The Little Colonel's House PartyJohnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows)
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The Little Colonel's House Party
Johnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows)
Girls -- Juvenile fiction; Kentucky -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Juvenile fiction
Mr. Forbes turned away with an impatient frown from his collector's
report, but that voice from far Samoa seemed to speak again. It was
Tusitala's, and again he saw the road dug to last for ever, in the white
light of the tropic skies. He sat with his head on his hand a moment,
and then, slowly reaching for his check-book filled out a blank, signed
it, and sealed it in an envelope.
Pushing it toward his astonished collector, he said: "Here, Miller, take
that down to Wiggins, and tell him I said to pick up himself and family,
and go down to the seashore for a couple of weeks. It will put them all
on their feet again to get out of that place into the salt air, and,
wait a minute, Miller,"--as the collector moved off,--"take him a
receipt for two months' rent."
Miller walked away, speechless with astonishment, but he had found his
tongue by the time he got back. He went into the private office, hat in
hand, and waited patiently until Mr. Forbes looked up.
"Well?"
"Wiggins says to tell you, sir, that he will write to you to-morrow, but
if you'll excuse me, sir, for meddling in what is none of my business,
I'd like you to know before then what a little heaven on earth you have
made in that tenement-house. Wiggins was so weak he could hardly sit up,
and he cried for pure joy, at the thought of getting away. He says he
knows it will save his life. He kept wringing my hand, over and over,
and saying, 'It isn't just the money and all that it will do for me in
the way of unloading me of that debt and getting my strength back, but
it's the kindness of it, Miller, the heavenly kindness of it! Doing all
this for me as if he had been my brother!'"
"Thank you, Miller," said Mr. Forbes, waving him hastily aside and
turning again to his letters. He seemed impatient, but there was a glow
in his heart that made the world seem pleasanter all day.
On his way home he stopped at a jeweller's, and selected a little ring.
It was only a simple twist of gold tied in a lover's knot, but inside he
had them engrave the word, _"Tusitala,"_ and ordered it sent to the
hotel that evening.
Late that night it was brought up to his room, where he sat writing a
letter to Eugenia. He had just finished the paragraph: "I am sending you
by this mail a sort of talisman. Maybe the daily sight of it on your
finger will be a helpful reminder of that noble life that shall never be
forgotten, while the Road of the Loving Heart endures. It is so easy to
forget to take time to be kind. I find it so in my daily rush of
business. I shall carry your letter with me as a reminder. Tell your
little friend Betty so. The ripple she started will circle farther than
she ever dreamed."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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