THE SINS OF FIA FYE

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 9, 2 March 1907, Page 22

THE SINS OF FIA FYE

A STORY OF CHILDHOOD

FI A FYE, whose real name was Sophia Fidelia Williams, lived with Aunt Lou and Uncle Chad in the white house with the green shutters on Third-street, in Wailtuska. The reason she lived there was because Fia Fye was an orphan, which means that your papa and mamma have gone away and will never coiqe back. But some day you will see them .agji.n ■ when the Angel takes you. Aunt Lou was Uncle Chad’s sister, and Unde ( had was the best man in the whole world. He worked in the bank where the bright pennies are, and he laughed a great deal. Aunt Lou did not laugh so much—in fact, she hardly ever laughed—but she was a dear auntie. “I am afraid,” said Aunt Lou. a gieat many times, to Uncle Chad, ‘That Fia Fye is not a normal child. She is so serious, and I never heard of sueh a good child. She is almost uncaiyiy.”. This was before Fia Fye learned the advantages Of sin. Fia Fye was rather uncanny in some things. Her eyes were too large. People alway said:— “Oh. yes; I know Fia Fye. She is that Williams child with the big eyes.” Here eyes were blue, with a great amount of white around them, and great black, pupils, and she could look and look and look without. winking. .. She would stand before a.... person and stare for minutes at a time. Aunt Lou said it was very rude, but Fia Fye was only trying to solve things. Fia Fye felt that she was a small body of girl surrounded by. a vast mysterious World, and she wanted to know. She asked visitors questions that were.somelimes very rude, and then the visitors would kiss her and say: — “Fia Fye. you are a dear, dear child. I wish you belonged to me.” Aunt Lou said that Fia Fye' thought too much, that she would be happier if she played more, as the other children played, but Fia Fye was quite, happy in her own way. There were ■ only two things that worried her—two terrible, mysterious things that she learned about as soon as she came to live with Aunt Lou. things that she learned about as soon as she-came to live with Aunt Lou. ‘ There was God. who would see in the dark and who was everywhere, and there was the Angel ■ who stood night after night by Fia Fye’s bed. watching her. God was the most incomprehensible, but the Angel was the most terrifying thing in the world. The Angel was all in white and you could not see it in the dark or in the light, and yet it was always there. Aunt Lou said the Angel, was there to watch and guard Fia Fye. but Fia Fye had another idea of the Angel. She hated the Angel. It was the Angel that had first taken away Fia Fye’s papa, and then her mamma, and there was no telling whom the Angel would take next. . Fia Fye always slept with one hand clasping the white iron rods of the head of her crib, so that if the Angel tried to carry her away she might be able to resist. It would need a powerful Angel to carry away Fin Fye and the heavy iron crib too. Sometimes she would awaken, with a start, to find herself far down; in the Crib, with her hands empty', and Fia Fye would scramble, panic stricken, to the head of the lied and grasp it with both hands, while her heart would beat tumultuously. And all the while she knew God and the Angel were there in the dark , room watching her. No wonder Fia Fye had great serious eyes. After all she was only a frightened baby. So she was a very good girl, because God and the Angel, liked good girlsl She hoped to them. One day. Aunt Lou decided that Fla Fye was - , old enough to go to Sunday* Mhool. Mw« Grace, who lived in the

brown house across the street, had been talking to Aunt Lou, and Miss Grace taught the infant class at Sundayschool. She wanted Fia Fye. She loved Fia Fye—as everybody loved her—and she promised to let Fia .Fye sit right next to her and hold her hand. The next Sunday Fia Fye, in her prettiest dress, went to Sunday-school. .

Miss Grace did not teach her little girls from a leaflet or from a book. She sat in the midst of them and told them nice stories, and gave them pretty' cards to take home and let them ask questions. Fia Fye asked a great many, and when she came away she had learned something very important.'lf a little girl was a good little girl, some day the Angel would come and take her away; but if she was a bad little girl the Angel would never, never take her. To be bad was to sin and the Angel never took sinners. - - - . ' Uncle Chad lead the singing at. Sun-day-school, and he always walked home with Miss Grace, except when she walk,ed with Billy Webster, and to-day'fee and Miss Grace seemed to have a great many things to talk about, so Fia Fye had nothing to disturb' her thoughts on the way home. It' was .clear she had been making a great mistake.; she had been inviting the Angel, to cally her off. Instead of being as good as possible it was necessary for her to be as bad as she could. , She must sin. At Miss Grace’s gate Uncle Chad paused. He - was clearly,, not half through with the interesting*things he had to talk over, with Miss-Grace. “Now, Fia Fye,”r he sjarid-, “you run across home, like a good little girl.” - Fia Fye stood and looked -at Uncle Chad. She did not move. Her heart beat fast with brave rebelliousness. She was shocked by- her temerity, but glad to be sinning. It was a triumph oyer the Angel. Miss Grace smiled. “Let her stay, Chad,” she said. “All right. You may stay,” said Uncle Chad, and Fia Fye felt her sinfulness pass away. She was sorry. How could a person sin successfully if the wrong became the, right so easily?” Fia Fye sat oh the porch step while Uncle Chad and Miss. Grace talked. Fia Fye loved Miss Grace. Ever since she had lived with Aunt Lou, Fia Fye had found in Miss Grace a suitable companion for her years. Miss Grace did not do foolish things with dolls as the little girls did, .nor did she treat Fia Fye as an odd child, as other ladies did. She answered questions and did not laugh at them, and she never hugged and kissed Fia Fye except just at the right time —when Fia Fye wanted to be hugged and kissed. Fia Fye. sat on the steps and listened as long as she could bear it. From time to time she opened her mouth to speak, but Uncle Chad and Miss Grace were chatting so eagerly that there t was no opportunity’ for a little girl to say anything. There was nothing on Miss Grace’s lap but a fan, and at length Fia Fye quietly removed the* fan and started to climb upon Miss Grace’s knee. “Don’t. Fia Fye,” Uncle Chad admonished. “Miss Grace doesn’t want you on her lap.” Fia Fye set her lips firmly' and edged a. little farther on to the coveted knee. “Let her be. ChadAMiss Grace urged. “I like to hold her. I w.ould-alike to steal her away from her auntie, -and keep her forever and ever.- Wouldn’t I. Fia Fye?” .’. . ' J “If you wanted to. steal another memlief of the family.” Unde „ Chad, “I think you could be accommodated. I know one who leaves himself lying around quite, promiscuously, just to tempt you, but you won’t l»ave- Jitm.” “If he was as good as Fia Fye.” laughed Miss Grace, “I might lie tempted, but he smokes, and he teases’ me, and he isn’t as good as Fia Fye.”

Uncle Chad did not seem the least bothered by this. He laughed. Fia Fye looked from’ one to the other. She longed to be like Uncle Chad. “Of course,” Uncle Chad said, with his eyes still’laughing, ‘.‘l know I am not as good as I might be. Teasing is so natural to ihe. I even tease Fia Fye, and that is like tickling the Sphinx in the ribs. And I smoke, but that is to drown my woe. ■ But we can’t all lie like you and Fia Fye. That is impossible.” “Why?” demanded Miss Grace. “Because Fia Fye is Fia Fye and couldn’t be bad if she tried.” The little girl stared at Uncle Chad with troubled eyes. Then she saw his eyes were twinkling and she sighed with relief. It was a joke evidently. A joke was something Uncle Chad said when he wanted you to think he meant what he didn’t mean. “And I?” asked Miss Grace. “You?” said Uncle Chad, and his eyes lost the joke and took their “really truly” look. “I have known ever since I first met you that you were an Angel.” Like one who is stunned Fia Fye relaxed her grasp of Miss Grace’s hand. She slid slowly from her lap and stood a moment gazing at Miss Grace with horror, trembling; and then, before Uncle Chad or Miss Grace realised it, Fia Fye had flown at the smiling girl and was tearing and pulling the light, fluffy dress, and scratching the white wrists and hands that vainly tried to hold her off. It did not last a minute. Uncle Chad grasped the frantic little figure in. his strong arms and bore her across the street. When he set her in a chair before Aunt Lou she. was sobbing, but-her eyes were quite dry. She clung to Uncle Chad’s coat when he tried to go. He told Aunt Lou quickly and forcibly of Fia Fye’s strange fit of temper. They agreed that Fia Fye must be ill —she never acted so—and Uncle Chad was told to fetch the doctor. Neither of them said she was a bad! girl, and she glared sullenly at them. “She is certainly ill,” said Aunt Lou’, so Fia Fye was rocked arid kissed and lay in Aunt Lou’s arnis, thinking, until Uncle Chad returned to say fhe doctor could not come until after tea, which reminded Aunt Lou that people. must have tea, even when little girls were ill. She put Fia Fye in the big armchair with a pillow behirid her head, and went to the kitchen. Uncle Chad went across the street to explain to Miss Grace that Fia Fye was not well. Fia Fye waited until she heard Aunt Lou moving the dishes in the diningroom, and then slid quietlw from the chair and stole on tiptoe from the room. She glanced across the street as' she passed the front door and shuddered, for Uncle Chad was sitting by the Angel, quite as if there was no danger. But then the Angel had said Uncle Chad was not good. No doubt he was safe. Fia Fye turned quickly from the horrifying sight. Quietly she climbed the front stairs and glided along the upper hall until she eame to the door of Uncle Chad’s own room. It was just a bit ajar, and she widened the crack very quietly until she could just slip through., She looked around quickly. On the dresser lay the rase of razors she had so often been forbidden to touch. She opened it and ran her hand over them. She even took one out. Surely that was a sin. But that was not what she came for. On the other end of the dresser stood an oblong box of cedar wvood, around one end of which was a gren paper band. The end of the box bore the picture of a lady’s face, surrounded by little gold medals. Fia Fye knew the box well. She kept her dearest treasures in a similar box Uncle Chad had given her. Now she raised the lid of the box and listened. Aunt Lou was still getting tea, for the sound of dishes came up the back stairs. Fia Fye took from the box a long, black cigar. Itfloeemed enormously large, ami she tried to find a smaller one, but they were all of a size. She bit off the end of the cigar, as she bad seen Unele Chad bite them, and lighted the other end. At first it would not light—the match blew out, for Fia Fye blew instead off puffing—but presently'she learned the right way. ' It was very, very hasty. Nothing, she felt sure, could ever induce meh to make a practise of smoking, except the fear of the Angel, just as people put horrid camphor in their furs to drive moths awiky. ’ The smoke would not come out of her

mouth alone, as it did for Uncle Chad. It -came out of Fia Fye’s nose and went down her throat, choking her, and seemed to come out of her eyes, too, making them smart and fill with tears. She wondered how much it was necessary for her to smoke in order to render herself Angel-proof.- She did not believe that she could live to finish, the whole, cigar, but she kept on bravely, -<- The tea bell, rung from the front porch, rescued her, and she threw the half-burned cigar out of the window and stole down the baek stairs. When Aunt Lo»i came in Fia Fye was seated, in her own chair—the one with the cushion—at the table. There were raspberries—big. soft, red ones, the kind Fia Fye liked best—and ice cream, and thin white slices of bread sueh as Uncle Chad laughed at, and other good things. But Fia Fye was not hungry. She gazed on the food with an intense indifference that alarmed Aunt Lou, and when Fia Fye turned quite white, like the snowy table cloth, and reeled unsteadily in her chair, Aunt Lou was seriously alarmed. She thought of diphtheria and scarlet fever, and made L T nele Chad carry Fia Fye up to bed. Fia Fye was a very sick little girl for a while, but when the doctor eame he only laughed his big, shaggy laugh. “Eaten something that did not agree with her,” he said. “She will be herself in the morning.” Aunt Lou, however, sat in Fia Fye’s room that, evening, and Fia Fye, after a long thought, in which she considered whether she would have to smoke a cigar every day, turned to Aunt Lou. “I'm bad,” she said; “I’m a bad, bad girl,” she said pleadingly. Aunt Lou took the patient's hand and smiled. • “No, Fia Fye,” she said kindly. “You are a good little girl, and you alwavs will be.” . " • , Fia Fye turned on her face and wept. Aunt Lou’s verdict plainly meant a cigar every day. The way of the transgressor is hard. And Fia Fye fell as-, leep- . . ... . When she awakened—it seemed as if she had slept for days, but it was only: fifteen minutes later—Aunt, Lou had gone, and Uncle Chad stood beside the bed, and Fia Fye smiled upon , him and held out her hand. They were fellowsinners. r ' .. ... “Miss Grace has come over to see,how you are getting on, Fia Fye,” he explained. The little figure in the bed sat up very suddenly, and, with one glance at Miss Grace, sprang out upon the floor, and clung to Uncle Chad’s leg. “Take her away! Don’t let her get me! she cried. “Take her away.” “She won’t take you, girl, if you don’t want her to.” Unde Chad gathered Fia Fye into his strong arms and held her dose. Fia Fye hung tightly around Unde Chad’s neck, pressing her face into his shoulder. “She will! She will!” she moaned. “ No, I won’t.” Miss Grace declared positively. “ I promise never to taka you until you want me to. Never! ” “And you won’t never stand by my bed at night?” asked Fia Fye. her face still hidden. “No, never!” “Not even if I’m good?” “ Not even if you are good.” Fia Fye raised her head a little. “ Are you going to take Unde Chad away?” she asked. Miss Grace looked across at Uncle Chad and smiled. “ I wouldn’t take your Unele Chad under any circumstances whatever,” she said. “ Oh! I say,” exclaimed Unde Chad. But bia bye did not allow him to say more. “Are you going to take Aunt Lou?" she inquired anxiously. “ No, net even Aunt Lou,” said Miss G race. Fia Fye raised her head quite off Uncle Chad’s shoulder and looked at Miss Grace with amazement. “Who are yon going to take?” she asked. “ Nobody,” Miss Grace declared. “ Not even Billy Webster ? ” asked Unele Chad. “ No,” said Miss Grace softly, “ not oven Billy Webster.” “Never?” asked Uncle Chad. “Never,” said Miss Grace. Fia Fye studied Miss Grace's face, and she was quite satisfied with 'what she saw there. So was Uncle Chad. “ Well.” said Fia Fye. scornfully, “ I guess you ain't much of an Angel. You can rock me to sleep now.”