THE PARSONAGE TWINS
"Peace, Peace, guess what's happened!"
Allee tore across the smooth, green lawn as if racing for her life; and
Cherry, following hard upon her heels, panted protestingly, "I'm going
to tell her. It's my right. I heard what he said first."
"I don't care if you did," retorted Allee. "I reached her chair first.
So now!"
It was just a week since Aunt Pen's visit to the President's house, but
already a remarkable change had come over the little invalid in her
wheel-chair prison. The dull indifference had disappeared from the thin
face, the hopeless look from the somber eyes; and though there was still
a sadly pathetic droop to the once merry mouth, she seemed to have
shaken off the deadly apathy which had gripped her for so long, and to
have taken a fresh hold upon life again. True, it was hard work to smile
and look happy with the dreadful knowledge tugging at one's heart that
one must be a helpless cripple for the rest of her days, but the first
smile had made it easier for the second to come, and gradually the old
merry disposition came creeping back. Aunt Pen was right,--her real self
had only been in hiding, and with the lifting of the cloud the sunshine
of that gay spirit burst forth again.
She was tired of being idle, and with characteristic energy that very
morning had surprised and delighted the whole household by demanding
something to do,--some real work with which to fill the long hours. And
Miss Smiley had promptly suggested Indian baskets, spending many
precious minutes of a busy forenoon teaching the weak fingers how to
weave. Peace was a-tingle with pride over her accomplishment, especially
when she was told of its possibilities and scope; and straightway began
planning to send her first finished product to the State Fair which was
to open its gates soon.
So as she wrestled with the damp raffia sad willow sticks after Miss
Edith had left her, she so far forgot her trouble that the old, familiar
laugh bubbled up to her lips, and once she paused in her work to answer
a trilling bird in the branches overhead. She was all alone on the wide,
shady lawn, and so engrossed in her own thoughts that she never heard
the chug-chug of a motor-car gliding up the river road, nor saw the
black-frocked figure leap nimbly from the machine and scurry up the walk
to the kitchen door, as if in too big a hurry to enter the house in the
proper manner. But she did hear the boisterous shouts of Cherry and
Allee a few moments later, as they burst through the screen door and
raced through the short, sweet clover toward her, each clamoring to tell
her the news which stuck out all over them.
"I reached her first!" Allee repeated, waving the older sister off.
"Pig!" returned Cherry. "You always--"
"Tut, tut," interrupted a voice from behind, in tones of mock severity.
"Are you girls _quarreling_? I'm ashamed of you. Peace, what is it all
about?"
Mr. Strong, light of step and radiant of face, appeared on the scene by
another path; and Peace, flinging down the raffia basket which her busy
fingers were weaving, stretched out eager arms in welcome. "It's
something they both wanted to tell me, St. John, but they stopped to
scrap about it, and I hain't heard what it is yet."
"Bet you meant to steal my thunder, didn't you?" He turned merry,
accusing eyes upon the pair of culprits, and they flushed guiltily. "But
you just aren't going to do it this time. _I_ shall tell her myself. It
is my news, you know."
Both heads bobbed solemnly, and Peace, excited and not understanding,
cried imperiously, "Tell me quick. I'm half dead with curiosity. Has old
Tortoise-shell got some more kittens or--Say, you haven't put Glen in
_pants_ yet?"
"No," he laughed delightedly and the two sisters giggled in glee. "Guess
again. It happened last night."
"Somebody sent you a present?"
"The most wonderful gift!"
"Two of 'em," put in impatient Allee, but the minister held up a warning
finger, and she quickly subsided.
"Two!" repeated Peace, much mystified. "What _can_ they be? Oh, I
know--monkeys!" For ever since the day that Peace had brought the sick,
half-dead monkey home to the parsonage, it had been Glen's fondest dream
to own one himself.
"No!" Mr. Strong and the other two girls exploded in a gale of laughter.
"Give it up then," Peace promptly retorted. "I mightn't guess in a
hundred years and I'm fairly bu'sting to know."
"Well, girlie, the angels brought us two little babies last night for
our very own. Two! Think of it!"
"Twins!" gurgled Allee, ecstatically hopping from one foot to the other.
"Both girls!" added Cherry, hugging herself from sheer joy at being part
bearer of the glad tidings.
"Truly, St. John?" asked Peace, almost too amazed for words.
"Truly, my lady."
"Well, what do you think of that! I bet you were s'prised. Now weren't
you? What do they look like? Are they pretty?"
"I can't say they are very beautiful to look at yet," admitted the fond
father. "They resemble scraps of wrinkled red flannel more than anything
else just now. But they will improve. Glen did, and he was a caution to
took at when he was a day old."
"Are they big or little?"
"Neither is very large, but one is tinier than the other,--weighs only
four pounds. She isn't such a brilliant scarlet as her sister, and we
_think_ she will have dark eyes and black hair. The reddest one has blue
eyes now, is bald-headed, and possesses a most excellent pair of lungs.
The Tiniest One has cried only once so far, but its twin makes up for
it."
"What are their names?" The three girls hung breathlessly on his answer.
"That's one reason I am here now," the minister replied gravely.
"Elspeth and I couldn't discover any suitable names for the twinnies, so
she sent me down here to consult with Peace--"
"O--ee!" squealed the girls.
"Mercy!" whispered Peace in awed amazement. "Does she really want _me_
to name her babies?"
"Shouldn't you like to?"
"O, so much! But most mothers would thank other folks to let them do
their own naming. Or, if the mothers didn't mind, prob'ly the children
themselves would kick when they grew up. There was our family, for one.
Grandpa Greenfield named the most of us, and see what a job he made of
it. He went to the Bible for us, too."
The minister's lips twitched, but Peace was so very serious that he
dared not laugh; so, after an apologetic cough behind his hand, he
suggested politely, "Then suppose we arrange it this way,--if the first
names you select don't suit, we will tell you so, and you can pick out
some others."
"O, don't I have to think them up today? I s'posed you would want 'em
right away. Grandpa named us the first time he looked at us, Gail says."
"Well, we needn't be in such a big hurry as that, girlie. It took us a
month to decide what we should call our boy, and if you want that long a
time, take it."
"I don't think I shall," she replied, viewing her unusual and unexpected
privilege with serious eyes. "Not being a mother or a father, I don't
expect it will take me more'n a few days to find very pretty names."
Then, as if struck by an important thought, she asked, "But how will you
_Christian_ them, s'posing I don't hit on some likely names before a
month is up?"
"Christian them!"
"Yes. Like they did Tommy Finnegan's baby brother. He was only seven
days old, but he had to have a name before the priest could Christian
him."
"Oh!" Mr. Strong was enlightened. "There is no set time in our church
for christening babies, dear. We call it baptizing in our church, and
sometimes parents don't have their children baptized until they are old
enough to understand for themselves what it means."
"Then you won't be having the twins chris--baptizzened for some time
yet!"
"No, probably not until Children's Day--"
"Why, that's already gone by! There won't be another until next summer!"
"Next June. But that is usually the time we perform that ceremony in
our church, although any other time is just as good."
"Well, I'll have your children named by that time,--don't you fret.
Allee, won't you bring me 'Hill's Evangel' from the Library? I 'member
that has strings of names in it."
"'Hill's Manual,'" corrected the preacher, picking up his hat and
preparing to depart.
"Is it? St. John says it is 'Hill's Emanuel,'" she called after the
fleeing sister. "It's a big dirty-red book and you will find it in the
furthest corner of the bookcase on the next to the lowest shelf. Why,
St. John, must you hustle away so soon? You've hardly got here yet.
Perhaps I could have some names ready for you to take home with you if
you'd wait a while longer."
"Thanks, Peace," he bowed courteously. "But I must hurry home and mind
the kiddies. There is no one there to look after them and Elspeth except
the nurse and Aunt Pen. I told them I shouldn't be gone but a few
minutes, and here it is almost an hour. Good-bye, Peace. Good-bye,
Cherry. I'll come again soon."
"Good-bye, St. John, and next time bring the twins with you."
"O, Peace," gasped Allee, who was just returning with the heavy book in
her short arms, and overheard the sister's parting admonition; "they're
too fresh yet. Grandma says it will prob'ly be several weeks 'fore they
get taken anywhere."
The preacher, convulsed with laughter, glanced back over his shoulder
and seeing the look of disappointment in the brown eyes, rashly
promised, "This shall be the first place they visit, girlies, and we'll
bring them just as soon as they are old enough."
So he swung out of sight down the driveway, and Peace turned to her
delightful task of finding suitable names for the little strangers at
the parsonage.
"They ought to begin with the same letter," suggested Cherry, wishing it
had fallen to her lot to name a pair of twins, "like Hazel and Helen
Bean."
"Or else rhyme with each other," put in excited Allee, thinking it a
most wonderful privilege which had been granted Peace, "like Pearl and
Beryl Whittaker."
"Or they might suggest the same thing," ventured Hope, who had heard the
good news and had come out to see what progress the favored sister was
making. "For instance, Opal and Garnet Ordway. The opal and the garnet
are precious stones, you know."
"_These_ twins are precious babies," interrupted Peace in decided
accents, "and we shan't call them such heathenish names as stones. This
book, now, has a long line of names,--here it is,--and there ought to be
some pretty ones amongst them, though I can't say the _a's_ sound very
nice. There is only one decent one in the bunch and that's Abigail."
Hope, leaning over the back of her chair, scanned the list beginning
with _a's_ and thoughtfully read aloud, "Abigail, Achsa, Ada, Adaline,
Addie, Adela, Adelaide, Adora, Agatha, Agnes, Alethea, Alexandra, Alice,
Almeda, Amanda, Amarilla, Amy, Angeline, Anna, Annabel, Antoinette,
Augusta, Aurelia, Aurora, Avis,--that last one isn't so bad--"
"It isn't so good, either," Peace retorted. "It sounds like the thing
you fall into when you tumble off a steep mountain. I wouldn't want a
baby of mine called that."
"Abyss, you mean," suggested Hope, when the other sisters looked
mystified. "No one else would ever think of such a thing."
"No one else needs to. I'd do thinking enough for all if I tacked such a
name on a little baby that couldn't help itself."
It was very evident that Peace had taken a deep dislike to the name, so
Hope said no more, and they turned their attention to the next letter
with no better success. Peace was too critical to be easily satisfied,
and when the whole list had been thoroughly considered several times,
she sighed, "There is only one nice name on the page."
"And that is--?" Hope ventured.
"Elizabeth."
"But that is Mrs. Strong's name!" all three chorused.
"Don't I know it? And can't a baby be named for its mother? Gail was.
The only trouble is there is no other pretty name to go with it.
Nothing rhymes with it, and none of the other _e's_ are nice enough."
"Hasn't Mrs. Strong a sister named Esther?" asked Cherry, consulting the
list again.
"Ye--s, but since I knew Esther Kern, I've lost my liking for that name.
I can't bear to think of one of those lovely twins growing up into such
a pug-nosed, freckle-faced sauce-box."
"Well, here is 'Evelyn,'--that is pretty enough, I'm sure."
"And Evelyn Smiley would say the baby was named for her. I'd sooner call
it Peace, and be done with it."
"Then how about Edith, for Miss Smiley?"
"It's too short. Elizabeth has four pieces to it, and it wouldn't be
fair to give less than four to the other one."
So the search for a name went on, and each succeeding day found Peace no
nearer her goal. Whenever the busy pastor appeared for a brief chat, she
had to own defeat, and beg for a little more time. One day a brilliant
thought occurred to her, and the next time the preacher's shining black
head appeared at the gate he was greeted with the excited yell, "What is
Elspeth's middle name? It isn't right to call one baby after its mother
and the other after nobody."
"Elspeth has no middle name--"
"Neither have I," sighed Peace. "When I marry, my middle name will be
Greenfield, but until then I haven't got any."
"That's the way with Elizabeth."
"I was afraid it would be, but I hoped she would be more fortunate than
me."
Another idea buzzed through her brain.
"What's _your_ middle name? Maybe we could make something out of that."
"I am afraid not," he smiled. "I was named John Solomon, after my two
doting grandfathers."
"Solomon!" she echoed in great disappointment. "Mercy! I wouldn't name a
cat that!"
"Neither would I," he agreed quite cheerfully, and Peace returned to the
much thumbed 'Hill's Manual' once more to consider the list of _e's_.
"I've a notion to call the Tiniest One Evangeline," she mused. "It's
exactly as long and almost as pretty. Only it sounds so much like these
preachers that get up and rage and dance all over the pulpit while they
are trying to think of what they meant to say. I should hate to think of
either twin growing up to be a woman preacher, 'specially the Tiniest
One. I always wanted to call _her_ Elizabeth, 'cause she is so much
gooder than the Tiny One, but St. John says she has dark eyes. Elspeth's
are blue, so it ought to be the blue-eyed baby that's named for her, I
s'pose, even if it does cry more. Mercy, in another two days the month
will be up, and I _must_ have those names by then. It's hard work always
to say the Tiny One and the Tiniest One."
Again she fell into a brown study, but two days later found her as
undecided as ever, and she concluded to ask for just one more week in
which to make up her mind. However, when Mr. Strong appeared for his
brief visit that morning, his face looked so sadly grave as he bent over
the crippled child to give her his usual kiss of greeting that she cried
apprehensively, "What's the matter, St. John! Has anything happened to
the twins?"
"One of them--the Tiniest One--flew away with the angels last night," he
answered simply, turning his face away that she might not witness his
grief.
For a moment his reply dazed her; then she threw both arms about his
neck, and burst into tears, sobbing as if her heart would break, while
he dumbly sought to soothe her sorrow, by cuddling her head on his
shoulder and rubbing his quivering cheek against hers, for he could not
trust his voice to speak.
The first outburst of grief over, Peace shook the tears from her eyes,
loosened her strangling grasp about his neck and gulped, "Well, that
makes the naming of them easier, doesn't it, St. John! I was so fussed
up to find something nice enough to go with Elizabeth, but now we'll
just call the Tiniest One 'Angel Baby' and be glad that God didn't lug
off both twins. But oh, I do wish He had waited a little while longer
until I could have seen the two live twins."
So they comforted each other, and when the grave-eyed minister left her
a few moments later, she was smiling ever so faintly, while the
heaviness of his heart had lifted a bit, and he felt better for the
child's sympathy.
Sitting alone in her chair under the trees after the tall,
black-frocked figure had disappeared down the avenue, Peace suddenly
heard the voice of Mrs. Campbell through the library window saying in
troubled tones, "I really ought to go up to the parsonage myself and see
Mrs. Strong in person. She would appreciate it more than anything else,
but it is utterly impossible to go today, with that Board Meeting to
attend to. I suppose I might write a little note of condolence now and
make my call tomorrow, but such things are so stiff at best--"
Abruptly Peace remembered that she had sent no message by St. John to
her sorrowing Elspeth, and with feverish eagerness she caught at her
grandmother's suggestion of a note, turning to the table beside her
chair where lay the dirty-red book which she had consulted so often
during the past few weeks.
"I'll write her, too," she decided. "There are some lovely
_corndolences_ in this 'Manual,' and I wouldn't for the world have her
think I didn't care terribly bad because one of her babies has died."
With impatient fingers she turned the worn and ragged pages until she
found the section she was seeking. Then pulling out pen and paper, she
laboriously copied one of the stilted, old-fashioned epistles printed
under the title of "Letters of Sympathy," and despatched it, hidden
under a beautiful spray of white daisies and fern, to the little
parsonage on the hill.
Elizabeth herself received the badly blotted missive, and with
startled, mystified eyes, read the incongruous words penned by that
childish hand.
"My dear Friend,--I realize that this letter will find you berried in
the deepest sorrow at the loss of your darling little Angle Baby, and
that words of mine will be intirely inacqueduct to assawsage your
overwhelming grief; yet I feel that I must write a few words to insure
you that I am thinking of you and praying for you. If there can be a
coppersating thought, it is that your darling returned to the God who
gave it pure and unspotted by the world's temptations. The white rose
and bud I send (Jud says there haint any in blossom, so I'll have to
take daisies) I trust you will permit to rest upon your darling's
pillow.
With feelings of deepest symparthy, I remain, dear friend,
Yours very sincerely,
PEACE GREENFIELD."
On the other side of the inky sheet were scrawled a few almost illegible
lines, "My darlingest St. Elspeth, I have neerly squalled my heyes out
because St. John says your Angle Baby has flewn back to Heaven and I
wanted it to stay. But I am glad you have got another twin so the little
crib St. John told us about won't be all empty and you will still have
one reel live baby to rock to sleep besides Glen. This note of
corndolence on the other page is the best I could find. All the others
were too old. This one fits pretty well, but I had to change it a
little, and even now it is stiff like Grandma says all notes of
corndolence are. But I guess you will know I am as sorry as can be, for
I love you and want you to be happy.
YOUR PEACE."
And Elizabeth, looking with tear-dimmed eyes from the bungling little
note to the lovely, snow-white daisies in the box, was strangely
comforted.