A successful venture

by Ellen Douglas Deland

Honor shook her head very decidedly.

“It wouldn’t do at all,” said she.

Sophy, who had been listening attentively, dried her eyes. She was extremely disturbed by Victoria’s emotion, as were they all. It was so unusual to see her cry that Sophy felt that something very serious must be the matter. The little girl was ready to do anything to make her happier or to help Peter. The girls all said that to talk to a grown-up man would be the best thing for Peter, and that Mr. Madison would be the one of all others. Why not get Mr. Madison, then? To be sure, Honor had said that he must not be asked, but perhaps he would come without being asked if he knew that Peter needed him. Sophy felt very confident that Mr. Madison was a kind-hearted man, and if he were once told that he was needed, he would not wait to be asked.

She tried to say something of this to her sisters, but they were talking to each other and endeavoring to comfort Victoria, and she could not make them hear, so she determined to act for herself. She heard the whistle of one of the afternoon trains as it left the junction at Waterview. Perhaps Mr. Madison was on it!

Without further delay, she ran downstairs and out the front door. Like a young squirrel she scampered across the lawn and along the grassy path that led to the little station, arriving there just as the train did. One passenger only left it, and, greatly to her disappointment, it was not Mr. Madison.

There would not be another train for a long time, she knew, but nevertheless Sophy determined to wait for it. She was afraid that if she went back to the house, something or, more probably, somebody, would prevent her coming again, and she had made up her mind that the only way to secure Mr. Madison was to meet him at the train. She sat down on the edge of the platform,—there was no house here, only a little shed at which the trains stopped,—and waited.

The sun, which was warm to-day, shone down upon her, the soft May breezes played with the daisies that had sprung up about the railroad track, little birds gathered courage from her stillness, and hopped nearer to the small figure, looking at her with inquisitive glances, but Sophy heeded nothing. Many serious thoughts were passing through her childish mind in rapid succession. She wondered why Sirius had to die when they all loved him so, and it made it so hard for Peter. She wondered if there was anything in the world that she could do to make Peter happier.

And Victoria! She was so surprised to see real tears on Vic’s face. Was Vic a baby to cry, as Peter always said that Sophy was? She had never seen her do it before except when their father died. Then everybody had cried. Where was her father now, she wondered? Did he know they were all so sad and there was so little money? Where had he gone, and where had they come from? How strange everything was, and how puzzling! Sophy supposed that she should understand it all when she grew up.

In the meantime she wished that the train would come. She was tired of waiting, and perhaps Vic was still crying, and Peter still lying so strangely silent, with his face turned away from them, as they went one by one to express their sympathy. Would the train never come?

And at last it did come, and, to her intense relief, Mr. Madison was on it. He was the only passenger who left it, and he was greatly surprised when a small and hatless figure danced up to him and seized his hand.