TITO.
There was no evading the fact that a terrible misfortune had fallen upon the Calthorp household; and, for a time, this great sorrow excluded every other thought.
But they were all brave-hearted, having that one quality in common; and so, even while suffering most acutely, Madam found that the feeling she had experienced in regard to her son’s blindness faded in the light of the great pity which now filled her soul. She had feared that she could never bear to look upon him and witness his helplessness; but, instead of this being the case, she found herself watching him in silent admiration for the fortitude he displayed, and growing even prouder than before.
“Well. Blind or seeing, he is still—a man! Able to support his own courage, and that of those who lean upon him! And how beautiful is Steenie’s tenderness! She seems to understand that he wishes to do everything for himself which he can do; but her own bright eyes watch constantly to aid him in those he cannot.”
Mary Jane, observing her mistress’s face, and following the direction of her eyes, smiled, well pleased. Then she stole away to remark to Resolved: “You said we might ’bout as well gin up, when Mr. Dan’l come home that night an’ laid his goggles off, ’cause they wasn’t no more use a pertectin’ stun blindness no longer; but—they’s some kinds o’ onseeingness wuss’n ever ailded mortal eyes. An’ that’s sperritooal. Thar was Madam, a nussin’ up wrath ag’in the day o’ jedgment, jest ’cause her only had married somebody ’t she hadn’t picked out fer him; an’ him a cl’arin’ out ter Californy with his wife, an’ a buryin’ her thar; an’ a comin’ back home this way he is. But I tell ye, brother Resolved, it was the plain doin’s of the Lord, er my name ain’t Tubbs!”
“Well, mebbe. I mean—o’ course. I ain’t a goin’ back on my perfession; but some folks has got a terr’ble gift o’ makin’ sunthin’ out o’ nothin’. Didn’t uset ter be yer way ter call bad good; but, my-soul-I-declare! Ain’t no makin’ ye out, now-a-days, ye’ve growed that weak-minded an’ soft-spoke. Howsomever, one thing ye can’t turn ner twist inter no great hilarity: an’ that’s that pesky Mexicer.”
“I should like ter know why not? Ain’t he jest like a shadder ter Mr. Dan’l? If that poor deluded popist critter ain’t ’arnin’ his board an’ keep, I know some other folks ’at ain’t wuth their salt.”
“Hm-m. From the soond o’ that, I conclude ’at thar’s some—o’ the ’riginal Mary Jane left, arter all!” retorted the other, and doddered away.
It had seemed providential, indeed, that Sutro Vives—old fellow though he was—had come to them when he did. With the profound love which he had always felt for little Steenie, he now turned to Steenie’s father; and his wonderful vitality enabled him to discharge with perfect ease tasks which would have fallen very heavily upon poor Resolved Tubbs.
Another two weeks had passed; and they had all, in a measure, become accustomed to Mr. Calthorp’s affliction, and to the coming of the “four Westerners,”—as Mary Jane called the three human visitors and the equine one,—when Steenie came home from school a picture of childish distress.