Lovey Mary
Chapter XII
Reaction
"Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie."
When the paint and powder had been washed off, and Tommy had with difficulty
been extracted from his new trousers and put to bed, Lovey Mary sat before the
little stove and thought it all over. It had been the very happiest time of her
whole life. How nice it was to be praised and made much of! Mrs. Wiggs had
started it by calling everybody's attention to her good points; then Mrs.
Redding had sought her out and shown her continued attention; to-night was the
great climax. Her name had been on every tongue, her praises sung on every side,
and Billy Wiggs had given her everything he got off the Christmas tree.
"I wisht I deserved it all," she said, as she got up to pull the blanket
closer about Tommy. "I've tried to be good. I guess I am better in some ways,
but not in all — not in all." She knelt by the bed and held Tommy's hand to her
cheek. "Sometimes he looks like Kate when he's asleep like this. I wonder if
she's got well? I wonder if she ever misses him?"
For a long time she knelt there, holding the warm little hand in hers. The
play, the success, the applause, were all forgotten, and in their place was a
shame, a humiliation, that brought the hot tears to her eyes.
"I ain't what they think I am," she whispered brokenly. "I'm a mean, bad girl
after all. The canker-worm's there. Miss Viny said there never would be a
sure-'nough beautiful flower till the canker-worm was killed. But I want to be
good; I want to be what they think I am!"
Again and again the old thoughts of Kate rose to taunt and madden her. But a
new power was at work; it brought new thoughts of Kate, of Kate sick and
helpless, of Kate without friends and lonely, calling for her baby. Through the
night the battle raged within her. When the first gray streaks showed through
the shutters, Lovey Mary cleaned her room and put on her Sunday dress. "I'll be
a little late to the factory," she explained to Miss Hazy at breakfast, "for
I've got to go on a' errand."
It was an early hour for visitors at the city hospital, but when Lovey Mary
stated her business she was shown to Kate's ward. At the far end of the long
room, with her bandaged head turned to the wall, lay Kate. When the nurse spoke
to her she turned her head painfully, and looked at them listlessly with great
black eyes that stared forth from a face wasted and wan from suffering.
"Kate!" said Lovey Mary, leaning across the bed and touching her hand. "Kate,
don't you know me?"
The pale lips tightened over the prominent white teeth. "Well, I swan, Lovey
Mary, where'd you come from?" Not waiting for an answer, she continued
querulously: "Say, can't you get me out of this hole someway? But even if I had
the strength to crawl, I wouldn't have no place to go. Can't you take me away?
Anywhere would do."
Lovey Mary's spirits fell; she had nerved herself for a great sacrifice, had
decided to do her duty at any cost; but thinking of it beforehand in her little
garret room, with Tommy's hand in hers, and Kate Rider a mere abstraction, was
very different from facing the real issue, with the old, selfish, heartless Kate
in flesh and blood before her. She let go of Kate's hand.
"Don't you want to know about Tommy?" she asked. "I've come to say I was
sorry I run off with him."
"It was mighty nervy in you. I knew you'd take good care of him, though. But
say! you can get me away from this, can't you? I ain't got a friend in the world
nor a cent of money. But I ain't going to stay here, where there ain't nothing
to do, and I get so lonesome I 'most die. I'd rather set on a street corner and
run a hand-organ. Where are you and Tommy at?"
"We are in the Cabbage Patch," said Lovey Mary, with the old repulsion strong
upon her.
"Where?"
"The Cabbage Patch. It ain't your sort of a place, Kate. The folks are good
and honest, but they are poor and plain. You'd laugh at 'em."
Kate turned her eyes to the window and was silent a moment before she said
slowly:
"I ain't got much right to laugh at nobody. I'd be sorter glad to get with
good people again. The other sort's all right when you're out for fun, but when
you're down on your luck they ain't there."
Lovey Mary, perplexed and troubled, looked at her gravely.
"Haven't you got any place you could go to?"
Kate shook her head. "Nobody would be willing to look after me and nurse me.
Lovey," — she stretched her thin hand across to her entreatingly, — "take me
home with you! I heard the doctor tell the nurse he couldn't do nothing more for
me. I can't die here shut up with all these sick people. Take me wherever you
are at. I'll try not to be no trouble, and — I want to keep straight."
Tears were in her eyes, and her lips trembled. There was a queer little spasm
at Lovey Mary's heart. The canker-worm was dead.
When a carriage drove up to Miss Hazy's door and the driver carried in a pale
girl with a bandaged head, it caused untold commotion.
"Do you s'pose Mary's a-bringin' home a smallpox patient?" asked Miss Hazy,
who was ever prone to look upon the tragic side.
"Naw!" said Chris, who was peeping under the window-curtain; "it looks more
like she's busted her crust."
In less than an hour every neighbor had been in to find out what was going
on. Mrs. Wiggs constituted herself mistress of ceremonies. She had heard the
whole story from the overburdened Mary, and was now prepared to direct public
opinion in the way it should go.
"Jes another boarder for Miss Hazy," she explained airily to Mrs. Eichorn.
"Lovey Mary was so well pleased with her boardin'-house, she drummed it up among
her friends. This here lady has been at the hospittal. She got knocked over by a
wagon out there near the factory, an' it run into celebrated concussion. The
nurse told Lovey Mary this mornin' it was somethin' like information of the
brain. What we're all goin' to do is to try to get her well. I'm a-goin' home
now to git her a nice dinner, an' I jes bet some of you'll see to it that she
gits a good supper. You kin jes bank on us knowin' how to give a stranger a
welcome!"
It was easy to establish a precedent in the Cabbage Patch. When a certain
course of action was once understood to be the proper thing, every resident
promptly fell in line. The victim of "celebrated concussion" was overwhelmed
with attention. She lay in a pink wrapper in Miss Hazy's kitchen, and received
the homage of the neighborhood. Meanwhile Lovey Mary worked extra hours at the
factory and did sewing at night to pay for Kate's board.
In spite, however, of the kind treatment and the regular administration of
Miss Viny's herbs and Mrs. Wiggs's yellowroot, Kate grew weaker day by day. One
stormy night when Lovey Mary came home from the factory she found her burning
with fever and talking excitedly. Miss Hazy had gotten her up-stairs, and now
stood helplessly wringing her hands in the doorway.
"Lor', Lovey Mary! she's cuttin' up scandalous," complained the old lady. "I
done ever'thing I knowed how; I ironed the sheets to make 'em warm, an' I tried
my best to git her to swallow a mustard cocktail. I wanted her to lemme put a
fly-blister on to her head, too, but she won't do nothin'."
"All right, Miss Hazy," said Lovey Mary, hanging her dripping coat on a nail.
"I'll stay with her now. Don't talk, Kate! Try to be still."
"But I can't, Lovey. I'm going to die, and I ain't fit to die. I've been so
bad and wicked, I'm 'fraid to go, Lovey. What'll I do? What'll I do?"
In vain the girl tried to soothe her. Her hysteria increased; she cried and
raved and threw herself from side to side.
"Kate! Kate!" pleaded Lovey Mary, trying to hold her arms, "don't cry so.
God'll forgive you. He will, if you are sorry."
"But I'm afraid," shuddered Kate. "I've been so bad. Heaven knows I'm sorry,
but it's too late! Too late!" Another paroxysm seized her, and her cries burst
forth afresh.
Mary, in desperation, rushed from the room. "Tommy!" she called softly down
the steps.
The small boy was sitting on the stairs, in round-eyed wonder at what was
going on.
"Tommy," said Lovey Mary, picking him up, "the sick lady feels so bad! Go in
and give her a love, darling. Pet her cheeks and hug her like you do me. Tell
her she's a pretty mama. Tell her you love her."
Tommy trotted obediently into the low room and climbed on the bed. He put his
plump cheek against the thin one, and whispered words of baby- love. Kate's
muscles relaxed as her arms folded about him. Gradually her sobs ceased and her
pulse grew faint and fainter. Outside, the rain and sleet beat on the cracked
window-pane, but a peace had entered the dingy little room. Kate received the
great summons with a smile, for in one fleeting moment she had felt for the
first and last time the blessed sanctity of motherhood.