Kate Douglas Wiggin: Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm

20. XX. A CHANGE OF HEART (continued)

Miranda removed the shawl from her head and sank into the kitchen rocker, ejaculating under her breath, "She is the beatin'est child! I declare she's all Sawyer!"

The day and the evening passed off with credit and honor to everybody concerned, even to Jane, who had the discretion to recover instead of growing worse and acting as a damper to the general enjoyment. The Burches left with lively regrets, and the little missionaries, bathed in tears, swore eternal friendship with Rebecca, who pressed into their hands at parting a poem composed before breakfast.

TO MARY AND MARTHA BURCH

Born under Syrian skies,
     'Neath hotter suns than ours;
The children grew and bloomed,
     Like little tropic flowers.

When they first saw the light,
     'T was in a heathen land.
Not Greenland's icy mountains,
     Nor India's coral strand,

But some mysterious country
     Where men are nearly black
And where of true religion,
     There is a painful lack.

Then let us haste in helping
     The Missionary Board,
Seek dark-skinned unbelievers,
     And teach them of their Lord.
          Rebecca Rowena Randall.

It can readily be seen that this visit of the returned missionaries to Riverboro was not without somewhat far-reaching results. Mr. and Mrs. Burch themselves looked back upon it as one of the rarest pleasures of their half year at home. The neighborhood extracted considerable eager conversation from it; argument, rebuttal, suspicion, certainty, retrospect, and prophecy. Deacon Milliken gave ten dollars towards the conversion of Syria to Congregationalism, and Mrs. Milliken had a spell of sickness over her husband's rash generosity.