Where Two Ways Meet, etc

Chapter I. Among The Buttercups

s T was on the 2nd of June — a day that she -1- will remember to the close of her life — that Dinah found herself in the midst of a little world of buttercups and clover. The buttercups predominated, outshining every other blossom with the splendour of their fresh glittering gold ; and the child sat amongst them in silent rapture, her little hands stray ing softly about their slender stalks, and her eyes bright with the wonderful joy that only comes once or twice in a lifetime. It was the first time that Dinah had ever tramped into the country with Daddy and Sue, and although her legs ached and her feet were sore, her heart was so full of delight that she forgot her weari ness. But it must not be supposed that Daddy and Sue had done anything to add to her enjoyment. More than once Daddy had threatened to punch her head for being a girl instead of a boy, and not strong enough to push the organ.

And Sue had given her many a hard word and savage blow as they came along the dusty roads and through the green lanes in the heat of the day. Their luck had been bad ; the country bumpkins had listened all agape to Daddy's tunes, but there were few pence to reward him for his pains ; the wayside inns were empty and dull, and the innkeepers half asleep. And when they reached at the cross roads the little village of Goldenmead, the organ-grinder's patience was so completely exhausted that Sue herself came in for a share of the ill-temper that was usually vented on Dinah alone. Altogether things had come to such a state that Daddy began to think the organ a bad investment, and to curse his own folly in hiring the unprofitable machine and dragging it about the country. For many months everything had been going wrong with Sue and himself, and as Sue was by no means a meek and patient soul, their ill-fortune had been the cause of a good many quarrels.

Moreover there was always a certain string on which she harped with steady persistence, saying the same words over and over, until Daddy was as sick of the sound of them as he was of the tunes that he ground out of the organ. " You know, Jem, that when I took to you, I never promised to take to the brat." It was noon. Daddy and Sue and the organ were resting under the shadow of a railway bridge, while Dinah was lost in her rapturous dream among the buttercups. The discon tented pair were eating bread and cheese, and washing it down with copious draughts from a bottle which stood on the ground between them. Sue had taken off her bonnet, revealing her yellow hair and hard, freckled face — a face that told its own story of a selfish nature and a strong will. No matter how loudly she com plained, Sue always took good care that bread Where Tzvo Ways Meet. 6 and cheese should be provided and the bottle replenished.

Probably she had her own ways of getting money, and although she seldom denied herself anything, she had the art of making the coins last much longer than Daddy did. Her strong hands were capable of a great deal of hard work ; her iron frame was rarely conscious of fatigue. And one could see at a glance that the man, with his worn features and wild eyes, was a much weaker creature than the woman who sat by his side. " I never purfessed to be pertickler fond of brats," she went on. " And that there plague of a Dinah is just the most useless brat I ever set eyes on. If she'd been a boy, now, we might have turned her to some account. But she ain't a boy, and it ain't at all likely she'll ever be one. She'll go on growin' up a lazy, aggra watin\ good-for-nothin' girl, and we shall be clean worn out with lookin' after her.

That's how it'll be." When Sue had drawn this dismal picture of the future, Daddy had recourse to the bottle. He finished his draught with a sort of a groan, and then bestowed a hearty curse on his com panion for making the worst of things. " That's what I never does," said Sue, steadily defending herself. "I likes to look matters straight in the face, and not shuffle round 'em as you do ; that's all. And you know, Jem," she added in a wheedling tone, "I'm as good a pard ner as ever a man need wish for. There ain't a hatom of self about me ; I works and slaves for you till I wastes away to a shadder, and you like's me well enough, now don't yer, Jem •}" He growled out something that might be taken for yes. With all her faults the woman was useful to him, and he knew it, and did not want to lose her.

" Well," continued Sue, leaning back against the brickwork behind her, and still speaking in the same coaxing voice, "there's a something that I'm goin' to say as may surprise yer, Jem. I'm willin' to slave for you, my man ; but I ain't willing to slave for Dinah. And what I've got to tell yer is this — you must just make up your mind to part with Dinah, or to part with me." "Humbug," said Daddy, with an uneasy movement. " No, it ain't humbug. When I took to you I didn't take to the brat. And she ain't no good to you, Jem, but quite the rewerse. You goes into a passion hevery time you looks at her, and it's my belief she' 11 aggrawate you into a hearly grave. Only think what a peaceful life we should lead if she was gone ! And it's a heasy thing to get rid of her altogether." " It ain't a heasy thing," he replied gloomily.

" If you've got young 'uns, they'll stick to you. And there's bobbies and beaks that's always got their eyes on you to see that you ain't neglectin' to support the kids." "Dinah'll do a deal better without us," said Sue, not heeding his last remark. " She's an uncommon pretty child, and people'll take a fancy to her face. Let's sheer off, Jem, and leave her there a-playin' by herself in the field. We'll make our way back to London as fast as we can, and get rid of this here fool of an organ, and set up in the costermongering line. You've got no ear for music, my man, and the organ were not the thing for you. Come now, shake yourself up, and let's be goin'." " She'll follow us, Sue." " We shall get a good start," said the woman, with an unpleasant smile. "I've told her that she's to keep on a-playin' in that field till we calls her, and we shan't call her till evenin', and she's that bewitched with the flowers, that she'll never take no count of time.

Besides I've promised her a good hidin' if she moves out of the field afore she's called, and I've give her some victuals. It's a jolly big playground, and she's mighty well content." The man was silent, but his features worked, and Sue gave a sidelong glance at his disturbed face. " Don't be a fool, Jem," she said, clapping her hand on his shoulder. " Take another pull and let's be off; there's no time to waste on chicken-hearted nonsense, and you've never been a wonderful lovin' parient ! The gal don't care a brass farden for you — not she ! " " Her mother weren't a bad 'un," he muttered under his breath. The woman's face darkened for an instant ; but she could control her temper when she wanted to gain a point. " Well, well, she's dead and gone, and Dinah don't seem to take arter her much," she said artfully.

" Lor, you should ha' seen how the little cat scratched me t'other day ! And them clothes of hers won't hang together much longer, Jem, and she's always a-singin' out for grub ! " There was a moment's pause. Sue rose im patiently from her seat on the ground, and put on her disreputable bonnet. Daddy looked at her irresolutely and then rose too. " Look sharp, my man," she said, beginning to push the organ-carriage with hearty good will. " We'll go back by the way we came, without a-showin' our faces in Goldenmead. There's the village right away over that field where the gal is, and here's our road along this here lane." With a slouching step and bent head the man silently followed her lead, and the two passed out of the shade of the bridge and into the sunshine again. Between high hedges, plentifully snowed with hawthorn, the narrow, chalky road went winding on and on; birds filled the air with their songs ; flowers grew profusely by the wayside ; all the earth rejoiced in the fresh loveliness of early June.

But the pair who pursued their course along the lane were blind and deaf to the beauty and music around them. The man's soul was so thickly overgrown with the foul weeds of sin that he dwelt in perpetual darkness — a darkness that seemed all the deeper because he could recall the time when he had seen gleams of light. As for the woman, her case was worse still, because in her there were no tender remembrances, no faint regrets. Hers was that stony ground nature, which seems to foil all those who go forth " bearing precious seed," and it is a nature which is as often found in the highest circles as in the lowest. Sue, with her forehead of brass and her heart of stone, has her prototypes in Belgravia and Mayfair as well as in the back slums of our great cities. On she went, pushing the organ merrily, and feeling a brutal satisfaction in the thought that she had got rid of her incumbrance at last.

Yet well she knew that she had left Dinah all alone, with no mother but the one on whose flowery bosom she had found a resting-place. By-and-by the night would come, and the air, so tender now' would breaths coldly on the child's ill-clad frame, and the wail, wrung out by hunger and loneliness, would go up to the quiet stars and win no reply. But the thought of human misery did not move Sue in the least ; she had relieved herself of a burden, and could look forward to free days. There was no one now to be seen after save Jem, and Jem was easy to manage, if you understand his ways, and knew just when to coax and when to scold. Finding that he followed her with lagging steps, she began to laugh and talk about the pals they were going to meet again in their old London haunts ; and presently he quickened his pace, and once or twice was heard to laugh also.

If a man has got to live with a hard woman he must either submit to be wounded or grow hard himself. And Dinah's father had chosen the enduring process, and fancied that he found it answer very well. Meanwhile Dinah was holding sweet com munion with the buttercups, quite unconscious of her deserted condition. Sometimes a faint puff of wind would steal softly across the wide field, and all the golden heads around her would be bowed, and the fresh fragrance of the clover would be sweeter than ever. Then a skylark, singing gloriously, would come down in a straight line from the clear blue, and return to the nest that was hidden somewhere in the long grass. Often some big, wandering humble bee would buzz heavily about the child, as if it lingered on purpose to give her a friendly greeting, or a butterfly would settle lightly on a flower to display its delicate wings.

This sweet country world was kind to little Dinah ; it did not seem as hard and cruel as that great, noisy, crowded London world which she had left behind. The mid-day meal had been less scanty than usual. Sue had had her own reasons for dealing out provisions with a bountiful hand ; and Dinah, having eaten her fill, began to feel a delicious sense of drowsiness creeping over her. Days of hard walking had made it sweet to rest and be still. Instinctively she moved into the shade of the hedge, and lay down under the shelter of spreading boughs of hawthorn. The tall buttercups nodded over her sleepy eyes, her head was resting on odorous clover, and she sank peacefully into the deepest and sweet est slumber that she had ever known since her babyhood. How long that slumber lasted she never knew.

The waking was so delightful that it seemed to Dinah that it could not be real, but only the tantalising continuation of a beautiful dream. She had been accustomed to be shaken out of sleep by Sue's rough hands, or roused rudely by the sound of harsh voices ; but here there was nothing hard — nothing cruel or un lovely. Slowly lifting her head from its fragrant resting-place, she became conscious that she was being stared at by a pair of bright eyes ; but it was by no means an unkindly stare, and after a second or two she sat up, and rewarded the gazer with a smile. Now Dinah's smile was a charm which had perhaps descended to her from a gipsy grand mother or great grandmother, and nothing so sweet was ever taught in any of the best training schools of first-rate society. There was a witchery in the sudden parting of the coral lips, and the swift appearance of a dimple in the smooth brown cheek.

Sue had said that Dinah was a pretty child, but she was something more than pretty. The little head, which emerged slowly from the buttercups and clover, was covered with crisp curls, the hue of russet leaves : and the soft face, with its warm brunette tints and long, lustrous dark eyes, was lovely enough to have made an artist's fame if he could have done justice to its tender outlines and mellow colouring. Her battered straw hat lay among the long grass, and her ragged frock was so faded and weather-stained that it looked like the garment of a scarecrow. Yet, despite her wretched clothing, the child unconsciously asserted her claims to that queenship which Where Tzvo Ways Meet. 16 beauty always possesses, and the little girl who stood and gazed upon her had already yielded to her sway. The new comer was neatly and prettily dressed in a calico frock and holland pinafore, and a tidy hat covered her light hair.

She had a fresh face, round and pleasant ; and her voice, when she spoke, was pleasant too. " Where do you come from ? " ' was her first question. "From London," Dinah answered readily. "Daddy, and me, and the organ, and Sue." " Did you come in the train ? " Dinah shook her curly head with much energy. "We tramped," she said. "They're about somewhere — gone a-drinkin,' most likely. And I'm to stop here till Sue comes to fetch me." " Is Sue your sister ? " "No." Dinah became suddenly grave, remembering that when her mother was alive, she had had a sister for a very little while. It was only a baby sister, who had speedily made up her mind that life was not worth living, and had departed in haste to a better sphere. But Dinah still cherished a vague regret for the lost playmate, and often secretly wished that some one had stayed in this uncomfortable world to bear her company.

" Who is Sue, then ? " Dunno," said Dinah, after a moment's pause. Her mind went back to the dreary days that followed her mother's death, and then to the sudden advent of Sue — rough-handed, loud voiced, determined to be obeyed. She recalled, with something akin to a shudder, the ex amination of the few poor articles of clothing that the dead wife had left behind ; the search made in every corner of the desolate attic ; the coarsely-expressed contempt of Daddy's too apparent poverty. Who was Sue ? Dinah had never dreamed of asking the question. Children whose life is as hard as hers are not generally given to asking questions ; the natural inquisi tiveness of childhood is suppressed in them ; they feel the uselessness of saying, "Why is this ? " "I've got a mother and father," said the little c Where Two Ways Meet. girl in the clean frock, evidently thinking that the time had come for making personal disclos ures.

" Father is Mr. Fitzgerald's head gardener, and the ladies take notice of me. Mother was Mrs. Fitzgerald's own maid. My name is Lilly Marlow. Wat's your name r " "Dinah." " Dinah what ? You must have two names, you know." "Dinah Fenn." In Dinah's class of society surnames were often dropped altogether. Her father was always known among his intimates as "Jem," or " Old 'un," and his daughter invariably addressed him as Daddy. The name of Fenn was heard so seldom that it did not come readily to the child's lips " I rather like you," remarked Lilly, after a brief silence. " If you brushed your hair and had a better frock you'd be ever so much nicer ; but I want somebody to play with and you'll do very well. What shall we play at ? " "Pitch and toss," suggested Dinah "only we haven't got no coppers."

" Oh no ! I don't know that game, and what do we want with coppers ? Ah ! I've thought of something. You shall make believe to be a little princess, who's run away and got lost in a great forest, and I'll be the queen coming to look for you. You must really be lost. It was quite easy to hide in that vast field of tall grass. Lilly covered her eyes, and gave her companion time to steal away; and when she looked up again, there was not a vestige of Dinah to be seen. It was as if the earth had opened and swallowed her up, so completely had she disappeared. Running here and ther^, Lilly began at length to be sorry that she had proposed the game, and was half afraid that her newly-made playmate intended to be lost in downright earnest. But at last a little brown face, with laughing dark eyes, rose suddenly above the buttercups, and Lilly went bounding towards it with a joyous shout. The children were fast becoming friends. LITTLE FRIENDS.

Chapter II. Little Friends

' I "'HE stray princess was graciously forgiven *- by the queen, and the two illustrious personages made a throne of the flowery bank, with the hawthorn boughs for a canopy. Her majesty then condescended to while away the time by telling stories, and Scheherazade herself could never have achieved a more perfect success. Lilly enjoyed herself immensely ; she had found somebody who could be patronised and instructed, and the experience was new. As to Dinah, she could hardly believe in her present happiness. Everything was so en chantingly fresh that she felt as if she had suddenly been transported into a new sphere. Being so utterly uncivilised, she did not wince at Lilly's little patronising ways, but took them Where Two Ways Meet. 24 with innocent gratitude. The birds sang, the bees hummed, the hawthorn let fall a shower of scented snow upon the happy pair who sat beneath its shade.

Life was giving some of its best gifts to these two children ; the glory of early summer lay all around them : for them the flowers bloomed and the butterflies flitted to and fro in the sunshine. Dinah's dark eyes were full of rapture. Some instinct taught Lilly the knowledge of her own power; her heart warmed to her companion. She vaguely felt that she could uplift this ragged child, and lead her into green pastures and beside still waters. " No one ever telled me stories afore," said Dinah, looking at her companion with worship ping eyes. "And you do tell 'em beautiful. I wish we was goin' to live together always, that I do ! " " I suppose you haven't got a very nice home," remarked Lilly compassionately. Dinah's red lips quivered, and a shadow came upon her bright face. That word " home " had called up a vision of the London garret, with its broken walls and dirty windows; and she seemed to hear the clamour of loud tongues, the angry shrieks of quarrelsome women, and the deep curses of brutal men, that went on night and day under the roof that sheltered her.

Home ! She had never realised the true mean ing of the word, even when she had had a mother. The life of Jem Fenn's wife had been one of those crushed and darkened lives that impart but little joy to those around them. She had loved her child, and had tried, in a heart sick fashion, to be tender and motherly, but she did not try long. And with her had vanished such poor fragments of comfort as little Dinah had ever known. " It ain't nice," she admitted. " But I've got to go back. I heard Sue tellin' Daddy that she'd had enough of the organ. And so have I. Them tunes do work Daddy up into the awfullest passions I ever see." " I like our organ in church," said Lilly. " But they don't turn a handle to make it play. When are you going home to London ? " "I dunno. P'r'aps we shall begin trampin' back to-morrow."

Where Tzvo Ways Meet. 26 "To-morrow is Sunday." " We don't take no count of Sundays," Dinah said sadly. " Sue says she hates them." " Don't you ever go to church ? " Lily inquired. " I've never been since mother died. She took me just once or twice, but we was always ashamed to be seen." "You need not have been ashamed," Lilly spoke with a grave sweetness. " God is very kind to poor people, and He likes to see them come to His house." " I wonder why He likes them," said Dinah meditatively. " Ragged clothes ain't a pretty sight for Him to look at." " Perhaps He'd rather look at ragged clothes than silks and satins," Lilly answered in a thoughtful tone. " My mother says that there's nothing so ugly as selfishness ; and Dives — that selfish man in the Bible — was clothed in purple and fine linen."

" I know," said Dinah, brightening. " Mother told me about him. God sent him right smack to hell, 'cause he wouldn't give nothin' to beg gars. Serve him jolly well right ! " " Don't say that ! " Lilly's glance was full of entreaty. "He was very greedy and wicked, I know, but I hope he didn't stay in that dread ful place for ever and ever. You see, he did want to keep other people from coming there, when he found how bad it was. Poor Dives ! I do hope God let him out." Dinah was silent, remembering how often she had wished that Sue might be sent to hell. She had been accustomed to hear the wish so commonly expressed, that it had never appalled her in the least. But Lilly's pitying words were not without their influence. They sank deeply into a little heart that had been hardened by unkindness, and softened it unawares.

" You're a good girl," she said at last, looking at Lilly with intensely earnest dark eyes. " But now, don't talk no more about hell and suchlike. Tell us some more stories." And Lilly, well pleased by this simple praise, settled herself comfortably under the thorn bush, and began the ever-delightful tale of " Beauty and the Beast." It was her own favourite fairy-story ; and her compassionate soul entered into all the suffering of the poor Beast, and made him a reality to her attentive listener. To her he had never been a monster, but always a loving, true spirit, imprisoned in an ugly frame, from which only a selfless love could set him free. Just as the climax was reached, and the happy prince was released from the enchanter's evil spell, a distant clock struck four. Lily rose at once from her seat ; and Dinah, who was clapping her hands gleefully at the joyous ending, looked at her with a glance of sudden dismay.

" Are you goin' away ? " she asked anxiously. "We have tea at four," Lilly replied. " Mother likes me to be always in my place at meals. I must go now." Dinah's head drooped. Until Lilly appeared she had been quite contented with the buttercups, but her little companion would leave — " A want unknown before ; ' and the thought of loneliness overwhelmed her for a moment. She did not seek to detain her ; no word of regret or pleading escaped her lips ; yet Lilly divined her feelings. "I'll come out again after tea," she said cheerfully. " Don't be down-hearted. And I'll ask mother to let me bring you a mug of tea, and some bread-and-butter. My home is quite near," she added, pointing towards a plantation which bordered one side of the field. "Wait here, under the thorn, till I come back, and I'll be sure not to fail you."

With a nod and a smile she tripped away along a narrow path that went running like a ribbon through the long grass. And Dinah sat quietly watching the little figure, till it stopped at a gate set in the hedge-row, and was lost to sight. The afternoon was as glorious as the morning had been. The lights were warmer, the shadows deeper, and the air was more still. Another friendly humble-bee sought out Dinah under the hawthorn, and strove, she fancied, to amuse her in Lilly's absence ; but his sonorous buzz was not so sweet as the silvery little voice of her playfellow. Yet it diverted her to see the heavy, velvet-bodied thing clinging to a slender stem which swung backwards and for wards under its weight. There were no other living things to be seen. The hawthorn hedge divided Dinah's field from a piece of waste ground and a railway embankment on one side, and the thick plantation on the other.

In the distance there was a range of low hills, their softly-rounded summits rising in gentle curves against the summer sky, and suggesting thoughts of peaceful flocks and herds. The landscape had no touches of grandeur any where. All was soft, and pleasant, and home like — a scene that might rest a weary eye and soothe a tried heart. Unconsciously the child's spirit was drinking in long draughts of peace. Hitherto her little life had been spent in a perpetual turmoil. And even when her feet had left the great city behind, and the noise of wheels and crowds was far away, Sue had been always at her heels a veritable incarnation of discord. There are some souls who feel after God in the darkness, and touch His hand when they had not dared to hope for His presence ; and there are others who are guided by His provi dence into some sweet, sunshiny solitude, where His " still, small voice " speaks to them in the whisper of grass and rustle of many leaves.

By some He is found in the shade, by others in the light. Dinah had been brought here into this golden meadow early in her youth that the Father might reveal Himself to her heart, and teach her how His will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. " If all this pleasantness could only last ! " thought the little girl, looking away towards the green hills with a wistful glance. But Sue had said that they were going back to London, and she knew that their way thither went winding over those very hills. To-morrow — possibly to-night — they would begin to retrace their steps, leaving Golden-mead and peace behind, and never perhaps would Dinah rest under the shade of hawthorn boughs again. Yet, in a vague fashion, the child had become conscious that her spirit had been lifted clean out of the mire and clay of her old existence.

She might have to drag out her days in the garret and the streets ; she might be set to perform tasks that were beyond her strength, and get only blows as the reward of labour, but nothing could deprive her soul of the sweet memory of this perfect holiday. Turning her gaze from the hills, and glancing across the golden fields, she saw a small figure coming swiftly along the narrow path through the high grass. Lilly had kept her word; she was returning to her new friend, and carrying some provisions in her careful little hands. "Here I am!" she shouted merrily. "Now you shall have a feast. Mother has given me a big slice of seed cake, and a jug of milk, and there's bread-and-butter, too ! It's all for you ; I've had quite as much as I want indoors." Dinah could scarcely find words to express her gratitude and satisfaction.