by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SICK GIRL.
The last part of the interview between Fanny and Mr. O'Shane had beenwitnessed by Mrs. Kent, who came out of the house when she had attendedto the wants of her sick child. The dark cloud which menaced her a fewmoments before had rolled away, and, if the sunshine did not beam uponher, she was comparatively happy in having one trouble less to weighher down. She was calm now, but the tears--they were tears ofrelief--still rolled down her wan and furrowed cheek.
"I have prayed for help, and help has come," said she to her deliverer,as the harsh landlord walked away.
Fanny could not make any reply to a statement of this kind. She was afugitive and a wanderer; she was a thief, shunning the gaze of men, andshe could not conceive of such a thing as that she had been sent as anangel of relief to the poor woman in answer to her prayers. As shethought what she was and what she had been doing, a blush of shamesuffused her cheek. She was silent; there was nothing which she couldsay at such a moment.
"Heaven will bless you for your good, kind heart. You are an angel,"continued Mrs. Kent.
Fanny knew how far she was from being an angel, and she had no heartfor deceiving the poor woman. It might be fun and excitement to deceivethe people at Woodville, but Mrs. Kent seemed to be sanctified by hersorrows.
"I hope you haven't robbed yourself by your good deed, miss," added thepoor woman, wondering why Fanny did not speak.
"O, no! I have some more money."
Perhaps Mrs. Kent thought it singular that a young girl, like Fanny,should happen to have so much money about her, but she did not ask anyquestions; and perhaps she did not think that one who had been so kindto her could do anything wrong.
"Now, you will come into the house and see poor Jenny. She will want tothank you for what you have done," said Mrs. Kent, leading the way tothe door.
Fanny could not refuse this reasonable request, but she felt verystrangely. She found herself commended and reverenced for what she haddone, and she could not help feeling how unworthy she was. Consciousthat she had performed a really good deed, she could not reconcile itwith her past conduct. It was utterly inconsistent with the base actshe had done in the morning; and in the light of one deed the otherseemed so monstrous that she almost loathed herself.
She followed Mrs. Kent into the room where the sick girl was recliningupon the bed. There was no carpet on the floor, and the apartment wasvery meagerly furnished with the rudest and coarsest articles. Jennywas pale and emaciated; the hand of death seemed to be already uponher; but in spite of her paleness and her emaciation, there wassomething beautiful in her face; something in the expression of herlanguid eyes which riveted the attention and challenged the interest ofthe visitor.
"Jenny, this is the young lady whom God has sent to be our friend,"said Mrs. Kent, as they approached the bedside.
Fanny shuddered. "Whom God had sent"--she, a thief! She wanted to cry;she wanted to shrink back into herself.
"May I take your hand?" asked Jenny, in feeble tones.
Fanny complied with the request in silence, and with her eyes fixed onthe floor. The sick girl took the offered hand in her own, which wasalmost as cold as marble.
"Mother has prayed to Our Good Father, and I have prayed to Him all thetime for help," said Jenny, whose accents were hardly above a whisper."He has sent you to us, and you have saved us. Will you tell me yourname?"
"Fanny Grant."
"Fanny, I am going to heaven soon, and I will bear your name in myheart when I go. I will bless you for your good deed while I havebreath, and I will bless you when I get to heaven. You are a good girl,and I know that God will bless you too."
Poor Fanny! How mean she felt! As she stood in the presence of thatpure-minded child, already an angel in simple trust and confiding hope,she realized her own wickedness. The burden of her sins seemed to besettling down upon her with a weight that would crush her.
"I love you, Fanny," continued the invalid, "and I will pray for you tothe last moment of my life. Won't you speak to me?"
"I was very glad to do what I did," stammered Fanny, almost suffocatedby the weight which pressed down upon her.
"I know you are; for it is more blessed to give than to receive."
"I am very sorry you are so sick. Can I do anything to help you?"
"You have done all that could be done, Fanny. I like to speak yourname. It sounds like music to me. After what you have done, _Fanny_will always mean _goodness_ to me. You cannot do anything more; youhave already done enough."
"Don't you want anything?"
"No; I am happy now. I shall soon pass away, and go to my Saviour."
Mrs. Kent sobbed.
"Don't cry, mother," continued Jenny. "God will take care of you, andwe shall meet again."
"Can't I get anything for you, Jenny? Isn't there anything you want?"asked Fanny, who felt that she must do something, or she would soon beoverwhelmed by the emotions which agitated her soul.
"Nothing, Fanny. I don't think much of the things around me now. I feeljust as though I didn't belong here. This is not my home. Can you sing,Fanny?"
"I do sing, sometimes," replied she.
"Will you sing to me?"
"I will; what shall I sing?"
"Something about heaven?" answered Jenny, as she sank back upon thepillow, and fixed her gaze upon the ceiling, as though beyond it shecould see the happy home which, was ever in her thoughts.
Fanny, as we have said before, was a remarkable singer, not in theartistic sense, though, with proper cultivation of her talent, shemight have been all this also. She had a fine voice, and sang asnaturally as the birds sing. But this was not an occasion for artisticeffects. Never before had the soul of the wayward girl been so stirred.She was a Sunday-school scholar, and familiar with most of thebeautiful and touching melodies contained in children's song-books.
She was asked to sing "something about heaven;" and she began at once,as though it had been selected by some invisible agency and impressedupon her mind, with the beautiful hymn:--
"There's a home for the poor on that beautiful shore When life and its sorrows are ended; And sweetly they'll rest in that home of the blest, By the presence of angels attended. There's a home for the sad, and their hearts will be glad When they've crossed over Jordan so dreary; For bright is the dome of that radiant home Where so softly repose all the weary."
The "home for the poor on that beautiful shore" seemed to be almost insight of the singer, for the pale, dying girl spread heaven around her;and Fanny sang as she had never sung before. She could hardly keep downthe tears which struggled for birth in her dim eyes, and her sweetvoice was attuned to the sentiment of the words she sang, which werewedded to a melody so touching as to suggest the heaven it spoke of.
There was a seraphic smile on the wan face of Jenny as the singerfinished the first verse, and she clasped her thin white hands aboveher breast in the ecstasy of her bliss. Fanny sang the four verses ofthe hymn, and every moment of the time seemed to be a moment of raptureto the dying girl.
"How beautiful!" cried Jenny, after a period of silence at theconclusion of the hymn. "I have never been so happy, Fanny. Let me takeyour hand in mine again."
"Can I do anything more for you?" asked Fanny, as she gave her hand tothe invalid.
"No, nothing. It will make you tired to sing any more now."
"O, no! I could sing all day."
"But the sweet strains you have just sung still linger in my soul. Letme hold your hand a moment, and then I will go to sleep if I can. Ilike to hold your hand--you are so good."
Fanny despised herself. She wanted to tell Jenny what a monster ofwickedness she felt herself to be, and she would have done so if it hadnot been for giving pain to the gentle sufferer.
"I would like to go to heaven now, holding your hand, and mother's, andEddy's; for it seems to me I could carry you up to the Saviour with methen, and give you all to him; and he would love you for my sake,
andbecause you are so good. But I shall never forget you; I shall bearyour name to heaven with me, Fanny."
The wicked girl shuddered. "Depart from me," seemed to be the onlymessage the Saviour had for her.
"Let me do something more for you," said Fanny, who could not endure tobe called good by one who was so near heaven that there could be nohypocrisy or shadow of deceit in her heart.
"You may sing me one more hymn, if you are not too tired," repliedJenny.
"O, no! I am never tired of singing;" and she sang the song containingthe refrain, "There is sweet rest in heaven," with exquisite taste andfeeling.
Mrs. Kent whispered that Jenny must be weary now, and Fanny took thehand of the sick girl, to bid her good by.
"Good by, Fanny. I shall never see you again; but we shall meet inheaven," said Jenny, with her sweetest smile.
"I will come and see you again, if I can."
"How happy it would make me!"
"Perhaps I will come again to-day."
"I'm afraid if you don't, I shall never see you in this world again."
"I will come to-day."
"Good by," added Jenny, languidly, as Fanny followed Mrs. Kent out ofthe room.
"Isn't there anything I can bring to her?" asked Fanny, when they hadpassed into the other room.
"I don't know. Poor child! she knows how little I can do for her, andshe never says she wants anything. She is very fond of flowers, andEddy used to bring her dandelion blossoms, but these are all gone now."
"I will bring her some flowers," replied Fanny, who could not helpwishing for some of the beautiful flowers which grew in such profusionat Woodville.
But to her Woodville now seemed as far off as the heaven of which shehad been singing to the dying girl; but she thought she could obtainsome flowers in the city; and she felt as though she would give all therest of her ill-gotten treasure for a single bouquet.
Fanny begged Mrs. Kent to tell her if there was anything she could dofor the sick daughter, or for the family; and the poor woman confessedthat she had nothing in the house to eat except half a loaf of bread,which was to be their dinner. Lest her visitor should think herdestitution was caused by her own fault, she related the story ofhardships she had undergone since her husband departed with hisregiment.
Mr. Kent was a mechanic, and having been thrown out of employment bythe dull times at the commencement of the war, he had enlisted in oneof the regiments that departed earliest for the scene of hostilities.He had left his family with only a small sum of money, and had promisedto send all his pay to his wife, as soon as it was received. Mr. Kent'sregiment had been engaged in the disastrous battle of Bull Run, sincewhich he had not been heard from. It was known that he had been takenprisoner, but when exchanges were made he did not appear. His wife wasunwilling to believe that he was dead, and still hoped for tidings ofhim.
Jenny was sick when her father departed, but it was not supposed to bea dangerous illness; perhaps it would not have been if she had beensupplied with the comforts of life. The family had been driven from themore comfortable abode, in which Mr. Kent had left them, to Mr.O'Shane's miserable hovel. The poor woman had gone out to work untilJenny's condition demanded her constant attention. She had thenobtained what sewing she could; but with all her exertions she washardly able to obtain food for her family, to say nothing of procuringclothes, and paying the rent.
Mrs. Kent lived by herself, having little or no communication with theworld around her. She had heard of the provision for soldiers'families, and had made an effort to obtain this aid; but she was unableto prove that she was a soldier's wife, and being delicate andsensitive, she had not the courage to face the rebuffs of the officialsa second time.
Fanny listened to this story with but little interest. She was thinkingof Jenny, whose sweet smile of holy rapture still lingered in her mind.Promising to do something for the family, she took leave of Mrs. Kent,who had no words to express the gratitude she felt towards herbenefactor. Fanny went to the nearest store, and purchased a liberalsupply of provisions and groceries, which she sent back to the house.She felt better then, and walked down the street till she came to ahorse car, in which she rode down to the Park.