E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading
Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 36401-h.htm or 36401-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/36401/pg36401-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36401/36401-h.zip)
[Illustration: "MRS. KENDALL PLACED IN HER HANDS A GREAT RED ROSE."]
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
The Story of How Margaret Solved Her Problem
by
ELEANOR H. PORTER
Author of
"Pollyanna: The Glad Book,"
Trade Mark Trade Mark
"Cross Currents," "The Story of Marco," Etc.
With Four Illustrations by Frank T. Merrill
A. L. Burt Company
Publishers New York
Published by Arrangements with The Page Company
To my husband
whose cordial interest in my work
is always a
source of inspiration
ILLUSTRATIONS
"Mrs. Kendall placed in her hands a great red rose" _Frontispiece_ 13
"For a time Margaret regarded him with troubled eyes" 66
"A mob of small boys had found an object upon which to vent their
wildest mischief" 158
"Margaret crossed the room and touched the man's shoulder" 244
THE TURN OF THE TIDE
CHAPTER I
Margaret had been home two hours--two hours of breathless questions,
answers, tears, and laughter--two hours of delighted wandering about the
house and grounds.
In the nursery she had seen the little woolly dog that lay on the floor
just as she had left it five years before; and out on the veranda steps
she had seen the great stone lions that had never quite faded from her
memory. And always at her side had walked the sweet-faced lady of her
dreams, only now the lady was very real, with eyes that smiled on one so
lovingly, and lips and hands that kissed and caressed one so tenderly.
"And this is home--my home?" Margaret asked in unbelieving wonder.
"Yes, dear," answered Mrs. Kendall.
"And you are my mother, and I am Margaret Kendall, your little girl?"
"Yes."
"And the little dog on the floor--that was mine, and--and it's been there
ever since?"
"Yes, ever since you left it there long ago. I--I could not bear to have
any one move it, or touch it."
"And I was lost then--right then?"
"No, dear. We traveled about for almost a year. You were five when I
lost you." Mrs. Kendall's voice shook. Unconsciously she drew Margaret
into a closer embrace. Even now she was scarcely sure that it was
Margaret--this little maid who had stepped so suddenly out of the great
silence that had closed about her four long years before.
Margaret laughed softly, and nestled in the encircling arms.
"I like it--this," she confided shyly. "You see, I--I hain't had it
before. Even the dream-lady didn't do--this."
"The dream-lady?"
Margaret hesitated. Her grave eyes were on her mother's face.
"I suppose she was--you," she said then slowly. "I saw her nights,
mostly; but she never stayed, and when I tried to catch her, she--she was
just air--and wasn't there at all. And I did want her so bad!"
"Of course you did, sweetheart," choked Mrs. Kendall, tremulously. "And
didn't she ever stay? When was it you saw her--first?"
Margaret frowned.
"I--don't--seem--to know," she answered. She was thinking of what Dr.
Spencer had told her, and of what she herself remembered of those four
years of her life. "You see first I was lost, and Bobby McGinnis found
me. Anyhow, Dr. Spencer says he did, but I don't seem to remember.
Things was all mixed up. There didn't seem to be anybody that wanted me,
but there wouldn't anybody let me go. And they made me sew all the time
on things that was big and homely, and then another man took me and made
me paste up bags. Say, did you ever paste bags?"
"No, dear." Mrs. Kendall shivered.
"Well, you don't want to," volunteered Margaret; and to her thin little
face came the look that her mother had already seen on it once or twice
that afternoon--the look of a child who knows what it means to fight for
life itself in the slums of a great city. "They ain't a mite nice--bags
ain't; and the paste sticks horrid, and smells."
"Margaret, dearest!--how could you bear it?" shuddered Mrs. Kendall, her
eyes brimming with tears.
Margaret saw the tears, and understood--this tender, new-found mother of
hers was grieved; she must be comforted. To the best of her ability,
therefore, Margaret promptly proceeded to administer that comfort.
"Pooh! 'twa'n't nothin'," she asserted stoutly; "besides, I runned away,
and then I had a tiptop place--a whole corner of Mis' Whalen's kitchen,
and jest me and Patty and the twins to stay in it. We divvied up
everythin', and some days we had heaps to eat--truly we did--heaps! And I
went to Mont-Lawn two times, and of course there I had everythin', even
beds with sheets, you know; and----"
"Margaret, Margaret, don't, dear!" interrupted her mother. "I can't bear
even to think of it."
Margaret's eyes grew puzzled.
"But that was bang-up--all of it," she protested earnestly. "Why, I
didn't paste bags nor sew buttons, and nobody didn't strike me for not
doin' 'em, neither; and Mis' Whalen was good and showed me how to make
flowers--for pay, too! And----"
"Yes, dear, I know," interposed Mrs. Kendall again; "but suppose we
don't think any more of all that, sweetheart. You are home now, darling,
right here with mother. Come, we will go out into the garden." To Mrs.
Kendall it seemed at the moment that only God's blessed out-of-doors was
wide enough and beautiful enough to clear from her eyes the pictures
Margaret's words had painted.
Out in the garden Margaret drew a long breath.
"Oh!" she cooed softly, caressing with her cheek a great red rose. "I
knew flowers smelled good, but I didn't find it out for sure till I went
to Mont-Lawn that first time. You see the kind we made was cloth and
stiff, and they didn't smell good a mite--oh, you've picked it!" she
broke off, half-rapturously, half-regretfully, as Mrs. Kendall placed in
her hands the great red rose.
"Yes, pick all you like, dear," smiled Mrs. Kendall, reaching for
another flower.
"But they'll die," stammered Margaret, "and then the others won't see
them."
"The--'others'? What others, dear?"
"Why, the other folks that live here, you know, and walk out here, too."
Mrs. Kendall laughed merrily.
"But there aren't any others, dear. The flowers are all ours. No one
else lives here."
Margaret stopped short in the garden path and faced her mother.
"What, not any one? in all that big house?"
"Why, no, dear, of course not. There is no one except old Mr. and Mrs.
Barrett who keep the house and grounds in order. We have it all to
ourselves."
Margaret was silent. She turned and walked slowly along the path at her
mother's side. On her face was a puzzled questioning. To her eyes was
gradually coming a frightened doubt.
Alone?--just they two, with the little old man and the little old woman
in the kitchen who did not take up any room at all? Why, back in the
Alley there were Patty, the twins, and all the Whalens--and they had only
one room! It was like that, too, everywhere, all through the Alley--so
many, many people, so little room for them. Yet here--here was this great
house all windows and doors and soft carpets and pretty pictures, and
only two, three, four people to enjoy it all. Why had not her mother
asked----
Even to herself Margaret could not say the words. She shut her lips
tight and threw a hurried look into the face of the woman at her side.
This dear dream-lady, this beautiful new mother--as if there could be any
question of her goodness and kindness! Very likely, anyway, there were
not any poor----
Margaret's eyes cleared suddenly. She turned a radiant face on her
mother.
"Oh, I know," she cried in triumph. "There ain't any poor folks here,
and so you couldn't do it!"
Mrs. Kendall looked puzzled.
"'Poor folks'? 'Couldn't do it'?" she questioned.
"Yes; poor folks like Patty and the Whalens, and so you couldn't ask 'em
to live with you."
Mrs. Kendall sat down abruptly. Near her was a garden settee. She felt
particularly glad of its support just then.
"And of course you didn't know about the Whalens and Patty," went on
Margaret, eagerly, "and so you couldn't ask them, neither. But you do
now, and they'd just love to come, I know!"
"Love to--to come?" stammered Mrs. Kendall, gazing blankly into the
glowing young face before her.
"Of course they would!" nodded Margaret, dancing up and down and
clapping her hands. "Wouldn't you if you didn't have nothin' but a room
right down under the sidewalk, and there was such a heap of folks in it?
Why, here there's everythin'--_everythin'_ for 'em, and oh, I'm so glad,
'cause they _was_ good to me--so good! First Mis' Whalen took in Patty
and the twins when the rent man dumped 'em out on the sidewalk, and she
gave 'em a whole corner of her kitchen. And then when I runned away from
the bag-pasting, Patty and the twins took me in. And now I can pay 'em
back for it all--I can pay 'em back. I'm so glad!"
Mrs. Kendall fell back limply against the garden seat. Twice she opened
her lips--and closed them again. Her face flushed, then paled, and her
hands grew cold in her lap.
This dancing little maid with the sunlit hair and the astounding
proposition to adopt into their home two whole families from the slums
of New York, was Margaret, her own little Margaret, lost so long ago,
and now so miraculously restored to her. As if she could refuse any
request, however wild, from Margaret! But this--!
"But, sweetheart, perhaps they--they wouldn't want to go away forever and
leave their home," she remonstrated at last, feebly.
The child frowned, her finger to her lips.
"Well, anyhow, we can ask them," she declared, after a minute, her face
clearing.
"Suppose we--we make it a visit, first," suggested Mrs. Kendall,
feverishly. "By and by, after I've had you all to myself for a little
while, you shall ask them to--to visit you."
"O bully!" agreed Margaret in swift delight. "That will be nicest; won't
it? Then they can see how they like it--but there! they'll like it all
right. They couldn't help it."
"And how--how many are there?" questioned Mrs. Kendall, moistening her
dry lips, and feeling profoundly thankful for even this respite from the
proposed wholesale adoption.
"Why, let's see." Margaret held up her fingers and checked off her
prospective guests. "There's Patty, she's the oldest, and Arabella and
Clarabella--they're the twins an' they're my age, you know--that's the
Murphys. And then there's all the Whalens: Tom, Peter, Mary, Jamie,
and--oh, I dunno, six or eight, maybe, with Mis' Whalen and her husband.
But, after all, it don't make so very much diff'rence just how many
there are; does it?" she added, with a happy little skip and jump,
"'cause there's heaps of room here for any 'mount of 'em. And I never
can remember just how many there are without forgettin' some of 'em.
You--you don't mind if I don't name 'em all--now?" And she gazed earnestly
into her mother's face.
"No, dear, no," assured Mrs. Kendall, hurriedly. "You--you have named
quite enough. And now we'll go down to the brook. We haven't seen half
of Five Oaks yet." And once more she tried to make the joyous present
drive from her daughter's thoughts the grievous past.