Song of the Lark | Page 7

her.
Mrs. Kronborg believed that the size of every family was decided in
heaven. More modern views would not have startled her; they would
simply have seemed foolish-- thin chatter, like the boasts of the men
who built the tower of Babel, or like Axel's plan to breed ostriches in
the chicken yard. From what evidence Mrs. Kronborg formed her
opinions on this and other matters, it would have been difficult to say,
but once formed, they were unchangeable. She would no more have
questioned her convictions than she would have questioned revelation.
Calm and even- tempered, naturally kind, she was capable of strong
pre- judices, and she never forgave.
When the doctor came in to see Thea, Mrs. Kronborg was reflecting
that the washing was a week behind, and de- ciding what she had better
do about it. The arrival of a new baby meant a revision of her entire
domestic schedule, and as she drove her needle along she had been
working out new sleeping arrangements and cleaning days. The doctor

had entered the house without knocking, after making noise enough in
the hall to prepare his patients. Thea was reading, her book propped up
before her in the sun- light.

"Mustn't do that; bad for your eyes," he said, as Thea shut the book
quickly and slipped it under the covers.
Mrs. Kronborg called from her bed: "Bring the baby here, doctor, and
have that chair. She wanted him in there for company."
Before the doctor picked up the baby, he put a yellow paper bag down
on Thea's coverlid and winked at her. They had a code of winks and
grimaces. When he went in to chat with her mother, Thea opened the
bag cautiously, trying to keep it from crackling. She drew out a long
bunch of white grapes, with a little of the sawdust in which they had
been packed still clinging to them. They were called Malaga grapes in
Moonstone, and once or twice during the winter the leading grocer got
a keg of them. They were used mainly for table decoration, about
Christmas-time. Thea had never had more than one grape at a time
before. When the doctor came back she was holding the almost
transparent fruit up in the sunlight, feeling the pale-green skins softly
with the tips of her fingers. She did not thank him; she only snapped
her eyes at him in a special way which he understood, and, when he
gave her his hand, put it quickly and shyly under her cheek, as if she
were trying to do so without knowing it--and without his knowing it.
Dr. Archie sat down in the rocking-chair. "And how's Thea feeling
to-day?"
He was quite as shy as his patient, especially when a third person
overheard his conversation. Big and hand- some and superior to his
fellow townsmen as Dr. Archie was, he was seldom at his ease, and like
Peter Kronborg he often dodged behind a professional manner. There
was sometimes a contraction of embarrassment and self- consciousness
all over his big body, which made him awk- ward--likely to stumble, to
kick up rugs, or to knock over chairs. If any one was very sick, he

forgot himself, but he had a clumsy touch in convalescent gossip.

Thea curled up on her side and looked at him with pleasure. "All right.
I like to be sick. I have more fun then than other times."
"How's that?"
"I don't have to go to school, and I don't have to prac- tice. I can read
all I want to, and have good things,"-- she patted the grapes. "I had lots
of fun that time I mashed my finger and you wouldn't let Professor
Wunsch make me practice. Only I had to do left hand, even then. I
think that was mean."
The doctor took her hand and examined the forefinger, where the nail
had grown back a little crooked. "You mustn't trim it down close at the
corner there, and then it will grow straight. You won't want it crooked
when you're a big girl and wear rings and have sweethearts."
She made a mocking little face at him and looked at his new scarf-pin.
"That's the prettiest one you ev-ER had. I wish you'd stay a long while
and let me look at it. What is it?"
Dr. Archie laughed. "It's an opal. Spanish Johnny brought it up for me
from Chihuahua in his shoe. I had it set in Denver, and I wore it to-day
for your benefit."
Thea had a curious passion for jewelry. She wanted every shining stone
she saw, and in summer she was always going off into the sand hills to
hunt for crystals and agates and bits of pink chalcedony. She had two