"The little ones are crying out for it, Mamie, and I"m sure the rest of us are hungry enough."
So they bestirred themselves to take up the broth, and take seats round the table. All but Mamie, who did not leave her pillow. Very watery broth, the carrots and turnips swimming in it.
"Say grace, Andy," cried his grandmother.
For they kept up proper manners at Lee"s, in spite of the short commons.
"For what we are going to receive," began Andy: and then he pulled himself up, and looked round.
Bursting in at the door, a laugh upon his face and a white basin in his hands, came Mr. Ben Rymer. The basin was three parts filled with delicious slices of hot roast beef and gravy.
"I thought you might like to eat a bit, as it"s Christmas Day," said Ben. "And here"s an orange or two for you youngsters."
Pulling the oranges out of his pocket, and not waiting to be thanked, Ben went off again. But he did not tell them what he was laughing at, or the trick he had played his mother--in slicing away at the round of beef, and rifling the dish of oranges, while her back was turned, looking after the servant"s doings in the kitchen, and the turning-out of the pudding. For Mrs. Rymer followed Timberdale in taking an exaggerated view of Lee"s sins, and declined to help him.
Their faces had hardly done glowing with the unusual luxury of the beef, when I dropped in. We had gone that day to church at Timberdale; after the service, the Squire left the others to walk on, and, taking me with him, called at the Rectory to tackle Herbert Tanerton again. The parson did not hold out. How could he, with those bells, enjoining goodwill, ringing in his ears?--the bells of his own church. But he had meant to come round of his own accord.
"I"ll see Salmon about it to-morrow," said he. "I did say just a word to him yesterday. As you go home, Johnny may look in at Lee"s and tell him so."
"And Johnny, if you don"t mind carrying it, I"ll send a drop of beef-tea to Mamie," whispered Grace. "I"ve not dared to do it before."
So, when it was getting towards dusk, for the Squire stayed, talking of this and that, there I was, with the bottle of beef-tea, telling Lee the good news that his place would be restored to him with the new year, and hearing about Ben Rymer"s basin of meat. The tears rolled down old Lee"s haggard cheeks.
"And I had been fearing that G.o.d had abandoned me!" he cried, full of remorse for the doubt. "Mamie, perhaps you can struggle on a bit longer now."
But the greatest event of all was to come. Whilst I stood there, somebody opened the door, and looked in. A tall, fine, handsome soldier: and I did not at the moment notice that he had a wooden leg from the knee downwards. Ben"s basin of beef had been a surprise, but it was nothing to this. Taking a glance round the room, it rested on Mamie, and he went up to her, the smile on his open face changing to concern.
"My dear la.s.sie, what"s amiss?"
"James!" she faintly screamed; "it"s James!" and burst into a fit of sobs on his breast. And next the company was augmented by Salmon and Ben Rymer, who had seen James West go by, and came after him to know what it meant, and to blow him up for his delinquencies.
"Mamie not married!" laughed James. "Timberdale has been saying that?
Why, what extraordinary people you must be! We were married at Bristol--and I"ve got the certificate in my knapsack at Spicer"s: I"ve always kept it. You can paste it up on the church-door if you like. Not married! Would Mamie else have gone with me, do you suppose? Or should I have taken her?"
"But," said poor Lee, thinking that heaven must have opened right over his head that afternoon to shower down gifts, "why did you not marry her here openly?"
"Because I could not get leave to marry openly. We soldiers cannot marry at will, you know, Mr. Lee. I ought not to have done it, that"s a fact; but I did not care to leave Mamie, I liked her too well; and I was punished afterwards by not being allowed to take her to India."
"You never wrote, James," whispered Mamie.
"Yes, I did, dear; I wrote twice to Ireland, not knowing you had left it. That was at first, just after we landed. Soon we had a skirmish with the natives out there, and I got shot in the leg and otherwise wounded; and for a long time I lay between life and death, only partly conscious; and now I am discharged with a pension and a wooden leg."
"Then you can"t go for a soldier again!" cried Salmon.
"Not I. I shall settle at Timberdale, I think, if I can meet with a pretty little place to suit me. I found my poor mother dead when I came home, and what was hers is now mine. And it will be a comfortable living for us, Mamie, of itself: besides a few spare hundred pounds to the good, some of which you shall be heartily welcome to, Mr. Lee, for you look as if you wanted it. And the first thing I shall do, Mamie, my dear, will be to nurse you back to health. Bless my heart! Not married!
I wish I had the handling of him that first set that idea afloat!"
"You"ll get well now, Mamie," I whispered to her. For she was looking better already.
"Oh, Master Johnny, perhaps I shall! How good G.o.d is to us! And, James--James, this is the little one. I named her after you: Jemima."
"Peace on earth, and goodwill to men!" cried old Lee, in his thankfulness. "The bells said it to-day."
And as I made off at last to catch up the Squire, the little Mima was being smothered with kisses in her father"s arms.
"Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!"
To every one of us, my friends, do the Christmas bells say it, as Christmas Day comes round.
THE END.