John Harvey was a skeptic of thirty years standing and apparently hardened in his unbelief. Everybody had given him up as hopeless. Reasoning ever so calmly made no impression on the rocky soil of his heart. Alas! it was sad, very sad!
But one friend had never given him up. When spoken to about him-- "I will talk with and pray for that man until I die," he said; "and I will have faith that he may yet come out of darkness into the marvelous light."
And thus whenever he met him (John Harvey was always ready for a "talk,") Mr. Hawkins pressed home the truth. In answer, on that stormy night, he said: "G.o.d can change a skeptic, John. He has more power over your heart than you, and I mean still to pray for you."
"Oh, I have no objections, none in the world--seeing is believing, you know. I"m ready for any miracle; but I tell you it would take nothing short of a miracle to convince me. Let"s change the subject. I"m hungry and it"s too far to go up town to supper on this stormy night. Here"s a restaurant: let us stop here."
How warm and pleasant it looked in the long, brilliant dining saloon!
The two merchants had eaten, and were just on the point of rising when a strain of soft music came through the open door--a child"s sweet voice.
""Pon my word, that is pretty," said John Harvey; "what purity in those tones!"
"Out of here, you little baggage!" cried a hoa.r.s.e voice, and one of the waiters pointed angrily to the door.
"Let her come in," said John Harvey.
"We don"t allow them in this place, sir," said the waiter, "but she can go into the reading-room."
"Well, let her go somewhere. I want to hear her," responded the gentleman.
All this time the two had seen the shadow of something hovering backwards and forwards on the edge of the door; now they followed a slight little figure, wrapped in a patched cloak, patched hood, and leaving the mark of wet feet as she walked. Curious to see her face--she was very small--John Harvey lured her to the farthest part of the great room where there were but few gentlemen, and then motioned her to sing. The little one looked timidly up. Her cheek was of olive darkness, but a flush rested there, and out of the thinnest face, under the arch of broad temples, deepened by ma.s.ses of the blackest hair looked two eyes whose softness and tender pleading would have touched the hardest heart.
"That little thing is sick, I believe," said John Harvey, compa.s.sionately.
"What do you sing, child?" he added.
"I sing Italian or a little English."
John Harvey looked at her shoes. "Why," he exclaimed, and his lips quivered, "her feet are wet to her ankles; she will catch her death of cold."
By this time the child had begun to sing, pushing back her hood, and folding before her her little thin fingers. Her voice was wonderful; and simple and common as were both air and words, the pathos of the tones drew together several of the merchants in the reading-room. The little song commenced thus:
"There is a happy land, Far, far away."
Never could the voice, the manner, of that child be forgotten. There almost seemed a halo around her head; and when she had finished, her great speaking eyes turned toward John Harvey.
"Look here, child; where did you learn that song?" he asked.
"At the Sunday School, Sir."
"And you don"t suppose there is a happy land?"
"I know there is; I"m going to sing there," she said, so quickly, so decidedly that the men looked at each other.
"Going to sing there?"
"Yes, sir. Mother said so. She used to sing to me until she was very sick. Then she said she wasn"t going to sing any more on earth, but up in heaven."
"Well--and what then?"
"And then she died, sir," said the child; tears br.i.m.m.i.n.g down the dark cheek now ominously flushed scarlet.
John Harvey was silent for a few moments.
Presently he said: "Well, if she died, my little girl, you may live, you know."
"Oh, no, sir! no, sir! I"d rather go there; and be with mother. Sometimes I have a dreadful pain in my side and cough as she did. There won"t be any pain up there, sir; it"s a beautiful world!"
"How do you know?" faltered on the lips of the skeptic.
"My mother told me so, sir."
Words how impressive! manner how child-like, and yet so wise!
John Harvey had had a praying mother. His chest labored for a moment-- the sobs that struggled for utterance could be heard even in their depths--and still those large, soft, l.u.s.trous eyes, like magnets impelled his glance toward them.
"Child you must have a pair of shoes." John Harvey"s voice was husky.
Hands were thrust in pockets, purses pulled out, and the astonished child held in her little palm more money than she had ever seen before.
"Her father is a poor, consumptive organ-grinder," whispered one. "I suppose he"s too sick to be out tonight."
Along the soggy street went the child, under the protection of John Harvey, but not with shoes that drank the water at every step. Warmth and comfort were hers now. Down in the deep den-like lanes of the city walked the man, a little cold hand in his. At an open door they stopped; up broken, creaking stairs they climbed. Another doorway was opened, and a wheezing voice called out of the dim arch, "Carletta!"
"O Father! Father! see what I have brought you! Look at me! Look at me"
and down went the silver, and venting her joy, the poor child fell; crying and laughing together, into the old man"s arms.
Was he a man?
A face dark and hollow, all overgrown with hair black as night and uncombed--a pair of wild eyes--a body bent nearly double--hands like claws.
"Did he give you all this, my child?"
"They all did, Father; now you shall have soup and oranges."
"Thank you, sir--I"m sick, you see--all gone, sir!--had to send the poor child out, or we"d starve. G.o.d bless you, sir! I wish I was well enough to play you a tune," and he looked wistfully towards the corner where stood the old organ, baize-covered, the baize in tatters.
One month after that the two men met again as if by agreement, and walked slowly down town. Treading innumerable pa.s.sages they came to the gloomy building where lived Carletta"s father.
No--not _lived there_, for as they paused a moment out came two or three men bearing a pine coffin. In the coffin slept the old organ-grinder.
"It was very sudden, sir," said a woman, who recognized his benefactor.
"Yesterday the little girl was took sick and it seemed as if he drooped right away. He died at six last night."
The two men went silently up stairs. The room was empty of everything save a bed, a chair and a nurse provided by John Harvey. The child lay there, not white, but pale as marble, with a strange polish on her brow.
"Well my little one, are you better?"