CHAPTER IX
FAITH'S AWAKENING
"Do you know where Faith is?" asked Gail one Saturday morning in earlyspring, finding Hope busy at making the beds, which was the oldersister's work.
"She discovered a heap of old magazines somewhere about the place and isin the barn reading. Says her head aches too hard to work today,"answered Hope, with an anxious pucker in her usually serene forehead.
"I don't know what to do with that girl," sighed Gail, as she adjustedher dustcap and picked up a broom. Her face looked so worried, and hervoice sounded so discouraged that Hope paused in her task of plumping upthe pillows to ask in alarm, "Do you think she is any worse than usual?"
"She gets worse every day," answered Gail, somewhat sharply, and twotears rolled slowly down her pale cheeks.
"Oh, dearie, don't cry," coaxed Hope, dropping her pillows and throwingher arms about the heaving shoulders. "It will be better pretty soon.I'll do all of Faith's work. I only wish I were older."
Peace waited to hear no more. She had gone upstairs for a clean apronbefore setting out for town with a basket of eggs and, unknown to thetwo sisters in the room across the hall, had heard all they said.
"I didn't s'pose Faith was sick," she whispered with white lips as sheflew down the path to the gate, swinging the heavy basket dangerouslynear the ground in her heedlessness. "I thought she was just lazy. Shenever does anything but mope around the house and read or play theorgan, but I thought it was 'cause she didn't want to. S'posing sheshould die! Then we'd have three angels. Oh, dear, I don't see why onefamily should have so many! I wonder if there isn't something that willcure her. Gail hasn't called the doctor yet. I am going to ask himmyself!"
She slipped through the gate and sped up the road toward town, stillmusing over this new trouble, and so completely wrapped up in herthoughts that she did not even see her beloved Mr. Strong until hecalled to her, "Why, hello, Peace! Are you coming over to see our babytoday! Elizabeth, will be glad to have you."
Her face lighted up at sight of her friend, but she shook her head athis invitation, and soberly replied, as she hurried on, "I'd like to,but I can't this time. I must take these eggs to the doctor's house.Some other day I'll come and play with Baby Glen."
Not to stop to discuss the welfare of the precious new baby at theparsonage was very strange for Peace, for she loved the beautiful boy asmuch as she did his parents, and was always eager to hear of his latesttricks, no matter how pressed for time she might be. But today she wastoo worried to think of even little Glen.
Breathlessly she climbed the steps to Dr. Bainbridge's big house, justas the busy physician appeared in the doorway ready for his round ofcalls, and in her eagerness to stop him before he should climb into thewaiting carriage, she quickened her pace to a run, tripped on the doormat, and tumbled headlong, eggs and all, into a drift of half-meltedsnow in the corner of the porch, announcing in tragic tones, "Dr. Eggs,I have brought you some Bainbridge, and here they are all spilled in thesnow. It's lucky you aren't a very neat man, for if you had cleared offyour porches the way you ought to, these eggs would likely have beeneveryone smashed. As 'tis, there is only one broken, and one morecracked. I'll bring another--"
"Are you hurt?" the doctor managed to stutter in an almost inaudiblevoice, so overcome with surprise was he at the avalanche of eggs andexplanation.
"No, and only two of the eggs are, either--Oh, don't go yet!" Shescrambled hastily to her feet and laid a trembling, detaining hand onhis coat sleeve, as she demanded in a shaky voice, "Is Faith real bad,do you think?"
"If people had more faith--" he began jestingly; then stopped, seeingthe real anxiety in the serious brown eyes, and asked gently, "What istroubling you, child?"
"Faith, as usual. What is the matter with her? Gail cried about her thismorning, and Hope said maybe she would get better pretty soon. Theydidn't know I heard. Is she real sick? I thought she didn't do any work'cause she was lazy--I mean 'cause she didn't want to. I didn't know shewas sick. What d'sease has she got?"
"Well, as near as I can make out," answered the doctor gravely, "she hasa case of acute imagination. She thinks she is mourning, but she is tooselfishly wrapped up in her own grief to see the sorrow of others. Shehas stepped out from under the burden of the home and let its fullweight fall upon shoulders too slender to bear it. The sun doesn't shinefor her any more, the birds don't sing, the flowers have lost theirfragrance. What she needs is a good dose of common sense, but we don'tseem to be able to administer it. If only we could put a cannon crackerunder her chair, maybe it would rouse her. Oh, I was just speakingfiguratively; I didn't mean the real article," he hastened to assure hissmall audience, as a gasp of horror escaped her.
The doctor had waxed eloquent in his diagnosis of the case, and thoughPeace failed to understand half that he said, the grave, almost harshlook about his mouth and eyes struck terror to her heart, and shefaintly faltered, "Is--do you think Faith will be an angel soon?"
He looked at her in amazement. "No!" he thundered, and she shivered athis tone. "It will take ages to make an angel of Faith if she keeps onin the way she is going. Gail is the angel if ever there was one, andHope's wings have sprouted, too--"
"Oh," moaned Peace, with wide, terrified eyes, "I don't want Gail andHope to be angels! We need them here! We could spare Faith easier thanthem. Oh, Dr. Bainbridge, ain't two angels enough for one family?"
The kindly old doctor suddenly understood, and patting the little hood,covered with bits of eggshell and particles of ice, he saidremorsefully, "There, there, honey, I didn't mean that kind of angels! Imean just dear, good, blessed girls, such as make the world better forhaving been in it. There is no danger of their flying away to the otherland just yet, my child; though goodness only knows what will become ofGail if Faith isn't waked up soon. I must go call on my sick folks now,little girl. I'd drive you home if I were going that way, but I am duethis very minute at the opposite end of town. Don't you fret, but be anawfully good girl yourself and help Gail all you can. When Faith comesto her senses and goes to work at something, she will be all right."
They parted, and Peace slowly wended her way home again, somewhatrelieved, and yet considerably alarmed over the doctor's words. Down tothe barn she wandered, and up the rickety ladder she climbed into thecobwebby loft. A figure moved impatiently at the far end of the looseboards, and as Peace's eyes became accustomed to the dim light, she sawit was Faith, curled up among a lot of ragged papers and coverlessmagazines, musty and yellow with age.
"What are you ba--crying about!" asked Peace in awed tones, as the othergirl sniffed suspiciously and then wiped her eyes, already red withweeping. She expected to be told to mind her business, but contrary toher expectations, Faith answered:
"This is the _saddest_ story,--all about a girl who loved one man andhad to marry another."
Peace's nose curled scornfully, and she said, with great contempt, "Idon't see any use in bawl--crying about that. Those story people neverlived. Real folks have more sense."
But Faith had gone back to her magazine of sorrows, and never even heardthis small sister's criticism. So Peace dropped down on a heap ofsacking, propped her chin up with her elbows on her knees, and fell tostudying the face opposite her, noting with alarm how thin it had grown,and how darkly circled were the brown eyes so like her own. Fear lestDr. Bainbridge did not know how ill she really was gripped her heart,and she sighed heavily just as Faith finished her chapter and roused tosearch for the next number of the magazine.
"What is the matter?" she demanded, looking at the sober little facewith surprise.
"Are you sick?" asked Peace in an awestruck whisper, ignoring hersister's question.
"No. Why? My head aches some, but that is all."
"I sh'd think it _would_ ache," cried the child in sudden indignation."Why did you poke up here where there ain't any window to read by?You'll be blind some day if you _amuse_ your eyes like that. Teachersaid so to all our class the day she found Tessie Hunt reading o
n thebasement stairs. If you've got to read all the time, why don't you goout-doors or by a window? It's enough to make anyone's head ache the wayyou mope around reading all the time. Dr. Bainbridge says as soon as youget up and go to work you'll be all right."
Faith's face flushed angrily and she demanded, with some heat, "What doyou know about what Dr. Bainbridge says?"
"I asked him a-purpose to see whether you were going to be an angelsoon."
For a moment Faith was too startled for reply, and then she askedcuriously, with a queer flutter in her heart, "What did he say!"
"He just howled, 'No--o!' as loud as he could shout, and after that hesaid, more quiet-like, that you'd never be an angel as long as you kepton the way you are going. He says you need a good, common dose of senseand a cannon under your chair. He said Gail and Hope are the angels, andwhen I cried and told him we could spare you easier'n we could them, hesaid that he didn't mean sure-enough angels which fly away and nevercome back, but good, _sensitive_ blessings that make the world better.He says you've got a _cute minagination_, and when you wake up and helpGail bear the slender burden on your shoulders, everything will be allright."
Profound silence reigned in the barn for what seemed an eternity toPeace, and then Faith burst forth hotly, "I never saw such a meddlesomechild in all my born days, Peace Greenfield! What did you tell thedoctor? Why did you chase to him in the first place? Do you want to getthe whole neighborhood to gossiping about our affairs? I suppose yougave him the whole family history, from the time of Adam."
"I never did!" Peace indignantly denied. "I don't know of any Adam 'mongour relations. I found Gail upstairs crying about you this morning, andHope promised to do all your work. I couldn't see why Hope should doyour work unless you were going to be an angel, so I went to the doctorabout it, and that is why he told me. He said we must help Gail all wecould--"
"Why don't you, then, instead of causing her trouble whenever you turnaround? You are into something the whole time to fret and worry her.Don't talk about me until you are perfect yourself!"
"I ain't perfect, but I _try_ to help, and you know it. Don't I helpCherry with the dishes every single day, and dust the parlor and bringin wood, and hasn't Hope turned over setting the table to me?"
"And don't you break half the dishes?"
"I've broken only one plate and three cups, and I bought new ones out ofmy snow money, so there! When summer comes I'm going to pickstrawberries for Mr. Hartman, and when I've paid up for those I spoiledlast year, I'm going to give the rest of the money I earn to Gail tohelp her all I can. 'F I could make the lovely cakes you do, I'd go'round the streets peddling them."
"If you were I, you'd do wonders," Faith broke in bitterly.
"Well, Mrs. Abbott told me herself that if the village baker could cooklike that she would get all her delicate things there instead ofbothering the girl with them, 'cause, in a little subu'b like this, shecan't get a cook and a second girl to stay at the same time, and acommon hired girl doesn't know beans about cakes and nice cookery. Mrs.Lacy said she'd take a cake reg'lar every week if she could get suchnice ones as yours; and the butcher--guess what the butcher asked meyesterday! I went in his shop on my way home from the minister's, and heasked me when we were going to break up housekeeping here."
"What did you say?" cried Faith, as the meaning of his question dawnedupon her, though Peace evidently had not understood.
"I didn't know what he was driving at, so I asked him, and he said hehad heard that we were going to leave this house and go to live withdifferent people in town. He wanted to know if he could have Cherry,'cause he thinks she is so pretty. I told him he needn't joke with melike that, but he just laughed and _in_sured me that Mr. Strong wasgoing to take Allee, and Dr. Bainbridge wanted Hope, and that you andGail were to work in Martindale, and I was the broom of condemnation."
"The what?" cried Faith in amazement.
"The broom of con-dem-nation," repeated Peace slowly, seeing that shehad made a blunder, but not understanding just wherein it lay. "It meanswhen a lot of people want the same thing."
"Perhaps you are trying to say 'bone of contention,'" suggested Faith,somewhat sarcastically.
"Maybe 'twas. Anyway, he says Mr. Hardman wants me--but I don't wanthim, I can tell you that!"
"I thought you had signed a treaty of peace and were friends now,"murmured the older girl, considerably amused at the child's belligerentattitude, in spite of her troubled thoughts.
"Oh, we are friends all right, but not bad enough so's I want to go livewith him. Though I don't know as it would be any worse there than withJudge Abbott, and he's the other fellow who wants me. My, the way heglared at me Thanksgiving morning, when we shoveled the snow off hisporch, scared me stiff! I thought he was going to make us shovel it backon again, but he didn't. And the time my snowball knocked Hector's teethloose, I was sure he was going to 'rest me, but I couldn't help if Hecopened his mouth just in time to get that ball; and anyway, he deservedit, 'cause he was pulling Mamie Brady's red hair and calling her Carrotstill she cried. I told the Judge that Hec needed to have more than justhis teeth knocked loose, and he laughed and marched him home by theear."
"Peace, have you told Gail this?"
"About Hec's teeth?"
"No, about what Mr. Jones said to you?"
"Not yet. I didn't think it was a very nice joke, so I never told anyonebut you and the preacher. Mr. Strong said he'd see that the butcherdidn't tease me any more."
"Well, if I were you, I would forget all about it, but don't ever tellGail. She might take it in earnest and feel badly about it."
Peace eyed the older girl, as if trying to fathom her meaning, butFaith's face was like a mask, and after a brief pause, the childanswered, "I don't mean to; but ain't I glad she can't guess all mythinks! Just s'posing everyone knew what everyone else was thinking,wouldn't some folks be scrapping all the time? Brains are queer things.I used to wish I could see one when it was doing its thinking, but Iguess God knew his business when he put them inside our heads, where noone else can watch them."
"Peace, Peace! Where are you?" called an excited voice from below, andthe brown-eyed philosopher jumped up from her burlap couch with theshout, "Coming, Allee! I hope you find your senses pretty soon, Faith,for the doctor says when that happens you will be all right and not haveany more headache."
The faded red coat disappeared down the ladder, and Faith was left aloneagain. But she read no more. The sad story had lost its interest, andshe cast aside the magazines without another glance. Was what Mr. Joneshad told Peace true? Was there a possibility that the home must bebroken up? Was the doctor right in his verdict? Did all the sisters feelthat she could be spared the easiest? That was a fierce battle Faithwaged with herself in the barn, but when it was ended adetermined-faced girl rose from the dusty floor, descended the oldladder, and hurried away toward the village. It was noon before shereturned, and the five sisters, anxious over her unusual absence, werejust sitting down to a frugal dinner of mush and milk when she enteredthe door, looking excited and queer, but with a happier light in hereyes than had been there for months.
The minute grace was said, Peace demanded suspiciously, "Where have youbeen all this time?"
"Drumming up trade," was the startling answer. "I've got six regularcake customers, and several who promised to buy of me when they neededanything in my line."
Faith was awake at last.