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"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee," she hums, "while I cook the groats for thee. . . ." A cricket is churring in the stove. Through the door in the next room the master and the apprentice Afanasy are snoring. . . . The cradle creaks plaintively, Varka murmurs and it all blends into that soothing music of the night to which it is so sweet to listen, when one is lying in bed.
Picking out the very biggest apple in the store-room he stole into the kitchen, slipped it into Pelageya's hand, and darted headlong away. NIGHT. Varka, the little nurse, a girl of thirteen, is rocking the cradle in which the baby is lying, and humming hardly audibly: "Hush-a-bye, my baby wee, While I sing a song for thee."
A cart has been sent to take Yefim to the hospital. He gets ready and goes. . . . But now it is a clear bright morning. Pelageya is not at home; she has gone to the hospital to find what is being done to Yefim. Somewhere there is a baby crying, and Varka hears someone singing with her own voice: "Hush-a-bye, my baby wee, I will sing a song to thee."
"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee, and I will sing a song to thee," murmurs Varka, and now she sees herself in a dark stuffy hut. Her dead father, Yefim Stepanov, is tossing from side to side on the floor. She does not see him, but she hears him moaning and rolling on the floor from pain.
The child, awakened by Nancy's cry, was now whimpering fretfully. Pete went to the cradle and rocked it with one foot, crooning in a quavering treble, "Hush-a-bye! hush-a-bye!" Philip's breathing was oppressed. He felt like a man at the edge of a precipice, with an impulse to throw himself over. "God forgive me," he said. "I could kill myself. I've broken your heart; "
In 1901 her picture, "A Dutch Bargain," was etched and engraved. "Hush-a-Bye Baby" and "Good-by, Summer," have been published by Messrs. De la Rue et Cie. She has successfully illustrated the following children's books: "Sixes and Sevens," "The Land of Little People," "Children's Prayers," and "Children's Hymns." To the Academy Exhibition of 1903 Mrs. Lewis sent "On the Mountain-side, Engelberg."
Among the more important pictures by Lady Alma-Tadema are "Hush-a-Bye," "Parting," in the Art Gallery at Adelaide, New South Wales, "Silent Persuasion," "The Carol," and "Satisfaction." Her picture in the Academy Exhibition, 1903, a Dutch interior with a young mother nursing "The Firstborn," was much admired and was in harmony with the verse,
"Hush-a-bye, my baby wee," she murmurs, "and I will sing a song to thee." And the baby screams, and is worn out with screaming. Again Varka sees the muddy high road, the people with wallets, her mother Pelageya, her father Yefim.
"No fear of me, sir," said Pete. "I'm an ould hulk that's seen weather. I'll not go to pieces from inside at all. Give me time, mate, give me time." And then he went on muttering as before, "Dead! Kirry dead! Hush-a-bye! My Kirry dead!" The little one slept, and Pete drew back in his chair, nodded into the fire, and said in a weak, childish voice, "I've known her all my life, d'ye know?
So saying, she put down the frying-pan, and commenced singing as loud as she could, "Hush-a-bye, baby, Pussy's a lady." "Ay, now you're vexed, I daresay," continued she, as she walked into the back kitchen. All this time, my father had been at the door looking on, which she had not perceived. My father then came in. "What's your name, my lad?" said he.
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