"Yes." She gathered the child to her arms and kissed the sensitive,
eager little face. Neither Mrs. Reist nor Amanda, as yet, had read
Locksley Hall, but the truth expressed there was echoing in their
souls: "Gone forever! Ever? no--for since our dying race began,
Ever, ever, and forever was the leading light of man.
Indian warriors dream of ampler hunting grounds beyond the night;
Even the black Australian dying hopes he shall return, a white.
Truth for truth, and good for good! The good, the true, the pure, the
just--
Take the charm 'Forever' from them, and they crumble into dust."
"Ach, Mom," the child asked a few moments later, "do you mind that
Christmas and the big doll?" An eager light dwelt in the little girl's
eyes as she thought back to the happy time when her big, laughing
father had made one in the family circle.
"Yes." The mother smiled a bit sadly. But Amanda prattled on gaily.
"That was the best Christmas ever I had! You mind how we went to market
in Lancaster, Pop and you and I, near Christmas, and in a window of a
store we saw a great, grand, big doll. She was bigger'n me and had
light hair and blue eyes. I wanted her, and I told you and Pop and
coaxed for you to buy her. Next week when we went to market and passed
the store she was still in the window. Then one day Pop went to
Lancaster alone and when he came home I asked if the doll was still
there, and he said she wasn't in the window. I cried, and was so
disappointed and you said to Pop, 'That's a shame, Philip.' And I
thought, too, it was a shame he let somebody else buy that doll when I
wanted it so. Then on Christmas morning--what do you think--I came
down-stairs and ran for my presents, and there was that same big doll
settin' on the table in the room! Millie and you had dressed her in a
blue dress. Course she wasn't in the window when I asked Pop, for he
had bought her! He laughed, and we all laughed, and we had the best
Christmas. I sat on my little rocking-chair and rocked her, and then
I'd sit her on the sofa and look at her--I was that proud of her."
"That's five, six years ago, Amanda."
"Yes, I was _little_ then. I mind a story about that little
rockin'-chair, too, Mom. It's up in the garret now; I'm too big for it.
But when I first got it I thought it was wonderful fine. Once Katie
Hiestand came here with her mom, and we were playin' with our dolls and
not thinkin' of the chair, and then Katie saw it and sat in it. And
right aways I wanted to set in it, too, and I made her get off. But you
saw it and you told me I must not be selfish, but must be polite and
let her set in it. My, I remember lots of things."