“Listen to her,” exclaimed George, sarcastically.
“Aw, you hush up,” was her displeased rejoinder.
When the final hour came, however, it required all of Jennie’s strength to go through with the farewells. Though everything was being done in order to bring them together again under better conditions, she could not help feeling depressed. Her little one, now six months old, was being left behind. The great world was to her one undiscovered bourne. It frightened her.
“You mustn’t worry, Ma,” she found courage enough to say. “I’ll be all right. I’ll write you just as soon as I get there. It won’t be so very long.”
But when it came to bending over her baby for the last time her courage went out like a blown lamp. Stooping over the cradle in which the little one was resting, she looked into its face with passionate, motherly yearning.
“Is it going to be a good little girl?” she cooed.
Then she caught it up into her arms, and hugging it closely to her neck and bosom, she buried her face against its little body. Mrs. Gerhardt saw that she was trembling.
“Come now,” she said, coaxingly, “you mustn’t carry on so. She will be all right with me. I’ll take care of her. If you’re going to act this way, you’d better not try to go at all.”
Jennie lifted her head, her blue eyes wet with tears, and handed the little one to her mother.
“I can’t help it,” she said, half crying, half smiling.