Jessie flew away, willingly enough, and up the stairs until she came to the big attic at the very top of the house, which she knew was Miss Patch"s. She had not spoken to Miss Patch yet, but she had heard a good deal about her from Charlie, who seemed very fond indeed of her, and often bemoaned the fact that she lived at the very top of the house now, for he very seldom saw her; she was lame and suffered a good deal, and could not get up and down the steep stairs very well, and he could not go up to her.
As she approached the door Jessie heard a sound of a soft voice singing, and paused a moment to listen, she could not bear to interrupt.
"I may not tell the reason, "Tis enough for thee to know That I, the Master, am teaching, And give this cup of woe."
The singing ceased for a moment, and Jessie gently knocked at the door.
"Come in," said the same voice brightly; "open the door, please, and come in."
Jessie did as she was bid, and stepped into one of the neatest and cleanest and oddest rooms she had ever seen in her life.
The furniture in it was scanty, but what there was was old-fashioned and good, there was a bright rug on the floor, a few pictures on the walls at each end, an old-fashioned wooden bed at one side, a dear little round table before the fire, and a large arm-chair. The room was a large attic which really stretched over the whole of the top of the house, but though it was so large, there was really not very much available s.p.a.ce in it, for the sides sloped steeply. Miss Patch had curtained off the sides, and out of the long narrow strip down the middle had formed, in Jessie"s opinion, one of the nicest rooms she had ever seen.
The owner of the room looked up at Jessie with a bright smile, a smile which brightened still more when Jessie gave her message.
"Please, Charlie wants to know if you will come down and see his room. I have been tidying it a little, and I moved the bed, and he is so delighted with it he wants you to see it."
"I should like to, very much," said Miss Patch, "but I have rheumatism in my knee to-day, and I can"t get up and down stairs very well. Perhaps, though," she added, with sudden thought, "you will help me?"
"Oh yes," said Jessie, advancing further into the room, "I would like to if I can. What shall I do?"
"I will ask you to let me lean on your shoulder a little, that is all, dear. But will you wait just a moment while I finish preparing the potatoes for my dinner?"
"Oh yes. I will wait, and--and--I"d like to help you," said Jessie, half eager, half shy. "Thank you, dear, but I"ve nearly done, and it isn"t worth while for you to wet your hands. Sit down instead and talk to me. I heard that Mrs. Lang was having a little daughter to help her, and I have been hoping I should see you--but I haven"t even heard your name yet!"
"It is Jessie."
"Oh, is it. I am very glad, for I had a dear little pupil once called by that name, and I have been fond of it ever since. She was really, though, christened "Jessica.""
"I am only _called_ Jessie. I was christened Jessamine May,"
explained Jessie seriously. "Grandfather has got a jessamine growing all over the front of his house, and he has ever such beautiful red may-trees in the garden. They were there when mother was a little girl, and she loved them so dearly she called me after them, to keep her in mind of home."
"What a pretty name," said Miss Patch gently, "and what a beautiful thought. You are a little bit of a sweet garden transplanted into the midst of a dingy street to brighten us up, and bring beautiful and fragrant things to our minds. Jessamine and may blossom," she repeated softly; "oh, the picture it calls up, and the sweet fragrance! I seem to see them and to smell them, even here! I am ready now, little Jessamine May; shall we go to Charlie?"
Jessie sprang to her feet. "I think yours is such a pretty room,"
she said half timidly; and then her eye falling on a rose-bush in Miss Patch"s window, all her timidity vanished, and she sprang towards it with a cry of mingled pleasure and pain.
"Oh, you have a rose-bush, too!" she cried eagerly. "I had one at granp"s, and I loved it so." The quivering of her lips prevented her saying more, and the tears in her eyes made the rose-bush look all misty and dim.
Miss Patch saw and understood, and it was a very loving hand she laid on Jessie"s shoulder. "I know, dear, I know how it feels--and you cannot understand the why and the wherefore of it all now--but you will some day--and in the meantime you are come to be a bit of sweet garden in our midst, to cheer us as your rose cheered you--and we do need some brightness here, little Jessamine May, I can a.s.sure you."
And, somehow, Jessie felt much of her overwhelming sorrow vanish at the little old lady"s words, and as she helped her down the stairs she felt quite cheered and happy again.
Charlie"s delight more than repaid Miss Patch for the pain and effort of going down to see him, and whilst they were all looking and admiring, and agreeing what a wonderful improvement it was, and how much more comfortable and s.p.a.cious the room looked, and in every way desirable, Mrs. Lang returned and came up-stairs to see how her boy had got on in her absence.
Jessie had been rather dreading this moment, for she could not help feeling that she had been taking a great liberty, but Mrs. Lang was too weary and anxious to make troubles of trifles, and anything that pleased her darling was sure to please her too.
So she expressed her approval of their doings and sat down on the foot of Charlie"s bed to hear all about it, and all the advantages, and new charms and interests of having his bed in this position.
Miss Patch sat on the ricketty chair and joined in occasionally, but her quick sympathy was aroused by the weariness on Mrs. Lang"s face.
"You look tired out," she said kindly.
"I feel so," said Mrs. Lang listlessly. "The wind is almost more than any one can battle with, and the damp seems to get into one"s bones. I feel ready to drop--and, oh, I"ve such a lot to do!"
"Mother," said Jessie eagerly, "shall I make you a cup of tea?
I know the kettle is boiling by this time. Don"t you think it would do you good?"
Charlie"s face lit up again. "Oh do, mother, do, and have it up here, and Miss Patch have one, too, and Jessie, and me."
"Well, I declare!" cried Mrs. Lang, quite taken aback. "What next! I never heard of such a thing! I believe, though, that one would do me good, and I know I"d enjoy it ever so much. Miss Patch would, too, I believe!"
Miss Patch smiled. "I"d enjoy one," she laughed, "if I had to get up in the middle of the night for it."
Without waiting for another word Jessie flew off to the kitchen.
This was her chance she felt to do things nicely, so, while the kettle came to the boil, she polished the shabby tray and the tea-cups and spoons. She had no pretty white cloth to lay on the tray, unfortunately, but she had a sheet of white paper that she had saved from a parcel, and she spread this on the tray, then arranged on it the cups and saucers and milk-jug and sugar-basin. She made the tea next and put out some biscuits on a plate.
She could not carry all up at once, so she took the tray first, then came back for the teapot and kettle. A second chair was got from Mrs. Lang"s bedroom, and then the sociable little meal was begun.
It did not last long, but half-an-hour, at the longest. Yet it was one of those bright little spots which linger long in the memory and make one glad, though sometimes sad, to look back upon.
"Well, I must get on, my work won"t do itself, I guess," sighed Mrs.
Lang, at last reluctantly preparing to rise, but Charlie put out his hand to detain her.
"Don"t go yet, mother, wait a minute, I want Miss Patch to sing.
Miss Patch, you will sing to us, just once, won"t you?" he pleaded.
"That one you used to sing to me. Oh, do! please! please!"
"But, my dear, my dinner is on cooking, and--and"--Miss Patch"s cheeks flushed a delicate pink, she was very shy--"I--I ain"t accustomed to singing, except to myself, and--well, I used to sing to you sometimes when you were very little and didn"t know what good singing was."
"It was lovely," said Charlie earnestly, "and n.o.body ever sings to me now," he added wistfully.
Miss Patch"s tender heart was touched, and her shyness overcome.
"Very well, dear, I will," she agreed bravely, and it was really brave of her, for to do so cost her a great effort. "Perhaps we could choose a hymn we all know, and we could all join in. I am sure we all know "Safe in the arms of Jesus," or "There"s a home for little children." You know them, don"t you, Jessamine May?"
"Yes," said Jessie, "granp and I used to sing them on Sunday afternoons."
But when they had begun "There"s a home for little children," Miss Patch was soon left to sing it through alone, for Charlie was too exhausted, and after the first line or so Mrs. Lang could not get out another word for the pain at her heart and the lump in her throat, and taking Charlie in her arms she sat with bowed head looking down at him.
"Would it be better--for him," she thought heart-brokenly, "would not that home be better than this--the only one she could give him--and what was to become of him if he lost her?" But she forced the thought away. "And what is to become of me--if I lose him?" she asked herself fiercely--and found no answer.
The last verse was reached, and she felt almost glad, the pain and the pathos were more than she could bear.
"Now, one more," pleaded Charlie"s weak voice from the shelter of his mother"s arms, and Miss Patch in her thin, sweet voice sang to a plaintive chanting air of her own the beautiful hymn written by Miss M. Betham-Edwards--
"G.o.d make my life a little light Within the world to glow; A little flame that burneth bright Wherever I may go."
"G.o.d made my life a little flower, That giveth joy to all, Content to bloom in native bower Although its place be small."
"G.o.d make my life a little staff, Whereon the weak may rest, That so what health and strength I have May serve my neighbours best."