"I am, as you have seen, Rose, very fond of children. I determined, God helping me, to fulfill my duty to the utmost in regard to his. I hoped to make this a pleasant duty.
"It was evening. I was alone; a cheerful fire blazed upon the hearth; the tea-table was spread, the lamps lighted, and my little Arthur was amusing himself making rabbits with his fingers upon the walls. I sat in my little rocking-chair thinking. It was so blessed to be again alone with only my little Arthur. Lip, eye, and brow to be out of school! True, my bill of sale every where met my eye; the roof over my head was his—I could not say ours.
"Hark!—away with such thoughts—that step was Stahle's! He had returned from his day's journey. He came in, leading by the hand two little boys. My heart warmed toward the motherless; these little ones, still clad in the badge of mourning for her whose loss, with my best efforts, I could never hope to repair;—these little ones, looking wonderingly about them, in their meek helplessness, at the strange aspect of every thing! It was to me an inexpressibly touching sight. Before I could caress them, Stahle stepped between us, and threw his arms passionately about me. It was so like him, that mistake. The children felt supplanted, cast frightened glances at me, and nestled closer to each other. I lost not a moment in disengaging myself from Stahle, and took them both in my lap.
"Fragile little things they were. They had outgrown their scanty garments, the brush had not brought out the gloss on their silky locks, their little finger-nails were all untrimmed, their flesh out of sight not scrupulously clean; in short, they looked as childhood ever looks when the watchful eye and busy hand of the mother is cold in death.
"We soon became friends. The searching glances they bent on me, in which I felt they were, to the best of their childish ability, taking my measure, I returned with looks of heartfelt pity and love.
"The next day, and many succeeding days, I busied myself in supplying their wardrobe. I had a natural skill in cutting and making children's garments, which, in my search for employment, I had sometimes hoped to turn to account, and which rendered it a matter of little expense to Stahle. This was a great gratification to me; it seemed to me to repay, in some sort, an irksome obligation. I worked diligently and assiduously, and had the satisfaction of hearing Stahle say that 'he had not thought his children were so pretty;' and yet I expended nothing in ornament, so unnecessary on childhood; but their limbs had free play in their clothes; the colors of which their dresses were composed were suited to their complexions; their feet were not compressed with tight shoes; their hair was nicely kept, and they gradually lost that shy, startled look which so distressed me when they first came.
"I taught Arthur to yield his natural rights in his own property to them. It was a lesson I was desirous early to teach him, who was in danger of becoming selfish from always having played alone.
"Children have quick instincts. Little Edgar and Harry soon learned to love me, whom they knew to be their friend; they would put their arms about my neck, and call me 'dear mother.' This troubled me; it seemed as if it must pain her. I never taught them to call me so. I never taught my child to call Stahle father. It seemed to me this should not be forced, but should flow out spontaneously; even then I almost shrank from accepting the sacred appellation. I talked to them often of their own mother, lest years should efface the indistinct recollections of infancy. I learned from their childish prattle, that she was 'always sick.' I could readily believe it, for they had inherited her fragility; also that she 'taught them a little prayer,' which they 'could not remember,' though I repeated several which childhood oftenest lisps.
"They said mother's hair was not curly, like mine, and that she was 'ever so much little-er'; and that she coughed very bad, and could not play with them much. Consumption then was the enemy I was to ward off; so I protected their little lungs with flannel. I dressed them warmly, and then tried to inure them to all weathers, as I had always done my own child.