A MODERN "ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON"
BARBY was at home again. Georgina, hearing the jangle of a bell, ran
down the street to meet the old Towncrier with the news. She knew now,
how he felt when he wanted to go through the town ringing his bell and
calling out the good tidings about his Danny to all the world. That's
the way she felt her mother's home-coming ought to be proclaimed. It was
such a joyful thing to have her back again.
And Grandfather Shirley wasn't going to be blind, Georgina confided in
her next breath. The sight of both eyes would be all right in time. They
were so thankful about that. And Barby had brought her the darlingest
little pink silk parasol ever made or dreamed of, all the way from
Louisville, and some beaten biscuit and a comb of honey from the
beehives in her old home garden.
It was wonderful how much news Georgina managed to crowd into the short
time that it took to walk back to the gate. The Burrells had left town
and Belle had gone home, and Richard had sent her a postal card from Bar
Harbor with a snapshot of himself and Captain Kidd on it. And--she
lowered her voice almost to a whisper as she told the next item:
"Barby knows about Danny! Belle said I might tell her if she'd promise
not to let it get back to Mr. Potter."
They had reached the house by this time, and Georgina led him in to
Barby who rose to welcome him with both hands outstretched.
"Oh, Uncle Darcy," she exclaimed. "I know--and I'm _so_ glad. And Justin
will be, too. I sent Georgina's letter to him the very day it came. I
knew he'd be so interested, and it can do no harm for him to know, away
off there in the interior of China."
Georgina was startled, remembering the letter which _she_ had sent to
the interior of China. Surely her father wouldn't send that back to
Barby! Such a panic seized her at the bare possibility of such a thing,
that she did not hear Uncle Darcy's reply. She wondered what Barby would
say if it should come back to her. Then she recalled what had happened
the first few moments of Barby's return and wondered what made her think
of it.
Barby's first act on coming into the house, was to walk over to the old
secretary where the mail was always laid, and look to see if any letters
were waiting there for her. And that was before she had even stopped to
take off her veil or gloves. There were three which had arrived that
morning, but she only glanced at them and tossed them aside. The one
she wanted wasn't there. Georgina had turned away and pretended that she
wasn't watching, but she was, and for a moment she felt that the sun had
gone behind a cloud, Barby looked so disappointed.
But it was only for a moment, for Barby immediately began to tell about
an amusing experience she had had on her way home, and started upstairs
to take off her hat, with Georgina tagging after to ask a thousand
questions, just as she had been tagging ever since.
And later she had thrown her arms around her mother, exclaiming as she
held her fast, "You haven't changed a single bit, Barby," and Barby
answered gaily:
"What did you expect, dearest, in a few short weeks? White hair and
spectacles?"
"But it doesn't seem like a few short weeks," sighed Georgina. "It seems
as if years full of things had happened, and that I'm as old as you
are."
Now as Uncle Darcy recounted some of these happenings, and Barby
realized how many strange experiences Georgina had lived through during
her absence, how many new acquaintances she had made and how much she
had been allowed to go about by herself, she understood why the child
felt so much older. She understood still better that night as she sat
brushing Georgina's curls. The little girl on the footstool at her knee
was beginning to reach up--was beginning to ask questions about the
strange grown-up world whose sayings and doings are always so puzzling
to little heads.
"Barby," she asked hesitatingly, "what do people mean exactly, when they
say they have other fish to fry?"
"Oh, just other business to attend to or something else they'd rather
do."
"But when they shrug their shoulders at the same time," persisted
Georgina.
"A shrug can stand for almost anything," answered Barby. "Sometimes it
says meaner things than words can convey."
Then came the inevitable question which made Georgina wish that she had
not spoken.
"But why do you ask, dear? Tell me how the expression was used, and I
can explain better."
Now Georgina could not understand why she had brought up the subject. It
had been uppermost in her mind all evening, but every time it reached
the tip of her tongue she drove it back. That is, until this last time.
Then it seemed to say itself. Having gone this far she could not lightly
change the subject as an older person might have done. Barby was waiting
for an answer. It came in a moment, halting but truthful.
"That day I was at the Bazaar, you know, and everybody was saying how
nice I looked, dressed up like a little girl of long ago, I heard Mrs.
Whitman say to Miss Minnis that one would think that Justin Huntingdon
would want to come home once or twice in a lifetime to see me; and Miss
Minnis shrugged her shoulders, this way, and said:
"'Oh, he has other fish to fry.'"
Georgina, with her usual aptitude for mimicry, made the shrug so
eloquent that Barby understood exactly what Miss Minnis intended to
convey, and what it had meant to the wondering child.
"Miss Minnis is an old cat!" she exclaimed impatiently. Then she laid
down the brush, and gathering Georgina's curls into one hand, turned her
head so that she could look into the troubled little face.
"Tell me, Baby," she demanded. "Have you heard anyone else say things
like that?"
"Yes," admitted Georgina, "several times. And yesterday a woman who came
into the bakery while I was getting the rolls Tippy sent me for, asked
me if I was Doctor Huntingdon's little girl. And when I said yes, she
asked me when he was coming home."
"And what did you say?"
"Well, I thought she hadn't any right to ask, specially in the way she
made her question sound. She doesn't belong in this town, anyhow. She's
only one of the summer boarders. So I drew myself up the way the Duchess
always did in 'The Fortunes of Romney Tower.' Don't you remember? and I
said, 'It will probably be some time, Madam.' Then I took up my bag of
hot rolls and marched out. I think that word Madam always sounds so
freezing, when you say it the way the Duchess was always doing."
"Oh, you ridiculous baby!" exclaimed Barby, clasping her close and
kissing her again and again. Then seeing the trouble still lingering in
the big brown eyes, she took the little face between her hands and
looked into it long and intently, as if reading her thoughts.
"Georgina," she said presently, "I understand now, what is the matter.
You're wondering the same thing about your father that these busybodies
are. It's my fault though. I took it for granted that you understood
about his long absence. I never dreamed that it was hurting you in any
way."
Georgina hid her face in Barby's lap, her silence proof enough that her
mother had guessed aright. For a moment or two Barby's hand strayed
caressingly over the bowed head. Then she said:
"I wonder if you remember this old story I used to tell you, beginning,
'St. George of Merry England was the youngest and the bravest of the
seven champions of Christendom. Clad in bright armor with his magic
sword Ascalon by his side, he used to travel on his war horse in far
countries in search of adventure.' Do you remember that?"
Georgina nodded yes without raising her head.
"Then you remember he came to a beach where the Princess Saba called to
him to flee, because the Dragon, the most terrible monster ever seen on
earth, was about to come up out of the sea and destroy the city. Every
year it came up to do this, and only the sacrifice of a beautiful maiden
could stop it from destroying the people.
"But undismayed, Saint George refused to flee. He stayed on and fought
the dragon, and wounded it, and bound it with the maiden's sash and led
it into the market place where it was finally killed. And the people
were forever freed from the terrible monster because of his prowess. Do
you remember all that?"
Again Georgina nodded. She knew the story well. Every Christmas as far
back as she could remember she had eaten her bit of plum pudding from a
certain rare old blue plate, on which was the picture of Saint George,
the dragon and the Princess.
"Nowadays," Barby went on, "because men do not ride around 'clad in
bright armor,' doing knightly deeds, people do not recognize them as
knights. But your father is doing something that is just as great and
just as brave as any of the deeds of any knight who ever drew a sword.
Over in foreign ports where he has been stationed, is a strange disease
which seems to rise out of the marshes every year, just as the dragon
did, and threaten the health and the lives of the people. It is
especially bad on ship-board, and it is really harder to fight than a
real dragon would be, because it is an invisible foe, a sickness that
comes because of a tiny, unseen microbe.
"Your father has watched it, year after year, attacking not only the
sailors of foreign navies but our own men, when they have to live in
those ports, and he made up his mind to go on a quest for this invisible
monster, and kill it if possible. It is such a very important quest that
the Government was glad to grant him a year's leave of absence from the
service.
"He was about to come home to see us first, when he met an old friend, a
very wealthy Englishman, who has spent the greater part of his life
collecting rare plants and studying their habits. He has written several
valuable books on Botany, and the last ten years he has been especially
interested in the plants of China. He was getting ready to go to the
very places that your father was planning to visit, and he had with him
an interpreter and a young American assistant. When he invited your
father to join him it was an opportunity too great to be refused. This
Mr. Bowles is familiar with the country and the people, even speaks the
language himself a little. He had letters to many of the high officials,
and could be of the greatest assistance to your father in many ways,
even though he did not stay with the party. He could always be in
communication with it.
"So, of course, he accepted the invitation. It is far better for the
quest and far better for himself to be with such companions.
"I am not uneasy about him, knowing he has friends within call in case
of sickness and accident, and he will probably be able to accomplish his
purpose more quickly with the help they will be able to give. You know
he has to go off into all sorts of dirty, uncomfortable places, risk his
own health and safety, go among the sick and suffering where he can
watch the progress of the disease under different conditions.
"The whole year may be spent in a vain search, with nothing to show for
it at the end, and even if he is successful and finds the cause of this
strange illness and a remedy, his only reward will be the satisfaction
of knowing he has done something to relieve the suffering of his
fellow-creatures. People can understand the kind of bravery that shows.
If he were rescuing one person from a burning house or a sinking boat
they would cry out, 'What a hero.' But they don't seem to appreciate
this kind of rescue work. It will do a thousand times more good, because
it will free the whole navy from the teeth of the dragon.
"If there were a war, people would not expect him to come home. We are
giving him up to his country now, just as truly as if he were in the
midst of battle. A soldier's wife and a soldier's daughter--it is the
proof of our love and loyalty, Georgina, to bear his long absence
cheerfully, no matter how hard that is to do; to be proud that he can
serve his country if not with his sword, with the purpose and prowess of
a Saint George."
Barby's eyes were wet but there was a starry light in them, as she
lifted Georgina's head and kissed her. Two little arms were thrown
impulsively around her neck.
"Oh, Barby! I'm so sorry that I didn't know all that before! I didn't
understand, and I felt real ugly about it when I heard people whispering
and saying things as if he didn't love us any more. And--when I said my
prayers at bedtime--I didn't sing 'Eternal Father Strong to Save' a
single night while you were gone."
Comforting arms held her close.
"Why didn't you write and tell mother about it?"
"I didn't want to make you feel bad. I was afraid from what Cousin
Mehitable said you were going to _die_. I worried and worried over it.
Oh, I had the miserablest time!"
Another kiss interrupted her. "But you'll never do that way again,
Georgina. Promise me that no matter what happens you'll come straight to
me and have it set right."
The promise was given, with what remorse and penitence no one could know
but Georgina, recalling the letter she had written, beginning with a
stern "Dear Sir." But to justify herself, she asked after the
hair-brushing had begun again:
"But Barby, why has he stayed away from home four whole years? He wasn't
hunting dragons before this, was he?"
"No, but I thought you understood that, too. He didn't come back here to
the Cape because there were important things which kept him in
Washington during his furloughs. Maybe you were too small to remember
that the time you and I were spending the summer in Kentucky he had
planned to join us there. But he wired that his best friend in the Navy,
an old Admiral, was at the point of death, and didn't want him to leave
him. The Admiral had befriended him in so many ways when he first went
into the service that there was nothing else for your father to do but
stay with him as long as he was needed. You were only six then, and I
was afraid the long, hot trip might make you sick, so I left you with
mamma while I went on for several weeks. Surely you remember something
of that time."
"No, just being in Kentucky is all I remember, and your going away for a
while."
"And the next time some business affairs of his own kept him in
Washington, something very important. You were just getting over the
measles and I didn't dare take you, so you stayed with Tippy. So you see
it wasn't your father's fault that he didn't see you. He had expected
you to be brought down to Washington."
Georgina pondered over the explanation a while, then presently said
with a sigh, "Goodness me, how easy it is to look at things the wrong
way."
Soon after her voice blended with Barby's in a return to the long
neglected bedtime rite:
"_Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea._"
Afterward, her troubles all smoothed and explained away, she lay in the
dark, comforted and at peace with the world. Once a little black doubt
thrust its head up like a snake, to remind her of Melindy's utterance,
"When a man _wants_ to write, he's gwine to write, busy or no busy." But
even that found an explanation in her thoughts.
Of course, Melindy meant just ordinary men. Not those who had great
deeds to do in the world like her father. Probably Saint George himself
hadn't written to his family often, if he had a family. He couldn't be
expected to. He had "other fish to fry," and it was perfectly right and
proper for him to put his mind on the frying of them to the neglect of
everything else.
The four months' long silence was unexplained save for this comforting
thought, but Georgina worried about it no longer. Up from below came the
sound of keys touched softly as Barby sang an old lullaby. She sang it
in a glad, trustful sort of way.
"_He is far across the sea,
But he's coming home to me,
Baby mine!_"
Lying there in the dark, Georgina composed another letter to send after
her first one, and next morning this is what she wrote, sitting up in
the willow tree with a magazine on her knees for a writing table:
"Dearest Father: I am sorry that I wrote that last letter, because
everything is different from what I thought it was. I did not know until
Barby came home and told me, that you are just as brave as St. George
was, clad in bright armor, when he went to rescue the people from the
dragon. I hope you get the monster that comes up out of the sea every
year after the poor sailors. Barby says we are giving you to our country
in this way, as much as if there was war, so now I'm prouder of having a
St.-George-and-the-dragon-kind of a father than one like Peggy
Burrell's, even if she does know him well enough to call him
'Dad-o'-my-heart.' Even if people don't understand, and say things about
your never coming home to see us, we are going to 'still bear up and
steer right onward,' because that's our line to live by. And we hope as
hard as we can every day, that you'll get the mike-robe you are in kwest
of. Your loving little daughter, Georgina Huntingdon."