"He's your father," said Suzanna. "He sits down on a velvet chair, and
he shouts, and he gets red in the face, and he bangs his fist on the
chair when a little man doesn't hurry up, though I thought he went very
fast. He did all that the day the Sunday School pupils came to your
party."
"Oh, yes," said Miss Massey, a smile lighting her face at the vivid
description, "I did not know that you had met my father, but I'm afraid
you can't see him today, dear. He's not well."
"Yes, I know; that's why I came to see him and to bring him these
flowers."
Miss Massey was a little puzzled. How did Suzanna know John Massey was
ill?
"Suppose you bring the baby in here," suggested the man who was sitting
next to Miss Massey, and who up to this time had been silent. "And after
awhile Miss Massey can find out if her father is able to see you."
"All right," said Suzanna with alacrity. She started to lift the baby
from his carriage when the man sprang up and took the child from her.
The baby smiled and won his way at once to the stranger's heart.
"He's sweet, isn't he?" began Suzanna, as she entered the arbor, Maizie
with her. Miss Massey drew Maizie within the circle of her own arm.
"He is that," said the man earnestly, "although I don't know very much
about babies. Does he cry much?"
"Well, he's very sinful when he's hungry. He's getting better now
because he's growing older, but he used to shriek till his face got red.
Once in awhile now he wants what he wants right away. I was trying once
to learn a piece of poetry, and he suddenly shrieked and I had to stop
everything and warm his milk. I'm only hoping he'll live to grow up,
because if he should die now I'm afraid God wouldn't want him in
Heaven."
"Are there ladies in Heaven that take care of babies?" asked Maizie
interestedly, a new train of thoughts started.
"You know there are, Maizie," said Suzanna, allowing no one else a
chance to answer. "There are lots of little babies that go away, and do
you s'pose they'd be called if they were going to be left hungry and
cold? God has it all arranged. First, he calls a baby and then pretty
soon he calls a mother and she takes care of the baby."
"Any mother?" Maizie asked.
"Yes, any mother; they're all good."
"But why doesn't he leave them on earth with their own mothers?"
"Because sometimes he takes a liking to somebody down here," Suzanna
said gravely. "But anyway, you needn't ask me such questions, because
here's Miss Massey who knows everything," Suzanna finished
magnanimously.
"She does that," said the man gravely who was holding the baby.
"Are you related to Miss Massey?" asked Suzanna. Now Miss Massey's
rather faded cheeks grew pink.
"Is it a long time before the baby needs his bottle again, Suzanna?" she
asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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