"Yes "m," said Flyaway, doubtfully; "Y--es--um."
"She doesn"t remember anything about it, I guess," said Prudy, kneeling before the little one, and kissing the sweet place in her neck.
"Yes, I do," said Flyaway, winking hard and breathing quick in the effort to recall the very dim and very distant past; "yes, I "member."
"Well, what do you "member?"
"O, once I was grindin" coffee out there in a yellow chair, and somebody she came and put me in the sink."
"She does know--doesn"t she?" said Dotty. "That was Ruthie; come out in the kitchen and see her."
But when Flyaway first looked into Ruth"s smiling face, with its black eyes and sharp nose, she could not remember that she had ever seen it before. Abner, too, was strange to her.
"Come here," said he, "and I can tell in a minute if you are a good little girl."
Flyaway cast down her soft eyes, and sidled along to Abner.
"Here, touch this watch," said he, "and if you are a good little girl it will fly open; if you are naughty it will stay shut."
Flyaway looked askance at Abner, her finger in her mouth, but dared not touch the watch.
"Who"d "a thought it, now?" said Abner, pretending to be shocked.
"Looks to be a nice child; but of course she isn"t, or she"d come right up and open the watch."
Flyaway thrust another finger in her mouth, and pressed her eyelids slowly together. Abner did not understand this, but it meant that he had not treated her with proper respect.
"Here, Ruth," said he, in a low tone, "hand me one of your plum tarts; that"ll fetch her.--Come here, my pretty one, and see what"s inside of this little pie."
Flyaway was very hungry. She took a step forward, and held her hand out, though rather timidly.
"But she mustn"t eat it without asking her mamma," said Ruth.
"Yes; O, yes," cried Miss Flyaway, opening her little mouth for the first time, and shutting it again over a big bite of tart; "I want to eat it and _s"prise_ my mamma."
Abner laughed in his hearty fashion. "Some of the old mischief left there yet," said he, catching Flyaway and tossing her to the ceiling.
"Have you come here this summer to keep the whole house in commotion?
Remember the Charlie boy--don"t you--that had the meal-bags tied to his feet?"
"Did he? What for?"
Flyaway had not the least recollection of Charlie; but Horace had talked to her about him, and she said, after a moment"s thought,--
"Yes, he washed the pig. Me and Charlie, we played all everything what we thinked about."
"So you did, surely," said a woman who had just come in at the back door, and begun to drop kisses, as sad as tears, on Flyaway"s forehead. "Do you know who this is?" Flyaway looked up with a sweet smile, but her mind had lost all impression of her melancholy friend, Miss Whiting. "Look again," said the sad-eyed stranger, who did not like to have even a little child forget her; "you used to call me the "Polly woman.""
Katie looked again, and this time very closely.
"There"s a great deal o" yellowness in your face," exclaimed she, after a careful survey; "but you was made so!"
Miss Polly laughed drearily. "So you don"t remember how I took you out of the watering-trough, you sweet lamb! "I"s tryin" to swim," you said; "and _that"s_ what is it." Here"s a summer-sweeting for you, dear; do you like them?"
"Yes"m, thank you," said Flyaway, "but I like summer-_sourings_ the best."
At the same time she allowed herself to be taken in Miss Polly"s lap, and won that tender-hearted woman"s love by putting her arms round her neck, and saying, "Let me kiss you so you"ll feel all better. What makes you have tears in your eyes?--tell me."
"We"re good friends--I knew we should be," said Miss Polly, quite cheerily. "Look out of the window, and see that swing. How many times I"ve pushed you and Dotty in that swing when it seemed as if it would break my back!"
Flyaway looked out. There stood the two trees, and between them hung the old swing; but the charm was forgotten. In the field beyond, her eye fell on an object more interesting to her.
"O, O," said she, "I don"t see how G.o.d _could_ make a man so homebly as that!"
"So homely as what?"
"Why," laughed Dotty, "she means that scarecrow."
The corn was up long ago, but one direful image had still been left to flaunt in the sunlight and soak in the rain.
"That isn"t a man," said Prudy; "it"s only a great monstrous rag baby, with a coat on."
"Put there to frighten away the crows," added Miss Polly. "When Abner dropped corn in the ground, the great black crows wanted to come and pick it out, and eat it up."
Flyaway frowned in token of strong dislike to the crows. "I wouldn"t eat gampa"s corn for anything in this world," said she,--""thout it"s popped! "Cause I don"t like it."
Miss Polly laughed quite merrily.
"There," said she, "I"ve dropped a st.i.tch in my side; it never agrees with me to laugh. I must be going right home, too; but there is one thing more I want to ask you, Katie; do you remember how you ran away, one day, and frightened the whole house, trying to climb up to heaven?"
Katie"s face was blank; she had forgotten the journey.
"You pa.s.sed Jennie Vance and me in the Pines," said Dotty, "and went deep into the woods, and a bee stung you."
"O, now I "member," said Katie, suddenly. "I "member the bee as plain as "tever "twas!" And she curled her lip with contempt for that small Flyaway, of long ago--that silly baby who had thought heaven was on a hill.
"_I_ went up on a ladder when I was three years old," said Prudy.
"Did you?" said Flyaway. This was a consolation. "Well, I was three years old, too; I didn"t know "bout angels--didn"t know they had to have wings on."
Here Flyaway curled her lip again and smiled.
"You are wiser now," sighed Miss Polly. "You and I won"t try to go to heaven till our time comes--will we, dear?"
Katie took Miss Polly"s large, thin hand, and measured it beside her own tiny one.
"Miss Polly," said she, with one of her extremely wise looks, "when you go up to G.o.d you"ll be a very little girl!"
"Ah, indeed!" said Miss Polly, weaving the third pin into her shawl; "how do you make that out?"