When Mary Rose opened her eyes the next morning the very first thing
she saw was the glass globe in which flashing sunbeams seemed to dart.
"Why--why!" cried amazed Mary Rose, and she sat bolt upright.
Aunt Kate heard her and came in. "Do you like them, honey? Mr. Jerry
and Miss Thorley brought them in last night. Mr. Jerry said you liked
his aunt's goldfish, so he was sure you'd like some of your own."
"Did he?" All the gladness slipped from her face and voice as she
remembered the pet she had lost. "You know, Aunt Kate, last night I
just about decided I'd never have another pet. I'm--I'm so unlucky
with them." Her lip quivered. "I don't seem to be able to keep one
thing that really belongs to me."
"Nonsense!" Aunt Kate took her in her arms and kissed her. "You'll
keep me and your Uncle Larry. You can't lose us. Aren't they pretty?"
She tapped the glass globe. "Seems if a body'd never get tired of
lookin' at 'em. But get dressed, dearie. Breakfas's most ready an'
Mr. Jerry wants you to go out to Blue Heron Lake in his motor car. His
aunt an' Miss Thorley are goin' too. You're to be away all day an'
have your dinner at a big hotel."
Not eighteen hours before Mary Rose would have danced and clapped her
hands at such a delectable prospect, but now she lay back on her pillow
and looked at her aunt. Two big tears gathered in her eyes.
"I can't go. Suppose we'd hear something from Jenny Lind."
"As if I wouldn't be here, an' your Uncle Larry. An' Jimmie Bronson's
goin' to keep an eye on the cat an' dog. To be sure you're goin',
dearie. Put your clothes on. Your breakfas's near ready an' your
uncle's starvin'." And to avoid any further argument she bustled away.
Mary Rose lay and watched the goldfish for another sixty seconds and
the big tears dropped from her eyes to her pillow. But even if her
heart was broken she had to admire those flashes of gold in the clear
water.
"They're so--so beautiful." She was surprised to find herself laughing
when one fish pushed against another. She had thought she never would
laugh again. She turned and hid her face. "No matter how beautiful
they are I shan't ever, forget you, Jenny Lind," she promised. "Ever!
I'm not the forgetting kind of a person and I'll never stop trying to
find you. May the good Lord take care of you now and evermore. Amen."
It wasn't exactly a prayer but it comforted Mary Rose as if it had been.
She slipped out of bed and began to dress soberly and slowly instead of
singing and hurriedly as usual. When she had combed her hair and
washed her face and hands she went into her closet and came out with
the detested boys' suit of faded blue serge. Her red lips were pressed
into a firm line as she put it on.
"My soul an' body!" exclaimed astonished Aunt Kate when she came in
with the coffeepot and saw a boyish little figure in the doorway. Mary
Rose ran to her. "I was so proud of wearing girls' clothes that maybe
that was the reason Jenny Lind was taken from me," she explained in a
whisper. "I just hate these, Aunt Kate. I despise them! But I'm
going to wear them. You know proud people are punished, the Bible says
so, and I was as proud--as proud as the proudest. That's the way I've
thought it out and that's why I put on this hateful suit this morning."
"I think you're wrong, Mary Rose," began Aunt Kate, while Uncle Larry
put down the colored supplement that he had been holding out so
enticingly to look at his niece, who appeared smaller than ever in the
shabby blouse and shrunken knickers. "You haven't had so much to be
proud of, a few of Ella's old clothes. But if you feel better in
those, why, wear 'em. Where's your goldfish? Don't you want to show
'em to your uncle? Miss Thorley an' Mr. Jerry'll understand," she said
as Mary Rose ran to bring the goldfish. "An' I hate to argue with her
today. She can wear those now, but tomorrow she'll put on proper
girls' clothes to go to school. I don't care what Brown an' Lawson or
anyone else says. You hain't heard anythin' from them, have you?"
"Nothin' yet, but it won't be good news when it comes. We'll have to
move, Kate. Ol' Wells has seen to that an' after last night I don't
care so much. If honest faithful work don't count for anythin' here I
dunno as I want to stay. I can find another job. It won't be as easy
as this. This was just velvet for a man like me."
"Well, if they have the nerve to fire you just because you're givin' a
home to an orphan niece I hope Mr. Strahan writes it all over the front
of his paper. I'd like to see it in big red letters an' then maybe the
owner an' Mr. Wells'd be ashamed of themselves."
"S-sh! S-sh!" cautioned Uncle Larry but not quickly enough, for Aunt
Kate's voice was shrill and excited and Mary Rose in her little room
heard every word.
She stood and looked about her bewildered. It wasn't possible that
anyone, even the owner of the Washington, would take her Uncle Larry's
work from him just because a little girl was living with him? Aunt
Kate must be mistaken or perhaps she had misunderstood. She often
found herself mistaken in her ideas of what grown people meant. She
tried to think she was now as she took the globe and carried it
carefully into the dining-room and placed it on the table where the
sunlight fell on the fish and polished their golden scales.
"That's what I call a han'some present," admired Uncle Larry in the
same hearty voice Mary Rose usually heard from him.
She looked up quickly. He wouldn't speak like that if he were going to
lose his work. She hadn't understood. That was it. Children often
didn't understand grown people.
"They are beautiful," she said softly. "I wasn't very welcoming to
them at first because I was afraid Mr. Jerry meant them to take the
place of darling Jenny Lind and nothing can do that--fish nor dogs nor
cats nor squirrels nor anything. But when I watched them swim I found
they could have a place of their very own and so I'm very glad now to
have them."
"Of course you are. But eat your breakfas', child, or Mr. Jerry'll be
callin' for you before you're ready."
That was a wonderful Sunday to Mary Rose. She sat on the front seat
beside Mr. Jerry and as neither of them felt much like talking they
enjoyed the silence. Mile after mile was left behind them and when
they began to pass through small towns and villages Mary Rose sat up
straighter.
"They're like Mifflin, only different," she murmured vaguely.
When they came to a little white meetinghouse standing all by itself
near the road Mr. Jerry's Aunt Mary asked him to stop and let them go
to church.
"It seems as if it would be rather pleasant to go to a simple service
such as they must have here," she suggested.
"I'll put it to a vote," Mr. Jerry offered obligingly. "Mary Rose,
what do you say?"
"Oh, let's!" she begged. "And I'll pretend I'm sitting with Gladys in
the Evans pew and that Mr. Mann is preaching."
Mr. Jerry stopped the car by the roadside and they all stepped out.
"What a doggone idiot I was," Mr. Jerry whispered to Miss Thorley as
they followed his Aunt Mary and Mary Rose; "I might just as well have
taken the kid to Mifflin as to Blue Heron Lake, but I never thought of
it."
"This is better," Miss Thorley told him with pleasing promptness.
"Mifflin would have reminded her of Jenny Lind. You can take her there
some other day."
"Will you go, too?" eagerly. "I'll go any day you say."
But she only smiled over her shoulder as she went up the steps and into
the meetinghouse. A quiet peaceful hour followed and when the service
was over Mary Rose slipped one hand around Mr. Jerry's fingers and gave
the other to Miss Thorley.
"I feel a lot better," she said. "I think it was awfully kind of that
minister to preach about sparrows. Jenny Lind isn't a sparrow but
she's a bird and when the Lord looks after sparrows so carefully I'm
sure he'd keep an eye on a canary."
She was more like her old self as they went on, faster now, because, as
Mr. Jerry explained, they had to make up the time they had spent in
church and if they didn't reach the hotel at Blue Heron Lake in time
for dinner all the chicken breasts and legs would be eaten and there
would be nothing left for them but backbones and necks.
"That's all Gladys ever has," Mary Rose told him importantly. "You see
they have such a big family that all the other pieces are gone before
it is her turn to be helped. She used to love to come to dinner at our
house so she could have a wishbone. When her grandmother dies she'll
have a leg."
"My gracious!" murmured Mr. Jerry's Aunt Mary.
"My word!" giggled Miss Thorley.
Fortunately they reached the hotel in time to have their choice of
chicken and everyone was glad to see that Mary Rose was hungry and
seemed to enjoy her dinner. After dinner they went for a ride on the
lake in a launch and then they sat in the shade of a dump of linden
trees and watched the bathers.
"Why didn't I tell you to bring your bathing suits?" Mr. Jerry asked
suddenly. "What a dolt I was not to think of it."
"You're not a dolt!" Mary Rose said indignantly, although she hadn't
the faintest idea what a dolt was. "And I couldn't have brought one
for I haven't one. And anyway I wouldn't care to make too merry
today." Her face clouded as she remembered why she did not wish to be
too merry.
It was long, long after her bedtime when the car stopped in front of
the Washington and it was a very sleepy tired little girl who was taken
into Uncle Larry's strong arms.
"I've had such a wonderful time," she murmured, half asleep. "Uncle
Larry, have you found Jenny Lind? We don't have to worry About her any
more because I know now the Lord has his eye on her."
Uncle Larry looked over her head to Mr. Jerry. "I can't thank you,
sir," he said in a hushed voice, "but you've been a kind friend to the
little girl today."
"She's such a darling one has to be kind to her." Miss Thorley
answered for Mr. Jerry and blushed when she realized it. "Don't you
bother, Mr. Donovan. I'm like Mary Rose, I know everything will be all
right."
"I hope so, Miss Thorley. Thank you again, sir." And he went in with
Mary Rose asleep in his arms.
"I can't thank you, either." Miss Thorley held out her hand to Mr.
Jerry after she had said good night to his Aunt Mary. "I've had a
perfect day and it was mighty good of you to plan it for Mary Rose."
He took her hand in both of his. "It was mighty good of you to come
with Mary Rose and me. And we're going to be friends, now, real
friends?" he asked gently.
She caught her breath and looked at him quickly. "Y-es," she said
slowly. "Of course, we'll be friends. I--I'm glad you are willing to
be friends."
Mr. Jerry laughed oddly. "I've learned about the value of that half
loaf. Good night."