The Gold of Chickaree Part 63

'These things must go somewhere, that is clear. I will find out the names and addresses of a hundred, say, who are in need of help.

We will send off so many boxes; and you shall arrange what is to go in them.'

Wych Hazel folded her hands and looked up at him.

'Olaf?I never was tired in my life!?At least, but once.'

'I thought I was tired five minutes ago,' said Rollo, 'but I have got over it.'

'I could think of pretty things enough to send,' Hazel went on. 'Do they want pretty things out there, I wonder? Good people here do not always like them, I think. But I never saw a missionary?or his wife.'

'Perhaps you did not look in the right place. You make your list, and I will get mine. We might send off a couple of hundred boxes, and put fifty dollars' worth of comfort in each. These things will all find a place somewhere.'

'Fifty dollars!' said Hazel opening her eyes. 'My dear friend, have you any idea how much one dress costs? Fifty dollars will not do much for two people.'

'I will shew you what can be done with fifty dollars. And give you your second lesson in economy. Where did you get that name for me?'

'Picked it up, one day when you ceased to be an enemy.'

'In some place where worn-out were lying about. Worn-out things are shabby.'

Hazel drew a protesting breath. 'There is nothing shabby or worn- out about it! It is entirely new,?spick and span. Please, is my next lesson to go deeper than Prim's trunk, and take off _all_ the globe b.u.t.tons?'

'For people who have no gloves, Hazel?'

Hazel looked startled for a minute, but then she looked incredulous.

'Go and find out all about it,' she said; 'and then we shall know what to do. I am talking of _clergymen's wives_.'

Dane left that point uncombated. The next evening he came in with his hands full of pamphlets. And after dinner, when the room was clear, and the gas burners lighted up the warm, luxurious comfort and seclusion, glowing and rich, around them, Dane took his papers and sat down by Wych Hazel's side.

'I have found out several things about your clergymen's wives,' he began. 'Here, as you see, is a bundle of Reports. They concern certain funds of relief, established in various churches, for the help of disabled or superannuated ministers and their families. And, without going into details,?there are hundreds of such cases.

Some of them are sick and old ministers, worn out in the service; others are widows of such men; others again, orphan families, whose mother and father are both gone. I have been told of the sort of dest.i.tution that is found among them. What do you think of a delicate child, for whom a bit of flannel could not be afforded?

What do you think of a family of women and girls getting their own firing out of the woods, cutting it and backing it home, and that by the year together? What do you think of an old minister supported by the handiwork of an infirm and herself not young daughter? And I could tell you of living without books, without paper for writing, in want of calico for dresses, and muslin for underclothing, without pocket-handkerchiefs, without yarn to knit stockings or a penny to buy any, living on the coa.r.s.est food? And I am talking of _clergymen's wives_, Hazel.'

Hazel looked up at him with wide-open eyes while he spoke, then down at herself, taking a sort of inventory of her own belongings.

What stores of embroidery and lace were there, even hidden away and out of sight! And what sort of relation did these costly silken folds bear to those needed calicoes? _Her_ note-paper was monogrammed and edged to double its first cost;?that shawl, tossed carelessly on a chair, would have clothed in flannel a whole hospital of sick children. Point by point she went over it all past the thirty dollar buckle at her belt down to?I dare not say how many dollars' worth of shoes that covered the little feet.

And these people were life-long workers for good?or children of such men and women, who had hazarded their lives for the Lord Jesus,?and she, an idler all her life! Hazel put her head down in her hands, and answered not a word.

Dane waited awhile; then he ventured a gentle query.

'I cannot bear myself!' Hazel broke out. 'I feel as if I had been stealing, and defrauding, and embezzling, and every other dishonest word in the dictionary! O do you think the cry of _such_ labourers has been going up against me, all my life?'

'What shall we put in our boxes?' said Dane smiling.

Hazel caught up a bit of paper and ran off a list long enough to call for good packing,?then she stopped suddenly.

'Olaf?we cannot send in the dark. One man may have ten children, and another may have no wife. And people in Florida don't want thick shawls, and Oregon can do without thin muslins.'

'We will pack every box according to its destination. Let me hear your list.'

'Well,' said Hazel, folding her hands and gazing into the fire, 'let's begin with an imaginary family. People rather old, five children, and one of them delicate. And suppose they want a general outfit,?a great piece of white cotton, and plenty of flannel; and I have seen Mrs. Byw.a.n.k dispense ready-made felt s.h.i.+rts.'

'All right so far. Go on.'

'Then there must be dresses, of course; and one specially nice for the minister's wife. And a shawl. For her, I mean. The delicate child must have a soft quilted jacket, and bright-coloured warm wrapper, for days when she wants to lie on the sofa.'

But here Dane caught his wife in his arms and between laughing and kisses informed her that she was playing her "Rolle" of fairy again and getting impracticable.

'There is no sofa to lie on, in many of these houses, Hazel,' he went on more gravely. 'And it is better that we should send an essential supply to many, than to a few all they might want. Keep to essentials in the main. Now go on.'

'But Olaf!?_those_ things not essentials? Then you will rule out collars and cuffs and gloves and neck-ties? What _are_ essentials? I do not believe I know.'

'All these, I should say. But even you and I cannot do everything.

The quilted jacket and crimson wrapper, however desirable, must yield in importance to some other things. Is your list done?

Because I have some items to suggest.'

'I see,' Hazel answered gravely. 'Until everybody learns that the workman is worthy of his meat, they must live according to the old description?"Be shod with sandals, and not put on two coats."

But Olaf?how can the missionary go all about in the snow if he has but one? And mayn't I send the sick child some delicate things to eat? And if they have no money, how can they get books??and papers??and?everything else!" she added, looking round the room in bewilderment.

'The coat by all means; and the delicacies for those who are feeble.

Books can be sent by mail more conveniently, and more intelligently when we come to know what is most wanted. But a few might go in the boxes too; and some of them picture books.

Go on. What next?'

'House linen wears out here,' said Wych Hazel. 'Towels and tablecloths and sheets. If we knew the names, we could have them all marked ready,?and so with handkerchiefs.'

'If we try to furnish the people and the houses too, we shall have too much on our hands. These are not the only people in the world to be helped. Suppose we keep to personalities, for this set of boxes.'

'I think you must finish the list,' Hazel said after a pause. 'I believe I count everything "essential" that I have always had. I do not know how to choose, for people who always do without.'

'Your list is capital, so far. What do you think of a package of tea, for another item? Chocolate perhaps, and cocoa. Letter paper, and pens and pencils. A few pocket-knives, and fish hooks; perhaps some pairs of scissors would not come amiss. Also toilet articles, which on the frontiers and in the wilds are hard to get. Hey?'

'There is no end to the things,' said Hazel, facing round. 'But Olaf, in getting them, you would not strike off _all_ good books, to keep to mere good quality? I should think their eyes must ache to see pretty things!'

Rollo smiled, making notes on a sheet of paper. 'I believe in the uses of beauty,' he said. 'Let everything be as pretty as possible. I leave the charge of that to you. You must go to Stewart's and order muslin, calico, flannel, ribbands, and everything in that line. I will take care of the hardware and groceries. Order the things sent here.

I will make arrangements for the reception of them, and Byrom shall get us a store of packing-boxes and marking ink.'

'And Olaf,' said Hazel eagerly, 'when you have filled the box with essentials, will you let me put "non"-s in all the vacant s.p.a.ce?'

For the gratification of those of our readers who would like to know how these young people spent the evenings of the remainder of their honeymoon, a few words more may be added. Dane secured a small room which could be devoted to receiving stores.

Here day by day Byrom piled stacks of drygoods as they came in; packages of tea and spices, corn starch and arrowroot, and the like; heaps of books and paper; and thither he carried all the heterogeneous articles which had been sent home during that eccentric New Year's expedition. Here also he provided a store of packing-boxes, of varying dimensions, with hammer and nails and marking-ink; much speculating to himself on the peculiarities of the service in which he found himself. It is true, Byrom had been now some time with Rollo, and had, as the latter said, got used to him. He was an English servant, trained and steady as a mill, eminently respectable, and head groom now at Chickaree.

These things being provided, as soon as dinner was done every day, Mr. and Mrs. Rollo repaired to this room of supplies. Here they amused themselves with packing the boxes. It is quick work, reader, if you have plenty of materials to choose from. To help in the selection and secure the better fitness of a.s.sortment, Rollo had had a sort of circular letter copied and sent to several hundred of the addresses with which he had been furnished. This circular requested details as to the circ.u.mstances and special wants of the family. The answers were directed to be sent to Hazel; to whom, by the way, the reading and arranging of such answers when they began to come in, furnished occupation for not a small part of her mornings.

With half a dozen of the most pressing of these in hand, Rollo and Hazel went to the packing room; and taking one for their guide in each instance, threw into the box one after another the articles that seemed specially called for. Ah, how pleasant it was! It was like personal contact with the weak and the weary, giving a touch of comfort and help each time. Hazel had learned the use of the cheap calico counter, which once had excited her wonder and incredulity; she chose the prettiest patterns she could, but even she was fain to see that it was better to give prints or mohairs to a great many who wanted them, than a silk gown to one here and there who perhaps could rarely wear it if she had it. In like manner, flannel was to be preferred to lace; also it became evident that at the rate they were filling and sending boxes, economy was a very necessary thing; meaning by economy, the most useful expenditure of money. Let n.o.body think, however, that there went nothing but bare necessaries into those boxes. Ribbands and collars and cuffs and ruffles and shawls were scattered in with a free hand. Choice books went into corners. Sometimes slates and maps. Pictures and pencils, pens and writing paper; magazines and ill.u.s.trated new prints. And sugarplums stole in here and there, and even dolls and tops and pocket knives and b.a.l.l.s and jackstraws. Fis.h.i.+ng lines and hooks also. Sometimes an engraving, not costly, but lovely where there is an utter dearth of all objects of art whatever. The entertainment and delight of filling those boxes is something quite beyond my pen to tell. Hazel and Rollo often worked the whole evening at it; for the list of names was long. Not two hundred, but four hundred boxes that month were filled and sent; and there went more than fifty dollars' worth into every one; oftener it was eighty.

CHAPTER XXIX.