Peg O' My Heart Part 59

She looked at him, laughed shyly and pressed her cheeks. He was watching her closely.

"What are you laughing at?" he asked.

"Do ye know what Tom Moore wrote about Friends.h.i.+p?"

"No."

"Shall I tell ye?" excitedly.

"Do."

"See if anywan's comin' first." As he looked around the room and outside the door to detect the advent of an intruder Peg sat at the piano and played very softly the prelude to an old Irish song.

As Jerry walked back he said surprisedly: "Oh! so you play?"

Peg nodded laughingly.

"Afther a fas.h.i.+on. Me father taught me. Me aunt can't bear it. An' the teacher in the house said it was DREADFUL and that I must play scales for two years more before I thry a tune. She said I had no ear."

Jerry laughed as he replied: "I think they're very pretty."

"DO ye? Well watch THEM an' mebbe ye won't mind me singin' so much. An'

afther all ye're only a farmer, aren't ye?"

"Hardly that," and Jerry laughed again.

Her fingers played lightly over the keys for a moment.

"This is called 'A Temple to Friends.h.i.+p,'" she explained.

"Indeed?"

"And it's about a girl who built a shrine and she thought she wanted to put 'Friends.h.i.+p' into it. She THOUGHT she wanted 'Friends.h.i.+p.' Afther a while she found out her mistake. Listen:" And Peg sang, in a pure, tremulous little voice that vibrated with feeling the following:

"'A temple to Friends.h.i.+p,' said Laura enchanted, 'I'll build in this garden: the thought is divine!'

Her temple was built and she now only wanted An Image of Friends.h.i.+p to place on the shrine.

She flew to a sculptor who set down before her A Friends.h.i.+p the fairest his art could invent!

But so cold and so dull that the Youthful adorer Saw plainly this was not the idol she meant.

'Oh! never,' she cried, 'could I think of enshrining An image whose looks are so joyless and dim-- But yon little G.o.d (Cupid) upon roses reclining, We'll make, if you please, sir, a Friends.h.i.+p of him.'

So the bargain was struck; with the little G.o.d laden She joyfully flew to her shrine in the grove: 'Farewell,' said the sculptor, 'you're not the first maiden Who came but for Friends.h.i.+p and took away--Love.'"

She played the refrain softly after she had finished the song.

Gradually the last note died away.

Jerry looked at her in amazement.

"Where in the world did you learn that?"

"Me father taught it to me," replied Peg simply. "Tom Moore's one of me father's prayer-books."

Jerry repeated as though to himself:

"'Who came but for FRIENDs.h.i.+P and took away LOVE!'"

"Isn't that beautiful?" And Peg's face had a rapt expression as she looked up at Jerry.

"Do you believe it?" he asked.

"Didn't Tom Moore write it?" she answered.

"Is there anything BETTER than Friends.h.i.+p between man and woman?"

She nodded:

"Indeed there is. Me father felt it for me mother or I wouldn't be here now. Me father loved me mother with all his strength and all his soul."

"Could YOU ever feel it?" he asked, and there was an anxious look in his eyes as he waited for her to answer.

She nodded.

"HAVE you ever felt it?" he went on.

"All me life," answered Peg in a whisper.

"As a child, perhaps," remarked Jerry. "Some DAY it will come to you as a woman and then the whole world will change for you."

"I know," replied Peg softly. "I've felt it comin'."

"Since when?" and once again suspense was in his voice.

"Ever since--ever since--" suddenly she broke off breathlessly and throwing her arms above her head as though in appeal she cried:

"Oh, I do want to improve meself. NOW I wish I HAD been born a lady.

I'd be more worthy of--"

"WHAT? WHOM?" asked Jerry urgently and waiting anxiously for her answer.

Peg regained control of herself, and cowering down again on to the piano-stool she went on hurriedly.

"I want knowledge now. I know what you mean by bein' at a disadvantage.

I used to despise learnin'. I've laughed at it. I never will again. Why I can't even talk yer language. Every wurrd I use is wrong. This book ye gave me--the 'LOVE STORIES OF THE WORLD,' I've never seen anythin'

like it. I never knew of such people. I didn't dhream what a wondherful power in the wurrld was the power of love. I used to think it somethin'

to kape to yerself and never spake of out in the open. Now I know it's the one great big wondherful power in the wurrld. It's me love for me father has kept faith and hope alive in me heart. I was happy with him.

I never wanted to lave him. Now I see there is another happiness, too an' it's beyond me. I'm no one's equal. I'm just a little Irish nothin'--"