5. Real Trouble
Betty washes her face, brushes her hair, and runs downstairs; new courage thrilling her heart.
"Yes, now, indeed, I will try what love can do! Now I really will keep my temper whatever happens; now love shall speak for me however aggravating things may be!"
She feels so sure of herself; nevertheless, she has hardly been downstairs half a minute before she nearly slips into her old habits of irritation again.
An ominous rumbling in the direction of the kitchen chimney announces that the sweep is still at work. The children's dinner-hour has nearly arrived, there is no dinner ready, and the sitting-room fire has not even been lighted.
"What was the use of telling me to go away and rest, and then forgetting all about the children's dinner in this way? It's too bad! I'd much rather have been without the rest altogether than be worried like this, and I shall just go and tell mother so--no, I won't."
Betty stops short. Where are all the good resolutions she made not five minutes ago? Where is the Love she was to listen to, and learn from?
"Mother has forgotten the dinner because she is doing all the horrid, dirty work of having the sweep herself, that I might rest. I won't say anything; no, I won't. I'll just run out and buy some fish, and cook it myself, without saying a word."
She lights the fire, buys the fish, prepares and cooks it in her swift, methodical fashion, and has dinner quite ready just as Bob and the younger children troop in from school, and Lucy returns from her music-lesson.
"Dinner ready?" cries Bob roughly, flinging his cap down on a chair.
"Bob, how dare you do that? Hang your cap up in the hall, directly."
"Oh, bother; I shall want it again in half a minute. Where's mother?"
A wave of indignation sweeps over Betty at his careless answer.
"Not one scrap of dinner shall you have, Bob, until your cap is hanging up in its proper place; take it out at once!"
"Shan't; where's mother? I want my dinner. I don't want any of your nagging."
Nagging--how Betty hates the word! Bob knows her dislike of it well enough, and always uses it when he means to be especially aggravating. He does so now, fully expecting her to begin scolding violently.
But somehow her very dislike of the word reminds her of Grannie's letter, with its warning about troubles and trials. Is she nagging? has she failed already? Yet how rude Bob is--how wrong!
No, she will conquer; and she answers quite gently.
"Bob, how can you expect the younger ones to behave properly if you set them a bad example? They all watch you," and she goes out to call her mother to dinner.
The kitchen is in a truly dreadful state; table, chairs, and saucepans, all heaped together; a liberal sprinkling of soot over everything; mother, with a great smudge of soot across her face, Clara as grimy as a sweep herself.
"Dinner? Why, I declare I forgot all about it! Can I come? Bless the child, of course not. Just look at the state that careless man has left everything in; it's disgraceful."
"But, mother, dinner's all ready, and----"
"Oh, that's all right; help the children, and I'll come when I can."
Betty's feelings are all up in arms again. She has cooked the dinner herself, and mother won't even take the trouble to come and eat it--her birthday dinner, too! Again her indignation almost masters her.
"You must come, mother. Bob's horridly cross."
"Poor boy. Something has upset him at school, I expect. He's made to work much too hard over those lessons. Now, Clara, I've told you over and over again that I won't have the table scrubbed before the floor's swept. Take that pail away at once, and fetch the soft broom!"
Betty sees that further interference will be equally hopeless, and goes upstairs, the spirit of rebellion surging in her heart.
"So unnecessary, all this fuss and muddle; what possible good can 'Love' do to all this sort of thing?"
Yet Love has already won one small victory for her. Bob would not have hung up his cap had she scolded for an hour. But she had answered his last unkind remark gently, and when she returns to the sitting-room the cap is gone.
Nevertheless, as the day wears on, Betty feels more and more despondent.
"I don't see how things could be worse," she thinks, "and I can't see how I can ever make them any better."
The younger children are in bed now, and mother is trying to wash the soot from her hands and face in her own room.
"Father will be late to-night; he will want his supper directly he comes home. Of course, it will be left to me to get it. I wonder what Lucy finds to do so perpetually in her own room? I've a good mind to tell her pretty plainly what I think of her selfish, unsociable ways, always going away by herself, and leaving me to attend to everything," and Betty sighs wearily, and, seating herself on the little sofa, begins to sort over the heap of unmended stockings.
The next moment she is startled by a loud double knock at the street door. She jumps to her feet and stands listening. What can it be?
Ah, now Clara is coming upstairs. She is always so slow. What is that? Clara screaming? Betty flies down the passage.
"Oh, Oh, Oh!" shrieks Clara. "The master's killed, and they've brought him home in a cab!"
"Killed? No, no, miss; don't be frightened. It's only a bad accident," says the cabman, reassuringly, as he catches sight of Betty's white face.
"A bad accident! Father? Oh, what is it?" gasps Betty.
"Smashed his knee-cap, miss."
"Oh, is that all?" cries Betty.
"All! Why, miss, that is the worst kind of accident. Like as not, he'll never put foot to ground again; he'd better by far have broken both his legs. Is there anyone in the house to help me get him in?"
For a minute Betty's head seems to whirl round, and she cannot think. But with a great effort she steadies herself.
"Bob, Bob!" she calls.
Bob has come up, and is standing staring into the darkness beside her, Lucy's frightened face just behind him.
"Bob, run in next door, and ask Mr. Baker to come as quickly as ever he can; we must have help. Father can't move. Lucy, go and tell mother."
Bob darts off, and Betty goes down to the cab door.
Father is lying back in the cab all huddled together; one leg held stiffly before him.
"Is that my Betty?" he says feebly. "Don't be frightened, dear lass, I shall be right enough presently." But the dreadful look of pain on his face turns her quite sick.
Mr. Baker comes, and father is got into the house; how, Betty never knows. Her heart aches to hear the deep groan that breaks from him when they lift him to the sofa.
It is father who remembers the cabman, and bids Betty take the purse from his pocket, and pay the man. As she gently feels for it, her hand encounters an odd stocking from the unmended pile on which father is lying, and the thought darts through her mind, "Oh, to think I felt things like that to be a trouble this morning!"
Bob is off again to fetch the doctor. Mother is in the room now, weeping, and wringing her hands helplessly. Lucy stands trembling with terror, and perfectly useless. Only Betty seems to know what to do.
Betty really loves her father, and her quick brain and skilful fingers are active in his service. Her love has made her forget herself entirely--for a time.
It is her hands that arrange a pillow under the injured knee supporting it in such a manner that the pain is greatly lessened. It is she who opens the window to give him air, and brings a cup of hot milk to relieve his exhaustion. There is no thinking of herself just now, all her own little troubles are quite forgotten. Is there nothing she can do to make her father's pain easier? That one thought fills her heart.
The doctor! Betty draws back, breathless with anxiety. Will father groan again when the doctor touches him?
"Oh, dear Lord, do make the pain better!" she murmurs, with pale lips. It is the first time she has really prayed from her heart of hearts for anyone save herself.
"I was hurrying along, and slipped upon a banana skin, falling with a crash to the pavement, and striking my knee smartly against the edge of the curb-stone," she hears father explain to the doctor.
"Ah, 'more haste less speed' this time, with a vengeance, Mr. Langdale. It's a pity you weren't more careful."
"It's my girl's birthday, and I had only just remembered it," murmurs father faintly. Oh, how poor Betty's conscience pricks her as she hears the words!
"Hem! bad job; bad job. A pair of sharp scissors, my dear," and the doctor turns to Betty, who flies to get them.
The doctor cuts away the clothing from the injured knee, and after a very brief examination declares that his patient must be taken to the hospital.
"I will send an ambulance for you immediately, Mr. Langdale. There is no help for it, I am afraid," he says, and takes his leave.
There is another dreadful interval of waiting. Mother continues to sob and rock herself to and fro. Bob takes up his stand by the window, on the look-out for the ambulance. He is truly sorry for father, yet, boy-like, feels all the painful importance of the position.
But Betty holds her father's hand, with eyes brimful of pitying love.
"Father, father," she whispers, "if I could only help you; if I could only bear some of the pain for you."
A faint smile flickers into his face, and the set features relax a little.
A pillow under the injured knee."I fear you will have to bear your share, my lass. The pain in my knee is nothing to having to leave you all to shift for yourselves. You must see Mr. Duncan, the landlord of the houses I collect rents for, the first thing to-morrow, and take him the rent-books. You'll find them all in my bag, and the money I've collected this week, too. I haven't got it all yet. Perhaps he'll do something for your mother while I'm laid by; I don't know. Oh, Betty, my girl, I must leave so much in your hands. Do all you can for your mother. Try your best to keep the home together."
"Father, I'll try so hard. I'll do everything I can. I'll----"
"Here's the ambulance, and there's a nurse and two men getting out," announces Bob from the window.
Mrs. Langdale's sobs rise into screams, but Betty scarcely hears her; just now she has eyes and ears for her father alone.
Skilful hands carry him to the ambulance, and this time no groan reaches Betty's straining ears, as she follows the party.
"Go to your mother! She needs you, and I am in good hands. God bless you, dear child! God be with you and help you!"