AN UNEXPECTED HELPER.
PERHAPS you do not see how the pond lilies, lovely as they were,
arranged on that salver, helped Jerry and Nettie in their plans for
Norm and his friends. But there is another part to that story.
After the salver had been filled with sand, and covered with moss, and
soaked until it would absorb no more water, and the lilies had been
laid in so thickly that they looked like a great white bank of bloom,
the whole was lovely, as I said, but heavy. The walk to the church
was long, and Nettie, thinking of it, surveyed her finished work with
a grave face. How was it ever to be gotten to the church? She tried
to lift one end of it, and shook her head. There was no hope that she
could even _help_ carry it for so long a distance. Mrs. Smith saw the
trouble in her eyes, and guessed at its cause. "It is an awful heavy
thing, that's a fact," she said, "hefting" it in her strong arms; "I
don't know how you are going to manage it; Sarah Jane would help in a
minute, but there's her back; she ain't got no back to speak of, Sarah
Jane hasn't. And there's Job, he ain't at home; he went this morning
before it was light, away over the other side of the clip hill with a
load, and the last words he says to me was: 'Don't you be scairt if I
don't get round very early; them roads over there is dreadful heavy,
and I shall have to rest the team in the heat of the day,' and like
enough he won't get back till nigh ten o'clock."
Certainly no help could be expected from the Smith family. "We shall
have to take some of the sand out," said Nettie, surveying the mound
regretfully; "I'm real sorry; it does look so pretty heaped up! but
Jerry can never carry it away down there alone."
Then came Jerry's bright idea. "I'll get Norman to help me."
"Norm!" said Nettie, stopping astonished in the very act of picking out
some of the lilies. It had not once occurred to her that Norm could be
asked to go to the church on an errand. She couldn't have told why,
but Norm and the church seemed too far apart to have anything in common.
"Yes," said Jerry, positively. "Why not? I know he'll help; and he and
I can carry it like a daisy. Don't take out one of them, Nettie. I know
you will spoil it if you touch it again; it is just perfect. Halloo,
Norm, come this way."
Sure enough at that moment Norm appeared from the attic where he
slept; he had washed his face and combed his hair, and made himself as
decent looking as he could, and was starting for somewhere; and Nettie
remembered with a sinking heart that it was Saturday night; Norm's
worst night except Sunday.
He stopped at Jerry's call, and stood waiting.
"You are just the individual I wanted to see at this moment," said
Jerry with a confident air. "This meadow here has got to be dug up and
carried bodily down to the church; and it is as heavy as though its
roots were struck deep in the soil. Will you shoulder an end with me?"
"To the church!" repeated Norm with an incredulous stare. "What do they
want of that thing at the church?"
"They are our flowers," said Sate with a positive little nod of her
head. "We promised to bring them, and they are so big and heavy we
can't. Will you help?"
Now Norm had really a very warm feeling in his heart for this small
sister; Susie he considered a nuisance, and a vixen, but Sate with her
slow sweet voice, and shy ways, had several times slipped behind his
chair to escape a slap from her angry father, thus appealing to his
protection, and once when he lifted her over the fence, she kissed
him; he was rather willing to please Sate. Then there was Jerry who
was a good fellow as ever lived, and Nettie who was a prime girl; why
shouldn't he help tote the thing down to the church if that was what
they wanted? To be sure he wanted to go in the other direction, and
the fellows would be waiting, he supposed; but he could go there,
afterwards, let them wait until he came.
"Well," he said at last, "come on, I'll help; though what they want of
all this rubbish at the church is more than I can imagine." And Nettie
and the little girls stood with satisfied faces watching the two move
off under their heavy burden. It was something to have Norm go to
church if it was only to carry flowers.
Arrived at the door, Norm was seized with a fit of shyness; the doors
were thrown wide open, and ladies and children were flitting about, and
many tongues were going, and flowers and vines were being festooned
around the gas lights, and the pillars, and wherever there was a spot
for them.
"Hold on," said Norm, jerking back, thus putting the great salver in
eminent peril, "I ain't going in there; all the village is there; you
better pitch this rubbish out, they've got flowers enough."
"There isn't a lily among them," said Jerry. "And besides they have
to go in, anyhow, we can't afford to disappoint Sate. Come on, Norm,
I can't carry the thing alone, any more than I could the stove; it is
unaccountably heavy."
This was true, but Jerry was very glad that it was. He had his reasons
for wanting to get Norm down the aisle to the front of the pulpit. With
very reluctant feet Norm followed, bearing his share of the burden,
his face flushing over the exclamations with which they were at last
greeted.
"Oh, oh! pond lilies! I did not know there were any this year. Where
did you get them? Girls, look! Did you ever see anything more lovely?"
And a group of faces were gathered about the tray, and one brown head
went down among the lilies and caressed them.
"Where did you get them?" she repeated; "I asked my cousin if there
were any about here, and she said she thought not; and last night when
I was out on the pond I looked and could not find any."
"They hide," said Jerry. "The only place on the pond where they can be
found is down behind the old mill; and most people don't go there at
all, because the channel is so narrow, and the water so shallow."
"Well, we are so glad you brought them! Girls, aren't they too lovely
for anything? Who arranged them?"
"My sister," said Norm, to whom Jerry promptly turned with an air which
said as plainly as words could have done: "You are the one to answer;
she belongs to you."
"And who is that?" asked the owner of the pretty brown head, as she
made way for them to pass to the table with their burden. "I am sure
I would like to know her; for she certainly knows how to put flowers
into lovely shapes."
Then came from behind the desk a man whom Jerry knew and whom he had
seen while he stood at the door. "Good evening, Jerry," he said,
holding out his hand in a cordial way. "What a wonderful bank of beauty
you have brought! Introduce me to your helper, please."
"Mr. Sherrill, Mr. Norman Decker," said Jerry, exactly as though he
had been used to introducing people all his life; and Norm, his face
very red, knew that he was shaking hands with the new minister. A very
cordial hand-shake, certainly, and then the minister turning to her
of the brown head, said, "Eva, come here; let me introduce you to Mr.
Norman Decker. My sister, Mr. Decker."
Norm, hardly knowing what he was about, contrived another bow, and then
Miss Eva said, "Decker, why, that is the name of my two little darlings
about whom I have been telling you for two Sabbaths. Are they your
little sisters, Mr. Decker? Little Sate and Susie?" And as Norm managed
to nod an answer, she continued: "They have stolen my heart utterly;
that little Sate is the dearest little thing. By the way, I wonder if
these are her flowers? She promised me she would certainly get some;
she said they had none in their garden, but God would make some grow
for her somewhere she guessed."
"Yes'm," said Jerry, seeing that Norm would not speak, "they are her
flowers, hers and Susie's, they coaxed us to go for them."
"Decker," said the minister, suddenly, "you are pretty tall, I wonder
if you are not just the one to help me get this wreath fastened back
of the pulpit? I have been working at it for some time, and failed for
the want of an arm long enough and strong enough to help me." And the
two disappeared behind the desk up the pulpit stairs to the immense
satisfaction of Jerry. The ladies went on with their work; Miss Eva
calling to him to help her move the table, and then to help arrange the
salver on it, and then to bring more vines from the lecture room to
cover the base of the floral cross; and indeed, before they knew it,
both Jerry and Norm were in the thick of the engagement; Jerry flitting
hither and thither at the call of the girls, and Norm following
the minister from point to point, and using his long limbs to good
advantage.
"Well," he said, wiping his face with his coat sleeve, as, more than
an hour after their entrance, he and Jerry made their way down the
churchyard walk, "that is the greatest snarl I ever got into. How that
fellow can work! But he would never have got them things up in the
world, if I had not been there to help him."
"No," said Jerry "I don't believe he would. How glad they were to get
the lilies! They do look prettier than anything there. I did not know
who that lady was who taught the little folks. She has only been there
a few weeks. She is pretty, isn't she?"
"I s'pose so," said Norm, "her voice is, anyhow. They say she's a
singer. I heard the fellows down at the corner talking about her one
night; Dick Welsh says she can mimic a bird so you couldn't tell which
was which. I wouldn't mind hearing her sing. I like good singing."
"I suppose they will have her sing in the church," said Jerry in a
significant tone. But to this, Norm made no reply.
"What was it Mr. Sherrill wanted of you just as we were coming out?"
asked Jerry, after reflecting whether he had better ask the question or
not.
"Wanted me to come and see how the things looked in the daytime," said
Norm with an awkward laugh that ended in a half sneer; "I'll be likely
to I think!"
"Going up home, I s'pose?" said Jerry, trying to speak indifferently,
and slipping his hand through Norm's arm as they reached the corner,
and Norm half halted.
"Well, I suppose I might as well," Norm said, allowing himself to be
drawn on by never so slight a pressure from Jerry's arm. "I was going
down street, and the boys were to wait for me; but they have never
waited all this while; it must be considerable after nine o'clock."
"Yes," said Jerry, "it is." And they went home.
Nettie, sitting on the doorstep, waiting, will never forget that night,
nor the sinking of heart with which she waited. Her father had been
kept at home, first by his employer who came to give directions about
work to be attended to the first thing on Monday morning, and then
by Job Smith getting home before he was expected and asking a little
friendly help with the load he brought; and he had at last decided
that it was too late to go out again, and had gone to bed. Mrs. Decker
in her kitchen, hovered between the door and the window, peering out
into the lovely night, saying nothing, but her heart throbbing so with
anxiety about her boy that she could not lay her tired body away. Mrs.
Job Smith in her kitchen, looked from her door and then her window,
many misgivings in her heart; if that bad boy Norm should lead her good
boy Jerry into mischief what should she say to his father? How could
she ever forgive herself for having encouraged the intimacy between him
and the Deckers?
Presently, far down the quiet street came the sound of cheery
whistling; Nettie knew the voice: nothing so very bad could have
happened when Jerry was whistling like that; or was he perhaps doing
it to keep his courage up? The whistle turned the corner, and in the
dim starlight she could distinguish two figures; they came on briskly,
Jerry and Norm. "A nice job you set us at," began Jerry, gayly, "we
have just this minute got through; and here it is toward morning
somewhere, isn't it?" Then all that happy company went to their beds.
After dinner the next day, Nettie studied if there were not ways in
which she might coax Norm to go to church that evening. Jerry had told
her of the minister's invitation. Norm had slept later than usual that
morning, and lounged at home until after dinner; now he was preparing
to go out. How could she keep him? How could she coax him to go with
her?
Before she could decide what to do to try to hold him, Susie took
matters into her own hands by pitching head foremost out of the kitchen
window, hitting her head on the stones. Then there was hurry and
confusion in the Decker kitchen! Then did Mrs. Smith, and Job Smith,
and Sarah Jane fly to the rescue. Though after all, Norm was the one
who stooped over poor silent Susie and brought her limp and apparently
lifeless into the kitchen. Jerry ran with all speed for the doctor. It
was hours before they settled down again, having discovered that Susie
was not dead, but had fainted; was not even badly hurt, save for a bump
or two. But it took the little lady only a short time, after recovering
from her fright, to discover that she was a person of importance, and
to like the situation.
It happened that Norm had, by the doctor's directions, carried her from
her mother's bed to the cooler atmosphere of the front room. Susie had
enjoyed the ride, and now announced with the air of a conqueror, "I
want Norm to carry me." So Norm, frightened into love and tenderness,
lifted the little girl in his strong arms, laid the pretty head on
his shoulder, and willingly tramped up and down the room. Was Susie a
witch, or a selfish little girl? Certain it was that during that walk
she took an unaccountable and ever increasing fancy for Norm. He must
wet the brown paper on her head as often is the vinegar with which it
was saturated dried away; he must hold the cup while she took a drink
of water; he must push the marvel of a barrel chair in which she for
a time sat in state, closer to the window; he must carry her from the
chair to the table when supper was finally ready, and carry her back
again when it was eaten. Nettie looked on amused and puzzled. Certainly
Susie had kept Norm at home all the afternoon; but was she also likely
to accomplish it for the evening? For Norm, to her great surprise,
seemed to like the new order of things.
He blushed awkwardly when Susie gently pushed her mother aside and
demanded Norm, but he came at once, with a good-natured laugh, and held
her in his arms with as much gentleness and more strength than the
mother could have given; and seemed to like the touch of the curly head
on his shoulder.
But while Nettie was putting away the dishes and puzzling over all the
strange events of the afternoon, Susie was undressed, partly by Norm,
according to her decree, and fell asleep in his arms and was laid on
her mother's bed, and Norm slipped away!
Poor Nettie! She ran to the door to try to call him, but he was out of
sight. "I tried to think of something to keep him till you came in,"
explained the disappointed mother, "but I couldn't do it; he laid Susie
down as quick as he could, and shot away as though he was afraid you
would get hold of him."
So Nettie, her face sad, prepared to go with Jerry and the Smiths down
to evening meeting, and told Jerry on the way, that it did seem strange
to her, so long as Susie had kept Norm busy all the afternoon, that
they must let him slip away from them at last.