A LITTLE MOTHER HEN
For Rosie this was the end. This was defeat and she accepted it as such.
Slowly and tearfully she dragged herself into the house.
"Ma, Ma, after all I've done, there he's gone!"
Mrs. O'Brien looked up in concern. "Who did you say was gone, Rosie?"
"Jackie! He's gone off swimming again with that old Joe Slattery!"
"Is that all it is, Rosie?" Mrs. O'Brien seemed much relieved. "You gave
me quite a turn."
"But, Ma, what am I going to do?"
"Well, Rosie dear, what do you want to do?"
"I want to save Jackie from those old Slatterys."
Mrs. O'Brien sighed sympathetically. "Ah, I'm afeared you can't do that,
Rosie. Jack's a b'y and you know how it is: b'ys do like to run around
with other b'ys."
"But what if he gets all sunburnt again and maybe drownd-ed?"
"Ah, now, but maybe he won't."
There were times when, to Rosie, her mother's easy-going optimism was
maddening. Today it seemed to her the very sort of thing you might
expect to find in a hot, untidy kitchen cluttered up with
clothes-horses and steaming with fresh ironing. The rickety old
baby-carriage, draped in mosquito-netting, stood near the ironing board,
and Mrs. O'Brien, as she changed irons, would give it a push or two.
Geraldine was whimpering miserably, and little wonder, Rosie felt.
Mrs. O'Brien, on the other hand, seemed surprised and grieved that she
was not cooing herself comfortably to sleep. "Ah, now, baby, what can be
ailin' ye? Can't you see your poor ma is working herself to death to get
your nice clean clothes all ready for you? Now stop your cryin',
darlint, or your poor ma won't be able to iron right, and then what'll
sister Ellen say when she comes in? Ho, ho, Ellen's a Tartar, dear, she
is that! Now you wouldn't want your poor ma to be scolded by Ellen,
would you? Indeed and you wouldn't! So hush now like a good baby, and
don't be always cryin'...."
Rosie stood it as long as she could, then her heart overflowed in
indignant speech: "Of course she's crying in this horrible hot kitchen!
Why wouldn't she? And they's flies in her mosquito-netting, too!"
Mrs. O'Brien paused in her ironing to shake her head in mournful
reproach. "Why, Rosie, how you talk! Where else can I put the poor child
but right here? Upstairs in Ellen's room and in my room it's just like
an oven. Jarge's room, downstairs here, is cool enough, but I can't use
that, for Jarge pays good money for it and besides lets Terry sleep with
him. No, no, Rosie, I can't impose on Jarge."
Rosie's blue eyes snapped. "Well, why can't you put her in the front
room? That's cool."
"Why, Rosie! You know very well why I can't. Ellen won't let me. When a
girl's a young lady like Ellen, she's got to have a place for gintlemin
callers, and how would she feel, she says, if her gintlemin friends was
to smell Geraldine!"
"Smell Geraldine! Maggie O'Brien, I'd think you'd be ashamed o'
yourself! Geraldine'd be all right if you changed her and washed her
often enough! You can bet nobody ever smelled Jackie! It's just your own
fault about Geraldine, and you know it is!"
"Rosie dear, why do you be so hard on your poor ma? I'm sure I wash her
whenever I get the chance. I'm always washin' and ironin' somethin'!"
"Yes. You're always washing and ironing Ellen's things!"
"Why, Rosie, how you do be talkin'! When a girl's a young lady she's got
to have a good supply of fresh skirts and clean shirt-waists. Men like
to see their stenogs dressed clean and pretty."
"Aw, what do I care how men like their stenogs? All I want to say is
this: If you got a baby, you ought to wash it!"
"Yes, Rosie dear, but what'd you do if you'd been like your poor ma and
had had eight babies? Ah, you don't know how wearyin' it is, Rosie!"
Rosie rushed out of the kitchen, unable longer to endure the discussion.
But she was back in a few moments, carrying towels and a large white
basin.
"Why, Rosie dear, are you really goin' to give poor little Geraldine a
nice----"
"Maggie O'Brien, if you say a single word to me I won't do a thing!"
Rosie glared at her mother threateningly.
"Mercy on us, Rosie, how you talk! I won't say a word! I promise you on
me oath I'll be as quiet as a mouse! You won't hear a sound out o' me,
will she, baby darlint? I'll be like the deaf and dumb man at the
Museum. He talks with his fingers, Rosie. You'd die laughin' to see
him...."
At the cooling touch of water, little Geraldine quieted her whimpering
and began to smile wanly. The sight of her neglected body made Rosie's
anger blaze anew.
"Maggie O'Brien, I don't believe you've touched this baby for a week!
You ought to be ashamed o' yourself! Just look at how chafed she is, and
her body all over prickly heat, too!... Where's the corn-starch?"
"Rosie dear, I'm awful sorry, but we're out o' corn-starch. I've been
meanin' this two days to have you get some."
"Well, I'd like to know what I'm going to put on Geraldine!"
"Couldn't you run over to the grocery now?"
"No, I can't! It's almost time for my papers. I know what I'll do: I'll
borrow Ellen's talcum."
"Oh, Rosie, Ellen wouldn't like that!"
"I don't care if she wouldn't! I guess she helps herself to other
people's things. Besides, if she's so particular about her gentlemen
friends, she ought to be glad to have Geraldine all powdered up with
violet talc."
"Don't tell me, Rosie, that you mean to be puttin' Geraldine in the
front room! Ellen'll be awful mad!"
"Let her be! When she begins to ramp around, you just _sick_ her on to
me! I'll be ready for her! Besides, I guess Geraldine's got some rights
in this house!"
On the floor of the front room, between two chairs, Rosie made a cool
little nest, protected with mosquito-netting. The tired baby sighed and
turned and was asleep in two minutes.
"You poor little thing!" Rosie murmured as she stood a moment looking
down at the dark circles under Geraldine's closed eyes and at the cruel
prickly heat that was creeping up her neck. "You poor little thing!"
She went back slowly and thoughtfully to the kitchen. Before her mother
she paused a moment, then looked up defiantly. "Ma, has Geraldine a
clean dress to go out this afternoon in the baby-buggy?"
Mrs. O'Brien's face began to beam with delight. "Ah, now, do you mean to
say----"
Rosie cut her off shortly. "Maggie O'Brien, if you say one word to me
I'll drop the whole thing!"
Mrs. O'Brien stopped her ironing to stretch out a timid, conciliatory
hand. "Rosie dear, why do you always be so sharp to your poor ma? I
won't say a word, I promise I won't. Geraldine's things is at the bottom
of the basket, and the moment I finish this waist of Ellen's I'll get at
them."
Rosie felt a sudden pang of shame, but a foolish little pride made her
keep on scolding.
"Well, I got my papers to attend to now, but see that you have those
things ready by the time I get back."
"Indeed and I will!" Mrs. O'Brien declared with head-shaken emphasis.
All afternoon on her paper route Rosie thought of poor, neglected little
Geraldine with her chafed body and sad, tired eyes. It wasn't her fault,
poor baby, that she had come eighth in a family when every one was too
busy and hard-worked to pay attention to her.... But it was a
shame--that's what it was! I just tell you when there's a baby around,
some one ought to take proper care of it!... Rosie wanted dreadfully to
fasten blame somewhere, and the person naturally responsible would seem
to be her mother.
For some reason, though, she couldn't work up much of a case against
Mrs. O'Brien. That poor soul had enough to do, and more than enough,
without ever touching Geraldine. She was not, it is true, the best
manager in the world, and she was dreadfully helpless in the hands of
unscrupulous people like, say, her own daughter Ellen; but when all was
said and done, she was fearfully hard driven, early and late, and never
a day off. And yet how cheerful and uncomplaining she was! How loving
and kind, too, never remembering the cross words you gave her nor the
short, ill-natured answers. No matter how you had been acting, she would
call you "dear" again, the moment you let her....
Moreover, even if she did not wash Geraldine as often as she should,
Heaven knows it was not to save herself. Maggie O'Brien would have gone
through fire and flood for the benefit of any of her children, living or
dead, and Rosie knew this. No, no. The things slighted were not slighted
because she was lazy and selfish, but because there were not hours in
the day for her one pair of hands, willing but not very skilled, to do
all there was to do in the crowded little household.
But if it was once granted that her mother was unable to give Geraldine
proper care, was the child, Rosie asked herself, never to receive such
care? In her heart Rosie knew the one way possible and at last forced
herself to consider it. Could she take this baby and raise it as she had
Jackie?... To have Geraldine for a morning or an afternoon would be a
pleasure; but all day and every day--that was another matter. Rosie
knew how time-consuming it was to be a mother. She knew what it meant to
look after a baby's food and its naps and its baths and its clothes. And
such things were worse now than in Jackie's time. It would never do to
raise another baby in the haphazard fashion Jackie had been raised. The
care of babies was an exact science now. Out of curiosity Rosie and
Janet had once attended a few meetings of the Little Mothers' Class at
the Settlement, so Rosie knew. She sighed. Among other things, she
supposed she would have to become a regular member of that class....
Dear, dear, what time would be left for all those lovely vacation
picnics which she had been planning for herself and Janet and Jackie?...
Jackie!... She had forgotten: _there wasn't any Jackie now_.
Rosie stopped, expecting again to be swallowed up in that ancient grief.
But it scarcely touched her. Instead, she found herself looking at
Jackie with the critical eyes of an outsider. He was pretty big. Perhaps
he did not need her any longer. George Riley and Danny Agin and Janet
McFadden and Terry and her mother--hadn't each of them said the same
thing? Rosie had wanted to make herself believe that they were all in
league against her, but deep down in her heart she knew they were not
and had always known it. Now at last she was ready to confess the truth:
Jack did not need her any longer.... And poor little Geraldine did.
Of course, though, she would never love Geraldine. All the love in her
heart she had poured out upon Jackie, and there simply wasn't any left.
How could there be? It was merely that, in any case, she must fill up
the barren days remaining with something. Why not with Geraldine?
It would, however, be rather pleasant to see Geraldine grow plump and
happy under her wise care. Ever since hot weather the poor birdie had
not had half enough sleep. Rosie would not be long in remedying that.
And it would surprise her much if she did not have the little chafed
body well within a week....
When you take a baby to raise, it's a satisfaction to get a pretty one.
Geraldine promised to be very pretty. Her hair was growing out in loose
little ringlets like Rosie's own, and her eyes, too, were like Rosie's,
only bluer. Perhaps, when Rosie fattened her, she would have a dimple.
Rosie herself had a lovely dimple that was much admired. Let's see: was
it in the right cheek or the left? Rosie made sure by smiling and
feeling for it. Yes, she really hoped that Geraldine would develop a
dimple. Was there anything on earth sweeter than a dimpled baby?... The
baby-buggy was a rickety old affair that had done service for Jackie and
for little Tim that was gone. Rosie did wish they could afford a nice
new up-to-date go-cart. No matter, though. Having any sort of thing to
push about, would give her and Janet all the excuse they needed to
promenade for hours up and down Boulevard Place.
Not that Rosie was looking forward with any pleasure to her new
undertaking. Heavens, no! She shook her head emphatically. Henceforth it
was duty, not pleasure, to which she would devote her life. You know how
it is in this world: though our hearts, alas, are breaking, we must all
do our duty.
She found Geraldine refreshed and happy after her long nap. She dressed
her carefully in the clean clothes that were waiting and settled her
comfortably in the old carriage. Then, when they were ready to start,
she turned to her mother.
"I want to tell you something, Ma: I'm going to take care of Geraldine
this summer. Then maybe you won't have to work so hard."
Mrs. O'Brien laughed and cried and hugged Rosie to her bosom.
"Oh, you darlint, you darlint! What's this ye're tellin' me!... Ah,
Rosie, if I do say it, ye're the best child that ever stood in shoes!
Geraldine darlint, do ye hear what sister Rosie says?"
Mrs. O'Brien paused a moment, then spoke more quietly: "And, Rosie dear,
I've been sorry about this Jackie business--I have that. It's a turrible
thing when a little mother hen has only one chick, to have that chick
turn out a goslin'! But take me word for it, Rosie, Geraldine'll niver
disapp'int ye so. Ye'll niver take to water, will ye, baby dear?"
Rosie choked a little. "I--I guess we better be going. We got to stop
for Janet."
They started off, and Mrs. O'Brien, in a fresh ecstasy of delight,
called after them: "Ah, look at the blissed infant, as happy as a lamb
with two mothers!"