JUDY KEEPS A PROMISE
"What's your talent, Anne?" asked Judy, one evening, as she lay on the
couch reading "Sesame and Lilies." It was raining again outside, but
in the fireplace a great fire was blazing, and rosy little Anne was in
front of it, popping corn.
"Haven't any," said Anne, watching the white kernels bob up and down.
"I can't draw and I can't play, and I can't sing or converse--or
anything."
Judy looked at her thoughtfully. "Well, we will have to find something
that you can do," she said, for Judy liked to lead and have others
follow, and having decided upon art as her life-work, she wanted Anne
to choose a similar path. "I wish I could take up bookbinding or
wood-carving, or--or dentistry--"
"Why, Judy Jameson." Anne turned an amazed hot face towards her.
"Why, Judy, you wouldn't like to pull teeth, would you?"
"It isn't what we like to do, Ruskin says," said Judy, calmly, "it's
usefulness that counts."
"Oh, well, I can wash dishes and dust and take care of old people and
pets," said placid Anne, opening the cover of the popper and letting
out delicious whiffs of hot corn.
Judy shuddered. "I hate those things," she said. "I couldn't wash
dishes, Anne. It is so dreadful for your hands."
She went back to her book, and Anne poured the hot corn into a big bowl
and salted it.
"Have some?" she asked the absorbed reader.
Without taking her eyes from her book, Judy stretched out her hand,
then all at once she flashed a glance into the rosy face so close to
her own.
"Anne," she said, almost humbly, "do you know you are more of a Ruskin
girl than I am? He says that every girl, every day, should do
something really useful about the house--go into the kitchen, and sew,
and learn how to fold table-cloths, and things, like that. And you
know all of those things--and how to help the poor--and I--I am always
trying to do some great thing, and I never really help any one. Not
any one, Anne--not a single soul--"
"But you are so clever," said little Anne.
"But people don't love you just because you are clever, and it isn't
clever people that make others the happiest," and Judy dropped her book
and gazed deep into the flames as if seeking there an answer to the
problems of life.
"People love you, Judy."
"Sometimes they do, and some people--but my awful temper, Anne," and
Judy sighed.
"You don't flare up half as much as you used." Anne's tone was
consoling. She had finished popping the corn, and she sat down on the
floor beside the couch on which Judy lay, and munched the crisp kernels
luxuriously.
"No, I don't," confessed Judy, "but it's an awful fight, Anne. You
have helped me a lot."
"Me?" asked the rosy maiden in astonishment. "Why, how have I helped
you, Judy?"
"By your example, Annekins," said Judy, sitting up. "You're such a
dear."
At which praise the rosy maiden got rosier than ever, and shook her
loosened hair over her happy eyes.
The firelight flickered on the beautiful dark face on the cushions, and
on the fair little one that rested against Judy's dress.
"We are such friends, aren't we, Judy?" whispered Anne, as she reached
up and curled her plump hand into Judy's slender fingers. "Almost like
sisters, aren't we, Judy?"
"Just like sisters, Annekins," said Judy, dreamily, with a responsive
pressure.
Outside the wind moaned and groaned, and the rain beat against the
panes. "I have never seen such a rainy season," said Judy, as a blast
shook the house. "But I rather like it when we are so cozy and warm
and happy, Anne."
The pop-corn was all eaten, and Anne was gazing into the fire, half
asleep, when suddenly she started up.
"What's that, Judy?" she cried.
Judy raised her eyes from her book.
"What?" she asked, abstractedly.
"That sound at the window."
"I didn't hear anything."
"It was like a rap."
"It was the rain."
"Well, maybe it was," and Anne settled back again. Presently her hand
slipped and dropped, and Judy, feeling the movement, looked down and
smiled, for little Anne was asleep.
Judy tucked a cushion behind the weary head, and was settling back for
another quiet hour with her book, when all at once she sat up straight,
listening.
Then she rolled from the couch quickly, without waking Anne, and went
to the window and peered out. She could see nothing but the driving
rain, but as she turned to leave there came again the sound that had
startled her.
The window was a French one, opening outward. Very softly she
unlatched it.
"Who's there?" she asked, wondering if she should have called Perkins.
"Come to the door," said a voice, and a dripping figure appeared within
the circle of light. "Come out a minute. It's me--Tommy Tolliver."
Anne slept on as Judy went out and closed the door behind her.
"Why, Tommy," she said, trying to see him in the darkness, "how in the
world did you get down here?"
"I have run away again," said Tommy, defiantly, "and I've come to you
to help me, Judy."
"What!"
"You said you would help me, Judy. That's why I came."
"But--"
"Oh, don't try to get out of it," blazed Tommy, who was wet and tired
and shivering, "you said you would. And if you back down now--well--"
He left the sentence unfinished and his voice broke.
"_When_ did I promise, Tommy?" asked poor Judy, in a dazed way.
"The day I came back to Fairfax."
It seemed like a dream to Judy, that day in the woods when she had
first met the children of Fairfax,--Launcelot and Amelia and
Nannie,--and she had entirely forgotten her reckless promise.
"Sit down," she faltered, "and tell me what you want me to do."
At the side of the house where they were sheltered somewhat from the
rain Tommy outlined his plan.
"I want you to take me down the bay in your sailboat. I had money
enough to get here, and if you can help me to get to the Point, a
friend of mine has promised me a place on one of the ocean liners."
"But Tommy--"
"Don't say 'but' to me, Judy," and Judy recognized a new note in
Tommy's voice. There was less of the old, weak swagger, and more
determination. "I am going, and that's all there is to it."
"When do you want to start?" she asked, after a pause.
"The first thing in the morning, if you can get away," said Tommy.
"I can't go until evening. We are to spend the day with some friends
of ours, the Bartons. But I can take you down by moonlight. It's a
couple of hours' ride. I suppose we shall have to tell Anne."
"I hate to," said Tommy.
"Why?"
"Oh, Anne is such a good little thing--and--and--she believes in
me--Judy."
"But if it is right for you to go, you shouldn't care--"
"I don't know whether it is right or not," said Tommy, doggedly, "and
what's more, I don't care, Judy. I am going and that's the end of it."
"Well!" Judy stood up, shivering. "It's awfully cold out here, Tommy;
you'd better come in."
"Are you going to help me?" demanded Tommy. "I sha'n't go in unless
you are."
"What will you do?"
"Tramp on. Guess I can manage for another day. I've only had a slice
of bread and a tomato to-day."
"Tommy Tolliver!" said Judy, shocked. "Why, you must be starved. I'll
go right in and get you something."
"Are you going to help me to get away?" he insisted.
"I must think about it."
"But you promised."
"I am not sure that I exactly promised," hesitated Judy.
"You're afraid."
"I am not."
"Aw, you are--or you'd do it."
That was touching Judy on a tender point. She was proud of her
courage--none of her race had ever been cowards.
Besides, as she stood there with the wind and the waves beating their
wild song into her ears, all the recklessness of her nature came
uppermost. It would be glorious to sail down the bay. The water would
be rough, and the wind would fill out the white sails of the little
boat, and they would fly, fly, and the goal for Tommy would be freedom.
"I'll do it," she said, suddenly. "I'll do it, Tommy. We Jamesons
never break a promise, and I'm not afraid."
They decided not to tell Anne.
"It would just worry her," said Judy, decidedly, "and I can get some
food and things out to you after Anne goes to bed, and you can sleep in
the boat-house. We can start in the morning."
It was a wild scheme, but before they had finished they felt quite
uplifted. In their youth and inexperience, they imagined that Tommy's
last dash for liberty was positively heroic, and Judy went in, feeling
like one dedicated to a cause.
She found Anne rubbing her eyes sleepily.
"Why, have you been out, Judy?" she gasped, wide awake. "You are all
wet."
"It's fine on the porch," said Judy, putting her soaked hair back from
her face. "I--I was tired of the heat of the room, and--it was
stifling. Let's go to bed, Anne."
"Aren't you going to finish your book?" Anne asked, wondering, for Judy
was something of a night-owl, and hated early hours.
Judy picked up "Sesame and Lilies," which lay open on the couch, and
shut it with a bang.
"No," she said, shortly, "I am not going to finish it to-night--I don't
know whether I shall ever finish it, Anne. I'm not Ruskin's kind of
girl, Anne. I can't 'sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam,' and I
don't think it is any use for me to try."
Anne stared at the change that had come over her. "Well, you are my
kind of girl," she said at last, and as they went up-stairs together,
she slipped her hand into Judy's arm. "I love you, dearly, Judy," she
said.
But Judy smiled down at her vaguely, for her mind was on Tommy,
crouched out there in the rain, and in imagination she was not Judy
Jameson, commonplacely going to bed at nine o'clock, but a heroine of
history, dedicated to the cause of one Thomas, the Downtrodden.