Cousin Gertrude stole up-stairs. Chee had heard good-byes a few moments
before, and was hoping, yet fearing, she might find her.
The child sat by the window removing her stockings. Daddy Joe’s fiddle
lay on the bed.
“Birdie, how could you? Oh, how could you?”
“I don’t know,” answered Chee, in an excited voice. “I tried not to
play out loud, but I got feeling sorrier and sorrier, and wishing He
would only let me help. And I forgot to play still, and then I heard a
man’s voice, and heard you answer, and I knew everything was all right,
and I was so happy I just snatched up Daddy’s fiddle and played out my
glad. I didn’t care who heard, for a minute; and, oh, Cousin Gertrude,
I felt it--I felt it.”
“Felt what, Childie?”
“Why, the music--way down in my heart, and all over me, just like I
did at the concert. I don’t know what to call it, but it’s something,
and I’ve tried to feel it for such a long time. And now I have, and it
makes me so happy--so happy, you can’t know. It just makes me glad all
through, and I feel like crying, too.”
“I am as happy as you, my own little Bird.”
Chee’s arms were around Gertrude’s neck, as she asked, “He did hear,
didn’t He?”
“Yes, my comfort, He did hear,” answered Gertrude, tears again in her
voice, “but you helped Him.”
“I helped Him?” echoed Chee, shaking her head almost sadly. “No, I
wanted to so much, but He didn’t need me.”
After a little, Gertrude said, “Listen, while I tell you how you
helped--you’ll see He did need you, after all.
“I love the violin, too--not as you do. I wanted to play because people
expected I would. I felt too proud to say that, after years of study,
I could never be a great player, and so I kept on working with one
teacher after another. Finally, Mr. Farrar, that is my Herman, told
me I had better not spend all my time and money for that any longer.
He said I had come to a place where I could never go much beyond, and
that I wanted to play more from pride than from love--just because my
parents had decided, when I was but a child, that music was my first
gift. I had found true what he said, but it made me angry that he
should dare to tell me. I said some words back. He retorted. We’re both
sorry now, but I was so vexed then, I said I would never touch the
violin again. My temper offended him, his also rose, and he said he
would not speak to me until I took back my words.
“It was the day I had set to come here. He was just going to the woods
for his vacation, but he felt so sad he could not go, and went back
home instead. Then one night he had a horrible dream that troubled him,
so he came to see if I was really safe and well. He says that, down in
his heart, he was hoping I was ready to take back my words.
“While he was wishing so much I would come to him--he was out under
the trees, you know--he heard music. He thought for a moment I was
playing, and when he reached me and found out I wasn’t--well, we were
both so glad to be together again we forgot which one was to blame.
It seemed very silly to have quarrelled at all when we understood and
loved each other so. Anyway, now we are only glad to be together again
and forget everything. Can’t you see how it might never have come right
if you had not played when you did?”
Chee made no answer, her heart was full.
“Of course,” she continued, “if he had stopped to think he would have
known it never could have been my playing,--he knows me so well,--but
he was anxious and didn’t realize. It seemed to him, he said, the music
must be mine, he wanted so much I should take back my words.
“You did help, my Birdie, but you sha’n’t be left to sing alone any
longer. Oh!” a new light dawning, “now I know why you love to think
Opechee means a song-bird,” and she kissed the silent child with new
fondness.
“We are going to ride in the morning, my Herman and I, and when we
return perhaps we will have something to tell you. But oh, my precious
cousin, you can never, never know all you have done for us.”
Chee only answered with a grave little shake of her head, “It wasn’t
me, ’twas only Our Father, and”--she added tenderly--“Daddy Joe’s
fiddle.”