The Romance of a Christmas Card | Page 8

grown drab
and long, but the twins kept Letty's inexperienced hands busy, though
in the first year she had the help of old Miss Clarissa Perry, a childless
expert in the bringing-up of babies.
The friendship of Reba Larrabee, so bright and cheery and
comprehending, was a never-ending solace. There was nothing of the
martyr about Letty. She was not wholly resigned to her lot, and to tell
the truth she did not intend to be, for a good many years yet.
"I'm not a minister, but I'm the wife of a minister, which is the next best
thing," Mrs. Larrabee used to say. "I tell you, Letty, there's no use in
human creatures being resigned till their bodies are fairly worn out with
fighting. When you can't think of another mortal thing to do, be
resigned; but I'm convinced that the Lord is ashamed of us when we
fold our hands too soon!"
"You were born courageous, Reba!" And Letty would look admiringly
at the rosy cheeks and bright eyes of her friend.

"My blood circulates freely; that helps me a lot. Everybody's blood
circulates in Racine, Wisconsin."--And the minister's wife laughed
genially. "Yours, hereabouts, freezes up in your six months of cold
weather, and when it begins to thaw out the snow is ready to fall again.
That sort of thing induces depression, although no mere climate would
account for Mrs. Popham.--Ossian said to Luther the other day: 'Maria
ain't hardly to blame, parson. She come from a gloomy stock. The
Ladds was all gloomy, root and branch. They say that the Ladd babies
was always discouraged two days after they was born.'"
The cause of Letty's chief heartache, the one that she could reveal to
nobody, was that her brother should leave her nowadays so completely
to her own resources. She recalled the time when he came home from
Boston, pale, haggard, ashamed, and told her of his marriage, months
before. She could read in his lack-lustre eyes, and hear in his voice, the
absence of love, the fear of the future. That was bad enough, but
presently he said: "Letty, there's more to tell. I've no money, and no
place to put my wife, but there's a child coming. Can I bring her here
till--afterwards? You won't like her, but she's so ailing and despondent
just now that I think she'll behave herself, and I'll take her away as soon
as she's able to travel. She would never stay here in the country,
anyway; you couldn't hire her to do it."
She came: black-haired, sullen-faced Eva, with a vulgar beauty of her
own, much damaged by bad temper, discontent, and illness. Oh, those
terrible weeks for Letty, hiding her own misery, putting on a brave face
with the neighbors, keeping the unwelcome sister-in-law in the
background.
It was bitterly cold, and Eva raged against the climate, the house, the
lack of a servant, the absence of gayety, and above all at the prospect of
motherhood. Her resentment against David, for some reason unknown
to Letty, was deep and profound and she made no secret of it; until the
outraged Letty, goaded into speech one day, said: "Listen, Eva! David
brought you here because his sister's house was the proper place for
you just now. I don't know why you married each other, but you did,
and it's evidently a failure. I'm going to stand by David and see you

through this trouble, but while you're under my roof you'll have to
speak respectfully of my brother; not so much because he's my brother,
but because he's your husband and the father of the child that's
coming:--do you understand?"
Letty had a good deal of red in her bronze hair and her brown eyes
were as capable of flashing fire as Eva's black ones; so the girl not only
refrained from venting her spleen upon the absent David, but ceased to
talk altogether, and the gloom in the house was as black as if Mrs.
Popham and all her despondent ancestors were living under its roof.
The good doctor called often and did his best, shrugging his shoulders
and lifting his eyebrows as he said: "Let her work out her own salvation.
I doubt if she can, but we'll give her the chance. If the problem can be
solved, the child will do it."

[Illustration]
IV
Well, the problem never was solved, never in this world, at least; and
those who were in the sitting-room chamber when Eva was shown her
two babies lying side by side on a pillow, never forgot the quick glance
of horrified incredulity, or the shriek of aversion with which she
greeted them.
Letty had a sense of humor, and it must be confessed that when the
scorned and discarded babies were returned