They talked it over sometimes-this wonderful place they would like to find.
Morning always came too soon for Dilsey Quinn. Her mother wanted a cup of coffee, and ordered what Dil was to cook for the boys. It was a relief to see her go; but the babies began to come in at seven, and sometimes they were cross and cried after their mothers.
But on Sat.u.r.day there was a great change. Mrs. Quinn washed at home; Dilsey scrubbed the floors, ironed, was maid of all work, for there was not often any babies; Mrs. Quinn did not enjoy having them around.
This afternoon she was going to "Cunny Island" with a party of choice spirits. She felt she needed an outing once a week, and five days"
steady washing and ironing was surely enough. Dil helped her mother off with alacrity. This time she was unusually good-natured, and gave the children a penny all round.
Then Dil arrayed herself and Bess in their best. Dil was quite well off this summer; her mother often brought home clothes she could wear. But poor Bess had not been so fortunate. The little white cap was daintily done up, though Dil knew it would never stand another ironing. So with the dress, and the faded blue ribbon tied about her baby waist. They were scrupulously clean; one would have wondered how anything so neat could have come out of Barker"s Court.
It was a feat of ingenuity for Dil"s short arms to get the carriage down the narrow, winding stairs. Sometimes the boys would help, or Patsey would be there. Then she took the pillows and the faded rug, and when they were settled she carried down Bess. That was not a heavy burthen.
She arranged her in a wonderful manner, pulling out the soft golden curls that were like spun silk. Bess would have been lovely in health and prosperity. Her blue eyes had black pupils and dark outside rims.
Between was a light, translucent blue, changing like a sea wave blown about. The brows and lashes were dark. But the face had a wan, worn look, and the pleading baby mouth had lost its color, the features were sharpened.
One and another gave them good-day with a pleasant smile.
"It would be the Lord"s mercy if the poor thing could drop off quiet like," they said to each other. It was a mystery to them how she managed to live.
They went out of the slums into heaven almost; over to Madison Square.
Dil liked the broad out-look, the beautiful houses, the stores, the perspective of diverging streets, the throngs of people, the fountain, the flowers. There was an intangible influence for which her knowledge was too limited; but her inmost being felt, if it could not understand.
Occasionally, like poor Joe, she was ordered to move on, but one policeman never molested her. Something in the pathetic baby face recalled one he had held in his arms, and who had gone out of them to her little grave.
Dil found a shady place and a vacant seat. She drew the wagon up close, resting her feet on the wheel. The last of the wild roses had been taken along for an airing. Poor, shrunken little buds, lacking strength to come out fully, akin to the fingers that held them so tenderly. Bess laughed at Dil"s shrewd, amusing comments, and they were very happy.
Two or three long, delicious hours in this fresh, inspiriting air, with the blue sky over their heads, the patches of velvety gra.s.s, the waving trees, the elusive tints caught by the spray of the fountain, and the flowers, made a paradise for them. They drank in eagerly the divine draught that was to last them a week, perhaps longer.
A young fellow came sauntering along,-a tall, supple, jaunty-looking man, with a refined and kindly, rather than a handsome face. His hair was cropped close, there was a line of sunny brown moustache on his short upper lip, and his chin was broad and cleft. It gave him a mirthful expression, as if he might smile easily; but there was a shadow of firmness in the blue-gray eye, and now the lips were set resolutely.
He stopped and studied them. They were like a picture in their unconventional grace. He was quite in the habit of picking up odd, rustic ideas.
"Hillo!" coming nearer with a bright smile. "Where did you youngsters find wild roses? They seem not to have thriven on city air."
"_Are_ they _wild_ roses?" asked Dil. "What makes thim so?"
He laughed, a soft, alluring sound. Something in the quaint voice attracted him. It was too old, too intense, for a child.
"I don"t know, except that they _are_ wild around country places, and do not take kindly to civilization. Where I have been staying, there are hundreds of them. You can"t tell much about beauty by those withered-up buds."
"O mister, we had thim when they were lovely. On Chuesday it was-Patsey Muldoon brought thim to us. And they just seemed to make Bess all alive again with joy."
The pretty suggestion of brogue, the frankness, so far removed from any aspect of boldness, interested him curiously.
"And had Patsey Muldoon been in the country?" he asked with interest.
"Oh, no. He was up to Gran" Cent"l, an" a lady who come on the train had thim. Patsey said she was beautiful and elegant, an" she gev thim to him. An" Jim Casey tried to get "em, an" they had a scrimmage; but Patsey ain"t no chump! An" he brought thim down to Bess," nodding to the pale little wraith. "Patsey"s so good to us! An", oh, they was so lovely an" sweet, with leaves like beautiful pink satin, and eyes that looked at you like humans,-prittier than most humans. An" it was like a garden to us-a great bowlful. Wasn"t it, Bess?"
The child smiled, and raised her eyes in exaltation. Preternaturally bright they were, with the breathless look that betrays the ebbing sh.o.r.e of life, yet full of eager desire to remain. For there would have been no martyrdom equal to being separated from Dil.
"O mister!" she cried beseechingly, "couldn"t you tell us about them-how they live in their own homes? An" how they get that soft, satiny color?
Mammy brought us home a piece of ribbon once,-some one gev it to her,-an" Dil made a bow for my cap. Last summer, wasn"t it, Dil? An" the roses were just like that when we freshened them up. They was so lovely!"
He seated himself beside Dil. A curious impression came over him, and he was touched to the heart by the fondness and tender care of the roses.
Was there some strange link-
"Was it Tuesday afternoon, did you say?" hesitating, with a sudden rush at his heart. "And a tall, slim girl with light hair?"
Dil shook her head with vague uncertainty. "Patsey said she was a stunner! An" she went in a kerrige. She wasn"t no car folks."
He laughed softly at this idea of superiority. "Of course _you_ didn"t see her," he commented reflectively, with a pleasant nod. How absurd to catch at such a straw. No, he couldn"t fancy _her_ with a great bunch of wild roses in her slim hand, when she had so haughtily taken off his ring and dropped it at his feet.
"Oh, you wanted to know about wild roses when they were at home," coming out of his dream. What a dainty conceit it was! And he could see the pretty rose nook now; yes, it was a summer parlor. "Well, they grow about country ways. I"ve found them in the woods, by the streams, by the roadsides, sometimes in great clumps. And where I have been staying,-in the village of Chester,-a long distance from here, they grew in abundance. At the edge of a wood there was a rose thicket. The great, tall ones that meet over your head, and the low-growing bushy ones. Why, you could gather them by the hundreds! Have you ever been to the country?" he asked suddenly.
"We"ve been to Cent"l Park," answered Dil proudly.
"Well, that"s the country in its Sunday clothes, dressed up for a company reception. The real country lives in every-day clothes, and gets weedy and dusty, with roads full of ruts. But you can walk on the gra.s.s; it grows all along the roadsides. Then there are flowers,-or weeds in bloom; it amounts to the same thing,-and no one scolds if you pick them.
You can lie out under the trees, and the birds come and sing to you, and the squirrels run about. The air is sweet as if it rained cologne every night. Under-brush and wild blackberries reach out and shake hands with you; b.u.t.terflies go floating in the sunshine; crickets sit on the stones and chirp; bees go droning by, laden with honey; and a great robin will stop and wink at you."
The children"s faces were not only a study, but a revelation. John Travis thought he had never seen anything so wonderful. If a man could put such life in every feature, such exquisite bewilderment!
"What _is_ a robin?" asked Bess, her face all alight with eagerness.
"A great saucy bird with black eyes and a red breast. And there is a bobolink, who flies around announcing his own name, and a tiny bird that says, "Phebe, Phebe;" for in the country the birds can talk."
Both children sighed; their hearts were full to overflowing. What heavenly content!
"This particular spot," and John Travis"s eyes seemed to look way off and soften mysteriously, "is at the edge of a wood. The road runs so,"
marking it out on his trousers with his finger, "way up over a sloping hill, and this one goes down to a little stream. In this angle-"
Neither of them had the slightest idea of an angle, but it did not disturb their delight.
"In this angle there are some alders and stuff, and a curious little entrance to the rose thicket. Every kind seems in a riotous tangle. The low ones that begin to bloom in June, palest pink, rose-pink, and their dainty slim buds the most delicious color imaginable. There"s a small cleared s.p.a.ce; that"s the parlor, with a velvety green carpet. The bushes meet overhead, and shower their soft leaves down over you. Every day hundreds of them bloom. It looks like a fairy cave. And lying down on the gra.s.s you can look up to one patch of blue sky. And I think the roses must have souls that go up to heaven-they are so sweet."
He paused in his random talk, with his eyes fixed on Dil. The rapt expression of her face transfigured her. Any one could imagine Bess being beautiful under certain healthful conditions, but Dil gave no promise to the casual glance. John Travis discerned at that moment the gift and charm higher than mere beauty, born of the soul, and visible only when the soul is deeply moved.
Her hat was pushed a little back. There was a fringe of red-brown hair with a peculiar glint, softened by the summer heat into rings. A low, broad forehead, a straight line of bronze brown, shading off in a delicate curve and fineness at the temple. But her eyes were like the gems in brown quartz, that have a prisoned gleam of sunshine in them, visible only in certain lights. Ordinarily they were rather dull; at times full of obstinate repression. Now they were illuminated with the sunrise glow. A small Irish nose, that had an amusing fashion of wrinkling up, and over which went a tiny procession of freckles. A wide mouth, redeemed by a beautifully curved upper lip, and a rather square chin that destroyed the oval.
"Hillo!" as if coming out of a dream. "See here, I"d like to sketch you-would you mind?"
He had dreamed over a picture he was to paint of that enchanted spot, a picture of happy youth and love and hope, "In Wild-Rose Time." But the dream was dead, the inspiration ended. He could never paint _that_ picture, and yet so much of his best efforts had gone to the making of it! What if he arose from the ruin, and put this child in it, with her marvellous eyes, her ignorant, innocent trust, her ap.r.o.n full of wild roses, emerging from the shadowy hollow, and one branch caught in her hair, half crowning her.
For why should a man wreck his life on the shallows and quicksands of a woman"s love? Two days ago he had said he could not paint again in years, if ever, that all his genius had been the soft glamour of a woman"s smile. And here was a fresh inspiration.
Dil stared, yet the happy light did not go out of her face as she tried to grasp the mystery.
"Yes; would you mind my sketching you for a picture?"
There were not many people around. Sat.u.r.day afternoons they went off on excursions. A few drowsy old fellows of the better cla.s.s, two women resting and reading, waiting for some one perhaps, others sauntering.
"Oh, if you"d make a picture of Bess! She"s so much prittier, an" her hair"s like gold. Oh, do!" and Dil"s breath came with an entreating gasp, while her face was beseeching love.