When the little girl of Ruffluck was three years old she had an
illness which must have been the scarlet fever, for her little
body was red all over and burning hot to the touch. She would not
eat, nor could she sleep; she just lay tossing in delirium. Jan
could not think of going away from home so long as she was sick. He
stayed in the hut day after day, and it looked as though Eric of
Falla's rye would go unthreshed that year.
It was Katrina who nursed the little girl, who spread the quilt
over her every time she cast it off, and who fed her a little
diluted blueberry cordial, which the housewife at Falla had sent
them. When the little maid was well Jan always looked after her;
but as soon as she became ill he was afraid to touch her, lest he
might not handle her carefully enough and would only hurt her. He
never stirred from the house, but sat in a corner by the hearth all
day, his eyes fixed on the sick child.
The little one lay in her own crib with only a couple of straw
pillows under her, and no sheets. It must have been hard on the
delicate little body, made sensitive by rash and inflammation, to
lie upon the coarse tow-cloth pillow-casings.
Strange to say, every time the child began to toss on the bed Jan
would think of the finest thing he had to his name--his Sunday
shirt.
He possessed only one good shirt, which was of smooth white linen,
with a starched front. It was so well made that it would have been
quite good enough for the superintendent at Doveness. And Jan was
very proud of that shirt. The rest of his wearing apparel, which
was in constant use, was as coarse as were the pillow-casings the
little girl lay on.
But maybe it was only stupid in him to be thinking of that shirt?
Katrina would never in the world let him ruin it, for she had given
it to him as a wedding present.
Anyhow, Katrina was doing all she could. She borrowed a horse from
Eric of Falla, wrapped the little one in shawls and quilts and rode
to the doctor's with her. That was courageous of Katrina--though
Jan could not see that it did any good. Certainly no help came out
of the big medicine bottle she brought back with her from the
apothecary's, nor from any of the doctor's other prescriptions.
Perhaps he would not be allowed to keep so rare a jewel as the
little girl, unless he was ready to sacrifice for her the best that
he had, mused he. But it would not be easy to make a person of
Katrina's sort understand this.
Old Finne-Karin came into the hut one day while the girl lay sick.
She knew how to cure sickness in animals, as do all persons of her
race, and she was not so bad, either, at conjuring away styes and
boils and ringworms; but for other ailments one would scarcely
think of consulting her. It was hardly the thing to expect help
from a witch doctor for anything but trifling complaints.
The moment the old woman stepped into the room she noticed that the
child was ill. Katrina informed her that it had the scarlet fever,
but nobody sought her advice. That the parents were anxious and
troubled she must have seen, of course, for as soon as Katrina had
treated her to coffee and Jan had given her a piece of plug-tobacco,
she said, entirely of her own accord:
"This sickness is beyond my healing powers; but as much I'm able to
tell you; you can find out whether it's life or death. Keep awake
till midnight, then, on the stroke of twelve, place the tip of the
forefinger of your left hand against the tip of the little finger,
eyelet-like, and look through at the young one. Notice carefully
who lies beside her in the bed, and you'll know what to expect."
Katrina thanked her kindly, knowing it was best to keep on the good
side of such folk; but she had no notion of doing as she had been
told.
Jan attached no importance to the advice, either. He thought of
nothing but the shirt. But how would he ever be able to muster
courage enough to ask Katrina if he might tear up his wedding
shirt? That the little girl would not get any better on that
account he understood, to be sure, and if she must die anyhow, he
would just be throwing it away.
Katrina went to bed that evening at her usual hour, but Jan felt
too troubled to sleep. Seated in his corner, he could see how Glory
Goldie was suffering. That which she had under her was too rough
and coarse. He sat thinking how nice it would be if he could only
make up a bed for the little girl that would feel cool and soft and
smooth.
His shirt, freshly laundered and unused, lay in the bureau drawer.
It hurt him to think of its being there; at the same time he felt
it would hardly be fair to Katrina to use her gift as a sheet for
the child.
However, as it drew on toward midnight and Katrina was sleeping
soundly, he went over to the bureau and took out the shirt. First
he tore away the stiff front, then he slit the shirt into two
parts, whereupon he slipped one piece under the little girl's body,
and spread the other one between the child and the heavy quilt that
covered her.
That done, he stole back to his corner and again took up his vigil.
He had not sat there long when the clock struck twelve. Almost
without thinking of what he was doing he put the two fingers of his
left hand up to his eye, ring fashion, and peeped through at the
bed.
And lo, at the edge of the bed sat a little angel of God! It was
all scratched, and bleeding, from contact with the coarse bedding,
and was about to go away, when it turned and felt of the fine
shirt, running its tiny hands over the smooth white linen. Then, in
a twinkling, it swung its legs inside the edge of the bed and lay
down again, to watch over the child. At the same time up one of the
bedposts crawled something black and hideous, which on seeing that
the angel of God seemed about to depart, stuck its head over the
bedside and grinned with glee, thinking it could creep inside and
lie down in the angel's place.
But when it saw that the angel of God still guarded the child, it
began to writhe as if suffering the torments of hell, and shrank
back toward the floor.
The next day the little girl was on the road to recovery. Katrina
was so glad the fever was broken that she had not the heart to say
anything about the spoiled wedding shirt, though she probably
thought to herself that she had a fool of a husband.