FIVE MAKING A CALL.
The next morning everybody felt fresh, and ready for new adventures.
"All going but the cat," said Fly, never doubting that her own company
was most desirable.
"Look up in my eyes, little Topknot with the blue bonnet on. Will you
run away from brother Hollis again?"
"Not if you don't take my skipt," replied Fly, looking as innocent as a
spring violet.
"And look up in _my_ eyes, Horace Clifford. Will you run away from
Cousin Dotty, again?" said Miss Dimple, in a hurry to speak before Aunt
Madge came up to them, and before Horace had time for a joke.
"I didn't run away from you, young lady, but I ran _after_ you, if I
remember," said Horace, dryly. "I don't mean to pursue you with my
attentions to-day. You seem to be able to take care of yourself."
"Look," cried Aunt Madge, coming up to them with Prudy; "did you ever
before see a span of horses with a dog running between them?"
"Never," said Doty; "what splendid horses! and don't the dog have to
trot, to keep up? How do you suppose he happened to get in there?"
"O, he has been trained to it; dogs often are. Now, my young friends, it
seems we have started for Brooklyn again; but on our way to Fulton
Ferry, I would like to stop and see the Brooks family. We must all go
together, though. 'United we stand, divided we fall.'"
"That's so," said Horace, as they entered the stage. "But, auntie, do
you have perfect faith in the story that woman tells? Perhaps her
hushand is only just lazy, and her daughter shams blindness. You know
what humbugs some of 'em are. I've read there's something they rub over
their eyes, that gives 'em the appearance of being as blind as a bat."
Prudy looked up at Horace with admiration and respect. He spoke like a
person of deep wisdom and wide experience.
"We will see for ourselves what we think of the family," said Aunt
Madge.
"Now," said she, after they had ridden a mile or two, "we must get out
here, and walk a few blocks to the house. Fly, hold your brother's hand
tight."
"There's the chamer where the boy lives that says swear words; and
there's the boy, ahind the window."
"Have a free ride, little girl?" shouted Izzy Paul, laughing; for he
remembered faces as well as Fly did, and saw at once that it was the
same child he had frightened so the day before. But Fly never knew fear
where Horace was; she clung to him, and peeped out boldly between her
fingers.
When they went "down cellow," as she called it, into Mr. Brooks's house,
Aunt Madge was surprised to see how bare it looked. But Dotty Dimple
need not have held her skirts so tightly about her, and brushed her
elbow so carefully when it hit against the wall; for the house was as
clean as hands could make it.
"Mrs. Brooks, I hope you will forgive me for coming down upon you with
this little army," said Mrs. Allen, with such a cheery smile that the
sick man on the bed felt as if a flood of pure sunshine had burst into
the room. He was so tired of lying there, day after day, like a great
rag baby, and so glad to see anybody, especially the good lady who, his
wife said, was "so easy to talk to!"
"Auntie, look! see the freckled doggie; and there's my flowers, true's
you live," cried Flyaway.
"Yes, pa wanted them in a vial, close to his bed; it's the first he's
seen this winter," said Maria, stroking Fly as if she had been a kitten.
"You may be sure, little lady, it will be as I said; they'll cure me
full as quick as camphire. And, thank the Lord, I can see as well as
smell," said Mr. Brooks, with a tender glance at Maria which made
Horace feel ashamed of himself. The idea of that poor child's rubbing
anything into her eyes? Why, she looked like a wounded bird that had
been out in a storm. Her face was really almost beautiful, but so sad
that you could not see it without a feeling of pity.
"She looks as if she was walking in her sleep," thought Prudy, and
turned away to hide a tear; for somehow there was a chord in her heart
that thrilled strangely. That "slow winter" came back to her with a
rush, and she was sure she knew how Maria felt.
"She is blind, and I was lame; but it is the same kind of a feeling. O,
how I wish I could help her!"
Dotty was as sorry for Maria as she knew how to be, but she could not be
as sorry as Prudy was; for she had never had any trouble greater than a
sore throat.
"I don't see why the tears don't come into my eyes as easy as they do
into Prudy's," thought she, trying to squeeze out a salt drop; "Mrs.
Brooks'll think I don't care a speck; but I do care."
As for wee Fly, she took Maria's blindness to heart about as much as she
did the murder of the Hebrew children off in Judea.
"Pitiful 'bout her seeingness; but I wished I had such a beauful dog!"
Aunt Madge was struck with the exalted expression of Maria's face. The
child was only thirteen, but suffering had made her look much older.
"My child," said she, putting her arm around the little girl, and
drawing her towards her, "I know you see a great deal with your mind,
even though your eyes are shut. Now, do tell me all about your
misfortune, and how it happened, for I came on purpose to hear."
"Yes, we camed to purpose to hear," said Fly, from the foot-board of the
bed, where she had perched and prattled every moment since she came in.
"I founded Maria, and then I went up to her, and says I, 'Doggie,
doggie!'"
"That was a pretty way to speak to her, I should think," said Dotty;
"but can't you just please to hush while auntie is talking?"
"As near as I can tell the story," said Mrs. Brooks, rattling the poor
old coal-stove,--for she always had to be moving something else, as well
as her nose, when she talked,--"she lost her sight by studying too
hard, and then getting cold in her eyes."
"She was always a master hand to study," put in Mr. Brooks.
Maria looked as if she wanted to run and hide. She did not like to have
her father praise her before people.
"Yes," said Mrs. Brooks, setting a chair straight; "and by and by the
_leds_ began to draw together, and she couldn't keep 'em open; and there
was such a pain in her eyes, too, that I had to be up nights, bathing
'em in all kinds of messes."
"_Don't_ her nose jiggle?" whispered Fly to Horace.
"Of course you took her to a good physician?"
"Well, yes; we thought he was good. We went to three, off and on, but
she kept growing worse and worse. It was about the time her father was
hurt, and we spent an awful sight on her, till we couldn't spend any
more."
"And it was all a cheat and a swindle," exclaimed Mr. Brooks,
indignantly. "We'd better have spent the money for a horsewhip, and
whipped them doctors with it!"
"Don't, pa, don't! You see, Mrs. Allen, he gets so excited about it he
don't know what he says."
"I wonder you did not take her to the City Hospital, Mrs. Brooks. There
she could be treated free of expense."
"The fact is, we didn't dare to," replied Mrs. Brooks, taking up an old
shoe of Bennie's, and beginning to brush it; "there are folks that have
told us it ain't safe; they try experiments on poor folks."
"O, I don't believe you need fear the City Hospital," said Mrs. Allen;
"the physicians there are honest men, and among the most skillful in
the country."
"But that's our feeling on the subject, ma'am, you see," spoke up Mr.
Brooks, so decidedly, that Aunt Madge saw it was of no use to say any
more about it. "We don't want her eyes put out; there are times when she
can just see a little glimmer, and we want to save all there is left."
"There are times when she can see? Then there must be hope, Mr. Brooks!
Let me take her to Dr. Blank; he can help her if any one can."
"Well, now, I take it you're joking, Mrs. Allen. That is the very doctor
I wanted her to see in the first place; but they do say he'd ask six
hundred dollars for looking into her eyes while you'd wink twice."
"You have been misinformed, Mr. Brooks; he never asks anything of
people who are unable to pay him. But even if he should in Maria's case,
I promise to take the matter into my own hands, and settle the bill
myself."
"Mother, do you hear what she says!" cried Mr. Brooks, forgetting
himself, and trying to sit up in bed.
But his wife had broken down, and was polishing Bennie's shoe with her
tears.
"O, will you take me? Can I go to that doctor?" cried Maria, forgetting
her timidity, and turning her sightless eyes towards Mrs. Allen with a
joyful look, which seemed to glow through the lids.
"Yes, dear child, I will take you with the greatest pleasure in life;
but remember, I don't promise you can be cured. Come with your mother,
to-morrow morning, at ten. Will that do, Mrs. Brooks? And now, good by,
all. Children, we must certainly be going."
"God bless her," murmured the sick man, as the little party passed out.
"Didn't I tell you she was an angel?" said his wife.
"No, mother; it's that little tot that's the 'angel.' The Lord sent her
on ahead to spy out the land; and afterwards there comes a
flesh-and-blood woman to see it laid straight."
"Pa thinks that baby is a spirit made out of air," said Maria, laughing
in high excitement. "And, mother, don't you really believe now the Lord
did send her, just as much as if she dropped down out of the sky?"
"Yes, I hain't a doubt of it, Maria, but what the Lord had us in his
mind when he let the child slip off and get lost.--Pa, I'm going to
give you some of that blackberry cordial now: you look all gone."