По всем вопросам обращайтесь на: info@litportal.ru
(©) 2003-2024.
✖
Johnny Ludlow, Second Series
Настройки чтения
Размер шрифта
Высота строк
Поля
“James!” she faintly screamed; “it’s James!” and burst into a fit of sobs on his breast. And next the company was augmented by Salmon and Ben Rymer, who had seen James West go by, and came after him to know what it meant, and to blow him up for his delinquencies.
“Mamie not married!” laughed James. “Timberdale has been saying that? Why, what extraordinary people you must be! We were married at Bristol—and I’ve got the certificate in my knapsack at Spicer’s: I’ve always kept it. You can paste it up on the church-door if you like. Not married! Would Mamie else have gone with me, do you suppose? Or should I have taken her?”
“But,” said poor Lee, thinking that heaven must have opened right over his head that afternoon to shower down gifts, “why did you not marry her here openly?”
“Because I could not get leave to marry openly. We soldiers cannot marry at will, you know, Mr. Lee. I ought not to have done it, that’s a fact; but I did not care to leave Mamie, I liked her too well; and I was punished afterwards by not being allowed to take her to India.”
“You never wrote, James,” whispered Mamie.
“Yes, I did, dear; I wrote twice to Ireland, not knowing you had left it. That was at first, just after we landed. Soon we had a skirmish with the natives out there, and I got shot in the leg and otherwise wounded; and for a long time I lay between life and death, only partly conscious; and now I am discharged with a pension and a wooden leg.”
“Then you can’t go for a soldier again!” cried Salmon.
“Not I. I shall settle at Timberdale, I think, if I can meet with a pretty little place to suit me. I found my poor mother dead when I came home, and what was hers is now mine. And it will be a comfortable living for us, Mamie, of itself: besides a few spare hundred pounds to the good, some of which you shall be heartily welcome to, Mr. Lee, for you look as if you wanted it. And the first thing I shall do, Mamie, my dear, will be to nurse you back to health. Bless my heart! Not married! I wish I had the handling of him that first set that idea afloat!”
“You’ll get well now, Mamie,” I whispered to her. For she was looking better already.
“Oh, Master Johnny, perhaps I shall! How good God is to us! And, James—James, this is the little one. I named her after you: Jemima.”
“Peace on earth, and goodwill to men!” cried old Lee, in his thankfulness. “The bells said it to-day.”
And as I made off at last to catch up the Squire, the little Mima was being smothered with kisses in her father’s arms.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!” To every one of us, my friends, do the Christmas bells say it, as Christmas Day comes round.
THE END
notes
1
But old Mrs. Layne did not burn the letter: or else it would never have found its way into Duffham’s collection. She was content to put it off from day to day just as people do put things off; and it was never done.—J.L.
2
This paper, “Anne,” ought to have been inserted before some of the papers which have preceded it, as the events it treats of took place at an earlier date.
“Mamie not married!” laughed James. “Timberdale has been saying that? Why, what extraordinary people you must be! We were married at Bristol—and I’ve got the certificate in my knapsack at Spicer’s: I’ve always kept it. You can paste it up on the church-door if you like. Not married! Would Mamie else have gone with me, do you suppose? Or should I have taken her?”
“But,” said poor Lee, thinking that heaven must have opened right over his head that afternoon to shower down gifts, “why did you not marry her here openly?”
“Because I could not get leave to marry openly. We soldiers cannot marry at will, you know, Mr. Lee. I ought not to have done it, that’s a fact; but I did not care to leave Mamie, I liked her too well; and I was punished afterwards by not being allowed to take her to India.”
“You never wrote, James,” whispered Mamie.
“Yes, I did, dear; I wrote twice to Ireland, not knowing you had left it. That was at first, just after we landed. Soon we had a skirmish with the natives out there, and I got shot in the leg and otherwise wounded; and for a long time I lay between life and death, only partly conscious; and now I am discharged with a pension and a wooden leg.”
“Then you can’t go for a soldier again!” cried Salmon.
“Not I. I shall settle at Timberdale, I think, if I can meet with a pretty little place to suit me. I found my poor mother dead when I came home, and what was hers is now mine. And it will be a comfortable living for us, Mamie, of itself: besides a few spare hundred pounds to the good, some of which you shall be heartily welcome to, Mr. Lee, for you look as if you wanted it. And the first thing I shall do, Mamie, my dear, will be to nurse you back to health. Bless my heart! Not married! I wish I had the handling of him that first set that idea afloat!”
“You’ll get well now, Mamie,” I whispered to her. For she was looking better already.
“Oh, Master Johnny, perhaps I shall! How good God is to us! And, James—James, this is the little one. I named her after you: Jemima.”
“Peace on earth, and goodwill to men!” cried old Lee, in his thankfulness. “The bells said it to-day.”
And as I made off at last to catch up the Squire, the little Mima was being smothered with kisses in her father’s arms.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men!” To every one of us, my friends, do the Christmas bells say it, as Christmas Day comes round.
THE END
notes
1
But old Mrs. Layne did not burn the letter: or else it would never have found its way into Duffham’s collection. She was content to put it off from day to day just as people do put things off; and it was never done.—J.L.
2
This paper, “Anne,” ought to have been inserted before some of the papers which have preceded it, as the events it treats of took place at an earlier date.
Другие электронные книги автора Henry Wood
Последний отзыв
Интересная книга