THE NIGHT-WATCH.
TEDDY, waving the old palm-leaf fan up and down with as much care as
if it had carried the breath of life to his poor little charge, sat
for some time very quiet, listening to her wild prattle without
trying to interrupt it; until, after lying still for a few moments,
she suddenly fixed her eyes upon him, and said,--
"Oh! you're Peter Phinn, sister to Merry that weared a sun-bonnet,
ain't you?"
The question seemed so conscious and rational, that Teddy answered
eagerly,--
"No, honey; but I'm Teddy Ginniss; and I'm going to be your brother
forever and always. What's your name, sissy?"
"I'm Finny; no, I'm Cherrytoe,--I'm Cherrytoe, that dances. Want to
see me dance, Peter?"
As she spoke, she started up, and would have jumped out of bed; but
Teddy laid his hand upon her arm, and said soothingly,--
"No, no, sissy; not now. Another day you shall dance for Teddy, when
you're all well. And you mustn't call me Peter, 'cause I'm Teddy."
"Teddy, Teddy," repeated 'Toinette vaguely, and then, with a sudden
shrill laugh, shouted,--"'Taffy was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief;
Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef.' Guess you're
Taffy, ain't you?"
"No: I'm Teddy. I'm your brother Teddy," repeated the boy patiently;
and then, to change the subject, added coaxingly, "And what's the
pretty name you called yourself, darlint?"
"I'm Cherrytoe,--Cherrytoe that dances so pretty. Don't you hear, you
great naughty lady?--Cherrytoe, Cherrytoe, Cherrytoe!"
The wild scream in which the name was repeated woke even tired Mrs.
Ginniss, who started upright, crying,--
"What's it, what's it, Teddy? Ochone! what ails the crather?"
"It's only her name she's telling, mother; and sure it's a pretty
one. It's Cherrytoe."
"And what sort of a quare name is that for a christened child? Sure
we'll call it Cherry; for wunst I heerd of a lady as was called that
way," said Mrs. Ginniss.
"Yes, we'll call her Cherry, little sister Cherry," said Teddy,
delighted with the promise implied in his mother's words of keeping
the child for her own. "And, mother," added he, "mind you don't be
telling the doctor nor any one that she ain't your own, or maybe
they'll take her away to the 'sylum or somewheres, whether we'd like
it or not: and, if they do, I'll run off to sea; I will, by ginger!"
"Whisht, thin, with your naughty words, Teddy Ginniss! Didn't I bate
ye enough whin ye wor little to shtop ye from swearin'?"
"Ginger ain't swearing," replied Teddy positively. "I asked the
master if it wor, and he said it worn't."
"Faith, thin, and he says it hisself, I'm thinkin'," half asked the
mother, with a shrewd twinkle of her gray eyes. Teddy faltered and
blushed, but answered manfully,--
"No, he don't; and he said it was low and vulgar to talk that way;
and I don't, only by times."
"Well, thin, Teddy, see that yer don't, only thim times whin yer
hears the masther do it forninst ye: thin it'll be time enough for
ye. And don't ye be forgettin', b'y, that ye're bound to be a
gintleman afore ye die. It was what yer poor daddy said when yer wor
born, a twelvemonth arter we landed here. 'There, Judy,' says he,
'there's a native-born 'Merican for yees, wid as good a right to be
Prisidint as the best ov 'em. Now, don't yer let him grow up a
Paddy, wid no more brains nor a cow or a horse. Make a gintleman,
an' a 'Merican gintleman, of the spalpeen; an' shtrike hands on it
now.'
"'Troth, thin, Michael alanna, an' it's a bargain,' says I, an',
wake as I wor, give him me fist out ov the bed; an' he shuk it
hearty. An', though Michael died afore the year wor out, the promise
I'd made him stood; an' it's more ways than iver ye'll know, Teddy
Ginniss, I've turned an' twisted to kape ye dacent, an' kape ye out
ov the streets, niver forgittin' for one minute that Michael had
towld me there was the makin's of a gintleman in yees, an' that he'd
left it to me to work it out."
To this story, familiar as it was, Teddy listened with as much
attention as if he had never heard it before, and, when it was
ended, said,--
"And tell about your putting me to the squire, mother."
"Yis, b'y; an' that wor the biggest bit of loock that iver I wor in
yet. Two twelvemonth ago come Christmas it wor, an' iver an' always
I had been thinkin' what 'ud I do wid ye nixt, when Ann Dolan towld
me how her sisther's son had got a chance wid a lawyer to clane out
his bit ov an office, and run wid arrants an' sich, an' wor to have
fifty dollars a year, wid the chance ov larnin' what he could out ov
all thim big books as does be in sich places. Thin it somehow kim
inter my head so sudden like, that it's sartain sure I am it was
Michael come out ov glory to whishper it in my ear: 'There's Misther
Booros'll mebbe do as much for your Teddy.' I niver spoke the first
word to Ann Dolan, but lapped my shawl about me, an' wint out ov her
house with no more than, 'God save ye, Ann!' an' twenty minutes
later I wor in Misther Booros's office.
"'Good-evenin', Mrs. Ginniss,' says he, as ginteel as yer plaze.
'An' how is yer health?'
"'Purty good, thank ye kindly, sir,' says I; 'an' its hopin' you
have yours the same, I am.'
"'Thank you, I am very well; and what can I do for you this evening?
Pray, be sated,' says he, laning back in his chair wid sech a rale
good-natured smile on the handsome face of him, that I says to
myself, 'It's the lucky woman you are, Judy Ginniss, to put yer b'y
wid sech a dacent gintleman: an' I smiled to him agin, an' begun to
the beginnin', and towld him the whole story,--what Michael said to
me, an' what I said to Michael; an' how Mike died wid the faver; an'
how I'd worked an 'saved, an' wouldn't marry Tom Murphy when he axed
me, an' all so as I could kape my b'y dacent, an' sind him to the
school, an' give him his books an' his joggerphy-picters"--
"Them's maps, mother," interposed Teddy.
"Niver yer mind, b'y, what they be. Yer had 'em along wid the best
of yer schoolmates; an' so I towld the squire. 'An' now,' says I,
'he's owld enough to be settlin' to a thrade; an' I likes the lawyer
thrade the best, an' so I've coom to git yer honor to take him
'printice.'
"At that he stared like as he'd been moonsthruck; an' thin he
laughed a little to hisself; and thin he axed mighty quite like,
'How do you mane, Mrs. Ginniss?' So I towld him about Ann Dolan's
sisther's son, an' what wor the chance he'd got; an' thin I made
bowld to ax him would he take my b'y the same way, on'y I'd like
he'd larn more, an' I wouldn't mind the fifty dollars a year, but
'ud kape him mesilf, as I had kep' him since his daddy died, if the
wuth uv it might be give him in larnin'."
"And what did the master say to that, mother?" asked Teddy, with a
bright look that showed he foresaw and was pleased with the answer.
"Sure and he said what a gintleman the likes uv him should say, and
said with his own hearty smile that's as good as the goold dollar uv
another man,--
"'My good 'oman,' says he, 'sind along your b'y as soon as you
plaze; an' if he's as--as'--what's that agin, Teddy, darlint?"
"Amberitious," pronounced Teddy with a grand sort of air; "and it
means, he told me, wanting to be something more than you wor by
nater."
"Faith, and that's it, Teddy: that's the very moral uv what I wants
to see in yees. Well, the masther said if the b'y was as amberitious
an' as 'anest as his mother afore him (that's me, yer see, Teddy),"--
"Yes, yes, mother, I know. Well?"
"That he'd make a man uv him that should be a pride an' a support to
the owld age uv me, an' a blissin' to the day I med up my mind to
eddicate him. That wor two year ago, Teddy Ginniss; an', so far,
hasn' the gintleman done by yees as niver yer own daddy could? Hasn'
he put yees to the readin' an' the writin' an' the joggerphy--
picters, an' the nate figgers that yees puts on me washin'--bills,
till it's proud I am to hand 'em to the gintlefolks, an' say, 'If ye
plaze, the figgers is pooty plain. It's me b'y made 'em'? Now till
me, Teddy, hasn' the shquire done all this by yees, an' give yees
the fifty dollars by the year, all the same as if he give ye nothin'
else?"
"He has so, mother."
"An' whin I wanted to wash for him widout a cint uv charge, an'
towld him it was jist foon to rinshe out his bit things, bekase he
is that good--natered an' quite that there's niver the fust roobin'
to do to 'em, he says,--
"'An' if I let yees do 'em widout charge, I'd as lieve wear the
shirt of Misther Nessus;' an' more by token, Teddy Ginniss, I told
ye iver and oft to look in the big books an' see who was Misther
Nessus, an' what about his shirt."
"Faith and ye did, mother; but I never could find him yet. Some day
I'll ask the master," said Teddy with a puzzled look.
"An' so he pays me what I ax, an' it isn' for the likes uv him to be
knowin' what the others ud charge; an', whin he gives me forty cints
the dozen, he thinks, the poor innercint! that it's mooch as I would
ax uv any one. Now, Teddy b'y, isn' all I've towld ye God's truth?
and haven't ye heerd it as many times as yees are days owld out uv
yer own moother's lips?"
"Faith and I have, mother."
"An' wud yer moother till yees a lie, or bid yees do what wasn't
plazin' to God, Teddy?"
"Sure she wouldn't; and I'll lick the first fellow that'll say she
would, if he was as big as Goliah in the Bible," said Teddy,
doubling up his fist, and nodding fiercely.
"Thin, Teddy Ginniss, we cooms to this; an' it's not the first time,
nor yet the last, we'll coom to it. If iver ye can do yer masther a
service, be it big or be it little; if iver the stringth, or the
coorage, or the life itself, of yees, or thim as is dear to yees, ud
sarve him or plaze him,--I bid yees now to give it him free an'
willin' as ye'd give it to God. An' so ye mind me, it's my blissin'
an' the blissin' uv yer dead father that's iver wid ye; an' so ye
fail me, it's the black curse uv disobedience, an' yer moother's
brukken heart, that shall cling to yees for iver and iver, while
life shall last. Do ye mind that, b'y?"
"I mind it, and I'll heed it, mother, as I've promised you before,"
said Teddy solemnly; and mother and son exchanged as tender and as
true a kiss as young Bayard and his lady-mother could have done when
she gave him to be a knight and chevalier.
All through this long conversation, which had been carried on in a
low tone of voice, and frequently interrupted when it seemed to
disturb her, 'Toinette had slept feverish and restlessly; but as the
washwoman crept away to begin her daily labors, and Teddy lingered
for a moment more to look at the poor little sister whose beauty was
to him an ever-new delight, her great blue eyes suddenly opened, and
fixed upon him, while with an airy little laugh she said,--
"We're King and Queen of Merrigoland, Peter; isn't we? Does you love
me, Peter?"
"I couldn't tell how well I love you, Cherry dear; but it's Teddy I
am, and not Peter," said the boy, bashfully kissing the little hot
hand upon the outside of the bed.
To his dismay, the delirious child snatched it from him with a wild
cry, and burst into a storm of tears and sobs, crying,--
"Go away, wicked lady! go away, I say! God won't love you when you
strike me, you know. He won't: my mamma said so. Oh, oh, oh!"
Her cries brought Mrs. Ginniss to her side in a moment, who,
tenderly soothing her, turned upon Teddy.
"Bad 'cess to yees, ye spalpeen! An' what ud ye be afther vexin' her
for, an' her in a faver? What did yees say to her?"
"I said my name was Teddy, and not Peter; and then she said I was a
lady, and struck her," replied the boy, bewildered, and a little
indignant.
"And sure ye'r Peter or Paul, or Judas hissilf, if so be she likes
to call ye so while she's this way; an', if ye shtrike her, it's the
weight uv my fist ye'll feel; mind that, young man!--Whisht, thin,
darlint! asy, mavourneen!"
'Toinette, hushed upon the motherly bosom of the good woman, soon
ceased her cries, and presently fell again to sleep; while Teddy,
with rather an injured look upon his uncouth face, and yet pleased
to see the little sister in his mother's arms, crept softly from the
room, with his breakfast in his hand.