THE PROSPECT BRIGHTENS
THE next morning, Diamond's mother said to his father, "I'm not quite comfortable about that child again.""Which child, Martha?" asked Joseph. "You've got a choice now.""Well, Diamond I mean. I'm afraid he's getting into his queer ways again. He's been at his old trick of walking in his sleep.
I saw him run up the stair in the middle of the night.""Didn't you go after him, wife?"
"Of course I did--and found him fast asleep in his bed. It's because he's had so little meat for the last six weeks, I'm afraid.""It may be that. I'm very sorry. But if it don't please God to send us enough, what am I to do, wife?""You can't help it, I know, my dear good man," returned Martha.
"And after all I don't know. I don't see why he shouldn't get on as well as the rest of us. There I'm nursing baby all this time, and I get along pretty well. I'm sure, to hear the little man singing, you wouldn't think there was much amiss with him."For at that moment Diamond was singing like a lark in the clouds.
He had the new baby in his arms, while his mother was dressing herself.
Joseph was sitting at his breakfast--a little weak tea, dry bread, and very dubious butter--which Nanny had set for him, and which he was enjoying because he was hungry. He had groomed both horses, and had got old Diamond harnessed ready to put to.
"Think of a fat angel, Dulcimer!" said Diamond.
The baby had not been christened yet, but Diamond, in reading his Bible, had come upon the word dulcimer, and thought it so pretty that ever after he called his sister Dulcimer!
"Think of a red, fat angel, Dulcimer!" he repeated; "for Ruby's an angel of a horse, Dulcimer. He sprained his ankle and got fat on purpose.""What purpose, Diamond?" asked his father.
"Ah! that I can't tell. I suppose to look handsome when his master comes," answered Diamond.--"What do you think, Dulcimer?
It must be for some good, for Ruby's an angel.""I wish I were rid of him, anyhow," said his father; "for he weighs heavy on my mind.""No wonder, father: he's so fat," said Diamond. "But you needn't be afraid, for everybody says he's in better condition than when you had him.""Yes, but he may be as thin as a tin horse before his owner comes.
It was too bad to leave him on my hands this way.""Perhaps he couldn't help it," suggested Diamond. "I daresay he has some good reason for it.""So I should have said," returned his father, "if he had not driven such a hard bargain with me at first.""But we don't know what may come of it yet, husband," said his wife.
"Mr. Raymond may give a little to boot, seeing you've had more of the bargain than you wanted or reckoned upon.""I'm afraid not: he's a hard man," said Joseph, as he rose and went to get his cab out.
Diamond resumed his singing. For some time he carolled snatches of everything or anything; but at last it settled down into something like what follows. I cannot tell where or how he got it.
Where did you come from, baby dear?
Out of the everywhere into here.
Where did you get your eyes so blue?
Out of the sky as I came through.
What makes the light in them sparkle and spin?
Some of the starry spikes left in.
Where did you get that little tear?
I found it waiting when I got here.
What makes your forehead so smooth and high?
A soft hand stroked it as I went by.
What makes your cheek like a warm white rose?
I saw something better than any one knows.
Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?
Three angels gave me at once a kiss.
Where did you get this pearly ear?
God spoke, and it came out to hear.
Where did you get those arms and hands?
Love made itself into hooks and bands.
Feet, whence did you come, you darling things?
From the same box as the cherubs' wings.
How did they all just come to be you?
God thought about me, and so I grew.
But how did you come to us, you dear?
God thought about you, and so I am here.
"You never made that song, Diamond," said his mother.
"No, mother. I wish I had. No, I don't. That would be to take it from somebody else. But it's mine for all that.""What makes it yours?"
"I love it so."
"Does loving a thing make it yours?"
"I think so, mother--at least more than anything else can. If I didn't love baby (which couldn't be, you know) she wouldn't be mine a bit.
But I do love baby, and baby is my very own Dulcimer.""The baby's mine, Diamond."
"That makes her the more mine, mother."
"How do you make that out?"
"Because you're mine, mother."
"Is that because you love me?"
"Yes, just because. Love makes the only myness," said Diamond.
When his father came home to have his dinner, and change Diamond for Ruby, they saw him look very sad, and he told them he had not had a fare worth mentioning the whole morning.
"We shall all have to go to the workhouse, wife," he said.
"It would be better to go to the back of the north wind,"said Diamond, dreamily, not intending to say it aloud.
"So it would," answered his father. "But how are we to get there, Diamond?""We must wait till we're taken," returned Diamond.
Before his father could speak again, a knock came to the door, and in walked Mr. Raymond with a smile on his face. Joseph got up and received him respectfully, but not very cordially. Martha set a chair for him, but he would not sit down.
"You are not very glad to see me," he said to Joseph. "You don't want to part with the old horse.""Indeed, sir, you are mistaken there. What with anxiety about him, and bad luck, I've wished I were rid of him a thousand times.
It was only to be for three months, and here it's eight or nine.""I'm sorry to hear such a statement," said Mr. Raymond. "Hasn't he been of service to you?""Not much, not with his lameness"
"Ah!" said Mr. Raymond, hastily--"you've been laming him--have you?
That accounts for it. I see, I see."
"It wasn't my fault, and he's all right now. I don't know how it happened, but""He did it on purpose," said Diamond. "He put his foot on a stone just to twist his ankle.""How do you know that, Diamond?" said his father, turning to him.
"I never said so, for I could not think how it came.""I heard it--in the stable," answered Diamond.
"Let's have a look at him," said Mr. Raymond.
