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- 274 REMINISCENCES OF OLD VICTORIA
and Forbes rejected the offer in language that was insulting. Go immediately to the cottage. Tell the girl that you have accepted the poem and give her this (handing me a twenty-dollar gold piece) as the appraised value of her production. Then return to the Hotel de France and await developments."
I repaired to the cottages. The road was long and muddy. There were neither sidewalks nor streets and it was a difficult matter to navigate the sea of mud that lay between Wharf and Cook Streets. The young lady answered my knock. She almost fainted when I told her the poem had been accepted and that the fee was twenty dollars. I placed the coin in her hand.
" Mamma ! Papa !" she cried, and running inside the house I heard her say, " My poem has been accepted and the gentleman from the Colonist office has brought me twenty dollars."
" Thank God !" I heard a woman's voice exclaim. "I never lost faith, for what does Christ say, Ellen, `Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened.' On this holy day?our Saviour's birthday?we have sought and we have found."
This was followed by a sound as of someone crying, and then the girl flew back to the door.
" Oh! sir," she said, " I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your goodness."
" Not at all," I lied. " You have earned it and you owe me no thanks. I shall be glad to receive and pay for any other contributions you may send." I did not add, though, that they would not be published, although they would be paid for.
CHRISTMAS DINNER IN VICTORIA 275
A little boy with a troubled face and a pinched look now approached the front door. He was neatly but poorly dressed. ..
" Oh ! Nellie, what is the matter ?" he asked anxiously.
" Johnnie," answered Nellie. " I have earned twenty dollars, and we shall have a Christmas dinner, and you shall have a drum, too." As she said this she caught the little fellow in her arms and kissed him and pressed his wan cheek against her own.
" Shall we have a turkey, Nellie ?" he asked. " Yes, dear," she said.
"And a plum pudding, too, with nice sauce that burns when you put a match to it, and shall I have two helpings?" he asked.
" Yes, and you shall set fire to the sauce and have two helpings, Johnnie."
" Won't that be nice," he exclaimed gleefully. " But, Nellie, will papa get medicine to make him well again?" " Yes, Johnnie."
" And mamma?will she get back all the pretty things she sent away to pay the rent with ?"
" Hush, Johnnie," said the girl with an apologetic look at me.
"And you, Nellie, will you get back your warm cloak that the man with a long nose took away?"
" Hush, dear," she said. "Go inside now; I wish to speak to this gentleman." She closed the front door and asked me, all the stores being closed, how she would be able to get the materials for the dinner and to redeem her promise to Johnnie.
" Easily enough," said I. " Order it at the Hotel de France. Shall I take down the order ?"
" If you will be so kind," she said. " Please order what you think is necessary."
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