Evelyn Everett-Green

“ The Squire waited silently, hoping he would say more, but Bertie’s eyes began to open then, and, after a few seconds of great bewilderment, he appeared to recollect himself, and pressed his hand to his head, as if to quiet the confusion of his brain.
“Does your head ache, Bertie?”
“Yes, grandpapa. I think dreaming makes it ache worse.”
“What were you dreaming about?”
But he shook his head with a look of distress.
“I can’t remember.”
“Never mind, then; dreams are silly things, not worth remembering. Go to sleep again, and sleep the headache away.” ”

“ Uncle Fred often puzzled her by some of the things he said, and she thought that this was great nonsense. She wondered why the boys said nothing and looked half ashamed; but she was not readily silenced, and answered, quickly,—
“It can’t be brave to be afraid, Uncle Fred. You’re only trying to puzzle us. Everybody knows that it’s only cowards who are afraid.”
“Excuse me, Queenie, but you’re quite wrong there,” answered Uncle Fred, quietly. “All the bravest men I have known have been afraid—very much afraid, some of them—of some things.” ”

“ We do not want you to do anything to darken the life of one who has been like a father to you when you were so sadly in need of love and care. My darling, we think that your place is still here with the Squire, if you are content to stay. We shall see you every day; you will always be our little boy too. You will have two homes instead of one, and loving parents in both. But, as you say yourself, I have Uncle Fred to take care of me now, and be my companion always, whilst he has nobody but his little Bertie. ”

“ And Bertie’s mother rejoices to see that it is so. No jealousy has power to disturb her sweet and noble nature; nor, indeed, has she any cause to cherish it, for her boy is loyal and true and loving towards her always, and she knows by sweet experience that one great love does not cast out another, but rather increases the capacity for loving within the heart that holds the two. ”

“ But, in spite of all this happiness, he has his moments of sadness, moments when there comes over him a sense that all things here fade and change, and that life will not always flow for him quite in this smooth channel. Such thoughts come over him not unfrequently, and with no little significance. For Sunday by Sunday he now stands for a few solemn moments bareheaded by a quiet grave beneath the yew tree, where the Squire has stood every Sunday of his life ever since his dear ones lay below the sod ”

“ So Bertie went away comforted, a sweet sense of fatherly love and protection seeming to overshadow him. It might be true enough that nobody wanted him, that he was of no use to anybody, but perhaps, if he tried to love and trust God more, to be “strong and of good courage,” to have faith in Him and wait quietly for His will to be done—perhaps then God would help him to be of some little use, to win some of the human love he felt to be lacking in his life, perhaps he might be able to fill the blank of which at times he was so painfully conscious. ”

“ Be one of His own little children—His faithful little soldiers, ready to obey Him and to fight for him as well as to love and trust Him; and then, whatever happens to you here, whatever may be His will about you, whether He gives you back to your earthly parents or not, you will always have a loving Father in heaven, a Friend and Guardian in His Son, and in His good time, I trust, a Comforter and Counsellor in the good Spirit He will breathe into your heart. Whatever else may happen to you, Bertie, you will never be alone. ”

“ Uncle Fred looked into Phil’s bright, frank face with an approving glance. He liked the boy all the better for his honest confession of a fault.
“That is right, my boy. Never try to shirk blame when you feel you have deserved it. Why did you not take Bertie’s part, then, when you understood so well how frightened it made him to be on the water?” ”

“ When the child’s tears seemed fairly conquered, the Squire put him a little farther away and looked at him steadily, with an intent expression upon his fine, commanding face.
The little boy looked up timidly, but he did not seem alarmed by the glance he encountered. Children have a marvellous instinct in distinguishing between the sternness of an inflexible yet just and kindly nature and that of harshness and tyranny. ”

“ Bertie, is it true that the Squire has adopted you properly?”
“I am his little boy now,” answered the child, simply. “He says so.”
“And do you like it?”
“Yes, very much.”
“You like him?”
“I love him.”
“And you’re not dreadfully dull?”
“Oh no!”
Queenie looked at him critically.
“You don’t look as if you were unhappy. You’ve grown, I’m sure. You look quite different from what you did. Are you happy?”
“Yes, very.”
“Well, I’m glad of that,” said Queenie. “I like people to have nice times. I’ve had such fun myself.” ”

“ Probably he was the only survivor of some ill-fated 12ship; probably he had been washed ashore alive only because a life-belt had been tied about him and had floated him to shore. Not a single plank or fragment of wreckage had been cast ashore with the little waif; and, unless he awoke to give an account of himself, it seemed likely that he too would have to lie in a nameless grave, as his companions now did beneath the waves of the pitiless ocean.
The doctor of the nearest village, who had been every day to see the boy, was still of the opinion that he would awake to consciousness in time. ”

“ The Squire looked down at him with a smile.
“I hope not, my little son; but it is possible you may some day remember your own parents, and that they may want you back. But whatever happens we know will be for the best, and we must always be strong and of a good courage, and do what is right. No happiness ever comes from shirking duty.”
Bertie looked up wistfully. ”

“ He had a certain number of cows to milk and look after, and the favorite Alderney was amongst these. Bertie began now to haunt the farm like a little “Squire born,” as the men used to say among themselves: “For all the world like poor Master Tom,” the elder laborers would add. And they all looked kindly upon the little boy, who on his side always spoke nicely and courteously to every one of the people, and they sometimes said amongst themselves that if Master Bertie succeeded in his day as Squire of Arlingham, there would be no fear but that the old traditions would be kept up. ”

“ Your goodness in adopting him and in giving him a home has been, under God’s guiding, the means of bringing them together—the main link in the chain of circumstances that has led to this goal. You have been a father to him in his hour of extremest need. My wife will never be willing to requite such goodness by robbing you of what sunshine the child’s love can bring. ”

“ Bertie flushed painfully.
“I don’t know,” he answered, and the tears sparkled in his eyes.
“People say he will,” asserted Queenie, “unless anybody finds out who you really are. Dr. Lighton isn’t half so sure about your ever remembering for yourself as he was at first.”
“Oh, you’ll remember fast enough, never fear!” cut in Phil, whose feelings in some things were quicker than his little sister’s. “You’ll wake up some fine morning with it all as plain as a pikestaff, and meantime it won’t be half bad to be adopted by the Squire.” ”

“ He asked his questions in absolute ignorance or oblivion of all these facts, and when the father began to tell little anecdotes of the rides he and his children had taken together long, long ago, Bertie listened with undivided interest and pleasure, not in the least realizing—how should he?—that this moment was almost as great a turning-point in his benefactor’s life as the one when he took the child in his arms in the lonely churchyard and called him his adopted son. ”

“ Queenie laughed and tossed her head.
“I think the Squire is a very clever old man; but you see I’m cleverer still.”
“How?”
“Why, because I do things without asking leave. It saves such a lot of trouble.”
Bertie looked rather scandalized.
“Do you mean you wouldn’t be allowed to play with me if people knew about it?”
“Papa wouldn’t mind,” answered Queenie, quickly; “he lets me do as I like. It’s only mamma who is so tiresome. Mamma wanted me never to go out alone, even in the garden, but papa said it was all nonsense, and that I might. I love papa twice as much as mamma. ”

“ Primroses and anemones made a starry carpet beneath the great oak and beech trees of the level park. The buds were swelling visibly overhead, and the sycamores and horse-chestnuts had already shaken out some little tufts of delicate green. The birds sang overhead as they only sing in the sweet spring-time, and Bertie’s eyes grew dazzled with trying to follow the flight of the soaring larks, who rained down upon him the liquid melody of their joyous songs.
71Flat and bare as was the country round, the Squire’s park was well timbered, and the trees were tall and old and grand. ”

“ Queenie only looked the more scornful.
“Of course he did. They all do. Papa always does whenever we come here. If he had known Phil was going to-day, he would have forbidden him; but nobody cares for that. Rules are only made to be broken, you know. They must have exceptions, or they wouldn’t be rules—everybody knows that. I know now why you would tell the Squire. You wanted him to forbid you because you were afraid. I always thought you were a horrid little coward, and now I know it!” ”

“ Then Phil and Queenie often came to see him, and at such times the children were not allowed to leave the nurseries except to play in the garden. The liberty granted to Bertie himself was not accorded to his friends.
185So he had been little to the library of late, and when he found himself there again he heaved a sigh of contentment, as if he had somehow found a haven of refuge for himself. The Squire was not in his room when Bertie found his way there; but he came in a little bit later, and his grave, stern face seemed to soften as his glance rested upon the figure of the child. ”

“ The King these brave men served, Queenie, is the great King I trust we are all bound to obey—every one of us, whether we be men or women, or little children only just starting in life with the little battles of childhood to fight. ”

“ Pritchard.
“You see she will like to have a quiet nap on Sunday afternoon,” he concluded, gravely, as if well acquainted with the habits of the elderly housekeeper.
The Squire’s eyes twinkled a little.
70“Who told you that, young man?”
Bertie looked a little perplexed.
“I don’t know,” he answered, slowly. “I seemed to know it.”
“Well, I don’t suppose you are far wrong. Yes, you may run along alone; you’re too big a boy to have a nurse always dangling after you. Don’t wander too far and lose yourself; but you may go and see David by yourself whenever you like.” ”

“ And at that all the boys laughed, but they laughed admiringly, for they were proud of their sister’s spirit, although they all knew quite well that she had been spoiled by every one in the house, save her nurse, from the hour of her birth until now.
“That’s right, Queenie,” cried Bernard. “Never you let anybody have a will of his own but yourself. You stick to your opinion, and let all the rest go. But we can’t bully that little chap any more, after what Uncle Fred said. ”

“ The present was full of satisfaction and pleasure, and amid its many and vivid interests he never felt that blank sense of emptiness that had once so weighed upon his spirit.
Dr. Lighton began to shake his head when questioned now as to the probability of the vanished past ever returning to him.
“It may do still,” he would say: “the sight of a familiar face or a place that he has known might bring it all back in a flood; but he is so young that a few years of this life may cause actual forgetfulness, irrespective of the original injury, and he may never be able to recall the past at all. ”

“ Lighton’s eyes brightened.
“You are very good to say so.”
“Not at all. I do not profess I want the child here; I shall not see much of him if he comes. I have no disposition to look at the case sentimentally; but you appeal to my sense of justice and hospitality. A small atom of humanity has been cast up at our doors, and I, as the Squire of the place, admit that my door is the one that should open to him.” ”

“ A smile stole over Bertie’s face.
“That will be nice,” he said.
“And Phil is never cross. We’ll both help you to be happy. Only you must not be too good, you know, or we shall be frightened of you.”
Bertie’s face was bright again now. He did not quite understand Queenie’s words, but he saw that she was friendly again.
“You shall come to see us soon,” she said. “Have you any lessons to do?”
“No; the doctor says I mustn’t do any yet; but I read in the Squire’s study sometimes.” ”

“ So Queenie led Bertie away in triumph, saying as she did so,—
“There! I knew papa would let us be friends. Now you will have somebody to talk to when you are dull.”
If Miss Queenie had expected Bertie to be very much impressed by this favor, she was certainly doomed to be disappointed.
“I have somebody to talk to now,” he answered.
“Yes, but not anybody who is any fun,” answered Queenie, quickly. “Grown-up people are so dull.” ”

“ The Squire is a very kind man.”
“Mamma doesn’t like him,” remarked Queenie. “She tells people he is very unsociable, and does not treat her with proper respect. I think he looks a nice old man. I met him once when I was out on my pony, and had run away from William and lost him. He picked up my whip for me because I’d dropped it, and when I thanked him, he smiled and looked quite kind, though in church he is always so grave and solemn. But I can’t think why he should take a little fisherman’s boy to live in his house.” ”