"Oh, Gerry, I must do something; I just must! I haven"t any things, even if you needed them; but you come in, please, and get my j.a.panese box out of the bureau drawer. It"s got my gold piece in it. It"s truly mine, Gerry; Mr. Graves gave it to me last Christmas, and I haven"t been able to think of anything nice enough to do with it. Now I know. You take it, Gerry, and buy some pretty stuff to make some frilly things, and some curtains, maybe--if there"s enough. They"ll love to have pretty things; I know they will. And, Gerry, maybe it will help them to be good, those little Jimson-weeds," quoting Aunt Serinda softly.
Tears rolled down Gerry"s cheeks onto the shining piece of gold in Ruthie"s hand.
"You--darling!" she whispered, and could not say anything more.
Mother Brace"s potatoes grew quite cold while she listened to Gerry"s excited reports, and grew as much excited herself in the hearing.
"I"ll begin to sweep the barn this afternoon," she declared, hustling the dishes off the table. "I don"t want that poor Jimson soul to wait a minute longer than she must to have it all."
The dust was flying in clouds from the open barndoors when the "poor Jimson soul" herself came dragging up the path with the baby in her arms and a dingy black dress, manifestly borrowed, trailing forlornly behind her.
"Oh, my!" thought Gerry as she watched her coming. "I never remembered the clothes. They"ll have to have them. I wonder--
"Come right in, Mrs. Jimson," she interrupted herself; "come and sit down here. You must be tired with such a long walk."
"I ain"t no more tired than I always am," Mrs. Jimson answered drearily, dropping into the rocker Gerry pushed forward. "I ain"t never been rested, and I don"t never expect to be. I"ve come to see if you"ve got anything I can do to earn some money. Folks has been good, and we"ve had enough to eat so far; but it stands to reason I"ve got to do something myself."
"Yes," Gerry nodded gravely, "and the children will have to help. Maybe Tad can do some of the gardening ol--Mr. Jimson used to do, and Jennie"s big enough to take care of the little ones and help do the housework so you can go out part of the time."
"I guess all the housework won"t hurt her," sighed Mrs. Jimson, brushing away a slow tear that was stealing down her cheek. But at the same moment a ray of hope began to steal into her heart with Gerry"s brisk planning.
"I"d be willing to do anything," she went on more energetically. "I ain"t lazy, though folks may think so; but I"ve got plum discouraged."
"And now you are going to take heart o" grace and begin again," declared Mother Brace, coming in with her broom over her shoulder in time to hear the last words. "I suppose, then, you"re willing to come and scrub my barn floors for me to-morrow morning. They won"t be very hard, but I can"t get down so long on account of my knee. I can pay you fifty cents."
"Oh, I"ll come." Mrs. Jimson straightened up so eagerly that she nearly dropped the baby. "And I"ll get "em clean, too. I know how if I don"t look it."
Telegraphic signs pa.s.sed between Mother Brace and Gerry by which it was decided to say nothing about the moving at present. Nevertheless Mrs.
Jimson went home much lighter of heart and foot than when she came, though she carried several extra pounds in the way of vegetables and fresh bread.
Hardly was she out of sight when Mrs. Thomas Benton, president of the Ladies" Aid Society, rapped at the Braces" front door.
"You see," she told Gerry when she had recovered her breath, being somewhat portly for so steep a hill, "we"ve heard about your barn plan, and we thought we"d better have a finger in the pie. So we decided that instead of packing a barrel for the heathen just now we will dress up the Jimson"s, so as to have them match better with their new home. Oh, we shall do the heathen before long, too; only we thought maybe this was an "ought to have done and not leave the other undone.""
Bright and early next morning Mrs. Jimson was on her knees scrubbing the barn floors, little dreaming that she was helping to lay the foundation for her own future happiness.
She could not have been more thorough, had she known, much to Mother Brace"s satisfaction.
"There"s good stuff in her," was the verdict. "She may be a weed, but she"ll pay for cultivating."
It was nearly a week before the barn was ready, a week so busy that Gerry"s bones ached when she stretched them in bed each night, but so happy that she cared not at all for the aches. Aunt Serinda"s James toiled up and down the hill with the long wagon loaded more than once; Ruthie"s loving fingers flew upon the ruffles and frills; Gerry and her mother set things straight, nailing and tacking diligently; and gradually the barn became transformed.
"It"s blossomed like the rose!" Gerry announced joyously. "It isn"t a barn any longer; it"s a cottage. Oh, mother, it"s better than a cottage; it"s a home."
Oh, it was very plain and simple; to some it might even have seemed bare, in spite of Ruthie"s pretty things. But to Gerry, with the tumble-down house fresh in her memory, it was all that could be desired.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "_Mrs. Jimson was on her knees scrubbing the barn floor_."]
The morning it was all ready at last, in spotless order, with the bright sunshine and the soft spring breezes pouring in at the open windows, Gerry ran down the hill to the Centre.
The little Jimsons were not playing in the mud outside the tumble-down house as usual. Mrs. Jimson met Gerry at the door in a trim dark calico dress that made a different woman of her. Seated in a beaming circle within were the five children, each clad from top to toe in clean, fresh garments, from Tad down to the baby, who was crowing in Jennie"s arms, radiant in a gay pink gingham.
"Aren"t we splendid, Miss Gerry?" cried the little girl, pushing a glowing face out from behind the baby"s head. "Ma"s just got us dressed up, and we"re going to have a bonfire of the old ones."
"It was the Ladies" Aid, Miss Gerry," supplemented Mrs. Jimson almost as excitedly. "They"ve just gone, Mrs. Benton has, and they brought us all these and more. Did you ever see anything like it? Of course, I"m going to help clean the church to help make up," she added with a new womanly dignity that was very becoming; "but I couldn"t never pay for the kindness, never!"
"It"s beautiful," said Gerry, "beautiful! I couldn"t tell how glad I am.
I"m so glad, too, that you"ve got them on, for mother wants you to come up to the house a few minutes, all of you. It"s something very important."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "_We want to show you our new house_."]
Seizing Tommy, the two-year-old, by the hand, she hurried off ahead of them, fearing she could not keep her secret if she delayed another instant. Up the hill and across the wide gra.s.sy yard she led them, straight to where Mother Brace stood in the barn doorway.
"I"ve brought them," she said, and stopped, overwhelmed by this crowning moment.
"We want you to see our new house we"ve fixed up," Mother Brace explained, coming to the rescue. "Come in, all of you."
Considerably bewildered, Mrs. Jimson obeyed, shooing the children before her like a flock of chickens. It was not usual for her to be called upon for opinion or approval; and she made the most of it, exclaiming with admiration and delight as they made the rounds of the tiny bedrooms, and stood once more in the long, shining kitchen with its neatly blackened stove and its row of polished tin pans.
"It couldn"t be no completer, no ways," she p.r.o.nounced judgment. "Nor no prettier."
Then Gerry found her voice, and the words came tumbling out in joyful haste.
"It"s all for you, Mrs. Jimson. You"re to come here this very day, and this is to be your home. You are to sleep in the bedrooms, and cook in the kitchen, and--"
"But I don"t understand," faltered Mrs. Jimson, her bewilderment deepening with every second. "Where did it come from? Whose is it?
How--"
"It came from everybody," laughed Gerry tremulously. "Lots of people helped. And it"s yours, I tell you, to live in as long as you want to, you and the children. Don"t you see, dear?"
Little Mrs. Jimson dropped down suddenly in the middle of the shining floor.
"Oh, my land! my land!" she sobbed, rocking to and fro. "I never knew there was such folks in the world. I feel just as if I"d got into one o"
the many mansions!"
Mother Brace patted the bent shoulders gently.
"You have," she said, her voice catching, "into one He"s been preparing for you. Only instead of angels He used a lot of warm, loving human hands to do it with."
"I SHALL NOT WANT"
"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."
I shall not want food. "I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger."