A Girl of the People | Page 4

out like a raging lion! There'd be no one as could
stand agen you, Bet. Your father,--why your father 'd give up the bad
ways and the drink. And the little boys,--the little boys,--oh, Bet, Bet,
ef you'd only make the promise it 'ud save them all from hell-fire."
"I'll do what I can mother. See, you're wasting all your poor breath. I'll
do what I can. You say it all out, and don't tremble so, poor mother."
"Hold my hands, then, child; look me in the face, say the words after
me--oh, my poor breath, my poor breath--God give me strength just to
say the words. Bet, you hear. Bet, say them after me--'From this
moment out I promise to take up with religion, so help me, Lord God
Almighty!'"
The woman said the words eagerly, with sudden and intense fire and
passion; her whole soul was in them--her dying hands hurt the girl with
the firmness of their grip.
"Bet, Bet--you hain't spoke--you hain't spoke!"
"No, no, mother--I can't--not them words--no, mother."
Bet sat down again by the side of the bed; her face was buried in the
crimson counterpane; a dry moan or two escaped her lips.
"I'd do anything for mother--anything now as she's really going away,
but I couldn't take up with religion," she sobbed. "Oh, it's a mistake--all
a mistake, and it ain't meant for one like me. Why, I, if I were
religious--why, I'd have to turn into a hypocrite--why,-- I--I'd scorn
myself. Yes, mother, what are you saying? Yes, mother, I'd do anything
to make your death-bed easy--anything but this."
Bet had fancied she had heard her mother speaking; the perfect stillness
now alarmed her far more than any words, and she lifted her head with
a start. Mrs. Granger was lying motionless, but she was neither dead
nor had she fainted. Her restless hands were quiet, and her worn-out
face, although it looked deadly pale, was peaceful. Here eyes looked a

little upwards, and in them there was a contented smile. Bet saw the
look, and nothing in all the world could have horrified her more. Her
mother, who thought religion beyond anything else, had just heard her
say that never, never, even to smooth a dying pillow, could she, Bet,
take up with the ways of the religious; and yet her eyes smiled and she
looked content.
"Mother, you don't even care," said Bet, in an anguish of pain and
inconsistency.
"O, yes, child, I care; but I seem to hear Him as knows best saying
'Leave it to me.' I ain't fretting, child; I has come to a place where no
one frets, and you're either all in despair, or you're as still and calm and
happy"--here she broke off abruptly. "Bet, I want yer to be good to the
little boys--to stand atween them and their father, and not to larn them
no bad ways They're wild little chaps, and they take to the bad as easy
as easy; but you can do whatever yer likes with them. Your father, he
don't care for nobody, and he'd do them an ill turn; but you'll stand
atween them and him--d'ye hear, Bet?"
"Yes, mother--I'll make a promise about that, if you like."
"No, no; you never broke your word, and saying it once'll content me."
"Mother," said Bet, suddenly. "Mebbe you'd like the little chaps to turn
religious. As you've allays set such a deal of store on prayers and sich
like, mebbe you'd like it for them?"
"Oh, yes, Bet--oh, my poor gel, has the Lord seen fit to soften yer hard
heart?"
"Look here, mother,"--here the tall, splendidly-made girl stood up, and
throwing back her head, and with the firelight full on her face, and
reflecting a new, strange expression of excitement, she spoke suddenly:
"I can't promise the other, but I'll promise this. The little boys' lives
shall come afore my life--harm shall come to me afore it touches them;
and ef religion can do anything for them, why, they shall hear of it and
choose for themselves. There, I have promised."

CHAPTER II.
MRS. Granger lingered all through that night, but she scarcely said
anything more, and in the cold dawn of the morning her spirit passed
very quietly away. The two little boys opened the room door noisily at
midnight, but they too were impressed, as Bet had been, by the unusual
order and appearance of comfort of the room. Perhaps they were also
startled by the girl's still figure crouching by the bedside, and by the
look on their mother's face as she lay with her eyes closed, breathing
hard and fast. They ceased to talk noisily, and crept over to a straw
mattress on the floor which they shared together. When they next
opened