A Queer Mistake [pp. 407-418]

A Q!UEER MISTAKE.
was a fearful mistake in Hitty to have
had the twins, and an awful blunder in
the poor babies to continue to live. I
went up to the basket and looked at the
queer little mortals. They certainly
looked remarkably like a wee pink baby of one of my dear friends, to whom
only a day or two before I had given a
neighborly welcome; only these babies
were wrapped up in some faded shawls,
while that one was robed in the daintiest cambric and lace. As I bent over
the basket, however, and put my hand
down softly to stroke one of the tiny
red fists, it suddenly opened and shut
tightly round my finger, and then the
poor little mortal set up such a piteous
wailing cry, that, like Pharaoh's daughter, I "had compassion" on it.
"Is it a girl?" I asked.
"Yes," wailed poor Mrs. Hix-"a
girl; both on'em girls. More's the
pity."
"Yes," chimed in another old crone,
"pity their mother couldn't ha' taken'em
with her."
"I don't see, for my part, what Providence was a-thinkin' of," said Mrs.
Thomas, the matron of the alms-house.
She did not mean any irreverence, but
it was not in human nature to take such
an addition to her cares and troubles
without protest.
I could not help taking the babies'
part, especially as the little hand still
curled tightly round my finger in a sort
of mute appeal. "Now, it seems to me,"
I said, "as if it was no pity at all to be
a girl-baby. I guess women have their
full share to do in helping along this big
world of ours. As to the babies being and living, I rather think the Lord
knows best why things go on just as
they do, and all we need trouble ourselves about is our own right-doing."
"Perhaps you'd like to have'em to
take care of, Miss?" said Mrs. Thomas,
a little sharply; but she added in an instant, when she saw my rising color:
VOL. 4.'-27.
"Not but what I think you and Miss
Rachel always stan' ready to do your
duty; only I do feel put out about these
young uns."
"I have never taken care of a baby,"
I replied, gently; "but it has always
seemed to me that it must be pleasant
work."
But at this point both of the babies
began to squirm and wriggle and make
such droll faces, that I could only look
on in wonderment. Then they opened
their mouths wide, jammed their fists
into each other's faces or their own in
the most dangerous way, and then broke
into a full chorus of crying. I was glad
to surrender my little charge to Mrs.
Thomas; while another woman, with
true maternal instincts, began to "cuddle" baby number two, and, as I could
be of no service or help, I just laid my
hand softly on Granny Hix's silver hair
and said, "It is only'a little while,' you
know," and then came away. But all
the way home Mrs. Thomas' words
rankled in my heart —"I wonder if
you'd like to take care of'em? " -and I
could hear the wailing of the poor orphan babies above the careless trilling
of the bobolinks. They troubled my
sleep that night, too, and I dreamed of
trying to feed the poor things with catmint tea, when I suddenly discovered
that it was boiling hot. I awoke in an
agony of remorse, and found it was daylight, and Rachel, who was always an
early riser, was standing by the little
dimity-covered toilet-table, brushing her
soft brown hair. To relieve my troubled conscience, I began at once, but with
a due degree of caution:
"Rachel, dear, would you think it a
bad plan for us to take a little girl to
bring up?"
"No," she answered; "indeed, I've
thought of it a good deal."
That was encouraging. Now for the
next step: "Well, abotut how young
would you think it would do to have the
1875.]
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