NEW PEOPLE AND NEW HOMES
There was energy and strength in her,
A heart to will, with a hand to do;
Like the fruit that lies in a chestnut bur
That honest soul was fresh and true.
Meantime Mary Fuller and Isabel had remained in the carriage, locked
in each others arms, murmuring out their fondness and their grief,
with promises of faithful remembrance amid broken sob; and tears, such
as they had never shed before, even in their first poverty stricken
orphanage.
Something of that deep, unconscious spirit of prophecy, which
sometimes haunts the souls of children God-loving like Mary Fuller,
whispered her that this separation would be for years. She had
reasoned with this presentiment all the way from the Alms House, which
had so lately been their home, to this the place of their future
residence. In the innocence of her heart she had taxed this feeling as
a selfish one, and had covered herself with self-reproach, for having
fallen into envy of the brighter destiny which awaited Isabel, in
comparison with her own prospects. But the child had done herself
injustice, and mistook the holiest intuition of a pure heart for a
feeling of which that heart was incapable.
Isabel merely knew that they were to be parted, that the young
creature whose care had been that of a mother, whose patience and
gentle love had given a home feeling even to the Alms House, would no
longer share her room, curl her hair, and arrange her dress with
kindly devotion, or in any way soothe her life as she had done.
She did not comprehend, as Mary did, the great evil which this
separation would bring upon her moral nature; but her affectionate
heart was touched, and the passionate grief that she felt at parting,
was more violent by far than the deeper and more solemn feeling that
shook Mary's heart to the centre, but made no violent outcry, as
lighter grief might have done.
Both Salina and Mary herself had done the child injustice, when they
supposed her going heartlessly away from her old companion. Confused
by the meeting of Mrs. Farnham and the housekeeper, and puzzled by the
strangeness of everything around, she had followed her benefactress,
or adopted mother, without a thought that Mary would not join them;
and her grief was violent, indeed, when she learned that then and
there she must separate from the only creature on earth, that her
warm, young heart could entirely love.
The children were locked in each other's arms, weeping, each striving
to comfort the other.
"Remember now, Isabel, say your prayers every night, the Lord's
Prayer, and after that, Isabel, remember and ask God to bless me and
make me, oh! so patient."
"Ah! but it will seem so lonesome all by myself, with no one to kneel
by me. Mary, Mary, I wish they had left us together at the hospital, I
long to get away from here!"
"No, you mustn't feel that way, Mary, because Mrs. Farnham is very
good and very kind, to make you like her own child, and dress you up
in all these pretty things."
"They are pretty!" replied Mary, examining her plaid silk dress
through many tears, "but somehow I don't seem to feel a bit happier in
them."
"But this lady is to be your mother, Isabel."
Poor Isabel burst into a fresh passion of grief. "Oh! Mary, Mary, that
is it. You know she isn't in the least like my mother, my own darling,
darling mother."
"But she is in heaven," said Mary, in her sweet, deep voice, that
always seemed so holy and true. "Now, dear Isabel, you will have two
mothers, one here, another beyond the stars. That mother--oh, Isabel,
I believe it as I do my own life--that mother comes to you always when
you pray."
"Oh! then I will pray so often, Mary," cried the little girl, clasping
her hands, "if that will bring her close to me."
Mary looked long and wistfully into that lovely face, with only such
admiration as one bereft of all personal attractions can feel for
beauty. Isabel clung closer to her, and wept more quietly.
"You will come and see me very often?" she whispered.
"Yes," sobbed Mary, "if they will let me."
"Where are they going to leave you?"
"I don't know, I haven't thought to ask till now."
"I hope it will be near, Mary; and then, you know, we will see each
other every day," cried the child, brightening through her tears.
"But I am afraid Mrs. Farnham don't like me well enough. She may not
allow it," answered Mary, with a meek smile.
"But _I_ will," persisted Isabel, flinging back her head, with an air
that brought fresh tears into Mary's eyes.
"Isabel," she said gravely, and striving to suppress her grief,
"don't--don't--Mrs. Farnham is your mother now."
"No, she isn't though. She frightens me to death with her kindness.
She don't love me a bit, only because my face is so pretty. I wish it
wasn't, and then, perhaps, I could go with you."
"No, no, we needn't expect that, _I_ never did. It's only a wonder
they took me at all. I'm Mr. Frederick's child, and you are hers. I'm
quite sure if it hadn't been for him and Mr. Sharp, I should have been
left in the Poor House all alone. The lady only looked at you from the
first."
"I know it, don't you think I heard all she said about my eyes, my
curls and my beautiful face, while you stood there with your mouth all
of a tremble, and your eyes growing so large and bright under their
tears--I knew that it was my pretty face, that was doing it all; and
oh! just then, Mary, I hated it so much."
"It is a great thing to have a beautiful face, Isabel, a very great
thing. You don't know what it is to see kind people turn away their
eyes for fear of hurting your feelings by a look, and to hear rude,
bad persons gibing at you. Isabel, dear, you wouldn't like that."
Mary said this in her usual sad, meek way, smiling so patiently as if
every word were a tear wrung from her heart.
"Oh! Mary, but you are beautiful to me--nobody on earth looks so sweet
and so good in my eyes, or ever will."
The two children embraced each other, and both wept freely as only
children can weep. At length, Mary Fuller withdrew herself from
Isabel's arms, lingering a moment to press fresh kisses among her
curls.
"Now, Isabel, you must go. See, they are looking at us. Mrs. Farnham
will be angry."
"Mary, I want to tell you something; I like the red-haired woman,
cross as she is, a thousand times better than Mrs. Farnham. If she did
shake me, it was for my good, I dare say."
"She was kind, at any rate, to let you come back," said Mary.
"To _let_ me? Why, Mary, she shook me up as mamma would a pillow, and
shot me into the carriage so swift, it took my breath."
Mary smiled faintly, and Isabel began to laugh through her tears, as
she scrambled out of the carriage again, Mary followed her with
longing eyes. Something of maternal tenderness mingled with her love
of that beautiful child; suffering had rendered her strangely
precocious, and that prophetic spirit, which might have sprung from
a mind too early stimulated, filled her whole being as with the love
of a guardian angel.
"Oh, how lovely she is, how bright, how like a bird--if her father
could only see her now, poor, poor Isabel! It is so hard for her to be
with strange people; but I, who was so long prowling the streets like
a little wild beast that everybody ran away from; yes, I ought to be
content, and so grateful. But--but, I should like it _so_ much if they
would only let me come and see her once in a while. It's _so_ hard,
and _so_ lonesome without that."
Thus muttering sadly and sweetly to herself, the child sat with her
little face buried in both hands, almost disconsolate.
She was aroused by a vigorous footstep and the cheering voice of Enoch
Sharp. He did not appear to notice her tears, but took his seat,
waving his hand to the group just turning to enter Mrs. Farnham's
dwelling.
"There, there, wave your hand, little one. They're looking this way."
Mary leaned forward. Mrs. Farnham and the housekeeper had entered the
hall, but Isabel took off her Leghorn flat and was waving it toward
them. The pink ribbons and marabouts fluttered joyously in the air.
Mary could not see that those bright hazel eyes were dim with tears,
but the position and free wave of the arms were full of buoyant joy.
She drew a deep breath, and choked back her tears. It seemed as if she
were utterly deserted, then, utterly alone.
While Mary could feel and admire Isabel's beauty, her own lack of it
had only been half felt; now her sun was gone, and she, poor moon,
grew dreary in the unaided darkness. Up to this time Mary had hardly
given a thought to the fate intended for herself. Always meek and
lowly in her desires, feeling that any place was good enough for her,
she was never selfishly anxious on her own account. Nor did she
inquire now. While Enoch Sharp was striving to comfort her by
caressing little cares, she only asked,
"Is it far from here that you are taking me sir?"
"No, child, it is not more than a mile--you can run over and see her
any time before breakfast, if you like."
Mary did not answer, but her eyes began to sparkle, and bending her
head softly down, as a meek child does in prayer, she covered Enoch
Sharp's hands with soft, timid kisses, that went to the very core of
his noble heart.
"Would you like to know where, and what, your home is to be, little
one?" he said, smoothing her hair with one disengaged hand.
"If you please, but I am sure it will be very nice, so near her."
"Do you wish very much to be with her?"
"Indeed I do, and if they could send us word from heaven, I know her
father and mother would say it was best."
"But there is no relationship between you," said he, willing to probe
her frank soul to the bottom.
"Relationship, sir," answered the child, with the most touching smile
that ever lighted human face, "oh, sir, haven't you seen how lovely
she is? And I"--
The child paused and spread her little hands open, as much as to say,
"and I! _could_ two creatures so opposite be of the same blood?"
"I think you more lovely by half than she is, my child," cried Enoch
Sharp, drawing the hand, still warm with her grateful kisses, across
his eyes; "good children are never ugly, you know."
The child looked at him wonderingly.
"You have seen a thunder-cloud," he said, answering the look, "how
leaden and dismal it is of itself; but let the sun shine strike it and
its edges are fringed with rosy gold, its masses turn purple and warm
crimson, it breaks apart and rainbows leap from its bosom, bridging
the sky with light; do you understand, my child?"
"Oh! yes, sir, I have seen the clouds melt away into rainbows so
often."
"Well, it is the sunshine that makes a thing of beauty, where was only
a dull black cloud. In the human face, my child, goodness acts like
sunshine on the clouds. Be very good, little one, and the best portion
of mankind will always think you handsome."
Mary listened very earnestly, but with an irresolute and unconvinced
expression. This doctrine of immaterial loveliness she could not
readily adopt; and, strange enough, did not quite relish. Her
admiration of Isabel's beauty was so intense, that words like these
seemed to outrage it.
"Come, come," said the Judge, who had never had an opportunity of
conversing much with the child, "you must not cry so bitterly at being
parted."
"Sir," said the child, turning her large spiritual eyes upon the
Judge, "her father and mother were very, very kind to me, when I had
no home, no food--nothing--nothing on earth but the cold streets to
live in; remember that!"
"It is important that I should be well informed about you, Mary. Who
was your father?"
"My father," cried the child, starting upright, and her eyes flashed
out brightly, scattering back their tears, "my father was as good a
man as ever breathed; good, good, sir, as you are. He did everything
for me, worked for me, taught me himself, nursed me in his own arms,
my father--oh, my poor, poor father, he is a bright angel in heaven."
"But your mother--did she act kindly by you?"
"My mother, oh, sir, she is with him--she is surely with my father."
Enoch Sharp turned away his head.
"That is a good girl, Mary," he said at last. "But here we are at your
new home. Wipe up your tears and look cheerful."
Mary obeyed, and her effort to smile was a pleasant tribute to her
noble friend, as he lifted her tenderly from the carriage.