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Page 59
"She looked at me with her terrible pleading eyes and did not say
anything.
"'What are you?' says I. Then she went away. She did not seem to
run or walk like other children. She flitted, like one of those
little filmy white butterflies, that don't seem like real ones they
are so light, and move as if they had no weight. But she looked
back from the head of the stairs. 'I can't find my mother,' said
she, and I never heard such a voice.
"'Who is your mother?' says I, but she was gone.
"Well, I thought for a moment I should faint away. The room got
dark and I heard a singing in my ears. Then I flung my coat onto
the bed. My hands were as cold as ice from holding it, and I stood
in my door, and called first Mrs. Bird and then Mrs. Dennison. I
didn't dare go down over the stairs where that had gone. It seemed
to me I should go mad if I didn't see somebody or something like
other folks on the face of the earth. I thought I should never
make anybody hear, but I could hear them stepping about downstairs,
and I could smell biscuits baking for supper. Somehow the smell of
those biscuits seemed the only natural thing left to keep me in my
right mind. I didn't dare go over those stairs. I just stood
there and called, and finally I heard the entry door open and Mrs.
Bird called back:
"'What is it? Did you call, Miss Arms?'
"'Come up here; come up here as quick as you can, both of you,' I
screamed out; 'quick, quick, quick!'
"I heard Mrs. Bird tell Mrs. Dennison: 'Come quick, Amelia,
something is the matter in Miss Arms' room.' It struck me even
then that she expressed herself rather queerly, and it struck me as
very queer, indeed, when they both got upstairs and I saw that they
knew what had happened, or that they knew of what nature the
happening was.
"'What is it, dear?' asked Mrs. Bird, and her pretty, loving voice
had a strained sound. I saw her look at Mrs. Dennison and I saw
Mrs. Dennison look back at her.
"'For God's sake,' says I, and I never spoke so before--'for God's
sake, what was it brought my coat upstairs?'
"'What was it like?' asked Mrs. Dennison in a sort of failing
voice, and she looked at her sister again and her sister looked
back at her.
"'It was a child I have never seen here before. It looked like a
child,' says I, 'but I never saw a child so dreadful, and it had on
a nightgown, and said she couldn't find her mother. Who was it?
What was it?'
"I thought for a minute Mrs. Dennison was going to faint, but Mrs.
Bird hung onto her and rubbed her hands, and whispered in her ear
(she had the cooingest kind of voice), and I ran and got her a
glass of cold water. I tell you it took considerable courage to go
downstairs alone, but they had set a lamp on the entry table so I
could see. I don't believe I could have spunked up enough to have
gone downstairs in the dark, thinking every second that child might
be close to me. The lamp and the smell of the biscuits baking
seemed to sort of keep my courage up, but I tell you I didn't waste
much time going down those stairs and out into the kitchen for a
glass of water. I pumped as if the house was afire, and I grabbed
the first thing I came across in the shape of a tumbler: it was a
painted one that Mrs. Dennison's Sunday school class gave her, and
it was meant for a flower vase.
"Well, I filled it and then ran upstairs. I felt every minute as
if something would catch my feet, and I held the glass to Mrs.
Dennison's lips, while Mrs. Bird held her head up, and she took a
good long swallow, then she looked hard at the tumbler.
"'Yes,' says I, 'I know I got this one, but I took the first I came
across, and it isn't hurt a mite.'
"'Don't get the painted flowers wet,' says Mrs. Dennison very
feebly, 'they'll wash off if you do.'
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