it was the sound of a cannon fired from the fort just across the river that woke violet from the sleep into which she had fallen, and in which she had lain now peacefully resting for the last two hours.
she did not often sleep so heavily in the day-time, but this afternoon she had been so excited and restless that her little body had felt quite worn out, and she had scarcely lain back on her pillows before a most delicious sleep had overtaken her.
she had dreamt, too, such a lovely dream: a dream that she was out gathering flowers in a wide meadow at the foot of the hill—beautiful blue forget-me-nots and the yellow narcissus; and that morning, beside her and holding her hand, all dressed in white, with beautiful silver wings, was another child whom she seemed to know at once to be the little girl the doctor had told her of, who in the spring time, when the flowers were starting up and the larks were [pg 213]beginning to sing, had suddenly escaped, like a bird from its cage, and spreading her wings had flown right up to god.
but now, in the dream, she was in the meadow with violet, holding her hand and leading her along, and pointing out to her the beautiful flowers which were growing here and there through the grass. and violet wondered even in her dream how it was that she had no pain in her shoulders, and that her feet seemed to carry her along so easily and swiftly over the meadows—sometimes, indeed, they did not seem to touch the ground at all, but only to skim over the heads of the tall grasses; and a delicious breeze was blowing down from the hill and wafting her along towards the spot where the forget-me-nots grew thickest, and where the sweet-scented jonquils stood up so pure and white in their beauty.
and while she was stooping and gathering the blue flowers which she loved the best, she thought she heard a voice calling to her a long way off down the meadow—a very gentle voice, which at first sounded as if aunt lizzie were calling to her; but the little girl touched her on the shoulder and said,—
"violet, dost thou not hear thy mother calling to thee?"
"my mother! where?" and then remembering[pg 214] suddenly that her mother was dead, she said very sadly, "it cannot be my mother, for she is not here any longer; she is up in heaven with the angels, and i cannot go to her until god has given me wings."
"ah, dost thou not know that this is heaven, and that thou hast wings?"
then violet, looking up suddenly, saw that the air was full of shining figures flitting to and fro across the sky; and there was a shining hill on which stood a great white throne, and on the steps of the throne the lord jesus was standing with a little lamb in his arms; and violet suddenly felt herself rising up into the air like the angels, and soon she was flying swiftly across the meadow in the direction of the throne, flying, flying ever faster, that she might meet the good lord jesus whom she loved so much, and see the lamb that he had folded so closely to his breast.
at last she came to the foot of the shining steps, and the good lord jesus was standing there waiting for her with a smile on his face; and she said to him very softly, "dear lord jesus, show me the little lamb whom thou art carrying in thy bosom." and the lord jesus answered her, in a low, sweet voice, "dost thou not know this is the little violet from[pg 215] edelsheim? she has fallen asleep, and i am going to lay her in her mother's arms."
and violet saw then that it was a little sick maiden that he carried so lovingly; and she stretched up that she might see the little girl's face. and when she did see it, it was quite white, and there were tears upon the cheeks, though the eyes were closed.
but even while she was looking at it wonderingly, the lord jesus stooped down and kissed the child on the forehead; and she heard him say in a low voice, as he leaned over her, "no more tears."
then violet remembered that she had heard those words somewhere before, and she stirred in her sleep, and stretched out her hand towards the table on which lay her mother's bible, and the book with the spotted cover. but before she could find them, she awoke with a sudden start and a scream, for, from the fort across the river one of the great cannon had been fired off, and which always shook the town from end to end; and the window-frames were still rattling, and the noah's ark animals falling down over the cushions beside her, when she awoke.
"what is that?" she cried, hastily clutching at the rails of her chair to draw herself up from her pillows. "evelina, what was that dreadful noise?"
either evelina was not in the room or the noise[pg 216] had deafened her, for she did not answer violet's question; and before she could speak again or look round, there was another roar of cannon from the fort, and once more the window-frames rattled and the animals fell pell-mell upon the cushioned window-seat beneath.
"evelina! evelina! where art thou? why dost thou not answer?" cried violet, who, suddenly aroused from a delicious dream of rest and peace, had scarcely yet realized either where she was or what was going on.
she sat up now, and gazed around the room with a flushed face and anxious eyes; but no evelina was there, though the carriage was still drawn out in the middle of the room, and the new brown hat was lying on the coverlet; and gradually violet remembered that this was the afternoon that she was to have tea with the policeman and ella under the trees on the hill.
but surely the afternoon must be almost over now, for the evening shadows were already creeping into the room; and the pigeons were clustering on the window-sill beside her, looking for their usual meal, as they always did ere they went to roost.
"evelina, where art thou?" she cried once more, as she gazed at the door leading into the little room which once had been her mother's long ago; but no[pg 217] answer came from there either, only another dreadful roar from the cannon, which put all the pigeons to flight, and pitched noah's wife headlong on the carpet.
violet had often heard them firing from the fort before, so, after the first three or four great bangs, it did not frighten her so much, only it made her head ache; but presently, leaning a little forward and looking through the window opposite her chair, she saw now that some great event must have happened, for people were racing down the street eagerly, and some were waving their hats, and some had on no hats at all, while, far off in the distance, she could hear a great sound of voices like a deafening cheer of joy.
again the cannon roared, and again there came the same hoarse shout, which seemed to come from somewhere down near the barracks. and now the people in the street were shouting also as they ran along; and so eager and breathless was their race, that when a woman stumbled and fell on the pathway no one turned to lift her up, or to notice the white face which for many minutes afterwards remained turned up motionless towards the sky.
at last another woman, dressed in black, came out of a shop opposite, with a cup of water in her hand: she waited until the street was pretty clear, and then,[pg 218] crossing over, she put the cup to the woman's lips and helped to raise her up.
violet could hear the woman's voice speaking comfortingly to her companion, for the narrow casement which formed part of the great window looking over the street was open, and through it a soft breeze was coming in, which blew straight from the hill; and by-and-by, when the woman who had fainted was able to walk, she saw the other lead her across the street, and she distinctly heard her say, "ah, is not this good news for the town? now in edelsheim we shall have no more tears."
"no more tears!" they were the same words that violet had just heard in her dream. she listened eagerly if she could hear more; but the woman had evidently gone into the little toy-shop close by, and another roar from the cannon set her trembling again, and her heart beat wildly against her little purple frock as she heard again—and this time nearer than before—a deafening shout of men and women's voices rising high upon the evening air.
"evelina! evelina!" she cried, striving with trembling lips to make her voice heard above the din and uproar, "come, come to violet. will no one come to violet?"
but it was quite useless to call or cry out [pg 219]"evelina." the girl had evidently gone out, and though tears of fear and disappointment streamed from violet's eyes, and poured down over her little flushed cheeks, no one came to wipe them away or to comfort her.
the cannon, too, roared louder and faster than ever; and all at once the great church bell at the foot of the street began to ring, and clanged out great strokes which set the whole air trembling, so that violet thought even the blue sky over the house-tops was shaking with the din.
but soon this blue sky began to change to a pale green, and then golden streaks came across it; and presently again broad bands of red, and all the green hill seemed on fire, till at last the great red sun dropped down behind it, and a gray light stole over all; and still violet sat all alone in the window, while every church bell in the town was jangling, and the roar of voices came up hoarsely from the public gardens down by the barracks.
she could not see across the street to the adlers' house, for the blind which evelina had drawn down beside her chair hid their windows from her sight, and there was no one stirring outside who could hear her cry, for the rush of the people towards the market-place was over, and the street had become utterly silent and deserted.
[pg 220]
as the darkness crept on, a dreadful fear came over the child's mind that she was going to be left alone in the room all the night—that evelina had perhaps gone back to gützberg, or that some accident had happened to her in the street.
the corners of the room were growing dusky, and there were sounds of mice nibbling in the cupboard beside her. the bells in the town ceased ringing, and a dreadful silence seemed to fall over everything. presently one of the mice stole out of the cupboard, and passing close to the foot of violet's chair, climbed up the cord of the canary bird's cage, and squeezing itself in through the bars, disappeared in a twinkling.
even the lantern man had forgotten to come and light the lamp outside her window; and the pigeons had reluctantly deserted their posts on the sill outside, and retired to roost without their evening meal.
"if only i could get out of this chair; if only i could walk; if only some one would come and open the door." and poor violet moved restlessly to and fro in her chair, and craned her neck to see beyond the strip of narrow blind which hid the opposite house from her view.
the window which looked across to the hill lay wide open, and every now and then a breeze came rushing in, which blew her hair softly about her face[pg 221] and refreshed her; but the hill itself lay now like a great black heap against the evening sky. no friendly moon was up, to frost the branches of the distant trees with silvery light, and only a few faint stars twinkled now and again through the gathering darkness.
presently she grew quite desperate, and strove in the foolishness of her fear to free herself from the bands which held her fast in her chair. she clutched at the blind, and tried to drag it down; and she called aloud frantically to madam adler, to evelina, to ella, to any one, to come and help her. but no one answered her, and she sank back, tired out, on the pillows behind her.
then some one in a neighbouring house began to sing, and she felt comforted. the first note of a human voice, which sounded not so far off, gave her some confidence, and she dragged herself up painfully and listened.
it was a song which she had heard before, but at first she could not remember the words. the air was intensely sad, for evelina had sung it one night when violet was lying awake in her bed, and she remembered that she had put her fingers in her ears that she might not hear the words; but now, with a strange eagerness, she leaned forward.
the woman was singing with all her heart. she[pg 222] scarcely touched the notes of the old piano on which she was accompanying herself; and by-and-by the words came out with a cruel clearness upon the evening air.
violet knew now who it was. it was the woman who kept the little toy-shop a few doors off, and whose husband, ella told her, had been killed in the war.
she had a little spinet, not very musical, on which violet had often heard her play in the pleasant spring evenings before the war began; but, until this evening, the spinet had been silent for many a long day, and the woman's voice had been silent too. to-night it seemed as if she must cry out to some one,—
"my love is dead, and i am left alone."
violet listened so earnestly to the words, she was so anxious not to lose one of them, that for a time she forgot her own sorrows, and only thought of the poor woman who was never to see her husband any more, and whose heart seemed so terribly sad in that house only a few doors off.
but presently the mouse plumped down out of the cage overhead almost upon her very knees, and startled her so that she screamed aloud; indeed she screamed several times, and clutched once more at the window-blind [pg 223]to try and drag it aside. and then she paused, for she fancied she had heard a step in the street beneath; and by-and-by she was sure there was a footstep slowly and stealthily creeping up the stairs towards the door of her room.
but no one knocked or asked permission to enter; only there was a slight rustling against the wood, as if some one were waiting and listening outside.
violet, whose heart had leaped up with joy at the first sound of a human step, now felt terrified. a sudden sickness came over her; the wind from the hill blew in chilly through the window, and seemed to pass over her forehead in waves of ice. her hands grew damp and cold; and the voice outside, singing in its pain "so quite alone," appeared to her to come from miles away and in a kind of curious dream. she fancied that it was the little girl in the book with the spotted cover who was sitting in a window somewhere "so quite alone," and crying out to the lord jesus across the roofs and the distant steeple.
but in a moment, and before she had time to reason out this thought or to wonder whether she was awake or dreaming, there was a crash—a loud crackling as if all the houses in edelsheim were falling to pieces; and as violet, completely startled out of her faintness, sat up and looked out of the window, it appeared to[pg 224] her that the gray clouds over the hill had suddenly split open, and that hundreds of fairy snakes were rushing up with a swift fury through the sky. this was immediately succeeded by the same loud sound of voices which she had heard so often through the evening; and then in a moment the fairy snakes were gone, and the sky was full of pale red and green stars falling softly in a shower of beauty to the earth.
"evelina!" she cried once more, in a piteous entreaty, full of the agony of fear, "evelina! where art thou?"
there was a knock at the door now; and violet, forgetful, in her new terror, of the step she had heard a moment ago on the stairs, cried out eagerly, "come in."
the door opened. her eyes were still full of the red and green stars which she had seen falling outside over the dark outline of the hill, so for a moment she was dazzled, and could not see who had entered; but all at once, as the figure drew quite close to her chair, she called out loudly and lovingly, "my friend! my friend!" and threw her arms round the neck of the old policeman.
"ah, thou art frightened, little maiden," he said softly; "and quite alone," he added, looking keenly around the room as he knelt down beside her chair[pg 225] and took the two icy hands in his. the action and the tenderness of the touch brought back for a moment the thought of her father.
"yes, oh so frightened," she said, "and so lonely;" and she laid her head wearily against the shoulder of her protector. "it was so good of thee to come." then suddenly she turned her face inwards against his cloak, for once again there came that fearful crackling noise down by the hill, and hundreds of fiery snakes again rushed upwards athwart the dark gray sky.
"there, there! little darling, sweetest child! thou must not be so afraid; there is nothing to frighten one, only splendid fireworks which the people in the town are sending up to show their joy."
"fireworks! and are they only fireworks?" gasped violet, still keeping her face pressed in close to the old man's heart; "and thou art sure that they are only fireworks?"
"yes; look out now and see how lovely they are. blue and yellow and red stars are falling to the ground."
"i do not like to look, it makes my heart go so fast."
there was no need to tell him that fact, for the little fluttering heart was beating at that moment with terrifying speed against his bosom; so he rose up[pg 226] and drew down the blind across the window, and then he returned quietly to the chair and placed his arm tenderly around the little trembling figure.
"and hast thou been long alone, poor little maiden?" he asked softly, as he lifted the damp hair off her forehead and stroked her cheek.
"yes, a long time," she sighed.
"where is thy maid?"
"i do not know. i awoke, and she was not here. it was quite bright daylight—oh, such long hours ago. and i was to go in the carriage father made for me to the hill, and ella too, and—" violet paused and hesitated, and a burning blush covered all her face. she had remembered suddenly about the tea under the trees on the hill, and that the old policeman was to have been there too.
"well," he said curiously, as she paused and hesitated.
"then i awoke, and all the people were running screaming down the street, and the bells made such a noise, and i was frightened."
"and no one was here to tell the good news?"
"what good news?"
"ah, now i have something to gladden thy poor little heart with—great news. there has been a great victory for us. the war, people think, is over;[pg 227] and soon all our loved ones may come home to us again."
"my father?" cried violet, sitting suddenly upright in her chair and gazing into the policeman's face with eyes which, even in the gloom of the shaded room, shone with a more wonderful light than the violet stars which were falling again in a shower of beauty on the hill outside.
"yes, thy father, dearest maiden; he will soon be home: and that is why the people ran so fast in the street this afternoon, and why they are so noisy now, sending up rockets and making such a riot, screaming and shouting."
"how soon?" asked violet in a scarcely audible voice, for the sick faintness she had felt before was returning.
"ah, that i have not heard; but if all be true it cannot be very long—a month or so at most."
violet sighed unconsciously. "i am so—so tired," she said, almost under her breath.
"poor little maiden! it is weary work waiting."
"when the lambs are very tired, and cannot walk any more, the lord jesus lifts them in his arms and carries them, does he not?" she said dreamily.
"yes, yes, of course."
"and dost thou know, my friend, that i saw that[pg 228] lamb's face, and it was violet's; and the lord jesus was going to put her into her mother's arms to rest herself."
"when? where?" asked the policeman, growing frightened at the words which the child was so slowly uttering; and even in the darkness he could see the strange paleness of the little face.
"in the meadow with the other little girl."
"what little girl?"
"the little one who sent me this watch. she was a very sick little girl like me—oh, so sick the doctor said; but she flew up in the spring with the flowers and the larks to heaven, and she—"
at this moment a loud clattering on the stairs outside made itself heard over everything, and the door of the room burst open with a startling haste.
it was ella, breathless and panting loudly, who, rushing blindly forward in the darkness, first fell over the handle of the carriage which stood in the middle of the room ready for its first journey, and then over a low stool by the stove. she recovered herself quickly, however, and made for the corner where the dim outline of violet's head was visible against the holland blind.
"violet, hast thou heard the news? evelina has stopped to buy thee a cake at the shop, so i ran on[pg 229] ever so fast to tell it to thee first. there is a great battle which is all over, and we have a great victory and lots and lots of people killed, and a whole town tumbled down, and the man with the big nose, the grand emperor we saw in the picture, is all beaten into little pieces, and had to give up his sword to our king, and he will soon be put in prison; is not that splendid? and they sent up fire into the sky and frightened ella, and lots of it tumbled down again, and stars and blue things; and a great red-hot stick, fell on the shoulders of the orange-girl and made her give such a hop and a scream. and—and—who is that sitting in the window beside thee?" ella paused, her breath almost gone, and not a little frightened at the strange figure sitting wrapped in a cloak beside violet's chair.
"will evelina soon be here?" asked violet plaintively; for the noise and the fuss were overpowering her.
"yes; evelina is here," replied a voice at the door. "ah, poor little maiden! all in the dark. but it is not my fault, as i will explain to thee. see, here is a lovely cake i have bought for thy supper. thou wert so fast asleep i just slipped down a moment to hear the grand news, and then the crowd was so great one could not budge a foot. i thought a[pg 230] hundred times of thee and thy carriage, but we could never have dragged thee a foot through the throngs of people: and besides, that faithless old policeman never turned up, and i suppose forgot all about thee; but i will make him answer for it to-morrow," she added with a light laugh.
"the policeman is here to answer for himself," said a voice coming out of the darkness; and between evelina and the window there rose up a figure tall and dark, and to her eyes terrible to look at.
"oh! who is that?" she cried hastily.
but no one replied to her question; only the figure in the window bent down low over the chair on which violet sat, and said softly in her ear,—
"dearest little maiden, the old policeman was not faithless; he did not forget thee, but he was sent for by his captain, and had to go to the gardens to keep order. please god, to-morrow i will take thee to the hill. and now thou wilt say 'good-night,' wilt thou not? and go to bed and rest, and dream of the good news of the home-coming, and the good father's joy to see his violet once more. good-night, little heart's love."
violet stretched up her arms and drew the kind grave face down to her.
"good-night, my friend," she said lovingly.
[pg 231]
"ah, now i can hear thy watch ticking," he said in a hoarse whisper, "and it seems to say something to me."
"what does it say?"
"it says, 'forget me not.'"
"what?" said violet, clutching eagerly at his coat; but he had stood up now and was fixing his helmet firmly on his head. evelina, abashed and confounded, had moved noiselessly into the inner room, and ella was gaping with open mouth at violet's friend.
"good-night," he said once more, in a hoarse voice; "and to-morrow, if all be well, we shall have tea under the trees on the hill."
"yes, yes, yes," cried ella joyfully, and forgetting her shyness she flung her fat arms around the knees of the advancing policeman; "and ella may come too, may she not?"
"certainly; miss ella must come also. and now thou wilt take my hand, and i will leave thee at thy mother's house, for the little maiden in the chair is very tired, and she must sleep and rest.—good-night," he cried once more as he reached the door and looked back.
"good-night," she replied with eagerness; and then in a low voice he heard her say softly, "forget me not."
