Purple Springs | Page 6

up in a cloudless sky of deepest blue, she knew what was meant.
From the dull tomb of yesterday, with its cavern-like coldness and gloom, had come the resurrection of a new day, bright, blue, sparkling, cloudless, for March had slipped in quietly in the night, with a gentle breeze of wonderful softness, a quiet breeze, but one that knew its business, and long before daylight it had licked the hard edges of the drifts into icy blisters, and had purred its way into all sorts of forgotten corners where the snow lay thickest.
It went past Pearl's face now with velvety smoothness--patting her cheeks with a careless hand, like a loving friend who hurries by with no time for anything but this swift re-assurance. But Pearl knew that the wind and the sun and the crisp white snow, on which the sunbeams danced and sparkled, were her friends, and were throbbing with joy this morning, because it was her great day.
She went in at last, remembering that the children must be washed and fed for school, and found Danny's garter for him just in time to save him from the gulf of despair which threatened him. She made up the two tin pails of lunch with which her young brothers would beguile the noontide hour. She put a button on Mary's spat, in response to her request of "Aw, say Pearl, you do this--I can't eat and sew." The sudden change in the weather forced a change in the boys' foot-gear, and so there had to be a frenzied hunt for rubbers and boots to replace the frost-repelling but pervious moccasin.
One by one, as the boys were ready, fed, clothed and rubbered, they were started on their two-mile journey over the sunny, snowy road, Danny being the first to so emerge, for with his short, fat legs, he could not make the distance in as short a time as the others.
"Mr. Donald wants you to come over on Friday, Pearl--I almost forgot to tell you--he wants you to talk to us about the city, and the schools you were in--and all that. I told him you would!"
This was from Jimmy, the biggest of the Watson boys now attending school.
"All right," said Pearl, "sure I will."
There was more to the story, though, and Jimmy went on,--
"And the Tuckers said they bet you thought yourself pretty smart since you'd been to the city....
"And then what happened," asked Pearl, when he paused;
"He went home--it wouldn't stop bleedin'! but Mr. Donald says a good nose-bleed wouldn't hurt him--though of course it was wrong to fight--but it was no fight--you know what they're like--one good thump--and they're done!"
"Good for you, Jimmy" said his sister approvingly, "never pick a quarrel or hit harder than you need, that's all!--but if trouble comes--be facing the right way!"
"You bet," said Jimmy, as he closed the door behind him and the stillness which comes after the children have gone fell on the Watson home.
"Sure and ain't the house quiet when they're gone," said Mrs. Watson, looking out of the window across the gleaming landscape, dotted in six places by her generous contribution to the Chicken Hill school.
"And it won't be long until they're gone--for good."
"Cheer up, honest woman," cried Pearl gaily, "you havn't even lost either Teddy or me, and we're the eldest. It looks to me as if you will have a noisy house for quite a while yet, and I wouldn't begin to worry over anything so far away--in fact, ma, it's a good rule not to worry till you have to, and don't do it then!"
Pearl was bringing back "the room" to the state of tidiness it enjoyed during school hours, moving about with joyous haste, yet with strict attention to every detail, which did not escape her mother's eye.
"It's grand to be as light of heart as you are, Pearlie child," she said, "I'm often afraid for you--when I think of all the sad things in life and you so sure that everything will happen right. It is to them that the world is brightest that the darkest days can come, and the lightest heart sometimes has heaviest mournin'."
A little wither of disappointment went over Pearl's bright face, but she shook it off impatiently. She wished her mother would not talk like this on this day--of all days.
"Don't spoil a good day, ma, with sad talk. Look out at the Spring sun there, and the cattle, even the wild ones from the range, with their sides steaming and then nosing around so happy now, for getting all about the bad times they had even as late as last evening. There's no use telling them there's cold days coming--they wouldn't believe now--and anyway they'll know soon enough. Isn't it best to let every one have their sunny day--without