"But how could I manage?" gasped Miss Patch, looking dejected again.
"Think of my lameness--and there"s my furniture."
Jessie looked about her. "There isn"t _very_ much of it," she said thoughtfully. "I am sure it isn"t enough to stop your coming."
And she was right, for, after all, there was but the old-fashioned bed and chest of drawers, a chair or two and a couple of tables, and a few boxes and other trifles. "Would you go if your things got there without any trouble--I mean, without any more trouble than changing houses would be? You see," she added wisely, "if you don"t like the new people who are coming, you may _have_ to change, after all, and then you won"t have any one to help you."
The look of dread came back into poor Miss Patch"s tired eyes.
So gloomy a prospect determined her.
"You are right!" she gasped; "it would be terrible--yes. I"ll go--I do believe I will. Oh, my! it"s a dreadfully big undertaking, but-- but I"ll go, yes, I will. I will make up my mind; and--and I won"t go back from it. I am terribly given to being a coward, Jessie."
Her mind once made up Miss Patch did not swerve again, and from that time her face grew brighter. And after all it was not such a very big undertaking--not nearly as bad as she had feared, for everything seemed to fall out for her in a perfectly marvellous way, and most of her troubles were taken off her shoulders before she had been able to realize them.
A few letters pa.s.sed between Jessie and Miss Grace, and then between Mrs. Lang and Miss Grace, and then all seemed to come about so smoothly and easily that Miss Patch scarcely realized all that was being accomplished. Mrs. Lang insisted on paying the charges for the furniture being carried to Springbrook. Tom Salter saw to the packing of them all and sending them off by train; and then, oddly enough, Miss Grace Barley found that she had business in London, and would be returning to Springbrook on the very day Jessie and Miss Patch were expected there, and would travel down with them.
So, on the morning of that day, a cab drove up to the dingy house in Fort Street, and Miss Patch, and her eight parcels, and her rosebush was conveyed to the station in state and comfort, and between Jessie and Miss Grace and Tom she was taken to the railway carriage and comfortably ensconced in a corner without any bother as to luggage or ticket-taking or anything.
In fact, she was so excited and bewildered that she quite forgot all about everything. "Well!" she exclaimed, as the train moved off into the strange new country, "I never knew before how delightful and easy travelling could be! It makes me smile now to think how I shrank from it, and the fuss I made!"
Jessie, who was still weeping silently after the parting with her mother and Tom Salter, looked up and smiled sympathetically.
The bustle and responsibility of taking care of Miss Patch had helped them all through the last sad leave-takings, but when that strain was over, and they were comfortably settled, and Tom came up to say his last shy good-bye, the realization rushed over her that she should never see the dingy grey house again, nor her stepmother, nor Tom-- good, kind, faithful Tom--and it was with tears running down her face that she threw her arms round the good fellow"s neck, and kissed him as though he were her own kind big brother. Then, subsiding into her corner sobbing, she left London in grief nearly as great as when she had arrived there two years before.
For a long time her thoughts lingered about the home and the life she was leaving, her mother, Charlie, her father, the house, the lodgers, the dingy street, the noise and bustle. How real it all seemed, yet already how far away! Could she ever have been in the midst of it with no thought of ever knowing anything else! How strange life was, and how wonderful! How one short month had changed everything!
Here she was, her dream and her longing realized, going home again to Springbrook, to the old happy life, the same friends, the same everything--yet, no, not quite the same, never quite the same, perhaps. She herself was changed, and--she looked at Miss Patch.
Their eyes met in a happy, affectionate smile. "No, things were not quite the same, they were better, if anything. She had more now, more in every way."
The train tore on, and the day wore on. The hedges were growing bare now, and the leaves on them were turning red and yellow and brown; but the autumn sun shone, and there were s.p.a.ce and air and sunshine all about them. Oh, what a change after the close, narrow streets, the gloom and dinginess, the want of s.p.a.ce! Jessie"s spirits began to rise. How could she be unhappy in this beautiful world, with home before her, and granp and granny waiting for her, and the cottage, and her own dear little bedroom. "Will my rose be alive, do you think, Miss Grace?" she asked eagerly.
"Yes, dear, your grandfather has cared for it as though it were his most treasured possession, and your little garden, too. He has kept everything as though you might return at any moment, and all must be in readiness. It has been a cruelly long parting for them, and it has told on them," she added. "You must be prepared to find them altered. But," she added more cheerfully, "it rests with you to make them young and happy again, Jessie."
"I will do my very, very best," said Jessie earnestly. "Oh!" she sighed, "how slowly the train goes, aren"t we nearly there, Miss Grace?"
"Only a few moments now, dear. This is Crossley, the next station to ours. Don"t you recognize any landmarks yet?"
Jessie sprang to the window and remained there, fascinated, enchanted, drinking it all in, trying to realize that all was not a happy dream, but glorious reality. She recognized it all now, and every yard made it more familiar.
The train gave a warning whistle. "Here we are! here we are!" she screamed in a perfect ecstasy of joy. "Oh, Miss Grace, there is the road, and--and here is the platform, and--and I do believe I see granp!"
She drew in her head and shrank back into her corner. "Miss Grace,"
she pleaded excitedly, "when we stop will you and Miss Patch get out and walk away as if I wasn"t here and you had forgotten all about me, and then granp will come to look for me--like he did the first time, will you?"
Her eagerness was so great Miss Grace could not refuse her.
"Very well, dear, but"--laughingly--"I must leave all the parcels, too. I can"t manage them as well."
"Oh, no, we will bring those. Now," as the train drew up, "please get out!"
She drew forward the curtain and hid behind it. Miss Barley and Miss Patch clambered out and walked away. Half-way down the platform they met Mr. Dawson, he was pale and trembling, but his blue eyes, bright with eagerness, looked for one face and figure only, and saw no other; Miss Patch and Miss Barley pa.s.sed him quite un.o.bserved; Miss Grace smiled to herself, and they turned to watch.
Along the platform he went, peering eagerly into every carriage.
Jessie, in her corner, breathless with excitement, thought he would never come. The time seemed so long, so very long, she began to fear that the train would move on and carry her with it. In her excitement she thrust back the curtain, and leaned forward--and the next minute she was in his arms!
"Not asleep this time, granp!" she cried excitedly, "not asleep this time! Oh, granp! granp!" and she hugged and kissed him again and again.
The guard came in at last, to warn them that the train was about to move, and then there was a hasty gathering up of Miss Patch"s eight parcels and her rose, and Jessie"s three parcels and her geranium, and at last they all stood together on Springbrook platform, with the sun shining on them, the breeze blowing, the birds singing--and granny at home waiting to welcome them to the new happy life which lay before them.
Miss Grace led Miss Patch out, and they got into a carriage which had been sent from Norton for the purpose, but Jessie and her grandfather begged to walk back, as on that first occasion. He did not carry her now, though he leaned on her instead, and seemed glad of the support.
He leaned heavily, too, she noticed, and she realized vaguely that there was one more change than she had thought of. In the past she had leaned all her weight on him, now it was he who would lean on her; and she hoped, with all the strength of her warm little heart, that she might be able to prove herself a real prop and staff to him and the dear granny who loved her so.
"G.o.d make my life a little staff, Whereon the weak may rest."
She repeated to herself.
"Here"s granny," said granp joyfully, as they reached the garden gate. Run on to her, child! and--and remember--one arm is helpless still. You must be her right arm now, Jessie."
"I will," said Jessie eagerly, and the next moment was at her granny"s side.
THE END.