Part 8 (1/2)

”Allegory, do you mean?” said Miss Lilly. ”Well yes, perhaps. Many fairy stories have a kind of meaning behind them, but I don't think this one is difficult to guess.”

”It means, I suppose,” said Chrissie, ”that everything is of use, if you can find the right place for it.”

”A little more than that,” said Miss Lilly. ”We might put it this way--that _everybody_, even the smallest and weakest, has his or her own place in the house of--” and she hesitated.

”In the house of the world?” said Ferdy.

”In the house of life,” said Miss Lilly after thinking a little. ”That says it better.”

Then, seeing that Ferdy was looking rather tired, she told Chrissie to run off and get dressed for going a walk.

”I will send Flowers to sit with you,” she said, as she stooped to kiss the little invalid, ”and in the afternoon Chrissie and I will come back again for an hour or so if you are not asleep.”

”I won't be asleep,” said Ferdy; ”I have slept quite enough to last me all day. Miss Lilly--”

”What, dear?” for the boy's eyes looked as if he wanted to ask her something. ”Would you like us to bring you in some flowers?--not garden ones, but wild ones. There are still primroses--and violets, of course--in the woods.”

”Yes,” Ferdy replied, ”I should like them _very_ much. And could you get some moss, Miss Lilly? I would like to arrange them with moss, in that sort of birds'-nesty-looking way.”

”I know how you mean,” the young lady said. ”Yes, we will bring you some moss. And, by the bye, Ferdy, if I had some wire I could show you how to make moss baskets that last for ever so long to put flowers in. You put a little tin or cup to hold water in the middle of the basket--the moss quite hides it,--and then you can always freshen up the moss by sousing it in water.”

”What a nice word 'sousing' is,” said Ferdy, in his quaint old-fas.h.i.+oned way. ”It makes you think of bathing in the sea. Miss Lilly, do you think I'll ever be able to bathe in the sea again? I do so love it. And then there's skating and cricket, and when I go to school there'll be football. Papa was so good at football when he was at school. I wonder--” he stopped short. ”I wonder,” he went on again, ”if I'll ever be able for any of those things. Boys who are all right, _well_ boys, don't think of the difference being like me makes.”

”No, they don't,” his governess agreed. ”But there is still a good long while before you would be going to school, Ferdy dear.”

”I know,” he said, though he could not keep back a little sigh. ”I've only been two days in bed, but I have thought such a lot. Miss Lilly, there was something I wanted to ask you. It's about that boy, Jesse Piggot. I was thinking about him when I was awake in the night. If you meet him, please thank him for asking if I was better, and do you think mamma would let him come in one day to see me? It's partly that story, too.”

Miss Lilly did not at first understand.

”The 'nallegory,” said Ferdy, ”about all the stones being some good.”

Miss Lilly's face cleared; she looked pleased and interested.

”Oh yes,” she said.

”I haven't got it straight in my head yet,” said Ferdy. ”I want to think a lot more. It's partly about me myself, and partly about Jesse and boys like him. Oh, I do wish I could be on the sofa in the window,” he added suddenly. ”I'd like to see the children going to school and coming back.”

”I hope you will be on the sofa in a very few days, dear,” said Miss Lilly. ”But I must go--Chrissie will be waiting for me. I hope we shall get some nice flowers and moss, and to-morrow I will bring some wire and green thread that I have at home on purpose for such things.”

When she had gone Flowers made her appearance. She sat down with her work, and Ferdy lay so still, that she thought he must have fallen asleep again. But no, Ferdy was not asleep, only thinking; and to judge by the look on his face, his thoughts were interesting.

The moss baskets proved a great success as well as a great amus.e.m.e.nt.

Ferdy's nimble fingers seemed to have grown even more nimble and delicate in touch now that he was forced to lie still. They twisted the wire into all sorts of new shapes, some quaint, some graceful, that Miss Lilly had never even thought of, and when some little old cups without handles or tiny jelly pots or tins were found to fit in, so that the flowers could have plenty of water to keep them fresh, you cannot think how pretty the moss baskets looked. The children's mother was quite delighted with one that was presented to her, and she smiled more cheerfully than she had yet done since Ferdy's accident, to see him so busy and happy.

And time went on. It is very curious how quickly we get accustomed to things--even to great overwhelming changes, which seem at first as if they must utterly upset and make an end of everything. It is a great blessing that we _do_ get used to what _is_. When I was a little girl I remember reading a story about the old proverb which in those days was to be found as one of the model lines in a copy-book. This one stood for the letter ”C,” and it was, ”Custom commonly makes things easy.”

Somehow the words fixed themselves in my memory. You don't know how often and in what very far differing circ.u.mstances I have said them over to myself; sometimes in hopefulness, sometimes when I had to face sorrows that made me feel as if I _could_ not face them, ”Custom commonly” seemed to be whispered into my ear, as if by a gentle little fairy voice. And I found it came true, thank G.o.d! It is one of the ways in which He helps us to bear our sorrows and master our difficulties, above all, _real_ sorrows and _real_ difficulties. Fanciful ones, or foolish ones that we make for ourselves, are often in the end the hardest to bear and to overcome.

It was so with little Ferdy and his friends. One month after that sad birthday that had begun so brightly, no stranger suddenly visiting the Watch House would have guessed from the faces and voices of its inmates how lately and how terribly the blow had fallen upon them. All seemed bright and cheerful, and even the boy's own countenance, though pale and thin, had a happy and peaceful expression. More than that indeed. He was often so merry that you could hear his laugh ringing through the house if you were only pa.s.sing up or down stairs, or standing in the hall below.