It impressed the children very sweetly, to see this devout spirit in the Scotchman. It was better to them than any words could have been, and they were sure not to forget it. By and by Gill spoke, as he stood by his full basket, and held a fine ear of corn in his hand. He had parted the husk, and the fresh, milky rows looked out upon Ben and Sally, and the silk tassel hung gracefully at the end.
“What riches in you!” said Gill, as if addressing the grain itself,—“johnny-cake, and hominy, and mush or hasty pudding, and farina, and hulled corn, and samp, and many another nice, palatable dish for the table.”
Then he touched the stalk, and the husks, and continued his speech,—“And you give us sugar, and potash, and writing-paper, and mattresses. Well is it that you have come from your wild home in Paraguay, since you make us so happy and comfortable.”
“I did not know that we could get all these things from corn,” said Ben.
“And I should never have known it, if I had been content to plant and eat, and never ask a question, or look into a book, as some people are satisfied to do,” said Gill. .
“Thank you for telling us,” said Sally. “I must go now and look after my baby; she may be in all sorts of mischief, though I left her asleep in the cart. She’s getting big enough now to stand, but the boards are too high for her to fall over,”—and away went the little girl to her matronly charge. She felt as much care for her doll, as Lucy did for Jack.
It is a beautiful virtue in these little women, that they have the mother love even when they are nursing their rag babies. A child that watches and yearns over her doll, smiling when she conceives it to be well and happy, and crying for its imaginary ills and sorrows, will make the truest and most tender of mothers when there is a living baby in her arms to call forth her joy or her pity.
“Coming, pet,” said Sally, with her arms stretched toward the cart where her “little Jennie lay kicking and crowing,” as she said to Lucy who stood at the wood-pile as she passed.
The child made quick steps, and, climbing into the old vehicle, held her baby to her bosom with as much delight as if she had been parted from it for an age.
“God bless her!” said Lucy. “One of these days I shall see her a good wife, I am sure, with as dear a pet as my little Jack, to care for and to love.”