THE PINK-SILK DRESS.
BUT, spite of Teddy's disapproval and his mother's doubts, neither
of them could resist the earnestness of Cherry's entreaties, day
after day, to be allowed to "go down and see the music in 'Varny's
room;" and it finally became quite a regular thing for Teddy, upon
his return home, to find his little sister ready shawled and hooded,
and waiting for him to accompany her.
As the summer came on, and whole streets-full of his patrons left
the city, Giovanni became less regular in his hours of leavings or
returning home; often remaining in his room several hours of the
day, smoking, sleeping, or training Pantalon in new accomplishments.
So sure as she knew him to be at home, Cherry gave her foster-mother
no peace until she had consented to allow her to visit him; and Mrs.
Ginniss said to herself, "Sure, and it's no harm the little crather
can git uv man nor monkey nor music; an' what's the good uv crossin'
her?"
So it finally came about that Cherry spent many more hours in the
company of Giovanni, Pantalon, and the organ, than Teddy either
knew, or would have liked, had his mother thought fit to tell him.
At first, the conversation between the new friends was carried on in
the imperfect English used by both; but, very soon, Giovanni,
noticing the facility with which the child adopted an occasional
word of Italian, set himself to teach her the language, and
succeeded beyond his expectations. Indeed it seemed to him that the
soft and liquid accents of the beloved tongue had never sounded to
him so sweet beneath Italian skies as now, when they fell from the
rosy lips and pure tones of the charming child whom he, with all who
approached her, was learning to love with the best love of his
nature.
Besides the Italian lessons, Giovanni taught his little pupil to
sing several of the popular songs of his native city of Naples, and
to perform several of his national dances; watching with an ever-new
delight the grace and ease of her movements, and the quickness with
which she caught at his every hint and gesture.
Occasionally, Cherry insisted upon making Pantalon join in the
dance; and the somewhat sombre face of the Italian would ripple all
over with laughter as he watched her efforts to subdue the
creature's motions to grace and harmony, and to cultivate in his
bestial brain her own innate love of those divine gifts.
"You will never make him dance as if of heaven, as you do,
picciola," said he one day; and Cherry suddenly stood still, and,
dropping the monkey's paws, came to her teacher's side, asking
eagerly,--
"Have you been to heaven too? and did you see me dance there?"
"Padre Johannes says we all came from heaven; so I suppose I did,
and perhaps Pantalon also," said the Italian with a comical grimace:
"but, if so, I have long forgotten what I saw there. Do you remember
heaven, picciola?"
"Yes; I don't now," slowly replied the child with the weary and
puzzled look she so often wore. "Sometimes I do. I used to dance;
and mamma-that wasn't mammy-was there: but there was a naughty lady
that slapped me; and there was a little man-why, it was Pantalon,
wasn't it? Did Pantalon eat some cake that I-no, that some one gave
him? Oh! I don't know; and I am so tired! I guess I'll go see mammy
now, and lie down on the bed."
Giovanni did not try to detain the child, but, after closing the
door behind her, remained looking at it as if he still saw the
object of his thoughts, while an expression of perplexity and doubt
clouded the careless good-humor of his face. Presently, however, it
cleared; and, with a significant gesture of the head, he muttered,--
"What then? Is it my business or my fault? Come, Pantalon: we shall
sup."
When Cherry appeared the next day in Giovanni's room, it was with as
gay and untroubled a face as if no haunting memories had ever vexed
her; and Giovanni, who liked her sunny mood much the best, was
careful not to awaken any other. He played for her to dance; he sang
with her; he told her stories of Italy, and the merry life he had
lived there with his wife and child.
"And my little Julietta, like you, loved music and dancing, and sang
like the angels," said he, smoothing Cherry's shining curls.
"Did she? Then she sings in heaven, and is happy: and by and by,
when we go there, we'll see her; won't we?"
The Italian shook his head.
"You may, picciola; but the good God, if he takes me to heaven, must
make me so changed, that Julietta could no longer know me, or I her.
We men are not as little maidens."
Then, with a sudden change of mood, the Italian snatched from its
case his cherished violin, and drew from it such joyous strains,
that the child, clapping her hands, and skipping round the room,
cried,--
"It laughs! the music laughs, and makes me laugh too! And
Pantalon-see poor Pantalon try to laugh, and he can't!"
Giovanni stopped suddenly, and laid down his violin. A new thought,
a sudden plan, had entered his head, and made his breath come quick,
and his eyes grow bright. He looked attentively at the child for a
moment, and then said,--
"Julietta used to wear such a beautiful dress, and go with me to the
houses of rich people to dance; but you dance better than she did,
picciola."
"Oh! let me go, and wear a beautiful dress. I don't like this dress
a bit!" said Cherry, plucking nervously at the coarse and tawdry
calico frock Mrs. Ginniss had thought it quite a triumph to obtain
and to make up.
"I have saved two of Julietta's dresses for love of her. You shall
see them," said the Italian; and from the box where he kept his
clothes he presently brought a small bundle, and, unfolding it,
shook out two little frocks,--one of pink silk, covered with
spangles; the other a gay brocade, upon whose white ground tiny
rosebuds were dotted in a graceful pattern. Some long silk
stockings, and white satin boots with red heels, and blue tassels at
the ankle, dropped from the bundle; and from one of the latter
Giovanni drew a wreath of crushed and faded artificial roses.
"All these were given her by the beautiful marchsa for whom she was
named. Many times we have been to play and dance before her pal zzo;
and she, sending for us in, has given the little one a dress or a
wreath, or a handful of confetti, or a silver-piece in her hand. It
was when the marchsa died that our troubles began; and in three
months more the little Julietta followed her, and Steph na (that was
my wife) went from me, and--But see, picciola! is it not a pretty
dress? Let us put it upon you, and it shall dance the Romaika with
you as it once did with her."
Nothing loath, Cherry hastened, with the help of the Italian, to
array herself in the pink-silk frock, and to exchange her coarse
shoes for the silken hose and satin boots of the little lost
Julietta. Although somewhat large, the clothes fitted better than
those Cherry had taken off; and when, seizing the violin, Giovanni
drew a long, warning note, the little dancer took her position, and
pointed her tiny foot with so assured and graceful an air, that the
Italian, nodding and smiling, cried with enthusiasm,--
"Ah, ah! See the little Taglioni! Why is she not upon the boards of
La Sc la?"
What this might mean Cherry could not guess, nor greatly cared to
know. She understood that her friend was pleased, and her little
heart beat high with vanity and excitement. She danced as she had
never danced before; and at the end, while Giovanni still applauded,
and before she had regained her breath, the child was panting,--
"I want to go and dance for the rich ladies, like Julietta used to
do, and wear her beautiful dresses, and have a wreath."
"Why not, then?" exclaimed the Italian eagerly. "Only you must never
say so to the woman above there or the boy: they will not allow it."
"Won't mammy and Teddy like it? Then I can't go. Oh, dear! Why won't
they like it, 'Varny?"
"Because they can't dance, and they don't want you to be different
from them; and they will be afraid you will tire yourself. They
don't know that it makes you well and happy to dance, and hear
music, as it does me to make it. They are not like us, these people
above there."
Cherry looked earnestly in his face, and her own suddenly flushed
while she replied indignantly,--
"They're real good, 'Varny; and I love them same as I do you and
Pantalon. Don't you love them?"
"Oh! but I adore them, picciola; and I like well that you should
place me and Pantalon beside them. But surely they do not dance, or
love music, as we do."
Cherry shut tight her lips, and shook her head with an uneasy
expression.
"Mammy says she don't believe they dance in heaven: and Teddy says
it wasn't there I used to learn; for I never went anywhere but to
mammy's room since I was borned."
"But they do dance in heaven, and sing, and listen to music; and it
is because you came from heaven so little while ago that you
remember, and they have forgotten," said Giovanni positively. "And
it is right that you should love these things; and it is right that
you should go with me, and say nothing to them till we come back. I
will ask the good woman that I may take you for a walk in a day or
two and I will carry the pretty dress and the violin; and, when we
are away from the house, you shall put it on, and we will go and
dance for the rich people a little while; and some one shall give
you beautiful things, and much money, as they did Julietta; and then
we will come home, and bring it all to the mammy, and she will be so
happy, and see that it is a good thing, after all, to dance."
"Yes, yes; that will be splendid!" cried Cherry, clapping her hands
and jumping up and down. "I will save every bit of the candy, and
all the beautiful dresses, and the roses, and every thing, and bring
them to mammy."
"And the money, that she may buy bread and clothes and wood, and not
have to work so hard for them herself," suggested Giovanni artfully.
"Yes, Teddy gives her money; and she calls him her brave, good boy.
So she'll call me too, pretty soon; won't she?"
"Truly will she; but remember always, picciola, that she nor Teddy
must know any thing of this, or they will prevent it all. You won't
tell them?"
"No; I won't tell," said Cherry, shuttling her lips very tight, and
shaking her head a great many times. "Only we must go very quick, or
else I might forget; and, when I opened my mouth, it might jump out
before I knew."
"We will go to-morrow if it is fine," said Giovanni, after a moment
of consideration; and Cherry, after changing her clothes, returned
home so full of mystery and importance, that unless Mrs. Ginniss had
been more than usually busy, and Teddy obliged to hurry with his
supper and go directly out again, one or the other must have
suspected that something very mysterious was working in the mind of
their little pet.