The Heart's Kingdom

"He's a fine child," said Mother Spurlock, with a great tenderness in

her smile at Martha. "Did you ask Mrs. Todd if that big hulk of a Jones

boy could get into the coat that Dabney got me from the judge's closet?"

she said, continuing the subject in hand, which lasted her for another

hour. When she went she took Martha with her to carry half the bundles

down to the Little House, the roof of which was the first thing to be

patched in stricken Goodloets.

That night I felt the hands of the Stray on my face in the darkness and

his soft cheek cuddle to mine.

"You say they is fairies, Lady," he coaxed.

"There are fairies and there always will be for you," I answered, as I

drew him close and kissed the fragrant mouth so near mine. "Go back to

mother now," I added, as I felt the sleepy huddle of his little shoulder

against mine. He went and I promised myself that no matter how lonely I

was to be I would always send him back to his mother and not ever forget

that her claim was first. Tears were in my eyes as I turned my face into

the pillow, but suddenly the refrain of the song I had once heard in the

night, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," sung itself in my heart

until I again fell to sleep.

The dedication day for Goodloe Chapel arrived upon Goodloets just one

month from the day upon which the beast of storm had ravaged it, and as

that fateful morning dawned with an extraordinary grandeur, so that

Sunday in mid-October came up from behind Paradise Ridge with unusual

beauty, only with the difference of calmness instead of splendor and

peace instead of tumult. The sun was warm and benignant, with not a

cloud in the deep blue sky to obscure its blessing. A gentle breeze blew

in from the fields and meadows laden with rich harvest odors and every

shrub and flower and vine which had been hiding back a few late buds let

them burst forth in honor of the day, and in many instances they bloomed

from a new growth thrown over the scars in the sides of the old town. In

one short month most of the ruins had been reduced to orderly piles of

material to be used in rebuilding, and a great many of the deepest

gashes had been healed completely and covered with merciful vine and

blossom. And it had also been like that with most of the scars in the

lives of the bereaved; they ached, but they had been covered with a

courage to go on building again until the new structure could be

complete.

I think something of this feeling was in the minds of most of the people

as they began to assemble around Goodloe Chapel long before the time for

its opening. And as had happened once before, the procession from the

Town met the procession from the Settlement, only this time they were

not divided so completely from the right to the left. A tall mill woman,

whose husband had gone down in the crash at the saddlery, came and took

Nell's hand in hers and laid a strong arm around her shoulders, while

Harriet went over and took from the arms of the young father the little

motherless mite who had been rescued from the pillow floating on the

river. Billy shook hands with a young tanner in tight but wholly new

clothes, to whom Luella May Spain introduced him as her imminent

husband.