“You won’t need me.” Her voice was wistful as she made the admission. “Miss Moran will see to you—and I’m not jealous, not really, you know, only I’m sort of lonesomey. There’s sure to be somebody here in the Valley that’ll need me and I feel as if I’ve just got to have somebody to see to.”
“We’ll always need you, Peg—always.” Archibald’s arm went round her and drew her close. “Even Miss Moran can’t see to me so that I won’t need you. And there are plenty of people here in the Valley who’d be the better for having you with them; but there’s something you haven’t realized yet, dear. The whole world needs seeing to; and there aren’t many people like you who have a genius for doing it. You mustn’t be wasted on two or three neighbors, here in the Valley, when outside, beyond the hills, there are thousands and thousands needing what you could give them. Don’t you see, Peg? You’ve got to reach those poor unhappy thousands and help them. Other women are doing it—doing it wonderfully. Out in Chicago there’s a woman who must have been a girl with a heart like yours; and now she’s seeing to a whole city and to men and women and children out beyond that city, all over the world. She’s only one of the many; and there’s nothing they are doing that you can’t do, if you’ll work your way to it.
“That’s what Nora and I want to help you to; and school’s the first step toward it. What do you say, Pegeen?”
The child’s face was rapt, illumined. The great blue eyes were seeing visions.
“Oh, my stars!” she murmured longingly. “If I could—if I only could! Wouldn’t it be wonderful?—better than Jizo. Of course I’ll go to school, I’d love to.”
A flash of recollection swept across the future-searching eyes.
“But I’ve got to have time enough in between to see to Mr. Meredith,” she stipulated. “He needs me.”
THE END