Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/58

 WOMAN'S WORK 40 himself in her strawberry-bed. He cried bitterly when she surprised him, but withm a few minutes she had learned that he was one of a family of seven, that his father was a farm labourer, and had three children who were too young to be sent to school out of the way of the hard-working mother. An idea occurred to the Little Grey Woman. Through the boy she invited the mother to send her three children to the cottage every morning, and she would pre- pare them for school. The offer was eagerly accepted, and at the end of a fortnight no fewer than nine children were attendmg regularly at the cottage. Two of the mothers called to thank the Little Grey Woman for ^ ^r^'- relieving them of a burden, and each left a bunch of field flowers on the table. When the Little Woman looked in the mirror that night, she came to the conclusion that the drab, grey hair had a silvery sheen and a beauty that she had never before suspected. One morning a child attending her " school " brought the information that a farm labourer, while mowing a field ol grass fifty yards from the co{tage, had fallen from the machine, and the knife had severed an artery in his leg. She sent the child for a doctor, and then made her way into the field. She found the man lying in a condition of semi-conscious- ness through loss of blood. Instinct guided her in the tying of two knotted handkerchiefs round the limb and just above the injured artery. When the doctor arrived he looked up at the Little Grey Woman, and said : " You have saved this man's life ; he was bleeding to death." She went back to her " school " with new emotions flooding her throat. Late one night a labourer knocked at the door, and asked if she could come to his cottage and sit with his wife until the doctor returned from the town. She hesitated, then expressed a fear that she would be of no use. " You're a woman," he answered simply ; and within a quarter of an hour she was The Little Grey Lady sitting at the bedside of the labourer's wife, helping her in a hundred ways to brave the ordeal of motherhood. When the winter came the Little Grey Woman founded all kinds of clubs for the youth of the village, and among the women she formed sewing- classes. Gradually the word " woman " was dropped when in conversation the villagers referred to her and her work. They called her the Little Grey Lady. She lived in the village for six years, and died in the spring of the seventh. The doctor said that she must have caught a chill during one of her many errands of mercy. The women of the vil- lage knew better. The Little Grey Lady, who at one time "had suffered the agonies of having nothing to do, had just worked herself to death. But she died with a smile of supreme happi- ness on her lips. Those who sat with her as she fell asleep said afterwards that towards the end her face was as sweet to look upon as that of a girl of eighteen. Almost every villager — men, women, and children — followed her up the winding hill to the church- yard, six rough- hewn labourers bearing the coffin on their broad shoulders. As they returned down the hill many of the children were sobbing, and one man, looking back at the mound of newly-turned soil, voiced the senti- ment of all the mourners as he said : " The old village '11 seem terrible lonesome to-night." Surely the career of the Little Gre}^ Lady suggests many fields of labour to those lonely women whose lives would be all the brighter if they could be brought to realise that nothing was ever created without a. purpose. It is well to bear in mind that there are lonely women in every station in life, and that wealth does not necessarily mean happiness of mind. The laugh of a little child is often sweeter to the ears of a woman than the rustling of the finest silk that was ever spun, and its eyes far brighter than the purest gem that 'was ever cut.