Australian Tales - Setis

stimulating influence on my whiskers, which were then only just about as
long and as strong as the down on a young duck; but they took a start
from that very time. Months rolled on, apparently slower than usual, for
like young men in general, I was impatient. At length my dear Ruth
began to — — h'm — — yes, began to be very busy with her
needlework. She kept a big basket under an out-of-the-way table, full of
all sorts of mysterious small-wares, including garments scarcely short
enough for a very thin body five feet high, and other garments, scarcely
long enough for a comparatively thick body fifteen inches high, which I
thought was rather a wide allowance for the uncertain measure of the
expected wearer. But I didn't know anything about rigging out babies
then. There was a variety of other things besides, which of course, you
would not wish me to describe; so we will throw a veil over the basket.
“Well, sir, there my Ruth would sit and stitch, stitch, stitch, till her
fingers must have ached; and sometimes her poor heart ached too, I fear,
for I recollect suddenly popping into her room very late one night, and
found tears trembling in her weary eyes, and I could also see several little
moist spots, where other tears had fallen upon a long white muslin robe,
tucked up to the waist, which she had spent many hours over, and of
which she seemed very proud.
“ ‘My dear Ruth,’ said I, ‘you must come to bed. I am afraid you'll
injure yourself by sitting up so late, night after night, working at those
long robes, and short what-do-ye-call-'ems. Come, come, put your
stitchery basket under the table till to-morrow; you'll hurt your bright
eyes, and then the house will be as gloomy as a cellar. Why, I declare
there is something the matter with them now,’ said I, kissing her, and
gently drawing her glossy head on to my breast. ‘Yes, you are crying,
that you are, you little gosling,’ said I, kissing her again. ‘What is the
matter, wifie, dear? Tell me all your troubles, and let me share some of
them; that's only fair you know, for you always insist upon sharing
mine.’ Well, sir, after a good deal of coaxing, I found that she had been
stitching, and thinking, and fretting at the same time, over that fine long
robe, which her nimble fingers had worked so neatly, with so many
pretty tucks in the skirt, and such lovely embroidery in the bosom and
sleeves, until she got weary and sad. Then she began to fear lest her
hands should never tie those tiny tape strings, and her eyes never see her
darling infant in the robe which she had taken such pride and pains to
work. And she wondered too, what would become of me if she should
die; who would air my linen, and look to my buttons; or smooth my sad
brow as I gazed on her vacant chair; and who would nurse her little one,
if it should live; and whether they would be kind to it and love it. As she
finished her sobbing disclosure, she burst into a real flood of tears, and
nestled her pale face on my breast, like a poor little weary bird.
“ ‘Hush, now, Ruth, my ducky,’ I said, as softly as I could; ‘don't give