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Franks rose from the edge of the packing-case, on which lay the body of Moxy, with his mother yet kneeling beside it, and put his arm round his wife to raise her. She yielded, and he led her away after their hostess, the boys following hand in hand. But when they reached the cellar door, the mother gave a heart-broken cry, and turning ran and threw herself again beside her child.
The boys were already in bed. Franks was staring into the fire: the poor fellow had not even looked at one for some time. Hester asked them to go and see where she had laid Moxy, and they went with her. The beauty of Death's courtly state comforted them. "But I can't leave him alone!" said the mother " all night too! he wouldn't like it! I know he won't wake up no more; only, you know, miss "
The Frankses remained at rest until the funeral was over, and then Hester would have father and sons go out to follow their calling, while the mother and she did what could be done for the ailing baby, who could not linger long behind Moxy. Hester had a little money of her own not much, but enough to restore to decency, with the help of the wife's fingers, the wardrobe of the family.
She did not speak to her, did not attempt a word of comfort, but wept with her: she too had loved little Moxy! she too had heard his dying words glowing with reproof to her faithlessness who cried out like a baby when her father left her for a moment in the dark! In the midst of her loneliness and seeming desertion, God had these people already in the house for her help!
"Never mind me," replied Hester; "I'm not afraid. But," she added, rising, "we must get you out of this immediately." "Oh, miss! where would you send us?" said Mrs. Franks in alarm. "There's nobody as 'll take us in! An' it would break both our two hearts Franks's an' mine to be parted at such a moment, when us two's the father an' mother o' Moxy.
She drew nearer to it. The eyes of the other faces followed her. When the eyes of the mother saw the face of her Moxy who died in the dark, she threw herself in a passion of tears and cries upon her dead. But the man knelt upon his knees, and when Hester turned in pain from the agony of the mother, she saw him with lifted hands of supplication at her feet.
I must have seen you and it together before! Yes! it is Moxy!" "You are right, Mr. Christopher," she answered. "Dear little Moxy died of the small-pox in our cellar. He was just gone when I found them there." "Is it wise of you to expose yourself so much to the infection?" said the doctor. "Is it worthy of you to ask such a question?" returned Hester.
It was remarkable though that he had taken it up as he did, for he went on to add, "but he didn't mind it much, and soon got out again." "Ah, yes, Moxy!" said the poor mother, "Jesus died for our sins, and you must ask him to take you up to heaven." But Moxy did not know anything about sins, and just as little about heaven. What he wanted was an assurance that he would not be put in the hole.
About a week after they had taken possession of the cellar, little Moxy, the Serpent of the Prairies, who had been weakly ever since his fall down the steps, by which he had hurt his head and been sadly shaken, became seriously ill, and grew worse and worse.
He will take care of him for you till you are ready to have him again. If you love Moxy more than Jesus loves him, then you are more like God than Jesus was!" "Oh, miss, don't talk to me like that! The child was born of my own body?" "And both you and he were born of God's own soul: if you know how to love he loves ten times better." "You know how to love anyhow, miss! the Lord love you!
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