CHILDREN AT OKEOVERS

New Zealand Tablet, 14 July 1910, Page 1087

CHILDREN AT OKEOVERS

Just round the corner of the house where the neglected garden sloped down to the orchard there were a group of children crouched on the grass, playing with white stones, that afternoon of May. _ There was something oddly stealthy and quiet about their play, such as it was, for indeed they did not seem accustomed to play even with the white stones so aimless were their movements.

A little way from them her back turned to them, her face looking in the direction of the little-frequented road that climbed from the valley and ran straight past what had once been the lawn of Okeovers, was a girl of about sixteen, older than the others, with a wild mane of black hair about her shoulders and face. She was Molly Okeover, John Okeover’s eldest daughter, and the mother in a sort of her little sisters and brothers, doubly orphaned since John Okeover had been killed by the fall of a tree he was taking down in the preceding autumn.

Through the veil of Molly’s hair Molly’s eyes flashed fierce in torture, burnt up with tears that had no refreshment in them. Molly had been keeping those tears in her —none had seen them fall — some three weeks now, ever since her baby step-brother had been laid away in Stansted churchyard. A good thing, too/ said the neighbors, nor thought themselves hard to say it. ‘lt would never have grown up like other children. Any one could see that it hadn’t been right from the birth, with its eyes that never could keep still, and its mouth always hanging open.’ Others had said that the child was a judgment on Sarah Jane Okeover for the way she treated her step-children. Anyhow, it was gone, and Molly, who had been its only nurse, was in savage pain for the loss of it; her thin arms empty night and day for the feel of it, her childish breast hungering for the warmth of it. One would have thought that Molly would have had enough to do to be fond of her own brothers and sisters without attaching herself to a child of Sarah Jane Okeover’s. But then Molly had nursed the uncanny child, had walked the wide draughty bedroom night after night with it, had washed it and fed it and tried to win recognition from it for many a month. How often she had refused to let people look at her baby—it was always hers. What could they want to see him for but to say cruel things of him? He was not what they said, Molly was sure of it. He began to know her. She was sure she felt his relaxed little fingers cling to hers. Then he had a teething fit, and the frail life was over, almost before Molly had realised the danger. It ivas a sad life that John Okeover’s children led under the second wife’s rule. He had remained a widower so long that no one ever thought of his marrying again. Then one day he had surprised them all by bringing home a new wife. Heaven knows why he had chosen Sarah Jane. She was a thin woman, with a complaining mouth and thin, faded wisps of dull light hair falling about a colorless # face. All the same, she was as strong as a horse, but in her quiet way she was a born shrew and tyrant. She was one of the busy slatterns we have all known who keep their houses in a ferment, yet never attain to either cleanliness or comfort. What possessed John Okeover? asked the neighbors. Perhaps Sarah Jane had pre-

S^Anvhl* im ! V light during the courtas she H she - made bi m in time quite as miserable “~ e made the children, so that perhaps he was not very sorry when that tree fell and his life with it. 7 girls T Thev e w*r5 V f ° hlldren . in all—two boys and three heritor! +if • loving, passionate children, who had inherited the gipsy looks of the Okeovers. with a certain fromTlmfr a ™ Urefhlei n en £ ,f¥ ch P erha P s came to them r I Xi r mot >. who had been a poor governess when daSgiS'; 0 ™ 1 mamed her ’ tat a My born, aidTparlon™ To On her , first introduction to her step-children Sarah Jane s eyes had rested on them appraising the strength of their handsome young bodies in so far as sL could use g once to MoUv ng U S.® un J la PPy-baby made all the differto love the e fish +X;' aS + ot dl J ld S ery to her, once she came to carry it W J to i Va k the room with it at night, •v + a v a ™ u t all day where a gleam of sun might heln it to live. Molly had loved the baby with maSrnal pasS- intensified because of its need. y After the firrt’Z ■id not remembered that it was the child of the cruel stepmother. She pushed Sarah Jane out. Maternal love b-lrl heart ln< Tbe h ll / 7 a Sta Ui in ? growth in Sarah Jane’s and suiHf i Tbe baby --T as Molly’s. When the little half-awake 11 it had flown it was Molly’s hands that made the little ¥ ready for its coffin and placed it there. It was Molly a wayuiider Gm day^ 1 ™ 1 PaSSi ° Jl for the little face laid xV as P O . with her passion of grief this afteralwav^caberf^! 1181011 ° f ° tber th n ings ‘ Tbe children—Molly herSl Called H l6 younger ones the children, as though she in st nh I® n °* a ohild-were playing their timorous games m Sarah Jane’s absence. Robin had stolen away, to sS of his friends among the laboring men, most likely Sarah Jane was gone to see her lawyer at Brumleigh 7 * * Molly knew what Sarah Jane’s business was with flip IfaYwt a “ d h V d & the heart to care. John Okeove? las tired of ry Av llg “ Sar ? Jane hands, and Sarah S desire nonnlaSt ers i +l Even . SUCI as she may sometimes 2;®“!? P°P ldarit yV and the air about Okeovers was disof J J 1?, 1 ? 11031 J he countryside resented her treatment i+l obfldren. ,n & was minded to be done with Okeovers S’dSf St lik!.Tg mi Sl“pr th to S hoSTn her w* f ° t ° h > “ d buy with » a »»“«=■ Suddenly as Molly stood there she heard the rattle of wheels She turned a little pale from force of hahit-sfnce the baby had died she had not seemed to care for Sarah Jane s frown—and turning she gave the word to the children. Then she whistled sharply. m cluJIt is a station-fly,’ said Robin. , Someone about the lodgings,’ suggested Molly Perhaps not for us at all,’ said Robin, me other children came creeping back, having reconIhing Sy dr e eade P d er ™ Aom and 86611 that St "' as not front, stopped nearly opposite the children, and the lady who was its one occupant, alighted. y ’ Molly gasped something under her breath: was it ? lint, no ,of course, mother was dead. Then who was this lady that was so like her Who, who but Aunt Lucy to°Aus r tral°ia SlSterj " h ° bad married lon S ago and gone

ailrl My poor children,’ said the lady, bursting into tears, and sobbing and holding out her kind arms ‘I came bn w a +- 1 cou . ld v after receiving your father’s letter, but it tooK time. And now I hear he is dead • but he told me to come before he died. I never had any children of my own. Oh, Robin is this Robin or is it our dear Rupert come to life again? And you are Molly, my darling. And which is Lucy, my namesake ? And little Hilda, my god -child. Ob, my poor, poor children!’ y 511 / he Sarah Jane arrived, her mean face puckering and frowning as she saw that the children had a visitor f + ! bey ® emed so much at home and happy that they foi got to scatter at her approach. She had returned in a gracious humor because she had learned that Okeovers light'’“’the idfe dSi§« n aloUt W her indignation a* tho idlin'/fike® & r r cS k ’ ° llildren H ° W dare ba n £ Excuse . me,’ said Aunt Lucy, keeping the children riom scattering by a sudden protecting gesture, as though she extended around them a pair of wide invisible wings. 1 m Mrs. Rodney, these children’s aunt, and I’ve bought Okeovers. Ive come to stay. My luggage will be sent on from the hotel. Their father gave me the guardianship or the children in a duly signed and sealed document a few days before he died. I d have been here before only I had to wind up my affairs in Australia. The will that was found after his death, Mrs. Okeover, I don’t know that it would stand in a court of law if any one had been sufficiently interested in the children to question it However I’m a rich woman. I don’t care to drag the name in the dirt. ion can have the price of Okeovers: but I sible’ my b° use to myself and the children as soon as pos-

.. The children did not follow it all. They only saw that the tyrant was vanquished. Looking suddenly ill Sarah Jane crept within the house and put her belongings toKatharine Tynan (Abridged). -