THE BIRTHDAY
One stormy evening Harry Evringham blew into the farmhouse, wet from his
drive from the station, and was severally hugged, kissed, and shaken by the
three who waited eagerly to receive him. The month that ensued was perhaps
the happiest that had ever come into the lives of either of the quartette;
certainly it was the happiest period to the married pair who had waited ten
years for their wedding trip.
The days were filled with rowing, sailing, swimming, riding, driving,
picnics, walks, talks, and _dolce far niente_ evenings, when the wind was
still and the moon silvered field and sea.
The happy hours were winged, the goldenrod strewed the land with sunshine,
and August slipped away.
One morning when Jewel awoke it was with a sensation that the day was
important. She looked over at Anna Belle and shook her gently. "Wake up,
dearie," she said. "'Green pastures are before me,' it's my birthday."
But Anna Belle, who certainly looked very pretty in her sleep, and perhaps
suspected it, seemed unable to overcome her drowsiness until Jewel set her
up against the pillow, when her eyes at once flew open and she appeared
ready for sociability.
"Do you remember Gladys on her birthday morning, dearie? She couldn't
think of anything she wanted, and I'm almost like her. Grandpa's given me
my boat, that's his birthday present; and mother says she should think it
was enough for ten birthdays, and so should I. Poor grandpa! In ten
birthdays I'll be nineteen, and then he says I'll have to cry on his
shoulder instead of into his vest. But grandpa's such a joker! Of course
grown-up ladies hardly ever cry. If father and mother have anything for me,
I'll be just delighted; but I can't think what I want. I have the
darlingest pony in the world, and the dearest Little Faithful watch, and
the best boat that was ever built, and I rowed father quite a long way
yesterday all alone, and I didn't splash much, but he caught hold of the
side of the boat and pretended he was afraid"--Jewel's laughter gurgled
forth at the remembrance--"he's such a joker; and I do understand the sail,
too, but they won't let me do it alone yet. Father says he can see in my
eye that I should love to jibe. I don't even know what jibe is, so how
could I do it?"
Jewel had proceeded so far in her confidences when the door of her room
opened, and her father and mother came in in their bath-wrappers.
"We thought we heard you improving Anna Belle's mind," said her father,
taking her in his arms and kissing both her cheeks and chin, the tip of her
nose and her forehead, and then carefully repeating the programme.
"But that was ten!" cried Jewel.
"Certainly. If you didn't have one to grow on, how would you get along?"
Then her pretty mother, her brown hair hanging in long braids, took her
turn and kissed Jewel's cheeks till they were pinker than ever. "Many, many
happy returns, my little darling," she said. "I didn't know you weren't
going riding this morning."
"Yes, grandpa said he expected a man early on business, and he had to be
here to see him. Father could have gone with me," said Jewel, looking at
him reproachfully, where he sat on the side of the bed, "but when I asked
him last night he said--I forget what he said."
"Merely that I didn't believe that horses liked such early dew."
"Oh, Jewel!" laughed Mrs. Evringham, "your father is a lazy, sleepy boy.
It's later than you think, dearie. Hop up now and get ready for breakfast."
They left her, and the little girl arose with great alacrity, for ever
since she was a baby her birthday present had always been on the breakfast
table.
As soon as she was dressed, she put a blue cashmere wrapper on Anna Belle
and carried her downstairs to the room where the Evringham family had their
meals, separate from the other inmates of the farmhouse.
Mr. Evringham was standing by the window, reading the newspaper as he
waited, and Jewel ran to him and looked up with bright expectation.
"H'm!" he said, not lifting his eyes from the print, "good-morning, Jewel.
Essex Maid and Star would hardly speak to me when I was out there just now,
they're so vexed at having to stay indoors this morning."
The child did not reply, but continued to look up, smiling.
"Well," said the broker at last, dropping the paper. "Well? What is it? I
don't see anything very exciting. You haven't on your silk dress."
"Grandpa! It's my _birthday_."
The broker slapped his leg with very apparent annoyance. "Well, now, to
think I should have to be told that!"
Jewel laughed and hopped a little as she looked toward the table. "Do you
see that bunch under the cloth at my place? That's my present. Isn't it the
most _fun_ not to know what it is?"
Mr. Evringham took her up in his arms and weighed her up and down
thoughtfully. "Yes," he said, "I believe you are a little heavier than you
were yesterday."
The child laughed again.
"Now remember, Jewel, you're to go slow on this birthday business. Once in
two or three years is all very well."
"Grandpa! people _have_ to have birthdays every year," she replied as he
set her down, "but after they're about twenty or something like that, it's
wrong to remember how old they are."
"Indeed?" the broker stroked his mustache. "Ladies especially, I suppose."
"Oh, no," returned Jewel seriously. "Everybody. Mother's just twenty years
older than I am and that's so easy to remember, it's going to be hard to
forget; but I've most forgotten how much older father is," and Jewel
looked up with an expression of determination that caused the broker to
smile broadly.
"I can understand your mother's being too self-respecting to pass thirty,"
he returned, "but just why your father shouldn't, I fail to understand."
"Why, it's error to be weak and wear spectacles and have things, isn't it?"
asked Jewel, with such swift earnestness that Mr. Evringham endeavored to
compose his countenance.
"Have things?" he repeated.
Jewel's head fell to one side. "Why, even you, grandpa," she said lovingly,
"even you thought you had the rheumatism."
"I was certainly under that impression."
"But you never would have expected to have it when you were as young as
father, would you?"
"Hardly."
"Well, then you see why it's wrong to make laws about growing old and to
remember people's ages."
"Ah, I see what you mean. Everybody thinking the wrong way and jumping on a
fellow when he's down, as it were."
At this moment Jewel's father and mother entered the room, and she
instantly forgot every other consideration in her interest as to what
charming surprise might be bunched up under the tablecloth.
"Anna Belle can hardly wait to see my present," she said, lifting her
shoulders and smiling at her mother.
"She ought to know one thing that's there, certainly," replied Mrs.
Evringham mysteriously.
Jewel held the doll up in front of her. "Have you given me something,
dearie?" she asked tenderly. "I do hope you haven't been extravagant."
Then with an abrupt change of manner, she hopped up into her chair
eagerly, and the others took their places.
The very first package that Jewel took out was marked--"With Anna Belle's
love." It proved to be a pair of handsome white hair-ribbons, and the donor
looked modestly away as Jewel expressed her pleasure and kissed her
blushing cheeks.
Next came a box marked with her father's name. Upon opening it there was
discovered a set of ermine furs for Anna Belle,--at least they were very
white furs with very black tiny tails: collar and muff of a regal splendor,
and any one who declined to call them ermine would prove himself a cold
skeptic. Jewel jounced up and down in her chair with delight.
"Winter's coming, you know, Jewel, and Bel-Air Park is a very swell place,"
said her father.
"And perhaps I'll have a sled at Christmas and draw Anna Belle on it," said
the child joyously. "Here, dearie, let's see how they fit," and on went the
furs over the blue cashmere wrapper, making Anna Belle such a thing of
beauty that Jewel gazed at her entranced. The doll was left with her chubby
hands in the ample muff and the sumptuous collar half eclipsing her golden
curls, while the little girl dived under the cloth once more for the
largest package of all.
This was marked with her mother's love and contained handsome plaid
material for a dress, with the silk to trim it, and a pair of kid gloves.
Jewel hopped down from her chair and kissed first her father and then her
mother. "That'll be the loveliest dress!" she said, and she carried it to
her grandfather to let him look closer and put his hand upon it.
"Well, well, you are having a nice birthday, Jewel," he said.
"Yes," she replied, putting her arm around his neck and pressing her cheek
to his. "We couldn't put the boat under the tablecloth, but I'm thinking
about it, grandpa."
After breakfast they all went out to the covered piazza to read the lesson.
It was a fine, still morning. The pond rippled dreamily. The roar of the
surf was subdued. From Jewel's seat beside her grandfather she could see
her namesake glinting in the sun and gracefully rising and falling on the
waves in the gentle breeze.
They had all taken comfortable positions and Mrs. Evringham was finding the
places in the books.
Mr. Evringham spoke quite loudly: "Well, this is a fine morning, surely,
fine."
"It is that," agreed Harry, stretching his long legs luxuriously. "If I
felt any better I couldn't stand it."
As he was speaking, a strange man in a checked suit came around the corner
of the house.
Jewel's eyes grew larger and she straightened up.
"Oh, grandpa, look!" she said softly, and then jumped off the seat to see
better. All the little company gazed with interest, for, accompanying the
man, was the most superb specimen of a collie dog that they had ever seen.
"It's a golden dog, grandpa," added Jewel.
The collie had evidently just been washed and brushed. His coat was,
indeed, of a gleaming yellow. His paws were white, the tip of his tail was
white, and his breast was snowy as the thick, soft foam of the breakers. A
narrow strip of white descended between his eyes,--golden, intelligent
eyes, with generations of trustworthiness in them. A silver collar nestled
in the long hair about his neck, and altogether he looked like a prince
among dogs.
Jewel clasped her hands beneath her chin and gazed at him with all her
eyes. He was too splendid to be flown at in her usual manner with animals.
"What a beauty!" ejaculated Harry.
"It _is_ a golden dog," said Jewel's mother, looking almost as enthusiastic
as the child.
"What have you there?" asked Mr. Evringham of the man. "Something pretty
fine, it appears to me."
"Yes, sir, there's none finer," replied the man, glancing at the animal. "I
called to see you on that little matter I wrote you of."
"Yes, yes; well, that will wait. We're interested in that fine collie of
yours. We know something about golden dogs here, eh, Jewel?"
"But this dog couldn't dance, grandpa," said the child soberly, drawing
nearer to the creature.
"I should think not," remarked the man, smiling. "What would he be doing
dancing? I've seen lions jump the rope in shows; but it never looked
fitting, to me."
"No," said Jewel, "this dog ought not to dance;" and as the collie's golden
eyes met hers, she drew nearer still in fascination, and he touched her
outstretched hand curiously, with his cold nose.
"Oh, well, but we like accomplished dogs," said Mr. Evringham coldly.
"Who says this dog ain't accomplished?" returned the man, in an injured
tone. "Just stand back there a bit, young lady."
Jewel retreated and her grandfather put his hand over her shoulder. The man
spoke to the dog, and at once the handsome creature sat up, tall and
dignified, on his hind legs.
The man only kept him there a few seconds; and then he put him through a
variety of other performances. The golden dog shook hands when he was told,
rolled over, jumped over a stick, and at last sat up again, and when the
man took a bit of sugar from his pocket and balanced it on the creature's
nose, he tossed it in the air, and, catching it neatly, swallowed it in a
trice.
Jewel was giving subdued squeals of delight, and everybody was laughing
with pleasure; for the decorative creature appeared to enjoy his own
tricks.
The man looked proudly around upon the company.
"Well," said Mr. Evringham to Jewel, "he is a dog of high degree, like
Gabriel's, isn't he? But he's such a big fellow I think the organ-grinder
wouldn't have such an easy time with _him_."
At the broker's voice, the dog walked up to him and wagged his feathery
tail. Jewel's eager hands went out to touch him, but Mr. Evringham held her
back.
"He's a friendly fellow," he went on; then continued to the man, "Would you
like to sell him?"
The question set the little girl's heart to beating fast.
"I would, first rate," replied the man, grinning, "but the trouble is I've
sold him once. I'm taking him to his owner now."
"That's a handsome collar you have on him."
"Oh, yes, it's a good one all right," returned the man. "The dog is for a
surprise present. The lady I'm taking him to is going to know him by his
name."
"Let's have a look at it, Jewel," said Mr. Evringham, and he took hold of
the silver collar, a familiarity which seemed rather to please the golden
dog, who began wagging his tail again, as he looked at Mr. Evringham
trustingly.
Jewel bent over eagerly. A single name was engraved clearly on the smooth
plate.
"Topaz!" she cried. "His name is Topaz! Grandpa, mother, the golden dog's
name is Topaz!"
Mrs. Evringham held up both hands in amazement, while Harry frowned
incredulously.
"Did you ever hear of anything so wonderful, grandpa? How _can_ the lady
know him by his name so well as we do?" The child was quite breathless.
"What? Do _you_ know the name?" asked the man. "Supposing I'd hit on the
right place already. Just take a look under his throat. The owner's name is
there."
Jewel fell on her knees, and while Mr. Evringham kept his hand on the dog's
muzzle, she pushed aside the silky white fur.
"Evringham. Bel-Air Park, New Jersey," was what she read, engraved on the
silver.
She sat still for a minute, overcome, while a procession of ideas crowded
after each other through the flaxen head. It was her birthday; grandpa
couldn't get the boat under the tablecloth. This beautiful dog--this
impossibly beautiful dog, was a surprise present. He was for her, to love
and to play with; to see his tricks every day, to teach him to know her and
to run to her when she called. If she was given the choice of the Whole
world on this sweet birthday morning, it seemed to her nothing could be so
desirable as this live creature, this playmate, this prince among dogs.
When she looked up the man in the checked suit had disappeared. She glanced
at her father and mother. They were watching her smilingly and she
understood that they had known.
She looked around a little further and saw Mr. Evringham seated, his hand
on the collie's neck, while the wagging, feathery tail expressed great
contentment in the touch of a good friend.
At the time the story of the golden dog had so captivated Jewel's
imagination, the broker began his search for one in real life. He had
already been thinking that a dog would be a good companion for the fearless
child's solitary hours in the woods. As soon as the collie was found, he
directed that all the ordinary tricks should be taught it, and every day
until he left New York he visited the creature, who remembered him so well
that on the collie's arrival late last evening, he had feared its joyous
barking out at the barn would waken Jewel.
She rose to her knees now, and, putting her arms around the dog's neck,
pressed her radiant face against him.
Topaz pulled back, but Mr. Evringham patted him, and in an instant he was
freed; for his little mistress jumped up and, climbing into her
grandfather's lap, rested her head against his breast.
"Grandpa," she said, slowly and fervently, "I wonder if you do know how
much I love you!"
Mr. Evringham patted the collie's head, then took Jewel's hand and placed
it with his own on the sleek forehead. The golden eyes met his
attentively.
"You're to take care of her, Topaz. Do you understand?" he asked.
The feathery tail waved harder.
Jewel gazed at the dog. "If anything could be too good to be true, he'd be
it," she said slowly.
Mr. Evringham's pleasure showed in his usually impassive face.
"Well, isn't it a good thing then that nothing is?" he replied, and he
kissed her.