You would say, "That child has had an eye knocked out." And then, in a minute, behold he is laughing once more. There, I"m selfish again; but I will make up for it some day, if G.o.d is good."
"Yes, Mercy, He is good," said Greta.
Her arm rested on the door-jamb, and her head dropped on to it; her eyes swam. Did it seem at that moment as if G.o.d had been very good to these two women?
"Greta," said Mercy, and her voice fell to a whisper, "do you think Ralphie is like--anybody?"
"Yes, dear, he is like you."
There was a pause. Then Mercy"s hand strayed from under the bedclothes and plucked at Greta"s gown.
"Do you think," she asked, in a voice all but inaudible, "that father knows who it is?"
"I can not say--_we_ have never told him."
"Nor I--he never asked, never once--only, you know, he gave up his work at the mine, and went back to the charcoal-pit when Ralphie came. But he never said a word."
Greta did not answer. At that moment the bedroom door was pushed open with a little lordly bang, and the great wee man entered with his piece of bread insecurely on one p.r.o.ng of a fork.
"Toas"," he explained complacently, "toas"," and walked up to the empty grate and stretched his arm over the fender at the cold bars.
"Why, there"s no fire for toast, you darling goose," said Greta, catching him in her arms, much to his masculine vexation.
Mercy had risen on an elbow, and her face was full of the yearning of the blind. Then she lay back.
"Never mind," she said to herself in a faltering voice, "let me lie quiet and _think_ of all his pretty ways."
IV
Greta returned home toward noon, laughing and crying a little to herself as she walked, for she was full of a dear delicious envy. She was thinking that she could take all the shame and all the pain for all the joy of Mercy"s motherhood.
G.o.d had given Greta no children.
Hugh Ritson came in to their early dinner and she told him how things went at the cottage of the old Laird Fisher. Only once before had she mentioned Mercy or the child, and he looked confused and awkward. After the meal was over he tried to say something which had been on his mind for weeks.
"But if anything should happen after all," he began, "and Mercy should not recover--or if she should ever want to go anywhere--might we not take--would you mind, Greta--I mean it might even help her--you see," he said, breaking down nearly, "there is the child, it"s a sort of duty, you know--and then a good home and upbringing--"
"Don"t tempt me," said Greta. "I"ve thought of it a hundred times."
About five o"clock the same evening a knock came to the door, and old Laird Fisher entered. His manner was more than usually solemn and constrained.
"I"s coom"t to say as ma la.s.s"s wee thing is taken badly," he said, "and rayder suddent."
Greta rose from her seat and put on her hat and cloak. She was hastening down the road while the charcoal-burner was still standing in the middle of the floor.
When Greta reached the old charcoal-burner"s cottage, the little one was lying in a drowsy state in Mercy"s arms. Its breathing seemed difficult; sometimes it started in terror; it was feverish and suffered thirst. The mother"s wistful face was bent down on it with an indescribable expression. There were only the trembling lips to tell of the sharp struggle that was going on within. But the yearning for a sight of the little flushed countenance, the tearless appeal for but one glimpse of the drowsy little eyes, the half-articulate cry of a mother"s heart against the fate that made the child she had suckled at her breast a stranger, whose very features she might not know--all this was written in that blind face.
"Is he pale?" said Mercy. "Is he sleeping? He does not talk now, but only starts and cries, and sometimes coughs."
"When did this begin?" asked Greta.
"Toward four o"clock. He had been playing, and I noticed that he breathed heavily, and then he came to me to be nursed. Is he awake now?
Listen."
The little one in its restless drowsiness was muttering faintly, "Man--go-on--batter--toas"."
"The darling is talking in his sleep, isn"t he?" said Mercy.
Then there was a ringing, bra.s.sy cough.
"It is croup," thought Greta.
She closed the window, lighted a fire, placed the kettle so that the steam might enter the room, then wrung flannels out of hot water, and wrapped them about the child"s neck. She stayed all that night at the cottage, and sat up with the little one and nursed it. Mercy could not be persuaded to go to bed, but she was very quiet. It had not yet taken hold of her that the child was seriously ill. He was drowsy and a little feverish, his pulse beat fast and he coughed hard sometimes, but he would be better in the morning. Oh, yes, he would soon be well again, and tearing up the flowers in the garden.
Toward midnight the pulse fell rapidly, the breathing became quieter, and the whole nature seemed to sink. Mercy listened with her ear bent down at the child"s mouth, and a smile of ineffable joy spread itself over her face.
"Bless him, he is sleeping so calmly," she said.
Greta did not answer.
"The "puss" and the "man" don"t darken his little life so much now,"
continued Mercy cheerily.
"No, dear," said Greta, in as strong a voice as she could summon.
"All will be well with my darling boy soon, will it not?"
"Yes, dear," said Greta, with a struggle.
Happily Mercy could not read the other answer in her face.
Mercy had put her sensitive fingers on the child"s nose, and was touching him lightly about the mouth.
"Greta," she said in a startled whisper, "does he look pinched?"
"A little," said Greta quietly.
"And his skin--is it cold and clammy?"
"We must give him another hot flannel," said Greta.
Mercy sat at the bedside, and said nothing for an hour. Then all at once, and in a strange, harsh voice, she said:
"I wish G.o.d had not made Ralphie so winsome."