Dreamland | Page 9

face and brushed her hair, she
picked currants and stoned raisins, she hung up her skipping-rope and
fastened her sash; and so she went on from one thing to another until
she was almost ready to cry with weariness and fatigue. Half the things
she did she had forgotten she had ever promised to do. But she had sent
them into By-and-by, and here they were to be done, and do them she
must. On and on she went, until after a while the tasks she had to
perform began to gain a more familiar look, and she recognized them as
being unkept promises of quite a recent date. She dusted her room, she
darned her stockings, she mended her apron, she fed her bird, she wrote
a letter, she read her Bible; and at last, after an endless space and when
tears of real anguish were coursing down her cheeks, she found herself
amusing the baby, and discovered that she had come to the last of her
long line of duties and was cancelling her debt to By-and-by.
As soon as all was finished she felt herself being hurried, still sobbing
and crying, back to the place from which she had started, and on
entering heard the same voice she had listened to before, say,--
"Betty Bleecker's account is squared. Let a receipted bill be given her;
advise her to run up no more accounts, and send her home."
At these words Betty wept afresh, but not now from sorrow, but from
gladness at the thought of returning home. And before she could even
realize it, she was standing beside Mr. Bombus again, with something
in her hand which she clutched tightly and which proved to be a signed
receipt for her debt to By-and-by. Then she heard her companion say,--
"Like to look about a bit before you leave? By-and-by's a busy place;

don't you think so?"
And Betty replied promptly, "Oh, no, sir--yes, sir--not at all, sir--if you
please, sir;" quite too frantic at the thought of having to go back, even
for a moment, to answer the questions.
But all the while she was very angry with Mr. Bombus for bringing her
there, quite forgetting she had pleaded with him to do so; and his
smiling at her in that very superior fashion provoked her sadly, and she
began upbraiding him, between her sobs and tears, for his unkindness
and severity.
"It would only have been harder in the end," replied her companion,
calmly. "Now you 've paid them and can take care not to run up any
more debts; for, mark my words, you 'll have to square your account
every time, and the longer it runs the worse it will be. Nothing in the
world, in the way of responsibility, ever goes scot-free. You have to
pay in one way or another for everything you do or leave undone, and
the sooner you know it the better."
Betty was sobbing harder than ever, and when she thought she caught a
triumphant gleam in Mr. Bombus's eyes and heard him humming in an
aggravating undertone, "In the Sweet By-and-by," she could restrain
herself no longer, but raised her hand and struck him a sounding blow.
Instantly she was most deeply repentant, and would have begged his
pardon; but as she turned to address him, his cocked hat flew off, his
legs doubled up under him, his eyes rolled madly, and then with a
fierce glare at her he roared in a voice of thunder: "BET-TY!"
And there she was in the soft grass-heap, sobbing with fright and
clutching tightly in her hand a fistful of straw; while yonder in the
wistaria-vine a humble-bee was settling, and a voice from the house
was heard calling her name:
"Betty! BET-TY!"

THE WHITE ANGEL

Once upon a time there lived in a far country a man and his wife, and
they were very poor. Every morning the man went his way into the
forest, and there he chopped wood until the sky in the west flushed
crimson because of the joy it felt at having the great sun pass that way;
and when the last rim of the red ball disappeared behind the line of the
hills, the man would shoulder his ax and trudge wearily home.
In the mean time the wife went about in the little hut, making it clean
and neat, and perhaps singing as she worked,--for she was a cheery
soul.
Well, one day--perhaps it was because she was very tired and worn; I
do not know--but one day she sat down by the door of her hut, and was
just about to begin sewing on some rough piece of hempen cloth she
had in her lap, when, lo! she fell asleep.
Now, this was