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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29153-h.zip b/29153-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a627eb --- /dev/null +++ b/29153-h.zip diff --git a/29153-h/29153-h.htm b/29153-h/29153-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c860e02 --- /dev/null +++ b/29153-h/29153-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2712 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Poppy's Presents, by Mrs. Walton. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 0; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; + width: auto; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; + width: auto; +} + + +h1 { text-align:center; line-height:1.5; } +p.title { text-align:center; text-indent:0; + font-weight:bold; font-variant:small-caps; + line-height:1.4; margin-bottom:3em; } +small { font-size:60%; } +big { font-size:140%; } + + + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Poppy's Presents, by Mrs O. F. Walton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Poppy's Presents + +Author: Mrs O. F. Walton + +Release Date: June 18, 2009 [EBook #29153] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POPPY'S PRESENTS *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Wall, Nadine Margaret Whitcombe and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-cover.jpg" width="391" height="600" alt="" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-002.png" width="403" height="600" alt="" /><br /> +[<i>See p.</i> 35.]</div> + +<hr /> + + + +<h1> +<big>POPPY'S PRESENTS</big><br /> +<small>BY</small><br /> +MRS. WALTON</h1> + +<p class="title"><i>Author of 'Christie's Old Organ,' 'A Peep Behind the Scenes,' etc.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/illus-003.png" width="200" height="192" alt="" /></div> + +<p class="title">London<br /> +THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY</p> + +<p class="title"><span class="smcap">56, Paternoster Row; and 65, St. Paul's Churchyard</span></p> + +<p class="title"><span class="smcap">Butler & Tanner,<br /> +The Selwood Printing Works,<br /> +Frome, and London.</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" width="50%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="5" summary="Table of Contents"> + +<tr><td align='right'>I.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Little Red Cloak</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">7</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Poppy's Work</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">18</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Holiday</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">26</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Long Night</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Found at Last</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Poppy Writes a Letter</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">53</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Visit From Grandmother</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">63</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Jacky and Jemmy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">71</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">John Henry's Bairn</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Mother's Legacy</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Story of the Ring</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Wonderful Fire</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td><td align='left'> <span class="smcap">Poppy's Father Comes Home</span></td><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">119</a></td></tr> + +</table></div> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.<br /> +<small>THE LITTLE RED CLOAK.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chaptert.png" width="49" height="100" alt="T" /></div><p>he great cathedral bell was striking twelve. Slowly and solemnly it +struck, and as it did so people looked at their watches and altered +their clocks, for every one in the great city kept time by that grave +old bell. Every one liked to hear it strike; but the school children +liked it best of all, for they knew that with the last stroke of twelve +lessons would be over, and they would be able to run home to dinner.</p> + +<p>'Good morning, children,' said Miss Benson, the mistress.</p> + +<p>'Good morning, ma'am,' said the girls, and then they marched out like +soldiers in single<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> file. So quiet they were, so grave, so orderly they +went, almost as solemnly as the old bell itself.</p> + +<p>But only till they reached the school door. Then they broke up into a +merry noisy crowd, running and shouting, chasing each other from side to +side, jumping, hopping, and skipping as they went down the street.</p> + +<p>'Oh dear, what a noise them children do make!' said old Mrs. North, as +she got up and shut her cottage door.</p> + +<p>But the noise soon died away, for the children were hungry, and they +were hurrying home to dinner.</p> + +<p>What is that little bit of red that we see in front of the crowd? It is +a little girl in a scarlet cloak, and she is turning down a long +straight road which leads into the heart of the city. Let us follow her +and see where she is going. She is very tidily dressed; there is a clean +white holland pinafore under the scarlet cloak, and although her shoes +are old, they are well patched and mended. But<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> she is turning into a +very poor part of the city—the streets are getting narrower and more +crowded, and they are getting darker, too, for the quaint, old-fashioned +houses overhang the pavement, and so nearly meet overhead, that very +little light or air can get into the dismal street below.</p> + +<p>Still on and on goes the little red cloak. And now she is turning down a +court on the left-hand side of the street. An open court it ought to be, +with a row of houses on each side, and an open space in the middle; but +it is not an open space to-day, for it is everybody's washing-day in +Grey Friars Court, and long lines are stretched from side to side, and +shirts and petticoats and stockings and all manner of garments are +waving in the breeze.</p> + +<p>The little red cloak threads her way underneath; sometimes the corner of +a wet towel hits her in the face, sometimes she has to bend almost +double to get underneath a dripping blanket or sheet. But she makes her +way through them all, and passes on to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> the last house in that long +dingy court, and as she does so she notices a little crowd of women +standing by her mother's door. There is old Mrs. Smith leaning on her +crutches, and Sarah Anne Spavin and her mother, and Mrs. Lee with her +baby in her arms, and Mrs. Holliday, with Tommy and Freddy and Ann +Eliza. And as she looks up she sees several faces looking out of the +windows overhead.</p> + +<p>What could be the matter? Had anything happened to her mother? Was her +mother dead? That was her first thought, poor child. But nobody was +looking particularly grave, and they laughed as they caught sight of the +little red cloak coming under the white sheets and table-cloths.</p> + +<p>'Why, here's Poppy!' said Mrs. Holliday, as she came up to them.</p> + +<p>'Well, Poppy,' cried another, 'have you heard the news?'</p> + +<p>'Your mother's got a present for you, Poppy,' said Sarah Anne Spavin; +'you'd better hurry in and have a look at it.'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>'A present for me,' said the child; 'what is it?'</p> + +<p>But the women only laughed and bade her go and see.</p> + +<p>And the faces at the window overhead laughed too, and said there was +such a thing as having too much of a good thing.</p> + +<p>Poppy passed them all and went in, and then she heard her mother's voice +calling to her to come upstairs. Her mother was in bed, and she beckoned +Poppy to come up to her.</p> + +<p>'Poppy, child,' she said, rather sorrowfully, 'I've got a present for +you.'</p> + +<p>Just what the neighbours had told her; and the child wondered more and +more what this present could be. It was a very long time now since Poppy +had had a present; she had never had one since her father went away, and +it was six months since he had left them.</p> + +<p>Poppy often wondered where he had gone. Her mother never talked about +him now, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> the neighbours shook their heads when he was mentioned, +and said he was a bad man. But he had often brought Poppy a present on a +Saturday night when he got his wages; sometimes he brought her a packet +of sweets, sometimes an apple, and once a beautiful box of dolls' +tea-things. But since he went away there had been no presents for Poppy. +Her mother had had to work very hard to get enough money to pay the rent +and to get bread for them to eat—there was no money to spare for +anything else.</p> + +<p>What could this present be, about which all the neighbours knew?</p> + +<p>'Look here, Poppy,' said her mother; and she pointed to a little bundle +of flannel lying on one side of the bed.</p> + +<p>Poppy went round and peeped into it; and there she saw her present—a +tiny baby with a very red face and a quantity of black hair, and with +its little fists holding its small fat cheeks.</p> + +<p>'Oh, what a beauty!' said Poppy, in an awestruck voice. 'Is it for me, +mother?'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>'Yes,' said the mother, with a sigh; 'it's for you, Poppy.'</p> + +<p>'But that isn't all,' said old Mrs. Trundle, who was standing at the +foot of the bed; 'that's only half your present, Poppy. Look here!'</p> + +<p>And in her arms Poppy saw another bundle, and when she had opened it, lo +and behold, what should there be but another little baby, also with a +very red face and plenty of black hair, and with its little fists +holding its fat cheeks!</p> + +<p>'Two of them?' said Poppy, in amazement. 'Are you sure they are both for +us, mother?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, they are both for us,' said the poor woman; 'both for us, Poppy.'</p> + +<p>'Who sent them?' asked the child.</p> + +<p>'God sent them, poor little things!' said her mother, looking +sorrowfully at the two little bundles.</p> + +<p>'Are they God's presents to me?' asked Poppy.</p> + +<p>'Yes, to you and to me, Poppy,' said her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> mother; 'there's nobody else +to look after them.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, you'll have your work set now, Poppy,' said old Mrs. Trundle.</p> + +<p>But Poppy did not think of the work just then. Two dear little babies! +And for her own! She was very very happy. She could scarcely eat any +dinner, although Mrs. Lee took her across the court into her house, that +she might get some with her children, and it was a great trial to her +when her mother told her she must go back to school as usual.</p> + +<p>'You'll get little enough schooling now, go while you may, Poppy,' she +said.</p> + +<p>The excitement in the court was not over when the child passed down it +on her way to school.</p> + +<p>The neighbours came to their doors when they caught sight of her red +cloak, and some of them said, 'Poor Poppy!' and some of them shook their +heads mournfully without saying anything. The child could not understand +why they all pitied her so much. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> thought they ought to be glad that +such a nice present had come for her.</p> + +<p>On her way to school Poppy passed under a curious old gateway, which had +been built many hundred years ago, and which still stood in the old wall +of the city. Under the shadow of this ancient Bar was a shop—such a +pretty shop Poppy thought it, and it was very seldom that she went under +the gateway without stopping to look in at the window. For there, +sitting in a row, and looking out at her, were a number of +dolls—beautiful wax dolls with curly hair and blue eyes and pink +cheeks. And Poppy had never had a wax doll of her own. Her only doll was +an old wooden creature with no real hair, and with long straight arms; +she could never even sit down, for her back and her legs would not bend, +and when Poppy came home and looked at her after she had been gazing in +the toy-shop window she thought her very ugly indeed.</p> + +<p>One day when Poppy was standing under the Bar, a lady and a little girl +came up to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> the shop. The little girl was just as tall as Poppy, and she +stood beside her gazing at the row of dolls.</p> + +<p>'I should like that one, mother,' she said; 'the one with yellow hair +and a red necklace.'</p> + +<p>That was Poppy's favourite too; <i>she</i> would have chosen that one, she +said to herself.</p> + +<p>The lady had gone into the shop and bought the doll, and Poppy watched +the happy little girl walk away with it in her arms. And then poor Poppy +went into a dark corner under the Bar, and cried a little to herself +before she went on to school. If only <i>her</i> mother had money enough to +buy her a wax doll!</p> + +<p>But on the day Poppy's presents came she did not even stop for a moment +to look at the wax dolls. What stupid creatures they seemed to her now! +<i>Her</i> babies could open and shut their eyes, and none of these dolls +could do that.</p> + +<p><i>Her</i> babies could move, and yawn, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> cry, and kick; they were far +better than dolls.</p> + +<p>And mother said God had sent them! He must have known how much she had +wanted one of those wax dolls, Poppy thought.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.<br /> + +<small>POPPY'S WORK.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chapterp.png" width="52" height="100" alt="P" /></div><p>oppy's work soon began in good earnest. Her mother had to go out to +work, and whilst she was away there was no one but Poppy to take care of +the babies. She liked her work very much at first. Their eyes were as +blue as those of the wax dolls in the shop window, and their hair was +quite as pretty.</p> + +<p>But, as the days went by, Poppy could not help wishing that her babies +would sometimes be as quiet as the row of dolls in the shop under the +Bar. Poppy's babies were never quiet, except when they were asleep, and +unfortunately it was very seldom that they were both asleep at the same +time. Poor little Poppy! her small arms ached very often as she carried +those restless babies,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> and sometimes she felt so tired she thought she +must let them fall.</p> + +<p>Oh, how they cried! Sometimes they went on hour after hour without +stopping. And then at length, one baby would fall asleep quite tired +out, but no sooner did its weary little cry cease than the other one +would scream more loudly than before, and would wake it up again.</p> + +<p>There was no end to Poppy's work. She was warming milk and filling +bottles,—she was pacing up and down the room,—she was singing all the +hymns she had learned at school to soothe them to sleep,—she was +nursing and patting, and rocking her babies from morning till night.</p> + +<p>Brave little Poppy! The tears would come in her eyes sometimes, when the +babies were more cross than usual, and she would think how nice it would +be to feel rested sometimes; she was always so tired now. But she never +gave up her work; she would not have left her babies for the world; she +loved them through it all.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>Even when her mother came home in the evening Poppy's work was not +finished. Poor tired mother, she came slowly and wearily up the court, +and then sank down upon a chair just inside the door, almost too +exhausted to speak.</p> + +<p>'Give me the babies, Poppy darling,' she would say.</p> + +<p>But Poppy knew that her mother had been standing all the day at a +washing-tub, and that she was almost too tired to speak, and so she +would say, 'Oh, I'll keep them a bit, mother; get a cup of tea first.'</p> + +<p>And so the evening wore away, and bedtime came; the time when most +little girls of Poppy's age get into soft, cosy beds, and sleep +peacefully till the sunbeams wake them gently in the morning. But even +at night Poppy's work was not over. One or other of the babies was +crying nearly all the night, and sometimes both were crying together. +Poppy used to see her poor mother pacing up and down, backwards and +forwards on the bedroom floor, trying to hush one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> fretful +children to sleep. And then she would creep out of bed and say, 'Give it +to me, mother, you are so tired and so cold.'</p> + +<p>And then Poppy would take her turn in that constant tramp, tramp across +the floor, and at last, when the happy moment came, if it ever did come, +in which both babies were worn out with crying and were laid asleep +beside her mother, Poppy would creep cold and shivering into bed, and +the night would seem all too short for her.</p> + +<p>Yet, in spite of all the work the babies gave her, Poppy was very proud +of her presents. And when her mother got out two white frocks which +Poppy had worn when she was a baby, and dressed the poor little twins in +them one Sunday afternoon, Poppy danced for joy.</p> + +<p>'Don't they look lovely, mother?' she said.</p> + +<p>'You must pray for them, Poppy, when we get to church,' said her mother. +'We are going to give them to God.'</p> + +<p>'What will He do with them, mother?'<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> said Poppy. 'He won't take them +away, will He?'</p> + +<p>'No,' said her mother, 'He won't take them away just yet; but I want +them to belong to Him as long as they live, and then He'll take them +home by-and-by.'</p> + +<p>Poppy was very attentive at church that day. How pretty her babies +looked as the clergyman took them in his arms! Her mother had been very +anxious that they should have Bible names, and after much searching, and +after many long talks with Poppy on the subject, she had fixed on Enoch +and Elijah as the names for the little brothers.</p> + +<p>Poppy was very happy that Sunday as she walked home with little Enoch in +her arms. But when they got into the house, her mother sat down and +burst into tears.</p> + +<p>'What is it, mother dear?' said the child. 'Are you tired?'</p> + +<p>'No, my dear, it isn't that,' she said. 'I'll tell you some time when +the babies are asleep.'</p> + +<p>They were asleep much sooner than usual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> that night; the fresh air had +made them sleepy, and Poppy and her mother had a quiet evening.</p> + +<p>'Tell me why you were crying, mother dear, when we came home from +church.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, Poppy!' said her mother, 'I don't know how to tell you, my poor +little lassie.'</p> + +<p>'What is it, mother? Do tell me.'</p> + +<p>'You know you said God had sent a present for you, Poppy, when the +babies came?'</p> + +<p>'Yes—for me and you, mother,' said the child.</p> + +<p>'Poppy,' said her mother, 'I think He's going to give you the biggest +share of it. I think I'm going to die, Poppy, and leave you all. Oh! +Poppy, Poppy, Poppy!' and she sobbed as if her heart would break.</p> + +<p>Poppy felt as if she were dreaming, and could not understand what her +mother was saying. Mrs. Byres, in the house opposite, had died a little +time before, but then she had been ill in bed for many a month; and Mrs. +Jack's little boy and girl had died, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> then they had had a fever. Her +mother could walk about, and could go out to work, and could look after +the babies. How <i>could</i> she be going to die?</p> + +<p>'I didn't like to tell you, Poppy,' her mother went on; 'but it is true, +my darling, and it's better you should know before it comes.'</p> + +<p>'But, mother, you are not ill, are you?' said the child; and as she said +this she looked at her mother. Yes, she certainly did look very thin, +and pale, and tired, as she sat by the fire.</p> + +<p>'I'm failing fast, Poppy,' said her mother; 'wasting away. I've felt it +coming on me a long time, dear—before your father went away. And last +week I got a ticket for the dispensary, and the doctor said he couldn't +do nothing for me; it was too late, he said. If it wasn't for you and +the babies, Poppy, I would be glad to go, for I'm very, very tired.'</p> + +<p>'Mother,' said Poppy, with a great sob, 'however will we get along +without you?'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>'I don't know,' said the poor woman. 'I don't know, Poppy; but the good +Lord knows; and He <i>is</i> a good Lord, child. He's never failed me yet, +and I know He'll help you—I know He will. Come to me, my darling.'</p> + +<p>And the mother took her little girl in her arms, and held her to her +bosom, and they had a good cry together.</p> + +<p>But before very long the twins awoke, and Poppy and her mother began +their work again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.<br /> +<small>A HOLIDAY.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chaptert.png" width="49" height="100" alt="T" /></div><p>he next morning when Poppy woke she felt as if she had had a bad dream. +Her mother's words the night before came back to her mind. 'I think I am +going to die and leave you all.' It could not be true, surely! She +raised herself in bed and looked round. Her mother was up already; she +could hear her moving about downstairs, and she had lighted the fire, +for Poppy could hear the sticks crackling in the grate. The twins were +still asleep, lying in bed beside her, and the child peeped at their +little peaceful faces, and stooped to kiss Elijah's tiny hand, which was +lying on the coverlet of the bed. They knew nothing about it, poor +little things. It could not be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> true, Poppy said to herself; her mother +could not be going to die; she must have dreamt it all.</p> + +<p>She crept out of bed very quietly, so as not to wake the babies, dressed +herself, and went downstairs to help her mother to get breakfast ready. +But she found everything done when she got into the kitchen, the cloth +was on the table, and a cup for Poppy, and another for her mother, and +two slices of bread, and two cups of tea.</p> + +<p>'Oh, mother,' said Poppy, 'I didn't know I was so late.'</p> + +<p>'You're going to have a holiday to-day, Poppy,' said her mother; 'do you +know it's your birthday?'</p> + +<p>'My birthday, mother?' repeated the child.</p> + +<p>'Yes, you're nine years old to-day, my poor little lass,' said her +mother; 'I reckoned that up as I was walking about with the babies last +night, and I mean you to have a rest to-day; you've been a-toiling and +a-moil-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>ing with them babies ever since they was born; it's time you had +a bit of quiet and peace.'</p> + +<p>'But you're poorly, mother,' said the child.</p> + +<p>'No worse nor usual,' said her mother, 'and I've got no work to-day. +Mrs. Peterson isn't going to wash till to-morrow, so you're to have a +real quiet day, Poppy.'</p> + +<p>But Poppy, like a good child, could not sit idle when she saw her mother +working, and so in the afternoon, as soon as dinner was over, her mother +sent her out for a walk, and told her not to come home till tea-time.</p> + +<p>'There's Jack and Sally, they've got holidays, Poppy; get them to go +with you,' she said.</p> + +<p>Jack and Sally lived in a house on the opposite side of the court; they +went to the same school to which Poppy had gone before the babies came, +and they had always played together since they were tiny children.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>So Poppy put on her scarlet cloak, and the three children started in +fine spirits. It was such a bright, sunny day, and everything looked +cheerful and happy. There had been a hard frost the night before, and +the road was firm and dry under their feet, and the three children ran +along merrily. They went a long way outside the walls till they came to +a river, by the side of which was a small footpath following the river +in all its windings, and leading across grassy fields, which in summer +time were filled with wild flowers, and which were now covered with pure +white snow.</p> + +<p>Oh, how much Poppy enjoyed that walk! She had been so long shut up in +that tiny house, she had so long been imprisoned like a wild bird in a +small cage, that now, when she found herself free to run where she liked +in the clear, frosty air, she felt full of life and spirits.</p> + +<p>She had forgotten for a time the sorrow of the night before. All was so +bright and beautiful around her, there was nothing to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> remind her of +sickness or of death. She was very happy, and skipped along like a +little wild goat.</p> + +<p>They walked more slowly when they got into the city again, for they were +tired with their long walk, and as they passed the great cathedral Jack +proposed that they should go inside and rest for a little time on the +chairs in the nave.</p> + +<p>'There's lots of time yet, Poppy,' he said; 'it isn't tea-time, I'm +sure.'</p> + +<p>It was getting dark for all that, and the lamps were lighted in the +cathedral. Jack took off his hat as he pushed open the heavy oaken door, +and the little girls followed him. Service was going on in the choir, +and they could hear the solemn tones of the organ pealing through the +building, and with them came the sweet sound of many voices singing.</p> + +<p>'Isn't it beautiful?' said Poppy; 'let us sit down and listen.'</p> + +<p>They were very quiet until the service was over, and when the last Amen +was sung,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> and the doors of the choir were thrown open for the people to +leave, they got up to go home.</p> + +<p>But as they were walking across the cathedral to the door which stood +nearest the direction of their home, Jack suddenly stopped.</p> + +<p>'Hullo, Poppy,' he whispered, 'look here,' and he pointed to a little +door in the wall which stood ajar.</p> + +<p>'What is it, Jack?' said both little girls at once; 'where does it go +to? Is it a tomb?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, no,' said Jack; 'it's the way folks go up to the top of the tower; +you know we often see them walking about on the top; my father went up +last Easter Monday. I always thought they kept it locked; let's go a bit +of the way up, and see what it's like.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, no, Jack,' said Sally; 'it looks so dark in there.'</p> + +<p>'Don't be a silly baby, Sally,' he said. 'Poppy isn't afraid; are you, +Poppy?'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>'No,' said Poppy, in a trembling voice; 'no, I'm not frightened, Jack.'</p> + +<p>'Come in then, quick,' said the boy; 'I'll go first, and you can follow +me.'</p> + +<p>'But isn't it tea-time?' said Poppy.</p> + +<p>Jack did not stop to answer her; he led the way up the steep, winding +stone steps, and the two little girls followed.</p> + +<p>'Jack, Jack, stop a minute!' said Poppy, when they had wound round and +round three or four times; 'I don't think we ought to go.'</p> + +<p>'I believe you're frightened now, Poppy,' he said; +'I thought you'd more pluck than that! We won't go far. I just want to +get to that place on the roof where we see the people stand when they're +going up; it's only about half way to the top; come on, we shall soon be +there!'</p> + +<p>It took a longer time than Jack expected, however, for the steps were +very steep, winding round and round like a corkscrew, and the children +were tired, and could not climb quickly. They stood for a few moments on +the roof outside and looked down into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> city, but they could not see +much, for it was getting very dark, and even Jack was willing to own +that it was time to go home.</p> + +<p>It did not take them quite so long to go down the steps as it had taken +them to go up, but they were slippery and much worn in places, and the +little girls felt very much afraid of falling, and were very glad when +Jack, who was going first, said they were near the bottom.</p> + +<p>But Poppy and Sally a moment afterwards were very much startled, for +Jack gave a sudden cry of horror as he reached the bottom step.</p> + +<p>The little door through which they had come was closed. Jack shook it, +and hammered it with his fists, but he could not open it; it was locked, +and they were prisoners in the tower. The verger who had the charge of +the door had remembered that he had left it unfastened, and had turned +the key in the lock soon after the children had entered the tower. No +one had been near when they had crept inside, and so the verger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> had no +idea that any one had gone up the steps.</p> + +<p>'Oh! Jack, Jack, Jack, what shall we do?' said Poppy.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<small>A LONG NIGHT.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chaptery.png" width="52" height="100" alt="Y" /></div><p>es, they were locked in, there was no doubt about it!</p> + +<p>'But don't cry, Poppy,' said Jack, as she burst into tears, 'we'll soon +make them hear; the verger sits on that bench close by.'</p> + +<p>Jack hammered with his fists on the door, and the sound echoed through +the hollow building. Then the three children waited, and listened, +hoping to hear the verger's footsteps approaching the door. And when +some moments had passed and no one came, he knocked again, and once more +they waited and listened. But it was all in vain; no one heard the +rapping on the door, no one came to let the little prisoners out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>'He must have gone into the crypt,' said Sally; 'he goes down there when +folks come to see the cathedral; maybe he'll be back soon.'</p> + +<p>But Jack did not answer her; he was on his knees on the ground, peeping +under the crack of the door.</p> + +<p>'What can you see, Jack?' asked Poppy.</p> + +<p>'It's all dark,' said Jack; 'the cathedral lights are out, and +everybody's gone home; whatever shall we do?'</p> + +<p>The two little girls sat down on the bottom step, and cried and sobbed +as if their hearts would break.</p> + +<p>'What's the use of crying?' said Jack, rather angrily; 'what we've got +to do is to try to get out. Let's climb up again, and get out on the +roof; maybe we can make some one hear if we shout loud enough.'</p> + +<p>'It's so dark up there now,' said Sally, glancing fearfully at the +narrow, winding staircase; 'we can't see our way a bit.'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>'Never mind that, we can <i>feel</i>,' said the boy; 'come along.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! I shall fall—I shall fall!' sobbed Sally.</p> + +<p>'You stop down here, then,' said her brother. 'Poppy and I will go.'</p> + +<p>'Oh no,—no,—no!' cried the frightened child; 'don't leave me; I don't +want to stop here by myself.'</p> + +<p>Very slowly and carefully the three children felt their way up the steep +steps, and many a tear fell on the old stones as the girls followed +Jack. It seemed a long, long way to them, far farther than it had done +before; and the wind, which had been rising all the afternoon, came +howling and whistling through the narrow window-slits in the tower, and +made them cold and shivering.</p> + +<p>At last they reached the open place on the roof, but they found it was +impossible to stand upon it; such a hurricane of wind had arisen, that +they would have been blown over had they tried to leave the shelter of +the tower. So all they could do was to re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>main where they were, and to +shout as loudly as they could for help; but the cathedral close was very +large, and no one passed through it on that cold, stormy evening, and +the street was far away—so far that the voices of the children could +not be heard by the passers-by, but were drowned by the noisy, +blustering wind. They shouted until they were hoarse, but no help came, +and at last even Jack was obliged to acknowledge that he was afraid +there was no help for it, but that they must make up their minds to stay +there for the night.</p> + +<p>'Oh, dear, whatever will mother do without me!' said Poppy; 'she'll have +nobody to help her; I <i>must</i> get back to my babies. Oh, Jack, Jack, I +<i>must</i> get back to my babies.'</p> + +<p>'But you <i>can't</i> get back, Poppy,' said Jack mournfully; 'there's nothing +for it but waiting till morning.'</p> + +<p>'I'm so cold,' sobbed Sally, 'and I want my tea; whatever shall we do +without our tea?'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>'It can't be helped,' said Jack, 'and it's no good crying; let's go to +the bottom of the tower again, it's not so windy there as it is up +here.'</p> + +<p>It was hard work getting down in the dark, and with the whistling wind +rushing in upon them at every turn; the old stone steps were worn away +in many places, for thousands of feet had trodden them since the day +they were put in their places, and the children sometimes lost their +footing, and would have fallen had they not held so tightly to each +other.</p> + +<p>When they reached the bottom of the stone staircase they crouched +together close to the door, in the most sheltered corner they could +find, and tried to keep each other warm. But it was a bitterly cold +night, and the rough noisy wind came tearing and howling down the +staircase, and found them out in their hiding-place, and made them +shiver from head to foot. And as the hours went by, they felt more and +more hungry; their long walk had given them a good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> appetite, and they +had had a very early dinner.</p> + +<p>Poor little Sally cried incessantly, and the others did all they could +to cheer her; but she refused to be comforted, and at last she was so +tired and exhausted that she sobbed herself to sleep. Jack soon +afterwards followed her example and fell asleep beside her, and only +poor Poppy was awake, crying quietly to herself, and thinking of her +mother and of Enoch and Elijah. She was too anxious and too much +troubled to sleep, and the hours seemed very long to her. It was such a +lonely place in which to spend the night: there was no sound to be heard +but the howling of the wind and the striking of the great cathedral +clock, which made Poppy jump every time it struck the hour.</p> + +<p>How long it seemed to Poppy from one hour to another; the time went much +more slowly than usual that night, she thought. Once she became so very +lonely and frightened that she felt as if she must wake the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> others; but +she was an unselfish little girl, and she remembered how much poor Sally +had cried, and felt glad that she and Jack could forget their trouble +for a little time. So she crept quietly away without disturbing them, +and climbed slowly up the steep steps to the place where she remembered +the first window-slit in the tower came. She thought she would feel less +lonely if she could see the lamps burning in the streets, and would feel +that the world was not quite so far away as it had seemed to her during +all those long, quiet hours.</p> + +<p>Poppy did not like to go so far from the other children, and once or +twice she turned back, but at length she climbed as far as the slit, and +looked out. There were the lamps on either side of the long street which +led to the cathedral, but they seemed a great way off, and the cathedral +close was quite dark and empty.</p> + +<p>'There isn't anybody near,' said Poppy to herself, as she looked down. +And then she looked up,—up into the sky. It was covered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> with clouds +which the wind was driving wildly along, but, as Poppy looked, there +came a break in the clouds, and one little patch of sky was left clear +and uncovered. And there, shining down upon Poppy, was a star,—such a +bright beautiful star.</p> + +<p>It made her think of heaven, and of God who made the stars. 'God is +near,' said Poppy to herself. 'Mother says He is always close beside us. +Oh, dear, I quite forgot—I've never said my prayers to-night.'</p> + +<p>The child knelt down at once on the cold stone steps, and prayed, and +her little prayer went up higher than the towers of that great +cathedral—to the ears of the Lord, who loves little children to speak +to Him.</p> + +<p>'O God,' prayed Poppy, 'please take care of me, and Jack, and Sally, and +please don't let mother be frightened, and please make the babies go to +sleep; for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.'</p> + +<p>Poppy felt comforted after she had prayed;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> she crept down the steps +again, and wrapping her little red cloak as tightly round her as she +could, she lay down beside Sally, and fell asleep.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.<br /> +<small>FOUND AT LAST.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chaptert.png" width="49" height="100" alt="T" /></div><p>hat was a terrible night, and one which would never be forgotten in +Grey Friars Court. Hardly any of the people of the court went to bed, +for they were all helping in the search for the lost children. The +bellman was sent up and down the city till late at night, that he might +try to hear tidings of them; the policemen were making inquiries in all +directions; the neighbours were scouring the city from one end to the +other.</p> + +<p>Jack and Sally's father and mother were walking about the whole night, +looking for their children in all places, likely and unlikely. And +Poppy's poor mother, who could not leave the babies, paced up and down +her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> room, and looked anxiously from her window, and trembled each time +that footsteps came down the court.</p> + +<p>She could do nothing herself to help her little girl, but she had a +strong Friend who could help her. Again and again, through that long +anxious night, Poppy's mother asked the Lord to watch over her child, +and to bring her safe home again.</p> + +<p>Only one trace of the children had been found when morning dawned; Sally +had dropped her little handkerchief on the path leading to the river; +this handkerchief had been found by a policeman, and it had been shown +to Sally's mother, and she had said, with tears in her eyes, that it +belonged to her little girl.</p> + +<p>Could the children be drowned in the river? This was the terrible fear +which the neighbours whispered to each other, as they met together after +the night's search. But no one mentioned it to Poppy's mother.</p> + +<p>'I wouldn't tell her about that there handkercher, poor thing,' said one +to another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> 'maybe they're not in the river after all.'</p> + +<p>In the morning, as soon as it was light, search was to be made in the +water for the bodies, and every one in Grey Friars Court waited +anxiously for the result.</p> + +<p>Very early in the morning the cathedral door was unlocked, and one of +the vergers, an old man of the name of Standish, entered with his wife, +old Betty Standish, and with his daughter Rose Ann, to make the +cathedral fires, and put all in readiness for the services of the day. +As the two women raked out the cinders and ashes from the stoves, the +sound echoed through the hollow building, and woke the sleeping children +in the tower.</p> + +<p>Jack sprang to his feet at once, as he saw the dim grey light stealing +down the staircase, and as he heard the voices in the cathedral.</p> + +<p>'It's morning at last,' he said; 'now we shall get out;' and he hammered +with all his might on the door.</p> + +<p>But the women were making so much<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> noise themselves that the sound did +not attract their attention; they went on with their fire-lighting and +took no notice. Then the children began to call out—</p> + +<p>'Let us out—let us out, please; we're locked in!'</p> + +<p>The two women paused in their work and listened.</p> + +<p>Again the shout came, 'Let us out—let us out; we can't get out; open +the door, please.'</p> + +<p>'Whatever on earth is it?' said Rose Ann, coming up to her mother with +an awestruck face.</p> + +<p>'Ay, my dear, <i>I</i> don't know,' said her mother, who was trembling from +head to foot. 'I never heard the like; I never did. Call your father, +Rose Ann.'</p> + +<p>The verger was in the choir, putting the books in order, and making all +ready for the service. He came at once when his daughter called him.</p> + +<p>'Listen, Joshua, listen,' said old Betty.</p> + +<p>And once more the children called. 'Let<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> us out, please; we're locked +in; let us out.'</p> + +<p>'Do ye think it's a ghost, Joshua?' said his wife, looking fearfully at +the old tombs by which she was surrounded on all sides.</p> + +<p>'Ghost! Rubbish!' said her husband; but he was as white as a sheet, and +almost as frightened as she was.</p> + +<p>'Let's go and tell the Dean,' said Rose Ann.</p> + +<p>'Nonsense,' said the verger, who had recovered himself a little; 'let's +listen where the sound comes from.'</p> + +<p>'Let us out; unlock the door, please!' shouted the children again.</p> + +<p>'It's some one in the tower,' said the old man; 'though how on earth any +one could have got there it passes me to think.'</p> + +<p>So the old people and their daughter went in the direction of the cries, +and the verger took the great old key from his pocket which unlocked the +tower door. Yet even when the key was in the key-hole he paused a +moment, as if he did not like to turn it in the lock.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>'I wonder whoever it can be,' he said timidly.</p> + +<p>'It's a ghost; I'll be bound it's a ghost,' said old Betty; 'they say +they <i>do</i> haunt all these queer old places.'</p> + +<p>'Well, we'll have a look,' said her husband, summoning up all his +courage; 'so here goes.' He turned the key, the door flew open, and out +came the three poor children, weary, pale, and shivering with cold.</p> + +<p>'Well, I never!' said the verger's wife, holding up her hands in +amazement.</p> + +<p>'Wherever on earth have you come from?' said her husband.</p> + +<p>'I know, father,' said Rose Ann; 'these must be the three children of +Grey Friars Court. I heard the bellman crying them last night.'</p> + +<p>'Poor little cold things!' said old Betty, 'and have ye been locked in +the tower all night?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, ma'am,' said Poppy, 'all night.'</p> + +<p>'But however did you get there?' said the verger. 'That's what I want to +know.'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>'Please, sir, don't be angry,' said Jack; 'we found the door open, and +we went in.'</p> + +<p>'Well, I never heard the like,' said Rose Ann. 'I declare they're +shaking from head to foot. Such a night as it has been, too; it'll be a +wonder if it isn't the death of them.'</p> + +<p>'Come along, my poor bairns,' said the old woman. 'I've got some hot +coffee on the hob at home; you shall have a drink at once.'</p> + +<p>'Oh no, thank you,' said Poppy; 'I must go home to mother.'</p> + +<p>'So you shall, my dear; so you shall,' said old Betty; 'but you'll go +all the quicker for getting a bit of warmth into you; why, you're stiff +with cold, I declare. Poor lambs, you <i>must</i> have had a night of it! +Bring them across, Rose Ann.' And the kind old woman trotted on in front +to stir her fire into a blaze, and to pour out the hot coffee for the +poor children.</p> + +<p>She made them sit with their feet on the fender whilst they were +drinking it, and she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> gave them each a piece of a hot cake, which she +brought out of the oven. And all the time they were eating it she and +Rose Ann were crying over them by turns, and the old verger was shaking +his head and saying: 'I never heard the like; it's a strange business +altogether, it is.'</p> + +<p>As soon as they were warmed and fed, the verger, and his wife, and Rose +Ann took the children home; and I wish you could have seen their arrival +in Grey Friars Court. There was such a kissing, and hugging, and crying; +such an excitement and stir; such a rejoicing over the children, who had +been lost but were found again, and such a thanksgiving in the heart of +Poppy's mother, as she saw the answer to her prayer.</p> + +<p>No one could make too much of the three children that day. They were +invited out to tea to every house in the court, and sweets, and cakes, +and pennies were showered upon them, till the two mothers declared they +would be quite spoilt, and till Jack announced he would not much mind +spending another<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> night in the tower, if they got all these good things +when they came home. But Poppy and Sally shook their heads at this, and +would not agree with him.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<small>POPPY WRITES A LETTER.</small></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chapterpq.png" width="57" height="100" alt="P" /></div><p>oppy, I want you to write a letter for me, darling,' said her mother +one day.</p> + +<p>'Is it to my father?' asked the child.</p> + +<p>'No, Poppy; it isn't to your father.'</p> + +<p>'Why do you never write to my father, mother?' asked Poppy.</p> + +<p>Her mother did not answer her at once, and Poppy did not like to ask her +again. But after a few minutes her mother got up suddenly and shut the +door.</p> + +<p>'Poppy, I'll tell you,' she said, 'for I am going to leave you, and you +ought to know.' And then, instead of telling her, the poor woman burst +into tears.</p> + +<p>'Don't cry, mother, don't cry,' said the child; 'don't tell me if you'd +rather not.'</p> + +<p>'But I <i>must</i> tell you, Poppy,' she said, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> she dried her eyes and +looked into the fire. 'Poppy, I loved your father more than I can tell +you, and he loved me, child; yes, he <i>did</i> love me; never you believe +any one who tells you he didn't love me. He loved <i>me</i>, and he loved +<i>you</i>, Poppy; he was very good to you, wasn't he, my child?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, mother, very good,' said Poppy, as she remembered how kind he +always was to her when he came in from work.</p> + +<p>'But he got into bad company, Poppy, and he took to drinking. I wouldn't +tell you, dear, only I'm going away, and so I think you ought to know. +Well, bit by bit he was led away. Sometimes, dear, I blame myself, and +think perhaps I might have done more to keep him at home; but he was +always so pleasant with all his mates, and they made so much of him, and +they led him on—yes, Poppy, they led him on—they did, indeed. And I +saw him getting further and further wrong, and I could not stop him, and +there were things which I didn't know about, dear—horse-racing, and +card-playing, and all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> that sort of thing. And one day, Poppy,' said her +mother, lowering her voice ('I wouldn't tell you, my dear, if I wasn't +going away), one day he went out to his work as usual. I made him a cup +of hot coffee to drink before he started; I always made him that, dear, +if he was off ever so early.</p> + +<p>'Well, he was ready to go, but he turned round at the door, and says he, +"Is Poppy awake?" "No, the bairn was fast asleep when I came down," says +I. He put down his breakfast-tin by the door, and he crept upstairs, and +I could hear his steps in the room overhead, and then, Poppy, I listened +at the foot of the stairs, and I heard him give you a kiss. I didn't say +anything, child, when he came down, for I thought maybe he wouldn't like +me to notice it, and he hurried out, as if he was afraid I should ask +him what he was doing.</p> + +<p>'Well, dear, dinner-time came, and I always had it ready and waiting for +him, for I think it's a sin and a shame, Poppy, when them that works for +the meat never has time<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> given them to eat it. But the dinner waited +long enough that day, child, for he never came home. I began to think +something must be wrong, for he always came home of a dinner-hour. I +thought maybe he had had some drink; but, Poppy, it was worse than that, +for oh! my darling, he never came home no more.'</p> + +<p>'What was wrong with him, mother?'</p> + +<p>'He was in debt, child, and had lost money in them horrid races; and +there were more things than that, but I can't tell you all, my dear, nor +I don't want to tell. Only this I want to say: if he ever comes back, +Poppy, tell him I loved him to the last, and I prayed for him to the +last, and I shall look to meet him in heaven; mind you tell him that, +Poppy, my dear.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, mother,' said the child, with tears in her eyes; 'I won't forget.'</p> + +<p>'And now about the letter; I wish I <i>could</i> write to your father, Poppy, +but I've never had a word from him all this cruel long time—not a +single word, child; and where he is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> at this moment I know no more than +that table does.'</p> + +<p>'Then who is the letter to be written to, mother?' asked the child.</p> + +<p>'It's to your granny, Poppy, I want to write; <i>his</i> mother, your +father's mother. I never saw her, child, but she's a good old woman, I +believe; he always talked a deal about his mother, and many a time I've +thought I ought to write and tell her, but somehow I hadn't the heart to +do it, Poppy. But now she must be told.'</p> + +<p>'When shall I write it, mother?'</p> + +<p>'Here's a penny, child; go and get a sheet and an envelope from the shop +at the end of the street, and if the babies will only keep asleep, we'll +write it at once.'</p> + +<p>The paper was bought, and Poppy seated herself on a high stool, and +wrote as her mother told her:—</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">'My dear Grandmother</span>,</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/illus-059.png" width="407" height="600" alt="" /></div> + +<p>'This comes, hoping to find you quite well, as it leaves my mother +very ill, and the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>doctor says she'll never be no better, and my +Father went away last year, and nobody knows what has become of +him, and he never writes nor sends no money nor nothing, and Mother +has got two little babies, and they are both boys, and she wants me +to ask you to pray God to take care of us, and will you please +write us a letter?</p> + +<p> +'Your affectionate grand-daughter,<br /> +'<span class="smcap">Poppy</span>.'<br /> +</p></blockquote> + + + +<p>It was well that the letter was finished then, for that very night +Poppy's mother was taken very much worse, and the next morning she was +not able to rise from her bed.</p> + +<p>And now began a very hard time for the little girl. Two babies to look +after, and a sick mother to nurse, was almost more than it was possible +for one small pair of arms to manage. The neighbours were very kind, and +came backwards and forwards, bringing Poppy's mother tempting things to +eat, and carrying off dirty clothes to wash at home, or any little piece +of work which Poppy could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +not manage. And often, very often, one or another of them would come and +sit by the sick woman, or would carry off the crying babies to their own +homes, that she might have a little rest and quiet.</p> + +<p>But, in spite of all this kind help, it was a very hard time for Poppy. +The neighbours had their own homes and their own families to attend to, +and could only give their spare time to the care of their sick +neighbour. And at night Poppy had a weary time of it. Her mother was +weak and restless, and full of fever and of pain, and she tossed about +on her pillow hour after hour, watching her good little daughter with +tears in her eyes, as she walked up and down with the babies, trying to +soothe them to sleep.</p> + +<p>Sometimes she would try to sit up in bed, and hold little Enoch or +Elijah for a few moments: but she had become so terribly weak that the +effort was too much for her, and after a few minutes she would fall back +fainting on her pillow, and Poppy had to take the baby away and bathe +her mother's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> forehead with water before she could speak to her again.</p> + +<p>So it was a weary and anxious time for the child. The neighbours said +she was growing an old grandmother, so careworn and anxious had she +become, and Poppy herself could hardly believe that she was the same +little girl who had gazed in the toy-shop window only a few months ago +and had longed for one of those beautiful wax-dolls. She felt too old +and tired ever to care to play again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br /> +<small>A VISIT FROM GRANDMOTHER.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chaptert.png" width="49" height="100" alt="T" /></div><p>he summer began very early that year, and it was the hottest summer +that Poppy had ever known. Even at the end of May and the beginning of +June the heat was so great that it made people ill and tired and cross. +Poppy's mother, who was never able to leave her bed, felt it very much. +The court was close and stifling, and the old window in the small +bedroom would only open a little way at the bottom, so that very little +air could get into the room, and the poor woman lay hour after hour +panting for breath, and almost fainting with the heat.</p> + +<p>It was no easy time for Poppy. The neighbours were still very kind, but +the heat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> made them unable to do as much as before, and somehow +everybody's temper went wrong with the hot weather, and there was a good +deal of quarrelling in the court. Mrs. Brown quarrelled with Mrs. Jones +about something, and Ann Turner would not speak to Mrs. Smith because +she had offended her about something else, and once or twice there were +angry voices in the court, which troubled the poor sick woman. And when +the neighbours came in to see her they would pour out the history of +their grievances, and this worried and distressed her a good deal.</p> + +<p>The babies, too, felt the hot weather very much. They were seven months +old now, but they were poor sickly little creatures, quite unable to +roll about the floor like other babies of that age, and needing almost +as much nursing and care as they had done when they were first born. +Poppy did her very best for them and for her mother, but she was only a +child after all, and she could not keep them as clean as they ought to +have been kept, nor the house as tidy and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> free from dirt as it used to +be when her mother was able to look after it, and sometimes poor Poppy, +brave though she was, felt almost inclined to give up in despair.</p> + +<p>There was one day when she was very much cast down and troubled. It was, +if possible, a hotter day than the ten very hot days which had gone +before it. And it was everybody's washing-day. The court was filled with +clothes, steaming in the hot sun, and shutting out what little air might +possibly have crept down to the rooms below. But there seemed to be no +air anywhere that sultry day.</p> + +<p>Poppy's mother was very much worn and exhausted, and Enoch and Elijah +did nothing but cry. Hour after hour they cried, not a loud, angry +scream, such as strong babies might give, but a weak, weary wail, which +went on, and on, and on, till Poppy felt as if she could bear it no +longer.</p> + +<p>She left them on the bed for a few minutes beside her mother, and ran +downstairs to make a cup of tea and a piece of toast for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> mother's +dinner. They lived on bread and tea now, for they had nothing but what +they got from the parish, and if the neighbours had not been very kind, +and brought them in little things from time to time, even the parish +money would not have been enough to keep them from starving.</p> + +<p>When Poppy went downstairs she had a little quiet cry. There was so much +to do, and somehow that hot day it seemed impossible to do it. She knew +that the house was untidy, and the babies needed washing, and there were +dirty clothes waiting to be made clean, and cups and plates and basins +standing ready to be washed up. And it seemed too hot and tiring to do +anything.</p> + +<p>Poppy went to the window for a minute, and putting her fingers in her +ears that she might not hear the wail of the babies, she stood looking +up at the strip of blue sky, which she could just see between the houses +of the court. How pure and lovely it looked! And God lived somewhere up +there Poppy knew. And God loved her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>—Poppy knew that, too. Her mother +said He had sent His dear Son to die for her—the only Son He had—He +had sent Him to die on the cross, that she might go to live with Him in +heaven. God must love her very much to do that, Poppy said to herself. +She thought she would ask God to help her that hot day,—if He loved her +she was sure He would feel sorrow for her, now that she was so tired and +had so much to do.</p> + +<p>So, looking up at the blue sky, Poppy said aloud, 'O God, please help +me, for I'm very tired, and I don't know how ever to get everything +done, and please make me a good girl; for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.' +Would God hear her prayer? Poppy asked herself, as she came away from +the window; she wondered very much if he would. And, if He did hear her, +how would the help come? It was not likely that He would send one of the +neighbours in to help her, for they were all too busy with their washing +to have much time to spare. There were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> the angels, <i>they</i> were God's +servants, and Poppy had learnt at school that they came to help God's +people; but she had never heard of an angel washing up cups and saucers, +or cleaning a house, or nursing a baby, and that was the help Poppy +wanted just then. Well, she had prayed to God, and mother said God +always heard prayer; she would wait and see.</p> + +<p>Poppy filled the kettle, and was trying to put a few things in order in +the untidy kitchen when there came a knock at the door. Poppy started. +Could some one be coming to help her? The neighbours never knocked—they +opened the door and walked in—and Poppy thought the angels would not +knock, for her teacher told her they could come in when the door was +shut. Who could it be?</p> + +<p>She went to the door and opened it, and there she found an old woman +with a large market-basket on her arm, who wanted to know if Mrs. +Fenwick lived there. Yes, that was her mother's name, Poppy said.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> +Whereupon the old woman came in, put down her basket, and then seized +Poppy and gave her a good hearty kiss on both her cheeks.</p> + +<p>'Why, you're John Henry's bairn,' she said, 'and as like him as two pins +is like each other.'</p> + +<p>It was grandmother, dear old grandmother, who had come from her home far +away in the country to see her son's wife and children, and to do all +she could to help them. And grandmother had not been long in the house +before Poppy felt sure that God had sent her, and that she was just the +help the poor child so much needed.</p> + +<p>Poor old grandmother! she was hot and tired and dusty, and she had been +travelling in the heat for many hours on that hot summer's morning. She +sat down on a chair by the door, fanning herself with her red cotton +pocket handkerchief, and kissing Poppy again and again, as she called +her 'my lad's bonny bairn,' and told her that she was the very picture +of what her father was when he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> was her age, and how her John Henry was +the best scholar in all Thurswalden School, and she felt sure his bairn +must be a clever little girl too.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +<small>JACKY AND JEMMY.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chaptern.png" width="69" height="100" alt="N" /></div><p>ow, my dear,' said grandmother, when she had rested for a minute or +two, 'where's my lad's wife? Your mother, my lass; where is she?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, she's in bed, grandmother!' said Poppy. 'She's very ill, is my +mother.'</p> + +<p>'I'll go up and see her,' said the old woman. 'To think that my John +Henry has been a married man these ten years, and I've never seen his +wife!'</p> + +<p>But when she <i>did</i> see John Henry's wife, grandmother sat down and +sobbed like a child. She was so white, so thin, so worn, that the kind +old woman's heart was filled with love and with shame—love for her poor +suffering daughter-in-law, shame that her son,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> the lad of whom she had +been so proud, should have left her when she needed him so much.</p> + +<p>How long grandmother would have cried it is impossible to say, had not a +dismal wail come from one side of the bed, followed almost immediately +by another dismal wail from the other side of the bed. It was Enoch and +Elijah, who had fallen asleep for a few minutes whilst Poppy was +downstairs, but who had waked up at the sound of a strange voice. +Grandmother sprang from her seat as soon as she heard them cry. She had +not seen the babies before, for they were covered by the bed-clothes. +She held them one in each arm, and kissed them again and again.</p> + +<p>'Oh, my bonny, bonny bairns!' she said; 'my own little darling lambs! To +think that God Almighty has sent you back again! Why, I'm like Job, my +lass; I lost them five-and-forty years ago;—ay, but it seems only +five-and-forty days. Oh! my own beautiful little lads. I kicked sore +against losing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> them, I did indeed, my lass, poor silly fool that I was! +and now here's God given me them back again. I'm a regular old Job now, +ain't I? Not that I was patient, like him; he was a sight better than +me—a sight better. Oh, you dear things, won't your grandmother love +you!'</p> + +<p>'Had you twins of your own, grandmother?' asked her daughter-in-law.</p> + +<p>'Ay, my dear, that I had, and little lads, too—the finest children you +ever saw; why, it was the talk of the country-side, my dear, what +beautiful bairns they was.'</p> + +<p>'And how old were they when you lost them, grandmother?'</p> + +<p>'Why, my dear,' said the old woman, '<i>my</i> child was ten months and one +week old, and <i>his</i> child was ten months and three weeks old—just a +fortnight's difference, my dear.'</p> + +<p>'I thought you said they were <i>both</i> yours, grandmother,' said Poppy.</p> + +<p>'Ay, my darling, so they was; but that was how we got to talk of them. +You see, me and my master had been married nigh on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> five years, and +never had no childer (we lived up at the farm at that time), and then +these babies came, and I think our heads were fairly turned by +them—<i>he</i> was well-nigh crazed, he was indeed, my dear. "Sally," he +says, when he came in to look at them, "you pick one and I'll have the +other—half-and-half, that's fair share," he says. "Now, Sally, you +choose first."</p> + +<p>'"Well," says I, "I'll have the ginger-haired one; it's most like me." I +used to have ginger hair, my dear; you wouldn't believe it, for it's all +turned white now, but I had, just like Poppy there, beautiful ginger +hair. Some folks don't like the colour, my dear, but your grandfather +used to like it. Why, he said when he was courting me that my hair was +the colour of marigolds, and they was always his favourite flowers; he +had, 'em in his own little garden when he was a tiny lad, he said.</p> + +<p>'Well, I picked the one with ginger hair, and called it <i>my</i> child, and +he picked the black-haired one, which was the very picture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> of him—why, +he had a head like a crow's back, my dear. And so we each had a baby of +our own, and would you believe it, my lass, he took that care of it, +you'd have thought he was an old nurse—you would indeed. He washed it +and he dressed it,—ay, but I did laugh the first time,—and he gave it +the bottle, and he got a little girl from the village to come and mind +it when he was out, and in the evening we sat one on each side of the +fire, he with his child, and I with mine; and then at night, when we +went to bed, his bairn slept in <i>his</i> arms, and my bairn slept in mine. +Well then we had them christened, and his was Jacky and mine was Jemmy, +and he <i>was</i> proud of his child that day—as proud as Punch; he was +indeed, my dear. He carried him all the way—Oh, dear! oh, dear! what +<i>have</i> I done!' said the old woman, as she turned to the bed and saw +Poppy's mother in tears.</p> + +<p>'Why, you're crying, my dear; I oughtn't to have told you. What a silly +old goose I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> am! I ought to have remembered that lad of mine, and how +he's gone and left you, instead of giving a hand with his own babies, as +my master did. Dear me, dear me, whatever was I thinking of?'</p> + +<p>'Oh, granny,' said her daughter-in-law, 'do tell me about them; I like +to hear—I do indeed; please go on.'</p> + +<p>'Well, my dear, if you <i>will</i> have it so, I'll go on. They grew up +beautiful babies, they did indeed, and didn't folks admire them! There's +lots of people drives through our village when it's the season at +Scarborough; they takes carriages, my dear, and they come driving out +with lads in red jackets riding on them poor tired +horses—"post-williams," I think they call them. I'm telling you no lie, +my dear, when I tell you them little lads has brought in scores of +threepenny bits that the ladies have thrown them from their carriages, +when the girl took them out by the lodge gate; they was so taken with +the pretty dears, they was.</p> + +<p>'Well, all went on well, my lass, till the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> teeth began to come,—oh, +them teeth, what a nuisance they are! I've lost mine, my dear, all but +two, and I'm sure it's a good job to have done with 'em—they're nothing +but bother, always aching and breaking and worrying you. Well, the +teething went very hard with the babies; his child was the worst, +though, and one day little Jacky had a convulsion fit, and didn't my +master send off for the doctor in a hurry; and all that night he sat up +watching his bairn, for fear it should have another fit. Doctor came +once or twice after that, for the little lad kept poorly, though the +fits did not come back.</p> + +<p>'"Ay, doctor," I says one day, when he had little Jack in his arms, and +was saying what a pretty boy he was—"Ay, doctor," I says, "but look at +<i>my</i> child," and I held up little Jemmy. "<i>He's</i> the beauty now, isn't +he, doctor?"</p> + +<p>'"You're very fond of that boy, aren't you?" says doctor.</p> + +<p>'"Fond of him! Why, doctor," I says, "I love him till I often think I +could go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> bare-foot all my life and live on bread and water if it would +do him a bit of good."</p> + +<p>'"Take care you don't love him too much," says doctor, looking quite +grave; "folks mustn't make idols even of their own bairns. Don't be +offended, missis," he says, "but it doesn't do to set your heart too +much on anything, not even on your own little lad: you might lose him, +you know."</p> + +<p>'Well, I was huffy with doctor after that; I was a bit put out, and I +says, "Well, doctor, if I thought I was going to lose him I would love +him a hundred times better than ever." So, my dear, doctor shook his +head at me and went away, and (would you believe it!) only five hours +after I had to send for him all in a hurry to come to <i>my</i> child. He'd +taken a fit like Jacky had; but oh! my dear, he didn't come out of it as +Jacky did; it was a sore, sore fit, and before doctor could get to +him—and he ran all the way from the village—my bonny bairn was gone.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, grandmother, you <i>would</i> feel that,' said Poppy's mother.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>'Yes, my dear, I did indeed; and when bedtime came, and he had <i>his</i> +child laid aside him, and <i>my</i> child was laid dead in the best room +downstairs, I felt as if my heart would break. He wanted me to take +<i>his</i> child, but little Jacky was used to father, and wouldn't come to +me, and, my dear, I cried myself to sleep.'</p> + +<p>'And how much longer did the other baby live, grandmother?' said Poppy.</p> + +<p>'Only fifteen days, my dear, and we buried 'em both in one little +grave,—I often go to look at it now;—and when we put <i>his</i> child in, +and I saw my child's little coffin at the bottom of the grave, my dear, +I wished I could go in too.</p> + +<p>'I was very hard and rebellious, ay, I was, I see it all now,' said +grandmother, wiping her eyes. 'But just to think of God giving 'em back +to me after five-and-forty years! Why, it's wonderful,' said the old +woman in a cheerful voice. '"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not +all His benefits." That's the verse for me, my dear, now, isn't it?'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>And grandmother took up first Enoch and then Elijah, and kissed them and +hugged them as lovingly as ever she had kissed her own little babies.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br /> +<small>JOHN HENRY'S BAIRN.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chapteri.png" width="44" height="100" alt="I" /></div><p>have read the story of a fairy who came down into a dark and dismal +room, where a poor girl clad in rags was cleaning the fireside, and who, +by one touch of her wand, changed everything in the room; the girl found +herself dressed in a beautiful robe, and everything around her was made +lovely and pleasant to look at. It was a new place altogether.</p> + +<p>Now, I think that grandmother was something like that good fairy, for it +was perfectly wonderful what a change she made, in the course of a few +hours, in that dismal house. No sooner had she had a cup of tea, than +she took off her bonnet and shawl, and set to work to put things in +order. First, she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> gave the babies a warm bath, and cried over them, and +loved them to her heart's content; and then, as they had no clean +clothes to put on, she wrapped them in some of her own garments which +she took from her bundle, and, soothed by the unusual comfort and +cleanliness, Enoch and Elijah were soon fast asleep.</p> + +<p>Then grandmother trotted downstairs again for more hot water, and washed +Poppy's poor sick mother, and brushed her tangled hair, and then dressed +her in one of her own clean night-gowns, smelling of the sweet field of +clover in which it had been dried, and put on the bed a pair of her own +sheets, which she had brought with her in case they might be useful.</p> + +<p>Oh, how grateful Poppy's mother was!</p> + +<p>'Granny,' she said, as she gave her a kiss, 'I haven't been so +comfortable never since I was ill; I declare I feel quite sleepy.'</p> + +<p>'Well, go to sleep, my lass,' said grandmother; 'that's the very best +thing you can do.' So she laid the babies beside their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> mother in bed, +and she and Poppy went downstairs.</p> + +<p>'Now, my little lass,' said the old woman, 'you and me will soon tidy +things up here.'</p> + +<p>It was wonderful to Poppy to see how quickly her grandmother could work. +She was a brisk, active old woman, and in a very short time all the +cups, and saucers, and plates were washed and put by, the fireside was +swept, and the kitchen table was scoured. Then, leaving Poppy to wash +the floor, her grandmother carried off the heap of dirty clothes lying +in the corner into the tiny back kitchen, and, long before Poppy's +mother or the babies woke, there were two lines of little garments hung +out to be quickly dried in the scorching afternoon sun.</p> + +<p>'And now, Poppy,' said grandmother, 'fetch my basket, my good little +lass, and we'll unpack it.'</p> + +<p>Oh, what a basket that was! Poppy's eyes opened wide with astonishment +when she saw all that it contained. There was a whole pound of fresh +country butter, a loaf<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> of grandmother's own home-made bread, a plum +cake she had made on purpose for Poppy, a jar of honey made by +grandmother's bees, and a box of fresh eggs laid by grandmother's hens, +a bottle of thick yellow cream, and, what Poppy liked best of all, a +bunch of roses, and southernwood and pansies, and lavender from +grandmother's garden.</p> + +<p>It was very pleasant to get tea ready, when there were so many good +things to put on the table, and it was still more pleasant when Poppy's +mother woke, to take her a cup of tea with the good country cream in it, +and to watch how she enjoyed some thin slices of grandmother's bread and +butter, and a fresh egg laid that morning by 'little Jenny, the bonniest +hen of the lot.'</p> + +<p>'Now, Poppy,' said grandmother, when tea was over, 'you get on your hat, +and go out a bit. You're a good little lass if ever there was one—bless +you, my darling, my own John Henry's bairn! But you want a bit of rest +and play, you do indeed.'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>'Yes, that she does,' said her mother. 'Why, it's weeks since she got +out for a walk—not since I was in bed, bless her!'</p> + +<p>So Poppy put on her hat and went out. It was a lovely summer's evening; +the great heat of the day was over, and a gentle breeze was blowing, +which was very cooling and refreshing to the tired little girl. She went +slowly past the great cathedral, and she thought how beautiful it +looked, standing out against the quiet evening sky. Then she climbed up +a flight of stone steep, and these took her to the top of the old wall, +which went all round that ancient city.</p> + +<p>And now Poppy had a beautiful view, over the tops of the chimneys, and +across the black smoky courts, to where the green fields were lying in +the evening sunshine, and the river was lighted up by the rays of the +setting sun. And there on the top of the old city wall, in a quiet +little corner where no one could see her, Poppy knelt down, and thanked +God for hearing her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> prayer, and for sending grandmother to help her. On +her way home she met Jack coming to meet her. 'Poppy,' he said, 'I've +got a present for you.'</p> + +<p>He put his hand under his thick fustian jacket and pulled out something +tied up tightly in a red cotton pocket-handkerchief.</p> + +<p>'Come and sit on this doorstep, Poppy,' he said, 'and look what it is.'</p> + +<p>It was a large green apple.</p> + +<p>'Why, Jack,' said Poppy, 'where did you get it? It's a funny time of +year to get an apple; I didn't know there was any left.'</p> + +<p>'No, it's a real curiosity,' said Jack, 'and I said to myself when I got +it, "Poppy shall have that big 'un; she was such a plucky girl that +night in the tower—she never whimpered nor nothing." So I tied him up +in that handkercher, and there he is.'</p> + +<p>'Thank you so much, dear Jack,' said Poppy gratefully. 'But however did +you get it?'</p> + +<p>'Why it was old Sellers, the greengrocer, gave him to me,' said +Jack,—'him as has a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> shop in Newcastle Street; he called me in and he +says, "Do you want a job, my lad?" and when I told him "Yes, I do," he +set me to clean out his apple-room, where he stores his apples in +winter. So he took me in, and it <i>was</i> a sight—such a sight as <i>you</i> +never saw, Poppy! Scores of 'em all rotten and smelling. Ay, they <i>were</i> +horrid!' said Jack, making a face, 'all but half a dozen that were quite +good. Well, I picked 'em out, Poppy, and took 'em to old Sellers, and he +gave me half of 'em: so I ate one myself, and I gave one to Sally, and I +kept the biggest of 'em all for you.'</p> + +<p>'It <i>was</i> good of you, Jack,' said Poppy.</p> + +<p>'Well, eat it then,' said the boy—'they're very nice—as good as can +be,' and he smacked his lips at the recollection.</p> + +<p>But Poppy had rolled her apple up in her pinafore, and did not seem +inclined to begin to eat it.</p> + +<p>'Whatever are you keeping it for?' said Jack, in rather a disappointed +voice.</p> + +<p>'Jack,' said Poppy, stopping short, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> looking up in his face, 'is it +for my very own?'</p> + +<p>'Why, yes, Poppy—of course.'</p> + +<p>'To do just whatever I like with it?'</p> + +<p>'Why, yes, of course,' said Jack again.</p> + +<p>'Then I shall give it to my grandmother,' said Poppy; 'she's come +to-day, and she's ever so good to us; and God sent her, and she's +cleaned the house beautiful. I shall give it to my grandmother, Jack.'</p> + +<p>'All right,' he said; 'only I'd like you to have just one bite yourself, +Poppy, to see how good it is.'</p> + +<p>He was quite satisfied when Poppy promised to ask her grandmother to +give her the last bite; and the little girl hastened home, feeling very +happy, and picturing out to herself what a great treat that big apple +would be to the old woman.</p> + +<p>'Here,' she said, holding it out to her, 'it's all for you, +grandmother—only Jack wants me <i>just</i> to have the last bite.'</p> + +<p>'All for me,' repeated the old woman, as she looked up from the work she +had in her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> hand—a little old torn frock of Poppy's, which she was +mending.</p> + +<p>'Yes,' said the child, 'all for you.'</p> + +<p>'Well, it's a beauty, I'm sure!' said grandmother, turning it over in +her hand; 'but you see, my dear, many's the long day since I've eat an +apple. Why, my little lass, what can an old body with only two teeth +do?'</p> + +<p>'Do try, granny,' said Poppy, holding the apple to her mouth; 'it isn't +so very hard, and Jack says it's <i>so</i> good. Do try!'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.<br /> +<small>THE MOTHER'S LEGACY.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chaptera.png" width="64" height="100" alt="A" /></div><p>nd grandmother <i>did</i> try—for she did not want to disappoint Poppy. But +somehow the two teeth would not go into the apple; they were too far +apart, and there were no teeth below to help them; and so, after many +attempts, the poor old woman was obliged to say she was afraid she could +not manage it.</p> + +<p>'If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. That's a good rule, +my dear; but it doesn't always answer, Poppy. But I'll tell you what, my +little girl,' said she, as she noticed how disappointed the child was, +'I'll put it in the oven and bake it for my supper, and then I <i>shall</i> +have a treat!'</p> + +<p>'Oh, granny, I'm <i>so</i> glad!' said Poppy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> throwing her arms around her +neck—'I do love you so very much—you are so good to me!'</p> + +<p>'Why, you're John Henry's bairn,' said granny, as she held her fast in +her arms—'how could I help loving John Henry's bairn?'</p> + +<p>'Polly, my dear,' said grandmother the next day to Poppy's mother, +'Polly, my dear, I'm going to take you home with me.'</p> + +<p>But the sick woman shook her head.</p> + +<p>'Don't shake your head, my dear,' said grandmother; 'I believe if I +could put you down on the top of the moors, and if you could get the +breezes off the heather, why, my lass, I believe you'd get well in no +time!'</p> + +<p>'You must ask the doctor, grandmother,' said Poppy's mother; 'he is +coming to-day.'</p> + +<p>So when the doctor had paid his usual visit, grandmother trotted after +him downstairs.</p> + +<p>'Now, doctor,' said she, 'I'll tell you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> what I'm going to do; I'm going +to take her home with me. Country air is the best physic after all, now +isn't it, doctor? You can't say anything against that, I'll be bound!'</p> + +<p>But the doctor shook his head.</p> + +<p>'Dear me, doctor,' said grandmother, 'don't <i>you</i> go and shake your +head. Surely she'll be well enough to go in a week or ten days. Or maybe +a fortnight or three weeks, doctor,' she added, as she saw that he +looked very grave.</p> + +<p>'My good woman,' said the doctor, 'you don't know how ill she is! It is +only a question of time now.'</p> + +<p>'You don't mean to say, doctor,' said grandmother, 'that she won't get +better?'</p> + +<p>'She may live a week,' said the doctor, as he put on his hat, 'but I do +not think she will live so long.'</p> + +<p>Poor old grandmother, it was a great downfall to her hopes; she had +thought, and hoped, and believed, that the country air would soon make +John Henry's wife well<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> again, and now she was told that she had only a +few days to live.</p> + +<p>She could not go upstairs with such news as that. So she bustled about +the kitchen, pretending to be busy, washing up the tea-things, and +sweeping the fireside, and stopping every now and then to wipe away the +tears that would come in her eyes. And all this time Poppy's mother was +waiting, and listening, and wondering why grandmother did not come to +tell her what the doctor had said.</p> + +<p>At last she could wait no longer, but rapped on the floor with the stick +which grandmother had put by her bedside.</p> + +<p>Slowly, very slowly, the old woman went upstairs. But even when she was +in the bedroom, she did not seem inclined to talk, but began to wash +Enoch and Elijah, and never turned her face towards her daughter-in-law, +lest she should see how tearful her eyes were.</p> + +<p>'Grandmother,' said Poppy's mother at last, 'tell me what the doctor +said.'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>'He won't let me take you away, my lass,' said grandmother, shortly.</p> + +<p>'Does he think I shall not live long?' asked the sick woman. 'Tell me +what he said, grandmother, please.'</p> + +<p>'He said you might perhaps live a week, my dear,' said grandmother, +bursting into tears, and rocking Enoch and Elijah in her arms.</p> + +<p>Poppy's mother did not speak, but she did just what king Hezekiah did +when he got a similar message, she turned her face to the wall. +Grandmother did not dare to look at her for some time, and when she did +she saw that her pillow was wet with tears.</p> + +<p>'Poor lass, poor lass!' she said tenderly; 'no wonder ye cannot help +fretting; it's a fearsome thing to die, it is indeed.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, it isn't that, grandmother,' said Poppy's mother; 'it isn't that. I +was thinking about the poor children.'</p> + +<p>'And what about the children, bless 'em?' said the old woman.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>'Why, I'm afraid it will go hardly with them in the House,' said the +poor woman, beginning to cry afresh. 'They do say some of them old +nurses are not over-good to babies, and they think 'em such a lot of +trouble, poor little motherless dears! And there's Poppy, too; she's +been ever such a good little girl to me, and she'll feel so +lonesome-like in that big, rambling place. I don't suppose they'll let +her be with the babies, for all she loves them so.'</p> + +<p>'Now, Polly, my dear,' said grandmother, starting from her seat, 'never +you say another word about that. If you think I'm going to let John +Henry's bairns go into the Workhouse, why, my dear, you don't know what +sort of stuff John Henry's mother is made of! Why, my lass, it would be +throwing God Almighty's gifts back in His face. I've wearied for my twin +babies all these years, and fretted and fumed because I'd lost them, and +then as soon as He gives 'em back to me, I go and shove them off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> into +the House! No, no, my dear,' said grandmother, 'I'm not such an old +stupid as that. And as for Poppy, my lass, why, she'll be my right-hand +woman! They shall come home with me, my dear, and I'll be their +mother—dear, blessed little chaps—and Poppy shall be their nurse, and +we'll all be as happy as ever we <i>can</i> be without you, my dear.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, grandmother, it seems too good to be true,' said Poppy's mother; +'but you can never keep three children.'</p> + +<p>'Yes, my dear, I can; my good man, he was careful and thrifty, and he +saved a good tidy sum. And my lady's very good to me,—why, I live in +the lodge rent free, and get my coals, and many's the coppers the folks +in their carriages throws out, when I go to open the gate. You see it's +a sort of a public road, my dear, and there's all kinds of folk goes by. +So I've enough and to spare; only I'm lonesome often, and haven't nobody +to speak to for hours together. And now the Lord's going to send me good +com<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>pany, and I shall be a happier woman than I've been since my good +man died, and my John Henry went away; I shall indeed, my dear.'</p> + +<p>Poppy's mother was almost too happy to answer her; a great load was +lifted off her heart, and she lay quite still, with her eyes closed for +some time, trying to tell her best Friend how grateful she was to Him +for all He had done for her. Meanwhile, the poor old woman was rocking +the babies in her arms, and wiping away the tears, which would come in +her eyes as she thought of what the doctor had said.</p> + +<p>Then Poppy came in, bright and happy, with a bunch of white roses in her +hands, which Jack's friend the greengrocer had given him, and which he +had sent to Poppy's mother. She was very much distressed to see her +grandmother crying.</p> + +<p>'What is it, granny, dear?' she said, putting her arms round her neck, +and kissing her; 'are you poorly?'</p> + +<p>'You had best tell her, grandmother,' said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> Poppy's mother; 'it will +come less sudden-like on her after.'</p> + +<p>But grandmother could not speak. She tried once or twice, but something +in her throat seemed to choke her, and at length she laid the sleeping +babies on the bed, buried her face in her apron, and went downstairs.</p> + +<p>'What is it, mother?' said Poppy; 'did the doctor say you were worse?'</p> + +<p>'Poppy,' said her mother, 'shall I tell you what the doctor said, my +darling?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, please, mother,' said the child.</p> + +<p>'He said that in a few days more I should be quite well, Poppy; well and +strong, like you, my dear—no more pain—no more weakness—for ever.'</p> + +<p>'Then why does granny cry?' said Poppy, with a puzzled face.</p> + +<p>'Because, darling, grandmother wanted me to go to <i>her</i> home and get +well there; but instead of that, God is going to take me to <i>His</i> home, +Poppy, to be well for ever and ever. Will you try to be glad for me, +darling?'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>'Yes, mother,' said little Poppy with a sob,—'I'll try; but, oh mother, +I wish He'd take me too!'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br /> +<small>THE STORY OF THE RING.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chapterpq.png" width="57" height="100" alt="P" /></div><p>olly, my dear,' said grandmother, when she was sitting beside her the +next day, 'aren't ye feared to die!'</p> + +<p>'No, grandmother,' said the poor woman, 'I'm not afraid.'</p> + +<p>'Well, <i>I</i> should be,' said grandmother, 'if I knew I was going away in +a few days; why, my dear, I should be frightened out of my wits, I +should indeed.</p> + +<p>'And so should I have been, two years ago,' said Poppy's mother; 'but +I'm not afraid now. I'll tell you how it was, granny, that I got not to +be frightened to die. I used to go to a Mothers' Meeting of a Monday +afternoon, before John Henry went away, and before I had to go out +washing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> and while we did our sewing a lady used to read to us.'</p> + +<p>'Who was it, my dear?'</p> + +<p>'Miss Lloyd; she's the clergyman's sister, granny. Well, one day (I +remember it so well) she brought a beautiful ring to show us. Oh! it +<i>was</i> a beauty, grandmother. There was a ring of lovely large diamonds +all round it. She told us that some old lady had given it to her for a +keepsake, just before she died, and that she would not lose it for a +great deal. "Now," she said, "you are all my friends, and I want a bit +of advice. I'm going to start to-morrow on a long journey; I am going to +travel in foreign parts, and stop at all sorts of inns and +lodging-places. Now do you think it would be safe for me to take my ring +with me?"</p> + +<p>'"Well, ma'am," said old Betty, who's always ready with her tongue, "I +wouldn't advise you to do so. They're queer folk, them foreigners, and +maybe you'd be washing your hands at some of them outlandish places, and +take off your ring, and then go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> away and leave it behind, and never see +it no more."</p> + +<p>'"That's just what I've been thinking," said Miss Lloyd; "thank you for +your advice, Betty. I'm sure my ring will not be safe, and I can't keep +it safe myself; well then, what shall I do?"</p> + +<p>'"Couldn't you trust it to somebody, to take care of for you, ma'am?" +said another woman.</p> + +<p>'"Thank you, that's a very good idea. I think it's the best thing I can +do. Now let me think," said Miss Lloyd; "I must get some one who is +<i>able</i> to take care of it, and who is <i>willing</i> too. Oh! I know," she +said; "there's my brother—he is <i>able</i>. He has a strong box at the +bank, where he keeps his papers; he can put it in there, and I feel sure +he will be willing to do it for me. I hear his voice in the next room; +I'll call him in, and ask him."'</p> + +<p>'And did she ask him?' said grandmother.</p> + +<p>'Yes, she brought him in, and she said:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> "Now, Arthur," she said, "these +friends of mine advise me to trust my ring to you. I can't keep it safe +myself, but I feel I can trust you. I know you are able to keep it for +me whilst I am away; I commit it to your care." So up she got from her +seat, and handed the ring in its little case to Mr. Lloyd, and he put it +in his waistcoat pocket, saying, as he left the room, "All right, Emily, +don't you trouble about it; I'll take care of it."'</p> + +<p>'Well, my dear,' said grandmother, 'all that was very nice, I've no +doubt; but how it makes you any happier to die, it beats me to see.'</p> + +<p>'Oh, but you haven't heard the end of it, grandmother,' said Poppy's +mother.</p> + +<p>'No, nor I won't hear it till you've had a cup of tea, my dear. You're +as white as a sheet. I oughtn't to have let you talk so long.'</p> + +<p>But when she had had the tea, and an hour's quiet sleep, and when the +babies were asleep, and grandmother and Poppy were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> sitting beside her +in the twilight, the poor woman went on with her story.</p> + +<p>'When Mr. Lloyd had gone, grandmother, his sister said, "I can't thank +you all enough for your good advice. I feel quite happy about my ring. +And now you won't mind my asking you what are <i>you</i> going to do with +<i>your</i> treasure?"</p> + +<p>'"Well, ma'am," said old Betty, "the only ring that I have is my wedding +ring, and that's not worth sixpence to anybody but myself, so I don't +suppose it stands much chance of being stolen."</p> + +<p>'"Betty," said Miss Lloyd, turning to her, "you have a treasure worth +<i>far, far</i> more than my ring. I mean your precious soul, which will live +for ever and ever and ever somewhere; your undying self, Betty. Only +your body will go in the grave; you yourself will be living for ever. +Dear friends," she said, speaking to all of us, "I want each of you to +ask this question: What about my soul? Is it safe?"</p> + +<p>'Then she told us, grandmother, that we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> were travelling through an +enemy's country; Satan and his evil spirits wanted to get our treasure. +She told us we could not keep our soul safe ourselves; if we tried we +should certainly lose it, as she would have lost her ring. "And oh, dear +friends," she said, "what shall it profit you, if you gain the whole +world, and lose your own soul?"'</p> + +<p>'Well, she was right there, my dear,' said grandmother.</p> + +<p>'"Now, then," she says, "I want you to do as you advised me to do. I +want you to get some one to keep your treasure for you—some one who is +able, some one who is willing; who shall it be?"</p> + +<p>'"I suppose you mean the Lord, ma'am," said old Betty.</p> + +<p>'"Yes," she said, "I mean the Lord Jesus. He is able, for He has all +power; He is willing, for He died on purpose that He might do so. Won't +you trust your treasure to Him?" she said. "Won't you go straight to +Him, and say, Lord Jesus, here is my soul; I can't keep it myself; Satan +wants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> to get it for his own. I trust it to Thee; I commit it to Thee to +be saved."</p> + +<p>'Well, grandmother,' said Poppy's mother, 'I didn't forget what she +said, and that night, when John Henry had gone upstairs to bed, I knelt +down in the kitchen, and trusted my soul to the Lord Jesus to be saved, +because He had died for me; I put my soul in His hands, grandmother, and +I know He will keep it safe.'</p> + +<p>'Well, my dear,' said grandmother, 'it's to be hoped He will.'</p> + +<p>'I <i>know</i> He will, grandmother; I don't doubt Him,' said Poppy's +mother. 'Miss Lloyd taught us a verse about that: "I know whom I have +believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have +committed unto Him against that day." And she said if we were to begin +doubting that our soul was safe when we had taken it to Jesus to be +saved, it would be the same as saying we did not trust Him. "What would +you think," she said, "if I were to be saying all the time I was away<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +Oh, dear me, I'm afraid I shall never see my ring again; I'm afraid it +isn't safe after all?"</p> + +<p>'"Why, ma'am," said old Betty, "you'll excuse me saying so, but I should +think you was very rude to Mr. Lloyd, and if I was there I should give +you a bit of my mind; you mustn't be offended at me saying so," says +Betty, "but I should indeed."</p> + +<p>'"And what would you say, Betty?" says Miss Lloyd.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/illus-109.png" width="397" height="600" alt="" /></div> + +<p>'"I should tell you, ma'am," says Betty "that if you had trusted your +ring to Mr. Lloyd, it was as safe as safe could be, and it was an insult +to him to doubt it."</p> + +<p>'"Betty," says Miss Lloyd, "you're quite right; and that's just what I +feel about the Lord Jesus. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded +that He is able to keep that soul which I have committed unto Him."'</p> + +<p>'Well,' said grandmother, 'it seems all right when you put it like that, +and I wish I was as happy as you are, my dear;—but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> I'm a +good-for-nothing old woman, I am indeed, and somehow I'm afraid He +wouldn't do it for me.'</p> + +<p>'Poppy,' said her mother, 'do you think you could find me a Mission +Hymn-book?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, mother,' said Poppy; 'here's one on the table.' The poor woman +turned over the leaves with trembling fingers, for she was very weak and +tired.</p> + +<p>'Poppy, dear,' she said, when she had found the place, 'read this hymn +to grandmother.'</p> + +<p>And Poppy read:</p> + +<blockquote><p>'Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul!<br /> +Guilty, lost, and helpless, Thou canst make me whole.<br /> +There is none in heaven or on earth like Thee;<br /> +Thou hast died for sinners—therefore, Lord, for me.<br /> +Jesus, I do trust Thee, trust without a doubt,<br /> +Whosoever cometh Thou wilt not cast out:<br /> +Faithful is Thy promise, precious isThy blood—<br /> +These my soul's salvation, Thou my Saviour God!'</p></blockquote> + +<p>'Oh, grandmother, and oh, Poppy,' she said, when the child had finished +reading, 'trust your soul to Jesus <i>to-night</i>.'</p> + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>'Well, my dear, I will,' said poor old grandmother, wiping her eyes.</p> + +<p>'And you, my own little Poppy?'</p> + +<p>'Yes, dear mother,' said the child; 'I won't forget.'</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br /> +<small>THE WONDERFUL FIRE.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chapterpq.png" width="57" height="100" alt="P" /></div><p>olly, my dear,' said grandmother the next day, as she was washing the +babies, 'I didn't forget what you asked me to do last night; but I'm +afraid, my dear, I'm very much afraid.'</p> + +<p>'What are you afraid of, granny?' asked Poppy's mother.</p> + +<p>'Why, I'm afraid of getting cold and hard again, my dear,' she said; +'it's all very well for Poppy, but I've been putting off so long, I'm +afraid of slipping into all the bad, old ways again. Why, my dear, I've +tried to pray and to read my Bible scores of times before, but my mind +has soon gone a-wandering away to my chickens, or to my butter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> or to +the bit of washing I do for the Hall, and all such like things. Now, my +dear, how do I know it won't be like that again?'</p> + +<p>'Ye can't get cold and hard, granny, if the fire burns bright; and the +Lord will keep it alight. He will indeed.'</p> + +<p>'What do you mean by the fire, my dear?'</p> + +<p>'Why, granny, I saw it at the Mothers' Meeting, Miss Lloyd showed us it, +such a pretty picture! I've often thought of it since.'</p> + +<p>'Tell me about it, my lass, if it won't bring the cough on.'</p> + +<p>'No, I feel so much easier to-day, granny, it doesn't hurt me to talk +like it did last week. I'll stop if it tires me. Well, there was a fire +in the picture, burning on the hearth, a bright, cheerful, little fire, +like I used to make of an evening when John Henry came home. And in +front of the fire, granny, was a man throwing buckets full of water on +it to put it out; but the fire was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> blazing away, and did not seem a bit +the worse for it.'</p> + +<p>'That was a queer thing, my dear!' said granny.</p> + +<p>'Yes, but Miss Lloyd showed us that, behind the fire, on the other side +of the wall, another was standing; and this one was quietly pouring oil +into the fire to keep it burning. And it never had a chance of going +out, granny, for the oil did it a deal more good than the water did it +harm.'</p> + +<p>'Well, my dear,' said grandmother, 'of course it would be so: oil makes +a deal of blaze when it falls on fire; but what has that got to do with +me and my poor old heart?'</p> + +<p>But Polly had a bad fit of coughing, and the good old woman would not +let her answer her question till she had had two hours' quiet rest. Then +she seemed brighter again, and was able to go on.</p> + +<p>'Miss Lloyd explained it beautiful, granny. She told us the fire was the +work of grace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> in our hearts. As soon as we trusted our souls to Jesus +to be saved, she said that fire was lighted, the good work was begun. +But then, she said, "Don't forget you've got an enemy. Satan will try to +put the fire out. He'll send somebody to laugh at you, or to plague you +about turning religious. That's one bucket of water! He'll send you a +lot of work to do, to try and make you think you've no time to think +about your soul. That's another bucket of water!" He'll have all sorts +of pleasures, and cares, and difficulties ready, all of them buckets of +water, granny.'</p> + +<p>'Ay, my dear, I see that, and I'll be bound there's a bucket not far off +coming on my poor little fire. But what about the oil, my dear?'</p> + +<p>'I'm coming to the oil, granny. Satan has his buckets of water, but the +dear Lord has His bottle of oil. It's the Holy Spirit, granny, who alone +can make us good, or keep us good. And if the Lord puts His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> Holy Spirit +in our hearts, it's of no use Satan trying to put the fire out; he'll +have to give it up for a bad job. Reach me the Testament, granny, +there's a verse I'll read to you.'</p> + +<p>She turned over the leaves for some time, and at last she found the +words she wanted, and she put a mark against them, that granny might +find them for herself when she had gone away.</p> + +<p>The words were these, 'He which hath begun a good work in you will +perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.'</p> + +<p>'Polly, my dear,' said granny, after a pause, 'do you think He'll do +that for me?'</p> + +<p>'Do what, granny?'</p> + +<p>'Do you think He will give me His Holy Spirit?'</p> + +<p>And then Polly's mother gave grandmother another text; but this time she +did not find it, for she knew it by heart, 'If ye then, being evil, know +how to give good gifts unto your children, <i>how much more</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> shall your +Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?'</p> + +<p>Grandmother sat by the side of the bed long after Enoch and Elijah had +fallen asleep. She seemed to have no heart to bustle about that morning. +She wanted to feel sure that her soul was safe.</p> + +<p>And when she thought that Poppy's mother was fast asleep, with her +babies lying beside her, granny knelt down and said aloud, 'O Lord, I'm +a poor sinful old woman, but I want Thee to save me. O Lord Jesus, Thou +hast died for me. I trust my soul to Thee. Here it is, I put it into Thy +hands. Oh give me Thy Holy Spirit; keep the fire bright in my soul, +please, Lord Jesus, do. Amen.'</p> + +<p>But Poppy's mother was not asleep, she was only lying with her eyes +closed. And as the old woman got up from her knees she smiled, and said +softly,</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>'The soul that to Jesus has fled for repose,<br /> +He <i>will</i> not, He <i>will</i> not desert to its foes;<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,<br /> +He'll never, no never, no never forsake.'<br /></p> +</blockquote> + +<p>'Amen,' said granny, 'Amen.'</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br /> +<small>POPPY'S FATHER COMES HOME.</small></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/chaptert.png" width="49" height="100" alt="T" /></div><p>he doctor was not wrong. In less than a week the Lord took Poppy's +mother to His beautiful home, where there is no more sickness nor pain. +And grandmother, and Poppy, and little Enoch and Elijah were left +behind. But, as the grandmother and the child stood beside the grave +where her body was laid to rest, they knew that she was far away, safe +in His keeping to whom she had trusted her soul. They knew that she was +well, and happy, and full of joy, and they tried to be glad for her +sake.</p> + +<p>Grandmother was anxious to get home, and, as soon as all could be +arranged, she set off with Poppy and the twins. The neighbours were very +kind, and did all they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> could to help them, and Jack rubbed away +something with his sleeve, which was very like a tear, as he saw their +train steam out of the station.</p> + +<p>It was a new life for Poppy. Grandmother lived in a lovely valley, full +of beautiful trees and running brooks, and quiet, peaceful glades, where +in the daytime the squirrels played and the birds sang, where in the dim +evening hours the rabbits came to nibble the grass, and where, at night, +when Poppy and her little brothers were asleep, the solemn old owls sat +in the trees, and called to each other in harsh and ugly voices.</p> + +<p>Through the middle of the valley ran a white smooth road, winding in and +out amongst the trees, and on this road came the carriages, driving +quickly along, with the postillions in scarlet coats riding on the +horses in front, and the ladies and gentlemen, who had come to see the +beautiful valley, leaning back in the carriages behind.</p> + +<p>It was Poppy's delight to open the gate<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> for these carriages, and in +this way she was able to save her grandmother a good deal of running +about. She used to climb up the hillside, and watch until they were in +sight, and then run down as fast as she could, that she might have the +gate open in time for them to pass through. That was Poppy's work out of +school hours, for grandmother sent her regularly to the pretty little +country school, and would let nothing keep her away from it.</p> + +<p>Dear old grandmother! how hard she worked for Poppy and for the babies! +she thought nothing a trouble that she could do for them, and Poppy +loved her more and more every day.</p> + +<p>As the months went by, little Enoch and Elijah grew fat and strong; the +fresh country air and the new milk made a wonderful change in them, and, +when the next summer came, they were able to run about, and could climb +on the hillside with Poppy, and gather the wild roses, and the +harebells, and the honeysuckle, and would sit on the bank,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> near the +cottage, watching the carriages, and trying to catch the pence which the +people threw them as they drove by.</p> + +<p>One Saturday afternoon, at the end of the summer, as Poppy was playing +with them outside the lodge, she caught sight of a man coming quickly +down the road. She ran to open the gate for him, but as she did so she +gave a sudden cry of joy. It was her father, her long-lost father, come +home again!</p> + +<p>'Why, Poppy,' he said, 'my own dear little woman, what are <i>you</i> doing +here? Come and kiss your poor father, Poppy. And who are these two bonny +little lads?' he asked, as Enoch and Elijah came running up to him.</p> + +<p>'They're our babies,' said Poppy. 'God sent them after you went away, +father; they both came on one day.'</p> + +<p>'Dear me, dear me; and to think I never knew,' said her father. 'Poor +Polly! And so you've all come to see grandmother. I never thought I +should find you here; I was going home to-morrow. I must run in and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> see +mother. Is she with grandmother, Poppy?'</p> + +<p>See mother! Then he did not know. And Poppy could not tell him. She +followed him with a very grave and sorrowful face, holding little Enoch +and Elijah by the hand.</p> + +<p>Grandmother came to the door at the sound of his voice.</p> + +<p>'Why, if it isn't my John Henry!' she cried.</p> + +<p>'Yes, mother, it's your John Henry, ashamed of himself at last. And so +you've got poor Polly and the bairns here. Where is Polly? I wonder if +she'll ever forgive me?'</p> + +<p>'Then you haven't been home yet, John Henry!' was all grandmother could +say.</p> + +<p>'No, mother; I only got to Liverpool this morning, and I took you on my +way; I was going home to-morrow.'</p> + +<p>'Where's Polly?' he said, pushing past her, and looking first into the +parlour and then into the kitchen. 'Is she upstairs, mother? Polly! +Polly! Polly!'</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>'John Henry,' said grandmother in a trembling voice, 'Polly has gone +home.'</p> + +<p>'Gone home, and left the children behind her!' he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>'Ay, my dear,' said his mother, bursting into tears; 'the Lord sent for +her.'</p> + +<p>'You don't mean to say she's <i>dead</i>, mother!' he moaned.</p> + +<p>'Nay, my dear, she is living with the Lord,' said the old woman.</p> + +<p>'Oh, mother, mother,' he sobbed, 'to think I left her like that, and she +never knew how sorry I was!'</p> + +<p>It was a long, long time before he could speak, or could tell them his +story. He had been in America in dreadful straits and in many dangers. +At length he fell ill with fever, and lay for many weeks at the point of +death, in a log cabin, with only a boy of ten, the son of a poor +emigrant, to do anything for him. But this trouble had shown him his +sin, and he had come to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness, and ever since +then God had blessed him. He had not become<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> a rich man, but he had +earned enough to bring him home, and he had saved a little besides, and +with this he hoped to start life afresh.</p> + +<p>'But you'll never rob me of my bairns, John Henry,' said the old woman, +in alarm; 'you'll never take them away, when we've all been so happy +together!'</p> + +<p>And the bare possibility of losing the children seemed quite to damp +poor old grandmother's joy in getting her beloved John Henry home again.</p> + +<p>'Well, mother, we must see,' he said; 'we must ask God to order for us.'</p> + +<p>And God did order most graciously, both for mother and son.</p> + +<p>The old woman told her trouble to 'my lady,' the next time that she +drove through the lodge-gates in her pony-carriage, and she was very +sympathising, and most anxious that the children should not have to +leave their happy country home. She mentioned it to the squire, and he +very kindly offered Poppy's father a situation on his estate as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> +gamekeeper. His life in America had made him far more fit for that kind +of work than for carrying on his old trade, and he was most thankful not +to have to take his children back to the city. So they all lived on +together in the pretty lodge in the lovely valley, a happy little +family, all loving the same Lord, and walking on the road to the same +Home.</p> + +<p>But Poppy never forgot her mother. And as Enoch and Elijah grew older, +she would sit with them on the hillside and talk to them about her, and +pointing to the blue sky she would tell them that their mother was +waiting for them there, and would be very much disappointed if they did +not come.</p> + +<p>And often, as they sat outside the lodge in the quiet summer evenings, +they and their father would sing together, 'Mother's favourite hymn,' +and dear old grandmother would come to the door, and join in a quavering +voice in the beautiful words:</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<blockquote> +<p>'Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul!<br /> +Guilty, lost, and helpless, Thou canst make me whole.<br /> +There is none in heaven or on earth like Thee;<br /> +Thou hast died for sinners—therefore, Lord, for me.'<br /></p> +</blockquote> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>THE END.<br /> +<small>Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.</small></h2> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Poppy's Presents, by Mrs O. 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F. Walton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Poppy's Presents + +Author: Mrs O. F. Walton + +Release Date: June 18, 2009 [EBook #29153] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POPPY'S PRESENTS *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Wall, Nadine Margaret Whitcombe and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: [_See p._ 35.] + + + + + POPPY'S PRESENTS + BY + MRS. WALTON + + _Author of 'Christie's Old Organ,' 'A Peep Behind the Scenes,' etc._ + + London + THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY + + 56, PATERNOSTER ROW; AND 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD + + + BUTLER & TANNER, + THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS, + FROME, AND LONDON. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + I. THE LITTLE RED CLOAK 7 + + II. POPPY'S WORK 18 + + III. A HOLIDAY 26 + + IV. A LONG NIGHT 35 + + V. FOUND AT LAST 44 + + VI. POPPY WRITES A LETTER 53 + + VII. A VISIT FROM GRANDMOTHER 63 + + VIII. JACKY AND JEMMY 71 + + IX. JOHN HENRY'S BAIRN 81 + + X. THE MOTHER'S LEGACY 90 + + XI. THE STORY OF THE RING 100 + + XII. THE WONDERFUL FIRE 112 + + XIII. POPPY'S FATHER COMES HOME 119 + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE LITTLE RED CLOAK. + + +The great cathedral bell was striking twelve. Slowly and solemnly it +struck, and as it did so people looked at their watches and altered +their clocks, for every one in the great city kept time by that grave +old bell. Every one liked to hear it strike; but the school children +liked it best of all, for they knew that with the last stroke of twelve +lessons would be over, and they would be able to run home to dinner. + +'Good morning, children,' said Miss Benson, the mistress. + +'Good morning, ma'am,' said the girls, and then they marched out like +soldiers in single file. So quiet they were, so grave, so orderly they +went, almost as solemnly as the old bell itself. + +But only till they reached the school door. Then they broke up into a +merry noisy crowd, running and shouting, chasing each other from side to +side, jumping, hopping, and skipping as they went down the street. + +'Oh dear, what a noise them children do make!' said old Mrs. North, as +she got up and shut her cottage door. + +But the noise soon died away, for the children were hungry, and they +were hurrying home to dinner. + +What is that little bit of red that we see in front of the crowd? It is +a little girl in a scarlet cloak, and she is turning down a long +straight road which leads into the heart of the city. Let us follow her +and see where she is going. She is very tidily dressed; there is a clean +white holland pinafore under the scarlet cloak, and although her shoes +are old, they are well patched and mended. But she is turning into a +very poor part of the city--the streets are getting narrower and more +crowded, and they are getting darker, too, for the quaint, old-fashioned +houses overhang the pavement, and so nearly meet overhead, that very +little light or air can get into the dismal street below. + +Still on and on goes the little red cloak. And now she is turning down a +court on the left-hand side of the street. An open court it ought to be, +with a row of houses on each side, and an open space in the middle; but +it is not an open space to-day, for it is everybody's washing-day in +Grey Friars Court, and long lines are stretched from side to side, and +shirts and petticoats and stockings and all manner of garments are +waving in the breeze. + +The little red cloak threads her way underneath; sometimes the corner of +a wet towel hits her in the face, sometimes she has to bend almost +double to get underneath a dripping blanket or sheet. But she makes her +way through them all, and passes on to the last house in that long +dingy court, and as she does so she notices a little crowd of women +standing by her mother's door. There is old Mrs. Smith leaning on her +crutches, and Sarah Anne Spavin and her mother, and Mrs. Lee with her +baby in her arms, and Mrs. Holliday, with Tommy and Freddy and Ann +Eliza. And as she looks up she sees several faces looking out of the +windows overhead. + +What could be the matter? Had anything happened to her mother? Was her +mother dead? That was her first thought, poor child. But nobody was +looking particularly grave, and they laughed as they caught sight of the +little red cloak coming under the white sheets and table-cloths. + +'Why, here's Poppy!' said Mrs. Holliday, as she came up to them. + +'Well, Poppy,' cried another, 'have you heard the news?' + +'Your mother's got a present for you, Poppy,' said Sarah Anne Spavin; +'you'd better hurry in and have a look at it.' + +'A present for me,' said the child; 'what is it?' + +But the women only laughed and bade her go and see. + +And the faces at the window overhead laughed too, and said there was +such a thing as having too much of a good thing. + +Poppy passed them all and went in, and then she heard her mother's voice +calling to her to come upstairs. Her mother was in bed, and she beckoned +Poppy to come up to her. + +'Poppy, child,' she said, rather sorrowfully, 'I've got a present for +you.' + +Just what the neighbours had told her; and the child wondered more and +more what this present could be. It was a very long time now since Poppy +had had a present; she had never had one since her father went away, and +it was six months since he had left them. + +Poppy often wondered where he had gone. Her mother never talked about +him now, and the neighbours shook their heads when he was mentioned, +and said he was a bad man. But he had often brought Poppy a present on a +Saturday night when he got his wages; sometimes he brought her a packet +of sweets, sometimes an apple, and once a beautiful box of dolls' +tea-things. But since he went away there had been no presents for Poppy. +Her mother had had to work very hard to get enough money to pay the rent +and to get bread for them to eat--there was no money to spare for +anything else. + +What could this present be, about which all the neighbours knew? + +'Look here, Poppy,' said her mother; and she pointed to a little bundle +of flannel lying on one side of the bed. + +Poppy went round and peeped into it; and there she saw her present--a +tiny baby with a very red face and a quantity of black hair, and with +its little fists holding its small fat cheeks. + +'Oh, what a beauty!' said Poppy, in an awestruck voice. 'Is it for me, +mother?' + +'Yes,' said the mother, with a sigh; 'it's for you, Poppy.' + +'But that isn't all,' said old Mrs. Trundle, who was standing at the +foot of the bed; 'that's only half your present, Poppy. Look here!' + +And in her arms Poppy saw another bundle, and when she had opened it, lo +and behold, what should there be but another little baby, also with a +very red face and plenty of black hair, and with its little fists +holding its fat cheeks! + +'Two of them?' said Poppy, in amazement. 'Are you sure they are both for +us, mother?' + +'Yes, they are both for us,' said the poor woman; 'both for us, Poppy.' + +'Who sent them?' asked the child. + +'God sent them, poor little things!' said her mother, looking +sorrowfully at the two little bundles. + +'Are they God's presents to me?' asked Poppy. + +'Yes, to you and to me, Poppy,' said her mother; 'there's nobody else +to look after them.' + +'Ay, you'll have your work set now, Poppy,' said old Mrs. Trundle. + +But Poppy did not think of the work just then. Two dear little babies! +And for her own! She was very very happy. She could scarcely eat any +dinner, although Mrs. Lee took her across the court into her house, that +she might get some with her children, and it was a great trial to her +when her mother told her she must go back to school as usual. + +'You'll get little enough schooling now, go while you may, Poppy,' she +said. + +The excitement in the court was not over when the child passed down it +on her way to school. + +The neighbours came to their doors when they caught sight of her red +cloak, and some of them said, 'Poor Poppy!' and some of them shook their +heads mournfully without saying anything. The child could not understand +why they all pitied her so much. She thought they ought to be glad that +such a nice present had come for her. + +On her way to school Poppy passed under a curious old gateway, which had +been built many hundred years ago, and which still stood in the old wall +of the city. Under the shadow of this ancient Bar was a shop--such a +pretty shop Poppy thought it, and it was very seldom that she went under +the gateway without stopping to look in at the window. For there, +sitting in a row, and looking out at her, were a number of +dolls--beautiful wax dolls with curly hair and blue eyes and pink +cheeks. And Poppy had never had a wax doll of her own. Her only doll was +an old wooden creature with no real hair, and with long straight arms; +she could never even sit down, for her back and her legs would not bend, +and when Poppy came home and looked at her after she had been gazing in +the toy-shop window she thought her very ugly indeed. + +One day when Poppy was standing under the Bar, a lady and a little girl +came up to the shop. The little girl was just as tall as Poppy, and she +stood beside her gazing at the row of dolls. + +'I should like that one, mother,' she said; 'the one with yellow hair +and a red necklace.' + +That was Poppy's favourite too; _she_ would have chosen that one, she +said to herself. + +The lady had gone into the shop and bought the doll, and Poppy watched +the happy little girl walk away with it in her arms. And then poor Poppy +went into a dark corner under the Bar, and cried a little to herself +before she went on to school. If only _her_ mother had money enough to +buy her a wax doll! + +But on the day Poppy's presents came she did not even stop for a moment +to look at the wax dolls. What stupid creatures they seemed to her now! +_Her_ babies could open and shut their eyes, and none of these dolls +could do that. + +_Her_ babies could move, and yawn, and cry, and kick; they were far +better than dolls. + +And mother said God had sent them! He must have known how much she had +wanted one of those wax dolls, Poppy thought. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +POPPY'S WORK. + + +Poppy's work soon began in good earnest. Her mother had to go out to +work, and whilst she was away there was no one but Poppy to take care of +the babies. She liked her work very much at first. Their eyes were as +blue as those of the wax dolls in the shop window, and their hair was +quite as pretty. + +But, as the days went by, Poppy could not help wishing that her babies +would sometimes be as quiet as the row of dolls in the shop under the +Bar. Poppy's babies were never quiet, except when they were asleep, and +unfortunately it was very seldom that they were both asleep at the same +time. Poor little Poppy! her small arms ached very often as she carried +those restless babies, and sometimes she felt so tired she thought she +must let them fall. + +Oh, how they cried! Sometimes they went on hour after hour without +stopping. And then at length, one baby would fall asleep quite tired +out, but no sooner did its weary little cry cease than the other one +would scream more loudly than before, and would wake it up again. + +There was no end to Poppy's work. She was warming milk and filling +bottles,--she was pacing up and down the room,--she was singing all the +hymns she had learned at school to soothe them to sleep,--she was +nursing and patting, and rocking her babies from morning till night. + +Brave little Poppy! The tears would come in her eyes sometimes, when the +babies were more cross than usual, and she would think how nice it would +be to feel rested sometimes; she was always so tired now. But she never +gave up her work; she would not have left her babies for the world; she +loved them through it all. + +Even when her mother came home in the evening Poppy's work was not +finished. Poor tired mother, she came slowly and wearily up the court, +and then sank down upon a chair just inside the door, almost too +exhausted to speak. + +'Give me the babies, Poppy darling,' she would say. + +But Poppy knew that her mother had been standing all the day at a +washing-tub, and that she was almost too tired to speak, and so she +would say, 'Oh, I'll keep them a bit, mother; get a cup of tea first.' + +And so the evening wore away, and bedtime came; the time when most +little girls of Poppy's age get into soft, cosy beds, and sleep +peacefully till the sunbeams wake them gently in the morning. But even +at night Poppy's work was not over. One or other of the babies was +crying nearly all the night, and sometimes both were crying together. +Poppy used to see her poor mother pacing up and down, backwards and +forwards on the bedroom floor, trying to hush one of the fretful +children to sleep. And then she would creep out of bed and say, 'Give it +to me, mother, you are so tired and so cold.' + +And then Poppy would take her turn in that constant tramp, tramp across +the floor, and at last, when the happy moment came, if it ever did come, +in which both babies were worn out with crying and were laid asleep +beside her mother, Poppy would creep cold and shivering into bed, and +the night would seem all too short for her. + +Yet, in spite of all the work the babies gave her, Poppy was very proud +of her presents. And when her mother got out two white frocks which +Poppy had worn when she was a baby, and dressed the poor little twins in +them one Sunday afternoon, Poppy danced for joy. + +'Don't they look lovely, mother?' she said. + +'You must pray for them, Poppy, when we get to church,' said her mother. +'We are going to give them to God.' + +'What will He do with them, mother?' said Poppy. 'He won't take them +away, will He?' + +'No,' said her mother, 'He won't take them away just yet; but I want +them to belong to Him as long as they live, and then He'll take them +home by-and-by.' + +Poppy was very attentive at church that day. How pretty her babies +looked as the clergyman took them in his arms! Her mother had been very +anxious that they should have Bible names, and after much searching, and +after many long talks with Poppy on the subject, she had fixed on Enoch +and Elijah as the names for the little brothers. + +Poppy was very happy that Sunday as she walked home with little Enoch in +her arms. But when they got into the house, her mother sat down and +burst into tears. + +'What is it, mother dear?' said the child. 'Are you tired?' + +'No, my dear, it isn't that,' she said. 'I'll tell you some time when +the babies are asleep.' + +They were asleep much sooner than usual that night; the fresh air had +made them sleepy, and Poppy and her mother had a quiet evening. + +'Tell me why you were crying, mother dear, when we came home from +church.' + +'Oh, Poppy!' said her mother, 'I don't know how to tell you, my poor +little lassie.' + +'What is it, mother? Do tell me.' + +'You know you said God had sent a present for you, Poppy, when the +babies came?' + +'Yes--for me and you, mother,' said the child. + +'Poppy,' said her mother, 'I think He's going to give you the biggest +share of it. I think I'm going to die, Poppy, and leave you all. Oh! +Poppy, Poppy, Poppy!' and she sobbed as if her heart would break. + +Poppy felt as if she were dreaming, and could not understand what her +mother was saying. Mrs. Byres, in the house opposite, had died a little +time before, but then she had been ill in bed for many a month; and Mrs. +Jack's little boy and girl had died, but then they had had a fever. Her +mother could walk about, and could go out to work, and could look after +the babies. How _could_ she be going to die? + +'I didn't like to tell you, Poppy,' her mother went on; 'but it is true, +my darling, and it's better you should know before it comes.' + +'But, mother, you are not ill, are you?' said the child; and as she said +this she looked at her mother. Yes, she certainly did look very thin, +and pale, and tired, as she sat by the fire. + +'I'm failing fast, Poppy,' said her mother; 'wasting away. I've felt it +coming on me a long time, dear--before your father went away. And last +week I got a ticket for the dispensary, and the doctor said he couldn't +do nothing for me; it was too late, he said. If it wasn't for you and +the babies, Poppy, I would be glad to go, for I'm very, very tired.' + +'Mother,' said Poppy, with a great sob, 'however will we get along +without you?' + +'I don't know,' said the poor woman. 'I don't know, Poppy; but the good +Lord knows; and He _is_ a good Lord, child. He's never failed me yet, +and I know He'll help you--I know He will. Come to me, my darling.' + +And the mother took her little girl in her arms, and held her to her +bosom, and they had a good cry together. + +But before very long the twins awoke, and Poppy and her mother began +their work again. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +A HOLIDAY. + + +The next morning when Poppy woke she felt as if she had had a bad dream. +Her mother's words the night before came back to her mind. 'I think I am +going to die and leave you all.' It could not be true, surely! She +raised herself in bed and looked round. Her mother was up already; she +could hear her moving about downstairs, and she had lighted the fire, +for Poppy could hear the sticks crackling in the grate. The twins were +still asleep, lying in bed beside her, and the child peeped at their +little peaceful faces, and stooped to kiss Elijah's tiny hand, which was +lying on the coverlet of the bed. They knew nothing about it, poor +little things. It could not be true, Poppy said to herself; her mother +could not be going to die; she must have dreamt it all. + +She crept out of bed very quietly, so as not to wake the babies, dressed +herself, and went downstairs to help her mother to get breakfast ready. +But she found everything done when she got into the kitchen, the cloth +was on the table, and a cup for Poppy, and another for her mother, and +two slices of bread, and two cups of tea. + +'Oh, mother,' said Poppy, 'I didn't know I was so late.' + +'You're going to have a holiday to-day, Poppy,' said her mother; 'do you +know it's your birthday?' + +'My birthday, mother?' repeated the child. + +'Yes, you're nine years old to-day, my poor little lass,' said her +mother; 'I reckoned that up as I was walking about with the babies last +night, and I mean you to have a rest to-day; you've been a-toiling and +a-moil-ing with them babies ever since they was born; it's time you had +a bit of quiet and peace.' + +'But you're poorly, mother,' said the child. + +'No worse nor usual,' said her mother, 'and I've got no work to-day. +Mrs. Peterson isn't going to wash till to-morrow, so you're to have a +real quiet day, Poppy.' + +But Poppy, like a good child, could not sit idle when she saw her mother +working, and so in the afternoon, as soon as dinner was over, her mother +sent her out for a walk, and told her not to come home till tea-time. + +'There's Jack and Sally, they've got holidays, Poppy; get them to go +with you,' she said. + +Jack and Sally lived in a house on the opposite side of the court; they +went to the same school to which Poppy had gone before the babies came, +and they had always played together since they were tiny children. + +So Poppy put on her scarlet cloak, and the three children started in +fine spirits. It was such a bright, sunny day, and everything looked +cheerful and happy. There had been a hard frost the night before, and +the road was firm and dry under their feet, and the three children ran +along merrily. They went a long way outside the walls till they came to +a river, by the side of which was a small footpath following the river +in all its windings, and leading across grassy fields, which in summer +time were filled with wild flowers, and which were now covered with pure +white snow. + +Oh, how much Poppy enjoyed that walk! She had been so long shut up in +that tiny house, she had so long been imprisoned like a wild bird in a +small cage, that now, when she found herself free to run where she liked +in the clear, frosty air, she felt full of life and spirits. + +She had forgotten for a time the sorrow of the night before. All was so +bright and beautiful around her, there was nothing to remind her of +sickness or of death. She was very happy, and skipped along like a +little wild goat. + +They walked more slowly when they got into the city again, for they were +tired with their long walk, and as they passed the great cathedral Jack +proposed that they should go inside and rest for a little time on the +chairs in the nave. + +'There's lots of time yet, Poppy,' he said; 'it isn't tea-time, I'm +sure.' + +It was getting dark for all that, and the lamps were lighted in the +cathedral. Jack took off his hat as he pushed open the heavy oaken door, +and the little girls followed him. Service was going on in the choir, +and they could hear the solemn tones of the organ pealing through the +building, and with them came the sweet sound of many voices singing. + +'Isn't it beautiful?' said Poppy; 'let us sit down and listen.' + +They were very quiet until the service was over, and when the last Amen +was sung, and the doors of the choir were thrown open for the people to +leave, they got up to go home. + +But as they were walking across the cathedral to the door which stood +nearest the direction of their home, Jack suddenly stopped. + +'Hullo, Poppy,' he whispered, 'look here,' and he pointed to a little +door in the wall which stood ajar. + +'What is it, Jack?' said both little girls at once; 'where does it go +to? Is it a tomb?' + +'Oh, no,' said Jack; 'it's the way folks go up to the top of the tower; +you know we often see them walking about on the top; my father went up +last Easter Monday. I always thought they kept it locked; let's go a bit +of the way up, and see what it's like.' + +'Oh, no, Jack,' said Sally; 'it looks so dark in there.' + +'Don't be a silly baby, Sally,' he said. 'Poppy isn't afraid; are you, +Poppy?' + +'No,' said Poppy, in a trembling voice; 'no, I'm not frightened, Jack.' + +'Come in then, quick,' said the boy; 'I'll go first, and you can follow +me.' + +'But isn't it tea-time?' said Poppy. + +Jack did not stop to answer her; he led the way up the steep, winding +stone steps, and the two little girls followed. + +'Jack, Jack, stop a minute!' said Poppy, when they had wound round and +round three or four times; 'I don't think we ought to go.' + +'I believe you're frightened now, Poppy,' he said; 'I thought you'd more +pluck than that! We won't go far. I just want to get to that place on +the roof where we see the people stand when they're going up; it's only +about half way to the top; come on, we shall soon be there!' + +It took a longer time than Jack expected, however, for the steps were +very steep, winding round and round like a corkscrew, and the children +were tired, and could not climb quickly. They stood for a few moments on +the roof outside and looked down into the city, but they could not see +much, for it was getting very dark, and even Jack was willing to own +that it was time to go home. + +It did not take them quite so long to go down the steps as it had taken +them to go up, but they were slippery and much worn in places, and the +little girls felt very much afraid of falling, and were very glad when +Jack, who was going first, said they were near the bottom. + +But Poppy and Sally a moment afterwards were very much startled, for +Jack gave a sudden cry of horror as he reached the bottom step. + +The little door through which they had come was closed. Jack shook it, +and hammered it with his fists, but he could not open it; it was locked, +and they were prisoners in the tower. The verger who had the charge of +the door had remembered that he had left it unfastened, and had turned +the key in the lock soon after the children had entered the tower. No +one had been near when they had crept inside, and so the verger had no +idea that any one had gone up the steps. + +'Oh! Jack, Jack, Jack, what shall we do?' said Poppy. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A LONG NIGHT. + + +Yes, they were locked in, there was no doubt about it! + +'But don't cry, Poppy,' said Jack, as she burst into tears, 'we'll soon +make them hear; the verger sits on that bench close by.' + +Jack hammered with his fists on the door, and the sound echoed through +the hollow building. Then the three children waited, and listened, +hoping to hear the verger's footsteps approaching the door. And when +some moments had passed and no one came, he knocked again, and once more +they waited and listened. But it was all in vain; no one heard the +rapping on the door, no one came to let the little prisoners out. + +'He must have gone into the crypt,' said Sally; 'he goes down there when +folks come to see the cathedral; maybe he'll be back soon.' + +But Jack did not answer her; he was on his knees on the ground, peeping +under the crack of the door. + +'What can you see, Jack?' asked Poppy. + +'It's all dark,' said Jack; 'the cathedral lights are out, and +everybody's gone home; whatever shall we do?' + +The two little girls sat down on the bottom step, and cried and sobbed +as if their hearts would break. + +'What's the use of crying?' said Jack, rather angrily; 'what we've got +to do is to try to get out. Let's climb up again, and get out on the +roof; maybe we can make some one hear if we shout loud enough.' + +'It's so dark up there now,' said Sally, glancing fearfully at the +narrow, winding staircase; 'we can't see our way a bit.' + +'Never mind that, we can _feel_,' said the boy; 'come along.' + +'Oh! I shall fall--I shall fall!' sobbed Sally. + +'You stop down here, then,' said her brother. 'Poppy and I will go.' + +'Oh no,--no,--no!' cried the frightened child; 'don't leave me; I don't +want to stop here by myself.' + +Very slowly and carefully the three children felt their way up the steep +steps, and many a tear fell on the old stones as the girls followed +Jack. It seemed a long, long way to them, far farther than it had done +before; and the wind, which had been rising all the afternoon, came +howling and whistling through the narrow window-slits in the tower, and +made them cold and shivering. + +At last they reached the open place on the roof, but they found it was +impossible to stand upon it; such a hurricane of wind had arisen, that +they would have been blown over had they tried to leave the shelter of +the tower. So all they could do was to remain where they were, and to +shout as loudly as they could for help; but the cathedral close was very +large, and no one passed through it on that cold, stormy evening, and +the street was far away--so far that the voices of the children could +not be heard by the passers-by, but were drowned by the noisy, +blustering wind. They shouted until they were hoarse, but no help came, +and at last even Jack was obliged to acknowledge that he was afraid +there was no help for it, but that they must make up their minds to stay +there for the night. + +'Oh, dear, whatever will mother do without me!' said Poppy; 'she'll have +nobody to help her; I _must_ get back to my babies. Oh, Jack, Jack, I +_must_ get back to my babies.' + +'But you _can't_ get back, Poppy,' said Jack mournfully; 'there's nothing +for it but waiting till morning.' + +'I'm so cold,' sobbed Sally, 'and I want my tea; whatever shall we do +without our tea?' + +'It can't be helped,' said Jack, 'and it's no good crying; let's go to +the bottom of the tower again, it's not so windy there as it is up +here.' + +It was hard work getting down in the dark, and with the whistling wind +rushing in upon them at every turn; the old stone steps were worn away +in many places, for thousands of feet had trodden them since the day +they were put in their places, and the children sometimes lost their +footing, and would have fallen had they not held so tightly to each +other. + +When they reached the bottom of the stone staircase they crouched +together close to the door, in the most sheltered corner they could +find, and tried to keep each other warm. But it was a bitterly cold +night, and the rough noisy wind came tearing and howling down the +staircase, and found them out in their hiding-place, and made them +shiver from head to foot. And as the hours went by, they felt more and +more hungry; their long walk had given them a good appetite, and they +had had a very early dinner. + +Poor little Sally cried incessantly, and the others did all they could +to cheer her; but she refused to be comforted, and at last she was so +tired and exhausted that she sobbed herself to sleep. Jack soon +afterwards followed her example and fell asleep beside her, and only +poor Poppy was awake, crying quietly to herself, and thinking of her +mother and of Enoch and Elijah. She was too anxious and too much +troubled to sleep, and the hours seemed very long to her. It was such a +lonely place in which to spend the night: there was no sound to be heard +but the howling of the wind and the striking of the great cathedral +clock, which made Poppy jump every time it struck the hour. + +How long it seemed to Poppy from one hour to another; the time went much +more slowly than usual that night, she thought. Once she became so very +lonely and frightened that she felt as if she must wake the others; but +she was an unselfish little girl, and she remembered how much poor Sally +had cried, and felt glad that she and Jack could forget their trouble +for a little time. So she crept quietly away without disturbing them, +and climbed slowly up the steep steps to the place where she remembered +the first window-slit in the tower came. She thought she would feel less +lonely if she could see the lamps burning in the streets, and would feel +that the world was not quite so far away as it had seemed to her during +all those long, quiet hours. + +Poppy did not like to go so far from the other children, and once or +twice she turned back, but at length she climbed as far as the slit, and +looked out. There were the lamps on either side of the long street which +led to the cathedral, but they seemed a great way off, and the cathedral +close was quite dark and empty. + +'There isn't anybody near,' said Poppy to herself, as she looked down. +And then she looked up,--up into the sky. It was covered with clouds +which the wind was driving wildly along, but, as Poppy looked, there +came a break in the clouds, and one little patch of sky was left clear +and uncovered. And there, shining down upon Poppy, was a star,--such a +bright beautiful star. + +It made her think of heaven, and of God who made the stars. 'God is +near,' said Poppy to herself. 'Mother says He is always close beside us. +Oh, dear, I quite forgot--I've never said my prayers to-night.' + +The child knelt down at once on the cold stone steps, and prayed, and +her little prayer went up higher than the towers of that great +cathedral--to the ears of the Lord, who loves little children to speak +to Him. + +'O God,' prayed Poppy, 'please take care of me, and Jack, and Sally, and +please don't let mother be frightened, and please make the babies go to +sleep; for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.' + +Poppy felt comforted after she had prayed; she crept down the steps +again, and wrapping her little red cloak as tightly round her as she +could, she lay down beside Sally, and fell asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FOUND AT LAST. + + +That was a terrible night, and one which would never be forgotten in +Grey Friars Court. Hardly any of the people of the court went to bed, +for they were all helping in the search for the lost children. The +bellman was sent up and down the city till late at night, that he might +try to hear tidings of them; the policemen were making inquiries in all +directions; the neighbours were scouring the city from one end to the +other. + +Jack and Sally's father and mother were walking about the whole night, +looking for their children in all places, likely and unlikely. And +Poppy's poor mother, who could not leave the babies, paced up and down +her room, and looked anxiously from her window, and trembled each time +that footsteps came down the court. + +She could do nothing herself to help her little girl, but she had a +strong Friend who could help her. Again and again, through that long +anxious night, Poppy's mother asked the Lord to watch over her child, +and to bring her safe home again. + +Only one trace of the children had been found when morning dawned; Sally +had dropped her little handkerchief on the path leading to the river; +this handkerchief had been found by a policeman, and it had been shown +to Sally's mother, and she had said, with tears in her eyes, that it +belonged to her little girl. + +Could the children be drowned in the river? This was the terrible fear +which the neighbours whispered to each other, as they met together after +the night's search. But no one mentioned it to Poppy's mother. + +'I wouldn't tell her about that there handkercher, poor thing,' said one +to another 'maybe they're not in the river after all.' + +In the morning, as soon as it was light, search was to be made in the +water for the bodies, and every one in Grey Friars Court waited +anxiously for the result. + +Very early in the morning the cathedral door was unlocked, and one of +the vergers, an old man of the name of Standish, entered with his wife, +old Betty Standish, and with his daughter Rose Ann, to make the +cathedral fires, and put all in readiness for the services of the day. +As the two women raked out the cinders and ashes from the stoves, the +sound echoed through the hollow building, and woke the sleeping children +in the tower. + +Jack sprang to his feet at once, as he saw the dim grey light stealing +down the staircase, and as he heard the voices in the cathedral. + +'It's morning at last,' he said; 'now we shall get out;' and he hammered +with all his might on the door. + +But the women were making so much noise themselves that the sound did +not attract their attention; they went on with their fire-lighting and +took no notice. Then the children began to call out-- + +'Let us out--let us out, please; we're locked in!' + +The two women paused in their work and listened. + +Again the shout came, 'Let us out--let us out; we can't get out; open +the door, please.' + +'Whatever on earth is it?' said Rose Ann, coming up to her mother with +an awestruck face. + +'Ay, my dear, _I_ don't know,' said her mother, who was trembling from +head to foot. 'I never heard the like; I never did. Call your father, +Rose Ann.' + +The verger was in the choir, putting the books in order, and making all +ready for the service. He came at once when his daughter called him. + +'Listen, Joshua, listen,' said old Betty. + +And once more the children called. 'Let us out, please; we're locked +in; let us out.' + +'Do ye think it's a ghost, Joshua?' said his wife, looking fearfully at +the old tombs by which she was surrounded on all sides. + +'Ghost! Rubbish!' said her husband; but he was as white as a sheet, and +almost as frightened as she was. + +'Let's go and tell the Dean,' said Rose Ann. + +'Nonsense,' said the verger, who had recovered himself a little; 'let's +listen where the sound comes from.' + +'Let us out; unlock the door, please!' shouted the children again. + +'It's some one in the tower,' said the old man; 'though how on earth any +one could have got there it passes me to think.' + +So the old people and their daughter went in the direction of the cries, +and the verger took the great old key from his pocket which unlocked the +tower door. Yet even when the key was in the key-hole he paused a +moment, as if he did not like to turn it in the lock. + +'I wonder whoever it can be,' he said timidly. + +'It's a ghost; I'll be bound it's a ghost,' said old Betty; 'they say +they _do_ haunt all these queer old places.' + +'Well, we'll have a look,' said her husband, summoning up all his +courage; 'so here goes.' He turned the key, the door flew open, and out +came the three poor children, weary, pale, and shivering with cold. + +'Well, I never!' said the verger's wife, holding up her hands in +amazement. + +'Wherever on earth have you come from?' said her husband. + +'I know, father,' said Rose Ann; 'these must be the three children of +Grey Friars Court. I heard the bellman crying them last night.' + +'Poor little cold things!' said old Betty, 'and have ye been locked in +the tower all night?' + +'Yes, ma'am,' said Poppy, 'all night.' + +'But however did you get there?' said the verger. 'That's what I want to +know.' + +'Please, sir, don't be angry,' said Jack; 'we found the door open, and +we went in.' + +'Well, I never heard the like,' said Rose Ann. 'I declare they're +shaking from head to foot. Such a night as it has been, too; it'll be a +wonder if it isn't the death of them.' + +'Come along, my poor bairns,' said the old woman. 'I've got some hot +coffee on the hob at home; you shall have a drink at once.' + +'Oh no, thank you,' said Poppy; 'I must go home to mother.' + +'So you shall, my dear; so you shall,' said old Betty; 'but you'll go +all the quicker for getting a bit of warmth into you; why, you're stiff +with cold, I declare. Poor lambs, you _must_ have had a night of it! +Bring them across, Rose Ann.' And the kind old woman trotted on in front +to stir her fire into a blaze, and to pour out the hot coffee for the +poor children. + +She made them sit with their feet on the fender whilst they were +drinking it, and she gave them each a piece of a hot cake, which she +brought out of the oven. And all the time they were eating it she and +Rose Ann were crying over them by turns, and the old verger was shaking +his head and saying: 'I never heard the like; it's a strange business +altogether, it is.' + +As soon as they were warmed and fed, the verger, and his wife, and Rose +Ann took the children home; and I wish you could have seen their arrival +in Grey Friars Court. There was such a kissing, and hugging, and crying; +such an excitement and stir; such a rejoicing over the children, who had +been lost but were found again, and such a thanksgiving in the heart of +Poppy's mother, as she saw the answer to her prayer. + +No one could make too much of the three children that day. They were +invited out to tea to every house in the court, and sweets, and cakes, +and pennies were showered upon them, till the two mothers declared they +would be quite spoilt, and till Jack announced he would not much mind +spending another night in the tower, if they got all these good things +when they came home. But Poppy and Sally shook their heads at this, and +would not agree with him. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +POPPY WRITES A LETTER. + + +'Poppy, I want you to write a letter for me, darling,' said her mother +one day. + +'Is it to my father?' asked the child. + +'No, Poppy; it isn't to your father.' + +'Why do you never write to my father, mother?' asked Poppy. + +Her mother did not answer her at once, and Poppy did not like to ask her +again. But after a few minutes her mother got up suddenly and shut the +door. + +'Poppy, I'll tell you,' she said, 'for I am going to leave you, and you +ought to know.' And then, instead of telling her, the poor woman burst +into tears. + +'Don't cry, mother, don't cry,' said the child; 'don't tell me if you'd +rather not.' + +'But I _must_ tell you, Poppy,' she said, as she dried her eyes and +looked into the fire. 'Poppy, I loved your father more than I can tell +you, and he loved me, child; yes, he _did_ love me; never you believe +any one who tells you he didn't love me. He loved _me_, and he loved +_you_, Poppy; he was very good to you, wasn't he, my child?' + +'Yes, mother, very good,' said Poppy, as she remembered how kind he +always was to her when he came in from work. + +'But he got into bad company, Poppy, and he took to drinking. I wouldn't +tell you, dear, only I'm going away, and so I think you ought to know. +Well, bit by bit he was led away. Sometimes, dear, I blame myself, and +think perhaps I might have done more to keep him at home; but he was +always so pleasant with all his mates, and they made so much of him, and +they led him on--yes, Poppy, they led him on--they did, indeed. And I +saw him getting further and further wrong, and I could not stop him, and +there were things which I didn't know about, dear--horse-racing, and +card-playing, and all that sort of thing. And one day, Poppy,' said her +mother, lowering her voice ('I wouldn't tell you, my dear, if I wasn't +going away), one day he went out to his work as usual. I made him a cup +of hot coffee to drink before he started; I always made him that, dear, +if he was off ever so early. + +'Well, he was ready to go, but he turned round at the door, and says he, +"Is Poppy awake?" "No, the bairn was fast asleep when I came down," says +I. He put down his breakfast-tin by the door, and he crept upstairs, and +I could hear his steps in the room overhead, and then, Poppy, I listened +at the foot of the stairs, and I heard him give you a kiss. I didn't say +anything, child, when he came down, for I thought maybe he wouldn't like +me to notice it, and he hurried out, as if he was afraid I should ask +him what he was doing. + +'Well, dear, dinner-time came, and I always had it ready and waiting for +him, for I think it's a sin and a shame, Poppy, when them that works for +the meat never has time given them to eat it. But the dinner waited +long enough that day, child, for he never came home. I began to think +something must be wrong, for he always came home of a dinner-hour. I +thought maybe he had had some drink; but, Poppy, it was worse than that, +for oh! my darling, he never came home no more.' + +'What was wrong with him, mother?' + +'He was in debt, child, and had lost money in them horrid races; and +there were more things than that, but I can't tell you all, my dear, nor +I don't want to tell. Only this I want to say: if he ever comes back, +Poppy, tell him I loved him to the last, and I prayed for him to the +last, and I shall look to meet him in heaven; mind you tell him that, +Poppy, my dear.' + +'Yes, mother,' said the child, with tears in her eyes; 'I won't forget.' + +'And now about the letter; I wish I _could_ write to your father, Poppy, +but I've never had a word from him all this cruel long time--not a +single word, child; and where he is at this moment I know no more than +that table does.' + +'Then who is the letter to be written to, mother?' asked the child. + +'It's to your granny, Poppy, I want to write; _his_ mother, your +father's mother. I never saw her, child, but she's a good old woman, I +believe; he always talked a deal about his mother, and many a time I've +thought I ought to write and tell her, but somehow I hadn't the heart to +do it, Poppy. But now she must be told.' + +'When shall I write it, mother?' + +'Here's a penny, child; go and get a sheet and an envelope from the shop +at the end of the street, and if the babies will only keep asleep, we'll +write it at once.' + +The paper was bought, and Poppy seated herself on a high stool, and +wrote as her mother told her:-- + + 'MY DEAR GRANDMOTHER, + + 'This comes, hoping to find you quite well, as it leaves my mother + very ill, and the doctor says she'll never be no better, and my + Father went away last year, and nobody knows what has become of + him, and he never writes nor sends no money nor nothing, and Mother + has got two little babies, and they are both boys, and she wants me + to ask you to pray God to take care of us, and will you please + write us a letter? + + 'Your affectionate grand-daughter, + + 'POPPY.' + +It was well that the letter was finished then, for that very night +Poppy's mother was taken very much worse, and the next morning she was +not able to rise from her bed. + +And now began a very hard time for the little girl. Two babies to look +after, and a sick mother to nurse, was almost more than it was possible +for one small pair of arms to manage. The neighbours were very kind, and +came backwards and forwards, bringing Poppy's mother tempting things to +eat, and carrying off dirty clothes to wash at home, or any little piece +of work which Poppy could not manage. And often, very often, one or +another of them would come and sit by the sick woman, or would carry off +the crying babies to their own homes, that she might have a little rest +and quiet. + +[Illustration] + +But, in spite of all this kind help, it was a very hard time for Poppy. +The neighbours had their own homes and their own families to attend to, +and could only give their spare time to the care of their sick +neighbour. And at night Poppy had a weary time of it. Her mother was +weak and restless, and full of fever and of pain, and she tossed about +on her pillow hour after hour, watching her good little daughter with +tears in her eyes, as she walked up and down with the babies, trying to +soothe them to sleep. + +Sometimes she would try to sit up in bed, and hold little Enoch or +Elijah for a few moments: but she had become so terribly weak that the +effort was too much for her, and after a few minutes she would fall back +fainting on her pillow, and Poppy had to take the baby away and bathe +her mother's forehead with water before she could speak to her again. + +So it was a weary and anxious time for the child. The neighbours said +she was growing an old grandmother, so careworn and anxious had she +become, and Poppy herself could hardly believe that she was the same +little girl who had gazed in the toy-shop window only a few months ago +and had longed for one of those beautiful wax-dolls. She felt too old +and tired ever to care to play again. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +A VISIT FROM GRANDMOTHER. + + +The summer began very early that year, and it was the hottest summer +that Poppy had ever known. Even at the end of May and the beginning of +June the heat was so great that it made people ill and tired and cross. +Poppy's mother, who was never able to leave her bed, felt it very much. +The court was close and stifling, and the old window in the small +bedroom would only open a little way at the bottom, so that very little +air could get into the room, and the poor woman lay hour after hour +panting for breath, and almost fainting with the heat. + +It was no easy time for Poppy. The neighbours were still very kind, but +the heat made them unable to do as much as before, and somehow +everybody's temper went wrong with the hot weather, and there was a good +deal of quarrelling in the court. Mrs. Brown quarrelled with Mrs. Jones +about something, and Ann Turner would not speak to Mrs. Smith because +she had offended her about something else, and once or twice there were +angry voices in the court, which troubled the poor sick woman. And when +the neighbours came in to see her they would pour out the history of +their grievances, and this worried and distressed her a good deal. + +The babies, too, felt the hot weather very much. They were seven months +old now, but they were poor sickly little creatures, quite unable to +roll about the floor like other babies of that age, and needing almost +as much nursing and care as they had done when they were first born. +Poppy did her very best for them and for her mother, but she was only a +child after all, and she could not keep them as clean as they ought to +have been kept, nor the house as tidy and free from dirt as it used to +be when her mother was able to look after it, and sometimes poor Poppy, +brave though she was, felt almost inclined to give up in despair. + +There was one day when she was very much cast down and troubled. It was, +if possible, a hotter day than the ten very hot days which had gone +before it. And it was everybody's washing-day. The court was filled with +clothes, steaming in the hot sun, and shutting out what little air might +possibly have crept down to the rooms below. But there seemed to be no +air anywhere that sultry day. + +Poppy's mother was very much worn and exhausted, and Enoch and Elijah +did nothing but cry. Hour after hour they cried, not a loud, angry +scream, such as strong babies might give, but a weak, weary wail, which +went on, and on, and on, till Poppy felt as if she could bear it no +longer. + +She left them on the bed for a few minutes beside her mother, and ran +downstairs to make a cup of tea and a piece of toast for mother's +dinner. They lived on bread and tea now, for they had nothing but what +they got from the parish, and if the neighbours had not been very kind, +and brought them in little things from time to time, even the parish +money would not have been enough to keep them from starving. + +When Poppy went downstairs she had a little quiet cry. There was so much +to do, and somehow that hot day it seemed impossible to do it. She knew +that the house was untidy, and the babies needed washing, and there were +dirty clothes waiting to be made clean, and cups and plates and basins +standing ready to be washed up. And it seemed too hot and tiring to do +anything. + +Poppy went to the window for a minute, and putting her fingers in her +ears that she might not hear the wail of the babies, she stood looking +up at the strip of blue sky, which she could just see between the houses +of the court. How pure and lovely it looked! And God lived somewhere up +there Poppy knew. And God loved her--Poppy knew that, too. Her mother +said He had sent His dear Son to die for her--the only Son He had--He +had sent Him to die on the cross, that she might go to live with Him in +heaven. God must love her very much to do that, Poppy said to herself. +She thought she would ask God to help her that hot day,--if He loved her +she was sure He would feel sorrow for her, now that she was so tired and +had so much to do. + +So, looking up at the blue sky, Poppy said aloud, 'O God, please help +me, for I'm very tired, and I don't know how ever to get everything +done, and please make me a good girl; for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.' +Would God hear her prayer? Poppy asked herself, as she came away from +the window; she wondered very much if he would. And, if He did hear her, +how would the help come? It was not likely that He would send one of the +neighbours in to help her, for they were all too busy with their washing +to have much time to spare. There were the angels, _they_ were God's +servants, and Poppy had learnt at school that they came to help God's +people; but she had never heard of an angel washing up cups and saucers, +or cleaning a house, or nursing a baby, and that was the help Poppy +wanted just then. Well, she had prayed to God, and mother said God +always heard prayer; she would wait and see. + +Poppy filled the kettle, and was trying to put a few things in order in +the untidy kitchen when there came a knock at the door. Poppy started. +Could some one be coming to help her? The neighbours never knocked--they +opened the door and walked in--and Poppy thought the angels would not +knock, for her teacher told her they could come in when the door was +shut. Who could it be? + +She went to the door and opened it, and there she found an old woman +with a large market-basket on her arm, who wanted to know if Mrs. +Fenwick lived there. Yes, that was her mother's name, Poppy said. +Whereupon the old woman came in, put down her basket, and then seized +Poppy and gave her a good hearty kiss on both her cheeks. + +'Why, you're John Henry's bairn,' she said, 'and as like him as two pins +is like each other.' + +It was grandmother, dear old grandmother, who had come from her home far +away in the country to see her son's wife and children, and to do all +she could to help them. And grandmother had not been long in the house +before Poppy felt sure that God had sent her, and that she was just the +help the poor child so much needed. + +Poor old grandmother! she was hot and tired and dusty, and she had been +travelling in the heat for many hours on that hot summer's morning. She +sat down on a chair by the door, fanning herself with her red cotton +pocket handkerchief, and kissing Poppy again and again, as she called +her 'my lad's bonny bairn,' and told her that she was the very picture +of what her father was when he was her age, and how her John Henry was +the best scholar in all Thurswalden School, and she felt sure his bairn +must be a clever little girl too. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +JACKY AND JEMMY. + + +'Now, my dear,' said grandmother, when she had rested for a minute or +two, 'where's my lad's wife? Your mother, my lass; where is she?' + +'Oh, she's in bed, grandmother!' said Poppy. 'She's very ill, is my +mother.' + +'I'll go up and see her,' said the old woman. 'To think that my John +Henry has been a married man these ten years, and I've never seen his +wife!' + +But when she _did_ see John Henry's wife, grandmother sat down and +sobbed like a child. She was so white, so thin, so worn, that the kind +old woman's heart was filled with love and with shame--love for her poor +suffering daughter-in-law, shame that her son, the lad of whom she had +been so proud, should have left her when she needed him so much. + +How long grandmother would have cried it is impossible to say, had not a +dismal wail come from one side of the bed, followed almost immediately +by another dismal wail from the other side of the bed. It was Enoch and +Elijah, who had fallen asleep for a few minutes whilst Poppy was +downstairs, but who had waked up at the sound of a strange voice. +Grandmother sprang from her seat as soon as she heard them cry. She had +not seen the babies before, for they were covered by the bed-clothes. +She held them one in each arm, and kissed them again and again. + +'Oh, my bonny, bonny bairns!' she said; 'my own little darling lambs! To +think that God Almighty has sent you back again! Why, I'm like Job, my +lass; I lost them five-and-forty years ago;--ay, but it seems only +five-and-forty days. Oh! my own beautiful little lads. I kicked sore +against losing them, I did indeed, my lass, poor silly fool that I was! +and now here's God given me them back again. I'm a regular old Job now, +ain't I? Not that I was patient, like him; he was a sight better than +me--a sight better. Oh, you dear things, won't your grandmother love +you!' + +'Had you twins of your own, grandmother?' asked her daughter-in-law. + +'Ay, my dear, that I had, and little lads, too--the finest children you +ever saw; why, it was the talk of the country-side, my dear, what +beautiful bairns they was.' + +'And how old were they when you lost them, grandmother?' + +'Why, my dear,' said the old woman, '_my_ child was ten months and one +week old, and _his_ child was ten months and three weeks old--just a +fortnight's difference, my dear.' + +'I thought you said they were _both_ yours, grandmother,' said Poppy. + +'Ay, my darling, so they was; but that was how we got to talk of them. +You see, me and my master had been married nigh on five years, and +never had no childer (we lived up at the farm at that time), and then +these babies came, and I think our heads were fairly turned by +them--_he_ was well-nigh crazed, he was indeed, my dear. "Sally," he +says, when he came in to look at them, "you pick one and I'll have the +other--half-and-half, that's fair share," he says. "Now, Sally, you +choose first." + +'"Well," says I, "I'll have the ginger-haired one; it's most like me." I +used to have ginger hair, my dear; you wouldn't believe it, for it's all +turned white now, but I had, just like Poppy there, beautiful ginger +hair. Some folks don't like the colour, my dear, but your grandfather +used to like it. Why, he said when he was courting me that my hair was +the colour of marigolds, and they was always his favourite flowers; he +had, 'em in his own little garden when he was a tiny lad, he said. + +'Well, I picked the one with ginger hair, and called it _my_ child, and +he picked the black-haired one, which was the very picture of him--why, +he had a head like a crow's back, my dear. And so we each had a baby of +our own, and would you believe it, my lass, he took that care of it, +you'd have thought he was an old nurse--you would indeed. He washed it +and he dressed it,--ay, but I did laugh the first time,--and he gave it +the bottle, and he got a little girl from the village to come and mind +it when he was out, and in the evening we sat one on each side of the +fire, he with his child, and I with mine; and then at night, when we +went to bed, his bairn slept in _his_ arms, and my bairn slept in mine. +Well then we had them christened, and his was Jacky and mine was Jemmy, +and he _was_ proud of his child that day--as proud as Punch; he was +indeed, my dear. He carried him all the way--Oh, dear! oh, dear! what +_have_ I done!' said the old woman, as she turned to the bed and saw +Poppy's mother in tears. + +'Why, you're crying, my dear; I oughtn't to have told you. What a silly +old goose I am! I ought to have remembered that lad of mine, and how +he's gone and left you, instead of giving a hand with his own babies, as +my master did. Dear me, dear me, whatever was I thinking of?' + +'Oh, granny,' said her daughter-in-law, 'do tell me about them; I like +to hear--I do indeed; please go on.' + +'Well, my dear, if you _will_ have it so, I'll go on. They grew up +beautiful babies, they did indeed, and didn't folks admire them! +There's lots of people drives through our village when it's the +season at Scarborough; they takes carriages, my dear, and they come +driving out with lads in red jackets riding on them poor tired +horses--"post-williams," I think they call them. I'm telling you no +lie, my dear, when I tell you them little lads has brought in scores +of threepenny bits that the ladies have thrown them from their +carriages, when the girl took them out by the lodge gate; they was +so taken with the pretty dears, they was. + +'Well, all went on well, my lass, till the teeth began to come,--oh, +them teeth, what a nuisance they are! I've lost mine, my dear, all but +two, and I'm sure it's a good job to have done with 'em--they're nothing +but bother, always aching and breaking and worrying you. Well, the +teething went very hard with the babies; his child was the worst, +though, and one day little Jacky had a convulsion fit, and didn't my +master send off for the doctor in a hurry; and all that night he sat up +watching his bairn, for fear it should have another fit. Doctor came +once or twice after that, for the little lad kept poorly, though the +fits did not come back. + +'"Ay, doctor," I says one day, when he had little Jack in his arms, and +was saying what a pretty boy he was--"Ay, doctor," I says, "but look at +_my_ child," and I held up little Jemmy. "_He's_ the beauty now, isn't +he, doctor?" + +'"You're very fond of that boy, aren't you?" says doctor. + +'"Fond of him! Why, doctor," I says, "I love him till I often think I +could go bare-foot all my life and live on bread and water if it would +do him a bit of good." + +'"Take care you don't love him too much," says doctor, looking quite +grave; "folks mustn't make idols even of their own bairns. Don't be +offended, missis," he says, "but it doesn't do to set your heart too +much on anything, not even on your own little lad: you might lose him, +you know." + +'Well, I was huffy with doctor after that; I was a bit put out, and I +says, "Well, doctor, if I thought I was going to lose him I would love +him a hundred times better than ever." So, my dear, doctor shook his +head at me and went away, and (would you believe it!) only five hours +after I had to send for him all in a hurry to come to _my_ child. He'd +taken a fit like Jacky had; but oh! my dear, he didn't come out of it as +Jacky did; it was a sore, sore fit, and before doctor could get to +him--and he ran all the way from the village--my bonny bairn was gone.' + +'Oh, grandmother, you _would_ feel that,' said Poppy's mother. + +'Yes, my dear, I did indeed; and when bedtime came, and he had _his_ +child laid aside him, and _my_ child was laid dead in the best room +downstairs, I felt as if my heart would break. He wanted me to take +_his_ child, but little Jacky was used to father, and wouldn't come to +me, and, my dear, I cried myself to sleep.' + +'And how much longer did the other baby live, grandmother?' said Poppy. + +'Only fifteen days, my dear, and we buried 'em both in one little +grave,--I often go to look at it now;--and when we put _his_ child in, +and I saw my child's little coffin at the bottom of the grave, my dear, +I wished I could go in too. + +'I was very hard and rebellious, ay, I was, I see it all now,' said +grandmother, wiping her eyes. 'But just to think of God giving 'em back +to me after five-and-forty years! Why, it's wonderful,' said the old +woman in a cheerful voice. '"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not +all His benefits." That's the verse for me, my dear, now, isn't it?' + +And grandmother took up first Enoch and then Elijah, and kissed them and +hugged them as lovingly as ever she had kissed her own little babies. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +JOHN HENRY'S BAIRN. + + +I have read the story of a fairy who came down into a dark and dismal +room, where a poor girl clad in rags was cleaning the fireside, and who, +by one touch of her wand, changed everything in the room; the girl found +herself dressed in a beautiful robe, and everything around her was made +lovely and pleasant to look at. It was a new place altogether. + +Now, I think that grandmother was something like that good fairy, for it +was perfectly wonderful what a change she made, in the course of a few +hours, in that dismal house. No sooner had she had a cup of tea, than +she took off her bonnet and shawl, and set to work to put things in +order. First, she gave the babies a warm bath, and cried over them, and +loved them to her heart's content; and then, as they had no clean +clothes to put on, she wrapped them in some of her own garments which +she took from her bundle, and, soothed by the unusual comfort and +cleanliness, Enoch and Elijah were soon fast asleep. + +Then grandmother trotted downstairs again for more hot water, and washed +Poppy's poor sick mother, and brushed her tangled hair, and then dressed +her in one of her own clean night-gowns, smelling of the sweet field of +clover in which it had been dried, and put on the bed a pair of her own +sheets, which she had brought with her in case they might be useful. + +Oh, how grateful Poppy's mother was! + +'Granny,' she said, as she gave her a kiss, 'I haven't been so +comfortable never since I was ill; I declare I feel quite sleepy.' + +'Well, go to sleep, my lass,' said grandmother; 'that's the very best +thing you can do.' So she laid the babies beside their mother in bed, +and she and Poppy went downstairs. + +'Now, my little lass,' said the old woman, 'you and me will soon tidy +things up here.' + +It was wonderful to Poppy to see how quickly her grandmother could work. +She was a brisk, active old woman, and in a very short time all the +cups, and saucers, and plates were washed and put by, the fireside was +swept, and the kitchen table was scoured. Then, leaving Poppy to wash +the floor, her grandmother carried off the heap of dirty clothes lying +in the corner into the tiny back kitchen, and, long before Poppy's +mother or the babies woke, there were two lines of little garments hung +out to be quickly dried in the scorching afternoon sun. + +'And now, Poppy,' said grandmother, 'fetch my basket, my good little +lass, and we'll unpack it.' + +Oh, what a basket that was! Poppy's eyes opened wide with astonishment +when she saw all that it contained. There was a whole pound of fresh +country butter, a loaf of grandmother's own home-made bread, a plum +cake she had made on purpose for Poppy, a jar of honey made by +grandmother's bees, and a box of fresh eggs laid by grandmother's hens, +a bottle of thick yellow cream, and, what Poppy liked best of all, a +bunch of roses, and southernwood and pansies, and lavender from +grandmother's garden. + +It was very pleasant to get tea ready, when there were so many good +things to put on the table, and it was still more pleasant when Poppy's +mother woke, to take her a cup of tea with the good country cream in it, +and to watch how she enjoyed some thin slices of grandmother's bread and +butter, and a fresh egg laid that morning by 'little Jenny, the bonniest +hen of the lot.' + +'Now, Poppy,' said grandmother, when tea was over, 'you get on your hat, +and go out a bit. You're a good little lass if ever there was one--bless +you, my darling, my own John Henry's bairn! But you want a bit of rest +and play, you do indeed.' + +'Yes, that she does,' said her mother. 'Why, it's weeks since she got +out for a walk--not since I was in bed, bless her!' + +So Poppy put on her hat and went out. It was a lovely summer's evening; +the great heat of the day was over, and a gentle breeze was blowing, +which was very cooling and refreshing to the tired little girl. She went +slowly past the great cathedral, and she thought how beautiful it +looked, standing out against the quiet evening sky. Then she climbed up +a flight of stone steep, and these took her to the top of the old wall, +which went all round that ancient city. + +And now Poppy had a beautiful view, over the tops of the chimneys, and +across the black smoky courts, to where the green fields were lying in +the evening sunshine, and the river was lighted up by the rays of the +setting sun. And there on the top of the old city wall, in a quiet +little corner where no one could see her, Poppy knelt down, and thanked +God for hearing her prayer, and for sending grandmother to help her. On +her way home she met Jack coming to meet her. 'Poppy,' he said, 'I've +got a present for you.' + +He put his hand under his thick fustian jacket and pulled out something +tied up tightly in a red cotton pocket-handkerchief. + +'Come and sit on this doorstep, Poppy,' he said, 'and look what it is.' + +It was a large green apple. + +'Why, Jack,' said Poppy, 'where did you get it? It's a funny time of +year to get an apple; I didn't know there was any left.' + +'No, it's a real curiosity,' said Jack, 'and I said to myself when I got +it, "Poppy shall have that big 'un; she was such a plucky girl that +night in the tower--she never whimpered nor nothing." So I tied him up +in that handkercher, and there he is.' + +'Thank you so much, dear Jack,' said Poppy gratefully. 'But however did +you get it?' + +'Why it was old Sellers, the greengrocer, gave him to me,' said +Jack,--'him as has a shop in Newcastle Street; he called me in and he +says, "Do you want a job, my lad?" and when I told him "Yes, I do," he +set me to clean out his apple-room, where he stores his apples in +winter. So he took me in, and it _was_ a sight--such a sight as _you_ +never saw, Poppy! Scores of 'em all rotten and smelling. Ay, they _were_ +horrid!' said Jack, making a face, 'all but half a dozen that were quite +good. Well, I picked 'em out, Poppy, and took 'em to old Sellers, and he +gave me half of 'em: so I ate one myself, and I gave one to Sally, and I +kept the biggest of 'em all for you.' + +'It _was_ good of you, Jack,' said Poppy. + +'Well, eat it then,' said the boy--'they're very nice--as good as can +be,' and he smacked his lips at the recollection. + +But Poppy had rolled her apple up in her pinafore, and did not seem +inclined to begin to eat it. + +'Whatever are you keeping it for?' said Jack, in rather a disappointed +voice. + +'Jack,' said Poppy, stopping short, and looking up in his face, 'is it +for my very own?' + +'Why, yes, Poppy--of course.' + +'To do just whatever I like with it?' + +'Why, yes, of course,' said Jack again. + +'Then I shall give it to my grandmother,' said Poppy; 'she's come +to-day, and she's ever so good to us; and God sent her, and she's +cleaned the house beautiful. I shall give it to my grandmother, Jack.' + +'All right,' he said; 'only I'd like you to have just one bite yourself, +Poppy, to see how good it is.' + +He was quite satisfied when Poppy promised to ask her grandmother to +give her the last bite; and the little girl hastened home, feeling very +happy, and picturing out to herself what a great treat that big apple +would be to the old woman. + +'Here,' she said, holding it out to her, 'it's all for you, +grandmother--only Jack wants me _just_ to have the last bite.' + +'All for me,' repeated the old woman, as she looked up from the work she +had in her hand--a little old torn frock of Poppy's, which she was +mending. + +'Yes,' said the child, 'all for you.' + +'Well, it's a beauty, I'm sure!' said grandmother, turning it over in +her hand; 'but you see, my dear, many's the long day since I've eat an +apple. Why, my little lass, what can an old body with only two teeth +do?' + +'Do try, granny,' said Poppy, holding the apple to her mouth; 'it isn't +so very hard, and Jack says it's _so_ good. Do try!' + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE MOTHER'S LEGACY. + + +And grandmother _did_ try--for she did not want to disappoint Poppy. But +somehow the two teeth would not go into the apple; they were too far +apart, and there were no teeth below to help them; and so, after many +attempts, the poor old woman was obliged to say she was afraid she could +not manage it. + +'If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. That's a good rule, +my dear; but it doesn't always answer, Poppy. But I'll tell you what, my +little girl,' said she, as she noticed how disappointed the child was, +'I'll put it in the oven and bake it for my supper, and then I _shall_ +have a treat!' + +'Oh, granny, I'm _so_ glad!' said Poppy, throwing her arms around her +neck--'I do love you so very much--you are so good to me!' + +'Why, you're John Henry's bairn,' said granny, as she held her fast in +her arms--'how could I help loving John Henry's bairn?' + +'Polly, my dear,' said grandmother the next day to Poppy's mother, +'Polly, my dear, I'm going to take you home with me.' + +But the sick woman shook her head. + +'Don't shake your head, my dear,' said grandmother; 'I believe if I +could put you down on the top of the moors, and if you could get the +breezes off the heather, why, my lass, I believe you'd get well in no +time!' + +'You must ask the doctor, grandmother,' said Poppy's mother; 'he is +coming to-day.' + +So when the doctor had paid his usual visit, grandmother trotted after +him downstairs. + +'Now, doctor,' said she, 'I'll tell you what I'm going to do; I'm going +to take her home with me. Country air is the best physic after all, now +isn't it, doctor? You can't say anything against that, I'll be bound!' + +But the doctor shook his head. + +'Dear me, doctor,' said grandmother, 'don't _you_ go and shake your +head. Surely she'll be well enough to go in a week or ten days. Or maybe +a fortnight or three weeks, doctor,' she added, as she saw that he +looked very grave. + +'My good woman,' said the doctor, 'you don't know how ill she is! It is +only a question of time now.' + +'You don't mean to say, doctor,' said grandmother, 'that she won't get +better?' + +'She may live a week,' said the doctor, as he put on his hat, 'but I do +not think she will live so long.' + +Poor old grandmother, it was a great downfall to her hopes; she had +thought, and hoped, and believed, that the country air would soon make +John Henry's wife well again, and now she was told that she had only a +few days to live. + +She could not go upstairs with such news as that. So she bustled about +the kitchen, pretending to be busy, washing up the tea-things, and +sweeping the fireside, and stopping every now and then to wipe away the +tears that would come in her eyes. And all this time Poppy's mother was +waiting, and listening, and wondering why grandmother did not come to +tell her what the doctor had said. + +At last she could wait no longer, but rapped on the floor with the stick +which grandmother had put by her bedside. + +Slowly, very slowly, the old woman went upstairs. But even when she was +in the bedroom, she did not seem inclined to talk, but began to wash +Enoch and Elijah, and never turned her face towards her daughter-in-law, +lest she should see how tearful her eyes were. + +'Grandmother,' said Poppy's mother at last, 'tell me what the doctor +said.' + +'He won't let me take you away, my lass,' said grandmother, shortly. + +'Does he think I shall not live long?' asked the sick woman. 'Tell me +what he said, grandmother, please.' + +'He said you might perhaps live a week, my dear,' said grandmother, +bursting into tears, and rocking Enoch and Elijah in her arms. + +Poppy's mother did not speak, but she did just what king Hezekiah did +when he got a similar message, she turned her face to the wall. +Grandmother did not dare to look at her for some time, and when she did +she saw that her pillow was wet with tears. + +'Poor lass, poor lass!' she said tenderly; 'no wonder ye cannot help +fretting; it's a fearsome thing to die, it is indeed.' + +'Oh, it isn't that, grandmother,' said Poppy's mother; 'it isn't that. I +was thinking about the poor children.' + +'And what about the children, bless 'em?' said the old woman. + +'Why, I'm afraid it will go hardly with them in the House,' said the +poor woman, beginning to cry afresh. 'They do say some of them old +nurses are not over-good to babies, and they think 'em such a lot of +trouble, poor little motherless dears! And there's Poppy, too; she's +been ever such a good little girl to me, and she'll feel so +lonesome-like in that big, rambling place. I don't suppose they'll let +her be with the babies, for all she loves them so.' + +'Now, Polly, my dear,' said grandmother, starting from her seat, 'never +you say another word about that. If you think I'm going to let John +Henry's bairns go into the Workhouse, why, my dear, you don't know what +sort of stuff John Henry's mother is made of! Why, my lass, it would be +throwing God Almighty's gifts back in His face. I've wearied for my twin +babies all these years, and fretted and fumed because I'd lost them, and +then as soon as He gives 'em back to me, I go and shove them off into +the House! No, no, my dear,' said grandmother, 'I'm not such an old +stupid as that. And as for Poppy, my lass, why, she'll be my right-hand +woman! They shall come home with me, my dear, and I'll be their +mother--dear, blessed little chaps--and Poppy shall be their nurse, and +we'll all be as happy as ever we _can_ be without you, my dear.' + +'Oh, grandmother, it seems too good to be true,' said Poppy's mother; +'but you can never keep three children.' + +'Yes, my dear, I can; my good man, he was careful and thrifty, and he +saved a good tidy sum. And my lady's very good to me,--why, I live in +the lodge rent free, and get my coals, and many's the coppers the folks +in their carriages throws out, when I go to open the gate. You see it's +a sort of a public road, my dear, and there's all kinds of folk goes by. +So I've enough and to spare; only I'm lonesome often, and haven't nobody +to speak to for hours together. And now the Lord's going to send me good +company, and I shall be a happier woman than I've been since my good +man died, and my John Henry went away; I shall indeed, my dear.' + +Poppy's mother was almost too happy to answer her; a great load was +lifted off her heart, and she lay quite still, with her eyes closed for +some time, trying to tell her best Friend how grateful she was to Him +for all He had done for her. Meanwhile, the poor old woman was rocking +the babies in her arms, and wiping away the tears, which would come in +her eyes as she thought of what the doctor had said. + +Then Poppy came in, bright and happy, with a bunch of white roses in her +hands, which Jack's friend the greengrocer had given him, and which he +had sent to Poppy's mother. She was very much distressed to see her +grandmother crying. + +'What is it, granny, dear?' she said, putting her arms round her neck, +and kissing her; 'are you poorly?' + +'You had best tell her, grandmother,' said Poppy's mother; 'it will +come less sudden-like on her after.' + +But grandmother could not speak. She tried once or twice, but something +in her throat seemed to choke her, and at length she laid the sleeping +babies on the bed, buried her face in her apron, and went downstairs. + +'What is it, mother?' said Poppy; 'did the doctor say you were worse?' + +'Poppy,' said her mother, 'shall I tell you what the doctor said, my +darling?' + +'Yes, please, mother,' said the child. + +'He said that in a few days more I should be quite well, Poppy; well and +strong, like you, my dear--no more pain--no more weakness--for ever.' + +'Then why does granny cry?' said Poppy, with a puzzled face. + +'Because, darling, grandmother wanted me to go to _her_ home and get +well there; but instead of that, God is going to take me to _His_ home, +Poppy, to be well for ever and ever. Will you try to be glad for me, +darling?' + +'Yes, mother,' said little Poppy with a sob,--'I'll try; but, oh mother, +I wish He'd take me too!' + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE STORY OF THE RING. + + +'Polly, my dear,' said grandmother, when she was sitting beside her the +next day, 'aren't ye feared to die!' + +'No, grandmother,' said the poor woman, 'I'm not afraid.' + +'Well, _I_ should be,' said grandmother, 'if I knew I was going away in +a few days; why, my dear, I should be frightened out of my wits, I +should indeed. + +'And so should I have been, two years ago,' said Poppy's mother; 'but +I'm not afraid now. I'll tell you how it was, granny, that I got not to +be frightened to die. I used to go to a Mothers' Meeting of a Monday +afternoon, before John Henry went away, and before I had to go out +washing, and while we did our sewing a lady used to read to us.' + +'Who was it, my dear?' + +'Miss Lloyd; she's the clergyman's sister, granny. Well, one day (I +remember it so well) she brought a beautiful ring to show us. Oh! it +_was_ a beauty, grandmother. There was a ring of lovely large diamonds +all round it. She told us that some old lady had given it to her for a +keepsake, just before she died, and that she would not lose it for a +great deal. "Now," she said, "you are all my friends, and I want a bit +of advice. I'm going to start to-morrow on a long journey; I am going to +travel in foreign parts, and stop at all sorts of inns and +lodging-places. Now do you think it would be safe for me to take my ring +with me?" + +'"Well, ma'am," said old Betty, who's always ready with her tongue, "I +wouldn't advise you to do so. They're queer folk, them foreigners, and +maybe you'd be washing your hands at some of them outlandish places, and +take off your ring, and then go away and leave it behind, and never see +it no more." + +'"That's just what I've been thinking," said Miss Lloyd; "thank you for +your advice, Betty. I'm sure my ring will not be safe, and I can't keep +it safe myself; well then, what shall I do?" + +'"Couldn't you trust it to somebody, to take care of for you, ma'am?" +said another woman. + +'"Thank you, that's a very good idea. I think it's the best thing I can +do. Now let me think," said Miss Lloyd; "I must get some one who is +_able_ to take care of it, and who is _willing_ too. Oh! I know," she +said; "there's my brother--he is _able_. He has a strong box at the +bank, where he keeps his papers; he can put it in there, and I feel sure +he will be willing to do it for me. I hear his voice in the next room; +I'll call him in, and ask him."' + +'And did she ask him?' said grandmother. + +'Yes, she brought him in, and she said: "Now, Arthur," she said, "these +friends of mine advise me to trust my ring to you. I can't keep it safe +myself, but I feel I can trust you. I know you are able to keep it for +me whilst I am away; I commit it to your care." So up she got from her +seat, and handed the ring in its little case to Mr. Lloyd, and he put it +in his waistcoat pocket, saying, as he left the room, "All right, Emily, +don't you trouble about it; I'll take care of it."' + +'Well, my dear,' said grandmother, 'all that was very nice, I've no +doubt; but how it makes you any happier to die, it beats me to see.' + +'Oh, but you haven't heard the end of it, grandmother,' said Poppy's +mother. + +'No, nor I won't hear it till you've had a cup of tea, my dear. You're +as white as a sheet. I oughtn't to have let you talk so long.' + +But when she had had the tea, and an hour's quiet sleep, and when the +babies were asleep, and grandmother and Poppy were sitting beside her +in the twilight, the poor woman went on with her story. + +'When Mr. Lloyd had gone, grandmother, his sister said, "I can't thank +you all enough for your good advice. I feel quite happy about my ring. +And now you won't mind my asking you what are _you_ going to do with +_your_ treasure?" + +'"Well, ma'am," said old Betty, "the only ring that I have is my wedding +ring, and that's not worth sixpence to anybody but myself, so I don't +suppose it stands much chance of being stolen." + +'"Betty," said Miss Lloyd, turning to her, "you have a treasure worth +_far, far_ more than my ring. I mean your precious soul, which will live +for ever and ever and ever somewhere; your undying self, Betty. Only +your body will go in the grave; you yourself will be living for ever. +Dear friends," she said, speaking to all of us, "I want each of you to +ask this question: What about my soul? Is it safe?" + +'Then she told us, grandmother, that we were travelling through an +enemy's country; Satan and his evil spirits wanted to get our treasure. +She told us we could not keep our soul safe ourselves; if we tried we +should certainly lose it, as she would have lost her ring. "And oh, dear +friends," she said, "what shall it profit you, if you gain the whole +world, and lose your own soul?"' + +'Well, she was right there, my dear,' said grandmother. + +'"Now, then," she says, "I want you to do as you advised me to do. I +want you to get some one to keep your treasure for you--some one who is +able, some one who is willing; who shall it be?" + +'"I suppose you mean the Lord, ma'am," said old Betty. + +'"Yes," she said, "I mean the Lord Jesus. He is able, for He has all +power; He is willing, for He died on purpose that He might do so. Won't +you trust your treasure to Him?" she said. "Won't you go straight to +Him, and say, Lord Jesus, here is my soul; I can't keep it myself; Satan +wants to get it for his own. I trust it to Thee; I commit it to Thee to +be saved." + +'Well, grandmother,' said Poppy's mother, 'I didn't forget what she +said, and that night, when John Henry had gone upstairs to bed, I knelt +down in the kitchen, and trusted my soul to the Lord Jesus to be saved, +because He had died for me; I put my soul in His hands, grandmother, and +I know He will keep it safe.' + +'Well, my dear,' said grandmother, 'it's to be hoped He will.' + +'I _know_ He will, grandmother; I don't doubt Him,' said Poppy's +mother. 'Miss Lloyd taught us a verse about that: "I know whom I have +believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have +committed unto Him against that day." And she said if we were to begin +doubting that our soul was safe when we had taken it to Jesus to be +saved, it would be the same as saying we did not trust Him. "What would +you think," she said, "if I were to be saying all the time I was away +Oh, dear me, I'm afraid I shall never see my ring again; I'm afraid it +isn't safe after all?" + +'"Why, ma'am," said old Betty, "you'll excuse me saying so, but I should +think you was very rude to Mr. Lloyd, and if I was there I should give +you a bit of my mind; you mustn't be offended at me saying so," says +Betty, "but I should indeed." + +'"And what would you say, Betty?" says Miss Lloyd. + +'"I should tell you, ma'am," says Betty "that if you had trusted your +ring to Mr. Lloyd, it was as safe as safe could be, and it was an insult +to him to doubt it." + +'"Betty," says Miss Lloyd, "you're quite right; and that's just what I +feel about the Lord Jesus. I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded +that He is able to keep that soul which I have committed unto Him."' + +'Well,' said grandmother, 'it seems all right when you put it like that, +and I wish I was as happy as you are, my dear;--but I'm a +good-for-nothing old woman, I am indeed, and somehow I'm afraid He +wouldn't do it for me.' + +'Poppy,' said her mother, 'do you think you could find me a Mission +Hymn-book?' + +'Yes, mother,' said Poppy; 'here's one on the table.' The poor woman +turned over the leaves with trembling fingers, for she was very weak and +tired. + +'Poppy, dear,' she said, when she had found the place, 'read this hymn +to grandmother.' + +And Poppy read: + + 'Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul! + Guilty, lost, and helpless, Thou canst make me whole. + There is none in heaven or on earth like Thee; + Thou hast died for sinners--therefore, Lord, for me. + Jesus, I do trust Thee, trust without a doubt, + Whosoever cometh Thou wilt not cast out: + Faithful is Thy promise, precious is Thy blood-- + These my soul's salvation, Thou my Saviour God!' + +'Oh, grandmother, and oh, Poppy,' she said, when the child had finished +reading, 'trust your soul to Jesus _to-night_.' + +[Illustration] + +'Well, my dear, I will,' said poor old grandmother, wiping her eyes. + +'And you, my own little Poppy?' + +'Yes, dear mother,' said the child; 'I won't forget.' + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE WONDERFUL FIRE. + + +'Polly, my dear,' said grandmother the next day, as she was washing the +babies, 'I didn't forget what you asked me to do last night; but I'm +afraid, my dear, I'm very much afraid.' + +'What are you afraid of, granny?' asked Poppy's mother. + +'Why, I'm afraid of getting cold and hard again, my dear,' she said; +'it's all very well for Poppy, but I've been putting off so long, I'm +afraid of slipping into all the bad, old ways again. Why, my dear, I've +tried to pray and to read my Bible scores of times before, but my mind +has soon gone a-wandering away to my chickens, or to my butter or to +the bit of washing I do for the Hall, and all such like things. Now, my +dear, how do I know it won't be like that again?' + +'Ye can't get cold and hard, granny, if the fire burns bright; and the +Lord will keep it alight. He will indeed.' + +'What do you mean by the fire, my dear?' + +'Why, granny, I saw it at the Mothers' Meeting, Miss Lloyd showed us it, +such a pretty picture! I've often thought of it since.' + +'Tell me about it, my lass, if it won't bring the cough on.' + +'No, I feel so much easier to-day, granny, it doesn't hurt me to talk +like it did last week. I'll stop if it tires me. Well, there was a fire +in the picture, burning on the hearth, a bright, cheerful, little fire, +like I used to make of an evening when John Henry came home. And in +front of the fire, granny, was a man throwing buckets full of water on +it to put it out; but the fire was blazing away, and did not seem a bit +the worse for it.' + +'That was a queer thing, my dear!' said granny. + +'Yes, but Miss Lloyd showed us that, behind the fire, on the other side +of the wall, another was standing; and this one was quietly pouring oil +into the fire to keep it burning. And it never had a chance of going +out, granny, for the oil did it a deal more good than the water did it +harm.' + +'Well, my dear,' said grandmother, 'of course it would be so: oil makes +a deal of blaze when it falls on fire; but what has that got to do with +me and my poor old heart?' + +But Polly had a bad fit of coughing, and the good old woman would not +let her answer her question till she had had two hours' quiet rest. Then +she seemed brighter again, and was able to go on. + +'Miss Lloyd explained it beautiful, granny. She told us the fire was the +work of grace in our hearts. As soon as we trusted our souls to Jesus +to be saved, she said that fire was lighted, the good work was begun. +But then, she said, "Don't forget you've got an enemy. Satan will try to +put the fire out. He'll send somebody to laugh at you, or to plague you +about turning religious. That's one bucket of water! He'll send you a +lot of work to do, to try and make you think you've no time to think +about your soul. That's another bucket of water!" He'll have all sorts +of pleasures, and cares, and difficulties ready, all of them buckets of +water, granny.' + +'Ay, my dear, I see that, and I'll be bound there's a bucket not far off +coming on my poor little fire. But what about the oil, my dear?' + +'I'm coming to the oil, granny. Satan has his buckets of water, but the +dear Lord has His bottle of oil. It's the Holy Spirit, granny, who alone +can make us good, or keep us good. And if the Lord puts His Holy Spirit +in our hearts, it's of no use Satan trying to put the fire out; he'll +have to give it up for a bad job. Reach me the Testament, granny, +there's a verse I'll read to you.' + +She turned over the leaves for some time, and at last she found the +words she wanted, and she put a mark against them, that granny might +find them for herself when she had gone away. + +The words were these, 'He which hath begun a good work in you will +perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.' + +'Polly, my dear,' said granny, after a pause, 'do you think He'll do +that for me?' + +'Do what, granny?' + +'Do you think He will give me His Holy Spirit?' + +And then Polly's mother gave grandmother another text; but this time she +did not find it, for she knew it by heart, 'If ye then, being evil, know +how to give good gifts unto your children, _how much more_ shall your +Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?' + +Grandmother sat by the side of the bed long after Enoch and Elijah had +fallen asleep. She seemed to have no heart to bustle about that morning. +She wanted to feel sure that her soul was safe. + +And when she thought that Poppy's mother was fast asleep, with her +babies lying beside her, granny knelt down and said aloud, 'O Lord, I'm +a poor sinful old woman, but I want Thee to save me. O Lord Jesus, Thou +hast died for me. I trust my soul to Thee. Here it is, I put it into Thy +hands. Oh give me Thy Holy Spirit; keep the fire bright in my soul, +please, Lord Jesus, do. Amen.' + +But Poppy's mother was not asleep, she was only lying with her eyes +closed. And as the old woman got up from her knees she smiled, and said +softly, + + 'The soul that to Jesus has fled for repose, + He _will_ not, He _will_ not desert to its foes; + That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake, + He'll never, no never, no never forsake.' + +'Amen,' said granny, 'Amen.' + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +POPPY'S FATHER COMES HOME. + + +The doctor was not wrong. In less than a week the Lord took Poppy's +mother to His beautiful home, where there is no more sickness nor pain. +And grandmother, and Poppy, and little Enoch and Elijah were left +behind. But, as the grandmother and the child stood beside the grave +where her body was laid to rest, they knew that she was far away, safe +in His keeping to whom she had trusted her soul. They knew that she was +well, and happy, and full of joy, and they tried to be glad for her +sake. + +Grandmother was anxious to get home, and, as soon as all could be +arranged, she set off with Poppy and the twins. The neighbours were very +kind, and did all they could to help them, and Jack rubbed away +something with his sleeve, which was very like a tear, as he saw their +train steam out of the station. + +It was a new life for Poppy. Grandmother lived in a lovely valley, full +of beautiful trees and running brooks, and quiet, peaceful glades, where +in the daytime the squirrels played and the birds sang, where in the dim +evening hours the rabbits came to nibble the grass, and where, at night, +when Poppy and her little brothers were asleep, the solemn old owls sat +in the trees, and called to each other in harsh and ugly voices. + +Through the middle of the valley ran a white smooth road, winding in and +out amongst the trees, and on this road came the carriages, driving +quickly along, with the postillions in scarlet coats riding on the +horses in front, and the ladies and gentlemen, who had come to see the +beautiful valley, leaning back in the carriages behind. + +It was Poppy's delight to open the gate for these carriages, and in +this way she was able to save her grandmother a good deal of running +about. She used to climb up the hillside, and watch until they were in +sight, and then run down as fast as she could, that she might have the +gate open in time for them to pass through. That was Poppy's work out of +school hours, for grandmother sent her regularly to the pretty little +country school, and would let nothing keep her away from it. + +Dear old grandmother! how hard she worked for Poppy and for the babies! +she thought nothing a trouble that she could do for them, and Poppy +loved her more and more every day. + +As the months went by, little Enoch and Elijah grew fat and strong; the +fresh country air and the new milk made a wonderful change in them, and, +when the next summer came, they were able to run about, and could climb +on the hillside with Poppy, and gather the wild roses, and the +harebells, and the honeysuckle, and would sit on the bank, near the +cottage, watching the carriages, and trying to catch the pence which the +people threw them as they drove by. + +One Saturday afternoon, at the end of the summer, as Poppy was playing +with them outside the lodge, she caught sight of a man coming quickly +down the road. She ran to open the gate for him, but as she did so she +gave a sudden cry of joy. It was her father, her long-lost father, come +home again! + +'Why, Poppy,' he said, 'my own dear little woman, what are _you_ doing +here? Come and kiss your poor father, Poppy. And who are these two bonny +little lads?' he asked, as Enoch and Elijah came running up to him. + +'They're our babies,' said Poppy. 'God sent them after you went away, +father; they both came on one day.' + +'Dear me, dear me; and to think I never knew,' said her father. 'Poor +Polly! And so you've all come to see grandmother. I never thought I +should find you here; I was going home to-morrow. I must run in and see +mother. Is she with grandmother, Poppy?' + +See mother! Then he did not know. And Poppy could not tell him. She +followed him with a very grave and sorrowful face, holding little Enoch +and Elijah by the hand. + +Grandmother came to the door at the sound of his voice. + +'Why, if it isn't my John Henry!' she cried. + +'Yes, mother, it's your John Henry, ashamed of himself at last. And so +you've got poor Polly and the bairns here. Where is Polly? I wonder if +she'll ever forgive me?' + +'Then you haven't been home yet, John Henry!' was all grandmother could +say. + +'No, mother; I only got to Liverpool this morning, and I took you on my +way; I was going home to-morrow.' + +'Where's Polly?' he said, pushing past her, and looking first into the +parlour and then into the kitchen. 'Is she upstairs, mother? Polly! +Polly! Polly!' + +'John Henry,' said grandmother in a trembling voice, 'Polly has gone +home.' + +'Gone home, and left the children behind her!' he exclaimed. + +'Ay, my dear,' said his mother, bursting into tears; 'the Lord sent for +her.' + +'You don't mean to say she's _dead_, mother!' he moaned. + +'Nay, my dear, she is living with the Lord,' said the old woman. + +'Oh, mother, mother,' he sobbed, 'to think I left her like that, and she +never knew how sorry I was!' + +It was a long, long time before he could speak, or could tell them his +story. He had been in America in dreadful straits and in many dangers. +At length he fell ill with fever, and lay for many weeks at the point of +death, in a log cabin, with only a boy of ten, the son of a poor +emigrant, to do anything for him. But this trouble had shown him his +sin, and he had come to the Lord Jesus for forgiveness, and ever since +then God had blessed him. He had not become a rich man, but he had +earned enough to bring him home, and he had saved a little besides, and +with this he hoped to start life afresh. + +'But you'll never rob me of my bairns, John Henry,' said the old woman, +in alarm; 'you'll never take them away, when we've all been so happy +together!' + +And the bare possibility of losing the children seemed quite to damp +poor old grandmother's joy in getting her beloved John Henry home again. + +'Well, mother, we must see,' he said; 'we must ask God to order for us.' + +And God did order most graciously, both for mother and son. + +The old woman told her trouble to 'my lady,' the next time that she +drove through the lodge-gates in her pony-carriage, and she was very +sympathising, and most anxious that the children should not have to +leave their happy country home. She mentioned it to the squire, and he +very kindly offered Poppy's father a situation on his estate as +gamekeeper. His life in America had made him far more fit for that kind +of work than for carrying on his old trade, and he was most thankful not +to have to take his children back to the city. So they all lived on +together in the pretty lodge in the lovely valley, a happy little +family, all loving the same Lord, and walking on the road to the same +Home. + +But Poppy never forgot her mother. And as Enoch and Elijah grew older, +she would sit with them on the hillside and talk to them about her, and +pointing to the blue sky she would tell them that their mother was +waiting for them there, and would be very much disappointed if they did +not come. + +And often, as they sat outside the lodge in the quiet summer evenings, +they and their father would sing together, 'Mother's favourite hymn,' +and dear old grandmother would come to the door, and join in a quavering +voice in the beautiful words: + + 'Jesus, I will trust Thee, trust Thee with my soul! + Guilty, lost, and helpless, Thou canst make me whole. + There is none in heaven or on earth like Thee; + Thou hast died for sinners--therefore, Lord, for me.' + + + + +THE END. + + + + +Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Poppy's Presents, by Mrs O. F. 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