Women -- Fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- England -- Fiction
Then in the Gidger’s other room the same soft green, and all the
pictures the small owner loves: that perfect Madonna of Andrea del
Sarto, and a copy of Watts’ ’Whence—Whither?’ Do you remember that
perfect baby, who runs out of the sea toward you, whichever way you
stand and look at it. By special request, hung where she can always see
them, are the two great favourites, ’The Good Shepherd’ with a lamb, and
the other—five Persian fluffy kittens sitting in a row.
’Because I like,’ explained the Gidger to Uncle Woss, ’to see Jesus and
the tittens when I get into my byes.’
’Would you call King George by his Christian name, Gidger?’ Ross asked.
’Course not, Uncle Woss.’
’Why?’
’Because it would be most fwightful cheek.’
’Then don’t you see it’s much more cheek to call Him by His, darling?’
’But I didn’t mean to be wude to Him,’ said the Poppet tearfully, ’I’m
fond of Him.’
’Of course, darling, so if you just say "Sorry, Sir," it’ll be all
right.’
So the Gidger said, ’Sorry, Sir,’ and the conversation changed to
kittens.
’I wish I had a titten, Uncle Woss, just like the one in the miggle.’
Ross said he would see what could be done, with which my daughter seemed
contented.
But, ah, why is there only one little bed in the nursery, why is there
no little son? Yes, of course, Michael is ’better to me than ten sons,’
only he’s so ’normous, the other would be so cuddley.
The Gidger does so want a long clothes baby doll. She’s got a mother
hunger for it, and I won’t give her one. Shall I tell you why? If I
should ever have the joy to hope about a little son, I shall hunt the
garden for a nest, and let the Gidger peep at it with all the soft,
downy things inside. Then I shall say, ’I made a little nest for you
once, darling, just underneath my heart,’ and I shall take her up in the
nursery and open a drawer and show her all the small robes and garments
that I made for her, and then she’ll say, ’Oh, muvver, why won’t you let
me have a long clothes baby dolly?’ And I shall tell her about the
second nest that I’ve begun to make, and then I shall give her a most
perfect baby doll that I’ve got waiting in a box just now. I shall ask
her sometimes if she’d like to come and learn to sew some clothes for
her baby while I sew some for mine: and if she pricks her little
fingers, and makes a tiny spot of blood upon the narrow hem, and looks
at me with eyes like drowned forget-me-nots (as she does if she is going
to cry), I shall say, ’But, darling, don’t you think it’s worth it for
your baby?’ She’ll learn to know then, when she’s married and she’s got
the mother hunger, that her baby will be worth the mother pain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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