THE BIRTHDAY
One stormy evening Harry Evringham blew into the farmhouse, wet from his drive from the station, and was severally hugged, kissed, and shaken by the three who waited eagerly to receive him. The month that ensued was perhaps the happiest that had ever come into the lives of either of the quartette; certainly it was the happiest period to the married pair who had waited ten years for their wedding trip.
The days were filled with rowing, sailing, swimming, riding, driving, picnics, walks, talks, and dolce far niente evenings, when the wind was still and the moon silvered field and sea.
The happy hours were winged, the goldenrod strewed the land with sunshine, and August slipped away.
One morning when Jewel awoke it was with a sensation that the day was important. She looked over at Anna Belle and shook her gently. "Wake up, dearie," she said. "'Green pastures are before me,' it's my birthday."
But Anna Belle, who certainly looked very pretty in her sleep, and perhaps suspected it, seemed unable to overcome her drowsiness until Jewel set her up against the pillow, when her eyes at once flew open and she appeared ready for sociability.
"Do you remember Gladys on her birthday morning, dearie? She couldn't think of anything she wanted, and I'm almost like her. Grandpa's given me my boat, that's his birthday present; and mother says she should think it was enough for ten birthdays, and so should I. Poor grandpa! In ten birthdays I'll be nineteen, and then he says I'll have to cry on his shoulder instead of into his vest. But grandpa's such a joker! Of course grown-up ladies hardly ever cry. If father and mother have anything for me, I'll be just delighted; but I can't think what I want. I have the darlingest pony in the world, and the dearest Little Faithful watch, and the best boat that was ever built, and I rowed father quite a long way yesterday all alone, and I didn't splash much, but he caught hold of the side of the boat and pretended he was afraid"—Jewel's laughter gurgled forth at the remembrance—"he's such a joker; and I do understand the sail, too, but they won't let me do it alone yet. Father says he can see in my eye that I should love to jibe. I don't even know what jibe is, so how could I do it?"
Jewel had proceeded so far in her confidences when the door of her room opened, and her father and mother came in in their bath-wrappers.
"We thought we heard you improving Anna Belle's mind," said her father, taking her in his arms and kissing both her cheeks and chin, the tip of her nose and her forehead, and then carefully repeating the programme.
"But that was ten!" cried Jewel.
"Certainly. If you didn't have one to grow on, how would you get along?"
Then her pretty mother, her brown hair hanging in long braids, took her turn and kissed Jewel's cheeks till they were pinker than ever. "Many, many happy returns, my little darling," she said. "I didn't know you weren't going riding this morning."
"Yes, grandpa said he expected a man early on business, and he had to be here to see him. Father could have gone with me," said Jewel, looking at him reproachfully, where he sat on the side of the bed, "but when I asked him last night he said—I forget what he said."
"Merely that I didn't believe that horses liked such early dew."
"Oh, Jewel!" laughed Mrs. Evringham, "your father is a lazy, sleepy boy. It's later than you think, dearie. Hop up now and get ready for breakfast."
They left her, and the little girl arose with great alacrity, for ever since she was a baby her birthday present had always been on the breakfast table.
As soon as she was dressed, she put a blue cashmere wrapper on Anna Belle and carried her downstairs to the room where the Evringham family had their meals, separate from the other inmates of the farmhouse.
Mr. Evringham was standing by the window, reading the newspaper as he waited, and Jewel ran to him and looked up with bright expectation.
"H'm!" he said, not lifting his eyes from the print, "good-morning, Jewel. Essex Maid and Star would hardly speak to me when I was out there just now, they're so vexed at having to stay indoors this morning."
The child did not reply, but continued to look up, smiling.
"Well," said the broker at last, dropping the paper. "Well? What is it? I don't see anything very exciting. You haven't on your silk dress."
"Grandpa! It's my birthday."
The broker slapped his leg with very apparent annoyance. "Well, now, to think I should have to be told that!"
Jewel laughed and hopped a little as she looked toward the table. "Do you see that bunch under the cloth at my place? That's my present. Isn't it the most fun not to know what it is?"
Mr. Evringham took her up in his arms and weighed her up and down thoughtfully. "Yes," he said, "I believe you are a little heavier than you were yesterday."
The child laughed again.
"Now remember, Jewel, you're to go slow on this birthday business. Once in two or three years is all very well."
"Grandpa! people have to have birthdays every year," she replied as he set her down, "but after they're about twenty or something like that, it's wrong to remember how old they are."
"Indeed?" the broker stroked his mustache. "Ladies especially, I suppose."
"Oh, no," returned Jewel seriously. "Everybody. Mother's just twenty years older than I am and that's so easy to remember, it's going to be hard to forget; but I've most forgotten how much older father is," and Jewel looked up with an expression of determination that caused the broker to smile broadly.
"I can understand your mother's being too self-respecting to pass thirty," he returned, "but just why your father shouldn't, I fail to understand."
"Why, it's error to be weak and wear spectacles and have things, isn't it?" asked Jewel, with such swift earnestness that Mr. Evringham endeavored to compose his countenance.
"Have things?" he repeated.
Jewel's head fell to one side. "Why, even you, grandpa," she said lovingly, "even you thought you had the rheumatism."
"I was certainly under that impression."
"But you never would have expected to have it when you were as young as father, would you?"
"Hardly."
"Well, then you see why it's wrong to make laws about growing old and to remember people's ages."
"Ah, I see what you mean. Everybody thinking the wrong way and jumping on a fellow when he's down, as it were."
At this moment Jewel's father and mother entered the room, and she instantly forgot every other consideration in her interest as to what charming surprise might be bunched up under the tablecloth.
"Anna Belle can hardly wait to see my present," she said, lifting her shoulders and smiling at her mother.
"She ought to know one thing that's there, certainly," replied Mrs. Evringham mysteriously.
Jewel held the doll up in front of her. "Have you given me something, dearie?" she asked tenderly. "I do hope you haven't been extravagant."
Then with an abrupt change of manner, she hopped up into her chair eagerly, and the others took their places.
The very first package that Jewel took out was marked—"With Anna Belle's love." It proved to be a pair of handsome white hair-ribbons, and the donor looked modestly away as Jewel expressed her pleasure and kissed her blushing cheeks.
Next came a box marked with her father's name. Upon opening it there was discovered a set of ermine furs for Anna Belle,—at least they were very white furs with very black tiny tails: collar and muff of a regal splendor, and any one who declined to call them ermine would prove himself a cold skeptic. Jewel jounced up and down in her chair with delight.
"Winter's coming, you know, Jewel, and Bel-Air Park is a very swell place," said her father.
"And perhaps I'll have a sled at Christmas and draw Anna Belle on it," said the child joyously. "Here, dearie, let's see how they fit," and on went the furs over the blue cashmere wrapper, making Anna Belle such a thing of beauty that Jewel gazed at her entranced. The doll was left with her chubby hands in the ample muff and the sumptuous collar half eclipsing her golden curls, while the little girl dived under the cloth once more for the largest package of all.
This was marked with her mother's love and contained handsome plaid material for a dress, with the silk to trim it, and a pair of kid gloves.
Jewel hopped down from her chair and kissed first her father and then her mother. "That'll be the loveliest dress!" she said, and she carried it to her grandfather to let him look closer and put his hand upon it.
"Well, well, you are having a nice birthday, Jewel," he said.
"Yes," she replied, putting her arm around his neck and pressing her cheek to his. "We couldn't put the boat under the tablecloth, but I'm thinking about it, grandpa."
After breakfast they all went out to the covered piazza to read the lesson. It was a fine, still morning. The pond rippled dreamily. The roar of the surf was subdued. From Jewel's seat beside her grandfather she could see her namesake glinting in the sun and gracefully rising and falling on the waves in the gentle breeze.
They had all taken comfortable positions and Mrs. Evringham was finding the places in the books.
Mr. Evringham spoke quite loudly: "Well, this is a fine morning, surely, fine."
"It is that," agreed Harry, stretching his long legs luxuriously. "If I felt any better I couldn't stand it."
As he was speaking, a strange man in a checked suit came around the corner of the house.
Jewel's eyes grew larger and she straightened up.
"Oh, grandpa, look!" she said softly, and then jumped off the seat to see better. All the little company gazed with interest, for, accompanying the man, was the most superb specimen of a collie dog that they had ever seen. "It's a golden dog, grandpa," added Jewel.
The collie had evidently just been washed and brushed. His coat was, indeed, of a gleaming yellow. His paws were white, the tip of his tail was white, and his breast was snowy as the thick, soft foam of the breakers. A narrow strip of white descended between his eyes,—golden, intelligent eyes, with generations of trustworthiness in them. A silver collar nestled in the long hair about his neck, and altogether he looked like a prince among dogs.
Jewel clasped her hands beneath her chin and gazed at him with all her eyes. He was too splendid to be flown at in her usual manner with animals.
"What a beauty!" ejaculated Harry.
"It is a golden dog," said Jewel's mother, looking almost as enthusiastic as the child.
"What have you there?" asked Mr. Evringham of the man. "Something pretty fine, it appears to me."
"Yes, sir, there's none finer," replied the man, glancing at the animal. "I called to see you on that little matter I wrote you of."
"Yes, yes; well, that will wait. We're interested in that fine collie of yours. We know something about golden dogs here, eh, Jewel?"
"But this dog couldn't dance, grandpa," said the child soberly, drawing nearer to the creature.
"I should think not," remarked the man, smiling. "What would he be doing dancing? I've seen lions jump the rope in shows; but it never looked fitting, to me."
"No," said Jewel, "this dog ought not to dance;" and as the collie's golden eyes met hers, she drew nearer still in fascination, and he touched her outstretched hand curiously, with his cold nose.
"Oh, well, but we like accomplished dogs," said Mr. Evringham coldly.
"Who says this dog ain't accomplished?" returned the man, in an injured tone. "Just stand back there a bit, young lady."
Jewel retreated and her grandfather put his hand over her shoulder. The man spoke to the dog, and at once the handsome creature sat up, tall and dignified, on his hind legs.
The man only kept him there a few seconds; and then he put him through a variety of other performances. The golden dog shook hands when he was told, rolled over, jumped over a stick, and at last sat up again, and when the man took a bit of sugar from his pocket and balanced it on the creature's nose, he tossed it in the air, and, catching it neatly, swallowed it in a trice.
Jewel was giving subdued squeals of delight, and everybody was laughing with pleasure; for the decorative creature appeared to enjoy his own tricks.
The man looked proudly around upon the company.
"Well," said Mr. Evringham to Jewel, "he is a dog of high degree, like Gabriel's, isn't he? But he's such a big fellow I think the organ-grinder wouldn't have such an easy time with him."
At the broker's voice, the dog walked up to him and wagged his feathery tail. Jewel's eager hands went out to touch him, but Mr. Evringham held her back.
"He's a friendly fellow," he went on; then continued to the man, "Would you like to sell him?"
The question set the little girl's heart to beating fast.
"I would, first rate," replied the man, grinning, "but the trouble is I've sold him once. I'm taking him to his owner now."
"That's a handsome collar you have on him."
"Oh, yes, it's a good one all right," returned the man. "The dog is for a surprise present. The lady I'm taking him to is going to know him by his name."
"Let's have a look at it, Jewel," said Mr. Evringham, and he took hold of the silver collar, a familiarity which seemed rather to please the golden dog, who began wagging his tail again, as he looked at Mr. Evringham trustingly.
Jewel bent over eagerly. A single name was engraved clearly on the smooth plate.
"Topaz!" she cried. "His name is Topaz! Grandpa, mother, the golden dog's name is Topaz!"
Mrs. Evringham held up both hands in amazement, while Harry frowned incredulously.
"Did you ever hear of anything so wonderful, grandpa? How can the lady know him by his name so well as we do?" The child was quite breathless.
"What? Do you know the name?" asked the man. "Supposing I'd hit on the right place already. Just take a look under his throat. The owner's name is there."
Jewel fell on her knees, and while Mr. Evringham kept his hand on the dog's muzzle, she pushed aside the silky white fur.
"Evringham. Bel-Air Park, New Jersey," was what she read, engraved on the silver.
She sat still for a minute, overcome, while a procession of ideas crowded after each other through the flaxen head. It was her birthday; grandpa couldn't get the boat under the tablecloth. This beautiful dog—this impossibly beautiful dog, was a surprise present. He was for her, to love and to play with; to see his tricks every day, to teach him to know her and to run to her when she called. If she was given the choice of the Whole world on this sweet birthday morning, it seemed to her nothing could be so desirable as this live creature, this playmate, this prince among dogs.
When she looked up the man in the checked suit had disappeared. She glanced at her father and mother. They were watching her smilingly and she understood that they had known.
She looked around a little further and saw Mr. Evringham seated, his hand on the collie's neck, while the wagging, feathery tail expressed great contentment in the touch of a good friend.
At the time the story of the golden dog had so captivated Jewel's imagination, the broker began his search for one in real life. He had already been thinking that a dog would be a good companion for the fearless child's solitary hours in the woods. As soon as the collie was found, he directed that all the ordinary tricks should be taught it, and every day until he left New York he visited the creature, who remembered him so well that on the collie's arrival late last evening, he had feared its joyous barking out at the barn would waken Jewel.
She rose to her knees now, and, putting her arms around the dog's neck, pressed her radiant face against him.
Topaz pulled back, but Mr. Evringham patted him, and in an instant he was freed; for his little mistress jumped up and, climbing into her grandfather's lap, rested her head against his breast.
"Grandpa," she said, slowly and fervently, "I wonder if you do know how much I love you!"
Mr. Evringham patted the collie's head, then took Jewel's hand and placed it with his own on the sleek forehead. The golden eyes met his attentively.
"You're to take care of her, Topaz. Do you understand?" he asked.
The feathery tail waved harder.
Jewel gazed at the dog. "If anything could be too good to be true, he'd be it," she said slowly.
Mr. Evringham's pleasure showed in his usually impassive face.
"Well, isn't it a good thing then that nothing is?" he replied, and he kissed her.