Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

“ Lottie ran to the window and peeked.
"It's a man," she whispered. "Wipe your eyes, Sarah. It's the minister. I know him by his pants. He's the only man that don't go to the city to work that wears creased pants in the morning in this town. Wipe your eyes, Sarah. You don't want him to see you've been cryin'."
"I don't care," wept Sarah. "I'm going to tell him the whole story and ask for his advice. What's a minister for? He can offer up the question to the Lord in prayer."
"If he don't offer it up to his wife, it's all right," Lottie said in a loud whisper, on her way to the door. ”

“ Sneezing don't prove you've got a cold. Hm!"
"Why, Sarah!"
Sarah stepped majestically doorward as the bell rang again. She walked on her heels as she had a trick of doing when feeling unusually self-sufficient. Lottie peeked around the curtain over the pots of geranium, but she could see nothing. She could hear voices, and the wind came in the cracks of the sitting-room door. The front door closed with a bang, and Lottie darted back to her chair. She expected to see Mrs. Bannister enter irate after turning away a peddler, but after Sarah entered a young girl, hardly more than a child. ”

“ The girl resisted the last a little, and her small, timid voice murmured something about her dress.
"Never mind your dress," said Sarah. "You will get warmer with these off."
As she spoke she laid the coat and hat on a chair, rather gingerly. Such rags as the coat disclosed, such rags of a red silk lining, and such a sinfully draggled feather decked the old hat. Sarah turned to look at the girl. Lottie was looking. Lottie had her mouth slightly open. Sarah gasped. The girl sitting there, meekly, almost limply, was a darling of a girl (judging from her little face) . ”

“ Lottie flushed. "I care more about decency than I do about style," she snapped. Her animosity was no longer disguised.
Mrs. Wilson laughed again. "Well, it is nice to have a neck long and thin like yours in case the styles changed, and they are bound to, and I look like a freak with a high collar," she said, good-naturedly. "But, Sarah Bannister, and you, too, Lottie, I didn't come here to discuss low necks and high collars. I came here about that Brett family. You remember the talk when the father ran away and left those six children, after the mother died of quick consumption?" ”

“ Well, anyway, Clara Walsingham wants to know, and, of course, she has a right."
"Just like Clara to write that sort of a letter," said Lottie. "Why can't folks come right out? I hate beating round the bush."
Mrs. Wilson giggled. "As for me, there never was a bush handy to beat around. I had to come right out and say my say. Well, the fact is not a woman of the society knows a thing about these Brett children, and who is going to begin? I would, but my little boy is sick, and I suspect measles. I can't carry measles into a poor and deserving family. ”

“ Sarah decided to have Lottie bring the presents out from the icy parlor and see if she could not get them ready for mailing during the day.
"By doing that," said she, "I can have to-morrow to go and see those Brett children. Of course, something can be hung on the Sunday-school tree for them, anyway, and it can be seen to that they come, but I don't feel right to wait till after Christmas to do more than that. They may be suffering."
"Guess they're all right," said Lottie. "When there's such a tribe as they, somebody bobs up and looks after them." ”

“ Sarah glanced at the heap of wool and red silk rags on the chair, and remembered a nice thick wool coat in the closet of a certain chamber.
Lottie asked again, but more gently, "What is your name, little girl?"
"Joan Brooks."
"Oh, I know her," said Lottie, with an accent of slight scorn. "Her father's that broken-down minister. He fills the pulpit sometimes when Mr. Whitman has bronchitis."
"He preaches very well, too," said Sarah, kindly.
"Father is not broken down. He stands up as well as you do," said Joan, unexpectedly. Then she began to rise. "Where is my coat?" ”

“ She was a tiny woman snugged in a lavender wool shawl. The tip of her sharp nose was red. Her blue eyes were tearful, from cold and enthusiasm. Lottie was prey to enthusiasms, even petty ones.
"I've got a lot more to do. I sha'n't try any different patterns from these here; the same with the knitted lace. That will make it easier."
Sarah Bannister clipped the last word short with a sneeze.
"Sarah, you are catching cold in this room."
"Don't know but I am. It never will heat when the wind's northwest. It's bitter outdoors to-day, too. The snow hasn't melted one mite. ”

“ She said both the children looked well dressed and well nourished, but the eldest girl wouldn't tell her who was looking after them."
"Guess the aunt came back," said Lottie, rather indifferently. Lottie was always indifferent when it came to large families of the poor. It had always vaguely seemed to her like something immoral.
Sarah looked interested. "Why, it seems as if the aunt must have come back," said she, "if they looked as well as you say. How old is the eldest girl?"
"Oh, they are all young. She can't be more than eight, a very pretty child with red-gold hair. They are all shy ”

“ The minister's wife says she would right away, but her sister with her four children has come to spend Christmas with her, and she has her own three and no help. She says after Christmas she can do anything."
"I'd go to-morrow," said Sarah, reflectively, "but I think I have taken cold, and—it seems selfish, but I must get my presents off. I got rid of working on more, for I bought a lot, but I have a quantity to do up." ”

“ The minister nodded, and Lottie reentered, leading Joan, or, rather, pulling her, for the little girl seemed to resist.
"Come here, dear," said Sarah. "Don't be afraid. Nobody is going to hurt you."
The little girl, carrying her bag, which did not seem so full as yesterday, allowed Sarah to put her arm around her. ”

“ There was not among them a man or a woman to whom he could betray his every-day thoughts of the great present of the world. Not one could have understood. During the war he had done his best to discharge his duty to his God and his country among a people whom the war, in spite of their Red Cross work and their contributions to the Expeditionary Forces, never reached. ”

“ I haven't done wrong. The lady didn't give the money in the first place to the Brett children, so, of course, I had to see to it. And now she has her presents all back and everything. I think I must go now or I shall have no time to buy some meat and cook the children's dinner."
Sarah opened her black silk bag and handed a bill to the little girl. "Kiss me, dear," she whispered. ”

“ You know at first we thought the town would have to do something about it."
"Didn't the aunt take them away?" asked Lottie.
"Why, no, it seems she didn't. The minister's wife saw the oldest girl—she's a pretty little thing, you know—dragging a small one on a sled yesterday. ”