CHAPTER XXVI
PEGGY JOINS THE RAINBOW-MAKERS
ONLY one more thing happened before Barby's return that is worthrecording. Georgina went to spend the day at the Gray Inn. CaptainBurrell, himself, came to ask her. Peggy had to be put back into herbrace again he said. He was afraid it had been taken off too soon. Shewas very uncomfortable and unhappy on account of it. They would beleaving in the morning, much earlier than they had intended, because itwas necessary for her physician to see her at once, and quite probablethat she would have to go back to the sanitarium for a while. She didn'twant to leave Provincetown, because she did not want to go away fromGeorgina.
"You have no idea how she admires you," the Captain added, "or how shetries to copy you. Her dream of perfect happiness is to look and actjust like you. Yesterday she made her mother tie a big pink bow on herpoor little cropped head because you passed by wearing one on yourcurls. You can cheer her up more than anyone else in the world."
So Georgina, touched both by the Captain's evident distress over Peggy'sreturning lameness, and Peggy's fondness for her, went gladly. Theknowledge that everything she said and did was admired, made it easy forher to entertain the child, and the pity that welled up in her heartevery time she watched the thin little body move around in the tiresomebrace, made her long to do something that would really ease the burdenof such a misfortune.
Mrs. Burrell was busy packing all morning, and in the afternoon wentdown the street to do some shopping that their hurried departure madenecessary. Peggy brought out her post-card album, in which to fasten allthe postals she had added to her collection while on the Cape. Amongthem was one of the Figurehead House, showing "Hope" perched over theportico.
"Bailey says that's a sea-cook," Peggy explained gravely. "A sea-cookwho was such a wooden-head that when he made doughnuts they turnedgreen. He's got one in his hand that he's about to heave into the sea."
"Oh, horrors! No!" exclaimed Georgina, as scandalized as if some falsereport had been circulated about one of her family.
"That is Hope with a wreath in her hand, looking up with her head heldhigh, just as she did when she was on the prow of a gallant ship.Whenever I have any trouble or disappointment I think of her, and shehelps me to bear up and be brave, and go on as if nothing hadhappened."
"How?" asked Peggy, gazing with wondering eyes at the picture of thefigurehead, which was too small on the postal to be very distinct.Anything that Georgina respected and admired so deeply, Peggy wanted torespect and admire in the same way, but it was puzzling to understandjust what it was that Georgina saw in that wooden figure to make herfeel so. Accustomed to thinking of it in Bailey's way, as a sea-cookwith a doughnut, it was hard to switch around to a point of view thatshowed it as Hope with a wreath, or to understand how it could help oneto be brave about anything.
Something of her bewilderment crept into the wondering "why," andGeorgina hesitated, a bit puzzled herself. It was hard to explain to achild two years younger what had been taught to her by the oldTowncrier.
"You wait till I run home and get my prism," she answered. "Then I canshow you right away, and we can play a new kind of tag game with it."
Before Peggy could protest that she would rather have her questionunanswered than be left alone, Georgina was off and running up the beachas fast as her little white shoes could carry her. Her cheeks were asred as the coral necklace she wore, when she came back breathless fromher flying trip.
There followed a few moments of rapture for Peggy, when the beautifulcrystal pendant was placed in her own hands, and she looked through itinto a world transformed by the magic of its coloring. She saw the roomchanged in a twinkling, as when a fairy wand transforms a mantle ofhomespun to cloth-of-gold. Through the open window she saw an enchantedharbor filled with a fleet of rainbows. Every sail was outlined withone, every mast edged with lines of red and gold and blue. And while shelooked, and at the same time listened, Georgina's explanation caughtsome of the same glamor, and sank deep into her tender little heart.
That was the way that _she_ could change the world for people sheloved--put a rainbow around their troubles by being so cheery andhopeful that everything would be brighter just because she was there. Tokeep Hope at the prow simply meant that she mustn't get discouragedabout her knee. No matter how much it hurt her or the brace botheredher, she must bear up and steer right on. To do that bravely, withoutany fretting, was the surest way in the world to put a rainbow aroundher father's troubles.
Thus Georgina mixed her "line to live by" and her prism philosophy, butit was clear enough to the child who listened with heart as well asears. And clear enough to the man who sat just outside the open windowon the upper porch, with his pipe, listening also as he gazed off tosea.
"The poor little lamb," he said to himself. "To think of that babytrying to bear up and be brave on _my_ account! It breaks me all up."
A few minutes later as he started across the hall, Peggy, seeing himpass her door, called to him.
"Oh, Daddy! Come look through this wonderful fairy glass. You'll thinkthe whole world is bewitched."
She was lying back in a long steamer chair, and impatient to reach him,she started to climb out as he entered the room. But she had not grownaccustomed to the brace again, and she stumbled clumsily on account ofit. He caught her just in time to save her from falling, but the prism,the shining crystal pendant, dropped from her hands and struck therocker of a chair in its fall to the floor.
She gave a frightened cry, and stood holding her breath while Georginastooped and picked it up. It was in two pieces now. The long, radiantpoint, cut in many facets like a diamond, was broken off.
Georgina, pale and trembling at this sudden destruction of her greatesttreasure, turned her back, and for one horrible moment it was all shecould do to keep from bursting out crying. Peggy, seeing her turn awayand realizing all that her awkwardness was costing Georgina, buried herface on her father's shoulder and went into such a wild paroxysm ofsobbing and crying that all his comforting failed to comfort her.
"Oh, I wish I'd _died_ first," she wailed. "She'll never love me again.She said it was her most precious treasure, and now I've broken it----"
"There, there, there," soothed the Captain, patting the thin little armreached up to cling around his neck. "Georgina knows it was an accident.She's going to forgive my poor little Peggykins for what she couldn'thelp. She doesn't mind its being broken as much as you think."
He looked across at Georgina, appealingly, helplessly. Peggy's grief wasso uncontrollable he was growing alarmed. Georgina wanted to cry out:
"Oh, I _do_ mind! How can you say that? I can't stand it to have mybeautiful, beautiful prism ruined!"
She was only a little girl herself, with no comforting shoulder to runto. But something came to her help just then. She remembered the oldsilver porringer with its tall, slim-looped letters. She rememberedthere were some things she could not do. She _had_ to be brave now,because her name had been written around that shining rim through somany brave generations. She could not deepen the hurt of this poorlittle thing already nearly frantic over what she had done. Tippy'searly lessons carried her gallantly through now. She ran across the roomto where Peggy sat on her father's knee, and put an arm around her.
"Listen, Peggy," she said brightly. "There's a piece of prism for eachof us now. Isn't that nice? You take one and I'll keep the other, andthat will make you a member of our club. We call it the Rainbow Club,and we're running a race seeing who can make the most bright spots inthe world, by making people happy. There's just four members in it sofar; Richard and me and the president of the bank and Mr. Locke, theartist, who made the pictures in your blue and gold fairy-tale book. Andyou can be the fifth. But you'll have to begin this minute by stoppingyour crying, or you can't belong. What did I tell you about fretting?"
And Peggy stopped. Not instantly, she couldn't do that after such a hardspell. The big sobs kept jerking her for a few minutes no matter howhard she tried to stifle them; but
she sat up and let her father wipeher face on his big handkerchief, and she smiled her bravest, to showthat she was worthy of membership in the new club.
The Captain suddenly drew Georgina to his other knee and kissed her.
"You blessed little rainbow maker!" he exclaimed. "I'd like to join yourclub myself. What a happy world this would be if everybody belonged toit."
Peggy clasped her hands together beseechingly.
"Oh, _please_ let him belong, Georgina. I'll lend him my piece of prismhalf the time."
"Of course he can," consented Georgina. "But he can belong withouthaving a prism. Grown people don't need anything to help them rememberabout making good times in the world."
"I wonder," said the Captain, as if he were talking to himself.Georgina, looking at him shyly from the corner of her eye, wondered whatit was he wondered.
It was almost supper time when she went home. She had kept the upperhalf of the prism which had the hole in it, and it dangled from her neckon the pink ribbon as she walked.
"If only Barby could have seen it first," she mourned. "I wouldn't mindit so much. But she'll never know how beautiful it was."
But every time that thought came to her it was followed by arecollection which made her tingle with happiness. It was the Captain'sdeep voice saying tenderly, "You blessed little rainbow-maker!"