SUSY IN SERVICE
"DO put it on, dear Miss Bertha; we're longing to see you in it!"
Puggy and Christina were in Miss Bertha's tiny drawing-room. A bandbox
was on the floor, and Miss Bertha stood before them, holding up the
wonderful red bonnet in her hand.
A piece of paper was attached to it, on which was written in Puggy's
best handwriting:
"With love, from the United Kingdom."
Her face was a curious mixture of astonishment, pleasure, and—if I must
say it—of horror, as she looked from the bonnet to the two excited
children.
"Did you really buy this for me in London? A real London bonnet! How
very, very kind of you, dears!"
"It was Blanche and Dawn who thought of it," said Christina; "and we
all chose it; we chose the very best!"
"Yes," put in Puggy; "and we knew you would like a cheerful kind of
colour, and you'll look tiptop next Sunday in church. You'll promise us
faithfully to wear it, won't you? We got into rather a fix over it; but
it's all right now, and we're to write a long letter to Dawn to tell
him how you look. Do try it on now!"
"I'm only afraid, dears, that it is too grand for me," said poor Miss
Bertha. "Yes, I will go upstairs and try it on certainly!"
She was gone some minutes, and when she came back with the startling
erection on the top of her sweet grey hair, she looked as if she were
just going to sit down in the dentist's chair and have two of her front
teeth out.
But the children were delighted, except that Christina said:
"I have never seen you look so grand before. You look quite different
somehow."
"She looks stunning!" said Puggy. "And we'll write at once and tell
Dawn so! Come on, Tina."
"But I must wait and tell Miss Bertha about Susy," said Christina.
Then Miss Bertha slipped out of the room again. She had a few words
with her servant Lucy as she wrapped the bonnet in silver paper and put
it in one of her drawers.
"I wouldn't hurt their little feelings for the world, Lucy, but I shall
pray that next Sunday may be a wet day. It will be the only loophole
for me. I would not be so wicked as to wish for the death of any of my
distant relatives, but if I could go into mourning for any other cause,
how grateful I should be!"
Then she put on her cap again, and went down to Christina, who poured
into her ears all she had seen and done in London, and told her of
Susy's plight.
Miss Bertha listened with her usual cheery sympathy. She was very
interested about the Bollands, and told Christina that years ago a
school-friend of hers had married an artist named Bolland.
"I should not wonder a bit if it were the same man. If he will look
after Susy, you need not trouble, Childie. Do you see how God guides
in every bit of life? If you had gone off to the Zoo that day instead
of to see those old people, you would never have heard about Susy. It
really seems as if we are to help that child. She is a dear little
girl, and Lucy was only saying to me, after she had left the village,
that she would so like to have her and train her up as a little
servant. Perhaps, if her poor father dies, we may be able to manage
that."
"Oh!" cried Christina in a fervour of delight, "How lovely, Miss
Bertha! Would you really have her in your house as your little servant?
And I could come and see her sometimes. Oh! How I wish it could come
true!"
"We must not wish her father to die. What a good thing it is for us
that our loving Father arranges our lives for us, otherwise how many
mistakes we should make! You will hear soon, I expect, from her."
Two days afterwards Christina did hear. Mr. Bolland wrote to her to
tell her that Susy's father had died in hospital; he said he was going
to look after Susy till something could be arranged for her. Directly
Miss Bertha heard this she determined to go up to London herself and
bring Susy back with her, and in correspondence with Mr. Bolland,
she discovered that his wife was indeed her old school-friend. They
insisted that she should stay with them for a few days, and Miss Bertha
thankfully agreed. She did not move about much, and a visit to London
was a great event to her. She had a horror of hotels and strange
lodgings, so this invitation greatly eased her mind.
Puggy and Christina were both disappointed to find that she was going
up to London on the Saturday; but Christina was too much concerned
about Susy to mind much that they would not see Miss Bertha wear their
gift.
"I'm back at school on Monday," said Puggy, as he wished Miss Bertha
good-bye at the station.
The two children had been allowed to ride down to the station on their
ponies to see her off. "But I do think you might have worn your bonnet
up to London. I shan't get a chance of seeing you in it till the Easter
holidays!"
"I should have spoilt it in the train," said Miss Bertha, looking a
little uncomfortable; "but I shall always value it, Puggy. It is the
loving gift of three dear little friends of mine."
"And will you go to see Dawn?" asked Puggy. "And tell him if he doesn't
cut off those curls of his before Easter, I'll do it myself the first
day I see him!"
"Oh no," said Miss Bertha. "Dawn is just his quaint little self with
his curls. He never will be like other boys, and we would not wish him
to be so. I will see him if I can, but I must make no promises."
"Good-bye, dear Miss Bertha," said Christina; "and give Susy my love,
and tell her I'm longing to see her."
The train went off, and the children turned homewards.
"I wish my school was in London," said Puggy. "Dawn seems to have all
the fun in life and I have the grind."
"I don't like London," said Christina emphatically. "It's too crowded
with people, and I don't think Miss Bertha likes it any better than
I do! But I'm so glad she's going up to Susy. If I was left alone in
London as Susy is, there is nobody I should like better than Miss
Bertha to come up to me."
"You ought to like your father best."
Christina considered.
"Yes, I like him best, of course; but I couldn't tell him things that
I could Miss Bertha. She always knows what you feel like inside, other
people tell you what you ought to feel like, and I never feel what I
ought."
"I never think of feelings at all," said Puggy a little scornfully;
"that's just like a girl!"
Miss Bertha remained away a week. When she returned with Susy,
Christina was hard at work, learning lessons with Miss Loder.
But the first day she was allowed, she went over to Miss Bertha; and
Susy opened the door to her in a black frock and white apron.
"Oh, Miss Christina, I've been through such a time; oh dear, oh dear!"
And Susy began to cry.
Christina tried to comfort her, and then heard about her father's last
illness.
"He were so good an' patient," said Susy, "an' so wonderful sorry for
all 'e'd been an' done. He seemed to lie in bed an' think of all 'e'd
done when he were in drink. He told me to teach of 'im to pray to God,
an' I learned 'im what you learned me, how Jesus died on the Cross for
his sins, and poor dad were just broken 'earted.
"'I've bin a bad father to you, my poor gel,' he says.
"An' I says, 'No, dad, not when you were out o' drink.'
"An' 'e says to me the last night afore he died: 'I'm askin' to be
forgiven my sins all the time along, do 'ee think I shall be 'eared?'
"An' I says, 'Sure to be, dad, 'cause the Bible says so'; an I readed
'im a tex' off the 'orsepital wall,—
"'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;—'
"An' then he puts his 'ead down on the piller with a groan, 'Ay, Lord,
ha' mercy; Lord, ha' mercy!'
"An' nurse told me 'e never spoke no more!"
"Oh," said Christina, mingling her tears with Susy's, "do let's come to
Miss Bertha; she will make us feel happy."
And so Miss Bertha did. She talked to them both about the beautiful
home above, and how sinful men and women were received there for the
sake of their Saviour. She pictured the meeting between Susy's father
and mother, and how glad her mother would be to hear about her little
daughter. And then changing the subject, she sent them both out to the
kitchen to help Lucy make some hot cakes for tea. Later on she told
Christina about her visit to the Bollands.
"My dear old friend was so glad to have me with her, and I think I was
able to cheer her up a little. She said you had comforted her so much,
Childie, by giving her your verse to think of. I was so glad to hear
it."
"I wonder," said Christina reflectively, "if I am getting braver. I
don't think I am quite so frightened now as I used to be. I'm not
frightened of my pony; I like riding him. But I'm always afraid of what
may come to me."
"When it comes, Childie, you know who will keep fear away from you."
And Christina smiled, for she had proved the truth of her text.
Susy settled down wonderfully soon in Miss Bertha's small
establishment. At times she had restive fits on, and then Miss Bertha
would send her out of doors, either to take a message to Christina, to
shop in the village, or to weed the garden. She was very docile and
obedient, and took the keenest interest in all housework.
"I always mean to have a little house of my own one day," she confided
to Lucy; "and p'r'aps, as I shan't have no dad to look after, I shall
be able to get a husband!"
Lucy, being an old-fashioned soul, was quite shocked.
"In my young days, such things was never mentioned to children like
you!" she said.
"Ah, well," said Susy with an old-fashioned air, "I've travelled a lot,
an' heerd tell a deal more than most. I knows husban's need a lot o'
care an' patience, but they be needful if you has a house, and women
are born to take care o' people, ain't they? You an' me takes care o'
Miss Bertha, and Miss Bertha takes care o' nearly all the village: they
told me so, that time I stopped along wi' dad at the Red Bull."
"You might be fifty to hear you talk," said Lucy, and Susy subsided
into silence.
Occasionally, when the turret room wanted cleaning out, Christina was
allowed to borrow Susy for the day; and the two little girls had a
grand time together, Christina enjoying the scrubbing and cleaning
quite as much as Susy. Eventually they used that room a good deal,
and whenever it was wet, and Christina was shut up in the house, Miss
Bertha would send Susy over to her, and the two would retire to the
turret room, where they talked a great deal, and mutually helped one
another, Christina with her superior book knowledge, and Susy with her
wider experience and unselfish views of life. Neither Mrs. Maclahan or
Miss Loder objected to the friendship now. Susy was slowly winning her
way with every one, and Lucy's training added to Miss Bertha's kind
supervision was turning her into a capital little servant.
"I don't miss the boys half so much since Susy has come," Christina
informed Miss Bertha one day. "You see, I can't have very grave talks
with Puggy and Dawn; Puggy always laughs at me, and Dawn won't listen,
he begins to talk himself. But Susy understands things much better. She
says boys and men don't think like women and girls."
Miss Bertha laughed.
"Susy is a little cynic sometimes, though she doesn't know it."
"I had a letter from Dawn this morning," Christina went on. "He asked
me if you had worn your bonnet yet?"
A faint colour came into Miss Bertha's cheeks.
"It is a little bit heavy," she confessed. "I think I must keep it till
next winter, Childie. The mild bright weather is coming on, and I get
headaches if I have too much weight on my head."
Christina assented innocently; and the Christmas bonnet as yet had
never been worn.
Time slipped by, and soon the Easter holidays came round.
Dawn and his father appeared first, and took possession of their
country cottage again.
When Puggy arrived, Dawn came over to the Towers and spent a long
day there, and it was in the turret room that Susy was brought under
discussion.
"We're not going to have her here in the holidays," announced Puggy;
"we don't want to see her, or hear anything about her. She's nothing to
do with us."
"She has a good deal to do with me," said Christina warmly; "and if you
don't like to have her here, I shall go to Miss Bertha's to see her."
"All right, you can; but you'll have to be here when I want you,
because you belong to me."
This statement of Puggy's always annoyed Christina.
"I'd rather belong to Dawn than to you," she said.
"But you can't. Scotland is joined on to England, and England comes
first. I'm the most important one."
"I wonder what Susy is," said Christina. "She isn't Scotch I'm afraid."
"She doesn't belong to the United Kingdom," said Puggy with decision.
"She must be one of us. I think she's English," said Christina.
"No she isn't. I won't own her," snapped Puggy.
"I'll tell you! We'll make her Wales," said Dawn; "and then she won't
be on any side particular. And we won't think of her at all."
So Susy was made into a Welshwoman, and though Christina suggested that
Wales was joined to England, Puggy would not listen, and for the time
Susy's visits to the Towers were discontinued.
"I've got a most splendid game in my head," announced Dawn one morning.
He always appeared after breakfast, ready for any amount of fun.
"What is it? We want a fresh game."
"It's a kind of civil war," explained Dawn. "Yesterday evening I went
out on the village green when the boys were playing cricket, and they
said they would join us. I'm going to rise up against Great Britain,
and I'll get the better of you both."
"Hurrah!" cried Puggy. "And we'll have followers; I'll go down to the
village and get some."
"Wait a minute. I've bagged the Murphy boys because they're Irish, and
the Greens' mother came from Ireland, so they belong to me. I thought
we'd prepare to-day, and have a regular fight to-morrow all over the
woods and lanes. I'll have a force, and you'll have a force, and we'll
choose our men to-day."
"But I can't fight," said Christina anxiously.
The boys considered.
"Well," said Puggy, a flash of inspiration seizing him, "you must be my
wife and stay in the turret room, and Dawn and his rebel soldiers will
come to attack it, and you must prevent them getting in."
"I can lock the door," said Christina comfortably.
"No, you mustn't do that, for he'll never be able to get in."
"But I shan't want him to."
"Oh, but I shall come and carry you off, and Puggy will come after us
and rescue you. It will be scrumptious!"
"I don't think father will like the village boys all coming into the
house and up the back stairs," said Christina.
"The Squire and Ena are going out for the day to-morrow," observed
Puggy.
"So we won't tell them till they come back," said Dawn. "That's always
best. Dad says he's often glad he doesn't know the mischief I'm in till
it's over, so I always try to keep him from being anxious!"
"But that isn't quite true!" objected Christina.
The boys looked at each other.
"I don't believe Ena would mind at all," said Puggy. "She isn't a bit
strict. I'll go and ask her."
This was done. Mrs. Maclahan laughed, told them to confine their
warfare to the turret tower, and gave them the desired permission.
Christina was not sure whether she liked the prospect in front of her
or not.
"Am I to stay in the turret all the day?" she asked.
"I'll come and attack it pretty soon," Dawn assured her; "but we've got
to pitch our camps first."
"And must I be quite alone? I'm sure a soldier's wife would have some
servants."
"You can have Susy if you like."
Then Christina's face grew radiant. She went off to Miss Bertha's as
soon as she could, and got permission for Susy to come to her the first
thing the next morning. And though Puggy took away the key of the
turret room, and told her she would have to barricade it, she did not
feel a tremor of fear. With Susy she could do and dare all things.