A WHITE SUNDAY
Anne was feeling very important. She was wrapped in a pale blue kimona
of Judy's, and she had had her breakfast in bed!
Piled up ten deep at her side were books--a choice collection from the
Judge's bookcases, into which she dipped here and there with sighs of
deep content and anticipation.
At the end of the room was a mirror, and Anne could just see herself in
it. It was a distracting vision, for Judy had done Anne's hair up that
morning, and had puffed it out over her ears and had tied it with broad
black ribbon, and this effect, in combination with the sweeping blue
robe, made Anne feel as interesting as the heroine of a book--and she
had never expected that!
Judy in a rose-pink kimona lay on the couch, looking out of the window.
The peace of the Sabbath was upon the world; and the house was very
still.
Suddenly with a "click" and a "whirr-rr," the doors of the little
carved clock on the wall new open and a cuckoo came out and piped ten
warning notes.
"Goodness," cried Anne, and shut her book with a bang, "it is almost
church time, and we aren't dressed."
But Judy did not move. "We are not going to church," she said, lazily.
Not going to church! Anne faced Judy in amazement. Never since she
could remember had she stayed away from church--except when she had had
the measles and the mumps!
"I told grandfather last night that we should be too tired," explained
Judy, "and he won't expect us to go."
"Oh," said Anne, and picked up her book, luxuriating in the prospect of
a whole morning in which to read.
She wasn't quite comfortable, however. She was not a bit tired, and
she had never felt better in her life--and yet she was staying away
from church.
But the book she had opened was a volume of Dickens' Christmas stories,
and in three minutes she was carried away from the little town of
Fairfax to the heart of old London, and from the warmth of spring to
the bitterness of winter, as she listened with Toby Veck to the music
of the chimes that rang from the belfry tower.
It seemed only a part of the tale, therefore, when the bell of Fairfax
church pealed out the first warning of the Sunday service to all the
countryside.
"Ding dong, din, all come in, all come in," the bell had said to Anne
since childhood, and now it called her, until it silenced the crashing
voices of the bells of old London, and she had to listen.
She laid down her book. "The church bell is ringing," she said to Judy.
"I hear it," said Judy, indifferently.
Anne stood up--with a sidelong glance at the enchanting vision in the
mirror. "I think I ought to go," she hesitated.
Judy turned to look at her.
"Don't be so good, Anne," she said, with a teasing laugh; "be wicked
like I am, just for one day--"
"You are not wicked."
"Well, I haven't a proper sense of duty."
"You have too. You just like to say such things, Judy, just to shock
people."
Which shows that in two days, wise little Anne had found Judy out!
"Well, I'm not going to church, anyhow," and Judy settled back and
closed her eyes.
Anne's book was open at the fascinating place where Toby Veck eats his
dinner on the church steps; the deep rose-cushioned chair opened its
wide arms in comfortable invitation. It was the little girl's first
taste of the temptation of ease,--and she yielded. But as she picked
up her book again, she soothed her conscience with the righteous
resolve--"I will go to service this afternoon."
As she settled back, the girl reflected in the mirror looked at her.
"Your hair looks beautiful," said the reflection.
Anne dropped her eyes to her book.
Presently she raised them.
"If only the people in church could see," said the charming reflection.
Anne imagined the sensation she would make as she walked up the aisle.
None of the girls in Fairfax or the country around had ever worn their
hair puffed over their ears or tied with broad black ribbon. There
would be a little flutter, and during church time the girls would look
at nothing else, and it would be delightful to feel that for once she,
little plain Anne Batcheller, was the center of attraction.
She dropped her book. "I think I will go, after all," she said
virtuously, and Judy, not knowing her motive, looked at her with envy.
"You are a good little thing, Anne," she said, and at the praise Anne's
face flamed.
She dressed hurriedly, in her one white dress, with a sigh for the
becomingness of the blue kimona. When she was ready to tie on her old
hat, she went to the mirror.
"It is because your hair is so pretty that you are going to church,"
said the reflection, accusingly.
"It is because of my conscience," defended Anne, but she did not dare
to meet the eyes in the mirror, and she turned away quickly.
"You look awfully nice," Judy assured her, as Anne said "Good-by."
"Take my blue parasol. It is on the parlor sofa. Go and be good for
both of us, Annekins."
Anne ran down-stairs to the great dim room. There were four mirrors in
the parlor, and each mirror seemed to say to the little girl as she
passed, "It is because of your hair," and when she had picked up the
pretty parasol, the mirrors said again, as she passed them going back,
"It is because of your hair, oh, Anne, it is because of your hair that
you are going to church!"
The hands of the big clock in the hall were on eleven as Anne opened
the front door--and as she stepped out into the glare of sunshine, the
church bell rang for the last time.
Anne loved the sweet old bell. Even when she had been ill, she had
been able to hear just the end of its distant peal--like the ringing of
a fairy chime, and when she was very little, the time she had the
mumps, she had thought of it as being up in the clouds, calling the
angels to worship.
She listened to it for a moment, standing perfectly still on the path,
then she went back into the house, and laid the parasol carefully on
the sofa. After that she ran quickly upstairs, untying her hat-strings
as she went.
"What in the world are you doing?" asked Judy in amazement, as Anne
pulled out hairpins, and took the big black bow from her looped-up hair.
"I was thinking too much about it," said Anne, soberly. "I shouldn't
have heard a word of the sermon if I had worn my hair that way," and
she went on braiding it into its customary tight and unbecoming
pigtails.
"Well, of all things," ejaculated Judy, gazing at her spellbound.
But when Anne had gone, Judy stood up and watched her from the window.
"What a queer little thing she is," she murmured, as the bobbing figure
went up and down the village path, "what a queer little thing she is."
But somehow the actions of the queer girl distracted her mind so that
she could not go back to her attitude of lazy indifference. She had
thought Anne a little commonplace until now; but it had not been a
commonplace thing, that changing from prettiness to plainness. She
even wondered if Anne had not done a finer act than she could have done
herself.
"She is a queer little thing," she said again, thoughtfully, and after
a long pause, "but she is good--"
She went to her wardrobe and took out a white dress. Then she got out
her hat and gloves and laid them on the bed. And then she sat and
looked at them, and then she began to dress.
And so it came about that Fairfax church had that morning two
sensations. In the first place Anne Batcheller came in late for the
only time in her life, and in the second place, when the service was
half over, a slender, distinguished maiden in a violet-wreathed white
hat, slipped along the aisle, flashing a glance at Anne as she passed,
and smiling at the delighted Judge as she entered the pew.
She fixed her eyes on the minister--and straightway forgot Anne and the
Judge and Fairfax, for the minister was reading the 107th Psalm, and
the words that fell on Judy's ears were pregnant with meaning to this
daughter of a sailor--"They that go down to the sea in ships--"
Dr. Grennell was a plain man, a man of rugged exterior--but he was a
man of spiritual power--and he knew his subject. His father had been a
sea-captain, and back of that were generations of Newfoundland
fishermen--men who went out in the glory of the morning to be lost in
the mists of the evening--men who worked while women wept--men to whom
this Psalm had been the song of hope--women to whom it had been the
song of comforting.
To Judy the sea meant her father. It had taken him away, it would
bring him back some day, and was not this man saying it, as he ended
his sermon, "He bringeth them into their desired haven--"?
Dr. Grennell had never seen Judy, but he knew the tragedy in the
Judge's life, and as she listened to him, Judy's face told him who she
was.
She went straight up to him after church.
"I am Judy Jameson," she said, "and I want to tell you how much I liked
the sermon."
The doctor looked down into her moved young face. "I am the son of a
sailor," he said, "and I love the sea--"
"I love it--" she said, with a catch of her breath, "and it is not
cruel--is it?"
"No--" he began. But with a man of his fiber the truth must out; "not
always," he amended, and took her hands in his, "not always--"
"And men do come back," she said, eagerly; "the one you told about in
your sermon--"
He saw the hope he had raised. "Yes, men do come back--but not always,
Judy."
Her lip quivered. "Let me believe it," she pleaded, and in that
moment, Judy's face foreshadowed the earnestness of the woman she was
to be. "Let me believe that my father will come some day--"
"Indeed, I will," said the doctor, and there was a mist in his eyes as
he clasped her hand, "and you must let me be your friend, Judith, as I
was your father's."
"I shall be glad--" she said, simply, and then and there began a
friendship that some day was to bring to Judy her greatest happiness.
That afternoon the Judge and Judy drove Anne home.
"It seems just like a dream," said Anne, as they came in sight of the
little gray house, with Belinda chasing butterflies through the clover,
and Becky Sharp on the lookout in the plumtree. "It seems just like a
dream--the good times and all, since Friday, Judy."
"A good dream or a bad dream, Annekins?" asked Judy.
"Oh, a good one, a lovely dream, and you are the Princess in it, Judy,"
said the adoring Anne.
"Well, you are the good little fairy godmother," said Judy. "Isn't she
good, grandfather?"
"Oh, I am not," said Anne, greatly embarrassed at this overwhelming
praise, "I am not--"
"I never could have changed my hair," affirmed Judy.
"What's that?" asked the Judge.
"Oh, a little secret," said Judy, smiling. "Shall I tell him, Anne?"
"No, indeed," Anne got very red, "no, indeed, Judy Jameson."
There was a little pause, and then the Judge said:
"I am sorry the picnic was such a failure."
"Oh, but it wasn't," cried Judy, "it wasn't a failure."
Anne and the Judge stared at her. "Did you enjoy it, Judy?" they asked
in one breath.
"Of course I did," said the calm young lady.
"But the rain," said the Judge.
"That was exciting."
"And your fainting--" said Anne.
"Just an episode," said Judy, wafting it away with a flirt of her
finger-tips.
"And Amelia, and Nannie, and Tommy, did you like them?" asked Anne.
"Oh, Amelia is funny, and Nannie is clever, and Tommy is a curiosity.
Oh, yes, I liked them," summed up Judy.
"And Launcelot--"
Judy smiled an inscrutable smile, as she pulled her hat low over her
sparkling eyes.
"He's bossy," she began, slowly, "and we are sure to quarrel if we see
much of each other--but he is interesting--and I think I shall like
him, Anne."
And then Belinda and Becky discovered them, and made for their beloved
mistress, and conversation on the picnic or any other topic was at an
end.