"Julie, it is too absolutely appalling to realize!" Hester pressed her
nose against the window and looked out over the river dejectedly. A
fresh September gale was blowing, ruffling the surface of the water into
miniature waves and rattling the window panes with a suggestion of
autumn days to come. Julie shivered a little, and crossed to the
fireplace, where a few pine logs sputtered on the hearth. She looked
down without seeing them. Her thoughts were turned within.
"Julie! do say something!" exclaimed her sister. "I can't bear to have
you so still."
"I am thinking, dear; trying to grasp what it all means."
"Julie, what can we do?"
"Do? Well, we will do something."
"Of course we will, old girl." Hester left the window, and crossing the
room put her arms around her sister. "The two main things are to take
care of Dad and earn our own living. We couldn't be dependent on Dr.
Ware, Julie. Do you suppose he meant he wanted to give us a home and
everything?"
"I don't know, Hester. He is so generous and so fond of Dad I believe he
would; but that would not be right. I wonder what we can do to be
self-supporting? We have the usual accomplishments, and I suppose we
have average intelligence, don't you?" she asked, anxiously.
"I would back the intelligence against the accomplishments any day,"
said Hester, sagely. "We have not had the usual sort of bringing up, so
we can't do the usual thing."
"Like teaching, you mean, or--or things like that? No, we can't. We are
not trained or qualified for any sort of position, and only one of us
could work away from home anyway, for we can't both leave Daddy."
Hester's forehead was creased into little wrinkles of perplexity. "If
only I were a man!" she exclaimed, "I might stand some chance--I know
how to do such a lot of mannish things. Why, I could be an engineer if I
were put to it, Julie! You know I've run the engine attached to 'The
Hustle' many a time; the men used to let me do it." She drew in her
breath with a little gasp of remembrance. "As it is," she continued, "I
suppose I'll have to be a companion or something equally commonplace and
ladylike," she ended in a tone of disgust.
"I suppose so," agreed her sister reluctantly; "but, dear, the worst of
that is it will separate us, and I don't believe either one of us could
stand that." Julie's lip quivered. "Isn't it humiliating to have such a
feeling of utter helplessness?"
"Yes, it is." Hester gave herself a shake. "I cannot seem to take it all
in yet, Julie--what it all means. It seems to me we must be some other
girls talking, not ourselves at all. Somehow it never entered my mind
that dreadful things could happen to us--not while we had Dad to take
care of us."
"But that is just it now, Hester dear; we haven't Dad to take care of
us--it is we who must take care of him."
"We'll do it, too," said Hester, with a ring in her voice. "I'm going
down now to the kitchen to see about making him some wine jelly. Bridget
said she did not believe Dr. Ware would let him eat it, but I feel as if
I must be doing something. Come, Peter Snooks," to the dog that was
never far out of sight, "we'll at least make a pretense of being useful.
Now don't you sit there and cry," she said from the door to her sister.
"You just hold tight on to yourself, and think out something clever--I'm
sure you can," convincingly.
Julie acknowledged this flattery by a wan little smile, and following
Hester out of the room, went in to see her father. The nurse was sitting
near the bed, but moved aside as she entered.
Mr. Dale partially opened his eyes as his daughter drew near, but closed
them again instantly. His drawn, haggard face showed the strain he had
undergone in the months before the final collapse of his business had
stricken him down. A look of tender pity came into Julie's face as she
knelt by the bed and laid her hand over his. He was breathing heavily,
as if asleep, and she dared not speak. It seemed to her inconceivable
that her bright, energetic father could be lying there as helpless as a
little child! She put her head down on the bed, while her mind reverted
to their recent conversation with Dr. Ware and the subsequent talk which
had half stunned their senses. They must think, Hester said, and she was
right; but it almost seemed to her it would be a relief to stop thinking
for a moment, so rapidly had the events of the past two days been
crowded in upon them.
All this passed through her mind in a tumult of confused ideas, through
which ran the predominating thought of work, in obtaining which she knew
Dr. Ware would help them. But how, and what and where? In the first
shock of their trouble it was not possible to see the way clearly, nor,
indeed, to half understand the problems confronting them. Julie felt
this and knew she must be patient, though inwardly a wave of resentment
that such things should be, surged in her heart rebelliously. The next
instant she thrust down this feeling with a fierce determination to
control herself, and spreading out her hands, for the first time in her
life regarded them critically. They were not beautiful, like Hester's,
but they were slender and white, and she suddenly felt a contempt for
their delicacy, while a consciousness that she had never exacted
anything from them caused her to view them in a new light. Why not work
with her hands! Why not put her fingers to some use and see what they
were capable of, making each one a vital thing full of strength and
character. The idea delighted her, and she closed her fingers in a tight
grip as if testing their possibilities. "Oh, Daddy, dear!" she half
whispered, with her head pressed close against him, "we will amount to
_something_." Then rising from the bed, she stooped to kiss him, and
went in search of Hester.
When Dr. Ware came again they convinced him of their determination to
work, and he promised to look about and see what opening could be found
for them. He had only a moment to give them that morning, but said he
should return in the evening to have a long talk. When Hester kept him a
second longer to display, with considerable pride, the wine jelly she
had made for her father, he shook his head.
"Not just yet, my dear," he said, kindly. Her disappointment was so
evident that the good Doctor felt inclined to eat it himself by way of
proving his admiration of her culinary skill, and then--he had an
inspiration.
"Hester," he said, "will you do me a favor?"
"Indeed, I will."
"I should like to carry that jelly off with me; it fairly makes my mouth
water. If you'll give it to me, my dear, I will allow your father to eat
an unlimited amount of it later on; and then think how busy you will be!
Come, is it a bargain?"
"Dr. Ware! As if you need ask! Why, you know I'd just love to give it to
you."
She had arranged the jelly in a dainty dish, and now ran into the
dining-room for a doily, which she wrapped about it.
"Won't you let us send it over to you, Dr. Ware?" Julie asked.
"No, thank you, Julie; I'm going to drive right home," and the Doctor
went off with the dish in his hand.
When he reappeared that evening he astonished the girls by approaching
them silently, while he bowed with great ceremony before Hester, to whom
he held out a package and said: "Allow me to congratulate you, my dear."
Greatly mystified, Hester took the package and unwrapped it, to find the
glass jelly dish she had given him that morning, in the bottom of which
lay a two-dollar bill. She looked up at him wonderingly.
"It is yours, Hester," he said. "I plead guilty. I took that jelly to a
crotchety old patient of mine who is boarding, and reviles all the jelly
his nurse buys for him. I told him I thought I had found some that would
please him, and I was right. He devoured half of it while I was there.
Then he insisted on paying for it. I did not tell him where it came
from, but he wants some more, and he said that was what it was worth."
He was watching her closely.
She had taken up the bill, and was handling it nervously, a deep flush
on her bewildered young face. "Julie," she exclaimed, breathlessly,
turning instinctively to her sister, "Julie, I've _earned_ some money!"
"How splendid!" Julie stared at the bill as if it were different from
any she had seen before. Hester threw her arms impulsively around Dr.
Ware's neck. "This is the only way I know how to thank you," she cried.
"I shall instantly create a demand for your jelly, my dear, if I am
always to get a commission like this," the Doctor laughingly remarked,
delighted at the success of his venture.
"Are you serious, Dr. Ware? Do you suppose I could make jelly to sell?"
she asked, anxiously.
"Why not, Hester?"
The girl was silent for a moment then suddenly she cried, "Julie Dale,
we'll _cook_ for a living!"
"Cook!" repeated Julie, incredulously, "I don't know a thing about
cooking."
"No, but I do. Don't you know how Cousin Nancy was always fussing
because I would haunt the kitchen down there? I learned how to make
jelly from her old colored mammie, and heaps of things beside. Of
course, I never actually put my hand into anything--old Rachel wouldn't
let me, but I saw how she did lots of things, and her cakes were famous
all through the County, you know they were. If we can sell wine jelly we
ought to be able to sell other things, don't you think so, Dr. Ware?"
"I do indeed, my dear; I think your idea is excellent."
"Hester, I will learn, I am sure I can," cried Julie hurriedly. "I'm
aching to get my fingers into something."
"Of course you'll learn--we'll both have to learn as we go along, and
even if we don't succeed it's worth trying."
"As for that," said the Doctor, "anything you may attempt will be more
or less in the nature of an experiment."
"Yes," acquiesced Hester, "and if we do succeed it means working
together, Julie dear, in a place of our own, and being with Dad. Just
think what that would mean!"
"Everything!" assented her sister. "I believe you've hit upon a
way--there always is a way, if one keeps looking!"
"One of the first things to ascertain," said Dr. Ware, "is the cost of
materials and the market price of such things as you suggest making."
"Yes," confessed Hester. It had never occurred to her in the whole
course of her young life to consider the cost of anything.
From this the talk went on to other things relative to the change about
to take place, and Dr. Ware remained several hours in earnest
conversation with them. At the end of that time, when he rose to take
his departure, there was, added to the affection already in his heart, a
tremendous feeling of admiration and respect for these girls, whose
spirits flashed undaunted; while they, on their part, were experiencing
through him the depths of human kindness.
"We mean to be worthy of all you are doing for us," said Julie, stopping
a moment to steady her voice, "and we mean to make our fight as bravely
as you and Daddy did years ago, when you tramped through the Wilderness
together."
The Doctor straightened his shoulders and made a military salute. "On to
victory!" was all he said.