iAATHE UIIABLE CHELD DUNCAN KB LBB^L aaa FV AZik*. " " <** IP^P TW . n iifitiitiiittfti THE SUITABLE CHILD THE SUIT CHILD DUN Illti.vtnv.tecl \jy Hlizabetfx 3 Ki p p e i\ Flemin^V H I^yell Copyright, 1909, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY Other Books By NORMAN DUNCAN Doctor Luke of the Labrador : A Novel. The Cruise of the Shining Light : A Novel. Every Man for Himself: A Collection of Short Stories. The Mother : A Short Novel. The Adventures of Billy Topsail : A Story for Boys. The Way of the Sea: A Collection of Short Stories. Dr. Grenfell s Parish: The Deep Sea Fishermen. New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London : 2 1 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street To my sister Charlotte Foster Duncan, the mother of the best little girl in the world, this story is affectionately dedicated 2129801 STOP THIEF! OT Labour is Life : Labour is a thing accomplished in provision. Love is Life ; and Love is di versely concerned. Whoso loves a child loves not himself but God ; whoso delights a child labours with God in His work shop of the world of hearts ; whoso helps a child brings the Kingdom of God ; whoso saves a child from the fingers of evil sits in the seat with the builders of cities and the procurers of peace. ^ Nor happily is this divine achievement beyond the aspi ration of such as are poor, such as are humble, such as are ignorant, such as have tasted failure, such as are stricken, such as are acquainted with the utmost deprivation. Into the keeping of the humble is in this reasonable way committed the salvation of the world ; the poor and the meek and the broken in heart, greater in multitude than the mighty, are like the mighty in their power and in their wisdom and in their many-riches of aims and means and rewards. ^[ They who being able in any proper way to provide those pleasures of Christmas which are meet and due according to the established custom [7] Stop Thief! but still withhold them from children do thieve jewels from the helpless ; and herein is a mystery : that these stolen riches do in no way bent-fit the robbers, but change in their very hands to the weeds of selfish ways, which spring poisonously and enfold and constrict. ^[Tliey who go about pro claiming against the festival joy they who interpose a specious wisdom they who would destroy the fairy-fictions of the Time they who withdraw into themselves they who are dried up and selfish and self-sufficient and niggardly and suspicious and narrow-believing they who preach a departure from the customs of the fathers they who discover selfishness in anxious generosity they who com plain and sneer and ridicule they who stop their ears against laughter and lift sour faces to the morning : all such do aid and abet the theft of in nocent delight and having spread corruption do stand in peril of the same punishment. \ Let them all beware lest they perish indeed ! Age is upon them no tender hand of the years to beautify and gladden : but terrible age of the spirit to wither and to kill. Stop thief ! N. D. The Colonial, North East, Pennsylvania, [8] CONTENTS I. The Little Lady in Black n II. Tagged Through . . 25 III. The Borrowed Child . 42 IV. At Odds With God . 55 V. In Need . . . 71 VI. Outwitted . . -77 711. The New Mother , . [9] ILLUSTRATIONS* Page "Listen ! " Said She, When They Re appeared ..... Title " Tagged Through to Winnipeg" . 26 " N-no-nobody N-never T-t-to-o-old Me!" 45 " I Dorit Know? Says She . . 83 "And When Joe Jacket Saw Her He Thanked God" 89 *Used by arrangement with " Harper s Magazine." [10] The Little Lady in Black T was Christmas Eve. Thank God for that ! Had it been dinner-time of Thanksgiving Day with nothing more promising than a famished family crew had it been six o clock in the morn ing of the Fourth of July had it been any common day of all the year had it been a mere hour of the dreary passage from place to place aboard train then the Lady in Black and the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes and the Negro Porter and the Little Boy From the Day Coach and the Big Farmer Who Told the Tale of the Suitable Child never in the wide world would have fashioned under the Hand of God the Little Romance. So, say I, thank God it was Christmas Eve I It was Christ mas weather, too ; and thank God for that ! Men respond to the ancient menace of the The Suitable Child weather ; it takes the bite and growl of a white wind to stir the heart to wistful recollection of the needy. And there was a big white wind abroad that night a howling, frosty, stifling, mighty blizzard, swirling down from the Great Barrens in the dark. It swept the track clean in the flatlands, it shook the bridges, it packed the cuts ; and it gripped and worried the labouring Winnipeg West Bound Express until the five passengers in the sleeping- car were fairly startled into an expansive attitude towards one another for once. And thank God ! it was Christmas Eve. The Old Gentleman With the Twink ling Eyes and the woolly-white Negro Porter put their heads together in Section Twelve. " What ! " ejaculated the old gentle man, presently ; " you don t say so ! " "Deed Idol" " In the day coach ? " " Yes, sir ; right up in the day coach o* this here train o cars." [12] The Little Lady in Black The old gentleman threw back his head and laughed like a noisy boy ; and having heartily indulged his glee he whispered in the porter s ear. " I should estimate, sir," the porter re plied, " bout seven." " No!" the old gentleman shouted ; "you don t mean it ! " " Yes, sir," said the porter, gravely ; " bout seven, sir, accordin as I should es timate." The Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes adjusted his cravat, cleared his throat, frowned, rubbed his hands, and smiled, all in the way of one suddenly called upon to speak before an assemblage. Then with proper formality he got to his feet to ad dress his fellow passengers. " Ladies and gentlemen," he began and the pretty Lady in Black looked up from her sad day dream, and the Big Farmer moved down the aisle with the most genial grin in the world, and the English Church Clergyman and I cocked our ears in expectation, and the old gentleman, himself, smiled again, The Suitable Child delighting in his mystery " Ladies and gentlemen," he repeated, softly, " this is Christmas Eve. But," he demanded, in sudden wrath, levelling a finger at each of us in turn, " what are we doing ? " He paused to let the accusation take effect ; and so very dramatic was he so hurt and indignant and accusing that though not one of us had hitherto been conscious of guilt we must now cast down our eyes. " You may ask, What can we do ? " he pro ceeded. "You may ask, What can five adult travellers really do on Christmas Eve aboard the Winnipeg West Bound Ex press? We can do much," he maintained. " It is not altogether impossible for a de termined man with a small gratuity con cealed in the palm of his right hand to open a trunk in the baggage-car ; and I venture to say that not one of us but could produce some trifles of delight from that very source. What do we lack, then," he asked, leaning forward, " to the proper performance of our duties as adults upon this occasion ? " It seemed the question must have an [H] The Little Lady in Black answer; but not one of us ventured a word, and I observed to my amazement that the Lady in Black turned away with a quick and pained little frown. " Eh ? " the old gentleman repeated ; "what do we lack?" "I should say," the Big Farmer sug gested, "that all we need is a kid and a pair of stockings." " Exactly," the old gentleman agreed, with instant approval ; " those are the simple elements : a child and a single pair of long stockings without any holes in the toes." "Well," the Big Farmer drawled, "you can t produce a kid from your silk hat, can you?" "I can do better than that," the old gentleman promptly replied. "You can?" " Yes, sir," the old gentleman boasted. "Then get busy!" cried the farmer, jumping up. "It s past any kid s bed time." " No, it isn t," the old gentleman flashed. [15] The Suitable Child " Past nine o clock." "That s all right," the old gentleman re torted ; " but it s never past any kid s bed time on Christmas Eve, and if you don t be lieve it you may ask the first one you meet." Indeed, now, the Big Farmer and the English Church Clergyman and I were most agreeably aroused. The Old Gen tleman With the Twinkling Eyes, having declared the freedom of all children on Christmas Eve, was standing triumphant, with his shoulders squared, and his head on one side, and his hands deep in his pockets, and his frock-coat defiantly thrown wide ; and he radiated a festival jollity, too, in the way of all bachelor old gentlemen who in their own simple delight pursue the pleasure of children. He was tall, and he was straight, and he was slender, and he had glowing cheeks and a crop of gray hair and a close gray pointed beard ; and I fancy now remembering his exquisite manner that he was of a fashionable and well-to-do world, but do not really know, at all. At any rate, the Clergyman [16] The Little Lady in Black chuckled, beholding him, and the Big Farmer from Saskatchewan fumbled for his keys, the Negro Porter grinned, and I was in sympathy with them all ; but the little Lady in Black, who had covered her pretty face in the depths of Section Seven, exhibited no sympathy whatsoever. In deed, she interrupted. " May I say a word ? " she timidly asked. I recall that she was very pretty and little and seeming-tender that she was pretty with colour and curls and bright eyes and a gentle air and an appealing delicacy and that she wore a pretty gown \\ ; th the air of never having worn a coarse one (to which, however, she would have imparted grace) but that she was now pale and woebegone. "To be sure ! " cried the old gentleman, with much politeness. " In this emergency, a lady s suggestion " " I regret that it is not a favourable sug gestion/ said she. " Never mind!" replied the old gentle man. [17] The Suitable Child " I am sure," she began, picking at the hem of a tiny handkerchief, her eyes cast down, her voice a little broken, "that I have no wish to to interfere with the happiness of " and she came help lessly to an end. " Out with it ! " said the old gentleman. " It is such an extraordinary thing ! " she wailed. " Out with it 1 " the old gentleman com manded. " It may seem so so selfish ! " " Dear lady ! " exclaimed the old gentle man. The Lady in Black looked up ; and she began her complaint, speaking boldly, her voice hard, her delicate brows drawn to a frown, her little hands clenched in her lap, her lips puckered ; and she was not at all pretty, at the moment, I must say ! "I have been visiting my sister in Toronto, for a little," said she, " and I am now re turning to my home in Winnipeg. I I I had to go away to go away somewhere for a little relief. It is a queer thing, per- [18] The Little Lady in Black haps, for a woman to be travelling alone on Christmas Eve ; but I chose Christmas Eve I chose it and I waited patiently for the time to come because I wanted to es cape to escape, you see, just for this one first year, what goes on everywhere else on Christmas Eve. You see that I am in black ? You understand, do you not ? So I am selfish and bold enough to ask you, Can t you do what you are going to do somewhere else? Can t you wait a little ? Can t you put it off ? Can t you won t you won t you indulge me and do it somewhere else ? I can t bear it I can t I just can t bear it to-night ! " The Old Gentleman With the Twin kling Eyes which were no longer twin kling but all too tearful for that went near the weeping little Lady in Black and leaned close with much grace and sympathy. " In the day coach," said he, gently, " is a lonely little girl, seven years old, for whom " " Boss," the porter interrupted, " it s a boy." [19] The Suitable Child " Pshaw ! " exclaimed the old gentleman, turning away in disgust and strutting to his seat. " I thought you said it was a girl." " I didn t say which sect," the porter re torted. " Huh ! " snorted the old gentleman. " Well! 1 ejaculated the Lady in Black with a toss of her pretty head, and with a saucy little flush of anger, too, I fear ; and she sat stiff in her seat, her eyes dry and blazing. " Well!" she gasped, again, with an angry stamp. " Well /" she challenged, for the third time, surveying the old gentleman in a royal rage, " will you be good enough to tell me what dif ference it makes ? " " It makes no difference whatsoever," the old gentleman replied, jumping up again. " I am heartily ashamed of myself." " I should think you would be 1 " said the Lady in Black. " A child is a child, gentlemen," the old gentleman proceeded, returning to the speech-making manner ; "and there being [20] The Little Lady in Black nothing better at hand than a boy, I pro pose " " I object to your putting it that way," the lady broke in, with spirit. "I object to it with all my might. It is unfair to the child and it is odiously offensive to me. In deed! Nothing better at hand than a boy 1 Well ! Indeed ! I see no reason at all why a little boy should be slighted." She had risen, now ; and her graceful little person a lovely fashioning of God was drawn stiff and straight, and her head was back, and the sweet colour was in her cheeks, and she spoke with en gaging fire. " It is infamous " ah ! but she was indignant, indeed " it is perfectly infamous," said she, " this discrimination in favour of little girls. I m sure I don t know why men are so foolish and and so cruel." She paused, eyeing us each ac cusingly ; and I fear that we could not meet the reproachful glance. " Now," she went on, grimly, fixing, if not vindictively trans fixing, the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes, " 7 have a suggestion to [21] The Suitable Child make. I propose that we instantly fetch the little boy from the day coach. I pro pose that we make a Christmas for him that he will remember every day of all his dear life. I propose," she cried, waving her arms like an ecstatic stump-speaker, " that we give him the best that we have in our trunks and in our hearts. I ve something in my trunks to please a boy. Perhaps you ve nothing but girls things. But / have boys } things boys toys. I keep them there. I thought I d keep them always always and die with them die with them beside me. But I ll give em away I ll give em away to the poor lonely little soul in the day coach. Whdll fetch that boy to me ? " Every man of us sprang to his feet. "One moment!" shouted the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes. We halted. " Dear lady," said he, his eyes twinkling and tearful, " / // fetch the little boy from the day coach, if you will permit me. The porter will make up his bed in the state- [22] The Little Lady in Black room. We can hang the stockings in Sec tion Twelve. When the boy is stowed away we will all go together to the bag gage-car and take from our trunks what we can find to please him. But will you, dear lady, put him to bed ? " The little Lady in Black nodded. " And will you tell him a story the story of that Birth which moves the world to kindness and the love of children this night and always ? " In deed, yes ! the little lady would do it. " And will you hear his prayers ? " The Lady in Black said softly that she would. " And will you kiss him good-night ? " The promise was passed. " Then, dear lady," said the old gentleman, withdraw ing a curious glance from the Lady in Black, as though he had discovered her mystery, " I beg of you to accept my apology, and to permit me to say that I m glad glad, thank God 1 that we have a lonely little boy in the day coach, to whose delight we may contribute from the wishes that abide in all our hearts for all children. Will you not forgive me ? " [23] The Suitable Child "It is not hard," the Lady in Black whispered. She put out her little hand ; and the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes took it gently, and pressed it in the most nat ural way in the world, and kissed the tips of the fingers, a thing which the little Lady in Black seemed not to mind at all. " Now," cried the jolly old fellow, " I ll go fetch that youngster 1 " And off he went. [24] II Tagged Through HE train was running through a rocky wilder ness, hardly populated, the stations far between ; and the forests and cliffs and great hills and isolated houses were deep in snow by the wind. Few folk abroad : the little boy mean board and troubled were travelling was all alone in the day coach a lonely little figure, indeed ! but still a courageous one, appealing to the fatherly heart. He was sitting straight up and anxiously wide awake in a double seat ; and in his chapped little fist he gripped an orange (worn shiny with handling), and roundabout, on the floor and crimson plush, peanut shells, and scraps of peel, and a greasy newspaper, and a multitude of crumbs, proclaimed the orgie of an exceptional occasion. A sturdy, The Suitable Child black-headed, dark-eyed youngster, clad in the home-made way and tagged through to Winnipeg : he was a lad to be proud of, I should think, for his manliness, except, however, for his scowl, which was enor mous and terrible. It was a perpetual, deep-engraven scowl ; and it puckered his forehead, and drew his brows, and am bushed his great eyes, and puffed his lips, and fairly rumpled his hair. Never before was a scowl so fixed and furiously ominous. One must pause and stare and gasp but pass on smiling and in some strange way warmly enlisted. Pass on, it seemed, the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes was about to do ; but all of a sudden he took advantage of a lurch of the train and precipitated himself sprawling into the forward seat of the two which the boy occupied. " Ouch ! " he ejaculated, having recov ered himself. " Hurt yourself very much ? " the boy solicitously growled. The voice was slow and grave and still [26] Tagged Through more darkly deep than grave, a curious basso pro/undo ; and there was no mitiga tion of the scowl a lifting of the brows, perhaps, permitting some sympathy to emerge from the dark eyes, but no other change. " Whew"! " the old gentleman groaned, with his mouth askew. " I say, would you mind rubbing my elbow a bit?" It seemed not ; the boy rubbed and rubbed and rubbed the old gentleman s funny-bone all as gravely and as consci entiously as could be. " Hurt you now?" he rumbled. " You wouldn t mind rubbing it a bit more, would you ? " " I d jus s soon." " Thank you," said the old gentleman, presently. " It s very much better. I m sure I don t know what I should have done without you. I say, where you bound for ? " " Sy-lum." "I see \ " said the old gentleman. " Or-phun not lun-a-tic," the boy added, to make quite sure that the old gen- The Suitable Child tleman did see. " I m goin back again they sent me back." " Very poor taste, indeed 1 " the old gen tleman declared. " They wasn t to blame," said the boy. " No ?" the old gentleman inquired. " No they wasn t" the boy insisted, with a fearsome scowl and a resolute little shake of the head. " What you going backer f " The boy sighed ; and an aching sigh it was long and deep-drawn and discour aged like the sigh of a worn-out man. " They wasn t to blame," he replied. " Come ! " said the old gentleman, put ting a hand on the boy s shoulder ; "tell me all about, it." " Wasn t their fault. " "Whose fault was it?" the old gentle man demanded, with a trace of impatience. " God sur-prised Miss-us Tomp- kins Smith." " What 1 " cried the old gentleman. " How in the world did He manage that?" [28] Tagged Through " Ea-sy en-ough." " Well, I d very much like to know how ! " " Sent her one o her own when she wasn t ex-pec-tin it that s all." " Good Lord ! " the old gentleman ex ploded. "Wasn t their fault," the loyal little soul repeated. Curiously, the old gentleman could not for a moment utter a word ; the ejaculation of Good Lord I seemed quite to have ex hausted him. And his lip trembled a little (I think) and there were tears in his faded eyes (I fear) which were used to the mer riest twinkling and it seemed he could do nothing but look upon the little boy in pity exceeding expression. A foolish old gen tleman, of course ! a sentimental old fel low, meddlesome and unmanly. But, in deed, he was deeply moved, and all too suddenly to have command of the emotion. Perhaps he perceived beyond the pathos of the situation confronting him a grown-up tragedy the tragedy of some woman s The Suitable Child hope and despair and patient waiting and bitterly premature capitulation with the Fate which had flouted her in the Great Surprise. Perhaps they were not to blame for disposing of the adopted child : per haps not an adopted child is only an adopted child, after all ; blood is thicker than water, and the love of other people s offspring, though they walk alone and help less in an evil world, is admirable and pos sible only in so far as it is expedient, as everybody knows. Of course, they must send him back, lest trouble come of his re maining. Still, I hope that the old gentle man s tears sprang rather from sympathy with the boy who had been sent back be cause Mrs. Tompkins Smith could not love him any more in the face of God s indul gent surprise. " Don t you care ! " he burst out, at any rate. " Don t you care a bit / " The boy sighed, and murmured, almost under his breath, because it was so great a lie : " I d jus s soon." [30] Tagged Through " Don t you care," the old gentleman re peated. " You ll get another mother, and you ll get another father, too." A wise, wise shake of the head was the reply to this. " Yes, you will 1 " the old gentleman in sisted. The boy almost smiled so unsophisti cated in the ways of adoption (perhaps) did the old gentleman appear. " No I won t neith-er," he drawled. " You will, I say ! " the old gentleman scolded. " How d you know ? " The old gentleman was taken aback by this direct and anxious question. " Never you mind," said he, mysteriously. " I know. You ll have another mother. before you know it, and you ll have another father, and maybe you? II have a brother just about as old as you are ! Eh ? how d you like that ? " " I d jus s soon." I observed, now, that all at once he looked the old gentleman over from head to foot, with his head cocked and a crafty, [31] The Suitable Child speculative eye, as though well, who could tell what might happen ? and would it be an advantageous arrangement if something really did happen ? It was un lovely, no doubt ; and I hoped that the old gentleman did not perceive the meaning of the glance, lest, being unaware of the ne cessities of orphans, he should save it up against the child. I blamed the old gentle man for this encouragement for these veiled promises. But I might be unjust (thought I). Perhaps, after all, it was in his mind to take the little waif with whom he had so strangely fallen in. Come ! (thought I) I will not judge him cruel or indiscreet until I know. "I ll bet you," the old gentleman de clared, striking his fist into his palm, " that you ll have a better mother than any mother you ever had before." " No I won t nei-ther." " I tell you, you will ! " They who stand in line for adoption seem early to learn what is accounted ad mirable in the world and in what they lack. [32] Tagged Through "I scowl too much," the boy ex plained, almost smiling for the second time. "Scowl?" cried the old gentleman, all excitement. " I can fix that for you right now. Yes, I can ; and it won t hurt a bit. Let me see," said he, putting on his glasses, and tipping up the lad s face, like a doctor about to look at a tongue. " Exactly ! " he muttered to himself. " I thought so. Nothing easier in the world. Look here, young man ! " gravely, to the boy ; "do you know what you ve got down there?" vaguely indicating the astonished child s interior. "No? Well, I ll tell you what you ve got. You ve got grins not smiles, mind you ! but real, simon-pure grins. You ve got thousands and millions and trillions and oceans of grins. You ve got the finest assortment of grins down there that ever I saw in my life! Yes, you have ; and I ll stake my professional repu tation on it. There s a grin of most excel lent appearance and quality near the left- hand corner of your mouth at this very [33] The Suitable Child minute lying right in the middle of that little dimple. I can see it from here with out my glasses. And if I wanted to and if you wanted me to I could pull it out. It wouldn t hurt a bit, either. What s the matter with you, anyhow ? " he demanded, fiercely. "Eh? / // tell you what s the matter with you : your grins are stuck ! All you need is to have three or four ex tracted ; and then they ll come easier, and after that you won t scowl so much, and you ll be all right." At this point the little grin which the old gentleman had discovered in the dimple nearly emerged of its own accord. " Ah, ha ! " the old gentleman cried. " One of em s loose already ! " There was a smile growing large in the boy s eyes. " By Jove ! " the old gentleman declared. " I ll pull that grin out. Yes, I will I ll pull it out." The boy s lips were twitching with amusement. "Eh? What d ye say?" [34] Tagg e d Th r o ug h " I d jus s soon." Instantly the old gentleman seized the boy s head in the manner of a dentist about to pull a tooth ; and like lightning he made believe to insert a horrible instru ment in the dimple and to grip the grin ; and he pulled and he hauled and he twisted, and he gasped and he grunted, and he puffed and he ejaculated, and such was his enthusiasm, and so heartily did he exert himself, that he lost his glasses and turned red in the face. Presently, with a satisfied ejaculation of " Ha 1 she s coming ! " he sat back a bit, still grasping the imaginary forceps, and continued to pull, now with both hands and the grimmest determina tion. " She s coming 1 " he shouted, again ; " hold still ! don t move for your life 1 " It was a desperate effort : the old gentle man s mouth was all screwed, and his cropped gray beard bristled, and his eyes blazed ; but he clung like a sturdy work man to the little boy s grin, and hauled and twisted with increasing vigour, mean while drawing inch after inch of the grin [35] The Suitable Child from the dimple. And all at once the mus cles of the boy s scowling countenance gave way and he grinned most expansively and he could not check the grin, at all and it spread and swelled and grew gigantic and at last it fairly exploded in a delicious chuckle. The old gentleman fell back against the seat. " There ! " he sighed, exhausted, but much delighted. " I knew I could do it 1 " " It didn t hurt none." "Of course, it didn t hurt!" the old gentleman exclaimed ; " and it ll do you lots of good. In exactly three minutes," he proceeded, with a peep at his watch, " I ll pull another ; and I ll pull six, in all, and when I ve pulled six, and loosened em all up, they ll tumble out of that dimple so fast that you won t be able to stop em. Why ! " he cried, enthusiastically ; "there ll be neither time nor room for a scowl to get out." A little grin popped out of the dimple. "Look at that!" exclaimed the admir ing old gentleman. [36] Tagged Through. Another little grin popped out. " I tell you," the old gentleman earnestly declared, "it won t be long before you ll have to have your scowls pulled ! " I looked for another little grin to come. None emerged. The boy s face fell again into the settled scowl and melancholy ; and he sighed, abruptly, and turned away, his interest in the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes and in the old gentle man s jolly make-believe apparently gone out. Nor could the old gentleman rouse him : neither with laughter nor tomfoolery nor make-believe of any sort, nor even by means of the extraordinary expedient of grabbing an American silver dollar from the vacant air and dropping it in the boy s jacket pocket, and of grabbing another from nothing and nowhere for the second jacket pocket, and a third for the third, and of filling the first and second trousers pockets and an obscure hip pocket from the same mysterious source and in the same mysterious way. It was all to no purpose ; the little boy whom the gift of [37] The Suitable Child God had supplanted gave small attention to these antics, but looked out of the win dow, sad and scowling, in an abstracted effort to descry the forest and rocky land in the wild night. It seemed to me that he remembered the leave-taking and was oppressed by the vision of a discredited return ; and I fancied that in his childish way he knew that he walked alone in the world, notwithstanding the accident of the old gentleman s genial friendship, and that he was afraid, and that he was lonely, and that he wished, most woefully, for some secure and natural attachment to his elders, such as other children were safe and happy in having. The Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes all at once lifted the boy and sat him on his knee. " What s the matter, boy ? " he asked. " Nothin ." The old gentleman s voice was unaf fected now ; and his way was simple and genuinely affectionate, and his fine kind face was infinitely melancholy with sym- [38] Tagged Through pathetic understanding of the little woe he held in his arms. They had forgotten, it seemed, the presence of an eavesdropping onlooker. "What s the matter?" the old gentle man repeated. " NothinV The old gentleman adjusted the lad s little body more closely to his own, in the intimate way of such as are used to loving children ; and like the knowing fathers of children, who deal with them at bedtime, he put his hand on the boy s head. The scowling, woebegone face, the cheeks now wet, fell against the frock-coat most nat urally as though, indeed (and by this I was amazed), the boy had from the very beginning been used to this particular protection and affection. Amazed? In deed, yes ! I was amazed and informed. What manner of man (thinks I) is this ? and what great secret of the hearts of children does he know? and in what manner and to what purpose has he practiced the divine dissimulation of fatherly love ? Of [391 The Suitable Child course, I was informed, never having seen the like of it before ; and herein, too, not only was enlightenment, but invitation to do likewise. They had quite forgotten the onlooker : the boy s head was lying against the old gentleman s frock-coat, and the old gentleman, for the moment at a loss, but evidently with his mind furiously at work, was softly whistling some sentimental bal lad, quite out of tune. "What s the matter?" he whispered, presently. " Nothin ." " Better tell me, boy." The boy looked up sat back and put his hands on the old gentleman s shoulders and looked him in the eye like a man acting, now, in anxious inquisition. " Do you want one? " he demanded. "Want what?" " Want a norphan f " The old gentleman was taken unaware ; but he cleverly rallied, and dodged the direct question, almost before it was asked, so that there was no denial and no offense. Tagged Through " Look here ! " said he ; " are you for rent?" The boy did not comprehend. " If you are," the old gentleman de clared, " I ll borrow you for the night. What d ye say to that?" " I d jus s soon." " Good ! " cried the old gentleman. "But first," said he, "I ll pull out the second grin." The grin was triumphantly extracted; and off we went to the sleeping-car, where the Big Farmer and the English Church Clergyman and the Lady in Black were waiting. And I determined (I recall) that if the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes failed the child he held by the hand I determined, while we staggered through the corridors of the train I de termined that I myself Why not ? Ill The Borrowed Child HE Lady in Black took the boy from the Old Gentle man With the Twinkling Eyes with an air of au thority he could not defy. He yielded, somewhat of fended, and vastly amazed ; and the child seemed willing, I recall, to pass from his care, however engaging it had been, into the softer keeping of a woman. The stateroom bed was made up, and the door was wide open ; and within the cozy little place there was the quiet glow of yellow light and the softest and whitest invitation to turn in and go to sleep. No sooner had the little boy clapped eyes on the pillows and sheets than he began to blink in an owlish way, and to yawn and rub his eyes. But the selfish Lady in Black would not let him go until she had satisfied the hunger of her arms ; she held him close, and [42] The Borrowed Child smoothed his hair, and crooned in his ear, and stole little kisses from the back of his neck, as mothers do when their very own little children transport them. The Big Farmer fretted and growled that it was past nine o clock that it was long past nine o clock and that the boy ought to be stowed away ; but the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes lifted a warning finger in his direction and winked in a warning way, as if some mystery might be brewing, which must not on any account be interrupted. At last, however, reverting to his make- believe of terrible manner, the old gentle man shouted : "Off with em!" The little boy was by this frightened into wide wakefulness. " Off with his stockings ! " the old gentle man commanded. While the smiling little lady picked at the hard knots with her delicate fingers the child stared at the old gentleman in a way most bewildered. [43] The Suitable Child " Time to hang em up," said the old gentleman. The little boy puzzled upon this for a moment, his head lying very still, his leg abandoned to the hands of the Lady in Black, who still fumbled with the lace of his shoe, which she would not yield to any of us. I observed that his dark eyes moved from face to face amongst us, and I saw that dwelling here they brooded, and that dwelling there they brooded, pondering. Presently, he started, trem bled, sat up with a jerk ; and for an instant he was stock still, and stared at the old gentleman, open-eyed and pale in the presence of a great revelation. All at once he squirmed roughly from the lady s lap and faced us with his feet spread and his hands clenched and every muscle of his little body quivering. Whereupon he gasped : "// j Christmas /" " Of course, it is," said the old gentle man, heartily. The boy threw back his head, and his [44] "N-NONOBODY N-NEVEB T-T-TO-O-OLD ME! The Borrowed Child mouth fell wide open, and a flood of tears descended from Jiis puckered eyes, and he bawled in wrath : " N-no-nobody n-never t-t-to-o-old me ! " There was no laughter on our part, you may be sure. Not one of us but under stood the wrong that had been done him the theft of all the hours of glorified expec tation so nearly the theft of Christmas joy itself that sacrilege 1 Not one of us, I am sure, but felt the ache that hurt him, and were in wrath like his. Not one of us so strangely had we fallen in together but acknowledged (nor had ever dreamed of questioning) the Divine Right of chil dren to all the delights of Christmas. Whoso deprives them (thought I) but, then, as everybody knows, the rage of a gray bachelor concerning this runs away with him, and he emerges red and perspir ing from the argument, with the indulgent laughter of parents to distress him : I will not tell what I thought in contempt for the selfish and pretentiously advanced persons who deprive helpless little children of their [45] The Suitable Child high and divinely ordained festival. The Lady in Black exchanged horrified glances with the Old Gentleman With the Twin kling Eyes ; and there was a general ex change of horrified glances the Big Farmer with me, and the English Church Clergyman with the Lady in Black, and the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes promiscuously, and the whole of us to gether. Following the example of the Lady in Black we turned up our noses and sniffed ; and had Mrs. Tompkins Smith been there and had the old gentleman and I betrayed her as the author of this cruel perfidy it had surely gone hard with her. "Well, I never!" exclaimed the Lady in Black. " Shoot it ! " exploded the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes, being unable, in the presence of the lady, to utter his dis gust with more relieving warmth. Well, of course, we comforted the Boy From the Day Coach. A little loving by the Lady in Black, a little scolding by the Old [46] The Borrowed Child Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes, a little encouragement by the Big Farmer from Saskatchewan, a little rash promising by the English Church Clergyman, all pro ceeding simultaneously with a general backing up of the whole by the Story Teller, and the thing was nearly accom plished. At any rate, the pain of the child s wound was eased, the loud expression of his grief mollified ; but before he was re stored to good humour and thoroughgoing satisfaction with his situation the Old Gen tleman With the Twinkling Eyes must ex tract three grins in rapid succession, which he set about doing with every evidence of professional delight, and achieved with tri umphant success, each time in the midst of loud applause from the company. Then off came the stockings ! and the bare little toes wriggled with joy ; and out came the hat pins ! and the chapped little fingers that drove them through the stockings and into the cushion shook and blundered with joyous excitement ; and apart stood we all to view the effect ! and we clapped our [47] The Suitable Child hands and cheered and exclaimed and pre dicted and hoped, just as all good fathers and mothers and uncles and aunts and big sisters and brothers and friends of the fam ily do on Christmas Eve, everywhere in Christian lands, and will continue to do un til pure Christianity has vanished from the hearts of men and children are no more. The little Lady in Black said, by and by, softly and with shining eyes and a rosy flush and in the most tender of loving mother-voices indeed, she was an ador able little lady ! the little Lady in Black admonished the child ^in the magical way that children do not misunderstand that it was time for all good little boys to be in bed. " I d jus s soon," said the sleepy Boy From the Day Coach. Then off they went, the two of them hand in hand, laughing as they staggered in response to the motion of the train off they went to the stateroom, to which the woolly-white Negro Porter had already fetched the little boy s very little bag. The Lady in Black closed the door ; but a [48] The Borrowed Child lurch of the car, which seemed, somehow, to be in league with our desire, promptly opened it a little, so that we might hear what went on within. We were very still ; there was no agreement to this end no spoken word, no meaning glance. We just kept very still ; and four tongues were idle, and four heads were cocked, and four left ears were wide open, and four hearts were eager to know the soft truths of life and love which disclose themselves when a mother puts her child to bed. The train creaked and rumbled and clattered ; we heard little enough only a crooning mut ter and an occasional childish chuckle. But presently the train stopped ; it screamed and jerked as it ran complain ing into some lost drifted station of the line, but there stopped, and silence came, except for the long howl of the winter wind and the gale s passionate beating on the windows. What then I heard I shall never forget. It was nothing to move a man ; the words are spoken, perhaps, every night, in every household of the land where [49] The Suitable Child children dwell in their mothers care. Simple words, indeed ! but they stirred me, and I shall ever remember them be cause of the loneliness of the child, it may be, and because of the loneliness of the little Lady in Black. " Now, dear prayers ! " said the brisk little Lady in Black, as she patted the pil low. " I d jus s soon," said the boy. We leaned a little forward, and we lis tened yet more intently; but we heard nothing definite, after all nothing but a word or two of sleepy patter to indicate that the ancient childish prayer was once more ascending. Though it was but a low mutter to remind us, we knew it, every word. " Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me ! " and " I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep," and " God bless papa and mama." We had once been children ; we remembered. They say the God-bless variously ; they include uncle and auntie and sister and grandmother and the intruding Mister This and That. It is surely saving to be [50] The Borrowed Child prayed for by little children who have in their hearts that purity of faith which the grown-up world must watchfully preserve and never can perfectly possess again. . . . The Winnipeg West Bound Express proceeded according to its daily schedule (but now much behind) ; the shivering conductor waved his lantern, the station- master, warm in his bay-windowed office, ticked the message of departure, the engi neer pulled the throttle, the steam an swered to this compulsion, and the wheels groaned, and the train ran breasting into the storm. Then appeared from the state room the Lady in Black, securely closing the door behind her ; and she was no longer woebegone, no longer pale, no longer suffering from a cynical discour agement ; she was, indeed, elated, and wore the sweet flush of elation, so that we wondered (I am speaking for myself) at her young motherly beauty. She dis closed to us a wondrous charm not of hair and eyes and tender form but a [51] The Suitable Child beauty of the spirit, which comes enrav- ishingly to mothers. She protested, in stantly and it was entrancing to listen to this unsophisticated prattle she protested that the slow, deep, grave voice of the boy, and his sturdy body, his manly ways, his courage and self-sufficiency, his very scowl, were most fetching (as she said). Then we grew really friends together : made friends not only by the accident of our situation, which was no solder of friendship, but by our common interest in a child. Very soon, all being eager, we went hilariously to the baggage-car, and from our luggage extracted what seemed to us most pleasing to the boy who lay asleep in our care ; and, as you may guess, the Lady in Black had the best of us in this. We complained a little. " Never mind," she comforted. " I," said she, " was the mother of a son ; but not one of you has anything but a niece or a daughter." " I have a niece," said the Old Gentle man With the Twinkling Eyes, defiantly. [52] The Borrowed Child " I hope," said the little Lady in Black, seriously pitiful, " that you are not feeling hurt?" " Not at all, dear lady ! " the old gentle man replied, in great indignation ; " not in the least, I assure you ! " We returned to the car from our ravished trunks ; and presently the long little stock ings were filled were packed and jammed and distorted and there was an overflow of gifts disposed advantageously upon both seats of Section Twelve. Of course, the Lady in Black had the best of it ; having been the mother of a lusty boy, she had a steam-engine to contribute (the boy s), and a Spaulding Intermediate ball (the boy s, stained by his very hand), and a mask of the same overcoming trade-mark (also the boy s), and a motor, with sufficient wire for practical purposes and two pretty nearly fresh batteries (all the boy s), and a tele graph instrument (often touched by the boy s own hand, which had been cleverly used, said she, to the Morse code), and a what-not of boyish possessions I cannot [53] The Suitable Child remember. We produced our puzzles and paints and games (having with wry faces left our dolls and their wardrobes and trinkets in our trunks) ; and we added what we could to the boy-things which the saucy little Lady in Black had freely given of those sacred and religiously treasured possessions of her own very son, whom she had lost by death. And then we stood back to gaze ! " Dear lady ! " said the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes. The little lady wiped two diamond- sparkling tears from her eyes with the little handkerchief. " Dear lady," the old gentleman re peated, " you have made us very happy." The Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes bent over the little lady s hand again, in the most natural way in the world, and once more kissed the tips of her fingers, in a fashion most courtly. [54] IV At Odds With God T was yet early for grown ups. The English Church Clergyman protested that to go to bed before mid night of Christmas Eve was error like unright eousness : nor would he absolve a soul at early service in the car next morning (said he) who committed the sin that night. It turned out that we were all fortunately of his mind ; and so down we sat inti mately together in Section Eleven (save the Story Teller, who must occupy the arm of the opposite section) to talk of Christ mas delights and doings and all things. The stateroom door was closed tight, as I have pointed out, and we fancied our gifts secure from discovery ; but in this we were mistaken and you may be sure that the adventure left us with palpitating hearts and much less breath than we could com- [55] The Suitable Child fortably do with. For a long time before the trying incident, however, we sat talk ing, in the spirit of that feeling Christmas Eve, of the affections and of children, and of the fine love which is apart from selfish seeking, and of bounty, and of re ceiving. " Somehow," said the Big Farmer From Saskatchewan, at last, "the little kid in the stateroom reminds me of old Joe Jacket. It didn t happen on Christmas Eve ; it didn t need to happen then. It was just one of those Christmas things which may happen any time without being ashamed of itself " and he looked inquir ingly at the Lady in Black. The little lady graciously inclined her head. "Joe Jacket," the Big Farmer began, " took up land in Saskatchewan, north of the railroad at Flatland Station, a good many years ago, when the prairie was raw and didn t have to be coaxed to be good. He got along, too, right from the start. He got along so well that to-day he knows all about high power automobiles and has [56] At Odds With God the hobby of keeping abreast of the latest fashions in farm implements. That means a lot, you understand ; it means as much unmortgaged land as any man could care to farm it means barns and fences, a homestead and blue-ribbon stock, cash on deposit, and a credit at the Flatland Bank that the Almighty Himself might envy. It wasn t all his own fault ; his wife had a good deal to do with it, in the way of good wives. A little girl from North Perth, she was, sweet and blooming when she mar ried Joe Jacket, God knows ! but sour as a choke-cherry before she got old enough to quit playing the square piano she had fetched from the East. " I got to do something about this, Joe Jacket used to think in those days ; but it was a long, long time, my friends, before he hit on the right idea. ; " They had one child, born late a little girl that got the late-coming baby s wel come. Elizabeth Jacket had coaxed the Lord so hard for that one child that just from force of habit she would sometimes [57] The Suitable Child pray for a baby in her sleep ; and when it came when it actually came at last she didn t wait to take two looks before she loved it more than she loved the Lord who sent it. Neither did Joe : Joe was always satisfied with whatever pleased Elizabeth, anyhow ; and in ten squally minutes this particular child had got a good deal fur ther along with Elizabeth than just pleas ing. Being a woman, Elizabeth thought, f of course, that it was an answer to prayer ; and Joe Jacket thought so, too, in Joe Jacket s own way Whether it is or not, says he, it s just like an answer to prayer, and that s all I know about it. " What do you mean by that? said I. " I mean, says he, that it s just like an answer to prayer. " What does that mean ? said I. " Well, the Lord is as kind as kind can be, says he, but cunning in a temper ; and when you tease Him, says he, He s likely to answer in the way you least ex pect. " That wouldn t be an answer, said I. [58] At Odds With God " It wouldn t, eh ? says he. Well, ac cording to my notion, it s just exactly the kind of answer you want to look out for when you tease too much. " Didn t she get what she asked for? " Ye-e-s, says he ; she got a real baby, all right ! "It was a real baby ; and it grew up to be a real little girl of seven or thereabout >. sweet and soft, a loving, bright little thing, with glorious black hair and big gray eyes. I never looked into eyes as deep and mild in any other child ; and I tell you, my friends, God gives the glory of hair like Amy s only to one sort of all the children He makes. Elizabeth loved her, and I loved her; everybody knew her, and everybody loved her everybody from Flatland Station to Indian Ferry ; and that s just as far as Joe Jacket s name carried, just as wide a stretch of prairie as Elizabeth Jacket s Christmas gifts to poor children could be taken over with any safety through the snow. Maybe the circumstances were peculiar : I don t know ; [59] The Suitable Child but anyhow, Elizabeth Jacket s love didn t stop in Amy there was enough of it left to go on, right through, and bless the chil dren of all the prairie roundabout Flatland Station. Elizabeth Jacket took that child as a gift from the Lord s own hands ; and being a grateful and pious and practical woman, she started out to give value re ceived in good deeds and Joe Jacket s money. " Look here, Lizzie, says Joe ; you re getting away with a lot of money this Christmas. " I m only thanking God, said she. " All right, Lizzie, says he. It isn t the money ; there s more where that came from. But my dear, says he, are you sure it s just thankfulness? Aren t you trying to buy God off? " I m afraid of God ! said she. "I thought so, says he. " And you know that Amy, says she, isn t very strong. " That s just it, says he ; but you can t square Him, Lizzie He ll go right ahead [60] At Odds With God and have His own way no matter what good deeds you may do. The only way to head Him off is to take good care of Amy. " Perhaps, says she ; but I ve got the habit, now, and I want that money. " She got the money she got all the money she wanted, of course and she took good care of Amy and she kept busy being kind to all the world accord ing to the Lord s own directions ; but it didn t do any good at all. . . . Poor little Amy died just the same. . . ." The little Lady in Black started when the Big Farmer From Saskatchewan came to this sad and unexpected climax. " Died ? " she whispered. " Just the same," the farmer replied. We wondered what happened then to Elizabeth Jacket ; and I drew closer, to hear the better, for the train was running more freely, now, and there was a larger clatter and rumble. "After that, as always happens," the [61] The Suitable Child farmer continued, " Elizabeth Jacket didn t quite resemble herself. She didn t look enough like her old self to be mistaken for a jilted elder sister ; she didn t even keep a hint of the sweet family resemblance that all the daughters of love seem somehow to have. You take the mother of a thirteenth papoose and I m talking of real mothers, mind you, not of the sulky sort you take the mother of a thirteenth little Indian, and when it comes right down to the things that count, she s twin sister to the silk- skirted mama of a baby with rose-leaf lips. But Elizabeth poor Elizabeth Jacket when the good Lord kindly supplied Amy with the angel s outfit of feathers and gold poor Elizabeth Jacket lost all the sweet ness of look and life that had made her lit tle footprints loved by all them that were needy and in pain on the prairie near Flat- land Station. Joe Jacket s pocketbook was just as fat the day after Christmas as the day before which is a thing to make any pocketbook ashamed to look its own master in the eye ! And there wasn t any [62] At Odds With God help for it : Elizabeth Jacket wouldn t have a neighbour s child about the place ; she couldn t pass the section schoolhouse at recess, she couldn t watch the boys go gal loping by, she couldn t hear talk of measles and chicken-pox, she couldn t even bear to see the little garments of a child swinging in the wind to dry. She couldn t stand chil dren any more ! And most of all just be cause Amy had had a sweet little pipe of her own she couldn t stand it to hear the children singing Jesus Loves Me in the Sunday-school ; and that s why, I suppose, the Jackets quit going to church. " Joe, said I, what s the use ? " God moves in a mysterious way." " Yes, says he ; that s right, I guess ! " Well, then/ said I, what s the use of asking why? You can t find out, and it wouldn t be much comfort if you could. " Don t want to find out, says he ; that isn t what troubles me. " What does ? said I. " Elizabeth, says he ; she s all broken down. [63] The Suitable Child " Of course, said I ; but what are you going to do about it ? " I think/ says he, that if I m devilish clever I can do something! " That s all right, said I; but what can you do ? " Well, says he, I look at it this way : Here s God and us. God wants His way and we want ours. That s natural : He s the father and we re the children. Maybe His way s the best ; but I don t see it I just carit see it. So what I want to know just now isn t what God intends for our good, nor why He intends it ; it s some thing else. " What is it? said I. " I just want to know, says he, how I can get around Him in this particular case. " I wouldn t try, said I. " That s because you re a perverted Christian, says Joe ; just because you re one of God s sweet toadies, and don t know any better. " Isn t this thing an act of Providence ? [64] At Odds With God " Yes, says he ; and if it isn t, it s just like one. " Haven t you heard of such a thing as pious resignation ? " I ve heard, says he, but haven t at tended. " You won t give in ? " Not at once, says he. I ll do what I can to have what I want. " Well, says I, it looks to me as if you d begun to monkey with the buzz-saw. " Oh, I don t know, says he, with a queer little laugh and twinkle, just the sort of look Joe Jacket had when he didn t want you to know whether he was in earnest or not Oh, I don t know, says he ; but I guess a little show of spirit won t cost me any of the Lord s respect. The Big Farmer laughed. " Good for Joe Jacket ! " exclaimed the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes. "You must not think," said the Big Farmer to the Lady in Black, " that Joe Jacket was a blasphemous fellow. Not at alll" he protested; " nothing of the sort ! [65] The Suitable Child Joe Jacket was just Joe Jacket. It was just like him to say that he would try to outwit the Lord ; but once the Lord pointed out the error, Joe Jacket would be con vinced. And whether he outwitted God or God outwitted him you may tell when my story is done." The English Church Clergyman was willing to wager that Joe Jacket did not accomplish the feat. " About two years after Amy s death," the farmer continued, " Joe Jacket got the idea that he was after. It was unselfish enough in the beginning: all he wanted to do was to restore Elizabeth s comfort ; but by and by, when he had brooded be yond what he was used to, it turned into a more selfish wish than Joe Jacket was in the habit of putting up over night. He d adopt a child (thinks he) ; but not a girl no girl for him ! What he wanted was a boy : a wire-haired lad with black eyes a lad that would laugh and howl and get in mischief and generally raise the devil [66] At Odds With God about the place a lad of spirit a lad that would stand off and look Joe Jacket in the eye when it came time for a licking just the sort of lad that Joe Jacket fan cied he used to be himself. And it was the picture of a harum-scarum bullet- headed little devil with black eyes that he had in mind when he broached the subject to Elizabeth one night at the supper table. " Elizabeth/ says he, I don t think we can do better than adopt. " It depends/ said she. " Of course/ says he, we wouldn t be in a hurry ; and we ve got the money to get about anything we want. " I wouldn t object/ said she, if we could find a suitable child/ " What sort do you fancy ? says he. " That s the trouble/ said she. I don t know. Sometimes I think that one like Amy would suit ; and then I don t see how I could stand it how I could bear to be reminded of Amy every minute of the day. But I m sure/ said she, that I don t want any one so so very different. I d be so [67] The Suitable Child jealous, Joe. I d be so jealous that I don t know what would happen. So I don t know, you see, just what would be suitable. " Go ahead, says he, and give me an idea. " It s so hard, said she. I can only tell about the little things the little things that don t matter, after all. . . . Brown eyes, I should think. " All right, says Joe ; brown eyes for one thing. " It wouldn t really matter, you know/ said she. I should not insist. But it would be rather nice, I think. " Brown eyes it is, says Joe. What next ? " So far as such little things go, said she, there s nothing else to care about but hair. Curls, I suppose. " Curls ! Joe Jacket roared. What do you want curls for ? " Why, Joe ! said she ; surely you re not thinking of a boy, are you ? " Eh ? says he ; what put that in your head ? [68] At Odds With God " You know perfectly well, said she, 1 that it s only boys that don t need curls. " Well, says Joe, I guess we don t want any fool boy around this place 1 " And Elizabeth thought so, too. " Elizabeth said she wouldn t go to Winnipeg to look for the suitable child. Joe joked her, and argued that it was a woman s business to match samples ; and anyhow (says he) the man of the house al ways made a mess of it when he went to market for the women. But Elizabeth wouldn t budge ; she d stay home (says she), and maybe, if she didn t have any thing to do with the choosing, but sud denly found a little orphaned child in the house, with no other woman to look to but her, she d be far more likely to take to it. " If a child came now, said she ; if some forsaken little child came out of the dark and asked me to love her, I think I could to-night. " Of course, you could ! says Joe. " A ragged child, said she ; a sick [69] The Suitable Child little girl a child without a mother. Yes, said she, I m almost sure I could. " You d have a hard time, says Joe, to keep from loving her. " I don t know, said Elizabeth. " You just couldn t help it, said Joe. " I don t know, said she. " You ll be hard to suit, maybe, Eliza beth, says Joe ; but I ll try to fit you out. " You must find one, said she. I tell you, Joe you just must ! " Joe Jacket looked in Elizabeth s eyes, and knew, then, that he must that he just must and p. d. q., too / . . . I beg your pardon!" the Big Farmer immedi ately burst out, looking at the Lady in Black. " Really, I " Then came the adventure. [70] In Need T was not a head-on col lision. The train did no( even jump the track. But we five travellers could hardly have been startled more. With the Boy From the Day Coach put to bed, we had thought our Christmas gifts secure from discovery ; but in this we were mistaken. It was not a lurch of the train that opened the stateroom door; it was a hand the child s hand! And before we had quite perceived our peril and before the im pulse to save ourselves could result in action the door was wide and the boy was about to issue. The quick-witted and marvellously agile Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes saved us ; at a bound and with a roar he reached the thresh old ; and so did he seem to lengthen out and broaden, and so cleverly did he ar- The Suitable Child range his elbows and employ the tails of his coat, that he completely filled the doorway, thank God 1 and the boy could not so much as peep beyond. We followed precipitately, the little lady first, a screech having relieved her paraly sis ; and presently, peering over the old gentleman s shoulders, we faced the Boy From the Day Coach, now in his night dress, who stood swaying by the tousled bed. " What s the matter with you f " the old gentleman demanded. The little boy scowled ; his lips pouted, his nostrils flared, his eyes glared from be hind his fallen eyebrows, and, in all, his face was like a thunder-cloud. The little Lady in Black, much perturbed, slipped under the old gentleman s elbow, like a swift shadow, and so kneeled, the mean time putting her arms about the child, that she could look directly into his eyes. "What is it, dear?" she asked, most anxiously. " Don t none o you want one ? " [72] In Ne e d The eyes of the old gentleman met mine ; but neither the Big Farmer nor the English Church Clergyman nor the Lady in Black understood, and they were all be wildered, and they were all silent. " Not no one ? " the boy wailed. " Aren t you well ? " asked the Lady in Black. " You re you re not sick are you?" " Naw ! " the boy replied. "We don t understand, dear," said the Lady in Black, tenderly. " Speak plainly, won t you ? tell us what the matter is. What is it that you think we do not want ? " The boy snuffled. " Tell me, dear," the Lady in Black be sought, as though it were some secret, fit only for women s ears. "Won t you?" she invited, drawing the little boy close, so that he might whisper in her ear. " Don t none o you want one?" he repeated. " Want what, dear ? " " A norphan ? " It is not my wish ever again to be on- [73] The Suitable Child looker when a woman suffers an agony peculiar to women. She groaned ; it was the expression, almost, of a physical pain ; had she been wounded to death, I fancy, she could not have suffered more. She was heart-broken and lonely, of course, and complaining of her desolation, having lost her son ; and it has seemed to me since that she must at that moment have had a vision of the pain and need of a child that had no mother she must have learned the lesson that her loneliness was not equal to a loneliness like that despair. Perhaps shame was mixed with sympathy ; perhaps in a flash of loving wisdom she discovered the cure of woe like his and hers ; perhaps the seed of a resolution, cast here by the all-wise hand of God, found fruitful soil. She hugged the child ; she hugged him so swiftly, so hard, so long, that it hurt him so hard that the breath was crushed out of him and his little ribs complained so hard that in pain and amazement and in ecstatic hope (as I translate his astounding expression) [74] In Need he caught her by the shoulders and in a man s rough way tried to push her back, so that he could look into her eyes, and ask her what she meant. The Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes closed the door upon this ; and we sat down again, in Section Eleven, and on the arm of Section Twelve, to wait ; and we were ashamed to look one another in the eye, too deeply embarrassed to say even one conventional word, because each had caught the other in a tearful emotion. The Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes whistled his sentimental ballad, Neath the Shade of the Old Apple Tree, quite out of tune, to prove that he didn t care ; but the English Church Clergyman and the Big Farmer From Saskatchewan and I, less devil-may-care than he, looked at the floor, and twirled our thumbs, and snuffled and coughed, in an effort to con trol the unmanly display, but dared not face each other. When the Little Lady in Black appeared, she left the door wide open. [75] The Suitable Child " He s sound asleep," said she, smiling. We saw, peering inquisitively, that he was sound asleep; we saw that the un fortunate orphan s head appeared to be in imminent danger of wringing his neck, that his mouth was wide open, that he was in a dangerous sweat (so concerned were we for his health), and that he was in peril of strangling himself with his own bare arms. " I should like to hear the rest of the story/ said the Lady in Black, when we were seated again. I watched her countenance for some ink ling of what had passed between her and the child ; but she betrayed never a sign unless, indeed, her very reserve might be taken for a sign ! And I was disap pointed. . . . [76] VI Outwitted OU can find almost any thing you want in the in stitutions at Winnipeg," the farmer resumed. "It s a great market for or phans a sort of distribut ing point for the West. Domestic or im ported you can get anything you can match what you want in colour, age, sex, disposition, defects and religious faith. If you want a red-headed Presbyterian boy of seven with green eyes, they ll supply you within six months of the required age ; and if you want a Baptist brunette with a lisp, all you got to do is say so. Joe Jacket found what he wanted right away : a brown-eyed little girl with curls and red cheeks roguish brown eyes and golden curls the very thing he was looking for right out of the Christmas Number of the Illustrated London News. He loved her [77] The Suitable Child from the first ; the minute he saw her in the line, he suspected that God had relented a little, and maybe had quite changed His mind. " There, says he to the superintendent ; that s the one I want. " Oh, I m so sorry ! says she. Wouldn t another one do ? " No, says Joe ; it s that one or none. " She s spoken for, says the superin tendent. " Well, says Joe, you got to get around it somehow. I ve just got to have that little tyke ! " It wasn t so hard to manage, after all, once the superintendent found out that she couldn t pass off something just as good on Joe Jacket. The fact is, they wanted to keep Nellie at the orphanage for them selves. She was so sweet to the eye, you see, and so grateful to the heart so lov able and loving that they couldn t bear to let her go. She was the one perfect bud in that scrawny little garden, and they loved her for her truth and affection and [78] Outwitted childish loveliness. Somebody else wanted her ; that was true enough some perfectly proper old maid of Edmonton, with money enough to make good the child s future. But the arrangement was pending, and the superintendent thought it could be squared for Joe, who had enough human kindness in his heart, enough money in his pocket, to make him a desirable father. " Well? says Joe. Come, now! How about it ? " Take her, says the superintendent ; 4 and God bless her ! " God and me and the mother of Amy 1 says Joe. Wdll take care of Nellie. " She was never afraid of Joe Jacket. Maybe she had wondered, in her little way, about the father that would come to take her away ; and if she had, she was content with the big man who carried her off on the train. She seemed to love him all at once to accept him without doubt or any curiosity. She called him father from the start just as she had expected to do, I suppose and treated him just as trustingly [79] The Suitable Child and dependently and lovingly as if she had never known the lack of him. It was Father, I m thirsty ! and Father, I m tired ! and Father, I love you ! and she kissed him without fear, and went to sleep, by and by, with her head on his shoulder and her arms round his neck, just like a child of his own. " When the train stopped, once, she woke up ; and she didn t know where she was, for a moment, and she was frightened. " You re all right, says Joe. " Oh, goody ! says she. I remem ber ; and I m so glad it s you father. " And she snuggled down and went right straight to sleep again in Joe Jacket s arms. " When Joe Jacket got off the train at Flatland Station he was ready to pat him self on the back for fetching out of Winni peg the most suitable child in the world. He hadn t a doubt that Nellie would win Elizabeth s love just the way she had cap tured his. There she was affectionate and mannerly and most beautiful 1 What [80] Outwitted more could any woman ask in the way of a ready-made child ? Elizabeth would have to be won, of course ; he expected that. Maybe she wouldn t give in at once (thinks he) ; but she couldn t help it in the end. She wouldn t need much more (thinks he) than a moist kiss, and the feel of Nellie s head and arms, and a sleepy whisper of Mother, I love you ! It made Joe Jacket laugh way down deep, some where, where a man s chuckles are some thing like sobs it made the old fool cry just to think of little Nellie in the house, loved and loving. I tell you, my friends, Joe Jacket was proud and happy when he carried that drowsy burden into his own home that night. " Elizabeth, says he, I got a good one. " Is she asleep, Joe ? " Yes, says Joe ; she s been sound asleep in my arms all the way from Flatland Station. " Poor motherless little thing I says Elizabeth. " Not now, thank God ! says Joe. " Poor little child in the house of [81] The Suitable Child strangers ! says Elizabeth. Have you taken to her, Joe ? " Taken to her ? says Joe. Why t Elizabeth, I love her. " Elizabeth looked at him, then, in a queer sort of way. Do you ? says she, quietly. " She s a beautiful child, says Joe. You ll love her, too. You won t be able to help it. " Beautiful ! says she, turning away from Joe, cut to the quick because he had called her beautiful. Of course, she s beautiful. They re all beautiful 1 " Here, says Joe ; take her and put her to bed. " Elizabeth took her. She has wonder ful hair, says she. " She s got a good deal more than that, says Joe. Just you wait till you see her in the morning. " Nellie stirred a little, then, but didn t quite wake up ; and she kissed Elizabeth in her sleep, and put one arm around her neck, and snuggled her head in the place where the heads of children lie most softly. It seemed to frighten Elizabeth. She [82] "I DON T KNOW," SATS SHK. Outwitted trembled a little and held her head away from the child s curls. " Isn t it good, says Joe, to feel a little child lying there again ? " Elizabeth didn t answer. " Eh ? says Joe. Don t it feel fine, Elizabeth ? " I don t know, says she. I don t know. " Joe kissed Nellie good-night, just the way he used to kiss Amy, and Elizabeth carried her up-stairs, just the way she used to carry Amy, when Amy would fall asleep by the fire. Joe was anxious by this time ; he wasn t quite sure that he had done as well in Winnipeg as he had given himself credit for. But he couldn t tell why. If Nellie didn t suit, what child would ? Any how, he waited until Elizabeth had put Nellie to bed he could tell by the sounds, just the way he used to know when Amy was stowed away and then he wondered why Elizabeth didn t come down the way she used to do when Amy was alive. But Eliza beth didn t come ; she stayed up-stairs for [83] The Suitable Child a long, long time, and Joe could hear her in Amy s old room, where Nellie was asleep could hear her pacing the floor, walking, walking, back and forth, like a woman in trouble. He didn t go up to her ; he waited until she came, and when she did come, at last, she was so white and hard and bitter that Joe was frightened. " What is it, Elizabeth ? says he. " Never mind, says she, in a passion. " But Elizabeth, says he, I must know. You re in a dreadful way. Tell me what s the matter. " Matter? says she. I m jealous. That s what s the matter. " That s strange, says he. " No, it isn t, says she. It isn t strange at all. It s the most natural thing in the world : I ve just put that child to bed. " I don t see any cause of trouble in that, says he. " Can t you understand? says she. I ve just put that child to bed. I ve un dressed her, I tell you, and put her to bed. " My dear, says he, I can t understand. [84] Outwitted " She s beautiful, says Elizabeth ; she s strong and rosy and fat she hasn t a blemish. She has a perfect body soft and strong and beautiful. If she d been awake, Joe, she could have gone to bed ivithout my help. She wouldn t have needed me. I didn t know that God made children like that. I had forgotten. And I m sorry that I know again. I m jealous. I thought I d be. I told you so. I m jeal ous, I tell you I m jealous and hateful. " What are you jealous for ? says he. You ought to be proud. The child is yours, now, isn t she ? " Elizabeth laughed. The child isn t mine, says she. You are very stupid, Joe. Amy was my child. That s why I m jealous. " I understand, says Joe, and I m sorry. " What s to be done ? says she. " Couldn t you try to like her ? " No, says she; it wouldn t be any use. I hate her too much. " For shame, dear ! says Joe. "I tell you, Joe, says she, I hate her. I m ashamed of myself. I d like to call it [85] The Suitable Child dislike but I can t. I hate her. I hate her for Amy s sake. You ll have to take her back, Joe. You can catch the morning express for the East, can t you ? There s no other way out of it, Joe. You ll have to take her back. " Yes, says Joe ; she must go back. " I m sorry, says Elizabeth. Oh, I m sorry ! " Never mind, says he ; she s not a suitable child for you and me, and neither you nor I can help it. " Elizabeth cried all that night in shame and sorrow. Next morning Joe started back to Winnipeg with Nellie. . . . And I guess Nellie didn t lose much, after all ; the old maid of Edmonton has done well by her. . . . "Then," the farmer continued, "Joe Jacket wondered what he d do next. He wasn t yet willing to quit trying to get around the will of God. There must be something (thinks he) to make Elizabeth happy again ; and that something must be [86] Outwitted a child. There wasn t anything else in the world that Elizabeth wanted. But what child ? where was the suitable child ? It struck Joe that the Rev. Charles Ellis Rangton might know ; and when Joe got that idea he was sure that he was right. The Rev. Charles Ellis Rangton had been the home missionary in those parts when Amy was born; he knew the family, he knew the situation, he knew Elizabeth better than she knew herself, and he was the kindest and cleverest man Joe Jacket had ever known. He was now in Toronto had a big Episcopal church there and was doing a whole lot of what they call institutional work. So with Elizabeth s permission Joe sat down and wrote wrote everything all about Nellie, too, and why Elizabeth wouldn t have her and begged the Rev. Charles Ellis Rangton to use his own judgment and send them as soon as possible some kind of a child that he thought would do. " It was two weeks and three days be fore he got an answer ; but it was a tele- [87] The Suitable Child gram, and just the sort of answer that pleased Joe Jacket : " Have sent child named Amy. Arrive Flatland west-bound express Friday. Meet her. " There, Elizabeth ! says Joe. That s businesslike ; and I guess that fixes it. " Named Amy, says Elizabeth. They must have given her a new name. " Anyhow, says Joe, it s a sort of homelike thing to be expecting Amy. " Yes, says Elizabeth ; that s true. " You better get things ready, says Joe. " I don t need to, says she. I always keep things ready in Amy s room. " Which Amy? says Joe, with a laugh. " Why, Joe, says Elizabeth, it is nice to be looking for Amy. That was clever of Dr. Rangton. " Friday noon, when Joe set out for Flat- land Station, Elizabeth was in a dreadful state again. It was no use (says she) ; here she was as hateful and nervous as ever she couldn t, she just couldn t, take [88] "AND WHEN JOE JACKET SAW HER HE THANKED GOD." Outwitted this strange child to her heart. Joe left her crying in bed (she wouldn t get up) ; and if he hadn t had to get out to Flatland Station to meet the orphan, he wouldn t have dared leave her at all. It was a wretched time, my friends, for poor Joe Jacket, while he waited for the train ; and when the train came, and went on again, with no child turning up on the platform, he was more relieved than disturbed. But there was a child, after all ; she was sitting on her own poor little bag in the lee of the station-master s bay-window a queer, patient little girl, with a canary-like way of moving her head, and bird-like black eyes and when Joe Jacket saw her he thanked God, and was all at once so filled with joy and tenderness that he didn t have time to keep back the first tears. " Hello ! says he. What s your name ? " It was said in such a jolly and friendly way, I suppose, that the little girl smiled. " I have two, says she. " That s the queerest thing I ever [89] The Suitable Child heard, says he. Which one do you like best? " I m fond of the old one, says she, for I ve been acquainted with it all my life ; but I hope that I shall like the new one better. " What is it ? says he. " Would you like to know the old, says she, or the new ? " The new, says he. " Amy, says she. " It s the sweetest name I ever heard, says he. I love it. But tell me, says he ; what in the world are you doing here ? " It s the place I started for, says she. The name of the gentleman who is to meet me is on my tag. " " Mister Joseph Jacket," says Joe. How would you like me to be Mister Joseph Jacket ? " I should like it very much I think. " Well, my dear, says Joe and he took the little thing very carefully up in his arms, and hugged her with the greatest care, and kissed her in a way that no child [90] Outwitted could misunderstand Well, my dear/ says he, I am Joe Jacket. " I rather thought you were, says she. " Then he drove her home ; and he was sure but yet wondered that the suitable child had been found. And he wondered, too, whether, after all, he had outwitted God, or God had outwitted him. It seemed to him very much like the will of God that he should be driving home with that very little girl in his arms. " Elizabeth ! Joe called from the hall. I ve brought Amy home. " There wasn t any answer. " Elizabeth ! he called again. Where are you ? " She wouldn t answer ; but he found her in the sitting-room, close by the fire, which had gone to little flames and red coals. It was dusk, then ; and there was no lamp only a warm glow of light. Elizabeth wouldn t look up ; she kept staring at the fire, from the rocking-chair, with her chin in her hands. Joe had time to unwrap the [91] The Suitable Child blanket from the child and take her close to Elizabeth before he spoke again. " She s a cripple] he whispered, just like little Amy / "Then Elizabeth turned and caught the hunchback child to her breast and kissed her, and rocked her, and kissed her again and sobbed: I love you! I love you! Oh, thank God thank God you ve come ! It was the end of the story. " It s the sweetest story I ever heard ! " sobbed the dear little Lady in Black. " It is a lesson," said she ; " it is a Christmas lesson." " And I," said the Big Farmer, with a queer little smile, " am Joe Jacket, and know that I have told the truth ; and / love my crippled girl ! " " Surely," mused the Lady in Black, with her grave eyes looking into the state room where the boy lay sleeping, " God has spoken to me this night." We were not disappointed, then. The Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes* fairly smacked his lips with satisfaction. [92] VII The New Mother AME the morning ; came Christmas morning came the very morning of Christ mas, with the train labour ing forward towards Win nipeg, and the wind fallen, and the snow gone from the air, and the dawn rosy and promising. Came the Old Gentleman With the Twin kling Eyes from his berth, with bleared eyes, which declared his sad habit of dissipation in the late hours ; came the meek Clergyman, befuddled by the wakefulness of the night ; came the Big Farmer, fresh as a wheat stalk with the dew of morning on it ; came the Story Teller, anxiously inquisitive, but blinking ; came the little Lady in Black, with bright eyes, and with smiles, and with a joyously garrulous and excitedly inconsequent chat ter, and in the most charming disarray [93] The Suitable Child (which discomposed her not at all) ; and CAME THE CHILD ! I may say no more I need say no more I will not say another word. It is not necessary ; it would be wasteful of words, it would fall lamentably short of the truth of delight, it would be hope less, insufficient, infinitely disappointing: for who can describe a child s joy and pale gasping surprise of a Christmas morning ? Not I ; not the poor Story Teller, who chanced, by God s favour, to participate in this unmeasured opportunity. Let it pass, and be imagined ; let it pass, because such as can imagine can imagine, but those who cannot, cannot be informed ; and why attempt to convince? Whoso deprives a child of this fearful Christmas emotion but there I go again : the con demnation must not be passed by a bach elor ! Let me say that our child was pleased (a mild exposition of his state) ; and I will say no more. Afterwards this was after breakfast in [94] The New Mother the dining-car, and long after the English Church Clergyman had said his prayers and absolved and blessed us all after wards, the little Lady in Black closeted herself with the little Boy From the Day Coach. She was resolute, then she was at once triumphant and defiant and positively insulting. She looked us in the eye in a way that put us in our places. What business was it of ours ? she seemed to say. None at all, of course ; but had she known our fervent wishes had she been aware of the old gentleman s subtle managing had she been informed of my poor wish she would have done noth ing of the sort ; she would have sought for sympathetic help, she would not have ex pected the mean, conventional blame of the world, which we chanced to appear to rep resent before her (but did not really). Afterwards, I say, the boy and the lady went into the stateroom ; and the little Lady in Black tightly closed the door. " Listen ! " said she, when they reap peared. [95] The Suitable Child The little boy, who held the little hand of the little Lady in Black, advanced before her ; and he spread his fat legs, and estab lished himself firmly, notwithstanding the stagger of the train, and he scowled, and he seemed (I recall) perfectly willing to fight, and to down us heartily, as he squared his shoulders, and defiantly faced us. And he said : This here wom-an s my m oth er!" We congratulated the happy pair. " I am very happy," said the little Lady in Black, with the sweetest Christmas smile in all the world. The boy grinned without the aid of the forceps of the Old Gentleman With the Twinkling Eyes. [96] 000115501 g