HELEN’S MESSAGE
Tessibel Skinner was sitting in the
shanty kitchen. She had a book in her lap but
her mind was far from her surroundings. Andy had
been quiet so long she’d almost forgotten him.
Suddenly, his slight cough brought her back to the
present.
“Ye look awful peeked, brat,
dear,” he said. “I think ye’d
ought to see Young’s doctor, hadn’t ye?”
A vague smile crossed the girl’s
face, and she shook her head.
“No, Andy,” she answered, “I don’t
need no doctor, yet.”
“I wish ye felt better,”
sighed the dwarf. “An’ the days is
gettin’ awful blizzardy for ye to go outdoors.”
“But I got to go out, dear,
fer wood an’ other things. Hark!”
She got up swiftly. “There air some one
comin’.”
In another instant the little man
had crawled away from the ceiling hole and was under
the tick. The garret was as silent as the frozen
lake and the kitchen below, where Tess stood in anxious
expectation. Tessibel, knowing it couldn’t
be Sandy, put aside her first impulse not to heed
the rap. An instant later, she opened the door.
That it might be Frederick was farthest from her mind,
until she saw him standing there so thin and tired.
Surprised and shocked at seeing him, the stress of
her feeling found her faint. She would have fallen
if he had not suddenly seized her.
“Tessibel!... Tess, darling!”
he cried, sharply. Lifting her up, he carried
her into the room. She clung to him, crying, her
confusion calmed by his caresses. He placed her
in a chair and sat down beside her. Suddenly,
she sat back in her seat, roused from her revery by
mocking memories of her wrongs.
“Couldn’t ye let me alone?”
she breathed hoarsely, covering her face with her
hands. “Ye might a let me be.”
“I had to come, dear,”
Frederick told her. “I want you to do something
for both our sakes.... Oh, Tess, what terrible
days have passed since I saw you last!”
After a short pause, she dropped both
hands and glanced up at him. Then knitting her
fingers together, she pressed them hard until they
looked like the veined stems of a pale flower.
He had come to make another demand of her and
she was so tired so sick!
“I want you to make me a promise,
Tessibel,” urged Frederick.
“I said as how I’d help
ye all I could,” murmured Tess. “Ye’re
wantin’ me to do somethin’ awful hard,
huh?”
Her soul in her eyes, she looked at
him, but his gaze was on the gloves he was twisting
back and forth between his fingers.
“Ain’t ye goin’ to tell me?”
groaned Tess.
She dropped her chin into her hands
with a touching gesture of pathos. Frederick
bent nearer.
“Tess, Mrs. Waldstricker sent
me with a message and you’ve got to
do what I want you to.”
His strangely persistent reiteration
that she should do his will served only to produce
another, “Why don’t ye tell me, then?”
from Tess.
“You must do something to save yourself!”
he cried.
To save herself? What did he
mean by saving herself? What did any one intend
to do? She’d stayed so alone no one could
intrude upon her now. And then, there was Andy,
poor forlorn little man!
“Is anyone goin’ to hurt
me?” she faltered, faint and frightened.
“Yes, dearest, yes, and you must ”
He was on his feet and Tess struggled up, too.
“What’ve I got to do?” she breathed
miserably.
“Tess,” he groaned, “can’t
you understand how much I love you; that I would save
you if I could?”
With uplifted hand, he tried to raise her face to
his.
“Don’t!” she cried,
pushing him away. “Tell me what Mrs. Waldstricker
said!”
“You’ve got to do it,
dear,” urged Frederick, “or they’ll
take you away.”
“What do ye mean by takin’
me away?” she implored, moving a frightened
step backward. “Who’s goin’
to try to take me any place?”
“Why why Mrs. Waldstricker
says ”
He paused so long Tess could not bear the suspense.
“Oh, tell me!” she gasped. “Can’t
ye see ye air killin’ me?”
Frederick began again.
“Mr. Ebenezer Waldstricker ”
Tess swayed on her feet.
“What air he goin’ to do?” she panted.
Had her enemy discovered she was protecting Andy?
“He’s going to take you to a a ”
stammered Frederick.
Tessibel grew faint and dizzy. She uttered a
sharp scream.
“A reform school!” she cried.
“Yes.”
The blow had fallen at last!
She would be dragged from her home, up before the
eyes of the world in all her illness and shame.
Then she sank to the floor in abandoned misery.
“Oh, Frederick, save me!” she wailed.
“Don’t let him take me away, and
I’ll promise never to go outside the shanty.
Oh, make him let me stay!
Why can’t I stay, oh, why can’t I?”
“Waldstricker says you’ve got to go,”
said Frederick, sadly.
Tess sat up and flung back her curls.
“Well, he don’t own the
hull world, does he.... Couldn’t you, well
couldn’t you say somethin’ to make
him let me be?”
“I don’t know what to say,” the
boy mumbled.
“Couldn’t ye tell ’em?”
entreated Tess. “Please listen. Couldn’t
ye couldn’t ye tell Mr. Waldstricker
’bout our little baby our baby, Frederick?”
He refused by a negative gesture of head and hand.
“Oh, don’t shake your head, Frederick!”
cried Tess, frantically.
“Please!... Please!... Me an’
the baby won’t be any bother to you!...
We’ll jest love ye always an’ forever,
me an’ the baby will....
“Ye could save us that way! Ye needn’t
tell ’em anythin’ but that!”
Suddenly another thought took possession of her.
“What else did Mrs. Waldstricker
say?” she demanded. “What were ye
both wantin’ me to do?”
“Mr. Waldstricker told his wife
and my I mean Madelene that you’ll
either be sent away or must marry marry
Lysander Letts.”
Tess stared at him wildly as though
he were going mad. Or was she losing her
reason! What awful thing had he said. Lysander
Letts surely she had not heard straight.
“Ye weren’t tellin’
me what were true, Frederick,” she whimpered
overwhelmed. “Oh, ye scared me so!”
“But I am telling you the truth!”
he exclaimed miserably. His voice broke.
“I can’t save you, Tessibel. Waldstricker
can do anything he wants. Why why Waldstricker’s
hands’re stronger are stronger than
God’s.”
She heard his words as if in a dream.
“Stronger’n God’s,” echoed
through the recesses of her brain in fearful mockery.
She was lost, engulfed in the hatred of Waldstricker.
She saw through the mist over her eyes, Lysander Letts
leering menacingly at her. She sat very still
and held her breath. If she let it go, her heart
would break.
“Stronger’n God’s,”
were the only words she remembered. Then, if that
were true, and Frederick had said it then then,
nothing nobody could take from
her this brimming cup of disgrace and destruction.
She struggled to her feet, walked to the door and
opened it. Her eyes sought the dejected looking
man.
“I air askin’ ye to go
now, please, right now,” she said quietly.
“Tell Mrs. Waldstricker, I air much obliged.”
“And haven’t you something
to say to me, Tess?... Oh, God, don’t send
me away like this!”
She laid one hand on her heart.
“Only go,” she whispered, “an’
never, never come again!”
Frederick stepped over the threshold,
and Tess shut the door behind him.