"Why? You don"t think you will always be down, do you?" I asked timidly, plunging a cup and saucer into the boiling water.
"I don"t know; we were better off once, in one way, but it is a long time ago," she answered, taking a large white ap.r.o.n from a peg beside her in the wall, and offering it to me, "Put this over your dress, child, and take off your pretty rings," she put in parenthetically, and then went on--
"Robert was a man of wealth when we married, we had a fine house with servants and horses and every such luxury--while the money was there he lavished it upon us: but he lost heavily one year, there was a bank failure first, and a series of smaller misfortunes followed quickly in its wake. We had to sacrifice house and horses, and all, and come down the ladder to our present station. The children found it hard in the beginning, but they have come to look upon it now, nearly as their father and I do."
"But you are not poor, cousin Bessie," I interrupted, as I dried a plate briskly with my linen cloth.
"No: not poor exactly: but we must be careful and economical for awhile, until Zita and Louis are educated: we will make every sacrifice that is necessary to grant them a thorough education. When they are rich in knowledge they won"t mind how empty their purses are; they will feel themselves equal to the best in the land. When they have finished their courses here, if they show themselves susceptible to a still higher training, we will make still greater restrictions upon our household expenses to favor any particular talent they may have developed. Robert and I decided that long ago."
"I suppose it is a good plan," I said half doubtfully, "if it does not unfit them for their after-life."
"You mean it may raise them above their station?" cousin Bessie interrupted eagerly. "Well, you are not the only one who thinks that, but it never shall. We have seen such a possible danger ahead and have laboured to avert it I have done my utmost all their lives to bring them up to frugal habits. We have taught them to live sparingly in every way; to shun those people and places that tempt one to idle amus.e.m.e.nts and questionable pastimes, and never to seek the society of such persons as are brought up to pity or ridicule poverty and struggling gentility. They are fond of one another, and in their mutual companionship do not miss the intercourse which is denied them with the outside world. I have explained to Zita that the saint whose name she bears was a poor servant-maid, who was looked down upon and ignored by those who were better favored by the world; and that like her, she must be poor and humble in spirit, satisfied to be a little n.o.body here if she can be happy hereafter. Louis learned the story of his royal patron saint when he was a lisping baby at my knee, and understands now, I think, how secondary material prosperity is to the advancement of the moral man. I am almost sure he could wear a crown and rule a nation, and yet look upon such glories as mere accidents of existence, that must be subject to higher aims and occupations."
"Then you are happy in the possession of very exceptional children, Cousin Bessie," said I, shaking my towel and hanging it up to dry. My task was finished, and I sat down beside my industrious cousin who was now up to her elbows in a basin of flour.
"They are my chief comfort, to tell you the truth," she answered, as if in soliloquy, while she sifted handfuls of the white powder through her busy fingers, "and I thank G.o.d for this great compensation that has survived all my other pleasures. There is no wretchedness, I think, like that which must fill the heart of a mother whose children have strayed away from her loving, clinging solicitude into the by-ways of folly or vice. It is a dark blight upon the most buoyant heart that ever swelled with maternal devotion. I sometimes think I would rather have never existed, that I could forfeit all the grand privileges of a created being destined for a n.o.ble end, rather than have become the mother of impious and vicious children."
"Then it is well you have saved yours from such a common fate," I put in warmly, "for I think in the world"s present stage, young people have a monopoly of all the evil tendencies to which our flesh is p.r.o.ne."
"You are right there Amey, and more"s the pity," cousin Bessie answered, leaning her white palms on the sides of the dish and looking out of the kitchen window away over the steeples of the distant church, as if her glance fell upon the whole wicked world at once.
"There is hardly a channel of sin and guilt that has not been explored by these young persons, who should not even know of the existence of such dangers. So much fine manhood is wasted in folly and dissipation; so many n.o.ble energies devoted to degrading causes, so much mental greatness given to solving the mysteries of villainy and roguery. Oh!
it is written on the brow of modern youth, in flaming characters," she exclaimed, closing her fingers tightly over the edges of the dish, upon which her hands still rested. "When I pa.s.s along the busy streets of the town, I see the wickedness of the world on many a fair young face, and my heart swells with a great desire to know whose life is being saddened by their extravagances. "They are dear to someone, surely," I say to myself, "there must be some one from whom they are trying to hide their deeds of darkness," and I could almost stop to plead in favor of that lingering love, that they turn back from the beck and call of temptation to that other wholesome course which yields reward both here and hereafter. I cannot help this strong sentiment that stirs within my breast. I love the beauty of blooming human nature; I like to see the glow of physical and moral health upon its beaming countenance, and the stimulus to n.o.ble purposes in its restless heart, but it seems as if this never can be again with the majority."
"It is a sad outlook, Cousin Bessie, but there must be a remedy somewhere," I suggested, full of the enthusiasm which had characterized her remarks.
"Remedy? Yes, of course there"s a remedy," she retorted emphatically, "but the world"s votaries have elbowed it out. What can one expect from a baby girl who has been brought up for the world, but that she shall be of the world? Little misses who can waltz before they know the "Our Father," who are taught manners before morals, and are given for their absolute standard "what others will say." Can they become good women? It would be a paradox to suppose so. And our boys in knickerbockers who smoke cigars and buy ten cent novels, who speculate in the market of experience with ill-gotten gain, who form opinions of life from dime shows and contact with veterans in vice; can they grow in virtue and integrity after such an initiation as this? It would be nothing less than a moral phenomenon if they did. Yes there is a remedy, and its application is needed at the very root of the evil.
Let fathers and mothers look abroad over the heads of their prattling offspring, and realize the fate that is awaiting them if they do not take proper and timely precautions. I attribute much blame to them because I have seen results of their carelessness grow and magnify under my own eyes."
Here the door-bell rang violently, and interrupted cousin Bessie"s wholesome homily on the social irregularities of the day. As her hands were still buried in flour I started to my feet and answered the hasty summons. A man in ragged attire stood leaning against the outer post of the doorway. His soft hat was slouched over one eye, and his turned-up faded coat-collar but half-concealed the fragments of a soiled shirt front that lay open on his breast inside. When I confronted him, he advanced a step and said, with his eyes directed towards his boots,
"Will you give me a little help, miss, for G.o.d"s sake. I am starving and can get no work."
Cousin Bessie from her place by the window could hear his words, and coming to the door, she looked at him from head to foot. He was young and stalwart, though so dest.i.tute.
"I will give you some work and pay you well for it" she said. "Come, you are a strapping young fellow and won"t find it hard to do."
He was silent for a moment and still kept looking at his dilapidated boots.
"I will give you the price of an honest, independent supper" she continued, "that is better than begging it. You will relish it, I know."
"It"s done ma"am" said he, kicking his dusty toes against the step where he stood. "Show me the work."
Cousin Bessie looked significantly at me and led him out to where his occupation lay. As she turned to leave him, with a strict injunction to do it well, he raised his hat from his head and turned reverently towards her.
"I"ll do it as well as mortal hands can do it ma"am" he said with a tremor in his hoa.r.s.e husky voice. "You"re the first woman as has spoken a kind word to me since--since--I buried the one that "ud have made my life different if she"d lived."
"Your mother?" Asked Cousin Bessie gently.
"No, ma"am, she was more, she was my wife, but only for a year. When I lost her I lost my luck and my courage, and everything. I"ve hardly done a day"s good since."
He drew the back of one brawny, dirty hand across his eyes and turned away his head. Cousin Bessie was looking at him with a great pity in her countenance.
"Have you a child?" she next asked.
"One, ma"am, a little girl, but not like the mother."
"Where is she?"
"On the streets, like myself, begging her bread and going to ruin," he answered in dogged despair.
"How old is she?" cousin Bessie asked, with renewed interest.
"Maybe thirteen or thereabout, ma"am, poor, small thing," he replied with a dash of fatherly love.
"Can she read or write?" was cousin Bessie"s next query.
"I couldn"t say, ma"am. I never taught her. I"ve been a heartless wretch and didn"t mind about her much."
"I am afraid you have done her a great injustice," said cousin Bessie, turning to re-enter the house. "I hope you will try to make some amends. Begin your work, like a good fellow, and I will see you again before you go."
She came back to her duties in the kitchen with a thoughtful face and a slow, measured step.
"Is your hero in rags at his work?" I asked playfully, when she had closed the door behind her.
"Yes, I am glad to say," she answered, "manual labor is what these fellows want. I shall keep him busy until evening, now that he has started, it will only cost me a few pence, and it will keep him out of so much harm."
There was a pause of a few moments after this. Cousin Bessie then looked up and said, half regretfully:
"I wish I had a few spare dollars now. I could, perhaps do some good with them."
"What is your latest freak?" asked I, returning her steady glance.
"I would like to send for his little girl," said she, "the winter is coming on, and there will be extra work to do, in consequence. She may be smart enough to clean our windows and wash the wainscoting. She could run errands and answer the door for a trifle, and we might teach her her prayers and her catechism and send her to church on Sunday, which is never done for her now."
"But you do not know who or what she may be," I argued dissuasively.
"That is nothing," she persisted. "She is only a child, and our house is so small that no harm can be done in it unknown to me. I think it would do her good if she came. You and Zita might take an interest in her and make something respectable of her poor, empty life."
"Perhaps you are right, Cousin Bessie," I conceded, "let us send for her, I can easily afford to clothe her, it will be such a pleasure to me to contribute towards the success of one of your good works."
And so we sent for her. Next day she arrived, carrying a miniature wooden box in one hand and a little old faded umbrella in the other.
She was small and dark, with sharp, black eyes and pale features. Her short hair cl.u.s.tered thickly around her brow and over her ears, from which hung suspended a pair of long bra.s.s ear-rings. A ring of the same valuable material was conspicuous on one small finger. She was very ragged and careless-looking, but had an intelligent sparkle in her quick glance that diverted one"s attention from her appearance.
"What is your name?" asked Cousin Bessie, admitting her into the hall.
"Snip, ma"am," she answered, sweeping a glance from the ceiling to the floor.
"Snip!" we both exclaimed.