Part 15 (1/2)
”Kent?” she murmured faintly.
”Yes, Mother, a cablegram! 'Safe, well, Kent.'”
”Where?”
”Spain, I don't know what part.”
And then the long pent-up flood gates were opened and Mrs. Brown and Molly had such a cry as was never seen or heard of. The cap strings that Molly had dropped on the floor when she heard that there was news, she had gathered up in one wild swoop on the way to her mother's room, and these were first brought into requisition to weep on, and then the sheets and the napkin from the breakfast tray, and at last even old Shep had to get damp.
”I bus' stop ad gall up Zue ad Ad Zarah. Oh, Bother, Bother, how good G.o.d is!”
”Yes, darling, He is good whether our Kent was spared to us or not,”
said Mrs. Brown, showing much more command of her consonants than poor Molly.
Caroline appeared, one big grin, bearing little Mildred in her arms.
”She done woke up an' say ter me: 'Ca'line, what all dis here rumpus 'bout?'”
As Mildred had as yet said nothing more than ”Goo! Goo!” that brought the smiles to Molly and Mrs. Brown.
”Lawd Gawd a mussy! Is Mr. Kent daid? Is that what Mr. Paul done phomed?
I mus' run tell Aunt Mary. I boun' ter be the fust one.”
”No, no, Caroline! Mr. Kent is alive and well.”
”'Live an' well! Well, Gawd be praised! When I come in an' foun' you all a actin' lak what the preacher says will be in the las' day er jedgment, a weepin' an' wailin' an' s.n.a.t.c.hin' er teeth, I say ter myse'f: 'Ca'line, that there dream you had 'bout gittin' ma'id was sho'
sign er death, drownin' referred.' Well, Miss Molly, if'n you'll hol'
the baby, I'll go tell Aunt Mary the good news, too. Cose 'tain't quite so scrumptious to be the fust ter carry good news as 'tis bad, but then news is news.”
Sue was telephoned to immediately and joined in the general rejoicing.
Aunt Sarah Clay was quite nonplussed for a moment because of the att.i.tude she had taken about the family mourning, but her affection for her sister, which was really very sincere in spite of her successful manner of concealing it, came to the fore and she, too, rejoiced. Of course she had to suggest, to keep in character, that Kent might have communicated with his family sooner if he only would have exerted himself, but Molly was too happy to get angry and only laughed.
”Aunt Clay can no more help her ways than a chestnut can its burr.” And then she remembered how as children they would take sticks and beat the chestnut burrs open and she wondered if a good beating administered on Aunt Clay might not help matters. She voiced this sentiment to her mother, who said:
”My dear Molly, Life has administered the beating on your Aunt Clay long ago. It is being childless that makes her so bitter. I know that and that is the reason I am so patient, at least, I try to be patient with her. Of course, she always a.s.serts she is glad she has no children, that my children have been a never ending anxiety to me and she is glad she is spared a similar worry.”
”But, Mother, we are not a never-ending anxiety, are we?”
”Yes, my darling, but an anxiety I would not be without for all the wealth of the Indies. Aren't you a little bit anxious all the time about your baby?”
”Why, yes, just a teensy weensy bit, but then I haven't got used to her yet.”
”Well, when you get used to her, she will be just that much more precious.”
”But then I have just one, and you have seven.”
”Do you think you love her seven times as much as I love you, or Kent or Milly or any of them?”
”Oh, Mother, of course I don't. I know you love all of us just as much as I love my little Mildred, only I just don't see how you can.”
”Maybe you will have to have seven children to understand how I can, but when you realize what it means to have Mildred, maybe you can understand what it has meant always to poor Sister Sarah never to have had any children.”