Mabel Quiller Couch - The Story of Jessie

M >> Mabel Quiller Couch >> The Story of Jessie

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

The look of dread came back into poor Miss Patch's tired eyes.
So gloomy a prospect determined her.

"You are right!" she gasped; "it would be terrible--yes. I'll go--I
do believe I will. Oh, my! it's a dreadfully big undertaking, but--
but I'll go, yes, I will. I will make up my mind; and--and I won't
go back from it. I am terribly given to being a coward, Jessie."

Her mind once made up Miss Patch did not swerve again, and from that
time her face grew brighter. And after all it was not such a very
big undertaking--not nearly as bad as she had feared, for everything
seemed to fall out for her in a perfectly marvellous way, and most of
her troubles were taken off her shoulders before she had been able to
realize them.

A few letters passed between Jessie and Miss Grace, and then between
Mrs. Lang and Miss Grace, and then all seemed to come about so
smoothly and easily that Miss Patch scarcely realized all that was
being accomplished. Mrs. Lang insisted on paying the charges for the
furniture being carried to Springbrook. Tom Salter saw to the
packing of them all and sending them off by train; and then, oddly
enough, Miss Grace Barley found that she had business in London, and
would be returning to Springbrook on the very day Jessie and Miss
Patch were expected there, and would travel down with them.

So, on the morning of that day, a cab drove up to the dingy house in
Fort Street, and Miss Patch, and her eight parcels, and her rosebush
was conveyed to the station in state and comfort, and between Jessie
and Miss Grace and Tom she was taken to the railway carriage and
comfortably ensconced in a corner without any bother as to luggage or
ticket-taking or anything.

In fact, she was so excited and bewildered that she quite forgot all
about everything. "Well!" she exclaimed, as the train moved off into
the strange new country, "I never knew before how delightful and easy
travelling could be! It makes me smile now to think how I shrank
from it, and the fuss I made!"

Jessie, who was still weeping silently after the parting with her
mother and Tom Salter, looked up and smiled sympathetically.
The bustle and responsibility of taking care of Miss Patch had helped
them all through the last sad leave-takings, but when that strain was
over, and they were comfortably settled, and Tom came up to say his
last shy good-bye, the realization rushed over her that she should
never see the dingy grey house again, nor her stepmother, nor Tom--
good, kind, faithful Tom--and it was with tears running down her face
that she threw her arms round the good fellow's neck, and kissed him
as though he were her own kind big brother. Then, subsiding into her
corner sobbing, she left London in grief nearly as great as when she
had arrived there two years before.

For a long time her thoughts lingered about the home and the life she
was leaving, her mother, Charlie, her father, the house, the lodgers,
the dingy street, the noise and bustle. How real it all seemed, yet
already how far away! Could she ever have been in the midst of it
with no thought of ever knowing anything else! How strange life was,
and how wonderful! How one short month had changed everything!
Here she was, her dream and her longing realized, going home again to
Springbrook, to the old happy life, the same friends, the same
everything--yet, no, not quite the same, never quite the same,
perhaps. She herself was changed, and--she looked at Miss Patch.
Their eyes met in a happy, affectionate smile. "No, things were not
quite the same, they were better, if anything. She had more now,
more in every way."

The train tore on, and the day wore on. The hedges were growing bare
now, and the leaves on them were turning red and yellow and brown;
but the autumn sun shone, and there were space and air and sunshine
all about them. Oh, what a change after the close, narrow streets,
the gloom and dinginess, the want of space! Jessie's spirits began
to rise. How could she be unhappy in this beautiful world, with home
before her, and granp and granny waiting for her, and the cottage,
and her own dear little bedroom. "Will my rose be alive, do you
think, Miss Grace?" she asked eagerly.

"Yes, dear, your grandfather has cared for it as though it were his
most treasured possession, and your little garden, too. He has kept
everything as though you might return at any moment, and all must be
in readiness. It has been a cruelly long parting for them, and it
has told on them," she added. "You must be prepared to find them
altered. But," she added more cheerfully, "it rests with you to make
them young and happy again, Jessie."

"I will do my very, very best," said Jessie earnestly. "Oh!" she
sighed, "how slowly the train goes, aren't we nearly there, Miss
Grace?"

"Only a few moments now, dear. This is Crossley, the next station to
ours. Don't you recognize any landmarks yet?"

Jessie sprang to the window and remained there, fascinated,
enchanted, drinking it all in, trying to realize that all was not a
happy dream, but glorious reality. She recognized it all now, and
every yard made it more familiar.

The train gave a warning whistle. "Here we are! here we are!" she
screamed in a perfect ecstasy of joy. "Oh, Miss Grace, there is the
road, and--and here is the platform, and--and I do believe I see
granp!"

She drew in her head and shrank back into her corner. "Miss Grace,"
she pleaded excitedly, "when we stop will you and Miss Patch get out
and walk away as if I wasn't here and you had forgotten all about me,
and then granp will come to look for me--like he did the first time,
will you?"

Her eagerness was so great Miss Grace could not refuse her.
"Very well, dear, but"--laughingly--"I must leave all the parcels,
too. I can't manage them as well."

"Oh, no, we will bring those. Now," as the train drew up, "please
get out!"

She drew forward the curtain and hid behind it. Miss Barley and Miss
Patch clambered out and walked away. Half-way down the platform they
met Mr. Dawson, he was pale and trembling, but his blue eyes, bright
with eagerness, looked for one face and figure only, and saw no
other; Miss Patch and Miss Barley passed him quite unobserved; Miss
Grace smiled to herself, and they turned to watch.

Along the platform he went, peering eagerly into every carriage.
Jessie, in her corner, breathless with excitement, thought he would
never come. The time seemed so long, so very long, she began to fear
that the train would move on and carry her with it. In her
excitement she thrust back the curtain, and leaned forward--and the
next minute she was in his arms!

"Not asleep this time, granp!" she cried excitedly, "not asleep this
time! Oh, granp! granp!" and she hugged and kissed him again and
again.

The guard came in at last, to warn them that the train was about to
move, and then there was a hasty gathering up of Miss Patch's eight
parcels and her rose, and Jessie's three parcels and her geranium,
and at last they all stood together on Springbrook platform, with the
sun shining on them, the breeze blowing, the birds singing--and
granny at home waiting to welcome them to the new happy life which
lay before them.

Miss Grace led Miss Patch out, and they got into a carriage which had
been sent from Norton for the purpose, but Jessie and her grandfather
begged to walk back, as on that first occasion. He did not carry her
now, though he leaned on her instead, and seemed glad of the support.
He leaned heavily, too, she noticed, and she realized vaguely that
there was one more change than she had thought of. In the past she
had leaned all her weight on him, now it was he who would lean on
her; and she hoped, with all the strength of her warm little heart,
that she might be able to prove herself a real prop and staff to him
and the dear granny who loved her so.

"God make my life a little staff,
Whereon the weak may rest."

She repeated to herself.

"Here's granny," said granp joyfully, as they reached the garden
gate. Run on to her, child! and--and remember--one arm is helpless
still. You must be her right arm now, Jessie."

"I will," said Jessie eagerly, and the next moment was at her
granny's side.

THE END.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9