Short stories, American; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
So on radiant wings time flew by, until one morning neighbors heard
laughing in “Little Knights’” garden--laughing that continued and
continued, and when they went over, “Little Knights” was doing
the laughing, with tears running down his cheeks and falling on
the prodigious Bible open on his short knees. When questioned, he
exclaimed: “She has kom’--all safe, she has kom’! I seen her mit mine
eyes--I have tooched her mit dese fingers! De liddle daughter of mine
own Rose! Ach, de Almighty Gott is a most goot Gott!” and then he bowed
his white head and muttered: “Now let Thy servant depart mit peace!”
And so poor, “Little Old Knights” found his cup of joy full to the brim!
And what happens to any cup held in human hands if filled to the
brim? It runs over--and there is cruel loss! And so it came to pass
that Rosie’s little one stayed with them just long enough to smile a
recognition of her girlish mother’s face, and then some sweet, strong
call came from the “beyond” that baby had heard and answered--and they
were left to wonder at the awful void that small absence made in all
their lives.
Poor, Old Knights! Tight in his arms he held the tiny, coffined
dead--moaning over and over: “My liddle pud--my Rose’s liddle
pud!”--until that sad moment when, by sheer force, they took the wee,
dead thing from him, to hide it away beneath the flowers and the
grasses.
Time passed slowly now. Rosie, very gentle--very tender of others--was
sad, so sad. That was not natural to her--so all rejoiced when hope
once more shone in her face--and all was thankful when Little Old
Knights trotted from door to door with the news that his Rose had
“anodder liddle daughter--so like--ach Gott! so like de first--as never
yet dey saw!”
Rosie’s joy was great, but it was not the laughing, unthinking joy of
other days. She felt anxieties and fears. She dreaded this and that,
but her silvery blond baby was so strong and well, and grew so fast,
and “crowed” and laughed, and romped with father and grandfather, and
stood so strong upon her little legs that fears had to give way to
confidence, and her heart bounded with triumph when she heard the baby
voice, cry imperatively; “Ma--ma! ma--ma!”
One day in particular Rosie always remembered--she had toiled for a
good hour at training baby to say: “Pa--pa,” when the father had come
from the office--and when he came the baby had stretched out her arms
to him, looked back roguishly at Rosie, and then fairly screamed:
“Ma--ma! ma--ma!” and they had all laughed and laughed! Good God! how
easy it is for a baby to fill a happy home with merriment! And that
very night “croup” had clutched with murderous fingers the little
throat that was used to swell with laughter as a bird’s throat swells
with song--and darkness and silence came upon the house.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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