The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-12-14
Confidence.
BY e. E. HALE.

Dear little Janet! And you want me to
tell her story? Why, she would say there
was no story to tell.
say "dear little Janetp' For all that,
she is a woman grown now; and the last
time saw her there was great bouncing
Donald in her lap. For a. that, and for a.
that. she will always be ''little JANET to me.
There was never a 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 a cross
road in the Piscataquis valley: That is far
away, forty miles above Bangor in Maine
He was on his hay-cart; was sitting on a
log. We nodded TO each other; and he, see
ing my knapsack and stick, asked il l would
not mount with him, which l did: and so be-
fore long, we came up to his cheerful, ramb-
ling, great shingle-palace of house, where 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 Coop! CoopN Who should APP
pear at little three-cornered window in the
gable but little Janet, faxen chris fyingwild
about her head. "Hurrahl p said her father:
Jump, birdiep' and before poor cockney T
well understood the order, the child flew out
of the window, down into his arms; and they
both rolled over and over in the hay. l have
seen many jump into hay-carts, -nay, have
made my share; but never saw such a flight
as that. And even then it was was not the
distance which seemed most surprising. 1t
was the absolute promptness, SO perfectly
fearless
"Hers not to make reply,
Hers not to question why.
He said Jump and she jumped, not be-
cause 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
al lover.
Now, steadiness like that and readiness like
that breed steadiness and readiness. 1t
seems queer to me that had never seen ia
net before, L have seen her SO much and so
often since. [ had not seen her long, before
L found that | trusted her as implicitly as she
did me: indeed, there was not a 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 attendance and her steady hand.
Jetham said she could collar and harness
that cross brute "Mad March,; that she
would climb into the paanger and put the
wretch's collar on, and put the bit in his
mouth, because she was such q lady. l know
she could do it; and of course Mad March let
her do it, tor he could have eaten her, had he
been carnivorous, and hardly know he had
tasted food. But it was not because she was
a lady, but because her easy confidence, as 1
say, created the same confidence in ALL
Do you remember Miss Yonge's pretty sto-
ry 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 them off, they flew 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 1
do not know. Wren or no wren, theyknew ia
net, even II she did not know their name, nor
they hers.
The pretty picture Mr. Billings has made
of her just represents both sides. mean she
trusted the birds, and the birds trusted her.
In the picture you see just how it was. This
little whistler has fascinated her, add she has
fascinated him. He knows she will not hurt
him; and it almost seems as il she were listen
ing to him, and learning from him, as in the
ARABIAN Nights and in the German fairy
tales, the girls of the real blue blood under
stand the language of caterpillar, cricket,
grass-hopper, toad, frog, weasel, pussey-cat.
tom-tit, ostrich, camelopard and ali other YER
tebrates or invertebrates. Dear little Janet,
she is as good fairy as the best of them!
After the haymow flight, when she was as
big girl is Mr.. Billings has made her, we
had many tramp together up-brook, through
moose-Wood and over one of the ridges of
Ktaadn, with no thought of taking staff
with no kind of uneasiness, though She were
just on the sheer edge of that precipice which
you remember perhaps on the southern face
OF Ktaadn. have seen it fifty miles away.
Yes; and have seen the child's father fell a
pine tree hundred and fifty years old, that
we might walk dry-shod across the stream;
and the moment it fell little Janet was the
first to swing herself upon the trunk to run
across as lightly as one of her own little birds
would, and in ten seconds was reckoning
and waving her hand from the rocks on the
other shore. We could not hear a word she
said for the rush of the rapids in the gorge
below. Her father, who wolships heraas
well he may-used to tell a story of an ex-
perience OF theirs in sort of outlying station
he had, half shanty and half lumber-camp.
Just on the edge of the woods. Mrs. Trevor
had gone up with him and Janet and the
and they were to have a sort of
picnic-frolic for three or four days. But one
OF the little boys was not well; so their
mother had taken them all home. leaving
Janet to cook for her father, who had some-
thing in hand. Poor fellow! In the middle
of the second morning, as he priea up a
heavy sill from its resting place, the ground
gave way under him, his bar slipped, and he
and the log rolled down together in the hole
ne had made-poor Trevor underneath, and
his leg broken just above the ankle Jauet
was with him IN two seconds; but she could
not free him, nor could five others like her.
''She did not wait long, he said, Off sb,,
went like bird, down to MeMurtrie's mas
lure, a mile and halt down the interyale.
over the root-fence, into the pasture, and
then, threading through the high ferns. she
began to call dan! Dan! DAMP Now.
Dan was vicious old stallion whom McMur-
trle chose to keep ranging in his pasture and
in the woods. When McMurtrie or anv of
his men wanted D q, which was perhaps
lour Tunes In sui4lner, it took peck of
sait, ana lurings and ehasings, lariats and
lassos lndescribable, TO WOO him and to win
him. And now this child-for .tanet W..
still not woman grown-only called Dan two
Or three times, and down through the nm
derbush came the great hulking creature.
at her; and as she slowly walked
up to him with a handful of raspberries he
lid not turn away; and then and there he
stood and she stood-she on a rough bowl
der, he nibbling at the fruit; she rubbing his
mead between the ears, he whiInying with
satisfaction that he had company. And at
last when Janet thought the entente cordiole
was attained she coolly put her little green
s1l. through his mouth, behind his great
Ieetn, and before he knew it, she had flung
ne ara not on nn bis back, and was away They
were not long making the six miles to the vii.
age. As she came IN by the saw.m NJ IIo s s1
met Dr. Kittredge. She told him bnr , S+o Smc
and in three 3 minutes he and four other men
IN Ka nef wagon t%1d on their way to the
they asked the girl if she would not 90 With
hem; but Janet said no; SOMEBODY " must must
AXE Dan back to the pasture, and So '. she
vent ahead of the party. Poor Trevor was
'eleased in less than two hours from the time
ne fell.
But you Mt to know how Wildar first
net her.. 1t is John Wildair remember-not
laylor; Taylor is in Australia. John is Tay-
s ors brother, That is just the way with you
Young people All you care about is the love
making and the wedding Now T MIGHT on