"Won't it do our hearts good to 'give notice,' as the cooks say?"
"I can hardly wait to tell those awful Cowans that they may get along as
best they can. I'm so tired of them, Meta!"
"I know you are. I wouldn't mind the music so much if I had time. But it's
dreadful when your own studies drag like millstones about your neck. I'm
not clever at learning as you are, Rose. I have to work for what I get. So
I shall tell them, next Tuesday, that I've decided not to teach any more
till school's out."
Jack stopped on his way down the hall to look over our shoulders. "Huh!" he
said, if you know what that means.
"Doesn't it look lovely?" asked Rose, her face all full of dimples. Rose is
as pretty as a picture, anyway, and when she smiles, you can't help smiling
back. Jack patted her cheek, and said, "It certainly does," and then he
passed on abruptly.
"Something doesn't suit him!" I declared as he shut his room door behind
him. "I can't imagine what it is, and it's of no earthly use to ask him."
It wouldn't have been. You can't worm a thing out of that boy till he gets
ready to tell.
Mother came up the stairs just then waving a note in her hand. "It's from
Helen Hunt!" she announced joyfully. "She is going to spend a day and a
night with us next week on her way to Grovesport. I shall be so glad to see
her." Mrs. Hunt and mother have been friends more years than Rose and I
have lived, and they very seldom meet any more. So we girls were almost as
glad as mother was, because that dear woman doesn't have as many pleasures,
as she deserves.
After we went to bed that night, we planned the surprise. The visitor
should have our lovely new nest, and we'd go and camp in the shabby old
guest-room. We knew it would please mother, for she hadn't had so pretty a
place to entertain Mrs. Hunt in for many years. It did please her, too, so
much that she almost cried, and she hugged us and thanked us till we felt
very happy and self-satisfied. Jack was standing by, and he said "Huh!"
again, in that same queer tone. Then mother turned and hugged him, and Rose
and I said to each other how strange it was that Jack should be jealous of
his own sisters.
It shone the day she came--the room, I mean, though the sun was on duty.
too. Mother went to the station to meet her, and, as she started out, she
called back, "Children, if any of you have occasion to go into my room
while I'm gone, be sure to shut the door when you come out!"
We answered "All right!" all three at once, and then Rose said, "How funny!
What do you suppose made her tell us to do that?"
"I can't imagine," I replied, and then Jack smiled. If it had been anybody
but our jolly old Jack, I'd have said his smile was sarcastic; but no one
ever accused that boy of anything so ill-natured. Then he said in a quiet,
even voice: "It doesn't take a Solon to see through that. She wants to make
sure that Mrs. Hunt doesn't see the contrast between her room and the one
across the hall. She might not understand--or approve."
And with that he took his cap and went out.
Stunned? I guess we were! Rose and I stared at each other as if we'd seen a
ghost. Then we put our arms around each other and went up-stairs without a
word. It was mother's door we opened, and we stood there and gazed as if
we'd never seen that room before. She had been darning her carpet again. We
could see the careful stitches and the frayed edges her art couldn't quite
conceal. "She has polished her furniture, too! See how it shines, Meta. She
tried to make it look its best." Rose's voice was mournful, so I tried to
speak up cheerfully.
"To be sure she did, and succeeded!" Then we turned, and both of us choked
back a sob at what we saw. She had taken our discarded dressing-table
drapery, cut out the best portions, ruffled it daintily, pressed it neatly,
and put it on her own bureau. Our worn-out sash curtains, nicely laundered,
veiled her book-rack.
"Meta, our mother--our precious jewel of a mother! We've taken everything
for ourselves and left her the rags!"
Rose had her head on my shoulder, and by that time I was crying as hard as
she was.
"No wonder Jack was dissatisfied!" I sobbed. "Rose, why didn't he tell us?"
"O Meta, why did we need telling? That's what breaks my heart. Even our
rickety chair fixed up and set back in the shadow! O, I can't stand it!"
"We've got to!" I stiffened up grimly. "We've got to stand it, and it
serves us right. But we'll make it up to her as soon as Mrs. Hunt is gone!"
"Yes, if we can live till then!"
"I think we'll manage to. Mortification won't kill us in twenty-four hours.
We'll make her sleep in there tonight, and they can have one cozy visit in
suitable quarters. Monsters!"
Rose didn't resent the epithet. She knew it was appropriate.
We did some thinking that night. I never felt so utterly insignificant in
my life. We realized at last that there are other ways to show love than
letting its object do all the sacrificing, all the giving and enduring,
while the one who bestows it revels in selfishness. We didn't say anything
then, but mother wasn't allowed to touch that supper, only the portion of
it that filled her own plate, and she didn't wash a dish after it, either!
If Rose and I sat over our books an hour after our usual bedtime, in
consequence, it hurt no one but ourselves, and we deserved it.
They had a lovely time together. We could hear their soft voices rise and
fall, with once in a while a ripple of laughter, till we dropped off to
sleep. The next night, mother went back to her own room. We didn't say a
word to prevent it, though it hurt us to think of our old duds in there for
mother to use.
Next day the early morning post brought a note from Mrs. Hall, an old
neighbor, urging mother to meet her down-town at ten o'clock. There was
some important shopping on hand, and mother's advice was indispensable. The
dear thing didn't suspect that her daughters had frantically besought Mrs.
Hall the day before to concoct some scheme that would clear the coast at
home. "All day, Mrs. Hall!" we pleaded. "We've planned a surprise for her,
and it will take a good while to arrange it."
Mother didn't see how she could be spared to go, but we assured her that
since we'd be at home, she wasn't needed at all. If this struck her as a
most unusual state of affairs, she was too polite to say so, and, true to
her habit of helpfulness, she dressed and went to Mrs. Hall's rescue.
We didn't waste any time, I assure you. We couldn't paint her floor then,
but Jack stained it around the edges where it wouldn't have to be walked
on, and the grass rug covered the rest. We burned the made-over rags. It
did our hearts good to see them crisp and turn to ashes.
Into the attic went the ugly old things, and across the hall came the
pretty new ones,--curtains, dressing-table, chairs, every single dainty
belonging, even the drapery from our book-shelves. Teddy Ward came in and
helped carry things, and Jack worked like a beaver. He didn't need any
urging, either. If ever a boy's face shone like a full moon, Jack's did
that happy day, though he stopped at least a dozen times to hug his
sisters. "What a beast I was to think you could be as selfish as all that!"
he exclaimed once, "I ought to have known better!"
"But we were just that selfish, Jacky," we told him. We didn't mean to sail
under false colors. "We'd never have thought, if it hadn't been for you."
"Yes, you would. The first jolt would have waked you up. Lend a hand here,
Meta!"
It was done at last, all cozy and fresh. Rose stopped in the door. "It
looks like mother," she said, and her voice was husky. "It's pure and sweet
like her!"
"The other one looks pretty forlorn, girls. What are you going to do about
it?" Jack had a hand on our shoulders as he spoke, and we felt his
sympathy.
"Do?" we chirped up as brisk as millionaires. "Why, furnish it, of course."
"We have one bed to start on," Rose reminded him. "That's a big help, and
the floor and woodwork are still painted. How are we to do it? Lessons, to
be sure. Cowans and scales!"
"Thought you wanted to quit." Our brother looked troubled, for all his
satisfaction.
"My son, we have changed our minds. Our most ardent desire now is to keep
on," I told him. Rose smiled drolly. "I am seriously considering
refurnishing the entire domicile," she remarked. "The Cowans are good for
the next twenty years, judging from their present attainments, and it's
fine practise for me!"
We didn't give mother a hint till after supper. It was hard to wait, but we
made ourselves do it so everything would come about quite naturally. She
took her bonnet and wrap up to put them away, and we three tagged, as
softly as if we had pads on our feet, like cats. She opened her door and
gave one bewildered glance, then she turned and saw us. "It's yours, Lovey,
every bit!" we told her.
"Darlings, I couldn't!" she said. "Your hard work--your dear new treasures!
I couldn't permit such a sacrifice, my darlings!" We just would not cry,
though the lumps in our throats made our voices sound as if they belonged
to some other family.
"They aren't _our_ new treasures, they're _yours_."
"Who has been making sacrifices all our lives?"
"We love you so--you couldn't hurt us by refusing, Lovey!"
"There is no question of refusing." Rose spoke with great emphasis. "This
room is hers, once for all, and there is no more to be said about it."
We tucked her into her pretty white bed that night, and we kissed the dear
face on the ruffled pillow. Jack came in for his good night, too, and we
all stood looking down at her, so happy we couldn't talk. She lifted her
arms--those arms that had worked so hard for us--and gathered the three of
us to her at once. "My darlings!" was all she said, and we crept out
softly, knowing we had received her benediction.
Yes, we are getting our second collection of furniture into shape slowly
but surely. But we have learned that there are more precious things to be
had in homes than beds and chairs, or even green grass rugs. We have
them--the precious things--so, now that mother's room is accomplished, we
can wait very happily for the beds and chairs--Rose, and Jack, and
I.--_Elisabeth Price, in St. Nicholas, copyrighted by the Century Company,
1913_.
* * * * *
"The tender words unspoken,
The letters never sent,
The long-forgotten messages,
The wealth of love unspent,--
For these some hearts are breaking,
For these some loved ones wait;
Show them that you care for them
Before it is too late."