MARIAN'S NEW HOME
THE second day of the journey to the new home, Marian laughed aloud.
She had slept well the night before and had taken a lively interest in
everything she saw from the time she was awakened by the first glimpse
of daylight through the sleeper windows. Not that she was happy, far
from it, but it was something that she wasn't utterly miserable.
Uncle George was pleasanter than his wife, and although he said little
from behind his newspaper, that little was encouraging: his tones were
kind.
Ella St. Claire, the cousin, three years younger than Marian, was
inclined to be friendly. Left to themselves the children might have
had a delightful time, but Mrs. St. Claire had no intention of leaving
the two to themselves; it was not part of her plan. Marian made
several attempts to get acquainted and Ella kept edging away from her
mother, until in the middle of the forenoon, Mrs. St. Claire remarked
that if she wished to have any peace she must separate the children.
Accordingly she took Ella by the hand and went several seats back,
leaving Marian alone. As she left, Ella begged for a cooky.
"I'm hungry, too," added Marian.
Mrs. St. Claire gave Ella the cooky and passed a bit of dry bread to
Marian.
"If you please," suggested Marian, "I like cookies, too."
"You will take what I give you or go without," said Mrs. St. Claire;
"you can't be starving after the breakfast you ate in Buffalo."
Marian, sorry she had spoken, dropped from sight in the high-backed
seat. There was a lump in her throat and so deep a longing for the
Home she had left it was hard to keep the tears back. Just then an old
man began snoring so loud the passengers smiled and Marian laughed in
spite of herself. Having laughed once she grew more cheerful. There
were green fields and bits of woodland to be seen from the car windows,
cows, sheep, bright flowers growing along the track, country roads and
little children playing in their yards, sitting on fences and waving
their hands to the passing train. Wonderful sights for a child straight
from the Little Pilgrims' Home in a big city.
Uncle George, growing tired of his paper, crossed the aisle and sat
down beside his niece. Marian looked up with a happy smile. "I wish the
cars would stop where the flowers grow," she said, "I'd like to pick
some."
"The cars will stop where the flowers grow," answered the man. "When we
get home you will live among the flowers; Marian, will you like that?"
"Oh, goody!" the child exclaimed. "Oh, I am so glad! May I pick some
flowers?"
"Indeed you may, and we'll go to the woods where the wild flowers are.
Were you ever in the woods?"
Marian shook her head. "I've been in the Public Gardens and on the
Common, though, and I know all about woods."
"Who told you about the woods?"
"Nanna--Mrs. Moore."
"Was she your nurse?"
"Yes, Uncle George, she was my everybody. I love her more than anybody
else in the world. She is the prettiest, nicest one in the Home."
"See here, little girl," interrupted the man, "will you promise me
something?"
"Why, yes, what is it?"
"I want you to do me this one favor. Don't tell any one you were ever
in an orphan's home."
The child was silent. "What will I talk about?" she finally asked.
Uncle George laughed. "Take my advice and don't say much about
anything," was his suggestion. "You'll find it the easiest way to get
along. But whatever you talk about, don't mention that Home."
Later, Aunt Amelia added a word on the same subject, but in a manner so
harsh Marian became convinced that to have lived in an orphan asylum
was a disgrace equal perhaps to a prison record. She determined never
to mention the Home for Little Pilgrims. Janey Clark must have known
what she was talking about and even Mrs. Moore, when questioned, had
admitted that if she had a little girl it would make her feel sad to
know she lived in a Home. Before the journey was ended Marian was
thankful that relatives had claimed her. Perhaps if she tried hard, she
might be able to win Aunt Amelia's love. She would be a good little
girl and do her best.
One thing Marian learned before she had lived ten days with Aunt
Amelia. The part of the house where she was welcome was the outside.
Fortunately it was summer and the new home was in a country town where
streets were wide and the yards were large. Back of Aunt Amelia's
garden was an orchard, and there or in the locust grove near by, Marian
passed untroubled hours. The front lawn, bordered with shrubs and
flower beds, was pleasing enough, but it wasn't the place for Marian
who was not allowed to pick a blossom, although the pansies begged for
more chance to bloom. She could look at the pansies though, and feel
of the roses if Aunt Amelia was out of sight. How Marian loved the
roses--especially the velvety pink ones. She told them how much she
loved them, and if the roses made no response to the endearing terms
lavished upon them, at least they never turned away, nor said unkind,
hard things to make her cry and long for Mrs. Moore.
When Marian had been with the St. Claires a week, Aunt Amelia told her
she could never hope to hear from Mrs. Moore, partly because Mrs. Moore
didn't know where she lived, and also because Mrs. Moore would gladly
forget such a bad tempered, ungrateful little girl.
The pink roses under the blue sky were a comfort then. So were the
birds. Day after day Marian gave them messages to carry to Mrs. Moore.
She talked to them in the orchard and in the locust grove, and many
a wild bird listened, with its head on one side, to the loving words
of the little girl and then flew straight away over the tree-tops
and the house-tops, away and away out of sight. Several weeks passed
before Marian knew that she might pick dandelions and clover blossoms,
Bouncing Bet and all the roadside blooms, to her heart's content. That
was joy!
Under a wide-spreading apple-tree, Marian made a collection of
treasures she found in the yard. Curious stones were chief among them.
Bits of moss, pretty twigs, bright leaves, broken china, colored
glass--there was no end to the resources of that yard. One morning she
found a fragile cup of blue. It looked like a tiny bit of painted egg
shell, but how could an egg be so small, and who could have painted it?
She carried the wonder to Uncle George who told her it was part of a
robin's egg.
"Who ate it?" asked Marian, whereupon Uncle George explained to her
what the merest babies knew in the world outside the city. More than
that, he went to the orchard, found a robin's nest on the low branch of
an apple-tree, and lifted her on his shoulder so that she might see it.
There were four blue eggs in the nest. Marian wanted to break them to
see the baby birds inside, but Uncle George cautioned her to wait and
let the mother bird take care of her own round cradle.
In the meantime Madam Robin scolded Uncle George and Marian until they
left the tree to watch her from a distance. That robin's nest filled
Marian's every thought for days and days. When the baby birds were
hatched she was so anxious to see them oftener than Uncle George had
time to lift her on his shoulder, she learned to climb the tree. After
that Marian was oftener in the apple-trees than under them. Had there
been no rainy days and had the summer lasted all the year, Marian would
have been a fortunate child. Aunt Amelia called her a tomboy and said
no one would ever catch Ella St. Claire climbing trees and running like
a wild child across the yard and through the locust grove.
The two children admired each other. Had it been possible they would
have played together all the time. Marian, who became a sun-browned
romp, thought there never was such a dainty creature as her delicate,
white-skinned cousin Ella, whose long black curls were never tumbled
by the wind or play: and Ella never missed a chance to talk with her
laughing, joyous cousin, who could always think of something new.
Aunt Amelia said that Ella wasn't the same child when she was left
with Marian for half an hour, and she could not allow the children to
play together for her little daughter's sake. It was her duty as a
mother to guard that little daughter from harmful influences.
This was the talk to which Marian listened day after day. It grieved
her to the quick. Again and again, especially on rainy days, she
promised Aunt Amelia that she would be good, and each time Aunt Amelia
sent her to her room to think over the bad things she had done and what
an ungrateful child she was. Although Marian became convinced that she
was a bad child, she couldn't sit down and think of her sins long at a
time, and her penitent spells usually ended in a concert. Uncle George
took her to one early in the summer, and ever after, playing concert
was one of Marian's favorite games. She had committed "Bingen on the
Rhine" to memory from hearing it often read in school at the Home, and
on rainy days when sent to her room, she chanted it, wailed it and
recited it until poor Ella was unhappy and discontented because she
could have no part in the fun.
Ella had a toy piano kept as an ornament. Marian's piano was a chair,
her stool was a box and her sheet music, an almanac: but in her soul
was joy.
"What can you do with such a child?" demanded Aunt Amelia.
"Let her alone," counseled Uncle George.