A STARTLING MESSAGE.
It was not many days before the town of Edelsheim awoke to the fact
that the war was not over, and that though the French emperor was a
prisoner, France seemed determined to fight to the bitter end.
The gay flags which had been hung out of the windows so joyfully were
now rolled up again and put aside, and the people went about their work
with dejected faces, awaiting the dread tidings that their loved ones
were ordered to march forward towards Paris, and fight the enemy there.
But Violet knew nothing of all this. Secure in the certainty of her
father's speedy return, she sat daily in the window watching. She very
seldom spoke now; it seemed to tire her. But she smiled to herself
much oftener than she had hitherto done, and waved her little thin
hand to Fritz, who was ever on the watch in the house opposite; and
constantly, in the warm autumn evenings, when the windows of both
houses were open, he called across to her and told her his news. Violet
smiled and nodded her head, but she had no strength to call back again,
nor even to draw up the cord of the little basket into which Fritz
was constantly dropping little gifts and scraps of paper, on which
were printed in large letters messages of love and comfort:--"Fritz
will soon be well enough to see Violet"--"Fritz is making a boat for
Violet;" and once or twice, in a very closely-folded message, were the
words, "Fritz is always asking God to make Violet well."
But at last there came a message from Fritz which roused her for a time
out of her lethargy, and set her heart beating wildly.
It was a beautiful autumn evening; the town was rosy red in the sunset,
and all the casements of the oriel window lay wide open. Violet, who
had not spoken for several hours, was lying back on her pillows half
sleeping, half waking, with her eyes dreamily fixed on the hill, which
was wrapped in a soft purple mist. The canary bird was picking out the
loose feathers from its wings in the cage overhead; and the old jackdaw
on the opposite side of the street, for a wonder was at rest, with his
head tucked under his wing.
Fritz for a long time had been making signals to Violet from the
high-up dormer window of the house; but her face had been turned away,
and though her eyes were fixed on the far-off hill, she saw nothing
but a waving meadow bright with flowers, over whose green fragrant
grass she was passing with a delicious freedom, her feet not actually
touching the ground, only here and there skimming over the cool meadow
grass, while a refreshing air wafted her along without fatigue and
without pain.
She often had this fancy now, that she was floating along over the
earth, that she was free from the ache in her back and the weary
heaviness of her limbs; and this afternoon she was listening again to
that voice from the meadow saying, "I am going to lay this poor tired
lamb in its mother's bosom."
But all at once, when she was seeking once more to see the face of
the child which the Lord Jesus held so lovingly in his arms, the
basket-bell rang with a sharp tinkle overhead, and she awoke from her
dream to find herself no longer wandering amid green pastures, but
propped up among her pillows, oh so tired, and with a sudden tearful
longing to lay her head against some loving heart and be at rest.
At the sound of the bell, Evelina, who had been dozing also in a chair
near the stove, started up angrily, and going over to the window,
looked down into the street.
"Ha! it is just as I thought, thou little donkey. Hast thou no sense,
Master Fritz, but to go and ring bells in people's ears when they are
asleep? See, now, thou hast startled Violet out of her dreams, and she
will be ill all the night."
"No, no," said Violet eagerly; but there were sudden tears of distress
and weakness standing in her uplifted eyes.
"Look in the basket, Violet," cried Fritz, taking no notice of
Evelina's wrath; "there is something in it that I want thee to see,
and it is all--" Before, however, Fritz could finish his sentence, his
mother had appeared in the doorway, and seizing Fritz by the collar of
his coat, had dragged him backwards into the bakery.
"I will not have thee disturbing Violet with thy folly," she said
angrily, and pushed him into the back passage.
Meantime Evelina, her own curiosity aroused, had drawn up the little
cord from which dangled the basket.
"It is uncommonly light," she said, as she lifted it in at the window.
"It strikes me, if I am not mistaken, that Master Fritz is at his old
pranks again. Yes, it is just as I thought; the basket is quite empty.
It is just a silly trick he has played upon thee, and nothing else."
Evelina turned the basket upside down as she spoke, and shook out
some old dried moss and withered leaves, and a little scrap of dirty
paper folded into a minute size, which fluttered down and lit on the
window-seat beside Violet.
"Little wretch! I shall box his ears the next time I see him," cried
Evelina angrily. "To come and waken people up for such a senseless
joke."
"There was something in the basket," pleaded Violet in a low voice.
"I tell thee there was not," replied Evelina sharply; "unless thou
callest a handful of dead leaves something."
The child's eyes rested wistfully on the little scrap of folded paper
lying almost within her reach on the window-seat, but she said nothing.
When Evelina was vexed, Violet felt afraid of her; and besides, she was
down on her knees now gathering the moss and dirt off the floor, and
she did not like to trouble her further.
But Evelina's tempers were never of long duration. When she stood up
again she was smiling, and said with a laugh,--
"I have a mind to go across the street and tie this basket on to
Master Fritz's back and hunt him up and down the town for his pains. At
any rate, the next time it happens I shall just cut the cord, and then
there will be an end of it all."
"No, no, thou wilt not do that, Evelina," cried Violet, stretching out
her hands eagerly.
"There is no saying what Evelina might do when she is angry," replied
the girl, laughing lightly as she dropped the basket once more out of
the window. "Ah, there is the newsman in the street and lots of people
gathered round him; I must run down for a moment and see what fresh
telegrams have come in. I shall just buy a paper from him and be back
immediately."
Violet nodded her head silently, and Evelina, having again arranged the
cord in its place, left the room.
When the door was closed, and Evelina's flying footsteps were
distinctly audible in the street beneath, Violet tried to stretch out
her hand for the piece of paper which had fluttered down out of the
basket on to the window-seat beside her; but she found, to her grief,
that it was just an inch or two beyond the reach of her finger-tips.
She looked round for something with which she could draw it nearer to
her, and at last, after some difficulty, she succeeded with the help of
the spotted book in pushing it to the edge of the cushion, where she
could stretch out her hand and take hold of it.
Even this little exertion tried her. She panted, and for some moments
did not attempt to open the paper. Her heart beat quickly and her hands
trembled. She did not believe that Fritz had been playing a trick upon
her, and she guessed that there was some special piece of news to be
found in the little crumpled scrap which she held tightly pressed up in
her hand.
At last she opened it out, and as she read the words printed across it
in large letters she gave quite a sharp cry and started up in her chair.
"Ella is going to be an angel, and have wings."
This was the whole message--no explanation, no other word to give a
hint or a reason, and no Fritz at the window opposite to make things
clear.
She stared again at the words. Her cheeks grew crimson, her eyes
darkened, tears came into them and fell upon the dirty scrap of paper
on her knee.
Ella was going to have wings! Ella, who could run and jump and walk
and was never tired; who could laugh and sing and hop and follow Fritz
wherever he went. Ella was going to have wings!
And Ella had no hump upon her back, no pain, no tiredness. She had not
been waiting for them long, oh, so long as she had! A great lump came
struggling up into her throat, drops of sweat gathered on her forehead.
The book with the spotted cover lay across her knees; the tears came
splash, splash upon the yellow binding; and Violet, bending her head
down lower, said in a sobbing whisper,--
"Oh, dear Lord Jesus! canst thou not also give wings to Violet? Violet
is so tired, and cannot walk or run." Then followed another long sob
and a shower of burning tears, in the midst of which the door opened
and Evelina came laughing in, her eyes brimming with fun and her whole
manner joyous and gay.
"Did any one ever hear of such an idea?" she cried, flinging herself
down on a chair. "To make that great fat Miss Ella an angel! the
very thought of it gives one almost a fit. I could almost die of
laughter.--But what is the matter with the child? What art thou crying
for, Violet?" and Evelina rose and came over to Violet, whose head was
bent upon her purple frock, and her face was covered with her hands.
"What troubles thee? Look up, Violet, and hear my news. There is going
to be a great procession through the town. The general is coming home
wounded from the war. Such a brave old fellow! he has had both his
arms shot off, and two of his sons have been killed in the battle of
Sedan; so all Edelsheim is going out to meet him on his return and
give him a welcome. And there are to be hundreds of girls dressed in
white, who are to sing beautiful songs and scatter flowers on the
road; and a whole band of little angels, who are to have wings, and
they are to sing too. And just imagine--Ella over the way is to be an
angel! Such an idea! one might just as well make an angel of a little
fat, squeaking pig; but of course it is for her voice they want her.
Ah, Miss Violet, it is a shame for thee to go on crying so when I have
brought thee home such a grand piece of news. What ails thee? Look up
and tell me."
"I want to be an angel too," cried Violet with a bursting sob.
"An angel! Ah, is that it? Poor little darling! thou wilt be an angel
soon enough."
"But Ella will have wings first, and will fly away from Violet, and
Violet is so lonely."
"Miss Ella fly!" cried Evelina, throwing up her hands again and
bursting into a fresh fit of laughter. "Why, it would take all the
wings in the town to lift her off her feet. No, no; do not be afraid;
Miss Ella will not fly."
"Could not I go with the other little angels?" sobbed Violet.
"Ah, no, no, my treasure; that would be impossible. Thou canst not
walk, and it is a long way to the station."
"But if I had wings."
"Yes, yes, of course, if thou hadst wings that would be another thing;
then thou couldst fly wherever thou hadst a wish," said Evelina
soothingly, for the pleading eyes so full of their sorrow pained her.
"And the doctor said, soon, very soon, Violet would have them; and
perhaps God would give Violet wings that very day, and then she could
go with all the other angels. Is it not so, Evelina?"
"Yes, yes; of course, when the Lord Jesus gives Violet wings then she
can go where she likes."
"I will ask him, yes, I will ask him," said Violet softly; and through
her tears there broke a sweet struggling smile as she lifted her eyes
to the sky above the shadowy hill and held communion with her God.