Bessie on Her Travels

by Joanna H. Mathews

All the children were very grateful to this kind stranger who had taken such good care of them, and Belle said,—

“I wish I could too. If I was big I’d ask you when your birfday was; and I’d make you a pair of slippers, and a pin-cushion, and a watch-case, and every fing nice for a birfday present.”

“And I’d help,” said Maggie.

“And I,” said Bessie.

Here was ground for Maggie to build a new plan upon; and, in the few minutes which passed before the train came, she had enough to think about to keep her from feeling very impatient for its arrival.

And there it came, rushing up the long line of rail,—yet hardly fast enough for the little ones who had been so long away from their dear friends,—hailed with clapping of hands, dancing steps, and glad exclamations: never was a train more welcome.

The place was alive in a moment. Women and children came out to the doors and gates of the cottages, dogs barked, and hens cackled. Half a dozen men, white and colored, seemed to spring out of the ground, ready to busy themselves on the arrival of the cars; and old Joe drew up his wheelbarrow to the side of the track, ready for any chance trunk or box which might need to be wheeled away, and bring him a few pennies. Joe was a rich man now, to be sure, rich in the wealth which should pave with shining gold the path he must tread to the heavenly mansion his Saviour had gone to prepare for him: but he must still have a care for his few worldly needs; and now that his one great desire had been granted, he would yet put by something that he might have a little to help along such of his Lord’s work as should be given into his hand.

His hand was shaken, not only by the three children, but also by Mr. Travers; and they were gone: but their coming had brought light and gladness to old Joe; and, in his own simple language, he “will nebber disremember dis day while de Lord remembers me.”

There they were,—mamma, and the two papas, baby, nurse, and Daphne,—still at the station at ——, and watching as eagerly for the train which was to bring back the sorely missed darlings, as those same little darlings were looking for the first glimpse of the dearly loved faces of their “own people.” What joy there was! What huggings and kissings! some happy tears too; and as for Mr. Travers, if he had had six arms to be shaken instead of two, they would all have been in use at once. There was some time to spare before the arrival of the train which was to carry them on the right route, which had been missed that morning; and it would be still longer before kind Mr. Travers would be able to proceed on the journey he had so generously interrupted, at some inconvenience to himself, for the sake of the little fellow-passengers who had so unconsciously attracted his notice that morning.

They gathered in the small room, which seemed large enough to hold them all now, and Mr. Travers was thanked over and over again, his address taken by Mr. Bradford, and a promise drawn from him that he would make his house his home when he should come to New York. More than this, Maggie privately drew from him the date of his “birfday,” which happened to be on the twenty-fifth of December: and you may like to know that this “plan” of Maggie’s was successfully carried out; and, last Christmas, Mr. Travers received a box containing a pair of slippers worked by Maggie, a pin-cushion by Bessie, and a watch-case by Belle. I do not believe that Mr. Travers thought the less of them because there were some crooked stitches in them,—especially in the two last,—and that the pocket of the watch-case was so small that by no possibility could a watch be squeezed therein.