On Christmas night the aristocracy of the Cabbage Patch a.s.sembled in the school-house to enjoy the double attraction of a Christmas tree and an entertainment. Mr. Rothchild, who had arranged the tree for the last ten years, refused to have it moved from its accustomed place, which was almost in the center of the platform. He had been earnestly remonstrated with, but he and the tree remained firm. Mrs. Rothchild and all the little Rothchildren had climbed in by the window before the doors were open in order to secure the front seats. Immediately behind them sat the Hazys and the Wiggses.
"That there is the seminary student gittin" up now," whispered Mrs.
Wiggs. "He"s goin" to call out the pieces. My land! ain"t he washed out? Looks like he"d go into a trance fer fifty cents. Hush, Australia! don"t you see he is goin" to pray?"
After the opening prayer, the young preacher suggested that, as long as the speakers were not quite ready, the audience should "raise a hymn."
"He"s got a fine voice," whispered Miss Hazy; "I heared "em say he was the gentleman soprano at a down-town church."
When the religious exercises were completed, the audience settled into a state of pleasurable antic.i.p.ation.
"The first feature of the entertainment," announced the preacher, "will be a song by Miss Europena Wiggs."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Europena stepped forward."]
Europena stepped forward and, with hands close to her sides and anguished eyes on the ceiling, gasped forth the agonized query:
"Can she make a cheery-pie, Billy boy, Billy boy?
Can she make a cheery-pie, Charming Billy?"
Notwithstanding the fact that there were eight verses, an encore was demanded. Mrs. Wiggs rose in her seat and beckoned vehemently to Europena. "Come on back!" she motioned violently with her lips. "They want you to come back."
Europena, in a state of utter bewilderment, returned to the stage.
"Say another speech!" whispered Mrs. Wiggs, leaning over so far that she knocked Mrs. Rothchild"s bonnet awry. Still Europena stood there, an evident victim of lockjaw.
""I have a little finger,"" prompted her mother frantically from the second row front.
A single ray of intelligence flickered for a moment over the child"s face, and with a supreme effort she said:
"I have a little finger, An" I have a little beau; When I get a little bigger I"ll have a little toe."
"Well, she got it all in," said Mrs. Wiggs, in a relieved tone, as Europena was lifted down.
After this, other little girls came forward and made some unintelligible remarks concerning Santa Claus. It was with some difficulty that they went through their parts, for Mr. Rothchild kept getting in the way as he calmly and uncompromisingly continued to hang cornucopias on the tree. Songs and recitations followed, but even the youngest spectator realized that these were only preliminary skirmishes.
At last a bell rang. Two bedspreads. which served as curtains were majestically withdrawn. A sigh of admiration swept the room. "Ain"t he cute!" whispered a girl in the rear, as Billy rose resplendent in pink tights and crimson doublet, and folding his arms high on his breast, recited in a deep voice:
"I have, alas! philosophy, Medicine, jurisprudence too, And, to my cost, theology With ardent labor studied through."
"I don"t see no sense in what he"s sayin" at all," whispered Miss Hazy.
"It"s jes what was in the book," answered Mrs. Wiggs, ""cause I heared him repeat it off before supper."
The entrance of Jake awakened the flagging interest. n.o.body understood what he said either, but he made horrible faces, and waved his red arms, and caused a pleasant diversion.
"Maw, what"s John Bagby a-handin" round in that little saucer?" asked Australia.
"Fer the mercy sake! I don"t know," answered her mother, craning her neck to see.
John, with creaking footsteps, tiptoed to the front of the stage, and stooping down, began to mix a concoction in a plate. Many stood up to see what he was doing, and conjecture was rife. _Mephisto_ and _Faust_ were forgotten until Jake struck a heroic pose, and grasping Billy"s arm, said hoa.r.s.ely:
"Gaze, Faustis, gaze into pairdition!"
John put a match to the powder, a bright red light filled the room, and the audience, following the index-finger of the impa.s.sioned _Mephisto_, gazed into the placid, stupid faces of four meek little boys on the mourners" bench.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Sang in a high, sweet voice, "I Need Thee Every Hour""]
Before the violent coughing caused by the calcium fumes had ceased, a vision in white squeezed past Mr. Rothchild and came slowly down to the edge of the platform. It was Lovey Mary as _Marguerite_. Her long dress swept about her feet, her heavy hair hung in thick braids over both shoulders, and a burning red spot glowed on each cheek. For a moment she stood as Jake had directed, with head thrown back and eyes cast heavenward, then she began to recite. The words poured from her lips with a volubility that would have shamed an auctioneer. It was a long part, full of hard words, but she knew it perfectly and was determined to show how fast she could say it without making a mistake.
It was only when she finished that she paused for breath. Then she turned slowly, and stretching forth appealing arms to _Faust_, sang in a high, sweet voice, "I Need Thee Every Hour."
The effect was electrical. At last the Cabbage Patch understood what was going on. The roof rang with applause. Even Mr. Rothchild held aside his strings of pop-corn to let _Marguerite_ pa.s.s out.
"S" more! S" more!" was the cry. "Sing it ag"in!"
Jake stepped before the curtain. "If our friends is willin"," he said, "we"ll repeat over the last ak."
Again Lovey Mary scored a triumph. John Bagby burned the rest of the calcium powder during the last verse, and the entertainment concluded in a prolonged cheer.
CHAPTER XII
REACTION
"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie."
When the paint and powder had been washed off, and Tommy had with difficulty been extracted from his new trousers and put to bed, Lovey Mary sat before the little stove and thought it all over. It had been the very happiest time of her whole life. How nice it was to be praised and made much of! Mrs. Wiggs had started it by calling everybody"s attention to her good points; then Mrs. Redding had sought her out and shown her continued attention; to-night was the great climax. Her name had been on every tongue, her praises sung on every side, and Billy Wiggs had given her everything he got off the Christmas tree.
"I wisht I deserved it all," she said, as she got up to pull the blanket closer about Tommy. "I"ve tried to be good. I guess I am better in some ways, but not in all--not in all." She knelt by the bed and held Tommy"s hand to her cheek. "Sometimes he looks like Kate when he"s asleep like this. I wonder if she"s got well? I wonder if she ever misses him?"
For a long time she knelt there, holding the warm little hand in hers.
The play, the success, the applause, were all forgotten, and in their place was a shame, a humiliation, that brought the hot tears to her eyes.
"I ain"t what they think I am," she whispered brokenly. "I"m a mean, bad girl after all. The canker-worm"s there. Miss Viny said there never would be a sure-"nough beautiful flower till the canker-worm was killed. But I want to be good; I want to be what they think I am!"
Again and again the old thoughts of Kate rose to taunt and madden her.
But a new power was at work; it brought new thoughts of Kate, of Kate sick and helpless, of Kate without friends and lonely, calling for her baby. Through the night the battle raged within her. When the first gray streaks showed through the shutters, Lovey Mary cleaned her room and put on her Sunday dress. "I"ll be a little late to the factory,"
she explained to Miss Hazy at breakfast, "for I"ve got to go on a"
errand."
It was an early hour for visitors at the city hospital, but when Lovey Mary stated her business she was shown to Kate"s ward. At the far end of the long room, with her bandaged head turned to the wall, lay Kate.
When the nurse spoke to her she turned her head painfully, and looked at them listlessly with great black eyes that stared forth from a face wasted and wan from suffering.
"Kate!" said Lovey Mary, leaning across the bed and touching her hand.
"Kate, don"t you know me?"