Mr. Bond had not been to see them for a great while, and the cold
weather was coming, and there were hard times in store for them, if they
did not manage to get some sewing, or something to do. It was the first
of November, and the breeze was no longer soft and bland, as it came
from the blue waters upward into the little room, but it was fresh and
chilly, and had a mournful tone, and Nannie got cotton and stuffed the
windows tight to keep it out. There was but little fuel in the house,
and scarcely any money for their next quarter's rent, and Mrs. Flin had
been up a day or two before to warn them that they must leave if the
funds were not ready by a certain time. Mrs. Bates had fallen down
stairs by means of one of Master Sammy's round pebbles, and lamed
herself, so that she was no longer able to trudge about with her basket,
and where she had applied for sewing, they told her there were more
applicants than work, and so she did not know what to do.
"To-morrow's rent-day, Nannie," said she with a sigh, "and I have but a
dollar put by toward the twelve. I shall have to send you round to see
Mr. Bond, child, and it's me that's ashamed to do that after all he's
done for us; but it can't be helped! It's unfortunate we've been the
last month, and shure he'll not be blaming the Providence as brought it
to us!"
So Nannie put on her old hood and cloak, and went timidly up to Mrs.
Kinalden's door. The old lady's aspect was rather forbidding, as she
answered the bell, and found only a beggar child had summoned her from
her dinner-pot, and she was about to slam the door in her face, when
Nannie said,
"It's Mr. Bond I'm wanting to see, ma'am, if you please."
Mrs. Kinalden would have been glad to send the child away; but she
remembered the past, and dared not venture; so she told her to be sure
and wipe her feet clean, and then she ushered her up stairs to the
bachelor's-room. Nannie knocked softly, and as she heard a faint voice
say "Come in," she opened the door and entered. One glance revealed it
all. Mr. Bond had been sick--very ill--and she had never once been to
inquire about him. He sat propped up in his easy-chair, with a flowered
dressing-gown about him, and his head against a pillow, and there was a
warm fire in the fire-place, and bowls standing about with bread-water,
and gruel, and arrow-root in them--and labeled vials were upon the
table, so that she felt he had really been in some danger. Besides, his
face was thin and pale and wrinkled, and she would scarcely have
recognized him as the fat jolly old man who used to have hardly a lap
for little Winnie to perch upon.
"Oh! it's you, Nannie, is it?" said he, with the same pleasant tone as
of old, and with one of his broad, beaming smiles that played over his
hollow cheeks mockingly. "Didn't come to see your old friend all these
three weeks, and he too ill to get off from his bed. He wouldn't have
served you so, Nannie, that he wouldn't!" and he looked half
reproachfully, half jestingly at the serious face of the young girl.
"And we were all the time wondering if ye'd deserted us, sir," said
Nannie, as she stood by the table twisting her apron over her finger;
"and never a word of your illness did we hear, or the days would not
have slipped away and we not have been to ye! Maybe ye were needing
somebody to nurse ye, and ye lying alone here with no hand to give the
medicines?" and she looked inquiringly at him.
"Mrs. Kinalden has been as attentive as she could be with her cares,
Nannie," replied the patient old man; "but the pillows would have lain a
little easier if a little girl that I know of had come in sometimes to
shake them up for me, and perhaps the bed would have been softer for
making over once in a while." How quickly the old hood and cloak went
off, and the nimble hands shook and beat the sick man's bed until it was
as plump as a partridge--and she put on the clothes so smoothly that
there was not a wrinkle in them; then she arranged the glasses and vials
nicely upon the table, and washed the spoons, and warmed him some gruel,
and she read a psalm to him, and then donned her things again to go;
but she hadn't said a word about the need at home, and perhaps she would
not have remembered it until she had returned to her mother had not Mr.
Bond said, "Nannie, how are you getting along now? Let's see,
to-morrow's rent-day, isn't it? and hard times, too. Hand me the wallet
out of that desk there, child, I must see you through this cold
weather," and he counted out twelve dollars and tied them in a corner of
her handkerchief. "So your mother's not able to go out any more," said
he, as Nannie told him of the trouble. "Well, we'll see what can be
done; you mustn't suffer, d'ye hear? and mind you come every day to make
my bed while I'm sick, 'twill save Mrs. Kinalden some work--and I guess
'twill suit me better," added he, as he glanced at the inviting-looking
nest that had not before shown its proper proportions since his illness.
"Here, take this orange to Winnie," said he, as the child moved toward
the door; "I'll be round there in a few days," and he looked brighter
than he did a half hour before. "I wonder what there is in a child's
presence to make things so sunny," thought Mr. Bond, as the young girl
left the room. "Her little hands seem to have glossed over every thing
they touched, and the gruel had a relish that that old woman could never
give."
It was willing hands that made the difference, good Mr. Bond. A sick
bed's a hard place for one who has no kind and voluntary attention. Call
in experienced nurses and skillful physicians--pay them more than the
half of your substance--send out for all the luxuries a diseased palate
may crave--it won't do, Mr. Bond, it won't do; there needs a loving
heart to anticipate all your wants, and a tender hand to bathe the
fevered brow and smooth the uneasy pillow, and a low sweet voice to
whisper soothing words in your ear; then it's a sort of pleasure to lie
so languid and careless, and watch the gliding motions of your quiet
nurse, and feel that you are getting on so comfortably.
Mr. Bond didn't need to be told all this; he felt it, as day after day,
during his convalescence, the little feet came tripping up the stairs,
and the child's glad hands ministered unto him; and, after she had made
all tidy and had gone out and closed the door softly behind her, he
would lie gazing at the youthful features of the bonnie lassie upon the
wall, and wonder how many more times he should be so near her, and yet
not be permitted to go. "Mustn't be impatient," that's what you told
Nannie, isn't it, Mr. Bond? there's a great deal for you to accomplish
yet in your master's vineyard before the reward comes; the walls are
broken down all about, and there's many a tender vine exposed to the
wild boar and the beasts of the field, and it is for you to help repair
the breaches before you go hence to rest from your labors.