had two on Sunday--big ones!" + +Granp smiled, in spite of his anxiety. He knew that an attack of +jaundice was no trifling illness for a woman of Patience's age, and +the next day he did not go to work, but waited to see the doctor +himself. + +The news in the morning, though, was slightly better, and although +Mrs. Dawson had to keep her bed for some time, their greatest anxiety +was lifted, and their spirits grew higher and more hopeful. + +Jessie now was in her element. She swept and dusted, scrubbed and +polished, waited on her grandmother and took care of her grandfather +like any little old woman. All day long her busy feet and hands were +going, never seeming to tire; and in her joy at seeing her +grandmother getting well again, and her grandfather more happy, and +in her pleasure in taking care of them both, her spirits kept as +bright and gay, and her laugh as infectious and joyous as it was +possible for any one's to be. + +So things were when that Saturday dawned which, undreamed of, was to +change everything for all of them. + +It was a fresh bright autumn day, with the sun shining cheerfully, +but with just that touch of cold in the air which makes one realize +that summer is past and winter not so very far off. In the garden +the chrysanthemums were covered with a fine show of buds, and Jessie +looked at them eagerly to see if any would be out on the morrow, for +the doctor had said that Mrs. Dawson might get up for a little while +on Sunday and come down-stairs. + +The news put them all in a great bustle. Jessie felt that all her +credit depended on everything, indoors and out, being just a little +cleaner and trimmer and more orderly than if her grandmother had been +about herself. Things had to be got from Norton too, so grandfather +took the train thither to do the shopping, and Jessie was left to +sweep and scrub and polish to her heart's content. She and granp +were up early on that important morning--indeed, there was little +likelihood of any one's oversleeping on that day, and so well did +they work that by the time Jessie went up to know what her +grandmother would like for dinner, the greater part of their tasks +were done and grandfather had already started for Norton. + +"I don't want anything but a cup of tea and a piece of toast now," +said her grandmother in answer to Jessie's question. + +"Won't you have some of the jelly Miss Barley brought you?" + +"No, child. I feel much more inclined for a cup of tea. If you've +got any fire in I'd like a slice of toast, but if you haven't I'll +have a piece of dry bread. I dare say you'd like one of the little +apple pasties Mrs. Maddock brought over." + +Mrs. Maddock was the wife of the farmer who lived a little way from +them, along the road to the four turnings. + +"Yes, I would," said Jessie, "I am hungry." + +"I don't wonder," said her grandmother, smiling, "working as you have +been. Why, there won't be anything left for me to do when I get up. +Is the kettle nearly boiling?" + +"Yes," said Jessie, "it is singing. I'll have to step over to Mrs. +Maddock's for the milk, and by the time I come back it will be ready. +Will you be all right, granny, while I'm gone? I won't be away more +than five minutes." + +"Yes, I shall be all right, child; I'll promise not to run away, and +I don't suppose any burglar will break in here," she laughed gently. + +"Well, I could soon catch you, if you did," laughed Jessie, "but I +don't know about a burglar, I would have to run to Mrs. Maddock's +again and borrow their dog. Good-bye, granny." + +"Put on your hat and coat," granny called after her. + +"Oh, need I?" asked Jessie, with just a shade of impatience in her +voice. + +"Why, yes, child, it is quite chilly, and you have been so hot over +your work." + +So Jessie stayed a moment in the kitchen to put on her hat and coat-- +and oh, how glad she was of it before that night was ended--and +taking her milk-can in one hand and a penny in the other, away she +ran down the garden and out into the road. She stood for a moment +and glanced along the road in each direction, just to make sure that +there was no one near who would be likely to knock and disturb her +grandmother before she got back again, but there was not a living +creature in sight, that she could see, so on she ran to the farm. +Mrs. Maddock kept her a minute or two to inquire after Mrs. Dawson, +and to give her a flower to wear to church the next day, then Jessie +hurried away again as fast as her full milk-can would allow her. + +The side entrance to the farm, to which Jessie had to go, was a few +hundred yards down a lane which branched off the main road. When she +came out and down this lane again, a man was standing at the end of +it where it emerged on to the high road. He was standing looking +down the lane very eagerly at first, but, as Jessie drew nearer, he +stepped back a pace or two, and looked nervously first over one +shoulder and then over the other, along the high road. + +Jessie was ten years old, and accustomed to seeing strange +rough-looking men about, so that there seemed no reason why she +should feel frightened, but she did, and for a moment almost turned +and ran back to the friendly shelter of Mrs. Maddock's dairy. +Later on she often wished she had, but then, as she told herself, he +would probably have run after her and caught her. + +With her heart beating very fast, but trying to look quite calm and +unconcerned, she walked sturdily on. As soon as she had got past +him, she thought, and had turned the corner, she would race home as +fast as her legs could carry her, and if she did spill some milk +granny would forgive her when she knew how frightened she had been. +But the man evidently did not intend that she should pass him, for as +she drew near he stood right in her path, and to prevent any chance +of escape he seized her by the wrist. + +"I've been looking for you, this long while," he said roughly. +"Now don't make a noise," as Jessie screamed "help." "If you're +quiet I shan't hurt you, but if you make a noise and bring a crowd +round, I'll thrash you to within an inch of your life. Do you hear?" + +"Let me go," wailed Jessie, struggling to release her wrist. +"I must go home, granny's waiting for me, she is ill." + +"And I've been waiting for you longer than 'granny' has. I've been +waiting hours. Your grandfather's gone away, isn't he?" + +"Yes, to Norton." + +"That's all right." + +"He'll be home soon," retorted Jessie, in the vain hope of +frightening the man. "Oh, do let me go, please! granny is ill, and +waiting for me to take her her dinner." + +"I've waited longer for my dinner than ever she has. You shall bring +me mine instead. In bed, is she?" + +"Yes," sobbed Jessie. + +"That's all right." + +"Oh, would no one ever come," Jessie wondered, looking frantically +about her. + +The man read her thoughts and actions. "No, it isn't likely there'll +be anybody about just yet, they are all to market, or off somewhere. +I took care to choose my time well. Is your grandfather coming home +by train?" + +"Yes," sobbed Jessie. "Oh, _please_ let me go. What do you want? I +haven't got any money--" + +"It's _you_ I want, yourself, Jessie Lang." + +Jessie looked up in surprise, wondering how he knew her name. +She had thought him a tramp only, though a particularly horrible one. +Now a deeper fear crept into her heart, causing her to feel sick and +faint with alarm, and a dread of she hardly knew what. + +"Why do you want me?" she gasped, trembling, scarcely able to form +her words, so furiously was her poor little heart beating. + +"Why do I want you? 'Cause I'm your own father, and I've been robbed +of you for five years! Natural enough, isn't it, that a man should +want his own child to come and look after him?" + +"But I've got to look after granny and granp," gasped Jessie, +"they are old, and granny's ill, and--and they've taken care of me +all this time, and now I've got to take care of them. I'm very +sorry, but I can't look after you too." + +"Dear me!" muttered the man. "How polite we are! But whether you +can or you can't, you've got to! I think it's a pity they haven't +brought you up better, and taught you your duty to your father. +Well, I can't be wasting any more time here. We've got a long +journey before us." + +"Oh no, no!" cried Jessie, beside herself with dismay; "don't take me +away!--_please_, please don't make me leave granny!" + +"Shut up that noise," interrupted her father roughly. "You've got to +learn that I never stand whining and bellowing; and the sooner you +learn it the better. Now I did mean to spare you all the trouble of +saying 'good-bye,' but on second thoughts I'll go in and explain a +bit to the old woman, so hurry along and lead the way. I don't want +any nonsense about putting the police on my track to find you and +bring you back, so it shall be all open and straight. You are mine +by law, and I am going to stick to the law." + +Jessie was trembling so, she could scarcely drag her limbs along, but +she did her best to obey her father's command, a wild hope springing +up in her heart that if once she got within the shelter of home and +granny, all would be well. + +As she opened the cottage door she heard her grandmother's voice +calling down to her. "Why, Jessie, wherever have you been? I was +afraid something had happened. The kettle has boiled over and over +until the fire must be nearly put out." But she had scarcely +finished speaking before Jessie dashed up the stairs and into her +room breathless, almost speechless, her face white, and with a look +on it that haunted Patience Dawson for many a long day. + +"Oh, granny, he's come, father's come, and he's going to take me +away! Oh, granny, what shall I do! Save me! save me! don't let him +have me! I'm afraid of him!" + +But before Mrs. Dawson, in her utter bewilderment and fright, could +take in what it all meant, heavy footsteps mounted the stairs +quickly, and she saw Harry Lang, the man she so detested and dreaded, +standing in the doorway. + +"Don't make that row," he shouted roughly to the child, "nice way +that to carry on when your dear grandmother is ill! Do you want to +make her worse! Be quiet, can't you, and be quick. I've got no time +to waste." + +Jessie subsided into silence, a little moan alone escaping her as she +clung to her grandmother. + +"It's simple enough," he went on, turning to Mrs. Dawson, "I want my +daughter, and I've come to fetch her. You've had her for five years, +and now I want her for five--or fifteen, or fifty," he added, "just +as it suits me." + +"You can't--you've no right--you deserted her. She is ours." + +"That's just where you make a mistake, old lady," he sneered, his +face lighting up with an ugly mocking smile. "She is mine, not +yours, and I've every right to her. I didn't desert her, and you +can't prove I did, and I guess if we went to law about it, it would +be you that would be in the dock for stealing her, or receiving +stolen goods, so to speak, from her mother, who stole her." + +"You knew where she was!" gasped Mrs. Dawson, stunned by this new +aspect of affairs. "You knew poor Lizzie had sent her here--you know +you did." + +"Prove it," he said tauntingly. "That's all! Prove it!" +Then suddenly remembering that time was flying, he changed his tone. +"Well, anyhow, you can settle all that to your liking later on, I +can't stay to argue now. I've married again, and my wife keeps a +lodging-house, and wants some one to help her, some one strong and +healthy, like Jessie here, and I've come for her. I didn't see the +fun of paying a girl, when we could get a better one for nothing; and +I came for her to-day because I thought it would be nice and quiet, +not too many about, and not too many leave-takings. Now, Jess, say +good-bye to your granny, I want to be off before the old man gets +back, so as to spare him the pain," with a cruel laugh. + +Was there no one to help them! No one to appeal to! Jessie and her +grandmother looked at each other despairingly. They could think of +no one within a mile or two, except Mrs. Maddock and her little maid, +and how could they reach them, and what could they do to help if they +did! A deep, hopeless despair settled on both of them. + +"If you've anything you wants to bring along with you," said her +father curtly, "look sharp and get it. I don't s'pose it's more than +I can carry." + +Jessie was too stunned to know quite what she was doing. In her room +she had a big old-fashioned carpet bag that her grandfather had once +given her because she so admired the flowers on its sides, and into +this she thrust some of her clothes without in the least realizing +what she was doing. When, though, she came to her little shelf of +books, to a box Miss Grace had given her, a work-basket her +grandfather and grandmother had bought her on her birthday, and a +picture which had been Miss Barley's present, she stayed her hand. +She would not take any of her treasures to be knocked about perhaps +in a busy lodging-house. She would leave them here, they would seem +like a link between her and home--for no other place would ever be +"home" to her, she knew. + +She took her little Prayer-book, the one that had been her mother's, +granny had given it to her on her eighth birthday, and she treasured +it dearly; it had her mother's name and her own written in it, and +that seemed always to draw them nearer and form a little link +between. + +It was all soon over, and Jessie, without daring to look around her +beloved little room again, crept away back to her granny, her eyes +blinded with tears. + +"Granny, you'll 'tend to my rose for me, won't you," she whispered in +a choked voice, "till I come home again, and--and kiss granp for me, +and--oh, granny, granny, what shall I do, I can't go away! I can't! +I can't! I think I shall die if--" + +Perhaps mercifully, her father cut the leave-taking short. No good +could be done, not a fraction of their misery lessened by prolonging +it, and before Jessie had finished sobbing out her last words, he had +picked her up and carried her down-stairs and out of the house. + +"This way," he said, when he put her down in the road. "I like +seclusion when I take a walk. There's a station I prefer to +Springbrook, it's one I used to favour a good bit," with a meaning +little laugh, "and if I haven't forgot my way all these years, and +they haven't altered the face of the country, the shortest cut to it +lies through these very fields, so step out and put your best foot +foremost." + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +THE JOURNEY AND THE ARRIVAL. + +Harry Lang's "short cut" to the next station meant a good two hours +of heavy walking, sometimes over rough uneven ground, sometimes +through a little coppice, or along a quiet lane, all of them unknown +to Jessie. For this very reason, perhaps, the way seemed even longer +than it really was, but to the poor exhausted child it seemed +endless. Her head ached distractingly, her back and legs ached, and +her feet had almost refused to do her bidding long before she reached +the station. + +Her father noticed that she lagged, but it never occurred to him that +the real reason was that she was exhausted--at least it did not occur +to him until, when they at last reached the refreshment room, Jessie +dropped like a stone upon the floor. + +"What are you doing?" he snapped crossly, "get up! Can't you see +where you are going?" + +But Jessie neither saw, nor heard, nor moved. The kindly-faced woman +behind the counter first leaned out over it to look at her, then came +around. + +"Why, she's in a dead faint," she cried, lifting the limp little +hand; "has she walked far? She looks dead beat." + +Harry Lang muttered something about "just a mile or so," but he did +not enlarge on the subject, and he seemed so morose and surly that no +one felt drawn to say more to him than they could help. The woman +lifted Jessie up, and laid her gently on a couch, but she had bathed +her brow and her hands, and held smelling-salts under her nose for +quite a long while before she showed any signs of life, and Harry +Lang had wished himself miles away, and regretted his day's work many +times before Jessie with a deep, deep sigh at last opened her eyes. + +For a moment she looked about her uncomprehendingly; then, as +realization came to her, the woman bending over her heard her moan +despairingly. + +"Is she ill?" she asked. + +"No," said Harry Lang curtly, "only a bit tired and upset at having +to leave the folks that brought her up. Maybe she's hungry; we've +walked a good step to get here, and we haven't had a bite of +anything. I'm hungry myself, so I dare say she is. Hungry, Jessie?" + +"I want to go home, I must--I must. Oh, let me go," moaned Jessie +wildly, looking up at him beseechingly; but at sight of his face she +shrank back frightened, and the words died on her lips. + +"You are going home as fast as I can take you," he said roughly; "if +you'd sent word, I dare say they'd have got a special," he added, +with a sarcastic laugh. + +"I'll give her something to eat," said the woman, without a smile at +his joke. "I dare say she'll feel better then. She looks to me dead +beat," and she laid Jessie gently back, and went behind the counter +and poured her out a basin of soup from some that was being kept hot +there. To Jessie, who had had no food since breakfast-time, the soup +brought new life. She took it all, and a large slice of bread with +it, to the great satisfaction of her new friend, who watched +delightedly the colour coming back to the poor little white face. + +"Where do you want to get to, to-night?" she asked, turning to Harry +Lang. + +"London." + +"Um! The next train that stops here doesn't come in till 10.15. +It is a long time for her to wait, and late for her to get home." + +"'Tisn't going to kill her," answered Jessie's father shortly. +"Everybody has got something to put up with sometimes. She is lucky +not to have to walk all the way." He hated to be asked questions, +and grew cross at being obliged to answer them. + +"It's my opinion she'd never reach the other end if she had to do +that," said the woman curtly. Then, turning to Jessie, she said +gently, "If you lie back again, dear, maybe you'll be able to sleep, +and that will rest you, and help to pass the time too." + +Jessie, only too glad to obey, and not to have to move her aching +body again, nestled back on the hard cushions, and turning her face +away from the light, shut her eyes, and soon was miles away from her +present surroundings and her miseries, in a deep dreamless sleep, and +she knew nothing more until she was wakened suddenly by a tremendous +rumbling and shaking, puffing and roaring, close at hand, which made +her start up in a terrible panic of alarm. + +For a moment she did not realize where she was or what had happened; +her brain was dazed, her eyes full of sleep. Then her father came +in, and seizing her by the arm hurried her out of the room and across +the platform to the brightly-lighted train drawn up there. He gave +her no time for farewells to the kind-hearted woman who had helped +her so much, nor did he thank her himself. Poor Jessie could only +look back over her shoulder and try to thank her with her eyes and +smiles. + +"Thank you very much," she called out, her voice sounding very weak +and small in the midst of all the uproar; but the gratitude on her +face and in her eyes spoke more than words. + +"I've thought dozens of times of that poor little child," the woman +remarked next day to one of the porters; "the man looked so cruel and +horrid, and the child so frightened. I should like to know the truth +about them. I am sure he was unkind to her." + +Once inside the railway carriage, Jessie's father put her to sit in +the corner by the window, and seated himself next to her. He was so +anxious that no one should speak to her that he even gave up the +comfortable corner seat himself, and sat bolt upright beside her, a +bit of self-denial which did not improve his temper, which was at no +time a sweet one; and when at last Waterloo was reached, it was with +no gentle hand that he shook and roused her from the kindly sleep +which had fallen on her again, and blotted for the time all her woes +from her memory. + +With a shock Jessie started to her feet, staring about her with wide, +dazed, sleep-filled eyes. "Wake up, can't you? I can't stay here +all night while you has your sleep out!" + +No one else ever spoke to her in that tone and manner. In a moment +poor Jessie's eyes and brain were as wide awake and alert as fear +could force them. That dreaded voice would rouse her from the sleep +of death almost, she thought. Shaking with cold and dread, she +followed him along the lighted platform, and out into the gloom and +squalor of the streets. + +A heavy rain was coming down in sheets, driven in their faces by a +cold, gusty wind. It hit the pavement and splashed up against her +cold little legs and ankles until they were soaked through; it beat +on her face until she was nearly blinded; and, bewildered by the +bright lights, and the deep shadows, and the glitter of the wet +streets in the light of the lamps, she would soon have been lost +indeed, had her father not caught her by the hand. + +On they went, and on and on, an endless distance it seemed to Jessie. +Her father never once spoke to her, and she was afraid to speak to +him. At last, though, she summoned up courage. "Where are we going, +father?" + +"Home." + +"Are we nearly there?" + +"You'll know in time, so hold your noise." + +She "held her noise." At least she did not venture to speak again, +and "in time" she did know, but it was a long time first. + +Jessie had long been too tired to notice anything that was passing, +and when at last they did stop before a house, and went up to the +door of it, she was too exhausted to notice the place or the house, +or anything about her. She wanted only to be allowed to lie down +somewhere, anywhere, and not have to move, or speak, or even think. + +When the door was at last opened she saw before her what looked like +a black pit, and that was all. Her father must have been able to see +more than she, for he swore at some one for keeping him waiting so +long, and Jessie supposed it was at an unseen person who had opened +the door to them, then he walked quickly ahead, telling Jessie to +follow him. + +Follow him! How could she, when she could see nothing and did not +know where her next step would land her? She did not dare, though, +do anything but obey, so, groping blindly, and sliding her feet +carefully before her, one at a time, she crept with all the speed she +could in direction in which she thought he had gone. + +"Mind the stairs," said some one behind her, and at the same moment +Jessie's foot went over the top one. + +"Harry, you might have helped the child down," said the voice behind +her, more tartly, and Jessie guessed it was the door-opener who +spoke, and who was following her. Harry Lang muttered something +surlily enough, but he did pick up a lamp from somewhere, and held it +out for her to see the rest of her way by, and Jessie clambered down +the remaining stairs in comparative comfort. + +"You'd better give the kid something to eat, and pack her off to bed +as soon as you can," he said. "She's pretty well fagged out, and so +am I," he added. + +Jessie looked round to see to whom he was speaking, and saw standing +in the doorway a little thin woman, with a sharp, cross face, and +dull, tired eyes, eyes which looked as though they never brightened, +or lost their look of weary hopelessness. This was her stepmother. +She gave no sign of welcome, no word of comfort to the child, yet, +somehow, Jessie's heart went out to her a little. It might have been +only that in her terror of her father, she was ready to cling to any +one who might stand between her and him. + +"There's bread and butter--" + +"Bread and butter!" roared her husband, "is that all? Do you mean to +say you haven't got anything hot and tasty for me after all I've been +through to get this brat here, for nothing in the world but to help +you to do nothing all day long--" + +"There's plenty for you," she retorted coldly. "I was speaking of +the child. I knew you wouldn't want to share yours with her," and +Harry Lang, who had stepped threateningly towards her, drew back +again, looking rather foolish and very cross. "Where is it?" he +snapped. + +"In the oven," and she took out a big covered basin and put before +him. + +Whatever the contents might have been, they smelt very savoury and +seemed to please him, but he never offered a mouthful of it to his +famishing little daughter, as she stood by, looking at him. A thick +slice of bad bread with some butter spread thinly on it was Jessie's +fare, and she wished the butter had been omitted altogether, so +horrid did it smell and taste. + +As soon as he had finished the last mouthful of his supper Harry Lang +got up, and without a word to either of them, slouched out of the +kitchen and up-stairs to bed. Mrs. Lang began at once to clear a +very large old sofa of its untidiness. + +"You'll have to sleep here," she said; "the house is so full there +isn't room for you anywhere else. Make haste and get your things +off. I want to get to bed myself. I've got to be up at five, and +it's past one now." + +Jessie looked with dismay at the collection of dirty-looking shawls +and coats her stepmother was piling on the sofa as "bedclothes," and +if she had not been so dead tired, she could never have brought +herself to lie down under them. Visions of her own sweet little room +and spotless bed rose before her, and overcame her control. + +"Is this your bag?" + +"Yes," said Jessie tearfully, a sob rising in her throat. + +The woman looked at her with dull interest. "You'd better keep your +feelings to yourself," she said; "there's no time for any here. +Try to go to sleep, and don't think about anything," she added, not +unkindly. "You are overtired to-night, you'll feel better +to-morrow." She helped Jessie into her rough bed, and tucked the +shawl about her, but she did not kiss her. "Now make haste and go to +sleep," she said, "for I shall be down very early, and then you'll +have to get up," and she walked away, taking the lamp with her. + +Jessie shut her eyes and tried to go to sleep, but her nerves were +all unstrung, brain and ears were all on the alert, and there seemed +to be curious, unaccountable sounds on all sides of her. She had not +been alone more than a minute or two before there were strange +scraping noises in the kitchen not far from her. "Mice!" thought +Jessie, "or beetles." + +She was a fairly brave child, but she had a perfect horror of black +beetles, and her heart sank at the thought of them. She drew the +shawl over her head as well as she could, and wrapped up her arms in +it, but still she felt that the beetles were running, running +everywhere, over the walls and over her, and she could scarcely +refrain from shrieking aloud in her horror. Then came louder and +more dreadful sounds, the cries of people quarrelling; they seemed to +be in the very house too; Jessie uncovered her head to hear, then +covered it quickly again, sick and faint with fear. A drunken man +reeled past the house, singing noisily; to Jessie in the kitchen area +he seemed horribly near. + +She grew more and more frightened with each sound she heard. She was +alone in the dark, with dreadful things happening all around her, in +a house that she did not even know her way about. She felt sick and +faint with terror and horror of the place, and longing for home and +all that she had lost. + +Then she remembered suddenly that she had not said her prayers. +It had all seemed so strange, and her stepmother had hurried her so, +that she had never thought of it until now. + +"Oh, I can't get out and kneel down," she thought. "I might step on +some beetles. I am sure if God sees how dreadful everything is, and +how frightened I am, that He will forgive me if I say them here. And +she began-- + + "I trust myself, dear God, to Thee, + Keep every evil far from me. + +"Does that mean drunken men and beetles," she wondered feverishly, +"'I trust myself, dear God, to Thee;' if I do, He will take care of +me, for certain," and a ray of comfort crept into her poor little +aching heart. "Granp told me so." And for the first time in her +life Jessie felt the true meaning of the dear old grandfather's +lessons in the garden, or by the kitchen fire. + +Hitherto she had been sheltered and loved and guarded, been well +clothed, and fed, and cared for. Now, for the first time, she felt +the need of some one to turn to, and her prayers meant more than they +had ever meant before. They came from her heart, and were real +petitions. + +"Granp said God loved little children, and always listened to them," +and with this comforting thought she at last fell asleep. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +THE NEW HOME. + +It seemed to Jessie that she was still saying, "Keep every evil far +from me," and trying to go to sleep, when a voice said sharply-- + +"Now then, it's time to wake up! Make haste and get your clothes on, +for your father and one of the lodgers will be here wanting their +breakfasts presently." + +Jessie woke with a great start, and sprang up, struggling with the +shawl which was still wrapped about her head. Free of this, she +looked about her in a dazed way, trying to rouse herself and collect +her wits. It was not yet daylight, of course, and the lighted lamp +stood on the table in the midst of the dirty dishes just as it had +the night before; her stepmother too--her hair and dress and whole +appearance were exactly as they had been the night before, the only +difference being that she seemed, if anything, less agreeable. + +"Wake up! wake up!" she called sharply again. "I want you to make +yourself useful, not to be giving me more trouble. Get on your +things, then light the fire as quick as you can--no, I'll light the +fire to-day, because your father can't bear to be kept waiting, but I +shall look to you to do it other mornings, and to get up without +being called, too." + +"Yes," said Jessie dutifully, "I hope I shall be able to wake up." +She was so sleepy at the moment that she could scarcely stand, or see +to get into her garments. She looked around her for a place where +she could wash. Cold water would help her to wake up, perhaps. +It was really painful to be so terribly sleepy. + +"Please, where can I wash?" she asked at last. "I--I can't wake--up; +I--I--" and she was asleep again. Her stepmother's sharp voice soon +roused her, though. + +"A place to wash in!" she snapped crossly. "Why, you must wait until +some of them have gone out, then you can go to one of the bedrooms, +unless you'd like to wash at the tap, out there," pointing to the +scullery; "there's a dipper there you can use." + +Jessie gladly accepted the last offer. She was longing to feel the +freshness of cold water on her aching head and heavy eyes, and her +hot face, and she groped her way out to the scullery. + +It was lighted by a candle only, but even so Jessie could see the +untidy muddle of everything. The sink by the tap was crowded with +pots and pans and dirty dishes, and so was the table and the dirty +floor. Where was she to wash, and where was the dipper? She looked +around her hopelessly. She was so heavy with sleep she could hardly +see, so aching in every limb she could scarcely stand; and the sight +of the miserable place, and the close smell of it, made her feel +positively sick and ill. + +She did not dare, though, trouble her stepmother any further, she had +to act for herself; so she looked about her, first of all for the +dipper, and presently saw it standing, full of potato peelings, on +the floor under the sink. She seized it thankfully, and emptying its +contents on to a dirty plate, went to the tap and gave it a good wash +out. While she was doing this her eye fell on a piece of soap. +At last she managed to draw a dipperful of clean fresh water, and +glad enough she was; it felt so delicious, in fact, and she enjoyed +it so much, she could not bear to tear herself away from it, until +her mother's sharp voice brought her back to her duties again, and +the rest of her toilet was finished more hurriedly. + +"What shall I do first?" she asked timidly, when she was ready. +In her clean pinafore, with her hair well brushed, and her cheeks +still glowing from the cold water, she looked so fresh and such a +pleasant sight to see, that a ray of something like pleased surprise +showed itself for a moment even on Mrs. Lang's tired face. + +"Can you wash up two or three of the cups and things without smashing +them?" she asked. + +"Oh yes," said Jessie, almost reproachfully, "I always do at home." +But the mere mention of that name brought the tears to her eyes, and +prevented her saying more. + +"Well, do that first. You needn't wash more than two cups and +plates. I'd better lend you something to put on over your clean +apron, or you'll be wanting another before the day is out." + +"I've got my overalls here," said Jessie, with pride. "Granny made +me two," and she stepped to the old bag and lifted out a dark-blue +galateen pinafore which covered her all up to the hem of her frock. + +When she came back from washing the dishes she brought the +sweeping-brush with her, and, as a matter of course, began to sweep +up the littered floor. Mrs. Lang opened her mouth to tell her to +stop, then apparently thought better of it, and let her go on. +The kitchen swept, Jessie asked for a duster to dust the chairs and +other things, which needed it badly enough! + +"A duster! Don't bother me about such things. We haven't got any." + +Jessie looked nonplussed. "May I have this?" she asked at last, +picking up a bit of rag from a pile of things untidily heaped on a +chair. Mrs. Lang, though, was gone, and did not hear her. +Jessie looked at the rag, and pondered. At last, however, the +temptation to wipe off some of the dust became too much for her, and +she used it. "I can wash out the rag again," she comforted herself +by thinking. "I wonder what I had better do next," for Mrs. Lang had +not returned. "I s'pose I'd better sweep out the passage and brush +down the steps. Oh, I do want some breakfast!" she added, with a +sigh. + +While she was sweeping down the steps before the front door, her +stepmother came into the kitchen again. The semblance of a smile +crossed her face as she looked at the neatly-arranged chairs, and +heard the broom going in the distance. + +"We're to be kept tidy, now, I s'pose," she muttered, with a laugh. +"I wonder how long it'll last. She won't get much encouragement +here." + +Jessie came into the kitchen with her broom, and found her stepmother +frying bacon. It smelt very good, and Jessie was ravenously hungry. + +"Does father have to go to work every day as early as this?" she +asked. + +"Work!" cried Mrs. Lang, with a scornful laugh. "Work! I've never +known your father work since he crossed my path! It's the races he's +off to; you wouldn't find him get up at this hour for anything else." + +Jessie stared wide-eyed. "Doesn't he ever work?" she gasped. +"How does he live, then?" + +"Well you may ask!" snapped Mrs. Lang bitterly. "He's kept. I do +the work, and he finds that more to his taste. I've got the house +full of lodgers, and I can tell you it takes me all my time, and +more, to look after them. I never get any pleasure, and your father +never gets any work, and he thinks that is just as it should be." + +Jessie stood for a moment looking very thoughtful. Everything in +this house seemed to her wrong. Just as it all used to be in her old +home before she went to her grandfather's; but she knew nothing +better then, she was too young. Now she was older and better able to +understand, for she had had a long and happy experience of what a +home could and should be, where each did a share, and thought always +of others first. She felt suddenly a great pity for her stepmother, +and a liking such as she had not thought possible an hour or so ago. +Perhaps she could do something, she thought, to make her less +unhappy; at any rate she could help her. + +"I will help you," she said, looking up at her with a smile. +"It won't be so hard with two of us to see to things." + +Mrs. Lang's face softened a little, and a smile actually gleamed in +her eyes as she glanced from the frying-pan to Jessie. "Yes, you can +help a bit, I expect, you seem to know how to set about things. +Did you help your grandmother?" + +"Oh yes, a lot," said Jessie, and at the recollection the tears +brimmed up in her eyes. "I wonder how she is, and how granp is! +Oh, I expect he was in a dreadful way when he came home, and heard +what had happened!" and at the thought poor Jessie's tears +overflowed, and she sobbed bitterly. + +"Hush, don't make that noise," said her stepmother quickly, but not +unkindly. "Be quiet, child, your father's coming, and he'll beat you +if you go on like that. Oh, it's you, Tom," as a young man lounged +heavily into the kitchen, "I thought 'twas Harry." + +Tom Salter dropped into a chair by the table with a tired yawn. +"Yes, it's me; I'm up, but I ain't awake," he said, with a laugh. +"Hullo," as he caught sight of Jessie, "is this the little girl you +was telling me about?" + +"Yes, this is Jessie." + +He looked at Jessie and smiled, and she smiled back. He had a +good-tempered face and kind eyes, and she thought she should like +him. + +"Bit tired, I expect?" + +"Yes, thank you, I am," said Jessie shyly. + +"Hullo, missis, been having a spring clean?" he asked comically, as +he glanced about him. "The place looks so tidy I hardly knew it." + +Mrs. Lang looked half annoyed. "New brooms sweep clean," she said +shortly, "and two pairs of hands can do what one can't." + +"That's true," said the young man soothingly. "I don't know how you +ever managed to get through it all by yourself." + +Mrs. Lang looked mollified. "It would have been all right if Harry +would have lent a hand now and then," she said, "but he won't even +clean his own boots, let alone any one else's; while as for bringing +in a scuttle of coal, or going an errand, or putting a spade near the +garden, he'd think himself disgraced for ever if he did either. +Disgraced! He!" with a bitter laugh, and the meaning in her voice +should have made her self-satisfied husband feel very small--if +anything could have that effect on him. + +Just at that moment heavy footsteps were heard approaching and +conversation ceased. + +"Here's your father coming," said Mrs. Lang in a lowered tone to +Jessie. Then, as she stooped down to the oven to get out the dish of +bacon for him, "We won't have ours now," she whispered to Jessie; +"you and me'll have ours after they're gone, when there's a little +peace and quietness," and Jessie, in spite of her hunger, which was +making her feel quite sick and faint, felt glad. + +"While you are waiting will you run up and talk to Charlie?" she +asked kindly, for she saw Jessie's dread of her father, which was +only too plainly written on her face. + +"Who is Charlie?" Jessie asked, "and where is he? I'd like to go." + +"You go up-stairs, and on the second landing from this you'll see +four doors, one of the back ones is our bedroom, and the next one is +Charlie's. He is my son, you know, he's just about your age, but +he's--he's very delicate." Mrs. Lang hesitated a little, and turned +her face away from Jessie for a moment. "He's got to lie in bed all +the time, it is very dull for him, and he'll be glad to see you, he +knows you are come." + +The door was banged open and banged shut again. "What's the use of +my taking the trouble to get up, in such weather as this, and shave +myself, and--and put myself out like this," grumbled the master of +the house, entering half dressed, half asleep, and more than half +angry. "No horses can run--" + +Jessie crept to the door and escaped as swiftly and silently as +possible. At the sight of her father all her old terror of him +rushed over her again, and she felt she could not face him. + +Up the stairs she hurried as fast as the darkness and her own +ignorance of the house would let her, then stopped suddenly. She did +not know how many landings she had passed, or where to go. She tried +to remember, but it was no good. "I'll go on a little further, +though," she thought, "it will be better than going back again," and +she groped her way carefully up another little flight of stairs. +Round the bend of them a light gleamed from a partly open door. +She went on further and looked in. The room was empty and very +untidy, but there was a light burning in it. It was the one her +father had just left. In the dimness she made out a smaller door +beside it. Was this Charlie's? She listened for a moment, then a +small thin voice called out, "Is anybody there? Who is it? +Mother, is that you?" + +Jessie stepped over to the door and knocked. "It is me--Jessie," she +called back. "Your mother sent me up to see you. May I come in?" + +"Yes, please." + +Jessie turned the handle very carefully. She felt painfully shy now +that she was actually here, but it was too late to turn back, so she +sidled in around the door, wondering very much what she should see, +and what she should say. + +What she saw was an untidy room with a small bed in it, and a large +window just opposite the bed. There were a few fairly good pieces of +furniture in it as well, but the whole place looked neglected, untidy +and comfortless. Jessie did not notice this so much just at first, +though, for the little figure in the bed claimed most of her +attention. + +Charlie was really of the same age as herself, but he was so thin and +worn and helpless, he looked much younger, and his pale little face +wore something of the appealing look of a baby. + +A great, great pity for him swelled up in Jessie's heart, and drove +out most of her shyness. "I am _so_ sorry you are ill," she said +sympathetically. "Are you always like it?" + +"Yes," said Charlie, looking at her with very shy, but very great +interest. "I have been for a long time. I think it is seven years +now. I fell backwards off a 'bus and hurt my back." + +"Oh, what a dreadful thing!" exclaimed Jessie. "Couldn't a doctor +cure you?" + +"No. I was in hospital for nearly a year, but mother wanted me; she +didn't like my being there, and when they said they couldn't make me +well, mother said she would have me come home with her. She wanted +me." + +"Were you glad?" + +"Yes. I was very glad. I wanted mother." + +A short pause following, Jessie thought she had better introduce +herself. "I am Jessie Lang," she said; "and--and I am come to live +here, father says I must. I s'pose for always--to help your mother +with the lodgers." + +"Are you? How nice! I am so glad," cried Charlie; "then you'll be +able to come and talk to me sometimes." + +"I am not glad," said Jessie, with a quaver in her voice; "but I +should like to come and talk to you as often as I can." +Then presently she added, in a conflicting tone, "I don't know what +to call your mother. I don't like to say 'Mrs. Lang,' it seems so-- +so silly and--stuck-up, and I don't like to call her 'mother,' +because, you see, she isn't mine at all, really." + +"I should," said Charlie decidedly. "I have to call your father +'father,' though I hate to. I don't like him. I hate him--he's-- +he's unkind to mother!" and the pale face flushed and the sad eyes +filled with the strength of other feeling. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Jessie, "you ought not to speak like that, I am sure. +Why do you ha--why don't you like him?" + +"'Cause he's so unkind to mother. He is unkind to me, too, but I +don't mind that, I don't see him often; but he's always going on at +mother, he makes her miserable, and he--he hits her!" staring at +Jessie with wide, horrified eyes. "We were so happy and comfortable +before he came, but now everything seems all wrong, and mother is +always unhappy, and--and I--I can't bear it." + + "Don't cry," said Jessie soothingly. "Did you live here always?" + +"Yes, and we had nice lodgers, and a nice house, and we had money +enough for what we wanted, but father costs such a lot, and takes +nearly all the money mother gets, and he won't give her any of it. +He won't work himself, either. All the nice lodgers left because he +made such rows in the house, and was always quarrelling; there's only +one of them left, that's Miss Patch. She has the attic right at the +top of the house. She went up there because it is quieter." + +He talked on eagerly in his old-fashioned way, his face flushing with +weakness and excitement. It was such a rare treat to him to have any +one to talk to, particularly any one of his own age--a sympathetic +listener, too. + +"Do you know Miss Patch yet?" + +"No," said Jessie. "I only came last night very late. I've seen one +lodger, a young man. He came down in the kitchen to his breakfast." + +"Oh, Tom Salter! You'll like him--I do. I want my breakfast, don't +you?" + +"Yes," said Jessie, with a deep sigh. "I am _very_ hungry, but-- +but--your mother said we would wait till father was gone." +She hesitated over the term by which she should speak of her +stepmother. Charlie noticed it. + +"I wish you'd call her 'mother,'" he said gently; "it would make us +seem more like brother and sister, and I would love to have a sister. +I've wished so often that I'd got one, or had got somebody to talk +to, and read and play with me. Mother would like it, too. She isn't +really cross, you know. She is only tired and worried. You see, +she's got me to look after, and me and father to keep, and ever so +many lodgers. I am so glad you're come to help her. I do long to be +able to, and I can only give her extra trouble." He spoke with sad +earnestness far beyond his age. + +A ray of comfort entered Jessie's sad heart. She felt really drawn +towards her new stepbrother, and she loved to feel she was being +useful. + +"Yes, I'll help her," she said as brightly as she could for the +weariness which was creeping over her. "I have been, a little, +already. Can I help you? I'd love to try and make your room a +little bit tidier." + +"Does it look untidy?" asked Charlie, feeling somewhat taken aback. + +It looked more than untidy, but Jessie was too polite to say so, and +as she leaned against the bed she was planning in her mind what she +could do to make it nicer for him. + +"I wish I could get you some flowers," she said eagerly, "some out of +our garden. Oh, we had such lots there, such lovely ones, roses, and +violets, jessamine and lilac, and may--oh, all sorts. I had a garden +of my own, too. Oh, I'd love to take you to granny's, and let you +see it all!" + +Charlie was watching her and listening with intense interest. +"How sorry you must be to leave it all!" he remarked sympathetically. +"I'd love to lie in a garden with flowers, and the bees humming, and +no noise of rattling carts and milk-cans. Oh, Jessie!" but to his +dismay Jessie buried her face in her hands and burst into tears. + +"I can't stay here," she cried, "I can't, I can't! I _must_ go home. +I shall die if I don't go home to granp," and she sobbed and sobbed +until Charlie was quite frightened. + +"Jessie, don't--don't--don't cry like that. I'll ask mother to let +you go, if you want to so badly--but I wish you didn't," he sighed, +his own lips quivering. "I wish you would stay here. I want you +_so_ much, I am so lonely and dull, and--and I hoped you were come to +stay." + +Jessie's own tears were checked more quickly by the sight of his than +they would have been by any other means. She pulled herself together +as well as she could. "No--o, don't ask mother," she said in a +choked, thick voice, "it is no use, father would make me stay, and it +would only make him angry if we asked him, and I--I want to help you, +too," she added, quite truthfully. "I shan't mind so much by and by, +p'raps. Don't cry, Charlie. Turn round and listen, and I'll tell +you more stories. Then, after breakfast, I'll tidy your room." + +The violence of Charlie's sobs had quite frightened away and stopped +hers, and banished for a time her home-sickness. She put all her +thoughts into her coaxing of Charlie, and after a time he raised his +head and turned around and faced her, and while he lay back on his +pillows, very weary after his excitement, Jessie, the more weary of +the two, tried bravely to be cheerful, and to talk brightly, and so +Mrs. Lang found them when, a little later, she brought up Charlie's +breakfast on a tray. + +Mrs. Lang even smiled when she saw the two together, evidently on +such good terms, and the happy smile with which Charlie looked up at +her delighted her sad heart. He was the apple of her eye, the great +love of her life, the only thing in the world she cared for, and to +see him happy, to see his dull, cheerless days brightened, gave her +more pleasure than anything. She kissed her boy and looked quite +kindly at Jessie. + +"Your breakfast is ready in the oven," she said, "and I'm sure you +must be famished. I am. I thought I should never get the men +started off. Now, darling," to Charlie, "will you take your +breakfast?" She put down the tray and raised him on his pillow a +little. Jessie, accustomed now to invalids, beat up the pillow and +placed it behind him. + +"Is that right?" she asked. + +"Oh yes, that's lovely," said Charlie, with a sigh of pleasure. + +Mrs. Lang brought forward the tray. Jessie's eye fell on it with +dismay. Trained by Miss Barley in dainty neatness, and by her +grandmother in cleanness and care and thoughtfulness, the sight of it +shocked her. The black dingy tray was smeared and dirty, the slice +of bread rested on it, with no plate between, the knife and fork and +cup were dirty too, and all was put down anyhow. Charlie probably +was not accustomed to daintiness, but this was enough to check +whatever appetite an invalid might have. Jessie longed to take the +tray away, and set it according to her own notions, but she said +nothing, for instinct told her that her mother's feelings would be +hurt if she did, and that it would not be nice for a stranger to come +in and begin to alter things according to her own tastes. She made +up her mind, though, to try in small ways to make things nicer for +the invalid when she got the opportunity. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +MISS PATCH. + +The opportunity Jessie yearned for came before long. One morning her +mother had, unexpectedly, to go out very soon after breakfast. + +"Jessie," she said, "I haven't been able to touch Charlie's room, +more than to make his bed; you must tidy it while I am out. I shan't +be very long, and there won't be anything more to do than just keep +in the fire in the kitchen." + +Jessie was delighted. As soon as her mother had gone she mounted to +Charlie's room laden with brush and dustpan, and a bit of rag for a +duster. Charlie looked up in astonishment when she came in, then +with delight; he loved to have Jessie doing things for him, she did +them so thoroughly and daintily. + +"I am going to brush down the cobwebs first," said Jessie, "at least +all that I can reach," she added thoughtfully, "so put your head +right down under the clothes. I wish I had a dust-sheet, but it +can't be helped, I must do without one. Now, steady! I am going to +move your bed out from the wall. One, two, three, and be off!" and +with a tug of her strong young arms she truckled the bed out into the +middle of the room. Charlie was enraptured. He found it impossible +to keep his head covered, dust or no dust. + +"How funny it looks, and how nice, everything seems different. +Jessie, don't you think my bed could stay out here?" + +"Well, no," said Jessie, "it would be too much in the way stuck right +out in the middle of the room, but I dare say mother wouldn't mind +your having it somewhere else for a change. We'll try it, and ask +her when she comes in," and Jessie quickly swept a clear space and +pushed the bed back against the wall. + +"Oh, that is nice!" said Charlie. "If I lie on my side a little I +can look out of the window and see the houses opposite, and I haven't +got the light shining right in on my eyes as I had before. It was +dreadful when my head was aching." + +"I thought it must be," said Jessie sympathetically, busily sweeping +all the time. There was a great deal to be done, and she was very +anxious to have it all looking nice by the time Mrs. Lang returned. +She ran down with the bits of carpet and beat them, then she dusted +the mantelpiece and the furniture, and arranged everything in the +room to what, she thought, was the best advantage. She cleaned the +window, too, which was a great improvement to the look of the room. + +Charlie was delighted. "Oh, it is nice! It looks like a new room, I +feel as if I had gone away for a change. Everything seems different. +Jessie, do go and ask Miss Patch to come and see it, will you? +She'd love to." + +Jessie flew away, willingly enough, and up the stairs until she came +to the big attic at the very top of the house, which she knew was +Miss Patch's. She had not spoken to Miss Patch yet, but she had +heard a good deal about her from Charlie, who seemed very fond indeed +of her, and often bemoaned the fact that she lived at the very top of +the house now, for he very seldom saw her; she was lame and suffered +a good deal, and could not get up and down the steep stairs very +well, and he could not go up to her. + +As she approached the door Jessie heard a sound of a soft voice +singing, and paused a moment to listen, she could not bear to +interrupt. + + "I may not tell the reason, + 'Tis enough for thee to know + That I, the Master, am teaching, + And give this cup of woe." + +The singing ceased for a moment, and Jessie gently knocked at the +door. + +"Come in," said the same voice brightly; "open the door, please, and +come in." + +Jessie did as she was bid, and stepped into one of the neatest and +cleanest and oddest rooms she had ever seen in her life. +The furniture in it was scanty, but what there was was old-fashioned +and good, there was a bright rug on the floor, a few pictures on the +walls at each end, an old-fashioned wooden bed at one side, a dear +little round table before the fire, and a large arm-chair. The room +was a large attic which really stretched over the whole of the top of +the house, but though it was so large, there was really not very much +available space in it, for the sides sloped steeply. Miss Patch had +curtained off the sides, and out of the long narrow strip down the +middle had formed, in Jessie's opinion, one of the nicest rooms she +had ever seen. + +The owner of the room looked up at Jessie with a bright smile, a +smile which brightened still more when Jessie gave her message. + +"Please, Charlie wants to know if you will come down and see his +room. I have been tidying it a little, and I moved the bed, and he +is so delighted with it he wants you to see it." + +"I should like to, very much," said Miss Patch, "but I have +rheumatism in my knee to-day, and I can't get up and down stairs very +well. Perhaps, though," she added, with sudden thought, "you will +help me?" + +"Oh yes," said Jessie, advancing further into the room, "I would like +to if I can. What shall I do?" + +"I will ask you to let me lean on your shoulder a little, that is +all, dear. But will you wait just a moment while I finish preparing +the potatoes for my dinner?" + +"Oh yes. I will wait, and--and--I'd like to help you," said Jessie, +half eager, half shy. "Thank you, dear, but I've nearly done, and it +isn't worth while for you to wet your hands. Sit down instead and +talk to me. I heard that Mrs. Lang was having a little daughter to +help her, and I have been hoping I should see you--but I haven't even +heard your name yet!" + +"It is Jessie." + +"Oh, is it. I am very glad, for I had a dear little pupil once +called by that name, and I have been fond of it ever since. She was +really, though, christened 'Jessica.'" + +"I am only _called_ Jessie. I was christened Jessamine May," +explained Jessie seriously. "Grandfather has got a jessamine growing +all over the front of his house, and he has ever such beautiful red +may-trees in the garden. They were there when mother was a little +girl, and she loved them so dearly she called me after them, to keep +her in mind of home." + +"What a pretty name," said Miss Patch gently, "and what a beautiful +thought. You are a little bit of a sweet garden transplanted into +the midst of a dingy street to brighten us up, and bring beautiful +and fragrant things to our minds. Jessamine and may blossom," she +repeated softly; "oh, the picture it calls up, and the sweet +fragrance! I seem to see them and to smell them, even here! I am +ready now, little Jessamine May; shall we go to Charlie?" + +Jessie sprang to her feet. "I think yours is such a pretty room," +she said half timidly; and then her eye falling on a rose-bush in +Miss Patch's window, all her timidity vanished, and she sprang +towards it with a cry of mingled pleasure and pain. + +"Oh, you have a rose-bush, too!" she cried eagerly. "I had one at +granp's, and I loved it so." The quivering of her lips prevented her +saying more, and the tears in her eyes made the rose-bush look all +misty and dim. + +Miss Patch saw and understood, and it was a very loving hand she laid +on Jessie's shoulder. "I know, dear, I know how it feels--and you +cannot understand the why and the wherefore of it all now--but you +will some day--and in the meantime you are come to be a bit of sweet +garden in our midst, to cheer us as your rose cheered you--and we do +need some brightness here, little Jessamine May, I can assure you." +And, somehow, Jessie felt much of her overwhelming sorrow vanish at +the little old lady's words, and as she helped her down the stairs +she felt quite cheered and happy again. + +Charlie's delight more than repaid Miss Patch for the pain and effort +of going down to see him, and whilst they were all looking and +admiring, and agreeing what a wonderful improvement it was, and how +much more comfortable and spacious the room looked, and in every way +desirable, Mrs. Lang returned and came up-stairs to see how her boy +had got on in her absence. + +Jessie had been rather dreading this moment, for she could not help +feeling that she had been taking a great liberty, but Mrs. Lang was +too weary and anxious to make troubles of trifles, and anything that +pleased her darling was sure to please her too. + +So she expressed her approval of their doings and sat down on the +foot of Charlie's bed to hear all about it, and all the advantages, +and new charms and interests of having his bed in this position. + +Miss Patch sat on the ricketty chair and joined in occasionally, but +her quick sympathy was aroused by the weariness on Mrs. Lang's face. + +"You look tired out," she said kindly. + +"I feel so," said Mrs. Lang listlessly. "The wind is almost more +than any one can battle with, and the damp seems to get into one's +bones. I feel ready to drop--and, oh, I've such a lot to do!" + +"Mother," said Jessie eagerly, "shall I make you a cup of tea? +I know the kettle is boiling by this time. Don't you think it would +do you good?" + +Charlie's face lit up again. "Oh do, mother, do, and have it up +here, and Miss Patch have one, too, and Jessie, and me." + +"Well, I declare!" cried Mrs. Lang, quite taken aback. "What next! I +never heard of such a thing! I believe, though, that one would do me +good, and I know I'd enjoy it ever so much. Miss Patch would, too, I +believe!" + +Miss Patch smiled. "I'd enjoy one," she laughed, "if I had to get up +in the middle of the night for it." + +Without waiting for another word Jessie flew off to the kitchen. +This was her chance she felt to do things nicely, so, while the +kettle came to the boil, she polished the shabby tray and the +tea-cups and spoons. She had no pretty white cloth to lay on the +tray, unfortunately, but she had a sheet of white paper that she had +saved from a parcel, and she spread this on the tray, then arranged +on it the cups and saucers and milk-jug and sugar-basin. She made +the tea next and put out some biscuits on a plate. + +She could not carry all up at once, so she took the tray first, then +came back for the teapot and kettle. A second chair was got from +Mrs. Lang's bedroom, and then the sociable little meal was begun. + +It did not last long, but half-an-hour, at the longest. Yet it was +one of those bright little spots which linger long in the memory and +make one glad, though sometimes sad, to look back upon. + +"Well, I must get on, my work won't do itself, I guess," sighed Mrs. +Lang, at last reluctantly preparing to rise, but Charlie put out his +hand to detain her. + +"Don't go yet, mother, wait a minute, I want Miss Patch to sing. +Miss Patch, you will sing to us, just once, won't you?" he pleaded. +"That one you used to sing to me. Oh, do! please! please!" + +"But, my dear, my dinner is on cooking, and--and"--Miss Patch's +cheeks flushed a delicate pink, she was very shy--"I--I ain't +accustomed to singing, except to myself, and--well, I used to sing to +you sometimes when you were very little and didn't know what good +singing was." + +"It was lovely," said Charlie earnestly, "and nobody ever sings to me +now," he added wistfully. + +Miss Patch's tender heart was touched, and her shyness overcome. +"Very well, dear, I will," she agreed bravely, and it was really +brave of her, for to do so cost her a great effort. "Perhaps we +could choose a hymn we all know, and we could all join in. I am sure +we all know 'Safe in the arms of Jesus,' or 'There's a home for +little children.' You know them, don't you, Jessamine May?" + +"Yes," said Jessie, "granp and I used to sing them on Sunday +afternoons." + +But when they had begun "There's a home for little children," Miss +Patch was soon left to sing it through alone, for Charlie was too +exhausted, and after the first line or so Mrs. Lang could not get out +another word for the pain at her heart and the lump in her throat, +and taking Charlie in her arms she sat with bowed head looking down +at him. + +"Would it be better--for him," she thought heart-brokenly, "would not +that home be better than this--the only one she could give him--and +what was to become of him if he lost her?" But she forced the +thought away. "And what is to become of me--if I lose him?" she +asked herself fiercely--and found no answer. + +The last verse was reached, and she felt almost glad, the pain and +the pathos were more than she could bear. + +"Now, one more," pleaded Charlie's weak voice from the shelter of his +mother's arms, and Miss Patch in her thin, sweet voice sang to a +plaintive chanting air of her own the beautiful hymn written by Miss +M. Betham-Edwards-- + + "God make my life a little light + Within the world to glow; + A little flame that burneth bright + Wherever I may go." + + "God made my life a little flower, + That giveth joy to all, + Content to bloom in native bower + Although its place be small." + + "God make my life a little staff, + Whereon the weak may rest, + That so what health and strength I have + May serve my neighbours best." + +"It isn't a real tune," she explained shyly, when she had reached the +end. "I liked the words so much that I learnt them by heart, and +they ran in my head until I found myself singing them to any sort of +drone that would fit them." + +"I think it is all lovely," said Charlie; "don't you, Jessie?" + +"Oh, _lovely_," breathed Jessie softly. She was too deeply impressed +to be able to talk much. "God make my life a little flower," the +words repeated themselves again in her brain. "Miss Patch called me +a piece of sweet garden. I wonder--" But what Jessie wondered she +could not put into words. + +In a vague way, that she scarcely as yet understood, it had suddenly +come home to her that, perhaps, after all it was for some good +purpose that she had been called upon to bear all that she had to +bear. Without those sweet, happy years at Springbrook she could +never have come as a little piece of sweet garden to this sad corner +of the world. Perhaps God had something for her--even a little girl +like herself--to do for Him. And she would try her utmost, she +determined--yes, her utmost; to do her best in the new life she had +been called to, and to make others happier by her presence. + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +CHARLIE REACHES HOME. + +After that exciting morning, Jessie saw Miss Patch always once a day, +at least, for she never failed to go up to her room to ask her if she +could do any errands, or anything else for her, and very, very glad +Miss Patch was, many a time, to be saved the long drag down all the +stairs and up again, and the walk through the cold wet streets during +the bitter winter months. + +Being saved this much exertion, she was able to get down oftener to +see Charlie, and both he and Jessie loved these visits of hers. +More than once, too, when her husband was away, Mrs. Lang came for a +brief spell, and they had tea together again in Charlie's room. + +It was on one of the occasions when she was alone with Miss Patch +that Jessie told of her Sunday-school in the garden, or by the +fireside, with her grandfather. Her tears fell as she told of it, +and her deep grief broke out uncontrollably, but Miss Patch did not +try to check her story, she let her tell it all, thinking it would be +better for her. + +"And I've never been to Sunday-school, or to church since," she +sobbed. "Father won't let me." + +It was to Miss Patch, too, that she sobbed out the story of that +dreadful day, and her grief for her grandparents and their suspense. +"It would not be so bad," she moaned, "if father would Let me write +to them and tell them I am well and--and safe, and--and not so very +unhappy; and I wouldn't mind so much if I knew how they were, but +granny was ill, and I know granp would feel it dreadfully losing me +like that and never knowing what had become of me. They don't know +where I am, or if I am alive or dead, and--and it has nearly killed +them, I expect!" and her tears choked her. + +"Will not your father let you write?" asked Miss Patch in a husky +voice. The cruelty of it all made her kind heart ache with pain and +indignation. + +Jessie shook her pretty head mournfully. "No. He says it would +unsettle me, and they would be always worrying round, and he wants +peace and quietness--but, oh, Miss Patch, they loved me so, it must +have nearly broken their hearts! And--and I love them so, I feel +sometimes I can't bear it, I can't, I can't. I feel I _must_ run +away and find my way back to them. I am sure "--hopefully--" +I could." + +Miss Patch laid her thin hand very kindly on Jessie's bowed head. +"Don't ever do that, dear! Don't ever set yourself against God's +will. You are told in the Bible to obey your God and your earthly +father, and God must have sent you here for some good purpose, dear. +Perhaps to teach you something we cannot understand yet, perhaps to +bring help and happiness to--to others, to your mother, and dear +little Charlie there, and--and me. + + "God make my life a little staff, + Whereon the weak may rest, + That so what health and strength I have + May serve my neighbours best. + +"I think that is what God wants you for, little flower, to help us +and bring joy to us in this gloomy corner of the world; and, oh, my +dear, you have such chances here. And if you go on trusting and +hoping, little Jessamine, trying to hold the faith that never +faileth, all will come right. I know it will, I am sure." + +Jessie lifted a very eager face to her old friend. "Do you really +think so?" she asked anxiously. + +"I am sure of it, dear; quite sure." + +Silence fell on them both for a few moments, then Jessie looked up +with a face alight with eagerness. "Miss Patch, couldn't I have a +little Sunday-school for Charlie, just like granp had for me? +I couldn't teach him, but I could read to him, and learn hymns with +him, couldn't I? Don't you think it would be nice?" + +"I think it is a beautiful idea," agreed Miss Patch warmly. +Then, after a moment, she added, "How would you like it if I had the +school, and you both came to me? I could go down to Charlie's room, +as a rule, but I do believe that sometimes you might both come up to +me. If he were carried up very carefully and laid on my bed I feel +sure it would not hurt him, and I think the change of surroundings +might even do him good. What do you think of that plan?" and Miss +Patch looked nearly as eager as Jessie by the time she had finished +speaking. + +Jessie had sprung to her feet with excitement. "I think it is +perfectly lovely," she cried, "perfectly lovely! Shall we begin next +Sunday? Oh, do, please! and may I go down and tell Charlie? He will +be _so_ glad. Thank you ever and ever so much," and putting up her +hands she drew Miss Patch's thin face down to her own and kissed it +warmly. + +Charlie was as delighted as Jessie, and the prospect of going up to +Miss Patch's room for an hour or so filled him with joyful +excitement. Mrs. Lang was pleased, too. Anything that gave Charlie +pleasure was sure to give her pleasure, and she was thankful for any +means of teaching him and giving him new interests. + +No one told Harry Lang about it, for he took no interest in anything +they did, and they knew too well that his crooked temper would find +delight in putting a stop to any little scheme they made. Tom Salter +knew, though, for having met Mrs. Lang one day struggling up the +stairs with Charlie in her arms, wrapped in blankets, he insisted on +carrying him up for her, every time he went, after that, and when he +was asked to stay, he did stay, and listened to Miss Patch reading, +and joined in the hymns, and after the first time he came quite +often. + +Jessie was delighted, she liked Tom Salter, for though he spoke but +little, he had often done her a kindness, helping her carry a heavy +scuttle of coal up the stairs, or a pail of water; and many a time, +of a Saturday night, he cleaned several pairs of the lodgers' boots +for her in readiness for Sunday; and many other kindly acts he had +done, that meant much to the little over-burthened worker, for +Jessie's life was a hard one in those days. + +Miss Patch took care of her own room, and required no attention, but +there were two lodgers in the front rooms on each landing, and all +required meals cooked and carried to their rooms mornings and +evenings, their rooms swept and dusted, their boots cleaned, and a +hundred little attentions, and to Jessie it seemed as though she +spent most of her life on the stairs, on her way up or down, +generally carrying heavy trays or a load of some sort. + +Then there were the beds to help to make, windows to clean, rooms and +stairs to sweep, and numberless other duties. Fortunately, Jessie +liked housework, and Mrs. Dawson might well have been proud of her +pupil, could she have seen the difference that by degrees crept over +the look of the house, both inside and out, as time went on. + +The windows were kept bright now, and the sills whitened; the +doorsteps, which used to be so dirty and neglected, were now kept +swept and whitened, too; and the lodgers appreciated the change, and +said so more than once. + +So the days and weeks passed by, and the weeks became months, and +soon the months had become a whole year. Jessie could not believe it +when Charlie first drew her attention to the fact. A whole year! + +What could have become of poor granny and granp all this time! +She wondered if they ever wept and wept, and longed for her as she +did for them. Sometimes, when the wind howled, or some one played +sad music in the streets, she felt as though her heart would break +with its weight of sad longing. + +Fortunately for her, her days were too full and busy to allow of +constant repining; and at night she was too weary to lie awake long +grieving. Miss Patch had said, "Have faith and trust and all will +come right some day," and Jessie did try to have faith, and to trust +hopefully, though she worked hard and the fond poor, though her +father was neglectful and cruel, and her mother gloomy and reserved. + + "God make my life a little flower, + That giveth joy to all, + Content to bloom in native bower, + Although its place be small." + +She sang, and she did try hard to be content, and to do what she +could, and the result was that in many ways she was happy in spite of +all. + +She loved Miss Patch, and the lonely little old woman loved her, and +helped her over many a stony bit of road. Charlie loved her, and +clung to her, too, and her mother, she fancied, was fond of her in +her own quiet, cold way. At any rate, she never beat her, as her +father did, or scolded and bullied her. But soon after her second +year in London had begun a new trouble, and a very heavy one, came to +Jessie. Charlie, she was sure, was getting worse. + +He was growing thinner, and paler, and feebler, week by week. +The first time the truth dawned on her was one Sunday, when he said +languidly that he thought he would not go up to Miss Patch's room +that afternoon, he was too tired. + +Jessie was so astounded that for a second or so she could only stand +and stare at him. Then, with a sudden sharp fear at her heart, she +flew to his side. + +"Aren't you feeling very well?" she asked anxiously, and Charlie +shook his head, but with tears in his eyes, tears of weakness and +disappointment. + +"Shall I ask Miss Patch to come down here?" she asked presently, +longing to rouse and cheer him. But he only shook his head again. + +"No, thank you, it would be too much trouble for her, and--don't you +think it would be nice to stay quiet, just by ourselves, this +afternoon?" he asked. "Will you read to me, or tell me about +Springbrook?" + +"Of course I will, dear," she answered warmly; "but--but I had better +go up and tell Miss Patch, hadn't I, or she would think it unkind?" + +This, though, was not her only reason for going. She wanted to be +alone, away from him for a moment, to try and recover herself, and +face this new shock. + +"Miss Patch," she cried in a tone of agony, "I believe Charlie is +worse, he seems so quiet, and so tired, and--and--Oh, Miss Patch, +what shall I do! He _must_ get better, he must, he must." + +But the tears came into Miss Patch's eyes too, and she had little +comfort to offer. She had long had grave fears, and though she had +tried to put them aside, she had never quite succeeded. + +But Jessie had to control herself, for Charlie was waiting for her. +"When these fogs are gone, and the spring comes, and the sunshine," +she said, trying to pluck up hope, "he will be better, I am sure." + +"This weather certainly tries the strongest," said Miss Patch, with a +sigh. "We will hope for the best, dear. We all of us have our bad +days, don't we? Charlie may be much better to-morrow; we must try to +keep his spirits up, and make him as cheerful and happy as we can." +But Jessie, as she went down the stairs again, wondered how that +would be possible when she herself felt so far from being either. + +Christmas came and went, and the spring came, but without bringing to +Charlie the strength and health that Jessie prayed for so earnestly +for him. He never again went up to Miss Patch's room to +Sunday-school, so Miss Patch came down to him, and read or sang to +him, just as he wished. They had no lessons now, for he could not +bear even that slight strain, and, as Miss Patch said, with tears +trickling down her worn cheeks-- + +"What good is my teaching now? He will soon know more than any of +us. We can only help and strengthen him for the last hard steps of +his journey." And Tom Salter, to whom she spoke, said huskily-- + +"You'd be a help to anybody, miss; don't 'ee give way now, don't 'ee +give way," and all the time he was wiping the back of his hand across +his own wet eyes. "'Tisn't _his_ journey that'll be the hardest and +stormiest, I'm thinking," added Tom, "'tis those he'll leave behind. +Who is going to break it to his mother? She doesn't seem to see it +for herself--though how she can help it is past my understanding." + +Poor Miss Patch's hands shook, and her tears fell faster. "I can't, +I can't," she murmured, "but yet--I suppose I ought--there's nobody +else to do it." + +It was Charlie himself, though, who saved her that pain. "Mother," +he said one evening, when she came to get him ready for the night, +"would you be very unhappy if I went away from you?" + +"What do you mean?" she cried, in sudden fear. "You--you--" + +"Would you, mother?" he persisted. + +"Be unhappy! Why, I should break my heart--you are all I have to +care for, or live for, or--" + +He put his little wasted arm about her neck, and drew her frightened +face down to his. "Mother, when I go away you will know I am happy-- +but Jessie has gone away from her poor old granp and granny, and they +don't know--they think she is very unhappy and badly treated, and-- +and, mother, I want you to try and get father to let Jessie go back +to them again, they must be so dreadfully sad about her. I often +think about them--I can't help it--and it makes me feel so sad." +He was silent for a moment. "I wish I could see them," he added +dreamily, "that I could tell them how I love her, and how kind she +has been to me, and--and that she isn't so _very_ unhappy." + +Mrs. Lang had stood staring down at him speechless, stricken suddenly +numb and dumb with an awful overwhelming terror. + +"Charlie--you--you ain't feeling ill--worse--are you? What's the +matter, dear? Why do you talk so? What do you mean by 'when you go +away'?" Her lips could scarcely form the last words, for she knew as +well as he could tell her. It had come suddenly to her understanding +that he was going a long, long journey--and soon; the last journey, +from which there was no returning. + +With a heart-broken cry she fell on her knees by the bed. "You ain't +going, you shan't! Charlie, you shan't go away from me--you must +stay with me till I go too--" + +"You will come to me, mother, but I shall go first, and I'll tell God +all about how you have had to work, and how hard it has been for you, +and He will understand--" + +"You can't--you mustn't go! Oh, my dear, my dear, don't leave me." + +"Oh, mother, I am _so_ tired, and I--I think I want to go, but I want +you to come too. You will, won't you, mother?" and he tried again to +draw her face down to his. + +"I will try," she promised faintly, and then burst into a passion of +heart-broken sobs. + +A month later, when in the country the hedges were full of primroses +and violets, and pure little daisies, Charlie took the last steps of +his painful journey, and reached the "rest" for which he craved. + +It was on a Saturday that his brief journey through this life ended, +and on the Sunday those whom he had loved--his mother, and Jessie, +Miss Patch and Tom Salter--gathered in the little bare, quiet +bedroom, with him in the midst of them once more, but so silent now, +so very quiet and still. + +"I am sure he is with us in spirit, the darling," said Miss Patch +softly, as she looked at the worn little face, so peaceful now, and +free from the drawn lines of pain they had worn hitherto; and, while +they all knelt around his bed, she said a few simple prayers, such as +went straight to their sad hearts, and sowed the germs, at least, of +comfort there; and while they still knelt, thinking their own sad +thoughts, her sweet voice broke softly into song. + + "Sleep on, beloved, sleep and take thy rest. + Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour's breast, + We love thee well, but Jesus loves thee best-- + Good-night!" + +The others knelt, rapt, breathless, afraid to move lest they should +break the spell and the sweet singing, or lose one of the beautiful +words. Through the whole exquisite hymn she continued until the last +verse was reached-- + + "Until we meet again before His throne, + Clothed in the spotless robes He gives His own, + Until we know, even as we are known;-- + Good-night!" + +Voice and words died away together. Then one by one they rose and, +bending over him, kissed him fondly. + +"Good-night, little Charlie, 'good-night,' not 'good-bye.'" + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +TOO LATE. + +When Harry Lang was told that Charlie was dead, he looked shocked for +the moment, then, having remarked glibly that "it was all for the +best," and "at any rate he wouldn't suffer any more," he told Jessie +to make haste and get him some food, and became absorbed in making +his own plans for his own comfort. + +He hated trouble, and sadness, and discomfort of others' making, and +he made up his mind at once to go away out of it for a time, and not +return until the funeral, at any rate, was over. So at the end of +his meal he announced to Jessie that he had to go away for a week on +business. He wouldn't bother her mother by telling her about it now, +while she was worn out and trying to rest, but Jessie could tell her +by and by. + +What he should have done, of course, was to remain at home and +relieve his poor stricken wife of all the painful details that +necessarily followed the seeing about the little coffin, the grave, +and the funeral. But Harry Lang had trained people well for his own +purposes. No one ever expected assistance of any kind from him; so, +instead of missing him, most people felt his absence as only a great +relief. Mrs. Lang and Jessie did so now. + +At the end of ten days he came back again, expecting to find not only +the funeral a thing of the past, but all feelings of loss and sorrow +to be put away out of sight and memory. + +"You'll be able to take in another lodger now," he remarked abruptly +to his wife as he ate his supper on the night of his return. +"There's a friend of mine that'll be glad to take the room, and he'll +have his breakfast and supper here with me, just as Tom Salter does." + +Mrs. Lang did not speak until he had finished; then, without looking +at him, she answered curtly, "I am not taking any more lodgers." + +Her husband looked up in sudden rage and astonishment. He had never +heard his wife speak like that before, and it gave him quite a shock. + +"Not--not--" he gasped; "and whose house is this, I'd like to know; +and who, may I ask, is master here?" + +"The house belongs to the one that pays the rent. This house is +mine, and I am master here, and mistress too," she answered coldly +but firmly; "and if I did want another lodger, I shouldn't take a +friend of yours; I am going to keep my house respectable, as far as I +can--or give it up." + +Harry Lang's voice completely failed him, and he sat silently staring +at his wife in wide-eyed amazement. He had thought he had long ago +killed all the spirit in her, and here she was declaring her +independence in the calmest manner possible, and actually defying +him--and he could find nothing to say or do! Her tone to him, and +the opinion, it was only too evident, she held of him, hurt and +mortified him more than he had ever thought possible; for in his own +opinion he had always been a tremendously fine fellow, very superior +indeed to those poor creatures who went tamely to work, day after +day, and handed their money over to their wives; and he thought every +one else was of the same opinion. + +"I--I think trouble or something has turned your brain!" he stuttered +at last, "and you had better look sharp and get it right again, I can +tell you, or I'll know the reason why." + +"My brain is all right," said Mary Lang quietly; "trouble has turned +my heart, perhaps, and that isn't likely ever to get right again; but +I don't see that that can matter to you. You never cared for me or +my heart, or how I felt, or how anybody else felt, but yourself." + +"I care about Bert Snow coming here to lodge, and he's coming, too! +Do you hear? I told him he could, and I ain't going to be made to +look small--" + +"You won't look any smaller," said his wife reassuringly, and he +wondered stupidly exactly what she meant, or if she meant anything. +"You must tell your friend he cannot come here, I haven't got a room +for him. I am not going to have such as he in Charlie's room. +Jessie is to have it, and it's about time, I think, that your +daughter had a bed and a room fit for her to sleep in," she added +scathingly. + +Harry Lang did not care in the least whether Jessie had or had not a +bed, or if she slept on the doorstep; but he cared very much about +his friend, and he meant to have his own way. But though he stormed, +and bullied, and even struck his wife, he found her, for the first +time, as firm as adamant, and quite as indifferent to him. +His orders meant nothing to her, and the change in her impressed him +very much. + +So Jessie, for the first time since she left Springbrook, had a real +bedroom again, and a place she could call her own. She did not quite +like using it, but she felt that her mother wished it. Mrs. Lang +would have liked to keep the little room always sacred to the memory +of him who had spent most of his little life in it, but rather Jessie +should have it than that it should be desecrated by a betting, +drinking, gambling stranger, who would pollute it, she felt, by his +presence! + +So Jessie and her possessions were installed. It was not a long +business, for her belongings were very few. She had not had a penny +or a gift of any kind since she came to London, except a little book +of hymns that Miss Patch had given her, and one of Charlie's +favourite books which he had wished her to have. Her little stock of +clothing had never been added to since she came, until now, when her +stepmother seemed to find pleasure in providing her with a very +thorough outfit of mourning. + +Now that she had lost her boy, the one and only joy that was hers, +Mrs. Lang seemed to turn to Jessie with more real affection than she +had ever shown before. Jessie had loved her dead darling, and any +one who had loved him or been good to him had all the grateful +devotion of the poor mother's aching heart. + +Charlie's little room was re-papered and painted, his little bed was +put away, and another bought for Jessie, and on the floor was spread +a new rug. Jessie soon grew to take quite a pride in her little +room. She scrubbed the floor every week, and polished the window +until it put to shame most of the windows in the neighbourhood. +Miss Patch gave her a piece of pretty chintz to hang at the back of +her looking-glass, and Tom Salter actually brought her home one day a +china vase to stand on her mantelpiece. Jessie was proud and pleased +sure enough then! and, as time went on, and she grew to miss Charlie +less, she would have been quite happy if she might but have written +to her grandfather and grandmother, or could have had some tidings of +them. + +But month after month went by, and still the same suspense continued. +She did not even know if they were alive or dead. + +Lodgers came and went, some pleasant, some very much the reverse; +some kind, some exacting. Jessie worked early and late at school and +at home. The school did not count for much in her life, and she made +no real friends amongst the children. Her earlier delicate training +made her feel she was not one of them; their speech and manners +jarred on her, and having lived most of her life with grown-ups, she +had no knowledge of games, or play, nor any skill in either, and +their tastes did not interest her, nor hers interest them. She would +far rather sit with Miss Patch, and talk or read to her, or be read +to. Miss Patch was teaching her some different kinds of needlework, +and while Jessie worked her teacher would read to her; and those +readings in that peaceful room were Jessie's greatest delight. + +Then one day, when they least expected it, came an end to it all, and +all the ordinary everyday life they had lived together in that house +for months past was finished by a violent knocking at the front door. +At least that was the first sign they had of the change that was +impending! + +Such a knocking it was! it echoed through the house, and up and down +the street, making them both spring to their feet in dire alarm. +Miss Patch gave a sharp cry and her hand flew to her side. +Jessie's face blanched, and her eyes grew dark with fear. + +"Who can it be!" she gasped; "who--what--what can have happened?" +Mrs. Lang was out, gone to the cemetery, so there was no one to +answer the knock but Jessie herself, and realizing it she ran +trembling down the stairs. She had delayed only a moment, but before +she reached the foot of the stairs there came another knock, longer +and louder than the first. Jessie threw herself on the door and +flung it open. A man was standing on the step, evidently trying to +keep himself from making another assault on the door. He seemed +almost beside himself with excitement or fright, or something very +like both. + +"Where's your mother?" he demanded impatiently. + +"Out," said Jessie shortly, something in the man's manner increased +her alarm until she could scarcely utter a word. "She's--gone--to +the cemetery," she gasped in explanation. "I think--she'll be-- +home--soon." + +The day was already waning, and the sun going down. She looked out +anxiously, longing to see her mother come into sight. The man gave +an impatient click of his tongue. + +"What am I to do?" he demanded testily, gazing anxiously up and down +the street, but as he seemed to be addressing only the air, or +himself, Jessie did not feel obliged or able to make any suggestion. + +"Look here," he said, turning quickly round to her, "there has been +an accident, and--and I came to--to--break it to your mother. I know +her and your--your father. I lived here once, and--and I thought it +might be kind to break it to her before the police came for her." + +Jessie's heart almost stood still with fright. "The p'lice," she +gasped, "for mother!--oh, what has happened?" + +"There's been an accident to your father; there was a bit of a fight +in the train coming home from the races, and--and he got flung +against the door, and it opened--and he fell out." + +A low cry of horror broke from Jessie. Instinct told her that the +news was very serious. If her father had not been severely injured-- +or worse, the man would not have been so upset. + +"Is--is--" she gasped. + +"He is taken to the hospital," responded the man quickly, almost as +though he was anxious to check her next question. + +"Ah! there is mother!" cried Jessie in a tone of infinite relief, as +she saw her appear at the gate. Mrs. Lang looked very white and very +tired, and an expression of vague fear came into her eyes as they +fell on pale, trembling Jessie, and the stranger, also pale and +evidently greatly agitated. She lived always in a state of dread of +some disaster or disgrace, and instinct told her that one or the +other had come. + +The man went down the steps to meet her. Jessie stood waiting at the +door; she would have gone forward too, but that she was shaking so, +she felt she should never get down the steps. So she stood there +supporting herself by the door, and watched her mother's face, and +saw the shocked look that came over it. She could not hear all that +was said, but she caught fragments of sentences, "Come at once"-- +"alive when I left." "Searching him for his name and address, but I +knew Harry--and came along to prepare you. He's at St. Mary's." + +Mrs. Lang came up to the door to Jessie, holding out her basket and +umbrella for her to take. She dragged her limbs almost like a +paralyzed woman, and her eyes looked dazed. "I'll be back--as soon +as I can," she said; but her lips seemed stiff and scarcely able to +move. "You look after the house." She was turning away, when she +suddenly turned, and stooping, kissed Jessie for the first time in +her life; and Jessie, looking up, flung her arms around her +stepmother's neck and kissed her in return. This new trouble had +brought them very close. + +With tear-blinded eyes Jessie turned and groped her way back into the +house to face that hardest of all trials--suspense. Slowly, slowly +she dragged herself down to the kitchen to see to the fire, then up +the stairs to Miss Patch to tell her the news and wait. + +Before long, though, they both crept down to the kitchen, so as to be +at hand when needed; but Jessie could not keep still, the suspense +was hard to bear, and made her restless. She wandered aimlessly from +fire to window and back again. They talked a little, speculating as +to what was happening, and what they should hear, and Jessie lit the +lamps as soon as the dimness gave her the slightest excuse. A great +dread of troubles and changes, and they knew not what else, filled +them both. + +Fortunately the suspense did not last very long. Before two hours +had passed they heard footsteps coming up the path to the house. +Jessie knew them, and flew out to meet her mother. Miss Patch +stirred the fire into a cheerful blaze, then smiled to herself at the +uselessness of her own act. She longed to do so much, yet was able +to do so little. + +Mrs. Lang came in slowly, heavily; her face was white, her eyes were +red. + +"He is dead," she gasped, as she dropped heavily into a chair. +"He is dead!" and her voice grew high and shrill and quavering. + +"Poor soul, poor soul," sighed Miss Patch softly. "Did he suffer +much? I hope he was spared that." + +"He was never conscious, he--he--had no time to be sorry--to repent, +or try to be better. He was struck down in the midst of all his +wickedness and folly, with lying and cheating and bad language all +about him. His last feeling was passion--and so he died--and I feel +that I am as bad as any of them, I never tried to save him," and the +poor widow laid her head on her outstretched arms and sobbed +uncontrollably. + +Miss Patch laid her thin arm around the shaking shoulder. "You did. +My dear, you did. When first you knew him you were always trying." + +"And then I got tired and gave up, and never tried any more, and we +drifted further and further away--and now it is too late. He is +dead, dead in all his sinfulness!" + +Jessie crept away and up to her own little room. It was dark there +and peaceful; the street outside was unusually quiet, awed into +silence, for the time, by the tragedy in their midst--for the news +had spread like wildfire. + +The window was open, and up in the steely blue sky the moon was +sailing, large, peaceful, grand. Jessie knelt by the window and +gazed up at the sky and the moon, awed and wondering. She was dazed +and overcome by all that had happened. Then she buried her face in +her hands and prayed that her mother might be comforted. + +She tried to think of some good deeds her father had done; but, +alas, poor child, she could think of none, though it seemed +treacherous to his memory to try, and fail. + +Two days later Harry Lang was laid in his grave. Quite a crowd +attended his funeral, but only four "mourners," and the chief of +those four were the two he had wronged most, his widow and his child. +Tom Salter, who had shown himself kind and helpful and full of +thought in this terrible time, went to support the widow, and Miss +Patch, in spite of her lameness, and pain, and weakness, went too, as +a mark of respect to those that were left, and as a companion for +poor Jessie. + +Everything was done as nicely and carefully as though the dead man +had been the best of husbands and fathers; no outward mark of respect +was lacking; but, though none spoke it aloud, each one felt, as they +returned to the empty house, that there was none of that awful sense +of blankness, of loss, of heartrending silence, which usually fills +the house that death has visited, the feeling that something is gone +which can never, never return. There was, instead, almost a sense of +relief, a feeling of peace. They all tried not to feel it, and +nothing would have made them admit it, even to themselves; but it was +there--one of the most sad and awe-inspiring feelings of that +dreadful day. + +Tom Salter left them as soon as he had seen them home, and went up to +his room to change into his every-day clothes. His young, almost +boyish face was very grave and thoughtful. "God help me never to +live to leave such a feeling behind me," he thought to himself +solemnly. + +Life after this should have settled down into the usual groove again, +and so Jessie thought, with the difference that a great discomfort +and ever-present dread would be gone. Somehow, though, it did not. + +Mrs. Lang, looking ill, and worn to a shadow, seemed grave and +abstracted, and full of thoughts which she did not share with any +one. She was often absent, too, on business of which she did not +speak. At first Jessie noticed none of all this, she thought her +mother's manner was simply the result of the shock and the trouble +she had been through; then, by degrees, it came to her that things +were different, that there was something in the air that she could +not understand or explain, but she felt that changes were impending. + +Often when she looked up she found her mother gazing at her +wistfully, it seemed, and questioningly. More than once, too, she +drew Jessie on to talk of her old home and her grandparents, and of +her longing to see them again; and then one day her mother came to +her and asked her if she remembered her grandfather's address! + +Jessie knew then that her surmises were correct, and her heart beat +fast with wonderment and hopes and fears, and a thousand questions +poured through her brain. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +SPRINGBROOK AGAIN. + +Thomas Dawson was sitting in his chair in the garden enjoying the +warmth of the October sunshine. The weather was unusually warm for +the time of the year, and the little breeze which blew across the +garden was very acceptable. The long graceful tendrils of the +jessamine rose and fell like soft green waves above his head, a +little cloud of dust rose and skidded along the road, to the +annoyance of some lazy cows being driven home to the milking. + +But Thomas heeded none of these things, he sat with his head sunk on +his breast, his eyes staring gloomily before him, his thoughts far +away. He had aged ten years and more in the last two. A very slight +sound, though from within the house, roused him in an instant and +brought him to his feet. + +"I'm coming, mother, I'm coming," he called, and went indoors. +"I expect it's pretty nigh tea-time, isn't it?" he asked, with +affected cheerfulness; "the fire only wants a stir, and the kettle'll +boil in no time." + +Patience nodded and took up the poker. She was very slow of speech +in those days, but it was a grand relief to know that she could speak +at all, and break the silence which had held her for weeks and months +after the stroke of paralysis which had seized her on that dreadful +day when Harry Lang had stolen Jessie from them. + +Thomas, coming back from market that night, had found his wife +unconscious and helpless, and when at last she had recovered her +senses it was long before she could speak and explain something of +the terrible happenings of that afternoon; and even now, at the end +of two years, her speech was still thick and slow, and her limbs on +one side partially helpless. + +Thomas spread the cloth on the table, and placed the china on it for +her to arrange. The old man waited on his wife like a mother on her +child, and nothing could exceed his patient devotion. With her he +was always bright and cheery, and only his bowed back and snow-white +hair and altogether aged appearance told of his own consuming grief +and anxiety. + +He cut the bread and butter, and made the tea with all the deftness +of a woman. Patience watched him with the tears smarting behind her +lids. When he had filled their cups he sat down, facing the window, +and looking out along the garden to the little gate. They did not +talk much. Thomas's mind had gone back to that morning when he had +looked out and seen Daniel Magor at the gate with letters in his +hand--that wonderful letter which had so altered and beautified their +existence for a time, only to blight them both cruelly. + +"I believe it's Miss Grace I see coming in," he said presently, +rousing with a start. "She's at the gate, and--yes, she's +unfastening it. I'll go and meet her." + +On his way through the garden he saw a cat lazily basking on his best +wall-flower seedlings, and drove her away; the excitement of it +prevented his noticing the expression of Miss Grace's face, the +anxious, excited look in her eyes. + +"Good-evening, Mr. Dawson," she said, as she came close. "I was at +the post office getting my letters, and there was one lying there for +you, so I said I would bring it, as it was marked 'Urgent.' +It seemed wrong to leave it there until to-morrow, I thought it might +be important." + +She handed him the envelope, but she did not turn and go. "I think +I'll step in and speak to Mrs. Dawson for a moment or so," she said +quietly, "just while you look at your letter, then I'll go, that you +may talk it over with her." + +She felt that her little scheme was rather a clumsy one, but she had +a strong conviction that it might be well for her to be there just +then. "I will go inside," and she left him standing there in the +autumn sunlight staring at the letter he held in his trembling hands. +He turned it over several times before he would make up his mind to +open it. There was always a dread overshadowing him in those days of +what he might have to hear. + +Miss Grace had barely got through her first greetings, and declined +Patience's offer of a cup of tea "fresh-made," when the door was +flung open and Thomas almost fell in. In trouble he would have +remembered his wife's affliction, and have hedged her round with +every care, but joy was another thing. It was on joy that he had +built his hopes of restoring her to her former self--and here it was, +in his grasp! + +"Mother!--Jessie!--I've heard from her!! Mother, mother, do you +hear, there's news of her at last?" + +Miss Grace stepped nearer and stood by the poor old woman, laying a +firm hand on her shoulder, she could see how she was shaking. +"If it is good news, tell her quickly," she said anxiously. + +Thomas read the expression of Miss Grace's face, and recovered +himself at once. His care for Patience was always his first thought. + +"Good! My dear, yes, good as good can be. Better than I ever hoped +for. She is well, and she's coming back, to _us_, mother! do you +hear? She is coming back for good. It doesn't seem possible, it +doesn't seem as though it can be true, yet it says so on the letter. +Hark to it--in't it like the dear child herself speaking?" + +The terrified look which had come into Patience's face died away. +She could not speak, but she put out one shaking hand and thrust it +into that of her husband, and so they read the glad news. It was a +curious, excited, incoherent letter, but it told them all they wanted +to know, for the time, at any rate. + + "My Dearest Granp, + + "I have been longing to write all this time and tell you where I + am, but I could not, and now father is dead and Charlie, and + mother wants to go home to live with her father, and I am + coming home to you! Mother told me to write and ask if I may, + and I am very well and happy, but, oh, I am longing to see you + and granny. I nearly broke my heart at first, but I am coming + home again, and I am so happy, only I am sorry, too, to leave + here, and the lady who has been so kind to me. She is old and + feels very miserable at being left all alone. Good-bye, granp + and granny. I shall come as soon as ever I can when I hear + from you. Please write soon. Give my love to granny, I hope + she'll soon get better, + + "From your loving," + "Jessie Lang." + +It was well that Miss Grace stayed by the old couple, for they both +needed her by the time the letter was read. + +"She is well, and she must have met with kindness, or she would not +be sorry to leave," she said cheerfully. "Now, Mrs. Dawson, we shall +have her back with us almost at once, so it behoves us to set about +getting everything ready for her," she went on, in her sensible, +matter-of-fact way, for she felt that the best thing for both of them +was to keep them busy with preparations. + +Patience caught her spirit at once. "You must write to-night, +Thomas," she said eagerly, "you mustn't delay, for the child is +waiting for a word and she mustn't be disappointed, whatever happens. +I expect she's pretty nigh broken her heart many a time longing to +write to us, and--and--her father wouldn't let her. I can read +between the lines. I'm sure 'twas his doings--" + +"He is dead now," said Miss Grace softly, "so we will forgive him and +put away all hard thoughts of him, and maybe your little flower was +taken from you just to brighten a dark corner for the time, and bring +happiness to others--perhaps to learn some lesson that will help her +in the future." + +"Maybe," said Patience, but more gently; "my little blossom," she +added softly. "P'raps it was greedy to want to keep her to ourselves +always." + +Thomas had dropped into a chair by the door. "I've got to write, and +I can't," he said solemnly, looking up with a half comic, half +wistful look in his blue eyes. "My hands is shaking, and my wits is +shaking, and--and--but I must, of course, and I am going to Norton +to-night to post it, so as the child can get it in the morning." + +"No--excuse me--you are not," said Miss Grace, shaking her head at +him, laughing, but decisive. "I have my bicycle. I can go there and +back in next to no time. With shaking wits and hands you are not +fit! Besides, what would Mrs. Dawson do all the evening without you? +No, Mr. Dawson, you write the letter and I will do the rest." + +She put paper and pens and ink before him on a little table out in +the porch, and she and Patience kept very quiet so that they might +not interrupt him; but it was no good, he could not write, he really +was too much excited and overcome. So at last Miss Grace wrote a +little letter for him, one that brought satisfaction to both of them. +It expressed their amazement, their joy and excitement, and sent +their dearest love, and some little news of them. "Your granny is +stronger and more active than she has been for a long time," she +wrote, "and perhaps your coming will make her quite well and able to +get about again." She felt she ought to prepare Jessie for some of +the change she would see. + +"There, that is the business part, as you might call it," she said, +placing the letter in an envelope, "but I am sure she will worry if +there isn't a word from you, Mr. Dawson. Can you write just a tiny +message to slip in with mine?--just to say how glad you are." + +"Glad!" cried Thomas; "glad is a poor kind of word for what I feel!" +He had recovered a little, and was as gay as a schoolboy just getting +ready for the holidays. He pulled a piece of paper towards him, and +squaring his elbows, he wrote in large round hand: + + "Come home quick to granp, and I'll be there to meet you-- + same as before." + "Your loving grandfather," + "T. Dawson." + +"I haven't wrote a letter before for nigh 'pon twenty years, I +b'lieve," he gasped, mopping his brow and stretching his arms with +relief, "and now 'tisn't much of a one. I'm out of practice, but the +little maid'll understand," and he chuckled happily as he handed it +to Miss Grace. "Yes, she'll understand." + +Jessie did understand. When the two letters reached her she danced +about the house with glad excitement, then flew to Miss Patch to tell +her all about them, and about that first meeting with granp at +Springbrook station. + +Miss Patch listened and sympathized, and rejoiced, too, and in her +calm, sweet old face she showed none of the pain which was filling +her own poor heart. She was losing every one she cared for, not +finding them. All the little daily habits, and pleasures, and +friendlinesses, the trifles that made her life, were being taken from +her. In a few days more she would be a stranger among strangers, +with no one interested enough to care what became of her, and nothing +but her room and her flowers would remain the same. And even for how +long that much would be left her she could not know. + +She would have the same room still, for Mrs. Lang had handed over the +house and everything in it, including the lodgers, to some people who +wanted a small lodging-house of the kind; but who they were, or what +they would be like, was all unknown to Miss Patch. + +If, though, she did not show her own feelings then, Jessie found them +out a little later. Going unexpectedly up to Miss Patch's room to +present her with a geranium which had been one of her own particular +treasures, given her by Tom Salter, she found the poor old head bowed +on the table, and the poor thin body shaking with sobs. Jessie, in +great distress, dropped her geranium and ran to her. + +"What is it? What has happened?" she cried. "Oh, Miss Patch, do tell +me," and throwing her warm little arms about her old friend, she +began to sob, too. + +But Miss Patch's self-control had given way at last, and recover +herself she could not. Jessie tried to soothe and coax her, but +without effect, and she stood beside her at last hopeless, helpless. +Her brain was busy, though, and presently light came to her. + +"Miss Patch," she said softly, "is it because we are all going away-- +and you will be left here alone?" Her own voice quavered at the +thought. + +One of Miss Patch's arms crept round Jessie and drew her close in an +almost convulsive grasp. "Yes," she whispered in a choked voice, +"I can't--I can't face it--the loneliness it--it--" + +A sudden beautiful idea came to Jessie. "Don't stay!" she cried +impulsively, without a thought as to ways, or means, or any of the +other practical points, "come home with me, come to Springbrook," +she cried excitedly. "Oh, do, do, Miss Patch, do. I want you to see +granp and granny, and I want them to know you, and--and, oh, it's +_lovely_ there, and you wouldn't be lonely, you'd have me and granp +and granny; and--and it wouldn't cost more, I am sure," she added +practically, "it is ever such a cheap place to live in; and--and we +would find you a nice room, and, oh, the flowers you'd have--" +She had to stop at last from sheer want of breath. But by the time +she had done Miss Patch had checked her tears and raised her head, +and was staring at Jessie with wide, bright, half-frightened eyes, +her face flushed and excited. + +"I--it--oh no, it can't be; but--but, oh, how heavenly it sounds to a +lonely body like me!" she gasped. + +"But it _can_ be," cried eager Jessie. "I am sure it can, and it +would be lovelier even than it sounds." + +"But how could I manage?" gasped Miss Patch, looking dejected again. +"Think of my lameness--and there's my furniture." + +Jessie looked about her. "There isn't _very_ much of it," she said +thoughtfully. "I am sure it isn't enough to stop your coming." +And she was right, for, after all, there was but the old-fashioned +bed and chest of drawers, a chair or two and a couple of tables, and +a few boxes and other trifles. "Would you go if your things got +there without any trouble--I mean, without any more trouble than +changing houses would be? You see," she added wisely, "if you don't +like the new people who are coming, you may _have_ to change, after +all, and then you won't have any one to help you." + +The look of dread came back into poor Miss Patch's tired eyes. +So gloomy a prospect determined her. + +"You are right!" she gasped; "it would be terrible--yes. I'll go--I +do believe I will. Oh, my! it's a dreadfully big undertaking, but-- +but I'll go, yes, I will. I will make up my mind; and--and I won't +go back from it. I am terribly given to being a coward, Jessie." + +Her mind once made up Miss Patch did not swerve again, and from that +time her face grew brighter. And after all it was not such a very +big undertaking--not nearly as bad as she had feared, for everything +seemed to fall out for her in a perfectly marvellous way, and most of +her troubles were taken off her shoulders before she had been able to +realize them. + +A few letters passed between Jessie and Miss Grace, and then between +Mrs. Lang and Miss Grace, and then all seemed to come about so +smoothly and easily that Miss Patch scarcely realized all that was +being accomplished. Mrs. Lang insisted on paying the charges for the +furniture being carried to Springbrook. Tom Salter saw to the +packing of them all and sending them off by train; and then, oddly +enough, Miss Grace Barley found that she had business in London, and +would be returning to Springbrook on the very day Jessie and Miss +Patch were expected there, and would travel down with them. + +So, on the morning of that day, a cab drove up to the dingy house in +Fort Street, and Miss Patch, and her eight parcels, and her rosebush +was conveyed to the station in state and comfort, and between Jessie +and Miss Grace and Tom she was taken to the railway carriage and +comfortably ensconced in a corner without any bother as to luggage or +ticket-taking or anything. + +In fact, she was so excited and bewildered that she quite forgot all +about everything. "Well!" she exclaimed, as the train moved off into +the strange new country, "I never knew before how delightful and easy +travelling could be! It makes me smile now to think how I shrank +from it, and the fuss I made!" + +Jessie, who was still weeping silently after the parting with her +mother and Tom Salter, looked up and smiled sympathetically. +The bustle and responsibility of taking care of Miss Patch had helped +them all through the last sad leave-takings, but when that strain was +over, and they were comfortably settled, and Tom came up to say his +last shy good-bye, the realization rushed over her that she should +never see the dingy grey house again, nor her stepmother, nor Tom-- +good, kind, faithful Tom--and it was with tears running down her face +that she threw her arms round the good fellow's neck, and kissed him +as though he were her own kind big brother. Then, subsiding into her +corner sobbing, she left London in grief nearly as great as when she +had arrived there two years before. + +For a long time her thoughts lingered about the home and the life she +was leaving, her mother, Charlie, her father, the house, the lodgers, +the dingy street, the noise and bustle. How real it all seemed, yet +already how far away! Could she ever have been in the midst of it +with no thought of ever knowing anything else! How strange life was, +and how wonderful! How one short month had changed everything! +Here she was, her dream and her longing realized, going home again to +Springbrook, to the old happy life, the same friends, the same +everything--yet, no, not quite the same, never quite the same, +perhaps. She herself was changed, and--she looked at Miss Patch. +Their eyes met in a happy, affectionate smile. "No, things were not +quite the same, they were better, if anything. She had more now, +more in every way." + +The train tore on, and the day wore on. The hedges were growing bare +now, and the leaves on them were turning red and yellow and brown; +but the autumn sun shone, and there were space and air and sunshine +all about them. Oh, what a change after the close, narrow streets, +the gloom and dinginess, the want of space! Jessie's spirits began +to rise. How could she be unhappy in this beautiful world, with home +before her, and granp and granny waiting for her, and the cottage, +and her own dear little bedroom. "Will my rose be alive, do you +think, Miss Grace?" she asked eagerly. + +"Yes, dear, your grandfather has cared for it as though it were his +most treasured possession, and your little garden, too. He has kept +everything as though you might return at any moment, and all must be +in readiness. It has been a cruelly long parting for them, and it +has told on them," she added. "You must be prepared to find them +altered. But," she added more cheerfully, "it rests with you to make +them young and happy again, Jessie." + +"I will do my very, very best," said Jessie earnestly. "Oh!" she +sighed, "how slowly the train goes, aren't we nearly there, Miss +Grace?" + +"Only a few moments now, dear. This is Crossley, the next station to +ours. Don't you recognize any landmarks yet?" + +Jessie sprang to the window and remained there, fascinated, +enchanted, drinking it all in, trying to realize that all was not a +happy dream, but glorious reality. She recognized it all now, and +every yard made it more familiar. + +The train gave a warning whistle. "Here we are! here we are!" she +screamed in a perfect ecstasy of joy. "Oh, Miss Grace, there is the +road, and--and here is the platform, and--and I do believe I see +granp!" + +She drew in her head and shrank back into her corner. "Miss Grace," +she pleaded excitedly, "when we stop will you and Miss Patch get out +and walk away as if I wasn't here and you had forgotten all about me, +and then granp will come to look for me--like he did the first time, +will you?" + +Her eagerness was so great Miss Grace could not refuse her. +"Very well, dear, but"--laughingly--"I must leave all the parcels, +too. I can't manage them as well." + +"Oh, no, we will bring those. Now," as the train drew up, "please +get out!" + +She drew forward the curtain and hid behind it. Miss Barley and Miss +Patch clambered out and walked away. Half-way down the platform they +met Mr. Dawson, he was pale and trembling, but his blue eyes, bright +with eagerness, looked for one face and figure only, and saw no +other; Miss Patch and Miss Barley passed him quite unobserved; Miss +Grace smiled to herself, and they turned to watch. + +Along the platform he went, peering eagerly into every carriage. +Jessie, in her corner, breathless with excitement, thought he would +never come. The time seemed so long, so very long, she began to fear +that the train would move on and carry her with it. In her +excitement she thrust back the curtain, and leaned forward--and the +next minute she was in his arms! + +"Not asleep this time, granp!" she cried excitedly, "not asleep this +time! Oh, granp! granp!" and she hugged and kissed him again and +again. + +The guard came in at last, to warn them that the train was about to +move, and then there was a hasty gathering up of Miss Patch's eight +parcels and her rose, and Jessie's three parcels and her geranium, +and at last they all stood together on Springbrook platform, with the +sun shining on them, the breeze blowing, the birds singing--and +granny at home waiting to welcome them to the new happy life which +lay before them. + +Miss Grace led Miss Patch out, and they got into a carriage which had +been sent from Norton for the purpose, but Jessie and her grandfather +begged to walk back, as on that first occasion. He did not carry her +now, though he leaned on her instead, and seemed glad of the support. +He leaned heavily, too, she noticed, and she realized vaguely that +there was one more change than she had thought of. In the past she +had leaned all her weight on him, now it was he who would lean on +her; and she hoped, with all the strength of her warm little heart, +that she might be able to prove herself a real prop and staff to him +and the dear granny who loved her so. + + "God make my life a little staff, + Whereon the weak may rest." + +She repeated to herself. + +"Here's granny," said granp joyfully, as they reached the garden +gate. Run on to her, child! and--and remember--one arm is helpless +still. You must be her right arm now, Jessie." + +"I will," said Jessie eagerly, and the next moment was at her +granny's side. + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Story of Jessie, by Mabel Quiller-Couch + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF JESSIE *** + +***** This file should be named 16268.txt or 16268.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/2/6/16268/ + +Produced by Lionel Sear + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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