Kristy's Rainy Day Picnic Part 14

At first she hesitated to enter the house she had always dreaded, but in an instant she reflected that Miss Hester would not leave her door open if she were able to shut it, and she staggered in. Two steps inside she stumbled over something, and das.h.i.+ng the snow out of her eyes, she saw to her horror, the well-known brown dress of Miss Hester, and sure enough there she lay on the floor, half covered with snow, silent--perhaps dead.

One little scream escaped Maggie's lips, and then she fell on her knees before her. No, she was not dead, but she was unconscious and perfectly cold.

In a moment her own sufferings were forgotten. She did not know or did not care that she was exhausted from her struggles--that she was herself half frozen. She flew to work.

First she dragged Miss Hester away from the snow, with difficulty shut the door, then hurried into the bedroom, brought out a pillow and blanket, put the pillow under Miss Hester's head, wrapped the blanket around her on the floor, and then hurried to the stove.

The fire was ready to light; evidently Miss Hester had opened the door to look out before starting her fire, and the great drift had fallen upon her and knocked her down.

Maggie did not stop to think of all this. She looked around for matches and lighted the fire, then turned her attention to the silent figure on the floor. She chafed her hands and warmed them in her own, which now from excitement were burning, and before long she had the happiness of seeing the closed eyes open and the blood rush back to the white face.

The sight of the child working over her brought Miss Hester to very quickly. She tried to spring up, but fell back too weak to do so. Then she began to talk.

"Where am I? Why are you here? Why can't I get up?"

As quickly as she could, Maggie told her everything. How the village was snowed under, and seeing her chimney without smoke alarmed her, and she had found her on the floor with snow-drifts over her, and had lighted the fire and got the blanket and warmed her.

Long before she had ended her tale, Miss Hester could sit up and see for herself the snow and the condition of the room. Then she thought she could get up, and with the help of Maggie she did, and sat in her chair, strangely enough--as it seemed to her--too weak to stand.

When she was seated, Maggie had stopped--it was different making fires and taking liberties in this kitchen while it seemed necessary to her life, but now that Miss Hester could sit up and look at her, Maggie hesitated. Miss Hester leaned back and closed her eyes and then Maggie said:--

"Please, Miss Hester, may I get you something to eat, and sweep out the snow, and help you?"

"If you will, child," said Miss Hester slowly. "I don't seem to be able to do anything; I shall be very glad to have you."

Then Maggie went to work again, and how she did fly! She put the teakettle on to the now warmed stove; she searched about in the pantry till she found the coffee and the coffee-pot. Then she drew up beside Miss Hester a little table, put on the dishes, and in a word, proceeded to set out as dainty a breakfast as she knew how to get out of what she could find.

All this time Miss Hester had apparently been half asleep, so that Maggie did not like to ask her anything; but she was far from asleep.

She was watching eagerly, through half-closed eyelids, everything her neat handmaiden did.

As for Maggie, she had not been so happy since her mother had taught her all sorts of neat household ways. She hunted up the b.u.t.ter and the bread; she made a fragrant cup of coffee and toasted a slice of bread, and when all was ready, she spoke to Miss Hester.

"Please, Miss Hester," she said timidly, "will you drink some coffee?

I think you will feel better."

Miss Hester opened her eyes as if just wakened. "Why, how nicely you have got breakfast!" she said; "but here's only one cup and plate! Get another for yourself--you shall have it with me;" and as Maggie hastened, delighted, to do her bidding, she added, "Bring a jar of marmalade from the second shelf, and look for some crullers in a stone crock."

Maggie did as she was bid, and in a few minutes the two strange friends were enjoying their breakfast together.

Miss Hester was confined to her bed several days, with the cold she had taken that fateful morning, and during that time, Maggie did everything for her, every minute she was out of school. When at last Miss Hester was able to be about, she had become so attached to Maggie, and found such comfort in her help, that she was not willing to let her go. Maggie being equally delighted to stay, the arrangement was soon made, and Maggie came to the cottage to live.

The strangest part of the story is yet to come.

When Christmas time drew near, Miss Hester one day, while Maggie was at school, opened some long-closed drawers in her desk to see if she could find something to give Maggie on that day, for she had not forgotten her own youthful days when Christmas was the event of the year.

Among the long-forgotten treasures of the past, she came upon a little locket given her when she was about Maggie's age, by her only brother, who had gone to the war and been killed in battle, severing the last link that bound the solitary girl to the world. Since that, she had lived alone and shrank from all society.

"Poor Eddy!" she said, taking the trinket up in her hands, "how different would have been my life if you had lived! But it's no use keeping these relics of the past; they would much better make some one happy in the present. I think Maggie will like this."

With a sigh she turned over the contents of the drawer, every item of which was a.s.sociated with her happier days, till she found a fine gold chain which had held the locket around her neck. This she laid aside with the locket, closed and locked the drawer.

When the great day arrived, Maggie, who had not dreamed of a present, was surprised and delighted to receive it. The locket was very pretty, of gold, with a letter B in black enamel on it. Miss Hester hung it around her neck, and was as pleased as Maggie herself to see how pretty it looked.

"I wonder if it will open," said Maggie to herself a little later, when she had taken it off to examine more closely; "I'll try it," and she worked over it a long time but without success.

That was a very busy day in the cottage; that evening was to be a great school exhibition to which all the village was invited. Maggie, who was a bright scholar, had to speak a piece, and Miss Hester had made her a pretty white dress out of an old one of her own.

Maggie never felt so fine in her life as when, her hair smoothly braided by Miss Hester, and tied with a bright ribbon from her old stores, she had put on the white dress, and hung around her neck the cherished locket.

For the first time in her life, she was dressed like other girls, and it was with a very happy heart that she kissed Miss Hester and went to the schoolhouse, regretting only that Miss Hester could not be persuaded to go with her.

After the exercises of the evening were over, a social hour followed, in which ice cream and cake were served, and every one walked around the room to talk with their friends; and now came the surprise of the evening--the most wonderful event in Maggie's life.

Among the familiar villagers, she had noticed a quiet, pleasant-faced man who seemed to be a stranger,--at least she had never seen him before. He had come with the family from the little hotel, and no doubt at their invitation.

This gentleman was walking about, looking with interest at the people, when he came face to face with Maggie. He stopped suddenly; his eyes opened wide, and he seemed strangely moved--almost shocked.

Maggie was frightened, and tried to leave her place, but he stopped her with a low, eager question.

"Little girl, where did you get that locket?"

Maggie supposed he thought she had stolen it, and a bright color rose to her face, as she answered indignantly, "It was given to me to-day."

"By whom?" he cried; "tell me instantly!"

"By Miss Hester," Maggie replied, trying again to get away, for his eager manner frightened her.

"Miss Hester!" he repeated, in a disappointed tone, then muttering to himself, "It can't be! yet it is so like! let me see it!" with a sudden movement.

"No!" cried Maggie, now almost crying with fright, and clutching her treasure.

By this time some of the people around had noticed the scene, and the hotel-keeper came up.

"What is it, Mr. Bartlett?"

The gentleman tried to calm himself, seeing that they had become the centre of a curious crowd, and then replied:--

"Why, I find on this child the double of a locket I gave my sister years ago, a sister who has disappeared and whom I have been seeking for years; I wanted to examine it--but I seem to have frightened her; will you, if you know her, ask her to let me look at it? If it is the one I seek, it should open by a secret spring, and have a boy's face inside. If it should help me to find my long-lost sister!" He paused, much moved.

Mr. Wild, the hotel-keeper, calmed Maggie, and asked her to let the gentleman examine it.

As he took it in his hand, he murmured, "The very same! here is a mark I well remember. Now if I can open it!" He held it a moment when suddenly it sprang open, to Maggie's amazement, and there--sure enough--was a faded, old-fas.h.i.+oned daguerreotype of a boy's face.

"It is the very one!" he exclaimed in excitement. "Now where is this Miss--What did you say her name was? Where could she have got it?"

"She told me," said Maggie, trembling, "that her brother gave it to her."

"So I did," said the man eagerly; "but the name! can she have changed her name?"