The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1872-12-27
CONFIDENCE.
BY z. Z. HALE.

WITH THE CHRoAoLITH, 81 H. BILLINGS
Dear little Janetl And yol
want me to tell her story? Why
she would say there was no story
to tell.
say "dear little Janetr' Fol
all that, she is q woman grown
now; and the last time saw hel
there was a great bouncing Don
aid in her lap. For a that, anc
for a that, she will always be dit
tie Janet" to me.
There never was child who
showed so fully what the woman
was to prove. The first time ]
ever saw her was one day when
her father had fallen in with me
on \ cross-road in the Piscataquis
valley: That is far away, forty
miles above Bangor in Maine.
He was on his hay cart; was sit
ting on log. We nodded to each
other; and he, seeing my KNAPP
sack and stick, asked if I would
not mount with him, which / did /;
and so, before long, we came up to
his cheerful, rambling, great
sAingle- palace of a house, whore
1 had already promised to pass the
night with him. We brought up
in front of the barn, from which
we had already heard shouts of
Scoop! Coop Who should ap-
pear at a little three-cornered
window in the gable but little
Janet, haxen curls flying wild
about her head. "Hurrahw said
Miss Janet. "HurrahY said her
father: Jump, birdiep' and, be-
fore poor cockney l well under
stood the order, the child flew
out of the window, down into his
arms; and they both rolled over
and over in the hay. I have seen
many jump into hay-carts, nay,
have made my share; but 1 never
saw such a fight as that. And
even then it was not the distance
which seemed most surprising: 1t
was the absolute promptness, so
perfectly fearless
"hers moi 70 MAKE reply,
Hers not to question why"
He said Jump and she jump
ed, not because she calculated the
height, or had done it before, but
because he told her to, and she
loved and trusted him. That was
little Janet all over.
Now, steadiness like that and
readiness like that breed steadi-
ness and readiness. 1t seems
queer to me that 1 had never seen
Janet before, I have seen her so
much and so often since. I had
not seen her long, before 1 found
that 1 trusted her as implicitly as
she did me; indeed, there was not
man who worked on the farm
who had not absolute confidence
in the child, or was not sure of
her promptness, punctuality and
affection. Nor was it men and
women alone who felt so. The
horses and the cows-nay, the
pigs and the hens-all knew her
cheerful voice and her ready at
tendance and her steady hand.
lothian said she could collar and
harness that cross brute sMad
March; that she would climb
into the manger and put the
wretch's collar on, and put the
bit in his mouth, because she was
such a lady. / know she could
do it; and of course Mad March
let her do it, for he could have
eaten her, had he been carnivor-
our, and hardly know he had tast-
ed food. But it was not because
she was a lady, but because her
easy confidence, as I say, created
the same confidence in all.
Do you remember Miss Yonge's
pretty story of Miss Keble? The
little wrens trusted her so entirely
that they came to pick the red
berries which were printed on her
muslin dress; and, when they
found they could not get any of
Thorn of, they few down and crept
up under the skirt. thinking they
should get at the berries on the
other side. / have seen the little
birds do that with Janet-not
such wrens as those, because there
are none in Maine, but some little
witches not so much bigger than
an English wren, whose name / do
not know. Wren or no wren,
they knew Janet, even if she did
not know their name, nor they
hers.
The pretty picture of Mr.. Bill.
lings has made of her just repre-,
sents both sides. ! mean she
trusted the birds, aud the birds
trusted her. In the picture you
see just how it was. This little
whistler has fascinated her, and
she has fascinated him. He knows
she will not hurt him; and it al.
most seems as if she were listen.
ing to him, andlearning from him
as in the Arabian Nights" and in
the German fairy tales, the girls
of the real blue blood understand
the language of caterpillar, crick
let, grass-hopper, toad, frog, weasel
tpussey-eat, tom-tit, ostrich, cam
telleopard, and all other vertebrate:
er invertebrates. Dear little Janet
she is as good a fairy as the besr
of them!
After the haymow fight, wheI
she was as big a girl as Mr.. Bill
lings has made her, we had many
a tramptogether up brook, through
moose-wood and over mountain
/ have seen her pass from rock Il
rock, on one of the ridges o
Ktaadn, with no thought Of tax
ling a staff, with no kind of uneasi
ness, though she was just on tn
sheer edge of that precipicl
which you remember perhaps OF
the southern face of. Ktaadn.
have seen it fifty miles away
Yes; and I have seen the child
father fell pine tree hundre'
and fifty years old, that we nigh
walk dry-shod across the stream
and the moment it fell little Jane
was the first TO swing herself upo,
the trunk, to run acrOss as light
as one of her own little bird
. would, and in ten seconds wa
reckoning and waving her han
from the rocks on the other shorl
We could not hear q word sh
said for the rush Of the rapids
|. the gorge below. Her father, WI
worships her-as well he may
used to tell . story of an expel
fence of theirs in 8 sort of on
lying station he bad, half shant
and half lumber=eamp. jast on Il
4 edge of the woods : Hrs. ErevS