The Dawn of a To-morrow by Frances Hodgson Burnett (good story books to read TXT) đ
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- Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
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âMore than enough to do all you have spoken of,â answered Dart.
âIt âs a shime a body couldnât âave it. Apple Blossom Court âd be a different thing. Itâd be the sime as Miss Montaubyn says itâs goinâ to be.â She laughed again, this time as if remembering something fantastic, but not despicable.
âWho is Miss Montaubyn?â
âShe âs aâ old woman as lives next floor below. When she was young she was pretty anâ used to dance in the âalls. Drunken Bet says she was one oâ the wust. When she got old it made âer mad anâ she got wusser. She was ready to tear gals eyes out, anâ when sheâd get took for makinâ a row sheâd fight like a tiger cat. About a year ago she tumbled downstairs when sheâd âad too much anâ she broke both âer legs. You remember, Polly?â
Polly hid her face in her hands.
âOh, when they took her away to the hospital!â she shuddered. âOh, when they lifted her up to carry her!â
âI thought Polly âd âave a fit when she âeard âer screaminâ anâ swearinâ. My! it was langwich! But it was the âorspitle did it.â
âDid what?â
âDunno,â with an uncertain, even slightly awed laugh. âDunno wot it didâneither does nobody else, but somethinâ âappened. It was along of a lidy as come in one day anâ talked to âer when she was lyinâ there. My eye,â chuckling, âit was queer talk! But I liked it. Pâraps it was lies, but it was cheerfle lies that âelps yer. What I ses isâif THINGS ainât cheerfle, PEOPLE âS got to be âto fight it out. The women in the âouse larft fit to kill theirselves when she fust come âome limpinâ anâ talked to âem about what the lidy told âer. But arter a bit they liked to âear âerâjust along oâ the cheerfleness. Said it was like a pantermine. Drunken Bet says if she could get âold âf it anâ believe it sime as Jinny Montaubyn does itâd be as cheerinâ as drink anâ last longer.â
âIs it a kind of religion?â Dart asked, having a vague memory of rumors of fantastic new theories and half-born beliefs which had seemed to him weird visions floating through fagged brains wearied by old doubts and arguments and failures. The world was tiredâthe whole earth was sadâcenturies had wrought only to the end of this twentieth centuryâs despair. Was the struggle waking even hereâin this back water of the huge cityâs human tide? he wondered with dull interest.
âIs it a kind of religion?â he said.
âIt âs cheerfler.â Glad thrust out her sharp chin uncertainly again. âThere âs no âell fire in it. Anâ there ainât no blime laid on Godamighty.â (The word as she uttered it seemed to have no connection whatever with her usual colloquial invocation of the Deity.) âWhen a dray run over little Billy anâ crushed âim inter a rag, anâ âis mother was screaminâ anâ dragginâ âer âair down, the curick âe ses, `It âs Gawdâs will,â âe sesâanâ âe ainât no bad sort neither, anâ âis fice was white anâ wet with sweatâ`Gawd done it,â âe ses. Anâ me, Iâd nussed the child anâ I clawed me âair sime as if I was âis mother anâ I screamed out, `Then damn âim!â Anâ the curick âe dropped sittinâ down on the curb-stone anâ âid âis fice in âis âands.â
Dart hid his own face after the manner of the wretched curate.
âNo wonder,â he groaned. His blood turned cold.
âBut,â said Glad, âMiss Montaubynâs lidy she says Godamighty never done it nor never intended it, anâ if we kepâ sayinâ anâ believinâ âe âs close to us anâ not millyuns oâ miles away, weâd be took care of whilst we was alive anâ not âave to wait till we was dead.â
She got up on her feet and threw up her arms with a sudden jerk and involuntary gesture.
âI âm alive! I âm alive!â she cried out, âIâve got ter be took care of NOW! That âs why I like wot she tells about it. So does the women. We ainât no more reason ter be sure of wot the curick says than ter be sure oâ this. Dunno as Iâve got ter choose either way, but if I âad, Iâd choose the cheerflest.â
Dart had sat staring at herâso had Pollyâso had the thief. Dart rubbed his forehead.
âI do not understand,â he said.
â âT ainât understanding! It âs believinâ. Bless yer, SHE doesnât understand. I say, letâs go anâ talk to âer a bit. She donât mind nothinâ, anâ sheâll let us in. We can leave Polly anâ âim âere. They can make some more tea anâ drink it.â
It ended in their going out of the room together again and stumbling once more down the stairwayâs crookedness. At the bottom of the first short flight they stopped in the darkness and Glad knocked at a door with a summons manifestly expectant of cheerful welcome. She used the formula she had used before.
â âS onây me, Miss Montaubyn,â she cried out. â âS onây Glad.â
The door opened in wide welcome, and confronting them as she held its handle stood a small old woman with an astonishing face. It was astonishing because while it was withered and wrinkled with marks of past years which had once stamped their reckless unsavoriness upon its every line, some strange redeeming thing had happened to it and its expression was that of a creature to whom the opening of a door could only mean the entranceâthe tumbling in as it wereâof hopes realized. Its surface was swept clean of even the vaguest anticipation of anything not to be desired. Smiling as it did through the black doorway into the unrelieved shadow of the passage, it struck Antony Dart at once that it actually implied thisâ and that in this placeâand indeed in any placeânothing could have been more astonishing. What could, indeed?
âWell, well,â she said, âcome in, Glad, bless yer.â
âIâve brought a gent to âear yer talk a bit,â Glad explained informally.
The small old woman raised her twinkling old face to look at him.
âAh!â she said, as if summing up what was before her. â âE thinks it âs worse than it is, doesnât âe, now? Come in, sir, do.â
This time it struck Dart that her look seemed actually to anticipate the evolving of some wonderful and desirable thing from himself. As if even his gloom carried with it treasure as yet undisplayed. As she knew nothing of the ten sovereigns, he wondered what, in Godâs name, she saw.
The poverty of the little square room had an odd cheer in it. Much scrubbing had removed from it the objections manifest in Gladâs room above. There was a small red fire in the grate, a strip of old, but gay carpet before it, two chairs and a table were covered with a harlequin patchwork made of bright odds and ends of all sizes and shapes. The fog in all its murky volume could not quite obscure the brightness of the often rubbed window and its harlequin curtain drawn across upon a string.
âBless yer,â said Miss Montaubyn, âsit down.â
Dart sat and thanked her. Glad dropped upon the floor and girdled her knees comfortably while Miss Montaubyn took the second chair, which was close to the table, and snuffed the candle which stood near a basket of colored scraps such as, without doubt, had made the harlequin curtain.
âYer wonât mind me goinâ on with me bit oâ work?â she chirped.
âTell âim wot it is,â Glad suggested.
âThey come from a dressmaker as is in a small way,â designating the scraps by a gesture. âI clean up for âer anâ she lets me âave âem. I make âem up into anythink I canâpin-cushions anâ bags anâ curtings anâ balls. Nobodyâd think wot they run to sometimes. Now anâ then I sell some of âem. Wot I canât sell I give away.â
âDrunken Betâs biby plays with âer ball all day,â said Glad.
âAh!â said Miss Montaubyn, drawing out a long needleful of thread, âBet, SHE thinks it worse than it is.â
âCould it be worse?â asked Dart. âCould anything be worse than everything is?â
âLots,â suggested Glad; âmight âave broke your back, might âave a fever, might be in jail for knifinâ someone. âE wants to âear you talk, Miss Montaubyn; tell âim all about yerself.â
âMe!â her expectant eyes on him. â âE wouldnât want to âear it. I shouldnât want to âear it myself. Beinâ on the âalls when yer a pretty girl ainât an âelpful life; anâ beinâ took up anâ dropped down till yer dropped in the gutter anâ donât know âow to get outâit âs wot yer mustnât let yer mind go back to.â
âThat âs wot the lidy said,â called out Glad. âTell âim about the lidy. She doesnât even know who she was.â The remark was tossed to Dart.
âNever even âeard âer name,â with unabated cheer said Miss Montaubyn. âShe come anâ she went anâ me too low to do anything but lie anâ look at âer and listen. Anâ `Which of us two is mad?â I ses to myself. But I lay thinkinâ and thinkinââanâ it was so cheerfle I couldnât get it out of me âeadânor never âave since.â
âWhat did she say?â
âI couldnât remember the words âit was the way they took away things a body âs afraid of. It was about things never âavinâ really been like wot we thought they was. Godamighty now, there ainât a bit of âarm in âim.â
âWhat?â he said with a start.
â âE never done the accidents and the trouble. It was us as went out of the light into the dark. If weâd kepâ in the light all the time, anâ thought about it, anâ talked about it, weâd never âad nothinâ else. âTainât punishment neither. âT ainât nothinâ but the darkâanâ the dark ainât nothinâ but the light beinâ away. `Keep in the light,â she ses, `never think of nothinâ else, anâ then youâll begin anâ see things. Everybodyâs been afraid. There ainât no need. You believe THAT.â â
âBelieve?â said Dart heavily.
She nodded.
â `Yes,â ses I to âer, `that âs where the trouble comes inâbelievinâ.â And she answers as cool as could be: `Yes, it is,â she ses, `weâve all been thinkinâ weâve been believinâ, anâ none of us âas. If we âad what âd there be to be afraid of? If we believed a king was givinâ us our livinâ anâ takinâ care of us whoâd be afraid of not âavinâ enough to eat?â â
âWho?â groaned Dart. He sat hanging his head and staring at the floor. This was another phase of the dream.
â `Where is âE?â I ses. ` âIm as breaks old womenâs legs anâ crushes babies under wheelsâso as they âll be resigned?â Anâ all of a sudden she calls out quite loud: `Nowhere,â she ses. `Anâ never was. But âIm as stretched forth the âeavens anâ laid the foundations of the earth, âIm as is the Life
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