moses adored his little foster-sister when she was well; but sick, his adoration turned to blind worship. for several days betty had been ill. moses’ religion, bottled up during care-free days, burst forth in foam of intercession for betty’s return to health.
“oh, lord, she’s orl i got,” he wailed. he hinted that there would be no more light in him, than in job’s blind eye, should betty be lost to him.
the first sign of return to health was indicated by a slight querulousness that invalids seem to claim as their prerogative. the convalescent wanted books and pictures, her discarded favorite, hannah, stiff with long neglect, and her pets individually and collectively. then having run the gamut of dumb playmates, she called for her beloved friends.
“i want howard eliot,” she cried, “he can sing so lovely, an’ i want miss gordon, she’s so comfortin’.”
all this time mrs. wopp ran breathlessly up and down stairs attending to the feverish child. even wash-day was postponed, but the terrors of that dread event would never again appal moses, he felt sure, if only betty got well. ebenezer wopp was distracted and neglected to take his usual number of notes.
directly the invalid’s querulous demand for the rancher was made, moses started off to fetch him.
“wot’s the use of livin’ if betty grows them there wings they talk of?” he demanded of the fowl as they scurried from his path.
when the two arrived, nell gordon was sitting with the sick child and crooning softly to her. howard eliot drew near, accidentally touching the firm round arm of nell as he did so.
“man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards,” quoted mrs. wopp. “we’ve had sich a time, but i’m shore our li’l mornin’-glory is gittin’ better now.” she gazed at the child with true maternal affection. “she’s lookin’ kinder peart agin.”
“glory must git better, nothin’s no fun no more,” blurted moses.
“betty’s not goin’ to no kingdom come yet,” assured mrs. wopp, her optimism rising like a star of the first magnitude to lighten the darkness of her son’s midnight sky.
“there’s no mention of circus-ladies going there anyway,” said howard, smiling. this reference to her attempts to out-barnum barnum brought a bright smile to the wan face of betty.
“don’t stan’ there fillin’ the doorway like a bung in a barrel, moses,” reprimanded mrs. wopp. “that boy’s gone clean petrified. go an’ fetch the lamp, it air giftin’ so dark i can’t tell which is glory an’ which is miss gordon.”
as moses clattered down stairs, mrs. wopp continued, “there is shore a thunderstorm comin’ up to-night. ’pears to me i heerd like a roll of drums.”
a dull yellow glow from the kerosene lamp, placed by moses on the bureau, lighted up the figure of betty reclining on snowy pillows. on one side of her was seated howard, his arm about the drowsy child. on the side of the bed, squarely seated on one of mrs. wopp’s texts worked into the patchwork quilt, was nell, watching the little pallid face and trying to avoid the eyes of her silent lover.
“been talkin’ to a grave-digger?” queried mrs. wopp, of her offspring, as moses selected a comfortable seat, his sober face still bearing traces of the last few days’ anxiety. she looked on the solicitude of moses with an approving eye, but it was necessary, however, to hide her maternal pride by a series of assaults upon him on every possible pretext. her banterings also helped to keep her son and heir in the spotlight.
“there’s mose allers ready fer a sitdown, a sort of kerlapsible verlise.”
during betty’s illness these one-sided dialogues were more than usually plentiful. in this way only was mrs. wopp able to alleviate the “gnawin’ at her heart-strings” as she said, at having betty so ill. it also kept the boy alive to the fact that life’s path was not strewn with “cabbage roses.” such, at least, were the confidences poured into the sympathetic ear of his pinto.
moses capitalized his bulk to effectively fill the large chair into which he sank. he surveyed with approval the new trousers presented to him by miss gordon, and tried to blot from his mind the ignominy that had attended the wearing of the ill-fitting pair. those discarded checked monstrosities languished under moses’ bed in close consultation with a pair of decrepit and muddy shoes. it was so sweet to the boy to see signs of convalescence in betty that he took great comfort in just gazing on her pale face with its wisps of fair hair across the forehead. he summed up his general attitude to life by whispering to himself, “i don’t give a doughnut fer orl the check pants in alberta.”
a low rumble of thunder was heard in the distance and a flash of lightning made the coal-oil lamp look like a bilious spot in the room.
“sing something, mar.” betty’s plaintive voice broke the silence.
“what’ll i sing betty?”
“oh, the song ’bout the clouds rollin’ away,” she yawned, “i want everybody to be happy.” she looked at her teacher and nell wondered if the child had read her heart and had seen its unhappiness.
“wait till the clouds roll by, jenny,
wait till the clouds roll by,
jenny, my own true loved one
wait till the clouds roll by.”
mrs. wopp’s voice, a dramatic outburst before which almost any cloud would have quailed, filled the bedroom. betty turned to nell gordon, “i hope all yer clouds’ll hev silver linin’s, miss gordon,” she smiled.
“why, betty?”
“’cause i love you, ’n’ i hope the edges’ll be all pink like my mornin’-glories.”
howard caught nell’s gaze. he longed to gather the girl who had so completely captured his heart into his arms and kiss away their estrangement.
“i think the linin’ of miss gordon’s cloud needs polishin’ these days,” ventured betty, shyly.
“won’t you sing something else, mrs. wopp.” nell was growing uncomfortable under betty’s reference to the unburnished state of her cloud.
mrs. wopp obligingly gave as an encore, “there were ninety and nine,” apropos of nothing whatever. then turning to a portrait on the wall, she enlarged on the musical ability of a great-uncle from whom she reckoned she had received her gift of song.
“i sorter hoped moses’d take arter uncle josh, too,” she said, regretfully.
the inexorable portrait on the wall seemed to gaze down on the recalcitrant youth with disapproval.
“he’s been pushin’ up the daisies fer thirty years, i ain’t goin’ to warble to please no tombstun.” moses swung a ponderous foot to give emphasis to his decision.
“don’t sit there wool-gatherin’ anyways, mose, or the moths’ll nest in yer head. ef you carn’t sing in toon, you kin bring up a cup of tea fer miss gordon an’ mr. eliot, an’ don’t fergit betty an’ yer mar.”
betty was still faintly laughing at moses’ spirited retort to his mother’s observations on his singing.
“betty dimples in an’ out, like mar’s dough,” he remarked, joyously, “she’s shore gittin’ better.”
going down the stairs his loud unmelodious singing reached the ears of those in the bedroom. when he arrived at the foot, betty, whose ears were attuned to all acts of outlawry, had reason to believe that moses performed three successive somersaults.
“that boy’ll sartinly spill the tea,” prophecied mrs. wopp, with laughing pessimism.
“i don’t give two whoops ef he does,” betty was bubbling with suppressed mirth.
moses reappeared with a tray. the tea had been spilled as foretold by his mother, but sufficient was left for the party. betty drank from a dainty cup, her little finger straight and rigid as was fitting for the delicate hand-painted china.
the effulgence of mrs. wopp’s smile was somewhat obscured by “i told you so’s,” but the aroma of the steaming teapot soon restored its radiance.
“this is like the cup i had at mrs. newman’s, in calgary,” said betty, then turning to nell she asked, “do you ’member the lovely chiner cups at mrs. newman’s, time mr. zalhamber was there?”
“who is mr. zalhamber?” asked howard, as though he had forgotten his existence.
“oh, he is a wonderful piannerist,” explained betty. “he played, oh, jist lovely, jist like birds singin’ an’ rivers runnin’ an’ the sun shinin’. but arfter he played he looked so fierce i was skeered of him. miss gordon didn’t like him either, arfter she got knowin’ him better.”
“he didn’t come roun’ here, i kin tell you though,” joined in mrs. wopp, energetically. in speaking of mr. zelamba, her voice modulated harshly into a key of hyper-acidulated sharps. “i says to miss gordon, an’ she jined in with me, a piannerist may be well ’nough as an actor man, but when it comes to takin’ fer keeps, give me a real man.” after taking a deep breath she continued, “my, but he makes a heap of money an’ he loves it, too; but when he gits to be about forty, the lines in his fiz’ll be as tight as my clothes-rope arter a spell of rain.”
after this vigorous onslaught upon the quondam admirer of nell, mrs. wopp ordered moses to help her prepare the spare room on the ground-floor for the young rancher.
“the storm’ll be worse yet, mr. howard, so you jist stay here till the cock crows fer risin’, an’ i’ll cook you a breakfast better’n a pore lonely bachelor kin cook fer hisself.”
from the kitchen came an unmistakeable odor of cheese. ebenezer wopp was having a slight snack before retiring. with the back of his nervous hand he was wiping from the corners of his mouth the telltale crumbs.
“ebenezer wopp, no wonder you talk sich ridicilsome nonsense in yer sleep, eatin’ cheese at night. it’s ’nough to make you dream of boer-constructors.”
uplifted by limburger, mr. wopp grew emboldened, “jist a mouthful of somethink don’t hurt nobody, an’ i’ll be asleep afore you kin say jack robinson, an’ ef i talk as loud as you snore, we’re even i reckon.”
“there ain’t a shadder of a doubt moses takes arter his par in the gift of the gab,” was mrs. wopp’s genial rejoinder.
upstairs the lightning filled betty’s room with a weird intermittent radiance. the child had become increasingly drowsy and asked howard to sing her to sleep.
“what song would you like, betty?”
“mary an’ martha hev jist gone along to ring them shinin’ bells.”
to the melody of the shining bells, betty dropped off to sleep.
nell’s mirth at betty’s choice of a hymn could be stifled no longer. howard’s studied aloofness yielded before her laughter and the hand that was not supporting betty caught and pressed the small dimpled fingers of nell.
“can you forgive me, nell? this guiding star of moses is our guiding star, too.” after a moment howard continued, “i wish we could transplant this morning-glory into our garden, don’t you?”
nell’s answer was somehow strangely muffled.
although she was asleep, betty was fully conscious in that dream-world of love and joy where values are real. nell and howard saw a tender smile light up her sweet face as mrs. wopp’s singing, subdued by distance, floated into the room,
“let us keep the wheat an’ roses
gamin’ out the thorns an’ charff,
let us find our sweetest comfort
in the blessin’s of to-day,
with a patient hand removin’
orl the briers from the way.
then scartter seeds of kindness,
then scartter seeds of kindness,
then scartter seeds of kindness
fer our reapin’ bye ’n’ bye.”
warwick bro’s & rutter, limited, printers and bookbinders, toronto, canada.
