Mrs. Motherwell came across the yard bareheaded.
"Come into the house, Sam," she said gently. "I want to show you something."
He looked up quickly, but saw something in his wife"s face that prevented him from speaking.
He followed her into the house. The letters were on the table, Mrs.
Motherwell read them to him, read them with tears that almost choked her utterance.
"And Polly"s dead, Sam!" she cried when she had finished the last one.
"Polly"s dead, and the poor old mother will be looking, looking for that money, and it will never come. Sam, can"t we save that poor old woman from the poorhouse? Do you remember what the girl said in the letter, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my little ones, ye have done it unto Me?" We didn"t deserve the praise the girl gave us. We didn"t send the flowers, we have never done anything for anybody and we have plenty, plenty, and what is the good of it, Sam?
We"ll die some day and leave it all behind us."
Mrs. Motherwell hid her face in her ap.r.o.n, trembling with excitement.
Sam"s face was immovable, but a mysterious Something, not of earth, was struggling with him. Was it the faith of that decrepit old woman in that bare little room across the sea, mumbling to herself that G.o.d had not forgotten? G.o.d knows. His ear is not dulled; His arm is not shortened; His holy spirit moves mightily.
Sam Motherwell stood up and struck the table with his fist.
"Ettie," he said, "I am a hard man, a danged hard man, and as you say I"ve never given away much, but I am not so low down yet that I have to reach up to touch bottom, and the old woman will not go to the poor house if I have money enough to keep her out!"
Sam Motherwell was as good as his word.
He went to Winnipeg the next day, but before he left he drew a check for one hundred dollars, payable to Polly"s mother, which he gave to the Church of England clergyman to send for him. About two months afterwards he received a letter from the clergyman of the parish in which Polly"s mother lived, telling him that the money had reached the old lady in time to save her from the workhouse; a heart-broken letter of thanks from Polly"s mother herself accompanied it, calling on G.o.d to reward them for their kindness to her and her dear dead girl.
CHAPTER XXII
SHADOWS
One morning when Tom came into the kitchen Pearl looked up with a worried look on her usually bright little face.
"What"s up, kid?" he asked kindly. He did not like to see Pearl looking troubled.
"Arthur"s sick," she said gravely.
"Go on!" he answered, "he"s not sick. I know he"s been feeling kind of used up for about a week, but he worked as well as ever yesterday. What makes you think he is sick?"
"I went out last night to be sure I had shut the henhouse door, and I heard him groanin", and I said, knockin" on the door, "What"s wrong, Arthur?" and he said, "Oh, I beg your pardon, Pearl, did I frighten you?" and I said, "No, but what"s wrong?" and he said, "Nothing at all, Pearl, thank you"; but I know there is. You know how polite he is--wouldn"t trouble anybody. Wouldn"t ask ye to slap "im on the back if he was chokin". I went out two or three times and once I brought him out some liniment, and he told me every time he would be "well directly," but I don"t believe him. If Arthur groans there"s something to groan for, you bet."
"Maybe he"s in love," Tom said sheepishly.
"But you don"t groan, Tom, do you?" she asked seriously.
"Maybe I ain"t in love, though, Pearl. Ask Jim Russell, he can tell you."
"Jim ain"t in love, is he?" Pearl asked anxiously. Her responsibilities were growing too fast. One love affair and a sick man she felt was all she could attend to.
"Well, why do you suppose Jim comes over here every second day to get you to write a note to that friend of yours?"
"Camilla?" Pearl asked open-mouthed. Tom nodded.
"Camilla can"t leave Mrs. Francis," Pearl declared with conviction.
"Jim"s a dandy smart fellow. He only stays on the farm in the summer.
In the winter he book-keeps for three or four of the stores in Millford and earns lots of money," Tom said, admiringly.
After a pause Pearl said thoughtfully, "I love Camilla!"
"That"s just the way Jim feels, too, I guess," Tom said laughing as he went out to the stable.
When Tom went out to the granary he found Arthur dressing, but flushed and looking rather unsteady.
"What"s gone wrong with you, old man?" he asked kindly.
"I feel a bit queer," Arthur replied, "that"s all. I shall be well directly. Got a bit of a cold, I think."
"Slept in a field with the gate open like as not," Tom laughed.
Arthur looked at him inquiringly.
"You"ll feel better when you get your breakfast," Tom went on. "I don"t wonder you"re sick--you haven"t been eatin" enough to keep a canary bird alive. Go on right into the house now. I"ll feed your team."
"It beats all what happens to our help," Mrs. Motherwell complained to Pearl, as they washed the breakfast dishes. "It looks very much as if Arthur is goin" to be laid up, too, and the busy time just on us."
Pearl was troubled. Why should Arthur be sick? He had plenty of fresh air; he tubbed himself regularly. He never drank "alcoholic beverages that act directly on the liver and stomach, drying up the blood, and rendering every organ unfit for work." Pearl remembered the Band of Hope manual. No, and it was not a cold. Colds do not make people groan in the night--it was something else. Pearl wished her friend, Dr. Clay, would come along. He would soon spot the trouble.
After dinner, of which Arthur ate scarcely a mouthful, as Pearl was cleaning the knives, Mrs. Motherwell came into the kitchen with a hard look on her face. She had just missed a two-dollar bill from her satchel.
"Pearl," she said in a strained voice, "did you see a two-dollar bill any place?"
"Yes, ma"am," Pearl answered quickly, "Mrs Francis paid ma with one once for the washing, but I don"t know where it might be now."
Mrs. Motherwell looked at Pearl keenly. It was not easy to believe that that little girl would steal. Her heart was still tender after Polly"s death, she did not want to be hard on Pearl, but the money must be some place.
"Pearl, I have lost a two-dollar bill. If you know anything about it I want you to tell me," she said firmly.
"I don"t know anything about it no more"n ye say ye had it and now ye"ve lost it," Pearl answered calmly.
"Go up to your room and think about it," she said, avoiding Pearl"s gaze.
Pearl went up the narrow little steps with a heart that swelled with indignation.
"Does she think I stole her dirty money, me that has money o" me own--a thief is it she takes me for? Oh, wirra! wirra! and her an" me wuz gittin" on so fine, too; and like as not this"ll start the morgage and the cancer on her again."
Pearl threw herself on the hot little bed, and sobbed out her indignation and her homesickness. She could not put it off this time.
Catching sight of her grief-stricken face in the cracked looking gla.s.s that hung at the head of the bed, she started up suddenly.
"What am I bleatin" for?" she said to herself, wiping her eyes on her little patched ap.r.o.n. "Ye"d think to look at me that I"d been caught stealin" the cat"s milk"--she laughed through her tears--"I haven"t stolen anything and what for need I cry? The dear Lord will get me out of this just as nate as He bruk the windy for me!"