CHAPTER XV

SUSY IN SERVICE

"DO put it on, dear Miss Bertha; we're longing to see you in it!"

Puggy and Christina were in Miss Bertha's tiny drawing-room. A bandbox was on the floor, and Miss Bertha stood before them, holding up the wonderful red bonnet in her hand.

A piece of paper was attached to it, on which was written in Puggy's best handwriting:

"With love, from the United Kingdom."

Her face was a curious mixture of astonishment, pleasure, and—if I must say it—of horror, as she looked from the bonnet to the two excited children.

"Did you really buy this for me in London? A real London bonnet! How very, very kind of you, dears!"

"It was Blanche and Dawn who thought of it," said Christina; "and we all chose it; we chose the very best!"

"Yes," put in Puggy; "and we knew you would like a cheerful kind of colour, and you'll look tiptop next Sunday in church. You'll promise us faithfully to wear it, won't you? We got into rather a fix over it; but it's all right now, and we're to write a long letter to Dawn to tell him how you look. Do try it on now!"

"I'm only afraid, dears, that it is too grand for me," said poor Miss Bertha. "Yes, I will go upstairs and try it on certainly!"

She was gone some minutes, and when she came back with the startling erection on the top of her sweet grey hair, she looked as if she were just going to sit down in the dentist's chair and have two of her front teeth out.

But the children were delighted, except that Christina said:

"I have never seen you look so grand before. You look quite different somehow."

"She looks stunning!" said Puggy. "And we'll write at once and tell Dawn so! Come on, Tina."

"But I must wait and tell Miss Bertha about Susy," said Christina.

Then Miss Bertha slipped out of the room again. She had a few words with her servant Lucy as she wrapped the bonnet in silver paper and put it in one of her drawers.

"I wouldn't hurt their little feelings for the world, Lucy, but I shall pray that next Sunday may be a wet day. It will be the only loophole for me. I would not be so wicked as to wish for the death of any of my distant relatives, but if I could go into mourning for any other cause, how grateful I should be!"

Then she put on her cap again, and went down to Christina, who poured into her ears all she had seen and done in London, and told her of Susy's plight.

Miss Bertha listened with her usual cheery sympathy. She was very interested about the Bollands, and told Christina that years ago a school-friend of hers had married an artist named Bolland.

"I should not wonder a bit if it were the same man. If he will look after Susy, you need not trouble, Childie. Do you see how God guides in every bit of life? If you had gone off to the Zoo that day instead of to see those old people, you would never have heard about Susy. It really seems as if we are to help that child. She is a dear little girl, and Lucy was only saying to me, after she had left the village, that she would so like to have her and train her up as a little servant. Perhaps, if her poor father dies, we may be able to manage that."

"Oh!" cried Christina in a fervour of delight, "How lovely, Miss Bertha! Would you really have her in your house as your little servant? And I could come and see her sometimes. Oh! How I wish it could come true!"

"We must not wish her father to die. What a good thing it is for us that our loving Father arranges our lives for us, otherwise how many mistakes we should make! You will hear soon, I expect, from her."

Two days afterwards Christina did hear. Mr. Bolland wrote to her to tell her that Susy's father had died in hospital; he said he was going to look after Susy till something could be arranged for her. Directly Miss Bertha heard this she determined to go up to London herself and bring Susy back with her, and in correspondence with Mr. Bolland, she discovered that his wife was indeed her old school-friend. They insisted that she should stay with them for a few days, and Miss Bertha thankfully agreed. She did not move about much, and a visit to London was a great event to her. She had a horror of hotels and strange lodgings, so this invitation greatly eased her mind.

Puggy and Christina were both disappointed to find that she was going up to London on the Saturday; but Christina was too much concerned about Susy to mind much that they would not see Miss Bertha wear their gift.

"I'm back at school on Monday," said Puggy, as he wished Miss Bertha good-bye at the station.

The two children had been allowed to ride down to the station on their ponies to see her off. "But I do think you might have worn your bonnet up to London. I shan't get a chance of seeing you in it till the Easter holidays!"

"I should have spoilt it in the train," said Miss Bertha, looking a little uncomfortable; "but I shall always value it, Puggy. It is the loving gift of three dear little friends of mine."

"And will you go to see Dawn?" asked Puggy. "And tell him if he doesn't cut off those curls of his before Easter, I'll do it myself the first day I see him!"

"Oh no," said Miss Bertha. "Dawn is just his quaint little self with his curls. He never will be like other boys, and we would not wish him to be so. I will see him if I can, but I must make no promises."

"Good-bye, dear Miss Bertha," said Christina; "and give Susy my love, and tell her I'm longing to see her."

The train went off, and the children turned homewards.

"I wish my school was in London," said Puggy. "Dawn seems to have all the fun in life and I have the grind."

"I don't like London," said Christina emphatically. "It's too crowded with people, and I don't think Miss Bertha likes it any better than I do! But I'm so glad she's going up to Susy. If I was left alone in London as Susy is, there is nobody I should like better than Miss Bertha to come up to me."

"You ought to like your father best."

Christina considered.

"Yes, I like him best, of course; but I couldn't tell him things that I could Miss Bertha. She always knows what you feel like inside, other people tell you what you ought to feel like, and I never feel what I ought."

"I never think of feelings at all," said Puggy a little scornfully; "that's just like a girl!"

Miss Bertha remained away a week. When she returned with Susy, Christina was hard at work, learning lessons with Miss Loder.

But the first day she was allowed, she went over to Miss Bertha; and Susy opened the door to her in a black frock and white apron.

"Oh, Miss Christina, I've been through such a time; oh dear, oh dear!"

And Susy began to cry.

Christina tried to comfort her, and then heard about her father's last illness.

"He were so good an' patient," said Susy, "an' so wonderful sorry for all 'e'd been an' done. He seemed to lie in bed an' think of all 'e'd done when he were in drink. He told me to teach of 'im to pray to God, an' I learned 'im what you learned me, how Jesus died on the Cross for his sins, and poor dad were just broken 'earted.

"'I've bin a bad father to you, my poor gel,' he says.

"An' I says, 'No, dad, not when you were out o' drink.'

"An' 'e says to me the last night afore he died: 'I'm askin' to be forgiven my sins all the time along, do 'ee think I shall be 'eared?'

"An' I says, 'Sure to be, dad, 'cause the Bible says so'; an I readed 'im a tex' off the 'orsepital wall,—

"'Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;—'

"An' then he puts his 'ead down on the piller with a groan, 'Ay, Lord, ha' mercy; Lord, ha' mercy!'

"An' nurse told me 'e never spoke no more!"

"Oh," said Christina, mingling her tears with Susy's, "do let's come to Miss Bertha; she will make us feel happy."

And so Miss Bertha did. She talked to them both about the beautiful home above, and how sinful men and women were received there for the sake of their Saviour. She pictured the meeting between Susy's father and mother, and how glad her mother would be to hear about her little daughter. And then changing the subject, she sent them both out to the kitchen to help Lucy make some hot cakes for tea. Later on she told Christina about her visit to the Bollands.

"My dear old friend was so glad to have me with her, and I think I was able to cheer her up a little. She said you had comforted her so much, Childie, by giving her your verse to think of. I was so glad to hear it."

"I wonder," said Christina reflectively, "if I am getting braver. I don't think I am quite so frightened now as I used to be. I'm not frightened of my pony; I like riding him. But I'm always afraid of what may come to me."

"When it comes, Childie, you know who will keep fear away from you."

And Christina smiled, for she had proved the truth of her text.

Susy settled down wonderfully soon in Miss Bertha's small establishment. At times she had restive fits on, and then Miss Bertha would send her out of doors, either to take a message to Christina, to shop in the village, or to weed the garden. She was very docile and obedient, and took the keenest interest in all housework.

"I always mean to have a little house of my own one day," she confided to Lucy; "and p'r'aps, as I shan't have no dad to look after, I shall be able to get a husband!"

Lucy, being an old-fashioned soul, was quite shocked.

"In my young days, such things was never mentioned to children like you!" she said.

"Ah, well," said Susy with an old-fashioned air, "I've travelled a lot, an' heerd tell a deal more than most. I knows husban's need a lot o' care an' patience, but they be needful if you has a house, and women are born to take care o' people, ain't they? You an' me takes care o' Miss Bertha, and Miss Bertha takes care o' nearly all the village: they told me so, that time I stopped along wi' dad at the Red Bull."

"You might be fifty to hear you talk," said Lucy, and Susy subsided into silence.

Occasionally, when the turret room wanted cleaning out, Christina was allowed to borrow Susy for the day; and the two little girls had a grand time together, Christina enjoying the scrubbing and cleaning quite as much as Susy. Eventually they used that room a good deal, and whenever it was wet, and Christina was shut up in the house, Miss Bertha would send Susy over to her, and the two would retire to the turret room, where they talked a great deal, and mutually helped one another, Christina with her superior book knowledge, and Susy with her wider experience and unselfish views of life. Neither Mrs. Maclahan or Miss Loder objected to the friendship now. Susy was slowly winning her way with every one, and Lucy's training added to Miss Bertha's kind supervision was turning her into a capital little servant.

"I don't miss the boys half so much since Susy has come," Christina informed Miss Bertha one day. "You see, I can't have very grave talks with Puggy and Dawn; Puggy always laughs at me, and Dawn won't listen, he begins to talk himself. But Susy understands things much better. She says boys and men don't think like women and girls."

Miss Bertha laughed.

"Susy is a little cynic sometimes, though she doesn't know it."

"I had a letter from Dawn this morning," Christina went on. "He asked me if you had worn your bonnet yet?"

A faint colour came into Miss Bertha's cheeks.

"It is a little bit heavy," she confessed. "I think I must keep it till next winter, Childie. The mild bright weather is coming on, and I get headaches if I have too much weight on my head."

Christina assented innocently; and the Christmas bonnet as yet had never been worn.

Time slipped by, and soon the Easter holidays came round.

Dawn and his father appeared first, and took possession of their country cottage again.

When Puggy arrived, Dawn came over to the Towers and spent a long day there, and it was in the turret room that Susy was brought under discussion.

"We're not going to have her here in the holidays," announced Puggy; "we don't want to see her, or hear anything about her. She's nothing to do with us."

"She has a good deal to do with me," said Christina warmly; "and if you don't like to have her here, I shall go to Miss Bertha's to see her."

"All right, you can; but you'll have to be here when I want you, because you belong to me."

This statement of Puggy's always annoyed Christina.

"I'd rather belong to Dawn than to you," she said.

"But you can't. Scotland is joined on to England, and England comes first. I'm the most important one."

"I wonder what Susy is," said Christina. "She isn't Scotch I'm afraid."

"She doesn't belong to the United Kingdom," said Puggy with decision.

"She must be one of us. I think she's English," said Christina.

"No she isn't. I won't own her," snapped Puggy.

"I'll tell you! We'll make her Wales," said Dawn; "and then she won't be on any side particular. And we won't think of her at all."

So Susy was made into a Welshwoman, and though Christina suggested that Wales was joined to England, Puggy would not listen, and for the time Susy's visits to the Towers were discontinued.

"I've got a most splendid game in my head," announced Dawn one morning. He always appeared after breakfast, ready for any amount of fun.

"What is it? We want a fresh game."

"It's a kind of civil war," explained Dawn. "Yesterday evening I went out on the village green when the boys were playing cricket, and they said they would join us. I'm going to rise up against Great Britain, and I'll get the better of you both."

"Hurrah!" cried Puggy. "And we'll have followers; I'll go down to the village and get some."

"Wait a minute. I've bagged the Murphy boys because they're Irish, and the Greens' mother came from Ireland, so they belong to me. I thought we'd prepare to-day, and have a regular fight to-morrow all over the woods and lanes. I'll have a force, and you'll have a force, and we'll choose our men to-day."

"But I can't fight," said Christina anxiously.

The boys considered.

"Well," said Puggy, a flash of inspiration seizing him, "you must be my wife and stay in the turret room, and Dawn and his rebel soldiers will come to attack it, and you must prevent them getting in."

"I can lock the door," said Christina comfortably.

"No, you mustn't do that, for he'll never be able to get in."

"But I shan't want him to."

"Oh, but I shall come and carry you off, and Puggy will come after us and rescue you. It will be scrumptious!"

"I don't think father will like the village boys all coming into the house and up the back stairs," said Christina.

"The Squire and Ena are going out for the day to-morrow," observed Puggy.

"So we won't tell them till they come back," said Dawn. "That's always best. Dad says he's often glad he doesn't know the mischief I'm in till it's over, so I always try to keep him from being anxious!"

"But that isn't quite true!" objected Christina.

The boys looked at each other.

"I don't believe Ena would mind at all," said Puggy. "She isn't a bit strict. I'll go and ask her."

This was done. Mrs. Maclahan laughed, told them to confine their warfare to the turret tower, and gave them the desired permission.

Christina was not sure whether she liked the prospect in front of her or not.

"Am I to stay in the turret all the day?" she asked.

"I'll come and attack it pretty soon," Dawn assured her; "but we've got to pitch our camps first."

"And must I be quite alone? I'm sure a soldier's wife would have some servants."

"You can have Susy if you like."

Then Christina's face grew radiant. She went off to Miss Bertha's as soon as she could, and got permission for Susy to come to her the first thing the next morning. And though Puggy took away the key of the turret room, and told her she would have to barricade it, she did not feel a tremor of fear. With Susy she could do and dare all things.