Bebee

of bed at daybrea

l thing to be as much as

e said how old you are!-how old you are

h. It was so pleasant to be woke by him, and to think that

ing to its mother away there beyond the fence. There were dreamy muffled bells ringing in the distance from many steeples

as very

emed as if she had so lived among the flowers that she had g

r; but the little feet in the shoes were like rose leaves, and the cap was as white as a lily, and the gray

godmothers that she had ever

s had lent their azure to her eyes; the moss-rosebuds had made her pretty mouth; the arum lilies had uncurl

deed, and had warmed the whiteness of her limbs, but they had only given to her

een called anyt

and selling flowers in the city squares-Antoine, going into Brussels for his day's trade, had seen a gray bundle floating among the water-lilies in the bit of wa

t than the oxen in her yoke, had left it there to drift away to death, not reckonin

eave to keep it; and the two poor lonely, simple folks grew to care for the homele

hen it trotted no higher than the red carnation heads;-Bébée when its yellow curls touched as high as the l

ssels, in the heart of flat, green Brabant, where there are beautiful meadows and tall, flowering hedges, and forest trees, and fern-filled

nd there are a few cottages and cabins there near the pretty water, and farther there is an old church, sacred to St. Guido; and beyond go the green level country a

d its two little square lattices were dark with creeping plants and big rose-bushes, and its roof, so low

en roadway and into the white, wide streets; and in the market the buyers-most often of all when they were young mothers-would seek out the little golden head and the beautiful frank blue eyes, and buy Bébée's lilies and

lone could fill the market, and the country gardens were bitter black wind-swept desolations where the chilly roots huddled themselves together underground like homeless children in a cellar,-then the money gained in the time of le

al disease, there were only a few silver crowns in the brown jug hidden in the thatc

and the goat, and be sure to keep the flowers blowing," said the old man with his l

. Guido, she was very sorrowful and lonely, poor little, bright Bébée, who had never hardly known a worse woe than

nd sat down in a c

in all the colors of the rainbow. She was to live in it, and never let the flowers die, so he had s

n was

g to the bough, and swung to and fro singing. The door stood open, with the broad, bright day beaming through; and Bébée's little world came streaming in with i

working, kindly of nature, and shrewd in their own simple matters; people who labored in

e," said the first of them. "My old mo

the second. "I will give you bit and drop, and cl

oman, as you know well, shall come and bide with you, and ask you nothing-nothing at a

ébée, and my sons shall till the place for you; and I will live with you myself, and le

r nothing; and we will root the flowers up and plant it with good cabbages and potatoes and salad plants. And I will stable my cows in the hut to sweeten it after a dead man, and I will take my chance of making money out of i

her own and ear-rings of solid silver, and a green cart, and a big dog that took the milk i

as the speakers grew hotter against one another and more eager to convin

e of the little truckle-bed, with her eyes fixe

them all

rst communion. She who wanted her sister to have the crust and the flowers, had brought her a beautiful painted book of hours that had cost a whole franc. Another had given her the solitary wonder, travel, and foreign feast of her

sense fell on her that in all these counsels there was not the same whole-hearted and frank

n a vague, sorrowful fashion, that they were all of them trying to make some benefit out o

out of the snows. But she was not a little fool, though people sometimes called her so because she wou

eighbors at all times, each, in this matter, was hungry for the advantages to be got out of old Antoine's plot of ground. They were very poor; they toiled in the scorched or frozen fields all weathers, or s

rs dried on her cheeks, and her pretty

it is for the hut that you are speaking. Perhaps it is wrong in me to say so; yes, I am wrong, I am sure,-you are all kind, and I am only Bébée. But you see he told me to live her

purpose. The women clamored about her for an hour in reproach and rebuke; she was a baby indeed, she was a little fool, she was a naughty, obstinate

en wrong; and I am old enough to do for myself, and I am not afraid, and who is there that would hurt me? Oh, yes; go and tell Father Francis, if you like! I do not believe he will blame me, but if he do, I must bear i

ttle idiot like this? Indeed, peas

r only for

to be her grandmothers, and who knew that she had been raked out of their own

is like wine, and makes the depths of the mind shine clear, and all the mud that is in the depths stink in the light; and in their wrath at not sharing Anto

threshold, their wooden shoes and their shrill voices keeping a clattering chorus. By t

heart, whilst big and bitter tears swelled into he

se shameful to have been raked out of the water-lilies

e had had a fairy and the flowers for her mother and godmothers, which Antoine always told her was the case beyond any manner of doubt. Even Father Francis, hearing the pretty harmless fiction, had never de

ther, and when people in Brussels had asked her of her parentage, seeing her stand in the market with a c

er was a

they would say in return; and Béb

ul; she was rather per

uman mother who would have taken care of her now that old Antoine was dead, instead of those beautiful, gleaming, cold water-lilies which wen

world-touched her innocent cheek with their hot breath, and as

n against the little low wall, knitting and gossiping; and the big dogs, released from harness, would poke their heads through the wicket for a crust; and the children would d

in, and the neighbors held aloof, and she shut to the hut door and listened to the

nd boughs sparkled; a lark sang; Bébée awoke sad in heart

uty, just as he said. The flowers will never let any real harm come, though they do look so indifferent and smi

pathy in the flo

ever, and had laughed saucily in the sun, and not even a rosebud turned

did." said Bébée, to whom the garden

d the pinks, shaking the raindr

emed to say, "Why should we care for anything, unles

eet wet sunlightened labyrinths of blossom, her pretty bare feet

let you know heat or cold, he never let the worm gnaw or the snail harm you; he would get up in the dark to see afte

as foolish as that. Some one will do all he did. We are of market value, you know. Care,

ays so selfish as this;

ir callousness seem ha

the sun seems cruel-a child, a bird, a dragon-fly-nay, even

to the wall; a niche with a bit of glass and a picture of the

ong. Bébée, whose religion was the sweetest, vaguest mingling of Pagan and Christian myths, and whose faith in fairies and in saints was exactly equal in strength and in ignorance,-Bébée filled the delf pot a

miliar with th

the Holy Mother loved flowers so well, Bébée

, and never tells a lie," thought Bébée, "I am quite sure, as

nothing doubting; and then rose for her daily work

wooden shoes clattering on the sunny road into the city, Bébée was almost content again, though ever and again, as she trod the

l one, and too young to

eting her i

ébée had her own way, and the fairies, or the saints, or both together, took care of her; and so it came to pass that all alone she heard the co