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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10087 ***
+
+OLD LADY NUMBER 31
+
+BY LOUISE FORSSLUND
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF SARAH," "THE SHIP OF DREAMS," ETC.
+
+1909
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TO MY MOTHER
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    I. THE TEA-TABLE
+
+   II. "GOOD-BY"
+
+  III. THE CANDIDATE
+
+   IV. ONE OF THEM
+
+    V. THE HEAD OF THE CORNER
+
+   VI. INDIAN SUMMER
+
+  VII. OLD LETTERS AND NEW
+
+ VIII. THE ANNIVERSARY
+
+   IX. A WINTER BUTTERFLY
+
+    X. THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+
+   XI. MENTAL TREATMENT
+
+  XII. "A PASSEL OF MEDDLERS"
+
+ XIII. THE PRODIGAL'S DEPARTURE
+
+  XIV. CUTTING THE APRON-STRINGS
+
+   XV. THE "HARDENING" PROCESS
+
+  XVI. "A REG'LAR HOSS"
+
+ XVII. THE DESERTER
+
+XVIII. SAMUEL'S WELCOME
+
+  XIX. EXCHANGING THE OLIVE-BRANCH
+
+   XX. THE FATTED CALF
+
+  XXI. "OUR BELOVED BROTHER"
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE TEA-TABLE
+
+
+Angeline's slender, wiry form and small, glossy gray head bent over the
+squat brown tea-pot as she shook out the last bit of leaf from the
+canister. The canister was no longer hers, neither the tea-pot, nor even
+the battered old pewter spoon with which she tapped the bottom of the
+tin to dislodge the last flicker of tea-leaf dust. The three had been
+sold at auction that day in response to the auctioneer's inquiry, "What
+am I bid for the lot?"
+
+Nothing in the familiar old kitchen was hers, Angeline reflected, except
+Abraham, her aged husband, who was taking his last gentle ride in the
+old rocking-chair--the old arm-chair with painted roses blooming as
+brilliantly across its back as they had bloomed when the chair was first
+purchased forty years ago. Those roses had come to be a source of
+perpetual wonder to the old wife, an ever present example.
+
+Neither time nor stress could wilt them in a single leaf. When Abe took
+the first mortgage on the house in order to invest in an indefinitely
+located Mexican gold-mine, the melodeon dropped one of its keys, but the
+roses nodded on with the same old sunny hope; when Abe had to take the
+second mortgage and Tenafly Gold became a forbidden topic of
+conversation, the minute-hand fell off the parlor clock, but the flowers
+on the back of the old chair blossomed on none the less serenely.
+
+The soil grew more and more barren as the years went by; but still the
+roses had kept fresh and young, so why, argued Angy, should not she? If
+old age and the pinch of poverty had failed to conquer their valiant
+spirit, why should she listen to the croaking tale? If they bloomed on
+with the same crimson flaunt of color, though the rockers beneath them
+had grown warped and the body of the chair creaked and groaned every
+time one ventured to sit in it, why should she not ignore the stiffness
+which the years seemed to bring to her joints, the complaints which her
+body threatened every now and again to utter, and fare on herself, a
+hardy perennial bravely facing life's winter-time?
+
+Even this dreaded day had not taken one fraction of a shade from the
+glory of the roses, as Angeline could see in the bud at one side of
+Abraham's head and the full-blown flower below his right ear; so why
+should she droop because the sale of her household goods had been
+somewhat disappointing? _Somewhat?_ When the childless old couple, still
+sailing under the banner of a charity-forbidding pride, became
+practically reduced to their last copper, just as Abe's joints were
+"loosenin' up" after a five years' siege of rheumatism, and decided to
+sell all their worldly possessions, apart from their patched and
+threadbare wardrobes and a few meager keepsakes, they had depended upon
+raising at least two hundred dollars, one half of which was to secure
+Abe a berth in the Old Men's Home at Indian Village, and the other half
+to make Angeline comfortable for life, if a little lonely, in the Old
+Ladies' Home in their own native hamlet of Shoreville. Both institutions
+had been generously endowed by the same estate, and were separated by a
+distance of but five miles.
+
+"Might as waal be five hunderd, with my rheumatiz an' yer weak heart,"
+Abraham had growled when Angy first proposed the plan as the only
+dignified solution to their problem of living.
+
+"But," the little wife had rejoined, "it'll be a mite o' comfort
+a-knowin' a body's so near, even ef yer can't git tew 'em."
+
+Now, another solution must be found to the problem; for the auction was
+over, and instead of two hundred dollars they had succeeded in raising
+but one hundred dollars and two cents.
+
+"That air tew cents was fer the flour-sifter," inwardly mourned Angy,
+"an' it was wuth double an' tribble, fer it's been a good friend ter me
+fer nigh on ter eight year."
+
+"Tew cents on the second hunderd," said Abe for the tenth time. "I've
+counted it over an' over. One hunderd dollars an' tew pesky pennies. An'
+I never hear a man tell so many lies in my life as that air auctioneer.
+Yew'd 'a' thought he was sellin' out the Empery o' Rooshy. Hy-guy, it
+sounded splendid. Fust off I thought he'd raise us more 'n we expected.
+An' mebbe he would have tew, Angy," a bit ruefully, "ef yew'd 'a' let me
+advertise a leetle sooner. I don't s'pose half Shoreville knows yit that
+we was gwine ter have a auction sale." He watched the color rising in
+her cheeks with a curious mixture of pride in her pride and regret at
+its consequences. "It's no use a-talkin', Mother, Pride an' Poverty
+makes oneasy bed-fellers."
+
+He leaned back in the old chair, creaking out a dismal echo to the
+auctioneer's, "Going, going, gone!" while the flush deepened in Angy's
+cheek. Again she fastened her gaze upon the indomitable red rose which
+hung a pendant ear-ring on the right side of Abraham's head.
+
+"Yew wouldn't 'a' had folks a-comin' here ter bid jest out o' charity,
+would yew?" she demanded. "An' anyhow," in a more gentle tone,--the
+gently positive tone which she had acquired through forty years of
+living with Abraham,--"we hain't so bad off with one hunderd dollars an'
+tew cents, an'--beholden ter nobody! It's tew cents more 'n yew need ter
+git yew inter the Old Men's, an' them extry tew cents'll pervide fer me
+jest bewtiful." Abraham stopped rocking to stare hard at his resourceful
+wife, an involuntary twinkle of amusement in his blue eyes. With
+increased firmness, she repeated, "Jest bewtiful!" whereupon Abe,
+scenting self-sacrifice on his wife's part, sat up straight and snapped,
+"Haow so, haow so, Mother?"
+
+"It'll buy a postage-stamp, won't it?"--she was fairly aggressive
+now,--"an' thar's a envelop what wa'n't put up ter auction in the
+cupboard an' a paper-bag I kin iron out,--ketch me a-gwine ter the
+neighbors an' a-beggin' fer writin'-paper--an' I'll jest set daown an'
+write a line ter Mis' Halsey. Her house hain't a stun's throw from the
+Old Men's; an' I'll offer ter come an' take keer o' them air young 'uns
+o' her'n fer my board an' keep an'--ten cents a week. I was a-gwine ter
+say a quarter, but I don't want ter impose on nobody. Seein' that they
+hain't over well-ter-do, I would go fer nothin', but I got ter have
+somethin' ter keep up appearances on, so yew won't have no call ter feel
+ashamed of me when I come a-visitin' ter the hum." Involuntarily, as she
+spoke, Angy lifted her knotted old hand and smoothed back the hair from
+her brow; for through all the struggling years she had kept a certain,
+not unpleasing, girlish pride in her personal appearance.
+
+Abraham had risen with creaks of his rheumatic joints, and was now
+walking up and down the room, his feet lifted slowly and painfully with
+every step, yet still his blue eyes flashing with the fire of indignant
+protest.
+
+"Me a-bunkin' comfortable in the Old Men's, an' yew a-takin' keer o'
+them Halsey young 'uns fer ten cents a week! I wouldn't take keer o' 'em
+fer ten cents a short breath. Thar be young 'uns an' young 'uns," he
+elucidated, "but they be tartars! Yew'd be in yer grave afore the fust
+frost; an' who's a-gwine ter bury yer--the taown?" His tone became
+gentle and broken: "No, no, Angy. Yew be a good gal, an' dew jest as we
+calc'lated on. Yew jine the Old Ladies'; yew've got friends over thar,
+yew'll git erlong splendid. An' I'll git erlong tew. Yer know"--throwing
+his shoulders back, he assumed the light, bantering tone so familiar to
+his wife--"the poorhouse doors is always open. I'd jest admire ter go
+thar. Thar's a rocking-chair in every room, and they say the grub is A
+No. 1." He winked at her, smiling his broadest smile in his attempt to
+deceive.
+
+Both wink and smile, however, were lost upon Angy, who was busy
+dividing the apple-sauce in such a way that Abe would have the larger
+share without suspecting it, hoping the while that he would not notice
+the absence of butter at this last home meal. She herself had never
+believed in buttering bread when there was "sass" to eat with it; but
+Abe's extravagant tastes had always carried him to the point of desiring
+both butter and sauce as a relish to his loaf.
+
+"Naow, fur 's I'm concerned," pursued Abe, "I hain't got nothin' agin
+the poorhouse fer neither man ner woman. I'd as lief let yew go thar
+'stid o' me; fer I know very well that's what yew're a-layin' out fer
+ter do. Yes, yes, Mother, yew can't fool me. But think what folks would
+say! Think what they would say! They 'd crow, 'Thar's Abe a-takin' his
+comfort in the Old Men's Hum, an' Angeline, she's a-eatin' her heart out
+in the poorhouse!'"
+
+Angeline had, indeed, determined to be the one to go to the poorhouse;
+but all her life long she had cared, perhaps to a faulty degree, for
+"what folks would say." Above all, she cared now for what they had said
+and what they still might say about her husband and this final ending to
+his down-hill road. She rested her two hands on the table and looked
+hard at the apple-sauce until it danced before her eyes. She could not
+think with any degree of clearness. Vaguely she wondered if their supper
+would dance out of sight before they could sit down to eat it. So many
+of the good things of life had vanished ere she and Abe could touch
+their lips to them. Then she felt his shaking hand upon her shoulder and
+heard him mutter with husky tenderness:
+
+"My dear, this is the fust chance since we've been married that I've had
+to take the wust of it. Don't say a word agin it naow, Mother, don't
+yer. I've brought yer ter this pass. Lemme bear the brunt o' it."
+
+Ah, the greatest good of all had not vanished, and that was the love
+they bore one to the other. The sunshine came flooding back into
+Mother's heart. She lifted her face, beautiful, rosy, eternally young.
+This was the man for whom she had gladly risked want and poverty, the
+displeasure of her own people, almost half a century ago. Now at last
+she could point him out to all her little world and say, "See, he gives
+me the red side of the apple!" She lifted her eyes, two bright sapphires
+swimming with the diamond dew of unshed, happy tears.
+
+"I'm a-thinkin', Father," she twittered, "that naow me an' yew be
+a-gwine so fur apart, we be a-gittin' closer tergether in sperit than we
+'ve ever been afore."
+
+Abe bent down stiffly to brush her cheek with his rough beard, and then,
+awkward, as when a boy of sixteen he had first kissed her, shy, ashamed
+at this approach to a return of the old-time love-making, he seated
+himself at the small, bare table.
+
+This warped, hill-and-dale table of the drop-leaves, which had been
+brought from the attic only to-day after resting there for ten years,
+had served as their first dining-table when the honeymoon was young. Abe
+thoughtfully drummed his hand on the board, and as Angy brought the
+tea-pot and sat down opposite him, he recalled:
+
+"We had bread an' tea an' apple-sass the day we set up housekeeping dew
+yew remember, Angy?"
+
+"An' I burned the apple-sass," she supplemented, whereupon Abe chuckled,
+and Angy went on with a thrill of genuine gladness over the fact that he
+remembered the details of that long-ago honeymoon as well as she: "Yew
+don't mind havin' no butter to-night, dew yer, Father?"
+
+He recalled how he had said to her at that first simple home meal: "Yew
+don't mind bein' poor with me, dew yer, Angy?" Now, with a silent shake
+of his head, he stared at her, wondering how it would seem to eat at
+table when her face no longer looked at him across the board, to sleep
+at night when her faithful hand no longer lay within reach of his own.
+She lifted her teacup, he lifted his, the two gazing at each other over
+the brims, both half-distressed, half-comforted by the fact that Love
+still remained their toast-master after the passing of all the years. Of
+a sudden Angy exclaimed, "We fergot ter say grace." Shocked and
+contrite, they covered their eyes with their trembling old hands and
+murmured together, "Dear Lord, we thank Thee this day for our daily
+bread."
+
+Angy opened her eyes to find the red roses cheerfully facing her from
+the back of the rocking-chair. A robin had hopped upon the window-sill
+just outside the patched and rusty screen and was joyfully caroling to
+her his views of life. Through the window vines in which the bird was
+almost meshed the sunlight sifted softly into the stripped, bare, and
+lonely room. Angy felt strangely encouraged and comforted. The roses
+became symbolical to her of the "lilies of the field which toil not,
+neither do they spin"; the robin was one of the "two sparrows sold for a
+farthing, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your
+Father"; while the sunlight seemed to call out to the little old lady
+who hoped and believed and loved much: "Fear ye not therefor. Ye are of
+more value than many sparrows!"
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+"GOOD-BY"
+
+
+When the last look of parting had been given to the old kitchen and the
+couple passed out-of-doors, hushed and trembling, they presented an
+incongruously brave, gala-day appearance. Both were dressed in their
+best. To be sure, Abraham's Sunday suit had long since become his only,
+every-day suit as well, but he wore his Sabbath-day hat, a beaver of
+ancient design, with an air that cast its reflection over all his
+apparel. Angeline had on a black silk gown as shiny as the freshly
+polished stove she was leaving in her kitchen--a gown which testified
+from its voluminous hem to the soft yellow net at the throat that
+Angeline was as neat a mender and darner as could be found in Suffolk
+county.
+
+A black silk bonnet snuggled close to her head, from under its brim
+peeping a single pink rose. Every spring for ten years Angeline had
+renewed the youth of this rose by treating its petals with the tender
+red dye of a budding oak.
+
+Under the pink rose, a soft pink flush bloomed on either of the old
+lady's cheeks. Her eyes flashed with unconquerable pride, and her
+square, firm chin she held very high; for now, indeed, she was filled
+with terror of what "folks would say" to this home-leaving, and it was a
+bright June afternoon, too clear for an umbrella with which to hide
+one's face from prying neighbors, too late in the day for a sunshade.
+
+Angy tucked the green-black affair which served them as both under her
+arm and swung Abe's figured old carpet-bag in her hand with the manner
+of one setting out on a pleasant journey. Abe, though resting heavily on
+his stout, crooked cane, dragged behind him Angy's little horsehair
+trunk upon a creaking, old, unusually large, toy express-wagon which he
+had bought at some forgotten auction long ago.
+
+The husband and wife passed into the garden between borders of boxwood,
+beyond which nodded the heads of Angy's carefully tended, out-door
+"children"--her roses, her snowballs, her sweet-smelling syringas, her
+wax-like bleeding-hearts, and her shrub of bridal-wreath.
+
+"Jest a minute," she murmured, as Abe would have hastened on to the
+gate. She bent her proud head and kissed with furtive, half-ashamed
+passion a fluffy white spray of the bridal-wreath. Now overtopping the
+husband's silk hat, the shrub had not come so high as his knee when they
+two had planted it nearly a half-century ago.
+
+"You're mine!" Angy's heart cried out to the shrub and to every growing
+thing in the garden. "You're mine. I planted you, tended you, loved you
+into growing. You're all the children I ever had, and I'm leaving you."
+
+But the old wife did not pluck a single flower, for she could never
+bear to see a blossom wither in her hand, while all she said aloud was:
+"I'm glad 't was Mis' Holmes that bought in the house. They say she's a
+great hand ter dig in the garden."
+
+Angy's voice faltered. Abe did not answer. Something had caused a
+swimming before his eyes which he did not wish his wife to see; so he
+let fall the handle of the express-wagon and, bending his slow back,
+plucked a sprig of "old-man." Though he could not have expressed his
+sentiments in words, the garden brought poignant recollections of the
+hopes and promises which had thrown their rose color about the young
+days of his marriage. His hopes had never blossomed into fulfilment.
+His promises to the little wife had been choked by the weeds of his own
+inefficiency. Worse than this, the bursting into bloom of seeds of
+selfish recklessness in himself was what had turned the garden of their
+life into an arid waste. And now, in their dry and withered old age, he
+and Angy were being torn up by the roots, flung as so much rubbish by
+the roadside.
+
+"Mother, I be dretful sorry ter take yew away from your posies,"
+muttered Abraham as he arose with his green sprig in his hand.
+
+With shaking fingers, Angy sought a pin hidden beneath her basque.
+"Father, shall I pin yer 'old-man' in yer buttonhole?" she quavered.
+Then as he stooped for her to arrange the posy, she whispered: "I
+wouldn't care, 'cept fer what folks must say. Le' 's hurry before any
+one sees us. I told everybody that we wa'n't a-gwine ter break up till
+ter-morrer mornin'."
+
+Fortunately, there was a way across lots to the Old Ladies' Home, an
+unfrequented by-path over a field and through a bit of woodland, which
+would bring the couple almost unobserved to a side gate.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances, Angeline would never have taken this path;
+for it exposed her carefully patched and newly polished shoes to
+scratches, her fragile, worn silk skirt and stiff, white petticoat to
+brambles. Moreover, the dragging of the loaded little wagon was more
+difficult here for Abraham. But they both preferred the narrower,
+rougher way to facing the curious eyes of all Shoreville now, the
+pitying windows of the village street.
+
+As the couple came to the edge of the woodland, they turned with one
+accord and looked back for the last glimpse of the home. Blazing
+gold-red against the kitchen window flamed the afternoon sunlight.
+
+"Look a' that!" Angy cried eagerly, as one who beholds a promise in the
+skies. "Jest see, Father; we couldn't 'a' made out that winder this fur
+at all ef the sun hadn't struck it jest so. I declar' it seems almost as
+ef we could see the rocker, tew. It's tew bad, Abe, that we had ter let
+yer old rocker go. D'yew remember--?" She laid her hand on his arm, and
+lifted her gaze, growing clouded and wistful, to his face. "When we
+bought the chair, we thought mebbe some day I'd be rocking a leetle baby
+in it. 'T was then, yew ricollec', we sorter got in the habit of callin'
+each other 'father' an' 'mother.' I wonder ef the young 'uns had come--"
+
+"Le' 's hurry," interrupted Abe almost gruffly. "Le' 's hurry."
+
+They stumbled forward with bowed heads in silence, until of a sudden
+they were startled by a surprised hail of recognition, and looked up to
+find themselves confronted by a bent and gray old man, a village
+character, a harmless, slightly demented public charge known as
+"Ishmael" or "Captain Rover."
+
+"Whar yew goin', Cap'n Rose?"
+
+The old couple had drawn back at the sight of the gentle vagabond, and
+Angy clutched at her husband's arm, her heart contracting at the thought
+that he, too, had become a pauper.
+
+"I'm a-takin' my wife ter jine the old ladies over thar ter the Hum,"
+Abe answered, and would have passed on, shrinking from the sight of
+himself as reflected in poor Ishmael.
+
+But the "innocent" placed himself in their path.
+
+"Yew ain't a-goin' ter jine 'em, tew?" he bantered.
+
+Abe forced a laugh to his lips in response.
+
+"No, no; I'm goin' over ter Yaphank ter board on the county."
+
+Again the couple would have passed on, their faces flushed, their eyes
+lowered, had not Ishmael flung out one hand to detain them while he
+plunged the other hurriedly into his pocket.
+
+"Here." He drew out a meager handful of nickels and pennies, his vacant
+smile grown wistful. "Here, take it, Cap'n Rose. It's all I got. I can't
+count it myself, but yew can. Don't yew think it's enough ter set yew up
+in business, so yew won't have ter go ter the poorhouse? The poorhouse
+is a bad place. I was there last winter. I don't like the poorhouse."
+
+He rambled on of the poorhouse. Angy, panting for breath, one hand
+against the smothering pain at her heart, was trying, with the other, to
+drag "Father" along. "Father" was shaking his head at Ishmael, at the
+proffered nickels and pennies--shaking his head and choking. At length
+he found his voice, and was able to smile at his would-be benefactor
+with even the ghost of a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Much obliged, Cap'n Rover; but yew keep yer money fer terbaccy. I ain't
+so high-toned as yew. I'll take real comfort at the poorhouse. S' long;
+thank yer. S' long."
+
+Ishmael went on his way muttering to himself, unhappily jingling his
+rejected alms; while Angy and Abe resumed their journey.
+
+As they came to the gate of the Old Ladies' Home, Angy seized hold of
+her husband's arm, and looking up into his face pleaded earnestly:
+
+"Father, let's take the hunderd dollars fer a fambly tombstun an' go ter
+the poorhouse tergether!"
+
+He shook her off almost roughly and lifted the latch of the gate.
+
+"Folks'd say we was crazy, Mother."
+
+There was no one in sight as he dragged in the express-cart and laid
+down the handle. Before him was a long, clean-swept path ending
+apparently in a mass of shrubbery; to the left was a field of sweet corn
+reaching to the hedge; to the right a strong and sturdy growth of pole
+lima beans; and just within the entrance, beneath the sweeping plumes of
+a weeping-willow tree, was a shabby but inviting green bench.
+
+Abe's glance wandered from the bench to his wife's face. Angy could not
+lift her eyes to him; with bowed head she was latching and unlatching
+the gate through which he must pass. He looked at the sun and
+thoughtfully made reckon of the time. There were still two hours before
+he could take the train which--
+
+"Lef 's go set deown a spell afore--" he faltered--"afore we say
+good-by."
+
+She made no answer. She told herself over and over that she must--simply
+must--stop that "all-of-a-tremble" feeling which was going on inside of
+her. She stepped from the gate to the bench blindly, with Abe's hand on
+her arm, though, still blindly, with exaggerated care she placed his
+carpet-bag on the grass beside her.
+
+He laid down his cane, took off his high hat and wiped his brow. He
+looked at her anxiously. Still she could not lift her blurred eyes, nor
+could she check her trembling.
+
+Seeing how she shook, he passed his arm around her shoulder. He
+murmured something--what, neither he nor she knew--but the love of his
+youth spoke in the murmur, and again fell the silence.
+
+Angy's eyes cleared. She struggled to speak, aghast at the thought that
+life itself might be done before ever they could have one hour together
+again; but no words came. So much--so much to say! She reached out her
+hand to where his rested upon his knee. Their fingers gripped, and each
+felt a sense of dreary cheer to know that the touch was speaking what
+the tongue could not utter.
+
+Time passed swiftly. The silent hour sped on. The young blades of corn
+gossiped gently along the field. Above, the branches of the willow
+swished and swayed to the rhythm of the soft, south wind.
+
+"How still, how still it is!" whispered the breeze.
+
+"Rest, rest, rest!" was the lullaby swish of the willow.
+
+The old wife nestled closer to Abraham until her head touched his
+shoulder. He laid his cheek against her hair and the carefully preserved
+old bonnet. Involuntarily she raised her hand, trained by the years of
+pinching economy, to lift the fragile rose into a safer position. He
+smiled at her action; then his arm closed about her spasmodically and he
+swallowed a lump in his throat.
+
+The afternoon was waning. Gradually over the turmoil of their hearts
+stole the garden's June-time spirit of drowsy repose.
+
+They leaned even closer to each other. The gray of the old man's hair
+mingled with the gray beneath Angeline's little bonnet. Slowly his eyes
+closed. Then even as Angy wondered who would watch over the slumbers of
+his worn old age in the poorhouse, she, too, fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE CANDIDATE
+
+
+The butcher's boy brought the tidings of the auction sale in at the
+kitchen door of the Old Ladies' Home even while Angy and Abe were
+lingering over their posies, and the inmates of the Home were waiting to
+receive the old wife with the greater sympathy and the deeper spirit of
+welcome from the fact that two of the twenty-nine members had known her
+from girlhood, away back in the boarding-school days.
+
+"Yop," said the boy, with one eye upon the stout matron, who was
+critically examining the meat that he had brought. "Yop, the auction's
+over, an' Cap'n Rose, he--Don't that cut suit you, Miss Abigail? You
+won't find a better, nicer, tenderer, and more juicier piece of shoulder
+this side of New York. Take it back, did you say? All right, ma'am, all
+right!" His face assumed a look of resignation: these old ladies made
+his life a martyrdom. He used to tell the "fellers" that he spent one
+half his time carrying orders back and forth from the Old Ladies' Home.
+But now, in spite of his meekness of manner, he did not intend to take
+this cut back. So with Machiavellian skill he hastened on with his
+gossip.
+
+"Yop, an' they only riz one hundred dollars an' two cents--one hundred
+dollars an' a postage-stamp. I guess it's all up with the cap'n an' the
+Old Men's. I don't see 'em hangin' out no 'Welcome' sign on the strength
+of that."
+
+"You're a horrid, heartless little boy!" burst forth Miss Abigail, and,
+flinging the disputed meat on the table, she sank down into the chair,
+completely overcome by sorrow and indignation. "You'll be old yerself
+some day," she sobbed, not noticing that he was stealthily edging toward
+the door, one eye on her, one on to-morrow's pot-roast. "I tell yew,
+Tommy," regaining her accustomed confiding amiability, as she lifted the
+corner of her apron to wipe her eyes, "Miss Ellie will feel some kind o'
+bad, tew. Yer know me an' her an' Angy all went ter school tergether,
+although Miss Ellie is so much younger 'n the rest o' us that we call
+her the baby. Here! Where--"
+
+But he was gone. Sighing heavily, the matron put the meat in the
+ice-box, and then made her slow, lumbering way into the front hall, or
+community-room, where the sisters were gathered in a body to await the
+new arrival.
+
+"Waal, say!" she supplemented, after she had finished telling her
+pitiably brief story, "thar's trouble ernough ter go 'round, hain't
+thar?"
+
+Aunt Nancy Smith, who never believed in wearing her heart on her sleeve,
+sniffed and thumped her cane on the floor.
+
+"Yew young folks," she affirmed, herself having seen ninety-nine
+winters, while Abigail had known but a paltry sixty-five, "yew allers go
+an' cut yer pity on the skew-gee. I don't see nothin' ter bawl an'
+beller erbout. I say that a'ny man what can't take kere o' himself, not
+ter mention his wife, should orter go ter the poorhouse."
+
+But the matriarch's voice quavered even more than usual, and as she
+finished she hastily bent down and felt in her deep skirt-pocket for her
+snuff-box.
+
+Now the Amazonian Mrs. Homan, a widow for the third time, made sturdy
+retort:
+
+"That's jest like yew old maids--always a-blamin' the men. Yew kin jest
+bet I never would have let one of my husbands go ter the poorhouse. It
+would have mortified me dretful. It must be a purty poor sort of a
+woman what can't take care of one man and keep a roof over his head.
+Why, my second, Oliver G., used ter say--"
+
+"Oh!" Miss Ellie wrung her hands, "can't we do somethin'?"
+
+"I could do a-plenty," mourned Miss Abigail, "ef I only had been savin'.
+Here I git a salary o' four dollars a month, an' not one penny laid
+away."
+
+"Yew fergit," spoke some one gently, "that it takes consid'able ter
+dress a matron proper."
+
+Aunt Nancy, who had been sneezing furiously at her own impotence, now
+found her speech again.
+
+"We're a nice set ter talk erbout dewin' somethin'--a passel o' poor ole
+critters like us!" Her cackle of embittered laughter was interrupted by
+the low, cultivated voice of the belle of the Home, "Butterfly Blossy."
+
+"We've _got_ to do something," said Blossy firmly.
+
+When Blossy spoke with such decision, every one of the sisters pricked
+up her ears. Blossy might be "a shaller-pate"; she might arrange the
+golden-white hair of her head as befitted the crowning glory of a young
+girl, with puffs and rolls and little curls, and--more than one sister
+suspected--with the aid of "rats"; she might gown herself elaborately in
+the mended finery of the long ago, the better years; she might dress her
+lovely big room--the only double bedchamber in the house, for which she
+had paid a double entrance fee--in all sorts of gewgaws, little
+ornaments, hand-painted plaques of her own producing, lace bedspreads,
+embroidered splashers and pillow-shams; she might even permit herself a
+suitor who came twice a year more punctually than the line-storms, to
+ask her withered little hand in marriage--but her heart was in the right
+place, and on occasion she had proved herself a master hand at "fixin'
+things."
+
+"Yes," said she, rising to her feet and flinging out her arms with an
+eloquent gesture, "we've got to do something, and there's just one thing
+to do, girls: take the captain right here--here"--she brought her hands
+to the laces on her bosom--"to our hearts!"
+
+At first there was silence, with the ladies staring blankly at Blossy
+and then at one another. Had they heard aright? Then there came murmurs
+and exclamations, with Miss Abigail's voice gasping above the others:
+
+"What would the directors say?"
+
+"What do they always say when we ask a favor?" demanded Blossy. "'How
+much will it cost?' It won't cost a cent."
+
+"Won't, eh?" snapped Aunt Nancy. "How on arth be yew goin' ter vittle
+him? I hain't had a second dish o' peas this year."
+
+"Some men eat more an' some less," remarked Sarah Jane, as ill-favored a
+spinster as ever the sun shone on; "generally it means so much grub ter
+so much weight."
+
+Miss Abigail glanced up at the ceiling, while Lazy Daisy, who had
+refused to tip the beam for ten years, surreptitiously hid an apple
+into which she had been biting.
+
+"Le' 's have 'em weighed," suggested a widow, Ruby Lee, with a pretty,
+well-preserved little face and figure, "an' ef tergether they don't come
+up to the heartiest one of us--"
+
+Miss Abigail made hasty interruption:
+
+"Gals, hain't yew never noticed that the more yew need the more yew git?
+Before Jenny Bell went to live with her darter I didn't know what I
+should dew, for the taters was gittin' pooty low. Yew know she used ter
+eat twenty ter a meal an' then look hungry at the platter. An' then ef
+old Square Ely didn't come a-drivin' up one mornin' with ten bushel in
+the farm wagon! He'd been savin' 'em fer us all winter fer fear we
+might run short in the spring. Gals, thar's one thing yew kin depend on,
+the foresightedness of the Lord. I hain't afraid ter risk a-stretchin'
+the board an' keep o' thirty ter pervide ample fer thirty-one. Naow,
+haow many of yew is willin' ter try it?"
+
+Every head nodded, "I am"; every eye was wet with the dew of merciful
+kindness; and Mrs. Homan and Sarah Jane, who had flung plates at each
+other only that morning, were observed to be holding hands.
+
+"But haow on arth be we a-goin' ter sleep him?" proceeded the matron
+uneasily. "Thar hain't a extry corner in the hull place. Puttin' tew
+people in No. 30 is out of the question--it's jest erbout the size of a
+Cinderella shoebox, anyhow, an' the garret leaks--"
+
+She paused, for Blossy was pulling at her sleeve, the real Blossy,
+warmhearted, generous, self-deprecating.
+
+"I think No. 30 is just the coziest little place for one! Do let me take
+it, Miss Abigail, and give the couple my great big barn of a room."
+
+Aunt Nancy eyed her suspiciously. "Yew ain't a-gwine ter make a fool o'
+yerself, an' jump over the broomstick ag'in?" For Blossy's old suitor,
+Samuel Darby, had made one of his semiannual visits only that morning.
+
+The belle burst into hysterical and self-conscious laughter, as she
+found every glance bent upon her.
+
+"Oh, no, no; not that. But I confess that I am tired to death of this
+perpetual dove-party. I just simply can't live another minute without a
+man in the house.
+
+"Now, Miss Abigail," she added imperiously, "you run across lots and
+fetch him home."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+ONE OF THEM
+
+
+Ah! but Abraham slept that night as if he had been drawn to rest under
+the compelling shelter of the wings of all that flock which in happier
+days he had dubbed contemptuously "them air old hens." Never afterward
+could the dazed old gentleman remember how he had been persuaded to come
+into the house and up the stairs with Angeline. He only knew that in the
+midst of that heart-breaking farewell at the gate, Miss Abigail, all out
+of breath with running, red in the face, but exceedingly hearty of
+manner, had suddenly appeared.
+
+"Shoo, shoo, shoo!" this stout angel had gasped. "Naow, Cap'n Abe, yew
+needn't git narvous. We 're as harmless as doves. Run right erlong. Yew
+won't see anybody ter-night. Don't say a word. It's all right. Sssh!
+Shoo!" And then, lo! he was not in the County Almshouse, but in a
+beautiful bright bedchamber with a wreath of immortelles over the
+mantel, alone with Angy.
+
+Afterward, it all seemed the blur of a dream to him, a dream which ended
+when he had found his head upon a cool, white pillow, and had felt glad,
+glad--dear God, how glad!--to know that Angy was still within reach of
+his outstretched hand; and so he had fallen asleep. But when he awoke in
+the morning, there stood Angeline in front of the glass taking her hair
+out of curl papers; and then he slowly began to realize the tremendous
+change that had come into their lives, when his wife committed the
+unprecedented act of taking her crimps out _before_ breakfast. He
+realized' that they were to eat among strangers. He had become the guest
+of thirty "women-folks." No doubt he should be called "Old Gal
+Thirty-one." He got up and dressed very, very slowly. The bewildered
+gratitude, the incredulous thanksgiving of last night, were as far away
+as yesterday's sunset. A great seriousness settled upon Abe's lean face.
+At last he burst forth:
+
+"One to thirty! Hy-guy, I'm in fer it!" How had it happened, he
+wondered. They had given him no time to think. They had swooped down
+upon him when his brain was dulled with anguish. Virtually, they had
+kidnapped him. Why had they brought him here to accept charity of a
+women's institution? Why need they thus intensify his sense of shame at
+his life's failure, and, above all, at his failure to provide for
+Angeline? In the poorhouse he would have been only one more derelict;
+but here he stood alone to be stared at and pitied and thrown a
+sickly-satisfying crumb. With a sigh from the very cellar of his being,
+he muttered:
+
+"Aye, Mother, why didn't yew let me go on ter the County House? That
+air's the place fer a worn-out old hull like me. Hy-guy!" he ejaculated,
+beads of sweat standing out on his forehead, "I'd ruther lay deown an'
+die th'n face them air women."
+
+"Thar, thar!" soothingly spoke Angy, laying her hand on his arm. "Thar,
+thar, Father! Jest think haow dretful I'd feel a-goin' deown without
+yer."
+
+"So you would!" strangely comforted. "So you would, my dear!" For her
+sake he tried to brighten up. He joked clumsily as they stood on the
+threshold of the chamber, whispering, blinking his eyes to make up for
+the lack of their usually ready twinkle.
+
+"Hol' on a minute; supposin' I fergit whether I be a man er a woman?"
+
+Her love gave inspiration to her answer: "I'll lean on yer, Abe."
+
+Just then there came the loud, imperative clanging of the
+breakfast-bell; and she urged him to hurry, as "it wouldn't dew" for
+them to be late the first morning of all times. But he only answered by
+going back into the room to make an anxious survey of his reflection in
+the glass. He shook his head reprovingly at the bearded countenance, as
+if to say: "You need not pride yourself any longer on looking like
+Abraham Lincoln, for you have been turned into a miserable old woman."
+
+Picking up the hair-brush, he held it out at arm's length to Angy.
+"Won't yew slick up my hair a leetle bit, Mother?" he asked, somewhat
+shamefacedly. "I can't see extry well this mornin'."
+
+"Why, Abe! It's slicked ez slick ez it kin be naow." However, the old
+wife reached up as he bent his tall, angular form over her, and
+smoothed again his thin, wet locks. He laughed a little, self-mockingly,
+and she laughed back, then urged him into the hall, and, slipping ahead,
+led the way down-stairs. At the first landing, which brought them into
+full view of the lower hall, he paused, possessed with the mad desire to
+run away and hide, for at the foot of the stairway stood the entire
+flock of old ladies. Twenty-nine pairs of eyes were lifted to him and
+Angy, twenty-nine pairs of lips were smiling at them. To the end of his
+days Abraham remembered those smiles. Reassuring, unselfish, and tender,
+they made the old man's heart swell, his emotions go warring together.
+
+He wondered, was grateful, yet he grew more confused and afraid. He
+stared amazed at Angeline, who seemed the embodiment of self-possession,
+lifting her dainty, proud little gray head higher and higher. She turned
+to Abraham with a protecting, motherly little gesture of command for him
+to follow, and marched gallantly on down the stairs. Humbly, trembling
+at the knees, he came with gingerly steps after the little old wife. How
+unworthy he was of her now! How unworthy he had always been, yet never
+realized to the full until this moment. He knew what those smiles meant,
+he told himself, watching the uplifted faces; they were to soothe his
+sense of shame and humiliation, to touch with rose this dull gray color
+of the culmination of his failures. He passed his hand over his eyes,
+fiercely praying that the tears might not come to add to his disgrace.
+
+And all the while brave little Angy kept smiling, until with a truly
+glad leap of the heart she caught sight of a blue ribbon painted in gold
+shining on the breast of each one of the twenty-nine women. A pale blue
+ribbon painted in gold with--yes, peering her eyes she discovered that
+it was the word "WELCOME!" The forced smile vanished from Angeline's
+face. Her eyes grew wet, her cheek white. Her proud figure shrank. She
+turned and looked back at her husband. Not for one instant did she
+appropriate the compliment to herself. "This is for _you_!" her spirit
+called out to him, while a new pride dawned in her working face.
+
+Forty years had she spent apologizing for Abraham, and now she
+understood how these twenty-nine generous old hearts had raided him to
+the pedestal of a hero, while she stood a heroine beside him. Angy it
+was who trembled now, and Abe, gaining a manly courage from that, took
+hold of her arm to steady her--they had paused on a step near the foot
+of the stairs--and, looking around with his whimsical smile, he demanded
+of the bedecked company in general, "Ladies, be yew 'spectin' the
+President?"
+
+Cackle went the cracked old voices of the twenty-nine in a chorus of
+appreciative laughter, while the old heads bobbed at one another as if
+to say, "Won't he be an acquisition?" And then, from among the group
+there came forward Blossy--Blossy, who had sacrificed most that this
+should come to pass; Blossy, who had sat till midnight painting the
+gold-and-blue ribbons; Blossy, the pride and beauty of the Home, in a
+delicate, old, yellow, real lace gown. She held her two hands gracefully
+and mysteriously behind her back as she advanced to the foot of the
+stairs. Looking steadily into Abraham's eyes, she kept a-smiling until
+he felt as if the warmth of a belated spring had beamed upon him.
+
+"The President!" Her mellow, well-modulated voice shook, and she laughed
+with a mingling of generous joy and tender pity. "Are we expecting the
+President? You dear modest man! We are welcoming--_you_!"
+
+Abe looked to Angy as if to say, "How shall I take it?" and behold! the
+miracle of his wife's bosom swelling and swelling with pride in him. He
+turned back, for Blossy was making a speech. His hand to his head, he
+bent his good ear to listen. In terms poetical and touching she
+described the loneliness of the life at the Home as it had been with no
+man under the roof of the house and only a deaf-and-dumb gardener, who
+hated her sex, in the barn. Then in contrast she painted life as it must
+be for the sisters now that the thirty tender vines had found a stanch
+old oak for their clinging. "Me?" queried Abraham of himself and, with
+another silent glance, of Angy.
+
+But what was this? Blossy, leading all the others in a resounding call
+of "Welcome!" and then Blossy drawing her two hands from behind her
+back. One held a huge blue cup, the other, the saucer to match. She
+placed the cup in the saucer and held it out to Abraham. He trudged down
+the few steps to receive it, unashamed now of the tears that coursed
+down his cheeks. With a burst of delight he perceived that it was a
+mustache cup, such as the one he had always used at home until it had
+been set for safe-keeping on the top pantry shelf to await the auction,
+where it had brought the price of eleven cents with half a paper of
+tacks thrown in.
+
+And now as the tears cleared away he saw also, what Angy's eyes had
+already noted, the inscription in warm crimson letters on the shining
+blue side of the cup, "To Our Beloved Brother."
+
+"Sisters," he mumbled, for he could do no more than mumble as he took
+his gift, "ef yew'd been gittin' ready fer me six months, yew couldn't
+have done no better."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE HEAD OF THE CORNER
+
+
+Everybody wore their company manners to the breakfast-table--the first
+time in the whole history of the Home when company manners had graced
+the initial meal of the day. Being pleasant at supper was easy enough,
+Aunt Nancy used to say, for every one save the unreasonably
+cantankerous, and being agreeable at dinner was not especially
+difficult; but no one short of a saint could be expected to smile of
+mornings until sufficient time had been given to discover whether one
+had stepped out on the wrong or the right side of the bed.
+
+This morning, however, no time was needed to demonstrate that everybody
+in the place had gotten out on the happy side of his couch. Even the
+deaf-and-dumb gardener had untwisted his surly temper, and as Abraham
+entered the dining-room, looked in at the east window with a
+conciliatory grin and nod which said as plainly as words:
+
+"'T is a welcome sight indeed to see one of my own kind around this
+establishment!"
+
+"Why don't he come in?" questioned Abe, waving back a greeting as well
+as he could with the treasured cup in one of his hands and the saucer in
+the other; whereupon Sarah Jane, that ugly duckling, explained that the
+fellow, being a confirmed woman-hater, cooked all his own meals in the
+smokehouse, and insisted upon all his orders being left on a slate
+outside the tool-house door. Abe sniffed disdainfully, contemplating her
+homely countenance, over which this morning's mood had cast a not
+unlovely, transforming glow.
+
+"Why, the scalawag!" He frowned so at the face in the window that it
+immediately disappeared. "Yew don't mean ter tell me he's sot ag'in' yew
+gals? He must be crazy! Sech a handsome, clever set o' women I never did
+see!"
+
+Sarah Jane blushed to the roots of her thin, straight hair and sat down,
+suddenly disarmed of every porcupine quill that she had hidden under
+her wings; while there was an agreeable little stir among the sisters.
+
+"Set deown, all hands! Set deown!" enjoined Miss Abigail, fluttering
+about with the heaviness of a fat goose. "Brother Abe,--that 's what
+we've all agreed to call yew, by unanimous vote,--yew set right here at
+the foot of the table. Aunt Nancy always had the head an' me the foot;
+but I only kept the foot, partly becuz thar wa'n't no man fer the place,
+an' partly becuz I was tew sizable ter squeeze in any-whar else. Seein'
+as Sister Angy is sech a leetle mite, though, I guess she kin easy make
+room fer me t' other side o' her."
+
+Abe could only bow his thanks as he put his gift down on the table and
+took the prominent place assigned to him. The others seated, there was
+a solemn moment of waiting with bowed heads. Aunt Nancy's trembling
+voice arose,--the voice which had jealously guarded the right of saying
+grace at table in the Old Ladies' Home for twenty years,--not, however,
+in the customary words of thanksgiving, but in a peremptory "Brother
+Abe!"
+
+Abraham looked up. Could she possibly mean that he was to establish
+himself as the head of the household by repeating grace? "Brother Abe!"
+she called upon him again. "Yew've askt a blessin' fer one woman fer
+many a year; supposin' neow yew ask it fer thirty!"
+
+Amid the amazement of the other sisters, Abe mumbled, and muttered, and
+murmured--no one knew what words; but all understood the overwhelming
+gratitude behind his incoherency, and all joined heartily in the Amen.
+Then, while Mrs. Homan, the cook of the week, went bustling out into the
+kitchen, Aunt Nancy felt that it devolved upon her to explain her
+action. It would never do, she thought, for her to gain a reputation for
+self-effacement and sweetness of disposition at her time of life.
+
+"Son, I want yew ter understand one thing naow at the start. Yew treat
+us right, an' we'll treat yew right. That's all we ask o' yew. Miss
+Ellie, pass the radishes."
+
+"I'll do my best," Abe hastened to assure her. "Hy-guy, that coffee
+smells some kind o' good, don't it? Between the smell o' the stuff an'
+the looks o' my cup, it'll be so temptin' that I'll wish I had the neck
+of a gi-raffe, an' could taste it all the way deown. Angy, I be afraid
+we'll git the gout a-livin' so high. Look at this here cream!"
+
+Smiling, appreciative, his lips insisting upon joking to cover the
+natural feeling of embarrassment incident to this first meal among the
+sisters, but with his voice breaking now and again with emotion, while
+from time to time he had to steal his handkerchief to his old eyes, Abe
+passed successfully through the--to him--elaborate breakfast. And Angy
+sat in rapt silence, but with her face shining so that her quiet was the
+stillness of eloquence. Once Abe startled them all by rising stealthily
+from the table and seizing the morning's newspaper which lay upon the
+buffet.
+
+"I knowed it!" caviled Lazy Daisy _sotto voce_ to no one in particular.
+"He couldn't wait for the news till he was through eatin'!" But Abe had
+folded the paper into a stout weapon, and, creeping toward the window,
+despatched by a quick, adroit movement a fly which had alighted upon the
+screen.
+
+"I hate the very sight o' them air pesky critters," he explained half
+apologetically. "Thar, thar's another one," and slaughtered that.
+
+"My, but yew kin git 'em, can't yew?" spoke Miss Abigail admiringly.
+"Them tew be the very ones I tried ter ketch all day yiste'day; I kin
+see as a fly-ketcher yew be a-goin' ter be wuth a farm ter me. Set
+deown an' try some o' this here strawberry presarve."
+
+But Abe protested that he could not eat another bite unless he should
+get up and run around the house to "joggle deown" what he had already
+swallowed. He leaned back in his chair and surveyed the family: on his
+right, generous-hearted Blossy, who had been smiling approval and
+encouragement at him all through the repast; at his left, and just
+beyond Angy, Miss Abigail indulging in what remained on the dishes now
+that she discovered the others to have finished; Aunt Nancy keenly
+watching him from the head of the board; and all the other sisters
+"betwixt an' between."
+
+He caught Mrs. Homan's eye where she stood in the doorway leading into
+the kitchen, and remarked pleasantly: "Ma'am, yew oughter set up a
+pancake shop in 'York. Yew could make a fortune at it. I hain't had sech
+a meal o' vittles sence I turned fifty year o' age."
+
+A flattered smile overspread Mrs. Homan's visage, and the other sisters,
+noting it, wondered how long it would be before she showed her claws in
+Abraham's presence.
+
+"Hy-guy, Angy," Abe went on, "yew can't believe nothin' yew hear, kin
+yer? Why, folks have told me that yew ladies--What yew hittin' my foot
+fer, Mother? Folks have told me," a twinkle of amusement in his eye at
+the absurdity, "that yew fight among yerselves like cats an' dogs, when,
+law! I never see sech a clever lot o' women gathered tergether in all
+my life. An' I believe--Mother, I hain't a-sayin' nothin'! I jest want
+ter let 'em know what I think on 'em. I believe that thar must be three
+hunderd hearts in this here place 'stid o' thirty. But dew yew know,
+gals, folks outside even go so fur's ter say that yew throw plates at
+one another!"
+
+There was a moment's silence; then a little gasp first from one and then
+from another of the group. Every one looked at Mrs. Homan, and from Mrs.
+Homan to Sarah Jane. Mrs. Homan tightened her grip on the pancake
+turner; Sarah Jane uneasily moved her long fingers within reach of a
+sturdy little red-and-white pepper-pot. Another moment passed, in which
+the air seemed filled with the promise of an electric storm. Then
+Blossy spoke hurriedly--Blossy the tactician, clasping her hands
+together and bringing Abe's attention to herself.
+
+"Really! You surprise me! You don't mean to say that folks talk about us
+like that!"
+
+"Slander is a dretful long-legged critter," amended Miss Abigail,
+smiling and sighing in the same breath.
+
+"Sary Jane," inquired Mrs. Homan sweetly, "what 's the matter with that
+pepper-pot? Does it need fillin'?"
+
+And so began the reign of peace in the Old Ladies' Home.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+INDIAN SUMMER
+
+
+Miss Abigail had not banked in vain on the "foresightedness of the
+Lord." At the end of six months, instead of there being a shortage in
+her accounts because of Abe's presence, she was able to show the
+directors such a balance-sheet as excelled all her previous commendable
+records.
+
+"How do you explain it?" they asked her.
+
+"We cast our bread on the waters," she answered, "an' Providence jest
+kept a-handin' out the loaves." Again she said, "'T was grinnin' that
+done it. Brother Abe he kept the gardener good-natured, an' the gardener
+he jest grinned at the garden sass until it was ashamed not ter
+flourish; an' Brother Abe kept the gals good-natured an' they wa'n't so
+_niasy_ about what they eat; an' he kept the visitors a-laughin' jest
+ter see him here, an' when yew make folks laugh they want ter turn
+around an' dew somethin' fer yew. I tell yew, ef yew kin only keep grit
+ernough ter grin, yew kin drive away a drought."
+
+In truth, there had been no drought in the garden that summer, but
+almost a double yield of corn and beans; no drought in the gifts sent to
+the Home, but showers of plenty. Some of these came in the form of fresh
+fish and clams left at the back door; some in luscious fruits; some in
+barrels of clothing. And the barrels of clothing solved another problem;
+for no longer did their contents consist solely of articles of feminine
+attire. "Biled shirts" poured out of them; socks and breeches, derby
+hats, coats and negligees; until Aunt Nancy with a humorous twist to her
+thin lips inquired if there were thirty men in this establishment and
+one woman.
+
+"I never thought I'd come to wearin' a quilted silk basque with tossels
+on it," Abe remarked one day on being urged to try on a handsome
+smoking-jacket. "Dew I look like one of them sissy-boys, er jest a
+dude?"
+
+"It's dretful becoming," insisted Angy, "bewtiful! Ain't it, gals?"
+
+Every old lady nodded her head with an air of proud proprietorship, as
+if to say, "Nothing could fail to become _our_ brother." And Angy nodded
+her head, too, in delighted approval of their appreciation of "our
+brother" and "my husband."
+
+Beautiful, joy-steeped, pleasure-filled days these were for the couple,
+who had been cramped for life's smallest necessities so many meager
+years. Angy felt that she had been made miraculously young by the birth
+of this new Abraham--almost as if at last she had been given the son for
+whom in her youth she had prayed with impassioned appeal. Her old-wife
+love became rejuvenated into a curious mixture of proud mother-love and
+young-wife leaning, as she saw Abe win every heart and become the
+center of the community.
+
+"Why, the sisters all think the sun rises an' sets in him," Angy would
+whisper to herself sometimes, awed by the glorious wonder of it all.
+
+The sisters fairly vied with one another to see how much each could do
+for the one man among them. Their own preferences and prejudices were
+magnanimously thrust aside. In a body they besought their guest to smoke
+as freely in the house as out of doors. Miss Abigail even traded some of
+her garden produce for tobacco, while Miss Ellie made the old gentleman
+a tobacco-pouch of red flannel so generous in its proportions that on a
+pinch it could be used as a chest-protector.
+
+Then Ruby Lee, not to be outdone by anybody, produced, from no one ever
+discovered where, a mother-of-pearl manicure set for the delight and
+mystification of the hero; and even Lazy Daisy went so far as to cut
+some red and yellow tissue-paper into squares under the delusion that
+some time, somehow, she would find the energy to roll these into spills
+for the lighting of Abe's pipe. And each and every sister from time to
+time contributed some gift or suggestion to her "brother's" comfort.
+
+It "plagued" the others, however, to see that none of them could get
+ahead of Blossy in their noble endeavors to make Abraham feel himself a
+light and welcome burden. She it was who discovered that Abe's
+contentment could not be absolute without griddle-cakes for breakfast
+three hundred and sixty-five times a year; she it was who first baked
+him little saucer-cakes and pies because he was partial to edges; and
+Blossy it was who made out a list of "Don'ts" for the sisters to follow
+in their treatment of this grown-up, young-old boy.
+
+"Don't scold him when he leaves the doors open. Don't tell him to wipe
+his feet. Don't ever mention gold-mines or shiftless husbands," etc.,
+etc.
+
+All these triumphs of Blossy's intuition served naturally to spur the
+others on to do even more for Brother Abe than they had already done,
+until the old man began to worry for fear that he should "git sp'ilt."
+When he lay down for his afternoon nap and the house was dull and quiet
+without his waking presence, the ladies would gather in groups outside
+his door as if in a king's antechamber, waiting for him to awaken,
+saying to one another ever and again, "Sh, sh!" He professed to scoff at
+the attentions he received, would grunt and growl "Humbug!" yet
+nevertheless he thrived in this latter-day sunlight. His old bones took
+on flesh. His aged kindly face, all seamed with care as it had been,
+filled out, the wrinkles turning into twinkles. Abraham had grown young
+again. With the return of his youth came the spirit of youth to the Old
+Ladies' Home. Verily, verily, as Blossy had avowed from the first, they
+had been in sore need of the masculine presence. The ancient coat and
+hat which had hung in the hall so long had perhaps served its purpose
+in keeping the burglars away, but this lifeless substitute had not
+prevented the crabbed gnomes of loneliness and discontent from stealing
+in. Spinster, wife, and widow, they had every one been warped by the
+testy just-so-ness of the old maid.
+
+Now, instead of fretful discussions of health and food, recriminations
+and wrangling, there came to be laughter and good-humored chatter all
+the day long, each sister striving with all her strength to preserve the
+new-found harmony of the Home. There were musical evenings, when Miss
+Abigail opened the melodeon and played "Old Hundred," and Abraham was
+encouraged to pick out with one stiff forefinger "My Grandfather's
+Clock." "Hymn tunes" were sung in chorus; and then, in answer to Abe's
+appeal for something livelier, there came time-tried ditties and old,
+old love-songs. And at last, one night, after leaving the instrument
+silent, mute in the corner of the parlor for many years, Aunt Nancy
+Smith dragged out her harp, and, seating herself, reached out her
+knotted, trembling hands and brought forth what seemed the very echo, so
+faint and faltering it was, of "Douglas, Douglas, Tender and True."
+
+There was a long silence after she had finished, her head bowed on her
+chest, her hands dropped to her sides. Abraham spoke first, clearing his
+throat before he could make the words come.
+
+"_I_ wish I could git a husband fer every one of yer," said he.
+
+And no one was angry, and no one laughed; for they all knew that he was
+only seeking to express the message conveyed by Nancy's playing--the
+message of Love, Love triumphant, which cannot age, which over the years
+and over Death itself always hath the victory.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+OLD LETTERS AND NEW
+
+
+Blossy left the room without a word, and went stealing up the stairs to
+the little cupboard where she now slept, and where was hung on the wall,
+in a frame of yellow hollyhocks, painted by her own hand, a photograph
+of Captain Samuel Darby, the man who had remained obstinately devoted to
+her since her days of pinafores.
+
+The picture betrayed that Captain Darby wore a wig designed for a larger
+man, and that the visage beneath was gnarled and weather-beaten, marked
+with the signs of a stubborn and unreasonable will.
+
+Even now the aged belle could hear him saying: "Here I be, come eround
+ter pop ag'in. Ready ter hitch?"
+
+Samuel's inelegant English had always been a source of distress to
+Blossy; yet still she stared long at the picture.
+
+Six months had passed since his last visit; to-morrow would be the date
+of his winter advent.
+
+Should she give the old unvarying answer to his tireless formula?
+
+She glanced around the tiny room. Ashamed though she was to admit it
+even to herself, she missed that ample and cozy chamber which she had so
+freely surrendered to Abraham and his wife. She missed it, as she felt
+they must crave their very own fireside; and the thought that they
+missed the old homestead made her yearn for the home that she might have
+had--the home that she still might have.
+
+Again she brought her eyes back to the portrait; and now she saw, not
+the characteristics which had always made it seem impossible for her and
+Samuel to jog together down life's road, but the great truth that the
+face was honest and wholesome, while the eyes looked back into hers with
+the promise of an unswerving care and affection.
+
+The next morning found Blossy kneeling before a plump, little,
+leather-bound, time-worn trunk which she kept under the eaves of the
+kitchen chamber. The trunk was packed hard with bundles of old letters.
+Some her younger fingers had tied with violet ribbon; some they had
+bound with pink; others she had fastened together with white silk cord;
+and there were more and more bundles, both slim and stout, which Blossy
+had distinguished by some special hue of ribbon in the long ago, each
+tint marking a different suitor's missives.
+
+To her still sentimental eye the colors remained unfaded, and each would
+bring to her mind instantly the picture of the writer as he had been in
+the golden days. But save to Blossy's eye alone there were no longer any
+rainbow tints in the little, old trunk; for every ribbon and every cord
+had faded into that musty, yellow brown which is dyed by the passing of
+many years.
+
+Abraham discovered her there, too engrossed in the perusal of one of
+the old letters to have heeded his creaking steps upon the stairs.
+
+"Didn't see yer, till I 'most stumbled on yer," he began apologetically.
+"I come fer the apple-picker. Thar's a handful of russets in the orchard
+yit, that's calc'latin' ter spend Christmas up close ter heaven;
+but--Say, Blossy," he added more loudly, since she did not raise her
+head, "yew seen anythin' o' that air picker?"
+
+Blossy glanced up from her ragged-edged crackly _billet-doux_ with a
+start, and dropped the envelop to the floor.
+
+For the moment, so deep in reminiscence was she, she thought Captain
+Darby himself had surprised her; then, recognizing Abe and recalling
+that Samuel's winter visits were invariably paid in the afternoon, she
+broke into a shamefaced laugh.
+
+"Oh, is that you, Brother Abe? Don't tell the others what you found me
+doing. These," with a wave of her delicate, blue-veined hands over the
+trunk and its contents, "are all old love-letters of mine. Do you think
+I'm a silly old goose to keep them cluttering around so long?"
+
+"Wa'al,"--Abe with an equally deprecatory gesture indicated Angy's
+horsehair trunk in the far corner of the loft,--"yew ain't no more
+foolisher, I guess, over yer old trash 'n me an' Angy be a-keepin' that
+air minin' stock of mine. One lot is wuth 'bout as much as t'other."
+
+Recovering the envelop that she had dropped, he squinted at the
+superscription. "Not meanin' ter be inquisitive or personal, Sister
+Blossy," a teasing twinkle appearing in his eye, "but this looks dretful
+familitary, this here handwritin' does. When I run the beach--yew've
+heard me tell of the time I was on the Life-savin' Crew over ter Bleak
+Hill fer a spell--my cap'n he had a fist jest like that. Useter make out
+the spickest, spannest reports. Lemme see," the twinkle deepening,
+"didn't the gals say yew was a 'spectin' somebody ter-day? Law, I ain't
+saw Cap'n Sam'l fer ten year or more. I guess on these here poppin'
+trips o' his'n he hain't wastin' time on no men-folks. But, Blossy, yew
+better give me a chance ter talk to him this arternoon, an' mebbe I'll
+speak a good word fer yer."
+
+Blossy, not always keen to see a joke, and with her vanity now in the
+ascendant, felt the color rise into her withered cheek.
+
+"Oh, you needn't take the trouble to speak a good word for me. Any man
+who could ever write a letter like this doesn't need to be coaxed. Just
+listen:
+
+
+"The man you take for a mate is the luckiest dog in the whole round
+world. I'd rather be him than king of all the countries on earth. I'd
+rather be him than strike a gold-mine reaching from here to China. I'd
+rather be him than master of the finest vessel that ever sailed blue
+water. That's what I would. Why, the man who couldn't be happy with you
+would spill tears all over heaven."
+
+
+Blossy's cheek was still flushed, but no longer with pique. Her voice
+quavered, and broke; and finally there fell upon the faded page of the
+letter two sparkling tears.
+
+Abraham shuffled uncomfortably from one foot to the other; then,
+muttering something about the "pesky apple-hook," went scuffing across
+the floor in the direction of the chimney.
+
+Blossy, however, called him back. "I was crying, Brother Abe, because
+the man I did take for a mate once was not happy, and--and neither was
+I. I was utterly wretched; so that I've always felt I never cared to
+marry again. And--and Samuel's wig is always slipping down over one eye,
+and I simply cannot endure that trick he has of carrying his head to one
+side, as if he had a left-handed spell of the mumps. It nearly drives me
+frantic.
+
+"Brother Abe, now tell me honestly: do you think he would make a good
+husband?"
+
+Abe cleared his throat. Blossy was in earnest. Blossy could not be
+laughed at. She was his friend, and Angy's friend; and she had come to
+him as to a brother for advice. He too had known Samuel as man to man,
+which was more than any of the sisters could say.
+
+Stroking his beard thoughtfully, therefore, he seated himself upon a
+convenient wooden chest, while Blossy slipped her old love-letter in and
+out of the envelop, with that essentially feminine manner of weighing
+and considering.
+
+"Naow," began Abe at length, "this is somep'n that requires keerful
+debatin'. Fust off, haowsomever, yew must remember that wigs an' ways
+never made a man yit. Ez I riccollec' Sam'l, he was pooty good ez men
+go. I should say he wouldn't be any more of a risk tew yew than I was
+tew Angy; mebbe less. He's got quite a leetle laid by, I understand, an'
+a tidy story-an'-a-half house, an' front stoop, an', by golly, can't he
+cook! He's a splendid housekeeper."
+
+"Housewifery," remarked Blossy sagely, as she began to gather her
+missives together, "is an accomplishment to be scorned in a young
+husband, but not in an old one. They say there hasn't been a woman
+inside Samuel's house since he built it, but it's as clean as soap and
+sand can make it."
+
+"I bet yer," agreed Abe. "Hain't never been no fly inside it, neither,
+I warrant yer. Fly can't light arter Sam'l's cleanin' up nohaow; he's
+got ter skate."
+
+"He says he built that little house for me," said the old lady, as she
+closed down the lid of the trunk. There was a wistful note in Blossy's
+voice, which made Abraham declare with a burst of sympathy:
+
+"'T ain't no disgrace ter git married at no time of life. Sam'l's a good
+pervider; why don't yew snap him up ter-day? We'll miss yew a lot;
+but--"
+
+"Here's the apple-picker right over your head," interrupted Blossy
+tartly, and Abe felt himself peremptorily dismissed.
+
+Scarcely had he left the attic, however, than she too hastened down the
+steep, narrow stairs. She spent the remaining hours before train-time in
+donning her beautiful lace gown, and in making the woman within it as
+young and ravishing as possible. And lovely, indeed, Blossy looked this
+day, with a natural flush of excitement on her cheek, a new sparkle in
+her bright, dark eyes, and with her white hair arranged in a fashion
+which might have excited a young girl's envy.
+
+The hour for the train came and went, and, lo! for the first time in the
+history of twenty years Captain Darby did not appear.
+
+Blossy pretended to be relieved, protesting that she was delighted to
+find that she would now have an extra hour in which to ponder the
+question. But the second train came and went, and still no Captain
+Darby.
+
+All the afternoon long Blossy wore her lace gown, thinking although
+there were no more trains from the eastward that day, that Samuel would
+still find his way to her. He might drive, as he usually did in June, or
+he might even walk from his home at Twin Coves, she said.
+
+At night, however, she was obliged to admit that he could not be coming;
+and then, quivering with honest anxiety for her old friend, Blossy
+dipped into her emergency fund, which she kept in the heart of a little
+pink china pig on a shelf in her room,--a pink china pig with a lid made
+of stiff black hair standing on edge in the middle of his back,--and
+sent a telegram to Captain Darby, asking if he were sick.
+
+The answer came back slowly by mail, to find Blossy on the verge of a
+nervous collapse, under the care of all the women in the house.
+
+That letter Blossy never showed to Brother Abe, nor to any one else.
+Neither did she treasure it in the sentimental trunk beneath the attic
+eaves. The letter ran:
+
+
+DEAR BETSY ANN: I never felt better in my life. Ain't been sick a
+minute. Just made up my mind I was a old fool, and was going to quit. If
+you change your intentions at any time, just drop me a postal. As ever,
+
+SAM'L DARBY, ESQ.
+
+
+"This, Captain Darby, makes your rejection final," vowed Blossy to
+herself, as she tore the note into fragments and drowned them in the
+spirits of lavender with which the sisters had been seeking to soothe
+her distracted nerves.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE ANNIVERSARY
+
+
+About this time Blossy developed a tendency to draw Brother Abraham
+aside at every opportunity, convenient or inconvenient, in order to put
+such questions as these to him:
+
+"Did you say it is fully thirty-five years since you and Captain Darby
+were on the beach together? Do you think he has grown much older? Had he
+lost his hair then? Did he care for the opposite sex? Was he very
+brave--or would you say more brave than stubborn and contrary? Isn't it
+a blessing that I never married him?"
+
+Fearful of the ridicule of the sisters, Blossy was always careful to
+conduct these inquiries in whispers, or at least in undertones with a
+great observance of secrecy, sometimes stopping Abe on the stairs,
+sometimes beckoning him to her side when she was busy about her
+household tasks on the pretense of requiring his assistance. On one
+occasion she even went so far as to inveigle him into holding a skein of
+wool about his clumsy hands, while she wound the violet worsted into a
+ball, and delicately inquired if he believed Samuel spoke the truth when
+he had protested that he had never paid court to any other woman.
+
+Alas, Blossy's frequent tete-a-tetes with the amused but sometimes
+impatient Abraham started an exceedingly foolish suspicion. When, asked
+the sisters of one another, did Abe ever help any one, save Blossy,
+shell dried beans or pick over prunes? When had he ever been known to
+hold wool for Angy's winding? Not once since wooing-time, I warrant you.
+What could this continual hobnobbing and going off into corners mean,
+except--flirtation?
+
+Ruby Lee whispered it first into Aunt Nancy's good ear. Aunt Nancy
+indulged in four pinches of snuff in rapid succession, sneezed an
+amazing number of times, and then acridly informed Ruby Lee that she was
+a "jealous cat" and always had been one.
+
+However, Aunt Nancy could not refrain from carrying the gossip to Miss
+Ellie, adding that she herself had been suspicious of Abe's behavior
+from the start.
+
+"Oh, no, no!" cried the shocked and shrinking spinster. "And Angy so
+cheerful all the time? I don't believe it."
+
+But whisper, whisper, buzz, buzz, went the gossip, until finally it
+reached the pink little ears at the side of Miss Abigail's generously
+proportioned head. The pink ears turned crimson, likewise the adjoining
+cheeks, and Miss Abigail panted with righteous indignation.
+
+"It all comes of this plagued old winter-time," she declared, sharply
+biting her thread, for she was mending a table-cloth. "Shet the winders
+on summer, an' yew ketch the tail of slander in the latch every time.
+Naow, ef I hear one word about this 'tarnal foolishness comin' to
+Angy's ears, or Brother Abe's, or Blossy's either, fer that matter,
+we'll all have to eat off'n oil-cloth Sundays, the same as weekdays,
+until I see a more Christian sperit in the house."
+
+She gave the Sunday damask across her lap a pat which showed she was in
+earnest; and the rebuked sisters glanced at one another, as if to say:
+
+"Suppose the minister should walk in some Sabbath afternoon and find
+oil-cloth on the table, and ask the reason why?"
+
+They one and all determined to take Aunt Nancy's advice and "sew a
+button on their lips."
+
+Fortunately, too, the February thaws had already set in, and the
+remainder of the winter passed without any severe strain on the
+"buttonholes." And at length the welcome spring began to peep forth,
+calling to the old folks, "Come out, and grow young with the young
+year!"
+
+With the bursting forth of the new springtide the winter's talk seemed
+to drop as a withered and dead oak-leaf falls from its winter-bound
+branches; and Abe stood once more alive to the blessings of renewed
+approval.
+
+Angy went out of doors with Miss Abigail, and puttered around among the
+flowers as if they were her own, thanking God for Abe's increasing
+popularity in the same breath that she gave thanks for the new buds of
+the spring.
+
+The anniversary of the Roses' entrance into the Home drew nearer, and
+Blossy suggested that the best way to celebrate the event would be by
+means of a "pink tea."
+
+Neither Angy nor Abe, nor in fact half the sisters, had any clear
+conception of what a tinted function might be; but they one and all
+seized upon Blossy's idea as if it were a veritable inspiration, and for
+the time jealousies were forgotten, misunderstandings erased.
+
+Such preparations as were made for that tea! The deaf-and-dumb gardener
+was sent with a detachment of small boys to fetch from the wayside and
+meadows armfuls of wild roses for the decorations. Miss Abigail made
+pink icing for the cake. Ruby Lee hung bleeding-hearts over the
+dining-room door. Aunt Nancy resurrected from the bottom of her trunk a
+white lace cap with a rakish-looking pink bow for an adornment, and
+fastened it to her scant gray hairs in honor of the occasion. Blossy
+turned her pink china pig, his lid left up-stairs, into a sugar-bowl.
+
+Pink, pink, pink, everywhere; even in Angy's proud cheeks! Pink, and
+pink, and pink! Abe used to grow dizzy, afterward, trying to recall the
+various pink articles which graced that tea.
+
+But most delightful surprise of all was his anniversary gift, which was
+slyly slipped to his place after the discussion of the rose-colored
+strawberry gelatin. It was a square, five-pound parcel wrapped in pink
+tissue-paper, tied with pink string, and found to contain so much
+Virginia tobacco, which Blossy had inveigled an old Southern admirer
+into sending her for "charitable purposes."
+
+After the presentation of this valuable gift, Abraham felt that the time
+had come for him to make a speech--practically his maiden speech.
+
+He said at the beginning, more suavely at his ease than he would have
+believed possible, secure of sympathy and approbation, with Angy's
+glowing old eyes upon her prodigy, that all the while he had been at the
+Home, he had never before felt the power to express his gratitude for
+the welcome which had been accorded him--the welcome which seemed to
+wear and wear, as if it were all wool and a yard wide, and could never
+wear out.
+
+The old ladies nodded their heads in approval of this, every face
+beaming; but as the speech went on the others perceived that Abe had
+singled out Blossy for special mention,--blind, blind Abraham!--Blossy,
+who had first proposed admitting him into this paradise; Blossy, who had
+given up her sunny south chamber to his comfort and Angy's; Blossy, who
+had been as a "guardeen angel" to him; Blossy, who as a fitting climax
+to all her sisterly attentions had given him to-day this wonderful,
+wonderful pink tea, and "this five hull pound o' Virginny terbaccer."
+
+He held the parcel close to his bosom, and went on, still praising
+Blossy,--this innocent old gentleman,--heedless of Angy's gentle tug at
+his coat-tail; while Blossy buried her absurdly lovely old face in the
+pink flush of a wild-rose spray, and the other old ladies stared from
+him to her, their faces growing hard and cold.
+
+When Abraham sat down, aglow with pride over his oratorical triumphs,
+his chest expanded, his countenance wrinkled into a thousand guileless,
+grateful smiles, there was absolute silence.
+
+Then Blossy, her head still bowed as if in shy confusion, began to clap
+her hands daintily together, whereat a few of the others joined her
+half-heartedly. A sense of chill crept over Abraham. Accustomed as a
+rule to deferential attention, did he but say good-morning, by no means
+aware that his throne had toppled during the winter, he was still
+forced to perceive that something had gone amiss.
+
+As always when aught troubled his mind, "Father" turned to Angy; but
+instead of his composed and resourceful little wife he found a
+scared-faced and trembling woman. Angy had suddenly become conscious of
+the shadow of the green-eyed monster. Angy's loyal heart was crying out
+to her mate: "Don't git the sisters daown on yer, Abe, 'cuz then, mebbe,
+yew'll lose yer hum!" But poor Angeline's lips were so stiff with terror
+over the prospect of the County House for her husband, that she could
+not persuade them to speech.
+
+Abraham, completely at sea, turned next to her whom he had called his
+guardian angel; but Blossy was rising from her seat, a baffling smile
+of expectancy on her face, the rose spray swinging in her delicate hand
+as if to the measure of some music too far back in youth for any one
+else to hear. Blossy had worn that expectant look all day. She might
+have been delightedly hugging to herself a secret which she had not
+shared even with the trusted Abraham. She was gowned in her yellow lace,
+the beauty and grace of which had defied the changing fashions as
+Blossy's remarkable elegance of appearance had defied the passing of the
+years.
+
+"Brother Abe,"--in her heedlessness of the mischief she had wrought,
+Blossy seemed almost to sing,--"I never shall forget your speech as long
+as I live. Will you excuse me now?"
+
+She swept out of the door, her skirts rustling behind her.
+
+Abe collected himself so far as to bow in the direction she had taken;
+then with lamblike eyes of inquiry met the exasperated glances cast upon
+him.
+
+Not a sister moved or spoke. They all sat as if glued to their chairs,
+in a silence that was fast growing appalling.
+
+Abe turned his head and looked behind his chair for an explanation; but
+nothing met his eye, save the familiar picture on the wall of two white
+kittens playing in the midst of a huge bunch of purple lilacs.
+
+Then there broke upon the stillness the quavering old voice of Aunt
+Nancy, from her place opposite Abe's at the head of the board. The aged
+dame had her two hands clasped before her on the edge of the table,
+vainly trying to steady their palsied shaking. Her eyes, bright,
+piercing, age-defying, she fixed upon the bewildered Abraham with a look
+of deep and sorrowful reproach. Her unsteady head bobbed backward and
+forward with many an accusing nod, and the cap with its rakish pink bow
+bobbed backward and forward too. Abe watched her, fascinated,
+unconsciously wondering, even in the midst of his disquietude, why the
+cap did not slide off her bald scalp entirely. To his amazement, she
+addressed not himself, but Angy.
+
+"Sister Rose, yew kin leave the room." Implacable purpose spoke in Aunt
+Nancy's tone. Angy started, looked up, going first red and then white;
+but she did not move. She opened her lips to speak.
+
+"I don't want ter hear a word from yew, nor anybody else," sternly
+interposed Aunt Nancy. "I'm old enough ter be yer mother. Go up-stairs!"
+
+Angy's glance sought Miss Abigail, but the matron's eyes avoided hers.
+The little wife sighed, rose reluctantly, dropped her hand doubtfully
+reassuring on Abe's shoulder, and then went obediently to the door.
+
+From the threshold she looked wistfully back; but an imperious wave from
+Aunt Nancy banished her altogether, and Abe found himself alone--not
+with the sisters whom he loved, but with twenty-eight hard-visaged
+strangers.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A WINTER BUTTERFLY
+
+
+"Cap'n Rose," began Aunt Nancy. Brother Abe pricked up his eats at the
+formal address. "Cap'n Rose," she repeated, deliberately dwelling on the
+title. "I never believe in callin' a man tew account in front of his
+wife. It gives him somebody handy ter blame things on tew jest like ole
+Adam. Naow, look a-here! What I want is ter ask yew jest one question:
+Whar, whar on 'arth kin we look fer a decent behavin' ole man ef not in
+a Old Ladies' Hum? Would yew--" she exhorted earnestly, pointing her
+crooked forefinger at him. "Would yew--"
+
+Abraham caught his breath. Beads of sweat had appeared on his brow. He
+broke in huskily:
+
+"Wait a minute, Aunt Nancy. Jest tell me what I've been an' done."
+
+The ladies glanced at one another, contemptuous, incredulous smiles on
+their faces, while Aunt Nancy almost wept at his deceitfulness.
+
+"Cap'n Rose," she vowed mournfully, "I've lived in this house fer many,
+many years, an' all the while I been here I never hearn tell o' a breath
+o' scandal ag'in' the place until yew come an' commenced ter kick up yer
+heels."
+
+Lazy Daisy, who had long been an inmate, also nodded her unwieldy head
+in confirmation, while a low murmur of assent arose from the others.
+Abraham could only pass his hand over his brow, uneasily shuffle his
+maligned heels over the floor and await further developments; for he did
+not have the slightest conception as to "what they were driving at."
+
+"Cap'n Rose," the matriarch proceeded, as in the earnestness of her
+indignation she arose, trembling, in her seat and stood with her palsied
+and shaking hands on the board, "Cap'n Rose, yer conduct with this here
+Mis' Betsey Ann Blossom has been somethin' _ree_diculous! It's been
+disgraceful!"
+
+Aunt Nancy sat down, incongruously disreputable in appearance, her pink
+bow having slipped down over her right ear during the harangue. Over
+the culprit's countenance light had dawned, but, shame to tell! it was a
+light not wholly remorseful. Then silent laughter shook the old man's
+shoulders, and then--could it be?--there crept about his lips and eyes a
+smile of superbly masculine conceit. The sisters were fighting over him.
+Wouldn't Mother be amused when he should tell her what all this fuss was
+about.
+
+Now, kindly, short-sighted Miss Abigail determined that it was time for
+the matron's voice to be heard.
+
+"Of course, Brother Abe, we understand perfectly that yew never stopped
+ter take inter consideration haow susceptible some folks is made."
+
+There being plain evidence from Abe's blank expression that he did not
+understand the meaning of the word, Ruby Lee hastened to explain.
+
+"Susceptible is the same as flighty-headed. Blossy allers was a fool
+over anything that wore breeches."
+
+Abe pushed his chair back from the table and crossed his legs
+comfortably. For him all the chill had gone out of the air. Suppose that
+there was something in this? An old, old devil of vanity came back to
+the aged husband's heart. He recalled that he had been somewhat of a
+beau before he learned the joy of loving Angy. More than one Long Island
+lassie had thrown herself at his head. Of course Blossy would "get over"
+this; and Angy knew that his heart was hers as much as it had been the
+day he purchased his wedding-beaver; but Abe could not refrain from a
+chuckle of complacent amusement as he stroked his beard.
+
+His very evident hardness of heart so horrified the old ladies that they
+all began to attack him at once.
+
+"Seems ter me I'd have the decency ter show some shame!" grimly avowed
+Sarah Jane.
+
+Abe could not help it. He sputtered. Even Miss Abigail's, "Yew were a
+stranger an' we took yew in" did not sober him.
+
+"Ef any one o' my husbands had acted the way you've acted, Abe Rose,"
+began Mrs. Homan.
+
+"Poor leetle Angy," broke in the gentle Miss Ellie pityingly. "She must
+'a' lost six pounds."
+
+Abraham's mobile face clouded over.
+
+"Angy?" he faltered. "Yew don't mean that Angy--" Silence again fell on
+the group, while every glance was fastened on Abraham. "See here," he
+flashed his faded blue eye, "Angy's got more sense than that!"
+
+No one answered, but there was a significant shrugging of shoulders and
+lifting of eyebrows. Abraham was distressed and concerned enough now.
+Rising from his place he besought the sisters:
+
+"Yew don't think Angy's feelin's have been hurt--dew yew, gals?"
+
+Their faces softened, their figures relaxed, the tide of feeling changed
+in Abraham's favor. Miss Ellie spoke very softly:
+
+"Yew know that even 'the Lord thy God is a jealous God.'"
+
+Abraham grasped the back of his chair for support, his figure growing
+limp with astonishment. "Mother, jealous of me?" he whispered to
+himself, the memory of all the years and all the great happenings of all
+the years coming back to him. "Mother jealous of me?" He remembered how
+he had once been tormented by jealousy in the long, the ever-so-long
+ago, and of a sudden he hastened into the hall and went half-running up
+the stairs. He took hold of the latch of his bedroom door. It did not
+open. The door was locked.
+
+"Angy!" he called, a fear of he knew not what gripping at his heart.
+"Angy!" he repeated as she did not answer.
+
+The little old wife had locked herself in out of very shame of the rare
+tears which had been brought to the surface by the sisters' cruel
+treatment of Abraham. When she heard his call she hastened to the blue
+wash-basin and began hurriedly to dab her eyes. He would be alarmed if
+he saw the traces of her weeping. Whatever had happened to him, for his
+sake she must face it valiantly. He called again. Again she did not
+answer, knowing that her voice would be full of the telltale tears. Abe
+waited. He heard the tramp of feet passing out of the dining-room into
+the hall. He heard Blossy emerge from her room at the end of the passage
+and go tripping down the stairs. The time to Angy, guiltily bathing her
+face, was short; the time to her anxious husband unaccountably long.
+The sound of wheels driving up to the front door came to Abe's ears.
+Still Angy made him no response.
+
+"Angy!" he raised his voice in piteous pleading. What mattered if the
+sisters gathered in the lower hall heard him? What mattered if the
+chance guest who had just arrived heard him also? He had his peace to
+make with his wife and he would make it. "Angy!"
+
+She flung the door open hastily. The signs of the tears had not been
+obliterated, and her face was drawn and old. Straightway she put her
+hand on his arm and searched his face inquiringly.
+
+"What did the gals say ter yew?" she whispered. "Abe, yew made a mistake
+when yew picked out Bl--"
+
+"Poor leetle Mother!" he interrupted. "Poor leetle Mother!" a world of
+remorseful pity in his tone. "So yew been jealous of yer ole man?"
+
+Angeline, astonished and indignant, withdrew her hand sharply, demanding
+to know if he had lost his senses; but the blinded old gentleman slipped
+his arm around her and, bending, brushed his lips against her cheek.
+"Thar, thar," he murmured soothingly, "I didn't mean no harm. I can't
+help it ef all the gals git stuck on me!"
+
+Before Angy could make any reply, Blossy called to the couple softly but
+insistently from the foot of the stairs; and Angy, wrenching herself
+free, hastened down the steps, for once in her life glad to get away
+from Abe. He lost no time in following. No matter where Angy went, he
+would follow until all was well between her and him again.
+
+But what was this? At the landing, Angy halted and so did Abe, for in
+the center of the sisters stood Blossy with her Sunday bonnet perched on
+her silver-gold hair and her white India shawl over her shoulders, and
+beside Blossy stood Captain Samuel Darby with a countenance exceedingly
+radiant, his hand clasped fast in that of the aged beauty.
+
+"Oh, hurry, Sister Angy and Brother Abe!" called Blossy. "We were
+waiting for you, and I've got some news for all my friends." She waited
+smilingly for them to join the others; then with a gesture which
+included every member of the household, she proceeded: "The pink tea, I
+want you all to know, had a double significance, and first, of course,
+it was to celebrate the anniversary of Brother Abe's sojourn with us;
+but next it was my farewell to the Home." Here Blossy gurgled and gave
+the man at her right so coy a glance that Samuel's face flamed red and
+he hung his head lower to one side than usual, like a little boy that
+had been caught stealing apples. "I left the tea a trifle early--you
+must forgive me, Brother Abe, but I heard the train-whistle." Abe stood
+beside Angeline, rooted in astonishment, while Blossy continued to
+address him directly. "You gave Samuel so many good recommendations,
+dear brother, that when the time approached for his June visit, I felt
+that I simply could not let him miss it as he did in December. Last
+year, on the day you entered, he was here through no desire of mine.
+To-day he is here at my request. My friends," again she included the
+entire Home in her glance, "we'll come back a little later to say
+Good-by. Now, we're on the way to the minister's."
+
+The pair, Samuel tongue-tied and bewildered by the joy of his finally
+won success, moved toward the door. On the threshold of the Home Blossy
+turned and waved farewell to the companions of her widowhood, while
+Samuel bowed in a dazed fashion, his face still as red as it was
+blissful. Then quickly the two passed out upon the porch. No one moved
+to see them off. Abe looked everywhere yet nowhere at all. Not a word
+was spoken even when the carriage was heard rolling down the drive; but
+the sound of the wheels seemed to arouse Angy from her stupor of
+amazement; and presently Abraham became conscious of a touch,--a touch
+sympathetic, tender and true,--a touch all-understanding--the touch of
+Angy's hand within his own.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+
+
+From time immemorial the history of the popular hero has ever been the
+same. To king and patriot, to the favorite girl at school and the small
+boy who is leader of the "gang," to politician, to preacher, to actor
+and author, comes first worship then eclipse. The great Napoleon did not
+escape this common fate; and the public idol who was kissed only
+yesterday for his gallant deeds is scorned to-day for having permitted
+the kissing. Oh, caprice of the human heart! Oh, cry of the race for the
+unaccustomed!
+
+From that first anniversary of his entrance into the Home, Abraham felt
+his popularity decrease--in fact more than decrease. He saw the
+weather-vane go square about, and where he had known for three hundred
+and sixty-five days the gentle, balmy feel of the southwest zephyr, he
+found himself standing of a sudden in a cold, bleak northeast wind. The
+change bewildered the old man, and reacted on his disposition. As he had
+blossomed in the sunshine, so now he began to droop in the shade.
+Feeling that he was suspected and criticized, he began to grow
+suspicious and fault-finding himself. His old notion that he had no
+right to take a woman's place in the Institution came back to his brain,
+and he would brood over it for hours at a time, sitting out on the
+porch with his pipe and Angy.
+
+The old wife grieved to think that Father was growing old and beginning
+to show his years. She made him some tansy tea, but neither her
+persuasions nor those of the whole household could induce him to take
+it. He had never liked "doctoring" anyway, although he had submitted to
+it more or less during the past year in unconscious subservience to his
+desire to increase his popularity; but now he fancied that where once he
+had been served as a king by all these female attendants, he was simply
+being "pestered" as a punishment for his past behavior with Blossy. Ah,
+with its surprising ending that had been a humiliating affair; and he
+felt too that he would be long in forgiving Mrs. Darby for not having
+confided to him her actual intentions. Now he was afraid to be decently
+courteous to one of the sisters for fear that they might accuse him of
+light dalliance again; and he scarcely ever addressed the new member who
+came to take Blossy's little room, for he had been cut to the quick by
+her look of astonishment when she was told that he belonged there.
+
+In his mental ferment the old man began to nag at Angy. Sad though it is
+to confess of a hero honestly loved, Abraham had nagged a little all his
+married life when things went wrong. And Angeline, fretted and nervous,
+herself worried almost sick over Father's condition, was guilty once in
+a while out of the depths of her anxiety of nagging back again. So do
+we hurt those whom we love best as we would and could hurt no other.
+
+"I told yer I never could stand it here amongst all these dratted
+women-folks," Abe would declare. "It's all your fault that I didn't go to
+the poorhouse in peace."
+
+"I notice yew didn't raise no objections until yew'd lived here a year,"
+Angy would retort; but ignoring this remark, he would go on:
+
+"It's 'Brother Abe' this an' 'Brother Abe' that! as ef I had thirty
+wives a-pesterin' me instid of one. I can't kill a fly but it's 'Brother
+Abe, lemme bury him fer yew.' Do yer all think I be a baby?" demanded
+the old gentleman with glaring eye. "I guess I'm able ter do somethin'
+fer myself once in a while. I hain't so old as some folks might think,"
+he continued with superb inconsistence. "I be a mere child compared with
+that air plagued Nancy Smith."
+
+It took very little to exhaust Angy's ability for this style of
+repartee, and she would rejoin with tender but mistaken efforts to
+soothe and comfort him:
+
+"Thar, thar, Father! don't git excited neow. Seems ter me ye 're a
+leetle bit feverish. Ef only yew 'd take this here tansy tea."
+
+Abraham would give one exasperated glance at the tin cup and mutter into
+the depths of his beard:
+
+"Tansy tea an' old women! Old women an' tansy tea! Tansy tea be durned!"
+
+Abe failed perceptibly during the summer, grew feebler as the autumn
+winds blew in, and by November he took to his bed and the physician of
+the Home, a little whiffet of a pompous idiot, was called to attend him.
+The doctor, determined at the start to make a severe case of the old
+man's affliction in order that he might have the greater glory in the
+end, be it good or bad, looked very grave over Abraham's tongue and
+pulse, prescribed medicine for every half-hour, and laid especial stress
+upon the necessity of keeping the patient in bed.
+
+"Humbug!" growled the secretly terrified invalid, and in an excess of
+bravado took his black silk necktie from where it hung on the bedpost
+and tied it in a bow-knot around the collar of his pink-striped
+nightshirt, so that he would be in proper shape to receive any of the
+sisters. Then he lay very still, his eyes closed, as they came tiptoeing
+in and out. Their tongues were on gentle tiptoe too, although not so
+gentle but that he could hear them advising: one, a "good, stiff mustard
+plaster"; one, an "onion poultice"; another, a "Spanish blister"; while
+Aunt Nancy stopped short of nothing less than "old-fashioned bleeding."
+Abe lay very still and wondered if they meant to kill him. He was
+probably going to die anyhow, so why torment him. Only when he was dead,
+he hoped that they would think more kindly of him. And so surrounded yet
+alone, the old man fought his secret terror until mercifully he went to
+sleep.
+
+When he awoke there were the sisters again; and day after day they
+spent their combined efforts in keeping him on his back and forcing him
+to take his medicine, the only appreciable good resulting therefrom
+being the fact that with this tax upon their devotion the old ladies
+came once more to regard Abe as the most precious possession of the
+Home.
+
+"What ef he should die?" they whispered among themselves, repentant
+enough of their late condemnation of him and already desolate at the
+thought of his leaving this little haven with them for the "great haven"
+over there; and the whisper reaching the sickroom, Abe's fever would
+rise, while he could never lift his lashes except to see the specter of
+helpless old age on one side of the bed and death upon the other.
+
+"What's the matter with me?" he demanded of the doctor, as one who would
+say: "Pooh! pooh! You're a humbug! What do you mean by keeping me in
+bed?" Yet the old man was trembling with that inner fear. The physician,
+a feminine kind of a bearded creature himself, took Abe's hand in
+his--an engaging trick he had with the old ladies.
+
+"Now, my friend, do not distress yourself. Of course, you are a very
+sick man; I cannot deceive you as to that; but during my professional
+career, I have seen some remarkable cases of recovery and--"
+
+"But what's the matter with me?" broke in Abe, by this time fairly white
+with fear. The doctor had assured him that all his organs were sound,
+so he could only conclude that he must have one of those unusual
+diseases such as Miss Abigail was reading about in the paper yesterday.
+Maybe, although his legs were so thin to-day, he was on the verge of an
+attack of elephantiasis!
+
+"What's the matter with me?" he repeated, his eyes growing wilder and
+wilder.
+
+What the doctor really replied would be difficult to tell; but out of
+the confusion of his technicalities Abe caught the words, "nerves" and
+"hysteria."
+
+"Mother, yew hear that?" he cried. "I got narvous hysterics. I told yer
+somethin' would happen ter me a-comin' to this here place. All them old
+woman's diseases is ketchin'. Why on 'arth didn't yer let me go to the
+poorhouse?"
+
+He fell back on the pillow and drew the bedclothes up to his ears, while
+Angy followed the doctor out into the hall to receive, as Abe supposed,
+a more detailed description of his malady. He felt too weak, however, to
+question Angy when she returned, and stubbornly kept his eyes closed
+until he heard Mrs. Homan tiptoe into the room to announce in hushed
+tones that Blossy and Samuel Darby were below, and Samuel wanted to know
+if he might see the invalid.
+
+Then Abe threw off the covers in a hurry and sat up. "Sam'l Darby?" he
+asked, the strength coming back into his voice. "A man! Nary a woman
+ner a doctor! Yes--yes, show him up!"
+
+Angy nodded in response to Mrs. Homan's glance of inquiry; for had not
+the doctor told her that it would not hasten the end to humor the
+patient in any reasonable whim? And she also consented to withdraw when
+Abe informed her that he wished to be left alone with his visitor, as it
+was so long since he had been face to face with a man "an' no petticoat
+a-hangin' 'round the corner."
+
+"Naow, be keerful, Cap'n Darby," the little mother-wife cautioned at the
+door, "be very keerful. Don't stay tew long an' don't rile him up, fer
+he's dretful excited, Abe is."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+MENTAL TREATMENT
+
+
+Little Samuel Darby paused at the foot of the bed and stared at Abe
+without saying a word, while Abe fixed his dim, distressed eyes on his
+visitor with a dumb appeal for assistance. Samuel looked a very
+different man from the old bachelor who used to come a-wooing every six
+months at the Home. Either marriage had brought him a new growth of
+hair, or else Blossy had selected a new wig for him--a modest, close,
+iron-gray which fitted his poll to perfection. Marriage or Blossy had
+also overcome in Samuel that tendency to hang his head "to starb'd";
+and now he lifted his bright eyes with the manner of one who would say:
+
+"See! I'm king of myself and my household! Behold what one woman has
+done for me!" And in turn Abe's unstrung vigor and feeble dependence
+cried out as loudly: "I haven't a leg left to stand on. Behold what too
+much woman has done for me!"
+
+"Ain't yew a-goin' ter shake hands?" inquired Abraham at last, wondering
+at the long silence and the incomprehensible stare, his fears
+accentuated by this seeming indication of a supreme and hopeless pity.
+"Ain't yew a-goin' ter shake hands? Er be yew afeard of ketchin' it,
+tew?"
+
+For a moment longer Samuel continued to stare, then of a sudden he
+roared, "Git up!"
+
+"Huh?" queried Abe, not believing his own ears. "Why, Cap'n Sam'l, don't
+yew know that I'm a doomed man? I got the 'narvous hysterics.'"
+
+"Yew got the pip!" retorted Captain Darby contemptuously, and trotting
+quickly around to the side of the bed, he seized Abe by the shoulders
+and began to drag him out upon the floor, crying again, "Git up!"
+
+The sick man could account for this remarkable behavior in no way except
+by concluding that his old captain had gone into senile dementia--oh,
+cruel, cruel afflictions that life brings to old folks when life is
+almost done! Well, thought Abe, he would rather be sick and die in his
+right mind than go crazy. He began to whimper, whereupon Samuel threw
+him back upon his pillows in disgust.
+
+"Cryin'! Oh, I swan, he's cryin'!" Darby gave a short laugh pregnant
+with scorn. "Abe Rose, dew yew know what ails yew?" he demanded fixing
+his eyes fiercely upon the invalid. "Dew yew know what'll happen tew yew
+ef yew don't git out o' this bed an' this here house? Either yer
+beard'll fall out an' yew'll dwindle deown ter the size o' a baby or
+yew'll turn into a downright old woman--Aunt Abraham!--won't that sound
+nice? Or yew'll die or yew'll go crazy. _Git out er bed!_"
+
+The patient shook his head and sank back, closing his eyes, more
+exhausted than ever. And he himself had heard Angy warn this man in a
+whisper not to "rile him up!" Remorselessly went on the rejuvenated
+Darby:
+
+"Hain't a-goin' ter git up, heh? Yew old mollycoddle! Yew baby! Old Lady
+31! Kiffy calf! But I hain't a-blamin' yew; ef I had lived in this here
+place a year an' a half, I'd be stark, starin' mad! Leetle
+tootsie-wootsie! _Git up_!"
+
+Abe had opened his eyes and was once more staring at the other, his mind
+slowly coming to the light of the realization that Samuel might be more
+sane than himself.
+
+"That's what I told Angy all along," he ventured. "I told her, I says,
+says I, 'Humbug! Foolishness! Ye 're a-makin' a reg'lar baby of me.
+Why,' I says, 'what's the difference between me an' these here
+women-folks except that I wear a beard an' smoke a pipe?'"
+
+"Then why don't yew git up?" demanded the inexorable Samuel. "Git up an'
+fool 'em; or, gosh-all-hemlock! they'll be measurin' yew fer yer coffin
+next week. When I come inter the hall, what dew yew think these here
+sisters o' yourn was a-discussin'? They was a-arguin' the p'int as to
+whether they'd bury yew in a shroud or yer Sunday suit."
+
+Abraham put one foot out of bed. Samuel took hold of his arm and with
+this assistance the old man managed to get up entirely and stand, though
+shaking as if with the palsy, upon the floor.
+
+"Feel pooty good, don't yew?" demanded Samuel, but with less severity.
+
+"A leetle soft, a leetle soft," muttered the other. "Gimme my cane.
+Thar, ef one o' them women comes in the door I'll--I'll--" Abraham
+raised his stick and shook it at the innocent air. "Whar's my pipe? Mis'
+Homan, she went an' hid it last week."
+
+After some searching, Samuel found the pipe in Abe's hat-box underneath
+the old man's beaver, and produced from his own pocket a package of
+tobacco, whereupon the two sat down for a quiet smoke, Samuel chuckling
+to himself every now and again, Abe modestly seeking from time to time
+to cover his bare legs with the skirt of his pink-striped night-robe,
+not daring to reach for a blanket lest Samuel should call him names
+again. With the very first puff of his pipe, the light had come back
+into the invalid's eyes; with the second, the ashen hue completely left
+his cheek; and when he had pulled the tenth time on the pipe, Abe was
+ready to laugh at the sisters, the whole world, and even himself.
+
+"Hy-guy, but it's splendid to feel like a man ag'in!"
+
+The witch of Hawthorne's story never gazed more fondly at her
+"Feathertop" than Samuel now gazed at Abraham puffing away on his pipe;
+but he determined that Abraham's fate should not be as poor
+"Feathertop's." Abe must remain a man.
+
+"Naow look a-here, Abe," he began after a while, laying his hand on the
+other's knee, "dew yew know that yew come put' nigh gittin' swamped in
+the big breakers? Ef I hadn't come along an' throwed out the life-line,
+yew--"
+
+"Sam'l," interrupted the new Abraham, not without a touch of asperity,
+"whar yew been these six months? A-leavin' me ter die of apron-strings
+an' doctors! Of course I didn't 'spect nuthin' o' yew when yew was jist
+a bachelor, an' we'd sort o' lost sight er each other fer many a year,
+but arter yew got connected with the Hum by marriage sorter--"
+
+"Connected with the Hum by marriage!" broke in Samuel with a snort of
+indignant protest. "Me!" Words failed him. He stared at Abe with burning
+eyes, but Abe only insisted sullenly:
+
+"Whar yew an' Blossy been all this time?"
+
+"Dew yew mean ter tell me, Abe Rose, that yew didn't know that Aunt
+Nancy forbid Blossy the house 'cause she didn't go an' ask her
+permission ter git spliced? Oh, I fergot," he added. "Yew'd gone
+up-stairs ter take a nap that day we come back from the minister's."
+
+Abraham flushed. He did not care to recall Samuel's wedding-day. He
+hastened to ask the other what had decided him and Blossy to come to-day,
+and was informed that Miss Abigail had written to tell Blossy that if
+she ever expected to see her "Brother Abe" alive again, she must come
+over to Shoreville at the earliest possible moment.
+
+"Then I says ter Blossy," concluded Captain Darby, "I says, says I,
+'Jest lemme see that air pore old hen-pecked Abe Rose. I'll kill him er
+cure him!' I says. Here, yer pipe 's out. Light up ag'in!"
+
+Abe struck the match with a trembling hand, unnerved once more by the
+speculation as to what might have happened had Samuel's treatment worked
+the other way.
+
+"I left Blossy an' Aunt Nancy a-huggin' an' a-kissin' down-stairs."
+
+Abe sighed: "Aunt Nancy allers was more bark than bite."
+
+"Humph! Barkin' cats must be tryin' ter live with. Abe," he tapped the
+old man's knee again, "dew yew know what yew need? A leetle vacation, a
+change of air. Yew want ter cut loose from this all-fired old ladies'
+shebang an' go sky-larkin'." Abe hung on Samuel's words, his eyes
+a-twinkle with anticipation. "Yes--yes, go sky-larkin'! Won't we make
+things hum?"
+
+"Thar's hummin' an' hummin'," objected Abe, with a sudden show of
+caution. "Miss Abigail thinks more o' wash-day than some folks does o'
+heaven. Wharabouts dew yew cak'late on a-goin'?"
+
+"Tew Bleak Hill!"
+
+Abraham's face lost its cautious look, his eyes sparkled once more. Go
+back to the Life-saving Station where he had worked in his lusty
+youth--back to the sound of the surf upon the shore, back to the pines
+and cedars of the Beach, out of the bondage of dry old lavender to the
+goodly fragrance of balsam and sea-salt! Back to active life among men!
+
+"Men, men, nawthin' but men!" Samuel exploded as if he had read the
+other's thought. "Nawthin' but men fer a hull week, that's my
+perscription fer yew! Haow dew yew feel naow, mate?"
+
+For answer Abe made a quick spring out of his chair, and in his bare
+feet commenced to dance a gentle, rheumatic-toe-considering breakdown,
+crying, "Hy-guy, Cap'n Sam'l, you've saved my life!" While Darby clapped
+his hands together, proud beyond measure at his success as the
+emancipator of his woman-ridden friend.
+
+Neither heard the door open nor saw Angy standing on the threshold, half
+paralyzed with fear and amazement, thinking that she was witnessing the
+mad delirium of a dying man, until she called out her husband's name.
+At the sound of her frightened voice, Abe stopped short and reached for
+the blanket with which to cover himself.
+
+"Naow don't git skeered, Mother, don't git skeered," he abjured her.
+"I'm all right in my head. Cap'n Sam'l here, he brung me some wonderful
+medicine. He--"
+
+"Blossy said you did!" interrupted Angy, a light of intense gratitude
+flashing across her face as she turned eagerly to Darby. "Lemme see the
+bottle."
+
+"I chucked it out o' the winder," affirmed Samuel without winking, and
+Abe hastened to draw Angy's attention back to himself.
+
+"See, Mother, I kin stand as good as anybody; hain't got no fever; I
+kin walk alone. Yew seen me dancin' jest naow, tew. An' ef I had that
+pesky leetle banty rooster of a doctor here, I'd kick him all the way
+deown-stairs. Cap'n Sam'l's wuth twenty-five o' him."
+
+"Yew kept the perscription, didn't yer, cap'n?" demanded Angy. "Naow ef
+he should be took ag'in an'--"
+
+Samuel turned away and coughed.
+
+"Mother, Mother," cried Abe, "shet the door an' come set deown er all
+the sisters'll come a-pilin' in. I've had a invite, I have!"
+
+Angy closed the door and came forward, her wary suspicious eye trailing
+from the visitor to her husband.
+
+"Hy-guy, ain't it splendid!" Abe burst forth. "Me an' Cap'n Sam'l here
+is a-goin' over ter Bleak Hill fer a week."
+
+"Bleak Hill in December!" Angy cried, aghast. "Naow, see here, Father,"
+resolutely, "medicine er no medicine--"
+
+"He's got ter git hardened up," firmly interposed Dr. Darby; "it'll be
+the makin' o' him."
+
+Angy turned on Samuel with ruffled feathers.
+
+"He'll freeze ter death. Yew shan't--"
+
+Here Abe's stubborn will, so rarely set against Angy's gentle
+persistence, rose up in defiance:
+
+"We're a-gwine on a reg'lar A No. 1 spree with the boys, an' no
+women-folks is a-goin' ter stop us neither."
+
+"When?" asked Angy faintly, feeling Abe's brow, but to her surprise
+finding it cool and healthy.
+
+"Ter-morrer!" proclaimed Samuel; whereupon Abe looked a little dubious
+and lifted up his two feet, wrapped as they were in the blanket, to
+determine the present strength of his legs.
+
+"Don't yer think yer'd better make it day after ter-morrer?" he
+ventured.
+
+"Or 'long erbout May er June?" Angy hastily amended.
+
+Samuel gave an exasperated grunt.
+
+"See here, whose spree is this?" Abe demanded of the little old wife.
+
+She sighed, then resolved on strategy:
+
+"Naow, Abe, ef yew be bound an' possessed ter go ter the Beach, yew go;
+but I'm a-goin' a-visitin' tew, an' I couldn't git the pair o' us ready
+inside a week. I'm a-goin' deown ter see Blossy. She ast me jist naow,
+pendin', she says, Cap'n Sam'l here cures Abe up ernough ter git him
+off. I thought she was crazy then."
+
+Samuel knocked the ashes out of his pipe against the window-sill and
+arose to go.
+
+"Waal," he said grudgingly, "make it a week from ter-day then, rain
+shine, snow er blow, er a blizzard. Ef yer ever a-goin' ter git
+hardened, Abe, naow's the time! I'll drive over 'long erbout ten o'clock
+an' git somebody ter sail us from here; er ef the bay freezes over
+'twixt naow an' then, ter take us in a scooter."
+
+A "scooter," it may be explained, is an ice-boat peculiar to the Great
+South Bay--a sort of modified dingy on runners.
+
+"Yes--yes, a scooter," repeated Samuel, turning suddenly on Abe with the
+sharp inquiry: "Air yew a-shiverin'? Hain't, eh? Waal then, a week from
+ter-day, so be it!" he ended. "But me an' Blossy is a-comin' ter see yew
+off an' on pooty frequent meanstwhile; an', Abe, ef ever I ketch yew
+a-layin' abed, I'll leave yew ter yer own destruction."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+"A PASSEL OF MEDDLERS"
+
+
+Angy's secret hope that Abe would change his mind and abandon the
+projected trip to the Beach remained unfulfilled, in spite of the fact
+that cold weather suddenly descended on the South Side, and the bay
+became first "scummed" over with ice, and then frozen so solid that all
+its usual craft disappeared, and the "scooters" took possession of the
+field.
+
+Abe and Samuel held stubbornly to their reckless intentions; and the
+sisters, sharing Angy's anxiety, grew solicitous almost to the point of
+active interference. They withheld nothing in the way of counsel,
+criticism, or admonition which could be offered.
+
+"Naow," said Mrs. Homan in her most commanding tones at the end of a
+final discussion in the big hall, on the evening before the date set for
+departure, "ef yew're bound, bent, an' determined, Brother Abe, to run
+in the face of Providence, yew want tew mind one thing, an' wear yer
+best set of flannels ter-morrer."
+
+"Sho, thar hain't no danger of me ketchin' cold," decried Abe.
+
+"I didn't say yer thickest set of flannels; I said yer best. When a man
+gits throwed out onto the ice ker flump, the thickness of his clo'es
+ain't goin' to help him much. The fust thing I allus taught my husbands
+was to have everything clean an' whole on, when thar was any likelihood
+of a sudden death."
+
+"Yew 'spect me tew go an' prink up fer a sudden death?" thundered
+Abraham. "I hain't never heard tell on a scooter a-killin' nobody yit;
+it's them plagued ice-boats up State what--"
+
+"That's all very well," persisted Mrs. Homan, not to be diverted from
+her subject; "but when old Dr. Billings got run over by the train at
+Mastic Crossin' on Fourth o' July eight year ago, his wife told me with
+her own lips that she never would git over it, cuz he had his hull big
+toe stickin' out o' the end of his stockin'. I tell yew, these days
+we've got tew prepare fer a violent end."
+
+The patient Angy somewhat tartly retorted, that during the last week
+she had spent even more time upon Father's wardrobe than she had upon
+her own; while Abe inwardly rejoiced to think that for seven days to
+come--seven whole days--he and Angy would be free from the surveillance
+of the sisters.
+
+Mrs. Homan, in no way nonplussed, boomed on:
+
+"Thar, I most fergot about his necktie. 'Course, they don't dress up
+much at the Station; but jest the same that air tie o' yourn, Brother
+Abe, is a disgrace. I told yew yew'd spile it a-wearin' it tew bed.
+Naow, I got a red an' green plaid what belonged to my second stepson,
+Henry O. He never would 'a' died o' pneumony, either, ef he'd a-took my
+advice an' made himself a newspaper nightcap last time he substituted
+with the 'Savers. An' yew kin have that necktie jest as well as not.
+Naow, don't say a word; I'm better able to part with it 'n yew be not to
+take it."
+
+No one ever attempted the fruitless task of stopping Mrs. Homan once
+fully launched; but when at last she permitted her back to rest against
+her chair, folding her arms with the manner of one who makes a sacrifice
+in a worthy cause, Abe broke into an explosive protest.
+
+If any one fretted him in his somewhat fretful convalescence, it was
+this grenadier member of the household, who since Blossy's marriage had
+endeavored to fill the vacant post of "guardeen angel."
+
+"Mis' Homan," he sputtered, rising to his feet, "I wouldn't wear a red
+an' green plaid tie to a eel's funeral!"
+
+Then with a somewhat ungracious "good-night" to the company in general,
+he trudged across the hall and up the stairs, muttering something to
+himself about a "passel of meddlers."
+
+Well-meaning Miss Abigail, who had been nodding half asleep, roused
+herself to call after him, and he paused unwillingly to heed.
+
+"Naow, don't yew lose no sleep ter-night," she admonished, "a-worryin'
+erbout the change in yer vittles. I told Cap'n Sam'l that hardtack an'
+sech like wouldn't never do fer yer weak stummick, an' he promised me
+faithful he'd send somebody tew the mainland every day fer milk."
+
+"Dew yew think I be a baby?" shouted Abraham, turning on his heel. "I
+know now what makes my teeth so sore lately," mumbling to himself; "it's
+from this here arrer-root an' all these puddin'y messes. They need
+hardenin', tew."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE PRODIGAL'S DEPARTURE
+
+
+Abraham was up betimes in the morning to greet a day crisp and cold,
+quiet, yet with sufficient breeze stirring the evergreens in the yard
+outside to make him predict a speedy voyage.
+
+The old man was nervous and excited, and, in spite of his buoyant
+anticipations, somewhat oppressed, now that the day had actually come,
+with a sense of timidity and fear. Still, he put on a bold face while
+Angeline fastened his refractory collar and tied his cravat.
+
+This was neither Mrs. Roman's offering nor Abe's own old, frayed tie,
+but a new black one which had mysteriously been thrust through the crack
+under the door during the night.
+
+So, the last finishing touches having been put upon his toilet, and Angy
+having made ready by lamplight for her own trip, even before the old man
+was awake, there seemed nothing left to be done until the breakfast bell
+should ring.
+
+Abe sat down, and looking hard at his open carpet-bag wondered audibly
+if they had "everythin' in." The last time they two had packed Abe's
+wardrobe for a visit to Bleak Hill had been many years ago, when Samuel
+Darby, though somewhat Abe's junior, was keeper of the Life-saving
+Station, and Abe was to be gone for a whole season's duty. Then all of
+his possessions had been stowed in a long, bolster-like canvas bag for
+the short voyage.
+
+Both Angy and her husband recalled that time now--the occasion of their
+first, and almost of their last, real separation.
+
+"A week'll pass in no time," murmured Angy very quickly, with a catch in
+her voice. "Lookin' ahead, though, seven days seems awful long when yer
+old; but--Oh, law, yes; a week'll pass in no time," she repeated. "Only
+dew be keerful, Abe, an' don't take cold."
+
+She perched herself on her little horsehair trunk which she had packed
+to take to Blossy's, looking in her time-worn silk gown like a rusty
+blackbird, and, like a bird, she bent her head first to one side and
+then the other, surveying Abe in his "barrel clothes" with a critical
+but complimentary eye.
+
+"Wonder who made that necktie?" she questioned. "I'll bet yer 't was
+Aunt Nancy; she's got a sharp tongue, but a lot of silk pieces an' a
+tender spot in her heart fer yew, Abe. Ruby Lee says she never thought
+yew'd bring her around; yew're dretful takin' in yer ways, Father,
+thar's no use a-talkin'."
+
+Abraham glanced at himself in the glass, and pulled at his beard, his
+countenance not altogether free from a self-conscious vanity.
+
+"I hain't sech a bad-lookin' feller when I'm dressed up, be I, Mother? I
+dunno ez it's so much fer folks ter say I look like Abe Lincoln, after
+all; he was dretful humbly."
+
+"Father," Angy said coaxingly, "why don't yer put some o' that air
+'sweet stuff' Miss Abigail give yer on yer hair? She'll feel real hurt
+ef she don't smell it on yer when yew go down-stairs."
+
+Abe made a wry face, took up the tiny bottle of "Jockey Club," and
+rubbed a few drops on his hands. His hands would wash, and so he could
+find some way of removing the odor before he reached the station
+and--the men.
+
+"I'll be some glad ter git away from these here fussy old hens fer a
+spell," he grumbled, as he slammed the vial back on the bureau; but Angy
+looked so reproachful and grieved that he felt ashamed of his
+ingratitude, and asked with more gentleness:
+
+"Yew goin' ter miss me, Mother?"
+
+Then the old wife was ashamed to find herself shaking of a sudden, and
+grown wretchedly afraid--afraid of the separation, afraid of the
+"hardening" process, afraid of she knew not what.
+
+"I'm glad 't ain't goin' ter be fer all winter this time," she said
+simply; then arose to open the door in order that he might not see the
+rush of tears to her foolish, old eyes.
+
+According to the arrangement, Captain Darby was to drive over from Twin
+Coves with his hired man, and Ezra, after taking the two old men to the
+bay, was to return to the Home for Angy and her little trunk.
+
+When Samuel drove up to the front door, he found Abe pacing the porch,
+his coat-collar turned up about his neck, his shabby fur cap pulled over
+his brow, his carpet-bag on the step, and, piled on the bench at the
+side of the door, an assortment of woolen articles fully six feet high,
+which afterward developed to be shawls, capes, hoods, comforters,
+wristlets, leggings, nubias, fascinators, guernseys, blankets, and
+coats.
+
+Abe was fuming and indignant, scornful of the contributions, and vowing
+that, though the sisters might regard a scooter as a freight
+ocean-liner, he would carry nothing with him but what he wore and his
+carpet-bag.
+
+"An' right yer be," pronounced Samuel, with a glance at the laden bench
+and a shake of his head which said as plainly as words, "Brother, from
+what am I not delivering thee?"
+
+The sisters came bustling out of the door, Mrs. Homan in the lead, Angy
+submerged in the crowd, and from that moment there was such a fuss, so
+much excitement, so many instructions and directions for the two
+adventurers, that Abraham found himself in the carriage before he had
+kissed Angy good-by.
+
+He had shaken hands, perhaps not altogether graciously, with every one
+else, even with the deaf-and-dumb gardener who came out of his
+hiding-place to witness the setting-out. Being dared to by all the
+younger sisters, he had waggishly brushed his beard against Aunt Nancy
+Smith's cheek, and then he had taken his place beside Samuel without a
+touch or word of parting to his wife.
+
+He turned in his seat to wave to the group on the porch, his eyes
+resting in a sudden hunger upon Angeline's frail, slender figure, as he
+remembered. She knew that he had forgotten in the flurry of his
+leave-taking, and she would have hastened down the steps to stop the
+carriage; but all the old ladies were there to see, and she simply
+stood, and gazed after the vehicle as it rolled away slowly behind the
+jog trot of Samuel's safe, old calico-horse. She stood and looked,
+holding her chin very high, and trying to check its unsteadiness.
+
+A sense of loneliness and desolation fell over the Home. Piece by piece
+the sisters put away all the clothing they had offered in vain to Abe.
+They said that the house was already dull without his presence. Miss
+Abigail began to plan what she should have for dinner the day of his
+return.
+
+No one seemed to notice Angy. She felt that her own departure would
+create scarcely a stir; for, without Abraham, she was only one of a
+group of poor, old women in a semi-charity home.
+
+Slowly she started up the stairs for her bonnet and the old broche
+shawl. When she reached the landing, where lay the knitted mat of the
+three-star pattern, the matron called up to her in tragic tones:
+
+"Angy Rose, I jest thought of it. He never kissed yew good-by!"
+
+Angy turned, her small, slender feet sinking deep into one of the
+woolly stars, her slim figure encircled by the light from the upper hall
+window. She saw a dozen faces uplifted to her, and she answered with
+quiet dignity:
+
+"Abe wouldn't think of kissin' me afore folks."
+
+Then quickly she turned again, and went to her room--their room--where
+she seated herself at the window, and pressed her hand against her heart
+which hurt with a new, strange, unfamiliar pain, a pain that she could
+not have shown "afore folks."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+CUTTING THE APRON-STRINGS
+
+
+The usual hardy pleasure-seekers that gather at the foot of Shore Lane
+whenever the bay becomes a field of ice and a field of sport as well
+were there to see the old men arrive, and as they stepped out of the
+carriage there came forward from among the group gathered about the fire
+on the beach the editor of the "Shoreville Herald."
+
+Ever since his entrance into the Old Ladies' Home, Abe had never stopped
+chafing in secret over the fact that until he died, and no doubt
+received a worthy obituary, he might never again "have his name in the
+paper."
+
+In former days the successive editors of the local sheet had been
+willing, nay, eager, to chronicle his doings and Angy's, whether Abe's
+old enemy, rheumatism, won a new victory over him or Angy's second
+cousin Ruth came from Riverhead to spend the day or--wonder indeed to
+relate!--the old man mended his roof or painted the front fence. No
+matter what happened of consequence to Captain and Mrs. Rose, Mr. Editor
+had always been zealous to retail the news--before the auction sale of
+their household effects marked the death of the old couple, and of Abe
+especially, to the social world of Shoreville. What man would care to
+read his name between the lines of such a news item as this?
+
+The Old Ladies' Home is making preparations for its annual quilting
+bee. Donations of worsted, cotton batting, and linings will be
+gratefully received.
+
+
+Mr. Editor touched his cap to the two old men. He was a keen-faced,
+boyish little man with a laugh bigger than himself, but he always wore a
+worried air the day before his paper, a weekly, went to press, and he
+wore that worried look now. Touching his hand to his fur cap, he
+informed Samuel and Abe that news was "as scarce as hens' teeth"; then
+added: "What's doing?"
+
+"Oh, nawthin', nawthin'," hastily replied Samuel, who believed that he
+hated publicity, as he gave Abe's foot a sly kick. "We was jest a-gwine
+ter take a leetle scooter sail." He adjusted the skirt of his coat in
+an effort to hide Abe's carpet-bag, his own canvas satchel, and a huge
+market-basket of good things which Blossy had cooked for the
+life-savers. "Seen anythink of that air Eph Seaman?" Samuel added;
+shading his eyes with his hand and peering out upon the gleaming surface
+of the bay, over which the white sails of scooters were darting like a
+flock of huge, single-winged birds.
+
+"Eph's racing with Captain Bill Green," replied the newspaper man.
+"Captain Bill's got an extra set of new runners at the side of his
+scooter and wants to test them. Say, boys," looking from one to the
+other of the old fellows, "so you're going scootering, eh? Lively sport!
+Cold kind of sport for men of your age. Do you know, I've a good mind
+to run in to-morrow an article on 'Long Island and Longevity,' Taking
+head-line, eh? Captain Rose," turning to Abe as Samuel would do no more
+than glower at him, "to what do you attribute your good health at your
+time of life?"
+
+Abe grinned all over his face and cleared his throat importantly, but
+before he could answer, Samuel growled:
+
+"Ter me! His health an' his life both. I dragged him up out of a
+deathbed only a week ago."
+
+The editor took out his note-book and began scribbling.
+
+"What brought you so low, Captain Rose?" he inquired without glancing
+up. Again, before Abe could answer, Samuel trod on his toe.
+
+"Thirty mollycoddling women-folks."
+
+Abe found his voice and slammed the fist of one hand against the palm of
+the other.
+
+"If you go an' put that in the paper, I'll--I'll--"
+
+Words failed him. He could see the sisters fairly fighting for the
+possession of the "Shoreville Herald" to-morrow evening, as they always
+scrambled each for the first glance at the only copy taken at the Home,
+and he could hear one reading his name aloud--reading of the black
+ingratitude of their brother member.
+
+"Jest say," he added eagerly, "that the time fer old folks ter stick
+home under the cellar-door has passed, an' nobody is tew old ter go
+a-gallivantin' nowadays. An' then yew might mention"--the old man's
+face was shining now as he imagined Angy's pleasure--"that Mis' Rose is
+gone deown ter Twin Coves ter visit Mis' Sam'l Darby fer a week, an'
+Cap'n Darby an' Cap'n Abraham Rose," his breast swelling out, "is
+a-goin' ter spend a week at Bleak Hill. Thar, hain't that Cap'n Eph
+a-scootin' in naow? I guess them air new runners o' Bill Green's didn't
+work. He hain't nowhere in sight. He--"
+
+"Le' 's be a-gwine, Abe," interrupted Samuel, and leaving the editor
+still scribbling, he led the way down the bank with a determined trudge,
+his market-basket in one hand, his grip in the other, and his lips
+muttering that "a feller couldn't dew nuthin' in Shoreville without
+gittin' his name in the paper." But a moment later, when the two were
+walking gingerly over the ice to the spot where Eph had drawn his
+scooter to a standstill, Samuel fell into a self-congratulatory chuckle.
+
+"He didn't find out though that I had my reasons fer leavin' home tew.
+Women-folks, be it only one, hain't good all the time fer nobody. I come
+ter see Blossy twict a year afore we was married reg'lar; an' naow, I
+cak'late ter leave her twict a year fer a spell. A week onct every six
+months separate an' apart," proceeded the recently made benedict, "is
+what makes a man an' his wife learn haow ter put up with one another in
+between-times."
+
+"Why, me an' Angy," began Abe, "have lived tergether year in an' year
+out fer--"
+
+"All aboard!" interrupted Captain Eph with a shout. "It's a fair wind. I
+bet on making it in five minutes and fifty seconds!"
+
+Seven minutes had been the record time for the five-mile sail over the
+ice to Bleak Hill, but Samuel and Abe, both vowing delightedly that the
+skipper couldn't go too fast for them, stepped into the body of the boat
+and squatted down on the hard boards. They grinned at each other as the
+scooter started and Eph jumped aboard--grinned and waved to the people
+on the shore, their proud old thoughts crying:
+
+"I guess folks will see now that we're as young as we ever was!"
+
+They continued to grin as the boat spun into full flight and went
+whizzing over the ice, whizzing and bumping and bouncing. Both their
+faces grew red, their two pairs of eyes began to water, their teeth
+began to chatter; but Samuel shouted at the top of his voice in defiance
+of the gale:
+
+"Abe, we've cut the apron-strings!"
+
+"Hy-guy!" Abe shouted in return, his heart flying as fast as the sail,
+back to youth and manhood again, back to truant-days and the
+vacation-time of boyhood. "Hy-guy, Sam'l! Hain't we a-gwine ter have a
+reg'lar A No. 1 spree!"
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE "HARDENING" PROCESS
+
+
+The Life-saving Station was very still. Nos. 3 and 5 had gone out on the
+eight-o'clock patrol. The seventh man was taking his twenty-four hours
+off at his home on the shore. The keeper was working over his report in
+the office. The other members of the crew were up-stairs asleep, and Abe
+and Samuel were bearing each other company in the mess-room.
+
+Abe lay asleep on the carpet-covered sofa which had been dragged out of
+the captain's room for him, so that the old man need not spend the night
+in the cold sleeping-loft above. He was fully dressed except for his
+boots; for he was determined to conform to the rules of the Service, and
+sleep with his clothes on ready for instant duty.
+
+"Talk erbout him a-dyin'!" growled Samuel to himself, lounging wearily
+in a chair beside the stove. "He's jest startin' his life. He's a
+reg'lar hoss. I didn't think he had it in him."
+
+Samuel's tone was resentful. He was a little jealous of the distinction
+which had been made between him and Abe; and drawing closer to the fire,
+he shivered in growing distaste for the cot assigned to him with the
+crew up-stairs, where the white frost lay on the window-latches.
+
+What uncomfortable chairs they had in this station! Samuel listened to
+the mooing of the breakers, to the wind rattling at the casements,--and
+wondered if Blossy had missed him. About this time, she must be sitting
+in her chintz-covered rocker, combing out the ringlets of her
+golden-white hair in the cheery firelight.
+
+Now, that would be a sight worth seeing! Abe opened his mouth and began
+to snore. What disgusting, hideous creatures men were, reflected Samuel.
+Six months' living with an unusually high-bred woman had insensibly
+raised his standards.
+
+Why should he spend a week of his ever-shortening life with such
+inferior beings, just for Abraham's sake--for Abraham's sake, and to
+bear out a theory of his own, which he had already concluded a mistake?
+
+Abe gave a snort, opened his eyes, and muttered sleepily: "This is what
+I call a A No. 1 spree. Naow, ter-morrer--" But mumbling incoherently he
+relapsed into slumber, puffing his lips out into a whistling sound.
+
+Samuel reached for a newspaper on the table, folded it into a missile,
+and started to fling it into the innocent face of the sleeper. But,
+fortunately for Abraham, it was Captain Darby's custom to count ten
+whenever seized by an exasperated impulse, and at the ninth number he
+regretfully dropped the paper.
+
+Then he began to count in another way. Using the forefinger of his right
+hand as a marker, he counted under his breath, "one" on his left thumb,
+then after a frowning interval, "two" on his left forefinger, "three" on
+the middle digit, and so on, giving time for thought to each number,
+until he had exhausted the fingers of his left hand and was ready to
+start on the right.
+
+Count, count, went Samuel, until thrice five was passed, and he began to
+be confused.
+
+Once more Abe awoke, and inquired if the other were trying to reckon the
+number of new wigwags and signals which the Service had acquired since
+they had worked for the government; but on being sharply told to "Shet
+up!" went to sleep again.
+
+What the projector of the trip was really trying to recall was how many
+times that day he had regretted saving Abe from the devastating clutches
+of the old ladies.
+
+"Him need hardenin'?" muttered Samuel blackly. "Why, he's harder now 'n
+nails an' hardtack!"
+
+Again he ran over on his fingers the list of high crimes and
+misdemeanors of which Abe had been guilty.
+
+First,--thumb, left hand,--Abe had insisted on extending their scooter
+sail until he, Samuel, had felt his toes freezing in his boots.
+
+Second,--forefinger, left hand,--on being welcomed by the entire force
+at Bleak Hill and asked how long they expected to stay, Abe had blurted
+out, "A hull week," explaining that Samuel's rule requiring at least
+seven days of exile from his wife every six months barred them from
+returning in less time.
+
+The keeper was a widower, all the other men bachelors. How could they
+be expected to understand? They burst into a guffaw of laughter, and
+Abe, not even conscious that he had betrayed a sacred confidence,
+sputtered and laughed with the rest.
+
+Samuel had half a mind to return to-morrow, "jest to spite 'em." Let's
+see, how many days of this plagued week were left? Six. Six whole
+twenty-four hours away from Blossy and his snug, warm, comfortable nest.
+
+She wasn't used to keepin' house by herself, neither. Would she remember
+to wind the clock on Thursday, and feed the canary, and water the
+abutilon and begonias reg'lar?
+
+Grimly Samuel took up offense No. 3. Abraham had further told the men
+that he had been brought over here for a hardening process; but he was
+willing to bet that if Samuel could keep up with him, he could keep up
+with Samuel.
+
+Then followed offense on offense. Was Samuel to be outdone on his own
+one-time field of action by an old ladies' darling? No!
+
+When Abe sat for a half-hour in the lookout, up in the freezing, cold
+cupola, and did duty "jest to be smart," Samuel sat there on top of his
+own feet, too.
+
+When Abe helped drag out the apparatus-cart over the heavy sands for the
+drill, Samuel helped, too. And how tugging at that rope brought back his
+lumbago!
+
+When Abe rode in the breeches-buoy, Samuel insisted on playing the sole
+survivor of a shipwreck, too, and went climbing stiffly and lumberingly
+up the practice-mast.
+
+Abraham refused to take a nap after dinner; so did Samuel. Abe went down
+to the out-door carpenter-shop in the grove, and planed a board just for
+the love of exertion. Samuel planed two boards and drove a nail.
+
+"We've got two schoolboys with us," said the keeper and the crew.
+
+"Ef I'd a-knowed that yew had more lives 'n my Maltese cat," Samuel was
+muttering over Abe by this time, "I'd--"
+
+Count, count went Captain Darby's fingers. He heard the keeper rattling
+papers in the office just across the threshold, heard him say he was
+about to turn in, and guessed Samuel had better do likewise; but Samuel
+kept on counting.
+
+Count, count went the arraigning fingers. Gradually he grew drowsy, but
+still he went over and over poor Abe's offenses, counting on until of a
+sudden he realized that he was no longer numbering the sins of his
+companion; he was measuring in minutes the time he must spend away from
+Blossy and Twin Coves, and the begonias, and the canary, and the cat.
+
+What would Blossy say if she could feel the temperature of the room in
+which he was supposed to sleep? What would Blossy say if she knew how
+his back ached? Whatever would Blossy do to Abe Rose if she could
+suspect how he had tuckered out her "old man?"
+
+"He's a reg'lar hoss," brooded Samuel. "Oh, my feet!" grabbing at his
+right boot. "I'll bet yer all I got it's them air chilblains. That's
+what," he added, unconsciously speaking aloud.
+
+Abe's lids slowly lifted. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He turned his
+head on his hard, blue gingham-covered pillow, and stared sleepily at
+the other.
+
+"Yew been noddin', Sam'l? Ain't gittin' sleepy a'ready, are yer?" He
+glanced at the clock. "Why, it's only half past nine. Say, what's the
+matter with me an' yew goin' west ter meet No. 5? Leetle breath o' fresh
+air 'll make us sleep splendid."
+
+He started up from the couch, but dropped back, too heavy with weariness
+to carry off his bravado. Samuel, however, not noticing the discrepancy
+between speech and action, was already at the door leading up-stairs.
+
+"Yew don't drag me out o' this station ter-night, Abe Rose. Yew 're a
+reg'lar hoss; that 's what yew be. A reg'lar hoss! A reg'lar--a
+reg'lar--"
+
+He flung open the door and went trudging as fast as his smarting feet
+could carry him up the steep and narrow steps, wherein the passing of
+other feet for many years had worn little hollows on either side.
+
+Abraham limped from the couch to the door himself, and called after him:
+
+"Sam'l, don't yew want tew sleep by the fire? Yew seem a leetle softer
+than I be. Let me come up-stairs."
+
+There was no answer beyond the vicious slamming of Samuel's boots upon
+the floor above.
+
+Abe raised his voice again, and now came in answer a roar of wrath from
+the cot next to Samuel's.
+
+"Go to bed!" shouted No. 6, a burly, red-headed Irishman. "Go to bed,
+wid ye! Th' young folks do be nadin' a little schlape!"
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+"A REG'LAR HOSS"
+
+
+Abe flung himself back on his hard couch, drew the thick, gray blanket
+over him, and straightway fell into a deep, childlike slumber from which
+he was aroused by the rough but hearty inquiry:
+
+"Say, Cap, like to have some oyster-stew and a cup of coffee?"
+
+Abe sat up, rubbing his eyes, wondering since when they had begun to
+serve oyster-stew for breakfast on the Beach; then he realized that he
+had not overslept, and that it was not morning.
+
+The clock was striking twelve, the midnight patrol was just going out,
+and the returning "runners" were bidding him partake of the food they
+had just prepared to cheer them after their cold tramp along the surf.
+
+The old man whiffed the smell of the coffee, tempted, yet withheld by
+the thought of Angy's horror, and the horror of the twenty-nine sisters.
+
+"Cap'n Abe"--Clarence Havens, No. 5, with a big iron spoon in his hand
+and a blue gingham apron tied around his bronzed neck, put him on his
+mettle, however--"Cap'n Abe, I tell yew, we wouldn't have waked no other
+fellow of your age out of a sound sleep. Cap'n Darby, he could snooze
+till doomsday; but we knowed you wouldn't want to miss no fun a-going."
+
+"Cap'n Sam'l does show his years," Abe admitted. "Much obliged fer yew
+a-wakin' me up, boys," as he drew on his boots. "I was dreamin' I was
+hungry. Law, I wish I had a dollar apiece fer all the eyester-stews I've
+et on this here table 'twixt sunset an' sunrise."
+
+Under the stimulus of the unaccustomed repast, Abe expanded and began to
+tell yarns of the old days on the Beach--the good old days. His cheeks
+grew red, his eyes sparkled. He smoked and leaned back from the table,
+and ate and drank, smoked and ate again.
+
+"A week amongst yew boys," he asserted gaily, "is a-goin' tew be the
+makin' of me. Haow Sam'l kin waste so much time in sleep, I can't
+understand."
+
+"I don't think he is asleep," said No. 3. "When I was up-stairs jest
+now fer my slippers, I heard him kind o' sniffin' inter his piller."
+
+The laugh which followed brought the keeper out of the office in his
+carpet slippers, a patchwork quilt over his shoulders. His quick eyes
+took in the scene--the lamp sputtering above the table, the empty
+dishes, the two members of the crew sleepily jocular, with their blue
+flannel elbows spread over the board, the old man's rumpled bed, and his
+brilliant cheeks and bright eyes.
+
+"Boys, you shouldn't have woke up Cap'n Rose," he said reprovingly. "I'm
+afraid, sir," turning to Abraham, "that you find our manners pretty
+rough after your life among the old ladies."
+
+Abe dropped his eyes in confusion. Was he never to be rid of those
+apron-strings:
+
+"Well, there's worse things than good women," proceeded the captain. "I
+wish we had a few over here." He sighed with the quiet, dull manner of
+the men who have lived long on the Beach. "Since they made the rule that
+the men must eat and sleep in the station, it's been pretty lonely.
+That's why there's so many young fellows in the Service nowadays;
+married men with families won't take the job."
+
+"Them empty cottages out thar," admitted Abe, pointing to the window,
+"does look kind o' lonesome a-goin' ter rack an' ruin. Why, the winter I
+was over here, every man had his wife an' young 'uns on the Beach,
+'cept me an' Sam'l."
+
+Again the keeper sighed, and drew his coverlid closer. "Now, it's just
+men, men, nothing but men. Not a petticoat in five miles; and I tell
+you, sometimes we get mad looking at one another, don't we, boys?"
+
+The two young men had sobered, and their faces also had taken on that
+look engendered by a life of dull routine among sand-hills at the edge
+of a lonely sea, with seldom the sound of a woman's voice in their ears
+or the prattle of little children.
+
+"For two months last winter nobody came near us," said Havens, "and we
+couldn't get off ourselves, either, half the time. The bay broke up into
+porridge-ice after that big storm around New Year's; yew dasn't risk a
+scooter on it or a cat-boat. Feels to me," he added, as he rose to his
+feet, "as if it was blowin' up a genuwine old nor'-easter again."
+
+The other man helped him clear the table. "I'm goin' to get married in
+June," he said suddenly, "and give up this here blamed Service."
+
+"A wife," pronounced Abe, carrying his own dishes into the kitchen, "is
+dretful handy, onct yew git used to her."
+
+The keeper went into the office with a somewhat hurried "Good-night,"
+and soon Abe found himself alone again, the light in the kitchen beyond,
+no sound in the room save that of the booming of the surf, the rattling
+of the windows, and now and again the fall of a clinker in the stove.
+
+The old man was surprised to find that he could not fall back into that
+blissful slumber again. Not sleeping, he had to think. He thought and
+thought,--sober night thoughts,--while the oysters "laid like a log in
+his stummick" and the coffee seemed to stir his brain to greater
+activity.
+
+"Suppose," said the intoxicated brain, "another big storm should swoop
+down upon you and the bay should break up, and you and Samuel should be
+imprisoned on the beach for two or three months with a handful of
+men-folks!"
+
+"Moo! Moo!" roared the breakers on the shore. "Serve you right for
+finding fault with the sisters!"
+
+Come to think of it, if he had not been so ungracious of Miss Abigail's
+concern for him, he would now be in possession of a hop pillow to lull
+him back to sleep. Well, he had made his bed, and he would have to lie
+on it, although it was a hard old carpet-covered lounge. Having no hop
+pillow, he would count sheep--
+
+One sheep going over the fence, two sheep, three--How tired he was! How
+his bones ached! It's no use talking, you can't make an old dog do the
+tricks of his puppy days. What an idiot he had been to climb that
+practice-mast! If he had fallen and broken his leg?
+
+Four sheep. Maybe he was too old for gallivanting, after all. Maybe he
+was too old for anything except just to be "mollycoddled" by thoughtful
+old ladies. Now, be honest with yourself, Abe. Did you enjoy yourself
+to-day--no, yesterday? Did you? Well, yes and--no! Now, if Angy had been
+along!
+
+Angy! That was why he could not go to sleep! He had forgotten to kiss
+her good-by! Wonder if she had noticed it? Wonder if she had missed him
+more on account of that neglect? Pshaw! What nonsense! Angy knew he
+wa'n't no hand at kissin', an' it was apt to give him rheumatism to bend
+down so far as her sweet old mouth.
+
+He turned to the wall at the side of the narrow lounge, to the emptiness
+where her pillow should be. "Good-night, Mother," he muttered huskily.
+Mother did not answer for the first time in nights beyond the counting.
+Mother would not be there to answer for at least six nights to come. A
+week, thought this old man, as the other old man had reflected a few
+hours before, is a long time when one has passed his threescore years
+and ten, and with each day sees the shadows growing longer.
+
+Abraham put out his hard time-shrunken hand and touched in thought his
+wife's pillow, as if to persuade himself that she was really there in
+her place beside him. He remembered when first he had actually touched
+her pillow to convince himself that she was really there, too awed and
+too happy to believe that his youth's dream had come true; and he
+remembered now how his gentle, strong hand had crept along the linen
+until it cupped itself around her cheek; and he had felt the cheek grow
+hot with blushes in the darkness. She had not been "Mother" then; she
+had been "Dearest!" Would she think that he was growing childish if he
+should call her "Dearest" now?
+
+Smiling to himself, he concluded that he would try the effect of the
+tender term when he reached home again. He drew his hand back,
+whispering once more, "Good-night, Mother." Then he fancied he could
+hear her say in her soft, reassuring tone, "Good-night, Father." Father
+turned his back on the empty wall, praying with a sudden rush of
+passionate love that when the last call should come for him, it would be
+after he had said "Good-night, Mother," to Angy and after she had said
+"Good-night, Father," to him, and that they might wake somewhere,
+somehow, together with God, saying, "Good-morning, Mother,"
+"Good-morning, Father!" And "Fair is the day!"
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+THE DESERTER
+
+
+At dawn the Station was wide-awake and everybody out of bed. Samuel
+crept down-stairs in his stocking-feet, his boots in his hand, his eyes
+heavy with sleeplessness, and his wig awry. He shivered as he drew close
+to the fire, and asked in one breath for a prescription for chilblains
+and where might Abe be. Abe's lounge was empty and his blankets neatly
+folded upon it.
+
+The sunrise patrol from the east, who had just returned, made reply
+that he had met Captain Abe walking along the surf to get up an
+appetite for his griddle-cakes and salt pork. Samuel sat down suddenly
+on the lounge and opened his mouth.
+
+"Didn't he have enough exercise yist'day, for marcy's sake! Put' nigh
+killed me. I was that tired las' night I couldn't sleep a wink. I
+declar', ef 't wa'n't fer that fool newspaper a-comin' out ter-night,
+I'd go home ter-day. Yer a-gwine acrost, hain't yer, Havens?"
+
+Havens laughed in response. Samuel glowered at him.
+
+"I want home comforts back," he vowed sullenly. "The Beach hain't what
+it used ter be. Goin' on a picnic with Abe Rose is like settin' yer
+teeth into a cast-iron stove lid covered with a thin layer o' puddin'.
+I'm a-goin' home."
+
+The keeper assured him that no one would attempt to detain him if he
+found the Station uncomfortable, and that if he preferred to leave
+Abraham behind, the whole force would take pleasure in entertaining the
+more active old man.
+
+"That old feller bates a phonograph," affirmed the Irishman. "It's good
+ter hear that he'll be left anyhow for comp'ny with this storm a-comin'
+up."
+
+Samuel rushed to the window, for up-stairs the panes had been too frosty
+for him to see out. A storm coming up? The beach did look gray and
+desolate, dun-colored in the dull light of the early day, with the
+winter-killed grass and the stunted green growth of cedar and holly and
+pine only making splotches of darkness under a gray sky which was filled
+with scurrying clouds. The wind, too, had risen during the night, and
+the increased roar of the surf was telling of foul weather at sea.
+
+A storm threatening! And the pleasant prospect of being shut in at the
+beach with the cast-iron Abraham and these husky life-savers for the
+remainder of the winter! No doubt Abe would insist upon helping the men
+with the double duties imposed by thick weather, and drag Samuel out on
+patrol.
+
+"When dew yew start, Havens?" demanded Samuel in shaking tones. "Le' 's
+get off afore Abe gits back an' tries ter hold me. He seems ter be so
+plagued stuck on the life over here, he'll think I must be tew."
+
+But, though Havens had to wait for the return of the man who had gone
+off duty yesterday morning, still Abe had not put in an appearance when
+Samuel and the life-saver trudged down the trail through the woods to
+the bay. As he stepped into the scooter, Samuel's conscience at last
+began to prick him.
+
+"Yew sure the men will look arter the old fellow well an' not let him
+over-dew?"
+
+But the whizz of the flight had already begun and the scooter's nose was
+set toward Twin Coves, her sail skimming swiftly with the ring of the
+steel against the ice over the shining surface of the bay.
+
+"Law, yes," Samuel eased his conscience; "of course they will. They
+couldn't hurt him, anyhow. I never seen nobody take so kindly ter
+hardenin' as that air Abe."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+SAMUEL'S WELCOME
+
+
+The shore at Twin Coves was a somewhat lonely spot, owing to stretches
+of marshland and a sweep of pine wood that reached almost to the edge of
+the water.
+
+Samuel, however, having indicated that he wished to be landed at the
+foot of a path through the pines, found himself on the home shore
+scarcely ten minutes after he had left Bleak Hill--Havens already
+speeding toward his home some miles to the eastward, the bay seemingly
+deserted except for his sail, a high wind blowing, and the snow
+beginning to fall in scattered flakes.
+
+Samuel picked up his grip, trudged through the heavy sand of the narrow
+beach, and entered the sweet-smelling pine wood. He was stiff with cold
+after the rough, swift voyage; his feet alone were hot--burning hot with
+chilblains. Away down in his heart he was uneasy lest some harm should
+come to Abe and the old man be caught in the approaching storm on the
+Beach. But, oh, wasn't he glad to be home!
+
+His house was still half a mile away; but he was once more on good,
+solid, dry land.
+
+"I'll tell Blossy haow that air Abe Rose behaved," he reassured himself,
+when he pictured his wife's astonished and perhaps reproachful greeting,
+"an' then she won't wonder that I had ter quit him an' come back."
+
+He recollected that Angy would be there, and hoped fervently that she
+might not prove so strenuous a charge as Abraham. Moreover, he hoped
+that she would not so absorb Blossy's attention as to preclude a wifely
+ministering to his aching feet and the application of "St. Jerushy Ile"
+to his lame and sore back.
+
+The torture of the feet and back made walking harder, too, than he had
+believed possible with the prospect of relief so near. As he limped
+along he was forced to pause every now and again and set down the
+carpet-bag, sometimes to rub his back, sometimes to seat himself on a
+stump and nurse for a few moments one of those demon-possessed feet.
+Could he have made any progress at all if he had not known that at
+home, no matter if there was company, there would at least be no Abe
+Rose to keep him going, to spur him on to unwelcome action, to force him
+to prove himself out of sheer self-respect the equal, if not the
+superior, in masculine strength?
+
+Abe had led him that chase over at the Station, Samuel was convinced,
+"a-purpose" to punish him for having so soundly berated him when he lay
+a-bed. That was all the thanks you ever got for doing things for "some
+folks."
+
+Samuel hobbled onward, his brow knit with angry resentment. Did ever a
+half-mile seem so long, and had he actually been only twenty-three hours
+from home and Blossy? Oh, oh! his back and his feet! Oh, the weight of
+that bag! How much he needed sleep! How good it would be to have Blossy
+tuck him under the covers, and give him a hot lemonade with a stick of
+ginger in it!
+
+If only he had hold of Abe Rose now to tell him his opinion of him!
+Well, he reflected, you have to summer and winter with a person before
+you can know them. This one December day and night with Abe had been
+equal to the revelations of a dozen seasons. The next time Samuel tried
+to do good to anybody more than sixty-five, he'd know it. The next time
+he was persuaded into leaving his wife for over night, he'd know that,
+too. Various manuals for the young husband, which he had consulted, to
+the contrary notwithstanding, the place for a married man was at home.
+
+Samuel sat down on a fallen tree which marked the half-way point between
+his place and the bay. The last half of the journey would seem shorter,
+and, at the end, there would be Blossy smiling a welcome, for he never
+doubted but that Blossy would be glad to see him. She thought a good
+deal of him, nor had she been especially anxious for that week of
+separation.
+
+His face smoothed its troubled frowns into a look of shining
+anticipation--the look that Samuel's face had worn when first he ushered
+Blossy into his tidy, little home and murmured huskily:
+
+"Mis' Darby, yew're master o' the vessel naow; I'm jest fo'castle hand."
+
+Forgetting all his aches, his pains, his resentments, Samuel took a
+peppermint-lozenge out of his pocket, rolled it under his tongue, and
+walked on. Presently, as he saw the light of the clearing through the
+trees, he broke into a run,--an old man's trot,--thus proving
+conclusively that his worry of lumbago and chilblains had been merely a
+wrongly diagnosed case of homesickness.
+
+He grinned as he pictured Abe's dismay on returning to the Station to
+find him gone. Still, he reflected, maybe Abe would have a better time
+alone with the young fellows; he had grown so plagued young himself all
+of a sudden. Samuel surely need not worry about him.
+
+More and more good-natured grew Samuel's face, until a sociable rabbit,
+peeping at him from behind a bush, decided to run a race with the old
+gentleman, and hopped fearlessly out into the open.
+
+"Ah, yew young rascal!" cried Samuel. "Yew're the feller that eat up all
+my winter cabbages."
+
+At this uncanny reading of his mind, Mr. Cottontail darted off into the
+woods again to seek out his mate and inform her that their guilt had
+been discovered.
+
+Finally, Samuel came to the break in the woodland, an open field of rye,
+green as springtime grass, and his own exquisitely neat abode beckoning
+across the gray rail-fence to him.
+
+How pretty Blossy's geraniums looked in the sitting-room windows! Even
+at this distance, too, he could see that she had not forgotten to water
+his pet abutilon and begonias. How welcome in the midst of this flurry
+of snow--how welcome to his eye was that smoke coming out of the
+chimneys! All the distress of his trip away from home seemed worth while
+now for the joy of coming back.
+
+Before he had taken down the fence-rail and turned into the path which
+led to his back door, he was straining his ears for the sound of
+Blossy's voice gossiping with Angy. Not hearing it, he hurried the
+faster.
+
+The kitchen door was locked. The key was not under the mat; it was not
+in the safe on the porch, behind the stone pickle-pot. He tried the door
+again, and then peered in at the window.
+
+Not even the cat could be discerned. The kitchen was set in order, the
+breakfast dishes put away, and there was no sign of any baking or
+preparations for dinner.
+
+He knocked, knocked loudly. No answer. He went to a side door, to the
+front entrance, and found the whole house locked, and no key to be
+discovered. It was still early in the morning, earlier than Blossy would
+have been likely to set out upon an errand or to spend the day; and
+then, too, she was not one to risk her health in such chilly, damp
+weather, with every sign of a heavy storm.
+
+Samuel became alarmed. He called sharply, "Blossy!" No answer. "Mis'
+Rose!" No answer. "Ezra!" And still no sound in reply.
+
+His alarm increased. He went to the barn; that was locked and Ezra
+nowhere in sight. By standing on tiptoe, however, and peeping through a
+crack in the boards, he found that his horse and the two-seated surrey
+were missing.
+
+"Waal, I never," grumbled Samuel, conscious once more of all his
+physical discomforts. "The minute my back's turned, they go
+a-gallivantin'. I bet yer," he added after a moment's thought, "I bet
+yer it's that air Angy Rose. She's got ter git an' gad every second same
+as Abe, an' my poor wife has been drug along with her."
+
+There was nothing left for him to do but seek refuge in his shop and
+await their return. Like nearly every other bayman, he had a one-room
+shanty, which he called the "shop," and where he played at building
+boats, and weaving nets, and making oars and tongs.
+
+This structure stood to the north of the house, and fortunately had an
+old, discarded kitchen stove in it. There, if the wanderers had not
+taken that key also, he could build a fire, and stretch out before it on
+a bundle of sail-cloth.
+
+He gave a start of surprise, however, as he approached the place; for
+surely that was smoke coming out of the chimney!
+
+Ezra must have gone out with the horse, and Blossy must be entertaining
+Angy in some outlandish way demanded by the idiosyncrasies of the Rose
+temperament.
+
+Samuel flung open the door, and strode in; but only to pause on the
+threshold, struck dumb. Blossy was not there, Angy was not there, nor
+any one belonging to the household. But sitting on that very bundle of
+canvas, stretching his lean hands over the stove, with Samuel's cat on
+his lap, was the "Old Hoss"--Abraham Rose!
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+EXCHANGING THE OLIVE-BRANCH
+
+
+The cat jumped off Abe's lap, running to Samuel with a mew of
+recognition. Abe turned his head, and made a startled ejaculation.
+
+"Sam'l Darby," he said stubbornly, "ef yew've come tew drag me back to
+that air Beach, yew 're wastin' time. I won't go!"
+
+Samuel closed the door and hung his damp coat and cap over a suit of old
+oilskins. He came to the fire, taking off his mittens and blowing on his
+fingers, the suspicious and condemnatory tail of his eye on Abraham.
+
+"Haow'd yew git here?" he burst forth. "What yew bin an' done with my
+wife, an' my horse, an' my man, an' my kerridge? Haow'd yew git here?
+What'd yew come fer? When'd yew git here?"
+
+"What'd yew come fer?" retorted Abe with some spirit. "Haow'd yew git
+here?"
+
+"None o' yer durn' business."
+
+A glimmer of the old twinkle came back into Abe's eye, and he began to
+chuckle.
+
+"I guess we might as waal tell the truth, Sam'l. We both tried to be so
+all-fired young yesterday that we got played out, an' concluded
+unanermous that the best place fer a A No. 1 spree was ter hum."
+
+Samuel gave a weak smile, and drawing up a stool took the cat upon his
+knee.
+
+"Yes," he confessed grudgingly, "I found out fer one that I hain't no
+spring lamb."
+
+"Ner me, nuther," Abe's old lips trembled. "I had eyester-stew an' drunk
+coffee in the middle o' the night; then the four-o'clock patrol wakes me
+up ag'in. 'Here, be a sport,' they says, an' sticks a piece o' hot
+mince-pie under my nose. Then I was so oneasy I couldn't sleep. Daybreak
+I got up, an' went fer a walk ter limber up my belt, an' I sorter
+wandered over ter the bay side, an' not a mile out I see tew men with
+one o' them big fishin'-scooters a-haulin' in their net. An' I walked a
+ways out on the ice, a-signalin' with my bandana han'kercher; an' arter
+a time they seen me. 'T was Cap'n Ely from Injun Head an' his boy. Haow
+them young 'uns dew grow! Las' time I see that kid, he wa' n't knee-high
+tew a grasshopper.
+
+"Waal, I says tew 'em, I says: 'Want ter drop a passenger at Twin
+Coves?' 'Yes, yes,' they says. 'Jump in.' An' so, Sam'I, I gradooated
+from yer school o' hardenin' on top a ton o' squirmin' fish, more er
+less. I thought I'd come an' git Angy," he ended with a sigh, "an' yer
+hired man 'd drive us back ter Shoreville; but thar wa' n't nobody hum
+but a mewin' cat, an' the only place I could git inter was this here
+shop. Wonder whar the gals has gone?"
+
+No mention of the alarm that he must by this time have caused at the
+Station. No consciousness of having committed any breach against the
+laws of hospitality. But there was that in the old man's face, in his
+worn and wistful look, which curbed Samuel's tongue and made him
+understand that as a little child misses his mother so Abe had missed
+Angy, and as a little homesick child comes running back to the place he
+knows best so Abe was hastening back to the shelter he had scorned.
+
+So, with an effort, Samuel held his peace, merely resolving that as soon
+as he could get to a telephone he would inform their late hosts of Abe's
+safety.
+
+There was no direct way of telephoning; but a message could be sent to
+the Quogue Station, and from there forwarded to Bleak Hill.
+
+"I've had my lesson," said Abe. "The place fer old folks is with old
+folks."
+
+"But"--Samuel recovered his authoritative manner--"the place fer an old
+man ain't with old hens. Naow, Abe, ef yew think yew kin behave yerself
+an' not climb the flagpole or jump over the roof, I want yer to stay
+right here, yew an' Angy both, an' spend yer week out. Yes, yes," as Abe
+would have thanked him. "I take it," plunging his hand into his pocket,
+"yew ain't stowed away nothin' since that mince-pie; but I can't offer
+yer nothin' to eat till Blossy gits back an' opens up the house, 'cept
+these here pepp'mints. They're fine; try 'em."
+
+With one of those freakish turns of the weather that takes the conceit
+out of all weather-prophets, the snow had now ceased to fall, the sun
+was struggling out of the clouds, and the wind was swinging around to
+the west.
+
+Neither of the old men could longer fret about their wives being caught
+in a heavy snow; but, nevertheless, their anxiety concerning the
+whereabouts of the women did not cease, and the homesickness which Abe
+felt for Angy, and Samuel for Blossy, rather increased than diminished
+as one sat on the roll of canvas and the other crouched on his stool,
+and both hugged the fire, and both felt very old, and very lame, and
+very tired and sore.
+
+Toward noontime they heard the welcome sound of wheels, and on rushing
+to the door saw Ezra driving alone to the barn. He did not note their
+appearance in the doorway of the shop; but they could see from the look
+on his face that nothing had gone amiss.
+
+Samuel heard the shutting of the kitchen door, and knew that Blossy was
+at home, and a strange shyness submerged of a sudden his eagerness to
+see her.
+
+What would she say to this unexpected return? Would she laugh at him, or
+be disappointed?
+
+"Yew go fust," he urged Abe, "an' tell my wife that I've got the
+chilblains an' lumbago so bad I can't hardly git tew the house, an' I
+had ter come hum fer my 'St. Jerushy Ile' an' her receipt fer frosted
+feet."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+THE FATTED CALF
+
+
+Abe had no such qualms as Samuel. He wanted to see Angy that minute, and
+he did not care if she did know why he had returned.
+
+He fairly ran to the back door under the grape arbor, so that Samuel,
+observing his gait, was seized with a fear that he might be that young
+Abe of the Beach, during his visit, after all.
+
+Abraham rushed into the kitchen without stopping to knock. "I'm back,
+Mother," he cried, as if that were all the joyful explanation needed.
+
+She was struggling with the strings of her bonnet before the
+looking-glass which adorned Blossy's parlor-kitchen. She turned to him
+with a little cry, and he saw that her face had changed
+marvelously--grown young, grown glad, grown soft and fresh with a new
+excited spirit of jubilant thanksgiving.
+
+"Oh, Father! Weren't yew s'prised tew git the telephone? I knowed yew'd
+come a-flyin' back."
+
+Blossy appeared from the room beyond, and slipped past them, knowing
+intuitively where she would find her lord and master; but neither of
+them observed her entrance or her exit.
+
+Angy clung to Abe, and Abe held her close. What had happened to her, the
+undemonstrative old wife? What made her so happy, and yet tremble so?
+Why did she cry, wetting his cheek with her tears, when she was so
+palpably glad? Why had she telephoned for him, unless she, too, had
+missed him as he had missed her?
+
+Recalling his memories of last night, the memories of that long-ago
+honeymoon-time, he murmured into his gray beard, "Dearest!"
+
+She did not seem to think he was growing childish. She was not even
+surprised. At last she said, half between sobbing and laughing:
+
+"Oh, Abe, ain't God been good to us? Ain't it jist bewtiful to be rich?
+Rich!" she cried. "Rich!"
+
+Abe sat down suddenly, and covered his face with his hands. In a flash
+he understood, and he could not let even Angy see him in the light of
+the revelation.
+
+"The minin' stock!" he muttered; and then low to himself, in an awed
+whisper: "Tenafly Gold! The minin' stock!"
+
+After a while he recovered himself sufficiently to explain that he had
+not received the telephone message, and therefore knew nothing.
+
+"Did I git a offer, Mother?"
+
+"A offer of fifteen dollars a share. The letter come last night fer yew,
+an' I--"
+
+"Fifteen dollars a share!" He was astounded. "An' we've got five
+thousand shares! Fifteen dollars, an' I paid ninety cents! Angy, ef ever
+I ketch yew fishin' yer winter bunnit out of a charity barrel ag'in,
+I'll--Fifteen dollars!"
+
+"But that ain't the best of it," interrupted Angy. "I couldn't sleep a
+wink, an' Blossy says not ter send word tew yew, 'cuz mebbe 't was a
+joke, an' to wait till mornin' an' go see Sam'l's lawyer down ter Injun
+Head. That's whar we've jest come from, an' we telephoned ter Quogue
+Station from thar. An' the lawyer at fust he didn't 'pear tew think very
+much of it; but Blossy, she got him ter call up some broker feller in
+'York, an' 'Gee whizz!' he says, turnin' 'round all excited from the
+'phone. 'Tenafly Gold is sellin' fer twenty dollars on the Curb right
+this minute!' An' he says, says he: 'Yew git yer husband, an' bring that
+air stock over this arternoon; an',' says he, 'I'll realize on it fer
+yer ter-morrer mornin'.'"
+
+Abe stared at his wife, at her shining silk dress with its darns and
+careful patches, at her rough, worn hands, and at the much mended lace
+over her slender wrists.
+
+"That mine was closed down eighteen years ago; they must 'a' opened it
+up ag'in"; he spoke dully, as one stunned. Then with a sudden burst of
+energy, his eyes still on his wife's figure: "Mother, that dress o'
+yourn is a disgrace fer the wife of a financierer. Yew better git a new
+silk fer yerself an' Miss Abigail, tew, fust thing. Her Sunday one
+hain't nothin' extry."
+
+"But yer old beaver, Abe!" Angy protested. "It looks as ef it come out
+o'the Ark!"
+
+"Last Sunday yew said it looked splendid"; his tone was absent-minded
+again. He seemed almost to ramble in his speech. "We must see that
+Ishmael gits fixed up comfortable in the Old Men's Home; yew remember
+haow he offered us all his pennies that day we broke up housekeepin'.
+An' we must do somethin' handsome fer the Darbys, tew. Ef it hadn't been
+fer Sam'l, I might be dead naow, an' never know nothin' erbout this here
+streak o' luck. Tenafly Gold," he continued to mutter. "They must 'a'
+struck a new lead. An' folks said I was a fool tew invest."
+
+His face lightened. The weight of the shock passed. He threw off the awe
+of the glad news. He smiled the smile of a happy child.
+
+"Naow, Mother, we kin buy back our old chair, the rocker with the red
+roses onto it. Seems ter me them roses must 'a' knowed all the time
+that this was a-goin' ter happen. They was jest as pert an' sassy that
+last day--"
+
+Angy laughed. She laughed softly and with unutterable pride in her
+husband.
+
+"Why, Father, don't yer see yew kin buy back the old chair, an' the old
+place, too, an' then have plenty ter spare?"
+
+"So we kin, Mother, so we kin"; he nodded his head, surprised. He
+plunged his hands into his pockets, as if expecting to find them filled
+with gold. "Wonder ef Sam'l wouldn't lend me a dollar or so in small
+change. Ef I only had somethin' ter jingle, mebbe I could git closer to
+this fac'." He drew her to him, and gave her waist a jovial squeeze.
+"Hy-guy, Mother, we're rich! Hain't it splendid?"
+
+Their laughter rang out together--trembling, near-to-tears laughter.
+The old place, the old chair, the old way, and--plenty! Plenty to mend
+the shingles. Aye, plenty to rebuild the house, if they chose. Plenty
+with which to win back the smiles of Angy's garden. The dreadful dream
+of need, and lack, and want, of feeding at the hand of charity, was gone
+by.
+
+Plenty! Ah, the goodness and greatness of God! Plenty! Abe wanted to cry
+it out from the housetops. He wanted all the world to hear. He wished
+that he might gather his wealth together and drop it piece by piece
+among the multitude. To give where he had been given, to blossom with
+abundance where he had withered with penury!
+
+The little wife read his thoughts. "We'll save jest enough fer ourselves
+ter keep us in comfort the rest of our lives an' bury us decent."
+
+They were quiet a long while, both sitting with bowed heads as if in
+prayer; but presently Angy raised her face with an exclamation of
+dismay:
+
+"Don't it beat all, that it happened jest tew late ter git in this
+week's 'Shoreville Herald'!"
+
+"Tew late?" exclaimed the new-fledged capitalist. "Thar hain't nothin'
+tew late fer a man with money. We'll hire the editor tew git out another
+paper, fust thing ter-morrer!"
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+"OUR BELOVED BROTHER"
+
+
+The services of the "Shoreville Herald," however, were not required to
+spread the news. The happiest and proudest couple on Long Island saw
+their names with the story of their sudden accession to wealth in a
+great New York daily the very next morning.
+
+A tall, old gentleman with a real "barber's hair-cut," a shining, new
+high hat, a suit of "store clothes" which fitted as if they had been
+made for him, a pair of fur gloves, and brand-new ten-dollar boots; and
+a remarkably pretty, old lady in a violet bonnet, a long black velvet
+cape, with new shoes as well as new kid gloves, and a big silver-fox
+muff--this was the couple that found the paper spread out on the hall
+table at the Old Ladies' Home, with the sisters gathered around it,
+peering at it, weeping over it, laughing, both sorrowing and rejoicing.
+
+"This'll be good-by ter Brother Abe," Aunt Nancy had sniffed when the
+news came over the telephone the day before; and though Miss Abigail had
+assured her that she knew Abe would come to see them real often, the
+matriarch still failed to be consoled.
+
+"Hain't you noticed, gals," she persisted, "that thar hain't been a
+death in the house sence we took him in? An' I missed my reg'lar spell
+o' bronchitis last winter an' this one tew--so fur," she added dismally,
+and began to cough and lay her hands against her chest. "That was allus
+the way when I was a young 'un," she continued after a while; "I never
+had a pet dog or cat or even a tame chicken that it didn't up an' run
+erway sooner or later. This here loss, gals, 'll be the death o' me!
+Naow, mark my words!"
+
+Then followed a consultation among the younger sisters, the result of
+which was that they met Abe in the morning with a unanimous petition.
+They could neither ask nor expect him to remain; that was impossible,
+but--
+
+"Hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!" cried Abe, waving an imaginary flag as
+he entered. "Sam'l dropped us at the gate. Him an' Blossy went on ter
+see Holmes tew dicker erbout buyin' back the old place. Takes Blossy an'
+Sam'l tew dew business. They picked out my clothes between them yist'day
+arternoon deown ter Injun village, in the Emporium. Haow yew like 'em?
+Splendid, eh? See my yaller silk handkerchief, tew? We jest dropped in
+ter git our things. We thought mebbe yew'd want ter slick up the room
+an' git ready fer the new--"
+
+He was allowed to say no more. The sisters, who had been kissing and
+hugging Angy one by one, now swooped upon him. He was hugged, too, with
+warm, generous congratulation, his hands were both shaken until they
+ached, and his clothes and Angy's silently admired. But no one said a
+word, for not one of the sisters was able to speak. Angy, thinking that
+she divined a touch of jealousy, hastened to throw off her wrap and
+display the familiar old worn silk gown beneath.
+
+"I told Abe I jest wouldn't git a new silk until you each had one made
+tew. Blossy sent for the samples. Blossy--"
+
+"All I need's a shroud," interrupted Aunt Nancy grimly.
+
+Angy and Abe both stared at her. She did look gray this morning. She did
+seem feeble and her cough did sound hollow. The other sisters glanced
+also at Aunt Nancy, and Sarah Jane took her hand, while she nudged Mrs.
+Homan with her free elbow and Mrs. Homan nudged Ruby Lee and Ruby Lee
+glanced at Lazy Daisy and Lazy Daisy drawled out meaningly:
+
+"Miss Abigail!"
+
+Then Miss Abigail, twisting the edge of her apron nervously, spoke:
+
+"Much obliged to you I be in behalf o' all the sisters, Brother Abe an'
+ter Angy tew. We know yew'll treat us right. We know that yew," resting
+her eyes on Abe's face, "will prove ter be the 'angel unawares' that we
+been entertainin', but we don't want yew ter waste yer money on a
+cart-load o' silk dresses. All we ask o' yew is jest ernough tew allow
+us ter advertise fer another brother member ter take yer place."
+
+Who could describe the expression that flashed across Abe's face?--hurt
+astonishment, wounded pride, jealous incomprehension.
+
+"Ter take my place!" he glanced about the hall defiantly. Who dared to
+enter there and take his place?--_his place_!
+
+"This is a old ladies' home," he protested. "What right you got a-takin'
+in a good-fer-nuthin' old man? Mebbe he'd rob yew er kill yew! When men
+git ter rampagin', yew can't tell what they might dew."
+
+Sarah Jane nodded her head knowingly, as if to exclaim:
+
+"I told yer so!"
+
+But Miss Abigail hurriedly explained that it was a man and wife that
+they wanted. She blushed as she added that of course they would not
+take a man without his wife.
+
+"No, indeed! That'd be highly improper," smirked Ruby Lee.
+
+Then Abe went stamping to the stairway, saying sullenly:
+
+"All right. I'll give yew all the money yew want fer advertisin', an'
+yew kin say he'll be clothed an' dressed proper, tew, an' supplied with
+terbaccer an' readin'-matter besides; but jest wait till the directors
+read that advertisement! They had me here sorter pertendin' ter be
+unbeknownst. Come on, Angy. Let 's go up-stairs an' git our things.
+Let's--"
+
+Aunt Nancy half arose from her chair, resting her two shaking hands on
+the arms of it.
+
+"Brother Abe," she called quaveringly after the couple, "I guess yew
+kin afford ter fix up any objections o' the directors."
+
+Angy pressed her husband's arm as she joined him in the upper hall.
+
+"Don't yer see, Abe. They don't realize that that poor old gentleman,
+whoever he may be, won't be yew. They jest know that _yew_ was _yew_;
+an' they want ter git another jest as near like yew as they kin."
+
+Abe grunted, yet nevertheless went half-way down-stairs again to call
+more graciously to the sisters that he would give them a reference any
+time for knowing how to treat a man just right.
+
+"That feller'll be lucky, gals," he added in tremulous tones. "I hope
+he'll appreciate yew as I allers done."
+
+Then Abe went to join Angy in the room which the sisters had given to
+him that bitter day when the cry of his heart had been very like unto:
+
+"_Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani_!"
+
+After all, what was there of his and Angy's here? Their garments they
+did not need now. They would leave them behind for the other old couple
+that was to come. There was nothing else but some simple gifts. He took
+up a pair of red wristlets that Mrs. Homan had knit, and tucked them in
+his new overcoat pocket. He also took Abigail's bottle of "Jockey Club"
+which he had despised so a few days ago, and tucked that in his
+watch-pocket. When he bought himself a watch, he would buy a new clock
+for the dining-room down-stairs, too,--a clock with no such asthmatic
+strike as the present one possessed. All his personal belongings--every
+one of them gifts--he found room for in his pockets. Angy had even less
+than he. Yet they had come practically with nothing--and compared with
+that nothing, what they carried now seemed much. Angy hesitated over the
+pillow-shams. Did they belong to them or to the new couple to come? Abe
+gazed at the shams too. They had been given to him and Angy last
+Christmas by all the sisters. They were white muslin with white cambric
+frills, and in their centers was embroidered in turkey-red cotton,
+"Mother," on one pillow, "Father," on the other. Every sister in the
+Home had taken at least one stitch in the names.
+
+Father and Mother--not Angy and Abe! Why Father and Mother? A year ago
+no one could have foreseen the fortune, nor have prophesied the
+possession of the room by another elderly couple.
+
+Angy drew near to Abe, and Abe to Angy. They locked arms and stood
+looking at the pillows. He saw, and she saw, the going back to the old
+bedroom in the old home across the woods and over the field--the going
+back. And in sharp contrast they each recalled the first time that they
+had stepped beneath that roof nearly half a century ago,--the first
+home-coming,--when her mother-heart and his father-heart had been filled
+with the hope of children--children to bless their marriage, children to
+complete their home, children to love, children to feed them with love
+in return.
+
+"Let's adopt some leetle folks," said Angy, half in a whisper. "I'm
+afeard the old place'll seem lonesome without--"
+
+"Might better adopt the sisters"; he spoke almost gruffly. "I allers did
+think young 'uns would be the most comfort tew yew after they growed
+up."
+
+"A baby is dretful cunnin'," Angy persisted. "But," she added sadly, "I
+don't suppose a teethin' mite would find much in common with us."
+
+"Anyway," vowed Abe, suddenly beginning to unfasten the pillow-shams,
+"these belong ter us, an' I'm a-goin' ter take 'em."
+
+They went down-stairs silently, the shams wrapped in a newspaper
+carried under his arm.
+
+"Waal, naow,"--he tried to speak cheerfully as they rejoined the others,
+and he pushed his way toward the dining-room,--"I'll go an' git my cup
+an' sasser."
+
+But Miss Abigail blocked the door, again blushing, again confused.
+
+"That 'Tew-our-Beloved-Brother' cup," she said gently, her eyes not
+meeting the wound in his, "we 'bout concluded yew'd better leave here
+fer the one what answers the ad. Yew got so much naow, an' him--"
+
+She did not finish. She could not. She felt rather than saw the blazing
+of Abe's old eyes. Then the fire beneath his brows died out and a mist
+obscured his sight.
+
+"Gals," he asked humbly, "would yew ruther have a new 'beloved
+brother'?"
+
+For a space there was no answer. Aunt Nancy's head was bowed in her
+hands. Lazy Daisy was openly sobbing. Miss Ellie was twisting her
+fingers nervously in and out--she unwound them to clutch at Angy's arm
+as if to hold her. At last Miss Abigail spoke with so unaccustomed a
+sharpness that her voice seemed not her own:
+
+"Sech a foolish question as that nobody in their sound senses would
+ask."
+
+Abe sat down in his old place at the fireside and smiled a thousand
+smiles in one. He smiled and rubbed his hands before the blaze. The
+blaze itself seemed scarcely more bright and warm than the light from
+within which transfigured his aged face.
+
+"Gals," he chuckled in his old familiar way, "I dunno how Sam'l Darby'll
+take it; but if Mother's willin', I guess I won't buy back no more of
+the old place, 'cept'n' jest my rockin'-chair with the red roses onto
+it; an' all the rest o' this here plagued money I'll hand over ter the
+directors, an' stay right here an' take my comfort."
+
+Angy bent down and whispered in his ear: "I'd ruther dew it, tew,
+Father. Anythin' else would seem like goin' a-visitin'. But yew don't
+want ter go an' blame me," she added anxiously, "ef yew git all riled up
+an' sick abed ag'in."
+
+"Pshaw, Mother," he protested; "yew fergit I was _adopted_ then; naow I
+be _adoptin_'. Thar's a big difference."
+
+She lifted her face, relieved, and smiled into the relieved and radiant
+faces of Abe's "children," and her own.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10087 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #10087 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10087)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Old Lady Number 31, by Louise Forsslund
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Old Lady Number 31
+
+Author: Louise Forsslund
+
+Release Date: November 15, 2003  [eBook #10087]
+
+Language: English
+
+Chatacter set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD LADY NUMBER 31***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+OLD LADY NUMBER 31
+
+BY LOUISE FORSSLUND
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF SARAH," "THE SHIP OF DREAMS," ETC.
+
+1909
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+TO MY MOTHER
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    I. THE TEA-TABLE
+
+   II. "GOOD-BY"
+
+  III. THE CANDIDATE
+
+   IV. ONE OF THEM
+
+    V. THE HEAD OF THE CORNER
+
+   VI. INDIAN SUMMER
+
+  VII. OLD LETTERS AND NEW
+
+ VIII. THE ANNIVERSARY
+
+   IX. A WINTER BUTTERFLY
+
+    X. THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+
+   XI. MENTAL TREATMENT
+
+  XII. "A PASSEL OF MEDDLERS"
+
+ XIII. THE PRODIGAL'S DEPARTURE
+
+  XIV. CUTTING THE APRON-STRINGS
+
+   XV. THE "HARDENING" PROCESS
+
+  XVI. "A REG'LAR HOSS"
+
+ XVII. THE DESERTER
+
+XVIII. SAMUEL'S WELCOME
+
+  XIX. EXCHANGING THE OLIVE-BRANCH
+
+   XX. THE FATTED CALF
+
+  XXI. "OUR BELOVED BROTHER"
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE TEA-TABLE
+
+
+Angeline's slender, wiry form and small, glossy gray head bent over the
+squat brown tea-pot as she shook out the last bit of leaf from the
+canister. The canister was no longer hers, neither the tea-pot, nor even
+the battered old pewter spoon with which she tapped the bottom of the
+tin to dislodge the last flicker of tea-leaf dust. The three had been
+sold at auction that day in response to the auctioneer's inquiry, "What
+am I bid for the lot?"
+
+Nothing in the familiar old kitchen was hers, Angeline reflected, except
+Abraham, her aged husband, who was taking his last gentle ride in the
+old rocking-chair--the old arm-chair with painted roses blooming as
+brilliantly across its back as they had bloomed when the chair was first
+purchased forty years ago. Those roses had come to be a source of
+perpetual wonder to the old wife, an ever present example.
+
+Neither time nor stress could wilt them in a single leaf. When Abe took
+the first mortgage on the house in order to invest in an indefinitely
+located Mexican gold-mine, the melodeon dropped one of its keys, but the
+roses nodded on with the same old sunny hope; when Abe had to take the
+second mortgage and Tenafly Gold became a forbidden topic of
+conversation, the minute-hand fell off the parlor clock, but the flowers
+on the back of the old chair blossomed on none the less serenely.
+
+The soil grew more and more barren as the years went by; but still the
+roses had kept fresh and young, so why, argued Angy, should not she? If
+old age and the pinch of poverty had failed to conquer their valiant
+spirit, why should she listen to the croaking tale? If they bloomed on
+with the same crimson flaunt of color, though the rockers beneath them
+had grown warped and the body of the chair creaked and groaned every
+time one ventured to sit in it, why should she not ignore the stiffness
+which the years seemed to bring to her joints, the complaints which her
+body threatened every now and again to utter, and fare on herself, a
+hardy perennial bravely facing life's winter-time?
+
+Even this dreaded day had not taken one fraction of a shade from the
+glory of the roses, as Angeline could see in the bud at one side of
+Abraham's head and the full-blown flower below his right ear; so why
+should she droop because the sale of her household goods had been
+somewhat disappointing? _Somewhat?_ When the childless old couple, still
+sailing under the banner of a charity-forbidding pride, became
+practically reduced to their last copper, just as Abe's joints were
+"loosenin' up" after a five years' siege of rheumatism, and decided to
+sell all their worldly possessions, apart from their patched and
+threadbare wardrobes and a few meager keepsakes, they had depended upon
+raising at least two hundred dollars, one half of which was to secure
+Abe a berth in the Old Men's Home at Indian Village, and the other half
+to make Angeline comfortable for life, if a little lonely, in the Old
+Ladies' Home in their own native hamlet of Shoreville. Both institutions
+had been generously endowed by the same estate, and were separated by a
+distance of but five miles.
+
+"Might as waal be five hunderd, with my rheumatiz an' yer weak heart,"
+Abraham had growled when Angy first proposed the plan as the only
+dignified solution to their problem of living.
+
+"But," the little wife had rejoined, "it'll be a mite o' comfort
+a-knowin' a body's so near, even ef yer can't git tew 'em."
+
+Now, another solution must be found to the problem; for the auction was
+over, and instead of two hundred dollars they had succeeded in raising
+but one hundred dollars and two cents.
+
+"That air tew cents was fer the flour-sifter," inwardly mourned Angy,
+"an' it was wuth double an' tribble, fer it's been a good friend ter me
+fer nigh on ter eight year."
+
+"Tew cents on the second hunderd," said Abe for the tenth time. "I've
+counted it over an' over. One hunderd dollars an' tew pesky pennies. An'
+I never hear a man tell so many lies in my life as that air auctioneer.
+Yew'd 'a' thought he was sellin' out the Empery o' Rooshy. Hy-guy, it
+sounded splendid. Fust off I thought he'd raise us more 'n we expected.
+An' mebbe he would have tew, Angy," a bit ruefully, "ef yew'd 'a' let me
+advertise a leetle sooner. I don't s'pose half Shoreville knows yit that
+we was gwine ter have a auction sale." He watched the color rising in
+her cheeks with a curious mixture of pride in her pride and regret at
+its consequences. "It's no use a-talkin', Mother, Pride an' Poverty
+makes oneasy bed-fellers."
+
+He leaned back in the old chair, creaking out a dismal echo to the
+auctioneer's, "Going, going, gone!" while the flush deepened in Angy's
+cheek. Again she fastened her gaze upon the indomitable red rose which
+hung a pendant ear-ring on the right side of Abraham's head.
+
+"Yew wouldn't 'a' had folks a-comin' here ter bid jest out o' charity,
+would yew?" she demanded. "An' anyhow," in a more gentle tone,--the
+gently positive tone which she had acquired through forty years of
+living with Abraham,--"we hain't so bad off with one hunderd dollars an'
+tew cents, an'--beholden ter nobody! It's tew cents more 'n yew need ter
+git yew inter the Old Men's, an' them extry tew cents'll pervide fer me
+jest bewtiful." Abraham stopped rocking to stare hard at his resourceful
+wife, an involuntary twinkle of amusement in his blue eyes. With
+increased firmness, she repeated, "Jest bewtiful!" whereupon Abe,
+scenting self-sacrifice on his wife's part, sat up straight and snapped,
+"Haow so, haow so, Mother?"
+
+"It'll buy a postage-stamp, won't it?"--she was fairly aggressive
+now,--"an' thar's a envelop what wa'n't put up ter auction in the
+cupboard an' a paper-bag I kin iron out,--ketch me a-gwine ter the
+neighbors an' a-beggin' fer writin'-paper--an' I'll jest set daown an'
+write a line ter Mis' Halsey. Her house hain't a stun's throw from the
+Old Men's; an' I'll offer ter come an' take keer o' them air young 'uns
+o' her'n fer my board an' keep an'--ten cents a week. I was a-gwine ter
+say a quarter, but I don't want ter impose on nobody. Seein' that they
+hain't over well-ter-do, I would go fer nothin', but I got ter have
+somethin' ter keep up appearances on, so yew won't have no call ter feel
+ashamed of me when I come a-visitin' ter the hum." Involuntarily, as she
+spoke, Angy lifted her knotted old hand and smoothed back the hair from
+her brow; for through all the struggling years she had kept a certain,
+not unpleasing, girlish pride in her personal appearance.
+
+Abraham had risen with creaks of his rheumatic joints, and was now
+walking up and down the room, his feet lifted slowly and painfully with
+every step, yet still his blue eyes flashing with the fire of indignant
+protest.
+
+"Me a-bunkin' comfortable in the Old Men's, an' yew a-takin' keer o'
+them Halsey young 'uns fer ten cents a week! I wouldn't take keer o' 'em
+fer ten cents a short breath. Thar be young 'uns an' young 'uns," he
+elucidated, "but they be tartars! Yew'd be in yer grave afore the fust
+frost; an' who's a-gwine ter bury yer--the taown?" His tone became
+gentle and broken: "No, no, Angy. Yew be a good gal, an' dew jest as we
+calc'lated on. Yew jine the Old Ladies'; yew've got friends over thar,
+yew'll git erlong splendid. An' I'll git erlong tew. Yer know"--throwing
+his shoulders back, he assumed the light, bantering tone so familiar to
+his wife--"the poorhouse doors is always open. I'd jest admire ter go
+thar. Thar's a rocking-chair in every room, and they say the grub is A
+No. 1." He winked at her, smiling his broadest smile in his attempt to
+deceive.
+
+Both wink and smile, however, were lost upon Angy, who was busy
+dividing the apple-sauce in such a way that Abe would have the larger
+share without suspecting it, hoping the while that he would not notice
+the absence of butter at this last home meal. She herself had never
+believed in buttering bread when there was "sass" to eat with it; but
+Abe's extravagant tastes had always carried him to the point of desiring
+both butter and sauce as a relish to his loaf.
+
+"Naow, fur 's I'm concerned," pursued Abe, "I hain't got nothin' agin
+the poorhouse fer neither man ner woman. I'd as lief let yew go thar
+'stid o' me; fer I know very well that's what yew're a-layin' out fer
+ter do. Yes, yes, Mother, yew can't fool me. But think what folks would
+say! Think what they would say! They 'd crow, 'Thar's Abe a-takin' his
+comfort in the Old Men's Hum, an' Angeline, she's a-eatin' her heart out
+in the poorhouse!'"
+
+Angeline had, indeed, determined to be the one to go to the poorhouse;
+but all her life long she had cared, perhaps to a faulty degree, for
+"what folks would say." Above all, she cared now for what they had said
+and what they still might say about her husband and this final ending to
+his down-hill road. She rested her two hands on the table and looked
+hard at the apple-sauce until it danced before her eyes. She could not
+think with any degree of clearness. Vaguely she wondered if their supper
+would dance out of sight before they could sit down to eat it. So many
+of the good things of life had vanished ere she and Abe could touch
+their lips to them. Then she felt his shaking hand upon her shoulder and
+heard him mutter with husky tenderness:
+
+"My dear, this is the fust chance since we've been married that I've had
+to take the wust of it. Don't say a word agin it naow, Mother, don't
+yer. I've brought yer ter this pass. Lemme bear the brunt o' it."
+
+Ah, the greatest good of all had not vanished, and that was the love
+they bore one to the other. The sunshine came flooding back into
+Mother's heart. She lifted her face, beautiful, rosy, eternally young.
+This was the man for whom she had gladly risked want and poverty, the
+displeasure of her own people, almost half a century ago. Now at last
+she could point him out to all her little world and say, "See, he gives
+me the red side of the apple!" She lifted her eyes, two bright sapphires
+swimming with the diamond dew of unshed, happy tears.
+
+"I'm a-thinkin', Father," she twittered, "that naow me an' yew be
+a-gwine so fur apart, we be a-gittin' closer tergether in sperit than we
+'ve ever been afore."
+
+Abe bent down stiffly to brush her cheek with his rough beard, and then,
+awkward, as when a boy of sixteen he had first kissed her, shy, ashamed
+at this approach to a return of the old-time love-making, he seated
+himself at the small, bare table.
+
+This warped, hill-and-dale table of the drop-leaves, which had been
+brought from the attic only to-day after resting there for ten years,
+had served as their first dining-table when the honeymoon was young. Abe
+thoughtfully drummed his hand on the board, and as Angy brought the
+tea-pot and sat down opposite him, he recalled:
+
+"We had bread an' tea an' apple-sass the day we set up housekeeping dew
+yew remember, Angy?"
+
+"An' I burned the apple-sass," she supplemented, whereupon Abe chuckled,
+and Angy went on with a thrill of genuine gladness over the fact that he
+remembered the details of that long-ago honeymoon as well as she: "Yew
+don't mind havin' no butter to-night, dew yer, Father?"
+
+He recalled how he had said to her at that first simple home meal: "Yew
+don't mind bein' poor with me, dew yer, Angy?" Now, with a silent shake
+of his head, he stared at her, wondering how it would seem to eat at
+table when her face no longer looked at him across the board, to sleep
+at night when her faithful hand no longer lay within reach of his own.
+She lifted her teacup, he lifted his, the two gazing at each other over
+the brims, both half-distressed, half-comforted by the fact that Love
+still remained their toast-master after the passing of all the years. Of
+a sudden Angy exclaimed, "We fergot ter say grace." Shocked and
+contrite, they covered their eyes with their trembling old hands and
+murmured together, "Dear Lord, we thank Thee this day for our daily
+bread."
+
+Angy opened her eyes to find the red roses cheerfully facing her from
+the back of the rocking-chair. A robin had hopped upon the window-sill
+just outside the patched and rusty screen and was joyfully caroling to
+her his views of life. Through the window vines in which the bird was
+almost meshed the sunlight sifted softly into the stripped, bare, and
+lonely room. Angy felt strangely encouraged and comforted. The roses
+became symbolical to her of the "lilies of the field which toil not,
+neither do they spin"; the robin was one of the "two sparrows sold for a
+farthing, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your
+Father"; while the sunlight seemed to call out to the little old lady
+who hoped and believed and loved much: "Fear ye not therefor. Ye are of
+more value than many sparrows!"
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+"GOOD-BY"
+
+
+When the last look of parting had been given to the old kitchen and the
+couple passed out-of-doors, hushed and trembling, they presented an
+incongruously brave, gala-day appearance. Both were dressed in their
+best. To be sure, Abraham's Sunday suit had long since become his only,
+every-day suit as well, but he wore his Sabbath-day hat, a beaver of
+ancient design, with an air that cast its reflection over all his
+apparel. Angeline had on a black silk gown as shiny as the freshly
+polished stove she was leaving in her kitchen--a gown which testified
+from its voluminous hem to the soft yellow net at the throat that
+Angeline was as neat a mender and darner as could be found in Suffolk
+county.
+
+A black silk bonnet snuggled close to her head, from under its brim
+peeping a single pink rose. Every spring for ten years Angeline had
+renewed the youth of this rose by treating its petals with the tender
+red dye of a budding oak.
+
+Under the pink rose, a soft pink flush bloomed on either of the old
+lady's cheeks. Her eyes flashed with unconquerable pride, and her
+square, firm chin she held very high; for now, indeed, she was filled
+with terror of what "folks would say" to this home-leaving, and it was a
+bright June afternoon, too clear for an umbrella with which to hide
+one's face from prying neighbors, too late in the day for a sunshade.
+
+Angy tucked the green-black affair which served them as both under her
+arm and swung Abe's figured old carpet-bag in her hand with the manner
+of one setting out on a pleasant journey. Abe, though resting heavily on
+his stout, crooked cane, dragged behind him Angy's little horsehair
+trunk upon a creaking, old, unusually large, toy express-wagon which he
+had bought at some forgotten auction long ago.
+
+The husband and wife passed into the garden between borders of boxwood,
+beyond which nodded the heads of Angy's carefully tended, out-door
+"children"--her roses, her snowballs, her sweet-smelling syringas, her
+wax-like bleeding-hearts, and her shrub of bridal-wreath.
+
+"Jest a minute," she murmured, as Abe would have hastened on to the
+gate. She bent her proud head and kissed with furtive, half-ashamed
+passion a fluffy white spray of the bridal-wreath. Now overtopping the
+husband's silk hat, the shrub had not come so high as his knee when they
+two had planted it nearly a half-century ago.
+
+"You're mine!" Angy's heart cried out to the shrub and to every growing
+thing in the garden. "You're mine. I planted you, tended you, loved you
+into growing. You're all the children I ever had, and I'm leaving you."
+
+But the old wife did not pluck a single flower, for she could never
+bear to see a blossom wither in her hand, while all she said aloud was:
+"I'm glad 't was Mis' Holmes that bought in the house. They say she's a
+great hand ter dig in the garden."
+
+Angy's voice faltered. Abe did not answer. Something had caused a
+swimming before his eyes which he did not wish his wife to see; so he
+let fall the handle of the express-wagon and, bending his slow back,
+plucked a sprig of "old-man." Though he could not have expressed his
+sentiments in words, the garden brought poignant recollections of the
+hopes and promises which had thrown their rose color about the young
+days of his marriage. His hopes had never blossomed into fulfilment.
+His promises to the little wife had been choked by the weeds of his own
+inefficiency. Worse than this, the bursting into bloom of seeds of
+selfish recklessness in himself was what had turned the garden of their
+life into an arid waste. And now, in their dry and withered old age, he
+and Angy were being torn up by the roots, flung as so much rubbish by
+the roadside.
+
+"Mother, I be dretful sorry ter take yew away from your posies,"
+muttered Abraham as he arose with his green sprig in his hand.
+
+With shaking fingers, Angy sought a pin hidden beneath her basque.
+"Father, shall I pin yer 'old-man' in yer buttonhole?" she quavered.
+Then as he stooped for her to arrange the posy, she whispered: "I
+wouldn't care, 'cept fer what folks must say. Le' 's hurry before any
+one sees us. I told everybody that we wa'n't a-gwine ter break up till
+ter-morrer mornin'."
+
+Fortunately, there was a way across lots to the Old Ladies' Home, an
+unfrequented by-path over a field and through a bit of woodland, which
+would bring the couple almost unobserved to a side gate.
+
+Under ordinary circumstances, Angeline would never have taken this path;
+for it exposed her carefully patched and newly polished shoes to
+scratches, her fragile, worn silk skirt and stiff, white petticoat to
+brambles. Moreover, the dragging of the loaded little wagon was more
+difficult here for Abraham. But they both preferred the narrower,
+rougher way to facing the curious eyes of all Shoreville now, the
+pitying windows of the village street.
+
+As the couple came to the edge of the woodland, they turned with one
+accord and looked back for the last glimpse of the home. Blazing
+gold-red against the kitchen window flamed the afternoon sunlight.
+
+"Look a' that!" Angy cried eagerly, as one who beholds a promise in the
+skies. "Jest see, Father; we couldn't 'a' made out that winder this fur
+at all ef the sun hadn't struck it jest so. I declar' it seems almost as
+ef we could see the rocker, tew. It's tew bad, Abe, that we had ter let
+yer old rocker go. D'yew remember--?" She laid her hand on his arm, and
+lifted her gaze, growing clouded and wistful, to his face. "When we
+bought the chair, we thought mebbe some day I'd be rocking a leetle baby
+in it. 'T was then, yew ricollec', we sorter got in the habit of callin'
+each other 'father' an' 'mother.' I wonder ef the young 'uns had come--"
+
+"Le' 's hurry," interrupted Abe almost gruffly. "Le' 's hurry."
+
+They stumbled forward with bowed heads in silence, until of a sudden
+they were startled by a surprised hail of recognition, and looked up to
+find themselves confronted by a bent and gray old man, a village
+character, a harmless, slightly demented public charge known as
+"Ishmael" or "Captain Rover."
+
+"Whar yew goin', Cap'n Rose?"
+
+The old couple had drawn back at the sight of the gentle vagabond, and
+Angy clutched at her husband's arm, her heart contracting at the thought
+that he, too, had become a pauper.
+
+"I'm a-takin' my wife ter jine the old ladies over thar ter the Hum,"
+Abe answered, and would have passed on, shrinking from the sight of
+himself as reflected in poor Ishmael.
+
+But the "innocent" placed himself in their path.
+
+"Yew ain't a-goin' ter jine 'em, tew?" he bantered.
+
+Abe forced a laugh to his lips in response.
+
+"No, no; I'm goin' over ter Yaphank ter board on the county."
+
+Again the couple would have passed on, their faces flushed, their eyes
+lowered, had not Ishmael flung out one hand to detain them while he
+plunged the other hurriedly into his pocket.
+
+"Here." He drew out a meager handful of nickels and pennies, his vacant
+smile grown wistful. "Here, take it, Cap'n Rose. It's all I got. I can't
+count it myself, but yew can. Don't yew think it's enough ter set yew up
+in business, so yew won't have ter go ter the poorhouse? The poorhouse
+is a bad place. I was there last winter. I don't like the poorhouse."
+
+He rambled on of the poorhouse. Angy, panting for breath, one hand
+against the smothering pain at her heart, was trying, with the other, to
+drag "Father" along. "Father" was shaking his head at Ishmael, at the
+proffered nickels and pennies--shaking his head and choking. At length
+he found his voice, and was able to smile at his would-be benefactor
+with even the ghost of a twinkle in his eye.
+
+"Much obliged, Cap'n Rover; but yew keep yer money fer terbaccy. I ain't
+so high-toned as yew. I'll take real comfort at the poorhouse. S' long;
+thank yer. S' long."
+
+Ishmael went on his way muttering to himself, unhappily jingling his
+rejected alms; while Angy and Abe resumed their journey.
+
+As they came to the gate of the Old Ladies' Home, Angy seized hold of
+her husband's arm, and looking up into his face pleaded earnestly:
+
+"Father, let's take the hunderd dollars fer a fambly tombstun an' go ter
+the poorhouse tergether!"
+
+He shook her off almost roughly and lifted the latch of the gate.
+
+"Folks'd say we was crazy, Mother."
+
+There was no one in sight as he dragged in the express-cart and laid
+down the handle. Before him was a long, clean-swept path ending
+apparently in a mass of shrubbery; to the left was a field of sweet corn
+reaching to the hedge; to the right a strong and sturdy growth of pole
+lima beans; and just within the entrance, beneath the sweeping plumes of
+a weeping-willow tree, was a shabby but inviting green bench.
+
+Abe's glance wandered from the bench to his wife's face. Angy could not
+lift her eyes to him; with bowed head she was latching and unlatching
+the gate through which he must pass. He looked at the sun and
+thoughtfully made reckon of the time. There were still two hours before
+he could take the train which--
+
+"Lef 's go set deown a spell afore--" he faltered--"afore we say
+good-by."
+
+She made no answer. She told herself over and over that she must--simply
+must--stop that "all-of-a-tremble" feeling which was going on inside of
+her. She stepped from the gate to the bench blindly, with Abe's hand on
+her arm, though, still blindly, with exaggerated care she placed his
+carpet-bag on the grass beside her.
+
+He laid down his cane, took off his high hat and wiped his brow. He
+looked at her anxiously. Still she could not lift her blurred eyes, nor
+could she check her trembling.
+
+Seeing how she shook, he passed his arm around her shoulder. He
+murmured something--what, neither he nor she knew--but the love of his
+youth spoke in the murmur, and again fell the silence.
+
+Angy's eyes cleared. She struggled to speak, aghast at the thought that
+life itself might be done before ever they could have one hour together
+again; but no words came. So much--so much to say! She reached out her
+hand to where his rested upon his knee. Their fingers gripped, and each
+felt a sense of dreary cheer to know that the touch was speaking what
+the tongue could not utter.
+
+Time passed swiftly. The silent hour sped on. The young blades of corn
+gossiped gently along the field. Above, the branches of the willow
+swished and swayed to the rhythm of the soft, south wind.
+
+"How still, how still it is!" whispered the breeze.
+
+"Rest, rest, rest!" was the lullaby swish of the willow.
+
+The old wife nestled closer to Abraham until her head touched his
+shoulder. He laid his cheek against her hair and the carefully preserved
+old bonnet. Involuntarily she raised her hand, trained by the years of
+pinching economy, to lift the fragile rose into a safer position. He
+smiled at her action; then his arm closed about her spasmodically and he
+swallowed a lump in his throat.
+
+The afternoon was waning. Gradually over the turmoil of their hearts
+stole the garden's June-time spirit of drowsy repose.
+
+They leaned even closer to each other. The gray of the old man's hair
+mingled with the gray beneath Angeline's little bonnet. Slowly his eyes
+closed. Then even as Angy wondered who would watch over the slumbers of
+his worn old age in the poorhouse, she, too, fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE CANDIDATE
+
+
+The butcher's boy brought the tidings of the auction sale in at the
+kitchen door of the Old Ladies' Home even while Angy and Abe were
+lingering over their posies, and the inmates of the Home were waiting to
+receive the old wife with the greater sympathy and the deeper spirit of
+welcome from the fact that two of the twenty-nine members had known her
+from girlhood, away back in the boarding-school days.
+
+"Yop," said the boy, with one eye upon the stout matron, who was
+critically examining the meat that he had brought. "Yop, the auction's
+over, an' Cap'n Rose, he--Don't that cut suit you, Miss Abigail? You
+won't find a better, nicer, tenderer, and more juicier piece of shoulder
+this side of New York. Take it back, did you say? All right, ma'am, all
+right!" His face assumed a look of resignation: these old ladies made
+his life a martyrdom. He used to tell the "fellers" that he spent one
+half his time carrying orders back and forth from the Old Ladies' Home.
+But now, in spite of his meekness of manner, he did not intend to take
+this cut back. So with Machiavellian skill he hastened on with his
+gossip.
+
+"Yop, an' they only riz one hundred dollars an' two cents--one hundred
+dollars an' a postage-stamp. I guess it's all up with the cap'n an' the
+Old Men's. I don't see 'em hangin' out no 'Welcome' sign on the strength
+of that."
+
+"You're a horrid, heartless little boy!" burst forth Miss Abigail, and,
+flinging the disputed meat on the table, she sank down into the chair,
+completely overcome by sorrow and indignation. "You'll be old yerself
+some day," she sobbed, not noticing that he was stealthily edging toward
+the door, one eye on her, one on to-morrow's pot-roast. "I tell yew,
+Tommy," regaining her accustomed confiding amiability, as she lifted the
+corner of her apron to wipe her eyes, "Miss Ellie will feel some kind o'
+bad, tew. Yer know me an' her an' Angy all went ter school tergether,
+although Miss Ellie is so much younger 'n the rest o' us that we call
+her the baby. Here! Where--"
+
+But he was gone. Sighing heavily, the matron put the meat in the
+ice-box, and then made her slow, lumbering way into the front hall, or
+community-room, where the sisters were gathered in a body to await the
+new arrival.
+
+"Waal, say!" she supplemented, after she had finished telling her
+pitiably brief story, "thar's trouble ernough ter go 'round, hain't
+thar?"
+
+Aunt Nancy Smith, who never believed in wearing her heart on her sleeve,
+sniffed and thumped her cane on the floor.
+
+"Yew young folks," she affirmed, herself having seen ninety-nine
+winters, while Abigail had known but a paltry sixty-five, "yew allers go
+an' cut yer pity on the skew-gee. I don't see nothin' ter bawl an'
+beller erbout. I say that a'ny man what can't take kere o' himself, not
+ter mention his wife, should orter go ter the poorhouse."
+
+But the matriarch's voice quavered even more than usual, and as she
+finished she hastily bent down and felt in her deep skirt-pocket for her
+snuff-box.
+
+Now the Amazonian Mrs. Homan, a widow for the third time, made sturdy
+retort:
+
+"That's jest like yew old maids--always a-blamin' the men. Yew kin jest
+bet I never would have let one of my husbands go ter the poorhouse. It
+would have mortified me dretful. It must be a purty poor sort of a
+woman what can't take care of one man and keep a roof over his head.
+Why, my second, Oliver G., used ter say--"
+
+"Oh!" Miss Ellie wrung her hands, "can't we do somethin'?"
+
+"I could do a-plenty," mourned Miss Abigail, "ef I only had been savin'.
+Here I git a salary o' four dollars a month, an' not one penny laid
+away."
+
+"Yew fergit," spoke some one gently, "that it takes consid'able ter
+dress a matron proper."
+
+Aunt Nancy, who had been sneezing furiously at her own impotence, now
+found her speech again.
+
+"We're a nice set ter talk erbout dewin' somethin'--a passel o' poor ole
+critters like us!" Her cackle of embittered laughter was interrupted by
+the low, cultivated voice of the belle of the Home, "Butterfly Blossy."
+
+"We've _got_ to do something," said Blossy firmly.
+
+When Blossy spoke with such decision, every one of the sisters pricked
+up her ears. Blossy might be "a shaller-pate"; she might arrange the
+golden-white hair of her head as befitted the crowning glory of a young
+girl, with puffs and rolls and little curls, and--more than one sister
+suspected--with the aid of "rats"; she might gown herself elaborately in
+the mended finery of the long ago, the better years; she might dress her
+lovely big room--the only double bedchamber in the house, for which she
+had paid a double entrance fee--in all sorts of gewgaws, little
+ornaments, hand-painted plaques of her own producing, lace bedspreads,
+embroidered splashers and pillow-shams; she might even permit herself a
+suitor who came twice a year more punctually than the line-storms, to
+ask her withered little hand in marriage--but her heart was in the right
+place, and on occasion she had proved herself a master hand at "fixin'
+things."
+
+"Yes," said she, rising to her feet and flinging out her arms with an
+eloquent gesture, "we've got to do something, and there's just one thing
+to do, girls: take the captain right here--here"--she brought her hands
+to the laces on her bosom--"to our hearts!"
+
+At first there was silence, with the ladies staring blankly at Blossy
+and then at one another. Had they heard aright? Then there came murmurs
+and exclamations, with Miss Abigail's voice gasping above the others:
+
+"What would the directors say?"
+
+"What do they always say when we ask a favor?" demanded Blossy. "'How
+much will it cost?' It won't cost a cent."
+
+"Won't, eh?" snapped Aunt Nancy. "How on arth be yew goin' ter vittle
+him? I hain't had a second dish o' peas this year."
+
+"Some men eat more an' some less," remarked Sarah Jane, as ill-favored a
+spinster as ever the sun shone on; "generally it means so much grub ter
+so much weight."
+
+Miss Abigail glanced up at the ceiling, while Lazy Daisy, who had
+refused to tip the beam for ten years, surreptitiously hid an apple
+into which she had been biting.
+
+"Le' 's have 'em weighed," suggested a widow, Ruby Lee, with a pretty,
+well-preserved little face and figure, "an' ef tergether they don't come
+up to the heartiest one of us--"
+
+Miss Abigail made hasty interruption:
+
+"Gals, hain't yew never noticed that the more yew need the more yew git?
+Before Jenny Bell went to live with her darter I didn't know what I
+should dew, for the taters was gittin' pooty low. Yew know she used ter
+eat twenty ter a meal an' then look hungry at the platter. An' then ef
+old Square Ely didn't come a-drivin' up one mornin' with ten bushel in
+the farm wagon! He'd been savin' 'em fer us all winter fer fear we
+might run short in the spring. Gals, thar's one thing yew kin depend on,
+the foresightedness of the Lord. I hain't afraid ter risk a-stretchin'
+the board an' keep o' thirty ter pervide ample fer thirty-one. Naow,
+haow many of yew is willin' ter try it?"
+
+Every head nodded, "I am"; every eye was wet with the dew of merciful
+kindness; and Mrs. Homan and Sarah Jane, who had flung plates at each
+other only that morning, were observed to be holding hands.
+
+"But haow on arth be we a-goin' ter sleep him?" proceeded the matron
+uneasily. "Thar hain't a extry corner in the hull place. Puttin' tew
+people in No. 30 is out of the question--it's jest erbout the size of a
+Cinderella shoebox, anyhow, an' the garret leaks--"
+
+She paused, for Blossy was pulling at her sleeve, the real Blossy,
+warmhearted, generous, self-deprecating.
+
+"I think No. 30 is just the coziest little place for one! Do let me take
+it, Miss Abigail, and give the couple my great big barn of a room."
+
+Aunt Nancy eyed her suspiciously. "Yew ain't a-gwine ter make a fool o'
+yerself, an' jump over the broomstick ag'in?" For Blossy's old suitor,
+Samuel Darby, had made one of his semiannual visits only that morning.
+
+The belle burst into hysterical and self-conscious laughter, as she
+found every glance bent upon her.
+
+"Oh, no, no; not that. But I confess that I am tired to death of this
+perpetual dove-party. I just simply can't live another minute without a
+man in the house.
+
+"Now, Miss Abigail," she added imperiously, "you run across lots and
+fetch him home."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+ONE OF THEM
+
+
+Ah! but Abraham slept that night as if he had been drawn to rest under
+the compelling shelter of the wings of all that flock which in happier
+days he had dubbed contemptuously "them air old hens." Never afterward
+could the dazed old gentleman remember how he had been persuaded to come
+into the house and up the stairs with Angeline. He only knew that in the
+midst of that heart-breaking farewell at the gate, Miss Abigail, all out
+of breath with running, red in the face, but exceedingly hearty of
+manner, had suddenly appeared.
+
+"Shoo, shoo, shoo!" this stout angel had gasped. "Naow, Cap'n Abe, yew
+needn't git narvous. We 're as harmless as doves. Run right erlong. Yew
+won't see anybody ter-night. Don't say a word. It's all right. Sssh!
+Shoo!" And then, lo! he was not in the County Almshouse, but in a
+beautiful bright bedchamber with a wreath of immortelles over the
+mantel, alone with Angy.
+
+Afterward, it all seemed the blur of a dream to him, a dream which ended
+when he had found his head upon a cool, white pillow, and had felt glad,
+glad--dear God, how glad!--to know that Angy was still within reach of
+his outstretched hand; and so he had fallen asleep. But when he awoke in
+the morning, there stood Angeline in front of the glass taking her hair
+out of curl papers; and then he slowly began to realize the tremendous
+change that had come into their lives, when his wife committed the
+unprecedented act of taking her crimps out _before_ breakfast. He
+realized' that they were to eat among strangers. He had become the guest
+of thirty "women-folks." No doubt he should be called "Old Gal
+Thirty-one." He got up and dressed very, very slowly. The bewildered
+gratitude, the incredulous thanksgiving of last night, were as far away
+as yesterday's sunset. A great seriousness settled upon Abe's lean face.
+At last he burst forth:
+
+"One to thirty! Hy-guy, I'm in fer it!" How had it happened, he
+wondered. They had given him no time to think. They had swooped down
+upon him when his brain was dulled with anguish. Virtually, they had
+kidnapped him. Why had they brought him here to accept charity of a
+women's institution? Why need they thus intensify his sense of shame at
+his life's failure, and, above all, at his failure to provide for
+Angeline? In the poorhouse he would have been only one more derelict;
+but here he stood alone to be stared at and pitied and thrown a
+sickly-satisfying crumb. With a sigh from the very cellar of his being,
+he muttered:
+
+"Aye, Mother, why didn't yew let me go on ter the County House? That
+air's the place fer a worn-out old hull like me. Hy-guy!" he ejaculated,
+beads of sweat standing out on his forehead, "I'd ruther lay deown an'
+die th'n face them air women."
+
+"Thar, thar!" soothingly spoke Angy, laying her hand on his arm. "Thar,
+thar, Father! Jest think haow dretful I'd feel a-goin' deown without
+yer."
+
+"So you would!" strangely comforted. "So you would, my dear!" For her
+sake he tried to brighten up. He joked clumsily as they stood on the
+threshold of the chamber, whispering, blinking his eyes to make up for
+the lack of their usually ready twinkle.
+
+"Hol' on a minute; supposin' I fergit whether I be a man er a woman?"
+
+Her love gave inspiration to her answer: "I'll lean on yer, Abe."
+
+Just then there came the loud, imperative clanging of the
+breakfast-bell; and she urged him to hurry, as "it wouldn't dew" for
+them to be late the first morning of all times. But he only answered by
+going back into the room to make an anxious survey of his reflection in
+the glass. He shook his head reprovingly at the bearded countenance, as
+if to say: "You need not pride yourself any longer on looking like
+Abraham Lincoln, for you have been turned into a miserable old woman."
+
+Picking up the hair-brush, he held it out at arm's length to Angy.
+"Won't yew slick up my hair a leetle bit, Mother?" he asked, somewhat
+shamefacedly. "I can't see extry well this mornin'."
+
+"Why, Abe! It's slicked ez slick ez it kin be naow." However, the old
+wife reached up as he bent his tall, angular form over her, and
+smoothed again his thin, wet locks. He laughed a little, self-mockingly,
+and she laughed back, then urged him into the hall, and, slipping ahead,
+led the way down-stairs. At the first landing, which brought them into
+full view of the lower hall, he paused, possessed with the mad desire to
+run away and hide, for at the foot of the stairway stood the entire
+flock of old ladies. Twenty-nine pairs of eyes were lifted to him and
+Angy, twenty-nine pairs of lips were smiling at them. To the end of his
+days Abraham remembered those smiles. Reassuring, unselfish, and tender,
+they made the old man's heart swell, his emotions go warring together.
+
+He wondered, was grateful, yet he grew more confused and afraid. He
+stared amazed at Angeline, who seemed the embodiment of self-possession,
+lifting her dainty, proud little gray head higher and higher. She turned
+to Abraham with a protecting, motherly little gesture of command for him
+to follow, and marched gallantly on down the stairs. Humbly, trembling
+at the knees, he came with gingerly steps after the little old wife. How
+unworthy he was of her now! How unworthy he had always been, yet never
+realized to the full until this moment. He knew what those smiles meant,
+he told himself, watching the uplifted faces; they were to soothe his
+sense of shame and humiliation, to touch with rose this dull gray color
+of the culmination of his failures. He passed his hand over his eyes,
+fiercely praying that the tears might not come to add to his disgrace.
+
+And all the while brave little Angy kept smiling, until with a truly
+glad leap of the heart she caught sight of a blue ribbon painted in gold
+shining on the breast of each one of the twenty-nine women. A pale blue
+ribbon painted in gold with--yes, peering her eyes she discovered that
+it was the word "WELCOME!" The forced smile vanished from Angeline's
+face. Her eyes grew wet, her cheek white. Her proud figure shrank. She
+turned and looked back at her husband. Not for one instant did she
+appropriate the compliment to herself. "This is for _you_!" her spirit
+called out to him, while a new pride dawned in her working face.
+
+Forty years had she spent apologizing for Abraham, and now she
+understood how these twenty-nine generous old hearts had raided him to
+the pedestal of a hero, while she stood a heroine beside him. Angy it
+was who trembled now, and Abe, gaining a manly courage from that, took
+hold of her arm to steady her--they had paused on a step near the foot
+of the stairs--and, looking around with his whimsical smile, he demanded
+of the bedecked company in general, "Ladies, be yew 'spectin' the
+President?"
+
+Cackle went the cracked old voices of the twenty-nine in a chorus of
+appreciative laughter, while the old heads bobbed at one another as if
+to say, "Won't he be an acquisition?" And then, from among the group
+there came forward Blossy--Blossy, who had sacrificed most that this
+should come to pass; Blossy, who had sat till midnight painting the
+gold-and-blue ribbons; Blossy, the pride and beauty of the Home, in a
+delicate, old, yellow, real lace gown. She held her two hands gracefully
+and mysteriously behind her back as she advanced to the foot of the
+stairs. Looking steadily into Abraham's eyes, she kept a-smiling until
+he felt as if the warmth of a belated spring had beamed upon him.
+
+"The President!" Her mellow, well-modulated voice shook, and she laughed
+with a mingling of generous joy and tender pity. "Are we expecting the
+President? You dear modest man! We are welcoming--_you_!"
+
+Abe looked to Angy as if to say, "How shall I take it?" and behold! the
+miracle of his wife's bosom swelling and swelling with pride in him. He
+turned back, for Blossy was making a speech. His hand to his head, he
+bent his good ear to listen. In terms poetical and touching she
+described the loneliness of the life at the Home as it had been with no
+man under the roof of the house and only a deaf-and-dumb gardener, who
+hated her sex, in the barn. Then in contrast she painted life as it must
+be for the sisters now that the thirty tender vines had found a stanch
+old oak for their clinging. "Me?" queried Abraham of himself and, with
+another silent glance, of Angy.
+
+But what was this? Blossy, leading all the others in a resounding call
+of "Welcome!" and then Blossy drawing her two hands from behind her
+back. One held a huge blue cup, the other, the saucer to match. She
+placed the cup in the saucer and held it out to Abraham. He trudged down
+the few steps to receive it, unashamed now of the tears that coursed
+down his cheeks. With a burst of delight he perceived that it was a
+mustache cup, such as the one he had always used at home until it had
+been set for safe-keeping on the top pantry shelf to await the auction,
+where it had brought the price of eleven cents with half a paper of
+tacks thrown in.
+
+And now as the tears cleared away he saw also, what Angy's eyes had
+already noted, the inscription in warm crimson letters on the shining
+blue side of the cup, "To Our Beloved Brother."
+
+"Sisters," he mumbled, for he could do no more than mumble as he took
+his gift, "ef yew'd been gittin' ready fer me six months, yew couldn't
+have done no better."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE HEAD OF THE CORNER
+
+
+Everybody wore their company manners to the breakfast-table--the first
+time in the whole history of the Home when company manners had graced
+the initial meal of the day. Being pleasant at supper was easy enough,
+Aunt Nancy used to say, for every one save the unreasonably
+cantankerous, and being agreeable at dinner was not especially
+difficult; but no one short of a saint could be expected to smile of
+mornings until sufficient time had been given to discover whether one
+had stepped out on the wrong or the right side of the bed.
+
+This morning, however, no time was needed to demonstrate that everybody
+in the place had gotten out on the happy side of his couch. Even the
+deaf-and-dumb gardener had untwisted his surly temper, and as Abraham
+entered the dining-room, looked in at the east window with a
+conciliatory grin and nod which said as plainly as words:
+
+"'T is a welcome sight indeed to see one of my own kind around this
+establishment!"
+
+"Why don't he come in?" questioned Abe, waving back a greeting as well
+as he could with the treasured cup in one of his hands and the saucer in
+the other; whereupon Sarah Jane, that ugly duckling, explained that the
+fellow, being a confirmed woman-hater, cooked all his own meals in the
+smokehouse, and insisted upon all his orders being left on a slate
+outside the tool-house door. Abe sniffed disdainfully, contemplating her
+homely countenance, over which this morning's mood had cast a not
+unlovely, transforming glow.
+
+"Why, the scalawag!" He frowned so at the face in the window that it
+immediately disappeared. "Yew don't mean ter tell me he's sot ag'in' yew
+gals? He must be crazy! Sech a handsome, clever set o' women I never did
+see!"
+
+Sarah Jane blushed to the roots of her thin, straight hair and sat down,
+suddenly disarmed of every porcupine quill that she had hidden under
+her wings; while there was an agreeable little stir among the sisters.
+
+"Set deown, all hands! Set deown!" enjoined Miss Abigail, fluttering
+about with the heaviness of a fat goose. "Brother Abe,--that 's what
+we've all agreed to call yew, by unanimous vote,--yew set right here at
+the foot of the table. Aunt Nancy always had the head an' me the foot;
+but I only kept the foot, partly becuz thar wa'n't no man fer the place,
+an' partly becuz I was tew sizable ter squeeze in any-whar else. Seein'
+as Sister Angy is sech a leetle mite, though, I guess she kin easy make
+room fer me t' other side o' her."
+
+Abe could only bow his thanks as he put his gift down on the table and
+took the prominent place assigned to him. The others seated, there was
+a solemn moment of waiting with bowed heads. Aunt Nancy's trembling
+voice arose,--the voice which had jealously guarded the right of saying
+grace at table in the Old Ladies' Home for twenty years,--not, however,
+in the customary words of thanksgiving, but in a peremptory "Brother
+Abe!"
+
+Abraham looked up. Could she possibly mean that he was to establish
+himself as the head of the household by repeating grace? "Brother Abe!"
+she called upon him again. "Yew've askt a blessin' fer one woman fer
+many a year; supposin' neow yew ask it fer thirty!"
+
+Amid the amazement of the other sisters, Abe mumbled, and muttered, and
+murmured--no one knew what words; but all understood the overwhelming
+gratitude behind his incoherency, and all joined heartily in the Amen.
+Then, while Mrs. Homan, the cook of the week, went bustling out into the
+kitchen, Aunt Nancy felt that it devolved upon her to explain her
+action. It would never do, she thought, for her to gain a reputation for
+self-effacement and sweetness of disposition at her time of life.
+
+"Son, I want yew ter understand one thing naow at the start. Yew treat
+us right, an' we'll treat yew right. That's all we ask o' yew. Miss
+Ellie, pass the radishes."
+
+"I'll do my best," Abe hastened to assure her. "Hy-guy, that coffee
+smells some kind o' good, don't it? Between the smell o' the stuff an'
+the looks o' my cup, it'll be so temptin' that I'll wish I had the neck
+of a gi-raffe, an' could taste it all the way deown. Angy, I be afraid
+we'll git the gout a-livin' so high. Look at this here cream!"
+
+Smiling, appreciative, his lips insisting upon joking to cover the
+natural feeling of embarrassment incident to this first meal among the
+sisters, but with his voice breaking now and again with emotion, while
+from time to time he had to steal his handkerchief to his old eyes, Abe
+passed successfully through the--to him--elaborate breakfast. And Angy
+sat in rapt silence, but with her face shining so that her quiet was the
+stillness of eloquence. Once Abe startled them all by rising stealthily
+from the table and seizing the morning's newspaper which lay upon the
+buffet.
+
+"I knowed it!" caviled Lazy Daisy _sotto voce_ to no one in particular.
+"He couldn't wait for the news till he was through eatin'!" But Abe had
+folded the paper into a stout weapon, and, creeping toward the window,
+despatched by a quick, adroit movement a fly which had alighted upon the
+screen.
+
+"I hate the very sight o' them air pesky critters," he explained half
+apologetically. "Thar, thar's another one," and slaughtered that.
+
+"My, but yew kin git 'em, can't yew?" spoke Miss Abigail admiringly.
+"Them tew be the very ones I tried ter ketch all day yiste'day; I kin
+see as a fly-ketcher yew be a-goin' ter be wuth a farm ter me. Set
+deown an' try some o' this here strawberry presarve."
+
+But Abe protested that he could not eat another bite unless he should
+get up and run around the house to "joggle deown" what he had already
+swallowed. He leaned back in his chair and surveyed the family: on his
+right, generous-hearted Blossy, who had been smiling approval and
+encouragement at him all through the repast; at his left, and just
+beyond Angy, Miss Abigail indulging in what remained on the dishes now
+that she discovered the others to have finished; Aunt Nancy keenly
+watching him from the head of the board; and all the other sisters
+"betwixt an' between."
+
+He caught Mrs. Homan's eye where she stood in the doorway leading into
+the kitchen, and remarked pleasantly: "Ma'am, yew oughter set up a
+pancake shop in 'York. Yew could make a fortune at it. I hain't had sech
+a meal o' vittles sence I turned fifty year o' age."
+
+A flattered smile overspread Mrs. Homan's visage, and the other sisters,
+noting it, wondered how long it would be before she showed her claws in
+Abraham's presence.
+
+"Hy-guy, Angy," Abe went on, "yew can't believe nothin' yew hear, kin
+yer? Why, folks have told me that yew ladies--What yew hittin' my foot
+fer, Mother? Folks have told me," a twinkle of amusement in his eye at
+the absurdity, "that yew fight among yerselves like cats an' dogs, when,
+law! I never see sech a clever lot o' women gathered tergether in all
+my life. An' I believe--Mother, I hain't a-sayin' nothin'! I jest want
+ter let 'em know what I think on 'em. I believe that thar must be three
+hunderd hearts in this here place 'stid o' thirty. But dew yew know,
+gals, folks outside even go so fur's ter say that yew throw plates at
+one another!"
+
+There was a moment's silence; then a little gasp first from one and then
+from another of the group. Every one looked at Mrs. Homan, and from Mrs.
+Homan to Sarah Jane. Mrs. Homan tightened her grip on the pancake
+turner; Sarah Jane uneasily moved her long fingers within reach of a
+sturdy little red-and-white pepper-pot. Another moment passed, in which
+the air seemed filled with the promise of an electric storm. Then
+Blossy spoke hurriedly--Blossy the tactician, clasping her hands
+together and bringing Abe's attention to herself.
+
+"Really! You surprise me! You don't mean to say that folks talk about us
+like that!"
+
+"Slander is a dretful long-legged critter," amended Miss Abigail,
+smiling and sighing in the same breath.
+
+"Sary Jane," inquired Mrs. Homan sweetly, "what 's the matter with that
+pepper-pot? Does it need fillin'?"
+
+And so began the reign of peace in the Old Ladies' Home.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+INDIAN SUMMER
+
+
+Miss Abigail had not banked in vain on the "foresightedness of the
+Lord." At the end of six months, instead of there being a shortage in
+her accounts because of Abe's presence, she was able to show the
+directors such a balance-sheet as excelled all her previous commendable
+records.
+
+"How do you explain it?" they asked her.
+
+"We cast our bread on the waters," she answered, "an' Providence jest
+kept a-handin' out the loaves." Again she said, "'T was grinnin' that
+done it. Brother Abe he kept the gardener good-natured, an' the gardener
+he jest grinned at the garden sass until it was ashamed not ter
+flourish; an' Brother Abe kept the gals good-natured an' they wa'n't so
+_niasy_ about what they eat; an' he kept the visitors a-laughin' jest
+ter see him here, an' when yew make folks laugh they want ter turn
+around an' dew somethin' fer yew. I tell yew, ef yew kin only keep grit
+ernough ter grin, yew kin drive away a drought."
+
+In truth, there had been no drought in the garden that summer, but
+almost a double yield of corn and beans; no drought in the gifts sent to
+the Home, but showers of plenty. Some of these came in the form of fresh
+fish and clams left at the back door; some in luscious fruits; some in
+barrels of clothing. And the barrels of clothing solved another problem;
+for no longer did their contents consist solely of articles of feminine
+attire. "Biled shirts" poured out of them; socks and breeches, derby
+hats, coats and negligees; until Aunt Nancy with a humorous twist to her
+thin lips inquired if there were thirty men in this establishment and
+one woman.
+
+"I never thought I'd come to wearin' a quilted silk basque with tossels
+on it," Abe remarked one day on being urged to try on a handsome
+smoking-jacket. "Dew I look like one of them sissy-boys, er jest a
+dude?"
+
+"It's dretful becoming," insisted Angy, "bewtiful! Ain't it, gals?"
+
+Every old lady nodded her head with an air of proud proprietorship, as
+if to say, "Nothing could fail to become _our_ brother." And Angy nodded
+her head, too, in delighted approval of their appreciation of "our
+brother" and "my husband."
+
+Beautiful, joy-steeped, pleasure-filled days these were for the couple,
+who had been cramped for life's smallest necessities so many meager
+years. Angy felt that she had been made miraculously young by the birth
+of this new Abraham--almost as if at last she had been given the son for
+whom in her youth she had prayed with impassioned appeal. Her old-wife
+love became rejuvenated into a curious mixture of proud mother-love and
+young-wife leaning, as she saw Abe win every heart and become the
+center of the community.
+
+"Why, the sisters all think the sun rises an' sets in him," Angy would
+whisper to herself sometimes, awed by the glorious wonder of it all.
+
+The sisters fairly vied with one another to see how much each could do
+for the one man among them. Their own preferences and prejudices were
+magnanimously thrust aside. In a body they besought their guest to smoke
+as freely in the house as out of doors. Miss Abigail even traded some of
+her garden produce for tobacco, while Miss Ellie made the old gentleman
+a tobacco-pouch of red flannel so generous in its proportions that on a
+pinch it could be used as a chest-protector.
+
+Then Ruby Lee, not to be outdone by anybody, produced, from no one ever
+discovered where, a mother-of-pearl manicure set for the delight and
+mystification of the hero; and even Lazy Daisy went so far as to cut
+some red and yellow tissue-paper into squares under the delusion that
+some time, somehow, she would find the energy to roll these into spills
+for the lighting of Abe's pipe. And each and every sister from time to
+time contributed some gift or suggestion to her "brother's" comfort.
+
+It "plagued" the others, however, to see that none of them could get
+ahead of Blossy in their noble endeavors to make Abraham feel himself a
+light and welcome burden. She it was who discovered that Abe's
+contentment could not be absolute without griddle-cakes for breakfast
+three hundred and sixty-five times a year; she it was who first baked
+him little saucer-cakes and pies because he was partial to edges; and
+Blossy it was who made out a list of "Don'ts" for the sisters to follow
+in their treatment of this grown-up, young-old boy.
+
+"Don't scold him when he leaves the doors open. Don't tell him to wipe
+his feet. Don't ever mention gold-mines or shiftless husbands," etc.,
+etc.
+
+All these triumphs of Blossy's intuition served naturally to spur the
+others on to do even more for Brother Abe than they had already done,
+until the old man began to worry for fear that he should "git sp'ilt."
+When he lay down for his afternoon nap and the house was dull and quiet
+without his waking presence, the ladies would gather in groups outside
+his door as if in a king's antechamber, waiting for him to awaken,
+saying to one another ever and again, "Sh, sh!" He professed to scoff at
+the attentions he received, would grunt and growl "Humbug!" yet
+nevertheless he thrived in this latter-day sunlight. His old bones took
+on flesh. His aged kindly face, all seamed with care as it had been,
+filled out, the wrinkles turning into twinkles. Abraham had grown young
+again. With the return of his youth came the spirit of youth to the Old
+Ladies' Home. Verily, verily, as Blossy had avowed from the first, they
+had been in sore need of the masculine presence. The ancient coat and
+hat which had hung in the hall so long had perhaps served its purpose
+in keeping the burglars away, but this lifeless substitute had not
+prevented the crabbed gnomes of loneliness and discontent from stealing
+in. Spinster, wife, and widow, they had every one been warped by the
+testy just-so-ness of the old maid.
+
+Now, instead of fretful discussions of health and food, recriminations
+and wrangling, there came to be laughter and good-humored chatter all
+the day long, each sister striving with all her strength to preserve the
+new-found harmony of the Home. There were musical evenings, when Miss
+Abigail opened the melodeon and played "Old Hundred," and Abraham was
+encouraged to pick out with one stiff forefinger "My Grandfather's
+Clock." "Hymn tunes" were sung in chorus; and then, in answer to Abe's
+appeal for something livelier, there came time-tried ditties and old,
+old love-songs. And at last, one night, after leaving the instrument
+silent, mute in the corner of the parlor for many years, Aunt Nancy
+Smith dragged out her harp, and, seating herself, reached out her
+knotted, trembling hands and brought forth what seemed the very echo, so
+faint and faltering it was, of "Douglas, Douglas, Tender and True."
+
+There was a long silence after she had finished, her head bowed on her
+chest, her hands dropped to her sides. Abraham spoke first, clearing his
+throat before he could make the words come.
+
+"_I_ wish I could git a husband fer every one of yer," said he.
+
+And no one was angry, and no one laughed; for they all knew that he was
+only seeking to express the message conveyed by Nancy's playing--the
+message of Love, Love triumphant, which cannot age, which over the years
+and over Death itself always hath the victory.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+OLD LETTERS AND NEW
+
+
+Blossy left the room without a word, and went stealing up the stairs to
+the little cupboard where she now slept, and where was hung on the wall,
+in a frame of yellow hollyhocks, painted by her own hand, a photograph
+of Captain Samuel Darby, the man who had remained obstinately devoted to
+her since her days of pinafores.
+
+The picture betrayed that Captain Darby wore a wig designed for a larger
+man, and that the visage beneath was gnarled and weather-beaten, marked
+with the signs of a stubborn and unreasonable will.
+
+Even now the aged belle could hear him saying: "Here I be, come eround
+ter pop ag'in. Ready ter hitch?"
+
+Samuel's inelegant English had always been a source of distress to
+Blossy; yet still she stared long at the picture.
+
+Six months had passed since his last visit; to-morrow would be the date
+of his winter advent.
+
+Should she give the old unvarying answer to his tireless formula?
+
+She glanced around the tiny room. Ashamed though she was to admit it
+even to herself, she missed that ample and cozy chamber which she had so
+freely surrendered to Abraham and his wife. She missed it, as she felt
+they must crave their very own fireside; and the thought that they
+missed the old homestead made her yearn for the home that she might have
+had--the home that she still might have.
+
+Again she brought her eyes back to the portrait; and now she saw, not
+the characteristics which had always made it seem impossible for her and
+Samuel to jog together down life's road, but the great truth that the
+face was honest and wholesome, while the eyes looked back into hers with
+the promise of an unswerving care and affection.
+
+The next morning found Blossy kneeling before a plump, little,
+leather-bound, time-worn trunk which she kept under the eaves of the
+kitchen chamber. The trunk was packed hard with bundles of old letters.
+Some her younger fingers had tied with violet ribbon; some they had
+bound with pink; others she had fastened together with white silk cord;
+and there were more and more bundles, both slim and stout, which Blossy
+had distinguished by some special hue of ribbon in the long ago, each
+tint marking a different suitor's missives.
+
+To her still sentimental eye the colors remained unfaded, and each would
+bring to her mind instantly the picture of the writer as he had been in
+the golden days. But save to Blossy's eye alone there were no longer any
+rainbow tints in the little, old trunk; for every ribbon and every cord
+had faded into that musty, yellow brown which is dyed by the passing of
+many years.
+
+Abraham discovered her there, too engrossed in the perusal of one of
+the old letters to have heeded his creaking steps upon the stairs.
+
+"Didn't see yer, till I 'most stumbled on yer," he began apologetically.
+"I come fer the apple-picker. Thar's a handful of russets in the orchard
+yit, that's calc'latin' ter spend Christmas up close ter heaven;
+but--Say, Blossy," he added more loudly, since she did not raise her
+head, "yew seen anythin' o' that air picker?"
+
+Blossy glanced up from her ragged-edged crackly _billet-doux_ with a
+start, and dropped the envelop to the floor.
+
+For the moment, so deep in reminiscence was she, she thought Captain
+Darby himself had surprised her; then, recognizing Abe and recalling
+that Samuel's winter visits were invariably paid in the afternoon, she
+broke into a shamefaced laugh.
+
+"Oh, is that you, Brother Abe? Don't tell the others what you found me
+doing. These," with a wave of her delicate, blue-veined hands over the
+trunk and its contents, "are all old love-letters of mine. Do you think
+I'm a silly old goose to keep them cluttering around so long?"
+
+"Wa'al,"--Abe with an equally deprecatory gesture indicated Angy's
+horsehair trunk in the far corner of the loft,--"yew ain't no more
+foolisher, I guess, over yer old trash 'n me an' Angy be a-keepin' that
+air minin' stock of mine. One lot is wuth 'bout as much as t'other."
+
+Recovering the envelop that she had dropped, he squinted at the
+superscription. "Not meanin' ter be inquisitive or personal, Sister
+Blossy," a teasing twinkle appearing in his eye, "but this looks dretful
+familitary, this here handwritin' does. When I run the beach--yew've
+heard me tell of the time I was on the Life-savin' Crew over ter Bleak
+Hill fer a spell--my cap'n he had a fist jest like that. Useter make out
+the spickest, spannest reports. Lemme see," the twinkle deepening,
+"didn't the gals say yew was a 'spectin' somebody ter-day? Law, I ain't
+saw Cap'n Sam'l fer ten year or more. I guess on these here poppin'
+trips o' his'n he hain't wastin' time on no men-folks. But, Blossy, yew
+better give me a chance ter talk to him this arternoon, an' mebbe I'll
+speak a good word fer yer."
+
+Blossy, not always keen to see a joke, and with her vanity now in the
+ascendant, felt the color rise into her withered cheek.
+
+"Oh, you needn't take the trouble to speak a good word for me. Any man
+who could ever write a letter like this doesn't need to be coaxed. Just
+listen:
+
+
+"The man you take for a mate is the luckiest dog in the whole round
+world. I'd rather be him than king of all the countries on earth. I'd
+rather be him than strike a gold-mine reaching from here to China. I'd
+rather be him than master of the finest vessel that ever sailed blue
+water. That's what I would. Why, the man who couldn't be happy with you
+would spill tears all over heaven."
+
+
+Blossy's cheek was still flushed, but no longer with pique. Her voice
+quavered, and broke; and finally there fell upon the faded page of the
+letter two sparkling tears.
+
+Abraham shuffled uncomfortably from one foot to the other; then,
+muttering something about the "pesky apple-hook," went scuffing across
+the floor in the direction of the chimney.
+
+Blossy, however, called him back. "I was crying, Brother Abe, because
+the man I did take for a mate once was not happy, and--and neither was
+I. I was utterly wretched; so that I've always felt I never cared to
+marry again. And--and Samuel's wig is always slipping down over one eye,
+and I simply cannot endure that trick he has of carrying his head to one
+side, as if he had a left-handed spell of the mumps. It nearly drives me
+frantic.
+
+"Brother Abe, now tell me honestly: do you think he would make a good
+husband?"
+
+Abe cleared his throat. Blossy was in earnest. Blossy could not be
+laughed at. She was his friend, and Angy's friend; and she had come to
+him as to a brother for advice. He too had known Samuel as man to man,
+which was more than any of the sisters could say.
+
+Stroking his beard thoughtfully, therefore, he seated himself upon a
+convenient wooden chest, while Blossy slipped her old love-letter in and
+out of the envelop, with that essentially feminine manner of weighing
+and considering.
+
+"Naow," began Abe at length, "this is somep'n that requires keerful
+debatin'. Fust off, haowsomever, yew must remember that wigs an' ways
+never made a man yit. Ez I riccollec' Sam'l, he was pooty good ez men
+go. I should say he wouldn't be any more of a risk tew yew than I was
+tew Angy; mebbe less. He's got quite a leetle laid by, I understand, an'
+a tidy story-an'-a-half house, an' front stoop, an', by golly, can't he
+cook! He's a splendid housekeeper."
+
+"Housewifery," remarked Blossy sagely, as she began to gather her
+missives together, "is an accomplishment to be scorned in a young
+husband, but not in an old one. They say there hasn't been a woman
+inside Samuel's house since he built it, but it's as clean as soap and
+sand can make it."
+
+"I bet yer," agreed Abe. "Hain't never been no fly inside it, neither,
+I warrant yer. Fly can't light arter Sam'l's cleanin' up nohaow; he's
+got ter skate."
+
+"He says he built that little house for me," said the old lady, as she
+closed down the lid of the trunk. There was a wistful note in Blossy's
+voice, which made Abraham declare with a burst of sympathy:
+
+"'T ain't no disgrace ter git married at no time of life. Sam'l's a good
+pervider; why don't yew snap him up ter-day? We'll miss yew a lot;
+but--"
+
+"Here's the apple-picker right over your head," interrupted Blossy
+tartly, and Abe felt himself peremptorily dismissed.
+
+Scarcely had he left the attic, however, than she too hastened down the
+steep, narrow stairs. She spent the remaining hours before train-time in
+donning her beautiful lace gown, and in making the woman within it as
+young and ravishing as possible. And lovely, indeed, Blossy looked this
+day, with a natural flush of excitement on her cheek, a new sparkle in
+her bright, dark eyes, and with her white hair arranged in a fashion
+which might have excited a young girl's envy.
+
+The hour for the train came and went, and, lo! for the first time in the
+history of twenty years Captain Darby did not appear.
+
+Blossy pretended to be relieved, protesting that she was delighted to
+find that she would now have an extra hour in which to ponder the
+question. But the second train came and went, and still no Captain
+Darby.
+
+All the afternoon long Blossy wore her lace gown, thinking although
+there were no more trains from the eastward that day, that Samuel would
+still find his way to her. He might drive, as he usually did in June, or
+he might even walk from his home at Twin Coves, she said.
+
+At night, however, she was obliged to admit that he could not be coming;
+and then, quivering with honest anxiety for her old friend, Blossy
+dipped into her emergency fund, which she kept in the heart of a little
+pink china pig on a shelf in her room,--a pink china pig with a lid made
+of stiff black hair standing on edge in the middle of his back,--and
+sent a telegram to Captain Darby, asking if he were sick.
+
+The answer came back slowly by mail, to find Blossy on the verge of a
+nervous collapse, under the care of all the women in the house.
+
+That letter Blossy never showed to Brother Abe, nor to any one else.
+Neither did she treasure it in the sentimental trunk beneath the attic
+eaves. The letter ran:
+
+
+DEAR BETSY ANN: I never felt better in my life. Ain't been sick a
+minute. Just made up my mind I was a old fool, and was going to quit. If
+you change your intentions at any time, just drop me a postal. As ever,
+
+SAM'L DARBY, ESQ.
+
+
+"This, Captain Darby, makes your rejection final," vowed Blossy to
+herself, as she tore the note into fragments and drowned them in the
+spirits of lavender with which the sisters had been seeking to soothe
+her distracted nerves.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE ANNIVERSARY
+
+
+About this time Blossy developed a tendency to draw Brother Abraham
+aside at every opportunity, convenient or inconvenient, in order to put
+such questions as these to him:
+
+"Did you say it is fully thirty-five years since you and Captain Darby
+were on the beach together? Do you think he has grown much older? Had he
+lost his hair then? Did he care for the opposite sex? Was he very
+brave--or would you say more brave than stubborn and contrary? Isn't it
+a blessing that I never married him?"
+
+Fearful of the ridicule of the sisters, Blossy was always careful to
+conduct these inquiries in whispers, or at least in undertones with a
+great observance of secrecy, sometimes stopping Abe on the stairs,
+sometimes beckoning him to her side when she was busy about her
+household tasks on the pretense of requiring his assistance. On one
+occasion she even went so far as to inveigle him into holding a skein of
+wool about his clumsy hands, while she wound the violet worsted into a
+ball, and delicately inquired if he believed Samuel spoke the truth when
+he had protested that he had never paid court to any other woman.
+
+Alas, Blossy's frequent tete-a-tetes with the amused but sometimes
+impatient Abraham started an exceedingly foolish suspicion. When, asked
+the sisters of one another, did Abe ever help any one, save Blossy,
+shell dried beans or pick over prunes? When had he ever been known to
+hold wool for Angy's winding? Not once since wooing-time, I warrant you.
+What could this continual hobnobbing and going off into corners mean,
+except--flirtation?
+
+Ruby Lee whispered it first into Aunt Nancy's good ear. Aunt Nancy
+indulged in four pinches of snuff in rapid succession, sneezed an
+amazing number of times, and then acridly informed Ruby Lee that she was
+a "jealous cat" and always had been one.
+
+However, Aunt Nancy could not refrain from carrying the gossip to Miss
+Ellie, adding that she herself had been suspicious of Abe's behavior
+from the start.
+
+"Oh, no, no!" cried the shocked and shrinking spinster. "And Angy so
+cheerful all the time? I don't believe it."
+
+But whisper, whisper, buzz, buzz, went the gossip, until finally it
+reached the pink little ears at the side of Miss Abigail's generously
+proportioned head. The pink ears turned crimson, likewise the adjoining
+cheeks, and Miss Abigail panted with righteous indignation.
+
+"It all comes of this plagued old winter-time," she declared, sharply
+biting her thread, for she was mending a table-cloth. "Shet the winders
+on summer, an' yew ketch the tail of slander in the latch every time.
+Naow, ef I hear one word about this 'tarnal foolishness comin' to
+Angy's ears, or Brother Abe's, or Blossy's either, fer that matter,
+we'll all have to eat off'n oil-cloth Sundays, the same as weekdays,
+until I see a more Christian sperit in the house."
+
+She gave the Sunday damask across her lap a pat which showed she was in
+earnest; and the rebuked sisters glanced at one another, as if to say:
+
+"Suppose the minister should walk in some Sabbath afternoon and find
+oil-cloth on the table, and ask the reason why?"
+
+They one and all determined to take Aunt Nancy's advice and "sew a
+button on their lips."
+
+Fortunately, too, the February thaws had already set in, and the
+remainder of the winter passed without any severe strain on the
+"buttonholes." And at length the welcome spring began to peep forth,
+calling to the old folks, "Come out, and grow young with the young
+year!"
+
+With the bursting forth of the new springtide the winter's talk seemed
+to drop as a withered and dead oak-leaf falls from its winter-bound
+branches; and Abe stood once more alive to the blessings of renewed
+approval.
+
+Angy went out of doors with Miss Abigail, and puttered around among the
+flowers as if they were her own, thanking God for Abe's increasing
+popularity in the same breath that she gave thanks for the new buds of
+the spring.
+
+The anniversary of the Roses' entrance into the Home drew nearer, and
+Blossy suggested that the best way to celebrate the event would be by
+means of a "pink tea."
+
+Neither Angy nor Abe, nor in fact half the sisters, had any clear
+conception of what a tinted function might be; but they one and all
+seized upon Blossy's idea as if it were a veritable inspiration, and for
+the time jealousies were forgotten, misunderstandings erased.
+
+Such preparations as were made for that tea! The deaf-and-dumb gardener
+was sent with a detachment of small boys to fetch from the wayside and
+meadows armfuls of wild roses for the decorations. Miss Abigail made
+pink icing for the cake. Ruby Lee hung bleeding-hearts over the
+dining-room door. Aunt Nancy resurrected from the bottom of her trunk a
+white lace cap with a rakish-looking pink bow for an adornment, and
+fastened it to her scant gray hairs in honor of the occasion. Blossy
+turned her pink china pig, his lid left up-stairs, into a sugar-bowl.
+
+Pink, pink, pink, everywhere; even in Angy's proud cheeks! Pink, and
+pink, and pink! Abe used to grow dizzy, afterward, trying to recall the
+various pink articles which graced that tea.
+
+But most delightful surprise of all was his anniversary gift, which was
+slyly slipped to his place after the discussion of the rose-colored
+strawberry gelatin. It was a square, five-pound parcel wrapped in pink
+tissue-paper, tied with pink string, and found to contain so much
+Virginia tobacco, which Blossy had inveigled an old Southern admirer
+into sending her for "charitable purposes."
+
+After the presentation of this valuable gift, Abraham felt that the time
+had come for him to make a speech--practically his maiden speech.
+
+He said at the beginning, more suavely at his ease than he would have
+believed possible, secure of sympathy and approbation, with Angy's
+glowing old eyes upon her prodigy, that all the while he had been at the
+Home, he had never before felt the power to express his gratitude for
+the welcome which had been accorded him--the welcome which seemed to
+wear and wear, as if it were all wool and a yard wide, and could never
+wear out.
+
+The old ladies nodded their heads in approval of this, every face
+beaming; but as the speech went on the others perceived that Abe had
+singled out Blossy for special mention,--blind, blind Abraham!--Blossy,
+who had first proposed admitting him into this paradise; Blossy, who had
+given up her sunny south chamber to his comfort and Angy's; Blossy, who
+had been as a "guardeen angel" to him; Blossy, who as a fitting climax
+to all her sisterly attentions had given him to-day this wonderful,
+wonderful pink tea, and "this five hull pound o' Virginny terbaccer."
+
+He held the parcel close to his bosom, and went on, still praising
+Blossy,--this innocent old gentleman,--heedless of Angy's gentle tug at
+his coat-tail; while Blossy buried her absurdly lovely old face in the
+pink flush of a wild-rose spray, and the other old ladies stared from
+him to her, their faces growing hard and cold.
+
+When Abraham sat down, aglow with pride over his oratorical triumphs,
+his chest expanded, his countenance wrinkled into a thousand guileless,
+grateful smiles, there was absolute silence.
+
+Then Blossy, her head still bowed as if in shy confusion, began to clap
+her hands daintily together, whereat a few of the others joined her
+half-heartedly. A sense of chill crept over Abraham. Accustomed as a
+rule to deferential attention, did he but say good-morning, by no means
+aware that his throne had toppled during the winter, he was still
+forced to perceive that something had gone amiss.
+
+As always when aught troubled his mind, "Father" turned to Angy; but
+instead of his composed and resourceful little wife he found a
+scared-faced and trembling woman. Angy had suddenly become conscious of
+the shadow of the green-eyed monster. Angy's loyal heart was crying out
+to her mate: "Don't git the sisters daown on yer, Abe, 'cuz then, mebbe,
+yew'll lose yer hum!" But poor Angeline's lips were so stiff with terror
+over the prospect of the County House for her husband, that she could
+not persuade them to speech.
+
+Abraham, completely at sea, turned next to her whom he had called his
+guardian angel; but Blossy was rising from her seat, a baffling smile
+of expectancy on her face, the rose spray swinging in her delicate hand
+as if to the measure of some music too far back in youth for any one
+else to hear. Blossy had worn that expectant look all day. She might
+have been delightedly hugging to herself a secret which she had not
+shared even with the trusted Abraham. She was gowned in her yellow lace,
+the beauty and grace of which had defied the changing fashions as
+Blossy's remarkable elegance of appearance had defied the passing of the
+years.
+
+"Brother Abe,"--in her heedlessness of the mischief she had wrought,
+Blossy seemed almost to sing,--"I never shall forget your speech as long
+as I live. Will you excuse me now?"
+
+She swept out of the door, her skirts rustling behind her.
+
+Abe collected himself so far as to bow in the direction she had taken;
+then with lamblike eyes of inquiry met the exasperated glances cast upon
+him.
+
+Not a sister moved or spoke. They all sat as if glued to their chairs,
+in a silence that was fast growing appalling.
+
+Abe turned his head and looked behind his chair for an explanation; but
+nothing met his eye, save the familiar picture on the wall of two white
+kittens playing in the midst of a huge bunch of purple lilacs.
+
+Then there broke upon the stillness the quavering old voice of Aunt
+Nancy, from her place opposite Abe's at the head of the board. The aged
+dame had her two hands clasped before her on the edge of the table,
+vainly trying to steady their palsied shaking. Her eyes, bright,
+piercing, age-defying, she fixed upon the bewildered Abraham with a look
+of deep and sorrowful reproach. Her unsteady head bobbed backward and
+forward with many an accusing nod, and the cap with its rakish pink bow
+bobbed backward and forward too. Abe watched her, fascinated,
+unconsciously wondering, even in the midst of his disquietude, why the
+cap did not slide off her bald scalp entirely. To his amazement, she
+addressed not himself, but Angy.
+
+"Sister Rose, yew kin leave the room." Implacable purpose spoke in Aunt
+Nancy's tone. Angy started, looked up, going first red and then white;
+but she did not move. She opened her lips to speak.
+
+"I don't want ter hear a word from yew, nor anybody else," sternly
+interposed Aunt Nancy. "I'm old enough ter be yer mother. Go up-stairs!"
+
+Angy's glance sought Miss Abigail, but the matron's eyes avoided hers.
+The little wife sighed, rose reluctantly, dropped her hand doubtfully
+reassuring on Abe's shoulder, and then went obediently to the door.
+
+From the threshold she looked wistfully back; but an imperious wave from
+Aunt Nancy banished her altogether, and Abe found himself alone--not
+with the sisters whom he loved, but with twenty-eight hard-visaged
+strangers.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A WINTER BUTTERFLY
+
+
+"Cap'n Rose," began Aunt Nancy. Brother Abe pricked up his eats at the
+formal address. "Cap'n Rose," she repeated, deliberately dwelling on the
+title. "I never believe in callin' a man tew account in front of his
+wife. It gives him somebody handy ter blame things on tew jest like ole
+Adam. Naow, look a-here! What I want is ter ask yew jest one question:
+Whar, whar on 'arth kin we look fer a decent behavin' ole man ef not in
+a Old Ladies' Hum? Would yew--" she exhorted earnestly, pointing her
+crooked forefinger at him. "Would yew--"
+
+Abraham caught his breath. Beads of sweat had appeared on his brow. He
+broke in huskily:
+
+"Wait a minute, Aunt Nancy. Jest tell me what I've been an' done."
+
+The ladies glanced at one another, contemptuous, incredulous smiles on
+their faces, while Aunt Nancy almost wept at his deceitfulness.
+
+"Cap'n Rose," she vowed mournfully, "I've lived in this house fer many,
+many years, an' all the while I been here I never hearn tell o' a breath
+o' scandal ag'in' the place until yew come an' commenced ter kick up yer
+heels."
+
+Lazy Daisy, who had long been an inmate, also nodded her unwieldy head
+in confirmation, while a low murmur of assent arose from the others.
+Abraham could only pass his hand over his brow, uneasily shuffle his
+maligned heels over the floor and await further developments; for he did
+not have the slightest conception as to "what they were driving at."
+
+"Cap'n Rose," the matriarch proceeded, as in the earnestness of her
+indignation she arose, trembling, in her seat and stood with her palsied
+and shaking hands on the board, "Cap'n Rose, yer conduct with this here
+Mis' Betsey Ann Blossom has been somethin' _ree_diculous! It's been
+disgraceful!"
+
+Aunt Nancy sat down, incongruously disreputable in appearance, her pink
+bow having slipped down over her right ear during the harangue. Over
+the culprit's countenance light had dawned, but, shame to tell! it was a
+light not wholly remorseful. Then silent laughter shook the old man's
+shoulders, and then--could it be?--there crept about his lips and eyes a
+smile of superbly masculine conceit. The sisters were fighting over him.
+Wouldn't Mother be amused when he should tell her what all this fuss was
+about.
+
+Now, kindly, short-sighted Miss Abigail determined that it was time for
+the matron's voice to be heard.
+
+"Of course, Brother Abe, we understand perfectly that yew never stopped
+ter take inter consideration haow susceptible some folks is made."
+
+There being plain evidence from Abe's blank expression that he did not
+understand the meaning of the word, Ruby Lee hastened to explain.
+
+"Susceptible is the same as flighty-headed. Blossy allers was a fool
+over anything that wore breeches."
+
+Abe pushed his chair back from the table and crossed his legs
+comfortably. For him all the chill had gone out of the air. Suppose that
+there was something in this? An old, old devil of vanity came back to
+the aged husband's heart. He recalled that he had been somewhat of a
+beau before he learned the joy of loving Angy. More than one Long Island
+lassie had thrown herself at his head. Of course Blossy would "get over"
+this; and Angy knew that his heart was hers as much as it had been the
+day he purchased his wedding-beaver; but Abe could not refrain from a
+chuckle of complacent amusement as he stroked his beard.
+
+His very evident hardness of heart so horrified the old ladies that they
+all began to attack him at once.
+
+"Seems ter me I'd have the decency ter show some shame!" grimly avowed
+Sarah Jane.
+
+Abe could not help it. He sputtered. Even Miss Abigail's, "Yew were a
+stranger an' we took yew in" did not sober him.
+
+"Ef any one o' my husbands had acted the way you've acted, Abe Rose,"
+began Mrs. Homan.
+
+"Poor leetle Angy," broke in the gentle Miss Ellie pityingly. "She must
+'a' lost six pounds."
+
+Abraham's mobile face clouded over.
+
+"Angy?" he faltered. "Yew don't mean that Angy--" Silence again fell on
+the group, while every glance was fastened on Abraham. "See here," he
+flashed his faded blue eye, "Angy's got more sense than that!"
+
+No one answered, but there was a significant shrugging of shoulders and
+lifting of eyebrows. Abraham was distressed and concerned enough now.
+Rising from his place he besought the sisters:
+
+"Yew don't think Angy's feelin's have been hurt--dew yew, gals?"
+
+Their faces softened, their figures relaxed, the tide of feeling changed
+in Abraham's favor. Miss Ellie spoke very softly:
+
+"Yew know that even 'the Lord thy God is a jealous God.'"
+
+Abraham grasped the back of his chair for support, his figure growing
+limp with astonishment. "Mother, jealous of me?" he whispered to
+himself, the memory of all the years and all the great happenings of all
+the years coming back to him. "Mother jealous of me?" He remembered how
+he had once been tormented by jealousy in the long, the ever-so-long
+ago, and of a sudden he hastened into the hall and went half-running up
+the stairs. He took hold of the latch of his bedroom door. It did not
+open. The door was locked.
+
+"Angy!" he called, a fear of he knew not what gripping at his heart.
+"Angy!" he repeated as she did not answer.
+
+The little old wife had locked herself in out of very shame of the rare
+tears which had been brought to the surface by the sisters' cruel
+treatment of Abraham. When she heard his call she hastened to the blue
+wash-basin and began hurriedly to dab her eyes. He would be alarmed if
+he saw the traces of her weeping. Whatever had happened to him, for his
+sake she must face it valiantly. He called again. Again she did not
+answer, knowing that her voice would be full of the telltale tears. Abe
+waited. He heard the tramp of feet passing out of the dining-room into
+the hall. He heard Blossy emerge from her room at the end of the passage
+and go tripping down the stairs. The time to Angy, guiltily bathing her
+face, was short; the time to her anxious husband unaccountably long.
+The sound of wheels driving up to the front door came to Abe's ears.
+Still Angy made him no response.
+
+"Angy!" he raised his voice in piteous pleading. What mattered if the
+sisters gathered in the lower hall heard him? What mattered if the
+chance guest who had just arrived heard him also? He had his peace to
+make with his wife and he would make it. "Angy!"
+
+She flung the door open hastily. The signs of the tears had not been
+obliterated, and her face was drawn and old. Straightway she put her
+hand on his arm and searched his face inquiringly.
+
+"What did the gals say ter yew?" she whispered. "Abe, yew made a mistake
+when yew picked out Bl--"
+
+"Poor leetle Mother!" he interrupted. "Poor leetle Mother!" a world of
+remorseful pity in his tone. "So yew been jealous of yer ole man?"
+
+Angeline, astonished and indignant, withdrew her hand sharply, demanding
+to know if he had lost his senses; but the blinded old gentleman slipped
+his arm around her and, bending, brushed his lips against her cheek.
+"Thar, thar," he murmured soothingly, "I didn't mean no harm. I can't
+help it ef all the gals git stuck on me!"
+
+Before Angy could make any reply, Blossy called to the couple softly but
+insistently from the foot of the stairs; and Angy, wrenching herself
+free, hastened down the steps, for once in her life glad to get away
+from Abe. He lost no time in following. No matter where Angy went, he
+would follow until all was well between her and him again.
+
+But what was this? At the landing, Angy halted and so did Abe, for in
+the center of the sisters stood Blossy with her Sunday bonnet perched on
+her silver-gold hair and her white India shawl over her shoulders, and
+beside Blossy stood Captain Samuel Darby with a countenance exceedingly
+radiant, his hand clasped fast in that of the aged beauty.
+
+"Oh, hurry, Sister Angy and Brother Abe!" called Blossy. "We were
+waiting for you, and I've got some news for all my friends." She waited
+smilingly for them to join the others; then with a gesture which
+included every member of the household, she proceeded: "The pink tea, I
+want you all to know, had a double significance, and first, of course,
+it was to celebrate the anniversary of Brother Abe's sojourn with us;
+but next it was my farewell to the Home." Here Blossy gurgled and gave
+the man at her right so coy a glance that Samuel's face flamed red and
+he hung his head lower to one side than usual, like a little boy that
+had been caught stealing apples. "I left the tea a trifle early--you
+must forgive me, Brother Abe, but I heard the train-whistle." Abe stood
+beside Angeline, rooted in astonishment, while Blossy continued to
+address him directly. "You gave Samuel so many good recommendations,
+dear brother, that when the time approached for his June visit, I felt
+that I simply could not let him miss it as he did in December. Last
+year, on the day you entered, he was here through no desire of mine.
+To-day he is here at my request. My friends," again she included the
+entire Home in her glance, "we'll come back a little later to say
+Good-by. Now, we're on the way to the minister's."
+
+The pair, Samuel tongue-tied and bewildered by the joy of his finally
+won success, moved toward the door. On the threshold of the Home Blossy
+turned and waved farewell to the companions of her widowhood, while
+Samuel bowed in a dazed fashion, his face still as red as it was
+blissful. Then quickly the two passed out upon the porch. No one moved
+to see them off. Abe looked everywhere yet nowhere at all. Not a word
+was spoken even when the carriage was heard rolling down the drive; but
+the sound of the wheels seemed to arouse Angy from her stupor of
+amazement; and presently Abraham became conscious of a touch,--a touch
+sympathetic, tender and true,--a touch all-understanding--the touch of
+Angy's hand within his own.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE TURN OF THE TIDE
+
+
+From time immemorial the history of the popular hero has ever been the
+same. To king and patriot, to the favorite girl at school and the small
+boy who is leader of the "gang," to politician, to preacher, to actor
+and author, comes first worship then eclipse. The great Napoleon did not
+escape this common fate; and the public idol who was kissed only
+yesterday for his gallant deeds is scorned to-day for having permitted
+the kissing. Oh, caprice of the human heart! Oh, cry of the race for the
+unaccustomed!
+
+From that first anniversary of his entrance into the Home, Abraham felt
+his popularity decrease--in fact more than decrease. He saw the
+weather-vane go square about, and where he had known for three hundred
+and sixty-five days the gentle, balmy feel of the southwest zephyr, he
+found himself standing of a sudden in a cold, bleak northeast wind. The
+change bewildered the old man, and reacted on his disposition. As he had
+blossomed in the sunshine, so now he began to droop in the shade.
+Feeling that he was suspected and criticized, he began to grow
+suspicious and fault-finding himself. His old notion that he had no
+right to take a woman's place in the Institution came back to his brain,
+and he would brood over it for hours at a time, sitting out on the
+porch with his pipe and Angy.
+
+The old wife grieved to think that Father was growing old and beginning
+to show his years. She made him some tansy tea, but neither her
+persuasions nor those of the whole household could induce him to take
+it. He had never liked "doctoring" anyway, although he had submitted to
+it more or less during the past year in unconscious subservience to his
+desire to increase his popularity; but now he fancied that where once he
+had been served as a king by all these female attendants, he was simply
+being "pestered" as a punishment for his past behavior with Blossy. Ah,
+with its surprising ending that had been a humiliating affair; and he
+felt too that he would be long in forgiving Mrs. Darby for not having
+confided to him her actual intentions. Now he was afraid to be decently
+courteous to one of the sisters for fear that they might accuse him of
+light dalliance again; and he scarcely ever addressed the new member who
+came to take Blossy's little room, for he had been cut to the quick by
+her look of astonishment when she was told that he belonged there.
+
+In his mental ferment the old man began to nag at Angy. Sad though it is
+to confess of a hero honestly loved, Abraham had nagged a little all his
+married life when things went wrong. And Angeline, fretted and nervous,
+herself worried almost sick over Father's condition, was guilty once in
+a while out of the depths of her anxiety of nagging back again. So do
+we hurt those whom we love best as we would and could hurt no other.
+
+"I told yer I never could stand it here amongst all these dratted
+women-folks," Abe would declare. "It's all your fault that I didn't go to
+the poorhouse in peace."
+
+"I notice yew didn't raise no objections until yew'd lived here a year,"
+Angy would retort; but ignoring this remark, he would go on:
+
+"It's 'Brother Abe' this an' 'Brother Abe' that! as ef I had thirty
+wives a-pesterin' me instid of one. I can't kill a fly but it's 'Brother
+Abe, lemme bury him fer yew.' Do yer all think I be a baby?" demanded
+the old gentleman with glaring eye. "I guess I'm able ter do somethin'
+fer myself once in a while. I hain't so old as some folks might think,"
+he continued with superb inconsistence. "I be a mere child compared with
+that air plagued Nancy Smith."
+
+It took very little to exhaust Angy's ability for this style of
+repartee, and she would rejoin with tender but mistaken efforts to
+soothe and comfort him:
+
+"Thar, thar, Father! don't git excited neow. Seems ter me ye 're a
+leetle bit feverish. Ef only yew 'd take this here tansy tea."
+
+Abraham would give one exasperated glance at the tin cup and mutter into
+the depths of his beard:
+
+"Tansy tea an' old women! Old women an' tansy tea! Tansy tea be durned!"
+
+Abe failed perceptibly during the summer, grew feebler as the autumn
+winds blew in, and by November he took to his bed and the physician of
+the Home, a little whiffet of a pompous idiot, was called to attend him.
+The doctor, determined at the start to make a severe case of the old
+man's affliction in order that he might have the greater glory in the
+end, be it good or bad, looked very grave over Abraham's tongue and
+pulse, prescribed medicine for every half-hour, and laid especial stress
+upon the necessity of keeping the patient in bed.
+
+"Humbug!" growled the secretly terrified invalid, and in an excess of
+bravado took his black silk necktie from where it hung on the bedpost
+and tied it in a bow-knot around the collar of his pink-striped
+nightshirt, so that he would be in proper shape to receive any of the
+sisters. Then he lay very still, his eyes closed, as they came tiptoeing
+in and out. Their tongues were on gentle tiptoe too, although not so
+gentle but that he could hear them advising: one, a "good, stiff mustard
+plaster"; one, an "onion poultice"; another, a "Spanish blister"; while
+Aunt Nancy stopped short of nothing less than "old-fashioned bleeding."
+Abe lay very still and wondered if they meant to kill him. He was
+probably going to die anyhow, so why torment him. Only when he was dead,
+he hoped that they would think more kindly of him. And so surrounded yet
+alone, the old man fought his secret terror until mercifully he went to
+sleep.
+
+When he awoke there were the sisters again; and day after day they
+spent their combined efforts in keeping him on his back and forcing him
+to take his medicine, the only appreciable good resulting therefrom
+being the fact that with this tax upon their devotion the old ladies
+came once more to regard Abe as the most precious possession of the
+Home.
+
+"What ef he should die?" they whispered among themselves, repentant
+enough of their late condemnation of him and already desolate at the
+thought of his leaving this little haven with them for the "great haven"
+over there; and the whisper reaching the sickroom, Abe's fever would
+rise, while he could never lift his lashes except to see the specter of
+helpless old age on one side of the bed and death upon the other.
+
+"What's the matter with me?" he demanded of the doctor, as one who would
+say: "Pooh! pooh! You're a humbug! What do you mean by keeping me in
+bed?" Yet the old man was trembling with that inner fear. The physician,
+a feminine kind of a bearded creature himself, took Abe's hand in
+his--an engaging trick he had with the old ladies.
+
+"Now, my friend, do not distress yourself. Of course, you are a very
+sick man; I cannot deceive you as to that; but during my professional
+career, I have seen some remarkable cases of recovery and--"
+
+"But what's the matter with me?" broke in Abe, by this time fairly white
+with fear. The doctor had assured him that all his organs were sound,
+so he could only conclude that he must have one of those unusual
+diseases such as Miss Abigail was reading about in the paper yesterday.
+Maybe, although his legs were so thin to-day, he was on the verge of an
+attack of elephantiasis!
+
+"What's the matter with me?" he repeated, his eyes growing wilder and
+wilder.
+
+What the doctor really replied would be difficult to tell; but out of
+the confusion of his technicalities Abe caught the words, "nerves" and
+"hysteria."
+
+"Mother, yew hear that?" he cried. "I got narvous hysterics. I told yer
+somethin' would happen ter me a-comin' to this here place. All them old
+woman's diseases is ketchin'. Why on 'arth didn't yer let me go to the
+poorhouse?"
+
+He fell back on the pillow and drew the bedclothes up to his ears, while
+Angy followed the doctor out into the hall to receive, as Abe supposed,
+a more detailed description of his malady. He felt too weak, however, to
+question Angy when she returned, and stubbornly kept his eyes closed
+until he heard Mrs. Homan tiptoe into the room to announce in hushed
+tones that Blossy and Samuel Darby were below, and Samuel wanted to know
+if he might see the invalid.
+
+Then Abe threw off the covers in a hurry and sat up. "Sam'l Darby?" he
+asked, the strength coming back into his voice. "A man! Nary a woman
+ner a doctor! Yes--yes, show him up!"
+
+Angy nodded in response to Mrs. Homan's glance of inquiry; for had not
+the doctor told her that it would not hasten the end to humor the
+patient in any reasonable whim? And she also consented to withdraw when
+Abe informed her that he wished to be left alone with his visitor, as it
+was so long since he had been face to face with a man "an' no petticoat
+a-hangin' 'round the corner."
+
+"Naow, be keerful, Cap'n Darby," the little mother-wife cautioned at the
+door, "be very keerful. Don't stay tew long an' don't rile him up, fer
+he's dretful excited, Abe is."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+MENTAL TREATMENT
+
+
+Little Samuel Darby paused at the foot of the bed and stared at Abe
+without saying a word, while Abe fixed his dim, distressed eyes on his
+visitor with a dumb appeal for assistance. Samuel looked a very
+different man from the old bachelor who used to come a-wooing every six
+months at the Home. Either marriage had brought him a new growth of
+hair, or else Blossy had selected a new wig for him--a modest, close,
+iron-gray which fitted his poll to perfection. Marriage or Blossy had
+also overcome in Samuel that tendency to hang his head "to starb'd";
+and now he lifted his bright eyes with the manner of one who would say:
+
+"See! I'm king of myself and my household! Behold what one woman has
+done for me!" And in turn Abe's unstrung vigor and feeble dependence
+cried out as loudly: "I haven't a leg left to stand on. Behold what too
+much woman has done for me!"
+
+"Ain't yew a-goin' ter shake hands?" inquired Abraham at last, wondering
+at the long silence and the incomprehensible stare, his fears
+accentuated by this seeming indication of a supreme and hopeless pity.
+"Ain't yew a-goin' ter shake hands? Er be yew afeard of ketchin' it,
+tew?"
+
+For a moment longer Samuel continued to stare, then of a sudden he
+roared, "Git up!"
+
+"Huh?" queried Abe, not believing his own ears. "Why, Cap'n Sam'l, don't
+yew know that I'm a doomed man? I got the 'narvous hysterics.'"
+
+"Yew got the pip!" retorted Captain Darby contemptuously, and trotting
+quickly around to the side of the bed, he seized Abe by the shoulders
+and began to drag him out upon the floor, crying again, "Git up!"
+
+The sick man could account for this remarkable behavior in no way except
+by concluding that his old captain had gone into senile dementia--oh,
+cruel, cruel afflictions that life brings to old folks when life is
+almost done! Well, thought Abe, he would rather be sick and die in his
+right mind than go crazy. He began to whimper, whereupon Samuel threw
+him back upon his pillows in disgust.
+
+"Cryin'! Oh, I swan, he's cryin'!" Darby gave a short laugh pregnant
+with scorn. "Abe Rose, dew yew know what ails yew?" he demanded fixing
+his eyes fiercely upon the invalid. "Dew yew know what'll happen tew yew
+ef yew don't git out o' this bed an' this here house? Either yer
+beard'll fall out an' yew'll dwindle deown ter the size o' a baby or
+yew'll turn into a downright old woman--Aunt Abraham!--won't that sound
+nice? Or yew'll die or yew'll go crazy. _Git out er bed!_"
+
+The patient shook his head and sank back, closing his eyes, more
+exhausted than ever. And he himself had heard Angy warn this man in a
+whisper not to "rile him up!" Remorselessly went on the rejuvenated
+Darby:
+
+"Hain't a-goin' ter git up, heh? Yew old mollycoddle! Yew baby! Old Lady
+31! Kiffy calf! But I hain't a-blamin' yew; ef I had lived in this here
+place a year an' a half, I'd be stark, starin' mad! Leetle
+tootsie-wootsie! _Git up_!"
+
+Abe had opened his eyes and was once more staring at the other, his mind
+slowly coming to the light of the realization that Samuel might be more
+sane than himself.
+
+"That's what I told Angy all along," he ventured. "I told her, I says,
+says I, 'Humbug! Foolishness! Ye 're a-makin' a reg'lar baby of me.
+Why,' I says, 'what's the difference between me an' these here
+women-folks except that I wear a beard an' smoke a pipe?'"
+
+"Then why don't yew git up?" demanded the inexorable Samuel. "Git up an'
+fool 'em; or, gosh-all-hemlock! they'll be measurin' yew fer yer coffin
+next week. When I come inter the hall, what dew yew think these here
+sisters o' yourn was a-discussin'? They was a-arguin' the p'int as to
+whether they'd bury yew in a shroud or yer Sunday suit."
+
+Abraham put one foot out of bed. Samuel took hold of his arm and with
+this assistance the old man managed to get up entirely and stand, though
+shaking as if with the palsy, upon the floor.
+
+"Feel pooty good, don't yew?" demanded Samuel, but with less severity.
+
+"A leetle soft, a leetle soft," muttered the other. "Gimme my cane.
+Thar, ef one o' them women comes in the door I'll--I'll--" Abraham
+raised his stick and shook it at the innocent air. "Whar's my pipe? Mis'
+Homan, she went an' hid it last week."
+
+After some searching, Samuel found the pipe in Abe's hat-box underneath
+the old man's beaver, and produced from his own pocket a package of
+tobacco, whereupon the two sat down for a quiet smoke, Samuel chuckling
+to himself every now and again, Abe modestly seeking from time to time
+to cover his bare legs with the skirt of his pink-striped night-robe,
+not daring to reach for a blanket lest Samuel should call him names
+again. With the very first puff of his pipe, the light had come back
+into the invalid's eyes; with the second, the ashen hue completely left
+his cheek; and when he had pulled the tenth time on the pipe, Abe was
+ready to laugh at the sisters, the whole world, and even himself.
+
+"Hy-guy, but it's splendid to feel like a man ag'in!"
+
+The witch of Hawthorne's story never gazed more fondly at her
+"Feathertop" than Samuel now gazed at Abraham puffing away on his pipe;
+but he determined that Abraham's fate should not be as poor
+"Feathertop's." Abe must remain a man.
+
+"Naow look a-here, Abe," he began after a while, laying his hand on the
+other's knee, "dew yew know that yew come put' nigh gittin' swamped in
+the big breakers? Ef I hadn't come along an' throwed out the life-line,
+yew--"
+
+"Sam'l," interrupted the new Abraham, not without a touch of asperity,
+"whar yew been these six months? A-leavin' me ter die of apron-strings
+an' doctors! Of course I didn't 'spect nuthin' o' yew when yew was jist
+a bachelor, an' we'd sort o' lost sight er each other fer many a year,
+but arter yew got connected with the Hum by marriage sorter--"
+
+"Connected with the Hum by marriage!" broke in Samuel with a snort of
+indignant protest. "Me!" Words failed him. He stared at Abe with burning
+eyes, but Abe only insisted sullenly:
+
+"Whar yew an' Blossy been all this time?"
+
+"Dew yew mean ter tell me, Abe Rose, that yew didn't know that Aunt
+Nancy forbid Blossy the house 'cause she didn't go an' ask her
+permission ter git spliced? Oh, I fergot," he added. "Yew'd gone
+up-stairs ter take a nap that day we come back from the minister's."
+
+Abraham flushed. He did not care to recall Samuel's wedding-day. He
+hastened to ask the other what had decided him and Blossy to come to-day,
+and was informed that Miss Abigail had written to tell Blossy that if
+she ever expected to see her "Brother Abe" alive again, she must come
+over to Shoreville at the earliest possible moment.
+
+"Then I says ter Blossy," concluded Captain Darby, "I says, says I,
+'Jest lemme see that air pore old hen-pecked Abe Rose. I'll kill him er
+cure him!' I says. Here, yer pipe 's out. Light up ag'in!"
+
+Abe struck the match with a trembling hand, unnerved once more by the
+speculation as to what might have happened had Samuel's treatment worked
+the other way.
+
+"I left Blossy an' Aunt Nancy a-huggin' an' a-kissin' down-stairs."
+
+Abe sighed: "Aunt Nancy allers was more bark than bite."
+
+"Humph! Barkin' cats must be tryin' ter live with. Abe," he tapped the
+old man's knee again, "dew yew know what yew need? A leetle vacation, a
+change of air. Yew want ter cut loose from this all-fired old ladies'
+shebang an' go sky-larkin'." Abe hung on Samuel's words, his eyes
+a-twinkle with anticipation. "Yes--yes, go sky-larkin'! Won't we make
+things hum?"
+
+"Thar's hummin' an' hummin'," objected Abe, with a sudden show of
+caution. "Miss Abigail thinks more o' wash-day than some folks does o'
+heaven. Wharabouts dew yew cak'late on a-goin'?"
+
+"Tew Bleak Hill!"
+
+Abraham's face lost its cautious look, his eyes sparkled once more. Go
+back to the Life-saving Station where he had worked in his lusty
+youth--back to the sound of the surf upon the shore, back to the pines
+and cedars of the Beach, out of the bondage of dry old lavender to the
+goodly fragrance of balsam and sea-salt! Back to active life among men!
+
+"Men, men, nawthin' but men!" Samuel exploded as if he had read the
+other's thought. "Nawthin' but men fer a hull week, that's my
+perscription fer yew! Haow dew yew feel naow, mate?"
+
+For answer Abe made a quick spring out of his chair, and in his bare
+feet commenced to dance a gentle, rheumatic-toe-considering breakdown,
+crying, "Hy-guy, Cap'n Sam'l, you've saved my life!" While Darby clapped
+his hands together, proud beyond measure at his success as the
+emancipator of his woman-ridden friend.
+
+Neither heard the door open nor saw Angy standing on the threshold, half
+paralyzed with fear and amazement, thinking that she was witnessing the
+mad delirium of a dying man, until she called out her husband's name.
+At the sound of her frightened voice, Abe stopped short and reached for
+the blanket with which to cover himself.
+
+"Naow don't git skeered, Mother, don't git skeered," he abjured her.
+"I'm all right in my head. Cap'n Sam'l here, he brung me some wonderful
+medicine. He--"
+
+"Blossy said you did!" interrupted Angy, a light of intense gratitude
+flashing across her face as she turned eagerly to Darby. "Lemme see the
+bottle."
+
+"I chucked it out o' the winder," affirmed Samuel without winking, and
+Abe hastened to draw Angy's attention back to himself.
+
+"See, Mother, I kin stand as good as anybody; hain't got no fever; I
+kin walk alone. Yew seen me dancin' jest naow, tew. An' ef I had that
+pesky leetle banty rooster of a doctor here, I'd kick him all the way
+deown-stairs. Cap'n Sam'l's wuth twenty-five o' him."
+
+"Yew kept the perscription, didn't yer, cap'n?" demanded Angy. "Naow ef
+he should be took ag'in an'--"
+
+Samuel turned away and coughed.
+
+"Mother, Mother," cried Abe, "shet the door an' come set deown er all
+the sisters'll come a-pilin' in. I've had a invite, I have!"
+
+Angy closed the door and came forward, her wary suspicious eye trailing
+from the visitor to her husband.
+
+"Hy-guy, ain't it splendid!" Abe burst forth. "Me an' Cap'n Sam'l here
+is a-goin' over ter Bleak Hill fer a week."
+
+"Bleak Hill in December!" Angy cried, aghast. "Naow, see here, Father,"
+resolutely, "medicine er no medicine--"
+
+"He's got ter git hardened up," firmly interposed Dr. Darby; "it'll be
+the makin' o' him."
+
+Angy turned on Samuel with ruffled feathers.
+
+"He'll freeze ter death. Yew shan't--"
+
+Here Abe's stubborn will, so rarely set against Angy's gentle
+persistence, rose up in defiance:
+
+"We're a-gwine on a reg'lar A No. 1 spree with the boys, an' no
+women-folks is a-goin' ter stop us neither."
+
+"When?" asked Angy faintly, feeling Abe's brow, but to her surprise
+finding it cool and healthy.
+
+"Ter-morrer!" proclaimed Samuel; whereupon Abe looked a little dubious
+and lifted up his two feet, wrapped as they were in the blanket, to
+determine the present strength of his legs.
+
+"Don't yer think yer'd better make it day after ter-morrer?" he
+ventured.
+
+"Or 'long erbout May er June?" Angy hastily amended.
+
+Samuel gave an exasperated grunt.
+
+"See here, whose spree is this?" Abe demanded of the little old wife.
+
+She sighed, then resolved on strategy:
+
+"Naow, Abe, ef yew be bound an' possessed ter go ter the Beach, yew go;
+but I'm a-goin' a-visitin' tew, an' I couldn't git the pair o' us ready
+inside a week. I'm a-goin' deown ter see Blossy. She ast me jist naow,
+pendin', she says, Cap'n Sam'l here cures Abe up ernough ter git him
+off. I thought she was crazy then."
+
+Samuel knocked the ashes out of his pipe against the window-sill and
+arose to go.
+
+"Waal," he said grudgingly, "make it a week from ter-day then, rain
+shine, snow er blow, er a blizzard. Ef yer ever a-goin' ter git
+hardened, Abe, naow's the time! I'll drive over 'long erbout ten o'clock
+an' git somebody ter sail us from here; er ef the bay freezes over
+'twixt naow an' then, ter take us in a scooter."
+
+A "scooter," it may be explained, is an ice-boat peculiar to the Great
+South Bay--a sort of modified dingy on runners.
+
+"Yes--yes, a scooter," repeated Samuel, turning suddenly on Abe with the
+sharp inquiry: "Air yew a-shiverin'? Hain't, eh? Waal then, a week from
+ter-day, so be it!" he ended. "But me an' Blossy is a-comin' ter see yew
+off an' on pooty frequent meanstwhile; an', Abe, ef ever I ketch yew
+a-layin' abed, I'll leave yew ter yer own destruction."
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+"A PASSEL OF MEDDLERS"
+
+
+Angy's secret hope that Abe would change his mind and abandon the
+projected trip to the Beach remained unfulfilled, in spite of the fact
+that cold weather suddenly descended on the South Side, and the bay
+became first "scummed" over with ice, and then frozen so solid that all
+its usual craft disappeared, and the "scooters" took possession of the
+field.
+
+Abe and Samuel held stubbornly to their reckless intentions; and the
+sisters, sharing Angy's anxiety, grew solicitous almost to the point of
+active interference. They withheld nothing in the way of counsel,
+criticism, or admonition which could be offered.
+
+"Naow," said Mrs. Homan in her most commanding tones at the end of a
+final discussion in the big hall, on the evening before the date set for
+departure, "ef yew're bound, bent, an' determined, Brother Abe, to run
+in the face of Providence, yew want tew mind one thing, an' wear yer
+best set of flannels ter-morrer."
+
+"Sho, thar hain't no danger of me ketchin' cold," decried Abe.
+
+"I didn't say yer thickest set of flannels; I said yer best. When a man
+gits throwed out onto the ice ker flump, the thickness of his clo'es
+ain't goin' to help him much. The fust thing I allus taught my husbands
+was to have everything clean an' whole on, when thar was any likelihood
+of a sudden death."
+
+"Yew 'spect me tew go an' prink up fer a sudden death?" thundered
+Abraham. "I hain't never heard tell on a scooter a-killin' nobody yit;
+it's them plagued ice-boats up State what--"
+
+"That's all very well," persisted Mrs. Homan, not to be diverted from
+her subject; "but when old Dr. Billings got run over by the train at
+Mastic Crossin' on Fourth o' July eight year ago, his wife told me with
+her own lips that she never would git over it, cuz he had his hull big
+toe stickin' out o' the end of his stockin'. I tell yew, these days
+we've got tew prepare fer a violent end."
+
+The patient Angy somewhat tartly retorted, that during the last week
+she had spent even more time upon Father's wardrobe than she had upon
+her own; while Abe inwardly rejoiced to think that for seven days to
+come--seven whole days--he and Angy would be free from the surveillance
+of the sisters.
+
+Mrs. Homan, in no way nonplussed, boomed on:
+
+"Thar, I most fergot about his necktie. 'Course, they don't dress up
+much at the Station; but jest the same that air tie o' yourn, Brother
+Abe, is a disgrace. I told yew yew'd spile it a-wearin' it tew bed.
+Naow, I got a red an' green plaid what belonged to my second stepson,
+Henry O. He never would 'a' died o' pneumony, either, ef he'd a-took my
+advice an' made himself a newspaper nightcap last time he substituted
+with the 'Savers. An' yew kin have that necktie jest as well as not.
+Naow, don't say a word; I'm better able to part with it 'n yew be not to
+take it."
+
+No one ever attempted the fruitless task of stopping Mrs. Homan once
+fully launched; but when at last she permitted her back to rest against
+her chair, folding her arms with the manner of one who makes a sacrifice
+in a worthy cause, Abe broke into an explosive protest.
+
+If any one fretted him in his somewhat fretful convalescence, it was
+this grenadier member of the household, who since Blossy's marriage had
+endeavored to fill the vacant post of "guardeen angel."
+
+"Mis' Homan," he sputtered, rising to his feet, "I wouldn't wear a red
+an' green plaid tie to a eel's funeral!"
+
+Then with a somewhat ungracious "good-night" to the company in general,
+he trudged across the hall and up the stairs, muttering something to
+himself about a "passel of meddlers."
+
+Well-meaning Miss Abigail, who had been nodding half asleep, roused
+herself to call after him, and he paused unwillingly to heed.
+
+"Naow, don't yew lose no sleep ter-night," she admonished, "a-worryin'
+erbout the change in yer vittles. I told Cap'n Sam'l that hardtack an'
+sech like wouldn't never do fer yer weak stummick, an' he promised me
+faithful he'd send somebody tew the mainland every day fer milk."
+
+"Dew yew think I be a baby?" shouted Abraham, turning on his heel. "I
+know now what makes my teeth so sore lately," mumbling to himself; "it's
+from this here arrer-root an' all these puddin'y messes. They need
+hardenin', tew."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE PRODIGAL'S DEPARTURE
+
+
+Abraham was up betimes in the morning to greet a day crisp and cold,
+quiet, yet with sufficient breeze stirring the evergreens in the yard
+outside to make him predict a speedy voyage.
+
+The old man was nervous and excited, and, in spite of his buoyant
+anticipations, somewhat oppressed, now that the day had actually come,
+with a sense of timidity and fear. Still, he put on a bold face while
+Angeline fastened his refractory collar and tied his cravat.
+
+This was neither Mrs. Roman's offering nor Abe's own old, frayed tie,
+but a new black one which had mysteriously been thrust through the crack
+under the door during the night.
+
+So, the last finishing touches having been put upon his toilet, and Angy
+having made ready by lamplight for her own trip, even before the old man
+was awake, there seemed nothing left to be done until the breakfast bell
+should ring.
+
+Abe sat down, and looking hard at his open carpet-bag wondered audibly
+if they had "everythin' in." The last time they two had packed Abe's
+wardrobe for a visit to Bleak Hill had been many years ago, when Samuel
+Darby, though somewhat Abe's junior, was keeper of the Life-saving
+Station, and Abe was to be gone for a whole season's duty. Then all of
+his possessions had been stowed in a long, bolster-like canvas bag for
+the short voyage.
+
+Both Angy and her husband recalled that time now--the occasion of their
+first, and almost of their last, real separation.
+
+"A week'll pass in no time," murmured Angy very quickly, with a catch in
+her voice. "Lookin' ahead, though, seven days seems awful long when yer
+old; but--Oh, law, yes; a week'll pass in no time," she repeated. "Only
+dew be keerful, Abe, an' don't take cold."
+
+She perched herself on her little horsehair trunk which she had packed
+to take to Blossy's, looking in her time-worn silk gown like a rusty
+blackbird, and, like a bird, she bent her head first to one side and
+then the other, surveying Abe in his "barrel clothes" with a critical
+but complimentary eye.
+
+"Wonder who made that necktie?" she questioned. "I'll bet yer 't was
+Aunt Nancy; she's got a sharp tongue, but a lot of silk pieces an' a
+tender spot in her heart fer yew, Abe. Ruby Lee says she never thought
+yew'd bring her around; yew're dretful takin' in yer ways, Father,
+thar's no use a-talkin'."
+
+Abraham glanced at himself in the glass, and pulled at his beard, his
+countenance not altogether free from a self-conscious vanity.
+
+"I hain't sech a bad-lookin' feller when I'm dressed up, be I, Mother? I
+dunno ez it's so much fer folks ter say I look like Abe Lincoln, after
+all; he was dretful humbly."
+
+"Father," Angy said coaxingly, "why don't yer put some o' that air
+'sweet stuff' Miss Abigail give yer on yer hair? She'll feel real hurt
+ef she don't smell it on yer when yew go down-stairs."
+
+Abe made a wry face, took up the tiny bottle of "Jockey Club," and
+rubbed a few drops on his hands. His hands would wash, and so he could
+find some way of removing the odor before he reached the station
+and--the men.
+
+"I'll be some glad ter git away from these here fussy old hens fer a
+spell," he grumbled, as he slammed the vial back on the bureau; but Angy
+looked so reproachful and grieved that he felt ashamed of his
+ingratitude, and asked with more gentleness:
+
+"Yew goin' ter miss me, Mother?"
+
+Then the old wife was ashamed to find herself shaking of a sudden, and
+grown wretchedly afraid--afraid of the separation, afraid of the
+"hardening" process, afraid of she knew not what.
+
+"I'm glad 't ain't goin' ter be fer all winter this time," she said
+simply; then arose to open the door in order that he might not see the
+rush of tears to her foolish, old eyes.
+
+According to the arrangement, Captain Darby was to drive over from Twin
+Coves with his hired man, and Ezra, after taking the two old men to the
+bay, was to return to the Home for Angy and her little trunk.
+
+When Samuel drove up to the front door, he found Abe pacing the porch,
+his coat-collar turned up about his neck, his shabby fur cap pulled over
+his brow, his carpet-bag on the step, and, piled on the bench at the
+side of the door, an assortment of woolen articles fully six feet high,
+which afterward developed to be shawls, capes, hoods, comforters,
+wristlets, leggings, nubias, fascinators, guernseys, blankets, and
+coats.
+
+Abe was fuming and indignant, scornful of the contributions, and vowing
+that, though the sisters might regard a scooter as a freight
+ocean-liner, he would carry nothing with him but what he wore and his
+carpet-bag.
+
+"An' right yer be," pronounced Samuel, with a glance at the laden bench
+and a shake of his head which said as plainly as words, "Brother, from
+what am I not delivering thee?"
+
+The sisters came bustling out of the door, Mrs. Homan in the lead, Angy
+submerged in the crowd, and from that moment there was such a fuss, so
+much excitement, so many instructions and directions for the two
+adventurers, that Abraham found himself in the carriage before he had
+kissed Angy good-by.
+
+He had shaken hands, perhaps not altogether graciously, with every one
+else, even with the deaf-and-dumb gardener who came out of his
+hiding-place to witness the setting-out. Being dared to by all the
+younger sisters, he had waggishly brushed his beard against Aunt Nancy
+Smith's cheek, and then he had taken his place beside Samuel without a
+touch or word of parting to his wife.
+
+He turned in his seat to wave to the group on the porch, his eyes
+resting in a sudden hunger upon Angeline's frail, slender figure, as he
+remembered. She knew that he had forgotten in the flurry of his
+leave-taking, and she would have hastened down the steps to stop the
+carriage; but all the old ladies were there to see, and she simply
+stood, and gazed after the vehicle as it rolled away slowly behind the
+jog trot of Samuel's safe, old calico-horse. She stood and looked,
+holding her chin very high, and trying to check its unsteadiness.
+
+A sense of loneliness and desolation fell over the Home. Piece by piece
+the sisters put away all the clothing they had offered in vain to Abe.
+They said that the house was already dull without his presence. Miss
+Abigail began to plan what she should have for dinner the day of his
+return.
+
+No one seemed to notice Angy. She felt that her own departure would
+create scarcely a stir; for, without Abraham, she was only one of a
+group of poor, old women in a semi-charity home.
+
+Slowly she started up the stairs for her bonnet and the old broche
+shawl. When she reached the landing, where lay the knitted mat of the
+three-star pattern, the matron called up to her in tragic tones:
+
+"Angy Rose, I jest thought of it. He never kissed yew good-by!"
+
+Angy turned, her small, slender feet sinking deep into one of the
+woolly stars, her slim figure encircled by the light from the upper hall
+window. She saw a dozen faces uplifted to her, and she answered with
+quiet dignity:
+
+"Abe wouldn't think of kissin' me afore folks."
+
+Then quickly she turned again, and went to her room--their room--where
+she seated herself at the window, and pressed her hand against her heart
+which hurt with a new, strange, unfamiliar pain, a pain that she could
+not have shown "afore folks."
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+CUTTING THE APRON-STRINGS
+
+
+The usual hardy pleasure-seekers that gather at the foot of Shore Lane
+whenever the bay becomes a field of ice and a field of sport as well
+were there to see the old men arrive, and as they stepped out of the
+carriage there came forward from among the group gathered about the fire
+on the beach the editor of the "Shoreville Herald."
+
+Ever since his entrance into the Old Ladies' Home, Abe had never stopped
+chafing in secret over the fact that until he died, and no doubt
+received a worthy obituary, he might never again "have his name in the
+paper."
+
+In former days the successive editors of the local sheet had been
+willing, nay, eager, to chronicle his doings and Angy's, whether Abe's
+old enemy, rheumatism, won a new victory over him or Angy's second
+cousin Ruth came from Riverhead to spend the day or--wonder indeed to
+relate!--the old man mended his roof or painted the front fence. No
+matter what happened of consequence to Captain and Mrs. Rose, Mr. Editor
+had always been zealous to retail the news--before the auction sale of
+their household effects marked the death of the old couple, and of Abe
+especially, to the social world of Shoreville. What man would care to
+read his name between the lines of such a news item as this?
+
+The Old Ladies' Home is making preparations for its annual quilting
+bee. Donations of worsted, cotton batting, and linings will be
+gratefully received.
+
+
+Mr. Editor touched his cap to the two old men. He was a keen-faced,
+boyish little man with a laugh bigger than himself, but he always wore a
+worried air the day before his paper, a weekly, went to press, and he
+wore that worried look now. Touching his hand to his fur cap, he
+informed Samuel and Abe that news was "as scarce as hens' teeth"; then
+added: "What's doing?"
+
+"Oh, nawthin', nawthin'," hastily replied Samuel, who believed that he
+hated publicity, as he gave Abe's foot a sly kick. "We was jest a-gwine
+ter take a leetle scooter sail." He adjusted the skirt of his coat in
+an effort to hide Abe's carpet-bag, his own canvas satchel, and a huge
+market-basket of good things which Blossy had cooked for the
+life-savers. "Seen anythink of that air Eph Seaman?" Samuel added;
+shading his eyes with his hand and peering out upon the gleaming surface
+of the bay, over which the white sails of scooters were darting like a
+flock of huge, single-winged birds.
+
+"Eph's racing with Captain Bill Green," replied the newspaper man.
+"Captain Bill's got an extra set of new runners at the side of his
+scooter and wants to test them. Say, boys," looking from one to the
+other of the old fellows, "so you're going scootering, eh? Lively sport!
+Cold kind of sport for men of your age. Do you know, I've a good mind
+to run in to-morrow an article on 'Long Island and Longevity,' Taking
+head-line, eh? Captain Rose," turning to Abe as Samuel would do no more
+than glower at him, "to what do you attribute your good health at your
+time of life?"
+
+Abe grinned all over his face and cleared his throat importantly, but
+before he could answer, Samuel growled:
+
+"Ter me! His health an' his life both. I dragged him up out of a
+deathbed only a week ago."
+
+The editor took out his note-book and began scribbling.
+
+"What brought you so low, Captain Rose?" he inquired without glancing
+up. Again, before Abe could answer, Samuel trod on his toe.
+
+"Thirty mollycoddling women-folks."
+
+Abe found his voice and slammed the fist of one hand against the palm of
+the other.
+
+"If you go an' put that in the paper, I'll--I'll--"
+
+Words failed him. He could see the sisters fairly fighting for the
+possession of the "Shoreville Herald" to-morrow evening, as they always
+scrambled each for the first glance at the only copy taken at the Home,
+and he could hear one reading his name aloud--reading of the black
+ingratitude of their brother member.
+
+"Jest say," he added eagerly, "that the time fer old folks ter stick
+home under the cellar-door has passed, an' nobody is tew old ter go
+a-gallivantin' nowadays. An' then yew might mention"--the old man's
+face was shining now as he imagined Angy's pleasure--"that Mis' Rose is
+gone deown ter Twin Coves ter visit Mis' Sam'l Darby fer a week, an'
+Cap'n Darby an' Cap'n Abraham Rose," his breast swelling out, "is
+a-goin' ter spend a week at Bleak Hill. Thar, hain't that Cap'n Eph
+a-scootin' in naow? I guess them air new runners o' Bill Green's didn't
+work. He hain't nowhere in sight. He--"
+
+"Le' 's be a-gwine, Abe," interrupted Samuel, and leaving the editor
+still scribbling, he led the way down the bank with a determined trudge,
+his market-basket in one hand, his grip in the other, and his lips
+muttering that "a feller couldn't dew nuthin' in Shoreville without
+gittin' his name in the paper." But a moment later, when the two were
+walking gingerly over the ice to the spot where Eph had drawn his
+scooter to a standstill, Samuel fell into a self-congratulatory chuckle.
+
+"He didn't find out though that I had my reasons fer leavin' home tew.
+Women-folks, be it only one, hain't good all the time fer nobody. I come
+ter see Blossy twict a year afore we was married reg'lar; an' naow, I
+cak'late ter leave her twict a year fer a spell. A week onct every six
+months separate an' apart," proceeded the recently made benedict, "is
+what makes a man an' his wife learn haow ter put up with one another in
+between-times."
+
+"Why, me an' Angy," began Abe, "have lived tergether year in an' year
+out fer--"
+
+"All aboard!" interrupted Captain Eph with a shout. "It's a fair wind. I
+bet on making it in five minutes and fifty seconds!"
+
+Seven minutes had been the record time for the five-mile sail over the
+ice to Bleak Hill, but Samuel and Abe, both vowing delightedly that the
+skipper couldn't go too fast for them, stepped into the body of the boat
+and squatted down on the hard boards. They grinned at each other as the
+scooter started and Eph jumped aboard--grinned and waved to the people
+on the shore, their proud old thoughts crying:
+
+"I guess folks will see now that we're as young as we ever was!"
+
+They continued to grin as the boat spun into full flight and went
+whizzing over the ice, whizzing and bumping and bouncing. Both their
+faces grew red, their two pairs of eyes began to water, their teeth
+began to chatter; but Samuel shouted at the top of his voice in defiance
+of the gale:
+
+"Abe, we've cut the apron-strings!"
+
+"Hy-guy!" Abe shouted in return, his heart flying as fast as the sail,
+back to youth and manhood again, back to truant-days and the
+vacation-time of boyhood. "Hy-guy, Sam'l! Hain't we a-gwine ter have a
+reg'lar A No. 1 spree!"
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE "HARDENING" PROCESS
+
+
+The Life-saving Station was very still. Nos. 3 and 5 had gone out on the
+eight-o'clock patrol. The seventh man was taking his twenty-four hours
+off at his home on the shore. The keeper was working over his report in
+the office. The other members of the crew were up-stairs asleep, and Abe
+and Samuel were bearing each other company in the mess-room.
+
+Abe lay asleep on the carpet-covered sofa which had been dragged out of
+the captain's room for him, so that the old man need not spend the night
+in the cold sleeping-loft above. He was fully dressed except for his
+boots; for he was determined to conform to the rules of the Service, and
+sleep with his clothes on ready for instant duty.
+
+"Talk erbout him a-dyin'!" growled Samuel to himself, lounging wearily
+in a chair beside the stove. "He's jest startin' his life. He's a
+reg'lar hoss. I didn't think he had it in him."
+
+Samuel's tone was resentful. He was a little jealous of the distinction
+which had been made between him and Abe; and drawing closer to the fire,
+he shivered in growing distaste for the cot assigned to him with the
+crew up-stairs, where the white frost lay on the window-latches.
+
+What uncomfortable chairs they had in this station! Samuel listened to
+the mooing of the breakers, to the wind rattling at the casements,--and
+wondered if Blossy had missed him. About this time, she must be sitting
+in her chintz-covered rocker, combing out the ringlets of her
+golden-white hair in the cheery firelight.
+
+Now, that would be a sight worth seeing! Abe opened his mouth and began
+to snore. What disgusting, hideous creatures men were, reflected Samuel.
+Six months' living with an unusually high-bred woman had insensibly
+raised his standards.
+
+Why should he spend a week of his ever-shortening life with such
+inferior beings, just for Abraham's sake--for Abraham's sake, and to
+bear out a theory of his own, which he had already concluded a mistake?
+
+Abe gave a snort, opened his eyes, and muttered sleepily: "This is what
+I call a A No. 1 spree. Naow, ter-morrer--" But mumbling incoherently he
+relapsed into slumber, puffing his lips out into a whistling sound.
+
+Samuel reached for a newspaper on the table, folded it into a missile,
+and started to fling it into the innocent face of the sleeper. But,
+fortunately for Abraham, it was Captain Darby's custom to count ten
+whenever seized by an exasperated impulse, and at the ninth number he
+regretfully dropped the paper.
+
+Then he began to count in another way. Using the forefinger of his right
+hand as a marker, he counted under his breath, "one" on his left thumb,
+then after a frowning interval, "two" on his left forefinger, "three" on
+the middle digit, and so on, giving time for thought to each number,
+until he had exhausted the fingers of his left hand and was ready to
+start on the right.
+
+Count, count, went Samuel, until thrice five was passed, and he began to
+be confused.
+
+Once more Abe awoke, and inquired if the other were trying to reckon the
+number of new wigwags and signals which the Service had acquired since
+they had worked for the government; but on being sharply told to "Shet
+up!" went to sleep again.
+
+What the projector of the trip was really trying to recall was how many
+times that day he had regretted saving Abe from the devastating clutches
+of the old ladies.
+
+"Him need hardenin'?" muttered Samuel blackly. "Why, he's harder now 'n
+nails an' hardtack!"
+
+Again he ran over on his fingers the list of high crimes and
+misdemeanors of which Abe had been guilty.
+
+First,--thumb, left hand,--Abe had insisted on extending their scooter
+sail until he, Samuel, had felt his toes freezing in his boots.
+
+Second,--forefinger, left hand,--on being welcomed by the entire force
+at Bleak Hill and asked how long they expected to stay, Abe had blurted
+out, "A hull week," explaining that Samuel's rule requiring at least
+seven days of exile from his wife every six months barred them from
+returning in less time.
+
+The keeper was a widower, all the other men bachelors. How could they
+be expected to understand? They burst into a guffaw of laughter, and
+Abe, not even conscious that he had betrayed a sacred confidence,
+sputtered and laughed with the rest.
+
+Samuel had half a mind to return to-morrow, "jest to spite 'em." Let's
+see, how many days of this plagued week were left? Six. Six whole
+twenty-four hours away from Blossy and his snug, warm, comfortable nest.
+
+She wasn't used to keepin' house by herself, neither. Would she remember
+to wind the clock on Thursday, and feed the canary, and water the
+abutilon and begonias reg'lar?
+
+Grimly Samuel took up offense No. 3. Abraham had further told the men
+that he had been brought over here for a hardening process; but he was
+willing to bet that if Samuel could keep up with him, he could keep up
+with Samuel.
+
+Then followed offense on offense. Was Samuel to be outdone on his own
+one-time field of action by an old ladies' darling? No!
+
+When Abe sat for a half-hour in the lookout, up in the freezing, cold
+cupola, and did duty "jest to be smart," Samuel sat there on top of his
+own feet, too.
+
+When Abe helped drag out the apparatus-cart over the heavy sands for the
+drill, Samuel helped, too. And how tugging at that rope brought back his
+lumbago!
+
+When Abe rode in the breeches-buoy, Samuel insisted on playing the sole
+survivor of a shipwreck, too, and went climbing stiffly and lumberingly
+up the practice-mast.
+
+Abraham refused to take a nap after dinner; so did Samuel. Abe went down
+to the out-door carpenter-shop in the grove, and planed a board just for
+the love of exertion. Samuel planed two boards and drove a nail.
+
+"We've got two schoolboys with us," said the keeper and the crew.
+
+"Ef I'd a-knowed that yew had more lives 'n my Maltese cat," Samuel was
+muttering over Abe by this time, "I'd--"
+
+Count, count went Captain Darby's fingers. He heard the keeper rattling
+papers in the office just across the threshold, heard him say he was
+about to turn in, and guessed Samuel had better do likewise; but Samuel
+kept on counting.
+
+Count, count went the arraigning fingers. Gradually he grew drowsy, but
+still he went over and over poor Abe's offenses, counting on until of a
+sudden he realized that he was no longer numbering the sins of his
+companion; he was measuring in minutes the time he must spend away from
+Blossy and Twin Coves, and the begonias, and the canary, and the cat.
+
+What would Blossy say if she could feel the temperature of the room in
+which he was supposed to sleep? What would Blossy say if she knew how
+his back ached? Whatever would Blossy do to Abe Rose if she could
+suspect how he had tuckered out her "old man?"
+
+"He's a reg'lar hoss," brooded Samuel. "Oh, my feet!" grabbing at his
+right boot. "I'll bet yer all I got it's them air chilblains. That's
+what," he added, unconsciously speaking aloud.
+
+Abe's lids slowly lifted. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. He turned his
+head on his hard, blue gingham-covered pillow, and stared sleepily at
+the other.
+
+"Yew been noddin', Sam'l? Ain't gittin' sleepy a'ready, are yer?" He
+glanced at the clock. "Why, it's only half past nine. Say, what's the
+matter with me an' yew goin' west ter meet No. 5? Leetle breath o' fresh
+air 'll make us sleep splendid."
+
+He started up from the couch, but dropped back, too heavy with weariness
+to carry off his bravado. Samuel, however, not noticing the discrepancy
+between speech and action, was already at the door leading up-stairs.
+
+"Yew don't drag me out o' this station ter-night, Abe Rose. Yew 're a
+reg'lar hoss; that 's what yew be. A reg'lar hoss! A reg'lar--a
+reg'lar--"
+
+He flung open the door and went trudging as fast as his smarting feet
+could carry him up the steep and narrow steps, wherein the passing of
+other feet for many years had worn little hollows on either side.
+
+Abraham limped from the couch to the door himself, and called after him:
+
+"Sam'l, don't yew want tew sleep by the fire? Yew seem a leetle softer
+than I be. Let me come up-stairs."
+
+There was no answer beyond the vicious slamming of Samuel's boots upon
+the floor above.
+
+Abe raised his voice again, and now came in answer a roar of wrath from
+the cot next to Samuel's.
+
+"Go to bed!" shouted No. 6, a burly, red-headed Irishman. "Go to bed,
+wid ye! Th' young folks do be nadin' a little schlape!"
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+"A REG'LAR HOSS"
+
+
+Abe flung himself back on his hard couch, drew the thick, gray blanket
+over him, and straightway fell into a deep, childlike slumber from which
+he was aroused by the rough but hearty inquiry:
+
+"Say, Cap, like to have some oyster-stew and a cup of coffee?"
+
+Abe sat up, rubbing his eyes, wondering since when they had begun to
+serve oyster-stew for breakfast on the Beach; then he realized that he
+had not overslept, and that it was not morning.
+
+The clock was striking twelve, the midnight patrol was just going out,
+and the returning "runners" were bidding him partake of the food they
+had just prepared to cheer them after their cold tramp along the surf.
+
+The old man whiffed the smell of the coffee, tempted, yet withheld by
+the thought of Angy's horror, and the horror of the twenty-nine sisters.
+
+"Cap'n Abe"--Clarence Havens, No. 5, with a big iron spoon in his hand
+and a blue gingham apron tied around his bronzed neck, put him on his
+mettle, however--"Cap'n Abe, I tell yew, we wouldn't have waked no other
+fellow of your age out of a sound sleep. Cap'n Darby, he could snooze
+till doomsday; but we knowed you wouldn't want to miss no fun a-going."
+
+"Cap'n Sam'l does show his years," Abe admitted. "Much obliged fer yew
+a-wakin' me up, boys," as he drew on his boots. "I was dreamin' I was
+hungry. Law, I wish I had a dollar apiece fer all the eyester-stews I've
+et on this here table 'twixt sunset an' sunrise."
+
+Under the stimulus of the unaccustomed repast, Abe expanded and began to
+tell yarns of the old days on the Beach--the good old days. His cheeks
+grew red, his eyes sparkled. He smoked and leaned back from the table,
+and ate and drank, smoked and ate again.
+
+"A week amongst yew boys," he asserted gaily, "is a-goin' tew be the
+makin' of me. Haow Sam'l kin waste so much time in sleep, I can't
+understand."
+
+"I don't think he is asleep," said No. 3. "When I was up-stairs jest
+now fer my slippers, I heard him kind o' sniffin' inter his piller."
+
+The laugh which followed brought the keeper out of the office in his
+carpet slippers, a patchwork quilt over his shoulders. His quick eyes
+took in the scene--the lamp sputtering above the table, the empty
+dishes, the two members of the crew sleepily jocular, with their blue
+flannel elbows spread over the board, the old man's rumpled bed, and his
+brilliant cheeks and bright eyes.
+
+"Boys, you shouldn't have woke up Cap'n Rose," he said reprovingly. "I'm
+afraid, sir," turning to Abraham, "that you find our manners pretty
+rough after your life among the old ladies."
+
+Abe dropped his eyes in confusion. Was he never to be rid of those
+apron-strings:
+
+"Well, there's worse things than good women," proceeded the captain. "I
+wish we had a few over here." He sighed with the quiet, dull manner of
+the men who have lived long on the Beach. "Since they made the rule that
+the men must eat and sleep in the station, it's been pretty lonely.
+That's why there's so many young fellows in the Service nowadays;
+married men with families won't take the job."
+
+"Them empty cottages out thar," admitted Abe, pointing to the window,
+"does look kind o' lonesome a-goin' ter rack an' ruin. Why, the winter I
+was over here, every man had his wife an' young 'uns on the Beach,
+'cept me an' Sam'l."
+
+Again the keeper sighed, and drew his coverlid closer. "Now, it's just
+men, men, nothing but men. Not a petticoat in five miles; and I tell
+you, sometimes we get mad looking at one another, don't we, boys?"
+
+The two young men had sobered, and their faces also had taken on that
+look engendered by a life of dull routine among sand-hills at the edge
+of a lonely sea, with seldom the sound of a woman's voice in their ears
+or the prattle of little children.
+
+"For two months last winter nobody came near us," said Havens, "and we
+couldn't get off ourselves, either, half the time. The bay broke up into
+porridge-ice after that big storm around New Year's; yew dasn't risk a
+scooter on it or a cat-boat. Feels to me," he added, as he rose to his
+feet, "as if it was blowin' up a genuwine old nor'-easter again."
+
+The other man helped him clear the table. "I'm goin' to get married in
+June," he said suddenly, "and give up this here blamed Service."
+
+"A wife," pronounced Abe, carrying his own dishes into the kitchen, "is
+dretful handy, onct yew git used to her."
+
+The keeper went into the office with a somewhat hurried "Good-night,"
+and soon Abe found himself alone again, the light in the kitchen beyond,
+no sound in the room save that of the booming of the surf, the rattling
+of the windows, and now and again the fall of a clinker in the stove.
+
+The old man was surprised to find that he could not fall back into that
+blissful slumber again. Not sleeping, he had to think. He thought and
+thought,--sober night thoughts,--while the oysters "laid like a log in
+his stummick" and the coffee seemed to stir his brain to greater
+activity.
+
+"Suppose," said the intoxicated brain, "another big storm should swoop
+down upon you and the bay should break up, and you and Samuel should be
+imprisoned on the beach for two or three months with a handful of
+men-folks!"
+
+"Moo! Moo!" roared the breakers on the shore. "Serve you right for
+finding fault with the sisters!"
+
+Come to think of it, if he had not been so ungracious of Miss Abigail's
+concern for him, he would now be in possession of a hop pillow to lull
+him back to sleep. Well, he had made his bed, and he would have to lie
+on it, although it was a hard old carpet-covered lounge. Having no hop
+pillow, he would count sheep--
+
+One sheep going over the fence, two sheep, three--How tired he was! How
+his bones ached! It's no use talking, you can't make an old dog do the
+tricks of his puppy days. What an idiot he had been to climb that
+practice-mast! If he had fallen and broken his leg?
+
+Four sheep. Maybe he was too old for gallivanting, after all. Maybe he
+was too old for anything except just to be "mollycoddled" by thoughtful
+old ladies. Now, be honest with yourself, Abe. Did you enjoy yourself
+to-day--no, yesterday? Did you? Well, yes and--no! Now, if Angy had been
+along!
+
+Angy! That was why he could not go to sleep! He had forgotten to kiss
+her good-by! Wonder if she had noticed it? Wonder if she had missed him
+more on account of that neglect? Pshaw! What nonsense! Angy knew he
+wa'n't no hand at kissin', an' it was apt to give him rheumatism to bend
+down so far as her sweet old mouth.
+
+He turned to the wall at the side of the narrow lounge, to the emptiness
+where her pillow should be. "Good-night, Mother," he muttered huskily.
+Mother did not answer for the first time in nights beyond the counting.
+Mother would not be there to answer for at least six nights to come. A
+week, thought this old man, as the other old man had reflected a few
+hours before, is a long time when one has passed his threescore years
+and ten, and with each day sees the shadows growing longer.
+
+Abraham put out his hard time-shrunken hand and touched in thought his
+wife's pillow, as if to persuade himself that she was really there in
+her place beside him. He remembered when first he had actually touched
+her pillow to convince himself that she was really there, too awed and
+too happy to believe that his youth's dream had come true; and he
+remembered now how his gentle, strong hand had crept along the linen
+until it cupped itself around her cheek; and he had felt the cheek grow
+hot with blushes in the darkness. She had not been "Mother" then; she
+had been "Dearest!" Would she think that he was growing childish if he
+should call her "Dearest" now?
+
+Smiling to himself, he concluded that he would try the effect of the
+tender term when he reached home again. He drew his hand back,
+whispering once more, "Good-night, Mother." Then he fancied he could
+hear her say in her soft, reassuring tone, "Good-night, Father." Father
+turned his back on the empty wall, praying with a sudden rush of
+passionate love that when the last call should come for him, it would be
+after he had said "Good-night, Mother," to Angy and after she had said
+"Good-night, Father," to him, and that they might wake somewhere,
+somehow, together with God, saying, "Good-morning, Mother,"
+"Good-morning, Father!" And "Fair is the day!"
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+THE DESERTER
+
+
+At dawn the Station was wide-awake and everybody out of bed. Samuel
+crept down-stairs in his stocking-feet, his boots in his hand, his eyes
+heavy with sleeplessness, and his wig awry. He shivered as he drew close
+to the fire, and asked in one breath for a prescription for chilblains
+and where might Abe be. Abe's lounge was empty and his blankets neatly
+folded upon it.
+
+The sunrise patrol from the east, who had just returned, made reply
+that he had met Captain Abe walking along the surf to get up an
+appetite for his griddle-cakes and salt pork. Samuel sat down suddenly
+on the lounge and opened his mouth.
+
+"Didn't he have enough exercise yist'day, for marcy's sake! Put' nigh
+killed me. I was that tired las' night I couldn't sleep a wink. I
+declar', ef 't wa'n't fer that fool newspaper a-comin' out ter-night,
+I'd go home ter-day. Yer a-gwine acrost, hain't yer, Havens?"
+
+Havens laughed in response. Samuel glowered at him.
+
+"I want home comforts back," he vowed sullenly. "The Beach hain't what
+it used ter be. Goin' on a picnic with Abe Rose is like settin' yer
+teeth into a cast-iron stove lid covered with a thin layer o' puddin'.
+I'm a-goin' home."
+
+The keeper assured him that no one would attempt to detain him if he
+found the Station uncomfortable, and that if he preferred to leave
+Abraham behind, the whole force would take pleasure in entertaining the
+more active old man.
+
+"That old feller bates a phonograph," affirmed the Irishman. "It's good
+ter hear that he'll be left anyhow for comp'ny with this storm a-comin'
+up."
+
+Samuel rushed to the window, for up-stairs the panes had been too frosty
+for him to see out. A storm coming up? The beach did look gray and
+desolate, dun-colored in the dull light of the early day, with the
+winter-killed grass and the stunted green growth of cedar and holly and
+pine only making splotches of darkness under a gray sky which was filled
+with scurrying clouds. The wind, too, had risen during the night, and
+the increased roar of the surf was telling of foul weather at sea.
+
+A storm threatening! And the pleasant prospect of being shut in at the
+beach with the cast-iron Abraham and these husky life-savers for the
+remainder of the winter! No doubt Abe would insist upon helping the men
+with the double duties imposed by thick weather, and drag Samuel out on
+patrol.
+
+"When dew yew start, Havens?" demanded Samuel in shaking tones. "Le' 's
+get off afore Abe gits back an' tries ter hold me. He seems ter be so
+plagued stuck on the life over here, he'll think I must be tew."
+
+But, though Havens had to wait for the return of the man who had gone
+off duty yesterday morning, still Abe had not put in an appearance when
+Samuel and the life-saver trudged down the trail through the woods to
+the bay. As he stepped into the scooter, Samuel's conscience at last
+began to prick him.
+
+"Yew sure the men will look arter the old fellow well an' not let him
+over-dew?"
+
+But the whizz of the flight had already begun and the scooter's nose was
+set toward Twin Coves, her sail skimming swiftly with the ring of the
+steel against the ice over the shining surface of the bay.
+
+"Law, yes," Samuel eased his conscience; "of course they will. They
+couldn't hurt him, anyhow. I never seen nobody take so kindly ter
+hardenin' as that air Abe."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+SAMUEL'S WELCOME
+
+
+The shore at Twin Coves was a somewhat lonely spot, owing to stretches
+of marshland and a sweep of pine wood that reached almost to the edge of
+the water.
+
+Samuel, however, having indicated that he wished to be landed at the
+foot of a path through the pines, found himself on the home shore
+scarcely ten minutes after he had left Bleak Hill--Havens already
+speeding toward his home some miles to the eastward, the bay seemingly
+deserted except for his sail, a high wind blowing, and the snow
+beginning to fall in scattered flakes.
+
+Samuel picked up his grip, trudged through the heavy sand of the narrow
+beach, and entered the sweet-smelling pine wood. He was stiff with cold
+after the rough, swift voyage; his feet alone were hot--burning hot with
+chilblains. Away down in his heart he was uneasy lest some harm should
+come to Abe and the old man be caught in the approaching storm on the
+Beach. But, oh, wasn't he glad to be home!
+
+His house was still half a mile away; but he was once more on good,
+solid, dry land.
+
+"I'll tell Blossy haow that air Abe Rose behaved," he reassured himself,
+when he pictured his wife's astonished and perhaps reproachful greeting,
+"an' then she won't wonder that I had ter quit him an' come back."
+
+He recollected that Angy would be there, and hoped fervently that she
+might not prove so strenuous a charge as Abraham. Moreover, he hoped
+that she would not so absorb Blossy's attention as to preclude a wifely
+ministering to his aching feet and the application of "St. Jerushy Ile"
+to his lame and sore back.
+
+The torture of the feet and back made walking harder, too, than he had
+believed possible with the prospect of relief so near. As he limped
+along he was forced to pause every now and again and set down the
+carpet-bag, sometimes to rub his back, sometimes to seat himself on a
+stump and nurse for a few moments one of those demon-possessed feet.
+Could he have made any progress at all if he had not known that at
+home, no matter if there was company, there would at least be no Abe
+Rose to keep him going, to spur him on to unwelcome action, to force him
+to prove himself out of sheer self-respect the equal, if not the
+superior, in masculine strength?
+
+Abe had led him that chase over at the Station, Samuel was convinced,
+"a-purpose" to punish him for having so soundly berated him when he lay
+a-bed. That was all the thanks you ever got for doing things for "some
+folks."
+
+Samuel hobbled onward, his brow knit with angry resentment. Did ever a
+half-mile seem so long, and had he actually been only twenty-three hours
+from home and Blossy? Oh, oh! his back and his feet! Oh, the weight of
+that bag! How much he needed sleep! How good it would be to have Blossy
+tuck him under the covers, and give him a hot lemonade with a stick of
+ginger in it!
+
+If only he had hold of Abe Rose now to tell him his opinion of him!
+Well, he reflected, you have to summer and winter with a person before
+you can know them. This one December day and night with Abe had been
+equal to the revelations of a dozen seasons. The next time Samuel tried
+to do good to anybody more than sixty-five, he'd know it. The next time
+he was persuaded into leaving his wife for over night, he'd know that,
+too. Various manuals for the young husband, which he had consulted, to
+the contrary notwithstanding, the place for a married man was at home.
+
+Samuel sat down on a fallen tree which marked the half-way point between
+his place and the bay. The last half of the journey would seem shorter,
+and, at the end, there would be Blossy smiling a welcome, for he never
+doubted but that Blossy would be glad to see him. She thought a good
+deal of him, nor had she been especially anxious for that week of
+separation.
+
+His face smoothed its troubled frowns into a look of shining
+anticipation--the look that Samuel's face had worn when first he ushered
+Blossy into his tidy, little home and murmured huskily:
+
+"Mis' Darby, yew're master o' the vessel naow; I'm jest fo'castle hand."
+
+Forgetting all his aches, his pains, his resentments, Samuel took a
+peppermint-lozenge out of his pocket, rolled it under his tongue, and
+walked on. Presently, as he saw the light of the clearing through the
+trees, he broke into a run,--an old man's trot,--thus proving
+conclusively that his worry of lumbago and chilblains had been merely a
+wrongly diagnosed case of homesickness.
+
+He grinned as he pictured Abe's dismay on returning to the Station to
+find him gone. Still, he reflected, maybe Abe would have a better time
+alone with the young fellows; he had grown so plagued young himself all
+of a sudden. Samuel surely need not worry about him.
+
+More and more good-natured grew Samuel's face, until a sociable rabbit,
+peeping at him from behind a bush, decided to run a race with the old
+gentleman, and hopped fearlessly out into the open.
+
+"Ah, yew young rascal!" cried Samuel. "Yew're the feller that eat up all
+my winter cabbages."
+
+At this uncanny reading of his mind, Mr. Cottontail darted off into the
+woods again to seek out his mate and inform her that their guilt had
+been discovered.
+
+Finally, Samuel came to the break in the woodland, an open field of rye,
+green as springtime grass, and his own exquisitely neat abode beckoning
+across the gray rail-fence to him.
+
+How pretty Blossy's geraniums looked in the sitting-room windows! Even
+at this distance, too, he could see that she had not forgotten to water
+his pet abutilon and begonias. How welcome in the midst of this flurry
+of snow--how welcome to his eye was that smoke coming out of the
+chimneys! All the distress of his trip away from home seemed worth while
+now for the joy of coming back.
+
+Before he had taken down the fence-rail and turned into the path which
+led to his back door, he was straining his ears for the sound of
+Blossy's voice gossiping with Angy. Not hearing it, he hurried the
+faster.
+
+The kitchen door was locked. The key was not under the mat; it was not
+in the safe on the porch, behind the stone pickle-pot. He tried the door
+again, and then peered in at the window.
+
+Not even the cat could be discerned. The kitchen was set in order, the
+breakfast dishes put away, and there was no sign of any baking or
+preparations for dinner.
+
+He knocked, knocked loudly. No answer. He went to a side door, to the
+front entrance, and found the whole house locked, and no key to be
+discovered. It was still early in the morning, earlier than Blossy would
+have been likely to set out upon an errand or to spend the day; and
+then, too, she was not one to risk her health in such chilly, damp
+weather, with every sign of a heavy storm.
+
+Samuel became alarmed. He called sharply, "Blossy!" No answer. "Mis'
+Rose!" No answer. "Ezra!" And still no sound in reply.
+
+His alarm increased. He went to the barn; that was locked and Ezra
+nowhere in sight. By standing on tiptoe, however, and peeping through a
+crack in the boards, he found that his horse and the two-seated surrey
+were missing.
+
+"Waal, I never," grumbled Samuel, conscious once more of all his
+physical discomforts. "The minute my back's turned, they go
+a-gallivantin'. I bet yer," he added after a moment's thought, "I bet
+yer it's that air Angy Rose. She's got ter git an' gad every second same
+as Abe, an' my poor wife has been drug along with her."
+
+There was nothing left for him to do but seek refuge in his shop and
+await their return. Like nearly every other bayman, he had a one-room
+shanty, which he called the "shop," and where he played at building
+boats, and weaving nets, and making oars and tongs.
+
+This structure stood to the north of the house, and fortunately had an
+old, discarded kitchen stove in it. There, if the wanderers had not
+taken that key also, he could build a fire, and stretch out before it on
+a bundle of sail-cloth.
+
+He gave a start of surprise, however, as he approached the place; for
+surely that was smoke coming out of the chimney!
+
+Ezra must have gone out with the horse, and Blossy must be entertaining
+Angy in some outlandish way demanded by the idiosyncrasies of the Rose
+temperament.
+
+Samuel flung open the door, and strode in; but only to pause on the
+threshold, struck dumb. Blossy was not there, Angy was not there, nor
+any one belonging to the household. But sitting on that very bundle of
+canvas, stretching his lean hands over the stove, with Samuel's cat on
+his lap, was the "Old Hoss"--Abraham Rose!
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+EXCHANGING THE OLIVE-BRANCH
+
+
+The cat jumped off Abe's lap, running to Samuel with a mew of
+recognition. Abe turned his head, and made a startled ejaculation.
+
+"Sam'l Darby," he said stubbornly, "ef yew've come tew drag me back to
+that air Beach, yew 're wastin' time. I won't go!"
+
+Samuel closed the door and hung his damp coat and cap over a suit of old
+oilskins. He came to the fire, taking off his mittens and blowing on his
+fingers, the suspicious and condemnatory tail of his eye on Abraham.
+
+"Haow'd yew git here?" he burst forth. "What yew bin an' done with my
+wife, an' my horse, an' my man, an' my kerridge? Haow'd yew git here?
+What'd yew come fer? When'd yew git here?"
+
+"What'd yew come fer?" retorted Abe with some spirit. "Haow'd yew git
+here?"
+
+"None o' yer durn' business."
+
+A glimmer of the old twinkle came back into Abe's eye, and he began to
+chuckle.
+
+"I guess we might as waal tell the truth, Sam'l. We both tried to be so
+all-fired young yesterday that we got played out, an' concluded
+unanermous that the best place fer a A No. 1 spree was ter hum."
+
+Samuel gave a weak smile, and drawing up a stool took the cat upon his
+knee.
+
+"Yes," he confessed grudgingly, "I found out fer one that I hain't no
+spring lamb."
+
+"Ner me, nuther," Abe's old lips trembled. "I had eyester-stew an' drunk
+coffee in the middle o' the night; then the four-o'clock patrol wakes me
+up ag'in. 'Here, be a sport,' they says, an' sticks a piece o' hot
+mince-pie under my nose. Then I was so oneasy I couldn't sleep. Daybreak
+I got up, an' went fer a walk ter limber up my belt, an' I sorter
+wandered over ter the bay side, an' not a mile out I see tew men with
+one o' them big fishin'-scooters a-haulin' in their net. An' I walked a
+ways out on the ice, a-signalin' with my bandana han'kercher; an' arter
+a time they seen me. 'T was Cap'n Ely from Injun Head an' his boy. Haow
+them young 'uns dew grow! Las' time I see that kid, he wa' n't knee-high
+tew a grasshopper.
+
+"Waal, I says tew 'em, I says: 'Want ter drop a passenger at Twin
+Coves?' 'Yes, yes,' they says. 'Jump in.' An' so, Sam'I, I gradooated
+from yer school o' hardenin' on top a ton o' squirmin' fish, more er
+less. I thought I'd come an' git Angy," he ended with a sigh, "an' yer
+hired man 'd drive us back ter Shoreville; but thar wa' n't nobody hum
+but a mewin' cat, an' the only place I could git inter was this here
+shop. Wonder whar the gals has gone?"
+
+No mention of the alarm that he must by this time have caused at the
+Station. No consciousness of having committed any breach against the
+laws of hospitality. But there was that in the old man's face, in his
+worn and wistful look, which curbed Samuel's tongue and made him
+understand that as a little child misses his mother so Abe had missed
+Angy, and as a little homesick child comes running back to the place he
+knows best so Abe was hastening back to the shelter he had scorned.
+
+So, with an effort, Samuel held his peace, merely resolving that as soon
+as he could get to a telephone he would inform their late hosts of Abe's
+safety.
+
+There was no direct way of telephoning; but a message could be sent to
+the Quogue Station, and from there forwarded to Bleak Hill.
+
+"I've had my lesson," said Abe. "The place fer old folks is with old
+folks."
+
+"But"--Samuel recovered his authoritative manner--"the place fer an old
+man ain't with old hens. Naow, Abe, ef yew think yew kin behave yerself
+an' not climb the flagpole or jump over the roof, I want yer to stay
+right here, yew an' Angy both, an' spend yer week out. Yes, yes," as Abe
+would have thanked him. "I take it," plunging his hand into his pocket,
+"yew ain't stowed away nothin' since that mince-pie; but I can't offer
+yer nothin' to eat till Blossy gits back an' opens up the house, 'cept
+these here pepp'mints. They're fine; try 'em."
+
+With one of those freakish turns of the weather that takes the conceit
+out of all weather-prophets, the snow had now ceased to fall, the sun
+was struggling out of the clouds, and the wind was swinging around to
+the west.
+
+Neither of the old men could longer fret about their wives being caught
+in a heavy snow; but, nevertheless, their anxiety concerning the
+whereabouts of the women did not cease, and the homesickness which Abe
+felt for Angy, and Samuel for Blossy, rather increased than diminished
+as one sat on the roll of canvas and the other crouched on his stool,
+and both hugged the fire, and both felt very old, and very lame, and
+very tired and sore.
+
+Toward noontime they heard the welcome sound of wheels, and on rushing
+to the door saw Ezra driving alone to the barn. He did not note their
+appearance in the doorway of the shop; but they could see from the look
+on his face that nothing had gone amiss.
+
+Samuel heard the shutting of the kitchen door, and knew that Blossy was
+at home, and a strange shyness submerged of a sudden his eagerness to
+see her.
+
+What would she say to this unexpected return? Would she laugh at him, or
+be disappointed?
+
+"Yew go fust," he urged Abe, "an' tell my wife that I've got the
+chilblains an' lumbago so bad I can't hardly git tew the house, an' I
+had ter come hum fer my 'St. Jerushy Ile' an' her receipt fer frosted
+feet."
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+THE FATTED CALF
+
+
+Abe had no such qualms as Samuel. He wanted to see Angy that minute, and
+he did not care if she did know why he had returned.
+
+He fairly ran to the back door under the grape arbor, so that Samuel,
+observing his gait, was seized with a fear that he might be that young
+Abe of the Beach, during his visit, after all.
+
+Abraham rushed into the kitchen without stopping to knock. "I'm back,
+Mother," he cried, as if that were all the joyful explanation needed.
+
+She was struggling with the strings of her bonnet before the
+looking-glass which adorned Blossy's parlor-kitchen. She turned to him
+with a little cry, and he saw that her face had changed
+marvelously--grown young, grown glad, grown soft and fresh with a new
+excited spirit of jubilant thanksgiving.
+
+"Oh, Father! Weren't yew s'prised tew git the telephone? I knowed yew'd
+come a-flyin' back."
+
+Blossy appeared from the room beyond, and slipped past them, knowing
+intuitively where she would find her lord and master; but neither of
+them observed her entrance or her exit.
+
+Angy clung to Abe, and Abe held her close. What had happened to her, the
+undemonstrative old wife? What made her so happy, and yet tremble so?
+Why did she cry, wetting his cheek with her tears, when she was so
+palpably glad? Why had she telephoned for him, unless she, too, had
+missed him as he had missed her?
+
+Recalling his memories of last night, the memories of that long-ago
+honeymoon-time, he murmured into his gray beard, "Dearest!"
+
+She did not seem to think he was growing childish. She was not even
+surprised. At last she said, half between sobbing and laughing:
+
+"Oh, Abe, ain't God been good to us? Ain't it jist bewtiful to be rich?
+Rich!" she cried. "Rich!"
+
+Abe sat down suddenly, and covered his face with his hands. In a flash
+he understood, and he could not let even Angy see him in the light of
+the revelation.
+
+"The minin' stock!" he muttered; and then low to himself, in an awed
+whisper: "Tenafly Gold! The minin' stock!"
+
+After a while he recovered himself sufficiently to explain that he had
+not received the telephone message, and therefore knew nothing.
+
+"Did I git a offer, Mother?"
+
+"A offer of fifteen dollars a share. The letter come last night fer yew,
+an' I--"
+
+"Fifteen dollars a share!" He was astounded. "An' we've got five
+thousand shares! Fifteen dollars, an' I paid ninety cents! Angy, ef ever
+I ketch yew fishin' yer winter bunnit out of a charity barrel ag'in,
+I'll--Fifteen dollars!"
+
+"But that ain't the best of it," interrupted Angy. "I couldn't sleep a
+wink, an' Blossy says not ter send word tew yew, 'cuz mebbe 't was a
+joke, an' to wait till mornin' an' go see Sam'l's lawyer down ter Injun
+Head. That's whar we've jest come from, an' we telephoned ter Quogue
+Station from thar. An' the lawyer at fust he didn't 'pear tew think very
+much of it; but Blossy, she got him ter call up some broker feller in
+'York, an' 'Gee whizz!' he says, turnin' 'round all excited from the
+'phone. 'Tenafly Gold is sellin' fer twenty dollars on the Curb right
+this minute!' An' he says, says he: 'Yew git yer husband, an' bring that
+air stock over this arternoon; an',' says he, 'I'll realize on it fer
+yer ter-morrer mornin'.'"
+
+Abe stared at his wife, at her shining silk dress with its darns and
+careful patches, at her rough, worn hands, and at the much mended lace
+over her slender wrists.
+
+"That mine was closed down eighteen years ago; they must 'a' opened it
+up ag'in"; he spoke dully, as one stunned. Then with a sudden burst of
+energy, his eyes still on his wife's figure: "Mother, that dress o'
+yourn is a disgrace fer the wife of a financierer. Yew better git a new
+silk fer yerself an' Miss Abigail, tew, fust thing. Her Sunday one
+hain't nothin' extry."
+
+"But yer old beaver, Abe!" Angy protested. "It looks as ef it come out
+o'the Ark!"
+
+"Last Sunday yew said it looked splendid"; his tone was absent-minded
+again. He seemed almost to ramble in his speech. "We must see that
+Ishmael gits fixed up comfortable in the Old Men's Home; yew remember
+haow he offered us all his pennies that day we broke up housekeepin'.
+An' we must do somethin' handsome fer the Darbys, tew. Ef it hadn't been
+fer Sam'l, I might be dead naow, an' never know nothin' erbout this here
+streak o' luck. Tenafly Gold," he continued to mutter. "They must 'a'
+struck a new lead. An' folks said I was a fool tew invest."
+
+His face lightened. The weight of the shock passed. He threw off the awe
+of the glad news. He smiled the smile of a happy child.
+
+"Naow, Mother, we kin buy back our old chair, the rocker with the red
+roses onto it. Seems ter me them roses must 'a' knowed all the time
+that this was a-goin' ter happen. They was jest as pert an' sassy that
+last day--"
+
+Angy laughed. She laughed softly and with unutterable pride in her
+husband.
+
+"Why, Father, don't yer see yew kin buy back the old chair, an' the old
+place, too, an' then have plenty ter spare?"
+
+"So we kin, Mother, so we kin"; he nodded his head, surprised. He
+plunged his hands into his pockets, as if expecting to find them filled
+with gold. "Wonder ef Sam'l wouldn't lend me a dollar or so in small
+change. Ef I only had somethin' ter jingle, mebbe I could git closer to
+this fac'." He drew her to him, and gave her waist a jovial squeeze.
+"Hy-guy, Mother, we're rich! Hain't it splendid?"
+
+Their laughter rang out together--trembling, near-to-tears laughter.
+The old place, the old chair, the old way, and--plenty! Plenty to mend
+the shingles. Aye, plenty to rebuild the house, if they chose. Plenty
+with which to win back the smiles of Angy's garden. The dreadful dream
+of need, and lack, and want, of feeding at the hand of charity, was gone
+by.
+
+Plenty! Ah, the goodness and greatness of God! Plenty! Abe wanted to cry
+it out from the housetops. He wanted all the world to hear. He wished
+that he might gather his wealth together and drop it piece by piece
+among the multitude. To give where he had been given, to blossom with
+abundance where he had withered with penury!
+
+The little wife read his thoughts. "We'll save jest enough fer ourselves
+ter keep us in comfort the rest of our lives an' bury us decent."
+
+They were quiet a long while, both sitting with bowed heads as if in
+prayer; but presently Angy raised her face with an exclamation of
+dismay:
+
+"Don't it beat all, that it happened jest tew late ter git in this
+week's 'Shoreville Herald'!"
+
+"Tew late?" exclaimed the new-fledged capitalist. "Thar hain't nothin'
+tew late fer a man with money. We'll hire the editor tew git out another
+paper, fust thing ter-morrer!"
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+"OUR BELOVED BROTHER"
+
+
+The services of the "Shoreville Herald," however, were not required to
+spread the news. The happiest and proudest couple on Long Island saw
+their names with the story of their sudden accession to wealth in a
+great New York daily the very next morning.
+
+A tall, old gentleman with a real "barber's hair-cut," a shining, new
+high hat, a suit of "store clothes" which fitted as if they had been
+made for him, a pair of fur gloves, and brand-new ten-dollar boots; and
+a remarkably pretty, old lady in a violet bonnet, a long black velvet
+cape, with new shoes as well as new kid gloves, and a big silver-fox
+muff--this was the couple that found the paper spread out on the hall
+table at the Old Ladies' Home, with the sisters gathered around it,
+peering at it, weeping over it, laughing, both sorrowing and rejoicing.
+
+"This'll be good-by ter Brother Abe," Aunt Nancy had sniffed when the
+news came over the telephone the day before; and though Miss Abigail had
+assured her that she knew Abe would come to see them real often, the
+matriarch still failed to be consoled.
+
+"Hain't you noticed, gals," she persisted, "that thar hain't been a
+death in the house sence we took him in? An' I missed my reg'lar spell
+o' bronchitis last winter an' this one tew--so fur," she added dismally,
+and began to cough and lay her hands against her chest. "That was allus
+the way when I was a young 'un," she continued after a while; "I never
+had a pet dog or cat or even a tame chicken that it didn't up an' run
+erway sooner or later. This here loss, gals, 'll be the death o' me!
+Naow, mark my words!"
+
+Then followed a consultation among the younger sisters, the result of
+which was that they met Abe in the morning with a unanimous petition.
+They could neither ask nor expect him to remain; that was impossible,
+but--
+
+"Hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray!" cried Abe, waving an imaginary flag as
+he entered. "Sam'l dropped us at the gate. Him an' Blossy went on ter
+see Holmes tew dicker erbout buyin' back the old place. Takes Blossy an'
+Sam'l tew dew business. They picked out my clothes between them yist'day
+arternoon deown ter Injun village, in the Emporium. Haow yew like 'em?
+Splendid, eh? See my yaller silk handkerchief, tew? We jest dropped in
+ter git our things. We thought mebbe yew'd want ter slick up the room
+an' git ready fer the new--"
+
+He was allowed to say no more. The sisters, who had been kissing and
+hugging Angy one by one, now swooped upon him. He was hugged, too, with
+warm, generous congratulation, his hands were both shaken until they
+ached, and his clothes and Angy's silently admired. But no one said a
+word, for not one of the sisters was able to speak. Angy, thinking that
+she divined a touch of jealousy, hastened to throw off her wrap and
+display the familiar old worn silk gown beneath.
+
+"I told Abe I jest wouldn't git a new silk until you each had one made
+tew. Blossy sent for the samples. Blossy--"
+
+"All I need's a shroud," interrupted Aunt Nancy grimly.
+
+Angy and Abe both stared at her. She did look gray this morning. She did
+seem feeble and her cough did sound hollow. The other sisters glanced
+also at Aunt Nancy, and Sarah Jane took her hand, while she nudged Mrs.
+Homan with her free elbow and Mrs. Homan nudged Ruby Lee and Ruby Lee
+glanced at Lazy Daisy and Lazy Daisy drawled out meaningly:
+
+"Miss Abigail!"
+
+Then Miss Abigail, twisting the edge of her apron nervously, spoke:
+
+"Much obliged to you I be in behalf o' all the sisters, Brother Abe an'
+ter Angy tew. We know yew'll treat us right. We know that yew," resting
+her eyes on Abe's face, "will prove ter be the 'angel unawares' that we
+been entertainin', but we don't want yew ter waste yer money on a
+cart-load o' silk dresses. All we ask o' yew is jest ernough tew allow
+us ter advertise fer another brother member ter take yer place."
+
+Who could describe the expression that flashed across Abe's face?--hurt
+astonishment, wounded pride, jealous incomprehension.
+
+"Ter take my place!" he glanced about the hall defiantly. Who dared to
+enter there and take his place?--_his place_!
+
+"This is a old ladies' home," he protested. "What right you got a-takin'
+in a good-fer-nuthin' old man? Mebbe he'd rob yew er kill yew! When men
+git ter rampagin', yew can't tell what they might dew."
+
+Sarah Jane nodded her head knowingly, as if to exclaim:
+
+"I told yer so!"
+
+But Miss Abigail hurriedly explained that it was a man and wife that
+they wanted. She blushed as she added that of course they would not
+take a man without his wife.
+
+"No, indeed! That'd be highly improper," smirked Ruby Lee.
+
+Then Abe went stamping to the stairway, saying sullenly:
+
+"All right. I'll give yew all the money yew want fer advertisin', an'
+yew kin say he'll be clothed an' dressed proper, tew, an' supplied with
+terbaccer an' readin'-matter besides; but jest wait till the directors
+read that advertisement! They had me here sorter pertendin' ter be
+unbeknownst. Come on, Angy. Let 's go up-stairs an' git our things.
+Let's--"
+
+Aunt Nancy half arose from her chair, resting her two shaking hands on
+the arms of it.
+
+"Brother Abe," she called quaveringly after the couple, "I guess yew
+kin afford ter fix up any objections o' the directors."
+
+Angy pressed her husband's arm as she joined him in the upper hall.
+
+"Don't yer see, Abe. They don't realize that that poor old gentleman,
+whoever he may be, won't be yew. They jest know that _yew_ was _yew_;
+an' they want ter git another jest as near like yew as they kin."
+
+Abe grunted, yet nevertheless went half-way down-stairs again to call
+more graciously to the sisters that he would give them a reference any
+time for knowing how to treat a man just right.
+
+"That feller'll be lucky, gals," he added in tremulous tones. "I hope
+he'll appreciate yew as I allers done."
+
+Then Abe went to join Angy in the room which the sisters had given to
+him that bitter day when the cry of his heart had been very like unto:
+
+"_Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani_!"
+
+After all, what was there of his and Angy's here? Their garments they
+did not need now. They would leave them behind for the other old couple
+that was to come. There was nothing else but some simple gifts. He took
+up a pair of red wristlets that Mrs. Homan had knit, and tucked them in
+his new overcoat pocket. He also took Abigail's bottle of "Jockey Club"
+which he had despised so a few days ago, and tucked that in his
+watch-pocket. When he bought himself a watch, he would buy a new clock
+for the dining-room down-stairs, too,--a clock with no such asthmatic
+strike as the present one possessed. All his personal belongings--every
+one of them gifts--he found room for in his pockets. Angy had even less
+than he. Yet they had come practically with nothing--and compared with
+that nothing, what they carried now seemed much. Angy hesitated over the
+pillow-shams. Did they belong to them or to the new couple to come? Abe
+gazed at the shams too. They had been given to him and Angy last
+Christmas by all the sisters. They were white muslin with white cambric
+frills, and in their centers was embroidered in turkey-red cotton,
+"Mother," on one pillow, "Father," on the other. Every sister in the
+Home had taken at least one stitch in the names.
+
+Father and Mother--not Angy and Abe! Why Father and Mother? A year ago
+no one could have foreseen the fortune, nor have prophesied the
+possession of the room by another elderly couple.
+
+Angy drew near to Abe, and Abe to Angy. They locked arms and stood
+looking at the pillows. He saw, and she saw, the going back to the old
+bedroom in the old home across the woods and over the field--the going
+back. And in sharp contrast they each recalled the first time that they
+had stepped beneath that roof nearly half a century ago,--the first
+home-coming,--when her mother-heart and his father-heart had been filled
+with the hope of children--children to bless their marriage, children to
+complete their home, children to love, children to feed them with love
+in return.
+
+"Let's adopt some leetle folks," said Angy, half in a whisper. "I'm
+afeard the old place'll seem lonesome without--"
+
+"Might better adopt the sisters"; he spoke almost gruffly. "I allers did
+think young 'uns would be the most comfort tew yew after they growed
+up."
+
+"A baby is dretful cunnin'," Angy persisted. "But," she added sadly, "I
+don't suppose a teethin' mite would find much in common with us."
+
+"Anyway," vowed Abe, suddenly beginning to unfasten the pillow-shams,
+"these belong ter us, an' I'm a-goin' ter take 'em."
+
+They went down-stairs silently, the shams wrapped in a newspaper
+carried under his arm.
+
+"Waal, naow,"--he tried to speak cheerfully as they rejoined the others,
+and he pushed his way toward the dining-room,--"I'll go an' git my cup
+an' sasser."
+
+But Miss Abigail blocked the door, again blushing, again confused.
+
+"That 'Tew-our-Beloved-Brother' cup," she said gently, her eyes not
+meeting the wound in his, "we 'bout concluded yew'd better leave here
+fer the one what answers the ad. Yew got so much naow, an' him--"
+
+She did not finish. She could not. She felt rather than saw the blazing
+of Abe's old eyes. Then the fire beneath his brows died out and a mist
+obscured his sight.
+
+"Gals," he asked humbly, "would yew ruther have a new 'beloved
+brother'?"
+
+For a space there was no answer. Aunt Nancy's head was bowed in her
+hands. Lazy Daisy was openly sobbing. Miss Ellie was twisting her
+fingers nervously in and out--she unwound them to clutch at Angy's arm
+as if to hold her. At last Miss Abigail spoke with so unaccustomed a
+sharpness that her voice seemed not her own:
+
+"Sech a foolish question as that nobody in their sound senses would
+ask."
+
+Abe sat down in his old place at the fireside and smiled a thousand
+smiles in one. He smiled and rubbed his hands before the blaze. The
+blaze itself seemed scarcely more bright and warm than the light from
+within which transfigured his aged face.
+
+"Gals," he chuckled in his old familiar way, "I dunno how Sam'l Darby'll
+take it; but if Mother's willin', I guess I won't buy back no more of
+the old place, 'cept'n' jest my rockin'-chair with the red roses onto
+it; an' all the rest o' this here plagued money I'll hand over ter the
+directors, an' stay right here an' take my comfort."
+
+Angy bent down and whispered in his ear: "I'd ruther dew it, tew,
+Father. Anythin' else would seem like goin' a-visitin'. But yew don't
+want ter go an' blame me," she added anxiously, "ef yew git all riled up
+an' sick abed ag'in."
+
+"Pshaw, Mother," he protested; "yew fergit I was _adopted_ then; naow I
+be _adoptin_'. Thar's a big difference."
+
+She lifted her face, relieved, and smiled into the relieved and radiant
+faces of Abe's "children," and her own.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD LADY NUMBER 31***
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