CHAPTER VIII
Little Meg"s Red Frock in p.a.w.n
Meg felt very forlorn when she opened her heavy eyelids the next morning. It was certain now that her father could not be home for some time, it might be a long time; and how was she to buy bread for her children and herself? She took down her mother"s letter from the end of a shelf which supplied the place of a chimney-piece, and looked at it anxiously; but she dared not ask anybody to read it for her, lest it should contain some mention of the money hidden in the box; and that must be taken care of in every way, because it did not belong to her, or father even, but to one of his mates. She had no friend to go to in all the great city. Once she might have gone to the teacher at the school where she had learned to read a little; but that had been in quite a different part of London, on the other side of the river, and they had moved from it before her father had started on his last voyage. Meg sat thinking and pondering sadly enough, until suddenly, how she did not know, her fears were all taken away, and her childish heart lightened. She called Robin, and bade him kneel down beside her, and folding baby"s hands together, she closed her own eyes, and bowed her head, while she asked G.o.d for the help He had promised to give.
"Pray G.o.d," said little Meg, "You"ve let mother die, and father be took bad at the other side of the world, and there"s n.o.body to take care of us "cept You, and Jesus says, if we ask You, You"ll give us bread and everything we want, just like father and mother. Pray G.o.d, do! I"m not a grown-up person yet, and Robin"s a very little boy, and baby can"t talk or walk at all; but there"s n.o.body else to do anythink for us, and we"ll try as hard as we can to be good. Pray G.o.d, bless father at the other side of the world, and Robbie, and baby, and me; and bless everybody, for Jesus Christ"s sake. Amen."
Meg rose from her knees joyfully, feeling sure that her prayer was heard and would be answered. She went out with her children to lay out the shilling Kitty had returned to her the day before; and when they come in she and Robin sat down to a lesson in reading. The baby was making a pilgrimage of the room from chair to chair, and along the bedstead; but all of a sudden she balanced herself steadily upon her tiny feet, and with a scream of mingled dread and delight, which made Meg and Robin look up quickly, she tottered across the open floor to the place where they were sitting, and hid her face in Meg"s lap, quivering with joy and wonder. Meg"s gladness was full, except that there was a little feeling of sorrow that neither father nor mother was there to see it.
"Did G.o.d see baby walk?" inquired Robin.
"I should think He did!" said Meg confidently; and her slight sorrow fled away. G.o.d could not help loving baby, she felt sure of that, nor Robin; and if He loved them, would He not take care of them Himself, and show her how to take care of them, till father was at home? The day pa.s.sed almost as happily as Robin"s birthday; though the rain came down in torrents, and pattered through the roof, falling splash, splash into the broken tub, with a sound something like the fountain in Temple Gardens.
But when Kitty"s shilling was gone to the last farthing, and not a spoonful of meal remained in the bag, it was not easy to be happy.
Robin and baby were both crying for food; and there was no coal to make a fire, nor any candle to give them light during the long dark evenings of November. Kitty was out all day now, and did not get home till late, so Meg had not seen her since the night she had brought the news about her father. But a bright thought came to her, and she wondered at herself for not having thought of it before. She must p.a.w.n her best clothes; her red frock and bonnet with green ribbons. There was a natural pang at parting with them, even for a time; but she comforted herself with the idea that father would get them back for her as soon as he returned. She reached them out of the box, feeling carefully lest she should take any of Robin"s or the baby"s by mistake in the dark; and then she set off with her valuable bundle, wondering how many shillings she would get for them, and whether she could make the money last till her father came. The p.a.w.nbroker"s shop was a small, dingy place in Rosemary Lane; and it, and the rooms above it, were as full as they could be with bundles such as poor Meg carried under her old shawl. A single gas-light was flaring away in the window, and a hard-featured, sharp-eyed man was reading a newspaper behind the counter. Meg laid down her bundle timidly, and waited till he had finished reading his paragraph; after which he opened it, spread out the half-worn frock, and held up the bonnet on his fist, regarding them both with a critical and contemptuous eye. Some one else had entered the shop, but Meg was too absorbed and too anxious to take any heed of it The p.a.w.nbroker rolled the frock up scornfully, and gave it a push towards her.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The p.a.w.nbroker spread out the half-worn frock, and held up the bonnet on his fist.]
"Tenpence for the two," he said, looking back at his newspaper.
"Oh! if you please," cried little Meg, in an agony of distress, "you must give me more than tenpence. I"ve got two little children, and no bread, nor coals, nor candles. I couldn"t buy scarcely anythink with only tenpence. Indeed, indeed, my red frock"s worth a great deal more; it"s worth I don"t know how many shillings."
"You go home, little Meg," said Kitty"s voice behind her, "and I"ll bring you three shillings for the frock, and one for the bonnet; four for the two. Mr Sloman"s an old friend o" mine, he is; and he"ll oblige you for my sake. There, you run away, and I"ll manage this little bit o" business for you."
Meg ran away as she was told, glad enough to leave her business with Kitty. By-and-by she heard her coming upstairs, and went out to meet her. Kitty placed four shillings in her hand.
"Meg," she said, "you let me do that sort o" work for you always.
They"ll cheat you ever so; but I wouldn"t, not to save my life, if you"ll only trust me. You ask me another time. Is that the way G.o.d takes care of you?"
"He does take care of me," answered Meg, with a smile; "or may be you wouldn"t have come into the shop just now, and I should have got only tenpence. I suppose that"s taking care of me, isn"t it?"
"I don"t know," said Kitty. "Only let me do that for you when you want it done again."
It was not very long before it wanted to be done again; and then Meg by daylight went through the contents of the box, choosing out those things which could best be spared, but leaving Robin"s and baby"s fine clothes to the last. She clung to these with a strong desire to save them, lest it should happen that her father came home too poor to redeem them. The packet of money, tied up and sealed, fell at last to the bottom of the almost empty box, and rolled noisily about whenever it was moved, but no thought of taking any of it entered into Meg"s head. She was almost afraid of looking at it herself, lest the secret of it being there should get known in Angel Court; and whenever she mentioned it in her prayers, which she did every night, asking G.o.d to take care of it, she did not even whisper the words, much less speak them aloud, as she did her other requests, but she spoke inwardly only, for fear lest the very walls themselves should hear her. No one came near her attic, except Kitty, and she kept her promise faithfully.
Since the four bearers had carried away her mother"s coffin, and since the night Kitty came out of jail, the night of Robin"s birthday, no stranger"s foot had crossed the door-sill.
But November pa.s.sed, and part of December, and Meg"s stock of clothes, such as were of any value at the p.a.w.n-shop, was almost exhausted. At the end of the year the term for which her father had paid rent in advance would be over, and Mr Grigg might turn her and her children out into the streets. What was to be done? How was she to take care of Robin, and baby, and the money belonging to one of father"s mates?
CHAPTER IX
Little Meg"s Friends in Need
These were hard times for little Meg. The weather was not severely cold yet, or the children would have been bitterly starved up in their cold attic, where Meg was obliged to be very careful of the coal. All her mother"s clothes were in pledge now, as well as her own and Robin"s; and it seemed as if it would soon come to p.a.w.ning their poor bed and their scanty furniture. Yet Meg kept up a brave spirit, and, as often as the day was fine enough, took her children out into the streets, loitering about the cook-shops, where the heat from the cellar kitchens lent a soothing warmth to their shivering bodies.
About the middle of December the first sharp frost set in, and Meg felt herself driven back from this last relief. She had taken the children out as usual, but she had no shoes to put on their feet, and nothing but their thin old rags to clothe them with. Robin"s feet were red and blue with cold, like her own; but Meg could not see her own, and did not feel the cold as much for them as for Robin"s. His face had lost a little of its roundness and freshness, and his black eyes some of their brightness since his birthday; and poor Meg"s heart bled at the sight of him as he trudged along the icy pavement of the streets at her side.
There was one cook-shop from which warm air and pleasant odours came up through an iron grating, and Meg hurried on to it to feel its grateful warmth; but the shutters of the shop were not taken down, and the cellar window was unclosed. Little Meg turned away sadly, and bent her bare and aching feet homewards again, hushing baby, who wailed a pitiful low wail in her ears. Robin, too, dragged himself painfully along, for he had struck his numbed foot against a piece of iron, and the wound was bleeding a little. They had turned down a short street which they had often pa.s.sed through before, at the end of which was a small shop, displaying in its window a few loaves of bread, and some bottles containing different kinds of sweetmeats, such as they had indulged in sometimes in the palmy days when father was at home. The door was divided in the middle, and the lower half was closed, while the upper stood open, giving a full view of the shop within. Meg"s old brown bonnet just rose above the top of the closed half, and her wistful face turned for a moment towards the tempting sight of a whole shelf full of loaves; but she was going on slowly, when a kindly voice hailed her from the dark interior.
"Hollo, little woman!" it shouted, "I haven"t set eyes on you this many a day. How"s Robbie and baby."
"They"re here, sir, thank you," answered Meg, in a more womanly way than ever, for she felt very low to-day. "We"re only doing middling, thank you, sir."
"Why, father"s ship"s come in," said her good-natured friend from the docks, coming forward and wiping his lips, as if he had just finished a good meal. "What makes you be doing only middling?"
"Father didn"t come home in the ship," replied Meg, her voice faltering a little.
"Come in and tell us all about it," he said. "Hollo, Mrs Blossom! just step this way, if you please."
There was a little kitchen at the back of the shop, from which came a very savoury smell of cooking, as the door opened, and a round, fat, rosy-cheeked woman, of about fifty years of age, looked out inquiringly. She came a step or two nearer the door, as Meg"s friend beckoned to her with a clasp-knife he held in his hand.
"These little "uns look cold and hungry, don"t they, Mrs Blossom?" he said. "You smell something as smells uncommon good, don"t you?" he asked of Meg, who had sniffed a little, unconsciously.
"Yes, please, sir," answered Meg.
"I"ve ate as much as ever I can eat for to-day," said her friend, "so you give "em the rest, Mrs Blossom, and I"ll be off. Only just tell me why father"s not come home in his ship."
"He was took bad on the other side of the world," replied Meg, looking up tearfully into his good-tempered face, "and they was forced to leave him behind in a hospital. That"s why."
"And what"s mother doing?" he asked.
"Mother"s dead," she answered.
"Dead!" echoed her friend. "And who"s taking care of you young "uns?"
"There"s n.o.body to take care of us but G.o.d," said Meg, simply and softly.
"Well, I never!" cried Mrs Blossom, seizing the baby out of Meg"s, and clasping it in her own arms. "I never heard anything like that."
"Nor me," said the man, catching up Robin, and bearing him off into the warm little kitchen, where a saucepan of hot tripe was simmering on the hob, and a round table, with two plates upon it, was drawn up close to the fire. He put Robin down on Mrs Blossom"s seat, and lifted Meg into a large arm-chair he had just quitted.
"I guess you could eat a morsel of tripe," he said, ladling it out in overflowing spoonfuls upon the plates. "Mrs Blossom, some potatoes, if you please, and some bread; and do you feed the baby whilst the little woman gets her dinner. Now, I"m off. Mrs Blossom, you settle about "em coming here again."
He was off, as he said, in an instant. Meg sat in her large arm-chair, grasping a big knife and fork in her small hands, but she could not swallow a morsel at first for watching Robin and the baby, who was sucking in greedily spoonfuls of potatoes, soaked in the gravy. Mrs Blossom urged her to fall to, and she tried to obey; but her pale face quivered all over, and letting fall her knife and fork, she hid it in her trembling hands.
"If you please, ma"am, I"m only so glad," said little Meg as soon as she could command her voice. "Robbie and baby were so hungry, and I hadn"t got anythink to give "em."
"I suppose you aint hungry yourself neither," observed Mrs Blossom, a tear rolling down a little channel between her round cheeks and her nose.
"Oh, but ain"t I!" said Meg, recovering herself still more. "I"ve had nothink since last night, and then it were only a crust as Kitty give me."
"Well, dear, fall to, and welcome," answered Mrs Blossom. "And who"s Kitty?"
"It"s a grown-up person as lives in the back attic," answered Meg, after eating her first mouthful. "She helps me all she can. She"s took all my things to the p.a.w.n-shop for me, because she can get more money than me. She"s as good as can be to us."