"
"And I will go out at once and begin hunting you up an audience."
Gillespie succeeded even better than he had anticipated; and there was
at the first lecture a very fair gathering indeed. When it was over, the
one that knew most of the subject was the young lecturer's wife. The
first course was followed by two more, the third at the request of
almost all his hearers. And the result; was that, before the legacy fell
due, Annie had paid all their debts and had not contracted a single new
one.
But when the happy day dawned Annie was not able to go with her husband
to receive the money; neither did Hector wish that she had been able,
for he was glad to go alone. By her side lay a lovely woman-child
peacefully asleep. Hector declared her the very image of the child the
rainbow left behind as it vanished.
One day, when the mother was a little stronger, she called Hector to her
bedside, and playfully claimed the right to be the child's godmother,
and to give it her name.
"And who else can have so good a right?" answered Hector. Yet he
wondered just a little that Annie should want the child named after
herself, and not after her mother.
But when the time for the child's baptism came, Annie, who would hold
the little one herself, whispered in the ear of the clergyman:
"The child's name is Iris."
I have told my little story. But perhaps my readers will have patience
with me while I add just one little inch to the tail of the mouse my
mountain has borne.
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