Tess of the Storm Country Part 57

"I takes care of the brat if ye goes before him," said she.

"Thank you, dear," drifted from the depths of the child's box. "And forgive me all the sorrow I have caused you."

"I has forgivin' ye," a.s.sured Tess, seating herself. "I were--sorry about the student, though."

"I know, I know; and perhaps G.o.d won't forgive me, for I've been so wicked! I make up my mind every night, when I can't sleep, that I will tell; then in the daylight I am afraid."

Tess did not answer.

"I shall think every moment of the day about you two here. Oh, my precious baby! If I could only take him with me! That mark will never disappear," she concluded, rubbing the tiny red forehead with her fingers. "If he only goes when I do! G.o.d couldn't be so cruel as to let him live, with his face like that, and have neither father nor mother."

"Nope," replied Tess with decision. "He'll take the brat, too."

"Will he die soon, Tess?"

"Yep."

"Why do you think so? Why?"

"He air too thin to hold out much longer. He don't eat, nuther. He don't do nothin' but smack all day long on them sugar rags, like a suckin'

calf. And there ain't no makin' him eat."

"But he doesn't cry much," argued Teola.

"That air 'cause he air so weak. Ma Moll were here with the hoss doctor, and they says he air to croak dum quick."

Teola raised her head, startled.

"Oh, I didn't know you had had a doctor. I was going to speak about it to-night." She dropped her eyes, reddened, and then added, "But the horse doctor, Tessibel?"

"Squatters allers has the hoss doctor--they air cheaper."

"But he can't die!" Teola moaned. "Not now--not yet! He has never been baptized. If he died now, he wouldn't go to Heaven!"

"Aw! shut up. He air a-goin' in faster'n any of them. Don't you worry yer head over that. G.o.d ain't that kind of a bloke that He wouldn't take in a sick brat what ain't never done no harm."

Tess had risen, and was standing over the child, Teola having placed him back in the bed.

"But you don't understand, Tess dear! You see, it's this way: the Bible says that if a child isn't baptized, he will go to a place where he must stay always. He won't go to Heaven. You understand?"

"Air the Bible a-sayin' that?"

"Yes."

"Won't he go to a place where G.o.d'll find him, if he ain't sprinkled?"

"No."

"That air strange. The poor brat air so blue, so shiverin'--he air so sick! Aw! Christ'll love him, 'cause he ain't got no friends."

Her eyes spread wide with infinite compa.s.sion as she contemplated the grave-shadowed child.

"Did the student tell ye that the Bible were a-sayin' that?" she asked peremptorily.

"Yes; and my father has often preached upon it. I know that it is true,"

insisted Teola. "A child must be cleansed of its original sin in the church.... You see? You see, Tess?"

"I don't see--I don't know, nuther. But what the student says air right.

If the little kid ain't to see G.o.d's face 'less he air slapped on the head with water in the church, then the brat air got to be tooked there."

"But--but, Tess, is it possible?"

Again the squatter bent her head to gather the words.

"He air a-goin' to die," she replied with conviction, "and he has to be hit with the water, if he air a-goin' to die, don't he? Air that what ye means?"

Teola, dropping her face upon the babe, bowed her head in a.s.sent, and wept silently, until the cough that had fastened itself upon the slender chest since the coming of the child, dried the tears.

Tess remained quiet until the paroxysm had pa.s.sed.

"Air yer pappy a good sprinkler of brats?"

Teola nodded.

"Air it likely he would sprinkle this 'un'?"

"I don't think my father would turn away a dying babe that needed cleansing of its sin by the Holy Ghost."

"The Huly what? The student were a-talkin' 'bout him once."

"The Holy Ghost," explained Teola. "He lives in the church, and when a baby is baptized He comes and stands by the font, and when the water falls upon it, He takes away all the sin that it is born with."

Tess grunted disbelievingly.

"Can ye sees him?"

"No; He is a spirit."

"Ye mean that he air like the headless man from Haytes, and the squaw with her burnt brat?"

They were both down beside the babe again, Tess eying the mother eagerly.

"Oh, no, Tess! Those are but superst.i.tions. This is the truth. No matter how little the child is, he won't go to a holy place if he isn't baptized."

"Air the Huly Ghost livin' only in the church?"

"Yes, He doesn't stay anywhere else."

"Who says it air true?"