"Would you stay away from your girl and never come back, and forget all about her?" she asked wistfully.
Looking up, the doctor noticed that Pearl had picked up a newspaper and appeared to be not listening at all.
"If I had a girl, Libby Anne," he said, very slowly, "I might stay away a long time, but I"d come back sometime, oh, sure; and while I was away I"d want my girl to lie still, if she had a cold and was out in a tent trying to get better to go to her grandmother"s, and I"d want my girl to be just as happy as she could be, and always be sure that I would come back."
"I like you, Doctor," she said, after a pause, "and if I wasn"t Bud"s girl I would like to be yours. Maybe Pearl Watson would be your girl, Doctor," she said quickly. "I"ll ask her when she comes, if you like?"
"I wish you would, Libby Anne," he said gravely.
When he looked up Pearl had gone.
It was a week before the doctor saw Pearl. One night he met her coming home from school. It was the first day of March, and it seemed like the first day of spring as well. From a cloudless sky the afternoon sun poured down its warmth and heat.
The doctor turned his horses and asked if he might drive her home.
"Pearl," he said, with an" unmistakable twinkle in his eye, "I want to see you about Libby Anne. I hope you will humour her in any way you can."
Pearl stared at him in surprise--then suddenly the colour rose in her cheeks as she comprehended his meaning.
"Even if she asks you to do very hard things," he went on.
"She hasn"t asked me yet," said Pearl honestly.
"Is it possible that Libby Anne has forgotten me like that? Well, I believe it is better for me to do it myself, anyway. How old are you, Pearl?"
"I was fifteen my last birthday."
"Don"t put it that way," he corrected. "That"s all right when you"re giving your age in school, but just now I"d rather hear you say that you will be sixteen on your next birthday, because sixteen and three make nineteen, and when you"re nineteen you will be quite a grown-up young lady."
"Oh, that"s a long time ahead," said Pearl.
"Quite a while," he agreed, "but I am going to ask you that question which Libby Anne has overlooked, just three years from to-day. We can easily remember the date, March the first. It may be a cold, dark, wintry day, with the wind from the north, or it may be bright and full of sunshine like to-day. That will just depend on your answer."
He was looking straight into her honest brown eyes as he spoke. It was hard for him to realize that she was only a child.
"I don"t like dark days," Pearl said, thoughtfully, looking away toward the snow-covered Tiger Hills, that lay glimmering in the soft afternoon sunshine.
Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. Then suddenly Pearl turned and met his gaze, and the colour in her cheeks was not all caused by the bright spring sun as she said, "I think, it is usually pretty fine on the first of March."
Before Libby Anne had been a week in the tent Mrs. Burrell came to offer consolation and to express her hopes for Libby Anne"s recovery.
Mrs. Burrell considered herself a very successful sick-visitor. In the kitchen, where she went first, she found Martha preparing a chicken for Libby Anne"s dinner.
"It"s really too bad for you to have so much to do, Martha," she began, when the greetings were over; "a young girl like you should be getting ready for a home of her own. Living single is all right when you"re young, but it"s different when you begin to get along in life.
There"s that young Englishman--, what"s his name?--the one that his girl went back on him--he couldn"t do better now than take you. I"ve heard people say so."
"Oh don"t!" Martha cried, flushing Martha lacked the saving sense of humour.
Mrs. Burrell did not see the pain in the girl"s face, and went on briskly, "I must go in and see Libby Anne and Mrs. Cavers. Of course I think it is very unwise to let every one go in to see the sick, but for a woman like me that has had experience it is different. I"ll try to cheer them up, both of them."
"Oh, they"re all right," Martha exclaimed in alarm. "They do not need any cheering. Pearl Watson is in the tent just now."
Martha"s cheeks were still smarting with the "cheering" that Mrs.
Burrell had just given her, and she trembled for Libby Anne and Mrs.
Cavers.
Mrs. Burrell went into the tent resolved to be the very soul of cheerfulness, a real sunshine-dispenser.
Mrs. Cavers was genuinely glad to see her, for she had found out how kind Mrs. Burrell really was at heart.
"Oh, what a comfortable and cosy place for a sick little girl," she began gaily, "and a nice friend like Pearlie Watson to tell her stories. Wouldn"t I like to be sick and get such a nice rest."
Libby Anne smiled. "You can come and stay with me," she said hospitably.
Mrs. Burrell put her basket on the bed. "Everything in it is for Libby Anne," she said, "and Libby Anne must take them out herself.
Pearl will help her."
Then came the joyous task of unpacking the basket. There were candy dogs and cats, wrapped in tissue paper; there were pretty boxes of home-made candy; there were gaily dressed black dolls, and a beautiful big white doll; there was a stuffed cat with a squeak in it, a picture book, and, at the bottom, in a dainty box, a five dollar bill.
"Oh, Mrs. Burrell!" was all that Mrs. Cavers could say.
Mrs. Burrell dismissed the subject by saying, "Dear me, everybody is kind to Libby Anne, I"m sure--it"s just a pleasure."
Then Mrs. Cavers told her of the wonderful kindness the neighbours had shown her. That very day, two women had come from across the river--she had never heard of them before--and they brought Libby Anne two beautiful fleecy kimonos, and two hooked mats for the tent, and a crock of fresh b.u.t.ter; and as for the doctor"s kindness, and Martha"s, and Mr. and Mrs. Perkins"s, and Arthur"s and the Watson family"s--only eternity itself would show what it had meant to her, and how it had comforted her.
Tears overflowed Mrs. Cavers" gentle eyes and her voice quivered.
"They love to do it, Mrs. Cavers," Mrs. Burrell answered, her own eyes dim, "and Mr. Braden, too. He"s only too glad to show his repentance of the evil he brought into your life--he"s really a reformed man. You"d be surprised to see the change in him. He told Mr. Burrows he"d gladly part with every cent he had to see somebody--" pointing to the bed--"well and strong; he"s so glad to help you in any way he can; and I overheard him tell Mr. Burrell something--they were in the study and Mr. Burrell closed the door tight, so I couldn"t hear very well, but I gathered from words here and there that he intended to do something real handsome for somebody"--again pointing with an air of great mystery to the little face on the bed.
Mrs. Cavers was staring at her with wide eyes, her face paler even than Libby Anne"s.
"What do you mean?" she asked in a choked voice.
Mrs. Burrell blundered on gaily. "It"s nothing more than he should do--he took your husband"s money. If it had not been for his bar you would have been comfortably well off by this time, and I am sure he has so much money he will never miss the price Of this." She pointed to the tent and its furnishings.
"Do you mean to say--that Sandy Braden--bought this tent--for my little girl?" Mrs. Cavers asked, speaking very slowly.
"Yes, of course," replied the other woman, alarmed at the turn the conversation had taken, "but, dear me, he, should make some rest.i.tution."
"Rest.i.tution?" the other woman repeated, in a voice that cut like thin ice--"Rest.i.tution! Does anyone speak to me of rest.i.tution? Can anything bring back my poor Will from the grave? Can anything give him back his chance in this world and the next? Can anything make me forget the cold black loneliness of it all? I don"t want Sandy Braden"s money. Let it perish with him! Can I take the price of my husband"s soul?"
Mrs. Cavers and Mrs. Burrell had gone to the farther end of the tent as they spoke, and Pearl, seeing the drift of the conversation, had absorbed Libby Anne"s attention with a fascinating story about her new dolls. Yet not one word of the conversation did Pearl miss.
Mrs. Burrell was surprised beyond measure at Mrs. Cavers"s words, and reproved her for them.
"It"s really wrong of you, Mrs. Cavers, to feel so hard and bitter. I am astonished to find that your heart is so hard. I am really."