Chapter VII: A Visitor

ONE day as Katy was coming in from an errand, she saw a little gray pony with a low carriage tied in front of the door, and when she went in, who should sit talking with Mrs. Scram but Mrs. Lynn! Katy's delight was so great that she could hardly answer when Mrs. Lynn spoke to her.

Mrs. Lynn had been asking Mrs. Scram all about Katy and getting a promise that she should attend Sabbath-School regularly. However ungracious Mrs. Scram might be to others, this gentle lady who was so polite and pleasant, and had given an orange to the baby, got no short or surly answers, although she did think when Mrs. Lynn first came in, that "she had better be tending to her own business."

When the lady went away, she gave Katy a little book filled with pictures, and told her she would teach her some of the hymns that were in it at Sabbath-School. Katy went with her to the door, and watched her get into the carriage and drive away.

"Oh," sighed Katy, "how happy she must be, to ride off this nice morning in that pretty carriage; I wish I was her."

And then she went back to the little dark room that looked darker than ever after the bright lady had gone out of it, back to the work that she hated, and it wasn't nice work a bit as she was doing it, washing dishes in some very greasy water that was almost cold. It is a different affair to wash dishes in the way some of you will learn to do it, and may be really pleasant work, to take a pan of hot water with a little soap in it, and as fast as you wash the dishes, rinse them in clean hot water in another pan; then after they are nicely drained, you will enjoy wiping them on a clean soft towel, and setting the shining rows of cups and plates on the shelf. Work is almost as nice as play sometimes, but poor Katy had no one to teach her.

Mrs. Lynn rode homeward in deep thought, and pony Gray had it all his own way, trotting along at a gait that pleased himself, and if he thought at all, he thought his mistress was asleep, but she was not. She was wide awake and thinking hard, and if she had thought aloud, one might have heard something like this:

"It is a great pity that Katy should be brought up under such influences, I wonder if they would part with her. What a dear little face she has, and her eyes followed me so wistfully. Could I undertake the task of training a child that has lived on the street so long? But I would like to put a little pleasure into her life. What if we take her and train her up as our own dear daughter? I know it will cost a good deal of self-denial and sacrifice, and perhaps I shall fail and she will only be a trouble to me instead of a pleasure."

Just then something seemed to whisper this little thought into Mrs. Lynn's ear. "What if you should undertake this work for the 'Master's' sake, and not think anything about your own pleasure?"

At this point, she seemed to have decided upon something, for she gathered up the reins briskly and bade Gray hurry himself. And very soon after, she drove in between the tall trees and up a broad carriage-way that led to her home.

Her husband was on the piazza watching for her. And he said as he helped her out:

"What a women of business my wife is getting to be, when she cannot be home at the dinner hour. You have some new schemes in your head now, I know by your looks; tell it quickly."

"Yes, I have," said his wife, "and you shall hear all about it pretty soon."

"Now," said Mrs. Lynn, when she and her husband were seated in their pleasant dining-room, "Don't you want to hear about my new scheme as you call it?"

So Mr. Lynn listened to the history of Katy, and an account of Mrs. Lynn's visit to the Scram's, which ended with:

"Now I want that dear little Katy for my own, I want to adopt her as our daughter. You will be sure to say yes, won't you? For I have quite set my heart upon it."

After thinking a little while, Mr. Lynn said:

"But my dear wife, have you counted the cost? Just think what a tax the training of one who has been a street child will be to your time and patience, why not take one who has not so much evil to unlearn as she probably has?"

"That is just it," said Mrs. Lynn, "I want to save her, she seems so bright and promising, and besides I love her a little already."

"Ah, I thought that had something to do with it. Well, I suppose if one is going to undertake such a thing, it is better to have a little stock of love to start with. As you are always right, you must be now, so I am sure you have my cheerful consent to do whatever you please, although I fear this will be a hard task that you have set for yourself."

But Mrs. Lynn did not look in the last as if she were about to undertake a hard task. Her eyes looked very bright and her smile very happy as she said:

"Won't it be delightful to have a dear little girl skipping about this very quiet house?"

But then, how could she be at all sure that the Scrams would give Katy up? It was very likely they would not wish to, for she was growing stronger and older, and of course would be more useful every day. The more she thought about it, the less prospect did there seem to be of carrying out her plans, and she resolved to go into the city again early the next morning and see Mrs. Scram. But she did not go, for the evening train brought company to remain several days, and Mrs. Lynn's time and attention were all taken up.

In the meanwhile, Mrs. Scram received a letter from a cousin who lived at the West, saying that she was coming to make them a visit.

"There, now," said Mrs. Scram to her husband. "If 'twasn't for that little plague you picked up in the streets and brought home, I might have Mary Jane stay all winter and help me. I just wish we could get rid of her, and will too, some way or other. There'll be enough of us in this tucked up hole without her, and she's nothing but a torment, anyhow."

So it came to pass that while Mrs. Lynn could scarcely sleep nights, so great was her anxiety lest she should fail of getting possession of Katy, that Mrs. Scram was full of frettings and scoldings lest she could not get rid of her.

After she had scolded about it several days, Mr. Scram said: "Well, well! Put her on the cars and send her back, she can live just as she did afore, I'm sure."