The Emperor of Portugalia | Page 5

carefully, since he
had the unchristened child to convey.
Jan had himself brought the child from the house and turned it over to
the godmother, and had seen them set out. No one knew better than he
into what good hands it was being intrusted. And he also knew that Eric
of Falla was just as confident at handling the reins as at everything else.
As for Eric's wife--why she had borne and reared seven children;
therefore he should not have felt the least bit uneasy.
Once they were well on their way and Jan had again gone back to his
digging, a terrible sense of fear came over him. What if Eric's horse
should shy? What if the parson should drop the child? What if the
mistress of Falla should wrap too many shawls around the little girl, so
she'd be smothered when they arrived with her at the parsonage?
He argued with himself that it was wrong in him to borrow trouble,
when his child had such godfolk as the master and mistress of Falla.
Yet his anxiety would not be stilled. Of a sudden he dropped his spade
and started for the parsonage just as he was taking the short cut across
the heights, and running at top speed all the way. When Eric of Falla
drove into the stable-yard of the parsonage the first person that met his
eyes was Jan of Ruffluck.
Now, it is not considered the proper thing for the father or mother to be
present at the christening, and Jan saw at once that the Falla folk were
displeased at his coming to the parsonage. Eric did not beckon to him
to come and help with the horse, but unharnessed the beast himself, and
the mistress of Falla, drawing the child closer to her, crossed the yard
and went into the parson's kitchen, without saying a word to Jan.

Since the godparents would not so much as notice him, he dared not
approach them; but when the godmother swept past him he heard a
little piping sound from the bundle on her arm. Then he at least knew
the child had not been smothered.
He felt it was stupid in him not to have gone home at once. But now he
was so sure the parson would drop the child, that he had to stay.
He lingered a moment in the stable-yard, then went straight over to the
house and up the steps into the hallway.
It is the worst possible form for the father to appear before the
clergyman, particularly when his child has ouch sponsors as Eric of
Falla, and his wife. When the door to the pastor's study swung open and
Jan of Ruffluck in his soiled workaday clothes calmly shuffled into the
room, just after the pastor had begun the service and there was no way
of driving him out, the godparents swore to themselves that once they
were home they would take him severely to task for his unseemly
behaviour.
The christening passed off as it should without the slightest occasion
for a mishap, and Jan of Ruffluck had nothing for his intrusion. Just
before the close of the service he opened the door and quietly slipped
out again, into the hallway. He saw of course that everything seemed to
go quite smoothly and nicely without his help.
In a little while Eric of Falla and his wife also came out into the hall.
They were going across to the kitchen, where the mistress of Falla had
left the child's outer wraps and shawls. Eric went ahead and opened the
door for his wife, whereupon two kittens came darting into the hallway
and tumbled over each other right in front of the woman's feet, tripping
her. She felt herself going headlong and barely had time to think: "I'm
falling with the child; it will be killed and I'll be heartbroken for life,"
when a strong hand seized and steadied her. Looking round she saw
that her rescuer was Jan Anderson of Ruffluck, who had lingered in the
hallway as if knowing he would be needed there. Before she could
recover herself sufficiently to thank him, he was gone.

And when she and her husband came driving home, there stood Jan
digging away. After the accident had been averted, he had felt that he
might safely go back to his work.
Neither Eric nor his wife said a word to him about his unseemly
behaviour. Instead, the mistress of Falla invited him in for afternoon
coffee, muddy and begrimed as he was from working in the wet soil.
THE VACCINATION BEE
When the little girl of Ruffluck was to be vaccinated no one questioned
the right of her father to accompany her, since that was his wish. The
vaccinating took