PEACE GIVES THE LILAC LADY AN IDEA
The Home Missionary Society of the South Avenue Church was holding its
monthly meeting in the Campbell parlors, and Peace, feeling very forlorn
and left out, because grandma had suggested that she better join the
sisters in the barn playhouse, wandered down to the gate and stood
looking up the street in search of something to occupy her attention.
She was tired of playing games in the barn, she had read the latest St.
Nicholas from cover to cover, and the postman had not yet brought the
Youth's Companion, although this was the regular day for it. Anyway, she
didn't care to read. She would rather stay and listen to what the women
in the house were talking about, but if grandma did not want her, she
certainly should not bother them with her presence. Likely the meeting
would be very dry; it usually was when Mrs. Roberts stayed away, and she
had not put in appearance yet.
Grandma had half promised that she might visit the Lilac Lady that
afternoon, but for some reason had changed her mind and put off the
visit until the morrow. Ho, hum! What was a small girl to do to amuse
herself this warm day, when she had already done everything she could
think of, and had been forbidden to go where she most wanted to go?
Slowly she unlatched the gate and strolled down the avenue, swinging her
white sunbonnet by one string, and whistling plaintively under her
breath. The wide street, shaded by immense oaks and maples, felt
deliciously cool and restful, but it was also very quiet, and Peace had
wandered several blocks without meeting a soul, when without warning she
stumbled over two mites of tots, almost hidden in the rank grass and
weeds in front of a ragged-looking unkempt little cabin of a house,
which in its better days had evidently been used for a barn. The
children were as much surprised as Peace, and after one frightened
glance at the intruder, they both buried their heads in their patched
aprons and cowered still lower among the weeds. But from the fleeting
glimpse Peace had caught of the little faces, she knew they had been
crying, and her first thought was, "They are lost."
Impulsively she kneeled on the walk beside them and coaxingly asked,
"What is the trouble, little girls? Have you run away?"
"No, we ain't!" retorted the older child, lifting a streaked,
tear-stained face to eye her questioner indignantly. "We ain't girls,
either! I am, but he ain't!"
"Oh," murmured Peace, much abashed by her fierce reception, "I took him
for a girl on account of his clo'es. He's wearing dresses."
"He ain't old enough for pants. He's only two."
"Oh, mercy! He's lots bigger than Glen. But then Glen won't be two until
next January."
"Is Glen your brother?" asked the other girl, somewhat mollified by the
friendliness of the stranger's voice.
"No, he's the minister's little boy which we used to have in Parker
where we lived 'fore we came here. What's your baby's name?"
"Rivers."
"His first name, I mean."
"That's his first name. Rivers Dillon, and I'm Fern."
"Oh! They're as bad as ours, ain't they? I'm always running up against
horrid names. Gail says it's 'cause I am always looking for them--"
"Our names ain't horrid!" Fern Dillon bounced off the grass like an
angry hornet, then collapsed beside the baby brother, who evidently was
not given much to talking, for he had not said a word, but simply stared
in round-eyed surprise at the pretty stranger child. "Oh, dear,
everybody is so mean!"
"Fern, what have I done? I didn't mean to be hateful," cried Peace
remorsefully. "Please, I'm sorry I've made you mad. Don't mind anything
I said. I've always hated my own name so bad that I am always glad when
I can find a worse one. That is all I meant."
Strange to say, Fern's wrath was at once appeased, in spite of the
explanation, and she smiled faintly as she brushed away the fresh tears.
"I thought you was going to be just like Mrs. Burnett," she explained.
"She's always scolding mamma 'cause she won't put Rivers and me in a
Home--"
"In a _Home_?" cried Peace in horrified accents. "What for?"
"So's she can get more work to do. Lots of people won't give her their
washing 'cause she has to take both of us with her, and folks think
three is too many to feed, I guess."
"Is your papa dead?"
"He--he's gone. Mabel Cartwell says he's in jail," her voice dropped to
an awed whisper; "but when I asked mamma, she just cried and cried. Now
she's sick and they are going to take her to a hospital, and I don't
know what Rivers and me'll do. Mrs. Burnett says of course we can't go
with her, 'cause there ain't any sickness the matter with us,
and--and--oh, we can't stay with _her_! She shakes Rivers for everything
he touches. Oh dear, oh dear!"
"Have they--taken your mamma--away yet?"
"No, she's in there--"
"In that barn?"
"That's where we live since papa--went away."
"I'm going to ask her if you can't go home with me. Grandma will know--"
"You mustn't bother mamma," cried Fern, clutching Peace about the ankles
as she started toward the sagging door of the ramshackle old house.
"Mrs. Burnett will chase you out with the broom like she did us. And
'sides, mamma won't know you. She doesn't even know Rivers and me--her
own little children."
Peace pondered. Here was an unlooked-for predicament. Would she be doing
wrong if she took the brother and sister away without saying anything to
the mother who did not know her own children any longer? She might speak
to Mrs. Burnett, but how about that broomstick? For a moment she stood
irresolute, scratching her head thoughtfully. Then with characteristic
energy and decision, she grabbed Rivers with one hand and Fern with the
other, and trotted off down the street, saying briefly, "I'm going to
show you to grandma. She will know what to do."
"Will you bring us back again?"
"Course! You don't think I am a kidnapper, do you? That's what Mittie
Cole called me when I thought I was going to adopt the twins that were
only runaways. Mittie got to like me afterwards, though."
"I like you now."
"Of course. Most folks do, but it takes a longer time with some to make
up their minds. I'm glad you are quick at d'ciding. We turn this
corner."
Hurrying them along as fast as Rivers' short legs could toddle, she at
length reached the big, old-fashioned house, and burst in upon the
Missionary Meeting with a torrent of jumbled explanation.
"Here's two folks that need home missionarying if anybody does. Their
mother is so sick she doesn't know people any more, and the father is
either in jail or heaven. Mrs. Burnett chases 'em out of the house with
the broomstick, and I borrowed them to show you just how ragged and
dirty they really are, so's you will know I ain't got hold of a fake
mistake again. They live in a horrid little barn of a house, quite a
piece from here, and the hospital is coming after the mother any time.
They won't take Fern and Rivers, of course, 'cause they are both well,
but I thought likely Mrs. Burnett might begin to use the broomstick
again if the children were left with her, so I brought 'em along with me
until you could decide what to do with them. They don't want to go to a
Home, and I don't want them to, either." Her breath gave out, and the
astonished ladies recovered their poise sufficiently to ask questions
until the whole pitiful tale had been unravelled.
"We'll send a committee at once to investigate," proposed the fat
secretary, whom Peace disliked for no reason whatever.
"Then send somebody who's got a heart," suggested the little maid. "This
is a truly sick woman which needs help. I'll show you the place. Fern,
you and Rivers stay here with grandma till I get back. Ladies, who are
the committee?"
Spurred on by Peace's enthusiastic leadership, the society hastily
appointed a committee, and they departed on their errand of mercy. The
house was even more squalid than Peace had pictured it, and the woman's
case more desperate. An hour later a subdued, sympathetic trio of
ladies, with Peace in tow, returned to the Campbell residence with their
report.
"It is worse than we expected," said the chairman in a voice that
trembled in spite of her efforts to speak naturally. "The father is
in--Stillwater. Embezzlement. The mother, destitute, without relatives
or friends, naturally a frail little woman, and now ill with typhoid,
brought on by overwork and anxiety. These two children dependent upon
her, and none of the neighbors really situated so they can take care of
them. We secured a bed in Danbury Hospital for the mother, and told the
authorities that we would be responsible for the babies. We simply
could not think of leaving them there to be buffeted about by unwilling
neighbors--no telling how long the mother will be unable to take care of
them, if she ever is again. Now, the question is, what shall we do with
these two tots?"
Immediately there was a buzz of comment, and an avalanche of theory and
advice began to flow from fifty tongues.
Peace, interested in the controversy, had been banished to the
dining-room to amuse Rivers, who had developed an unlimited propensity
for mischief-making since his arrival at the big house, but through the
open door she caught bits of the conversation, and her heart beat quick
with fear.
"They are trying to _passle_ Fern and Rivers off among different
families," she said with bated breath. "What a shame that would be! Mr.
Dillon in Stillwater, the mother in Danbury Hospital, Fern with Mrs.
York, and Rivers at the Weston's. Oh, they mustn't part Fern from her
baby! They can't get along without each other. Ain't it too bad we don't
have a Home around here like they've got in Kentucky! Why didn't I think
of that before?"
She gathered Fern and Rivers under her wing once more, and noiselessly
departed from the house by way of the kitchen.
"Where are we going this time? Home?" questioned Fern, loath to leave
the great house so full of beautiful things for one to admire.
"Not yet. I've just got a think. I b'lieve I know a lady which'll take
you both till your mother gets well. She's lame herself, but Aunt Pen
isn't, and they both love children. You'll have to ride on the cars.
Come on, don't be afraid. I've done it lots of times and I never get
lost."
Somewhat reluctantly, Fern allowed herself and brother to be lifted onto
the car by the big conductor, who evidently knew Peace, for he greeted
her with a cheery shout, "Hello, my hearty! Going to see your Lilac Lady
again?"
"Yes," Peace answered promptly. "I've got another bunch of orphans--that
is, they will be until their mother gets well and the father comes back,
if he can." She remembered at that moment that she did not yet
understand what had actually happened to the breadwinner of this
unfortunate family. "And I knew my Lilac Lady would be glad to take care
of them for a little while, so's they wouldn't have to be sep'rated."
With that, she ushered the children to seats inside the moving car, and
they were quickly whirled away to the corner where stood Teeter's
Pharmacy. Here they were helped off by the genial conductor, and Peace
led the way up the hill to the beautiful stone house which could be
plainly seen from the roadway now, because the thick cedar hedges had
all been cut down, and only tall iron palings enclosed the lovely
gardens.
Under her favorite oak by the lilac hedge lay the lame girl in her
prison-chair, looking whiter and frailer than ever before, and Peace
stopped in the midst of a rapturous kiss to ask fearfully, "Have you
been sick again?"
"No, dear," smiled the marble lips. "I am a little tired these days, but
perfectly well. Whom have you here?"
"Fern and Rivers Dillon. Their mother is dreadfully sick with _tryfoid_
fever and their father is in--well, it's either a jail or a graveyard. I
found them crying 'cause Mrs. Burnett had driven them out of the house
with the broomstick, and when I took them home to the lady missionaries
who are meeting at our house this afternoon, they began planning right
away to divide them up among some families of our church. I couldn't
bear to think of that, so I brought them up to you. I knew you'd be glad
to keep them till the mother gets well, and they don't want to go to the
Children's Home a bit. Rivers can't keep still a minute, but I know how
he feels. It's the same way with me. At first I couldn't see how any
mother would name her little boy such a name as that, but now I know. He
upset three vases of flowers in the reception hall, and spilled a glass
of frappe down his dress when I tried to give him some to drink, and
pulled over the bird-cage, so's the water was all spilled, and stepped
into the dog's drinking trough at the back door while I was trying to
get them out of the house without the ladies seeing me. He makes rivers
out of every bit of water he comes near."
"Doesn't your grandmother know where you have gone?" asked the invalid
in surprise, not half understanding what Peace was trying to tell her.
"Why, no! She's one of the missionaries herself. She might think I ought
to let her s'ciety look after these children as long as they've got hold
of the mother already; but I--they'd be sep'rated as sure as fits,
and--just look how teenty Rivers is to be taken away from _all_ his
folks at once."
"I don't want him tookened away," Fern spoke up. "Mamma told me to stay
with him all the time, and I said I would. He can't talk much yet and
there ain't anybody else can tell what he wants, now that mamma is
sick."
"Come here, dear." The lame girl held out her thin, blue-veined hands,
and little, homeless Fern ran to her with a desolate cry.
Peace was satisfied, and dropping down cross-legged in the grass at
their feet, she remarked thoughtfully, "I _had_ to bring them here, you
see. Our house is full already, and grandpa says grandma has all she can
'tend to with the six of us. The parsonage is too small to hold any
more, and besides, Saint John is away on his vacation, so the house is
shut up for a few days. I knew Aunt Pen could mother a dozen, and I knew
you'd want her to if she got the chance, so I brought 'em along.
"Isn't it too bad there isn't a nice Children's Home in this state like
there is in Kentucky or some place down South, where one lady has forty
daughters? They ain't any of 'em her very own. She's really just the
matron of the Home, like Miss Chase is of our Children's Home, only they
don't call the place a Home. The lady is just like a real mother to
them, and she won't let any of her girls be adopted away from her. She
just takes care of them until they are old enough to look out for
themselves or get a husband to look out for them. Then she takes some
more in their place and keeps on that way. And they just love her to
pieces. They wear nice clothes and she teaches 'em music and manners and
how to keep house and makes useful wives out of them. Oh, that's the
kind of a Home I'd like to have here! Then Lottie could live there
'stead of being sent to the 'sylum."
"Lottie sent to the asylum? Why, what do you mean, Peace?" cried the
startled invalid, sitting almost upright in her chair.
"Haven't you heard?" It was Peace's turn to look surprised.
"Not a word of that sort."
"Why, you know Lottie is a _norphan_, and when she was a baby somebody
adopted her, but her new mother died last winter, and her new father put
her in the Home 'cause he couldn't take care of her himself. Now he's
been killed on the railroad, and his people don't want to be bothered
with her, so she's to be sent to a Norphan 'Sylum, 'cause the Home takes
only children who have somebody who will look after them a little.
Lottie feels dreadfully bad and has 'most cried her eyes out already. I
couldn't get her even to smile when I was up there this week. She is
going to leave next Wednesday."
For a long moment the lame girl lay in deep thought, still holding
Fern's chubby hand in hers, though she had evidently forgotten all about
the little stranger children in her concern for the friendless orphan,
Lottie. When she spoke, she asked absently, "What was that you were
telling me about the Kentucky lady? Where did you hear about it?"
"That girls' Home in Kentucky? Oh, grandma was reading about it in
Blank's Magazine the other day, and grandpa said that's the way all
children's Homes ought to be carried out. Then the boys and girls would
be happier and grow up into better men and women. That's what I think,
too."
"We take Blank's Magazine," said the lame girl irrelevantly. "Here
comes Aunt Pen. We must tell her about Fern and Rivers, and she will
telephone the ladies that they are safe with us. Poor little waifs! You
are home now--until the dear mother is able to care for you again. Then
we'll see."
That was the beginning of it, but the next time Peace visited the Lilac
Lady, she found a crew of noisy carpenters at work on the stone house,
and in answer to her surprised questions, the invalid said, "This is to
be an Orphan Asylum, dear. We shall not call it by that ugly name, but
that is what it is really to be, and we have already two real orphans,
not counting Fern and Rivers, who may be here for only a few weeks or
months."
"Who are the orphans?"
"Giuseppe and Lottie."
"Oh, my Lilac Lady! How did you ever think of such a splendid plan?"
"I didn't, Peace. It was you."
"Me?"
"Yes, dear. When you told me about that Kentucky Home which all the
children love, I wondered why Aunt Pen would not make a good mother for
such a place in this state, and when I asked her, she was _so_ happy!"
"But you? Where will you live if you turn your lovely house into a
_norphan_ 'sylum?"
"Right here--till the time comes to go home. It won't be long now, but I
shall be content if I know the fortune which failed to make me happy is
bringing joy and sunshine into the lives of scores of homeless
children--hundreds in time, perhaps--and is giving them the education
and self-reliance and refinement and love which will make them noble
citizens of a noble country."
Peace only vaguely understood her words, but it was clear to her that
the stone mansion was to become a home nest now for helpless little ones
whose own parents had been taken from them, and the thought that she had
had even a small share in bringing to pass this splendid plan sent a
thrill of joy singing through her heart. Hugging her knees together with
both lithe brown arms, she puckered her lips and began to whistle the
refrain:
"'Sca-atter sunshine
All along the wa-ay;
Cheer and bless and bri-ighten
Every passing da-ay.'"
The lame girl joined in with her rich, sweet tones, and they sang it
through to the end. Then as silence once more fell upon them, the young
mistress of the place dropped her waxen hand lightly upon the brown
curls resting against the arm of her chair, and said musingly, "That is
to be the motto of our Home, dear. The song has brought me more
happiness than any other thing in my life, I think. I want to pass it
on."
"And let me help," eagerly put in Peace.