"My son, that young person? Surely, you are mistaken. She must be the daughter of some resident at the Fort, or of some traveller like ourselves."
"I don"t believe she is. She"s been taking care of herself all day. I haven"t heard anybody tell her "Don"t" once. If she belonged to folk they"d do it wouldn"t they?"
"Very likely. Parents have to discipline their young. Don"t drag me so. I"m walking fast enough."
"That"s what I say, father. "Don"t" shows I belong to you. But I do wish you"d come. She might get away before you could catch her."
"Catch her, Three? I don"t understand."
"I know it. My mother used to say you never did understand plain every-day things. That"s why she had to take care of you the same as us. Oh! I wish we"d never come to this horrid place."
The reference to his wife and the child"s grief roused the clergyman more completely than even an appeal for the heathen. Laying his thin hand tenderly upon the small rumpled head, he stroked it as he answered:
"In my flesh I echo that wish, laddie; but in my spirit I am resigned to whatever the Lord sends. If there is a heathen here, there is His work to do, and in that I can forget my own distress. I will walk faster if you wish."
The other small Littlejohns, with Kitty, now joined their father and Three, the girl regarding him with some curiosity, for he was of a stamp quite different from any person she had ever seen. But he won her instant love as, holding out his hands in welcome, he exclaimed:
"Why, my daughter! Surely the lads were jesting. You look neither ignorant nor heathen, and in personal gifts the Lord has been most kind to you."
"Has He? But I am rather lonely now."
"And so am I. Therefore, we will be the better friends. Why, sons, this is just what we need to make our group complete. Maybe, la.s.sie, your parents will spare you to us, now and then."
"I have no parents. I am a ward of Government, though I don"t understand it. I wish--are you too busy to hear my story, and will you advise me? Gaspar told me some things, but he"s not old and wise like you, dear sir."
"Old I am, indeed, but far from wise. Though, so well as I know I will most gladly counsel you. Let us go yonder, to that shady place beside the great wall, where there are benches to rest on and quiet to listen in."
Now small Four Littlejohns had heard a deal about heathen. They had been the dearest theme of all the stories told him, and he caught his father"s hand with a detaining grasp:
"She might eat you all up, father!"
"Boy, what are you saying?"
"She isn"t like the picture in my story-book of the heathen that lived in India, and all the people worshipped, that was named a G.o.d, One told me when I asked him; but I guess heathens can change like fairies; and, please don"t go, father, don"t!"
"Nonsense, Four. What trash are you talking? It is you who are the heathen now."
"I, father? _I!_"
In horror of a possible change in his person, the child began to feel of his plump face and pinch his fat body. He even imagined he was stiffening all over. Suddenly, he drew his wide mouth into a grotesque imitation of the engraving as he remembered it, planting his feet firmly and setting up a tragic wail.
"I"m not like him. I won"t be. I won"t, I won"t, I won"t!"
Kitty understood nothing but the evident distress, which she attempted to soothe and merely aggravated.
"Get away! Don"t you touch me! You go away home and sit on a table with your legs all crooked up--so; and stop playing you"re a regular girl. Leave go my father"s hand, I say!"
Then One came to the rescue. As soon as he could stop laughing, he explained the situation to the others, and though the incident seemed a trivial one to the younger people to the good Doctor it was weighty with reproach for the ignorance he had permitted in his own household.
It also had its far-reaching results; for it led him to observe the Sun Maid critically, and, when he had heard her simple story, to ask out of the fulness of his own big heart:
"Will you come and share our home with us, my daughter? Surely, you have much good sense and many wonderful gifts. The Lord has thrown us into one another"s company, and I believe you can, in large measure, take their mother"s place to these sons of mine. Will you come and live in our home, dear Sun Maid?"
"Indeed, I will! And love you for letting me!" cried the grateful girl, catching the Doctor"s hand and kissing it reverently.
But it did not occur to either of these innocents that there was, at that time, no home existing for them.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE SHUT AND THE OPEN DOOR.
"They are all unfitted to take care of themselves, though the girl has the best sense of the lot. The Fort is always overfull. They would be happier by themselves, and it will be a blessing to have such a good man among us. Let us build them a log cabin and instal them in it."
Such was the Fort commandant"s decision and, as he suggested, it was quickly done. The old maxim of many hands and light work was verified, for in a magically short time the little parsonage was reared and the few belongings of the household moved into it.
"That"s what it seems to me,"--cried the Sun Maid, as the last stroke was given, and a soldier climbed to the roof-peak to thrust a fresh green branch into the crevice,--"as if yesterday we dreamed we wanted a home, and now it"s ours. If only Wahneenah and Gaspar were here, I should be almost too happy to live. Yes, and poor Mercy Smith, who says she never did have a good time in her life; and Abel, and Black Partridge; and----"
"Everybody! I guess you"re wanting," reproved the elder son of the minister. For, during the time of building, short though it was, the orphan girl had become wholly identified with the Littlejohns"
household and felt as full a right to the cabin as if it had been her own especial property.
Now, suddenly, as she stood in the doorway there came into her mind the prophecy of old Katasha; and she looked afar, as if she saw visions and heard voices denied to the others. So rapt did her gaze become that little Four stole his pudgy hand into hers and inquired, beneath his breath:
"What is it, Kitty? What do you see?"
"I see crowds and crowds of people. Of all sorts, all forms, all colors, all races. Crowding, crowding, and yet not crushing. Only coming, more--and more--and more. I see strange buildings. Bigger than any pictures in that book you showed me yesterday. They keep rising and spreading out on every side. I see ships on the lake; curious ones, with tall masts, a hundred times taller than that in which my Gaspar sailed away. They are so laden with people and stuff that I--I--it seems to choke me!"
She did not notice that the Doctor had drawn near and was listening intently; and even when his hand touched her shoulder she found it difficult to comprehend what he was saying.
"Wake up, la.s.sie! Why, what is this? My practical new daughter growing a star-gazer, like the foolish old man? That won"t do for our little housekeeper."
"Won"t it, sir? I guess I"ve been dreaming. But I know I shall see all that some day, right here in this spot. This is the lake where the big ships sail, and this the ground where the houses stand."
One was at hand with his ever-ready reproof.
"That"s all nonsense, Kitty Briscoe. A person can"t see more than a person can. There are neither houses nor ships, such as you talk about, and you are sillier than any fairy story I ever read."
Yet long afterward he was to remember that first hour in the new home, and the rapt face of the girl gazing skyward.
Then they all went in to supper, which had been provided by the thoughtful friends at the Fort across the river; but which, the Sun Maid a.s.sured the busy women there, must be the only meal supplied that was ready prepared.
"For, if I"m to be housekeeper I mean to learn all about that, even before I do the books, which the Doctor will teach me and that I am so eager to study. But I"ll be his home-maker first, and I"ll give them jonny-cake for breakfast. Mercy said it was cheap and wholesome, and we have to be very careful of the Doctor"s little money."
How wholesome, rather how most unwholesome, that first jonny-cake proved, Kitty never after liked to recall; but she was not the only young house mistress who has made mistakes; and, fortunately, the master of the house was not critical. And how far the study-craving girl would have carried out her own plan of housewifery before reading is not known; for, having done the best she could, and having, at least, swept and dusted the rooms carefully she took little Four by the hand and set out to ask instruction of her Fort friends against the dinner-getting.
Now the fascinating dread and interest of this little fellow was an Indian; and, trudging along through the dirt, he scanned the horizon critically, then suddenly gripped her hand hard and tight.