"Of all the babies, Cecile D"Albert, you beat them hallow," she said. "No, no, I"ll tell you nothing about the Union. You wait till you see it. You"re so queer, maybe you"ll like it. There"s no saying --and Maurice"ll get his share of the fire. Oh, yes, he"ll get his share."
"And Toby! Will Toby come too?" asked Cecile.
"Toby! bless you, no. There"s a yard of rope for Toby. He"ll be managed cheaper than any of you. Now go, child, go!"
CHAPTER IX.
"THE ADVENT OF THE GUIDE."
Cecile crept upstairs again very, very slowly, and sat down by Maurice"s side.
"Maurice, dear," she said to her little brother, "I ha" no good news for you. Aunt Lydia won"t allow no fire, and you must just get right into bed, and I"ll lie down and put my arms round you, and Toby shall lie at your feet. You"ll soon be warm then, and maybe if you"re a very good boy, and don"t cry, I"ll make up a little fairy tale for you, Maurice."
But Maurice was sick and very miserable, and he was in no humor even to be comforted by what at most times he considered the nicest treat in the world--a story made up by Cecile.
"I hate Aunt Lydia Purcell," he said; "I hate her, Cecile."
"Oh, don"t! Maurice, darling. Father often said it was wrong to hate anyone, and maybe Aunt Lydia does find us very expensive. Do you know, Maurice, she told me just now that our cousin in France has never sent her any money all this time? And you know how reliable our cousin always was; and Aunt Lydia says if the money does not come soon, she will send us away, quite away to another home. We are to go to a place called "The Union." She says it is not very far away, and that it won"t be a bad home. At least, you will have a fire to warm yourself by there, Maurice."
"Oh!" said Maurice excitedly, "don"t you _hope_ our cousin in France won"t send the money, Cecile? Couldn"t you write, or get someone to write to him, telling him not to send the money?"
"I don"t know writing well enough to put it in a letter, Maurice, and, besides, it would not be fair to Aunt Lydia, after her having such expense with us all these months. Don"t you remember that delicious apple pie, Maurice, and the red, red apples to eat with bread in the fields? "Tis only the last few days Aunt Lydia has got really unkind, and perhaps we are very expensive little children.
Besides, Maurice, darling, I did not like to tell you at first, but there is one dreadful, dreadful thing about the Union. However nice a home it might be for you and me, we could not take Toby with us, Maurice. Aunt Lydia said Toby would not be taken in."
"Then what would become of our dog?" asked Maurice, opening his velvety brown eyes very wide.
"Ah! that I don"t understand. Aunt Lydia just laughed, and said Toby should have a yard of rope, and "twould be cheaper than the Union. I can"t in the least find out what she meant."
But here Maurice got very red, so red, down below his chin, and into his neck, and even up to the roots of his hair, that Cecile gazed at him in alarm, and feared he had been taken seriously ill.
"Oh, Cecile!" he gasped. "Oh! oh! oh!" and here he buried his head on his sister"s breast.
"What is it, Maurice? Maurice, speak to me," implored his sister.
"Maurice, are very ill? Do speak to me, darling?"
"No, Cecile, I"m not ill," said the little boy, when he could find voice after his agitation. "But, oh! Cecile, you must never be angry with me for hating Aunt Lydia again. Cecile, Aunt Lydia is the dreadfullest woman in all the world. _Do_ you know what she meant by a yard of rope?"
"No, Maurice; tell me," asked Cecile, her face growing white.
"It means, Cecile, that our dog--our darling, darling Toby--is to be hung, hung till he dies. Our Toby is to be murdered, Cecile, and Aunt Lydia is to be his murderer. That"s what it means."
"But, Maurice, how do you know? Maurice, how can you tell?"
"It was last week," continued the little boy, "last week, the day you would not come out, Toby and me were in the wood, and we came on a dog hanging to one of the trees by a bit of rope, and the poor dog was dead, and a big boy stood by. Toby howled when he saw the dog, and the big boy laughed; and I said to him, "What is the matter with the poor dog?" And the dreadful boy laughed again, Cecile, and he said, "I"ve been giving him a yard of rope."
"And I said, "But he"s dead."
"And the boy said, "Yes, that was what I gave it him for." That boy was a murderer, and I would not stay in the wood all day, and that is what Aunt Lydia will be; and I hate Aunt Lydia, so I do."
Here Maurice went into almost hysterical crying, and Cecile and Toby had both as much as they could do for the next half hour to comfort him.
When he was better, and had been persuaded to get into bed, Cecile said:
"Me and you need not fret about Toby, Maurice, for our Toby shan"t suffer. We won"t go into no Union wherever it is, and if the money don"t come from France, why, we"ll run away, me and you and Toby."
"We"ll run away," responded Maurice with a smile, and sleepy after his crying fit, and comforted by the warmth of his little bed, he closed his eyes and dropped asleep. His baby mind was quite happy now, for what could be simpler than running away?
Cecile sat on by her little brother"s side, and Toby jumped into her lap. Toby had gone through a half hour of much pain. He had witnessed Maurice"s tears, Cecile"s pale face, and had several times heard his own name mentioned. He was too wise a dog not to know that the children were talking about some possible fate for him, and, by their tones and great distress, he guessed that the fate was not a pleasant one. He had his anxious moments during that half hour. But when Maurice dropped asleep and Cecile sat droopingly by his side, instantly this n.o.ble-natured mongrel dog forgot himself. His mission was to comfort the child he loved. He jumped on Cecile"s lap, thereby warming her. He licked her face and hands, he looked into her eyes, his own bright and moist with a great wealth of canine love.
"Oh, Toby," said the little girl, holding him very tight, "Toby! I"d rather have a yard of rope myself than that you should suffer."
Toby looked as much as to say:
"Pooh, that"s a trivial matter, don"t let"s think of it," and then he licked her hands again.
Cecile began to wonder if it would not be better for them not to wait for that letter from France. There was no saying, now that Aunt Lydia was really proved to be a wicked woman, what she might do, if they gave her time after the letter arrived. Would it not be best for Cecile, Maurice, and Toby to set off at once on that mission into France? Would it not be wisest, young as Cecile was, to begin the great search for Lovedy without delay? The little girl thought she had better secure her purse of money, and set off at once. But oh!
she was so ignorant, so ignorant, and so young. Should she, Maurice, and Toby go east, west, north, or south? She had a journey before her, and she did not know a step of the way.
"Oh, Toby," she said again to the watchful dog, "if only I had a guide. I do want a guide so dreadfully. And there is a guide called Jesus, and He loves everybody, and He guides people and little children, and perhaps dogs like you, Toby, right across to the New Jerusalem and the Celestial City. But I want Him to guide us into the south of France. He"s so kind He would take us into his arms when we were tired and rest us. You and me, Toby, are strong, but Maurice is only a baby. If Jesus would guide us, He would take Maurice into His arms now and then. But Mistress Bell says she never heard of Jesus guiding anybody into the south of France, into the Pyrenees. Oh, how I wish He would!"
"Yes," answered Toby, by means of his expressive eyes, and wagging his stumpy tail, "I wish He would."
That night when Cecile and Maurice were asleep, and all the house was still, a messenger of kingly aspect came to the old farm.
Had Cecile opened her eyes then, and had she been endowed with power to tear away the slight film which hides immortal things from our view, she would have seen the Guide she longed for. For Jesus came down, and in her sleep took Mrs. Bell across the river. Without a pang the old pilgrim entered into rest, and no one knew in that slumbering household the moment she went home.
But I think--it may be but a fancy of mine--still I think Jesus did more. I think He went up still higher in that old farmhouse. I think He entered an attic bedroom and bent over two sleeping children, and smiled on them, and blessed them, and said to the anxious heart of one, "Certainly I will be with thee. I will guide My little lamb every step of the way."
For Cecile looked so happy in her childish slumbers. Every trace of care had left her brow. The burden of responsibility was gone from her heart.
I think, before He left the room, Jesus stooped down and gave her a kiss of peace.
CHAPTER X.
"TOPSY-TURVY."
It may have seemed a strange thing, but, nevertheless, it was a fact, that one who appeared to make no difference to anybody while she was alive should yet be capable of causing quite a commotion the moment she was dead.
This was the case with old Mrs. Bell. For years she had lived in her pleasant south room, basking in the sun in summer, and half sleeping by the fire in winter. She never read; she spoke very little; she did not even knit, and never, by any chance, did she stir outside those four walls. She was in a living tomb, and was forgotten there. The four walls of her room were her grave. Lydia Purcell, to all intents and purposes, was mistress of all she surveyed.