“Now I shall haf to show thee all my heart,and I so gladly will,because thou must take care of it hereafter. See, then,my Jo—ah, the dear,funny little name—I had a wish to tell something the day I said goodbye in New York, but I thought the handsome friend was betrothed to thee, and so I spoke not. Wouldst thou have said ‘Yes’, then, if I had spoken?”
“I don’t know. I’m afraid not,for I didn’t have any heart just then.”
“Prut!That I do not believe.It was asleep till the fairy prince came through the wood,and waked it up. Ah, well,‘Die erste Liebe ist die beste’,but that I should not expect.”
“Yes, the first love is the best, but be so contented,for I never had another. Teddy was only a boy,and soon got over his little fancy,” said Jo,anxious to correct the Professor’s mistake.
“Good!Then I shall rest happy,and be sure that thou givest me all.I haf waited so long, I am grown selfish,as thou wilt find, Professorin.”
“I like that,” cried Jo, delighted with her new name.“Now tell me what brought you, at last,just when I wanted you?”
“This,” and Mr. Bhaer took a little worn paper out of his waistcoat pocket.
Jo unfolded it, and looked much abashed,for it was one of her own contributions to a paper that paid for poetry,which accounted for her sending it an occasional attempt.
“How could that bring you?” she asked, wondering what he meant.
“I found it by chance.I knew it by the names and the initials,and in it there was one little verse that seemed to call me.Read and find him. I will see that you go not in the wet. ”
IN THE GARRET
Four little chests all in a row, Dim with dust,and worn by time, All fashioned and filled, long ago,By children now in their prime.Four little keys hung side by side, With faded ribbons,brave and gay When fastened there, with childish pride,Long ago, on a rainy day. Four little names,one on each lid, Carved out by a boyish hand,And underneath there lieth hid Histories of the happy band Once playing here,and pausing oft To hear the sweet refrain,That came and went on the roof aloft,In the falling summer rain.
“Meg” on the first lid, smooth and fair.I look in with loving eyes, For folded here,with well-known care, A goodly gathering lies,The record of a peaceful life—Gifts to gentle child and girl,A bridal gown, lines to a wife, A tiny shoe,a baby curl. No toys in this first chest remain,For all are carried away, In their old age,to join again In another small Meg’s play. Ah, happy mother!Well I know You hear, like a sweet refrain,Lullabies ever soft and low In the falling summer rain.
“Jo” on the next lid, scratched and worn,And within a motley store Of headless dolls,of schoolbooks torn,Birds and beasts that speak no more,Spoils brought home from the fairy ground Only trod by youthful feet,Dreams of a future never found,Memories of a past still sweet, Half-writ poems,stories wild, April letters, warm and cold,Diaries of a wilful child, Hints of a woman early old,A woman in a lonely home, Hearing,like a sad refrain—“Be worthy, love,and love will come,” In the falling summer rain.
My Beth!the dust is always swept From the lid that bears your name,As if by loving eyes that wept,By careful hands that often came.Death canonized for us one saint,Ever less human than divine, And still we lay,with tender plaint,Relics in this household shrine—The silver bell,so seldom rung, The little cap which last she wore,The fair, dead Catherine that hung By angels borne above her door.The songs she sang, without lament,In her prison-house of pain,Forever are they sweetly blent With the falling summer rain.
Upon the last lid’s polished field—Legend now both fair and true A gallant knight bears on his shield, “Amy” in letters gold and blue. Within lie snoods that bound her hair, Slippers that have danced their last, Faded flowers laid by with care, Fans whose airy toils are past, Gay valentines, all ardent flames, Trifles that have borne their part In girlish hopes and fears and shames, The record of a maiden heart Now learning fairer, truer spells, Hearing, like a blithe refrain, The silver sound of bridal bells In the falling summer rain.
Four little chests all in a row, Dim with dust,and worn by time, Four women,taught by weal and woe To love and labor in their prime.Four sisters, parted for an hour, None lost,one only gone before, Made by love’s immortal power,Nearest and dearest evermore. Oh,when these hidden stores of ours Lie open to the Father’s sight,May they be rich in golden hours,Deeds that show fairer for the light,Lives whose brave music long shall ring,Like a spirit-stirring strain,Souls that shall gladly soar and sing In the long sunshine after rain.
“It’s very bad poetry, but I felt it when I wrote it,one day when I was very lonely,and had a good cry on a rag bag.I never thought it would go where it could tell tales,” said Jo, tearing up the verses the Professor had treasured so long.
“Let it go, it has done its duty,and I will haf a fresh one when I read all the brown book in which she keeps her little secrets,” said Mr. Bhaer with a smile as he watched the fragments fly away on the wind. “Yes,” he added earnestly, “I read that, and I think to myself, She has a sorrow, she is lonely, she would find comfort in true love. I haf a heart full, full for her. Shall I not go and say, ‘If this is not too poor a thing to gif for what I shall hope to receive, take it in Gott’s name?’”
“And so you came to find that it was not too poor,but the one precious thing I needed,” whispered Jo.
“I had no courage to think that at first,heavenly kind as was your welcome to me.But soon I began to hope, and then I said,‘I will haf her if I die for it,’ and so I will!” cried Mr. Bhaer, with a defiant nod,as if the walls of mist closing round them were barriers which he was to surmount or valiantly knock down.
Jo thought that was splendid,and resolved to be worthy of her knight,though he did not come prancing on a charger in gorgeous array.
“What made you stay away so long?” she asked presently,finding it so pleasant to ask confidential questions and get delightful answers that she could not keep silent.
“It was not easy, but I could not find the heart to take you from that so happy home until I could haf a prospect of one to gif you, after much time, perhaps, and hard work. How could I ask you to gif up so much for a poor old fellow, who has no fortune but a little learning?”