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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15294-8.txt b/15294-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..447f3fe --- /dev/null +++ b/15294-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14011 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and +Sketches, by Sarah Orne Jewett + +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: A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches + +Author: Sarah Orne Jewett + +Release Date: March 8, 2005 [EBook #15294] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Wendy Bertsch and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + +A COUNTRY DOCTOR + +by Sarah Orne Jewett + + +Published 1884 + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE LAST MILE + + II. THE FARM-HOUSE KITCHEN + + III. AT JAKE AND MARTIN'S + + IV. LIFE AND DEATH + + V. A SUNDAY VISIT + + VI. IN SUMMER WEATHER + + VII. FOR THE YEARS TO COME + + VIII. A GREAT CHANGE + + IX. AT DR. LESLIE'S + + X. ACROSS THE STREET + + XI. NEW OUTLOOKS + + XII. AGAINST THE WIND + + XIII. A STRAIGHT COURSE + + XIV. MISS PRINCE OF DUNPORT + + XV. HOSTESS AND GUEST + + XVI. A JUNE SUNDAY + + XVII. BY THE RIVER + +XVIII. A SERIOUS TEA-DRINKING + + XIX. FRIEND AND LOVER + + XX. ASHORE AND AFLOAT + + XXI. AT HOME AGAIN + + * * * * * + + + + +I + +THE LAST MILE + + +It had been one of the warm and almost sultry days which sometimes +come in November; a maligned month, which is really an epitome of the +other eleven, or a sort of index to the whole year's changes of storm +and sunshine. The afternoon was like spring, the air was soft and +damp, and the buds of the willows had been beguiled into swelling a +little, so that there was a bloom over them, and the grass looked as +if it had been growing green of late instead of fading steadily. It +seemed like a reprieve from the doom of winter, or from even November +itself. + +The dense and early darkness which usually follows such unseasonable +mildness had already begun to cut short the pleasures of this +spring-like day, when a young woman, who carried a child in her arms, +turned from a main road of Oldfields into a foot-path which led +southward across the fields and pastures. She seemed sure of her way, +and kept the path without difficulty, though a stranger might easily +have lost it here and there, where it led among the patches of +sweet-fern or bayberry bushes, or through shadowy tracts of small +white-pines. She stopped sometimes to rest, and walked more and more +wearily, with increasing effort; but she kept on her way desperately, +as if it would not do to arrive much later at the place which she was +seeking. The child seemed to be asleep; it looked too heavy for so +slight a woman to carry. + +The path led after a while to a more open country, there was a low +hill to be climbed, and at its top the slender figure stopped and +seemed to be panting for breath. A follower might have noticed that it +bent its head over the child's for a moment as it stood, dark against +the darkening sky. There had formerly been a defense against the +Indians on this hill, which in the daytime commanded a fine view of +the surrounding country, and the low earthworks or foundations of the +garrison were still plainly to be seen. The woman seated herself on +the sunken wall in spite of the dampness and increasing chill, still +holding the child, and rocking to and fro like one in despair. The +child waked and began to whine and cry a little in that strange, +lonely place, and after a few minutes, perhaps to quiet it, they went +on their way. Near the foot of the hill was a brook, swollen by the +autumn rains; it made a loud noise in the quiet pasture, as if it were +crying out against a wrong or some sad memory. The woman went toward +it at first, following a slight ridge which was all that remained of a +covered path which had led down from the garrison to the spring below +at the brookside. If she had meant to quench her thirst here, she +changed her mind, and suddenly turned to the right, following the +brook a short distance, and then going straight toward the river +itself and the high uplands, which by daylight were smooth pastures +with here and there a tangled apple-tree or the grassy cellar of a +long vanished farm-house. + +It was night now; it was too late in the year for the chirp of any +insects; the moving air, which could hardly be called wind, swept over +in slow waves, and a few dry leaves rustled on an old hawthorn tree +which grew beside the hollow where a house had been, and a low sound +came from the river. The whole country side seemed asleep in the +darkness, but the lonely woman felt no lack of companionship; it was +well suited to her own mood that the world slept and said nothing to +her,--it seemed as if she were the only creature alive. + +A little this side of the river shore there was an old burial place, a +primitive spot enough, where the graves were only marked by rough +stones, and the short, sheep-cropped grass was spread over departed +generations of the farmers and their wives and children. By day it was +in sight of the pine woods and the moving water, and nothing hid it +from the great sky overhead, but now it was like a prison walled about +by the barriers of night. However eagerly the woman had hurried to +this place, and with what purpose she may have sought the river bank, +when she recognized her surroundings she stopped for a moment, swaying +and irresolute. "No, no!" sighed the child plaintively, and she +shuddered, and started forward; then, as her feet stumbled among the +graves, she turned and fled. It no longer seemed solitary, but as if a +legion of ghosts which had been wandering under cover of the dark had +discovered this intruder, and were chasing her and flocking around her +and oppressing her from every side. And as she caught sight of a light +in a far-away farmhouse window, a light which had been shining after +her all the way down to the river, she tried to hurry toward it. The +unnatural strength of terror urged her on; she retraced her steps like +some pursued animal; she remembered, one after another, the fearful +stories she had known of that ancient neighborhood; the child cried, +but she could not answer it. She fell again and again, and at last all +her strength seemed to fail her, her feet refused to carry her farther +and she crept painfully, a few yards at a time, slowly along the +ground. The fear of her superhuman enemies had forsaken her, and her +only desire was to reach the light that shone from the looming shadow +of the house. + +At last she was close to it; at last she gave one great sigh, and the +child fell from her grasp; at last she clutched the edge of the worn +doorstep with both hands, and lay still. + + + + +II + +THE FARM-HOUSE KITCHEN + + +Indoors there was a cheerful company; the mildness of the evening had +enticed two neighbors of Mrs. Thacher, the mistress of the house, into +taking their walks abroad, and so, with their heads well protected by +large gingham handkerchiefs, they had stepped along the road and up +the lane to spend a social hour or two. John Thacher, their old +neighbor's son, was known to be away serving on a jury in the county +town, and they thought it likely that his mother would enjoy company. +Their own houses stood side by side. Mrs. Jacob Dyer and Mrs. Martin +Dyer were their names, and excellent women they were. Their husbands +were twin-brothers, curiously alike and amazingly fond of each other, +though either would have scorned to make any special outward +demonstration of it. They were spending the evening together in +brother Martin's house, and were talking over the purchase of a bit +of woodland, and the profit of clearing it, when their wives had left +them without any apology to visit Mrs. Thacher, as we have already +seen. + +This was the nearest house and only a quarter of a mile away, and when +they opened the door they had found Mrs. Thacher spinning. + +"I must own up, I am glad to see you more'n common," she said. "I +don't feel scary at being left sole alone; it ain't that, but I have +been getting through with a lonesome spell of another kind. John, he +does as well as a man can, but here I be,--here I be,"--and the good +woman could say no more, while her guests understood readily enough +the sorrow that had found no words. + +"I suppose you haven't got no news from Ad'line?" asked Mrs. Martin +bluntly. "We was speaking of her as we come along, and saying it +seemed to be a pity she should'nt feel it was best to come back this +winter and help you through; only one daughter, and left alone as you +be, with the bad spells you are liable to in winter time--but there, +it ain't her way--her ambitions ain't what they should be, that's all +I can say." + +"If she'd got a gift for anything special, now," continued Mrs. Jake, +"we should feel it was different and want her to have a chance, but +she's just like other folks for all she felt so much above farming. I +don't see as she can do better than come back to the old place, or +leastways to the village, and fetch up the little gal to be some use. +She might dressmake or do millinery work; she always had a pretty +taste, and 't would be better than roving. I 'spose 't would hurt her +pride,"--but Mrs. Thacher flushed at this, and Mrs. Martin came to the +rescue. + +"You'll think we're reg'lar Job's comforters," cried the good soul +hastily, "but there, Mis' Thacher, you know we feel as if she was our +own. There ain't nothing I wouldn't do for Ad'line, sick or well, and +I declare I believe she'll pull through yet and make a piece of luck +that'll set us all to work praising of her. She's like to marry again +for all I can see, with her good looks. Folks always has their joys +and calamities as they go through the world." + +Mrs. Thacher shook her head two or three times with a dismal +expression, and made no answer. She had pushed back the droning +wool-wheel which she had been using, and had taken her knitting from +the shelf by the clock and seated herself contentedly, while Mrs. Jake +and Mrs. Martin had each produced a blue yarn stocking from a +capacious pocket, and the shining steel needles were presently all +clicking together. One knitter after another would sheathe the spare +needle under her apron strings, while they asked each other's advice +from time to time about the propriety of "narrerin'" or whether it +were not best to "widden" according to the progress their respective +stockings had made. Mrs. Thacher had lighted an extra candle, and +replenished the fire, for the air was chillier since the sun went +down. They were all sure of a coming change of weather, and counted +various signs, Mrs. Thacher's lowness of spirits among the number, +while all three described various minor maladies from which they had +suffered during the day, and of which the unseasonable weather was +guilty. + +"I can't get over the feeling that we are watchin' with somebody," +said Mrs. Martin after a while, moved by some strange impulse and +looking over her shoulder, at which remark Mrs. Thacher glanced up +anxiously. "Something has been hanging over me all day," said she +simply, and at this the needles clicked faster than ever. + +"We've been taking rather a low range," suggested Mrs. Jake. "We +shall get to telling over ghost stories if we don't look out, and I +for one shall be sca't to go home. By the way, I suppose you have +heard about old Billy Dow's experience night afore last, Mis' +Thacher?" + +"John being away, I ain't had nobody to fetch me the news these few +days past," said the hostess. "Why what's happened to Billy now?" + +The two women looked at each other: "He was getting himself home as +best he could,--he owned up to having made a lively evenin' of +it,--and I expect he was wandering all over the road and didn't know +nothin' except that he was p'inted towards home, an' he stepped off +from the high bank this side o' Dunnell's, and rolled down, over and +over; and when he come to there was a great white creatur' a-standin' +over him, and he thought 't was a ghost. 'T was higher up on the bank +than him, and it kind of moved along down's if 't was coming right on +to him, and he got on to his knees and begun to say his Ten +Commandments fast's he could rattle 'em out. He got 'em mixed up, and +when the boys heard his teeth a-chattering, they began to laugh and he +up an' cleared. Dunnell's boys had been down the road a piece and was +just coming home, an' 't was their old white hoss that had got out of +the barn, it bein' such a mild night, an' was wandering off. They said +to Billy that't wa'n't everybody could lay a ghost so quick as he +could, and they didn't 'spose he had the means so handy." + +The three friends laughed, but Mrs. Thacher's face quickly lost its +smile and took back its worried look. She evidently was in no mood for +joking. "Poor Billy!" said she, "he was called the smartest boy in +school; I rec'lect that one of the teachers urged his folks to let him +go to college; but 't wa'n't no use; they hadn't the money and +couldn't get it, and 't wa'n't in him to work his way as some do. He's +got a master head for figur's. Folks used to get him to post books +you know,--but he's past that now. Good-natured creatur' as ever +stept; but he always was afeard of the dark,--'seems 's if I could see +him there a-repentin' and the old white hoss shakin' his head,"--and +she laughed again, but quickly stopped herself and looked over her +shoulder at the window. + +"Would ye like the curtain drawed?" asked Mrs. Jake. But Mrs. Thacher +shook her head silently, while the gray cat climbed up into her lap +and laid down in a round ball to sleep. + +"She's a proper cosset, ain't she?" inquired Mrs. Martin approvingly, +while Mrs. Jake asked about the candles, which gave a clear light. "Be +they the last you run?" she inquired, but was answered to the +contrary, and a brisk conversation followed upon the proper +proportions of tallow and bayberry wax, and the dangers of the +new-fangled oils which the village shop-keepers were attempting to +introduce. Sperm oil was growing more and more dear in price and +worthless in quality, and the old-fashioned lamps were reported to be +past their usefulness. + +"I must own I set most by good candle light," said Mrs. Martin. "'T is +no expense to speak of where you raise the taller, and it's cheerful +and bright in winter time. In old times when the houses were draftier +they was troublesome about flickering, candles was; but land! think +how comfortable we live now to what we used to! Stoves is such a +convenience; the fire's so much handier. Housekeepin' don't begin to +be the trial it was once." + +"I must say I like old-fashioned cookin' better than oven cookin'," +observed Mrs. Jake. "Seems to me's if the taste of things was all +drawed up chimbly. Be you going to do much for Thanksgivin', Mis' +Thacher? I 'spose not;" and moved by a sudden kind impulse, she added, +"Why can't you and John jine with our folks? 't wouldn't put us out, +and 'twill be lonesome for ye." + +"'T won't be no lonesomer than last year was, nor the year before," +and Mrs. Thacher's face quivered a little as she rose and took one of +the candles, and opened the trap door that covered the cellar stairs. +"Now don't ye go to makin' yourself work," cried the guests. "No, +don't! we ain't needin' nothin'; we was late about supper." But their +hostess stepped carefully down and disappeared for a few minutes, +while the cat hovered anxiously at the edge of the black pit. + +"I forgot to ask ye if ye'd have some cider?" a sepulchral voice asked +presently; "but I don't know now's I can get at it. I told John I +shouldn't want any whilst he was away, and so he ain't got the spiggit +in yet," to which Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin both replied that they +were no hands for that drink, unless 't was a drop right from the +press, or a taste o' good hard cider towards the spring of the year; +and Mrs. Thacher soon returned with some slices of cake in a plate and +some apples held in her apron. One of her neighbors took the candle as +she reached up to put it on the floor, and when the trap door was +closed again all three drew up to the table and had a little feast. +The cake was of a kind peculiar to its maker, who prided herself upon +never being without it; and there was some trick of her hand or a +secret ingredient which was withheld when she responded with apparent +cheerfulness to requests for its recipe. As for the apples, they were +grown upon an old tree, one of whose limbs had been grafted with some +unknown variety of fruit so long ago that the history was forgotten; +only that an English gardener, many years before, had brought some +cuttings from the old country, and one of them had somehow come into +the possession of John Thacher's grandfather when grafted fruit was a +thing to be treasured and jealously guarded. It had been told that +when the elder Thacher had given away cuttings he had always stolen to +the orchards in the night afterward and ruined them. However, when the +family had grown more generous in later years it had seemed to be +without avail, for, on their neighbors' trees or their own, the +English apples had proved worthless. Whether it were some favoring +quality in that spot of soil or in the sturdy old native tree itself, +the rich golden apples had grown there, year after year, in +perfection, but nowhere else. + +"There ain't no such apples as these, to my mind," said Mrs. Martin, +as she polished a large one with her apron and held it up to the +light, and Mrs. Jake murmured assent, having already taken a +sufficient first bite. + +"There's only one little bough that bears any great," said Mrs. +Thacher, "but it's come to that once before, and another branch has +shot up and been likely as if it was a young tree." + +The good souls sat comfortably in their splint-bottomed, +straight-backed chairs, and enjoyed this mild attempt at a festival. +Mrs. Thacher even grew cheerful and responsive, for her guests seemed +so light-hearted and free from care that the sunshine of their +presence warmed her own chilled and fearful heart. They embarked upon +a wide sea of neighborhood gossip and parish opinions, and at last +some one happened to speak again of Thanksgiving, which at once turned +the tide of conversation, and it seemed to ebb suddenly, while the +gray, dreary look once more overspread Mrs. Thacher's face. + +"I don't see why you won't keep with our folks this year; you and +John," once more suggested Mrs. Martin. "'T ain't wuth while to be +making yourselves dismal here to home; the day'll be lonesome for you +at best, and you shall have whatever we've got and welcome." + +"'T won't be lonesomer this year than it was last, nor the year +before that, and we've stood it somehow or 'nother," answered Mrs. +Thacher for the second time, while she rose to put more wood in the +stove. "Seems to me 't is growing cold; I felt a draught acrost my +shoulders. These nights is dreadful chill; you feel the damp right +through your bones. I never saw it darker than 't was last evenin'. I +thought it seemed kind o' stived up here in the kitchen, and I opened +the door and looked out, and I declare I couldn't see my hand before +me." + +"It always kind of scares me these black nights," said Mrs. Jake Dyer. +"I expect something to clutch at me every minute, and I feel as if +some sort of a creatur' was travelin' right behind me when I am out +door in the dark. It makes it bad havin' a wanin' moon just now when +the fogs hangs so low. It al'ays seems to me as if 't was darker when +she rises late towards mornin' than when she's gone altogether. I do' +know why't is." + +"I rec'lect once," Mrs. Thacher resumed, "when Ad'line was a baby and +John was just turned four year old, their father had gone down river +in the packet, and I was expectin' on him home at supper time, but he +didn't come; 't was late in the fall, and a black night as I ever see. +Ad'line was taken with something like croup, and I had an end o' +candle in the candlestick that I lighted, and 't wa'n't long afore it +was burnt down, and I went down cellar to the box where I kep' 'em, +and if you will believe it, the rats had got to it, and there wasn't a +week o' one left. I was near out anyway. We didn't have this +cook-stove then, and I cal'lated I could make up a good lively blaze, +so I come up full o' scold as I could be, and then I found I'd burnt +up all my dry wood. You see, I thought certain he'd be home and I was +tendin' to the child'n, but I started to go out o' the door and found +it had come on to rain hard, and I said to myself I wouldn't go out to +the woodpile and get my clothes all damp, 'count o' Ad'line, and the +candle end would last a spell longer, and he'd be home by that time. I +hadn't a least o' suspicion but what he was dallying round up to the +Corners, 'long o' the rest o' the men, bein' 't was Saturday night, +and I was some put out about it, for he knew the baby was sick, and I +hadn't nobody with me. I set down and waited, but he never come, and +it rained hard as I ever see it, and I left his supper standin' right +in the floor, and then I begun to be distressed for fear somethin' had +happened to Dan'l, and I set to work and cried, and the candle end +give a flare and went out, and by 'n' by the fire begun to get low and +I took the child'n and went to bed to keep warm; 't was an awful cold +night, considerin' 't was such a heavy rain, and there I laid awake +and thought I heard things steppin' about the room, and it seemed to +me as if 't was a week long before mornin' come, and as if I'd got to +be an old woman. I did go through with everything that night. 'T was +that time Dan'l broke his leg, you know; they was takin' a deck load +of oak knees down by the packet, and one on 'em rolled down from the +top of the pile and struck him just below the knee. He was poling, for +there wan't a breath o' wind, and he always felt certain there was +somethin' mysterious about it. He'd had a good deal worse knocks than +that seemed to be, as only left a black and blue spot, and he said he +never see a deck load o' timber piled securer. He had some queer +notions about the doin's o' sperits, Dan'l had; his old Aunt Parser +was to blame for it. She lived with his father's folks, and used to +fill him and the rest o' the child'n with all sorts o' ghost stories +and stuff. I used to tell him she'd a' be'n hung for a witch if she'd +lived in them old Salem days. He always used to be tellin' what +everything was the sign of, when we was first married, till I laughed +him out of it. It made me kind of notional. There's too much now we +can't make sense of without addin' to it out o' our own heads." + +Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin were quite familiar with the story of the +night when there were no candles and Mr. Thacher had broken his leg, +having been present themselves early in the morning afterward, but +they had listened with none the less interest. These country neighbors +knew their friends' affairs as well as they did their own, but such an +audience is never impatient. The repetitions of the best stories are +signal events, for ordinary circumstances do not inspire them. Affairs +must rise to a certain level before a narration of some great crisis +is suggested, and exactly as a city audience is well contented with +hearing the plays of Shakespeare over and over again, so each man and +woman of experience is permitted to deploy their well-known but always +interesting stories upon the rustic stage. + +"I must say I can't a-bear to hear anything about ghosts after +sundown," observed Mrs. Jake, who was at times somewhat troubled by +what she and her friends designated as "narves." "Day-times I don't +believe in 'em 'less it's something creepy more'n common, but after +dark it scares me to pieces. I do' know but I shall be afeared to go +home," and she laughed uneasily. "There! when I get through with this +needle I believe I won't knit no more. The back o' my neck is all +numb." + +"Don't talk o' goin' home yet awhile," said the hostess, looking up +quickly as if she hated the thought of being left alone again. "'T is +just on the edge of the evenin'; the nights is so long now we think +it's bedtime half an hour after we've got lit up. 'T was a good lift +havin' you step over to-night. I was really a-dreadin' to set here by +myself," and for some minutes nobody spoke and the needles clicked +faster than ever. Suddenly there was a strange sound outside the door, +and they stared at each other in terror and held their breath, but +nobody stirred. This was no familiar footstep; presently they heard a +strange little cry, and still they feared to look, or to know what was +waiting outside. Then Mrs. Thacher took a candle in her hand, and, +still hesitating, asked once, "Who is there?" and, hearing no answer, +slowly opened the door. + + + + +III + +AT JAKE AND MARTIN'S + + +In the mean time, the evening had been much enjoyed by the brothers +who were spending it together in Martin Dyer's kitchen. The houses +stood side by side, but Mr. Jacob Dyer's youngest daughter, the only +one now left at home, was receiving a visit from her lover, or, as the +family expressed it, the young man who was keeping company with her, +and her father, mindful of his own youth, had kindly withdrawn. +Martin's children were already established in homes of their own, with +the exception of one daughter who was at work in one of the cotton +factories at Lowell in company with several of her acquaintances. It +has already been said that Jake and Martin liked nobody's company so +well as their own. Their wives had a time-honored joke about being +comparatively unnecessary to their respective partners, and indeed the +two men had a curiously dependent feeling toward each other. It was +the close sympathy which twins sometimes have each to each, and had +become a byword among all their acquaintances. They were seldom +individualized in any way, and neither was able to distinguish +himself, apparently, for one always heard of the family as Jake and +Martin's folks, and of their possessions, from least to greatest, as +belonging to both brothers. The only time they had ever been separated +was once in their early youth, when Jake had been fired with a desire +to go to sea; but he deserted the coastwise schooner in the first port +and came home, because he could not bear it any longer without his +brother. Martin had no turn for seafaring, so Jake remained ashore and +patiently made a farmer of himself for love's sake, and in spite of a +great thirst for adventure that had never ceased to fever his blood. +It was astonishing how much they found to say to each other when one +considers that their experiences were almost constantly the same; but +nothing contented them better than an uninterrupted evening spent in +each other's society, and as they hoed corn or dug potatoes, or mowed, +or as they drove to the Corners, sitting stiffly upright in the +old-fashioned thorough-braced wagon, they were always to be seen +talking as if it were the first meeting after a long separation. But, +having taken these quiet times for the discussion of all possible and +impossible problems, they were men of fixed opinions, and were ready +at a moment's warning to render exact decisions. They were not fond of +society as a rule; they found little occasion for much talk with their +neighbors, but used as few words as possible. Nobody was more +respected than the brothers. It was often said of them that their word +was their bond, and as they passed from youth to middle age, and in +these days were growing to look like elderly men, they were free from +shame or reproach, though not from much good-natured joking and +friendly fun. Their farm had been owned in the family since the +settlement of the country, and the house which Martin occupied was +very old. Jake's had been built for him when he was married, from +timber cut in their own woodlands, and after thirty years of wear it +looked scarcely newer than its companion. And when it is explained +that they had married sisters, because, as people said, they even went +courting together, it will be easy to see that they had found life +more harmonious than most people do. Sometimes the wife of one brother +would complain that her sister enjoyed undue advantages and profits +from the estate, but there was rarely any disagreement, and Mrs. Jake +was mistress of the turkeys and Mrs. Martin held sway over the hens, +while they divided the spoils amiably at Thanksgiving time when the +geese were sold. If it were a bad year for turkeys, and the tender +young were chilled in the wet grass, while the hens flourished +steadily the season through, Mrs. Jake's spirits drooped and she +became envious of the good fortune which flaunted itself before her +eyes, but on the whole, they suffered and enjoyed together, and found +no fault with their destinies. The two wives, though the affection +between them was of an ordinary sort, were apt to form a league +against the brothers, and this prevented a more troublesome rivalry +which might have existed between the households. + + +Jake and Martin were particularly enjoying the evening. Some accident +had befallen the cooking-stove, which the brothers had never more than +half approved, it being one of the early patterns, and a poor exchange +for the ancient methods of cookery in the wide fireplace. "The women" +had had a natural desire to be equal with their neighbors, and knew +better than their husbands did the difference this useful invention +had made in their every-day work. However, this one night the +conservative brothers could take a mild revenge; and when their wives +were well on their way to Mrs. Thacher's they had assured each other +that, if the plaguey thing were to be carried to the Corners in the +morning to be exchanged or repaired, it would be as well to have it in +readiness, and had quickly taken down its pipes and lifted it as if it +were a feather to the neighboring woodshed. Then they hastily pried +away a fireboard which closed the great fireplace, and looked +smilingly upon the crane and its pothooks and the familiar iron dogs +which had been imprisoned there in darkness for many months. They +brought in the materials for an old-fashioned fire, backlog, +forestick, and crowsticks, and presently seated themselves before a +crackling blaze. Martin brought a tall, brown pitcher of cider from +the cellar and set two mugs beside it on the small table, and for some +little time they enjoyed themselves in silence, after which Jake +remarked that he didn't know but they'd got full enough of a fire for +such a mild night, but he wished his own stove and the new one too +could be dropped into the river for good and all. + +They put the jug of cider between the andirons, and then, moved by a +common impulse, drew their chairs a little farther from the mounting +flames, before they quenched their thirst from the mugs. + +"I call that pretty cider," said Martin; "'tis young yet, but it has +got some weight a'ready, and 'tis smooth. There's a sight o' +difference between good upland fruit and the sposhy apples that grows +in wet ground. An' I take it that the bar'l has an influence: some +bar'ls kind of wilt cider and some smarten it up, and keep it hearty. +Lord! what stuff some folks are willin' to set before ye! 'tain't wuth +the name o' cider, nor no better than the rensin's of a vinegar cask." + +"And then there's weather too," agreed Mr. Jacob Dyer, "had ought to +be took into consideration. Git your apples just in the right +time--not too early to taste o' the tree, nor too late to taste o' the +ground, and just in the snap o' time as to ripeness', on a good sharp +day with the sun a-shining; have 'em into the press and what comes out +is _cider_. I think if we've had any fault in years past, 't was +puttin' off makin' a little too late. But I don't see as this could be +beat. I don't know's you feel like a pipe, but I believe I'll light +up," and thereupon a good portion of black-looking tobacco was cut and +made fine in each of the hard left hands, and presently the clay pipes +were touched off with a live coal, and great clouds of smoke might +have been seen to disappear under the edge of the fire-place, drawn +quickly up the chimney by the draft of the blazing fire. + +Jacob pushed back his chair another foot or two, and Martin soon +followed, mentioning that it was getting hot, but it was well to keep +out the damp. + +"What set the women out to go traipsin' up to Thacher's folks?" +inquired Jacob, holding his cider mug with one hand and drumming it +with the finger ends of the other. + +"I had an idee that they wanted to find out if anything had been heard +about Ad'line's getting home for Thanksgiving," answered Martin, +turning to look shrewdly at his brother. "Women folks does suffer if +there's anything goin' on they can't find out about. 'Liza said she +was going to invite Mis' Thacher and John to eat a piece o' our big +turkey, but she didn't s'pose they'd want to leave. Curi's about +Ad'line, ain't it? I expected when her husband died she'd be right +back here with what she'd got; at any rate, till she'd raised the +child to some size. There'd be no expense here to what she'd have +elsewhere, and here's her ma'am beginnin' to age. She can't do what +she used to, John was tellin' of me; and I don't doubt 't 'as worn +upon her more'n folks thinks." + +"I don't lay no great belief that John'll get home from court," said +Jacob Dyer. "They say that court's goin' to set till Christmas maybe; +there's an awful string o' cases on the docket. Oh, 't was you told +me, wa'n't it? Most like they'll let up for a couple o' days for +Thanksgivin', but John mightn't think't was wuth his while to travel +here and back again 'less he had something to do before winter shets +down. Perhaps they'll prevail upon the old lady, I wish they would, +I'm sure; but an only daughter forsakin' her so, 'twas most too bad of +Ad'line. She al'ays had dreadful high notions when she wa'n't no +more'n a baby; and, good conscience, how she liked to rig up when she +first used to come back from Lowell! Better ha' put her money out to +interest." + +"I believe in young folks makin' all they can o' theirselves," +announced Martin, puffing hard at his pipe and drawing a little +farther still from the fireplace, because the scorching red coals had +begun to drop beneath the forestick. "I've give my child'n the best +push forrard I could, an' you've done the same. Ad'line had a dreadful +cravin' to be somethin' more'n common; but it don't look as if she was +goin' to make out any great. 'Twas unfortunate her losin' of her +husband, but I s'pose you've heard hints that they wa'n't none too +equal-minded. She'd a done better to have worked on a while to Lowell +and got forehanded, and then married some likely young fellow and +settled down here, or to the Corners if she didn't want to farm it. +There was Jim Hall used to be hanging round, and she'd been full as +well off to-day if she'd took him, too. 'T ain't no use for folks to +marry one that's of another kind and belongs different. It's like two +fiddles that plays different tunes,--you can't make nothin' on't, no +matter if both on em's trying their best, 'less one on 'em beats the +other down entirely and has all the say, and ginerally 't is the worst +one does it. Ad'line's husband wa'n't nothin' to boast of from all we +can gather, but they didn't think alike about nothin'. She could 'a' +done well with him if there'd been more of _her_. I don't marvel his +folks felt bad: Ad'line didn't act right by 'em." + +"Nor they by her," said the twin brother. "I tell ye Ad'line would +have done 'em credit if she'd been let. I seem to think how't was with +her; when she was there to work in the shop she thought 't would be +smart to marry him and then she'd be a lady for good and all. And all +there was of it, she found his folks felt put out and hurt, and +instead of pleasing 'em up and doing the best she could, she didn't +know no better than to aggravate 'em. She was wrong there, but I hold +to it that if they'd pleased her up a little and done well by her, +she'd ha' bloomed out, and fell right in with their ways. She's got +outward ambitions enough, but I view it she was all a part of his +foolishness to them; I dare say they give her the blame o' the whole +on't. Ad'line ought to had the sense to see they had some right on +their side. Folks say he was the smartest fellow in his class to +college." + +"Good King Agrippy! how hot it does git," said Jake rising +indignantly, as if the fire alone were to blame. "I must shove back +the cider again or 't will bile over, spite of everything. But 't is +called unwholesome to get a house full o' damp in the fall o' the +year; 't will freeze an' thaw in the walls all winter. I must git me a +new pipe if we go to the Corners to-morrow. I s'pose I've told ye of a +pipe a man had aboard the schooner that time I went to sea?" + +Martin gave a little grumble of assent. + +"'Twas made o' some sort o' whitish stuff like clay, but 'twa'n't +shaped like none else I ever see and it had a silver trimmin' round +it; 'twas very light to handle and it drawed most excellent. I al'ays +kind o' expected he may have stole it; he was a hard lookin' customer, +a Dutchman or from some o' them parts o' the earth. I wish while I was +about it I'd gone one trip more." + +"Was it you was tellin' me that Ad'line was to work again in Lowell? I +shouldn't think her husband's folks would want the child to be fetched +up there in them boardin' houses"-- + +"Belike they don't," responded Jacob, "but when they get Ad'line to +come round to their ways o' thinkin' now, after what's been and gone, +they'll have cause to thank themselves. She's just like her gre't +grandsir Thacher; you can see she's made out o' the same stuff. You +might ha' burnt him to the stake, and he'd stick to it he liked it +better'n hanging and al'ays meant to die that way. There's an awful +bad streak in them Thachers, an' you know it as well as I do. I expect +there'll be bad and good Thachers to the end o' time. I'm glad for the +old lady's sake that John ain't one o' the drinkin' ones. Ad'line'll +give no favors to her husband's folks, nor take none. There's plenty +o' wrongs to both sides, but as I view it, the longer he'd lived the +worse 't would been for him. She was a well made, pretty lookin' girl, +but I tell ye 't was like setting a laylock bush to grow beside an +ellum tree, and expecting of 'em to keep together. They wa'n't mates. +He'd had a different fetchin' up, and he _was_ different, and I wa'n't +surprised when I come to see how things had turned out,--I believe I +shall have to set the door open a half a minute, 't is gettin' +dreadful"--but there was a sudden flurry outside, and the sound of +heavy footsteps, the bark of the startled cur, who was growing very +old and a little deaf, and Mrs. Martin burst into the room and sank +into the nearest chair, to gather a little breath before she could +tell her errand. "For God's sake what's happened?" cried the men. + +They presented a picture of mingled comfort and misery at which Mrs. +Martin would have first laughed and then scolded at any other time. +The two honest red faces were well back toward the farther side of the +room from the fire, which still held its own; it was growing toward +low tide in the cider jug and its attendant mugs, and the pipes were +lying idle. The mistress of the old farm-house did not fail to notice +that high treason had been committed during her short absence, but she +made no comment upon the fireplace nor on anything else, and gasped as +soon as she could that one of the men must go right up to the Corners +for the doctor and hurry back with him, for't was a case of life and +death. + +"Mis' Thacher?" "Was it a shock?" asked the brothers in sorrowful +haste, while Mrs. Martin told the sad little story of Adeline's having +come from nobody knew where, wet and forlorn, carrying her child in +her arms. She looked as if she were in the last stages of a decline. +She had fallen just at the doorstep and they had brought her in, +believing that she was dead. "But while there's life, there's hope," +said Mrs. Martin, "and I'll go back with you if you'll harness up. +Jacob must stop to look after this gre't fire or 'twill burn the +house down," and this was the punishment which befell Jacob, since +nothing else would have kept him from also journeying toward the +Thacher house. + + +A little later the bewildered horse had been fully wakened and +harnessed; Jacob's daughter and her lover had come eagerly out to hear +what had happened; Mrs. Martin had somehow found a chance amidst all +the confusion to ascend to her garret in quest of some useful remedies +in the shape of herbs, and then she and her husband set forth on their +benevolent errands. Martin was very apt to look on the dark side of +things, and it was a curious fact that while the two sisters were like +the brothers, one being inclined to despondency and one to enthusiasm, +the balance was well kept by each of the men having chosen his +opposite in temperament. Accordingly, while Martin heaved a great sigh +from time to time and groaned softly, "Pore gal--pore gal!" his +partner was brimful of zealous eagerness to return to the scene of +distress and sorrow which she had lately left. Next to the doctor +himself, she was the authority on all medical subjects for that +neighborhood, and it was some time since her skill had been needed. + +"Does the young one seem likely?" asked Martin with solemn curiosity. + +"Fur's I could see," answered his wife promptly, "but nobody took no +great notice of it. Pore Ad'line catched hold of it with such a grip +as she was comin' to that we couldn't git it away from her and had to +fetch'em in both to once. Come urge the beast along, Martin, I'll give +ye the partic'lars to-morrow, I do' know's Ad'line's livin' now. We +got her right to bed's I told you, and I set right off considerin' +that I could git over the ground fastest of any. Mis' Thacher of +course wouldn't leave and Jane's heavier than I be." Martin's smile +was happily concealed by the darkness; his wife and her sister had +both grown stout steadily as they grew older, but each insisted upon +the other's greater magnitude and consequent incapacity for quick +movement. A casual observer would not have been persuaded that there +was a pound's weight of difference between them. + +Martin Dyer meekly suggested that perhaps he'd better go in a minute +to see if there was anything Mis' Thacher needed, but Eliza, his wife, +promptly said that she didn't want anything but the doctor as quick as +she could get him, and disappeared up the short lane while the wagon +rattled away up the road. The white mist from the river clung close to +the earth, and it was impossible to see even the fences near at hand, +though overhead there were a few dim stars. The air had grown somewhat +softer, yet there was a sharp chill in it, and the ground was wet and +sticky under foot. There were lights in the bedroom and in the kitchen +of the Thacher house, but suddenly the bedroom candle flickered away +and the window was darkened. Mrs. Martin's heart gave a quick throb, +perhaps Adeline had already died. It might have been a short-sighted +piece of business that she had gone home for her husband. + + + + +IV + +LIFE AND DEATH + + +The sick woman had refused to stay in the bedroom after she had come +to her senses. She had insisted that she could not breathe, and that +she was cold and must go back to the kitchen. Her mother and Mrs. Jake +had wrapped her in blankets and drawn the high-backed wooden rocking +chair close to the stove, and here she was just established when Mrs. +Martin opened the outer door. Any one of less reliable nerves would +have betrayed the shock which the sight of such desperate illness must +have given. The pallor, the suffering, the desperate agony of the +eyes, were far worse than the calmness of death, but Mrs. Martin spoke +cheerfully, and even when her sister whispered that their patient had +been attacked by a hæmorrhage, she manifested no concern. + +"How long has this be'n a-goin' on, Ad'line? Why didn't you come home +before and get doctored up? You're all run down." Mrs. Thacher looked +frightened when this questioning began, but turned her face toward her +daughter, eager to hear the answer. + +"I've been sick off and on all summer," said the young woman, as if it +were almost impossible to make the effort of speaking. "See if the +baby's covered up warm, will you, Aunt 'Liza?" + +"Yes, dear," said the kind-hearted woman, the tears starting to her +eyes at the sound of the familiar affectionate fashion of speech which +Adeline had used in her childhood. "Don't you worry one mite; we're +going to take care of you and the little gal too;" and then nobody +spoke, while the only sound was the difficult breathing of the poor +creature by the fire. She seemed like one dying, there was so little +life left in her after her piteous homeward journey. The mother +watched her eagerly with a mingled feeling of despair and comfort; it +was terrible to have a child return in such sad plight, but it was a +blessing to have her safe at home, and to be able to minister to her +wants while life lasted. + +They all listened eagerly for the sound of wheels, but it seemed a +long time before Martin Dyer returned with the doctor. He had been +met just as he was coming in from the other direction, and the two men +had only paused while the tired horse was made comfortable, and a +sleepy boy dispatched with the medicine for which he had long been +waiting. The doctor's housekeeper had besought him to wait long enough +to eat the supper which she had kept waiting, but he laughed at her +and shook his head gravely, as if he already understood that there +should be no delay. When he was fairly inside the Thacher kitchen, the +benefaction of his presence was felt by every one. It was most +touching to see the patient's face lose its worried look, and grow +quiet and comfortable as if here were some one on whom she could +entirely depend. The doctor's greeting was an every-day cheerful +response to the women's welcome, and he stood for a minute warming his +hands at the fire as if he had come upon a commonplace errand. There +was something singularly self-reliant and composed about him; one felt +that he was the wielder of great powers over the enemies, disease and +pain, and that his brave hazel eyes showed a rare thoughtfulness and +foresight. The rough driving coat which he had thrown off revealed a +slender figure with the bowed shoulders of an untiring scholar. His +head was finely set and scholarly, and there was that about him which +gave certainty, not only of his sagacity and skill, but of his true +manhood, his mastery of himself. Not only in this farm-house kitchen, +but wherever one might place him, he instinctively took command, while +from his great knowledge of human nature he could understand and help +many of his patients whose ailments were not wholly physical. He +seemed to read at a glance the shame and sorrow of the young woman who +had fled to the home of her childhood, dying and worse than defeated, +from the battle-field of life. And in this first moment he recognized +with dismay the effects of that passion for strong drink which had +been the curse of more than one of her ancestors. Even the pallor and +the purifying influence of her mortal illness could not disguise these +unmistakable signs. + +"You can't do me any good, doctor," she whispered. "I shouldn't have +let you come if it had been only that. I don't care how soon I am out +of this world. But I want you should look after my little girl," and +the poor soul watched the physician's face with keen anxiety as if +she feared to see a shadow of unwillingness, but none came. + +"I will do the best I can," and he still held her wrist, apparently +thinking more of the fluttering pulse than of what poor Adeline was +saying. + +"That was what made me willing to come back," she continued, "you +don't know how close I came to not doing it either. John will be good +to her, but she will need somebody that knows the world better by and +by. I wonder if you couldn't show me how to make out a paper giving +you the right over her till she is of age? She must stay here with +mother, long as she wants her. 'Tis what I wish I had kept sense +enough to do; life hasn't been all play to me;" and the tears began to +roll quickly down the poor creature's thin cheeks. "The only thing I +care about is leaving the baby well placed, and I want her to have a +good chance to grow up a useful woman. And most of all to keep her out +of _their_ hands, I mean her father's folks. I hate 'em, and he cared +more for 'em than he did for me, long at the last of it.... I could +tell you stories!"-- + +"But not to-night, Addy," said the doctor gravely, as if he were +speaking to a child. "We must put you to bed and to sleep, and you can +talk about all these troublesome things in the morning. You shall see +about the papers too, if you think best. Be a good girl now, and let +your mother help you to bed." For the resolute spirit had summoned the +few poor fragments of vitality that were left, and the sick woman was +growing more and more excited. "You may have all the pillows you wish +for, and sit up in bed if you like, but you mustn't stay here any +longer," and he gathered her in his arms and quickly carried her to +the next room. She made no resistance, and took the medicine which +Mrs. Martin brought, without a word. There was a blazing fire now in +the bedroom fire-place, and, as she lay still, her face took on a +satisfied, rested look. Her mother sat beside her, tearful, and yet +contented and glad to have her near, and the others whispered together +in the kitchen. It might have been the last night of a long illness +instead of the sudden, startling entrance of sorrow in human shape. +"No," said the doctor, "she cannot last much longer with such a cough +as that, Mrs. Dyer. She has almost reached the end of it. I only hope +that she will go quickly." + +And sure enough; whether the fatal illness had run its natural course, +or whether the excitement and the forced strength of the evening +before had exhausted the small portion of strength that was left, when +the late dawn lighted again those who watched, it found them sleeping, +and one was never to wake again in the world she had found so +disappointing to her ambitions, and so untrue to its fancied promises. + + +The doctor had promised to return early, but it was hardly daylight +before there was another visitor in advance of him. Old Mrs. Meeker, a +neighbor whom nobody liked, but whose favor everybody for some reason +or other was anxious to keep, came knocking at the door, and was let +in somewhat reluctantly by Mrs. Jake, who was just preparing to go +home in order to send one or both the brothers to the village and to +acquaint John Thacher with the sad news of his sister's death. He was +older than Adeline, and a silent man, already growing to be elderly in +his appearance. The women had told themselves and each other that he +would take this sorrow very hard, and Mrs. Thacher had said +sorrowfully that she must hide her daughter's poor worn clothes, since +it would break John's heart to know she had come home so beggarly. The +shock of so much trouble was stunning the mother; she did not +understand yet, she kept telling the kind friends who sorrowed with +her, as she busied herself with the preparations for the funeral. "It +don't seem as if 'twas Addy," she said over and over again, "but I +feel safe about her now, to what I did," and Mrs. Jake and Mrs. +Martin, good helpful souls and brimful of compassion, went to and fro +with their usual diligence almost as if this were nothing out of the +common course of events. + +Mrs. Meeker had heard the wagon go by and had caught the sound of the +doctor's voice, her house being close by the road, and she had also +watched the unusual lights. It was annoying to the Dyers to have to +answer questions, and to be called upon to grieve outwardly just then, +and it seemed disloyal to the dead woman in the next room to enter +upon any discussion of her affairs. But presently the little child, +whom nobody had thought of except to see that she still slept, waked +and got down from the old settle where she had spent the night, and +walked with unsteady short footsteps toward her grandmother, who +caught her quickly and held her fast in her arms. The little thing +looked puzzled, and frowned, and seemed for a moment unhappy, and then +the sunshine of her good nature drove away the clouds and she clapped +her hands and laughed aloud, while Mrs. Meeker began to cry again at +the sight of this unconscious orphan. + +"I'm sure I'm glad she can laugh," said Mrs. Martin. "She'll find +enough to cry about later on; I foresee she'll be a great deal o' +company to you, Mis' Thacher." + +"Though 't ain't every one that has the strength to fetch up a child +after they reach your years," said Mrs. Meeker, mournfully. "It's +anxious work, but I don't doubt strength will be given you. I s'pose +likely her father's folks will do a good deal for her,"--and the three +women looked at each other, but neither took it upon herself to +answer. + +All that day the neighbors and acquaintances came and went in the lane +that led to the farm-house. The brothers Jake and Martin made journeys +to and from the village. At night John Thacher came home from court +with as little to say as ever, but, as everybody observed, looking +years older. Young Mrs. Prince's return and sudden death were the only +subjects worth talking about in all the country side, and the doctor +had to run the usual gauntlet of questions from all his outlying +patients and their families. Old Mrs. Thacher looked pale and excited, +and insisted upon seeing every one who came to the house, with evident +intention to play her part in this strange drama with exactness and +courtesy. A funeral in the country is always an era in a family's +life; events date from it and centre in it. There are so few +circumstances that have in the least a public nature that these +conspicuous days receive all the more attention. + +But while death seems far more astonishing and unnatural in a city, +where the great tide of life rises and falls with little apparent +regard to the sinking wrecks, in the country it is not so. The +neighbors themselves are those who dig the grave and carry the dead, +whom they or their friends have made ready, to the last resting-place. +With all nature looking on,--the leaves that must fall, and the grass +of the field that must wither and be gone when the wind passes +over,--living closer to life and in plainer sight of death, they have +a different sense of the mysteries of existence. They pay homage to +Death rather than to the dead; they gather from the lonely farms by +scores because there is a funeral, and not because their friend is +dead; and the day of Adeline Prince's burial, the marvelous +circumstances, with which the whole town was already familiar, brought +a great company together to follow her on her last journey. + +The day was warm and the sunshine fell caressingly over the pastures +as if it were trying to call back the flowers. By afternoon there was +a tinge of greenness on the slopes and under the gnarled apple-trees, +that had been lost for days before, and the distant hills and +mountains, which could be seen in a circle from the high land where +the Thacher farmhouse stood, were dim and blue through the Indian +summer haze. The old men who came to the funeral wore their faded +winter overcoats and clumsy caps all ready to be pulled down over +their ears if the wind should change; and their wives were also warmly +wrapped, with great shawls over their rounded, hard-worked shoulders; +yet they took the best warmth and pleasantness into their hearts, and +watched the sad proceedings of the afternoon with deepest interest. +The doctor came hurrying toward home just as the long procession was +going down the pasture, and he saw it crossing a low hill; a dark and +slender column with here and there a child walking beside one of the +elder mourners. The bearers went first with the bier; the track was +uneven, and the procession was lost to sight now and then behind the +slopes. It was forever a mystery; these people might have been a +company of Druid worshipers, or of strange northern priests and their +people, and the doctor checked his impatient horse as he watched the +retreating figures at their simple ceremony. He could not help +thinking what strange ways this child of the old farm had followed, +and what a quiet ending it was to her wandering life. "And I have +promised to look after the little girl," he said to himself as he +drove away up the road. + +It was a long walk for the elderly people from the house near the main +highway to the little burying-ground. In the earliest days of the farm +the dwelling-place was nearer the river, which was then the chief +thoroughfare; and those of the family who had died then were buried on +the level bit of upland ground high above the river itself. There was +a wide outlook over the country, and the young pine trees that fringed +the shore sang in the south wind, while some great birds swung to and +fro overhead, watching the water and the strange company of people who +had come so slowly over the land. A flock of sheep had ventured to the +nearest hillock of the next pasture, and stood there fearfully, with +upraised heads, as if they looked for danger. + +John Thacher had brought his sister's child all the way in his arms, +and she had clapped her hands and laughed aloud and tried to talk a +great deal with the few words she had learned to say. She was very gay +in her baby fashion; she was amused with the little crowd so long as +it did not trouble her. She fretted only when the grave, kind man, for +whom she had instantly felt a great affection, stayed too long by that +deep hole in the ground and wept as he saw a strange thing that the +people had carried all the way, put down into it out of sight. When he +walked on again, she laughed and played; but after they had reached +the empty gray house, which somehow looked that day as if it were a +mourner also, she shrank from all the strangers, and seemed dismayed +and perplexed, and called her mother eagerly again and again. This +touched many a heart. The dead woman had been more or less unfamiliar +of late years to all of them; and there were few who had really +grieved for her until her little child had reminded them of its own +loneliness and loss. + +That night, after the house was still, John Thacher wrote to acquaint +Miss Prince, of Dunport, with his sister's death and to say that it +was her wish that the child should remain with them during its +minority. They should formally appoint the guardian whom she had +selected; they would do their best by the little girl. And when Mrs. +Thacher asked if he had blamed Miss Prince, he replied that he had +left that to her own conscience. + +In the answer which was quickly returned, there was a plea for the +custody of the child, her mother's and her own namesake, but this was +indignantly refused. There was no love lost between the town and the +country household, and for many years all intercourse was at an end. +Before twelve months were past, John Thacher himself was carried down +to the pasture burying-ground, and his old mother and the little child +were left to comfort and take care of each other as best they could in +the lonely farm-house. + + + + +V + +A SUNDAY VISIT + + +In the gray house on the hill, one spring went by and another, and it +seemed to the busy doctor only a few months from the night he first +saw his ward before she was old enough to come soberly to church with +her grandmother. He had always seen her from time to time, for he had +often been called to the farm or to the Dyers and had watched her at +play. Once she had stopped him as he drove by to give him a little +handful of blue violets, and this had gone straight to his heart, for +he had been made too great a bugbear to most children to look for any +favor at their hands. He always liked to see her come into church on +Sundays, her steps growing quicker and surer as her good grandmother's +became more feeble. The doctor was a lonely man in spite of his many +friends, and he found himself watching for the little brown face that, +half-way across the old meeting-house, would turn round to look for +him more than once during the service. At first there was only the top +of little Nan Prince's prim best bonnet or hood to be seen, unless it +was when she stood up in prayer-time, but soon the bright eyes rose +like stars above the horizon of the pew railing, and next there was +the whole well-poised little head, and the tall child was possessed by +a sense of propriety, and only ventured one or two discreet glances at +her old friend. + +The office of guardian was not one of great tasks or of many duties, +though the child's aunt had insisted upon making an allowance for her +of a hundred dollars a year, and this was duly acknowledged and placed +to its owner's credit in the savings bank of the next town. Her +grandmother Thacher always refused to spend it, saying proudly that +she had never been beholden to Miss Prince and she never meant to be, +and while she lived the aunt and niece should be kept apart. She would +not say that her daughter had never been at fault, but it was through +the Princes all the trouble of her life had come. + +Dr. Leslie was mindful of his responsibilities, and knew more of his +ward than was ever suspected. He was eager that the best district +school teacher who could be found should be procured for the Thacher +and Dyer neighborhood, and in many ways he took pains that the little +girl should have all good things that were possible. He only laughed +when her grandmother complained that Nan would not be driven to +school, much less persuaded, and that she was playing in the brook, or +scampering over the pastures when she should be doing other things. +Mrs. Thacher, perhaps unconsciously, had looked for some trace of the +father's good breeding and gentlefolk fashions, but this was not a +child who took kindly to needlework and pretty clothes. She was +fearlessly friendly with every one; she did not seem confused even +when the minister came to make his yearly parochial visitation, and as +for the doctor, he might have been her own age, for all humility she +thought it necessary to show in the presence of this chief among her +elders and betters. Old Mrs. Thacher gave little pulls at her +granddaughter's sleeves when she kept turning to see the doctor in +sermon-time, but she never knew how glad he was, or how willingly he +smiled when he felt the child's eyes watching him as a dog's might +have done, forcing him to forget the preaching altogether and to +attend to this dumb request for sympathy. One blessed day Dr. Leslie +had waited in the church porch and gravely taken the child's hand as +she came out; and said that he should like to take her home with him; +he was going to the lower part of the town late in the afternoon and +would leave her then at the farm-house. + +"I was going to ask you for something for her shoulder," said +Grandmother Thacher, much pleased, "she'll tell you about it, it was a +fall she had out of an apple-tree,"--and Nan looked up with not a +little apprehension, but presently tucked her small hand inside the +doctor's and was more than ready to go with him. "I thought she looked +a little pale," the doctor said, to which Mrs. Thacher answered that +it was a merciful Providence who had kept the child from breaking her +neck, and then, being at the foot of the church steps, they separated. +It had been a great trial to the good woman to give up the afternoon +service, but she was growing old, as she told herself often in those +days, and felt, as she certainly looked, greatly older than her years. + +"I feel as if Anna was sure of one good friend, whether I stay with +her or not," said the grandmother sorrowfully, as she drove toward +home that Sunday noon with Jacob Dyer and his wife. "I never saw the +doctor so taken with a child before. 'Twas a pity he had to lose his +own, and his wife too; how many years ago was it? I should think he'd +be lonesome, though to be sure he isn't in the house much. Marilla +Thomas keeps his house as clean as a button and she has been a good +stand-by for him, but it always seemed sort o' homesick there ever +since the day I was to his wife's funeral. She made an awful sight o' +friends considering she was so little while in the place. Well I'm +glad I let Nanny wear her best dress; I set out not to, it looked so +much like rain." + +Whatever Marilla Thomas's other failings might have been, she +certainly was kind that day to the doctor's little guest. It would +have been a hard-hearted person indeed who did not enter somewhat into +the spirit of the child's delight. In spite of its being the first +time she had ever sat at any table but her grandmother's, she was not +awkward or uncomfortable, and was so hungry that she gave pleasure to +her entertainers in that way if no other. The doctor leaned back in +his chair and waited while the second portion of pudding slowly +disappeared, though Marilla could have told that he usually did not +give half time enough to his dinner and was off like an arrow the +first possible minute. Before he took his often interrupted afternoon +nap, he inquired for the damaged shoulder and requested a detailed +account of the accident; and presently they were both laughing +heartily at Nan's disaster, for she owned that she had chased and +treed a stray young squirrel, and that a mossy branch of one of the +old apple-trees in the straggling orchard had failed to bear even so +light a weight as hers. Nan had come to the ground because she would +not loose her hold of the squirrel, though he had slipped through her +hands after all as she carried him towards home. The guest was proud +to become a patient, especially as the only remedy that was offered +was a very comfortable handful of sugar-plums. Nan had never owned so +many at once, and in a transport of gratitude and affection she lifted +her face to kiss so dear a benefactor. + +Her eyes looked up into his, and her simple nature was so unconscious +of the true dangers and perils of this world, that his very heart was +touched with compassion, and he leagued himself with the child's good +angel to defend her against her enemies. + +And Nan took fast hold of the doctor's hand as they went to the study. +This was the only room in the house which she had seen before; and was +so much larger and pleasanter than any she knew elsewhere that she +took great delight in it. It was a rough place now, the doctor +thought, but always very comfortable, and he laid himself down on the +great sofa with a book in his hand, though after a few minutes he grew +sleepy and only opened his eyes once to see that Nan was perched in +the largest chair with her small hands folded, and her feet very far +from the floor. "You may run out to see Marilla, or go about the house +anywhere you like; or there are some picture-papers on the table," the +doctor said drowsily, and the visitor slipped down from her throne and +went softly away. + +She had thought the study a very noble room until she had seen the +dining-room, but now she wished for another look at the pictures there +and the queer clock, and the strange, grand things on the sideboard. +The old-fashioned comfort of the house was perfect splendor to the +child, and she went about on tiptoe up stairs and down, looking in at +the open doors, while she lingered wistfully before the closed ones. +She wondered at the great bedsteads with their high posts and dimity +hangings, and at the carpets, and the worthy Marilla watched her for a +moment as she stood on the threshold of the doctor's own room. The +child's quick ear caught the rustle of the housekeeper's Sunday gown; +she whispered with shining eyes that she thought the house was +beautiful. Did Marilla live here all the time? + +"Bless you, yes!" replied Marilla, not without pride, though she added +that nobody knew what a sight of care it was. + +"I suppose y'r aunt in Dunport lives a good deal better than this;" +but the child only looked puzzled and did not answer, while the +housekeeper hurried away to the afternoon meeting, for which the bell +was already tolling. + +The doctor slept on in the shaded study, and after Nan had grown tired +of walking softly about the house, she found her way into the garden. +After all, there was nothing better than being out of doors, and the +apple-trees seemed most familiar and friendly, though she pitied them +for being placed so near each other. She discovered a bench under a +trellis where a grape-vine and a clematis were tangled together, and +here she sat down to spend a little time before the doctor should call +her. She wished she could stay longer than that one short afternoon; +perhaps some time or other the doctor would invite her again. But what +could Marilla have meant about her aunt? She had no aunts except Mrs. +Jake and Mrs. Martin; Marilla must well know that their houses were +not like Dr. Leslie's; and little Nan built herself a fine castle in +Spain, of which this unknown aunt was queen. Certainly her grandmother +had now and then let fall a word about "your father's folks"--by and +by they might come to see her! + +The grape leaves were waving about in the warm wind, and they made a +flickering light and shade upon the ground. The clematis was in bloom, +and its soft white plumes fringed the archway of the lattice work. As +the child looked down the garden walk it seemed very long and very +beautiful to her. Her grandmother's flower-garden had been constantly +encroached upon by the turf which surrounded it, until the snowberry +bush, the London pride, the tiger-lilies, and the crimson phlox were +like a besieged garrison. + +Nan had already found plenty of wild flowers in the world; there were +no entertainments provided for her except those the fields and +pastures kindly spread before her admiring eyes. Old Mrs. Thacher had +been brought up to consider the hard work of this life, and though she +had taken her share of enjoyment as she went along, it was of a +somewhat grim and sober sort. She believed that a certain amount of +friskiness was as necessary to young human beings as it is to colts, +but later both must be harnessed and made to work. As for pleasure +itself she had little notion of that. She liked fair weather, and +certain flowers were to her the decorations of certain useful plants, +but if she had known that her grand-daughter could lie down beside the +anemones and watch them move in the wind and nod their heads, and +afterward look up into the blue sky to watch the great gulls above the +river, or the sparrows flying low, or the crows who went higher, Mrs. +Thacher would have understood almost nothing of such delights, and +thought it a very idle way of spending one's time. + +But as Nan sat in the old summer-house in the doctor's garden, she +thought of many things that she must remember to tell her grandmother +about this delightful day. The bees were humming in the vines, and as +she looked down the wide garden-walk it seemed like the broad aisle in +church, and the congregation of plants and bushes all looked at her as +if she were in the pulpit. The church itself was not far away, and the +windows were open, and sometimes Nan could hear the preacher's voice, +and by and by the people began to sing, and she rose solemnly, as if +it were her own parishioners in the garden who lifted up their voices. +A cheerful robin began a loud solo in one of Dr. Leslie's +cherry-trees, and the little girl laughed aloud in her make-believe +meeting-house, and then the gate was opened and shut, and the doctor +himself appeared, strolling along, and smiling as he came. + +He was looking to the right and left at his flowers and trees, and +once he stopped and took out his pocket knife to trim a straying +branch of honeysuckle, which had wilted and died. When he came to the +summer-house, he found his guest sitting there demurely with her hands +folded in her lap. She had gathered some little sprigs of box and a +few blossoms of periwinkle and late lilies of the valley, and they lay +on the bench beside her. "So you did not go to church with Marilla?" +the doctor said. "I dare say one sermon a day is enough for so small a +person as you." For Nan's part, no sermon at all would have caused +little sorrow, though she liked the excitement of the Sunday drive to +the village. She only smiled when the doctor spoke, and gave a little +sigh of satisfaction a minute afterward when he seated himself beside +her. + +"We must be off presently," he told her. "I have a long drive to take +before night. I would let you go with me, but I am afraid I should +keep you too long past your bedtime." + +The little girl looked in his kind face appealingly; she could not +bear to have the day come to an end. The doctor spoke to her as if she +were grown up and understood everything, and this pleased her. It is +very hard to be constantly reminded that one is a child, as if it were +a crime against society. Dr. Leslie, unlike many others, did not like +children because they were children; he now and then made friends with +one, just as he added now and then to his narrow circle of grown +friends. He felt a certain responsibility for this little girl, and +congratulated himself upon feeling an instinctive fondness for her. +The good old minister had said only that morning that love is the +great motive power, that it is always easy to do things for those whom +we love and wish to please, and for this reason we are taught to pray +for love to God, and so conquer the difficulty of holiness. "But I +must do my duty by her at any rate," the doctor told himself. "I am +afraid I have forgotten the child somewhat in past years, and she is a +bright little creature." + +"Have you been taking good care of yourself?" he added aloud. "I was +very tired, for I was out twice in the night taking care of sick +people. But you must come to see me again some day. I dare say you and +Marilla have made friends with each other. Now we must go, I suppose," +and Nan Prince, still silent,--for the pleasure of this time was +almost too great,--took hold of the doctor's outstretched hand, and +they went slowly up the garden walk together. As they drove slowly +down the street they met the people who were coming from church, and +the child sat up very straight in the old gig, with her feet on the +doctor's medicine-box, and was sure that everybody must be envying +her. She thought it was more pleasant than ever that afternoon, as +they passed through the open country outside the village; the fields +and the trees were marvelously green, and the distant river was +shining in the sun. Nan looked anxiously for the gray farmhouse for +two or three minutes before they came in sight of it, but at last it +showed itself, standing firm on the hillside. It seemed a long time +since she had left home in the morning, but this beautiful day was to +be one of the landmarks of her memory. Life had suddenly grown much +larger, and her familiar horizon had vanished and she discovered a +great distance stretching far beyond the old limits. She went gravely +into the familiar kitchen, holding fast the bits of box and the +periwinkle flowers, quite ready to answer her grandmother's questions, +though she was only too certain that it would be impossible to tell +any one the whole dear story of that June Sunday. + +A little later, as Marilla came sedately home, she noticed in the +driveway some fresh hoofmarks which pointed toward the street, and +quickly assured herself that they could not have been made very long +before. "I wonder what the two of 'em have been doing all the +afternoon?" she said to herself. "She's a little lady, that child is; +and it's a burnin' shame she should be left to run wild. I never set +so much by her mother's looks as some did, but growin' things has +blooms as much as they have roots and prickles--and even them Thachers +will flower out once in a while." + + + + +VI + +IN SUMMER WEATHER + + +One morning Dr. Leslie remembered an old patient whom he liked to go +to see now and then, perhaps more from the courtesy and friendliness +of the thing than from any hope of giving professional assistance. The +old sailor, Captain Finch, had long before been condemned as +unseaworthy, having suffered for many years from the effects of a bad +fall on shipboard. He was a cheerful and wise person, and the doctor +was much attached to him, besides knowing that he had borne his +imprisonment with great patience, for his life on one of the most +secluded farms of the region, surrounded by his wife's kinsfolk, who +were all landsmen, could hardly be called anything else. The doctor +had once made a voyage to Fayal and from thence to England in a +sailing-vessel, having been somewhat delicate in health in his younger +days, and this made him a more intelligent listener to the captain's +stories than was often available. + +Dr. Leslie had brought his case of medicines from mere force of habit, +but by way of special prescription he had taken also a generous +handful of his best cigars, and wrapped them somewhat clumsily in one +of the large sheets of letter-paper which lay on his study table near +by. Also he had stopped before the old sideboard in the carefully +darkened dining-room, and taken a bottle of wine from one of its +cupboards. "This will do him more good than anything, poor old +fellow," he told himself, with a sudden warmth in his own heart and a +feeling of grateful pleasure because he had thought of doing the +kindness. + +Marilla called eagerly from the kitchen window to ask where he was +going, putting her hand out hastily to part the morning-glory vines, +which had climbed their strings and twisted their stems together until +they shut out the world from their planter's sight. But the doctor +only answered that he should be back at dinner time, and settled +himself comfortably in his carriage, smiling as he thought of +Marilla's displeasure. She seldom allowed a secret to escape her, if +she were once fairly on the scent of it, though she grumbled now, and +told herself that she only cared to know for the sake of the people +who might come, or to provide against the accident of his being among +the missing in case of sudden need. She found life more interesting +when there was even a small mystery to be puzzled over. It was +impossible for Dr. Leslie to resist teasing his faithful hand-maiden +once in a while, but he did it with proper gravity and respect, and +their friendship was cemented by these sober jokes rather than torn +apart. + +The horse knew as well as his master that nothing of particular +importance was in hand, and however well he always caught the spirit +of the occasion when there was need for hurry, he now jogged along the +road, going slowly where the trees cast a pleasant shade, and paying +more attention to the flies than to anything else. The doctor seemed +to be in deep thought, and old Major understood that no notice was to +be taken of constant slight touches of the whip which his master held +carelessly. It had been hot, dusty weather until the day and night +before, when heavy showers had fallen; the country was looking fresh, +and the fields and trees were washed clean at last from the white dust +that had powdered them and given the farms a barren and discouraged +look. + +They had come in sight of Mrs. Thacher's house on its high hillside, +and were just passing the abode of Mrs. Meeker, which was close by the +roadside in the low land. This was a small, weather-beaten dwelling, +and the pink and red hollyhocks showed themselves in fine array +against its gray walls. Its mistress's prosaic nature had one most +redeeming quality in her love for flowers and her gift in making them +grow, and the doctor forgave her many things for the sake of the +bright little garden in the midst of the sandy lands which surrounded +her garden with their unshaded barrenness. The road that crossed these +was hot in summer and swept by bitter winds in winter. It was like a +bit of desert dropped by mistake among the green farms and spring-fed +forests that covered the rest of the river uplands. + +No sentinel was ever more steadfast to his duty in time of war and +disorder than Mrs. Meeker, as she sat by the front window, from which +she could see some distance either way along the crooked road. She was +often absent from her own house to render assistance of one sort or +another among her neighbors, but if she were at home it was impossible +for man, woman, or child to go by without her challenge or careful +inspection. She made couriers of her neighbors, and sent these errand +men and women along the country roads or to the village almost daily. +She was well posted in the news from both the village and the country +side, and however much her acquaintances scolded about her, they found +it impossible to resist the fascination of her conversation, and few +declined to share in the banquet of gossip which she was always ready +to spread. She was quick witted, and possessed of many resources and +much cleverness of a certain sort; but it must be confessed that she +had done mischief in her day, having been the murderer of more than +one neighbor's peace of mind and the assailant of many a reputation. +But if she were a dangerous inmate of one's household, few were so +attractive or entertaining for the space of an afternoon visit, and it +was usually said, when she was seen approaching, that she would be +sure to have something to tell. Out in the country, where so many +people can see nothing new from one week's end to the other, it is, +after all, a great pleasure to have the latest particulars brought to +one's door, as a townsman's newspaper is. + +Mrs. Meeker knew better than to stop Dr. Leslie if he were going +anywhere in a hurry; she had been taught this lesson years ago; but +when she saw him journeying in such a leisurely way some instinct +assured her of safety, and she came out of her door like a +Jack-in-the-box, while old Major, only too ready for a halt, stood +still in spite of a desperate twitch of the reins, which had as much +effect as pulling at a fish-hook which has made fast to an anchor. +Mrs. Meeker feigned a great excitement. + +"I won't keep you but a moment," she said, "but I want to hear what +you think about Mis' Thacher's chances." + +"Mrs. Thacher's?" repeated the doctor, wonderingly. + +"She's doing well, isn't she? I don't suppose that she will ever be a +young woman again." + +"I don't know why, but I took it for granted that you was goin' +there," explained Mrs. Meeker, humbly. "She has seemed to me as if she +was failing all summer. I was up there last night, and I never said so +to her, but she had aged dreadfully. I wonder if it's likely she's had +a light shock? Sometimes the fust one's kind o' hidden; comes by night +or somethin', and folks don't know till they begins to feel the damage +of it." + +"She hasn't looked very well of late," said the doctor. For once in +his life he was willing to have a friendly talk, Mrs. Meeker thought, +and she proceeded to make the most of her opportunity. + +"I think the care of that girl of Ad'line's has been too much for her +all along," she announced, "she's wild as a hawk, and a perfect +torment. One day she'll come strollin' in and beseechin' me for a +bunch o' flowers, and the next she'll be here after dark scarin' me +out o' my seven senses. She rigged a tick-tack here the other night +against the window, and my heart was in my mouth. I thought 'twas a +warnin' much as ever I thought anything in my life; the night before +my mother died 'twas in that same room and against that same winder +there came two or three raps, and my sister Drew and me we looked at +each other, and turned cold all over, and mother set right up in bed +the next night and looked at that winder and then laid back dead. I +was all sole alone the other evenin',--Wednesday it was,--and when I +heard them raps I mustered up, and went and put my head out o' the +door, and I couldn't see nothing, and when I went back, knock--knock, +it begun again, and I went to the door and harked. I hoped I should +hear somebody or 'nother comin' along the road, and then I heard +somethin' a rus'lin' amongst the sunflowers and hollyhocks, and then +there was a titterin', and come to find out 'twas that young one. I +chased her up the road till my wind give out, and I had to go and set +on the stone wall, and come to. She won't go to bed till she's a mind +to. One night I was up there this spring, and she never come in until +after nine o'clock, a dark night, too; and the pore old lady was in +distress, and thought she'd got into the river. I says to myself there +wa'n't no such good news. She told how she'd be'n up into Jake an' +Martin's oaks, trying to catch a little screech owl. She belongs with +wild creatur's, I do believe,--just the same natur'. She'd better be +kept to school, 'stead o' growin' up this way; but she keeps the rest +o' the young ones all in a brile, and this last teacher wouldn't have +her there at all. She'd toll off half the school into the pasture at +recess time, and none of 'em would get back for half an hour." + +"What's a tick-tack? I don't remember," asked the doctor, who had been +smiling now and then at this complaint. + +"They tie a nail to the end of a string, and run it over a bent pin +stuck in the sash, and then they get out o' sight and pull, and it +clacks against the winder, don't ye see? Ain't it surprisin' how them +devil's tricks gets handed down from gineration to gineration, while +so much that's good is forgot," lamented Mrs. Meeker, but the doctor +looked much amused. + +"She's a bright child," he said, "and not over strong. I don't believe +in keeping young folks shut up in the schoolhouses all summer long." + +Mrs. Meeker sniffed disapprovingly. "She's tougher than ellum roots. I +believe you can't kill them peakèd-looking young ones. She'll run like +a fox all day long and live to see us all buried. I can put up with +her pranks; 't is of pore old Mis' Thacher I'm thinkin'. She's had +trouble enough without adding on this young 'scape-gallows. You had +better fetch her up to be a doctor," Mrs. Meeker smilingly continued, +"I was up there yisterday, and one of the young turkeys had come +hoppin' and quawkin' round the doorsteps with its leg broke, and she'd +caught it and fixed it off with a splint before you could say Jack +Robi'son. She told how it was the way you'd done to Jim Finch that +fell from the hay-rigging and broke his arm over to Jake an' Martin's, +haying time." + +"I remember she was standing close by, watching everything I did," +said the doctor, his face shining with interest and pleasure. "I +shall have to carry her about for clerk. Her father studied medicine +you know. It is the most amazing thing how people inherit"--but he did +not finish his sentence and pulled the reins so quickly that the wise +horse knew there was no excuse for not moving forward. + +Mrs. Meeker had hoped for a longer interview. "Stop as you come back, +won't you?" she asked. "I'm goin' to pick you some of the handsomest +poppies I ever raised. I got the seed from my sister-in-law's cousin, +she that was 'Miry Gregg, and they do beat everything. They wilt so +that it ain't no use to pick 'em now, unless you was calc'latin' to +come home by the other road. There's nobody sick about here, is +there?" to which the doctor returned a shake of the head and the +information that he should be returning that way about noon. As he +drove up the hill he assured himself with great satisfaction that he +believed he hadn't told anything that morning which would be repeated +all over town before night, while his hostess returned to her house +quite dissatisfied with the interview, though she hoped for better +fortune on Dr. Leslie's return. + +For his part, he drove on slowly past the Thacher farmhouse, looking +carefully about him, and sending a special glance up the lane in +search of the invalid turkey. "I should like to see how she managed +it," he told himself half aloud. "If she shows a gift for such things +I'll take pains to teach her a lesson or two by and by when she is +older.... Come Major, don't go to sleep on the road!" and in a few +minutes the wagon was out of sight, if the reader had stood in the +Thacher lane, instead of following the good man farther on his errand +of mercy and good fellowship. + + +At that time in the morning most housekeepers were busy in their +kitchens, but Mrs. Thacher came to stand in her doorway, and shaded +her forehead and eyes with her hand from the bright sunlight, as she +looked intently across the pastures toward the river. She seemed +anxious and glanced to and fro across the fields, and presently she +turned quickly at the sound of a footstep, and saw her young +grand-daughter coming from the other direction round the corner of the +house. The child was wet and a little pale, though she evidently had +been running. + +"What have you been doin' now?" asked the old lady fretfully. "I won't +have you gettin' up in the mornin' before I am awake and stealin' out +of the house. I think you are drowned in the river or have broken your +neck fallin' out of a tree. Here it is after ten o'clock. I've a mind +to send you to bed, Nanny; who got you out of the water, for in it +you've been sure enough?" + +"I got out myself," said the little girl. "It was deep, though," and +she began to cry, and when she tried to cover her eyes with her +already well-soaked little apron, she felt quite broken-hearted and +unnerved, and sat down dismally on the doorstep. + +"Come in, and put on a dry dress," said her grandmother, not unkindly; +"that is, if there's anything but your Sunday one fit to be seen. I've +told you often enough not to go playin' in the river, and I've wanted +you more than common to go out to Jake and Martin's to borrow me a +little cinnamon. You're a real trial this summer. I believe the bigger +you are the worse you are. Now just say what you've been about. I +declare I shall have to go and have a talk with the doctor, and he'll +scold you well. I'm gettin' old and I can't keep after you; you ought +to consider me some. You'll think of it when you see me laying dead, +what a misery you've be'n. No schoolin' worth namin';" grumbled Mrs. +Thacher, as she stepped heavily to and fro in the kitchen, and the +little girl disappeared within the bed-room. In a few minutes, +however, her unusual depression was driven away by the comfort of dry +garments, and she announced triumphantly that she had found a whole +flock of young wild ducks, and that she had made a raft and chased +them about up and down the river, until the raft had proved +unseaworthy, and she had fallen through into the water. Later in the +day somebody came from the Jake and Martin homesteads to say that +there must be no more pulling down of the ends of the pasture fences. +The nails had easily let go their hold of the old boards, and a stone +had served our heroine for a useful shipwright's hammer, but the +young cattle had strayed through these broken barriers and might have +done great damage if they had been discovered a little later,--having +quickly hied themselves to a piece of carefully cultivated land. The +Jake and Martin families regarded Nan with a mixture of dread and +affection. She was bringing a new element into their prosaic lives, +and her pranks afforded them a bit of news almost daily. Her +imagination was apt to busy itself in inventing tales of her unknown +aunt, with which she entertained a grandchild of Martin Dyer, a little +girl of nearly her own age. It seemed possible to Nan that any day a +carriage drawn by a pair of prancing black horses might be seen +turning up the lane, and that a lovely lady might alight and claim her +as her only niece. Why this event had not already taken place the +child never troubled herself to think, but ever since Marilla had +spoken of this aunt's existence, the dreams of her had been growing +longer and more charming, until she seemed fit for a queen, and her +unseen house a palace. Nan's playmate took pleasure in repeating these +glowing accounts to her family, and many were the head-shakings and +evil forebodings over the untruthfulness of the heroine of this story. +Little Susan Dyer's only aunt, who was well known to her, lived as +other people did in a comparatively plain and humble house, and it was +not to be wondered at that she objected to hearing continually of an +aunt of such splendid fashion. And yet Nan tried over and over again +to be in some degree worthy of the relationship. She must not be too +unfit to enter upon more brilliant surroundings whenever the time +should come,--she took care that her pet chickens and her one doll +should have high-sounding names, such as would seem proper to the +aunt, and, more than this, she took a careful survey of the house +whenever she was coming home from school or from play, lest she might +come upon her distinguished relative unawares. She had asked her +grandmother more than once to tell her about this mysterious +kinswoman, but Mrs. Thacher proved strangely uncommunicative, fearing +if she answered one easy question it might involve others that were +more difficult. + +The good woman grew more and more anxious to fulfil her duty to this +troublesome young housemate; the child was strangely dear and +companionable in spite of her frequent naughtiness. It seemed, too, as +if she could do whatever she undertook, and as if she had a power +which made her able to use and unite the best traits of her ancestors, +the strong capabilities which had been illy balanced or allowed to run +to waste in others. It might be said that the materials for a fine +specimen of humanity accumulate through several generations, until a +child appears who is the heir of all the family wit and attractiveness +and common sense, just as one person may inherit the worldly wealth of +his ancestry. + + + + +VII + +FOR THE YEARS TO COME + + +Late one summer afternoon Dr. Leslie was waked from an unusually long +after-dinner nap by Marilla's footsteps along the hall. She remained +standing in the doorway, looking at him for a provoking length of +time, and finally sneezed in her most obtrusive and violent manner. At +this he sat up quickly and demanded to be told what was the matter, +adding that he had been out half the night before, which was no news +to the faithful housekeeper. + +"There, I'm sure I didn't mean to wake you up," she said, with an +apparent lack of self-reproach. "I never can tell whether you are +asleep or only kind of drowsin'. There was a boy here just now from +old Mis' Cunningham's over on the b'ilin' spring road. They want you +to come over quick as convenient. She don't know nothin', the boy +said." + +"Never did," grumbled the doctor. "I'll go, toward night, but I can't +do her any good." + +"An' Mis' Thacher is out here waitin' too, but she says if you're busy +she'll go along to the stores and stop as she comes back. She looks to +me as if she was breakin' up," confided Marilla in a lower tone. + +"Tell her I'm ready now," answered the doctor in a more cordial tone, +and though he said half to himself and half to Marilla that here was +another person who expected him to cure old age, he spoke +compassionately, and as if his heart were heavy with the thought of +human sorrow and suffering. But he greeted Mrs. Thacher most +cheerfully, and joked about Marilla's fear of a fly, as he threw open +the blinds of the study window which was best shaded from the sun. + +Mrs. Thacher did indeed look changed, and the physician's quick eyes +took note of it, and, as he gathered up some letters and newspapers +which had been strewn about just after dinner, he said kindly that he +hoped she had no need of a doctor. It was plain that the occasion +seemed an uncommon one to her. She wore her best clothes, which would +not have been necessary for one of her usual business trips to the +village, and it seemed to be difficult for her to begin her story. Dr. +Leslie, taking a purely professional view of the case, began to +consider what form of tonic would be most suitable, whether she had +come to ask for one or not. + +"I want to have a good talk with you about the little gell; Nanny, you +know;" she said at last, and the doctor nodded, and, explaining that +there seemed to be a good deal of draught through the room, crossed +the floor and gently shut the door which opened into the hall. He +smiled a little as he did it, having heard the long breath outside +which was the not unfamiliar signal of Marilla's presence. If she were +curious, she was a discreet keeper of secrets, and the doctor had more +than once indulged her in her sinful listening by way of friendliness +and reward. But this subject promised to concern his own affairs too +closely, and he became wary of the presence of another pair of ears. +He was naturally a man of uncommon reserve, and most loyal in keeping +his patients' secrets. If clergymen knew their congregations as well +as physicians do, the sermons would be often more closely related to +the parish needs. It was difficult for the world to understand why, +when Dr. Leslie was anything but prone to gossip, Marilla should have +been possessed of such a wealth of knowledge of her neighbors' +affairs. Strange to say this wealth was for her own miserly pleasure +and not to be distributed, and while she often proclaimed with +exasperating triumph that she had known for months some truth just +discovered by others, she was regarded by her acquaintances as if she +were a dictionary written in some foreign language; immensely +valuable, but of no practical use to themselves. It was sometimes +difficult not to make an attempt to borrow from her store of news, but +nothing delighted her more than to be so approached, and to present +impenetrable barriers of discretion to the enemy. + +"How is Nanny getting on?" the doctor asked. "She looks stronger than +she did a year ago." + +"Dear me, she's wild as ever," answered Mrs. Thacher, trying to smile; +"but I've been distressed about her lately, night and day. I thought +perhaps I might see you going by. She's gettin' to be a great girl, +doctor, and I ain't fit to cope with her. I find my strength's +a-goin', and I'm old before my time; all my folks was rugged and sound +long past my age, but I've had my troubles--you don't need I should +tell you that! Poor Ad'line always give me a feelin' as if I was a hen +that has hatched ducks. I never knew exactly how to do for her, she +seemed to see everything so different, and Lord only knows how I worry +about her; and al'ays did, thinkin' if I'd seen clearer how to do my +duty her life might have come out sort of better. And it's the same +with little Anna; not that she's so prone to evil as some; she's a +lovin'-hearted child if ever one was born, but she's a piece o' +mischief; and it may come from her father's folks and their ways o' +livin', but she's made o' different stuff, and I ain't fit to make +answer for her, or for fetchin' of her up. I come to ask if you won't +kindly advise what's best for her. I do' know's anything's got to be +done for a good spell yet. I mind what you say about lettin' her run +and git strong, and I don't check her. Only it seemed to me that you +might want to speak about her sometimes and not do it for fear o' +wronging my judgment. I declare I haven't no judgment about what's +reasonable for her, and you're her guardeen, and there's the money her +father's sister has sent her; 't would burn my fingers to touch a cent +of it, but by and by if you think she ought to have schoolin' or +anything else you must just say so." + +"I think nothing better could have been done for the child than you +have done," said Dr. Leslie warmly. "Don't worry yourself, my good +friend. As for books, she will take to them of her own accord quite +soon enough, and in such weather as this I think one day in the fields +is worth five in the school-house. I'll do the best I can for her." + +Mrs. Thacher's errand had not yet been told, though she fumbled in her +pocket and walked to the open window to look for the neighbor's wagon +by which she was to find conveyance home, before she ventured to say +anything more. "I don't know's my time'll come for some years yet," +she said at length, falteringly, "but I have had it borne in upon my +mind a good many ways this summer that I ain't going to stay here a +gre't while. I've been troubled considerable by the same complaints +that carried my mother off, and I'm built just like her. I don't feel +no concern for myself, but it's goin' to leave the child without +anybody of her own to look to. There's plenty will befriend her just +so long as she's got means, and the old farm will sell for something +besides what she's got already, but that ain't everything, and I can't +seem to make up my mind to havin' of her boarded about. If 't was so +your wife had lived I should know what I'd go down on my knees to her +to do, but I can't ask it of you to be burdened with a young child +a-growin' up." + +The doctor listened patiently, though just before this he had risen +and begun to fill a small bottle at the closet shelves, which were +stocked close to their perilous edges with various drugs. Without +turning to look at his patient he said, "I wish you would take five or +six drops of this three times a day, and let me see you again within a +week or two." And while the troubled woman turned to look at him with +half-surprise, he added, "Don't give yourself another thought about +little Nan. If anything should happen to you, I shall be glad to bring +her here, and to take care of her as if she were my own. I always have +liked her, and it will be as good for me as for her. I would not +promise it for any other child, but if you had not spoken to-day, I +should have found a way to arrange with you the first chance that +came. But I'm getting to be an old fellow myself," he laughed. "I +suppose if I get through first you will be friendly to Marilla?" and +Mrs. Thacher let a faint sunbeam of a smile shine out from the depths +of the handkerchief with which she was trying to stop a great shower +of tears. Marilla was not without her little vanities, and being +thought youthful was one of the chief desires of her heart. + +So Mrs. Thacher went away lighter hearted than she came. She asked the +price of the vial of medicine, and was answered that they would talk +about that another time; then there was a little sober joking about +certain patients who never paid their doctor's bills at all because of +a superstition that they would immediately require his aid again. Dr. +Leslie stood in his study doorway and watched her drive down the +street with Martin Dyer. It seemed to him only a year or two since +both the man and woman had been strong and vigorous; now they both +looked shrunken, and there was a wornness and feebleness about the +bodies which had done such good service. "Come and go," said the +doctor to himself, "one generation after another. Getting old! all the +good old-fashioned people on the farms: I never shall care so much to +be at the beck and call of their grandchildren, but I must mend up +these old folks and do the best I can for them as long as they stay; +they're good friends to me. Dear me, how it used to fret me when I was +younger to hear them always talking about old Doctor Wayland and what +he used to do; and here I am the old doctor myself!" And then he went +down the gravel walk toward the stable with a quick, firm step, which +many a younger man might have envied, to ask for a horse. "You may +saddle him," he directed. "I am only going to old Mrs. Cunningham's, +and it is a cool afternoon." + +Dr. Leslie had ridden less and less every year of his practice; but, +for some reason best known to himself, he went down the village street +at a mad pace. Indeed, almost everybody who saw him felt that it was +important to go to the next house to ask if it were known for what +accident or desperate emergency he had been called away. + + + + +VIII + +A GREAT CHANGE + + +Until the autumn of this year, life had seemed to flow in one steady, +unchanging current. The thought had not entered little Nan Prince's +head that changes might be in store for her, for, ever since she could +remember, the events of life had followed each other quietly, and +except for the differences in every-day work and play, caused by the +succession of the seasons, she was not called upon to accommodate +herself to new conditions. It was a gentle change at first: as the +days grew shorter and the house and cellar were being made ready for +winter, her grandmother seemed to have much more to do than usual, and +Nan must stay at home to help. She was growing older at any rate; she +knew how to help better than she used; she was anxious to show her +grandmother how well she could work, and as the river side and the +windy pastures grew less hospitable, she did not notice that she was +no longer encouraged to go out to play for hours together to amuse +herself as best she might, and at any rate keep out of the way. It +seemed natural enough now that she should stay in the house, and be +entrusted with some regular part of the business of keeping it. For +some time Mrs. Thacher had kept but one cow, and early in November, +after a good offer for old Brindle had been accepted, it was announced +to Nan's surprise that the young cow which was to be Brindle's +successor need not be bought until spring; she would be a great care +in winter time, and Nan was to bring a quart of milk a day from Jake +and Martin's. This did not seem an unpleasant duty while the mild +weather lasted; if there came a rainy day, one of the kind neighbors +would leave the little pail on his way to the village before the young +messenger had started out. + +Nan could not exactly understand at last why Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin +always asked about her grandmother every morning with so much interest +and curiosity, or why they came oftener and oftener to help with the +heavy work. Mrs. Thacher had never before minded her occasional +illnesses so much, and some time passed before Nan's inexperienced +eyes and fearless young heart understood that the whole atmosphere +which overhung the landscape of her life had somehow changed, that +another winter approached full of mystery and strangeness and +discomfort of mind, and at last a great storm was almost ready to +break into the shelter and comfort of her simple life. Poor Nan! She +could not think what it all meant. She was asked many a distressing +question, and openly pitied, and heard her future discussed, as if her +world might come to an end any day. The doctor had visited her +grandmother from time to time, but always while she was at school, +until vacation came, and poor Mrs. Thacher grew too feeble to enter +into even a part of the usual business of the farmhouse. + +One morning, as Nan was coming back from the Dyer farm with the milk, +she met Mrs. Meeker in the highway. This neighbor and our heroine were +rarely on good terms with each other, since Nan had usually laid +herself under some serious charge of wrong-doing, and had come to +believe that she would be disapproved in any event, and so might enjoy +life as she chose, and revel in harmless malice. + +The child could not have told why she shrank from meeting her enemy so +much more than usual, and tried to discover some refuge or chance for +escape; but, as it was an open bit of the road, and a straight way to +the lane, she could have no excuse for scrambling over the stone wall +and cutting short the distance. However, her second thought scorned +the idea of running away in such cowardly fashion, and not having any +recent misdemeanor on her conscience, she went forward unflinchingly. + +Mrs. Meeker's tone was not one of complaint, but of pity, and +insinuating friendliness. "How's your grandma to-day?" she asked, and +Nan, with an unsympathetic answer of "About the same," stepped bravely +forward, resenting with all her young soul the discovery that Mrs. +Meeker had turned and was walking alongside. + +"She's been a good, kind grandma to you, hain't she?" said this +unwelcome companion, and when Nan had returned a wondering but almost +inaudible assent, she continued, "She'll be a great loss to you, I can +tell you. You'll never find nobody to do for you like her. There, you +won't realize nothing about it till you've got older'n you be now; +but the time'll come when"--and her sharp voice faltered; for Nan had +turned to look full in her face, had stopped still in the frozen road, +dropped the pail unconsciously and given a little cry, and in another +moment was running as a chased wild creature does toward the refuge of +its nest. The doctor's horse was fastened at the head of the lane, and +Nan knew at last, what any one in the neighborhood could have told her +many days before, that her grandmother was going to die. Mrs. Meeker +stared after her with a grieved sense of the abrupt ending of the +coveted interview, then she recovered her self-possession, and, +picking up the forsaken pail, stepped lightly over the ruts and frozen +puddles, following Nan eagerly in the hope of witnessing more of such +extraordinary behavior, and with the design of offering her services +as watcher or nurse in these last hours. At any rate the pail and the +milk, which had not been spilt, could not be left in the road. + + +So the first chapter of the child's life was ended in the early winter +weather. There was a new unsheltered grave on the slope above the +river, the farm-house door was shut and locked, and the light was out +in the kitchen window. It had been a landmark to those who were used +to driving along the road by night, and there were sincere mourners +for the kindly woman who had kept a simple faith and uprightness all +through her long life of trouble and disappointment. Nan and the cat +had gone to live in the village, and both, being young, had taken the +change with serenity; though at first a piteous sorrow had been waked +in the child's heart, a keen and dreadful fear of the future. The past +seemed so secure and pleasant, as she looked back, and now she was in +the power of a fateful future which had begun with something like a +whirlwind that had swept over her, leaving nothing unchanged. It +seemed to her that this was to be incessant, and that being grown up +was to be at the mercy of sorrow and uncertainty. She was pale and +quiet during her last days in the old home, answering questions and +obeying directions mechanically; but usually sitting in the least +visited part of the kitchen, watching the neighbors as they examined +her grandmother's possessions, and properly disposed of the contents +of the house. Sometimes a spark flew from her sad and angry eyes, but +she made no trouble, and seemed dull and indifferent. Late in the +evening Dr. Leslie carried her home with him through the first heavy +snow-storm of the year, and between the excitement of being covered +from the fast-falling flakes, and so making a journey in the dark, and +of keeping hold of the basket which contained the enraged kitten, the +grief at leaving home was not dwelt upon. + +When she had been unwound from one of the doctor's great cloaks, and +her eyes had grown used to the bright light in the dining-room, and +Marilla had said that supper had been waiting half an hour, and she +did not know how she should get along with a black cat, and then +bustled about talking much faster than usual, because the sight of the +lonely child had made her ready to cry, Nan began to feel comforted. +It seemed a great while ago that she had cried at her grandmother's +funeral. If this were the future it was certainly very welcome and +already very dear, and the time of distress was like a night of bad +dreams between two pleasant days. + + +It will easily be understood that no great change was made in Dr. +Leslie's house. The doctor himself and Marilla were both well settled +in their habits, and while they cordially made room for the little +girl who was to be the third member of the household, her coming made +little difference to either of her elders. There was a great deal of +illness that winter, and the doctor was more than commonly busy; Nan +was sent to school, and discovered the delight of reading one stormy +day when her guardian had given her leave to stay at home, and she had +found his own old copy of Robinson Crusoe looking most friendly and +inviting in a corner of one of the study shelves. As for school, she +had never liked it, and the village school gave her far greater misery +than the weather-beaten building at the cross-roads ever had done. She +had known many of the village children by sight, from seeing them in +church, but she did not number many friends among them, even after the +winter was nearly gone and the days began to grow brighter and less +cold, and the out-of-door games were a source of great merriment in +the playground. Nan's ideas of life were quite unlike those held by +these new acquaintances, and she could not gain the least interest in +most of the other children, though she grew fond of one boy who was a +famous rover and fisherman, and after one of the elder girls had read +a composition which fired our heroine's imagination, she worshiped +this superior being from a suitable distance, and was her willing +adorer and slave. The composition was upon The Moon, and when the +author proclaimed the fact that this was the same moon which had +looked down upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, little Nan's eyes had +opened wide with reverence and awe, and she opened the doors of her +heart and soul to lofty thought and high imagination. The big girl, +who sat in the back seat and glibly recited amazing lessons in +history, and did sums which entirely covered the one small blackboard, +was not unmindful of Nan's admiration, and stolidly accepted and +munched the offerings of cracked nuts, or of the treasured English +apples which had been brought from the farm and kept like a squirrel's +hoard in an archway of the cellar by themselves. Nan cherished an idea +of going back to the farm to live by herself as soon as she grew a +little older, and she indulged in pleasing day-dreams of a most +charming life there, with frequent entertainments for her friends, at +which the author of the information about the moon would be the +favored guest, and Nan herself, in a most childish and provincial +fashion, the reigning queen. What did these new town-acquaintances +know of the strawberries which grew in the bit of meadow, or the great +high-bush blackberries by one of the pasture walls, and what would +their pleasure be when they were taken down the river some moonlight +night and caught sight of a fire blazing on a distant bank, and went +nearer to find a sumptuous feast which Nan herself had arranged? She +had been told that her aunt--that mysterious and beneficent aunt--had +already sent her money which was lying idle in the bank until she +should need to spend it, and her imaginary riches increased week by +week, while her horizon of future happiness constantly grew wider. + +The other children were not unwilling at first to enter upon an +inquisitive friendship with the new-comer; but Marilla was so +uncongenial to the noisy visitors, and so fastidious in the matter of +snowy and muddy shoes, that she was soon avoided. Nan herself was a +teachable child and gave little trouble, and Marilla sometimes +congratulated herself because she had reserved the violent objections +which had occurred to her mind when the doctor had announced, just +before Mrs. Thacher's death, that his ward would henceforth find a +home in his house. + +Marilla usually sat in the dining-room in the evening, though she was +apt to visit the study occasionally, knitting in hand, to give her +opinions, or to acquaint herself with various events of which she +thought the doctor would be likely to have knowledge. Sometimes in the +colder winter nights, she drew a convenient light-stand close beside +the kitchen stove and refused to wander far from such comfortable +warmth. Now that she had Nan's busy feet to cover, there was less +danger than ever that she should be left without knitting-work, and +she deeply enjoyed the child's company, since Nan could give innocent +answers to many questions which could never be put to elder members of +the Dyer and Thacher neighborhood. Mrs. Meeker was apt to be discussed +with great freedom, and Nan told long stories about her own childish +experiences, which were listened to and encouraged, and matched with +others even longer and more circumstantial by Marilla. The doctor, who +was always reading when he could find a quiet hour for himself, often +smiled as he heard the steady sound of voices from the wide kitchen, +and he more than once took a few careful steps into the dining-room, +and stood there shaking with laughter at the character of the +conversation. Nan, though eager to learn, and curious about many +things in life and nature, at first found her school lessons +difficult, and sometimes came appealingly to him for assistance, when +circumstances had made a temporary ending of her total indifference to +getting the lessons at all. For this and other reasons she sometimes +sought the study, and drew a small chair beside the doctor's large one +before the blazing fire of the black birch logs; and then Marilla in +her turn would venture upon the neutral ground between study and +kitchen, and smile with satisfaction at the cheerful companionship of +the tired man and the idle little girl who had already found her way +to his lonely heart. Nan had come to another home; there was no +question about what should be done with her and for her, but she was +made free of the silent old house, and went on growing taller, and +growing dearer, and growing happier day by day. Whatever the future +might bring, she would be sure to look back with love and longing to +the first summer of her village life, when, seeing that she looked +pale and drooping, the doctor, to her intense gratification, took her +away from school. Presently, instead of having a ride out into the +country as an occasional favor, she might be seen every day by the +doctor's side, as if he could not make his morning rounds without her; +and in and out of the farm-houses she went, following him like a +little dog, or, as Marilla scornfully expressed it, a briar at his +heels; sitting soberly by when he dealt his medicines and gave advice, +listening to his wise and merry talk with some, and his helpful advice +and consolation to others of the country people. Many of these +acquaintances treated Nan with great kindness; she half belonged to +them, and was deeply interesting for the sake of her other ties of +blood and bonds of fortune, while she took their courtesy with +thankfulness, and their lack of notice with composure. If there were a +shiny apple offered she was glad, but if not, she did not miss it, +since her chief delight was in being the doctor's assistant and +attendant, and her eyes were always watching for chances when she +might be of use. And one day, coming out from a bedroom, the doctor +discovered, to his amusement, that her quick and careful fingers had +folded the papers of some powders which he had left unfolded on the +table. As they drove home together in the bright noon sunshine, he +said, as if the question were asked for the sake of joking a little, +"What are you going to do when you grow up, Nan?" to which she +answered gravely, as if it were the one great question of her life, "I +should like best to be a doctor." Strangely enough there flitted +through the doctor's mind a remembrance of the day when he had talked +with Mrs. Meeker, and had looked up the lane to see the unlucky turkey +whose leg had been put into splints. He had wished more than once that +he had taken pains to see how the child had managed it; but old Mrs. +Thacher had reported the case to have been at least partially +successful. + +Nan had stolen a look at her companion after the answer had been +given, but had been pleased and comforted to find that he was not +laughing at her, and at once began a lively picture of becoming famous +in her chosen profession, and the valued partner of Dr. Leslie, whose +skill everybody praised so heartily. He should not go out at night, +and she would help him so much that he would wonder how he ever had +been able to manage his wide-spread practice alone. It was a matter of +no concern to her that Marilla had laughed when she had been told of +Nan's intentions, and had spoken disrespectfully of women doctors; and +the child's heart was full of pride and hope. The doctor stopped his +horse suddenly to show Nan some flowers which grew at the roadside, +some brilliant cardinals, and she climbed quickly down to gather them. +There was an unwritten law that they should keep watch, one to the +right hand, and the other to the left, and such treasures of blossoms +or wild fruit seldom escaped Nan's vision. Now she felt as if she had +been wrong to let her thoughts go wandering, and her cheeks were +almost as bright as the scarlet flowers themselves, as she clambered +back to the wagon seat. But the doctor was in deep thought, and had +nothing more to say for the next mile or two. It had become like a +bad-case day suddenly and without apparent reason; but Nan had no +suspicion that she was the patient in charge whose welfare seemed to +the doctor to be dependent upon his own decisions. + + + + +IX + +AT DR. LESLIE'S + + +That evening Dr. Leslie made signs that he was not to be interrupted, +and even shut the study doors, to which precaution he seldom resorted. +He was evidently disturbed when an hour later a vigorous knocking was +heard at the seldom-used front entrance, and Marilla ushered in with +anything but triumph an elderly gentleman who had been his college +classmate. Marilla's countenance wore a forbidding expression, and as +she withdrew she took pains to shut the door between the hall and +dining-room with considerable violence. It was almost never closed +under ordinary circumstances, but the faithful housekeeper was +impelled to express her wrath in some way, and this was the first +that offered itself. Nan was sitting peacefully in the kitchen playing +with her black cat and telling herself stories no doubt, and was quite +unprepared for Marilla's change of temper. The bell for the Friday +evening prayer-meeting was tolling its last strokes and it was +Marilla's habit to attend that service. She was apt to be kept closely +at home, it must be acknowledged, and this was one of her few social +indulgences. Since Nan had joined the family and proved that she could +be trusted with a message, she had been left in charge of the house +during this coveted hour on Friday evenings. + +Marilla had descended from her room arrayed for church going, but now +her bonnet was pulled off as if that were the prime offender, and when +the child looked wonderingly around the kitchen, she saw the bread-box +brought out from the closet and put down very hard on a table, while +Marilla began directly afterward to rattle at the stove. + +"I'd like to say to some folks that we don't keep hotel," grumbled the +good woman, "I wish to my heart I'd stepped right out o' the front +door and gone straight to meetin' and left them there beholdin' of me. +Course he hasn't had no supper, nor dinner neither like's not, and if +men are ever going to drop down on a family unexpected it's always +Friday night when everything's eat up that ever was in the house. I +s'pose, after I bake double quantities to-morrow mornin', he'll be +drivin' off before noon-time, and treasure it up that we never have +nothin' decent to set before folks. Anna, you've got to stir yourself +and help, while I get the fire started up; lay one o' them big dinner +napkins over the red cloth, and set a plate an' a tea-cup, for as for +laying the whole table over again, I won't and I shan't. There's water +to cart upstairs and the bed-room to open, but Heaven be thanked I was +up there dustin' to-day, and if ever you set a mug of flowers into one +o' the spare-rooms again and leave it there a week or ten days to +spile, I'll speak about it to the doctor. Now you step out o' my way +like a good girl. I don't know whether you or the cat's the worst for +gettin' before me when I'm in a drive. I'll set him out somethin' to +eat, and then I'm goin' to meetin' if the skies fall." + +Nan meekly obeyed directions, and with a sense of guilt concerning the +deserted posies went to hover about the study door after the plates +were arranged, instead of braving further the stormy atmosphere of the +kitchen. Marilla's lamp had shone in so that there had been light +enough in the dining-room, but the study was quite dark except where +there was one spark at the end of the doctor's half-finished cigar, +which was alternately dim and bright like the revolving lantern of a +lighthouse. + +At that moment the smoker rose, and with his most considerate and +conciliatory tone asked Marilla for the study lamp, but Nan heard, and +ran on tiptoe and presently brought it in from the kitchen, holding it +carefully with both hands and walking slowly. She apparently had no +thought beyond her errand, but she was brimful of eagerness to see the +unexpected guest; for guests were by no means frequent, and since she +had really become aware of a great outside world beyond the boundaries +of Oldfields she welcomed the sight of any messengers. + +Dr. Leslie hastily pushed away some books from the lamp's place; and +noticing that his visitor looked at Nan with surprise, quickly +explained that this little girl had come to take care of him, and bade +Nan speak to Dr. Ferris. Whereupon her bravery was sorely tried, but +not overcome, and afterward she sat down in her own little chair, +quite prepared to be hospitable. As she heard a sound of water being +poured into a pitcher in the best room upstairs, she was ready to +laugh if there had been anybody to laugh with, and presently Marilla +appeared at the door with the announcement that there was some tea +waiting in the dining-room, after which and before anybody had thought +of moving, the side gate clacked resolutely, and Marilla, looking more +prim and unruffled than usual, sped forth to the enjoyment of her +Friday evening privileges. + +Nan followed the gentlemen to the dining-room not knowing whether she +were wanted or not, but feeling quite assured when it was ascertained +that neither sugar nor teaspoons had been provided. The little feast +looked somewhat meagre, and the doctor spoke irreverently of his +housekeeper and proceeded to abstract a jar of her best strawberry jam +from the convenient store-closet, and to collect other articles of +food which seemed to him to be inviting, however inappropriate to the +occasion. The guest would have none of the jam, but Dr. Leslie cut a +slice of the loaf of bread for himself and one for Nan, though it had +already waned beyond its last quarter, and nobody knew what would +happen if there were no toast at breakfast time. Marilla would never +know what a waste of jam was spread upon these slices either, but she +was a miser only with the best preserves, and so our friends reveled +in their stolen pleasure, and were as merry together as heart could +wish. + +Nan thought it very strange when she found that the doctor and his +guest had been at school together, for the stranger seemed so old and +worn. They were talking about other classmates at first, and she sat +still to listen, until the hour of Marilla's return drew near and Dr. +Leslie prudently returned to his own uninvaded apartment. Nan was +told, to her sorrow, that it was past her bed-time and as she stopped +to say good-night, candle in hand, a few moments afterward, the doctor +stooped to kiss her with unusual tenderness, and a little later, when +she was safe in her small bedroom and under the coverlet which was +Marilla's glory, having been knit the winter before in an intricate +pattern, she almost shook with fear at the sound of its maker's +vengeful footsteps in the lower room. It is to be hoped that the +influence of the meeting had been very good, and that one of its +attendants had come home equal to great demands upon her fortitude and +patience. Nan could not help wishing she had thought to put away the +jam, and she wondered how Marilla would treat them all in the morning. +But, to do that worthy woman justice, she was mild and considerate, +and outdid herself in the breakfast that was set forth in the guest's +honor, and Dr. Ferris thought he could do no less than to add to his +morning greeting the question why she was not growing old like the +rest of them, which, though not answered, was pleasantly received. + +The host and guest talked very late the night before, and told each +other many things. Dr. Leslie had somewhat unwillingly undertaken the +country practice which had grown dearer to him with every year, but +there were family reasons why he had decided to stay in Oldfields for +a few months at least, and though it was not long before he was left +alone, not only by the father and mother whose only child he was, but +by his wife and child, he felt less and less inclination to break the +old ties and transplant himself to some more prominent position of the +medical world. The leisure he often had at certain seasons of the year +was spent in the studies which always delighted him, and little by +little he gained great repute among his professional brethren. He was +a scholar and a thinker in other than medical philosophies, and most +persons who knew anything of him thought it a pity that he should be +burying himself alive, as they were pleased to term his devotion to +his provincial life. His rare excursions to the cities gave more +pleasure to other men than to himself, however, in these later years, +and he laughingly proclaimed himself to be growing rusty and behind +the times to Dr. Ferris, who smiled indulgently, and did not take the +trouble to contradict so untrue and preposterous an assertion. + +If one man had been a stayer at home; a vegetable nature, as Dr. +Leslie had gone on to say, which has no power to change its locality +or to better itself by choosing another and more adequate or +stimulating soil; the other had developed the opposite extreme of +character, being by nature a rover. From the medical school he had +entered at once upon the duties of a naval appointment, and after he +had become impatient of its routine of practice and its check upon his +freedom, he had gone, always with some sufficient and useful object, +to one far country after another. Lately he had spent an unusual +number of consecutive months in Japan, which was still unfamiliar even +to most professional travelers, and he had come back to America +enthusiastic and full of plans for many enterprises which his shrewd, +but not very persistent brain had conceived. The two old friends were +delighted to see each other, but they took this long-deferred meeting +as calmly as if they were always next-door neighbors. It was a most +interesting thing that while they led such different lives and took +such apparently antagonistic routes of progression, they were pretty +sure to arrive at the same conclusion, though it might appear +otherwise to a listener who knew them both slightly. + +"And who is the little girl?" asked Dr. Ferris, who had refused his +entertainer's cigars and produced a pipe from one pocket, after having +drawn a handful of curious small jade figures from another and pushed +them along the edge of the study table, without comment, for his +friend to look at. Some of them were so finely carved that they looked +like a heap of grotesque insects struggling together as they lay +there, but though Dr. Leslie's eyes brightened as he glanced at them, +he gave no other sign of interest at that time, and answered his +guest's question instead. + +"She is a ward of mine," he said; "she was left quite alone by the +death of her grandmother some months ago, and so I brought her here." + +"It isn't often that I forget a face," said Dr. Ferris, "but I have +been trying to think what association I can possibly have with that +child. I remember at last; she looks like a young assistant surgeon +who was on the old frigate Fortune with me just before I left the +service. I don't think he was from this part of the country though; I +never heard what became of him." + +"I dare say it was her father; I believe he made a voyage or two," +said Dr. Leslie, much interested. "Do you know anything more about +him? you always remember everything, Ferris." + +"Yes," answered the guest, slowly puffing away at his pipe. "Yes, he +was a very bright fellow, with a great gift at doctoring, but he was +willful, full of queer twists and fancies, the marry in haste and +repent at his leisure sort of young man." + +"Exactly what he did, I suppose," interrupted the host. "Only his +leisure was fortunately postponed to the next world, for the most +part; he died very young." + +"I used to think it a great pity that he had not settled himself +ashore in a good city practice," continued Dr. Ferris. "He had a great +knack at pleasing people and making friends, and he was always +spoiling for want of work. I was ready enough to shirk my part of +that, you may be sure, but if you start with a reasonably healthy set +of men, crew and officers, and keep good discipline, and have no +accidents on the voyage, an old-fashioned ship-master's kit of +numbered doses is as good as anything on board a man-of-war in time of +peace. You have mild cases that result from over-heating or +over-eating, and sometimes a damaged finger to dress, or a tooth to +pull. I used to tell young Prince that it was a pity one of the men +wouldn't let himself be chopped to pieces and fitted together again to +give us a little amusement." + +"That's the name," announced Nan's guardian with great satisfaction. +"This is a very small world; we are all within hail of each other. I +dare say when we get to Heaven there will not be a stranger to make +friends with." + +"I could give you more wonderful proofs of that than you would be +likely to believe," responded the surgeon. "But tell me how you +happened to have anything to do with the child; did Prince wander into +this neighborhood?" + +"Not exactly, but he fell in love with a young girl who was brought up +on one of the farms just out of the village. She was a strange +character, a handsome creature, with a touch of foolish ambition, and +soon grew impatient of the routine of home life. I believe that she +went away at first to work in one of the factories in Lowell, and +afterward she drifted to Dunport, where young Prince's people lived, +and I dare say it was when he came home from that very voyage you knew +of that he saw her and married her. She worked in a dressmaker's shop, +and worked very well too, but she had offended his sister to begin +with, one day when she was finding fault with some work that had been +done for her, and so there was no end of trouble, and the young man +had a great battle at home, and the more he was fought the less +inclined he was to yield, and at last off he went to be married, and +never came home again until he died. It was a wretched story; he only +lived two years, and they went from one place to another, and finally +the end came in some Western town. He had not been happy with his +wife, and they quarreled from time to time, and he asked to be brought +back to Dunport and buried. This child was only a baby, and the +Princes begged her mother to give her up, and used every means to try +to make friends, and to do what was right. But I have always thought +there was blame on both sides. At any rate the wife was insolent and +unruly, and went flinging out of the house as soon as the funeral was +over. I don't know what became of them for a while, but it always +seemed to me as if poor Adeline must have had a touch of insanity, +which faded away as consumption developed itself. Her mother's people +were a fine, honest race, self-reliant and energetic, but there is a +very bad streak on the other side. I have heard that she was seen +begging somewhere, but I am not sure that it is true; at any rate she +would neither come here to her own home nor listen to any plea from +her husband's family, and at last came back to the farm one night like +a ghost, carrying the child in her arms across the fields; all in rags +and tatters, both of them. She confessed to me that she had meant to +drown herself and little Nan together. I could never understand why +she went down so fast. I know that she had been drinking. Some people +might say that it was the scorn of her husband's relatives, but that +is all nonsense, and I have no doubt she and the young man might have +done very well if this hadn't spoiled all their chances at the outset. +She was quite unbalanced and a strange, wild creature, very handsome +in her girlhood, but morally undeveloped. It was impossible not to +have a liking for her. I remember her when she was a baby." + +"And yet people talk about the prosaic New England life!" exclaimed +Dr. Ferris. "I wonder where I could match such a story as that, though +I dare say that you know a dozen others. I tell you, Leslie, that for +intense, self-centred, smouldering volcanoes of humanity, New England +cannot be matched the world over. It's like the regions in Iceland +that are full of geysers. I don't know whether it is the inheritance +from those people who broke away from the old countries, and who ought +to be matched to tremendous circumstances of life, but now and then +there comes an amazingly explosive and uncontrollable temperament that +goes all to pieces from its own conservation and accumulation of +force. By and by you will have all blown up,--you quiet descendants of +the Pilgrims and Puritans, and have let off your superfluous +wickedness like blizzards; and when the blizzards of each family have +spent themselves you will grow dull and sober, and all on a level, and +be free from the troubles of a transition state. Now, you're neither a +new country nor an old one. You ought to see something of the older +civilizations to understand what peace of mind is. Unless some +importation of explosive material from the westward stirs them up, one +century is made the pattern for the next. But it is perfectly +wonderful what this climate does for people who come to it,--a south +of Ireland fellow, for instance, who has let himself be rained on and +then waited for the sun to dry him again, and has grubbed a little in +a bit of ground, just enough to hint to it that it had better be +making a crop of potatoes for him. I always expect to see the gorse +and daisies growing on the old people's heads to match the cabins. But +they come over here and forget their idleness, and in a week or two +the east winds are making them work, and thrashing them if they are +slow, worse than any slave-driver who ever cracked his whip-lash. I +wonder how you stand it; I do, indeed! I can't take an afternoon nap +or have my coffee in bed of a morning without thinking I must put into +port at the next church to be preached at." + +Dr. Leslie laughed a little and shook his head gently. "It's very well +for you to talk, Ferris," he said, "since you have done more work than +any man I know. And I find this neighborhood entirely placid; one bit +of news will last us a fortnight. I dare say Marilla will let +everybody know that you have come to town, and have explained why she +was ten minutes late, even to the minister." + +"How about the little girl herself?" asked the guest presently; "she +seems well combined, and likely, as they used to say when I was a +boy." + +Dr. Leslie resumed the subject willingly: "So far as I can see, she +has the good qualities of all her ancestors without the bad ones. Her +mother's mother was an old fashioned country woman of the best stock. +Of course she resented what she believed to be her daughter's wrongs, +and refused to have anything to do with her son-in-law's family, and +kept the child as carefully as possible from any knowledge of them. +Little Nan was not strong at first, but I insisted that she should be +allowed to run free out of doors. It seems to me that up to seven or +eight years of age children are simply bundles of inheritances, and I +can see the traits of one ancestor after another; but a little later +than the usual time she began to assert her own individuality, and has +grown capitally well in mind and body ever since. There is an amusing +trace of the provincial self-reliance and self-respect and farmer-like +dignity, added to a quick instinct, and tact and ready courtesy, which +must have come from the other side of her ancestry. She is more a +child of the soil than any country child I know, and yet she would not +put a city household to shame. She has seen nothing of the world of +course, but you can see she isn't like the usual village school-girl. +There is one thing quite remarkable. I believe she has grown up as +naturally as a plant grows, not having been clipped back or forced in +any unnatural direction. If ever a human being were untrammeled and +left alone to see what will come of it, it is this child. And I will +own I am very much interested to see what will appear later." + +The navy surgeon's eyes twinkled at this enthusiasm, but he asked +soberly what seemed to be our heroine's bent, so far as could be +discovered, and laughed outright when he was gravely told that it was +a medical bent; a surprising understanding of things pertaining to +that most delightful profession. + +"But you surely don't mean to let her risk her happiness in following +that career?" Dr. Ferris inquired with feigned anxiety for his answer. +"You surely aren't going to sacrifice that innocent creature to a +theory! I know it's a theory; last time I was here, you could think of +nothing but hypnotism or else the action of belladonna in congestion +and inflammation of the brain;" and he left his very comfortable chair +suddenly, with a burst of laughter, and began to walk up and down the +room. "She has no relatives to protect her, and I consider it a +shocking case of a guardian's inhumanity. Grown up naturally indeed! I +don't doubt that you supplied her with Bell's 'Anatomy' for a +picture-book and made her say over the names of the eight little bones +of her wrist, instead of 'This little pig went to market.'" + +"I only hope that you'll live to grow up yourself, Ferris," said his +entertainer, "you'll certainly be an ornament to your generation. What +a boy you are! I should think you would feel as old as Methuselah by +this time, after having rattled from one place to the next all these +years. Don't you begin to get tired?" + +"No, I don't believe I do," replied Dr. Ferris, lending himself to +this new turn of the conversation, but not half satisfied with the +number of his jokes. "I used to be afraid I should, and so I tried to +see everything I could of the world before my enthusiasm began to +cool. And as for rattling to the next place, as you say, you show +yourself to be no traveler by nature, or you wouldn't speak so +slightingly. It is extremely dangerous to make long halts. I could cry +with homesickness at the thought of the towns I have spent more than a +month in; they are like the people one knows; if you see them once, +you go away satisfied, and you can bring them to mind afterward, and +think how they looked or just where it was you met them,--out of doors +or at the club. But if you live with those people, and get fond of +them, and have a thousand things to remember, you get more pain than +pleasure out of it when you go away. And one can't be everywhere at +once, so if you're going to care for things tremendously, you had +better stay in one town altogether. No, give me a week or two, and +then I've something calling me to the next place; somebody to talk +with or a book to see, and off I go. Yet, I've done a good bit of work +in my day after all. Did you see that paper of mine in the 'Lancet' +about some experiments I made when I was last in India with those +tree-growing jugglers? and I worked out some curious things about the +mathematics of music on this last voyage home! Why, I thought it would +tear my heart in two when I came away. I should have grown to look +like the people, and you might have happened to find a likeness of me +on a tea plate after another year or two. I made all my plans one day +to stay another winter, and next day at eleven o'clock I was steaming +down the harbor. But there was a poor young lad I had taken a liking +for, an English boy, who was badly off after an accident and needed +somebody to look after him. I thought the best thing I could do was to +bring him home. Are you going to fit your ward for general practice +or for a specialty?" + +"I don't know; that'll be for the young person herself to decide," +said Dr. Leslie good-humoredly. "But she's showing a real talent for +medical matters. It is quite unconscious for the most part, but I find +that she understands a good deal already, and she sat here all the +afternoon last week with one of my old medical dictionaries. I +couldn't help looking over her shoulder as I went by, and she was +reading about fevers, if you please, as if it were a story-book. I +didn't think it was worth while to tell her we understood things +better nowadays, and didn't think it best to bleed as much as old Dr. +Rush recommended." + +"You're like a hen with one chicken, Leslie," said the friend, still +pacing to and fro. "But seriously, I like your notion of her having +come to this of her own accord. Most of us are grown in the shapes +that society and family preference and prejudice fasten us into, and +don't find out until we are well toward middle life that we should +have done a great deal better at something else. Our vocations are +likely enough to be illy chosen, since few persons are fit to choose +them for us, and we are at the most unreasonable stage of life when we +choose them for ourselves. And what the Lord made some people for, +nobody ever can understand; some of us are for use and more are for +waste, like the flowers. I am in such a hurry to know what the next +world is like that I can hardly wait to get to it. Good heavens! we +live here in our familiar fashion, going at a jog-trot pace round our +little circles, with only a friend or two to speak with who understand +us, and a pipe and a jack-knife and a few books and some old clothes, +and please ourselves by thinking we know the universe! Not a soul of +us can tell what it is that sends word to our little fingers to move +themselves back and forward." + +"We're sure of two things at any rate," said Dr. Leslie, "love to God +and love to man. And though I have lived here all my days, I have +learned some truths just as well as if I had gone about with you, or +even been to the next world and come back. I have seen too many lives +go to pieces, and too many dissatisfied faces, and I have heard too +many sorrowful confessions from these country death-beds I have +watched beside, one after another, for twenty or thirty years. And if +I can help one good child to work with nature and not against it, and +to follow the lines marked out for her, and she turns out useful and +intelligent, and keeps off the rocks of mistaking her duty, I shall be +more than glad. I don't care whether it's a man's work or a woman's +work; if it is hers I'm going to help her the very best way I can. I +don't talk to her of course; she's much too young; but I watch her and +mean to put the things in her way that she seems to reach out for and +try to find. She is going to be very practical, for her hands can +almost always work out her ideas already. I like to see her take hold +of things, and I like to see her walk and the way she lifts her feet +and puts them down again. I must say, Ferris, there is a great +satisfaction in finding a human being once in a while that has some +use of itself." + +"You're right!" said Dr. Ferris; "but don't be disappointed when she's +ten years older if she picks out a handsome young man and thinks there +is nothing like housekeeping. Have you taken a look at my pocketful of +heathen idols there yet? I don't think you've ever seen their mates." + +The stayer at home smiled as if he understood his friend's quiet bit +of pleasantry, and reached for one of the treasures, but folded it in +his hand without looking at it and seemed to be lost in meditation. +The surgeon concluded that he had had enough exercise and laid himself +down on the wide sofa at the end of the room, from whence he could +watch his companion's face. He clasped his hands under his head and +looked eager and interested. He had grown to have something of the +appearance of a foreigner, as people often do who have spent much time +in eastern countries. The two friends were silent for some minutes, +until an impatient voice roused Dr. Leslie from his reflections. + +"It always makes me covet my neighbor's wits when I see you!" +announced the wanderer. "If I settled myself into a respectable +practice I should be obliged to march with the army of doctors who +carry a great array of small weapons, and who find out what is the +matter with their patients after all sorts of experiment and +painstaking analysis, and comparing the results of their thermometers +and microscopes with scientific books of reference. After I have done +all that, you know, if I have had good luck I shall come to exactly +what you can say before you have been with a sick man five minutes. +You have the true gift for doctoring, you need no medical dictator, +and whatever you study and whatever comes to you in the way of +instruction simply ministers to your intuition. It grows to be a +wonderful second-sight in such a man as you. I don't believe you +investigate a case and treat it as a botanist does a strange flower, +once a month. You know without telling yourself what the matter is, +and what the special difference is, and the relative dangers of this +case and one apparently just like it across the street, and you could +do this before you were out of the hospitals. I remember you!" and +after a few vigorous puffs of smoke he went on; "It is all very well +for the rest of the men to be proud of their book learning, but they +don't even try to follow nature, as Sydenham did, who followed no man. +I believe such study takes one to more theory and scientific digest +rather than to more skill. It is all very well to know how to draw +maps when one gets lost on a dark night, or even to begin with +astronomical calculations and come down to a chemical analysis of the +mud you stand in, but hang me if I wouldn't rather have the instinct +of a dog who can go straight home across a bit of strange country. A +man has no right to be a doctor if he doesn't simply make everything +bend to his work of getting sick people well, and of trying to remedy +the failures of strength that come from misuse or inheritance or +ignorance. The anatomists and the pathologists have their place, but +we must look to the living to learn the laws of life, not to the dead. +A wreck shows you where the reef is, perhaps, but not how to manage a +ship in the offing. The men who make it their business to write the +books and the men who make it their business to follow them aren't the +ones for successful practice." + +Dr. Leslie smiled, and looked over his shoulder at his beloved library +shelves, as if he wished to assure the useful volumes of his continued +affection and respect, and said quietly, as if to beg the displeased +surgeon's patience with his brethren: "They go on, poor fellows, +studying the symptoms and never taking it in that the life power is at +fault. I see more and more plainly that we ought to strengthen and +balance the whole system, and aid nature to make the sick man well +again. It is nature that does it after all, and diseases are oftener +effects of illness than causes. But the young practitioners must +follow the text-books a while until they have had enough experience to +open their eyes to observe and have learned to think for themselves. I +don't know which is worse; too much routine or no study at all. I was +trying the other day to count up the different treatments of pneumonia +that have been in fashion in our day; there must be seven or eight, +and I am only afraid the next thing will be a sort of skepticism and +contempt of remedies. Dr. Johnson said long ago that physicians were a +class of men who put bodies of which they knew little into bodies of +which they knew less, but certainly this isn't the fault of the +medicines altogether; you and I know well enough they are often most +stupidly used. If we blindly follow the medical dictators, as you call +them, and spend our treatment on the effects instead of the causes, +what success can we expect? We do want more suggestions from the men +at work, but I suppose this is the same with every business. The +practical medical men are the juries who settle all the theories of +the hour, as they meet emergencies day after day." + +"The men who have the true gift for their work," said Dr. Ferris +impatiently. "I hadn't the conscience to go on myself, that's why I +resigned, you know. I can talk about it, but I am not a good workman. +But if there are going to be doctors in the next world, I wish I might +be lucky enough to be equal to such a heavenly business. You thought I +didn't care enough about the profession to go on, but it wasn't so. Do +push your little girl ahead if she has the real fitness. I suppose it +is a part of your endowment that you can distinguish the capacities +and tendencies of health as well as illness; and there's one thing +certain, the world cannot afford to do without the workmen who are +masters of their business by divine right." + +Dr. Leslie was looking at the jade-stone gods. "I suppose the poor +fellows who chipped out these treasures of yours may have thought they +were really putting a visible piece of Heaven within their neighbors' +reach," he said. "We can't get used to the fact that whatever truly +belongs to the next world is not visible in this, and that there is +idol-making and worshiping forever going on. When we let ourselves +forget to educate our faith and our spiritual intellects, and lose +sight of our relation and dependence upon the highest informing +strength, we are trying to move our machinery by some inferior motive +power. We worship our tools and beg success of them instead of +remembering that we are all apprentices to the great Master of our own +and every man's craft. It is the great ideas of our work that we need, +and the laws of its truths. We shall be more intelligent by and by +about making the best of ourselves; our possibilities are infinitely +beyond what most people even dream. Spiritual laziness and physical +laziness together keep us just this side of sound sleep most of the +time. Perhaps you think it is a proper season for one at least?" + +"Dear me, no!" said Dr. Ferris, who was evidently quite wide awake. +"Do you remember how well Buckle says that the feminine intellect is +the higher, and that the great geniuses of the world have possessed +it? The gift of intuition reaches directly towards the truth, and it +is only reasoning by deduction that can take flight into the upper air +of life and certainty. You remember what he says about that?" + +"Yes," said Dr. Leslie. "Yes, it isn't a thing one easily forgets. But +I have long believed that the powers of Christ were but the higher +powers of our common humanity. We recognize them dimly now and then, +but few of us dare to say so yet. The world moves very slowly, doesn't +it? If Christ were perfect man, He could hardly tell us to follow Him +and be like Him, and yet know all the while that it was quite +impossible, because a difference in his gifts made his character an +unapproachable one to ours. We don't amount to anything, simply +because we won't understand that we must receive the strength of +Heaven into our souls; that it depends upon our degree of receptivity, +and our using the added power that comes in that way; not in our +taking our few tools, and our self-esteem and satisfaction with +ourselves, and doing our little tricks like dancing dogs; proud +because the other dogs can do one less than we, or only bark and walk +about on their four legs. It is our souls that make our bodies worth +anything, and the life of the soul doesn't come from its activity, or +any performance of its own. Those things are only the results and the +signs of life, not the causes of it." + +"Christ in us, the hope of glory," said the other doctor gravely, "and +Christ's glory was his usefulness and gift for helping others; I +believe there's less quackery in our profession than any other, but it +is amazing how we bungle at it. I wonder how you will get on with your +little girl? If people didn't have theories of life of their own, or +wouldn't go exactly the wrong way, it would be easier to offer +assistance; but where one person takes a right direction of his own +accord, there are twenty who wander to and fro." + +"I may as well confess to you," he continued presently, "that I have +had a _protégé_ myself, but I don't look for much future joy in +watching the development of my plots. He has taken affairs into his +own hands, and I dare say it is much better for him, for if I had +caught him young enough, I should have wished him to run the gauntlet +of all the professions, not to speak of the arts and sciences. He was +a clever young fellow; I saw him married the day before I left +England. His wife was the daughter of a curate, and he the younger son +of a younger son, and it was a love affair worth two or three +story-books. It came to be a question of money alone. I had known the +boy the year before in Bombay and chanced to find him one day in the +Marine Hospital at Nagasaki. We had been up into the interior +together. He was recommended to me as a sort of secretary and +assistant and knew more than I did about most things. When he caught +sight of me he cried like a baby, and I sat down and heard what the +trouble was, for I had let him go off with somebody who could give him +a good salary,--a government man of position, and I thought poor Bob +would be put in the way of something better. Dear me, the climate was +killing him before my eyes, and I took passage for both of us on the +next day's steamer. When I got him home I turned my bank account into +a cheque and tucked it into his pocket, and told him to marry his wife +and settle down and be respectable and forget such a wandering old +fellow as I." + +The listener made a little sound of mingled admiration and disgust. + +"So you're the same piece of improvidence as ever! I wonder if you +worked your passage over to Boston, or came as a stowaway? Well, I'm +glad to give you house-room, and, to tell the truth, I was wondering +how I should get on to-morrow without somebody to help me in a piece +of surgery. My neighbors are not very skillful, but they're good men +every one of them, unless it's old Jackson, who knows no more about +the practice of medicine than a turtle knows about the nearest fixed +star. Ferris! I don't wonder at your giving away the last cent you had +in the world, I only wonder that you had a cent to give. I hope the +young man was grateful, that's all, only I'm not sure I like his +taking it." + +"He thought I had enough more, I dare say. He said so much I couldn't +stand his nonsense. He'll use it better than I could," said the guest +briefly. "As I said, I couldn't bring him up; in the first place I +haven't the patience, and beside, it wouldn't be just to him. But you +must let me know how you get on with your project; I shall make you a +day's visit once in six months." + +"That'll be good luck," responded the cheerful host. "Now that I am +growing old I find I wish for company oftener; just the right man, you +know, to come in for an hour or two late in the evening to have a +cigar, and not say a word if he doesn't feel like it." + +The two friends were very comfortable together; the successive cigars +burnt themselves out slowly, and the light of the great lamp was +bright in the room. Here and there a tinge of red shone out on the +backs of the books that stood close together in the high cases. There +was an old engraving or two, and in one corner a solemn bronze figure +of Dante, thin and angular, as if he had risen from his coffin to take +a last look at this world. Marilla had often spoken of him +disrespectfully, and had suggested many other ornaments which might be +brought to take his place, but the doctor had never acted upon her +suggestions. From the corner of one book-case there hung a huge wasp's +nest, and over the mantel-shelf, which was only wide enough for some +cigar boxes and a little clock and a few vials of medicines, was a +rack where three or four riding whips and a curious silver bit and +some long-stemmed pipes found unmolested quarters; and in one corner +were some walking sticks and a fishing rod or two which had a very +ancient unused look. There was a portrait of Dr. Leslie's grandfather +opposite the fire-place; a good-humored looking old gentleman who had +been the most famous of the Oldfields ministers. The study-table was +wide and long, but it was well covered with a miscellaneous array of +its owner's smaller possessions, and the quick-eyed visitor smiled as +he caught sight of Nan's new copy of Miss Edgeworth's "Parent's +Assistant" lying open and face downward on the top of an instrument +case. + +Marilla did not hear the doctor and his guest tramp up to bed until +very late at night, and though she had tried to keep awake she had +been obliged to take a nap first and then wake up again to get the +benefit of such an aggravating occasion. "I'm not going to fret myself +trying to make one of my baked omelets in the morning," she assured +herself, "they'll keep breakfast waiting three quarters of an hour, +and it would fall flat sure's the world, and the doctor's got to ride +to all p'ints of the compass to-morrow, too." + + + + +X + +ACROSS THE STREET + + +It would be difficult to say why the village of Oldfields should have +been placed in the least attractive part of the township, if one were +not somewhat familiar with the law of growth of country communities. +The first settlers, being pious kindred of the Pilgrims, were mindful +of the necessity of a meeting-house, and the place for it was chosen +with reference to the convenience of most of the worshipers. Then the +parson was given a parsonage and a tract of glebe land somewhere in +the vicinity of his pulpit, and since this was the centre of social +attraction, the blacksmith built his shop at the nearest cross-road. +And when some enterprising citizen became possessed of an idea that +there were traders enough toiling to and fro on the rough highways to +the nearest larger village to make it worth his while to be an +interceptor, the first step was taken toward a local centre of +commerce, and the village was fairly begun. It had not yet reached a +remarkable size, though there was a time-honored joke because an +enthusiastic old woman had said once, when four or five houses and a +new meeting-house were being built all in one summer, that she +expected now that she might live to see Oldfields a seaport town. +There had been a great excitement over the second meeting-house, to +which the conservative faction had strongly objected, but, after the +radicals had once gained the day, other innovations passed without +public challenge. The old First Parish Church was very white and held +aloft an imposing steeple, and strangers were always commiserated if +they had to leave town without the opportunity of seeing its front by +moonlight. Behind this, and beyond a green which had been the +playground of many generations of boys and girls, was a long row of +horse-sheds, where the farmers' horses enjoyed such part of their +Sunday rest as was permitted them after bringing heavy loads of rural +parishioners to their public devotions. The Sunday church-going was by +no means so carefully observed in these days as in former ones, when +disinclination was anything but a received excuse. In Parson +Leslie's--the doctor's grandfather's--day, it would have condemned a +man or woman to the well-merited reproof of their acquaintances. And +indeed most parishioners felt deprived of a great pleasure when, after +a week of separation from society, of a routine of prosaic farm-work, +they were prevented from seeing their friends parade into church, from +hearing the psalm-singing and the sermon, and listening to the news +afterward. It was like going to mass and going to the theatre and the +opera, and making a round of short calls, and having an outing in +one's own best clothes to see other people's, all rolled into one; +beside which, there was (and is) a superstitious expectation of good +luck in the coming week if the religious obligations were carefully +fulfilled. So many of the old ideas of the efficacy of ecclesiasticism +still linger, most of them by no means unlawfully. The elder people of +New England are as glad to have their clergyman visit them in their +last days as if he granted them absolution and extreme unction. The +old traditions survive in our instincts, although our present opinions +have long since ticketed many thoughts and desires and customs as out +of date and quite exploded. + +We go so far in our vigorous observance of the first commandment, and +our fear of worshiping strange gods, that sometimes we are in danger +of forgetting that we must worship God himself. And worship is +something different from a certain sort of constant church-going, or +from even trying to be conformers and to keep our own laws and our +neighbors'. + + +Because an old-fashioned town like Oldfields grows so slowly and with +such extreme deliberation, is the very reason it seems to have such a +delightful completeness when it has entered fairly upon its maturity. +It is possessed of kindred virtues to a winter pear, which may be +unattractive during its preparatory stages, but which takes time to +gather from the ground and from the air a pleasant and rewarding +individuality and sweetness. The towns which are built in a hurry can +be left in a hurry without a bit of regret, and if it is the fate or +fortune of the elder villages to find themselves the foundation upon +which modern manufacturing communities rear their thinly built houses +and workshops, and their quickly disintegrating communities of people, +the weaknesses of these are more glaring and hopeless in the contrast. +The hurry to make money and do much work, and the ambition to do good +work, war with each other, but, as Longfellow has said, the lie is the +hurrying second-hand of the clock, and the truth the slower hand that +waits and marks the hour. The New England that built itself houses a +hundred years ago was far less oppressed by competition and by other +questions with which the enormous increase of population is worrying +its younger citizens. And the overgrown Oldfields that increase now, +street by street, were built then a single steady sound-timbered house +at a time, and all the neighbors watched them rise, and knew where the +planks were sawn, and where the chimney bricks were burnt. + +In these days when Anna Prince was young and had lately come to live +in the doctor's square house, with the three peaked windows in the +roof, and the tall box borders and lilac bushes in its neat front +yard, Oldfields was just beginning to wake from a fifty years' +architectural sleep, and rub its eyes, and see what was thought about +a smart little house with a sharp gabled roof, and much scalloping of +its edges, which a new store-keeper had seen fit to build. There was +one long street which had plenty of room on either side for most of +the houses, and where it divided, each side of the First Parish +Church, it became the East road and the West road, and the rest of the +dwellings strayed off somewhat undecidedly toward the world beyond. +There were a good many poplars in the front yards, though their former +proud ranks were broken in many places, so that surviving veterans +stood on guard irregularly before the houses, where usually one or two +members of the once busy households were also left alone. Many of the +people who lived in the village had outlying land and were farmers of +it, but beside the doctor's there were some other households which the +land supported indirectly, either through professions or because some +kind ancestor had laid by enough money for his children and +grandchildren. The ministers were both excellent men; but Dr. Leslie +was the only man who looked far ahead or saw much or cared much for +true success. In Titian's great Venetian picture of the Presentation +of the Virgin, while the little maiden goes soberly up the steps of +the temple, in the busy crowd beneath only one man is possessed by the +thought that something wonderful is happening, and lifts his head, +forgetting the buyers and sellers and gossipers, as his eyes follow +the sacred sight. Life goes on everywhere like that fragment of it in +the picture, but while the man who knows more than his fellows can be +found in every company, and sees the light which beckons him on to the +higher meanings and better gifts, his place in society is not always +such a comfortable and honored one as Dr. Leslie's. What his friends +were apt to call his notions were not of such aggressive nature that +he was accused of outlawry, and he was apt to speak his mind +uncontradicted and undisturbed. He cared little for the friction and +attrition, indeed for the inspiration, which one is sure to have who +lives among many people, and which are so dear and so helpful to most +of us who fall into ruts if we are too much alone. He loved his +friends and his books, though he understood both as few scholars can, +and he cared little for social pleasure, though Oldfields was, like +all places of its size and dignity, an epitome of the world. One or +two people of each class and rank are as good as fifty, and, to use +the saying of the doctor's friend, old Captain Finch: "Human nature is +the same the world over." + +Through the long years of his solitary life, and his busy days as a +country practitioner, he had become less and less inclined to take +much part in what feeble efforts the rest of the townspeople made to +entertain themselves. He was more apt to loiter along the street, +stopping here and there to talk with his neighbors at their gates or +their front-yard gardening, and not infrequently asked some one who +stood in need of such friendliness to take a drive with him out into +the country. Nobody was grieved at remembering that he was a +repository of many secrets; he was a friend who could be trusted +always, though he was one who had been by no means slow to anger or +unwilling at times to administer rebuke. + + +One Sunday afternoon, late in November, while the first snow-storm of +the year was beginning, Dr. Leslie threw down a stout French medical +work of high renown as if it had failed to fulfil its mission of being +instructive first and interesting afterward. He rose from his chair +and stood looking at the insulted volume as if he had a mind to +apologize and try again, but kept his hands behind him after all. It +was thinly dressed in fluttering paper covers, and was so thick and so +lightly bound that it had a tendency to divide its material substance +into parts, like the seventhlies and eighthlies of an old-fashioned +sermon. "Those fellows must be in league with the book-binders over +here," grumbled the doctor. "I must send word to that man in New York +to have some sort of cover put on these things before they come down." +Then he lifted the book again and poised it on one hand, looking at +its irregular edges, and reflecting at length that it would be in much +better condition if he had not given it a careless crushing in the +corner of his carriage the day before. It had been sunshiny, pleasant +weather, and he had taken Nan for a long drive in the Saturday +half-holiday. He had decided, before starting, that she should manage +the reins and he would think over one or two matters and read a +while; it had been a great convenience lately that Nan understood the +responsibility of a horse and carriage. He was finding her a more and +more useful little companion. However, his studies and reflections had +been postponed until some other time, for Nan had been very eager to +talk about some of her lessons in which it seemed his duty to take an +interest. The child seemed stronger and better that autumn than he had +ever known her, and her mind had suddenly fastened itself upon certain +of her studies. She seemed very quick and very accurate, the doctor +thought, and the two traits do not always associate themselves. + +He left the table and walked quickly to the west window, and, clasping +his hands behind him, stood looking out into the front yard and the +street beyond. The ground was already white and he gave a little sigh, +for winter weather is rarely a source of happiness to a doctor, +although this member of the profession was not made altogether +sorrowful by it. He sometimes keenly enjoyed a hard tramp of a mile or +two when the roads were so blocked and the snow so blinding that he +left his horse in some sheltering barn on his way to an impatient +sufferer. + +A little way down the street on the other side was a house much like +his own, with a row of tall hemlocks beside it, and a front fence +higher and more imposing than his, with great posts at the gateway, +which held slender urns aloft with funereal solemnity. The doctor's +eyesight was not far from perfect, and he looked earnestly at the +windows of one of the lower rooms and saw a familiar sight enough; his +neighbor Mrs. Graham's face in its accustomed quarter of the sash. Dr. +Leslie half smiled as the thought struck him that she always sat so +exactly in the same place that her white cap was to be seen through +the same lower window-pane. "Most people would have moved their chairs +about until they wore holes in the floor," he told himself, and then +remembered how many times he had gone to look over at his placid +friend, in her favorite afternoon post of observation. He was strongly +attached to her, and he reminded himself that she was growing old and +that he must try to see her oftener. He valued her companionship, more +because he knew it was always ready for him, than because he always +availed himself of it, but the sense of mutual dependence made them +very familiar to each other when they did meet and had time for a bit +of quiet talk. + +Dr. Leslie suddenly turned; he had watched long enough to make sure +that Mrs. Graham was alone; her head had not moved for many minutes; +and at first he was going out of the front door, from some instinct he +would hardly have been willing to acknowledge, but he resolutely +turned and went out to the dining-room, to tell Marilla, after his +usual professional custom of giving notice of his whereabouts, that he +was going to Mrs. Graham's. A prompt inquiry came from the kitchen to +know if anything ailed her, to which the doctor returned a scornful +negative and escaped through the side-door which gave entrance both to +the study and the dining-room. There was the usual service at +Marilla's meeting-house, but she had not ventured out to attend it, +giving the weather and a grumbling toothache for her reasons, though +she concealed the fact that the faithless town milliner had +disappointed her about finishing her winter bonnet. Marilla had begun +life with certain opinions which she had never changed, though time +and occasion had lessened the value of some of them. She liked to +count herself among those who are persecuted for conscience's sake, +and was immensely fond of an argument and of having it known that she +was a dissenter from the First Parish Church. + +Mrs. Graham looked up with surprise from her book to see the doctor +coming in from the street, and, being helplessly lame, sat still, and +put out her hand to greet him, with a very pleased look on her face. +"Is there anything the matter with me?" she asked. "I have begun to +think you don't care to associate with well people; you don't usually +go to church in the afternoon either, so you haven't taken refuge here +because Mr. Talcot is ill. I must say that I missed hearing the bell; +I shall lose myself altogether by the middle of the week. One must +have some landmarks." + +"Marilla complained yesterday that she was all at sea because her +apple pies gave out a day too soon. She put the bread to rise the +wrong night, and everything went wrong about the sweeping. It has been +a week of great domestic calamity with us, but Nan confided to me +this morning that there was some trouble with our bonnet into the +bargain. I had forgotten it was time for that," said the doctor, +laughing. "We always have a season of great anxiety and disaster until +the bonnet question is settled. I keep out of the way as much as I +can. Once I tried to be amusing, and said it was a pity the women did +not follow their grandmothers' fashion and make a good Leghorn +structure last ten years and have no more trouble about it; but I was +assured that there wasn't a milliner now living who could set such an +arrangement going." + +"Marilla's taste is not what one might call commonplace," said Mrs. +Graham, with a smile. "I think her summer head-covering was a little +the most remarkable we have had yet. She dresses so decently +otherwise, good soul!" + +"It was astonishing," said the doctor gravely, as he stood before the +fire thinking how pleasant the room looked; almost as familiar as his +own study, with its heavy mahogany furniture and two old portraits and +few quaint ornaments. Mrs. Graham's geraniums were all flourishing and +green and even in bloom, unlike most treasures of their kind. There +was a modern element in the room also,--some pretty cushions and other +bits of embroidery; for Mrs. Graham had some grandchildren who were +city born and bred, and who made little offerings to her from time to +time. On the table near her and between the front windows were many +new books and magazines, and though the two neighbors kept up a +regular system of exchange, the doctor went nearer to see what might +be found. There were a few minutes of silence, and he became conscious +that Mrs. Graham was making up her mind to say something, but when she +spoke it was only to ask if there were anything serious the matter +with the minister. + +"Oh, no," said the doctor, "he's a dyspeptic, nervous soul, too +conscientious! and when the time arrives for the sacrifice of pigs, +and his whole admiring parish vie with each other to offer spare-ribs +on that shrine, it goes hard with the poor man." + +This was worth hearing, but Mrs. Graham was a little sorry that she +had let such a good chance go by for saying something that was near +her heart, so presently she added, "I am sorry that poor Marilla +hasn't a better gift at personal decoration. It seems a pity to let +her disfigure that pretty child with such structures in the way of +head-gear. I was so glad when that abominable great summer hat was +laid by for the season." + +"It was pretty bad," the doctor agreed, in a provokingly indifferent +tone, whereupon Mrs. Graham's interest was rekindled, and saying to +herself that the poor man did not know the danger and foolishness of +such carelessness, she ventured another comment. + +"So much depends upon giving a child's taste the right direction." + +Dr. Leslie had taken up a magazine, and seemed to have found something +that pleased him, but he at once laid it down and glanced once or +twice at his hostess, as if he hoped for future instructions. "You see +I don't know anything about it, and Nan doesn't think of her clothes +at all, so far as I can tell, and so poor Marilla has to do the best +she can," he said mildly. + +"Oh dear, yes," answered Mrs. Graham, not without impatience. "But the +child's appearance is of some importance, and since a dollar or two +doesn't make any difference to you, she should be made to look like +the little lady that she is. Dear old Mrs. Thacher would turn in her +grave, for she certainly had a simple good taste that was better than +this. Marilla became the easy prey of that foolish little woman who +makes bonnets on the East road. She has done more to deprave the ideas +of our townspeople than one would believe, and they tell you with such +pleasure that she used to work in New York, as if that settled the +question. It is a comfort to see old Sally Turner and Miss Betsy +Milman go by in their decent dark silk bonnets that good Susan Martin +made for them. If I could go out to-morrow I believe I would rather +hunt for a very large velvet specimen of her work, which is somewhere +upstairs in a big bandbox, than trust myself to these ignorant hands. +It is a great misfortune to a town if it has been disappointed in its +milliner. You are quite at her mercy, and, worse than all, liable to +entire social misapprehension when you venture far from home." + +"So bonnets are not a question of free will and individual +responsibility?" asked the doctor soberly. "I must say that I have +wondered sometimes if the women do not draw lots for them. But what +shall I do about the little girl? I am afraid I do her great injustice +in trying to bring her up at all--it needs a woman's eye." + +"Your eye is just as good as anybody's," responded Mrs. Graham +quickly, lest the doctor should drift into sad thought about his young +wife who had been so long dead and yet seemed always a nearer and +dearer living presence to him. He was apt to say a word or two about +her and not answer the next question which was put to him, and +presently go silently away,--but to-day Mrs. Graham had important +business in hand. + +"My daughter will be here next week," she observed, presently, "and +I'm sure that she will do any shopping for you in Boston with great +pleasure. We might forestall Marilla's plans. You could easily say +when you go home that you have spoken to me about it. I think it would +be an excellent opportunity now, while the East Road establishment is +in disfavor," and when the doctor smiled and nodded, his friend and +hostess settled herself comfortably in her chair, and felt that she +had gained a point. + +The sunshine itself could hardly have made that south parlor look +pleasanter. There was a log in the fire that was wet, and singing +gently to itself, as if the sound of the summer rustlings and +chirpings had somehow been stored away in its sap, and above it were +some pieces of drier white birch, which were sending up a yellow +conflagration to keep the marauding snow-flakes from coming down the +chimney. The geraniums looked brighter than by daylight, and seemed to +hold their leaves toward the fireplace as if they were hands; and were +even leaning out a little way themselves and lifting their blossoms +like torches, as if they were a reserve force, a little garrison of +weaker soldiers who were also enemies of the cold. The gray twilight +was gathering out of doors; the trees looked naked and defenceless, as +one saw them through the windows. Mrs. Graham tapped the arms of her +chair gently with the tips of her fingers, and in a few minutes the +doctor closed the book he was looking over and announced that the days +were growing very short. There was something singularly pleasant to +both the friends in their quiet Sunday afternoon companionship. + +"You used to pay me a Sunday visit every week," said the old lady, +pleased to find that her guest still lingered. "I don't know why, but +I always have a hope that you will find time to run over for half an +hour. I said to myself yesterday that a figure of me in wax would do +just as well as anything nowadays. I get up and dress myself, and make +the journey downstairs, and sit here at the window and have my dinner +and go through the same round day after day. If it weren't for a +certain amount of expense it incurs, and occupation to other people, I +think it would be of very little use. However, there are some people +still left who need me. Who is it says--Béranger perhaps--that to love +benefits one's self, and to inspire love benefits others. I like to +think that the children and grandchildren have the old place to think +of and come back to. I can see that it is a great bond between them +all, and that is very good. I begin to feel like a very old woman; it +would be quite different, you know, if I were active and busy out of +doors, and the bustling sort of person for which nature intended me. +As it is, my mind is bustling enough for itself and its body both." + +"Well," said the doctor, laughing a little, "what is it now?" + +"The little girl," answered Mrs. Graham, gravely. "I think it is quite +time she knew something of society. Don't tell yourself that I am +notional and frivolous; I know you have put a great deal of hope and +faith and affection into that child's career. It would disappoint you +dreadfully if she were not interesting and harmonious to people in +general. It seems a familiar fact now that she should have come to +live with you, that she should be growing up in your house; but the +first thing we know she will be a young lady instead of an amusing +child, and I think that you cannot help seeing that a great deal of +responsibility belongs to you. She must be equipped and provisioned +for the voyage of life; she must have some resources." + +"But I think she has more than most children." + +"Yes, yes, I dare say. She is a bright little creature, but her +brightness begins to need new things to work upon. She does very well +at school now, I hear, and she minds very well and is much less +lawless than she used to be; but she is like a candle that refuses to +burn, and is satisfied with admiring its candlestick. She is quite the +queen of the village children in one way, and in another she is quite +apart from them. I believe they envy her and look upon her as being of +another sort, and yet count her out of half their plans and pleasures, +and she runs home, not knowing whether to be pleased or hurt, and +pulls down half a dozen of your books and sits proudly at the window. +Her poor foolish mother had some gifts, but she went adrift very soon, +and I should teach Nan her duty to her neighbor, and make her take in +the idea that she owes something to the world beside following out her +own most satisfying plans. When I was a young woman it was a most +blessed discovery to me--though I was not any quicker at making it +than other people, perhaps,--that, beside being happy myself and +valuable to myself, I must fit myself into my place in society. We are +seldom left to work alone, you know. No, not even you. I know too much +about you to believe that. And it isn't enough that we are willing to +talk about ourselves. We must learn to understand the subjects of the +day that everybody talks about, and to make sure of a right to stand +upon the highest common ground wherever we are. Society is a sort of +close corporation, and we must know its watchwords, and keep an +interest in its interests and affairs. I call a gentleman the man who, +either by birth or by nature, belongs to the best society. There may +be bad gentlemen and good gentlemen, but one must feel instinctively +at home with a certain class, representatives of which are likely to +be found everywhere. + +"And as for Nan, you will be disappointed if she does not understand a +little later your own way of looking at things. She mustn't grow up +full of whims and indifferences. I am too fond of you to look forward +calmly to your being disappointed, and I do believe she will be a most +lovely, daughterly, friendly girl, who will keep you from being lonely +as you grow older, and be a great blessing in every way. Yet she has a +strange history, and is in a strange position. I hope you will find a +good school for her before very long." + +This was said after a moment's pause, and with considerable +hesitation, and Mrs. Graham was grateful for the gathering darkness +which sheltered her, and not a little surprised at the doctor's +answer. + +"I have been thinking of that," he said quickly, "but it is a great +puzzle at present and I am thankful to say, I think it is quite safe +to wait a year or two yet. You and I live so much apart from society +that we idealize it a good deal, though you are a stray-away bit of +it. We too seldom see the ideal gentleman or lady; we have to be +contented with keeping the ideal in our minds, it seems to me, and +saying that this man is gentlemanly, and that woman ladylike. But I do +believe in aiming at the best things, and turning this young +creature's good instincts and uncommon powers into the proper channels +instead of letting her become singular and self-centred because she +does not know enough of people of her own sort." + +Mrs. Graham gave a little sound of approval that did not stand for any +word in particular: "I wonder if her father's people will ever make +any claim to her? She said something about her aunt one day; I think +it was to hear whatever I might answer. It seemed to me that the poor +child had more pleasure in this unknown possession than was worth +while; she appeared to think of her as a sort of fairy godmother who +might descend in Oldfields at any moment." + +"I did not know she thought of her at all," announced the doctor, +somewhat dismayed. "She never has talked about her aunt to me. I dare +say that she has been entertained with the whole miserable story." + +"Oh, no," answered Mrs. Graham, placidly. "I don't think that is +likely, but it is quite reasonable that the child should be aware of +some part of it by this time. The Dyer neighbors are far from being +reticent, good creatures, and they have little to remember that +approaches the interest and excitement of that time. Do you know +anything about Miss Prince nowadays? I have not heard anything of her +in a long while." + +"She still sends the yearly remittance, which I acknowledge and put +into the savings bank as I always have done. When Nan came to me I +advised Miss Prince that I wished to assume all care of her and should +be glad if she would give me entire right to the child, but she took +no notice of the request. It really makes no practical difference. +Only," and the doctor became much embarrassed, "I must confess that I +have a notion of letting her study medicine by and by if she shows a +fitness for it." + +"Dear, dear!" said the hostess, leaning forward so suddenly that she +knocked two or three books from the corner of the table, and feeling +very much excited. "John Leslie, I can't believe it! but my dear man +used to say you thought twice for everybody else's once. What can have +decided you upon such a plan?" + +"How happened the judge to say that?" asked the doctor, trying to +scoff, but not a little pleased. "I'm sure I can't tell you, Mrs. +Graham, only the idea has grown of itself in my mind, as all right +ideas do, and everything that I can see seems to favor it. You may +think that it is too early to decide, but I see plainly that Nan is +not the sort of girl who will be likely to marry. When a man or woman +has that sort of self-dependence and unnatural self-reliance, it shows +itself very early. I believe that it is a mistake for such a woman to +marry. Nan's feeling toward her boy-playmates is exactly the same as +toward the girls she knows. You have only to look at the rest of the +children together to see the difference; and if I make sure by and by, +the law of her nature is that she must live alone and work alone, I +shall help her to keep it instead of break it, by providing something +else than the business of housekeeping and what is called a woman's +natural work, for her activity and capacity to spend itself upon." + +"But don't you think that a married life is happiest?" urged the +listener, a good deal shocked at such treason, yet somewhat persuaded +by its truth. + +"Yes," said Dr. Leslie, sadly. "Yes indeed, for most of us. We could +say almost everything for that side, you and I; but a rule is +sometimes very cruel for its exceptions; and there is a life now and +then which is persuaded to put itself in irons by the force of custom +and circumstances, and from the lack of bringing reason to bear upon +the solving of the most important question of its existence. Of course +I don't feel sure yet that I am right about Nan, but looking at her +sad inheritance from her mother, and her good inheritances from other +quarters, I cannot help feeling that she might be far more unhappy +than to be made ready to take up my work here in Oldfields when I have +to lay it down. She will need a good anchor now and then. Only this +summer she had a bad day of it that made me feel at my wits' end. She +was angry with one of the children at school, and afterward with +Marilla because she scolded her for not keeping better account of the +family times and seasons, and ran away in the afternoon, if you +please, and was not heard from until next morning at breakfast time. +She went to the old place and wandered about the fields as she used, +and crept into some shelter or other. I dare say that she climbed in +at one of the windows of the house, though I could not make quite sure +without asking more questions than I thought worth while. She came +stealing in early in the morning, looking a little pale and wild, but +she hasn't played such a prank since. I had a call to the next town +and Marilla had evidently been awake all night. I got home early in +the morning myself, and was told that it was supposed I had picked up +Nan on the road and carried her with me, so the blame was all ready +for my shoulders unless we had both happened to see the young culprit +strolling in at the gate. I was glad she had punished herself, so that +there was no need of my doing it, though I had a talk with her a day +or two afterward, when we were both in our right minds. She is a good +child enough." + +"I dare say," remarked Mrs. Graham drily, "but it seems to me that +neither of you took Marilla sufficiently into account. That must have +been the evening that the poor soul went to nearly every house in town +to ask if there were any stray company to tea. Some of us could not +help wondering where the young person was finally discovered. She has +a great fancy for the society of Miss Betsy Milman and Sally Turner at +present, and I quite sympathize with her. I often look over there and +see the end of their house with that one little square window in the +very peak of it spying up the street, and wish I could pay them a +visit myself and hear a bit of their wise gossip. I quite envy Nan her +chance of going in and being half forgotten as she sits in one of +their short chairs listening and watching. They used to be great +friends of her grandmother's. Oh no; if I could go to see them they +would insist upon my going into the best room, and we should all be +quite uncomfortable. It is much better to sit here and think about +them and hear their flat-irons creak away over the little boys' +jackets and trousers." + +"I must confess that I have my own clothes mended there to this day," +said the doctor. "Marilla says their mending is not what it used to +be, too, but it is quite good enough. As for that little window, I +hardly ever see it without remembering the day of your aunt Margaret's +funeral. I was only a boy and not deeply afflicted, but of course I +had my place in the procession and was counted among the mourners, and +as we passed the Milman place I saw the old lady's face up there just +filling the four small panes. You know she was almost helpless, and +how she had got up into the little garret I cannot imagine, but she +was evidently determined to inspect the procession as it went down the +burying-ground lane. It was a pity they did not cut the window beneath +it in the lower room in her day. You know what an odd face she had; I +suppose it was distorted by disease and out of all shape it ever knew; +but I can see it now, framed in with its cap border and the window as +if there were no more of her." + +"She really was the most curious old creature; it more than accounts +for Mrs. Turner's and Miss Betsy's love for a piece of news," said +Mrs. Graham, who was much amused. "But I wish we understood the value +of these old news-loving people. So much local history and tradition +must die with every one of them if we take no pains to save it. I hope +you are wise about getting hold of as much as possible. You doctors +ought to be our historians, for you alone see the old country folks +familiarly and can talk with them without restraint." + +"But we haven't time to do any writing," the guest replied. "That is +why our books amount to so little for the most part. The active men, +who are really to be depended upon as practitioners, are kept so busy +that they are too tired to use the separate gift for writing, even if +they possess it, which many do not. And the literary doctors, the +medical scholars, are a different class, who have not had the +experience which alone can make their advice reliable. I mean of +course in practical matters, not anatomy and physiology. But we have +to work our way and depend upon ourselves, we country doctors, to whom +a consultation is more or less a downfall of pride. Whenever I hear +that an old doctor is dead I sigh to think what treasures of wisdom +are lost instead of being added to the general fund. That was one +advantage of putting the young men with the elder practitioners; many +valuable suggestions were handed down in that way." + +"I am very well contented with my doctor," said Mrs. Graham, with +enthusiasm, at this first convenient opportunity. "And it is very wise +of you all to keep up our confidence in the face of such facts as +these. You can hardly have the heart to scold any more about the +malpractice of patients when we believe in you so humbly and so +ignorantly. You are always safe though, for our consciences are +usually smarting under the remembrance of some transgression which +might have hindered you if it did not. Poor humanity," she added in a +tone of compassion. "It has to grope its way through a deal of +darkness." + +The doctor sighed, but he was uncommonly restful and comfortable in +the large arm-chair before the fender. It was quite dark out of doors +now, and the fire gave all the light that was in the room. Presently +he roused himself a little to say "'Poor humanity,' indeed! And I +suppose nobody sees the failures and miseries as members of my +profession do. There will be more and more sorrow and defeat as the +population increases and competition with it. It seems to me that to +excel in one's work becomes more and more a secondary motive; to do a +great deal and be well paid for it ranks first. One feels the injury +of such purposes even in Oldfields." + +"I cannot see that the world changes much. I often wish that I could, +though surely not in this way," said the lame woman from her seat by +the window, as the doctor rose to go away. "I find my days piteously +alike, and you do not know what a pleasure this talk has been. It +satisfies my hungry mind and gives me a great deal to think of; you +would not believe what an appetite I had. Oh, don't think I need any +excuses, it is a great pleasure to see you drive in and out of the +gate, and I like to see your lamp coming into the study, and to know +that you are there and fond of me. But winter looked very long and +life very short before you came in this afternoon. I suppose you have +had enough of society for one day, so I shall not tell you what I mean +to have for tea, but next Sunday night I shall expect you to come and +bring your ward. Will you please ring, so that Martha will bring the +lights? I should like to send Nan a nice letter to read which came +yesterday from my little grand-daughter in Rome. I shall be so glad +when they are all at home again. She is about Nan's age, you know; I +must see to it that they make friends with each other. Don't put me on +a dusty top shelf again and forget me for five or six weeks," laughed +the hostess, as her guest protested and lingered a minute still before +he opened the door. + +"You won't say anything of my confidences?" at which Mrs. Graham +shakes her head with satisfactory gravity, though if Doctor Leslie had +known she was inwardly much amused, and assured herself directly that +she hoped to hear no more of such plans; how could he tell that the +girl herself would agree to them, and whether Oldfields itself would +favor Nan as his own successor and its medical adviser? But John +Leslie was a wise, far-seeing man, with a great power of holding to +his projects. He really must be kept to his promise of a weekly visit; +she was of some use in the world after all, so long as these +unprotected neighbors were in it, and at any rate she had gained her +point about the poor child's clothes. + +As for the doctor, he found the outer world much obscured by the +storm, and hoped that nobody would need his services that night, as he +went stumbling home though the damp and clogging snow underfoot. He +felt a strange pleasure in the sight of a small, round head at the +front study window between the glass and the curtain, and Nan came to +open the door for him, while Marilla, whose unwonted Sunday afternoon +leisure seemed to have been devoted to fragrant experiments in +cookery, called in pleased tones from the dining-room that she had +begun to be afraid he was going to stay out to supper. It was somehow +much more homelike than it used to be, the doctor told himself, as he +pushed his feet into the slippers which had been waiting before the +fire until they were in danger of being scorched. And before Marilla +had announced with considerable ceremony that tea was upon the table, +he had assured himself that it had been a very pleasant hour or two at +Mrs. Graham's, and it was the best thing in the world for both of them +to see something of each other. For the little girl's sake he must try +to keep out of ruts, and must get hold of somebody outside his own +little world. + +But while he called himself an old fogy and other impolite names he +was conscious of a grave and sweet desire to make the child's life a +successful one,--to bring out what was in her own mind and capacity, +and so to wisely educate her, to give her a place to work in, and +wisdom to work with, so far as he could; for he knew better than most +men that it is the people who can do nothing who find nothing to do, +and the secret of happiness in this world is not only to be useful, +but to be forever elevating one's uses. Some one must be intelligent +for a child until it is ready to be intelligent for itself, and he +told himself with new decision that he must be wise in his laws for +Nan and make her keep them, else she never would be under the grace of +any of her own. + + + + +XI + +NEW OUTLOOKS + + +Dr. Leslie held too securely the affection of his townspeople to be +in danger of losing their regard or respect, yet he would have been +half pained and half amused if he had known how foolishly his plans, +which came in time to be his ward's also, were smiled and frowned upon +in the Oldfields houses. Conformity is the inspiration of much +second-rate virtue. If we keep near a certain humble level of morality +and achievement, our neighbors are willing to let us slip through life +unchallenged. Those who anticipate the opinions and decisions of +society must expect to be found guilty of many sins. + +There was not one of the young village people so well known as the +doctor's little girl, who drove with him day by day, and with whom he +kept such delightful and trustful companionship. If she had been asked +in later years what had decided her to study not only her profession, +but any profession, it would have been hard for her to answer anything +beside the truth that the belief in it had grown with herself. There +had been many reasons why it seemed unnecessary. There was every +prospect that she would be rich enough to place her beyond the +necessity of self-support. She could have found occupation in simply +keeping the doctor's house and being a cordial hostess in that home +and a welcome guest in other people's. She was already welcome +everywhere in Oldfields, but in spite of this, which would have seemed +to fill the hearts and lives of other girls, it seemed to her like a +fragment of her life and duty; and when she had ordered her +housekeeping and her social duties, there was a restless readiness for +a more absorbing duty and industry; and, as the years went by, all her +desire tended in one direction. The one thing she cared most to learn +increased its attraction continually, and though one might think the +purpose of her guardian had had its influence and moulded her +character by its persistence, the truth was that the wise doctor +simply followed as best he could the leadings of the young nature +itself, and so the girl grew naturally year by year, reaching out half +unconsciously for what belonged to her life and growth; being taught +one thing more than all, that her duty must be followed eagerly and +reverently in spite of the adverse reasons which tempted and sometimes +baffled her. As she grew older she was to understand more clearly that +indecision is but another name for cowardice and weakness; a habit of +mind that quickly increases its power of hindrance. She had the faults +that belonged to her character, but these were the faults of haste and +rashness rather than the more hopeless ones of obstinacy or a lack of +will and purpose. + +The Sunday evening tea-drinking with Mrs. Graham, though somewhat +formidable at first to our heroine, became quickly one of her dearest +pleasures, and led to a fast friendship between the kind hostess and +her young guest. Soon Nan gave herself eagerly to a plan of spending +two or three evenings a week across the way for the purpose of reading +aloud, sometimes from books she did not understand, but oftener from +books of her own choice. It was supposed to be wholly a kindness on +the young girl's part, and Mrs. Graham allowed the excuse of a +temporary ailment of her own strong and useful eyes to serve until +neither she nor Nan had the least thought of giving up their pleasant +habit of reading together. And to this willing listener Nan came in +time with her youthful dreams and visions of future prosperities in +life, so that presently Mrs. Graham knew many things which would have +surprised the doctor, who on the other hand was the keeper of equally +amazing and treasured confidences of another sort. It was a great +pleasure to both these friends, but most especially to the elderly +woman, that Nan seemed so entirely satisfied with their friendship. +The busy doctor, who often had more than enough to think and worry +about, sometimes could spare but little time to Nan for days together, +but her other companion was always waiting for her, and the smile was +always ready by way of greeting when the child looked eagerly up at +the parlor window. What stories of past days and memories of youth and +of long-dead friends belonging to the dear lady's own girlhood were +poured into Nan's delighted ears! She came in time to know Mrs. +Graham's own immediate ancestors, and the various members of her +family with their fates and fortunes, as if she were a contemporary, +and was like another grandchild who was a neighbor and beloved crony, +which real blessing none of the true grandchildren had ever been lucky +enough to possess. She formed a welcome link with the outer world, did +little Nan, and from being a cheerful errand-runner, came at last to +paying friendly visits in the neighborhood to carry Mrs. Graham's +messages and assurances. And from all these daily suggestions of +courtesy and of good taste and high breeding, and helpful fellowship +with good books, and the characters in their stories which were often +more real and dear and treasured in her thoughts than her actual +fellow townsfolk, Nan drew much pleasure and not a little wisdom; at +any rate a direction for which she would all her life be thankful. It +would have been surprising if her presence in the doctor's house had +not after some time made changes in it, but there was no great +difference outwardly except that she gathered some trifling +possessions which sometimes harmonized, and as often did not, with the +household gods of the doctor and Marilla. There was a shy sort of +intercourse between Nan and Mrs. Graham's grandchildren, but it was +not very valuable to any of the young people at first, the country +child being too old and full of experience to fellowship with the +youngest, and too unversed in the familiar machinery of their social +life to feel much kinship with the eldest. + +It was during one of these early summer visits, and directly after a +tea-party which Marilla had proudly projected on Nan's account, that +Dr. Leslie suddenly announced that he meant to go to Boston for a few +days and should take Nan with him. This event had long been promised, +but had seemed at length like the promise of happiness in a future +world, reasonably certain, but a little vague and distant. It was a +more important thing than anybody understood, for a dear and familiar +chapter of life was ended when the expectant pair drove out of the +village on their way to the far-off railway station, as another had +been closed when the door of the Thacher farm-house had been shut and +padlocked, and Nan had gone home one snowy night to live with the +doctor. The weather at any rate was different now, for it was early +June, the time when doctors can best give themselves a holiday; and +though Dr. Leslie assured himself that he had little wish to take the +journey, he felt it quite due to his ward that she should see a little +more of the world, and happily due also to certain patients and his +brother physicians that he should visit the instrument-makers' shops, +and some bookstores; in fact there were a good many important errands +to which it was just as well to attend in person. But he watched Nan's +wide-open, delighted eyes, and observed her lack of surprise at +strange sights, and her perfect readiness for the marvelous, with +great amusement. He was touched and pleased because she cared most for +what had concerned him; to be told where he lived and studied, and to +see the places he had known best, roused most enthusiasm. An afternoon +in a corner of the reading-room at the Athenæum library, in which he +had spent delightful hours when he was a young man, seemed to please +the young girl more than anything else. As he sat beside the table +where he had gathered enough books and papers to last for many days, +in his delight at taking up again his once familiar habit, Nan looked +on with sympathetic eyes, or watched the squirrels in the trees of the +quiet Granary Burying Ground, which seemed to her like a bit of +country which the noisy city had caught and imprisoned. Now that she +was fairly out in the world she felt a new, strange interest in her +mysterious aunt, for it was this hitherto unknown space outside the +borders of Oldfields to which her father and his people belonged. And +as a charming old lady went by in a pretty carriage, the child's gaze +followed her wistfully as she and the doctor were walking along the +street. With a sudden blaze of imagination she had wished those +pleasant eyes might have seen the likeness to her father, of which she +had been sometimes told, and that the carriage had been hurried back, +so that the long estrangement might be ended. It was a strange thing +that, just afterward, Dr. Leslie had, with much dismay, caught sight +of the true aunt; for Miss Anna Prince of Dunport had also seen fit to +make one of her rare visits to Boston. She looked dignified and +stately, but a little severe, as she went down the side street away +from them. Nan's quick eyes had noticed already the difference between +the city people and the country folks, and would have even recognized +a certain provincialism in her father's sister. The doctor had only +seen Miss Prince once many years before, but he had known her again +with instinctive certainty, and Nan did not guess, though she was most +grateful for it, why he reached for her hand, and held it fast as they +walked together, just as he always used to do when she was a little +girl. She was not yet fully grown, and she never suspected the sudden +thrill of dread, and consciousness of the great battle of life which +she must soon begin to fight, which all at once chilled the doctor's +heart. "It's a cold world, a cold world," he had said to himself. +"Only one thing will help her through safely, and that is her +usefulness. She shall never be either a thief or a beggar of the +world's favor if I can have my wish." And Nan, holding his hand with +her warm, soft, childish one, looked up in his face, all unconscious +that he thought with pity how unaware she was of the years to come, +and of their difference to this sunshine holiday. "And yet I never was +so happy at her age as I am this summer," the doctor told himself by +way of cheer. + +They paid some visits together to Dr. Leslie's much-neglected friends, +and it was interesting to see how, for the child's sake, he resumed +his place among these acquaintances to whom he had long been linked +either personally in times past, or by family ties. He was sometimes +reproached for his love of seclusion and cordially welcomed back to +his old relations, but as often found it impossible to restore +anything but a formal intercourse of a most temporary nature. The +people for whom he cared most, all seemed attracted to his young ward, +and he noted this with pleasure, though he had not recognized the fact +that he had been, for the moment, basely uncertain whether his +judgment of her worth would be confirmed. He laughed at the +insinuation that he had made a hermit or an outlaw of himself; he +would have been still more amused to hear one of his old friends say +that this was the reason they had seen so little of him in late years, +and that it was a shame that a man of his talent and many values to +the world should be hiding his light under the Oldfields bushel, and +all for the sake of bringing up this child. As for Nan, she had little +to say, but kept her eyes and ears wide open, and behaved herself +discreetly. She had ceased to belong only to the village she had left; +in these days she became a citizen of the world at large. Her horizon +had suddenly become larger, and she might have discovered more than +one range of mountains which must be crossed as the years led her +forward steadily, one by one. + + +There is nothing so interesting as to be able to watch the change and +progress of the mental and moral nature, provided it grows eagerly +and steadily. There must be periods of repose and hibernation like the +winter of a plant, and in its springtime the living soul will both +consciously and unconsciously reach out for new strength and new +light. The leaves and flowers of action and achievement are only the +signs of the vitality that works within. + + + + +XII + +AGAINST THE WIND + + +During the next few years, while Nan was growing up, Oldfields itself +changed less than many country towns of its size. Though some faces +might be missed or altered, Dr. Leslie's household seemed much the +same, and Mrs. Graham, a little thinner and older, but more patient +and sweet and delightful than ever, sits at her parlor window and +reads new books and old ones, and makes herself the centre of much +love and happiness. She and the doctor have grown more and more +friendly, and they watch the young girl's development with great +pride: they look forward to her vacations more than they would care to +confess even to each other; and when she comes home eager and gay, she +makes both these dear friends feel young again. When Nan is not there +to keep him company, Dr. Leslie always drives, and has grown more +careful about the comfort of his carriages, though he tells himself +with great pleasure that he is really much more youthful in his +feelings than he was twenty years before, and does not hesitate to say +openly that he should have been an old fogy by this time if it had not +been for the blessing of young companionship. When Nan is pleased to +command, he is always ready to take long rides and the two saddles are +brushed up, and they wonder why the bits are so tarnished, and she +holds his horse's bridle while he goes in to see his patients, and is +ready with merry talk or serious questions when he reappears. And one +dark night she listens from her window to the demand of a messenger, +and softly creeps down stairs and is ready to take her place by his +side, and drive him across the hills as if it were the best fun in the +world, with the frightened country-boy clattering behind on his +bare-backed steed. The moon rises late and they come home just before +daybreak, and though the doctor tries to be stern as he says he cannot +have such a piece of mischief happen again, he wonders how the girl +knew that he had dreaded for once in his life the drive in the dark, +and had felt a little less strong than usual. + +Marilla still reigns in noble state. She has some time ago accepted a +colleague after a preliminary show of resentment, and Nan has little +by little infused a different spirit into the housekeeping; and when +her friends come to pay visits in the vacations they find the old home +a very charming place, and fall quite in love with both the doctor and +Mrs. Graham before they go away. Marilla always kept the large east +parlor for a sacred shrine of society, to be visited chiefly by +herself as guardian priestess; but Nan has made it a pleasanter room +than anybody ever imagined possible, and uses it with a freedom which +appears to the old housekeeper to lack consideration and respect. Nan +makes the most of her vacations, while the neighbors are all glad to +see her come back, and some of them are much amused because in summer +she still clings to her childish impatience at wearing any head +covering, and no matter how much Marilla admires the hat which is +decorously worn to church every Sunday morning, it is hardly seen +again, except by chance, during the week, and the brown hair is sure +to be faded a little before the summer sunshine is past. Nan goes +about visiting when she feels inclined, and seems surprisingly +unchanged as she seats herself in one of the smoke-browned Dyer +kitchens, and listens eagerly to whatever information is offered, or +answers cordially all sorts of questions, whether they concern her own +experiences or the world's in general. She has never yet seen her +father's sister, though she still thinks of her, and sometimes with a +strange longing for an evidence of kind feeling and kinship which has +never been shown. This has been chief among the vague sorrows of her +girlhood. Yet once when her guardian had asked if she wished to make +some attempt at intercourse or conciliation, he had been answered, +with a scorn and decision worthy of grandmother Thacher herself, that +it was for Miss Prince to make advances if she ever wished for either +the respect or affection of her niece. But the young girl has clung +with touching affection to the memory and association of her +childhood, and again and again sought in every season of the year the +old playgrounds and familiar corners of the farm, which she has grown +fonder of as the months go by. The inherited attachment of generations +seems to have been centred in her faithful heart. + +It must be confessed that the summer which followed the close of her +school-life was, for the most part, very unsatisfactory. Her +school-days had been more than usually pleasant and rewarding, in +spite of the sorrows and disappointments and unsolvable puzzles which +are sure to trouble thoughtful girls of her age. But she had grown so +used at last to living by rules and bells that she could not help +feeling somewhat adrift without them. It had been so hard to put +herself under restraint and discipline after her free life in +Oldfields that it was equally hard for a while to find herself at +liberty; though, this being her natural state, she welcomed it +heartily at first, and was very thankful to be at home. It did not +take long to discover that she had no longer the same desire for her +childish occupations and amusements; they were only incidental now and +pertained to certain moods, and could not again be made the chief +purposes of her life. She hardly knew what to do with herself, and +sometimes wondered what would become of her, and why she was alive at +all, as she longed for some sufficient motive of existence to catch +her up into its whirlwind. She was filled with energy and a great +desire for usefulness, but it was not with her, as with many of her +friends, that the natural instinct toward marriage, and the building +and keeping of a sweet home-life, ruled all other plans and +possibilities. Her best wishes and hopes led her away from all this, +and however tenderly she sympathized in other people's happiness, and +recognized its inevitableness, for herself she avoided unconsciously +all approach or danger of it. She was trying to climb by the help of +some other train of experiences to whatever satisfaction and success +were possible for her in this world. If she had been older and of a +different nature, she might have been told that to climb up any other +way toward a shelter from the fear of worthlessness, and mistake, and +reproach, would be to prove herself in most people's eyes a thief and +a robber. But in these days she was not fit to reason much about her +fate; she could only wait for the problems to make themselves +understood, and for the whole influence of her character and of the +preparatory years to shape and signify themselves into a simple chart +and unmistakable command. And until the power was given to "see life +steadily and see it whole," she busied herself aimlessly with such +details as were evidently her duty, and sometimes following the right +road and often wandering from it in willful impatience, she stumbled +along more or less unhappily. It seemed as if everybody had forgotten +Nan's gift and love for the great profession which was her childish +delight and ambition. To be sure she had studied anatomy and +physiology with eager devotion in the meagre text-books at school, +though the other girls had grumbled angrily at the task. Long ago, +when Nan had confided to her dearest cronies that she meant to be a +doctor, they were hardly surprised that she should determine upon a +career which they would have rejected for themselves. She was not of +their mind, and they believed her capable of doing anything she +undertook. Yet to most of them the possible and even probable marriage +which was waiting somewhere in the future seemed to hover like a +cloudy barrier over the realization of any such unnatural plans. + +They assured themselves that their school-mate showed no sign of being +the sort of girl who tried to be mannish and to forsake her natural +vocation for a profession. She did not look strong-minded; besides she +had no need to work for her living, this ward of a rich man, who was +altogether the most brilliant and beautiful girl in school. Yet +everybody knew that she had a strange tenacity of purpose, and there +was a lack of pretension, and a simplicity that scorned the deceits of +school-girl existence. Everybody knew too that she was not a +commonplace girl, and her younger friends made her the heroine of +their fondest anticipations and dreams. But after all, it seemed as if +everybody, even the girl herself, had lost sight of the once familiar +idea. It was a natural thing enough that she should have become expert +in rendering various minor services to the patients in Dr. Leslie's +absence, and sometimes assist him when no other person was at hand. +Marilla became insensible at the sight of the least dangerous of +wounds, and could not be trusted to suggest the most familiar +household remedy, after all her years of association with the +practice of medicine, and it was considered lucky that Nan had some +aptness for such services. In her childhood she had been nicknamed +"the little doctor," by the household and even a few familiar friends, +but this was apparently outgrown, though her guardian had more than +once announced in sudden outbursts of enthusiasm that she already knew +more than most of the people who tried to practice medicine. They once +in a while talked about some suggestion or discovery which was +attracting Dr. Leslie's attention, but the girl seemed hardly to have +gained much interest even for this, and became a little shy of being +found with one of the medical books in her hand, as she tried to fancy +herself in sympathy with the conventional world of school and of the +every-day ideas of society. And yet her inward sympathy with a +doctor's and a surgeon's work grew stronger and stronger, though she +dismissed reluctantly the possibility of following her bent in any +formal way, since, after all, her world had seemed to forbid it. As +the time drew near for her school-days to be ended, she tried to +believe that she should be satisfied with her Oldfields life. She was +fond of reading, and she had never lacked employment, besides, she +wished to prove herself an intelligent companion to Dr. Leslie, whom +she loved more and more dearly as the years went by. There had been a +long time of reserve between her childish freedom of intercourse with +him and the last year or two when they had begun to speak freely to +each other as friend to friend. It was a constant surprise and +pleasure to the doctor when he discovered that his former plaything +was growing into a charming companion who often looked upon life from +the same standpoint as himself, and who had her own outlooks upon the +world, from whence she was able to give him by no means worthless +intelligence; and after the school-days were over he was not amazed to +find how restless and dissatisfied the girl was; how impossible it was +for her to content herself with following the round of household +duties which were supposed to content young women of her age and +station. Even if she tried to pay visits or receive them from her +friends, or to go on with her studies, or to review some text-book of +which she had been fond, there was no motive for it; it all led to +nothing; it began for no reason and ended in no use, as she exclaimed +one day most dramatically. Poor Nan hurried through her house +business, or neglected it, as the case might be, greatly to Manila's +surprise and scorn, for the girl had always proved herself diligent +and interested in the home affairs. More and more she puzzled herself +and everybody about her, and as the days went by she spent them out of +doors at the old farm, or on the river, or in taking long rides on a +young horse; a bargain the doctor had somewhat repented before he +found that Nan was helped through some of her troubled hours by the +creature's wildness and fleetness. It was very plain that his ward was +adrift, and at first the doctor suggested farther study of Latin or +chemistry, but afterward philosophically resigned himself to patience, +feeling certain that some indication of the right course would not be +long withheld, and that a wind from the right quarter would presently +fill the flapping sails of this idle young craft and send it on its +way. + + +One afternoon Nan went hurrying out of the house just after dinner, +and the doctor saw that her face was unusually troubled. He had asked +her if she would like to drive with him to a farm just beyond the +Dyers' later in the day, but for a wonder she had refused. Dr. Leslie +gave a little sigh as he left the table, and presently watched her go +down the street as he stood by the window. It would be very sad if the +restlessness and discord of her poor mother should begin to show +themselves again; he could not bear to think of such an inheritance. + +But Nan thought little of anybody else's discomforts as she hurried +along the road; she only wished to get to the beloved farm, and to be +free there from questions, and from the evidences of her unfitness for +the simple duties which life seemed offering her with heartless irony. +She was not good for anything after all, it appeared, and she had been +cheating herself. This was no life at all, this fretful idleness; if +only she had been trained as boys are, to the work of their lives! She +had hoped that Dr. Leslie would help her; he used to talk long ago +about her studying medicine, but he must have forgotten that, and the +girl savagely rebuked society in general for her unhappiness. Of +course she could keep the house, but it was kept already; any one with +five senses and good health like hers could prove herself able to do +any of the ordinary work of existence. For her part it was not enough +to be waited upon and made comfortable, she wanted something more, to +be really of use in the world, and to do work which the world needed. + +Where the main road turned eastward up the hills, a footpath, already +familiar to the reader, shortened the distance to the farm, and the +young girl quickly crossed the rude stile and disappeared among the +underbrush, walking bareheaded with the swift steps of a creature +whose home was in some such place as this. Often the dry twigs, fallen +from the gray lower branches of the pines, crackled and snapped under +her feet, or the bushes rustled backed again to their places after she +pushed against them in passing; she hurried faster and faster, going +first through the dense woods and then out into the sunlight. Once or +twice in the open ground she stopped and knelt quickly on the soft +turf or moss to look at a little plant, while the birds which she +startled came back to their places directly, as if they had been quick +to feel that this was a friend and not an enemy, though disguised in +human shape. At last Nan reached the moss-grown fence of the farm and +leaped over it, and fairly ran to the river-shore, where she went +straight to one of the low-growing cedars, and threw herself upon it +as if it were a couch. While she sat there, breathing fast and glowing +with bright color, the river sent a fresh breeze by way of messenger, +and the old cedar held its many branches above her and around her most +comfortably, and sheltered her as it had done many times before. It +need not have envied other trees the satisfaction of climbing straight +upward in a single aspiration of growth. + +And presently Nan told herself that there was nothing like a good run. +She looked to and fro along the river, and listened to the sheep-bell +which tinkled lazily in the pasture behind her. She looked over her +shoulder to see if a favorite young birch tree had suffered no harm, +for it grew close by the straight-edged path in which the cattle came +down to drink. So she rested in the old playground, unconscious that +she had been following her mother's footsteps, or that fate had again +brought her here for a great decision. Years before, the miserable, +suffering woman, who had wearily come to this place to end their +lives, had turned away that the child might make her own choice +between the good and evil things of life. Though Nan told herself that +she must make it plain how she could spend her time in Oldfields to +good purpose and be of most use at home, and must get a new strength +for these duties, a decision suddenly presented itself to her with a +force of reason and necessity the old dream of it had never shown. Why +should it not be a reality that she studied medicine? + +The thought entirely possessed her, and the glow of excitement and +enthusiasm made her spring from the cedar boughs and laugh aloud. Her +whole heart went out to this work, and she wondered why she had ever +lost sight of it. She was sure this was the way in which she could +find most happiness. God had directed her at last, and though the +opening of her sealed orders had been long delayed, the suspense had +only made her surer that she must hold fast this unspeakably great +motive: something to work for with all her might as long as she lived. +People might laugh or object. Nothing should turn her aside, and a new +affection for kind and patient Dr. Leslie filled her mind. How eager +he had been to help her in all her projects so far, and yet it was +asking a great deal that he should favor this; he had never seemed to +show any suspicion that she would not live on quietly at home like +other girls; but while Nan told herself that she would give up any +plan, even this, if he could convince her that it would be wrong, +still her former existence seemed like a fog and uncertainty of death, +from which she had turned away, this time of her own accord, toward a +great light of satisfaction and certain safety and helpfulness. The +doctor would know how to help her; if she only could study with him +that would be enough; and away she went, hurrying down the river-shore +as if she were filled with a new life and happiness. + +She startled a brown rabbit from under a bush, and made him a grave +salutation when he stopped and lifted his head to look at her from a +convenient distance. Once she would have stopped and seated herself on +the grass to amaze him with courteous attempts at friendliness, but +now she only laughed again, and went quickly down the steep bank +through the junipers and then hurried along the pebbly margin of the +stream toward the village. She smiled to see lying side by side a +flint arrowhead and a water-logged bobbin that had floated down from +one of the mills, and gave one a toss over the water, while she put +the other in her pocket. Her thoughts were busy enough, and though +some reasons against the carrying out of her plan ventured to assert +themselves, they had no hope of carrying the day, being in piteous +minority, though she considered them one by one. By and by she came +into the path again, and as she reached the stile she was at first +glad and then sorry to see the doctor coming along the high road from +the Donnell farm. She was a little dismayed at herself because she had +a sudden disinclination to tell this good friend her secret. + +But Dr. Leslie greeted her most cheerfully, giving her the reins when +she had climbed into the wagon, and they talked of the weather and of +the next day's plans as they drove home together. The girl felt a +sense of guilt and a shameful lack of courage, but she was needlessly +afraid that her happiness might be spoiled by a word from that +quarter. + +That very evening it was raining outside, and the doctor and Nan were +sitting in the library opposite each other at the study-table, and as +they answered some letters in order to be ready for the early morning +post, they stole a look at each other now and then. The doctor laid +down his pen first, and presently, as Nan with a little sigh threw +hers into the tray beside it, he reached forward to where there was +one of the few uncovered spaces of the dark wood of the table and drew +his finger across it. They both saw the shining surface much more +clearly, and as the dusty finger was held up and examined carefully by +its owner, the girl tried to laugh, and then found her voice trembling +as she said: "I believe I haven't forgotten to put the table in order +before. I have tried to take care of the study at any rate." + +"Nan dear, it isn't the least matter in the world!" said Dr. Leslie. +"I think we are a little chilly here this damp night; suppose you +light the fire? At any rate it will clear away all those envelopes and +newspaper wrappers," and he turned his arm-chair so that it faced the +fireplace, and watched the young girl as she moved about the room. She +lifted one of the large sticks and stood it on one end at the side of +the hearth, and the doctor noticed that she did it less easily than +usual and without the old strength and alertness. He had sprung up to +help her just too late, but she had indignantly refused any assistance +with a half pettishness that was not a common mood with her. + +"I don't see why Jane or Marilla, or whoever it was, put that heavy +log on at this time of the year," said Dr. Leslie, as if it were a +matter of solemn consequence. By this time he had lighted a fresh +cigar, and Nan had brought her little wooden chair from some corner of +the room where it had always lived since it came with her from the +farm. It was a dear old-fashioned little thing, but quite too small +for its owner, who had grown up tall and straight, but who had felt a +sudden longing to be a child again, as she quietly took her place +before the fire. + +"That log?" she said, "I wonder if you will never learn that we must +not burn it? I saw Marilla myself when she climbed the highest +wood-pile at the farther end of the wood-house for it. I suppose all +the time I have been away you have been remorselessly burning up the +show logs. I don't wonder at her telling me this very morning that she +was born to suffer, and suffer she supposed she must. We never used to +be allowed to put papers in the fireplace, but you have gained ever so +many liberties. I wonder if Marilla really thinks she has had a hard +life?" the girl said, in a different tone. + +"I wonder if you think yours is hard too?" asked the doctor. + +And Nan did not know at first what to say. The bright light of the +burning papers and the pine-cone kindlings suddenly faded out and the +study seemed dark and strange by contrast; but the doctor did not +speak either; he only bent towards her presently, and put his hand on +the top of the girl's head and stroked the soft hair once or twice, +and then gently turned it until he could see Nan's face. + +Her eyes met his frankly as ever, but they were full of tears. "Yes," +she said; "I wish you would talk to me. I wish you would give me a +great scolding. I never needed it so much in my life. I meant to come +home and be very good, and do everything I could to make you happy, +but it all grows worse every day. I thought at first I was tired with +the last days of school, but it is something more than that. I don't +wish in the least that I were back at school, but I can't understand +anything; there is something in me that wants to be busy, and can't +find anything to do. I don't mean to be discontented; I don't want to +be anywhere else in the world." + +"There is enough to do," answered the doctor, as placidly as possible, +for this was almost the first time he had noticed distinctly the +mother's nature in her daughter; a restless, impatient, miserable sort +of longing for The Great Something Else, as Dr. Ferris had once called +it. "Don't fret yourself, Nan, yours is a short-lived sorrow; for if +you have any conscience at all about doing your work you will be sure +enough to find it." + +"I think I have found it at last, but I don't know whether any one +else will agree with me," half whispered poor Nan; while the doctor, +in spite of himself, of his age, and experience, and sympathy, and +self-control, could not resist a smile. "I hate to talk about myself +or to be sentimental, but I want to throw my whole love and life into +whatever there is waiting for me to do, and--I began to be afraid I +had missed it somehow. Once I thought I should like to be a teacher, +and come back here when I was through school and look after the +village children. I had such splendid ideas about that, but they all +faded out. I went into the school-house one day, and I thought I would +rather die than be shut up there from one week's end to another." + +"No," said Dr. Leslie, with grave composure. "No, I don't feel sure +that you would do well to make a teacher of yourself." + +"I wish that I had known when school was over that I must take care of +myself, as one or two of the girls meant to do, and sometimes it seems +as if I ought," said Nan, after a silence of a few minutes, and this +time it was very hard to speak. "You have been so kind, and have done +so much for me; I supposed at first there was money enough of my own, +but I know now." + +"Dear child!" the doctor exclaimed, "you will never know, unless you +are left alone as I was, what a blessing it is to have somebody to +take care of and to love; I have put you in the place of my own little +child, and have watched you grow up here, with more thankfulness every +year. Don't ever say another word to me about the money part of it. +What had I to spend money for? And now I hear you say all these +despairing things; but I am an old man, and I take them for what they +are worth. You have a few hard months before you, perhaps, but before +you know it they will be over with. Don't worry yourself; look after +Marilla a little, and that new hand-maid, and drive about with me. +To-morrow I must be on the road all day, and, to tell the truth, I +must think over one or two of my cases before I go to bed. Won't you +hand me my old prescription book? I was trying to remember something +as I came home." + +Nan, half-comforted, went to find the book, while Dr. Leslie, puffing +his cigar-smoke very fast, looked up through the cloud abstractedly at +a new ornament which had been placed above the mantel shelf since we +first knew the room. Old Captain Finch had solaced his weary and +painful last years by making a beautiful little model of a ship, and +had left it in his will to the doctor. There never was a more touching +gift, this present owner often thought, and he had put it in its place +with reverent hands. A comparison of the two lives came stealing into +his mind, and he held the worn prescription-book a minute before he +opened it. The poor old captain waiting to be released, stranded on +the inhospitable shore of this world, and eager Nan, who was +sorrowfully longing for the world's war to begin. "Two idle heroes," +thought Dr. Leslie, "and I neither wished to give one his discharge +nor the other her commission;" but he said aloud, "Nan, we will take a +six o'clock start in the morning, and go down through the sandy plains +before the heat begins. I am afraid it will be one of the worst of the +dog-days." + +"Yes," answered Nan eagerly, and then she came close to the doctor, +and looked at him a moment before she spoke, while her face shone with +delight. "I am going to be a doctor, too! I have thought it would be +the best thing in the world ever since I can remember. The little +prescription-book was the match that lit the fire! but I have been +wishing to tell you all the evening." + +"We must ask Marilla," the doctor began to say, and tried to add, +"What _will_ she think?" but Nan hardly heard him, and did not laugh +at his jokes. For she saw by his face that there was no need of +teasing. And she assured herself that if he thought it was only a +freak of which she would soon tire, she was quite willing to be put to +the proof. + + +Next morning, for a wonder, Nan waked early, even before the birds had +quite done singing, and it seemed a little strange that the weather +should be clear and bright, and almost like June, since she was a good +deal troubled. + +She felt at first as if there were some unwelcome duty in her day's +work, and then remembered the early drive with great pleasure, but the +next minute the great meaning and responsibility of the decision she +had announced the evening before burst upon her mind, and a flood of +reasons assailed her why she should not keep to so uncommon a purpose. +It seemed to her as if the first volume of life was ended, and as if +it had been deceitfully easy, since she had been led straight-forward +to this point. It amazed her to find the certainty take possession of +her mind that her vocation had been made ready for her from the +beginning. She had the feeling of a reformer, a radical, and even of a +political agitator, as she tried to face her stormy future in that +summer morning loneliness. But by the time she had finished her early +breakfast, and was driving out of the gate with the doctor, the day +seemed so much like other days that her trouble of mind almost +disappeared. Though she had known instinctively that all the early +part of her life had favored this daring project, and the next few +years would hinder it if they could, still there was something within +her stronger than any doubts that could possibly assail her. And +instead of finding everything changed, as one always expects to do +when a great change has happened to one's self, the road was so +familiar, and the condition of the outer world so harmonious, that she +hardly understood that she had opened a gate and shut it behind her, +between that day and its yesterday. She held the reins, and the doctor +was apparently in a most commonplace frame of mind. She wished he +would say something about their talk of the night before, but he did +not. She seemed very old to herself, older than she ever would seem +again, perhaps, but the doctor had apparently relapsed into their old +relations as guardian and child. Perhaps he thought she would forget +her decision, and did not know how much it meant to her. He was quite +provoking. He hurried the horse himself as they went up a somewhat +steep ascent, and as Nan touched the not very fleet steed with the +whip on the next level bit of road, she was reminded that it was a +very hot morning and that they had a great way to drive. When she +asked what was the matter with the patient they were on their way to +see, she was answered abruptly that he suffered from a complication of +disorders, which was the more aggravating because Nan had heard this +answer laughed at as being much used by old Dr. Jackson, who was +usually unwilling or unable to commit himself to a definite opinion. +Nan fancied herself at that minute already a member of the profession, +and did not like to be joked with in such a fashion, but she tried to +be amused, which generosity was appreciated by her companion better +than she knew. + +Dr. Leslie was not much of a singer, but he presently lifted what +little voice he had, and began to favor Nan with a not very successful +rendering of "Bonny Doon." Every minute seemed more critical to the +girl beside him, and she thought of several good ways to enter upon a +discussion of her great subject, but with unusual restraint and +reserve let the moments and the miles go by until the doctor had +quickly stepped down from the carriage and disappeared within his +patient's door. Nan's old custom of following him had been neglected +for some time, since she had found that the appearance of a tall young +woman had quite a different effect upon a household from that of a +little child. She had formed the habit of carrying a book with her on +the long drives, though she often left it untouched while she walked +up and down the country roads, or even ventured upon excursions as far +afield as she dared, while the doctor made his visit, which was apt to +be a long one in the lonely country houses. This morning she had +possessed herself of a square, thin volume which gave lists and plates +of the nerve system of the human body. The doctor had nearly laughed +aloud when he caught sight of it, and when Nan opened it with decision +and gravity and read the first page slowly, she was conscious of a +lack of interest in her subject. She had lost the great enthusiasm of +the night before, and felt like the little heap of ashes which such a +burning and heroic self might well have left. + +Presently she went strolling down the road, gathering some large +leaves on her way, and stopped at the brook, where she pulled up some +bits of a strange water-weed, and made them into a damp, round bundle +with the leaves and a bit of string. This was a rare plant which they +had both noticed the day before, and they had taken some specimens +then, Nan being at this time an ardent botanist, but these had +withered and been lost, also, on the way home. + +Dr. Leslie was in even less of a hurry than usual, and when he came +out he looked very much pleased. "I never was more thankful in my +life," he said eagerly, as soon as he was within convenient distance. +"That poor fellow was at death's door yesterday, and when I saw his +wife and little children, and thought his life was all that stood +between them and miserable destitution, it seemed to me that I _must_ +save it! This morning he is as bright as a dollar, but I have been +dreading to go into that house ever since I left it yesterday noon. +They didn't in the least know how narrow a chance he had. And it isn't +the first time I have been chief mourner. Poor souls! they don't dread +their troubles half so much as I do. He will have a good little farm +here in another year or two, it only needs draining to be excellent +land, and he knows that." The doctor turned and looked back over the +few acres with great pleasure. "Now we'll go and see about old Mrs. +Willet, though I don't believe there's any great need of it. She +belongs to one of two very bad classes of patients. It makes me so +angry to hear her cough twice as much as need be. In your practice," +he continued soberly, "you must remember that there is danger of +giving too strong doses to such a sufferer, and too light ones to the +friends who insist there is nothing the matter with them. I wouldn't +give much for a doctor who can't see for himself in most cases, but +not always,--not always." + +The doctor was in such a hospitable frame of mind that nobody could +have helped telling him anything, and happily he made an excellent +introduction for Nan's secret by inquiring how she had got on with her +studies, but she directed his attention to the wet plants in the +bottom of the carriage, which were complimented before she said, a +minute afterward, "Oh, I wonder if I shall make a mistake? I was +afraid you would laugh at me, and think it was all nonsense." + +"Dear me, no," replied the doctor. "You will be the successor of Mrs. +Martin Dyer, and the admiration of the neighborhood;" but changing his +tone quickly, he said: "I am going to teach you all I can, just as +long as you have any wish to learn. It has not done you a bit of harm +to know something about medicine, and I believe in your studying it +more than you do yourself. I have always thought about it. But you are +very young; there's plenty of time, and I don't mean to be hurried; +you must remember that,--though I see your fitness and peculiar +adaptability a great deal better than you can these twenty years yet. +You will be growing happier these next few years at any rate, however +impossible life has seemed to you lately." + +"I suppose there will be a great many obstacles," reflected Nan, with +an absence of her usual spirit. + +"Obstacles! Yes," answered Dr. Leslie, vigorously. "Of course there +will be; it is climbing a long hill to try to study medicine or to +study anything else. And if you are going to fear obstacles you will +have a poor chance at success. There are just as many reasons as you +will stop to count up why you should not do your plain duty, but if +you are going to make anything of yourself you must go straight ahead, +taking it for granted that there will be opposition enough, but doing +what is right all the same. I suppose I have repeated to you fifty +times what old Friend Meadows told me years ago; he was a great +success at money-making, and once I asked him to give me some advice +about a piece of property. 'Friend Leslie,' says he, 'thy own opinion +is the best for thee; if thee asks ten people what to do, they will +tell thee ten things, and then thee doesn't know as much as when thee +set out,'" and Dr. Leslie, growing very much in earnest, reached +forward for the whip. "I want you to be a good woman, and I want you +to be all the use you can," he said. "It seems to me like stealing, +for men and women to live in the world and do nothing to make it +better. You have thought a great deal about this, and so have I, and +now we will do the best we can at making a good doctor of you. I don't +care whether people think it is a proper vocation for women or not. It +seems to me that it is more than proper for you, and God has given you +a fitness for it which it is a shame to waste. And if you ever +hesitate and regret what you have said, you won't have done yourself +any harm by learning how to take care of your own health and other +people's." + +"But I shall never regret it," said Nan stoutly. "I don't believe I +should ever be fit for anything else, and you know as well as I that I +must have something to do. I used to wish over and over again that I +was a boy, when I was a little thing down at the farm, and the only +reason I had in the world was that I could be a doctor, like you." + +"Better than that, I hope," said Dr. Leslie. "But you mustn't think it +will be a short piece of work; it will take more patience than you are +ready to give just now, and we will go on quietly and let it grow by +the way, like your water-weed here. If you don't drive a little +faster, Sister Willet may be gathered before we get to her;" and this +being a somewhat unwise and hysterical patient, whose recovery was not +in the least despaired of, Dr. Leslie and his young companion were +heartlessly merry over her case. + +The doctor had been unprepared for such an episode; outwardly, life +had seemed to flow so easily from one set of circumstances to the +next, and the changes had been so gradual and so natural. He had +looked forward with such certainty to Nan's future, that it seemed +strange that the formal acceptance of such an inevitable idea as her +studying medicine should have troubled her so much. + +Separated as he was from the groups of men and women who are +responsible for what we call the opinion of society, and independent +himself of any fettering conventionalities, he had grown careless of +what anybody might say. He only hoped, since his ward had found her +proper work, that she would hold to it, and of this he had little +doubt. The girl herself quickly lost sight of the fancied difficulty +of making the great decision, and, as is usually the case, saw all the +first objections and hindrances fade away into a dim distance, and +grow less and less noticeable. And more than that, it seemed to her as +if she had taken every step of her life straight toward this choice of +a profession. So many things she had never understood before, now +became perfectly clear and evident proofs that, outside her own +preferences and choices, a wise purpose had been at work with her and +for her. So it all appeared more natural every day, and while she knew +that the excitement and formality of the first very uncomfortable day +or two had proved her freedom of choice, it seemed the more impossible +that she should have shirked this great commission and trust for which +nature had fitted her. + + + + +XIII + +A STRAIGHT COURSE + + +The next year or two was spent in quiet life at home. It was made +evident that, beside her inclination and natural fitness for her +chosen work, our student was also developing the other most important +requisite, a capacity for hard study and patient continuance. There +had been as little said as possible about the plan, but it was not +long before the propriety of it became a favorite subject of +discussion. It is quite unnecessary, perhaps, to state that everybody +had his or her own opinion of the wisdom of such a course, and both +Dr. Leslie and his ward suffered much reproach and questioning, as the +comments ranged from indignation to amusement. But it was as true of +Nan's calling, as of all others, that it would be her own failure to +make it respected from which any just contempt might come, and she had +thrown herself into her chosen career with such zeal, and pride, and +affectionate desire to please her teacher, that the small public who +had at first jeered or condemned her came at last to accepting the +thing as inevitable and a matter of course, even if they did not +actually approve. There was such a vigorous determination in the minds +of the doctor and his pupil that Nan should not only be a doctor but a +good one, that anything less than a decided fitness for the profession +would have doomed them both to disappointment, even with such +unwearied effort and painstaking. In the earlier years of his practice +Dr. Leslie had been much sought as an instructor, but he had long +since begun to deny the young men who had wished to be his students, +though hardly one had ever gone from the neighborhood of Oldfields who +did not owe much to him for his wise suggestions and practical help. + +He patiently taught this eager young scholar day by day, and gave her, +as fast as he could, the benefit of the wisdom which he had gained +through faithful devotion to his business and the persistent study of +many years. Nan followed step by step, and, while becoming more +conscious of her own ignorance and of the uncertainties and the laws +of the practice of medicine with every week's study, knew better and +better that it is resource, and bravery, and being able to think for +one's self, that make a physician worth anything. There must be an +instinct that recognizes a disease and suggests its remedy, as much as +an instinct that finds the right notes and harmonies for a composer of +music, or the colors for a true artist's picture, or the results of +figures for a mathematician. Men and women may learn these callings +from others; may practice all the combinations until they can carry +them through with a greater or less degree of unconsciousness of brain +and fingers; but there is something needed beside even drill and +experience; every student of medicine should be fitted by nature with +a power of insight, a gift for his business, for knowing what is the +right thing to do, and the right time and way to do it; must have this +God-given power in his own nature of using and discovering the +resources of medicine without constant reliance upon the books or the +fashion. Some men use their ability for their own good and renown, and +some think first of the good of others, and as the great poet tells +the truths of God, and makes other souls wiser and stronger and fitter +for action, so the great doctor works for the body's health, and tries +to keep human beings free from the failures that come from neglect and +ignorance, and ready to be the soul's instrument of action and service +in this world. It is not to keep us from death, it is no superstitious +avoidance of the next life, that should call loudest for the +physician's skill; but the necessity of teaching and remedying the +inferior bodies which have come to us through either our ancestors' +foolishness or our own. So few people know even what true and complete +physical life is, much less anything of the spiritual existence that +is already possible, and so few listen to what the best doctors are +trying their best to teach. While half-alive people think it no wrong +to bring into the world human beings with even less vitality than +themselves, and take no pains to keep the simplest laws of health, or +to teach their children to do so, just so long there will be plenty of +sorrow of an avoidable kind, and thousands of shipwrecked, and +failing, and inadequate, and useless lives in the fullest sense of the +word. How can those who preach to the soul hope to be heard by those +who do not even make the best of their bodies? but alas, the +convenience and easiness, or pleasure, of the present moment is +allowed to become the cause of an endless series of terrible effects, +which go down into the distance of the future, multiplying themselves +a thousandfold. + +The doctor told Nan many curious things as they drove about together: +certain traits of certain families, and how the Dyers were of strong +constitution, and lived to a great age in spite of severe illnesses +and accidents and all manner of unfavorable conditions; while the +Dunnells, who looked a great deal stronger, were sensitive, and +deficient in vitality, so that an apparently slight attack of disease +quickly proved fatal. And so Nan knew that one thing to be considered +was the family, and another the individual variation, and she began +to recognize the people who might be treated fearlessly, because they +were safe to form a league with against any ailment, being responsive +to medicines, and straightforward in their departure from or return to +a state of health; others being treacherous and hard to control; full +of surprises, and baffling a doctor with their feints and follies of +symptoms; while all the time Death himself was making ready for a +last, fatal siege; these all being the representatives of types which +might be found everywhere. Often Dr. Leslie would be found eagerly +praising some useful old-fashioned drugs which had been foolishly +neglected by those who liked to experiment with newer remedies and be +"up with the times," as they called their not very intelligent +dependence upon the treatment in vogue at the moment among the younger +men of certain cliques, to some of whom the brilliant operation was +more important than its damaging result. There was, even in those +days, a haphazard way of doctoring, in which the health of the patient +was secondary to the promotion of new theories, and the young scholar +who could write a puzzlingly technical paper too often outranked the +old practitioner who conquered some malignant disorder single-handed, +where even the malpractice of the patient and his friends had stood +like a lion in the way. + +But Dr. Leslie was always trying to get at the truth, and nobody +recognized more clearly the service which the reverent and truly +progressive younger men were rendering to the profession. He added +many new publications to his subscription list, and gleaned here and +there those notes which he knew would be helpful, and which were +suited to the degree of knowledge which his apprentice had already +gained. It is needless to say what pleasure it gave him, and what +evening talks they had together; what histories of former victories +and defeats and curious discoveries were combined, like a bit of +novel-reading, with Nan's diligent devotion to her course of study. +And presently the girl would take a step or two alone, and even make a +visit by herself to see if anything chanced to be needed when a case +was progressing favorably, and with the excuse of the doctor's +business or over-fatigue. And the physicians of the neighboring towns, +who came together occasionally for each other's assistance, most of +whom had known Nan from her childhood, though at first they had shrunk +from speaking of many details of their professional work in her +hearing, and covered their meaning, like the ostriches' heads, in the +sand of a Latin cognomen, were soon set at their ease by Nan's +unconsciousness of either shamefacedness or disgust, and one by one +grew interested in her career, and hopeful of her success. + +It is impossible to describe the importance of such experiences as +these in forming the character of the young girl's power of resource, +and wealth of self-reliance and practical experience. Sometimes in +houses where she would have felt at least liberty to go only as +spectator and scholar of medicine, Dr. Leslie insisted upon +establishing her for a few days as chief nurse and overseer, and +before Nan had been at work many months her teacher found her of great +use, and grew more proud and glad day by day as he watched her +determination, her enthusiasm, and her excellent progress. Over and +over again he said to himself, or to her, that she was doing the work +for which nature had meant her, and when the time came for her to go +away from Oldfields, it seemed more impossible than it ever had before +that he should get on without her, at home, or as an independent human +being, who was following reverently in the path he had chosen so many +years before. For her sake he had reached out again toward many +acquaintances from whom he had drifted away, and he made many short +journeys to Boston or to New York, and was pleased at his hearty +welcome back to the medical meetings he had hardly entered during so +many years. He missed not a few old friends, but he quickly made new +ones. He was vastly pleased when the younger men seemed glad to hear +him speak, and it was often proved that either through study or +experience he had caught at some fresh knowledge of which his +associates were still ignorant. He had laughingly accused himself of +being a rusty country doctor and old fogy who had not kept up with the +times; but many a letter followed him home, with thanks for some +helpful suggestion or advice as to the management of a troublesome +case. He was too far away to give room for any danger of professional +jealousy, or for the infringement of that ever lengthening code of +etiquette so important to the sensitive medical mind. Therefore he +had only much pleasure and a fine tribute of recognition and honor, +and he smiled more than once as he sat in the quiet Oldfields study +before the fire, and looked up at Captain Finch's little ship, and +told Nan of his town experiences, not always omitting, though +attempting to deprecate, the compliments, in some half-hour when they +were on peculiarly good terms with each other. And Nan believed there +could be no better doctor in the world, and stoutly told him so, and +yet listened only half-convinced when he said that he had a great mind +to go to town and open an office, and make a specialty of treating +diseases of the heart, since everybody had a specialty nowadays. He +never felt so ready for practice as now, but Nan somehow could not +bear the thought of his being anywhere but in his home. For herself, +she would have been ready to venture anything if it would further her +ever-growing purpose; but that Dr. Leslie should begin a new career or +contest with the world seemed impossible. He was not so strong as he +used to be, and he was already famous among his fellows. She would +help him with his work by and by even more than now, and her own +chosen calling of a country doctor was the dearer to her, because he +had followed it so gallantly before her loving and admiring eyes. But +Dr. Leslie built many a castle in the air, with himself and a great +city practice for tenants, and said that it would be a capital thing +for Nan; she could go on with it alone by and by. It was astonishing +how little some of the city doctors knew: they relied upon each other +too much; they should all be forced to drive over hill and dale, and +be knocked about in a hard country practice for eight or ten years +before they went to town. "Plenty of time to read their books in June +and January," the doctor would grumble to himself, and turn to look +fondly at the long rows of his dear library acquaintances, his +Braithwaites and Lancets, and their younger brothers, beside the first +new Sydenham Society's books, with their clumsy blot of gilding. And +he would stand sometimes with his hands behind him and look at the +many familiar rows of brown leather-covered volumes, most of them +delightfully worn with his own use and that of the other physicians +whose generous friend and constant instructor he had been through +years of sometimes stormy but usually friendly intercourse and +association. + + +When people in general had grown tired of discussing this strange +freak and purpose of the doctor and his ward, and had become familiar +with Nan's persistent interest and occupation in her studies, there +came a time of great discontent to the two persons most concerned. For +it was impossible to disguise the fact that the time had again come +for the girl to go away from home. They had always looked forward to +this, and directed much thought and action toward it, and yet they +decided with great regret upon setting a new train of things in +motion. + +While it was well enough and useful enough that Nan should go on with +her present mode of life, they both had a wider outlook, and though +with the excuse of her youthfulness they had put off her departure as +long as possible, still almost without any discussion it was decided +that she must enter the medical school to go through with its course +of instruction formally, and receive its authority to practice her +profession. They both felt that this held a great many unpleasantnesses +among its store of benefits. Nan was no longer to be shielded and +protected and guided by some one whose wisdom she rarely questioned, +but must make her own decisions instead, and give from her own bounty, +and stand in her lot and place. Her later school-days were sure to be +more trying than her earlier ones, as they carried her into deeper +waters of scholarship, and were more important to her future position +before the public. + +If a young man plans the same course, everything conspires to help him +and forward him, and the very fact of his having chosen one of the +learned professions gives him a certain social preëminence and +dignity. But in the days of Nan's student life it was just the +reverse. Though she had been directed toward such a purpose entirely +by her singular talent, instead of by the motives of expediency which +rule the decisions of a large proportion of the young men who study +medicine, she found little encouragement either from the quality of +the school or the interest of society in general. There were times +when she actually resented the prospect of the many weeks which she +must spend in listening to inferior instruction before gaining a +diploma, which was only a formal seal of disapproval in most persons' +eyes. And yet, when she remembered her perfect certainty that she was +doing the right thing, and remembered what renown some women +physicians had won, and the avenues of usefulness which lay open to +her on every side, there was no real drawing back, but rather a proud +certainty of her most womanly and respectable calling, and a reverent +desire to make the best use possible of the gifts God had certainly +not made a mistake in giving her. "If He meant I should be a doctor," +the girl told herself, "the best thing I can do is to try to be a good +one." + +So Nan packed her boxes and said good-by to Mrs. Graham, who looked +wistful and doubtful, but blessed her most heartily, saying she should +miss her sadly in the winter. And Marilla, who had unexpectedly +reserved her opinion of late, made believe that she was very busy in +the pantry, just as she had done when Nan was being launched for +boarding-school. She shook her own floury hands vigorously, and +offered one at last, muffled in her apron, and wished our friend good +luck, with considerable friendliness, mentioning that she should be +glad if Nan would say when she wrote home what shapes they seemed to +be wearing for bonnets in the city, though she supposed they would be +flaunting for Oldfields anyway. The doctor was going too, and they +started for the station much too early for the train, since Dr. Leslie +always suffered from a nervous dread of having an unavoidable summons +to a distant patient at the last moment. + +And when the examinations were over, and Nan had been matriculated, +and the doctor had somewhat contemptuously overlooked the building and +its capabilities, and had compared those students whom he saw with his +remembrance of his own class, and triumphantly picked out a face and +figure that looked hopeful here and there; he told himself that like +all new growths it was feeble yet, and needed girls like his Nan, with +high moral purpose and excellent capacity, who would make the college +strong and to be respected. Not such doctors as several of whom he +reminded himself, who were disgracing their sex, but those whose +lives were ruled by a pettiness of detail, a lack of power, and an +absence of high aim. Somehow both our friends lost much of the feeling +that Nan was doing a peculiar thing, when they saw so many others +following the same path. And having seen Nan more than half-settled in +her winter quarters, and knowing that one or two of her former school +friends had given her a delighted and most friendly welcome, and +having made a few visits to the people whom he fancied would help her +in one way or another, Dr. Leslie said good-by, and turned his face +homeward, feeling more lonely than he had felt in a great many years +before. He thought about Nan a great deal on the journey, though he +had provided himself with some most desirable new books. He was +thankful he had been able to do a kind turn for one of the most +influential doctors, who had cheerfully promised to put some special +advantages in Nan's way; but when he reached home the house seemed +very empty, and he missed his gay companion as he drove along the +country roads. After the days began to grow longer, and the sun +brighter, such pleasant letters came from the absent scholar, that the +doctor took heart more and more, and went over to Mrs. Graham with +almost every fresh bit of news. She smiled, and listened, and +applauded, and one day said with delightful cordiality that she wished +there were more girls who cared whether their lives really amounted to +anything. But not every one had a talent which was such a stimulus as +Nan's. + +"Nothing succeeds like success," rejoined the doctor cheerfully, "I +always knew the child would do the best she could." + + + + +XIV + +MISS PRINCE OF DUNPORT + + +While all these years were passing, Miss Anna Prince the elder was +living quietly in Dunport, and she had changed so little that her +friends frequently complimented her upon such continued youthfulness. +She had by no means forgotten the two greatest among the many losses +and sorrows of her life, but the first sharp pain of them was long +since over with. The lover from whom she had parted for the sake of a +petty misunderstanding had married afterward and died early; but he +had left a son of whom Miss Prince was very proud and fond; and she +had given him the place in her heart which should have belonged to her +own niece. When she thought of the other trial, she believed herself, +still, more sinned against than sinning, and gave herself frequent +assurances that it had been impossible to act otherwise at the time of +her brother's death and his wife's strange behavior afterward. And she +had persuaded her conscience to be quiet, until at last, with the +ideal of a suspicious, uncongenial, disagreeable group of rustics in +her mind, she thought it was well ordered by Heaven that she had been +spared any closer intercourse. + +Miss Prince was a proud and stately woman of the old New England type: +more colonial than American perhaps, and quite provincial in her +traditions and prejudices. She was highly respected in her native +town, where she was a prominent figure in society. Nobody was more +generous and kind or public spirited, as her friends often said, and +young George Gerry was well-rewarded, though he gave her great +pleasure by his evident affection and interest. He liked to pay +frequent visits to his old friend, and to talk with her. She had been +a very attractive girl long ago, and the best of her charms had not +faded yet; the young man was always welcomed warmly, and had more than +once been helped in his projects. His mother was a feeble woman, who +took little interest in anything outside her own doors; and he liked +himself better as he sat in Miss Prince's parlor than anywhere else. +We are always fond of the society of our best selves, and though he +was popular with the rest of his townspeople, he somehow could not +help trying always to be especially agreeable to Miss Prince. + +Although she was apparently free from regrets, and very well satisfied +with life, even her best friends did not know how lonely her life had +seemed to her, or how sadly hurt she had been by the shame and sorrow +of her only brother's marriage. The thought of his child and of the +impossibility of taking her to her heart and home had been like a +nightmare at first, and yet Miss Prince lacked courage to break down +the barriers, and to at least know the worst. She kept the two ideas +of the actual niece and the ideal one whom she might have loved so +much distinct and separate in her mind, and was divided between a +longing to see the girl and a fierce dread of her sudden appearance. +She had forbidden any allusion to the subject years and years before, +and so had prevented herself from hearing good news as well as bad; +though she had always been careful that the small yearly remittance +should be promptly sent, and was impatient to receive the formal +acknowledgment of it, which she instantly took pains to destroy. She +sometimes in these days thought about making her will; there was no +hurry about it, but it would be only fair to provide for her nearest +of kin, while she was always certain that she should not let all her +money and the old house with its handsome furnishings go into such +unworthy hands. It was a very hard question to settle, and she thought +of it as little as possible, and was sure there was nothing to prevent +her living a great many years yet. She loved her old home dearly, and +was even proud of it, and had always taken great care of the details +of its government. She never had been foolish enough to make away with +her handsome mahogany furniture, and to replace it with cheaper and +less comfortable chairs and tables, as many of her neighbors had done, +and had taken an obstinate satisfaction all through the years when it +seemed quite out of date, in insisting upon the polishing of the fine +wood and the many brass handles, and of late she had been reaping a +reward for her constancy. It had been a marvel to certain progressive +people that a person of her comfortable estate should be willing to +reflect that there was not a marble-topped table in her house, until +it slowly dawned upon them at last that she was mistress of the finest +house in town. Outwardly, it was painted white and stood close upon +the street, with a few steep front steps coming abruptly down into the +middle of the narrow sidewalk; its interior was spacious and very +imposing, not only for the time it was built in the last century, but +for any other time. Miss Prince's ancestors had belonged to some of +the most distinguished among the colonial families, which fact she +neither appeared to remember nor consented to forget; and, as often +happened in the seaport towns of New England, there had been one or +two men in every generation who had followed the sea. Her own father +had been among the number, and the closets of the old house were well +provided with rare china and fine old English crockery that would +drive an enthusiastic collector to distraction. The carved woodwork of +the railings and wainscotings and cornices had been devised by +ingenious and patient craftsmen, and the same portraits and old +engravings hung upon the walls that had been there when its mistress +could first remember. She had always been so well suited with her home +that she had never desired to change it in any particular. Her maids +were well drilled to their duties, and Priscilla, who was chief of the +staff, had been in that dignified position for many years. If Miss +Prince's grandmother could return to Dunport from another world, she +would hardly believe that she had left her earthly home for a day, it +presented so nearly the same appearance. + +But however conscientiously the effort had been made to keep up the +old reputation for hospitality, it had somehow been a failure, and +Miss Prince had given fewer entertainments every year. Long ago, while +she was still a young woman, she had begun to wear a certain quaint +and elderly manner, which might have come from association with such +antiquated household gods and a desire to match well with her beloved +surroundings. A great many of her early friends had died, and she was +not the sort of person who can easily form new ties of intimate +friendship. She was very loyal to those who were still left, and, as +has been said, her interest in George Gerry, who was his father's +namesake and likeness, was a very great pleasure to her. Some persons +liked to whisper together now and then about the mysterious niece, who +was never mentioned otherwise. But though curiosity had led to a +partial knowledge of our heroine's not unfavorable aspect and +circumstances, nobody ever dared to give such information to the +person who should have been most interested. + +This was one of the standard long stories of Dunport with which old +residents liked to regale newcomers, and handsome Jack Prince was the +hero of a most edifying romance, being represented as a victim of the +Prince pride, as his sister had been before him. His life had been +ruined, and he had begged his wretched wife at the last to bring him +home to Dunport, alive or dead. The woman had treated Miss Prince with +shameful impudence and had disappeared afterward. The child had been +brought up with her own people, and it was understood that Miss +Prince's efforts to have any connection with them were all thwarted. +Lately it had become known that the girl's guardian was a very fine +man and was taking a great interest in her. But the reader will +imagine how this story grew and changed in different people's minds. +Some persons insisted that Miss Prince had declined to see her +brother's child, and others that it was denied her. It was often said +in these days that Nan must be free to do as she chose, but it was +more than likely that she had assumed the prejudices against her aunt +with which she must have become most familiar. + +As for Miss Prince herself, she had long ago become convinced that +there was nothing to be done in this matter. After one has followed a +certain course for some time, everything seems to persuade one that no +other is possible. Sometimes she feared that an excitement and danger +lurked in her future, but, after all, her days went by so calmly, and +nearer things seemed so much more important than this vague sorrow and +dread, that she went to and fro in the Dunport streets, and was +courteous and kind in her own house, and read a sensible book now and +then, and spent her time as benevolently and respectably as possible. +She was indeed an admirable member of society, who had suffered very +much in her youth, and those who knew her well could not be too glad +that her later years were passing far less unhappily than most +people's. + +In the days when her niece had lately finished her first winter at the +medical school, Miss Prince had just freed herself from the +responsibility of some slight repairs which the house had needed. She +had been in many ways much more occupied than usual, and had given +hardly a thought to more remote affairs. At last there had come an +evening when she felt at leisure, and happily Miss Fraley, one of her +earliest friends, had come to pay her a visit. The two ladies sat at +the front windows of the west parlor looking out upon the street, +while the hostess expressed her gratitude that the overturning of her +household affairs was at an end, and that she was all in order for +summer. They talked about the damage and discomfort inflicted by +masons, and the general havoc which follows a small piece of fallen +ceiling. Miss Prince, having made a final round of inspection just +after tea, had ascertained that the last of the white dimity curtains +and coverings were in their places upstairs in the bedrooms, and her +love of order was satisfied. She had complimented Priscilla, and made +her and the maids the customary spring present, and had returned to +her evening post of observation at the parlor window just as Miss +Fraley came in. She was not in the mood for receiving guests, being a +trifle tired, but Eunice Fraley was a mild little creature, with a +gentle, deprecatory manner which had always appealed to Miss Prince's +more chivalrous nature. Besides, she knew this to be a most true and +affectionate friend, who had also the gift of appearing when +everything was ready for her, as the bluebirds come, and the robins, +in the early days of spring. + +"I wish I could say that our house was all in order but one closet," +said the guest, in a more melancholy tone than usual. "I believe we +are more behind-hand than ever this year. You know we have Susan's +children with us for a fortnight while she goes away for a rest, and +they have been a good deal of care. I think mother is getting tired of +them now, though she was very eager to have a visit from them at +first. She said this morning that the little girl was worse than a +kitten in a fit, and she did hope that Susan wouldn't think it best to +pass another week away." + +Miss Prince laughed a little, and so did Miss Fraley after a moment's +hesitation. She seemed to be in a somewhat sentimental and +introspective mood as she looked out of the window in the May +twilight. + +"I so often feel as if I were not accomplishing anything," she said +sadly. "It came over me to-day that here I am, really an old woman, +and I am just about where I first started,--doing the same things over +and over and no better than ever. I haven't the gift of style; anybody +else might have done my work just as well, I am afraid; I am sure the +world would have got along just as well without me. Mother has been +so active, and has reached such a great age, that perhaps it hasn't +been much advantage to me. I have only learned to depend upon her +instead of myself. I begin to see that I should have amounted to a +great deal more if I had had a home of my own. I sometimes wish that I +were as free to go and come as you are, Nancy." + +But Miss Prince's thoughts were pleased to take a severely practical +turn: "I'm not in the least free," she answered cheerfully. "I believe +you need something to strengthen you, Eunice. I haven't seen you so +out of spirits for a great while. Free! why I'm tied to this house as +if I were the knocker on the front door; and I certainly have a great +deal of care. I put the utmost confidence in Priscilla, but those +nieces of hers would be going wherever they chose, from garret to +cellar, before I was ten miles away from Dunport. I have let the cook +go away for a week, and Phoebe and Priscilla are alone. Phoebe is a +good little creature; I only hope she won't be married within six +months, for I don't know when I have liked a young girl so well. +Priscilla was anxious I should take that black-eyed daughter of her +brother's, and was quite hurt because I refused." + +"I dare say you were right," acknowledged Miss Fraley, though she +could not exactly see the obstacles to her friend's freedom in such +strong light as was expected. + +"I know that it must be difficult for you sometimes," resumed the +hostess presently, in a more sympathetic tone. "Your mother naturally +finds it hard to give up the rule. We can't expect her to look at life +as younger persons do." + +"I don't expect it," said poor Miss Fraley appealingly, "and I am sure +I try to be considerate; but how would you like it, to be treated as +if you were sixteen instead of nearly sixty? I know it says in the +Bible that children should obey their parents, but there is no such +commandment, that I can see, to women who are old enough to be +grandmothers themselves. It does make me perfectly miserable to have +everything questioned and talked over that I do; but I know I ought +not to say such things. I suppose I shall lie awake half the night +grieving over it. You know I have the greatest respect for mother's +judgment; I'm sure I don't know what in the world I should do without +her." + +"You are too yielding, Eunice," said Miss Prince kindly. "You try to +please everybody, and that's your way of pleasing yourself; but, after +all, I believe we give everybody more satisfaction when we hold fast +to our own ideas of right and wrong. There have been a great many +friends who were more than willing to give me their advice in all +these years that I have been living alone; but I have always made up +my mind and gone straight ahead. I have no doubt I should be very +impatient now of much comment and talking over; and yet there are so +many times when I would give anything to see father or mother for a +little while. I haven't suffered from living alone as much as some +persons do, but I often feel very sad and lonely when I sit here and +think about the past. Dear me! here is Phoebe with the lights, and I +dare say it is just as well. I am going to ask you to go up stairs and +see the fresh paint, and how ship-shape we are at last, as father used +to say." + +Miss Fraley rose at once, with an expression of pleasure, and the two +friends made a leisurely tour of the old house which seemed all ready +for a large family, and though its owner apparently enjoyed her +freedom and dominion, it all looked deserted and empty to her guest. +They lingered together in the wide lower hall, and parted with unusual +affection. This was by no means the first hint that had been given of +a somewhat fettered and disappointing home life, though Miss Fraley +would have shuddered at the thought of any such report's being sent +abroad. + +"Send the children round to see me," said Miss Prince, by way of +parting benediction. "They can play in the garden an hour or two, and +it will be a change for them and for you;" which invitation was +gratefully accepted, though Miss Eunice smiled at the idea of their +needing a change, when they were sure to be on every wharf in town in +the course of the day, and already knew more people in Dunport than +she did. + +The next morning Miss Prince's sense of general well-being seemed to +have deserted her altogether. She was overshadowed by a fear of +impending disaster and felt strangely tired and dissatisfied. But she +did not believe in moping, and only assured herself that she must make +the day an easy one. So, being strong against tides, as some old poet +says of the whale, Miss Prince descended the stairs calmly, and +advised Priscilla to put off the special work that had been planned +until still later in the week. "You had better ask your sister to come +and spend the day with you and have a good, quiet visit," which +permission Priscilla received without comment, being a person of few +words; but she looked pleased, and while her mistress went down the +garden walk to breathe the fresh morning air, she concocted a small +omelet as an unexpected addition to the breakfast. Miss Prince was +very fond of an omelet, but Priscilla, in spite of all her good +qualities, was liable to occasional fits of offishness and depression, +and in those seasons kept her employer, in one way or another, on +short commons. + +The day began serenely. It was the morning for the Dunport weekly +paper, which Miss Prince sat down at once to read, making her +invariable reproachful remark that there was nothing in it, after +having devoted herself to this duty for an hour or more. Then she +mounted to the upper floor of her house to put away a blanket which +had been overlooked in the spring packing of the camphor-wood chests +which stood in a solemn row in the north corner of the garret. There +were three dormer windows in the front of the garret-roof, and one of +these had been a favorite abiding-place in her youth. She had played +with her prim Dutch dolls there in her childhood, and she could +remember spending hour after hour watching for her father's ship when +the family had begun to expect him home at the end of a long voyage. +She remembered with a smile how grieved she had been because once he +came into port late in the night and surprised them all early in the +morning, but he had made amends by taking her back with him when he +hurried on board again after a hasty greeting. Miss Prince lived that +morning over again as she stood there, old and gray and alone in the +world. She could see again the great weather-beaten and tar-darkened +ship, and even the wizened monkey which belonged to one of the +sailors. She lingered at her father's side admiringly, and felt the +tears come into her eyes once more when he gave her a taste of the +fiery contents of his tumbler. They were all in his cabin; old Captain +Dunn and Captain Denny and Captain Peterbeck were sitting round the +little table, also provided with tumblers, as they listened eagerly to +the story of the voyage. The sailors came now and then for orders; +Nancy thought her handsome father, with his bronzed cheeks and white +forehead and curly hair, was every inch a king. He was her hero, and +nothing could please her so much to the end of her days as to have +somebody announce, whether from actual knowledge or hearsay, that +Captain Jack Prince was the best shipmaster that ever sailed out of +Dunport.... She always was sure there were some presents stored away +for herself and young Jack, her brother, in one of the lockers of the +little cabin. Poor Jack! how he used to frighten her by climbing the +shrouds and waving his cap from almost inaccessible heights. Poor +Jack! and Miss Prince climbed the step to look down the harbor again, +as if the ship were more than thirty days out from Amsterdam, and +might be expected at any time if the voyage had been favorable. + +The house was at no great distance from the water side, though the +crowded buildings obscured the view from the lower stories. There was +nothing coming in from sea but a steam-tug, which did not harmonize +with these pleasant reminiscences, though as Miss Prince raised the +window a fine salt breeze entered, well warmed with the May sunshine. +It had the flavor of tar and the spirit of the high seas, and for a +wonder there could be heard the knocking of shipwrights' hammers, +which in old times were never silent in the town. As she sat there for +a few minutes in the window seat, there came to her other +recollections of her later girlhood, when she had stolen to this +corner for the sake of being alone with her pleasant thoughts, though +she had cried there many an hour after Jack's behavior had given them +the sorrow they hardly would own to each other. She remembered hearing +her father's angry voice down stairs. No! she would not think of that +again, why should she? and she shut the window and went back to be +sure that she had locked the camphor chest, and hung its key on the +flat-headed rusty nail overhead. Miss Prince heard some one open and +shut the front door as she went down, and in the small front room she +found Captain Walter Parish, who held a high place among her most +intimate friends. He was her cousin, and had become her general +adviser and counselor. He sometimes called himself laughingly the +ship's husband, for it was he who transacted most of Miss Prince's +important business, and selected her paint and shingles and her garden +seeds beside, and made and mended her pens. He liked to be useful and +agreeable, but he had not that satisfaction in his own home, for his +wife had been a most efficient person to begin with, and during his +absences at sea in early life had grown entirely self-reliant. The +captain joked about it merrily, but he nevertheless liked to feel that +he was still important, and Miss Prince generously told him, from time +to time, that she did not know how she should get on without him, and +considerately kept up the fiction of not wishing to take up his time +when he must be busy with his own affairs. + +"How are you this fine morning, Cousin Nancy?" said the captain +gallantly. "I called to say that Jerry Martin will be here to-morrow +without fail. It seems he thought you would send him word when you +wanted him next, and he has been working for himself. I don't think +the garden will suffer, we have had so much cold weather. And here is +a letter I took from the office." He handed it to Miss Prince with a +questioning look; he knew the handwriting of her few correspondents +almost as well as she, and this was a stranger's. + +"Perhaps it is a receipt for my subscription to the"--But Miss Prince +never finished the sentence, for when she had fairly taken the letter +into her hand, the very touch of it seemed to send a tinge of ashen +gray like some quick poison over her face. She stood still, looking at +it, then flushed crimson, and sat down in the nearest chair, as if it +were impossible to hold herself upright. The captain was uncertain +what he ought to do. + +"I hope you haven't heard bad news," he said presently, for Miss +Prince had leaned back in the arm-chair and covered her eyes with one +hand, while the letter was tightly held in the other. + +"It is from my niece," she answered, slowly. + +"You don't mean it's from Jack's daughter?" inquired the captain, not +without eagerness. He never had suspected such a thing; the only +explanation which had suggested itself to his mind was that Miss +Prince had been investing some of her money without his advice or +knowledge, and he had gone so far as to tell himself that it was just +like a woman, and quite good enough for her if she had lost it. "I +never thought of its being from her," he said, a little bewildered, +for the captain was not a man of quick wit; his powers of reflection +served him better. "Well, aren't you going to tell me what she has to +say for herself?" + +"She proposes to make me a visit," answered Miss Prince, trying to +smile as she handed him the little sheet of paper which she had +unconsciously crumpled together; but she did not give even one glance +at his face as he read it, though she thought it a distressingly long +time before he spoke. + +"I must say that this is a very good letter, very respectful and +lady-like," said the captain honestly, though he felt as if he had +been expected to condemn it, and proceeded to read it through again, +this time aloud:-- + + MY DEAR AUNT,--I cannot think it is right that we do not know + each other. I should like to go to Dunport for a day some time + next month; but if you do not wish to see me you have only to + tell me so, and I will not trouble you. + + Yours sincerely, + ANNA PRINCE. + +"A very good handwriting, too," the captain remarked, and then +gathered courage to say that he supposed Miss Prince would give her +niece the permission for which she asked. "I have been told that she +is a very fine girl," he ventured, as if he were poor Nan's +ambassador; and at this Miss Prince's patience gave way. + +"Yes, I shall ask her to come, but I do not wish anything said about +it; it need not be made the talk of the town." She answered her cousin +angrily, and then felt as if she had been unjust. "Do not mind me, +Walter," she said; "it has been a terrible grief and trouble to me all +these years. Perhaps if I had gone to see those people, and told them +all I felt, they would have pitied me, and not blamed me, and so +everything would have been better, but it is too late now. I don't +know what sort of a person my own niece is, and I wish that I need +never find out, but I shall try to do my duty." + +The captain was tender-hearted, and seemed quite unmanned, but he gave +his eyes a sudden stroke with his hand and turned to go away. "You +will command me, Nancy, if I can be of service to you?" he inquired, +and his cousin bowed her head in assent. It was, indeed, a dismal hour +of the family history. + +For some time Miss Prince did not move, except as she watched Captain +Parish cross the street and take his leisurely way along the uneven +pavement. She was almost tempted to call him back, and felt as if he +were the last friend she had in the world, and was leaving her +forever. But after she had allowed the worst of the miserable shock to +spend itself, she summoned the stern energy for which she was famous, +and going with slower steps than usual to the next room, she unlocked +the desk of the ponderous secretary and seated herself to write. +Before many minutes had passed the letter was folded, and sealed, and +addressed, and the next evening Nan was reading it at Oldfields. She +was grateful for being asked to come on the 5th of June to Dunport, +and to stay a few days if it were convenient, and yet her heart fell +because there was not a sign of welcome or affection in the stately +fashioning of the note. It had been hardly wise to expect it under the +circumstances, the girl assured herself later, and at any rate it was +kind in her aunt to answer her own short letter so soon. + + + + +XV + +HOSTESS AND GUEST + + +Nan had, indeed, resolved to take a most important step. She had +always dismissed the idea of having any communication with her aunt +most contemptuously when she had first understood their unhappy +position toward each other; but during the last year or two she had +been forced to look at the relationship from a wider point of view. +Dr. Leslie protested that he had always treated Miss Prince in a +perfectly fair and friendly manner, and that if she had chosen to show +no interest in her only niece, nobody was to blame but herself. But +Nan pleaded that her aunt was no longer young; that she might be +wishing that a reconciliation could be brought about; the very fact of +her having constantly sent the yearly allowance in spite of Mrs. +Thacher's and Dr. Leslie's unwillingness to receive it appealed to the +young girl, who was glad to believe that her aunt had, after all, more +interest in her than others cared to observe. She had no near +relatives except Miss Prince. There were some cousins of old Mrs. +Thacher's and their descendants settled in the vicinity of Oldfields; +but Nan clung more eagerly to this one closer tie of kindred than she +cared to confess even to her guardian. It was too late now for any +interference in Dr. Leslie's plans, or usurping of his affectionate +relationship; so, after he found that Nan's loyal heart was bent upon +making so kind a venture, he said one day, with a smile, that she had +better write a letter to her aunt, the immediate result of which we +already know. Nan had been studying too hard, and suffering not a +little from her long-continued city life, and though the doctor had +been making a most charming plan that later in the season they should +take a journey together to Canada, he said nothing about that, and +told himself with a sigh that this would be a more thorough change, +and even urged Nan to stay as long as she pleased in Dunport, if she +found her aunt's house pleasant and everything went well. For whether +Nan liked Miss Prince remained to be proved, though nobody in their +senses could doubt that Miss Prince would be proud of her niece. + +It was not until after Nan had fairly started that she began to feel +at all dismayed. Perhaps she had done a foolish thing after all; +Marilla had not approved the adventure, while at the last minute Nan +had become suspicious that the doctor had made another plan, though +she contented herself with the remembrance of perfect freedom to go +home whenever she chose. She told herself grimly that if her aunt died +she should be thankful that she had done this duty; yet when, after a +journey of several hours, she knew that Dunport was the next station, +her heart began to beat in a ridiculous manner. It was unlike any +experience that had ever come to her, and she felt strangely unequal +to the occasion. Long ago she had laughed at her early romances of her +grand Dunport belongings, but the memory of them lingered still, in +spite of this commonplace approach to their realities, and she looked +eagerly at the groups of people at the railway station with a great +hope and almost certainty that she should find her aunt waiting to +meet her. There was no such good fortune, which was a chill at the +outset to the somewhat tired young traveler, but she beckoned a driver +whom she had just ignored, and presently was shut into a somewhat +antiquated public carriage and on her way to Miss Prince's house. + +So this was Dunport, and in these very streets her father had played, +and here her mother had become deeper and deeper involved in the +suffering and tragedy which had clouded the end of her short life. It +seemed to the young stranger as if she must shrink away from the +curious glances that stray passers-by sent into the old carriage; and +that she was going to be made very conspicuous by the newly-awakened +interest in a sad story which surely could not have been forgotten. +Poor Nan! she sent a swift thought homeward to the doctor's house and +Mrs. Graham's; even to the deserted little place which had sheltered +her good old grandmother and herself in the first years she could +remember. And with strange irony came also a picture of the home of +one of her schoolmates,--where the father and mother and their +children lived together and loved each other. The tears started to her +eyes until some good angel whispered the kind "Come back soon, Nan +dear," with which Dr. Leslie had let her go away. + +The streets were narrow and roughly paved in the old provincial +seaport town; the houses looked a good deal alike as they stood close +to the street, though here and there the tops of some fruit trees +showed themselves over a high garden fence. And presently before a +broad-faced and gambrel-roofed house, the driver stopped his horses, +and now only the front door with its bull's-eyed top-lights and +shining knocker stood between Nan and her aunt. The coachman had given +a resounding summons at this somewhat formidable entrance before he +turned to open the carriage door, but Nan had already alighted, and +stepped quickly into the hall. Priscilla directed her with some +ceremony to the south parlor, and a prim figure turned away from one +of the windows that overlooked the garden, and came forward a few +steps. "I suppose this is Anna," the not very cordial voice began, and +faltered; and then Miss Prince led her niece toward the window she had +left, and without a thought of the reserve she had decided upon, +pushed one of the blinds wide open, and looked again at Nan's +appealing face, half eager herself, and half afraid. Then she fumbled +for a handkerchief, and betook herself to the end of the sofa and +began to cry: "You are so like my mother and Jack," she said. "I did +not think I should be so glad to see you." + +The driver had deposited Nan's box, and now appeared at the door of +the parlor with Priscilla (who had quite lost her wits with +excitement) looking over his shoulder. Nan sprang forward, glad of +something to do in the midst of her vague discomfort, and at this +sight the hostess recovered herself, and, commanding Priscilla to show +Miss Prince to her room, assumed the direction of business affairs. + +The best bedroom was very pleasant, though somewhat stiff and unused, +and Nan was glad to close its door and find herself in such a +comfortable haven of rest and refuge from the teasing details of that +strange day. The wind had gone to the eastward, and the salt odor was +most delightful to her. A vast inheritance of memories and +associations was dimly brought to mind by that breath of the sea and +freshness of the June day by the harbor side. Her heart leaped at the +thought of the neighborhood of the wharves and shipping, and as she +looked out at the ancient street, she told herself with a sense of +great fun that if she had been a boy she would inevitably have been a +surgeon in the navy. So this was the aunt whom Nan had thought about +and dreamed about by day and by night, whose acquaintance had always +been a waiting pleasure, and the mere fact of whose existence had +always given her niece something to look forward to. She had not known +until this moment what a reserved pleasure this meeting had been, and +now it was over with. Miss Prince was so much like other people, +though why she should not have been it would be difficult to suggest, +and Nan's taste had been so educated and instructed by her Oldfields' +advantages, not to speak of her later social experiences, that she +felt at once that her aunt's world was smaller than her own. There was +something very lovable about Miss Prince, in spite of the constraint +of her greeting, and for the first time Nan understood that her aunt +also had dreaded the meeting. Presently she came to the door, and this +time kissed Nan affectionately. "I don't know what to say to you, I am +sure," she told the girl, "only I am thankful to have you here. You +must understand that it is a great event to me;" at which Nan laughed +and spoke some cheerful words. Miss Prince seated herself by the other +front window, and looked at her young guest with ever-growing +satisfaction. This was no copy of that insolent, ill-bred young woman +who had so beguiled and ruined poor Jack; she was a little lady, who +did honor to the good name of the Princes and Lesters,--a niece whom +anybody might be proud to claim, and whom Miss Prince could cordially +entreat to make herself quite at home, for she had only been too long +in coming to her own. And presently, when tea was served, the careful +ordering of it, which had been meant partly to mock and astonish the +girl who could not have been used to such ways of living, seemed only +a fitting entertainment for so distinguished a guest. "Blood will +tell," murmured Miss Prince to herself as she clinked the teacups and +looked at the welcome face the other side of the table. But when they +talked together in the evening, it was made certain that Nan was +neither ashamed of her mother's people nor afraid to say gravely to +Miss Prince that she did not know how much injustice was done to +grandmother Thacher, if she believed she were right in making a +certain statement. Aunt Nancy smiled, and accepted her rebuff without +any show of disapproval, and was glad that the next day was Sunday, +so that she could take Nan to church for the admiration of all +observers. She was even sorry that she had not told young Gerry to +come and pay an evening visit to her niece, and spoke of him once or +twice. Her niece observed a slight self-consciousness at such times, +and wondered a little who Mr. George Gerry might be. + +Nan thought of many things before she fell asleep that night. Her +ideas of her father had always been vague, and she had somehow +associated him with Dr. Leslie, who had shown her all the fatherliness +she had ever known. As for the young man who had died so long ago, if +she had said that he seemed to her like a younger brother of Dr. +Leslie, it would have been nearest the truth, in spite of the details +of the short and disappointed life which had come to her ears. Dr. +Ferris had told her almost all she knew of him, but now that she was +in her own father's old home, among the very same sights he had known +best, he suddenly appeared to her in a vision, as one might say, and +invested himself in a cloud of attractive romance. His daughter felt a +sudden blaze of delight at this first real consciousness of her +kinship. Miss Prince had shown her brother's portrait early in the +evening, and had even taken the trouble to light a candle and hold it +high, so that Nan could see the handsome, boyish face, in which she +recognized quickly the likeness to her own. "He was only thirteen +then," said Miss Prince, "but he looks several years older. We all +thought that the artist had made a great mistake when it was painted, +but poor Jack grew to look like it. Yes, you are wonderfully like +him," and she held the light near Nan's face and studied it again as +she had just studied the picture. Nan's eyes filled with tears as she +looked up at her father's face. The other portraits in the room were +all of older people, her grandfather and grandmother and two or three +ancestors, and Miss Prince repeated proudly some anecdotes of the most +distinguished. "I suppose you never heard of them," she added sadly at +the close, but Nan made no answer; it was certainly no fault of her +own that she was ignorant of many things, and she would not confess +that during the last few years she had found out everything that was +possible about her father's people. She was so thankful to have grown +up in Oldfields that she could not find it in her heart to rail at the +fate that had kept her away from Dunport; but the years of silence +had been very unlovely in her aunt. + +She wondered, before she went to sleep that night, where her father's +room had been, and thought she would ask Miss Prince in the morning. +The windows were open, and the June air blew softly in, and sometimes +swayed the curtains of the bed. There was a scent of the sea and of +roses, and presently up the quiet street came the sound of footsteps +and young voices. Nan said to herself that some party had been late in +breaking up, and felt her heart thrill with sympathy. She had been +dwelling altogether in the past that evening, and she liked to hear +the revelers go by. But as they came under the windows she heard one +say, "I should be afraid of ghosts in that best room of Miss +Prince's," and then they suddenly became quiet, as if they had seen +that the windows were open, and Nan first felt like a stranger, but +next as if this were all part of the evening's strange experiences, +and as if these might be her father's young companions, and she must +call to them as they went by. + + +The next morning both the hostess and her guest waked early, and were +eager for the time when they should see each other again. The beauty +and quiet of the Sunday morning were very pleasant, and Nan stood for +some minutes at the dining-room windows, looking out on the small +paved courtyard, and the flowers and green leaves beyond the garden +gate. Miss Prince's was one of the fine old houses which kept its +garden behind it, well-defended from the street, for the family's own +pleasure. + +"Those are the same old bushes and trees which we used to play among; +I have hardly changed it at all," said Miss Prince, as she came in. It +must be confessed that she had lost the feeling of patroness with +which she had approached her acquaintance with Nan. She was proud and +grateful now, and as she saw the girl in her pretty white dress, and +found her as simple and affectionate and eager to please as she had +thought her the night before, she owned to herself that she had not +looked for such happiness to fall into her life. And there was +something about the younger Anna Prince which others had quickly +recognized; a power of direction and of command. There are some +natures like the Prussian blue on a painter's palette, which rules all +the other colors it is mixed with; natures which quickly make +themselves felt in small or great companies. + +Nan discovered her father's silver mug beside her plate, and was fired +with a fiercer resentment than she had expected to feel again, at the +sight of it. The thought of her childhood in good grandmother +Thacher's farm-house came quickly to her mind, with the plain living, +to her share of which she had been made a thousand times welcome; +while by this richer house, of which she was also heir, such rightful +trinkets and treasures had been withheld. But at the next minute she +could meet Miss Prince's observant eyes without displeasure, and +wisely remembered that she herself had not been responsible for the +state of affairs, and that possibly her aunt had been as wronged and +insulted and beaten back as she complained. So she pushed the +newly-brightened cup aside with an almost careless hand, as a sort of +compromise with revenge, and Miss Prince at once caught sight of it. +"Dear me," she said, not without confusion, "Priscilla must have +thought you would be pleased," and then faltered, "I wish with all my +heart you had always had it for your own, my dear." And this was a +great deal for Miss Prince to say, as any of her acquaintances could +have told her nearest relative, who sat, almost a stranger, at the +breakfast-table. + +The elder woman felt a little light-headed and unfamiliar to herself +as she went up the stairway to get ready for church. It seemed as if +she had entered upon a new stage of existence, since for so many years +she had resented the existence of her brother's child, and had kept up +an imaginary war, in which she ardently fought for her own rights. She +had brought forward reason after reason why she must maintain her +position as representative of a respected family who had been shamed +and disgraced and insulted by her brother's wife. Now all aggressors +of her peace, real and imaginary, were routed by the appearance of +this young girl upon the field of battle, which she traversed with +most innocent and fearless footsteps, looking smilingly into her +aunt's face, and behaving almost as if neither of them had been +concerned in the family unhappiness. Beside, Nan had already added a +new interest to Miss Prince's life, and as this defeated warrior took +a best dress from the closet without any of the usual reflection upon +so important a step, she felt a great consciousness of having been +added to and enriched, as the person might who had suddenly fallen +heir to an unexpected property. From this first day she separated +herself as much as possible from any thought of guilt or complicity in +the long estrangement. She seemed to become used to her niece's +presence, and with the new relationship's growth there faded away the +thought of the past times. If any one dared to hint that it was a pity +this visit had been so long delayed, Miss Prince grandly ignored all +personality. + +Priscilla had come to the guest's room on some undeclared errand, for +it had already been put in order, and she viewed with pleasure the +simple arrangements for dressing which were in one place and another +about the room. Priscilla had scorned the idea of putting this visitor +into the best bedroom, and had had secret expectations that Miss +Prince's niece would feel more at home with her than with her +mistress. But Miss Anna was as much of a lady as Miss Prince, which +was both pleasing and disappointing, as Priscilla hoped to solace some +disrespectful feelings of her own heart by taking down Miss Nancy's +pride. However, her loyalty to the house was greater than her own very +small grudges, and as she pretended to have some difficulty with the +fastening of the blind, she said in a whisper, "Y'r aunt'll like to +have you make yourself look pretty," which was such a reminder of +Marilla's affectionate worldliness that Nan had to laugh aloud. "I'm +afraid I haven't anything grand enough," she told the departing +housekeeper, whose pleasure it was not hard to discern. + +It was with a very gratified mind that Miss Prince walked down the +street with her niece and bowed to one and another of her +acquaintances. She was entirely careless of what any one should say, +but she was brimful of excitement, and answered several of Nan's +questions entirely wrong. The old town was very pleasant that Sunday +morning. The lilacs were in full bloom, and other early summer flowers +in the narrow strips of front-yards or the high-fenced gardens were +in blossom too, and the air was full of sweetness and delight. The +ancient seaport had gathered for itself quaint names and treasures; it +was pleased with its old fashions and noble memories; its ancient +bells had not lost their sweet voices, and a flavor of the past +pervaded everything. The comfortable houses, the elderly citizens, the +very names on the shop signs, and the worn cobblestones of the streets +and flagstones of the pavements, delighted the young stranger, who +felt so unreasonably at home in Dunport. The many faces that had been +colored and fashioned by the sea were strangely different from those +which had known an inland life only, and she seemed to have come a +great deal nearer to foreign life and to the last century. Her heart +softened as she wondered if her father knew that she was following his +boyish footsteps, for the first time in her life, on that Sunday +morning. She would have liked to wander away by herself and find her +way about the town, but such a proposal was not to be thought of, and +all at once Miss Nancy turned up a narrow side street toward a +high-walled brick church, and presently they walked side by side up +the broad aisle so far that it seemed to Nan as if her aunt were +aiming for the chancel itself, and had some public ceremony in view, +of a penitential nature. They were by no means early, and the girl was +disagreeably aware of a little rustle of eagerness and curiosity as +she took her seat, and was glad to have fairly gained the shelter of +the high-backed pew as she bent her head. But Miss Prince the senior +seemed calm; she said her prayer, settled herself as usual, putting +the footstool in its right place and finding the psalms and the +collect. She then laid the prayer-book on the cushion beside her and +folded her hands in her lap, before she turned discreetly to say +good-morning to Miss Fraley, and exchange greetings until the +clergyman made his appearance. Nan had taken the seat next the pew +door, and was looking about her with great interest, forgetting +herself and her aunt as she wondered that so dear and quaint a place +of worship should be still left in her iconoclastic native country. +She had seen nothing even in Boston like this, there were so many +antique splendors about the chancel, and many mural tablets on the +walls, where she read with sudden delight her own family name and the +list of virtues which had belonged to some of her ancestors. The dear +old place! there never had been and never could be any church like +it; it seemed to have been waiting all her life for her to come to say +her prayers where so many of her own people had brought their sins and +sorrows in the long years that were gone. She only wished that the +doctor were with her, and the same feeling that used to make her watch +for him in her childhood until he smiled back again filled all her +loving and grateful heart. She knew that he must be thinking of her +that morning; he was not in church himself, he had planned a long +drive to the next town but one, to see a dying man, who seemed to be +helped only by this beloved physician's presence. There had been some +talk between Dr. Leslie and Nan about a medicine which might possibly +be of use, and she found herself thinking about that again and again. +She had reminded the doctor of it and he had seemed very pleased. It +must be longer ago than yesterday since she left Oldfields, it already +counted for half a lifetime. + +One listener at least was not resentful because the sermon was neither +wise nor great, for she had so many things to think of; but while she +was sometimes lost in her own thoughts, Nan stole a look at the thinly +filled galleries now and then, and at one time was pleased with the +sight of the red-cheeked cherubs which seemed to have been caught like +clumsy insects and pinned as a sort of tawdry decoration above the +tablets where the Apostle's Creed and the Ten Commandments were +printed in faded gilt letters. The letter s was made long in these +copies and the capitals were of an almost forgotten pattern, and after +Nan had discovered her grandfather's name in the prayer-book she held, +and had tried again to listen to the discourse, she smiled at the +discovery of a familiar face in one of the wall pews. It somehow gave +her a feeling of security as being a link with her past experiences, +and she looked eagerly again and again until this old acquaintance, +who also was a stranger and a guest in Dunport, happened to direct a +careless glance toward her, and a somewhat dull and gloomy expression +was changed for surprised and curious recognition. When church was +over at last Miss Prince seemed to have a great deal to say to her +neighbor in the next pew, and Nan stood in her place waiting until her +aunt was ready. More than one person had lingered to make sure of a +distinct impression of the interesting stranger who had made one of +the morning congregation, and Nan smiled suddenly as she thought that +it might seem proper that she and her aunt should walk down the aisle +together as if they had been married, or as if the ceremony were +finished which she had anticipated as they came in. And Miss Prince +did make an admirable exit from the church, mustering all her +self-possession and taking stately steps at her niece's side, while +she sometimes politely greeted her acquaintances. There were +flickering spots of color in her cheeks when they were again in the +sun-shiny street. + +"It is really the first day this summer when I have needed my +parasol," said Aunt Nancy, as she unfurled the carefully preserved +article of her wardrobe and held it primly aloft. "I am so sorry that +our rector was absent this morning. I suppose that you have attended +an Episcopal church sometimes; I am glad that you seem to be familiar +with the service;" to which Nancy replied that she had been confirmed +while she was first at boarding-school, and this seemed to give her +aunt great satisfaction. "Very natural and proper, my dear," she said. +"It is one thing I have always wished when I thought of you at serious +moments. But I was persuaded that you were far from such influences, +and that there would be nothing in your surroundings to encourage your +inherited love of the church." + +"I have always liked it best," said Nan, who seemed all at once to +grow taller. "But I think one should care more about being a good +woman than a good Episcopalian, Aunt Nancy." + +"No doubt," said the elder woman, a little confused and dismayed, +though she presently rallied her forces and justly observed that the +rules of the church were a means to the end of good living, and +happily, before any existing differences of opinion could be +discovered, they were interrupted by a pleasant-faced young man, who +lifted his hat and gracefully accepted his introduction to the younger +Miss Prince. + +"This is Mr. George Gerry, Anna, one of my young friends," smiled Aunt +Nancy, and saying, as she walked more slowly, "You must come to see +us soon, for I shall have to depend upon the younger people to make my +niece's stay agreeable." + +"I was looking forward to my Sunday evening visit," the wayfarer said +hesitatingly; "you have not told me yet that I must not come;" which +appeal was only answered by a little laugh from all three, as they +separated. And Miss Prince had time to be quite eloquent in her +favorite's praise before they reached home. Nan thought her first +Dunport acquaintance very pleasant, and frankly said so. This seemed +to be very gratifying to her aunt, and they walked toward home +together by a roundabout way and in excellent spirits. It seemed more +and more absurd to Nan that the long feud and almost tragic state of +family affairs should have come to so prosaic a conclusion, and that +she who had been the skeleton of her aunt's ancestral closet should +have dared to emerge and to walk by her side through the town. After +all, here was another proof of the wisdom of the old Spanish proverb, +that it takes two to make a quarrel, but only one to end it. + + + + +XVI + +A JUNE SUNDAY + + +It was Miss Prince's custom to indulge herself by taking a long Sunday +afternoon nap in summer, though on this occasion she spoke of it to +her niece as only a short rest. She was glad to gain the shelter of +her own room, and as she brushed a little dust from her handsome silk +gown before putting it away she held it at arm's length and shook it +almost indignantly. Then she hesitated a moment and looked around the +comfortable apartment with a fierce disdain. "I wonder what gives me +such a sense of importance," she whispered. "I have been making +mistakes my whole life long, and giving excuses to myself for not +doing my duty. I wish I had made her a proper allowance, to say the +least. Everybody must be laughing at me!" and Miss Prince actually +stamped her foot. It had been difficult to keep up an appearance of +self-respect, but her pride had helped her in that laudable effort, +and as she lay down on the couch she tried to satisfy herself with the +assurance that her niece should have her rights now, and be treated +justly at last. + +Miss Fraley had come in to pay a brief visit on her way to +Sunday-school just as they finished dinner, and had asked Nan to tea +the following Wednesday, expressing also a hope that she would come +sooner to call, quite without ceremony. Finding the state of affairs +so pleasant, Miss Eunice ventured to say that Nan's father had been a +favorite of her mother, who was now of uncommon age. Miss Prince +became suddenly stern, but it was only a passing cloud, which +disturbed nobody. + +Nan had accepted willingly the offered apologies and gayly wished her +aunt a pleasant dream, but being wide awake she gladly made use of the +quiet time to send a letter home, and to stroll down the garden +afterward. It all seemed so unlike what she had expected, yet her +former thoughts about her aunt were much more difficult to recall as +every hour went by and made the impression of actual things more +distinct. Her fancied duty to a lonely old lady who mourned over a sad +past seemed quite quixotic when she watched this brisk woman come and +go without any hindrance of age, or, now that the first meeting was +over, any appearance of former melancholy. As our friend went down the +garden she told herself that she was glad to have come; it was quite +right, and it was very pleasant, though there was no particular use in +staying there long, and after a few days she would go away. Somehow +her life seemed a great deal larger for this new experience, and she +would try to repeat the visit occasionally. She wished to get Dunport +itself by heart, but she had become so used to giving the best of +herself to her studies, that she was a little shy of the visiting and +the tea-parties and the apparently fruitless society life of which she +had already learned something. "I suppose the doctor would say it is +good for me," said Nan, somewhat grimly, "but I think it is most +satisfactory to be with the persons whose interests and purposes are +the same as one's own." The feeling of a lack of connection with the +people whom she had met made life appear somewhat blank. She had +already gained a certain degree of affection for her aunt; to say the +least she was puzzled to account for such an implacable hostility as +had lasted for years in the breast of a person so apparently friendly +and cordial in her relations with her neighbors. Our heroine was slow +to recognize in her relative the same strength of will and of +determination which made the framework of her own character,--an +iron-like firmness of structure which could not be easily shaken by +the changes or opinions of other people. Miss Prince's acquaintances +called her a very set person, and were shy of intruding into her +secret fastnesses. There were all the traits of character which are +necessary for the groundwork of an enterprising life, but Miss Prince +seemed to have neither inherited nor acquired any high aims or any +especial and fruitful single-heartedness, so her gifts of persistence +and self-confidence had ranked themselves for the defense of a +comparatively unimportant and commonplace existence. As has been said, +she forbade, years before, any mention of her family troubles, and had +lived on before the world as if they could be annihilated, and not +only were not observable, but never had been. In a more thoughtful and +active circle of social life the contrast between her rare capacity +and her unnoticeable career would have been more striking. She stood +as a fine representative of the old school, but it could not be justly +said that she was a forward scholar, since, however sure of some of +her early lessons, she was most dull and reluctant before new ones of +various enlightening and uplifting descriptions. + +Nan had observed that her aunt had looked very tired and spent as she +went up-stairs after dinner, and understood better than she had before +that this visit was moving the waters of Miss Prince's soul more +deeply than had been suspected. She gained a new sympathy, and as the +hours of the summer afternoon went by she thought of a great many +things which had not been quite plain to her, and strolled about the +garden until she knew that by heart, and had made friends with the +disorderly company of ladies-delights and periwinkles which had +cropped up everywhere, as if the earth were capable of turning itself +into such small blossoms without anybody's help, after so many years +of unvarying tuition. The cherry-trees and pear-trees had a most +venerable look, and the plum-trees were in dismal mourning of black +knots. There was a damp and shady corner where Nan found a great many +lilies of the valley still lingering, though they had some time ago +gone out of bloom in the more sunshiny garden at Oldfields. She +remembered that there were no flowers in the house and gathered a +great handful at last of one sort and another to carry in. + +The dining-room was very dark, and Nan wished at first to throw open +the blinds which had been carefully closed. It seemed too early in the +summer to shut out the sunshine, but it seemed also a little too soon +to interfere with the housekeeping, and so she brought two or three +tall champagne glasses from a high shelf of the closet and filled them +with her posies, and after putting them in their places, went back to +the garden. There was a perfect silence in the house, except for the +sound of the tall clock in the dining-room, and it seemed very lonely. +She had taken another long look at her father's portrait, but as she +shut the rusty-hinged garden gate after her, she smiled at the thought +of her unusual idleness, and wondered if it need last until Tuesday, +which was the day she had fixed upon for her departure. Nan wished +that she dared to go away for a long walk; it was a pity she had not +told her aunt of a wish to see something of the town and of the +harbor-side that afternoon, but it would certainly be a little strange +if she were to disappear, and very likely the long nap would soon come +to an end. Being well taught in the details of gardening, she took a +knife from her pocket and pruned and trained the shrubs and vines, and +sang softly to herself as she thought about her next winter's study +and her plans for the rest of the summer, and also decided that she +would insist upon the doctor's going away with her for a journey when +she reached home again. + +After a little while she heard her aunt open the blinds of the garden +door and call her in most friendly tones, and when she reached the +house Miss Prince was in the south parlor entertaining a +visitor,--Captain Walter Parish, who had gladly availed himself of +some trifling excuse of a business nature, which involved the signing +and sending of a paper by the early post of next day. He was going to +his daughter's to tea, and it was quite a long drive to her house, so +he had not dared to put off his errand, he explained, lest he should +be detained in the evening. But he had been also longing to take a +look at Miss Prince's guest. His wife went to another church and he +dutifully accompanied her, though he had been brought up with Miss +Prince at old St. Ann's. + +"So this is my young cousin?" said the captain gallantly, and with +great simplicity and tenderness held both Nan's hands and looked full +in her face a moment before he kissed her; then to Miss Prince's great +discomposure and embarrassment he turned to the window and looked out +without saying a word, though he drew the back of his hand across his +eyes in sailor-fashion, as if he wished to make them clear while he +sighted something on the horizon. Miss Prince thought it was all +nonsense and would have liked to say so, though she trusted that her +silence was eloquent enough. + +"She brings back the past," said Captain Walter as he returned +presently and seated himself where he could look at Nan as much as he +liked. "She brings back the past." + +"You were speaking of old Captain Slater," reminded Miss Prince with +some dignity. + +"I just came from there," said Captain Parish, with his eyes still +fixed on his young relative, though it was with such a friendly gaze +that Nan was growing fonder of him every minute. "They told me he was +about the same as yesterday. I offered to watch with him to-morrow +night. And how do you like the looks of Dunport, my dear?" + +Nan answered eagerly with brightening face, and added that she was +longing to see more of it; the old wharves especially. + +"Now that's good," said the captain; "I wonder if you would care +anything about taking a stroll with me in the morning. Your aunt here +is a famous housekeeper, and will be glad to get you off her hands, I +dare say." + +Nan eagerly accepted, and though it was suggested that Miss Prince had +a plan for showing the town in the afternoon, she was promptly told +that there was nothing easier than taking both these pleasant +opportunities. "You would lose yourself among the old storehouses, I'm +sure, Nancy," laughed the old sailor, "and you must let me have my +way. It's a chance one doesn't get every day, to tell the old Dunport +stories to a new listener." + +Some one had opened the front door, and was heard coming along the +hall. "This is very kind, George," said Miss Prince, with much +pleasure, while the captain looked a little disconcerted at his young +rival; he assured himself that he would make a long morning's cruise +of it, next day, with this attractive sightseer, and for once the +young beaux would be at a disadvantage; the girls of his own day used +to think him one of the best of their gallants, and at this thought +the captain was invincible. Mr. Gerry must take the second chance. + +The blinds were open now, and the old room seemed very pleasant. Nan's +brown hair had been blown about not a little in the garden, and as she +sat at the end of the long, brass-nailed sofa, a ray of sunshine +touched the glass of a picture behind her and flew forward again to +tangle itself in her stray locks, so that altogether there was a sort +of golden halo about her pretty head. And young Gerry thought he had +never seen anything so charming. The white frock was a welcome +addition to the usually sombre room, and his eyes quickly saw the +flowers on the table. He knew instantly that the bouquet was none of +Miss Prince's gathering. + +"I hope you won't think I mean to stay as much too late as I have come +too early," he laughed. "I must go away soon after tea, for I have +promised to talk with the captain of a schooner which is to sail in +the morning. Mr. Wills luckily found out that he could give some +evidence in a case we are working up." + +"The collision?" asked Captain Parish, eagerly. "I was wondering +to-day when I saw the Highflyer's foremast between the buildings on +Fleet Street as I went to meeting, if they were going to let her lie +there and dry-rot. I don't think she's being taken proper care of. I +must say I hate to see a good vessel go to ruin when there's no need +of it." + +"The man in charge was recommended very highly, and everything seemed +to be all right when I was on board one day this week," said young +Gerry, good-naturedly, and turned to explain to Nan that this vessel +had been damaged by collision with another, and the process of +settling the matter by litigation had been provokingly slow. + +The captain listened with impatience. "I dare say she looked very well +to your eyes, but I'd rather have an old ship-master's word for it +than a young lawyer's. I haven't boarded her for some weeks; I dare +say 'twas before the snow was gone; but she certainly needed attention +then. I saw some bad-looking places in the sheathing and planking. +There ought to be a coat of paint soon, and plenty of tar carried +aloft besides, or there'll be a long bill for somebody to pay before +she's seaworthy." + +"I wish you would make a careful inspection of her," said the young +man, with gratifying deference. "I don't doubt that it is necessary; I +will see that you are well satisfied for your services. Of course the +captain himself should have stayed there and kept charge, but you +remember he was sick and had to resign. He looks feeble yet. I hope +nothing will happen to him before the matter is settled up, but we are +sure of the trial in September." + +"She's going to be rigged with some of your red tape, I'm afraid," +said Captain Parish, with great friendliness. "I don't see any reason +why I can't look her over to-morrow morning, I'm obliged to you, or at +least make a beginning," and he gave a most knowing nod at Nan, as if +they would divide the pleasure. "I'll make the excuse of showing this +young lady the construction of a good-sized merchant vessel, and then +the keeper can't feel affronted. She is going to take a stroll with me +along the wharves," he concluded triumphantly. While Mr. Gerry looked +wistful for a moment, and Miss Prince quickly took advantage of a +pause in the conversation to ask if he knew whether anything pleasant +was going forward among the young people this week. She did not wish +her niece to have too dull a visit. + +"Some of us are going up the river very soon," said the young man, +with eager pleasure, looking at Nan. "It would be so pleasant if Miss +Prince would join us. We think our Dunport supper parties of that sort +would be hard to match." + +"The young folks will all be flocking here by to-morrow," said the +captain; and Miss Prince answered "Surely," in a tone of command, +rather than entreaty. She knew very well how the news of Nan's coming +must be flying about the town, and she almost regretted the fact of +her own previous silence about this great event. In the mean time Nan +was talking to the two gentlemen as if she had already been to her +room to smooth her hair, which her aunt looked at reproachfully from +time to time, though the sunshine had not wholly left it. The girl was +quite unconscious of herself, and glad to have the company and +sympathy of these kind friends. She thought once that if she had a +brother she would like him to be of young Mr. Gerry's fashion. He had +none of the manner which constantly insisted upon her remembering that +he was a man and she a girl; she could be good friends with him in the +same way that she had been with some Oldfields schoolfellows, and +after the captain had reluctantly taken his leave, they had a pleasant +talk about out-of-door life and their rides and walks, and were soon +exchanging experiences in a way that Miss Nancy smiled upon gladly. It +was not to be wondered at that she could not get used to so great a +change in her life. She could not feel sure yet that she no longer had +a secret, and that this was the niece whom she had so many years +dreaded and disclaimed. George Gerry had taken the niece's place in +her affections, yet here was Anna, her own namesake, who showed +plainly in so many ways the same descent as herself, being as much a +Prince as herself in spite of her mother's low origin and worse +personal traits, and the loutish companions to whom she had always +persuaded herself poor Nan was akin. And it was by no means sure that +the last of the Princes was not the best of them; she was very proud +of her brother's daughter, and was more at a loss to know how to make +excuses for being shortsighted and neglectful. Miss Prince hated to +think that Nan had any but the pleasantest associations with her +nearest relative; she must surely keep the girl's affection now. She +meant to insist at any rate upon Dunport's being her niece's home for +the future, though undoubtedly it would be hard at first to break with +the many associations of Oldfields. She must write that very night to +Dr. Leslie to thank him for his care, and to again express her regret +that Anna's misguided young mother should have placed such +restrictions upon the child's relations with her nearest of kin, and +so have broken the natural ties of nature. And she would not stop +there; she would blame herself generously and say how sorry she was +that she had been governed by her painful recollections of a time she +should now strive to forget. Dr. Leslie must be asked to come and join +his ward for a few days, and then they would settle her plans for the +future. She should give her niece a handsome allowance at any rate, +and then, as Miss Prince looked across the room and forgot her own +thoughts in listening to the young people's friendly talk, a sudden +purpose flashed through her mind. The dream of her heart began to +unfold itself slowly: could anything be so suitable, so comforting to +her own mind, as that they should marry each other? + +Two days before, her pleasure and pride in the manly fellow, who was +almost as dear to her as an own son could be, would have been greatly +shocked, but Miss Prince's heart began to beat quickly. It would be +such a blessed solution of all the puzzles and troubles of her life if +she could have both the young people near her through the years that +remained, and when she died, or even before, they could live here in +the old house, and begin a new and better order of things in the place +of her own failures and shortcomings. It was all so distinct and +possible in Miss Prince's mind that only time seemed necessary, and +even the time could be made short. She would not put any hindrances +between them and their blessed decision. As she went by them to seek +Priscilla, she smoothed the cushion which Nan had leaned upon before +she moved a little nearer George Gerry in some sudden excitement of +the conversation, which had begun while the captain was still there, +and there was a needless distance between them. Then Miss Prince let +her hand rest for a minute on the girl's soft hair. "You must ask Mr. +Gerry to excuse you for a few minutes, my dear, you have been quite +blown about in the garden. I meant to join you there." + +"It is a dear old garden," said Nan. "I can't help being almost as +fond of it already as I am of ours at home;" but though Aunt Nancy's +unwonted caress had been so unlike her conduct in general, this +reference to Oldfields called her to her senses, and she went quickly +away. She did not like to hear Nan speak in such loving fashion of a +house where she had no real right. + +But when Mr. George Gerry was left alone, he had pleasant thoughts +come flocking in to keep him company in the ladies' stead. He had not +dreamed of such a pleasure as this; who could have? and what could +Aunt Nancy think of herself! + +"It is such a holiday," said Nan, when tea was fairly begun, and her +new friend was acknowledging an uncommon attack of hunger, and they +were all merry in a sedate way to suit Miss Prince's ideas and +preferences. "I have been quite the drudge this winter over my +studies, and I feel young and idle again, now that I am making all +these pleasant plans." For Mr. Gerry had been talking enthusiastically +about some excursions he should arrange to certain charming places in +the region of Dunport. Both he and Miss Prince smiled when Nan +announced that she was young and idle, and a moment afterward the aunt +asked doubtfully about her niece's studies; she supposed that Anna was +done with schools. + +Nan stopped her hand as it reached for the cup which Miss Prince had +just filled. "School; yes," she answered, somewhat bewildered; "but +you know I am studying medicine." This most important of all facts had +been so present to her own mind, even in the excitement and novelty of +her new surroundings, that she could not understand that her aunt was +still entirely ignorant of the great purpose of her life. + +"What do you mean?" demanded Miss Prince, coldly, and quickly +explained to their somewhat amused and astonished companion, "My niece +has been the ward of a distinguished physician, and it is quite +natural she should have become interested in his pursuits." + +"But I am really studying medicine; it is to be my profession," +persisted Nan fearlessly, though she was sorry that she had spoiled +the harmony of the little company. "And my whole heart is in it, Aunt +Nancy." + +"Nonsense, my dear," returned Miss Prince, who had recovered her +self-possession partially. "Your father gave promise of attaining +great eminence in a profession that was very proper for him, but I +thought better of Dr. Leslie than this. I cannot understand his +indulgence of such a silly notion." + +George Gerry felt very uncomfortable. He had been a good deal shocked, +but he had a strong impulse to rush into the field as Nan's champion, +though it were quite against his conscience. She had been too long in +a humdrum country-town with no companion but an elderly medical man. +And after a little pause he made a trifling joke about their making +the best of the holiday, and the talk was changed to other subjects. +The tide was strong against our heroine, but she had been assailed +before, and had no idea of sorrowing yet over a lost cause. And for +once Miss Prince was in a hurry for Mr. Gerry to go away. + + + + +XVII + +BY THE RIVER + + +As Nan went down the street next morning with Captain Parish, who had +been most prompt in keeping his appointment, they were met by Mr. +Gerry and a young girl who proved to be Captain Parish's niece and the +bearer of a cordial invitation. It would be just the evening for a +boat-party, and it was hoped that Miss Prince the younger would be +ready to go up the river at half-past five. + +"Dear me, yes," said the captain; "your aunt will be pleased to have +you go, I'm sure. These idle young folks mustn't expect us to turn +back now, though, to have a visit from you. We have no end of business +on hand." + +"If Miss Prince will remember that I was really on my way to see her," +said Mary Parish pleasantly, while she looked with eager interest at +the stranger. The two girls were quite ready to be friends. "We will +just stop to tell your aunt, lest she should make some other plan for +you," she added, giving Nan a nod that was almost affectionate. "We +have hardly used the boats this year, it has been such a cold, late +spring, and we hope for a very good evening. George and I will call +for you," and George, who had been listening to a suggestion about the +ship business, smiled with pleasure as they separated. + +"Nice young people," announced the captain, who was in a sympathetic +mood. "There has been some reason for thinking that they meant to take +up with each other for good and all. I don't know that either of them +could do better, though I like the girl best; that's natural; she's my +brother's daughter, and I was her guardian; she only came of age last +year. Her father and yours were boys together, younger than I am by a +dozen years, both gone before me too," sighed the captain, and quickly +changed so sad a subject by directing his companion's attention to one +of the old houses, and telling the story of it as they walked along. +Luckily they had the Highflyer all to themselves when they reached the +wharf, for the keeper had gone up into the town, and his wife, who had +set up a frugal housekeeping in the captain's cabin, sat in the shade +of the house with her sewing, the Monday's washing having been early +spread to the breeze in a corner of the main deck. She accepted +Captain Parish's explanations of his presence with equanimity, and +seemed surprised and amused at the young landswoman's curiosity and +eagerness, for a ship was as commonplace to herself as any farm-house +ashore. + +"Dear me! you wouldn't know it was the same place," said the captain, +in the course of his enumeration of the ropes and yards and other +mysterious furnishings of the old craft. "With a good crew aboard, +this deck is as busy as a town every day. I don't know how I'm going +below until the keeper gets back. I suppose you don't want me to show +you the road to the main-to'gallant cross-trees; once I knew it as +well as anybody, and I could make quicker time now than most of the +youngsters," and the captain gave a knowing glance aloft, while at +this moment somebody crossed the gangway plank. It was a broken-down +old sailor, who was a familiar sight in Dunport. + +"Mornin' to you, sir," and the master of the Highflyer, for the time +being, returned the salute with a mixture of dignity and friendliness. + +"Goin' to take command?" chuckled the bent old fellow. "I'd like to +ship under ye; 'twouldn't be the first time," and he gave his hat an +unsettling shake with one hand as he looked at Nan for some sign of +recognition, which was quickly given. + +"You've shipped under better masters than I. Any man who followed the +sea with Cap'n Jack Prince had more to teach than to learn. And here's +his grand-daughter before you, and does him credit too," said Captain +Walter. "Anna, you won't find many of your grandfather's men about the +old wharves, but here's one of the smartest that ever had hold of a +hawser." + +"Goodsoe by name: I thank ye kindly, cap'n, but I ain't much account +nowadays," said the pleased old man, trying to get the captain's +startling announcement well settled in his mind. "Old Cap'n Jack +Prince's grand-darter? Why Miss Nancy's never been brought to change +her mind about nothing, has she?" + +"It seems so," answered Nan's escort, laughing as if this were a good +joke; and Nan herself could not help smiling. + +"I don't believe if the old gentleman can look down at ye he begrudges +the worst of his voyages nor the blackest night he ever spent on deck, +if you're going to have the spending of the money. Not but what Miss +Prince has treated me handsome right straight along," the old sailor +explained, while the inspector, thinking this not a safe subject to +continue, spoke suddenly about some fault of the galley; and after +this was discussed, the eyes of the two practiced men sought the +damaged mizzen mast, the rigging of which was hanging in snarled and +broken lengths. When Nan asked for some account of the accident, she +was told with great confidence that the Highflyer had been fouled, and +that it was the other vessel's fault; at which she was no wiser than +before, having known already that there had been a collision. There +seemed to be room enough on the high seas, she ventured to say, or +might the mischief have been done in port? + +"It does seem as if you ought to know the sense of sea talk without +any learning, being Cap'n Jack Prince's grand-darter," said old +Goodsoe; for Captain Parish had removed himself to a little distance, +and was again investigating the condition of the ship's galley, which +one might suppose to have been neglected in some unforgivable way, +judging from his indignant grumble. + +"Fouled, we say aboard ship, when two vessels lay near enough so that +they drift alongside. You can see what havick 't would make, for ten +to one they don't part again till they have tore each other all to +shoestrings; the yards will get locked together, and the same wind +that starts one craft starts both, and first one and then t'other +lifts with a wave, don't ye see, and the rigging's spoilt in a little +time. I've sometimes called it to mind when I've known o' married +couples that wasn't getting on. 'T is easy to drift alongside, but no +matter if they was bound to the same port they'd 'a' done best alone;" +and the old fellow shook his head solemnly, and was evidently +selecting one of his numerous stories for Nan's edification, when his +superior officer came bustling toward them. + +"You might as well step down here about four o'clock; I shall have the +keys then. I may want you to hold a lantern for me; I'm going into the +lower hold and mean to do my work thoroughly, if I do it at all," to +which Goodsoe responded "ay, ay, sir," in most seamanlike fashion and +hobbled off. + +"He'd have kept you there all day," whispered Captain Walter. "He +always loved to talk, and now he has nothing else to do; but we are +all friendly to Goodsoe. Some of us pay a little every year toward his +support, but he has always made himself very useful about the wharves +until this last year or two; he thought everything of your +grandfather, and I knew it would please him to speak to you. It seems +unfortunate that you should have grown up anywhere else than here; but +I hope you'll stay now?" + +"It is not very likely," said Nan coldly. She wished that the captain +would go on with his stories of the former grandeur of Dunport, rather +than show any desire to talk about personal matters. She had been +little troubled at first by her aunt's evident disapproval the evening +before of her plans for the future, for she was so intent upon +carrying them out and certain that no one had any right to interfere. +Still it would have been better to have been violently opposed than to +have been treated like a child whose foolish whim would soon be +forgotten when anything better offered itself. Nan felt much older +than most girls of her years, and as if her decisions were quite as +much to be respected as her aunt's. She had dealt already with graver +questions than most persons, and her responsibilities had by no means +been light ones. She felt sometimes as if she were separated by half a +lifetime from the narrow limits of school life. Yet there was an +uncommon childlikeness about her which not only misled these new +friends, but many others who had known her longer. And when these +listened to accounts of her devotion to her present studies and her +marked proficiency, they shook their wise heads smilingly, as if they +knew that the girl was innocent of certain proper and insurmountable +obstacles farther on. + + +The air was fresh, and it was so pleasant on the wharf that the +captain paced to and fro several times, while he pointed out different +objects of interest along the harbor-side, and tapped the rusty anchor +and the hawsers with his walking-stick as he went by. He had made some +very pointed statements to the keeper's wife about the propriety of +opening the hatches on such a morning as that, which she had received +without comment, and wished her guests good-day with provoking +equanimity. The captain did not like to have his authority ignored, +but mentioned placidly that he supposed every idler along shore had +been giving advice; though he wondered what Nan's grandfather and old +Captain Peterbeck would have said if any one had told them this would +be the only square-rigged vessel in Dunport harbor for weeks at a +time. + +"Dear me!" he exclaimed again presently, "there's young Gerry hard at +work!" and he directed his companion's attention to one of the upper +windows of the buildings whose fronts had two stories on the main +street, while there were five or six on the rear, which faced the +river. Nan could see the diligent young man and thought it hard that +any one must be drudging within doors that beautiful morning. + +"He has always been a great favorite of your aunt's," said Captain +Parish, confidentially, after the law student had pretended to +suddenly catch sight of the saunterers, and waved a greeting which the +captain exultantly returned. "We have always thought that she was +likely to make him her heir. She was very fond of his father, you see, +and some trouble came between them. Nobody ever knew, because if +anybody ever had wit enough to keep her own counsel 'twas Nancy +Prince. I know as much about her affairs as anybody, and what I say to +you is between ourselves. I know just how far to sail with her and +when to stop, if I don't want to get wrecked on a lee shore. Your aunt +has known how to take care of what she had come to her, and I've done +the best I could to help her; it's a very handsome property,--very +handsome indeed. She helped George Gerry to get his education, and +then he had some little money left him by his father's brother,--no +great amount, but enough to give him a start; he's a very smart, +upright fellow, and I am glad for whatever Nancy did for him; but it +didn't seem fair that he should be stepping into your rights. But I +never have dared to speak up for you since one day--she wouldn't hear +a word about it, that's all I have to remark," the captain concluded +in a hurry, for wisdom's sake, though he longed to say more. It seemed +outrageous to him at this moment that the girl at his side should have +been left among strangers, and he was thankful that she seemed at last +to have a good chance of making sure of her rightful possessions. + +"But I haven't needed anything," she said, giving Captain Walter a +grateful glance for his championship. "And Mr. Gerry is very kind and +attentive to my aunt, so I am glad she has been generous to him. He +seems a fine fellow, as you say," and Nan thought suddenly that it was +very hard for him to have had her appear on the scene by way of rival, +if he had been led to suppose that he was her aunt's heir. There were +so many new things to think of, that Nan had a bewildering sense of +being a stranger and a foreigner in this curiously self-centred +Dunport, and a most disturbing element to its peace of mind. She +wondered if, since she had not grown up here, it would not have been +better to have stayed away altogether. Her own life had always been +quite unvexed by any sort of social complications, and she thought how +good it would be to leave this talkative and staring little world and +go back to Oldfields and its familiar interests and associations. But +Dunport was a dear old place, and the warm-hearted captain a most +entertaining guide, and by the time their walk was over, the day +seemed a most prosperous and entertaining one. Aunt Nancy appeared to +be much pleased with the plan for the afternoon, and announced that +she had asked some of the young people to come to drink tea the next +evening, while she greeted Nan so kindly that the home-coming was +particularly pleasant. As for the captain, he was unmistakably happy, +and went off down the street with a gentle, rolling gait, and a smile +upon his face that fairly matched the June weather, though he was more +than an hour late for the little refreshment with which he and certain +dignified associates commonly provided themselves at eleven o'clock in +the forenoon. Life was as regular ashore as on board ship with these +idle mariners of high degree. There was no definite business among +them except that of occasionally settling an estate, and the forming +of decided opinions upon important questions of the past and future. + + +The shadows had begun to grow long when the merry company of young +people went up river with the tide, and Nan thought she had seldom +known such a pleasure away from her own home. She begged for the +oars, and kept stroke with George Gerry, pulling so well that they +quickly passed the other boat. Mary Parish and the friend who made the +fourth of that division of the party sat in the stern and steered with +fine dexterity, and the two boats kept near each other, so that Nan +soon lost all feeling of strangeness, and shared in the good +comradeship to which she had been willingly admitted. It was some time +since she had been on the water before, and she thought more than once +of her paddling about the river in her childhood, and even regaled the +company once with a most amusing mishap, at the remembrance of which +she had been forced to laugh outright. The river was broad and brimful +of water; it seemed high tide already, and the boats pulled easily. +The fields sloped down to the river-banks, shaded with elms and parted +by hedgerows like a bit of English country. The freshest bloom of the +June greenness was in every blade of grass and every leaf. The birds +were beginning to sing the long day to a close, and the lowing of +cattle echoed from the pastures again and again across the water; +while the country boats were going home from the town, sometimes with +a crew of women, who seemed to have made this their regular conveyance +instead of following the more roundabout highways ashore. Some of +these navigators rowed with a cross-handed stroke that jerked their +boats along in a droll fashion, and some were propelled by one groping +oar, the sculler standing at the stern as if he were trying to push +his craft out of water altogether and take to the air, toward which +the lifted bow pointed. And in one of the river reaches half a mile +ahead, two heavy packet boats, with high-peaked lateen sails, like a +great bird's single wing, were making all the speed they could toward +port before the tide should begin to fall two hours later. The young +guest of the party was very happy; she had spent so many of her +childish days out of doors that a return to such pleasures always +filled her with strange delight. The color was bright in her cheeks, +and her half-forgotten girlishness came back in the place of the +gravity and dignity that had brought of late a sedate young +womanliness to her manner. The two new friends in the stern of the +boat were greatly attracted to her, and merry laughter rang out now +and then. Nan was so brave and handsome, so willing to be pleased, and +so grateful to them for this little festivity, that they quickly +became interested in each other, as girls will. The commander thought +himself a fortunate fellow, and took every chance of turning his head +to catch a glimpse of our heroine, though he always had a good excuse +of taking his bearings or inspecting for himself some object afloat or +ashore which one of the boat's company had pointed out. And Nan must +be told the names of the distant hills which stood out clear in the +afternoon light, and to what towns up river the packet boats were +bound, and so the time seemed short before the light dory was run in +among the coarse river grass and pulled up higher than seemed +necessary upon the shore. + +Their companions had not chosen so fleet a craft, and were five +instead of four at any rate, but they were welcomed somewhat +derisively, and all chattered together in a little crowd for a few +minutes before they started for a bit of woodland which overhung the +river on a high point. The wind rustled the oak leaves and roughened +the surface of the water, which spread out into a wide inland bay. The +clouds began to gather in the west and to take on wonderful colors, as +if such a day must be ended with a grand ceremony, and the sun go down +through banners and gay parades of all the forces of the sky. Nan had +watched such sunsets from her favorite playground at the farm, and +somehow the memory of those days touched her heart more tenderly than +they had ever done before, and she wished for a moment that she could +get away from the noisy little flock who were busy getting the supper +ready, though they said eagerly what a beautiful evening it would be +to go back to town, and that they must go far up the river first to +meet the moonlight. + +In a few minutes Nan heard some one say that water must be brought +from a farm-house not far away, and quickly insisted that she should +make one of the messengers, and after much discussion and +remonstrance, she and young Gerry found themselves crossing the open +field together. The girl had left her hat swinging from one of the low +oak branches; she wondered why Mary Parish had looked at her first as +if she were very fond of her, and then almost appealingly, until the +remembrance of Captain Walter's bit of gossip came to mind too late to +be acted upon. Nan felt a sudden sympathy, and was sorry she had not +thought to share with this favorite among her new friends, the +companion whom she had joined so carelessly. George Gerry had some +very attractive ways. He did not trouble Nan with unnecessary +attentions, as some young men had, and she told herself again, how +much she liked him. They walked fast, with free, light steps, and +talked as they went in a way that was very pleasant to both of them. +Nan was wise to a marvel, the good fellow told himself, and yet such +an amusing person. He did not know when he had liked anybody so much; +he was very glad to stand well in the sight of these sweet, clear +eyes, and could not help telling their owner some of the things that +lay very near his heart. He had wished to get away from Dunport; he +had not room there; everybody knew him as well as they knew the +courthouse; he somehow wanted to get to deeper water, and out of his +depth, and then swim for it with the rest. And Nan listened with deep +sympathy, for she also had felt that a great engine of strength and +ambition was at work with her in her plans and studies. + +She waited until he should have finished his confidence, to say a word +from her own experience, but just then they reached the farm-house and +stood together at the low door. There was a meagre show of flowers in +the little garden, which the dripping eaves had beaten and troubled in +the late rains, and one rosebush was loosely caught to the clapboards +here and there. + +There did not seem to be anybody in the kitchen, into which they could +look through the open doorway, though they could hear steps and voices +from some part of the house beyond it; and it was not until they had +knocked again loudly that a woman came to answer them, looking worried +and pale. + +"I never was so glad to see folks, though I don't know who you be," +she said hurriedly. "I believe I shall have to ask you to go for help. +My man's got hurt; he managed to get home, but he's broke his +shoulder, or any ways 'tis out o' place. He was to the pasture, and +we've got some young cattle, and somehow or 'nother one he'd caught +and was meaning to lead home give a jump, and John lost his balance; +he says he can't see how 't should 'a' happened, but over he went and +got jammed against a rock before he could let go o' the rope he'd put +round the critter's neck. He's in dreadful pain so 't I couldn't leave +him, and there's nobody but me an' the baby. You'll have to go to the +next house and ask them to send; Doctor Bent's always attended of us." + +"Let me see him," said Nan with decision. "Wait a minute, Mr. Gerry, +or perhaps you had better come in too," and she led the way, while the +surprised young man and the mistress of the house followed her. The +patient was a strong young fellow, who sat on the edge of the bed in +the little kitchen-bedroom, pale as ashes, and holding one elbow with +a look of complete misery, though he stopped his groans as the +strangers came in. + +"Lord bless you, young man! don't wait here," he said; "tell the +doctor it may only be out o' place, but I feel as if 'twas broke." + +But Nan had taken a pair of scissors from the high mantelpiece and was +making a cut in the coarse, white shirt, which was already torn and +stained by its contact with the ground, and with quick fingers and a +look of deep interest made herself sure what had happened, when she +stood still for a minute and seemed a little anxious, and all at once +entirely determined. "Just lie down on the floor a minute," she said, +and the patient with some exclamations, but no objections, obeyed. + +Nan pushed the spectators into the doorway of the kitchen, and quickly +stooped and unbuttoned her right boot, and then planted her foot on +the damaged shoulder and caught up the hand and gave a quick pull, the +secret of which nobody understood; but there was an unpleasant cluck +as the bone went back into its socket, and a yell from the sufferer, +who scrambled to his feet. + +"I'll be hanged if she ain't set it," he said, looking quite weak and +very much astonished. "You're the smartest young woman I ever see. I +shall have to lay down just to pull my wits together. Marthy, a drink +of water," and by the time this was brought the excitement seemed to +be at an end, though the patient was a little faint, and his wife +looked at Nan admiringly. Nan herself was fastening her boot again +with unwonted composure. George Gerry had not a word to say, and +listened to a simple direction of Nan's as if it were meant for him, +and acceded to her remark that she was glad for the shoulder's sake +that it did not have to wait and grow worse and worse all the while +the doctor was being brought from town. And after a few minutes, when +the volley of thanks and compliments could be politely cut short, the +two members of the picnic party set forth with their pail of water to +join their companions. + +"Will you be so good as to tell me how you knew enough to do that?" +asked Mr. Gerry humbly, and looking at his companion with admiration. +"I should not have had the least idea." + +"I was very glad it turned out so well," said Nan simply. "It was a +great pleasure to be of use, they were so frightened, poor things. We +won't say anything about it, will we?" + +But the young man did not like to think yet of the noise the returning +bone had made. He was stout-hearted enough usually; as brave a fellow +as one could wish to see; but he felt weak and womanish, and somehow +wished it had been he who could play the doctor. Nan hurried back +bareheaded to the oak grove as if nothing had happened, though, if +possible, she looked gayer and brighter than ever. And when the +waiting party scolded a little at their slow pace, Miss Prince was +much amused and made two or three laughing apologies for their +laziness, and even ventured to give the information that they had made +a pleasant call at the farm-house. + +The clouds were fading fast and the twilight began to gather under the +trees before they were ready to go away, and then the high tide had +floated off one of the boats, which must be chased and brought back. +But presently the picnickers embarked, and, as the moon came up, and +the river ebbed, the boats went back to the town and overtook others +on the way, and then were pulled up stream again in the favoring eddy +to make the evening's pleasure longer; at last Nan was left at her +door. She had managed that George Gerry should give Mary Parish his +arm, and told them, as they came up the street with her from the +wharf, that she had heard their voices Saturday night as they passed +under her window: it was Mary Parish herself who had talked about the +best room and its ghosts. + + + + +XVIII + +A SERIOUS TEA-DRINKING + + +It was very good for Nan to find herself cordially welcomed to a +company of young people who had little thought of anything but +amusement in the pleasant summer weather. Other young guests came to +Dunport just then, and the hospitable town seemed to give itself up to +their entertainment. Picnics and tea-drinkings followed each other, +and the pleasure boats went up river and down river, while there were +walks and rides and drives, and all manner of contrivances and excuses +for spending much time together on the part of the young men and +maidens. It was a good while since Nan had taken such a long holiday, +though she had by no means been without the pleasures of society. Not +only had she made friends easily during her school-life and her later +studies, but Oldfields itself, like all such good old nests, was apt +to call back its wandering fledglings when the June weather came. It +delighted her more and more to be in Dunport, and though she sometimes +grew impatient, wise Dr. Leslie insisted that she must not hurry home. +The change was the very best thing in the world for her. Dr. Ferris +had alighted for a day or two in the course of one of his wandering +flights; and it seemed to the girl that since everything was getting +on so well without her in Oldfields, she had better, as the doctor had +already expressed it, let her visit run its course like a fever. At +any rate she could not come again very soon, and since her aunt seemed +so happy, it was a pity to hurry away and end these days sooner than +need be. It had been a charming surprise to find herself such a +desired companion, and again and again quite the queen of that little +court of frolickers, because lately she had felt like one who looks on +at such things, and cannot make part of them. Yet all the time that +she was playing she thought of her work with growing satisfaction. By +other people the knowledge of her having studied medicine was not very +well received. It was considered to have been the fault of Miss +Prince, who should not have allowed a whimsical country doctor to have +beguiled the girl into such silly notions, and many were the shafts +sped toward so unwise an aunt for holding out against her niece so +many years. To be sure the child had been placed under a most +restricted guardianship; but years ago, it was thought, the matter +might have been rearranged, and Nan brought to Dunport. It certainly +had been much better for her that she had grown up elsewhere; though, +for whatever was amiss and willful in her ways, Oldfields was held +accountable. It must be confessed that every one who had known her +well had discovered sooner or later the untamed wildnesses which +seemed like the tangles which one often sees in field-corners, though +a most orderly crop is taking up the best part of the room between the +fences. Yet she was hard to find fault with, except by very +shortsighted persons who resented the least departure by others from +the code they themselves had been pleased to authorize, and who could +not understand that a nature like Nan's must and could make and keep +certain laws of its own. + +There seemed to be a sort of inevitableness about the visit; Nan +herself hardly knew why she was drifting on day after day without +reasonable excuse. Her time had been most carefully ordered and spent +during the last few years, and now she sometimes had an uneasy feeling +and a lack of confidence in her own steadfastness. But everybody took +it for granted that the visit must not come to an end. The doctor +showed no sign of expecting her. Miss Prince would be sure to resent +her going away, and the pleasure-makers marked one day after another +for their own. It seemed impossible, and perhaps unwise, to go on with +the reading she had planned, and, in fact, she had been urged to +attend to her books rather by habit than natural inclination; and when +the temptation to drift with the stream first made itself felt, the +reasons for opposing it seemed to fade away. It was easier to remember +that Dr. Leslie, and even those teachers who knew her best at the +medical school, had advised a long vacation. + +The first formal visits and entertainments were over with for the most +part, and many of the Dunport acquaintances began to seem like old +friends. There had been a little joking about Nan's profession, and +also some serious remonstrance and unwise championship which did not +reach this heroine's ears. It all seemed romantic and most unusual +when anybody talked about her story at all, and the conclusion was +soon reached that all such whims and extravagances were merely +incident to the pre-Dunportian existence, and that now the young guest +had come to her own, the responsibilities and larger field of activity +would have their influence over her plan of life. The girl herself was +disposed to talk very little about this singular fancy; it may have +been thought that she had grown ashamed of it as seen by a brighter +light, but the truth was it kept a place too near her heart to allow +her to gossip with people who had no real sympathy, and who would ask +questions from curiosity alone. Miss Eunice Fraley had taken more than +one opportunity, however, to confess her interest, though she did this +with the manner of one who dares to be a conspirator against public +opinion, and possibly the permanent welfare of society, and had +avowed, beside, her own horror of a doctor's simplest duties. But poor +Miss Fraley looked at her young friend as a caged bird at a window +might watch a lark's flight, and was strangely glad whenever there was +a chance to spend an hour in Nan's company. + +The first evening at Mrs. Fraley's had been a great success, and Miss +Prince had been vastly pleased because both the hostess and the guest +had received each other's commendation. Mrs. Fraley was, perhaps, the +one person whom Miss Prince recognized as a superior officer, and she +observed Nan's unconscious and suitable good behavior with great +pride. The hostess had formerly been an undisputed ruler of the +highest social circles of Dunport society, and now in her old age, +when she could no longer be present at any public occasions, she was +still the queen of a little court that assembled in her own house. It +was true that the list of her subjects grew shorter year by year, but +the survivors remained loyal, and hardly expected, or even desired, +that any of the newcomers to the town should recognize their ruler. +Nan had been much interested in the old lady's stories, and had gladly +accepted an invitation to come often to renew the first conversation. +She was able to give Mrs. Fraley much welcome information of the ways +and fashions of other centres of civilization, and it was a good thing +to make the hours seem shorter. The poor old lady had few +alleviations; even religion had served her rather as a basis for +argument than an accepted reliance and guide; and though she still +prided herself on her selection of words, those which she used in +formal conversations with the clergyman seemed more empty and +meaningless than most others. Mrs. Fraley was leaving this world +reluctantly; she had been well fitted by nature for social +preeminence, and had never been half satisfied with the opportunities +provided for the exercise of her powers. It was only lately that she +had been forced to acknowledge that Time showed signs of defeating her +in the projects of her life, and she had begun to give up the fight +altogether, and to mourn bitterly and aggressively to her anxious and +resourceless daughter. It was plain enough that the dissatisfactions +and infirmities of age were more than usually great, and poor Eunice +was only too glad when the younger Miss Prince proved herself capable +of interesting the old friend of her family, and Mrs. Fraley took +heart and suggested both informal visits and future entertainments. +The prudent daughter was careful not to tell her mother of the guest's +revolutionary ideas, and for a time all went well, until some unwise +person, unaware of Miss Fraley's warning gestures from the other side +of the sitting-room, proceeded to give a totally unnecessary opinion +of the propriety of women's studying medicine. Poor Eunice expected +that a sharp rebuke, followed by a day or two's disdain and general +unpleasantness, would descend upon her quaking shoulders; but, to her +surprise, nothing was said until the next morning, when she was +bidden, at much inconvenience to the household, to invite Miss Prince +and her niece to come that afternoon to drink tea quite informally. + +There was a pathetic look in the messenger's faded face,--she felt +unusually at odds with fortune as she glided along the street, +sheltered by the narrow shadows of the high fences. Nan herself came +to the door, and when she threw back the closed blinds and discovered +the visitor, she drew her in with most cordial welcome, and the two +friends entered the darkened south parlor, where it was cool, and +sweet with the fragrance of some honeysuckle which Nan had brought in +early that morning from the garden. + +"Dear me," said the little woman deprecatingly. "I don't know why I +came in at all. I can't stop to make a call. Mother was very desirous +that you and your aunt should come over to tea this evening. It seems +a good deal to ask in such hot weather, but she has so little to amuse +her, and I really don't see that the weather makes much difference, +she used to feel the heat very much years ago." And Miss Eunice gave a +sigh, and fanned herself slowly, letting the fan which had been put +into her hand turn itself quite over on her lap before it came up +again. There was an air of antique elegance about this which amused +Nan, who stood by the table wiping with her handkerchief some water +that had dropped from the vase. A great many of the ladies in church +the Sunday before had fanned themselves in this same little +languishing way; she remembered one or two funny old persons in +Oldfields who gave themselves airs after the same fashion. + +"I think we shall both be very pleased," she answered directly, with a +bit of a smile; while Miss Fraley gazed at her admiringly, and thought +she had never seen the girl look so fresh and fair as she did in this +plain, cool little dress. There had been more water than was at first +suspected; the handkerchief was a limp, white handful, and they both +laughed as it was held up. Miss Fraley insisted that she could not +stay. She must go to the shops to do some errands, and hoped to meet +Miss Prince who had gone that way half an hour before. + +"Don't mind anything mother may say to you," she entreated, after +lingering a minute, and looking imploringly in Nan's face. "You know +we can't expect a person of her age to look at everything just as we +do." + +"Am I to be scolded?" asked Nan, serenely. "Do you know what it is +about?" + +"Oh, perhaps nothing," answered Miss Fraley, quickly. "I ought not to +have spoken, only I fancied she was a little distressed at the idea of +your being interested in medicines. I don't know anything that is more +useful myself. I am sure every family needs to have some one who has +some knowledge of such things; it saves calling a doctor. My sister +Susan knows more than any of us, and it has been very useful to her +with her large family." + +"But I shouldn't be afraid to come, I think," said Nan, laughing. +"Mrs. Fraley told me that she would finish that story of the diamond +ring, you know, and we shall get on capitally. Really I think her +stories of old times are wonderfully interesting. I wish I had a gift +for writing them down whenever I am listening to her." + +Miss Eunice was much relieved, and felt sure that Nan was equal to any +emergency. The girl had put a strong young arm quickly round her +guest's thin shoulders, and had kissed her affectionately, and this +had touched the lonely little woman's very heart. + + +There were signs of storm in Madam Fraley's face that evening, but +everybody feigned not to observe them, and Nan behaved with perilous +disregard of a lack of encouragement, and made herself and the company +uncommonly merry. She described the bad effect her coming had had upon +her aunt's orderly house. She confessed to having left her own +possessions in such confusion the evening before when she dressed +again to go up the river, that Priscilla had called it a monkey's +wedding, and had gone away after one scornful look inside the door. +Miss Fraley dared to say that no one could mind seeing such pretty +things, and even Miss Prince mentioned that her niece was not so +careless as she would make them believe; while Nan begged to know if +anybody had ever heard of a monkey's wedding before, and seemed very +much amused. + +"She called such a disarray in the kitchen one morning the monkey's +wedding breakfast," said Miss Prince, as if she never had thought it +particularly amusing until this minute. "Priscilla has always made use +of a great many old-fashioned expressions." + +They had seated themselves at the tea-table; it was evident that Miss +Fraley had found it a hard day, for she looked tired and worn. The +mistress of the house was dressed in her best and most imposing +clothes, and sat solemnly in her place. A careful observer might have +seen that the best blue teacups with their scalloped edges were not +set forth. The occasion wore the air of a tribunal rather than that of +a festival, and it was impossible not to feel a difference between it +and the former tea-party. + +Miss Prince was not particularly sensitive to moods and atmospheres; +she happened to be in very good spirits, and talked for some time +before she became entirely aware that something had gone wrong, but +presently faltered, and fell under the ban, looking questioningly +toward poor Eunice, who busied herself with the tea-tray. + +"Nancy," said Mrs. Fraley impatiently, "I was amazed to find that +there is a story going about town that your niece here is studying to +be a doctor. I hope that you don't countenance any such nonsense?" + +Miss Prince looked helpless and confounded, and turned her eyes toward +her niece. She could only hope at such a mortifying juncture that Nan +was ready to explain, or at least to shoulder the responsibility. + +"Indeed she doesn't give me any encouragement, Mrs. Fraley," said Nan, +fearlessly. "Only this morning she saw a work on ventilation in my +room and told me it wasn't proper reading for a young woman." + +"I really didn't look at the title," said Miss Prince, smiling in +spite of herself. + +"It doesn't seem to improve the health of you young folks because you +think it necessary to become familiar with such subjects," announced +the irate old lady. It was her habit to take a very slight refreshment +at the usual tea hour, and supplement it by a substantial lunch at +bed-time, and so now she was not only at leisure herself, but demanded +the attention of her guests. She had evidently prepared an opinion, +and was determined to give it. Miss Eunice grew smaller and thinner +than ever, and fairly shivered with shame behind the tea-tray. She +looked steadily at the big sugar-bowl, as if she were thinking whether +she might creep into it and pull something over her head. She never +liked an argument, even if it were a good-natured one, and always had +a vague sense of personal guilt and danger. + +"In my time," Mrs. Fraley continued, "it was thought proper for young +women to show an interest in household affairs. When I was married it +was not asked whether I was acquainted with dissecting-rooms." + +"But I don't think there is any need of that," replied Nan. "I think +such things are the duty of professional men and women only. I am very +far from believing that every girl ought to be a surgeon any more than +that she ought to be an astronomer. And as for the younger people's +being less strong than the old, I am afraid it is their own fault, +since we understand the laws of health better than we used. 'Who +breaks, pays,' you know." + +It was evidently not expected that the young guest should venture to +discuss the question, but rather have accepted her rebuke meekly, and +acknowledged herself in the wrong. But she had the courage of her +opinions, and the eagerness of youth, and could hardly bear to be so +easily defeated. So when Mrs. Fraley, mistaking the moment's silence +for a final triumph, said again, that a woman's place was at home, and +that a strong-minded woman was out of place, and unwelcome everywhere, +the girl's cheeks flushed suddenly. + +"I think it is a pity that we have fallen into a habit of using +strong-mindedness as a term of rebuke," she said. "I am willing to +acknowledge that people who are eager for reforms are apt to develop +unpleasant traits, but it is only because they have to fight against +opposition and ignorance. When they are dead and the world is reaping +the reward of their bravery and constancy, it no longer laughs, but +makes statues of them, and praises diem, and thanks them in every way +it can. I think we ought to judge each other by the highest standards, +Mrs. Fraley, and by whether we are doing good work." + +"My day is past," said the hostess. "I do not belong to the present, +and I suppose my judgment is worth nothing to you;" and Nan looked up +quickly and affectionately. + +"I should like to have all my friends believe that I am doing right," +she said. "I do feel very certain that we must educate people properly +if we want them to be worth anything. It is no use to treat all the +boys and girls as if nature had meant them for the same business and +scholarship, and try to put them through the same drill, for that is +sure to mislead and confuse all those who are not perfectly sure of +what they want. There are plenty of people dragging themselves +miserably through the world, because they are clogged and fettered +with work for which they have no fitness. I know I haven't had the +experience that you have, Mrs. Fraley, but I can't help believing that +nothing is better than to find one's work early and hold fast to it, +and put all one's heart into it." + +"I have done my best to serve God in the station to which it has +pleased Him to call me," said Mrs. Fraley, stiffly. "I believe that a +young man's position is very different from a girl's. To be sure, I +can give my opinion that everything went better when the master +workmen took apprentices to their trades, and there wasn't so much +schooling. But I warn you, my dear, that your notion about studying to +be a doctor has shocked me very much indeed. I could not believe my +ears,--a refined girl who bears an honorable and respected name to +think of being a woman doctor! If you were five years older you would +never have dreamed of such a thing. It lowers the pride of all who +have any affection for you. If it were not that your early life had +been somewhat peculiar and most unfortunate, I should blame you more; +as it is, I can but wonder at the lack of judgment in others. I shall +look forward in spite of it all to seeing you happily married." To +which Miss Prince assented with several decided nods. + +"This is why I made up my mind to be a physician," said the culprit; +and though she had been looking down and growing more uncomfortable +every moment, she suddenly gave her head a quick upward movement and +looked at Mrs. Fraley frankly, with a beautiful light in her clear +eyes. "I believe that God has given me a fitness for it, and that I +never could do anything else half so well. Nobody persuaded me into +following such a plan; I simply grew toward it. And I have everything +to learn, and a great many faults to overcome, but I am trying to get +on as fast as may be. I can't be too glad that I have spent my +childhood in a way that has helped me to use my gift instead of +hindering it. But everything helps a young man to follow his bent; he +has an honored place in society, and just because he is a student of +one of the learned professions, he ranks above the men who follow +other pursuits. I don't see why it should be a shame and dishonor to a +girl who is trying to do the same thing and to be of equal use in the +world. God would not give us the same talents if what were right for +men were wrong for women." + +"My dear, it is quite unnatural you see," said the antagonist, +impatiently. "Here you are less than twenty-five years old, and I +shall hear of your being married next thing,--at least I hope I +shall,--and you will laugh at all this nonsense. A woman's place is at +home. Of course I know that there have been some women physicians who +have attained eminence, and some artists, and all that. But I would +rather see a daughter of mine take a more retired place. The best +service to the public can be done by keeping one's own house in order +and one's husband comfortable, and by attending to those social +responsibilities which come in our way. The mothers of the nation have +rights enough and duties enough already, and need not look farther +than their own firesides, or wish for the plaudits of an ignorant +public." + +"But if I do not wish to be married, and do not think it right that I +should be," said poor Nan at last. "If I have good reasons against all +that, would you have me bury the talent God has given me, and choke +down the wish that makes itself a prayer every morning that I may do +this work lovingly and well? It is the best way I can see of making +myself useful in the world. People must have good health or they will +fail of reaching what success and happiness are possible for them; and +so many persons might be better and stronger than they are now, which +would make their lives very different. I do think if I can help my +neighbors in this way it will be a great kindness. I won't attempt to +say that the study of medicine is a proper vocation for women, only +that I believe more and more every year that it is the proper study +for me. It certainly cannot be the proper vocation of all women to +bring up children, so many of them are dead failures at it; and I +don't see why all girls should be thought failures who do not marry. I +don't believe that half those who do marry have any real right to it, +at least until people use common sense as much in that most important +decision as in lesser ones. Of course we can't expect to bring about +an ideal state of society all at once; but just because we don't +really believe in having the best possible conditions, we make no +effort at all toward even better ones. People ought to work with the +great laws of nature and not against them." + +"You don't know anything about it," said Mrs. Fraley, who hardly knew +what to think of this ready opposition. "You don't know what you are +talking about, Anna. You have neither age nor experience, and it is +easy to see you have been associating with very foolish people. I am +the last person to say that every marriage is a lucky one; but if you +were my daughter I should never consent to your injuring your chances +for happiness in this way." + +Nan could not help stealing a glance at poor Miss Eunice, behind her +fragile battlement of the tea-set, and was deeply touched at the +glance of sympathy which dimly flickered in the lonely eyes. "I do +think, mother, that Anna is right about single women's having some +occupation," was timidly suggested. "Of course, I mean those who have +no special home duties; I can see that life would not"-- + +"Now Eunice," interrupted the commander in chief, "I do wish you +could keep an opinion of your own. You are the last person to take up +with such ideas. I have no patience with people who don't know their +own minds half an hour together." + +"There are plenty of foolish women who marry, I'll acknowledge," said +Miss Prince, for the sake of coming to the rescue. "I was really angry +yesterday, when Mrs. Gerry told me that everybody was so pleased to +hear that Hattie Barlow was engaged, because she was incapable of +doing anything to support herself. I couldn't help feeling that if +there was so little power that it had never visibly turned itself in +any practical direction, she wasn't likely to be a good housekeeper. I +think that is a most responsible situation, myself." + +Nan looked up gratefully. "It isn't so much that people can't do +anything, as that they try to do the wrong things, Aunt Nancy. We all +are busy enough or ought to be; only the richest people have the most +cares and have to work hardest. I used to think that rich city people +did nothing but amuse themselves, when I was a little girl; but I +often wonder nowadays at the wisdom and talent that are needed to keep +a high social position respected in the world's eyes. It must be an +orderly and really strong-minded woman who can keep her business from +getting into a most melancholy tangle. Yet nobody is afraid when the +most foolish girls take such duties upon themselves, and all the world +cries out with fear of disaster, if once in a while one makes up her +mind to some other plan of life. Of course I know being married isn't +a trade: it is a natural condition of life, which permits a man to +follow certain public careers, and forbids them to a woman. And since +I have not wished to be married, and have wished to study medicine, I +don't see what act of Parliament can punish me." + +"Wait until Mr. Right comes along," said Mrs. Fraley, who had pushed +back her chair from the table and was beating her foot on the floor in +a way that betokened great displeasure and impatience. "I am only +thankful I had my day when women were content to be stayers at home. I +am only speaking for your good, and you'll live to see the truth of +it, poor child!" + +"I am sure she will get over this," apologized Miss Prince, after they +had reached the parlor, for she found that her niece had lingered with +Miss Fraley in the dining-room. + +"Don't talk to me about the Princes changing their minds," answered +the scornful old hostess. "You ought to know them better than that by +this time." But just at that moment young Gerry came tapping at the +door, and the two ladies quickly softened their excited looks and +welcomed him as the most powerful argument for their side of the +debate. It seemed quite a thing of the past that he should have +fancied Mary Parish, and more than one whisper had been listened to +that the young man was likely to have the Prince inheritance, after +all. He looked uncommonly well that evening, and the elder women could +not imagine that any damsel of his own age would consider him +slightingly. Nan had given a little shrug of impatience when she heard +his voice join the weaker ones in the parlor, and a sense of +discomfort that she never had felt before came over her suddenly. She +reminded herself that she must tell her aunt that very night that the +visit must come to an end. She had neglected her books and her drives +with the doctor altogether too long already. + + + + +XIX + +FRIEND AND LOVER + + +In these summer days the young lawyer's thoughts had often been busy +elsewhere while he sat at the shaded office window and looked out upon +the river. The very housekeeping on the damaged ship became more +interesting to him than his law books, and he watched the keeper's +wife at her various employments on deck, or grew excited as he +witnessed the good woman's encounters with marauding small boys, who +prowled about hoping for chances of climbing the rigging or solving +the mysteries of the hold. It had come to be an uncommon event that a +square-rigged vessel should make the harbor of Dunport, and the elder +citizens ignored the deserted wharves, and talked proudly of the days +of Dunport's prosperity, convicting the railroad of its decline as +much as was consistent with their possession of profitable stock. The +younger people took the empty warehouses for granted, and listened to +their grandparents' stories with interest, if they did not hear them +too often; and the more enterprising among them spread their wings of +ambition and flew away to the larger cities or to the westward. George +Gerry had stayed behind reluctantly. He had neither enough desire for +a more active life, nor so high a purpose that he could disregard +whatever opposition lay in his way. Yet he was honestly dissatisfied +with his surroundings, and thought himself hardly used by a hindering +fate. He believed himself to be most anxious to get away, yet he was +like a ship which will not be started out of port by anything less +than a hurricane. There really were excuses for his staying at home, +and since he had stopped to listen to them they beguiled him more and +more, and his friends one by one commended his devotion to his mother +and sisters, and sometimes forgot to sympathize with him for his +disappointments as they praised him for being such a dutiful son. To +be sure, he might be a great lawyer in Dunport as well as anywhere +else; he would not be the first; but a more inspiring life might have +made him more enthusiastic and energetic, and if he could have been +winning his way faster elsewhere, and sending home good accounts of +himself, not to speak of substantial aid, there is no question whether +it would not have given his family greater happiness and done himself +more good. He was not possessed of the stern determination which wins +its way at all hazards, and so was dependent upon his surroundings for +an occasional stimulus. + +But Dunport was very grateful to him because he had stayed at home, +and he was altogether the most prominent young man in the town. It is +so easy to be thankful that one's friends are no worse that one +sometimes forgets to remember that they might be better; and it would +have been only natural if he thought of himself more highly than he +ought to think, since he had received a good deal of applause and +admiration. It is true that he had avoided vice more noticeably than +he had pursued virtue; but the senior member of the firm, Mr. +Sergeant, pronounced his young partner to have been a most excellent +student, and not only showed the greatest possible confidence in him, +but was transferring a good deal of the business to him already. Miss +Prince and her old lawyer had one secret which had never been +suspected, and the townspeople thought more than ever of young Mr. +Gerry's ability when it was known that the most distinguished legal +authority of that region had given him a share of a long established +business. George Gerry had been led to think better of himself, though +it had caused him no little wonder when the proposal had been made. It +was possible that Mr. Sergeant feared that there might be some +alliance offered by his rivals in Dunport. To be sure, the younger +firm had been making a good deal of money, but it was less respected +by the leading business men. Mr. Sergeant had even conferred with his +young friend one morning upon the propriety of some new investments; +but Mr. Gerry had never even suspected that they were the price of his +own new dignity and claim upon the public honor. Captain Walter Parish +and Mr. Sergeant had both been aids and advisers of Miss Prince; but +neither had ever known the condition of all her financial affairs, and +she had made the most of a comfortable sense of liberty. To do young +Gerry justice, he had not hesitated to express his amazement; and +among his elders and betters, at any rate, he had laid his good +fortune at the door of Mr. Sergeant's generosity and kindness instead +of his own value. + +But at certain seasons of the year, like this, there was no excitement +in the office, and after an attendance at court and the proper +adjustment, whether temporary or permanent, of the subsequent +business, the partners had returned to a humdrum fulfilling of the +minor duties of their profession, and the younger man worked at his +law books when there were no deeds or affidavits to engage his +attention. He thought of many things as he sat by his window; it was a +great relief to the tiresomeness of the dull rooms to look at the +river and at the shores and hills beyond; to notice carelessly whether +the tide came in or went out. He was apt to feel a sense of +dissatisfaction in his leisure moments; and now a new current was +bringing all its force to bear upon him in his quiet anchorage. + +He had looked upon Miss Prince as a kind adviser; he was on more +intimate terms with her than with any woman he knew; and the finer +traits in his character were always brought out by some compelling +force in her dignity and simple adherence to her somewhat narrow code +of morals and etiquette. He was grateful to her for many kindnesses; +and as he had grown older and come to perceive the sentiment which had +been the first motive of her affection toward him, he had +instinctively responded with a mingling of gallantry and sympathy +which made him, as has been already said, appear at his very best. The +gossips of Dunport had whispered that he knew that it was more than +worth his while to be polite to Miss Prince; but he was too manly a +fellow to allow any trace of subserviency to show itself in his +conduct. As often happens, he had come back to Dunport almost a +stranger after his years of college life were over, and he had a +mingled love and impatience for the old place. The last year had been +very pleasant, however: there were a few young men whose good comrade +and leader he was; his relations with his fellow-citizens were most +harmonious; and as for the girls of his own age and their younger +sisters, who were just growing up, he was immensely popular and +admired by them. It had become a subject of much discussion whether he +and Mary Parish would not presently decide upon becoming engaged to +each other, until Miss Prince's long-banished niece came to put a new +suspicion into everybody's mind. + +Many times when George Gerry had a new proof that he had somehow +fallen into the habit of walking home with the pleasant girl who was +his friend and neighbor, he had told himself abruptly that there was +no danger in it, and that they never could have any other feeling for +each other. But he had begun to think also that she belonged to him in +some vague way, and sometimes acknowledged that it might be a thing to +consider more deeply by and by. He was only twenty-six, and the world +was still before him, but he was not very sympathetic with other +people's enthusiasm over their love affairs, and wondered if it were +not largely a matter of temperament, though by and by he should like +to have a home of his own. + +He was somewhat attracted toward Miss Prince, the younger, for her +aunt's sake, and had made up his mind that he would be very attentive +to her, no matter how displeasing and uninteresting she might be: it +was sure to be a time of trial to his old friend, and he would help +all he could to make the visit as bearable as possible. Everybody knew +of the niece's existence who had known the Prince family at all, and +though Miss Prince had never mentioned the unhappy fact until the day +or two before her guest was expected, her young cavalier had behaved +with most excellent discretion, and feigning neither surprise nor +dismay, accepted the announcement in a way that had endeared him still +more to his patroness. + +But on the first Sunday morning, when a most admirable young lady had +walked up the broad aisle of St. Ann's church, and Mr. Gerry had +caught a glimpse of her between the rows of heads which all looked +commonplace by contrast, it seemed to begin a new era of things. This +was a welcome link with the busier world outside Dunport; this was +what he had missed since he had ended his college days, a gleam of +cosmopolitan sunshine, which made the provincial fog less attractive +than ever. He was anxious to claim companionship with this fair +citizen of a larger world, and to disclaim any idea of belonging to +the humdrum little circle which exaggerated its own importance. He +persuaded himself that he must pay Miss Prince's guest an early visit. +It was very exciting and interesting altogether; and as he watched the +flicker of light in our heroine's hair as she sat on the straight sofa +in her aunt's parlor on the Sunday evening, a feeling of great delight +stole over him. He had known many nice girls in his lifetime, but +there was something uncommonly interesting about Miss Anna Prince; +besides, who could help being grateful to her for being so much nicer +than anybody had expected? + +And so the days went by. Nobody thought there was any objection when +the junior partner of the law firm took holiday after holiday, for +there was little business and Mr. Sergeant liked to keep on with his +familiar routine. His old friends came to call frequently, and they +had their conferences in peace, and were not inclined to object if the +younger ears were being used elsewhere. Young people will be young +people, and June weather does not always last; and if George Gerry +were more devoted to social duties than to legal ones, it was quite +natural, and he had just acquitted himself most honorably at the May +term of court, and was his own master if he decided to take a +vacation. + +He had been amused when the announcement had been made so early in +their acquaintance that Nan meant to study medicine. He believed if +there were any fault, it was Dr. Leslie's, and only thought it a pity +that her evident practical talents had not been under the guidance of +a more sensible director. The girl's impetuous defense of her choice +was very charming; he had often heard Mr. Sergeant speak of the rare +insight and understanding of legal matters which his favorite daughter +had possessed, and her early death had left a lonely place in the good +man's heart. Miss Prince's life at Oldfields must have been very dull, +especially since her boarding-school days were over. For himself he +had a great prejudice against the usurpation of men's duties and +prerogatives by women, and had spoken of all such assumptions with +contempt. It made a difference that this attractive young student had +spoken bravely on the wrong side; but if he had thought much about it +he would have made himself surer and surer that only time was needed +to show her the mistake. If he had gone deeper into the subject he +would have said that he thought it all nonsense about women's having +the worst of it in life; he had known more than one good fellow who +had begun to go down hill from the day he was married, and if girls +would only take the trouble to fit themselves for their indoor +business the world would be a vastly more comfortable place. And as +for their tinkering at the laws, such projects should be bitterly +resented. + + +It only needed a few days to make it plain to this good fellow that +the coming of one of the summer guests had made a great difference in +his life. It was easy to find a hundred excuses for going to Miss +Prince's, who smiled benignantly upon his evident interest in the fair +stranger within her gates. The truth must be confessed, however, that +the episode of the lamed shoulder at the picnic party had given Mr. +George Gerry great unhappiness. There was something so high and +serene in Anna Prince's simplicity and directness, and in the way in +which she had proved herself adequate to so unusual an occasion, that +he could not help mingling a good deal of admiration with his +dissatisfaction. It is in human nature to respect power; but all his +manliness was at stake, and his natural rights would be degraded and +lost, if he could not show his power to be greater than her own. And +as the days went by, every one made him more certain that he longed, +more than he had ever longed for anything before, to win her love. His +heart had never before been deeply touched, but life seemed now like a +heap of dry wood, which had only waited for a live coal to make it +flame and leap in mysterious light, and transfigure itself from +dullness into a bewildering and unaccountable glory. It was no wonder +any longer that poets had sung best of love and its joys and sorrows, +and that men and women, since the world began, had followed at its +call. All life and its history was explained anew, yet this eager +lover felt himself to be the first discoverer of the world's great +secret. + +It was hard to wait and to lack assurance, but while the hours when he +had the ideal and the dream seemed to make him certain, he had only to +go back to Miss Prince's to become doubtful and miserable again. The +world did not consent to second his haste, and the persons most +concerned in his affairs were stupidly slow at understanding the true +state of them. While every day made the prize look more desirable, +every day seemed to put another barrier between himself and Nan; and +when she spoke of her visit's end it was amazing to him that she +should not understand his misery. He wondered at himself more and more +because he seemed to have the power of behaving much as usual when he +was with his friends; it seemed impossible that he could always go on +without betraying his thoughts. There was no question of any final +opposition to his suit, it seemed to him; he could not be more sure +than he was already of Miss Prince's willingness to let him plead his +cause with her niece, so many vexed questions would be pleasantly +answered; and he ventured to hope that the girl herself would be glad +to spend her life in dear old Dunport, where her father's people had +been honored for so many years. The good Dr. Leslie must be fast +growing old, and, though he would miss his adopted child, it was +reasonable that he should be glad to see her happily anchored in a +home of her own, before he died. If Nan were friendless and penniless +it would make no difference; but nevertheless, for her sake, it was +good to remember that some one had said that Dr. Leslie, unlike most +physicians, was a man of fortune. And nothing remained but to win an +affection which should match his own, and this impatient suitor walked +and drove and spent the fleeting hours in waiting for a chance to show +himself in the lists of love. It seemed years instead of weeks at +last, and yet as if he had only been truly alive and free since love +had made him captive. He could not fasten himself down to his work +without great difficulty, though he built many a castle in Spain with +his imagined wealth, and laid deep plans of study and acquirement +which should be made evident as time went on. + +All things seemed within his reach in these first days of his +enlightenment: it had been like the rising of the sun which showed him +a new world of which he was lawful master, but the minor events of his +blissful existence began to conspire against him in a provoking way, +and presently it was sadly forced upon his understanding that Anna +Prince was either unconscious or disdainful of his affection. It could +hardly be the latter, for she was always friendly and hospitable, and +took his courtesies in such an unsuspecting and grateful way. There +was something so self-reliant about her and so independent of any +one's protection, that this was the most discouraging thing of all, +for his own instinct was that of standing between her and all +harm,--of making himself responsible for her shelter and happiness. +She seemed to get on capitally well without him, but after all he +could not help being conqueror in so just and inevitable a war. The +old proverb suddenly changed from a pebble to a diamond, and he +thanked the philosopher more than once who had first reminded the +world that faint heart ne'er won fair lady; presently he grew sad, as +lovers will, and became paler and less vigorous, and made his friends +wonder a good deal, until they at last suspected his sweet sorrow, and +ranged themselves in eager ranks upon his side, with all history and +tradition in their favor. + +Nan herself was not among the first to suspect that one of her new +friends had proved to be a lover; she had been turned away from such +suspicions by her very nature; and when she had been forced to believe +in one or two other instances that she was unwillingly drawing to +herself the devotion which most women unconsciously seek, she had been +made most uncomfortable, and had repelled all possibility of its +further progress. She had believed herself proof against such +assailment, and so indeed she had been; but on the very evening of her +battle for her opinions at Mrs. Fraley's she had been suddenly +confronted by a new enemy, a strange power, which seemed so dangerous +that she was at first overwhelmed by a sense of her own +defenselessness. + +She had waited with Miss Fraley, who was not quite ready to leave the +dining-room with the rest, and had been much touched by her +confidence. Poor Eunice had been very fond of one of her +school-fellows, who had afterward entered the navy, and who had been +fond of her in return. But as everybody had opposed the match, for her +sake, and had placed little reliance in the young man, she had meekly +given up all hope of being his wife, and he had died of yellow fever +at Key West soon after. "We were not even engaged you know, dear," +whispered the little lady, "but somehow I have always felt in my heart +that I belonged to him. Though I believe every word you said about a +girl's having an independence of her own. It is a great blessing to +have always had such a person as my mother to lean upon, but I should +be quite helpless if she were taken away.... Of course I have had what +I needed and what we could afford," she went on, after another pause, +"but I never can get over hating to ask for money. I do sometimes envy +the women who earn what they spend." + +Nan's eyes flashed. "I think it is only fair that even those who have +to spend their husband's or their father's money should be made to +feel it is their own. If one does absolutely nothing in one's home, +and is not even able to give pleasure, then I think it is stealing. I +have felt so strongly about that since I have grown up, for you know +Dr. Leslie, my guardian, has done everything for me. Aunt Nancy gave +me money every year, but I never spent any of it until I went away to +school, and then I insisted upon taking that and what my grandmother +left me. But my later studies have more than used it all. Dr. Leslie +is so kind to me, like an own father, and I am looking forward to my +life with him most eagerly. After the next year or two I shall be at +home all the time, and I am so glad to think I can really help him, +and that we are interested in the same things." + +Miss Eunice was a little incredulous, though she did not dare to say +so. In the first place, she could not be persuaded that a woman could +possibly know as much about diseases and their remedies as a man, and +she wondered if even the rural inhabitants of Oldfields would +cheerfully accept the change from their trusted physician to his young +ward, no matter what sails of diplomas she might spread to the breeze. +But Nan's perfect faith and confidence were not to be lightly +disputed; and if the practice of medicine by women could be made +honorable, it certainly was in able hands here, as far as an admiring +friend could decide. Nan was anything but self-asserting, and she had +no noisy fashion of thrusting herself before the public gaze, but +everybody trusted her who knew her; she had the rare and noble faculty +of inspiring confidence. + +There was no excuse for a longer absence from the parlor, where Mrs. +Fraley was throned in state in her high-backed chair, and was already +calling the loiterers. She and Miss Prince were smiling indulgently +upon the impatient young man, who was describing to them a meeting of +the stockholders of the Turnpike Company, of which he had last year +been made secretary. A dividend had been declared, and it was larger +than had been expected, and the ladies were as grateful as if he had +furnished the means from his own pocket. He looked very tall and +handsome and business-like as he rose to salute Miss Fraley and Nan, +and presently told his real errand. He apologized for interfering with +the little festival, but two or three of the young people had suddenly +made a plan for going to see a play which was to be given that night +in the town hall by a traveling company. Would Miss Anna Prince care +to go, and Miss Fraley? + +Nan hardly knew why she at once refused, and was filled with regret +when she saw a look of childish expectancy on Miss Eunice's face +quickly change to disappointment. + +"It is too hot to shut one's self into that close place, I am afraid," +she said. "And I am enjoying myself very much here, Mr. Gerry." Which +was generous on Nan's part, if one considered the premeditated war +which had been waged against her. Then the thought flashed through her +mind that it might be a bit of good fun for her companion; and without +waiting for either approval or opposition from the elder women, she +said, in a different tone, "However, if Miss Fraley will go too, I +will accept with pleasure; I suppose it is quite time?" and before +there could be a formal dissent she had hurried the pleased daughter +of the house, who was not quick in her movements, to her room, and in +a few minutes, after a good deal of laughter which the presence of the +escort kept anybody from even wishing to silence, the three were +fairly started down the street. It was of no avail that Mrs. Fraley +condemned her own judgment in not having advised Eunice to stay at +home and leave the young people free, and that Miss Prince made a +feeble protest for politeness' sake,--the pleasure-makers could not be +called back. + +Nan had really grown into a great liking for George Gerry. She often +thought it would have been very good to have such a brother. But more +than one person in the audience thought they had never seen a braver +young couple; and the few elderly persons of discretion who had gone +to the play felt their hearts thrill with sudden sympathy as our +friends went far down the room to their seats. Miss Fraley was almost +girlish herself, and looked so pleased and bright that everybody who +cared anything about her smiled when they caught sight of her, she was +so prim and neat; it was impossible for her, under any circumstances, +to look anything but discreet and quaint; but as for Nan, she was +beautiful with youth and health; as simply dressed as Miss Eunice, but +with the gayety of a flower,--some slender, wild thing, that has +sprung up fearlessly under the great sky, with only the sunshine and +the wind and summer rain to teach it, and help it fulfill its +destiny,--a flower that has grown with no painful effort of its own, +but because God made it and kept it; that has bloomed because it has +come in the course of its growth to the right time. And Miss Eunice, +like a hindered little house-plant, took a long breath of delight as +she sat close by her kind young friend, and felt as if somebody had +set her roots free from their familiar prison. + +To let God make us, instead of painfully trying to make ourselves; to +follow the path that his love shows us, instead of through conceit or +cowardice or mockery choosing another; to trust Him for our strength +and fitness as the flowers do, simply giving ourselves back to Him in +grateful service,--this is to keep the laws that give us the freedom +of the city in which there is no longer any night of bewilderment or +ignorance or uncertainty. So the woman who had lived a life of +bondage, whose hardest task-master was herself, and the woman who had +been both taught and inspired to hold fast her freedom, sat side by +side: the one life having been blighted because it lacked its mate, +and was but half a life in itself; while the other, fearing to give +half its royalty or to share its bounty, was being tempted to cripple +itself, and to lose its strait and narrow way where God had left no +room for another. + +For as the play went on and the easily pleased audience laughed and +clapped its hands, and the tired players bowed and smiled from behind +the flaring foot-lights, there was one spectator who was conscious of +a great crisis in her own life, which the mimicry of that evening +seemed to ridicule and counterfeit. And though Nan smiled with the +rest, and even talked with her neighbors while the tawdry curtain had +fallen, it seemed to her that the coming of Death at her life's end +could not be more strange and sudden than this great barrier which had +fallen between her and her girlhood, the dear old life which had kept +her so unpuzzled and safe. So this was love at last, this fear, this +change, this strange relation to another soul. Who could stand now at +her right hand and give her grace to hold fast the truth that her soul +must ever be her own? + +The only desire that possessed her was to be alone again, to make Love +show his face as well as make his mysterious presence felt. She was +thankful for the shelter of the crowd, and went on, wishing that the +short distance to her aunt's home could be made even shorter. She had +felt this man's love for her only in a vague way before, and now, as +he turned to speak to her from time to time, she could not meet his +eyes. The groups of people bade each other good-night merrily, though +the entertainment had been a little tiresome to every one at the last, +and it seemed the briefest space of time before Miss Fraley and Nan +and their cavalier were left by themselves, and at last Nan and George +Gerry were alone together. + +For his part he had never been so happy as that night. It seemed to +him that his wish was coming true, and he spoke gently enough and of +the same things they might have talked about the night before, but a +splendid chorus of victory was sounding in his ears; and once, as they +stopped for a moment to look between two of the old warehouses at the +shining river and the masts and rigging of the ship against the +moonlighted sky, he was just ready to speak to the girl at his side. +But he looked at her first and then was silent. There was something in +her face that forbade it,--a whiteness and a strange look in her eyes, +that made him lose all feeling of comradeship or even acquaintance. "I +wonder if the old Highflyer will ever go out again?" she said slowly. +"Captain Parish told me some time ago that he had found her more badly +damaged than he supposed. A vessel like that belongs to the high seas, +and is like a prisoner when it touches shore. I believe that the stray +souls that have no bodies must sometimes make a dwelling in inanimate +things and make us think they are alive. I am always sorry for that +ship"-- + +"Its guardian angel must have been asleep the night of the collision," +laughed young Gerry, uneasily; he was displeased with himself the +moment afterward, but Nan laughed too, and felt a sense of reprieve; +and they went on again and said good night quietly on the steps of the +old Prince house. It was very late for Dunport, and the door was shut, +but through the bull's-eyed panes of glass overhead a faint light was +shining, though it could hardly assert itself against the moonlight. +Miss Prince was still down-stairs, and her niece upbraided her, and +then began to give an account of the play, which was cut short by the +mistress of the house; for after one eager, long look at Nan, she +became sleepy and disappointed, and they said good-night; but the girl +felt certain that her aunt was leagued against her, and grew sick at +heart and tired as she climbed the stairs. There was a letter on the +long mahogany table in the hall, and Nan stopped and looked over the +railing at it wearily. Miss Prince stopped too, and said she was sorry +she had forgotten,--it was from Oldfields, and in Dr. Leslie's +writing. But though Nan went back for it, and kissed it more than once +before she went to bed, and even put it under her pillow as a comfort +and defense against she knew not what, for the first time in her life +she was afraid to open it and read the kind words. That night she +watched the moonlight creep along the floor, and heard the cocks crow +at midnight and in the morning; the birds woke with the new day while +she tried to understand the day that had gone, wondering what she must +do and say when she faced the world again only a few hours later. + +Sometimes she felt herself carried along upon a rushing tide, and was +amazed that a hundred gifts and conditions to which she had scarcely +given a thought seemed dear and necessary. Once she fancied herself in +a quiet home; living there, perhaps, in that very house, and being +pleased with her ordering and care-taking. And her great profession +was all like a fading dream; it seemed now no matter whether she had +ever loved the studies of it, or been glad to think that she had it in +her power to make suffering less, or prevent it altogether. Her old +ambitions were torn away from her one by one, and in their place came +the hardly-desired satisfactions of love and marriage, and home-making +and housekeeping, the dear, womanly, sheltered fashions of life, +toward which she had been thankful to see her friends go hand in hand, +making themselves a complete happiness which nothing else could match. +But as the night waned, the certainty of her duty grew clearer and +clearer. She had long ago made up her mind that she must not marry. +She might be happy, it was true, and make other people so, but her +duty was not this, and a certainty that satisfaction and the blessing +of God would not follow her into these reverenced and honored limits +came to her distinctly. One by one the reasons for keeping on her +chosen course grew more unanswerable than ever. She had not thought +she should be called to resist this temptation, but since it had come +she was glad she was strong enough to meet it. It would be no real +love for another person, and no justice to herself, to give up her +work, even though holding it fast would bring weariness and pain and +reproach, and the loss of many things that other women held dearest +and best. + +In the morning Nan smiled when her aunt noticed her tired look, and +said that the play had been a pursuit of pleasure under difficulties. +And though Miss Prince looked up in dismay, and was full of objections +and almost querulous reproaches because Nan said she must end her +visit within a day or two, she hoped that George Gerry would be, after +all, a reason for the girl's staying. Until Nan, who had been standing +by the window, looking wistfully at the garden, suddenly turned and +said, gently and solemnly, "Listen, Aunt Nancy! I must be about my +business; you do not know what it means to me, or what I hope to make +it mean to other people." And then Miss Prince knew once for all, that +it was useless to hope or to plan any longer. But she would not let +herself be vanquished so easily, and summoned to her mind many +assurances that girls would not be too easily won, and after a short +season of disapproving silence, returned to her usual manner as if +there had been neither difference nor dispute. + + + + +XX + +ASHORE AND AFLOAT + + +"Your cousin Walter Parish is coming to dine with us to-day," said +Miss Prince, later that morning. "He came to the Fraleys just after +you went out last evening, to speak with me about a business matter, +and waited to walk home with me afterward. I have been meaning to +invite him here with his wife, but there doesn't seem to be much +prospect of her leaving her room for some time yet, and this morning I +happened to find an uncommonly good pair of young ducks. Old Mr. Brown +has kept my liking for them in mind for a great many years. Your +grandfather used to say that there was nothing like a duckling to his +taste; he used to eat them in England, but people in this country let +them get too old. He was willing to pay a great price for ducklings +always; but even Mr. Brown seems to think it is a great wrong not to +let them grow until Thanksgiving time, and makes a great many +apologies every year. It is from his farm that we always get the best +lamb too; they are very nice people, the Browns, but the poor old man +seems very feeble this summer. Some day I should really like to take a +drive out into the country to see them, you know so well how to manage +a horse. You can spare a day or two to give time for that, can't you?" + +Nan was sorry to hear the pleading tone, it was so unlike her aunt's +usually severe manner, and answered quickly that she should be very +glad to make the little excursion. Mr. Brown had asked her to come to +the farm one day near the beginning of her visit. + +"You must say this is home, if you can," said Miss Prince, who was a +good deal excited and shaken that morning, "and not think of yourself +as a visitor any more. There are a great many things I hope you can +understand, even if I have left them unsaid. It has really seemed more +like home since you have been here, and less like a lodging. I wonder +how I--When did you see Mr. Brown? I did not know you had ever spoken +to him." + +"It was some time ago," the girl answered. "I was in the kitchen, and +he came to the door. He seemed very glad to see me," and Nan hesitated +a moment. "He said I was like my father." + +"Yes, indeed," responded Miss Prince, drearily; and the thought seized +her that it was very strange that the same mistaken persistency should +show itself in father and child in exactly opposite ways. If Nan would +only care as much for marrying George Gerry, as her father had for +marrying his wretched wife! It seemed more and more impossible that +this little lady should be the daughter of such a woman; how dismayed +the girl would be if she could be shown her mother's nature as Miss +Prince remembered it. Alas! this was already a sorrow which no vision +of the reality could deepen, and the frank words of the Oldfields +country people about the bad Thachers had not been spoken fruitlessly +in the ears of their last descendant. + +"I am so glad the captain is coming," Nan said presently, to break the +painful silence. "I do hope that he and Dr. Leslie will know each +other some time, they would be such capital friends. The doctor sent +his kind regards to you in last night's letter, and asked me again to +say that he hoped that you would come to us before the summer is over. +I should like so much to have you know what Oldfields is like." It was +hard to save herself from saying "home" again, instead of Oldfields, +but the change of words was made quickly. + +"He is very courteous and hospitable, but I never pay visits +nowadays," said Miss Prince, and thought almost angrily that there was +no necessity for her making a target of herself for all those curious +country-people's eyes. And then they rose and separated for a time, +each being burdened less by care than thought. + + +The captain came early to dine, and brought with him his own and Miss +Prince's letters from the post-office, together with the morning +paper, which he proceeded to read. He also seemed to have a weight +upon his mind, but by the time they were at table a mild cheerfulness +made itself felt, and Nan summoned all her resources and was gayer and +brighter than usual. Miss Prince had gone down town early in the day, +and her niece was perfectly sure that there had been a consultation +with Mr. Gerry. He had passed the house while Nan sat at her upper +window writing, and had looked somewhat wistfully at the door as if he +had half a mind to enter it. He was like a great magnet: it seemed +impossible to resist looking after him, and indeed his ghost-like +presence would not forsake her mind, but seemed urging her toward his +visible self. The thought of him was so powerful that the sight of the +young man was less strange and compelling, and it was almost a relief +to have seen his familiar appearance,--the strong figure in its +every-day clothes, his unstudent-like vigor, and easy step as he went +by. She liked him still, but she hated love, it was making her so +miserable,--even when later she told Captain Parish some delightful +Oldfields stories, of so humorous a kind that he laughed long and +struck the table more than once, which set the glasses jingling, and +gave a splendid approval to the time-honored fun. The ducklings were +amazingly good; and when Captain Walter had tasted his wine and read +the silver label on the decanter, which as usual gave no evidence of +the rank and dignity of the contents, his eyes sparkled with +satisfaction, and he turned to his cousin's daughter with impressive +gravity. + +"You may never have tasted such wine as that," he said. "Your +grandfather, the luckiest captain who ever sailed out of Dunport, +brought it home fifty years ago, and it was well ripened then. I +didn't know there was a bottle of it left, Nancy," he laughed. "My +dear, your aunt has undertaken to pay one of us a handsome +compliment." + +"Your health, cousin Walter!" said the girl quickly, lifting her own +glass, and making him a little bow over the old Madeira. + +"Bless your dear heart!" responded the captain; "the same good wishes +to you in return, and now you must join me in my respects to your +aunt. Nancy! I beg you not to waste this in pudding-sauces; that's the +way with you ladies." + +The toast-drinking had a good effect upon the little company, and it +seemed as if the cloud which had hung over it at first had been blown +away. When there was no longer any excuse for lingering at the table, +the guest seemed again a little ill at ease, and after a glance at his +hostess, proposed to Nan that they should take a look at the garden. +The old sailor had become in his later years a devoted tiller of the +soil, and pleaded a desire to see some late roses which were just now +in bloom. So he and Nan went down the walk together, and he fidgeted +and hurried about for a few minutes before he could make up his mind +to begin a speech which was weighing heavily on his conscience. + +Nan was sure that something unusual was perplexing him, and answered +his unnecessary questions patiently, wondering what he was trying to +say. + +"Dear me!" he grumbled at last, "I shall have to steer a straight +course. The truth is, Nancy has been telling me that I ought to advise +with you, and see that you understand what you are about with young +Gerry. She has set her heart on your fancying him. I dare say you know +she has treated him like a son all through his growing up; but now +that you have come to your rightful place, she can't bear to have +anybody hint at your going back to the other people. 'Tis plain enough +what he thinks about it, and I must say I believe it would be for your +good. Here you are with your father's family, what is left of it; and +I take no liberty when I tell you that your aunt desires this to be +your home, and means to give you your father's share of the property +now and the rest when she is done with it. It is no more than your +rights, and I know as much as anybody about it, and can tell you that +there's a handsomer fortune than you may have suspected. Money grows +fast if it is let alone; and though your aunt has done a good deal for +others, her expenses have been well held in hand. I must say I should +like to keep you here, child," the captain faltered, "but I shall want +to do what's for your happiness. I couldn't feel more earnest about +that if I were your own father. You must think it over. I'm not going +to beseech you: I learned long ago that 'tis no use to drive a +Prince." + +Nan had tried at first to look unconcerned and treat the matter +lightly, but this straightforward talk appealed to her much more than +the suggestion and general advice which Miss Prince had implored the +captain to give the night before. And now her niece could only thank +him for his kindness, and tell him that by and by she would make him +understand why she put aside these reasons, and went back to the life +she had known before. + +But a sudden inspiration made her resolution grow stronger, and she +looked at Captain Parish with a convincing bravery. + +"When you followed the sea," she said quickly, "if you had a good ship +with a freight that you had gathered with great care and hopefulness, +and had brought it almost to the market that it was suited for, would +you have been persuaded to turn about and take it to some place where +it would be next to useless?" + +"No," said Captain Parish, "no, I shouldn't," and he half smiled at +this illustration. + +"I can't tell you all my reasons for not wishing to marry," Nan went +on, growing very white and determined, "or all my reasons for wishing +to go on with my plan of being a doctor; but I know I have no right to +the one way of life, and a perfect one, so far as I can see, to the +other. And it seems to me that it would be as sensible to ask Mr. +Gerry to be a minister since he has just finished his law studies, as +to ask me to be a wife instead of a physician. But what I used to +dread without reason a few years ago, I must forbid myself now, +because I know the wretched inheritance I might have had from my poor +mother's people. I can't speak of that to Aunt Nancy, but you must +tell her not to try to make me change my mind." + +"Good God!" said the captain. "I dare say you have the right points of +it; but if I were a young man 't would go hard with me to let you take +your life into your own hands. It's against nature." + +"No," said Nan. "The law of right and wrong must rule even love, and +whatever comes to me, I must not forget that. Three years ago I had +not thought about it so much, and I might not have been so sure; but +now I have been taught there is only one road to take. And you must +tell Aunt Nancy this." + +But when they went back to the house, Miss Prince was not to be seen, +and the captain hurried away lest she should make her appearance, for +he did not wish just then to talk about the matter any more. He told +himself that young people were very different in these days; but when +he thought of the words he had heard in the garden, and remembered the +pale face and the steadfast, clear-toned voice, he brushed away +something like a tear. "If more people used judgment in this same +decision the world would be better off," he said, and could not help +reminding himself that his own niece, little Mary Parish, who was +wearing a wistful countenance in these days, might by and by be happy +after all. For Nan's part it was a great relief to have spoken to the +kind old man; she felt more secure than before; but sometimes the fear +assailed her that some unforeseen event or unreckoned influence might +give her back to her indecisions, and that the battle of the night +before might after all prove not to be final. + + +The afternoon wore away, and late in the day our heroine heard George +Gerry's step coming up the street. She listened as she sat by the +upper window, and found that he was giving a message for her. It was +perfect weather to go up the river, he was saying; the tide served +just right and would bring them home early; and Miss Prince, who was +alone in the parlor, answered with pleased assurance that she was sure +her niece would like to go. "Yes," said Nan, calling from the window, +urged by a sudden impulse. "Yes indeed, I should like it above all +things; I will get ready at once; will you carry two pairs of oars?" + +There was a ready assent, but the uncertainty of the tone of it struck +Anna Prince's quick ear. She seemed to know that the young man and her +aunt were exchanging looks of surprise, and that they felt insecure +and uncertain. It was not the yielding maiden who had spoken to her +lover, but the girl who was his good comrade and cordial friend. The +elder woman shook her head doubtfully; she knew well what this +foreboded, and was impatient at the overthrow of her plans; yet she +had full confidence in the power of Love. She had seen apparent +self-reliance before, and she could not believe that her niece was +invincible. At any rate nothing could be more persuasive than a +twilight row upon the river, and for her part, she hoped more eagerly +than ever that Love would return chief in command of the boat's young +crew; and when the young man flushed a little, and looked at her +appealingly, as he turned to go down the street, his friend and +counselor could not resist giving him a hopeful nod. Nan was +singularly frank, and free from affectations, and she might have +already decided to lower her colors and yield the victory, and it +seemed for a moment that it would be much more like her to do so, than +to invite further contest when she was already won. Miss Prince was +very kind and sympathetic when this explanation had once forced itself +upon her mind; she gave the young girl a most affectionate kiss when +she appeared, but at this unmistakable suggestion of pleasure and +treasured hopes, Nan turned back suddenly into the shaded parlor, +though Mr. Gerry was waiting outside with his favorite oars, which he +kept carefully in a corner of the office. + +"Dear Aunt Nancy," said the girl, with evident effort, "I am so sorry +to disappoint you. I wish for your sake that I had been another sort +of woman; but I shall never marry. I know you think I am wrong, but +there is something which always tells me I am right, and I must follow +another way. I should only wreck my life, and other people's. Most +girls have an instinct towards marrying, but mine is all against it, +and God knew best when He made me care more for another fashion of +life. Don't make me seem unkind! I dare say that I can put it all into +words better by and by, but I can never be more certain of it in my +own heart than now." + +"Sit down a minute," said Miss Prince, slowly. "George can wait. But, +Anna, I believe that you are in love with him, and that you are doing +wrong to the poor lad, and to yourself, and to me. I lost the best +happiness of my life for a whim, and you wish to throw away yours for +a theory. I hope you will be guided by me. I have come to love you +very much, and it seems as if this would be so reasonable." + +"It does make a difference to me that he loves me," confessed the +girl. "It is not easy to turn away from him," she said,--still +standing, and looking taller than ever, and even thin, with a curious +tenseness of her whole being. "It is something that I have found it +hard to fight against, but it is not my whole self longing for his +love and his companionship. If I heard he had gone to the other side +of the world for years and years, I should be glad now and not sorry. +I know that all the world's sympathy and all tradition fight on his +side; but I can look forward and see something a thousand times better +than being his wife, and living here in Dunport keeping his house, and +trying to forget all that nature fitted me to do. You don't +understand, Aunt Nancy. I wish you could! You see it all another way." +And the tears started to the eager young eyes. "Don't you know that +Cousin Walter said this very day that the wind which sets one vessel +on the right course may set another on the wrong?" + +"Nonsense, my dear," said the mistress of the house. "I don't think +this is the proper time for you to explain yourself at any rate. I +dare say the fresh air will do you good and put everything right too. +You have worked yourself into a great excitement over nothing. Don't +go out looking so desperate to the poor fellow; he will think +strangely of it;" and the girl went out through the wide hall, and +wished she were far away from all this trouble. + + +Nan had felt a strange sense of weariness, which did not leave her +even when she was quieted by the fresh breeze of the river-shore, and +was contented to let her oars be stowed in the bottom of the boat, and +to take the comfortable seat in the stern. She pulled the tiller ropes +over her shoulders, and watched her lover's first strong strokes, +which had quickly sent them out into the stream, beyond the course of +a larger craft which was coming toward the wharf. She wished presently +that she had chosen to row, because they would not then be face to +face; but, strange to say, since this new experience had come to her, +she had not felt so sure of herself as now, and the fear of finding +herself too weak to oppose the new tendency of her life had lessened +since her first recognition of it the night before. But Nan had fought +a hard fight, and had grown a great deal older in those hours of the +day and night. She believed that time would make her even more certain +that she had done right than she could be now in the heat of the +battle, but she wished whatever George Gerry meant to say to her might +be soon over with. + +They went slowly up the river, which was now quite familiar to the +girl who had come to it a stranger only a few weeks before. She liked +out-of-door life so well that this countryside of Dunport was already +more dear to her than to many who had seen it bloom and fade every +year since they could remember. At one moment it seemed but yesterday +that she had come to the old town, and at the next she felt as if she +had spent half a lifetime there, and as if Oldfields might have +changed unbearably since she came away. + +Sometimes the young oarsman kept in the middle of the great stream, +and sometimes it seemed pleasanter to be near the shore. The midsummer +flowers were coming into blossom, and the grass and trees had long +since lost the brilliance of their greenness, and wore a look of +maturity and completion, as if they had already finished their growth. +There was a beautiful softness and harmony of color, a repose that one +never sees in a spring landscape. The tide was in, the sun was almost +down, and a great, cloudless, infinite sky arched itself from horizon +to horizon. It had sent all its brilliance to shine backward from the +sun,--the glowing sphere from which a single dazzling ray came across +the fields and the water to the boat. In a moment more it was gone, +and a shadow quickly fell like that of a tropical twilight; but the +west grew golden, and one light cloud, like a floating red feather, +faded away upward into the sky. A later bright glow touched some high +hills in the east, then they grew purple and gray, and so the evening +came that way slowly, and the ripple of the water plashed and sobbed +against the boat's side; and presently in the midst of the river's +inland bay, after a few last eager strokes, the young man drew in his +oars, letting them drop with a noise which startled Nan, who had +happened to be looking over her shoulder at the shore. + +She knew well enough that he meant to put a grave question to her now, +and her heart beat faster and she twisted the tiller cords around her +hands unconsciously. + +"I think I could break any bonds you might use to keep yourself away +from me," he said hurriedly, as he watched her. "I am not fit for you, +only that I love you. Somebody told me you meant to go away, and I +could not wait any longer before I asked you if you would give +yourself to me." + +"No, no!" cried Nan, "dear friend, I must not do it; it would all be a +mistake. You must not think of it any more. I am so sorry, I ought to +have understood what was coming to us, and have gone away long ago." + +"It would have made no difference," said the young man, almost +angrily. He could not bear delay enough even for speech at that +moment; he watched her face desperately for a look of assurance; he +leaned toward her and wondered why he had not risked everything, and +spoken the evening before when they stood watching the ship's mast, +and Nan's hands were close enough to be touched. But the miserable +knowledge crept over him that she was a great deal farther away from +him than half that small boat's length, and as she looked up at him +again, and shook her head gently, a great rage of love and shame at +his repulse urged him to plead again. "You are spoiling my life," he +cried. "You do not care for that, but without you I shall not care for +anything." + +"I would rather spoil your life in this way than in a far worse +fashion," said Nan sadly. "I will always be your friend, but if I +married you I might seem by and by to be your enemy. Yes, you will +love somebody else some day, and be a great deal happier than I could +have made you, and I shall be so glad. It does not belong to me." + +But this seemed too scornful and cold-hearted. "Oh, my love is only +worth that to you," the lover said. "You shall know better what it +means. I don't want you for my friend, but for my own to keep and to +have. It makes me laugh to think of your being a doctor and going back +to that country town to throw yourself away for the fancies and silly +theories of a man who has lived like a hermit. It means a true life +for both of us if you will only say you love me, or even let me ask +you again when you have thought of it more. Everybody will say I am in +the right." + +"Yes, there are reasons enough for it, but there is a better reason +against it. If you love me you must help me do what is best," said +Nan. "I shall miss you and think of you more than you know when I am +away. I never shall forget all these pleasant days we have been +together. Oh George!" she cried, in a tone that thrilled him through +and through, "I hope you will be friends with me again by and by. You +will know then I have done right because it is right and will prove +itself. If it is wrong for me I couldn't really make you happy; and +over all this and beyond it something promises me and calls me for a +life that my marrying you would hinder and not help. It isn't that I +shouldn't be so happy that it is not easy to turn away even from the +thought of it; but I know that the days would come when I should see, +in a way that would make me long to die, that I had lost the true +direction of my life and had misled others beside myself. You don't +believe me, but I cannot break faith with my duty. There are many +reasons that have forbidden me to marry, and I have a certainty as +sure as the stars that the only right condition of life for me is to +follow the way that everything until now has pointed out. The great +gain and purpose of my being alive is there; and I must not mind the +blessings that I shall have to do without." + +He made a gesture of impatience and tried to interrupt her, but she +said quickly, as if to prevent his speaking: "Listen to me. I can't +help speaking plainly. I would not have come with you this afternoon, +only I wished to make you understand me entirely. I have never since I +can remember thought of myself and my life in any way but +unmarried,--going on alone to the work I am fit to do. I do care for +you. I have been greatly surprised and shaken because I found how +strongly something in me has taken your part, and shown me the +possibility of happiness in a quiet life that should centre itself in +one man's love, and within the walls of his home. But something tells +me all the time that I could not marry the whole of myself as most +women can; there is a great share of my life which could not have its +way, and could only hide itself and be sorry. I know better and better +that most women are made for another sort of existence, but by and by +I must do my part in my own way to make many homes happy instead of +one; to free them from pain, and teach grown people and little +children to keep their bodies free from weakness and deformities. I +don't know why God should have made me a doctor, so many other things +have seemed fitter for women; but I see the blessedness of such a +useful life more and more every year, and I am very thankful for such +a trust. It is a splendid thing to have the use of any gift of God. It +isn't for us to choose again, or wonder and dispute, but just work in +our own places, and leave the rest to God." + +The boat was being carried downward by the ebbing tide, and George +Gerry took the oars again, and rowed quietly and in silence. He took +his defeat unkindly and drearily; he was ashamed of himself once, +because some evil spirit told him that he was losing much that would +content him, in failing to gain this woman's love. It had all been so +fair a prospect of worldly success, and she had been the queen of it. +He thought of himself growing old in Mr. Sergeant's dusty office, and +that this was all that life could hold for him. Yet to be was better +than to have. Alas! if he had been more earnest in his growth, it +would have been a power which this girl of high ideals could have been +held and mastered by. No wonder that she would not give up her dreams +of duty and service, since she had found him less strong than such +ideals. The fancied dissatisfaction and piteousness of failure which +she would be sure to meet filled his heart with dismay; yet, at that +very next moment, resent it as he might, the certainty of his own +present defeat and powerlessness could not be misunderstood. Perhaps, +after all, she knew what was right; her face wore again the look he +had feared to disturb the night before, and his whole soul was filled +with homage in the midst of its sorrow, because this girl, who had +been his merry companion in the summer holidays, so sweet and familiar +and unforgetable in the midst of the simple festivals, stood nearer to +holier things than himself, and had listened to the call of God's +messengers to whom his own doors had been ignorantly shut. And Nan +that night was a soul's physician, though she had been made to sorely +hurt her patient before the new healthfulness could well begin. + +They floated down the river and tried to talk once or twice, but there +were many spaces of silence, and as they walked along the paved +streets, they thought of many things. An east wind was blowing in from +the sea, and the elm branches were moving restlessly overhead. "It +will all be better to-morrow," said Nan, as they stood on the steps at +last. "You must come to see Aunt Nancy very often after I have gone, +for she will be lonely. And do come in the morning as if nothing had +been spoken. I am so sorry. Good-night, and God bless you," she +whispered; and when she stood inside the wide doorway, in the dark, +she listened to his footsteps as he went away down the street. They +were slower than usual, but she did not call him back. + + + + +XXI + +AT HOME AGAIN + + +In Oldfields Dr. Leslie had outwardly lived the familiar life to which +his friends and patients had long since accustomed themselves; he had +seemed a little preoccupied, perhaps, but if that were observed, it +was easily explained by his having one or two difficult cases to think +about. A few persons suspected that he missed Nan, and was, perhaps, a +little anxious lest her father's people in Dunport should claim her +altogether. Among those who knew best the doctor and his ward there +had been an ardent championship of Nan's rights and dignity, and a +great curiosity to know the success of the visit. Dr. Leslie had +answered all questions with composure, and with a distressing +meagreness of details; but at length Mrs. Graham became sure that he +was not altogether free from anxiety, and set her own quick wits at +work to learn the cause. It seemed a time of great uncertainty, at any +rate. The doctor sometimes brought one of Nan's bright, affectionate +letters for his neighbor to read, and they agreed that this holiday +was an excellent thing for her, but there was a silent recognition of +the fact that this was a critical time in the young girl's history; +that it either meant a new direction of her life or an increased +activity in the old one. Mrs. Graham was less well than usual in these +days, and the doctor found time to make more frequent visits than +ever, telling himself that she missed Nan's pleasant companionship, +but really wishing as much to receive sympathy as to give it. The dear +old lady had laughingly disclaimed any desire to summon her children +or grandchildren, saying that she was neither ill enough to need them, +nor well enough to enjoy them; and so in the beautiful June weather +the two old friends became strangely dear to each other, and had many +a long talk which the cares of the world or their own reserve had made +them save until this favoring season. + +The doctor was acknowledged to be an old man at last, though everybody +still insisted that he looked younger than his age, and could not +doubt that he had half a lifetime of usefulness before him yet. But it +makes a great difference when one's ambitions are transferred from +one's own life to that of a younger person's; and while Dr. Leslie +grew less careful for himself, trusting to the unconscious certainty +of his practiced skill, he pondered eagerly over Nan's future, +reminding himself of various hints and suggestions, which must be +added to her equipment. Sometimes he wished that she were beginning a +few years later, when her position could be better recognized and +respected, and she would not have to fight against so much of the +opposition and petty fault-finding that come from ignorance; and +sometimes he rejoiced that his little girl, as he fondly called her, +would be one of the earlier proofs and examples of a certain noble +advance and new vantage-ground of civilization. This has been +anticipated through all ages by the women who, sometimes honored and +sometimes persecuted, have been drawn away from home life by a +devotion to public and social usefulness. It must be recognized that +certain qualities are required for married, and even domestic life, +which all women do not possess; but instead of attributing this to the +disintegration of society, it must be acknowledged to belong to its +progress. + +So long as the visit in Dunport seemed to fulfill its anticipated +purpose, and the happy guest was throwing aside her cares and enjoying +the merry holiday and the excitement of new friendships and of her +uncommon position, so long the doctor had been glad, and far from +impatient to have the visit end. But when he read the later and +shorter letters again and again in the vain hope of finding something +in their wording which should explain the vague unhappiness which had +come to him as he had read them first, he began to feel troubled and +dismayed. There was something which Nan had not explained; something +was going wrong. He was sure that if it were anything he could set +right, that she would have told him. She had always done so; but it +became evident through the strange sympathy which made him conscious +of the mood of others that she was bent upon fighting her way alone. + +It was a matter of surprise, and almost of dismay to him early one +morning, when he received a brief note from her which told him only +that she should be at home late that afternoon. It seemed to the wise +old doctor a day of most distressing uncertainty. He tried to make up +his mind to accept with true philosophy whatever decision she was +bringing him. "Nan is a good girl," he told himself over and over +again; "she will try to do right." But she was so young and so +generous, and whether she had been implored to break the old ties of +home life and affection for her aunt's sake, or whether it was a newer +and stronger influence still which had prevailed, waited for +explanation. Alas, as was written once, it is often the higher nature +that yields, because it is the most generous. The doctor knew well +enough the young girl's character. He knew what promises of growth and +uncommon achievement were all ready to unfold themselves,--for what +great uses she was made. He could not bear the thought of her being +handicapped in the race she had been set to run. Yet no one recognized +more clearly than he the unseen, and too often unconsidered, factor +which is peculiar to each soul, which prevents any other intelligence +from putting itself exactly in that soul's place, so that our +decisions and aids and suggestions are never wholly sufficient or +available for those even whom we love most. He went over the question +again and again; he followed Nan in his thoughts as she had grown +up,--unprejudiced, unconstrained as is possible for any human being to +be. He remembered that her heroes were the great doctors, and that her +whole heart had been stirred and claimed by the noble duties and needs +of the great profession. She had been careless of the social +limitations, of the lack of sympathy, even of the ridicule of the +public. She had behaved as a bird would behave if it were assured by +beasts and fishes that to walk and to swim were the only proper and +respectable means of getting from place to place. She had shown such +rare insight into the principles of things; she had even seemed to +him, as he watched her, to have anticipated experience, and he could +not help believing that it was within her power to add much to the too +small fund of certainty, by the sure instinct and aim of her +experiment. It counted nothing whether God had put this soul into a +man's body or a woman's. He had known best, and He meant it to be the +teller of new truth, a revealer of laws, and an influence for good in +its capacity for teaching, as well as in its example of pure and +reasonable life. + +But the old doctor sighed, and told himself that the girl was most +human, most affectionate; it was not impossible that, in spite of her +apparent absence of certain domestic instincts, they had only lain +dormant and were now awake. He could not bear that she should lose any +happiness which might be hers; and the tender memory of the blessed +companionship which had been withdrawn from his mortal sight only to +be given back to him more fully as he had lived closer and nearer to +spiritual things, made him shrink from forbidding the same sort of +fullness and completion of life to one so dear as Nan. He tried to +assure himself that while a man's life is strengthened by his domestic +happiness, a woman's must either surrender itself wholly, or +relinquish entirely the claims of such duties, if she would achieve +distinction or satisfaction elsewhere. The two cannot be taken +together in a woman's life as in a man's. One must be made of lesser +consequence, though the very natures of both domestic and professional +life need all the strength which can be brought to them. The decision +between them he knew to be a most grave responsibility, and one to be +governed by the gravest moral obligations, and the unmistakable +leadings of the personal instincts and ambitions. It was seldom, Dr. +Leslie was aware, that so typical and evident an example as this could +offer itself of the class of women who are a result of natural +progression and variation, not for better work, but for different +work, and who are designed for certain public and social duties. But +he believed this class to be one that must inevitably increase with +the higher developments of civilization, and in later years, which he +might never see, the love for humanity would be recognized and +employed more intelligently; while now almost every popular prejudice +was against his ward, then she would need no vindication. The wielder +of ideas has always a certain advantage over the depender upon facts; +and though the two classes of minds by no means inevitably belong, the +one to women, and the other to men, still women have not yet begun to +use the best resources of their natures, having been later developed, +and in many countries but recently freed from restraining and +hindering influences. + +The preservation of the race is no longer the only important question; +the welfare of the individual will be considered more and more. The +simple fact that there is a majority of women in any centre of +civilization means that some are set apart by nature for other uses +and conditions than marriage. In ancient times men depended entirely +upon the women of their households to prepare their food and +clothing,--and almost every man in ordinary circumstances of life was +forced to marry for this reason; but already there is a great change. +The greater proportion of men and women everywhere will still +instinctively and gladly accept the high duties and helps of married +life; but as society becomes more intelligent it will recognize the +fitness of some persons, and the unfitness of others, making it +impossible for these to accept such responsibilities and obligations, +and so dignify and elevate home life instead of degrading it. + +It had been one thing to act from conviction and from the promptings +of instinct while no obstacles opposed themselves to his decisions, +and quite another thing to be brought face to face with such an +emergency. Dr. Leslie wished first to be able to distinctly explain to +himself his reasons for the opinions he held; he knew that he must +judge for Nan herself in some measure; she would surely appeal to him; +she would bring this great question to him, and look for sympathy and +relief in the same way she had tearfully shown him a wounded finger in +her childhood. He seemed to see again the entreating eyes, made large +with the pain which would not show itself in any other way, and he +felt the rare tears fill his own eyes at the thought. "Poor little +Nan," he said to himself, "she has been hurt in the great battle, but +she is no skulking soldier." He would let her tell her story, and then +give her the best help he could; and so when the afternoon shadows +were very long across the country, and the hot summer day was almost +done, the doctor drove down the wide street and along East Road to the +railroad station. As he passed a group of small houses he looked at +his watch and found that there was more than time for a second visit +to a sick child whose illness had been most serious and perplexing at +first, though now she was fast recovering. The little thing smiled as +her friend came in, and asked if the young lady were coming to-morrow, +for Dr. Leslie had promised a visit and a picture-book from Nan, whom +he wished to see and understand the case. They had had a long talk +upon such ailments as this just before she went away, and nothing had +seemed to rouse her ambition so greatly as her experiences at the +children's hospitals the winter before. Now, this weak little creature +seemed to be pleading in the name of a great army of sick children, +that Nan would not desert their cause; that she would go on, as she +had promised them, with her search for ways that should restore their +vigor and increase their fitness to take up the work of the world. And +yet, a home and children of one's very own,--the doctor, who had held +and lost this long ago, felt powerless to decide the future of the +young heart which was so dear to him. + +Nan saw the familiar old horse and carriage waiting behind the +station, and did not fail to notice that the doctor had driven to meet +her himself. He almost always did, but her very anxiety to see him +again had made her doubtful. The train had hardly stopped before she +was standing on the platform and had hastily dropped her checks into +the hand of the nearest idle boy, who looked at them doubtfully, as if +he hardly dared to hope that he had been mistaken for the hackman. She +came quickly to the side of the carriage; the doctor could not look at +her, for the horse had made believe that some excitement was +necessary, and was making it difficult for the welcome passenger to +put her foot on the step. It was all over in a minute. Nan sprang to +the doctor's side and away they went down the road. He had caught a +glimpse of her shining eyes and eager face as she had hurried toward +him, and had said, "Well done!" in a most cheerful and every-day +fashion, and then for a minute there was silence. + +"Oh, it is so good to get home," said the girl, and her companion +turned toward her; he could not wait to hear her story. + +"Yes," said Nan, "it is just as well to tell you now. Do you remember +you used to say to me when I was a little girl, 'If you know your +duty, don't mind the best of reasons for not doing it'?" And the +doctor nodded. "I never thought that this reason would come to me for +not being a doctor," she went on, "and at first I was afraid I should +be conquered, though it was myself who fought myself. But it came to +me clearer than ever after a while. I think I could have been fonder +of some one than most people are of those whom they marry, but the +more I cared for him the less I could give him only part of myself; I +knew that was not right. Now that I can look back at it all I am so +glad to have had those days; I shall work better all my life for +having been able to make myself so perfectly sure that I know my way." + +The unconsidered factor had asserted itself in the doctor's favor. He +gave the reins to Nan and leaned back in the carriage, but as she bent +forward to speak to a friend whom they passed she did not see the look +that he gave her. + +"I am sure you knew what was right," he said, hastily. "God bless you, +dear child!" + +Was this little Nan, who had been his play-thing? this brave young +creature, to whose glorious future all his heart and hopes went out. +In his evening it was her morning, and he prayed that God's angels +should comfort and strengthen her and help her to carry the burden of +the day. It is only those who can do nothing who find nothing to do, +and Nan was no idler; she had come to her work as Christ came to his, +not to be ministered unto but to minister. + + +The months went by swiftly, and through hard work and much study, and +many sights of pain and sorrow, this young student of the business of +healing made her way to the day when some of her companions announced +with melancholy truth that they had finished their studies. They were +pretty sure to be accused of having had no right to begin them, or to +take such trusts and responsibilities into their hands. But Nan and +many of her friends had gladly climbed the hill so far, and with every +year's ascent had been thankful for the wider horizon which was spread +for their eyes to see. + +Dr. Leslie in his quiet study almost wished that he were beginning +life again, and sometimes in the twilight, or in long and lonely +country drives, believed himself ready to go back twenty years so that +he could follow Nan into the future and watch her successes. But he +always smiled afterward at such a thought. Twenty years would carry +him back to the time when his ward was a little child, not long before +she came to live with him. It was best as God had planned it. Nobody +had watched the child's development as he had done, or her growth of +character, of which all the performances of her later years would be +to him only the unnecessary proofs and evidences. He knew that she +would be faithful in great things, because she had been faithful in +little things, and he should be with her a long time yet, perhaps. God +only knew. + +There was a great change in the village; there were more small +factories now which employed large numbers of young women, and though +a new doctor had long ago come to Oldfields who had begun by trying to +supersede Dr. Leslie, he had ended by longing to show his gratitude +some day for so much help and kindness. More than one appointment had +been offered the heroine of this story in the city hospitals. She +would have little trouble in making her way since she had the +requisite qualities, natural and acquired, which secure success. But +she decided for herself that she would neither do this, nor carry out +yet the other plan of going on with her studies at some school across +the sea. Zurich held out a great temptation, but there was time enough +yet, and she would spend a year in Oldfields with the doctor, studying +again with him, since she knew better than ever before that she could +find no wiser teacher. And it was a great pleasure to belong to the +dear old town, to come home to it with her new treasures, so much +richer than she had gone away that beside medicines and bandages and +lessons in general hygiene for the physical ails of her patients, she +could often be a tonic to the mind and soul; and since she was trying +to be good, go about doing good in Christ's name to the halt and +maimed and blind in spiritual things. + +Nobody sees people as they are and finds the chance to help poor +humanity as a doctor does. The decorations and deceptions of character +must fall away before the great realities of pain and death. The +secrets of many hearts and homes must be told to this confessor, and +sadder ailments than the text-books name are brought to be healed by +the beloved physicians. Teachers of truth and givers of the laws of +life, priests and ministers,--all these professions are joined in one +with the gift of healing, and are each part of the charge that a good +doctor holds in his keeping. + + +One day in the beginning of her year at Oldfields, Nan, who had been +very busy, suddenly thought it would be well to give herself a +holiday; and with a sudden return of her old sense of freedom was +going out at the door and down toward the gateway, which opened to a +pleasantly wide world beyond. Marilla had taken Nan's successes rather +reluctantly, and never hesitated to say that she only hoped to see her +well married and settled before she died; though she was always ready +to defend her course with even virulence to those who would deprecate +it. She now heard Nan shut the door, and called at once from an upper +window to know if word had been left where she was going, and the +young practitioner laughed aloud as she answered, and properly +acknowledged the fetter of her calling. + +The leaves were just beginning to fall, and she pushed them about with +her feet, and sometimes walked and sometimes ran lightly along the +road toward the farm. But when she reached it, she passed the lane and +went on to the Dyer houses. Mrs. Jake was ailing as usual, and Nan had +told the doctor before she came out that she would venture another +professional visit in his stead. She was a great help to him in this +way, for his calls to distant towns had increased year by year, and he +often found it hard to keep his many patients well in hand. + +The old houses had not changed much since she first knew them, and +neither they nor their inmates were in any danger of being forgotten +by her; the old ties of affection and association grew stronger +instead of weaker every year. It pleased and amused the old people to +be reminded of the days when Nan was a child and lived among them, and +it was a great joy to her to be able to make their pain and discomfort +less, and be their interpreter of the outside world. + +It was a most lovely day of our heroine's favorite weather. It has +been said that November is an epitome of all the months of the year, +but for all that, no other season can show anything so beautiful as +the best and brightest November days. Nan had spent her summer in a +great hospital, where she saw few flowers save human ones, and the +warmth and inspiration of this clear air seemed most delightful. She +had been somewhat tempted by an offer of a fine position in Canada, +and even Dr. Leslie had urged her acceptance, and thought it an +uncommonly good chance to have the best hospital experience and +responsibility, but she had sent the letter of refusal only that +morning. She could not tell yet what her later plans might be; but +there was no place like Oldfields, and she thought she had never loved +it so dearly as that afternoon. + +She looked in at Mrs. Martin's wide-open door first, but finding the +kitchen empty, went quickly across to the other house, where Mrs. Jake +was propped up in her rocking-chair and began to groan loudly when she +saw Nan; but the tonic of so gratifying a presence soon had a most +favorable effect. Benignant Mrs. Martin was knitting as usual, and the +three women sat together in a friendly group and Nan asked and +answered questions most cordially. + +"I declare I was sort of put out with the doctor for sending you down +here day before yesterday instead of coming himself," stated Mrs. Jake +immediately, "but I do' know's I ever had anything do me so much good +as that bottle you gave me." + +"Of course!" laughed Nan. "Dr. Leslie sent it to you himself. I told +you when I gave it to you." + +"Well now, how you talk!" said Mrs. Jake, a little crestfallen. "I +begin to find my hearing fails me by spells. But I was bound to give +you the credit, for all I've stood out against your meddling with a +doctor's business." + +Nan laughed merrily. "I am going to steal you for my patient," she +answered, "and try all the prescriptions on your case first." + +"Land, if you cured her up 'twould be like stopping the leaks in a +basket," announced Mrs. Martin with a beaming smile, and clicking her +knitting-needles excitedly. "She can't hear of a complaint anywheres +about but she thinks she's got the mate to it." + +"I don't seem to have anything fevery about me," said Mrs. Jake, with +an air of patient self-denial; and though both her companions were +most compassionate at the thought of her real sufferings, they could +not resist the least bit of a smile. "I declare you've done one +first-rate thing, if you're never going to do any more," said Mrs. +Jake, presently. "'Liza here's been talking for some time past, about +your straightening up the little boy's back,--the one that lives down +where Mis' Meeker used to live you know,--but I didn't seem to take it +in till he come over here yisterday forenoon. Looks as likely as any +child, except it may be he's a little stunted. When I think how he +used to creep about there, side of the road, like a hopper-toad, it +does seem amazin'!" + +Nan's eyes brightened. "I have been delighted about that. I saw him +running with the other children as I came down the road. It was a long +bit of work, though. The doctor did most of it; I didn't see the child +for months, you know. But he needs care yet; I'm going to stop and +have another talk with his mother as I go home." + +"She's a pore shiftless creature," Mrs. Martin hastened to say. +"There, I thought o' the doctor, how he'd laugh, the last time I was +in to see her; her baby was sick, and she sent up to know if I'd lend +her a variety of herbs, and I didn't know but she might p'isen it, so +I stepped down with something myself. She begun to flutter about like +she always does, and I picked my way acrost the kitchen to the cradle. +'There,' says she, 'I have been laying out all this week to go up to +the Corners and git me two new chairs.' 'I should think you had plenty +of chairs now,' said I, and she looked at me sort of surprised, and +says she, 'There ain't a chair in this house but what's full.'" + +And Nan laughed as heartily as could have been desired before she +asked Mrs. Jake a few more appreciative questions about her ailments, +and then rose to go away. Mrs. Martin followed her out to the gate; +she and Nan had always been very fond of each other, and the elder +woman pointed to a field not far away where the brothers were watching +a stubble-fire, which was sending up a thin blue thread of smoke into +the still air. "They were over in your north lot yisterday," said Mrs. +Martin. "They're fullest o' business nowadays when there's least to +do. They took it pretty hard when they first had to come down to +hiring help, but they kind of enjoy it now. We're all old folks +together on the farm, and not good for much. It don't seem but a year +or two since your poor mother was playing about here, and then you +come along, and now you're the last o' your folks out of all the +houseful of 'em I knew. I'll own up sometimes I've thought strange of +your fancy for doctoring, but I never said a word to nobody against +it, so I haven't got anything to take back as most folks have. I +couldn't help thinking when you come in this afternoon and sat there +along of us, that I'd give a good deal to have Mis' Thacher step in +and see you and know what you've made o' yourself. She had it hard for +a good many years, but I believe 't is all made up to her; I do +certain." + +Nan meant to go back to the village by the shorter way of the little +foot-path, but first she went up the grass-grown lane toward the old +farm-house. She stood for a minute looking about her and across the +well-known fields, and then seated herself on the door-step, and +stayed there for some time. There were two or three sheep near by, +well covered and rounded by their soft new winter wool, and they all +came as close as they dared and looked at her wonderingly. The narrow +path that used to be worn to the door-step had been overgrown years +ago with the short grass, and in it there was a late little dandelion +with hardly any stem at all. The sunshine was warm, and all the +country was wrapped in a thin, soft haze. + +She thought of her grandmother Thacher, and of the words that had just +been said; it was beginning to seem a very great while since the days +of the old farm-life, and Nan smiled as she remembered with what tones +of despair the good old woman used to repeat the well-worn phrase, +that her grandchild would make either something or nothing. It seemed +to her that she had brought all the success of the past and her hopes +for the future to the dear old place that afternoon. Her early life +was spreading itself out like a picture, and as she thought it over +and looked back from year to year, she was more than ever before +surprised to see the connection of one thing with another, and how +some slight acts had been the planting of seeds which had grown and +flourished long afterward. And as she tried to follow herself back +into the cloudy days of her earliest spring, she rose without knowing +why, and went down the pastures toward the river. She passed the old +English apple-tree, which still held aloft a flourishing bough. Its +fruit had been gathered, but there were one or two stray apples left, +and Nan skillfully threw a stick at these by way of summons. + +Along this path she had hurried or faltered many a time. She +remembered her grandmother's funeral, and how she had walked, with an +elderly cousin whom she did not know, at the head of the procession, +and had seen Martin Dyer's small grandson peeping like a rabbit from +among the underbrush near the shore. Poor little Nan! she was very +lonely that day. She had been so glad when the doctor had wrapped her +up and taken her home. + +She saw the neighborly old hawthorn-tree that grew by a cellar, and +stopped to listen to its rustling and to lay her hand upon the rough +bark. It had been a cause of wonder once, for she knew no other tree +of the kind. It was like a snow-drift when it was in bloom, and in the +grass-grown cellar she had spent many an hour, for there was a good +shelter from the wind and an excellent hiding-place, though it seemed +very shallow now when she looked at it as she went by. + +The burying-place was shut in by a plain stone wall, which she had +long ago asked the Dyers to build for her, and she leaned over it now +and looked at the smooth turf of the low graves. She had always +thought she would like to lie there too when her work was done. There +were some of the graves which she did not know, but one was her poor +young mother's, who had left her no inheritance except some traits +that had won Nan many friends; all her evil gifts had been buried with +her, the neighbors had said, when the girl was out of hearing, that +very afternoon. + +There was a strange fascination about these river uplands; no place +was so dear to Nan, and yet she often thought with a shudder of the +story of those footprints which had sought the river's brink, and then +turned back. Perhaps, made pure and strong in a better world, in which +some lingering love and faith had given her the true direction at +last, where even her love for her child had saved her, the mother had +been still taking care of little Nan and guiding her. Perhaps she had +helped to make sure of the blessings her own life had lost, of truth +and whiteness of soul and usefulness; and so had been still bringing +her child in her arms toward the great shelter and home, as she had +toiled in her fright and weakness that dark and miserable night toward +the house on the hill. + +And Nan stood on the shore while the warm wind that gently blew her +hair felt almost like a hand, and presently she went closer to the +river, and looked far across it and beyond it to the hills. The eagles +swung to and fro above the water, but she looked beyond them into the +sky. The soft air and the sunshine came close to her; the trees stood +about and seemed to watch her; and suddenly she reached her hands +upward in an ecstasy of life and strength and gladness. "O God," she +said, "I thank thee for my future." + + * * * * * + + + + +SELECTED STORIES AND SKETCHES + +by Sarah Orne Jewett + + + + * * * * * + + + +CONTENTS + + +STORIES FROM _Strangers and Wayfarers_, Published 1890 + + A WINTER COURTSHIP (_Atlantic Monthly_, Feb., 1889) + + GOING TO SHREWSBURY (_Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1889) + + THE WHITE ROSE ROAD (_Atlantic Monthly_, Sept., 1889) + + THE TOWN POOR (_Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1890) + + +STORIES FROM _A Native of Winby and Other Tales_, Published 1893 + + A NATIVE OF WINBY (_Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1891) + + +LOOKING BACK ON GIRLHOOD, _Youth's Companion_, January 7, 1892 + + +MORE STORIES FROM _A Native of Winby and Other Tales_, Published 1893 + + THE PASSING OF SISTER BARSETT (_Cosmopolitan Magazine_, May, 1892) + + DECORATION DAY (_Harper's Magazine_, June, 1892) + + THE FLIGHT OF BETSEY LANE (_Scribner's Magazine_, Aug. 1893) + + +THE GRAY MILLS OF FARLEY, _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, June, 1898 + + * * * * * + + + + +_A Winter Courtship_ + + +The passenger and mail transportation between the towns of North Kilby +and Sanscrit Pond was carried on by Mr. Jefferson Briley, whose +two-seated covered wagon was usually much too large for the demands of +business. Both the Sanscrit Pond and North Kilby people were +stayers-at-home, and Mr. Briley often made his seven-mile journey in +entire solitude, except for the limp leather mail-bag, which he held +firmly to the floor of the carriage with his heavily shod left foot. +The mail-bag had almost a personality to him, born of long +association. Mr. Briley was a meek and timid-looking body, but he held +a warlike soul, and encouraged his fancies by reading awful tales of +bloodshed and lawlessness in the far West. Mindful of stage robberies +and train thieves, and of express messengers who died at their posts, +he was prepared for anything; and although he had trusted to his own +strength and bravery these many years, he carried a heavy pistol under +his front-seat cushion for better defense. This awful weapon was +familiar to all his regular passengers, and was usually shown to +strangers by the time two of the seven miles of Mr. Briley's route had +been passed. The pistol was not loaded. Nobody (at least not Mr. +Briley himself) doubted that the mere sight of such a weapon would +turn the boldest adventurer aside. + +Protected by such a man and such a piece of armament, one gray Friday +morning in the edge of winter, Mrs. Fanny Tobin was traveling from +Sanscrit Pond to North Kilby. She was an elderly and feeble-looking +woman, but with a shrewd twinkle in her eyes, and she felt very +anxious about her numerous pieces of baggage and her own personal +safety. She was enveloped in many shawls and smaller wrappings, but +they were not securely fastened, and kept getting undone and flying +loose, so that the bitter December cold seemed to be picking a lock +now and then, and creeping in to steal away the little warmth she had. +Mr. Briley was cold, too, and could only cheer himself by remembering +the valor of those pony-express drivers of the pre-railroad days, who +had to cross the Rocky Mountains on the great California route. He +spoke at length of their perils to the suffering passenger, who felt +none the warmer, and at last gave a groan of weariness. + +"How fur did you say 't was now?" + +"I do' know's I said, Mis' Tobin," answered the driver, with a frosty +laugh. "You see them big pines, and the side of a barn just this way, +with them yellow circus bills? That's my three-mile mark." + +"Be we got four more to make? Oh, my laws!" mourned Mrs. Tobin. "Urge +the beast, can't ye, Jeff'son? I ain't used to bein' out in such bleak +weather. Seems if I couldn't git my breath. I'm all pinched up and +wigglin' with shivers now. 'T ain't no use lettin' the hoss go +step-a-ty-step, this fashion." + +"Landy me!" exclaimed the affronted driver. "I don't see why folks +expects me to race with the cars. Everybody that gits in wants me to +run the hoss to death on the road. I make a good everage o' time, and +that's all I _can_ do. Ef you was to go back an' forth every day but +Sabbath fur eighteen years, _you_'d want to ease it all you could, and +let those thrash the spokes out o' their wheels that wanted to. North +Kilby, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; Sanscrit Pond, Tuesdays, +Thu'sdays, an' Saturdays. Me an' the beast's done it eighteen years +together, and the creatur' warn't, so to say, young when we begun it, +nor I neither. I re'lly didn't know's she'd hold out till this time. +There, git up, will ye, old mar'!" as the beast of burden stopped +short in the road. + +There was a story that Jefferson gave this faithful creature a rest +three times a mile, and took four hours for the journey by himself, +and longer whenever he had a passenger. But in pleasant weather the +road was delightful, and full of people who drove their own +conveyances, and liked to stop and talk. There were not many farms, +and the third growth of white pines made a pleasant shade, though +Jefferson liked to say that when he began to carry the mail his way +lay through an open country of stumps and sparse underbrush, where the +white pines nowadays completely arched the road. + +They had passed the barn with circus posters, and felt colder than +ever when they caught sight of the weather-beaten acrobats in their +tights. + +"My gorry!" exclaimed Widow Tobin, "them pore creatur's looks as +cheerless as little birch-trees in snow-time. I hope they dresses 'em +warmer this time o' year. Now, there! look at that one jumpin' through +the little hoop, will ye?" + +"He couldn't git himself through there with two pair o' pants on," +answered Mr. Briley. "I expect they must have to keep limber as eels. +I used to think, when I was a boy, that 'twas the only thing I could +ever be reconciled to do for a livin'. I set out to run away an' +follow a rovin' showman once, but mother needed me to home. There +warn't nobody but me an' the little gals." + +"You ain't the only one that's be'n disapp'inted o' their heart's +desire," said Mrs. Tobin sadly. "'T warn't so that I could be spared +from home to learn the dressmaker's trade." + +"'T would a come handy later on, I declare," answered the sympathetic +driver, "bein' 's you went an' had such a passel o' gals to clothe an' +feed. There, them that's livin' is all well off now, but it must ha' +been some inconvenient for ye when they was small." + +"Yes, Mr. Briley, but then I've had my mercies, too," said the widow +somewhat grudgingly. "I take it master hard now, though, havin' to +give up my own home and live round from place to place, if they be my +own child'en. There was Ad'line and Susan Ellen fussin' an' bickerin' +yesterday about who'd got to have me next; and, Lord be thanked, they +both wanted me right off but I hated to hear 'em talkin' of it over. +I'd rather live to home, and do for myself." + +"I've got consider'ble used to boardin'," said Jefferson, "sence ma'am +died, but it made me ache 'long at the fust on 't, I tell ye. Bein' on +the road's I be, I couldn't do no ways at keepin' house. I should want +to keep right there and see to things." + +"Course you would," replied Mrs. Tobin, with a sudden inspiration of +opportunity which sent a welcome glow all over her. "Course you would, +Jeff'son,"--she leaned toward the front seat; "that is to say, onless +you had jest the right one to do it for ye." + +And Jefferson felt a strange glow also, and a sense of unexpected +interest and enjoyment. + +"See here, Sister Tobin," he exclaimed with enthusiasm. "Why can't ye +take the trouble to shift seats, and come front here long o' me? We +could put one buff'lo top o' the other,--they're both wearin' +thin,--and set close, and I do' know but we sh'd be more protected +ag'inst the weather." + +"Well, I couldn't be no colder if I was froze to death," answered the +widow, with an amiable simper. "Don't ye let me delay you, nor put you +out, Mr. Briley. I don't know's I'd set forth to-day if I'd known 't +was so cold; but I had all my bundles done up, and I ain't one that +puts my hand to the plough an' looks back, 'cordin' to Scriptur'." + +"You wouldn't wanted me to ride all them seven miles alone?" asked the +gallant Briley sentimentally, as he lifted her down, and helped her up +again to the front seat. She was a few years older than he, but they +had been schoolmates, and Mrs. Tobin's youthful freshness was suddenly +revived to his mind's eye. She had a little farm; there was nobody +left at home now but herself, and so she had broken up housekeeping +for the winter. Jefferson himself had savings of no mean amount. + +They tucked themselves in, and felt better for the change, but there +was a sudden awkwardness between them; they had not had time to +prepare for an unexpected crisis. + +"They say Elder Bickers, over to East Sanscrit, 's been and got +married again to a gal that's four year younger than his oldest +daughter," proclaimed Mrs. Tobin presently. "Seems to me 't was fool's +business." + +"I view it so," said the stage-driver. "There's goin' to be a mild +open winter for that fam'ly." + +"What a joker you be for a man that's had so much responsibility!" +smiled Mrs. Tobin, after they had done laughing. "Ain't you never +'fraid, carryin' mail matter and such valuable stuff, that you'll be +set on an' robbed, 'specially by night?" + +Jefferson braced his feet against the dasher under the worn buffalo +skin. "It is kind o' scary, or would be for some folks, but I'd like +to see anybody get the better o' me. I go armed, and I don't care who +knows it. Some o' them drover men that comes from Canady looks as if +they didn't care what they did, but I look 'em right in the eye every +time." + +"Men folks is brave by natur'," said the widow admiringly. "You know +how Tobin would let his fist right out at anybody that undertook to +sass him. Town-meetin' days, if he got disappointed about the way +things went, he'd lay 'em out in win'rows; and ef he hadn't been a +church-member he'd been a real fightin' character. I was always 'fraid +to have him roused, for all he was so willin' and meechin' to home, +and set round clever as anybody. My Susan Ellen used to boss him +same's the kitten, when she was four year old." + +"I've got a kind of a sideways cant to my nose, that Tobin give me +when we was to school. I don't know's you ever noticed it," said Mr. +Briley. "We was scufflin', as lads will. I never bore him no kind of a +grudge. I pitied ye, when he was taken away. I re'lly did, now, Fanny. +I liked Tobin first-rate, and I liked you. I used to say you was the +han'somest girl to school." + +"Lemme see your nose. 'Tis all straight, for what I know," said the +widow gently, as with a trace of coyness she gave a hasty glance. "I +don't know but what 'tis warped a little, but nothin' to speak of. +You've got real nice features, like your marm's folks." + +It was becoming a sentimental occasion, and Jefferson Briley felt that +he was in for something more than he had bargained. He hurried the +faltering sorrel horse, and began to talk of the weather. It certainly +did look like snow, and he was tired of bumping over the frozen road. + +"I shouldn't wonder if I hired a hand here another year, and went off +out West myself to see the country." + +"Why, how you talk!" answered the widow. + +"Yes'm," pursued Jefferson. "'Tis tamer here than I like, and I was +tellin' 'em yesterday I've got to know this road most too well. I'd +like to go out an' ride in the mountains with some o' them great +clipper coaches, where the driver don't know one minute but he'll be +shot dead the next. They carry an awful sight o' gold down from the +mines, I expect." + +"I should be scairt to death," said Mrs. Tobin. "What creatur's men +folks be to like such things! Well, I do declare." + +"Yes," explained the mild little man. "There's sights of desp'radoes +makes a han'some livin' out o' followin' them coaches, an' stoppin' +an' robbin' 'em clean to the bone. Your money _or_ your life!" and he +flourished his stub of a whip over the sorrel mare. + +"Landy me! you make me run all of a cold creep. Do tell somethin' +heartenin', this cold day. I shall dream bad dreams all night." + +"They put on black crape over their heads," said the driver +mysteriously. "Nobody knows who most on 'em be, and like as not some +o' them fellows come o' good families. They've got so they stop the +cars, and go right through 'em bold as brass. I could make your hair +stand on end, Mis' Tobin,--I could _so!_" + +"I hope none on 'em'll git round our way, I'm sure," said Fanny Tobin. +"I don't want to see none on 'em in their crape bunnits comin' after +me." + +"I ain't goin' to let nobody touch a hair o' your head," and Mr. +Briley moved a little nearer, and tucked in the buffaloes again. + +"I feel considerable warm to what I did," observed the widow by way of +reward. + +"There, I used to have my fears," Mr. Briley resumed, with an inward +feeling that he never would get to North Kilby depot a single man. +"But you see I hadn't nobody but myself to think of. I've got cousins, +as you know, but nothin' nearer, and what I've laid up would soon be +parted out; and--well, I suppose some folks would think o' me if +anything was to happen." + +Mrs. Tobin was holding her cloud over her face,--the wind was sharp on +that bit of open road,--but she gave an encouraging sound, between a +groan and a chirp. + +"'T wouldn't be like nothin' to me not to see you drivin' by," she +said, after a minute. "I shouldn't know the days o' the week. I says +to Susan Ellen last week I was sure 'twas Friday, and she said no, +'twas Thursday; but next minute you druv by and headin' toward North +Kilby, so we found I was right." + +"I've got to be a featur' of the landscape," said Mr. Briley +plaintively. "This kind o' weather the old mare and me, we wish we was +done with it, and could settle down kind o' comfortable. I've been +lookin' this good while, as I drove the road, and I've picked me out a +piece o' land two or three times. But I can't abide the thought o' +buildin',--'twould plague me to death; and both Sister Peak to North +Kilby and Mis' Deacon Ash to the Pond, they vie with one another to do +well by me, fear I'll like the other stoppin'-place best." + +"I shouldn't covet livin' long o' neither one o' them women," +responded the passenger with some spirit. "I see some o' Mis' Peak's +cookin' to a farmers' supper once, when I was visitin' Susan Ellen's +folks, an' I says 'Deliver me from sech pale-complected baked beans as +them!' and she give a kind of a quack. She was settin' jest at my left +hand, and couldn't help hearin' of me. I wouldn't have spoken if I had +known, but she needn't have let on they was hers an' make everything +unpleasant. 'I guess them beans taste just as well as other folks',' +says she, and she wouldn't never speak to me afterward." + +"Do' know's I blame her," ventured Mr. Briley. "Women folks is +dreadful pudjicky about their cookin'. I've always heard you was one +o' the best o' cooks, Mis' Tobin. I know them doughnuts an' things +you've give me in times past, when I was drivin' by. Wish I had some +on 'em now. I never let on, but Mis' Ash's cookin's the best by a long +chalk. Mis' Peak's handy about some things, and looks after mendin' of +me up." + +"It doos seem as if a man o' your years and your quiet make ought to +have a home you could call your own," suggested the passenger. "I kind +of hate to think o' your bangein' here and boardin' there, and one old +woman mendin', and the other settin' ye down to meals that like's not +don't agree with ye." + +"Lor', now, Mis' Tobin, le's not fuss round no longer," said Mr. +Briley impatiently. "You know you covet me same's I do you." + +"I don't nuther. Don't you go an' say fo'lish things you can't stand +to." + +"I've been tryin' to git a chance to put in a word with you ever +sence--Well, I expected you'd want to get your feelin's kind o' +calloused after losin' Tobin." + +"There's nobody can fill his place," said the widow. + +"I do' know but I can fight for ye town-meetin' days, on a pinch," +urged Jefferson boldly. + +"I never see the beat o' you men fur conceit," and Mrs. Tobin laughed. +"I ain't goin' to bother with ye, gone half the time as you be, an' +carryin' on with your Mis' Peaks and Mis' Ashes. I dare say you've +promised yourself to both on 'em twenty times." + +"I hope to gracious if I ever breathed a word to none on 'em!" +protested the lover. "'T ain't for lack o' opportunities set afore me, +nuther;" and then Mr. Briley craftily kept silence, as if he had made +a fair proposal, and expected a definite reply. + +The lady of his choice was, as she might have expressed it, much beat +about. As she soberly thought, she was getting along in years, and +must put up with Jefferson all the rest of the time. It was not likely +she would ever have the chance of choosing again, though she was one +who liked variety. + +Jefferson wasn't much to look at, but he was pleasant and appeared +boyish and young-feeling. "I do' know's I should do better," she said +unconsciously and half aloud. "Well, yes, Jefferson, seein' it's you. +But we're both on us kind of old to change our situation." Fanny Tobin +gave a gentle sigh. + +"Hooray!" said Jefferson. "I was scairt you meant to keep me sufferin' +here a half an hour. I declare, I'm more pleased than I calc'lated on. +An' I expected till lately to die a single man!" + +"'Twould re'lly have been a shame; 'tain't natur'," said Mrs. Tobin, +with confidence. "I don't see how you held out so long with bein' +solitary." + +"I'll hire a hand to drive for me, and we'll have a good comfortable +winter, me an' you an' the old sorrel. I've been promisin' of her a +rest this good while." + +"Better keep her a steppin'," urged thrifty Mrs. Fanny. "She'll +stiffen up master, an' disapp'int ye, come spring." + +"You'll have me, now, won't ye, sartin?" pleaded Jefferson, to make +sure. "You ain't one o' them that plays with a man's feelin's. Say +right out you'll have me." + +"I s'pose I shall have to," said Mrs. Tobin somewhat mournfully. "I +feel for Mis' Peak an' Mis' Ash, pore creatur's. I expect they'll be +hardshipped. They've always been hard-worked, an' may have kind o' +looked forward to a little ease. But one on 'em would be left +lamentin', anyhow," and she gave a girlish laugh. An air of victory +animated the frame of Mrs. Tobin. She felt but twenty-five years of +age. In that moment she made plans for cutting her Briley's hair, and +making him look smartened-up and ambitious. Then she wished that she +knew for certain how much money he had in the bank; not that it would +make any difference now. "He needn't bluster none before me," she +thought gayly. "He's harmless as a fly." + +"Who'd have thought we'd done such a piece of engineerin', when we +started out?" inquired the dear one of Mr. Briley's heart, as he +tenderly helped her to alight at Susan Ellen's door. + +"Both on us, jest the least grain," answered the lover. "Gimme a good +smack, now, you clever creatur';" and so they parted. Mr. Bailey had +been taken on the road in spite of his pistol. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Going to Shrewsbury_ + + +The train stopped at a way station with apparent unwillingness, and +there was barely time for one elderly passenger to be hurried on board +before a sudden jerk threw her almost off her unsteady old feet and we +moved on. At my first glance I saw only a perturbed old countrywoman, +laden with a large basket and a heavy bundle tied up in an +old-fashioned bundle-handkerchief; then I discovered that she was a +friend of mine, Mrs. Peet, who lived on a small farm, several miles +from the village. She used to be renowned for good butter and fresh +eggs and the earliest cowslip greens; in fact, she always made the +most of her farm's slender resources; but it was some time since I had +seen her drive by from market in her ancient thorough-braced wagon. + +The brakeman followed her into the crowded car, also carrying a number +of packages. I leaned forward and asked Mrs. Peet to sit by me; it was +a great pleasure to see her again. The brakeman seemed relieved, and +smiled as he tried to put part of his burden into the rack overhead; +but even the flowered carpet-bag was much too large, and he explained +that he would take care of everything at the end of the car. Mrs. Peet +was not large herself, but with the big basket, and the +bundle-handkerchief, and some possessions of my own we had very little +spare room. + +"So this 'ere is what you call ridin' in the cars! Well, I do +declare!" said my friend, as soon as she had recovered herself a +little. She looked pale and as if she had been in tears, but there was +the familiar gleam of good humor in her tired old eyes. + +"Where in the world are you going, Mrs. Peet?" I asked. + +"Can't be you ain't heared about me, dear?" said she. "Well, the +world's bigger than I used to think 't was. I've broke up,--'twas the +only thing _to_ do,--and I'm a-movin' to Shrewsbury." + +"To Shrewsbury? Have you sold the farm?" I exclaimed, with sorrow and +surprise. Mrs. Peet was too old and too characteristic to be suddenly +transplanted from her native soil. "'T wa'n't mine, the place wa'n't." +Her pleasant face hardened slightly. "He was coaxed an' over-persuaded +into signin' off before he was taken away. Is'iah, son of his sister +that married old Josh Peet, come it over him about his bein' past work +and how he'd do for him like an own son, an' we owed him a little +somethin'. I'd paid off everythin' but that, an' was fool enough to +leave it till the last, on account o' Is'iah's bein' a relation and +not needin' his pay much as some others did. It's hurt me to have the +place fall into other hands. Some wanted me to go right to law; but 't +wouldn't be no use. Is'iah's smarter 'n I be about them matters. You +see he's got my name on the paper, too; he said 't was somethin' 'bout +bein' responsible for the taxes. We was scant o' money, an' I was wore +out with watchin' an' being broke o' my rest. After my tryin' hard for +risin' forty-five year to provide for bein' past work, here I be, +dear, here I be! I used to drive things smart, you remember. But we +was fools enough in '72 to put about everythin' we had safe in the +bank into that spool factory that come to nothin'. But I tell ye I +could ha' kept myself long's I lived, if I could ha' held the place. +I'd parted with most o' the woodland, if Is'iah'd coveted it. He was +welcome to that, 'cept what might keep me in oven-wood. I've always +desired to travel an' see somethin' o' the world, but I've got the +chance now when I don't value it no great." + +"Shrewsbury is a busy, pleasant place," I ventured to say by way of +comfort, though my heart was filled with rage at the trickery of +Isaiah Peet, who had always looked like a fox and behaved like one. + +"Shrewsbury's be'n held up consid'able for me to smile at," said the +poor old soul, "but I tell ye, dear, it's hard to go an' live +twenty-two miles from where you've always had your home and friends. +It may divert me, but it won't be home. You might as well set out one +o' my old apple-trees on the beach, so 't could see the waves come +in,--there wouldn't be no please to it." + +"Where are you going to live in Shrewsbury?" I asked presently. + +"I don't expect to stop long, dear creatur'. I'm 'most seventy-six +year old," and Mrs. Peet turned to look at me with pathetic amusement +in her honest wrinkled face. "I said right out to Is'iah, before a +roomful o' the neighbors, that I expected it of him to git me home an' +bury me when my time come, and do it respectable; but I wanted to airn +my livin', if 'twas so I could, till then. He'd made sly talk, you +see, about my electin' to leave the farm and go 'long some o' my own +folks; but"--and she whispered this carefully--"he didn't give me no +chance to stay there without hurtin' my pride and dependin' on him. I +ain't said that to many folks, but all must have suspected. A good +sight on 'em's had money of Is'iah, though, and they don't like to do +nothin' but take his part an' be pretty soft spoken, fear it'll git to +his ears. Well, well, dear, we'll let it be bygones, and not think of +it no more;" but I saw the great tears roll slowly down her cheeks, +and she pulled her bonnet forward impatiently, and looked the other +way. + +"There looks to be plenty o' good farmin' land in this part o' the +country," she said, a minute later. "Where be we now? See them +handsome farm buildin's; he must be a well-off man." But I had to +tell my companion that we were still within the borders of the old +town where we had both been born. Mrs. Peet gave a pleased little +laugh, like a girl. "I'm expectin' Shrewsbury to pop up any minute. +I'm feared to be kerried right by. I wa'n't never aboard of the cars +before, but I've so often thought about 'em I don't know but it seems +natural. Ain't it jest like flyin' through the air? I can't catch holt +to see nothin'. Land! and here's my old cat goin' too, and never +mistrustin'. I ain't told you that I'd fetched her." + +"Is she in that basket?" I inquired with interest. + +"Yis, dear. Truth was, I calc'lated to have her put out o' the misery +o' movin', an spoke to one o' the Barnes boys, an' he promised me all +fair; but he wa'n't there in season, an' I kind o' made excuse to +myself to fetch her along. She's an' old creatur', like me, an' I can +make shift to keep her some way or 'nuther; there's probably mice +where we're goin', an' she's a proper mouser that can about keep +herself if there's any sort o' chance. 'T will be somethin' o' home to +see her goin' an' comin', but I expect we're both on us goin' to miss +our old haunts. I'd love to know what kind o' mousin' there's goin' to +be for me." + +"You mustn't worry," I answered, with all the bravery and assurance +that I could muster. "Your niece will be thankful to have you with +her. Is she one of Mrs. Winn's daughters?" + +"Oh, no, they ain't able; it's Sister Wayland's darter Isabella, that +married the overseer of the gre't carriage-shop. I ain't seen her +since just after she was married; but I turned to her first because I +knew she was best able to have me, and then I can see just how the +other girls is situated and make me some kind of a plot. I wrote to +Isabella, though she _is_ ambitious, and said 'twas so I'd got to ask +to come an' make her a visit, an' she wrote back she would be glad to +have me; but she didn't write right off, and her letter was scented up +dreadful strong with some sort o' essence, and I don't feel heartened +about no great of a welcome. But there, I've got eyes, an' I can see +_ho_'t is when I git _where_'t is. Sister Winn's gals ain't married, +an' they've always boarded, an' worked in the shop on trimmin's. +Isabella's well off; she had some means from her father's sister. I +thought it all over by night an' day, an' I recalled that our folks +kept Sister Wayland's folks all one winter, when he'd failed up and +got into trouble. I'm reckonin' on sendin' over to-night an' gittin' +the Winn gals to come and see me and advise. Perhaps some on 'em may +know of somebody that'll take me for what help I can give about house, +or some clever folks that have been lookin' for a smart cat, any ways; +no, I don't know's I could let her go to strangers. + +"There was two or three o' the folks round home that acted real +warm-hearted towards me, an' urged me to come an' winter with 'em," +continued the exile; "an' this mornin' I wished I'd agreed to, 'twas +so hard to break away. But now it's done I feel more'n ever it's best. +I couldn't bear to live right in sight o' the old place, and come +spring I shouldn't 'prove of nothing Is'iah ondertakes to do with the +land. Oh, dear sakes! now it comes hard with me not to have had no +child'n. When I was young an' workin' hard and into everything, I felt +kind of free an' superior to them that was so blessed, an' their +houses cluttered up from mornin' till night, but I tell ye it comes +home to me now. I'd be most willin' to own to even Is'iah, mean's he +is; but I tell ye I'd took it out of him 'fore he was a grown man, if +there'd be'n any virtue in cow-hidin' of him. Folks don't look like +wild creatur's for nothin'. Is'iah's got fox blood in him, an' +p'r'haps 't is his misfortune. His own mother always favored the looks +of an old fox, true's the world; she was a poor tool,--a poor tool! I +d'know's we ought to blame him same's we do. + +"I've always been a master proud woman, if I was riz among the +pastures," Mrs. Peet added, half to herself. There was no use in +saying much to her; she was conscious of little beside her own +thoughts and the smouldering excitement caused by this great crisis in +her simple existence. Yet the atmosphere of her loneliness, +uncertainty, and sorrow was so touching that after scolding again at +her nephew's treachery, and finding the tears come fast to my eyes as +she talked, I looked intently out of the car window, and tried to +think what could be done for the poor soul. She was one of the +old-time people, and I hated to have her go away; but even if she +could keep her home she would soon be too feeble to live there alone, +and some definite plan must be made for her comfort. Farms in that +neighborhood were not valuable. Perhaps through the agency of the law +and quite in secret, Isaiah Peet could be forced to give up his +unrighteous claim. Perhaps, too, the Winn girls, who were really no +longer young, might have saved something, and would come home again. +But it was easy to make such pictures in one's mind, and I must do +what I could through other people, for I was just leaving home for a +long time. I wondered sadly about Mrs. Peet's future, and the +ambitious Isabella, and the favorite Sister Winn's daughters, to whom, +with all their kindliness of heart, the care of so old and perhaps so +dependent an aunt might seem impossible. The truth about life in +Shrewsbury would soon be known; more than half the short journey was +already past. + +To my great pleasure, my fellow-traveler now began to forget her own +troubles in looking about her. She was an alert, quickly interested +old soul, and this was a bit of neutral ground between the farm and +Shrewsbury, where she was unattached and irresponsible. She had lived +through the last tragic moments of her old life, and felt a certain +relief, and Shrewsbury might be as far away as the other side of the +Rocky Mountains for all the consciousness she had of its real +existence. She was simply a traveler for the time being, and began to +comment, with delicious phrases and shrewd understanding of human +nature, on two or three persons near us who attracted her attention. + +"Where do you s'pose they be all goin'?" she asked contemptuously. +"There ain't none on 'em but what looks kind o' respectable. I'll +warrant they've left work to home they'd ought to be doin'. I knowed, +if ever I stopped to think, that cars was hived full o' folks, an' +wa'n't run to an' fro for nothin'; but these can't be quite up to the +average, be they? Some on 'em's real thrif'less; guess they've be'n +shoved out o' the last place, an' goin' to try the next one,--like me, +I suppose you'll want to say! Jest see that flauntin' old creatur' +that looks like a stopped clock. There! everybody can't be o' one +goodness, even preachers." + +I was glad to have Mrs. Peet amused, and we were as cheerful as we +could be for a few minutes. She said earnestly that she hoped to be +forgiven for such talk, but there were some kinds of folks in the cars +that she never had seen before. But when the conductor came to take +her ticket she relapsed into her first state of mind, and was at a +loss. + +"You'll have to look after me, dear, when we get to Shrewsbury," she +said, after we had spent some distracted moments in hunting for the +ticket, and the cat had almost escaped from the basket, and the +bundle-handkerchief had become untied and all its miscellaneous +contents scattered about our laps and the floor. It was a touching +collection of the last odds and ends of Mrs. Peet's housekeeping: some +battered books, and singed holders for flatirons, and the faded little +shoulder shawl that I had seen her wear many a day about her bent +shoulders. There were her old tin match-box spilling all its matches, +and a goose-wing for brushing up ashes, and her much-thumbed Leavitt's +Almanac. It was most pathetic to see these poor trifles out of their +places. At last the ticket was found in her left-hand woolen glove, +where her stiff, work-worn hand had grown used to the feeling of it. + +"I shouldn't wonder, now, if I come to like living over to Shrewsbury +first-rate," she insisted, turning to me with a hopeful, eager look to +see if I differed. "You see't won't be so tough for me as if I hadn't +always felt it lurking within me to go off some day or 'nother an' see +how other folks did things. I do' know but what the Winn gals have +laid up somethin' sufficient for us to take a house, with the little +mite I've got by me. I might keep house for us all, 'stead o' boardin' +round in other folks' houses. That I ain't never been demeaned to, but +I dare say I should find it pleasant in some ways. Town folks has got +the upper hand o' country folks, but with all their work an' pride +they can't make a dandelion. I do' know the times when I've set out to +wash Monday mornin's, an' tied out the line betwixt the old +pucker-pear tree and the corner o' the barn, an' thought, 'Here I be +with the same kind o' week's work right over again.' I'd wonder kind +o' f'erce if I couldn't git out of it noways; an' now here I be out +of it, and an uprooteder creatur' never stood on the airth. Just as I +got to feel I had somethin' ahead come that spool-factory business. +There! you know he never was a forehanded man; his health was slim, +and he got discouraged pretty nigh before ever he begun. I hope he +don't know I'm turned out o' the old place. 'Is'iah's well off; he'll +do the right thing by ye,' says he. But my! I turned hot all over when +I found out what I'd put my name to,--me that had always be'n counted +a smart woman! I did undertake to read it over, but I couldn't sense +it. I've told all the folks so when they laid it off on to me some: +but hand-writin' is awful tedious readin' and my head felt that day as +if the works was gone. + +"I ain't goin' to sag on to nobody," she assured me eagerly, as the +train rushed along. "I've got more work in me now than folks expects +at my age. I may be consid'able use to Isabella. She's got a family, +an' I'll take right holt in the kitchen or with the little gals. She +had four on 'em, last I heared. Isabella was never one that liked +house-work. Little gals! I do' know now but what they must be about +grown, time doos slip away so. I expect I shall look outlandish to +'em. But there! everybody knows me to home, an' nobody knows me to +Shrewsbury; 'twon't make a mite o' difference, if I take holt +willin'." + +I hoped, as I looked at Mrs. Peet, that she would never be persuaded +to cast off the gathered brown silk bonnet and the plain shawl that +she had worn so many years; but Isabella might think it best to insist +upon more modern fashions. Mrs. Peet suggested, as if it were a matter +of little consequence, that she had kept it in mind to buy some +mourning; but there were other things to be thought of first, and so +she had let it go until winter, any way, or until she should be fairly +settled in Shrewsbury. + +"Are your nieces expecting you by this train?" I was moved to ask, +though with all the good soul's ready talk and appealing manner I +could hardly believe that she was going to Shrewsbury for more than a +visit; it seemed as if she must return to the worn old farmhouse over +by the sheep-lands. She answered that one of the Barnes boys had +written a letter for her the day before, and there was evidently +little uneasiness about her first reception. + +We drew near the junction where I must leave her within a mile of the +town. The cat was clawing indignantly at the basket, and her mistress +grew as impatient of the car. She began to look very old and pale, my +poor fellow-traveler, and said that she felt dizzy, going so fast. +Presently the friendly red-cheeked young brakeman came along, bringing +the carpet-bag and other possessions, and insisted upon taking the +alarmed cat beside, in spite of an aggressive paw that had worked its +way through the wicker prison. Mrs. Peet watched her goods disappear +with suspicious eyes, and clutched her bundle-handkerchief as if it +might be all that she could save. Then she anxiously got to her feet, +much too soon, and when I said good-by to her at the car door she was +ready to cry. I pointed to the car which she was to take next on the +branch line of railway, and I assured her that it was only a few +minutes' ride to Shrewsbury, and that I felt certain she would find +somebody waiting. The sight of that worn, thin figure adventuring +alone across the platform gave my heart a sharp pang as the train +carried me away. + +Some of the passengers who sat near asked me about my old friend with +great sympathy, after she had gone. There was a look of tragedy about +her, and indeed it had been impossible not to get a good deal of her +history, as she talked straight on in the same tone, when we stopped +at a station, as if the train were going at full speed, and some of +her remarks caused pity and amusements by turns. At the last minute +she said, with deep self-reproach, "Why, I haven't asked a word about +your folks; but you'd ought to excuse such an old stray hen as I be." + +In the spring I was driving by on what the old people of my native +town call the sheep-lands road, and the sight of Mrs. Peet's former +home brought our former journey freshly to my mind. I had last heard +from her just after she got to Shrewsbury, when she had sent me a +message. + +"Have you ever heard how she got on?" I eagerly asked my companion. + +"Didn't I tell you that I met her in Shrewsbury High Street one day?" +I was answered. "She seemed perfectly delighted with everything. Her +nieces have laid up a good bit of money, and are soon to leave the +mill, and most thankful to have old Mrs. Peet with them. Somebody told +me that they wished to buy the farm here, and come back to live, but +she wouldn't hear of it, and thought they would miss too many +privileges. She has been going to concerts and lectures this winter, +and insists that Isaiah did her a good turn." + +We both laughed. My own heart was filled with joy, for the uncertain, +lonely face of this homeless old woman had often haunted me. The +rain-blackened little house did certainly look dreary, and a whole +lifetime of patient toil had left few traces. The pucker-pear tree was +in full bloom, however, and gave a welcome gaiety to the deserted +door-yard. + +A little way beyond we met Isaiah Peet, the prosperous money-lender, +who had cheated the old woman of her own. I fancied that he looked +somewhat ashamed, as he recognized us. To my surprise, he stopped his +horse in most social fashion. + +"Old Aunt Peet's passed away," he informed me briskly. "She had a +shock, and went right off sudden yisterday fore-noon. I'm about now +tendin' to the funeral 'rangements. She's be'n extry smart, they say, +all winter,--out to meetin' last Sabbath; never enjoyed herself so +complete as she has this past month. She'd be'n a very hard-workin' +woman. Her folks was glad to have her there, and give her every +attention. The place here never was good for nothin'. The old +gen'leman,--uncle, you know,--he wore hisself out tryin' to make a +livin' off from it." + +There was an ostentatious sympathy and half-suppressed excitement from +bad news which were quite lost upon us, and we did not linger to hear +much more. It seemed to me as if I had known Mrs. Peet better than any +one else had known her. I had counted upon seeing her again, and +hearing her own account of Shrewsbury life, its pleasures and its +limitations. I wondered what had become of the cat and the contents of +the faded bundle-handkerchief. + + * * * * * + + + + +_The White Rose Road_ + + +Being a New Englander, it is natural that I should first speak about +the weather. Only the middle of June, the green fields, and blue sky, +and bright sun, with a touch of northern mountain wind blowing +straight toward the sea, could make such a day, and that is all one +can say about it. We were driving seaward through a part of the +country which has been least changed in the last thirty years,--among +farms which have been won from swampy lowland, and rocky, +stump-buttressed hillsides: where the forests wall in the fields, and +send their outposts year by year farther into the pastures. There is a +year or two in the history of these pastures before they have arrived +at the dignity of being called woodland, and yet are too much shaded +and overgrown by young trees to give proper pasturage, when they made +delightful harbors for the small wild creatures which yet remain, and +for wild flowers and berries. Here you send an astonished rabbit +scurrying to his burrow, and there you startle yourself with a +partridge, who seems to get the best of the encounter. Sometimes you +see a hen partridge and her brood of chickens crossing your path with +an air of comfortable door-yard security. As you drive along the +narrow, grassy road, you see many charming sights and delightful nooks +on either hand, where the young trees spring out of a close-cropped +turf that carpets the ground like velvet. Toward the east and the +quaint fishing village of Ogunquit, I find the most delightful +woodland roads. There is little left of the large timber which once +filled the region, but much young growth, and there are hundreds of +acres of cleared land and pasture-ground where the forests are +springing fast and covering the country once more, as if they had no +idea of losing in their war with civilization and the intruding white +settler. The pine woods and the Indians seem to be next of kin, and +the former owners of this corner of New England are the only proper +figures to paint into such landscapes. The twilight under tall pines +seems to be untenanted and to lack something, at first sight, as if +one opened the door of an empty house. A farmer passing through with +his axe is but an intruder, and children straying home from school +give one a feeling of solicitude at their unprotectedness. The pine +woods are the red man's house, and it may be hazardous even yet for +the gray farmhouses to stand so near the eaves of the forest. I have +noticed a distrust of the deep woods, among elderly people, which was +something more than a fear of losing their way. It was a feeling of +defenselessness against some unrecognized but malicious influence. + +Driving through the long woodland way, shaded and chilly when you are +out of the sun; across the Great Works River and its pretty elm-grown +intervale; across the short bridges of brown brooks; delayed now and +then by the sight of ripe strawberries in sunny spots by the roadside, +one comes to a higher open country, where farm joins farm, and the +cleared fields lie all along the highway, while the woods are pushed +back a good distance on either hand. The wooded hills, bleak here and +there with granite ledges, rise beyond. The houses are beside the +road, with green door-yards and large barns, almost empty now, and +with wide doors standing open, as if they were already expecting the +hay crop to be brought in. The tall green grass is waving in the +fields as the wind goes over, and there is a fragrance of whiteweed +and ripe strawberries and clover blowing through the sunshiny barns, +with their lean sides and their festoons of brown, dusty cobwebs; +dull, comfortable creatures they appear to imaginative eyes, waiting +hungrily for their yearly meal. The eave-swallows are teasing their +sleepy shapes, like the birds which flit about great beasts; gay, +movable, irreverent, almost derisive, those barn swallows fly to and +fro in the still, clear air. + +The noise of our wheels brings fewer faces to the windows than usual, +and we lose the pleasure of seeing some of our friends who are apt to +be looking out, and to whom we like to say good-day. Some funeral must +be taking place, or perhaps the women may have gone out into the +fields. It is hoeing-time and strawberry-time, and already we have +seen some of the younger women at work among the corn and potatoes. +One sight will be charming to remember. On a green hillside sloping +to the west, near one of the houses, a thin little girl was working +away lustily with a big hoe on a patch of land perhaps fifty feet by +twenty. There were all sorts of things growing there, as if a child's +fancy had made the choice,--straight rows of turnips and carrots and +beets, a little of everything, one might say; but the only touch of +color was from a long border of useful sage in full bloom of dull +blue, on the upper side. I am sure this was called Katy's or Becky's +_piece_ by the elder members of the family. One can imagine how the +young creature had planned it in the spring, and persuaded the men to +plough and harrow it, and since then had stoutly done all the work +herself, and meant to send the harvest of the piece to market, and +pocket her honest gains, as they came in, for some great end. She was +as thin as a grasshopper, this busy little gardener, and hardly turned +to give us a glance, as we drove slowly up the hill close by. The sun +will brown and dry her like a spear of grass on that hot slope, but a +spark of fine spirit is in the small body, and I wish her a famous +crop. I hate to say that the piece looked backward, all except the +sage, and that it was a heavy bit of land for the clumsy hoe to pick +at. The only puzzle is, what she proposes to do with so long a row of +sage. Yet there may be a large family with a downfall of measles yet +ahead, and she does not mean to be caught without sage-tea. + +Along this road every one of the old farmhouses has at least one tall +bush of white roses by the door,--a most lovely sight, with buds and +blossoms, and unvexed green leaves. I wish that I knew the history of +them, and whence the first bush was brought. Perhaps from England +itself, like a red rose that I know in Kittery, and the new shoots +from the root were given to one neighbor after another all through the +district. The bushes are slender, but they grow tall without climbing +against the wall, and sway to and fro in the wind with a grace of +youth and an inexpressible charm of beauty. How many lovers must have +picked them on Sunday evenings, in all the bygone years, and carried +them along the roads or by the pasture footpaths, hiding them clumsily +under their Sunday coats if they caught sight of any one coming. Here, +too, where the sea wind nips many a young life before its prime, how +often the white roses have been put into paler hands, and withered +there! + +In spite of the serene and placid look of the old houses, one who has +always known them cannot help thinking of the sorrows of these farms +and their almost undiverted toil. Near the little gardener's plot, we +turned from the main road and drove through lately cleared woodland up +to an old farmhouse, high on a ledgy hill, whence there is a fine view +of the country seaward and mountainward. There were few of the once +large household left there: only the old farmer, who was crippled by +war wounds, active, cheerful man that he was once, and two young +orphan children. There has been much hard work spent on the place. +Every generation has toiled from youth to age without being able to +make much beyond a living. The dollars that can be saved are but few, +and sickness and death have often brought their bitter cost. The +mistress of the farm was helpless for many years; through all the +summers and winters she sat in her pillowed rocking-chair in the plain +room. She could watch the seldom-visited lane, and beyond it, a little +way across the fields, were the woods; besides these, only the clouds +in the sky. She could not lift her food to her mouth; she could not be +her husband's working partner. She never went into another woman's +house to see her works and ways, but sat there, aching and tired, +vexed by flies and by heat, and isolated in long storms. Yet the whole +countryside neighbored her with true affection. Her spirit grew +stronger as her body grew weaker, and the doctors, who grieved because +they could do so little with their skill, were never confronted by +that malady of the spirit, a desire for ease and laziness, which makes +the soundest of bodies useless and complaining. The thought of her +blooms in one's mind like the whitest of flowers; it makes one braver +and more thankful to remember the simple faith and patience with which +she bore her pain and trouble. How often she must have said, "I wish I +could do something for you in return," when she was doing a thousand +times more than if, like her neighbors, she followed the simple round +of daily life! She was doing constant kindness by her example; but +nobody can tell the woe of her long days and nights, the solitude of +her spirit, as she was being lifted by such hard ways to the knowledge +of higher truth and experience. Think of her pain when, one after +another, her children fell ill and died, and she could not tend them! +And now, in the same worn chair where she lived and slept sat her +husband, helpless too, thinking of her, and missing her more than if +she had been sometimes away from home, like other women. Even a +stranger would miss her in the house. + +There sat the old farmer looking down the lane in his turn, bearing +his afflictions with a patient sternness that may have been born of +watching his wife's serenity. There was a half-withered rose lying +within his reach. Some days nobody came up the lane, and the wild +birds that ventured near the house and the clouds that blew over were +his only entertainment. He had a fine face, of the older New England +type, clean-shaven and strong-featured,--a type that is fast passing +away. He might have been a Cumberland dalesman, such were his dignity, +and self-possession, and English soberness of manner. His large frame +was built for hard work, for lifting great weights and pushing his +plough through new-cleared land. We felt at home together, and each +knew many things that the other did of earlier days, and of losses +that had come with time. I remembered coming to the old house often in +my childhood; it was in this very farm lane that I first saw anemones, +and learned what to call them. After we drove away, this crippled man +must have thought a long time about my elders and betters, as if he +were reading their story out of a book. I suppose he has hauled many a +stick of timber pine down for ship-yards, and gone through the village +so early in the winter morning that I, waking in my warm bed, only +heard the sleds creak through the frozen snow as the slow oxen plodded +by. + +Near the house a trout brook comes plashing over the ledges. At one +place there is a most exquisite waterfall, to which neither painter's +brush nor writer's pen can do justice. The sunlight falls through +flickering leaves into the deep glen, and makes the foam whiter and +the brook more golden-brown. You can hear the merry noise of it all +night, all day, in the house. A little way above the farmstead it +comes through marshy ground, which I fear has been the cause of much +illness and sorrow to the poor, troubled family. I had a thrill of +pain, as it seemed to me that the brook was mocking at all that +trouble with all its wild carelessness and loud laughter, as it +hurried away down the glen. + +When we had said good-by and were turning the horses away, there +suddenly appeared in a footpath that led down from one of the green +hills the young grandchild, just coming home from school. She was as +quick as a bird, and as shy in her little pink gown, and balanced +herself on one foot, like a flower. The brother was the elder of the +two orphans; he was the old man's delight and dependence by day, while +his hired man was afield. The sober country boy had learned to wait +and tend, and the young people were indeed a joy in that lonely +household. There was no sign that they ever played like other +children,--no truckle-cart in the yard, no doll, no bits of broken +crockery in order on a rock. They had learned a fashion of life from +their elders, and already could lift and carry their share of the +burdens of life. + +It was a country of wild flowers; the last of the columbines were +clinging to the hillsides; down in the small, fenced meadows belonging +to the farm were meadow rue just coming in flower, and red and white +clover; the golden buttercups were thicker than the grass, while many +mulleins were standing straight and slender among the pine stumps, +with their first blossoms atop. Rudbeckias had found their way in, and +appeared more than ever like bold foreigners. Their names should be +translated into country speech, and the children ought to call them +"rude-beckies," by way of relating them to bouncing-bets and +sweet-williams. The pasture grass was green and thick after the +plentiful rains, and the busy cattle took little notice of us as they +browsed steadily and tinkled their pleasant bells. Looking off, the +smooth, round back of Great Hill caught the sunlight with its fields +of young grain, and all the long, wooded slopes and valleys were fresh +and fair in the June weather, away toward the blue New Hampshire hills +on the northern horizon. Seaward stood Agamenticus, dark with its +pitch pines, and the far sea itself, blue and calm, ruled the uneven +country with its unchangeable line. + +Out on the white rose road again, we saw more of the rose-trees than +ever, and now and then a carefully tended flower garden, always +delightful to see and think about. These are not made by merely +looking through a florist's catalogue, and ordering this or that new +seedling and a proper selection of bulbs or shrubs; everything in a +country garden has its history and personal association. The old +bushes, the perennials, are apt to have most tender relationship with +the hands that planted them long ago. There is a constant exchange of +such treasures between the neighbors, and in the spring, slips and +cuttings may be seen rooting on the window ledges, while the house +plants give endless work all winter long, since they need careful +protection against frost in long nights of the severe weather. A +flower-loving woman brings back from every one of her infrequent +journeys some treasure of flower-seeds or a huge miscellaneous +nosegay. Time to work in the little plot of pleasure-ground is hardly +won by the busy mistress of the farmhouse. The most appealing +collection of flowering plants and vines that I ever saw was in +Virginia, once, above the exquisite valley spanned by the Natural +Bridge, a valley far too little known or praised. I had noticed an old +log house, as I learned to know the outlook from the picturesque +hotel, and was sure that it must give a charming view from its perch +on the summit of a hill. + +One day I went there,--one April day, when the whole landscape was +full of color from the budding trees,--and before I could look at the +view, I caught sight of some rare vines, already in leaf, about the +dilapidated walls of the cabin. Then across the low paling I saw the +brilliant colors of tulips and daffodils. There were many rose-bushes; +in fact, the whole top of the hill was a flower garden, once well +cared for and carefully ordered. It was all the work of an old woman +of Scotch-Irish descent, who had been busy with the cares of life, and +a very hard worker; yet I was told that to gratify her love for +flowers she would often go afoot many miles over those rough Virginia +roads, with a root or cutting from her own garden, to barter for a new +rose or a brighter blossom of some sort, with which she would return +in triumph. I fancied that sometimes she had to go by night on these +charming quests. I could see her business-like, small figure setting +forth down the steep path, when she had a good conscience toward her +housekeeping and the children were in order to be left. I am sure +that her friends thought of her when they were away from home and +could bring her an offering of something rare. Alas, she had grown too +old and feeble to care for her dear blossoms any longer, and had been +forced to go to live with a married son. I dare say that she was +thinking of her garden that very day, and wondering if this plant or +that were not in bloom, and perhaps had a heartache at the thought +that her tenants, the careless colored children, might tread the young +shoots of peony and rose, and make havoc in the herb-bed. It was an +uncommon collection, made by years of patient toil and self-sacrifice. + +I thought of that deserted Southern garden as I followed my own New +England road. The flower-plots were in gay bloom all along the way; +almost every house had some flowers before it, sometimes carefully +fenced about by stakes and barrel staves from the miscreant hens and +chickens which lurked everywhere, and liked a good scratch and +fluffing in soft earth this year as well as any other. The world +seemed full of young life. There were calves tethered in pleasant +shady spots, and puppies and kittens adventuring from the doorways. +The trees were full of birds: bobolinks, and cat-birds, and +yellow-hammers, and golden robins, and sometimes a thrush, for the +afternoon was wearing late. We passed the spring which once marked the +boundary where three towns met,--Berwick, York, and Wells,--a famous +spot in the early settlement of the country, but many of its old +traditions are now forgotten. One of the omnipresent regicides of +Charles the First is believed to have hidden himself for a long time +under a great rock close by. The story runs that he made his miserable +home in this den for several years, but I believe that there is no +record that more than three of the regicides escaped to this country, +and their wanderings are otherwise accounted for. There is a firm +belief that one of them came to York, and was the ancestor of many +persons now living there, but I do not know whether he can have been +the hero of the Baker's Spring hermitage beside. We stopped to drink +some of the delicious water, which never fails to flow cold and clear +under the shade of a great oak, and were amused with the sight of a +flock of gay little country children who passed by in deep +conversation. What could such atoms of humanity be talking about? +"Old times," said John, the master of horse, with instant decision. + +We met now and then a man or woman, who stopped to give us hospitable +greeting; but there was no staying for visits, lest the daylight might +fail us. It was delightful to find this old-established neighborhood +so thriving and populous, for a few days before I had driven over +three miles of road, and passed only one house that was tenanted, and +six cellars or crumbling chimneys where good farmhouses had been, the +lilacs blooming in solitude, and the fields, cleared with so much +difficulty a century or two ago, all going back to the original +woodland from which they were won. What would the old farmers say to +see the fate of their worthy bequest to the younger generation? They +would wag their heads sorrowfully, with sad foreboding. + +After we had passed more woodland and a well-known quarry, where, for +a wonder, the derrick was not creaking and not a single hammer was +clinking at the stone wedges, we did not see any one hoeing in the +fields, as we had seen so many on the white rose road, the other side +of the hills. Presently we met two or three people walking sedately, +clad in their best clothes. There was a subdued air of public +excitement and concern, and one of us remembered that there had been a +death in the neighborhood; this was the day of the funeral. The man +had been known to us in former years. We had an instinct to hide our +unsympathetic pleasuring, but there was nothing to be done except to +follow our homeward road straight by the house. + +The occasion was nearly ended by this time: the borrowed chairs were +being set out in the yard in little groups; even the funeral supper +had been eaten, and the brothers and sisters and near relatives of the +departed man were just going home. The new grave showed plainly out in +the green field near by. He had belonged to one of the ancient +families of the region, long settled on this old farm by the narrow +river; they had given their name to a bridge, and the bridge had +christened the meeting-house which stood close by. We were much struck +by the solemn figure of the mother, a very old woman, as she walked +toward her old home with some of her remaining children. I had not +thought to see her again, knowing her great age and infirmity. She was +like a presence out of the last century, tall and still erect, +dark-eyed and of striking features, and a firm look not modern, but as +if her mind were still set upon an earlier and simpler scheme of life. +An air of dominion cloaked her finely. She had long been queen of her +surroundings and law-giver to her great family. Royalty is a quality, +one of Nature's gifts, and there one might behold it as truly as if +Victoria Regina Imperatrix had passed by. The natural instincts common +to humanity were there undisguised, unconcealed, simply accepted. We +had seen a royal progress; she was the central figure of that rural +society; as you looked at the little group, you could see her only. +Now that she came abroad so rarely, her presence was not without deep +significance, and so she took her homeward way with a primitive kind +of majesty. + +It was evident that the neighborhood was in great excitement and quite +thrown out of its usual placidity. An acquaintance came from a small +house farther down the road, and we stopped for a word with him. We +spoke of the funeral, and were told something of the man who had died. +"Yes, and there's a man layin' very sick here," said our friend in an +excited whisper. "_He_ won't last but a day or two. There's another +man buried yesterday that was struck by lightnin', comin' acrost a +field when that great shower begun. The lightnin' stove through his +hat and run down all over him, and ploughed a spot in the ground." +There was a knot of people about the door; the minister of that +scattered parish stood among them, and they all looked at us eagerly, +as if we too might be carrying news of a fresh disaster through the +countryside. + +Somehow the melancholy tales did not touch our sympathies as they +ought, and we could not see the pathetic side of them as at another +time, the day was so full of cheer and the sky and earth so glorious. +The very fields looked busy with their early summer growth, the horses +began to think of the clack of the oat-bin cover, and we were hurried +along between the silvery willows and the rustling alders, taking time +to gather a handful of stray-away conserve roses by the roadside; and +where the highway made a long bend eastward among the farms, two of us +left the carriage, and followed a footpath along the green river bank +and through the pastures, coming out to the road again only a minute +later than the horses. I believe that it is an old Indian trail +followed from the salmon falls farther down the river, where the +up-country Indians came to dry the plentiful fish for their winter +supplies. I have traced the greater part of this deep-worn footpath, +which goes straight as an arrow across the country, the first day's +trail being from the falls (where Mason's settlers came in 1627, and +built their Great Works of a saw-mill with a gang of saws, and +presently a grist mill beside) to Emery's Bridge. I should like to +follow the old footpath still farther. I found part of it by accident +a long time ago. Once, as you came close to the river, you were sure +to find fishermen scattered along,--sometimes I myself have been +discovered; but it is not much use to go fishing any more. If some +public-spirited person would kindly be the Frank Buckland of New +England, and try to have the laws enforced that protect the inland +fisheries, he would do his country great service. Years ago, there +were so many salmon that, as an enthusiastic old friend once assured +me, "you could walk across on them below the falls;" but now they are +unknown, simply because certain substances which would enrich the +farms are thrown from factories and tanneries into our clear New +England streams. Good river fish are growing very scarce. The smelts, +and bass, and shad have all left this upper branch of the Piscataqua, +as the salmon left it long ago, and the supply of one necessary sort +of good cheap food is lost to a growing community, for the lack of a +little thought and care in the factory companies and saw-mills, and +the building in some cases of fish-ways over the dams. I think that +the need of preaching against this bad economy is very great. The +sight of a proud lad with a string of undersized trout will scatter +half the idlers in town into the pastures next day, but everybody +patiently accepts the depopulation of a fine clear river, where the +tide comes fresh from the sea to be tainted by the spoiled stream, +which started from its mountain sources as pure as heart could wish. +Man has done his best to ruin the world he lives in, one is tempted to +say at impulsive first thought; but after all, as I mounted the last +hill before reaching the village, the houses took on a new look of +comfort and pleasantness; the fields that I knew so well were a +fresher green than before, the sun was down, and the provocations of +the day seemed very slight compared to the satisfaction. I believed +that with a little more time we should grow wiser about our fish and +other things beside. + +It will be good to remember the white rose road and its quietness in +many a busy town day to come. As I think of these slight sketches, I +wonder if they will have to others a tinge of sadness; but I have +seldom spent an afternoon so full of pleasure and fresh and delighted +consciousness of the possibilities of rural life. + + * * * * * + + + + +_The Town Poor_ + + +Mrs. William Trimble and Miss Rebecca Wright were driving along +Hampden east road, one afternoon in early spring. Their progress was +slow. Mrs. Trimble's sorrel horse was old and stiff, and the wheels +were clogged by clay mud. The frost was not yet out of the ground, +although the snow was nearly gone, except in a few places on the north +side of the woods, or where it had drifted all winter against a length +of fence. + +"There must be a good deal o' snow to the nor'ard of us yet," said +weather-wise Mrs. Trimble. "I feel it in the air; 'tis more than the +ground-damp. We ain't goin' to have real nice weather till the +up-country snow's all gone." + +"I heard say yesterday that there was good sleddin' yet, all up +through Parsley," responded Miss Wright. "I shouldn't like to live in +them northern places. My cousin Ellen's husband was a Parsley man, an' +he was obliged, as you may have heard, to go up north to his father's +second wife's funeral; got back day before yesterday. 'T was about +twenty-one miles, an' they started on wheels; but when they'd gone +nine or ten miles, they found 't was no sort o' use, an' left their +wagon an' took a sleigh. The man that owned it charged 'em four an' +six, too. I shouldn't have thought he would; they told him they was +goin' to a funeral; an' they had their own buffaloes an' everything." + +"Well, I expect it's a good deal harder scratchin', up that way; they +have to git money where they can; the farms is very poor as you go +north," suggested Mrs. Trimble kindly. "'T ain't none too rich a +country where we be, but I've always been grateful I wa'n't born up to +Parsley." + +The old horse plodded along, and the sun, coming out from the heavy +spring clouds, sent a sudden shine of light along the muddy road. +Sister Wright drew her large veil forward over the high brim of her +bonnet. She was not used to driving, or to being much in the open air; +but Mrs. Trimble was an active business woman, and looked after her +own affairs herself, in all weathers. The late Mr. Trimble had left +her a good farm, but not much ready money, and it was often said that +she was better off in the end than if he had lived. She regretted his +loss deeply, however; it was impossible for her to speak of him, even +to intimate friends, without emotion, and nobody had ever hinted that +this emotion was insincere. She was most warm-hearted and generous, +and in her limited way played the part of Lady Bountiful in the town +of Hampden. + +"Why, there's where the Bray girls lives, ain't it?" she exclaimed, +as, beyond a thicket of witch-hazel and scrub-oak, they came in sight +of a weather-beaten, solitary farmhouse. The barn was too far away for +thrift or comfort, and they could see long lines of light between the +shrunken boards as they came nearer. The fields looked both stony and +sodden. Somehow, even Parsley itself could be hardly more forlorn. + +"Yes'm," said Miss Wright, "that's where they live now, poor things. I +know the place, though I ain't been up here for years. You don't +suppose, Mis' Trimble--I ain't seen the girls out to meetin' all +winter. I've re'lly been covetin'"-- + +"Why, yes, Rebecca, of course we could stop," answered Mrs. Trimble +heartily. "The exercises was over earlier 'n I expected, an' you're +goin' to remain over night long o' me, you know. There won't be no tea +till we git there, so we can't be late. I'm in the habit o' sendin' a +basket to the Bray girls when any o' our folks is comin' this way, but +I ain't been to see 'em since they moved up here. Why, it must be a +good deal over a year ago. I know 't was in the late winter they had +to make the move. 'T was cruel hard, I must say, an' if I hadn't been +down with my pleurisy fever I'd have stirred round an' done somethin' +about it. There was a good deal o' sickness at the time, an'--well, 't +was kind o' rushed through, breakin' of 'em up, an' lots o' folks +blamed the selec'_men_; but when 't was done, 't was done, an' nobody +took holt to undo it. Ann an' Mandy looked same's ever when they come +to meetin', 'long in the summer,--kind o' wishful, perhaps. They've +always sent me word they was gittin' on pretty comfortable." + +"That would be their way," said Rebecca Wright. "They never was any +hand to complain, though Mandy's less cheerful than Ann. If Mandy 'd +been spared such poor eyesight, an' Ann hadn't got her lame wrist that +wa'n't set right, they'd kep' off the town fast enough. They both shed +tears when they talked to me about havin' to break up, when I went to +see 'em before I went over to brother Asa's. You see we was brought up +neighbors, an' we went to school together, the Brays an' me. 'T was a +special Providence brought us home this road, I've been so covetin' a +chance to git to see 'em. My lameness hampers me." + +"I'm glad we come this way, myself," said Mrs. Trimble. + +"I'd like to see just how they fare," Miss Rebecca Wright continued. +"They give their consent to goin' on the town because they knew they'd +got to be dependent, an' so they felt 't would come easier for all +than for a few to help 'em. They acted real dignified an' +right-minded, contrary to what most do in such cases, but they was +dreadful anxious to see who would bid 'em off, town-meeting day; they +did so hope 't would be somebody right in the village. I just sat down +an' cried good when I found Abel Janes's folks had got hold of 'em. +They always had the name of bein' slack an' poor-spirited, an' they +did it just for what they got out o' the town. The selectmen this +last year ain't what we have had. I hope they've been considerate +about the Bray girls." + +"I should have be'n more considerate about fetchin' of you over," +apologized Mrs. Trimble. "I've got my horse, an' you're lame-footed; +'tis too far for you to come. But time does slip away with busy folks, +an' I forgit a good deal I ought to remember." + +"There's nobody more considerate than you be," protested Miss Rebecca +Wright. + +Mrs. Trimble made no answer, but took out her whip and gently touched +the sorrel horse, who walked considerably faster, but did not think it +worth while to trot. It was a long, round-about way to the house, +farther down the road and up a lane. + +"I never had any opinion of the Bray girls' father, leavin' 'em as he +did," said Mrs. Trimble. + +"He was much praised in his time, though there was always some said +his early life hadn't been up to the mark," explained her companion. +"He was a great favorite of our then preacher, the Reverend Daniel +Longbrother. They did a good deal for the parish, but they did it +their own way. Deacon Bray was one that did his part in the repairs +without urging. You know 't was in his time the first repairs was +made, when they got out the old soundin'-board an' them handsome +square pews. It cost an awful sight o' money, too. They hadn't done +payin' up that debt when they set to alter it again an' git the walls +frescoed. My grandmother was one that always spoke her mind right out, +an' she was dreadful opposed to breakin' up the square pews where she'd +always set. They was countin' up what 't would cost in parish meetin', +an' she riz right up an' said 't wouldn't cost nothin' to let 'em +stay, an' there wa'n't a house carpenter left in the parish that could +do such nice work, an' time would come when the great-grandchildren +would give their eye-teeth to have the old meetin'-house look just as +it did then. But haul the inside to pieces they would and did." + +"There come to be a real fight over it, didn't there?" agreed Mrs. +Trimble soothingly. "Well, 't wa'n't good taste. I remember the old +house well. I come here as a child to visit a cousin o' mother's, an' +Mr. Trimble's folks was neighbors, an' we was drawed to each other +then, young's we was. Mr. Trimble spoke of it many's the time,--that +first time he ever see me, in a leghorn hat with a feather; 't was one +that mother had, an' pressed over." + +"When I think of them old sermons that used to be preached in that old +meetin'-house of all, I'm glad it's altered over, so's not to remind +folks," said Miss Rebecca Wright, after a suitable pause. "Them old +brimstone discourses, you know, Mis' Trimble. Preachers is far more +reasonable, nowadays. Why, I set an' thought, last Sabbath, as I +listened, that if old Mr. Longbrother an' Deacon Bray could hear the +difference they'd crack the ground over 'em like pole beans, an' come +right up 'long side their headstones." + +Mrs. Trimble laughed heartily, and shook the reins three or four times +by way of emphasis. "There's no gitting round you," she said, much +pleased. "I should think Deacon Bray would want to rise, any way, if +'t was so he could, an' knew how his poor girls was farin'. A man +ought to provide for his folks he's got to leave behind him, specially +if they're women. To be sure, they had their little home; but we've +seen how, with all their industrious ways, they hadn't means to keep +it. I s'pose he thought he'd got time enough to lay by, when he give +so generous in collections; but he didn't lay by, an' there they be. +He might have took lessons from the squirrels: even them little wild +creatur's makes them their winter hoards, an' men-folks ought to know +enough if squirrels does. 'Be just before you are generous:' that's +what was always set for the B's in the copy-books, when I was to +school, and it often runs through my mind." + +"'As for man, his days are as grass,'--that was for A; the two go well +together," added Miss Rebecca Wright soberly. "My good gracious, ain't +this a starved-lookin' place? It makes me ache to think them nice Bray +girls has to brook it here." + +The sorrel horse, though somewhat puzzled by an unexpected deviation +from his homeward way, willingly came to a stand by the gnawed corner +of the door-yard fence, which evidently served as hitching-place. Two +or three ragged old hens were picking about the yard, and at last a +face appeared at the kitchen window, tied up in a handkerchief, as if +it were a case of toothache. By the time our friends reached the side +door next this window, Mrs. Janes came disconsolately to open it for +them, shutting it again as soon as possible, though the air felt more +chilly inside the house. + +"Take seats," said Mrs. Janes briefly. "You'll have to see me just as +I be. I have been suffering these four days with the ague, and +everything to do. Mr. Janes is to court, on the jury. 'T was +inconvenient to spare him. I should be pleased to have you lay off +your things." + +Comfortable Mrs. Trimble looked about the cheerless kitchen, and could +not think of anything to say; so she smiled blandly and shook her head +in answer to the invitation. "We'll just set a few minutes with you, +to pass the time o' day, an' then we must go in an' have a word with +the Miss Brays, bein' old acquaintance. It ain't been so we could git +to call on 'em before. I don't know's you're acquainted with Miss +R'becca Wright. She's been out of town a good deal." + +"I heard she was stopping over to Plainfields with her brother's +folks," replied Mrs. Janes, rocking herself with irregular motion, as +she sat close to the stove. "Got back some time in the fall, I +believe?" + +"Yes'm," said Miss Rebecca, with an undue sense of guilt and +conviction. "We've been to the installation over to the East Parish, +an' thought we'd stop in; we took this road home to see if 't was any +better. How is the Miss Brays gettin' on?" + +"They're well's common," answered Mrs. Janes grudgingly. "I was put +out with Mr. Janes for fetchin' of 'em here, with all I've got to do, +an' I own I was kind o' surly to 'em 'long to the first of it. He gits +the money from the town, an' it helps him out; but he bid 'em off for +five dollars a month, an' we can't do much for 'em at no such price as +that. I went an' dealt with the selec'men, an' made 'em promise to +find their firewood an' some other things extra. They was glad to get +rid o' the matter the fourth time I went, an' would ha' promised 'most +anything. But Mr. Janes don't keep me half the time in oven-wood, he's +off so much, an' we was cramped o' room, any way. I have to store +things up garrit a good deal, an' that keeps me trampin' right through +their room. I do the best for 'em I can, Mis' Trimble, but 't ain't so +easy for me as 't is for you, with all your means to do with." + +The poor woman looked pinched and miserable herself, though it was +evident that she had no gift at house or home keeping. Mrs. Trimble's +heart was wrung with pain, as she thought of the unwelcome inmates of +such a place; but she held her peace bravely, while Miss Rebecca again +gave some brief information in regard to the installation. + +"You go right up them back stairs," the hostess directed at last. "I'm +glad some o' you church folks has seen fit to come an' visit 'em. +There ain't been nobody here this long spell, an' they've aged a sight +since they come. They always send down a taste out of your baskets, +Mis' Trimble, an' I relish it, I tell you. I'll shut the door after +you, if you don't object. I feel every draught o' cold air." + +"I've always heard she was a great hand to make a poor mouth. Wa'n't +she from somewheres up Parsley way?" whispered Miss Rebecca, as they +stumbled in the half-light. + +"Poor meechin' body, wherever she come from," replied Mrs. Trimble, as +she knocked at the door. + +There was silence for a moment after this unusual sound; then one of +the Bray sisters opened the door. The eager guests stared into a +small, low room, brown with age, and gray, too, as if former dust and +cobwebs could not be made wholly to disappear. The two elderly women +who stood there looked like captives. Their withered faces wore a look +of apprehension, and the room itself was more bare and plain than was +fitting to their evident refinement of character and self-respect. +There was an uncovered small table in the middle of the floor, with +some crackers on a plate; and, for some reason or other, this added a +great deal to the general desolation. + +But Miss Ann Bray, the elder sister, who carried her right arm in a +sling, with piteously drooping fingers, gazed at the visitors with +radiant joy. She had not seen them arrive. + +The one window gave only the view at the back of the house, across the +fields, and their coming was indeed a surprise. The next minute she +was laughing and crying together. "Oh, sister!" she said, "if here +ain't our dear Mis' Trimble!--an' my heart o' goodness, 'tis 'Becca +Wright, too! What dear good creatur's you be! I've felt all day as if +something good was goin' to happen, an' was just sayin' to myself +'twas most sundown now, but I wouldn't let on to Mandany I'd give up +hope quite yet. You see, the scissors stuck in the floor this very +mornin' an' it's always a reliable sign. There, I've got to kiss ye +both again!" + +"I don't know where we can all set," lamented sister Mandana. "There +ain't but the one chair an' the bed; t'other chair's too rickety; an' +we've been promised another these ten days; but first they've forgot +it, an' next Mis' Janes can't spare it,--one excuse an' another. I am +goin' to git a stump o' wood an' nail a board on to it, when I can git +outdoor again," said Mandana, in a plaintive voice. "There, I ain't +goin' to complain o' nothin', now you've come," she added; and the +guests sat down, Mrs. Trimble, as was proper, in the one chair. + +"We've sat on the bed many's the time with you, 'Becca, an' talked +over our girl nonsense, ain't we? You know where 'twas--in the little +back bedroom we had when we was girls, an' used to peek out at our +beaux through the strings o' mornin'-glories," laughed Ann Bray +delightedly, her thin face shining more and more with joy. "I brought +some o' them mornin'-glory seeds along when we come away, we'd raised +'em so many years; an' we got 'em started all right, but the hens +found 'em out. I declare I chased them poor hens, foolish as 'twas; +but the mornin'-glories I'd counted on a sight to remind me o' home. +You see, our debts was so large, after my long sickness an' all, that +we didn't feel 'twas right to keep back anything we could help from +the auction." + +It was impossible for any one to speak for a moment or two; the +sisters felt their own uprooted condition afresh, and their guests for +the first time really comprehended the piteous contrast between that +neat little village house, which now seemed a palace of comfort, and +this cold, unpainted upper room in the remote Janes farmhouse. It was +an unwelcome thought to Mrs. Trimble that the well-to-do town of +Hampden could provide no better for its poor than this, and her round +face flushed with resentment and the shame of personal responsibility. +"The girls shall be well settled in the village before another winter, +if I pay their board myself," she made an inward resolution, and took +another almost tearful look at the broken stove, the miserable bed, +and the sisters' one hair-covered trunk, on which Mandana was sitting +But the poor place was filled with a golden spirit of hospitality. + +Rebecca was again discoursing eloquently of the installation; it was +so much easier to speak of general subjects, and the sisters had +evidently been longing to hear some news. Since the late summer they +had not been to church, and presently Mrs. Trimble asked the reason. + +"Now, don't you go to pouring out our woes, Mandy!" begged little old +Ann, looking shy and almost girlish, and as if she insisted upon +playing that life was still all before them and all pleasure. "Don't +you go to spoilin' their visit with our complaints! They know well's +we do that changes must come, an' we'd been so wonted to our home +things that this come hard at first; but then they felt for us, I know +just as well's can be. 'Twill soon be summer again, an' 'tis real +pleasant right out in the fields here, when there ain't too hot a +spell. I've got to know a sight o' singin' birds since we come." + +"Give me the folks I've always known," sighed the younger sister, who +looked older than Miss Ann, and less even-tempered. "You may have your +birds, if you want 'em. I do re'lly long to go to meetin' an' see +folks go by up the aisle. Now, I will speak of it, Ann, whatever you +say. We need, each of us, a pair o' good stout shoes an' +rubbers,--ours are all wore out; an' we've asked an' asked, an' they +never think to bring 'em, an'"-- + +Poor old Mandana, on the trunk, covered her face with her arms and +sobbed aloud. The elder sister stood over her, and patted her on the +thin shoulder like a child, and tried to comfort her. It crossed Mrs. +Trimble's mind that it was not the first time one had wept and the +other had comforted. The sad scene must have been repeated many times +in that long, drear winter. She would see them forever after in her +mind as fixed as a picture, and her own tears fell fast. + +"You didn't see Mis' Janes's cunning little boy, the next one to the +baby, did you?" asked Ann Bray, turning round quickly at last, and +going cheerfully on with the conversation. "Now, hush, Mandy, dear; +they'll think you're childish! He's a dear, friendly little creatur', +an' likes to stay with us a good deal, though we feel's if it 't was +too cold for him, now we are waitin' to get us more wood." + +"When I think of the acres o' woodland in this town!" groaned Rebecca +Wright. "I believe I'm goin' to preach next Sunday, 'stead o' the +minister, an' I'll make the sparks fly. I've always heard the saying, +'What's everybody's business is nobody's business,' an' I've come to +believe it." + +"Now, don't you, 'Becca. You've happened on a kind of a poor time with +us, but we've got more belongings than you see here, an' a good large +cluset, where we can store those things there ain't room to have +about. You an' Miss Trimble have happened on a kind of poor day, you +know. Soon's I git me some stout shoes an' rubbers, as Mandy says, I +can fetch home plenty o' little dry boughs o' pine; you remember I was +always a great hand to roam in the woods? If we could only have a +front room, so 't we could look out on the road an' see passin', an' +was shod for meetin', I don' know's we should complain. Now we're just +goin' to give you what we've got, an' make out with a good welcome. We +make more tea 'n we want in the mornin', an' then let the fire go +down, since 't has been so mild. We've got a _good_ cluset" +(disappearing as she spoke), "an' I know this to be good tea, 'cause +it's some o' yourn, Mis' Trimble. An' here's our sprigged chiny cups +that R'becca knows by sight, if Mis' Trimble don't. We kep' out four +of 'em, an' put the even half dozen with the rest of the auction +stuff. I've often wondered who'd got 'em, but I never asked, for fear +'t would be somebody that would distress us. They was mother's, you +know." + +The four cups were poured, and the little table pushed to the bed, +where Rebecca Wright still sat, and Mandana, wiping her eyes, came and +joined her. Mrs. Trimble sat in her chair at the end, and Ann trotted +about the room in pleased content for a while, and in and out of the +closet, as if she still had much to do; then she came and stood +opposite Mrs. Trimble. She was very short and small, and there was no +painful sense of her being obliged to stand. The four cups were not +quite full of cold tea, but there was a clean old tablecloth folded +double, and a plate with three pairs of crackers neatly piled, and a +small--it must be owned, a very small--piece of hard white cheese. +Then, for a treat, in a glass dish, there was a little preserved +peach, the last--Miss Rebecca knew it instinctively--of the household +stores brought from their old home. It was very sugary, this bit of +peach; and as she helped her guests and sister Mandy, Miss Ann Bray +said, half unconsciously, as she often had said with less reason in +the old days, "Our preserves ain't so good as usual this year; this is +beginning to candy." Both the guests protested, while Rebecca added +that the taste of it carried her back, and made her feel young again. +The Brays had always managed to keep one or two peach-trees alive in +their corner of a garden. "I've been keeping this preserve for a +treat," said her friend. "I'm glad to have you eat some, 'Becca. Last +summer I often wished you was home an' could come an' see us, 'stead +o' being away off to Plainfields." + +The crackers did not taste too dry. Miss Ann took the last of the +peach on her own cracker; there could not have been quite a small +spoonful, after the others were helped, but she asked them first if +they would not have some more. Then there was a silence, and in the +silence a wave of tender feeling rose high in the hearts of the four +elderly women. At this moment the setting sun flooded the poor plain +room with light; the unpainted wood was all of a golden-brown, and Ann +Bray, with her gray hair and aged face, stood at the head of the table +in a kind of aureole. Mrs. Trimble's face was all aquiver as she +looked at her; she thought of the text about two or three being +gathered together, and was half afraid. + +"I believe we ought to've asked Mis' Janes if she wouldn't come up," +said Ann. "She's real good feelin', but she's had it very hard, an' +gits discouraged. I can't find that she's ever had anything real +pleasant to look back to, as we have. There, next time we'll make a +good heartenin' time for her too." + + +The sorrel horse had taken a long nap by the gnawed fence-rail, and +the cool air after sundown made him impatient to be gone. The two +friends jolted homeward in the gathering darkness, through the +stiffening mud, and neither Mrs. Trimble nor Rebecca Wright said a +word until they were out of sight as well as out of sound of the Janes +house. Time must elapse before they could reach a more familiar part +of the road and resume conversation on its natural level. + +"I consider myself to blame," insisted Mrs. Trimble at last. "I +haven't no words of accusation for nobody else, an' I ain't one to +take comfort in calling names to the board o' selec'_men_. I make no +reproaches, an' I take it all on my own shoulders; but I'm goin' to +stir about me, I tell you! I shall begin early to-morrow. They're +goin' back to their own house,--it's been standin' empty all +winter,--an' the town's goin' to give 'em the rent an' what firewood +they need; it won't come to more than the board's payin' out now. An' +you an' me'll take this same horse an' wagon, an' ride an' go afoot by +turns, an' git means enough together to buy back their furniture an' +whatever was sold at that plaguey auction; an' then we'll put it all +back, an' tell 'em they've got to move to a new place, an' just carry +'em right back again where they come from. An' don't you never tell, +R'becca, but here I be a widow woman, layin' up what I make from my +farm for nobody knows who, an' I'm goin' to do for them Bray girls +all I'm a mind to. I should be sca't to wake up in heaven, an' hear +anybody there ask how the Bray girls was. Don't talk to me about the +town o' Hampden, an' don't ever let me hear the name o' town poor! I'm +ashamed to go home an' see what's set out for supper. I wish I'd +brought 'em right along." + +"I was goin' to ask if we couldn't git the new doctor to go up an' do +somethin' for poor Ann's arm," said Miss Rebecca. "They say he's very +smart. If she could get so's to braid straw or hook rugs again, she'd +soon be earnin' a little somethin'. An' may be he could do somethin' +for Mandy's eyes. They did use to live so neat an' ladylike. Somehow I +couldn't speak to tell 'em there that 'twas I bought them six best +cups an' saucers, time of the auction; they went very low, as +everything else did, an' I thought I could save it some other way. +They shall have 'em back an' welcome. You're real whole-hearted, Mis' +Trimble. I expect Ann'll be sayin' that her father's child'n wa'n't +goin' to be left desolate, an' that all the bread he cast on the +water's comin' back through you." + +"I don't care what she says, dear creatur'!" exclaimed Mrs. Trimble. +"I'm full o' regrets I took time for that installation, an' set there +seepin' in a lot o' talk this whole day long, except for its kind of +bringin' us to the Bray girls. I wish to my heart 't was to-morrow +mornin' a'ready, an' I a-startin' for the selec'_men_." + + * * * * * + + + + +A Native of Winby + + +I. + +On the teacher's desk, in the little roadside school-house, there was +a bunch of Mayflowers, beside a dented and bent brass bell, a small +Worcester's Dictionary without any cover, and a worn morocco-covered +Bible. These were placed in an orderly row, and behind them was a +small wooden box which held some broken pieces of blackboard crayon. +The teacher, whom no timid new scholar could look at boldly, wore her +accustomed air of authority and importance. She might have been +nineteen years old,--not more,--but for the time being she scorned the +frivolities of youth. + +The hot May sun was shining in at the smoky small-paned windows; +sometimes an outside shutter swung to with a creak, and eclipsed the +glare. The narrow door stood wide open, to the left as you faced the +desk, and an old spotted dog lay asleep on the step, and looked wise +and old enough to have gone to school with several generations of +children. It was half past three o'clock in the afternoon, and the +primer class, settled into the apathy of after-recess fatigue, +presented a straggling front, as they stood listlessly on the floor. +As for the big boys and girls, they also were longing to be at +liberty, but the pretty teacher, Miss Marilla Hender, seemed quite as +energetic as when school was begun in the morning. + +The spring breeze blew in at the open door, and even fluttered the +primer leaves, but the back of the room felt hot and close, as if it +were midsummer. The children in the class read their lessons in those +high-keyed, droning voices which older teachers learn to associate +with faint powers of perception. Only one or two of them had an +awakened human look in their eyes, such as Matthew Arnold delighted +himself in finding so often in the school-children of France. Most of +these poor little students were as inadequate, at that weary moment, +to the pursuit of letters as if they had been woolly spring lambs on a +sunny hillside. The teacher corrected and admonished with great +patience, glancing now and then toward points of danger and +insurrection, whence came a suspicious buzz of whispering from behind +a desk-lid or a pair of widespread large geographies. Now and then a +toiling child would rise and come down the aisle, with his forefinger +firm upon a puzzling word as if it were an unclassified insect. It was +a lovely beckoning day out-of-doors. The children felt like captives; +there was something that provoked rebellion in the droning voices, the +buzzing of an early wild bee against the sunlit pane, and even in the +stuffy familiar odor of the place,--the odor of apples and crumbs of +doughnuts and gingerbread in the dinner pails on the high entry nails, +and of all the little gowns and trousers that had brushed through +junipers and young pines on their way to school. + +The bee left his prisoning pane at last, and came over to the +Mayflowers, which were in full bloom, although the season was very +late, and deep in the woods there were still some graybacked +snowdrifts, speckled with bits of bark and moss from the trees above. + +"Come, come, Ezra!" urged the young teacher, rapping her desk sharply. +"Stop watchin' that common bee! You know well enough what those +letters spell. You won't learn to read at this rate until you are a +grown man. Mind your book, now; you ought to remember who went to this +school when he was a little boy. You've heard folks tell about the +Honorable Joseph K. Laneway? He used to be in primer just as you are +now, and 't wasn't long before he was out of it, either, and was +called the smartest boy in school. He's got to be a general and a +Senator, and one of the richest men out West. You don't seem to have +the least mite of ambition to-day, any of you!" + +The exhortation, entirely personal in the beginning, had swiftly +passed to a general rebuke. Ezra looked relieved, and the other +children brightened up as they recognized a tale familiar to their +ears. Anything was better than trying to study in that dull last hour +of afternoon school. + +"Yes," continued Miss Hender, pleased that she had at last roused +something like proper attention, "you all ought to be proud that you +are schoolmates of District Number Four, and can remember that the +celebrated General Laneway had the same early advantages as you, and +think what he has made of himself by perseverance and ambition." + +The pupils were familiar enough with the illustrious history of their +noble predecessor. They were sure to be told, in lawless moments, that +if Mr. Laneway were to come in and see them he would be mortified to +death; and the members of the school committee always referred to him, +and said that he had been a poor boy, and was now a self-made +man,--as if every man were not self-made as to his character and +reputation! + +At this point, young Johnny Spencer showed his next neighbor, in the +back of his Colburn's Arithmetic, an imaginary portrait of their +district hero, which caused them both to chuckle derisively. The +Honorable Mr. Laneway figured on the flyleaf as an extremely +cross-eyed person, with strangely crooked legs and arms and a terrific +expression. He was outlined with red and blue pencils as to coat and +trousers, and held a reddened scalp in one hand and a blue tomahawk in +the other; being closely associated in the artist's mind with the +early settlements of the far West. + +There was a noise of wheels in the road near by, and, though Miss +Hender had much more to say, everybody ceased to listen to her, and +turned toward the windows, leaning far forward over their desks to see +who might be passing. They caught a glimpse of a shiny carriage; the +old dog bounded out, barking, but nothing passed the open door. The +carriage had stopped; some one was coming to the school; somebody was +going to be called out! It could not be the committee, whose pompous +and uninspiring spring visit had taken place only the week before. + +Presently a well-dressed elderly man, with an expectant, masterful +look, stood on the doorstep, glanced in with a smile, and knocked. +Miss Marilla Hender blushed, smoothed her pretty hair anxiously with +both hands, and stepped down from her little platform to answer the +summons. There was hardly a shut mouth in the primer class. + +"Would it be convenient for you to receive a visitor to the school?" +the stranger asked politely, with a fine bow of deference to Miss +Hender. He looked much pleased and a little excited, and the teacher +said,-- + +"Certainly; step right in, won't you, sir?" in quite another tone from +that in which she had just addressed the school. + +The boys and girls were sitting straight and silent in their places, +in something like a fit of apprehension and unpreparedness at such a +great emergency. The guest represented a type of person previously +unknown in District Number Four. Everything about him spoke of wealth +and authority. The old dog returned to the doorstep, and after a +careful look at the invader approached him, with a funny doggish grin +and a desperate wag of the tail, to beg for recognition. + +The teacher gave her chair on the platform to the guest, and stood +beside him with very red cheeks, smoothing her hair again once or +twice, and keeping the hard-wood ruler fast in hand, like a badge of +office. "Primer class may now retire!" she said firmly, although the +lesson was not more than half through; and the class promptly escaped +to their seats, waddling and stumbling, until they all came up behind +their desks, face foremost, and added themselves to the number of +staring young countenances. After this there was a silence, which grew +more and more embarrassing. + +"Perhaps you would be pleased to hear our first class in geography, +sir?" asked the fair Marilla, recovering her presence of mind; and the +guest kindly assented. + +The young teacher was by no means willing to give up a certainty for +an uncertainty. Yesterday's lesson had been well learned; she turned +back to the questions about the State of Kansota, and at the first +sentence the mysterious visitor's dignity melted into an unconscious +smile. He listened intently for a minute, and then seemed to reoccupy +himself with his own thoughts and purposes, looking eagerly about the +old school-house, and sometimes gazing steadily at the children. The +lesson went on finely, and when it was finished Miss Hender asked the +girl at the head of the class to name the States and Territories, +which she instantly did, mispronouncing nearly all the names of the +latter; then others stated boundaries and capitals, and the resources +of the New England States, passing on finally to the names of the +Presidents. Miss Hender glowed with pride; she had worked hard over +the geography class in the winter term, and it did not fail her on +this great occasion. When she turned bravely to see if the gentleman +would like to ask any questions, she found that he was apparently +lost in a deep reverie, so she repeated her own question more +distinctly. + +"They have done very well,--very well indeed," he answered kindly; and +then, to every one's surprise, he rose, went up the aisle, pushed +Johnny Spencer gently along his bench, and sat down beside him. The +space was cramped, and the stranger looked huge and uncomfortable, so +that everybody laughed, except one of the big girls, who turned pale +with fright, and thought he must be crazy. When this girl gave a faint +squeak Miss Hender recovered herself, and rapped twice with the ruler +to restore order; then became entirely tranquil. There had been talk +of replacing the hacked and worn old school-desks with patent desks +and chairs; this was probably an agent connected with that business. +At once she was resolute and self-reliant, and said, "No whispering!" +in a firm tone that showed she did not mean to be trifled with. The +geography class was dismissed, but the elderly gentleman, in his +handsome overcoat, still sat there wedged in at Johnny Spencer's side. + +"I presume, sir, that you are canvassing for new desks," said Miss +Hender, with dignity. "You will have to see the supervisor and the +selectmen." There did not seem to be any need of his lingering, but +she had an ardent desire to be pleasing to a person of such evident +distinction. "We always tell strangers--I thought, sir, you might be +gratified to know--that this is the school-house where the Honorable +Joseph K. Laneway first attended school. All do not know that he was +born in this town, and went West very young; it is only about a mile +from here where his folks used to live." + +At this moment the visitor's eyes fell. He did not look at pretty +Marilla any more, but opened Johnny Spencer's arithmetic, and, seeing +the imaginary portrait of the great General Laneway, laughed a +little,--a very deep-down comfortable laugh it was,--while Johnny +himself turned cold with alarm, he could not have told why. + +It was very still in the school-room; the bee was buzzing and bumping +at the pane again; the moment was one of intense expectation. + +The stranger looked at the children right and left. "The fact is +this, young people," said he, in a tone that was half pride and half +apology, "I am Joseph K. Laneway myself." + +He tried to extricate himself from the narrow quarters of the desk, +but for an embarrassing moment found that he was stuck fast. Johnny +Spencer instinctively gave him an assisting push, and once free the +great soldier, statesman, and millionaire took a few steps forward to +the open floor; then, after hesitating a moment, he mounted the little +platform and stood in the teacher's place. Marilla Hender was as pale +as ashes. + +"I have thought many times," the great guest began, "that some day I +should come back to visit this place, which is so closely interwoven +with the memories of my childhood. In my counting-room, on the fields +of war, in the halls of Congress, and most of all in my Western home, +my thoughts have flown back to the hills and brooks of Winby and to +this little old school-house. I could shut my eyes and call back the +buzz of voices, and fear my teacher's frown, and feel my boyish +ambitions waking and stirring in my breast. On that bench where I just +sat I saw some notches that I cut with my first jackknife fifty-eight +years ago this very spring. I remember the faces of the boys and girls +who went to school with me, and I see their grandchildren before me. I +know that one is a Goodsoe and another a Winn by the old family look. +One generation goes, and another comes. + +"There are many things that I might say to you. I meant, even in those +early restricted days, to make my name known, and I dare say that you +too have ambition. Be careful what you wish for in this world, for if +you wish hard enough you are sure to get it. I once heard a very wise +man say this, and the longer I live the more firmly I believe it to be +true. But wishing hard means working hard for what you want, and the +world's prizes wait for the men and women who are ready to take pains +to win them. Be careful and set your minds on the best things. I meant +to be a rich man when I was a boy here, and I stand before you a rich +man, knowing the care and anxiety and responsibility of wealth. I +meant to go to Congress, and I am one of the Senators from Kansota. I +say this as humbly as I say it proudly. I used to read of the valor +and patriotism of the old Greeks and Romans with my youthful blood +leaping along my veins, and it came to pass that my own country was in +danger, and that I could help to fight her battles. Perhaps some one +of these little lads has before him a more eventful life than I have +lived, and is looking forward to activity and honor and the pride of +fame. I wish him all the joy that I have had, all the toil that I have +had, and all the bitter disappointments even; for adversity leads a +man to depend upon that which is above him, and the path of glory is a +lonely path, beset by temptations and a bitter sense of the weakness +and imperfection of man. I see my life spread out like a great +picture, as I stand here in my boyhood's place. I regret my failures. +I thank God for what in his kind providence has been honest and right. +I am glad to come back, but I feel, as I look in your young faces, +that I am an old man, while your lives are just beginning. When you +remember, in years to come, that I came here to see the old +school-house, remember that I said: Wish for the best things, and work +hard to win them; try to be good men and women, for the honor of the +school and the town, and the noble young country that gave you birth; +be kind at home and generous abroad. Remember that I, an old man who +had seen much of life, begged you to be brave and good." + +The Honorable Mr. Laneway had rarely felt himself so moved in any of +his public speeches, but he was obliged to notice that for once he +could not hold his audience. The primer class especially had begun to +flag in attention, but one or two faces among the elder scholars +fairly shone with vital sympathy and a lovely prescience of their +future. Their eyes met his as if they struck a flash of light. There +was a sturdy boy who half rose in his place unconsciously, the color +coming and going in his cheeks; something in Mr. Laneway's words lit +the altar flame in his reverent heart. + +Marilla Hender was pleased and a little dazed; she could not have +repeated what her illustrious visitor had said, but she longed to tell +everybody the news that he was in town, and had come to school to make +an address. She had never seen a great man before, and really needed +time to reflect upon him and to consider what she ought to say. She +was just quivering with the attempt to make a proper reply and thank +Mr. Laneway for the honor of his visit to the school, when he asked +her which of the boys could be trusted to drive back his hired horse +to the Four Corners. Eight boys, large and small, nearly every boy in +the school, rose at once and snapped insistent fingers; but Johnny +Spencer alone was desirous not to attract attention to himself. The +Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic with the portrait had been well +secreted between his tight jacket and his shirt. Miss Hender selected +a trustworthy freckled person in long trousers, who was half way to +the door in an instant, and was heard almost immediately to shout +loudly at the quiet horse. + +Then the Hero of District Number Four made his acknowledgments to the +teacher. "I fear that I have interrupted you too long," he said, with +pleasing deference. + +Marilla replied that it was of no consequence; she hoped he would call +again. She may have spoken primly, but her pretty eyes said everything +that her lips forgot. "My grandmother will want to see you, sir," she +ventured to say. "I guess you will remember her,--Mis' Hender, she +that was Abby Harran. She has often told me how you used to get your +lessons out o' the same book." + +"Abby Harran's granddaughter?" Mr. Laneway looked at her again with +fresh interest. "Yes, I wish to see her more than any one else. Tell +her that I am coming to see her before I go away, and give her my +love. Thank you, my dear," as Marilla offered his missing hat. +"Good-by, boys and girls." He stopped and looked at them once more +from the boys' entry, and turned again to look back from the very +doorstep. + +"Good-by, sir,--good-by," piped two or three of the young voices; but +most of the children only stared, and neither spoke nor moved. + +"We will omit the class in Fourth Reader this afternoon. The class in +grammar may recite," said Miss Hender in her most contained and +official manner. + +The grammar class sighed like a single pupil, and obeyed. She was very +stern with the grammar class, but every one in school had an inner +sense that it was a great day in the history of District Number Four. + + +II. + +The Honorable Mr. Laneway found the outdoor air very fresh and sweet +after the closeness of the school-house. It had just that same odor in +his boyhood, and as he escaped he had a delightful sense of playing +truant or of having an unexpected holiday. It was easier to think of +himself as a boy, and to slip back into boyish thoughts, than to bear +the familiar burden of his manhood. He climbed the tumble-down stone +wall across the road, and went along a narrow path to the spring that +bubbled up clear and cold under a great red oak. How many times he had +longed for a drink of that water, and now here it was, and the thirst +of that warm spring day was hard to quench! Again and again he stopped +to fill the birchbark dipper which the school-children had made, just +as his own comrades made theirs years before. The oak-tree was dying +at the top. The pine woods beyond had been cut and had grown again +since his boyhood, and looked much as he remembered them. Beyond the +spring and away from the woods the path led across overgrown pastures +to another road, perhaps three quarters of a mile away, and near this +road was the small farm which had been his former home. As he walked +slowly along, he was met again and again by some reminder of his +youthful days. He had always liked to refer to his early life in New +England in his political addresses, and had spoken more than once of +going to find the cows at nightfall in the autumn evenings, and being +glad to warm his bare feet in the places where the sleepy beasts had +lain, before he followed their slow steps homeward through bush and +brier. The Honorable Mr. Laneway had a touch of true sentiment which +added much to his really stirring and effective campaign speeches. He +had often been called the "king of the platform" in his adopted State. +He had long ago grown used to saying "Go" to one man, and "Come" to +another, like the ruler of old; but all his natural power of +leadership and habit of authority disappeared at once as he trod the +pasture slopes, calling back the remembrance of his childhood. Here +was the place where two lads, older than himself, had killed a +terrible woodchuck at bay in the angle of a great rock; and just +beyond was the sunny spot where he had picked a bunch of pink and +white anemones under a prickly barberry thicket, to give to Abby +Harran in morning school. She had put them into her desk, and let them +wilt there, but she was pleased when she took them. Abby Harran, the +little teacher's grandmother, was a year older than he, and had +wakened the earliest thought of love in his youthful breast. + +It was almost time to catch the first sight of his birthplace. From +the knoll just ahead he had often seen the light of his mother's lamp, +as he came home from school on winter afternoons; but when he reached +the knoll the old house was gone, and so was the great walnut-tree +that grew beside it, and a pang of disappointment shot through this +devout pilgrim's heart. He never had doubted that the old farm was +somebody's home still, and had counted upon the pleasure of spending a +night there, and sleeping again in that room under the roof, where the +rain sounded loud, and the walnut branches brushed to and fro when the +wind blew, as if they were the claws of tigers. He hurried across the +worn-out fields, long ago turned into sheep pastures, where the last +year's tall grass and golden-rod stood gray and winter-killed; tracing +the old walls and fences, and astonished to see how small the fields +had been. The prosperous owner of Western farming lands could not help +remembering those widespread luxuriant acres, and the broad outlooks +of his Western home. + +It was difficult at first to find exactly where the house had stood; +even the foundations had disappeared. At last in the long, faded grass +he discovered the doorstep, and near by was a little mound where the +great walnut-tree stump had been. The cellar was a mere dent in the +sloping ground; it had been filled in by the growing grass and slow +processes of summer and winter weather. But just at the pilgrim's +right were some thorny twigs of an old rosebush. A sudden brightening +of memory brought to mind the love that his mother--dead since his +fifteenth year--had kept for this sweetbrier. How often she had wished +that she had brought it to her new home! So much had changed in the +world, so many had gone into the world of light, and here the faithful +blooming thing was yet alive! There was one slender branch where green +buds were starting, and getting ready to flower in the new year. + +The afternoon wore late, and still the gray-haired man lingered. He +might have laughed at some one else who gave himself up to sad +thoughts, and found fault with himself, with no defendant to plead his +cause at the bar of conscience. It was an altogether lonely hour. He +had dreamed all his life, in a sentimental, self-satisfied fashion, of +this return to Winby. It had always appeared to be a grand affair, but +so far he was himself the only interested spectator at his poor +occasion. There was even a dismal consciousness that he had been +undignified, perhaps even a little consequential and silly, in the old +school-house. The picture of himself on the war-path, in Johnny +Spencer's arithmetic, was the only tribute that this longed-for day +had held, but he laughed aloud delightedly at the remembrance and +really liked that solemn little boy who sat at his own old desk. There +was another older lad, who sat at the back of the room, who reminded +Mr. Laneway of himself in his eager youth. There was a spark of light +in that fellow's eyes. Once or twice in the earlier afternoon, as he +drove along, he had asked people in the road if there were a Laneway +family in that neighborhood, but everybody had said no in indifferent +fashion. Somehow he had been expecting that every one would know him +and greet him, and give him credit for what he had tried to do, but +old Winby had her own affairs to look after, and did very well without +any of his help. + +Mr. Laneway acknowledged to himself at this point that he was weak and +unmanly. There must be some old friends who would remember him, and +give him as hearty a welcome as the greeting he had brought for them. +So he rose and went his way westward toward the sunset. The air was +growing damp and cold, and it was time to make sure of shelter. This +was hardly like the visit he had meant to pay to his birthplace. He +wished with all his heart that he had never come back. But he walked +briskly away, intent upon wider thoughts as the fresh evening breeze +quickened his steps. He did not consider where he was going, but was +for a time the busy man of affairs, stimulated by the unconscious +influence of his surroundings. The slender gray birches and pitch +pines of that neglected pasture had never before seen a hat and coat +exactly in the fashion. They may have been abashed by the presence of +a United States Senator and Western millionaire, though a piece of New +England ground that had often felt the tread of his bare feet was not +likely to quake because a pair of smart shoes stepped hastily along +the school-house path. + + +III. + +There was an imperative knock at the side door of the Hender +farmhouse, just after dark. The young school-mistress had come home +late, because she had stopped all the way along to give people the +news of her afternoon's experience. Marilla was not coy and speechless +any longer, but sat by the kitchen stove telling her eager grandmother +everything she could remember or could imagine. + +"Who's that knocking at the door?" interrupted Mrs. Hender. "No, I'll +go myself; I'm nearest." + +The man outside was cold and foot-weary. He was not used to spending a +whole day unrecognized, and, after being first amused, and even +enjoying a sense of freedom at escaping his just dues of consideration +and respect, he had begun to feel as if he were old and forgotten, and +was hardly sure of a friend in the world. + +Old Mrs. Hender came to the door, with her eyes shining with delight, +in great haste to dismiss whoever had knocked, so that she might hear +the rest of Marilla's story. She opened the door wide to whoever might +have come on some country errand, and looked the tired and +faint-hearted Mr. Laneway full in the face. + +"Dear heart, come in!" she exclaimed, reaching out and taking him by +the shoulder, as he stood humbly on a lower step. "Come right in, Joe. +Why, I should know you anywhere! Why, Joe Laneway, _you same boy_!" + +In they went to the warm, bright, country kitchen. The delight and +kindness of an old friend's welcome and her instant sympathy seemed +the loveliest thing in the world. They sat down in two old +straight-backed kitchen chairs. They still held each other by the +hand, and looked in each other's face. The plain old room was aglow +with heat and cheerfulness; the tea-kettle was singing; a drowsy cat +sat on the wood-box with her paws tucked in; and the house dog came +forward in a friendly way, wagging his tail, and laid his head on +their clasped hands. + +"And to think I haven't seen you since your folks moved out West, the +next spring after you were thirteen in the winter," said the good +woman. "But I s'pose there ain't been anybody that has followed your +career closer than I have, accordin' to their opportunities. You've +done a great work for your country, Joe. I'm proud of you clean +through. Sometimes folks has said, 'There, there, Mis' Hender, what be +you goin' to say now?' but I've always told 'em to wait. I knew you +saw your reasons. You was always an honest boy." The tears started and +shone in her kind eyes. Her face showed that she had waged a bitter +war with poverty and sorrow, but the look of affection that it wore, +and the warm touch of her hard hand, misshapen and worn with toil, +touched her old friend in his inmost heart, and for a minute neither +could speak. + +"They do say that women folks have got no natural head for politics, +but I always could seem to sense what was goin' on in Washington, if +there was any sense to it," said grandmother Hender at last. + +"Nobody could puzzle you at school, I remember," answered Mr. Laneway, +and they both laughed heartily. "But surely this granddaughter does +not make your household? You have sons?" + +"Two beside her father. He died; but they're both away, up toward +Canada, buying cattle. We are getting along considerable well these +last few years, since they got a mite o' capital together; but the old +farm wasn't really able to maintain us, with the heavy expenses that +fell on us unexpected year by year. I've seen a great sight of +trouble, Joe. My boy John, Marilla's father, and his nice wife,--I +lost 'em both early, when Marilla was but a child. John was the flower +o' my family. He would have made a name for himself. You would have +taken to John." + +"I was sorry to hear of your loss," said Mr. Laneway. "He was a brave +man. I know what he did at Fredericksburg. You remember that I lost my +wife and my only son?" + +There was a silence between the friends, who had no need for words +now; they understood each other's heart only too well. Marilla, who +sat near them, rose and went out of the room. + +"Yes, yes, daughter," said Mrs. Hender, calling her back, "we ought to +be thinkin' about supper." + +"I was going to light a little fire in the parlor," explained Marilla, +with a slight tone of rebuke in her clear girlish voice. + +"Oh, no, you ain't,--not now, at least," protested the elder woman +decidedly. "Now, Joseph, what should you like to have for supper? I +wish to my heart I had some fried turnovers, like those you used to +come after when you was a boy. I can make 'em just about the same as +mother did. I'll be bound you've thought of some old-fashioned dish +that you'd relish for your supper." + +"Rye drop-cakes, then, if they wouldn't give you too much trouble," +answered the Honorable Joseph, with prompt seriousness, "and don't +forget some cheese." He looked up at his old playfellow as she stood +beside him, eager with affectionate hospitality. + +"You've no idea what a comfort Marilla's been," she stopped to +whisper. "Always took right hold and helped me when she was a baby. +She's as good as made up already to me for my having no daughter. I +want you to get acquainted with Marilla." + +The granddaughter was still awed and anxious about the entertainment +of so distinguished a guest when her grandmother appeared at last in +the pantry. + +"I ain't goin' to let you do no such a thing, darlin'," said Abby +Hender, when Marilla spoke of making something that she called "fairy +gems" for tea, after a new and essentially feminine recipe. "You just +let me get supper to-night. The Gen'ral has enough kickshaws to eat; +he wants a good, hearty, old-fashioned supper,--the same country +cooking he remembers when he was a boy. He went so far himself as to +speak of rye drop-cakes, an' there ain't one in a hundred, nowadays, +knows how to make the kind he means. You go an' lay the table just as +we always have it, except you can get out them old big sprigged cups +o' my mother's. Don't put on none o' the parlor cluset things." + +Marilla went off crestfallen and demurring. She had a noble desire to +show Mr. Laneway that they knew how to have things as well as +anybody, and was sure that he would consider it more polite to be +asked into the best room, and to sit there alone until tea was ready; +but the illustrious Mr. Laneway was allowed to stay in the kitchen, in +apparent happiness, and to watch the proceedings from beginning to +end. The two old friends talked industriously, but he saw his rye +drop-cakes go into the oven and come out, and his tea made, and his +piece of salt fish broiled and buttered, a broad piece of honeycomb +set on to match some delightful thick slices of brown-crusted loaf +bread, and all the simple feast prepared. There was a sufficient piece +of Abby Hender's best cheese; it must be confessed that there were +also some baked beans, and, as one thing after another appeared, the +Honorable Joseph K. Laneway grew hungrier and hungrier, until he +fairly looked pale with anticipation and delay, and was bidden at that +very moment to draw up his chair and make himself a supper if he +could. What cups of tea, what uncounted rye drop-cakes, went to the +making of that successful supper! How gay the two old friends became, +and of what old stories they reminded each other, and how late the +dark spring evening grew, before the feast was over and the +straight-backed chairs were set against the kitchen wall! + +Marilla listened for a time with more or less interest, but at last +she took one of her school-books, with slight ostentation, and went +over to study by the lamp. Mrs. Hender had brought her knitting-work, +a blue woolen stocking, out of a drawer, and sat down serene and +unruffled, prepared to keep awake as late as possible. She was a woman +who had kept her youthful looks through the difficulties of farm life +as few women can, and this added to her guest's sense of homelikeness +and pleasure. There was something that he felt to be sisterly and +comfortable in her strong figure; he even noticed the little plaid +woolen shawl that she wore about her shoulders. Dear, uncomplaining +heart of Abby Hender! The appealing friendliness of the good woman +made no demands except to be allowed to help and to serve everybody +who came in her way. + +Now began in good earnest the talk of old times, and what had become +of this and that old schoolmate; how one family had come to want and +another to wealth. The changes and losses and windfalls of good +fortune in that rural neighborhood were made tragedy and comedy by +turns in Abby Hender's dramatic speech. She grew younger and more +entertaining hour by hour, and beguiled the grave Senator into +confidential talk of national affairs. He had much to say, to which +she listened with rare sympathy and intelligence. She astonished him +by her comprehension of difficult questions of the day, and by her +simple good sense. Marilla grew hopelessly sleepy, and departed, but +neither of them turned to notice her as she lingered a moment at the +door to say good-night. When the immediate subjects of conversation +were fully discussed, however, there was an unexpected interval of +silence, and, after making sure that her knitting stitches counted +exactly right, Abby Hender cast a questioning glance at the Senator to +see if he had it in mind to go to bed. She was reluctant to end her +evening so soon, but determined to act the part of considerate +hostess. The guest was as wide awake as ever: eleven o'clock was the +best part of his evening. + +"Cider?" he suggested, with an expectant smile, and Abby Hender was on +her feet in a moment. When she had brought a pitcher from the pantry, +he took a candle from the high shelf and led the way. + +"To think of your remembering our old cellar candlestick all these +years!" laughed the pleased woman, as she followed him down the steep +stairway, and then laughed still more at his delight in the familiar +look of the place. + +"Unchanged as the pyramids!" he said. "I suppose those pound sweetings +that used to be in that farthest bin were eaten up months ago?" + +It was plain to see that the household stores were waning low, as +befitted the time of year, but there was still enough in the old +cellar. Care and thrift and gratitude made the poor farmhouse a rich +place. This woman of real ability had spent her strength from youth to +age, and had lavished as much industry and power of organization in +her narrow sphere as would have made her famous in a wider one. Joseph +Laneway could not help sighing as he thought of it. How many things +this good friend had missed, and yet how much she had been able to win +that makes everywhere the very best of life! Poor and early widowed, +there must have been a constant battle with poverty on that stony +Harran farm, whose owners had been pitied even in his early boyhood, +when the best of farming life was none too easy. But Abby Hender had +always been one of the leaders of the town. + +"Now, before we sit down again, I want you to step into my best room. +Perhaps you won't have time in the morning, and I've got something to +show you," she said persuasively. + +It was a plain, old-fashioned best room, with a look of pleasantness +in spite of the spring chill and the stiffness of the best chairs. +They lingered before the picture of Mrs. Hender's soldier son, a poor +work of a poorer artist in crayons, but the spirit of the young face +shone out appealingly. Then they crossed the room and stood before +some bookshelves, and Abby Hender's face brightened into a beaming +smile of triumph. + +"You didn't expect we should have all those books, now, did you, Joe +Laneway?" she asked. + +He shook his head soberly, and leaned forward to read the titles. +There were no very new ones, as if times had been hard of late; almost +every volume was either history, or biography, or travel. Their owner +had reached out of her own narrow boundaries into other lives and into +far countries. He recognized with gratitude two or three congressional +books that he had sent her when he first went to Washington, and there +was a life of himself, written from a partisan point of view, and +issued in one of his most exciting campaigns; the sight of it touched +him to the heart, and then she opened it, and showed him the three or +four letters that he had written her,--one, in boyish handwriting, +describing his adventures on his first Western journey. + +"There are a hundred and six volumes now," announced the proud owner +of such a library. "I lend 'em all I can, or most of them would look +better. I have had to wait a good while for some, and some weren't +what I expected 'em to be, but most of 'em's as good books as there is +in the world. I've never been so situated that it seemed best for me +to indulge in a daily paper, and I don't know but it's just as well; +but stories were never any great of a temptation. I know pretty well +what's goin' on about me, and I can make that do. Real life's +interestin' enough for me." + +Mr. Laneway was still looking over the books. His heart smote him for +not being thoughtful; he knew well enough that the overflow of his own +library would have been delightful to this self-denying, eager-minded +soul. "I've been a very busy man all my life, Abby," he said +impulsively, as if she waited for some apology for his forgetfulness, +"but I'll see to it now that you have what you want to read. I don't +mean to lose hold of your advice on state matters." They both laughed, +and he added, "I've always thought of you, if I haven't shown it." + +"There's more time to read than there used to be; I've had what was +best for me," answered the woman gently, with a grateful look on her +face, as she turned to glance at her old friend. "Marilla takes hold +wonderfully and helps me with the work. In the long winter evenings +you can't think what a treat a new book is. I wouldn't change places +with the queen." + +They had come back to the kitchen, and she stood before the cupboard, +reaching high for two old gayly striped crockery mugs. There were some +doughnuts and cheese at hand; their early supper seemed quite +forgotten. The kitchen was warm, and they had talked themselves +thirsty and hungry; but with what an unexpected tang the cider +freshened their throats! Mrs. Hender had picked the apples herself +that went to the press; they were all chosen from the old russet tree +and the gnarly, red-cheeked, ungrafted fruit that grew along the lane. +The flavor made one think of frosty autumn mornings on high hillsides, +of north winds and sunny skies. "It 'livens one to the heart," as Mrs. +Hender remarked proudly, when the Senator tried to praise it as much +as it deserved, and finally gave a cheerful laugh, such as he had not +laughed for many a day. + +"Why, it seems like drinking the month of October," he told her; and +at this the hostess reached over, protesting that the striped mug was +too narrow to hold what it ought, and filled it up again. + +"Oh, Joe Laneway, to think that I see you at last, after all these +years!" she said. "How rich I shall feel with this evening to live +over! I've always wanted to see somebody that I'd read about, and now +I've got that to remember; but I've always known I should see you +again, and I believe 't was the Lord's will." + + +Early the next morning they said good-by. The early breakfast had to +be hurried, and Marilla was to drive Mr. Laneway to the station, +three miles away. It was Saturday morning, and she was free from +school. + +Mr. Laneway strolled down the lane before breakfast was ready, and +came back with a little bunch of pink anemones in his hand. Marilla +thought that he meant to give them to her, but he laid them beside her +grandmother's plate. "You mustn't put those in your desk," he said +with a smile, and Abby Hender blushed like a girl. + +"I've got those others now, dried and put away somewhere in one of my +books," she said quietly, and Marilla wondered what they meant. + +The two old friends shook hands warmly at parting. "I wish you could +have stayed another day, so I could have had the minister come and see +you," urged Mrs. Hender regretfully. + +"You couldn't have done any more for me. I have had the best visit in +the world," he answered, a little shaken, and holding her hand a +moment longer, while Marilla sat, young and impatient, in the high +wagon. "You're a dear good woman, Abby. Sometimes when things have +gone wrong I've been sorry that I ever had to leave Winby." + +The woman's clear eyes looked straight into his; then fell. "You +wouldn't have done everything you have for the country," she said. + +"Give me a kiss; we're getting to be old folks now," said the General; +and they kissed each other gravely. + +A moment later Abby Hender stood alone in her dooryard, watching and +waving her hand again and again, while the wagon rattled away down the +lane and turned into the high-road. + +Two hours after Marilla returned from the station, and rushed into the +kitchen. + +"Grandma!" she exclaimed, "you never did see such a crowd in Winby as +there was at the depot! Everybody in town had got word about General +Laneway, and they were pushing up to shake hands, and cheering same +as at election, and the cars waited much as ten minutes, and all the +folks was lookin' out of the windows, and came out on the platforms +when they heard who it was. Folks say that he'd been to see the +selectmen yesterday before he came to school, and he's goin' to build +an elegant town hall, and have the names put up in it of all the Winby +men that went to the war." Marilla sank into a chair, flushed with +excitement. "Everybody was asking me about his being here last night +and what he said to the school. I wished that you'd gone down to the +depot instead of me." + +"I had the best part of anybody," said Mrs. Hender, smiling and going +on with her Saturday morning work. "I'm real glad they showed him +proper respect," she added a moment afterward, but her voice faltered. + +"Why, you ain't been cryin', grandma?" asked the girl. "I guess you're +tired. You had a real good time, now, didn't you?" + +"Yes, dear heart!" said Abby Hender. "'T ain't pleasant to be growin' +old, that's all. I couldn't help noticin' his age as he rode away. +I've always been lookin' forward to seein' him again, an' now it's all +over." + + * * * * * + + + + +_Looking Back on Girlhood_ + + +In giving this brief account of my childhood, or, to speak exactly, of +the surroundings which have affected the course of my work as a +writer, my first thought flies back to those who taught me to observe, +and to know the deep pleasures of simple things, and to be interested +in the lives of people about me. + +With its high hills and pine forests, and all its ponds and brooks and +distant mountain views, there are few such delightful country towns in +New England as the one where I was born. Being one of the oldest +colonial settlements, it is full of interesting traditions and relics +of the early inhabitants, both Indians and Englishmen. Two large +rivers join just below the village at the head of tide-water, and +these, with the great inflow from the sea, make a magnificent stream, +bordered on its seaward course now by high-wooded banks of dark pines +and hemlocks, and again by lovely green fields that slope gently to +long lines of willows at the water's edge. + +There is never-ending pleasure in making one's self familiar with such +a region. One may travel at home in a most literal sense, and be +always learning history, geography, botany, or biography--whatever one +chooses. + +I have had a good deal of journeying in my life, and taken great +delight in it, but I have never taken greater delight than in my rides +and drives and tramps and voyages within the borders of my native +town. There is always something fresh, something to be traced or +discovered, something particularly to be remembered. One grows rich in +memories and associations. + +I believe that we should know our native towns much better than most +of us do, and never let ourselves be strangers at home. Particularly +when one's native place is so really interesting as my own! + +Above tide-water the two rivers are barred by successive falls. You +hear the noise of them by night in the village like the sound of the +sea, and this fine water power so near the coast, beside a great +salmon fishery famous among the Indians, brought the first English +settlers to the town in 1627. I know some families who still live upon +the lands which their ancestors bought from the Indians, and their +single deed bears the queer barbaric signatures. + +There are many things to remind one of these early settlers beside the +old farms upon which they and their descendants have lived for six or +seven generations. One is a quaint fashion of speech which survives +among the long-established neighborhoods, in words and phrases common +in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + +One curious thing is the pronunciation of the name of the town: +Berwick by the elder people has always been called _Barvik_, after the +fashion of Danes and Northmen; never _Berrik_, as the word has so long +been pronounced in modern England. + +The descendants of the first comers to the town have often been +distinguished in the affairs of their time. No village of its size in +New England could boast, particularly in the early part of the present +century, of a larger number of men and women who kept themselves more +closely in touch with "the best that has been thought and said in the +world." + +As I write this, I keep in mind the truth that I have no inheritance +from the ancient worth and dignity of Berwick--or what is now North +Berwick--in Maine. My own people are comparatively late comers. I was +born in a pleasant old colonial house built near 1750, and bought by +my grandfather sixty or seventy years ago, when he brought his +household up the river to Berwick from Portsmouth. + +He was a sea-captain, and had run away to sea in his boyhood and led a +most adventurous life, but was quite ready to forsake seafaring in his +early manhood, and at last joined a group of acquaintances who were +engaged in the flourishing West India trade of that time. + +For many years he kept and extended his interests in shipping, +building ships and buying large quantities of timber from the +northward and eastward, and sending it down the river and so to sea. + +This business was still in existence in my early childhood, and the +manner of its conduct was primitive enough, the barter system still +prevailing by force of necessity. Those who brought the huge sticks of +oak and pine timber for masts and planks were rarely paid in money, +which was of comparatively little use in remote and sparsely settled +districts. When the sleds and long trains of yoked oxen returned from +the river wharves to the stores, they took a lighter load in exchange +of flour and rice and barrels of molasses, of sugar and salt and +cotton cloth and raisins and spices and tea and coffee; in fact, all +the household necessities and luxuries that the northern farms could +not supply. + +They liked to have a little money with which to pay their taxes and +their parish dues, if they were so fortunate as to be parishioners, +but they needed very little money besides. + +So I came in contact with the up-country people as well as with the +sailors and shipmasters of the other side of the business. I used to +linger about the busy country stores, and listen to the graphic +country talk. I heard the greetings of old friends, and their minute +details of neighborhood affairs, their delightful jokes and +Munchausen-like reports of tracts of timber-pines ever so many feet +through at the butt. + +When the great teams came in sight at the head of the village street, +I ran to meet them over the creaking snow, if possible to mount and +ride into town in triumph; but it was not many years before I began to +feel sorry at the sight of every huge lopped stem of oak or pine that +came trailing along after the slow-stepping, frosted oxen. Such trees +are unreplaceable. I only know of one small group now in all this part +of the country of those great timber pines. + +My young ears were quick to hear the news of a ship's having come into +port, and I delighted in the elderly captains, with their sea-tanned +faces, who came to report upon their voyages, dining cheerfully and +heartily with my grandfather, who listened eagerly to their exciting +tales of great storms on the Atlantic, and winds that blew them +north-about, and good bargains in Havana, or Barbadoes, or Havre. + +I listened as eagerly as any one; this is the charming way in which I +was taught something of a fashion of life already on the wane, and of +that subsistence upon sea and forest bounties which is now almost a +forgotten thing in my part of New England. + +Much freight still came and went by the river gundelows and packets +long after the railroad had made such changes, and every village along +its line lost its old feeling of self-sufficiency. + +In my home the greater part of the minor furnishings had come over in +the ships from Bristol and Havre. My grandfather seemed to be a +citizen of the whole geography. I was always listening to stories of +three wars from older people--the siege of Louisburg, the Revolution, +in which my father's ancestors had been honest but mistaken Tories, +and in which my mother's, the Gilmans of Exeter, had taken a nobler +part. + +As for the War of 1812, "the last war," as everybody called it, it was +a thing of yesterday in the town. One of the famous privateer crews +was gathered along our own river shore, and one member of the crew, in +his old age, had been my father's patient. + +The Berwick people were great patriots, and were naturally proud of +the famous Sullivans, who were born in the upper part of the town, and +came to be governors and judge and general. + +I often heard about Lafayette, who had made an ever-to-be-remembered +visit in order to see again some old friends who lived in the town. +The name of a famous Colonel Hamilton, the leader in the last century +of the West India trade, and the histories of the old Berwick houses +of Chadbourn and Lord were delightfully familiar, and one of the +traditions of the latter family is more than good enough to be told +again. + +There was a Berwick lad who went out on one of the privateers that +sailed from Portsmouth in the Revolution. The vessel was taken by a +British frigate, and the crew put in irons. One day one of the English +midshipmen stood near these prisoners as they took their airing on +deck, and spoke contemptuously about "the rebels." + +Young Lord heard what he said, and turned himself about to say boldly, +"If it were not for your rank, sir, I would make you take that back!" + +"No matter about my rank," said the gallant middy. "If you can whip +me, you are welcome to." + +So they had a "capital good fight," standing over a tea-chest, as +proud tradition tells, and the Berwick sailor was the better fighter +of the two, and won. + +The Englishman shook hands, and asked his name and promised not to +forget him--which was certainly most handsome behavior. + +When they reached an English port all the prisoners but one were sent +away under guard to join the other American prisoners of war; but the +admiral sent for a young man named Nathan Lord, and told him that his +Grace the Duke of Clarence, son of his Majesty the King, begged for +his pardon, and had left a five-pound note at his disposal. + +This was not the first or last Berwick lad who proved himself of good +courage in a fight, but there never was another to whip a future King +of England, and moreover to be liked the better for it by that fine +gentleman. + +My grandfather died in my eleventh year, and presently the Civil War +began. + +From that time the simple village life was at an end. Its provincial +character was fading out; shipping was at a disadvantage, and there +were no more bronzed sea-captains coming to dine and talk about their +voyages, no more bags of filberts or oranges for the children, or +great red jars of olives; but in these childish years I had come in +contact with many delightful men and women of real individuality and +breadth of character, who had fought the battle of life to good +advantage, and sometimes against great odds. + +In these days I was given to long, childish illnesses, and it must be +honestly confessed, to instant drooping if ever I were shut up in +school. I had apparently not the slightest desire for learning, but my +father was always ready to let me be his companion in long drives +about the country. + +In my grandfather's business household, my father, unconscious of +tonnage and timber measurement, of the markets of the Windward +Islands or the Mediterranean ports, had taken to his book, as old +people said, and gone to college and begun that devotion to the study +of medicine which only ended with his life. + +I have tried already to give some idea of my father's character in my +story of "The Country Doctor," but all that is inadequate to the gifts +and character of the man himself. He gave me my first and best +knowledge of books by his own delight and dependence upon them, and +ruled my early attempts at writing by the severity and simplicity of +his own good taste. + +"Don't try to write _about_ people and things, tell them just as they +are!" + +How often my young ears heard these words without comprehending them! +But while I was too young and thoughtless to share in an enthusiasm +for Sterne or Fielding, and Smollett or Don Quixote, my mother and +grandmother were leading me into the pleasant ways of "Pride and +Prejudice," and "The Scenes of Clerical Life," and the delightful +stories of Mrs. Oliphant. + +The old house was well provided with leather-bound books of a deeply +serious nature, but in my youthful appetite for knowledge, I could +even in the driest find something vital, and in the more entertaining +I was completely lost. + +My father had inherited from his father an amazing knowledge of human +nature, and from his mother's French ancestry, that peculiarly French +trait, called _gaieté de coeur_. Through all the heavy responsibilities +and anxieties of his busy professional life, this kept him young at +heart and cheerful. His visits to his patients were often made +perfectly delightful and refreshing to them by his kind heart, and the +charm of his personality. + +I knew many of the patients whom he used to visit in lonely inland +farms, or on the seacoast in York and Wells. I used to follow him +about silently, like an undemanding little dog, content to follow at +his heels. + +I had no consciousness of watching or listening, or indeed of any +special interest in the country interiors. In fact, when the time came +that my own world of imaginations was more real to me than any other, +I was sometimes perplexed at my father's directing my attention to +certain points of interest in the character or surroundings of our +acquaintances. + +I cannot help believing that he recognized, long before I did myself, +in what direction the current of purpose in my life was setting. Now, +as I write my sketches of country life, I remember again and again the +wise things he said, and the sights he made me see. He was only +impatient with affectation and insincerity. + +I may have inherited something of my father's and grandfather's +knowledge of human nature, but my father never lost a chance of trying +to teach me to observe. I owe a great deal to his patience with a +heedless little girl given far more to dreams than to accuracy, and +with perhaps too little natural sympathy for the dreams of others. + +The quiet village life, the dull routine of farming or mill life, +early became interesting to me. I was taught to find everything that +an imaginative child could ask, in the simple scenes close at hand. + +I say these things eagerly, because I long to impress upon every boy +and girl this truth: that it is not one's surroundings that can help +or hinder--it is having a growing purpose in one's life to make the +most of whatever is in one's reach. + +If you have but a few good books, learn those to the very heart of +them. Don't for one moment believe that if you had different +surroundings and opportunities you would find the upward path any +easier to climb. One condition is like another, if you have not the +determination and the power to grow in yourself. + +I was still a child when I began to write down the things I was +thinking about, but at first I always made rhymes and found prose so +difficult that a school composition was a terror to me, and I do not +remember ever writing one that was worth anything. But in course of +time rhymes themselves became difficult and prose more and more +enticing, and I began my work in life, most happy in finding that I +was to write of those country characters and rural landscapes to which +I myself belonged, and which I had been taught to love with all my +heart. + +I was between nineteen and twenty when my first sketch was accepted by +Mr. Howells for the _Atlantic_. I already counted myself as by no +means a new contributor to one or two other magazines--_Young Folks_ +and _The Riverside_--but I had no literary friends "at court." + +I was very shy about speaking of my work at home, and even sent it to +the magazine under an assumed name, and then was timid about asking +the post-mistress for those mysterious and exciting editorial letters +which she announced upon the post-office list as if I were a stranger +in the town. + + * * * * * + + + + +_The Passing of Sister Barsett_ + + +Mrs. Mercy Crane was of such firm persuasion that a house is meant to +be lived in, that during many years she was never known to leave her +own neat two-storied dwelling-place on the Ridge road. Yet being very +fond of company, in pleasant weather she often sat in the side doorway +looking out on her green yard, where the grass grew short and thick +and was undisfigured even by a path toward the steps. All her faded +green blinds were securely tied together and knotted on the inside by +pieces of white tape; but now and then, when the sun was not too hot +for her carpets, she opened one window at a time for a few hours, +having pronounced views upon the necessity of light and air. Although +Mrs. Crane was acknowledged by her best friends to be a peculiar +person and very set in her ways, she was much respected, and one +acquaintance vied with another in making up for her melancholy +seclusion by bringing her all the news they could gather. She had been +left alone many years before by the sudden death of her husband from +sunstroke, and though she was by no means poor, she had, as some one +said, "such a pretty way of taking a little present that you couldn't +help being pleased when you gave her anything." + +For a lover of society, such a life must have had its difficulties at +times, except that the Ridge road was more traveled than any other in +the township, and Mrs. Crane had invented a system of signals, to +which she always resorted in case of wishing to speak to some one of +her neighbors. + +The afternoon was wearing late, one day toward the end of summer, and +Mercy Crane sat in her doorway dressed in a favorite old-fashioned +light calico and a small shoulder shawl figured with large palm +leaves. She was making some tatting of a somewhat intricate pattern; +she believed it to be the prettiest and most durable of trimmings, and +having decorated her own wardrobe in the course of unlimited leisure, +she was now making a few yards apiece for each of her more intimate +friends, so that they might have something to remember her by. She +kept glancing up the road as if she expected some one, but the time +went slowly by, until at last a woman appeared to view, walking fast, +and carrying a large bundle in a checked handkerchief. + +Then Mercy Crane worked steadily for a short time without looking up, +until the desired friend was crossing the grass between the dusty road +and the steps. The visitor was out of breath, and did not respond to +the polite greeting of her hostess until she had recovered herself to +her satisfaction. Mrs. Crane made her the kind offer of a glass of +water or a few peppermints, but was answered only by a shake of the +head, so she resumed her work for a time until the silence should be +broken. + +"I have come from the house of mourning," said Sarah Ellen Dow at +last, unexpectedly. + +"You don't tell me that Sister Barsett"-- + +"She's left us this time, she's really gone," and the excited +news-bringer burst into tears. The poor soul was completely +overwrought; she looked tired and wan, as if she had spent her forces +in sympathy as well as hard work. She felt in her great bundle for a +pocket handkerchief, but was not successful in the search, and finally +produced a faded gingham apron with long, narrow strings, with which +she hastily dried her tears. The sad news appealed also to Mercy +Crane, who looked across to the apple-trees, and could not see them +for a dazzle of tears in her own eyes. The spectacle of Sarah Ellen +Dow going home with her humble workaday possessions, from the house +where she had gone in haste only a few days before to care for a sick +person well known to them both, was a very sad sight. + +"You sent word yesterday that you should be returnin' early this +afternoon, and would stop. I presume I received the message as you +gave it?" asked Mrs. Crane, who was tenacious in such matters; "but I +do declare I never looked to hear she was gone." + +"She's been failin' right along sence yisterday about this time," said +the nurse. "She's taken no notice to speak of, an' been eatin' the +vally o' nothin', I may say, sence I went there a-Tuesday. Her sisters +both come back yisterday, an' of course I was expected to give up +charge to them. They're used to sickness, an' both havin' such a name +for bein' great housekeepers!" + +Sarah Ellen spoke with bitterness, but Mrs. Crane was reminded +instantly of her own affairs. "I feel condemned that I ain't begun my +own fall cleanin' yet," she said, with an ostentatious sigh. + +"Plenty o' time to worry about that," her friend hastened to console +her. + +"I do desire to have everything decent about my house," resumed Mrs. +Crane. "There's nobody to do anything but me. If I was to be taken +away sudden myself, I shouldn't want to have it said afterwards that +there was wisps under my sofy or--There! I can't dwell on my own +troubles with Sister Barsett's loss right before me. I can't seem to +believe she's really passed away; she always was saying she should go +in some o' these spells, but I deemed her to be troubled with narves." + +Sarah Ellen Dow shook her head. "I'm all nerved up myself," she said +brokenly. "I made light of her sickness when I went there first, I'd +seen her what she called dreadful low so many times; but I saw her +looks this morning, an' I begun to believe her at last. Them sisters +o' hers is the master for unfeelin' hearts. Sister Barsett was +a-layin' there yisterday, an' one of 'em was a-settin' right by her +tellin' how difficult 't was for her to leave home, her niece was +goin' to graduate to the high school, an' they was goin' to have a +time in the evening, an' all the exercises promised to be extry +interesting. Poor Sister Barsett knew what she said an' looked at her +with contempt, an' then she give a glance at me an' closed up her eyes +as if 't was for the last time. I know she felt it." + +Sarah Ellen Dow was more and more excited by a sense of bitter +grievance. Her rule of the afflicted household had evidently been +interfered with; she was not accustomed to be ignored and set aside at +such times. Her simple nature and uncommon ability found satisfaction +in the exercise of authority, but she had now left her post feeling +hurt and wronged, besides knowing something of the pain of honest +affliction. + +"If it hadn't been for esteemin' Sister Barsett as I always have done, +I should have told 'em no, an' held to it, when they asked me to come +back an' watch to-night. 'T ain't for none o' their sakes, but Sister +Barsett was a good friend to me in her way." Sarah Ellen broke down +once more, and felt in her bundle again hastily, but the handkerchief +was again elusive, while a small object fell out upon the doorstep +with a bounce. + +"'T ain't nothin' but a little taste-cake I spared out o' the loaf I +baked this mornin'," she explained, with a blush. "I was so shoved out +that I seemed to want to turn my hand to somethin' useful an' feel I +was still doin' for Sister Barsett. Try a little piece, won't you, +Mis' Crane? I thought it seemed light an' good." + +They shared the taste-cake with serious enjoyment, and pronounced it +very good indeed when they had finished and shaken the crumbs out of +their laps. "There's nobody but you shall come an' do for me at the +last, if I can have my way about things," said Mercy Crane +impulsively. She meant it for a tribute to Miss Dow's character and +general ability, and as such it was meekly accepted. + +"You're a younger person than I be, an' less wore," said Sarah Ellen, +but she felt better now that she had rested, and her conversational +powers seemed to be refreshed by her share of the little cake. "Doctor +Bangs has behaved real pretty, I can say that," she continued +presently in a mournful tone. + +"Heretofore, in the sickness of Sister Barsett, I have always felt to +hope certain that she would survive; she's recovered from a sight o' +things in her day. She has been the first to have all the new diseases +that's visited this region. I know she had the spinal mergeetis months +before there was any other case about," observed Mrs. Crane with +satisfaction. + +"An' the new throat troubles, all of 'em," agreed Sarah Ellen; "an' +has made trial of all the best patent medicines, an' could tell you +their merits as no one else could in this vicinity. She never was one +that depended on herbs alone, though she considered 'em extremely +useful in some cases. Everybody has their herb, as we know, but I'm +free to say that Sister Barsett sometimes done everything she could to +kill herself with such rovin' ways o' dosin'. She must see it now +she's gone an' can't stuff down no more invigorators." Sarah Ellen Dow +burst out suddenly with this, as if she could no longer contain her +honest opinion. + +"There, there! you're all worked up," answered placid Mercy Crane, +looking more interested than ever. + +"An' she was dreadful handy to talk religion to other folks, but I've +come to a realizin' sense that religion is somethin' besides opinions. +She an' Elder French has been mostly of one mind, but I don't know's +they've got hold of all the religion there is." + +"Why, why, Sarah Ellen!" exclaimed Mrs. Crane, but there was still +something in her tone that urged the speaker to further expression of +her feelings. The good creature was much excited, her face was clouded +with disapproval. + +"I ain't forgettin' nothin' about their good points either," she went +on in a more subdued tone, and suddenly stopped. + +"Preachin' 'll be done away with soon or late,--preachin' o' Elder +French's kind," announced Mercy Crane, after waiting to see if her +guest did not mean to say anything more. "I should like to read 'em +out that verse another fashion: 'Be ye doers o' the word, not +preachers only,' would hit it about right; but there, it's easy for +all of us to talk. In my early days I used to like to get out to +meetin' regular, because sure as I didn't I had bad luck all the week. +I didn't feel pacified 'less I'd been half a day, but I was out all +day the Sabbath before Mr. Barlow died as he did. So you mean to say +that Sister Barsett's really gone?" + +Mrs. Crane's tone changed to one of real concern, and her manner +indicated that she had put the preceding conversation behind her with +decision. + +"She was herself to the last," instantly responded Miss Dow. "I see +her put out a thumb an' finger from under the spread an' pinch up a +fold of her sister Deckett's dress, to try an' see if 'twas all wool. +I thought 'twa'n't all wool, myself, an' I know it now by the way she +looked. She was a very knowin' person about materials; we shall miss +poor Mis' Barsett in many ways, she was always the one to consult with +about matters o' dress." + +"She passed away easy at the last, I hope?" asked Mrs. Crane with +interest. + +"Why, I wa'n't there, if you'll believe it!" exclaimed Sarah Ellen, +flushing, and looking at her friend for sympathy. "Sister Barsett +revived up the first o' the afternoon, an' they sent for Elder French. +She took notice of him, and he exhorted quite a spell, an' then he +spoke o' there being need of air in the room, Mis' Deckett havin' +closed every window, an' she asked me of all folks if I hadn't better +step out; but Elder French come too, an' he was very reasonable, an' +had a word with me about Mis' Deckett an' Mis' Peak an' the way they +was workin' things. I told him right out how they never come near when +the rest of us was havin' it so hard with her along in the spring, but +now they thought she was re'lly goin' to die, they come settlin' down +like a pair o' old crows in a field to pick for what they could get. I +just made up my mind they should have all the care if they wanted it. +It didn't seem as if there was anything more I could do for Sister +Barsett, an' I set there in the kitchen within call an' waited, an' +when I heard 'em sayin', 'There, she's gone, she's gone!' and Mis' +Deckett a-weepin', I put on my bunnit and stepped myself out into the +road. I felt to repent after I had gone but a rod, but I was so worked +up, an' I thought they'd call me back, an' then I was put out because +they didn't, an' so here I be. I can't help it now." Sarah Ellen was +crying again; she and Mrs. Crane could not look at each other. + +"Well, you set an' rest," said Mrs. Crane kindly, and with the merest +shadow of disapproval. "You set an' rest, an' by an' by, if you'd feel +better, you could go back an' just make a little stop an' inquire +about the arrangements. I wouldn't harbor no feelin's, if they be +inconsiderate folks. Sister Barsett has often deplored their actions +in my hearing an' wished she had sisters like other folks. With all +her faults she was a useful person an' a good neighbor," mourned Mercy +Crane sincerely. "She was one that always had somethin' interestin' to +tell, an' if it wa'n't for her dyin' spells an' all that sort o' +nonsense, she'd make a figger in the world, she would so. She walked +with an air always, Mis' Barsett did; you'd ask who she was if you +hadn't known, as she passed you by. How quick we forget the outs about +anybody that's gone! But I always feel grateful to anybody that's +friendly, situated as I be. I shall miss her runnin' over. I can seem +to see her now, coming over the rise in the road. But don't you get in +a way of takin' things too hard, Sarah Ellen! You've worked yourself +all to pieces since I saw you last; you're gettin' to be as lean as a +meetin'-house fly. Now, you're comin' in to have a cup o' tea with me, +an' then you'll feel better. I've got some new molasses gingerbread +that I baked this mornin'." + +"I do feel beat out, Mis' Crane," acknowledged the poor little soul, +glad of a chance to speak, but touched by this unexpected mark of +consideration. "If I could ha' done as I wanted to I should be feelin' +well enough, but to be set aside an' ordered about, where I'd taken +the lead in sickness so much, an' knew how to deal with Sister Barsett +so well! She might be livin' now, perhaps"-- + +"Come; we'd better go in, 'tis gettin' damp," and the mistress of the +house rose so hurriedly as to seem bustling. "Don't dwell on Sister +Barsett an' her foolish folks no more; I wouldn't, if I was you." + +They went into the front room, which was dim with the twilight of the +half-closed blinds and two great syringa bushes that grew against +them. Sarah Ellen put down her bundle and bestowed herself in the +large, cane-seated rocking-chair. Mrs. Crane directed her to stay +there awhile and rest, and then come out into the kitchen when she got +ready. + +A cheerful clatter of dishes was heard at once upon Mrs. Crane's +disappearance. "I hope she's goin' to make one o' her nice +short-cakes, but I don't know's she'll think it quite worth while," +thought the guest humbly. She desired to go out into the kitchen, but +it was proper behavior to wait until she should be called. Mercy Crane +was not a person with whom one could venture to take liberties. +Presently Sarah Ellen began to feel better. She did not often find +such a quiet place, or the quarter of an hour of idleness in which to +enjoy it, and was glad to make the most of this opportunity. Just now +she felt tired and lonely. She was a busy, unselfish, eager-minded +creature by nature, but now, while grief was sometimes uppermost in +her mind and sometimes a sense of wrong, every moment found her more +peaceful, and the great excitement little by little faded away. + +"What a person poor Sister Barsett was to dread growing old so she +couldn't get about. I'm sure I shall miss her as much as anybody," +said Mrs. Crane, suddenly opening the kitchen door, and letting in an +unmistakable and delicious odor of short-cake that revived still more +the drooping spirits of her guest. "An' a good deal of knowledge has +died with her," she added, coming into the room and seeming to make it +lighter. + +"There, she knew a good deal, but she didn't know all, especially o' +doctorin'," insisted Sarah Ellen from the rocking-chair, with an +unexpected little laugh. "She used to lay down the law to me as if I +had neither sense nor experience, but when it came to her bad spells +she'd always send for me. It takes everybody to know everything, but +Sister Barsett was of an opinion that her information was sufficient +for the town. She was tellin' me the day I went there how she disliked +to have old Mis' Doubleday come an' visit with her, an' remarked that +she called Mis' Doubleday very officious. 'Went right down on her +knees an' prayed,' says she. 'Anybody would have thought I was a +heathen!' But I kind of pacified her feelin's, an' told her I supposed +the old lady meant well." + +"Did she give away any of her things?--Mis' Barsett, I mean," inquired +Mrs. Crane. + +"Not in my hearin'," replied Sarah Ellen Dow. "Except one day, the +first of the week, she told her oldest sister, Mis' Deckett,--'twas +that first day she rode over--that she might have her green quilted +petticoat; you see it was a rainy day, an' Mis' Deckett had complained +o' feelin' thin. She went right up an' got it, and put it on an' wore +it off, an' I'm sure I thought no more about it, until I heard Sister +Barsett groanin' dreadful in the night. I got right up to see what the +matter was, an' what do you think but she was wantin' that petticoat +back, and not thinking any too well o' Nancy Deckett for takin' it +when 'twas offered. 'Nancy never showed no sense o' propriety,' says +Sister Barsett; I just wish you'd heard her go on! + +"If she had felt to remember me," continued Sarah Ellen, after they +had laughed a little, "I'd full as soon have some of her nice +crockery-ware. She told me once, years ago, when I was stoppin' to tea +with her an' we were havin' it real friendly, that she should leave me +her Britannia tea-set, but I ain't got it in writin', and I can't say +she's ever referred to the matter since. It ain't as if I had a home +o' my own to keep it in, but I should have thought a great deal of it +for her sake," and the speaker's voice faltered. "I must say that with +all her virtues she never was a first-class housekeeper, but I +wouldn't say it to any but a friend. You never eat no preserves o' +hers that wa'n't commencin' to work, an' you know as well as I how +little forethought she had about putting away her woolens. I sat +behind her once in meetin' when I was stoppin' with the Tremletts and +so occupied a seat in their pew, an' I see between ten an' a dozen +moth millers come workin' out o' her fitch-fur tippet. They was +flutterin' round her bonnet same's 'twas a lamp. I should be mortified +to death to have such a thing happen to me." + +"Every housekeeper has her weak point; I've got mine as much as +anybody else," acknowledged Mercy Crane with spirit, "but you never +see no moth millers come workin' out o' me in a public place." + +"Ain't your oven beginning to get overhet?" anxiously inquired Sarah +Ellen Dow, who was sitting more in the draught, and could not bear to +have any accident happen to the supper. Mrs. Crane flew to a +short-cake's rescue, and presently called her guest to the table. + +The two women sat down to deep and brimming cups of tea. Sarah Ellen +noticed with great gratification that her hostess had put on two of +the best tea-cups and some citron-melon preserves. It was not an +every-day supper. She was used to hard fare, poor, hard-working Sarah +Ellen, and this handsome social attention did her good. Sister Crane +rarely entertained a friend, and it would be a pleasure to speak of +the tea-drinking for weeks to come. + +"You've put yourself out quite a consid'able for me," she +acknowledged. "How pretty these cups is! You oughtn't to use 'em so +common as for me. I wish I had a home I could really call my own to +ask you to, but 't ain't never been so I could. Sometimes I wonder +what's goin' to become o' me when I get so I'm past work. Takin' care +o' sick folks an' bein' in houses where there's a sight goin' on an' +everybody in a hurry kind of wears on me now I'm most a-gittin' in +years. I was wishin' the other day that I could get with some +comfortable kind of a sick person, where I could live right along +quiet as other folks do, but folks never sends for me 'less they're +drove to it. I ain't laid up anything to really depend upon." + +The situation appealed to Mercy Crane, well to do as she was and not +burdened with responsibilities. She stirred uneasily in her chair, but +could not bring herself to the point of offering Sarah Ellen the home +she coveted. + +"Have some hot tea," she insisted, in a matter of fact tone, and Sarah +Ellen's face, which had been lighted by a sudden eager hopefulness, +grew dull and narrow again. + +"Plenty, plenty, Mis' Crane," she said sadly, "'tis beautiful +tea,--you always have good tea;" but she could not turn her thoughts +from her own uncertain future. "None of our folks has ever lived to be +a burden," she said presently, in a pathetic tone, putting down her +cup. "My mother was thought to be doing well until four o'clock an' +was dead at ten. My Aunt Nancy came to our house well at twelve +o'clock an' died that afternoon; my father was sick but ten days. +There was dear sister Betsy, she did go in consumption, but 'twa'n't +an expensive sickness." + +"I've thought sometimes about you, how you'd get past rovin' from +house to house one o' these days. I guess your friends will stand by +you." Mrs. Crane spoke with unwonted sympathy, and Sarah Ellen's heart +leaped with joy. + +"You're real kind," she said simply. "There's nobody I set so much by. +But I shall miss Sister Barsett, when all's said an' done. She's asked +me many a time to stop with her when I wasn't doin' nothin'. We all +have our failin's, but she was a friendly creatur'. I sha'n't want to +see her laid away." + +"Yes, I was thinkin' a few minutes ago that I shouldn't want to look +out an' see the funeral go by. She's one o' the old neighbors. I +s'pose I shall have to look, or I shouldn't feel right afterward," +said Mrs. Crane mournfully. "If I hadn't got so kind of housebound," +she added with touching frankness, "I'd just as soon go over with you +an' offer to watch this night." + +"'T would astonish Sister Barsett so I don't know but she'd return." +Sarah Ellen's eyes danced with amusement; she could not resist her own +joke, and Mercy Crane herself had to smile. + +"Now I must be goin', or 'twill be dark," said the guest, rising and +sighing after she had eaten her last crumb of gingerbread. "Yes, thank +ye, you're real good, I will come back if I find I ain't wanted. Look +what a pretty sky there is!" and the two friends went to the side door +and stood together in a moment of affectionate silence, looking out +toward the sunset across the wide fields. The country was still with +that deep rural stillness which seems to mean the absence of humanity. +Only the thrushes were singing far away in the walnut woods beyond the +orchard, and some crows were flying over and cawed once loudly, as if +they were speaking to the women at the door. + +Just as the friends were parting, after most grateful acknowledgments +from Sarah Ellen Dow, some one came driving along the road in a hurry +and stopped. + +"Who's that with you, Mis' Crane?" called one of their near neighbors. + +"It's Sarah Ellen Dow," answered Mrs. Crane. "What's the matter?" + +"I thought so, but I couldn't rightly see. Come, they are in a peck o' +trouble up to Sister Barsett's, wonderin' where you be," grumbled the +man. "They can't do nothin' with her; she's drove off everybody an' +keeps a-screechin' for you. Come, step along, Sarah Ellen, do!" + +"Sister Barsett!" exclaimed both the women. Mercy Crane sank down upon +the doorstep, but Sarah Ellen stepped out upon the grass all of a +tremble, and went toward the wagon. "They said this afternoon that +Sister Barsett was gone," she managed to say. "What did they mean?" + +"Gone where?" asked the impatient neighbor. "I expect 'twas one of her +spells. She's come to; they say she wants somethin' hearty for her +tea. Nobody can't take one step till you get there, neither." + +Sarah Ellen was still dazed; she returned to the doorway, where Mercy +Crane sat shaking with laughter. "I don't know but we might as well +laugh as cry," she said in an aimless sort of way. "I know you too +well to think you're going to repeat a single word. Well, I'll get my +bonnet an' start; I expect I've got considerable to cope with, but I'm +well rested. Good-night, Mis' Crane, I certain did have a beautiful +tea, whatever the future may have in store." + +She wore a solemn expression as she mounted into the wagon in haste +and departed, but she was far out of sight when Mercy Crane stopped +laughing and went into the house. + + * * * * * + + + + +Decoration Day + + +I. + +A week before the thirtieth of May, three friends--John Stover and +Henry Merrill and Asa Brown--happened to meet on Saturday evening at +Barton's store at the Plains. They were ready to enjoy this idle hour +after a busy week. After long easterly rains, the sun had at last come +out bright and clear, and all the Barlow farmers had been planting. +There was even a good deal of ploughing left to be done, the season +was so backward. + +The three middle-aged men were old friends. They had been +school-fellows, and when they were hardly out of their boyhood the war +came on, and they enlisted in the same company, on the same day, and +happened to march away elbow to elbow. Then came the great experience +of a great war, and the years that followed their return from the +South had come to each almost alike. These men might have been members +of the same rustic household, they knew each other's history so well. + +They were sitting on a low wooden bench at the left of the store door +as you went in. People were coming and going on their Saturday night +errands,--the post-office was in Barton's store,--but the friends +talked on eagerly, without being interrupted, except by an occasional +nod of recognition. They appeared to take no notice at all of the +neighbors whom they saw oftenest. It was a most beautiful evening; the +two great elms were almost half in leaf over the blacksmith's shop +which stood across the wide road. Farther along were two small +old-fashioned houses and the old white church, with its pretty belfry +of four arched sides and a tiny dome at the top. The large cockerel on +the vane was pointing a little south of west, and there was still +light enough to make it shine bravely against the deep blue eastern +sky. On the western side of the road, near the store, were the +parsonage and the storekeeper's modern house, which had a French roof +and some attempt at decoration, which the long-established Barlow +people called gingerbread-work, and regarded with mingled pride and +disdain. These buildings made the tiny village called Barlow Plains. +They stood in the middle of a long narrow strip of level ground. They +were islanded by green fields and pastures. There were hills beyond; +the mountains themselves seemed very near. Scattered about on the hill +slopes were farmhouses, which stood so far apart, with their clusters +of out-buildings, that each looked lonely, and the pine woods above +seemed to besiege them all. It was lighter on the uplands than it was +in the valley, where the three men sat on their bench, with their +backs to the store and the western sky. + +"Well, here we be 'most into June, an' I 'ain't got a bush-bean above +ground," lamented Henry Merrill. + +"Your land's always late, ain't it? But you always catch up with the +rest on us," Asa Brown consoled him. "I've often observed that your +land, though early planted, was late to sprout. I view it there's a +good week's difference betwixt me an' Stover an' your folks, but come +first o' July we all even up." + +"'Tis just so," said John Stover, taking his pipe out of his mouth, as +if he had a good deal more to say, and then replacing it, as if he had +changed his mind. + +"Made it extry hard having that long wet spell. Can't none on us take +no day off this season," said Asa Brown; but nobody thought it worth +his while to respond to such evident truth. + +"Next Saturday'll be the thirtieth o' May--that's Decoration Day, +ain't it?--come round again. Lord! how the years slip by after you git +to be forty-five an' along there!" said Asa again. "I s'pose some o' +our folks'll go over to Alton to see the procession, same's usual. +I've got to git one o' them small flags to stick on our Joel's grave, +an' Mis' Dexter always counts on havin' some for Harrison's lot. I +calculate to get 'em somehow. I must make time to ride over, but I +don't know where the time's comin' from out o' next week. I wish the +women folks would tend to them things. There's the spot where Eb +Munson an' John Tighe lays in the poor-farm lot, an' I did mean +certain to buy flags for 'em last year an' year before, but I went an' +forgot it. I'd like to have folks that rode by notice 'em for once, if +they was town paupers. Eb Munson was as darin' a man as ever stepped +out to tuck o' drum." + +"So he was," said John Stover, taking his pipe with decision and +knocking out the ashes. "Drink was his ruin; but I wan't one that +could be harsh with Eb, no matter what he done. He worked hard long's +he could, too; but he wan't like a sound man, an' I think he took +somethin' first not so much 'cause he loved it, but to kind of keep +his strength up so's he could work, an' then, all of a sudden, rum +clinched with him an' threw him. Eb was talkin' 'long o' me one day +when he was about half full, an' says he, right out, 'I wouldn't have +fell to this state,' says he, 'if I'd had me a home an' a little +fam'ly; but it don't make no difference to nobody, and it's the best +comfort I seem to have, an' I ain't goin' to do without it. I'm ailin' +all the time,' says he, 'an' if I keep middlin' full, I make out to +hold my own an' to keep along o' my work.' I pitied Eb. I says to him, +'You ain't goin' to bring no disgrace on us old army boys, be you, +Eb?' an' he says no, he wan't. I think if he'd lived to get one o' +them big fat pensions, he'd had it easier. Eight dollars a month paid +his board, while he'd pick up what cheap work he could, an' then he +got so that decent folks didn't seem to want the bother of him, an' so +he come on the town." + +"There was somethin' else to it," said Henry Merrill soberly. "Drink +come natural to him, 'twas born in him, I expect, an' there wan't +nobody that could turn the divil out same's they did in Scriptur'. His +father an' his gran'father was drinkin' men; but they was kind-hearted +an' good neighbors, an' never set out to wrong nobody. 'Twas the +custom to drink in their day; folks was colder an' lived poorer in +early times, an' that's how most of 'em kept a-goin'. But what stove +Eb all up was his disapp'intment with Marthy Peck--her forsakin' of +him an' marryin' old John Down whilst Eb was off to war. I've always +laid it up ag'inst her." + +"So've I," said Asa Brown. "She didn't use the poor fellow right. I +guess she was full as well off, but it's one thing to show judgment, +an' another thing to have heart." + +There was a long pause; the subject was too familiar to need further +comment. + +"There ain't no public sperit here in Barlow," announced Asa Brown, +with decision. "I don't s'pose we could ever get up anything for +Decoration Day. I've felt kind of 'shamed, but it always comes in a +busy time; 'twan't no time to have it, anyway, right in late +plantin'." + +"'Tain't no use to look for public sperit 'less you've got some +yourself," observed John Stover soberly; but something had pleased him +in the discouraged suggestion. "Perhaps we could mark the day this +year. It comes on a Saturday; that ain't nigh so bad as bein' in the +middle of the week." + +Nobody made any answer, and presently he went on,-- + +"There was a time along back when folks was too nigh the war-time to +give much thought to the bigness of it. The best fellows was them that +had stayed to home an' worked their trades an' laid up money; but I +don't know's it's so now." + +"Yes, the fellows that stayed at home got all the fat places, an' when +we come back we felt dreadful behind the times," grumbled Asa Brown. +"I remember how 'twas." + +"They begun to call us heroes an' old stick-in-the-mud just about the +same time," resumed Stover, with a chuckle. "We wa'n't no hand for +strippin' woodland nor even tradin' hosses them first few years. I +don' know why 'twas we were so beat out. The best most on us could do +was to sag right on to the old folks. Father he never wanted me to go +to the war,--'twas partly his Quaker breed,--an' he used to be +dreadful mortified with the way I hung round down here to the store +an' loafed round a-talkin' about when I was out South, an' arguin' +with folks that didn't know nothin', about what the generals done. +There! I see me now just as he see me then; but after I had my +boy-strut out, I took holt o' the old farm 'long o' father, an' I've +made it bounce. Look at them old meadows an' see the herd's grass that +come off of 'em last year! I ain't ashamed o' my place now, if I did +go to the war." + +"It all looks a sight bigger to me now than it did then," said Henry +Merrill. "Our goin' to the war, I refer to. We didn't sense it no more +than other folks did. I used to be sick o' hearin' their stuff about +patriotism and lovin' your country, an' them pieces o' poetry women +folks wrote for the papers on the old flag, an' our fallen heroes, an' +them things; they didn't seem to strike me in the right place; but I +tell ye it kind o' starts me now every time I come on the flag +sudden,--it does so. A spell ago--'long in the fall, I guess it was--I +was over to Alton, an' there was a fire company paradin'. They'd got +the prize at a fair, an' had just come home on the cars, an' I heard +the band; so I stepped to the front o' the store where me an' my woman +was tradin', an' the company felt well, an' was comin' along the +street 'most as good as troops. I see the old flag a-comin', kind of +blowin' back, an' it went all over me. Somethin' worked round in my +throat; I vow I come near cryin'. I was glad nobody see me." + +"I'd go to war again in a minute," declared Stover, after an +expressive pause; "but I expect we should know better what we was +about. I don' know but we've got too many rooted opinions now to make +us the best o' soldiers." + +"Martin Tighe an' John Tighe was considerable older than the rest, and +they done well," answered Henry Merrill quickly. "We three was the +youngest of any, but we did think at the time we knew the most." + +"Well, whatever you may say, that war give the country a great start," +said Asa Brown. "I tell ye we just begin to see the scope on't. There +was my cousin, you know, Dan'l Evins, that stopped with us last +winter; he was tellin' me that one o' his coastin' trips he was into +the port o' Beaufort lo'din' with yaller-pine lumber, an' he roved +into an old buryin'-ground there is there, an' he see a stone that had +on it some young Southern fellow's name that was killed in the war, +an' under it was, 'He died for his country.' Dan'l knowed how I used +to feel about them South Car'lina goings on, an' I did feel kind o' +red an' ugly for a minute, an' then somethin' come over me, an' I +says, 'Well, I don' know but what the poor chap did, Dan Evins, when +you come to view it all round.'" + +The other men made no answer. + +"Le's see what we can do this year. I don't care if we be a poor +han'ful," urged Henry Merrill. "The young folks ought to have the +good of it; I'd like to have my boys see somethin' different. Le's get +together what men there is. How many's left, anyhow? I know there was +thirty-seven went from old Barlow, three-months' men an' all." + +"There can't be over eight now, countin' out Martin Tighe; he can't +march," said Stover. "No, 'tain't worth while." But the others did not +notice his disapproval. + +"There's nine in all," announced Asa Brown, after pondering and +counting two or three times on his fingers. "I can't make us no more. +I never could carry figur's in my head." + +"I make nine," said Merrill. "We'll have Martin ride, an' Jesse Dean +too, if he will. He's awful lively on them canes o' his. An' there's +Jo Wade with his crutch; he's amazin' spry for a short distance. But +we can't let 'em go far afoot; they're decripped men. We'll make 'em +all put on what they've got left o' their uniforms, an' we'll scratch +round an' have us a fife an' drum, an' make the best show we can." + +"Why, Martin Tighe's boy, the next to the oldest, is an excellent hand +to play the fife!" said John Stover, suddenly growing enthusiastic. +"If you two are set on it, let's have a word with the minister +to-morrow, an' see what he says. Perhaps he'll give out some kind of a +notice. You have to have a good many bunches o' flowers. I guess we'd +better call a meetin', some few on us, an' talk it over first o' the +week. 'Twouldn't be no great of a range for us to take to march from +the old buryin'-ground at the meetin'-house here up to the poor-farm +an' round by Deacon Elwell's lane, so's to notice them two stones he +set up for his boys that was sunk on the man-o'-war. I expect they +notice stones same's if the folks laid there, don't they?" + +He spoke wistfully. The others knew that Stover was thinking of the +stone he had set up to the memory of his only brother, whose nameless +grave had been made somewhere in the Wilderness. + +"I don't know but what they'll be mad if we don't go by every house in +town," he added anxiously, as they rose to go home. "'Tis a terrible +scattered population in Barlow to favor with a procession." + +It was a mild starlit night. The three friends took their separate +ways presently, leaving the Plains road and crossing the fields by +foot-paths toward their farms. + + +II. + +The week went by, and the next Saturday morning brought fair weather. +It was a busy morning on the farms--like any other; but long before +noon the teams of horses and oxen were seen going home from work in +the fields, and everybody got ready in haste for the great event of +the afternoon. It was so seldom that any occasion roused public +interest in Barlow that there was an unexpected response, and the +green before the old white meeting-house was covered with country +wagons and groups of people, whole families together, who had come on +foot. The old soldiers were to meet in the church; at half past one +the procession was to start, and on its return the minister was to +make an address in the old burying-ground. John Stover had been first +lieutenant in the war, so he was made captain of the day. A man from +the next town had offered to drum for them, and Martin Tighe's proud +boy was present with his fife. He had a great longing--strange enough +in that peaceful, sheep-raising neighborhood--to go into the army; but +he and his elder brother were the mainstay of their crippled father, +and he could not be spared from the large household until a younger +brother could take his place; so that all his fire and military zeal +went for the present into martial tunes, and the fife was a +safety-valve for his enthusiasm. + +The army men were used to seeing each other; everybody knew everybody +in the little country town of Barlow; but when one comrade after +another appeared in what remained of his accoutrements, they felt the +day to be greater than they had planned, and the simple ceremony +proved more solemn than any one expected. They could make no use of +their every-day jokes and friendly greetings. Their old blue coats +and tarnished army caps looked faded and antiquated enough. One of +the men had nothing left but his rusty canteen and rifle; but these he +carried like sacred emblems. He had worn out all his army clothes long +ago, because he was too poor when he was discharged to buy any others. + +When the door of the church opened, the veterans were not abashed by +the size and silence of the crowd. They came walking two by two down +the steps, and took their places in line as if there were nobody +looking on. Their brief evolutions were like a mystic rite. The two +lame men refused to do anything but march as best they could; but poor +Martin Tighe, more disabled than they, was brought out and lifted into +Henry Merrill's best wagon, where he sat up, straight and soldierly, +with his boy for driver. There was a little flag in the whip-socket +before him, which flapped gayly in the breeze. It was such a long time +since he had been seen out-of-doors that everybody found him a great +object of interest, and paid him much attention. Even those who were +tired of being asked to contribute to his support, who resented the +fact of his having a helpless wife and great family; who always +insisted that with his little pension and hopeless lameness, his +fingerless left hand and failing sight, he could support himself and +his household if he chose,--even those persons came forward now to +greet him handsomely and with large approval. To be sure, he enjoyed +the conversation of idlers, and his wife had a complaining way that +was the same as begging, especially since her boys began to grow up +and be of some use; and there were one or two near neighbors who never +let them really want; so other people, who had cares enough of their +own, could excuse themselves for forgetting him the year round, and +even call him shiftless. But there were none to look askance at Martin +Tighe on Decoration Day, as he sat in the wagon, with his bleached +face like a captive's, and his thin, afflicted body. He stretched out +his whole hand impartially to those who had remembered and those who +had forgotten both his courage at Fredericksburg and his sorry need in +Barlow. + +Henry Merrill had secured the engine company's large flag in Alton, +and now carried it proudly. There were eight men in line, two by two, +and marching a good bit apart, to make their line the longer. The fife +and drum struck up gallantly together, and the little procession moved +away slowly along the country road. It gave an unwonted touch of color +to the landscape,--the scarlet, the blue, between the new-ploughed +fields and budding roadside thickets, between the wide dim ranges of +the mountains, under the great white clouds of the spring sky. Such +processions grow more pathetic year by year; it will not be so long +now before wondering children will have seen the last. The aging faces +of the men, the renewed comradeship, the quick beat of the hearts that +remember, the tenderness of those who think upon old sorrows,--all +these make the day a lovelier and a sadder festival. So men's hearts +were stirred, they knew not why, when they heard the shrill fife and +the incessant drum along the quiet Barlow road, and saw the handful of +old soldiers marching by. Nobody thought of them as familiar men and +neighbors alone,--they were a part of that army which had saved its +country. They had taken their lives in their hands and gone out to +fight for their country, plain John Stover and Jesse Dean and the +rest. No matter if every other day in the year they counted for little +or much, whether they were lame-footed and lagging, whether their +farms were of poor soil or rich. + +The little troop went in slender line along the road; the crowded +country wagons and all the people who went afoot followed Martin +Tighe's wagon as if it were a great gathering at a country funeral. +The route was short, and the long, straggling line marched slowly; it +could go no faster than the lame men could walk. + +In one of the houses by the roadside an old woman sat by a window, in +an old-fashioned black gown, and clean white cap with a prim border +which bound her thin, sharp features closely. She had been for a long +time looking out eagerly over the snowberry and cinnamon-rose bushes; +her face was pressed close to the pane, and presently she caught sight +of the great flag as it came down the road. + +"Let me see 'em! I've got to see 'em go by!" she pleaded, trying to +rise from her chair alone when she heard the fife, and the women +helped her to the door, and held her so that she could stand and wait. +She had been an old woman when the war began; she had sent sons and +grandsons to the field; they were all gone now. As the men came by, +she straightened her bent figure with all the vigor of youth. The fife +and drum stopped suddenly; the colors lowered. She did not heed that, +but her old eyes flashed and then filled with tears to see the flag +going to salute the soldiers' graves. "Thank ye, boys; thank ye!" she +cried, in her quavering voice, and they all cheered her. The cheer +went back along the straggling line for old Grandmother Dexter, +standing there in her front door between the lilacs. It was one of the +great moments of the day. + +The few old people at the poor-house, too, were waiting to see the +show. The keeper's young son, knowing that it was a day of festivity, +and not understanding exactly why, had put his toy flag out of the +gable window, and there it showed against the gray clapboards like a +gay flower. It was the only bit of decoration along the veterans' way, +and they stopped and saluted it before they broke ranks and went out +to the field corner beyond the poor-farm barn to the bit of ground +that held the paupers' unmarked graves. There was a solemn silence +while Asa Brown went to the back of Tighe's wagon, where such light +freight was carried, and brought two flags, and he and John Stover +planted them straight in the green sod. They knew well enough where +the right graves were, for these had been made in a corner by +themselves, with unwonted sentiment. And so Eben Munson and John Tighe +were honored like the rest, both by their flags and by great and +unexpected nosegays of spring flowers, daffies and flowering currant +and red tulips, which lay on the graves already. John Stover and his +comrade glanced at each other curiously while they stood singing, and +then laid their own bunches of lilacs down and came away. + +Then something happened that almost none of the people in the wagons +understood. Martin Tighe's boy, who played the fife, had studied well +his part, and on his poor short-winded instrument now sounded taps as +well as he could. He had heard it done once in Alton at a soldier's +funeral. The plaintive notes called sadly over the fields, and echoed +back from the hills. The few veterans could not look at each other; +their eyes brimmed up with tears; they could not have spoken. Nothing +called back old army days like that. They had a sudden vision of the +Virginian camp, the hillside dotted white with tents, the twinkling +lights in other camps, and far away the glow of smouldering fires. +They heard the bugle call from post to post; they remembered the +chilly winter night, the wind in the pines, the laughter of the men. +Lights out! Martin Tighe's boy sounded it again sharply. It seemed as +if poor Eb Munson and John Tighe must hear it too in their narrow +graves. + +The procession went on, and stopped here and there at the little +graveyards on the farms, leaving their bright flags to flutter through +summer and winter rains and snows, and to bleach in the wind and +sunshine. When they returned to the church, the minister made an +address about the war, and every one listened with new ears. Most of +what he said was familiar enough to his listeners; they were used to +reading those phrases about the results of the war, the glorious +future of the South, in their weekly newspapers; but there never had +been such a spirit of patriotism and loyalty waked in Barlow as was +waked that day by the poor parade of the remnant of the Barlow +soldiers. They sent flags to all the distant graves, and proud were +those households who claimed kinship with valor, and could drive or +walk away with their flags held up so that others could see that they, +too, were of the elect. + + +III. + +It is well that the days are long in the last of May, but John Stover +had to hurry more than usual with his evening work, and then, having +the longest distance to walk, he was much the latest comer to the +Plains store, where his two triumphant friends were waiting for him +impatiently on the bench. They also had made excuse of going to the +post-office and doing an unnecessary errand for their wives, and were +talking together so busily that they had gathered a group about them +before the store. When they saw Stover coming, they rose hastily and +crossed the road to meet him, as if they were a committee in special +session. They leaned against the post-and-board fence, after they had +shaken hands with each other solemnly. + +"Well, we've had a great day, ain't we, John?" asked Henry Merrill. +"You did lead off splendid. We've done a grand thing, now, I tell you. +All the folks say we've got to keep it up every year. Everybody had to +have a talk about it as I went home. They say they had no idea we +should make such a show. Lord! I wish we'd begun while there was more +of us!" + +"That han'some flag was the great feature," said Asa Brown generously. +"I want to pay my part for hirin' it. An' then folks was glad to see +poor old Martin made o' some consequence." + +"There was half a dozen said to me that another year they was goin' to +have flags out, and trim up their places somehow or 'nother. Folks has +feelin' enough, but you've got to rouse it," said Merrill. + +"I have thought o' joinin' the Grand Army over to Alton time an' +again, but it's a good ways to go, an' then the expense has been o' +some consideration," Asa continued. "I don't know but two or three +over there. You know, most o' the Alton men nat'rally went out in the +rigiments t' other side o' the State line, an' they was in other +battles, an' never camped nowheres nigh us. Seems to me we ought to +have home feelin' enough to do what we can right here." + +"The minister says to me this afternoon that he was goin' to arrange +an' have some talks in the meetin'-house next winter, an' have some of +us tell where we was in the South; an' one night 'twill be about camp +life, an' one about the long marches, an' then about the +battles,--that would take some time,--an' tell all we could about the +boys that was killed, an' their record, so they wouldn't be forgot. He +said some of the folks must have the letters we wrote home from the +front, an' we could make out quite a history of us. I call Elder +Dallas a very smart man; he'd planned it all out a'ready, for the +benefit o' the young folks, he said," announced Henry Merrill, in a +tone of approval. + +"I s'pose there ain't none of us but could add a little somethin'," +answered John Stover modestly. "'Twould re'lly learn the young folks +a good deal. I should be scared numb to try an' speak from the pulpit. +That ain't what the Elder means, is it? Now I was one that had a good +chance to see somethin' o' Washin'ton. I shook hands with President +Lincoln, an' I always think I'm worth lookin' at for that, if I ain't +for nothin' else. 'Twas that time I was just out o' hospit'l, an' able +to crawl about some. I've often told you how 'twas I met him, an' he +stopped an' shook hands an' asked where I'd been at the front an' how +I was gettin' along with my hurts. Well, we'll see how 'tis when +winter comes. I never thought I had no gift for public speakin', 'less +'twas for drivin' cattle or pollin' the house town-meetin' days. Here! +I've got somethin' in mind. You needn't speak about it if I tell it to +ye," he added suddenly. "You know all them han'some flowers that was +laid on to Eb Munson's grave an' Tighe's? I mistrusted you thought the +same thing I did by the way you looked. They come from Marthy Down's +front yard. My woman told me when we got home that she knew 'em in a +minute; there wa'n't nobody in town had that kind o' red flowers but +her. She must ha' kind o' harked back to the days when she was Marthy +Peck. She must have come over with 'em after dark, or else dreadful +early in the mornin'." + +Henry Merrill cleared his throat. "There ain't nothin' half-way 'bout +Mis' Down," he said. "I wouldn't ha' spoken 'bout this 'less you had +led right on to it; but I overtook her when I was gittin' towards home +this afternoon, an' I see by her looks she was worked up a good deal; +but we talked about how well things had gone off, an' she wanted to +know what expenses we'd been put to, an' I told her; and she said +she'd give five dollars any day I'd stop in for it. An' then she spoke +right out. 'I'm alone in the world,' says she, 'and I've got somethin' +to do with, an' I'd like to have a plain stone put up to Eb Munson's +grave, with the number of his rigiment on it, an' I'll pay the bill. +'Tain't out o' Mr. Down's money,' she says; ''tis mine, an' I want you +to see to it.' I said I would, but we'd made a plot to git some o' +them soldiers' headstones that's provided by the government. 'Twas a +shame it had been overlooked so long. 'No,' says she; 'I'm goin' to +pay for Eb's myself.' An' I told her there wouldn't be no objection. +Don't ary one o' you speak about it. 'Twouldn't be fair. She was real +well-appearin'. I never felt to respect Marthy so before." + +"We was kind o' hard on her sometimes, but folks couldn't help it. +I've seen her pass Eb right by in the road an' never look at him when +he first come home," said John Stover. + +"If she hadn't felt bad, she wouldn't have cared one way or t'other," +insisted Henry Merrill. "'Tain't for us to judge. Sometimes folks has +to get along in years before they see things fair. Come; I must be +goin' home. I'm tired as an old dog." + +"It seemed kind o' natural to be steppin' out together again. Strange +we three got through with so little damage, an' so many dropped round +us," said Asa Brown. "I've never been one mite sorry I went out in old +A Company. I was thinkin' when I was marchin' to-day, though, that we +should all have to take to the wagons before long an' do our marchin' +on wheels, so many of us felt kind o' stiff. There's one thing,--folks +won't never say again that we can't show no public sperit here in old +Barlow." + + * * * * * + + + + +The Flight of Betsey Lane + + +I. + +One windy morning in May, three old women sat together near an open +window in the shed chamber of Byfleet Poor-house. The wind was from +the northwest, but their window faced the southeast, and they were +only visited by an occasional pleasant waft of fresh air. They were +close together, knee to knee, picking over a bushel of beans, and +commanding a view of the dandelion-starred, green yard below, and of +the winding, sandy road that led to the village, two miles away. Some +captive bees were scolding among the cobwebs of the rafters overhead, +or thumping against the upper panes of glass; two calves were bawling +from the barnyard, where some of the men were at work loading a +dump-cart and shouting as if every one were deaf. There was a +cheerful feeling of activity, and even an air of comfort, about the +Byfleet Poor-house. Almost every one was possessed of a most +interesting past, though there was less to be said about the future. +The inmates were by no means distressed or unhappy; many of them +retired to this shelter only for the winter season, and would go out +presently, some to begin such work as they could still do, others to +live in their own small houses; old age had impoverished most of them +by limiting their power of endurance; but far from lamenting the fact +that they were town charges, they rather liked the change and +excitement of a winter residence on the poor-farm. There was a +sharp-faced, hard-worked young widow with seven children, who was an +exception to the general level of society, because she deplored the +change in her fortunes. The older women regarded her with suspicion, +and were apt to talk about her in moments like this, when they +happened to sit together at their work. + +The three bean-pickers were dressed alike in stout brown ginghams, +checked by a white line, and all wore great faded aprons of blue +drilling, with sufficient pockets convenient to the right hand. Miss +Peggy Bond was a very small, belligerent-looking person, who wore a +huge pair of steel-bowed spectacles, holding her sharp chin well up in +air, as if to supplement an inadequate nose. She was more than half +blind, but the spectacles seemed to face upward instead of square +ahead, as if their wearer were always on the sharp lookout for birds. +Miss Bond had suffered much personal damage from time to time, because +she never took heed where she planted her feet, and so was always +tripping and stubbing her bruised way through the world. She had +fallen down hatchways and cellarways, and stepped composedly into deep +ditches and pasture brooks; but she was proud of stating that she was +upsighted, and so was her father before her. At the poor-house, where +an unusual malady was considered a distinction, upsightedness was +looked upon as a most honorable infirmity. Plain rheumatism, such as +afflicted Aunt Lavina Dow, whose twisted hands found even this light +work difficult and tiresome,--plain rheumatism was something of +every-day occurrence, and nobody cared to hear about it. Poor Peggy +was a meek and friendly soul, who never put herself forward; she was +just like other folks, as she always loved to say, but Mrs. Lavina Dow +was a different sort of person altogether, of great dignity and, +occasionally, almost aggressive behavior. The time had been when she +could do a good day's work with anybody: but for many years now she +had not left the town-farm, being too badly crippled to work; she had +no relations or friends to visit, but from an innate love of authority +she could not submit to being one of those who are forgotten by the +world. Mrs. Dow was the hostess and social lawgiver here, where she +remembered every inmate and every item of interest for nearly forty +years, besides an immense amount of town history and biography for +three or four generations back. + +She was the dear friend of the third woman, Betsey Lane; together they +led thought and opinion--chiefly opinion--and held sway, not only over +Byfleet Poor-farm, but also the selectmen and all others in authority. +Betsey Lane had spent most of her life as aid-in-general to the +respected household of old General Thornton. She had been much trusted +and valued, and, at the breaking up of that once large and flourishing +family, she had been left in good circumstances, what with legacies +and her own comfortable savings; but by sad misfortune and lavish +generosity everything had been scattered, and after much illness, +which ended in a stiffened arm and more uncertainty, the good soul had +sensibly decided that it was easier for the whole town to support her +than for a part of it. She had always hoped to see something of the +world before she died; she came of an adventurous, seafaring stock, +but had never made a longer journey than to the towns of Danby and +Northville, thirty miles away. + +They were all old women; but Betsey Lane, who was sixty-nine, and +looked much older, was the youngest. Peggy Bond was far on in the +seventies, and Mrs. Dow was at least ten years older. She made a great +secret of her years; and as she sometimes spoke of events prior to the +Revolution with the assertion of having been an eye-witness, she +naturally wore an air of vast antiquity. Her tales were an +inexpressible delight to Betsey Lane, who felt younger by twenty years +because her friend and comrade was so unconscious of chronological +limitations. + +The bushel basket of cranberry beans was within easy reach, and each +of the pickers had filled her lap from it again and again. The shed +chamber was not an unpleasant place in which to sit at work, with its +traces of seed corn hanging from the brown cross-beams, its spare +churns, and dusty loom, and rickety wool-wheels, and a few bits of old +furniture. In one far corner was a wide board of dismal use and +suggestion, and close beside it an old cradle. There was a battered +chest of drawers where the keeper of the poor-house kept his +garden-seeds, with the withered remains of three seed cucumbers +ornamenting the top. Nothing beautiful could be discovered, nothing +interesting, but there was something usable and homely about the +place. It was the favorite and untroubled bower of the bean-pickers, +to which they might retreat unmolested from the public apartments of +this rustic institution. + +Betsey Lane blew away the chaff from her handful of beans. The spring +breeze blew the chaff back again, and sifted it over her face and +shoulders. She rubbed it out of her eyes impatiently, and happened to +notice old Peggy holding her own handful high, as if it were an +oblation, and turning her queer, up-tilted head this way and that, to +look at the beans sharply, as if she were first cousin to a hen. + +"There, Miss Bond, 'tis kind of botherin' work for you, ain't it?" +Betsey inquired compassionately. + +"I feel to enjoy it, anything that I can do my own way so," responded +Peggy. "I like to do my part. Ain't that old Mis' Fales comin' up the +road? It sounds like her step." + +The others looked, but they were not far-sighted, and for a moment +Peggy had the advantage. Mrs. Fales was not a favorite. + +"I hope she ain't comin' here to put up this spring. I guess she won't +now, it's gettin' so late," said Betsey Lane. "She likes to go rovin' +soon as the roads is settled." + +"'Tis Mis' Fales!" said Peggy Bond, listening with solemn anxiety. +"There, do let's pray her by!" + +"I guess she's headin' for her cousin's folks up Beech Hill way," said +Betsey presently. "If she'd left her daughter's this mornin', she'd +have got just about as far as this. I kind o' wish she had stepped in +just to pass the time o' day, long's she wa'n't going to make no +stop." + +There was a silence as to further speech in the shed chamber; and even +the calves were quiet in the barnyard. The men had all gone away to +the field where corn-planting was going on. The beans clicked steadily +into the wooden measure at the pickers' feet. Betsey Lane began to +sing a hymn, and the others joined in as best they might, like +autumnal crickets; their voices were sharp and cracked, with now and +then a few low notes of plaintive tone. Betsey herself could sing +pretty well, but the others could only make a kind of accompaniment. +Their voices ceased altogether at the higher notes. + +"Oh my! I wish I had the means to go to the Centennial," mourned +Betsey Lane, stopping so suddenly that the others had to go on +croaking and shrilling without her for a moment before they could +stop. "It seems to me as if I can't die happy 'less I do," she added; +"I ain't never seen nothin' of the world, an' here I be." + +"What if you was as old as I be?" suggested Mrs. Dow pompously. +"You've got time enough yet, Betsey; don't you go an' despair. I +knowed of a woman that went clean round the world four times when she +was past eighty, an' enjoyed herself real well. Her folks followed the +sea; she had three sons an' a daughter married,--all shipmasters, and +she'd been with her own husband when they was young. She was left a +widder early, and fetched up her family herself,--a real stirrin', +smart woman. After they'd got married off, an' settled, an' was doing +well, she come to be lonesome; and first she tried to stick it out +alone, but she wa'n't one that could; an' she got a notion she hadn't +nothin' before her but her last sickness, and she wa'n't a person +that enjoyed havin' other folks do for her. So one on her boys--I +guess 'twas the oldest--said he was going to take her to sea; there +was ample room, an' he was sailin' a good time o' year for the Cape o' +Good Hope an' way up to some o' them tea-ports in the Chiny Seas. She +was all high to go, but it made a sight o' talk at her age; an' the +minister made it a subject o' prayer the last Sunday, and all the +folks took a last leave; but she said to some she'd fetch 'em home +something real pritty, and so did. An' then they come home t'other +way, round the Horn, an' she done so well, an' was such a sight o' +company, the other child'n was jealous, an' she promised she'd go a +v'y'ge long o' each on 'em. She was as sprightly a person as ever I +see; an' could speak well o' what she'd seen." + +"Did she die to sea?" asked Peggy, with interest. + +"No, she died to home between v'y'ges, or she'd gone to sea again. I +was to her funeral. She liked her son George's ship the best; 'twas +the one she was going on to Callao. They said the men aboard all +called her 'gran'ma'am,' an' she kep' 'em mended up, an' would go +below and tend to 'em if they was sick. She might 'a' been alive an' +enjoyin' of herself a good many years but for the kick of a cow; 'twas +a new cow out of a drove, a dreadful unruly beast." + +Mrs. Dow stopped for breath, and reached down for a new supply of +beans; her empty apron was gray with soft chaff. Betsey Lane, still +pondering on the Centennial, began to sing another verse of her hymn, +and again the old women joined her. At this moment some strangers came +driving round into the yard from the front of the house. The turf was +soft, and our friends did not hear the horses' steps. Their voices +cracked and quavered; it was a funny little concert, and a lady in an +open carriage just below listened with sympathy and amusement. + + +II. + +"Betsey! Betsey! Miss Lane!" a voice called eagerly at the foot of the +stairs that led up from the shed. "Betsey! There's a lady here wants +to see you right away." + +Betsey was dazed with excitement, like a country child who knows the +rare pleasure of being called out of school. "Lor', I ain't fit to go +down, be I?" she faltered, looking anxiously at her friends; but Peggy +was gazing even nearer to the zenith than usual, in her excited effort +to see down into the yard, and Mrs. Dow only nodded somewhat +jealously, and said that she guessed 'twas nobody would do her any +harm. She rose ponderously, while Betsey hesitated, being, as they +would have said, all of a twitter. "It is a lady, certain," Mrs. Dow +assured her; "'tain't often there's a lady comes here." + +"While there was any of Mis' Gen'ral Thornton's folks left, I wa'n't +without visits from the gentry," said Betsey Lane, turning back +proudly at the head of the stairs, with a touch of old-world pride and +sense of high station. Then she disappeared, and closed the door +behind her at the stair-foot with a decision quite unwelcome to the +friends above. + +"She needn't 'a' been so dreadful 'fraid anybody was goin' to listen. +I guess we've got folks to ride an' see us, or had once, if we hain't +now," said Miss Peggy Bond, plaintively. + +"I expect 't was only the wind shoved it to," said Aunt Lavina. +"Betsey is one that gits flustered easier than some. I wish 'twas +somebody to take her off an' give her a kind of a good time; she's +young to settle down 'long of old folks like us. Betsey's got a notion +o' rovin' such as ain't my natur', but I should like to see her +satisfied. She'd been a very understandin' person, if she had the +advantages that some does." + +"'Tis so," said Peggy Bond, tilting her chin high. "I suppose you +can't hear nothin' they're saying? I feel my hearin' ain't up to whar +it was. I can hear things close to me well as ever; but there, hearin' +ain't everything; 'tain't as if we lived where there was more goin' on +to hear. Seems to me them folks is stoppin' a good while." + +"They surely be," agreed Lavina Dow. + +"I expect it's somethin' particular. There ain't none of the Thornton +folks left, except one o' the gran'darters, an' I've often heard +Betsey remark that she should never see her more, for she lives to +London. Strange how folks feels contented in them strayaway places off +to the ends of the airth." + +The flies and bees were buzzing against the hot windowpanes; the +handfuls of beans were clicking into the brown wooden measure. A bird +came and perched on the windowsill, and then flitted away toward the +blue sky. Below, in the yard, Betsey Lane stood talking with the lady. +She had put her blue drilling apron over her head, and her face was +shining with delight. + +"Lor', dear," she said, for at least the third time, "I remember ye +when I first see ye; an awful pritty baby you was, an' they all said +you looked just like the old gen'ral. Be you goin' back to foreign +parts right away?" + +"Yes, I'm going back; you know that all my children are there. I wish +I could take you with me for a visit," said the charming young guest. +"I'm going to carry over some of the pictures and furniture from the +old house; I didn't care half so much for them when I was younger as I +do now. Perhaps next summer we shall all come over for a while. I +should like to see my girls and boys playing under the pines." + +"I wish you re'lly was livin' to the old place," said Betsey Lane. Her +imagination was not swift; she needed time to think over all that was +being told her, and she could not fancy the two strange houses across +the sea. The old Thornton house was to her mind the most delightful +and elegant in the world. + +"Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Mrs. Strafford +kindly,--"anything that I can do for you myself, before I go away? I +shall be writing to you, and sending some pictures of the children, +and you must let me know how you are getting on." + +"Yes, there is one thing, darlin'. If you could stop in the village +an' pick me out a pritty, little, small lookin'-glass, that I can keep +for my own an' have to remember you by. 'Tain't that I want to set me +above the rest o' the folks, but I was always used to havin' my own +when I was to your grandma's. There's very nice folks here, some on +'em, and I'm better off than if I was able to keep house; but sence +you ask me, that's the only thing I feel cropin' about. What be you +goin' right back for? ain't you goin' to see the great fair to +Pheladelphy, that everybody talks about?" + +"No," said Mrs. Strafford, laughing at this eager and almost +convicting question. "No; I'm going back next week. If I were, I +believe that I should take you with me. Good-by, dear old Betsey; you +make me feel as if I were a little girl again; you look just the +same." + +For full five minutes the old woman stood out in the sunshine, dazed +with delight, and majestic with a sense of her own consequence. She +held something tight in her hand, without thinking what it might be; +but just as the friendly mistress of the poor-farm came out to hear +the news, she tucked the roll of money into the bosom of her brown +gingham dress. "'Twas my dear Mis' Katy Strafford," she turned to say +proudly. "She come way over from London; she's been sick; they thought +the voyage would do her good. She said most the first thing she had on +her mind was to come an' find me, and see how I was, an' if I was +comfortable; an' now she's goin' right back. She's got two splendid +houses; an' said how she wished I was there to look after things,--she +remembered I was always her gran'ma's right hand. Oh, it does so carry +me back, to see her! Seems if all the rest on 'em must be there +together to the old house. There, I must go right up an' tell Mis' Dow +an' Peggy." + +"Dinner's all ready; I was just goin' to blow the horn for the +men-folks," said the keeper's wife. "They'll be right down. I expect +you've got along smart with them beans,--all three of you together;" +but Betsey's mind roved so high and so far at that moment that no +achievements of bean-picking could lure it back. + + +III. + +The long table in the great kitchen soon gathered its company of waifs +and strays,--creatures of improvidence and misfortune, and the +irreparable victims of old age. The dinner was satisfactory, and there +was not much delay for conversation. Peggy Bond and Mrs. Dow and +Betsey Lane always sat together at one end, with an air of putting the +rest of the company below the salt. Betsey was still flushed with +excitement; in fact, she could not eat as much as usual, and she +looked up from time to time expectantly, as if she were likely to be +asked to speak of her guest; but everybody was hungry, and even Mrs. +Dow broke in upon some attempted confidences by asking inopportunely +for a second potato. There were nearly twenty at the table, counting +the keeper and his wife and two children, noisy little persons who had +come from school with the small flock belonging to the poor widow, who +sat just opposite our friends. She finished her dinner before any one +else, and pushed her chair back; she always helped with the +housework,--a thin, sorry, bad-tempered-looking poor soul, whom grief +had sharpened instead of softening. "I expect you feel too fine to set +with common folks," she said enviously to Betsey. + +"Here I be a-settin'," responded Betsey calmly. "I don' know's I +behave more unbecomin' than usual." Betsey prided herself upon her +good and proper manners; but the rest of the company, who would have +liked to hear the bit of morning news, were now defrauded of that +pleasure. The wrong note had been struck; there was a silence after +the clatter of knives and plates, and one by one the cheerful town +charges disappeared. The bean-picking had been finished, and there was +a call for any of the women who felt like planting corn; so Peggy +Bond, who could follow the line of hills pretty fairly, and Betsey +herself, who was still equal to anybody at that work, and Mrs. Dow, +all went out to the field together. Aunt Lavina labored slowly up the +yard, carrying a light splint-bottomed kitchen chair and her +knitting-work, and sat near the stone wall on a gentle rise, where she +could see the pond and the green country, and exchange a word with her +friends as they came and went up and down the rows. Betsey vouchsafed +a word now and then about Mrs. Strafford, but you would have thought +that she had been suddenly elevated to Mrs. Strafford's own cares and +the responsibilities attending them, and had little in common with her +old associates. Mrs. Dow and Peggy knew well that these high-feeling +times never lasted long, and so they waited with as much patience as +they could muster. They were by no means without that true tact which +is only another word for unselfish sympathy. + +The strip of corn land ran along the side of a great field; at the +upper end of it was a field-corner thicket of young maples and walnut +saplings, the children of a great nut-tree that marked the boundary. +Once, when Betsey Lane found herself alone near this shelter at the +end of her row, the other planters having lagged behind beyond the +rising ground, she looked stealthily about, and then put her hand +inside her gown, and for the first time took out the money that Mrs. +Strafford had given her. She turned it over and over with an +astonished look: there were new bank-bills for a hundred dollars. +Betsey gave a funny little shrug of her shoulders, came out of the +bushes, and took a step or two on the narrow edge of turf, as if she +were going to dance; then she hastily tucked away her treasure, and +stepped discreetly down into the soft harrowed and hoed land, and +began to drop corn again, five kernels to a hill. She had seen the top +of Peggy Bond's head over the knoll, and now Peggy herself came +entirely into view, gazing upward to the skies, and stumbling more or +less, but counting the corn by touch and twisting her head about +anxiously to gain advantage over her uncertain vision. Betsey made a +friendly, inarticulate little sound as they passed; she was thinking +that somebody said once that Peggy's eyesight might be remedied if she +could go to Boston to the hospital; but that was so remote and +impossible an undertaking that no one had ever taken the first step. +Betsey Lane's brown old face suddenly worked with excitement, but in a +moment more she regained her usual firm expression, and spoke +carelessly to Peggy as she turned and came alongside. + +The high spring wind of the morning had quite fallen; it was a lovely +May afternoon. The woods about the field to the northward were full of +birds, and the young leaves scarcely hid the solemn shapes of a +company of crows that patiently attended the corn-planting. Two of the +men had finished their hoeing, and were busy with the construction of +a scarecrow; they knelt in the furrows, chuckling, and looking over +some forlorn, discarded garments. It was a time-honored custom to make +the scarecrow resemble one of the poor-house family; and this year +they intended to have Mrs. Lavina Dow protect the field in effigy; +last year it was the counterfeit of Betsey Lane who stood on guard, +with an easily recognized quilted hood and the remains of a valued +shawl that one of the calves had found airing on a fence and chewed to +pieces. Behind the men was the foundation for this rustic attempt at +statuary,--an upright stake and bar in the form of a cross. This stood +on the highest part of the field; and as the men knelt near it, and +the quaint figures of the corn-planters went and came, the scene gave +a curious suggestion of foreign life. It was not like New England; the +presence of the rude cross appealed strangely to the imagination. + + +IV. + +Life flowed so smoothly, for the most part, at the Byfleet Boor-farm, +that nobody knew what to make, later in the summer, of a strange +disappearance. All the elder inmates were familiar with illness and +death, and the poor pomp of a town-pauper's funeral. The comings and +goings and the various misfortunes of those who composed this strange +family, related only through its disasters, hardly served for the +excitement and talk of a single day. Now that the June days were at +their longest, the old people were sure to wake earlier than ever; but +one morning, to the astonishment of every one, Betsey Lane's bed was +empty; the sheets and blankets, which were her own, and guarded with +jealous care, were carefully folded and placed on a chair not too near +the window, and Betsey had flown. Nobody had heard her go down the +creaking stairs. The kitchen door was unlocked, and the old watchdog +lay on the step outside in the early sunshine, wagging his tail and +looking wise, as if he were left on guard and meant to keep the +fugitive's secret. + +"Never knowed her to do nothin' afore 'thout talking it over a +fortnight, and paradin' off when we could all see her," ventured a +spiteful voice. "Guess we can wait till night to hear 'bout it." + +Mrs. Dow looked sorrowful and shook her head. "Betsey had an aunt on +her mother's side that went and drownded of herself; she was a +pritty-appearing woman as ever you see." + +"Perhaps she's gone to spend the day with Decker's folks," suggested +Peggy Bond. "She always takes an extra early start; she was speakin' +lately o' going up their way;" but Mrs. Dow shook her head with a most +melancholy look. "I'm impressed that something's befell her," she +insisted. "I heard her a-groanin' in her sleep. I was wakeful the +forepart o' the night,--'tis very unusual with me, too." + +"'Twa'n't like Betsey not to leave us any word," said the other old +friend, with more resentment than melancholy. They sat together almost +in silence that morning in the shed chamber. Mrs. Dow was sorting and +cutting rags, and Peggy braided them into long ropes, to be made into +mats at a later date. If they had only known where Betsey Lane had +gone, they might have talked about it until dinner-time at noon; but +failing this new subject, they could take no interest in any of their +old ones. Out in the field the corn was well up, and the men were +hoeing. It was a hot morning in the shed chamber, and the woolen rags +were dusty and hot to handle. + + +V. + +Byfleet people knew each other well, and when this mysteriously absent +person did not return to the town-farm at the end of a week, public +interest became much excited; and presently it was ascertained that +Betsey Lane was neither making a visit to her friends the Deckers on +Birch Hill, nor to any nearer acquaintances; in fact, she had +disappeared altogether from her wonted haunts. Nobody remembered to +have seen her pass, hers had been such an early flitting; and when +somebody thought of her having gone away by train, he was laughed at +for forgetting that the earliest morning train from South Byfleet, the +nearest station, did not start until long after eight o'clock; and if +Betsey had designed to be one of the passengers, she would have +started along the road at seven, and been seen and known of all women. +There was not a kitchen in that part of Byfleet that did not have +windows toward the road. Conversation rarely left the level of the +neighborhood gossip: to see Betsey Lane, in her best clothes, at that +hour in the morning, would have been the signal for much exercise of +imagination; but as day after day went by without news, the curiosity +of those who knew her best turned slowly into fear, and at last Peggy +Bond again gave utterance to the belief that Betsey had either gone +out in the early morning and put an end to her life, or that she had +gone to the Centennial. Some of the people at table were moved to loud +laughter,--it was at supper-time on a Sunday night,--but others +listened with great interest. + +"She never'd put on her good clothes to drownd herself," said the +widow. "She might have thought 'twas good as takin' 'em with her, +though. Old folks has wandered off an' got lost in the woods afore +now." + +Mrs. Dow and Peggy resented this impertinent remark, but deigned to +take no notice of the speaker. "She wouldn't have wore her best +clothes to the Centennial, would she?" mildly inquired Peggy, bobbing +her head toward the ceiling. "'Twould be a shame to spoil your best +things in such a place. An' I don't know of her havin' any money; +there's the end o' that." + +"You're bad as old Mis' Bland, that used to live neighbor to our +folks," said one of the old men. "She was dreadful precise; an' she so +begretched to wear a good alapaca dress that was left to her, that it +hung in a press forty year, an' baited the moths at last." + +"I often seen Mis' Bland a-goin' in to meetin' when I was a young +girl," said Peggy Bond approvingly. "She was a good-appearin' woman, +an' she left property." + +"Wish she'd left it to me, then," said the poor soul opposite, +glancing at her pathetic row of children: but it was not good manners +at the farm to deplore one's situation, and Mrs. Dow and Peggy only +frowned. "Where do you suppose Betsey can be?" said Mrs. Dow, for the +twentieth time. "She didn't have no money. I know she ain't gone far, +if it's so that she's yet alive. She's b'en real pinched all the +spring." + +"Perhaps that lady that come one day give her some," the keeper's wife +suggested mildly. + +"Then Betsey would have told me," said Mrs. Dow, with injured dignity. + + +VI. + +On the morning of her disappearance, Betsey rose even before the pewee +and the English sparrow, and dressed herself quietly, though with +trembling hands, and stole out of the kitchen door like a plunderless +thief. The old dog licked her hand and looked at her anxiously; the +tortoise-shell cat rubbed against her best gown, and trotted away up +the yard, then she turned anxiously and came after the old woman, +following faithfully until she had to be driven back. Betsey was used +to long country excursions afoot. She dearly loved the early morning; +and finding that there was no dew to trouble her, she began to follow +pasture paths and short cuts across the fields, surprising here and +there a flock of sleepy sheep, or a startled calf that rustled out +from the bushes. The birds were pecking their breakfast from bush and +turf; and hardly any of the wild inhabitants of that rural world were +enough alarmed by her presence to do more than flutter away if they +chanced to be in her path. She stepped along, light-footed and eager +as a girl, dressed in her neat old straw bonnet and black gown, and +carrying a few belongings in her best bundle-handkerchief, one that +her only brother had brought home from the East Indies fifty years +before. There was an old crow perched as sentinel on a small, dead +pine-tree, where he could warn friends who were pulling up the +sprouted corn in a field close by; but he only gave a contemptuous caw +as the adventurer appeared, and she shook her bundle at him in +revenge, and laughed to see him so clumsy as he tried to keep his +footing on the twigs. + +"Yes, I be," she assured him. "I'm a-goin' to Pheladelphy, to the +Centennial, same's other folks. I'd jest as soon tell ye's not, old +crow;" and Betsey laughed aloud in pleased content with herself and +her daring, as she walked along. She had only two miles to go to the +station at South Byfleet, and she felt for the money now and then, and +found it safe enough. She took great pride in the success of her +escape, and especially in the long concealment of her wealth. Not a +night had passed since Mrs. Strafford's visit that she had not slept +with the roll of money under her pillow by night, and buttoned safe +inside her dress by day. She knew that everybody would offer advice +and even commands about the spending or saving of it; and she brooked +no interference. + +The last mile of the foot-path to South Byfleet was along the railway +track; and Betsey began to feel in haste, though it was still nearly +two hours to train time. She looked anxiously forward and back along +the rails every few minutes, for fear of being run over; and at last +she caught sight of an engine that was apparently coming toward her, +and took flight into the woods before she could gather courage to +follow the path again. The freight train proved to be at a standstill, +waiting at a turnout; and some of the men were straying about, eating +their early breakfast comfortably in this time of leisure. As the old +woman came up to them, she stopped too, for a moment of rest and +conversation. + +"Where be ye goin'?" she asked pleasantly; and they told her. It was +to the town where she had to change cars and take the great through +train; a point of geography which she had learned from evening talks +between the men at the farm. + +"What'll ye carry me there for?" + +"We don't run no passenger cars," said one of the young fellows, +laughing. "What makes you in such a hurry?" + +"I'm startin' for Pheladelphy, an' it's a gre't ways to go." + +"So't is; but you're consid'able early, if you're makin' for the +eight-forty train. See here! you haven't got a needle an' thread 'long +of you in that bundle, have you? If you'll sew me on a couple o' +buttons, I'll give ye a free ride. I'm in a sight o' distress, an' +none o' the fellows is provided with as much as a bent pin." + +"You poor boy! I'll have you seen to, in half a minute. I'm troubled +with a stiff arm, but I'll do the best I can." + +The obliging Betsey seated herself stiffly on the slope of the +embankment, and found her thread and needle with utmost haste. Two of +the train-men stood by and watched the careful stitches, and even +offered her a place as spare brakeman, so that they might keep her +near; and Betsey took the offer with considerable seriousness, only +thinking it necessary to assure them that she was getting most too old +to be out in all weathers. An express went by like an earthquake, and +she was presently hoisted on board an empty box-car by two of her new +and flattering acquaintances, and found herself before noon at the end +of the first stage of her journey, without having spent a cent, and +furnished with any amount of thrifty advice. One of the young men, +being compassionate of her unprotected state as a traveler, advised +her to find out the widow of an uncle of his in Philadelphia, saying +despairingly that he couldn't tell her just how to find the house; but +Miss Betsey Lane said that she had an English tongue in her head, and +should be sure to find whatever she was looking for. This unexpected +incident of the freight train was the reason why everybody about the +South Byfleet station insisted that no such person had taken passage +by the regular train that same morning, and why there were those who +persuaded themselves that Miss Betsey Lane was probably lying at the +bottom of the poor-farm pond. + + +VII. + +"Land sakes!" said Miss Betsey Lane, as she watched a Turkish person +parading by in his red fez, "I call the Centennial somethin' like the +day o' judgment! I wish I was goin' to stop a month, but I dare say +'twould be the death o' my poor old bones." + +She was leaning against the barrier of a patent pop-corn +establishment, which had given her a sudden reminder of home, and of +the winter nights when the sharp-kerneled little red and yellow ears +were brought out, and Old Uncle Eph Flanders sat by the kitchen stove, +and solemnly filled a great wooden chopping-tray for the refreshment +of the company. She had wandered and loitered and looked until her +eyes and head had grown numb and unreceptive; but it is only +unimaginative persons who can be really astonished. The imagination +can always outrun the possible and actual sights and sounds of the +world; and this plain old body from Byfleet rarely found anything rich +and splendid enough to surprise her. She saw the wonders of the West +and the splendors of the East with equal calmness and satisfaction; +she had always known that there was an amazing world outside the +boundaries of Byfleet. There was a piece of paper in her pocket on +which was marked, in her clumsy handwriting, "If Betsey Lane should +meet with accident, notify the selectmen of Byfleet;" but having made +this slight provision for the future, she had thrown herself boldly +into the sea of strangers, and then had made the joyful discovery that +friends were to be found at every turn. + +There was something delightfully companionable about Betsey; she had a +way of suddenly looking up over her big spectacles with a reassuring +and expectant smile, as if you were going to speak to her, and you +generally did. She must have found out where hundreds of people came +from, and whom they had left at home, and what they thought of the +great show, as she sat on a bench to rest, or leaned over the railings +where free luncheons were afforded by the makers of hot waffles and +molasses candy and fried potatoes; and there was not a night when she +did not return to her lodgings with a pocket crammed with samples of +spool cotton and nobody knows what. She had already collected small +presents for almost everybody she knew at home, and she was such a +pleasant, beaming old country body, so unmistakably appreciative and +interested, that nobody ever thought of wishing that she would move +on. Nearly all the busy people of the Exhibition called her either +Aunty or Grandma at once, and made little pleasures for her as best +they could. She was a delightful contrast to the indifferent, stupid +crowd that drifted along, with eyes fixed at the same level, and +seeing, even on that level, nothing for fifty feet at a time. "What be +you making here, dear?" Betsey Lane would ask joyfully, and the most +perfunctory guardian hastened to explain. She squandered money as she +had never had the pleasure of doing before, and this hastened the day +when she must return to Byfleet. She was always inquiring if there +were any spectacle-sellers at hand, and received occasional +directions; but it was a difficult place for her to find her way about +in, and the very last day of her stay arrived before she found an +exhibitor of the desired sort, an oculist and instrument-maker. + +"I called to get some specs for a friend that's upsighted," she +gravely informed the salesman, to his extreme amusement. "She's +dreadful troubled, and jerks her head up like a hen a-drinkin'. She's +got a blur a-growin' an' spreadin', an' sometimes she can see out to +one side on't, and more times she can't." + +"Cataracts," said a middle-aged gentleman at her side; and Betsey Lane +turned to regard him with approval and curiosity. + +"'Tis Miss Peggy Bond I was mentioning, of Byfleet Poor-farm," she +explained. "I count on gettin' some glasses to relieve her trouble, if +there's any to be found." + +"Glasses won't do her any good," said the stranger. "Suppose you come +and sit down on this bench, and tell me all about it. First, where is +Byfleet?" and Betsey gave the directions at length. + +"I thought so," said the surgeon. "How old is this friend of yours?" + +Betsey cleared her throat decisively, and smoothed her gown over her +knees as if it were an apron; then she turned to take a good look at +her new acquaintance as they sat on the rustic bench together. "Who be +you, sir, I should like to know?" she asked, in a friendly tone. + +"My name's Dunster." + +"I take it you're a doctor," continued Betsey, as if they had +overtaken each other walking from Byfleet to South Byfleet on a summer +morning. + +"I'm a doctor; part of one at least," said he. "I know more or less +about eyes; and I spend my summers down on the shore at the mouth of +your river; some day I'll come up and look at this person. How old is +she?" + +"Peggy Bond is one that never tells her age; 'tain't come quite up to +where she'll begin to brag of it, you see," explained Betsey +reluctantly; "but I know her to be nigh to seventy-six, one way or +t'other. Her an' Mrs. Mary Ann Chick was same year's child'n, and +Peggy knows I know it, an' two or three times when we've be'n in the +buryin'-ground where Mary Ann lays an' has her dates right on her +headstone, I couldn't bring Peggy to take no sort o' notice. I will +say she makes, at times, a convenience of being upsighted. But there, +I feel for her,--everybody does; it keeps her stubbin' an' trippin' +against everything, beakin' and gazin' up the way she has to." + +"Yes, yes," said the doctor, whose eyes were twinkling. "I'll come and +look after her, with your town doctor, this summer,--some time in the +last of July or first of August." + +"You'll find occupation," said Betsey, not without an air of +patronage. "Most of us to the Byfleet Farm has got our ails, now I +tell ye. You ain't got no bitters that'll take a dozen years right off +an ol' lady's shoulders?" + +The busy man smiled pleasantly, and shook his head as he went away. +"Dunster," said Betsey to herself, soberly committing the new name to +her sound memory. "Yes, I mustn't forget to speak of him to the +doctor, as he directed. I do' know now as Peggy would vally herself +quite so much accordin' to, if she had her eyes fixed same as other +folks. I expect there wouldn't been a smarter woman in town, though, +if she'd had a proper chance. Now I've done what I set to do for her, +I do believe, an' 'twa'n't glasses, neither. I'll git her a pritty +little shawl with that money I laid aside. Peggy Bond ain't got a +pritty shawl. I always wanted to have a real good time, an' now I'm +havin' it." + + +VIII. + +Two or three days later, two pathetic figures might have been seen +crossing the slopes of the poor-farm field, toward the low shores of +Byfield pond. It was early in the morning, and the stubble of the +lately mown grass was wet with rain and hindering to old feet. Peggy +Bond was more blundering and liable to stray in the wrong direction +than usual; it was one of the days when she could hardly see at all. +Aunt Lavina Dow was unusually clumsy of movement, and stiff in the +joints; she had not been so far from the house for three years. The +morning breeze filled the gathers of her wide gingham skirt, and +aggravated the size of her unwieldy figure. She supported herself with +a stick, and trusted beside to the fragile support of Peggy's arm. +They were talking together in whispers. + +"Oh, my sakes!" exclaimed Peggy, moving her small head from side to +side. "Hear you wheeze, Mis' Dow! This may be the death o' you; there, +do go slow! You set here on the sidehill, an' le' me go try if I can +see." + +"It needs more eyesight than you've got," said Mrs. Dow, panting +between the words. "Oh! to think how spry I was in my young days, an' +here I be now, the full of a door, an' all my complaints so aggravated +by my size. 'T is hard! 'tis hard! but I'm a-doin' of all this for +pore Betsey's sake. I know they've all laughed, but I look to see her +ris' to the top o' the pond this day,--'tis just nine days since she +departed; an' say what they may, I know she hove herself in. It run in +her family; Betsey had an aunt that done just so, an' she ain't be'n +like herself, a-broodin' an' hivin' away alone, an' nothin' to say to +you an' me that was always sich good company all together. Somethin' +sprung her mind, now I tell ye, Mis' Bond." + +"I feel to hope we sha'n't find her, I must say," faltered Peggy. It +was plain that Mrs. Dow was the captain of this doleful expedition. "I +guess she ain't never thought o' drowndin' of herself, Mis' Dow; she's +gone off a-visitin' way over to the other side o' South Byfleet; some +thinks she's gone to the Centennial even now!" + +"She hadn't no proper means, I tell ye," wheezed Mrs. Dow indignantly; +"an' if you prefer that others should find her floatin' to the top +this day, instid of us that's her best friends, you can step back to +the house." + +They walked on in aggrieved silence. Peggy Bond trembled with +excitement, but her companion's firm grasp never wavered, and so they +came to the narrow, gravelly margin and stood still. Peggy tried in +vain to see the glittering water and the pond-lilies that starred it; +she knew that they must be there; once, years ago, she had caught +fleeting glimpses of them, and she never forgot what she had once +seen. The clear blue sky overhead, the dark pine-woods beyond the +pond, were all clearly pictured in her mind. "Can't you see nothin'?" +she faltered; "I believe I'm wuss'n upsighted this day. I'm going to +be blind." + +"No," said Lavina Dow solemnly; "no, there ain't nothin' whatever, +Peggy. I hope to mercy she ain't"-- + +"Why, whoever'd expected to find you 'way out here!" exclaimed a brisk +and cheerful voice. There stood Betsey Lane herself, close behind +them, having just emerged from a thicket of alders that grew close by. +She was following the short way homeward from the railroad. + +"Why, what's the matter, Mis' Dow? You ain't overdoin', be ye? an' +Peggy's all of a flutter. What in the name o' natur' ails ye?" + +"There ain't nothin' the matter, as I knows on," responded the leader +of this fruitless expedition. "We only thought we'd take a stroll this +pleasant mornin'," she added, with sublime self-possession. "Where've +you be'n, Betsey Lane?" + +"To Pheladelphy, ma'am," said Betsey, looking quite young and gay, and +wearing a townish and unfamiliar air that upheld her words. "All ought +to go that can; why, you feel's if you'd be'n all round the world. I +guess I've got enough to think of and tell ye for the rest o' my days. +I've always wanted to go somewheres. I wish you'd be'n there, I do so. +I've talked with folks from Chiny an' the back o' Pennsylvany; and I +see folks way from Australy that 'peared as well as anybody; an' I see +how they made spool cotton, an' sights o' other things; an' I spoke +with a doctor that lives down to the beach in the summer, an' he +offered to come up 'long in the first of August, an' see what he can +do for Peggy's eyesight. There was di'monds there as big as pigeon's +eggs; an' I met with Mis' Abby Fletcher from South Byfleet depot; an' +there was hogs there that weighed risin' thirteen hunderd"-- + +"I want to know," said Mrs. Lavina Dow and Peggy Bond, together. + +"Well, 'twas a great exper'ence for a person," added Lavina, turning +ponderously, in spite of herself, to give a last wistful look at the +smiling waters of the pond. + +"I don't know how soon I be goin' to settle down," proclaimed the +rustic sister of Sindbad. "What's for the good o' one's for the good +of all. You just wait till we're setting together up in the old shed +chamber! You know, my dear Mis' Katy Strafford give me a han'some +present o' money that day she come to see me; and I'd be'n a-dreamin' +by night an' day o' seein' that Centennial; and when I come to think +on't I felt sure somebody ought to go from this neighborhood, if 'twas +only for the good o' the rest; and I thought I'd better be the one. I +wa'n't goin' to ask the selec'men neither. I've come back with +one-thirty-five in money, and I see everything there, an' I fetched ye +all a little somethin'; but I'm full o' dust now, an' pretty nigh beat +out. I never see a place more friendly than Pheladelphy; but 't ain't +natural to a Byfleet person to be always walkin' on a level. There, +now, Peggy, you take my bundle-handkercher and the basket, and let +Mis' Dow sag on to me. I 'll git her along twice as easy." + +With this the small elderly company set forth triumphant toward the +poor-house, across the wide green field. + + * * * * * + + + + +_The Gray Mills of Farley_ + + +The mills of Farley were close together by the river, and the gray +houses that belonged to them stood, tall and bare, alongside. They had +no room for gardens or even for little green side-yards where one +might spend a summer evening. The Corporation, as this compact village +was called by those who lived in it, was small but solid; you fancied +yourself in the heart of a large town when you stood mid-way of one of +its short streets, but from the street's end you faced a wide green +farming country. On spring and summer Sundays, groups of the young +folks of the Corporation would stray out along the country roads, but +it was very seldom that any of the older people went. On the whole, it +seemed as if the closer you lived to the mill-yard gate, the better. +You had more time to loiter on a summer morning, and there was less +distance to plod through the winter snows and rains. The last stroke +of the bell saw almost everybody within the mill doors. + +There were always fluffs of cotton in the air like great white bees +drifting down out of the picker chimney. They lodged in the cramped +and dingy elms and horse-chestnuts which a former agent had planted +along the streets, and the English sparrows squabbled over them in +eaves-corners and made warm, untidy great nests that would have +contented an Arctic explorer. Somehow the Corporation homes looked +like make-believe houses or huge stage-properties, they had so little +individuality or likeness to the old-fashioned buildings that made +homes for people out on the farms. There was more homelikeness in the +sparrows' nests, or even the toylike railroad station at the end of +the main street, for that was warmed by steam, and the station-master's +wife, thriftily taking advantage of the steady heat, brought her +house-plants there and kept them all winter on the broad window-sills. + +The Corporation had followed the usual fortunes of New England +manufacturing villages. Its operatives were at first eager young men +and women from the farms near by, these being joined quickly by pale +English weavers and spinners, with their hearty-looking wives and rosy +children; then came the flock of Irish families, poorer and simpler +than the others but learning the work sooner, and gayer-hearted; now +the Canadian-French contingent furnished all the new help, and stood +in long rows before the noisy looms and chattered in their odd, +excited fashion. They were quicker-fingered, and were willing to work +cheaper than any other workpeople yet. + +There were remnants of each of these human tides to be found as one +looked about the mills. Old Henry Dow, the overseer of the cloth-hall, +was a Lancashire man and some of his grandchildren had risen to wealth +and prominence in another part of the country, while he kept steadily +on with his familiar work and authority. A good many elderly Irishmen +and women still kept their places; everybody knew the two old +sweepers, Mary Cassidy and Mrs. Kilpatrick, who were looked upon as +pillars of the Corporation. They and their compatriots always held +loyally together and openly resented the incoming of so many French. + +You would never have thought that the French were for a moment +conscious of being in the least unwelcome. They came gayly into church +and crowded the old parishioners of St. Michael's out of their pews, +as on week-days they took their places at the looms. Hardly one of the +old parishioners had not taken occasion to speak of such aggressions +to Father Daley, the priest, but Father Daley continued to look upon +them all as souls to be saved and took continual pains to rub up the +rusty French which he had nearly forgotten, in order to preach a +special sermon every other Sunday. This caused old Mary Cassidy to +shake her head gravely. + +"Mis' Kilpatrick, ma'am," she said one morning. "Faix, they ain't +folks at all, 'tis but a pack of images they do be, with all their +chatter like birds in a hedge." + +"Sure then, the holy Saint Francis himself was after saying that the +little birds was his sisters," answered Mrs. Kilpatrick, a godly old +woman who made the stations every morning, and was often seen reading +a much-handled book of devotion. She was moreover always ready with a +friendly joke. + +"They ain't the same at all was in them innocent times, when there was +plenty saints living in the world," insisted Mary Cassidy. "Look at +them thrash, now!" + +The old sweeping-women were going downstairs with their brooms. It was +almost twelve o'clock, and like the old dray-horses in the mill yard +they slackened work in good season for the noonday bell. Three gay +young French girls ran downstairs past them; they were let out for the +afternoon and were hurrying home to dress and catch the 12:40 train to +the next large town. + +"That little one is Meshell's daughter; she's a nice child too, very +quiet, and has got more Christian tark than most," said Mrs. +Kilpatrick. "They live overhead o' me. There's nine o' themselves in +the two rooms; two does be boarders." + +"Those upper rooms bees very large entirely at Fitzgibbon's," said +Mary Cassidy with unusual indulgence. + +"'Tis all the company cares about is to get a good rent out of the +pay. They're asked every little while by honest folks 'on't they build +a trifle o' small houses beyond the church up there, but no, they'd +rather the money and kape us like bees in them old hives. Sure in +winter we're better for having the more fires, but summer is the +pinance!" + +"They all says 'why don't folks build their own houses'; they does +always be talking about Mike Callahan and how well he saved up and +owns a pritty place for himself convanient to his work. You might tell +them he'd money left him by a brother in California till you'd be +black in the face, they'd stick to it 'twas in the picker he earnt it +from themselves," grumbled Mary Cassidy. + +"Them French spinds all their money on their backs, don't they?" +suggested Mrs. Kilpatrick, as if to divert the conversation from +dangerous channels. "Look at them three girls now, off to Spincer with +their fortnight's pay in their pocket!" + +"A couple o' onions and a bag o' crackers is all they want and a pinch +o' lard to their butter," pronounced Mary Cassidy with scorn. "The +whole town of 'em 'on't be the worse of a dollar for steak the week +round. They all go back and buy land in Canada, they spend no money +here. See how well they forget their pocketbooks every Sunday for the +collection. They do be very light too, they've more laugh than +ourselves. 'Tis myself's getting old anyway, I don't laugh much now." + +"I like to see a pritty girl look fine," said Mrs. Kilpatrick. "No, +they don't be young but once--" + +The mill bell rang, and there was a moment's hush of the jarring, +racketing machinery and a sudden noise of many feet trampling across +the dry, hard pine floors. First came an early flight of boys bursting +out of the different doors, and chasing one another down the winding +stairs two steps at a time. The old sweepers, who had not quite +reached the bottom, stood back against the wall for safety's sake +until all these had passed, then they kept on their careful way, the +crowd passing them by as if they were caught in an eddy of the stream. +Last of all they kept sober company with two or three lame persons and +a cheerful delayed little group of new doffers, the children who +minded bobbins in the weave-room and who were young enough to be tired +and even timid. One of these doffers, a pale, pleasant-looking child, +was all fluffy with cotton that had clung to her little dark plaid +dress. When Mrs. Kilpatrick spoke to her she answered in a hoarse +voice that appealed to one's sympathy. You felt that the hot room and +dry cotton were to blame for such hoarseness; it had nothing to do +with the weather. + +"Where are you living now, Maggie, dear?" the old woman asked. + +"I'm in Callahan's yet, but they won't keep me after to-day," said the +child. "There's a man wants to get board there, they're changing round +in the rooms and they've no place for me. Mis' Callahan couldn't keep +me 'less I'd get my pay raised." + +Mrs. Kilpatrick gave a quick glance at Mary Cassidy. "Come home with +me then, till yez get a bite o' dinner, and we'll talk about it," she +said kindly to the child. "I'd a wish for company the day." + +The two old companions had locked their brooms into a three-cornered +closet at the stair-foot and were crossing the mill yard together. +They were so much slower than the rest that they could only see the +very last of the crowd of mill people disappearing along the streets +and into the boarding-house doors. It was late autumn, the elms were +bare, one could see the whole village of Farley, all its poverty and +lack of beauty, at one glance. The large houses looked as if they +belonged to a toy village, and had been carefully put in rows by a +childish hand; it was easy to lose all sense of size in looking at +them. A cold wind was blowing bits of waste and paper high into the +air; now and then a snowflake went swiftly by like a courier of +winter. Mary Cassidy and Mrs. Kilpatrick hugged their old woolen +shawls closer about their round shoulders, and the little girl +followed with short steps alongside. + + +II. + +The agent of the mills was a single man, keen and business-like, but +quietly kind to the people under his charge. Sometimes, in times of +peace, when one looks among one's neighbors wondering who would make +the great soldiers and leaders if there came a sudden call to war, one +knows with a flash of recognition the presence of military genius in +such a man as he. The agent spent his days in following what seemed +to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of +purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and +powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an +opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen +pleasure. A man in his place must know not only how to lead men, but +how to make the combination of their force with the machinery take its +place as a factor in the business of manufacturing. To master workmen +and keep the mills in running order and to sell the goods successfully +in open market is as easy to do badly as it is difficult to do well. + +The agent's father and mother, young people who lived for a short time +in the village, had both died when he was only three years old, and +between that time and his ninth year he had learned almost everything +that poverty could teach, being left like little Maggie to the mercy +of his neighbors. He remembered with a grateful heart those who were +good to him, and told him of his mother, who had married for love but +unwisely. Mrs. Kilpatrick was one of these old friends, who said that +his mother was a lady, but even Mrs. Kilpatrick, who was a walking +history of the Corporation, had never known his mother's maiden name, +much less the place of her birth. The first great revelation of life +had come when the nine-years-old boy had money in his hand to pay his +board. He was conscious of being looked at with a difference; the very +woman who had been hardest to him and let him mind her babies all the +morning when he, careful little soul, was hardly more than a baby +himself, and then pushed him out into the hungry street at dinner +time, was the first one who beckoned him now, willing to make the most +of his dollar and a quarter a week. It seemed easy enough to rise from +uttermost poverty and dependence to where one could set his mind upon +the highest honor in sight, that of being agent of the mills, or to +work one's way steadily to where such an honor was grasped at +thirty-two. Every year the horizon had set its bounds wider and wider, +until the mills of Farley held but a small place in the manufacturing +world. There were offers enough of more salary and higher position +from those who came to know the agent, but he was part of Farley +itself, and had come to care deeply about his neighbors, while a +larger mill and salary were not exactly the things that could tempt +his ambition. It was but a lonely life for a man in the old agent's +quarters where one of the widows of the Corporation, a woman who had +been brought up in a gentleman's house in the old country, kept house +for him with a certain show of propriety. Ever since he was a boy his +room was never without its late evening light, and books and hard +study made his chief companionship. + + +As Mrs. Kilpatrick went home holding little Maggie by the hand that +windy noon, the agent was sitting in the company's counting-room with +one of the directors and largest stockholders, and they were just +ending a long talk about the mill affairs. The agent was about forty +years old now and looked fifty. He had a pleasant smile, but one saw +it rarely enough, and just now he looked more serious than usual. + +"I am very glad to have had this long talk with you," said the old +director. "You do not think of any other recommendations to be made at +the meeting next week?" + +The agent grew a trifle paler and glanced behind him to be sure that +the clerks had gone to dinner. + +"Not in regard to details," he answered gravely. "There is one thing +which I see to be very important. You have seen the books, and are +clear that nine per cent. dividend can easily be declared?" + +"Very creditable, very creditable," agreed the director; he had +recognized the agent's ability from the first and always upheld him +generously. "I mean to propose a special vote of thanks for your +management. There isn't a minor corporation in New England that stands +so well to-day." + +The agent listened. "We had some advantages, partly by accident and +partly by lucky foresight," he acknowledged. "I am going to ask your +backing in something that seems to me not only just but important. I +hope that you will not declare above a six per cent. dividend at that +directors' meeting; at the most, seven per cent.," he said. + +"What, what!" exclaimed the listener. "No, sir!" + +The agent left his desk-chair and stood before the old director as if +he were pleading for himself. A look of protest and disappointment +changed the elder man's face and hardened it a little, and the agent +saw it. + +"You know the general condition of the people here," he explained +humbly. "I have taken great pains to keep hold of the best that have +come here; we can depend upon them now and upon the quality of their +work. They made no resistance when we had to cut down wages two years +ago; on the contrary, they were surprisingly reasonable, and you know +that we shut down for several weeks at the time of the alterations. We +have never put their wages back as we might easily have done, and I +happen to know that a good many families have been able to save little +or nothing. Some of them have been working here for three generations. +They know as well as you and I and the books do when the mills are +making money. Now I wish that we could give them the ten per cent. +back again, but in view of the general depression perhaps we can't do +that except in the way I mean. I think that next year we're going to +have a very hard pull to get along, but if we can keep back three per +cent., or even two, of this dividend we can not only manage to get on +without a shut-down or touching our surplus, which is quite small +enough, but I can have some painting and repairing done in the +tenements. They've needed it for a long time--" + +The old director sprang to his feet. "Aren't the stockholders going to +have any rights then?" he demanded. "Within fifteen years we have had +three years when we have passed our dividends, but the operatives +never can lose a single day's pay!" + +"That was before my time," said the agent, quietly. "We have averaged +nearly six and a half per cent. a year taking the last twenty years +together, and if you go back farther the average is even larger. This +has always been a paying property; we've got our new machinery now, +and everything in the mills themselves is just where we want it. I +look for far better times after this next year, but the market is +glutted with goods of our kind, and nothing is going to be gained by +cut-downs and forcing lower-cost goods into it. Still, I can keep +things going one way and another, making yarn and so on," he said +pleadingly. "I should like to feel that we had this extra surplus. I +believe that we owe it to our operatives." + +The director had walked heavily to the window and put his hands deep +into his side-pockets. He had an angry sense that the agent's hands +were in his pockets too. + +"I've got some pride about that nine per cent., sir," he said loftily +to the agent. + +"So have I," said the agent, and the two men looked each other in the +face. + +"I acknowledge my duty to the stockholders," said the younger man +presently. "I have tried to remember that duty ever since I took the +mills eight years ago, but we've got an excellent body of operatives, +and we ought to keep them. I want to show them this next year that we +value their help. If times aren't as bad as we fear we shall still +have the money--" + +"Nonsense. They think they own the mills now," said the director, but +he was uncomfortable, in spite of believing he was right. "Where's my +hat? I must have my luncheon now, and afterward there'll hardly be +time to go down and look at the new power-house with you--I must be +off on the quarter-to-two train." + +The agent sighed and led the way. There was no use in saying anything +more and he knew it. As they walked along they met old Mrs. Kilpatrick +returning from her brief noonday meal with little Maggie, whose +childish face was radiant. The old woman recognized one of the +directors and dropped him a decent curtsey as she had been taught to +salute the gentry sixty years before. + +The director returned the salutation with much politeness. This was +really a pleasant incident, and he took a silver half dollar from his +pocket and gave it to the little girl before he went on. + +"Kape it safe, darlin'," said the old woman; "you'll need it yet. +Don't be spending all your money in sweeties; 'tis a very cold world +to them that haves no pince in their pocket." + +The child looked up at Mrs. Kilpatrick apprehensively; then the +sunshine of hope broke out again through the cloud. + +"I am going to save fine till I buy a house, and you and me'll live +there together, Mrs. Kilpatrick, and have a lovely coal fire all the +time." + +"Faix, Maggie, I have always thought some day I'd kape a pig and live +pritty in me own house," said Mrs. Kilpatrick. "But I'm the old +sweeper yet in Number Two. 'Tis a worrld where some has and more +wants," she added with a sigh. "I got the manes for a good buryin', +the Lord be praised, and a bitteen more beside. I wouldn't have that +if Father Daley was as croping as some." + +"Mis' Mullin does always be scolding 'bout Father Daley having all the +collections," ventured Maggie, somewhat adrift in so great a subject. + +"She's no right then!" exclaimed the old woman angrily; "she'll get no +luck to be grudging her pince that way. 'Tis hard work anny priest +would have to kape the likes of hersilf from being haythens +altogether." + + +There was a nine per cent. annual dividend declared at the directors' +meeting the next week, with considerable applause from the board and +sincere congratulations to the agent. He looked thinner and more sober +than usual, and several persons present, whose aid he had asked in +private, knew very well the reason. After the meeting was over the +senior director, and largest stockholder, shook hands with him warmly. + +"About that matter you suggested to me the other day," he said, and +the agent looked up eagerly. "I consulted several of our board in +regard to the propriety of it before we came down, but they all agreed +with me that it was no use to cross a bridge until you come to it. +Times look a little better, and the operatives will share in the +accession of credit to a mill that declares nine per cent. this year. +I hope that we shall be able to run the mills with at worst only a +moderate cut-down, and they may think themselves very fortunate when +so many hands are being turned off everywhere." + +The agent's face grew dark. "I hope that times will take a better +turn," he managed to say. + +"Yes, yes," answered the director. "Good-bye to you, Mr. Agent! I am +not sure of seeing you again for some time," he added with unusual +kindliness. "I am an old man now to be hurrying round to board +meetings and having anything to do with responsibilities like these. +My sons must take their turn." + +There was an eager protest from the listeners, and presently the busy +group of men disappeared on their way to the train. A nine per cent. +dividend naturally made the Farley Manufacturing Company's stock go up +a good many points, and word came presently that the largest +stockholder and one or two other men had sold out. Then the stock +ceased to rise, and winter came on apace, and the hard times which the +agent had foreseen came also. + + +III. + +One noon in early March there were groups of men and women gathering +in the Farley streets. For a wonder, nobody was hurrying toward home +and dinner was growing cold on some of the long boarding-house tables. + +"They might have carried us through the cold weather; there's but a +month more of it," said one middle-aged man sorrowfully. + +"They'll be talking to us about economy now, some o' them big +thinkers; they'll say we ought to learn how to save; they always begin +about that quick as the work stops," said a youngish woman angrily. +She was better dressed than most of the group about her and had the +keen, impatient look of a leader. "They'll say that manufacturing is +going to the dogs, and capital's in worse distress than labor--" + +"How is it those big railroads get along? They can't shut down, +there's none o' them stops; they cut down sometimes when they have to, +but they don't turn off their help this way," complained somebody +else. + +"Faith then! they don't know what justice is. They talk about their +justice all so fine," said a pale-faced young Irishman--"justice is +nine per cent. last year for the men that had the money and no rise at +all for the men that did the work." + +"They say the shut-down's going to last all summer anyway. I'm going +to pack my kit to-night," said a young fellow who had just married and +undertaken with unusual pride and ambition to keep house. "The likes +of me can't be idle. But where to look for any work for a mule +spinner, the Lord only knows!" + +Even the French were sobered for once and talked eagerly among +themselves. Halfway down the street, in front of the French grocery, a +man was haranguing his compatriots from the top of a packing-box. +Everybody was anxious and excited by the sudden news. No work after a +week from to-morrow until times were better. There had already been a +cut-down, the mills had not been earning anything all winter. The +agent had hoped to keep on for at least two months longer, and then to +make some scheme about running at half time in the summer, setting +aside the present work for simple yarn-making. He knew well enough +that the large families were scattered through the mill rooms and that +any pay would be a help. Some of the young men could be put to other +work for the company; there was a huge tract of woodland farther back +among the hills where some timber could be got ready for shipping. His +mind was full of plans and anxieties and the telegram that morning +struck him like a blow. He had asked that he might keep the card-room +prices up to where the best men could make at least six dollars and a +half a week and was hoping for a straight answer, but the words on the +yellow paper seemed to dance about and make him dizzy. "Shut down +Saturday 9th until times are better!" he repeated to himself. "Shut +down until times are worse here in Farley!" + + +The agent stood at the counting-room window looking out at the +piteous, defenseless groups that passed by. He wished bitterly that +his own pay stopped with the rest; it did not seem fair that he was +not thrown out upon the world too. + +"I don't know what they're going to do. They shall have the last cent +I've saved before anybody suffers," he said in his heart. But there +were tears in his eyes when he saw Mrs. Kilpatrick go limping out of +the gate. She waited a moment for her constant companion, poor little +Maggie the doffer, and they went away up the street toward their poor +lodging holding each other fast by the hand. Maggie's father and +grandfather and great-grandfather had all worked in the Farley mills; +they had left no heritage but work behind them for this orphan child; +they had never been able to save so much that a long illness, a +prolonged old age, could not waste their slender hoards away. + + +IV. + +It would have been difficult for an outsider to understand the sudden +plunge from decent comfort to actual poverty in this small mill town. +Strange to say, it was upon the smaller families that the strain fell +the worst in Farley, and upon men and women who had nobody to look to +but themselves. Where a man had a large household of children and +several of these were old enough to be at work, and to put aside their +wages or pay for their board; where such a man was of a thrifty and +saving turn and a ruler of his household like old James Dow in the +cloth-hall, he might feel sure of a comfortable hoard and be fearless +of a rainy day. But with a young man who worked single-handed for his +wife and a little flock, or one who had an invalid to work for, that +heaviest of burdens to the poor, the door seemed to be shut and barred +against prosperity, and life became a test of one's power of +endurance. + + +The agent went home late that noon from the counting-room. The street +was nearly empty, but he had no friendly look or word for anyone whom +he passed. Those who knew him well only pitied him, but it seemed to +the tired man as if every eye must look at him with reproach. The long +mill buildings of gray stone with their rows of deep-set windows wore +a repellent look of strength and solidity. More than one man felt +bitterly his own personal weakness as he turned to look at them. The +ocean of fate seemed to be dashing him against their gray walls--what +use was it to fight against the Corporation? Two great forces were in +opposition now, and happiness could come only from their serving each +other in harmony. + +The stronger force of capital had withdrawn from the league; the +weaker one, labor, was turned into an utter helplessness of idleness. +There was nothing to be done; you cannot rebel against a shut-down, +you can only submit. + +A week later the great wheel stopped early on the last day of work. +Almost everyone left his special charge of machinery in good order, +oiled and cleaned and slackened with a kind of affectionate lingering +care, for one person loves his machine as another loves his horse. +Even little Maggie pushed her bobbin-box into a safe place near the +overseer's desk and tipped it up and dusted it out with a handful of +waste. At the foot of the long winding stairs Mrs. Kilpatrick was +putting away her broom, and she sighed as she locked the closet door; +she had known hard times before. "They'll be wanting me with odd jobs; +we'll be after getting along some way," she said with satisfaction. + +"March is a long month, so it is--there'll be plinty time for change +before the ind of it," said Mary Cassidy hopefully. "The agent will be +thinking whatever can he do; sure he's very ingenious. Look at him how +well he persuaded the directors to l'ave off wit' making cotton cloth +like everybody else, and catch a chance wit' all these new linings and +things! He's done very well, too. There bees no sinse in a shut-down +anny way, the looms and cards all suffers and the bands all slacks if +they don't get stiff. I'd sooner pay folks to tind their work whatever +it cost." + +"'Tis true for you," agreed Mrs. Kilpatrick. + +"What'll ye do wit' the shild, now she's no chance of pay, any more?" +asked Mary relentlessly, and poor Maggie's eyes grew dark with fright +as the conversation abruptly pointed her way. She sometimes waked up +in misery in Mrs. Kilpatrick's warm bed, crying for fear that she was +going to be sent back to the poorhouse. + +"Maggie an' me's going to kape together awhile yet," said the good old +woman fondly. "She's very handy for me, so she is. We 'on't part with +'ach other whativer befalls, so we 'on't," and Maggie looked up with a +wistful smile, only half reassured. To her the shut-down seemed like +the end of the world. + + +Some of the French people took time by the forelock and boarded the +midnight train that very Saturday with all their possessions. A little +later two or three families departed by the same train, under cover of +the darkness between two days, without stopping to pay even their +house rent. These mysterious flittings, like that of the famous Tartar +tribe, roused a suspicion against their fellow countrymen, but after a +succession of such departures almost everybody else thought it far +cheaper to stay among friends. It seemed as if at any moment the great +mill wheels might begin to turn, and the bell begin to ring, but day +after day the little town was still and the bell tolled the hours one +after another as if it were Sunday. The mild spring weather came on +and the women sat mending or knitting on the doorsteps. More people +moved away; there were but few men and girls left now in the quiet +boarding-houses, and the spare tables were stacked one upon another at +the end of the rooms. When planting-time came, word was passed about +the Corporation that the agent was going to portion out a field that +belonged to him a little way out of town on the South road, and let +every man who had a family take a good-sized piece to plant. He also +offered seed potatoes and garden seeds free to anyone who would come +and ask for them at his house. The poor are very generous to each +other, as a rule, and there was much borrowing and lending from house +to house, and it was wonderful how long the people seemed to continue +their usual fashions of life without distress. Almost everybody had +saved a little bit of money and some had saved more; if one could no +longer buy beefsteak he could still buy flour and potatoes, and a bit +of pork lent a pleasing flavor, to content an idle man who had nothing +to do but to stroll about town. + + +V. + +One night the agent was sitting alone in his large, half-furnished +house. Mary Moynahan, his housekeeper, had gone up to the church. +There was a timid knock at the door. + +There were two persons waiting, a short, thick-set man and a pale +woman with dark, bright eyes who was nearly a head taller than her +companion. + +"Come in, Ellen; I'm glad to see you," said the agent. "Have you got +your wheel-barrow, Mike?" Almost all the would-be planters of the +field had come under cover of darkness and contrived if possible to +avoid each other. + +"'Tisn't the potatoes we're after asking, sir," said Ellen. She was +always spokeswoman, for Mike had an impediment in his speech. "The +childher come up yisterday and got them while you'd be down at the +counting-room. 'Twas Mary Moynahan saw to them. We do be very thankful +to you, sir, for your kindness." + +"Come in," said the agent, seeing there was something of consequence +to be said. Ellen Carroll and he had worked side by side many a long +day when they were young. She had been a noble wife to Mike, whose +poor fortunes she had gladly shared for sake of his good heart, though +Mike now and then paid too much respect to his often infirmities. +There was a slight flavor of whisky now on the evening air, but it was +a serious thing to put on your Sunday coat and go up with your wife to +see the agent. + +"We've come wanting to talk about any chances there might be with the +mill," ventured Ellen timidly, as she stood in the lighted room; then +she looked at Mike for reassurance. "We're very bad off, you see," she +went on. "Yes, sir, I got them potaties, but I had to bake a little of +them for supper and more again the day, for our breakfast. I don't +know whatever we'll do whin they're gone. The poor children does be +entreating me for them, Dan!" + +The mother's eyes were full of tears. It was very seldom now that +anybody called the agent by his Christian name; there was a natural +reserve and dignity about him, and there had come a definite +separation between him and most of his old friends in the two years +while he had managed to go to the School of Technology in Boston. + +"Why didn't you let me know it was bad as that?" he asked. "I don't +mean that anybody here should suffer while I've got a cent." + +"The folks don't like to be begging, sir," said Ellen sorrowfully, +"but there's lots of them does be in trouble. They'd ought to go away +when the mills shut down, but for nobody knows where to go. Farley +ain't like them big towns where a man'd pick up something else to do. +I says to Mike: 'Come, Mike, let's go up after dark and tark to Dan; +he'll help us out if he can,' says I--" + +"Sit down, Ellen," said the agent kindly, as the poor woman began to +cry. He made her take the armchair which the weave-room girls had +given him at Christmas two years before. She sat there covering her +face with her hands, and trying to keep back her sobs and go quietly +on with what she had to say. Mike was sitting across the room with his +back to the wall anxiously twirling his hat round and round. "Yis, +we're very bad off," he contrived to say after much futile stammering. +"All the folks in the Corporation, but Mr. Dow, has got great bills +run up now at the stores, and thim that had money saved has lint to +thim that hadn't--'twill be long enough before anybody's free. Whin +the mills starts up we'll have to spind for everything at once. The +children is very hard on their clothes and they're all dropping to +pieces. I thought I'd have everything new for them this spring, they +do be growing so. I minds them and patches them the best I can." And +again Ellen was overcome by tears. "Mike an' me's always been +conthrivin' how would we get something laid up, so if anny one would +die or be long sick we'd be equal to it, but we've had great pride to +see the little gerrls go looking as well as anny, and we've worked +very steady, but there's so manny of us we've had to pay rint for a +large tenement and we'd only seventeen dollars and a little more when +the shut-down was. Sure the likes of us has a right to earn more than +our living, ourselves being so willing-hearted. 'Tis a long time now +that Mike's been steady. We always had the pride to hope we'd own a +house ourselves, and a pieceen o' land, but I'm thankful now--'tis as +well for us; we've no chances to pay taxes now." + +Mike made a desperate effort to speak as his wife faltered and began +to cry again, and seeing his distress forgot her own, and supplied the +halting words. "He wants to know if there's army work he could get, +some place else than Farley. Himself's been sixteen years now in the +picker, first he was one of six and now he is one of the four since +you got the new machines, yourself knows it well." + +The agent knew about Mike; he looked compassionate as he shook his +head. "Stay where you are, for a while at any rate. Things may look a +little better, it seems to me. We will start up as soon as anyone +does. I'll allow you twenty dollars a month after this; here are ten +to start with. No, no, I've got no one depending on me and my pay is +going on. I'm glad to share it with my friends. Tell the folks to come +up and see me, Ahern and Sullivan and Michel and your brother Con; +tell anybody you know who is really in distress. You've all stood by +me!" + +"'Tis all the lazy ones 'ould be coming if we told on the poor boy," +said Ellen gratefully, as they hurried home. "Ain't he got the good +heart? We'd ought to be very discrate, Mike!" and Mike agreed by a +most impatient gesture, but by the time summer had begun to wane the +agent was a far poorer man than when it had begun. Mike and Ellen +Carroll were only the leaders of a sorrowful procession that sought +his door evening after evening. Some asked for help who might have +done without it, but others were saved from actual want. There were a +few men who got work among the farms, but there was little steady +work. The agent made the most of odd jobs about the mill yards and +contrived somehow or other to give almost every household a lift. The +village looked more and more dull and forlorn, but in August, when a +traveling show ventured to give a performance in Farley, the +Corporation hall was filled as it seldom was filled in prosperous +times. This made the agent wonder, until he followed the crowd of +workless, sadly idle men and women into the place of entertainment and +looked at them with a sudden comprehension that they were spending +their last cent for a little cheerfulness. + + +VI. + +The agent was going into the counting-room one day when he met old +Father Daley and they stopped for a bit of friendly talk. + +"Could you come in for a few minutes, sir?" asked the younger man. +"There's nobody in the counting-room." + +The busy priest looked up at the weather-beaten clock in the mill +tower. + +"I can," he said. "'Tis not so late as I thought. We'll soon be having +the mail." + +The agent led the way and brought one of the directors' comfortable +chairs from their committee-room. Then he spun his own chair +face-about from before his desk and they sat down. It was a warm day +in the middle of September. The windows were wide open on the side +toward the river and there was a flicker of light on the ceiling from +the sunny water. The noise of the fall was loud and incessant in the +room. Somehow one never noticed it very much when the mills were +running. + +"How are the Duffys?" asked the agent. + +"Very bad," answered the old priest gravely. "The doctor sent for +me--he couldn't get them to take any medicine. He says that it isn't +typhoid; only a low fever among them from bad food and want of care. +That tenement is very old and bad, the drains from the upper tenement +have leaked and spoiled the whole west side of the building. I suppose +they never told you of it?" + +"I did the best I could about it last spring," said the agent. "They +were afraid of being turned out and they hid it for that reason. The +company allowed me something for repairs as usual and I tried to get +more; you see I spent it all before I knew what a summer was before +us. Whatever I have done since I have paid for, except what they call +legitimate work and care of property. Last year I put all Maple Street +into first-rate order--and meant to go right through the Corporation. +I've done the best I could," he protested with a bright spot of color +in his cheeks. "Some of the men have tinkered up their tenements and I +have counted it toward the rent, but they don't all know how to drive +a nail." + +"'Tis true for you; you have done the best you could," said the priest +heartily, and both the men were silent, while the river, which was +older than they and had seen a whole race of men disappear before they +came--the river took this opportunity to speak louder than ever. + +"I think that manufacturing prospects look a little brighter," said +the agent, wishing to be cheerful. "There are some good orders out, +but of course the buyers can take advantage of our condition. The +treasurer writes me that we must be firm about not starting up until +we are sure of business on a good paying margin." + +"Like last year's?" asked the priest, who was resting himself in the +armchair. There was a friendly twinkle in his eyes. + +"Like last year's," answered the agent. "I worked like two men, and I +pushed the mills hard to make that large profit. I saw there was +trouble coming, and I told the directors and asked for a special +surplus, but I had no idea of anything like this." + +"Nine per cent. in these times was too good a prize," said Father +Daley, but the twinkle in his eyes had suddenly disappeared. + +"You won't get your new church for a long time yet," said the agent. + +"No, no," said the old man impatiently. "I have kept the foundations +going as well as I could, and the talk, for their own sakes. It gives +them something to think about. I took the money they gave me in +collections and let them have it back again for work. 'Tis well to +lead their minds," and he gave a quick glance at the agent. "'Tis no +pride of mine for church-building and no good credit with the bishop +I'm after. Young men can be satisfied with those things, not an old +priest like me that prays to be a father to his people." + +Father Daley spoke as man speaks to man, straight out of an honest +heart. + +"I see many things now that I used to be blind about long ago," he +said. "You may take a man who comes over, him and his wife. They fall +upon good wages and their heads are turned with joy. They've been +hungry for generations back and they've always seen those above them +who dressed fine and lived soft, and they want a taste of luxury too; +they're bound to satisfy themselves. So they'll spend and spend and +have beefsteak for dinner every day just because they never had enough +before, but they'd turn into wild beasts of selfishness, most of 'em, +if they had no check. 'Tis there the church steps in. 'Remember your +Maker and do Him honor in His house of prayer,' says she. 'Be +self-denying, be thinking of eternity and of what's sure to come!' And +you will join with me in believing that it's never those who have +given most to the church who come first to the ground in a hard time +like this. Show me a good church and I'll show you a thrifty people." +Father Daley looked eagerly at the agent for sympathy. + +"You speak the truth, sir," said the agent. "Those that give most are +always the last to hold out with honest independence and the first to +do for others." + +"Some priests may have plundered their parishes for pride's sake; +there's no saying what is in poor human nature," repeated Father Daley +earnestly. "God forgive us all for unprofitable servants of Him and +His church. I believe in saying more about prayer and right living, +and less about collections, in God's house, but it's the giving hand +that's the rich hand all the world over." + +"I don't think Ireland has ever sent us over many misers; Saint +Patrick must have banished them all with the snakes," suggested the +agent with a grim smile. The priest shook his head and laughed a +little and then both men were silent again in the counting-room. + +The mail train whistled noisily up the road and came into the station +at the end of the empty street, then it rang its loud bell and puffed +and whistled away again. + +"I'll bring your mail over, sir," said the agent, presently. "Sit here +and rest yourself until I come back and we'll walk home together." + +The leather mail-bag looked thin and flat and the leisurely postmaster +had nearly distributed its contents by the time the agent had crossed +the street and reached the office. His clerks were both off on a long +holiday; they were brothers and were glad of the chance to take their +vacations together. They had been on lower pay; there was little to +do in the counting-room--hardly anybody's time to keep or even a +letter to write. + +Two or three loiterers stopped the agent to ask him the usual question +if there were any signs of starting up; an old farmer who sat in his +long wagon before the post-office asked for news too, and touched his +hat with an awkward sort of military salute. + +"Come out to our place and stop a few days," he said kindly. "You look +kind of pinched up and bleached out, Mr. Agent; you can't be needed +much here." + +"I wish I could come," said the agent, stopping again and looking up +at the old man with a boyish, expectant face. Nobody had happened to +think about him in just that way, and he was far from thinking about +himself. "I've got to keep an eye on the people that are left here; +you see they've had a pretty hard summer." + +"Not so hard as you have!" said the old man, as the agent went along +the street. "You've never had a day of rest more than once or twice +since you were born!" + +There were two letters and a pamphlet for Father Daley and a thin +handful of circulars for the company. In busy times there was often +all the mail matter that a clerk could bring. The agent sat down at +his desk in the counting-room and the priest opened a thick foreign +letter with evident pleasure. "'Tis from an old friend of mine; he's +in a monastery in France," he said. "I only hear from him once a +year," and Father Daley settled himself in his armchair to read the +close-written pages. As for the agent of the mills, he had quickly +opened a letter from the treasurer and was not listening to anything +that was said. + +Suddenly he whirled round in his desk chair and held out the letter to +the priest. His hand shook and his face was as pale as ashes. + +"What is it? What's the matter?" cried the startled old man, who had +hardly followed the first pious salutations of his own letter to their +end. "Read it to me yourself, Dan; is there any trouble?" + +"Orders--I've got orders to start up; we're going to start--I wrote +them last week--" + +But the agent had to spring up from his chair and go to the window +next the river before he could steady his voice to speak. He thought +it was the look of the moving water that made him dizzy. "We're going +to start up the mills as soon as I can get things ready." He turned to +look up at the thermometer as if it were the most important thing in +the world; then the color rushed to his face and he leaned a moment +against the wall. + +"Thank God!" said the old priest devoutly. "Here, come and sit down, +my boy. Faith, but it's good news, and I'm the first to get it from +you." + +They shook hands and were cheerful together; the foreign letter was +crammed into Father Daley's pocket, and he reached for his big cane. + +"Tell everybody as you go up the street, sir," said Dan. "I've got a +hurricane of things to see to; I must go the other way down to the +storehouses. Tell them to pass the good news about town as fast as +they can; 'twill hearten up the women." All the anxious look had gone +as if by magic from the agent's face. + + +Two weeks from that time the old mill bell stopped tolling for the +slow hours of idleness and rang out loud and clear for the +housekeepers to get up, and rang for breakfast, and later still for +all the people to go in to work. Some of the old hands were gone for +good and new ones must be broken in in their places, but there were +many familiar faces to pass the counting-room windows into the mill +yard. There were French families which had reappeared with surprising +promptness, Michel and his pretty daughter were there, and a household +of cousins who had come to the next tenement. The agent stood with his +hands in his pockets and nodded soberly to one group after another. It +seemed to him that he had never felt so happy in his life. + +"Jolly-looking set this morning," said one of the clerks whose desk +was close beside the window; he was a son of one of the directors, who +had sent him to the agent to learn something about manufacturing. + +"They've had a bitter hard summer that you know nothing about," said +the agent slowly. + +Just then Mrs. Kilpatrick and old Mary Cassidy came along, and little +Maggie was with them. She had got back her old chance at doffing and +the hard times were over. They all smiled with such blissful +satisfaction that the agent smiled too, and even waved his hand. + + + Transcriber's Note: This e-book was excerpted from a modern + reprint of works. The table of contents for "Selected Stories and + Sketches" has been editted to identify the source of each story + in the source work. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Country Doctor and Selected Stories +and Sketches, by Sarah Orne Jewett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND *** + +***** This file should be named 15294-8.txt or 15294-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/9/15294/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Wendy Bertsch and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches + +Author: Sarah Orne Jewett + +Release Date: March 8, 2005 [EBook #15294] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Wendy Bertsch and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1> +A COUNTRY DOCTOR</h1> +<h3>AND</h3> +<h1>SELECTED STORIES AND SKETCHES +</h1> + +<h2> +by Sarah Orne Jewett +</h2> +<h4> +Published 1884 +</h4> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="center"><br /><i>Click here for</i> +<a href="#2H_Part2"> +SELECTED STORIES AND SKETCHES</a> +<br /></p> + +<h1><a name="2H_Part1"></a>A Country Doctor</h1> + +<h2> + CONTENTS +</h2> +<div class="blockquot"> +<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman;"> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0001"> +THE LAST MILE +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0002"> +THE FARM-HOUSE KITCHEN +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0003"> +AT JAKE AND MARTIN'S +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0004"> +LIFE AND DEATH +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0005"> +A SUNDAY VISIT +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0006"> +IN SUMMER WEATHER +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0007"> +FOR THE YEARS TO COME +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0008"> +A GREAT CHANGE +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0009"> +AT DR. LESLIE'S +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0010"> +ACROSS THE STREET +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0011"> +NEW OUTLOOKS +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0012"> +AGAINST THE WIND +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0013"> +A STRAIGHT COURSE +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0014"> +MISS PRINCE OF DUNPORT +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0015"> +HOSTESS AND GUEST +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0016"> +A JUNE SUNDAY +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0017"> +BY THE RIVER +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0018"> +A SERIOUS TEA-DRINKING +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0019"> +FRIEND AND LOVER +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0020"> +ASHORE AND AFLOAT +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0021"> +AT HOME AGAIN +</a></li> +</ol> +</div> +<hr class="full" /> + + +<a name="2H_4_0001"></a> + +<h2> + I +</h2> +<h3> + THE LAST MILE +</h3> +<p> +It had been one of the warm and almost sultry days which sometimes +come in November; a maligned month, which is really an epitome of the +other eleven, or a sort of index to the whole year's changes of storm +and sunshine. The afternoon was like spring, the air was soft and +damp, and the buds of the willows had been beguiled into swelling a +little, so that there was a bloom over them, and the grass looked as +if it had been growing green of late instead of fading steadily. It +seemed like a reprieve from the doom of winter, or from even November +itself. +</p> +<p> +The dense and early darkness which usually follows such unseasonable +mildness had already begun to cut short the pleasures of this +spring-like day, when a young woman, who carried a child in her arms, +turned from a main road of Oldfields into a foot-path which led +southward across the fields and pastures. She seemed sure of her way, +and kept the path without difficulty, though a stranger might easily +have lost it here and there, where it led among the patches of +sweet-fern or bayberry bushes, or through shadowy tracts of small +white-pines. She stopped sometimes to rest, and walked more and more +wearily, with increasing effort; but she kept on her way desperately, +as if it would not do to arrive much later at the place which she was +seeking. The child seemed to be asleep; it looked too heavy for so +slight a woman to carry. +</p> +<p> +The path led after a while to a more open country, there was a low +hill to be climbed, and at its top the slender figure stopped and +seemed to be panting for breath. A follower might have noticed that it +bent its head over the child's for a moment as it stood, dark against +the darkening sky. There had formerly been a defense against the +Indians on this hill, which in the daytime commanded a fine view of +the surrounding country, and the low earthworks or foundations of the +garrison were still plainly to be seen. The woman seated herself on +the sunken wall in spite of the dampness and increasing chill, still +holding the child, and rocking to and fro like one in despair. The +child waked and began to whine and cry a little in that strange, +lonely place, and after a few minutes, perhaps to quiet it, they went +on their way. Near the foot of the hill was a brook, swollen by the +autumn rains; it made a loud noise in the quiet pasture, as if it were +crying out against a wrong or some sad memory. The woman went toward +it at first, following a slight ridge which was all that remained of a +covered path which had led down from the garrison to the spring below +at the brookside. If she had meant to quench her thirst here, she +changed her mind, and suddenly turned to the right, following the +brook a short distance, and then going straight toward the river +itself and the high uplands, which by daylight were smooth pastures +with here and there a tangled apple-tree or the grassy cellar of a +long vanished farm-house. +</p> +<p> +It was night now; it was too late in the year for the chirp of any +insects; the moving air, which could hardly be called wind, swept over +in slow waves, and a few dry leaves rustled on an old hawthorn tree +which grew beside the hollow where a house had been, and a low sound +came from the river. The whole country side seemed asleep in the +darkness, but the lonely woman felt no lack of companionship; it was +well suited to her own mood that the world slept and said nothing to +her,—it seemed as if she were the only creature alive. +</p> +<p> +A little this side of the river shore there was an old burial place, a +primitive spot enough, where the graves were only marked by rough +stones, and the short, sheep-cropped grass was spread over departed +generations of the farmers and their wives and children. By day it was +in sight of the pine woods and the moving water, and nothing hid it +from the great sky overhead, but now it was like a prison walled about +by the barriers of night. However eagerly the woman had hurried to +this place, and with what purpose she may have sought the river bank, +when she recognized her surroundings she stopped for a moment, swaying +and irresolute. "No, no!" sighed the child plaintively, and she +shuddered, and started forward; then, as her feet stumbled among the +graves, she turned and fled. It no longer seemed solitary, but as if a +legion of ghosts which had been wandering under cover of the dark had +discovered this intruder, and were chasing her and flocking around her +and oppressing her from every side. And as she caught sight of a light +in a far-away farmhouse window, a light which had been shining after +her all the way down to the river, she tried to hurry toward it. The +unnatural strength of terror urged her on; she retraced her steps like +some pursued animal; she remembered, one after another, the fearful +stories she had known of that ancient neighborhood; the child cried, +but she could not answer it. She fell again and again, and at last all +her strength seemed to fail her, her feet refused to carry her farther +and she crept painfully, a few yards at a time, slowly along the +ground. The fear of her superhuman enemies had forsaken her, and her +only desire was to reach the light that shone from the looming shadow +of the house. +</p> +<p> +At last she was close to it; at last she gave one great sigh, and the +child fell from her grasp; at last she clutched the edge of the worn +doorstep with both hands, and lay still. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + II +</h2> +<h3> + THE FARM-HOUSE KITCHEN +</h3> +<p> +Indoors there was a cheerful company; the mildness of the evening had +enticed two neighbors of Mrs. Thacher, the mistress of the house, into +taking their walks abroad, and so, with their heads well protected by +large gingham handkerchiefs, they had stepped along the road and up +the lane to spend a social hour or two. John Thacher, their old +neighbor's son, was known to be away serving on a jury in the county +town, and they thought it likely that his mother would enjoy company. +Their own houses stood side by side. Mrs. Jacob Dyer and Mrs. Martin +Dyer were their names, and excellent women they were. Their husbands +were twin-brothers, curiously alike and amazingly fond of each other, +though either would have scorned to make any special outward +demonstration of it. They were spending the evening together in +brother Martin's house, and were talking over the purchase of a bit +of woodland, and the profit of clearing it, when their wives had left +them without any apology to visit Mrs. Thacher, as we have already +seen. +</p> +<p> +This was the nearest house and only a quarter of a mile away, and when +they opened the door they had found Mrs. Thacher spinning. +</p> +<p> +"I must own up, I am glad to see you more'n common," she said. "I +don't feel scary at being left sole alone; it ain't that, but I have +been getting through with a lonesome spell of another kind. John, he +does as well as a man can, but here I be,—here I be,"—and the good +woman could say no more, while her guests understood readily enough +the sorrow that had found no words. +</p> +<p> +"I suppose you haven't got no news from Ad'line?" asked Mrs. Martin +bluntly. "We was speaking of her as we come along, and saying it +seemed to be a pity she should'nt feel it was best to come back this +winter and help you through; only one daughter, and left alone as you +be, with the bad spells you are liable to in winter time—but there, +it ain't her way—her ambitions ain't what they should be, that's all +I can say." +</p> +<p> +"If she'd got a gift for anything special, now," continued Mrs. Jake, +"we should feel it was different and want her to have a chance, but +she's just like other folks for all she felt so much above farming. I +don't see as she can do better than come back to the old place, or +leastways to the village, and fetch up the little gal to be some use. +She might dressmake or do millinery work; she always had a pretty +taste, and 't would be better than roving. I 'spose 't would hurt her +pride,"—but Mrs. Thacher flushed at this, and Mrs. Martin came to the +rescue. +</p> +<p> +"You'll think we're reg'lar Job's comforters," cried the good soul +hastily, "but there, Mis' Thacher, you know we feel as if she was our +own. There ain't nothing I wouldn't do for Ad'line, sick or well, and +I declare I believe she'll pull through yet and make a piece of luck +that'll set us all to work praising of her. She's like to marry again +for all I can see, with her good looks. Folks always has their joys +and calamities as they go through the world." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Thacher shook her head two or three times with a dismal +expression, and made no answer. She had pushed back the droning +wool-wheel which she had been using, and had taken her knitting from +the shelf by the clock and seated herself contentedly, while Mrs. Jake +and Mrs. Martin had each produced a blue yarn stocking from a +capacious pocket, and the shining steel needles were presently all +clicking together. One knitter after another would sheathe the spare +needle under her apron strings, while they asked each other's advice +from time to time about the propriety of "narrerin'" or whether it +were not best to "widden" according to the progress their respective +stockings had made. Mrs. Thacher had lighted an extra candle, and +replenished the fire, for the air was chillier since the sun went +down. They were all sure of a coming change of weather, and counted +various signs, Mrs. Thacher's lowness of spirits among the number, +while all three described various minor maladies from which they had +suffered during the day, and of which the unseasonable weather was +guilty. +</p> +<p> +"I can't get over the feeling that we are watchin' with somebody," +said Mrs. Martin after a while, moved by some strange impulse and +looking over her shoulder, at which remark Mrs. Thacher glanced up +anxiously. "Something has been hanging over me all day," said she +simply, and at this the needles clicked faster than ever. +</p> +<p> +"We've been taking rather a low range," suggested Mrs. Jake. "We +shall get to telling over ghost stories if we don't look out, and I +for one shall be sca't to go home. By the way, I suppose you have +heard about old Billy Dow's experience night afore last, Mis' +Thacher?" +</p> +<p> +"John being away, I ain't had nobody to fetch me the news these few +days past," said the hostess. "Why what's happened to Billy now?" +</p> +<p> +The two women looked at each other: "He was getting himself home as +best he could,—he owned up to having made a lively evenin' of +it,—and I expect he was wandering all over the road and didn't know +nothin' except that he was p'inted towards home, an' he stepped off +from the high bank this side o' Dunnell's, and rolled down, over and +over; and when he come to there was a great white creatur' a-standin' +over him, and he thought 't was a ghost. 'T was higher up on the bank +than him, and it kind of moved along down 's if 't was coming right on +to him, and he got on to his knees and begun to say his Ten +Commandments fast's he could rattle 'em out. He got 'em mixed up, and +when the boys heard his teeth a-chattering, they began to laugh and he +up an' cleared. Dunnell's boys had been down the road a piece and was +just coming home, an' 't was their old white hoss that had got out of +the barn, it bein' such a mild night, an' was wandering off. They said +to Billy that't wa'n't everybody could lay a ghost so quick as he +could, and they didn't 'spose he had the means so handy." +</p> +<p> +The three friends laughed, but Mrs. Thacher's face quickly lost its +smile and took back its worried look. She evidently was in no mood for +joking. "Poor Billy!" said she, "he was called the smartest boy in +school; I rec'lect that one of the teachers urged his folks to let him +go to college; but 't wa'n't no use; they hadn't the money and +couldn't get it, and 't wa'n't in him to work his way as some do. He's +got a master head for figur's. Folks used to get him to post books +you know,—but he's past that now. Good-natured creatur' as ever +stept; but he always was afeard of the dark,—'seems 's if I could see +him there a-repentin' and the old white hoss shakin' his head,"—and +she laughed again, but quickly stopped herself and looked over her +shoulder at the window. +</p> +<p> +"Would ye like the curtain drawed?" asked Mrs. Jake. But Mrs. Thacher +shook her head silently, while the gray cat climbed up into her lap +and laid down in a round ball to sleep. +</p> +<p> +"She's a proper cosset, ain't she?" inquired Mrs. Martin approvingly, +while Mrs. Jake asked about the candles, which gave a clear light. "Be +they the last you run?" she inquired, but was answered to the +contrary, and a brisk conversation followed upon the proper +proportions of tallow and bayberry wax, and the dangers of the +new-fangled oils which the village shop-keepers were attempting to +introduce. Sperm oil was growing more and more dear in price and +worthless in quality, and the old-fashioned lamps were reported to be +past their usefulness. +</p> +<p> +"I must own I set most by good candle light," said Mrs. Martin. "'T is +no expense to speak of where you raise the taller, and it's cheerful +and bright in winter time. In old times when the houses were draftier +they was troublesome about flickering, candles was; but land! think +how comfortable we live now to what we used to! Stoves is such a +convenience; the fire's so much handier. Housekeepin' don't begin to +be the trial it was once." +</p> +<p> +"I must say I like old-fashioned cookin' better than oven cookin'," +observed Mrs. Jake. "Seems to me's if the taste of things was all +drawed up chimbly. Be you going to do much for Thanksgivin', Mis' +Thacher? I 'spose not;" and moved by a sudden kind impulse, she added, +"Why can't you and John jine with our folks? 't wouldn't put us out, +and 'twill be lonesome for ye." +</p> +<p> +"'T won't be no lonesomer than last year was, nor the year before," +and Mrs. Thacher's face quivered a little as she rose and took one of +the candles, and opened the trap door that covered the cellar stairs. +"Now don't ye go to makin' yourself work," cried the guests. "No, +don't! we ain't needin' nothin'; we was late about supper." But their +hostess stepped carefully down and disappeared for a few minutes, +while the cat hovered anxiously at the edge of the black pit. +</p> +<p> +"I forgot to ask ye if ye'd have some cider?" a sepulchral voice asked +presently; "but I don't know now's I can get at it. I told John I +shouldn't want any whilst he was away, and so he ain't got the spiggit +in yet," to which Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin both replied that they +were no hands for that drink, unless 't was a drop right from the +press, or a taste o' good hard cider towards the spring of the year; +and Mrs. Thacher soon returned with some slices of cake in a plate and +some apples held in her apron. One of her neighbors took the candle as +she reached up to put it on the floor, and when the trap door was +closed again all three drew up to the table and had a little feast. +The cake was of a kind peculiar to its maker, who prided herself upon +never being without it; and there was some trick of her hand or a +secret ingredient which was withheld when she responded with apparent +cheerfulness to requests for its recipe. As for the apples, they were +grown upon an old tree, one of whose limbs had been grafted with some +unknown variety of fruit so long ago that the history was forgotten; +only that an English gardener, many years before, had brought some +cuttings from the old country, and one of them had somehow come into +the possession of John Thacher's grandfather when grafted fruit was a +thing to be treasured and jealously guarded. It had been told that +when the elder Thacher had given away cuttings he had always stolen to +the orchards in the night afterward and ruined them. However, when the +family had grown more generous in later years it had seemed to be +without avail, for, on their neighbors' trees or their own, the +English apples had proved worthless. Whether it were some favoring +quality in that spot of soil or in the sturdy old native tree itself, +the rich golden apples had grown there, year after year, in +perfection, but nowhere else. +</p> +<p> +"There ain't no such apples as these, to my mind," said Mrs. Martin, +as she polished a large one with her apron and held it up to the +light, and Mrs. Jake murmured assent, having already taken a +sufficient first bite. +</p> +<p> +"There's only one little bough that bears any great," said Mrs. +Thacher, "but it's come to that once before, and another branch has +shot up and been likely as if it was a young tree." +</p> +<p> +The good souls sat comfortably in their splint-bottomed, +straight-backed chairs, and enjoyed this mild attempt at a festival. +Mrs. Thacher even grew cheerful and responsive, for her guests seemed +so light-hearted and free from care that the sunshine of their +presence warmed her own chilled and fearful heart. They embarked upon +a wide sea of neighborhood gossip and parish opinions, and at last +some one happened to speak again of Thanksgiving, which at once turned +the tide of conversation, and it seemed to ebb suddenly, while the +gray, dreary look once more overspread Mrs. Thacher's face. +</p> +<p> +"I don't see why you won't keep with our folks this year; you and +John," once more suggested Mrs. Martin. "'T ain't wuth while to be +making yourselves dismal here to home; the day'll be lonesome for you +at best, and you shall have whatever we've got and welcome." +</p> +<p> +"'T won't be lonesomer this year than it was last, nor the year +before that, and we've stood it somehow or 'nother," answered Mrs. +Thacher for the second time, while she rose to put more wood in the +stove. "Seems to me 't is growing cold; I felt a draught acrost my +shoulders. These nights is dreadful chill; you feel the damp right +through your bones. I never saw it darker than 't was last evenin'. I +thought it seemed kind o' stived up here in the kitchen, and I opened +the door and looked out, and I declare I couldn't see my hand before +me." +</p> +<p> +"It always kind of scares me these black nights," said Mrs. Jake Dyer. +"I expect something to clutch at me every minute, and I feel as if +some sort of a creatur' was travelin' right behind me when I am out +door in the dark. It makes it bad havin' a wanin' moon just now when +the fogs hangs so low. It al'ays seems to me as if 't was darker when +she rises late towards mornin' than when she's gone altogether. I do' +know why't is." +</p> +<p> +"I rec'lect once," Mrs. Thacher resumed, "when Ad'line was a baby and +John was just turned four year old, their father had gone down river +in the packet, and I was expectin' on him home at supper time, but he +didn't come; 't was late in the fall, and a black night as I ever see. +Ad'line was taken with something like croup, and I had an end o' +candle in the candlestick that I lighted, and 't wa'n't long afore it +was burnt down, and I went down cellar to the box where I kep' 'em, +and if you will believe it, the rats had got to it, and there wasn't a +week o' one left. I was near out anyway. We didn't have this +cook-stove then, and I cal'lated I could make up a good lively blaze, +so I come up full o' scold as I could be, and then I found I'd burnt +up all my dry wood. You see, I thought certain he'd be home and I was +tendin' to the child'n, but I started to go out o' the door and found +it had come on to rain hard, and I said to myself I wouldn't go out to +the woodpile and get my clothes all damp, 'count o' Ad'line, and the +candle end would last a spell longer, and he'd be home by that time. I +hadn't a least o' suspicion but what he was dallying round up to the +Corners, 'long o' the rest o' the men, bein' 't was Saturday night, +and I was some put out about it, for he knew the baby was sick, and I +hadn't nobody with me. I set down and waited, but he never come, and +it rained hard as I ever see it, and I left his supper standin' right +in the floor, and then I begun to be distressed for fear somethin' had +happened to Dan'l, and I set to work and cried, and the candle end +give a flare and went out, and by 'n' by the fire begun to get low and +I took the child'n and went to bed to keep warm; 't was an awful cold +night, considerin' 't was such a heavy rain, and there I laid awake +and thought I heard things steppin' about the room, and it seemed to +me as if 't was a week long before mornin' come, and as if I'd got to +be an old woman. I did go through with everything that night. 'T was +that time Dan'l broke his leg, you know; they was takin' a deck load +of oak knees down by the packet, and one on 'em rolled down from the +top of the pile and struck him just below the knee. He was poling, for +there wan't a breath o' wind, and he always felt certain there was +somethin' mysterious about it. He'd had a good deal worse knocks than +that seemed to be, as only left a black and blue spot, and he said he +never see a deck load o' timber piled securer. He had some queer +notions about the doin's o' sperits, Dan'l had; his old Aunt Parser +was to blame for it. She lived with his father's folks, and used to +fill him and the rest o' the child'n with all sorts o' ghost stories +and stuff. I used to tell him she'd a' be'n hung for a witch if she'd +lived in them old Salem days. He always used to be tellin' what +everything was the sign of, when we was first married, till I laughed +him out of it. It made me kind of notional. There's too much now we +can't make sense of without addin' to it out o' our own heads." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin were quite familiar with the story of the +night when there were no candles and Mr. Thacher had broken his leg, +having been present themselves early in the morning afterward, but +they had listened with none the less interest. These country neighbors +knew their friends' affairs as well as they did their own, but such an +audience is never impatient. The repetitions of the best stories are +signal events, for ordinary circumstances do not inspire them. Affairs +must rise to a certain level before a narration of some great crisis +is suggested, and exactly as a city audience is well contented with +hearing the plays of Shakespeare over and over again, so each man and +woman of experience is permitted to deploy their well-known but always +interesting stories upon the rustic stage. +</p> +<p> +"I must say I can't a-bear to hear anything about ghosts after +sundown," observed Mrs. Jake, who was at times somewhat troubled by +what she and her friends designated as "narves." "Day-times I don't +believe in 'em 'less it's something creepy more'n common, but after +dark it scares me to pieces. I do' know but I shall be afeared to go +home," and she laughed uneasily. "There! when I get through with this +needle I believe I won't knit no more. The back o' my neck is all +numb." +</p> +<p> +"Don't talk o' goin' home yet awhile," said the hostess, looking up +quickly as if she hated the thought of being left alone again. "'T is +just on the edge of the evenin'; the nights is so long now we think +it's bedtime half an hour after we've got lit up. 'T was a good lift +havin' you step over to-night. I was really a-dreadin' to set here by +myself," and for some minutes nobody spoke and the needles clicked +faster than ever. Suddenly there was a strange sound outside the door, +and they stared at each other in terror and held their breath, but +nobody stirred. This was no familiar footstep; presently they heard a +strange little cry, and still they feared to look, or to know what was +waiting outside. Then Mrs. Thacher took a candle in her hand, and, +still hesitating, asked once, "Who is there?" and, hearing no answer, +slowly opened the door. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + III +</h2> +<h3> + AT JAKE AND MARTIN'S +</h3> +<p> +In the mean time, the evening had been much enjoyed by the brothers +who were spending it together in Martin Dyer's kitchen. The houses +stood side by side, but Mr. Jacob Dyer's youngest daughter, the only +one now left at home, was receiving a visit from her lover, or, as the +family expressed it, the young man who was keeping company with her, +and her father, mindful of his own youth, had kindly withdrawn. +Martin's children were already established in homes of their own, with +the exception of one daughter who was at work in one of the cotton +factories at Lowell in company with several of her acquaintances. It +has already been said that Jake and Martin liked nobody's company so +well as their own. Their wives had a time-honored joke about being +comparatively unnecessary to their respective partners, and indeed the +two men had a curiously dependent feeling toward each other. It was +the close sympathy which twins sometimes have each to each, and had +become a byword among all their acquaintances. They were seldom +individualized in any way, and neither was able to distinguish +himself, apparently, for one always heard of the family as Jake and +Martin's folks, and of their possessions, from least to greatest, as +belonging to both brothers. The only time they had ever been separated +was once in their early youth, when Jake had been fired with a desire +to go to sea; but he deserted the coastwise schooner in the first port +and came home, because he could not bear it any longer without his +brother. Martin had no turn for seafaring, so Jake remained ashore and +patiently made a farmer of himself for love's sake, and in spite of a +great thirst for adventure that had never ceased to fever his blood. +It was astonishing how much they found to say to each other when one +considers that their experiences were almost constantly the same; but +nothing contented them better than an uninterrupted evening spent in +each other's society, and as they hoed corn or dug potatoes, or mowed, +or as they drove to the Corners, sitting stiffly upright in the +old-fashioned thorough-braced wagon, they were always to be seen +talking as if it were the first meeting after a long separation. But, +having taken these quiet times for the discussion of all possible and +impossible problems, they were men of fixed opinions, and were ready +at a moment's warning to render exact decisions. They were not fond of +society as a rule; they found little occasion for much talk with their +neighbors, but used as few words as possible. Nobody was more +respected than the brothers. It was often said of them that their word +was their bond, and as they passed from youth to middle age, and in +these days were growing to look like elderly men, they were free from +shame or reproach, though not from much good-natured joking and +friendly fun. Their farm had been owned in the family since the +settlement of the country, and the house which Martin occupied was +very old. Jake's had been built for him when he was married, from +timber cut in their own woodlands, and after thirty years of wear it +looked scarcely newer than its companion. And when it is explained +that they had married sisters, because, as people said, they even went +courting together, it will be easy to see that they had found life +more harmonious than most people do. Sometimes the wife of one brother +would complain that her sister enjoyed undue advantages and profits +from the estate, but there was rarely any disagreement, and Mrs. Jake +was mistress of the turkeys and Mrs. Martin held sway over the hens, +while they divided the spoils amiably at Thanksgiving time when the +geese were sold. If it were a bad year for turkeys, and the tender +young were chilled in the wet grass, while the hens flourished +steadily the season through, Mrs. Jake's spirits drooped and she +became envious of the good fortune which flaunted itself before her +eyes, but on the whole, they suffered and enjoyed together, and found +no fault with their destinies. The two wives, though the affection +between them was of an ordinary sort, were apt to form a league +against the brothers, and this prevented a more troublesome rivalry +which might have existed between the households. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Jake and Martin were particularly enjoying the evening. Some accident +had befallen the cooking-stove, which the brothers had never more than +half approved, it being one of the early patterns, and a poor exchange +for the ancient methods of cookery in the wide fireplace. "The women" +had had a natural desire to be equal with their neighbors, and knew +better than their husbands did the difference this useful invention +had made in their every-day work. However, this one night the +conservative brothers could take a mild revenge; and when their wives +were well on their way to Mrs. Thacher's they had assured each other +that, if the plaguey thing were to be carried to the Corners in the +morning to be exchanged or repaired, it would be as well to have it in +readiness, and had quickly taken down its pipes and lifted it as if it +were a feather to the neighboring woodshed. Then they hastily pried +away a fireboard which closed the great fireplace, and looked +smilingly upon the crane and its pothooks and the familiar iron dogs +which had been imprisoned there in darkness for many months. They +brought in the materials for an old-fashioned fire, backlog, +forestick, and crowsticks, and presently seated themselves before a +crackling blaze. Martin brought a tall, brown pitcher of cider from +the cellar and set two mugs beside it on the small table, and for some +little time they enjoyed themselves in silence, after which Jake +remarked that he didn't know but they'd got full enough of a fire for +such a mild night, but he wished his own stove and the new one too +could be dropped into the river for good and all. +</p> +<p> +They put the jug of cider between the andirons, and then, moved by a +common impulse, drew their chairs a little farther from the mounting +flames, before they quenched their thirst from the mugs. +</p> +<p> +"I call that pretty cider," said Martin; "'tis young yet, but it has +got some weight a'ready, and 'tis smooth. There's a sight o' +difference between good upland fruit and the sposhy apples that grows +in wet ground. An' I take it that the bar'l has an influence: some +bar'ls kind of wilt cider and some smarten it up, and keep it hearty. +Lord! what stuff some folks are willin' to set before ye! 'tain't wuth +the name o' cider, nor no better than the rensin's of a vinegar cask." +</p> +<p> +"And then there's weather too," agreed Mr. Jacob Dyer, "had ought to +be took into consideration. Git your apples just in the right +time—not too early to taste o' the tree, nor too late to taste o' the +ground, and just in the snap o' time as to ripeness', on a good sharp +day with the sun a-shining; have 'em into the press and what comes out +is <i>cider</i>. I think if we've had any fault in years past, 't was +puttin' off makin' a little too late. But I don't see as this could be +beat. I don't know's you feel like a pipe, but I believe I'll light +up," and thereupon a good portion of black-looking tobacco was cut and +made fine in each of the hard left hands, and presently the clay pipes +were touched off with a live coal, and great clouds of smoke might +have been seen to disappear under the edge of the fire-place, drawn +quickly up the chimney by the draft of the blazing fire. +</p> +<p> +Jacob pushed back his chair another foot or two, and Martin soon +followed, mentioning that it was getting hot, but it was well to keep +out the damp. +</p> +<p> +"What set the women out to go traipsin' up to Thacher's folks?" +inquired Jacob, holding his cider mug with one hand and drumming it +with the finger ends of the other. +</p> +<p> +"I had an idee that they wanted to find out if anything had been heard +about Ad'line's getting home for Thanksgiving," answered Martin, +turning to look shrewdly at his brother. "Women folks does suffer if +there's anything goin' on they can't find out about. 'Liza said she +was going to invite Mis' Thacher and John to eat a piece o' our big +turkey, but she didn't s'pose they'd want to leave. Curi's about +Ad'line, ain't it? I expected when her husband died she'd be right +back here with what she'd got; at any rate, till she'd raised the +child to some size. There'd be no expense here to what she'd have +elsewhere, and here's her ma'am beginnin' to age. She can't do what +she used to, John was tellin' of me; and I don't doubt 't 'as worn +upon her more'n folks thinks." +</p> +<p> +"I don't lay no great belief that John'll get home from court," said +Jacob Dyer. "They say that court's goin' to set till Christmas maybe; +there's an awful string o' cases on the docket. Oh, 't was you told +me, wa'n't it? Most like they'll let up for a couple o' days for +Thanksgivin', but John mightn't think't was wuth his while to travel +here and back again 'less he had something to do before winter shets +down. Perhaps they'll prevail upon the old lady, I wish they would, +I'm sure; but an only daughter forsakin' her so, 'twas most too bad of +Ad'line. She al'ays had dreadful high notions when she wa'n't no +more'n a baby; and, good conscience, how she liked to rig up when she +first used to come back from Lowell! Better ha' put her money out to +interest." +</p> +<p> +"I believe in young folks makin' all they can o' theirselves," +announced Martin, puffing hard at his pipe and drawing a little +farther still from the fireplace, because the scorching red coals had +begun to drop beneath the forestick. "I've give my child'n the best +push forrard I could, an' you've done the same. Ad'line had a dreadful +cravin' to be somethin' more'n common; but it don't look as if she was +goin' to make out any great. 'Twas unfortunate her losin' of her +husband, but I s'pose you've heard hints that they wa'n't none too +equal-minded. She'd a done better to have worked on a while to Lowell +and got forehanded, and then married some likely young fellow and +settled down here, or to the Corners if she didn't want to farm it. +There was Jim Hall used to be hanging round, and she'd been full as +well off to-day if she'd took him, too. 'T ain't no use for folks to +marry one that's of another kind and belongs different. It's like two +fiddles that plays different tunes,—you can't make nothin' on't, no +matter if both on em's trying their best, 'less one on 'em beats the +other down entirely and has all the say, and ginerally 't is the worst +one does it. Ad'line's husband wa'n't nothin' to boast of from all we +can gather, but they didn't think alike about nothin'. She could 'a' +done well with him if there'd been more of <i>her</i>. I don't marvel his +folks felt bad: Ad'line didn't act right by 'em." +</p> +<p> +"Nor they by her," said the twin brother. "I tell ye Ad'line would +have done 'em credit if she'd been let. I seem to think how't was with +her; when she was there to work in the shop she thought 't would be +smart to marry him and then she'd be a lady for good and all. And all +there was of it, she found his folks felt put out and hurt, and +instead of pleasing 'em up and doing the best she could, she didn't +know no better than to aggravate 'em. She was wrong there, but I hold +to it that if they'd pleased her up a little and done well by her, +she'd ha' bloomed out, and fell right in with their ways. She's got +outward ambitions enough, but I view it she was all a part of his +foolishness to them; I dare say they give her the blame o' the whole +on't. Ad'line ought to had the sense to see they had some right on +their side. Folks say he was the smartest fellow in his class to +college." +</p> +<p> +"Good King Agrippy! how hot it does git," said Jake rising +indignantly, as if the fire alone were to blame. "I must shove back +the cider again or 't will bile over, spite of everything. But 't is +called unwholesome to get a house full o' damp in the fall o' the +year; 't will freeze an' thaw in the walls all winter. I must git me a +new pipe if we go to the Corners to-morrow. I s'pose I've told ye of a +pipe a man had aboard the schooner that time I went to sea?" +</p> +<p> +Martin gave a little grumble of assent. +</p> +<p> +"'Twas made o' some sort o' whitish stuff like clay, but 'twa'n't +shaped like none else I ever see and it had a silver trimmin' round +it; 'twas very light to handle and it drawed most excellent. I al'ays +kind o' expected he may have stole it; he was a hard lookin' customer, +a Dutchman or from some o' them parts o' the earth. I wish while I was +about it I'd gone one trip more." +</p> +<p> +"Was it you was tellin' me that Ad'line was to work again in Lowell? I +shouldn't think her husband's folks would want the child to be fetched +up there in them boardin' houses"— +</p> +<p> +"Belike they don't," responded Jacob, "but when they get Ad'line to +come round to their ways o' thinkin' now, after what's been and gone, +they'll have cause to thank themselves. She's just like her gre't +grandsir Thacher; you can see she's made out o' the same stuff. You +might ha' burnt him to the stake, and he'd stick to it he liked it +better'n hanging and al'ays meant to die that way. There's an awful +bad streak in them Thachers, an' you know it as well as I do. I expect +there'll be bad and good Thachers to the end o' time. I'm glad for the +old lady's sake that John ain't one o' the drinkin' ones. Ad'line'll +give no favors to her husband's folks, nor take none. There's plenty +o' wrongs to both sides, but as I view it, the longer he'd lived the +worse 't would been for him. She was a well made, pretty lookin' girl, +but I tell ye 't was like setting a laylock bush to grow beside an +ellum tree, and expecting of 'em to keep together. They wa'n't mates. +He'd had a different fetchin' up, and he <i>was</i> different, and I wa'n't +surprised when I come to see how things had turned out,—I believe I +shall have to set the door open a half a minute, 't is gettin' +dreadful"—but there was a sudden flurry outside, and the sound of +heavy footsteps, the bark of the startled cur, who was growing very +old and a little deaf, and Mrs. Martin burst into the room and sank +into the nearest chair, to gather a little breath before she could +tell her errand. "For God's sake what's happened?" cried the men. +</p> +<p> +They presented a picture of mingled comfort and misery at which Mrs. +Martin would have first laughed and then scolded at any other time. +The two honest red faces were well back toward the farther side of the +room from the fire, which still held its own; it was growing toward +low tide in the cider jug and its attendant mugs, and the pipes were +lying idle. The mistress of the old farm-house did not fail to notice +that high treason had been committed during her short absence, but she +made no comment upon the fireplace nor on anything else, and gasped as +soon as she could that one of the men must go right up to the Corners +for the doctor and hurry back with him, for't was a case of life and +death. +</p> +<p> +"Mis' Thacher?" "Was it a shock?" asked the brothers in sorrowful +haste, while Mrs. Martin told the sad little story of Adeline's having +come from nobody knew where, wet and forlorn, carrying her child in +her arms. She looked as if she were in the last stages of a decline. +She had fallen just at the doorstep and they had brought her in, +believing that she was dead. "But while there's life, there's hope," +said Mrs. Martin, "and I'll go back with you if you'll harness up. +Jacob must stop to look after this gre't fire or 'twill burn the +house down," and this was the punishment which befell Jacob, since +nothing else would have kept him from also journeying toward the +Thacher house. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +A little later the bewildered horse had been fully wakened and +harnessed; Jacob's daughter and her lover had come eagerly out to hear +what had happened; Mrs. Martin had somehow found a chance amidst all +the confusion to ascend to her garret in quest of some useful remedies +in the shape of herbs, and then she and her husband set forth on their +benevolent errands. Martin was very apt to look on the dark side of +things, and it was a curious fact that while the two sisters were like +the brothers, one being inclined to despondency and one to enthusiasm, +the balance was well kept by each of the men having chosen his +opposite in temperament. Accordingly, while Martin heaved a great sigh +from time to time and groaned softly, "Pore gal—pore gal!" his +partner was brimful of zealous eagerness to return to the scene of +distress and sorrow which she had lately left. Next to the doctor +himself, she was the authority on all medical subjects for that +neighborhood, and it was some time since her skill had been needed. +</p> +<p> +"Does the young one seem likely?" asked Martin with solemn curiosity. +</p> +<p> +"Fur's I could see," answered his wife promptly, "but nobody took no +great notice of it. Pore Ad'line catched hold of it with such a grip +as she was comin' to that we couldn't git it away from her and had to +fetch'em in both to once. Come urge the beast along, Martin, I'll give +ye the partic'lars to-morrow, I do' know's Ad'line's livin' now. We +got her right to bed's I told you, and I set right off considerin' +that I could git over the ground fastest of any. Mis' Thacher of +course wouldn't leave and Jane's heavier than I be." Martin's smile +was happily concealed by the darkness; his wife and her sister had +both grown stout steadily as they grew older, but each insisted upon +the other's greater magnitude and consequent incapacity for quick +movement. A casual observer would not have been persuaded that there +was a pound's weight of difference between them. +</p> +<p> +Martin Dyer meekly suggested that perhaps he'd better go in a minute +to see if there was anything Mis' Thacher needed, but Eliza, his wife, +promptly said that she didn't want anything but the doctor as quick as +she could get him, and disappeared up the short lane while the wagon +rattled away up the road. The white mist from the river clung close to +the earth, and it was impossible to see even the fences near at hand, +though overhead there were a few dim stars. The air had grown somewhat +softer, yet there was a sharp chill in it, and the ground was wet and +sticky under foot. There were lights in the bedroom and in the kitchen +of the Thacher house, but suddenly the bedroom candle flickered away +and the window was darkened. Mrs. Martin's heart gave a quick throb, +perhaps Adeline had already died. It might have been a short-sighted +piece of business that she had gone home for her husband. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + IV +</h2> +<h3> + LIFE AND DEATH +</h3> +<p> +The sick woman had refused to stay in the bedroom after she had come +to her senses. She had insisted that she could not breathe, and that +she was cold and must go back to the kitchen. Her mother and Mrs. Jake +had wrapped her in blankets and drawn the high-backed wooden rocking +chair close to the stove, and here she was just established when Mrs. +Martin opened the outer door. Any one of less reliable nerves would +have betrayed the shock which the sight of such desperate illness must +have given. The pallor, the suffering, the desperate agony of the +eyes, were far worse than the calmness of death, but Mrs. Martin spoke +cheerfully, and even when her sister whispered that their patient had +been attacked by a hæmorrhage, she manifested no concern. +</p> +<p> +"How long has this be'n a-goin' on, Ad'line? Why didn't you come home +before and get doctored up? You're all run down." Mrs. Thacher looked +frightened when this questioning began, but turned her face toward her +daughter, eager to hear the answer. +</p> +<p> +"I've been sick off and on all summer," said the young woman, as if it +were almost impossible to make the effort of speaking. "See if the +baby's covered up warm, will you, Aunt 'Liza?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, dear," said the kind-hearted woman, the tears starting to her +eyes at the sound of the familiar affectionate fashion of speech which +Adeline had used in her childhood. "Don't you worry one mite; we're +going to take care of you and the little gal too;" and then nobody +spoke, while the only sound was the difficult breathing of the poor +creature by the fire. She seemed like one dying, there was so little +life left in her after her piteous homeward journey. The mother +watched her eagerly with a mingled feeling of despair and comfort; it +was terrible to have a child return in such sad plight, but it was a +blessing to have her safe at home, and to be able to minister to her +wants while life lasted. +</p> +<p> +They all listened eagerly for the sound of wheels, but it seemed a +long time before Martin Dyer returned with the doctor. He had been +met just as he was coming in from the other direction, and the two men +had only paused while the tired horse was made comfortable, and a +sleepy boy dispatched with the medicine for which he had long been +waiting. The doctor's housekeeper had besought him to wait long enough +to eat the supper which she had kept waiting, but he laughed at her +and shook his head gravely, as if he already understood that there +should be no delay. When he was fairly inside the Thacher kitchen, the +benefaction of his presence was felt by every one. It was most +touching to see the patient's face lose its worried look, and grow +quiet and comfortable as if here were some one on whom she could +entirely depend. The doctor's greeting was an every-day cheerful +response to the women's welcome, and he stood for a minute warming his +hands at the fire as if he had come upon a commonplace errand. There +was something singularly self-reliant and composed about him; one felt +that he was the wielder of great powers over the enemies, disease and +pain, and that his brave hazel eyes showed a rare thoughtfulness and +foresight. The rough driving coat which he had thrown off revealed a +slender figure with the bowed shoulders of an untiring scholar. His +head was finely set and scholarly, and there was that about him which +gave certainty, not only of his sagacity and skill, but of his true +manhood, his mastery of himself. Not only in this farm-house kitchen, +but wherever one might place him, he instinctively took command, while +from his great knowledge of human nature he could understand and help +many of his patients whose ailments were not wholly physical. He +seemed to read at a glance the shame and sorrow of the young woman who +had fled to the home of her childhood, dying and worse than defeated, +from the battle-field of life. And in this first moment he recognized +with dismay the effects of that passion for strong drink which had +been the curse of more than one of her ancestors. Even the pallor and +the purifying influence of her mortal illness could not disguise these +unmistakable signs. +</p> +<p> +"You can't do me any good, doctor," she whispered. "I shouldn't have +let you come if it had been only that. I don't care how soon I am out +of this world. But I want you should look after my little girl," and +the poor soul watched the physician's face with keen anxiety as if +she feared to see a shadow of unwillingness, but none came. +</p> +<p> +"I will do the best I can," and he still held her wrist, apparently +thinking more of the fluttering pulse than of what poor Adeline was +saying. +</p> +<p> +"That was what made me willing to come back," she continued, "you +don't know how close I came to not doing it either. John will be good +to her, but she will need somebody that knows the world better by and +by. I wonder if you couldn't show me how to make out a paper giving +you the right over her till she is of age? She must stay here with +mother, long as she wants her. 'Tis what I wish I had kept sense +enough to do; life hasn't been all play to me;" and the tears began to +roll quickly down the poor creature's thin cheeks. "The only thing I +care about is leaving the baby well placed, and I want her to have a +good chance to grow up a useful woman. And most of all to keep her out +of <i>their</i> hands, I mean her father's folks. I hate 'em, and he cared +more for 'em than he did for me, long at the last of it.... I could +tell you stories!"— +</p> +<p> +"But not to-night, Addy," said the doctor gravely, as if he were +speaking to a child. "We must put you to bed and to sleep, and you can +talk about all these troublesome things in the morning. You shall see +about the papers too, if you think best. Be a good girl now, and let +your mother help you to bed." For the resolute spirit had summoned the +few poor fragments of vitality that were left, and the sick woman was +growing more and more excited. "You may have all the pillows you wish +for, and sit up in bed if you like, but you mustn't stay here any +longer," and he gathered her in his arms and quickly carried her to +the next room. She made no resistance, and took the medicine which +Mrs. Martin brought, without a word. There was a blazing fire now in +the bedroom fire-place, and, as she lay still, her face took on a +satisfied, rested look. Her mother sat beside her, tearful, and yet +contented and glad to have her near, and the others whispered together +in the kitchen. It might have been the last night of a long illness +instead of the sudden, startling entrance of sorrow in human shape. +"No," said the doctor, "she cannot last much longer with such a cough +as that, Mrs. Dyer. She has almost reached the end of it. I only hope +that she will go quickly." +</p> +<p> +And sure enough; whether the fatal illness had run its natural course, +or whether the excitement and the forced strength of the evening +before had exhausted the small portion of strength that was left, when +the late dawn lighted again those who watched, it found them sleeping, +and one was never to wake again in the world she had found so +disappointing to her ambitions, and so untrue to its fancied promises. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The doctor had promised to return early, but it was hardly daylight +before there was another visitor in advance of him. Old Mrs. Meeker, a +neighbor whom nobody liked, but whose favor everybody for some reason +or other was anxious to keep, came knocking at the door, and was let +in somewhat reluctantly by Mrs. Jake, who was just preparing to go +home in order to send one or both the brothers to the village and to +acquaint John Thacher with the sad news of his sister's death. He was +older than Adeline, and a silent man, already growing to be elderly in +his appearance. The women had told themselves and each other that he +would take this sorrow very hard, and Mrs. Thacher had said +sorrowfully that she must hide her daughter's poor worn clothes, since +it would break John's heart to know she had come home so beggarly. The +shock of so much trouble was stunning the mother; she did not +understand yet, she kept telling the kind friends who sorrowed with +her, as she busied herself with the preparations for the funeral. "It +don't seem as if 'twas Addy," she said over and over again, "but I +feel safe about her now, to what I did," and Mrs. Jake and Mrs. +Martin, good helpful souls and brimful of compassion, went to and fro +with their usual diligence almost as if this were nothing out of the +common course of events. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Meeker had heard the wagon go by and had caught the sound of the +doctor's voice, her house being close by the road, and she had also +watched the unusual lights. It was annoying to the Dyers to have to +answer questions, and to be called upon to grieve outwardly just then, +and it seemed disloyal to the dead woman in the next room to enter +upon any discussion of her affairs. But presently the little child, +whom nobody had thought of except to see that she still slept, waked +and got down from the old settle where she had spent the night, and +walked with unsteady short footsteps toward her grandmother, who +caught her quickly and held her fast in her arms. The little thing +looked puzzled, and frowned, and seemed for a moment unhappy, and then +the sunshine of her good nature drove away the clouds and she clapped +her hands and laughed aloud, while Mrs. Meeker began to cry again at +the sight of this unconscious orphan. +</p> +<p> +"I'm sure I'm glad she can laugh," said Mrs. Martin. "She'll find +enough to cry about later on; I foresee she'll be a great deal o' +company to you, Mis' Thacher." +</p> +<p> +"Though 't ain't every one that has the strength to fetch up a child +after they reach your years," said Mrs. Meeker, mournfully. "It's +anxious work, but I don't doubt strength will be given you. I s'pose +likely her father's folks will do a good deal for her,"—and the three +women looked at each other, but neither took it upon herself to +answer. +</p> +<p> +All that day the neighbors and acquaintances came and went in the lane +that led to the farm-house. The brothers Jake and Martin made journeys +to and from the village. At night John Thacher came home from court +with as little to say as ever, but, as everybody observed, looking +years older. Young Mrs. Prince's return and sudden death were the only +subjects worth talking about in all the country side, and the doctor +had to run the usual gauntlet of questions from all his outlying +patients and their families. Old Mrs. Thacher looked pale and excited, +and insisted upon seeing every one who came to the house, with evident +intention to play her part in this strange drama with exactness and +courtesy. A funeral in the country is always an era in a family's +life; events date from it and centre in it. There are so few +circumstances that have in the least a public nature that these +conspicuous days receive all the more attention. +</p> +<p> +But while death seems far more astonishing and unnatural in a city, +where the great tide of life rises and falls with little apparent +regard to the sinking wrecks, in the country it is not so. The +neighbors themselves are those who dig the grave and carry the dead, +whom they or their friends have made ready, to the last resting-place. +With all nature looking on,—the leaves that must fall, and the grass +of the field that must wither and be gone when the wind passes +over,—living closer to life and in plainer sight of death, they have +a different sense of the mysteries of existence. They pay homage to +Death rather than to the dead; they gather from the lonely farms by +scores because there is a funeral, and not because their friend is +dead; and the day of Adeline Prince's burial, the marvelous +circumstances, with which the whole town was already familiar, brought +a great company together to follow her on her last journey. +</p> +<p> +The day was warm and the sunshine fell caressingly over the pastures +as if it were trying to call back the flowers. By afternoon there was +a tinge of greenness on the slopes and under the gnarled apple-trees, +that had been lost for days before, and the distant hills and +mountains, which could be seen in a circle from the high land where +the Thacher farmhouse stood, were dim and blue through the Indian +summer haze. The old men who came to the funeral wore their faded +winter overcoats and clumsy caps all ready to be pulled down over +their ears if the wind should change; and their wives were also warmly +wrapped, with great shawls over their rounded, hard-worked shoulders; +yet they took the best warmth and pleasantness into their hearts, and +watched the sad proceedings of the afternoon with deepest interest. +The doctor came hurrying toward home just as the long procession was +going down the pasture, and he saw it crossing a low hill; a dark and +slender column with here and there a child walking beside one of the +elder mourners. The bearers went first with the bier; the track was +uneven, and the procession was lost to sight now and then behind the +slopes. It was forever a mystery; these people might have been a +company of Druid worshipers, or of strange northern priests and their +people, and the doctor checked his impatient horse as he watched the +retreating figures at their simple ceremony. He could not help +thinking what strange ways this child of the old farm had followed, +and what a quiet ending it was to her wandering life. "And I have +promised to look after the little girl," he said to himself as he +drove away up the road. +</p> +<p> +It was a long walk for the elderly people from the house near the main +highway to the little burying-ground. In the earliest days of the farm +the dwelling-place was nearer the river, which was then the chief +thoroughfare; and those of the family who had died then were buried on +the level bit of upland ground high above the river itself. There was +a wide outlook over the country, and the young pine trees that fringed +the shore sang in the south wind, while some great birds swung to and +fro overhead, watching the water and the strange company of people who +had come so slowly over the land. A flock of sheep had ventured to the +nearest hillock of the next pasture, and stood there fearfully, with +upraised heads, as if they looked for danger. +</p> +<p> +John Thacher had brought his sister's child all the way in his arms, +and she had clapped her hands and laughed aloud and tried to talk a +great deal with the few words she had learned to say. She was very gay +in her baby fashion; she was amused with the little crowd so long as +it did not trouble her. She fretted only when the grave, kind man, for +whom she had instantly felt a great affection, stayed too long by that +deep hole in the ground and wept as he saw a strange thing that the +people had carried all the way, put down into it out of sight. When he +walked on again, she laughed and played; but after they had reached +the empty gray house, which somehow looked that day as if it were a +mourner also, she shrank from all the strangers, and seemed dismayed +and perplexed, and called her mother eagerly again and again. This +touched many a heart. The dead woman had been more or less unfamiliar +of late years to all of them; and there were few who had really +grieved for her until her little child had reminded them of its own +loneliness and loss. +</p> +<p> +That night, after the house was still, John Thacher wrote to acquaint +Miss Prince, of Dunport, with his sister's death and to say that it +was her wish that the child should remain with them during its +minority. They should formally appoint the guardian whom she had +selected; they would do their best by the little girl. And when Mrs. +Thacher asked if he had blamed Miss Prince, he replied that he had +left that to her own conscience. +</p> +<p> +In the answer which was quickly returned, there was a plea for the +custody of the child, her mother's and her own namesake, but this was +indignantly refused. There was no love lost between the town and the +country household, and for many years all intercourse was at an end. +Before twelve months were past, John Thacher himself was carried down +to the pasture burying-ground, and his old mother and the little child +were left to comfort and take care of each other as best they could in +the lonely farm-house. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + V +</h2> +<h3> + A SUNDAY VISIT +</h3> +<p> +In the gray house on the hill, one spring went by and another, and it +seemed to the busy doctor only a few months from the night he first +saw his ward before she was old enough to come soberly to church with +her grandmother. He had always seen her from time to time, for he had +often been called to the farm or to the Dyers and had watched her at +play. Once she had stopped him as he drove by to give him a little +handful of blue violets, and this had gone straight to his heart, for +he had been made too great a bugbear to most children to look for any +favor at their hands. He always liked to see her come into church on +Sundays, her steps growing quicker and surer as her good grandmother's +became more feeble. The doctor was a lonely man in spite of his many +friends, and he found himself watching for the little brown face that, +half-way across the old meeting-house, would turn round to look for +him more than once during the service. At first there was only the top +of little Nan Prince's prim best bonnet or hood to be seen, unless it +was when she stood up in prayer-time, but soon the bright eyes rose +like stars above the horizon of the pew railing, and next there was +the whole well-poised little head, and the tall child was possessed by +a sense of propriety, and only ventured one or two discreet glances at +her old friend. +</p> +<p> +The office of guardian was not one of great tasks or of many duties, +though the child's aunt had insisted upon making an allowance for her +of a hundred dollars a year, and this was duly acknowledged and placed +to its owner's credit in the savings bank of the next town. Her +grandmother Thacher always refused to spend it, saying proudly that +she had never been beholden to Miss Prince and she never meant to be, +and while she lived the aunt and niece should be kept apart. She would +not say that her daughter had never been at fault, but it was through +the Princes all the trouble of her life had come. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie was mindful of his responsibilities, and knew more of his +ward than was ever suspected. He was eager that the best district +school teacher who could be found should be procured for the Thacher +and Dyer neighborhood, and in many ways he took pains that the little +girl should have all good things that were possible. He only laughed +when her grandmother complained that Nan would not be driven to +school, much less persuaded, and that she was playing in the brook, or +scampering over the pastures when she should be doing other things. +Mrs. Thacher, perhaps unconsciously, had looked for some trace of the +father's good breeding and gentlefolk fashions, but this was not a +child who took kindly to needlework and pretty clothes. She was +fearlessly friendly with every one; she did not seem confused even +when the minister came to make his yearly parochial visitation, and as +for the doctor, he might have been her own age, for all humility she +thought it necessary to show in the presence of this chief among her +elders and betters. Old Mrs. Thacher gave little pulls at her +granddaughter's sleeves when she kept turning to see the doctor in +sermon-time, but she never knew how glad he was, or how willingly he +smiled when he felt the child's eyes watching him as a dog's might +have done, forcing him to forget the preaching altogether and to +attend to this dumb request for sympathy. One blessed day Dr. Leslie +had waited in the church porch and gravely taken the child's hand as +she came out; and said that he should like to take her home with him; +he was going to the lower part of the town late in the afternoon and +would leave her then at the farm-house. +</p> +<p> +"I was going to ask you for something for her shoulder," said +Grandmother Thacher, much pleased, "she'll tell you about it, it was a +fall she had out of an apple-tree,"—and Nan looked up with not a +little apprehension, but presently tucked her small hand inside the +doctor's and was more than ready to go with him. "I thought she looked +a little pale," the doctor said, to which Mrs. Thacher answered that +it was a merciful Providence who had kept the child from breaking her +neck, and then, being at the foot of the church steps, they separated. +It had been a great trial to the good woman to give up the afternoon +service, but she was growing old, as she told herself often in those +days, and felt, as she certainly looked, greatly older than her years. +</p> +<p> +"I feel as if Anna was sure of one good friend, whether I stay with +her or not," said the grandmother sorrowfully, as she drove toward +home that Sunday noon with Jacob Dyer and his wife. "I never saw the +doctor so taken with a child before. 'Twas a pity he had to lose his +own, and his wife too; how many years ago was it? I should think he'd +be lonesome, though to be sure he isn't in the house much. Marilla +Thomas keeps his house as clean as a button and she has been a good +stand-by for him, but it always seemed sort o' homesick there ever +since the day I was to his wife's funeral. She made an awful sight o' +friends considering she was so little while in the place. Well I'm +glad I let Nanny wear her best dress; I set out not to, it looked so +much like rain." +</p> +<p> +Whatever Marilla Thomas's other failings might have been, she +certainly was kind that day to the doctor's little guest. It would +have been a hard-hearted person indeed who did not enter somewhat into +the spirit of the child's delight. In spite of its being the first +time she had ever sat at any table but her grandmother's, she was not +awkward or uncomfortable, and was so hungry that she gave pleasure to +her entertainers in that way if no other. The doctor leaned back in +his chair and waited while the second portion of pudding slowly +disappeared, though Marilla could have told that he usually did not +give half time enough to his dinner and was off like an arrow the +first possible minute. Before he took his often interrupted afternoon +nap, he inquired for the damaged shoulder and requested a detailed +account of the accident; and presently they were both laughing +heartily at Nan's disaster, for she owned that she had chased and +treed a stray young squirrel, and that a mossy branch of one of the +old apple-trees in the straggling orchard had failed to bear even so +light a weight as hers. Nan had come to the ground because she would +not loose her hold of the squirrel, though he had slipped through her +hands after all as she carried him towards home. The guest was proud +to become a patient, especially as the only remedy that was offered +was a very comfortable handful of sugar-plums. Nan had never owned so +many at once, and in a transport of gratitude and affection she lifted +her face to kiss so dear a benefactor. +</p> +<p> +Her eyes looked up into his, and her simple nature was so unconscious +of the true dangers and perils of this world, that his very heart was +touched with compassion, and he leagued himself with the child's good +angel to defend her against her enemies. +</p> +<p> +And Nan took fast hold of the doctor's hand as they went to the study. +This was the only room in the house which she had seen before; and was +so much larger and pleasanter than any she knew elsewhere that she +took great delight in it. It was a rough place now, the doctor +thought, but always very comfortable, and he laid himself down on the +great sofa with a book in his hand, though after a few minutes he grew +sleepy and only opened his eyes once to see that Nan was perched in +the largest chair with her small hands folded, and her feet very far +from the floor. "You may run out to see Marilla, or go about the house +anywhere you like; or there are some picture-papers on the table," the +doctor said drowsily, and the visitor slipped down from her throne and +went softly away. +</p> +<p> +She had thought the study a very noble room until she had seen the +dining-room, but now she wished for another look at the pictures there +and the queer clock, and the strange, grand things on the sideboard. +The old-fashioned comfort of the house was perfect splendor to the +child, and she went about on tiptoe up stairs and down, looking in at +the open doors, while she lingered wistfully before the closed ones. +She wondered at the great bedsteads with their high posts and dimity +hangings, and at the carpets, and the worthy Marilla watched her for a +moment as she stood on the threshold of the doctor's own room. The +child's quick ear caught the rustle of the housekeeper's Sunday gown; +she whispered with shining eyes that she thought the house was +beautiful. Did Marilla live here all the time? +</p> +<p> +"Bless you, yes!" replied Marilla, not without pride, though she added +that nobody knew what a sight of care it was. +</p> +<p> +"I suppose y'r aunt in Dunport lives a good deal better than this;" +but the child only looked puzzled and did not answer, while the +housekeeper hurried away to the afternoon meeting, for which the bell +was already tolling. +</p> +<p> +The doctor slept on in the shaded study, and after Nan had grown tired +of walking softly about the house, she found her way into the garden. +After all, there was nothing better than being out of doors, and the +apple-trees seemed most familiar and friendly, though she pitied them +for being placed so near each other. She discovered a bench under a +trellis where a grape-vine and a clematis were tangled together, and +here she sat down to spend a little time before the doctor should call +her. She wished she could stay longer than that one short afternoon; +perhaps some time or other the doctor would invite her again. But what +could Marilla have meant about her aunt? She had no aunts except Mrs. +Jake and Mrs. Martin; Marilla must well know that their houses were +not like Dr. Leslie's; and little Nan built herself a fine castle in +Spain, of which this unknown aunt was queen. Certainly her grandmother +had now and then let fall a word about "your father's folks"—by and +by they might come to see her! +</p> +<p> +The grape leaves were waving about in the warm wind, and they made a +flickering light and shade upon the ground. The clematis was in bloom, +and its soft white plumes fringed the archway of the lattice work. As +the child looked down the garden walk it seemed very long and very +beautiful to her. Her grandmother's flower-garden had been constantly +encroached upon by the turf which surrounded it, until the snowberry +bush, the London pride, the tiger-lilies, and the crimson phlox were +like a besieged garrison. +</p> +<p> +Nan had already found plenty of wild flowers in the world; there were +no entertainments provided for her except those the fields and +pastures kindly spread before her admiring eyes. Old Mrs. Thacher had +been brought up to consider the hard work of this life, and though she +had taken her share of enjoyment as she went along, it was of a +somewhat grim and sober sort. She believed that a certain amount of +friskiness was as necessary to young human beings as it is to colts, +but later both must be harnessed and made to work. As for pleasure +itself she had little notion of that. She liked fair weather, and +certain flowers were to her the decorations of certain useful plants, +but if she had known that her grand-daughter could lie down beside the +anemones and watch them move in the wind and nod their heads, and +afterward look up into the blue sky to watch the great gulls above the +river, or the sparrows flying low, or the crows who went higher, Mrs. +Thacher would have understood almost nothing of such delights, and +thought it a very idle way of spending one's time. +</p> +<p> +But as Nan sat in the old summer-house in the doctor's garden, she +thought of many things that she must remember to tell her grandmother +about this delightful day. The bees were humming in the vines, and as +she looked down the wide garden-walk it seemed like the broad aisle in +church, and the congregation of plants and bushes all looked at her as +if she were in the pulpit. The church itself was not far away, and the +windows were open, and sometimes Nan could hear the preacher's voice, +and by and by the people began to sing, and she rose solemnly, as if +it were her own parishioners in the garden who lifted up their voices. +A cheerful robin began a loud solo in one of Dr. Leslie's +cherry-trees, and the little girl laughed aloud in her make-believe +meeting-house, and then the gate was opened and shut, and the doctor +himself appeared, strolling along, and smiling as he came. +</p> +<p> +He was looking to the right and left at his flowers and trees, and +once he stopped and took out his pocket knife to trim a straying +branch of honeysuckle, which had wilted and died. When he came to the +summer-house, he found his guest sitting there demurely with her hands +folded in her lap. She had gathered some little sprigs of box and a +few blossoms of periwinkle and late lilies of the valley, and they lay +on the bench beside her. "So you did not go to church with Marilla?" +the doctor said. "I dare say one sermon a day is enough for so small a +person as you." For Nan's part, no sermon at all would have caused +little sorrow, though she liked the excitement of the Sunday drive to +the village. She only smiled when the doctor spoke, and gave a little +sigh of satisfaction a minute afterward when he seated himself beside +her. +</p> +<p> +"We must be off presently," he told her. "I have a long drive to take +before night. I would let you go with me, but I am afraid I should +keep you too long past your bedtime." +</p> +<p> +The little girl looked in his kind face appealingly; she could not +bear to have the day come to an end. The doctor spoke to her as if she +were grown up and understood everything, and this pleased her. It is +very hard to be constantly reminded that one is a child, as if it were +a crime against society. Dr. Leslie, unlike many others, did not like +children because they were children; he now and then made friends with +one, just as he added now and then to his narrow circle of grown +friends. He felt a certain responsibility for this little girl, and +congratulated himself upon feeling an instinctive fondness for her. +The good old minister had said only that morning that love is the +great motive power, that it is always easy to do things for those whom +we love and wish to please, and for this reason we are taught to pray +for love to God, and so conquer the difficulty of holiness. "But I +must do my duty by her at any rate," the doctor told himself. "I am +afraid I have forgotten the child somewhat in past years, and she is a +bright little creature." +</p> +<p> +"Have you been taking good care of yourself?" he added aloud. "I was +very tired, for I was out twice in the night taking care of sick +people. But you must come to see me again some day. I dare say you and +Marilla have made friends with each other. Now we must go, I suppose," +and Nan Prince, still silent,—for the pleasure of this time was +almost too great,—took hold of the doctor's outstretched hand, and +they went slowly up the garden walk together. As they drove slowly +down the street they met the people who were coming from church, and +the child sat up very straight in the old gig, with her feet on the +doctor's medicine-box, and was sure that everybody must be envying +her. She thought it was more pleasant than ever that afternoon, as +they passed through the open country outside the village; the fields +and the trees were marvelously green, and the distant river was +shining in the sun. Nan looked anxiously for the gray farmhouse for +two or three minutes before they came in sight of it, but at last it +showed itself, standing firm on the hillside. It seemed a long time +since she had left home in the morning, but this beautiful day was to +be one of the landmarks of her memory. Life had suddenly grown much +larger, and her familiar horizon had vanished and she discovered a +great distance stretching far beyond the old limits. She went gravely +into the familiar kitchen, holding fast the bits of box and the +periwinkle flowers, quite ready to answer her grandmother's questions, +though she was only too certain that it would be impossible to tell +any one the whole dear story of that June Sunday. +</p> +<p> +A little later, as Marilla came sedately home, she noticed in the +driveway some fresh hoofmarks which pointed toward the street, and +quickly assured herself that they could not have been made very long +before. "I wonder what the two of 'em have been doing all the +afternoon?" she said to herself. "She's a little lady, that child is; +and it's a burnin' shame she should be left to run wild. I never set +so much by her mother's looks as some did, but growin' things has +blooms as much as they have roots and prickles—and even them Thachers +will flower out once in a while." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + VI +</h2> +<h3> + IN SUMMER WEATHER +</h3> +<p> +One morning Dr. Leslie remembered an old patient whom he liked to go +to see now and then, perhaps more from the courtesy and friendliness +of the thing than from any hope of giving professional assistance. The +old sailor, Captain Finch, had long before been condemned as +unseaworthy, having suffered for many years from the effects of a bad +fall on shipboard. He was a cheerful and wise person, and the doctor +was much attached to him, besides knowing that he had borne his +imprisonment with great patience, for his life on one of the most +secluded farms of the region, surrounded by his wife's kinsfolk, who +were all landsmen, could hardly be called anything else. The doctor +had once made a voyage to Fayal and from thence to England in a +sailing-vessel, having been somewhat delicate in health in his younger +days, and this made him a more intelligent listener to the captain's +stories than was often available. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie had brought his case of medicines from mere force of habit, +but by way of special prescription he had taken also a generous +handful of his best cigars, and wrapped them somewhat clumsily in one +of the large sheets of letter-paper which lay on his study table near +by. Also he had stopped before the old sideboard in the carefully +darkened dining-room, and taken a bottle of wine from one of its +cupboards. "This will do him more good than anything, poor old +fellow," he told himself, with a sudden warmth in his own heart and a +feeling of grateful pleasure because he had thought of doing the +kindness. +</p> +<p> +Marilla called eagerly from the kitchen window to ask where he was +going, putting her hand out hastily to part the morning-glory vines, +which had climbed their strings and twisted their stems together until +they shut out the world from their planter's sight. But the doctor +only answered that he should be back at dinner time, and settled +himself comfortably in his carriage, smiling as he thought of +Marilla's displeasure. She seldom allowed a secret to escape her, if +she were once fairly on the scent of it, though she grumbled now, and +told herself that she only cared to know for the sake of the people +who might come, or to provide against the accident of his being among +the missing in case of sudden need. She found life more interesting +when there was even a small mystery to be puzzled over. It was +impossible for Dr. Leslie to resist teasing his faithful hand-maiden +once in a while, but he did it with proper gravity and respect, and +their friendship was cemented by these sober jokes rather than torn +apart. +</p> +<p> +The horse knew as well as his master that nothing of particular +importance was in hand, and however well he always caught the spirit +of the occasion when there was need for hurry, he now jogged along the +road, going slowly where the trees cast a pleasant shade, and paying +more attention to the flies than to anything else. The doctor seemed +to be in deep thought, and old Major understood that no notice was to +be taken of constant slight touches of the whip which his master held +carelessly. It had been hot, dusty weather until the day and night +before, when heavy showers had fallen; the country was looking fresh, +and the fields and trees were washed clean at last from the white dust +that had powdered them and given the farms a barren and discouraged +look. +</p> +<p> +They had come in sight of Mrs. Thacher's house on its high hillside, +and were just passing the abode of Mrs. Meeker, which was close by the +roadside in the low land. This was a small, weather-beaten dwelling, +and the pink and red hollyhocks showed themselves in fine array +against its gray walls. Its mistress's prosaic nature had one most +redeeming quality in her love for flowers and her gift in making them +grow, and the doctor forgave her many things for the sake of the +bright little garden in the midst of the sandy lands which surrounded +her garden with their unshaded barrenness. The road that crossed these +was hot in summer and swept by bitter winds in winter. It was like a +bit of desert dropped by mistake among the green farms and spring-fed +forests that covered the rest of the river uplands. +</p> +<p> +No sentinel was ever more steadfast to his duty in time of war and +disorder than Mrs. Meeker, as she sat by the front window, from which +she could see some distance either way along the crooked road. She was +often absent from her own house to render assistance of one sort or +another among her neighbors, but if she were at home it was impossible +for man, woman, or child to go by without her challenge or careful +inspection. She made couriers of her neighbors, and sent these errand +men and women along the country roads or to the village almost daily. +She was well posted in the news from both the village and the country +side, and however much her acquaintances scolded about her, they found +it impossible to resist the fascination of her conversation, and few +declined to share in the banquet of gossip which she was always ready +to spread. She was quick witted, and possessed of many resources and +much cleverness of a certain sort; but it must be confessed that she +had done mischief in her day, having been the murderer of more than +one neighbor's peace of mind and the assailant of many a reputation. +But if she were a dangerous inmate of one's household, few were so +attractive or entertaining for the space of an afternoon visit, and it +was usually said, when she was seen approaching, that she would be +sure to have something to tell. Out in the country, where so many +people can see nothing new from one week's end to the other, it is, +after all, a great pleasure to have the latest particulars brought to +one's door, as a townsman's newspaper is. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Meeker knew better than to stop Dr. Leslie if he were going +anywhere in a hurry; she had been taught this lesson years ago; but +when she saw him journeying in such a leisurely way some instinct +assured her of safety, and she came out of her door like a +Jack-in-the-box, while old Major, only too ready for a halt, stood +still in spite of a desperate twitch of the reins, which had as much +effect as pulling at a fish-hook which has made fast to an anchor. +Mrs. Meeker feigned a great excitement. +</p> +<p> +"I won't keep you but a moment," she said, "but I want to hear what +you think about Mis' Thacher's chances." +</p> +<p> +"Mrs. Thacher's?" repeated the doctor, wonderingly. +</p> +<p> +"She's doing well, isn't she? I don't suppose that she will ever be a +young woman again." +</p> +<p> +"I don't know why, but I took it for granted that you was goin' +there," explained Mrs. Meeker, humbly. "She has seemed to me as if she +was failing all summer. I was up there last night, and I never said so +to her, but she had aged dreadfully. I wonder if it's likely she's had +a light shock? Sometimes the fust one's kind o' hidden; comes by night +or somethin', and folks don't know till they begins to feel the damage +of it." +</p> +<p> +"She hasn't looked very well of late," said the doctor. For once in +his life he was willing to have a friendly talk, Mrs. Meeker thought, +and she proceeded to make the most of her opportunity. +</p> +<p> +"I think the care of that girl of Ad'line's has been too much for her +all along," she announced, "she's wild as a hawk, and a perfect +torment. One day she'll come strollin' in and beseechin' me for a +bunch o' flowers, and the next she'll be here after dark scarin' me +out o' my seven senses. She rigged a tick-tack here the other night +against the window, and my heart was in my mouth. I thought 'twas a +warnin' much as ever I thought anything in my life; the night before +my mother died 'twas in that same room and against that same winder +there came two or three raps, and my sister Drew and me we looked at +each other, and turned cold all over, and mother set right up in bed +the next night and looked at that winder and then laid back dead. I +was all sole alone the other evenin',—Wednesday it was,—and when I +heard them raps I mustered up, and went and put my head out o' the +door, and I couldn't see nothing, and when I went back, knock—knock, +it begun again, and I went to the door and harked. I hoped I should +hear somebody or 'nother comin' along the road, and then I heard +somethin' a rus'lin' amongst the sunflowers and hollyhocks, and then +there was a titterin', and come to find out 'twas that young one. I +chased her up the road till my wind give out, and I had to go and set +on the stone wall, and come to. She won't go to bed till she's a mind +to. One night I was up there this spring, and she never come in until +after nine o'clock, a dark night, too; and the pore old lady was in +distress, and thought she'd got into the river. I says to myself there +wa'n't no such good news. She told how she'd be'n up into Jake an' +Martin's oaks, trying to catch a little screech owl. She belongs with +wild creatur's, I do believe,—just the same natur'. She'd better be +kept to school, 'stead o' growin' up this way; but she keeps the rest +o' the young ones all in a brile, and this last teacher wouldn't have +her there at all. She'd toll off half the school into the pasture at +recess time, and none of 'em would get back for half an hour." +</p> +<p> +"What's a tick-tack? I don't remember," asked the doctor, who had been +smiling now and then at this complaint. +</p> +<p> +"They tie a nail to the end of a string, and run it over a bent pin +stuck in the sash, and then they get out o' sight and pull, and it +clacks against the winder, don't ye see? Ain't it surprisin' how them +devil's tricks gets handed down from gineration to gineration, while +so much that's good is forgot," lamented Mrs. Meeker, but the doctor +looked much amused. +</p> +<p> +"She's a bright child," he said, "and not over strong. I don't believe +in keeping young folks shut up in the schoolhouses all summer long." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Meeker sniffed disapprovingly. "She's tougher than ellum roots. I +believe you can't kill them peakèd-looking young ones. She'll run like +a fox all day long and live to see us all buried. I can put up with +her pranks; 't is of pore old Mis' Thacher I'm thinkin'. She's had +trouble enough without adding on this young 'scape-gallows. You had +better fetch her up to be a doctor," Mrs. Meeker smilingly continued, +"I was up there yisterday, and one of the young turkeys had come +hoppin' and quawkin' round the doorsteps with its leg broke, and she'd +caught it and fixed it off with a splint before you could say Jack +Robi'son. She told how it was the way you'd done to Jim Finch that +fell from the hay-rigging and broke his arm over to Jake an' Martin's, +haying time." +</p> +<p> +"I remember she was standing close by, watching everything I did," +said the doctor, his face shining with interest and pleasure. "I +shall have to carry her about for clerk. Her father studied medicine +you know. It is the most amazing thing how people inherit"—but he did +not finish his sentence and pulled the reins so quickly that the wise +horse knew there was no excuse for not moving forward. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Meeker had hoped for a longer interview. "Stop as you come back, +won't you?" she asked. "I'm goin' to pick you some of the handsomest +poppies I ever raised. I got the seed from my sister-in-law's cousin, +she that was 'Miry Gregg, and they do beat everything. They wilt so +that it ain't no use to pick 'em now, unless you was calc'latin' to +come home by the other road. There's nobody sick about here, is +there?" to which the doctor returned a shake of the head and the +information that he should be returning that way about noon. As he +drove up the hill he assured himself with great satisfaction that he +believed he hadn't told anything that morning which would be repeated +all over town before night, while his hostess returned to her house +quite dissatisfied with the interview, though she hoped for better +fortune on Dr. Leslie's return. +</p> +<p> +For his part, he drove on slowly past the Thacher farmhouse, looking +carefully about him, and sending a special glance up the lane in +search of the invalid turkey. "I should like to see how she managed +it," he told himself half aloud. "If she shows a gift for such things +I'll take pains to teach her a lesson or two by and by when she is +older.... Come Major, don't go to sleep on the road!" and in a few +minutes the wagon was out of sight, if the reader had stood in the +Thacher lane, instead of following the good man farther on his errand +of mercy and good fellowship. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +At that time in the morning most housekeepers were busy in their +kitchens, but Mrs. Thacher came to stand in her doorway, and shaded +her forehead and eyes with her hand from the bright sunlight, as she +looked intently across the pastures toward the river. She seemed +anxious and glanced to and fro across the fields, and presently she +turned quickly at the sound of a footstep, and saw her young +grand-daughter coming from the other direction round the corner of the +house. The child was wet and a little pale, though she evidently had +been running. +</p> +<p> +"What have you been doin' now?" asked the old lady fretfully. "I won't +have you gettin' up in the mornin' before I am awake and stealin' out +of the house. I think you are drowned in the river or have broken your +neck fallin' out of a tree. Here it is after ten o'clock. I've a mind +to send you to bed, Nanny; who got you out of the water, for in it +you've been sure enough?" +</p> +<p> +"I got out myself," said the little girl. "It was deep, though," and +she began to cry, and when she tried to cover her eyes with her +already well-soaked little apron, she felt quite broken-hearted and +unnerved, and sat down dismally on the doorstep. +</p> +<p> +"Come in, and put on a dry dress," said her grandmother, not unkindly; +"that is, if there's anything but your Sunday one fit to be seen. I've +told you often enough not to go playin' in the river, and I've wanted +you more than common to go out to Jake and Martin's to borrow me a +little cinnamon. You're a real trial this summer. I believe the bigger +you are the worse you are. Now just say what you've been about. I +declare I shall have to go and have a talk with the doctor, and he'll +scold you well. I'm gettin' old and I can't keep after you; you ought +to consider me some. You'll think of it when you see me laying dead, +what a misery you've be'n. No schoolin' worth namin';" grumbled Mrs. +Thacher, as she stepped heavily to and fro in the kitchen, and the +little girl disappeared within the bed-room. In a few minutes, +however, her unusual depression was driven away by the comfort of dry +garments, and she announced triumphantly that she had found a whole +flock of young wild ducks, and that she had made a raft and chased +them about up and down the river, until the raft had proved +unseaworthy, and she had fallen through into the water. Later in the +day somebody came from the Jake and Martin homesteads to say that +there must be no more pulling down of the ends of the pasture fences. +The nails had easily let go their hold of the old boards, and a stone +had served our heroine for a useful shipwright's hammer, but the +young cattle had strayed through these broken barriers and might have +done great damage if they had been discovered a little later,—having +quickly hied themselves to a piece of carefully cultivated land. The +Jake and Martin families regarded Nan with a mixture of dread and +affection. She was bringing a new element into their prosaic lives, +and her pranks afforded them a bit of news almost daily. Her +imagination was apt to busy itself in inventing tales of her unknown +aunt, with which she entertained a grandchild of Martin Dyer, a little +girl of nearly her own age. It seemed possible to Nan that any day a +carriage drawn by a pair of prancing black horses might be seen +turning up the lane, and that a lovely lady might alight and claim her +as her only niece. Why this event had not already taken place the +child never troubled herself to think, but ever since Marilla had +spoken of this aunt's existence, the dreams of her had been growing +longer and more charming, until she seemed fit for a queen, and her +unseen house a palace. Nan's playmate took pleasure in repeating these +glowing accounts to her family, and many were the head-shakings and +evil forebodings over the untruthfulness of the heroine of this story. +Little Susan Dyer's only aunt, who was well known to her, lived as +other people did in a comparatively plain and humble house, and it was +not to be wondered at that she objected to hearing continually of an +aunt of such splendid fashion. And yet Nan tried over and over again +to be in some degree worthy of the relationship. She must not be too +unfit to enter upon more brilliant surroundings whenever the time +should come,—she took care that her pet chickens and her one doll +should have high-sounding names, such as would seem proper to the +aunt, and, more than this, she took a careful survey of the house +whenever she was coming home from school or from play, lest she might +come upon her distinguished relative unawares. She had asked her +grandmother more than once to tell her about this mysterious +kinswoman, but Mrs. Thacher proved strangely uncommunicative, fearing +if she answered one easy question it might involve others that were +more difficult. +</p> +<p> +The good woman grew more and more anxious to fulfil her duty to this +troublesome young housemate; the child was strangely dear and +companionable in spite of her frequent naughtiness. It seemed, too, as +if she could do whatever she undertook, and as if she had a power +which made her able to use and unite the best traits of her ancestors, +the strong capabilities which had been illy balanced or allowed to run +to waste in others. It might be said that the materials for a fine +specimen of humanity accumulate through several generations, until a +child appears who is the heir of all the family wit and attractiveness +and common sense, just as one person may inherit the worldly wealth of +his ancestry. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + VII +</h2> +<h3> + FOR THE YEARS TO COME +</h3> +<p> +Late one summer afternoon Dr. Leslie was waked from an unusually long +after-dinner nap by Marilla's footsteps along the hall. She remained +standing in the doorway, looking at him for a provoking length of +time, and finally sneezed in her most obtrusive and violent manner. At +this he sat up quickly and demanded to be told what was the matter, +adding that he had been out half the night before, which was no news +to the faithful housekeeper. +</p> +<p> +"There, I'm sure I didn't mean to wake you up," she said, with an +apparent lack of self-reproach. "I never can tell whether you are +asleep or only kind of drowsin'. There was a boy here just now from +old Mis' Cunningham's over on the b'ilin' spring road. They want you +to come over quick as convenient. She don't know nothin', the boy +said." +</p> +<p> +"Never did," grumbled the doctor. "I'll go, toward night, but I can't +do her any good." +</p> +<p> +"An' Mis' Thacher is out here waitin' too, but she says if you're busy +she'll go along to the stores and stop as she comes back. She looks to +me as if she was breakin' up," confided Marilla in a lower tone. +</p> +<p> +"Tell her I'm ready now," answered the doctor in a more cordial tone, +and though he said half to himself and half to Marilla that here was +another person who expected him to cure old age, he spoke +compassionately, and as if his heart were heavy with the thought of +human sorrow and suffering. But he greeted Mrs. Thacher most +cheerfully, and joked about Marilla's fear of a fly, as he threw open +the blinds of the study window which was best shaded from the sun. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Thacher did indeed look changed, and the physician's quick eyes +took note of it, and, as he gathered up some letters and newspapers +which had been strewn about just after dinner, he said kindly that he +hoped she had no need of a doctor. It was plain that the occasion +seemed an uncommon one to her. She wore her best clothes, which would +not have been necessary for one of her usual business trips to the +village, and it seemed to be difficult for her to begin her story. Dr. +Leslie, taking a purely professional view of the case, began to +consider what form of tonic would be most suitable, whether she had +come to ask for one or not. +</p> +<p> +"I want to have a good talk with you about the little gell; Nanny, you +know;" she said at last, and the doctor nodded, and, explaining that +there seemed to be a good deal of draught through the room, crossed +the floor and gently shut the door which opened into the hall. He +smiled a little as he did it, having heard the long breath outside +which was the not unfamiliar signal of Marilla's presence. If she were +curious, she was a discreet keeper of secrets, and the doctor had more +than once indulged her in her sinful listening by way of friendliness +and reward. But this subject promised to concern his own affairs too +closely, and he became wary of the presence of another pair of ears. +He was naturally a man of uncommon reserve, and most loyal in keeping +his patients' secrets. If clergymen knew their congregations as well +as physicians do, the sermons would be often more closely related to +the parish needs. It was difficult for the world to understand why, +when Dr. Leslie was anything but prone to gossip, Marilla should have +been possessed of such a wealth of knowledge of her neighbors' +affairs. Strange to say this wealth was for her own miserly pleasure +and not to be distributed, and while she often proclaimed with +exasperating triumph that she had known for months some truth just +discovered by others, she was regarded by her acquaintances as if she +were a dictionary written in some foreign language; immensely +valuable, but of no practical use to themselves. It was sometimes +difficult not to make an attempt to borrow from her store of news, but +nothing delighted her more than to be so approached, and to present +impenetrable barriers of discretion to the enemy. +</p> +<p> +"How is Nanny getting on?" the doctor asked. "She looks stronger than +she did a year ago." +</p> +<p> +"Dear me, she's wild as ever," answered Mrs. Thacher, trying to smile; +"but I've been distressed about her lately, night and day. I thought +perhaps I might see you going by. She's gettin' to be a great girl, +doctor, and I ain't fit to cope with her. I find my strength's +a-goin', and I'm old before my time; all my folks was rugged and sound +long past my age, but I've had my troubles—you don't need I should +tell you that! Poor Ad'line always give me a feelin' as if I was a hen +that has hatched ducks. I never knew exactly how to do for her, she +seemed to see everything so different, and Lord only knows how I worry +about her; and al'ays did, thinkin' if I'd seen clearer how to do my +duty her life might have come out sort of better. And it's the same +with little Anna; not that she's so prone to evil as some; she's a +lovin'-hearted child if ever one was born, but she's a piece o' +mischief; and it may come from her father's folks and their ways o' +livin', but she's made o' different stuff, and I ain't fit to make +answer for her, or for fetchin' of her up. I come to ask if you won't +kindly advise what's best for her. I do' know's anything's got to be +done for a good spell yet. I mind what you say about lettin' her run +and git strong, and I don't check her. Only it seemed to me that you +might want to speak about her sometimes and not do it for fear o' +wronging my judgment. I declare I haven't no judgment about what's +reasonable for her, and you're her guardeen, and there's the money her +father's sister has sent her; 't would burn my fingers to touch a cent +of it, but by and by if you think she ought to have schoolin' or +anything else you must just say so." +</p> +<p> +"I think nothing better could have been done for the child than you +have done," said Dr. Leslie warmly. "Don't worry yourself, my good +friend. As for books, she will take to them of her own accord quite +soon enough, and in such weather as this I think one day in the fields +is worth five in the school-house. I'll do the best I can for her." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Thacher's errand had not yet been told, though she fumbled in her +pocket and walked to the open window to look for the neighbor's wagon +by which she was to find conveyance home, before she ventured to say +anything more. "I don't know's my time'll come for some years yet," +she said at length, falteringly, "but I have had it borne in upon my +mind a good many ways this summer that I ain't going to stay here a +gre't while. I've been troubled considerable by the same complaints +that carried my mother off, and I'm built just like her. I don't feel +no concern for myself, but it's goin' to leave the child without +anybody of her own to look to. There's plenty will befriend her just +so long as she's got means, and the old farm will sell for something +besides what she's got already, but that ain't everything, and I can't +seem to make up my mind to havin' of her boarded about. If 't was so +your wife had lived I should know what I'd go down on my knees to her +to do, but I can't ask it of you to be burdened with a young child +a-growin' up." +</p> +<p> +The doctor listened patiently, though just before this he had risen +and begun to fill a small bottle at the closet shelves, which were +stocked close to their perilous edges with various drugs. Without +turning to look at his patient he said, "I wish you would take five or +six drops of this three times a day, and let me see you again within a +week or two." And while the troubled woman turned to look at him with +half-surprise, he added, "Don't give yourself another thought about +little Nan. If anything should happen to you, I shall be glad to bring +her here, and to take care of her as if she were my own. I always have +liked her, and it will be as good for me as for her. I would not +promise it for any other child, but if you had not spoken to-day, I +should have found a way to arrange with you the first chance that +came. But I'm getting to be an old fellow myself," he laughed. "I +suppose if I get through first you will be friendly to Marilla?" and +Mrs. Thacher let a faint sunbeam of a smile shine out from the depths +of the handkerchief with which she was trying to stop a great shower +of tears. Marilla was not without her little vanities, and being +thought youthful was one of the chief desires of her heart. +</p> +<p> +So Mrs. Thacher went away lighter hearted than she came. She asked the +price of the vial of medicine, and was answered that they would talk +about that another time; then there was a little sober joking about +certain patients who never paid their doctor's bills at all because of +a superstition that they would immediately require his aid again. Dr. +Leslie stood in his study doorway and watched her drive down the +street with Martin Dyer. It seemed to him only a year or two since +both the man and woman had been strong and vigorous; now they both +looked shrunken, and there was a wornness and feebleness about the +bodies which had done such good service. "Come and go," said the +doctor to himself, "one generation after another. Getting old! all the +good old-fashioned people on the farms: I never shall care so much to +be at the beck and call of their grandchildren, but I must mend up +these old folks and do the best I can for them as long as they stay; +they're good friends to me. Dear me, how it used to fret me when I was +younger to hear them always talking about old Doctor Wayland and what +he used to do; and here I am the old doctor myself!" And then he went +down the gravel walk toward the stable with a quick, firm step, which +many a younger man might have envied, to ask for a horse. "You may +saddle him," he directed. "I am only going to old Mrs. Cunningham's, +and it is a cool afternoon." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie had ridden less and less every year of his practice; but, +for some reason best known to himself, he went down the village street +at a mad pace. Indeed, almost everybody who saw him felt that it was +important to go to the next house to ask if it were known for what +accident or desperate emergency he had been called away. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + VIII +</h2> +<h3> + A GREAT CHANGE +</h3> +<p> +Until the autumn of this year, life had seemed to flow in one steady, +unchanging current. The thought had not entered little Nan Prince's +head that changes might be in store for her, for, ever since she could +remember, the events of life had followed each other quietly, and +except for the differences in every-day work and play, caused by the +succession of the seasons, she was not called upon to accommodate +herself to new conditions. It was a gentle change at first: as the +days grew shorter and the house and cellar were being made ready for +winter, her grandmother seemed to have much more to do than usual, and +Nan must stay at home to help. She was growing older at any rate; she +knew how to help better than she used; she was anxious to show her +grandmother how well she could work, and as the river side and the +windy pastures grew less hospitable, she did not notice that she was +no longer encouraged to go out to play for hours together to amuse +herself as best she might, and at any rate keep out of the way. It +seemed natural enough now that she should stay in the house, and be +entrusted with some regular part of the business of keeping it. For +some time Mrs. Thacher had kept but one cow, and early in November, +after a good offer for old Brindle had been accepted, it was announced +to Nan's surprise that the young cow which was to be Brindle's +successor need not be bought until spring; she would be a great care +in winter time, and Nan was to bring a quart of milk a day from Jake +and Martin's. This did not seem an unpleasant duty while the mild +weather lasted; if there came a rainy day, one of the kind neighbors +would leave the little pail on his way to the village before the young +messenger had started out. +</p> +<p> +Nan could not exactly understand at last why Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin +always asked about her grandmother every morning with so much interest +and curiosity, or why they came oftener and oftener to help with the +heavy work. Mrs. Thacher had never before minded her occasional +illnesses so much, and some time passed before Nan's inexperienced +eyes and fearless young heart understood that the whole atmosphere +which overhung the landscape of her life had somehow changed, that +another winter approached full of mystery and strangeness and +discomfort of mind, and at last a great storm was almost ready to +break into the shelter and comfort of her simple life. Poor Nan! She +could not think what it all meant. She was asked many a distressing +question, and openly pitied, and heard her future discussed, as if her +world might come to an end any day. The doctor had visited her +grandmother from time to time, but always while she was at school, +until vacation came, and poor Mrs. Thacher grew too feeble to enter +into even a part of the usual business of the farmhouse. +</p> +<p> +One morning, as Nan was coming back from the Dyer farm with the milk, +she met Mrs. Meeker in the highway. This neighbor and our heroine were +rarely on good terms with each other, since Nan had usually laid +herself under some serious charge of wrong-doing, and had come to +believe that she would be disapproved in any event, and so might enjoy +life as she chose, and revel in harmless malice. +</p> +<p> +The child could not have told why she shrank from meeting her enemy so +much more than usual, and tried to discover some refuge or chance for +escape; but, as it was an open bit of the road, and a straight way to +the lane, she could have no excuse for scrambling over the stone wall +and cutting short the distance. However, her second thought scorned +the idea of running away in such cowardly fashion, and not having any +recent misdemeanor on her conscience, she went forward unflinchingly. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Meeker's tone was not one of complaint, but of pity, and +insinuating friendliness. "How's your grandma to-day?" she asked, and +Nan, with an unsympathetic answer of "About the same," stepped bravely +forward, resenting with all her young soul the discovery that Mrs. +Meeker had turned and was walking alongside. +</p> +<p> +"She's been a good, kind grandma to you, hain't she?" said this +unwelcome companion, and when Nan had returned a wondering but almost +inaudible assent, she continued, "She'll be a great loss to you, I can +tell you. You'll never find nobody to do for you like her. There, you +won't realize nothing about it till you've got older'n you be now; +but the time'll come when"—and her sharp voice faltered; for Nan had +turned to look full in her face, had stopped still in the frozen road, +dropped the pail unconsciously and given a little cry, and in another +moment was running as a chased wild creature does toward the refuge of +its nest. The doctor's horse was fastened at the head of the lane, and +Nan knew at last, what any one in the neighborhood could have told her +many days before, that her grandmother was going to die. Mrs. Meeker +stared after her with a grieved sense of the abrupt ending of the +coveted interview, then she recovered her self-possession, and, +picking up the forsaken pail, stepped lightly over the ruts and frozen +puddles, following Nan eagerly in the hope of witnessing more of such +extraordinary behavior, and with the design of offering her services +as watcher or nurse in these last hours. At any rate the pail and the +milk, which had not been spilt, could not be left in the road. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +So the first chapter of the child's life was ended in the early winter +weather. There was a new unsheltered grave on the slope above the +river, the farm-house door was shut and locked, and the light was out +in the kitchen window. It had been a landmark to those who were used +to driving along the road by night, and there were sincere mourners +for the kindly woman who had kept a simple faith and uprightness all +through her long life of trouble and disappointment. Nan and the cat +had gone to live in the village, and both, being young, had taken the +change with serenity; though at first a piteous sorrow had been waked +in the child's heart, a keen and dreadful fear of the future. The past +seemed so secure and pleasant, as she looked back, and now she was in +the power of a fateful future which had begun with something like a +whirlwind that had swept over her, leaving nothing unchanged. It +seemed to her that this was to be incessant, and that being grown up +was to be at the mercy of sorrow and uncertainty. She was pale and +quiet during her last days in the old home, answering questions and +obeying directions mechanically; but usually sitting in the least +visited part of the kitchen, watching the neighbors as they examined +her grandmother's possessions, and properly disposed of the contents +of the house. Sometimes a spark flew from her sad and angry eyes, but +she made no trouble, and seemed dull and indifferent. Late in the +evening Dr. Leslie carried her home with him through the first heavy +snow-storm of the year, and between the excitement of being covered +from the fast-falling flakes, and so making a journey in the dark, and +of keeping hold of the basket which contained the enraged kitten, the +grief at leaving home was not dwelt upon. +</p> +<p> +When she had been unwound from one of the doctor's great cloaks, and +her eyes had grown used to the bright light in the dining-room, and +Marilla had said that supper had been waiting half an hour, and she +did not know how she should get along with a black cat, and then +bustled about talking much faster than usual, because the sight of the +lonely child had made her ready to cry, Nan began to feel comforted. +It seemed a great while ago that she had cried at her grandmother's +funeral. If this were the future it was certainly very welcome and +already very dear, and the time of distress was like a night of bad +dreams between two pleasant days. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +It will easily be understood that no great change was made in Dr. +Leslie's house. The doctor himself and Marilla were both well settled +in their habits, and while they cordially made room for the little +girl who was to be the third member of the household, her coming made +little difference to either of her elders. There was a great deal of +illness that winter, and the doctor was more than commonly busy; Nan +was sent to school, and discovered the delight of reading one stormy +day when her guardian had given her leave to stay at home, and she had +found his own old copy of Robinson Crusoe looking most friendly and +inviting in a corner of one of the study shelves. As for school, she +had never liked it, and the village school gave her far greater misery +than the weather-beaten building at the cross-roads ever had done. She +had known many of the village children by sight, from seeing them in +church, but she did not number many friends among them, even after the +winter was nearly gone and the days began to grow brighter and less +cold, and the out-of-door games were a source of great merriment in +the playground. Nan's ideas of life were quite unlike those held by +these new acquaintances, and she could not gain the least interest in +most of the other children, though she grew fond of one boy who was a +famous rover and fisherman, and after one of the elder girls had read +a composition which fired our heroine's imagination, she worshiped +this superior being from a suitable distance, and was her willing +adorer and slave. The composition was upon The Moon, and when the +author proclaimed the fact that this was the same moon which had +looked down upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, little Nan's eyes had +opened wide with reverence and awe, and she opened the doors of her +heart and soul to lofty thought and high imagination. The big girl, +who sat in the back seat and glibly recited amazing lessons in +history, and did sums which entirely covered the one small blackboard, +was not unmindful of Nan's admiration, and stolidly accepted and +munched the offerings of cracked nuts, or of the treasured English +apples which had been brought from the farm and kept like a squirrel's +hoard in an archway of the cellar by themselves. Nan cherished an idea +of going back to the farm to live by herself as soon as she grew a +little older, and she indulged in pleasing day-dreams of a most +charming life there, with frequent entertainments for her friends, at +which the author of the information about the moon would be the +favored guest, and Nan herself, in a most childish and provincial +fashion, the reigning queen. What did these new town-acquaintances +know of the strawberries which grew in the bit of meadow, or the great +high-bush blackberries by one of the pasture walls, and what would +their pleasure be when they were taken down the river some moonlight +night and caught sight of a fire blazing on a distant bank, and went +nearer to find a sumptuous feast which Nan herself had arranged? She +had been told that her aunt—that mysterious and beneficent aunt—had +already sent her money which was lying idle in the bank until she +should need to spend it, and her imaginary riches increased week by +week, while her horizon of future happiness constantly grew wider. +</p> +<p> +The other children were not unwilling at first to enter upon an +inquisitive friendship with the new-comer; but Marilla was so +uncongenial to the noisy visitors, and so fastidious in the matter of +snowy and muddy shoes, that she was soon avoided. Nan herself was a +teachable child and gave little trouble, and Marilla sometimes +congratulated herself because she had reserved the violent objections +which had occurred to her mind when the doctor had announced, just +before Mrs. Thacher's death, that his ward would henceforth find a +home in his house. +</p> +<p> +Marilla usually sat in the dining-room in the evening, though she was +apt to visit the study occasionally, knitting in hand, to give her +opinions, or to acquaint herself with various events of which she +thought the doctor would be likely to have knowledge. Sometimes in the +colder winter nights, she drew a convenient light-stand close beside +the kitchen stove and refused to wander far from such comfortable +warmth. Now that she had Nan's busy feet to cover, there was less +danger than ever that she should be left without knitting-work, and +she deeply enjoyed the child's company, since Nan could give innocent +answers to many questions which could never be put to elder members of +the Dyer and Thacher neighborhood. Mrs. Meeker was apt to be discussed +with great freedom, and Nan told long stories about her own childish +experiences, which were listened to and encouraged, and matched with +others even longer and more circumstantial by Marilla. The doctor, who +was always reading when he could find a quiet hour for himself, often +smiled as he heard the steady sound of voices from the wide kitchen, +and he more than once took a few careful steps into the dining-room, +and stood there shaking with laughter at the character of the +conversation. Nan, though eager to learn, and curious about many +things in life and nature, at first found her school lessons +difficult, and sometimes came appealingly to him for assistance, when +circumstances had made a temporary ending of her total indifference to +getting the lessons at all. For this and other reasons she sometimes +sought the study, and drew a small chair beside the doctor's large one +before the blazing fire of the black birch logs; and then Marilla in +her turn would venture upon the neutral ground between study and +kitchen, and smile with satisfaction at the cheerful companionship of +the tired man and the idle little girl who had already found her way +to his lonely heart. Nan had come to another home; there was no +question about what should be done with her and for her, but she was +made free of the silent old house, and went on growing taller, and +growing dearer, and growing happier day by day. Whatever the future +might bring, she would be sure to look back with love and longing to +the first summer of her village life, when, seeing that she looked +pale and drooping, the doctor, to her intense gratification, took her +away from school. Presently, instead of having a ride out into the +country as an occasional favor, she might be seen every day by the +doctor's side, as if he could not make his morning rounds without her; +and in and out of the farm-houses she went, following him like a +little dog, or, as Marilla scornfully expressed it, a briar at his +heels; sitting soberly by when he dealt his medicines and gave advice, +listening to his wise and merry talk with some, and his helpful advice +and consolation to others of the country people. Many of these +acquaintances treated Nan with great kindness; she half belonged to +them, and was deeply interesting for the sake of her other ties of +blood and bonds of fortune, while she took their courtesy with +thankfulness, and their lack of notice with composure. If there were a +shiny apple offered she was glad, but if not, she did not miss it, +since her chief delight was in being the doctor's assistant and +attendant, and her eyes were always watching for chances when she +might be of use. And one day, coming out from a bedroom, the doctor +discovered, to his amusement, that her quick and careful fingers had +folded the papers of some powders which he had left unfolded on the +table. As they drove home together in the bright noon sunshine, he +said, as if the question were asked for the sake of joking a little, +"What are you going to do when you grow up, Nan?" to which she +answered gravely, as if it were the one great question of her life, "I +should like best to be a doctor." Strangely enough there flitted +through the doctor's mind a remembrance of the day when he had talked +with Mrs. Meeker, and had looked up the lane to see the unlucky turkey +whose leg had been put into splints. He had wished more than once that +he had taken pains to see how the child had managed it; but old Mrs. +Thacher had reported the case to have been at least partially +successful. +</p> +<p> +Nan had stolen a look at her companion after the answer had been +given, but had been pleased and comforted to find that he was not +laughing at her, and at once began a lively picture of becoming famous +in her chosen profession, and the valued partner of Dr. Leslie, whose +skill everybody praised so heartily. He should not go out at night, +and she would help him so much that he would wonder how he ever had +been able to manage his wide-spread practice alone. It was a matter of +no concern to her that Marilla had laughed when she had been told of +Nan's intentions, and had spoken disrespectfully of women doctors; and +the child's heart was full of pride and hope. The doctor stopped his +horse suddenly to show Nan some flowers which grew at the roadside, +some brilliant cardinals, and she climbed quickly down to gather them. +There was an unwritten law that they should keep watch, one to the +right hand, and the other to the left, and such treasures of blossoms +or wild fruit seldom escaped Nan's vision. Now she felt as if she had +been wrong to let her thoughts go wandering, and her cheeks were +almost as bright as the scarlet flowers themselves, as she clambered +back to the wagon seat. But the doctor was in deep thought, and had +nothing more to say for the next mile or two. It had become like a +bad-case day suddenly and without apparent reason; but Nan had no +suspicion that she was the patient in charge whose welfare seemed to +the doctor to be dependent upon his own decisions. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + IX +</h2> +<h3> + AT DR. LESLIE'S +</h3> +<p> +That evening Dr. Leslie made signs that he was not to be interrupted, +and even shut the study doors, to which precaution he seldom resorted. +He was evidently disturbed when an hour later a vigorous knocking was +heard at the seldom-used front entrance, and Marilla ushered in with +anything but triumph an elderly gentleman who had been his college +classmate. Marilla's countenance wore a forbidding expression, and as +she withdrew she took pains to shut the door between the hall and +dining-room with considerable violence. It was almost never closed +under ordinary circumstances, but the faithful housekeeper was +impelled to express her wrath in some way, and this was the first +that offered itself. Nan was sitting peacefully in the kitchen playing +with her black cat and telling herself stories no doubt, and was quite +unprepared for Marilla's change of temper. The bell for the Friday +evening prayer-meeting was tolling its last strokes and it was +Marilla's habit to attend that service. She was apt to be kept closely +at home, it must be acknowledged, and this was one of her few social +indulgences. Since Nan had joined the family and proved that she could +be trusted with a message, she had been left in charge of the house +during this coveted hour on Friday evenings. +</p> +<p> +Marilla had descended from her room arrayed for church going, but now +her bonnet was pulled off as if that were the prime offender, and when +the child looked wonderingly around the kitchen, she saw the bread-box +brought out from the closet and put down very hard on a table, while +Marilla began directly afterward to rattle at the stove. +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to say to some folks that we don't keep hotel," grumbled the +good woman, "I wish to my heart I'd stepped right out o' the front +door and gone straight to meetin' and left them there beholdin' of me. +Course he hasn't had no supper, nor dinner neither like's not, and if +men are ever going to drop down on a family unexpected it's always +Friday night when everything's eat up that ever was in the house. I +s'pose, after I bake double quantities to-morrow mornin', he'll be +drivin' off before noon-time, and treasure it up that we never have +nothin' decent to set before folks. Anna, you've got to stir yourself +and help, while I get the fire started up; lay one o' them big dinner +napkins over the red cloth, and set a plate an' a tea-cup, for as for +laying the whole table over again, I won't and I shan't. There's water +to cart upstairs and the bed-room to open, but Heaven be thanked I was +up there dustin' to-day, and if ever you set a mug of flowers into one +o' the spare-rooms again and leave it there a week or ten days to +spile, I'll speak about it to the doctor. Now you step out o' my way +like a good girl. I don't know whether you or the cat's the worst for +gettin' before me when I'm in a drive. I'll set him out somethin' to +eat, and then I'm goin' to meetin' if the skies fall." +</p> +<p> +Nan meekly obeyed directions, and with a sense of guilt concerning the +deserted posies went to hover about the study door after the plates +were arranged, instead of braving further the stormy atmosphere of the +kitchen. Marilla's lamp had shone in so that there had been light +enough in the dining-room, but the study was quite dark except where +there was one spark at the end of the doctor's half-finished cigar, +which was alternately dim and bright like the revolving lantern of a +lighthouse. +</p> +<p> +At that moment the smoker rose, and with his most considerate and +conciliatory tone asked Marilla for the study lamp, but Nan heard, and +ran on tiptoe and presently brought it in from the kitchen, holding it +carefully with both hands and walking slowly. She apparently had no +thought beyond her errand, but she was brimful of eagerness to see the +unexpected guest; for guests were by no means frequent, and since she +had really become aware of a great outside world beyond the boundaries +of Oldfields she welcomed the sight of any messengers. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie hastily pushed away some books from the lamp's place; and +noticing that his visitor looked at Nan with surprise, quickly +explained that this little girl had come to take care of him, and bade +Nan speak to Dr. Ferris. Whereupon her bravery was sorely tried, but +not overcome, and afterward she sat down in her own little chair, +quite prepared to be hospitable. As she heard a sound of water being +poured into a pitcher in the best room upstairs, she was ready to +laugh if there had been anybody to laugh with, and presently Marilla +appeared at the door with the announcement that there was some tea +waiting in the dining-room, after which and before anybody had thought +of moving, the side gate clacked resolutely, and Marilla, looking more +prim and unruffled than usual, sped forth to the enjoyment of her +Friday evening privileges. +</p> +<p> +Nan followed the gentlemen to the dining-room not knowing whether she +were wanted or not, but feeling quite assured when it was ascertained +that neither sugar nor teaspoons had been provided. The little feast +looked somewhat meagre, and the doctor spoke irreverently of his +housekeeper and proceeded to abstract a jar of her best strawberry jam +from the convenient store-closet, and to collect other articles of +food which seemed to him to be inviting, however inappropriate to the +occasion. The guest would have none of the jam, but Dr. Leslie cut a +slice of the loaf of bread for himself and one for Nan, though it had +already waned beyond its last quarter, and nobody knew what would +happen if there were no toast at breakfast time. Marilla would never +know what a waste of jam was spread upon these slices either, but she +was a miser only with the best preserves, and so our friends reveled +in their stolen pleasure, and were as merry together as heart could +wish. +</p> +<p> +Nan thought it very strange when she found that the doctor and his +guest had been at school together, for the stranger seemed so old and +worn. They were talking about other classmates at first, and she sat +still to listen, until the hour of Marilla's return drew near and Dr. +Leslie prudently returned to his own uninvaded apartment. Nan was +told, to her sorrow, that it was past her bed-time and as she stopped +to say good-night, candle in hand, a few moments afterward, the doctor +stooped to kiss her with unusual tenderness, and a little later, when +she was safe in her small bedroom and under the coverlet which was +Marilla's glory, having been knit the winter before in an intricate +pattern, she almost shook with fear at the sound of its maker's +vengeful footsteps in the lower room. It is to be hoped that the +influence of the meeting had been very good, and that one of its +attendants had come home equal to great demands upon her fortitude and +patience. Nan could not help wishing she had thought to put away the +jam, and she wondered how Marilla would treat them all in the morning. +But, to do that worthy woman justice, she was mild and considerate, +and outdid herself in the breakfast that was set forth in the guest's +honor, and Dr. Ferris thought he could do no less than to add to his +morning greeting the question why she was not growing old like the +rest of them, which, though not answered, was pleasantly received. +</p> +<p> +The host and guest talked very late the night before, and told each +other many things. Dr. Leslie had somewhat unwillingly undertaken the +country practice which had grown dearer to him with every year, but +there were family reasons why he had decided to stay in Oldfields for +a few months at least, and though it was not long before he was left +alone, not only by the father and mother whose only child he was, but +by his wife and child, he felt less and less inclination to break the +old ties and transplant himself to some more prominent position of the +medical world. The leisure he often had at certain seasons of the year +was spent in the studies which always delighted him, and little by +little he gained great repute among his professional brethren. He was +a scholar and a thinker in other than medical philosophies, and most +persons who knew anything of him thought it a pity that he should be +burying himself alive, as they were pleased to term his devotion to +his provincial life. His rare excursions to the cities gave more +pleasure to other men than to himself, however, in these later years, +and he laughingly proclaimed himself to be growing rusty and behind +the times to Dr. Ferris, who smiled indulgently, and did not take the +trouble to contradict so untrue and preposterous an assertion. +</p> +<p> +If one man had been a stayer at home; a vegetable nature, as Dr. +Leslie had gone on to say, which has no power to change its locality +or to better itself by choosing another and more adequate or +stimulating soil; the other had developed the opposite extreme of +character, being by nature a rover. From the medical school he had +entered at once upon the duties of a naval appointment, and after he +had become impatient of its routine of practice and its check upon his +freedom, he had gone, always with some sufficient and useful object, +to one far country after another. Lately he had spent an unusual +number of consecutive months in Japan, which was still unfamiliar even +to most professional travelers, and he had come back to America +enthusiastic and full of plans for many enterprises which his shrewd, +but not very persistent brain had conceived. The two old friends were +delighted to see each other, but they took this long-deferred meeting +as calmly as if they were always next-door neighbors. It was a most +interesting thing that while they led such different lives and took +such apparently antagonistic routes of progression, they were pretty +sure to arrive at the same conclusion, though it might appear +otherwise to a listener who knew them both slightly. +</p> +<p> +"And who is the little girl?" asked Dr. Ferris, who had refused his +entertainer's cigars and produced a pipe from one pocket, after having +drawn a handful of curious small jade figures from another and pushed +them along the edge of the study table, without comment, for his +friend to look at. Some of them were so finely carved that they looked +like a heap of grotesque insects struggling together as they lay +there, but though Dr. Leslie's eyes brightened as he glanced at them, +he gave no other sign of interest at that time, and answered his +guest's question instead. +</p> +<p> +"She is a ward of mine," he said; "she was left quite alone by the +death of her grandmother some months ago, and so I brought her here." +</p> +<p> +"It isn't often that I forget a face," said Dr. Ferris, "but I have +been trying to think what association I can possibly have with that +child. I remember at last; she looks like a young assistant surgeon +who was on the old frigate Fortune with me just before I left the +service. I don't think he was from this part of the country though; I +never heard what became of him." +</p> +<p> +"I dare say it was her father; I believe he made a voyage or two," +said Dr. Leslie, much interested. "Do you know anything more about +him? you always remember everything, Ferris." +</p> +<p> +"Yes," answered the guest, slowly puffing away at his pipe. "Yes, he +was a very bright fellow, with a great gift at doctoring, but he was +willful, full of queer twists and fancies, the marry in haste and +repent at his leisure sort of young man." +</p> +<p> +"Exactly what he did, I suppose," interrupted the host. "Only his +leisure was fortunately postponed to the next world, for the most +part; he died very young." +</p> +<p> +"I used to think it a great pity that he had not settled himself +ashore in a good city practice," continued Dr. Ferris. "He had a great +knack at pleasing people and making friends, and he was always +spoiling for want of work. I was ready enough to shirk my part of +that, you may be sure, but if you start with a reasonably healthy set +of men, crew and officers, and keep good discipline, and have no +accidents on the voyage, an old-fashioned ship-master's kit of +numbered doses is as good as anything on board a man-of-war in time of +peace. You have mild cases that result from over-heating or +over-eating, and sometimes a damaged finger to dress, or a tooth to +pull. I used to tell young Prince that it was a pity one of the men +wouldn't let himself be chopped to pieces and fitted together again to +give us a little amusement." +</p> +<p> +"That's the name," announced Nan's guardian with great satisfaction. +"This is a very small world; we are all within hail of each other. I +dare say when we get to Heaven there will not be a stranger to make +friends with." +</p> +<p> +"I could give you more wonderful proofs of that than you would be +likely to believe," responded the surgeon. "But tell me how you +happened to have anything to do with the child; did Prince wander into +this neighborhood?" +</p> +<p> +"Not exactly, but he fell in love with a young girl who was brought up +on one of the farms just out of the village. She was a strange +character, a handsome creature, with a touch of foolish ambition, and +soon grew impatient of the routine of home life. I believe that she +went away at first to work in one of the factories in Lowell, and +afterward she drifted to Dunport, where young Prince's people lived, +and I dare say it was when he came home from that very voyage you knew +of that he saw her and married her. She worked in a dressmaker's shop, +and worked very well too, but she had offended his sister to begin +with, one day when she was finding fault with some work that had been +done for her, and so there was no end of trouble, and the young man +had a great battle at home, and the more he was fought the less +inclined he was to yield, and at last off he went to be married, and +never came home again until he died. It was a wretched story; he only +lived two years, and they went from one place to another, and finally +the end came in some Western town. He had not been happy with his +wife, and they quarreled from time to time, and he asked to be brought +back to Dunport and buried. This child was only a baby, and the +Princes begged her mother to give her up, and used every means to try +to make friends, and to do what was right. But I have always thought +there was blame on both sides. At any rate the wife was insolent and +unruly, and went flinging out of the house as soon as the funeral was +over. I don't know what became of them for a while, but it always +seemed to me as if poor Adeline must have had a touch of insanity, +which faded away as consumption developed itself. Her mother's people +were a fine, honest race, self-reliant and energetic, but there is a +very bad streak on the other side. I have heard that she was seen +begging somewhere, but I am not sure that it is true; at any rate she +would neither come here to her own home nor listen to any plea from +her husband's family, and at last came back to the farm one night like +a ghost, carrying the child in her arms across the fields; all in rags +and tatters, both of them. She confessed to me that she had meant to +drown herself and little Nan together. I could never understand why +she went down so fast. I know that she had been drinking. Some people +might say that it was the scorn of her husband's relatives, but that +is all nonsense, and I have no doubt she and the young man might have +done very well if this hadn't spoiled all their chances at the outset. +She was quite unbalanced and a strange, wild creature, very handsome +in her girlhood, but morally undeveloped. It was impossible not to +have a liking for her. I remember her when she was a baby." +</p> +<p> +"And yet people talk about the prosaic New England life!" exclaimed +Dr. Ferris. "I wonder where I could match such a story as that, though +I dare say that you know a dozen others. I tell you, Leslie, that for +intense, self-centred, smouldering volcanoes of humanity, New England +cannot be matched the world over. It's like the regions in Iceland +that are full of geysers. I don't know whether it is the inheritance +from those people who broke away from the old countries, and who ought +to be matched to tremendous circumstances of life, but now and then +there comes an amazingly explosive and uncontrollable temperament that +goes all to pieces from its own conservation and accumulation of +force. By and by you will have all blown up,—you quiet descendants of +the Pilgrims and Puritans, and have let off your superfluous +wickedness like blizzards; and when the blizzards of each family have +spent themselves you will grow dull and sober, and all on a level, and +be free from the troubles of a transition state. Now, you're neither a +new country nor an old one. You ought to see something of the older +civilizations to understand what peace of mind is. Unless some +importation of explosive material from the westward stirs them up, one +century is made the pattern for the next. But it is perfectly +wonderful what this climate does for people who come to it,—a south +of Ireland fellow, for instance, who has let himself be rained on and +then waited for the sun to dry him again, and has grubbed a little in +a bit of ground, just enough to hint to it that it had better be +making a crop of potatoes for him. I always expect to see the gorse +and daisies growing on the old people's heads to match the cabins. But +they come over here and forget their idleness, and in a week or two +the east winds are making them work, and thrashing them if they are +slow, worse than any slave-driver who ever cracked his whip-lash. I +wonder how you stand it; I do, indeed! I can't take an afternoon nap +or have my coffee in bed of a morning without thinking I must put into +port at the next church to be preached at." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie laughed a little and shook his head gently. "It's very well +for you to talk, Ferris," he said, "since you have done more work than +any man I know. And I find this neighborhood entirely placid; one bit +of news will last us a fortnight. I dare say Marilla will let +everybody know that you have come to town, and have explained why she +was ten minutes late, even to the minister." +</p> +<p> +"How about the little girl herself?" asked the guest presently; "she +seems well combined, and likely, as they used to say when I was a +boy." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie resumed the subject willingly: "So far as I can see, she +has the good qualities of all her ancestors without the bad ones. Her +mother's mother was an old fashioned country woman of the best stock. +Of course she resented what she believed to be her daughter's wrongs, +and refused to have anything to do with her son-in-law's family, and +kept the child as carefully as possible from any knowledge of them. +Little Nan was not strong at first, but I insisted that she should be +allowed to run free out of doors. It seems to me that up to seven or +eight years of age children are simply bundles of inheritances, and I +can see the traits of one ancestor after another; but a little later +than the usual time she began to assert her own individuality, and has +grown capitally well in mind and body ever since. There is an amusing +trace of the provincial self-reliance and self-respect and farmer-like +dignity, added to a quick instinct, and tact and ready courtesy, which +must have come from the other side of her ancestry. She is more a +child of the soil than any country child I know, and yet she would not +put a city household to shame. She has seen nothing of the world of +course, but you can see she isn't like the usual village school-girl. +There is one thing quite remarkable. I believe she has grown up as +naturally as a plant grows, not having been clipped back or forced in +any unnatural direction. If ever a human being were untrammeled and +left alone to see what will come of it, it is this child. And I will +own I am very much interested to see what will appear later." +</p> +<p> +The navy surgeon's eyes twinkled at this enthusiasm, but he asked +soberly what seemed to be our heroine's bent, so far as could be +discovered, and laughed outright when he was gravely told that it was +a medical bent; a surprising understanding of things pertaining to +that most delightful profession. +</p> +<p> +"But you surely don't mean to let her risk her happiness in following +that career?" Dr. Ferris inquired with feigned anxiety for his answer. +"You surely aren't going to sacrifice that innocent creature to a +theory! I know it's a theory; last time I was here, you could think of +nothing but hypnotism or else the action of belladonna in congestion +and inflammation of the brain;" and he left his very comfortable chair +suddenly, with a burst of laughter, and began to walk up and down the +room. "She has no relatives to protect her, and I consider it a +shocking case of a guardian's inhumanity. Grown up naturally indeed! I +don't doubt that you supplied her with Bell's 'Anatomy' for a +picture-book and made her say over the names of the eight little bones +of her wrist, instead of 'This little pig went to market.'" +</p> +<p> +"I only hope that you'll live to grow up yourself, Ferris," said his +entertainer, "you'll certainly be an ornament to your generation. What +a boy you are! I should think you would feel as old as Methuselah by +this time, after having rattled from one place to the next all these +years. Don't you begin to get tired?" +</p> +<p> +"No, I don't believe I do," replied Dr. Ferris, lending himself to +this new turn of the conversation, but not half satisfied with the +number of his jokes. "I used to be afraid I should, and so I tried to +see everything I could of the world before my enthusiasm began to +cool. And as for rattling to the next place, as you say, you show +yourself to be no traveler by nature, or you wouldn't speak so +slightingly. It is extremely dangerous to make long halts. I could cry +with homesickness at the thought of the towns I have spent more than a +month in; they are like the people one knows; if you see them once, +you go away satisfied, and you can bring them to mind afterward, and +think how they looked or just where it was you met them,—out of doors +or at the club. But if you live with those people, and get fond of +them, and have a thousand things to remember, you get more pain than +pleasure out of it when you go away. And one can't be everywhere at +once, so if you're going to care for things tremendously, you had +better stay in one town altogether. No, give me a week or two, and +then I've something calling me to the next place; somebody to talk +with or a book to see, and off I go. Yet, I've done a good bit of work +in my day after all. Did you see that paper of mine in the 'Lancet' +about some experiments I made when I was last in India with those +tree-growing jugglers? and I worked out some curious things about the +mathematics of music on this last voyage home! Why, I thought it would +tear my heart in two when I came away. I should have grown to look +like the people, and you might have happened to find a likeness of me +on a tea plate after another year or two. I made all my plans one day +to stay another winter, and next day at eleven o'clock I was steaming +down the harbor. But there was a poor young lad I had taken a liking +for, an English boy, who was badly off after an accident and needed +somebody to look after him. I thought the best thing I could do was to +bring him home. Are you going to fit your ward for general practice +or for a specialty?" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know; that'll be for the young person herself to decide," +said Dr. Leslie good-humoredly. "But she's showing a real talent for +medical matters. It is quite unconscious for the most part, but I find +that she understands a good deal already, and she sat here all the +afternoon last week with one of my old medical dictionaries. I +couldn't help looking over her shoulder as I went by, and she was +reading about fevers, if you please, as if it were a story-book. I +didn't think it was worth while to tell her we understood things +better nowadays, and didn't think it best to bleed as much as old Dr. +Rush recommended." +</p> +<p> +"You're like a hen with one chicken, Leslie," said the friend, still +pacing to and fro. "But seriously, I like your notion of her having +come to this of her own accord. Most of us are grown in the shapes +that society and family preference and prejudice fasten us into, and +don't find out until we are well toward middle life that we should +have done a great deal better at something else. Our vocations are +likely enough to be illy chosen, since few persons are fit to choose +them for us, and we are at the most unreasonable stage of life when we +choose them for ourselves. And what the Lord made some people for, +nobody ever can understand; some of us are for use and more are for +waste, like the flowers. I am in such a hurry to know what the next +world is like that I can hardly wait to get to it. Good heavens! we +live here in our familiar fashion, going at a jog-trot pace round our +little circles, with only a friend or two to speak with who understand +us, and a pipe and a jack-knife and a few books and some old clothes, +and please ourselves by thinking we know the universe! Not a soul of +us can tell what it is that sends word to our little fingers to move +themselves back and forward." +</p> +<p> +"We're sure of two things at any rate," said Dr. Leslie, "love to God +and love to man. And though I have lived here all my days, I have +learned some truths just as well as if I had gone about with you, or +even been to the next world and come back. I have seen too many lives +go to pieces, and too many dissatisfied faces, and I have heard too +many sorrowful confessions from these country death-beds I have +watched beside, one after another, for twenty or thirty years. And if +I can help one good child to work with nature and not against it, and +to follow the lines marked out for her, and she turns out useful and +intelligent, and keeps off the rocks of mistaking her duty, I shall be +more than glad. I don't care whether it's a man's work or a woman's +work; if it is hers I'm going to help her the very best way I can. I +don't talk to her of course; she's much too young; but I watch her and +mean to put the things in her way that she seems to reach out for and +try to find. She is going to be very practical, for her hands can +almost always work out her ideas already. I like to see her take hold +of things, and I like to see her walk and the way she lifts her feet +and puts them down again. I must say, Ferris, there is a great +satisfaction in finding a human being once in a while that has some +use of itself." +</p> +<p> +"You're right!" said Dr. Ferris; "but don't be disappointed when she's +ten years older if she picks out a handsome young man and thinks there +is nothing like housekeeping. Have you taken a look at my pocketful of +heathen idols there yet? I don't think you've ever seen their mates." +</p> +<p> +The stayer at home smiled as if he understood his friend's quiet bit +of pleasantry, and reached for one of the treasures, but folded it in +his hand without looking at it and seemed to be lost in meditation. +The surgeon concluded that he had had enough exercise and laid himself +down on the wide sofa at the end of the room, from whence he could +watch his companion's face. He clasped his hands under his head and +looked eager and interested. He had grown to have something of the +appearance of a foreigner, as people often do who have spent much time +in eastern countries. The two friends were silent for some minutes, +until an impatient voice roused Dr. Leslie from his reflections. +</p> +<p> +"It always makes me covet my neighbor's wits when I see you!" +announced the wanderer. "If I settled myself into a respectable +practice I should be obliged to march with the army of doctors who +carry a great array of small weapons, and who find out what is the +matter with their patients after all sorts of experiment and +painstaking analysis, and comparing the results of their thermometers +and microscopes with scientific books of reference. After I have done +all that, you know, if I have had good luck I shall come to exactly +what you can say before you have been with a sick man five minutes. +You have the true gift for doctoring, you need no medical dictator, +and whatever you study and whatever comes to you in the way of +instruction simply ministers to your intuition. It grows to be a +wonderful second-sight in such a man as you. I don't believe you +investigate a case and treat it as a botanist does a strange flower, +once a month. You know without telling yourself what the matter is, +and what the special difference is, and the relative dangers of this +case and one apparently just like it across the street, and you could +do this before you were out of the hospitals. I remember you!" and +after a few vigorous puffs of smoke he went on; "It is all very well +for the rest of the men to be proud of their book learning, but they +don't even try to follow nature, as Sydenham did, who followed no man. +I believe such study takes one to more theory and scientific digest +rather than to more skill. It is all very well to know how to draw +maps when one gets lost on a dark night, or even to begin with +astronomical calculations and come down to a chemical analysis of the +mud you stand in, but hang me if I wouldn't rather have the instinct +of a dog who can go straight home across a bit of strange country. A +man has no right to be a doctor if he doesn't simply make everything +bend to his work of getting sick people well, and of trying to remedy +the failures of strength that come from misuse or inheritance or +ignorance. The anatomists and the pathologists have their place, but +we must look to the living to learn the laws of life, not to the dead. +A wreck shows you where the reef is, perhaps, but not how to manage a +ship in the offing. The men who make it their business to write the +books and the men who make it their business to follow them aren't the +ones for successful practice." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie smiled, and looked over his shoulder at his beloved library +shelves, as if he wished to assure the useful volumes of his continued +affection and respect, and said quietly, as if to beg the displeased +surgeon's patience with his brethren: "They go on, poor fellows, +studying the symptoms and never taking it in that the life power is at +fault. I see more and more plainly that we ought to strengthen and +balance the whole system, and aid nature to make the sick man well +again. It is nature that does it after all, and diseases are oftener +effects of illness than causes. But the young practitioners must +follow the text-books a while until they have had enough experience to +open their eyes to observe and have learned to think for themselves. I +don't know which is worse; too much routine or no study at all. I was +trying the other day to count up the different treatments of pneumonia +that have been in fashion in our day; there must be seven or eight, +and I am only afraid the next thing will be a sort of skepticism and +contempt of remedies. Dr. Johnson said long ago that physicians were a +class of men who put bodies of which they knew little into bodies of +which they knew less, but certainly this isn't the fault of the +medicines altogether; you and I know well enough they are often most +stupidly used. If we blindly follow the medical dictators, as you call +them, and spend our treatment on the effects instead of the causes, +what success can we expect? We do want more suggestions from the men +at work, but I suppose this is the same with every business. The +practical medical men are the juries who settle all the theories of +the hour, as they meet emergencies day after day." +</p> +<p> +"The men who have the true gift for their work," said Dr. Ferris +impatiently. "I hadn't the conscience to go on myself, that's why I +resigned, you know. I can talk about it, but I am not a good workman. +But if there are going to be doctors in the next world, I wish I might +be lucky enough to be equal to such a heavenly business. You thought I +didn't care enough about the profession to go on, but it wasn't so. Do +push your little girl ahead if she has the real fitness. I suppose it +is a part of your endowment that you can distinguish the capacities +and tendencies of health as well as illness; and there's one thing +certain, the world cannot afford to do without the workmen who are +masters of their business by divine right." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie was looking at the jade-stone gods. "I suppose the poor +fellows who chipped out these treasures of yours may have thought they +were really putting a visible piece of Heaven within their neighbors' +reach," he said. "We can't get used to the fact that whatever truly +belongs to the next world is not visible in this, and that there is +idol-making and worshiping forever going on. When we let ourselves +forget to educate our faith and our spiritual intellects, and lose +sight of our relation and dependence upon the highest informing +strength, we are trying to move our machinery by some inferior motive +power. We worship our tools and beg success of them instead of +remembering that we are all apprentices to the great Master of our own +and every man's craft. It is the great ideas of our work that we need, +and the laws of its truths. We shall be more intelligent by and by +about making the best of ourselves; our possibilities are infinitely +beyond what most people even dream. Spiritual laziness and physical +laziness together keep us just this side of sound sleep most of the +time. Perhaps you think it is a proper season for one at least?" +</p> +<p> +"Dear me, no!" said Dr. Ferris, who was evidently quite wide awake. +"Do you remember how well Buckle says that the feminine intellect is +the higher, and that the great geniuses of the world have possessed +it? The gift of intuition reaches directly towards the truth, and it +is only reasoning by deduction that can take flight into the upper air +of life and certainty. You remember what he says about that?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes," said Dr. Leslie. "Yes, it isn't a thing one easily forgets. But +I have long believed that the powers of Christ were but the higher +powers of our common humanity. We recognize them dimly now and then, +but few of us dare to say so yet. The world moves very slowly, doesn't +it? If Christ were perfect man, He could hardly tell us to follow Him +and be like Him, and yet know all the while that it was quite +impossible, because a difference in his gifts made his character an +unapproachable one to ours. We don't amount to anything, simply +because we won't understand that we must receive the strength of +Heaven into our souls; that it depends upon our degree of receptivity, +and our using the added power that comes in that way; not in our +taking our few tools, and our self-esteem and satisfaction with +ourselves, and doing our little tricks like dancing dogs; proud +because the other dogs can do one less than we, or only bark and walk +about on their four legs. It is our souls that make our bodies worth +anything, and the life of the soul doesn't come from its activity, or +any performance of its own. Those things are only the results and the +signs of life, not the causes of it." +</p> +<p> +"Christ in us, the hope of glory," said the other doctor gravely, "and +Christ's glory was his usefulness and gift for helping others; I +believe there's less quackery in our profession than any other, but it +is amazing how we bungle at it. I wonder how you will get on with your +little girl? If people didn't have theories of life of their own, or +wouldn't go exactly the wrong way, it would be easier to offer +assistance; but where one person takes a right direction of his own +accord, there are twenty who wander to and fro." +</p> +<p> +"I may as well confess to you," he continued presently, "that I have +had a <i>protégé</i> myself, but I don't look for much future joy in +watching the development of my plots. He has taken affairs into his +own hands, and I dare say it is much better for him, for if I had +caught him young enough, I should have wished him to run the gauntlet +of all the professions, not to speak of the arts and sciences. He was +a clever young fellow; I saw him married the day before I left +England. His wife was the daughter of a curate, and he the younger son +of a younger son, and it was a love affair worth two or three +story-books. It came to be a question of money alone. I had known the +boy the year before in Bombay and chanced to find him one day in the +Marine Hospital at Nagasaki. We had been up into the interior +together. He was recommended to me as a sort of secretary and +assistant and knew more than I did about most things. When he caught +sight of me he cried like a baby, and I sat down and heard what the +trouble was, for I had let him go off with somebody who could give him +a good salary,—a government man of position, and I thought poor Bob +would be put in the way of something better. Dear me, the climate was +killing him before my eyes, and I took passage for both of us on the +next day's steamer. When I got him home I turned my bank account into +a cheque and tucked it into his pocket, and told him to marry his wife +and settle down and be respectable and forget such a wandering old +fellow as I." +</p> +<p> +The listener made a little sound of mingled admiration and disgust. +</p> +<p> +"So you're the same piece of improvidence as ever! I wonder if you +worked your passage over to Boston, or came as a stowaway? Well, I'm +glad to give you house-room, and, to tell the truth, I was wondering +how I should get on to-morrow without somebody to help me in a piece +of surgery. My neighbors are not very skillful, but they're good men +every one of them, unless it's old Jackson, who knows no more about +the practice of medicine than a turtle knows about the nearest fixed +star. Ferris! I don't wonder at your giving away the last cent you had +in the world, I only wonder that you had a cent to give. I hope the +young man was grateful, that's all, only I'm not sure I like his +taking it." +</p> +<p> +"He thought I had enough more, I dare say. He said so much I couldn't +stand his nonsense. He'll use it better than I could," said the guest +briefly. "As I said, I couldn't bring him up; in the first place I +haven't the patience, and beside, it wouldn't be just to him. But you +must let me know how you get on with your project; I shall make you a +day's visit once in six months." +</p> +<p> +"That'll be good luck," responded the cheerful host. "Now that I am +growing old I find I wish for company oftener; just the right man, you +know, to come in for an hour or two late in the evening to have a +cigar, and not say a word if he doesn't feel like it." +</p> +<p> +The two friends were very comfortable together; the successive cigars +burnt themselves out slowly, and the light of the great lamp was +bright in the room. Here and there a tinge of red shone out on the +backs of the books that stood close together in the high cases. There +was an old engraving or two, and in one corner a solemn bronze figure +of Dante, thin and angular, as if he had risen from his coffin to take +a last look at this world. Marilla had often spoken of him +disrespectfully, and had suggested many other ornaments which might be +brought to take his place, but the doctor had never acted upon her +suggestions. From the corner of one book-case there hung a huge wasp's +nest, and over the mantel-shelf, which was only wide enough for some +cigar boxes and a little clock and a few vials of medicines, was a +rack where three or four riding whips and a curious silver bit and +some long-stemmed pipes found unmolested quarters; and in one corner +were some walking sticks and a fishing rod or two which had a very +ancient unused look. There was a portrait of Dr. Leslie's grandfather +opposite the fire-place; a good-humored looking old gentleman who had +been the most famous of the Oldfields ministers. The study-table was +wide and long, but it was well covered with a miscellaneous array of +its owner's smaller possessions, and the quick-eyed visitor smiled as +he caught sight of Nan's new copy of Miss Edgeworth's "Parent's +Assistant" lying open and face downward on the top of an instrument +case. +</p> +<p> +Marilla did not hear the doctor and his guest tramp up to bed until +very late at night, and though she had tried to keep awake she had +been obliged to take a nap first and then wake up again to get the +benefit of such an aggravating occasion. "I'm not going to fret myself +trying to make one of my baked omelets in the morning," she assured +herself, "they'll keep breakfast waiting three quarters of an hour, +and it would fall flat sure's the world, and the doctor's got to ride +to all p'ints of the compass to-morrow, too." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + X +</h2> +<h3> + ACROSS THE STREET +</h3> +<p> +It would be difficult to say why the village of Oldfields should have +been placed in the least attractive part of the township, if one were +not somewhat familiar with the law of growth of country communities. +The first settlers, being pious kindred of the Pilgrims, were mindful +of the necessity of a meeting-house, and the place for it was chosen +with reference to the convenience of most of the worshipers. Then the +parson was given a parsonage and a tract of glebe land somewhere in +the vicinity of his pulpit, and since this was the centre of social +attraction, the blacksmith built his shop at the nearest cross-road. +And when some enterprising citizen became possessed of an idea that +there were traders enough toiling to and fro on the rough highways to +the nearest larger village to make it worth his while to be an +interceptor, the first step was taken toward a local centre of +commerce, and the village was fairly begun. It had not yet reached a +remarkable size, though there was a time-honored joke because an +enthusiastic old woman had said once, when four or five houses and a +new meeting-house were being built all in one summer, that she +expected now that she might live to see Oldfields a seaport town. +There had been a great excitement over the second meeting-house, to +which the conservative faction had strongly objected, but, after the +radicals had once gained the day, other innovations passed without +public challenge. The old First Parish Church was very white and held +aloft an imposing steeple, and strangers were always commiserated if +they had to leave town without the opportunity of seeing its front by +moonlight. Behind this, and beyond a green which had been the +playground of many generations of boys and girls, was a long row of +horse-sheds, where the farmers' horses enjoyed such part of their +Sunday rest as was permitted them after bringing heavy loads of rural +parishioners to their public devotions. The Sunday church-going was by +no means so carefully observed in these days as in former ones, when +disinclination was anything but a received excuse. In Parson +Leslie's—the doctor's grandfather's—day, it would have condemned a +man or woman to the well-merited reproof of their acquaintances. And +indeed most parishioners felt deprived of a great pleasure when, after +a week of separation from society, of a routine of prosaic farm-work, +they were prevented from seeing their friends parade into church, from +hearing the psalm-singing and the sermon, and listening to the news +afterward. It was like going to mass and going to the theatre and the +opera, and making a round of short calls, and having an outing in +one's own best clothes to see other people's, all rolled into one; +beside which, there was (and is) a superstitious expectation of good +luck in the coming week if the religious obligations were carefully +fulfilled. So many of the old ideas of the efficacy of ecclesiasticism +still linger, most of them by no means unlawfully. The elder people of +New England are as glad to have their clergyman visit them in their +last days as if he granted them absolution and extreme unction. The +old traditions survive in our instincts, although our present opinions +have long since ticketed many thoughts and desires and customs as out +of date and quite exploded. +</p> +<p> +We go so far in our vigorous observance of the first commandment, and +our fear of worshiping strange gods, that sometimes we are in danger +of forgetting that we must worship God himself. And worship is +something different from a certain sort of constant church-going, or +from even trying to be conformers and to keep our own laws and our +neighbors'. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Because an old-fashioned town like Oldfields grows so slowly and with +such extreme deliberation, is the very reason it seems to have such a +delightful completeness when it has entered fairly upon its maturity. +It is possessed of kindred virtues to a winter pear, which may be +unattractive during its preparatory stages, but which takes time to +gather from the ground and from the air a pleasant and rewarding +individuality and sweetness. The towns which are built in a hurry can +be left in a hurry without a bit of regret, and if it is the fate or +fortune of the elder villages to find themselves the foundation upon +which modern manufacturing communities rear their thinly built houses +and workshops, and their quickly disintegrating communities of people, +the weaknesses of these are more glaring and hopeless in the contrast. +The hurry to make money and do much work, and the ambition to do good +work, war with each other, but, as Longfellow has said, the lie is the +hurrying second-hand of the clock, and the truth the slower hand that +waits and marks the hour. The New England that built itself houses a +hundred years ago was far less oppressed by competition and by other +questions with which the enormous increase of population is worrying +its younger citizens. And the overgrown Oldfields that increase now, +street by street, were built then a single steady sound-timbered house +at a time, and all the neighbors watched them rise, and knew where the +planks were sawn, and where the chimney bricks were burnt. +</p> +<p> +In these days when Anna Prince was young and had lately come to live +in the doctor's square house, with the three peaked windows in the +roof, and the tall box borders and lilac bushes in its neat front +yard, Oldfields was just beginning to wake from a fifty years' +architectural sleep, and rub its eyes, and see what was thought about +a smart little house with a sharp gabled roof, and much scalloping of +its edges, which a new store-keeper had seen fit to build. There was +one long street which had plenty of room on either side for most of +the houses, and where it divided, each side of the First Parish +Church, it became the East road and the West road, and the rest of the +dwellings strayed off somewhat undecidedly toward the world beyond. +There were a good many poplars in the front yards, though their former +proud ranks were broken in many places, so that surviving veterans +stood on guard irregularly before the houses, where usually one or two +members of the once busy households were also left alone. Many of the +people who lived in the village had outlying land and were farmers of +it, but beside the doctor's there were some other households which the +land supported indirectly, either through professions or because some +kind ancestor had laid by enough money for his children and +grandchildren. The ministers were both excellent men; but Dr. Leslie +was the only man who looked far ahead or saw much or cared much for +true success. In Titian's great Venetian picture of the Presentation +of the Virgin, while the little maiden goes soberly up the steps of +the temple, in the busy crowd beneath only one man is possessed by the +thought that something wonderful is happening, and lifts his head, +forgetting the buyers and sellers and gossipers, as his eyes follow +the sacred sight. Life goes on everywhere like that fragment of it in +the picture, but while the man who knows more than his fellows can be +found in every company, and sees the light which beckons him on to the +higher meanings and better gifts, his place in society is not always +such a comfortable and honored one as Dr. Leslie's. What his friends +were apt to call his notions were not of such aggressive nature that +he was accused of outlawry, and he was apt to speak his mind +uncontradicted and undisturbed. He cared little for the friction and +attrition, indeed for the inspiration, which one is sure to have who +lives among many people, and which are so dear and so helpful to most +of us who fall into ruts if we are too much alone. He loved his +friends and his books, though he understood both as few scholars can, +and he cared little for social pleasure, though Oldfields was, like +all places of its size and dignity, an epitome of the world. One or +two people of each class and rank are as good as fifty, and, to use +the saying of the doctor's friend, old Captain Finch: "Human nature is +the same the world over." +</p> +<p> +Through the long years of his solitary life, and his busy days as a +country practitioner, he had become less and less inclined to take +much part in what feeble efforts the rest of the townspeople made to +entertain themselves. He was more apt to loiter along the street, +stopping here and there to talk with his neighbors at their gates or +their front-yard gardening, and not infrequently asked some one who +stood in need of such friendliness to take a drive with him out into +the country. Nobody was grieved at remembering that he was a +repository of many secrets; he was a friend who could be trusted +always, though he was one who had been by no means slow to anger or +unwilling at times to administer rebuke. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +One Sunday afternoon, late in November, while the first snow-storm of +the year was beginning, Dr. Leslie threw down a stout French medical +work of high renown as if it had failed to fulfil its mission of being +instructive first and interesting afterward. He rose from his chair +and stood looking at the insulted volume as if he had a mind to +apologize and try again, but kept his hands behind him after all. It +was thinly dressed in fluttering paper covers, and was so thick and so +lightly bound that it had a tendency to divide its material substance +into parts, like the seventhlies and eighthlies of an old-fashioned +sermon. "Those fellows must be in league with the book-binders over +here," grumbled the doctor. "I must send word to that man in New York +to have some sort of cover put on these things before they come down." +Then he lifted the book again and poised it on one hand, looking at +its irregular edges, and reflecting at length that it would be in much +better condition if he had not given it a careless crushing in the +corner of his carriage the day before. It had been sunshiny, pleasant +weather, and he had taken Nan for a long drive in the Saturday +half-holiday. He had decided, before starting, that she should manage +the reins and he would think over one or two matters and read a +while; it had been a great convenience lately that Nan understood the +responsibility of a horse and carriage. He was finding her a more and +more useful little companion. However, his studies and reflections had +been postponed until some other time, for Nan had been very eager to +talk about some of her lessons in which it seemed his duty to take an +interest. The child seemed stronger and better that autumn than he had +ever known her, and her mind had suddenly fastened itself upon certain +of her studies. She seemed very quick and very accurate, the doctor +thought, and the two traits do not always associate themselves. +</p> +<p> +He left the table and walked quickly to the west window, and, clasping +his hands behind him, stood looking out into the front yard and the +street beyond. The ground was already white and he gave a little sigh, +for winter weather is rarely a source of happiness to a doctor, +although this member of the profession was not made altogether +sorrowful by it. He sometimes keenly enjoyed a hard tramp of a mile or +two when the roads were so blocked and the snow so blinding that he +left his horse in some sheltering barn on his way to an impatient +sufferer. +</p> +<p> +A little way down the street on the other side was a house much like +his own, with a row of tall hemlocks beside it, and a front fence +higher and more imposing than his, with great posts at the gateway, +which held slender urns aloft with funereal solemnity. The doctor's +eyesight was not far from perfect, and he looked earnestly at the +windows of one of the lower rooms and saw a familiar sight enough; his +neighbor Mrs. Graham's face in its accustomed quarter of the sash. Dr. +Leslie half smiled as the thought struck him that she always sat so +exactly in the same place that her white cap was to be seen through +the same lower window-pane. "Most people would have moved their chairs +about until they wore holes in the floor," he told himself, and then +remembered how many times he had gone to look over at his placid +friend, in her favorite afternoon post of observation. He was strongly +attached to her, and he reminded himself that she was growing old and +that he must try to see her oftener. He valued her companionship, more +because he knew it was always ready for him, than because he always +availed himself of it, but the sense of mutual dependence made them +very familiar to each other when they did meet and had time for a bit +of quiet talk. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie suddenly turned; he had watched long enough to make sure +that Mrs. Graham was alone; her head had not moved for many minutes; +and at first he was going out of the front door, from some instinct he +would hardly have been willing to acknowledge, but he resolutely +turned and went out to the dining-room, to tell Marilla, after his +usual professional custom of giving notice of his whereabouts, that he +was going to Mrs. Graham's. A prompt inquiry came from the kitchen to +know if anything ailed her, to which the doctor returned a scornful +negative and escaped through the side-door which gave entrance both to +the study and the dining-room. There was the usual service at +Marilla's meeting-house, but she had not ventured out to attend it, +giving the weather and a grumbling toothache for her reasons, though +she concealed the fact that the faithless town milliner had +disappointed her about finishing her winter bonnet. Marilla had begun +life with certain opinions which she had never changed, though time +and occasion had lessened the value of some of them. She liked to +count herself among those who are persecuted for conscience's sake, +and was immensely fond of an argument and of having it known that she +was a dissenter from the First Parish Church. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Graham looked up with surprise from her book to see the doctor +coming in from the street, and, being helplessly lame, sat still, and +put out her hand to greet him, with a very pleased look on her face. +"Is there anything the matter with me?" she asked. "I have begun to +think you don't care to associate with well people; you don't usually +go to church in the afternoon either, so you haven't taken refuge here +because Mr. Talcot is ill. I must say that I missed hearing the bell; +I shall lose myself altogether by the middle of the week. One must +have some landmarks." +</p> +<p> +"Marilla complained yesterday that she was all at sea because her +apple pies gave out a day too soon. She put the bread to rise the +wrong night, and everything went wrong about the sweeping. It has been +a week of great domestic calamity with us, but Nan confided to me +this morning that there was some trouble with our bonnet into the +bargain. I had forgotten it was time for that," said the doctor, +laughing. "We always have a season of great anxiety and disaster until +the bonnet question is settled. I keep out of the way as much as I +can. Once I tried to be amusing, and said it was a pity the women did +not follow their grandmothers' fashion and make a good Leghorn +structure last ten years and have no more trouble about it; but I was +assured that there wasn't a milliner now living who could set such an +arrangement going." +</p> +<p> +"Marilla's taste is not what one might call commonplace," said Mrs. +Graham, with a smile. "I think her summer head-covering was a little +the most remarkable we have had yet. She dresses so decently +otherwise, good soul!" +</p> +<p> +"It was astonishing," said the doctor gravely, as he stood before the +fire thinking how pleasant the room looked; almost as familiar as his +own study, with its heavy mahogany furniture and two old portraits and +few quaint ornaments. Mrs. Graham's geraniums were all flourishing and +green and even in bloom, unlike most treasures of their kind. There +was a modern element in the room also,—some pretty cushions and other +bits of embroidery; for Mrs. Graham had some grandchildren who were +city born and bred, and who made little offerings to her from time to +time. On the table near her and between the front windows were many +new books and magazines, and though the two neighbors kept up a +regular system of exchange, the doctor went nearer to see what might +be found. There were a few minutes of silence, and he became conscious +that Mrs. Graham was making up her mind to say something, but when she +spoke it was only to ask if there were anything serious the matter +with the minister. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no," said the doctor, "he's a dyspeptic, nervous soul, too +conscientious! and when the time arrives for the sacrifice of pigs, +and his whole admiring parish vie with each other to offer spare-ribs +on that shrine, it goes hard with the poor man." +</p> +<p> +This was worth hearing, but Mrs. Graham was a little sorry that she +had let such a good chance go by for saying something that was near +her heart, so presently she added, "I am sorry that poor Marilla +hasn't a better gift at personal decoration. It seems a pity to let +her disfigure that pretty child with such structures in the way of +head-gear. I was so glad when that abominable great summer hat was +laid by for the season." +</p> +<p> +"It was pretty bad," the doctor agreed, in a provokingly indifferent +tone, whereupon Mrs. Graham's interest was rekindled, and saying to +herself that the poor man did not know the danger and foolishness of +such carelessness, she ventured another comment. +</p> +<p> +"So much depends upon giving a child's taste the right direction." +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie had taken up a magazine, and seemed to have found something +that pleased him, but he at once laid it down and glanced once or +twice at his hostess, as if he hoped for future instructions. "You see +I don't know anything about it, and Nan doesn't think of her clothes +at all, so far as I can tell, and so poor Marilla has to do the best +she can," he said mildly. +</p> +<p> +"Oh dear, yes," answered Mrs. Graham, not without impatience. "But the +child's appearance is of some importance, and since a dollar or two +doesn't make any difference to you, she should be made to look like +the little lady that she is. Dear old Mrs. Thacher would turn in her +grave, for she certainly had a simple good taste that was better than +this. Marilla became the easy prey of that foolish little woman who +makes bonnets on the East road. She has done more to deprave the ideas +of our townspeople than one would believe, and they tell you with such +pleasure that she used to work in New York, as if that settled the +question. It is a comfort to see old Sally Turner and Miss Betsy +Milman go by in their decent dark silk bonnets that good Susan Martin +made for them. If I could go out to-morrow I believe I would rather +hunt for a very large velvet specimen of her work, which is somewhere +upstairs in a big bandbox, than trust myself to these ignorant hands. +It is a great misfortune to a town if it has been disappointed in its +milliner. You are quite at her mercy, and, worse than all, liable to +entire social misapprehension when you venture far from home." +</p> +<p> +"So bonnets are not a question of free will and individual +responsibility?" asked the doctor soberly. "I must say that I have +wondered sometimes if the women do not draw lots for them. But what +shall I do about the little girl? I am afraid I do her great injustice +in trying to bring her up at all—it needs a woman's eye." +</p> +<p> +"Your eye is just as good as anybody's," responded Mrs. Graham +quickly, lest the doctor should drift into sad thought about his young +wife who had been so long dead and yet seemed always a nearer and +dearer living presence to him. He was apt to say a word or two about +her and not answer the next question which was put to him, and +presently go silently away,—but to-day Mrs. Graham had important +business in hand. +</p> +<p> +"My daughter will be here next week," she observed, presently, "and +I'm sure that she will do any shopping for you in Boston with great +pleasure. We might forestall Marilla's plans. You could easily say +when you go home that you have spoken to me about it. I think it would +be an excellent opportunity now, while the East Road establishment is +in disfavor," and when the doctor smiled and nodded, his friend and +hostess settled herself comfortably in her chair, and felt that she +had gained a point. +</p> +<p> +The sunshine itself could hardly have made that south parlor look +pleasanter. There was a log in the fire that was wet, and singing +gently to itself, as if the sound of the summer rustlings and +chirpings had somehow been stored away in its sap, and above it were +some pieces of drier white birch, which were sending up a yellow +conflagration to keep the marauding snow-flakes from coming down the +chimney. The geraniums looked brighter than by daylight, and seemed to +hold their leaves toward the fireplace as if they were hands; and were +even leaning out a little way themselves and lifting their blossoms +like torches, as if they were a reserve force, a little garrison of +weaker soldiers who were also enemies of the cold. The gray twilight +was gathering out of doors; the trees looked naked and defenceless, as +one saw them through the windows. Mrs. Graham tapped the arms of her +chair gently with the tips of her fingers, and in a few minutes the +doctor closed the book he was looking over and announced that the days +were growing very short. There was something singularly pleasant to +both the friends in their quiet Sunday afternoon companionship. +</p> +<p> +"You used to pay me a Sunday visit every week," said the old lady, +pleased to find that her guest still lingered. "I don't know why, but +I always have a hope that you will find time to run over for half an +hour. I said to myself yesterday that a figure of me in wax would do +just as well as anything nowadays. I get up and dress myself, and make +the journey downstairs, and sit here at the window and have my dinner +and go through the same round day after day. If it weren't for a +certain amount of expense it incurs, and occupation to other people, I +think it would be of very little use. However, there are some people +still left who need me. Who is it says—Béranger perhaps—that to love +benefits one's self, and to inspire love benefits others. I like to +think that the children and grandchildren have the old place to think +of and come back to. I can see that it is a great bond between them +all, and that is very good. I begin to feel like a very old woman; it +would be quite different, you know, if I were active and busy out of +doors, and the bustling sort of person for which nature intended me. +As it is, my mind is bustling enough for itself and its body both." +</p> +<p> +"Well," said the doctor, laughing a little, "what is it now?" +</p> +<p> +"The little girl," answered Mrs. Graham, gravely. "I think it is quite +time she knew something of society. Don't tell yourself that I am +notional and frivolous; I know you have put a great deal of hope and +faith and affection into that child's career. It would disappoint you +dreadfully if she were not interesting and harmonious to people in +general. It seems a familiar fact now that she should have come to +live with you, that she should be growing up in your house; but the +first thing we know she will be a young lady instead of an amusing +child, and I think that you cannot help seeing that a great deal of +responsibility belongs to you. She must be equipped and provisioned +for the voyage of life; she must have some resources." +</p> +<p> +"But I think she has more than most children." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes, I dare say. She is a bright little creature, but her +brightness begins to need new things to work upon. She does very well +at school now, I hear, and she minds very well and is much less +lawless than she used to be; but she is like a candle that refuses to +burn, and is satisfied with admiring its candlestick. She is quite the +queen of the village children in one way, and in another she is quite +apart from them. I believe they envy her and look upon her as being of +another sort, and yet count her out of half their plans and pleasures, +and she runs home, not knowing whether to be pleased or hurt, and +pulls down half a dozen of your books and sits proudly at the window. +Her poor foolish mother had some gifts, but she went adrift very soon, +and I should teach Nan her duty to her neighbor, and make her take in +the idea that she owes something to the world beside following out her +own most satisfying plans. When I was a young woman it was a most +blessed discovery to me—though I was not any quicker at making it +than other people, perhaps,—that, beside being happy myself and +valuable to myself, I must fit myself into my place in society. We are +seldom left to work alone, you know. No, not even you. I know too much +about you to believe that. And it isn't enough that we are willing to +talk about ourselves. We must learn to understand the subjects of the +day that everybody talks about, and to make sure of a right to stand +upon the highest common ground wherever we are. Society is a sort of +close corporation, and we must know its watchwords, and keep an +interest in its interests and affairs. I call a gentleman the man who, +either by birth or by nature, belongs to the best society. There may +be bad gentlemen and good gentlemen, but one must feel instinctively +at home with a certain class, representatives of which are likely to +be found everywhere. +</p> +<p> +"And as for Nan, you will be disappointed if she does not understand a +little later your own way of looking at things. She mustn't grow up +full of whims and indifferences. I am too fond of you to look forward +calmly to your being disappointed, and I do believe she will be a most +lovely, daughterly, friendly girl, who will keep you from being lonely +as you grow older, and be a great blessing in every way. Yet she has a +strange history, and is in a strange position. I hope you will find a +good school for her before very long." +</p> +<p> +This was said after a moment's pause, and with considerable +hesitation, and Mrs. Graham was grateful for the gathering darkness +which sheltered her, and not a little surprised at the doctor's +answer. +</p> +<p> +"I have been thinking of that," he said quickly, "but it is a great +puzzle at present and I am thankful to say, I think it is quite safe +to wait a year or two yet. You and I live so much apart from society +that we idealize it a good deal, though you are a stray-away bit of +it. We too seldom see the ideal gentleman or lady; we have to be +contented with keeping the ideal in our minds, it seems to me, and +saying that this man is gentlemanly, and that woman ladylike. But I do +believe in aiming at the best things, and turning this young +creature's good instincts and uncommon powers into the proper channels +instead of letting her become singular and self-centred because she +does not know enough of people of her own sort." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Graham gave a little sound of approval that did not stand for any +word in particular: "I wonder if her father's people will ever make +any claim to her? She said something about her aunt one day; I think +it was to hear whatever I might answer. It seemed to me that the poor +child had more pleasure in this unknown possession than was worth +while; she appeared to think of her as a sort of fairy godmother who +might descend in Oldfields at any moment." +</p> +<p> +"I did not know she thought of her at all," announced the doctor, +somewhat dismayed. "She never has talked about her aunt to me. I dare +say that she has been entertained with the whole miserable story." +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no," answered Mrs. Graham, placidly. "I don't think that is +likely, but it is quite reasonable that the child should be aware of +some part of it by this time. The Dyer neighbors are far from being +reticent, good creatures, and they have little to remember that +approaches the interest and excitement of that time. Do you know +anything about Miss Prince nowadays? I have not heard anything of her +in a long while." +</p> +<p> +"She still sends the yearly remittance, which I acknowledge and put +into the savings bank as I always have done. When Nan came to me I +advised Miss Prince that I wished to assume all care of her and should +be glad if she would give me entire right to the child, but she took +no notice of the request. It really makes no practical difference. +Only," and the doctor became much embarrassed, "I must confess that I +have a notion of letting her study medicine by and by if she shows a +fitness for it." +</p> +<p> +"Dear, dear!" said the hostess, leaning forward so suddenly that she +knocked two or three books from the corner of the table, and feeling +very much excited. "John Leslie, I can't believe it! but my dear man +used to say you thought twice for everybody else's once. What can have +decided you upon such a plan?" +</p> +<p> +"How happened the judge to say that?" asked the doctor, trying to +scoff, but not a little pleased. "I'm sure I can't tell you, Mrs. +Graham, only the idea has grown of itself in my mind, as all right +ideas do, and everything that I can see seems to favor it. You may +think that it is too early to decide, but I see plainly that Nan is +not the sort of girl who will be likely to marry. When a man or woman +has that sort of self-dependence and unnatural self-reliance, it shows +itself very early. I believe that it is a mistake for such a woman to +marry. Nan's feeling toward her boy-playmates is exactly the same as +toward the girls she knows. You have only to look at the rest of the +children together to see the difference; and if I make sure by and by, +the law of her nature is that she must live alone and work alone, I +shall help her to keep it instead of break it, by providing something +else than the business of housekeeping and what is called a woman's +natural work, for her activity and capacity to spend itself upon." +</p> +<p> +"But don't you think that a married life is happiest?" urged the +listener, a good deal shocked at such treason, yet somewhat persuaded +by its truth. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," said Dr. Leslie, sadly. "Yes indeed, for most of us. We could +say almost everything for that side, you and I; but a rule is +sometimes very cruel for its exceptions; and there is a life now and +then which is persuaded to put itself in irons by the force of custom +and circumstances, and from the lack of bringing reason to bear upon +the solving of the most important question of its existence. Of course +I don't feel sure yet that I am right about Nan, but looking at her +sad inheritance from her mother, and her good inheritances from other +quarters, I cannot help feeling that she might be far more unhappy +than to be made ready to take up my work here in Oldfields when I have +to lay it down. She will need a good anchor now and then. Only this +summer she had a bad day of it that made me feel at my wits' end. She +was angry with one of the children at school, and afterward with +Marilla because she scolded her for not keeping better account of the +family times and seasons, and ran away in the afternoon, if you +please, and was not heard from until next morning at breakfast time. +She went to the old place and wandered about the fields as she used, +and crept into some shelter or other. I dare say that she climbed in +at one of the windows of the house, though I could not make quite sure +without asking more questions than I thought worth while. She came +stealing in early in the morning, looking a little pale and wild, but +she hasn't played such a prank since. I had a call to the next town +and Marilla had evidently been awake all night. I got home early in +the morning myself, and was told that it was supposed I had picked up +Nan on the road and carried her with me, so the blame was all ready +for my shoulders unless we had both happened to see the young culprit +strolling in at the gate. I was glad she had punished herself, so that +there was no need of my doing it, though I had a talk with her a day +or two afterward, when we were both in our right minds. She is a good +child enough." +</p> +<p> +"I dare say," remarked Mrs. Graham drily, "but it seems to me that +neither of you took Marilla sufficiently into account. That must have +been the evening that the poor soul went to nearly every house in town +to ask if there were any stray company to tea. Some of us could not +help wondering where the young person was finally discovered. She has +a great fancy for the society of Miss Betsy Milman and Sally Turner at +present, and I quite sympathize with her. I often look over there and +see the end of their house with that one little square window in the +very peak of it spying up the street, and wish I could pay them a +visit myself and hear a bit of their wise gossip. I quite envy Nan her +chance of going in and being half forgotten as she sits in one of +their short chairs listening and watching. They used to be great +friends of her grandmother's. Oh no; if I could go to see them they +would insist upon my going into the best room, and we should all be +quite uncomfortable. It is much better to sit here and think about +them and hear their flat-irons creak away over the little boys' +jackets and trousers." +</p> +<p> +"I must confess that I have my own clothes mended there to this day," +said the doctor. "Marilla says their mending is not what it used to +be, too, but it is quite good enough. As for that little window, I +hardly ever see it without remembering the day of your aunt Margaret's +funeral. I was only a boy and not deeply afflicted, but of course I +had my place in the procession and was counted among the mourners, and +as we passed the Milman place I saw the old lady's face up there just +filling the four small panes. You know she was almost helpless, and +how she had got up into the little garret I cannot imagine, but she +was evidently determined to inspect the procession as it went down the +burying-ground lane. It was a pity they did not cut the window beneath +it in the lower room in her day. You know what an odd face she had; I +suppose it was distorted by disease and out of all shape it ever knew; +but I can see it now, framed in with its cap border and the window as +if there were no more of her." +</p> +<p> +"She really was the most curious old creature; it more than accounts +for Mrs. Turner's and Miss Betsy's love for a piece of news," said +Mrs. Graham, who was much amused. "But I wish we understood the value +of these old news-loving people. So much local history and tradition +must die with every one of them if we take no pains to save it. I hope +you are wise about getting hold of as much as possible. You doctors +ought to be our historians, for you alone see the old country folks +familiarly and can talk with them without restraint." +</p> +<p> +"But we haven't time to do any writing," the guest replied. "That is +why our books amount to so little for the most part. The active men, +who are really to be depended upon as practitioners, are kept so busy +that they are too tired to use the separate gift for writing, even if +they possess it, which many do not. And the literary doctors, the +medical scholars, are a different class, who have not had the +experience which alone can make their advice reliable. I mean of +course in practical matters, not anatomy and physiology. But we have +to work our way and depend upon ourselves, we country doctors, to whom +a consultation is more or less a downfall of pride. Whenever I hear +that an old doctor is dead I sigh to think what treasures of wisdom +are lost instead of being added to the general fund. That was one +advantage of putting the young men with the elder practitioners; many +valuable suggestions were handed down in that way." +</p> +<p> +"I am very well contented with my doctor," said Mrs. Graham, with +enthusiasm, at this first convenient opportunity. "And it is very wise +of you all to keep up our confidence in the face of such facts as +these. You can hardly have the heart to scold any more about the +malpractice of patients when we believe in you so humbly and so +ignorantly. You are always safe though, for our consciences are +usually smarting under the remembrance of some transgression which +might have hindered you if it did not. Poor humanity," she added in a +tone of compassion. "It has to grope its way through a deal of +darkness." +</p> +<p> +The doctor sighed, but he was uncommonly restful and comfortable in +the large arm-chair before the fender. It was quite dark out of doors +now, and the fire gave all the light that was in the room. Presently +he roused himself a little to say "'Poor humanity,' indeed! And I +suppose nobody sees the failures and miseries as members of my +profession do. There will be more and more sorrow and defeat as the +population increases and competition with it. It seems to me that to +excel in one's work becomes more and more a secondary motive; to do a +great deal and be well paid for it ranks first. One feels the injury +of such purposes even in Oldfields." +</p> +<p> +"I cannot see that the world changes much. I often wish that I could, +though surely not in this way," said the lame woman from her seat by +the window, as the doctor rose to go away. "I find my days piteously +alike, and you do not know what a pleasure this talk has been. It +satisfies my hungry mind and gives me a great deal to think of; you +would not believe what an appetite I had. Oh, don't think I need any +excuses, it is a great pleasure to see you drive in and out of the +gate, and I like to see your lamp coming into the study, and to know +that you are there and fond of me. But winter looked very long and +life very short before you came in this afternoon. I suppose you have +had enough of society for one day, so I shall not tell you what I mean +to have for tea, but next Sunday night I shall expect you to come and +bring your ward. Will you please ring, so that Martha will bring the +lights? I should like to send Nan a nice letter to read which came +yesterday from my little grand-daughter in Rome. I shall be so glad +when they are all at home again. She is about Nan's age, you know; I +must see to it that they make friends with each other. Don't put me on +a dusty top shelf again and forget me for five or six weeks," laughed +the hostess, as her guest protested and lingered a minute still before +he opened the door. +</p> +<p> +"You won't say anything of my confidences?" at which Mrs. Graham +shakes her head with satisfactory gravity, though if Doctor Leslie had +known she was inwardly much amused, and assured herself directly that +she hoped to hear no more of such plans; how could he tell that the +girl herself would agree to them, and whether Oldfields itself would +favor Nan as his own successor and its medical adviser? But John +Leslie was a wise, far-seeing man, with a great power of holding to +his projects. He really must be kept to his promise of a weekly visit; +she was of some use in the world after all, so long as these +unprotected neighbors were in it, and at any rate she had gained her +point about the poor child's clothes. +</p> +<p> +As for the doctor, he found the outer world much obscured by the +storm, and hoped that nobody would need his services that night, as he +went stumbling home though the damp and clogging snow underfoot. He +felt a strange pleasure in the sight of a small, round head at the +front study window between the glass and the curtain, and Nan came to +open the door for him, while Marilla, whose unwonted Sunday afternoon +leisure seemed to have been devoted to fragrant experiments in +cookery, called in pleased tones from the dining-room that she had +begun to be afraid he was going to stay out to supper. It was somehow +much more homelike than it used to be, the doctor told himself, as he +pushed his feet into the slippers which had been waiting before the +fire until they were in danger of being scorched. And before Marilla +had announced with considerable ceremony that tea was upon the table, +he had assured himself that it had been a very pleasant hour or two at +Mrs. Graham's, and it was the best thing in the world for both of them +to see something of each other. For the little girl's sake he must try +to keep out of ruts, and must get hold of somebody outside his own +little world. +</p> +<p> +But while he called himself an old fogy and other impolite names he +was conscious of a grave and sweet desire to make the child's life a +successful one,—to bring out what was in her own mind and capacity, +and so to wisely educate her, to give her a place to work in, and +wisdom to work with, so far as he could; for he knew better than most +men that it is the people who can do nothing who find nothing to do, +and the secret of happiness in this world is not only to be useful, +but to be forever elevating one's uses. Some one must be intelligent +for a child until it is ready to be intelligent for itself, and he +told himself with new decision that he must be wise in his laws for +Nan and make her keep them, else she never would be under the grace of +any of her own. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XI +</h2> +<h3> + NEW OUTLOOKS +</h3> +<p> +Dr. Leslie held too securely the affection of his townspeople to be +in danger of losing their regard or respect, yet he would have been +half pained and half amused if he had known how foolishly his plans, +which came in time to be his ward's also, were smiled and frowned upon +in the Oldfields houses. Conformity is the inspiration of much +second-rate virtue. If we keep near a certain humble level of morality +and achievement, our neighbors are willing to let us slip through life +unchallenged. Those who anticipate the opinions and decisions of +society must expect to be found guilty of many sins. +</p> +<p> +There was not one of the young village people so well known as the +doctor's little girl, who drove with him day by day, and with whom he +kept such delightful and trustful companionship. If she had been asked +in later years what had decided her to study not only her profession, +but any profession, it would have been hard for her to answer anything +beside the truth that the belief in it had grown with herself. There +had been many reasons why it seemed unnecessary. There was every +prospect that she would be rich enough to place her beyond the +necessity of self-support. She could have found occupation in simply +keeping the doctor's house and being a cordial hostess in that home +and a welcome guest in other people's. She was already welcome +everywhere in Oldfields, but in spite of this, which would have seemed +to fill the hearts and lives of other girls, it seemed to her like a +fragment of her life and duty; and when she had ordered her +housekeeping and her social duties, there was a restless readiness for +a more absorbing duty and industry; and, as the years went by, all her +desire tended in one direction. The one thing she cared most to learn +increased its attraction continually, and though one might think the +purpose of her guardian had had its influence and moulded her +character by its persistence, the truth was that the wise doctor +simply followed as best he could the leadings of the young nature +itself, and so the girl grew naturally year by year, reaching out half +unconsciously for what belonged to her life and growth; being taught +one thing more than all, that her duty must be followed eagerly and +reverently in spite of the adverse reasons which tempted and sometimes +baffled her. As she grew older she was to understand more clearly that +indecision is but another name for cowardice and weakness; a habit of +mind that quickly increases its power of hindrance. She had the faults +that belonged to her character, but these were the faults of haste and +rashness rather than the more hopeless ones of obstinacy or a lack of +will and purpose. +</p> +<p> +The Sunday evening tea-drinking with Mrs. Graham, though somewhat +formidable at first to our heroine, became quickly one of her dearest +pleasures, and led to a fast friendship between the kind hostess and +her young guest. Soon Nan gave herself eagerly to a plan of spending +two or three evenings a week across the way for the purpose of reading +aloud, sometimes from books she did not understand, but oftener from +books of her own choice. It was supposed to be wholly a kindness on +the young girl's part, and Mrs. Graham allowed the excuse of a +temporary ailment of her own strong and useful eyes to serve until +neither she nor Nan had the least thought of giving up their pleasant +habit of reading together. And to this willing listener Nan came in +time with her youthful dreams and visions of future prosperities in +life, so that presently Mrs. Graham knew many things which would have +surprised the doctor, who on the other hand was the keeper of equally +amazing and treasured confidences of another sort. It was a great +pleasure to both these friends, but most especially to the elderly +woman, that Nan seemed so entirely satisfied with their friendship. +The busy doctor, who often had more than enough to think and worry +about, sometimes could spare but little time to Nan for days together, +but her other companion was always waiting for her, and the smile was +always ready by way of greeting when the child looked eagerly up at +the parlor window. What stories of past days and memories of youth and +of long-dead friends belonging to the dear lady's own girlhood were +poured into Nan's delighted ears! She came in time to know Mrs. +Graham's own immediate ancestors, and the various members of her +family with their fates and fortunes, as if she were a contemporary, +and was like another grandchild who was a neighbor and beloved crony, +which real blessing none of the true grandchildren had ever been lucky +enough to possess. She formed a welcome link with the outer world, did +little Nan, and from being a cheerful errand-runner, came at last to +paying friendly visits in the neighborhood to carry Mrs. Graham's +messages and assurances. And from all these daily suggestions of +courtesy and of good taste and high breeding, and helpful fellowship +with good books, and the characters in their stories which were often +more real and dear and treasured in her thoughts than her actual +fellow townsfolk, Nan drew much pleasure and not a little wisdom; at +any rate a direction for which she would all her life be thankful. It +would have been surprising if her presence in the doctor's house had +not after some time made changes in it, but there was no great +difference outwardly except that she gathered some trifling +possessions which sometimes harmonized, and as often did not, with the +household gods of the doctor and Marilla. There was a shy sort of +intercourse between Nan and Mrs. Graham's grandchildren, but it was +not very valuable to any of the young people at first, the country +child being too old and full of experience to fellowship with the +youngest, and too unversed in the familiar machinery of their social +life to feel much kinship with the eldest. +</p> +<p> +It was during one of these early summer visits, and directly after a +tea-party which Marilla had proudly projected on Nan's account, that +Dr. Leslie suddenly announced that he meant to go to Boston for a few +days and should take Nan with him. This event had long been promised, +but had seemed at length like the promise of happiness in a future +world, reasonably certain, but a little vague and distant. It was a +more important thing than anybody understood, for a dear and familiar +chapter of life was ended when the expectant pair drove out of the +village on their way to the far-off railway station, as another had +been closed when the door of the Thacher farm-house had been shut and +padlocked, and Nan had gone home one snowy night to live with the +doctor. The weather at any rate was different now, for it was early +June, the time when doctors can best give themselves a holiday; and +though Dr. Leslie assured himself that he had little wish to take the +journey, he felt it quite due to his ward that she should see a little +more of the world, and happily due also to certain patients and his +brother physicians that he should visit the instrument-makers' shops, +and some bookstores; in fact there were a good many important errands +to which it was just as well to attend in person. But he watched Nan's +wide-open, delighted eyes, and observed her lack of surprise at +strange sights, and her perfect readiness for the marvelous, with +great amusement. He was touched and pleased because she cared most for +what had concerned him; to be told where he lived and studied, and to +see the places he had known best, roused most enthusiasm. An afternoon +in a corner of the reading-room at the Athenæum library, in which he +had spent delightful hours when he was a young man, seemed to please +the young girl more than anything else. As he sat beside the table +where he had gathered enough books and papers to last for many days, +in his delight at taking up again his once familiar habit, Nan looked +on with sympathetic eyes, or watched the squirrels in the trees of the +quiet Granary Burying Ground, which seemed to her like a bit of +country which the noisy city had caught and imprisoned. Now that she +was fairly out in the world she felt a new, strange interest in her +mysterious aunt, for it was this hitherto unknown space outside the +borders of Oldfields to which her father and his people belonged. And +as a charming old lady went by in a pretty carriage, the child's gaze +followed her wistfully as she and the doctor were walking along the +street. With a sudden blaze of imagination she had wished those +pleasant eyes might have seen the likeness to her father, of which she +had been sometimes told, and that the carriage had been hurried back, +so that the long estrangement might be ended. It was a strange thing +that, just afterward, Dr. Leslie had, with much dismay, caught sight +of the true aunt; for Miss Anna Prince of Dunport had also seen fit to +make one of her rare visits to Boston. She looked dignified and +stately, but a little severe, as she went down the side street away +from them. Nan's quick eyes had noticed already the difference between +the city people and the country folks, and would have even recognized +a certain provincialism in her father's sister. The doctor had only +seen Miss Prince once many years before, but he had known her again +with instinctive certainty, and Nan did not guess, though she was most +grateful for it, why he reached for her hand, and held it fast as they +walked together, just as he always used to do when she was a little +girl. She was not yet fully grown, and she never suspected the sudden +thrill of dread, and consciousness of the great battle of life which +she must soon begin to fight, which all at once chilled the doctor's +heart. "It's a cold world, a cold world," he had said to himself. +"Only one thing will help her through safely, and that is her +usefulness. She shall never be either a thief or a beggar of the +world's favor if I can have my wish." And Nan, holding his hand with +her warm, soft, childish one, looked up in his face, all unconscious +that he thought with pity how unaware she was of the years to come, +and of their difference to this sunshine holiday. "And yet I never was +so happy at her age as I am this summer," the doctor told himself by +way of cheer. +</p> +<p> +They paid some visits together to Dr. Leslie's much-neglected friends, +and it was interesting to see how, for the child's sake, he resumed +his place among these acquaintances to whom he had long been linked +either personally in times past, or by family ties. He was sometimes +reproached for his love of seclusion and cordially welcomed back to +his old relations, but as often found it impossible to restore +anything but a formal intercourse of a most temporary nature. The +people for whom he cared most, all seemed attracted to his young ward, +and he noted this with pleasure, though he had not recognized the fact +that he had been, for the moment, basely uncertain whether his +judgment of her worth would be confirmed. He laughed at the +insinuation that he had made a hermit or an outlaw of himself; he +would have been still more amused to hear one of his old friends say +that this was the reason they had seen so little of him in late years, +and that it was a shame that a man of his talent and many values to +the world should be hiding his light under the Oldfields bushel, and +all for the sake of bringing up this child. As for Nan, she had little +to say, but kept her eyes and ears wide open, and behaved herself +discreetly. She had ceased to belong only to the village she had left; +in these days she became a citizen of the world at large. Her horizon +had suddenly become larger, and she might have discovered more than +one range of mountains which must be crossed as the years led her +forward steadily, one by one. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +There is nothing so interesting as to be able to watch the change and +progress of the mental and moral nature, provided it grows eagerly +and steadily. There must be periods of repose and hibernation like the +winter of a plant, and in its springtime the living soul will both +consciously and unconsciously reach out for new strength and new +light. The leaves and flowers of action and achievement are only the +signs of the vitality that works within. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XII +</h2> +<h3> + AGAINST THE WIND +</h3> +<p> +During the next few years, while Nan was growing up, Oldfields itself +changed less than many country towns of its size. Though some faces +might be missed or altered, Dr. Leslie's household seemed much the +same, and Mrs. Graham, a little thinner and older, but more patient +and sweet and delightful than ever, sits at her parlor window and +reads new books and old ones, and makes herself the centre of much +love and happiness. She and the doctor have grown more and more +friendly, and they watch the young girl's development with great +pride: they look forward to her vacations more than they would care to +confess even to each other; and when she comes home eager and gay, she +makes both these dear friends feel young again. When Nan is not there +to keep him company, Dr. Leslie always drives, and has grown more +careful about the comfort of his carriages, though he tells himself +with great pleasure that he is really much more youthful in his +feelings than he was twenty years before, and does not hesitate to say +openly that he should have been an old fogy by this time if it had not +been for the blessing of young companionship. When Nan is pleased to +command, he is always ready to take long rides and the two saddles are +brushed up, and they wonder why the bits are so tarnished, and she +holds his horse's bridle while he goes in to see his patients, and is +ready with merry talk or serious questions when he reappears. And one +dark night she listens from her window to the demand of a messenger, +and softly creeps down stairs and is ready to take her place by his +side, and drive him across the hills as if it were the best fun in the +world, with the frightened country-boy clattering behind on his +bare-backed steed. The moon rises late and they come home just before +daybreak, and though the doctor tries to be stern as he says he cannot +have such a piece of mischief happen again, he wonders how the girl +knew that he had dreaded for once in his life the drive in the dark, +and had felt a little less strong than usual. +</p> +<p> +Marilla still reigns in noble state. She has some time ago accepted a +colleague after a preliminary show of resentment, and Nan has little +by little infused a different spirit into the housekeeping; and when +her friends come to pay visits in the vacations they find the old home +a very charming place, and fall quite in love with both the doctor and +Mrs. Graham before they go away. Marilla always kept the large east +parlor for a sacred shrine of society, to be visited chiefly by +herself as guardian priestess; but Nan has made it a pleasanter room +than anybody ever imagined possible, and uses it with a freedom which +appears to the old housekeeper to lack consideration and respect. Nan +makes the most of her vacations, while the neighbors are all glad to +see her come back, and some of them are much amused because in summer +she still clings to her childish impatience at wearing any head +covering, and no matter how much Marilla admires the hat which is +decorously worn to church every Sunday morning, it is hardly seen +again, except by chance, during the week, and the brown hair is sure +to be faded a little before the summer sunshine is past. Nan goes +about visiting when she feels inclined, and seems surprisingly +unchanged as she seats herself in one of the smoke-browned Dyer +kitchens, and listens eagerly to whatever information is offered, or +answers cordially all sorts of questions, whether they concern her own +experiences or the world's in general. She has never yet seen her +father's sister, though she still thinks of her, and sometimes with a +strange longing for an evidence of kind feeling and kinship which has +never been shown. This has been chief among the vague sorrows of her +girlhood. Yet once when her guardian had asked if she wished to make +some attempt at intercourse or conciliation, he had been answered, +with a scorn and decision worthy of grandmother Thacher herself, that +it was for Miss Prince to make advances if she ever wished for either +the respect or affection of her niece. But the young girl has clung +with touching affection to the memory and association of her +childhood, and again and again sought in every season of the year the +old playgrounds and familiar corners of the farm, which she has grown +fonder of as the months go by. The inherited attachment of generations +seems to have been centred in her faithful heart. +</p> +<p> +It must be confessed that the summer which followed the close of her +school-life was, for the most part, very unsatisfactory. Her +school-days had been more than usually pleasant and rewarding, in +spite of the sorrows and disappointments and unsolvable puzzles which +are sure to trouble thoughtful girls of her age. But she had grown so +used at last to living by rules and bells that she could not help +feeling somewhat adrift without them. It had been so hard to put +herself under restraint and discipline after her free life in +Oldfields that it was equally hard for a while to find herself at +liberty; though, this being her natural state, she welcomed it +heartily at first, and was very thankful to be at home. It did not +take long to discover that she had no longer the same desire for her +childish occupations and amusements; they were only incidental now and +pertained to certain moods, and could not again be made the chief +purposes of her life. She hardly knew what to do with herself, and +sometimes wondered what would become of her, and why she was alive at +all, as she longed for some sufficient motive of existence to catch +her up into its whirlwind. She was filled with energy and a great +desire for usefulness, but it was not with her, as with many of her +friends, that the natural instinct toward marriage, and the building +and keeping of a sweet home-life, ruled all other plans and +possibilities. Her best wishes and hopes led her away from all this, +and however tenderly she sympathized in other people's happiness, and +recognized its inevitableness, for herself she avoided unconsciously +all approach or danger of it. She was trying to climb by the help of +some other train of experiences to whatever satisfaction and success +were possible for her in this world. If she had been older and of a +different nature, she might have been told that to climb up any other +way toward a shelter from the fear of worthlessness, and mistake, and +reproach, would be to prove herself in most people's eyes a thief and +a robber. But in these days she was not fit to reason much about her +fate; she could only wait for the problems to make themselves +understood, and for the whole influence of her character and of the +preparatory years to shape and signify themselves into a simple chart +and unmistakable command. And until the power was given to "see life +steadily and see it whole," she busied herself aimlessly with such +details as were evidently her duty, and sometimes following the right +road and often wandering from it in willful impatience, she stumbled +along more or less unhappily. It seemed as if everybody had forgotten +Nan's gift and love for the great profession which was her childish +delight and ambition. To be sure she had studied anatomy and +physiology with eager devotion in the meagre text-books at school, +though the other girls had grumbled angrily at the task. Long ago, +when Nan had confided to her dearest cronies that she meant to be a +doctor, they were hardly surprised that she should determine upon a +career which they would have rejected for themselves. She was not of +their mind, and they believed her capable of doing anything she +undertook. Yet to most of them the possible and even probable marriage +which was waiting somewhere in the future seemed to hover like a +cloudy barrier over the realization of any such unnatural plans. +</p> +<p> +They assured themselves that their school-mate showed no sign of being +the sort of girl who tried to be mannish and to forsake her natural +vocation for a profession. She did not look strong-minded; besides she +had no need to work for her living, this ward of a rich man, who was +altogether the most brilliant and beautiful girl in school. Yet +everybody knew that she had a strange tenacity of purpose, and there +was a lack of pretension, and a simplicity that scorned the deceits of +school-girl existence. Everybody knew too that she was not a +commonplace girl, and her younger friends made her the heroine of +their fondest anticipations and dreams. But after all, it seemed as if +everybody, even the girl herself, had lost sight of the once familiar +idea. It was a natural thing enough that she should have become expert +in rendering various minor services to the patients in Dr. Leslie's +absence, and sometimes assist him when no other person was at hand. +Marilla became insensible at the sight of the least dangerous of +wounds, and could not be trusted to suggest the most familiar +household remedy, after all her years of association with the +practice of medicine, and it was considered lucky that Nan had some +aptness for such services. In her childhood she had been nicknamed +"the little doctor," by the household and even a few familiar friends, +but this was apparently outgrown, though her guardian had more than +once announced in sudden outbursts of enthusiasm that she already knew +more than most of the people who tried to practice medicine. They once +in a while talked about some suggestion or discovery which was +attracting Dr. Leslie's attention, but the girl seemed hardly to have +gained much interest even for this, and became a little shy of being +found with one of the medical books in her hand, as she tried to fancy +herself in sympathy with the conventional world of school and of the +every-day ideas of society. And yet her inward sympathy with a +doctor's and a surgeon's work grew stronger and stronger, though she +dismissed reluctantly the possibility of following her bent in any +formal way, since, after all, her world had seemed to forbid it. As +the time drew near for her school-days to be ended, she tried to +believe that she should be satisfied with her Oldfields life. She was +fond of reading, and she had never lacked employment, besides, she +wished to prove herself an intelligent companion to Dr. Leslie, whom +she loved more and more dearly as the years went by. There had been a +long time of reserve between her childish freedom of intercourse with +him and the last year or two when they had begun to speak freely to +each other as friend to friend. It was a constant surprise and +pleasure to the doctor when he discovered that his former plaything +was growing into a charming companion who often looked upon life from +the same standpoint as himself, and who had her own outlooks upon the +world, from whence she was able to give him by no means worthless +intelligence; and after the school-days were over he was not amazed to +find how restless and dissatisfied the girl was; how impossible it was +for her to content herself with following the round of household +duties which were supposed to content young women of her age and +station. Even if she tried to pay visits or receive them from her +friends, or to go on with her studies, or to review some text-book of +which she had been fond, there was no motive for it; it all led to +nothing; it began for no reason and ended in no use, as she exclaimed +one day most dramatically. Poor Nan hurried through her house +business, or neglected it, as the case might be, greatly to Manila's +surprise and scorn, for the girl had always proved herself diligent +and interested in the home affairs. More and more she puzzled herself +and everybody about her, and as the days went by she spent them out of +doors at the old farm, or on the river, or in taking long rides on a +young horse; a bargain the doctor had somewhat repented before he +found that Nan was helped through some of her troubled hours by the +creature's wildness and fleetness. It was very plain that his ward was +adrift, and at first the doctor suggested farther study of Latin or +chemistry, but afterward philosophically resigned himself to patience, +feeling certain that some indication of the right course would not be +long withheld, and that a wind from the right quarter would presently +fill the flapping sails of this idle young craft and send it on its +way. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +One afternoon Nan went hurrying out of the house just after dinner, +and the doctor saw that her face was unusually troubled. He had asked +her if she would like to drive with him to a farm just beyond the +Dyers' later in the day, but for a wonder she had refused. Dr. Leslie +gave a little sigh as he left the table, and presently watched her go +down the street as he stood by the window. It would be very sad if the +restlessness and discord of her poor mother should begin to show +themselves again; he could not bear to think of such an inheritance. +</p> +<p> +But Nan thought little of anybody else's discomforts as she hurried +along the road; she only wished to get to the beloved farm, and to be +free there from questions, and from the evidences of her unfitness for +the simple duties which life seemed offering her with heartless irony. +She was not good for anything after all, it appeared, and she had been +cheating herself. This was no life at all, this fretful idleness; if +only she had been trained as boys are, to the work of their lives! She +had hoped that Dr. Leslie would help her; he used to talk long ago +about her studying medicine, but he must have forgotten that, and the +girl savagely rebuked society in general for her unhappiness. Of +course she could keep the house, but it was kept already; any one with +five senses and good health like hers could prove herself able to do +any of the ordinary work of existence. For her part it was not enough +to be waited upon and made comfortable, she wanted something more, to +be really of use in the world, and to do work which the world needed. +</p> +<p> +Where the main road turned eastward up the hills, a footpath, already +familiar to the reader, shortened the distance to the farm, and the +young girl quickly crossed the rude stile and disappeared among the +underbrush, walking bareheaded with the swift steps of a creature +whose home was in some such place as this. Often the dry twigs, fallen +from the gray lower branches of the pines, crackled and snapped under +her feet, or the bushes rustled backed again to their places after she +pushed against them in passing; she hurried faster and faster, going +first through the dense woods and then out into the sunlight. Once or +twice in the open ground she stopped and knelt quickly on the soft +turf or moss to look at a little plant, while the birds which she +startled came back to their places directly, as if they had been quick +to feel that this was a friend and not an enemy, though disguised in +human shape. At last Nan reached the moss-grown fence of the farm and +leaped over it, and fairly ran to the river-shore, where she went +straight to one of the low-growing cedars, and threw herself upon it +as if it were a couch. While she sat there, breathing fast and glowing +with bright color, the river sent a fresh breeze by way of messenger, +and the old cedar held its many branches above her and around her most +comfortably, and sheltered her as it had done many times before. It +need not have envied other trees the satisfaction of climbing straight +upward in a single aspiration of growth. +</p> +<p> +And presently Nan told herself that there was nothing like a good run. +She looked to and fro along the river, and listened to the sheep-bell +which tinkled lazily in the pasture behind her. She looked over her +shoulder to see if a favorite young birch tree had suffered no harm, +for it grew close by the straight-edged path in which the cattle came +down to drink. So she rested in the old playground, unconscious that +she had been following her mother's footsteps, or that fate had again +brought her here for a great decision. Years before, the miserable, +suffering woman, who had wearily come to this place to end their +lives, had turned away that the child might make her own choice +between the good and evil things of life. Though Nan told herself that +she must make it plain how she could spend her time in Oldfields to +good purpose and be of most use at home, and must get a new strength +for these duties, a decision suddenly presented itself to her with a +force of reason and necessity the old dream of it had never shown. Why +should it not be a reality that she studied medicine? +</p> +<p> +The thought entirely possessed her, and the glow of excitement and +enthusiasm made her spring from the cedar boughs and laugh aloud. Her +whole heart went out to this work, and she wondered why she had ever +lost sight of it. She was sure this was the way in which she could +find most happiness. God had directed her at last, and though the +opening of her sealed orders had been long delayed, the suspense had +only made her surer that she must hold fast this unspeakably great +motive: something to work for with all her might as long as she lived. +People might laugh or object. Nothing should turn her aside, and a new +affection for kind and patient Dr. Leslie filled her mind. How eager +he had been to help her in all her projects so far, and yet it was +asking a great deal that he should favor this; he had never seemed to +show any suspicion that she would not live on quietly at home like +other girls; but while Nan told herself that she would give up any +plan, even this, if he could convince her that it would be wrong, +still her former existence seemed like a fog and uncertainty of death, +from which she had turned away, this time of her own accord, toward a +great light of satisfaction and certain safety and helpfulness. The +doctor would know how to help her; if she only could study with him +that would be enough; and away she went, hurrying down the river-shore +as if she were filled with a new life and happiness. +</p> +<p> +She startled a brown rabbit from under a bush, and made him a grave +salutation when he stopped and lifted his head to look at her from a +convenient distance. Once she would have stopped and seated herself on +the grass to amaze him with courteous attempts at friendliness, but +now she only laughed again, and went quickly down the steep bank +through the junipers and then hurried along the pebbly margin of the +stream toward the village. She smiled to see lying side by side a +flint arrowhead and a water-logged bobbin that had floated down from +one of the mills, and gave one a toss over the water, while she put +the other in her pocket. Her thoughts were busy enough, and though +some reasons against the carrying out of her plan ventured to assert +themselves, they had no hope of carrying the day, being in piteous +minority, though she considered them one by one. By and by she came +into the path again, and as she reached the stile she was at first +glad and then sorry to see the doctor coming along the high road from +the Donnell farm. She was a little dismayed at herself because she had +a sudden disinclination to tell this good friend her secret. +</p> +<p> +But Dr. Leslie greeted her most cheerfully, giving her the reins when +she had climbed into the wagon, and they talked of the weather and of +the next day's plans as they drove home together. The girl felt a +sense of guilt and a shameful lack of courage, but she was needlessly +afraid that her happiness might be spoiled by a word from that +quarter. +</p> +<p> +That very evening it was raining outside, and the doctor and Nan were +sitting in the library opposite each other at the study-table, and as +they answered some letters in order to be ready for the early morning +post, they stole a look at each other now and then. The doctor laid +down his pen first, and presently, as Nan with a little sigh threw +hers into the tray beside it, he reached forward to where there was +one of the few uncovered spaces of the dark wood of the table and drew +his finger across it. They both saw the shining surface much more +clearly, and as the dusty finger was held up and examined carefully by +its owner, the girl tried to laugh, and then found her voice trembling +as she said: "I believe I haven't forgotten to put the table in order +before. I have tried to take care of the study at any rate." +</p> +<p> +"Nan dear, it isn't the least matter in the world!" said Dr. Leslie. +"I think we are a little chilly here this damp night; suppose you +light the fire? At any rate it will clear away all those envelopes and +newspaper wrappers," and he turned his arm-chair so that it faced the +fireplace, and watched the young girl as she moved about the room. She +lifted one of the large sticks and stood it on one end at the side of +the hearth, and the doctor noticed that she did it less easily than +usual and without the old strength and alertness. He had sprung up to +help her just too late, but she had indignantly refused any assistance +with a half pettishness that was not a common mood with her. +</p> +<p> +"I don't see why Jane or Marilla, or whoever it was, put that heavy +log on at this time of the year," said Dr. Leslie, as if it were a +matter of solemn consequence. By this time he had lighted a fresh +cigar, and Nan had brought her little wooden chair from some corner of +the room where it had always lived since it came with her from the +farm. It was a dear old-fashioned little thing, but quite too small +for its owner, who had grown up tall and straight, but who had felt a +sudden longing to be a child again, as she quietly took her place +before the fire. +</p> +<p> +"That log?" she said, "I wonder if you will never learn that we must +not burn it? I saw Marilla myself when she climbed the highest +wood-pile at the farther end of the wood-house for it. I suppose all +the time I have been away you have been remorselessly burning up the +show logs. I don't wonder at her telling me this very morning that she +was born to suffer, and suffer she supposed she must. We never used to +be allowed to put papers in the fireplace, but you have gained ever so +many liberties. I wonder if Marilla really thinks she has had a hard +life?" the girl said, in a different tone. +</p> +<p> +"I wonder if you think yours is hard too?" asked the doctor. +</p> +<p> +And Nan did not know at first what to say. The bright light of the +burning papers and the pine-cone kindlings suddenly faded out and the +study seemed dark and strange by contrast; but the doctor did not +speak either; he only bent towards her presently, and put his hand on +the top of the girl's head and stroked the soft hair once or twice, +and then gently turned it until he could see Nan's face. +</p> +<p> +Her eyes met his frankly as ever, but they were full of tears. "Yes," +she said; "I wish you would talk to me. I wish you would give me a +great scolding. I never needed it so much in my life. I meant to come +home and be very good, and do everything I could to make you happy, +but it all grows worse every day. I thought at first I was tired with +the last days of school, but it is something more than that. I don't +wish in the least that I were back at school, but I can't understand +anything; there is something in me that wants to be busy, and can't +find anything to do. I don't mean to be discontented; I don't want to +be anywhere else in the world." +</p> +<p> +"There is enough to do," answered the doctor, as placidly as possible, +for this was almost the first time he had noticed distinctly the +mother's nature in her daughter; a restless, impatient, miserable sort +of longing for The Great Something Else, as Dr. Ferris had once called +it. "Don't fret yourself, Nan, yours is a short-lived sorrow; for if +you have any conscience at all about doing your work you will be sure +enough to find it." +</p> +<p> +"I think I have found it at last, but I don't know whether any one +else will agree with me," half whispered poor Nan; while the doctor, +in spite of himself, of his age, and experience, and sympathy, and +self-control, could not resist a smile. "I hate to talk about myself +or to be sentimental, but I want to throw my whole love and life into +whatever there is waiting for me to do, and—I began to be afraid I +had missed it somehow. Once I thought I should like to be a teacher, +and come back here when I was through school and look after the +village children. I had such splendid ideas about that, but they all +faded out. I went into the school-house one day, and I thought I would +rather die than be shut up there from one week's end to another." +</p> +<p> +"No," said Dr. Leslie, with grave composure. "No, I don't feel sure +that you would do well to make a teacher of yourself." +</p> +<p> +"I wish that I had known when school was over that I must take care of +myself, as one or two of the girls meant to do, and sometimes it seems +as if I ought," said Nan, after a silence of a few minutes, and this +time it was very hard to speak. "You have been so kind, and have done +so much for me; I supposed at first there was money enough of my own, +but I know now." +</p> +<p> +"Dear child!" the doctor exclaimed, "you will never know, unless you +are left alone as I was, what a blessing it is to have somebody to +take care of and to love; I have put you in the place of my own little +child, and have watched you grow up here, with more thankfulness every +year. Don't ever say another word to me about the money part of it. +What had I to spend money for? And now I hear you say all these +despairing things; but I am an old man, and I take them for what they +are worth. You have a few hard months before you, perhaps, but before +you know it they will be over with. Don't worry yourself; look after +Marilla a little, and that new hand-maid, and drive about with me. +To-morrow I must be on the road all day, and, to tell the truth, I +must think over one or two of my cases before I go to bed. Won't you +hand me my old prescription book? I was trying to remember something +as I came home." +</p> +<p> +Nan, half-comforted, went to find the book, while Dr. Leslie, puffing +his cigar-smoke very fast, looked up through the cloud abstractedly at +a new ornament which had been placed above the mantel shelf since we +first knew the room. Old Captain Finch had solaced his weary and +painful last years by making a beautiful little model of a ship, and +had left it in his will to the doctor. There never was a more touching +gift, this present owner often thought, and he had put it in its place +with reverent hands. A comparison of the two lives came stealing into +his mind, and he held the worn prescription-book a minute before he +opened it. The poor old captain waiting to be released, stranded on +the inhospitable shore of this world, and eager Nan, who was +sorrowfully longing for the world's war to begin. "Two idle heroes," +thought Dr. Leslie, "and I neither wished to give one his discharge +nor the other her commission;" but he said aloud, "Nan, we will take a +six o'clock start in the morning, and go down through the sandy plains +before the heat begins. I am afraid it will be one of the worst of the +dog-days." +</p> +<p> +"Yes," answered Nan eagerly, and then she came close to the doctor, +and looked at him a moment before she spoke, while her face shone with +delight. "I am going to be a doctor, too! I have thought it would be +the best thing in the world ever since I can remember. The little +prescription-book was the match that lit the fire! but I have been +wishing to tell you all the evening." +</p> +<p> +"We must ask Marilla," the doctor began to say, and tried to add, +"What <i>will</i> she think?" but Nan hardly heard him, and did not laugh +at his jokes. For she saw by his face that there was no need of +teasing. And she assured herself that if he thought it was only a +freak of which she would soon tire, she was quite willing to be put to +the proof. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Next morning, for a wonder, Nan waked early, even before the birds had +quite done singing, and it seemed a little strange that the weather +should be clear and bright, and almost like June, since she was a good +deal troubled. +</p> +<p> +She felt at first as if there were some unwelcome duty in her day's +work, and then remembered the early drive with great pleasure, but the +next minute the great meaning and responsibility of the decision she +had announced the evening before burst upon her mind, and a flood of +reasons assailed her why she should not keep to so uncommon a purpose. +It seemed to her as if the first volume of life was ended, and as if +it had been deceitfully easy, since she had been led straight-forward +to this point. It amazed her to find the certainty take possession of +her mind that her vocation had been made ready for her from the +beginning. She had the feeling of a reformer, a radical, and even of a +political agitator, as she tried to face her stormy future in that +summer morning loneliness. But by the time she had finished her early +breakfast, and was driving out of the gate with the doctor, the day +seemed so much like other days that her trouble of mind almost +disappeared. Though she had known instinctively that all the early +part of her life had favored this daring project, and the next few +years would hinder it if they could, still there was something within +her stronger than any doubts that could possibly assail her. And +instead of finding everything changed, as one always expects to do +when a great change has happened to one's self, the road was so +familiar, and the condition of the outer world so harmonious, that she +hardly understood that she had opened a gate and shut it behind her, +between that day and its yesterday. She held the reins, and the doctor +was apparently in a most commonplace frame of mind. She wished he +would say something about their talk of the night before, but he did +not. She seemed very old to herself, older than she ever would seem +again, perhaps, but the doctor had apparently relapsed into their old +relations as guardian and child. Perhaps he thought she would forget +her decision, and did not know how much it meant to her. He was quite +provoking. He hurried the horse himself as they went up a somewhat +steep ascent, and as Nan touched the not very fleet steed with the +whip on the next level bit of road, she was reminded that it was a +very hot morning and that they had a great way to drive. When she +asked what was the matter with the patient they were on their way to +see, she was answered abruptly that he suffered from a complication of +disorders, which was the more aggravating because Nan had heard this +answer laughed at as being much used by old Dr. Jackson, who was +usually unwilling or unable to commit himself to a definite opinion. +Nan fancied herself at that minute already a member of the profession, +and did not like to be joked with in such a fashion, but she tried to +be amused, which generosity was appreciated by her companion better +than she knew. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie was not much of a singer, but he presently lifted what +little voice he had, and began to favor Nan with a not very successful +rendering of "Bonny Doon." Every minute seemed more critical to the +girl beside him, and she thought of several good ways to enter upon a +discussion of her great subject, but with unusual restraint and +reserve let the moments and the miles go by until the doctor had +quickly stepped down from the carriage and disappeared within his +patient's door. Nan's old custom of following him had been neglected +for some time, since she had found that the appearance of a tall young +woman had quite a different effect upon a household from that of a +little child. She had formed the habit of carrying a book with her on +the long drives, though she often left it untouched while she walked +up and down the country roads, or even ventured upon excursions as far +afield as she dared, while the doctor made his visit, which was apt to +be a long one in the lonely country houses. This morning she had +possessed herself of a square, thin volume which gave lists and plates +of the nerve system of the human body. The doctor had nearly laughed +aloud when he caught sight of it, and when Nan opened it with decision +and gravity and read the first page slowly, she was conscious of a +lack of interest in her subject. She had lost the great enthusiasm of +the night before, and felt like the little heap of ashes which such a +burning and heroic self might well have left. +</p> +<p> +Presently she went strolling down the road, gathering some large +leaves on her way, and stopped at the brook, where she pulled up some +bits of a strange water-weed, and made them into a damp, round bundle +with the leaves and a bit of string. This was a rare plant which they +had both noticed the day before, and they had taken some specimens +then, Nan being at this time an ardent botanist, but these had +withered and been lost, also, on the way home. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie was in even less of a hurry than usual, and when he came +out he looked very much pleased. "I never was more thankful in my +life," he said eagerly, as soon as he was within convenient distance. +"That poor fellow was at death's door yesterday, and when I saw his +wife and little children, and thought his life was all that stood +between them and miserable destitution, it seemed to me that I <i>must</i> +save it! This morning he is as bright as a dollar, but I have been +dreading to go into that house ever since I left it yesterday noon. +They didn't in the least know how narrow a chance he had. And it isn't +the first time I have been chief mourner. Poor souls! they don't dread +their troubles half so much as I do. He will have a good little farm +here in another year or two, it only needs draining to be excellent +land, and he knows that." The doctor turned and looked back over the +few acres with great pleasure. "Now we'll go and see about old Mrs. +Willet, though I don't believe there's any great need of it. She +belongs to one of two very bad classes of patients. It makes me so +angry to hear her cough twice as much as need be. In your practice," +he continued soberly, "you must remember that there is danger of +giving too strong doses to such a sufferer, and too light ones to the +friends who insist there is nothing the matter with them. I wouldn't +give much for a doctor who can't see for himself in most cases, but +not always,—not always." +</p> +<p> +The doctor was in such a hospitable frame of mind that nobody could +have helped telling him anything, and happily he made an excellent +introduction for Nan's secret by inquiring how she had got on with her +studies, but she directed his attention to the wet plants in the +bottom of the carriage, which were complimented before she said, a +minute afterward, "Oh, I wonder if I shall make a mistake? I was +afraid you would laugh at me, and think it was all nonsense." +</p> +<p> +"Dear me, no," replied the doctor. "You will be the successor of Mrs. +Martin Dyer, and the admiration of the neighborhood;" but changing his +tone quickly, he said: "I am going to teach you all I can, just as +long as you have any wish to learn. It has not done you a bit of harm +to know something about medicine, and I believe in your studying it +more than you do yourself. I have always thought about it. But you are +very young; there's plenty of time, and I don't mean to be hurried; +you must remember that,—though I see your fitness and peculiar +adaptability a great deal better than you can these twenty years yet. +You will be growing happier these next few years at any rate, however +impossible life has seemed to you lately." +</p> +<p> +"I suppose there will be a great many obstacles," reflected Nan, with +an absence of her usual spirit. +</p> +<p> +"Obstacles! Yes," answered Dr. Leslie, vigorously. "Of course there +will be; it is climbing a long hill to try to study medicine or to +study anything else. And if you are going to fear obstacles you will +have a poor chance at success. There are just as many reasons as you +will stop to count up why you should not do your plain duty, but if +you are going to make anything of yourself you must go straight ahead, +taking it for granted that there will be opposition enough, but doing +what is right all the same. I suppose I have repeated to you fifty +times what old Friend Meadows told me years ago; he was a great +success at money-making, and once I asked him to give me some advice +about a piece of property. 'Friend Leslie,' says he, 'thy own opinion +is the best for thee; if thee asks ten people what to do, they will +tell thee ten things, and then thee doesn't know as much as when thee +set out,'" and Dr. Leslie, growing very much in earnest, reached +forward for the whip. "I want you to be a good woman, and I want you +to be all the use you can," he said. "It seems to me like stealing, +for men and women to live in the world and do nothing to make it +better. You have thought a great deal about this, and so have I, and +now we will do the best we can at making a good doctor of you. I don't +care whether people think it is a proper vocation for women or not. It +seems to me that it is more than proper for you, and God has given you +a fitness for it which it is a shame to waste. And if you ever +hesitate and regret what you have said, you won't have done yourself +any harm by learning how to take care of your own health and other +people's." +</p> +<p> +"But I shall never regret it," said Nan stoutly. "I don't believe I +should ever be fit for anything else, and you know as well as I that I +must have something to do. I used to wish over and over again that I +was a boy, when I was a little thing down at the farm, and the only +reason I had in the world was that I could be a doctor, like you." +</p> +<p> +"Better than that, I hope," said Dr. Leslie. "But you mustn't think it +will be a short piece of work; it will take more patience than you are +ready to give just now, and we will go on quietly and let it grow by +the way, like your water-weed here. If you don't drive a little +faster, Sister Willet may be gathered before we get to her;" and this +being a somewhat unwise and hysterical patient, whose recovery was not +in the least despaired of, Dr. Leslie and his young companion were +heartlessly merry over her case. +</p> +<p> +The doctor had been unprepared for such an episode; outwardly, life +had seemed to flow so easily from one set of circumstances to the +next, and the changes had been so gradual and so natural. He had +looked forward with such certainty to Nan's future, that it seemed +strange that the formal acceptance of such an inevitable idea as her +studying medicine should have troubled her so much. +</p> +<p> +Separated as he was from the groups of men and women who are +responsible for what we call the opinion of society, and independent +himself of any fettering conventionalities, he had grown careless of +what anybody might say. He only hoped, since his ward had found her +proper work, that she would hold to it, and of this he had little +doubt. The girl herself quickly lost sight of the fancied difficulty +of making the great decision, and, as is usually the case, saw all the +first objections and hindrances fade away into a dim distance, and +grow less and less noticeable. And more than that, it seemed to her as +if she had taken every step of her life straight toward this choice of +a profession. So many things she had never understood before, now +became perfectly clear and evident proofs that, outside her own +preferences and choices, a wise purpose had been at work with her and +for her. So it all appeared more natural every day, and while she knew +that the excitement and formality of the first very uncomfortable day +or two had proved her freedom of choice, it seemed the more impossible +that she should have shirked this great commission and trust for which +nature had fitted her. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XIII +</h2> +<h3> + A STRAIGHT COURSE +</h3> +<p> +The next year or two was spent in quiet life at home. It was made +evident that, beside her inclination and natural fitness for her +chosen work, our student was also developing the other most important +requisite, a capacity for hard study and patient continuance. There +had been as little said as possible about the plan, but it was not +long before the propriety of it became a favorite subject of +discussion. It is quite unnecessary, perhaps, to state that everybody +had his or her own opinion of the wisdom of such a course, and both +Dr. Leslie and his ward suffered much reproach and questioning, as the +comments ranged from indignation to amusement. But it was as true of +Nan's calling, as of all others, that it would be her own failure to +make it respected from which any just contempt might come, and she had +thrown herself into her chosen career with such zeal, and pride, and +affectionate desire to please her teacher, that the small public who +had at first jeered or condemned her came at last to accepting the +thing as inevitable and a matter of course, even if they did not +actually approve. There was such a vigorous determination in the minds +of the doctor and his pupil that Nan should not only be a doctor but a +good one, that anything less than a decided fitness for the profession +would have doomed them both to disappointment, even with such +unwearied effort and painstaking. In the earlier years of his practice +Dr. Leslie had been much sought as an instructor, but he had long +since begun to deny the young men who had wished to be his students, +though hardly one had ever gone from the neighborhood of Oldfields who +did not owe much to him for his wise suggestions and practical help. +</p> +<p> +He patiently taught this eager young scholar day by day, and gave her, +as fast as he could, the benefit of the wisdom which he had gained +through faithful devotion to his business and the persistent study of +many years. Nan followed step by step, and, while becoming more +conscious of her own ignorance and of the uncertainties and the laws +of the practice of medicine with every week's study, knew better and +better that it is resource, and bravery, and being able to think for +one's self, that make a physician worth anything. There must be an +instinct that recognizes a disease and suggests its remedy, as much as +an instinct that finds the right notes and harmonies for a composer of +music, or the colors for a true artist's picture, or the results of +figures for a mathematician. Men and women may learn these callings +from others; may practice all the combinations until they can carry +them through with a greater or less degree of unconsciousness of brain +and fingers; but there is something needed beside even drill and +experience; every student of medicine should be fitted by nature with +a power of insight, a gift for his business, for knowing what is the +right thing to do, and the right time and way to do it; must have this +God-given power in his own nature of using and discovering the +resources of medicine without constant reliance upon the books or the +fashion. Some men use their ability for their own good and renown, and +some think first of the good of others, and as the great poet tells +the truths of God, and makes other souls wiser and stronger and fitter +for action, so the great doctor works for the body's health, and tries +to keep human beings free from the failures that come from neglect and +ignorance, and ready to be the soul's instrument of action and service +in this world. It is not to keep us from death, it is no superstitious +avoidance of the next life, that should call loudest for the +physician's skill; but the necessity of teaching and remedying the +inferior bodies which have come to us through either our ancestors' +foolishness or our own. So few people know even what true and complete +physical life is, much less anything of the spiritual existence that +is already possible, and so few listen to what the best doctors are +trying their best to teach. While half-alive people think it no wrong +to bring into the world human beings with even less vitality than +themselves, and take no pains to keep the simplest laws of health, or +to teach their children to do so, just so long there will be plenty of +sorrow of an avoidable kind, and thousands of shipwrecked, and +failing, and inadequate, and useless lives in the fullest sense of the +word. How can those who preach to the soul hope to be heard by those +who do not even make the best of their bodies? but alas, the +convenience and easiness, or pleasure, of the present moment is +allowed to become the cause of an endless series of terrible effects, +which go down into the distance of the future, multiplying themselves +a thousandfold. +</p> +<p> +The doctor told Nan many curious things as they drove about together: +certain traits of certain families, and how the Dyers were of strong +constitution, and lived to a great age in spite of severe illnesses +and accidents and all manner of unfavorable conditions; while the +Dunnells, who looked a great deal stronger, were sensitive, and +deficient in vitality, so that an apparently slight attack of disease +quickly proved fatal. And so Nan knew that one thing to be considered +was the family, and another the individual variation, and she began +to recognize the people who might be treated fearlessly, because they +were safe to form a league with against any ailment, being responsive +to medicines, and straightforward in their departure from or return to +a state of health; others being treacherous and hard to control; full +of surprises, and baffling a doctor with their feints and follies of +symptoms; while all the time Death himself was making ready for a +last, fatal siege; these all being the representatives of types which +might be found everywhere. Often Dr. Leslie would be found eagerly +praising some useful old-fashioned drugs which had been foolishly +neglected by those who liked to experiment with newer remedies and be +"up with the times," as they called their not very intelligent +dependence upon the treatment in vogue at the moment among the younger +men of certain cliques, to some of whom the brilliant operation was +more important than its damaging result. There was, even in those +days, a haphazard way of doctoring, in which the health of the patient +was secondary to the promotion of new theories, and the young scholar +who could write a puzzlingly technical paper too often outranked the +old practitioner who conquered some malignant disorder single-handed, +where even the malpractice of the patient and his friends had stood +like a lion in the way. +</p> +<p> +But Dr. Leslie was always trying to get at the truth, and nobody +recognized more clearly the service which the reverent and truly +progressive younger men were rendering to the profession. He added +many new publications to his subscription list, and gleaned here and +there those notes which he knew would be helpful, and which were +suited to the degree of knowledge which his apprentice had already +gained. It is needless to say what pleasure it gave him, and what +evening talks they had together; what histories of former victories +and defeats and curious discoveries were combined, like a bit of +novel-reading, with Nan's diligent devotion to her course of study. +And presently the girl would take a step or two alone, and even make a +visit by herself to see if anything chanced to be needed when a case +was progressing favorably, and with the excuse of the doctor's +business or over-fatigue. And the physicians of the neighboring towns, +who came together occasionally for each other's assistance, most of +whom had known Nan from her childhood, though at first they had shrunk +from speaking of many details of their professional work in her +hearing, and covered their meaning, like the ostriches' heads, in the +sand of a Latin cognomen, were soon set at their ease by Nan's +unconsciousness of either shamefacedness or disgust, and one by one +grew interested in her career, and hopeful of her success. +</p> +<p> +It is impossible to describe the importance of such experiences as +these in forming the character of the young girl's power of resource, +and wealth of self-reliance and practical experience. Sometimes in +houses where she would have felt at least liberty to go only as +spectator and scholar of medicine, Dr. Leslie insisted upon +establishing her for a few days as chief nurse and overseer, and +before Nan had been at work many months her teacher found her of great +use, and grew more proud and glad day by day as he watched her +determination, her enthusiasm, and her excellent progress. Over and +over again he said to himself, or to her, that she was doing the work +for which nature had meant her, and when the time came for her to go +away from Oldfields, it seemed more impossible than it ever had before +that he should get on without her, at home, or as an independent human +being, who was following reverently in the path he had chosen so many +years before. For her sake he had reached out again toward many +acquaintances from whom he had drifted away, and he made many short +journeys to Boston or to New York, and was pleased at his hearty +welcome back to the medical meetings he had hardly entered during so +many years. He missed not a few old friends, but he quickly made new +ones. He was vastly pleased when the younger men seemed glad to hear +him speak, and it was often proved that either through study or +experience he had caught at some fresh knowledge of which his +associates were still ignorant. He had laughingly accused himself of +being a rusty country doctor and old fogy who had not kept up with the +times; but many a letter followed him home, with thanks for some +helpful suggestion or advice as to the management of a troublesome +case. He was too far away to give room for any danger of professional +jealousy, or for the infringement of that ever lengthening code of +etiquette so important to the sensitive medical mind. Therefore he +had only much pleasure and a fine tribute of recognition and honor, +and he smiled more than once as he sat in the quiet Oldfields study +before the fire, and looked up at Captain Finch's little ship, and +told Nan of his town experiences, not always omitting, though +attempting to deprecate, the compliments, in some half-hour when they +were on peculiarly good terms with each other. And Nan believed there +could be no better doctor in the world, and stoutly told him so, and +yet listened only half-convinced when he said that he had a great mind +to go to town and open an office, and make a specialty of treating +diseases of the heart, since everybody had a specialty nowadays. He +never felt so ready for practice as now, but Nan somehow could not +bear the thought of his being anywhere but in his home. For herself, +she would have been ready to venture anything if it would further her +ever-growing purpose; but that Dr. Leslie should begin a new career or +contest with the world seemed impossible. He was not so strong as he +used to be, and he was already famous among his fellows. She would +help him with his work by and by even more than now, and her own +chosen calling of a country doctor was the dearer to her, because he +had followed it so gallantly before her loving and admiring eyes. But +Dr. Leslie built many a castle in the air, with himself and a great +city practice for tenants, and said that it would be a capital thing +for Nan; she could go on with it alone by and by. It was astonishing +how little some of the city doctors knew: they relied upon each other +too much; they should all be forced to drive over hill and dale, and +be knocked about in a hard country practice for eight or ten years +before they went to town. "Plenty of time to read their books in June +and January," the doctor would grumble to himself, and turn to look +fondly at the long rows of his dear library acquaintances, his +Braithwaites and Lancets, and their younger brothers, beside the first +new Sydenham Society's books, with their clumsy blot of gilding. And +he would stand sometimes with his hands behind him and look at the +many familiar rows of brown leather-covered volumes, most of them +delightfully worn with his own use and that of the other physicians +whose generous friend and constant instructor he had been through +years of sometimes stormy but usually friendly intercourse and +association. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +When people in general had grown tired of discussing this strange +freak and purpose of the doctor and his ward, and had become familiar +with Nan's persistent interest and occupation in her studies, there +came a time of great discontent to the two persons most concerned. For +it was impossible to disguise the fact that the time had again come +for the girl to go away from home. They had always looked forward to +this, and directed much thought and action toward it, and yet they +decided with great regret upon setting a new train of things in +motion. +</p> +<p> +While it was well enough and useful enough that Nan should go on with +her present mode of life, they both had a wider outlook, and though +with the excuse of her youthfulness they had put off her departure as +long as possible, still almost without any discussion it was decided +that she must enter the medical school to go through with its course +of instruction formally, and receive its authority to practice her +profession. They both felt that this held a great many +unpleasantnesses among its store of benefits. Nan was no longer to be +shielded and protected and guided by some one whose wisdom she rarely +questioned, but must make her own decisions instead, and give from her +own bounty, and stand in her lot and place. Her later school-days were +sure to be more trying than her earlier ones, as they carried her into +deeper waters of scholarship, and were more important to her future +position before the public. +</p> +<p> +If a young man plans the same course, everything conspires to help him +and forward him, and the very fact of his having chosen one of the +learned professions gives him a certain social preëminence and +dignity. But in the days of Nan's student life it was just the +reverse. Though she had been directed toward such a purpose entirely +by her singular talent, instead of by the motives of expediency which +rule the decisions of a large proportion of the young men who study +medicine, she found little encouragement either from the quality of +the school or the interest of society in general. There were times +when she actually resented the prospect of the many weeks which she +must spend in listening to inferior instruction before gaining a +diploma, which was only a formal seal of disapproval in most persons' +eyes. And yet, when she remembered her perfect certainty that she was +doing the right thing, and remembered what renown some women +physicians had won, and the avenues of usefulness which lay open to +her on every side, there was no real drawing back, but rather a proud +certainty of her most womanly and respectable calling, and a reverent +desire to make the best use possible of the gifts God had certainly +not made a mistake in giving her. "If He meant I should be a doctor," +the girl told herself, "the best thing I can do is to try to be a good +one." +</p> +<p> +So Nan packed her boxes and said good-by to Mrs. Graham, who looked +wistful and doubtful, but blessed her most heartily, saying she should +miss her sadly in the winter. And Marilla, who had unexpectedly +reserved her opinion of late, made believe that she was very busy in +the pantry, just as she had done when Nan was being launched for +boarding-school. She shook her own floury hands vigorously, and +offered one at last, muffled in her apron, and wished our friend good +luck, with considerable friendliness, mentioning that she should be +glad if Nan would say when she wrote home what shapes they seemed to +be wearing for bonnets in the city, though she supposed they would be +flaunting for Oldfields anyway. The doctor was going too, and they +started for the station much too early for the train, since Dr. Leslie +always suffered from a nervous dread of having an unavoidable summons +to a distant patient at the last moment. +</p> +<p> +And when the examinations were over, and Nan had been matriculated, +and the doctor had somewhat contemptuously overlooked the building and +its capabilities, and had compared those students whom he saw with his +remembrance of his own class, and triumphantly picked out a face and +figure that looked hopeful here and there; he told himself that like +all new growths it was feeble yet, and needed girls like his Nan, with +high moral purpose and excellent capacity, who would make the college +strong and to be respected. Not such doctors as several of whom he +reminded himself, who were disgracing their sex, but those whose +lives were ruled by a pettiness of detail, a lack of power, and an +absence of high aim. Somehow both our friends lost much of the feeling +that Nan was doing a peculiar thing, when they saw so many others +following the same path. And having seen Nan more than half-settled in +her winter quarters, and knowing that one or two of her former school +friends had given her a delighted and most friendly welcome, and +having made a few visits to the people whom he fancied would help her +in one way or another, Dr. Leslie said good-by, and turned his face +homeward, feeling more lonely than he had felt in a great many years +before. He thought about Nan a great deal on the journey, though he +had provided himself with some most desirable new books. He was +thankful he had been able to do a kind turn for one of the most +influential doctors, who had cheerfully promised to put some special +advantages in Nan's way; but when he reached home the house seemed +very empty, and he missed his gay companion as he drove along the +country roads. After the days began to grow longer, and the sun +brighter, such pleasant letters came from the absent scholar, that the +doctor took heart more and more, and went over to Mrs. Graham with +almost every fresh bit of news. She smiled, and listened, and +applauded, and one day said with delightful cordiality that she wished +there were more girls who cared whether their lives really amounted to +anything. But not every one had a talent which was such a stimulus as +Nan's. +</p> +<p> +"Nothing succeeds like success," rejoined the doctor cheerfully, "I +always knew the child would do the best she could." +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XIV +</h2> +<h3> + MISS PRINCE OF DUNPORT +</h3> +<p> +While all these years were passing, Miss Anna Prince the elder was +living quietly in Dunport, and she had changed so little that her +friends frequently complimented her upon such continued youthfulness. +She had by no means forgotten the two greatest among the many losses +and sorrows of her life, but the first sharp pain of them was long +since over with. The lover from whom she had parted for the sake of a +petty misunderstanding had married afterward and died early; but he +had left a son of whom Miss Prince was very proud and fond; and she +had given him the place in her heart which should have belonged to her +own niece. When she thought of the other trial, she believed herself, +still, more sinned against than sinning, and gave herself frequent +assurances that it had been impossible to act otherwise at the time of +her brother's death and his wife's strange behavior afterward. And she +had persuaded her conscience to be quiet, until at last, with the +ideal of a suspicious, uncongenial, disagreeable group of rustics in +her mind, she thought it was well ordered by Heaven that she had been +spared any closer intercourse. +</p> +<p> +Miss Prince was a proud and stately woman of the old New England type: +more colonial than American perhaps, and quite provincial in her +traditions and prejudices. She was highly respected in her native +town, where she was a prominent figure in society. Nobody was more +generous and kind or public spirited, as her friends often said, and +young George Gerry was well-rewarded, though he gave her great +pleasure by his evident affection and interest. He liked to pay +frequent visits to his old friend, and to talk with her. She had been +a very attractive girl long ago, and the best of her charms had not +faded yet; the young man was always welcomed warmly, and had more than +once been helped in his projects. His mother was a feeble woman, who +took little interest in anything outside her own doors; and he liked +himself better as he sat in Miss Prince's parlor than anywhere else. +We are always fond of the society of our best selves, and though he +was popular with the rest of his townspeople, he somehow could not +help trying always to be especially agreeable to Miss Prince. +</p> +<p> +Although she was apparently free from regrets, and very well satisfied +with life, even her best friends did not know how lonely her life had +seemed to her, or how sadly hurt she had been by the shame and sorrow +of her only brother's marriage. The thought of his child and of the +impossibility of taking her to her heart and home had been like a +nightmare at first, and yet Miss Prince lacked courage to break down +the barriers, and to at least know the worst. She kept the two ideas +of the actual niece and the ideal one whom she might have loved so +much distinct and separate in her mind, and was divided between a +longing to see the girl and a fierce dread of her sudden appearance. +She had forbidden any allusion to the subject years and years before, +and so had prevented herself from hearing good news as well as bad; +though she had always been careful that the small yearly remittance +should be promptly sent, and was impatient to receive the formal +acknowledgment of it, which she instantly took pains to destroy. She +sometimes in these days thought about making her will; there was no +hurry about it, but it would be only fair to provide for her nearest +of kin, while she was always certain that she should not let all her +money and the old house with its handsome furnishings go into such +unworthy hands. It was a very hard question to settle, and she thought +of it as little as possible, and was sure there was nothing to prevent +her living a great many years yet. She loved her old home dearly, and +was even proud of it, and had always taken great care of the details +of its government. She never had been foolish enough to make away with +her handsome mahogany furniture, and to replace it with cheaper and +less comfortable chairs and tables, as many of her neighbors had done, +and had taken an obstinate satisfaction all through the years when it +seemed quite out of date, in insisting upon the polishing of the fine +wood and the many brass handles, and of late she had been reaping a +reward for her constancy. It had been a marvel to certain progressive +people that a person of her comfortable estate should be willing to +reflect that there was not a marble-topped table in her house, until +it slowly dawned upon them at last that she was mistress of the finest +house in town. Outwardly, it was painted white and stood close upon +the street, with a few steep front steps coming abruptly down into the +middle of the narrow sidewalk; its interior was spacious and very +imposing, not only for the time it was built in the last century, but +for any other time. Miss Prince's ancestors had belonged to some of +the most distinguished among the colonial families, which fact she +neither appeared to remember nor consented to forget; and, as often +happened in the seaport towns of New England, there had been one or +two men in every generation who had followed the sea. Her own father +had been among the number, and the closets of the old house were well +provided with rare china and fine old English crockery that would +drive an enthusiastic collector to distraction. The carved woodwork of +the railings and wainscotings and cornices had been devised by +ingenious and patient craftsmen, and the same portraits and old +engravings hung upon the walls that had been there when its mistress +could first remember. She had always been so well suited with her home +that she had never desired to change it in any particular. Her maids +were well drilled to their duties, and Priscilla, who was chief of the +staff, had been in that dignified position for many years. If Miss +Prince's grandmother could return to Dunport from another world, she +would hardly believe that she had left her earthly home for a day, it +presented so nearly the same appearance. +</p> +<p> +But however conscientiously the effort had been made to keep up the +old reputation for hospitality, it had somehow been a failure, and +Miss Prince had given fewer entertainments every year. Long ago, while +she was still a young woman, she had begun to wear a certain quaint +and elderly manner, which might have come from association with such +antiquated household gods and a desire to match well with her beloved +surroundings. A great many of her early friends had died, and she was +not the sort of person who can easily form new ties of intimate +friendship. She was very loyal to those who were still left, and, as +has been said, her interest in George Gerry, who was his father's +namesake and likeness, was a very great pleasure to her. Some persons +liked to whisper together now and then about the mysterious niece, who +was never mentioned otherwise. But though curiosity had led to a +partial knowledge of our heroine's not unfavorable aspect and +circumstances, nobody ever dared to give such information to the +person who should have been most interested. +</p> +<p> +This was one of the standard long stories of Dunport with which old +residents liked to regale newcomers, and handsome Jack Prince was the +hero of a most edifying romance, being represented as a victim of the +Prince pride, as his sister had been before him. His life had been +ruined, and he had begged his wretched wife at the last to bring him +home to Dunport, alive or dead. The woman had treated Miss Prince with +shameful impudence and had disappeared afterward. The child had been +brought up with her own people, and it was understood that Miss +Prince's efforts to have any connection with them were all thwarted. +Lately it had become known that the girl's guardian was a very fine +man and was taking a great interest in her. But the reader will +imagine how this story grew and changed in different people's minds. +Some persons insisted that Miss Prince had declined to see her +brother's child, and others that it was denied her. It was often said +in these days that Nan must be free to do as she chose, but it was +more than likely that she had assumed the prejudices against her aunt +with which she must have become most familiar. +</p> +<p> +As for Miss Prince herself, she had long ago become convinced that +there was nothing to be done in this matter. After one has followed a +certain course for some time, everything seems to persuade one that no +other is possible. Sometimes she feared that an excitement and danger +lurked in her future, but, after all, her days went by so calmly, and +nearer things seemed so much more important than this vague sorrow and +dread, that she went to and fro in the Dunport streets, and was +courteous and kind in her own house, and read a sensible book now and +then, and spent her time as benevolently and respectably as possible. +She was indeed an admirable member of society, who had suffered very +much in her youth, and those who knew her well could not be too glad +that her later years were passing far less unhappily than most +people's. +</p> +<p> +In the days when her niece had lately finished her first winter at the +medical school, Miss Prince had just freed herself from the +responsibility of some slight repairs which the house had needed. She +had been in many ways much more occupied than usual, and had given +hardly a thought to more remote affairs. At last there had come an +evening when she felt at leisure, and happily Miss Fraley, one of her +earliest friends, had come to pay her a visit. The two ladies sat at +the front windows of the west parlor looking out upon the street, +while the hostess expressed her gratitude that the overturning of her +household affairs was at an end, and that she was all in order for +summer. They talked about the damage and discomfort inflicted by +masons, and the general havoc which follows a small piece of fallen +ceiling. Miss Prince, having made a final round of inspection just +after tea, had ascertained that the last of the white dimity curtains +and coverings were in their places upstairs in the bedrooms, and her +love of order was satisfied. She had complimented Priscilla, and made +her and the maids the customary spring present, and had returned to +her evening post of observation at the parlor window just as Miss +Fraley came in. She was not in the mood for receiving guests, being a +trifle tired, but Eunice Fraley was a mild little creature, with a +gentle, deprecatory manner which had always appealed to Miss Prince's +more chivalrous nature. Besides, she knew this to be a most true and +affectionate friend, who had also the gift of appearing when +everything was ready for her, as the bluebirds come, and the robins, +in the early days of spring. +</p> +<p> +"I wish I could say that our house was all in order but one closet," +said the guest, in a more melancholy tone than usual. "I believe we +are more behind-hand than ever this year. You know we have Susan's +children with us for a fortnight while she goes away for a rest, and +they have been a good deal of care. I think mother is getting tired of +them now, though she was very eager to have a visit from them at +first. She said this morning that the little girl was worse than a +kitten in a fit, and she did hope that Susan wouldn't think it best to +pass another week away." +</p> +<p> +Miss Prince laughed a little, and so did Miss Fraley after a moment's +hesitation. She seemed to be in a somewhat sentimental and +introspective mood as she looked out of the window in the May +twilight. +</p> +<p> +"I so often feel as if I were not accomplishing anything," she said +sadly. "It came over me to-day that here I am, really an old woman, +and I am just about where I first started,—doing the same things over +and over and no better than ever. I haven't the gift of style; anybody +else might have done my work just as well, I am afraid; I am sure the +world would have got along just as well without me. Mother has been +so active, and has reached such a great age, that perhaps it hasn't +been much advantage to me. I have only learned to depend upon her +instead of myself. I begin to see that I should have amounted to a +great deal more if I had had a home of my own. I sometimes wish that I +were as free to go and come as you are, Nancy." +</p> +<p> +But Miss Prince's thoughts were pleased to take a severely practical +turn: "I'm not in the least free," she answered cheerfully. "I believe +you need something to strengthen you, Eunice. I haven't seen you so +out of spirits for a great while. Free! why I'm tied to this house as +if I were the knocker on the front door; and I certainly have a great +deal of care. I put the utmost confidence in Priscilla, but those +nieces of hers would be going wherever they chose, from garret to +cellar, before I was ten miles away from Dunport. I have let the cook +go away for a week, and Phoebe and Priscilla are alone. Phoebe is a +good little creature; I only hope she won't be married within six +months, for I don't know when I have liked a young girl so well. +Priscilla was anxious I should take that black-eyed daughter of her +brother's, and was quite hurt because I refused." +</p> +<p> +"I dare say you were right," acknowledged Miss Fraley, though she +could not exactly see the obstacles to her friend's freedom in such +strong light as was expected. +</p> +<p> +"I know that it must be difficult for you sometimes," resumed the +hostess presently, in a more sympathetic tone. "Your mother naturally +finds it hard to give up the rule. We can't expect her to look at life +as younger persons do." +</p> +<p> +"I don't expect it," said poor Miss Fraley appealingly, "and I am sure +I try to be considerate; but how would you like it, to be treated as +if you were sixteen instead of nearly sixty? I know it says in the +Bible that children should obey their parents, but there is no such +commandment, that I can see, to women who are old enough to be +grandmothers themselves. It does make me perfectly miserable to have +everything questioned and talked over that I do; but I know I ought +not to say such things. I suppose I shall lie awake half the night +grieving over it. You know I have the greatest respect for mother's +judgment; I'm sure I don't know what in the world I should do without +her." +</p> +<p> +"You are too yielding, Eunice," said Miss Prince kindly. "You try to +please everybody, and that's your way of pleasing yourself; but, after +all, I believe we give everybody more satisfaction when we hold fast +to our own ideas of right and wrong. There have been a great many +friends who were more than willing to give me their advice in all +these years that I have been living alone; but I have always made up +my mind and gone straight ahead. I have no doubt I should be very +impatient now of much comment and talking over; and yet there are so +many times when I would give anything to see father or mother for a +little while. I haven't suffered from living alone as much as some +persons do, but I often feel very sad and lonely when I sit here and +think about the past. Dear me! here is Phoebe with the lights, and I +dare say it is just as well. I am going to ask you to go up stairs and +see the fresh paint, and how ship-shape we are at last, as father used +to say." +</p> +<p> +Miss Fraley rose at once, with an expression of pleasure, and the two +friends made a leisurely tour of the old house which seemed all ready +for a large family, and though its owner apparently enjoyed her +freedom and dominion, it all looked deserted and empty to her guest. +They lingered together in the wide lower hall, and parted with unusual +affection. This was by no means the first hint that had been given of +a somewhat fettered and disappointing home life, though Miss Fraley +would have shuddered at the thought of any such report's being sent +abroad. +</p> +<p> +"Send the children round to see me," said Miss Prince, by way of +parting benediction. "They can play in the garden an hour or two, and +it will be a change for them and for you;" which invitation was +gratefully accepted, though Miss Eunice smiled at the idea of their +needing a change, when they were sure to be on every wharf in town in +the course of the day, and already knew more people in Dunport than +she did. +</p> +<p> +The next morning Miss Prince's sense of general well-being seemed to +have deserted her altogether. She was overshadowed by a fear of +impending disaster and felt strangely tired and dissatisfied. But she +did not believe in moping, and only assured herself that she must make +the day an easy one. So, being strong against tides, as some old poet +says of the whale, Miss Prince descended the stairs calmly, and +advised Priscilla to put off the special work that had been planned +until still later in the week. "You had better ask your sister to come +and spend the day with you and have a good, quiet visit," which +permission Priscilla received without comment, being a person of few +words; but she looked pleased, and while her mistress went down the +garden walk to breathe the fresh morning air, she concocted a small +omelet as an unexpected addition to the breakfast. Miss Prince was +very fond of an omelet, but Priscilla, in spite of all her good +qualities, was liable to occasional fits of offishness and depression, +and in those seasons kept her employer, in one way or another, on +short commons. +</p> +<p> +The day began serenely. It was the morning for the Dunport weekly +paper, which Miss Prince sat down at once to read, making her +invariable reproachful remark that there was nothing in it, after +having devoted herself to this duty for an hour or more. Then she +mounted to the upper floor of her house to put away a blanket which +had been overlooked in the spring packing of the camphor-wood chests +which stood in a solemn row in the north corner of the garret. There +were three dormer windows in the front of the garret-roof, and one of +these had been a favorite abiding-place in her youth. She had played +with her prim Dutch dolls there in her childhood, and she could +remember spending hour after hour watching for her father's ship when +the family had begun to expect him home at the end of a long voyage. +She remembered with a smile how grieved she had been because once he +came into port late in the night and surprised them all early in the +morning, but he had made amends by taking her back with him when he +hurried on board again after a hasty greeting. Miss Prince lived that +morning over again as she stood there, old and gray and alone in the +world. She could see again the great weather-beaten and tar-darkened +ship, and even the wizened monkey which belonged to one of the +sailors. She lingered at her father's side admiringly, and felt the +tears come into her eyes once more when he gave her a taste of the +fiery contents of his tumbler. They were all in his cabin; old Captain +Dunn and Captain Denny and Captain Peterbeck were sitting round the +little table, also provided with tumblers, as they listened eagerly to +the story of the voyage. The sailors came now and then for orders; +Nancy thought her handsome father, with his bronzed cheeks and white +forehead and curly hair, was every inch a king. He was her hero, and +nothing could please her so much to the end of her days as to have +somebody announce, whether from actual knowledge or hearsay, that +Captain Jack Prince was the best shipmaster that ever sailed out of +Dunport.... She always was sure there were some presents stored away +for herself and young Jack, her brother, in one of the lockers of the +little cabin. Poor Jack! how he used to frighten her by climbing the +shrouds and waving his cap from almost inaccessible heights. Poor +Jack! and Miss Prince climbed the step to look down the harbor again, +as if the ship were more than thirty days out from Amsterdam, and +might be expected at any time if the voyage had been favorable. +</p> +<p> +The house was at no great distance from the water side, though the +crowded buildings obscured the view from the lower stories. There was +nothing coming in from sea but a steam-tug, which did not harmonize +with these pleasant reminiscences, though as Miss Prince raised the +window a fine salt breeze entered, well warmed with the May sunshine. +It had the flavor of tar and the spirit of the high seas, and for a +wonder there could be heard the knocking of shipwrights' hammers, +which in old times were never silent in the town. As she sat there for +a few minutes in the window seat, there came to her other +recollections of her later girlhood, when she had stolen to this +corner for the sake of being alone with her pleasant thoughts, though +she had cried there many an hour after Jack's behavior had given them +the sorrow they hardly would own to each other. She remembered hearing +her father's angry voice down stairs. No! she would not think of that +again, why should she? and she shut the window and went back to be +sure that she had locked the camphor chest, and hung its key on the +flat-headed rusty nail overhead. Miss Prince heard some one open and +shut the front door as she went down, and in the small front room she +found Captain Walter Parish, who held a high place among her most +intimate friends. He was her cousin, and had become her general +adviser and counselor. He sometimes called himself laughingly the +ship's husband, for it was he who transacted most of Miss Prince's +important business, and selected her paint and shingles and her garden +seeds beside, and made and mended her pens. He liked to be useful and +agreeable, but he had not that satisfaction in his own home, for his +wife had been a most efficient person to begin with, and during his +absences at sea in early life had grown entirely self-reliant. The +captain joked about it merrily, but he nevertheless liked to feel that +he was still important, and Miss Prince generously told him, from time +to time, that she did not know how she should get on without him, and +considerately kept up the fiction of not wishing to take up his time +when he must be busy with his own affairs. +</p> +<p> +"How are you this fine morning, Cousin Nancy?" said the captain +gallantly. "I called to say that Jerry Martin will be here to-morrow +without fail. It seems he thought you would send him word when you +wanted him next, and he has been working for himself. I don't think +the garden will suffer, we have had so much cold weather. And here is +a letter I took from the office." He handed it to Miss Prince with a +questioning look; he knew the handwriting of her few correspondents +almost as well as she, and this was a stranger's. +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps it is a receipt for my subscription to the"—But Miss Prince +never finished the sentence, for when she had fairly taken the letter +into her hand, the very touch of it seemed to send a tinge of ashen +gray like some quick poison over her face. She stood still, looking at +it, then flushed crimson, and sat down in the nearest chair, as if it +were impossible to hold herself upright. The captain was uncertain +what he ought to do. +</p> +<p> +"I hope you haven't heard bad news," he said presently, for Miss +Prince had leaned back in the arm-chair and covered her eyes with one +hand, while the letter was tightly held in the other. +</p> +<p> +"It is from my niece," she answered, slowly. +</p> +<p> +"You don't mean it's from Jack's daughter?" inquired the captain, not +without eagerness. He never had suspected such a thing; the only +explanation which had suggested itself to his mind was that Miss +Prince had been investing some of her money without his advice or +knowledge, and he had gone so far as to tell himself that it was just +like a woman, and quite good enough for her if she had lost it. "I +never thought of its being from her," he said, a little bewildered, +for the captain was not a man of quick wit; his powers of reflection +served him better. "Well, aren't you going to tell me what she has to +say for herself?" +</p> +<p> +"She proposes to make me a visit," answered Miss Prince, trying to +smile as she handed him the little sheet of paper which she had +unconsciously crumpled together; but she did not give even one glance +at his face as he read it, though she thought it a distressingly long +time before he spoke. +</p> +<p> +"I must say that this is a very good letter, very respectful and +lady-like," said the captain honestly, though he felt as if he had +been expected to condemn it, and proceeded to read it through again, +this time aloud:— +</p> +<div class="blockquot"><p> + MY DEAR AUNT,—I cannot think it is right that we do not know + each other. I should like to go to Dunport for a day some time + next month; but if you do not wish to see me you have only to + tell me so, and I will not trouble you.</p> + +<p class="right">Yours sincerely,<br /> +ANNA PRINCE. +</p></div> + +<p> +"A very good handwriting, too," the captain remarked, and then +gathered courage to say that he supposed Miss Prince would give her +niece the permission for which she asked. "I have been told that she +is a very fine girl," he ventured, as if he were poor Nan's +ambassador; and at this Miss Prince's patience gave way. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I shall ask her to come, but I do not wish anything said about +it; it need not be made the talk of the town." She answered her cousin +angrily, and then felt as if she had been unjust. "Do not mind me, +Walter," she said; "it has been a terrible grief and trouble to me all +these years. Perhaps if I had gone to see those people, and told them +all I felt, they would have pitied me, and not blamed me, and so +everything would have been better, but it is too late now. I don't +know what sort of a person my own niece is, and I wish that I need +never find out, but I shall try to do my duty." +</p> +<p> +The captain was tender-hearted, and seemed quite unmanned, but he gave +his eyes a sudden stroke with his hand and turned to go away. "You +will command me, Nancy, if I can be of service to you?" he inquired, +and his cousin bowed her head in assent. It was, indeed, a dismal hour +of the family history. +</p> +<p> +For some time Miss Prince did not move, except as she watched Captain +Parish cross the street and take his leisurely way along the uneven +pavement. She was almost tempted to call him back, and felt as if he +were the last friend she had in the world, and was leaving her +forever. But after she had allowed the worst of the miserable shock to +spend itself, she summoned the stern energy for which she was famous, +and going with slower steps than usual to the next room, she unlocked +the desk of the ponderous secretary and seated herself to write. +Before many minutes had passed the letter was folded, and sealed, and +addressed, and the next evening Nan was reading it at Oldfields. She +was grateful for being asked to come on the 5th of June to Dunport, +and to stay a few days if it were convenient, and yet her heart fell +because there was not a sign of welcome or affection in the stately +fashioning of the note. It had been hardly wise to expect it under the +circumstances, the girl assured herself later, and at any rate it was +kind in her aunt to answer her own short letter so soon. +</p> +<h2><a name="2H_4_0015"></a> +XV +</h2> +<h3> +HOSTESS AND GUEST +</h3> +<p> +Nan had, indeed, resolved to take a most important step. She had +always dismissed the idea of having any communication with her aunt +most contemptuously when she had first understood their unhappy +position toward each other; but during the last year or two she had +been forced to look at the relationship from a wider point of view. +Dr. Leslie protested that he had always treated Miss Prince in a +perfectly fair and friendly manner, and that if she had chosen to show +no interest in her only niece, nobody was to blame but herself. But +Nan pleaded that her aunt was no longer young; that she might be +wishing that a reconciliation could be brought about; the very fact of +her having constantly sent the yearly allowance in spite of Mrs. +Thacher's and Dr. Leslie's unwillingness to receive it appealed to the +young girl, who was glad to believe that her aunt had, after all, more +interest in her than others cared to observe. She had no near +relatives except Miss Prince. There were some cousins of old Mrs. +Thacher's and their descendants settled in the vicinity of Oldfields; +but Nan clung more eagerly to this one closer tie of kindred than she +cared to confess even to her guardian. It was too late now for any +interference in Dr. Leslie's plans, or usurping of his affectionate +relationship; so, after he found that Nan's loyal heart was bent upon +making so kind a venture, he said one day, with a smile, that she had +better write a letter to her aunt, the immediate result of which we +already know. Nan had been studying too hard, and suffering not a +little from her long-continued city life, and though the doctor had +been making a most charming plan that later in the season they should +take a journey together to Canada, he said nothing about that, and +told himself with a sigh that this would be a more thorough change, +and even urged Nan to stay as long as she pleased in Dunport, if she +found her aunt's house pleasant and everything went well. For whether +Nan liked Miss Prince remained to be proved, though nobody in their +senses could doubt that Miss Prince would be proud of her niece. +</p> +<p> +It was not until after Nan had fairly started that she began to feel +at all dismayed. Perhaps she had done a foolish thing after all; +Marilla had not approved the adventure, while at the last minute Nan +had become suspicious that the doctor had made another plan, though +she contented herself with the remembrance of perfect freedom to go +home whenever she chose. She told herself grimly that if her aunt died +she should be thankful that she had done this duty; yet when, after a +journey of several hours, she knew that Dunport was the next station, +her heart began to beat in a ridiculous manner. It was unlike any +experience that had ever come to her, and she felt strangely unequal +to the occasion. Long ago she had laughed at her early romances of her +grand Dunport belongings, but the memory of them lingered still, in +spite of this commonplace approach to their realities, and she looked +eagerly at the groups of people at the railway station with a great +hope and almost certainty that she should find her aunt waiting to +meet her. There was no such good fortune, which was a chill at the +outset to the somewhat tired young traveler, but she beckoned a driver +whom she had just ignored, and presently was shut into a somewhat +antiquated public carriage and on her way to Miss Prince's house. +</p> +<p> +So this was Dunport, and in these very streets her father had played, +and here her mother had become deeper and deeper involved in the +suffering and tragedy which had clouded the end of her short life. It +seemed to the young stranger as if she must shrink away from the +curious glances that stray passers-by sent into the old carriage; and +that she was going to be made very conspicuous by the newly-awakened +interest in a sad story which surely could not have been forgotten. +Poor Nan! she sent a swift thought homeward to the doctor's house and +Mrs. Graham's; even to the deserted little place which had sheltered +her good old grandmother and herself in the first years she could +remember. And with strange irony came also a picture of the home of +one of her schoolmates,—where the father and mother and their +children lived together and loved each other. The tears started to her +eyes until some good angel whispered the kind "Come back soon, Nan +dear," with which Dr. Leslie had let her go away. +</p> +<p> +The streets were narrow and roughly paved in the old provincial +seaport town; the houses looked a good deal alike as they stood close +to the street, though here and there the tops of some fruit trees +showed themselves over a high garden fence. And presently before a +broad-faced and gambrel-roofed house, the driver stopped his horses, +and now only the front door with its bull's-eyed top-lights and +shining knocker stood between Nan and her aunt. The coachman had given +a resounding summons at this somewhat formidable entrance before he +turned to open the carriage door, but Nan had already alighted, and +stepped quickly into the hall. Priscilla directed her with some +ceremony to the south parlor, and a prim figure turned away from one +of the windows that overlooked the garden, and came forward a few +steps. "I suppose this is Anna," the not very cordial voice began, and +faltered; and then Miss Prince led her niece toward the window she had +left, and without a thought of the reserve she had decided upon, +pushed one of the blinds wide open, and looked again at Nan's +appealing face, half eager herself, and half afraid. Then she fumbled +for a handkerchief, and betook herself to the end of the sofa and +began to cry: "You are so like my mother and Jack," she said. "I did +not think I should be so glad to see you." +</p> +<p> +The driver had deposited Nan's box, and now appeared at the door of +the parlor with Priscilla (who had quite lost her wits with +excitement) looking over his shoulder. Nan sprang forward, glad of +something to do in the midst of her vague discomfort, and at this +sight the hostess recovered herself, and, commanding Priscilla to show +Miss Prince to her room, assumed the direction of business affairs. +</p> +<p> +The best bedroom was very pleasant, though somewhat stiff and unused, +and Nan was glad to close its door and find herself in such a +comfortable haven of rest and refuge from the teasing details of that +strange day. The wind had gone to the eastward, and the salt odor was +most delightful to her. A vast inheritance of memories and +associations was dimly brought to mind by that breath of the sea and +freshness of the June day by the harbor side. Her heart leaped at the +thought of the neighborhood of the wharves and shipping, and as she +looked out at the ancient street, she told herself with a sense of +great fun that if she had been a boy she would inevitably have been a +surgeon in the navy. So this was the aunt whom Nan had thought about +and dreamed about by day and by night, whose acquaintance had always +been a waiting pleasure, and the mere fact of whose existence had +always given her niece something to look forward to. She had not known +until this moment what a reserved pleasure this meeting had been, and +now it was over with. Miss Prince was so much like other people, +though why she should not have been it would be difficult to suggest, +and Nan's taste had been so educated and instructed by her Oldfields' +advantages, not to speak of her later social experiences, that she +felt at once that her aunt's world was smaller than her own. There was +something very lovable about Miss Prince, in spite of the constraint +of her greeting, and for the first time Nan understood that her aunt +also had dreaded the meeting. Presently she came to the door, and this +time kissed Nan affectionately. "I don't know what to say to you, I am +sure," she told the girl, "only I am thankful to have you here. You +must understand that it is a great event to me;" at which Nan laughed +and spoke some cheerful words. Miss Prince seated herself by the other +front window, and looked at her young guest with ever-growing +satisfaction. This was no copy of that insolent, ill-bred young woman +who had so beguiled and ruined poor Jack; she was a little lady, who +did honor to the good name of the Princes and Lesters,—a niece whom +anybody might be proud to claim, and whom Miss Prince could cordially +entreat to make herself quite at home, for she had only been too long +in coming to her own. And presently, when tea was served, the careful +ordering of it, which had been meant partly to mock and astonish the +girl who could not have been used to such ways of living, seemed only +a fitting entertainment for so distinguished a guest. "Blood will +tell," murmured Miss Prince to herself as she clinked the teacups and +looked at the welcome face the other side of the table. But when they +talked together in the evening, it was made certain that Nan was +neither ashamed of her mother's people nor afraid to say gravely to +Miss Prince that she did not know how much injustice was done to +grandmother Thacher, if she believed she were right in making a +certain statement. Aunt Nancy smiled, and accepted her rebuff without +any show of disapproval, and was glad that the next day was Sunday, +so that she could take Nan to church for the admiration of all +observers. She was even sorry that she had not told young Gerry to +come and pay an evening visit to her niece, and spoke of him once or +twice. Her niece observed a slight self-consciousness at such times, +and wondered a little who Mr. George Gerry might be. +</p> +<p> +Nan thought of many things before she fell asleep that night. Her +ideas of her father had always been vague, and she had somehow +associated him with Dr. Leslie, who had shown her all the fatherliness +she had ever known. As for the young man who had died so long ago, if +she had said that he seemed to her like a younger brother of Dr. +Leslie, it would have been nearest the truth, in spite of the details +of the short and disappointed life which had come to her ears. Dr. +Ferris had told her almost all she knew of him, but now that she was +in her own father's old home, among the very same sights he had known +best, he suddenly appeared to her in a vision, as one might say, and +invested himself in a cloud of attractive romance. His daughter felt a +sudden blaze of delight at this first real consciousness of her +kinship. Miss Prince had shown her brother's portrait early in the +evening, and had even taken the trouble to light a candle and hold it +high, so that Nan could see the handsome, boyish face, in which she +recognized quickly the likeness to her own. "He was only thirteen +then," said Miss Prince, "but he looks several years older. We all +thought that the artist had made a great mistake when it was painted, +but poor Jack grew to look like it. Yes, you are wonderfully like +him," and she held the light near Nan's face and studied it again as +she had just studied the picture. Nan's eyes filled with tears as she +looked up at her father's face. The other portraits in the room were +all of older people, her grandfather and grandmother and two or three +ancestors, and Miss Prince repeated proudly some anecdotes of the most +distinguished. "I suppose you never heard of them," she added sadly at +the close, but Nan made no answer; it was certainly no fault of her +own that she was ignorant of many things, and she would not confess +that during the last few years she had found out everything that was +possible about her father's people. She was so thankful to have grown +up in Oldfields that she could not find it in her heart to rail at the +fate that had kept her away from Dunport; but the years of silence +had been very unlovely in her aunt. +</p> +<p> +She wondered, before she went to sleep that night, where her father's +room had been, and thought she would ask Miss Prince in the morning. +The windows were open, and the June air blew softly in, and sometimes +swayed the curtains of the bed. There was a scent of the sea and of +roses, and presently up the quiet street came the sound of footsteps +and young voices. Nan said to herself that some party had been late in +breaking up, and felt her heart thrill with sympathy. She had been +dwelling altogether in the past that evening, and she liked to hear +the revelers go by. But as they came under the windows she heard one +say, "I should be afraid of ghosts in that best room of Miss +Prince's," and then they suddenly became quiet, as if they had seen +that the windows were open, and Nan first felt like a stranger, but +next as if this were all part of the evening's strange experiences, +and as if these might be her father's young companions, and she must +call to them as they went by. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The next morning both the hostess and her guest waked early, and were +eager for the time when they should see each other again. The beauty +and quiet of the Sunday morning were very pleasant, and Nan stood for +some minutes at the dining-room windows, looking out on the small +paved courtyard, and the flowers and green leaves beyond the garden +gate. Miss Prince's was one of the fine old houses which kept its +garden behind it, well-defended from the street, for the family's own +pleasure. +</p> +<p> +"Those are the same old bushes and trees which we used to play among; +I have hardly changed it at all," said Miss Prince, as she came in. It +must be confessed that she had lost the feeling of patroness with +which she had approached her acquaintance with Nan. She was proud and +grateful now, and as she saw the girl in her pretty white dress, and +found her as simple and affectionate and eager to please as she had +thought her the night before, she owned to herself that she had not +looked for such happiness to fall into her life. And there was +something about the younger Anna Prince which others had quickly +recognized; a power of direction and of command. There are some +natures like the Prussian blue on a painter's palette, which rules all +the other colors it is mixed with; natures which quickly make +themselves felt in small or great companies. +</p> +<p> +Nan discovered her father's silver mug beside her plate, and was fired +with a fiercer resentment than she had expected to feel again, at the +sight of it. The thought of her childhood in good grandmother +Thacher's farm-house came quickly to her mind, with the plain living, +to her share of which she had been made a thousand times welcome; +while by this richer house, of which she was also heir, such rightful +trinkets and treasures had been withheld. But at the next minute she +could meet Miss Prince's observant eyes without displeasure, and +wisely remembered that she herself had not been responsible for the +state of affairs, and that possibly her aunt had been as wronged and +insulted and beaten back as she complained. So she pushed the +newly-brightened cup aside with an almost careless hand, as a sort of +compromise with revenge, and Miss Prince at once caught sight of it. +"Dear me," she said, not without confusion, "Priscilla must have +thought you would be pleased," and then faltered, "I wish with all my +heart you had always had it for your own, my dear." And this was a +great deal for Miss Prince to say, as any of her acquaintances could +have told her nearest relative, who sat, almost a stranger, at the +breakfast-table. +</p> +<p> +The elder woman felt a little light-headed and unfamiliar to herself +as she went up the stairway to get ready for church. It seemed as if +she had entered upon a new stage of existence, since for so many years +she had resented the existence of her brother's child, and had kept up +an imaginary war, in which she ardently fought for her own rights. She +had brought forward reason after reason why she must maintain her +position as representative of a respected family who had been shamed +and disgraced and insulted by her brother's wife. Now all aggressors +of her peace, real and imaginary, were routed by the appearance of +this young girl upon the field of battle, which she traversed with +most innocent and fearless footsteps, looking smilingly into her +aunt's face, and behaving almost as if neither of them had been +concerned in the family unhappiness. Beside, Nan had already added a +new interest to Miss Prince's life, and as this defeated warrior took +a best dress from the closet without any of the usual reflection upon +so important a step, she felt a great consciousness of having been +added to and enriched, as the person might who had suddenly fallen +heir to an unexpected property. From this first day she separated +herself as much as possible from any thought of guilt or complicity in +the long estrangement. She seemed to become used to her niece's +presence, and with the new relationship's growth there faded away the +thought of the past times. If any one dared to hint that it was a pity +this visit had been so long delayed, Miss Prince grandly ignored all +personality. +</p> +<p> +Priscilla had come to the guest's room on some undeclared errand, for +it had already been put in order, and she viewed with pleasure the +simple arrangements for dressing which were in one place and another +about the room. Priscilla had scorned the idea of putting this visitor +into the best bedroom, and had had secret expectations that Miss +Prince's niece would feel more at home with her than with her +mistress. But Miss Anna was as much of a lady as Miss Prince, which +was both pleasing and disappointing, as Priscilla hoped to solace some +disrespectful feelings of her own heart by taking down Miss Nancy's +pride. However, her loyalty to the house was greater than her own very +small grudges, and as she pretended to have some difficulty with the +fastening of the blind, she said in a whisper, "Y'r aunt'll like to +have you make yourself look pretty," which was such a reminder of +Marilla's affectionate worldliness that Nan had to laugh aloud. "I'm +afraid I haven't anything grand enough," she told the departing +housekeeper, whose pleasure it was not hard to discern. +</p> +<p> +It was with a very gratified mind that Miss Prince walked down the +street with her niece and bowed to one and another of her +acquaintances. She was entirely careless of what any one should say, +but she was brimful of excitement, and answered several of Nan's +questions entirely wrong. The old town was very pleasant that Sunday +morning. The lilacs were in full bloom, and other early summer flowers +in the narrow strips of front-yards or the high-fenced gardens were +in blossom too, and the air was full of sweetness and delight. The +ancient seaport had gathered for itself quaint names and treasures; it +was pleased with its old fashions and noble memories; its ancient +bells had not lost their sweet voices, and a flavor of the past +pervaded everything. The comfortable houses, the elderly citizens, the +very names on the shop signs, and the worn cobblestones of the streets +and flagstones of the pavements, delighted the young stranger, who +felt so unreasonably at home in Dunport. The many faces that had been +colored and fashioned by the sea were strangely different from those +which had known an inland life only, and she seemed to have come a +great deal nearer to foreign life and to the last century. Her heart +softened as she wondered if her father knew that she was following his +boyish footsteps, for the first time in her life, on that Sunday +morning. She would have liked to wander away by herself and find her +way about the town, but such a proposal was not to be thought of, and +all at once Miss Nancy turned up a narrow side street toward a +high-walled brick church, and presently they walked side by side up +the broad aisle so far that it seemed to Nan as if her aunt were +aiming for the chancel itself, and had some public ceremony in view, +of a penitential nature. They were by no means early, and the girl was +disagreeably aware of a little rustle of eagerness and curiosity as +she took her seat, and was glad to have fairly gained the shelter of +the high-backed pew as she bent her head. But Miss Prince the senior +seemed calm; she said her prayer, settled herself as usual, putting +the footstool in its right place and finding the psalms and the +collect. She then laid the prayer-book on the cushion beside her and +folded her hands in her lap, before she turned discreetly to say +good-morning to Miss Fraley, and exchange greetings until the +clergyman made his appearance. Nan had taken the seat next the pew +door, and was looking about her with great interest, forgetting +herself and her aunt as she wondered that so dear and quaint a place +of worship should be still left in her iconoclastic native country. +She had seen nothing even in Boston like this, there were so many +antique splendors about the chancel, and many mural tablets on the +walls, where she read with sudden delight her own family name and the +list of virtues which had belonged to some of her ancestors. The dear +old place! there never had been and never could be any church like +it; it seemed to have been waiting all her life for her to come to say +her prayers where so many of her own people had brought their sins and +sorrows in the long years that were gone. She only wished that the +doctor were with her, and the same feeling that used to make her watch +for him in her childhood until he smiled back again filled all her +loving and grateful heart. She knew that he must be thinking of her +that morning; he was not in church himself, he had planned a long +drive to the next town but one, to see a dying man, who seemed to be +helped only by this beloved physician's presence. There had been some +talk between Dr. Leslie and Nan about a medicine which might possibly +be of use, and she found herself thinking about that again and again. +She had reminded the doctor of it and he had seemed very pleased. It +must be longer ago than yesterday since she left Oldfields, it already +counted for half a lifetime. +</p> +<p> +One listener at least was not resentful because the sermon was neither +wise nor great, for she had so many things to think of; but while she +was sometimes lost in her own thoughts, Nan stole a look at the thinly +filled galleries now and then, and at one time was pleased with the +sight of the red-cheeked cherubs which seemed to have been caught like +clumsy insects and pinned as a sort of tawdry decoration above the +tablets where the Apostle's Creed and the Ten Commandments were +printed in faded gilt letters. The letter s was made long in these +copies and the capitals were of an almost forgotten pattern, and after +Nan had discovered her grandfather's name in the prayer-book she held, +and had tried again to listen to the discourse, she smiled at the +discovery of a familiar face in one of the wall pews. It somehow gave +her a feeling of security as being a link with her past experiences, +and she looked eagerly again and again until this old acquaintance, +who also was a stranger and a guest in Dunport, happened to direct a +careless glance toward her, and a somewhat dull and gloomy expression +was changed for surprised and curious recognition. When church was +over at last Miss Prince seemed to have a great deal to say to her +neighbor in the next pew, and Nan stood in her place waiting until her +aunt was ready. More than one person had lingered to make sure of a +distinct impression of the interesting stranger who had made one of +the morning congregation, and Nan smiled suddenly as she thought that +it might seem proper that she and her aunt should walk down the aisle +together as if they had been married, or as if the ceremony were +finished which she had anticipated as they came in. And Miss Prince +did make an admirable exit from the church, mustering all her +self-possession and taking stately steps at her niece's side, while +she sometimes politely greeted her acquaintances. There were +flickering spots of color in her cheeks when they were again in the +sun-shiny street. +</p> +<p> +"It is really the first day this summer when I have needed my +parasol," said Aunt Nancy, as she unfurled the carefully preserved +article of her wardrobe and held it primly aloft. "I am so sorry that +our rector was absent this morning. I suppose that you have attended +an Episcopal church sometimes; I am glad that you seem to be familiar +with the service;" to which Nancy replied that she had been confirmed +while she was first at boarding-school, and this seemed to give her +aunt great satisfaction. "Very natural and proper, my dear," she said. +"It is one thing I have always wished when I thought of you at serious +moments. But I was persuaded that you were far from such influences, +and that there would be nothing in your surroundings to encourage your +inherited love of the church." +</p> +<p> +"I have always liked it best," said Nan, who seemed all at once to +grow taller. "But I think one should care more about being a good +woman than a good Episcopalian, Aunt Nancy." +</p> +<p> +"No doubt," said the elder woman, a little confused and dismayed, +though she presently rallied her forces and justly observed that the +rules of the church were a means to the end of good living, and +happily, before any existing differences of opinion could be +discovered, they were interrupted by a pleasant-faced young man, who +lifted his hat and gracefully accepted his introduction to the younger +Miss Prince. +</p> +<p> +"This is Mr. George Gerry, Anna, one of my young friends," smiled Aunt +Nancy, and saying, as she walked more slowly, "You must come to see +us soon, for I shall have to depend upon the younger people to make my +niece's stay agreeable." +</p> +<p> +"I was looking forward to my Sunday evening visit," the wayfarer said +hesitatingly; "you have not told me yet that I must not come;" which +appeal was only answered by a little laugh from all three, as they +separated. And Miss Prince had time to be quite eloquent in her +favorite's praise before they reached home. Nan thought her first +Dunport acquaintance very pleasant, and frankly said so. This seemed +to be very gratifying to her aunt, and they walked toward home +together by a roundabout way and in excellent spirits. It seemed more +and more absurd to Nan that the long feud and almost tragic state of +family affairs should have come to so prosaic a conclusion, and that +she who had been the skeleton of her aunt's ancestral closet should +have dared to emerge and to walk by her side through the town. After +all, here was another proof of the wisdom of the old Spanish proverb, +that it takes two to make a quarrel, but only one to end it. +</p> +<h2><a name="2H_4_0016"></a> +XVI +</h2> +<h3> +A JUNE SUNDAY +</h3> +<p> +It was Miss Prince's custom to indulge herself by taking a long Sunday +afternoon nap in summer, though on this occasion she spoke of it to +her niece as only a short rest. She was glad to gain the shelter of +her own room, and as she brushed a little dust from her handsome silk +gown before putting it away she held it at arm's length and shook it +almost indignantly. Then she hesitated a moment and looked around the +comfortable apartment with a fierce disdain. "I wonder what gives me +such a sense of importance," she whispered. "I have been making +mistakes my whole life long, and giving excuses to myself for not +doing my duty. I wish I had made her a proper allowance, to say the +least. Everybody must be laughing at me!" and Miss Prince actually +stamped her foot. It had been difficult to keep up an appearance of +self-respect, but her pride had helped her in that laudable effort, +and as she lay down on the couch she tried to satisfy herself with the +assurance that her niece should have her rights now, and be treated +justly at last. +</p> +<p> +Miss Fraley had come in to pay a brief visit on her way to +Sunday-school just as they finished dinner, and had asked Nan to tea +the following Wednesday, expressing also a hope that she would come +sooner to call, quite without ceremony. Finding the state of affairs +so pleasant, Miss Eunice ventured to say that Nan's father had been a +favorite of her mother, who was now of uncommon age. Miss Prince +became suddenly stern, but it was only a passing cloud, which +disturbed nobody. +</p> +<p> +Nan had accepted willingly the offered apologies and gayly wished her +aunt a pleasant dream, but being wide awake she gladly made use of the +quiet time to send a letter home, and to stroll down the garden +afterward. It all seemed so unlike what she had expected, yet her +former thoughts about her aunt were much more difficult to recall as +every hour went by and made the impression of actual things more +distinct. Her fancied duty to a lonely old lady who mourned over a sad +past seemed quite quixotic when she watched this brisk woman come and +go without any hindrance of age, or, now that the first meeting was +over, any appearance of former melancholy. As our friend went down the +garden she told herself that she was glad to have come; it was quite +right, and it was very pleasant, though there was no particular use in +staying there long, and after a few days she would go away. Somehow +her life seemed a great deal larger for this new experience, and she +would try to repeat the visit occasionally. She wished to get Dunport +itself by heart, but she had become so used to giving the best of +herself to her studies, that she was a little shy of the visiting and +the tea-parties and the apparently fruitless society life of which she +had already learned something. "I suppose the doctor would say it is +good for me," said Nan, somewhat grimly, "but I think it is most +satisfactory to be with the persons whose interests and purposes are +the same as one's own." The feeling of a lack of connection with the +people whom she had met made life appear somewhat blank. She had +already gained a certain degree of affection for her aunt; to say the +least she was puzzled to account for such an implacable hostility as +had lasted for years in the breast of a person so apparently friendly +and cordial in her relations with her neighbors. Our heroine was slow +to recognize in her relative the same strength of will and of +determination which made the framework of her own character,—an +iron-like firmness of structure which could not be easily shaken by +the changes or opinions of other people. Miss Prince's acquaintances +called her a very set person, and were shy of intruding into her +secret fastnesses. There were all the traits of character which are +necessary for the groundwork of an enterprising life, but Miss Prince +seemed to have neither inherited nor acquired any high aims or any +especial and fruitful single-heartedness, so her gifts of persistence +and self-confidence had ranked themselves for the defense of a +comparatively unimportant and commonplace existence. As has been said, +she forbade, years before, any mention of her family troubles, and had +lived on before the world as if they could be annihilated, and not +only were not observable, but never had been. In a more thoughtful and +active circle of social life the contrast between her rare capacity +and her unnoticeable career would have been more striking. She stood +as a fine representative of the old school, but it could not be justly +said that she was a forward scholar, since, however sure of some of +her early lessons, she was most dull and reluctant before new ones of +various enlightening and uplifting descriptions. +</p> +<p> +Nan had observed that her aunt had looked very tired and spent as she +went up-stairs after dinner, and understood better than she had before +that this visit was moving the waters of Miss Prince's soul more +deeply than had been suspected. She gained a new sympathy, and as the +hours of the summer afternoon went by she thought of a great many +things which had not been quite plain to her, and strolled about the +garden until she knew that by heart, and had made friends with the +disorderly company of ladies-delights and periwinkles which had +cropped up everywhere, as if the earth were capable of turning itself +into such small blossoms without anybody's help, after so many years +of unvarying tuition. The cherry-trees and pear-trees had a most +venerable look, and the plum-trees were in dismal mourning of black +knots. There was a damp and shady corner where Nan found a great many +lilies of the valley still lingering, though they had some time ago +gone out of bloom in the more sunshiny garden at Oldfields. She +remembered that there were no flowers in the house and gathered a +great handful at last of one sort and another to carry in. +</p> +<p> +The dining-room was very dark, and Nan wished at first to throw open +the blinds which had been carefully closed. It seemed too early in the +summer to shut out the sunshine, but it seemed also a little too soon +to interfere with the housekeeping, and so she brought two or three +tall champagne glasses from a high shelf of the closet and filled them +with her posies, and after putting them in their places, went back to +the garden. There was a perfect silence in the house, except for the +sound of the tall clock in the dining-room, and it seemed very lonely. +She had taken another long look at her father's portrait, but as she +shut the rusty-hinged garden gate after her, she smiled at the thought +of her unusual idleness, and wondered if it need last until Tuesday, +which was the day she had fixed upon for her departure. Nan wished +that she dared to go away for a long walk; it was a pity she had not +told her aunt of a wish to see something of the town and of the +harbor-side that afternoon, but it would certainly be a little strange +if she were to disappear, and very likely the long nap would soon come +to an end. Being well taught in the details of gardening, she took a +knife from her pocket and pruned and trained the shrubs and vines, and +sang softly to herself as she thought about her next winter's study +and her plans for the rest of the summer, and also decided that she +would insist upon the doctor's going away with her for a journey when +she reached home again. +</p> +<p> +After a little while she heard her aunt open the blinds of the garden +door and call her in most friendly tones, and when she reached the +house Miss Prince was in the south parlor entertaining a +visitor,—Captain Walter Parish, who had gladly availed himself of +some trifling excuse of a business nature, which involved the signing +and sending of a paper by the early post of next day. He was going to +his daughter's to tea, and it was quite a long drive to her house, so +he had not dared to put off his errand, he explained, lest he should +be detained in the evening. But he had been also longing to take a +look at Miss Prince's guest. His wife went to another church and he +dutifully accompanied her, though he had been brought up with Miss +Prince at old St. Ann's. +</p> +<p> +"So this is my young cousin?" said the captain gallantly, and with +great simplicity and tenderness held both Nan's hands and looked full +in her face a moment before he kissed her; then to Miss Prince's great +discomposure and embarrassment he turned to the window and looked out +without saying a word, though he drew the back of his hand across his +eyes in sailor-fashion, as if he wished to make them clear while he +sighted something on the horizon. Miss Prince thought it was all +nonsense and would have liked to say so, though she trusted that her +silence was eloquent enough. +</p> +<p> +"She brings back the past," said Captain Walter as he returned +presently and seated himself where he could look at Nan as much as he +liked. "She brings back the past." +</p> +<p> +"You were speaking of old Captain Slater," reminded Miss Prince with +some dignity. +</p> +<p> +"I just came from there," said Captain Parish, with his eyes still +fixed on his young relative, though it was with such a friendly gaze +that Nan was growing fonder of him every minute. "They told me he was +about the same as yesterday. I offered to watch with him to-morrow +night. And how do you like the looks of Dunport, my dear?" +</p> +<p> +Nan answered eagerly with brightening face, and added that she was +longing to see more of it; the old wharves especially. +</p> +<p> +"Now that's good," said the captain; "I wonder if you would care +anything about taking a stroll with me in the morning. Your aunt here +is a famous housekeeper, and will be glad to get you off her hands, I +dare say." +</p> +<p> +Nan eagerly accepted, and though it was suggested that Miss Prince had +a plan for showing the town in the afternoon, she was promptly told +that there was nothing easier than taking both these pleasant +opportunities. "You would lose yourself among the old storehouses, I'm +sure, Nancy," laughed the old sailor, "and you must let me have my +way. It's a chance one doesn't get every day, to tell the old Dunport +stories to a new listener." +</p> +<p> +Some one had opened the front door, and was heard coming along the +hall. "This is very kind, George," said Miss Prince, with much +pleasure, while the captain looked a little disconcerted at his young +rival; he assured himself that he would make a long morning's cruise +of it, next day, with this attractive sightseer, and for once the +young beaux would be at a disadvantage; the girls of his own day used +to think him one of the best of their gallants, and at this thought +the captain was invincible. Mr. Gerry must take the second chance. +</p> +<p> +The blinds were open now, and the old room seemed very pleasant. Nan's +brown hair had been blown about not a little in the garden, and as she +sat at the end of the long, brass-nailed sofa, a ray of sunshine +touched the glass of a picture behind her and flew forward again to +tangle itself in her stray locks, so that altogether there was a sort +of golden halo about her pretty head. And young Gerry thought he had +never seen anything so charming. The white frock was a welcome +addition to the usually sombre room, and his eyes quickly saw the +flowers on the table. He knew instantly that the bouquet was none of +Miss Prince's gathering. +</p> +<p> +"I hope you won't think I mean to stay as much too late as I have come +too early," he laughed. "I must go away soon after tea, for I have +promised to talk with the captain of a schooner which is to sail in +the morning. Mr. Wills luckily found out that he could give some +evidence in a case we are working up." +</p> +<p> +"The collision?" asked Captain Parish, eagerly. "I was wondering +to-day when I saw the Highflyer's foremast between the buildings on +Fleet Street as I went to meeting, if they were going to let her lie +there and dry-rot. I don't think she's being taken proper care of. I +must say I hate to see a good vessel go to ruin when there's no need +of it." +</p> +<p> +"The man in charge was recommended very highly, and everything seemed +to be all right when I was on board one day this week," said young +Gerry, good-naturedly, and turned to explain to Nan that this vessel +had been damaged by collision with another, and the process of +settling the matter by litigation had been provokingly slow. +</p> +<p> +The captain listened with impatience. "I dare say she looked very well +to your eyes, but I'd rather have an old ship-master's word for it +than a young lawyer's. I haven't boarded her for some weeks; I dare +say 'twas before the snow was gone; but she certainly needed attention +then. I saw some bad-looking places in the sheathing and planking. +There ought to be a coat of paint soon, and plenty of tar carried +aloft besides, or there'll be a long bill for somebody to pay before +she's seaworthy." +</p> +<p> +"I wish you would make a careful inspection of her," said the young +man, with gratifying deference. "I don't doubt that it is necessary; I +will see that you are well satisfied for your services. Of course the +captain himself should have stayed there and kept charge, but you +remember he was sick and had to resign. He looks feeble yet. I hope +nothing will happen to him before the matter is settled up, but we are +sure of the trial in September." +</p> +<p> +"She's going to be rigged with some of your red tape, I'm afraid," +said Captain Parish, with great friendliness. "I don't see any reason +why I can't look her over to-morrow morning, I'm obliged to you, or at +least make a beginning," and he gave a most knowing nod at Nan, as if +they would divide the pleasure. "I'll make the excuse of showing this +young lady the construction of a good-sized merchant vessel, and then +the keeper can't feel affronted. She is going to take a stroll with me +along the wharves," he concluded triumphantly. While Mr. Gerry looked +wistful for a moment, and Miss Prince quickly took advantage of a +pause in the conversation to ask if he knew whether anything pleasant +was going forward among the young people this week. She did not wish +her niece to have too dull a visit. +</p> +<p> +"Some of us are going up the river very soon," said the young man, +with eager pleasure, looking at Nan. "It would be so pleasant if Miss +Prince would join us. We think our Dunport supper parties of that sort +would be hard to match." +</p> +<p> +"The young folks will all be flocking here by to-morrow," said the +captain; and Miss Prince answered "Surely," in a tone of command, +rather than entreaty. She knew very well how the news of Nan's coming +must be flying about the town, and she almost regretted the fact of +her own previous silence about this great event. In the mean time Nan +was talking to the two gentlemen as if she had already been to her +room to smooth her hair, which her aunt looked at reproachfully from +time to time, though the sunshine had not wholly left it. The girl was +quite unconscious of herself, and glad to have the company and +sympathy of these kind friends. She thought once that if she had a +brother she would like him to be of young Mr. Gerry's fashion. He had +none of the manner which constantly insisted upon her remembering that +he was a man and she a girl; she could be good friends with him in the +same way that she had been with some Oldfields schoolfellows, and +after the captain had reluctantly taken his leave, they had a pleasant +talk about out-of-door life and their rides and walks, and were soon +exchanging experiences in a way that Miss Nancy smiled upon gladly. It +was not to be wondered at that she could not get used to so great a +change in her life. She could not feel sure yet that she no longer had +a secret, and that this was the niece whom she had so many years +dreaded and disclaimed. George Gerry had taken the niece's place in +her affections, yet here was Anna, her own namesake, who showed +plainly in so many ways the same descent as herself, being as much a +Prince as herself in spite of her mother's low origin and worse +personal traits, and the loutish companions to whom she had always +persuaded herself poor Nan was akin. And it was by no means sure that +the last of the Princes was not the best of them; she was very proud +of her brother's daughter, and was more at a loss to know how to make +excuses for being shortsighted and neglectful. Miss Prince hated to +think that Nan had any but the pleasantest associations with her +nearest relative; she must surely keep the girl's affection now. She +meant to insist at any rate upon Dunport's being her niece's home for +the future, though undoubtedly it would be hard at first to break with +the many associations of Oldfields. She must write that very night to +Dr. Leslie to thank him for his care, and to again express her regret +that Anna's misguided young mother should have placed such +restrictions upon the child's relations with her nearest of kin, and +so have broken the natural ties of nature. And she would not stop +there; she would blame herself generously and say how sorry she was +that she had been governed by her painful recollections of a time she +should now strive to forget. Dr. Leslie must be asked to come and join +his ward for a few days, and then they would settle her plans for the +future. She should give her niece a handsome allowance at any rate, +and then, as Miss Prince looked across the room and forgot her own +thoughts in listening to the young people's friendly talk, a sudden +purpose flashed through her mind. The dream of her heart began to +unfold itself slowly: could anything be so suitable, so comforting to +her own mind, as that they should marry each other? +</p> +<p> +Two days before, her pleasure and pride in the manly fellow, who was +almost as dear to her as an own son could be, would have been greatly +shocked, but Miss Prince's heart began to beat quickly. It would be +such a blessed solution of all the puzzles and troubles of her life if +she could have both the young people near her through the years that +remained, and when she died, or even before, they could live here in +the old house, and begin a new and better order of things in the place +of her own failures and shortcomings. It was all so distinct and +possible in Miss Prince's mind that only time seemed necessary, and +even the time could be made short. She would not put any hindrances +between them and their blessed decision. As she went by them to seek +Priscilla, she smoothed the cushion which Nan had leaned upon before +she moved a little nearer George Gerry in some sudden excitement of +the conversation, which had begun while the captain was still there, +and there was a needless distance between them. Then Miss Prince let +her hand rest for a minute on the girl's soft hair. "You must ask Mr. +Gerry to excuse you for a few minutes, my dear, you have been quite +blown about in the garden. I meant to join you there." +</p> +<p> +"It is a dear old garden," said Nan. "I can't help being almost as +fond of it already as I am of ours at home;" but though Aunt Nancy's +unwonted caress had been so unlike her conduct in general, this +reference to Oldfields called her to her senses, and she went quickly +away. She did not like to hear Nan speak in such loving fashion of a +house where she had no real right. +</p> +<p> +But when Mr. George Gerry was left alone, he had pleasant thoughts +come flocking in to keep him company in the ladies' stead. He had not +dreamed of such a pleasure as this; who could have? and what could +Aunt Nancy think of herself! +</p> +<p> +"It is such a holiday," said Nan, when tea was fairly begun, and her +new friend was acknowledging an uncommon attack of hunger, and they +were all merry in a sedate way to suit Miss Prince's ideas and +preferences. "I have been quite the drudge this winter over my +studies, and I feel young and idle again, now that I am making all +these pleasant plans." For Mr. Gerry had been talking enthusiastically +about some excursions he should arrange to certain charming places in +the region of Dunport. Both he and Miss Prince smiled when Nan +announced that she was young and idle, and a moment afterward the aunt +asked doubtfully about her niece's studies; she supposed that Anna was +done with schools. +</p> +<p> +Nan stopped her hand as it reached for the cup which Miss Prince had +just filled. "School; yes," she answered, somewhat bewildered; "but +you know I am studying medicine." This most important of all facts had +been so present to her own mind, even in the excitement and novelty of +her new surroundings, that she could not understand that her aunt was +still entirely ignorant of the great purpose of her life. +</p> +<p> +"What do you mean?" demanded Miss Prince, coldly, and quickly +explained to their somewhat amused and astonished companion, "My niece +has been the ward of a distinguished physician, and it is quite +natural she should have become interested in his pursuits." +</p> +<p> +"But I am really studying medicine; it is to be my profession," +persisted Nan fearlessly, though she was sorry that she had spoiled +the harmony of the little company. "And my whole heart is in it, Aunt +Nancy." +</p> +<p> +"Nonsense, my dear," returned Miss Prince, who had recovered her +self-possession partially. "Your father gave promise of attaining +great eminence in a profession that was very proper for him, but I +thought better of Dr. Leslie than this. I cannot understand his +indulgence of such a silly notion." +</p> +<p> +George Gerry felt very uncomfortable. He had been a good deal shocked, +but he had a strong impulse to rush into the field as Nan's champion, +though it were quite against his conscience. She had been too long in +a humdrum country-town with no companion but an elderly medical man. +And after a little pause he made a trifling joke about their making +the best of the holiday, and the talk was changed to other subjects. +The tide was strong against our heroine, but she had been assailed +before, and had no idea of sorrowing yet over a lost cause. And for +once Miss Prince was in a hurry for Mr. Gerry to go away. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XVII +</h2> +<h3> + BY THE RIVER +</h3> +<p> +As Nan went down the street next morning with Captain Parish, who had +been most prompt in keeping his appointment, they were met by Mr. +Gerry and a young girl who proved to be Captain Parish's niece and the +bearer of a cordial invitation. It would be just the evening for a +boat-party, and it was hoped that Miss Prince the younger would be +ready to go up the river at half-past five. +</p> +<p> +"Dear me, yes," said the captain; "your aunt will be pleased to have +you go, I'm sure. These idle young folks mustn't expect us to turn +back now, though, to have a visit from you. We have no end of business +on hand." +</p> +<p> +"If Miss Prince will remember that I was really on my way to see her," +said Mary Parish pleasantly, while she looked with eager interest at +the stranger. The two girls were quite ready to be friends. "We will +just stop to tell your aunt, lest she should make some other plan for +you," she added, giving Nan a nod that was almost affectionate. "We +have hardly used the boats this year, it has been such a cold, late +spring, and we hope for a very good evening. George and I will call +for you," and George, who had been listening to a suggestion about the +ship business, smiled with pleasure as they separated. +</p> +<p> +"Nice young people," announced the captain, who was in a sympathetic +mood. "There has been some reason for thinking that they meant to take +up with each other for good and all. I don't know that either of them +could do better, though I like the girl best; that's natural; she's my +brother's daughter, and I was her guardian; she only came of age last +year. Her father and yours were boys together, younger than I am by a +dozen years, both gone before me too," sighed the captain, and quickly +changed so sad a subject by directing his companion's attention to one +of the old houses, and telling the story of it as they walked along. +Luckily they had the Highflyer all to themselves when they reached the +wharf, for the keeper had gone up into the town, and his wife, who had +set up a frugal housekeeping in the captain's cabin, sat in the shade +of the house with her sewing, the Monday's washing having been early +spread to the breeze in a corner of the main deck. She accepted +Captain Parish's explanations of his presence with equanimity, and +seemed surprised and amused at the young landswoman's curiosity and +eagerness, for a ship was as commonplace to herself as any farm-house +ashore. +</p> +<p> +"Dear me! you wouldn't know it was the same place," said the captain, +in the course of his enumeration of the ropes and yards and other +mysterious furnishings of the old craft. "With a good crew aboard, +this deck is as busy as a town every day. I don't know how I'm going +below until the keeper gets back. I suppose you don't want me to show +you the road to the main-to'gallant cross-trees; once I knew it as +well as anybody, and I could make quicker time now than most of the +youngsters," and the captain gave a knowing glance aloft, while at +this moment somebody crossed the gangway plank. It was a broken-down +old sailor, who was a familiar sight in Dunport. +</p> +<p> +"Mornin' to you, sir," and the master of the Highflyer, for the time +being, returned the salute with a mixture of dignity and friendliness. +</p> +<p> +"Goin' to take command?" chuckled the bent old fellow. "I'd like to +ship under ye; 'twouldn't be the first time," and he gave his hat an +unsettling shake with one hand as he looked at Nan for some sign of +recognition, which was quickly given. +</p> +<p> +"You've shipped under better masters than I. Any man who followed the +sea with Cap'n Jack Prince had more to teach than to learn. And here's +his grand-daughter before you, and does him credit too," said Captain +Walter. "Anna, you won't find many of your grandfather's men about the +old wharves, but here's one of the smartest that ever had hold of a +hawser." +</p> +<p> +"Goodsoe by name: I thank ye kindly, cap'n, but I ain't much account +nowadays," said the pleased old man, trying to get the captain's +startling announcement well settled in his mind. "Old Cap'n Jack +Prince's grand-darter? Why Miss Nancy's never been brought to change +her mind about nothing, has she?" +</p> +<p> +"It seems so," answered Nan's escort, laughing as if this were a good +joke; and Nan herself could not help smiling. +</p> +<p> +"I don't believe if the old gentleman can look down at ye he begrudges +the worst of his voyages nor the blackest night he ever spent on deck, +if you're going to have the spending of the money. Not but what Miss +Prince has treated me handsome right straight along," the old sailor +explained, while the inspector, thinking this not a safe subject to +continue, spoke suddenly about some fault of the galley; and after +this was discussed, the eyes of the two practiced men sought the +damaged mizzen mast, the rigging of which was hanging in snarled and +broken lengths. When Nan asked for some account of the accident, she +was told with great confidence that the Highflyer had been fouled, and +that it was the other vessel's fault; at which she was no wiser than +before, having known already that there had been a collision. There +seemed to be room enough on the high seas, she ventured to say, or +might the mischief have been done in port? +</p> +<p> +"It does seem as if you ought to know the sense of sea talk without +any learning, being Cap'n Jack Prince's grand-darter," said old +Goodsoe; for Captain Parish had removed himself to a little distance, +and was again investigating the condition of the ship's galley, which +one might suppose to have been neglected in some unforgivable way, +judging from his indignant grumble. +</p> +<p> +"Fouled, we say aboard ship, when two vessels lay near enough so that +they drift alongside. You can see what havick 't would make, for ten +to one they don't part again till they have tore each other all to +shoestrings; the yards will get locked together, and the same wind +that starts one craft starts both, and first one and then t' other +lifts with a wave, don't ye see, and the rigging's spoilt in a little +time. I've sometimes called it to mind when I've known o' married +couples that wasn't getting on. 'T is easy to drift alongside, but no +matter if they was bound to the same port they'd 'a' done best alone;" +and the old fellow shook his head solemnly, and was evidently +selecting one of his numerous stories for Nan's edification, when his +superior officer came bustling toward them. +</p> +<p> +"You might as well step down here about four o'clock; I shall have the +keys then. I may want you to hold a lantern for me; I'm going into the +lower hold and mean to do my work thoroughly, if I do it at all," to +which Goodsoe responded "ay, ay, sir," in most seamanlike fashion and +hobbled off. +</p> +<p> +"He'd have kept you there all day," whispered Captain Walter. "He +always loved to talk, and now he has nothing else to do; but we are +all friendly to Goodsoe. Some of us pay a little every year toward his +support, but he has always made himself very useful about the wharves +until this last year or two; he thought everything of your +grandfather, and I knew it would please him to speak to you. It seems +unfortunate that you should have grown up anywhere else than here; but +I hope you'll stay now?" +</p> +<p> +"It is not very likely," said Nan coldly. She wished that the captain +would go on with his stories of the former grandeur of Dunport, rather +than show any desire to talk about personal matters. She had been +little troubled at first by her aunt's evident disapproval the evening +before of her plans for the future, for she was so intent upon +carrying them out and certain that no one had any right to interfere. +Still it would have been better to have been violently opposed than to +have been treated like a child whose foolish whim would soon be +forgotten when anything better offered itself. Nan felt much older +than most girls of her years, and as if her decisions were quite as +much to be respected as her aunt's. She had dealt already with graver +questions than most persons, and her responsibilities had by no means +been light ones. She felt sometimes as if she were separated by half a +lifetime from the narrow limits of school life. Yet there was an +uncommon childlikeness about her which not only misled these new +friends, but many others who had known her longer. And when these +listened to accounts of her devotion to her present studies and her +marked proficiency, they shook their wise heads smilingly, as if they +knew that the girl was innocent of certain proper and insurmountable +obstacles farther on. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The air was fresh, and it was so pleasant on the wharf that the +captain paced to and fro several times, while he pointed out different +objects of interest along the harbor-side, and tapped the rusty anchor +and the hawsers with his walking-stick as he went by. He had made some +very pointed statements to the keeper's wife about the propriety of +opening the hatches on such a morning as that, which she had received +without comment, and wished her guests good-day with provoking +equanimity. The captain did not like to have his authority ignored, +but mentioned placidly that he supposed every idler along shore had +been giving advice; though he wondered what Nan's grandfather and old +Captain Peterbeck would have said if any one had told them this would +be the only square-rigged vessel in Dunport harbor for weeks at a +time. +</p> +<p> +"Dear me!" he exclaimed again presently, "there's young Gerry hard at +work!" and he directed his companion's attention to one of the upper +windows of the buildings whose fronts had two stories on the main +street, while there were five or six on the rear, which faced the +river. Nan could see the diligent young man and thought it hard that +any one must be drudging within doors that beautiful morning. +</p> +<p> +"He has always been a great favorite of your aunt's," said Captain +Parish, confidentially, after the law student had pretended to +suddenly catch sight of the saunterers, and waved a greeting which the +captain exultantly returned. "We have always thought that she was +likely to make him her heir. She was very fond of his father, you see, +and some trouble came between them. Nobody ever knew, because if +anybody ever had wit enough to keep her own counsel 'twas Nancy +Prince. I know as much about her affairs as anybody, and what I say to +you is between ourselves. I know just how far to sail with her and +when to stop, if I don't want to get wrecked on a lee shore. Your aunt +has known how to take care of what she had come to her, and I've done +the best I could to help her; it's a very handsome property,—very +handsome indeed. She helped George Gerry to get his education, and +then he had some little money left him by his father's brother,—no +great amount, but enough to give him a start; he's a very smart, +upright fellow, and I am glad for whatever Nancy did for him; but it +didn't seem fair that he should be stepping into your rights. But I +never have dared to speak up for you since one day—she wouldn't hear +a word about it, that's all I have to remark," the captain concluded +in a hurry, for wisdom's sake, though he longed to say more. It seemed +outrageous to him at this moment that the girl at his side should have +been left among strangers, and he was thankful that she seemed at last +to have a good chance of making sure of her rightful possessions. +</p> +<p> +"But I haven't needed anything," she said, giving Captain Walter a +grateful glance for his championship. "And Mr. Gerry is very kind and +attentive to my aunt, so I am glad she has been generous to him. He +seems a fine fellow, as you say," and Nan thought suddenly that it was +very hard for him to have had her appear on the scene by way of rival, +if he had been led to suppose that he was her aunt's heir. There were +so many new things to think of, that Nan had a bewildering sense of +being a stranger and a foreigner in this curiously self-centred +Dunport, and a most disturbing element to its peace of mind. She +wondered if, since she had not grown up here, it would not have been +better to have stayed away altogether. Her own life had always been +quite unvexed by any sort of social complications, and she thought how +good it would be to leave this talkative and staring little world and +go back to Oldfields and its familiar interests and associations. But +Dunport was a dear old place, and the warm-hearted captain a most +entertaining guide, and by the time their walk was over, the day +seemed a most prosperous and entertaining one. Aunt Nancy appeared to +be much pleased with the plan for the afternoon, and announced that +she had asked some of the young people to come to drink tea the next +evening, while she greeted Nan so kindly that the home-coming was +particularly pleasant. As for the captain, he was unmistakably happy, +and went off down the street with a gentle, rolling gait, and a smile +upon his face that fairly matched the June weather, though he was more +than an hour late for the little refreshment with which he and certain +dignified associates commonly provided themselves at eleven o'clock in +the forenoon. Life was as regular ashore as on board ship with these +idle mariners of high degree. There was no definite business among +them except that of occasionally settling an estate, and the forming +of decided opinions upon important questions of the past and future. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The shadows had begun to grow long when the merry company of young +people went up river with the tide, and Nan thought she had seldom +known such a pleasure away from her own home. She begged for the +oars, and kept stroke with George Gerry, pulling so well that they +quickly passed the other boat. Mary Parish and the friend who made the +fourth of that division of the party sat in the stern and steered with +fine dexterity, and the two boats kept near each other, so that Nan +soon lost all feeling of strangeness, and shared in the good +comradeship to which she had been willingly admitted. It was some time +since she had been on the water before, and she thought more than once +of her paddling about the river in her childhood, and even regaled the +company once with a most amusing mishap, at the remembrance of which +she had been forced to laugh outright. The river was broad and brimful +of water; it seemed high tide already, and the boats pulled easily. +The fields sloped down to the river-banks, shaded with elms and parted +by hedgerows like a bit of English country. The freshest bloom of the +June greenness was in every blade of grass and every leaf. The birds +were beginning to sing the long day to a close, and the lowing of +cattle echoed from the pastures again and again across the water; +while the country boats were going home from the town, sometimes with +a crew of women, who seemed to have made this their regular conveyance +instead of following the more roundabout highways ashore. Some of +these navigators rowed with a cross-handed stroke that jerked their +boats along in a droll fashion, and some were propelled by one groping +oar, the sculler standing at the stern as if he were trying to push +his craft out of water altogether and take to the air, toward which +the lifted bow pointed. And in one of the river reaches half a mile +ahead, two heavy packet boats, with high-peaked lateen sails, like a +great bird's single wing, were making all the speed they could toward +port before the tide should begin to fall two hours later. The young +guest of the party was very happy; she had spent so many of her +childish days out of doors that a return to such pleasures always +filled her with strange delight. The color was bright in her cheeks, +and her half-forgotten girlishness came back in the place of the +gravity and dignity that had brought of late a sedate young +womanliness to her manner. The two new friends in the stern of the +boat were greatly attracted to her, and merry laughter rang out now +and then. Nan was so brave and handsome, so willing to be pleased, and +so grateful to them for this little festivity, that they quickly +became interested in each other, as girls will. The commander thought +himself a fortunate fellow, and took every chance of turning his head +to catch a glimpse of our heroine, though he always had a good excuse +of taking his bearings or inspecting for himself some object afloat or +ashore which one of the boat's company had pointed out. And Nan must +be told the names of the distant hills which stood out clear in the +afternoon light, and to what towns up river the packet boats were +bound, and so the time seemed short before the light dory was run in +among the coarse river grass and pulled up higher than seemed +necessary upon the shore. +</p> +<p> +Their companions had not chosen so fleet a craft, and were five +instead of four at any rate, but they were welcomed somewhat +derisively, and all chattered together in a little crowd for a few +minutes before they started for a bit of woodland which overhung the +river on a high point. The wind rustled the oak leaves and roughened +the surface of the water, which spread out into a wide inland bay. The +clouds began to gather in the west and to take on wonderful colors, as +if such a day must be ended with a grand ceremony, and the sun go down +through banners and gay parades of all the forces of the sky. Nan had +watched such sunsets from her favorite playground at the farm, and +somehow the memory of those days touched her heart more tenderly than +they had ever done before, and she wished for a moment that she could +get away from the noisy little flock who were busy getting the supper +ready, though they said eagerly what a beautiful evening it would be +to go back to town, and that they must go far up the river first to +meet the moonlight. +</p> +<p> +In a few minutes Nan heard some one say that water must be brought +from a farm-house not far away, and quickly insisted that she should +make one of the messengers, and after much discussion and +remonstrance, she and young Gerry found themselves crossing the open +field together. The girl had left her hat swinging from one of the low +oak branches; she wondered why Mary Parish had looked at her first as +if she were very fond of her, and then almost appealingly, until the +remembrance of Captain Walter's bit of gossip came to mind too late to +be acted upon. Nan felt a sudden sympathy, and was sorry she had not +thought to share with this favorite among her new friends, the +companion whom she had joined so carelessly. George Gerry had some +very attractive ways. He did not trouble Nan with unnecessary +attentions, as some young men had, and she told herself again, how +much she liked him. They walked fast, with free, light steps, and +talked as they went in a way that was very pleasant to both of them. +Nan was wise to a marvel, the good fellow told himself, and yet such +an amusing person. He did not know when he had liked anybody so much; +he was very glad to stand well in the sight of these sweet, clear +eyes, and could not help telling their owner some of the things that +lay very near his heart. He had wished to get away from Dunport; he +had not room there; everybody knew him as well as they knew the +courthouse; he somehow wanted to get to deeper water, and out of his +depth, and then swim for it with the rest. And Nan listened with deep +sympathy, for she also had felt that a great engine of strength and +ambition was at work with her in her plans and studies. +</p> +<p> +She waited until he should have finished his confidence, to say a word +from her own experience, but just then they reached the farm-house and +stood together at the low door. There was a meagre show of flowers in +the little garden, which the dripping eaves had beaten and troubled in +the late rains, and one rosebush was loosely caught to the clapboards +here and there. +</p> +<p> +There did not seem to be anybody in the kitchen, into which they could +look through the open doorway, though they could hear steps and voices +from some part of the house beyond it; and it was not until they had +knocked again loudly that a woman came to answer them, looking worried +and pale. +</p> +<p> +"I never was so glad to see folks, though I don't know who you be," +she said hurriedly. "I believe I shall have to ask you to go for help. +My man's got hurt; he managed to get home, but he's broke his +shoulder, or any ways 'tis out o' place. He was to the pasture, and +we've got some young cattle, and somehow or 'nother one he'd caught +and was meaning to lead home give a jump, and John lost his balance; +he says he can't see how 't should 'a' happened, but over he went and +got jammed against a rock before he could let go o' the rope he'd put +round the critter's neck. He's in dreadful pain so 't I couldn't leave +him, and there's nobody but me an' the baby. You'll have to go to the +next house and ask them to send; Doctor Bent's always attended of us." +</p> +<p> +"Let me see him," said Nan with decision. "Wait a minute, Mr. Gerry, +or perhaps you had better come in too," and she led the way, while the +surprised young man and the mistress of the house followed her. The +patient was a strong young fellow, who sat on the edge of the bed in +the little kitchen-bedroom, pale as ashes, and holding one elbow with +a look of complete misery, though he stopped his groans as the +strangers came in. +</p> +<p> +"Lord bless you, young man! don't wait here," he said; "tell the +doctor it may only be out o' place, but I feel as if 'twas broke." +</p> +<p> +But Nan had taken a pair of scissors from the high mantelpiece and was +making a cut in the coarse, white shirt, which was already torn and +stained by its contact with the ground, and with quick fingers and a +look of deep interest made herself sure what had happened, when she +stood still for a minute and seemed a little anxious, and all at once +entirely determined. "Just lie down on the floor a minute," she said, +and the patient with some exclamations, but no objections, obeyed. +</p> +<p> +Nan pushed the spectators into the doorway of the kitchen, and quickly +stooped and unbuttoned her right boot, and then planted her foot on +the damaged shoulder and caught up the hand and gave a quick pull, the +secret of which nobody understood; but there was an unpleasant cluck +as the bone went back into its socket, and a yell from the sufferer, +who scrambled to his feet. +</p> +<p> +"I'll be hanged if she ain't set it," he said, looking quite weak and +very much astonished. "You're the smartest young woman I ever see. I +shall have to lay down just to pull my wits together. Marthy, a drink +of water," and by the time this was brought the excitement seemed to +be at an end, though the patient was a little faint, and his wife +looked at Nan admiringly. Nan herself was fastening her boot again +with unwonted composure. George Gerry had not a word to say, and +listened to a simple direction of Nan's as if it were meant for him, +and acceded to her remark that she was glad for the shoulder's sake +that it did not have to wait and grow worse and worse all the while +the doctor was being brought from town. And after a few minutes, when +the volley of thanks and compliments could be politely cut short, the +two members of the picnic party set forth with their pail of water to +join their companions. +</p> +<p> +"Will you be so good as to tell me how you knew enough to do that?" +asked Mr. Gerry humbly, and looking at his companion with admiration. +"I should not have had the least idea." +</p> +<p> +"I was very glad it turned out so well," said Nan simply. "It was a +great pleasure to be of use, they were so frightened, poor things. We +won't say anything about it, will we?" +</p> +<p> +But the young man did not like to think yet of the noise the returning +bone had made. He was stout-hearted enough usually; as brave a fellow +as one could wish to see; but he felt weak and womanish, and somehow +wished it had been he who could play the doctor. Nan hurried back +bareheaded to the oak grove as if nothing had happened, though, if +possible, she looked gayer and brighter than ever. And when the +waiting party scolded a little at their slow pace, Miss Prince was +much amused and made two or three laughing apologies for their +laziness, and even ventured to give the information that they had made +a pleasant call at the farm-house. +</p> +<p> +The clouds were fading fast and the twilight began to gather under the +trees before they were ready to go away, and then the high tide had +floated off one of the boats, which must be chased and brought back. +But presently the picnickers embarked, and, as the moon came up, and +the river ebbed, the boats went back to the town and overtook others +on the way, and then were pulled up stream again in the favoring eddy +to make the evening's pleasure longer; at last Nan was left at her +door. She had managed that George Gerry should give Mary Parish his +arm, and told them, as they came up the street with her from the +wharf, that she had heard their voices Saturday night as they passed +under her window: it was Mary Parish herself who had talked about the +best room and its ghosts. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XVIII +</h2> +<h3> + A SERIOUS TEA-DRINKING +</h3> +<p> +It was very good for Nan to find herself cordially welcomed to a +company of young people who had little thought of anything but +amusement in the pleasant summer weather. Other young guests came to +Dunport just then, and the hospitable town seemed to give itself up to +their entertainment. Picnics and tea-drinkings followed each other, +and the pleasure boats went up river and down river, while there were +walks and rides and drives, and all manner of contrivances and excuses +for spending much time together on the part of the young men and +maidens. It was a good while since Nan had taken such a long holiday, +though she had by no means been without the pleasures of society. Not +only had she made friends easily during her school-life and her later +studies, but Oldfields itself, like all such good old nests, was apt +to call back its wandering fledglings when the June weather came. It +delighted her more and more to be in Dunport, and though she sometimes +grew impatient, wise Dr. Leslie insisted that she must not hurry home. +The change was the very best thing in the world for her. Dr. Ferris +had alighted for a day or two in the course of one of his wandering +flights; and it seemed to the girl that since everything was getting +on so well without her in Oldfields, she had better, as the doctor had +already expressed it, let her visit run its course like a fever. At +any rate she could not come again very soon, and since her aunt seemed +so happy, it was a pity to hurry away and end these days sooner than +need be. It had been a charming surprise to find herself such a +desired companion, and again and again quite the queen of that little +court of frolickers, because lately she had felt like one who looks on +at such things, and cannot make part of them. Yet all the time that +she was playing she thought of her work with growing satisfaction. By +other people the knowledge of her having studied medicine was not very +well received. It was considered to have been the fault of Miss +Prince, who should not have allowed a whimsical country doctor to have +beguiled the girl into such silly notions, and many were the shafts +sped toward so unwise an aunt for holding out against her niece so +many years. To be sure the child had been placed under a most +restricted guardianship; but years ago, it was thought, the matter +might have been rearranged, and Nan brought to Dunport. It certainly +had been much better for her that she had grown up elsewhere; though, +for whatever was amiss and willful in her ways, Oldfields was held +accountable. It must be confessed that every one who had known her +well had discovered sooner or later the untamed wildnesses which +seemed like the tangles which one often sees in field-corners, though +a most orderly crop is taking up the best part of the room between the +fences. Yet she was hard to find fault with, except by very +shortsighted persons who resented the least departure by others from +the code they themselves had been pleased to authorize, and who could +not understand that a nature like Nan's must and could make and keep +certain laws of its own. +</p> +<p> +There seemed to be a sort of inevitableness about the visit; Nan +herself hardly knew why she was drifting on day after day without +reasonable excuse. Her time had been most carefully ordered and spent +during the last few years, and now she sometimes had an uneasy feeling +and a lack of confidence in her own steadfastness. But everybody took +it for granted that the visit must not come to an end. The doctor +showed no sign of expecting her. Miss Prince would be sure to resent +her going away, and the pleasure-makers marked one day after another +for their own. It seemed impossible, and perhaps unwise, to go on with +the reading she had planned, and, in fact, she had been urged to +attend to her books rather by habit than natural inclination; and when +the temptation to drift with the stream first made itself felt, the +reasons for opposing it seemed to fade away. It was easier to remember +that Dr. Leslie, and even those teachers who knew her best at the +medical school, had advised a long vacation. +</p> +<p> +The first formal visits and entertainments were over with for the most +part, and many of the Dunport acquaintances began to seem like old +friends. There had been a little joking about Nan's profession, and +also some serious remonstrance and unwise championship which did not +reach this heroine's ears. It all seemed romantic and most unusual +when anybody talked about her story at all, and the conclusion was +soon reached that all such whims and extravagances were merely +incident to the pre-Dunportian existence, and that now the young guest +had come to her own, the responsibilities and larger field of activity +would have their influence over her plan of life. The girl herself was +disposed to talk very little about this singular fancy; it may have +been thought that she had grown ashamed of it as seen by a brighter +light, but the truth was it kept a place too near her heart to allow +her to gossip with people who had no real sympathy, and who would ask +questions from curiosity alone. Miss Eunice Fraley had taken more than +one opportunity, however, to confess her interest, though she did this +with the manner of one who dares to be a conspirator against public +opinion, and possibly the permanent welfare of society, and had +avowed, beside, her own horror of a doctor's simplest duties. But poor +Miss Fraley looked at her young friend as a caged bird at a window +might watch a lark's flight, and was strangely glad whenever there was +a chance to spend an hour in Nan's company. +</p> +<p> +The first evening at Mrs. Fraley's had been a great success, and Miss +Prince had been vastly pleased because both the hostess and the guest +had received each other's commendation. Mrs. Fraley was, perhaps, the +one person whom Miss Prince recognized as a superior officer, and she +observed Nan's unconscious and suitable good behavior with great +pride. The hostess had formerly been an undisputed ruler of the +highest social circles of Dunport society, and now in her old age, +when she could no longer be present at any public occasions, she was +still the queen of a little court that assembled in her own house. It +was true that the list of her subjects grew shorter year by year, but +the survivors remained loyal, and hardly expected, or even desired, +that any of the newcomers to the town should recognize their ruler. +Nan had been much interested in the old lady's stories, and had gladly +accepted an invitation to come often to renew the first conversation. +She was able to give Mrs. Fraley much welcome information of the ways +and fashions of other centres of civilization, and it was a good thing +to make the hours seem shorter. The poor old lady had few +alleviations; even religion had served her rather as a basis for +argument than an accepted reliance and guide; and though she still +prided herself on her selection of words, those which she used in +formal conversations with the clergyman seemed more empty and +meaningless than most others. Mrs. Fraley was leaving this world +reluctantly; she had been well fitted by nature for social +preeminence, and had never been half satisfied with the opportunities +provided for the exercise of her powers. It was only lately that she +had been forced to acknowledge that Time showed signs of defeating her +in the projects of her life, and she had begun to give up the fight +altogether, and to mourn bitterly and aggressively to her anxious and +resourceless daughter. It was plain enough that the dissatisfactions +and infirmities of age were more than usually great, and poor Eunice +was only too glad when the younger Miss Prince proved herself capable +of interesting the old friend of her family, and Mrs. Fraley took +heart and suggested both informal visits and future entertainments. +The prudent daughter was careful not to tell her mother of the guest's +revolutionary ideas, and for a time all went well, until some unwise +person, unaware of Miss Fraley's warning gestures from the other side +of the sitting-room, proceeded to give a totally unnecessary opinion +of the propriety of women's studying medicine. Poor Eunice expected +that a sharp rebuke, followed by a day or two's disdain and general +unpleasantness, would descend upon her quaking shoulders; but, to her +surprise, nothing was said until the next morning, when she was +bidden, at much inconvenience to the household, to invite Miss Prince +and her niece to come that afternoon to drink tea quite informally. +</p> +<p> +There was a pathetic look in the messenger's faded face,—she felt +unusually at odds with fortune as she glided along the street, +sheltered by the narrow shadows of the high fences. Nan herself came +to the door, and when she threw back the closed blinds and discovered +the visitor, she drew her in with most cordial welcome, and the two +friends entered the darkened south parlor, where it was cool, and +sweet with the fragrance of some honeysuckle which Nan had brought in +early that morning from the garden. +</p> +<p> +"Dear me," said the little woman deprecatingly. "I don't know why I +came in at all. I can't stop to make a call. Mother was very desirous +that you and your aunt should come over to tea this evening. It seems +a good deal to ask in such hot weather, but she has so little to amuse +her, and I really don't see that the weather makes much difference, +she used to feel the heat very much years ago." And Miss Eunice gave a +sigh, and fanned herself slowly, letting the fan which had been put +into her hand turn itself quite over on her lap before it came up +again. There was an air of antique elegance about this which amused +Nan, who stood by the table wiping with her handkerchief some water +that had dropped from the vase. A great many of the ladies in church +the Sunday before had fanned themselves in this same little +languishing way; she remembered one or two funny old persons in +Oldfields who gave themselves airs after the same fashion. +</p> +<p> +"I think we shall both be very pleased," she answered directly, with a +bit of a smile; while Miss Fraley gazed at her admiringly, and thought +she had never seen the girl look so fresh and fair as she did in this +plain, cool little dress. There had been more water than was at first +suspected; the handkerchief was a limp, white handful, and they both +laughed as it was held up. Miss Fraley insisted that she could not +stay. She must go to the shops to do some errands, and hoped to meet +Miss Prince who had gone that way half an hour before. +</p> +<p> +"Don't mind anything mother may say to you," she entreated, after +lingering a minute, and looking imploringly in Nan's face. "You know +we can't expect a person of her age to look at everything just as we +do." +</p> +<p> +"Am I to be scolded?" asked Nan, serenely. "Do you know what it is +about?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, perhaps nothing," answered Miss Fraley, quickly. "I ought not to +have spoken, only I fancied she was a little distressed at the idea of +your being interested in medicines. I don't know anything that is more +useful myself. I am sure every family needs to have some one who has +some knowledge of such things; it saves calling a doctor. My sister +Susan knows more than any of us, and it has been very useful to her +with her large family." +</p> +<p> +"But I shouldn't be afraid to come, I think," said Nan, laughing. +"Mrs. Fraley told me that she would finish that story of the diamond +ring, you know, and we shall get on capitally. Really I think her +stories of old times are wonderfully interesting. I wish I had a gift +for writing them down whenever I am listening to her." +</p> +<p> +Miss Eunice was much relieved, and felt sure that Nan was equal to any +emergency. The girl had put a strong young arm quickly round her +guest's thin shoulders, and had kissed her affectionately, and this +had touched the lonely little woman's very heart. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +There were signs of storm in Madam Fraley's face that evening, but +everybody feigned not to observe them, and Nan behaved with perilous +disregard of a lack of encouragement, and made herself and the company +uncommonly merry. She described the bad effect her coming had had upon +her aunt's orderly house. She confessed to having left her own +possessions in such confusion the evening before when she dressed +again to go up the river, that Priscilla had called it a monkey's +wedding, and had gone away after one scornful look inside the door. +Miss Fraley dared to say that no one could mind seeing such pretty +things, and even Miss Prince mentioned that her niece was not so +careless as she would make them believe; while Nan begged to know if +anybody had ever heard of a monkey's wedding before, and seemed very +much amused. +</p> +<p> +"She called such a disarray in the kitchen one morning the monkey's +wedding breakfast," said Miss Prince, as if she never had thought it +particularly amusing until this minute. "Priscilla has always made use +of a great many old-fashioned expressions." +</p> +<p> +They had seated themselves at the tea-table; it was evident that Miss +Fraley had found it a hard day, for she looked tired and worn. The +mistress of the house was dressed in her best and most imposing +clothes, and sat solemnly in her place. A careful observer might have +seen that the best blue teacups with their scalloped edges were not +set forth. The occasion wore the air of a tribunal rather than that of +a festival, and it was impossible not to feel a difference between it +and the former tea-party. +</p> +<p> +Miss Prince was not particularly sensitive to moods and atmospheres; +she happened to be in very good spirits, and talked for some time +before she became entirely aware that something had gone wrong, but +presently faltered, and fell under the ban, looking questioningly +toward poor Eunice, who busied herself with the tea-tray. +</p> +<p> +"Nancy," said Mrs. Fraley impatiently, "I was amazed to find that +there is a story going about town that your niece here is studying to +be a doctor. I hope that you don't countenance any such nonsense?" +</p> +<p> +Miss Prince looked helpless and confounded, and turned her eyes toward +her niece. She could only hope at such a mortifying juncture that Nan +was ready to explain, or at least to shoulder the responsibility. +</p> +<p> +"Indeed she doesn't give me any encouragement, Mrs. Fraley," said Nan, +fearlessly. "Only this morning she saw a work on ventilation in my +room and told me it wasn't proper reading for a young woman." +</p> +<p> +"I really didn't look at the title," said Miss Prince, smiling in +spite of herself. +</p> +<p> +"It doesn't seem to improve the health of you young folks because you +think it necessary to become familiar with such subjects," announced +the irate old lady. It was her habit to take a very slight refreshment +at the usual tea hour, and supplement it by a substantial lunch at +bed-time, and so now she was not only at leisure herself, but demanded +the attention of her guests. She had evidently prepared an opinion, +and was determined to give it. Miss Eunice grew smaller and thinner +than ever, and fairly shivered with shame behind the tea-tray. She +looked steadily at the big sugar-bowl, as if she were thinking whether +she might creep into it and pull something over her head. She never +liked an argument, even if it were a good-natured one, and always had +a vague sense of personal guilt and danger. +</p> +<p> +"In my time," Mrs. Fraley continued, "it was thought proper for young +women to show an interest in household affairs. When I was married it +was not asked whether I was acquainted with dissecting-rooms." +</p> +<p> +"But I don't think there is any need of that," replied Nan. "I think +such things are the duty of professional men and women only. I am very +far from believing that every girl ought to be a surgeon any more than +that she ought to be an astronomer. And as for the younger people's +being less strong than the old, I am afraid it is their own fault, +since we understand the laws of health better than we used. 'Who +breaks, pays,' you know." +</p> +<p> +It was evidently not expected that the young guest should venture to +discuss the question, but rather have accepted her rebuke meekly, and +acknowledged herself in the wrong. But she had the courage of her +opinions, and the eagerness of youth, and could hardly bear to be so +easily defeated. So when Mrs. Fraley, mistaking the moment's silence +for a final triumph, said again, that a woman's place was at home, and +that a strong-minded woman was out of place, and unwelcome everywhere, +the girl's cheeks flushed suddenly. +</p> +<p> +"I think it is a pity that we have fallen into a habit of using +strong-mindedness as a term of rebuke," she said. "I am willing to +acknowledge that people who are eager for reforms are apt to develop +unpleasant traits, but it is only because they have to fight against +opposition and ignorance. When they are dead and the world is reaping +the reward of their bravery and constancy, it no longer laughs, but +makes statues of them, and praises diem, and thanks them in every way +it can. I think we ought to judge each other by the highest standards, +Mrs. Fraley, and by whether we are doing good work." +</p> +<p> +"My day is past," said the hostess. "I do not belong to the present, +and I suppose my judgment is worth nothing to you;" and Nan looked up +quickly and affectionately. +</p> +<p> +"I should like to have all my friends believe that I am doing right," +she said. "I do feel very certain that we must educate people properly +if we want them to be worth anything. It is no use to treat all the +boys and girls as if nature had meant them for the same business and +scholarship, and try to put them through the same drill, for that is +sure to mislead and confuse all those who are not perfectly sure of +what they want. There are plenty of people dragging themselves +miserably through the world, because they are clogged and fettered +with work for which they have no fitness. I know I haven't had the +experience that you have, Mrs. Fraley, but I can't help believing that +nothing is better than to find one's work early and hold fast to it, +and put all one's heart into it." +</p> +<p> +"I have done my best to serve God in the station to which it has +pleased Him to call me," said Mrs. Fraley, stiffly. "I believe that a +young man's position is very different from a girl's. To be sure, I +can give my opinion that everything went better when the master +workmen took apprentices to their trades, and there wasn't so much +schooling. But I warn you, my dear, that your notion about studying to +be a doctor has shocked me very much indeed. I could not believe my +ears,—a refined girl who bears an honorable and respected name to +think of being a woman doctor! If you were five years older you would +never have dreamed of such a thing. It lowers the pride of all who +have any affection for you. If it were not that your early life had +been somewhat peculiar and most unfortunate, I should blame you more; +as it is, I can but wonder at the lack of judgment in others. I shall +look forward in spite of it all to seeing you happily married." To +which Miss Prince assented with several decided nods. +</p> +<p> +"This is why I made up my mind to be a physician," said the culprit; +and though she had been looking down and growing more uncomfortable +every moment, she suddenly gave her head a quick upward movement and +looked at Mrs. Fraley frankly, with a beautiful light in her clear +eyes. "I believe that God has given me a fitness for it, and that I +never could do anything else half so well. Nobody persuaded me into +following such a plan; I simply grew toward it. And I have everything +to learn, and a great many faults to overcome, but I am trying to get +on as fast as may be. I can't be too glad that I have spent my +childhood in a way that has helped me to use my gift instead of +hindering it. But everything helps a young man to follow his bent; he +has an honored place in society, and just because he is a student of +one of the learned professions, he ranks above the men who follow +other pursuits. I don't see why it should be a shame and dishonor to a +girl who is trying to do the same thing and to be of equal use in the +world. God would not give us the same talents if what were right for +men were wrong for women." +</p> +<p> +"My dear, it is quite unnatural you see," said the antagonist, +impatiently. "Here you are less than twenty-five years old, and I +shall hear of your being married next thing,—at least I hope I +shall,—and you will laugh at all this nonsense. A woman's place is at +home. Of course I know that there have been some women physicians who +have attained eminence, and some artists, and all that. But I would +rather see a daughter of mine take a more retired place. The best +service to the public can be done by keeping one's own house in order +and one's husband comfortable, and by attending to those social +responsibilities which come in our way. The mothers of the nation have +rights enough and duties enough already, and need not look farther +than their own firesides, or wish for the plaudits of an ignorant +public." +</p> +<p> +"But if I do not wish to be married, and do not think it right that I +should be," said poor Nan at last. "If I have good reasons against all +that, would you have me bury the talent God has given me, and choke +down the wish that makes itself a prayer every morning that I may do +this work lovingly and well? It is the best way I can see of making +myself useful in the world. People must have good health or they will +fail of reaching what success and happiness are possible for them; and +so many persons might be better and stronger than they are now, which +would make their lives very different. I do think if I can help my +neighbors in this way it will be a great kindness. I won't attempt to +say that the study of medicine is a proper vocation for women, only +that I believe more and more every year that it is the proper study +for me. It certainly cannot be the proper vocation of all women to +bring up children, so many of them are dead failures at it; and I +don't see why all girls should be thought failures who do not marry. I +don't believe that half those who do marry have any real right to it, +at least until people use common sense as much in that most important +decision as in lesser ones. Of course we can't expect to bring about +an ideal state of society all at once; but just because we don't +really believe in having the best possible conditions, we make no +effort at all toward even better ones. People ought to work with the +great laws of nature and not against them." +</p> +<p> +"You don't know anything about it," said Mrs. Fraley, who hardly knew +what to think of this ready opposition. "You don't know what you are +talking about, Anna. You have neither age nor experience, and it is +easy to see you have been associating with very foolish people. I am +the last person to say that every marriage is a lucky one; but if you +were my daughter I should never consent to your injuring your chances +for happiness in this way." +</p> +<p> +Nan could not help stealing a glance at poor Miss Eunice, behind her +fragile battlement of the tea-set, and was deeply touched at the +glance of sympathy which dimly flickered in the lonely eyes. "I do +think, mother, that Anna is right about single women's having some +occupation," was timidly suggested. "Of course, I mean those who have +no special home duties; I can see that life would not"— +</p> +<p> +"Now Eunice," interrupted the commander in chief, "I do wish you +could keep an opinion of your own. You are the last person to take up +with such ideas. I have no patience with people who don't know their +own minds half an hour together." +</p> +<p> +"There are plenty of foolish women who marry, I'll acknowledge," said +Miss Prince, for the sake of coming to the rescue. "I was really angry +yesterday, when Mrs. Gerry told me that everybody was so pleased to +hear that Hattie Barlow was engaged, because she was incapable of +doing anything to support herself. I couldn't help feeling that if +there was so little power that it had never visibly turned itself in +any practical direction, she wasn't likely to be a good housekeeper. I +think that is a most responsible situation, myself." +</p> +<p> +Nan looked up gratefully. "It isn't so much that people can't do +anything, as that they try to do the wrong things, Aunt Nancy. We all +are busy enough or ought to be; only the richest people have the most +cares and have to work hardest. I used to think that rich city people +did nothing but amuse themselves, when I was a little girl; but I +often wonder nowadays at the wisdom and talent that are needed to keep +a high social position respected in the world's eyes. It must be an +orderly and really strong-minded woman who can keep her business from +getting into a most melancholy tangle. Yet nobody is afraid when the +most foolish girls take such duties upon themselves, and all the world +cries out with fear of disaster, if once in a while one makes up her +mind to some other plan of life. Of course I know being married isn't +a trade: it is a natural condition of life, which permits a man to +follow certain public careers, and forbids them to a woman. And since +I have not wished to be married, and have wished to study medicine, I +don't see what act of Parliament can punish me." +</p> +<p> +"Wait until Mr. Right comes along," said Mrs. Fraley, who had pushed +back her chair from the table and was beating her foot on the floor in +a way that betokened great displeasure and impatience. "I am only +thankful I had my day when women were content to be stayers at home. I +am only speaking for your good, and you'll live to see the truth of +it, poor child!" +</p> +<p> +"I am sure she will get over this," apologized Miss Prince, after they +had reached the parlor, for she found that her niece had lingered with +Miss Fraley in the dining-room. +</p> +<p> +"Don't talk to me about the Princes changing their minds," answered +the scornful old hostess. "You ought to know them better than that by +this time." But just at that moment young Gerry came tapping at the +door, and the two ladies quickly softened their excited looks and +welcomed him as the most powerful argument for their side of the +debate. It seemed quite a thing of the past that he should have +fancied Mary Parish, and more than one whisper had been listened to +that the young man was likely to have the Prince inheritance, after +all. He looked uncommonly well that evening, and the elder women could +not imagine that any damsel of his own age would consider him +slightingly. Nan had given a little shrug of impatience when she heard +his voice join the weaker ones in the parlor, and a sense of +discomfort that she never had felt before came over her suddenly. She +reminded herself that she must tell her aunt that very night that the +visit must come to an end. She had neglected her books and her drives +with the doctor altogether too long already. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XIX +</h2> +<h3> + FRIEND AND LOVER +</h3> +<p> +In these summer days the young lawyer's thoughts had often been busy +elsewhere while he sat at the shaded office window and looked out upon +the river. The very housekeeping on the damaged ship became more +interesting to him than his law books, and he watched the keeper's +wife at her various employments on deck, or grew excited as he +witnessed the good woman's encounters with marauding small boys, who +prowled about hoping for chances of climbing the rigging or solving +the mysteries of the hold. It had come to be an uncommon event that a +square-rigged vessel should make the harbor of Dunport, and the elder +citizens ignored the deserted wharves, and talked proudly of the days +of Dunport's prosperity, convicting the railroad of its decline as +much as was consistent with their possession of profitable stock. The +younger people took the empty warehouses for granted, and listened to +their grandparents' stories with interest, if they did not hear them +too often; and the more enterprising among them spread their wings of +ambition and flew away to the larger cities or to the westward. George +Gerry had stayed behind reluctantly. He had neither enough desire for +a more active life, nor so high a purpose that he could disregard +whatever opposition lay in his way. Yet he was honestly dissatisfied +with his surroundings, and thought himself hardly used by a hindering +fate. He believed himself to be most anxious to get away, yet he was +like a ship which will not be started out of port by anything less +than a hurricane. There really were excuses for his staying at home, +and since he had stopped to listen to them they beguiled him more and +more, and his friends one by one commended his devotion to his mother +and sisters, and sometimes forgot to sympathize with him for his +disappointments as they praised him for being such a dutiful son. To +be sure, he might be a great lawyer in Dunport as well as anywhere +else; he would not be the first; but a more inspiring life might have +made him more enthusiastic and energetic, and if he could have been +winning his way faster elsewhere, and sending home good accounts of +himself, not to speak of substantial aid, there is no question whether +it would not have given his family greater happiness and done himself +more good. He was not possessed of the stern determination which wins +its way at all hazards, and so was dependent upon his surroundings for +an occasional stimulus. +</p> +<p> +But Dunport was very grateful to him because he had stayed at home, +and he was altogether the most prominent young man in the town. It is +so easy to be thankful that one's friends are no worse that one +sometimes forgets to remember that they might be better; and it would +have been only natural if he thought of himself more highly than he +ought to think, since he had received a good deal of applause and +admiration. It is true that he had avoided vice more noticeably than +he had pursued virtue; but the senior member of the firm, Mr. +Sergeant, pronounced his young partner to have been a most excellent +student, and not only showed the greatest possible confidence in him, +but was transferring a good deal of the business to him already. Miss +Prince and her old lawyer had one secret which had never been +suspected, and the townspeople thought more than ever of young Mr. +Gerry's ability when it was known that the most distinguished legal +authority of that region had given him a share of a long established +business. George Gerry had been led to think better of himself, though +it had caused him no little wonder when the proposal had been made. It +was possible that Mr. Sergeant feared that there might be some +alliance offered by his rivals in Dunport. To be sure, the younger +firm had been making a good deal of money, but it was less respected +by the leading business men. Mr. Sergeant had even conferred with his +young friend one morning upon the propriety of some new investments; +but Mr. Gerry had never even suspected that they were the price of his +own new dignity and claim upon the public honor. Captain Walter Parish +and Mr. Sergeant had both been aids and advisers of Miss Prince; but +neither had ever known the condition of all her financial affairs, and +she had made the most of a comfortable sense of liberty. To do young +Gerry justice, he had not hesitated to express his amazement; and +among his elders and betters, at any rate, he had laid his good +fortune at the door of Mr. Sergeant's generosity and kindness instead +of his own value. +</p> +<p> +But at certain seasons of the year, like this, there was no excitement +in the office, and after an attendance at court and the proper +adjustment, whether temporary or permanent, of the subsequent +business, the partners had returned to a humdrum fulfilling of the +minor duties of their profession, and the younger man worked at his +law books when there were no deeds or affidavits to engage his +attention. He thought of many things as he sat by his window; it was a +great relief to the tiresomeness of the dull rooms to look at the +river and at the shores and hills beyond; to notice carelessly whether +the tide came in or went out. He was apt to feel a sense of +dissatisfaction in his leisure moments; and now a new current was +bringing all its force to bear upon him in his quiet anchorage. +</p> +<p> +He had looked upon Miss Prince as a kind adviser; he was on more +intimate terms with her than with any woman he knew; and the finer +traits in his character were always brought out by some compelling +force in her dignity and simple adherence to her somewhat narrow code +of morals and etiquette. He was grateful to her for many kindnesses; +and as he had grown older and come to perceive the sentiment which had +been the first motive of her affection toward him, he had +instinctively responded with a mingling of gallantry and sympathy +which made him, as has been already said, appear at his very best. The +gossips of Dunport had whispered that he knew that it was more than +worth his while to be polite to Miss Prince; but he was too manly a +fellow to allow any trace of subserviency to show itself in his +conduct. As often happens, he had come back to Dunport almost a +stranger after his years of college life were over, and he had a +mingled love and impatience for the old place. The last year had been +very pleasant, however: there were a few young men whose good comrade +and leader he was; his relations with his fellow-citizens were most +harmonious; and as for the girls of his own age and their younger +sisters, who were just growing up, he was immensely popular and +admired by them. It had become a subject of much discussion whether he +and Mary Parish would not presently decide upon becoming engaged to +each other, until Miss Prince's long-banished niece came to put a new +suspicion into everybody's mind. +</p> +<p> +Many times when George Gerry had a new proof that he had somehow +fallen into the habit of walking home with the pleasant girl who was +his friend and neighbor, he had told himself abruptly that there was +no danger in it, and that they never could have any other feeling for +each other. But he had begun to think also that she belonged to him in +some vague way, and sometimes acknowledged that it might be a thing to +consider more deeply by and by. He was only twenty-six, and the world +was still before him, but he was not very sympathetic with other +people's enthusiasm over their love affairs, and wondered if it were +not largely a matter of temperament, though by and by he should like +to have a home of his own. +</p> +<p> +He was somewhat attracted toward Miss Prince, the younger, for her +aunt's sake, and had made up his mind that he would be very attentive +to her, no matter how displeasing and uninteresting she might be: it +was sure to be a time of trial to his old friend, and he would help +all he could to make the visit as bearable as possible. Everybody knew +of the niece's existence who had known the Prince family at all, and +though Miss Prince had never mentioned the unhappy fact until the day +or two before her guest was expected, her young cavalier had behaved +with most excellent discretion, and feigning neither surprise nor +dismay, accepted the announcement in a way that had endeared him still +more to his patroness. +</p> +<p> +But on the first Sunday morning, when a most admirable young lady had +walked up the broad aisle of St. Ann's church, and Mr. Gerry had +caught a glimpse of her between the rows of heads which all looked +commonplace by contrast, it seemed to begin a new era of things. This +was a welcome link with the busier world outside Dunport; this was +what he had missed since he had ended his college days, a gleam of +cosmopolitan sunshine, which made the provincial fog less attractive +than ever. He was anxious to claim companionship with this fair +citizen of a larger world, and to disclaim any idea of belonging to +the humdrum little circle which exaggerated its own importance. He +persuaded himself that he must pay Miss Prince's guest an early visit. +It was very exciting and interesting altogether; and as he watched the +flicker of light in our heroine's hair as she sat on the straight sofa +in her aunt's parlor on the Sunday evening, a feeling of great delight +stole over him. He had known many nice girls in his lifetime, but +there was something uncommonly interesting about Miss Anna Prince; +besides, who could help being grateful to her for being so much nicer +than anybody had expected? +</p> +<p> +And so the days went by. Nobody thought there was any objection when +the junior partner of the law firm took holiday after holiday, for +there was little business and Mr. Sergeant liked to keep on with his +familiar routine. His old friends came to call frequently, and they +had their conferences in peace, and were not inclined to object if the +younger ears were being used elsewhere. Young people will be young +people, and June weather does not always last; and if George Gerry +were more devoted to social duties than to legal ones, it was quite +natural, and he had just acquitted himself most honorably at the May +term of court, and was his own master if he decided to take a +vacation. +</p> +<p> +He had been amused when the announcement had been made so early in +their acquaintance that Nan meant to study medicine. He believed if +there were any fault, it was Dr. Leslie's, and only thought it a pity +that her evident practical talents had not been under the guidance of +a more sensible director. The girl's impetuous defense of her choice +was very charming; he had often heard Mr. Sergeant speak of the rare +insight and understanding of legal matters which his favorite daughter +had possessed, and her early death had left a lonely place in the good +man's heart. Miss Prince's life at Oldfields must have been very dull, +especially since her boarding-school days were over. For himself he +had a great prejudice against the usurpation of men's duties and +prerogatives by women, and had spoken of all such assumptions with +contempt. It made a difference that this attractive young student had +spoken bravely on the wrong side; but if he had thought much about it +he would have made himself surer and surer that only time was needed +to show her the mistake. If he had gone deeper into the subject he +would have said that he thought it all nonsense about women's having +the worst of it in life; he had known more than one good fellow who +had begun to go down hill from the day he was married, and if girls +would only take the trouble to fit themselves for their indoor +business the world would be a vastly more comfortable place. And as +for their tinkering at the laws, such projects should be bitterly +resented. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +It only needed a few days to make it plain to this good fellow that +the coming of one of the summer guests had made a great difference in +his life. It was easy to find a hundred excuses for going to Miss +Prince's, who smiled benignantly upon his evident interest in the fair +stranger within her gates. The truth must be confessed, however, that +the episode of the lamed shoulder at the picnic party had given Mr. +George Gerry great unhappiness. There was something so high and +serene in Anna Prince's simplicity and directness, and in the way in +which she had proved herself adequate to so unusual an occasion, that +he could not help mingling a good deal of admiration with his +dissatisfaction. It is in human nature to respect power; but all his +manliness was at stake, and his natural rights would be degraded and +lost, if he could not show his power to be greater than her own. And +as the days went by, every one made him more certain that he longed, +more than he had ever longed for anything before, to win her love. His +heart had never before been deeply touched, but life seemed now like a +heap of dry wood, which had only waited for a live coal to make it +flame and leap in mysterious light, and transfigure itself from +dullness into a bewildering and unaccountable glory. It was no wonder +any longer that poets had sung best of love and its joys and sorrows, +and that men and women, since the world began, had followed at its +call. All life and its history was explained anew, yet this eager +lover felt himself to be the first discoverer of the world's great +secret. +</p> +<p> +It was hard to wait and to lack assurance, but while the hours when he +had the ideal and the dream seemed to make him certain, he had only to +go back to Miss Prince's to become doubtful and miserable again. The +world did not consent to second his haste, and the persons most +concerned in his affairs were stupidly slow at understanding the true +state of them. While every day made the prize look more desirable, +every day seemed to put another barrier between himself and Nan; and +when she spoke of her visit's end it was amazing to him that she +should not understand his misery. He wondered at himself more and more +because he seemed to have the power of behaving much as usual when he +was with his friends; it seemed impossible that he could always go on +without betraying his thoughts. There was no question of any final +opposition to his suit, it seemed to him; he could not be more sure +than he was already of Miss Prince's willingness to let him plead his +cause with her niece, so many vexed questions would be pleasantly +answered; and he ventured to hope that the girl herself would be glad +to spend her life in dear old Dunport, where her father's people had +been honored for so many years. The good Dr. Leslie must be fast +growing old, and, though he would miss his adopted child, it was +reasonable that he should be glad to see her happily anchored in a +home of her own, before he died. If Nan were friendless and penniless +it would make no difference; but nevertheless, for her sake, it was +good to remember that some one had said that Dr. Leslie, unlike most +physicians, was a man of fortune. And nothing remained but to win an +affection which should match his own, and this impatient suitor walked +and drove and spent the fleeting hours in waiting for a chance to show +himself in the lists of love. It seemed years instead of weeks at +last, and yet as if he had only been truly alive and free since love +had made him captive. He could not fasten himself down to his work +without great difficulty, though he built many a castle in Spain with +his imagined wealth, and laid deep plans of study and acquirement +which should be made evident as time went on. +</p> +<p> +All things seemed within his reach in these first days of his +enlightenment: it had been like the rising of the sun which showed him +a new world of which he was lawful master, but the minor events of his +blissful existence began to conspire against him in a provoking way, +and presently it was sadly forced upon his understanding that Anna +Prince was either unconscious or disdainful of his affection. It could +hardly be the latter, for she was always friendly and hospitable, and +took his courtesies in such an unsuspecting and grateful way. There +was something so self-reliant about her and so independent of any +one's protection, that this was the most discouraging thing of all, +for his own instinct was that of standing between her and all +harm,—of making himself responsible for her shelter and happiness. +She seemed to get on capitally well without him, but after all he +could not help being conqueror in so just and inevitable a war. The +old proverb suddenly changed from a pebble to a diamond, and he +thanked the philosopher more than once who had first reminded the +world that faint heart ne'er won fair lady; presently he grew sad, as +lovers will, and became paler and less vigorous, and made his friends +wonder a good deal, until they at last suspected his sweet sorrow, and +ranged themselves in eager ranks upon his side, with all history and +tradition in their favor. +</p> +<p> +Nan herself was not among the first to suspect that one of her new +friends had proved to be a lover; she had been turned away from such +suspicions by her very nature; and when she had been forced to believe +in one or two other instances that she was unwillingly drawing to +herself the devotion which most women unconsciously seek, she had been +made most uncomfortable, and had repelled all possibility of its +further progress. She had believed herself proof against such +assailment, and so indeed she had been; but on the very evening of her +battle for her opinions at Mrs. Fraley's she had been suddenly +confronted by a new enemy, a strange power, which seemed so dangerous +that she was at first overwhelmed by a sense of her own +defenselessness. +</p> +<p> +She had waited with Miss Fraley, who was not quite ready to leave the +dining-room with the rest, and had been much touched by her +confidence. Poor Eunice had been very fond of one of her +school-fellows, who had afterward entered the navy, and who had been +fond of her in return. But as everybody had opposed the match, for her +sake, and had placed little reliance in the young man, she had meekly +given up all hope of being his wife, and he had died of yellow fever +at Key West soon after. "We were not even engaged you know, dear," +whispered the little lady, "but somehow I have always felt in my heart +that I belonged to him. Though I believe every word you said about a +girl's having an independence of her own. It is a great blessing to +have always had such a person as my mother to lean upon, but I should +be quite helpless if she were taken away.... Of course I have had what +I needed and what we could afford," she went on, after another pause, +"but I never can get over hating to ask for money. I do sometimes envy +the women who earn what they spend." +</p> +<p> +Nan's eyes flashed. "I think it is only fair that even those who have +to spend their husband's or their father's money should be made to +feel it is their own. If one does absolutely nothing in one's home, +and is not even able to give pleasure, then I think it is stealing. I +have felt so strongly about that since I have grown up, for you know +Dr. Leslie, my guardian, has done everything for me. Aunt Nancy gave +me money every year, but I never spent any of it until I went away to +school, and then I insisted upon taking that and what my grandmother +left me. But my later studies have more than used it all. Dr. Leslie +is so kind to me, like an own father, and I am looking forward to my +life with him most eagerly. After the next year or two I shall be at +home all the time, and I am so glad to think I can really help him, +and that we are interested in the same things." +</p> +<p> +Miss Eunice was a little incredulous, though she did not dare to say +so. In the first place, she could not be persuaded that a woman could +possibly know as much about diseases and their remedies as a man, and +she wondered if even the rural inhabitants of Oldfields would +cheerfully accept the change from their trusted physician to his young +ward, no matter what sails of diplomas she might spread to the breeze. +But Nan's perfect faith and confidence were not to be lightly +disputed; and if the practice of medicine by women could be made +honorable, it certainly was in able hands here, as far as an admiring +friend could decide. Nan was anything but self-asserting, and she had +no noisy fashion of thrusting herself before the public gaze, but +everybody trusted her who knew her; she had the rare and noble faculty +of inspiring confidence. +</p> +<p> +There was no excuse for a longer absence from the parlor, where Mrs. +Fraley was throned in state in her high-backed chair, and was already +calling the loiterers. She and Miss Prince were smiling indulgently +upon the impatient young man, who was describing to them a meeting of +the stockholders of the Turnpike Company, of which he had last year +been made secretary. A dividend had been declared, and it was larger +than had been expected, and the ladies were as grateful as if he had +furnished the means from his own pocket. He looked very tall and +handsome and business-like as he rose to salute Miss Fraley and Nan, +and presently told his real errand. He apologized for interfering with +the little festival, but two or three of the young people had suddenly +made a plan for going to see a play which was to be given that night +in the town hall by a traveling company. Would Miss Anna Prince care +to go, and Miss Fraley? +</p> +<p> +Nan hardly knew why she at once refused, and was filled with regret +when she saw a look of childish expectancy on Miss Eunice's face +quickly change to disappointment. +</p> +<p> +"It is too hot to shut one's self into that close place, I am afraid," +she said. "And I am enjoying myself very much here, Mr. Gerry." Which +was generous on Nan's part, if one considered the premeditated war +which had been waged against her. Then the thought flashed through her +mind that it might be a bit of good fun for her companion; and without +waiting for either approval or opposition from the elder women, she +said, in a different tone, "However, if Miss Fraley will go too, I +will accept with pleasure; I suppose it is quite time?" and before +there could be a formal dissent she had hurried the pleased daughter +of the house, who was not quick in her movements, to her room, and in +a few minutes, after a good deal of laughter which the presence of the +escort kept anybody from even wishing to silence, the three were +fairly started down the street. It was of no avail that Mrs. Fraley +condemned her own judgment in not having advised Eunice to stay at +home and leave the young people free, and that Miss Prince made a +feeble protest for politeness' sake,—the pleasure-makers could not be +called back. +</p> +<p> +Nan had really grown into a great liking for George Gerry. She often +thought it would have been very good to have such a brother. But more +than one person in the audience thought they had never seen a braver +young couple; and the few elderly persons of discretion who had gone +to the play felt their hearts thrill with sudden sympathy as our +friends went far down the room to their seats. Miss Fraley was almost +girlish herself, and looked so pleased and bright that everybody who +cared anything about her smiled when they caught sight of her, she was +so prim and neat; it was impossible for her, under any circumstances, +to look anything but discreet and quaint; but as for Nan, she was +beautiful with youth and health; as simply dressed as Miss Eunice, but +with the gayety of a flower,—some slender, wild thing, that has +sprung up fearlessly under the great sky, with only the sunshine and +the wind and summer rain to teach it, and help it fulfill its +destiny,—a flower that has grown with no painful effort of its own, +but because God made it and kept it; that has bloomed because it has +come in the course of its growth to the right time. And Miss Eunice, +like a hindered little house-plant, took a long breath of delight as +she sat close by her kind young friend, and felt as if somebody had +set her roots free from their familiar prison. +</p> +<p> +To let God make us, instead of painfully trying to make ourselves; to +follow the path that his love shows us, instead of through conceit or +cowardice or mockery choosing another; to trust Him for our strength +and fitness as the flowers do, simply giving ourselves back to Him in +grateful service,—this is to keep the laws that give us the freedom +of the city in which there is no longer any night of bewilderment or +ignorance or uncertainty. So the woman who had lived a life of +bondage, whose hardest task-master was herself, and the woman who had +been both taught and inspired to hold fast her freedom, sat side by +side: the one life having been blighted because it lacked its mate, +and was but half a life in itself; while the other, fearing to give +half its royalty or to share its bounty, was being tempted to cripple +itself, and to lose its strait and narrow way where God had left no +room for another. +</p> +<p> +For as the play went on and the easily pleased audience laughed and +clapped its hands, and the tired players bowed and smiled from behind +the flaring foot-lights, there was one spectator who was conscious of +a great crisis in her own life, which the mimicry of that evening +seemed to ridicule and counterfeit. And though Nan smiled with the +rest, and even talked with her neighbors while the tawdry curtain had +fallen, it seemed to her that the coming of Death at her life's end +could not be more strange and sudden than this great barrier which had +fallen between her and her girlhood, the dear old life which had kept +her so unpuzzled and safe. So this was love at last, this fear, this +change, this strange relation to another soul. Who could stand now at +her right hand and give her grace to hold fast the truth that her soul +must ever be her own? +</p> +<p> +The only desire that possessed her was to be alone again, to make Love +show his face as well as make his mysterious presence felt. She was +thankful for the shelter of the crowd, and went on, wishing that the +short distance to her aunt's home could be made even shorter. She had +felt this man's love for her only in a vague way before, and now, as +he turned to speak to her from time to time, she could not meet his +eyes. The groups of people bade each other good-night merrily, though +the entertainment had been a little tiresome to every one at the last, +and it seemed the briefest space of time before Miss Fraley and Nan +and their cavalier were left by themselves, and at last Nan and George +Gerry were alone together. +</p> +<p> +For his part he had never been so happy as that night. It seemed to +him that his wish was coming true, and he spoke gently enough and of +the same things they might have talked about the night before, but a +splendid chorus of victory was sounding in his ears; and once, as they +stopped for a moment to look between two of the old warehouses at the +shining river and the masts and rigging of the ship against the +moonlighted sky, he was just ready to speak to the girl at his side. +But he looked at her first and then was silent. There was something in +her face that forbade it,—a whiteness and a strange look in her eyes, +that made him lose all feeling of comradeship or even acquaintance. "I +wonder if the old Highflyer will ever go out again?" she said slowly. +"Captain Parish told me some time ago that he had found her more badly +damaged than he supposed. A vessel like that belongs to the high seas, +and is like a prisoner when it touches shore. I believe that the stray +souls that have no bodies must sometimes make a dwelling in inanimate +things and make us think they are alive. I am always sorry for that +ship"— +</p> +<p> +"Its guardian angel must have been asleep the night of the collision," +laughed young Gerry, uneasily; he was displeased with himself the +moment afterward, but Nan laughed too, and felt a sense of reprieve; +and they went on again and said good night quietly on the steps of the +old Prince house. It was very late for Dunport, and the door was shut, +but through the bull's-eyed panes of glass overhead a faint light was +shining, though it could hardly assert itself against the moonlight. +Miss Prince was still down-stairs, and her niece upbraided her, and +then began to give an account of the play, which was cut short by the +mistress of the house; for after one eager, long look at Nan, she +became sleepy and disappointed, and they said good-night; but the girl +felt certain that her aunt was leagued against her, and grew sick at +heart and tired as she climbed the stairs. There was a letter on the +long mahogany table in the hall, and Nan stopped and looked over the +railing at it wearily. Miss Prince stopped too, and said she was sorry +she had forgotten,—it was from Oldfields, and in Dr. Leslie's +writing. But though Nan went back for it, and kissed it more than once +before she went to bed, and even put it under her pillow as a comfort +and defense against she knew not what, for the first time in her life +she was afraid to open it and read the kind words. That night she +watched the moonlight creep along the floor, and heard the cocks crow +at midnight and in the morning; the birds woke with the new day while +she tried to understand the day that had gone, wondering what she must +do and say when she faced the world again only a few hours later. +</p> +<p> +Sometimes she felt herself carried along upon a rushing tide, and was +amazed that a hundred gifts and conditions to which she had scarcely +given a thought seemed dear and necessary. Once she fancied herself in +a quiet home; living there, perhaps, in that very house, and being +pleased with her ordering and care-taking. And her great profession +was all like a fading dream; it seemed now no matter whether she had +ever loved the studies of it, or been glad to think that she had it in +her power to make suffering less, or prevent it altogether. Her old +ambitions were torn away from her one by one, and in their place came +the hardly-desired satisfactions of love and marriage, and home-making +and housekeeping, the dear, womanly, sheltered fashions of life, +toward which she had been thankful to see her friends go hand in hand, +making themselves a complete happiness which nothing else could match. +But as the night waned, the certainty of her duty grew clearer and +clearer. She had long ago made up her mind that she must not marry. +She might be happy, it was true, and make other people so, but her +duty was not this, and a certainty that satisfaction and the blessing +of God would not follow her into these reverenced and honored limits +came to her distinctly. One by one the reasons for keeping on her +chosen course grew more unanswerable than ever. She had not thought +she should be called to resist this temptation, but since it had come +she was glad she was strong enough to meet it. It would be no real +love for another person, and no justice to herself, to give up her +work, even though holding it fast would bring weariness and pain and +reproach, and the loss of many things that other women held dearest +and best. +</p> +<p> +In the morning Nan smiled when her aunt noticed her tired look, and +said that the play had been a pursuit of pleasure under difficulties. +And though Miss Prince looked up in dismay, and was full of objections +and almost querulous reproaches because Nan said she must end her +visit within a day or two, she hoped that George Gerry would be, after +all, a reason for the girl's staying. Until Nan, who had been standing +by the window, looking wistfully at the garden, suddenly turned and +said, gently and solemnly, "Listen, Aunt Nancy! I must be about my +business; you do not know what it means to me, or what I hope to make +it mean to other people." And then Miss Prince knew once for all, that +it was useless to hope or to plan any longer. But she would not let +herself be vanquished so easily, and summoned to her mind many +assurances that girls would not be too easily won, and after a short +season of disapproving silence, returned to her usual manner as if +there had been neither difference nor dispute. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XX +</h2> +<h3> + ASHORE AND AFLOAT +</h3> +<p> +"Your cousin Walter Parish is coming to dine with us to-day," said +Miss Prince, later that morning. "He came to the Fraleys just after +you went out last evening, to speak with me about a business matter, +and waited to walk home with me afterward. I have been meaning to +invite him here with his wife, but there doesn't seem to be much +prospect of her leaving her room for some time yet, and this morning I +happened to find an uncommonly good pair of young ducks. Old Mr. Brown +has kept my liking for them in mind for a great many years. Your +grandfather used to say that there was nothing like a duckling to his +taste; he used to eat them in England, but people in this country let +them get too old. He was willing to pay a great price for ducklings +always; but even Mr. Brown seems to think it is a great wrong not to +let them grow until Thanksgiving time, and makes a great many +apologies every year. It is from his farm that we always get the best +lamb too; they are very nice people, the Browns, but the poor old man +seems very feeble this summer. Some day I should really like to take a +drive out into the country to see them, you know so well how to manage +a horse. You can spare a day or two to give time for that, can't you?" +</p> +<p> +Nan was sorry to hear the pleading tone, it was so unlike her aunt's +usually severe manner, and answered quickly that she should be very +glad to make the little excursion. Mr. Brown had asked her to come to +the farm one day near the beginning of her visit. +</p> +<p> +"You must say this is home, if you can," said Miss Prince, who was a +good deal excited and shaken that morning, "and not think of yourself +as a visitor any more. There are a great many things I hope you can +understand, even if I have left them unsaid. It has really seemed more +like home since you have been here, and less like a lodging. I wonder +how I—When did you see Mr. Brown? I did not know you had ever spoken +to him." +</p> +<p> +"It was some time ago," the girl answered. "I was in the kitchen, and +he came to the door. He seemed very glad to see me," and Nan hesitated +a moment. "He said I was like my father." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, indeed," responded Miss Prince, drearily; and the thought seized +her that it was very strange that the same mistaken persistency should +show itself in father and child in exactly opposite ways. If Nan would +only care as much for marrying George Gerry, as her father had for +marrying his wretched wife! It seemed more and more impossible that +this little lady should be the daughter of such a woman; how dismayed +the girl would be if she could be shown her mother's nature as Miss +Prince remembered it. Alas! this was already a sorrow which no vision +of the reality could deepen, and the frank words of the Oldfields +country people about the bad Thachers had not been spoken fruitlessly +in the ears of their last descendant. +</p> +<p> +"I am so glad the captain is coming," Nan said presently, to break the +painful silence. "I do hope that he and Dr. Leslie will know each +other some time, they would be such capital friends. The doctor sent +his kind regards to you in last night's letter, and asked me again to +say that he hoped that you would come to us before the summer is over. +I should like so much to have you know what Oldfields is like." It was +hard to save herself from saying "home" again, instead of Oldfields, +but the change of words was made quickly. +</p> +<p> +"He is very courteous and hospitable, but I never pay visits +nowadays," said Miss Prince, and thought almost angrily that there was +no necessity for her making a target of herself for all those curious +country-people's eyes. And then they rose and separated for a time, +each being burdened less by care than thought. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The captain came early to dine, and brought with him his own and Miss +Prince's letters from the post-office, together with the morning +paper, which he proceeded to read. He also seemed to have a weight +upon his mind, but by the time they were at table a mild cheerfulness +made itself felt, and Nan summoned all her resources and was gayer and +brighter than usual. Miss Prince had gone down town early in the day, +and her niece was perfectly sure that there had been a consultation +with Mr. Gerry. He had passed the house while Nan sat at her upper +window writing, and had looked somewhat wistfully at the door as if he +had half a mind to enter it. He was like a great magnet: it seemed +impossible to resist looking after him, and indeed his ghost-like +presence would not forsake her mind, but seemed urging her toward his +visible self. The thought of him was so powerful that the sight of the +young man was less strange and compelling, and it was almost a relief +to have seen his familiar appearance,—the strong figure in its +every-day clothes, his unstudent-like vigor, and easy step as he went +by. She liked him still, but she hated love, it was making her so +miserable,—even when later she told Captain Parish some delightful +Oldfields stories, of so humorous a kind that he laughed long and +struck the table more than once, which set the glasses jingling, and +gave a splendid approval to the time-honored fun. The ducklings were +amazingly good; and when Captain Walter had tasted his wine and read +the silver label on the decanter, which as usual gave no evidence of +the rank and dignity of the contents, his eyes sparkled with +satisfaction, and he turned to his cousin's daughter with impressive +gravity. +</p> +<p> +"You may never have tasted such wine as that," he said. "Your +grandfather, the luckiest captain who ever sailed out of Dunport, +brought it home fifty years ago, and it was well ripened then. I +didn't know there was a bottle of it left, Nancy," he laughed. "My +dear, your aunt has undertaken to pay one of us a handsome +compliment." +</p> +<p> +"Your health, cousin Walter!" said the girl quickly, lifting her own +glass, and making him a little bow over the old Madeira. +</p> +<p> +"Bless your dear heart!" responded the captain; "the same good wishes +to you in return, and now you must join me in my respects to your +aunt. Nancy! I beg you not to waste this in pudding-sauces; that's the +way with you ladies." +</p> +<p> +The toast-drinking had a good effect upon the little company, and it +seemed as if the cloud which had hung over it at first had been blown +away. When there was no longer any excuse for lingering at the table, +the guest seemed again a little ill at ease, and after a glance at his +hostess, proposed to Nan that they should take a look at the garden. +The old sailor had become in his later years a devoted tiller of the +soil, and pleaded a desire to see some late roses which were just now +in bloom. So he and Nan went down the walk together, and he fidgeted +and hurried about for a few minutes before he could make up his mind +to begin a speech which was weighing heavily on his conscience. +</p> +<p> +Nan was sure that something unusual was perplexing him, and answered +his unnecessary questions patiently, wondering what he was trying to +say. +</p> +<p> +"Dear me!" he grumbled at last, "I shall have to steer a straight +course. The truth is, Nancy has been telling me that I ought to advise +with you, and see that you understand what you are about with young +Gerry. She has set her heart on your fancying him. I dare say you know +she has treated him like a son all through his growing up; but now +that you have come to your rightful place, she can't bear to have +anybody hint at your going back to the other people. 'Tis plain enough +what he thinks about it, and I must say I believe it would be for your +good. Here you are with your father's family, what is left of it; and +I take no liberty when I tell you that your aunt desires this to be +your home, and means to give you your father's share of the property +now and the rest when she is done with it. It is no more than your +rights, and I know as much as anybody about it, and can tell you that +there's a handsomer fortune than you may have suspected. Money grows +fast if it is let alone; and though your aunt has done a good deal for +others, her expenses have been well held in hand. I must say I should +like to keep you here, child," the captain faltered, "but I shall want +to do what's for your happiness. I couldn't feel more earnest about +that if I were your own father. You must think it over. I'm not going +to beseech you: I learned long ago that 'tis no use to drive a +Prince." +</p> +<p> +Nan had tried at first to look unconcerned and treat the matter +lightly, but this straightforward talk appealed to her much more than +the suggestion and general advice which Miss Prince had implored the +captain to give the night before. And now her niece could only thank +him for his kindness, and tell him that by and by she would make him +understand why she put aside these reasons, and went back to the life +she had known before. +</p> +<p> +But a sudden inspiration made her resolution grow stronger, and she +looked at Captain Parish with a convincing bravery. +</p> +<p> +"When you followed the sea," she said quickly, "if you had a good ship +with a freight that you had gathered with great care and hopefulness, +and had brought it almost to the market that it was suited for, would +you have been persuaded to turn about and take it to some place where +it would be next to useless?" +</p> +<p> +"No," said Captain Parish, "no, I shouldn't," and he half smiled at +this illustration. +</p> +<p> +"I can't tell you all my reasons for not wishing to marry," Nan went +on, growing very white and determined, "or all my reasons for wishing +to go on with my plan of being a doctor; but I know I have no right to +the one way of life, and a perfect one, so far as I can see, to the +other. And it seems to me that it would be as sensible to ask Mr. +Gerry to be a minister since he has just finished his law studies, as +to ask me to be a wife instead of a physician. But what I used to +dread without reason a few years ago, I must forbid myself now, +because I know the wretched inheritance I might have had from my poor +mother's people. I can't speak of that to Aunt Nancy, but you must +tell her not to try to make me change my mind." +</p> +<p> +"Good God!" said the captain. "I dare say you have the right points of +it; but if I were a young man 't would go hard with me to let you take +your life into your own hands. It's against nature." +</p> +<p> +"No," said Nan. "The law of right and wrong must rule even love, and +whatever comes to me, I must not forget that. Three years ago I had +not thought about it so much, and I might not have been so sure; but +now I have been taught there is only one road to take. And you must +tell Aunt Nancy this." +</p> +<p> +But when they went back to the house, Miss Prince was not to be seen, +and the captain hurried away lest she should make her appearance, for +he did not wish just then to talk about the matter any more. He told +himself that young people were very different in these days; but when +he thought of the words he had heard in the garden, and remembered the +pale face and the steadfast, clear-toned voice, he brushed away +something like a tear. "If more people used judgment in this same +decision the world would be better off," he said, and could not help +reminding himself that his own niece, little Mary Parish, who was +wearing a wistful countenance in these days, might by and by be happy +after all. For Nan's part it was a great relief to have spoken to the +kind old man; she felt more secure than before; but sometimes the fear +assailed her that some unforeseen event or unreckoned influence might +give her back to her indecisions, and that the battle of the night +before might after all prove not to be final. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The afternoon wore away, and late in the day our heroine heard George +Gerry's step coming up the street. She listened as she sat by the +upper window, and found that he was giving a message for her. It was +perfect weather to go up the river, he was saying; the tide served +just right and would bring them home early; and Miss Prince, who was +alone in the parlor, answered with pleased assurance that she was sure +her niece would like to go. "Yes," said Nan, calling from the window, +urged by a sudden impulse. "Yes indeed, I should like it above all +things; I will get ready at once; will you carry two pairs of oars?" +</p> +<p> +There was a ready assent, but the uncertainty of the tone of it struck +Anna Prince's quick ear. She seemed to know that the young man and her +aunt were exchanging looks of surprise, and that they felt insecure +and uncertain. It was not the yielding maiden who had spoken to her +lover, but the girl who was his good comrade and cordial friend. The +elder woman shook her head doubtfully; she knew well what this +foreboded, and was impatient at the overthrow of her plans; yet she +had full confidence in the power of Love. She had seen apparent +self-reliance before, and she could not believe that her niece was +invincible. At any rate nothing could be more persuasive than a +twilight row upon the river, and for her part, she hoped more eagerly +than ever that Love would return chief in command of the boat's young +crew; and when the young man flushed a little, and looked at her +appealingly, as he turned to go down the street, his friend and +counselor could not resist giving him a hopeful nod. Nan was +singularly frank, and free from affectations, and she might have +already decided to lower her colors and yield the victory, and it +seemed for a moment that it would be much more like her to do so, than +to invite further contest when she was already won. Miss Prince was +very kind and sympathetic when this explanation had once forced itself +upon her mind; she gave the young girl a most affectionate kiss when +she appeared, but at this unmistakable suggestion of pleasure and +treasured hopes, Nan turned back suddenly into the shaded parlor, +though Mr. Gerry was waiting outside with his favorite oars, which he +kept carefully in a corner of the office. +</p> +<p> +"Dear Aunt Nancy," said the girl, with evident effort, "I am so sorry +to disappoint you. I wish for your sake that I had been another sort +of woman; but I shall never marry. I know you think I am wrong, but +there is something which always tells me I am right, and I must follow +another way. I should only wreck my life, and other people's. Most +girls have an instinct towards marrying, but mine is all against it, +and God knew best when He made me care more for another fashion of +life. Don't make me seem unkind! I dare say that I can put it all into +words better by and by, but I can never be more certain of it in my +own heart than now." +</p> +<p> +"Sit down a minute," said Miss Prince, slowly. "George can wait. But, +Anna, I believe that you are in love with him, and that you are doing +wrong to the poor lad, and to yourself, and to me. I lost the best +happiness of my life for a whim, and you wish to throw away yours for +a theory. I hope you will be guided by me. I have come to love you +very much, and it seems as if this would be so reasonable." +</p> +<p> +"It does make a difference to me that he loves me," confessed the +girl. "It is not easy to turn away from him," she said,—still +standing, and looking taller than ever, and even thin, with a curious +tenseness of her whole being. "It is something that I have found it +hard to fight against, but it is not my whole self longing for his +love and his companionship. If I heard he had gone to the other side +of the world for years and years, I should be glad now and not sorry. +I know that all the world's sympathy and all tradition fight on his +side; but I can look forward and see something a thousand times better +than being his wife, and living here in Dunport keeping his house, and +trying to forget all that nature fitted me to do. You don't +understand, Aunt Nancy. I wish you could! You see it all another way." +And the tears started to the eager young eyes. "Don't you know that +Cousin Walter said this very day that the wind which sets one vessel +on the right course may set another on the wrong?" +</p> +<p> +"Nonsense, my dear," said the mistress of the house. "I don't think +this is the proper time for you to explain yourself at any rate. I +dare say the fresh air will do you good and put everything right too. +You have worked yourself into a great excitement over nothing. Don't +go out looking so desperate to the poor fellow; he will think +strangely of it;" and the girl went out through the wide hall, and +wished she were far away from all this trouble. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Nan had felt a strange sense of weariness, which did not leave her +even when she was quieted by the fresh breeze of the river-shore, and +was contented to let her oars be stowed in the bottom of the boat, and +to take the comfortable seat in the stern. She pulled the tiller ropes +over her shoulders, and watched her lover's first strong strokes, +which had quickly sent them out into the stream, beyond the course of +a larger craft which was coming toward the wharf. She wished presently +that she had chosen to row, because they would not then be face to +face; but, strange to say, since this new experience had come to her, +she had not felt so sure of herself as now, and the fear of finding +herself too weak to oppose the new tendency of her life had lessened +since her first recognition of it the night before. But Nan had fought +a hard fight, and had grown a great deal older in those hours of the +day and night. She believed that time would make her even more certain +that she had done right than she could be now in the heat of the +battle, but she wished whatever George Gerry meant to say to her might +be soon over with. +</p> +<p> +They went slowly up the river, which was now quite familiar to the +girl who had come to it a stranger only a few weeks before. She liked +out-of-door life so well that this countryside of Dunport was already +more dear to her than to many who had seen it bloom and fade every +year since they could remember. At one moment it seemed but yesterday +that she had come to the old town, and at the next she felt as if she +had spent half a lifetime there, and as if Oldfields might have +changed unbearably since she came away. +</p> +<p> +Sometimes the young oarsman kept in the middle of the great stream, +and sometimes it seemed pleasanter to be near the shore. The midsummer +flowers were coming into blossom, and the grass and trees had long +since lost the brilliance of their greenness, and wore a look of +maturity and completion, as if they had already finished their growth. +There was a beautiful softness and harmony of color, a repose that one +never sees in a spring landscape. The tide was in, the sun was almost +down, and a great, cloudless, infinite sky arched itself from horizon +to horizon. It had sent all its brilliance to shine backward from the +sun,—the glowing sphere from which a single dazzling ray came across +the fields and the water to the boat. In a moment more it was gone, +and a shadow quickly fell like that of a tropical twilight; but the +west grew golden, and one light cloud, like a floating red feather, +faded away upward into the sky. A later bright glow touched some high +hills in the east, then they grew purple and gray, and so the evening +came that way slowly, and the ripple of the water plashed and sobbed +against the boat's side; and presently in the midst of the river's +inland bay, after a few last eager strokes, the young man drew in his +oars, letting them drop with a noise which startled Nan, who had +happened to be looking over her shoulder at the shore. +</p> +<p> +She knew well enough that he meant to put a grave question to her now, +and her heart beat faster and she twisted the tiller cords around her +hands unconsciously. +</p> +<p> +"I think I could break any bonds you might use to keep yourself away +from me," he said hurriedly, as he watched her. "I am not fit for you, +only that I love you. Somebody told me you meant to go away, and I +could not wait any longer before I asked you if you would give +yourself to me." +</p> +<p> +"No, no!" cried Nan, "dear friend, I must not do it; it would all be a +mistake. You must not think of it any more. I am so sorry, I ought to +have understood what was coming to us, and have gone away long ago." +</p> +<p> +"It would have made no difference," said the young man, almost +angrily. He could not bear delay enough even for speech at that +moment; he watched her face desperately for a look of assurance; he +leaned toward her and wondered why he had not risked everything, and +spoken the evening before when they stood watching the ship's mast, +and Nan's hands were close enough to be touched. But the miserable +knowledge crept over him that she was a great deal farther away from +him than half that small boat's length, and as she looked up at him +again, and shook her head gently, a great rage of love and shame at +his repulse urged him to plead again. "You are spoiling my life," he +cried. "You do not care for that, but without you I shall not care for +anything." +</p> +<p> +"I would rather spoil your life in this way than in a far worse +fashion," said Nan sadly. "I will always be your friend, but if I +married you I might seem by and by to be your enemy. Yes, you will +love somebody else some day, and be a great deal happier than I could +have made you, and I shall be so glad. It does not belong to me." +</p> +<p> +But this seemed too scornful and cold-hearted. "Oh, my love is only +worth that to you," the lover said. "You shall know better what it +means. I don't want you for my friend, but for my own to keep and to +have. It makes me laugh to think of your being a doctor and going back +to that country town to throw yourself away for the fancies and silly +theories of a man who has lived like a hermit. It means a true life +for both of us if you will only say you love me, or even let me ask +you again when you have thought of it more. Everybody will say I am in +the right." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, there are reasons enough for it, but there is a better reason +against it. If you love me you must help me do what is best," said +Nan. "I shall miss you and think of you more than you know when I am +away. I never shall forget all these pleasant days we have been +together. Oh George!" she cried, in a tone that thrilled him through +and through, "I hope you will be friends with me again by and by. You +will know then I have done right because it is right and will prove +itself. If it is wrong for me I couldn't really make you happy; and +over all this and beyond it something promises me and calls me for a +life that my marrying you would hinder and not help. It isn't that I +shouldn't be so happy that it is not easy to turn away even from the +thought of it; but I know that the days would come when I should see, +in a way that would make me long to die, that I had lost the true +direction of my life and had misled others beside myself. You don't +believe me, but I cannot break faith with my duty. There are many +reasons that have forbidden me to marry, and I have a certainty as +sure as the stars that the only right condition of life for me is to +follow the way that everything until now has pointed out. The great +gain and purpose of my being alive is there; and I must not mind the +blessings that I shall have to do without." +</p> +<p> +He made a gesture of impatience and tried to interrupt her, but she +said quickly, as if to prevent his speaking: "Listen to me. I can't +help speaking plainly. I would not have come with you this afternoon, +only I wished to make you understand me entirely. I have never since I +can remember thought of myself and my life in any way but +unmarried,—going on alone to the work I am fit to do. I do care for +you. I have been greatly surprised and shaken because I found how +strongly something in me has taken your part, and shown me the +possibility of happiness in a quiet life that should centre itself in +one man's love, and within the walls of his home. But something tells +me all the time that I could not marry the whole of myself as most +women can; there is a great share of my life which could not have its +way, and could only hide itself and be sorry. I know better and better +that most women are made for another sort of existence, but by and by +I must do my part in my own way to make many homes happy instead of +one; to free them from pain, and teach grown people and little +children to keep their bodies free from weakness and deformities. I +don't know why God should have made me a doctor, so many other things +have seemed fitter for women; but I see the blessedness of such a +useful life more and more every year, and I am very thankful for such +a trust. It is a splendid thing to have the use of any gift of God. It +isn't for us to choose again, or wonder and dispute, but just work in +our own places, and leave the rest to God." +</p> +<p> +The boat was being carried downward by the ebbing tide, and George +Gerry took the oars again, and rowed quietly and in silence. He took +his defeat unkindly and drearily; he was ashamed of himself once, +because some evil spirit told him that he was losing much that would +content him, in failing to gain this woman's love. It had all been so +fair a prospect of worldly success, and she had been the queen of it. +He thought of himself growing old in Mr. Sergeant's dusty office, and +that this was all that life could hold for him. Yet to be was better +than to have. Alas! if he had been more earnest in his growth, it +would have been a power which this girl of high ideals could have been +held and mastered by. No wonder that she would not give up her dreams +of duty and service, since she had found him less strong than such +ideals. The fancied dissatisfaction and piteousness of failure which +she would be sure to meet filled his heart with dismay; yet, at that +very next moment, resent it as he might, the certainty of his own +present defeat and powerlessness could not be misunderstood. Perhaps, +after all, she knew what was right; her face wore again the look he +had feared to disturb the night before, and his whole soul was filled +with homage in the midst of its sorrow, because this girl, who had +been his merry companion in the summer holidays, so sweet and familiar +and unforgetable in the midst of the simple festivals, stood nearer to +holier things than himself, and had listened to the call of God's +messengers to whom his own doors had been ignorantly shut. And Nan +that night was a soul's physician, though she had been made to sorely +hurt her patient before the new healthfulness could well begin. +</p> +<p> +They floated down the river and tried to talk once or twice, but there +were many spaces of silence, and as they walked along the paved +streets, they thought of many things. An east wind was blowing in from +the sea, and the elm branches were moving restlessly overhead. "It +will all be better to-morrow," said Nan, as they stood on the steps at +last. "You must come to see Aunt Nancy very often after I have gone, +for she will be lonely. And do come in the morning as if nothing had +been spoken. I am so sorry. Good-night, and God bless you," she +whispered; and when she stood inside the wide doorway, in the dark, +she listened to his footsteps as he went away down the street. They +were slower than usual, but she did not call him back. +</p> +<a name="2H_4_0021"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + XXI +</h2> +<h3> + AT HOME AGAIN +</h3> +<p> +In Oldfields Dr. Leslie had outwardly lived the familiar life to which +his friends and patients had long since accustomed themselves; he had +seemed a little preoccupied, perhaps, but if that were observed, it +was easily explained by his having one or two difficult cases to think +about. A few persons suspected that he missed Nan, and was, perhaps, a +little anxious lest her father's people in Dunport should claim her +altogether. Among those who knew best the doctor and his ward there +had been an ardent championship of Nan's rights and dignity, and a +great curiosity to know the success of the visit. Dr. Leslie had +answered all questions with composure, and with a distressing +meagreness of details; but at length Mrs. Graham became sure that he +was not altogether free from anxiety, and set her own quick wits at +work to learn the cause. It seemed a time of great uncertainty, at any +rate. The doctor sometimes brought one of Nan's bright, affectionate +letters for his neighbor to read, and they agreed that this holiday +was an excellent thing for her, but there was a silent recognition of +the fact that this was a critical time in the young girl's history; +that it either meant a new direction of her life or an increased +activity in the old one. Mrs. Graham was less well than usual in these +days, and the doctor found time to make more frequent visits than +ever, telling himself that she missed Nan's pleasant companionship, +but really wishing as much to receive sympathy as to give it. The dear +old lady had laughingly disclaimed any desire to summon her children +or grandchildren, saying that she was neither ill enough to need them, +nor well enough to enjoy them; and so in the beautiful June weather +the two old friends became strangely dear to each other, and had many +a long talk which the cares of the world or their own reserve had made +them save until this favoring season. +</p> +<p> +The doctor was acknowledged to be an old man at last, though everybody +still insisted that he looked younger than his age, and could not +doubt that he had half a lifetime of usefulness before him yet. But it +makes a great difference when one's ambitions are transferred from +one's own life to that of a younger person's; and while Dr. Leslie +grew less careful for himself, trusting to the unconscious certainty +of his practiced skill, he pondered eagerly over Nan's future, +reminding himself of various hints and suggestions, which must be +added to her equipment. Sometimes he wished that she were beginning a +few years later, when her position could be better recognized and +respected, and she would not have to fight against so much of the +opposition and petty fault-finding that come from ignorance; and +sometimes he rejoiced that his little girl, as he fondly called her, +would be one of the earlier proofs and examples of a certain noble +advance and new vantage-ground of civilization. This has been +anticipated through all ages by the women who, sometimes honored and +sometimes persecuted, have been drawn away from home life by a +devotion to public and social usefulness. It must be recognized that +certain qualities are required for married, and even domestic life, +which all women do not possess; but instead of attributing this to the +disintegration of society, it must be acknowledged to belong to its +progress. +</p> +<p> +So long as the visit in Dunport seemed to fulfill its anticipated +purpose, and the happy guest was throwing aside her cares and enjoying +the merry holiday and the excitement of new friendships and of her +uncommon position, so long the doctor had been glad, and far from +impatient to have the visit end. But when he read the later and +shorter letters again and again in the vain hope of finding something +in their wording which should explain the vague unhappiness which had +come to him as he had read them first, he began to feel troubled and +dismayed. There was something which Nan had not explained; something +was going wrong. He was sure that if it were anything he could set +right, that she would have told him. She had always done so; but it +became evident through the strange sympathy which made him conscious +of the mood of others that she was bent upon fighting her way alone. +</p> +<p> +It was a matter of surprise, and almost of dismay to him early one +morning, when he received a brief note from her which told him only +that she should be at home late that afternoon. It seemed to the wise +old doctor a day of most distressing uncertainty. He tried to make up +his mind to accept with true philosophy whatever decision she was +bringing him. "Nan is a good girl," he told himself over and over +again; "she will try to do right." But she was so young and so +generous, and whether she had been implored to break the old ties of +home life and affection for her aunt's sake, or whether it was a newer +and stronger influence still which had prevailed, waited for +explanation. Alas, as was written once, it is often the higher nature +that yields, because it is the most generous. The doctor knew well +enough the young girl's character. He knew what promises of growth and +uncommon achievement were all ready to unfold themselves,—for what +great uses she was made. He could not bear the thought of her being +handicapped in the race she had been set to run. Yet no one recognized +more clearly than he the unseen, and too often unconsidered, factor +which is peculiar to each soul, which prevents any other intelligence +from putting itself exactly in that soul's place, so that our +decisions and aids and suggestions are never wholly sufficient or +available for those even whom we love most. He went over the question +again and again; he followed Nan in his thoughts as she had grown +up,—unprejudiced, unconstrained as is possible for any human being to +be. He remembered that her heroes were the great doctors, and that her +whole heart had been stirred and claimed by the noble duties and needs +of the great profession. She had been careless of the social +limitations, of the lack of sympathy, even of the ridicule of the +public. She had behaved as a bird would behave if it were assured by +beasts and fishes that to walk and to swim were the only proper and +respectable means of getting from place to place. She had shown such +rare insight into the principles of things; she had even seemed to +him, as he watched her, to have anticipated experience, and he could +not help believing that it was within her power to add much to the too +small fund of certainty, by the sure instinct and aim of her +experiment. It counted nothing whether God had put this soul into a +man's body or a woman's. He had known best, and He meant it to be the +teller of new truth, a revealer of laws, and an influence for good in +its capacity for teaching, as well as in its example of pure and +reasonable life. +</p> +<p> +But the old doctor sighed, and told himself that the girl was most +human, most affectionate; it was not impossible that, in spite of her +apparent absence of certain domestic instincts, they had only lain +dormant and were now awake. He could not bear that she should lose any +happiness which might be hers; and the tender memory of the blessed +companionship which had been withdrawn from his mortal sight only to +be given back to him more fully as he had lived closer and nearer to +spiritual things, made him shrink from forbidding the same sort of +fullness and completion of life to one so dear as Nan. He tried to +assure himself that while a man's life is strengthened by his domestic +happiness, a woman's must either surrender itself wholly, or +relinquish entirely the claims of such duties, if she would achieve +distinction or satisfaction elsewhere. The two cannot be taken +together in a woman's life as in a man's. One must be made of lesser +consequence, though the very natures of both domestic and professional +life need all the strength which can be brought to them. The decision +between them he knew to be a most grave responsibility, and one to be +governed by the gravest moral obligations, and the unmistakable +leadings of the personal instincts and ambitions. It was seldom, Dr. +Leslie was aware, that so typical and evident an example as this could +offer itself of the class of women who are a result of natural +progression and variation, not for better work, but for different +work, and who are designed for certain public and social duties. But +he believed this class to be one that must inevitably increase with +the higher developments of civilization, and in later years, which he +might never see, the love for humanity would be recognized and +employed more intelligently; while now almost every popular prejudice +was against his ward, then she would need no vindication. The wielder +of ideas has always a certain advantage over the depender upon facts; +and though the two classes of minds by no means inevitably belong, the +one to women, and the other to men, still women have not yet begun to +use the best resources of their natures, having been later developed, +and in many countries but recently freed from restraining and +hindering influences. +</p> +<p> +The preservation of the race is no longer the only important question; +the welfare of the individual will be considered more and more. The +simple fact that there is a majority of women in any centre of +civilization means that some are set apart by nature for other uses +and conditions than marriage. In ancient times men depended entirely +upon the women of their households to prepare their food and +clothing,—and almost every man in ordinary circumstances of life was +forced to marry for this reason; but already there is a great change. +The greater proportion of men and women everywhere will still +instinctively and gladly accept the high duties and helps of married +life; but as society becomes more intelligent it will recognize the +fitness of some persons, and the unfitness of others, making it +impossible for these to accept such responsibilities and obligations, +and so dignify and elevate home life instead of degrading it. +</p> +<p> +It had been one thing to act from conviction and from the promptings +of instinct while no obstacles opposed themselves to his decisions, +and quite another thing to be brought face to face with such an +emergency. Dr. Leslie wished first to be able to distinctly explain to +himself his reasons for the opinions he held; he knew that he must +judge for Nan herself in some measure; she would surely appeal to him; +she would bring this great question to him, and look for sympathy and +relief in the same way she had tearfully shown him a wounded finger in +her childhood. He seemed to see again the entreating eyes, made large +with the pain which would not show itself in any other way, and he +felt the rare tears fill his own eyes at the thought. "Poor little +Nan," he said to himself, "she has been hurt in the great battle, but +she is no skulking soldier." He would let her tell her story, and then +give her the best help he could; and so when the afternoon shadows +were very long across the country, and the hot summer day was almost +done, the doctor drove down the wide street and along East Road to the +railroad station. As he passed a group of small houses he looked at +his watch and found that there was more than time for a second visit +to a sick child whose illness had been most serious and perplexing at +first, though now she was fast recovering. The little thing smiled as +her friend came in, and asked if the young lady were coming to-morrow, +for Dr. Leslie had promised a visit and a picture-book from Nan, whom +he wished to see and understand the case. They had had a long talk +upon such ailments as this just before she went away, and nothing had +seemed to rouse her ambition so greatly as her experiences at the +children's hospitals the winter before. Now, this weak little creature +seemed to be pleading in the name of a great army of sick children, +that Nan would not desert their cause; that she would go on, as she +had promised them, with her search for ways that should restore their +vigor and increase their fitness to take up the work of the world. And +yet, a home and children of one's very own,—the doctor, who had held +and lost this long ago, felt powerless to decide the future of the +young heart which was so dear to him. +</p> +<p> +Nan saw the familiar old horse and carriage waiting behind the +station, and did not fail to notice that the doctor had driven to meet +her himself. He almost always did, but her very anxiety to see him +again had made her doubtful. The train had hardly stopped before she +was standing on the platform and had hastily dropped her checks into +the hand of the nearest idle boy, who looked at them doubtfully, as if +he hardly dared to hope that he had been mistaken for the hackman. She +came quickly to the side of the carriage; the doctor could not look at +her, for the horse had made believe that some excitement was +necessary, and was making it difficult for the welcome passenger to +put her foot on the step. It was all over in a minute. Nan sprang to +the doctor's side and away they went down the road. He had caught a +glimpse of her shining eyes and eager face as she had hurried toward +him, and had said, "Well done!" in a most cheerful and every-day +fashion, and then for a minute there was silence. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, it is so good to get home," said the girl, and her companion +turned toward her; he could not wait to hear her story. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," said Nan, "it is just as well to tell you now. Do you remember +you used to say to me when I was a little girl, 'If you know your +duty, don't mind the best of reasons for not doing it'?" And the +doctor nodded. "I never thought that this reason would come to me for +not being a doctor," she went on, "and at first I was afraid I should +be conquered, though it was myself who fought myself. But it came to +me clearer than ever after a while. I think I could have been fonder +of some one than most people are of those whom they marry, but the +more I cared for him the less I could give him only part of myself; I +knew that was not right. Now that I can look back at it all I am so +glad to have had those days; I shall work better all my life for +having been able to make myself so perfectly sure that I know my way." +</p> +<p> +The unconsidered factor had asserted itself in the doctor's favor. He +gave the reins to Nan and leaned back in the carriage, but as she bent +forward to speak to a friend whom they passed she did not see the look +that he gave her. +</p> +<p> +"I am sure you knew what was right," he said, hastily. "God bless you, +dear child!" +</p> +<p> +Was this little Nan, who had been his play-thing? this brave young +creature, to whose glorious future all his heart and hopes went out. +In his evening it was her morning, and he prayed that God's angels +should comfort and strengthen her and help her to carry the burden of +the day. It is only those who can do nothing who find nothing to do, +and Nan was no idler; she had come to her work as Christ came to his, +not to be ministered unto but to minister. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The months went by swiftly, and through hard work and much study, and +many sights of pain and sorrow, this young student of the business of +healing made her way to the day when some of her companions announced +with melancholy truth that they had finished their studies. They were +pretty sure to be accused of having had no right to begin them, or to +take such trusts and responsibilities into their hands. But Nan and +many of her friends had gladly climbed the hill so far, and with every +year's ascent had been thankful for the wider horizon which was spread +for their eyes to see. +</p> +<p> +Dr. Leslie in his quiet study almost wished that he were beginning +life again, and sometimes in the twilight, or in long and lonely +country drives, believed himself ready to go back twenty years so that +he could follow Nan into the future and watch her successes. But he +always smiled afterward at such a thought. Twenty years would carry +him back to the time when his ward was a little child, not long before +she came to live with him. It was best as God had planned it. Nobody +had watched the child's development as he had done, or her growth of +character, of which all the performances of her later years would be +to him only the unnecessary proofs and evidences. He knew that she +would be faithful in great things, because she had been faithful in +little things, and he should be with her a long time yet, perhaps. God +only knew. +</p> +<p> +There was a great change in the village; there were more small +factories now which employed large numbers of young women, and though +a new doctor had long ago come to Oldfields who had begun by trying to +supersede Dr. Leslie, he had ended by longing to show his gratitude +some day for so much help and kindness. More than one appointment had +been offered the heroine of this story in the city hospitals. She +would have little trouble in making her way since she had the +requisite qualities, natural and acquired, which secure success. But +she decided for herself that she would neither do this, nor carry out +yet the other plan of going on with her studies at some school across +the sea. Zurich held out a great temptation, but there was time enough +yet, and she would spend a year in Oldfields with the doctor, studying +again with him, since she knew better than ever before that she could +find no wiser teacher. And it was a great pleasure to belong to the +dear old town, to come home to it with her new treasures, so much +richer than she had gone away that beside medicines and bandages and +lessons in general hygiene for the physical ails of her patients, she +could often be a tonic to the mind and soul; and since she was trying +to be good, go about doing good in Christ's name to the halt and +maimed and blind in spiritual things. +</p> +<p> +Nobody sees people as they are and finds the chance to help poor +humanity as a doctor does. The decorations and deceptions of character +must fall away before the great realities of pain and death. The +secrets of many hearts and homes must be told to this confessor, and +sadder ailments than the text-books name are brought to be healed by +the beloved physicians. Teachers of truth and givers of the laws of +life, priests and ministers,—all these professions are joined in one +with the gift of healing, and are each part of the charge that a good +doctor holds in his keeping. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +One day in the beginning of her year at Oldfields, Nan, who had been +very busy, suddenly thought it would be well to give herself a +holiday; and with a sudden return of her old sense of freedom was +going out at the door and down toward the gateway, which opened to a +pleasantly wide world beyond. Marilla had taken Nan's successes rather +reluctantly, and never hesitated to say that she only hoped to see her +well married and settled before she died; though she was always ready +to defend her course with even virulence to those who would deprecate +it. She now heard Nan shut the door, and called at once from an upper +window to know if word had been left where she was going, and the +young practitioner laughed aloud as she answered, and properly +acknowledged the fetter of her calling. +</p> +<p> +The leaves were just beginning to fall, and she pushed them about with +her feet, and sometimes walked and sometimes ran lightly along the +road toward the farm. But when she reached it, she passed the lane and +went on to the Dyer houses. Mrs. Jake was ailing as usual, and Nan had +told the doctor before she came out that she would venture another +professional visit in his stead. She was a great help to him in this +way, for his calls to distant towns had increased year by year, and he +often found it hard to keep his many patients well in hand. +</p> +<p> +The old houses had not changed much since she first knew them, and +neither they nor their inmates were in any danger of being forgotten +by her; the old ties of affection and association grew stronger +instead of weaker every year. It pleased and amused the old people to +be reminded of the days when Nan was a child and lived among them, and +it was a great joy to her to be able to make their pain and discomfort +less, and be their interpreter of the outside world. +</p> +<p> +It was a most lovely day of our heroine's favorite weather. It has +been said that November is an epitome of all the months of the year, +but for all that, no other season can show anything so beautiful as +the best and brightest November days. Nan had spent her summer in a +great hospital, where she saw few flowers save human ones, and the +warmth and inspiration of this clear air seemed most delightful. She +had been somewhat tempted by an offer of a fine position in Canada, +and even Dr. Leslie had urged her acceptance, and thought it an +uncommonly good chance to have the best hospital experience and +responsibility, but she had sent the letter of refusal only that +morning. She could not tell yet what her later plans might be; but +there was no place like Oldfields, and she thought she had never loved +it so dearly as that afternoon. +</p> +<p> +She looked in at Mrs. Martin's wide-open door first, but finding the +kitchen empty, went quickly across to the other house, where Mrs. Jake +was propped up in her rocking-chair and began to groan loudly when she +saw Nan; but the tonic of so gratifying a presence soon had a most +favorable effect. Benignant Mrs. Martin was knitting as usual, and the +three women sat together in a friendly group and Nan asked and +answered questions most cordially. +</p> +<p> +"I declare I was sort of put out with the doctor for sending you down +here day before yesterday instead of coming himself," stated Mrs. Jake +immediately, "but I do' know's I ever had anything do me so much good +as that bottle you gave me." +</p> +<p> +"Of course!" laughed Nan. "Dr. Leslie sent it to you himself. I told +you when I gave it to you." +</p> +<p> +"Well now, how you talk!" said Mrs. Jake, a little crestfallen. "I +begin to find my hearing fails me by spells. But I was bound to give +you the credit, for all I've stood out against your meddling with a +doctor's business." +</p> +<p> +Nan laughed merrily. "I am going to steal you for my patient," she +answered, "and try all the prescriptions on your case first." +</p> +<p> +"Land, if you cured her up 'twould be like stopping the leaks in a +basket," announced Mrs. Martin with a beaming smile, and clicking her +knitting-needles excitedly. "She can't hear of a complaint anywheres +about but she thinks she's got the mate to it." +</p> +<p> +"I don't seem to have anything fevery about me," said Mrs. Jake, with +an air of patient self-denial; and though both her companions were +most compassionate at the thought of her real sufferings, they could +not resist the least bit of a smile. "I declare you've done one +first-rate thing, if you're never going to do any more," said Mrs. +Jake, presently. "'Liza here's been talking for some time past, about +your straightening up the little boy's back,—the one that lives down +where Mis' Meeker used to live you know,—but I didn't seem to take it +in till he come over here yisterday forenoon. Looks as likely as any +child, except it may be he's a little stunted. When I think how he +used to creep about there, side of the road, like a hopper-toad, it +does seem amazin'!" +</p> +<p> +Nan's eyes brightened. "I have been delighted about that. I saw him +running with the other children as I came down the road. It was a long +bit of work, though. The doctor did most of it; I didn't see the child +for months, you know. But he needs care yet; I'm going to stop and +have another talk with his mother as I go home." +</p> +<p> +"She's a pore shiftless creature," Mrs. Martin hastened to say. +"There, I thought o' the doctor, how he'd laugh, the last time I was +in to see her; her baby was sick, and she sent up to know if I'd lend +her a variety of herbs, and I didn't know but she might p'isen it, so +I stepped down with something myself. She begun to flutter about like +she always does, and I picked my way acrost the kitchen to the cradle. +'There,' says she, 'I have been laying out all this week to go up to +the Corners and git me two new chairs.' 'I should think you had plenty +of chairs now,' said I, and she looked at me sort of surprised, and +says she, 'There ain't a chair in this house but what's full.'" +</p> +<p> +And Nan laughed as heartily as could have been desired before she +asked Mrs. Jake a few more appreciative questions about her ailments, +and then rose to go away. Mrs. Martin followed her out to the gate; +she and Nan had always been very fond of each other, and the elder +woman pointed to a field not far away where the brothers were watching +a stubble-fire, which was sending up a thin blue thread of smoke into +the still air. "They were over in your north lot yisterday," said Mrs. +Martin. "They're fullest o' business nowadays when there's least to +do. They took it pretty hard when they first had to come down to +hiring help, but they kind of enjoy it now. We're all old folks +together on the farm, and not good for much. It don't seem but a year +or two since your poor mother was playing about here, and then you +come along, and now you're the last o' your folks out of all the +houseful of 'em I knew. I'll own up sometimes I've thought strange of +your fancy for doctoring, but I never said a word to nobody against +it, so I haven't got anything to take back as most folks have. I +couldn't help thinking when you come in this afternoon and sat there +along of us, that I'd give a good deal to have Mis' Thacher step in +and see you and know what you've made o' yourself. She had it hard for +a good many years, but I believe 't is all made up to her; I do +certain." +</p> +<p> +Nan meant to go back to the village by the shorter way of the little +foot-path, but first she went up the grass-grown lane toward the old +farm-house. She stood for a minute looking about her and across the +well-known fields, and then seated herself on the door-step, and +stayed there for some time. There were two or three sheep near by, +well covered and rounded by their soft new winter wool, and they all +came as close as they dared and looked at her wonderingly. The narrow +path that used to be worn to the door-step had been overgrown years +ago with the short grass, and in it there was a late little dandelion +with hardly any stem at all. The sunshine was warm, and all the +country was wrapped in a thin, soft haze. +</p> +<p> +She thought of her grandmother Thacher, and of the words that had just +been said; it was beginning to seem a very great while since the days +of the old farm-life, and Nan smiled as she remembered with what tones +of despair the good old woman used to repeat the well-worn phrase, +that her grandchild would make either something or nothing. It seemed +to her that she had brought all the success of the past and her hopes +for the future to the dear old place that afternoon. Her early life +was spreading itself out like a picture, and as she thought it over +and looked back from year to year, she was more than ever before +surprised to see the connection of one thing with another, and how +some slight acts had been the planting of seeds which had grown and +flourished long afterward. And as she tried to follow herself back +into the cloudy days of her earliest spring, she rose without knowing +why, and went down the pastures toward the river. She passed the old +English apple-tree, which still held aloft a flourishing bough. Its +fruit had been gathered, but there were one or two stray apples left, +and Nan skillfully threw a stick at these by way of summons. +</p> +<p> +Along this path she had hurried or faltered many a time. She +remembered her grandmother's funeral, and how she had walked, with an +elderly cousin whom she did not know, at the head of the procession, +and had seen Martin Dyer's small grandson peeping like a rabbit from +among the underbrush near the shore. Poor little Nan! she was very +lonely that day. She had been so glad when the doctor had wrapped her +up and taken her home. +</p> +<p> +She saw the neighborly old hawthorn-tree that grew by a cellar, and +stopped to listen to its rustling and to lay her hand upon the rough +bark. It had been a cause of wonder once, for she knew no other tree +of the kind. It was like a snow-drift when it was in bloom, and in the +grass-grown cellar she had spent many an hour, for there was a good +shelter from the wind and an excellent hiding-place, though it seemed +very shallow now when she looked at it as she went by. +</p> +<p> +The burying-place was shut in by a plain stone wall, which she had +long ago asked the Dyers to build for her, and she leaned over it now +and looked at the smooth turf of the low graves. She had always +thought she would like to lie there too when her work was done. There +were some of the graves which she did not know, but one was her poor +young mother's, who had left her no inheritance except some traits +that had won Nan many friends; all her evil gifts had been buried with +her, the neighbors had said, when the girl was out of hearing, that +very afternoon. +</p> +<p> +There was a strange fascination about these river uplands; no place +was so dear to Nan, and yet she often thought with a shudder of the +story of those footprints which had sought the river's brink, and then +turned back. Perhaps, made pure and strong in a better world, in which +some lingering love and faith had given her the true direction at +last, where even her love for her child had saved her, the mother had +been still taking care of little Nan and guiding her. Perhaps she had +helped to make sure of the blessings her own life had lost, of truth +and whiteness of soul and usefulness; and so had been still bringing +her child in her arms toward the great shelter and home, as she had +toiled in her fright and weakness that dark and miserable night toward +the house on the hill. +</p> +<p> +And Nan stood on the shore while the warm wind that gently blew her +hair felt almost like a hand, and presently she went closer to the +river, and looked far across it and beyond it to the hills. The eagles +swung to and fro above the water, but she looked beyond them into the +sky. The soft air and the sunshine came close to her; the trees stood +about and seemed to watch her; and suddenly she reached her hands +upward in an ecstasy of life and strength and gladness. "O God," she +said, "I thank thee for my future." +</p> +<hr class="full" /> + +<h1><a name="2H_Part2"></a> + SELECTED STORIES AND SKETCHES +</h1> +<h3> + by Sarah Orne Jewett +</h3> +<hr class="full" /> + +<h2> + CONTENTS +</h2> +<div class="blockquot"> +<ul> +<li> +STORIES FROM <i>Strangers and Wayfarers</i>, Published 1890 +<ol class="nomark"> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0022"> + A WINTER COURTSHIP (<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, Feb., 1889) +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0023"> + GOING TO SHREWSBURY (<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, July, 1889) +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0024"> + THE WHITE ROSE ROAD (<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, Sept., 1889) +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0025"> + THE TOWN POOR (<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, July, 1890) +</a></li> +</ol> +</li> +<li> +STORIES FROM <i>A Native of Winby and Other Tales</i>, Published 1893 +<ul> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0026"> + A NATIVE OF WINBY (<i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, May, 1891) +</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0027"> +LOOKING BACK ON GIRLHOOD, <i>Youth's Companion</i>, January 7, 1892 +</a></li> +<li> +MORE STORIES FROM <i>A Native of Winby and Other Tales</i>, Published 1893 +<ul> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0028"> + THE PASSING OF SISTER BARSETT (<i>Cosmopolitan Magazine</i>, May, 1892) +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0029"> + DECORATION DAY (<i>Harper's Magazine</i>, June, 1892) +</a></li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0030"> + THE FLIGHT OF BETSEY LANE (<i>Scribner's Magazine</i>, Aug. 1893) +</a></li> +</ul> +</li> +<li><a href="#2H_4_0031"> +THE GRAY MILLS OF FARLEY, <i>Cosmopolitan Magazine</i>, June, 1898 +</a></li> +</ul> +</div> +<hr class="full" /> + +<a name="2H_4_0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<h2> + <i>A Winter Courtship</i> +</h2> +<p> +The passenger and mail transportation between the towns of North Kilby +and Sanscrit Pond was carried on by Mr. Jefferson Briley, whose +two-seated covered wagon was usually much too large for the demands of +business. Both the Sanscrit Pond and North Kilby people were +stayers-at-home, and Mr. Briley often made his seven-mile journey in +entire solitude, except for the limp leather mail-bag, which he held +firmly to the floor of the carriage with his heavily shod left foot. +The mail-bag had almost a personality to him, born of long +association. Mr. Briley was a meek and timid-looking body, but he held +a warlike soul, and encouraged his fancies by reading awful tales of +bloodshed and lawlessness in the far West. Mindful of stage robberies +and train thieves, and of express messengers who died at their posts, +he was prepared for anything; and although he had trusted to his own +strength and bravery these many years, he carried a heavy pistol under +his front-seat cushion for better defense. This awful weapon was +familiar to all his regular passengers, and was usually shown to +strangers by the time two of the seven miles of Mr. Briley's route had +been passed. The pistol was not loaded. Nobody (at least not Mr. +Briley himself) doubted that the mere sight of such a weapon would +turn the boldest adventurer aside. +</p> +<p> +Protected by such a man and such a piece of armament, one gray Friday +morning in the edge of winter, Mrs. Fanny Tobin was traveling from +Sanscrit Pond to North Kilby. She was an elderly and feeble-looking +woman, but with a shrewd twinkle in her eyes, and she felt very +anxious about her numerous pieces of baggage and her own personal +safety. She was enveloped in many shawls and smaller wrappings, but +they were not securely fastened, and kept getting undone and flying +loose, so that the bitter December cold seemed to be picking a lock +now and then, and creeping in to steal away the little warmth she had. +Mr. Briley was cold, too, and could only cheer himself by remembering +the valor of those pony-express drivers of the pre-railroad days, who +had to cross the Rocky Mountains on the great California route. He +spoke at length of their perils to the suffering passenger, who felt +none the warmer, and at last gave a groan of weariness. +</p> +<p> +"How fur did you say 't was now?" +</p> +<p> +"I do' know's I said, Mis' Tobin," answered the driver, with a frosty +laugh. "You see them big pines, and the side of a barn just this way, +with them yellow circus bills? That's my three-mile mark." +</p> +<p> +"Be we got four more to make? Oh, my laws!" mourned Mrs. Tobin. "Urge +the beast, can't ye, Jeff'son? I ain't used to bein' out in such bleak +weather. Seems if I couldn't git my breath. I'm all pinched up and +wigglin' with shivers now. 'T ain't no use lettin' the hoss go +step-a-ty-step, this fashion." +</p> +<p> +"Landy me!" exclaimed the affronted driver. "I don't see why folks +expects me to race with the cars. Everybody that gits in wants me to +run the hoss to death on the road. I make a good everage o' time, and +that's all I <i>can</i> do. Ef you was to go back an' forth every day but +Sabbath fur eighteen years, <i>you</i>'d want to ease it all you could, and +let those thrash the spokes out o' their wheels that wanted to. North +Kilby, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; Sanscrit Pond, Tuesdays, +Thu'sdays, an' Saturdays. Me an' the beast's done it eighteen years +together, and the creatur' warn't, so to say, young when we begun it, +nor I neither. I re'lly didn't know's she'd hold out till this time. +There, git up, will ye, old mar'!" as the beast of burden stopped +short in the road. +</p> +<p> +There was a story that Jefferson gave this faithful creature a rest +three times a mile, and took four hours for the journey by himself, +and longer whenever he had a passenger. But in pleasant weather the +road was delightful, and full of people who drove their own +conveyances, and liked to stop and talk. There were not many farms, +and the third growth of white pines made a pleasant shade, though +Jefferson liked to say that when he began to carry the mail his way +lay through an open country of stumps and sparse underbrush, where the +white pines nowadays completely arched the road. +</p> +<p> +They had passed the barn with circus posters, and felt colder than +ever when they caught sight of the weather-beaten acrobats in their +tights. +</p> +<p> +"My gorry!" exclaimed Widow Tobin, "them pore creatur's looks as +cheerless as little birch-trees in snow-time. I hope they dresses 'em +warmer this time o' year. Now, there! look at that one jumpin' through +the little hoop, will ye?" +</p> +<p> +"He couldn't git himself through there with two pair o' pants on," +answered Mr. Briley. "I expect they must have to keep limber as eels. +I used to think, when I was a boy, that 'twas the only thing I could +ever be reconciled to do for a livin'. I set out to run away an' +follow a rovin' showman once, but mother needed me to home. There +warn't nobody but me an' the little gals." +</p> +<p> +"You ain't the only one that's be'n disapp'inted o' their heart's +desire," said Mrs. Tobin sadly. "'T warn't so that I could be spared +from home to learn the dressmaker's trade." +</p> +<p> +"'T would a come handy later on, I declare," answered the sympathetic +driver, "bein' 's you went an' had such a passel o' gals to clothe an' +feed. There, them that's livin' is all well off now, but it must ha' +been some inconvenient for ye when they was small." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, Mr. Briley, but then I've had my mercies, too," said the widow +somewhat grudgingly. "I take it master hard now, though, havin' to +give up my own home and live round from place to place, if they be my +own child'en. There was Ad'line and Susan Ellen fussin' an' bickerin' +yesterday about who'd got to have me next; and, Lord be thanked, they +both wanted me right off but I hated to hear 'em talkin' of it over. +I'd rather live to home, and do for myself." +</p> +<p> +"I've got consider'ble used to boardin'," said Jefferson, "sence ma'am +died, but it made me ache 'long at the fust on 't, I tell ye. Bein' on +the road's I be, I couldn't do no ways at keepin' house. I should want +to keep right there and see to things." +</p> +<p> +"Course you would," replied Mrs. Tobin, with a sudden inspiration of +opportunity which sent a welcome glow all over her. "Course you would, +Jeff'son,"—she leaned toward the front seat; "that is to say, onless +you had jest the right one to do it for ye." +</p> +<p> +And Jefferson felt a strange glow also, and a sense of unexpected +interest and enjoyment. +</p> +<p> +"See here, Sister Tobin," he exclaimed with enthusiasm. "Why can't ye +take the trouble to shift seats, and come front here long o' me? We +could put one buff'lo top o' the other,—they're both wearin' +thin,—and set close, and I do' know but we sh'd be more protected +ag'inst the weather." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I couldn't be no colder if I was froze to death," answered the +widow, with an amiable simper. "Don't ye let me delay you, nor put you +out, Mr. Briley. I don't know's I'd set forth to-day if I'd known 't +was so cold; but I had all my bundles done up, and I ain't one that +puts my hand to the plough an' looks back, 'cordin' to Scriptur'." +</p> +<p> +"You wouldn't wanted me to ride all them seven miles alone?" asked the +gallant Briley sentimentally, as he lifted her down, and helped her up +again to the front seat. She was a few years older than he, but they +had been schoolmates, and Mrs. Tobin's youthful freshness was suddenly +revived to his mind's eye. She had a little farm; there was nobody +left at home now but herself, and so she had broken up housekeeping +for the winter. Jefferson himself had savings of no mean amount. +</p> +<p> +They tucked themselves in, and felt better for the change, but there +was a sudden awkwardness between them; they had not had time to +prepare for an unexpected crisis. +</p> +<p> +"They say Elder Bickers, over to East Sanscrit, 's been and got +married again to a gal that's four year younger than his oldest +daughter," proclaimed Mrs. Tobin presently. "Seems to me 't was fool's +business." +</p> +<p> +"I view it so," said the stage-driver. "There's goin' to be a mild +open winter for that fam'ly." +</p> +<p> +"What a joker you be for a man that's had so much responsibility!" +smiled Mrs. Tobin, after they had done laughing. "Ain't you never +'fraid, carryin' mail matter and such valuable stuff, that you'll be +set on an' robbed, 'specially by night?" +</p> +<p> +Jefferson braced his feet against the dasher under the worn buffalo +skin. "It is kind o' scary, or would be for some folks, but I'd like +to see anybody get the better o' me. I go armed, and I don't care who +knows it. Some o' them drover men that comes from Canady looks as if +they didn't care what they did, but I look 'em right in the eye every +time." +</p> +<p> +"Men folks is brave by natur'," said the widow admiringly. "You know +how Tobin would let his fist right out at anybody that undertook to +sass him. Town-meetin' days, if he got disappointed about the way +things went, he'd lay 'em out in win'rows; and ef he hadn't been a +church-member he'd been a real fightin' character. I was always 'fraid +to have him roused, for all he was so willin' and meechin' to home, +and set round clever as anybody. My Susan Ellen used to boss him +same's the kitten, when she was four year old." +</p> +<p> +"I've got a kind of a sideways cant to my nose, that Tobin give me +when we was to school. I don't know's you ever noticed it," said Mr. +Briley. "We was scufflin', as lads will. I never bore him no kind of a +grudge. I pitied ye, when he was taken away. I re'lly did, now, Fanny. +I liked Tobin first-rate, and I liked you. I used to say you was the +han'somest girl to school." +</p> +<p> +"Lemme see your nose. 'Tis all straight, for what I know," said the +widow gently, as with a trace of coyness she gave a hasty glance. "I +don't know but what 'tis warped a little, but nothin' to speak of. +You've got real nice features, like your marm's folks." +</p> +<p> +It was becoming a sentimental occasion, and Jefferson Briley felt that +he was in for something more than he had bargained. He hurried the +faltering sorrel horse, and began to talk of the weather. It certainly +did look like snow, and he was tired of bumping over the frozen road. +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't wonder if I hired a hand here another year, and went off +out West myself to see the country." +</p> +<p> +"Why, how you talk!" answered the widow. +</p> +<p> +"Yes'm," pursued Jefferson. "'Tis tamer here than I like, and I was +tellin' 'em yesterday I've got to know this road most too well. I'd +like to go out an' ride in the mountains with some o' them great +clipper coaches, where the driver don't know one minute but he'll be +shot dead the next. They carry an awful sight o' gold down from the +mines, I expect." +</p> +<p> +"I should be scairt to death," said Mrs. Tobin. "What creatur's men +folks be to like such things! Well, I do declare." +</p> +<p> +"Yes," explained the mild little man. "There's sights of desp'radoes +makes a han'some livin' out o' followin' them coaches, an' stoppin' +an' robbin' 'em clean to the bone. Your money <i>or</i> your life!" and he +flourished his stub of a whip over the sorrel mare. +</p> +<p> +"Landy me! you make me run all of a cold creep. Do tell somethin' +heartenin', this cold day. I shall dream bad dreams all night." +</p> +<p> +"They put on black crape over their heads," said the driver +mysteriously. "Nobody knows who most on 'em be, and like as not some +o' them fellows come o' good families. They've got so they stop the +cars, and go right through 'em bold as brass. I could make your hair +stand on end, Mis' Tobin,—I could <i>so!</i>" +</p> +<p> +"I hope none on 'em'll git round our way, I'm sure," said Fanny Tobin. +"I don't want to see none on 'em in their crape bunnits comin' after +me." +</p> +<p> +"I ain't goin' to let nobody touch a hair o' your head," and Mr. +Briley moved a little nearer, and tucked in the buffaloes again. +</p> +<p> +"I feel considerable warm to what I did," observed the widow by way of +reward. +</p> +<p> +"There, I used to have my fears," Mr. Briley resumed, with an inward +feeling that he never would get to North Kilby depot a single man. +"But you see I hadn't nobody but myself to think of. I've got cousins, +as you know, but nothin' nearer, and what I've laid up would soon be +parted out; and—well, I suppose some folks would think o' me if +anything was to happen." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Tobin was holding her cloud over her face,—the wind was sharp on +that bit of open road,—but she gave an encouraging sound, between a +groan and a chirp. +</p> +<p> +"'T wouldn't be like nothin' to me not to see you drivin' by," she +said, after a minute. "I shouldn't know the days o' the week. I says +to Susan Ellen last week I was sure 'twas Friday, and she said no, +'twas Thursday; but next minute you druv by and headin' toward North +Kilby, so we found I was right." +</p> +<p> +"I've got to be a featur' of the landscape," said Mr. Briley +plaintively. "This kind o' weather the old mare and me, we wish we was +done with it, and could settle down kind o' comfortable. I've been +lookin' this good while, as I drove the road, and I've picked me out a +piece o' land two or three times. But I can't abide the thought o' +buildin',—'twould plague me to death; and both Sister Peak to North +Kilby and Mis' Deacon Ash to the Pond, they vie with one another to do +well by me, fear I'll like the other stoppin'-place best." +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't covet livin' long o' neither one o' them women," +responded the passenger with some spirit. "I see some o' Mis' Peak's +cookin' to a farmers' supper once, when I was visitin' Susan Ellen's +folks, an' I says 'Deliver me from sech pale-complected baked beans as +them!' and she give a kind of a quack. She was settin' jest at my left +hand, and couldn't help hearin' of me. I wouldn't have spoken if I had +known, but she needn't have let on they was hers an' make everything +unpleasant. 'I guess them beans taste just as well as other folks',' +says she, and she wouldn't never speak to me afterward." +</p> +<p> +"Do' know's I blame her," ventured Mr. Briley. "Women folks is +dreadful pudjicky about their cookin'. I've always heard you was one +o' the best o' cooks, Mis' Tobin. I know them doughnuts an' things +you've give me in times past, when I was drivin' by. Wish I had some +on 'em now. I never let on, but Mis' Ash's cookin's the best by a long +chalk. Mis' Peak's handy about some things, and looks after mendin' of +me up." +</p> +<p> +"It doos seem as if a man o' your years and your quiet make ought to +have a home you could call your own," suggested the passenger. "I kind +of hate to think o' your bangein' here and boardin' there, and one old +woman mendin', and the other settin' ye down to meals that like's not +don't agree with ye." +</p> +<p> +"Lor', now, Mis' Tobin, le's not fuss round no longer," said Mr. +Briley impatiently. "You know you covet me same's I do you." +</p> +<p> +"I don't nuther. Don't you go an' say fo'lish things you can't stand +to." +</p> +<p> +"I've been tryin' to git a chance to put in a word with you ever +sence—Well, I expected you'd want to get your feelin's kind o' +calloused after losin' Tobin." +</p> +<p> +"There's nobody can fill his place," said the widow. +</p> +<p> +"I do' know but I can fight for ye town-meetin' days, on a pinch," +urged Jefferson boldly. +</p> +<p> +"I never see the beat o' you men fur conceit," and Mrs. Tobin laughed. +"I ain't goin' to bother with ye, gone half the time as you be, an' +carryin' on with your Mis' Peaks and Mis' Ashes. I dare say you've +promised yourself to both on 'em twenty times." +</p> +<p> +"I hope to gracious if I ever breathed a word to none on 'em!" +protested the lover. "'T ain't for lack o' opportunities set afore me, +nuther;" and then Mr. Briley craftily kept silence, as if he had made +a fair proposal, and expected a definite reply. +</p> +<p> +The lady of his choice was, as she might have expressed it, much beat +about. As she soberly thought, she was getting along in years, and +must put up with Jefferson all the rest of the time. It was not likely +she would ever have the chance of choosing again, though she was one +who liked variety. +</p> +<p> +Jefferson wasn't much to look at, but he was pleasant and appeared +boyish and young-feeling. "I do' know's I should do better," she said +unconsciously and half aloud. "Well, yes, Jefferson, seein' it's you. +But we're both on us kind of old to change our situation." Fanny Tobin +gave a gentle sigh. +</p> +<p> +"Hooray!" said Jefferson. "I was scairt you meant to keep me sufferin' +here a half an hour. I declare, I'm more pleased than I calc'lated on. +An' I expected till lately to die a single man!" +</p> +<p> +"'Twould re'lly have been a shame; 'tain't natur'," said Mrs. Tobin, +with confidence. "I don't see how you held out so long with bein' +solitary." +</p> +<p> +"I'll hire a hand to drive for me, and we'll have a good comfortable +winter, me an' you an' the old sorrel. I've been promisin' of her a +rest this good while." +</p> +<p> +"Better keep her a steppin'," urged thrifty Mrs. Fanny. "She'll +stiffen up master, an' disapp'int ye, come spring." +</p> +<p> +"You'll have me, now, won't ye, sartin?" pleaded Jefferson, to make +sure. "You ain't one o' them that plays with a man's feelin's. Say +right out you'll have me." +</p> +<p> +"I s'pose I shall have to," said Mrs. Tobin somewhat mournfully. "I +feel for Mis' Peak an' Mis' Ash, pore creatur's. I expect they'll be +hardshipped. They've always been hard-worked, an' may have kind o' +looked forward to a little ease. But one on 'em would be left +lamentin', anyhow," and she gave a girlish laugh. An air of victory +animated the frame of Mrs. Tobin. She felt but twenty-five years of +age. In that moment she made plans for cutting her Briley's hair, and +making him look smartened-up and ambitious. Then she wished that she +knew for certain how much money he had in the bank; not that it would +make any difference now. "He needn't bluster none before me," she +thought gayly. "He's harmless as a fly." +</p> +<p> +"Who'd have thought we'd done such a piece of engineerin', when we +started out?" inquired the dear one of Mr. Briley's heart, as he +tenderly helped her to alight at Susan Ellen's door. +</p> +<p> +"Both on us, jest the least grain," answered the lover. "Gimme a good +smack, now, you clever creatur';" and so they parted. Mr. Bailey had +been taken on the road in spite of his pistol. +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + <i>Going to Shrewsbury</i> +</h2> +<p> +The train stopped at a way station with apparent unwillingness, and +there was barely time for one elderly passenger to be hurried on board +before a sudden jerk threw her almost off her unsteady old feet and we +moved on. At my first glance I saw only a perturbed old countrywoman, +laden with a large basket and a heavy bundle tied up in an +old-fashioned bundle-handkerchief; then I discovered that she was a +friend of mine, Mrs. Peet, who lived on a small farm, several miles +from the village. She used to be renowned for good butter and fresh +eggs and the earliest cowslip greens; in fact, she always made the +most of her farm's slender resources; but it was some time since I had +seen her drive by from market in her ancient thorough-braced wagon. +</p> +<p> +The brakeman followed her into the crowded car, also carrying a number +of packages. I leaned forward and asked Mrs. Peet to sit by me; it was +a great pleasure to see her again. The brakeman seemed relieved, and +smiled as he tried to put part of his burden into the rack overhead; +but even the flowered carpet-bag was much too large, and he explained +that he would take care of everything at the end of the car. Mrs. Peet +was not large herself, but with the big basket, and the +bundle-handkerchief, and some possessions of my own we had very little +spare room. +</p> +<p> +"So this 'ere is what you call ridin' in the cars! Well, I do +declare!" said my friend, as soon as she had recovered herself a +little. She looked pale and as if she had been in tears, but there was +the familiar gleam of good humor in her tired old eyes. +</p> +<p> +"Where in the world are you going, Mrs. Peet?" I asked. +</p> +<p> +"Can't be you ain't heared about me, dear?" said she. "Well, the +world's bigger than I used to think 't was. I've broke up,—'twas the +only thing <i>to</i> do,—and I'm a-movin' to Shrewsbury." +</p> +<p> +"To Shrewsbury? Have you sold the farm?" I exclaimed, with sorrow and +surprise. Mrs. Peet was too old and too characteristic to be suddenly +transplanted from her native soil. "'T wa'n't mine, the place wa'n't." +Her pleasant face hardened slightly. "He was coaxed an' over-persuaded +into signin' off before he was taken away. Is'iah, son of his sister +that married old Josh Peet, come it over him about his bein' past work +and how he'd do for him like an own son, an' we owed him a little +somethin'. I'd paid off everythin' but that, an' was fool enough to +leave it till the last, on account o' Is'iah's bein' a relation and +not needin' his pay much as some others did. It's hurt me to have the +place fall into other hands. Some wanted me to go right to law; but 't +wouldn't be no use. Is'iah's smarter 'n I be about them matters. You +see he's got my name on the paper, too; he said 't was somethin' 'bout +bein' responsible for the taxes. We was scant o' money, an' I was wore +out with watchin' an' being broke o' my rest. After my tryin' hard for +risin' forty-five year to provide for bein' past work, here I be, +dear, here I be! I used to drive things smart, you remember. But we +was fools enough in '72 to put about everythin' we had safe in the +bank into that spool factory that come to nothin'. But I tell ye I +could ha' kept myself long's I lived, if I could ha' held the place. +I'd parted with most o' the woodland, if Is'iah'd coveted it. He was +welcome to that, 'cept what might keep me in oven-wood. I've always +desired to travel an' see somethin' o' the world, but I've got the +chance now when I don't value it no great." +</p> +<p> +"Shrewsbury is a busy, pleasant place," I ventured to say by way of +comfort, though my heart was filled with rage at the trickery of +Isaiah Peet, who had always looked like a fox and behaved like one. +</p> +<p> +"Shrewsbury's be'n held up consid'able for me to smile at," said the +poor old soul, "but I tell ye, dear, it's hard to go an' live +twenty-two miles from where you've always had your home and friends. +It may divert me, but it won't be home. You might as well set out one +o' my old apple-trees on the beach, so 't could see the waves come +in,—there wouldn't be no please to it." +</p> +<p> +"Where are you going to live in Shrewsbury?" I asked presently. +</p> +<p> +"I don't expect to stop long, dear creatur'. I'm 'most seventy-six +year old," and Mrs. Peet turned to look at me with pathetic amusement +in her honest wrinkled face. "I said right out to Is'iah, before a +roomful o' the neighbors, that I expected it of him to git me home an' +bury me when my time come, and do it respectable; but I wanted to airn +my livin', if 'twas so I could, till then. He'd made sly talk, you +see, about my electin' to leave the farm and go 'long some o' my own +folks; but"—and she whispered this carefully—"he didn't give me no +chance to stay there without hurtin' my pride and dependin' on him. I +ain't said that to many folks, but all must have suspected. A good +sight on 'em's had money of Is'iah, though, and they don't like to do +nothin' but take his part an' be pretty soft spoken, fear it'll git to +his ears. Well, well, dear, we'll let it be bygones, and not think of +it no more;" but I saw the great tears roll slowly down her cheeks, +and she pulled her bonnet forward impatiently, and looked the other +way. +</p> +<p> +"There looks to be plenty o' good farmin' land in this part o' the +country," she said, a minute later. "Where be we now? See them +handsome farm buildin's; he must be a well-off man." But I had to +tell my companion that we were still within the borders of the old +town where we had both been born. Mrs. Peet gave a pleased little +laugh, like a girl. "I'm expectin' Shrewsbury to pop up any minute. +I'm feared to be kerried right by. I wa'n't never aboard of the cars +before, but I've so often thought about 'em I don't know but it seems +natural. Ain't it jest like flyin' through the air? I can't catch holt +to see nothin'. Land! and here's my old cat goin' too, and never +mistrustin'. I ain't told you that I'd fetched her." +</p> +<p> +"Is she in that basket?" I inquired with interest. +</p> +<p> +"Yis, dear. Truth was, I calc'lated to have her put out o' the misery +o' movin', an spoke to one o' the Barnes boys, an' he promised me all +fair; but he wa'n't there in season, an' I kind o' made excuse to +myself to fetch her along. She's an' old creatur', like me, an' I can +make shift to keep her some way or 'nuther; there's probably mice +where we're goin', an' she's a proper mouser that can about keep +herself if there's any sort o' chance. 'T will be somethin' o' home to +see her goin' an' comin', but I expect we're both on us goin' to miss +our old haunts. I'd love to know what kind o' mousin' there's goin' to +be for me." +</p> +<p> +"You mustn't worry," I answered, with all the bravery and assurance +that I could muster. "Your niece will be thankful to have you with +her. Is she one of Mrs. Winn's daughters?" +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no, they ain't able; it's Sister Wayland's darter Isabella, that +married the overseer of the gre't carriage-shop. I ain't seen her +since just after she was married; but I turned to her first because I +knew she was best able to have me, and then I can see just how the +other girls is situated and make me some kind of a plot. I wrote to +Isabella, though she <i>is</i> ambitious, and said 'twas so I'd got to ask +to come an' make her a visit, an' she wrote back she would be glad to +have me; but she didn't write right off, and her letter was scented up +dreadful strong with some sort o' essence, and I don't feel heartened +about no great of a welcome. But there, I've got eyes, an' I can see +<i>ho</i>'t is when I git <i>where</i>'t is. Sister Winn's gals ain't married, +an' they've always boarded, an' worked in the shop on trimmin's. +Isabella's well off; she had some means from her father's sister. I +thought it all over by night an' day, an' I recalled that our folks +kept Sister Wayland's folks all one winter, when he'd failed up and +got into trouble. I'm reckonin' on sendin' over to-night an' gittin' +the Winn gals to come and see me and advise. Perhaps some on 'em may +know of somebody that'll take me for what help I can give about house, +or some clever folks that have been lookin' for a smart cat, any ways; +no, I don't know's I could let her go to strangers. +</p> +<p> +"There was two or three o' the folks round home that acted real +warm-hearted towards me, an' urged me to come an' winter with 'em," +continued the exile; "an' this mornin' I wished I'd agreed to, 'twas +so hard to break away. But now it's done I feel more'n ever it's best. +I couldn't bear to live right in sight o' the old place, and come +spring I shouldn't 'prove of nothing Is'iah ondertakes to do with the +land. Oh, dear sakes! now it comes hard with me not to have had no +child'n. When I was young an' workin' hard and into everything, I felt +kind of free an' superior to them that was so blessed, an' their +houses cluttered up from mornin' till night, but I tell ye it comes +home to me now. I'd be most willin' to own to even Is'iah, mean's he +is; but I tell ye I'd took it out of him 'fore he was a grown man, if +there'd be'n any virtue in cow-hidin' of him. Folks don't look like +wild creatur's for nothin'. Is'iah's got fox blood in him, an' +p'r'haps 't is his misfortune. His own mother always favored the looks +of an old fox, true's the world; she was a poor tool,—a poor tool! I +d' know's we ought to blame him same's we do. +</p> +<p> +"I've always been a master proud woman, if I was riz among the +pastures," Mrs. Peet added, half to herself. There was no use in +saying much to her; she was conscious of little beside her own +thoughts and the smouldering excitement caused by this great crisis in +her simple existence. Yet the atmosphere of her loneliness, +uncertainty, and sorrow was so touching that after scolding again at +her nephew's treachery, and finding the tears come fast to my eyes as +she talked, I looked intently out of the car window, and tried to +think what could be done for the poor soul. She was one of the +old-time people, and I hated to have her go away; but even if she +could keep her home she would soon be too feeble to live there alone, +and some definite plan must be made for her comfort. Farms in that +neighborhood were not valuable. Perhaps through the agency of the law +and quite in secret, Isaiah Peet could be forced to give up his +unrighteous claim. Perhaps, too, the Winn girls, who were really no +longer young, might have saved something, and would come home again. +But it was easy to make such pictures in one's mind, and I must do +what I could through other people, for I was just leaving home for a +long time. I wondered sadly about Mrs. Peet's future, and the +ambitious Isabella, and the favorite Sister Winn's daughters, to whom, +with all their kindliness of heart, the care of so old and perhaps so +dependent an aunt might seem impossible. The truth about life in +Shrewsbury would soon be known; more than half the short journey was +already past. +</p> +<p> +To my great pleasure, my fellow-traveler now began to forget her own +troubles in looking about her. She was an alert, quickly interested +old soul, and this was a bit of neutral ground between the farm and +Shrewsbury, where she was unattached and irresponsible. She had lived +through the last tragic moments of her old life, and felt a certain +relief, and Shrewsbury might be as far away as the other side of the +Rocky Mountains for all the consciousness she had of its real +existence. She was simply a traveler for the time being, and began to +comment, with delicious phrases and shrewd understanding of human +nature, on two or three persons near us who attracted her attention. +</p> +<p> +"Where do you s'pose they be all goin'?" she asked contemptuously. +"There ain't none on 'em but what looks kind o' respectable. I'll +warrant they've left work to home they'd ought to be doin'. I knowed, +if ever I stopped to think, that cars was hived full o' folks, an' +wa'n't run to an' fro for nothin'; but these can't be quite up to the +average, be they? Some on 'em's real thrif'less; guess they've be'n +shoved out o' the last place, an' goin' to try the next one,—like me, +I suppose you'll want to say! Jest see that flauntin' old creatur' +that looks like a stopped clock. There! everybody can't be o' one +goodness, even preachers." +</p> +<p> +I was glad to have Mrs. Peet amused, and we were as cheerful as we +could be for a few minutes. She said earnestly that she hoped to be +forgiven for such talk, but there were some kinds of folks in the cars +that she never had seen before. But when the conductor came to take +her ticket she relapsed into her first state of mind, and was at a +loss. +</p> +<p> +"You'll have to look after me, dear, when we get to Shrewsbury," she +said, after we had spent some distracted moments in hunting for the +ticket, and the cat had almost escaped from the basket, and the +bundle-handkerchief had become untied and all its miscellaneous +contents scattered about our laps and the floor. It was a touching +collection of the last odds and ends of Mrs. Peet's housekeeping: some +battered books, and singed holders for flatirons, and the faded little +shoulder shawl that I had seen her wear many a day about her bent +shoulders. There were her old tin match-box spilling all its matches, +and a goose-wing for brushing up ashes, and her much-thumbed Leavitt's +Almanac. It was most pathetic to see these poor trifles out of their +places. At last the ticket was found in her left-hand woolen glove, +where her stiff, work-worn hand had grown used to the feeling of it. +</p> +<p> +"I shouldn't wonder, now, if I come to like living over to Shrewsbury +first-rate," she insisted, turning to me with a hopeful, eager look to +see if I differed. "You see't won't be so tough for me as if I hadn't +always felt it lurking within me to go off some day or 'nother an' see +how other folks did things. I do' know but what the Winn gals have +laid up somethin' sufficient for us to take a house, with the little +mite I've got by me. I might keep house for us all, 'stead o' boardin' +round in other folks' houses. That I ain't never been demeaned to, but +I dare say I should find it pleasant in some ways. Town folks has got +the upper hand o' country folks, but with all their work an' pride +they can't make a dandelion. I do' know the times when I've set out to +wash Monday mornin's, an' tied out the line betwixt the old +pucker-pear tree and the corner o' the barn, an' thought, 'Here I be +with the same kind o' week's work right over again.' I'd wonder kind +o' f'erce if I couldn't git out of it noways; an' now here I be out +of it, and an uprooteder creatur' never stood on the airth. Just as I +got to feel I had somethin' ahead come that spool-factory business. +There! you know he never was a forehanded man; his health was slim, +and he got discouraged pretty nigh before ever he begun. I hope he +don't know I'm turned out o' the old place. 'Is'iah's well off; he'll +do the right thing by ye,' says he. But my! I turned hot all over when +I found out what I'd put my name to,—me that had always be'n counted +a smart woman! I did undertake to read it over, but I couldn't sense +it. I've told all the folks so when they laid it off on to me some: +but hand-writin' is awful tedious readin' and my head felt that day as +if the works was gone. +</p> +<p> +"I ain't goin' to sag on to nobody," she assured me eagerly, as the +train rushed along. "I've got more work in me now than folks expects +at my age. I may be consid'able use to Isabella. She's got a family, +an' I'll take right holt in the kitchen or with the little gals. She +had four on 'em, last I heared. Isabella was never one that liked +house-work. Little gals! I do' know now but what they must be about +grown, time doos slip away so. I expect I shall look outlandish to +'em. But there! everybody knows me to home, an' nobody knows me to +Shrewsbury; 'twon't make a mite o' difference, if I take holt +willin'." +</p> +<p> +I hoped, as I looked at Mrs. Peet, that she would never be persuaded +to cast off the gathered brown silk bonnet and the plain shawl that +she had worn so many years; but Isabella might think it best to insist +upon more modern fashions. Mrs. Peet suggested, as if it were a matter +of little consequence, that she had kept it in mind to buy some +mourning; but there were other things to be thought of first, and so +she had let it go until winter, any way, or until she should be fairly +settled in Shrewsbury. +</p> +<p> +"Are your nieces expecting you by this train?" I was moved to ask, +though with all the good soul's ready talk and appealing manner I +could hardly believe that she was going to Shrewsbury for more than a +visit; it seemed as if she must return to the worn old farmhouse over +by the sheep-lands. She answered that one of the Barnes boys had +written a letter for her the day before, and there was evidently +little uneasiness about her first reception. +</p> +<p> +We drew near the junction where I must leave her within a mile of the +town. The cat was clawing indignantly at the basket, and her mistress +grew as impatient of the car. She began to look very old and pale, my +poor fellow-traveler, and said that she felt dizzy, going so fast. +Presently the friendly red-cheeked young brakeman came along, bringing +the carpet-bag and other possessions, and insisted upon taking the +alarmed cat beside, in spite of an aggressive paw that had worked its +way through the wicker prison. Mrs. Peet watched her goods disappear +with suspicious eyes, and clutched her bundle-handkerchief as if it +might be all that she could save. Then she anxiously got to her feet, +much too soon, and when I said good-by to her at the car door she was +ready to cry. I pointed to the car which she was to take next on the +branch line of railway, and I assured her that it was only a few +minutes' ride to Shrewsbury, and that I felt certain she would find +somebody waiting. The sight of that worn, thin figure adventuring +alone across the platform gave my heart a sharp pang as the train +carried me away. +</p> +<p> +Some of the passengers who sat near asked me about my old friend with +great sympathy, after she had gone. There was a look of tragedy about +her, and indeed it had been impossible not to get a good deal of her +history, as she talked straight on in the same tone, when we stopped +at a station, as if the train were going at full speed, and some of +her remarks caused pity and amusements by turns. At the last minute +she said, with deep self-reproach, "Why, I haven't asked a word about +your folks; but you'd ought to excuse such an old stray hen as I be." +</p> +<p> +In the spring I was driving by on what the old people of my native +town call the sheep-lands road, and the sight of Mrs. Peet's former +home brought our former journey freshly to my mind. I had last heard +from her just after she got to Shrewsbury, when she had sent me a +message. +</p> +<p> +"Have you ever heard how she got on?" I eagerly asked my companion. +</p> +<p> +"Didn't I tell you that I met her in Shrewsbury High Street one day?" +I was answered. "She seemed perfectly delighted with everything. Her +nieces have laid up a good bit of money, and are soon to leave the +mill, and most thankful to have old Mrs. Peet with them. Somebody told +me that they wished to buy the farm here, and come back to live, but +she wouldn't hear of it, and thought they would miss too many +privileges. She has been going to concerts and lectures this winter, +and insists that Isaiah did her a good turn." +</p> +<p> +We both laughed. My own heart was filled with joy, for the uncertain, +lonely face of this homeless old woman had often haunted me. The +rain-blackened little house did certainly look dreary, and a whole +lifetime of patient toil had left few traces. The pucker-pear tree was +in full bloom, however, and gave a welcome gaiety to the deserted +door-yard. +</p> +<p> +A little way beyond we met Isaiah Peet, the prosperous money-lender, +who had cheated the old woman of her own. I fancied that he looked +somewhat ashamed, as he recognized us. To my surprise, he stopped his +horse in most social fashion. +</p> +<p> +"Old Aunt Peet's passed away," he informed me briskly. "She had a +shock, and went right off sudden yisterday fore-noon. I'm about now +tendin' to the funeral 'rangements. She's be'n extry smart, they say, +all winter,—out to meetin' last Sabbath; never enjoyed herself so +complete as she has this past month. She'd be'n a very hard-workin' +woman. Her folks was glad to have her there, and give her every +attention. The place here never was good for nothin'. The old +gen'leman,—uncle, you know,—he wore hisself out tryin' to make a +livin' off from it." +</p> +<p> +There was an ostentatious sympathy and half-suppressed excitement from +bad news which were quite lost upon us, and we did not linger to hear +much more. It seemed to me as if I had known Mrs. Peet better than any +one else had known her. I had counted upon seeing her again, and +hearing her own account of Shrewsbury life, its pleasures and its +limitations. I wondered what had become of the cat and the contents of +the faded bundle-handkerchief. +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0024"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + <i>The White Rose Road</i> +</h2> +<p> +Being a New Englander, it is natural that I should first speak about +the weather. Only the middle of June, the green fields, and blue sky, +and bright sun, with a touch of northern mountain wind blowing +straight toward the sea, could make such a day, and that is all one +can say about it. We were driving seaward through a part of the +country which has been least changed in the last thirty years,—among +farms which have been won from swampy lowland, and rocky, +stump-buttressed hillsides: where the forests wall in the fields, and +send their outposts year by year farther into the pastures. There is a +year or two in the history of these pastures before they have arrived +at the dignity of being called woodland, and yet are too much shaded +and overgrown by young trees to give proper pasturage, when they made +delightful harbors for the small wild creatures which yet remain, and +for wild flowers and berries. Here you send an astonished rabbit +scurrying to his burrow, and there you startle yourself with a +partridge, who seems to get the best of the encounter. Sometimes you +see a hen partridge and her brood of chickens crossing your path with +an air of comfortable door-yard security. As you drive along the +narrow, grassy road, you see many charming sights and delightful nooks +on either hand, where the young trees spring out of a close-cropped +turf that carpets the ground like velvet. Toward the east and the +quaint fishing village of Ogunquit, I find the most delightful +woodland roads. There is little left of the large timber which once +filled the region, but much young growth, and there are hundreds of +acres of cleared land and pasture-ground where the forests are +springing fast and covering the country once more, as if they had no +idea of losing in their war with civilization and the intruding white +settler. The pine woods and the Indians seem to be next of kin, and +the former owners of this corner of New England are the only proper +figures to paint into such landscapes. The twilight under tall pines +seems to be untenanted and to lack something, at first sight, as if +one opened the door of an empty house. A farmer passing through with +his axe is but an intruder, and children straying home from school +give one a feeling of solicitude at their unprotectedness. The pine +woods are the red man's house, and it may be hazardous even yet for +the gray farmhouses to stand so near the eaves of the forest. I have +noticed a distrust of the deep woods, among elderly people, which was +something more than a fear of losing their way. It was a feeling of +defenselessness against some unrecognized but malicious influence. +</p> +<p> +Driving through the long woodland way, shaded and chilly when you are +out of the sun; across the Great Works River and its pretty elm-grown +intervale; across the short bridges of brown brooks; delayed now and +then by the sight of ripe strawberries in sunny spots by the roadside, +one comes to a higher open country, where farm joins farm, and the +cleared fields lie all along the highway, while the woods are pushed +back a good distance on either hand. The wooded hills, bleak here and +there with granite ledges, rise beyond. The houses are beside the +road, with green door-yards and large barns, almost empty now, and +with wide doors standing open, as if they were already expecting the +hay crop to be brought in. The tall green grass is waving in the +fields as the wind goes over, and there is a fragrance of whiteweed +and ripe strawberries and clover blowing through the sunshiny barns, +with their lean sides and their festoons of brown, dusty cobwebs; +dull, comfortable creatures they appear to imaginative eyes, waiting +hungrily for their yearly meal. The eave-swallows are teasing their +sleepy shapes, like the birds which flit about great beasts; gay, +movable, irreverent, almost derisive, those barn swallows fly to and +fro in the still, clear air. +</p> +<p> +The noise of our wheels brings fewer faces to the windows than usual, +and we lose the pleasure of seeing some of our friends who are apt to +be looking out, and to whom we like to say good-day. Some funeral must +be taking place, or perhaps the women may have gone out into the +fields. It is hoeing-time and strawberry-time, and already we have +seen some of the younger women at work among the corn and potatoes. +One sight will be charming to remember. On a green hillside sloping +to the west, near one of the houses, a thin little girl was working +away lustily with a big hoe on a patch of land perhaps fifty feet by +twenty. There were all sorts of things growing there, as if a child's +fancy had made the choice,—straight rows of turnips and carrots and +beets, a little of everything, one might say; but the only touch of +color was from a long border of useful sage in full bloom of dull +blue, on the upper side. I am sure this was called Katy's or Becky's +<i>piece</i> by the elder members of the family. One can imagine how the +young creature had planned it in the spring, and persuaded the men to +plough and harrow it, and since then had stoutly done all the work +herself, and meant to send the harvest of the piece to market, and +pocket her honest gains, as they came in, for some great end. She was +as thin as a grasshopper, this busy little gardener, and hardly turned +to give us a glance, as we drove slowly up the hill close by. The sun +will brown and dry her like a spear of grass on that hot slope, but a +spark of fine spirit is in the small body, and I wish her a famous +crop. I hate to say that the piece looked backward, all except the +sage, and that it was a heavy bit of land for the clumsy hoe to pick +at. The only puzzle is, what she proposes to do with so long a row of +sage. Yet there may be a large family with a downfall of measles yet +ahead, and she does not mean to be caught without sage-tea. +</p> +<p> +Along this road every one of the old farmhouses has at least one tall +bush of white roses by the door,—a most lovely sight, with buds and +blossoms, and unvexed green leaves. I wish that I knew the history of +them, and whence the first bush was brought. Perhaps from England +itself, like a red rose that I know in Kittery, and the new shoots +from the root were given to one neighbor after another all through the +district. The bushes are slender, but they grow tall without climbing +against the wall, and sway to and fro in the wind with a grace of +youth and an inexpressible charm of beauty. How many lovers must have +picked them on Sunday evenings, in all the bygone years, and carried +them along the roads or by the pasture footpaths, hiding them clumsily +under their Sunday coats if they caught sight of any one coming. Here, +too, where the sea wind nips many a young life before its prime, how +often the white roses have been put into paler hands, and withered +there! +</p> +<p> +In spite of the serene and placid look of the old houses, one who has +always known them cannot help thinking of the sorrows of these farms +and their almost undiverted toil. Near the little gardener's plot, we +turned from the main road and drove through lately cleared woodland up +to an old farmhouse, high on a ledgy hill, whence there is a fine view +of the country seaward and mountainward. There were few of the once +large household left there: only the old farmer, who was crippled by +war wounds, active, cheerful man that he was once, and two young +orphan children. There has been much hard work spent on the place. +Every generation has toiled from youth to age without being able to +make much beyond a living. The dollars that can be saved are but few, +and sickness and death have often brought their bitter cost. The +mistress of the farm was helpless for many years; through all the +summers and winters she sat in her pillowed rocking-chair in the plain +room. She could watch the seldom-visited lane, and beyond it, a little +way across the fields, were the woods; besides these, only the clouds +in the sky. She could not lift her food to her mouth; she could not be +her husband's working partner. She never went into another woman's +house to see her works and ways, but sat there, aching and tired, +vexed by flies and by heat, and isolated in long storms. Yet the whole +countryside neighbored her with true affection. Her spirit grew +stronger as her body grew weaker, and the doctors, who grieved because +they could do so little with their skill, were never confronted by +that malady of the spirit, a desire for ease and laziness, which makes +the soundest of bodies useless and complaining. The thought of her +blooms in one's mind like the whitest of flowers; it makes one braver +and more thankful to remember the simple faith and patience with which +she bore her pain and trouble. How often she must have said, "I wish I +could do something for you in return," when she was doing a thousand +times more than if, like her neighbors, she followed the simple round +of daily life! She was doing constant kindness by her example; but +nobody can tell the woe of her long days and nights, the solitude of +her spirit, as she was being lifted by such hard ways to the knowledge +of higher truth and experience. Think of her pain when, one after +another, her children fell ill and died, and she could not tend them! +And now, in the same worn chair where she lived and slept sat her +husband, helpless too, thinking of her, and missing her more than if +she had been sometimes away from home, like other women. Even a +stranger would miss her in the house. +</p> +<p> +There sat the old farmer looking down the lane in his turn, bearing +his afflictions with a patient sternness that may have been born of +watching his wife's serenity. There was a half-withered rose lying +within his reach. Some days nobody came up the lane, and the wild +birds that ventured near the house and the clouds that blew over were +his only entertainment. He had a fine face, of the older New England +type, clean-shaven and strong-featured,—a type that is fast passing +away. He might have been a Cumberland dalesman, such were his dignity, +and self-possession, and English soberness of manner. His large frame +was built for hard work, for lifting great weights and pushing his +plough through new-cleared land. We felt at home together, and each +knew many things that the other did of earlier days, and of losses +that had come with time. I remembered coming to the old house often in +my childhood; it was in this very farm lane that I first saw anemones, +and learned what to call them. After we drove away, this crippled man +must have thought a long time about my elders and betters, as if he +were reading their story out of a book. I suppose he has hauled many a +stick of timber pine down for ship-yards, and gone through the village +so early in the winter morning that I, waking in my warm bed, only +heard the sleds creak through the frozen snow as the slow oxen plodded +by. +</p> +<p> +Near the house a trout brook comes plashing over the ledges. At one +place there is a most exquisite waterfall, to which neither painter's +brush nor writer's pen can do justice. The sunlight falls through +flickering leaves into the deep glen, and makes the foam whiter and +the brook more golden-brown. You can hear the merry noise of it all +night, all day, in the house. A little way above the farmstead it +comes through marshy ground, which I fear has been the cause of much +illness and sorrow to the poor, troubled family. I had a thrill of +pain, as it seemed to me that the brook was mocking at all that +trouble with all its wild carelessness and loud laughter, as it +hurried away down the glen. +</p> +<p> +When we had said good-by and were turning the horses away, there +suddenly appeared in a footpath that led down from one of the green +hills the young grandchild, just coming home from school. She was as +quick as a bird, and as shy in her little pink gown, and balanced +herself on one foot, like a flower. The brother was the elder of the +two orphans; he was the old man's delight and dependence by day, while +his hired man was afield. The sober country boy had learned to wait +and tend, and the young people were indeed a joy in that lonely +household. There was no sign that they ever played like other +children,—no truckle-cart in the yard, no doll, no bits of broken +crockery in order on a rock. They had learned a fashion of life from +their elders, and already could lift and carry their share of the +burdens of life. +</p> +<p> +It was a country of wild flowers; the last of the columbines were +clinging to the hillsides; down in the small, fenced meadows belonging +to the farm were meadow rue just coming in flower, and red and white +clover; the golden buttercups were thicker than the grass, while many +mulleins were standing straight and slender among the pine stumps, +with their first blossoms atop. Rudbeckias had found their way in, and +appeared more than ever like bold foreigners. Their names should be +translated into country speech, and the children ought to call them +"rude-beckies," by way of relating them to bouncing-bets and +sweet-williams. The pasture grass was green and thick after the +plentiful rains, and the busy cattle took little notice of us as they +browsed steadily and tinkled their pleasant bells. Looking off, the +smooth, round back of Great Hill caught the sunlight with its fields +of young grain, and all the long, wooded slopes and valleys were fresh +and fair in the June weather, away toward the blue New Hampshire hills +on the northern horizon. Seaward stood Agamenticus, dark with its +pitch pines, and the far sea itself, blue and calm, ruled the uneven +country with its unchangeable line. +</p> +<p> +Out on the white rose road again, we saw more of the rose-trees than +ever, and now and then a carefully tended flower garden, always +delightful to see and think about. These are not made by merely +looking through a florist's catalogue, and ordering this or that new +seedling and a proper selection of bulbs or shrubs; everything in a +country garden has its history and personal association. The old +bushes, the perennials, are apt to have most tender relationship with +the hands that planted them long ago. There is a constant exchange of +such treasures between the neighbors, and in the spring, slips and +cuttings may be seen rooting on the window ledges, while the house +plants give endless work all winter long, since they need careful +protection against frost in long nights of the severe weather. A +flower-loving woman brings back from every one of her infrequent +journeys some treasure of flower-seeds or a huge miscellaneous +nosegay. Time to work in the little plot of pleasure-ground is hardly +won by the busy mistress of the farmhouse. The most appealing +collection of flowering plants and vines that I ever saw was in +Virginia, once, above the exquisite valley spanned by the Natural +Bridge, a valley far too little known or praised. I had noticed an old +log house, as I learned to know the outlook from the picturesque +hotel, and was sure that it must give a charming view from its perch +on the summit of a hill. +</p> +<p> +One day I went there,—one April day, when the whole landscape was +full of color from the budding trees,—and before I could look at the +view, I caught sight of some rare vines, already in leaf, about the +dilapidated walls of the cabin. Then across the low paling I saw the +brilliant colors of tulips and daffodils. There were many rose-bushes; +in fact, the whole top of the hill was a flower garden, once well +cared for and carefully ordered. It was all the work of an old woman +of Scotch-Irish descent, who had been busy with the cares of life, and +a very hard worker; yet I was told that to gratify her love for +flowers she would often go afoot many miles over those rough Virginia +roads, with a root or cutting from her own garden, to barter for a new +rose or a brighter blossom of some sort, with which she would return +in triumph. I fancied that sometimes she had to go by night on these +charming quests. I could see her business-like, small figure setting +forth down the steep path, when she had a good conscience toward her +housekeeping and the children were in order to be left. I am sure +that her friends thought of her when they were away from home and +could bring her an offering of something rare. Alas, she had grown too +old and feeble to care for her dear blossoms any longer, and had been +forced to go to live with a married son. I dare say that she was +thinking of her garden that very day, and wondering if this plant or +that were not in bloom, and perhaps had a heartache at the thought +that her tenants, the careless colored children, might tread the young +shoots of peony and rose, and make havoc in the herb-bed. It was an +uncommon collection, made by years of patient toil and self-sacrifice. +</p> +<p> +I thought of that deserted Southern garden as I followed my own New +England road. The flower-plots were in gay bloom all along the way; +almost every house had some flowers before it, sometimes carefully +fenced about by stakes and barrel staves from the miscreant hens and +chickens which lurked everywhere, and liked a good scratch and +fluffing in soft earth this year as well as any other. The world +seemed full of young life. There were calves tethered in pleasant +shady spots, and puppies and kittens adventuring from the doorways. +The trees were full of birds: bobolinks, and cat-birds, and +yellow-hammers, and golden robins, and sometimes a thrush, for the +afternoon was wearing late. We passed the spring which once marked the +boundary where three towns met,—Berwick, York, and Wells,—a famous +spot in the early settlement of the country, but many of its old +traditions are now forgotten. One of the omnipresent regicides of +Charles the First is believed to have hidden himself for a long time +under a great rock close by. The story runs that he made his miserable +home in this den for several years, but I believe that there is no +record that more than three of the regicides escaped to this country, +and their wanderings are otherwise accounted for. There is a firm +belief that one of them came to York, and was the ancestor of many +persons now living there, but I do not know whether he can have been +the hero of the Baker's Spring hermitage beside. We stopped to drink +some of the delicious water, which never fails to flow cold and clear +under the shade of a great oak, and were amused with the sight of a +flock of gay little country children who passed by in deep +conversation. What could such atoms of humanity be talking about? +"Old times," said John, the master of horse, with instant decision. +</p> +<p> +We met now and then a man or woman, who stopped to give us hospitable +greeting; but there was no staying for visits, lest the daylight might +fail us. It was delightful to find this old-established neighborhood +so thriving and populous, for a few days before I had driven over +three miles of road, and passed only one house that was tenanted, and +six cellars or crumbling chimneys where good farmhouses had been, the +lilacs blooming in solitude, and the fields, cleared with so much +difficulty a century or two ago, all going back to the original +woodland from which they were won. What would the old farmers say to +see the fate of their worthy bequest to the younger generation? They +would wag their heads sorrowfully, with sad foreboding. +</p> +<p> +After we had passed more woodland and a well-known quarry, where, for +a wonder, the derrick was not creaking and not a single hammer was +clinking at the stone wedges, we did not see any one hoeing in the +fields, as we had seen so many on the white rose road, the other side +of the hills. Presently we met two or three people walking sedately, +clad in their best clothes. There was a subdued air of public +excitement and concern, and one of us remembered that there had been a +death in the neighborhood; this was the day of the funeral. The man +had been known to us in former years. We had an instinct to hide our +unsympathetic pleasuring, but there was nothing to be done except to +follow our homeward road straight by the house. +</p> +<p> +The occasion was nearly ended by this time: the borrowed chairs were +being set out in the yard in little groups; even the funeral supper +had been eaten, and the brothers and sisters and near relatives of the +departed man were just going home. The new grave showed plainly out in +the green field near by. He had belonged to one of the ancient +families of the region, long settled on this old farm by the narrow +river; they had given their name to a bridge, and the bridge had +christened the meeting-house which stood close by. We were much struck +by the solemn figure of the mother, a very old woman, as she walked +toward her old home with some of her remaining children. I had not +thought to see her again, knowing her great age and infirmity. She was +like a presence out of the last century, tall and still erect, +dark-eyed and of striking features, and a firm look not modern, but as +if her mind were still set upon an earlier and simpler scheme of life. +An air of dominion cloaked her finely. She had long been queen of her +surroundings and law-giver to her great family. Royalty is a quality, +one of Nature's gifts, and there one might behold it as truly as if +Victoria Regina Imperatrix had passed by. The natural instincts common +to humanity were there undisguised, unconcealed, simply accepted. We +had seen a royal progress; she was the central figure of that rural +society; as you looked at the little group, you could see her only. +Now that she came abroad so rarely, her presence was not without deep +significance, and so she took her homeward way with a primitive kind +of majesty. +</p> +<p> +It was evident that the neighborhood was in great excitement and quite +thrown out of its usual placidity. An acquaintance came from a small +house farther down the road, and we stopped for a word with him. We +spoke of the funeral, and were told something of the man who had died. +"Yes, and there's a man layin' very sick here," said our friend in an +excited whisper. "<i>He</i> won't last but a day or two. There's another +man buried yesterday that was struck by lightnin', comin' acrost a +field when that great shower begun. The lightnin' stove through his +hat and run down all over him, and ploughed a spot in the ground." +There was a knot of people about the door; the minister of that +scattered parish stood among them, and they all looked at us eagerly, +as if we too might be carrying news of a fresh disaster through the +countryside. +</p> +<p> +Somehow the melancholy tales did not touch our sympathies as they +ought, and we could not see the pathetic side of them as at another +time, the day was so full of cheer and the sky and earth so glorious. +The very fields looked busy with their early summer growth, the horses +began to think of the clack of the oat-bin cover, and we were hurried +along between the silvery willows and the rustling alders, taking time +to gather a handful of stray-away conserve roses by the roadside; and +where the highway made a long bend eastward among the farms, two of us +left the carriage, and followed a footpath along the green river bank +and through the pastures, coming out to the road again only a minute +later than the horses. I believe that it is an old Indian trail +followed from the salmon falls farther down the river, where the +up-country Indians came to dry the plentiful fish for their winter +supplies. I have traced the greater part of this deep-worn footpath, +which goes straight as an arrow across the country, the first day's +trail being from the falls (where Mason's settlers came in 1627, and +built their Great Works of a saw-mill with a gang of saws, and +presently a grist mill beside) to Emery's Bridge. I should like to +follow the old footpath still farther. I found part of it by accident +a long time ago. Once, as you came close to the river, you were sure +to find fishermen scattered along,—sometimes I myself have been +discovered; but it is not much use to go fishing any more. If some +public-spirited person would kindly be the Frank Buckland of New +England, and try to have the laws enforced that protect the inland +fisheries, he would do his country great service. Years ago, there +were so many salmon that, as an enthusiastic old friend once assured +me, "you could walk across on them below the falls;" but now they are +unknown, simply because certain substances which would enrich the +farms are thrown from factories and tanneries into our clear New +England streams. Good river fish are growing very scarce. The smelts, +and bass, and shad have all left this upper branch of the Piscataqua, +as the salmon left it long ago, and the supply of one necessary sort +of good cheap food is lost to a growing community, for the lack of a +little thought and care in the factory companies and saw-mills, and +the building in some cases of fish-ways over the dams. I think that +the need of preaching against this bad economy is very great. The +sight of a proud lad with a string of undersized trout will scatter +half the idlers in town into the pastures next day, but everybody +patiently accepts the depopulation of a fine clear river, where the +tide comes fresh from the sea to be tainted by the spoiled stream, +which started from its mountain sources as pure as heart could wish. +Man has done his best to ruin the world he lives in, one is tempted to +say at impulsive first thought; but after all, as I mounted the last +hill before reaching the village, the houses took on a new look of +comfort and pleasantness; the fields that I knew so well were a +fresher green than before, the sun was down, and the provocations of +the day seemed very slight compared to the satisfaction. I believed +that with a little more time we should grow wiser about our fish and +other things beside. +</p> +<p> +It will be good to remember the white rose road and its quietness in +many a busy town day to come. As I think of these slight sketches, I +wonder if they will have to others a tinge of sadness; but I have +seldom spent an afternoon so full of pleasure and fresh and delighted +consciousness of the possibilities of rural life. +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0025"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> +<h2> + <i>The Town Poor</i> +</h2> +<p> +Mrs. William Trimble and Miss Rebecca Wright were driving along +Hampden east road, one afternoon in early spring. Their progress was +slow. Mrs. Trimble's sorrel horse was old and stiff, and the wheels +were clogged by clay mud. The frost was not yet out of the ground, +although the snow was nearly gone, except in a few places on the north +side of the woods, or where it had drifted all winter against a length +of fence. +</p> +<p> +"There must be a good deal o' snow to the nor'ard of us yet," said +weather-wise Mrs. Trimble. "I feel it in the air; 'tis more than the +ground-damp. We ain't goin' to have real nice weather till the +up-country snow's all gone." +</p> +<p> +"I heard say yesterday that there was good sleddin' yet, all up +through Parsley," responded Miss Wright. "I shouldn't like to live in +them northern places. My cousin Ellen's husband was a Parsley man, an' +he was obliged, as you may have heard, to go up north to his father's +second wife's funeral; got back day before yesterday. 'T was about +twenty-one miles, an' they started on wheels; but when they'd gone +nine or ten miles, they found 't was no sort o' use, an' left their +wagon an' took a sleigh. The man that owned it charged 'em four an' +six, too. I shouldn't have thought he would; they told him they was +goin' to a funeral; an' they had their own buffaloes an' everything." +</p> +<p> +"Well, I expect it's a good deal harder scratchin', up that way; they +have to git money where they can; the farms is very poor as you go +north," suggested Mrs. Trimble kindly. "'T ain't none too rich a +country where we be, but I've always been grateful I wa'n't born up to +Parsley." +</p> +<p> +The old horse plodded along, and the sun, coming out from the heavy +spring clouds, sent a sudden shine of light along the muddy road. +Sister Wright drew her large veil forward over the high brim of her +bonnet. She was not used to driving, or to being much in the open air; +but Mrs. Trimble was an active business woman, and looked after her +own affairs herself, in all weathers. The late Mr. Trimble had left +her a good farm, but not much ready money, and it was often said that +she was better off in the end than if he had lived. She regretted his +loss deeply, however; it was impossible for her to speak of him, even +to intimate friends, without emotion, and nobody had ever hinted that +this emotion was insincere. She was most warm-hearted and generous, +and in her limited way played the part of Lady Bountiful in the town +of Hampden. +</p> +<p> +"Why, there's where the Bray girls lives, ain't it?" she exclaimed, +as, beyond a thicket of witch-hazel and scrub-oak, they came in sight +of a weather-beaten, solitary farmhouse. The barn was too far away for +thrift or comfort, and they could see long lines of light between the +shrunken boards as they came nearer. The fields looked both stony and +sodden. Somehow, even Parsley itself could be hardly more forlorn. +</p> +<p> +"Yes'm," said Miss Wright, "that's where they live now, poor things. I +know the place, though I ain't been up here for years. You don't +suppose, Mis' Trimble—I ain't seen the girls out to meetin' all +winter. I've re'lly been covetin'"— +</p> +<p> +"Why, yes, Rebecca, of course we could stop," answered Mrs. Trimble +heartily. "The exercises was over earlier 'n I expected, an' you're +goin' to remain over night long o' me, you know. There won't be no tea +till we git there, so we can't be late. I'm in the habit o' sendin' a +basket to the Bray girls when any o' our folks is comin' this way, but +I ain't been to see 'em since they moved up here. Why, it must be a +good deal over a year ago. I know 't was in the late winter they had +to make the move. 'T was cruel hard, I must say, an' if I hadn't been +down with my pleurisy fever I'd have stirred round an' done somethin' +about it. There was a good deal o' sickness at the time, an'—well, 't +was kind o' rushed through, breakin' of 'em up, an' lots o' folks +blamed the selec'<i>men</i>; but when 't was done, 't was done, an' nobody +took holt to undo it. Ann an' Mandy looked same's ever when they come +to meetin', 'long in the summer,—kind o' wishful, perhaps. They've +always sent me word they was gittin' on pretty comfortable." +</p> +<p> +"That would be their way," said Rebecca Wright. "They never was any +hand to complain, though Mandy's less cheerful than Ann. If Mandy 'd +been spared such poor eyesight, an' Ann hadn't got her lame wrist that +wa'n't set right, they'd kep' off the town fast enough. They both shed +tears when they talked to me about havin' to break up, when I went to +see 'em before I went over to brother Asa's. You see we was brought up +neighbors, an' we went to school together, the Brays an' me. 'T was a +special Providence brought us home this road, I've been so covetin' a +chance to git to see 'em. My lameness hampers me." +</p> +<p> +"I'm glad we come this way, myself," said Mrs. Trimble. +</p> +<p> +"I'd like to see just how they fare," Miss Rebecca Wright continued. +"They give their consent to goin' on the town because they knew they'd +got to be dependent, an' so they felt 't would come easier for all +than for a few to help 'em. They acted real dignified an' +right-minded, contrary to what most do in such cases, but they was +dreadful anxious to see who would bid 'em off, town-meeting day; they +did so hope 't would be somebody right in the village. I just sat down +an' cried good when I found Abel Janes's folks had got hold of 'em. +They always had the name of bein' slack an' poor-spirited, an' they +did it just for what they got out o' the town. The selectmen this +last year ain't what we have had. I hope they've been considerate +about the Bray girls." +</p> +<p> +"I should have be'n more considerate about fetchin' of you over," +apologized Mrs. Trimble. "I've got my horse, an' you're lame-footed; +'tis too far for you to come. But time does slip away with busy folks, +an' I forgit a good deal I ought to remember." +</p> +<p> +"There's nobody more considerate than you be," protested Miss Rebecca +Wright. +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Trimble made no answer, but took out her whip and gently touched +the sorrel horse, who walked considerably faster, but did not think it +worth while to trot. It was a long, round-about way to the house, +farther down the road and up a lane. +</p> +<p> +"I never had any opinion of the Bray girls' father, leavin' 'em as he +did," said Mrs. Trimble. +</p> +<p> +"He was much praised in his time, though there was always some said +his early life hadn't been up to the mark," explained her companion. +"He was a great favorite of our then preacher, the Reverend Daniel +Longbrother. They did a good deal for the parish, but they did it +their own way. Deacon Bray was one that did his part in the repairs +without urging. You know 't was in his time the first repairs was +made, when they got out the old soundin'-board an' them handsome +square pews. It cost an awful sight o' money, too. They hadn't done +payin' up that debt when they set to alter it again an' git the walls +frescoed. My grandmother was one that always spoke her mind right out, +an' she was dreadful opposed to breakin' up the square pews where +she'd always set. They was countin' up what 't would cost in parish +meetin', an' she riz right up an' said 't wouldn't cost nothin' to let +'em stay, an' there wa'n't a house carpenter left in the parish that +could do such nice work, an' time would come when the +great-grandchildren would give their eye-teeth to have the old +meetin'-house look just as it did then. But haul the inside to pieces +they would and did." +</p> +<p> +"There come to be a real fight over it, didn't there?" agreed Mrs. +Trimble soothingly. "Well, 't wa'n't good taste. I remember the old +house well. I come here as a child to visit a cousin o' mother's, an' +Mr. Trimble's folks was neighbors, an' we was drawed to each other +then, young's we was. Mr. Trimble spoke of it many's the time,—that +first time he ever see me, in a leghorn hat with a feather; 't was one +that mother had, an' pressed over." +</p> +<p> +"When I think of them old sermons that used to be preached in that old +meetin'-house of all, I'm glad it's altered over, so's not to remind +folks," said Miss Rebecca Wright, after a suitable pause. "Them old +brimstone discourses, you know, Mis' Trimble. Preachers is far more +reasonable, nowadays. Why, I set an' thought, last Sabbath, as I +listened, that if old Mr. Longbrother an' Deacon Bray could hear the +difference they'd crack the ground over 'em like pole beans, an' come +right up 'long side their headstones." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Trimble laughed heartily, and shook the reins three or four times +by way of emphasis. "There's no gitting round you," she said, much +pleased. "I should think Deacon Bray would want to rise, any way, if +'t was so he could, an' knew how his poor girls was farin'. A man +ought to provide for his folks he's got to leave behind him, specially +if they're women. To be sure, they had their little home; but we've +seen how, with all their industrious ways, they hadn't means to keep +it. I s'pose he thought he'd got time enough to lay by, when he give +so generous in collections; but he didn't lay by, an' there they be. +He might have took lessons from the squirrels: even them little wild +creatur's makes them their winter hoards, an' men-folks ought to know +enough if squirrels does. 'Be just before you are generous:' that's +what was always set for the B's in the copy-books, when I was to +school, and it often runs through my mind." +</p> +<p> +"'As for man, his days are as grass,'—that was for A; the two go well +together," added Miss Rebecca Wright soberly. "My good gracious, ain't +this a starved-lookin' place? It makes me ache to think them nice Bray +girls has to brook it here." +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The sorrel horse, though somewhat puzzled by an unexpected deviation +from his homeward way, willingly came to a stand by the gnawed corner +of the door-yard fence, which evidently served as hitching-place. Two +or three ragged old hens were picking about the yard, and at last a +face appeared at the kitchen window, tied up in a handkerchief, as if +it were a case of toothache. By the time our friends reached the side +door next this window, Mrs. Janes came disconsolately to open it for +them, shutting it again as soon as possible, though the air felt more +chilly inside the house. +</p> +<p> +"Take seats," said Mrs. Janes briefly. "You'll have to see me just as +I be. I have been suffering these four days with the ague, and +everything to do. Mr. Janes is to court, on the jury. 'T was +inconvenient to spare him. I should be pleased to have you lay off +your things." +</p> +<p> +Comfortable Mrs. Trimble looked about the cheerless kitchen, and could +not think of anything to say; so she smiled blandly and shook her head +in answer to the invitation. "We'll just set a few minutes with you, +to pass the time o' day, an' then we must go in an' have a word with +the Miss Brays, bein' old acquaintance. It ain't been so we could git +to call on 'em before. I don't know's you're acquainted with Miss +R'becca Wright. She's been out of town a good deal." +</p> +<p> +"I heard she was stopping over to Plainfields with her brother's +folks," replied Mrs. Janes, rocking herself with irregular motion, as +she sat close to the stove. "Got back some time in the fall, I +believe?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes'm," said Miss Rebecca, with an undue sense of guilt and +conviction. "We've been to the installation over to the East Parish, +an' thought we'd stop in; we took this road home to see if 't was any +better. How is the Miss Brays gettin' on?" +</p> +<p> +"They're well's common," answered Mrs. Janes grudgingly. "I was put +out with Mr. Janes for fetchin' of 'em here, with all I've got to do, +an' I own I was kind o' surly to 'em 'long to the first of it. He gits +the money from the town, an' it helps him out; but he bid 'em off for +five dollars a month, an' we can't do much for 'em at no such price as +that. I went an' dealt with the selec'men, an' made 'em promise to +find their firewood an' some other things extra. They was glad to get +rid o' the matter the fourth time I went, an' would ha' promised 'most +anything. But Mr. Janes don't keep me half the time in oven-wood, he's +off so much, an' we was cramped o' room, any way. I have to store +things up garrit a good deal, an' that keeps me trampin' right through +their room. I do the best for 'em I can, Mis' Trimble, but 't ain't so +easy for me as 't is for you, with all your means to do with." +</p> +<p> +The poor woman looked pinched and miserable herself, though it was +evident that she had no gift at house or home keeping. Mrs. Trimble's +heart was wrung with pain, as she thought of the unwelcome inmates of +such a place; but she held her peace bravely, while Miss Rebecca again +gave some brief information in regard to the installation. +</p> +<p> +"You go right up them back stairs," the hostess directed at last. "I'm +glad some o' you church folks has seen fit to come an' visit 'em. +There ain't been nobody here this long spell, an' they've aged a sight +since they come. They always send down a taste out of your baskets, +Mis' Trimble, an' I relish it, I tell you. I'll shut the door after +you, if you don't object. I feel every draught o' cold air." +</p> +<p> +"I've always heard she was a great hand to make a poor mouth. Wa'n't +she from somewheres up Parsley way?" whispered Miss Rebecca, as they +stumbled in the half-light. +</p> +<p> +"Poor meechin' body, wherever she come from," replied Mrs. Trimble, as +she knocked at the door. +</p> +<p> +There was silence for a moment after this unusual sound; then one of +the Bray sisters opened the door. The eager guests stared into a +small, low room, brown with age, and gray, too, as if former dust and +cobwebs could not be made wholly to disappear. The two elderly women +who stood there looked like captives. Their withered faces wore a look +of apprehension, and the room itself was more bare and plain than was +fitting to their evident refinement of character and self-respect. +There was an uncovered small table in the middle of the floor, with +some crackers on a plate; and, for some reason or other, this added a +great deal to the general desolation. +</p> +<p> +But Miss Ann Bray, the elder sister, who carried her right arm in a +sling, with piteously drooping fingers, gazed at the visitors with +radiant joy. She had not seen them arrive. +</p> +<p> +The one window gave only the view at the back of the house, across the +fields, and their coming was indeed a surprise. The next minute she +was laughing and crying together. "Oh, sister!" she said, "if here +ain't our dear Mis' Trimble!—an' my heart o' goodness, 'tis 'Becca +Wright, too! What dear good creatur's you be! I've felt all day as if +something good was goin' to happen, an' was just sayin' to myself +'twas most sundown now, but I wouldn't let on to Mandany I'd give up +hope quite yet. You see, the scissors stuck in the floor this very +mornin' an' it's always a reliable sign. There, I've got to kiss ye +both again!" +</p> +<p> +"I don't know where we can all set," lamented sister Mandana. "There +ain't but the one chair an' the bed; t'other chair's too rickety; an' +we've been promised another these ten days; but first they've forgot +it, an' next Mis' Janes can't spare it,—one excuse an' another. I am +goin' to git a stump o' wood an' nail a board on to it, when I can git +outdoor again," said Mandana, in a plaintive voice. "There, I ain't +goin' to complain o' nothin', now you've come," she added; and the +guests sat down, Mrs. Trimble, as was proper, in the one chair. +</p> +<p> +"We've sat on the bed many's the time with you, 'Becca, an' talked +over our girl nonsense, ain't we? You know where 'twas—in the little +back bedroom we had when we was girls, an' used to peek out at our +beaux through the strings o' mornin'-glories," laughed Ann Bray +delightedly, her thin face shining more and more with joy. "I brought +some o' them mornin'-glory seeds along when we come away, we'd raised +'em so many years; an' we got 'em started all right, but the hens +found 'em out. I declare I chased them poor hens, foolish as 'twas; +but the mornin'-glories I'd counted on a sight to remind me o' home. +You see, our debts was so large, after my long sickness an' all, that +we didn't feel 'twas right to keep back anything we could help from +the auction." +</p> +<p> +It was impossible for any one to speak for a moment or two; the +sisters felt their own uprooted condition afresh, and their guests for +the first time really comprehended the piteous contrast between that +neat little village house, which now seemed a palace of comfort, and +this cold, unpainted upper room in the remote Janes farmhouse. It was +an unwelcome thought to Mrs. Trimble that the well-to-do town of +Hampden could provide no better for its poor than this, and her round +face flushed with resentment and the shame of personal responsibility. +"The girls shall be well settled in the village before another winter, +if I pay their board myself," she made an inward resolution, and took +another almost tearful look at the broken stove, the miserable bed, +and the sisters' one hair-covered trunk, on which Mandana was sitting +But the poor place was filled with a golden spirit of hospitality. +</p> +<p> +Rebecca was again discoursing eloquently of the installation; it was +so much easier to speak of general subjects, and the sisters had +evidently been longing to hear some news. Since the late summer they +had not been to church, and presently Mrs. Trimble asked the reason. +</p> +<p> +"Now, don't you go to pouring out our woes, Mandy!" begged little old +Ann, looking shy and almost girlish, and as if she insisted upon +playing that life was still all before them and all pleasure. "Don't +you go to spoilin' their visit with our complaints! They know well's +we do that changes must come, an' we'd been so wonted to our home +things that this come hard at first; but then they felt for us, I know +just as well's can be. 'Twill soon be summer again, an' 'tis real +pleasant right out in the fields here, when there ain't too hot a +spell. I've got to know a sight o' singin' birds since we come." +</p> +<p> +"Give me the folks I've always known," sighed the younger sister, who +looked older than Miss Ann, and less even-tempered. "You may have your +birds, if you want 'em. I do re'lly long to go to meetin' an' see +folks go by up the aisle. Now, I will speak of it, Ann, whatever you +say. We need, each of us, a pair o' good stout shoes an' +rubbers,—ours are all wore out; an' we've asked an' asked, an' they +never think to bring 'em, an'"— +</p> +<p> +Poor old Mandana, on the trunk, covered her face with her arms and +sobbed aloud. The elder sister stood over her, and patted her on the +thin shoulder like a child, and tried to comfort her. It crossed Mrs. +Trimble's mind that it was not the first time one had wept and the +other had comforted. The sad scene must have been repeated many times +in that long, drear winter. She would see them forever after in her +mind as fixed as a picture, and her own tears fell fast. +</p> +<p> +"You didn't see Mis' Janes's cunning little boy, the next one to the +baby, did you?" asked Ann Bray, turning round quickly at last, and +going cheerfully on with the conversation. "Now, hush, Mandy, dear; +they'll think you're childish! He's a dear, friendly little creatur', +an' likes to stay with us a good deal, though we feel's if it 't was +too cold for him, now we are waitin' to get us more wood." +</p> +<p> +"When I think of the acres o' woodland in this town!" groaned Rebecca +Wright. "I believe I'm goin' to preach next Sunday, 'stead o' the +minister, an' I'll make the sparks fly. I've always heard the saying, +'What's everybody's business is nobody's business,' an' I've come to +believe it." +</p> +<p> +"Now, don't you, 'Becca. You've happened on a kind of a poor time with +us, but we've got more belongings than you see here, an' a good large +cluset, where we can store those things there ain't room to have +about. You an' Miss Trimble have happened on a kind of poor day, you +know. Soon's I git me some stout shoes an' rubbers, as Mandy says, I +can fetch home plenty o' little dry boughs o' pine; you remember I was +always a great hand to roam in the woods? If we could only have a +front room, so 't we could look out on the road an' see passin', an' +was shod for meetin', I don' know's we should complain. Now we're just +goin' to give you what we've got, an' make out with a good welcome. We +make more tea 'n we want in the mornin', an' then let the fire go +down, since 't has been so mild. We've got a <i>good</i> cluset" +(disappearing as she spoke), "an' I know this to be good tea, 'cause +it's some o' yourn, Mis' Trimble. An' here's our sprigged chiny cups +that R'becca knows by sight, if Mis' Trimble don't. We kep' out four +of 'em, an' put the even half dozen with the rest of the auction +stuff. I've often wondered who'd got 'em, but I never asked, for fear +'t would be somebody that would distress us. They was mother's, you +know." +</p> +<p> +The four cups were poured, and the little table pushed to the bed, +where Rebecca Wright still sat, and Mandana, wiping her eyes, came and +joined her. Mrs. Trimble sat in her chair at the end, and Ann trotted +about the room in pleased content for a while, and in and out of the +closet, as if she still had much to do; then she came and stood +opposite Mrs. Trimble. She was very short and small, and there was no +painful sense of her being obliged to stand. The four cups were not +quite full of cold tea, but there was a clean old tablecloth folded +double, and a plate with three pairs of crackers neatly piled, and a +small—it must be owned, a very small—piece of hard white cheese. +Then, for a treat, in a glass dish, there was a little preserved +peach, the last—Miss Rebecca knew it instinctively—of the household +stores brought from their old home. It was very sugary, this bit of +peach; and as she helped her guests and sister Mandy, Miss Ann Bray +said, half unconsciously, as she often had said with less reason in +the old days, "Our preserves ain't so good as usual this year; this is +beginning to candy." Both the guests protested, while Rebecca added +that the taste of it carried her back, and made her feel young again. +The Brays had always managed to keep one or two peach-trees alive in +their corner of a garden. "I've been keeping this preserve for a +treat," said her friend. "I'm glad to have you eat some, 'Becca. Last +summer I often wished you was home an' could come an' see us, 'stead +o' being away off to Plainfields." +</p> +<p> +The crackers did not taste too dry. Miss Ann took the last of the +peach on her own cracker; there could not have been quite a small +spoonful, after the others were helped, but she asked them first if +they would not have some more. Then there was a silence, and in the +silence a wave of tender feeling rose high in the hearts of the four +elderly women. At this moment the setting sun flooded the poor plain +room with light; the unpainted wood was all of a golden-brown, and Ann +Bray, with her gray hair and aged face, stood at the head of the table +in a kind of aureole. Mrs. Trimble's face was all aquiver as she +looked at her; she thought of the text about two or three being +gathered together, and was half afraid. +</p> +<p> +"I believe we ought to've asked Mis' Janes if she wouldn't come up," +said Ann. "She's real good feelin', but she's had it very hard, an' +gits discouraged. I can't find that she's ever had anything real +pleasant to look back to, as we have. There, next time we'll make a +good heartenin' time for her too." +</p> +<p> +The sorrel horse had taken a long nap by the gnawed fence-rail, and +the cool air after sundown made him impatient to be gone. The two +friends jolted homeward in the gathering darkness, through the +stiffening mud, and neither Mrs. Trimble nor Rebecca Wright said a +word until they were out of sight as well as out of sound of the Janes +house. Time must elapse before they could reach a more familiar part +of the road and resume conversation on its natural level. +</p> +<p> +"I consider myself to blame," insisted Mrs. Trimble at last. "I +haven't no words of accusation for nobody else, an' I ain't one to +take comfort in calling names to the board o' selec'<i>men</i>. I make no +reproaches, an' I take it all on my own shoulders; but I'm goin' to +stir about me, I tell you! I shall begin early to-morrow. They're +goin' back to their own house,—it's been standin' empty all +winter,—an' the town's goin' to give 'em the rent an' what firewood +they need; it won't come to more than the board's payin' out now. An' +you an' me'll take this same horse an' wagon, an' ride an' go afoot by +turns, an' git means enough together to buy back their furniture an' +whatever was sold at that plaguey auction; an' then we'll put it all +back, an' tell 'em they've got to move to a new place, an' just carry +'em right back again where they come from. An' don't you never tell, +R'becca, but here I be a widow woman, layin' up what I make from my +farm for nobody knows who, an' I'm goin' to do for them Bray girls +all I'm a mind to. I should be sca't to wake up in heaven, an' hear +anybody there ask how the Bray girls was. Don't talk to me about the +town o' Hampden, an' don't ever let me hear the name o' town poor! I'm +ashamed to go home an' see what's set out for supper. I wish I'd +brought 'em right along." +</p> +<p> +"I was goin' to ask if we couldn't git the new doctor to go up an' do +somethin' for poor Ann's arm," said Miss Rebecca. "They say he's very +smart. If she could get so's to braid straw or hook rugs again, she'd +soon be earnin' a little somethin'. An' may be he could do somethin' +for Mandy's eyes. They did use to live so neat an' ladylike. Somehow I +couldn't speak to tell 'em there that 'twas I bought them six best +cups an' saucers, time of the auction; they went very low, as +everything else did, an' I thought I could save it some other way. +They shall have 'em back an' welcome. You're real whole-hearted, Mis' +Trimble. I expect Ann'll be sayin' that her father's child'n wa'n't +goin' to be left desolate, an' that all the bread he cast on the +water's comin' back through you." +</p> +<p> +"I don't care what she says, dear creatur'!" exclaimed Mrs. Trimble. +"I'm full o' regrets I took time for that installation, an' set there +seepin' in a lot o' talk this whole day long, except for its kind of +bringin' us to the Bray girls. I wish to my heart 't was to-morrow +mornin' a'ready, an' I a-startin' for the selec'<i>men</i>." +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0026"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + A Native of Winby +</h2> +<h3> +I. +</h3> +<p> +On the teacher's desk, in the little roadside school-house, there was +a bunch of Mayflowers, beside a dented and bent brass bell, a small +Worcester's Dictionary without any cover, and a worn morocco-covered +Bible. These were placed in an orderly row, and behind them was a +small wooden box which held some broken pieces of blackboard crayon. +The teacher, whom no timid new scholar could look at boldly, wore her +accustomed air of authority and importance. She might have been +nineteen years old,—not more,—but for the time being she scorned the +frivolities of youth. +</p> +<p> +The hot May sun was shining in at the smoky small-paned windows; +sometimes an outside shutter swung to with a creak, and eclipsed the +glare. The narrow door stood wide open, to the left as you faced the +desk, and an old spotted dog lay asleep on the step, and looked wise +and old enough to have gone to school with several generations of +children. It was half past three o'clock in the afternoon, and the +primer class, settled into the apathy of after-recess fatigue, +presented a straggling front, as they stood listlessly on the floor. +As for the big boys and girls, they also were longing to be at +liberty, but the pretty teacher, Miss Marilla Hender, seemed quite as +energetic as when school was begun in the morning. +</p> +<p> +The spring breeze blew in at the open door, and even fluttered the +primer leaves, but the back of the room felt hot and close, as if it +were midsummer. The children in the class read their lessons in those +high-keyed, droning voices which older teachers learn to associate +with faint powers of perception. Only one or two of them had an +awakened human look in their eyes, such as Matthew Arnold delighted +himself in finding so often in the school-children of France. Most of +these poor little students were as inadequate, at that weary moment, +to the pursuit of letters as if they had been woolly spring lambs on a +sunny hillside. The teacher corrected and admonished with great +patience, glancing now and then toward points of danger and +insurrection, whence came a suspicious buzz of whispering from behind +a desk-lid or a pair of widespread large geographies. Now and then a +toiling child would rise and come down the aisle, with his forefinger +firm upon a puzzling word as if it were an unclassified insect. It was +a lovely beckoning day out-of-doors. The children felt like captives; +there was something that provoked rebellion in the droning voices, the +buzzing of an early wild bee against the sunlit pane, and even in the +stuffy familiar odor of the place,—the odor of apples and crumbs of +doughnuts and gingerbread in the dinner pails on the high entry nails, +and of all the little gowns and trousers that had brushed through +junipers and young pines on their way to school. +</p> +<p> +The bee left his prisoning pane at last, and came over to the +Mayflowers, which were in full bloom, although the season was very +late, and deep in the woods there were still some graybacked +snowdrifts, speckled with bits of bark and moss from the trees above. +</p> +<p> +"Come, come, Ezra!" urged the young teacher, rapping her desk sharply. +"Stop watchin' that common bee! You know well enough what those +letters spell. You won't learn to read at this rate until you are a +grown man. Mind your book, now; you ought to remember who went to this +school when he was a little boy. You've heard folks tell about the +Honorable Joseph K. Laneway? He used to be in primer just as you are +now, and 't wasn't long before he was out of it, either, and was +called the smartest boy in school. He's got to be a general and a +Senator, and one of the richest men out West. You don't seem to have +the least mite of ambition to-day, any of you!" +</p> +<p> +The exhortation, entirely personal in the beginning, had swiftly +passed to a general rebuke. Ezra looked relieved, and the other +children brightened up as they recognized a tale familiar to their +ears. Anything was better than trying to study in that dull last hour +of afternoon school. +</p> +<p> +"Yes," continued Miss Hender, pleased that she had at last roused +something like proper attention, "you all ought to be proud that you +are schoolmates of District Number Four, and can remember that the +celebrated General Laneway had the same early advantages as you, and +think what he has made of himself by perseverance and ambition." +</p> +<p> +The pupils were familiar enough with the illustrious history of their +noble predecessor. They were sure to be told, in lawless moments, that +if Mr. Laneway were to come in and see them he would be mortified to +death; and the members of the school committee always referred to him, +and said that he had been a poor boy, and was now a self-made +man,—as if every man were not self-made as to his character and +reputation! +</p> +<p> +At this point, young Johnny Spencer showed his next neighbor, in the +back of his Colburn's Arithmetic, an imaginary portrait of their +district hero, which caused them both to chuckle derisively. The +Honorable Mr. Laneway figured on the flyleaf as an extremely +cross-eyed person, with strangely crooked legs and arms and a terrific +expression. He was outlined with red and blue pencils as to coat and +trousers, and held a reddened scalp in one hand and a blue tomahawk in +the other; being closely associated in the artist's mind with the +early settlements of the far West. +</p> +<p> +There was a noise of wheels in the road near by, and, though Miss +Hender had much more to say, everybody ceased to listen to her, and +turned toward the windows, leaning far forward over their desks to see +who might be passing. They caught a glimpse of a shiny carriage; the +old dog bounded out, barking, but nothing passed the open door. The +carriage had stopped; some one was coming to the school; somebody was +going to be called out! It could not be the committee, whose pompous +and uninspiring spring visit had taken place only the week before. +</p> +<p> +Presently a well-dressed elderly man, with an expectant, masterful +look, stood on the doorstep, glanced in with a smile, and knocked. +Miss Marilla Hender blushed, smoothed her pretty hair anxiously with +both hands, and stepped down from her little platform to answer the +summons. There was hardly a shut mouth in the primer class. +</p> +<p> +"Would it be convenient for you to receive a visitor to the school?" +the stranger asked politely, with a fine bow of deference to Miss +Hender. He looked much pleased and a little excited, and the teacher +said,— +</p> +<p> +"Certainly; step right in, won't you, sir?" in quite another tone from +that in which she had just addressed the school. +</p> +<p> +The boys and girls were sitting straight and silent in their places, +in something like a fit of apprehension and unpreparedness at such a +great emergency. The guest represented a type of person previously +unknown in District Number Four. Everything about him spoke of wealth +and authority. The old dog returned to the doorstep, and after a +careful look at the invader approached him, with a funny doggish grin +and a desperate wag of the tail, to beg for recognition. +</p> +<p> +The teacher gave her chair on the platform to the guest, and stood +beside him with very red cheeks, smoothing her hair again once or +twice, and keeping the hard-wood ruler fast in hand, like a badge of +office. "Primer class may now retire!" she said firmly, although the +lesson was not more than half through; and the class promptly escaped +to their seats, waddling and stumbling, until they all came up behind +their desks, face foremost, and added themselves to the number of +staring young countenances. After this there was a silence, which grew +more and more embarrassing. +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps you would be pleased to hear our first class in geography, +sir?" asked the fair Marilla, recovering her presence of mind; and the +guest kindly assented. +</p> +<p> +The young teacher was by no means willing to give up a certainty for +an uncertainty. Yesterday's lesson had been well learned; she turned +back to the questions about the State of Kansota, and at the first +sentence the mysterious visitor's dignity melted into an unconscious +smile. He listened intently for a minute, and then seemed to reoccupy +himself with his own thoughts and purposes, looking eagerly about the +old school-house, and sometimes gazing steadily at the children. The +lesson went on finely, and when it was finished Miss Hender asked the +girl at the head of the class to name the States and Territories, +which she instantly did, mispronouncing nearly all the names of the +latter; then others stated boundaries and capitals, and the resources +of the New England States, passing on finally to the names of the +Presidents. Miss Hender glowed with pride; she had worked hard over +the geography class in the winter term, and it did not fail her on +this great occasion. When she turned bravely to see if the gentleman +would like to ask any questions, she found that he was apparently +lost in a deep reverie, so she repeated her own question more +distinctly. +</p> +<p> +"They have done very well,—very well indeed," he answered kindly; and +then, to every one's surprise, he rose, went up the aisle, pushed +Johnny Spencer gently along his bench, and sat down beside him. The +space was cramped, and the stranger looked huge and uncomfortable, so +that everybody laughed, except one of the big girls, who turned pale +with fright, and thought he must be crazy. When this girl gave a faint +squeak Miss Hender recovered herself, and rapped twice with the ruler +to restore order; then became entirely tranquil. There had been talk +of replacing the hacked and worn old school-desks with patent desks +and chairs; this was probably an agent connected with that business. +At once she was resolute and self-reliant, and said, "No whispering!" +in a firm tone that showed she did not mean to be trifled with. The +geography class was dismissed, but the elderly gentleman, in his +handsome overcoat, still sat there wedged in at Johnny Spencer's side. +</p> +<p> +"I presume, sir, that you are canvassing for new desks," said Miss +Hender, with dignity. "You will have to see the supervisor and the +selectmen." There did not seem to be any need of his lingering, but +she had an ardent desire to be pleasing to a person of such evident +distinction. "We always tell strangers—I thought, sir, you might be +gratified to know—that this is the school-house where the Honorable +Joseph K. Laneway first attended school. All do not know that he was +born in this town, and went West very young; it is only about a mile +from here where his folks used to live." +</p> +<p> +At this moment the visitor's eyes fell. He did not look at pretty +Marilla any more, but opened Johnny Spencer's arithmetic, and, seeing +the imaginary portrait of the great General Laneway, laughed a +little,—a very deep-down comfortable laugh it was,—while Johnny +himself turned cold with alarm, he could not have told why. +</p> +<p> +It was very still in the school-room; the bee was buzzing and bumping +at the pane again; the moment was one of intense expectation. +</p> +<p> +The stranger looked at the children right and left. "The fact is +this, young people," said he, in a tone that was half pride and half +apology, "I am Joseph K. Laneway myself." +</p> +<p> +He tried to extricate himself from the narrow quarters of the desk, +but for an embarrassing moment found that he was stuck fast. Johnny +Spencer instinctively gave him an assisting push, and once free the +great soldier, statesman, and millionaire took a few steps forward to +the open floor; then, after hesitating a moment, he mounted the little +platform and stood in the teacher's place. Marilla Hender was as pale +as ashes. +</p> +<p> +"I have thought many times," the great guest began, "that some day I +should come back to visit this place, which is so closely interwoven +with the memories of my childhood. In my counting-room, on the fields +of war, in the halls of Congress, and most of all in my Western home, +my thoughts have flown back to the hills and brooks of Winby and to +this little old school-house. I could shut my eyes and call back the +buzz of voices, and fear my teacher's frown, and feel my boyish +ambitions waking and stirring in my breast. On that bench where I just +sat I saw some notches that I cut with my first jackknife fifty-eight +years ago this very spring. I remember the faces of the boys and girls +who went to school with me, and I see their grandchildren before me. I +know that one is a Goodsoe and another a Winn by the old family look. +One generation goes, and another comes. +</p> +<p> +"There are many things that I might say to you. I meant, even in those +early restricted days, to make my name known, and I dare say that you +too have ambition. Be careful what you wish for in this world, for if +you wish hard enough you are sure to get it. I once heard a very wise +man say this, and the longer I live the more firmly I believe it to be +true. But wishing hard means working hard for what you want, and the +world's prizes wait for the men and women who are ready to take pains +to win them. Be careful and set your minds on the best things. I meant +to be a rich man when I was a boy here, and I stand before you a rich +man, knowing the care and anxiety and responsibility of wealth. I +meant to go to Congress, and I am one of the Senators from Kansota. I +say this as humbly as I say it proudly. I used to read of the valor +and patriotism of the old Greeks and Romans with my youthful blood +leaping along my veins, and it came to pass that my own country was in +danger, and that I could help to fight her battles. Perhaps some one +of these little lads has before him a more eventful life than I have +lived, and is looking forward to activity and honor and the pride of +fame. I wish him all the joy that I have had, all the toil that I have +had, and all the bitter disappointments even; for adversity leads a +man to depend upon that which is above him, and the path of glory is a +lonely path, beset by temptations and a bitter sense of the weakness +and imperfection of man. I see my life spread out like a great +picture, as I stand here in my boyhood's place. I regret my failures. +I thank God for what in his kind providence has been honest and right. +I am glad to come back, but I feel, as I look in your young faces, +that I am an old man, while your lives are just beginning. When you +remember, in years to come, that I came here to see the old +school-house, remember that I said: Wish for the best things, and work +hard to win them; try to be good men and women, for the honor of the +school and the town, and the noble young country that gave you birth; +be kind at home and generous abroad. Remember that I, an old man who +had seen much of life, begged you to be brave and good." +</p> +<p> +The Honorable Mr. Laneway had rarely felt himself so moved in any of +his public speeches, but he was obliged to notice that for once he +could not hold his audience. The primer class especially had begun to +flag in attention, but one or two faces among the elder scholars +fairly shone with vital sympathy and a lovely prescience of their +future. Their eyes met his as if they struck a flash of light. There +was a sturdy boy who half rose in his place unconsciously, the color +coming and going in his cheeks; something in Mr. Laneway's words lit +the altar flame in his reverent heart. +</p> +<p> +Marilla Hender was pleased and a little dazed; she could not have +repeated what her illustrious visitor had said, but she longed to tell +everybody the news that he was in town, and had come to school to make +an address. She had never seen a great man before, and really needed +time to reflect upon him and to consider what she ought to say. She +was just quivering with the attempt to make a proper reply and thank +Mr. Laneway for the honor of his visit to the school, when he asked +her which of the boys could be trusted to drive back his hired horse +to the Four Corners. Eight boys, large and small, nearly every boy in +the school, rose at once and snapped insistent fingers; but Johnny +Spencer alone was desirous not to attract attention to himself. The +Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic with the portrait had been well +secreted between his tight jacket and his shirt. Miss Hender selected +a trustworthy freckled person in long trousers, who was half way to +the door in an instant, and was heard almost immediately to shout +loudly at the quiet horse. +</p> +<p> +Then the Hero of District Number Four made his acknowledgments to the +teacher. "I fear that I have interrupted you too long," he said, with +pleasing deference. +</p> +<p> +Marilla replied that it was of no consequence; she hoped he would call +again. She may have spoken primly, but her pretty eyes said everything +that her lips forgot. "My grandmother will want to see you, sir," she +ventured to say. "I guess you will remember her,—Mis' Hender, she +that was Abby Harran. She has often told me how you used to get your +lessons out o' the same book." +</p> +<p> +"Abby Harran's granddaughter?" Mr. Laneway looked at her again with +fresh interest. "Yes, I wish to see her more than any one else. Tell +her that I am coming to see her before I go away, and give her my +love. Thank you, my dear," as Marilla offered his missing hat. +"Good-by, boys and girls." He stopped and looked at them once more +from the boys' entry, and turned again to look back from the very +doorstep. +</p> +<p> +"Good-by, sir,—good-by," piped two or three of the young voices; but +most of the children only stared, and neither spoke nor moved. +</p> +<p> +"We will omit the class in Fourth Reader this afternoon. The class in +grammar may recite," said Miss Hender in her most contained and +official manner. +</p> +<p> +The grammar class sighed like a single pupil, and obeyed. She was very +stern with the grammar class, but every one in school had an inner +sense that it was a great day in the history of District Number Four. +</p> +<h3> +II. +</h3> +<p> +The Honorable Mr. Laneway found the outdoor air very fresh and sweet +after the closeness of the school-house. It had just that same odor in +his boyhood, and as he escaped he had a delightful sense of playing +truant or of having an unexpected holiday. It was easier to think of +himself as a boy, and to slip back into boyish thoughts, than to bear +the familiar burden of his manhood. He climbed the tumble-down stone +wall across the road, and went along a narrow path to the spring that +bubbled up clear and cold under a great red oak. How many times he had +longed for a drink of that water, and now here it was, and the thirst +of that warm spring day was hard to quench! Again and again he stopped +to fill the birchbark dipper which the school-children had made, just +as his own comrades made theirs years before. The oak-tree was dying +at the top. The pine woods beyond had been cut and had grown again +since his boyhood, and looked much as he remembered them. Beyond the +spring and away from the woods the path led across overgrown pastures +to another road, perhaps three quarters of a mile away, and near this +road was the small farm which had been his former home. As he walked +slowly along, he was met again and again by some reminder of his +youthful days. He had always liked to refer to his early life in New +England in his political addresses, and had spoken more than once of +going to find the cows at nightfall in the autumn evenings, and being +glad to warm his bare feet in the places where the sleepy beasts had +lain, before he followed their slow steps homeward through bush and +brier. The Honorable Mr. Laneway had a touch of true sentiment which +added much to his really stirring and effective campaign speeches. He +had often been called the "king of the platform" in his adopted State. +He had long ago grown used to saying "Go" to one man, and "Come" to +another, like the ruler of old; but all his natural power of +leadership and habit of authority disappeared at once as he trod the +pasture slopes, calling back the remembrance of his childhood. Here +was the place where two lads, older than himself, had killed a +terrible woodchuck at bay in the angle of a great rock; and just +beyond was the sunny spot where he had picked a bunch of pink and +white anemones under a prickly barberry thicket, to give to Abby +Harran in morning school. She had put them into her desk, and let them +wilt there, but she was pleased when she took them. Abby Harran, the +little teacher's grandmother, was a year older than he, and had +wakened the earliest thought of love in his youthful breast. +</p> +<p> +It was almost time to catch the first sight of his birthplace. From +the knoll just ahead he had often seen the light of his mother's lamp, +as he came home from school on winter afternoons; but when he reached +the knoll the old house was gone, and so was the great walnut-tree +that grew beside it, and a pang of disappointment shot through this +devout pilgrim's heart. He never had doubted that the old farm was +somebody's home still, and had counted upon the pleasure of spending a +night there, and sleeping again in that room under the roof, where the +rain sounded loud, and the walnut branches brushed to and fro when the +wind blew, as if they were the claws of tigers. He hurried across the +worn-out fields, long ago turned into sheep pastures, where the last +year's tall grass and golden-rod stood gray and winter-killed; tracing +the old walls and fences, and astonished to see how small the fields +had been. The prosperous owner of Western farming lands could not help +remembering those widespread luxuriant acres, and the broad outlooks +of his Western home. +</p> +<p> +It was difficult at first to find exactly where the house had stood; +even the foundations had disappeared. At last in the long, faded grass +he discovered the doorstep, and near by was a little mound where the +great walnut-tree stump had been. The cellar was a mere dent in the +sloping ground; it had been filled in by the growing grass and slow +processes of summer and winter weather. But just at the pilgrim's +right were some thorny twigs of an old rosebush. A sudden brightening +of memory brought to mind the love that his mother—dead since his +fifteenth year—had kept for this sweetbrier. How often she had wished +that she had brought it to her new home! So much had changed in the +world, so many had gone into the world of light, and here the faithful +blooming thing was yet alive! There was one slender branch where green +buds were starting, and getting ready to flower in the new year. +</p> +<p> +The afternoon wore late, and still the gray-haired man lingered. He +might have laughed at some one else who gave himself up to sad +thoughts, and found fault with himself, with no defendant to plead his +cause at the bar of conscience. It was an altogether lonely hour. He +had dreamed all his life, in a sentimental, self-satisfied fashion, of +this return to Winby. It had always appeared to be a grand affair, but +so far he was himself the only interested spectator at his poor +occasion. There was even a dismal consciousness that he had been +undignified, perhaps even a little consequential and silly, in the old +school-house. The picture of himself on the war-path, in Johnny +Spencer's arithmetic, was the only tribute that this longed-for day +had held, but he laughed aloud delightedly at the remembrance and +really liked that solemn little boy who sat at his own old desk. There +was another older lad, who sat at the back of the room, who reminded +Mr. Laneway of himself in his eager youth. There was a spark of light +in that fellow's eyes. Once or twice in the earlier afternoon, as he +drove along, he had asked people in the road if there were a Laneway +family in that neighborhood, but everybody had said no in indifferent +fashion. Somehow he had been expecting that every one would know him +and greet him, and give him credit for what he had tried to do, but +old Winby had her own affairs to look after, and did very well without +any of his help. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Laneway acknowledged to himself at this point that he was weak and +unmanly. There must be some old friends who would remember him, and +give him as hearty a welcome as the greeting he had brought for them. +So he rose and went his way westward toward the sunset. The air was +growing damp and cold, and it was time to make sure of shelter. This +was hardly like the visit he had meant to pay to his birthplace. He +wished with all his heart that he had never come back. But he walked +briskly away, intent upon wider thoughts as the fresh evening breeze +quickened his steps. He did not consider where he was going, but was +for a time the busy man of affairs, stimulated by the unconscious +influence of his surroundings. The slender gray birches and pitch +pines of that neglected pasture had never before seen a hat and coat +exactly in the fashion. They may have been abashed by the presence of +a United States Senator and Western millionaire, though a piece of New +England ground that had often felt the tread of his bare feet was not +likely to quake because a pair of smart shoes stepped hastily along +the school-house path. +</p> +<h3> +III. +</h3> +<p> +There was an imperative knock at the side door of the Hender +farmhouse, just after dark. The young school-mistress had come home +late, because she had stopped all the way along to give people the +news of her afternoon's experience. Marilla was not coy and speechless +any longer, but sat by the kitchen stove telling her eager grandmother +everything she could remember or could imagine. +</p> +<p> +"Who's that knocking at the door?" interrupted Mrs. Hender. "No, I'll +go myself; I'm nearest." +</p> +<p> +The man outside was cold and foot-weary. He was not used to spending a +whole day unrecognized, and, after being first amused, and even +enjoying a sense of freedom at escaping his just dues of consideration +and respect, he had begun to feel as if he were old and forgotten, and +was hardly sure of a friend in the world. +</p> +<p> +Old Mrs. Hender came to the door, with her eyes shining with delight, +in great haste to dismiss whoever had knocked, so that she might hear +the rest of Marilla's story. She opened the door wide to whoever might +have come on some country errand, and looked the tired and +faint-hearted Mr. Laneway full in the face. +</p> +<p> +"Dear heart, come in!" she exclaimed, reaching out and taking him by +the shoulder, as he stood humbly on a lower step. "Come right in, Joe. +Why, I should know you anywhere! Why, Joe Laneway, <i>you same boy</i>!" +</p> +<p> +In they went to the warm, bright, country kitchen. The delight and +kindness of an old friend's welcome and her instant sympathy seemed +the loveliest thing in the world. They sat down in two old +straight-backed kitchen chairs. They still held each other by the +hand, and looked in each other's face. The plain old room was aglow +with heat and cheerfulness; the tea-kettle was singing; a drowsy cat +sat on the wood-box with her paws tucked in; and the house dog came +forward in a friendly way, wagging his tail, and laid his head on +their clasped hands. +</p> +<p> +"And to think I haven't seen you since your folks moved out West, the +next spring after you were thirteen in the winter," said the good +woman. "But I s'pose there ain't been anybody that has followed your +career closer than I have, accordin' to their opportunities. You've +done a great work for your country, Joe. I'm proud of you clean +through. Sometimes folks has said, 'There, there, Mis' Hender, what be +you goin' to say now?' but I've always told 'em to wait. I knew you +saw your reasons. You was always an honest boy." The tears started and +shone in her kind eyes. Her face showed that she had waged a bitter +war with poverty and sorrow, but the look of affection that it wore, +and the warm touch of her hard hand, misshapen and worn with toil, +touched her old friend in his inmost heart, and for a minute neither +could speak. +</p> +<p> +"They do say that women folks have got no natural head for politics, +but I always could seem to sense what was goin' on in Washington, if +there was any sense to it," said grandmother Hender at last. +</p> +<p> +"Nobody could puzzle you at school, I remember," answered Mr. Laneway, +and they both laughed heartily. "But surely this granddaughter does +not make your household? You have sons?" +</p> +<p> +"Two beside her father. He died; but they're both away, up toward +Canada, buying cattle. We are getting along considerable well these +last few years, since they got a mite o' capital together; but the old +farm wasn't really able to maintain us, with the heavy expenses that +fell on us unexpected year by year. I've seen a great sight of +trouble, Joe. My boy John, Marilla's father, and his nice wife,—I +lost 'em both early, when Marilla was but a child. John was the flower +o' my family. He would have made a name for himself. You would have +taken to John." +</p> +<p> +"I was sorry to hear of your loss," said Mr. Laneway. "He was a brave +man. I know what he did at Fredericksburg. You remember that I lost my +wife and my only son?" +</p> +<p> +There was a silence between the friends, who had no need for words +now; they understood each other's heart only too well. Marilla, who +sat near them, rose and went out of the room. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes, daughter," said Mrs. Hender, calling her back, "we ought to +be thinkin' about supper." +</p> +<p> +"I was going to light a little fire in the parlor," explained Marilla, +with a slight tone of rebuke in her clear girlish voice. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, no, you ain't,—not now, at least," protested the elder woman +decidedly. "Now, Joseph, what should you like to have for supper? I +wish to my heart I had some fried turnovers, like those you used to +come after when you was a boy. I can make 'em just about the same as +mother did. I'll be bound you've thought of some old-fashioned dish +that you'd relish for your supper." +</p> +<p> +"Rye drop-cakes, then, if they wouldn't give you too much trouble," +answered the Honorable Joseph, with prompt seriousness, "and don't +forget some cheese." He looked up at his old playfellow as she stood +beside him, eager with affectionate hospitality. +</p> +<p> +"You've no idea what a comfort Marilla's been," she stopped to +whisper. "Always took right hold and helped me when she was a baby. +She's as good as made up already to me for my having no daughter. I +want you to get acquainted with Marilla." +</p> +<p> +The granddaughter was still awed and anxious about the entertainment +of so distinguished a guest when her grandmother appeared at last in +the pantry. +</p> +<p> +"I ain't goin' to let you do no such a thing, darlin'," said Abby +Hender, when Marilla spoke of making something that she called "fairy +gems" for tea, after a new and essentially feminine recipe. "You just +let me get supper to-night. The Gen'ral has enough kickshaws to eat; +he wants a good, hearty, old-fashioned supper,—the same country +cooking he remembers when he was a boy. He went so far himself as to +speak of rye drop-cakes, an' there ain't one in a hundred, nowadays, +knows how to make the kind he means. You go an' lay the table just as +we always have it, except you can get out them old big sprigged cups +o' my mother's. Don't put on none o' the parlor cluset things." +</p> +<p> +Marilla went off crestfallen and demurring. She had a noble desire to +show Mr. Laneway that they knew how to have things as well as +anybody, and was sure that he would consider it more polite to be +asked into the best room, and to sit there alone until tea was ready; +but the illustrious Mr. Laneway was allowed to stay in the kitchen, in +apparent happiness, and to watch the proceedings from beginning to +end. The two old friends talked industriously, but he saw his rye +drop-cakes go into the oven and come out, and his tea made, and his +piece of salt fish broiled and buttered, a broad piece of honeycomb +set on to match some delightful thick slices of brown-crusted loaf +bread, and all the simple feast prepared. There was a sufficient piece +of Abby Hender's best cheese; it must be confessed that there were +also some baked beans, and, as one thing after another appeared, the +Honorable Joseph K. Laneway grew hungrier and hungrier, until he +fairly looked pale with anticipation and delay, and was bidden at that +very moment to draw up his chair and make himself a supper if he +could. What cups of tea, what uncounted rye drop-cakes, went to the +making of that successful supper! How gay the two old friends became, +and of what old stories they reminded each other, and how late the +dark spring evening grew, before the feast was over and the +straight-backed chairs were set against the kitchen wall! +</p> +<p> +Marilla listened for a time with more or less interest, but at last +she took one of her school-books, with slight ostentation, and went +over to study by the lamp. Mrs. Hender had brought her knitting-work, +a blue woolen stocking, out of a drawer, and sat down serene and +unruffled, prepared to keep awake as late as possible. She was a woman +who had kept her youthful looks through the difficulties of farm life +as few women can, and this added to her guest's sense of homelikeness +and pleasure. There was something that he felt to be sisterly and +comfortable in her strong figure; he even noticed the little plaid +woolen shawl that she wore about her shoulders. Dear, uncomplaining +heart of Abby Hender! The appealing friendliness of the good woman +made no demands except to be allowed to help and to serve everybody +who came in her way. +</p> +<p> +Now began in good earnest the talk of old times, and what had become +of this and that old schoolmate; how one family +had come to want and another to wealth. The changes and losses and +windfalls of good fortune in that rural neighborhood were made tragedy +and comedy by turns in Abby Hender's dramatic speech. She grew younger +and more entertaining hour by hour, and beguiled the grave Senator +into confidential talk of national affairs. He had much to say, to +which she listened with rare sympathy and intelligence. She astonished +him by her comprehension of difficult questions of the day, and by her +simple good sense. Marilla grew hopelessly sleepy, and departed, but +neither of them turned to notice her as she lingered a moment at the +door to say good-night. When the immediate subjects of conversation +were fully discussed, however, there was an unexpected interval of +silence, and, after making sure that her knitting stitches counted +exactly right, Abby Hender cast a questioning glance at the Senator to +see if he had it in mind to go to bed. She was reluctant to end her +evening so soon, but determined to act the part of considerate +hostess. The guest was as wide awake as ever: eleven o'clock was the +best part of his evening. +</p> +<p> +"Cider?" he suggested, with an expectant smile, and Abby Hender was on +her feet in a moment. When she had brought a pitcher from the pantry, +he took a candle from the high shelf and led the way. +</p> +<p> +"To think of your remembering our old cellar candlestick all these +years!" laughed the pleased woman, as she followed him down the steep +stairway, and then laughed still more at his delight in the familiar +look of the place. +</p> +<p> +"Unchanged as the pyramids!" he said. "I suppose those pound sweetings +that used to be in that farthest bin were eaten up months ago?" +</p> +<p> +It was plain to see that the household stores were waning low, as +befitted the time of year, but there was still enough in the old +cellar. Care and thrift and gratitude made the poor farmhouse a rich +place. This woman of real ability had spent her strength from youth to +age, and had lavished as much industry and power of organization in +her narrow sphere as would have made her famous in a wider one. Joseph +Laneway could not help sighing as he thought of it. How many things +this good friend had missed, and yet how much she had been able to win +that makes everywhere the very best of life! Poor and early widowed, +there must have been a constant battle with poverty on that stony +Harran farm, whose owners had been pitied even in his early boyhood, +when the best of farming life was none too easy. But Abby Hender had +always been one of the leaders of the town. +</p> +<p> +"Now, before we sit down again, I want you to step into my best room. +Perhaps you won't have time in the morning, and I've got something to +show you," she said persuasively. +</p> +<p> +It was a plain, old-fashioned best room, with a look of pleasantness +in spite of the spring chill and the stiffness of the best chairs. +They lingered before the picture of Mrs. Hender's soldier son, a poor +work of a poorer artist in crayons, but the spirit of the young face +shone out appealingly. Then they crossed the room and stood before +some bookshelves, and Abby Hender's face brightened into a beaming +smile of triumph. +</p> +<p> +"You didn't expect we should have all those books, now, did you, Joe +Laneway?" she asked. +</p> +<p> +He shook his head soberly, and leaned forward to read the titles. +There were no very new ones, as if times had been hard of late; almost +every volume was either history, or biography, or travel. Their owner +had reached out of her own narrow boundaries into other lives and into +far countries. He recognized with gratitude two or three congressional +books that he had sent her when he first went to Washington, and there +was a life of himself, written from a partisan point of view, and +issued in one of his most exciting campaigns; the sight of it touched +him to the heart, and then she opened it, and showed him the three or +four letters that he had written her,—one, in boyish handwriting, +describing his adventures on his first Western journey. +</p> +<p> +"There are a hundred and six volumes now," announced the proud owner +of such a library. "I lend 'em all I can, or most of them would look +better. I have had to wait a good while for some, and some weren't +what I expected 'em to be, but most of 'em's as good books as there is +in the world. I've never been so situated that it seemed best for me +to indulge in a daily paper, and I don't know but it's just as well; +but stories were never any great of a temptation. I know pretty well +what's goin' on about me, and I can make that do. Real life's +interestin' enough for me." +</p> +<p> +Mr. Laneway was still looking over the books. His heart smote him for +not being thoughtful; he knew well enough that the overflow of his own +library would have been delightful to this self-denying, eager-minded +soul. "I've been a very busy man all my life, Abby," he said +impulsively, as if she waited for some apology for his forgetfulness, +"but I'll see to it now that you have what you want to read. I don't +mean to lose hold of your advice on state matters." They both laughed, +and he added, "I've always thought of you, if I haven't shown it." +</p> +<p> +"There's more time to read than there used to be; I've had what was +best for me," answered the woman gently, with a grateful look on her +face, as she turned to glance at her old friend. "Marilla takes hold +wonderfully and helps me with the work. In the long winter evenings +you can't think what a treat a new book is. I wouldn't change places +with the queen." +</p> +<p> +They had come back to the kitchen, and she stood before the cupboard, +reaching high for two old gayly striped crockery mugs. There were some +doughnuts and cheese at hand; their early supper seemed quite +forgotten. The kitchen was warm, and they had talked themselves +thirsty and hungry; but with what an unexpected tang the cider +freshened their throats! Mrs. Hender had picked the apples herself +that went to the press; they were all chosen from the old russet tree +and the gnarly, red-cheeked, ungrafted fruit that grew along the lane. +The flavor made one think of frosty autumn mornings on high hillsides, +of north winds and sunny skies. "It 'livens one to the heart," as Mrs. +Hender remarked proudly, when the Senator tried to praise it as much +as it deserved, and finally gave a cheerful laugh, such as he had not +laughed for many a day. +</p> +<p> +"Why, it seems like drinking the month of October," he told her; and +at this the hostess reached over, protesting that the striped mug was +too narrow to hold what it ought, and filled it up again. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, Joe Laneway, to think that I see you at last, after all these +years!" she said. "How rich I shall feel with this evening to live +over! I've always wanted to see somebody that I'd read about, and now +I've got that to remember; but I've always known I should see you +again, and I believe 't was the Lord's will." +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Early the next morning they said good-by. The early breakfast had to +be hurried, and Marilla was to drive Mr. Laneway to the station, +three miles away. It was Saturday morning, and she was free from +school. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Laneway strolled down the lane before breakfast was ready, and +came back with a little bunch of pink anemones in his hand. Marilla +thought that he meant to give them to her, but he laid them beside her +grandmother's plate. "You mustn't put those in your desk," he said +with a smile, and Abby Hender blushed like a girl. +</p> +<p> +"I've got those others now, dried and put away somewhere in one of my +books," she said quietly, and Marilla wondered what they meant. +</p> +<p> +The two old friends shook hands warmly at parting. "I wish you could +have stayed another day, so I could have had the minister come and see +you," urged Mrs. Hender regretfully. +</p> +<p> +"You couldn't have done any more for me. I have had the best visit in +the world," he answered, a little shaken, and holding her hand a +moment longer, while Marilla sat, young and impatient, in the high +wagon. "You're a dear good woman, Abby. Sometimes when things have +gone wrong I've been sorry that I ever had to leave Winby." +</p> +<p> +The woman's clear eyes looked straight into his; then fell. "You +wouldn't have done everything you have for the country," she said. +</p> +<p> +"Give me a kiss; we're getting to be old folks now," said the General; +and they kissed each other gravely. +</p> +<p> +A moment later Abby Hender stood alone in her dooryard, watching and +waving her hand again and again, while the wagon rattled away down the +lane and turned into the high-road. +</p> +<p> +Two hours after Marilla returned from the station, and rushed into the +kitchen. +</p> +<p> +"Grandma!" she exclaimed, "you never did see such a crowd in Winby as +there was at the depot! Everybody in town had got word about General +Laneway, and they were pushing up to shake hands, and cheering same +as at election, and the cars waited much as ten minutes, and all the +folks was lookin' out of the windows, and came out on the platforms +when they heard who it was. Folks say that he'd been to see the +selectmen yesterday before he came to school, and he's goin' to build +an elegant town hall, and have the names put up in it of all the Winby +men that went to the war." Marilla sank into a chair, flushed with +excitement. "Everybody was asking me about his being here last night +and what he said to the school. I wished that you'd gone down to the +depot instead of me." +</p> +<p> +"I had the best part of anybody," said Mrs. Hender, smiling and going +on with her Saturday morning work. "I'm real glad they showed him +proper respect," she added a moment afterward, but her voice faltered. +</p> +<p> +"Why, you ain't been cryin', grandma?" asked the girl. "I guess you're +tired. You had a real good time, now, didn't you?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, dear heart!" said Abby Hender. "'T ain't pleasant to be growin' +old, that's all. I couldn't help noticin' his age as he rode away. +I've always been lookin' forward to seein' him again, an' now it's all +over." +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0027"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + <i>Looking Back on Girlhood</i> +</h2> +<p> +In giving this brief account of my childhood, or, to speak exactly, of +the surroundings which have affected the course of my work as a +writer, my first thought flies back to those who taught me to observe, +and to know the deep pleasures of simple things, and to be interested +in the lives of people about me. +</p> +<p> +With its high hills and pine forests, and all its ponds and brooks and +distant mountain views, there are few such delightful country towns in +New England as the one where I was born. Being one of the oldest +colonial settlements, it is full of interesting traditions and relics +of the early inhabitants, both Indians and Englishmen. Two large +rivers join just below the village at the head of tide-water, and +these, with the great inflow from the sea, make a magnificent stream, +bordered on its seaward course now by high-wooded banks of dark pines +and hemlocks, and again by lovely green fields that slope gently to +long lines of willows at the water's edge. +</p> +<p> +There is never-ending pleasure in making one's self familiar with such +a region. One may travel at home in a most literal sense, and be +always learning history, geography, botany, or biography—whatever one +chooses. +</p> +<p> +I have had a good deal of journeying in my life, and taken great +delight in it, but I have never taken greater delight than in my rides +and drives and tramps and voyages within the borders of my native +town. There is always something fresh, something to be traced or +discovered, something particularly to be remembered. One grows rich in +memories and associations. +</p> +<p> +I believe that we should know our native towns much better than most +of us do, and never let ourselves be strangers at home. Particularly +when one's native place is so really interesting as my own! +</p> +<p> +Above tide-water the two rivers are barred by successive falls. You +hear the noise of them by night in the village like the sound of the +sea, and this fine water power so near the coast, beside a great +salmon fishery famous among the Indians, brought the first English +settlers to the town in 1627. I know some families who still live upon +the lands which their ancestors bought from the Indians, and their +single deed bears the queer barbaric signatures. +</p> +<p> +There are many things to remind one of these early settlers beside the +old farms upon which they and their descendants have lived for six or +seven generations. One is a quaint fashion of speech which survives +among the long-established neighborhoods, in words and phrases common +in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. +</p> +<p> +One curious thing is the pronunciation of the name of the town: +Berwick by the elder people has always been called <i>Barvik</i>, after the +fashion of Danes and Northmen; never <i>Berrik</i>, as the word has so long +been pronounced in modern England. +</p> +<p> +The descendants of the first comers to the town have often been +distinguished in the affairs of their time. No village of its size in +New England could boast, particularly in the early part of the present +century, of a larger number of men and women who kept themselves more +closely in touch with "the best that has been thought and said in the +world." +</p> +<p> +As I write this, I keep in mind the truth that I have no inheritance +from the ancient worth and dignity of Berwick—or what is now North +Berwick—in Maine. My own people are comparatively late comers. I was +born in a pleasant old colonial house built near 1750, and bought by +my grandfather sixty or seventy years ago, when he brought his +household up the river to Berwick from Portsmouth. +</p> +<p> +He was a sea-captain, and had run away to sea in his boyhood and led a +most adventurous life, but was quite ready to forsake seafaring in his +early manhood, and at last joined a group of acquaintances who were +engaged in the flourishing West India trade of that time. +</p> +<p> +For many years he kept and extended his interests in shipping, +building ships and buying large quantities of timber from the +northward and eastward, and sending it down the river and so to sea. +</p> +<p> +This business was still in existence in my early childhood, and the +manner of its conduct was primitive enough, the barter system still +prevailing by force of necessity. Those who brought the huge sticks of +oak and pine timber for masts and planks were rarely paid in money, +which was of comparatively little use in remote and sparsely settled +districts. When the sleds and long trains of yoked oxen returned from +the river wharves to the stores, they took a lighter load in exchange +of flour and rice and barrels of molasses, of sugar and salt and +cotton cloth and raisins and spices and tea and coffee; in fact, all +the household necessities and luxuries that the northern farms could +not supply. +</p> +<p> +They liked to have a little money with which to pay their taxes and +their parish dues, if they were so fortunate as to be parishioners, +but they needed very little money besides. +</p> +<p> +So I came in contact with the up-country people as well as with the +sailors and shipmasters of the other side of the business. I used to +linger about the busy country stores, and listen to the graphic +country talk. I heard the greetings of old friends, and their minute +details of neighborhood affairs, their delightful jokes and +Munchausen-like reports of tracts of timber-pines ever so many feet +through at the butt. +</p> +<p> +When the great teams came in sight at the head of the village street, +I ran to meet them over the creaking snow, if possible to mount and +ride into town in triumph; but it was not many years before I began to +feel sorry at the sight of every huge lopped stem of oak or pine that +came trailing along after the slow-stepping, frosted oxen. Such trees +are unreplaceable. I only know of one small group now in all this part +of the country of those great timber pines. +</p> +<p> +My young ears were quick to hear the news of a ship's having come into +port, and I delighted in the elderly captains, with their sea-tanned +faces, who came to report upon their voyages, dining cheerfully and +heartily with my grandfather, who listened eagerly to their exciting +tales of great storms on the Atlantic, and winds that blew them +north-about, and good bargains in Havana, or Barbadoes, or Havre. +</p> +<p> +I listened as eagerly as any one; this is the charming way in which I +was taught something of a fashion of life already on the wane, and of +that subsistence upon sea and forest bounties which is now almost a +forgotten thing in my part of New England. +</p> +<p> +Much freight still came and went by the river gundelows and packets +long after the railroad had made such changes, and every village along +its line lost its old feeling of self-sufficiency. +</p> +<p> +In my home the greater part of the minor furnishings had come over in +the ships from Bristol and Havre. My grandfather seemed to be a +citizen of the whole geography. I was always listening to stories of +three wars from older people—the siege of Louisburg, the Revolution, +in which my father's ancestors had been honest but mistaken Tories, +and in which my mother's, the Gilmans of Exeter, had taken a nobler +part. +</p> +<p> +As for the War of 1812, "the last war," as everybody called it, it was +a thing of yesterday in the town. One of the famous privateer crews +was gathered along our own river shore, and one member of the crew, in +his old age, had been my father's patient. +</p> +<p> +The Berwick people were great patriots, and were naturally proud of +the famous Sullivans, who were born in the upper part of the town, and +came to be governors and judge and general. +</p> +<p> +I often heard about Lafayette, who had made an ever-to-be-remembered +visit in order to see again some old friends who lived in the town. +The name of a famous Colonel Hamilton, the leader in the last century +of the West India trade, and the histories of the old Berwick houses +of Chadbourn and Lord were delightfully familiar, and one of the +traditions of the latter family is more than good enough to be told +again. +</p> +<p> +There was a Berwick lad who went out on one of the privateers that +sailed from Portsmouth in the Revolution. The vessel was taken by a +British frigate, and the crew put in irons. One day one of the English +midshipmen stood near these prisoners as they took their airing on +deck, and spoke contemptuously about "the rebels." +</p> +<p> +Young Lord heard what he said, and turned himself about to say boldly, +"If it were not for your rank, sir, I would make you take that back!" +</p> +<p> +"No matter about my rank," said the gallant middy. "If you can whip +me, you are welcome to." +</p> +<p> +So they had a "capital good fight," standing over a tea-chest, as +proud tradition tells, and the Berwick sailor was the better fighter +of the two, and won. +</p> +<p> +The Englishman shook hands, and asked his name and promised not to +forget him—which was certainly most handsome behavior. +</p> +<p> +When they reached an English port all the prisoners but one were sent +away under guard to join the other American prisoners of war; but the +admiral sent for a young man named Nathan Lord, and told him that his +Grace the Duke of Clarence, son of his Majesty the King, begged for +his pardon, and had left a five-pound note at his disposal. +</p> +<p> +This was not the first or last Berwick lad who proved himself of good +courage in a fight, but there never was another to whip a future King +of England, and moreover to be liked the better for it by that fine +gentleman. +</p> +<p> +My grandfather died in my eleventh year, and presently the Civil War +began. +</p> +<p> +From that time the simple village life was at an end. Its provincial +character was fading out; shipping was at a disadvantage, and there +were no more bronzed sea-captains coming to dine and talk about their +voyages, no more bags of filberts or oranges for the children, or +great red jars of olives; but in these childish years I had come in +contact with many delightful men and women of real individuality and +breadth of character, who had fought the battle of life to good +advantage, and sometimes against great odds. +</p> +<p> +In these days I was given to long, childish illnesses, and it must be +honestly confessed, to instant drooping if ever I were shut up in +school. I had apparently not the slightest desire for learning, but my +father was always ready to let me be his companion in long drives +about the country. +</p> +<p> +In my grandfather's business household, my father, unconscious of +tonnage and timber measurement, of the markets of the Windward +Islands or the Mediterranean ports, had taken to his book, as old +people said, and gone to college and begun that devotion to the study +of medicine which only ended with his life. +</p> +<p> +I have tried already to give some idea of my father's character in my +story of "The Country Doctor," but all that is inadequate to the gifts +and character of the man himself. He gave me my first and best +knowledge of books by his own delight and dependence upon them, and +ruled my early attempts at writing by the severity and simplicity of +his own good taste. +</p> +<p> +"Don't try to write <i>about</i> people and things, tell them just as they +are!" +</p> +<p> +How often my young ears heard these words without comprehending them! +But while I was too young and thoughtless to share in an enthusiasm +for Sterne or Fielding, and Smollett or Don Quixote, my mother and +grandmother were leading me into the pleasant ways of "Pride and +Prejudice," and "The Scenes of Clerical Life," and the delightful +stories of Mrs. Oliphant. +</p> +<p> +The old house was well provided with leather-bound books of a deeply +serious nature, but in my youthful appetite for knowledge, I could +even in the driest find something vital, and in the more entertaining +I was completely lost. +</p> +<p> +My father had inherited from his father an amazing knowledge of human +nature, and from his mother's French ancestry, that peculiarly French +trait, called <i>gaieté de coeur</i>. Through all the heavy +responsibilities and anxieties of his busy professional life, this +kept him young at heart and cheerful. His visits to his patients were +often made perfectly delightful and refreshing to them by his kind +heart, and the charm of his personality. +</p> +<p> +I knew many of the patients whom he used to visit in lonely inland +farms, or on the seacoast in York and Wells. I used to follow him +about silently, like an undemanding little dog, content to follow at +his heels. +</p> +<p> +I had no consciousness of watching or listening, or indeed of any +special interest in the country interiors. In fact, when the time came +that my own world of imaginations was more real to me than any other, +I was sometimes perplexed at my father's directing my attention to +certain points of interest in the character or surroundings of our +acquaintances. +</p> +<p> +I cannot help believing that he recognized, long before I did myself, +in what direction the current of purpose in my life was setting. Now, +as I write my sketches of country life, I remember again and again the +wise things he said, and the sights he made me see. He was only +impatient with affectation and insincerity. +</p> +<p> +I may have inherited something of my father's and grandfather's +knowledge of human nature, but my father never lost a chance of trying +to teach me to observe. I owe a great deal to his patience with a +heedless little girl given far more to dreams than to accuracy, and +with perhaps too little natural sympathy for the dreams of others. +</p> +<p> +The quiet village life, the dull routine of farming or mill life, +early became interesting to me. I was taught to find everything that +an imaginative child could ask, in the simple scenes close at hand. +</p> +<p> +I say these things eagerly, because I long to impress upon every boy +and girl this truth: that it is not one's surroundings that can help +or hinder—it is having a growing purpose in one's life to make the +most of whatever is in one's reach. +</p> +<p> +If you have but a few good books, learn those to the very heart of +them. Don't for one moment believe that if you had different +surroundings and opportunities you would find the upward path any +easier to climb. One condition is like another, if you have not the +determination and the power to grow in yourself. +</p> +<p> +I was still a child when I began to write down the things I was +thinking about, but at first I always made rhymes and found prose so +difficult that a school composition was a terror to me, and I do not +remember ever writing one that was worth anything. But in course of +time rhymes themselves became difficult and prose more and more +enticing, and I began my work in life, most happy in finding that I +was to write of those country characters and rural landscapes to which +I myself belonged, and which I had been taught to love with all my +heart. +</p> +<p> +I was between nineteen and twenty when my first sketch was accepted by +Mr. Howells for the <i>Atlantic</i>. I already counted myself as by no +means a new contributor to one or two other magazines—<i>Young Folks</i> +and <i>The Riverside</i>—but I had no literary friends "at court." +</p> +<p> +I was very shy about speaking of my work at home, and even sent it to +the magazine under an assumed name, and then was timid about asking +the post-mistress for those mysterious and exciting editorial letters +which she announced upon the post-office list as if I were a stranger +in the town. +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0028"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + <i>The Passing of Sister Barsett</i> +</h2> +<p> +Mrs. Mercy Crane was of such firm persuasion that a house is meant to +be lived in, that during many years she was never known to leave her +own neat two-storied dwelling-place on the Ridge road. Yet being very +fond of company, in pleasant weather she often sat in the side doorway +looking out on her green yard, where the grass grew short and thick +and was undisfigured even by a path toward the steps. All her faded +green blinds were securely tied together and knotted on the inside by +pieces of white tape; but now and then, when the sun was not too hot +for her carpets, she opened one window at a time for a few hours, +having pronounced views upon the necessity of light and air. Although +Mrs. Crane was acknowledged by her best friends to be a peculiar +person and very set in her ways, she was much respected, and one +acquaintance vied with another in making up for her melancholy +seclusion by bringing her all the news they could gather. She had been +left alone many years before by the sudden death of her husband from +sunstroke, and though she was by no means poor, she had, as some one +said, "such a pretty way of taking a little present that you couldn't +help being pleased when you gave her anything." +</p> +<p> +For a lover of society, such a life must have had its difficulties at +times, except that the Ridge road was more traveled than any other in +the township, and Mrs. Crane had invented a system of signals, to +which she always resorted in case of wishing to speak to some one of +her neighbors. +</p> +<p> +The afternoon was wearing late, one day toward the end of summer, and +Mercy Crane sat in her doorway dressed in a favorite old-fashioned +light calico and a small shoulder shawl figured with large palm +leaves. She was making some tatting of a somewhat intricate pattern; +she believed it to be the prettiest and most durable of trimmings, and +having decorated her own wardrobe in the course of unlimited leisure, +she was now making a few yards apiece for each of her more intimate +friends, so that they might have something to remember her by. She +kept glancing up the road as if she expected some one, but the time +went slowly by, until at last a woman appeared to view, walking fast, +and carrying a large bundle in a checked handkerchief. +</p> +<p> +Then Mercy Crane worked steadily for a short time without looking up, +until the desired friend was crossing the grass between the dusty road +and the steps. The visitor was out of breath, and did not respond to +the polite greeting of her hostess until she had recovered herself to +her satisfaction. Mrs. Crane made her the kind offer of a glass of +water or a few peppermints, but was answered only by a shake of the +head, so she resumed her work for a time until the silence should be +broken. +</p> +<p> +"I have come from the house of mourning," said Sarah Ellen Dow at +last, unexpectedly. +</p> +<p> +"You don't tell me that Sister Barsett"— +</p> +<p> +"She's left us this time, she's really gone," and the excited +news-bringer burst into tears. The poor soul was completely +overwrought; she looked tired and wan, as if she had spent her forces +in sympathy as well as hard work. She felt in her great bundle for a +pocket handkerchief, but was not successful in the search, and finally +produced a faded gingham apron with long, narrow strings, with which +she hastily dried her tears. The sad news appealed also to Mercy +Crane, who looked across to the apple-trees, and could not see them +for a dazzle of tears in her own eyes. The spectacle of Sarah Ellen +Dow going home with her humble workaday possessions, from the house +where she had gone in haste only a few days before to care for a sick +person well known to them both, was a very sad sight. +</p> +<p> +"You sent word yesterday that you should be returnin' early this +afternoon, and would stop. I presume I received the message as you +gave it?" asked Mrs. Crane, who was tenacious in such matters; "but I +do declare I never looked to hear she was gone." +</p> +<p> +"She's been failin' right along sence yisterday about this time," said +the nurse. "She's taken no notice to speak of, an' been eatin' the +vally o' nothin', I may say, sence I went there a-Tuesday. Her sisters +both come back yisterday, an' of course I was expected to give up +charge to them. They're used to sickness, an' both havin' such a name +for bein' great housekeepers!" +</p> +<p> +Sarah Ellen spoke with bitterness, but Mrs. Crane was reminded +instantly of her own affairs. "I feel condemned that I ain't begun my +own fall cleanin' yet," she said, with an ostentatious sigh. +</p> +<p> +"Plenty o' time to worry about that," her friend hastened to console +her. +</p> +<p> +"I do desire to have everything decent about my house," resumed Mrs. +Crane. "There's nobody to do anything but me. If I was to be taken +away sudden myself, I shouldn't want to have it said afterwards that +there was wisps under my sofy or—There! I can't dwell on my own +troubles with Sister Barsett's loss right before me. I can't seem to +believe she's really passed away; she always was saying she should go +in some o' these spells, but I deemed her to be troubled with narves." +</p> +<p> +Sarah Ellen Dow shook her head. "I'm all nerved up myself," she said +brokenly. "I made light of her sickness when I went there first, I'd +seen her what she called dreadful low so many times; but I saw her +looks this morning, an' I begun to believe her at last. Them sisters +o' hers is the master for unfeelin' hearts. Sister Barsett was +a-layin' there yisterday, an' one of 'em was a-settin' right by her +tellin' how difficult 't was for her to leave home, her niece was +goin' to graduate to the high school, an' they was goin' to have a +time in the evening, an' all the exercises promised to be extry +interesting. Poor Sister Barsett knew what she said an' looked at her +with contempt, an' then she give a glance at me an' closed up her eyes +as if 't was for the last time. I know she felt it." +</p> +<p> +Sarah Ellen Dow was more and more excited by a sense of bitter +grievance. Her rule of the afflicted household had evidently been +interfered with; she was not accustomed to be ignored and set aside at +such times. Her simple nature and uncommon ability found satisfaction +in the exercise of authority, but she had now left her post feeling +hurt and wronged, besides knowing something of the pain of honest +affliction. +</p> +<p> +"If it hadn't been for esteemin' Sister Barsett as I always have done, +I should have told 'em no, an' held to it, when they asked me to come +back an' watch to-night. 'T ain't for none o' their sakes, but Sister +Barsett was a good friend to me in her way." Sarah Ellen broke down +once more, and felt in her bundle again hastily, but the handkerchief +was again elusive, while a small object fell out upon the doorstep +with a bounce. +</p> +<p> +"'T ain't nothin' but a little taste-cake I spared out o' the loaf I +baked this mornin'," she explained, with a blush. "I was so shoved out +that I seemed to want to turn my hand to somethin' useful an' feel I +was still doin' for Sister Barsett. Try a little piece, won't you, +Mis' Crane? I thought it seemed light an' good." +</p> +<p> +They shared the taste-cake with serious enjoyment, and pronounced it +very good indeed when they had finished and shaken the crumbs out of +their laps. "There's nobody but you shall come an' do for me at the +last, if I can have my way about things," said Mercy Crane +impulsively. She meant it for a tribute to Miss Dow's character and +general ability, and as such it was meekly accepted. +</p> +<p> +"You're a younger person than I be, an' less wore," said Sarah Ellen, +but she felt better now that she had rested, and her conversational +powers seemed to be refreshed by her share of the little cake. "Doctor +Bangs has behaved real pretty, I can say that," she continued +presently in a mournful tone. +</p> +<p> +"Heretofore, in the sickness of Sister Barsett, I have always felt to +hope certain that she would survive; she's recovered from a sight o' +things in her day. She has been the first to have all the new diseases +that's visited this region. I know she had the spinal mergeetis months +before there was any other case about," observed Mrs. Crane with +satisfaction. +</p> +<p> +"An' the new throat troubles, all of 'em," agreed Sarah Ellen; "an' +has made trial of all the best patent medicines, an' could tell you +their merits as no one else could in this vicinity. She never was one +that depended on herbs alone, though she considered 'em extremely +useful in some cases. Everybody has their herb, as we know, but I'm +free to say that Sister Barsett sometimes done everything she could to +kill herself with such rovin' ways o' dosin'. She must see it now +she's gone an' can't stuff down no more invigorators." Sarah Ellen Dow +burst out suddenly with this, as if she could no longer contain her +honest opinion. +</p> +<p> +"There, there! you're all worked up," answered placid Mercy Crane, +looking more interested than ever. +</p> +<p> +"An' she was dreadful handy to talk religion to other folks, but I've +come to a realizin' sense that religion is somethin' besides opinions. +She an' Elder French has been mostly of one mind, but I don't know's +they've got hold of all the religion there is." +</p> +<p> +"Why, why, Sarah Ellen!" exclaimed Mrs. Crane, but there was still +something in her tone that urged the speaker to further expression of +her feelings. The good creature was much excited, her face was clouded +with disapproval. +</p> +<p> +"I ain't forgettin' nothin' about their good points either," she went +on in a more subdued tone, and suddenly stopped. +</p> +<p> +"Preachin' 'll be done away with soon or late,—preachin' o' Elder +French's kind," announced Mercy Crane, after waiting to see if her +guest did not mean to say anything more. "I should like to read 'em +out that verse another fashion: 'Be ye doers o' the word, not +preachers only,' would hit it about right; but there, it's easy for +all of us to talk. In my early days I used to like to get out to +meetin' regular, because sure as I didn't I had bad luck all the week. +I didn't feel pacified 'less I'd been half a day, but I was out all +day the Sabbath before Mr. Barlow died as he did. So you mean to say +that Sister Barsett's really gone?" +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Crane's tone changed to one of real concern, and her manner +indicated that she had put the preceding conversation behind her with +decision. +</p> +<p> +"She was herself to the last," instantly responded Miss Dow. "I see +her put out a thumb an' finger from under the spread an' pinch up a +fold of her sister Deckett's dress, to try an' see if 'twas all wool. +I thought 'twa'n't all wool, myself, an' I know it now by the way she +looked. She was a very knowin' person about materials; we shall miss +poor Mis' Barsett in many ways, she was always the one to consult with +about matters o' dress." +</p> +<p> +"She passed away easy at the last, I hope?" asked Mrs. Crane with +interest. +</p> +<p> +"Why, I wa'n't there, if you'll believe it!" exclaimed Sarah Ellen, +flushing, and looking at her friend for sympathy. "Sister Barsett +revived up the first o' the afternoon, an' they sent for Elder French. +She took notice of him, and he exhorted quite a spell, an' then he +spoke o' there being need of air in the room, Mis' Deckett havin' +closed every window, an' she asked me of all folks if I hadn't better +step out; but Elder French come too, an' he was very reasonable, an' +had a word with me about Mis' Deckett an' Mis' Peak an' the way they +was workin' things. I told him right out how they never come near when +the rest of us was havin' it so hard with her along in the spring, but +now they thought she was re'lly goin' to die, they come settlin' down +like a pair o' old crows in a field to pick for what they could get. I +just made up my mind they should have all the care if they wanted it. +It didn't seem as if there was anything more I could do for Sister +Barsett, an' I set there in the kitchen within call an' waited, an' +when I heard 'em sayin', 'There, she's gone, she's gone!' and Mis' +Deckett a-weepin', I put on my bunnit and stepped myself out into the +road. I felt to repent after I had gone but a rod, but I was so worked +up, an' I thought they'd call me back, an' then I was put out because +they didn't, an' so here I be. I can't help it now." Sarah Ellen was +crying again; she and Mrs. Crane could not look at each other. +</p> +<p> +"Well, you set an' rest," said Mrs. Crane kindly, and with the merest +shadow of disapproval. "You set an' rest, an' by an' by, if you'd feel +better, you could go back an' just make a little stop an' inquire +about the arrangements. I wouldn't harbor no feelin's, if they be +inconsiderate folks. Sister Barsett has often deplored their actions +in my hearing an' wished she had sisters like other folks. With all +her faults she was a useful person an' a good neighbor," mourned Mercy +Crane sincerely. "She was one that always had somethin' interestin' to +tell, an' if it wa'n't for her dyin' spells an' all that sort o' +nonsense, she'd make a figger in the world, she would so. She walked +with an air always, Mis' Barsett did; you'd ask who she was if you +hadn't known, as she passed you by. How quick we forget the outs about +anybody that's gone! But I always feel grateful to anybody that's +friendly, situated as I be. I shall miss her runnin' over. I can seem +to see her now, coming over the rise in the road. But don't you get in +a way of takin' things too hard, Sarah Ellen! You've worked yourself +all to pieces since I saw you last; you're gettin' to be as lean as a +meetin'-house fly. Now, you're comin' in to have a cup o' tea with me, +an' then you'll feel better. I've got some new molasses gingerbread +that I baked this mornin'." +</p> +<p> +"I do feel beat out, Mis' Crane," acknowledged the poor little soul, +glad of a chance to speak, but touched by this unexpected mark of +consideration. "If I could ha' done as I wanted to I should be feelin' +well enough, but to be set aside an' ordered about, where I'd taken +the lead in sickness so much, an' knew how to deal with Sister Barsett +so well! She might be livin' now, perhaps"— +</p> +<p> +"Come; we'd better go in, 'tis gettin' damp," and the mistress of the +house rose so hurriedly as to seem bustling. "Don't dwell on Sister +Barsett an' her foolish folks no more; I wouldn't, if I was you." +</p> +<p> +They went into the front room, which was dim with the twilight of the +half-closed blinds and two great syringa bushes that grew against +them. Sarah Ellen put down her bundle and bestowed herself in the +large, cane-seated rocking-chair. Mrs. Crane directed her to stay +there awhile and rest, and then come out into the kitchen when she got +ready. +</p> +<p> +A cheerful clatter of dishes was heard at once upon Mrs. Crane's +disappearance. "I hope she's goin' to make one o' her nice +short-cakes, but I don't know's she'll think it quite worth while," +thought the guest humbly. She desired to go out into the kitchen, but +it was proper behavior to wait until she should be called. Mercy Crane +was not a person with whom one could venture to take liberties. +Presently Sarah Ellen began to feel better. She did not often find +such a quiet place, or the quarter of an hour of idleness in which to +enjoy it, and was glad to make the most of this opportunity. Just now +she felt tired and lonely. She was a busy, unselfish, eager-minded +creature by nature, but now, while grief was sometimes uppermost in +her mind and sometimes a sense of wrong, every moment found her more +peaceful, and the great excitement little by little faded away. +</p> +<p> +"What a person poor Sister Barsett was to dread growing old so she +couldn't get about. I'm sure I shall miss her as much as anybody," +said Mrs. Crane, suddenly opening the kitchen door, and letting in an +unmistakable and delicious odor of short-cake that revived still more +the drooping spirits of her guest. "An' a good deal of knowledge has +died with her," she added, coming into the room and seeming to make it +lighter. +</p> +<p> +"There, she knew a good deal, but she didn't know all, especially o' +doctorin'," insisted Sarah Ellen from the rocking-chair, with an +unexpected little laugh. "She used to lay down the law to me as if I +had neither sense nor experience, but when it came to her bad spells +she'd always send for me. It takes everybody to know everything, but +Sister Barsett was of an opinion that her information was sufficient +for the town. She was tellin' me the day I went there how she disliked +to have old Mis' Doubleday come an' visit with her, an' remarked that +she called Mis' Doubleday very officious. 'Went right down on her +knees an' prayed,' says she. 'Anybody would have thought I was a +heathen!' But I kind of pacified her feelin's, an' told her I supposed +the old lady meant well." +</p> +<p> +"Did she give away any of her things?—Mis' Barsett, I mean," inquired +Mrs. Crane. +</p> +<p> +"Not in my hearin'," replied Sarah Ellen Dow. "Except one day, the +first of the week, she told her oldest sister, Mis' Deckett,—'twas +that first day she rode over—that she might have her green quilted +petticoat; you see it was a rainy day, an' Mis' Deckett had complained +o' feelin' thin. She went right up an' got it, and put it on an' wore +it off, an' I'm sure I thought no more about it, until I heard Sister +Barsett groanin' dreadful in the night. I got right up to see what the +matter was, an' what do you think but she was wantin' that petticoat +back, and not thinking any too well o' Nancy Deckett for takin' it +when 'twas offered. 'Nancy never showed no sense o' propriety,' says +Sister Barsett; I just wish you'd heard her go on! +</p> +<p> +"If she had felt to remember me," continued Sarah Ellen, after they +had laughed a little, "I'd full as soon have some of her nice +crockery-ware. She told me once, years ago, when I was stoppin' to tea +with her an' we were havin' it real friendly, that she should leave me +her Britannia tea-set, but I ain't got it in writin', and I can't say +she's ever referred to the matter since. It ain't as if I had a home +o' my own to keep it in, but I should have thought a great deal of it +for her sake," and the speaker's voice faltered. "I must say that with +all her virtues she never was a first-class housekeeper, but I +wouldn't say it to any but a friend. You never eat no preserves o' +hers that wa'n't commencin' to work, an' you know as well as I how +little forethought she had about putting away her woolens. I sat +behind her once in meetin' when I was stoppin' with the Tremletts and +so occupied a seat in their pew, an' I see between ten an' a dozen +moth millers come workin' out o' her fitch-fur tippet. They was +flutterin' round her bonnet same's 'twas a lamp. I should be mortified +to death to have such a thing happen to me." +</p> +<p> +"Every housekeeper has her weak point; I've got mine as much as +anybody else," acknowledged Mercy Crane with spirit, "but you never +see no moth millers come workin' out o' me in a public place." +</p> +<p> +"Ain't your oven beginning to get overhet?" anxiously inquired Sarah +Ellen Dow, who was sitting more in the draught, and could not bear to +have any accident happen to the supper. Mrs. Crane flew to a +short-cake's rescue, and presently called her guest to the table. +</p> +<p> +The two women sat down to deep and brimming cups of tea. Sarah Ellen +noticed with great gratification that her hostess had put on two of +the best tea-cups and some citron-melon preserves. It was not an +every-day supper. She was used to hard fare, poor, hard-working Sarah +Ellen, and this handsome social attention did her good. Sister Crane +rarely entertained a friend, and it would be a pleasure to speak of +the tea-drinking for weeks to come. +</p> +<p> +"You've put yourself out quite a consid'able for me," she +acknowledged. "How pretty these cups is! You oughtn't to use 'em so +common as for me. I wish I had a home I could really call my own to +ask you to, but 't ain't never been so I could. Sometimes I wonder +what's goin' to become o' me when I get so I'm past work. Takin' care +o' sick folks an' bein' in houses where there's a sight goin' on an' +everybody in a hurry kind of wears on me now I'm most a-gittin' in +years. I was wishin' the other day that I could get with some +comfortable kind of a sick person, where I could live right along +quiet as other folks do, but folks never sends for me 'less they're +drove to it. I ain't laid up anything to really depend upon." +</p> +<p> +The situation appealed to Mercy Crane, well to do as she was and not +burdened with responsibilities. She stirred uneasily in her chair, but +could not bring herself to the point of offering Sarah Ellen the home +she coveted. +</p> +<p> +"Have some hot tea," she insisted, in a matter of fact tone, and Sarah +Ellen's face, which had been lighted by a sudden eager hopefulness, +grew dull and narrow again. +</p> +<p> +"Plenty, plenty, Mis' Crane," she said sadly, "'tis beautiful +tea,—you always have good tea;" but she could not turn her thoughts +from her own uncertain future. "None of our folks has ever lived to be +a burden," she said presently, in a pathetic tone, putting down her +cup. "My mother was thought to be doing well until four o'clock an' +was dead at ten. My Aunt Nancy came to our house well at twelve +o'clock an' died that afternoon; my father was sick but ten days. +There was dear sister Betsy, she did go in consumption, but 'twa'n't +an expensive sickness." +</p> +<p> +"I've thought sometimes about you, how you'd get past rovin' from +house to house one o' these days. I guess your friends will stand by +you." Mrs. Crane spoke with unwonted sympathy, and Sarah Ellen's heart +leaped with joy. +</p> +<p> +"You're real kind," she said simply. "There's nobody I set so much by. +But I shall miss Sister Barsett, when all's said an' done. She's asked +me many a time to stop with her when I wasn't doin' nothin'. We all +have our failin's, but she was a friendly creatur'. I sha'n't want to +see her laid away." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I was thinkin' a few minutes ago that I shouldn't want to look +out an' see the funeral go by. She's one o' the old neighbors. I +s'pose I shall have to look, or I shouldn't feel right afterward," +said Mrs. Crane mournfully. "If I hadn't got so kind of housebound," +she added with touching frankness, "I'd just as soon go over with you +an' offer to watch this night." +</p> +<p> +"'T would astonish Sister Barsett so I don't know but she'd return." +Sarah Ellen's eyes danced with amusement; she could not resist her own +joke, and Mercy Crane herself had to smile. +</p> +<p> +"Now I must be goin', or 'twill be dark," said the guest, rising and +sighing after she had eaten her last crumb of gingerbread. "Yes, thank +ye, you're real good, I will come back if I find I ain't wanted. Look +what a pretty sky there is!" and the two friends went to the side door +and stood together in a moment of affectionate silence, looking out +toward the sunset across the wide fields. The country was still with +that deep rural stillness which seems to mean the absence of humanity. +Only the thrushes were singing far away in the walnut woods beyond the +orchard, and some crows were flying over and cawed once loudly, as if +they were speaking to the women at the door. +</p> +<p> +Just as the friends were parting, after most grateful acknowledgments +from Sarah Ellen Dow, some one came driving along the road in a hurry +and stopped. +</p> +<p> +"Who's that with you, Mis' Crane?" called one of their near neighbors. +</p> +<p> +"It's Sarah Ellen Dow," answered Mrs. Crane. "What's the matter?" +</p> +<p> +"I thought so, but I couldn't rightly see. Come, they are in a peck o' +trouble up to Sister Barsett's, wonderin' where you be," grumbled the +man. "They can't do nothin' with her; she's drove off everybody an' +keeps a-screechin' for you. Come, step along, Sarah Ellen, do!" +</p> +<p> +"Sister Barsett!" exclaimed both the women. Mercy Crane sank down upon +the doorstep, but Sarah Ellen stepped out upon the grass all of a +tremble, and went toward the wagon. "They said this afternoon that +Sister Barsett was gone," she managed to say. "What did they mean?" +</p> +<p> +"Gone where?" asked the impatient neighbor. "I expect 'twas one of her +spells. She's come to; they say she wants somethin' hearty for her +tea. Nobody can't take one step till you get there, neither." +</p> +<p> +Sarah Ellen was still dazed; she returned to the doorway, where Mercy +Crane sat shaking with laughter. "I don't know but we might as well +laugh as cry," she said in an aimless sort of way. "I know you too +well to think you're going to repeat a single word. Well, I'll get my +bonnet an' start; I expect I've got considerable to cope with, but I'm +well rested. Good-night, Mis' Crane, I certain did have a beautiful +tea, whatever the future may have in store." +</p> +<p> +She wore a solemn expression as she mounted into the wagon in haste +and departed, but she was far out of sight when Mercy Crane stopped +laughing and went into the house. +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0029"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + Decoration Day +</h2> +<h3> +I. +</h3> +<p> +A week before the thirtieth of May, three friends—John Stover and +Henry Merrill and Asa Brown—happened to meet on Saturday evening at +Barton's store at the Plains. They were ready to enjoy this idle hour +after a busy week. After long easterly rains, the sun had at last come +out bright and clear, and all the Barlow farmers had been planting. +There was even a good deal of ploughing left to be done, the season +was so backward. +</p> +<p> +The three middle-aged men were old friends. They had been +school-fellows, and when they were hardly out of their boyhood the war +came on, and they enlisted in the same company, on the same day, and +happened to march away elbow to elbow. Then came the great experience +of a great war, and the years that followed their return from the +South had come to each almost alike. These men might have been members +of the same rustic household, they knew each other's history so well. +</p> +<p> +They were sitting on a low wooden bench at the left of the store door +as you went in. People were coming and going on their Saturday night +errands,—the post-office was in Barton's store,—but the friends +talked on eagerly, without being interrupted, except by an occasional +nod of recognition. They appeared to take no notice at all of the +neighbors whom they saw oftenest. It was a most beautiful evening; the +two great elms were almost half in leaf over the blacksmith's shop +which stood across the wide road. Farther along were two small +old-fashioned houses and the old white church, with its pretty belfry +of four arched sides and a tiny dome at the top. The large cockerel on +the vane was pointing a little south of west, and there was still +light enough to make it shine bravely against the deep blue eastern +sky. On the western side of the road, near the store, were the +parsonage and the storekeeper's modern house, which had a French roof +and some attempt at decoration, which the long-established Barlow +people called gingerbread-work, and regarded with mingled pride and +disdain. These buildings made the tiny village called Barlow Plains. +They stood in the middle of a long narrow strip of level ground. They +were islanded by green fields and pastures. There were hills beyond; +the mountains themselves seemed very near. Scattered about on the hill +slopes were farmhouses, which stood so far apart, with their clusters +of out-buildings, that each looked lonely, and the pine woods above +seemed to besiege them all. It was lighter on the uplands than it was +in the valley, where the three men sat on their bench, with their +backs to the store and the western sky. +</p> +<p> +"Well, here we be 'most into June, an' I 'ain't got a bush-bean above +ground," lamented Henry Merrill. +</p> +<p> +"Your land's always late, ain't it? But you always catch up with the +rest on us," Asa Brown consoled him. "I've often observed that your +land, though early planted, was late to sprout. I view it there's a +good week's difference betwixt me an' Stover an' your folks, but come +first o' July we all even up." +</p> +<p> +"'Tis just so," said John Stover, taking his pipe out of his mouth, as +if he had a good deal more to say, and then replacing it, as if he had +changed his mind. +</p> +<p> +"Made it extry hard having that long wet spell. Can't none on us take +no day off this season," said Asa Brown; but nobody thought it worth +his while to respond to such evident truth. +</p> +<p> +"Next Saturday'll be the thirtieth o' May—that's Decoration Day, +ain't it?—come round again. Lord! how the years slip by after you git +to be forty-five an' along there!" said Asa again. "I s'pose some o' +our folks'll go over to Alton to see the procession, same's usual. +I've got to git one o' them small flags to stick on our Joel's grave, +an' Mis' Dexter always counts on havin' some for Harrison's lot. I +calculate to get 'em somehow. I must make time to ride over, but I +don't know where the time's comin' from out o' next week. I wish the +women folks would tend to them things. There's the spot where Eb +Munson an' John Tighe lays in the poor-farm lot, an' I did mean +certain to buy flags for 'em last year an' year before, but I went an' +forgot it. I'd like to have folks that rode by notice 'em for once, if +they was town paupers. Eb Munson was as darin' a man as ever stepped +out to tuck o' drum." +</p> +<p> +"So he was," said John Stover, taking his pipe with decision and +knocking out the ashes. "Drink was his ruin; but I wan't one that +could be harsh with Eb, no matter what he done. He worked hard long's +he could, too; but he wan't like a sound man, an' I think he took +somethin' first not so much 'cause he loved it, but to kind of keep +his strength up so's he could work, an' then, all of a sudden, rum +clinched with him an' threw him. Eb was talkin' 'long o' me one day +when he was about half full, an' says he, right out, 'I wouldn't have +fell to this state,' says he, 'if I'd had me a home an' a little +fam'ly; but it don't make no difference to nobody, and it's the best +comfort I seem to have, an' I ain't goin' to do without it. I'm ailin' +all the time,' says he, 'an' if I keep middlin' full, I make out to +hold my own an' to keep along o' my work.' I pitied Eb. I says to him, +'You ain't goin' to bring no disgrace on us old army boys, be you, +Eb?' an' he says no, he wan't. I think if he'd lived to get one o' +them big fat pensions, he'd had it easier. Eight dollars a month paid +his board, while he'd pick up what cheap work he could, an' then he +got so that decent folks didn't seem to want the bother of him, an' so +he come on the town." +</p> +<p> +"There was somethin' else to it," said Henry Merrill soberly. "Drink +come natural to him, 'twas born in him, I expect, an' there wan't +nobody that could turn the divil out same's they did in Scriptur'. His +father an' his gran'father was drinkin' men; but they was kind-hearted +an' good neighbors, an' never set out to wrong nobody. 'Twas the +custom to drink in their day; folks was colder an' lived poorer in +early times, an' that's how most of 'em kept a-goin'. But what stove +Eb all up was his disapp'intment with Marthy Peck—her forsakin' of +him an' marryin' old John Down whilst Eb was off to war. I've always +laid it up ag'inst her." +</p> +<p> +"So've I," said Asa Brown. "She didn't use the poor fellow right. I +guess she was full as well off, but it's one thing to show judgment, +an' another thing to have heart." +</p> +<p> +There was a long pause; the subject was too familiar to need further +comment. +</p> +<p> +"There ain't no public sperit here in Barlow," announced Asa Brown, +with decision. "I don't s'pose we could ever get up anything for +Decoration Day. I've felt kind of 'shamed, but it always comes in a +busy time; 'twan't no time to have it, anyway, right in late +plantin'." +</p> +<p> +"'Tain't no use to look for public sperit 'less you've got some +yourself," observed John Stover soberly; but something had pleased him +in the discouraged suggestion. "Perhaps we could mark the day this +year. It comes on a Saturday; that ain't nigh so bad as bein' in the +middle of the week." +</p> +<p> +Nobody made any answer, and presently he went on,— +</p> +<p> +"There was a time along back when folks was too nigh the war-time to +give much thought to the bigness of it. The best fellows was them that +had stayed to home an' worked their trades an' laid up money; but I +don't know's it's so now." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, the fellows that stayed at home got all the fat places, an' when +we come back we felt dreadful behind the times," grumbled Asa Brown. +"I remember how 'twas." +</p> +<p> +"They begun to call us heroes an' old stick-in-the-mud just about the +same time," resumed Stover, with a chuckle. "We wa'n't no hand for +strippin' woodland nor even tradin' hosses them first few years. I +don' know why 'twas we were so beat out. The best most on us could do +was to sag right on to the old folks. Father he never wanted me to go +to the war,—'twas partly his Quaker breed,—an' he used to be +dreadful mortified with the way I hung round down here to the store +an' loafed round a-talkin' about when I was out South, an' arguin' +with folks that didn't know nothin', about what the generals done. +There! I see me now just as he see me then; but after I had my +boy-strut out, I took holt o' the old farm 'long o' father, an' I've +made it bounce. Look at them old meadows an' see the herd's grass that +come off of 'em last year! I ain't ashamed o' my place now, if I did +go to the war." +</p> +<p> +"It all looks a sight bigger to me now than it did then," said Henry +Merrill. "Our goin' to the war, I refer to. We didn't sense it no more +than other folks did. I used to be sick o' hearin' their stuff about +patriotism and lovin' your country, an' them pieces o' poetry women +folks wrote for the papers on the old flag, an' our fallen heroes, an' +them things; they didn't seem to strike me in the right place; but I +tell ye it kind o' starts me now every time I come on the flag +sudden,—it does so. A spell ago—'long in the fall, I guess it was—I +was over to Alton, an' there was a fire company paradin'. They'd got +the prize at a fair, an' had just come home on the cars, an' I heard +the band; so I stepped to the front o' the store where me an' my woman +was tradin', an' the company felt well, an' was comin' along the +street 'most as good as troops. I see the old flag a-comin', kind of +blowin' back, an' it went all over me. Somethin' worked round in my +throat; I vow I come near cryin'. I was glad nobody see me." +</p> +<p> +"I'd go to war again in a minute," declared Stover, after an +expressive pause; "but I expect we should know better what we was +about. I don' know but we've got too many rooted opinions now to make +us the best o' soldiers." +</p> +<p> +"Martin Tighe an' John Tighe was considerable older than the rest, and +they done well," answered Henry Merrill quickly. "We three was the +youngest of any, but we did think at the time we knew the most." +</p> +<p> +"Well, whatever you may say, that war give the country a great start," +said Asa Brown. "I tell ye we just begin to see the scope on't. There +was my cousin, you know, Dan'l Evins, that stopped with us last +winter; he was tellin' me that one o' his coastin' trips he was into +the port o' Beaufort lo'din' with yaller-pine lumber, an' he roved +into an old buryin'-ground there is there, an' he see a stone that had +on it some young Southern fellow's name that was killed in the war, +an' under it was, 'He died for his country.' Dan'l knowed how I used +to feel about them South Car'lina goings on, an' I did feel kind o' +red an' ugly for a minute, an' then somethin' come over me, an' I +says, 'Well, I don' know but what the poor chap did, Dan Evins, when +you come to view it all round.'" +</p> +<p> +The other men made no answer. +</p> +<p> +"Le's see what we can do this year. I don't care if we be a poor +han'ful," urged Henry Merrill. "The young folks ought to have the +good of it; I'd like to have my boys see somethin' different. Le's get +together what men there is. How many's left, anyhow? I know there was +thirty-seven went from old Barlow, three-months' men an' all." +</p> +<p> +"There can't be over eight now, countin' out Martin Tighe; he can't +march," said Stover. "No, 'tain't worth while." But the others did not +notice his disapproval. +</p> +<p> +"There's nine in all," announced Asa Brown, after pondering and +counting two or three times on his fingers. "I can't make us no more. +I never could carry figur's in my head." +</p> +<p> +"I make nine," said Merrill. "We'll have Martin ride, an' Jesse Dean +too, if he will. He's awful lively on them canes o' his. An' there's +Jo Wade with his crutch; he's amazin' spry for a short distance. But +we can't let 'em go far afoot; they're decripped men. We'll make 'em +all put on what they've got left o' their uniforms, an' we'll scratch +round an' have us a fife an' drum, an' make the best show we can." +</p> +<p> +"Why, Martin Tighe's boy, the next to the oldest, is an excellent hand +to play the fife!" said John Stover, suddenly growing enthusiastic. +"If you two are set on it, let's have a word with the minister +to-morrow, an' see what he says. Perhaps he'll give out some kind of a +notice. You have to have a good many bunches o' flowers. I guess we'd +better call a meetin', some few on us, an' talk it over first o' the +week. 'Twouldn't be no great of a range for us to take to march from +the old buryin'-ground at the meetin'-house here up to the poor-farm +an' round by Deacon Elwell's lane, so's to notice them two stones he +set up for his boys that was sunk on the man-o'-war. I expect they +notice stones same's if the folks laid there, don't they?" +</p> +<p> +He spoke wistfully. The others knew that Stover was thinking of the +stone he had set up to the memory of his only brother, whose nameless +grave had been made somewhere in the Wilderness. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know but what they'll be mad if we don't go by every house in +town," he added anxiously, as they rose to go home. "'Tis a terrible +scattered population in Barlow to favor with a procession." +</p> +<p> +It was a mild starlit night. The three friends took their separate +ways presently, leaving the Plains road and crossing the fields by +foot-paths toward their farms. +</p> +<h3> +II. +</h3> +<p> +The week went by, and the next Saturday morning brought fair weather. +It was a busy morning on the farms—like any other; but long before +noon the teams of horses and oxen were seen going home from work in +the fields, and everybody got ready in haste for the great event of +the afternoon. It was so seldom that any occasion roused public +interest in Barlow that there was an unexpected response, and the +green before the old white meeting-house was covered with country +wagons and groups of people, whole families together, who had come on +foot. The old soldiers were to meet in the church; at half past one +the procession was to start, and on its return the minister was to +make an address in the old burying-ground. John Stover had been first +lieutenant in the war, so he was made captain of the day. A man from +the next town had offered to drum for them, and Martin Tighe's proud +boy was present with his fife. He had a great longing—strange enough +in that peaceful, sheep-raising neighborhood—to go into the army; but +he and his elder brother were the mainstay of their crippled father, +and he could not be spared from the large household until a younger +brother could take his place; so that all his fire and military zeal +went for the present into martial tunes, and the fife was a +safety-valve for his enthusiasm. +</p> +<p> +The army men were used to seeing each other; everybody knew everybody +in the little country town of Barlow; but when one comrade after +another appeared in what remained of his accoutrements, they felt the +day to be greater than they had planned, and the simple ceremony +proved more solemn than any one expected. They could make no use of +their every-day jokes and friendly greetings. Their old blue coats +and tarnished army caps looked faded and antiquated enough. One of +the men had nothing left but his rusty canteen and rifle; but these he +carried like sacred emblems. He had worn out all his army clothes long +ago, because he was too poor when he was discharged to buy any others. +</p> +<p> +When the door of the church opened, the veterans were not abashed by +the size and silence of the crowd. They came walking two by two down +the steps, and took their places in line as if there were nobody +looking on. Their brief evolutions were like a mystic rite. The two +lame men refused to do anything but march as best they could; but poor +Martin Tighe, more disabled than they, was brought out and lifted into +Henry Merrill's best wagon, where he sat up, straight and soldierly, +with his boy for driver. There was a little flag in the whip-socket +before him, which flapped gayly in the breeze. It was such a long time +since he had been seen out-of-doors that everybody found him a great +object of interest, and paid him much attention. Even those who were +tired of being asked to contribute to his support, who resented the +fact of his having a helpless wife and great family; who always +insisted that with his little pension and hopeless lameness, his +fingerless left hand and failing sight, he could support himself and +his household if he chose,—even those persons came forward now to +greet him handsomely and with large approval. To be sure, he enjoyed +the conversation of idlers, and his wife had a complaining way that +was the same as begging, especially since her boys began to grow up +and be of some use; and there were one or two near neighbors who never +let them really want; so other people, who had cares enough of their +own, could excuse themselves for forgetting him the year round, and +even call him shiftless. But there were none to look askance at Martin +Tighe on Decoration Day, as he sat in the wagon, with his bleached +face like a captive's, and his thin, afflicted body. He stretched out +his whole hand impartially to those who had remembered and those who +had forgotten both his courage at Fredericksburg and his sorry need in +Barlow. +</p> +<p> +Henry Merrill had secured the engine company's large flag in Alton, +and now carried it proudly. There were eight men in line, two by two, +and marching a good bit apart, to make their line the longer. The fife +and drum struck up gallantly together, and the little procession moved +away slowly along the country road. It gave an unwonted touch of color +to the landscape,—the scarlet, the blue, between the new-ploughed +fields and budding roadside thickets, between the wide dim ranges of +the mountains, under the great white clouds of the spring sky. Such +processions grow more pathetic year by year; it will not be so long +now before wondering children will have seen the last. The aging faces +of the men, the renewed comradeship, the quick beat of the hearts that +remember, the tenderness of those who think upon old sorrows,—all +these make the day a lovelier and a sadder festival. So men's hearts +were stirred, they knew not why, when they heard the shrill fife and +the incessant drum along the quiet Barlow road, and saw the handful of +old soldiers marching by. Nobody thought of them as familiar men and +neighbors alone,—they were a part of that army which had saved its +country. They had taken their lives in their hands and gone out to +fight for their country, plain John Stover and Jesse Dean and the +rest. No matter if every other day in the year they counted for little +or much, whether they were lame-footed and lagging, whether their +farms were of poor soil or rich. +</p> +<p> +The little troop went in slender line along the road; the crowded +country wagons and all the people who went afoot followed Martin +Tighe's wagon as if it were a great gathering at a country funeral. +The route was short, and the long, straggling line marched slowly; it +could go no faster than the lame men could walk. +</p> +<p> +In one of the houses by the roadside an old woman sat by a window, in +an old-fashioned black gown, and clean white cap with a prim border +which bound her thin, sharp features closely. She had been for a long +time looking out eagerly over the snowberry and cinnamon-rose bushes; +her face was pressed close to the pane, and presently she caught sight +of the great flag as it came down the road. +</p> +<p> +"Let me see 'em! I've got to see 'em go by!" she pleaded, trying to +rise from her chair alone when she heard the fife, and the women +helped her to the door, and held her so that she could stand and wait. +She had been an old woman when the war began; she had sent sons and +grandsons to the field; they were all gone now. As the men came by, +she straightened her bent figure with all the vigor of youth. The fife +and drum stopped suddenly; the colors lowered. She did not heed that, +but her old eyes flashed and then filled with tears to see the flag +going to salute the soldiers' graves. "Thank ye, boys; thank ye!" she +cried, in her quavering voice, and they all cheered her. The cheer +went back along the straggling line for old Grandmother Dexter, +standing there in her front door between the lilacs. It was one of the +great moments of the day. +</p> +<p> +The few old people at the poor-house, too, were waiting to see the +show. The keeper's young son, knowing that it was a day of festivity, +and not understanding exactly why, had put his toy flag out of the +gable window, and there it showed against the gray clapboards like a +gay flower. It was the only bit of decoration along the veterans' way, +and they stopped and saluted it before they broke ranks and went out +to the field corner beyond the poor-farm barn to the bit of ground +that held the paupers' unmarked graves. There was a solemn silence +while Asa Brown went to the back of Tighe's wagon, where such light +freight was carried, and brought two flags, and he and John Stover +planted them straight in the green sod. They knew well enough where +the right graves were, for these had been made in a corner by +themselves, with unwonted sentiment. And so Eben Munson and John Tighe +were honored like the rest, both by their flags and by great and +unexpected nosegays of spring flowers, daffies and flowering currant +and red tulips, which lay on the graves already. John Stover and his +comrade glanced at each other curiously while they stood singing, and +then laid their own bunches of lilacs down and came away. +</p> +<p> +Then something happened that almost none of the people in the wagons +understood. Martin Tighe's boy, who played the fife, had studied well +his part, and on his poor short-winded instrument now sounded taps as +well as he could. He had heard it done once in Alton at a soldier's +funeral. The plaintive notes called sadly over the fields, and echoed +back from the hills. The few veterans could not look at each other; +their eyes brimmed up with tears; they could not have spoken. Nothing +called back old army days like that. They had a sudden vision of the +Virginian camp, the hillside dotted white with tents, the twinkling +lights in other camps, and far away the glow of smouldering fires. +They heard the bugle call from post to post; they remembered the +chilly winter night, the wind in the pines, the laughter of the men. +Lights out! Martin Tighe's boy sounded it again sharply. It seemed as +if poor Eb Munson and John Tighe must hear it too in their narrow +graves. +</p> +<p> +The procession went on, and stopped here and there at the little +graveyards on the farms, leaving their bright flags to flutter through +summer and winter rains and snows, and to bleach in the wind and +sunshine. When they returned to the church, the minister made an +address about the war, and every one listened with new ears. Most of +what he said was familiar enough to his listeners; they were used to +reading those phrases about the results of the war, the glorious +future of the South, in their weekly newspapers; but there never had +been such a spirit of patriotism and loyalty waked in Barlow as was +waked that day by the poor parade of the remnant of the Barlow +soldiers. They sent flags to all the distant graves, and proud were +those households who claimed kinship with valor, and could drive or +walk away with their flags held up so that others could see that they, +too, were of the elect. +</p> +<h3> +III. +</h3> +<p> +It is well that the days are long in the last of May, but John Stover +had to hurry more than usual with his evening work, and then, having +the longest distance to walk, he was much the latest comer to the +Plains store, where his two triumphant friends were waiting for him +impatiently on the bench. They also had made excuse of going to the +post-office and doing an unnecessary errand for their wives, and were +talking together so busily that they had gathered a group about them +before the store. When they saw Stover coming, they rose hastily and +crossed the road to meet him, as if they were a committee in special +session. They leaned against the post-and-board fence, after they had +shaken hands with each other solemnly. +</p> +<p> +"Well, we've had a great day, ain't we, John?" asked Henry Merrill. +"You did lead off splendid. We've done a grand thing, now, I tell you. +All the folks say we've got to keep it up every year. Everybody had to +have a talk about it as I went home. They say they had no idea we +should make such a show. Lord! I wish we'd begun while there was more +of us!" +</p> +<p> +"That han'some flag was the great feature," said Asa Brown generously. +"I want to pay my part for hirin' it. An' then folks was glad to see +poor old Martin made o' some consequence." +</p> +<p> +"There was half a dozen said to me that another year they was goin' to +have flags out, and trim up their places somehow or 'nother. Folks has +feelin' enough, but you've got to rouse it," said Merrill. +</p> +<p> +"I have thought o' joinin' the Grand Army over to Alton time an' +again, but it's a good ways to go, an' then the expense has been o' +some consideration," Asa continued. "I don't know but two or three +over there. You know, most o' the Alton men nat'rally went out in the +rigiments t' other side o' the State line, an' they was in other +battles, an' never camped nowheres nigh us. Seems to me we ought to +have home feelin' enough to do what we can right here." +</p> +<p> +"The minister says to me this afternoon that he was goin' to arrange +an' have some talks in the meetin'-house next winter, an' have some of +us tell where we was in the South; an' one night 'twill be about camp +life, an' one about the long marches, an' then about the +battles,—that would take some time,—an' tell all we could about the +boys that was killed, an' their record, so they wouldn't be forgot. He +said some of the folks must have the letters we wrote home from the +front, an' we could make out quite a history of us. I call Elder +Dallas a very smart man; he'd planned it all out a'ready, for the +benefit o' the young folks, he said," announced Henry Merrill, in a +tone of approval. +</p> +<p> +"I s'pose there ain't none of us but could add a little somethin'," +answered John Stover modestly. "'Twould re'lly learn the young folks +a good deal. I should be scared numb to try an' speak from the pulpit. +That ain't what the Elder means, is it? Now I was one that had a good +chance to see somethin' o' Washin'ton. I shook hands with President +Lincoln, an' I always think I'm worth lookin' at for that, if I ain't +for nothin' else. 'Twas that time I was just out o' hospit'l, an' able +to crawl about some. I've often told you how 'twas I met him, an' he +stopped an' shook hands an' asked where I'd been at the front an' how +I was gettin' along with my hurts. Well, we'll see how 'tis when +winter comes. I never thought I had no gift for public speakin', 'less +'twas for drivin' cattle or pollin' the house town-meetin' days. Here! +I've got somethin' in mind. You needn't speak about it if I tell it to +ye," he added suddenly. "You know all them han'some flowers that was +laid on to Eb Munson's grave an' Tighe's? I mistrusted you thought the +same thing I did by the way you looked. They come from Marthy Down's +front yard. My woman told me when we got home that she knew 'em in a +minute; there wa'n't nobody in town had that kind o' red flowers but +her. She must ha' kind o' harked back to the days when she was Marthy +Peck. She must have come over with 'em after dark, or else dreadful +early in the mornin'." +</p> +<p> +Henry Merrill cleared his throat. "There ain't nothin' half-way 'bout +Mis' Down," he said. "I wouldn't ha' spoken 'bout this 'less you had +led right on to it; but I overtook her when I was gittin' towards home +this afternoon, an' I see by her looks she was worked up a good deal; +but we talked about how well things had gone off, an' she wanted to +know what expenses we'd been put to, an' I told her; and she said +she'd give five dollars any day I'd stop in for it. An' then she spoke +right out. 'I'm alone in the world,' says she, 'and I've got somethin' +to do with, an' I'd like to have a plain stone put up to Eb Munson's +grave, with the number of his rigiment on it, an' I'll pay the bill. +'Tain't out o' Mr. Down's money,' she says; ''tis mine, an' I want you +to see to it.' I said I would, but we'd made a plot to git some o' +them soldiers' headstones that's provided by the government. 'Twas a +shame it had been overlooked so long. 'No,' says she; 'I'm goin' to +pay for Eb's myself.' An' I told her there wouldn't be no objection. +Don't ary one o' you speak about it. 'Twouldn't be fair. She was real +well-appearin'. I never felt to respect Marthy so before." +</p> +<p> +"We was kind o' hard on her sometimes, but folks couldn't help it. +I've seen her pass Eb right by in the road an' never look at him when +he first come home," said John Stover. +</p> +<p> +"If she hadn't felt bad, she wouldn't have cared one way or t'other," +insisted Henry Merrill. "'Tain't for us to judge. Sometimes folks has +to get along in years before they see things fair. Come; I must be +goin' home. I'm tired as an old dog." +</p> +<p> +"It seemed kind o' natural to be steppin' out together again. Strange +we three got through with so little damage, an' so many dropped round +us," said Asa Brown. "I've never been one mite sorry I went out in old +A Company. I was thinkin' when I was marchin' to-day, though, that we +should all have to take to the wagons before long an' do our marchin' +on wheels, so many of us felt kind o' stiff. There's one thing,—folks +won't never say again that we can't show no public sperit here in old +Barlow." +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0030"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + The Flight of Betsey Lane +</h2> +<h3> +I. +</h3> +<p> +One windy morning in May, three old women sat together near an open +window in the shed chamber of Byfleet Poor-house. The wind was from +the northwest, but their window faced the southeast, and they were +only visited by an occasional pleasant waft of fresh air. They were +close together, knee to knee, picking over a bushel of beans, and +commanding a view of the dandelion-starred, green yard below, and of +the winding, sandy road that led to the village, two miles away. Some +captive bees were scolding among the cobwebs of the rafters overhead, +or thumping against the upper panes of glass; two calves were bawling +from the barnyard, where some of the men were at work loading a +dump-cart and shouting as if every one were deaf. There was a +cheerful feeling of activity, and even an air of comfort, about the +Byfleet Poor-house. Almost every one was possessed of a most +interesting past, though there was less to be said about the future. +The inmates were by no means distressed or unhappy; many of them +retired to this shelter only for the winter season, and would go out +presently, some to begin such work as they could still do, others to +live in their own small houses; old age had impoverished most of them +by limiting their power of endurance; but far from lamenting the fact +that they were town charges, they rather liked the change and +excitement of a winter residence on the poor-farm. There was a +sharp-faced, hard-worked young widow with seven children, who was an +exception to the general level of society, because she deplored the +change in her fortunes. The older women regarded her with suspicion, +and were apt to talk about her in moments like this, when they +happened to sit together at their work. +</p> +<p> +The three bean-pickers were dressed alike in stout brown ginghams, +checked by a white line, and all wore great faded aprons of blue +drilling, with sufficient pockets convenient to the right hand. Miss +Peggy Bond was a very small, belligerent-looking person, who wore a +huge pair of steel-bowed spectacles, holding her sharp chin well up in +air, as if to supplement an inadequate nose. She was more than half +blind, but the spectacles seemed to face upward instead of square +ahead, as if their wearer were always on the sharp lookout for birds. +Miss Bond had suffered much personal damage from time to time, because +she never took heed where she planted her feet, and so was always +tripping and stubbing her bruised way through the world. She had +fallen down hatchways and cellarways, and stepped composedly into deep +ditches and pasture brooks; but she was proud of stating that she was +upsighted, and so was her father before her. At the poor-house, where +an unusual malady was considered a distinction, upsightedness was +looked upon as a most honorable infirmity. Plain rheumatism, such as +afflicted Aunt Lavina Dow, whose twisted hands found even this light +work difficult and tiresome,—plain rheumatism was something of +every-day occurrence, and nobody cared to hear about it. Poor Peggy +was a meek and friendly soul, who never put herself forward; she was +just like other folks, as she always loved to say, but Mrs. Lavina Dow +was a different sort of person altogether, of great dignity and, +occasionally, almost aggressive behavior. The time had been when she +could do a good day's work with anybody: but for many years now she +had not left the town-farm, being too badly crippled to work; she had +no relations or friends to visit, but from an innate love of authority +she could not submit to being one of those who are forgotten by the +world. Mrs. Dow was the hostess and social lawgiver here, where she +remembered every inmate and every item of interest for nearly forty +years, besides an immense amount of town history and biography for +three or four generations back. +</p> +<p> +She was the dear friend of the third woman, Betsey Lane; together they +led thought and opinion—chiefly opinion—and held sway, not only over +Byfleet Poor-farm, but also the selectmen and all others in authority. +Betsey Lane had spent most of her life as aid-in-general to the +respected household of old General Thornton. She had been much trusted +and valued, and, at the breaking up of that once large and flourishing +family, she had been left in good circumstances, what with legacies +and her own comfortable savings; but by sad misfortune and lavish +generosity everything had been scattered, and after much illness, +which ended in a stiffened arm and more uncertainty, the good soul had +sensibly decided that it was easier for the whole town to support her +than for a part of it. She had always hoped to see something of the +world before she died; she came of an adventurous, seafaring stock, +but had never made a longer journey than to the towns of Danby and +Northville, thirty miles away. +</p> +<p> +They were all old women; but Betsey Lane, who was sixty-nine, and +looked much older, was the youngest. Peggy Bond was far on in the +seventies, and Mrs. Dow was at least ten years older. She made a great +secret of her years; and as she sometimes spoke of events prior to the +Revolution with the assertion of having been an eye-witness, she +naturally wore an air of vast antiquity. Her tales were an +inexpressible delight to Betsey Lane, who felt younger by twenty years +because her friend and comrade was so unconscious of chronological +limitations. +</p> +<p> +The bushel basket of cranberry beans was within easy reach, and each +of the pickers had filled her lap from it again and again. The shed +chamber was not an unpleasant place in which to sit at work, with its +traces of seed corn hanging from the brown cross-beams, its spare +churns, and dusty loom, and rickety wool-wheels, and a few bits of old +furniture. In one far corner was a wide board of dismal use and +suggestion, and close beside it an old cradle. There was a battered +chest of drawers where the keeper of the poor-house kept his +garden-seeds, with the withered remains of three seed cucumbers +ornamenting the top. Nothing beautiful could be discovered, nothing +interesting, but there was something usable and homely about the +place. It was the favorite and untroubled bower of the bean-pickers, +to which they might retreat unmolested from the public apartments of +this rustic institution. +</p> +<p> +Betsey Lane blew away the chaff from her handful of beans. The spring +breeze blew the chaff back again, and sifted it over her face and +shoulders. She rubbed it out of her eyes impatiently, and happened to +notice old Peggy holding her own handful high, as if it were an +oblation, and turning her queer, up-tilted head this way and that, to +look at the beans sharply, as if she were first cousin to a hen. +</p> +<p> +"There, Miss Bond, 'tis kind of botherin' work for you, ain't it?" +Betsey inquired compassionately. +</p> +<p> +"I feel to enjoy it, anything that I can do my own way so," responded +Peggy. "I like to do my part. Ain't that old Mis' Fales comin' up the +road? It sounds like her step." +</p> +<p> +The others looked, but they were not far-sighted, and for a moment +Peggy had the advantage. Mrs. Fales was not a favorite. +</p> +<p> +"I hope she ain't comin' here to put up this spring. I guess she won't +now, it's gettin' so late," said Betsey Lane. "She likes to go rovin' +soon as the roads is settled." +</p> +<p> +"'Tis Mis' Fales!" said Peggy Bond, listening with solemn anxiety. +"There, do let's pray her by!" +</p> +<p> +"I guess she's headin' for her cousin's folks up Beech Hill way," said +Betsey presently. "If she'd left her daughter's this mornin', she'd +have got just about as far as this. I kind o' wish she had stepped in +just to pass the time o' day, long's she wa'n't going to make no +stop." +</p> +<p> +There was a silence as to further speech in the shed chamber; and even +the calves were quiet in the barnyard. The men had all gone away to +the field where corn-planting was going on. The beans clicked steadily +into the wooden measure at the pickers' feet. Betsey Lane began to +sing a hymn, and the others joined in as best they might, like +autumnal crickets; their voices were sharp and cracked, with now and +then a few low notes of plaintive tone. Betsey herself could sing +pretty well, but the others could only make a kind of accompaniment. +Their voices ceased altogether at the higher notes. +</p> +<p> +"Oh my! I wish I had the means to go to the Centennial," mourned +Betsey Lane, stopping so suddenly that the others had to go on +croaking and shrilling without her for a moment before they could +stop. "It seems to me as if I can't die happy 'less I do," she added; +"I ain't never seen nothin' of the world, an' here I be." +</p> +<p> +"What if you was as old as I be?" suggested Mrs. Dow pompously. +"You've got time enough yet, Betsey; don't you go an' despair. I +knowed of a woman that went clean round the world four times when she +was past eighty, an' enjoyed herself real well. Her folks followed the +sea; she had three sons an' a daughter married,—all shipmasters, and +she'd been with her own husband when they was young. She was left a +widder early, and fetched up her family herself,—a real stirrin', +smart woman. After they'd got married off, an' settled, an' was doing +well, she come to be lonesome; and first she tried to stick it out +alone, but she wa'n't one that could; an' she got a notion she hadn't +nothin' before her but her last sickness, and she wa'n't a person +that enjoyed havin' other folks do for her. So one on her boys—I +guess 'twas the oldest—said he was going to take her to sea; there +was ample room, an' he was sailin' a good time o' year for the Cape o' +Good Hope an' way up to some o' them tea-ports in the Chiny Seas. She +was all high to go, but it made a sight o' talk at her age; an' the +minister made it a subject o' prayer the last Sunday, and all the +folks took a last leave; but she said to some she'd fetch 'em home +something real pritty, and so did. An' then they come home t'other +way, round the Horn, an' she done so well, an' was such a sight o' +company, the other child'n was jealous, an' she promised she'd go a +v'y'ge long o' each on 'em. She was as sprightly a person as ever I +see; an' could speak well o' what she'd seen." +</p> +<p> +"Did she die to sea?" asked Peggy, with interest. +</p> +<p> +"No, she died to home between v'y'ges, or she'd gone to sea again. I +was to her funeral. She liked her son George's ship the best; 'twas +the one she was going on to Callao. They said the men aboard all +called her 'gran'ma'am,' an' she kep' 'em mended up, an' would go +below and tend to 'em if they was sick. She might 'a' been alive an' +enjoyin' of herself a good many years but for the kick of a cow; 'twas +a new cow out of a drove, a dreadful unruly beast." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dow stopped for breath, and reached down for a new supply of +beans; her empty apron was gray with soft chaff. Betsey Lane, still +pondering on the Centennial, began to sing another verse of her hymn, +and again the old women joined her. At this moment some strangers came +driving round into the yard from the front of the house. The turf was +soft, and our friends did not hear the horses' steps. Their voices +cracked and quavered; it was a funny little concert, and a lady in an +open carriage just below listened with sympathy and amusement. +</p> +<h3> +II. +</h3> +<p> +"Betsey! Betsey! Miss Lane!" a voice called eagerly at the foot of the +stairs that led up from the shed. "Betsey! There's a lady here wants +to see you right away." +</p> +<p> +Betsey was dazed with excitement, like a country child who knows the +rare pleasure of being called out of school. "Lor', I ain't fit to go +down, be I?" she faltered, looking anxiously at her friends; but Peggy +was gazing even nearer to the zenith than usual, in her excited effort +to see down into the yard, and Mrs. Dow only nodded somewhat +jealously, and said that she guessed 'twas nobody would do her any +harm. She rose ponderously, while Betsey hesitated, being, as they +would have said, all of a twitter. "It is a lady, certain," Mrs. Dow +assured her; "'tain't often there's a lady comes here." +</p> +<p> +"While there was any of Mis' Gen'ral Thornton's folks left, I wa'n't +without visits from the gentry," said Betsey Lane, turning back +proudly at the head of the stairs, with a touch of old-world pride and +sense of high station. Then she disappeared, and closed the door +behind her at the stair-foot with a decision quite unwelcome to the +friends above. +</p> +<p> +"She needn't 'a' been so dreadful 'fraid anybody was goin' to listen. +I guess we've got folks to ride an' see us, or had once, if we hain't +now," said Miss Peggy Bond, plaintively. +</p> +<p> +"I expect 't was only the wind shoved it to," said Aunt Lavina. +"Betsey is one that gits flustered easier than some. I wish 'twas +somebody to take her off an' give her a kind of a good time; she's +young to settle down 'long of old folks like us. Betsey's got a notion +o' rovin' such as ain't my natur', but I should like to see her +satisfied. She'd been a very understandin' person, if she had the +advantages that some does." +</p> +<p> +"'Tis so," said Peggy Bond, tilting her chin high. "I suppose you +can't hear nothin' they're saying? I feel my hearin' ain't up to whar +it was. I can hear things close to me well as ever; but there, hearin' +ain't everything; 'tain't as if we lived where there was more goin' on +to hear. Seems to me them folks is stoppin' a good while." +</p> +<p> +"They surely be," agreed Lavina Dow. +</p> +<p> +"I expect it's somethin' particular. There ain't none of the Thornton +folks left, except one o' the gran'darters, an' I've often heard +Betsey remark that she should never see her more, for she lives to +London. Strange how folks feels contented in them strayaway places off +to the ends of the airth." +</p> +<p> +The flies and bees were buzzing against the hot windowpanes; the +handfuls of beans were clicking into the brown wooden measure. A bird +came and perched on the windowsill, and then flitted away toward the +blue sky. Below, in the yard, Betsey Lane stood talking with the lady. +She had put her blue drilling apron over her head, and her face was +shining with delight. +</p> +<p> +"Lor', dear," she said, for at least the third time, "I remember ye +when I first see ye; an awful pritty baby you was, an' they all said +you looked just like the old gen'ral. Be you goin' back to foreign +parts right away?" +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I'm going back; you know that all my children are there. I wish +I could take you with me for a visit," said the charming young guest. +"I'm going to carry over some of the pictures and furniture from the +old house; I didn't care half so much for them when I was younger as I +do now. Perhaps next summer we shall all come over for a while. I +should like to see my girls and boys playing under the pines." +</p> +<p> +"I wish you re'lly was livin' to the old place," said Betsey Lane. Her +imagination was not swift; she needed time to think over all that was +being told her, and she could not fancy the two strange houses across +the sea. The old Thornton house was to her mind the most delightful +and elegant in the world. +</p> +<p> +"Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Mrs. Strafford +kindly,—"anything that I can do for you myself, before I go away? I +shall be writing to you, and sending some pictures of the children, +and you must let me know how you are getting on." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, there is one thing, darlin'. If you could stop in the village +an' pick me out a pritty, little, small lookin'-glass, that I can keep +for my own an' have to remember you by. 'Tain't that I want to set me +above the rest o' the folks, but I was always used to havin' my own +when I was to your grandma's. There's very nice folks here, some on +'em, and I'm better off than if I was able to keep house; but sence +you ask me, that's the only thing I feel cropin' about. What be you +goin' right back for? ain't you goin' to see the great fair to +Pheladelphy, that everybody talks about?" +</p> +<p> +"No," said Mrs. Strafford, laughing at this eager and almost +convicting question. "No; I'm going back next week. If I were, I +believe that I should take you with me. Good-by, dear old Betsey; you +make me feel as if I were a little girl again; you look just the +same." +</p> +<p> +For full five minutes the old woman stood out in the sunshine, dazed +with delight, and majestic with a sense of her own consequence. She +held something tight in her hand, without thinking what it might be; +but just as the friendly mistress of the poor-farm came out to hear +the news, she tucked the roll of money into the bosom of her brown +gingham dress. "'Twas my dear Mis' Katy Strafford," she turned to say +proudly. "She come way over from London; she's been sick; they thought +the voyage would do her good. She said most the first thing she had on +her mind was to come an' find me, and see how I was, an' if I was +comfortable; an' now she's goin' right back. She's got two splendid +houses; an' said how she wished I was there to look after things,—she +remembered I was always her gran'ma's right hand. Oh, it does so carry +me back, to see her! Seems if all the rest on 'em must be there +together to the old house. There, I must go right up an' tell Mis' Dow +an' Peggy." +</p> +<p> +"Dinner's all ready; I was just goin' to blow the horn for the +men-folks," said the keeper's wife. "They'll be right down. I expect +you've got along smart with them beans,—all three of you together;" +but Betsey's mind roved so high and so far at that moment that no +achievements of bean-picking could lure it back. +</p> +<h3> +III. +</h3> +<p> +The long table in the great kitchen soon gathered its company of waifs +and strays,—creatures of improvidence and misfortune, and the +irreparable victims of old age. The dinner was satisfactory, and there +was not much delay for conversation. Peggy Bond and Mrs. Dow and +Betsey Lane always sat together at one end, with an air of putting the +rest of the company below the salt. Betsey was still flushed with +excitement; in fact, she could not eat as much as usual, and she +looked up from time to time expectantly, as if she were likely to be +asked to speak of her guest; but everybody was hungry, and even Mrs. +Dow broke in upon some attempted confidences by asking inopportunely +for a second potato. There were nearly twenty at the table, counting +the keeper and his wife and two children, noisy little persons who had +come from school with the small flock belonging to the poor widow, who +sat just opposite our friends. She finished her dinner before any one +else, and pushed her chair back; she always helped with the +housework,—a thin, sorry, bad-tempered-looking poor soul, whom grief +had sharpened instead of softening. "I expect you feel too fine to set +with common folks," she said enviously to Betsey. +</p> +<p> +"Here I be a-settin'," responded Betsey calmly. "I don' know's I +behave more unbecomin' than usual." Betsey prided herself upon her +good and proper manners; but the rest of the company, who would have +liked to hear the bit of morning news, were now defrauded of that +pleasure. The wrong note had been struck; there was a silence after +the clatter of knives and plates, and one by one the cheerful town +charges disappeared. The bean-picking had been finished, and there was +a call for any of the women who felt like planting corn; so Peggy +Bond, who could follow the line of hills pretty fairly, and Betsey +herself, who was still equal to anybody at that work, and Mrs. Dow, +all went out to the field together. Aunt Lavina labored slowly up the +yard, carrying a light splint-bottomed kitchen chair and her +knitting-work, and sat near the stone wall on a gentle rise, where she +could see the pond and the green country, and exchange a word with her +friends as they came and went up and down the rows. Betsey vouchsafed +a word now and then about Mrs. Strafford, but you would have thought +that she had been suddenly elevated to Mrs. Strafford's own cares and +the responsibilities attending them, and had little in common with her +old associates. Mrs. Dow and Peggy knew well that these high-feeling +times never lasted long, and so they waited with as much patience as +they could muster. They were by no means without that true tact which +is only another word for unselfish sympathy. +</p> +<p> +The strip of corn land ran along the side of a great field; at the +upper end of it was a field-corner thicket of young maples and walnut +saplings, the children of a great nut-tree that marked the boundary. +Once, when Betsey Lane found herself alone near this shelter at the +end of her row, the other planters having lagged behind beyond the +rising ground, she looked stealthily about, and then put her hand +inside her gown, and for the first time took out the money that Mrs. +Strafford had given her. She turned it over and over with an +astonished look: there were new bank-bills for a hundred dollars. +Betsey gave a funny little shrug of her shoulders, came out of the +bushes, and took a step or two on the narrow edge of turf, as if she +were going to dance; then she hastily tucked away her treasure, and +stepped discreetly down into the soft harrowed and hoed land, and +began to drop corn again, five kernels to a hill. She had seen the top +of Peggy Bond's head over the knoll, and now Peggy herself came +entirely into view, gazing upward to the skies, and stumbling more or +less, but counting the corn by touch and twisting her head about +anxiously to gain advantage over her uncertain vision. Betsey made a +friendly, inarticulate little sound as they passed; she was thinking +that somebody said once that Peggy's eyesight might be remedied if she +could go to Boston to the hospital; but that was so remote and +impossible an undertaking that no one had ever taken the first step. +Betsey Lane's brown old face suddenly worked with excitement, but in a +moment more she regained her usual firm expression, and spoke +carelessly to Peggy as she turned and came alongside. +</p> +<p> +The high spring wind of the morning had quite fallen; it was a lovely +May afternoon. The woods about the field to the northward were full of +birds, and the young leaves scarcely hid the solemn shapes of a +company of crows that patiently attended the corn-planting. Two of the +men had finished their hoeing, and were busy with the construction of +a scarecrow; they knelt in the furrows, chuckling, and looking over +some forlorn, discarded garments. It was a time-honored custom to make +the scarecrow resemble one of the poor-house family; and this year +they intended to have Mrs. Lavina Dow protect the field in effigy; +last year it was the counterfeit of Betsey Lane who stood on guard, +with an easily recognized quilted hood and the remains of a valued +shawl that one of the calves had found airing on a fence and chewed to +pieces. Behind the men was the foundation for this rustic attempt at +statuary,—an upright stake and bar in the form of a cross. This stood +on the highest part of the field; and as the men knelt near it, and +the quaint figures of the corn-planters went and came, the scene gave +a curious suggestion of foreign life. It was not like New England; the +presence of the rude cross appealed strangely to the imagination. +</p> +<h3> +IV. +</h3> +<p> +Life flowed so smoothly, for the most part, at the Byfleet Boor-farm, +that nobody knew what to make, later in the summer, of a strange +disappearance. All the elder inmates were familiar with illness and +death, and the poor pomp of a town-pauper's funeral. The comings and +goings and the various misfortunes of those who composed this strange +family, related only through its disasters, hardly served for the +excitement and talk of a single day. Now that the June days were at +their longest, the old people were sure to wake earlier than ever; but +one morning, to the astonishment of every one, Betsey Lane's bed was +empty; the sheets and blankets, which were her own, and guarded with +jealous care, were carefully folded and placed on a chair not too near +the window, and Betsey had flown. Nobody had heard her go down the +creaking stairs. The kitchen door was unlocked, and the old watchdog +lay on the step outside in the early sunshine, wagging his tail and +looking wise, as if he were left on guard and meant to keep the +fugitive's secret. +</p> +<p> +"Never knowed her to do nothin' afore 'thout talking it over a +fortnight, and paradin' off when we could all see her," ventured a +spiteful voice. "Guess we can wait till night to hear 'bout it." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dow looked sorrowful and shook her head. "Betsey had an aunt on +her mother's side that went and drownded of herself; she was a +pritty-appearing woman as ever you see." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps she's gone to spend the day with Decker's folks," suggested +Peggy Bond. "She always takes an extra early start; she was speakin' +lately o' going up their way;" but Mrs. Dow shook her head with a most +melancholy look. "I'm impressed that something's befell her," she +insisted. "I heard her a-groanin' in her sleep. I was wakeful the +forepart o' the night,—'tis very unusual with me, too." +</p> +<p> +"'Twa'n't like Betsey not to leave us any word," said the other old +friend, with more resentment than melancholy. They sat together almost +in silence that morning in the shed chamber. Mrs. Dow was sorting and +cutting rags, and Peggy braided them into long ropes, to be made into +mats at a later date. If they had only known where Betsey Lane had +gone, they might have talked about it until dinner-time at noon; but +failing this new subject, they could take no interest in any of their +old ones. Out in the field the corn was well up, and the men were +hoeing. It was a hot morning in the shed chamber, and the woolen rags +were dusty and hot to handle. +</p> +<h3> +V. +</h3> +<p> +Byfleet people knew each other well, and when this mysteriously absent +person did not return to the town-farm at the end of a week, public +interest became much excited; and presently it was ascertained that +Betsey Lane was neither making a visit to her friends the Deckers on +Birch Hill, nor to any nearer acquaintances; in fact, she had +disappeared altogether from her wonted haunts. Nobody remembered to +have seen her pass, hers had been such an early flitting; and when +somebody thought of her having gone away by train, he was laughed at +for forgetting that the earliest morning train from South Byfleet, the +nearest station, did not start until long after eight o'clock; and if +Betsey had designed to be one of the passengers, she would have +started along the road at seven, and been seen and known of all women. +There was not a kitchen in that part of Byfleet that did not have +windows toward the road. Conversation rarely left the level of the +neighborhood gossip: to see Betsey Lane, in her best clothes, at that +hour in the morning, would have been the signal for much exercise of +imagination; but as day after day went by without news, the curiosity +of those who knew her best turned slowly into fear, and at last Peggy +Bond again gave utterance to the belief that Betsey had either gone +out in the early morning and put an end to her life, or that she had +gone to the Centennial. Some of the people at table were moved to loud +laughter,—it was at supper-time on a Sunday night,—but others +listened with great interest. +</p> +<p> +"She never'd put on her good clothes to drownd herself," said the +widow. "She might have thought 'twas good as takin' 'em with her, +though. Old folks has wandered off an' got lost in the woods afore +now." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Dow and Peggy resented this impertinent remark, but deigned to +take no notice of the speaker. "She wouldn't have wore her best +clothes to the Centennial, would she?" mildly inquired Peggy, bobbing +her head toward the ceiling. "'Twould be a shame to spoil your best +things in such a place. An' I don't know of her havin' any money; +there's the end o' that." +</p> +<p> +"You're bad as old Mis' Bland, that used to live neighbor to our +folks," said one of the old men. "She was dreadful precise; an' she so +begretched to wear a good alapaca dress that was left to her, that it +hung in a press forty year, an' baited the moths at last." +</p> +<p> +"I often seen Mis' Bland a-goin' in to meetin' when I was a young +girl," said Peggy Bond approvingly. "She was a good-appearin' woman, +an' she left property." +</p> +<p> +"Wish she'd left it to me, then," said the poor soul opposite, +glancing at her pathetic row of children: but it was not good manners +at the farm to deplore one's situation, and Mrs. Dow and Peggy only +frowned. "Where do you suppose Betsey can be?" said Mrs. Dow, for the +twentieth time. "She didn't have no money. I know she ain't gone far, +if it's so that she's yet alive. She's b'en real pinched all the +spring." +</p> +<p> +"Perhaps that lady that come one day give her some," the keeper's wife +suggested mildly. +</p> +<p> +"Then Betsey would have told me," said Mrs. Dow, with injured dignity. +</p> +<h3> +VI. +</h3> +<p> +On the morning of her disappearance, Betsey rose even before the pewee +and the English sparrow, and dressed herself quietly, though with +trembling hands, and stole out of the kitchen door like a plunderless +thief. The old dog licked her hand and looked at her anxiously; the +tortoise-shell cat rubbed against her best gown, and trotted away up +the yard, then she turned anxiously and came after the old woman, +following faithfully until she had to be driven back. Betsey was used +to long country excursions afoot. She dearly loved the early morning; +and finding that there was no dew to trouble her, she began to follow +pasture paths and short cuts across the fields, surprising here and +there a flock of sleepy sheep, or a startled calf that rustled out +from the bushes. The birds were pecking their breakfast from bush and +turf; and hardly any of the wild inhabitants of that rural world were +enough alarmed by her presence to do more than flutter away if they +chanced to be in her path. She stepped along, light-footed and eager +as a girl, dressed in her neat old straw bonnet and black gown, and +carrying a few belongings in her best bundle-handkerchief, one that +her only brother had brought home from the East Indies fifty years +before. There was an old crow perched as sentinel on a small, dead +pine-tree, where he could warn friends who were pulling up the +sprouted corn in a field close by; but he only gave a contemptuous caw +as the adventurer appeared, and she shook her bundle at him in +revenge, and laughed to see him so clumsy as he tried to keep his +footing on the twigs. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, I be," she assured him. "I'm a-goin' to Pheladelphy, to the +Centennial, same's other folks. I'd jest as soon tell ye's not, old +crow;" and Betsey laughed aloud in pleased content with herself and +her daring, as she walked along. She had only two miles to go to the +station at South Byfleet, and she felt for the money now and then, and +found it safe enough. She took great pride in the success of her +escape, and especially in the long concealment of her wealth. Not a +night had passed since Mrs. Strafford's visit that she had not slept +with the roll of money under her pillow by night, and buttoned safe +inside her dress by day. She knew that everybody would offer advice +and even commands about the spending or saving of it; and she brooked +no interference. +</p> +<p> +The last mile of the foot-path to South Byfleet was along the railway +track; and Betsey began to feel in haste, though it was still nearly +two hours to train time. She looked anxiously forward and back along +the rails every few minutes, for fear of being run over; and at last +she caught sight of an engine that was apparently coming toward her, +and took flight into the woods before she could gather courage to +follow the path again. The freight train proved to be at a standstill, +waiting at a turnout; and some of the men were straying about, eating +their early breakfast comfortably in this time of leisure. As the old +woman came up to them, she stopped too, for a moment of rest and +conversation. +</p> +<p> +"Where be ye goin'?" she asked pleasantly; and they told her. It was +to the town where she had to change cars and take the great through +train; a point of geography which she had learned from evening talks +between the men at the farm. +</p> +<p> +"What'll ye carry me there for?" +</p> +<p> +"We don't run no passenger cars," said one of the young fellows, +laughing. "What makes you in such a hurry?" +</p> +<p> +"I'm startin' for Pheladelphy, an' it's a gre't ways to go." +</p> +<p> +"So't is; but you're consid'able early, if you're makin' for the +eight-forty train. See here! you haven't got a needle an' thread 'long +of you in that bundle, have you? If you'll sew me on a couple o' +buttons, I'll give ye a free ride. I'm in a sight o' distress, an' +none o' the fellows is provided with as much as a bent pin." +</p> +<p> +"You poor boy! I'll have you seen to, in half a minute. I'm troubled +with a stiff arm, but I'll do the best I can." +</p> +<p> +The obliging Betsey seated herself stiffly on the slope of the +embankment, and found her thread and needle with utmost haste. Two of +the train-men stood by and watched the careful stitches, and even +offered her a place as spare brakeman, so that they might keep her +near; and Betsey took the offer with considerable seriousness, only +thinking it necessary to assure them that she was getting most too old +to be out in all weathers. An express went by like an earthquake, and +she was presently hoisted on board an empty box-car by two of her new +and flattering acquaintances, and found herself before noon at the end +of the first stage of her journey, without having spent a cent, and +furnished with any amount of thrifty advice. One of the young men, +being compassionate of her unprotected state as a traveler, advised +her to find out the widow of an uncle of his in Philadelphia, saying +despairingly that he couldn't tell her just how to find the house; but +Miss Betsey Lane said that she had an English tongue in her head, and +should be sure to find whatever she was looking for. This unexpected +incident of the freight train was the reason why everybody about the +South Byfleet station insisted that no such person had taken passage +by the regular train that same morning, and why there were those who +persuaded themselves that Miss Betsey Lane was probably lying at the +bottom of the poor-farm pond. +</p> +<h3> +VII. +</h3> +<p> +"Land sakes!" said Miss Betsey Lane, as she watched a Turkish person +parading by in his red fez, "I call the Centennial somethin' like the +day o' judgment! I wish I was goin' to stop a month, but I dare say +'twould be the death o' my poor old bones." +</p> +<p> +She was leaning against the barrier of a patent pop-corn +establishment, which had given her a sudden reminder of home, and of +the winter nights when the sharp-kerneled little red and yellow ears +were brought out, and Old Uncle Eph Flanders sat by the kitchen stove, +and solemnly filled a great wooden chopping-tray for the refreshment +of the company. She had wandered and loitered and looked until her +eyes and head had grown numb and unreceptive; but it is only +unimaginative persons who can be really astonished. The imagination +can always outrun the possible and actual sights and sounds of the +world; and this plain old body from Byfleet rarely found anything rich +and splendid enough to surprise her. She saw the wonders of the West +and the splendors of the East with equal calmness and satisfaction; +she had always known that there was an amazing world outside the +boundaries of Byfleet. There was a piece of paper in her pocket on +which was marked, in her clumsy handwriting, "If Betsey Lane should +meet with accident, notify the selectmen of Byfleet;" but having made +this slight provision for the future, she had thrown herself boldly +into the sea of strangers, and then had made the joyful discovery that +friends were to be found at every turn. +</p> +<p> +There was something delightfully companionable about Betsey; she had a +way of suddenly looking up over her big spectacles with a reassuring +and expectant smile, as if you were going to speak to her, and you +generally did. She must have found out where hundreds of people came +from, and whom they had left at home, and what they thought of the +great show, as she sat on a bench to rest, or leaned over the railings +where free luncheons were afforded by the makers of hot waffles and +molasses candy and fried potatoes; and there was not a night when she +did not return to her lodgings with a pocket crammed with samples of +spool cotton and nobody knows what. She had already collected small +presents for almost everybody she knew at home, and she was such a +pleasant, beaming old country body, so unmistakably appreciative and +interested, that nobody ever thought of wishing that she would move +on. Nearly all the busy people of the Exhibition called her either +Aunty or Grandma at once, and made little pleasures for her as best +they could. She was a delightful contrast to the indifferent, stupid +crowd that drifted along, with eyes fixed at the same level, and +seeing, even on that level, nothing for fifty feet at a time. "What be +you making here, dear?" Betsey Lane would ask joyfully, and the most +perfunctory guardian hastened to explain. She squandered money as she +had never had the pleasure of doing before, and this hastened the day +when she must return to Byfleet. She was always inquiring if there +were any spectacle-sellers at hand, and received occasional +directions; but it was a difficult place for her to find her way about +in, and the very last day of her stay arrived before she found an +exhibitor of the desired sort, an oculist and instrument-maker. +</p> +<p> +"I called to get some specs for a friend that's upsighted," she +gravely informed the salesman, to his extreme amusement. "She's +dreadful troubled, and jerks her head up like a hen a-drinkin'. She's +got a blur a-growin' an' spreadin', an' sometimes she can see out to +one side on't, and more times she can't." +</p> +<p> +"Cataracts," said a middle-aged gentleman at her side; and Betsey Lane +turned to regard him with approval and curiosity. +</p> +<p> +"'Tis Miss Peggy Bond I was mentioning, of Byfleet Poor-farm," she +explained. "I count on gettin' some glasses to relieve her trouble, if +there's any to be found." +</p> +<p> +"Glasses won't do her any good," said the stranger. "Suppose you come +and sit down on this bench, and tell me all about it. First, where is +Byfleet?" and Betsey gave the directions at length. +</p> +<p> +"I thought so," said the surgeon. "How old is this friend of yours?" +</p> +<p> +Betsey cleared her throat decisively, and smoothed her gown over her +knees as if it were an apron; then she turned to take a good look at +her new acquaintance as they sat on the rustic bench together. "Who be +you, sir, I should like to know?" she asked, in a friendly tone. +</p> +<p> +"My name's Dunster." +</p> +<p> +"I take it you're a doctor," continued Betsey, as if they had +overtaken each other walking from Byfleet to South Byfleet on a summer +morning. +</p> +<p> +"I'm a doctor; part of one at least," said he. "I know more or less +about eyes; and I spend my summers down on the shore at the mouth of +your river; some day I'll come up and look at this person. How old is +she?" +</p> +<p> +"Peggy Bond is one that never tells her age; 'tain't come quite up to +where she'll begin to brag of it, you see," explained Betsey +reluctantly; "but I know her to be nigh to seventy-six, one way or +t'other. Her an' Mrs. Mary Ann Chick was same year's child'n, and +Peggy knows I know it, an' two or three times when we've be'n in the +buryin'-ground where Mary Ann lays an' has her dates right on her +headstone, I couldn't bring Peggy to take no sort o' notice. I will +say she makes, at times, a convenience of being upsighted. But there, +I feel for her,—everybody does; it keeps her stubbin' an' trippin' +against everything, beakin' and gazin' up the way she has to." +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes," said the doctor, whose eyes were twinkling. "I'll come and +look after her, with your town doctor, this summer,—some time in the +last of July or first of August." +</p> +<p> +"You'll find occupation," said Betsey, not without an air of +patronage. "Most of us to the Byfleet Farm has got our ails, now I +tell ye. You ain't got no bitters that'll take a dozen years right off +an ol' lady's shoulders?" +</p> +<p> +The busy man smiled pleasantly, and shook his head as he went away. +"Dunster," said Betsey to herself, soberly committing the new name to +her sound memory. "Yes, I mustn't forget to speak of him to the +doctor, as he directed. I do' know now as Peggy would vally herself +quite so much accordin' to, if she had her eyes fixed same as other +folks. I expect there wouldn't been a smarter woman in town, though, +if she'd had a proper chance. Now I've done what I set to do for her, +I do believe, an' 'twa'n't glasses, neither. I'll git her a pritty +little shawl with that money I laid aside. Peggy Bond ain't got a +pritty shawl. I always wanted to have a real good time, an' now I'm +havin' it." +</p> +<h3> +VIII. +</h3> +<p> +Two or three days later, two pathetic figures might have been seen +crossing the slopes of the poor-farm field, toward the low shores of +Byfield pond. It was early in the morning, and the stubble of the +lately mown grass was wet with rain and hindering to old feet. Peggy +Bond was more blundering and liable to stray in the wrong direction +than usual; it was one of the days when she could hardly see at all. +Aunt Lavina Dow was unusually clumsy of movement, and stiff in the +joints; she had not been so far from the house for three years. The +morning breeze filled the gathers of her wide gingham skirt, and +aggravated the size of her unwieldy figure. She supported herself with +a stick, and trusted beside to the fragile support of Peggy's arm. +They were talking together in whispers. +</p> +<p> +"Oh, my sakes!" exclaimed Peggy, moving her small head from side to +side. "Hear you wheeze, Mis' Dow! This may be the death o' you; there, +do go slow! You set here on the sidehill, an' le' me go try if I can +see." +</p> +<p> +"It needs more eyesight than you've got," said Mrs. Dow, panting +between the words. "Oh! to think how spry I was in my young days, an' +here I be now, the full of a door, an' all my complaints so aggravated +by my size. 'T is hard! 'tis hard! but I'm a-doin' of all this for +pore Betsey's sake. I know they've all laughed, but I look to see her +ris' to the top o' the pond this day,—'tis just nine days since she +departed; an' say what they may, I know she hove herself in. It run in +her family; Betsey had an aunt that done just so, an' she ain't be'n +like herself, a-broodin' an' hivin' away alone, an' nothin' to say to +you an' me that was always sich good company all together. Somethin' +sprung her mind, now I tell ye, Mis' Bond." +</p> +<p> +"I feel to hope we sha'n't find her, I must say," faltered Peggy. It +was plain that Mrs. Dow was the captain of this doleful expedition. "I +guess she ain't never thought o' drowndin' of herself, Mis' Dow; she's +gone off a-visitin' way over to the other side o' South Byfleet; some +thinks she's gone to the Centennial even now!" +</p> +<p> +"She hadn't no proper means, I tell ye," wheezed Mrs. Dow indignantly; +"an' if you prefer that others should find her floatin' to the top +this day, instid of us that's her best friends, you can step back to +the house." +</p> +<p> +They walked on in aggrieved silence. Peggy Bond trembled with +excitement, but her companion's firm grasp never wavered, and so they +came to the narrow, gravelly margin and stood still. Peggy tried in +vain to see the glittering water and the pond-lilies that starred it; +she knew that they must be there; once, years ago, she had caught +fleeting glimpses of them, and she never forgot what she had once +seen. The clear blue sky overhead, the dark pine-woods beyond the +pond, were all clearly pictured in her mind. "Can't you see nothin'?" +she faltered; "I believe I'm wuss'n upsighted this day. I'm going to +be blind." +</p> +<p> +"No," said Lavina Dow solemnly; "no, there ain't nothin' whatever, +Peggy. I hope to mercy she ain't"— +</p> +<p> +"Why, whoever'd expected to find you 'way out here!" exclaimed a brisk +and cheerful voice. There stood Betsey Lane herself, close behind +them, having just emerged from a thicket of alders that grew close by. +She was following the short way homeward from the railroad. +</p> +<p> +"Why, what's the matter, Mis' Dow? You ain't overdoin', be ye? an' +Peggy's all of a flutter. What in the name o' natur' ails ye?" +</p> +<p> +"There ain't nothin' the matter, as I knows on," responded the leader +of this fruitless expedition. "We only thought we'd take a stroll this +pleasant mornin'," she added, with sublime self-possession. "Where've +you be'n, Betsey Lane?" +</p> +<p> +"To Pheladelphy, ma'am," said Betsey, looking quite young and gay, and +wearing a townish and unfamiliar air that upheld her words. "All ought +to go that can; why, you feel's if you'd be'n all round the world. I +guess I've got enough to think of and tell ye for the rest o' my days. +I've always wanted to go somewheres. I wish you'd be'n there, I do so. +I've talked with folks from Chiny an' the back o' Pennsylvany; and I +see folks way from Australy that 'peared as well as anybody; an' I see +how they made spool cotton, an' sights o' other things; an' I spoke +with a doctor that lives down to the beach in the summer, an' he +offered to come up 'long in the first of August, an' see what he can +do for Peggy's eyesight. There was di'monds there as big as pigeon's +eggs; an' I met with Mis' Abby Fletcher from South Byfleet depot; an' +there was hogs there that weighed risin' thirteen hunderd"— +</p> +<p> +"I want to know," said Mrs. Lavina Dow and Peggy Bond, together. +</p> +<p> +"Well, 'twas a great exper'ence for a person," added Lavina, turning +ponderously, in spite of herself, to give a last wistful look at the +smiling waters of the pond. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know how soon I be goin' to settle down," proclaimed the +rustic sister of Sindbad. "What's for the good o' one's for the good +of all. You just wait till we're setting together up in the old shed +chamber! You know, my dear Mis' Katy Strafford give me a han'some +present o' money that day she come to see me; and I'd be'n a-dreamin' +by night an' day o' seein' that Centennial; and when I come to think +on't I felt sure somebody ought to go from this neighborhood, if 'twas +only for the good o' the rest; and I thought I'd better be the one. I +wa'n't goin' to ask the selec'men neither. I've come back with +one-thirty-five in money, and I see everything there, an' I fetched ye +all a little somethin'; but I'm full o' dust now, an' pretty nigh beat +out. I never see a place more friendly than Pheladelphy; but 't ain't +natural to a Byfleet person to be always walkin' on a level. There, +now, Peggy, you take my bundle-handkercher and the basket, and let +Mis' Dow sag on to me. I 'll git her along twice as easy." +</p> +<p> +With this the small elderly company set forth triumphant toward the +poor-house, across the wide green field. +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<a name="2H_4_0031"><!-- H2 anchor --></a> + +<h2> + <i>The Gray Mills of Farley</i> +</h2> +<p> +The mills of Farley were close together by the river, and the gray +houses that belonged to them stood, tall and bare, alongside. They had +no room for gardens or even for little green side-yards where one +might spend a summer evening. The Corporation, as this compact village +was called by those who lived in it, was small but solid; you fancied +yourself in the heart of a large town when you stood mid-way of one of +its short streets, but from the street's end you faced a wide green +farming country. On spring and summer Sundays, groups of the young +folks of the Corporation would stray out along the country roads, but +it was very seldom that any of the older people went. On the whole, it +seemed as if the closer you lived to the mill-yard gate, the better. +You had more time to loiter on a summer morning, and there was less +distance to plod through the winter snows and rains. The last stroke +of the bell saw almost everybody within the mill doors. +</p> +<p> +There were always fluffs of cotton in the air like great white bees +drifting down out of the picker chimney. They lodged in the cramped +and dingy elms and horse-chestnuts which a former agent had planted +along the streets, and the English sparrows squabbled over them in +eaves-corners and made warm, untidy great nests that would have +contented an Arctic explorer. Somehow the Corporation homes looked +like make-believe houses or huge stage-properties, they had so little +individuality or likeness to the old-fashioned buildings that made +homes for people out on the farms. There was more homelikeness in the +sparrows' nests, or even the toylike railroad station at the end of +the main street, for that was warmed by steam, and the +station-master's wife, thriftily taking advantage of the steady heat, +brought her house-plants there and kept them all winter on the broad +window-sills. +</p> +<p> +The Corporation had followed the usual fortunes of New England +manufacturing villages. Its operatives were at first eager young men +and women from the farms near by, these being joined quickly by pale +English weavers and spinners, with their hearty-looking wives and rosy +children; then came the flock of Irish families, poorer and simpler +than the others but learning the work sooner, and gayer-hearted; now +the Canadian-French contingent furnished all the new help, and stood +in long rows before the noisy looms and chattered in their odd, +excited fashion. They were quicker-fingered, and were willing to work +cheaper than any other workpeople yet. +</p> +<p> +There were remnants of each of these human tides to be found as one +looked about the mills. Old Henry Dow, the overseer of the cloth-hall, +was a Lancashire man and some of his grandchildren had risen to wealth +and prominence in another part of the country, while he kept steadily +on with his familiar work and authority. A good many elderly Irishmen +and women still kept their places; everybody knew the two old +sweepers, Mary Cassidy and Mrs. Kilpatrick, who were looked upon as +pillars of the Corporation. They and their compatriots always held +loyally together and openly resented the incoming of so many French. +</p> +<p> +You would never have thought that the French were for a moment +conscious of being in the least unwelcome. They came gayly into church +and crowded the old parishioners of St. Michael's out of their pews, +as on week-days they took their places at the looms. Hardly one of the +old parishioners had not taken occasion to speak of such aggressions +to Father Daley, the priest, but Father Daley continued to look upon +them all as souls to be saved and took continual pains to rub up the +rusty French which he had nearly forgotten, in order to preach a +special sermon every other Sunday. This caused old Mary Cassidy to +shake her head gravely. +</p> +<p> +"Mis' Kilpatrick, ma'am," she said one morning. "Faix, they ain't +folks at all, 'tis but a pack of images they do be, with all their +chatter like birds in a hedge." +</p> +<p> +"Sure then, the holy Saint Francis himself was after saying that the +little birds was his sisters," answered Mrs. Kilpatrick, a godly old +woman who made the stations every morning, and was often seen reading +a much-handled book of devotion. She was moreover always ready with a +friendly joke. +</p> +<p> +"They ain't the same at all was in them innocent times, when there was +plenty saints living in the world," insisted Mary Cassidy. "Look at +them thrash, now!" +</p> +<p> +The old sweeping-women were going downstairs with their brooms. It was +almost twelve o'clock, and like the old dray-horses in the mill yard +they slackened work in good season for the noonday bell. Three gay +young French girls ran downstairs past them; they were let out for the +afternoon and were hurrying home to dress and catch the 12:40 train to +the next large town. +</p> +<p> +"That little one is Meshell's daughter; she's a nice child too, very +quiet, and has got more Christian tark than most," said Mrs. +Kilpatrick. "They live overhead o' me. There's nine o' themselves in +the two rooms; two does be boarders." +</p> +<p> +"Those upper rooms bees very large entirely at Fitzgibbon's," said +Mary Cassidy with unusual indulgence. +</p> +<p> +"'Tis all the company cares about is to get a good rent out of the +pay. They're asked every little while by honest folks 'on't they build +a trifle o' small houses beyond the church up there, but no, they'd +rather the money and kape us like bees in them old hives. Sure in +winter we're better for having the more fires, but summer is the +pinance!" +</p> +<p> +"They all says 'why don't folks build their own houses'; they does +always be talking about Mike Callahan and how well he saved up and +owns a pritty place for himself convanient to his work. You might tell +them he'd money left him by a brother in California till you'd be +black in the face, they'd stick to it 'twas in the picker he earnt it +from themselves," grumbled Mary Cassidy. +</p> +<p> +"Them French spinds all their money on their backs, don't they?" +suggested Mrs. Kilpatrick, as if to divert the conversation from +dangerous channels. "Look at them three girls now, off to Spincer with +their fortnight's pay in their pocket!" +</p> +<p> +"A couple o' onions and a bag o' crackers is all they want and a pinch +o' lard to their butter," pronounced Mary Cassidy with scorn. "The +whole town of 'em 'on't be the worse of a dollar for steak the week +round. They all go back and buy land in Canada, they spend no money +here. See how well they forget their pocketbooks every Sunday for the +collection. They do be very light too, they've more laugh than +ourselves. 'Tis myself's getting old anyway, I don't laugh much now." +</p> +<p> +"I like to see a pritty girl look fine," said Mrs. Kilpatrick. "No, +they don't be young but once—" +</p> +<p> +The mill bell rang, and there was a moment's hush of the jarring, +racketing machinery and a sudden noise of many feet trampling across +the dry, hard pine floors. First came an early flight of boys bursting +out of the different doors, and chasing one another down the winding +stairs two steps at a time. The old sweepers, who had not quite +reached the bottom, stood back against the wall for safety's sake +until all these had passed, then they kept on their careful way, the +crowd passing them by as if they were caught in an eddy of the stream. +Last of all they kept sober company with two or three lame persons and +a cheerful delayed little group of new doffers, the children who +minded bobbins in the weave-room and who were young enough to be tired +and even timid. One of these doffers, a pale, pleasant-looking child, +was all fluffy with cotton that had clung to her little dark plaid +dress. When Mrs. Kilpatrick spoke to her she answered in a hoarse +voice that appealed to one's sympathy. You felt that the hot room and +dry cotton were to blame for such hoarseness; it had nothing to do +with the weather. +</p> +<p> +"Where are you living now, Maggie, dear?" the old woman asked. +</p> +<p> +"I'm in Callahan's yet, but they won't keep me after to-day," said the +child. "There's a man wants to get board there, they're changing round +in the rooms and they've no place for me. Mis' Callahan couldn't keep +me 'less I'd get my pay raised." +</p> +<p> +Mrs. Kilpatrick gave a quick glance at Mary Cassidy. "Come home with +me then, till yez get a bite o' dinner, and we'll talk about it," she +said kindly to the child. "I'd a wish for company the day." +</p> +<p> +The two old companions had locked their brooms into a three-cornered +closet at the stair-foot and were crossing the mill yard together. +They were so much slower than the rest that they could only see the +very last of the crowd of mill people disappearing along the streets +and into the boarding-house doors. It was late autumn, the elms were +bare, one could see the whole village of Farley, all its poverty and +lack of beauty, at one glance. The large houses looked as if they +belonged to a toy village, and had been carefully put in rows by a +childish hand; it was easy to lose all sense of size in looking at +them. A cold wind was blowing bits of waste and paper high into the +air; now and then a snowflake went swiftly by like a courier of +winter. Mary Cassidy and Mrs. Kilpatrick hugged their old woolen +shawls closer about their round shoulders, and the little girl +followed with short steps alongside. +</p> +<h3> +II. +</h3> +<p> +The agent of the mills was a single man, keen and business-like, but +quietly kind to the people under his charge. Sometimes, in times of +peace, when one looks among one's neighbors wondering who would make +the great soldiers and leaders if there came a sudden call to war, one +knows with a flash of recognition the presence of military genius in +such a man as he. The agent spent his days in following what seemed +to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of +purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and +powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an +opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen +pleasure. A man in his place must know not only how to lead men, but +how to make the combination of their force with the machinery take its +place as a factor in the business of manufacturing. To master workmen +and keep the mills in running order and to sell the goods successfully +in open market is as easy to do badly as it is difficult to do well. +</p> +<p> +The agent's father and mother, young people who lived for a short time +in the village, had both died when he was only three years old, and +between that time and his ninth year he had learned almost everything +that poverty could teach, being left like little Maggie to the mercy +of his neighbors. He remembered with a grateful heart those who were +good to him, and told him of his mother, who had married for love but +unwisely. Mrs. Kilpatrick was one of these old friends, who said that +his mother was a lady, but even Mrs. Kilpatrick, who was a walking +history of the Corporation, had never known his mother's maiden name, +much less the place of her birth. The first great revelation of life +had come when the nine-years-old boy had money in his hand to pay his +board. He was conscious of being looked at with a difference; the very +woman who had been hardest to him and let him mind her babies all the +morning when he, careful little soul, was hardly more than a baby +himself, and then pushed him out into the hungry street at dinner +time, was the first one who beckoned him now, willing to make the most +of his dollar and a quarter a week. It seemed easy enough to rise from +uttermost poverty and dependence to where one could set his mind upon +the highest honor in sight, that of being agent of the mills, or to +work one's way steadily to where such an honor was grasped at +thirty-two. Every year the horizon had set its bounds wider and wider, +until the mills of Farley held but a small place in the manufacturing +world. There were offers enough of more salary and higher position +from those who came to know the agent, but he was part of Farley +itself, and had come to care deeply about his neighbors, while a +larger mill and salary were not exactly the things that could tempt +his ambition. It was but a lonely life for a man in the old agent's +quarters where one of the widows of the Corporation, a woman who had +been brought up in a gentleman's house in the old country, kept house +for him with a certain show of propriety. Ever since he was a boy his +room was never without its late evening light, and books and hard +study made his chief companionship. +</p> +<p> +As Mrs. Kilpatrick went home holding little Maggie by the hand that +windy noon, the agent was sitting in the company's counting-room with +one of the directors and largest stockholders, and they were just +ending a long talk about the mill affairs. The agent was about forty +years old now and looked fifty. He had a pleasant smile, but one saw +it rarely enough, and just now he looked more serious than usual. +</p> +<p> +"I am very glad to have had this long talk with you," said the old +director. "You do not think of any other recommendations to be made at +the meeting next week?" +</p> +<p> +The agent grew a trifle paler and glanced behind him to be sure that +the clerks had gone to dinner. +</p> +<p> +"Not in regard to details," he answered gravely. "There is one thing +which I see to be very important. You have seen the books, and are +clear that nine per cent. dividend can easily be declared?" +</p> +<p> +"Very creditable, very creditable," agreed the director; he had +recognized the agent's ability from the first and always upheld him +generously. "I mean to propose a special vote of thanks for your +management. There isn't a minor corporation in New England that stands +so well to-day." +</p> +<p> +The agent listened. "We had some advantages, partly by accident and +partly by lucky foresight," he acknowledged. "I am going to ask your +backing in something that seems to me not only just but important. I +hope that you will not declare above a six per cent. dividend at that +directors' meeting; at the most, seven per cent.," he said. +</p> +<p> +"What, what!" exclaimed the listener. "No, sir!" +</p> +<p> +The agent left his desk-chair and stood before the old director as if +he were pleading for himself. A look of protest and disappointment +changed the elder man's face and hardened it a little, and the agent +saw it. +</p> +<p> +"You know the general condition of the people here," he explained +humbly. "I have taken great pains to keep hold of the best that have +come here; we can depend upon them now and upon the quality of their +work. They made no resistance when we had to cut down wages two years +ago; on the contrary, they were surprisingly reasonable, and you know +that we shut down for several weeks at the time of the alterations. We +have never put their wages back as we might easily have done, and I +happen to know that a good many families have been able to save little +or nothing. Some of them have been working here for three generations. +They know as well as you and I and the books do when the mills are +making money. Now I wish that we could give them the ten per cent. +back again, but in view of the general depression perhaps we can't do +that except in the way I mean. I think that next year we're going to +have a very hard pull to get along, but if we can keep back three per +cent., or even two, of this dividend we can not only manage to get on +without a shut-down or touching our surplus, which is quite small +enough, but I can have some painting and repairing done in the +tenements. They've needed it for a long time—" +</p> +<p> +The old director sprang to his feet. "Aren't the stockholders going to +have any rights then?" he demanded. "Within fifteen years we have had +three years when we have passed our dividends, but the operatives +never can lose a single day's pay!" +</p> +<p> +"That was before my time," said the agent, quietly. "We have averaged +nearly six and a half per cent. a year taking the last twenty years +together, and if you go back farther the average is even larger. This +has always been a paying property; we've got our new machinery now, +and everything in the mills themselves is just where we want it. I +look for far better times after this next year, but the market is +glutted with goods of our kind, and nothing is going to be gained by +cut-downs and forcing lower-cost goods into it. Still, I can keep +things going one way and another, making yarn and so on," he said +pleadingly. "I should like to feel that we had this extra surplus. I +believe that we owe it to our operatives." +</p> +<p> +The director had walked heavily to the window and put his hands deep +into his side-pockets. He had an angry sense that the agent's hands +were in his pockets too. +</p> +<p> +"I've got some pride about that nine per cent., sir," he said loftily +to the agent. +</p> +<p> +"So have I," said the agent, and the two men looked each other in the +face. +</p> +<p> +"I acknowledge my duty to the stockholders," said the younger man +presently. "I have tried to remember that duty ever since I took the +mills eight years ago, but we've got an excellent body of operatives, +and we ought to keep them. I want to show them this next year that we +value their help. If times aren't as bad as we fear we shall still +have the money—" +</p> +<p> +"Nonsense. They think they own the mills now," said the director, but +he was uncomfortable, in spite of believing he was right. "Where's my +hat? I must have my luncheon now, and afterward there'll hardly be +time to go down and look at the new power-house with you—I must be +off on the quarter-to-two train." +</p> +<p> +The agent sighed and led the way. There was no use in saying anything +more and he knew it. As they walked along they met old Mrs. Kilpatrick +returning from her brief noonday meal with little Maggie, whose +childish face was radiant. The old woman recognized one of the +directors and dropped him a decent curtsey as she had been taught to +salute the gentry sixty years before. +</p> +<p> +The director returned the salutation with much politeness. This was +really a pleasant incident, and he took a silver half dollar from his +pocket and gave it to the little girl before he went on. +</p> +<p> +"Kape it safe, darlin'," said the old woman; "you'll need it yet. +Don't be spending all your money in sweeties; 'tis a very cold world +to them that haves no pince in their pocket." +</p> +<p> +The child looked up at Mrs. Kilpatrick apprehensively; then the +sunshine of hope broke out again through the cloud. +</p> +<p> +"I am going to save fine till I buy a house, and you and me'll live +there together, Mrs. Kilpatrick, and have a lovely coal fire all the +time." +</p> +<p> +"Faix, Maggie, I have always thought some day I'd kape a pig and live +pritty in me own house," said Mrs. Kilpatrick. "But I'm the old +sweeper yet in Number Two. 'Tis a worrld where some has and more +wants," she added with a sigh. "I got the manes for a good buryin', +the Lord be praised, and a bitteen more beside. I wouldn't have that +if Father Daley was as croping as some." +</p> +<p> +"Mis' Mullin does always be scolding 'bout Father Daley having all the +collections," ventured Maggie, somewhat adrift in so great a subject. +</p> +<p> +"She's no right then!" exclaimed the old woman angrily; "she'll get no +luck to be grudging her pince that way. 'Tis hard work anny priest +would have to kape the likes of hersilf from being haythens +altogether." +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +There was a nine per cent. annual dividend declared at the directors' +meeting the next week, with considerable applause from the board and +sincere congratulations to the agent. He looked thinner and more sober +than usual, and several persons present, whose aid he had asked in +private, knew very well the reason. After the meeting was over the +senior director, and largest stockholder, shook hands with him warmly. +</p> +<p> +"About that matter you suggested to me the other day," he said, and +the agent looked up eagerly. "I consulted several of our board in +regard to the propriety of it before we came down, but they all agreed +with me that it was no use to cross a bridge until you come to it. +Times look a little better, and the operatives will share in the +accession of credit to a mill that declares nine per cent. this year. +I hope that we shall be able to run the mills with at worst only a +moderate cut-down, and they may think themselves very fortunate when +so many hands are being turned off everywhere." +</p> +<p> +The agent's face grew dark. "I hope that times will take a better +turn," he managed to say. +</p> +<p> +"Yes, yes," answered the director. "Good-bye to you, Mr. Agent! I am +not sure of seeing you again for some time," he added with unusual +kindliness. "I am an old man now to be hurrying round to board +meetings and having anything to do with responsibilities like these. +My sons must take their turn." +</p> +<p> +There was an eager protest from the listeners, and presently the busy +group of men disappeared on their way to the train. A nine per cent. +dividend naturally made the Farley Manufacturing Company's stock go up +a good many points, and word came presently that the largest +stockholder and one or two other men had sold out. Then the stock +ceased to rise, and winter came on apace, and the hard times which the +agent had foreseen came also. +</p> +<h3> +III. +</h3> +<p> +One noon in early March there were groups of men and women gathering +in the Farley streets. For a wonder, nobody was hurrying toward home +and dinner was growing cold on some of the long boarding-house tables. +</p> +<p> +"They might have carried us through the cold weather; there's but a +month more of it," said one middle-aged man sorrowfully. +</p> +<p> +"They'll be talking to us about economy now, some o' them big +thinkers; they'll say we ought to learn how to save; they always begin +about that quick as the work stops," said a youngish woman angrily. +She was better dressed than most of the group about her and had the +keen, impatient look of a leader. "They'll say that manufacturing is +going to the dogs, and capital's in worse distress than labor—" +</p> +<p> +"How is it those big railroads get along? They can't shut down, +there's none o' them stops; they cut down sometimes when they have to, +but they don't turn off their help this way," complained somebody +else. +</p> +<p> +"Faith then! they don't know what justice is. They talk about their +justice all so fine," said a pale-faced young Irishman—"justice is +nine per cent. last year for the men that had the money and no rise at +all for the men that did the work." +</p> +<p> +"They say the shut-down's going to last all summer anyway. I'm going +to pack my kit to-night," said a young fellow who had just married and +undertaken with unusual pride and ambition to keep house. "The likes +of me can't be idle. But where to look for any work for a mule +spinner, the Lord only knows!" +</p> +<p> +Even the French were sobered for once and talked eagerly among +themselves. Halfway down the street, in front of the French grocery, a +man was haranguing his compatriots from the top of a packing-box. +Everybody was anxious and excited by the sudden news. No work after a +week from to-morrow until times were better. There had already been a +cut-down, the mills had not been earning anything all winter. The +agent had hoped to keep on for at least two months longer, and then to +make some scheme about running at half time in the summer, setting +aside the present work for simple yarn-making. He knew well enough +that the large families were scattered through the mill rooms and that +any pay would be a help. Some of the young men could be put to other +work for the company; there was a huge tract of woodland farther back +among the hills where some timber could be got ready for shipping. His +mind was full of plans and anxieties and the telegram that morning +struck him like a blow. He had asked that he might keep the card-room +prices up to where the best men could make at least six dollars and a +half a week and was hoping for a straight answer, but the words on the +yellow paper seemed to dance about and make him dizzy. "Shut down +Saturday 9th until times are better!" he repeated to himself. "Shut +down until times are worse here in Farley!" +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The agent stood at the counting-room window looking out at the +piteous, defenseless groups that passed by. He wished bitterly that +his own pay stopped with the rest; it did not seem fair that he was +not thrown out upon the world too. +</p> +<p> +"I don't know what they're going to do. They shall have the last cent +I've saved before anybody suffers," he said in his heart. But there +were tears in his eyes when he saw Mrs. Kilpatrick go limping out of +the gate. She waited a moment for her constant companion, poor little +Maggie the doffer, and they went away up the street toward their poor +lodging holding each other fast by the hand. Maggie's father and +grandfather and great-grandfather had all worked in the Farley mills; +they had left no heritage but work behind them for this orphan child; +they had never been able to save so much that a long illness, a +prolonged old age, could not waste their slender hoards away. +</p> +<h3> +IV. +</h3> +<p> +It would have been difficult for an outsider to understand the sudden +plunge from decent comfort to actual poverty in this small mill town. +Strange to say, it was upon the smaller families that the strain fell +the worst in Farley, and upon men and women who had nobody to look to +but themselves. Where a man had a large household of children and +several of these were old enough to be at work, and to put aside their +wages or pay for their board; where such a man was of a thrifty and +saving turn and a ruler of his household like old James Dow in the +cloth-hall, he might feel sure of a comfortable hoard and be fearless +of a rainy day. But with a young man who worked single-handed for his +wife and a little flock, or one who had an invalid to work for, that +heaviest of burdens to the poor, the door seemed to be shut and barred +against prosperity, and life became a test of one's power of +endurance. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +The agent went home late that noon from the counting-room. The street +was nearly empty, but he had no friendly look or word for anyone whom +he passed. Those who knew him well only pitied him, but it seemed to +the tired man as if every eye must look at him with reproach. The long +mill buildings of gray stone with their rows of deep-set windows wore +a repellent look of strength and solidity. More than one man felt +bitterly his own personal weakness as he turned to look at them. The +ocean of fate seemed to be dashing him against their gray walls—what +use was it to fight against the Corporation? Two great forces were in +opposition now, and happiness could come only from their serving each +other in harmony. +</p> +<p> +The stronger force of capital had withdrawn from the league; the +weaker one, labor, was turned into an utter helplessness of idleness. +There was nothing to be done; you cannot rebel against a shut-down, +you can only submit. +</p> +<p> +A week later the great wheel stopped early on the last day of work. +Almost everyone left his special charge of machinery in good order, +oiled and cleaned and slackened with a kind of affectionate lingering +care, for one person loves his machine as another loves his horse. +Even little Maggie pushed her bobbin-box into a safe place near the +overseer's desk and tipped it up and dusted it out with a handful of +waste. At the foot of the long winding stairs Mrs. Kilpatrick was +putting away her broom, and she sighed as she locked the closet door; +she had known hard times before. "They'll be wanting me with odd jobs; +we'll be after getting along some way," she said with satisfaction. +</p> +<p> +"March is a long month, so it is—there'll be plinty time for change +before the ind of it," said Mary Cassidy hopefully. "The agent will be +thinking whatever can he do; sure he's very ingenious. Look at him how +well he persuaded the directors to l'ave off wit' making cotton cloth +like everybody else, and catch a chance wit' all these new linings and +things! He's done very well, too. There bees no sinse in a shut-down +anny way, the looms and cards all suffers and the bands all slacks if +they don't get stiff. I'd sooner pay folks to tind their work whatever +it cost." +</p> +<p> +"'Tis true for you," agreed Mrs. Kilpatrick. +</p> +<p> +"What'll ye do wit' the shild, now she's no chance of pay, any more?" +asked Mary relentlessly, and poor Maggie's eyes grew dark with fright +as the conversation abruptly pointed her way. She sometimes waked up +in misery in Mrs. Kilpatrick's warm bed, crying for fear that she was +going to be sent back to the poorhouse. +</p> +<p> +"Maggie an' me's going to kape together awhile yet," said the good old +woman fondly. "She's very handy for me, so she is. We 'on't part with +'ach other whativer befalls, so we 'on't," and Maggie looked up with a +wistful smile, only half reassured. To her the shut-down seemed like +the end of the world. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Some of the French people took time by the forelock and boarded the +midnight train that very Saturday with all their possessions. A little +later two or three families departed by the same train, under cover of +the darkness between two days, without stopping to pay even their +house rent. These mysterious flittings, like that of the famous Tartar +tribe, roused a suspicion against their fellow countrymen, but after a +succession of such departures almost everybody else thought it far +cheaper to stay among friends. It seemed as if at any moment the great +mill wheels might begin to turn, and the bell begin to ring, but day +after day the little town was still and the bell tolled the hours one +after another as if it were Sunday. The mild spring weather came on +and the women sat mending or knitting on the doorsteps. More people +moved away; there were but few men and girls left now in the quiet +boarding-houses, and the spare tables were stacked one upon another at +the end of the rooms. When planting-time came, word was passed about +the Corporation that the agent was going to portion out a field that +belonged to him a little way out of town on the South road, and let +every man who had a family take a good-sized piece to plant. He also +offered seed potatoes and garden seeds free to anyone who would come +and ask for them at his house. The poor are very generous to each +other, as a rule, and there was much borrowing and lending from house +to house, and it was wonderful how long the people seemed to continue +their usual fashions of life without distress. Almost everybody had +saved a little bit of money and some had saved more; if one could no +longer buy beefsteak he could still buy flour and potatoes, and a bit +of pork lent a pleasing flavor, to content an idle man who had nothing +to do but to stroll about town. +</p> +<h3> +V. +</h3> +<p> +One night the agent was sitting alone in his large, half-furnished +house. Mary Moynahan, his housekeeper, had gone up to the church. +There was a timid knock at the door. +</p> +<p> +There were two persons waiting, a short, thick-set man and a pale +woman with dark, bright eyes who was nearly a head taller than her +companion. +</p> +<p> +"Come in, Ellen; I'm glad to see you," said the agent. "Have you got +your wheel-barrow, Mike?" Almost all the would-be planters of the +field had come under cover of darkness and contrived if possible to +avoid each other. +</p> +<p> +"'Tisn't the potatoes we're after asking, sir," said Ellen. She was +always spokeswoman, for Mike had an impediment in his speech. "The +childher come up yisterday and got them while you'd be down at the +counting-room. 'Twas Mary Moynahan saw to them. We do be very thankful +to you, sir, for your kindness." +</p> +<p> +"Come in," said the agent, seeing there was something of consequence +to be said. Ellen Carroll and he had worked side by side many a long +day when they were young. She had been a noble wife to Mike, whose +poor fortunes she had gladly shared for sake of his good heart, though +Mike now and then paid too much respect to his often infirmities. +There was a slight flavor of whisky now on the evening air, but it was +a serious thing to put on your Sunday coat and go up with your wife to +see the agent. +</p> +<p> +"We've come wanting to talk about any chances there might be with the +mill," ventured Ellen timidly, as she stood in the lighted room; then +she looked at Mike for reassurance. "We're very bad off, you see," she +went on. "Yes, sir, I got them potaties, but I had to bake a little of +them for supper and more again the day, for our breakfast. I don't +know whatever we'll do whin they're gone. The poor children does be +entreating me for them, Dan!" +</p> +<p> +The mother's eyes were full of tears. It was very seldom now that +anybody called the agent by his Christian name; there was a natural +reserve and dignity about him, and there had come a definite +separation between him and most of his old friends in the two years +while he had managed to go to the School of Technology in Boston. +</p> +<p> +"Why didn't you let me know it was bad as that?" he asked. "I don't +mean that anybody here should suffer while I've got a cent." +</p> +<p> +"The folks don't like to be begging, sir," said Ellen sorrowfully, +"but there's lots of them does be in trouble. They'd ought to go away +when the mills shut down, but for nobody knows where to go. Farley +ain't like them big towns where a man'd pick up something else to do. +I says to Mike: 'Come, Mike, let's go up after dark and tark to Dan; +he'll help us out if he can,' says I—" +</p> +<p> +"Sit down, Ellen," said the agent kindly, as the poor woman began to +cry. He made her take the armchair which the weave-room girls had +given him at Christmas two years before. She sat there covering her +face with her hands, and trying to keep back her sobs and go quietly +on with what she had to say. Mike was sitting across the room with his +back to the wall anxiously twirling his hat round and round. "Yis, +we're very bad off," he contrived to say after much futile stammering. +"All the folks in the Corporation, but Mr. Dow, has got great bills +run up now at the stores, and thim that had money saved has lint to +thim that hadn't—'twill be long enough before anybody's free. Whin +the mills starts up we'll have to spind for everything at once. The +children is very hard on their clothes and they're all dropping to +pieces. I thought I'd have everything new for them this spring, they +do be growing so. I minds them and patches them the best I can." And +again Ellen was overcome by tears. "Mike an' me's always been +conthrivin' how would we get something laid up, so if anny one would +die or be long sick we'd be equal to it, but we've had great pride to +see the little gerrls go looking as well as anny, and we've worked +very steady, but there's so manny of us we've had to pay rint for a +large tenement and we'd only seventeen dollars and a little more when +the shut-down was. Sure the likes of us has a right to earn more than +our living, ourselves being so willing-hearted. 'Tis a long time now +that Mike's been steady. We always had the pride to hope we'd own a +house ourselves, and a pieceen o' land, but I'm thankful now—'tis as +well for us; we've no chances to pay taxes now." +</p> +<p> +Mike made a desperate effort to speak as his wife faltered and began +to cry again, and seeing his distress forgot her own, and supplied the +halting words. "He wants to know if there's army work he could get, +some place else than Farley. Himself's been sixteen years now in the +picker, first he was one of six and now he is one of the four since +you got the new machines, yourself knows it well." +</p> +<p> +The agent knew about Mike; he looked compassionate as he shook his +head. "Stay where you are, for a while at any rate. Things may look a +little better, it seems to me. We will start up as soon as anyone +does. I'll allow you twenty dollars a month after this; here are ten +to start with. No, no, I've got no one depending on me and my pay is +going on. I'm glad to share it with my friends. Tell the folks to come +up and see me, Ahern and Sullivan and Michel and your brother Con; +tell anybody you know who is really in distress. You've all stood by +me!" +</p> +<p> +"'Tis all the lazy ones 'ould be coming if we told on the poor boy," +said Ellen gratefully, as they hurried home. "Ain't he got the good +heart? We'd ought to be very discrate, Mike!" and Mike agreed by a +most impatient gesture, but by the time summer had begun to wane the +agent was a far poorer man than when it had begun. Mike and Ellen +Carroll were only the leaders of a sorrowful procession that sought +his door evening after evening. Some asked for help who might have +done without it, but others were saved from actual want. There were a +few men who got work among the farms, but there was little steady +work. The agent made the most of odd jobs about the mill yards and +contrived somehow or other to give almost every household a lift. The +village looked more and more dull and forlorn, but in August, when a +traveling show ventured to give a performance in Farley, the +Corporation hall was filled as it seldom was filled in prosperous +times. This made the agent wonder, until he followed the crowd of +workless, sadly idle men and women into the place of entertainment and +looked at them with a sudden comprehension that they were spending +their last cent for a little cheerfulness. +</p> +<h3> +VI. +</h3> +<p> +The agent was going into the counting-room one day when he met old +Father Daley and they stopped for a bit of friendly talk. +</p> +<p> +"Could you come in for a few minutes, sir?" asked the younger man. +"There's nobody in the counting-room." +</p> +<p> +The busy priest looked up at the weather-beaten clock in the mill +tower. +</p> +<p> +"I can," he said. "'Tis not so late as I thought. We'll soon be having +the mail." +</p> +<p> +The agent led the way and brought one of the directors' comfortable +chairs from their committee-room. Then he spun his own chair +face-about from before his desk and they sat down. It was a warm day +in the middle of September. The windows were wide open on the side +toward the river and there was a flicker of light on the ceiling from +the sunny water. The noise of the fall was loud and incessant in the +room. Somehow one never noticed it very much when the mills were +running. +</p> +<p> +"How are the Duffys?" asked the agent. +</p> +<p> +"Very bad," answered the old priest gravely. "The doctor sent for +me—he couldn't get them to take any medicine. He says that it isn't +typhoid; only a low fever among them from bad food and want of care. +That tenement is very old and bad, the drains from the upper tenement +have leaked and spoiled the whole west side of the building. I suppose +they never told you of it?" +</p> +<p> +"I did the best I could about it last spring," said the agent. "They +were afraid of being turned out and they hid it for that reason. The +company allowed me something for repairs as usual and I tried to get +more; you see I spent it all before I knew what a summer was before +us. Whatever I have done since I have paid for, except what they call +legitimate work and care of property. Last year I put all Maple Street +into first-rate order—and meant to go right through the Corporation. +I've done the best I could," he protested with a bright spot of color +in his cheeks. "Some of the men have tinkered up their tenements and I +have counted it toward the rent, but they don't all know how to drive +a nail." +</p> +<p> +"'Tis true for you; you have done the best you could," said the priest +heartily, and both the men were silent, while the river, which was +older than they and had seen a whole race of men disappear before they +came—the river took this opportunity to speak louder than ever. +</p> +<p> +"I think that manufacturing prospects look a little brighter," said +the agent, wishing to be cheerful. "There are some good orders out, +but of course the buyers can take advantage of our condition. The +treasurer writes me that we must be firm about not starting up until +we are sure of business on a good paying margin." +</p> +<p> +"Like last year's?" asked the priest, who was resting himself in the +armchair. There was a friendly twinkle in his eyes. +</p> +<p> +"Like last year's," answered the agent. "I worked like two men, and I +pushed the mills hard to make that large profit. I saw there was +trouble coming, and I told the directors and asked for a special +surplus, but I had no idea of anything like this." +</p> +<p> +"Nine per cent. in these times was too good a prize," said Father +Daley, but the twinkle in his eyes had suddenly disappeared. +</p> +<p> +"You won't get your new church for a long time yet," said the agent. +</p> +<p> +"No, no," said the old man impatiently. "I have kept the foundations +going as well as I could, and the talk, for their own sakes. It gives +them something to think about. I took the money they gave me in +collections and let them have it back again for work. 'Tis well to +lead their minds," and he gave a quick glance at the agent. "'Tis no +pride of mine for church-building and no good credit with the bishop +I'm after. Young men can be satisfied with those things, not an old +priest like me that prays to be a father to his people." +</p> +<p> +Father Daley spoke as man speaks to man, straight out of an honest +heart. +</p> +<p> +"I see many things now that I used to be blind about long ago," he +said. "You may take a man who comes over, him and his wife. They fall +upon good wages and their heads are turned with joy. They've been +hungry for generations back and they've always seen those above them +who dressed fine and lived soft, and they want a taste of luxury too; +they're bound to satisfy themselves. So they'll spend and spend and +have beefsteak for dinner every day just because they never had enough +before, but they'd turn into wild beasts of selfishness, most of 'em, +if they had no check. 'Tis there the church steps in. 'Remember your +Maker and do Him honor in His house of prayer,' says she. 'Be +self-denying, be thinking of eternity and of what's sure to come!' And +you will join with me in believing that it's never those who have +given most to the church who come first to the ground in a hard time +like this. Show me a good church and I'll show you a thrifty people." +Father Daley looked eagerly at the agent for sympathy. +</p> +<p> +"You speak the truth, sir," said the agent. "Those that give most are +always the last to hold out with honest independence and the first to +do for others." +</p> +<p> +"Some priests may have plundered their parishes for pride's sake; +there's no saying what is in poor human nature," repeated Father Daley +earnestly. "God forgive us all for unprofitable servants of Him and +His church. I believe in saying more about prayer and right living, +and less about collections, in God's house, but it's the giving hand +that's the rich hand all the world over." +</p> +<p> +"I don't think Ireland has ever sent us over many misers; Saint +Patrick must have banished them all with the snakes," suggested the +agent with a grim smile. The priest shook his head and laughed a +little and then both men were silent again in the counting-room. +</p> +<p> +The mail train whistled noisily up the road and came into the station +at the end of the empty street, then it rang its loud bell and puffed +and whistled away again. +</p> +<p> +"I'll bring your mail over, sir," said the agent, presently. "Sit here +and rest yourself until I come back and we'll walk home together." +</p> +<p> +The leather mail-bag looked thin and flat and the leisurely postmaster +had nearly distributed its contents by the time the agent had crossed +the street and reached the office. His clerks were both off on a long +holiday; they were brothers and were glad of the chance to take their +vacations together. They had been on lower pay; there was little to +do in the counting-room—hardly anybody's time to keep or even a +letter to write. +</p> +<p> +Two or three loiterers stopped the agent to ask him the usual question +if there were any signs of starting up; an old farmer who sat in his +long wagon before the post-office asked for news too, and touched his +hat with an awkward sort of military salute. +</p> +<p> +"Come out to our place and stop a few days," he said kindly. "You look +kind of pinched up and bleached out, Mr. Agent; you can't be needed +much here." +</p> +<p> +"I wish I could come," said the agent, stopping again and looking up +at the old man with a boyish, expectant face. Nobody had happened to +think about him in just that way, and he was far from thinking about +himself. "I've got to keep an eye on the people that are left here; +you see they've had a pretty hard summer." +</p> +<p> +"Not so hard as you have!" said the old man, as the agent went along +the street. "You've never had a day of rest more than once or twice +since you were born!" +</p> +<p> +There were two letters and a pamphlet for Father Daley and a thin +handful of circulars for the company. In busy times there was often +all the mail matter that a clerk could bring. The agent sat down at +his desk in the counting-room and the priest opened a thick foreign +letter with evident pleasure. "'Tis from an old friend of mine; he's +in a monastery in France," he said. "I only hear from him once a +year," and Father Daley settled himself in his armchair to read the +close-written pages. As for the agent of the mills, he had quickly +opened a letter from the treasurer and was not listening to anything +that was said. +</p> +<p> +Suddenly he whirled round in his desk chair and held out the letter to +the priest. His hand shook and his face was as pale as ashes. +</p> +<p> +"What is it? What's the matter?" cried the startled old man, who had +hardly followed the first pious salutations of his own letter to their +end. "Read it to me yourself, Dan; is there any trouble?" +</p> +<p> +"Orders—I've got orders to start up; we're going to start—I wrote +them last week—" +</p> +<p> +But the agent had to spring up from his chair and go to the window +next the river before he could steady his voice to speak. He thought +it was the look of the moving water that made him dizzy. "We're going +to start up the mills as soon as I can get things ready." He turned to +look up at the thermometer as if it were the most important thing in +the world; then the color rushed to his face and he leaned a moment +against the wall. +</p> +<p> +"Thank God!" said the old priest devoutly. "Here, come and sit down, +my boy. Faith, but it's good news, and I'm the first to get it from +you." +</p> +<p> +They shook hands and were cheerful together; the foreign letter was +crammed into Father Daley's pocket, and he reached for his big cane. +</p> +<p> +"Tell everybody as you go up the street, sir," said Dan. "I've got a +hurricane of things to see to; I must go the other way down to the +storehouses. Tell them to pass the good news about town as fast as +they can; 'twill hearten up the women." All the anxious look had gone +as if by magic from the agent's face. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +Two weeks from that time the old mill bell stopped tolling for the +slow hours of idleness and rang out loud and clear for the +housekeepers to get up, and rang for breakfast, and later still for +all the people to go in to work. Some of the old hands were gone for +good and new ones must be broken in in their places, but there were +many familiar faces to pass the counting-room windows into the mill +yard. There were French families which had reappeared with surprising +promptness, Michel and his pretty daughter were there, and a household +of cousins who had come to the next tenement. The agent stood with his +hands in his pockets and nodded soberly to one group after another. It +seemed to him that he had never felt so happy in his life. +</p> +<p> +"Jolly-looking set this morning," said one of the clerks whose desk +was close beside the window; he was a son of one of the directors, who +had sent him to the agent to learn something about manufacturing. +</p> +<p> +"They've had a bitter hard summer that you know nothing about," said +the agent slowly. +</p> +<p> +Just then Mrs. Kilpatrick and old Mary Cassidy came along, and little +Maggie was with them. She had got back her old chance at doffing and +the hard times were over. They all smiled with such blissful +satisfaction that the agent smiled too, and even waved his hand. +</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p class="center"><i>End of the Text</i></p> +<hr class="full" /> + +<p class="blockquot"><i>Transcriber's Note:</i> This e-book was excerpted from a modern reprint +of works. The table of contents for "Selected Stories and Sketches" has been editted to +identify the source of each story in the source work. The tables of contents for both "A Country Doctor" and "Selected +Stories and Sketches" have been made navigable for convenience.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Country Doctor and Selected Stories +and Sketches, by Sarah Orne Jewett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND *** + +***** This file should be named 15294-h.htm or 15294-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/9/15294/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Wendy Bertsch and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches + +Author: Sarah Orne Jewett + +Release Date: March 8, 2005 [EBook #15294] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Wendy Bertsch and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + +A COUNTRY DOCTOR + +by Sarah Orne Jewett + + +Published 1884 + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. THE LAST MILE + + II. THE FARM-HOUSE KITCHEN + + III. AT JAKE AND MARTIN'S + + IV. LIFE AND DEATH + + V. A SUNDAY VISIT + + VI. IN SUMMER WEATHER + + VII. FOR THE YEARS TO COME + + VIII. A GREAT CHANGE + + IX. AT DR. LESLIE'S + + X. ACROSS THE STREET + + XI. NEW OUTLOOKS + + XII. AGAINST THE WIND + + XIII. A STRAIGHT COURSE + + XIV. MISS PRINCE OF DUNPORT + + XV. HOSTESS AND GUEST + + XVI. A JUNE SUNDAY + + XVII. BY THE RIVER + +XVIII. A SERIOUS TEA-DRINKING + + XIX. FRIEND AND LOVER + + XX. ASHORE AND AFLOAT + + XXI. AT HOME AGAIN + + * * * * * + + + + +I + +THE LAST MILE + + +It had been one of the warm and almost sultry days which sometimes +come in November; a maligned month, which is really an epitome of the +other eleven, or a sort of index to the whole year's changes of storm +and sunshine. The afternoon was like spring, the air was soft and +damp, and the buds of the willows had been beguiled into swelling a +little, so that there was a bloom over them, and the grass looked as +if it had been growing green of late instead of fading steadily. It +seemed like a reprieve from the doom of winter, or from even November +itself. + +The dense and early darkness which usually follows such unseasonable +mildness had already begun to cut short the pleasures of this +spring-like day, when a young woman, who carried a child in her arms, +turned from a main road of Oldfields into a foot-path which led +southward across the fields and pastures. She seemed sure of her way, +and kept the path without difficulty, though a stranger might easily +have lost it here and there, where it led among the patches of +sweet-fern or bayberry bushes, or through shadowy tracts of small +white-pines. She stopped sometimes to rest, and walked more and more +wearily, with increasing effort; but she kept on her way desperately, +as if it would not do to arrive much later at the place which she was +seeking. The child seemed to be asleep; it looked too heavy for so +slight a woman to carry. + +The path led after a while to a more open country, there was a low +hill to be climbed, and at its top the slender figure stopped and +seemed to be panting for breath. A follower might have noticed that it +bent its head over the child's for a moment as it stood, dark against +the darkening sky. There had formerly been a defense against the +Indians on this hill, which in the daytime commanded a fine view of +the surrounding country, and the low earthworks or foundations of the +garrison were still plainly to be seen. The woman seated herself on +the sunken wall in spite of the dampness and increasing chill, still +holding the child, and rocking to and fro like one in despair. The +child waked and began to whine and cry a little in that strange, +lonely place, and after a few minutes, perhaps to quiet it, they went +on their way. Near the foot of the hill was a brook, swollen by the +autumn rains; it made a loud noise in the quiet pasture, as if it were +crying out against a wrong or some sad memory. The woman went toward +it at first, following a slight ridge which was all that remained of a +covered path which had led down from the garrison to the spring below +at the brookside. If she had meant to quench her thirst here, she +changed her mind, and suddenly turned to the right, following the +brook a short distance, and then going straight toward the river +itself and the high uplands, which by daylight were smooth pastures +with here and there a tangled apple-tree or the grassy cellar of a +long vanished farm-house. + +It was night now; it was too late in the year for the chirp of any +insects; the moving air, which could hardly be called wind, swept over +in slow waves, and a few dry leaves rustled on an old hawthorn tree +which grew beside the hollow where a house had been, and a low sound +came from the river. The whole country side seemed asleep in the +darkness, but the lonely woman felt no lack of companionship; it was +well suited to her own mood that the world slept and said nothing to +her,--it seemed as if she were the only creature alive. + +A little this side of the river shore there was an old burial place, a +primitive spot enough, where the graves were only marked by rough +stones, and the short, sheep-cropped grass was spread over departed +generations of the farmers and their wives and children. By day it was +in sight of the pine woods and the moving water, and nothing hid it +from the great sky overhead, but now it was like a prison walled about +by the barriers of night. However eagerly the woman had hurried to +this place, and with what purpose she may have sought the river bank, +when she recognized her surroundings she stopped for a moment, swaying +and irresolute. "No, no!" sighed the child plaintively, and she +shuddered, and started forward; then, as her feet stumbled among the +graves, she turned and fled. It no longer seemed solitary, but as if a +legion of ghosts which had been wandering under cover of the dark had +discovered this intruder, and were chasing her and flocking around her +and oppressing her from every side. And as she caught sight of a light +in a far-away farmhouse window, a light which had been shining after +her all the way down to the river, she tried to hurry toward it. The +unnatural strength of terror urged her on; she retraced her steps like +some pursued animal; she remembered, one after another, the fearful +stories she had known of that ancient neighborhood; the child cried, +but she could not answer it. She fell again and again, and at last all +her strength seemed to fail her, her feet refused to carry her farther +and she crept painfully, a few yards at a time, slowly along the +ground. The fear of her superhuman enemies had forsaken her, and her +only desire was to reach the light that shone from the looming shadow +of the house. + +At last she was close to it; at last she gave one great sigh, and the +child fell from her grasp; at last she clutched the edge of the worn +doorstep with both hands, and lay still. + + + + +II + +THE FARM-HOUSE KITCHEN + + +Indoors there was a cheerful company; the mildness of the evening had +enticed two neighbors of Mrs. Thacher, the mistress of the house, into +taking their walks abroad, and so, with their heads well protected by +large gingham handkerchiefs, they had stepped along the road and up +the lane to spend a social hour or two. John Thacher, their old +neighbor's son, was known to be away serving on a jury in the county +town, and they thought it likely that his mother would enjoy company. +Their own houses stood side by side. Mrs. Jacob Dyer and Mrs. Martin +Dyer were their names, and excellent women they were. Their husbands +were twin-brothers, curiously alike and amazingly fond of each other, +though either would have scorned to make any special outward +demonstration of it. They were spending the evening together in +brother Martin's house, and were talking over the purchase of a bit +of woodland, and the profit of clearing it, when their wives had left +them without any apology to visit Mrs. Thacher, as we have already +seen. + +This was the nearest house and only a quarter of a mile away, and when +they opened the door they had found Mrs. Thacher spinning. + +"I must own up, I am glad to see you more'n common," she said. "I +don't feel scary at being left sole alone; it ain't that, but I have +been getting through with a lonesome spell of another kind. John, he +does as well as a man can, but here I be,--here I be,"--and the good +woman could say no more, while her guests understood readily enough +the sorrow that had found no words. + +"I suppose you haven't got no news from Ad'line?" asked Mrs. Martin +bluntly. "We was speaking of her as we come along, and saying it +seemed to be a pity she should'nt feel it was best to come back this +winter and help you through; only one daughter, and left alone as you +be, with the bad spells you are liable to in winter time--but there, +it ain't her way--her ambitions ain't what they should be, that's all +I can say." + +"If she'd got a gift for anything special, now," continued Mrs. Jake, +"we should feel it was different and want her to have a chance, but +she's just like other folks for all she felt so much above farming. I +don't see as she can do better than come back to the old place, or +leastways to the village, and fetch up the little gal to be some use. +She might dressmake or do millinery work; she always had a pretty +taste, and 't would be better than roving. I 'spose 't would hurt her +pride,"--but Mrs. Thacher flushed at this, and Mrs. Martin came to the +rescue. + +"You'll think we're reg'lar Job's comforters," cried the good soul +hastily, "but there, Mis' Thacher, you know we feel as if she was our +own. There ain't nothing I wouldn't do for Ad'line, sick or well, and +I declare I believe she'll pull through yet and make a piece of luck +that'll set us all to work praising of her. She's like to marry again +for all I can see, with her good looks. Folks always has their joys +and calamities as they go through the world." + +Mrs. Thacher shook her head two or three times with a dismal +expression, and made no answer. She had pushed back the droning +wool-wheel which she had been using, and had taken her knitting from +the shelf by the clock and seated herself contentedly, while Mrs. Jake +and Mrs. Martin had each produced a blue yarn stocking from a +capacious pocket, and the shining steel needles were presently all +clicking together. One knitter after another would sheathe the spare +needle under her apron strings, while they asked each other's advice +from time to time about the propriety of "narrerin'" or whether it +were not best to "widden" according to the progress their respective +stockings had made. Mrs. Thacher had lighted an extra candle, and +replenished the fire, for the air was chillier since the sun went +down. They were all sure of a coming change of weather, and counted +various signs, Mrs. Thacher's lowness of spirits among the number, +while all three described various minor maladies from which they had +suffered during the day, and of which the unseasonable weather was +guilty. + +"I can't get over the feeling that we are watchin' with somebody," +said Mrs. Martin after a while, moved by some strange impulse and +looking over her shoulder, at which remark Mrs. Thacher glanced up +anxiously. "Something has been hanging over me all day," said she +simply, and at this the needles clicked faster than ever. + +"We've been taking rather a low range," suggested Mrs. Jake. "We +shall get to telling over ghost stories if we don't look out, and I +for one shall be sca't to go home. By the way, I suppose you have +heard about old Billy Dow's experience night afore last, Mis' +Thacher?" + +"John being away, I ain't had nobody to fetch me the news these few +days past," said the hostess. "Why what's happened to Billy now?" + +The two women looked at each other: "He was getting himself home as +best he could,--he owned up to having made a lively evenin' of +it,--and I expect he was wandering all over the road and didn't know +nothin' except that he was p'inted towards home, an' he stepped off +from the high bank this side o' Dunnell's, and rolled down, over and +over; and when he come to there was a great white creatur' a-standin' +over him, and he thought 't was a ghost. 'T was higher up on the bank +than him, and it kind of moved along down's if 't was coming right on +to him, and he got on to his knees and begun to say his Ten +Commandments fast's he could rattle 'em out. He got 'em mixed up, and +when the boys heard his teeth a-chattering, they began to laugh and he +up an' cleared. Dunnell's boys had been down the road a piece and was +just coming home, an' 't was their old white hoss that had got out of +the barn, it bein' such a mild night, an' was wandering off. They said +to Billy that't wa'n't everybody could lay a ghost so quick as he +could, and they didn't 'spose he had the means so handy." + +The three friends laughed, but Mrs. Thacher's face quickly lost its +smile and took back its worried look. She evidently was in no mood for +joking. "Poor Billy!" said she, "he was called the smartest boy in +school; I rec'lect that one of the teachers urged his folks to let him +go to college; but 't wa'n't no use; they hadn't the money and +couldn't get it, and 't wa'n't in him to work his way as some do. He's +got a master head for figur's. Folks used to get him to post books +you know,--but he's past that now. Good-natured creatur' as ever +stept; but he always was afeard of the dark,--'seems 's if I could see +him there a-repentin' and the old white hoss shakin' his head,"--and +she laughed again, but quickly stopped herself and looked over her +shoulder at the window. + +"Would ye like the curtain drawed?" asked Mrs. Jake. But Mrs. Thacher +shook her head silently, while the gray cat climbed up into her lap +and laid down in a round ball to sleep. + +"She's a proper cosset, ain't she?" inquired Mrs. Martin approvingly, +while Mrs. Jake asked about the candles, which gave a clear light. "Be +they the last you run?" she inquired, but was answered to the +contrary, and a brisk conversation followed upon the proper +proportions of tallow and bayberry wax, and the dangers of the +new-fangled oils which the village shop-keepers were attempting to +introduce. Sperm oil was growing more and more dear in price and +worthless in quality, and the old-fashioned lamps were reported to be +past their usefulness. + +"I must own I set most by good candle light," said Mrs. Martin. "'T is +no expense to speak of where you raise the taller, and it's cheerful +and bright in winter time. In old times when the houses were draftier +they was troublesome about flickering, candles was; but land! think +how comfortable we live now to what we used to! Stoves is such a +convenience; the fire's so much handier. Housekeepin' don't begin to +be the trial it was once." + +"I must say I like old-fashioned cookin' better than oven cookin'," +observed Mrs. Jake. "Seems to me's if the taste of things was all +drawed up chimbly. Be you going to do much for Thanksgivin', Mis' +Thacher? I 'spose not;" and moved by a sudden kind impulse, she added, +"Why can't you and John jine with our folks? 't wouldn't put us out, +and 'twill be lonesome for ye." + +"'T won't be no lonesomer than last year was, nor the year before," +and Mrs. Thacher's face quivered a little as she rose and took one of +the candles, and opened the trap door that covered the cellar stairs. +"Now don't ye go to makin' yourself work," cried the guests. "No, +don't! we ain't needin' nothin'; we was late about supper." But their +hostess stepped carefully down and disappeared for a few minutes, +while the cat hovered anxiously at the edge of the black pit. + +"I forgot to ask ye if ye'd have some cider?" a sepulchral voice asked +presently; "but I don't know now's I can get at it. I told John I +shouldn't want any whilst he was away, and so he ain't got the spiggit +in yet," to which Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin both replied that they +were no hands for that drink, unless 't was a drop right from the +press, or a taste o' good hard cider towards the spring of the year; +and Mrs. Thacher soon returned with some slices of cake in a plate and +some apples held in her apron. One of her neighbors took the candle as +she reached up to put it on the floor, and when the trap door was +closed again all three drew up to the table and had a little feast. +The cake was of a kind peculiar to its maker, who prided herself upon +never being without it; and there was some trick of her hand or a +secret ingredient which was withheld when she responded with apparent +cheerfulness to requests for its recipe. As for the apples, they were +grown upon an old tree, one of whose limbs had been grafted with some +unknown variety of fruit so long ago that the history was forgotten; +only that an English gardener, many years before, had brought some +cuttings from the old country, and one of them had somehow come into +the possession of John Thacher's grandfather when grafted fruit was a +thing to be treasured and jealously guarded. It had been told that +when the elder Thacher had given away cuttings he had always stolen to +the orchards in the night afterward and ruined them. However, when the +family had grown more generous in later years it had seemed to be +without avail, for, on their neighbors' trees or their own, the +English apples had proved worthless. Whether it were some favoring +quality in that spot of soil or in the sturdy old native tree itself, +the rich golden apples had grown there, year after year, in +perfection, but nowhere else. + +"There ain't no such apples as these, to my mind," said Mrs. Martin, +as she polished a large one with her apron and held it up to the +light, and Mrs. Jake murmured assent, having already taken a +sufficient first bite. + +"There's only one little bough that bears any great," said Mrs. +Thacher, "but it's come to that once before, and another branch has +shot up and been likely as if it was a young tree." + +The good souls sat comfortably in their splint-bottomed, +straight-backed chairs, and enjoyed this mild attempt at a festival. +Mrs. Thacher even grew cheerful and responsive, for her guests seemed +so light-hearted and free from care that the sunshine of their +presence warmed her own chilled and fearful heart. They embarked upon +a wide sea of neighborhood gossip and parish opinions, and at last +some one happened to speak again of Thanksgiving, which at once turned +the tide of conversation, and it seemed to ebb suddenly, while the +gray, dreary look once more overspread Mrs. Thacher's face. + +"I don't see why you won't keep with our folks this year; you and +John," once more suggested Mrs. Martin. "'T ain't wuth while to be +making yourselves dismal here to home; the day'll be lonesome for you +at best, and you shall have whatever we've got and welcome." + +"'T won't be lonesomer this year than it was last, nor the year +before that, and we've stood it somehow or 'nother," answered Mrs. +Thacher for the second time, while she rose to put more wood in the +stove. "Seems to me 't is growing cold; I felt a draught acrost my +shoulders. These nights is dreadful chill; you feel the damp right +through your bones. I never saw it darker than 't was last evenin'. I +thought it seemed kind o' stived up here in the kitchen, and I opened +the door and looked out, and I declare I couldn't see my hand before +me." + +"It always kind of scares me these black nights," said Mrs. Jake Dyer. +"I expect something to clutch at me every minute, and I feel as if +some sort of a creatur' was travelin' right behind me when I am out +door in the dark. It makes it bad havin' a wanin' moon just now when +the fogs hangs so low. It al'ays seems to me as if 't was darker when +she rises late towards mornin' than when she's gone altogether. I do' +know why't is." + +"I rec'lect once," Mrs. Thacher resumed, "when Ad'line was a baby and +John was just turned four year old, their father had gone down river +in the packet, and I was expectin' on him home at supper time, but he +didn't come; 't was late in the fall, and a black night as I ever see. +Ad'line was taken with something like croup, and I had an end o' +candle in the candlestick that I lighted, and 't wa'n't long afore it +was burnt down, and I went down cellar to the box where I kep' 'em, +and if you will believe it, the rats had got to it, and there wasn't a +week o' one left. I was near out anyway. We didn't have this +cook-stove then, and I cal'lated I could make up a good lively blaze, +so I come up full o' scold as I could be, and then I found I'd burnt +up all my dry wood. You see, I thought certain he'd be home and I was +tendin' to the child'n, but I started to go out o' the door and found +it had come on to rain hard, and I said to myself I wouldn't go out to +the woodpile and get my clothes all damp, 'count o' Ad'line, and the +candle end would last a spell longer, and he'd be home by that time. I +hadn't a least o' suspicion but what he was dallying round up to the +Corners, 'long o' the rest o' the men, bein' 't was Saturday night, +and I was some put out about it, for he knew the baby was sick, and I +hadn't nobody with me. I set down and waited, but he never come, and +it rained hard as I ever see it, and I left his supper standin' right +in the floor, and then I begun to be distressed for fear somethin' had +happened to Dan'l, and I set to work and cried, and the candle end +give a flare and went out, and by 'n' by the fire begun to get low and +I took the child'n and went to bed to keep warm; 't was an awful cold +night, considerin' 't was such a heavy rain, and there I laid awake +and thought I heard things steppin' about the room, and it seemed to +me as if 't was a week long before mornin' come, and as if I'd got to +be an old woman. I did go through with everything that night. 'T was +that time Dan'l broke his leg, you know; they was takin' a deck load +of oak knees down by the packet, and one on 'em rolled down from the +top of the pile and struck him just below the knee. He was poling, for +there wan't a breath o' wind, and he always felt certain there was +somethin' mysterious about it. He'd had a good deal worse knocks than +that seemed to be, as only left a black and blue spot, and he said he +never see a deck load o' timber piled securer. He had some queer +notions about the doin's o' sperits, Dan'l had; his old Aunt Parser +was to blame for it. She lived with his father's folks, and used to +fill him and the rest o' the child'n with all sorts o' ghost stories +and stuff. I used to tell him she'd a' be'n hung for a witch if she'd +lived in them old Salem days. He always used to be tellin' what +everything was the sign of, when we was first married, till I laughed +him out of it. It made me kind of notional. There's too much now we +can't make sense of without addin' to it out o' our own heads." + +Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin were quite familiar with the story of the +night when there were no candles and Mr. Thacher had broken his leg, +having been present themselves early in the morning afterward, but +they had listened with none the less interest. These country neighbors +knew their friends' affairs as well as they did their own, but such an +audience is never impatient. The repetitions of the best stories are +signal events, for ordinary circumstances do not inspire them. Affairs +must rise to a certain level before a narration of some great crisis +is suggested, and exactly as a city audience is well contented with +hearing the plays of Shakespeare over and over again, so each man and +woman of experience is permitted to deploy their well-known but always +interesting stories upon the rustic stage. + +"I must say I can't a-bear to hear anything about ghosts after +sundown," observed Mrs. Jake, who was at times somewhat troubled by +what she and her friends designated as "narves." "Day-times I don't +believe in 'em 'less it's something creepy more'n common, but after +dark it scares me to pieces. I do' know but I shall be afeared to go +home," and she laughed uneasily. "There! when I get through with this +needle I believe I won't knit no more. The back o' my neck is all +numb." + +"Don't talk o' goin' home yet awhile," said the hostess, looking up +quickly as if she hated the thought of being left alone again. "'T is +just on the edge of the evenin'; the nights is so long now we think +it's bedtime half an hour after we've got lit up. 'T was a good lift +havin' you step over to-night. I was really a-dreadin' to set here by +myself," and for some minutes nobody spoke and the needles clicked +faster than ever. Suddenly there was a strange sound outside the door, +and they stared at each other in terror and held their breath, but +nobody stirred. This was no familiar footstep; presently they heard a +strange little cry, and still they feared to look, or to know what was +waiting outside. Then Mrs. Thacher took a candle in her hand, and, +still hesitating, asked once, "Who is there?" and, hearing no answer, +slowly opened the door. + + + + +III + +AT JAKE AND MARTIN'S + + +In the mean time, the evening had been much enjoyed by the brothers +who were spending it together in Martin Dyer's kitchen. The houses +stood side by side, but Mr. Jacob Dyer's youngest daughter, the only +one now left at home, was receiving a visit from her lover, or, as the +family expressed it, the young man who was keeping company with her, +and her father, mindful of his own youth, had kindly withdrawn. +Martin's children were already established in homes of their own, with +the exception of one daughter who was at work in one of the cotton +factories at Lowell in company with several of her acquaintances. It +has already been said that Jake and Martin liked nobody's company so +well as their own. Their wives had a time-honored joke about being +comparatively unnecessary to their respective partners, and indeed the +two men had a curiously dependent feeling toward each other. It was +the close sympathy which twins sometimes have each to each, and had +become a byword among all their acquaintances. They were seldom +individualized in any way, and neither was able to distinguish +himself, apparently, for one always heard of the family as Jake and +Martin's folks, and of their possessions, from least to greatest, as +belonging to both brothers. The only time they had ever been separated +was once in their early youth, when Jake had been fired with a desire +to go to sea; but he deserted the coastwise schooner in the first port +and came home, because he could not bear it any longer without his +brother. Martin had no turn for seafaring, so Jake remained ashore and +patiently made a farmer of himself for love's sake, and in spite of a +great thirst for adventure that had never ceased to fever his blood. +It was astonishing how much they found to say to each other when one +considers that their experiences were almost constantly the same; but +nothing contented them better than an uninterrupted evening spent in +each other's society, and as they hoed corn or dug potatoes, or mowed, +or as they drove to the Corners, sitting stiffly upright in the +old-fashioned thorough-braced wagon, they were always to be seen +talking as if it were the first meeting after a long separation. But, +having taken these quiet times for the discussion of all possible and +impossible problems, they were men of fixed opinions, and were ready +at a moment's warning to render exact decisions. They were not fond of +society as a rule; they found little occasion for much talk with their +neighbors, but used as few words as possible. Nobody was more +respected than the brothers. It was often said of them that their word +was their bond, and as they passed from youth to middle age, and in +these days were growing to look like elderly men, they were free from +shame or reproach, though not from much good-natured joking and +friendly fun. Their farm had been owned in the family since the +settlement of the country, and the house which Martin occupied was +very old. Jake's had been built for him when he was married, from +timber cut in their own woodlands, and after thirty years of wear it +looked scarcely newer than its companion. And when it is explained +that they had married sisters, because, as people said, they even went +courting together, it will be easy to see that they had found life +more harmonious than most people do. Sometimes the wife of one brother +would complain that her sister enjoyed undue advantages and profits +from the estate, but there was rarely any disagreement, and Mrs. Jake +was mistress of the turkeys and Mrs. Martin held sway over the hens, +while they divided the spoils amiably at Thanksgiving time when the +geese were sold. If it were a bad year for turkeys, and the tender +young were chilled in the wet grass, while the hens flourished +steadily the season through, Mrs. Jake's spirits drooped and she +became envious of the good fortune which flaunted itself before her +eyes, but on the whole, they suffered and enjoyed together, and found +no fault with their destinies. The two wives, though the affection +between them was of an ordinary sort, were apt to form a league +against the brothers, and this prevented a more troublesome rivalry +which might have existed between the households. + + +Jake and Martin were particularly enjoying the evening. Some accident +had befallen the cooking-stove, which the brothers had never more than +half approved, it being one of the early patterns, and a poor exchange +for the ancient methods of cookery in the wide fireplace. "The women" +had had a natural desire to be equal with their neighbors, and knew +better than their husbands did the difference this useful invention +had made in their every-day work. However, this one night the +conservative brothers could take a mild revenge; and when their wives +were well on their way to Mrs. Thacher's they had assured each other +that, if the plaguey thing were to be carried to the Corners in the +morning to be exchanged or repaired, it would be as well to have it in +readiness, and had quickly taken down its pipes and lifted it as if it +were a feather to the neighboring woodshed. Then they hastily pried +away a fireboard which closed the great fireplace, and looked +smilingly upon the crane and its pothooks and the familiar iron dogs +which had been imprisoned there in darkness for many months. They +brought in the materials for an old-fashioned fire, backlog, +forestick, and crowsticks, and presently seated themselves before a +crackling blaze. Martin brought a tall, brown pitcher of cider from +the cellar and set two mugs beside it on the small table, and for some +little time they enjoyed themselves in silence, after which Jake +remarked that he didn't know but they'd got full enough of a fire for +such a mild night, but he wished his own stove and the new one too +could be dropped into the river for good and all. + +They put the jug of cider between the andirons, and then, moved by a +common impulse, drew their chairs a little farther from the mounting +flames, before they quenched their thirst from the mugs. + +"I call that pretty cider," said Martin; "'tis young yet, but it has +got some weight a'ready, and 'tis smooth. There's a sight o' +difference between good upland fruit and the sposhy apples that grows +in wet ground. An' I take it that the bar'l has an influence: some +bar'ls kind of wilt cider and some smarten it up, and keep it hearty. +Lord! what stuff some folks are willin' to set before ye! 'tain't wuth +the name o' cider, nor no better than the rensin's of a vinegar cask." + +"And then there's weather too," agreed Mr. Jacob Dyer, "had ought to +be took into consideration. Git your apples just in the right +time--not too early to taste o' the tree, nor too late to taste o' the +ground, and just in the snap o' time as to ripeness', on a good sharp +day with the sun a-shining; have 'em into the press and what comes out +is _cider_. I think if we've had any fault in years past, 't was +puttin' off makin' a little too late. But I don't see as this could be +beat. I don't know's you feel like a pipe, but I believe I'll light +up," and thereupon a good portion of black-looking tobacco was cut and +made fine in each of the hard left hands, and presently the clay pipes +were touched off with a live coal, and great clouds of smoke might +have been seen to disappear under the edge of the fire-place, drawn +quickly up the chimney by the draft of the blazing fire. + +Jacob pushed back his chair another foot or two, and Martin soon +followed, mentioning that it was getting hot, but it was well to keep +out the damp. + +"What set the women out to go traipsin' up to Thacher's folks?" +inquired Jacob, holding his cider mug with one hand and drumming it +with the finger ends of the other. + +"I had an idee that they wanted to find out if anything had been heard +about Ad'line's getting home for Thanksgiving," answered Martin, +turning to look shrewdly at his brother. "Women folks does suffer if +there's anything goin' on they can't find out about. 'Liza said she +was going to invite Mis' Thacher and John to eat a piece o' our big +turkey, but she didn't s'pose they'd want to leave. Curi's about +Ad'line, ain't it? I expected when her husband died she'd be right +back here with what she'd got; at any rate, till she'd raised the +child to some size. There'd be no expense here to what she'd have +elsewhere, and here's her ma'am beginnin' to age. She can't do what +she used to, John was tellin' of me; and I don't doubt 't 'as worn +upon her more'n folks thinks." + +"I don't lay no great belief that John'll get home from court," said +Jacob Dyer. "They say that court's goin' to set till Christmas maybe; +there's an awful string o' cases on the docket. Oh, 't was you told +me, wa'n't it? Most like they'll let up for a couple o' days for +Thanksgivin', but John mightn't think't was wuth his while to travel +here and back again 'less he had something to do before winter shets +down. Perhaps they'll prevail upon the old lady, I wish they would, +I'm sure; but an only daughter forsakin' her so, 'twas most too bad of +Ad'line. She al'ays had dreadful high notions when she wa'n't no +more'n a baby; and, good conscience, how she liked to rig up when she +first used to come back from Lowell! Better ha' put her money out to +interest." + +"I believe in young folks makin' all they can o' theirselves," +announced Martin, puffing hard at his pipe and drawing a little +farther still from the fireplace, because the scorching red coals had +begun to drop beneath the forestick. "I've give my child'n the best +push forrard I could, an' you've done the same. Ad'line had a dreadful +cravin' to be somethin' more'n common; but it don't look as if she was +goin' to make out any great. 'Twas unfortunate her losin' of her +husband, but I s'pose you've heard hints that they wa'n't none too +equal-minded. She'd a done better to have worked on a while to Lowell +and got forehanded, and then married some likely young fellow and +settled down here, or to the Corners if she didn't want to farm it. +There was Jim Hall used to be hanging round, and she'd been full as +well off to-day if she'd took him, too. 'T ain't no use for folks to +marry one that's of another kind and belongs different. It's like two +fiddles that plays different tunes,--you can't make nothin' on't, no +matter if both on em's trying their best, 'less one on 'em beats the +other down entirely and has all the say, and ginerally 't is the worst +one does it. Ad'line's husband wa'n't nothin' to boast of from all we +can gather, but they didn't think alike about nothin'. She could 'a' +done well with him if there'd been more of _her_. I don't marvel his +folks felt bad: Ad'line didn't act right by 'em." + +"Nor they by her," said the twin brother. "I tell ye Ad'line would +have done 'em credit if she'd been let. I seem to think how't was with +her; when she was there to work in the shop she thought 't would be +smart to marry him and then she'd be a lady for good and all. And all +there was of it, she found his folks felt put out and hurt, and +instead of pleasing 'em up and doing the best she could, she didn't +know no better than to aggravate 'em. She was wrong there, but I hold +to it that if they'd pleased her up a little and done well by her, +she'd ha' bloomed out, and fell right in with their ways. She's got +outward ambitions enough, but I view it she was all a part of his +foolishness to them; I dare say they give her the blame o' the whole +on't. Ad'line ought to had the sense to see they had some right on +their side. Folks say he was the smartest fellow in his class to +college." + +"Good King Agrippy! how hot it does git," said Jake rising +indignantly, as if the fire alone were to blame. "I must shove back +the cider again or 't will bile over, spite of everything. But 't is +called unwholesome to get a house full o' damp in the fall o' the +year; 't will freeze an' thaw in the walls all winter. I must git me a +new pipe if we go to the Corners to-morrow. I s'pose I've told ye of a +pipe a man had aboard the schooner that time I went to sea?" + +Martin gave a little grumble of assent. + +"'Twas made o' some sort o' whitish stuff like clay, but 'twa'n't +shaped like none else I ever see and it had a silver trimmin' round +it; 'twas very light to handle and it drawed most excellent. I al'ays +kind o' expected he may have stole it; he was a hard lookin' customer, +a Dutchman or from some o' them parts o' the earth. I wish while I was +about it I'd gone one trip more." + +"Was it you was tellin' me that Ad'line was to work again in Lowell? I +shouldn't think her husband's folks would want the child to be fetched +up there in them boardin' houses"-- + +"Belike they don't," responded Jacob, "but when they get Ad'line to +come round to their ways o' thinkin' now, after what's been and gone, +they'll have cause to thank themselves. She's just like her gre't +grandsir Thacher; you can see she's made out o' the same stuff. You +might ha' burnt him to the stake, and he'd stick to it he liked it +better'n hanging and al'ays meant to die that way. There's an awful +bad streak in them Thachers, an' you know it as well as I do. I expect +there'll be bad and good Thachers to the end o' time. I'm glad for the +old lady's sake that John ain't one o' the drinkin' ones. Ad'line'll +give no favors to her husband's folks, nor take none. There's plenty +o' wrongs to both sides, but as I view it, the longer he'd lived the +worse 't would been for him. She was a well made, pretty lookin' girl, +but I tell ye 't was like setting a laylock bush to grow beside an +ellum tree, and expecting of 'em to keep together. They wa'n't mates. +He'd had a different fetchin' up, and he _was_ different, and I wa'n't +surprised when I come to see how things had turned out,--I believe I +shall have to set the door open a half a minute, 't is gettin' +dreadful"--but there was a sudden flurry outside, and the sound of +heavy footsteps, the bark of the startled cur, who was growing very +old and a little deaf, and Mrs. Martin burst into the room and sank +into the nearest chair, to gather a little breath before she could +tell her errand. "For God's sake what's happened?" cried the men. + +They presented a picture of mingled comfort and misery at which Mrs. +Martin would have first laughed and then scolded at any other time. +The two honest red faces were well back toward the farther side of the +room from the fire, which still held its own; it was growing toward +low tide in the cider jug and its attendant mugs, and the pipes were +lying idle. The mistress of the old farm-house did not fail to notice +that high treason had been committed during her short absence, but she +made no comment upon the fireplace nor on anything else, and gasped as +soon as she could that one of the men must go right up to the Corners +for the doctor and hurry back with him, for't was a case of life and +death. + +"Mis' Thacher?" "Was it a shock?" asked the brothers in sorrowful +haste, while Mrs. Martin told the sad little story of Adeline's having +come from nobody knew where, wet and forlorn, carrying her child in +her arms. She looked as if she were in the last stages of a decline. +She had fallen just at the doorstep and they had brought her in, +believing that she was dead. "But while there's life, there's hope," +said Mrs. Martin, "and I'll go back with you if you'll harness up. +Jacob must stop to look after this gre't fire or 'twill burn the +house down," and this was the punishment which befell Jacob, since +nothing else would have kept him from also journeying toward the +Thacher house. + + +A little later the bewildered horse had been fully wakened and +harnessed; Jacob's daughter and her lover had come eagerly out to hear +what had happened; Mrs. Martin had somehow found a chance amidst all +the confusion to ascend to her garret in quest of some useful remedies +in the shape of herbs, and then she and her husband set forth on their +benevolent errands. Martin was very apt to look on the dark side of +things, and it was a curious fact that while the two sisters were like +the brothers, one being inclined to despondency and one to enthusiasm, +the balance was well kept by each of the men having chosen his +opposite in temperament. Accordingly, while Martin heaved a great sigh +from time to time and groaned softly, "Pore gal--pore gal!" his +partner was brimful of zealous eagerness to return to the scene of +distress and sorrow which she had lately left. Next to the doctor +himself, she was the authority on all medical subjects for that +neighborhood, and it was some time since her skill had been needed. + +"Does the young one seem likely?" asked Martin with solemn curiosity. + +"Fur's I could see," answered his wife promptly, "but nobody took no +great notice of it. Pore Ad'line catched hold of it with such a grip +as she was comin' to that we couldn't git it away from her and had to +fetch'em in both to once. Come urge the beast along, Martin, I'll give +ye the partic'lars to-morrow, I do' know's Ad'line's livin' now. We +got her right to bed's I told you, and I set right off considerin' +that I could git over the ground fastest of any. Mis' Thacher of +course wouldn't leave and Jane's heavier than I be." Martin's smile +was happily concealed by the darkness; his wife and her sister had +both grown stout steadily as they grew older, but each insisted upon +the other's greater magnitude and consequent incapacity for quick +movement. A casual observer would not have been persuaded that there +was a pound's weight of difference between them. + +Martin Dyer meekly suggested that perhaps he'd better go in a minute +to see if there was anything Mis' Thacher needed, but Eliza, his wife, +promptly said that she didn't want anything but the doctor as quick as +she could get him, and disappeared up the short lane while the wagon +rattled away up the road. The white mist from the river clung close to +the earth, and it was impossible to see even the fences near at hand, +though overhead there were a few dim stars. The air had grown somewhat +softer, yet there was a sharp chill in it, and the ground was wet and +sticky under foot. There were lights in the bedroom and in the kitchen +of the Thacher house, but suddenly the bedroom candle flickered away +and the window was darkened. Mrs. Martin's heart gave a quick throb, +perhaps Adeline had already died. It might have been a short-sighted +piece of business that she had gone home for her husband. + + + + +IV + +LIFE AND DEATH + + +The sick woman had refused to stay in the bedroom after she had come +to her senses. She had insisted that she could not breathe, and that +she was cold and must go back to the kitchen. Her mother and Mrs. Jake +had wrapped her in blankets and drawn the high-backed wooden rocking +chair close to the stove, and here she was just established when Mrs. +Martin opened the outer door. Any one of less reliable nerves would +have betrayed the shock which the sight of such desperate illness must +have given. The pallor, the suffering, the desperate agony of the +eyes, were far worse than the calmness of death, but Mrs. Martin spoke +cheerfully, and even when her sister whispered that their patient had +been attacked by a haemorrhage, she manifested no concern. + +"How long has this be'n a-goin' on, Ad'line? Why didn't you come home +before and get doctored up? You're all run down." Mrs. Thacher looked +frightened when this questioning began, but turned her face toward her +daughter, eager to hear the answer. + +"I've been sick off and on all summer," said the young woman, as if it +were almost impossible to make the effort of speaking. "See if the +baby's covered up warm, will you, Aunt 'Liza?" + +"Yes, dear," said the kind-hearted woman, the tears starting to her +eyes at the sound of the familiar affectionate fashion of speech which +Adeline had used in her childhood. "Don't you worry one mite; we're +going to take care of you and the little gal too;" and then nobody +spoke, while the only sound was the difficult breathing of the poor +creature by the fire. She seemed like one dying, there was so little +life left in her after her piteous homeward journey. The mother +watched her eagerly with a mingled feeling of despair and comfort; it +was terrible to have a child return in such sad plight, but it was a +blessing to have her safe at home, and to be able to minister to her +wants while life lasted. + +They all listened eagerly for the sound of wheels, but it seemed a +long time before Martin Dyer returned with the doctor. He had been +met just as he was coming in from the other direction, and the two men +had only paused while the tired horse was made comfortable, and a +sleepy boy dispatched with the medicine for which he had long been +waiting. The doctor's housekeeper had besought him to wait long enough +to eat the supper which she had kept waiting, but he laughed at her +and shook his head gravely, as if he already understood that there +should be no delay. When he was fairly inside the Thacher kitchen, the +benefaction of his presence was felt by every one. It was most +touching to see the patient's face lose its worried look, and grow +quiet and comfortable as if here were some one on whom she could +entirely depend. The doctor's greeting was an every-day cheerful +response to the women's welcome, and he stood for a minute warming his +hands at the fire as if he had come upon a commonplace errand. There +was something singularly self-reliant and composed about him; one felt +that he was the wielder of great powers over the enemies, disease and +pain, and that his brave hazel eyes showed a rare thoughtfulness and +foresight. The rough driving coat which he had thrown off revealed a +slender figure with the bowed shoulders of an untiring scholar. His +head was finely set and scholarly, and there was that about him which +gave certainty, not only of his sagacity and skill, but of his true +manhood, his mastery of himself. Not only in this farm-house kitchen, +but wherever one might place him, he instinctively took command, while +from his great knowledge of human nature he could understand and help +many of his patients whose ailments were not wholly physical. He +seemed to read at a glance the shame and sorrow of the young woman who +had fled to the home of her childhood, dying and worse than defeated, +from the battle-field of life. And in this first moment he recognized +with dismay the effects of that passion for strong drink which had +been the curse of more than one of her ancestors. Even the pallor and +the purifying influence of her mortal illness could not disguise these +unmistakable signs. + +"You can't do me any good, doctor," she whispered. "I shouldn't have +let you come if it had been only that. I don't care how soon I am out +of this world. But I want you should look after my little girl," and +the poor soul watched the physician's face with keen anxiety as if +she feared to see a shadow of unwillingness, but none came. + +"I will do the best I can," and he still held her wrist, apparently +thinking more of the fluttering pulse than of what poor Adeline was +saying. + +"That was what made me willing to come back," she continued, "you +don't know how close I came to not doing it either. John will be good +to her, but she will need somebody that knows the world better by and +by. I wonder if you couldn't show me how to make out a paper giving +you the right over her till she is of age? She must stay here with +mother, long as she wants her. 'Tis what I wish I had kept sense +enough to do; life hasn't been all play to me;" and the tears began to +roll quickly down the poor creature's thin cheeks. "The only thing I +care about is leaving the baby well placed, and I want her to have a +good chance to grow up a useful woman. And most of all to keep her out +of _their_ hands, I mean her father's folks. I hate 'em, and he cared +more for 'em than he did for me, long at the last of it.... I could +tell you stories!"-- + +"But not to-night, Addy," said the doctor gravely, as if he were +speaking to a child. "We must put you to bed and to sleep, and you can +talk about all these troublesome things in the morning. You shall see +about the papers too, if you think best. Be a good girl now, and let +your mother help you to bed." For the resolute spirit had summoned the +few poor fragments of vitality that were left, and the sick woman was +growing more and more excited. "You may have all the pillows you wish +for, and sit up in bed if you like, but you mustn't stay here any +longer," and he gathered her in his arms and quickly carried her to +the next room. She made no resistance, and took the medicine which +Mrs. Martin brought, without a word. There was a blazing fire now in +the bedroom fire-place, and, as she lay still, her face took on a +satisfied, rested look. Her mother sat beside her, tearful, and yet +contented and glad to have her near, and the others whispered together +in the kitchen. It might have been the last night of a long illness +instead of the sudden, startling entrance of sorrow in human shape. +"No," said the doctor, "she cannot last much longer with such a cough +as that, Mrs. Dyer. She has almost reached the end of it. I only hope +that she will go quickly." + +And sure enough; whether the fatal illness had run its natural course, +or whether the excitement and the forced strength of the evening +before had exhausted the small portion of strength that was left, when +the late dawn lighted again those who watched, it found them sleeping, +and one was never to wake again in the world she had found so +disappointing to her ambitions, and so untrue to its fancied promises. + + +The doctor had promised to return early, but it was hardly daylight +before there was another visitor in advance of him. Old Mrs. Meeker, a +neighbor whom nobody liked, but whose favor everybody for some reason +or other was anxious to keep, came knocking at the door, and was let +in somewhat reluctantly by Mrs. Jake, who was just preparing to go +home in order to send one or both the brothers to the village and to +acquaint John Thacher with the sad news of his sister's death. He was +older than Adeline, and a silent man, already growing to be elderly in +his appearance. The women had told themselves and each other that he +would take this sorrow very hard, and Mrs. Thacher had said +sorrowfully that she must hide her daughter's poor worn clothes, since +it would break John's heart to know she had come home so beggarly. The +shock of so much trouble was stunning the mother; she did not +understand yet, she kept telling the kind friends who sorrowed with +her, as she busied herself with the preparations for the funeral. "It +don't seem as if 'twas Addy," she said over and over again, "but I +feel safe about her now, to what I did," and Mrs. Jake and Mrs. +Martin, good helpful souls and brimful of compassion, went to and fro +with their usual diligence almost as if this were nothing out of the +common course of events. + +Mrs. Meeker had heard the wagon go by and had caught the sound of the +doctor's voice, her house being close by the road, and she had also +watched the unusual lights. It was annoying to the Dyers to have to +answer questions, and to be called upon to grieve outwardly just then, +and it seemed disloyal to the dead woman in the next room to enter +upon any discussion of her affairs. But presently the little child, +whom nobody had thought of except to see that she still slept, waked +and got down from the old settle where she had spent the night, and +walked with unsteady short footsteps toward her grandmother, who +caught her quickly and held her fast in her arms. The little thing +looked puzzled, and frowned, and seemed for a moment unhappy, and then +the sunshine of her good nature drove away the clouds and she clapped +her hands and laughed aloud, while Mrs. Meeker began to cry again at +the sight of this unconscious orphan. + +"I'm sure I'm glad she can laugh," said Mrs. Martin. "She'll find +enough to cry about later on; I foresee she'll be a great deal o' +company to you, Mis' Thacher." + +"Though 't ain't every one that has the strength to fetch up a child +after they reach your years," said Mrs. Meeker, mournfully. "It's +anxious work, but I don't doubt strength will be given you. I s'pose +likely her father's folks will do a good deal for her,"--and the three +women looked at each other, but neither took it upon herself to +answer. + +All that day the neighbors and acquaintances came and went in the lane +that led to the farm-house. The brothers Jake and Martin made journeys +to and from the village. At night John Thacher came home from court +with as little to say as ever, but, as everybody observed, looking +years older. Young Mrs. Prince's return and sudden death were the only +subjects worth talking about in all the country side, and the doctor +had to run the usual gauntlet of questions from all his outlying +patients and their families. Old Mrs. Thacher looked pale and excited, +and insisted upon seeing every one who came to the house, with evident +intention to play her part in this strange drama with exactness and +courtesy. A funeral in the country is always an era in a family's +life; events date from it and centre in it. There are so few +circumstances that have in the least a public nature that these +conspicuous days receive all the more attention. + +But while death seems far more astonishing and unnatural in a city, +where the great tide of life rises and falls with little apparent +regard to the sinking wrecks, in the country it is not so. The +neighbors themselves are those who dig the grave and carry the dead, +whom they or their friends have made ready, to the last resting-place. +With all nature looking on,--the leaves that must fall, and the grass +of the field that must wither and be gone when the wind passes +over,--living closer to life and in plainer sight of death, they have +a different sense of the mysteries of existence. They pay homage to +Death rather than to the dead; they gather from the lonely farms by +scores because there is a funeral, and not because their friend is +dead; and the day of Adeline Prince's burial, the marvelous +circumstances, with which the whole town was already familiar, brought +a great company together to follow her on her last journey. + +The day was warm and the sunshine fell caressingly over the pastures +as if it were trying to call back the flowers. By afternoon there was +a tinge of greenness on the slopes and under the gnarled apple-trees, +that had been lost for days before, and the distant hills and +mountains, which could be seen in a circle from the high land where +the Thacher farmhouse stood, were dim and blue through the Indian +summer haze. The old men who came to the funeral wore their faded +winter overcoats and clumsy caps all ready to be pulled down over +their ears if the wind should change; and their wives were also warmly +wrapped, with great shawls over their rounded, hard-worked shoulders; +yet they took the best warmth and pleasantness into their hearts, and +watched the sad proceedings of the afternoon with deepest interest. +The doctor came hurrying toward home just as the long procession was +going down the pasture, and he saw it crossing a low hill; a dark and +slender column with here and there a child walking beside one of the +elder mourners. The bearers went first with the bier; the track was +uneven, and the procession was lost to sight now and then behind the +slopes. It was forever a mystery; these people might have been a +company of Druid worshipers, or of strange northern priests and their +people, and the doctor checked his impatient horse as he watched the +retreating figures at their simple ceremony. He could not help +thinking what strange ways this child of the old farm had followed, +and what a quiet ending it was to her wandering life. "And I have +promised to look after the little girl," he said to himself as he +drove away up the road. + +It was a long walk for the elderly people from the house near the main +highway to the little burying-ground. In the earliest days of the farm +the dwelling-place was nearer the river, which was then the chief +thoroughfare; and those of the family who had died then were buried on +the level bit of upland ground high above the river itself. There was +a wide outlook over the country, and the young pine trees that fringed +the shore sang in the south wind, while some great birds swung to and +fro overhead, watching the water and the strange company of people who +had come so slowly over the land. A flock of sheep had ventured to the +nearest hillock of the next pasture, and stood there fearfully, with +upraised heads, as if they looked for danger. + +John Thacher had brought his sister's child all the way in his arms, +and she had clapped her hands and laughed aloud and tried to talk a +great deal with the few words she had learned to say. She was very gay +in her baby fashion; she was amused with the little crowd so long as +it did not trouble her. She fretted only when the grave, kind man, for +whom she had instantly felt a great affection, stayed too long by that +deep hole in the ground and wept as he saw a strange thing that the +people had carried all the way, put down into it out of sight. When he +walked on again, she laughed and played; but after they had reached +the empty gray house, which somehow looked that day as if it were a +mourner also, she shrank from all the strangers, and seemed dismayed +and perplexed, and called her mother eagerly again and again. This +touched many a heart. The dead woman had been more or less unfamiliar +of late years to all of them; and there were few who had really +grieved for her until her little child had reminded them of its own +loneliness and loss. + +That night, after the house was still, John Thacher wrote to acquaint +Miss Prince, of Dunport, with his sister's death and to say that it +was her wish that the child should remain with them during its +minority. They should formally appoint the guardian whom she had +selected; they would do their best by the little girl. And when Mrs. +Thacher asked if he had blamed Miss Prince, he replied that he had +left that to her own conscience. + +In the answer which was quickly returned, there was a plea for the +custody of the child, her mother's and her own namesake, but this was +indignantly refused. There was no love lost between the town and the +country household, and for many years all intercourse was at an end. +Before twelve months were past, John Thacher himself was carried down +to the pasture burying-ground, and his old mother and the little child +were left to comfort and take care of each other as best they could in +the lonely farm-house. + + + + +V + +A SUNDAY VISIT + + +In the gray house on the hill, one spring went by and another, and it +seemed to the busy doctor only a few months from the night he first +saw his ward before she was old enough to come soberly to church with +her grandmother. He had always seen her from time to time, for he had +often been called to the farm or to the Dyers and had watched her at +play. Once she had stopped him as he drove by to give him a little +handful of blue violets, and this had gone straight to his heart, for +he had been made too great a bugbear to most children to look for any +favor at their hands. He always liked to see her come into church on +Sundays, her steps growing quicker and surer as her good grandmother's +became more feeble. The doctor was a lonely man in spite of his many +friends, and he found himself watching for the little brown face that, +half-way across the old meeting-house, would turn round to look for +him more than once during the service. At first there was only the top +of little Nan Prince's prim best bonnet or hood to be seen, unless it +was when she stood up in prayer-time, but soon the bright eyes rose +like stars above the horizon of the pew railing, and next there was +the whole well-poised little head, and the tall child was possessed by +a sense of propriety, and only ventured one or two discreet glances at +her old friend. + +The office of guardian was not one of great tasks or of many duties, +though the child's aunt had insisted upon making an allowance for her +of a hundred dollars a year, and this was duly acknowledged and placed +to its owner's credit in the savings bank of the next town. Her +grandmother Thacher always refused to spend it, saying proudly that +she had never been beholden to Miss Prince and she never meant to be, +and while she lived the aunt and niece should be kept apart. She would +not say that her daughter had never been at fault, but it was through +the Princes all the trouble of her life had come. + +Dr. Leslie was mindful of his responsibilities, and knew more of his +ward than was ever suspected. He was eager that the best district +school teacher who could be found should be procured for the Thacher +and Dyer neighborhood, and in many ways he took pains that the little +girl should have all good things that were possible. He only laughed +when her grandmother complained that Nan would not be driven to +school, much less persuaded, and that she was playing in the brook, or +scampering over the pastures when she should be doing other things. +Mrs. Thacher, perhaps unconsciously, had looked for some trace of the +father's good breeding and gentlefolk fashions, but this was not a +child who took kindly to needlework and pretty clothes. She was +fearlessly friendly with every one; she did not seem confused even +when the minister came to make his yearly parochial visitation, and as +for the doctor, he might have been her own age, for all humility she +thought it necessary to show in the presence of this chief among her +elders and betters. Old Mrs. Thacher gave little pulls at her +granddaughter's sleeves when she kept turning to see the doctor in +sermon-time, but she never knew how glad he was, or how willingly he +smiled when he felt the child's eyes watching him as a dog's might +have done, forcing him to forget the preaching altogether and to +attend to this dumb request for sympathy. One blessed day Dr. Leslie +had waited in the church porch and gravely taken the child's hand as +she came out; and said that he should like to take her home with him; +he was going to the lower part of the town late in the afternoon and +would leave her then at the farm-house. + +"I was going to ask you for something for her shoulder," said +Grandmother Thacher, much pleased, "she'll tell you about it, it was a +fall she had out of an apple-tree,"--and Nan looked up with not a +little apprehension, but presently tucked her small hand inside the +doctor's and was more than ready to go with him. "I thought she looked +a little pale," the doctor said, to which Mrs. Thacher answered that +it was a merciful Providence who had kept the child from breaking her +neck, and then, being at the foot of the church steps, they separated. +It had been a great trial to the good woman to give up the afternoon +service, but she was growing old, as she told herself often in those +days, and felt, as she certainly looked, greatly older than her years. + +"I feel as if Anna was sure of one good friend, whether I stay with +her or not," said the grandmother sorrowfully, as she drove toward +home that Sunday noon with Jacob Dyer and his wife. "I never saw the +doctor so taken with a child before. 'Twas a pity he had to lose his +own, and his wife too; how many years ago was it? I should think he'd +be lonesome, though to be sure he isn't in the house much. Marilla +Thomas keeps his house as clean as a button and she has been a good +stand-by for him, but it always seemed sort o' homesick there ever +since the day I was to his wife's funeral. She made an awful sight o' +friends considering she was so little while in the place. Well I'm +glad I let Nanny wear her best dress; I set out not to, it looked so +much like rain." + +Whatever Marilla Thomas's other failings might have been, she +certainly was kind that day to the doctor's little guest. It would +have been a hard-hearted person indeed who did not enter somewhat into +the spirit of the child's delight. In spite of its being the first +time she had ever sat at any table but her grandmother's, she was not +awkward or uncomfortable, and was so hungry that she gave pleasure to +her entertainers in that way if no other. The doctor leaned back in +his chair and waited while the second portion of pudding slowly +disappeared, though Marilla could have told that he usually did not +give half time enough to his dinner and was off like an arrow the +first possible minute. Before he took his often interrupted afternoon +nap, he inquired for the damaged shoulder and requested a detailed +account of the accident; and presently they were both laughing +heartily at Nan's disaster, for she owned that she had chased and +treed a stray young squirrel, and that a mossy branch of one of the +old apple-trees in the straggling orchard had failed to bear even so +light a weight as hers. Nan had come to the ground because she would +not loose her hold of the squirrel, though he had slipped through her +hands after all as she carried him towards home. The guest was proud +to become a patient, especially as the only remedy that was offered +was a very comfortable handful of sugar-plums. Nan had never owned so +many at once, and in a transport of gratitude and affection she lifted +her face to kiss so dear a benefactor. + +Her eyes looked up into his, and her simple nature was so unconscious +of the true dangers and perils of this world, that his very heart was +touched with compassion, and he leagued himself with the child's good +angel to defend her against her enemies. + +And Nan took fast hold of the doctor's hand as they went to the study. +This was the only room in the house which she had seen before; and was +so much larger and pleasanter than any she knew elsewhere that she +took great delight in it. It was a rough place now, the doctor +thought, but always very comfortable, and he laid himself down on the +great sofa with a book in his hand, though after a few minutes he grew +sleepy and only opened his eyes once to see that Nan was perched in +the largest chair with her small hands folded, and her feet very far +from the floor. "You may run out to see Marilla, or go about the house +anywhere you like; or there are some picture-papers on the table," the +doctor said drowsily, and the visitor slipped down from her throne and +went softly away. + +She had thought the study a very noble room until she had seen the +dining-room, but now she wished for another look at the pictures there +and the queer clock, and the strange, grand things on the sideboard. +The old-fashioned comfort of the house was perfect splendor to the +child, and she went about on tiptoe up stairs and down, looking in at +the open doors, while she lingered wistfully before the closed ones. +She wondered at the great bedsteads with their high posts and dimity +hangings, and at the carpets, and the worthy Marilla watched her for a +moment as she stood on the threshold of the doctor's own room. The +child's quick ear caught the rustle of the housekeeper's Sunday gown; +she whispered with shining eyes that she thought the house was +beautiful. Did Marilla live here all the time? + +"Bless you, yes!" replied Marilla, not without pride, though she added +that nobody knew what a sight of care it was. + +"I suppose y'r aunt in Dunport lives a good deal better than this;" +but the child only looked puzzled and did not answer, while the +housekeeper hurried away to the afternoon meeting, for which the bell +was already tolling. + +The doctor slept on in the shaded study, and after Nan had grown tired +of walking softly about the house, she found her way into the garden. +After all, there was nothing better than being out of doors, and the +apple-trees seemed most familiar and friendly, though she pitied them +for being placed so near each other. She discovered a bench under a +trellis where a grape-vine and a clematis were tangled together, and +here she sat down to spend a little time before the doctor should call +her. She wished she could stay longer than that one short afternoon; +perhaps some time or other the doctor would invite her again. But what +could Marilla have meant about her aunt? She had no aunts except Mrs. +Jake and Mrs. Martin; Marilla must well know that their houses were +not like Dr. Leslie's; and little Nan built herself a fine castle in +Spain, of which this unknown aunt was queen. Certainly her grandmother +had now and then let fall a word about "your father's folks"--by and +by they might come to see her! + +The grape leaves were waving about in the warm wind, and they made a +flickering light and shade upon the ground. The clematis was in bloom, +and its soft white plumes fringed the archway of the lattice work. As +the child looked down the garden walk it seemed very long and very +beautiful to her. Her grandmother's flower-garden had been constantly +encroached upon by the turf which surrounded it, until the snowberry +bush, the London pride, the tiger-lilies, and the crimson phlox were +like a besieged garrison. + +Nan had already found plenty of wild flowers in the world; there were +no entertainments provided for her except those the fields and +pastures kindly spread before her admiring eyes. Old Mrs. Thacher had +been brought up to consider the hard work of this life, and though she +had taken her share of enjoyment as she went along, it was of a +somewhat grim and sober sort. She believed that a certain amount of +friskiness was as necessary to young human beings as it is to colts, +but later both must be harnessed and made to work. As for pleasure +itself she had little notion of that. She liked fair weather, and +certain flowers were to her the decorations of certain useful plants, +but if she had known that her grand-daughter could lie down beside the +anemones and watch them move in the wind and nod their heads, and +afterward look up into the blue sky to watch the great gulls above the +river, or the sparrows flying low, or the crows who went higher, Mrs. +Thacher would have understood almost nothing of such delights, and +thought it a very idle way of spending one's time. + +But as Nan sat in the old summer-house in the doctor's garden, she +thought of many things that she must remember to tell her grandmother +about this delightful day. The bees were humming in the vines, and as +she looked down the wide garden-walk it seemed like the broad aisle in +church, and the congregation of plants and bushes all looked at her as +if she were in the pulpit. The church itself was not far away, and the +windows were open, and sometimes Nan could hear the preacher's voice, +and by and by the people began to sing, and she rose solemnly, as if +it were her own parishioners in the garden who lifted up their voices. +A cheerful robin began a loud solo in one of Dr. Leslie's +cherry-trees, and the little girl laughed aloud in her make-believe +meeting-house, and then the gate was opened and shut, and the doctor +himself appeared, strolling along, and smiling as he came. + +He was looking to the right and left at his flowers and trees, and +once he stopped and took out his pocket knife to trim a straying +branch of honeysuckle, which had wilted and died. When he came to the +summer-house, he found his guest sitting there demurely with her hands +folded in her lap. She had gathered some little sprigs of box and a +few blossoms of periwinkle and late lilies of the valley, and they lay +on the bench beside her. "So you did not go to church with Marilla?" +the doctor said. "I dare say one sermon a day is enough for so small a +person as you." For Nan's part, no sermon at all would have caused +little sorrow, though she liked the excitement of the Sunday drive to +the village. She only smiled when the doctor spoke, and gave a little +sigh of satisfaction a minute afterward when he seated himself beside +her. + +"We must be off presently," he told her. "I have a long drive to take +before night. I would let you go with me, but I am afraid I should +keep you too long past your bedtime." + +The little girl looked in his kind face appealingly; she could not +bear to have the day come to an end. The doctor spoke to her as if she +were grown up and understood everything, and this pleased her. It is +very hard to be constantly reminded that one is a child, as if it were +a crime against society. Dr. Leslie, unlike many others, did not like +children because they were children; he now and then made friends with +one, just as he added now and then to his narrow circle of grown +friends. He felt a certain responsibility for this little girl, and +congratulated himself upon feeling an instinctive fondness for her. +The good old minister had said only that morning that love is the +great motive power, that it is always easy to do things for those whom +we love and wish to please, and for this reason we are taught to pray +for love to God, and so conquer the difficulty of holiness. "But I +must do my duty by her at any rate," the doctor told himself. "I am +afraid I have forgotten the child somewhat in past years, and she is a +bright little creature." + +"Have you been taking good care of yourself?" he added aloud. "I was +very tired, for I was out twice in the night taking care of sick +people. But you must come to see me again some day. I dare say you and +Marilla have made friends with each other. Now we must go, I suppose," +and Nan Prince, still silent,--for the pleasure of this time was +almost too great,--took hold of the doctor's outstretched hand, and +they went slowly up the garden walk together. As they drove slowly +down the street they met the people who were coming from church, and +the child sat up very straight in the old gig, with her feet on the +doctor's medicine-box, and was sure that everybody must be envying +her. She thought it was more pleasant than ever that afternoon, as +they passed through the open country outside the village; the fields +and the trees were marvelously green, and the distant river was +shining in the sun. Nan looked anxiously for the gray farmhouse for +two or three minutes before they came in sight of it, but at last it +showed itself, standing firm on the hillside. It seemed a long time +since she had left home in the morning, but this beautiful day was to +be one of the landmarks of her memory. Life had suddenly grown much +larger, and her familiar horizon had vanished and she discovered a +great distance stretching far beyond the old limits. She went gravely +into the familiar kitchen, holding fast the bits of box and the +periwinkle flowers, quite ready to answer her grandmother's questions, +though she was only too certain that it would be impossible to tell +any one the whole dear story of that June Sunday. + +A little later, as Marilla came sedately home, she noticed in the +driveway some fresh hoofmarks which pointed toward the street, and +quickly assured herself that they could not have been made very long +before. "I wonder what the two of 'em have been doing all the +afternoon?" she said to herself. "She's a little lady, that child is; +and it's a burnin' shame she should be left to run wild. I never set +so much by her mother's looks as some did, but growin' things has +blooms as much as they have roots and prickles--and even them Thachers +will flower out once in a while." + + + + +VI + +IN SUMMER WEATHER + + +One morning Dr. Leslie remembered an old patient whom he liked to go +to see now and then, perhaps more from the courtesy and friendliness +of the thing than from any hope of giving professional assistance. The +old sailor, Captain Finch, had long before been condemned as +unseaworthy, having suffered for many years from the effects of a bad +fall on shipboard. He was a cheerful and wise person, and the doctor +was much attached to him, besides knowing that he had borne his +imprisonment with great patience, for his life on one of the most +secluded farms of the region, surrounded by his wife's kinsfolk, who +were all landsmen, could hardly be called anything else. The doctor +had once made a voyage to Fayal and from thence to England in a +sailing-vessel, having been somewhat delicate in health in his younger +days, and this made him a more intelligent listener to the captain's +stories than was often available. + +Dr. Leslie had brought his case of medicines from mere force of habit, +but by way of special prescription he had taken also a generous +handful of his best cigars, and wrapped them somewhat clumsily in one +of the large sheets of letter-paper which lay on his study table near +by. Also he had stopped before the old sideboard in the carefully +darkened dining-room, and taken a bottle of wine from one of its +cupboards. "This will do him more good than anything, poor old +fellow," he told himself, with a sudden warmth in his own heart and a +feeling of grateful pleasure because he had thought of doing the +kindness. + +Marilla called eagerly from the kitchen window to ask where he was +going, putting her hand out hastily to part the morning-glory vines, +which had climbed their strings and twisted their stems together until +they shut out the world from their planter's sight. But the doctor +only answered that he should be back at dinner time, and settled +himself comfortably in his carriage, smiling as he thought of +Marilla's displeasure. She seldom allowed a secret to escape her, if +she were once fairly on the scent of it, though she grumbled now, and +told herself that she only cared to know for the sake of the people +who might come, or to provide against the accident of his being among +the missing in case of sudden need. She found life more interesting +when there was even a small mystery to be puzzled over. It was +impossible for Dr. Leslie to resist teasing his faithful hand-maiden +once in a while, but he did it with proper gravity and respect, and +their friendship was cemented by these sober jokes rather than torn +apart. + +The horse knew as well as his master that nothing of particular +importance was in hand, and however well he always caught the spirit +of the occasion when there was need for hurry, he now jogged along the +road, going slowly where the trees cast a pleasant shade, and paying +more attention to the flies than to anything else. The doctor seemed +to be in deep thought, and old Major understood that no notice was to +be taken of constant slight touches of the whip which his master held +carelessly. It had been hot, dusty weather until the day and night +before, when heavy showers had fallen; the country was looking fresh, +and the fields and trees were washed clean at last from the white dust +that had powdered them and given the farms a barren and discouraged +look. + +They had come in sight of Mrs. Thacher's house on its high hillside, +and were just passing the abode of Mrs. Meeker, which was close by the +roadside in the low land. This was a small, weather-beaten dwelling, +and the pink and red hollyhocks showed themselves in fine array +against its gray walls. Its mistress's prosaic nature had one most +redeeming quality in her love for flowers and her gift in making them +grow, and the doctor forgave her many things for the sake of the +bright little garden in the midst of the sandy lands which surrounded +her garden with their unshaded barrenness. The road that crossed these +was hot in summer and swept by bitter winds in winter. It was like a +bit of desert dropped by mistake among the green farms and spring-fed +forests that covered the rest of the river uplands. + +No sentinel was ever more steadfast to his duty in time of war and +disorder than Mrs. Meeker, as she sat by the front window, from which +she could see some distance either way along the crooked road. She was +often absent from her own house to render assistance of one sort or +another among her neighbors, but if she were at home it was impossible +for man, woman, or child to go by without her challenge or careful +inspection. She made couriers of her neighbors, and sent these errand +men and women along the country roads or to the village almost daily. +She was well posted in the news from both the village and the country +side, and however much her acquaintances scolded about her, they found +it impossible to resist the fascination of her conversation, and few +declined to share in the banquet of gossip which she was always ready +to spread. She was quick witted, and possessed of many resources and +much cleverness of a certain sort; but it must be confessed that she +had done mischief in her day, having been the murderer of more than +one neighbor's peace of mind and the assailant of many a reputation. +But if she were a dangerous inmate of one's household, few were so +attractive or entertaining for the space of an afternoon visit, and it +was usually said, when she was seen approaching, that she would be +sure to have something to tell. Out in the country, where so many +people can see nothing new from one week's end to the other, it is, +after all, a great pleasure to have the latest particulars brought to +one's door, as a townsman's newspaper is. + +Mrs. Meeker knew better than to stop Dr. Leslie if he were going +anywhere in a hurry; she had been taught this lesson years ago; but +when she saw him journeying in such a leisurely way some instinct +assured her of safety, and she came out of her door like a +Jack-in-the-box, while old Major, only too ready for a halt, stood +still in spite of a desperate twitch of the reins, which had as much +effect as pulling at a fish-hook which has made fast to an anchor. +Mrs. Meeker feigned a great excitement. + +"I won't keep you but a moment," she said, "but I want to hear what +you think about Mis' Thacher's chances." + +"Mrs. Thacher's?" repeated the doctor, wonderingly. + +"She's doing well, isn't she? I don't suppose that she will ever be a +young woman again." + +"I don't know why, but I took it for granted that you was goin' +there," explained Mrs. Meeker, humbly. "She has seemed to me as if she +was failing all summer. I was up there last night, and I never said so +to her, but she had aged dreadfully. I wonder if it's likely she's had +a light shock? Sometimes the fust one's kind o' hidden; comes by night +or somethin', and folks don't know till they begins to feel the damage +of it." + +"She hasn't looked very well of late," said the doctor. For once in +his life he was willing to have a friendly talk, Mrs. Meeker thought, +and she proceeded to make the most of her opportunity. + +"I think the care of that girl of Ad'line's has been too much for her +all along," she announced, "she's wild as a hawk, and a perfect +torment. One day she'll come strollin' in and beseechin' me for a +bunch o' flowers, and the next she'll be here after dark scarin' me +out o' my seven senses. She rigged a tick-tack here the other night +against the window, and my heart was in my mouth. I thought 'twas a +warnin' much as ever I thought anything in my life; the night before +my mother died 'twas in that same room and against that same winder +there came two or three raps, and my sister Drew and me we looked at +each other, and turned cold all over, and mother set right up in bed +the next night and looked at that winder and then laid back dead. I +was all sole alone the other evenin',--Wednesday it was,--and when I +heard them raps I mustered up, and went and put my head out o' the +door, and I couldn't see nothing, and when I went back, knock--knock, +it begun again, and I went to the door and harked. I hoped I should +hear somebody or 'nother comin' along the road, and then I heard +somethin' a rus'lin' amongst the sunflowers and hollyhocks, and then +there was a titterin', and come to find out 'twas that young one. I +chased her up the road till my wind give out, and I had to go and set +on the stone wall, and come to. She won't go to bed till she's a mind +to. One night I was up there this spring, and she never come in until +after nine o'clock, a dark night, too; and the pore old lady was in +distress, and thought she'd got into the river. I says to myself there +wa'n't no such good news. She told how she'd be'n up into Jake an' +Martin's oaks, trying to catch a little screech owl. She belongs with +wild creatur's, I do believe,--just the same natur'. She'd better be +kept to school, 'stead o' growin' up this way; but she keeps the rest +o' the young ones all in a brile, and this last teacher wouldn't have +her there at all. She'd toll off half the school into the pasture at +recess time, and none of 'em would get back for half an hour." + +"What's a tick-tack? I don't remember," asked the doctor, who had been +smiling now and then at this complaint. + +"They tie a nail to the end of a string, and run it over a bent pin +stuck in the sash, and then they get out o' sight and pull, and it +clacks against the winder, don't ye see? Ain't it surprisin' how them +devil's tricks gets handed down from gineration to gineration, while +so much that's good is forgot," lamented Mrs. Meeker, but the doctor +looked much amused. + +"She's a bright child," he said, "and not over strong. I don't believe +in keeping young folks shut up in the schoolhouses all summer long." + +Mrs. Meeker sniffed disapprovingly. "She's tougher than ellum roots. I +believe you can't kill them peaked-looking young ones. She'll run like +a fox all day long and live to see us all buried. I can put up with +her pranks; 't is of pore old Mis' Thacher I'm thinkin'. She's had +trouble enough without adding on this young 'scape-gallows. You had +better fetch her up to be a doctor," Mrs. Meeker smilingly continued, +"I was up there yisterday, and one of the young turkeys had come +hoppin' and quawkin' round the doorsteps with its leg broke, and she'd +caught it and fixed it off with a splint before you could say Jack +Robi'son. She told how it was the way you'd done to Jim Finch that +fell from the hay-rigging and broke his arm over to Jake an' Martin's, +haying time." + +"I remember she was standing close by, watching everything I did," +said the doctor, his face shining with interest and pleasure. "I +shall have to carry her about for clerk. Her father studied medicine +you know. It is the most amazing thing how people inherit"--but he did +not finish his sentence and pulled the reins so quickly that the wise +horse knew there was no excuse for not moving forward. + +Mrs. Meeker had hoped for a longer interview. "Stop as you come back, +won't you?" she asked. "I'm goin' to pick you some of the handsomest +poppies I ever raised. I got the seed from my sister-in-law's cousin, +she that was 'Miry Gregg, and they do beat everything. They wilt so +that it ain't no use to pick 'em now, unless you was calc'latin' to +come home by the other road. There's nobody sick about here, is +there?" to which the doctor returned a shake of the head and the +information that he should be returning that way about noon. As he +drove up the hill he assured himself with great satisfaction that he +believed he hadn't told anything that morning which would be repeated +all over town before night, while his hostess returned to her house +quite dissatisfied with the interview, though she hoped for better +fortune on Dr. Leslie's return. + +For his part, he drove on slowly past the Thacher farmhouse, looking +carefully about him, and sending a special glance up the lane in +search of the invalid turkey. "I should like to see how she managed +it," he told himself half aloud. "If she shows a gift for such things +I'll take pains to teach her a lesson or two by and by when she is +older.... Come Major, don't go to sleep on the road!" and in a few +minutes the wagon was out of sight, if the reader had stood in the +Thacher lane, instead of following the good man farther on his errand +of mercy and good fellowship. + + +At that time in the morning most housekeepers were busy in their +kitchens, but Mrs. Thacher came to stand in her doorway, and shaded +her forehead and eyes with her hand from the bright sunlight, as she +looked intently across the pastures toward the river. She seemed +anxious and glanced to and fro across the fields, and presently she +turned quickly at the sound of a footstep, and saw her young +grand-daughter coming from the other direction round the corner of the +house. The child was wet and a little pale, though she evidently had +been running. + +"What have you been doin' now?" asked the old lady fretfully. "I won't +have you gettin' up in the mornin' before I am awake and stealin' out +of the house. I think you are drowned in the river or have broken your +neck fallin' out of a tree. Here it is after ten o'clock. I've a mind +to send you to bed, Nanny; who got you out of the water, for in it +you've been sure enough?" + +"I got out myself," said the little girl. "It was deep, though," and +she began to cry, and when she tried to cover her eyes with her +already well-soaked little apron, she felt quite broken-hearted and +unnerved, and sat down dismally on the doorstep. + +"Come in, and put on a dry dress," said her grandmother, not unkindly; +"that is, if there's anything but your Sunday one fit to be seen. I've +told you often enough not to go playin' in the river, and I've wanted +you more than common to go out to Jake and Martin's to borrow me a +little cinnamon. You're a real trial this summer. I believe the bigger +you are the worse you are. Now just say what you've been about. I +declare I shall have to go and have a talk with the doctor, and he'll +scold you well. I'm gettin' old and I can't keep after you; you ought +to consider me some. You'll think of it when you see me laying dead, +what a misery you've be'n. No schoolin' worth namin';" grumbled Mrs. +Thacher, as she stepped heavily to and fro in the kitchen, and the +little girl disappeared within the bed-room. In a few minutes, +however, her unusual depression was driven away by the comfort of dry +garments, and she announced triumphantly that she had found a whole +flock of young wild ducks, and that she had made a raft and chased +them about up and down the river, until the raft had proved +unseaworthy, and she had fallen through into the water. Later in the +day somebody came from the Jake and Martin homesteads to say that +there must be no more pulling down of the ends of the pasture fences. +The nails had easily let go their hold of the old boards, and a stone +had served our heroine for a useful shipwright's hammer, but the +young cattle had strayed through these broken barriers and might have +done great damage if they had been discovered a little later,--having +quickly hied themselves to a piece of carefully cultivated land. The +Jake and Martin families regarded Nan with a mixture of dread and +affection. She was bringing a new element into their prosaic lives, +and her pranks afforded them a bit of news almost daily. Her +imagination was apt to busy itself in inventing tales of her unknown +aunt, with which she entertained a grandchild of Martin Dyer, a little +girl of nearly her own age. It seemed possible to Nan that any day a +carriage drawn by a pair of prancing black horses might be seen +turning up the lane, and that a lovely lady might alight and claim her +as her only niece. Why this event had not already taken place the +child never troubled herself to think, but ever since Marilla had +spoken of this aunt's existence, the dreams of her had been growing +longer and more charming, until she seemed fit for a queen, and her +unseen house a palace. Nan's playmate took pleasure in repeating these +glowing accounts to her family, and many were the head-shakings and +evil forebodings over the untruthfulness of the heroine of this story. +Little Susan Dyer's only aunt, who was well known to her, lived as +other people did in a comparatively plain and humble house, and it was +not to be wondered at that she objected to hearing continually of an +aunt of such splendid fashion. And yet Nan tried over and over again +to be in some degree worthy of the relationship. She must not be too +unfit to enter upon more brilliant surroundings whenever the time +should come,--she took care that her pet chickens and her one doll +should have high-sounding names, such as would seem proper to the +aunt, and, more than this, she took a careful survey of the house +whenever she was coming home from school or from play, lest she might +come upon her distinguished relative unawares. She had asked her +grandmother more than once to tell her about this mysterious +kinswoman, but Mrs. Thacher proved strangely uncommunicative, fearing +if she answered one easy question it might involve others that were +more difficult. + +The good woman grew more and more anxious to fulfil her duty to this +troublesome young housemate; the child was strangely dear and +companionable in spite of her frequent naughtiness. It seemed, too, as +if she could do whatever she undertook, and as if she had a power +which made her able to use and unite the best traits of her ancestors, +the strong capabilities which had been illy balanced or allowed to run +to waste in others. It might be said that the materials for a fine +specimen of humanity accumulate through several generations, until a +child appears who is the heir of all the family wit and attractiveness +and common sense, just as one person may inherit the worldly wealth of +his ancestry. + + + + +VII + +FOR THE YEARS TO COME + + +Late one summer afternoon Dr. Leslie was waked from an unusually long +after-dinner nap by Marilla's footsteps along the hall. She remained +standing in the doorway, looking at him for a provoking length of +time, and finally sneezed in her most obtrusive and violent manner. At +this he sat up quickly and demanded to be told what was the matter, +adding that he had been out half the night before, which was no news +to the faithful housekeeper. + +"There, I'm sure I didn't mean to wake you up," she said, with an +apparent lack of self-reproach. "I never can tell whether you are +asleep or only kind of drowsin'. There was a boy here just now from +old Mis' Cunningham's over on the b'ilin' spring road. They want you +to come over quick as convenient. She don't know nothin', the boy +said." + +"Never did," grumbled the doctor. "I'll go, toward night, but I can't +do her any good." + +"An' Mis' Thacher is out here waitin' too, but she says if you're busy +she'll go along to the stores and stop as she comes back. She looks to +me as if she was breakin' up," confided Marilla in a lower tone. + +"Tell her I'm ready now," answered the doctor in a more cordial tone, +and though he said half to himself and half to Marilla that here was +another person who expected him to cure old age, he spoke +compassionately, and as if his heart were heavy with the thought of +human sorrow and suffering. But he greeted Mrs. Thacher most +cheerfully, and joked about Marilla's fear of a fly, as he threw open +the blinds of the study window which was best shaded from the sun. + +Mrs. Thacher did indeed look changed, and the physician's quick eyes +took note of it, and, as he gathered up some letters and newspapers +which had been strewn about just after dinner, he said kindly that he +hoped she had no need of a doctor. It was plain that the occasion +seemed an uncommon one to her. She wore her best clothes, which would +not have been necessary for one of her usual business trips to the +village, and it seemed to be difficult for her to begin her story. Dr. +Leslie, taking a purely professional view of the case, began to +consider what form of tonic would be most suitable, whether she had +come to ask for one or not. + +"I want to have a good talk with you about the little gell; Nanny, you +know;" she said at last, and the doctor nodded, and, explaining that +there seemed to be a good deal of draught through the room, crossed +the floor and gently shut the door which opened into the hall. He +smiled a little as he did it, having heard the long breath outside +which was the not unfamiliar signal of Marilla's presence. If she were +curious, she was a discreet keeper of secrets, and the doctor had more +than once indulged her in her sinful listening by way of friendliness +and reward. But this subject promised to concern his own affairs too +closely, and he became wary of the presence of another pair of ears. +He was naturally a man of uncommon reserve, and most loyal in keeping +his patients' secrets. If clergymen knew their congregations as well +as physicians do, the sermons would be often more closely related to +the parish needs. It was difficult for the world to understand why, +when Dr. Leslie was anything but prone to gossip, Marilla should have +been possessed of such a wealth of knowledge of her neighbors' +affairs. Strange to say this wealth was for her own miserly pleasure +and not to be distributed, and while she often proclaimed with +exasperating triumph that she had known for months some truth just +discovered by others, she was regarded by her acquaintances as if she +were a dictionary written in some foreign language; immensely +valuable, but of no practical use to themselves. It was sometimes +difficult not to make an attempt to borrow from her store of news, but +nothing delighted her more than to be so approached, and to present +impenetrable barriers of discretion to the enemy. + +"How is Nanny getting on?" the doctor asked. "She looks stronger than +she did a year ago." + +"Dear me, she's wild as ever," answered Mrs. Thacher, trying to smile; +"but I've been distressed about her lately, night and day. I thought +perhaps I might see you going by. She's gettin' to be a great girl, +doctor, and I ain't fit to cope with her. I find my strength's +a-goin', and I'm old before my time; all my folks was rugged and sound +long past my age, but I've had my troubles--you don't need I should +tell you that! Poor Ad'line always give me a feelin' as if I was a hen +that has hatched ducks. I never knew exactly how to do for her, she +seemed to see everything so different, and Lord only knows how I worry +about her; and al'ays did, thinkin' if I'd seen clearer how to do my +duty her life might have come out sort of better. And it's the same +with little Anna; not that she's so prone to evil as some; she's a +lovin'-hearted child if ever one was born, but she's a piece o' +mischief; and it may come from her father's folks and their ways o' +livin', but she's made o' different stuff, and I ain't fit to make +answer for her, or for fetchin' of her up. I come to ask if you won't +kindly advise what's best for her. I do' know's anything's got to be +done for a good spell yet. I mind what you say about lettin' her run +and git strong, and I don't check her. Only it seemed to me that you +might want to speak about her sometimes and not do it for fear o' +wronging my judgment. I declare I haven't no judgment about what's +reasonable for her, and you're her guardeen, and there's the money her +father's sister has sent her; 't would burn my fingers to touch a cent +of it, but by and by if you think she ought to have schoolin' or +anything else you must just say so." + +"I think nothing better could have been done for the child than you +have done," said Dr. Leslie warmly. "Don't worry yourself, my good +friend. As for books, she will take to them of her own accord quite +soon enough, and in such weather as this I think one day in the fields +is worth five in the school-house. I'll do the best I can for her." + +Mrs. Thacher's errand had not yet been told, though she fumbled in her +pocket and walked to the open window to look for the neighbor's wagon +by which she was to find conveyance home, before she ventured to say +anything more. "I don't know's my time'll come for some years yet," +she said at length, falteringly, "but I have had it borne in upon my +mind a good many ways this summer that I ain't going to stay here a +gre't while. I've been troubled considerable by the same complaints +that carried my mother off, and I'm built just like her. I don't feel +no concern for myself, but it's goin' to leave the child without +anybody of her own to look to. There's plenty will befriend her just +so long as she's got means, and the old farm will sell for something +besides what she's got already, but that ain't everything, and I can't +seem to make up my mind to havin' of her boarded about. If 't was so +your wife had lived I should know what I'd go down on my knees to her +to do, but I can't ask it of you to be burdened with a young child +a-growin' up." + +The doctor listened patiently, though just before this he had risen +and begun to fill a small bottle at the closet shelves, which were +stocked close to their perilous edges with various drugs. Without +turning to look at his patient he said, "I wish you would take five or +six drops of this three times a day, and let me see you again within a +week or two." And while the troubled woman turned to look at him with +half-surprise, he added, "Don't give yourself another thought about +little Nan. If anything should happen to you, I shall be glad to bring +her here, and to take care of her as if she were my own. I always have +liked her, and it will be as good for me as for her. I would not +promise it for any other child, but if you had not spoken to-day, I +should have found a way to arrange with you the first chance that +came. But I'm getting to be an old fellow myself," he laughed. "I +suppose if I get through first you will be friendly to Marilla?" and +Mrs. Thacher let a faint sunbeam of a smile shine out from the depths +of the handkerchief with which she was trying to stop a great shower +of tears. Marilla was not without her little vanities, and being +thought youthful was one of the chief desires of her heart. + +So Mrs. Thacher went away lighter hearted than she came. She asked the +price of the vial of medicine, and was answered that they would talk +about that another time; then there was a little sober joking about +certain patients who never paid their doctor's bills at all because of +a superstition that they would immediately require his aid again. Dr. +Leslie stood in his study doorway and watched her drive down the +street with Martin Dyer. It seemed to him only a year or two since +both the man and woman had been strong and vigorous; now they both +looked shrunken, and there was a wornness and feebleness about the +bodies which had done such good service. "Come and go," said the +doctor to himself, "one generation after another. Getting old! all the +good old-fashioned people on the farms: I never shall care so much to +be at the beck and call of their grandchildren, but I must mend up +these old folks and do the best I can for them as long as they stay; +they're good friends to me. Dear me, how it used to fret me when I was +younger to hear them always talking about old Doctor Wayland and what +he used to do; and here I am the old doctor myself!" And then he went +down the gravel walk toward the stable with a quick, firm step, which +many a younger man might have envied, to ask for a horse. "You may +saddle him," he directed. "I am only going to old Mrs. Cunningham's, +and it is a cool afternoon." + +Dr. Leslie had ridden less and less every year of his practice; but, +for some reason best known to himself, he went down the village street +at a mad pace. Indeed, almost everybody who saw him felt that it was +important to go to the next house to ask if it were known for what +accident or desperate emergency he had been called away. + + + + +VIII + +A GREAT CHANGE + + +Until the autumn of this year, life had seemed to flow in one steady, +unchanging current. The thought had not entered little Nan Prince's +head that changes might be in store for her, for, ever since she could +remember, the events of life had followed each other quietly, and +except for the differences in every-day work and play, caused by the +succession of the seasons, she was not called upon to accommodate +herself to new conditions. It was a gentle change at first: as the +days grew shorter and the house and cellar were being made ready for +winter, her grandmother seemed to have much more to do than usual, and +Nan must stay at home to help. She was growing older at any rate; she +knew how to help better than she used; she was anxious to show her +grandmother how well she could work, and as the river side and the +windy pastures grew less hospitable, she did not notice that she was +no longer encouraged to go out to play for hours together to amuse +herself as best she might, and at any rate keep out of the way. It +seemed natural enough now that she should stay in the house, and be +entrusted with some regular part of the business of keeping it. For +some time Mrs. Thacher had kept but one cow, and early in November, +after a good offer for old Brindle had been accepted, it was announced +to Nan's surprise that the young cow which was to be Brindle's +successor need not be bought until spring; she would be a great care +in winter time, and Nan was to bring a quart of milk a day from Jake +and Martin's. This did not seem an unpleasant duty while the mild +weather lasted; if there came a rainy day, one of the kind neighbors +would leave the little pail on his way to the village before the young +messenger had started out. + +Nan could not exactly understand at last why Mrs. Jake and Mrs. Martin +always asked about her grandmother every morning with so much interest +and curiosity, or why they came oftener and oftener to help with the +heavy work. Mrs. Thacher had never before minded her occasional +illnesses so much, and some time passed before Nan's inexperienced +eyes and fearless young heart understood that the whole atmosphere +which overhung the landscape of her life had somehow changed, that +another winter approached full of mystery and strangeness and +discomfort of mind, and at last a great storm was almost ready to +break into the shelter and comfort of her simple life. Poor Nan! She +could not think what it all meant. She was asked many a distressing +question, and openly pitied, and heard her future discussed, as if her +world might come to an end any day. The doctor had visited her +grandmother from time to time, but always while she was at school, +until vacation came, and poor Mrs. Thacher grew too feeble to enter +into even a part of the usual business of the farmhouse. + +One morning, as Nan was coming back from the Dyer farm with the milk, +she met Mrs. Meeker in the highway. This neighbor and our heroine were +rarely on good terms with each other, since Nan had usually laid +herself under some serious charge of wrong-doing, and had come to +believe that she would be disapproved in any event, and so might enjoy +life as she chose, and revel in harmless malice. + +The child could not have told why she shrank from meeting her enemy so +much more than usual, and tried to discover some refuge or chance for +escape; but, as it was an open bit of the road, and a straight way to +the lane, she could have no excuse for scrambling over the stone wall +and cutting short the distance. However, her second thought scorned +the idea of running away in such cowardly fashion, and not having any +recent misdemeanor on her conscience, she went forward unflinchingly. + +Mrs. Meeker's tone was not one of complaint, but of pity, and +insinuating friendliness. "How's your grandma to-day?" she asked, and +Nan, with an unsympathetic answer of "About the same," stepped bravely +forward, resenting with all her young soul the discovery that Mrs. +Meeker had turned and was walking alongside. + +"She's been a good, kind grandma to you, hain't she?" said this +unwelcome companion, and when Nan had returned a wondering but almost +inaudible assent, she continued, "She'll be a great loss to you, I can +tell you. You'll never find nobody to do for you like her. There, you +won't realize nothing about it till you've got older'n you be now; +but the time'll come when"--and her sharp voice faltered; for Nan had +turned to look full in her face, had stopped still in the frozen road, +dropped the pail unconsciously and given a little cry, and in another +moment was running as a chased wild creature does toward the refuge of +its nest. The doctor's horse was fastened at the head of the lane, and +Nan knew at last, what any one in the neighborhood could have told her +many days before, that her grandmother was going to die. Mrs. Meeker +stared after her with a grieved sense of the abrupt ending of the +coveted interview, then she recovered her self-possession, and, +picking up the forsaken pail, stepped lightly over the ruts and frozen +puddles, following Nan eagerly in the hope of witnessing more of such +extraordinary behavior, and with the design of offering her services +as watcher or nurse in these last hours. At any rate the pail and the +milk, which had not been spilt, could not be left in the road. + + +So the first chapter of the child's life was ended in the early winter +weather. There was a new unsheltered grave on the slope above the +river, the farm-house door was shut and locked, and the light was out +in the kitchen window. It had been a landmark to those who were used +to driving along the road by night, and there were sincere mourners +for the kindly woman who had kept a simple faith and uprightness all +through her long life of trouble and disappointment. Nan and the cat +had gone to live in the village, and both, being young, had taken the +change with serenity; though at first a piteous sorrow had been waked +in the child's heart, a keen and dreadful fear of the future. The past +seemed so secure and pleasant, as she looked back, and now she was in +the power of a fateful future which had begun with something like a +whirlwind that had swept over her, leaving nothing unchanged. It +seemed to her that this was to be incessant, and that being grown up +was to be at the mercy of sorrow and uncertainty. She was pale and +quiet during her last days in the old home, answering questions and +obeying directions mechanically; but usually sitting in the least +visited part of the kitchen, watching the neighbors as they examined +her grandmother's possessions, and properly disposed of the contents +of the house. Sometimes a spark flew from her sad and angry eyes, but +she made no trouble, and seemed dull and indifferent. Late in the +evening Dr. Leslie carried her home with him through the first heavy +snow-storm of the year, and between the excitement of being covered +from the fast-falling flakes, and so making a journey in the dark, and +of keeping hold of the basket which contained the enraged kitten, the +grief at leaving home was not dwelt upon. + +When she had been unwound from one of the doctor's great cloaks, and +her eyes had grown used to the bright light in the dining-room, and +Marilla had said that supper had been waiting half an hour, and she +did not know how she should get along with a black cat, and then +bustled about talking much faster than usual, because the sight of the +lonely child had made her ready to cry, Nan began to feel comforted. +It seemed a great while ago that she had cried at her grandmother's +funeral. If this were the future it was certainly very welcome and +already very dear, and the time of distress was like a night of bad +dreams between two pleasant days. + + +It will easily be understood that no great change was made in Dr. +Leslie's house. The doctor himself and Marilla were both well settled +in their habits, and while they cordially made room for the little +girl who was to be the third member of the household, her coming made +little difference to either of her elders. There was a great deal of +illness that winter, and the doctor was more than commonly busy; Nan +was sent to school, and discovered the delight of reading one stormy +day when her guardian had given her leave to stay at home, and she had +found his own old copy of Robinson Crusoe looking most friendly and +inviting in a corner of one of the study shelves. As for school, she +had never liked it, and the village school gave her far greater misery +than the weather-beaten building at the cross-roads ever had done. She +had known many of the village children by sight, from seeing them in +church, but she did not number many friends among them, even after the +winter was nearly gone and the days began to grow brighter and less +cold, and the out-of-door games were a source of great merriment in +the playground. Nan's ideas of life were quite unlike those held by +these new acquaintances, and she could not gain the least interest in +most of the other children, though she grew fond of one boy who was a +famous rover and fisherman, and after one of the elder girls had read +a composition which fired our heroine's imagination, she worshiped +this superior being from a suitable distance, and was her willing +adorer and slave. The composition was upon The Moon, and when the +author proclaimed the fact that this was the same moon which had +looked down upon Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, little Nan's eyes had +opened wide with reverence and awe, and she opened the doors of her +heart and soul to lofty thought and high imagination. The big girl, +who sat in the back seat and glibly recited amazing lessons in +history, and did sums which entirely covered the one small blackboard, +was not unmindful of Nan's admiration, and stolidly accepted and +munched the offerings of cracked nuts, or of the treasured English +apples which had been brought from the farm and kept like a squirrel's +hoard in an archway of the cellar by themselves. Nan cherished an idea +of going back to the farm to live by herself as soon as she grew a +little older, and she indulged in pleasing day-dreams of a most +charming life there, with frequent entertainments for her friends, at +which the author of the information about the moon would be the +favored guest, and Nan herself, in a most childish and provincial +fashion, the reigning queen. What did these new town-acquaintances +know of the strawberries which grew in the bit of meadow, or the great +high-bush blackberries by one of the pasture walls, and what would +their pleasure be when they were taken down the river some moonlight +night and caught sight of a fire blazing on a distant bank, and went +nearer to find a sumptuous feast which Nan herself had arranged? She +had been told that her aunt--that mysterious and beneficent aunt--had +already sent her money which was lying idle in the bank until she +should need to spend it, and her imaginary riches increased week by +week, while her horizon of future happiness constantly grew wider. + +The other children were not unwilling at first to enter upon an +inquisitive friendship with the new-comer; but Marilla was so +uncongenial to the noisy visitors, and so fastidious in the matter of +snowy and muddy shoes, that she was soon avoided. Nan herself was a +teachable child and gave little trouble, and Marilla sometimes +congratulated herself because she had reserved the violent objections +which had occurred to her mind when the doctor had announced, just +before Mrs. Thacher's death, that his ward would henceforth find a +home in his house. + +Marilla usually sat in the dining-room in the evening, though she was +apt to visit the study occasionally, knitting in hand, to give her +opinions, or to acquaint herself with various events of which she +thought the doctor would be likely to have knowledge. Sometimes in the +colder winter nights, she drew a convenient light-stand close beside +the kitchen stove and refused to wander far from such comfortable +warmth. Now that she had Nan's busy feet to cover, there was less +danger than ever that she should be left without knitting-work, and +she deeply enjoyed the child's company, since Nan could give innocent +answers to many questions which could never be put to elder members of +the Dyer and Thacher neighborhood. Mrs. Meeker was apt to be discussed +with great freedom, and Nan told long stories about her own childish +experiences, which were listened to and encouraged, and matched with +others even longer and more circumstantial by Marilla. The doctor, who +was always reading when he could find a quiet hour for himself, often +smiled as he heard the steady sound of voices from the wide kitchen, +and he more than once took a few careful steps into the dining-room, +and stood there shaking with laughter at the character of the +conversation. Nan, though eager to learn, and curious about many +things in life and nature, at first found her school lessons +difficult, and sometimes came appealingly to him for assistance, when +circumstances had made a temporary ending of her total indifference to +getting the lessons at all. For this and other reasons she sometimes +sought the study, and drew a small chair beside the doctor's large one +before the blazing fire of the black birch logs; and then Marilla in +her turn would venture upon the neutral ground between study and +kitchen, and smile with satisfaction at the cheerful companionship of +the tired man and the idle little girl who had already found her way +to his lonely heart. Nan had come to another home; there was no +question about what should be done with her and for her, but she was +made free of the silent old house, and went on growing taller, and +growing dearer, and growing happier day by day. Whatever the future +might bring, she would be sure to look back with love and longing to +the first summer of her village life, when, seeing that she looked +pale and drooping, the doctor, to her intense gratification, took her +away from school. Presently, instead of having a ride out into the +country as an occasional favor, she might be seen every day by the +doctor's side, as if he could not make his morning rounds without her; +and in and out of the farm-houses she went, following him like a +little dog, or, as Marilla scornfully expressed it, a briar at his +heels; sitting soberly by when he dealt his medicines and gave advice, +listening to his wise and merry talk with some, and his helpful advice +and consolation to others of the country people. Many of these +acquaintances treated Nan with great kindness; she half belonged to +them, and was deeply interesting for the sake of her other ties of +blood and bonds of fortune, while she took their courtesy with +thankfulness, and their lack of notice with composure. If there were a +shiny apple offered she was glad, but if not, she did not miss it, +since her chief delight was in being the doctor's assistant and +attendant, and her eyes were always watching for chances when she +might be of use. And one day, coming out from a bedroom, the doctor +discovered, to his amusement, that her quick and careful fingers had +folded the papers of some powders which he had left unfolded on the +table. As they drove home together in the bright noon sunshine, he +said, as if the question were asked for the sake of joking a little, +"What are you going to do when you grow up, Nan?" to which she +answered gravely, as if it were the one great question of her life, "I +should like best to be a doctor." Strangely enough there flitted +through the doctor's mind a remembrance of the day when he had talked +with Mrs. Meeker, and had looked up the lane to see the unlucky turkey +whose leg had been put into splints. He had wished more than once that +he had taken pains to see how the child had managed it; but old Mrs. +Thacher had reported the case to have been at least partially +successful. + +Nan had stolen a look at her companion after the answer had been +given, but had been pleased and comforted to find that he was not +laughing at her, and at once began a lively picture of becoming famous +in her chosen profession, and the valued partner of Dr. Leslie, whose +skill everybody praised so heartily. He should not go out at night, +and she would help him so much that he would wonder how he ever had +been able to manage his wide-spread practice alone. It was a matter of +no concern to her that Marilla had laughed when she had been told of +Nan's intentions, and had spoken disrespectfully of women doctors; and +the child's heart was full of pride and hope. The doctor stopped his +horse suddenly to show Nan some flowers which grew at the roadside, +some brilliant cardinals, and she climbed quickly down to gather them. +There was an unwritten law that they should keep watch, one to the +right hand, and the other to the left, and such treasures of blossoms +or wild fruit seldom escaped Nan's vision. Now she felt as if she had +been wrong to let her thoughts go wandering, and her cheeks were +almost as bright as the scarlet flowers themselves, as she clambered +back to the wagon seat. But the doctor was in deep thought, and had +nothing more to say for the next mile or two. It had become like a +bad-case day suddenly and without apparent reason; but Nan had no +suspicion that she was the patient in charge whose welfare seemed to +the doctor to be dependent upon his own decisions. + + + + +IX + +AT DR. LESLIE'S + + +That evening Dr. Leslie made signs that he was not to be interrupted, +and even shut the study doors, to which precaution he seldom resorted. +He was evidently disturbed when an hour later a vigorous knocking was +heard at the seldom-used front entrance, and Marilla ushered in with +anything but triumph an elderly gentleman who had been his college +classmate. Marilla's countenance wore a forbidding expression, and as +she withdrew she took pains to shut the door between the hall and +dining-room with considerable violence. It was almost never closed +under ordinary circumstances, but the faithful housekeeper was +impelled to express her wrath in some way, and this was the first +that offered itself. Nan was sitting peacefully in the kitchen playing +with her black cat and telling herself stories no doubt, and was quite +unprepared for Marilla's change of temper. The bell for the Friday +evening prayer-meeting was tolling its last strokes and it was +Marilla's habit to attend that service. She was apt to be kept closely +at home, it must be acknowledged, and this was one of her few social +indulgences. Since Nan had joined the family and proved that she could +be trusted with a message, she had been left in charge of the house +during this coveted hour on Friday evenings. + +Marilla had descended from her room arrayed for church going, but now +her bonnet was pulled off as if that were the prime offender, and when +the child looked wonderingly around the kitchen, she saw the bread-box +brought out from the closet and put down very hard on a table, while +Marilla began directly afterward to rattle at the stove. + +"I'd like to say to some folks that we don't keep hotel," grumbled the +good woman, "I wish to my heart I'd stepped right out o' the front +door and gone straight to meetin' and left them there beholdin' of me. +Course he hasn't had no supper, nor dinner neither like's not, and if +men are ever going to drop down on a family unexpected it's always +Friday night when everything's eat up that ever was in the house. I +s'pose, after I bake double quantities to-morrow mornin', he'll be +drivin' off before noon-time, and treasure it up that we never have +nothin' decent to set before folks. Anna, you've got to stir yourself +and help, while I get the fire started up; lay one o' them big dinner +napkins over the red cloth, and set a plate an' a tea-cup, for as for +laying the whole table over again, I won't and I shan't. There's water +to cart upstairs and the bed-room to open, but Heaven be thanked I was +up there dustin' to-day, and if ever you set a mug of flowers into one +o' the spare-rooms again and leave it there a week or ten days to +spile, I'll speak about it to the doctor. Now you step out o' my way +like a good girl. I don't know whether you or the cat's the worst for +gettin' before me when I'm in a drive. I'll set him out somethin' to +eat, and then I'm goin' to meetin' if the skies fall." + +Nan meekly obeyed directions, and with a sense of guilt concerning the +deserted posies went to hover about the study door after the plates +were arranged, instead of braving further the stormy atmosphere of the +kitchen. Marilla's lamp had shone in so that there had been light +enough in the dining-room, but the study was quite dark except where +there was one spark at the end of the doctor's half-finished cigar, +which was alternately dim and bright like the revolving lantern of a +lighthouse. + +At that moment the smoker rose, and with his most considerate and +conciliatory tone asked Marilla for the study lamp, but Nan heard, and +ran on tiptoe and presently brought it in from the kitchen, holding it +carefully with both hands and walking slowly. She apparently had no +thought beyond her errand, but she was brimful of eagerness to see the +unexpected guest; for guests were by no means frequent, and since she +had really become aware of a great outside world beyond the boundaries +of Oldfields she welcomed the sight of any messengers. + +Dr. Leslie hastily pushed away some books from the lamp's place; and +noticing that his visitor looked at Nan with surprise, quickly +explained that this little girl had come to take care of him, and bade +Nan speak to Dr. Ferris. Whereupon her bravery was sorely tried, but +not overcome, and afterward she sat down in her own little chair, +quite prepared to be hospitable. As she heard a sound of water being +poured into a pitcher in the best room upstairs, she was ready to +laugh if there had been anybody to laugh with, and presently Marilla +appeared at the door with the announcement that there was some tea +waiting in the dining-room, after which and before anybody had thought +of moving, the side gate clacked resolutely, and Marilla, looking more +prim and unruffled than usual, sped forth to the enjoyment of her +Friday evening privileges. + +Nan followed the gentlemen to the dining-room not knowing whether she +were wanted or not, but feeling quite assured when it was ascertained +that neither sugar nor teaspoons had been provided. The little feast +looked somewhat meagre, and the doctor spoke irreverently of his +housekeeper and proceeded to abstract a jar of her best strawberry jam +from the convenient store-closet, and to collect other articles of +food which seemed to him to be inviting, however inappropriate to the +occasion. The guest would have none of the jam, but Dr. Leslie cut a +slice of the loaf of bread for himself and one for Nan, though it had +already waned beyond its last quarter, and nobody knew what would +happen if there were no toast at breakfast time. Marilla would never +know what a waste of jam was spread upon these slices either, but she +was a miser only with the best preserves, and so our friends reveled +in their stolen pleasure, and were as merry together as heart could +wish. + +Nan thought it very strange when she found that the doctor and his +guest had been at school together, for the stranger seemed so old and +worn. They were talking about other classmates at first, and she sat +still to listen, until the hour of Marilla's return drew near and Dr. +Leslie prudently returned to his own uninvaded apartment. Nan was +told, to her sorrow, that it was past her bed-time and as she stopped +to say good-night, candle in hand, a few moments afterward, the doctor +stooped to kiss her with unusual tenderness, and a little later, when +she was safe in her small bedroom and under the coverlet which was +Marilla's glory, having been knit the winter before in an intricate +pattern, she almost shook with fear at the sound of its maker's +vengeful footsteps in the lower room. It is to be hoped that the +influence of the meeting had been very good, and that one of its +attendants had come home equal to great demands upon her fortitude and +patience. Nan could not help wishing she had thought to put away the +jam, and she wondered how Marilla would treat them all in the morning. +But, to do that worthy woman justice, she was mild and considerate, +and outdid herself in the breakfast that was set forth in the guest's +honor, and Dr. Ferris thought he could do no less than to add to his +morning greeting the question why she was not growing old like the +rest of them, which, though not answered, was pleasantly received. + +The host and guest talked very late the night before, and told each +other many things. Dr. Leslie had somewhat unwillingly undertaken the +country practice which had grown dearer to him with every year, but +there were family reasons why he had decided to stay in Oldfields for +a few months at least, and though it was not long before he was left +alone, not only by the father and mother whose only child he was, but +by his wife and child, he felt less and less inclination to break the +old ties and transplant himself to some more prominent position of the +medical world. The leisure he often had at certain seasons of the year +was spent in the studies which always delighted him, and little by +little he gained great repute among his professional brethren. He was +a scholar and a thinker in other than medical philosophies, and most +persons who knew anything of him thought it a pity that he should be +burying himself alive, as they were pleased to term his devotion to +his provincial life. His rare excursions to the cities gave more +pleasure to other men than to himself, however, in these later years, +and he laughingly proclaimed himself to be growing rusty and behind +the times to Dr. Ferris, who smiled indulgently, and did not take the +trouble to contradict so untrue and preposterous an assertion. + +If one man had been a stayer at home; a vegetable nature, as Dr. +Leslie had gone on to say, which has no power to change its locality +or to better itself by choosing another and more adequate or +stimulating soil; the other had developed the opposite extreme of +character, being by nature a rover. From the medical school he had +entered at once upon the duties of a naval appointment, and after he +had become impatient of its routine of practice and its check upon his +freedom, he had gone, always with some sufficient and useful object, +to one far country after another. Lately he had spent an unusual +number of consecutive months in Japan, which was still unfamiliar even +to most professional travelers, and he had come back to America +enthusiastic and full of plans for many enterprises which his shrewd, +but not very persistent brain had conceived. The two old friends were +delighted to see each other, but they took this long-deferred meeting +as calmly as if they were always next-door neighbors. It was a most +interesting thing that while they led such different lives and took +such apparently antagonistic routes of progression, they were pretty +sure to arrive at the same conclusion, though it might appear +otherwise to a listener who knew them both slightly. + +"And who is the little girl?" asked Dr. Ferris, who had refused his +entertainer's cigars and produced a pipe from one pocket, after having +drawn a handful of curious small jade figures from another and pushed +them along the edge of the study table, without comment, for his +friend to look at. Some of them were so finely carved that they looked +like a heap of grotesque insects struggling together as they lay +there, but though Dr. Leslie's eyes brightened as he glanced at them, +he gave no other sign of interest at that time, and answered his +guest's question instead. + +"She is a ward of mine," he said; "she was left quite alone by the +death of her grandmother some months ago, and so I brought her here." + +"It isn't often that I forget a face," said Dr. Ferris, "but I have +been trying to think what association I can possibly have with that +child. I remember at last; she looks like a young assistant surgeon +who was on the old frigate Fortune with me just before I left the +service. I don't think he was from this part of the country though; I +never heard what became of him." + +"I dare say it was her father; I believe he made a voyage or two," +said Dr. Leslie, much interested. "Do you know anything more about +him? you always remember everything, Ferris." + +"Yes," answered the guest, slowly puffing away at his pipe. "Yes, he +was a very bright fellow, with a great gift at doctoring, but he was +willful, full of queer twists and fancies, the marry in haste and +repent at his leisure sort of young man." + +"Exactly what he did, I suppose," interrupted the host. "Only his +leisure was fortunately postponed to the next world, for the most +part; he died very young." + +"I used to think it a great pity that he had not settled himself +ashore in a good city practice," continued Dr. Ferris. "He had a great +knack at pleasing people and making friends, and he was always +spoiling for want of work. I was ready enough to shirk my part of +that, you may be sure, but if you start with a reasonably healthy set +of men, crew and officers, and keep good discipline, and have no +accidents on the voyage, an old-fashioned ship-master's kit of +numbered doses is as good as anything on board a man-of-war in time of +peace. You have mild cases that result from over-heating or +over-eating, and sometimes a damaged finger to dress, or a tooth to +pull. I used to tell young Prince that it was a pity one of the men +wouldn't let himself be chopped to pieces and fitted together again to +give us a little amusement." + +"That's the name," announced Nan's guardian with great satisfaction. +"This is a very small world; we are all within hail of each other. I +dare say when we get to Heaven there will not be a stranger to make +friends with." + +"I could give you more wonderful proofs of that than you would be +likely to believe," responded the surgeon. "But tell me how you +happened to have anything to do with the child; did Prince wander into +this neighborhood?" + +"Not exactly, but he fell in love with a young girl who was brought up +on one of the farms just out of the village. She was a strange +character, a handsome creature, with a touch of foolish ambition, and +soon grew impatient of the routine of home life. I believe that she +went away at first to work in one of the factories in Lowell, and +afterward she drifted to Dunport, where young Prince's people lived, +and I dare say it was when he came home from that very voyage you knew +of that he saw her and married her. She worked in a dressmaker's shop, +and worked very well too, but she had offended his sister to begin +with, one day when she was finding fault with some work that had been +done for her, and so there was no end of trouble, and the young man +had a great battle at home, and the more he was fought the less +inclined he was to yield, and at last off he went to be married, and +never came home again until he died. It was a wretched story; he only +lived two years, and they went from one place to another, and finally +the end came in some Western town. He had not been happy with his +wife, and they quarreled from time to time, and he asked to be brought +back to Dunport and buried. This child was only a baby, and the +Princes begged her mother to give her up, and used every means to try +to make friends, and to do what was right. But I have always thought +there was blame on both sides. At any rate the wife was insolent and +unruly, and went flinging out of the house as soon as the funeral was +over. I don't know what became of them for a while, but it always +seemed to me as if poor Adeline must have had a touch of insanity, +which faded away as consumption developed itself. Her mother's people +were a fine, honest race, self-reliant and energetic, but there is a +very bad streak on the other side. I have heard that she was seen +begging somewhere, but I am not sure that it is true; at any rate she +would neither come here to her own home nor listen to any plea from +her husband's family, and at last came back to the farm one night like +a ghost, carrying the child in her arms across the fields; all in rags +and tatters, both of them. She confessed to me that she had meant to +drown herself and little Nan together. I could never understand why +she went down so fast. I know that she had been drinking. Some people +might say that it was the scorn of her husband's relatives, but that +is all nonsense, and I have no doubt she and the young man might have +done very well if this hadn't spoiled all their chances at the outset. +She was quite unbalanced and a strange, wild creature, very handsome +in her girlhood, but morally undeveloped. It was impossible not to +have a liking for her. I remember her when she was a baby." + +"And yet people talk about the prosaic New England life!" exclaimed +Dr. Ferris. "I wonder where I could match such a story as that, though +I dare say that you know a dozen others. I tell you, Leslie, that for +intense, self-centred, smouldering volcanoes of humanity, New England +cannot be matched the world over. It's like the regions in Iceland +that are full of geysers. I don't know whether it is the inheritance +from those people who broke away from the old countries, and who ought +to be matched to tremendous circumstances of life, but now and then +there comes an amazingly explosive and uncontrollable temperament that +goes all to pieces from its own conservation and accumulation of +force. By and by you will have all blown up,--you quiet descendants of +the Pilgrims and Puritans, and have let off your superfluous +wickedness like blizzards; and when the blizzards of each family have +spent themselves you will grow dull and sober, and all on a level, and +be free from the troubles of a transition state. Now, you're neither a +new country nor an old one. You ought to see something of the older +civilizations to understand what peace of mind is. Unless some +importation of explosive material from the westward stirs them up, one +century is made the pattern for the next. But it is perfectly +wonderful what this climate does for people who come to it,--a south +of Ireland fellow, for instance, who has let himself be rained on and +then waited for the sun to dry him again, and has grubbed a little in +a bit of ground, just enough to hint to it that it had better be +making a crop of potatoes for him. I always expect to see the gorse +and daisies growing on the old people's heads to match the cabins. But +they come over here and forget their idleness, and in a week or two +the east winds are making them work, and thrashing them if they are +slow, worse than any slave-driver who ever cracked his whip-lash. I +wonder how you stand it; I do, indeed! I can't take an afternoon nap +or have my coffee in bed of a morning without thinking I must put into +port at the next church to be preached at." + +Dr. Leslie laughed a little and shook his head gently. "It's very well +for you to talk, Ferris," he said, "since you have done more work than +any man I know. And I find this neighborhood entirely placid; one bit +of news will last us a fortnight. I dare say Marilla will let +everybody know that you have come to town, and have explained why she +was ten minutes late, even to the minister." + +"How about the little girl herself?" asked the guest presently; "she +seems well combined, and likely, as they used to say when I was a +boy." + +Dr. Leslie resumed the subject willingly: "So far as I can see, she +has the good qualities of all her ancestors without the bad ones. Her +mother's mother was an old fashioned country woman of the best stock. +Of course she resented what she believed to be her daughter's wrongs, +and refused to have anything to do with her son-in-law's family, and +kept the child as carefully as possible from any knowledge of them. +Little Nan was not strong at first, but I insisted that she should be +allowed to run free out of doors. It seems to me that up to seven or +eight years of age children are simply bundles of inheritances, and I +can see the traits of one ancestor after another; but a little later +than the usual time she began to assert her own individuality, and has +grown capitally well in mind and body ever since. There is an amusing +trace of the provincial self-reliance and self-respect and farmer-like +dignity, added to a quick instinct, and tact and ready courtesy, which +must have come from the other side of her ancestry. She is more a +child of the soil than any country child I know, and yet she would not +put a city household to shame. She has seen nothing of the world of +course, but you can see she isn't like the usual village school-girl. +There is one thing quite remarkable. I believe she has grown up as +naturally as a plant grows, not having been clipped back or forced in +any unnatural direction. If ever a human being were untrammeled and +left alone to see what will come of it, it is this child. And I will +own I am very much interested to see what will appear later." + +The navy surgeon's eyes twinkled at this enthusiasm, but he asked +soberly what seemed to be our heroine's bent, so far as could be +discovered, and laughed outright when he was gravely told that it was +a medical bent; a surprising understanding of things pertaining to +that most delightful profession. + +"But you surely don't mean to let her risk her happiness in following +that career?" Dr. Ferris inquired with feigned anxiety for his answer. +"You surely aren't going to sacrifice that innocent creature to a +theory! I know it's a theory; last time I was here, you could think of +nothing but hypnotism or else the action of belladonna in congestion +and inflammation of the brain;" and he left his very comfortable chair +suddenly, with a burst of laughter, and began to walk up and down the +room. "She has no relatives to protect her, and I consider it a +shocking case of a guardian's inhumanity. Grown up naturally indeed! I +don't doubt that you supplied her with Bell's 'Anatomy' for a +picture-book and made her say over the names of the eight little bones +of her wrist, instead of 'This little pig went to market.'" + +"I only hope that you'll live to grow up yourself, Ferris," said his +entertainer, "you'll certainly be an ornament to your generation. What +a boy you are! I should think you would feel as old as Methuselah by +this time, after having rattled from one place to the next all these +years. Don't you begin to get tired?" + +"No, I don't believe I do," replied Dr. Ferris, lending himself to +this new turn of the conversation, but not half satisfied with the +number of his jokes. "I used to be afraid I should, and so I tried to +see everything I could of the world before my enthusiasm began to +cool. And as for rattling to the next place, as you say, you show +yourself to be no traveler by nature, or you wouldn't speak so +slightingly. It is extremely dangerous to make long halts. I could cry +with homesickness at the thought of the towns I have spent more than a +month in; they are like the people one knows; if you see them once, +you go away satisfied, and you can bring them to mind afterward, and +think how they looked or just where it was you met them,--out of doors +or at the club. But if you live with those people, and get fond of +them, and have a thousand things to remember, you get more pain than +pleasure out of it when you go away. And one can't be everywhere at +once, so if you're going to care for things tremendously, you had +better stay in one town altogether. No, give me a week or two, and +then I've something calling me to the next place; somebody to talk +with or a book to see, and off I go. Yet, I've done a good bit of work +in my day after all. Did you see that paper of mine in the 'Lancet' +about some experiments I made when I was last in India with those +tree-growing jugglers? and I worked out some curious things about the +mathematics of music on this last voyage home! Why, I thought it would +tear my heart in two when I came away. I should have grown to look +like the people, and you might have happened to find a likeness of me +on a tea plate after another year or two. I made all my plans one day +to stay another winter, and next day at eleven o'clock I was steaming +down the harbor. But there was a poor young lad I had taken a liking +for, an English boy, who was badly off after an accident and needed +somebody to look after him. I thought the best thing I could do was to +bring him home. Are you going to fit your ward for general practice +or for a specialty?" + +"I don't know; that'll be for the young person herself to decide," +said Dr. Leslie good-humoredly. "But she's showing a real talent for +medical matters. It is quite unconscious for the most part, but I find +that she understands a good deal already, and she sat here all the +afternoon last week with one of my old medical dictionaries. I +couldn't help looking over her shoulder as I went by, and she was +reading about fevers, if you please, as if it were a story-book. I +didn't think it was worth while to tell her we understood things +better nowadays, and didn't think it best to bleed as much as old Dr. +Rush recommended." + +"You're like a hen with one chicken, Leslie," said the friend, still +pacing to and fro. "But seriously, I like your notion of her having +come to this of her own accord. Most of us are grown in the shapes +that society and family preference and prejudice fasten us into, and +don't find out until we are well toward middle life that we should +have done a great deal better at something else. Our vocations are +likely enough to be illy chosen, since few persons are fit to choose +them for us, and we are at the most unreasonable stage of life when we +choose them for ourselves. And what the Lord made some people for, +nobody ever can understand; some of us are for use and more are for +waste, like the flowers. I am in such a hurry to know what the next +world is like that I can hardly wait to get to it. Good heavens! we +live here in our familiar fashion, going at a jog-trot pace round our +little circles, with only a friend or two to speak with who understand +us, and a pipe and a jack-knife and a few books and some old clothes, +and please ourselves by thinking we know the universe! Not a soul of +us can tell what it is that sends word to our little fingers to move +themselves back and forward." + +"We're sure of two things at any rate," said Dr. Leslie, "love to God +and love to man. And though I have lived here all my days, I have +learned some truths just as well as if I had gone about with you, or +even been to the next world and come back. I have seen too many lives +go to pieces, and too many dissatisfied faces, and I have heard too +many sorrowful confessions from these country death-beds I have +watched beside, one after another, for twenty or thirty years. And if +I can help one good child to work with nature and not against it, and +to follow the lines marked out for her, and she turns out useful and +intelligent, and keeps off the rocks of mistaking her duty, I shall be +more than glad. I don't care whether it's a man's work or a woman's +work; if it is hers I'm going to help her the very best way I can. I +don't talk to her of course; she's much too young; but I watch her and +mean to put the things in her way that she seems to reach out for and +try to find. She is going to be very practical, for her hands can +almost always work out her ideas already. I like to see her take hold +of things, and I like to see her walk and the way she lifts her feet +and puts them down again. I must say, Ferris, there is a great +satisfaction in finding a human being once in a while that has some +use of itself." + +"You're right!" said Dr. Ferris; "but don't be disappointed when she's +ten years older if she picks out a handsome young man and thinks there +is nothing like housekeeping. Have you taken a look at my pocketful of +heathen idols there yet? I don't think you've ever seen their mates." + +The stayer at home smiled as if he understood his friend's quiet bit +of pleasantry, and reached for one of the treasures, but folded it in +his hand without looking at it and seemed to be lost in meditation. +The surgeon concluded that he had had enough exercise and laid himself +down on the wide sofa at the end of the room, from whence he could +watch his companion's face. He clasped his hands under his head and +looked eager and interested. He had grown to have something of the +appearance of a foreigner, as people often do who have spent much time +in eastern countries. The two friends were silent for some minutes, +until an impatient voice roused Dr. Leslie from his reflections. + +"It always makes me covet my neighbor's wits when I see you!" +announced the wanderer. "If I settled myself into a respectable +practice I should be obliged to march with the army of doctors who +carry a great array of small weapons, and who find out what is the +matter with their patients after all sorts of experiment and +painstaking analysis, and comparing the results of their thermometers +and microscopes with scientific books of reference. After I have done +all that, you know, if I have had good luck I shall come to exactly +what you can say before you have been with a sick man five minutes. +You have the true gift for doctoring, you need no medical dictator, +and whatever you study and whatever comes to you in the way of +instruction simply ministers to your intuition. It grows to be a +wonderful second-sight in such a man as you. I don't believe you +investigate a case and treat it as a botanist does a strange flower, +once a month. You know without telling yourself what the matter is, +and what the special difference is, and the relative dangers of this +case and one apparently just like it across the street, and you could +do this before you were out of the hospitals. I remember you!" and +after a few vigorous puffs of smoke he went on; "It is all very well +for the rest of the men to be proud of their book learning, but they +don't even try to follow nature, as Sydenham did, who followed no man. +I believe such study takes one to more theory and scientific digest +rather than to more skill. It is all very well to know how to draw +maps when one gets lost on a dark night, or even to begin with +astronomical calculations and come down to a chemical analysis of the +mud you stand in, but hang me if I wouldn't rather have the instinct +of a dog who can go straight home across a bit of strange country. A +man has no right to be a doctor if he doesn't simply make everything +bend to his work of getting sick people well, and of trying to remedy +the failures of strength that come from misuse or inheritance or +ignorance. The anatomists and the pathologists have their place, but +we must look to the living to learn the laws of life, not to the dead. +A wreck shows you where the reef is, perhaps, but not how to manage a +ship in the offing. The men who make it their business to write the +books and the men who make it their business to follow them aren't the +ones for successful practice." + +Dr. Leslie smiled, and looked over his shoulder at his beloved library +shelves, as if he wished to assure the useful volumes of his continued +affection and respect, and said quietly, as if to beg the displeased +surgeon's patience with his brethren: "They go on, poor fellows, +studying the symptoms and never taking it in that the life power is at +fault. I see more and more plainly that we ought to strengthen and +balance the whole system, and aid nature to make the sick man well +again. It is nature that does it after all, and diseases are oftener +effects of illness than causes. But the young practitioners must +follow the text-books a while until they have had enough experience to +open their eyes to observe and have learned to think for themselves. I +don't know which is worse; too much routine or no study at all. I was +trying the other day to count up the different treatments of pneumonia +that have been in fashion in our day; there must be seven or eight, +and I am only afraid the next thing will be a sort of skepticism and +contempt of remedies. Dr. Johnson said long ago that physicians were a +class of men who put bodies of which they knew little into bodies of +which they knew less, but certainly this isn't the fault of the +medicines altogether; you and I know well enough they are often most +stupidly used. If we blindly follow the medical dictators, as you call +them, and spend our treatment on the effects instead of the causes, +what success can we expect? We do want more suggestions from the men +at work, but I suppose this is the same with every business. The +practical medical men are the juries who settle all the theories of +the hour, as they meet emergencies day after day." + +"The men who have the true gift for their work," said Dr. Ferris +impatiently. "I hadn't the conscience to go on myself, that's why I +resigned, you know. I can talk about it, but I am not a good workman. +But if there are going to be doctors in the next world, I wish I might +be lucky enough to be equal to such a heavenly business. You thought I +didn't care enough about the profession to go on, but it wasn't so. Do +push your little girl ahead if she has the real fitness. I suppose it +is a part of your endowment that you can distinguish the capacities +and tendencies of health as well as illness; and there's one thing +certain, the world cannot afford to do without the workmen who are +masters of their business by divine right." + +Dr. Leslie was looking at the jade-stone gods. "I suppose the poor +fellows who chipped out these treasures of yours may have thought they +were really putting a visible piece of Heaven within their neighbors' +reach," he said. "We can't get used to the fact that whatever truly +belongs to the next world is not visible in this, and that there is +idol-making and worshiping forever going on. When we let ourselves +forget to educate our faith and our spiritual intellects, and lose +sight of our relation and dependence upon the highest informing +strength, we are trying to move our machinery by some inferior motive +power. We worship our tools and beg success of them instead of +remembering that we are all apprentices to the great Master of our own +and every man's craft. It is the great ideas of our work that we need, +and the laws of its truths. We shall be more intelligent by and by +about making the best of ourselves; our possibilities are infinitely +beyond what most people even dream. Spiritual laziness and physical +laziness together keep us just this side of sound sleep most of the +time. Perhaps you think it is a proper season for one at least?" + +"Dear me, no!" said Dr. Ferris, who was evidently quite wide awake. +"Do you remember how well Buckle says that the feminine intellect is +the higher, and that the great geniuses of the world have possessed +it? The gift of intuition reaches directly towards the truth, and it +is only reasoning by deduction that can take flight into the upper air +of life and certainty. You remember what he says about that?" + +"Yes," said Dr. Leslie. "Yes, it isn't a thing one easily forgets. But +I have long believed that the powers of Christ were but the higher +powers of our common humanity. We recognize them dimly now and then, +but few of us dare to say so yet. The world moves very slowly, doesn't +it? If Christ were perfect man, He could hardly tell us to follow Him +and be like Him, and yet know all the while that it was quite +impossible, because a difference in his gifts made his character an +unapproachable one to ours. We don't amount to anything, simply +because we won't understand that we must receive the strength of +Heaven into our souls; that it depends upon our degree of receptivity, +and our using the added power that comes in that way; not in our +taking our few tools, and our self-esteem and satisfaction with +ourselves, and doing our little tricks like dancing dogs; proud +because the other dogs can do one less than we, or only bark and walk +about on their four legs. It is our souls that make our bodies worth +anything, and the life of the soul doesn't come from its activity, or +any performance of its own. Those things are only the results and the +signs of life, not the causes of it." + +"Christ in us, the hope of glory," said the other doctor gravely, "and +Christ's glory was his usefulness and gift for helping others; I +believe there's less quackery in our profession than any other, but it +is amazing how we bungle at it. I wonder how you will get on with your +little girl? If people didn't have theories of life of their own, or +wouldn't go exactly the wrong way, it would be easier to offer +assistance; but where one person takes a right direction of his own +accord, there are twenty who wander to and fro." + +"I may as well confess to you," he continued presently, "that I have +had a _protege_ myself, but I don't look for much future joy in +watching the development of my plots. He has taken affairs into his +own hands, and I dare say it is much better for him, for if I had +caught him young enough, I should have wished him to run the gauntlet +of all the professions, not to speak of the arts and sciences. He was +a clever young fellow; I saw him married the day before I left +England. His wife was the daughter of a curate, and he the younger son +of a younger son, and it was a love affair worth two or three +story-books. It came to be a question of money alone. I had known the +boy the year before in Bombay and chanced to find him one day in the +Marine Hospital at Nagasaki. We had been up into the interior +together. He was recommended to me as a sort of secretary and +assistant and knew more than I did about most things. When he caught +sight of me he cried like a baby, and I sat down and heard what the +trouble was, for I had let him go off with somebody who could give him +a good salary,--a government man of position, and I thought poor Bob +would be put in the way of something better. Dear me, the climate was +killing him before my eyes, and I took passage for both of us on the +next day's steamer. When I got him home I turned my bank account into +a cheque and tucked it into his pocket, and told him to marry his wife +and settle down and be respectable and forget such a wandering old +fellow as I." + +The listener made a little sound of mingled admiration and disgust. + +"So you're the same piece of improvidence as ever! I wonder if you +worked your passage over to Boston, or came as a stowaway? Well, I'm +glad to give you house-room, and, to tell the truth, I was wondering +how I should get on to-morrow without somebody to help me in a piece +of surgery. My neighbors are not very skillful, but they're good men +every one of them, unless it's old Jackson, who knows no more about +the practice of medicine than a turtle knows about the nearest fixed +star. Ferris! I don't wonder at your giving away the last cent you had +in the world, I only wonder that you had a cent to give. I hope the +young man was grateful, that's all, only I'm not sure I like his +taking it." + +"He thought I had enough more, I dare say. He said so much I couldn't +stand his nonsense. He'll use it better than I could," said the guest +briefly. "As I said, I couldn't bring him up; in the first place I +haven't the patience, and beside, it wouldn't be just to him. But you +must let me know how you get on with your project; I shall make you a +day's visit once in six months." + +"That'll be good luck," responded the cheerful host. "Now that I am +growing old I find I wish for company oftener; just the right man, you +know, to come in for an hour or two late in the evening to have a +cigar, and not say a word if he doesn't feel like it." + +The two friends were very comfortable together; the successive cigars +burnt themselves out slowly, and the light of the great lamp was +bright in the room. Here and there a tinge of red shone out on the +backs of the books that stood close together in the high cases. There +was an old engraving or two, and in one corner a solemn bronze figure +of Dante, thin and angular, as if he had risen from his coffin to take +a last look at this world. Marilla had often spoken of him +disrespectfully, and had suggested many other ornaments which might be +brought to take his place, but the doctor had never acted upon her +suggestions. From the corner of one book-case there hung a huge wasp's +nest, and over the mantel-shelf, which was only wide enough for some +cigar boxes and a little clock and a few vials of medicines, was a +rack where three or four riding whips and a curious silver bit and +some long-stemmed pipes found unmolested quarters; and in one corner +were some walking sticks and a fishing rod or two which had a very +ancient unused look. There was a portrait of Dr. Leslie's grandfather +opposite the fire-place; a good-humored looking old gentleman who had +been the most famous of the Oldfields ministers. The study-table was +wide and long, but it was well covered with a miscellaneous array of +its owner's smaller possessions, and the quick-eyed visitor smiled as +he caught sight of Nan's new copy of Miss Edgeworth's "Parent's +Assistant" lying open and face downward on the top of an instrument +case. + +Marilla did not hear the doctor and his guest tramp up to bed until +very late at night, and though she had tried to keep awake she had +been obliged to take a nap first and then wake up again to get the +benefit of such an aggravating occasion. "I'm not going to fret myself +trying to make one of my baked omelets in the morning," she assured +herself, "they'll keep breakfast waiting three quarters of an hour, +and it would fall flat sure's the world, and the doctor's got to ride +to all p'ints of the compass to-morrow, too." + + + + +X + +ACROSS THE STREET + + +It would be difficult to say why the village of Oldfields should have +been placed in the least attractive part of the township, if one were +not somewhat familiar with the law of growth of country communities. +The first settlers, being pious kindred of the Pilgrims, were mindful +of the necessity of a meeting-house, and the place for it was chosen +with reference to the convenience of most of the worshipers. Then the +parson was given a parsonage and a tract of glebe land somewhere in +the vicinity of his pulpit, and since this was the centre of social +attraction, the blacksmith built his shop at the nearest cross-road. +And when some enterprising citizen became possessed of an idea that +there were traders enough toiling to and fro on the rough highways to +the nearest larger village to make it worth his while to be an +interceptor, the first step was taken toward a local centre of +commerce, and the village was fairly begun. It had not yet reached a +remarkable size, though there was a time-honored joke because an +enthusiastic old woman had said once, when four or five houses and a +new meeting-house were being built all in one summer, that she +expected now that she might live to see Oldfields a seaport town. +There had been a great excitement over the second meeting-house, to +which the conservative faction had strongly objected, but, after the +radicals had once gained the day, other innovations passed without +public challenge. The old First Parish Church was very white and held +aloft an imposing steeple, and strangers were always commiserated if +they had to leave town without the opportunity of seeing its front by +moonlight. Behind this, and beyond a green which had been the +playground of many generations of boys and girls, was a long row of +horse-sheds, where the farmers' horses enjoyed such part of their +Sunday rest as was permitted them after bringing heavy loads of rural +parishioners to their public devotions. The Sunday church-going was by +no means so carefully observed in these days as in former ones, when +disinclination was anything but a received excuse. In Parson +Leslie's--the doctor's grandfather's--day, it would have condemned a +man or woman to the well-merited reproof of their acquaintances. And +indeed most parishioners felt deprived of a great pleasure when, after +a week of separation from society, of a routine of prosaic farm-work, +they were prevented from seeing their friends parade into church, from +hearing the psalm-singing and the sermon, and listening to the news +afterward. It was like going to mass and going to the theatre and the +opera, and making a round of short calls, and having an outing in +one's own best clothes to see other people's, all rolled into one; +beside which, there was (and is) a superstitious expectation of good +luck in the coming week if the religious obligations were carefully +fulfilled. So many of the old ideas of the efficacy of ecclesiasticism +still linger, most of them by no means unlawfully. The elder people of +New England are as glad to have their clergyman visit them in their +last days as if he granted them absolution and extreme unction. The +old traditions survive in our instincts, although our present opinions +have long since ticketed many thoughts and desires and customs as out +of date and quite exploded. + +We go so far in our vigorous observance of the first commandment, and +our fear of worshiping strange gods, that sometimes we are in danger +of forgetting that we must worship God himself. And worship is +something different from a certain sort of constant church-going, or +from even trying to be conformers and to keep our own laws and our +neighbors'. + + +Because an old-fashioned town like Oldfields grows so slowly and with +such extreme deliberation, is the very reason it seems to have such a +delightful completeness when it has entered fairly upon its maturity. +It is possessed of kindred virtues to a winter pear, which may be +unattractive during its preparatory stages, but which takes time to +gather from the ground and from the air a pleasant and rewarding +individuality and sweetness. The towns which are built in a hurry can +be left in a hurry without a bit of regret, and if it is the fate or +fortune of the elder villages to find themselves the foundation upon +which modern manufacturing communities rear their thinly built houses +and workshops, and their quickly disintegrating communities of people, +the weaknesses of these are more glaring and hopeless in the contrast. +The hurry to make money and do much work, and the ambition to do good +work, war with each other, but, as Longfellow has said, the lie is the +hurrying second-hand of the clock, and the truth the slower hand that +waits and marks the hour. The New England that built itself houses a +hundred years ago was far less oppressed by competition and by other +questions with which the enormous increase of population is worrying +its younger citizens. And the overgrown Oldfields that increase now, +street by street, were built then a single steady sound-timbered house +at a time, and all the neighbors watched them rise, and knew where the +planks were sawn, and where the chimney bricks were burnt. + +In these days when Anna Prince was young and had lately come to live +in the doctor's square house, with the three peaked windows in the +roof, and the tall box borders and lilac bushes in its neat front +yard, Oldfields was just beginning to wake from a fifty years' +architectural sleep, and rub its eyes, and see what was thought about +a smart little house with a sharp gabled roof, and much scalloping of +its edges, which a new store-keeper had seen fit to build. There was +one long street which had plenty of room on either side for most of +the houses, and where it divided, each side of the First Parish +Church, it became the East road and the West road, and the rest of the +dwellings strayed off somewhat undecidedly toward the world beyond. +There were a good many poplars in the front yards, though their former +proud ranks were broken in many places, so that surviving veterans +stood on guard irregularly before the houses, where usually one or two +members of the once busy households were also left alone. Many of the +people who lived in the village had outlying land and were farmers of +it, but beside the doctor's there were some other households which the +land supported indirectly, either through professions or because some +kind ancestor had laid by enough money for his children and +grandchildren. The ministers were both excellent men; but Dr. Leslie +was the only man who looked far ahead or saw much or cared much for +true success. In Titian's great Venetian picture of the Presentation +of the Virgin, while the little maiden goes soberly up the steps of +the temple, in the busy crowd beneath only one man is possessed by the +thought that something wonderful is happening, and lifts his head, +forgetting the buyers and sellers and gossipers, as his eyes follow +the sacred sight. Life goes on everywhere like that fragment of it in +the picture, but while the man who knows more than his fellows can be +found in every company, and sees the light which beckons him on to the +higher meanings and better gifts, his place in society is not always +such a comfortable and honored one as Dr. Leslie's. What his friends +were apt to call his notions were not of such aggressive nature that +he was accused of outlawry, and he was apt to speak his mind +uncontradicted and undisturbed. He cared little for the friction and +attrition, indeed for the inspiration, which one is sure to have who +lives among many people, and which are so dear and so helpful to most +of us who fall into ruts if we are too much alone. He loved his +friends and his books, though he understood both as few scholars can, +and he cared little for social pleasure, though Oldfields was, like +all places of its size and dignity, an epitome of the world. One or +two people of each class and rank are as good as fifty, and, to use +the saying of the doctor's friend, old Captain Finch: "Human nature is +the same the world over." + +Through the long years of his solitary life, and his busy days as a +country practitioner, he had become less and less inclined to take +much part in what feeble efforts the rest of the townspeople made to +entertain themselves. He was more apt to loiter along the street, +stopping here and there to talk with his neighbors at their gates or +their front-yard gardening, and not infrequently asked some one who +stood in need of such friendliness to take a drive with him out into +the country. Nobody was grieved at remembering that he was a +repository of many secrets; he was a friend who could be trusted +always, though he was one who had been by no means slow to anger or +unwilling at times to administer rebuke. + + +One Sunday afternoon, late in November, while the first snow-storm of +the year was beginning, Dr. Leslie threw down a stout French medical +work of high renown as if it had failed to fulfil its mission of being +instructive first and interesting afterward. He rose from his chair +and stood looking at the insulted volume as if he had a mind to +apologize and try again, but kept his hands behind him after all. It +was thinly dressed in fluttering paper covers, and was so thick and so +lightly bound that it had a tendency to divide its material substance +into parts, like the seventhlies and eighthlies of an old-fashioned +sermon. "Those fellows must be in league with the book-binders over +here," grumbled the doctor. "I must send word to that man in New York +to have some sort of cover put on these things before they come down." +Then he lifted the book again and poised it on one hand, looking at +its irregular edges, and reflecting at length that it would be in much +better condition if he had not given it a careless crushing in the +corner of his carriage the day before. It had been sunshiny, pleasant +weather, and he had taken Nan for a long drive in the Saturday +half-holiday. He had decided, before starting, that she should manage +the reins and he would think over one or two matters and read a +while; it had been a great convenience lately that Nan understood the +responsibility of a horse and carriage. He was finding her a more and +more useful little companion. However, his studies and reflections had +been postponed until some other time, for Nan had been very eager to +talk about some of her lessons in which it seemed his duty to take an +interest. The child seemed stronger and better that autumn than he had +ever known her, and her mind had suddenly fastened itself upon certain +of her studies. She seemed very quick and very accurate, the doctor +thought, and the two traits do not always associate themselves. + +He left the table and walked quickly to the west window, and, clasping +his hands behind him, stood looking out into the front yard and the +street beyond. The ground was already white and he gave a little sigh, +for winter weather is rarely a source of happiness to a doctor, +although this member of the profession was not made altogether +sorrowful by it. He sometimes keenly enjoyed a hard tramp of a mile or +two when the roads were so blocked and the snow so blinding that he +left his horse in some sheltering barn on his way to an impatient +sufferer. + +A little way down the street on the other side was a house much like +his own, with a row of tall hemlocks beside it, and a front fence +higher and more imposing than his, with great posts at the gateway, +which held slender urns aloft with funereal solemnity. The doctor's +eyesight was not far from perfect, and he looked earnestly at the +windows of one of the lower rooms and saw a familiar sight enough; his +neighbor Mrs. Graham's face in its accustomed quarter of the sash. Dr. +Leslie half smiled as the thought struck him that she always sat so +exactly in the same place that her white cap was to be seen through +the same lower window-pane. "Most people would have moved their chairs +about until they wore holes in the floor," he told himself, and then +remembered how many times he had gone to look over at his placid +friend, in her favorite afternoon post of observation. He was strongly +attached to her, and he reminded himself that she was growing old and +that he must try to see her oftener. He valued her companionship, more +because he knew it was always ready for him, than because he always +availed himself of it, but the sense of mutual dependence made them +very familiar to each other when they did meet and had time for a bit +of quiet talk. + +Dr. Leslie suddenly turned; he had watched long enough to make sure +that Mrs. Graham was alone; her head had not moved for many minutes; +and at first he was going out of the front door, from some instinct he +would hardly have been willing to acknowledge, but he resolutely +turned and went out to the dining-room, to tell Marilla, after his +usual professional custom of giving notice of his whereabouts, that he +was going to Mrs. Graham's. A prompt inquiry came from the kitchen to +know if anything ailed her, to which the doctor returned a scornful +negative and escaped through the side-door which gave entrance both to +the study and the dining-room. There was the usual service at +Marilla's meeting-house, but she had not ventured out to attend it, +giving the weather and a grumbling toothache for her reasons, though +she concealed the fact that the faithless town milliner had +disappointed her about finishing her winter bonnet. Marilla had begun +life with certain opinions which she had never changed, though time +and occasion had lessened the value of some of them. She liked to +count herself among those who are persecuted for conscience's sake, +and was immensely fond of an argument and of having it known that she +was a dissenter from the First Parish Church. + +Mrs. Graham looked up with surprise from her book to see the doctor +coming in from the street, and, being helplessly lame, sat still, and +put out her hand to greet him, with a very pleased look on her face. +"Is there anything the matter with me?" she asked. "I have begun to +think you don't care to associate with well people; you don't usually +go to church in the afternoon either, so you haven't taken refuge here +because Mr. Talcot is ill. I must say that I missed hearing the bell; +I shall lose myself altogether by the middle of the week. One must +have some landmarks." + +"Marilla complained yesterday that she was all at sea because her +apple pies gave out a day too soon. She put the bread to rise the +wrong night, and everything went wrong about the sweeping. It has been +a week of great domestic calamity with us, but Nan confided to me +this morning that there was some trouble with our bonnet into the +bargain. I had forgotten it was time for that," said the doctor, +laughing. "We always have a season of great anxiety and disaster until +the bonnet question is settled. I keep out of the way as much as I +can. Once I tried to be amusing, and said it was a pity the women did +not follow their grandmothers' fashion and make a good Leghorn +structure last ten years and have no more trouble about it; but I was +assured that there wasn't a milliner now living who could set such an +arrangement going." + +"Marilla's taste is not what one might call commonplace," said Mrs. +Graham, with a smile. "I think her summer head-covering was a little +the most remarkable we have had yet. She dresses so decently +otherwise, good soul!" + +"It was astonishing," said the doctor gravely, as he stood before the +fire thinking how pleasant the room looked; almost as familiar as his +own study, with its heavy mahogany furniture and two old portraits and +few quaint ornaments. Mrs. Graham's geraniums were all flourishing and +green and even in bloom, unlike most treasures of their kind. There +was a modern element in the room also,--some pretty cushions and other +bits of embroidery; for Mrs. Graham had some grandchildren who were +city born and bred, and who made little offerings to her from time to +time. On the table near her and between the front windows were many +new books and magazines, and though the two neighbors kept up a +regular system of exchange, the doctor went nearer to see what might +be found. There were a few minutes of silence, and he became conscious +that Mrs. Graham was making up her mind to say something, but when she +spoke it was only to ask if there were anything serious the matter +with the minister. + +"Oh, no," said the doctor, "he's a dyspeptic, nervous soul, too +conscientious! and when the time arrives for the sacrifice of pigs, +and his whole admiring parish vie with each other to offer spare-ribs +on that shrine, it goes hard with the poor man." + +This was worth hearing, but Mrs. Graham was a little sorry that she +had let such a good chance go by for saying something that was near +her heart, so presently she added, "I am sorry that poor Marilla +hasn't a better gift at personal decoration. It seems a pity to let +her disfigure that pretty child with such structures in the way of +head-gear. I was so glad when that abominable great summer hat was +laid by for the season." + +"It was pretty bad," the doctor agreed, in a provokingly indifferent +tone, whereupon Mrs. Graham's interest was rekindled, and saying to +herself that the poor man did not know the danger and foolishness of +such carelessness, she ventured another comment. + +"So much depends upon giving a child's taste the right direction." + +Dr. Leslie had taken up a magazine, and seemed to have found something +that pleased him, but he at once laid it down and glanced once or +twice at his hostess, as if he hoped for future instructions. "You see +I don't know anything about it, and Nan doesn't think of her clothes +at all, so far as I can tell, and so poor Marilla has to do the best +she can," he said mildly. + +"Oh dear, yes," answered Mrs. Graham, not without impatience. "But the +child's appearance is of some importance, and since a dollar or two +doesn't make any difference to you, she should be made to look like +the little lady that she is. Dear old Mrs. Thacher would turn in her +grave, for she certainly had a simple good taste that was better than +this. Marilla became the easy prey of that foolish little woman who +makes bonnets on the East road. She has done more to deprave the ideas +of our townspeople than one would believe, and they tell you with such +pleasure that she used to work in New York, as if that settled the +question. It is a comfort to see old Sally Turner and Miss Betsy +Milman go by in their decent dark silk bonnets that good Susan Martin +made for them. If I could go out to-morrow I believe I would rather +hunt for a very large velvet specimen of her work, which is somewhere +upstairs in a big bandbox, than trust myself to these ignorant hands. +It is a great misfortune to a town if it has been disappointed in its +milliner. You are quite at her mercy, and, worse than all, liable to +entire social misapprehension when you venture far from home." + +"So bonnets are not a question of free will and individual +responsibility?" asked the doctor soberly. "I must say that I have +wondered sometimes if the women do not draw lots for them. But what +shall I do about the little girl? I am afraid I do her great injustice +in trying to bring her up at all--it needs a woman's eye." + +"Your eye is just as good as anybody's," responded Mrs. Graham +quickly, lest the doctor should drift into sad thought about his young +wife who had been so long dead and yet seemed always a nearer and +dearer living presence to him. He was apt to say a word or two about +her and not answer the next question which was put to him, and +presently go silently away,--but to-day Mrs. Graham had important +business in hand. + +"My daughter will be here next week," she observed, presently, "and +I'm sure that she will do any shopping for you in Boston with great +pleasure. We might forestall Marilla's plans. You could easily say +when you go home that you have spoken to me about it. I think it would +be an excellent opportunity now, while the East Road establishment is +in disfavor," and when the doctor smiled and nodded, his friend and +hostess settled herself comfortably in her chair, and felt that she +had gained a point. + +The sunshine itself could hardly have made that south parlor look +pleasanter. There was a log in the fire that was wet, and singing +gently to itself, as if the sound of the summer rustlings and +chirpings had somehow been stored away in its sap, and above it were +some pieces of drier white birch, which were sending up a yellow +conflagration to keep the marauding snow-flakes from coming down the +chimney. The geraniums looked brighter than by daylight, and seemed to +hold their leaves toward the fireplace as if they were hands; and were +even leaning out a little way themselves and lifting their blossoms +like torches, as if they were a reserve force, a little garrison of +weaker soldiers who were also enemies of the cold. The gray twilight +was gathering out of doors; the trees looked naked and defenceless, as +one saw them through the windows. Mrs. Graham tapped the arms of her +chair gently with the tips of her fingers, and in a few minutes the +doctor closed the book he was looking over and announced that the days +were growing very short. There was something singularly pleasant to +both the friends in their quiet Sunday afternoon companionship. + +"You used to pay me a Sunday visit every week," said the old lady, +pleased to find that her guest still lingered. "I don't know why, but +I always have a hope that you will find time to run over for half an +hour. I said to myself yesterday that a figure of me in wax would do +just as well as anything nowadays. I get up and dress myself, and make +the journey downstairs, and sit here at the window and have my dinner +and go through the same round day after day. If it weren't for a +certain amount of expense it incurs, and occupation to other people, I +think it would be of very little use. However, there are some people +still left who need me. Who is it says--Beranger perhaps--that to love +benefits one's self, and to inspire love benefits others. I like to +think that the children and grandchildren have the old place to think +of and come back to. I can see that it is a great bond between them +all, and that is very good. I begin to feel like a very old woman; it +would be quite different, you know, if I were active and busy out of +doors, and the bustling sort of person for which nature intended me. +As it is, my mind is bustling enough for itself and its body both." + +"Well," said the doctor, laughing a little, "what is it now?" + +"The little girl," answered Mrs. Graham, gravely. "I think it is quite +time she knew something of society. Don't tell yourself that I am +notional and frivolous; I know you have put a great deal of hope and +faith and affection into that child's career. It would disappoint you +dreadfully if she were not interesting and harmonious to people in +general. It seems a familiar fact now that she should have come to +live with you, that she should be growing up in your house; but the +first thing we know she will be a young lady instead of an amusing +child, and I think that you cannot help seeing that a great deal of +responsibility belongs to you. She must be equipped and provisioned +for the voyage of life; she must have some resources." + +"But I think she has more than most children." + +"Yes, yes, I dare say. She is a bright little creature, but her +brightness begins to need new things to work upon. She does very well +at school now, I hear, and she minds very well and is much less +lawless than she used to be; but she is like a candle that refuses to +burn, and is satisfied with admiring its candlestick. She is quite the +queen of the village children in one way, and in another she is quite +apart from them. I believe they envy her and look upon her as being of +another sort, and yet count her out of half their plans and pleasures, +and she runs home, not knowing whether to be pleased or hurt, and +pulls down half a dozen of your books and sits proudly at the window. +Her poor foolish mother had some gifts, but she went adrift very soon, +and I should teach Nan her duty to her neighbor, and make her take in +the idea that she owes something to the world beside following out her +own most satisfying plans. When I was a young woman it was a most +blessed discovery to me--though I was not any quicker at making it +than other people, perhaps,--that, beside being happy myself and +valuable to myself, I must fit myself into my place in society. We are +seldom left to work alone, you know. No, not even you. I know too much +about you to believe that. And it isn't enough that we are willing to +talk about ourselves. We must learn to understand the subjects of the +day that everybody talks about, and to make sure of a right to stand +upon the highest common ground wherever we are. Society is a sort of +close corporation, and we must know its watchwords, and keep an +interest in its interests and affairs. I call a gentleman the man who, +either by birth or by nature, belongs to the best society. There may +be bad gentlemen and good gentlemen, but one must feel instinctively +at home with a certain class, representatives of which are likely to +be found everywhere. + +"And as for Nan, you will be disappointed if she does not understand a +little later your own way of looking at things. She mustn't grow up +full of whims and indifferences. I am too fond of you to look forward +calmly to your being disappointed, and I do believe she will be a most +lovely, daughterly, friendly girl, who will keep you from being lonely +as you grow older, and be a great blessing in every way. Yet she has a +strange history, and is in a strange position. I hope you will find a +good school for her before very long." + +This was said after a moment's pause, and with considerable +hesitation, and Mrs. Graham was grateful for the gathering darkness +which sheltered her, and not a little surprised at the doctor's +answer. + +"I have been thinking of that," he said quickly, "but it is a great +puzzle at present and I am thankful to say, I think it is quite safe +to wait a year or two yet. You and I live so much apart from society +that we idealize it a good deal, though you are a stray-away bit of +it. We too seldom see the ideal gentleman or lady; we have to be +contented with keeping the ideal in our minds, it seems to me, and +saying that this man is gentlemanly, and that woman ladylike. But I do +believe in aiming at the best things, and turning this young +creature's good instincts and uncommon powers into the proper channels +instead of letting her become singular and self-centred because she +does not know enough of people of her own sort." + +Mrs. Graham gave a little sound of approval that did not stand for any +word in particular: "I wonder if her father's people will ever make +any claim to her? She said something about her aunt one day; I think +it was to hear whatever I might answer. It seemed to me that the poor +child had more pleasure in this unknown possession than was worth +while; she appeared to think of her as a sort of fairy godmother who +might descend in Oldfields at any moment." + +"I did not know she thought of her at all," announced the doctor, +somewhat dismayed. "She never has talked about her aunt to me. I dare +say that she has been entertained with the whole miserable story." + +"Oh, no," answered Mrs. Graham, placidly. "I don't think that is +likely, but it is quite reasonable that the child should be aware of +some part of it by this time. The Dyer neighbors are far from being +reticent, good creatures, and they have little to remember that +approaches the interest and excitement of that time. Do you know +anything about Miss Prince nowadays? I have not heard anything of her +in a long while." + +"She still sends the yearly remittance, which I acknowledge and put +into the savings bank as I always have done. When Nan came to me I +advised Miss Prince that I wished to assume all care of her and should +be glad if she would give me entire right to the child, but she took +no notice of the request. It really makes no practical difference. +Only," and the doctor became much embarrassed, "I must confess that I +have a notion of letting her study medicine by and by if she shows a +fitness for it." + +"Dear, dear!" said the hostess, leaning forward so suddenly that she +knocked two or three books from the corner of the table, and feeling +very much excited. "John Leslie, I can't believe it! but my dear man +used to say you thought twice for everybody else's once. What can have +decided you upon such a plan?" + +"How happened the judge to say that?" asked the doctor, trying to +scoff, but not a little pleased. "I'm sure I can't tell you, Mrs. +Graham, only the idea has grown of itself in my mind, as all right +ideas do, and everything that I can see seems to favor it. You may +think that it is too early to decide, but I see plainly that Nan is +not the sort of girl who will be likely to marry. When a man or woman +has that sort of self-dependence and unnatural self-reliance, it shows +itself very early. I believe that it is a mistake for such a woman to +marry. Nan's feeling toward her boy-playmates is exactly the same as +toward the girls she knows. You have only to look at the rest of the +children together to see the difference; and if I make sure by and by, +the law of her nature is that she must live alone and work alone, I +shall help her to keep it instead of break it, by providing something +else than the business of housekeeping and what is called a woman's +natural work, for her activity and capacity to spend itself upon." + +"But don't you think that a married life is happiest?" urged the +listener, a good deal shocked at such treason, yet somewhat persuaded +by its truth. + +"Yes," said Dr. Leslie, sadly. "Yes indeed, for most of us. We could +say almost everything for that side, you and I; but a rule is +sometimes very cruel for its exceptions; and there is a life now and +then which is persuaded to put itself in irons by the force of custom +and circumstances, and from the lack of bringing reason to bear upon +the solving of the most important question of its existence. Of course +I don't feel sure yet that I am right about Nan, but looking at her +sad inheritance from her mother, and her good inheritances from other +quarters, I cannot help feeling that she might be far more unhappy +than to be made ready to take up my work here in Oldfields when I have +to lay it down. She will need a good anchor now and then. Only this +summer she had a bad day of it that made me feel at my wits' end. She +was angry with one of the children at school, and afterward with +Marilla because she scolded her for not keeping better account of the +family times and seasons, and ran away in the afternoon, if you +please, and was not heard from until next morning at breakfast time. +She went to the old place and wandered about the fields as she used, +and crept into some shelter or other. I dare say that she climbed in +at one of the windows of the house, though I could not make quite sure +without asking more questions than I thought worth while. She came +stealing in early in the morning, looking a little pale and wild, but +she hasn't played such a prank since. I had a call to the next town +and Marilla had evidently been awake all night. I got home early in +the morning myself, and was told that it was supposed I had picked up +Nan on the road and carried her with me, so the blame was all ready +for my shoulders unless we had both happened to see the young culprit +strolling in at the gate. I was glad she had punished herself, so that +there was no need of my doing it, though I had a talk with her a day +or two afterward, when we were both in our right minds. She is a good +child enough." + +"I dare say," remarked Mrs. Graham drily, "but it seems to me that +neither of you took Marilla sufficiently into account. That must have +been the evening that the poor soul went to nearly every house in town +to ask if there were any stray company to tea. Some of us could not +help wondering where the young person was finally discovered. She has +a great fancy for the society of Miss Betsy Milman and Sally Turner at +present, and I quite sympathize with her. I often look over there and +see the end of their house with that one little square window in the +very peak of it spying up the street, and wish I could pay them a +visit myself and hear a bit of their wise gossip. I quite envy Nan her +chance of going in and being half forgotten as she sits in one of +their short chairs listening and watching. They used to be great +friends of her grandmother's. Oh no; if I could go to see them they +would insist upon my going into the best room, and we should all be +quite uncomfortable. It is much better to sit here and think about +them and hear their flat-irons creak away over the little boys' +jackets and trousers." + +"I must confess that I have my own clothes mended there to this day," +said the doctor. "Marilla says their mending is not what it used to +be, too, but it is quite good enough. As for that little window, I +hardly ever see it without remembering the day of your aunt Margaret's +funeral. I was only a boy and not deeply afflicted, but of course I +had my place in the procession and was counted among the mourners, and +as we passed the Milman place I saw the old lady's face up there just +filling the four small panes. You know she was almost helpless, and +how she had got up into the little garret I cannot imagine, but she +was evidently determined to inspect the procession as it went down the +burying-ground lane. It was a pity they did not cut the window beneath +it in the lower room in her day. You know what an odd face she had; I +suppose it was distorted by disease and out of all shape it ever knew; +but I can see it now, framed in with its cap border and the window as +if there were no more of her." + +"She really was the most curious old creature; it more than accounts +for Mrs. Turner's and Miss Betsy's love for a piece of news," said +Mrs. Graham, who was much amused. "But I wish we understood the value +of these old news-loving people. So much local history and tradition +must die with every one of them if we take no pains to save it. I hope +you are wise about getting hold of as much as possible. You doctors +ought to be our historians, for you alone see the old country folks +familiarly and can talk with them without restraint." + +"But we haven't time to do any writing," the guest replied. "That is +why our books amount to so little for the most part. The active men, +who are really to be depended upon as practitioners, are kept so busy +that they are too tired to use the separate gift for writing, even if +they possess it, which many do not. And the literary doctors, the +medical scholars, are a different class, who have not had the +experience which alone can make their advice reliable. I mean of +course in practical matters, not anatomy and physiology. But we have +to work our way and depend upon ourselves, we country doctors, to whom +a consultation is more or less a downfall of pride. Whenever I hear +that an old doctor is dead I sigh to think what treasures of wisdom +are lost instead of being added to the general fund. That was one +advantage of putting the young men with the elder practitioners; many +valuable suggestions were handed down in that way." + +"I am very well contented with my doctor," said Mrs. Graham, with +enthusiasm, at this first convenient opportunity. "And it is very wise +of you all to keep up our confidence in the face of such facts as +these. You can hardly have the heart to scold any more about the +malpractice of patients when we believe in you so humbly and so +ignorantly. You are always safe though, for our consciences are +usually smarting under the remembrance of some transgression which +might have hindered you if it did not. Poor humanity," she added in a +tone of compassion. "It has to grope its way through a deal of +darkness." + +The doctor sighed, but he was uncommonly restful and comfortable in +the large arm-chair before the fender. It was quite dark out of doors +now, and the fire gave all the light that was in the room. Presently +he roused himself a little to say "'Poor humanity,' indeed! And I +suppose nobody sees the failures and miseries as members of my +profession do. There will be more and more sorrow and defeat as the +population increases and competition with it. It seems to me that to +excel in one's work becomes more and more a secondary motive; to do a +great deal and be well paid for it ranks first. One feels the injury +of such purposes even in Oldfields." + +"I cannot see that the world changes much. I often wish that I could, +though surely not in this way," said the lame woman from her seat by +the window, as the doctor rose to go away. "I find my days piteously +alike, and you do not know what a pleasure this talk has been. It +satisfies my hungry mind and gives me a great deal to think of; you +would not believe what an appetite I had. Oh, don't think I need any +excuses, it is a great pleasure to see you drive in and out of the +gate, and I like to see your lamp coming into the study, and to know +that you are there and fond of me. But winter looked very long and +life very short before you came in this afternoon. I suppose you have +had enough of society for one day, so I shall not tell you what I mean +to have for tea, but next Sunday night I shall expect you to come and +bring your ward. Will you please ring, so that Martha will bring the +lights? I should like to send Nan a nice letter to read which came +yesterday from my little grand-daughter in Rome. I shall be so glad +when they are all at home again. She is about Nan's age, you know; I +must see to it that they make friends with each other. Don't put me on +a dusty top shelf again and forget me for five or six weeks," laughed +the hostess, as her guest protested and lingered a minute still before +he opened the door. + +"You won't say anything of my confidences?" at which Mrs. Graham +shakes her head with satisfactory gravity, though if Doctor Leslie had +known she was inwardly much amused, and assured herself directly that +she hoped to hear no more of such plans; how could he tell that the +girl herself would agree to them, and whether Oldfields itself would +favor Nan as his own successor and its medical adviser? But John +Leslie was a wise, far-seeing man, with a great power of holding to +his projects. He really must be kept to his promise of a weekly visit; +she was of some use in the world after all, so long as these +unprotected neighbors were in it, and at any rate she had gained her +point about the poor child's clothes. + +As for the doctor, he found the outer world much obscured by the +storm, and hoped that nobody would need his services that night, as he +went stumbling home though the damp and clogging snow underfoot. He +felt a strange pleasure in the sight of a small, round head at the +front study window between the glass and the curtain, and Nan came to +open the door for him, while Marilla, whose unwonted Sunday afternoon +leisure seemed to have been devoted to fragrant experiments in +cookery, called in pleased tones from the dining-room that she had +begun to be afraid he was going to stay out to supper. It was somehow +much more homelike than it used to be, the doctor told himself, as he +pushed his feet into the slippers which had been waiting before the +fire until they were in danger of being scorched. And before Marilla +had announced with considerable ceremony that tea was upon the table, +he had assured himself that it had been a very pleasant hour or two at +Mrs. Graham's, and it was the best thing in the world for both of them +to see something of each other. For the little girl's sake he must try +to keep out of ruts, and must get hold of somebody outside his own +little world. + +But while he called himself an old fogy and other impolite names he +was conscious of a grave and sweet desire to make the child's life a +successful one,--to bring out what was in her own mind and capacity, +and so to wisely educate her, to give her a place to work in, and +wisdom to work with, so far as he could; for he knew better than most +men that it is the people who can do nothing who find nothing to do, +and the secret of happiness in this world is not only to be useful, +but to be forever elevating one's uses. Some one must be intelligent +for a child until it is ready to be intelligent for itself, and he +told himself with new decision that he must be wise in his laws for +Nan and make her keep them, else she never would be under the grace of +any of her own. + + + + +XI + +NEW OUTLOOKS + + +Dr. Leslie held too securely the affection of his townspeople to be +in danger of losing their regard or respect, yet he would have been +half pained and half amused if he had known how foolishly his plans, +which came in time to be his ward's also, were smiled and frowned upon +in the Oldfields houses. Conformity is the inspiration of much +second-rate virtue. If we keep near a certain humble level of morality +and achievement, our neighbors are willing to let us slip through life +unchallenged. Those who anticipate the opinions and decisions of +society must expect to be found guilty of many sins. + +There was not one of the young village people so well known as the +doctor's little girl, who drove with him day by day, and with whom he +kept such delightful and trustful companionship. If she had been asked +in later years what had decided her to study not only her profession, +but any profession, it would have been hard for her to answer anything +beside the truth that the belief in it had grown with herself. There +had been many reasons why it seemed unnecessary. There was every +prospect that she would be rich enough to place her beyond the +necessity of self-support. She could have found occupation in simply +keeping the doctor's house and being a cordial hostess in that home +and a welcome guest in other people's. She was already welcome +everywhere in Oldfields, but in spite of this, which would have seemed +to fill the hearts and lives of other girls, it seemed to her like a +fragment of her life and duty; and when she had ordered her +housekeeping and her social duties, there was a restless readiness for +a more absorbing duty and industry; and, as the years went by, all her +desire tended in one direction. The one thing she cared most to learn +increased its attraction continually, and though one might think the +purpose of her guardian had had its influence and moulded her +character by its persistence, the truth was that the wise doctor +simply followed as best he could the leadings of the young nature +itself, and so the girl grew naturally year by year, reaching out half +unconsciously for what belonged to her life and growth; being taught +one thing more than all, that her duty must be followed eagerly and +reverently in spite of the adverse reasons which tempted and sometimes +baffled her. As she grew older she was to understand more clearly that +indecision is but another name for cowardice and weakness; a habit of +mind that quickly increases its power of hindrance. She had the faults +that belonged to her character, but these were the faults of haste and +rashness rather than the more hopeless ones of obstinacy or a lack of +will and purpose. + +The Sunday evening tea-drinking with Mrs. Graham, though somewhat +formidable at first to our heroine, became quickly one of her dearest +pleasures, and led to a fast friendship between the kind hostess and +her young guest. Soon Nan gave herself eagerly to a plan of spending +two or three evenings a week across the way for the purpose of reading +aloud, sometimes from books she did not understand, but oftener from +books of her own choice. It was supposed to be wholly a kindness on +the young girl's part, and Mrs. Graham allowed the excuse of a +temporary ailment of her own strong and useful eyes to serve until +neither she nor Nan had the least thought of giving up their pleasant +habit of reading together. And to this willing listener Nan came in +time with her youthful dreams and visions of future prosperities in +life, so that presently Mrs. Graham knew many things which would have +surprised the doctor, who on the other hand was the keeper of equally +amazing and treasured confidences of another sort. It was a great +pleasure to both these friends, but most especially to the elderly +woman, that Nan seemed so entirely satisfied with their friendship. +The busy doctor, who often had more than enough to think and worry +about, sometimes could spare but little time to Nan for days together, +but her other companion was always waiting for her, and the smile was +always ready by way of greeting when the child looked eagerly up at +the parlor window. What stories of past days and memories of youth and +of long-dead friends belonging to the dear lady's own girlhood were +poured into Nan's delighted ears! She came in time to know Mrs. +Graham's own immediate ancestors, and the various members of her +family with their fates and fortunes, as if she were a contemporary, +and was like another grandchild who was a neighbor and beloved crony, +which real blessing none of the true grandchildren had ever been lucky +enough to possess. She formed a welcome link with the outer world, did +little Nan, and from being a cheerful errand-runner, came at last to +paying friendly visits in the neighborhood to carry Mrs. Graham's +messages and assurances. And from all these daily suggestions of +courtesy and of good taste and high breeding, and helpful fellowship +with good books, and the characters in their stories which were often +more real and dear and treasured in her thoughts than her actual +fellow townsfolk, Nan drew much pleasure and not a little wisdom; at +any rate a direction for which she would all her life be thankful. It +would have been surprising if her presence in the doctor's house had +not after some time made changes in it, but there was no great +difference outwardly except that she gathered some trifling +possessions which sometimes harmonized, and as often did not, with the +household gods of the doctor and Marilla. There was a shy sort of +intercourse between Nan and Mrs. Graham's grandchildren, but it was +not very valuable to any of the young people at first, the country +child being too old and full of experience to fellowship with the +youngest, and too unversed in the familiar machinery of their social +life to feel much kinship with the eldest. + +It was during one of these early summer visits, and directly after a +tea-party which Marilla had proudly projected on Nan's account, that +Dr. Leslie suddenly announced that he meant to go to Boston for a few +days and should take Nan with him. This event had long been promised, +but had seemed at length like the promise of happiness in a future +world, reasonably certain, but a little vague and distant. It was a +more important thing than anybody understood, for a dear and familiar +chapter of life was ended when the expectant pair drove out of the +village on their way to the far-off railway station, as another had +been closed when the door of the Thacher farm-house had been shut and +padlocked, and Nan had gone home one snowy night to live with the +doctor. The weather at any rate was different now, for it was early +June, the time when doctors can best give themselves a holiday; and +though Dr. Leslie assured himself that he had little wish to take the +journey, he felt it quite due to his ward that she should see a little +more of the world, and happily due also to certain patients and his +brother physicians that he should visit the instrument-makers' shops, +and some bookstores; in fact there were a good many important errands +to which it was just as well to attend in person. But he watched Nan's +wide-open, delighted eyes, and observed her lack of surprise at +strange sights, and her perfect readiness for the marvelous, with +great amusement. He was touched and pleased because she cared most for +what had concerned him; to be told where he lived and studied, and to +see the places he had known best, roused most enthusiasm. An afternoon +in a corner of the reading-room at the Athenaeum library, in which he +had spent delightful hours when he was a young man, seemed to please +the young girl more than anything else. As he sat beside the table +where he had gathered enough books and papers to last for many days, +in his delight at taking up again his once familiar habit, Nan looked +on with sympathetic eyes, or watched the squirrels in the trees of the +quiet Granary Burying Ground, which seemed to her like a bit of +country which the noisy city had caught and imprisoned. Now that she +was fairly out in the world she felt a new, strange interest in her +mysterious aunt, for it was this hitherto unknown space outside the +borders of Oldfields to which her father and his people belonged. And +as a charming old lady went by in a pretty carriage, the child's gaze +followed her wistfully as she and the doctor were walking along the +street. With a sudden blaze of imagination she had wished those +pleasant eyes might have seen the likeness to her father, of which she +had been sometimes told, and that the carriage had been hurried back, +so that the long estrangement might be ended. It was a strange thing +that, just afterward, Dr. Leslie had, with much dismay, caught sight +of the true aunt; for Miss Anna Prince of Dunport had also seen fit to +make one of her rare visits to Boston. She looked dignified and +stately, but a little severe, as she went down the side street away +from them. Nan's quick eyes had noticed already the difference between +the city people and the country folks, and would have even recognized +a certain provincialism in her father's sister. The doctor had only +seen Miss Prince once many years before, but he had known her again +with instinctive certainty, and Nan did not guess, though she was most +grateful for it, why he reached for her hand, and held it fast as they +walked together, just as he always used to do when she was a little +girl. She was not yet fully grown, and she never suspected the sudden +thrill of dread, and consciousness of the great battle of life which +she must soon begin to fight, which all at once chilled the doctor's +heart. "It's a cold world, a cold world," he had said to himself. +"Only one thing will help her through safely, and that is her +usefulness. She shall never be either a thief or a beggar of the +world's favor if I can have my wish." And Nan, holding his hand with +her warm, soft, childish one, looked up in his face, all unconscious +that he thought with pity how unaware she was of the years to come, +and of their difference to this sunshine holiday. "And yet I never was +so happy at her age as I am this summer," the doctor told himself by +way of cheer. + +They paid some visits together to Dr. Leslie's much-neglected friends, +and it was interesting to see how, for the child's sake, he resumed +his place among these acquaintances to whom he had long been linked +either personally in times past, or by family ties. He was sometimes +reproached for his love of seclusion and cordially welcomed back to +his old relations, but as often found it impossible to restore +anything but a formal intercourse of a most temporary nature. The +people for whom he cared most, all seemed attracted to his young ward, +and he noted this with pleasure, though he had not recognized the fact +that he had been, for the moment, basely uncertain whether his +judgment of her worth would be confirmed. He laughed at the +insinuation that he had made a hermit or an outlaw of himself; he +would have been still more amused to hear one of his old friends say +that this was the reason they had seen so little of him in late years, +and that it was a shame that a man of his talent and many values to +the world should be hiding his light under the Oldfields bushel, and +all for the sake of bringing up this child. As for Nan, she had little +to say, but kept her eyes and ears wide open, and behaved herself +discreetly. She had ceased to belong only to the village she had left; +in these days she became a citizen of the world at large. Her horizon +had suddenly become larger, and she might have discovered more than +one range of mountains which must be crossed as the years led her +forward steadily, one by one. + + +There is nothing so interesting as to be able to watch the change and +progress of the mental and moral nature, provided it grows eagerly +and steadily. There must be periods of repose and hibernation like the +winter of a plant, and in its springtime the living soul will both +consciously and unconsciously reach out for new strength and new +light. The leaves and flowers of action and achievement are only the +signs of the vitality that works within. + + + + +XII + +AGAINST THE WIND + + +During the next few years, while Nan was growing up, Oldfields itself +changed less than many country towns of its size. Though some faces +might be missed or altered, Dr. Leslie's household seemed much the +same, and Mrs. Graham, a little thinner and older, but more patient +and sweet and delightful than ever, sits at her parlor window and +reads new books and old ones, and makes herself the centre of much +love and happiness. She and the doctor have grown more and more +friendly, and they watch the young girl's development with great +pride: they look forward to her vacations more than they would care to +confess even to each other; and when she comes home eager and gay, she +makes both these dear friends feel young again. When Nan is not there +to keep him company, Dr. Leslie always drives, and has grown more +careful about the comfort of his carriages, though he tells himself +with great pleasure that he is really much more youthful in his +feelings than he was twenty years before, and does not hesitate to say +openly that he should have been an old fogy by this time if it had not +been for the blessing of young companionship. When Nan is pleased to +command, he is always ready to take long rides and the two saddles are +brushed up, and they wonder why the bits are so tarnished, and she +holds his horse's bridle while he goes in to see his patients, and is +ready with merry talk or serious questions when he reappears. And one +dark night she listens from her window to the demand of a messenger, +and softly creeps down stairs and is ready to take her place by his +side, and drive him across the hills as if it were the best fun in the +world, with the frightened country-boy clattering behind on his +bare-backed steed. The moon rises late and they come home just before +daybreak, and though the doctor tries to be stern as he says he cannot +have such a piece of mischief happen again, he wonders how the girl +knew that he had dreaded for once in his life the drive in the dark, +and had felt a little less strong than usual. + +Marilla still reigns in noble state. She has some time ago accepted a +colleague after a preliminary show of resentment, and Nan has little +by little infused a different spirit into the housekeeping; and when +her friends come to pay visits in the vacations they find the old home +a very charming place, and fall quite in love with both the doctor and +Mrs. Graham before they go away. Marilla always kept the large east +parlor for a sacred shrine of society, to be visited chiefly by +herself as guardian priestess; but Nan has made it a pleasanter room +than anybody ever imagined possible, and uses it with a freedom which +appears to the old housekeeper to lack consideration and respect. Nan +makes the most of her vacations, while the neighbors are all glad to +see her come back, and some of them are much amused because in summer +she still clings to her childish impatience at wearing any head +covering, and no matter how much Marilla admires the hat which is +decorously worn to church every Sunday morning, it is hardly seen +again, except by chance, during the week, and the brown hair is sure +to be faded a little before the summer sunshine is past. Nan goes +about visiting when she feels inclined, and seems surprisingly +unchanged as she seats herself in one of the smoke-browned Dyer +kitchens, and listens eagerly to whatever information is offered, or +answers cordially all sorts of questions, whether they concern her own +experiences or the world's in general. She has never yet seen her +father's sister, though she still thinks of her, and sometimes with a +strange longing for an evidence of kind feeling and kinship which has +never been shown. This has been chief among the vague sorrows of her +girlhood. Yet once when her guardian had asked if she wished to make +some attempt at intercourse or conciliation, he had been answered, +with a scorn and decision worthy of grandmother Thacher herself, that +it was for Miss Prince to make advances if she ever wished for either +the respect or affection of her niece. But the young girl has clung +with touching affection to the memory and association of her +childhood, and again and again sought in every season of the year the +old playgrounds and familiar corners of the farm, which she has grown +fonder of as the months go by. The inherited attachment of generations +seems to have been centred in her faithful heart. + +It must be confessed that the summer which followed the close of her +school-life was, for the most part, very unsatisfactory. Her +school-days had been more than usually pleasant and rewarding, in +spite of the sorrows and disappointments and unsolvable puzzles which +are sure to trouble thoughtful girls of her age. But she had grown so +used at last to living by rules and bells that she could not help +feeling somewhat adrift without them. It had been so hard to put +herself under restraint and discipline after her free life in +Oldfields that it was equally hard for a while to find herself at +liberty; though, this being her natural state, she welcomed it +heartily at first, and was very thankful to be at home. It did not +take long to discover that she had no longer the same desire for her +childish occupations and amusements; they were only incidental now and +pertained to certain moods, and could not again be made the chief +purposes of her life. She hardly knew what to do with herself, and +sometimes wondered what would become of her, and why she was alive at +all, as she longed for some sufficient motive of existence to catch +her up into its whirlwind. She was filled with energy and a great +desire for usefulness, but it was not with her, as with many of her +friends, that the natural instinct toward marriage, and the building +and keeping of a sweet home-life, ruled all other plans and +possibilities. Her best wishes and hopes led her away from all this, +and however tenderly she sympathized in other people's happiness, and +recognized its inevitableness, for herself she avoided unconsciously +all approach or danger of it. She was trying to climb by the help of +some other train of experiences to whatever satisfaction and success +were possible for her in this world. If she had been older and of a +different nature, she might have been told that to climb up any other +way toward a shelter from the fear of worthlessness, and mistake, and +reproach, would be to prove herself in most people's eyes a thief and +a robber. But in these days she was not fit to reason much about her +fate; she could only wait for the problems to make themselves +understood, and for the whole influence of her character and of the +preparatory years to shape and signify themselves into a simple chart +and unmistakable command. And until the power was given to "see life +steadily and see it whole," she busied herself aimlessly with such +details as were evidently her duty, and sometimes following the right +road and often wandering from it in willful impatience, she stumbled +along more or less unhappily. It seemed as if everybody had forgotten +Nan's gift and love for the great profession which was her childish +delight and ambition. To be sure she had studied anatomy and +physiology with eager devotion in the meagre text-books at school, +though the other girls had grumbled angrily at the task. Long ago, +when Nan had confided to her dearest cronies that she meant to be a +doctor, they were hardly surprised that she should determine upon a +career which they would have rejected for themselves. She was not of +their mind, and they believed her capable of doing anything she +undertook. Yet to most of them the possible and even probable marriage +which was waiting somewhere in the future seemed to hover like a +cloudy barrier over the realization of any such unnatural plans. + +They assured themselves that their school-mate showed no sign of being +the sort of girl who tried to be mannish and to forsake her natural +vocation for a profession. She did not look strong-minded; besides she +had no need to work for her living, this ward of a rich man, who was +altogether the most brilliant and beautiful girl in school. Yet +everybody knew that she had a strange tenacity of purpose, and there +was a lack of pretension, and a simplicity that scorned the deceits of +school-girl existence. Everybody knew too that she was not a +commonplace girl, and her younger friends made her the heroine of +their fondest anticipations and dreams. But after all, it seemed as if +everybody, even the girl herself, had lost sight of the once familiar +idea. It was a natural thing enough that she should have become expert +in rendering various minor services to the patients in Dr. Leslie's +absence, and sometimes assist him when no other person was at hand. +Marilla became insensible at the sight of the least dangerous of +wounds, and could not be trusted to suggest the most familiar +household remedy, after all her years of association with the +practice of medicine, and it was considered lucky that Nan had some +aptness for such services. In her childhood she had been nicknamed +"the little doctor," by the household and even a few familiar friends, +but this was apparently outgrown, though her guardian had more than +once announced in sudden outbursts of enthusiasm that she already knew +more than most of the people who tried to practice medicine. They once +in a while talked about some suggestion or discovery which was +attracting Dr. Leslie's attention, but the girl seemed hardly to have +gained much interest even for this, and became a little shy of being +found with one of the medical books in her hand, as she tried to fancy +herself in sympathy with the conventional world of school and of the +every-day ideas of society. And yet her inward sympathy with a +doctor's and a surgeon's work grew stronger and stronger, though she +dismissed reluctantly the possibility of following her bent in any +formal way, since, after all, her world had seemed to forbid it. As +the time drew near for her school-days to be ended, she tried to +believe that she should be satisfied with her Oldfields life. She was +fond of reading, and she had never lacked employment, besides, she +wished to prove herself an intelligent companion to Dr. Leslie, whom +she loved more and more dearly as the years went by. There had been a +long time of reserve between her childish freedom of intercourse with +him and the last year or two when they had begun to speak freely to +each other as friend to friend. It was a constant surprise and +pleasure to the doctor when he discovered that his former plaything +was growing into a charming companion who often looked upon life from +the same standpoint as himself, and who had her own outlooks upon the +world, from whence she was able to give him by no means worthless +intelligence; and after the school-days were over he was not amazed to +find how restless and dissatisfied the girl was; how impossible it was +for her to content herself with following the round of household +duties which were supposed to content young women of her age and +station. Even if she tried to pay visits or receive them from her +friends, or to go on with her studies, or to review some text-book of +which she had been fond, there was no motive for it; it all led to +nothing; it began for no reason and ended in no use, as she exclaimed +one day most dramatically. Poor Nan hurried through her house +business, or neglected it, as the case might be, greatly to Manila's +surprise and scorn, for the girl had always proved herself diligent +and interested in the home affairs. More and more she puzzled herself +and everybody about her, and as the days went by she spent them out of +doors at the old farm, or on the river, or in taking long rides on a +young horse; a bargain the doctor had somewhat repented before he +found that Nan was helped through some of her troubled hours by the +creature's wildness and fleetness. It was very plain that his ward was +adrift, and at first the doctor suggested farther study of Latin or +chemistry, but afterward philosophically resigned himself to patience, +feeling certain that some indication of the right course would not be +long withheld, and that a wind from the right quarter would presently +fill the flapping sails of this idle young craft and send it on its +way. + + +One afternoon Nan went hurrying out of the house just after dinner, +and the doctor saw that her face was unusually troubled. He had asked +her if she would like to drive with him to a farm just beyond the +Dyers' later in the day, but for a wonder she had refused. Dr. Leslie +gave a little sigh as he left the table, and presently watched her go +down the street as he stood by the window. It would be very sad if the +restlessness and discord of her poor mother should begin to show +themselves again; he could not bear to think of such an inheritance. + +But Nan thought little of anybody else's discomforts as she hurried +along the road; she only wished to get to the beloved farm, and to be +free there from questions, and from the evidences of her unfitness for +the simple duties which life seemed offering her with heartless irony. +She was not good for anything after all, it appeared, and she had been +cheating herself. This was no life at all, this fretful idleness; if +only she had been trained as boys are, to the work of their lives! She +had hoped that Dr. Leslie would help her; he used to talk long ago +about her studying medicine, but he must have forgotten that, and the +girl savagely rebuked society in general for her unhappiness. Of +course she could keep the house, but it was kept already; any one with +five senses and good health like hers could prove herself able to do +any of the ordinary work of existence. For her part it was not enough +to be waited upon and made comfortable, she wanted something more, to +be really of use in the world, and to do work which the world needed. + +Where the main road turned eastward up the hills, a footpath, already +familiar to the reader, shortened the distance to the farm, and the +young girl quickly crossed the rude stile and disappeared among the +underbrush, walking bareheaded with the swift steps of a creature +whose home was in some such place as this. Often the dry twigs, fallen +from the gray lower branches of the pines, crackled and snapped under +her feet, or the bushes rustled backed again to their places after she +pushed against them in passing; she hurried faster and faster, going +first through the dense woods and then out into the sunlight. Once or +twice in the open ground she stopped and knelt quickly on the soft +turf or moss to look at a little plant, while the birds which she +startled came back to their places directly, as if they had been quick +to feel that this was a friend and not an enemy, though disguised in +human shape. At last Nan reached the moss-grown fence of the farm and +leaped over it, and fairly ran to the river-shore, where she went +straight to one of the low-growing cedars, and threw herself upon it +as if it were a couch. While she sat there, breathing fast and glowing +with bright color, the river sent a fresh breeze by way of messenger, +and the old cedar held its many branches above her and around her most +comfortably, and sheltered her as it had done many times before. It +need not have envied other trees the satisfaction of climbing straight +upward in a single aspiration of growth. + +And presently Nan told herself that there was nothing like a good run. +She looked to and fro along the river, and listened to the sheep-bell +which tinkled lazily in the pasture behind her. She looked over her +shoulder to see if a favorite young birch tree had suffered no harm, +for it grew close by the straight-edged path in which the cattle came +down to drink. So she rested in the old playground, unconscious that +she had been following her mother's footsteps, or that fate had again +brought her here for a great decision. Years before, the miserable, +suffering woman, who had wearily come to this place to end their +lives, had turned away that the child might make her own choice +between the good and evil things of life. Though Nan told herself that +she must make it plain how she could spend her time in Oldfields to +good purpose and be of most use at home, and must get a new strength +for these duties, a decision suddenly presented itself to her with a +force of reason and necessity the old dream of it had never shown. Why +should it not be a reality that she studied medicine? + +The thought entirely possessed her, and the glow of excitement and +enthusiasm made her spring from the cedar boughs and laugh aloud. Her +whole heart went out to this work, and she wondered why she had ever +lost sight of it. She was sure this was the way in which she could +find most happiness. God had directed her at last, and though the +opening of her sealed orders had been long delayed, the suspense had +only made her surer that she must hold fast this unspeakably great +motive: something to work for with all her might as long as she lived. +People might laugh or object. Nothing should turn her aside, and a new +affection for kind and patient Dr. Leslie filled her mind. How eager +he had been to help her in all her projects so far, and yet it was +asking a great deal that he should favor this; he had never seemed to +show any suspicion that she would not live on quietly at home like +other girls; but while Nan told herself that she would give up any +plan, even this, if he could convince her that it would be wrong, +still her former existence seemed like a fog and uncertainty of death, +from which she had turned away, this time of her own accord, toward a +great light of satisfaction and certain safety and helpfulness. The +doctor would know how to help her; if she only could study with him +that would be enough; and away she went, hurrying down the river-shore +as if she were filled with a new life and happiness. + +She startled a brown rabbit from under a bush, and made him a grave +salutation when he stopped and lifted his head to look at her from a +convenient distance. Once she would have stopped and seated herself on +the grass to amaze him with courteous attempts at friendliness, but +now she only laughed again, and went quickly down the steep bank +through the junipers and then hurried along the pebbly margin of the +stream toward the village. She smiled to see lying side by side a +flint arrowhead and a water-logged bobbin that had floated down from +one of the mills, and gave one a toss over the water, while she put +the other in her pocket. Her thoughts were busy enough, and though +some reasons against the carrying out of her plan ventured to assert +themselves, they had no hope of carrying the day, being in piteous +minority, though she considered them one by one. By and by she came +into the path again, and as she reached the stile she was at first +glad and then sorry to see the doctor coming along the high road from +the Donnell farm. She was a little dismayed at herself because she had +a sudden disinclination to tell this good friend her secret. + +But Dr. Leslie greeted her most cheerfully, giving her the reins when +she had climbed into the wagon, and they talked of the weather and of +the next day's plans as they drove home together. The girl felt a +sense of guilt and a shameful lack of courage, but she was needlessly +afraid that her happiness might be spoiled by a word from that +quarter. + +That very evening it was raining outside, and the doctor and Nan were +sitting in the library opposite each other at the study-table, and as +they answered some letters in order to be ready for the early morning +post, they stole a look at each other now and then. The doctor laid +down his pen first, and presently, as Nan with a little sigh threw +hers into the tray beside it, he reached forward to where there was +one of the few uncovered spaces of the dark wood of the table and drew +his finger across it. They both saw the shining surface much more +clearly, and as the dusty finger was held up and examined carefully by +its owner, the girl tried to laugh, and then found her voice trembling +as she said: "I believe I haven't forgotten to put the table in order +before. I have tried to take care of the study at any rate." + +"Nan dear, it isn't the least matter in the world!" said Dr. Leslie. +"I think we are a little chilly here this damp night; suppose you +light the fire? At any rate it will clear away all those envelopes and +newspaper wrappers," and he turned his arm-chair so that it faced the +fireplace, and watched the young girl as she moved about the room. She +lifted one of the large sticks and stood it on one end at the side of +the hearth, and the doctor noticed that she did it less easily than +usual and without the old strength and alertness. He had sprung up to +help her just too late, but she had indignantly refused any assistance +with a half pettishness that was not a common mood with her. + +"I don't see why Jane or Marilla, or whoever it was, put that heavy +log on at this time of the year," said Dr. Leslie, as if it were a +matter of solemn consequence. By this time he had lighted a fresh +cigar, and Nan had brought her little wooden chair from some corner of +the room where it had always lived since it came with her from the +farm. It was a dear old-fashioned little thing, but quite too small +for its owner, who had grown up tall and straight, but who had felt a +sudden longing to be a child again, as she quietly took her place +before the fire. + +"That log?" she said, "I wonder if you will never learn that we must +not burn it? I saw Marilla myself when she climbed the highest +wood-pile at the farther end of the wood-house for it. I suppose all +the time I have been away you have been remorselessly burning up the +show logs. I don't wonder at her telling me this very morning that she +was born to suffer, and suffer she supposed she must. We never used to +be allowed to put papers in the fireplace, but you have gained ever so +many liberties. I wonder if Marilla really thinks she has had a hard +life?" the girl said, in a different tone. + +"I wonder if you think yours is hard too?" asked the doctor. + +And Nan did not know at first what to say. The bright light of the +burning papers and the pine-cone kindlings suddenly faded out and the +study seemed dark and strange by contrast; but the doctor did not +speak either; he only bent towards her presently, and put his hand on +the top of the girl's head and stroked the soft hair once or twice, +and then gently turned it until he could see Nan's face. + +Her eyes met his frankly as ever, but they were full of tears. "Yes," +she said; "I wish you would talk to me. I wish you would give me a +great scolding. I never needed it so much in my life. I meant to come +home and be very good, and do everything I could to make you happy, +but it all grows worse every day. I thought at first I was tired with +the last days of school, but it is something more than that. I don't +wish in the least that I were back at school, but I can't understand +anything; there is something in me that wants to be busy, and can't +find anything to do. I don't mean to be discontented; I don't want to +be anywhere else in the world." + +"There is enough to do," answered the doctor, as placidly as possible, +for this was almost the first time he had noticed distinctly the +mother's nature in her daughter; a restless, impatient, miserable sort +of longing for The Great Something Else, as Dr. Ferris had once called +it. "Don't fret yourself, Nan, yours is a short-lived sorrow; for if +you have any conscience at all about doing your work you will be sure +enough to find it." + +"I think I have found it at last, but I don't know whether any one +else will agree with me," half whispered poor Nan; while the doctor, +in spite of himself, of his age, and experience, and sympathy, and +self-control, could not resist a smile. "I hate to talk about myself +or to be sentimental, but I want to throw my whole love and life into +whatever there is waiting for me to do, and--I began to be afraid I +had missed it somehow. Once I thought I should like to be a teacher, +and come back here when I was through school and look after the +village children. I had such splendid ideas about that, but they all +faded out. I went into the school-house one day, and I thought I would +rather die than be shut up there from one week's end to another." + +"No," said Dr. Leslie, with grave composure. "No, I don't feel sure +that you would do well to make a teacher of yourself." + +"I wish that I had known when school was over that I must take care of +myself, as one or two of the girls meant to do, and sometimes it seems +as if I ought," said Nan, after a silence of a few minutes, and this +time it was very hard to speak. "You have been so kind, and have done +so much for me; I supposed at first there was money enough of my own, +but I know now." + +"Dear child!" the doctor exclaimed, "you will never know, unless you +are left alone as I was, what a blessing it is to have somebody to +take care of and to love; I have put you in the place of my own little +child, and have watched you grow up here, with more thankfulness every +year. Don't ever say another word to me about the money part of it. +What had I to spend money for? And now I hear you say all these +despairing things; but I am an old man, and I take them for what they +are worth. You have a few hard months before you, perhaps, but before +you know it they will be over with. Don't worry yourself; look after +Marilla a little, and that new hand-maid, and drive about with me. +To-morrow I must be on the road all day, and, to tell the truth, I +must think over one or two of my cases before I go to bed. Won't you +hand me my old prescription book? I was trying to remember something +as I came home." + +Nan, half-comforted, went to find the book, while Dr. Leslie, puffing +his cigar-smoke very fast, looked up through the cloud abstractedly at +a new ornament which had been placed above the mantel shelf since we +first knew the room. Old Captain Finch had solaced his weary and +painful last years by making a beautiful little model of a ship, and +had left it in his will to the doctor. There never was a more touching +gift, this present owner often thought, and he had put it in its place +with reverent hands. A comparison of the two lives came stealing into +his mind, and he held the worn prescription-book a minute before he +opened it. The poor old captain waiting to be released, stranded on +the inhospitable shore of this world, and eager Nan, who was +sorrowfully longing for the world's war to begin. "Two idle heroes," +thought Dr. Leslie, "and I neither wished to give one his discharge +nor the other her commission;" but he said aloud, "Nan, we will take a +six o'clock start in the morning, and go down through the sandy plains +before the heat begins. I am afraid it will be one of the worst of the +dog-days." + +"Yes," answered Nan eagerly, and then she came close to the doctor, +and looked at him a moment before she spoke, while her face shone with +delight. "I am going to be a doctor, too! I have thought it would be +the best thing in the world ever since I can remember. The little +prescription-book was the match that lit the fire! but I have been +wishing to tell you all the evening." + +"We must ask Marilla," the doctor began to say, and tried to add, +"What _will_ she think?" but Nan hardly heard him, and did not laugh +at his jokes. For she saw by his face that there was no need of +teasing. And she assured herself that if he thought it was only a +freak of which she would soon tire, she was quite willing to be put to +the proof. + + +Next morning, for a wonder, Nan waked early, even before the birds had +quite done singing, and it seemed a little strange that the weather +should be clear and bright, and almost like June, since she was a good +deal troubled. + +She felt at first as if there were some unwelcome duty in her day's +work, and then remembered the early drive with great pleasure, but the +next minute the great meaning and responsibility of the decision she +had announced the evening before burst upon her mind, and a flood of +reasons assailed her why she should not keep to so uncommon a purpose. +It seemed to her as if the first volume of life was ended, and as if +it had been deceitfully easy, since she had been led straight-forward +to this point. It amazed her to find the certainty take possession of +her mind that her vocation had been made ready for her from the +beginning. She had the feeling of a reformer, a radical, and even of a +political agitator, as she tried to face her stormy future in that +summer morning loneliness. But by the time she had finished her early +breakfast, and was driving out of the gate with the doctor, the day +seemed so much like other days that her trouble of mind almost +disappeared. Though she had known instinctively that all the early +part of her life had favored this daring project, and the next few +years would hinder it if they could, still there was something within +her stronger than any doubts that could possibly assail her. And +instead of finding everything changed, as one always expects to do +when a great change has happened to one's self, the road was so +familiar, and the condition of the outer world so harmonious, that she +hardly understood that she had opened a gate and shut it behind her, +between that day and its yesterday. She held the reins, and the doctor +was apparently in a most commonplace frame of mind. She wished he +would say something about their talk of the night before, but he did +not. She seemed very old to herself, older than she ever would seem +again, perhaps, but the doctor had apparently relapsed into their old +relations as guardian and child. Perhaps he thought she would forget +her decision, and did not know how much it meant to her. He was quite +provoking. He hurried the horse himself as they went up a somewhat +steep ascent, and as Nan touched the not very fleet steed with the +whip on the next level bit of road, she was reminded that it was a +very hot morning and that they had a great way to drive. When she +asked what was the matter with the patient they were on their way to +see, she was answered abruptly that he suffered from a complication of +disorders, which was the more aggravating because Nan had heard this +answer laughed at as being much used by old Dr. Jackson, who was +usually unwilling or unable to commit himself to a definite opinion. +Nan fancied herself at that minute already a member of the profession, +and did not like to be joked with in such a fashion, but she tried to +be amused, which generosity was appreciated by her companion better +than she knew. + +Dr. Leslie was not much of a singer, but he presently lifted what +little voice he had, and began to favor Nan with a not very successful +rendering of "Bonny Doon." Every minute seemed more critical to the +girl beside him, and she thought of several good ways to enter upon a +discussion of her great subject, but with unusual restraint and +reserve let the moments and the miles go by until the doctor had +quickly stepped down from the carriage and disappeared within his +patient's door. Nan's old custom of following him had been neglected +for some time, since she had found that the appearance of a tall young +woman had quite a different effect upon a household from that of a +little child. She had formed the habit of carrying a book with her on +the long drives, though she often left it untouched while she walked +up and down the country roads, or even ventured upon excursions as far +afield as she dared, while the doctor made his visit, which was apt to +be a long one in the lonely country houses. This morning she had +possessed herself of a square, thin volume which gave lists and plates +of the nerve system of the human body. The doctor had nearly laughed +aloud when he caught sight of it, and when Nan opened it with decision +and gravity and read the first page slowly, she was conscious of a +lack of interest in her subject. She had lost the great enthusiasm of +the night before, and felt like the little heap of ashes which such a +burning and heroic self might well have left. + +Presently she went strolling down the road, gathering some large +leaves on her way, and stopped at the brook, where she pulled up some +bits of a strange water-weed, and made them into a damp, round bundle +with the leaves and a bit of string. This was a rare plant which they +had both noticed the day before, and they had taken some specimens +then, Nan being at this time an ardent botanist, but these had +withered and been lost, also, on the way home. + +Dr. Leslie was in even less of a hurry than usual, and when he came +out he looked very much pleased. "I never was more thankful in my +life," he said eagerly, as soon as he was within convenient distance. +"That poor fellow was at death's door yesterday, and when I saw his +wife and little children, and thought his life was all that stood +between them and miserable destitution, it seemed to me that I _must_ +save it! This morning he is as bright as a dollar, but I have been +dreading to go into that house ever since I left it yesterday noon. +They didn't in the least know how narrow a chance he had. And it isn't +the first time I have been chief mourner. Poor souls! they don't dread +their troubles half so much as I do. He will have a good little farm +here in another year or two, it only needs draining to be excellent +land, and he knows that." The doctor turned and looked back over the +few acres with great pleasure. "Now we'll go and see about old Mrs. +Willet, though I don't believe there's any great need of it. She +belongs to one of two very bad classes of patients. It makes me so +angry to hear her cough twice as much as need be. In your practice," +he continued soberly, "you must remember that there is danger of +giving too strong doses to such a sufferer, and too light ones to the +friends who insist there is nothing the matter with them. I wouldn't +give much for a doctor who can't see for himself in most cases, but +not always,--not always." + +The doctor was in such a hospitable frame of mind that nobody could +have helped telling him anything, and happily he made an excellent +introduction for Nan's secret by inquiring how she had got on with her +studies, but she directed his attention to the wet plants in the +bottom of the carriage, which were complimented before she said, a +minute afterward, "Oh, I wonder if I shall make a mistake? I was +afraid you would laugh at me, and think it was all nonsense." + +"Dear me, no," replied the doctor. "You will be the successor of Mrs. +Martin Dyer, and the admiration of the neighborhood;" but changing his +tone quickly, he said: "I am going to teach you all I can, just as +long as you have any wish to learn. It has not done you a bit of harm +to know something about medicine, and I believe in your studying it +more than you do yourself. I have always thought about it. But you are +very young; there's plenty of time, and I don't mean to be hurried; +you must remember that,--though I see your fitness and peculiar +adaptability a great deal better than you can these twenty years yet. +You will be growing happier these next few years at any rate, however +impossible life has seemed to you lately." + +"I suppose there will be a great many obstacles," reflected Nan, with +an absence of her usual spirit. + +"Obstacles! Yes," answered Dr. Leslie, vigorously. "Of course there +will be; it is climbing a long hill to try to study medicine or to +study anything else. And if you are going to fear obstacles you will +have a poor chance at success. There are just as many reasons as you +will stop to count up why you should not do your plain duty, but if +you are going to make anything of yourself you must go straight ahead, +taking it for granted that there will be opposition enough, but doing +what is right all the same. I suppose I have repeated to you fifty +times what old Friend Meadows told me years ago; he was a great +success at money-making, and once I asked him to give me some advice +about a piece of property. 'Friend Leslie,' says he, 'thy own opinion +is the best for thee; if thee asks ten people what to do, they will +tell thee ten things, and then thee doesn't know as much as when thee +set out,'" and Dr. Leslie, growing very much in earnest, reached +forward for the whip. "I want you to be a good woman, and I want you +to be all the use you can," he said. "It seems to me like stealing, +for men and women to live in the world and do nothing to make it +better. You have thought a great deal about this, and so have I, and +now we will do the best we can at making a good doctor of you. I don't +care whether people think it is a proper vocation for women or not. It +seems to me that it is more than proper for you, and God has given you +a fitness for it which it is a shame to waste. And if you ever +hesitate and regret what you have said, you won't have done yourself +any harm by learning how to take care of your own health and other +people's." + +"But I shall never regret it," said Nan stoutly. "I don't believe I +should ever be fit for anything else, and you know as well as I that I +must have something to do. I used to wish over and over again that I +was a boy, when I was a little thing down at the farm, and the only +reason I had in the world was that I could be a doctor, like you." + +"Better than that, I hope," said Dr. Leslie. "But you mustn't think it +will be a short piece of work; it will take more patience than you are +ready to give just now, and we will go on quietly and let it grow by +the way, like your water-weed here. If you don't drive a little +faster, Sister Willet may be gathered before we get to her;" and this +being a somewhat unwise and hysterical patient, whose recovery was not +in the least despaired of, Dr. Leslie and his young companion were +heartlessly merry over her case. + +The doctor had been unprepared for such an episode; outwardly, life +had seemed to flow so easily from one set of circumstances to the +next, and the changes had been so gradual and so natural. He had +looked forward with such certainty to Nan's future, that it seemed +strange that the formal acceptance of such an inevitable idea as her +studying medicine should have troubled her so much. + +Separated as he was from the groups of men and women who are +responsible for what we call the opinion of society, and independent +himself of any fettering conventionalities, he had grown careless of +what anybody might say. He only hoped, since his ward had found her +proper work, that she would hold to it, and of this he had little +doubt. The girl herself quickly lost sight of the fancied difficulty +of making the great decision, and, as is usually the case, saw all the +first objections and hindrances fade away into a dim distance, and +grow less and less noticeable. And more than that, it seemed to her as +if she had taken every step of her life straight toward this choice of +a profession. So many things she had never understood before, now +became perfectly clear and evident proofs that, outside her own +preferences and choices, a wise purpose had been at work with her and +for her. So it all appeared more natural every day, and while she knew +that the excitement and formality of the first very uncomfortable day +or two had proved her freedom of choice, it seemed the more impossible +that she should have shirked this great commission and trust for which +nature had fitted her. + + + + +XIII + +A STRAIGHT COURSE + + +The next year or two was spent in quiet life at home. It was made +evident that, beside her inclination and natural fitness for her +chosen work, our student was also developing the other most important +requisite, a capacity for hard study and patient continuance. There +had been as little said as possible about the plan, but it was not +long before the propriety of it became a favorite subject of +discussion. It is quite unnecessary, perhaps, to state that everybody +had his or her own opinion of the wisdom of such a course, and both +Dr. Leslie and his ward suffered much reproach and questioning, as the +comments ranged from indignation to amusement. But it was as true of +Nan's calling, as of all others, that it would be her own failure to +make it respected from which any just contempt might come, and she had +thrown herself into her chosen career with such zeal, and pride, and +affectionate desire to please her teacher, that the small public who +had at first jeered or condemned her came at last to accepting the +thing as inevitable and a matter of course, even if they did not +actually approve. There was such a vigorous determination in the minds +of the doctor and his pupil that Nan should not only be a doctor but a +good one, that anything less than a decided fitness for the profession +would have doomed them both to disappointment, even with such +unwearied effort and painstaking. In the earlier years of his practice +Dr. Leslie had been much sought as an instructor, but he had long +since begun to deny the young men who had wished to be his students, +though hardly one had ever gone from the neighborhood of Oldfields who +did not owe much to him for his wise suggestions and practical help. + +He patiently taught this eager young scholar day by day, and gave her, +as fast as he could, the benefit of the wisdom which he had gained +through faithful devotion to his business and the persistent study of +many years. Nan followed step by step, and, while becoming more +conscious of her own ignorance and of the uncertainties and the laws +of the practice of medicine with every week's study, knew better and +better that it is resource, and bravery, and being able to think for +one's self, that make a physician worth anything. There must be an +instinct that recognizes a disease and suggests its remedy, as much as +an instinct that finds the right notes and harmonies for a composer of +music, or the colors for a true artist's picture, or the results of +figures for a mathematician. Men and women may learn these callings +from others; may practice all the combinations until they can carry +them through with a greater or less degree of unconsciousness of brain +and fingers; but there is something needed beside even drill and +experience; every student of medicine should be fitted by nature with +a power of insight, a gift for his business, for knowing what is the +right thing to do, and the right time and way to do it; must have this +God-given power in his own nature of using and discovering the +resources of medicine without constant reliance upon the books or the +fashion. Some men use their ability for their own good and renown, and +some think first of the good of others, and as the great poet tells +the truths of God, and makes other souls wiser and stronger and fitter +for action, so the great doctor works for the body's health, and tries +to keep human beings free from the failures that come from neglect and +ignorance, and ready to be the soul's instrument of action and service +in this world. It is not to keep us from death, it is no superstitious +avoidance of the next life, that should call loudest for the +physician's skill; but the necessity of teaching and remedying the +inferior bodies which have come to us through either our ancestors' +foolishness or our own. So few people know even what true and complete +physical life is, much less anything of the spiritual existence that +is already possible, and so few listen to what the best doctors are +trying their best to teach. While half-alive people think it no wrong +to bring into the world human beings with even less vitality than +themselves, and take no pains to keep the simplest laws of health, or +to teach their children to do so, just so long there will be plenty of +sorrow of an avoidable kind, and thousands of shipwrecked, and +failing, and inadequate, and useless lives in the fullest sense of the +word. How can those who preach to the soul hope to be heard by those +who do not even make the best of their bodies? but alas, the +convenience and easiness, or pleasure, of the present moment is +allowed to become the cause of an endless series of terrible effects, +which go down into the distance of the future, multiplying themselves +a thousandfold. + +The doctor told Nan many curious things as they drove about together: +certain traits of certain families, and how the Dyers were of strong +constitution, and lived to a great age in spite of severe illnesses +and accidents and all manner of unfavorable conditions; while the +Dunnells, who looked a great deal stronger, were sensitive, and +deficient in vitality, so that an apparently slight attack of disease +quickly proved fatal. And so Nan knew that one thing to be considered +was the family, and another the individual variation, and she began +to recognize the people who might be treated fearlessly, because they +were safe to form a league with against any ailment, being responsive +to medicines, and straightforward in their departure from or return to +a state of health; others being treacherous and hard to control; full +of surprises, and baffling a doctor with their feints and follies of +symptoms; while all the time Death himself was making ready for a +last, fatal siege; these all being the representatives of types which +might be found everywhere. Often Dr. Leslie would be found eagerly +praising some useful old-fashioned drugs which had been foolishly +neglected by those who liked to experiment with newer remedies and be +"up with the times," as they called their not very intelligent +dependence upon the treatment in vogue at the moment among the younger +men of certain cliques, to some of whom the brilliant operation was +more important than its damaging result. There was, even in those +days, a haphazard way of doctoring, in which the health of the patient +was secondary to the promotion of new theories, and the young scholar +who could write a puzzlingly technical paper too often outranked the +old practitioner who conquered some malignant disorder single-handed, +where even the malpractice of the patient and his friends had stood +like a lion in the way. + +But Dr. Leslie was always trying to get at the truth, and nobody +recognized more clearly the service which the reverent and truly +progressive younger men were rendering to the profession. He added +many new publications to his subscription list, and gleaned here and +there those notes which he knew would be helpful, and which were +suited to the degree of knowledge which his apprentice had already +gained. It is needless to say what pleasure it gave him, and what +evening talks they had together; what histories of former victories +and defeats and curious discoveries were combined, like a bit of +novel-reading, with Nan's diligent devotion to her course of study. +And presently the girl would take a step or two alone, and even make a +visit by herself to see if anything chanced to be needed when a case +was progressing favorably, and with the excuse of the doctor's +business or over-fatigue. And the physicians of the neighboring towns, +who came together occasionally for each other's assistance, most of +whom had known Nan from her childhood, though at first they had shrunk +from speaking of many details of their professional work in her +hearing, and covered their meaning, like the ostriches' heads, in the +sand of a Latin cognomen, were soon set at their ease by Nan's +unconsciousness of either shamefacedness or disgust, and one by one +grew interested in her career, and hopeful of her success. + +It is impossible to describe the importance of such experiences as +these in forming the character of the young girl's power of resource, +and wealth of self-reliance and practical experience. Sometimes in +houses where she would have felt at least liberty to go only as +spectator and scholar of medicine, Dr. Leslie insisted upon +establishing her for a few days as chief nurse and overseer, and +before Nan had been at work many months her teacher found her of great +use, and grew more proud and glad day by day as he watched her +determination, her enthusiasm, and her excellent progress. Over and +over again he said to himself, or to her, that she was doing the work +for which nature had meant her, and when the time came for her to go +away from Oldfields, it seemed more impossible than it ever had before +that he should get on without her, at home, or as an independent human +being, who was following reverently in the path he had chosen so many +years before. For her sake he had reached out again toward many +acquaintances from whom he had drifted away, and he made many short +journeys to Boston or to New York, and was pleased at his hearty +welcome back to the medical meetings he had hardly entered during so +many years. He missed not a few old friends, but he quickly made new +ones. He was vastly pleased when the younger men seemed glad to hear +him speak, and it was often proved that either through study or +experience he had caught at some fresh knowledge of which his +associates were still ignorant. He had laughingly accused himself of +being a rusty country doctor and old fogy who had not kept up with the +times; but many a letter followed him home, with thanks for some +helpful suggestion or advice as to the management of a troublesome +case. He was too far away to give room for any danger of professional +jealousy, or for the infringement of that ever lengthening code of +etiquette so important to the sensitive medical mind. Therefore he +had only much pleasure and a fine tribute of recognition and honor, +and he smiled more than once as he sat in the quiet Oldfields study +before the fire, and looked up at Captain Finch's little ship, and +told Nan of his town experiences, not always omitting, though +attempting to deprecate, the compliments, in some half-hour when they +were on peculiarly good terms with each other. And Nan believed there +could be no better doctor in the world, and stoutly told him so, and +yet listened only half-convinced when he said that he had a great mind +to go to town and open an office, and make a specialty of treating +diseases of the heart, since everybody had a specialty nowadays. He +never felt so ready for practice as now, but Nan somehow could not +bear the thought of his being anywhere but in his home. For herself, +she would have been ready to venture anything if it would further her +ever-growing purpose; but that Dr. Leslie should begin a new career or +contest with the world seemed impossible. He was not so strong as he +used to be, and he was already famous among his fellows. She would +help him with his work by and by even more than now, and her own +chosen calling of a country doctor was the dearer to her, because he +had followed it so gallantly before her loving and admiring eyes. But +Dr. Leslie built many a castle in the air, with himself and a great +city practice for tenants, and said that it would be a capital thing +for Nan; she could go on with it alone by and by. It was astonishing +how little some of the city doctors knew: they relied upon each other +too much; they should all be forced to drive over hill and dale, and +be knocked about in a hard country practice for eight or ten years +before they went to town. "Plenty of time to read their books in June +and January," the doctor would grumble to himself, and turn to look +fondly at the long rows of his dear library acquaintances, his +Braithwaites and Lancets, and their younger brothers, beside the first +new Sydenham Society's books, with their clumsy blot of gilding. And +he would stand sometimes with his hands behind him and look at the +many familiar rows of brown leather-covered volumes, most of them +delightfully worn with his own use and that of the other physicians +whose generous friend and constant instructor he had been through +years of sometimes stormy but usually friendly intercourse and +association. + + +When people in general had grown tired of discussing this strange +freak and purpose of the doctor and his ward, and had become familiar +with Nan's persistent interest and occupation in her studies, there +came a time of great discontent to the two persons most concerned. For +it was impossible to disguise the fact that the time had again come +for the girl to go away from home. They had always looked forward to +this, and directed much thought and action toward it, and yet they +decided with great regret upon setting a new train of things in +motion. + +While it was well enough and useful enough that Nan should go on with +her present mode of life, they both had a wider outlook, and though +with the excuse of her youthfulness they had put off her departure as +long as possible, still almost without any discussion it was decided +that she must enter the medical school to go through with its course +of instruction formally, and receive its authority to practice her +profession. They both felt that this held a great many unpleasantnesses +among its store of benefits. Nan was no longer to be shielded and +protected and guided by some one whose wisdom she rarely questioned, +but must make her own decisions instead, and give from her own bounty, +and stand in her lot and place. Her later school-days were sure to be +more trying than her earlier ones, as they carried her into deeper +waters of scholarship, and were more important to her future position +before the public. + +If a young man plans the same course, everything conspires to help him +and forward him, and the very fact of his having chosen one of the +learned professions gives him a certain social preeminence and +dignity. But in the days of Nan's student life it was just the +reverse. Though she had been directed toward such a purpose entirely +by her singular talent, instead of by the motives of expediency which +rule the decisions of a large proportion of the young men who study +medicine, she found little encouragement either from the quality of +the school or the interest of society in general. There were times +when she actually resented the prospect of the many weeks which she +must spend in listening to inferior instruction before gaining a +diploma, which was only a formal seal of disapproval in most persons' +eyes. And yet, when she remembered her perfect certainty that she was +doing the right thing, and remembered what renown some women +physicians had won, and the avenues of usefulness which lay open to +her on every side, there was no real drawing back, but rather a proud +certainty of her most womanly and respectable calling, and a reverent +desire to make the best use possible of the gifts God had certainly +not made a mistake in giving her. "If He meant I should be a doctor," +the girl told herself, "the best thing I can do is to try to be a good +one." + +So Nan packed her boxes and said good-by to Mrs. Graham, who looked +wistful and doubtful, but blessed her most heartily, saying she should +miss her sadly in the winter. And Marilla, who had unexpectedly +reserved her opinion of late, made believe that she was very busy in +the pantry, just as she had done when Nan was being launched for +boarding-school. She shook her own floury hands vigorously, and +offered one at last, muffled in her apron, and wished our friend good +luck, with considerable friendliness, mentioning that she should be +glad if Nan would say when she wrote home what shapes they seemed to +be wearing for bonnets in the city, though she supposed they would be +flaunting for Oldfields anyway. The doctor was going too, and they +started for the station much too early for the train, since Dr. Leslie +always suffered from a nervous dread of having an unavoidable summons +to a distant patient at the last moment. + +And when the examinations were over, and Nan had been matriculated, +and the doctor had somewhat contemptuously overlooked the building and +its capabilities, and had compared those students whom he saw with his +remembrance of his own class, and triumphantly picked out a face and +figure that looked hopeful here and there; he told himself that like +all new growths it was feeble yet, and needed girls like his Nan, with +high moral purpose and excellent capacity, who would make the college +strong and to be respected. Not such doctors as several of whom he +reminded himself, who were disgracing their sex, but those whose +lives were ruled by a pettiness of detail, a lack of power, and an +absence of high aim. Somehow both our friends lost much of the feeling +that Nan was doing a peculiar thing, when they saw so many others +following the same path. And having seen Nan more than half-settled in +her winter quarters, and knowing that one or two of her former school +friends had given her a delighted and most friendly welcome, and +having made a few visits to the people whom he fancied would help her +in one way or another, Dr. Leslie said good-by, and turned his face +homeward, feeling more lonely than he had felt in a great many years +before. He thought about Nan a great deal on the journey, though he +had provided himself with some most desirable new books. He was +thankful he had been able to do a kind turn for one of the most +influential doctors, who had cheerfully promised to put some special +advantages in Nan's way; but when he reached home the house seemed +very empty, and he missed his gay companion as he drove along the +country roads. After the days began to grow longer, and the sun +brighter, such pleasant letters came from the absent scholar, that the +doctor took heart more and more, and went over to Mrs. Graham with +almost every fresh bit of news. She smiled, and listened, and +applauded, and one day said with delightful cordiality that she wished +there were more girls who cared whether their lives really amounted to +anything. But not every one had a talent which was such a stimulus as +Nan's. + +"Nothing succeeds like success," rejoined the doctor cheerfully, "I +always knew the child would do the best she could." + + + + +XIV + +MISS PRINCE OF DUNPORT + + +While all these years were passing, Miss Anna Prince the elder was +living quietly in Dunport, and she had changed so little that her +friends frequently complimented her upon such continued youthfulness. +She had by no means forgotten the two greatest among the many losses +and sorrows of her life, but the first sharp pain of them was long +since over with. The lover from whom she had parted for the sake of a +petty misunderstanding had married afterward and died early; but he +had left a son of whom Miss Prince was very proud and fond; and she +had given him the place in her heart which should have belonged to her +own niece. When she thought of the other trial, she believed herself, +still, more sinned against than sinning, and gave herself frequent +assurances that it had been impossible to act otherwise at the time of +her brother's death and his wife's strange behavior afterward. And she +had persuaded her conscience to be quiet, until at last, with the +ideal of a suspicious, uncongenial, disagreeable group of rustics in +her mind, she thought it was well ordered by Heaven that she had been +spared any closer intercourse. + +Miss Prince was a proud and stately woman of the old New England type: +more colonial than American perhaps, and quite provincial in her +traditions and prejudices. She was highly respected in her native +town, where she was a prominent figure in society. Nobody was more +generous and kind or public spirited, as her friends often said, and +young George Gerry was well-rewarded, though he gave her great +pleasure by his evident affection and interest. He liked to pay +frequent visits to his old friend, and to talk with her. She had been +a very attractive girl long ago, and the best of her charms had not +faded yet; the young man was always welcomed warmly, and had more than +once been helped in his projects. His mother was a feeble woman, who +took little interest in anything outside her own doors; and he liked +himself better as he sat in Miss Prince's parlor than anywhere else. +We are always fond of the society of our best selves, and though he +was popular with the rest of his townspeople, he somehow could not +help trying always to be especially agreeable to Miss Prince. + +Although she was apparently free from regrets, and very well satisfied +with life, even her best friends did not know how lonely her life had +seemed to her, or how sadly hurt she had been by the shame and sorrow +of her only brother's marriage. The thought of his child and of the +impossibility of taking her to her heart and home had been like a +nightmare at first, and yet Miss Prince lacked courage to break down +the barriers, and to at least know the worst. She kept the two ideas +of the actual niece and the ideal one whom she might have loved so +much distinct and separate in her mind, and was divided between a +longing to see the girl and a fierce dread of her sudden appearance. +She had forbidden any allusion to the subject years and years before, +and so had prevented herself from hearing good news as well as bad; +though she had always been careful that the small yearly remittance +should be promptly sent, and was impatient to receive the formal +acknowledgment of it, which she instantly took pains to destroy. She +sometimes in these days thought about making her will; there was no +hurry about it, but it would be only fair to provide for her nearest +of kin, while she was always certain that she should not let all her +money and the old house with its handsome furnishings go into such +unworthy hands. It was a very hard question to settle, and she thought +of it as little as possible, and was sure there was nothing to prevent +her living a great many years yet. She loved her old home dearly, and +was even proud of it, and had always taken great care of the details +of its government. She never had been foolish enough to make away with +her handsome mahogany furniture, and to replace it with cheaper and +less comfortable chairs and tables, as many of her neighbors had done, +and had taken an obstinate satisfaction all through the years when it +seemed quite out of date, in insisting upon the polishing of the fine +wood and the many brass handles, and of late she had been reaping a +reward for her constancy. It had been a marvel to certain progressive +people that a person of her comfortable estate should be willing to +reflect that there was not a marble-topped table in her house, until +it slowly dawned upon them at last that she was mistress of the finest +house in town. Outwardly, it was painted white and stood close upon +the street, with a few steep front steps coming abruptly down into the +middle of the narrow sidewalk; its interior was spacious and very +imposing, not only for the time it was built in the last century, but +for any other time. Miss Prince's ancestors had belonged to some of +the most distinguished among the colonial families, which fact she +neither appeared to remember nor consented to forget; and, as often +happened in the seaport towns of New England, there had been one or +two men in every generation who had followed the sea. Her own father +had been among the number, and the closets of the old house were well +provided with rare china and fine old English crockery that would +drive an enthusiastic collector to distraction. The carved woodwork of +the railings and wainscotings and cornices had been devised by +ingenious and patient craftsmen, and the same portraits and old +engravings hung upon the walls that had been there when its mistress +could first remember. She had always been so well suited with her home +that she had never desired to change it in any particular. Her maids +were well drilled to their duties, and Priscilla, who was chief of the +staff, had been in that dignified position for many years. If Miss +Prince's grandmother could return to Dunport from another world, she +would hardly believe that she had left her earthly home for a day, it +presented so nearly the same appearance. + +But however conscientiously the effort had been made to keep up the +old reputation for hospitality, it had somehow been a failure, and +Miss Prince had given fewer entertainments every year. Long ago, while +she was still a young woman, she had begun to wear a certain quaint +and elderly manner, which might have come from association with such +antiquated household gods and a desire to match well with her beloved +surroundings. A great many of her early friends had died, and she was +not the sort of person who can easily form new ties of intimate +friendship. She was very loyal to those who were still left, and, as +has been said, her interest in George Gerry, who was his father's +namesake and likeness, was a very great pleasure to her. Some persons +liked to whisper together now and then about the mysterious niece, who +was never mentioned otherwise. But though curiosity had led to a +partial knowledge of our heroine's not unfavorable aspect and +circumstances, nobody ever dared to give such information to the +person who should have been most interested. + +This was one of the standard long stories of Dunport with which old +residents liked to regale newcomers, and handsome Jack Prince was the +hero of a most edifying romance, being represented as a victim of the +Prince pride, as his sister had been before him. His life had been +ruined, and he had begged his wretched wife at the last to bring him +home to Dunport, alive or dead. The woman had treated Miss Prince with +shameful impudence and had disappeared afterward. The child had been +brought up with her own people, and it was understood that Miss +Prince's efforts to have any connection with them were all thwarted. +Lately it had become known that the girl's guardian was a very fine +man and was taking a great interest in her. But the reader will +imagine how this story grew and changed in different people's minds. +Some persons insisted that Miss Prince had declined to see her +brother's child, and others that it was denied her. It was often said +in these days that Nan must be free to do as she chose, but it was +more than likely that she had assumed the prejudices against her aunt +with which she must have become most familiar. + +As for Miss Prince herself, she had long ago become convinced that +there was nothing to be done in this matter. After one has followed a +certain course for some time, everything seems to persuade one that no +other is possible. Sometimes she feared that an excitement and danger +lurked in her future, but, after all, her days went by so calmly, and +nearer things seemed so much more important than this vague sorrow and +dread, that she went to and fro in the Dunport streets, and was +courteous and kind in her own house, and read a sensible book now and +then, and spent her time as benevolently and respectably as possible. +She was indeed an admirable member of society, who had suffered very +much in her youth, and those who knew her well could not be too glad +that her later years were passing far less unhappily than most +people's. + +In the days when her niece had lately finished her first winter at the +medical school, Miss Prince had just freed herself from the +responsibility of some slight repairs which the house had needed. She +had been in many ways much more occupied than usual, and had given +hardly a thought to more remote affairs. At last there had come an +evening when she felt at leisure, and happily Miss Fraley, one of her +earliest friends, had come to pay her a visit. The two ladies sat at +the front windows of the west parlor looking out upon the street, +while the hostess expressed her gratitude that the overturning of her +household affairs was at an end, and that she was all in order for +summer. They talked about the damage and discomfort inflicted by +masons, and the general havoc which follows a small piece of fallen +ceiling. Miss Prince, having made a final round of inspection just +after tea, had ascertained that the last of the white dimity curtains +and coverings were in their places upstairs in the bedrooms, and her +love of order was satisfied. She had complimented Priscilla, and made +her and the maids the customary spring present, and had returned to +her evening post of observation at the parlor window just as Miss +Fraley came in. She was not in the mood for receiving guests, being a +trifle tired, but Eunice Fraley was a mild little creature, with a +gentle, deprecatory manner which had always appealed to Miss Prince's +more chivalrous nature. Besides, she knew this to be a most true and +affectionate friend, who had also the gift of appearing when +everything was ready for her, as the bluebirds come, and the robins, +in the early days of spring. + +"I wish I could say that our house was all in order but one closet," +said the guest, in a more melancholy tone than usual. "I believe we +are more behind-hand than ever this year. You know we have Susan's +children with us for a fortnight while she goes away for a rest, and +they have been a good deal of care. I think mother is getting tired of +them now, though she was very eager to have a visit from them at +first. She said this morning that the little girl was worse than a +kitten in a fit, and she did hope that Susan wouldn't think it best to +pass another week away." + +Miss Prince laughed a little, and so did Miss Fraley after a moment's +hesitation. She seemed to be in a somewhat sentimental and +introspective mood as she looked out of the window in the May +twilight. + +"I so often feel as if I were not accomplishing anything," she said +sadly. "It came over me to-day that here I am, really an old woman, +and I am just about where I first started,--doing the same things over +and over and no better than ever. I haven't the gift of style; anybody +else might have done my work just as well, I am afraid; I am sure the +world would have got along just as well without me. Mother has been +so active, and has reached such a great age, that perhaps it hasn't +been much advantage to me. I have only learned to depend upon her +instead of myself. I begin to see that I should have amounted to a +great deal more if I had had a home of my own. I sometimes wish that I +were as free to go and come as you are, Nancy." + +But Miss Prince's thoughts were pleased to take a severely practical +turn: "I'm not in the least free," she answered cheerfully. "I believe +you need something to strengthen you, Eunice. I haven't seen you so +out of spirits for a great while. Free! why I'm tied to this house as +if I were the knocker on the front door; and I certainly have a great +deal of care. I put the utmost confidence in Priscilla, but those +nieces of hers would be going wherever they chose, from garret to +cellar, before I was ten miles away from Dunport. I have let the cook +go away for a week, and Phoebe and Priscilla are alone. Phoebe is a +good little creature; I only hope she won't be married within six +months, for I don't know when I have liked a young girl so well. +Priscilla was anxious I should take that black-eyed daughter of her +brother's, and was quite hurt because I refused." + +"I dare say you were right," acknowledged Miss Fraley, though she +could not exactly see the obstacles to her friend's freedom in such +strong light as was expected. + +"I know that it must be difficult for you sometimes," resumed the +hostess presently, in a more sympathetic tone. "Your mother naturally +finds it hard to give up the rule. We can't expect her to look at life +as younger persons do." + +"I don't expect it," said poor Miss Fraley appealingly, "and I am sure +I try to be considerate; but how would you like it, to be treated as +if you were sixteen instead of nearly sixty? I know it says in the +Bible that children should obey their parents, but there is no such +commandment, that I can see, to women who are old enough to be +grandmothers themselves. It does make me perfectly miserable to have +everything questioned and talked over that I do; but I know I ought +not to say such things. I suppose I shall lie awake half the night +grieving over it. You know I have the greatest respect for mother's +judgment; I'm sure I don't know what in the world I should do without +her." + +"You are too yielding, Eunice," said Miss Prince kindly. "You try to +please everybody, and that's your way of pleasing yourself; but, after +all, I believe we give everybody more satisfaction when we hold fast +to our own ideas of right and wrong. There have been a great many +friends who were more than willing to give me their advice in all +these years that I have been living alone; but I have always made up +my mind and gone straight ahead. I have no doubt I should be very +impatient now of much comment and talking over; and yet there are so +many times when I would give anything to see father or mother for a +little while. I haven't suffered from living alone as much as some +persons do, but I often feel very sad and lonely when I sit here and +think about the past. Dear me! here is Phoebe with the lights, and I +dare say it is just as well. I am going to ask you to go up stairs and +see the fresh paint, and how ship-shape we are at last, as father used +to say." + +Miss Fraley rose at once, with an expression of pleasure, and the two +friends made a leisurely tour of the old house which seemed all ready +for a large family, and though its owner apparently enjoyed her +freedom and dominion, it all looked deserted and empty to her guest. +They lingered together in the wide lower hall, and parted with unusual +affection. This was by no means the first hint that had been given of +a somewhat fettered and disappointing home life, though Miss Fraley +would have shuddered at the thought of any such report's being sent +abroad. + +"Send the children round to see me," said Miss Prince, by way of +parting benediction. "They can play in the garden an hour or two, and +it will be a change for them and for you;" which invitation was +gratefully accepted, though Miss Eunice smiled at the idea of their +needing a change, when they were sure to be on every wharf in town in +the course of the day, and already knew more people in Dunport than +she did. + +The next morning Miss Prince's sense of general well-being seemed to +have deserted her altogether. She was overshadowed by a fear of +impending disaster and felt strangely tired and dissatisfied. But she +did not believe in moping, and only assured herself that she must make +the day an easy one. So, being strong against tides, as some old poet +says of the whale, Miss Prince descended the stairs calmly, and +advised Priscilla to put off the special work that had been planned +until still later in the week. "You had better ask your sister to come +and spend the day with you and have a good, quiet visit," which +permission Priscilla received without comment, being a person of few +words; but she looked pleased, and while her mistress went down the +garden walk to breathe the fresh morning air, she concocted a small +omelet as an unexpected addition to the breakfast. Miss Prince was +very fond of an omelet, but Priscilla, in spite of all her good +qualities, was liable to occasional fits of offishness and depression, +and in those seasons kept her employer, in one way or another, on +short commons. + +The day began serenely. It was the morning for the Dunport weekly +paper, which Miss Prince sat down at once to read, making her +invariable reproachful remark that there was nothing in it, after +having devoted herself to this duty for an hour or more. Then she +mounted to the upper floor of her house to put away a blanket which +had been overlooked in the spring packing of the camphor-wood chests +which stood in a solemn row in the north corner of the garret. There +were three dormer windows in the front of the garret-roof, and one of +these had been a favorite abiding-place in her youth. She had played +with her prim Dutch dolls there in her childhood, and she could +remember spending hour after hour watching for her father's ship when +the family had begun to expect him home at the end of a long voyage. +She remembered with a smile how grieved she had been because once he +came into port late in the night and surprised them all early in the +morning, but he had made amends by taking her back with him when he +hurried on board again after a hasty greeting. Miss Prince lived that +morning over again as she stood there, old and gray and alone in the +world. She could see again the great weather-beaten and tar-darkened +ship, and even the wizened monkey which belonged to one of the +sailors. She lingered at her father's side admiringly, and felt the +tears come into her eyes once more when he gave her a taste of the +fiery contents of his tumbler. They were all in his cabin; old Captain +Dunn and Captain Denny and Captain Peterbeck were sitting round the +little table, also provided with tumblers, as they listened eagerly to +the story of the voyage. The sailors came now and then for orders; +Nancy thought her handsome father, with his bronzed cheeks and white +forehead and curly hair, was every inch a king. He was her hero, and +nothing could please her so much to the end of her days as to have +somebody announce, whether from actual knowledge or hearsay, that +Captain Jack Prince was the best shipmaster that ever sailed out of +Dunport.... She always was sure there were some presents stored away +for herself and young Jack, her brother, in one of the lockers of the +little cabin. Poor Jack! how he used to frighten her by climbing the +shrouds and waving his cap from almost inaccessible heights. Poor +Jack! and Miss Prince climbed the step to look down the harbor again, +as if the ship were more than thirty days out from Amsterdam, and +might be expected at any time if the voyage had been favorable. + +The house was at no great distance from the water side, though the +crowded buildings obscured the view from the lower stories. There was +nothing coming in from sea but a steam-tug, which did not harmonize +with these pleasant reminiscences, though as Miss Prince raised the +window a fine salt breeze entered, well warmed with the May sunshine. +It had the flavor of tar and the spirit of the high seas, and for a +wonder there could be heard the knocking of shipwrights' hammers, +which in old times were never silent in the town. As she sat there for +a few minutes in the window seat, there came to her other +recollections of her later girlhood, when she had stolen to this +corner for the sake of being alone with her pleasant thoughts, though +she had cried there many an hour after Jack's behavior had given them +the sorrow they hardly would own to each other. She remembered hearing +her father's angry voice down stairs. No! she would not think of that +again, why should she? and she shut the window and went back to be +sure that she had locked the camphor chest, and hung its key on the +flat-headed rusty nail overhead. Miss Prince heard some one open and +shut the front door as she went down, and in the small front room she +found Captain Walter Parish, who held a high place among her most +intimate friends. He was her cousin, and had become her general +adviser and counselor. He sometimes called himself laughingly the +ship's husband, for it was he who transacted most of Miss Prince's +important business, and selected her paint and shingles and her garden +seeds beside, and made and mended her pens. He liked to be useful and +agreeable, but he had not that satisfaction in his own home, for his +wife had been a most efficient person to begin with, and during his +absences at sea in early life had grown entirely self-reliant. The +captain joked about it merrily, but he nevertheless liked to feel that +he was still important, and Miss Prince generously told him, from time +to time, that she did not know how she should get on without him, and +considerately kept up the fiction of not wishing to take up his time +when he must be busy with his own affairs. + +"How are you this fine morning, Cousin Nancy?" said the captain +gallantly. "I called to say that Jerry Martin will be here to-morrow +without fail. It seems he thought you would send him word when you +wanted him next, and he has been working for himself. I don't think +the garden will suffer, we have had so much cold weather. And here is +a letter I took from the office." He handed it to Miss Prince with a +questioning look; he knew the handwriting of her few correspondents +almost as well as she, and this was a stranger's. + +"Perhaps it is a receipt for my subscription to the"--But Miss Prince +never finished the sentence, for when she had fairly taken the letter +into her hand, the very touch of it seemed to send a tinge of ashen +gray like some quick poison over her face. She stood still, looking at +it, then flushed crimson, and sat down in the nearest chair, as if it +were impossible to hold herself upright. The captain was uncertain +what he ought to do. + +"I hope you haven't heard bad news," he said presently, for Miss +Prince had leaned back in the arm-chair and covered her eyes with one +hand, while the letter was tightly held in the other. + +"It is from my niece," she answered, slowly. + +"You don't mean it's from Jack's daughter?" inquired the captain, not +without eagerness. He never had suspected such a thing; the only +explanation which had suggested itself to his mind was that Miss +Prince had been investing some of her money without his advice or +knowledge, and he had gone so far as to tell himself that it was just +like a woman, and quite good enough for her if she had lost it. "I +never thought of its being from her," he said, a little bewildered, +for the captain was not a man of quick wit; his powers of reflection +served him better. "Well, aren't you going to tell me what she has to +say for herself?" + +"She proposes to make me a visit," answered Miss Prince, trying to +smile as she handed him the little sheet of paper which she had +unconsciously crumpled together; but she did not give even one glance +at his face as he read it, though she thought it a distressingly long +time before he spoke. + +"I must say that this is a very good letter, very respectful and +lady-like," said the captain honestly, though he felt as if he had +been expected to condemn it, and proceeded to read it through again, +this time aloud:-- + + MY DEAR AUNT,--I cannot think it is right that we do not know + each other. I should like to go to Dunport for a day some time + next month; but if you do not wish to see me you have only to + tell me so, and I will not trouble you. + + Yours sincerely, + ANNA PRINCE. + +"A very good handwriting, too," the captain remarked, and then +gathered courage to say that he supposed Miss Prince would give her +niece the permission for which she asked. "I have been told that she +is a very fine girl," he ventured, as if he were poor Nan's +ambassador; and at this Miss Prince's patience gave way. + +"Yes, I shall ask her to come, but I do not wish anything said about +it; it need not be made the talk of the town." She answered her cousin +angrily, and then felt as if she had been unjust. "Do not mind me, +Walter," she said; "it has been a terrible grief and trouble to me all +these years. Perhaps if I had gone to see those people, and told them +all I felt, they would have pitied me, and not blamed me, and so +everything would have been better, but it is too late now. I don't +know what sort of a person my own niece is, and I wish that I need +never find out, but I shall try to do my duty." + +The captain was tender-hearted, and seemed quite unmanned, but he gave +his eyes a sudden stroke with his hand and turned to go away. "You +will command me, Nancy, if I can be of service to you?" he inquired, +and his cousin bowed her head in assent. It was, indeed, a dismal hour +of the family history. + +For some time Miss Prince did not move, except as she watched Captain +Parish cross the street and take his leisurely way along the uneven +pavement. She was almost tempted to call him back, and felt as if he +were the last friend she had in the world, and was leaving her +forever. But after she had allowed the worst of the miserable shock to +spend itself, she summoned the stern energy for which she was famous, +and going with slower steps than usual to the next room, she unlocked +the desk of the ponderous secretary and seated herself to write. +Before many minutes had passed the letter was folded, and sealed, and +addressed, and the next evening Nan was reading it at Oldfields. She +was grateful for being asked to come on the 5th of June to Dunport, +and to stay a few days if it were convenient, and yet her heart fell +because there was not a sign of welcome or affection in the stately +fashioning of the note. It had been hardly wise to expect it under the +circumstances, the girl assured herself later, and at any rate it was +kind in her aunt to answer her own short letter so soon. + + + + +XV + +HOSTESS AND GUEST + + +Nan had, indeed, resolved to take a most important step. She had +always dismissed the idea of having any communication with her aunt +most contemptuously when she had first understood their unhappy +position toward each other; but during the last year or two she had +been forced to look at the relationship from a wider point of view. +Dr. Leslie protested that he had always treated Miss Prince in a +perfectly fair and friendly manner, and that if she had chosen to show +no interest in her only niece, nobody was to blame but herself. But +Nan pleaded that her aunt was no longer young; that she might be +wishing that a reconciliation could be brought about; the very fact of +her having constantly sent the yearly allowance in spite of Mrs. +Thacher's and Dr. Leslie's unwillingness to receive it appealed to the +young girl, who was glad to believe that her aunt had, after all, more +interest in her than others cared to observe. She had no near +relatives except Miss Prince. There were some cousins of old Mrs. +Thacher's and their descendants settled in the vicinity of Oldfields; +but Nan clung more eagerly to this one closer tie of kindred than she +cared to confess even to her guardian. It was too late now for any +interference in Dr. Leslie's plans, or usurping of his affectionate +relationship; so, after he found that Nan's loyal heart was bent upon +making so kind a venture, he said one day, with a smile, that she had +better write a letter to her aunt, the immediate result of which we +already know. Nan had been studying too hard, and suffering not a +little from her long-continued city life, and though the doctor had +been making a most charming plan that later in the season they should +take a journey together to Canada, he said nothing about that, and +told himself with a sigh that this would be a more thorough change, +and even urged Nan to stay as long as she pleased in Dunport, if she +found her aunt's house pleasant and everything went well. For whether +Nan liked Miss Prince remained to be proved, though nobody in their +senses could doubt that Miss Prince would be proud of her niece. + +It was not until after Nan had fairly started that she began to feel +at all dismayed. Perhaps she had done a foolish thing after all; +Marilla had not approved the adventure, while at the last minute Nan +had become suspicious that the doctor had made another plan, though +she contented herself with the remembrance of perfect freedom to go +home whenever she chose. She told herself grimly that if her aunt died +she should be thankful that she had done this duty; yet when, after a +journey of several hours, she knew that Dunport was the next station, +her heart began to beat in a ridiculous manner. It was unlike any +experience that had ever come to her, and she felt strangely unequal +to the occasion. Long ago she had laughed at her early romances of her +grand Dunport belongings, but the memory of them lingered still, in +spite of this commonplace approach to their realities, and she looked +eagerly at the groups of people at the railway station with a great +hope and almost certainty that she should find her aunt waiting to +meet her. There was no such good fortune, which was a chill at the +outset to the somewhat tired young traveler, but she beckoned a driver +whom she had just ignored, and presently was shut into a somewhat +antiquated public carriage and on her way to Miss Prince's house. + +So this was Dunport, and in these very streets her father had played, +and here her mother had become deeper and deeper involved in the +suffering and tragedy which had clouded the end of her short life. It +seemed to the young stranger as if she must shrink away from the +curious glances that stray passers-by sent into the old carriage; and +that she was going to be made very conspicuous by the newly-awakened +interest in a sad story which surely could not have been forgotten. +Poor Nan! she sent a swift thought homeward to the doctor's house and +Mrs. Graham's; even to the deserted little place which had sheltered +her good old grandmother and herself in the first years she could +remember. And with strange irony came also a picture of the home of +one of her schoolmates,--where the father and mother and their +children lived together and loved each other. The tears started to her +eyes until some good angel whispered the kind "Come back soon, Nan +dear," with which Dr. Leslie had let her go away. + +The streets were narrow and roughly paved in the old provincial +seaport town; the houses looked a good deal alike as they stood close +to the street, though here and there the tops of some fruit trees +showed themselves over a high garden fence. And presently before a +broad-faced and gambrel-roofed house, the driver stopped his horses, +and now only the front door with its bull's-eyed top-lights and +shining knocker stood between Nan and her aunt. The coachman had given +a resounding summons at this somewhat formidable entrance before he +turned to open the carriage door, but Nan had already alighted, and +stepped quickly into the hall. Priscilla directed her with some +ceremony to the south parlor, and a prim figure turned away from one +of the windows that overlooked the garden, and came forward a few +steps. "I suppose this is Anna," the not very cordial voice began, and +faltered; and then Miss Prince led her niece toward the window she had +left, and without a thought of the reserve she had decided upon, +pushed one of the blinds wide open, and looked again at Nan's +appealing face, half eager herself, and half afraid. Then she fumbled +for a handkerchief, and betook herself to the end of the sofa and +began to cry: "You are so like my mother and Jack," she said. "I did +not think I should be so glad to see you." + +The driver had deposited Nan's box, and now appeared at the door of +the parlor with Priscilla (who had quite lost her wits with +excitement) looking over his shoulder. Nan sprang forward, glad of +something to do in the midst of her vague discomfort, and at this +sight the hostess recovered herself, and, commanding Priscilla to show +Miss Prince to her room, assumed the direction of business affairs. + +The best bedroom was very pleasant, though somewhat stiff and unused, +and Nan was glad to close its door and find herself in such a +comfortable haven of rest and refuge from the teasing details of that +strange day. The wind had gone to the eastward, and the salt odor was +most delightful to her. A vast inheritance of memories and +associations was dimly brought to mind by that breath of the sea and +freshness of the June day by the harbor side. Her heart leaped at the +thought of the neighborhood of the wharves and shipping, and as she +looked out at the ancient street, she told herself with a sense of +great fun that if she had been a boy she would inevitably have been a +surgeon in the navy. So this was the aunt whom Nan had thought about +and dreamed about by day and by night, whose acquaintance had always +been a waiting pleasure, and the mere fact of whose existence had +always given her niece something to look forward to. She had not known +until this moment what a reserved pleasure this meeting had been, and +now it was over with. Miss Prince was so much like other people, +though why she should not have been it would be difficult to suggest, +and Nan's taste had been so educated and instructed by her Oldfields' +advantages, not to speak of her later social experiences, that she +felt at once that her aunt's world was smaller than her own. There was +something very lovable about Miss Prince, in spite of the constraint +of her greeting, and for the first time Nan understood that her aunt +also had dreaded the meeting. Presently she came to the door, and this +time kissed Nan affectionately. "I don't know what to say to you, I am +sure," she told the girl, "only I am thankful to have you here. You +must understand that it is a great event to me;" at which Nan laughed +and spoke some cheerful words. Miss Prince seated herself by the other +front window, and looked at her young guest with ever-growing +satisfaction. This was no copy of that insolent, ill-bred young woman +who had so beguiled and ruined poor Jack; she was a little lady, who +did honor to the good name of the Princes and Lesters,--a niece whom +anybody might be proud to claim, and whom Miss Prince could cordially +entreat to make herself quite at home, for she had only been too long +in coming to her own. And presently, when tea was served, the careful +ordering of it, which had been meant partly to mock and astonish the +girl who could not have been used to such ways of living, seemed only +a fitting entertainment for so distinguished a guest. "Blood will +tell," murmured Miss Prince to herself as she clinked the teacups and +looked at the welcome face the other side of the table. But when they +talked together in the evening, it was made certain that Nan was +neither ashamed of her mother's people nor afraid to say gravely to +Miss Prince that she did not know how much injustice was done to +grandmother Thacher, if she believed she were right in making a +certain statement. Aunt Nancy smiled, and accepted her rebuff without +any show of disapproval, and was glad that the next day was Sunday, +so that she could take Nan to church for the admiration of all +observers. She was even sorry that she had not told young Gerry to +come and pay an evening visit to her niece, and spoke of him once or +twice. Her niece observed a slight self-consciousness at such times, +and wondered a little who Mr. George Gerry might be. + +Nan thought of many things before she fell asleep that night. Her +ideas of her father had always been vague, and she had somehow +associated him with Dr. Leslie, who had shown her all the fatherliness +she had ever known. As for the young man who had died so long ago, if +she had said that he seemed to her like a younger brother of Dr. +Leslie, it would have been nearest the truth, in spite of the details +of the short and disappointed life which had come to her ears. Dr. +Ferris had told her almost all she knew of him, but now that she was +in her own father's old home, among the very same sights he had known +best, he suddenly appeared to her in a vision, as one might say, and +invested himself in a cloud of attractive romance. His daughter felt a +sudden blaze of delight at this first real consciousness of her +kinship. Miss Prince had shown her brother's portrait early in the +evening, and had even taken the trouble to light a candle and hold it +high, so that Nan could see the handsome, boyish face, in which she +recognized quickly the likeness to her own. "He was only thirteen +then," said Miss Prince, "but he looks several years older. We all +thought that the artist had made a great mistake when it was painted, +but poor Jack grew to look like it. Yes, you are wonderfully like +him," and she held the light near Nan's face and studied it again as +she had just studied the picture. Nan's eyes filled with tears as she +looked up at her father's face. The other portraits in the room were +all of older people, her grandfather and grandmother and two or three +ancestors, and Miss Prince repeated proudly some anecdotes of the most +distinguished. "I suppose you never heard of them," she added sadly at +the close, but Nan made no answer; it was certainly no fault of her +own that she was ignorant of many things, and she would not confess +that during the last few years she had found out everything that was +possible about her father's people. She was so thankful to have grown +up in Oldfields that she could not find it in her heart to rail at the +fate that had kept her away from Dunport; but the years of silence +had been very unlovely in her aunt. + +She wondered, before she went to sleep that night, where her father's +room had been, and thought she would ask Miss Prince in the morning. +The windows were open, and the June air blew softly in, and sometimes +swayed the curtains of the bed. There was a scent of the sea and of +roses, and presently up the quiet street came the sound of footsteps +and young voices. Nan said to herself that some party had been late in +breaking up, and felt her heart thrill with sympathy. She had been +dwelling altogether in the past that evening, and she liked to hear +the revelers go by. But as they came under the windows she heard one +say, "I should be afraid of ghosts in that best room of Miss +Prince's," and then they suddenly became quiet, as if they had seen +that the windows were open, and Nan first felt like a stranger, but +next as if this were all part of the evening's strange experiences, +and as if these might be her father's young companions, and she must +call to them as they went by. + + +The next morning both the hostess and her guest waked early, and were +eager for the time when they should see each other again. The beauty +and quiet of the Sunday morning were very pleasant, and Nan stood for +some minutes at the dining-room windows, looking out on the small +paved courtyard, and the flowers and green leaves beyond the garden +gate. Miss Prince's was one of the fine old houses which kept its +garden behind it, well-defended from the street, for the family's own +pleasure. + +"Those are the same old bushes and trees which we used to play among; +I have hardly changed it at all," said Miss Prince, as she came in. It +must be confessed that she had lost the feeling of patroness with +which she had approached her acquaintance with Nan. She was proud and +grateful now, and as she saw the girl in her pretty white dress, and +found her as simple and affectionate and eager to please as she had +thought her the night before, she owned to herself that she had not +looked for such happiness to fall into her life. And there was +something about the younger Anna Prince which others had quickly +recognized; a power of direction and of command. There are some +natures like the Prussian blue on a painter's palette, which rules all +the other colors it is mixed with; natures which quickly make +themselves felt in small or great companies. + +Nan discovered her father's silver mug beside her plate, and was fired +with a fiercer resentment than she had expected to feel again, at the +sight of it. The thought of her childhood in good grandmother +Thacher's farm-house came quickly to her mind, with the plain living, +to her share of which she had been made a thousand times welcome; +while by this richer house, of which she was also heir, such rightful +trinkets and treasures had been withheld. But at the next minute she +could meet Miss Prince's observant eyes without displeasure, and +wisely remembered that she herself had not been responsible for the +state of affairs, and that possibly her aunt had been as wronged and +insulted and beaten back as she complained. So she pushed the +newly-brightened cup aside with an almost careless hand, as a sort of +compromise with revenge, and Miss Prince at once caught sight of it. +"Dear me," she said, not without confusion, "Priscilla must have +thought you would be pleased," and then faltered, "I wish with all my +heart you had always had it for your own, my dear." And this was a +great deal for Miss Prince to say, as any of her acquaintances could +have told her nearest relative, who sat, almost a stranger, at the +breakfast-table. + +The elder woman felt a little light-headed and unfamiliar to herself +as she went up the stairway to get ready for church. It seemed as if +she had entered upon a new stage of existence, since for so many years +she had resented the existence of her brother's child, and had kept up +an imaginary war, in which she ardently fought for her own rights. She +had brought forward reason after reason why she must maintain her +position as representative of a respected family who had been shamed +and disgraced and insulted by her brother's wife. Now all aggressors +of her peace, real and imaginary, were routed by the appearance of +this young girl upon the field of battle, which she traversed with +most innocent and fearless footsteps, looking smilingly into her +aunt's face, and behaving almost as if neither of them had been +concerned in the family unhappiness. Beside, Nan had already added a +new interest to Miss Prince's life, and as this defeated warrior took +a best dress from the closet without any of the usual reflection upon +so important a step, she felt a great consciousness of having been +added to and enriched, as the person might who had suddenly fallen +heir to an unexpected property. From this first day she separated +herself as much as possible from any thought of guilt or complicity in +the long estrangement. She seemed to become used to her niece's +presence, and with the new relationship's growth there faded away the +thought of the past times. If any one dared to hint that it was a pity +this visit had been so long delayed, Miss Prince grandly ignored all +personality. + +Priscilla had come to the guest's room on some undeclared errand, for +it had already been put in order, and she viewed with pleasure the +simple arrangements for dressing which were in one place and another +about the room. Priscilla had scorned the idea of putting this visitor +into the best bedroom, and had had secret expectations that Miss +Prince's niece would feel more at home with her than with her +mistress. But Miss Anna was as much of a lady as Miss Prince, which +was both pleasing and disappointing, as Priscilla hoped to solace some +disrespectful feelings of her own heart by taking down Miss Nancy's +pride. However, her loyalty to the house was greater than her own very +small grudges, and as she pretended to have some difficulty with the +fastening of the blind, she said in a whisper, "Y'r aunt'll like to +have you make yourself look pretty," which was such a reminder of +Marilla's affectionate worldliness that Nan had to laugh aloud. "I'm +afraid I haven't anything grand enough," she told the departing +housekeeper, whose pleasure it was not hard to discern. + +It was with a very gratified mind that Miss Prince walked down the +street with her niece and bowed to one and another of her +acquaintances. She was entirely careless of what any one should say, +but she was brimful of excitement, and answered several of Nan's +questions entirely wrong. The old town was very pleasant that Sunday +morning. The lilacs were in full bloom, and other early summer flowers +in the narrow strips of front-yards or the high-fenced gardens were +in blossom too, and the air was full of sweetness and delight. The +ancient seaport had gathered for itself quaint names and treasures; it +was pleased with its old fashions and noble memories; its ancient +bells had not lost their sweet voices, and a flavor of the past +pervaded everything. The comfortable houses, the elderly citizens, the +very names on the shop signs, and the worn cobblestones of the streets +and flagstones of the pavements, delighted the young stranger, who +felt so unreasonably at home in Dunport. The many faces that had been +colored and fashioned by the sea were strangely different from those +which had known an inland life only, and she seemed to have come a +great deal nearer to foreign life and to the last century. Her heart +softened as she wondered if her father knew that she was following his +boyish footsteps, for the first time in her life, on that Sunday +morning. She would have liked to wander away by herself and find her +way about the town, but such a proposal was not to be thought of, and +all at once Miss Nancy turned up a narrow side street toward a +high-walled brick church, and presently they walked side by side up +the broad aisle so far that it seemed to Nan as if her aunt were +aiming for the chancel itself, and had some public ceremony in view, +of a penitential nature. They were by no means early, and the girl was +disagreeably aware of a little rustle of eagerness and curiosity as +she took her seat, and was glad to have fairly gained the shelter of +the high-backed pew as she bent her head. But Miss Prince the senior +seemed calm; she said her prayer, settled herself as usual, putting +the footstool in its right place and finding the psalms and the +collect. She then laid the prayer-book on the cushion beside her and +folded her hands in her lap, before she turned discreetly to say +good-morning to Miss Fraley, and exchange greetings until the +clergyman made his appearance. Nan had taken the seat next the pew +door, and was looking about her with great interest, forgetting +herself and her aunt as she wondered that so dear and quaint a place +of worship should be still left in her iconoclastic native country. +She had seen nothing even in Boston like this, there were so many +antique splendors about the chancel, and many mural tablets on the +walls, where she read with sudden delight her own family name and the +list of virtues which had belonged to some of her ancestors. The dear +old place! there never had been and never could be any church like +it; it seemed to have been waiting all her life for her to come to say +her prayers where so many of her own people had brought their sins and +sorrows in the long years that were gone. She only wished that the +doctor were with her, and the same feeling that used to make her watch +for him in her childhood until he smiled back again filled all her +loving and grateful heart. She knew that he must be thinking of her +that morning; he was not in church himself, he had planned a long +drive to the next town but one, to see a dying man, who seemed to be +helped only by this beloved physician's presence. There had been some +talk between Dr. Leslie and Nan about a medicine which might possibly +be of use, and she found herself thinking about that again and again. +She had reminded the doctor of it and he had seemed very pleased. It +must be longer ago than yesterday since she left Oldfields, it already +counted for half a lifetime. + +One listener at least was not resentful because the sermon was neither +wise nor great, for she had so many things to think of; but while she +was sometimes lost in her own thoughts, Nan stole a look at the thinly +filled galleries now and then, and at one time was pleased with the +sight of the red-cheeked cherubs which seemed to have been caught like +clumsy insects and pinned as a sort of tawdry decoration above the +tablets where the Apostle's Creed and the Ten Commandments were +printed in faded gilt letters. The letter s was made long in these +copies and the capitals were of an almost forgotten pattern, and after +Nan had discovered her grandfather's name in the prayer-book she held, +and had tried again to listen to the discourse, she smiled at the +discovery of a familiar face in one of the wall pews. It somehow gave +her a feeling of security as being a link with her past experiences, +and she looked eagerly again and again until this old acquaintance, +who also was a stranger and a guest in Dunport, happened to direct a +careless glance toward her, and a somewhat dull and gloomy expression +was changed for surprised and curious recognition. When church was +over at last Miss Prince seemed to have a great deal to say to her +neighbor in the next pew, and Nan stood in her place waiting until her +aunt was ready. More than one person had lingered to make sure of a +distinct impression of the interesting stranger who had made one of +the morning congregation, and Nan smiled suddenly as she thought that +it might seem proper that she and her aunt should walk down the aisle +together as if they had been married, or as if the ceremony were +finished which she had anticipated as they came in. And Miss Prince +did make an admirable exit from the church, mustering all her +self-possession and taking stately steps at her niece's side, while +she sometimes politely greeted her acquaintances. There were +flickering spots of color in her cheeks when they were again in the +sun-shiny street. + +"It is really the first day this summer when I have needed my +parasol," said Aunt Nancy, as she unfurled the carefully preserved +article of her wardrobe and held it primly aloft. "I am so sorry that +our rector was absent this morning. I suppose that you have attended +an Episcopal church sometimes; I am glad that you seem to be familiar +with the service;" to which Nancy replied that she had been confirmed +while she was first at boarding-school, and this seemed to give her +aunt great satisfaction. "Very natural and proper, my dear," she said. +"It is one thing I have always wished when I thought of you at serious +moments. But I was persuaded that you were far from such influences, +and that there would be nothing in your surroundings to encourage your +inherited love of the church." + +"I have always liked it best," said Nan, who seemed all at once to +grow taller. "But I think one should care more about being a good +woman than a good Episcopalian, Aunt Nancy." + +"No doubt," said the elder woman, a little confused and dismayed, +though she presently rallied her forces and justly observed that the +rules of the church were a means to the end of good living, and +happily, before any existing differences of opinion could be +discovered, they were interrupted by a pleasant-faced young man, who +lifted his hat and gracefully accepted his introduction to the younger +Miss Prince. + +"This is Mr. George Gerry, Anna, one of my young friends," smiled Aunt +Nancy, and saying, as she walked more slowly, "You must come to see +us soon, for I shall have to depend upon the younger people to make my +niece's stay agreeable." + +"I was looking forward to my Sunday evening visit," the wayfarer said +hesitatingly; "you have not told me yet that I must not come;" which +appeal was only answered by a little laugh from all three, as they +separated. And Miss Prince had time to be quite eloquent in her +favorite's praise before they reached home. Nan thought her first +Dunport acquaintance very pleasant, and frankly said so. This seemed +to be very gratifying to her aunt, and they walked toward home +together by a roundabout way and in excellent spirits. It seemed more +and more absurd to Nan that the long feud and almost tragic state of +family affairs should have come to so prosaic a conclusion, and that +she who had been the skeleton of her aunt's ancestral closet should +have dared to emerge and to walk by her side through the town. After +all, here was another proof of the wisdom of the old Spanish proverb, +that it takes two to make a quarrel, but only one to end it. + + + + +XVI + +A JUNE SUNDAY + + +It was Miss Prince's custom to indulge herself by taking a long Sunday +afternoon nap in summer, though on this occasion she spoke of it to +her niece as only a short rest. She was glad to gain the shelter of +her own room, and as she brushed a little dust from her handsome silk +gown before putting it away she held it at arm's length and shook it +almost indignantly. Then she hesitated a moment and looked around the +comfortable apartment with a fierce disdain. "I wonder what gives me +such a sense of importance," she whispered. "I have been making +mistakes my whole life long, and giving excuses to myself for not +doing my duty. I wish I had made her a proper allowance, to say the +least. Everybody must be laughing at me!" and Miss Prince actually +stamped her foot. It had been difficult to keep up an appearance of +self-respect, but her pride had helped her in that laudable effort, +and as she lay down on the couch she tried to satisfy herself with the +assurance that her niece should have her rights now, and be treated +justly at last. + +Miss Fraley had come in to pay a brief visit on her way to +Sunday-school just as they finished dinner, and had asked Nan to tea +the following Wednesday, expressing also a hope that she would come +sooner to call, quite without ceremony. Finding the state of affairs +so pleasant, Miss Eunice ventured to say that Nan's father had been a +favorite of her mother, who was now of uncommon age. Miss Prince +became suddenly stern, but it was only a passing cloud, which +disturbed nobody. + +Nan had accepted willingly the offered apologies and gayly wished her +aunt a pleasant dream, but being wide awake she gladly made use of the +quiet time to send a letter home, and to stroll down the garden +afterward. It all seemed so unlike what she had expected, yet her +former thoughts about her aunt were much more difficult to recall as +every hour went by and made the impression of actual things more +distinct. Her fancied duty to a lonely old lady who mourned over a sad +past seemed quite quixotic when she watched this brisk woman come and +go without any hindrance of age, or, now that the first meeting was +over, any appearance of former melancholy. As our friend went down the +garden she told herself that she was glad to have come; it was quite +right, and it was very pleasant, though there was no particular use in +staying there long, and after a few days she would go away. Somehow +her life seemed a great deal larger for this new experience, and she +would try to repeat the visit occasionally. She wished to get Dunport +itself by heart, but she had become so used to giving the best of +herself to her studies, that she was a little shy of the visiting and +the tea-parties and the apparently fruitless society life of which she +had already learned something. "I suppose the doctor would say it is +good for me," said Nan, somewhat grimly, "but I think it is most +satisfactory to be with the persons whose interests and purposes are +the same as one's own." The feeling of a lack of connection with the +people whom she had met made life appear somewhat blank. She had +already gained a certain degree of affection for her aunt; to say the +least she was puzzled to account for such an implacable hostility as +had lasted for years in the breast of a person so apparently friendly +and cordial in her relations with her neighbors. Our heroine was slow +to recognize in her relative the same strength of will and of +determination which made the framework of her own character,--an +iron-like firmness of structure which could not be easily shaken by +the changes or opinions of other people. Miss Prince's acquaintances +called her a very set person, and were shy of intruding into her +secret fastnesses. There were all the traits of character which are +necessary for the groundwork of an enterprising life, but Miss Prince +seemed to have neither inherited nor acquired any high aims or any +especial and fruitful single-heartedness, so her gifts of persistence +and self-confidence had ranked themselves for the defense of a +comparatively unimportant and commonplace existence. As has been said, +she forbade, years before, any mention of her family troubles, and had +lived on before the world as if they could be annihilated, and not +only were not observable, but never had been. In a more thoughtful and +active circle of social life the contrast between her rare capacity +and her unnoticeable career would have been more striking. She stood +as a fine representative of the old school, but it could not be justly +said that she was a forward scholar, since, however sure of some of +her early lessons, she was most dull and reluctant before new ones of +various enlightening and uplifting descriptions. + +Nan had observed that her aunt had looked very tired and spent as she +went up-stairs after dinner, and understood better than she had before +that this visit was moving the waters of Miss Prince's soul more +deeply than had been suspected. She gained a new sympathy, and as the +hours of the summer afternoon went by she thought of a great many +things which had not been quite plain to her, and strolled about the +garden until she knew that by heart, and had made friends with the +disorderly company of ladies-delights and periwinkles which had +cropped up everywhere, as if the earth were capable of turning itself +into such small blossoms without anybody's help, after so many years +of unvarying tuition. The cherry-trees and pear-trees had a most +venerable look, and the plum-trees were in dismal mourning of black +knots. There was a damp and shady corner where Nan found a great many +lilies of the valley still lingering, though they had some time ago +gone out of bloom in the more sunshiny garden at Oldfields. She +remembered that there were no flowers in the house and gathered a +great handful at last of one sort and another to carry in. + +The dining-room was very dark, and Nan wished at first to throw open +the blinds which had been carefully closed. It seemed too early in the +summer to shut out the sunshine, but it seemed also a little too soon +to interfere with the housekeeping, and so she brought two or three +tall champagne glasses from a high shelf of the closet and filled them +with her posies, and after putting them in their places, went back to +the garden. There was a perfect silence in the house, except for the +sound of the tall clock in the dining-room, and it seemed very lonely. +She had taken another long look at her father's portrait, but as she +shut the rusty-hinged garden gate after her, she smiled at the thought +of her unusual idleness, and wondered if it need last until Tuesday, +which was the day she had fixed upon for her departure. Nan wished +that she dared to go away for a long walk; it was a pity she had not +told her aunt of a wish to see something of the town and of the +harbor-side that afternoon, but it would certainly be a little strange +if she were to disappear, and very likely the long nap would soon come +to an end. Being well taught in the details of gardening, she took a +knife from her pocket and pruned and trained the shrubs and vines, and +sang softly to herself as she thought about her next winter's study +and her plans for the rest of the summer, and also decided that she +would insist upon the doctor's going away with her for a journey when +she reached home again. + +After a little while she heard her aunt open the blinds of the garden +door and call her in most friendly tones, and when she reached the +house Miss Prince was in the south parlor entertaining a +visitor,--Captain Walter Parish, who had gladly availed himself of +some trifling excuse of a business nature, which involved the signing +and sending of a paper by the early post of next day. He was going to +his daughter's to tea, and it was quite a long drive to her house, so +he had not dared to put off his errand, he explained, lest he should +be detained in the evening. But he had been also longing to take a +look at Miss Prince's guest. His wife went to another church and he +dutifully accompanied her, though he had been brought up with Miss +Prince at old St. Ann's. + +"So this is my young cousin?" said the captain gallantly, and with +great simplicity and tenderness held both Nan's hands and looked full +in her face a moment before he kissed her; then to Miss Prince's great +discomposure and embarrassment he turned to the window and looked out +without saying a word, though he drew the back of his hand across his +eyes in sailor-fashion, as if he wished to make them clear while he +sighted something on the horizon. Miss Prince thought it was all +nonsense and would have liked to say so, though she trusted that her +silence was eloquent enough. + +"She brings back the past," said Captain Walter as he returned +presently and seated himself where he could look at Nan as much as he +liked. "She brings back the past." + +"You were speaking of old Captain Slater," reminded Miss Prince with +some dignity. + +"I just came from there," said Captain Parish, with his eyes still +fixed on his young relative, though it was with such a friendly gaze +that Nan was growing fonder of him every minute. "They told me he was +about the same as yesterday. I offered to watch with him to-morrow +night. And how do you like the looks of Dunport, my dear?" + +Nan answered eagerly with brightening face, and added that she was +longing to see more of it; the old wharves especially. + +"Now that's good," said the captain; "I wonder if you would care +anything about taking a stroll with me in the morning. Your aunt here +is a famous housekeeper, and will be glad to get you off her hands, I +dare say." + +Nan eagerly accepted, and though it was suggested that Miss Prince had +a plan for showing the town in the afternoon, she was promptly told +that there was nothing easier than taking both these pleasant +opportunities. "You would lose yourself among the old storehouses, I'm +sure, Nancy," laughed the old sailor, "and you must let me have my +way. It's a chance one doesn't get every day, to tell the old Dunport +stories to a new listener." + +Some one had opened the front door, and was heard coming along the +hall. "This is very kind, George," said Miss Prince, with much +pleasure, while the captain looked a little disconcerted at his young +rival; he assured himself that he would make a long morning's cruise +of it, next day, with this attractive sightseer, and for once the +young beaux would be at a disadvantage; the girls of his own day used +to think him one of the best of their gallants, and at this thought +the captain was invincible. Mr. Gerry must take the second chance. + +The blinds were open now, and the old room seemed very pleasant. Nan's +brown hair had been blown about not a little in the garden, and as she +sat at the end of the long, brass-nailed sofa, a ray of sunshine +touched the glass of a picture behind her and flew forward again to +tangle itself in her stray locks, so that altogether there was a sort +of golden halo about her pretty head. And young Gerry thought he had +never seen anything so charming. The white frock was a welcome +addition to the usually sombre room, and his eyes quickly saw the +flowers on the table. He knew instantly that the bouquet was none of +Miss Prince's gathering. + +"I hope you won't think I mean to stay as much too late as I have come +too early," he laughed. "I must go away soon after tea, for I have +promised to talk with the captain of a schooner which is to sail in +the morning. Mr. Wills luckily found out that he could give some +evidence in a case we are working up." + +"The collision?" asked Captain Parish, eagerly. "I was wondering +to-day when I saw the Highflyer's foremast between the buildings on +Fleet Street as I went to meeting, if they were going to let her lie +there and dry-rot. I don't think she's being taken proper care of. I +must say I hate to see a good vessel go to ruin when there's no need +of it." + +"The man in charge was recommended very highly, and everything seemed +to be all right when I was on board one day this week," said young +Gerry, good-naturedly, and turned to explain to Nan that this vessel +had been damaged by collision with another, and the process of +settling the matter by litigation had been provokingly slow. + +The captain listened with impatience. "I dare say she looked very well +to your eyes, but I'd rather have an old ship-master's word for it +than a young lawyer's. I haven't boarded her for some weeks; I dare +say 'twas before the snow was gone; but she certainly needed attention +then. I saw some bad-looking places in the sheathing and planking. +There ought to be a coat of paint soon, and plenty of tar carried +aloft besides, or there'll be a long bill for somebody to pay before +she's seaworthy." + +"I wish you would make a careful inspection of her," said the young +man, with gratifying deference. "I don't doubt that it is necessary; I +will see that you are well satisfied for your services. Of course the +captain himself should have stayed there and kept charge, but you +remember he was sick and had to resign. He looks feeble yet. I hope +nothing will happen to him before the matter is settled up, but we are +sure of the trial in September." + +"She's going to be rigged with some of your red tape, I'm afraid," +said Captain Parish, with great friendliness. "I don't see any reason +why I can't look her over to-morrow morning, I'm obliged to you, or at +least make a beginning," and he gave a most knowing nod at Nan, as if +they would divide the pleasure. "I'll make the excuse of showing this +young lady the construction of a good-sized merchant vessel, and then +the keeper can't feel affronted. She is going to take a stroll with me +along the wharves," he concluded triumphantly. While Mr. Gerry looked +wistful for a moment, and Miss Prince quickly took advantage of a +pause in the conversation to ask if he knew whether anything pleasant +was going forward among the young people this week. She did not wish +her niece to have too dull a visit. + +"Some of us are going up the river very soon," said the young man, +with eager pleasure, looking at Nan. "It would be so pleasant if Miss +Prince would join us. We think our Dunport supper parties of that sort +would be hard to match." + +"The young folks will all be flocking here by to-morrow," said the +captain; and Miss Prince answered "Surely," in a tone of command, +rather than entreaty. She knew very well how the news of Nan's coming +must be flying about the town, and she almost regretted the fact of +her own previous silence about this great event. In the mean time Nan +was talking to the two gentlemen as if she had already been to her +room to smooth her hair, which her aunt looked at reproachfully from +time to time, though the sunshine had not wholly left it. The girl was +quite unconscious of herself, and glad to have the company and +sympathy of these kind friends. She thought once that if she had a +brother she would like him to be of young Mr. Gerry's fashion. He had +none of the manner which constantly insisted upon her remembering that +he was a man and she a girl; she could be good friends with him in the +same way that she had been with some Oldfields schoolfellows, and +after the captain had reluctantly taken his leave, they had a pleasant +talk about out-of-door life and their rides and walks, and were soon +exchanging experiences in a way that Miss Nancy smiled upon gladly. It +was not to be wondered at that she could not get used to so great a +change in her life. She could not feel sure yet that she no longer had +a secret, and that this was the niece whom she had so many years +dreaded and disclaimed. George Gerry had taken the niece's place in +her affections, yet here was Anna, her own namesake, who showed +plainly in so many ways the same descent as herself, being as much a +Prince as herself in spite of her mother's low origin and worse +personal traits, and the loutish companions to whom she had always +persuaded herself poor Nan was akin. And it was by no means sure that +the last of the Princes was not the best of them; she was very proud +of her brother's daughter, and was more at a loss to know how to make +excuses for being shortsighted and neglectful. Miss Prince hated to +think that Nan had any but the pleasantest associations with her +nearest relative; she must surely keep the girl's affection now. She +meant to insist at any rate upon Dunport's being her niece's home for +the future, though undoubtedly it would be hard at first to break with +the many associations of Oldfields. She must write that very night to +Dr. Leslie to thank him for his care, and to again express her regret +that Anna's misguided young mother should have placed such +restrictions upon the child's relations with her nearest of kin, and +so have broken the natural ties of nature. And she would not stop +there; she would blame herself generously and say how sorry she was +that she had been governed by her painful recollections of a time she +should now strive to forget. Dr. Leslie must be asked to come and join +his ward for a few days, and then they would settle her plans for the +future. She should give her niece a handsome allowance at any rate, +and then, as Miss Prince looked across the room and forgot her own +thoughts in listening to the young people's friendly talk, a sudden +purpose flashed through her mind. The dream of her heart began to +unfold itself slowly: could anything be so suitable, so comforting to +her own mind, as that they should marry each other? + +Two days before, her pleasure and pride in the manly fellow, who was +almost as dear to her as an own son could be, would have been greatly +shocked, but Miss Prince's heart began to beat quickly. It would be +such a blessed solution of all the puzzles and troubles of her life if +she could have both the young people near her through the years that +remained, and when she died, or even before, they could live here in +the old house, and begin a new and better order of things in the place +of her own failures and shortcomings. It was all so distinct and +possible in Miss Prince's mind that only time seemed necessary, and +even the time could be made short. She would not put any hindrances +between them and their blessed decision. As she went by them to seek +Priscilla, she smoothed the cushion which Nan had leaned upon before +she moved a little nearer George Gerry in some sudden excitement of +the conversation, which had begun while the captain was still there, +and there was a needless distance between them. Then Miss Prince let +her hand rest for a minute on the girl's soft hair. "You must ask Mr. +Gerry to excuse you for a few minutes, my dear, you have been quite +blown about in the garden. I meant to join you there." + +"It is a dear old garden," said Nan. "I can't help being almost as +fond of it already as I am of ours at home;" but though Aunt Nancy's +unwonted caress had been so unlike her conduct in general, this +reference to Oldfields called her to her senses, and she went quickly +away. She did not like to hear Nan speak in such loving fashion of a +house where she had no real right. + +But when Mr. George Gerry was left alone, he had pleasant thoughts +come flocking in to keep him company in the ladies' stead. He had not +dreamed of such a pleasure as this; who could have? and what could +Aunt Nancy think of herself! + +"It is such a holiday," said Nan, when tea was fairly begun, and her +new friend was acknowledging an uncommon attack of hunger, and they +were all merry in a sedate way to suit Miss Prince's ideas and +preferences. "I have been quite the drudge this winter over my +studies, and I feel young and idle again, now that I am making all +these pleasant plans." For Mr. Gerry had been talking enthusiastically +about some excursions he should arrange to certain charming places in +the region of Dunport. Both he and Miss Prince smiled when Nan +announced that she was young and idle, and a moment afterward the aunt +asked doubtfully about her niece's studies; she supposed that Anna was +done with schools. + +Nan stopped her hand as it reached for the cup which Miss Prince had +just filled. "School; yes," she answered, somewhat bewildered; "but +you know I am studying medicine." This most important of all facts had +been so present to her own mind, even in the excitement and novelty of +her new surroundings, that she could not understand that her aunt was +still entirely ignorant of the great purpose of her life. + +"What do you mean?" demanded Miss Prince, coldly, and quickly +explained to their somewhat amused and astonished companion, "My niece +has been the ward of a distinguished physician, and it is quite +natural she should have become interested in his pursuits." + +"But I am really studying medicine; it is to be my profession," +persisted Nan fearlessly, though she was sorry that she had spoiled +the harmony of the little company. "And my whole heart is in it, Aunt +Nancy." + +"Nonsense, my dear," returned Miss Prince, who had recovered her +self-possession partially. "Your father gave promise of attaining +great eminence in a profession that was very proper for him, but I +thought better of Dr. Leslie than this. I cannot understand his +indulgence of such a silly notion." + +George Gerry felt very uncomfortable. He had been a good deal shocked, +but he had a strong impulse to rush into the field as Nan's champion, +though it were quite against his conscience. She had been too long in +a humdrum country-town with no companion but an elderly medical man. +And after a little pause he made a trifling joke about their making +the best of the holiday, and the talk was changed to other subjects. +The tide was strong against our heroine, but she had been assailed +before, and had no idea of sorrowing yet over a lost cause. And for +once Miss Prince was in a hurry for Mr. Gerry to go away. + + + + +XVII + +BY THE RIVER + + +As Nan went down the street next morning with Captain Parish, who had +been most prompt in keeping his appointment, they were met by Mr. +Gerry and a young girl who proved to be Captain Parish's niece and the +bearer of a cordial invitation. It would be just the evening for a +boat-party, and it was hoped that Miss Prince the younger would be +ready to go up the river at half-past five. + +"Dear me, yes," said the captain; "your aunt will be pleased to have +you go, I'm sure. These idle young folks mustn't expect us to turn +back now, though, to have a visit from you. We have no end of business +on hand." + +"If Miss Prince will remember that I was really on my way to see her," +said Mary Parish pleasantly, while she looked with eager interest at +the stranger. The two girls were quite ready to be friends. "We will +just stop to tell your aunt, lest she should make some other plan for +you," she added, giving Nan a nod that was almost affectionate. "We +have hardly used the boats this year, it has been such a cold, late +spring, and we hope for a very good evening. George and I will call +for you," and George, who had been listening to a suggestion about the +ship business, smiled with pleasure as they separated. + +"Nice young people," announced the captain, who was in a sympathetic +mood. "There has been some reason for thinking that they meant to take +up with each other for good and all. I don't know that either of them +could do better, though I like the girl best; that's natural; she's my +brother's daughter, and I was her guardian; she only came of age last +year. Her father and yours were boys together, younger than I am by a +dozen years, both gone before me too," sighed the captain, and quickly +changed so sad a subject by directing his companion's attention to one +of the old houses, and telling the story of it as they walked along. +Luckily they had the Highflyer all to themselves when they reached the +wharf, for the keeper had gone up into the town, and his wife, who had +set up a frugal housekeeping in the captain's cabin, sat in the shade +of the house with her sewing, the Monday's washing having been early +spread to the breeze in a corner of the main deck. She accepted +Captain Parish's explanations of his presence with equanimity, and +seemed surprised and amused at the young landswoman's curiosity and +eagerness, for a ship was as commonplace to herself as any farm-house +ashore. + +"Dear me! you wouldn't know it was the same place," said the captain, +in the course of his enumeration of the ropes and yards and other +mysterious furnishings of the old craft. "With a good crew aboard, +this deck is as busy as a town every day. I don't know how I'm going +below until the keeper gets back. I suppose you don't want me to show +you the road to the main-to'gallant cross-trees; once I knew it as +well as anybody, and I could make quicker time now than most of the +youngsters," and the captain gave a knowing glance aloft, while at +this moment somebody crossed the gangway plank. It was a broken-down +old sailor, who was a familiar sight in Dunport. + +"Mornin' to you, sir," and the master of the Highflyer, for the time +being, returned the salute with a mixture of dignity and friendliness. + +"Goin' to take command?" chuckled the bent old fellow. "I'd like to +ship under ye; 'twouldn't be the first time," and he gave his hat an +unsettling shake with one hand as he looked at Nan for some sign of +recognition, which was quickly given. + +"You've shipped under better masters than I. Any man who followed the +sea with Cap'n Jack Prince had more to teach than to learn. And here's +his grand-daughter before you, and does him credit too," said Captain +Walter. "Anna, you won't find many of your grandfather's men about the +old wharves, but here's one of the smartest that ever had hold of a +hawser." + +"Goodsoe by name: I thank ye kindly, cap'n, but I ain't much account +nowadays," said the pleased old man, trying to get the captain's +startling announcement well settled in his mind. "Old Cap'n Jack +Prince's grand-darter? Why Miss Nancy's never been brought to change +her mind about nothing, has she?" + +"It seems so," answered Nan's escort, laughing as if this were a good +joke; and Nan herself could not help smiling. + +"I don't believe if the old gentleman can look down at ye he begrudges +the worst of his voyages nor the blackest night he ever spent on deck, +if you're going to have the spending of the money. Not but what Miss +Prince has treated me handsome right straight along," the old sailor +explained, while the inspector, thinking this not a safe subject to +continue, spoke suddenly about some fault of the galley; and after +this was discussed, the eyes of the two practiced men sought the +damaged mizzen mast, the rigging of which was hanging in snarled and +broken lengths. When Nan asked for some account of the accident, she +was told with great confidence that the Highflyer had been fouled, and +that it was the other vessel's fault; at which she was no wiser than +before, having known already that there had been a collision. There +seemed to be room enough on the high seas, she ventured to say, or +might the mischief have been done in port? + +"It does seem as if you ought to know the sense of sea talk without +any learning, being Cap'n Jack Prince's grand-darter," said old +Goodsoe; for Captain Parish had removed himself to a little distance, +and was again investigating the condition of the ship's galley, which +one might suppose to have been neglected in some unforgivable way, +judging from his indignant grumble. + +"Fouled, we say aboard ship, when two vessels lay near enough so that +they drift alongside. You can see what havick 't would make, for ten +to one they don't part again till they have tore each other all to +shoestrings; the yards will get locked together, and the same wind +that starts one craft starts both, and first one and then t'other +lifts with a wave, don't ye see, and the rigging's spoilt in a little +time. I've sometimes called it to mind when I've known o' married +couples that wasn't getting on. 'T is easy to drift alongside, but no +matter if they was bound to the same port they'd 'a' done best alone;" +and the old fellow shook his head solemnly, and was evidently +selecting one of his numerous stories for Nan's edification, when his +superior officer came bustling toward them. + +"You might as well step down here about four o'clock; I shall have the +keys then. I may want you to hold a lantern for me; I'm going into the +lower hold and mean to do my work thoroughly, if I do it at all," to +which Goodsoe responded "ay, ay, sir," in most seamanlike fashion and +hobbled off. + +"He'd have kept you there all day," whispered Captain Walter. "He +always loved to talk, and now he has nothing else to do; but we are +all friendly to Goodsoe. Some of us pay a little every year toward his +support, but he has always made himself very useful about the wharves +until this last year or two; he thought everything of your +grandfather, and I knew it would please him to speak to you. It seems +unfortunate that you should have grown up anywhere else than here; but +I hope you'll stay now?" + +"It is not very likely," said Nan coldly. She wished that the captain +would go on with his stories of the former grandeur of Dunport, rather +than show any desire to talk about personal matters. She had been +little troubled at first by her aunt's evident disapproval the evening +before of her plans for the future, for she was so intent upon +carrying them out and certain that no one had any right to interfere. +Still it would have been better to have been violently opposed than to +have been treated like a child whose foolish whim would soon be +forgotten when anything better offered itself. Nan felt much older +than most girls of her years, and as if her decisions were quite as +much to be respected as her aunt's. She had dealt already with graver +questions than most persons, and her responsibilities had by no means +been light ones. She felt sometimes as if she were separated by half a +lifetime from the narrow limits of school life. Yet there was an +uncommon childlikeness about her which not only misled these new +friends, but many others who had known her longer. And when these +listened to accounts of her devotion to her present studies and her +marked proficiency, they shook their wise heads smilingly, as if they +knew that the girl was innocent of certain proper and insurmountable +obstacles farther on. + + +The air was fresh, and it was so pleasant on the wharf that the +captain paced to and fro several times, while he pointed out different +objects of interest along the harbor-side, and tapped the rusty anchor +and the hawsers with his walking-stick as he went by. He had made some +very pointed statements to the keeper's wife about the propriety of +opening the hatches on such a morning as that, which she had received +without comment, and wished her guests good-day with provoking +equanimity. The captain did not like to have his authority ignored, +but mentioned placidly that he supposed every idler along shore had +been giving advice; though he wondered what Nan's grandfather and old +Captain Peterbeck would have said if any one had told them this would +be the only square-rigged vessel in Dunport harbor for weeks at a +time. + +"Dear me!" he exclaimed again presently, "there's young Gerry hard at +work!" and he directed his companion's attention to one of the upper +windows of the buildings whose fronts had two stories on the main +street, while there were five or six on the rear, which faced the +river. Nan could see the diligent young man and thought it hard that +any one must be drudging within doors that beautiful morning. + +"He has always been a great favorite of your aunt's," said Captain +Parish, confidentially, after the law student had pretended to +suddenly catch sight of the saunterers, and waved a greeting which the +captain exultantly returned. "We have always thought that she was +likely to make him her heir. She was very fond of his father, you see, +and some trouble came between them. Nobody ever knew, because if +anybody ever had wit enough to keep her own counsel 'twas Nancy +Prince. I know as much about her affairs as anybody, and what I say to +you is between ourselves. I know just how far to sail with her and +when to stop, if I don't want to get wrecked on a lee shore. Your aunt +has known how to take care of what she had come to her, and I've done +the best I could to help her; it's a very handsome property,--very +handsome indeed. She helped George Gerry to get his education, and +then he had some little money left him by his father's brother,--no +great amount, but enough to give him a start; he's a very smart, +upright fellow, and I am glad for whatever Nancy did for him; but it +didn't seem fair that he should be stepping into your rights. But I +never have dared to speak up for you since one day--she wouldn't hear +a word about it, that's all I have to remark," the captain concluded +in a hurry, for wisdom's sake, though he longed to say more. It seemed +outrageous to him at this moment that the girl at his side should have +been left among strangers, and he was thankful that she seemed at last +to have a good chance of making sure of her rightful possessions. + +"But I haven't needed anything," she said, giving Captain Walter a +grateful glance for his championship. "And Mr. Gerry is very kind and +attentive to my aunt, so I am glad she has been generous to him. He +seems a fine fellow, as you say," and Nan thought suddenly that it was +very hard for him to have had her appear on the scene by way of rival, +if he had been led to suppose that he was her aunt's heir. There were +so many new things to think of, that Nan had a bewildering sense of +being a stranger and a foreigner in this curiously self-centred +Dunport, and a most disturbing element to its peace of mind. She +wondered if, since she had not grown up here, it would not have been +better to have stayed away altogether. Her own life had always been +quite unvexed by any sort of social complications, and she thought how +good it would be to leave this talkative and staring little world and +go back to Oldfields and its familiar interests and associations. But +Dunport was a dear old place, and the warm-hearted captain a most +entertaining guide, and by the time their walk was over, the day +seemed a most prosperous and entertaining one. Aunt Nancy appeared to +be much pleased with the plan for the afternoon, and announced that +she had asked some of the young people to come to drink tea the next +evening, while she greeted Nan so kindly that the home-coming was +particularly pleasant. As for the captain, he was unmistakably happy, +and went off down the street with a gentle, rolling gait, and a smile +upon his face that fairly matched the June weather, though he was more +than an hour late for the little refreshment with which he and certain +dignified associates commonly provided themselves at eleven o'clock in +the forenoon. Life was as regular ashore as on board ship with these +idle mariners of high degree. There was no definite business among +them except that of occasionally settling an estate, and the forming +of decided opinions upon important questions of the past and future. + + +The shadows had begun to grow long when the merry company of young +people went up river with the tide, and Nan thought she had seldom +known such a pleasure away from her own home. She begged for the +oars, and kept stroke with George Gerry, pulling so well that they +quickly passed the other boat. Mary Parish and the friend who made the +fourth of that division of the party sat in the stern and steered with +fine dexterity, and the two boats kept near each other, so that Nan +soon lost all feeling of strangeness, and shared in the good +comradeship to which she had been willingly admitted. It was some time +since she had been on the water before, and she thought more than once +of her paddling about the river in her childhood, and even regaled the +company once with a most amusing mishap, at the remembrance of which +she had been forced to laugh outright. The river was broad and brimful +of water; it seemed high tide already, and the boats pulled easily. +The fields sloped down to the river-banks, shaded with elms and parted +by hedgerows like a bit of English country. The freshest bloom of the +June greenness was in every blade of grass and every leaf. The birds +were beginning to sing the long day to a close, and the lowing of +cattle echoed from the pastures again and again across the water; +while the country boats were going home from the town, sometimes with +a crew of women, who seemed to have made this their regular conveyance +instead of following the more roundabout highways ashore. Some of +these navigators rowed with a cross-handed stroke that jerked their +boats along in a droll fashion, and some were propelled by one groping +oar, the sculler standing at the stern as if he were trying to push +his craft out of water altogether and take to the air, toward which +the lifted bow pointed. And in one of the river reaches half a mile +ahead, two heavy packet boats, with high-peaked lateen sails, like a +great bird's single wing, were making all the speed they could toward +port before the tide should begin to fall two hours later. The young +guest of the party was very happy; she had spent so many of her +childish days out of doors that a return to such pleasures always +filled her with strange delight. The color was bright in her cheeks, +and her half-forgotten girlishness came back in the place of the +gravity and dignity that had brought of late a sedate young +womanliness to her manner. The two new friends in the stern of the +boat were greatly attracted to her, and merry laughter rang out now +and then. Nan was so brave and handsome, so willing to be pleased, and +so grateful to them for this little festivity, that they quickly +became interested in each other, as girls will. The commander thought +himself a fortunate fellow, and took every chance of turning his head +to catch a glimpse of our heroine, though he always had a good excuse +of taking his bearings or inspecting for himself some object afloat or +ashore which one of the boat's company had pointed out. And Nan must +be told the names of the distant hills which stood out clear in the +afternoon light, and to what towns up river the packet boats were +bound, and so the time seemed short before the light dory was run in +among the coarse river grass and pulled up higher than seemed +necessary upon the shore. + +Their companions had not chosen so fleet a craft, and were five +instead of four at any rate, but they were welcomed somewhat +derisively, and all chattered together in a little crowd for a few +minutes before they started for a bit of woodland which overhung the +river on a high point. The wind rustled the oak leaves and roughened +the surface of the water, which spread out into a wide inland bay. The +clouds began to gather in the west and to take on wonderful colors, as +if such a day must be ended with a grand ceremony, and the sun go down +through banners and gay parades of all the forces of the sky. Nan had +watched such sunsets from her favorite playground at the farm, and +somehow the memory of those days touched her heart more tenderly than +they had ever done before, and she wished for a moment that she could +get away from the noisy little flock who were busy getting the supper +ready, though they said eagerly what a beautiful evening it would be +to go back to town, and that they must go far up the river first to +meet the moonlight. + +In a few minutes Nan heard some one say that water must be brought +from a farm-house not far away, and quickly insisted that she should +make one of the messengers, and after much discussion and +remonstrance, she and young Gerry found themselves crossing the open +field together. The girl had left her hat swinging from one of the low +oak branches; she wondered why Mary Parish had looked at her first as +if she were very fond of her, and then almost appealingly, until the +remembrance of Captain Walter's bit of gossip came to mind too late to +be acted upon. Nan felt a sudden sympathy, and was sorry she had not +thought to share with this favorite among her new friends, the +companion whom she had joined so carelessly. George Gerry had some +very attractive ways. He did not trouble Nan with unnecessary +attentions, as some young men had, and she told herself again, how +much she liked him. They walked fast, with free, light steps, and +talked as they went in a way that was very pleasant to both of them. +Nan was wise to a marvel, the good fellow told himself, and yet such +an amusing person. He did not know when he had liked anybody so much; +he was very glad to stand well in the sight of these sweet, clear +eyes, and could not help telling their owner some of the things that +lay very near his heart. He had wished to get away from Dunport; he +had not room there; everybody knew him as well as they knew the +courthouse; he somehow wanted to get to deeper water, and out of his +depth, and then swim for it with the rest. And Nan listened with deep +sympathy, for she also had felt that a great engine of strength and +ambition was at work with her in her plans and studies. + +She waited until he should have finished his confidence, to say a word +from her own experience, but just then they reached the farm-house and +stood together at the low door. There was a meagre show of flowers in +the little garden, which the dripping eaves had beaten and troubled in +the late rains, and one rosebush was loosely caught to the clapboards +here and there. + +There did not seem to be anybody in the kitchen, into which they could +look through the open doorway, though they could hear steps and voices +from some part of the house beyond it; and it was not until they had +knocked again loudly that a woman came to answer them, looking worried +and pale. + +"I never was so glad to see folks, though I don't know who you be," +she said hurriedly. "I believe I shall have to ask you to go for help. +My man's got hurt; he managed to get home, but he's broke his +shoulder, or any ways 'tis out o' place. He was to the pasture, and +we've got some young cattle, and somehow or 'nother one he'd caught +and was meaning to lead home give a jump, and John lost his balance; +he says he can't see how 't should 'a' happened, but over he went and +got jammed against a rock before he could let go o' the rope he'd put +round the critter's neck. He's in dreadful pain so 't I couldn't leave +him, and there's nobody but me an' the baby. You'll have to go to the +next house and ask them to send; Doctor Bent's always attended of us." + +"Let me see him," said Nan with decision. "Wait a minute, Mr. Gerry, +or perhaps you had better come in too," and she led the way, while the +surprised young man and the mistress of the house followed her. The +patient was a strong young fellow, who sat on the edge of the bed in +the little kitchen-bedroom, pale as ashes, and holding one elbow with +a look of complete misery, though he stopped his groans as the +strangers came in. + +"Lord bless you, young man! don't wait here," he said; "tell the +doctor it may only be out o' place, but I feel as if 'twas broke." + +But Nan had taken a pair of scissors from the high mantelpiece and was +making a cut in the coarse, white shirt, which was already torn and +stained by its contact with the ground, and with quick fingers and a +look of deep interest made herself sure what had happened, when she +stood still for a minute and seemed a little anxious, and all at once +entirely determined. "Just lie down on the floor a minute," she said, +and the patient with some exclamations, but no objections, obeyed. + +Nan pushed the spectators into the doorway of the kitchen, and quickly +stooped and unbuttoned her right boot, and then planted her foot on +the damaged shoulder and caught up the hand and gave a quick pull, the +secret of which nobody understood; but there was an unpleasant cluck +as the bone went back into its socket, and a yell from the sufferer, +who scrambled to his feet. + +"I'll be hanged if she ain't set it," he said, looking quite weak and +very much astonished. "You're the smartest young woman I ever see. I +shall have to lay down just to pull my wits together. Marthy, a drink +of water," and by the time this was brought the excitement seemed to +be at an end, though the patient was a little faint, and his wife +looked at Nan admiringly. Nan herself was fastening her boot again +with unwonted composure. George Gerry had not a word to say, and +listened to a simple direction of Nan's as if it were meant for him, +and acceded to her remark that she was glad for the shoulder's sake +that it did not have to wait and grow worse and worse all the while +the doctor was being brought from town. And after a few minutes, when +the volley of thanks and compliments could be politely cut short, the +two members of the picnic party set forth with their pail of water to +join their companions. + +"Will you be so good as to tell me how you knew enough to do that?" +asked Mr. Gerry humbly, and looking at his companion with admiration. +"I should not have had the least idea." + +"I was very glad it turned out so well," said Nan simply. "It was a +great pleasure to be of use, they were so frightened, poor things. We +won't say anything about it, will we?" + +But the young man did not like to think yet of the noise the returning +bone had made. He was stout-hearted enough usually; as brave a fellow +as one could wish to see; but he felt weak and womanish, and somehow +wished it had been he who could play the doctor. Nan hurried back +bareheaded to the oak grove as if nothing had happened, though, if +possible, she looked gayer and brighter than ever. And when the +waiting party scolded a little at their slow pace, Miss Prince was +much amused and made two or three laughing apologies for their +laziness, and even ventured to give the information that they had made +a pleasant call at the farm-house. + +The clouds were fading fast and the twilight began to gather under the +trees before they were ready to go away, and then the high tide had +floated off one of the boats, which must be chased and brought back. +But presently the picnickers embarked, and, as the moon came up, and +the river ebbed, the boats went back to the town and overtook others +on the way, and then were pulled up stream again in the favoring eddy +to make the evening's pleasure longer; at last Nan was left at her +door. She had managed that George Gerry should give Mary Parish his +arm, and told them, as they came up the street with her from the +wharf, that she had heard their voices Saturday night as they passed +under her window: it was Mary Parish herself who had talked about the +best room and its ghosts. + + + + +XVIII + +A SERIOUS TEA-DRINKING + + +It was very good for Nan to find herself cordially welcomed to a +company of young people who had little thought of anything but +amusement in the pleasant summer weather. Other young guests came to +Dunport just then, and the hospitable town seemed to give itself up to +their entertainment. Picnics and tea-drinkings followed each other, +and the pleasure boats went up river and down river, while there were +walks and rides and drives, and all manner of contrivances and excuses +for spending much time together on the part of the young men and +maidens. It was a good while since Nan had taken such a long holiday, +though she had by no means been without the pleasures of society. Not +only had she made friends easily during her school-life and her later +studies, but Oldfields itself, like all such good old nests, was apt +to call back its wandering fledglings when the June weather came. It +delighted her more and more to be in Dunport, and though she sometimes +grew impatient, wise Dr. Leslie insisted that she must not hurry home. +The change was the very best thing in the world for her. Dr. Ferris +had alighted for a day or two in the course of one of his wandering +flights; and it seemed to the girl that since everything was getting +on so well without her in Oldfields, she had better, as the doctor had +already expressed it, let her visit run its course like a fever. At +any rate she could not come again very soon, and since her aunt seemed +so happy, it was a pity to hurry away and end these days sooner than +need be. It had been a charming surprise to find herself such a +desired companion, and again and again quite the queen of that little +court of frolickers, because lately she had felt like one who looks on +at such things, and cannot make part of them. Yet all the time that +she was playing she thought of her work with growing satisfaction. By +other people the knowledge of her having studied medicine was not very +well received. It was considered to have been the fault of Miss +Prince, who should not have allowed a whimsical country doctor to have +beguiled the girl into such silly notions, and many were the shafts +sped toward so unwise an aunt for holding out against her niece so +many years. To be sure the child had been placed under a most +restricted guardianship; but years ago, it was thought, the matter +might have been rearranged, and Nan brought to Dunport. It certainly +had been much better for her that she had grown up elsewhere; though, +for whatever was amiss and willful in her ways, Oldfields was held +accountable. It must be confessed that every one who had known her +well had discovered sooner or later the untamed wildnesses which +seemed like the tangles which one often sees in field-corners, though +a most orderly crop is taking up the best part of the room between the +fences. Yet she was hard to find fault with, except by very +shortsighted persons who resented the least departure by others from +the code they themselves had been pleased to authorize, and who could +not understand that a nature like Nan's must and could make and keep +certain laws of its own. + +There seemed to be a sort of inevitableness about the visit; Nan +herself hardly knew why she was drifting on day after day without +reasonable excuse. Her time had been most carefully ordered and spent +during the last few years, and now she sometimes had an uneasy feeling +and a lack of confidence in her own steadfastness. But everybody took +it for granted that the visit must not come to an end. The doctor +showed no sign of expecting her. Miss Prince would be sure to resent +her going away, and the pleasure-makers marked one day after another +for their own. It seemed impossible, and perhaps unwise, to go on with +the reading she had planned, and, in fact, she had been urged to +attend to her books rather by habit than natural inclination; and when +the temptation to drift with the stream first made itself felt, the +reasons for opposing it seemed to fade away. It was easier to remember +that Dr. Leslie, and even those teachers who knew her best at the +medical school, had advised a long vacation. + +The first formal visits and entertainments were over with for the most +part, and many of the Dunport acquaintances began to seem like old +friends. There had been a little joking about Nan's profession, and +also some serious remonstrance and unwise championship which did not +reach this heroine's ears. It all seemed romantic and most unusual +when anybody talked about her story at all, and the conclusion was +soon reached that all such whims and extravagances were merely +incident to the pre-Dunportian existence, and that now the young guest +had come to her own, the responsibilities and larger field of activity +would have their influence over her plan of life. The girl herself was +disposed to talk very little about this singular fancy; it may have +been thought that she had grown ashamed of it as seen by a brighter +light, but the truth was it kept a place too near her heart to allow +her to gossip with people who had no real sympathy, and who would ask +questions from curiosity alone. Miss Eunice Fraley had taken more than +one opportunity, however, to confess her interest, though she did this +with the manner of one who dares to be a conspirator against public +opinion, and possibly the permanent welfare of society, and had +avowed, beside, her own horror of a doctor's simplest duties. But poor +Miss Fraley looked at her young friend as a caged bird at a window +might watch a lark's flight, and was strangely glad whenever there was +a chance to spend an hour in Nan's company. + +The first evening at Mrs. Fraley's had been a great success, and Miss +Prince had been vastly pleased because both the hostess and the guest +had received each other's commendation. Mrs. Fraley was, perhaps, the +one person whom Miss Prince recognized as a superior officer, and she +observed Nan's unconscious and suitable good behavior with great +pride. The hostess had formerly been an undisputed ruler of the +highest social circles of Dunport society, and now in her old age, +when she could no longer be present at any public occasions, she was +still the queen of a little court that assembled in her own house. It +was true that the list of her subjects grew shorter year by year, but +the survivors remained loyal, and hardly expected, or even desired, +that any of the newcomers to the town should recognize their ruler. +Nan had been much interested in the old lady's stories, and had gladly +accepted an invitation to come often to renew the first conversation. +She was able to give Mrs. Fraley much welcome information of the ways +and fashions of other centres of civilization, and it was a good thing +to make the hours seem shorter. The poor old lady had few +alleviations; even religion had served her rather as a basis for +argument than an accepted reliance and guide; and though she still +prided herself on her selection of words, those which she used in +formal conversations with the clergyman seemed more empty and +meaningless than most others. Mrs. Fraley was leaving this world +reluctantly; she had been well fitted by nature for social +preeminence, and had never been half satisfied with the opportunities +provided for the exercise of her powers. It was only lately that she +had been forced to acknowledge that Time showed signs of defeating her +in the projects of her life, and she had begun to give up the fight +altogether, and to mourn bitterly and aggressively to her anxious and +resourceless daughter. It was plain enough that the dissatisfactions +and infirmities of age were more than usually great, and poor Eunice +was only too glad when the younger Miss Prince proved herself capable +of interesting the old friend of her family, and Mrs. Fraley took +heart and suggested both informal visits and future entertainments. +The prudent daughter was careful not to tell her mother of the guest's +revolutionary ideas, and for a time all went well, until some unwise +person, unaware of Miss Fraley's warning gestures from the other side +of the sitting-room, proceeded to give a totally unnecessary opinion +of the propriety of women's studying medicine. Poor Eunice expected +that a sharp rebuke, followed by a day or two's disdain and general +unpleasantness, would descend upon her quaking shoulders; but, to her +surprise, nothing was said until the next morning, when she was +bidden, at much inconvenience to the household, to invite Miss Prince +and her niece to come that afternoon to drink tea quite informally. + +There was a pathetic look in the messenger's faded face,--she felt +unusually at odds with fortune as she glided along the street, +sheltered by the narrow shadows of the high fences. Nan herself came +to the door, and when she threw back the closed blinds and discovered +the visitor, she drew her in with most cordial welcome, and the two +friends entered the darkened south parlor, where it was cool, and +sweet with the fragrance of some honeysuckle which Nan had brought in +early that morning from the garden. + +"Dear me," said the little woman deprecatingly. "I don't know why I +came in at all. I can't stop to make a call. Mother was very desirous +that you and your aunt should come over to tea this evening. It seems +a good deal to ask in such hot weather, but she has so little to amuse +her, and I really don't see that the weather makes much difference, +she used to feel the heat very much years ago." And Miss Eunice gave a +sigh, and fanned herself slowly, letting the fan which had been put +into her hand turn itself quite over on her lap before it came up +again. There was an air of antique elegance about this which amused +Nan, who stood by the table wiping with her handkerchief some water +that had dropped from the vase. A great many of the ladies in church +the Sunday before had fanned themselves in this same little +languishing way; she remembered one or two funny old persons in +Oldfields who gave themselves airs after the same fashion. + +"I think we shall both be very pleased," she answered directly, with a +bit of a smile; while Miss Fraley gazed at her admiringly, and thought +she had never seen the girl look so fresh and fair as she did in this +plain, cool little dress. There had been more water than was at first +suspected; the handkerchief was a limp, white handful, and they both +laughed as it was held up. Miss Fraley insisted that she could not +stay. She must go to the shops to do some errands, and hoped to meet +Miss Prince who had gone that way half an hour before. + +"Don't mind anything mother may say to you," she entreated, after +lingering a minute, and looking imploringly in Nan's face. "You know +we can't expect a person of her age to look at everything just as we +do." + +"Am I to be scolded?" asked Nan, serenely. "Do you know what it is +about?" + +"Oh, perhaps nothing," answered Miss Fraley, quickly. "I ought not to +have spoken, only I fancied she was a little distressed at the idea of +your being interested in medicines. I don't know anything that is more +useful myself. I am sure every family needs to have some one who has +some knowledge of such things; it saves calling a doctor. My sister +Susan knows more than any of us, and it has been very useful to her +with her large family." + +"But I shouldn't be afraid to come, I think," said Nan, laughing. +"Mrs. Fraley told me that she would finish that story of the diamond +ring, you know, and we shall get on capitally. Really I think her +stories of old times are wonderfully interesting. I wish I had a gift +for writing them down whenever I am listening to her." + +Miss Eunice was much relieved, and felt sure that Nan was equal to any +emergency. The girl had put a strong young arm quickly round her +guest's thin shoulders, and had kissed her affectionately, and this +had touched the lonely little woman's very heart. + + +There were signs of storm in Madam Fraley's face that evening, but +everybody feigned not to observe them, and Nan behaved with perilous +disregard of a lack of encouragement, and made herself and the company +uncommonly merry. She described the bad effect her coming had had upon +her aunt's orderly house. She confessed to having left her own +possessions in such confusion the evening before when she dressed +again to go up the river, that Priscilla had called it a monkey's +wedding, and had gone away after one scornful look inside the door. +Miss Fraley dared to say that no one could mind seeing such pretty +things, and even Miss Prince mentioned that her niece was not so +careless as she would make them believe; while Nan begged to know if +anybody had ever heard of a monkey's wedding before, and seemed very +much amused. + +"She called such a disarray in the kitchen one morning the monkey's +wedding breakfast," said Miss Prince, as if she never had thought it +particularly amusing until this minute. "Priscilla has always made use +of a great many old-fashioned expressions." + +They had seated themselves at the tea-table; it was evident that Miss +Fraley had found it a hard day, for she looked tired and worn. The +mistress of the house was dressed in her best and most imposing +clothes, and sat solemnly in her place. A careful observer might have +seen that the best blue teacups with their scalloped edges were not +set forth. The occasion wore the air of a tribunal rather than that of +a festival, and it was impossible not to feel a difference between it +and the former tea-party. + +Miss Prince was not particularly sensitive to moods and atmospheres; +she happened to be in very good spirits, and talked for some time +before she became entirely aware that something had gone wrong, but +presently faltered, and fell under the ban, looking questioningly +toward poor Eunice, who busied herself with the tea-tray. + +"Nancy," said Mrs. Fraley impatiently, "I was amazed to find that +there is a story going about town that your niece here is studying to +be a doctor. I hope that you don't countenance any such nonsense?" + +Miss Prince looked helpless and confounded, and turned her eyes toward +her niece. She could only hope at such a mortifying juncture that Nan +was ready to explain, or at least to shoulder the responsibility. + +"Indeed she doesn't give me any encouragement, Mrs. Fraley," said Nan, +fearlessly. "Only this morning she saw a work on ventilation in my +room and told me it wasn't proper reading for a young woman." + +"I really didn't look at the title," said Miss Prince, smiling in +spite of herself. + +"It doesn't seem to improve the health of you young folks because you +think it necessary to become familiar with such subjects," announced +the irate old lady. It was her habit to take a very slight refreshment +at the usual tea hour, and supplement it by a substantial lunch at +bed-time, and so now she was not only at leisure herself, but demanded +the attention of her guests. She had evidently prepared an opinion, +and was determined to give it. Miss Eunice grew smaller and thinner +than ever, and fairly shivered with shame behind the tea-tray. She +looked steadily at the big sugar-bowl, as if she were thinking whether +she might creep into it and pull something over her head. She never +liked an argument, even if it were a good-natured one, and always had +a vague sense of personal guilt and danger. + +"In my time," Mrs. Fraley continued, "it was thought proper for young +women to show an interest in household affairs. When I was married it +was not asked whether I was acquainted with dissecting-rooms." + +"But I don't think there is any need of that," replied Nan. "I think +such things are the duty of professional men and women only. I am very +far from believing that every girl ought to be a surgeon any more than +that she ought to be an astronomer. And as for the younger people's +being less strong than the old, I am afraid it is their own fault, +since we understand the laws of health better than we used. 'Who +breaks, pays,' you know." + +It was evidently not expected that the young guest should venture to +discuss the question, but rather have accepted her rebuke meekly, and +acknowledged herself in the wrong. But she had the courage of her +opinions, and the eagerness of youth, and could hardly bear to be so +easily defeated. So when Mrs. Fraley, mistaking the moment's silence +for a final triumph, said again, that a woman's place was at home, and +that a strong-minded woman was out of place, and unwelcome everywhere, +the girl's cheeks flushed suddenly. + +"I think it is a pity that we have fallen into a habit of using +strong-mindedness as a term of rebuke," she said. "I am willing to +acknowledge that people who are eager for reforms are apt to develop +unpleasant traits, but it is only because they have to fight against +opposition and ignorance. When they are dead and the world is reaping +the reward of their bravery and constancy, it no longer laughs, but +makes statues of them, and praises diem, and thanks them in every way +it can. I think we ought to judge each other by the highest standards, +Mrs. Fraley, and by whether we are doing good work." + +"My day is past," said the hostess. "I do not belong to the present, +and I suppose my judgment is worth nothing to you;" and Nan looked up +quickly and affectionately. + +"I should like to have all my friends believe that I am doing right," +she said. "I do feel very certain that we must educate people properly +if we want them to be worth anything. It is no use to treat all the +boys and girls as if nature had meant them for the same business and +scholarship, and try to put them through the same drill, for that is +sure to mislead and confuse all those who are not perfectly sure of +what they want. There are plenty of people dragging themselves +miserably through the world, because they are clogged and fettered +with work for which they have no fitness. I know I haven't had the +experience that you have, Mrs. Fraley, but I can't help believing that +nothing is better than to find one's work early and hold fast to it, +and put all one's heart into it." + +"I have done my best to serve God in the station to which it has +pleased Him to call me," said Mrs. Fraley, stiffly. "I believe that a +young man's position is very different from a girl's. To be sure, I +can give my opinion that everything went better when the master +workmen took apprentices to their trades, and there wasn't so much +schooling. But I warn you, my dear, that your notion about studying to +be a doctor has shocked me very much indeed. I could not believe my +ears,--a refined girl who bears an honorable and respected name to +think of being a woman doctor! If you were five years older you would +never have dreamed of such a thing. It lowers the pride of all who +have any affection for you. If it were not that your early life had +been somewhat peculiar and most unfortunate, I should blame you more; +as it is, I can but wonder at the lack of judgment in others. I shall +look forward in spite of it all to seeing you happily married." To +which Miss Prince assented with several decided nods. + +"This is why I made up my mind to be a physician," said the culprit; +and though she had been looking down and growing more uncomfortable +every moment, she suddenly gave her head a quick upward movement and +looked at Mrs. Fraley frankly, with a beautiful light in her clear +eyes. "I believe that God has given me a fitness for it, and that I +never could do anything else half so well. Nobody persuaded me into +following such a plan; I simply grew toward it. And I have everything +to learn, and a great many faults to overcome, but I am trying to get +on as fast as may be. I can't be too glad that I have spent my +childhood in a way that has helped me to use my gift instead of +hindering it. But everything helps a young man to follow his bent; he +has an honored place in society, and just because he is a student of +one of the learned professions, he ranks above the men who follow +other pursuits. I don't see why it should be a shame and dishonor to a +girl who is trying to do the same thing and to be of equal use in the +world. God would not give us the same talents if what were right for +men were wrong for women." + +"My dear, it is quite unnatural you see," said the antagonist, +impatiently. "Here you are less than twenty-five years old, and I +shall hear of your being married next thing,--at least I hope I +shall,--and you will laugh at all this nonsense. A woman's place is at +home. Of course I know that there have been some women physicians who +have attained eminence, and some artists, and all that. But I would +rather see a daughter of mine take a more retired place. The best +service to the public can be done by keeping one's own house in order +and one's husband comfortable, and by attending to those social +responsibilities which come in our way. The mothers of the nation have +rights enough and duties enough already, and need not look farther +than their own firesides, or wish for the plaudits of an ignorant +public." + +"But if I do not wish to be married, and do not think it right that I +should be," said poor Nan at last. "If I have good reasons against all +that, would you have me bury the talent God has given me, and choke +down the wish that makes itself a prayer every morning that I may do +this work lovingly and well? It is the best way I can see of making +myself useful in the world. People must have good health or they will +fail of reaching what success and happiness are possible for them; and +so many persons might be better and stronger than they are now, which +would make their lives very different. I do think if I can help my +neighbors in this way it will be a great kindness. I won't attempt to +say that the study of medicine is a proper vocation for women, only +that I believe more and more every year that it is the proper study +for me. It certainly cannot be the proper vocation of all women to +bring up children, so many of them are dead failures at it; and I +don't see why all girls should be thought failures who do not marry. I +don't believe that half those who do marry have any real right to it, +at least until people use common sense as much in that most important +decision as in lesser ones. Of course we can't expect to bring about +an ideal state of society all at once; but just because we don't +really believe in having the best possible conditions, we make no +effort at all toward even better ones. People ought to work with the +great laws of nature and not against them." + +"You don't know anything about it," said Mrs. Fraley, who hardly knew +what to think of this ready opposition. "You don't know what you are +talking about, Anna. You have neither age nor experience, and it is +easy to see you have been associating with very foolish people. I am +the last person to say that every marriage is a lucky one; but if you +were my daughter I should never consent to your injuring your chances +for happiness in this way." + +Nan could not help stealing a glance at poor Miss Eunice, behind her +fragile battlement of the tea-set, and was deeply touched at the +glance of sympathy which dimly flickered in the lonely eyes. "I do +think, mother, that Anna is right about single women's having some +occupation," was timidly suggested. "Of course, I mean those who have +no special home duties; I can see that life would not"-- + +"Now Eunice," interrupted the commander in chief, "I do wish you +could keep an opinion of your own. You are the last person to take up +with such ideas. I have no patience with people who don't know their +own minds half an hour together." + +"There are plenty of foolish women who marry, I'll acknowledge," said +Miss Prince, for the sake of coming to the rescue. "I was really angry +yesterday, when Mrs. Gerry told me that everybody was so pleased to +hear that Hattie Barlow was engaged, because she was incapable of +doing anything to support herself. I couldn't help feeling that if +there was so little power that it had never visibly turned itself in +any practical direction, she wasn't likely to be a good housekeeper. I +think that is a most responsible situation, myself." + +Nan looked up gratefully. "It isn't so much that people can't do +anything, as that they try to do the wrong things, Aunt Nancy. We all +are busy enough or ought to be; only the richest people have the most +cares and have to work hardest. I used to think that rich city people +did nothing but amuse themselves, when I was a little girl; but I +often wonder nowadays at the wisdom and talent that are needed to keep +a high social position respected in the world's eyes. It must be an +orderly and really strong-minded woman who can keep her business from +getting into a most melancholy tangle. Yet nobody is afraid when the +most foolish girls take such duties upon themselves, and all the world +cries out with fear of disaster, if once in a while one makes up her +mind to some other plan of life. Of course I know being married isn't +a trade: it is a natural condition of life, which permits a man to +follow certain public careers, and forbids them to a woman. And since +I have not wished to be married, and have wished to study medicine, I +don't see what act of Parliament can punish me." + +"Wait until Mr. Right comes along," said Mrs. Fraley, who had pushed +back her chair from the table and was beating her foot on the floor in +a way that betokened great displeasure and impatience. "I am only +thankful I had my day when women were content to be stayers at home. I +am only speaking for your good, and you'll live to see the truth of +it, poor child!" + +"I am sure she will get over this," apologized Miss Prince, after they +had reached the parlor, for she found that her niece had lingered with +Miss Fraley in the dining-room. + +"Don't talk to me about the Princes changing their minds," answered +the scornful old hostess. "You ought to know them better than that by +this time." But just at that moment young Gerry came tapping at the +door, and the two ladies quickly softened their excited looks and +welcomed him as the most powerful argument for their side of the +debate. It seemed quite a thing of the past that he should have +fancied Mary Parish, and more than one whisper had been listened to +that the young man was likely to have the Prince inheritance, after +all. He looked uncommonly well that evening, and the elder women could +not imagine that any damsel of his own age would consider him +slightingly. Nan had given a little shrug of impatience when she heard +his voice join the weaker ones in the parlor, and a sense of +discomfort that she never had felt before came over her suddenly. She +reminded herself that she must tell her aunt that very night that the +visit must come to an end. She had neglected her books and her drives +with the doctor altogether too long already. + + + + +XIX + +FRIEND AND LOVER + + +In these summer days the young lawyer's thoughts had often been busy +elsewhere while he sat at the shaded office window and looked out upon +the river. The very housekeeping on the damaged ship became more +interesting to him than his law books, and he watched the keeper's +wife at her various employments on deck, or grew excited as he +witnessed the good woman's encounters with marauding small boys, who +prowled about hoping for chances of climbing the rigging or solving +the mysteries of the hold. It had come to be an uncommon event that a +square-rigged vessel should make the harbor of Dunport, and the elder +citizens ignored the deserted wharves, and talked proudly of the days +of Dunport's prosperity, convicting the railroad of its decline as +much as was consistent with their possession of profitable stock. The +younger people took the empty warehouses for granted, and listened to +their grandparents' stories with interest, if they did not hear them +too often; and the more enterprising among them spread their wings of +ambition and flew away to the larger cities or to the westward. George +Gerry had stayed behind reluctantly. He had neither enough desire for +a more active life, nor so high a purpose that he could disregard +whatever opposition lay in his way. Yet he was honestly dissatisfied +with his surroundings, and thought himself hardly used by a hindering +fate. He believed himself to be most anxious to get away, yet he was +like a ship which will not be started out of port by anything less +than a hurricane. There really were excuses for his staying at home, +and since he had stopped to listen to them they beguiled him more and +more, and his friends one by one commended his devotion to his mother +and sisters, and sometimes forgot to sympathize with him for his +disappointments as they praised him for being such a dutiful son. To +be sure, he might be a great lawyer in Dunport as well as anywhere +else; he would not be the first; but a more inspiring life might have +made him more enthusiastic and energetic, and if he could have been +winning his way faster elsewhere, and sending home good accounts of +himself, not to speak of substantial aid, there is no question whether +it would not have given his family greater happiness and done himself +more good. He was not possessed of the stern determination which wins +its way at all hazards, and so was dependent upon his surroundings for +an occasional stimulus. + +But Dunport was very grateful to him because he had stayed at home, +and he was altogether the most prominent young man in the town. It is +so easy to be thankful that one's friends are no worse that one +sometimes forgets to remember that they might be better; and it would +have been only natural if he thought of himself more highly than he +ought to think, since he had received a good deal of applause and +admiration. It is true that he had avoided vice more noticeably than +he had pursued virtue; but the senior member of the firm, Mr. +Sergeant, pronounced his young partner to have been a most excellent +student, and not only showed the greatest possible confidence in him, +but was transferring a good deal of the business to him already. Miss +Prince and her old lawyer had one secret which had never been +suspected, and the townspeople thought more than ever of young Mr. +Gerry's ability when it was known that the most distinguished legal +authority of that region had given him a share of a long established +business. George Gerry had been led to think better of himself, though +it had caused him no little wonder when the proposal had been made. It +was possible that Mr. Sergeant feared that there might be some +alliance offered by his rivals in Dunport. To be sure, the younger +firm had been making a good deal of money, but it was less respected +by the leading business men. Mr. Sergeant had even conferred with his +young friend one morning upon the propriety of some new investments; +but Mr. Gerry had never even suspected that they were the price of his +own new dignity and claim upon the public honor. Captain Walter Parish +and Mr. Sergeant had both been aids and advisers of Miss Prince; but +neither had ever known the condition of all her financial affairs, and +she had made the most of a comfortable sense of liberty. To do young +Gerry justice, he had not hesitated to express his amazement; and +among his elders and betters, at any rate, he had laid his good +fortune at the door of Mr. Sergeant's generosity and kindness instead +of his own value. + +But at certain seasons of the year, like this, there was no excitement +in the office, and after an attendance at court and the proper +adjustment, whether temporary or permanent, of the subsequent +business, the partners had returned to a humdrum fulfilling of the +minor duties of their profession, and the younger man worked at his +law books when there were no deeds or affidavits to engage his +attention. He thought of many things as he sat by his window; it was a +great relief to the tiresomeness of the dull rooms to look at the +river and at the shores and hills beyond; to notice carelessly whether +the tide came in or went out. He was apt to feel a sense of +dissatisfaction in his leisure moments; and now a new current was +bringing all its force to bear upon him in his quiet anchorage. + +He had looked upon Miss Prince as a kind adviser; he was on more +intimate terms with her than with any woman he knew; and the finer +traits in his character were always brought out by some compelling +force in her dignity and simple adherence to her somewhat narrow code +of morals and etiquette. He was grateful to her for many kindnesses; +and as he had grown older and come to perceive the sentiment which had +been the first motive of her affection toward him, he had +instinctively responded with a mingling of gallantry and sympathy +which made him, as has been already said, appear at his very best. The +gossips of Dunport had whispered that he knew that it was more than +worth his while to be polite to Miss Prince; but he was too manly a +fellow to allow any trace of subserviency to show itself in his +conduct. As often happens, he had come back to Dunport almost a +stranger after his years of college life were over, and he had a +mingled love and impatience for the old place. The last year had been +very pleasant, however: there were a few young men whose good comrade +and leader he was; his relations with his fellow-citizens were most +harmonious; and as for the girls of his own age and their younger +sisters, who were just growing up, he was immensely popular and +admired by them. It had become a subject of much discussion whether he +and Mary Parish would not presently decide upon becoming engaged to +each other, until Miss Prince's long-banished niece came to put a new +suspicion into everybody's mind. + +Many times when George Gerry had a new proof that he had somehow +fallen into the habit of walking home with the pleasant girl who was +his friend and neighbor, he had told himself abruptly that there was +no danger in it, and that they never could have any other feeling for +each other. But he had begun to think also that she belonged to him in +some vague way, and sometimes acknowledged that it might be a thing to +consider more deeply by and by. He was only twenty-six, and the world +was still before him, but he was not very sympathetic with other +people's enthusiasm over their love affairs, and wondered if it were +not largely a matter of temperament, though by and by he should like +to have a home of his own. + +He was somewhat attracted toward Miss Prince, the younger, for her +aunt's sake, and had made up his mind that he would be very attentive +to her, no matter how displeasing and uninteresting she might be: it +was sure to be a time of trial to his old friend, and he would help +all he could to make the visit as bearable as possible. Everybody knew +of the niece's existence who had known the Prince family at all, and +though Miss Prince had never mentioned the unhappy fact until the day +or two before her guest was expected, her young cavalier had behaved +with most excellent discretion, and feigning neither surprise nor +dismay, accepted the announcement in a way that had endeared him still +more to his patroness. + +But on the first Sunday morning, when a most admirable young lady had +walked up the broad aisle of St. Ann's church, and Mr. Gerry had +caught a glimpse of her between the rows of heads which all looked +commonplace by contrast, it seemed to begin a new era of things. This +was a welcome link with the busier world outside Dunport; this was +what he had missed since he had ended his college days, a gleam of +cosmopolitan sunshine, which made the provincial fog less attractive +than ever. He was anxious to claim companionship with this fair +citizen of a larger world, and to disclaim any idea of belonging to +the humdrum little circle which exaggerated its own importance. He +persuaded himself that he must pay Miss Prince's guest an early visit. +It was very exciting and interesting altogether; and as he watched the +flicker of light in our heroine's hair as she sat on the straight sofa +in her aunt's parlor on the Sunday evening, a feeling of great delight +stole over him. He had known many nice girls in his lifetime, but +there was something uncommonly interesting about Miss Anna Prince; +besides, who could help being grateful to her for being so much nicer +than anybody had expected? + +And so the days went by. Nobody thought there was any objection when +the junior partner of the law firm took holiday after holiday, for +there was little business and Mr. Sergeant liked to keep on with his +familiar routine. His old friends came to call frequently, and they +had their conferences in peace, and were not inclined to object if the +younger ears were being used elsewhere. Young people will be young +people, and June weather does not always last; and if George Gerry +were more devoted to social duties than to legal ones, it was quite +natural, and he had just acquitted himself most honorably at the May +term of court, and was his own master if he decided to take a +vacation. + +He had been amused when the announcement had been made so early in +their acquaintance that Nan meant to study medicine. He believed if +there were any fault, it was Dr. Leslie's, and only thought it a pity +that her evident practical talents had not been under the guidance of +a more sensible director. The girl's impetuous defense of her choice +was very charming; he had often heard Mr. Sergeant speak of the rare +insight and understanding of legal matters which his favorite daughter +had possessed, and her early death had left a lonely place in the good +man's heart. Miss Prince's life at Oldfields must have been very dull, +especially since her boarding-school days were over. For himself he +had a great prejudice against the usurpation of men's duties and +prerogatives by women, and had spoken of all such assumptions with +contempt. It made a difference that this attractive young student had +spoken bravely on the wrong side; but if he had thought much about it +he would have made himself surer and surer that only time was needed +to show her the mistake. If he had gone deeper into the subject he +would have said that he thought it all nonsense about women's having +the worst of it in life; he had known more than one good fellow who +had begun to go down hill from the day he was married, and if girls +would only take the trouble to fit themselves for their indoor +business the world would be a vastly more comfortable place. And as +for their tinkering at the laws, such projects should be bitterly +resented. + + +It only needed a few days to make it plain to this good fellow that +the coming of one of the summer guests had made a great difference in +his life. It was easy to find a hundred excuses for going to Miss +Prince's, who smiled benignantly upon his evident interest in the fair +stranger within her gates. The truth must be confessed, however, that +the episode of the lamed shoulder at the picnic party had given Mr. +George Gerry great unhappiness. There was something so high and +serene in Anna Prince's simplicity and directness, and in the way in +which she had proved herself adequate to so unusual an occasion, that +he could not help mingling a good deal of admiration with his +dissatisfaction. It is in human nature to respect power; but all his +manliness was at stake, and his natural rights would be degraded and +lost, if he could not show his power to be greater than her own. And +as the days went by, every one made him more certain that he longed, +more than he had ever longed for anything before, to win her love. His +heart had never before been deeply touched, but life seemed now like a +heap of dry wood, which had only waited for a live coal to make it +flame and leap in mysterious light, and transfigure itself from +dullness into a bewildering and unaccountable glory. It was no wonder +any longer that poets had sung best of love and its joys and sorrows, +and that men and women, since the world began, had followed at its +call. All life and its history was explained anew, yet this eager +lover felt himself to be the first discoverer of the world's great +secret. + +It was hard to wait and to lack assurance, but while the hours when he +had the ideal and the dream seemed to make him certain, he had only to +go back to Miss Prince's to become doubtful and miserable again. The +world did not consent to second his haste, and the persons most +concerned in his affairs were stupidly slow at understanding the true +state of them. While every day made the prize look more desirable, +every day seemed to put another barrier between himself and Nan; and +when she spoke of her visit's end it was amazing to him that she +should not understand his misery. He wondered at himself more and more +because he seemed to have the power of behaving much as usual when he +was with his friends; it seemed impossible that he could always go on +without betraying his thoughts. There was no question of any final +opposition to his suit, it seemed to him; he could not be more sure +than he was already of Miss Prince's willingness to let him plead his +cause with her niece, so many vexed questions would be pleasantly +answered; and he ventured to hope that the girl herself would be glad +to spend her life in dear old Dunport, where her father's people had +been honored for so many years. The good Dr. Leslie must be fast +growing old, and, though he would miss his adopted child, it was +reasonable that he should be glad to see her happily anchored in a +home of her own, before he died. If Nan were friendless and penniless +it would make no difference; but nevertheless, for her sake, it was +good to remember that some one had said that Dr. Leslie, unlike most +physicians, was a man of fortune. And nothing remained but to win an +affection which should match his own, and this impatient suitor walked +and drove and spent the fleeting hours in waiting for a chance to show +himself in the lists of love. It seemed years instead of weeks at +last, and yet as if he had only been truly alive and free since love +had made him captive. He could not fasten himself down to his work +without great difficulty, though he built many a castle in Spain with +his imagined wealth, and laid deep plans of study and acquirement +which should be made evident as time went on. + +All things seemed within his reach in these first days of his +enlightenment: it had been like the rising of the sun which showed him +a new world of which he was lawful master, but the minor events of his +blissful existence began to conspire against him in a provoking way, +and presently it was sadly forced upon his understanding that Anna +Prince was either unconscious or disdainful of his affection. It could +hardly be the latter, for she was always friendly and hospitable, and +took his courtesies in such an unsuspecting and grateful way. There +was something so self-reliant about her and so independent of any +one's protection, that this was the most discouraging thing of all, +for his own instinct was that of standing between her and all +harm,--of making himself responsible for her shelter and happiness. +She seemed to get on capitally well without him, but after all he +could not help being conqueror in so just and inevitable a war. The +old proverb suddenly changed from a pebble to a diamond, and he +thanked the philosopher more than once who had first reminded the +world that faint heart ne'er won fair lady; presently he grew sad, as +lovers will, and became paler and less vigorous, and made his friends +wonder a good deal, until they at last suspected his sweet sorrow, and +ranged themselves in eager ranks upon his side, with all history and +tradition in their favor. + +Nan herself was not among the first to suspect that one of her new +friends had proved to be a lover; she had been turned away from such +suspicions by her very nature; and when she had been forced to believe +in one or two other instances that she was unwillingly drawing to +herself the devotion which most women unconsciously seek, she had been +made most uncomfortable, and had repelled all possibility of its +further progress. She had believed herself proof against such +assailment, and so indeed she had been; but on the very evening of her +battle for her opinions at Mrs. Fraley's she had been suddenly +confronted by a new enemy, a strange power, which seemed so dangerous +that she was at first overwhelmed by a sense of her own +defenselessness. + +She had waited with Miss Fraley, who was not quite ready to leave the +dining-room with the rest, and had been much touched by her +confidence. Poor Eunice had been very fond of one of her +school-fellows, who had afterward entered the navy, and who had been +fond of her in return. But as everybody had opposed the match, for her +sake, and had placed little reliance in the young man, she had meekly +given up all hope of being his wife, and he had died of yellow fever +at Key West soon after. "We were not even engaged you know, dear," +whispered the little lady, "but somehow I have always felt in my heart +that I belonged to him. Though I believe every word you said about a +girl's having an independence of her own. It is a great blessing to +have always had such a person as my mother to lean upon, but I should +be quite helpless if she were taken away.... Of course I have had what +I needed and what we could afford," she went on, after another pause, +"but I never can get over hating to ask for money. I do sometimes envy +the women who earn what they spend." + +Nan's eyes flashed. "I think it is only fair that even those who have +to spend their husband's or their father's money should be made to +feel it is their own. If one does absolutely nothing in one's home, +and is not even able to give pleasure, then I think it is stealing. I +have felt so strongly about that since I have grown up, for you know +Dr. Leslie, my guardian, has done everything for me. Aunt Nancy gave +me money every year, but I never spent any of it until I went away to +school, and then I insisted upon taking that and what my grandmother +left me. But my later studies have more than used it all. Dr. Leslie +is so kind to me, like an own father, and I am looking forward to my +life with him most eagerly. After the next year or two I shall be at +home all the time, and I am so glad to think I can really help him, +and that we are interested in the same things." + +Miss Eunice was a little incredulous, though she did not dare to say +so. In the first place, she could not be persuaded that a woman could +possibly know as much about diseases and their remedies as a man, and +she wondered if even the rural inhabitants of Oldfields would +cheerfully accept the change from their trusted physician to his young +ward, no matter what sails of diplomas she might spread to the breeze. +But Nan's perfect faith and confidence were not to be lightly +disputed; and if the practice of medicine by women could be made +honorable, it certainly was in able hands here, as far as an admiring +friend could decide. Nan was anything but self-asserting, and she had +no noisy fashion of thrusting herself before the public gaze, but +everybody trusted her who knew her; she had the rare and noble faculty +of inspiring confidence. + +There was no excuse for a longer absence from the parlor, where Mrs. +Fraley was throned in state in her high-backed chair, and was already +calling the loiterers. She and Miss Prince were smiling indulgently +upon the impatient young man, who was describing to them a meeting of +the stockholders of the Turnpike Company, of which he had last year +been made secretary. A dividend had been declared, and it was larger +than had been expected, and the ladies were as grateful as if he had +furnished the means from his own pocket. He looked very tall and +handsome and business-like as he rose to salute Miss Fraley and Nan, +and presently told his real errand. He apologized for interfering with +the little festival, but two or three of the young people had suddenly +made a plan for going to see a play which was to be given that night +in the town hall by a traveling company. Would Miss Anna Prince care +to go, and Miss Fraley? + +Nan hardly knew why she at once refused, and was filled with regret +when she saw a look of childish expectancy on Miss Eunice's face +quickly change to disappointment. + +"It is too hot to shut one's self into that close place, I am afraid," +she said. "And I am enjoying myself very much here, Mr. Gerry." Which +was generous on Nan's part, if one considered the premeditated war +which had been waged against her. Then the thought flashed through her +mind that it might be a bit of good fun for her companion; and without +waiting for either approval or opposition from the elder women, she +said, in a different tone, "However, if Miss Fraley will go too, I +will accept with pleasure; I suppose it is quite time?" and before +there could be a formal dissent she had hurried the pleased daughter +of the house, who was not quick in her movements, to her room, and in +a few minutes, after a good deal of laughter which the presence of the +escort kept anybody from even wishing to silence, the three were +fairly started down the street. It was of no avail that Mrs. Fraley +condemned her own judgment in not having advised Eunice to stay at +home and leave the young people free, and that Miss Prince made a +feeble protest for politeness' sake,--the pleasure-makers could not be +called back. + +Nan had really grown into a great liking for George Gerry. She often +thought it would have been very good to have such a brother. But more +than one person in the audience thought they had never seen a braver +young couple; and the few elderly persons of discretion who had gone +to the play felt their hearts thrill with sudden sympathy as our +friends went far down the room to their seats. Miss Fraley was almost +girlish herself, and looked so pleased and bright that everybody who +cared anything about her smiled when they caught sight of her, she was +so prim and neat; it was impossible for her, under any circumstances, +to look anything but discreet and quaint; but as for Nan, she was +beautiful with youth and health; as simply dressed as Miss Eunice, but +with the gayety of a flower,--some slender, wild thing, that has +sprung up fearlessly under the great sky, with only the sunshine and +the wind and summer rain to teach it, and help it fulfill its +destiny,--a flower that has grown with no painful effort of its own, +but because God made it and kept it; that has bloomed because it has +come in the course of its growth to the right time. And Miss Eunice, +like a hindered little house-plant, took a long breath of delight as +she sat close by her kind young friend, and felt as if somebody had +set her roots free from their familiar prison. + +To let God make us, instead of painfully trying to make ourselves; to +follow the path that his love shows us, instead of through conceit or +cowardice or mockery choosing another; to trust Him for our strength +and fitness as the flowers do, simply giving ourselves back to Him in +grateful service,--this is to keep the laws that give us the freedom +of the city in which there is no longer any night of bewilderment or +ignorance or uncertainty. So the woman who had lived a life of +bondage, whose hardest task-master was herself, and the woman who had +been both taught and inspired to hold fast her freedom, sat side by +side: the one life having been blighted because it lacked its mate, +and was but half a life in itself; while the other, fearing to give +half its royalty or to share its bounty, was being tempted to cripple +itself, and to lose its strait and narrow way where God had left no +room for another. + +For as the play went on and the easily pleased audience laughed and +clapped its hands, and the tired players bowed and smiled from behind +the flaring foot-lights, there was one spectator who was conscious of +a great crisis in her own life, which the mimicry of that evening +seemed to ridicule and counterfeit. And though Nan smiled with the +rest, and even talked with her neighbors while the tawdry curtain had +fallen, it seemed to her that the coming of Death at her life's end +could not be more strange and sudden than this great barrier which had +fallen between her and her girlhood, the dear old life which had kept +her so unpuzzled and safe. So this was love at last, this fear, this +change, this strange relation to another soul. Who could stand now at +her right hand and give her grace to hold fast the truth that her soul +must ever be her own? + +The only desire that possessed her was to be alone again, to make Love +show his face as well as make his mysterious presence felt. She was +thankful for the shelter of the crowd, and went on, wishing that the +short distance to her aunt's home could be made even shorter. She had +felt this man's love for her only in a vague way before, and now, as +he turned to speak to her from time to time, she could not meet his +eyes. The groups of people bade each other good-night merrily, though +the entertainment had been a little tiresome to every one at the last, +and it seemed the briefest space of time before Miss Fraley and Nan +and their cavalier were left by themselves, and at last Nan and George +Gerry were alone together. + +For his part he had never been so happy as that night. It seemed to +him that his wish was coming true, and he spoke gently enough and of +the same things they might have talked about the night before, but a +splendid chorus of victory was sounding in his ears; and once, as they +stopped for a moment to look between two of the old warehouses at the +shining river and the masts and rigging of the ship against the +moonlighted sky, he was just ready to speak to the girl at his side. +But he looked at her first and then was silent. There was something in +her face that forbade it,--a whiteness and a strange look in her eyes, +that made him lose all feeling of comradeship or even acquaintance. "I +wonder if the old Highflyer will ever go out again?" she said slowly. +"Captain Parish told me some time ago that he had found her more badly +damaged than he supposed. A vessel like that belongs to the high seas, +and is like a prisoner when it touches shore. I believe that the stray +souls that have no bodies must sometimes make a dwelling in inanimate +things and make us think they are alive. I am always sorry for that +ship"-- + +"Its guardian angel must have been asleep the night of the collision," +laughed young Gerry, uneasily; he was displeased with himself the +moment afterward, but Nan laughed too, and felt a sense of reprieve; +and they went on again and said good night quietly on the steps of the +old Prince house. It was very late for Dunport, and the door was shut, +but through the bull's-eyed panes of glass overhead a faint light was +shining, though it could hardly assert itself against the moonlight. +Miss Prince was still down-stairs, and her niece upbraided her, and +then began to give an account of the play, which was cut short by the +mistress of the house; for after one eager, long look at Nan, she +became sleepy and disappointed, and they said good-night; but the girl +felt certain that her aunt was leagued against her, and grew sick at +heart and tired as she climbed the stairs. There was a letter on the +long mahogany table in the hall, and Nan stopped and looked over the +railing at it wearily. Miss Prince stopped too, and said she was sorry +she had forgotten,--it was from Oldfields, and in Dr. Leslie's +writing. But though Nan went back for it, and kissed it more than once +before she went to bed, and even put it under her pillow as a comfort +and defense against she knew not what, for the first time in her life +she was afraid to open it and read the kind words. That night she +watched the moonlight creep along the floor, and heard the cocks crow +at midnight and in the morning; the birds woke with the new day while +she tried to understand the day that had gone, wondering what she must +do and say when she faced the world again only a few hours later. + +Sometimes she felt herself carried along upon a rushing tide, and was +amazed that a hundred gifts and conditions to which she had scarcely +given a thought seemed dear and necessary. Once she fancied herself in +a quiet home; living there, perhaps, in that very house, and being +pleased with her ordering and care-taking. And her great profession +was all like a fading dream; it seemed now no matter whether she had +ever loved the studies of it, or been glad to think that she had it in +her power to make suffering less, or prevent it altogether. Her old +ambitions were torn away from her one by one, and in their place came +the hardly-desired satisfactions of love and marriage, and home-making +and housekeeping, the dear, womanly, sheltered fashions of life, +toward which she had been thankful to see her friends go hand in hand, +making themselves a complete happiness which nothing else could match. +But as the night waned, the certainty of her duty grew clearer and +clearer. She had long ago made up her mind that she must not marry. +She might be happy, it was true, and make other people so, but her +duty was not this, and a certainty that satisfaction and the blessing +of God would not follow her into these reverenced and honored limits +came to her distinctly. One by one the reasons for keeping on her +chosen course grew more unanswerable than ever. She had not thought +she should be called to resist this temptation, but since it had come +she was glad she was strong enough to meet it. It would be no real +love for another person, and no justice to herself, to give up her +work, even though holding it fast would bring weariness and pain and +reproach, and the loss of many things that other women held dearest +and best. + +In the morning Nan smiled when her aunt noticed her tired look, and +said that the play had been a pursuit of pleasure under difficulties. +And though Miss Prince looked up in dismay, and was full of objections +and almost querulous reproaches because Nan said she must end her +visit within a day or two, she hoped that George Gerry would be, after +all, a reason for the girl's staying. Until Nan, who had been standing +by the window, looking wistfully at the garden, suddenly turned and +said, gently and solemnly, "Listen, Aunt Nancy! I must be about my +business; you do not know what it means to me, or what I hope to make +it mean to other people." And then Miss Prince knew once for all, that +it was useless to hope or to plan any longer. But she would not let +herself be vanquished so easily, and summoned to her mind many +assurances that girls would not be too easily won, and after a short +season of disapproving silence, returned to her usual manner as if +there had been neither difference nor dispute. + + + + +XX + +ASHORE AND AFLOAT + + +"Your cousin Walter Parish is coming to dine with us to-day," said +Miss Prince, later that morning. "He came to the Fraleys just after +you went out last evening, to speak with me about a business matter, +and waited to walk home with me afterward. I have been meaning to +invite him here with his wife, but there doesn't seem to be much +prospect of her leaving her room for some time yet, and this morning I +happened to find an uncommonly good pair of young ducks. Old Mr. Brown +has kept my liking for them in mind for a great many years. Your +grandfather used to say that there was nothing like a duckling to his +taste; he used to eat them in England, but people in this country let +them get too old. He was willing to pay a great price for ducklings +always; but even Mr. Brown seems to think it is a great wrong not to +let them grow until Thanksgiving time, and makes a great many +apologies every year. It is from his farm that we always get the best +lamb too; they are very nice people, the Browns, but the poor old man +seems very feeble this summer. Some day I should really like to take a +drive out into the country to see them, you know so well how to manage +a horse. You can spare a day or two to give time for that, can't you?" + +Nan was sorry to hear the pleading tone, it was so unlike her aunt's +usually severe manner, and answered quickly that she should be very +glad to make the little excursion. Mr. Brown had asked her to come to +the farm one day near the beginning of her visit. + +"You must say this is home, if you can," said Miss Prince, who was a +good deal excited and shaken that morning, "and not think of yourself +as a visitor any more. There are a great many things I hope you can +understand, even if I have left them unsaid. It has really seemed more +like home since you have been here, and less like a lodging. I wonder +how I--When did you see Mr. Brown? I did not know you had ever spoken +to him." + +"It was some time ago," the girl answered. "I was in the kitchen, and +he came to the door. He seemed very glad to see me," and Nan hesitated +a moment. "He said I was like my father." + +"Yes, indeed," responded Miss Prince, drearily; and the thought seized +her that it was very strange that the same mistaken persistency should +show itself in father and child in exactly opposite ways. If Nan would +only care as much for marrying George Gerry, as her father had for +marrying his wretched wife! It seemed more and more impossible that +this little lady should be the daughter of such a woman; how dismayed +the girl would be if she could be shown her mother's nature as Miss +Prince remembered it. Alas! this was already a sorrow which no vision +of the reality could deepen, and the frank words of the Oldfields +country people about the bad Thachers had not been spoken fruitlessly +in the ears of their last descendant. + +"I am so glad the captain is coming," Nan said presently, to break the +painful silence. "I do hope that he and Dr. Leslie will know each +other some time, they would be such capital friends. The doctor sent +his kind regards to you in last night's letter, and asked me again to +say that he hoped that you would come to us before the summer is over. +I should like so much to have you know what Oldfields is like." It was +hard to save herself from saying "home" again, instead of Oldfields, +but the change of words was made quickly. + +"He is very courteous and hospitable, but I never pay visits +nowadays," said Miss Prince, and thought almost angrily that there was +no necessity for her making a target of herself for all those curious +country-people's eyes. And then they rose and separated for a time, +each being burdened less by care than thought. + + +The captain came early to dine, and brought with him his own and Miss +Prince's letters from the post-office, together with the morning +paper, which he proceeded to read. He also seemed to have a weight +upon his mind, but by the time they were at table a mild cheerfulness +made itself felt, and Nan summoned all her resources and was gayer and +brighter than usual. Miss Prince had gone down town early in the day, +and her niece was perfectly sure that there had been a consultation +with Mr. Gerry. He had passed the house while Nan sat at her upper +window writing, and had looked somewhat wistfully at the door as if he +had half a mind to enter it. He was like a great magnet: it seemed +impossible to resist looking after him, and indeed his ghost-like +presence would not forsake her mind, but seemed urging her toward his +visible self. The thought of him was so powerful that the sight of the +young man was less strange and compelling, and it was almost a relief +to have seen his familiar appearance,--the strong figure in its +every-day clothes, his unstudent-like vigor, and easy step as he went +by. She liked him still, but she hated love, it was making her so +miserable,--even when later she told Captain Parish some delightful +Oldfields stories, of so humorous a kind that he laughed long and +struck the table more than once, which set the glasses jingling, and +gave a splendid approval to the time-honored fun. The ducklings were +amazingly good; and when Captain Walter had tasted his wine and read +the silver label on the decanter, which as usual gave no evidence of +the rank and dignity of the contents, his eyes sparkled with +satisfaction, and he turned to his cousin's daughter with impressive +gravity. + +"You may never have tasted such wine as that," he said. "Your +grandfather, the luckiest captain who ever sailed out of Dunport, +brought it home fifty years ago, and it was well ripened then. I +didn't know there was a bottle of it left, Nancy," he laughed. "My +dear, your aunt has undertaken to pay one of us a handsome +compliment." + +"Your health, cousin Walter!" said the girl quickly, lifting her own +glass, and making him a little bow over the old Madeira. + +"Bless your dear heart!" responded the captain; "the same good wishes +to you in return, and now you must join me in my respects to your +aunt. Nancy! I beg you not to waste this in pudding-sauces; that's the +way with you ladies." + +The toast-drinking had a good effect upon the little company, and it +seemed as if the cloud which had hung over it at first had been blown +away. When there was no longer any excuse for lingering at the table, +the guest seemed again a little ill at ease, and after a glance at his +hostess, proposed to Nan that they should take a look at the garden. +The old sailor had become in his later years a devoted tiller of the +soil, and pleaded a desire to see some late roses which were just now +in bloom. So he and Nan went down the walk together, and he fidgeted +and hurried about for a few minutes before he could make up his mind +to begin a speech which was weighing heavily on his conscience. + +Nan was sure that something unusual was perplexing him, and answered +his unnecessary questions patiently, wondering what he was trying to +say. + +"Dear me!" he grumbled at last, "I shall have to steer a straight +course. The truth is, Nancy has been telling me that I ought to advise +with you, and see that you understand what you are about with young +Gerry. She has set her heart on your fancying him. I dare say you know +she has treated him like a son all through his growing up; but now +that you have come to your rightful place, she can't bear to have +anybody hint at your going back to the other people. 'Tis plain enough +what he thinks about it, and I must say I believe it would be for your +good. Here you are with your father's family, what is left of it; and +I take no liberty when I tell you that your aunt desires this to be +your home, and means to give you your father's share of the property +now and the rest when she is done with it. It is no more than your +rights, and I know as much as anybody about it, and can tell you that +there's a handsomer fortune than you may have suspected. Money grows +fast if it is let alone; and though your aunt has done a good deal for +others, her expenses have been well held in hand. I must say I should +like to keep you here, child," the captain faltered, "but I shall want +to do what's for your happiness. I couldn't feel more earnest about +that if I were your own father. You must think it over. I'm not going +to beseech you: I learned long ago that 'tis no use to drive a +Prince." + +Nan had tried at first to look unconcerned and treat the matter +lightly, but this straightforward talk appealed to her much more than +the suggestion and general advice which Miss Prince had implored the +captain to give the night before. And now her niece could only thank +him for his kindness, and tell him that by and by she would make him +understand why she put aside these reasons, and went back to the life +she had known before. + +But a sudden inspiration made her resolution grow stronger, and she +looked at Captain Parish with a convincing bravery. + +"When you followed the sea," she said quickly, "if you had a good ship +with a freight that you had gathered with great care and hopefulness, +and had brought it almost to the market that it was suited for, would +you have been persuaded to turn about and take it to some place where +it would be next to useless?" + +"No," said Captain Parish, "no, I shouldn't," and he half smiled at +this illustration. + +"I can't tell you all my reasons for not wishing to marry," Nan went +on, growing very white and determined, "or all my reasons for wishing +to go on with my plan of being a doctor; but I know I have no right to +the one way of life, and a perfect one, so far as I can see, to the +other. And it seems to me that it would be as sensible to ask Mr. +Gerry to be a minister since he has just finished his law studies, as +to ask me to be a wife instead of a physician. But what I used to +dread without reason a few years ago, I must forbid myself now, +because I know the wretched inheritance I might have had from my poor +mother's people. I can't speak of that to Aunt Nancy, but you must +tell her not to try to make me change my mind." + +"Good God!" said the captain. "I dare say you have the right points of +it; but if I were a young man 't would go hard with me to let you take +your life into your own hands. It's against nature." + +"No," said Nan. "The law of right and wrong must rule even love, and +whatever comes to me, I must not forget that. Three years ago I had +not thought about it so much, and I might not have been so sure; but +now I have been taught there is only one road to take. And you must +tell Aunt Nancy this." + +But when they went back to the house, Miss Prince was not to be seen, +and the captain hurried away lest she should make her appearance, for +he did not wish just then to talk about the matter any more. He told +himself that young people were very different in these days; but when +he thought of the words he had heard in the garden, and remembered the +pale face and the steadfast, clear-toned voice, he brushed away +something like a tear. "If more people used judgment in this same +decision the world would be better off," he said, and could not help +reminding himself that his own niece, little Mary Parish, who was +wearing a wistful countenance in these days, might by and by be happy +after all. For Nan's part it was a great relief to have spoken to the +kind old man; she felt more secure than before; but sometimes the fear +assailed her that some unforeseen event or unreckoned influence might +give her back to her indecisions, and that the battle of the night +before might after all prove not to be final. + + +The afternoon wore away, and late in the day our heroine heard George +Gerry's step coming up the street. She listened as she sat by the +upper window, and found that he was giving a message for her. It was +perfect weather to go up the river, he was saying; the tide served +just right and would bring them home early; and Miss Prince, who was +alone in the parlor, answered with pleased assurance that she was sure +her niece would like to go. "Yes," said Nan, calling from the window, +urged by a sudden impulse. "Yes indeed, I should like it above all +things; I will get ready at once; will you carry two pairs of oars?" + +There was a ready assent, but the uncertainty of the tone of it struck +Anna Prince's quick ear. She seemed to know that the young man and her +aunt were exchanging looks of surprise, and that they felt insecure +and uncertain. It was not the yielding maiden who had spoken to her +lover, but the girl who was his good comrade and cordial friend. The +elder woman shook her head doubtfully; she knew well what this +foreboded, and was impatient at the overthrow of her plans; yet she +had full confidence in the power of Love. She had seen apparent +self-reliance before, and she could not believe that her niece was +invincible. At any rate nothing could be more persuasive than a +twilight row upon the river, and for her part, she hoped more eagerly +than ever that Love would return chief in command of the boat's young +crew; and when the young man flushed a little, and looked at her +appealingly, as he turned to go down the street, his friend and +counselor could not resist giving him a hopeful nod. Nan was +singularly frank, and free from affectations, and she might have +already decided to lower her colors and yield the victory, and it +seemed for a moment that it would be much more like her to do so, than +to invite further contest when she was already won. Miss Prince was +very kind and sympathetic when this explanation had once forced itself +upon her mind; she gave the young girl a most affectionate kiss when +she appeared, but at this unmistakable suggestion of pleasure and +treasured hopes, Nan turned back suddenly into the shaded parlor, +though Mr. Gerry was waiting outside with his favorite oars, which he +kept carefully in a corner of the office. + +"Dear Aunt Nancy," said the girl, with evident effort, "I am so sorry +to disappoint you. I wish for your sake that I had been another sort +of woman; but I shall never marry. I know you think I am wrong, but +there is something which always tells me I am right, and I must follow +another way. I should only wreck my life, and other people's. Most +girls have an instinct towards marrying, but mine is all against it, +and God knew best when He made me care more for another fashion of +life. Don't make me seem unkind! I dare say that I can put it all into +words better by and by, but I can never be more certain of it in my +own heart than now." + +"Sit down a minute," said Miss Prince, slowly. "George can wait. But, +Anna, I believe that you are in love with him, and that you are doing +wrong to the poor lad, and to yourself, and to me. I lost the best +happiness of my life for a whim, and you wish to throw away yours for +a theory. I hope you will be guided by me. I have come to love you +very much, and it seems as if this would be so reasonable." + +"It does make a difference to me that he loves me," confessed the +girl. "It is not easy to turn away from him," she said,--still +standing, and looking taller than ever, and even thin, with a curious +tenseness of her whole being. "It is something that I have found it +hard to fight against, but it is not my whole self longing for his +love and his companionship. If I heard he had gone to the other side +of the world for years and years, I should be glad now and not sorry. +I know that all the world's sympathy and all tradition fight on his +side; but I can look forward and see something a thousand times better +than being his wife, and living here in Dunport keeping his house, and +trying to forget all that nature fitted me to do. You don't +understand, Aunt Nancy. I wish you could! You see it all another way." +And the tears started to the eager young eyes. "Don't you know that +Cousin Walter said this very day that the wind which sets one vessel +on the right course may set another on the wrong?" + +"Nonsense, my dear," said the mistress of the house. "I don't think +this is the proper time for you to explain yourself at any rate. I +dare say the fresh air will do you good and put everything right too. +You have worked yourself into a great excitement over nothing. Don't +go out looking so desperate to the poor fellow; he will think +strangely of it;" and the girl went out through the wide hall, and +wished she were far away from all this trouble. + + +Nan had felt a strange sense of weariness, which did not leave her +even when she was quieted by the fresh breeze of the river-shore, and +was contented to let her oars be stowed in the bottom of the boat, and +to take the comfortable seat in the stern. She pulled the tiller ropes +over her shoulders, and watched her lover's first strong strokes, +which had quickly sent them out into the stream, beyond the course of +a larger craft which was coming toward the wharf. She wished presently +that she had chosen to row, because they would not then be face to +face; but, strange to say, since this new experience had come to her, +she had not felt so sure of herself as now, and the fear of finding +herself too weak to oppose the new tendency of her life had lessened +since her first recognition of it the night before. But Nan had fought +a hard fight, and had grown a great deal older in those hours of the +day and night. She believed that time would make her even more certain +that she had done right than she could be now in the heat of the +battle, but she wished whatever George Gerry meant to say to her might +be soon over with. + +They went slowly up the river, which was now quite familiar to the +girl who had come to it a stranger only a few weeks before. She liked +out-of-door life so well that this countryside of Dunport was already +more dear to her than to many who had seen it bloom and fade every +year since they could remember. At one moment it seemed but yesterday +that she had come to the old town, and at the next she felt as if she +had spent half a lifetime there, and as if Oldfields might have +changed unbearably since she came away. + +Sometimes the young oarsman kept in the middle of the great stream, +and sometimes it seemed pleasanter to be near the shore. The midsummer +flowers were coming into blossom, and the grass and trees had long +since lost the brilliance of their greenness, and wore a look of +maturity and completion, as if they had already finished their growth. +There was a beautiful softness and harmony of color, a repose that one +never sees in a spring landscape. The tide was in, the sun was almost +down, and a great, cloudless, infinite sky arched itself from horizon +to horizon. It had sent all its brilliance to shine backward from the +sun,--the glowing sphere from which a single dazzling ray came across +the fields and the water to the boat. In a moment more it was gone, +and a shadow quickly fell like that of a tropical twilight; but the +west grew golden, and one light cloud, like a floating red feather, +faded away upward into the sky. A later bright glow touched some high +hills in the east, then they grew purple and gray, and so the evening +came that way slowly, and the ripple of the water plashed and sobbed +against the boat's side; and presently in the midst of the river's +inland bay, after a few last eager strokes, the young man drew in his +oars, letting them drop with a noise which startled Nan, who had +happened to be looking over her shoulder at the shore. + +She knew well enough that he meant to put a grave question to her now, +and her heart beat faster and she twisted the tiller cords around her +hands unconsciously. + +"I think I could break any bonds you might use to keep yourself away +from me," he said hurriedly, as he watched her. "I am not fit for you, +only that I love you. Somebody told me you meant to go away, and I +could not wait any longer before I asked you if you would give +yourself to me." + +"No, no!" cried Nan, "dear friend, I must not do it; it would all be a +mistake. You must not think of it any more. I am so sorry, I ought to +have understood what was coming to us, and have gone away long ago." + +"It would have made no difference," said the young man, almost +angrily. He could not bear delay enough even for speech at that +moment; he watched her face desperately for a look of assurance; he +leaned toward her and wondered why he had not risked everything, and +spoken the evening before when they stood watching the ship's mast, +and Nan's hands were close enough to be touched. But the miserable +knowledge crept over him that she was a great deal farther away from +him than half that small boat's length, and as she looked up at him +again, and shook her head gently, a great rage of love and shame at +his repulse urged him to plead again. "You are spoiling my life," he +cried. "You do not care for that, but without you I shall not care for +anything." + +"I would rather spoil your life in this way than in a far worse +fashion," said Nan sadly. "I will always be your friend, but if I +married you I might seem by and by to be your enemy. Yes, you will +love somebody else some day, and be a great deal happier than I could +have made you, and I shall be so glad. It does not belong to me." + +But this seemed too scornful and cold-hearted. "Oh, my love is only +worth that to you," the lover said. "You shall know better what it +means. I don't want you for my friend, but for my own to keep and to +have. It makes me laugh to think of your being a doctor and going back +to that country town to throw yourself away for the fancies and silly +theories of a man who has lived like a hermit. It means a true life +for both of us if you will only say you love me, or even let me ask +you again when you have thought of it more. Everybody will say I am in +the right." + +"Yes, there are reasons enough for it, but there is a better reason +against it. If you love me you must help me do what is best," said +Nan. "I shall miss you and think of you more than you know when I am +away. I never shall forget all these pleasant days we have been +together. Oh George!" she cried, in a tone that thrilled him through +and through, "I hope you will be friends with me again by and by. You +will know then I have done right because it is right and will prove +itself. If it is wrong for me I couldn't really make you happy; and +over all this and beyond it something promises me and calls me for a +life that my marrying you would hinder and not help. It isn't that I +shouldn't be so happy that it is not easy to turn away even from the +thought of it; but I know that the days would come when I should see, +in a way that would make me long to die, that I had lost the true +direction of my life and had misled others beside myself. You don't +believe me, but I cannot break faith with my duty. There are many +reasons that have forbidden me to marry, and I have a certainty as +sure as the stars that the only right condition of life for me is to +follow the way that everything until now has pointed out. The great +gain and purpose of my being alive is there; and I must not mind the +blessings that I shall have to do without." + +He made a gesture of impatience and tried to interrupt her, but she +said quickly, as if to prevent his speaking: "Listen to me. I can't +help speaking plainly. I would not have come with you this afternoon, +only I wished to make you understand me entirely. I have never since I +can remember thought of myself and my life in any way but +unmarried,--going on alone to the work I am fit to do. I do care for +you. I have been greatly surprised and shaken because I found how +strongly something in me has taken your part, and shown me the +possibility of happiness in a quiet life that should centre itself in +one man's love, and within the walls of his home. But something tells +me all the time that I could not marry the whole of myself as most +women can; there is a great share of my life which could not have its +way, and could only hide itself and be sorry. I know better and better +that most women are made for another sort of existence, but by and by +I must do my part in my own way to make many homes happy instead of +one; to free them from pain, and teach grown people and little +children to keep their bodies free from weakness and deformities. I +don't know why God should have made me a doctor, so many other things +have seemed fitter for women; but I see the blessedness of such a +useful life more and more every year, and I am very thankful for such +a trust. It is a splendid thing to have the use of any gift of God. It +isn't for us to choose again, or wonder and dispute, but just work in +our own places, and leave the rest to God." + +The boat was being carried downward by the ebbing tide, and George +Gerry took the oars again, and rowed quietly and in silence. He took +his defeat unkindly and drearily; he was ashamed of himself once, +because some evil spirit told him that he was losing much that would +content him, in failing to gain this woman's love. It had all been so +fair a prospect of worldly success, and she had been the queen of it. +He thought of himself growing old in Mr. Sergeant's dusty office, and +that this was all that life could hold for him. Yet to be was better +than to have. Alas! if he had been more earnest in his growth, it +would have been a power which this girl of high ideals could have been +held and mastered by. No wonder that she would not give up her dreams +of duty and service, since she had found him less strong than such +ideals. The fancied dissatisfaction and piteousness of failure which +she would be sure to meet filled his heart with dismay; yet, at that +very next moment, resent it as he might, the certainty of his own +present defeat and powerlessness could not be misunderstood. Perhaps, +after all, she knew what was right; her face wore again the look he +had feared to disturb the night before, and his whole soul was filled +with homage in the midst of its sorrow, because this girl, who had +been his merry companion in the summer holidays, so sweet and familiar +and unforgetable in the midst of the simple festivals, stood nearer to +holier things than himself, and had listened to the call of God's +messengers to whom his own doors had been ignorantly shut. And Nan +that night was a soul's physician, though she had been made to sorely +hurt her patient before the new healthfulness could well begin. + +They floated down the river and tried to talk once or twice, but there +were many spaces of silence, and as they walked along the paved +streets, they thought of many things. An east wind was blowing in from +the sea, and the elm branches were moving restlessly overhead. "It +will all be better to-morrow," said Nan, as they stood on the steps at +last. "You must come to see Aunt Nancy very often after I have gone, +for she will be lonely. And do come in the morning as if nothing had +been spoken. I am so sorry. Good-night, and God bless you," she +whispered; and when she stood inside the wide doorway, in the dark, +she listened to his footsteps as he went away down the street. They +were slower than usual, but she did not call him back. + + + + +XXI + +AT HOME AGAIN + + +In Oldfields Dr. Leslie had outwardly lived the familiar life to which +his friends and patients had long since accustomed themselves; he had +seemed a little preoccupied, perhaps, but if that were observed, it +was easily explained by his having one or two difficult cases to think +about. A few persons suspected that he missed Nan, and was, perhaps, a +little anxious lest her father's people in Dunport should claim her +altogether. Among those who knew best the doctor and his ward there +had been an ardent championship of Nan's rights and dignity, and a +great curiosity to know the success of the visit. Dr. Leslie had +answered all questions with composure, and with a distressing +meagreness of details; but at length Mrs. Graham became sure that he +was not altogether free from anxiety, and set her own quick wits at +work to learn the cause. It seemed a time of great uncertainty, at any +rate. The doctor sometimes brought one of Nan's bright, affectionate +letters for his neighbor to read, and they agreed that this holiday +was an excellent thing for her, but there was a silent recognition of +the fact that this was a critical time in the young girl's history; +that it either meant a new direction of her life or an increased +activity in the old one. Mrs. Graham was less well than usual in these +days, and the doctor found time to make more frequent visits than +ever, telling himself that she missed Nan's pleasant companionship, +but really wishing as much to receive sympathy as to give it. The dear +old lady had laughingly disclaimed any desire to summon her children +or grandchildren, saying that she was neither ill enough to need them, +nor well enough to enjoy them; and so in the beautiful June weather +the two old friends became strangely dear to each other, and had many +a long talk which the cares of the world or their own reserve had made +them save until this favoring season. + +The doctor was acknowledged to be an old man at last, though everybody +still insisted that he looked younger than his age, and could not +doubt that he had half a lifetime of usefulness before him yet. But it +makes a great difference when one's ambitions are transferred from +one's own life to that of a younger person's; and while Dr. Leslie +grew less careful for himself, trusting to the unconscious certainty +of his practiced skill, he pondered eagerly over Nan's future, +reminding himself of various hints and suggestions, which must be +added to her equipment. Sometimes he wished that she were beginning a +few years later, when her position could be better recognized and +respected, and she would not have to fight against so much of the +opposition and petty fault-finding that come from ignorance; and +sometimes he rejoiced that his little girl, as he fondly called her, +would be one of the earlier proofs and examples of a certain noble +advance and new vantage-ground of civilization. This has been +anticipated through all ages by the women who, sometimes honored and +sometimes persecuted, have been drawn away from home life by a +devotion to public and social usefulness. It must be recognized that +certain qualities are required for married, and even domestic life, +which all women do not possess; but instead of attributing this to the +disintegration of society, it must be acknowledged to belong to its +progress. + +So long as the visit in Dunport seemed to fulfill its anticipated +purpose, and the happy guest was throwing aside her cares and enjoying +the merry holiday and the excitement of new friendships and of her +uncommon position, so long the doctor had been glad, and far from +impatient to have the visit end. But when he read the later and +shorter letters again and again in the vain hope of finding something +in their wording which should explain the vague unhappiness which had +come to him as he had read them first, he began to feel troubled and +dismayed. There was something which Nan had not explained; something +was going wrong. He was sure that if it were anything he could set +right, that she would have told him. She had always done so; but it +became evident through the strange sympathy which made him conscious +of the mood of others that she was bent upon fighting her way alone. + +It was a matter of surprise, and almost of dismay to him early one +morning, when he received a brief note from her which told him only +that she should be at home late that afternoon. It seemed to the wise +old doctor a day of most distressing uncertainty. He tried to make up +his mind to accept with true philosophy whatever decision she was +bringing him. "Nan is a good girl," he told himself over and over +again; "she will try to do right." But she was so young and so +generous, and whether she had been implored to break the old ties of +home life and affection for her aunt's sake, or whether it was a newer +and stronger influence still which had prevailed, waited for +explanation. Alas, as was written once, it is often the higher nature +that yields, because it is the most generous. The doctor knew well +enough the young girl's character. He knew what promises of growth and +uncommon achievement were all ready to unfold themselves,--for what +great uses she was made. He could not bear the thought of her being +handicapped in the race she had been set to run. Yet no one recognized +more clearly than he the unseen, and too often unconsidered, factor +which is peculiar to each soul, which prevents any other intelligence +from putting itself exactly in that soul's place, so that our +decisions and aids and suggestions are never wholly sufficient or +available for those even whom we love most. He went over the question +again and again; he followed Nan in his thoughts as she had grown +up,--unprejudiced, unconstrained as is possible for any human being to +be. He remembered that her heroes were the great doctors, and that her +whole heart had been stirred and claimed by the noble duties and needs +of the great profession. She had been careless of the social +limitations, of the lack of sympathy, even of the ridicule of the +public. She had behaved as a bird would behave if it were assured by +beasts and fishes that to walk and to swim were the only proper and +respectable means of getting from place to place. She had shown such +rare insight into the principles of things; she had even seemed to +him, as he watched her, to have anticipated experience, and he could +not help believing that it was within her power to add much to the too +small fund of certainty, by the sure instinct and aim of her +experiment. It counted nothing whether God had put this soul into a +man's body or a woman's. He had known best, and He meant it to be the +teller of new truth, a revealer of laws, and an influence for good in +its capacity for teaching, as well as in its example of pure and +reasonable life. + +But the old doctor sighed, and told himself that the girl was most +human, most affectionate; it was not impossible that, in spite of her +apparent absence of certain domestic instincts, they had only lain +dormant and were now awake. He could not bear that she should lose any +happiness which might be hers; and the tender memory of the blessed +companionship which had been withdrawn from his mortal sight only to +be given back to him more fully as he had lived closer and nearer to +spiritual things, made him shrink from forbidding the same sort of +fullness and completion of life to one so dear as Nan. He tried to +assure himself that while a man's life is strengthened by his domestic +happiness, a woman's must either surrender itself wholly, or +relinquish entirely the claims of such duties, if she would achieve +distinction or satisfaction elsewhere. The two cannot be taken +together in a woman's life as in a man's. One must be made of lesser +consequence, though the very natures of both domestic and professional +life need all the strength which can be brought to them. The decision +between them he knew to be a most grave responsibility, and one to be +governed by the gravest moral obligations, and the unmistakable +leadings of the personal instincts and ambitions. It was seldom, Dr. +Leslie was aware, that so typical and evident an example as this could +offer itself of the class of women who are a result of natural +progression and variation, not for better work, but for different +work, and who are designed for certain public and social duties. But +he believed this class to be one that must inevitably increase with +the higher developments of civilization, and in later years, which he +might never see, the love for humanity would be recognized and +employed more intelligently; while now almost every popular prejudice +was against his ward, then she would need no vindication. The wielder +of ideas has always a certain advantage over the depender upon facts; +and though the two classes of minds by no means inevitably belong, the +one to women, and the other to men, still women have not yet begun to +use the best resources of their natures, having been later developed, +and in many countries but recently freed from restraining and +hindering influences. + +The preservation of the race is no longer the only important question; +the welfare of the individual will be considered more and more. The +simple fact that there is a majority of women in any centre of +civilization means that some are set apart by nature for other uses +and conditions than marriage. In ancient times men depended entirely +upon the women of their households to prepare their food and +clothing,--and almost every man in ordinary circumstances of life was +forced to marry for this reason; but already there is a great change. +The greater proportion of men and women everywhere will still +instinctively and gladly accept the high duties and helps of married +life; but as society becomes more intelligent it will recognize the +fitness of some persons, and the unfitness of others, making it +impossible for these to accept such responsibilities and obligations, +and so dignify and elevate home life instead of degrading it. + +It had been one thing to act from conviction and from the promptings +of instinct while no obstacles opposed themselves to his decisions, +and quite another thing to be brought face to face with such an +emergency. Dr. Leslie wished first to be able to distinctly explain to +himself his reasons for the opinions he held; he knew that he must +judge for Nan herself in some measure; she would surely appeal to him; +she would bring this great question to him, and look for sympathy and +relief in the same way she had tearfully shown him a wounded finger in +her childhood. He seemed to see again the entreating eyes, made large +with the pain which would not show itself in any other way, and he +felt the rare tears fill his own eyes at the thought. "Poor little +Nan," he said to himself, "she has been hurt in the great battle, but +she is no skulking soldier." He would let her tell her story, and then +give her the best help he could; and so when the afternoon shadows +were very long across the country, and the hot summer day was almost +done, the doctor drove down the wide street and along East Road to the +railroad station. As he passed a group of small houses he looked at +his watch and found that there was more than time for a second visit +to a sick child whose illness had been most serious and perplexing at +first, though now she was fast recovering. The little thing smiled as +her friend came in, and asked if the young lady were coming to-morrow, +for Dr. Leslie had promised a visit and a picture-book from Nan, whom +he wished to see and understand the case. They had had a long talk +upon such ailments as this just before she went away, and nothing had +seemed to rouse her ambition so greatly as her experiences at the +children's hospitals the winter before. Now, this weak little creature +seemed to be pleading in the name of a great army of sick children, +that Nan would not desert their cause; that she would go on, as she +had promised them, with her search for ways that should restore their +vigor and increase their fitness to take up the work of the world. And +yet, a home and children of one's very own,--the doctor, who had held +and lost this long ago, felt powerless to decide the future of the +young heart which was so dear to him. + +Nan saw the familiar old horse and carriage waiting behind the +station, and did not fail to notice that the doctor had driven to meet +her himself. He almost always did, but her very anxiety to see him +again had made her doubtful. The train had hardly stopped before she +was standing on the platform and had hastily dropped her checks into +the hand of the nearest idle boy, who looked at them doubtfully, as if +he hardly dared to hope that he had been mistaken for the hackman. She +came quickly to the side of the carriage; the doctor could not look at +her, for the horse had made believe that some excitement was +necessary, and was making it difficult for the welcome passenger to +put her foot on the step. It was all over in a minute. Nan sprang to +the doctor's side and away they went down the road. He had caught a +glimpse of her shining eyes and eager face as she had hurried toward +him, and had said, "Well done!" in a most cheerful and every-day +fashion, and then for a minute there was silence. + +"Oh, it is so good to get home," said the girl, and her companion +turned toward her; he could not wait to hear her story. + +"Yes," said Nan, "it is just as well to tell you now. Do you remember +you used to say to me when I was a little girl, 'If you know your +duty, don't mind the best of reasons for not doing it'?" And the +doctor nodded. "I never thought that this reason would come to me for +not being a doctor," she went on, "and at first I was afraid I should +be conquered, though it was myself who fought myself. But it came to +me clearer than ever after a while. I think I could have been fonder +of some one than most people are of those whom they marry, but the +more I cared for him the less I could give him only part of myself; I +knew that was not right. Now that I can look back at it all I am so +glad to have had those days; I shall work better all my life for +having been able to make myself so perfectly sure that I know my way." + +The unconsidered factor had asserted itself in the doctor's favor. He +gave the reins to Nan and leaned back in the carriage, but as she bent +forward to speak to a friend whom they passed she did not see the look +that he gave her. + +"I am sure you knew what was right," he said, hastily. "God bless you, +dear child!" + +Was this little Nan, who had been his play-thing? this brave young +creature, to whose glorious future all his heart and hopes went out. +In his evening it was her morning, and he prayed that God's angels +should comfort and strengthen her and help her to carry the burden of +the day. It is only those who can do nothing who find nothing to do, +and Nan was no idler; she had come to her work as Christ came to his, +not to be ministered unto but to minister. + + +The months went by swiftly, and through hard work and much study, and +many sights of pain and sorrow, this young student of the business of +healing made her way to the day when some of her companions announced +with melancholy truth that they had finished their studies. They were +pretty sure to be accused of having had no right to begin them, or to +take such trusts and responsibilities into their hands. But Nan and +many of her friends had gladly climbed the hill so far, and with every +year's ascent had been thankful for the wider horizon which was spread +for their eyes to see. + +Dr. Leslie in his quiet study almost wished that he were beginning +life again, and sometimes in the twilight, or in long and lonely +country drives, believed himself ready to go back twenty years so that +he could follow Nan into the future and watch her successes. But he +always smiled afterward at such a thought. Twenty years would carry +him back to the time when his ward was a little child, not long before +she came to live with him. It was best as God had planned it. Nobody +had watched the child's development as he had done, or her growth of +character, of which all the performances of her later years would be +to him only the unnecessary proofs and evidences. He knew that she +would be faithful in great things, because she had been faithful in +little things, and he should be with her a long time yet, perhaps. God +only knew. + +There was a great change in the village; there were more small +factories now which employed large numbers of young women, and though +a new doctor had long ago come to Oldfields who had begun by trying to +supersede Dr. Leslie, he had ended by longing to show his gratitude +some day for so much help and kindness. More than one appointment had +been offered the heroine of this story in the city hospitals. She +would have little trouble in making her way since she had the +requisite qualities, natural and acquired, which secure success. But +she decided for herself that she would neither do this, nor carry out +yet the other plan of going on with her studies at some school across +the sea. Zurich held out a great temptation, but there was time enough +yet, and she would spend a year in Oldfields with the doctor, studying +again with him, since she knew better than ever before that she could +find no wiser teacher. And it was a great pleasure to belong to the +dear old town, to come home to it with her new treasures, so much +richer than she had gone away that beside medicines and bandages and +lessons in general hygiene for the physical ails of her patients, she +could often be a tonic to the mind and soul; and since she was trying +to be good, go about doing good in Christ's name to the halt and +maimed and blind in spiritual things. + +Nobody sees people as they are and finds the chance to help poor +humanity as a doctor does. The decorations and deceptions of character +must fall away before the great realities of pain and death. The +secrets of many hearts and homes must be told to this confessor, and +sadder ailments than the text-books name are brought to be healed by +the beloved physicians. Teachers of truth and givers of the laws of +life, priests and ministers,--all these professions are joined in one +with the gift of healing, and are each part of the charge that a good +doctor holds in his keeping. + + +One day in the beginning of her year at Oldfields, Nan, who had been +very busy, suddenly thought it would be well to give herself a +holiday; and with a sudden return of her old sense of freedom was +going out at the door and down toward the gateway, which opened to a +pleasantly wide world beyond. Marilla had taken Nan's successes rather +reluctantly, and never hesitated to say that she only hoped to see her +well married and settled before she died; though she was always ready +to defend her course with even virulence to those who would deprecate +it. She now heard Nan shut the door, and called at once from an upper +window to know if word had been left where she was going, and the +young practitioner laughed aloud as she answered, and properly +acknowledged the fetter of her calling. + +The leaves were just beginning to fall, and she pushed them about with +her feet, and sometimes walked and sometimes ran lightly along the +road toward the farm. But when she reached it, she passed the lane and +went on to the Dyer houses. Mrs. Jake was ailing as usual, and Nan had +told the doctor before she came out that she would venture another +professional visit in his stead. She was a great help to him in this +way, for his calls to distant towns had increased year by year, and he +often found it hard to keep his many patients well in hand. + +The old houses had not changed much since she first knew them, and +neither they nor their inmates were in any danger of being forgotten +by her; the old ties of affection and association grew stronger +instead of weaker every year. It pleased and amused the old people to +be reminded of the days when Nan was a child and lived among them, and +it was a great joy to her to be able to make their pain and discomfort +less, and be their interpreter of the outside world. + +It was a most lovely day of our heroine's favorite weather. It has +been said that November is an epitome of all the months of the year, +but for all that, no other season can show anything so beautiful as +the best and brightest November days. Nan had spent her summer in a +great hospital, where she saw few flowers save human ones, and the +warmth and inspiration of this clear air seemed most delightful. She +had been somewhat tempted by an offer of a fine position in Canada, +and even Dr. Leslie had urged her acceptance, and thought it an +uncommonly good chance to have the best hospital experience and +responsibility, but she had sent the letter of refusal only that +morning. She could not tell yet what her later plans might be; but +there was no place like Oldfields, and she thought she had never loved +it so dearly as that afternoon. + +She looked in at Mrs. Martin's wide-open door first, but finding the +kitchen empty, went quickly across to the other house, where Mrs. Jake +was propped up in her rocking-chair and began to groan loudly when she +saw Nan; but the tonic of so gratifying a presence soon had a most +favorable effect. Benignant Mrs. Martin was knitting as usual, and the +three women sat together in a friendly group and Nan asked and +answered questions most cordially. + +"I declare I was sort of put out with the doctor for sending you down +here day before yesterday instead of coming himself," stated Mrs. Jake +immediately, "but I do' know's I ever had anything do me so much good +as that bottle you gave me." + +"Of course!" laughed Nan. "Dr. Leslie sent it to you himself. I told +you when I gave it to you." + +"Well now, how you talk!" said Mrs. Jake, a little crestfallen. "I +begin to find my hearing fails me by spells. But I was bound to give +you the credit, for all I've stood out against your meddling with a +doctor's business." + +Nan laughed merrily. "I am going to steal you for my patient," she +answered, "and try all the prescriptions on your case first." + +"Land, if you cured her up 'twould be like stopping the leaks in a +basket," announced Mrs. Martin with a beaming smile, and clicking her +knitting-needles excitedly. "She can't hear of a complaint anywheres +about but she thinks she's got the mate to it." + +"I don't seem to have anything fevery about me," said Mrs. Jake, with +an air of patient self-denial; and though both her companions were +most compassionate at the thought of her real sufferings, they could +not resist the least bit of a smile. "I declare you've done one +first-rate thing, if you're never going to do any more," said Mrs. +Jake, presently. "'Liza here's been talking for some time past, about +your straightening up the little boy's back,--the one that lives down +where Mis' Meeker used to live you know,--but I didn't seem to take it +in till he come over here yisterday forenoon. Looks as likely as any +child, except it may be he's a little stunted. When I think how he +used to creep about there, side of the road, like a hopper-toad, it +does seem amazin'!" + +Nan's eyes brightened. "I have been delighted about that. I saw him +running with the other children as I came down the road. It was a long +bit of work, though. The doctor did most of it; I didn't see the child +for months, you know. But he needs care yet; I'm going to stop and +have another talk with his mother as I go home." + +"She's a pore shiftless creature," Mrs. Martin hastened to say. +"There, I thought o' the doctor, how he'd laugh, the last time I was +in to see her; her baby was sick, and she sent up to know if I'd lend +her a variety of herbs, and I didn't know but she might p'isen it, so +I stepped down with something myself. She begun to flutter about like +she always does, and I picked my way acrost the kitchen to the cradle. +'There,' says she, 'I have been laying out all this week to go up to +the Corners and git me two new chairs.' 'I should think you had plenty +of chairs now,' said I, and she looked at me sort of surprised, and +says she, 'There ain't a chair in this house but what's full.'" + +And Nan laughed as heartily as could have been desired before she +asked Mrs. Jake a few more appreciative questions about her ailments, +and then rose to go away. Mrs. Martin followed her out to the gate; +she and Nan had always been very fond of each other, and the elder +woman pointed to a field not far away where the brothers were watching +a stubble-fire, which was sending up a thin blue thread of smoke into +the still air. "They were over in your north lot yisterday," said Mrs. +Martin. "They're fullest o' business nowadays when there's least to +do. They took it pretty hard when they first had to come down to +hiring help, but they kind of enjoy it now. We're all old folks +together on the farm, and not good for much. It don't seem but a year +or two since your poor mother was playing about here, and then you +come along, and now you're the last o' your folks out of all the +houseful of 'em I knew. I'll own up sometimes I've thought strange of +your fancy for doctoring, but I never said a word to nobody against +it, so I haven't got anything to take back as most folks have. I +couldn't help thinking when you come in this afternoon and sat there +along of us, that I'd give a good deal to have Mis' Thacher step in +and see you and know what you've made o' yourself. She had it hard for +a good many years, but I believe 't is all made up to her; I do +certain." + +Nan meant to go back to the village by the shorter way of the little +foot-path, but first she went up the grass-grown lane toward the old +farm-house. She stood for a minute looking about her and across the +well-known fields, and then seated herself on the door-step, and +stayed there for some time. There were two or three sheep near by, +well covered and rounded by their soft new winter wool, and they all +came as close as they dared and looked at her wonderingly. The narrow +path that used to be worn to the door-step had been overgrown years +ago with the short grass, and in it there was a late little dandelion +with hardly any stem at all. The sunshine was warm, and all the +country was wrapped in a thin, soft haze. + +She thought of her grandmother Thacher, and of the words that had just +been said; it was beginning to seem a very great while since the days +of the old farm-life, and Nan smiled as she remembered with what tones +of despair the good old woman used to repeat the well-worn phrase, +that her grandchild would make either something or nothing. It seemed +to her that she had brought all the success of the past and her hopes +for the future to the dear old place that afternoon. Her early life +was spreading itself out like a picture, and as she thought it over +and looked back from year to year, she was more than ever before +surprised to see the connection of one thing with another, and how +some slight acts had been the planting of seeds which had grown and +flourished long afterward. And as she tried to follow herself back +into the cloudy days of her earliest spring, she rose without knowing +why, and went down the pastures toward the river. She passed the old +English apple-tree, which still held aloft a flourishing bough. Its +fruit had been gathered, but there were one or two stray apples left, +and Nan skillfully threw a stick at these by way of summons. + +Along this path she had hurried or faltered many a time. She +remembered her grandmother's funeral, and how she had walked, with an +elderly cousin whom she did not know, at the head of the procession, +and had seen Martin Dyer's small grandson peeping like a rabbit from +among the underbrush near the shore. Poor little Nan! she was very +lonely that day. She had been so glad when the doctor had wrapped her +up and taken her home. + +She saw the neighborly old hawthorn-tree that grew by a cellar, and +stopped to listen to its rustling and to lay her hand upon the rough +bark. It had been a cause of wonder once, for she knew no other tree +of the kind. It was like a snow-drift when it was in bloom, and in the +grass-grown cellar she had spent many an hour, for there was a good +shelter from the wind and an excellent hiding-place, though it seemed +very shallow now when she looked at it as she went by. + +The burying-place was shut in by a plain stone wall, which she had +long ago asked the Dyers to build for her, and she leaned over it now +and looked at the smooth turf of the low graves. She had always +thought she would like to lie there too when her work was done. There +were some of the graves which she did not know, but one was her poor +young mother's, who had left her no inheritance except some traits +that had won Nan many friends; all her evil gifts had been buried with +her, the neighbors had said, when the girl was out of hearing, that +very afternoon. + +There was a strange fascination about these river uplands; no place +was so dear to Nan, and yet she often thought with a shudder of the +story of those footprints which had sought the river's brink, and then +turned back. Perhaps, made pure and strong in a better world, in which +some lingering love and faith had given her the true direction at +last, where even her love for her child had saved her, the mother had +been still taking care of little Nan and guiding her. Perhaps she had +helped to make sure of the blessings her own life had lost, of truth +and whiteness of soul and usefulness; and so had been still bringing +her child in her arms toward the great shelter and home, as she had +toiled in her fright and weakness that dark and miserable night toward +the house on the hill. + +And Nan stood on the shore while the warm wind that gently blew her +hair felt almost like a hand, and presently she went closer to the +river, and looked far across it and beyond it to the hills. The eagles +swung to and fro above the water, but she looked beyond them into the +sky. The soft air and the sunshine came close to her; the trees stood +about and seemed to watch her; and suddenly she reached her hands +upward in an ecstasy of life and strength and gladness. "O God," she +said, "I thank thee for my future." + + * * * * * + + + + +SELECTED STORIES AND SKETCHES + +by Sarah Orne Jewett + + + + * * * * * + + + +CONTENTS + + +STORIES FROM _Strangers and Wayfarers_, Published 1890 + + A WINTER COURTSHIP (_Atlantic Monthly_, Feb., 1889) + + GOING TO SHREWSBURY (_Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1889) + + THE WHITE ROSE ROAD (_Atlantic Monthly_, Sept., 1889) + + THE TOWN POOR (_Atlantic Monthly_, July, 1890) + + +STORIES FROM _A Native of Winby and Other Tales_, Published 1893 + + A NATIVE OF WINBY (_Atlantic Monthly_, May, 1891) + + +LOOKING BACK ON GIRLHOOD, _Youth's Companion_, January 7, 1892 + + +MORE STORIES FROM _A Native of Winby and Other Tales_, Published 1893 + + THE PASSING OF SISTER BARSETT (_Cosmopolitan Magazine_, May, 1892) + + DECORATION DAY (_Harper's Magazine_, June, 1892) + + THE FLIGHT OF BETSEY LANE (_Scribner's Magazine_, Aug. 1893) + + +THE GRAY MILLS OF FARLEY, _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, June, 1898 + + * * * * * + + + + +_A Winter Courtship_ + + +The passenger and mail transportation between the towns of North Kilby +and Sanscrit Pond was carried on by Mr. Jefferson Briley, whose +two-seated covered wagon was usually much too large for the demands of +business. Both the Sanscrit Pond and North Kilby people were +stayers-at-home, and Mr. Briley often made his seven-mile journey in +entire solitude, except for the limp leather mail-bag, which he held +firmly to the floor of the carriage with his heavily shod left foot. +The mail-bag had almost a personality to him, born of long +association. Mr. Briley was a meek and timid-looking body, but he held +a warlike soul, and encouraged his fancies by reading awful tales of +bloodshed and lawlessness in the far West. Mindful of stage robberies +and train thieves, and of express messengers who died at their posts, +he was prepared for anything; and although he had trusted to his own +strength and bravery these many years, he carried a heavy pistol under +his front-seat cushion for better defense. This awful weapon was +familiar to all his regular passengers, and was usually shown to +strangers by the time two of the seven miles of Mr. Briley's route had +been passed. The pistol was not loaded. Nobody (at least not Mr. +Briley himself) doubted that the mere sight of such a weapon would +turn the boldest adventurer aside. + +Protected by such a man and such a piece of armament, one gray Friday +morning in the edge of winter, Mrs. Fanny Tobin was traveling from +Sanscrit Pond to North Kilby. She was an elderly and feeble-looking +woman, but with a shrewd twinkle in her eyes, and she felt very +anxious about her numerous pieces of baggage and her own personal +safety. She was enveloped in many shawls and smaller wrappings, but +they were not securely fastened, and kept getting undone and flying +loose, so that the bitter December cold seemed to be picking a lock +now and then, and creeping in to steal away the little warmth she had. +Mr. Briley was cold, too, and could only cheer himself by remembering +the valor of those pony-express drivers of the pre-railroad days, who +had to cross the Rocky Mountains on the great California route. He +spoke at length of their perils to the suffering passenger, who felt +none the warmer, and at last gave a groan of weariness. + +"How fur did you say 't was now?" + +"I do' know's I said, Mis' Tobin," answered the driver, with a frosty +laugh. "You see them big pines, and the side of a barn just this way, +with them yellow circus bills? That's my three-mile mark." + +"Be we got four more to make? Oh, my laws!" mourned Mrs. Tobin. "Urge +the beast, can't ye, Jeff'son? I ain't used to bein' out in such bleak +weather. Seems if I couldn't git my breath. I'm all pinched up and +wigglin' with shivers now. 'T ain't no use lettin' the hoss go +step-a-ty-step, this fashion." + +"Landy me!" exclaimed the affronted driver. "I don't see why folks +expects me to race with the cars. Everybody that gits in wants me to +run the hoss to death on the road. I make a good everage o' time, and +that's all I _can_ do. Ef you was to go back an' forth every day but +Sabbath fur eighteen years, _you_'d want to ease it all you could, and +let those thrash the spokes out o' their wheels that wanted to. North +Kilby, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; Sanscrit Pond, Tuesdays, +Thu'sdays, an' Saturdays. Me an' the beast's done it eighteen years +together, and the creatur' warn't, so to say, young when we begun it, +nor I neither. I re'lly didn't know's she'd hold out till this time. +There, git up, will ye, old mar'!" as the beast of burden stopped +short in the road. + +There was a story that Jefferson gave this faithful creature a rest +three times a mile, and took four hours for the journey by himself, +and longer whenever he had a passenger. But in pleasant weather the +road was delightful, and full of people who drove their own +conveyances, and liked to stop and talk. There were not many farms, +and the third growth of white pines made a pleasant shade, though +Jefferson liked to say that when he began to carry the mail his way +lay through an open country of stumps and sparse underbrush, where the +white pines nowadays completely arched the road. + +They had passed the barn with circus posters, and felt colder than +ever when they caught sight of the weather-beaten acrobats in their +tights. + +"My gorry!" exclaimed Widow Tobin, "them pore creatur's looks as +cheerless as little birch-trees in snow-time. I hope they dresses 'em +warmer this time o' year. Now, there! look at that one jumpin' through +the little hoop, will ye?" + +"He couldn't git himself through there with two pair o' pants on," +answered Mr. Briley. "I expect they must have to keep limber as eels. +I used to think, when I was a boy, that 'twas the only thing I could +ever be reconciled to do for a livin'. I set out to run away an' +follow a rovin' showman once, but mother needed me to home. There +warn't nobody but me an' the little gals." + +"You ain't the only one that's be'n disapp'inted o' their heart's +desire," said Mrs. Tobin sadly. "'T warn't so that I could be spared +from home to learn the dressmaker's trade." + +"'T would a come handy later on, I declare," answered the sympathetic +driver, "bein' 's you went an' had such a passel o' gals to clothe an' +feed. There, them that's livin' is all well off now, but it must ha' +been some inconvenient for ye when they was small." + +"Yes, Mr. Briley, but then I've had my mercies, too," said the widow +somewhat grudgingly. "I take it master hard now, though, havin' to +give up my own home and live round from place to place, if they be my +own child'en. There was Ad'line and Susan Ellen fussin' an' bickerin' +yesterday about who'd got to have me next; and, Lord be thanked, they +both wanted me right off but I hated to hear 'em talkin' of it over. +I'd rather live to home, and do for myself." + +"I've got consider'ble used to boardin'," said Jefferson, "sence ma'am +died, but it made me ache 'long at the fust on 't, I tell ye. Bein' on +the road's I be, I couldn't do no ways at keepin' house. I should want +to keep right there and see to things." + +"Course you would," replied Mrs. Tobin, with a sudden inspiration of +opportunity which sent a welcome glow all over her. "Course you would, +Jeff'son,"--she leaned toward the front seat; "that is to say, onless +you had jest the right one to do it for ye." + +And Jefferson felt a strange glow also, and a sense of unexpected +interest and enjoyment. + +"See here, Sister Tobin," he exclaimed with enthusiasm. "Why can't ye +take the trouble to shift seats, and come front here long o' me? We +could put one buff'lo top o' the other,--they're both wearin' +thin,--and set close, and I do' know but we sh'd be more protected +ag'inst the weather." + +"Well, I couldn't be no colder if I was froze to death," answered the +widow, with an amiable simper. "Don't ye let me delay you, nor put you +out, Mr. Briley. I don't know's I'd set forth to-day if I'd known 't +was so cold; but I had all my bundles done up, and I ain't one that +puts my hand to the plough an' looks back, 'cordin' to Scriptur'." + +"You wouldn't wanted me to ride all them seven miles alone?" asked the +gallant Briley sentimentally, as he lifted her down, and helped her up +again to the front seat. She was a few years older than he, but they +had been schoolmates, and Mrs. Tobin's youthful freshness was suddenly +revived to his mind's eye. She had a little farm; there was nobody +left at home now but herself, and so she had broken up housekeeping +for the winter. Jefferson himself had savings of no mean amount. + +They tucked themselves in, and felt better for the change, but there +was a sudden awkwardness between them; they had not had time to +prepare for an unexpected crisis. + +"They say Elder Bickers, over to East Sanscrit, 's been and got +married again to a gal that's four year younger than his oldest +daughter," proclaimed Mrs. Tobin presently. "Seems to me 't was fool's +business." + +"I view it so," said the stage-driver. "There's goin' to be a mild +open winter for that fam'ly." + +"What a joker you be for a man that's had so much responsibility!" +smiled Mrs. Tobin, after they had done laughing. "Ain't you never +'fraid, carryin' mail matter and such valuable stuff, that you'll be +set on an' robbed, 'specially by night?" + +Jefferson braced his feet against the dasher under the worn buffalo +skin. "It is kind o' scary, or would be for some folks, but I'd like +to see anybody get the better o' me. I go armed, and I don't care who +knows it. Some o' them drover men that comes from Canady looks as if +they didn't care what they did, but I look 'em right in the eye every +time." + +"Men folks is brave by natur'," said the widow admiringly. "You know +how Tobin would let his fist right out at anybody that undertook to +sass him. Town-meetin' days, if he got disappointed about the way +things went, he'd lay 'em out in win'rows; and ef he hadn't been a +church-member he'd been a real fightin' character. I was always 'fraid +to have him roused, for all he was so willin' and meechin' to home, +and set round clever as anybody. My Susan Ellen used to boss him +same's the kitten, when she was four year old." + +"I've got a kind of a sideways cant to my nose, that Tobin give me +when we was to school. I don't know's you ever noticed it," said Mr. +Briley. "We was scufflin', as lads will. I never bore him no kind of a +grudge. I pitied ye, when he was taken away. I re'lly did, now, Fanny. +I liked Tobin first-rate, and I liked you. I used to say you was the +han'somest girl to school." + +"Lemme see your nose. 'Tis all straight, for what I know," said the +widow gently, as with a trace of coyness she gave a hasty glance. "I +don't know but what 'tis warped a little, but nothin' to speak of. +You've got real nice features, like your marm's folks." + +It was becoming a sentimental occasion, and Jefferson Briley felt that +he was in for something more than he had bargained. He hurried the +faltering sorrel horse, and began to talk of the weather. It certainly +did look like snow, and he was tired of bumping over the frozen road. + +"I shouldn't wonder if I hired a hand here another year, and went off +out West myself to see the country." + +"Why, how you talk!" answered the widow. + +"Yes'm," pursued Jefferson. "'Tis tamer here than I like, and I was +tellin' 'em yesterday I've got to know this road most too well. I'd +like to go out an' ride in the mountains with some o' them great +clipper coaches, where the driver don't know one minute but he'll be +shot dead the next. They carry an awful sight o' gold down from the +mines, I expect." + +"I should be scairt to death," said Mrs. Tobin. "What creatur's men +folks be to like such things! Well, I do declare." + +"Yes," explained the mild little man. "There's sights of desp'radoes +makes a han'some livin' out o' followin' them coaches, an' stoppin' +an' robbin' 'em clean to the bone. Your money _or_ your life!" and he +flourished his stub of a whip over the sorrel mare. + +"Landy me! you make me run all of a cold creep. Do tell somethin' +heartenin', this cold day. I shall dream bad dreams all night." + +"They put on black crape over their heads," said the driver +mysteriously. "Nobody knows who most on 'em be, and like as not some +o' them fellows come o' good families. They've got so they stop the +cars, and go right through 'em bold as brass. I could make your hair +stand on end, Mis' Tobin,--I could _so!_" + +"I hope none on 'em'll git round our way, I'm sure," said Fanny Tobin. +"I don't want to see none on 'em in their crape bunnits comin' after +me." + +"I ain't goin' to let nobody touch a hair o' your head," and Mr. +Briley moved a little nearer, and tucked in the buffaloes again. + +"I feel considerable warm to what I did," observed the widow by way of +reward. + +"There, I used to have my fears," Mr. Briley resumed, with an inward +feeling that he never would get to North Kilby depot a single man. +"But you see I hadn't nobody but myself to think of. I've got cousins, +as you know, but nothin' nearer, and what I've laid up would soon be +parted out; and--well, I suppose some folks would think o' me if +anything was to happen." + +Mrs. Tobin was holding her cloud over her face,--the wind was sharp on +that bit of open road,--but she gave an encouraging sound, between a +groan and a chirp. + +"'T wouldn't be like nothin' to me not to see you drivin' by," she +said, after a minute. "I shouldn't know the days o' the week. I says +to Susan Ellen last week I was sure 'twas Friday, and she said no, +'twas Thursday; but next minute you druv by and headin' toward North +Kilby, so we found I was right." + +"I've got to be a featur' of the landscape," said Mr. Briley +plaintively. "This kind o' weather the old mare and me, we wish we was +done with it, and could settle down kind o' comfortable. I've been +lookin' this good while, as I drove the road, and I've picked me out a +piece o' land two or three times. But I can't abide the thought o' +buildin',--'twould plague me to death; and both Sister Peak to North +Kilby and Mis' Deacon Ash to the Pond, they vie with one another to do +well by me, fear I'll like the other stoppin'-place best." + +"I shouldn't covet livin' long o' neither one o' them women," +responded the passenger with some spirit. "I see some o' Mis' Peak's +cookin' to a farmers' supper once, when I was visitin' Susan Ellen's +folks, an' I says 'Deliver me from sech pale-complected baked beans as +them!' and she give a kind of a quack. She was settin' jest at my left +hand, and couldn't help hearin' of me. I wouldn't have spoken if I had +known, but she needn't have let on they was hers an' make everything +unpleasant. 'I guess them beans taste just as well as other folks',' +says she, and she wouldn't never speak to me afterward." + +"Do' know's I blame her," ventured Mr. Briley. "Women folks is +dreadful pudjicky about their cookin'. I've always heard you was one +o' the best o' cooks, Mis' Tobin. I know them doughnuts an' things +you've give me in times past, when I was drivin' by. Wish I had some +on 'em now. I never let on, but Mis' Ash's cookin's the best by a long +chalk. Mis' Peak's handy about some things, and looks after mendin' of +me up." + +"It doos seem as if a man o' your years and your quiet make ought to +have a home you could call your own," suggested the passenger. "I kind +of hate to think o' your bangein' here and boardin' there, and one old +woman mendin', and the other settin' ye down to meals that like's not +don't agree with ye." + +"Lor', now, Mis' Tobin, le's not fuss round no longer," said Mr. +Briley impatiently. "You know you covet me same's I do you." + +"I don't nuther. Don't you go an' say fo'lish things you can't stand +to." + +"I've been tryin' to git a chance to put in a word with you ever +sence--Well, I expected you'd want to get your feelin's kind o' +calloused after losin' Tobin." + +"There's nobody can fill his place," said the widow. + +"I do' know but I can fight for ye town-meetin' days, on a pinch," +urged Jefferson boldly. + +"I never see the beat o' you men fur conceit," and Mrs. Tobin laughed. +"I ain't goin' to bother with ye, gone half the time as you be, an' +carryin' on with your Mis' Peaks and Mis' Ashes. I dare say you've +promised yourself to both on 'em twenty times." + +"I hope to gracious if I ever breathed a word to none on 'em!" +protested the lover. "'T ain't for lack o' opportunities set afore me, +nuther;" and then Mr. Briley craftily kept silence, as if he had made +a fair proposal, and expected a definite reply. + +The lady of his choice was, as she might have expressed it, much beat +about. As she soberly thought, she was getting along in years, and +must put up with Jefferson all the rest of the time. It was not likely +she would ever have the chance of choosing again, though she was one +who liked variety. + +Jefferson wasn't much to look at, but he was pleasant and appeared +boyish and young-feeling. "I do' know's I should do better," she said +unconsciously and half aloud. "Well, yes, Jefferson, seein' it's you. +But we're both on us kind of old to change our situation." Fanny Tobin +gave a gentle sigh. + +"Hooray!" said Jefferson. "I was scairt you meant to keep me sufferin' +here a half an hour. I declare, I'm more pleased than I calc'lated on. +An' I expected till lately to die a single man!" + +"'Twould re'lly have been a shame; 'tain't natur'," said Mrs. Tobin, +with confidence. "I don't see how you held out so long with bein' +solitary." + +"I'll hire a hand to drive for me, and we'll have a good comfortable +winter, me an' you an' the old sorrel. I've been promisin' of her a +rest this good while." + +"Better keep her a steppin'," urged thrifty Mrs. Fanny. "She'll +stiffen up master, an' disapp'int ye, come spring." + +"You'll have me, now, won't ye, sartin?" pleaded Jefferson, to make +sure. "You ain't one o' them that plays with a man's feelin's. Say +right out you'll have me." + +"I s'pose I shall have to," said Mrs. Tobin somewhat mournfully. "I +feel for Mis' Peak an' Mis' Ash, pore creatur's. I expect they'll be +hardshipped. They've always been hard-worked, an' may have kind o' +looked forward to a little ease. But one on 'em would be left +lamentin', anyhow," and she gave a girlish laugh. An air of victory +animated the frame of Mrs. Tobin. She felt but twenty-five years of +age. In that moment she made plans for cutting her Briley's hair, and +making him look smartened-up and ambitious. Then she wished that she +knew for certain how much money he had in the bank; not that it would +make any difference now. "He needn't bluster none before me," she +thought gayly. "He's harmless as a fly." + +"Who'd have thought we'd done such a piece of engineerin', when we +started out?" inquired the dear one of Mr. Briley's heart, as he +tenderly helped her to alight at Susan Ellen's door. + +"Both on us, jest the least grain," answered the lover. "Gimme a good +smack, now, you clever creatur';" and so they parted. Mr. Bailey had +been taken on the road in spite of his pistol. + + * * * * * + + + + +_Going to Shrewsbury_ + + +The train stopped at a way station with apparent unwillingness, and +there was barely time for one elderly passenger to be hurried on board +before a sudden jerk threw her almost off her unsteady old feet and we +moved on. At my first glance I saw only a perturbed old countrywoman, +laden with a large basket and a heavy bundle tied up in an +old-fashioned bundle-handkerchief; then I discovered that she was a +friend of mine, Mrs. Peet, who lived on a small farm, several miles +from the village. She used to be renowned for good butter and fresh +eggs and the earliest cowslip greens; in fact, she always made the +most of her farm's slender resources; but it was some time since I had +seen her drive by from market in her ancient thorough-braced wagon. + +The brakeman followed her into the crowded car, also carrying a number +of packages. I leaned forward and asked Mrs. Peet to sit by me; it was +a great pleasure to see her again. The brakeman seemed relieved, and +smiled as he tried to put part of his burden into the rack overhead; +but even the flowered carpet-bag was much too large, and he explained +that he would take care of everything at the end of the car. Mrs. Peet +was not large herself, but with the big basket, and the +bundle-handkerchief, and some possessions of my own we had very little +spare room. + +"So this 'ere is what you call ridin' in the cars! Well, I do +declare!" said my friend, as soon as she had recovered herself a +little. She looked pale and as if she had been in tears, but there was +the familiar gleam of good humor in her tired old eyes. + +"Where in the world are you going, Mrs. Peet?" I asked. + +"Can't be you ain't heared about me, dear?" said she. "Well, the +world's bigger than I used to think 't was. I've broke up,--'twas the +only thing _to_ do,--and I'm a-movin' to Shrewsbury." + +"To Shrewsbury? Have you sold the farm?" I exclaimed, with sorrow and +surprise. Mrs. Peet was too old and too characteristic to be suddenly +transplanted from her native soil. "'T wa'n't mine, the place wa'n't." +Her pleasant face hardened slightly. "He was coaxed an' over-persuaded +into signin' off before he was taken away. Is'iah, son of his sister +that married old Josh Peet, come it over him about his bein' past work +and how he'd do for him like an own son, an' we owed him a little +somethin'. I'd paid off everythin' but that, an' was fool enough to +leave it till the last, on account o' Is'iah's bein' a relation and +not needin' his pay much as some others did. It's hurt me to have the +place fall into other hands. Some wanted me to go right to law; but 't +wouldn't be no use. Is'iah's smarter 'n I be about them matters. You +see he's got my name on the paper, too; he said 't was somethin' 'bout +bein' responsible for the taxes. We was scant o' money, an' I was wore +out with watchin' an' being broke o' my rest. After my tryin' hard for +risin' forty-five year to provide for bein' past work, here I be, +dear, here I be! I used to drive things smart, you remember. But we +was fools enough in '72 to put about everythin' we had safe in the +bank into that spool factory that come to nothin'. But I tell ye I +could ha' kept myself long's I lived, if I could ha' held the place. +I'd parted with most o' the woodland, if Is'iah'd coveted it. He was +welcome to that, 'cept what might keep me in oven-wood. I've always +desired to travel an' see somethin' o' the world, but I've got the +chance now when I don't value it no great." + +"Shrewsbury is a busy, pleasant place," I ventured to say by way of +comfort, though my heart was filled with rage at the trickery of +Isaiah Peet, who had always looked like a fox and behaved like one. + +"Shrewsbury's be'n held up consid'able for me to smile at," said the +poor old soul, "but I tell ye, dear, it's hard to go an' live +twenty-two miles from where you've always had your home and friends. +It may divert me, but it won't be home. You might as well set out one +o' my old apple-trees on the beach, so 't could see the waves come +in,--there wouldn't be no please to it." + +"Where are you going to live in Shrewsbury?" I asked presently. + +"I don't expect to stop long, dear creatur'. I'm 'most seventy-six +year old," and Mrs. Peet turned to look at me with pathetic amusement +in her honest wrinkled face. "I said right out to Is'iah, before a +roomful o' the neighbors, that I expected it of him to git me home an' +bury me when my time come, and do it respectable; but I wanted to airn +my livin', if 'twas so I could, till then. He'd made sly talk, you +see, about my electin' to leave the farm and go 'long some o' my own +folks; but"--and she whispered this carefully--"he didn't give me no +chance to stay there without hurtin' my pride and dependin' on him. I +ain't said that to many folks, but all must have suspected. A good +sight on 'em's had money of Is'iah, though, and they don't like to do +nothin' but take his part an' be pretty soft spoken, fear it'll git to +his ears. Well, well, dear, we'll let it be bygones, and not think of +it no more;" but I saw the great tears roll slowly down her cheeks, +and she pulled her bonnet forward impatiently, and looked the other +way. + +"There looks to be plenty o' good farmin' land in this part o' the +country," she said, a minute later. "Where be we now? See them +handsome farm buildin's; he must be a well-off man." But I had to +tell my companion that we were still within the borders of the old +town where we had both been born. Mrs. Peet gave a pleased little +laugh, like a girl. "I'm expectin' Shrewsbury to pop up any minute. +I'm feared to be kerried right by. I wa'n't never aboard of the cars +before, but I've so often thought about 'em I don't know but it seems +natural. Ain't it jest like flyin' through the air? I can't catch holt +to see nothin'. Land! and here's my old cat goin' too, and never +mistrustin'. I ain't told you that I'd fetched her." + +"Is she in that basket?" I inquired with interest. + +"Yis, dear. Truth was, I calc'lated to have her put out o' the misery +o' movin', an spoke to one o' the Barnes boys, an' he promised me all +fair; but he wa'n't there in season, an' I kind o' made excuse to +myself to fetch her along. She's an' old creatur', like me, an' I can +make shift to keep her some way or 'nuther; there's probably mice +where we're goin', an' she's a proper mouser that can about keep +herself if there's any sort o' chance. 'T will be somethin' o' home to +see her goin' an' comin', but I expect we're both on us goin' to miss +our old haunts. I'd love to know what kind o' mousin' there's goin' to +be for me." + +"You mustn't worry," I answered, with all the bravery and assurance +that I could muster. "Your niece will be thankful to have you with +her. Is she one of Mrs. Winn's daughters?" + +"Oh, no, they ain't able; it's Sister Wayland's darter Isabella, that +married the overseer of the gre't carriage-shop. I ain't seen her +since just after she was married; but I turned to her first because I +knew she was best able to have me, and then I can see just how the +other girls is situated and make me some kind of a plot. I wrote to +Isabella, though she _is_ ambitious, and said 'twas so I'd got to ask +to come an' make her a visit, an' she wrote back she would be glad to +have me; but she didn't write right off, and her letter was scented up +dreadful strong with some sort o' essence, and I don't feel heartened +about no great of a welcome. But there, I've got eyes, an' I can see +_ho_'t is when I git _where_'t is. Sister Winn's gals ain't married, +an' they've always boarded, an' worked in the shop on trimmin's. +Isabella's well off; she had some means from her father's sister. I +thought it all over by night an' day, an' I recalled that our folks +kept Sister Wayland's folks all one winter, when he'd failed up and +got into trouble. I'm reckonin' on sendin' over to-night an' gittin' +the Winn gals to come and see me and advise. Perhaps some on 'em may +know of somebody that'll take me for what help I can give about house, +or some clever folks that have been lookin' for a smart cat, any ways; +no, I don't know's I could let her go to strangers. + +"There was two or three o' the folks round home that acted real +warm-hearted towards me, an' urged me to come an' winter with 'em," +continued the exile; "an' this mornin' I wished I'd agreed to, 'twas +so hard to break away. But now it's done I feel more'n ever it's best. +I couldn't bear to live right in sight o' the old place, and come +spring I shouldn't 'prove of nothing Is'iah ondertakes to do with the +land. Oh, dear sakes! now it comes hard with me not to have had no +child'n. When I was young an' workin' hard and into everything, I felt +kind of free an' superior to them that was so blessed, an' their +houses cluttered up from mornin' till night, but I tell ye it comes +home to me now. I'd be most willin' to own to even Is'iah, mean's he +is; but I tell ye I'd took it out of him 'fore he was a grown man, if +there'd be'n any virtue in cow-hidin' of him. Folks don't look like +wild creatur's for nothin'. Is'iah's got fox blood in him, an' +p'r'haps 't is his misfortune. His own mother always favored the looks +of an old fox, true's the world; she was a poor tool,--a poor tool! I +d'know's we ought to blame him same's we do. + +"I've always been a master proud woman, if I was riz among the +pastures," Mrs. Peet added, half to herself. There was no use in +saying much to her; she was conscious of little beside her own +thoughts and the smouldering excitement caused by this great crisis in +her simple existence. Yet the atmosphere of her loneliness, +uncertainty, and sorrow was so touching that after scolding again at +her nephew's treachery, and finding the tears come fast to my eyes as +she talked, I looked intently out of the car window, and tried to +think what could be done for the poor soul. She was one of the +old-time people, and I hated to have her go away; but even if she +could keep her home she would soon be too feeble to live there alone, +and some definite plan must be made for her comfort. Farms in that +neighborhood were not valuable. Perhaps through the agency of the law +and quite in secret, Isaiah Peet could be forced to give up his +unrighteous claim. Perhaps, too, the Winn girls, who were really no +longer young, might have saved something, and would come home again. +But it was easy to make such pictures in one's mind, and I must do +what I could through other people, for I was just leaving home for a +long time. I wondered sadly about Mrs. Peet's future, and the +ambitious Isabella, and the favorite Sister Winn's daughters, to whom, +with all their kindliness of heart, the care of so old and perhaps so +dependent an aunt might seem impossible. The truth about life in +Shrewsbury would soon be known; more than half the short journey was +already past. + +To my great pleasure, my fellow-traveler now began to forget her own +troubles in looking about her. She was an alert, quickly interested +old soul, and this was a bit of neutral ground between the farm and +Shrewsbury, where she was unattached and irresponsible. She had lived +through the last tragic moments of her old life, and felt a certain +relief, and Shrewsbury might be as far away as the other side of the +Rocky Mountains for all the consciousness she had of its real +existence. She was simply a traveler for the time being, and began to +comment, with delicious phrases and shrewd understanding of human +nature, on two or three persons near us who attracted her attention. + +"Where do you s'pose they be all goin'?" she asked contemptuously. +"There ain't none on 'em but what looks kind o' respectable. I'll +warrant they've left work to home they'd ought to be doin'. I knowed, +if ever I stopped to think, that cars was hived full o' folks, an' +wa'n't run to an' fro for nothin'; but these can't be quite up to the +average, be they? Some on 'em's real thrif'less; guess they've be'n +shoved out o' the last place, an' goin' to try the next one,--like me, +I suppose you'll want to say! Jest see that flauntin' old creatur' +that looks like a stopped clock. There! everybody can't be o' one +goodness, even preachers." + +I was glad to have Mrs. Peet amused, and we were as cheerful as we +could be for a few minutes. She said earnestly that she hoped to be +forgiven for such talk, but there were some kinds of folks in the cars +that she never had seen before. But when the conductor came to take +her ticket she relapsed into her first state of mind, and was at a +loss. + +"You'll have to look after me, dear, when we get to Shrewsbury," she +said, after we had spent some distracted moments in hunting for the +ticket, and the cat had almost escaped from the basket, and the +bundle-handkerchief had become untied and all its miscellaneous +contents scattered about our laps and the floor. It was a touching +collection of the last odds and ends of Mrs. Peet's housekeeping: some +battered books, and singed holders for flatirons, and the faded little +shoulder shawl that I had seen her wear many a day about her bent +shoulders. There were her old tin match-box spilling all its matches, +and a goose-wing for brushing up ashes, and her much-thumbed Leavitt's +Almanac. It was most pathetic to see these poor trifles out of their +places. At last the ticket was found in her left-hand woolen glove, +where her stiff, work-worn hand had grown used to the feeling of it. + +"I shouldn't wonder, now, if I come to like living over to Shrewsbury +first-rate," she insisted, turning to me with a hopeful, eager look to +see if I differed. "You see't won't be so tough for me as if I hadn't +always felt it lurking within me to go off some day or 'nother an' see +how other folks did things. I do' know but what the Winn gals have +laid up somethin' sufficient for us to take a house, with the little +mite I've got by me. I might keep house for us all, 'stead o' boardin' +round in other folks' houses. That I ain't never been demeaned to, but +I dare say I should find it pleasant in some ways. Town folks has got +the upper hand o' country folks, but with all their work an' pride +they can't make a dandelion. I do' know the times when I've set out to +wash Monday mornin's, an' tied out the line betwixt the old +pucker-pear tree and the corner o' the barn, an' thought, 'Here I be +with the same kind o' week's work right over again.' I'd wonder kind +o' f'erce if I couldn't git out of it noways; an' now here I be out +of it, and an uprooteder creatur' never stood on the airth. Just as I +got to feel I had somethin' ahead come that spool-factory business. +There! you know he never was a forehanded man; his health was slim, +and he got discouraged pretty nigh before ever he begun. I hope he +don't know I'm turned out o' the old place. 'Is'iah's well off; he'll +do the right thing by ye,' says he. But my! I turned hot all over when +I found out what I'd put my name to,--me that had always be'n counted +a smart woman! I did undertake to read it over, but I couldn't sense +it. I've told all the folks so when they laid it off on to me some: +but hand-writin' is awful tedious readin' and my head felt that day as +if the works was gone. + +"I ain't goin' to sag on to nobody," she assured me eagerly, as the +train rushed along. "I've got more work in me now than folks expects +at my age. I may be consid'able use to Isabella. She's got a family, +an' I'll take right holt in the kitchen or with the little gals. She +had four on 'em, last I heared. Isabella was never one that liked +house-work. Little gals! I do' know now but what they must be about +grown, time doos slip away so. I expect I shall look outlandish to +'em. But there! everybody knows me to home, an' nobody knows me to +Shrewsbury; 'twon't make a mite o' difference, if I take holt +willin'." + +I hoped, as I looked at Mrs. Peet, that she would never be persuaded +to cast off the gathered brown silk bonnet and the plain shawl that +she had worn so many years; but Isabella might think it best to insist +upon more modern fashions. Mrs. Peet suggested, as if it were a matter +of little consequence, that she had kept it in mind to buy some +mourning; but there were other things to be thought of first, and so +she had let it go until winter, any way, or until she should be fairly +settled in Shrewsbury. + +"Are your nieces expecting you by this train?" I was moved to ask, +though with all the good soul's ready talk and appealing manner I +could hardly believe that she was going to Shrewsbury for more than a +visit; it seemed as if she must return to the worn old farmhouse over +by the sheep-lands. She answered that one of the Barnes boys had +written a letter for her the day before, and there was evidently +little uneasiness about her first reception. + +We drew near the junction where I must leave her within a mile of the +town. The cat was clawing indignantly at the basket, and her mistress +grew as impatient of the car. She began to look very old and pale, my +poor fellow-traveler, and said that she felt dizzy, going so fast. +Presently the friendly red-cheeked young brakeman came along, bringing +the carpet-bag and other possessions, and insisted upon taking the +alarmed cat beside, in spite of an aggressive paw that had worked its +way through the wicker prison. Mrs. Peet watched her goods disappear +with suspicious eyes, and clutched her bundle-handkerchief as if it +might be all that she could save. Then she anxiously got to her feet, +much too soon, and when I said good-by to her at the car door she was +ready to cry. I pointed to the car which she was to take next on the +branch line of railway, and I assured her that it was only a few +minutes' ride to Shrewsbury, and that I felt certain she would find +somebody waiting. The sight of that worn, thin figure adventuring +alone across the platform gave my heart a sharp pang as the train +carried me away. + +Some of the passengers who sat near asked me about my old friend with +great sympathy, after she had gone. There was a look of tragedy about +her, and indeed it had been impossible not to get a good deal of her +history, as she talked straight on in the same tone, when we stopped +at a station, as if the train were going at full speed, and some of +her remarks caused pity and amusements by turns. At the last minute +she said, with deep self-reproach, "Why, I haven't asked a word about +your folks; but you'd ought to excuse such an old stray hen as I be." + +In the spring I was driving by on what the old people of my native +town call the sheep-lands road, and the sight of Mrs. Peet's former +home brought our former journey freshly to my mind. I had last heard +from her just after she got to Shrewsbury, when she had sent me a +message. + +"Have you ever heard how she got on?" I eagerly asked my companion. + +"Didn't I tell you that I met her in Shrewsbury High Street one day?" +I was answered. "She seemed perfectly delighted with everything. Her +nieces have laid up a good bit of money, and are soon to leave the +mill, and most thankful to have old Mrs. Peet with them. Somebody told +me that they wished to buy the farm here, and come back to live, but +she wouldn't hear of it, and thought they would miss too many +privileges. She has been going to concerts and lectures this winter, +and insists that Isaiah did her a good turn." + +We both laughed. My own heart was filled with joy, for the uncertain, +lonely face of this homeless old woman had often haunted me. The +rain-blackened little house did certainly look dreary, and a whole +lifetime of patient toil had left few traces. The pucker-pear tree was +in full bloom, however, and gave a welcome gaiety to the deserted +door-yard. + +A little way beyond we met Isaiah Peet, the prosperous money-lender, +who had cheated the old woman of her own. I fancied that he looked +somewhat ashamed, as he recognized us. To my surprise, he stopped his +horse in most social fashion. + +"Old Aunt Peet's passed away," he informed me briskly. "She had a +shock, and went right off sudden yisterday fore-noon. I'm about now +tendin' to the funeral 'rangements. She's be'n extry smart, they say, +all winter,--out to meetin' last Sabbath; never enjoyed herself so +complete as she has this past month. She'd be'n a very hard-workin' +woman. Her folks was glad to have her there, and give her every +attention. The place here never was good for nothin'. The old +gen'leman,--uncle, you know,--he wore hisself out tryin' to make a +livin' off from it." + +There was an ostentatious sympathy and half-suppressed excitement from +bad news which were quite lost upon us, and we did not linger to hear +much more. It seemed to me as if I had known Mrs. Peet better than any +one else had known her. I had counted upon seeing her again, and +hearing her own account of Shrewsbury life, its pleasures and its +limitations. I wondered what had become of the cat and the contents of +the faded bundle-handkerchief. + + * * * * * + + + + +_The White Rose Road_ + + +Being a New Englander, it is natural that I should first speak about +the weather. Only the middle of June, the green fields, and blue sky, +and bright sun, with a touch of northern mountain wind blowing +straight toward the sea, could make such a day, and that is all one +can say about it. We were driving seaward through a part of the +country which has been least changed in the last thirty years,--among +farms which have been won from swampy lowland, and rocky, +stump-buttressed hillsides: where the forests wall in the fields, and +send their outposts year by year farther into the pastures. There is a +year or two in the history of these pastures before they have arrived +at the dignity of being called woodland, and yet are too much shaded +and overgrown by young trees to give proper pasturage, when they made +delightful harbors for the small wild creatures which yet remain, and +for wild flowers and berries. Here you send an astonished rabbit +scurrying to his burrow, and there you startle yourself with a +partridge, who seems to get the best of the encounter. Sometimes you +see a hen partridge and her brood of chickens crossing your path with +an air of comfortable door-yard security. As you drive along the +narrow, grassy road, you see many charming sights and delightful nooks +on either hand, where the young trees spring out of a close-cropped +turf that carpets the ground like velvet. Toward the east and the +quaint fishing village of Ogunquit, I find the most delightful +woodland roads. There is little left of the large timber which once +filled the region, but much young growth, and there are hundreds of +acres of cleared land and pasture-ground where the forests are +springing fast and covering the country once more, as if they had no +idea of losing in their war with civilization and the intruding white +settler. The pine woods and the Indians seem to be next of kin, and +the former owners of this corner of New England are the only proper +figures to paint into such landscapes. The twilight under tall pines +seems to be untenanted and to lack something, at first sight, as if +one opened the door of an empty house. A farmer passing through with +his axe is but an intruder, and children straying home from school +give one a feeling of solicitude at their unprotectedness. The pine +woods are the red man's house, and it may be hazardous even yet for +the gray farmhouses to stand so near the eaves of the forest. I have +noticed a distrust of the deep woods, among elderly people, which was +something more than a fear of losing their way. It was a feeling of +defenselessness against some unrecognized but malicious influence. + +Driving through the long woodland way, shaded and chilly when you are +out of the sun; across the Great Works River and its pretty elm-grown +intervale; across the short bridges of brown brooks; delayed now and +then by the sight of ripe strawberries in sunny spots by the roadside, +one comes to a higher open country, where farm joins farm, and the +cleared fields lie all along the highway, while the woods are pushed +back a good distance on either hand. The wooded hills, bleak here and +there with granite ledges, rise beyond. The houses are beside the +road, with green door-yards and large barns, almost empty now, and +with wide doors standing open, as if they were already expecting the +hay crop to be brought in. The tall green grass is waving in the +fields as the wind goes over, and there is a fragrance of whiteweed +and ripe strawberries and clover blowing through the sunshiny barns, +with their lean sides and their festoons of brown, dusty cobwebs; +dull, comfortable creatures they appear to imaginative eyes, waiting +hungrily for their yearly meal. The eave-swallows are teasing their +sleepy shapes, like the birds which flit about great beasts; gay, +movable, irreverent, almost derisive, those barn swallows fly to and +fro in the still, clear air. + +The noise of our wheels brings fewer faces to the windows than usual, +and we lose the pleasure of seeing some of our friends who are apt to +be looking out, and to whom we like to say good-day. Some funeral must +be taking place, or perhaps the women may have gone out into the +fields. It is hoeing-time and strawberry-time, and already we have +seen some of the younger women at work among the corn and potatoes. +One sight will be charming to remember. On a green hillside sloping +to the west, near one of the houses, a thin little girl was working +away lustily with a big hoe on a patch of land perhaps fifty feet by +twenty. There were all sorts of things growing there, as if a child's +fancy had made the choice,--straight rows of turnips and carrots and +beets, a little of everything, one might say; but the only touch of +color was from a long border of useful sage in full bloom of dull +blue, on the upper side. I am sure this was called Katy's or Becky's +_piece_ by the elder members of the family. One can imagine how the +young creature had planned it in the spring, and persuaded the men to +plough and harrow it, and since then had stoutly done all the work +herself, and meant to send the harvest of the piece to market, and +pocket her honest gains, as they came in, for some great end. She was +as thin as a grasshopper, this busy little gardener, and hardly turned +to give us a glance, as we drove slowly up the hill close by. The sun +will brown and dry her like a spear of grass on that hot slope, but a +spark of fine spirit is in the small body, and I wish her a famous +crop. I hate to say that the piece looked backward, all except the +sage, and that it was a heavy bit of land for the clumsy hoe to pick +at. The only puzzle is, what she proposes to do with so long a row of +sage. Yet there may be a large family with a downfall of measles yet +ahead, and she does not mean to be caught without sage-tea. + +Along this road every one of the old farmhouses has at least one tall +bush of white roses by the door,--a most lovely sight, with buds and +blossoms, and unvexed green leaves. I wish that I knew the history of +them, and whence the first bush was brought. Perhaps from England +itself, like a red rose that I know in Kittery, and the new shoots +from the root were given to one neighbor after another all through the +district. The bushes are slender, but they grow tall without climbing +against the wall, and sway to and fro in the wind with a grace of +youth and an inexpressible charm of beauty. How many lovers must have +picked them on Sunday evenings, in all the bygone years, and carried +them along the roads or by the pasture footpaths, hiding them clumsily +under their Sunday coats if they caught sight of any one coming. Here, +too, where the sea wind nips many a young life before its prime, how +often the white roses have been put into paler hands, and withered +there! + +In spite of the serene and placid look of the old houses, one who has +always known them cannot help thinking of the sorrows of these farms +and their almost undiverted toil. Near the little gardener's plot, we +turned from the main road and drove through lately cleared woodland up +to an old farmhouse, high on a ledgy hill, whence there is a fine view +of the country seaward and mountainward. There were few of the once +large household left there: only the old farmer, who was crippled by +war wounds, active, cheerful man that he was once, and two young +orphan children. There has been much hard work spent on the place. +Every generation has toiled from youth to age without being able to +make much beyond a living. The dollars that can be saved are but few, +and sickness and death have often brought their bitter cost. The +mistress of the farm was helpless for many years; through all the +summers and winters she sat in her pillowed rocking-chair in the plain +room. She could watch the seldom-visited lane, and beyond it, a little +way across the fields, were the woods; besides these, only the clouds +in the sky. She could not lift her food to her mouth; she could not be +her husband's working partner. She never went into another woman's +house to see her works and ways, but sat there, aching and tired, +vexed by flies and by heat, and isolated in long storms. Yet the whole +countryside neighbored her with true affection. Her spirit grew +stronger as her body grew weaker, and the doctors, who grieved because +they could do so little with their skill, were never confronted by +that malady of the spirit, a desire for ease and laziness, which makes +the soundest of bodies useless and complaining. The thought of her +blooms in one's mind like the whitest of flowers; it makes one braver +and more thankful to remember the simple faith and patience with which +she bore her pain and trouble. How often she must have said, "I wish I +could do something for you in return," when she was doing a thousand +times more than if, like her neighbors, she followed the simple round +of daily life! She was doing constant kindness by her example; but +nobody can tell the woe of her long days and nights, the solitude of +her spirit, as she was being lifted by such hard ways to the knowledge +of higher truth and experience. Think of her pain when, one after +another, her children fell ill and died, and she could not tend them! +And now, in the same worn chair where she lived and slept sat her +husband, helpless too, thinking of her, and missing her more than if +she had been sometimes away from home, like other women. Even a +stranger would miss her in the house. + +There sat the old farmer looking down the lane in his turn, bearing +his afflictions with a patient sternness that may have been born of +watching his wife's serenity. There was a half-withered rose lying +within his reach. Some days nobody came up the lane, and the wild +birds that ventured near the house and the clouds that blew over were +his only entertainment. He had a fine face, of the older New England +type, clean-shaven and strong-featured,--a type that is fast passing +away. He might have been a Cumberland dalesman, such were his dignity, +and self-possession, and English soberness of manner. His large frame +was built for hard work, for lifting great weights and pushing his +plough through new-cleared land. We felt at home together, and each +knew many things that the other did of earlier days, and of losses +that had come with time. I remembered coming to the old house often in +my childhood; it was in this very farm lane that I first saw anemones, +and learned what to call them. After we drove away, this crippled man +must have thought a long time about my elders and betters, as if he +were reading their story out of a book. I suppose he has hauled many a +stick of timber pine down for ship-yards, and gone through the village +so early in the winter morning that I, waking in my warm bed, only +heard the sleds creak through the frozen snow as the slow oxen plodded +by. + +Near the house a trout brook comes plashing over the ledges. At one +place there is a most exquisite waterfall, to which neither painter's +brush nor writer's pen can do justice. The sunlight falls through +flickering leaves into the deep glen, and makes the foam whiter and +the brook more golden-brown. You can hear the merry noise of it all +night, all day, in the house. A little way above the farmstead it +comes through marshy ground, which I fear has been the cause of much +illness and sorrow to the poor, troubled family. I had a thrill of +pain, as it seemed to me that the brook was mocking at all that +trouble with all its wild carelessness and loud laughter, as it +hurried away down the glen. + +When we had said good-by and were turning the horses away, there +suddenly appeared in a footpath that led down from one of the green +hills the young grandchild, just coming home from school. She was as +quick as a bird, and as shy in her little pink gown, and balanced +herself on one foot, like a flower. The brother was the elder of the +two orphans; he was the old man's delight and dependence by day, while +his hired man was afield. The sober country boy had learned to wait +and tend, and the young people were indeed a joy in that lonely +household. There was no sign that they ever played like other +children,--no truckle-cart in the yard, no doll, no bits of broken +crockery in order on a rock. They had learned a fashion of life from +their elders, and already could lift and carry their share of the +burdens of life. + +It was a country of wild flowers; the last of the columbines were +clinging to the hillsides; down in the small, fenced meadows belonging +to the farm were meadow rue just coming in flower, and red and white +clover; the golden buttercups were thicker than the grass, while many +mulleins were standing straight and slender among the pine stumps, +with their first blossoms atop. Rudbeckias had found their way in, and +appeared more than ever like bold foreigners. Their names should be +translated into country speech, and the children ought to call them +"rude-beckies," by way of relating them to bouncing-bets and +sweet-williams. The pasture grass was green and thick after the +plentiful rains, and the busy cattle took little notice of us as they +browsed steadily and tinkled their pleasant bells. Looking off, the +smooth, round back of Great Hill caught the sunlight with its fields +of young grain, and all the long, wooded slopes and valleys were fresh +and fair in the June weather, away toward the blue New Hampshire hills +on the northern horizon. Seaward stood Agamenticus, dark with its +pitch pines, and the far sea itself, blue and calm, ruled the uneven +country with its unchangeable line. + +Out on the white rose road again, we saw more of the rose-trees than +ever, and now and then a carefully tended flower garden, always +delightful to see and think about. These are not made by merely +looking through a florist's catalogue, and ordering this or that new +seedling and a proper selection of bulbs or shrubs; everything in a +country garden has its history and personal association. The old +bushes, the perennials, are apt to have most tender relationship with +the hands that planted them long ago. There is a constant exchange of +such treasures between the neighbors, and in the spring, slips and +cuttings may be seen rooting on the window ledges, while the house +plants give endless work all winter long, since they need careful +protection against frost in long nights of the severe weather. A +flower-loving woman brings back from every one of her infrequent +journeys some treasure of flower-seeds or a huge miscellaneous +nosegay. Time to work in the little plot of pleasure-ground is hardly +won by the busy mistress of the farmhouse. The most appealing +collection of flowering plants and vines that I ever saw was in +Virginia, once, above the exquisite valley spanned by the Natural +Bridge, a valley far too little known or praised. I had noticed an old +log house, as I learned to know the outlook from the picturesque +hotel, and was sure that it must give a charming view from its perch +on the summit of a hill. + +One day I went there,--one April day, when the whole landscape was +full of color from the budding trees,--and before I could look at the +view, I caught sight of some rare vines, already in leaf, about the +dilapidated walls of the cabin. Then across the low paling I saw the +brilliant colors of tulips and daffodils. There were many rose-bushes; +in fact, the whole top of the hill was a flower garden, once well +cared for and carefully ordered. It was all the work of an old woman +of Scotch-Irish descent, who had been busy with the cares of life, and +a very hard worker; yet I was told that to gratify her love for +flowers she would often go afoot many miles over those rough Virginia +roads, with a root or cutting from her own garden, to barter for a new +rose or a brighter blossom of some sort, with which she would return +in triumph. I fancied that sometimes she had to go by night on these +charming quests. I could see her business-like, small figure setting +forth down the steep path, when she had a good conscience toward her +housekeeping and the children were in order to be left. I am sure +that her friends thought of her when they were away from home and +could bring her an offering of something rare. Alas, she had grown too +old and feeble to care for her dear blossoms any longer, and had been +forced to go to live with a married son. I dare say that she was +thinking of her garden that very day, and wondering if this plant or +that were not in bloom, and perhaps had a heartache at the thought +that her tenants, the careless colored children, might tread the young +shoots of peony and rose, and make havoc in the herb-bed. It was an +uncommon collection, made by years of patient toil and self-sacrifice. + +I thought of that deserted Southern garden as I followed my own New +England road. The flower-plots were in gay bloom all along the way; +almost every house had some flowers before it, sometimes carefully +fenced about by stakes and barrel staves from the miscreant hens and +chickens which lurked everywhere, and liked a good scratch and +fluffing in soft earth this year as well as any other. The world +seemed full of young life. There were calves tethered in pleasant +shady spots, and puppies and kittens adventuring from the doorways. +The trees were full of birds: bobolinks, and cat-birds, and +yellow-hammers, and golden robins, and sometimes a thrush, for the +afternoon was wearing late. We passed the spring which once marked the +boundary where three towns met,--Berwick, York, and Wells,--a famous +spot in the early settlement of the country, but many of its old +traditions are now forgotten. One of the omnipresent regicides of +Charles the First is believed to have hidden himself for a long time +under a great rock close by. The story runs that he made his miserable +home in this den for several years, but I believe that there is no +record that more than three of the regicides escaped to this country, +and their wanderings are otherwise accounted for. There is a firm +belief that one of them came to York, and was the ancestor of many +persons now living there, but I do not know whether he can have been +the hero of the Baker's Spring hermitage beside. We stopped to drink +some of the delicious water, which never fails to flow cold and clear +under the shade of a great oak, and were amused with the sight of a +flock of gay little country children who passed by in deep +conversation. What could such atoms of humanity be talking about? +"Old times," said John, the master of horse, with instant decision. + +We met now and then a man or woman, who stopped to give us hospitable +greeting; but there was no staying for visits, lest the daylight might +fail us. It was delightful to find this old-established neighborhood +so thriving and populous, for a few days before I had driven over +three miles of road, and passed only one house that was tenanted, and +six cellars or crumbling chimneys where good farmhouses had been, the +lilacs blooming in solitude, and the fields, cleared with so much +difficulty a century or two ago, all going back to the original +woodland from which they were won. What would the old farmers say to +see the fate of their worthy bequest to the younger generation? They +would wag their heads sorrowfully, with sad foreboding. + +After we had passed more woodland and a well-known quarry, where, for +a wonder, the derrick was not creaking and not a single hammer was +clinking at the stone wedges, we did not see any one hoeing in the +fields, as we had seen so many on the white rose road, the other side +of the hills. Presently we met two or three people walking sedately, +clad in their best clothes. There was a subdued air of public +excitement and concern, and one of us remembered that there had been a +death in the neighborhood; this was the day of the funeral. The man +had been known to us in former years. We had an instinct to hide our +unsympathetic pleasuring, but there was nothing to be done except to +follow our homeward road straight by the house. + +The occasion was nearly ended by this time: the borrowed chairs were +being set out in the yard in little groups; even the funeral supper +had been eaten, and the brothers and sisters and near relatives of the +departed man were just going home. The new grave showed plainly out in +the green field near by. He had belonged to one of the ancient +families of the region, long settled on this old farm by the narrow +river; they had given their name to a bridge, and the bridge had +christened the meeting-house which stood close by. We were much struck +by the solemn figure of the mother, a very old woman, as she walked +toward her old home with some of her remaining children. I had not +thought to see her again, knowing her great age and infirmity. She was +like a presence out of the last century, tall and still erect, +dark-eyed and of striking features, and a firm look not modern, but as +if her mind were still set upon an earlier and simpler scheme of life. +An air of dominion cloaked her finely. She had long been queen of her +surroundings and law-giver to her great family. Royalty is a quality, +one of Nature's gifts, and there one might behold it as truly as if +Victoria Regina Imperatrix had passed by. The natural instincts common +to humanity were there undisguised, unconcealed, simply accepted. We +had seen a royal progress; she was the central figure of that rural +society; as you looked at the little group, you could see her only. +Now that she came abroad so rarely, her presence was not without deep +significance, and so she took her homeward way with a primitive kind +of majesty. + +It was evident that the neighborhood was in great excitement and quite +thrown out of its usual placidity. An acquaintance came from a small +house farther down the road, and we stopped for a word with him. We +spoke of the funeral, and were told something of the man who had died. +"Yes, and there's a man layin' very sick here," said our friend in an +excited whisper. "_He_ won't last but a day or two. There's another +man buried yesterday that was struck by lightnin', comin' acrost a +field when that great shower begun. The lightnin' stove through his +hat and run down all over him, and ploughed a spot in the ground." +There was a knot of people about the door; the minister of that +scattered parish stood among them, and they all looked at us eagerly, +as if we too might be carrying news of a fresh disaster through the +countryside. + +Somehow the melancholy tales did not touch our sympathies as they +ought, and we could not see the pathetic side of them as at another +time, the day was so full of cheer and the sky and earth so glorious. +The very fields looked busy with their early summer growth, the horses +began to think of the clack of the oat-bin cover, and we were hurried +along between the silvery willows and the rustling alders, taking time +to gather a handful of stray-away conserve roses by the roadside; and +where the highway made a long bend eastward among the farms, two of us +left the carriage, and followed a footpath along the green river bank +and through the pastures, coming out to the road again only a minute +later than the horses. I believe that it is an old Indian trail +followed from the salmon falls farther down the river, where the +up-country Indians came to dry the plentiful fish for their winter +supplies. I have traced the greater part of this deep-worn footpath, +which goes straight as an arrow across the country, the first day's +trail being from the falls (where Mason's settlers came in 1627, and +built their Great Works of a saw-mill with a gang of saws, and +presently a grist mill beside) to Emery's Bridge. I should like to +follow the old footpath still farther. I found part of it by accident +a long time ago. Once, as you came close to the river, you were sure +to find fishermen scattered along,--sometimes I myself have been +discovered; but it is not much use to go fishing any more. If some +public-spirited person would kindly be the Frank Buckland of New +England, and try to have the laws enforced that protect the inland +fisheries, he would do his country great service. Years ago, there +were so many salmon that, as an enthusiastic old friend once assured +me, "you could walk across on them below the falls;" but now they are +unknown, simply because certain substances which would enrich the +farms are thrown from factories and tanneries into our clear New +England streams. Good river fish are growing very scarce. The smelts, +and bass, and shad have all left this upper branch of the Piscataqua, +as the salmon left it long ago, and the supply of one necessary sort +of good cheap food is lost to a growing community, for the lack of a +little thought and care in the factory companies and saw-mills, and +the building in some cases of fish-ways over the dams. I think that +the need of preaching against this bad economy is very great. The +sight of a proud lad with a string of undersized trout will scatter +half the idlers in town into the pastures next day, but everybody +patiently accepts the depopulation of a fine clear river, where the +tide comes fresh from the sea to be tainted by the spoiled stream, +which started from its mountain sources as pure as heart could wish. +Man has done his best to ruin the world he lives in, one is tempted to +say at impulsive first thought; but after all, as I mounted the last +hill before reaching the village, the houses took on a new look of +comfort and pleasantness; the fields that I knew so well were a +fresher green than before, the sun was down, and the provocations of +the day seemed very slight compared to the satisfaction. I believed +that with a little more time we should grow wiser about our fish and +other things beside. + +It will be good to remember the white rose road and its quietness in +many a busy town day to come. As I think of these slight sketches, I +wonder if they will have to others a tinge of sadness; but I have +seldom spent an afternoon so full of pleasure and fresh and delighted +consciousness of the possibilities of rural life. + + * * * * * + + + + +_The Town Poor_ + + +Mrs. William Trimble and Miss Rebecca Wright were driving along +Hampden east road, one afternoon in early spring. Their progress was +slow. Mrs. Trimble's sorrel horse was old and stiff, and the wheels +were clogged by clay mud. The frost was not yet out of the ground, +although the snow was nearly gone, except in a few places on the north +side of the woods, or where it had drifted all winter against a length +of fence. + +"There must be a good deal o' snow to the nor'ard of us yet," said +weather-wise Mrs. Trimble. "I feel it in the air; 'tis more than the +ground-damp. We ain't goin' to have real nice weather till the +up-country snow's all gone." + +"I heard say yesterday that there was good sleddin' yet, all up +through Parsley," responded Miss Wright. "I shouldn't like to live in +them northern places. My cousin Ellen's husband was a Parsley man, an' +he was obliged, as you may have heard, to go up north to his father's +second wife's funeral; got back day before yesterday. 'T was about +twenty-one miles, an' they started on wheels; but when they'd gone +nine or ten miles, they found 't was no sort o' use, an' left their +wagon an' took a sleigh. The man that owned it charged 'em four an' +six, too. I shouldn't have thought he would; they told him they was +goin' to a funeral; an' they had their own buffaloes an' everything." + +"Well, I expect it's a good deal harder scratchin', up that way; they +have to git money where they can; the farms is very poor as you go +north," suggested Mrs. Trimble kindly. "'T ain't none too rich a +country where we be, but I've always been grateful I wa'n't born up to +Parsley." + +The old horse plodded along, and the sun, coming out from the heavy +spring clouds, sent a sudden shine of light along the muddy road. +Sister Wright drew her large veil forward over the high brim of her +bonnet. She was not used to driving, or to being much in the open air; +but Mrs. Trimble was an active business woman, and looked after her +own affairs herself, in all weathers. The late Mr. Trimble had left +her a good farm, but not much ready money, and it was often said that +she was better off in the end than if he had lived. She regretted his +loss deeply, however; it was impossible for her to speak of him, even +to intimate friends, without emotion, and nobody had ever hinted that +this emotion was insincere. She was most warm-hearted and generous, +and in her limited way played the part of Lady Bountiful in the town +of Hampden. + +"Why, there's where the Bray girls lives, ain't it?" she exclaimed, +as, beyond a thicket of witch-hazel and scrub-oak, they came in sight +of a weather-beaten, solitary farmhouse. The barn was too far away for +thrift or comfort, and they could see long lines of light between the +shrunken boards as they came nearer. The fields looked both stony and +sodden. Somehow, even Parsley itself could be hardly more forlorn. + +"Yes'm," said Miss Wright, "that's where they live now, poor things. I +know the place, though I ain't been up here for years. You don't +suppose, Mis' Trimble--I ain't seen the girls out to meetin' all +winter. I've re'lly been covetin'"-- + +"Why, yes, Rebecca, of course we could stop," answered Mrs. Trimble +heartily. "The exercises was over earlier 'n I expected, an' you're +goin' to remain over night long o' me, you know. There won't be no tea +till we git there, so we can't be late. I'm in the habit o' sendin' a +basket to the Bray girls when any o' our folks is comin' this way, but +I ain't been to see 'em since they moved up here. Why, it must be a +good deal over a year ago. I know 't was in the late winter they had +to make the move. 'T was cruel hard, I must say, an' if I hadn't been +down with my pleurisy fever I'd have stirred round an' done somethin' +about it. There was a good deal o' sickness at the time, an'--well, 't +was kind o' rushed through, breakin' of 'em up, an' lots o' folks +blamed the selec'_men_; but when 't was done, 't was done, an' nobody +took holt to undo it. Ann an' Mandy looked same's ever when they come +to meetin', 'long in the summer,--kind o' wishful, perhaps. They've +always sent me word they was gittin' on pretty comfortable." + +"That would be their way," said Rebecca Wright. "They never was any +hand to complain, though Mandy's less cheerful than Ann. If Mandy 'd +been spared such poor eyesight, an' Ann hadn't got her lame wrist that +wa'n't set right, they'd kep' off the town fast enough. They both shed +tears when they talked to me about havin' to break up, when I went to +see 'em before I went over to brother Asa's. You see we was brought up +neighbors, an' we went to school together, the Brays an' me. 'T was a +special Providence brought us home this road, I've been so covetin' a +chance to git to see 'em. My lameness hampers me." + +"I'm glad we come this way, myself," said Mrs. Trimble. + +"I'd like to see just how they fare," Miss Rebecca Wright continued. +"They give their consent to goin' on the town because they knew they'd +got to be dependent, an' so they felt 't would come easier for all +than for a few to help 'em. They acted real dignified an' +right-minded, contrary to what most do in such cases, but they was +dreadful anxious to see who would bid 'em off, town-meeting day; they +did so hope 't would be somebody right in the village. I just sat down +an' cried good when I found Abel Janes's folks had got hold of 'em. +They always had the name of bein' slack an' poor-spirited, an' they +did it just for what they got out o' the town. The selectmen this +last year ain't what we have had. I hope they've been considerate +about the Bray girls." + +"I should have be'n more considerate about fetchin' of you over," +apologized Mrs. Trimble. "I've got my horse, an' you're lame-footed; +'tis too far for you to come. But time does slip away with busy folks, +an' I forgit a good deal I ought to remember." + +"There's nobody more considerate than you be," protested Miss Rebecca +Wright. + +Mrs. Trimble made no answer, but took out her whip and gently touched +the sorrel horse, who walked considerably faster, but did not think it +worth while to trot. It was a long, round-about way to the house, +farther down the road and up a lane. + +"I never had any opinion of the Bray girls' father, leavin' 'em as he +did," said Mrs. Trimble. + +"He was much praised in his time, though there was always some said +his early life hadn't been up to the mark," explained her companion. +"He was a great favorite of our then preacher, the Reverend Daniel +Longbrother. They did a good deal for the parish, but they did it +their own way. Deacon Bray was one that did his part in the repairs +without urging. You know 't was in his time the first repairs was +made, when they got out the old soundin'-board an' them handsome +square pews. It cost an awful sight o' money, too. They hadn't done +payin' up that debt when they set to alter it again an' git the walls +frescoed. My grandmother was one that always spoke her mind right out, +an' she was dreadful opposed to breakin' up the square pews where she'd +always set. They was countin' up what 't would cost in parish meetin', +an' she riz right up an' said 't wouldn't cost nothin' to let 'em +stay, an' there wa'n't a house carpenter left in the parish that could +do such nice work, an' time would come when the great-grandchildren +would give their eye-teeth to have the old meetin'-house look just as +it did then. But haul the inside to pieces they would and did." + +"There come to be a real fight over it, didn't there?" agreed Mrs. +Trimble soothingly. "Well, 't wa'n't good taste. I remember the old +house well. I come here as a child to visit a cousin o' mother's, an' +Mr. Trimble's folks was neighbors, an' we was drawed to each other +then, young's we was. Mr. Trimble spoke of it many's the time,--that +first time he ever see me, in a leghorn hat with a feather; 't was one +that mother had, an' pressed over." + +"When I think of them old sermons that used to be preached in that old +meetin'-house of all, I'm glad it's altered over, so's not to remind +folks," said Miss Rebecca Wright, after a suitable pause. "Them old +brimstone discourses, you know, Mis' Trimble. Preachers is far more +reasonable, nowadays. Why, I set an' thought, last Sabbath, as I +listened, that if old Mr. Longbrother an' Deacon Bray could hear the +difference they'd crack the ground over 'em like pole beans, an' come +right up 'long side their headstones." + +Mrs. Trimble laughed heartily, and shook the reins three or four times +by way of emphasis. "There's no gitting round you," she said, much +pleased. "I should think Deacon Bray would want to rise, any way, if +'t was so he could, an' knew how his poor girls was farin'. A man +ought to provide for his folks he's got to leave behind him, specially +if they're women. To be sure, they had their little home; but we've +seen how, with all their industrious ways, they hadn't means to keep +it. I s'pose he thought he'd got time enough to lay by, when he give +so generous in collections; but he didn't lay by, an' there they be. +He might have took lessons from the squirrels: even them little wild +creatur's makes them their winter hoards, an' men-folks ought to know +enough if squirrels does. 'Be just before you are generous:' that's +what was always set for the B's in the copy-books, when I was to +school, and it often runs through my mind." + +"'As for man, his days are as grass,'--that was for A; the two go well +together," added Miss Rebecca Wright soberly. "My good gracious, ain't +this a starved-lookin' place? It makes me ache to think them nice Bray +girls has to brook it here." + +The sorrel horse, though somewhat puzzled by an unexpected deviation +from his homeward way, willingly came to a stand by the gnawed corner +of the door-yard fence, which evidently served as hitching-place. Two +or three ragged old hens were picking about the yard, and at last a +face appeared at the kitchen window, tied up in a handkerchief, as if +it were a case of toothache. By the time our friends reached the side +door next this window, Mrs. Janes came disconsolately to open it for +them, shutting it again as soon as possible, though the air felt more +chilly inside the house. + +"Take seats," said Mrs. Janes briefly. "You'll have to see me just as +I be. I have been suffering these four days with the ague, and +everything to do. Mr. Janes is to court, on the jury. 'T was +inconvenient to spare him. I should be pleased to have you lay off +your things." + +Comfortable Mrs. Trimble looked about the cheerless kitchen, and could +not think of anything to say; so she smiled blandly and shook her head +in answer to the invitation. "We'll just set a few minutes with you, +to pass the time o' day, an' then we must go in an' have a word with +the Miss Brays, bein' old acquaintance. It ain't been so we could git +to call on 'em before. I don't know's you're acquainted with Miss +R'becca Wright. She's been out of town a good deal." + +"I heard she was stopping over to Plainfields with her brother's +folks," replied Mrs. Janes, rocking herself with irregular motion, as +she sat close to the stove. "Got back some time in the fall, I +believe?" + +"Yes'm," said Miss Rebecca, with an undue sense of guilt and +conviction. "We've been to the installation over to the East Parish, +an' thought we'd stop in; we took this road home to see if 't was any +better. How is the Miss Brays gettin' on?" + +"They're well's common," answered Mrs. Janes grudgingly. "I was put +out with Mr. Janes for fetchin' of 'em here, with all I've got to do, +an' I own I was kind o' surly to 'em 'long to the first of it. He gits +the money from the town, an' it helps him out; but he bid 'em off for +five dollars a month, an' we can't do much for 'em at no such price as +that. I went an' dealt with the selec'men, an' made 'em promise to +find their firewood an' some other things extra. They was glad to get +rid o' the matter the fourth time I went, an' would ha' promised 'most +anything. But Mr. Janes don't keep me half the time in oven-wood, he's +off so much, an' we was cramped o' room, any way. I have to store +things up garrit a good deal, an' that keeps me trampin' right through +their room. I do the best for 'em I can, Mis' Trimble, but 't ain't so +easy for me as 't is for you, with all your means to do with." + +The poor woman looked pinched and miserable herself, though it was +evident that she had no gift at house or home keeping. Mrs. Trimble's +heart was wrung with pain, as she thought of the unwelcome inmates of +such a place; but she held her peace bravely, while Miss Rebecca again +gave some brief information in regard to the installation. + +"You go right up them back stairs," the hostess directed at last. "I'm +glad some o' you church folks has seen fit to come an' visit 'em. +There ain't been nobody here this long spell, an' they've aged a sight +since they come. They always send down a taste out of your baskets, +Mis' Trimble, an' I relish it, I tell you. I'll shut the door after +you, if you don't object. I feel every draught o' cold air." + +"I've always heard she was a great hand to make a poor mouth. Wa'n't +she from somewheres up Parsley way?" whispered Miss Rebecca, as they +stumbled in the half-light. + +"Poor meechin' body, wherever she come from," replied Mrs. Trimble, as +she knocked at the door. + +There was silence for a moment after this unusual sound; then one of +the Bray sisters opened the door. The eager guests stared into a +small, low room, brown with age, and gray, too, as if former dust and +cobwebs could not be made wholly to disappear. The two elderly women +who stood there looked like captives. Their withered faces wore a look +of apprehension, and the room itself was more bare and plain than was +fitting to their evident refinement of character and self-respect. +There was an uncovered small table in the middle of the floor, with +some crackers on a plate; and, for some reason or other, this added a +great deal to the general desolation. + +But Miss Ann Bray, the elder sister, who carried her right arm in a +sling, with piteously drooping fingers, gazed at the visitors with +radiant joy. She had not seen them arrive. + +The one window gave only the view at the back of the house, across the +fields, and their coming was indeed a surprise. The next minute she +was laughing and crying together. "Oh, sister!" she said, "if here +ain't our dear Mis' Trimble!--an' my heart o' goodness, 'tis 'Becca +Wright, too! What dear good creatur's you be! I've felt all day as if +something good was goin' to happen, an' was just sayin' to myself +'twas most sundown now, but I wouldn't let on to Mandany I'd give up +hope quite yet. You see, the scissors stuck in the floor this very +mornin' an' it's always a reliable sign. There, I've got to kiss ye +both again!" + +"I don't know where we can all set," lamented sister Mandana. "There +ain't but the one chair an' the bed; t'other chair's too rickety; an' +we've been promised another these ten days; but first they've forgot +it, an' next Mis' Janes can't spare it,--one excuse an' another. I am +goin' to git a stump o' wood an' nail a board on to it, when I can git +outdoor again," said Mandana, in a plaintive voice. "There, I ain't +goin' to complain o' nothin', now you've come," she added; and the +guests sat down, Mrs. Trimble, as was proper, in the one chair. + +"We've sat on the bed many's the time with you, 'Becca, an' talked +over our girl nonsense, ain't we? You know where 'twas--in the little +back bedroom we had when we was girls, an' used to peek out at our +beaux through the strings o' mornin'-glories," laughed Ann Bray +delightedly, her thin face shining more and more with joy. "I brought +some o' them mornin'-glory seeds along when we come away, we'd raised +'em so many years; an' we got 'em started all right, but the hens +found 'em out. I declare I chased them poor hens, foolish as 'twas; +but the mornin'-glories I'd counted on a sight to remind me o' home. +You see, our debts was so large, after my long sickness an' all, that +we didn't feel 'twas right to keep back anything we could help from +the auction." + +It was impossible for any one to speak for a moment or two; the +sisters felt their own uprooted condition afresh, and their guests for +the first time really comprehended the piteous contrast between that +neat little village house, which now seemed a palace of comfort, and +this cold, unpainted upper room in the remote Janes farmhouse. It was +an unwelcome thought to Mrs. Trimble that the well-to-do town of +Hampden could provide no better for its poor than this, and her round +face flushed with resentment and the shame of personal responsibility. +"The girls shall be well settled in the village before another winter, +if I pay their board myself," she made an inward resolution, and took +another almost tearful look at the broken stove, the miserable bed, +and the sisters' one hair-covered trunk, on which Mandana was sitting +But the poor place was filled with a golden spirit of hospitality. + +Rebecca was again discoursing eloquently of the installation; it was +so much easier to speak of general subjects, and the sisters had +evidently been longing to hear some news. Since the late summer they +had not been to church, and presently Mrs. Trimble asked the reason. + +"Now, don't you go to pouring out our woes, Mandy!" begged little old +Ann, looking shy and almost girlish, and as if she insisted upon +playing that life was still all before them and all pleasure. "Don't +you go to spoilin' their visit with our complaints! They know well's +we do that changes must come, an' we'd been so wonted to our home +things that this come hard at first; but then they felt for us, I know +just as well's can be. 'Twill soon be summer again, an' 'tis real +pleasant right out in the fields here, when there ain't too hot a +spell. I've got to know a sight o' singin' birds since we come." + +"Give me the folks I've always known," sighed the younger sister, who +looked older than Miss Ann, and less even-tempered. "You may have your +birds, if you want 'em. I do re'lly long to go to meetin' an' see +folks go by up the aisle. Now, I will speak of it, Ann, whatever you +say. We need, each of us, a pair o' good stout shoes an' +rubbers,--ours are all wore out; an' we've asked an' asked, an' they +never think to bring 'em, an'"-- + +Poor old Mandana, on the trunk, covered her face with her arms and +sobbed aloud. The elder sister stood over her, and patted her on the +thin shoulder like a child, and tried to comfort her. It crossed Mrs. +Trimble's mind that it was not the first time one had wept and the +other had comforted. The sad scene must have been repeated many times +in that long, drear winter. She would see them forever after in her +mind as fixed as a picture, and her own tears fell fast. + +"You didn't see Mis' Janes's cunning little boy, the next one to the +baby, did you?" asked Ann Bray, turning round quickly at last, and +going cheerfully on with the conversation. "Now, hush, Mandy, dear; +they'll think you're childish! He's a dear, friendly little creatur', +an' likes to stay with us a good deal, though we feel's if it 't was +too cold for him, now we are waitin' to get us more wood." + +"When I think of the acres o' woodland in this town!" groaned Rebecca +Wright. "I believe I'm goin' to preach next Sunday, 'stead o' the +minister, an' I'll make the sparks fly. I've always heard the saying, +'What's everybody's business is nobody's business,' an' I've come to +believe it." + +"Now, don't you, 'Becca. You've happened on a kind of a poor time with +us, but we've got more belongings than you see here, an' a good large +cluset, where we can store those things there ain't room to have +about. You an' Miss Trimble have happened on a kind of poor day, you +know. Soon's I git me some stout shoes an' rubbers, as Mandy says, I +can fetch home plenty o' little dry boughs o' pine; you remember I was +always a great hand to roam in the woods? If we could only have a +front room, so 't we could look out on the road an' see passin', an' +was shod for meetin', I don' know's we should complain. Now we're just +goin' to give you what we've got, an' make out with a good welcome. We +make more tea 'n we want in the mornin', an' then let the fire go +down, since 't has been so mild. We've got a _good_ cluset" +(disappearing as she spoke), "an' I know this to be good tea, 'cause +it's some o' yourn, Mis' Trimble. An' here's our sprigged chiny cups +that R'becca knows by sight, if Mis' Trimble don't. We kep' out four +of 'em, an' put the even half dozen with the rest of the auction +stuff. I've often wondered who'd got 'em, but I never asked, for fear +'t would be somebody that would distress us. They was mother's, you +know." + +The four cups were poured, and the little table pushed to the bed, +where Rebecca Wright still sat, and Mandana, wiping her eyes, came and +joined her. Mrs. Trimble sat in her chair at the end, and Ann trotted +about the room in pleased content for a while, and in and out of the +closet, as if she still had much to do; then she came and stood +opposite Mrs. Trimble. She was very short and small, and there was no +painful sense of her being obliged to stand. The four cups were not +quite full of cold tea, but there was a clean old tablecloth folded +double, and a plate with three pairs of crackers neatly piled, and a +small--it must be owned, a very small--piece of hard white cheese. +Then, for a treat, in a glass dish, there was a little preserved +peach, the last--Miss Rebecca knew it instinctively--of the household +stores brought from their old home. It was very sugary, this bit of +peach; and as she helped her guests and sister Mandy, Miss Ann Bray +said, half unconsciously, as she often had said with less reason in +the old days, "Our preserves ain't so good as usual this year; this is +beginning to candy." Both the guests protested, while Rebecca added +that the taste of it carried her back, and made her feel young again. +The Brays had always managed to keep one or two peach-trees alive in +their corner of a garden. "I've been keeping this preserve for a +treat," said her friend. "I'm glad to have you eat some, 'Becca. Last +summer I often wished you was home an' could come an' see us, 'stead +o' being away off to Plainfields." + +The crackers did not taste too dry. Miss Ann took the last of the +peach on her own cracker; there could not have been quite a small +spoonful, after the others were helped, but she asked them first if +they would not have some more. Then there was a silence, and in the +silence a wave of tender feeling rose high in the hearts of the four +elderly women. At this moment the setting sun flooded the poor plain +room with light; the unpainted wood was all of a golden-brown, and Ann +Bray, with her gray hair and aged face, stood at the head of the table +in a kind of aureole. Mrs. Trimble's face was all aquiver as she +looked at her; she thought of the text about two or three being +gathered together, and was half afraid. + +"I believe we ought to've asked Mis' Janes if she wouldn't come up," +said Ann. "She's real good feelin', but she's had it very hard, an' +gits discouraged. I can't find that she's ever had anything real +pleasant to look back to, as we have. There, next time we'll make a +good heartenin' time for her too." + + +The sorrel horse had taken a long nap by the gnawed fence-rail, and +the cool air after sundown made him impatient to be gone. The two +friends jolted homeward in the gathering darkness, through the +stiffening mud, and neither Mrs. Trimble nor Rebecca Wright said a +word until they were out of sight as well as out of sound of the Janes +house. Time must elapse before they could reach a more familiar part +of the road and resume conversation on its natural level. + +"I consider myself to blame," insisted Mrs. Trimble at last. "I +haven't no words of accusation for nobody else, an' I ain't one to +take comfort in calling names to the board o' selec'_men_. I make no +reproaches, an' I take it all on my own shoulders; but I'm goin' to +stir about me, I tell you! I shall begin early to-morrow. They're +goin' back to their own house,--it's been standin' empty all +winter,--an' the town's goin' to give 'em the rent an' what firewood +they need; it won't come to more than the board's payin' out now. An' +you an' me'll take this same horse an' wagon, an' ride an' go afoot by +turns, an' git means enough together to buy back their furniture an' +whatever was sold at that plaguey auction; an' then we'll put it all +back, an' tell 'em they've got to move to a new place, an' just carry +'em right back again where they come from. An' don't you never tell, +R'becca, but here I be a widow woman, layin' up what I make from my +farm for nobody knows who, an' I'm goin' to do for them Bray girls +all I'm a mind to. I should be sca't to wake up in heaven, an' hear +anybody there ask how the Bray girls was. Don't talk to me about the +town o' Hampden, an' don't ever let me hear the name o' town poor! I'm +ashamed to go home an' see what's set out for supper. I wish I'd +brought 'em right along." + +"I was goin' to ask if we couldn't git the new doctor to go up an' do +somethin' for poor Ann's arm," said Miss Rebecca. "They say he's very +smart. If she could get so's to braid straw or hook rugs again, she'd +soon be earnin' a little somethin'. An' may be he could do somethin' +for Mandy's eyes. They did use to live so neat an' ladylike. Somehow I +couldn't speak to tell 'em there that 'twas I bought them six best +cups an' saucers, time of the auction; they went very low, as +everything else did, an' I thought I could save it some other way. +They shall have 'em back an' welcome. You're real whole-hearted, Mis' +Trimble. I expect Ann'll be sayin' that her father's child'n wa'n't +goin' to be left desolate, an' that all the bread he cast on the +water's comin' back through you." + +"I don't care what she says, dear creatur'!" exclaimed Mrs. Trimble. +"I'm full o' regrets I took time for that installation, an' set there +seepin' in a lot o' talk this whole day long, except for its kind of +bringin' us to the Bray girls. I wish to my heart 't was to-morrow +mornin' a'ready, an' I a-startin' for the selec'_men_." + + * * * * * + + + + +A Native of Winby + + +I. + +On the teacher's desk, in the little roadside school-house, there was +a bunch of Mayflowers, beside a dented and bent brass bell, a small +Worcester's Dictionary without any cover, and a worn morocco-covered +Bible. These were placed in an orderly row, and behind them was a +small wooden box which held some broken pieces of blackboard crayon. +The teacher, whom no timid new scholar could look at boldly, wore her +accustomed air of authority and importance. She might have been +nineteen years old,--not more,--but for the time being she scorned the +frivolities of youth. + +The hot May sun was shining in at the smoky small-paned windows; +sometimes an outside shutter swung to with a creak, and eclipsed the +glare. The narrow door stood wide open, to the left as you faced the +desk, and an old spotted dog lay asleep on the step, and looked wise +and old enough to have gone to school with several generations of +children. It was half past three o'clock in the afternoon, and the +primer class, settled into the apathy of after-recess fatigue, +presented a straggling front, as they stood listlessly on the floor. +As for the big boys and girls, they also were longing to be at +liberty, but the pretty teacher, Miss Marilla Hender, seemed quite as +energetic as when school was begun in the morning. + +The spring breeze blew in at the open door, and even fluttered the +primer leaves, but the back of the room felt hot and close, as if it +were midsummer. The children in the class read their lessons in those +high-keyed, droning voices which older teachers learn to associate +with faint powers of perception. Only one or two of them had an +awakened human look in their eyes, such as Matthew Arnold delighted +himself in finding so often in the school-children of France. Most of +these poor little students were as inadequate, at that weary moment, +to the pursuit of letters as if they had been woolly spring lambs on a +sunny hillside. The teacher corrected and admonished with great +patience, glancing now and then toward points of danger and +insurrection, whence came a suspicious buzz of whispering from behind +a desk-lid or a pair of widespread large geographies. Now and then a +toiling child would rise and come down the aisle, with his forefinger +firm upon a puzzling word as if it were an unclassified insect. It was +a lovely beckoning day out-of-doors. The children felt like captives; +there was something that provoked rebellion in the droning voices, the +buzzing of an early wild bee against the sunlit pane, and even in the +stuffy familiar odor of the place,--the odor of apples and crumbs of +doughnuts and gingerbread in the dinner pails on the high entry nails, +and of all the little gowns and trousers that had brushed through +junipers and young pines on their way to school. + +The bee left his prisoning pane at last, and came over to the +Mayflowers, which were in full bloom, although the season was very +late, and deep in the woods there were still some graybacked +snowdrifts, speckled with bits of bark and moss from the trees above. + +"Come, come, Ezra!" urged the young teacher, rapping her desk sharply. +"Stop watchin' that common bee! You know well enough what those +letters spell. You won't learn to read at this rate until you are a +grown man. Mind your book, now; you ought to remember who went to this +school when he was a little boy. You've heard folks tell about the +Honorable Joseph K. Laneway? He used to be in primer just as you are +now, and 't wasn't long before he was out of it, either, and was +called the smartest boy in school. He's got to be a general and a +Senator, and one of the richest men out West. You don't seem to have +the least mite of ambition to-day, any of you!" + +The exhortation, entirely personal in the beginning, had swiftly +passed to a general rebuke. Ezra looked relieved, and the other +children brightened up as they recognized a tale familiar to their +ears. Anything was better than trying to study in that dull last hour +of afternoon school. + +"Yes," continued Miss Hender, pleased that she had at last roused +something like proper attention, "you all ought to be proud that you +are schoolmates of District Number Four, and can remember that the +celebrated General Laneway had the same early advantages as you, and +think what he has made of himself by perseverance and ambition." + +The pupils were familiar enough with the illustrious history of their +noble predecessor. They were sure to be told, in lawless moments, that +if Mr. Laneway were to come in and see them he would be mortified to +death; and the members of the school committee always referred to him, +and said that he had been a poor boy, and was now a self-made +man,--as if every man were not self-made as to his character and +reputation! + +At this point, young Johnny Spencer showed his next neighbor, in the +back of his Colburn's Arithmetic, an imaginary portrait of their +district hero, which caused them both to chuckle derisively. The +Honorable Mr. Laneway figured on the flyleaf as an extremely +cross-eyed person, with strangely crooked legs and arms and a terrific +expression. He was outlined with red and blue pencils as to coat and +trousers, and held a reddened scalp in one hand and a blue tomahawk in +the other; being closely associated in the artist's mind with the +early settlements of the far West. + +There was a noise of wheels in the road near by, and, though Miss +Hender had much more to say, everybody ceased to listen to her, and +turned toward the windows, leaning far forward over their desks to see +who might be passing. They caught a glimpse of a shiny carriage; the +old dog bounded out, barking, but nothing passed the open door. The +carriage had stopped; some one was coming to the school; somebody was +going to be called out! It could not be the committee, whose pompous +and uninspiring spring visit had taken place only the week before. + +Presently a well-dressed elderly man, with an expectant, masterful +look, stood on the doorstep, glanced in with a smile, and knocked. +Miss Marilla Hender blushed, smoothed her pretty hair anxiously with +both hands, and stepped down from her little platform to answer the +summons. There was hardly a shut mouth in the primer class. + +"Would it be convenient for you to receive a visitor to the school?" +the stranger asked politely, with a fine bow of deference to Miss +Hender. He looked much pleased and a little excited, and the teacher +said,-- + +"Certainly; step right in, won't you, sir?" in quite another tone from +that in which she had just addressed the school. + +The boys and girls were sitting straight and silent in their places, +in something like a fit of apprehension and unpreparedness at such a +great emergency. The guest represented a type of person previously +unknown in District Number Four. Everything about him spoke of wealth +and authority. The old dog returned to the doorstep, and after a +careful look at the invader approached him, with a funny doggish grin +and a desperate wag of the tail, to beg for recognition. + +The teacher gave her chair on the platform to the guest, and stood +beside him with very red cheeks, smoothing her hair again once or +twice, and keeping the hard-wood ruler fast in hand, like a badge of +office. "Primer class may now retire!" she said firmly, although the +lesson was not more than half through; and the class promptly escaped +to their seats, waddling and stumbling, until they all came up behind +their desks, face foremost, and added themselves to the number of +staring young countenances. After this there was a silence, which grew +more and more embarrassing. + +"Perhaps you would be pleased to hear our first class in geography, +sir?" asked the fair Marilla, recovering her presence of mind; and the +guest kindly assented. + +The young teacher was by no means willing to give up a certainty for +an uncertainty. Yesterday's lesson had been well learned; she turned +back to the questions about the State of Kansota, and at the first +sentence the mysterious visitor's dignity melted into an unconscious +smile. He listened intently for a minute, and then seemed to reoccupy +himself with his own thoughts and purposes, looking eagerly about the +old school-house, and sometimes gazing steadily at the children. The +lesson went on finely, and when it was finished Miss Hender asked the +girl at the head of the class to name the States and Territories, +which she instantly did, mispronouncing nearly all the names of the +latter; then others stated boundaries and capitals, and the resources +of the New England States, passing on finally to the names of the +Presidents. Miss Hender glowed with pride; she had worked hard over +the geography class in the winter term, and it did not fail her on +this great occasion. When she turned bravely to see if the gentleman +would like to ask any questions, she found that he was apparently +lost in a deep reverie, so she repeated her own question more +distinctly. + +"They have done very well,--very well indeed," he answered kindly; and +then, to every one's surprise, he rose, went up the aisle, pushed +Johnny Spencer gently along his bench, and sat down beside him. The +space was cramped, and the stranger looked huge and uncomfortable, so +that everybody laughed, except one of the big girls, who turned pale +with fright, and thought he must be crazy. When this girl gave a faint +squeak Miss Hender recovered herself, and rapped twice with the ruler +to restore order; then became entirely tranquil. There had been talk +of replacing the hacked and worn old school-desks with patent desks +and chairs; this was probably an agent connected with that business. +At once she was resolute and self-reliant, and said, "No whispering!" +in a firm tone that showed she did not mean to be trifled with. The +geography class was dismissed, but the elderly gentleman, in his +handsome overcoat, still sat there wedged in at Johnny Spencer's side. + +"I presume, sir, that you are canvassing for new desks," said Miss +Hender, with dignity. "You will have to see the supervisor and the +selectmen." There did not seem to be any need of his lingering, but +she had an ardent desire to be pleasing to a person of such evident +distinction. "We always tell strangers--I thought, sir, you might be +gratified to know--that this is the school-house where the Honorable +Joseph K. Laneway first attended school. All do not know that he was +born in this town, and went West very young; it is only about a mile +from here where his folks used to live." + +At this moment the visitor's eyes fell. He did not look at pretty +Marilla any more, but opened Johnny Spencer's arithmetic, and, seeing +the imaginary portrait of the great General Laneway, laughed a +little,--a very deep-down comfortable laugh it was,--while Johnny +himself turned cold with alarm, he could not have told why. + +It was very still in the school-room; the bee was buzzing and bumping +at the pane again; the moment was one of intense expectation. + +The stranger looked at the children right and left. "The fact is +this, young people," said he, in a tone that was half pride and half +apology, "I am Joseph K. Laneway myself." + +He tried to extricate himself from the narrow quarters of the desk, +but for an embarrassing moment found that he was stuck fast. Johnny +Spencer instinctively gave him an assisting push, and once free the +great soldier, statesman, and millionaire took a few steps forward to +the open floor; then, after hesitating a moment, he mounted the little +platform and stood in the teacher's place. Marilla Hender was as pale +as ashes. + +"I have thought many times," the great guest began, "that some day I +should come back to visit this place, which is so closely interwoven +with the memories of my childhood. In my counting-room, on the fields +of war, in the halls of Congress, and most of all in my Western home, +my thoughts have flown back to the hills and brooks of Winby and to +this little old school-house. I could shut my eyes and call back the +buzz of voices, and fear my teacher's frown, and feel my boyish +ambitions waking and stirring in my breast. On that bench where I just +sat I saw some notches that I cut with my first jackknife fifty-eight +years ago this very spring. I remember the faces of the boys and girls +who went to school with me, and I see their grandchildren before me. I +know that one is a Goodsoe and another a Winn by the old family look. +One generation goes, and another comes. + +"There are many things that I might say to you. I meant, even in those +early restricted days, to make my name known, and I dare say that you +too have ambition. Be careful what you wish for in this world, for if +you wish hard enough you are sure to get it. I once heard a very wise +man say this, and the longer I live the more firmly I believe it to be +true. But wishing hard means working hard for what you want, and the +world's prizes wait for the men and women who are ready to take pains +to win them. Be careful and set your minds on the best things. I meant +to be a rich man when I was a boy here, and I stand before you a rich +man, knowing the care and anxiety and responsibility of wealth. I +meant to go to Congress, and I am one of the Senators from Kansota. I +say this as humbly as I say it proudly. I used to read of the valor +and patriotism of the old Greeks and Romans with my youthful blood +leaping along my veins, and it came to pass that my own country was in +danger, and that I could help to fight her battles. Perhaps some one +of these little lads has before him a more eventful life than I have +lived, and is looking forward to activity and honor and the pride of +fame. I wish him all the joy that I have had, all the toil that I have +had, and all the bitter disappointments even; for adversity leads a +man to depend upon that which is above him, and the path of glory is a +lonely path, beset by temptations and a bitter sense of the weakness +and imperfection of man. I see my life spread out like a great +picture, as I stand here in my boyhood's place. I regret my failures. +I thank God for what in his kind providence has been honest and right. +I am glad to come back, but I feel, as I look in your young faces, +that I am an old man, while your lives are just beginning. When you +remember, in years to come, that I came here to see the old +school-house, remember that I said: Wish for the best things, and work +hard to win them; try to be good men and women, for the honor of the +school and the town, and the noble young country that gave you birth; +be kind at home and generous abroad. Remember that I, an old man who +had seen much of life, begged you to be brave and good." + +The Honorable Mr. Laneway had rarely felt himself so moved in any of +his public speeches, but he was obliged to notice that for once he +could not hold his audience. The primer class especially had begun to +flag in attention, but one or two faces among the elder scholars +fairly shone with vital sympathy and a lovely prescience of their +future. Their eyes met his as if they struck a flash of light. There +was a sturdy boy who half rose in his place unconsciously, the color +coming and going in his cheeks; something in Mr. Laneway's words lit +the altar flame in his reverent heart. + +Marilla Hender was pleased and a little dazed; she could not have +repeated what her illustrious visitor had said, but she longed to tell +everybody the news that he was in town, and had come to school to make +an address. She had never seen a great man before, and really needed +time to reflect upon him and to consider what she ought to say. She +was just quivering with the attempt to make a proper reply and thank +Mr. Laneway for the honor of his visit to the school, when he asked +her which of the boys could be trusted to drive back his hired horse +to the Four Corners. Eight boys, large and small, nearly every boy in +the school, rose at once and snapped insistent fingers; but Johnny +Spencer alone was desirous not to attract attention to himself. The +Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic with the portrait had been well +secreted between his tight jacket and his shirt. Miss Hender selected +a trustworthy freckled person in long trousers, who was half way to +the door in an instant, and was heard almost immediately to shout +loudly at the quiet horse. + +Then the Hero of District Number Four made his acknowledgments to the +teacher. "I fear that I have interrupted you too long," he said, with +pleasing deference. + +Marilla replied that it was of no consequence; she hoped he would call +again. She may have spoken primly, but her pretty eyes said everything +that her lips forgot. "My grandmother will want to see you, sir," she +ventured to say. "I guess you will remember her,--Mis' Hender, she +that was Abby Harran. She has often told me how you used to get your +lessons out o' the same book." + +"Abby Harran's granddaughter?" Mr. Laneway looked at her again with +fresh interest. "Yes, I wish to see her more than any one else. Tell +her that I am coming to see her before I go away, and give her my +love. Thank you, my dear," as Marilla offered his missing hat. +"Good-by, boys and girls." He stopped and looked at them once more +from the boys' entry, and turned again to look back from the very +doorstep. + +"Good-by, sir,--good-by," piped two or three of the young voices; but +most of the children only stared, and neither spoke nor moved. + +"We will omit the class in Fourth Reader this afternoon. The class in +grammar may recite," said Miss Hender in her most contained and +official manner. + +The grammar class sighed like a single pupil, and obeyed. She was very +stern with the grammar class, but every one in school had an inner +sense that it was a great day in the history of District Number Four. + + +II. + +The Honorable Mr. Laneway found the outdoor air very fresh and sweet +after the closeness of the school-house. It had just that same odor in +his boyhood, and as he escaped he had a delightful sense of playing +truant or of having an unexpected holiday. It was easier to think of +himself as a boy, and to slip back into boyish thoughts, than to bear +the familiar burden of his manhood. He climbed the tumble-down stone +wall across the road, and went along a narrow path to the spring that +bubbled up clear and cold under a great red oak. How many times he had +longed for a drink of that water, and now here it was, and the thirst +of that warm spring day was hard to quench! Again and again he stopped +to fill the birchbark dipper which the school-children had made, just +as his own comrades made theirs years before. The oak-tree was dying +at the top. The pine woods beyond had been cut and had grown again +since his boyhood, and looked much as he remembered them. Beyond the +spring and away from the woods the path led across overgrown pastures +to another road, perhaps three quarters of a mile away, and near this +road was the small farm which had been his former home. As he walked +slowly along, he was met again and again by some reminder of his +youthful days. He had always liked to refer to his early life in New +England in his political addresses, and had spoken more than once of +going to find the cows at nightfall in the autumn evenings, and being +glad to warm his bare feet in the places where the sleepy beasts had +lain, before he followed their slow steps homeward through bush and +brier. The Honorable Mr. Laneway had a touch of true sentiment which +added much to his really stirring and effective campaign speeches. He +had often been called the "king of the platform" in his adopted State. +He had long ago grown used to saying "Go" to one man, and "Come" to +another, like the ruler of old; but all his natural power of +leadership and habit of authority disappeared at once as he trod the +pasture slopes, calling back the remembrance of his childhood. Here +was the place where two lads, older than himself, had killed a +terrible woodchuck at bay in the angle of a great rock; and just +beyond was the sunny spot where he had picked a bunch of pink and +white anemones under a prickly barberry thicket, to give to Abby +Harran in morning school. She had put them into her desk, and let them +wilt there, but she was pleased when she took them. Abby Harran, the +little teacher's grandmother, was a year older than he, and had +wakened the earliest thought of love in his youthful breast. + +It was almost time to catch the first sight of his birthplace. From +the knoll just ahead he had often seen the light of his mother's lamp, +as he came home from school on winter afternoons; but when he reached +the knoll the old house was gone, and so was the great walnut-tree +that grew beside it, and a pang of disappointment shot through this +devout pilgrim's heart. He never had doubted that the old farm was +somebody's home still, and had counted upon the pleasure of spending a +night there, and sleeping again in that room under the roof, where the +rain sounded loud, and the walnut branches brushed to and fro when the +wind blew, as if they were the claws of tigers. He hurried across the +worn-out fields, long ago turned into sheep pastures, where the last +year's tall grass and golden-rod stood gray and winter-killed; tracing +the old walls and fences, and astonished to see how small the fields +had been. The prosperous owner of Western farming lands could not help +remembering those widespread luxuriant acres, and the broad outlooks +of his Western home. + +It was difficult at first to find exactly where the house had stood; +even the foundations had disappeared. At last in the long, faded grass +he discovered the doorstep, and near by was a little mound where the +great walnut-tree stump had been. The cellar was a mere dent in the +sloping ground; it had been filled in by the growing grass and slow +processes of summer and winter weather. But just at the pilgrim's +right were some thorny twigs of an old rosebush. A sudden brightening +of memory brought to mind the love that his mother--dead since his +fifteenth year--had kept for this sweetbrier. How often she had wished +that she had brought it to her new home! So much had changed in the +world, so many had gone into the world of light, and here the faithful +blooming thing was yet alive! There was one slender branch where green +buds were starting, and getting ready to flower in the new year. + +The afternoon wore late, and still the gray-haired man lingered. He +might have laughed at some one else who gave himself up to sad +thoughts, and found fault with himself, with no defendant to plead his +cause at the bar of conscience. It was an altogether lonely hour. He +had dreamed all his life, in a sentimental, self-satisfied fashion, of +this return to Winby. It had always appeared to be a grand affair, but +so far he was himself the only interested spectator at his poor +occasion. There was even a dismal consciousness that he had been +undignified, perhaps even a little consequential and silly, in the old +school-house. The picture of himself on the war-path, in Johnny +Spencer's arithmetic, was the only tribute that this longed-for day +had held, but he laughed aloud delightedly at the remembrance and +really liked that solemn little boy who sat at his own old desk. There +was another older lad, who sat at the back of the room, who reminded +Mr. Laneway of himself in his eager youth. There was a spark of light +in that fellow's eyes. Once or twice in the earlier afternoon, as he +drove along, he had asked people in the road if there were a Laneway +family in that neighborhood, but everybody had said no in indifferent +fashion. Somehow he had been expecting that every one would know him +and greet him, and give him credit for what he had tried to do, but +old Winby had her own affairs to look after, and did very well without +any of his help. + +Mr. Laneway acknowledged to himself at this point that he was weak and +unmanly. There must be some old friends who would remember him, and +give him as hearty a welcome as the greeting he had brought for them. +So he rose and went his way westward toward the sunset. The air was +growing damp and cold, and it was time to make sure of shelter. This +was hardly like the visit he had meant to pay to his birthplace. He +wished with all his heart that he had never come back. But he walked +briskly away, intent upon wider thoughts as the fresh evening breeze +quickened his steps. He did not consider where he was going, but was +for a time the busy man of affairs, stimulated by the unconscious +influence of his surroundings. The slender gray birches and pitch +pines of that neglected pasture had never before seen a hat and coat +exactly in the fashion. They may have been abashed by the presence of +a United States Senator and Western millionaire, though a piece of New +England ground that had often felt the tread of his bare feet was not +likely to quake because a pair of smart shoes stepped hastily along +the school-house path. + + +III. + +There was an imperative knock at the side door of the Hender +farmhouse, just after dark. The young school-mistress had come home +late, because she had stopped all the way along to give people the +news of her afternoon's experience. Marilla was not coy and speechless +any longer, but sat by the kitchen stove telling her eager grandmother +everything she could remember or could imagine. + +"Who's that knocking at the door?" interrupted Mrs. Hender. "No, I'll +go myself; I'm nearest." + +The man outside was cold and foot-weary. He was not used to spending a +whole day unrecognized, and, after being first amused, and even +enjoying a sense of freedom at escaping his just dues of consideration +and respect, he had begun to feel as if he were old and forgotten, and +was hardly sure of a friend in the world. + +Old Mrs. Hender came to the door, with her eyes shining with delight, +in great haste to dismiss whoever had knocked, so that she might hear +the rest of Marilla's story. She opened the door wide to whoever might +have come on some country errand, and looked the tired and +faint-hearted Mr. Laneway full in the face. + +"Dear heart, come in!" she exclaimed, reaching out and taking him by +the shoulder, as he stood humbly on a lower step. "Come right in, Joe. +Why, I should know you anywhere! Why, Joe Laneway, _you same boy_!" + +In they went to the warm, bright, country kitchen. The delight and +kindness of an old friend's welcome and her instant sympathy seemed +the loveliest thing in the world. They sat down in two old +straight-backed kitchen chairs. They still held each other by the +hand, and looked in each other's face. The plain old room was aglow +with heat and cheerfulness; the tea-kettle was singing; a drowsy cat +sat on the wood-box with her paws tucked in; and the house dog came +forward in a friendly way, wagging his tail, and laid his head on +their clasped hands. + +"And to think I haven't seen you since your folks moved out West, the +next spring after you were thirteen in the winter," said the good +woman. "But I s'pose there ain't been anybody that has followed your +career closer than I have, accordin' to their opportunities. You've +done a great work for your country, Joe. I'm proud of you clean +through. Sometimes folks has said, 'There, there, Mis' Hender, what be +you goin' to say now?' but I've always told 'em to wait. I knew you +saw your reasons. You was always an honest boy." The tears started and +shone in her kind eyes. Her face showed that she had waged a bitter +war with poverty and sorrow, but the look of affection that it wore, +and the warm touch of her hard hand, misshapen and worn with toil, +touched her old friend in his inmost heart, and for a minute neither +could speak. + +"They do say that women folks have got no natural head for politics, +but I always could seem to sense what was goin' on in Washington, if +there was any sense to it," said grandmother Hender at last. + +"Nobody could puzzle you at school, I remember," answered Mr. Laneway, +and they both laughed heartily. "But surely this granddaughter does +not make your household? You have sons?" + +"Two beside her father. He died; but they're both away, up toward +Canada, buying cattle. We are getting along considerable well these +last few years, since they got a mite o' capital together; but the old +farm wasn't really able to maintain us, with the heavy expenses that +fell on us unexpected year by year. I've seen a great sight of +trouble, Joe. My boy John, Marilla's father, and his nice wife,--I +lost 'em both early, when Marilla was but a child. John was the flower +o' my family. He would have made a name for himself. You would have +taken to John." + +"I was sorry to hear of your loss," said Mr. Laneway. "He was a brave +man. I know what he did at Fredericksburg. You remember that I lost my +wife and my only son?" + +There was a silence between the friends, who had no need for words +now; they understood each other's heart only too well. Marilla, who +sat near them, rose and went out of the room. + +"Yes, yes, daughter," said Mrs. Hender, calling her back, "we ought to +be thinkin' about supper." + +"I was going to light a little fire in the parlor," explained Marilla, +with a slight tone of rebuke in her clear girlish voice. + +"Oh, no, you ain't,--not now, at least," protested the elder woman +decidedly. "Now, Joseph, what should you like to have for supper? I +wish to my heart I had some fried turnovers, like those you used to +come after when you was a boy. I can make 'em just about the same as +mother did. I'll be bound you've thought of some old-fashioned dish +that you'd relish for your supper." + +"Rye drop-cakes, then, if they wouldn't give you too much trouble," +answered the Honorable Joseph, with prompt seriousness, "and don't +forget some cheese." He looked up at his old playfellow as she stood +beside him, eager with affectionate hospitality. + +"You've no idea what a comfort Marilla's been," she stopped to +whisper. "Always took right hold and helped me when she was a baby. +She's as good as made up already to me for my having no daughter. I +want you to get acquainted with Marilla." + +The granddaughter was still awed and anxious about the entertainment +of so distinguished a guest when her grandmother appeared at last in +the pantry. + +"I ain't goin' to let you do no such a thing, darlin'," said Abby +Hender, when Marilla spoke of making something that she called "fairy +gems" for tea, after a new and essentially feminine recipe. "You just +let me get supper to-night. The Gen'ral has enough kickshaws to eat; +he wants a good, hearty, old-fashioned supper,--the same country +cooking he remembers when he was a boy. He went so far himself as to +speak of rye drop-cakes, an' there ain't one in a hundred, nowadays, +knows how to make the kind he means. You go an' lay the table just as +we always have it, except you can get out them old big sprigged cups +o' my mother's. Don't put on none o' the parlor cluset things." + +Marilla went off crestfallen and demurring. She had a noble desire to +show Mr. Laneway that they knew how to have things as well as +anybody, and was sure that he would consider it more polite to be +asked into the best room, and to sit there alone until tea was ready; +but the illustrious Mr. Laneway was allowed to stay in the kitchen, in +apparent happiness, and to watch the proceedings from beginning to +end. The two old friends talked industriously, but he saw his rye +drop-cakes go into the oven and come out, and his tea made, and his +piece of salt fish broiled and buttered, a broad piece of honeycomb +set on to match some delightful thick slices of brown-crusted loaf +bread, and all the simple feast prepared. There was a sufficient piece +of Abby Hender's best cheese; it must be confessed that there were +also some baked beans, and, as one thing after another appeared, the +Honorable Joseph K. Laneway grew hungrier and hungrier, until he +fairly looked pale with anticipation and delay, and was bidden at that +very moment to draw up his chair and make himself a supper if he +could. What cups of tea, what uncounted rye drop-cakes, went to the +making of that successful supper! How gay the two old friends became, +and of what old stories they reminded each other, and how late the +dark spring evening grew, before the feast was over and the +straight-backed chairs were set against the kitchen wall! + +Marilla listened for a time with more or less interest, but at last +she took one of her school-books, with slight ostentation, and went +over to study by the lamp. Mrs. Hender had brought her knitting-work, +a blue woolen stocking, out of a drawer, and sat down serene and +unruffled, prepared to keep awake as late as possible. She was a woman +who had kept her youthful looks through the difficulties of farm life +as few women can, and this added to her guest's sense of homelikeness +and pleasure. There was something that he felt to be sisterly and +comfortable in her strong figure; he even noticed the little plaid +woolen shawl that she wore about her shoulders. Dear, uncomplaining +heart of Abby Hender! The appealing friendliness of the good woman +made no demands except to be allowed to help and to serve everybody +who came in her way. + +Now began in good earnest the talk of old times, and what had become +of this and that old schoolmate; how one family had come to want and +another to wealth. The changes and losses and windfalls of good +fortune in that rural neighborhood were made tragedy and comedy by +turns in Abby Hender's dramatic speech. She grew younger and more +entertaining hour by hour, and beguiled the grave Senator into +confidential talk of national affairs. He had much to say, to which +she listened with rare sympathy and intelligence. She astonished him +by her comprehension of difficult questions of the day, and by her +simple good sense. Marilla grew hopelessly sleepy, and departed, but +neither of them turned to notice her as she lingered a moment at the +door to say good-night. When the immediate subjects of conversation +were fully discussed, however, there was an unexpected interval of +silence, and, after making sure that her knitting stitches counted +exactly right, Abby Hender cast a questioning glance at the Senator to +see if he had it in mind to go to bed. She was reluctant to end her +evening so soon, but determined to act the part of considerate +hostess. The guest was as wide awake as ever: eleven o'clock was the +best part of his evening. + +"Cider?" he suggested, with an expectant smile, and Abby Hender was on +her feet in a moment. When she had brought a pitcher from the pantry, +he took a candle from the high shelf and led the way. + +"To think of your remembering our old cellar candlestick all these +years!" laughed the pleased woman, as she followed him down the steep +stairway, and then laughed still more at his delight in the familiar +look of the place. + +"Unchanged as the pyramids!" he said. "I suppose those pound sweetings +that used to be in that farthest bin were eaten up months ago?" + +It was plain to see that the household stores were waning low, as +befitted the time of year, but there was still enough in the old +cellar. Care and thrift and gratitude made the poor farmhouse a rich +place. This woman of real ability had spent her strength from youth to +age, and had lavished as much industry and power of organization in +her narrow sphere as would have made her famous in a wider one. Joseph +Laneway could not help sighing as he thought of it. How many things +this good friend had missed, and yet how much she had been able to win +that makes everywhere the very best of life! Poor and early widowed, +there must have been a constant battle with poverty on that stony +Harran farm, whose owners had been pitied even in his early boyhood, +when the best of farming life was none too easy. But Abby Hender had +always been one of the leaders of the town. + +"Now, before we sit down again, I want you to step into my best room. +Perhaps you won't have time in the morning, and I've got something to +show you," she said persuasively. + +It was a plain, old-fashioned best room, with a look of pleasantness +in spite of the spring chill and the stiffness of the best chairs. +They lingered before the picture of Mrs. Hender's soldier son, a poor +work of a poorer artist in crayons, but the spirit of the young face +shone out appealingly. Then they crossed the room and stood before +some bookshelves, and Abby Hender's face brightened into a beaming +smile of triumph. + +"You didn't expect we should have all those books, now, did you, Joe +Laneway?" she asked. + +He shook his head soberly, and leaned forward to read the titles. +There were no very new ones, as if times had been hard of late; almost +every volume was either history, or biography, or travel. Their owner +had reached out of her own narrow boundaries into other lives and into +far countries. He recognized with gratitude two or three congressional +books that he had sent her when he first went to Washington, and there +was a life of himself, written from a partisan point of view, and +issued in one of his most exciting campaigns; the sight of it touched +him to the heart, and then she opened it, and showed him the three or +four letters that he had written her,--one, in boyish handwriting, +describing his adventures on his first Western journey. + +"There are a hundred and six volumes now," announced the proud owner +of such a library. "I lend 'em all I can, or most of them would look +better. I have had to wait a good while for some, and some weren't +what I expected 'em to be, but most of 'em's as good books as there is +in the world. I've never been so situated that it seemed best for me +to indulge in a daily paper, and I don't know but it's just as well; +but stories were never any great of a temptation. I know pretty well +what's goin' on about me, and I can make that do. Real life's +interestin' enough for me." + +Mr. Laneway was still looking over the books. His heart smote him for +not being thoughtful; he knew well enough that the overflow of his own +library would have been delightful to this self-denying, eager-minded +soul. "I've been a very busy man all my life, Abby," he said +impulsively, as if she waited for some apology for his forgetfulness, +"but I'll see to it now that you have what you want to read. I don't +mean to lose hold of your advice on state matters." They both laughed, +and he added, "I've always thought of you, if I haven't shown it." + +"There's more time to read than there used to be; I've had what was +best for me," answered the woman gently, with a grateful look on her +face, as she turned to glance at her old friend. "Marilla takes hold +wonderfully and helps me with the work. In the long winter evenings +you can't think what a treat a new book is. I wouldn't change places +with the queen." + +They had come back to the kitchen, and she stood before the cupboard, +reaching high for two old gayly striped crockery mugs. There were some +doughnuts and cheese at hand; their early supper seemed quite +forgotten. The kitchen was warm, and they had talked themselves +thirsty and hungry; but with what an unexpected tang the cider +freshened their throats! Mrs. Hender had picked the apples herself +that went to the press; they were all chosen from the old russet tree +and the gnarly, red-cheeked, ungrafted fruit that grew along the lane. +The flavor made one think of frosty autumn mornings on high hillsides, +of north winds and sunny skies. "It 'livens one to the heart," as Mrs. +Hender remarked proudly, when the Senator tried to praise it as much +as it deserved, and finally gave a cheerful laugh, such as he had not +laughed for many a day. + +"Why, it seems like drinking the month of October," he told her; and +at this the hostess reached over, protesting that the striped mug was +too narrow to hold what it ought, and filled it up again. + +"Oh, Joe Laneway, to think that I see you at last, after all these +years!" she said. "How rich I shall feel with this evening to live +over! I've always wanted to see somebody that I'd read about, and now +I've got that to remember; but I've always known I should see you +again, and I believe 't was the Lord's will." + + +Early the next morning they said good-by. The early breakfast had to +be hurried, and Marilla was to drive Mr. Laneway to the station, +three miles away. It was Saturday morning, and she was free from +school. + +Mr. Laneway strolled down the lane before breakfast was ready, and +came back with a little bunch of pink anemones in his hand. Marilla +thought that he meant to give them to her, but he laid them beside her +grandmother's plate. "You mustn't put those in your desk," he said +with a smile, and Abby Hender blushed like a girl. + +"I've got those others now, dried and put away somewhere in one of my +books," she said quietly, and Marilla wondered what they meant. + +The two old friends shook hands warmly at parting. "I wish you could +have stayed another day, so I could have had the minister come and see +you," urged Mrs. Hender regretfully. + +"You couldn't have done any more for me. I have had the best visit in +the world," he answered, a little shaken, and holding her hand a +moment longer, while Marilla sat, young and impatient, in the high +wagon. "You're a dear good woman, Abby. Sometimes when things have +gone wrong I've been sorry that I ever had to leave Winby." + +The woman's clear eyes looked straight into his; then fell. "You +wouldn't have done everything you have for the country," she said. + +"Give me a kiss; we're getting to be old folks now," said the General; +and they kissed each other gravely. + +A moment later Abby Hender stood alone in her dooryard, watching and +waving her hand again and again, while the wagon rattled away down the +lane and turned into the high-road. + +Two hours after Marilla returned from the station, and rushed into the +kitchen. + +"Grandma!" she exclaimed, "you never did see such a crowd in Winby as +there was at the depot! Everybody in town had got word about General +Laneway, and they were pushing up to shake hands, and cheering same +as at election, and the cars waited much as ten minutes, and all the +folks was lookin' out of the windows, and came out on the platforms +when they heard who it was. Folks say that he'd been to see the +selectmen yesterday before he came to school, and he's goin' to build +an elegant town hall, and have the names put up in it of all the Winby +men that went to the war." Marilla sank into a chair, flushed with +excitement. "Everybody was asking me about his being here last night +and what he said to the school. I wished that you'd gone down to the +depot instead of me." + +"I had the best part of anybody," said Mrs. Hender, smiling and going +on with her Saturday morning work. "I'm real glad they showed him +proper respect," she added a moment afterward, but her voice faltered. + +"Why, you ain't been cryin', grandma?" asked the girl. "I guess you're +tired. You had a real good time, now, didn't you?" + +"Yes, dear heart!" said Abby Hender. "'T ain't pleasant to be growin' +old, that's all. I couldn't help noticin' his age as he rode away. +I've always been lookin' forward to seein' him again, an' now it's all +over." + + * * * * * + + + + +_Looking Back on Girlhood_ + + +In giving this brief account of my childhood, or, to speak exactly, of +the surroundings which have affected the course of my work as a +writer, my first thought flies back to those who taught me to observe, +and to know the deep pleasures of simple things, and to be interested +in the lives of people about me. + +With its high hills and pine forests, and all its ponds and brooks and +distant mountain views, there are few such delightful country towns in +New England as the one where I was born. Being one of the oldest +colonial settlements, it is full of interesting traditions and relics +of the early inhabitants, both Indians and Englishmen. Two large +rivers join just below the village at the head of tide-water, and +these, with the great inflow from the sea, make a magnificent stream, +bordered on its seaward course now by high-wooded banks of dark pines +and hemlocks, and again by lovely green fields that slope gently to +long lines of willows at the water's edge. + +There is never-ending pleasure in making one's self familiar with such +a region. One may travel at home in a most literal sense, and be +always learning history, geography, botany, or biography--whatever one +chooses. + +I have had a good deal of journeying in my life, and taken great +delight in it, but I have never taken greater delight than in my rides +and drives and tramps and voyages within the borders of my native +town. There is always something fresh, something to be traced or +discovered, something particularly to be remembered. One grows rich in +memories and associations. + +I believe that we should know our native towns much better than most +of us do, and never let ourselves be strangers at home. Particularly +when one's native place is so really interesting as my own! + +Above tide-water the two rivers are barred by successive falls. You +hear the noise of them by night in the village like the sound of the +sea, and this fine water power so near the coast, beside a great +salmon fishery famous among the Indians, brought the first English +settlers to the town in 1627. I know some families who still live upon +the lands which their ancestors bought from the Indians, and their +single deed bears the queer barbaric signatures. + +There are many things to remind one of these early settlers beside the +old farms upon which they and their descendants have lived for six or +seven generations. One is a quaint fashion of speech which survives +among the long-established neighborhoods, in words and phrases common +in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. + +One curious thing is the pronunciation of the name of the town: +Berwick by the elder people has always been called _Barvik_, after the +fashion of Danes and Northmen; never _Berrik_, as the word has so long +been pronounced in modern England. + +The descendants of the first comers to the town have often been +distinguished in the affairs of their time. No village of its size in +New England could boast, particularly in the early part of the present +century, of a larger number of men and women who kept themselves more +closely in touch with "the best that has been thought and said in the +world." + +As I write this, I keep in mind the truth that I have no inheritance +from the ancient worth and dignity of Berwick--or what is now North +Berwick--in Maine. My own people are comparatively late comers. I was +born in a pleasant old colonial house built near 1750, and bought by +my grandfather sixty or seventy years ago, when he brought his +household up the river to Berwick from Portsmouth. + +He was a sea-captain, and had run away to sea in his boyhood and led a +most adventurous life, but was quite ready to forsake seafaring in his +early manhood, and at last joined a group of acquaintances who were +engaged in the flourishing West India trade of that time. + +For many years he kept and extended his interests in shipping, +building ships and buying large quantities of timber from the +northward and eastward, and sending it down the river and so to sea. + +This business was still in existence in my early childhood, and the +manner of its conduct was primitive enough, the barter system still +prevailing by force of necessity. Those who brought the huge sticks of +oak and pine timber for masts and planks were rarely paid in money, +which was of comparatively little use in remote and sparsely settled +districts. When the sleds and long trains of yoked oxen returned from +the river wharves to the stores, they took a lighter load in exchange +of flour and rice and barrels of molasses, of sugar and salt and +cotton cloth and raisins and spices and tea and coffee; in fact, all +the household necessities and luxuries that the northern farms could +not supply. + +They liked to have a little money with which to pay their taxes and +their parish dues, if they were so fortunate as to be parishioners, +but they needed very little money besides. + +So I came in contact with the up-country people as well as with the +sailors and shipmasters of the other side of the business. I used to +linger about the busy country stores, and listen to the graphic +country talk. I heard the greetings of old friends, and their minute +details of neighborhood affairs, their delightful jokes and +Munchausen-like reports of tracts of timber-pines ever so many feet +through at the butt. + +When the great teams came in sight at the head of the village street, +I ran to meet them over the creaking snow, if possible to mount and +ride into town in triumph; but it was not many years before I began to +feel sorry at the sight of every huge lopped stem of oak or pine that +came trailing along after the slow-stepping, frosted oxen. Such trees +are unreplaceable. I only know of one small group now in all this part +of the country of those great timber pines. + +My young ears were quick to hear the news of a ship's having come into +port, and I delighted in the elderly captains, with their sea-tanned +faces, who came to report upon their voyages, dining cheerfully and +heartily with my grandfather, who listened eagerly to their exciting +tales of great storms on the Atlantic, and winds that blew them +north-about, and good bargains in Havana, or Barbadoes, or Havre. + +I listened as eagerly as any one; this is the charming way in which I +was taught something of a fashion of life already on the wane, and of +that subsistence upon sea and forest bounties which is now almost a +forgotten thing in my part of New England. + +Much freight still came and went by the river gundelows and packets +long after the railroad had made such changes, and every village along +its line lost its old feeling of self-sufficiency. + +In my home the greater part of the minor furnishings had come over in +the ships from Bristol and Havre. My grandfather seemed to be a +citizen of the whole geography. I was always listening to stories of +three wars from older people--the siege of Louisburg, the Revolution, +in which my father's ancestors had been honest but mistaken Tories, +and in which my mother's, the Gilmans of Exeter, had taken a nobler +part. + +As for the War of 1812, "the last war," as everybody called it, it was +a thing of yesterday in the town. One of the famous privateer crews +was gathered along our own river shore, and one member of the crew, in +his old age, had been my father's patient. + +The Berwick people were great patriots, and were naturally proud of +the famous Sullivans, who were born in the upper part of the town, and +came to be governors and judge and general. + +I often heard about Lafayette, who had made an ever-to-be-remembered +visit in order to see again some old friends who lived in the town. +The name of a famous Colonel Hamilton, the leader in the last century +of the West India trade, and the histories of the old Berwick houses +of Chadbourn and Lord were delightfully familiar, and one of the +traditions of the latter family is more than good enough to be told +again. + +There was a Berwick lad who went out on one of the privateers that +sailed from Portsmouth in the Revolution. The vessel was taken by a +British frigate, and the crew put in irons. One day one of the English +midshipmen stood near these prisoners as they took their airing on +deck, and spoke contemptuously about "the rebels." + +Young Lord heard what he said, and turned himself about to say boldly, +"If it were not for your rank, sir, I would make you take that back!" + +"No matter about my rank," said the gallant middy. "If you can whip +me, you are welcome to." + +So they had a "capital good fight," standing over a tea-chest, as +proud tradition tells, and the Berwick sailor was the better fighter +of the two, and won. + +The Englishman shook hands, and asked his name and promised not to +forget him--which was certainly most handsome behavior. + +When they reached an English port all the prisoners but one were sent +away under guard to join the other American prisoners of war; but the +admiral sent for a young man named Nathan Lord, and told him that his +Grace the Duke of Clarence, son of his Majesty the King, begged for +his pardon, and had left a five-pound note at his disposal. + +This was not the first or last Berwick lad who proved himself of good +courage in a fight, but there never was another to whip a future King +of England, and moreover to be liked the better for it by that fine +gentleman. + +My grandfather died in my eleventh year, and presently the Civil War +began. + +From that time the simple village life was at an end. Its provincial +character was fading out; shipping was at a disadvantage, and there +were no more bronzed sea-captains coming to dine and talk about their +voyages, no more bags of filberts or oranges for the children, or +great red jars of olives; but in these childish years I had come in +contact with many delightful men and women of real individuality and +breadth of character, who had fought the battle of life to good +advantage, and sometimes against great odds. + +In these days I was given to long, childish illnesses, and it must be +honestly confessed, to instant drooping if ever I were shut up in +school. I had apparently not the slightest desire for learning, but my +father was always ready to let me be his companion in long drives +about the country. + +In my grandfather's business household, my father, unconscious of +tonnage and timber measurement, of the markets of the Windward +Islands or the Mediterranean ports, had taken to his book, as old +people said, and gone to college and begun that devotion to the study +of medicine which only ended with his life. + +I have tried already to give some idea of my father's character in my +story of "The Country Doctor," but all that is inadequate to the gifts +and character of the man himself. He gave me my first and best +knowledge of books by his own delight and dependence upon them, and +ruled my early attempts at writing by the severity and simplicity of +his own good taste. + +"Don't try to write _about_ people and things, tell them just as they +are!" + +How often my young ears heard these words without comprehending them! +But while I was too young and thoughtless to share in an enthusiasm +for Sterne or Fielding, and Smollett or Don Quixote, my mother and +grandmother were leading me into the pleasant ways of "Pride and +Prejudice," and "The Scenes of Clerical Life," and the delightful +stories of Mrs. Oliphant. + +The old house was well provided with leather-bound books of a deeply +serious nature, but in my youthful appetite for knowledge, I could +even in the driest find something vital, and in the more entertaining +I was completely lost. + +My father had inherited from his father an amazing knowledge of human +nature, and from his mother's French ancestry, that peculiarly French +trait, called _gaiete de coeur_. Through all the heavy responsibilities +and anxieties of his busy professional life, this kept him young at +heart and cheerful. His visits to his patients were often made +perfectly delightful and refreshing to them by his kind heart, and the +charm of his personality. + +I knew many of the patients whom he used to visit in lonely inland +farms, or on the seacoast in York and Wells. I used to follow him +about silently, like an undemanding little dog, content to follow at +his heels. + +I had no consciousness of watching or listening, or indeed of any +special interest in the country interiors. In fact, when the time came +that my own world of imaginations was more real to me than any other, +I was sometimes perplexed at my father's directing my attention to +certain points of interest in the character or surroundings of our +acquaintances. + +I cannot help believing that he recognized, long before I did myself, +in what direction the current of purpose in my life was setting. Now, +as I write my sketches of country life, I remember again and again the +wise things he said, and the sights he made me see. He was only +impatient with affectation and insincerity. + +I may have inherited something of my father's and grandfather's +knowledge of human nature, but my father never lost a chance of trying +to teach me to observe. I owe a great deal to his patience with a +heedless little girl given far more to dreams than to accuracy, and +with perhaps too little natural sympathy for the dreams of others. + +The quiet village life, the dull routine of farming or mill life, +early became interesting to me. I was taught to find everything that +an imaginative child could ask, in the simple scenes close at hand. + +I say these things eagerly, because I long to impress upon every boy +and girl this truth: that it is not one's surroundings that can help +or hinder--it is having a growing purpose in one's life to make the +most of whatever is in one's reach. + +If you have but a few good books, learn those to the very heart of +them. Don't for one moment believe that if you had different +surroundings and opportunities you would find the upward path any +easier to climb. One condition is like another, if you have not the +determination and the power to grow in yourself. + +I was still a child when I began to write down the things I was +thinking about, but at first I always made rhymes and found prose so +difficult that a school composition was a terror to me, and I do not +remember ever writing one that was worth anything. But in course of +time rhymes themselves became difficult and prose more and more +enticing, and I began my work in life, most happy in finding that I +was to write of those country characters and rural landscapes to which +I myself belonged, and which I had been taught to love with all my +heart. + +I was between nineteen and twenty when my first sketch was accepted by +Mr. Howells for the _Atlantic_. I already counted myself as by no +means a new contributor to one or two other magazines--_Young Folks_ +and _The Riverside_--but I had no literary friends "at court." + +I was very shy about speaking of my work at home, and even sent it to +the magazine under an assumed name, and then was timid about asking +the post-mistress for those mysterious and exciting editorial letters +which she announced upon the post-office list as if I were a stranger +in the town. + + * * * * * + + + + +_The Passing of Sister Barsett_ + + +Mrs. Mercy Crane was of such firm persuasion that a house is meant to +be lived in, that during many years she was never known to leave her +own neat two-storied dwelling-place on the Ridge road. Yet being very +fond of company, in pleasant weather she often sat in the side doorway +looking out on her green yard, where the grass grew short and thick +and was undisfigured even by a path toward the steps. All her faded +green blinds were securely tied together and knotted on the inside by +pieces of white tape; but now and then, when the sun was not too hot +for her carpets, she opened one window at a time for a few hours, +having pronounced views upon the necessity of light and air. Although +Mrs. Crane was acknowledged by her best friends to be a peculiar +person and very set in her ways, she was much respected, and one +acquaintance vied with another in making up for her melancholy +seclusion by bringing her all the news they could gather. She had been +left alone many years before by the sudden death of her husband from +sunstroke, and though she was by no means poor, she had, as some one +said, "such a pretty way of taking a little present that you couldn't +help being pleased when you gave her anything." + +For a lover of society, such a life must have had its difficulties at +times, except that the Ridge road was more traveled than any other in +the township, and Mrs. Crane had invented a system of signals, to +which she always resorted in case of wishing to speak to some one of +her neighbors. + +The afternoon was wearing late, one day toward the end of summer, and +Mercy Crane sat in her doorway dressed in a favorite old-fashioned +light calico and a small shoulder shawl figured with large palm +leaves. She was making some tatting of a somewhat intricate pattern; +she believed it to be the prettiest and most durable of trimmings, and +having decorated her own wardrobe in the course of unlimited leisure, +she was now making a few yards apiece for each of her more intimate +friends, so that they might have something to remember her by. She +kept glancing up the road as if she expected some one, but the time +went slowly by, until at last a woman appeared to view, walking fast, +and carrying a large bundle in a checked handkerchief. + +Then Mercy Crane worked steadily for a short time without looking up, +until the desired friend was crossing the grass between the dusty road +and the steps. The visitor was out of breath, and did not respond to +the polite greeting of her hostess until she had recovered herself to +her satisfaction. Mrs. Crane made her the kind offer of a glass of +water or a few peppermints, but was answered only by a shake of the +head, so she resumed her work for a time until the silence should be +broken. + +"I have come from the house of mourning," said Sarah Ellen Dow at +last, unexpectedly. + +"You don't tell me that Sister Barsett"-- + +"She's left us this time, she's really gone," and the excited +news-bringer burst into tears. The poor soul was completely +overwrought; she looked tired and wan, as if she had spent her forces +in sympathy as well as hard work. She felt in her great bundle for a +pocket handkerchief, but was not successful in the search, and finally +produced a faded gingham apron with long, narrow strings, with which +she hastily dried her tears. The sad news appealed also to Mercy +Crane, who looked across to the apple-trees, and could not see them +for a dazzle of tears in her own eyes. The spectacle of Sarah Ellen +Dow going home with her humble workaday possessions, from the house +where she had gone in haste only a few days before to care for a sick +person well known to them both, was a very sad sight. + +"You sent word yesterday that you should be returnin' early this +afternoon, and would stop. I presume I received the message as you +gave it?" asked Mrs. Crane, who was tenacious in such matters; "but I +do declare I never looked to hear she was gone." + +"She's been failin' right along sence yisterday about this time," said +the nurse. "She's taken no notice to speak of, an' been eatin' the +vally o' nothin', I may say, sence I went there a-Tuesday. Her sisters +both come back yisterday, an' of course I was expected to give up +charge to them. They're used to sickness, an' both havin' such a name +for bein' great housekeepers!" + +Sarah Ellen spoke with bitterness, but Mrs. Crane was reminded +instantly of her own affairs. "I feel condemned that I ain't begun my +own fall cleanin' yet," she said, with an ostentatious sigh. + +"Plenty o' time to worry about that," her friend hastened to console +her. + +"I do desire to have everything decent about my house," resumed Mrs. +Crane. "There's nobody to do anything but me. If I was to be taken +away sudden myself, I shouldn't want to have it said afterwards that +there was wisps under my sofy or--There! I can't dwell on my own +troubles with Sister Barsett's loss right before me. I can't seem to +believe she's really passed away; she always was saying she should go +in some o' these spells, but I deemed her to be troubled with narves." + +Sarah Ellen Dow shook her head. "I'm all nerved up myself," she said +brokenly. "I made light of her sickness when I went there first, I'd +seen her what she called dreadful low so many times; but I saw her +looks this morning, an' I begun to believe her at last. Them sisters +o' hers is the master for unfeelin' hearts. Sister Barsett was +a-layin' there yisterday, an' one of 'em was a-settin' right by her +tellin' how difficult 't was for her to leave home, her niece was +goin' to graduate to the high school, an' they was goin' to have a +time in the evening, an' all the exercises promised to be extry +interesting. Poor Sister Barsett knew what she said an' looked at her +with contempt, an' then she give a glance at me an' closed up her eyes +as if 't was for the last time. I know she felt it." + +Sarah Ellen Dow was more and more excited by a sense of bitter +grievance. Her rule of the afflicted household had evidently been +interfered with; she was not accustomed to be ignored and set aside at +such times. Her simple nature and uncommon ability found satisfaction +in the exercise of authority, but she had now left her post feeling +hurt and wronged, besides knowing something of the pain of honest +affliction. + +"If it hadn't been for esteemin' Sister Barsett as I always have done, +I should have told 'em no, an' held to it, when they asked me to come +back an' watch to-night. 'T ain't for none o' their sakes, but Sister +Barsett was a good friend to me in her way." Sarah Ellen broke down +once more, and felt in her bundle again hastily, but the handkerchief +was again elusive, while a small object fell out upon the doorstep +with a bounce. + +"'T ain't nothin' but a little taste-cake I spared out o' the loaf I +baked this mornin'," she explained, with a blush. "I was so shoved out +that I seemed to want to turn my hand to somethin' useful an' feel I +was still doin' for Sister Barsett. Try a little piece, won't you, +Mis' Crane? I thought it seemed light an' good." + +They shared the taste-cake with serious enjoyment, and pronounced it +very good indeed when they had finished and shaken the crumbs out of +their laps. "There's nobody but you shall come an' do for me at the +last, if I can have my way about things," said Mercy Crane +impulsively. She meant it for a tribute to Miss Dow's character and +general ability, and as such it was meekly accepted. + +"You're a younger person than I be, an' less wore," said Sarah Ellen, +but she felt better now that she had rested, and her conversational +powers seemed to be refreshed by her share of the little cake. "Doctor +Bangs has behaved real pretty, I can say that," she continued +presently in a mournful tone. + +"Heretofore, in the sickness of Sister Barsett, I have always felt to +hope certain that she would survive; she's recovered from a sight o' +things in her day. She has been the first to have all the new diseases +that's visited this region. I know she had the spinal mergeetis months +before there was any other case about," observed Mrs. Crane with +satisfaction. + +"An' the new throat troubles, all of 'em," agreed Sarah Ellen; "an' +has made trial of all the best patent medicines, an' could tell you +their merits as no one else could in this vicinity. She never was one +that depended on herbs alone, though she considered 'em extremely +useful in some cases. Everybody has their herb, as we know, but I'm +free to say that Sister Barsett sometimes done everything she could to +kill herself with such rovin' ways o' dosin'. She must see it now +she's gone an' can't stuff down no more invigorators." Sarah Ellen Dow +burst out suddenly with this, as if she could no longer contain her +honest opinion. + +"There, there! you're all worked up," answered placid Mercy Crane, +looking more interested than ever. + +"An' she was dreadful handy to talk religion to other folks, but I've +come to a realizin' sense that religion is somethin' besides opinions. +She an' Elder French has been mostly of one mind, but I don't know's +they've got hold of all the religion there is." + +"Why, why, Sarah Ellen!" exclaimed Mrs. Crane, but there was still +something in her tone that urged the speaker to further expression of +her feelings. The good creature was much excited, her face was clouded +with disapproval. + +"I ain't forgettin' nothin' about their good points either," she went +on in a more subdued tone, and suddenly stopped. + +"Preachin' 'll be done away with soon or late,--preachin' o' Elder +French's kind," announced Mercy Crane, after waiting to see if her +guest did not mean to say anything more. "I should like to read 'em +out that verse another fashion: 'Be ye doers o' the word, not +preachers only,' would hit it about right; but there, it's easy for +all of us to talk. In my early days I used to like to get out to +meetin' regular, because sure as I didn't I had bad luck all the week. +I didn't feel pacified 'less I'd been half a day, but I was out all +day the Sabbath before Mr. Barlow died as he did. So you mean to say +that Sister Barsett's really gone?" + +Mrs. Crane's tone changed to one of real concern, and her manner +indicated that she had put the preceding conversation behind her with +decision. + +"She was herself to the last," instantly responded Miss Dow. "I see +her put out a thumb an' finger from under the spread an' pinch up a +fold of her sister Deckett's dress, to try an' see if 'twas all wool. +I thought 'twa'n't all wool, myself, an' I know it now by the way she +looked. She was a very knowin' person about materials; we shall miss +poor Mis' Barsett in many ways, she was always the one to consult with +about matters o' dress." + +"She passed away easy at the last, I hope?" asked Mrs. Crane with +interest. + +"Why, I wa'n't there, if you'll believe it!" exclaimed Sarah Ellen, +flushing, and looking at her friend for sympathy. "Sister Barsett +revived up the first o' the afternoon, an' they sent for Elder French. +She took notice of him, and he exhorted quite a spell, an' then he +spoke o' there being need of air in the room, Mis' Deckett havin' +closed every window, an' she asked me of all folks if I hadn't better +step out; but Elder French come too, an' he was very reasonable, an' +had a word with me about Mis' Deckett an' Mis' Peak an' the way they +was workin' things. I told him right out how they never come near when +the rest of us was havin' it so hard with her along in the spring, but +now they thought she was re'lly goin' to die, they come settlin' down +like a pair o' old crows in a field to pick for what they could get. I +just made up my mind they should have all the care if they wanted it. +It didn't seem as if there was anything more I could do for Sister +Barsett, an' I set there in the kitchen within call an' waited, an' +when I heard 'em sayin', 'There, she's gone, she's gone!' and Mis' +Deckett a-weepin', I put on my bunnit and stepped myself out into the +road. I felt to repent after I had gone but a rod, but I was so worked +up, an' I thought they'd call me back, an' then I was put out because +they didn't, an' so here I be. I can't help it now." Sarah Ellen was +crying again; she and Mrs. Crane could not look at each other. + +"Well, you set an' rest," said Mrs. Crane kindly, and with the merest +shadow of disapproval. "You set an' rest, an' by an' by, if you'd feel +better, you could go back an' just make a little stop an' inquire +about the arrangements. I wouldn't harbor no feelin's, if they be +inconsiderate folks. Sister Barsett has often deplored their actions +in my hearing an' wished she had sisters like other folks. With all +her faults she was a useful person an' a good neighbor," mourned Mercy +Crane sincerely. "She was one that always had somethin' interestin' to +tell, an' if it wa'n't for her dyin' spells an' all that sort o' +nonsense, she'd make a figger in the world, she would so. She walked +with an air always, Mis' Barsett did; you'd ask who she was if you +hadn't known, as she passed you by. How quick we forget the outs about +anybody that's gone! But I always feel grateful to anybody that's +friendly, situated as I be. I shall miss her runnin' over. I can seem +to see her now, coming over the rise in the road. But don't you get in +a way of takin' things too hard, Sarah Ellen! You've worked yourself +all to pieces since I saw you last; you're gettin' to be as lean as a +meetin'-house fly. Now, you're comin' in to have a cup o' tea with me, +an' then you'll feel better. I've got some new molasses gingerbread +that I baked this mornin'." + +"I do feel beat out, Mis' Crane," acknowledged the poor little soul, +glad of a chance to speak, but touched by this unexpected mark of +consideration. "If I could ha' done as I wanted to I should be feelin' +well enough, but to be set aside an' ordered about, where I'd taken +the lead in sickness so much, an' knew how to deal with Sister Barsett +so well! She might be livin' now, perhaps"-- + +"Come; we'd better go in, 'tis gettin' damp," and the mistress of the +house rose so hurriedly as to seem bustling. "Don't dwell on Sister +Barsett an' her foolish folks no more; I wouldn't, if I was you." + +They went into the front room, which was dim with the twilight of the +half-closed blinds and two great syringa bushes that grew against +them. Sarah Ellen put down her bundle and bestowed herself in the +large, cane-seated rocking-chair. Mrs. Crane directed her to stay +there awhile and rest, and then come out into the kitchen when she got +ready. + +A cheerful clatter of dishes was heard at once upon Mrs. Crane's +disappearance. "I hope she's goin' to make one o' her nice +short-cakes, but I don't know's she'll think it quite worth while," +thought the guest humbly. She desired to go out into the kitchen, but +it was proper behavior to wait until she should be called. Mercy Crane +was not a person with whom one could venture to take liberties. +Presently Sarah Ellen began to feel better. She did not often find +such a quiet place, or the quarter of an hour of idleness in which to +enjoy it, and was glad to make the most of this opportunity. Just now +she felt tired and lonely. She was a busy, unselfish, eager-minded +creature by nature, but now, while grief was sometimes uppermost in +her mind and sometimes a sense of wrong, every moment found her more +peaceful, and the great excitement little by little faded away. + +"What a person poor Sister Barsett was to dread growing old so she +couldn't get about. I'm sure I shall miss her as much as anybody," +said Mrs. Crane, suddenly opening the kitchen door, and letting in an +unmistakable and delicious odor of short-cake that revived still more +the drooping spirits of her guest. "An' a good deal of knowledge has +died with her," she added, coming into the room and seeming to make it +lighter. + +"There, she knew a good deal, but she didn't know all, especially o' +doctorin'," insisted Sarah Ellen from the rocking-chair, with an +unexpected little laugh. "She used to lay down the law to me as if I +had neither sense nor experience, but when it came to her bad spells +she'd always send for me. It takes everybody to know everything, but +Sister Barsett was of an opinion that her information was sufficient +for the town. She was tellin' me the day I went there how she disliked +to have old Mis' Doubleday come an' visit with her, an' remarked that +she called Mis' Doubleday very officious. 'Went right down on her +knees an' prayed,' says she. 'Anybody would have thought I was a +heathen!' But I kind of pacified her feelin's, an' told her I supposed +the old lady meant well." + +"Did she give away any of her things?--Mis' Barsett, I mean," inquired +Mrs. Crane. + +"Not in my hearin'," replied Sarah Ellen Dow. "Except one day, the +first of the week, she told her oldest sister, Mis' Deckett,--'twas +that first day she rode over--that she might have her green quilted +petticoat; you see it was a rainy day, an' Mis' Deckett had complained +o' feelin' thin. She went right up an' got it, and put it on an' wore +it off, an' I'm sure I thought no more about it, until I heard Sister +Barsett groanin' dreadful in the night. I got right up to see what the +matter was, an' what do you think but she was wantin' that petticoat +back, and not thinking any too well o' Nancy Deckett for takin' it +when 'twas offered. 'Nancy never showed no sense o' propriety,' says +Sister Barsett; I just wish you'd heard her go on! + +"If she had felt to remember me," continued Sarah Ellen, after they +had laughed a little, "I'd full as soon have some of her nice +crockery-ware. She told me once, years ago, when I was stoppin' to tea +with her an' we were havin' it real friendly, that she should leave me +her Britannia tea-set, but I ain't got it in writin', and I can't say +she's ever referred to the matter since. It ain't as if I had a home +o' my own to keep it in, but I should have thought a great deal of it +for her sake," and the speaker's voice faltered. "I must say that with +all her virtues she never was a first-class housekeeper, but I +wouldn't say it to any but a friend. You never eat no preserves o' +hers that wa'n't commencin' to work, an' you know as well as I how +little forethought she had about putting away her woolens. I sat +behind her once in meetin' when I was stoppin' with the Tremletts and +so occupied a seat in their pew, an' I see between ten an' a dozen +moth millers come workin' out o' her fitch-fur tippet. They was +flutterin' round her bonnet same's 'twas a lamp. I should be mortified +to death to have such a thing happen to me." + +"Every housekeeper has her weak point; I've got mine as much as +anybody else," acknowledged Mercy Crane with spirit, "but you never +see no moth millers come workin' out o' me in a public place." + +"Ain't your oven beginning to get overhet?" anxiously inquired Sarah +Ellen Dow, who was sitting more in the draught, and could not bear to +have any accident happen to the supper. Mrs. Crane flew to a +short-cake's rescue, and presently called her guest to the table. + +The two women sat down to deep and brimming cups of tea. Sarah Ellen +noticed with great gratification that her hostess had put on two of +the best tea-cups and some citron-melon preserves. It was not an +every-day supper. She was used to hard fare, poor, hard-working Sarah +Ellen, and this handsome social attention did her good. Sister Crane +rarely entertained a friend, and it would be a pleasure to speak of +the tea-drinking for weeks to come. + +"You've put yourself out quite a consid'able for me," she +acknowledged. "How pretty these cups is! You oughtn't to use 'em so +common as for me. I wish I had a home I could really call my own to +ask you to, but 't ain't never been so I could. Sometimes I wonder +what's goin' to become o' me when I get so I'm past work. Takin' care +o' sick folks an' bein' in houses where there's a sight goin' on an' +everybody in a hurry kind of wears on me now I'm most a-gittin' in +years. I was wishin' the other day that I could get with some +comfortable kind of a sick person, where I could live right along +quiet as other folks do, but folks never sends for me 'less they're +drove to it. I ain't laid up anything to really depend upon." + +The situation appealed to Mercy Crane, well to do as she was and not +burdened with responsibilities. She stirred uneasily in her chair, but +could not bring herself to the point of offering Sarah Ellen the home +she coveted. + +"Have some hot tea," she insisted, in a matter of fact tone, and Sarah +Ellen's face, which had been lighted by a sudden eager hopefulness, +grew dull and narrow again. + +"Plenty, plenty, Mis' Crane," she said sadly, "'tis beautiful +tea,--you always have good tea;" but she could not turn her thoughts +from her own uncertain future. "None of our folks has ever lived to be +a burden," she said presently, in a pathetic tone, putting down her +cup. "My mother was thought to be doing well until four o'clock an' +was dead at ten. My Aunt Nancy came to our house well at twelve +o'clock an' died that afternoon; my father was sick but ten days. +There was dear sister Betsy, she did go in consumption, but 'twa'n't +an expensive sickness." + +"I've thought sometimes about you, how you'd get past rovin' from +house to house one o' these days. I guess your friends will stand by +you." Mrs. Crane spoke with unwonted sympathy, and Sarah Ellen's heart +leaped with joy. + +"You're real kind," she said simply. "There's nobody I set so much by. +But I shall miss Sister Barsett, when all's said an' done. She's asked +me many a time to stop with her when I wasn't doin' nothin'. We all +have our failin's, but she was a friendly creatur'. I sha'n't want to +see her laid away." + +"Yes, I was thinkin' a few minutes ago that I shouldn't want to look +out an' see the funeral go by. She's one o' the old neighbors. I +s'pose I shall have to look, or I shouldn't feel right afterward," +said Mrs. Crane mournfully. "If I hadn't got so kind of housebound," +she added with touching frankness, "I'd just as soon go over with you +an' offer to watch this night." + +"'T would astonish Sister Barsett so I don't know but she'd return." +Sarah Ellen's eyes danced with amusement; she could not resist her own +joke, and Mercy Crane herself had to smile. + +"Now I must be goin', or 'twill be dark," said the guest, rising and +sighing after she had eaten her last crumb of gingerbread. "Yes, thank +ye, you're real good, I will come back if I find I ain't wanted. Look +what a pretty sky there is!" and the two friends went to the side door +and stood together in a moment of affectionate silence, looking out +toward the sunset across the wide fields. The country was still with +that deep rural stillness which seems to mean the absence of humanity. +Only the thrushes were singing far away in the walnut woods beyond the +orchard, and some crows were flying over and cawed once loudly, as if +they were speaking to the women at the door. + +Just as the friends were parting, after most grateful acknowledgments +from Sarah Ellen Dow, some one came driving along the road in a hurry +and stopped. + +"Who's that with you, Mis' Crane?" called one of their near neighbors. + +"It's Sarah Ellen Dow," answered Mrs. Crane. "What's the matter?" + +"I thought so, but I couldn't rightly see. Come, they are in a peck o' +trouble up to Sister Barsett's, wonderin' where you be," grumbled the +man. "They can't do nothin' with her; she's drove off everybody an' +keeps a-screechin' for you. Come, step along, Sarah Ellen, do!" + +"Sister Barsett!" exclaimed both the women. Mercy Crane sank down upon +the doorstep, but Sarah Ellen stepped out upon the grass all of a +tremble, and went toward the wagon. "They said this afternoon that +Sister Barsett was gone," she managed to say. "What did they mean?" + +"Gone where?" asked the impatient neighbor. "I expect 'twas one of her +spells. She's come to; they say she wants somethin' hearty for her +tea. Nobody can't take one step till you get there, neither." + +Sarah Ellen was still dazed; she returned to the doorway, where Mercy +Crane sat shaking with laughter. "I don't know but we might as well +laugh as cry," she said in an aimless sort of way. "I know you too +well to think you're going to repeat a single word. Well, I'll get my +bonnet an' start; I expect I've got considerable to cope with, but I'm +well rested. Good-night, Mis' Crane, I certain did have a beautiful +tea, whatever the future may have in store." + +She wore a solemn expression as she mounted into the wagon in haste +and departed, but she was far out of sight when Mercy Crane stopped +laughing and went into the house. + + * * * * * + + + + +Decoration Day + + +I. + +A week before the thirtieth of May, three friends--John Stover and +Henry Merrill and Asa Brown--happened to meet on Saturday evening at +Barton's store at the Plains. They were ready to enjoy this idle hour +after a busy week. After long easterly rains, the sun had at last come +out bright and clear, and all the Barlow farmers had been planting. +There was even a good deal of ploughing left to be done, the season +was so backward. + +The three middle-aged men were old friends. They had been +school-fellows, and when they were hardly out of their boyhood the war +came on, and they enlisted in the same company, on the same day, and +happened to march away elbow to elbow. Then came the great experience +of a great war, and the years that followed their return from the +South had come to each almost alike. These men might have been members +of the same rustic household, they knew each other's history so well. + +They were sitting on a low wooden bench at the left of the store door +as you went in. People were coming and going on their Saturday night +errands,--the post-office was in Barton's store,--but the friends +talked on eagerly, without being interrupted, except by an occasional +nod of recognition. They appeared to take no notice at all of the +neighbors whom they saw oftenest. It was a most beautiful evening; the +two great elms were almost half in leaf over the blacksmith's shop +which stood across the wide road. Farther along were two small +old-fashioned houses and the old white church, with its pretty belfry +of four arched sides and a tiny dome at the top. The large cockerel on +the vane was pointing a little south of west, and there was still +light enough to make it shine bravely against the deep blue eastern +sky. On the western side of the road, near the store, were the +parsonage and the storekeeper's modern house, which had a French roof +and some attempt at decoration, which the long-established Barlow +people called gingerbread-work, and regarded with mingled pride and +disdain. These buildings made the tiny village called Barlow Plains. +They stood in the middle of a long narrow strip of level ground. They +were islanded by green fields and pastures. There were hills beyond; +the mountains themselves seemed very near. Scattered about on the hill +slopes were farmhouses, which stood so far apart, with their clusters +of out-buildings, that each looked lonely, and the pine woods above +seemed to besiege them all. It was lighter on the uplands than it was +in the valley, where the three men sat on their bench, with their +backs to the store and the western sky. + +"Well, here we be 'most into June, an' I 'ain't got a bush-bean above +ground," lamented Henry Merrill. + +"Your land's always late, ain't it? But you always catch up with the +rest on us," Asa Brown consoled him. "I've often observed that your +land, though early planted, was late to sprout. I view it there's a +good week's difference betwixt me an' Stover an' your folks, but come +first o' July we all even up." + +"'Tis just so," said John Stover, taking his pipe out of his mouth, as +if he had a good deal more to say, and then replacing it, as if he had +changed his mind. + +"Made it extry hard having that long wet spell. Can't none on us take +no day off this season," said Asa Brown; but nobody thought it worth +his while to respond to such evident truth. + +"Next Saturday'll be the thirtieth o' May--that's Decoration Day, +ain't it?--come round again. Lord! how the years slip by after you git +to be forty-five an' along there!" said Asa again. "I s'pose some o' +our folks'll go over to Alton to see the procession, same's usual. +I've got to git one o' them small flags to stick on our Joel's grave, +an' Mis' Dexter always counts on havin' some for Harrison's lot. I +calculate to get 'em somehow. I must make time to ride over, but I +don't know where the time's comin' from out o' next week. I wish the +women folks would tend to them things. There's the spot where Eb +Munson an' John Tighe lays in the poor-farm lot, an' I did mean +certain to buy flags for 'em last year an' year before, but I went an' +forgot it. I'd like to have folks that rode by notice 'em for once, if +they was town paupers. Eb Munson was as darin' a man as ever stepped +out to tuck o' drum." + +"So he was," said John Stover, taking his pipe with decision and +knocking out the ashes. "Drink was his ruin; but I wan't one that +could be harsh with Eb, no matter what he done. He worked hard long's +he could, too; but he wan't like a sound man, an' I think he took +somethin' first not so much 'cause he loved it, but to kind of keep +his strength up so's he could work, an' then, all of a sudden, rum +clinched with him an' threw him. Eb was talkin' 'long o' me one day +when he was about half full, an' says he, right out, 'I wouldn't have +fell to this state,' says he, 'if I'd had me a home an' a little +fam'ly; but it don't make no difference to nobody, and it's the best +comfort I seem to have, an' I ain't goin' to do without it. I'm ailin' +all the time,' says he, 'an' if I keep middlin' full, I make out to +hold my own an' to keep along o' my work.' I pitied Eb. I says to him, +'You ain't goin' to bring no disgrace on us old army boys, be you, +Eb?' an' he says no, he wan't. I think if he'd lived to get one o' +them big fat pensions, he'd had it easier. Eight dollars a month paid +his board, while he'd pick up what cheap work he could, an' then he +got so that decent folks didn't seem to want the bother of him, an' so +he come on the town." + +"There was somethin' else to it," said Henry Merrill soberly. "Drink +come natural to him, 'twas born in him, I expect, an' there wan't +nobody that could turn the divil out same's they did in Scriptur'. His +father an' his gran'father was drinkin' men; but they was kind-hearted +an' good neighbors, an' never set out to wrong nobody. 'Twas the +custom to drink in their day; folks was colder an' lived poorer in +early times, an' that's how most of 'em kept a-goin'. But what stove +Eb all up was his disapp'intment with Marthy Peck--her forsakin' of +him an' marryin' old John Down whilst Eb was off to war. I've always +laid it up ag'inst her." + +"So've I," said Asa Brown. "She didn't use the poor fellow right. I +guess she was full as well off, but it's one thing to show judgment, +an' another thing to have heart." + +There was a long pause; the subject was too familiar to need further +comment. + +"There ain't no public sperit here in Barlow," announced Asa Brown, +with decision. "I don't s'pose we could ever get up anything for +Decoration Day. I've felt kind of 'shamed, but it always comes in a +busy time; 'twan't no time to have it, anyway, right in late +plantin'." + +"'Tain't no use to look for public sperit 'less you've got some +yourself," observed John Stover soberly; but something had pleased him +in the discouraged suggestion. "Perhaps we could mark the day this +year. It comes on a Saturday; that ain't nigh so bad as bein' in the +middle of the week." + +Nobody made any answer, and presently he went on,-- + +"There was a time along back when folks was too nigh the war-time to +give much thought to the bigness of it. The best fellows was them that +had stayed to home an' worked their trades an' laid up money; but I +don't know's it's so now." + +"Yes, the fellows that stayed at home got all the fat places, an' when +we come back we felt dreadful behind the times," grumbled Asa Brown. +"I remember how 'twas." + +"They begun to call us heroes an' old stick-in-the-mud just about the +same time," resumed Stover, with a chuckle. "We wa'n't no hand for +strippin' woodland nor even tradin' hosses them first few years. I +don' know why 'twas we were so beat out. The best most on us could do +was to sag right on to the old folks. Father he never wanted me to go +to the war,--'twas partly his Quaker breed,--an' he used to be +dreadful mortified with the way I hung round down here to the store +an' loafed round a-talkin' about when I was out South, an' arguin' +with folks that didn't know nothin', about what the generals done. +There! I see me now just as he see me then; but after I had my +boy-strut out, I took holt o' the old farm 'long o' father, an' I've +made it bounce. Look at them old meadows an' see the herd's grass that +come off of 'em last year! I ain't ashamed o' my place now, if I did +go to the war." + +"It all looks a sight bigger to me now than it did then," said Henry +Merrill. "Our goin' to the war, I refer to. We didn't sense it no more +than other folks did. I used to be sick o' hearin' their stuff about +patriotism and lovin' your country, an' them pieces o' poetry women +folks wrote for the papers on the old flag, an' our fallen heroes, an' +them things; they didn't seem to strike me in the right place; but I +tell ye it kind o' starts me now every time I come on the flag +sudden,--it does so. A spell ago--'long in the fall, I guess it was--I +was over to Alton, an' there was a fire company paradin'. They'd got +the prize at a fair, an' had just come home on the cars, an' I heard +the band; so I stepped to the front o' the store where me an' my woman +was tradin', an' the company felt well, an' was comin' along the +street 'most as good as troops. I see the old flag a-comin', kind of +blowin' back, an' it went all over me. Somethin' worked round in my +throat; I vow I come near cryin'. I was glad nobody see me." + +"I'd go to war again in a minute," declared Stover, after an +expressive pause; "but I expect we should know better what we was +about. I don' know but we've got too many rooted opinions now to make +us the best o' soldiers." + +"Martin Tighe an' John Tighe was considerable older than the rest, and +they done well," answered Henry Merrill quickly. "We three was the +youngest of any, but we did think at the time we knew the most." + +"Well, whatever you may say, that war give the country a great start," +said Asa Brown. "I tell ye we just begin to see the scope on't. There +was my cousin, you know, Dan'l Evins, that stopped with us last +winter; he was tellin' me that one o' his coastin' trips he was into +the port o' Beaufort lo'din' with yaller-pine lumber, an' he roved +into an old buryin'-ground there is there, an' he see a stone that had +on it some young Southern fellow's name that was killed in the war, +an' under it was, 'He died for his country.' Dan'l knowed how I used +to feel about them South Car'lina goings on, an' I did feel kind o' +red an' ugly for a minute, an' then somethin' come over me, an' I +says, 'Well, I don' know but what the poor chap did, Dan Evins, when +you come to view it all round.'" + +The other men made no answer. + +"Le's see what we can do this year. I don't care if we be a poor +han'ful," urged Henry Merrill. "The young folks ought to have the +good of it; I'd like to have my boys see somethin' different. Le's get +together what men there is. How many's left, anyhow? I know there was +thirty-seven went from old Barlow, three-months' men an' all." + +"There can't be over eight now, countin' out Martin Tighe; he can't +march," said Stover. "No, 'tain't worth while." But the others did not +notice his disapproval. + +"There's nine in all," announced Asa Brown, after pondering and +counting two or three times on his fingers. "I can't make us no more. +I never could carry figur's in my head." + +"I make nine," said Merrill. "We'll have Martin ride, an' Jesse Dean +too, if he will. He's awful lively on them canes o' his. An' there's +Jo Wade with his crutch; he's amazin' spry for a short distance. But +we can't let 'em go far afoot; they're decripped men. We'll make 'em +all put on what they've got left o' their uniforms, an' we'll scratch +round an' have us a fife an' drum, an' make the best show we can." + +"Why, Martin Tighe's boy, the next to the oldest, is an excellent hand +to play the fife!" said John Stover, suddenly growing enthusiastic. +"If you two are set on it, let's have a word with the minister +to-morrow, an' see what he says. Perhaps he'll give out some kind of a +notice. You have to have a good many bunches o' flowers. I guess we'd +better call a meetin', some few on us, an' talk it over first o' the +week. 'Twouldn't be no great of a range for us to take to march from +the old buryin'-ground at the meetin'-house here up to the poor-farm +an' round by Deacon Elwell's lane, so's to notice them two stones he +set up for his boys that was sunk on the man-o'-war. I expect they +notice stones same's if the folks laid there, don't they?" + +He spoke wistfully. The others knew that Stover was thinking of the +stone he had set up to the memory of his only brother, whose nameless +grave had been made somewhere in the Wilderness. + +"I don't know but what they'll be mad if we don't go by every house in +town," he added anxiously, as they rose to go home. "'Tis a terrible +scattered population in Barlow to favor with a procession." + +It was a mild starlit night. The three friends took their separate +ways presently, leaving the Plains road and crossing the fields by +foot-paths toward their farms. + + +II. + +The week went by, and the next Saturday morning brought fair weather. +It was a busy morning on the farms--like any other; but long before +noon the teams of horses and oxen were seen going home from work in +the fields, and everybody got ready in haste for the great event of +the afternoon. It was so seldom that any occasion roused public +interest in Barlow that there was an unexpected response, and the +green before the old white meeting-house was covered with country +wagons and groups of people, whole families together, who had come on +foot. The old soldiers were to meet in the church; at half past one +the procession was to start, and on its return the minister was to +make an address in the old burying-ground. John Stover had been first +lieutenant in the war, so he was made captain of the day. A man from +the next town had offered to drum for them, and Martin Tighe's proud +boy was present with his fife. He had a great longing--strange enough +in that peaceful, sheep-raising neighborhood--to go into the army; but +he and his elder brother were the mainstay of their crippled father, +and he could not be spared from the large household until a younger +brother could take his place; so that all his fire and military zeal +went for the present into martial tunes, and the fife was a +safety-valve for his enthusiasm. + +The army men were used to seeing each other; everybody knew everybody +in the little country town of Barlow; but when one comrade after +another appeared in what remained of his accoutrements, they felt the +day to be greater than they had planned, and the simple ceremony +proved more solemn than any one expected. They could make no use of +their every-day jokes and friendly greetings. Their old blue coats +and tarnished army caps looked faded and antiquated enough. One of +the men had nothing left but his rusty canteen and rifle; but these he +carried like sacred emblems. He had worn out all his army clothes long +ago, because he was too poor when he was discharged to buy any others. + +When the door of the church opened, the veterans were not abashed by +the size and silence of the crowd. They came walking two by two down +the steps, and took their places in line as if there were nobody +looking on. Their brief evolutions were like a mystic rite. The two +lame men refused to do anything but march as best they could; but poor +Martin Tighe, more disabled than they, was brought out and lifted into +Henry Merrill's best wagon, where he sat up, straight and soldierly, +with his boy for driver. There was a little flag in the whip-socket +before him, which flapped gayly in the breeze. It was such a long time +since he had been seen out-of-doors that everybody found him a great +object of interest, and paid him much attention. Even those who were +tired of being asked to contribute to his support, who resented the +fact of his having a helpless wife and great family; who always +insisted that with his little pension and hopeless lameness, his +fingerless left hand and failing sight, he could support himself and +his household if he chose,--even those persons came forward now to +greet him handsomely and with large approval. To be sure, he enjoyed +the conversation of idlers, and his wife had a complaining way that +was the same as begging, especially since her boys began to grow up +and be of some use; and there were one or two near neighbors who never +let them really want; so other people, who had cares enough of their +own, could excuse themselves for forgetting him the year round, and +even call him shiftless. But there were none to look askance at Martin +Tighe on Decoration Day, as he sat in the wagon, with his bleached +face like a captive's, and his thin, afflicted body. He stretched out +his whole hand impartially to those who had remembered and those who +had forgotten both his courage at Fredericksburg and his sorry need in +Barlow. + +Henry Merrill had secured the engine company's large flag in Alton, +and now carried it proudly. There were eight men in line, two by two, +and marching a good bit apart, to make their line the longer. The fife +and drum struck up gallantly together, and the little procession moved +away slowly along the country road. It gave an unwonted touch of color +to the landscape,--the scarlet, the blue, between the new-ploughed +fields and budding roadside thickets, between the wide dim ranges of +the mountains, under the great white clouds of the spring sky. Such +processions grow more pathetic year by year; it will not be so long +now before wondering children will have seen the last. The aging faces +of the men, the renewed comradeship, the quick beat of the hearts that +remember, the tenderness of those who think upon old sorrows,--all +these make the day a lovelier and a sadder festival. So men's hearts +were stirred, they knew not why, when they heard the shrill fife and +the incessant drum along the quiet Barlow road, and saw the handful of +old soldiers marching by. Nobody thought of them as familiar men and +neighbors alone,--they were a part of that army which had saved its +country. They had taken their lives in their hands and gone out to +fight for their country, plain John Stover and Jesse Dean and the +rest. No matter if every other day in the year they counted for little +or much, whether they were lame-footed and lagging, whether their +farms were of poor soil or rich. + +The little troop went in slender line along the road; the crowded +country wagons and all the people who went afoot followed Martin +Tighe's wagon as if it were a great gathering at a country funeral. +The route was short, and the long, straggling line marched slowly; it +could go no faster than the lame men could walk. + +In one of the houses by the roadside an old woman sat by a window, in +an old-fashioned black gown, and clean white cap with a prim border +which bound her thin, sharp features closely. She had been for a long +time looking out eagerly over the snowberry and cinnamon-rose bushes; +her face was pressed close to the pane, and presently she caught sight +of the great flag as it came down the road. + +"Let me see 'em! I've got to see 'em go by!" she pleaded, trying to +rise from her chair alone when she heard the fife, and the women +helped her to the door, and held her so that she could stand and wait. +She had been an old woman when the war began; she had sent sons and +grandsons to the field; they were all gone now. As the men came by, +she straightened her bent figure with all the vigor of youth. The fife +and drum stopped suddenly; the colors lowered. She did not heed that, +but her old eyes flashed and then filled with tears to see the flag +going to salute the soldiers' graves. "Thank ye, boys; thank ye!" she +cried, in her quavering voice, and they all cheered her. The cheer +went back along the straggling line for old Grandmother Dexter, +standing there in her front door between the lilacs. It was one of the +great moments of the day. + +The few old people at the poor-house, too, were waiting to see the +show. The keeper's young son, knowing that it was a day of festivity, +and not understanding exactly why, had put his toy flag out of the +gable window, and there it showed against the gray clapboards like a +gay flower. It was the only bit of decoration along the veterans' way, +and they stopped and saluted it before they broke ranks and went out +to the field corner beyond the poor-farm barn to the bit of ground +that held the paupers' unmarked graves. There was a solemn silence +while Asa Brown went to the back of Tighe's wagon, where such light +freight was carried, and brought two flags, and he and John Stover +planted them straight in the green sod. They knew well enough where +the right graves were, for these had been made in a corner by +themselves, with unwonted sentiment. And so Eben Munson and John Tighe +were honored like the rest, both by their flags and by great and +unexpected nosegays of spring flowers, daffies and flowering currant +and red tulips, which lay on the graves already. John Stover and his +comrade glanced at each other curiously while they stood singing, and +then laid their own bunches of lilacs down and came away. + +Then something happened that almost none of the people in the wagons +understood. Martin Tighe's boy, who played the fife, had studied well +his part, and on his poor short-winded instrument now sounded taps as +well as he could. He had heard it done once in Alton at a soldier's +funeral. The plaintive notes called sadly over the fields, and echoed +back from the hills. The few veterans could not look at each other; +their eyes brimmed up with tears; they could not have spoken. Nothing +called back old army days like that. They had a sudden vision of the +Virginian camp, the hillside dotted white with tents, the twinkling +lights in other camps, and far away the glow of smouldering fires. +They heard the bugle call from post to post; they remembered the +chilly winter night, the wind in the pines, the laughter of the men. +Lights out! Martin Tighe's boy sounded it again sharply. It seemed as +if poor Eb Munson and John Tighe must hear it too in their narrow +graves. + +The procession went on, and stopped here and there at the little +graveyards on the farms, leaving their bright flags to flutter through +summer and winter rains and snows, and to bleach in the wind and +sunshine. When they returned to the church, the minister made an +address about the war, and every one listened with new ears. Most of +what he said was familiar enough to his listeners; they were used to +reading those phrases about the results of the war, the glorious +future of the South, in their weekly newspapers; but there never had +been such a spirit of patriotism and loyalty waked in Barlow as was +waked that day by the poor parade of the remnant of the Barlow +soldiers. They sent flags to all the distant graves, and proud were +those households who claimed kinship with valor, and could drive or +walk away with their flags held up so that others could see that they, +too, were of the elect. + + +III. + +It is well that the days are long in the last of May, but John Stover +had to hurry more than usual with his evening work, and then, having +the longest distance to walk, he was much the latest comer to the +Plains store, where his two triumphant friends were waiting for him +impatiently on the bench. They also had made excuse of going to the +post-office and doing an unnecessary errand for their wives, and were +talking together so busily that they had gathered a group about them +before the store. When they saw Stover coming, they rose hastily and +crossed the road to meet him, as if they were a committee in special +session. They leaned against the post-and-board fence, after they had +shaken hands with each other solemnly. + +"Well, we've had a great day, ain't we, John?" asked Henry Merrill. +"You did lead off splendid. We've done a grand thing, now, I tell you. +All the folks say we've got to keep it up every year. Everybody had to +have a talk about it as I went home. They say they had no idea we +should make such a show. Lord! I wish we'd begun while there was more +of us!" + +"That han'some flag was the great feature," said Asa Brown generously. +"I want to pay my part for hirin' it. An' then folks was glad to see +poor old Martin made o' some consequence." + +"There was half a dozen said to me that another year they was goin' to +have flags out, and trim up their places somehow or 'nother. Folks has +feelin' enough, but you've got to rouse it," said Merrill. + +"I have thought o' joinin' the Grand Army over to Alton time an' +again, but it's a good ways to go, an' then the expense has been o' +some consideration," Asa continued. "I don't know but two or three +over there. You know, most o' the Alton men nat'rally went out in the +rigiments t' other side o' the State line, an' they was in other +battles, an' never camped nowheres nigh us. Seems to me we ought to +have home feelin' enough to do what we can right here." + +"The minister says to me this afternoon that he was goin' to arrange +an' have some talks in the meetin'-house next winter, an' have some of +us tell where we was in the South; an' one night 'twill be about camp +life, an' one about the long marches, an' then about the +battles,--that would take some time,--an' tell all we could about the +boys that was killed, an' their record, so they wouldn't be forgot. He +said some of the folks must have the letters we wrote home from the +front, an' we could make out quite a history of us. I call Elder +Dallas a very smart man; he'd planned it all out a'ready, for the +benefit o' the young folks, he said," announced Henry Merrill, in a +tone of approval. + +"I s'pose there ain't none of us but could add a little somethin'," +answered John Stover modestly. "'Twould re'lly learn the young folks +a good deal. I should be scared numb to try an' speak from the pulpit. +That ain't what the Elder means, is it? Now I was one that had a good +chance to see somethin' o' Washin'ton. I shook hands with President +Lincoln, an' I always think I'm worth lookin' at for that, if I ain't +for nothin' else. 'Twas that time I was just out o' hospit'l, an' able +to crawl about some. I've often told you how 'twas I met him, an' he +stopped an' shook hands an' asked where I'd been at the front an' how +I was gettin' along with my hurts. Well, we'll see how 'tis when +winter comes. I never thought I had no gift for public speakin', 'less +'twas for drivin' cattle or pollin' the house town-meetin' days. Here! +I've got somethin' in mind. You needn't speak about it if I tell it to +ye," he added suddenly. "You know all them han'some flowers that was +laid on to Eb Munson's grave an' Tighe's? I mistrusted you thought the +same thing I did by the way you looked. They come from Marthy Down's +front yard. My woman told me when we got home that she knew 'em in a +minute; there wa'n't nobody in town had that kind o' red flowers but +her. She must ha' kind o' harked back to the days when she was Marthy +Peck. She must have come over with 'em after dark, or else dreadful +early in the mornin'." + +Henry Merrill cleared his throat. "There ain't nothin' half-way 'bout +Mis' Down," he said. "I wouldn't ha' spoken 'bout this 'less you had +led right on to it; but I overtook her when I was gittin' towards home +this afternoon, an' I see by her looks she was worked up a good deal; +but we talked about how well things had gone off, an' she wanted to +know what expenses we'd been put to, an' I told her; and she said +she'd give five dollars any day I'd stop in for it. An' then she spoke +right out. 'I'm alone in the world,' says she, 'and I've got somethin' +to do with, an' I'd like to have a plain stone put up to Eb Munson's +grave, with the number of his rigiment on it, an' I'll pay the bill. +'Tain't out o' Mr. Down's money,' she says; ''tis mine, an' I want you +to see to it.' I said I would, but we'd made a plot to git some o' +them soldiers' headstones that's provided by the government. 'Twas a +shame it had been overlooked so long. 'No,' says she; 'I'm goin' to +pay for Eb's myself.' An' I told her there wouldn't be no objection. +Don't ary one o' you speak about it. 'Twouldn't be fair. She was real +well-appearin'. I never felt to respect Marthy so before." + +"We was kind o' hard on her sometimes, but folks couldn't help it. +I've seen her pass Eb right by in the road an' never look at him when +he first come home," said John Stover. + +"If she hadn't felt bad, she wouldn't have cared one way or t'other," +insisted Henry Merrill. "'Tain't for us to judge. Sometimes folks has +to get along in years before they see things fair. Come; I must be +goin' home. I'm tired as an old dog." + +"It seemed kind o' natural to be steppin' out together again. Strange +we three got through with so little damage, an' so many dropped round +us," said Asa Brown. "I've never been one mite sorry I went out in old +A Company. I was thinkin' when I was marchin' to-day, though, that we +should all have to take to the wagons before long an' do our marchin' +on wheels, so many of us felt kind o' stiff. There's one thing,--folks +won't never say again that we can't show no public sperit here in old +Barlow." + + * * * * * + + + + +The Flight of Betsey Lane + + +I. + +One windy morning in May, three old women sat together near an open +window in the shed chamber of Byfleet Poor-house. The wind was from +the northwest, but their window faced the southeast, and they were +only visited by an occasional pleasant waft of fresh air. They were +close together, knee to knee, picking over a bushel of beans, and +commanding a view of the dandelion-starred, green yard below, and of +the winding, sandy road that led to the village, two miles away. Some +captive bees were scolding among the cobwebs of the rafters overhead, +or thumping against the upper panes of glass; two calves were bawling +from the barnyard, where some of the men were at work loading a +dump-cart and shouting as if every one were deaf. There was a +cheerful feeling of activity, and even an air of comfort, about the +Byfleet Poor-house. Almost every one was possessed of a most +interesting past, though there was less to be said about the future. +The inmates were by no means distressed or unhappy; many of them +retired to this shelter only for the winter season, and would go out +presently, some to begin such work as they could still do, others to +live in their own small houses; old age had impoverished most of them +by limiting their power of endurance; but far from lamenting the fact +that they were town charges, they rather liked the change and +excitement of a winter residence on the poor-farm. There was a +sharp-faced, hard-worked young widow with seven children, who was an +exception to the general level of society, because she deplored the +change in her fortunes. The older women regarded her with suspicion, +and were apt to talk about her in moments like this, when they +happened to sit together at their work. + +The three bean-pickers were dressed alike in stout brown ginghams, +checked by a white line, and all wore great faded aprons of blue +drilling, with sufficient pockets convenient to the right hand. Miss +Peggy Bond was a very small, belligerent-looking person, who wore a +huge pair of steel-bowed spectacles, holding her sharp chin well up in +air, as if to supplement an inadequate nose. She was more than half +blind, but the spectacles seemed to face upward instead of square +ahead, as if their wearer were always on the sharp lookout for birds. +Miss Bond had suffered much personal damage from time to time, because +she never took heed where she planted her feet, and so was always +tripping and stubbing her bruised way through the world. She had +fallen down hatchways and cellarways, and stepped composedly into deep +ditches and pasture brooks; but she was proud of stating that she was +upsighted, and so was her father before her. At the poor-house, where +an unusual malady was considered a distinction, upsightedness was +looked upon as a most honorable infirmity. Plain rheumatism, such as +afflicted Aunt Lavina Dow, whose twisted hands found even this light +work difficult and tiresome,--plain rheumatism was something of +every-day occurrence, and nobody cared to hear about it. Poor Peggy +was a meek and friendly soul, who never put herself forward; she was +just like other folks, as she always loved to say, but Mrs. Lavina Dow +was a different sort of person altogether, of great dignity and, +occasionally, almost aggressive behavior. The time had been when she +could do a good day's work with anybody: but for many years now she +had not left the town-farm, being too badly crippled to work; she had +no relations or friends to visit, but from an innate love of authority +she could not submit to being one of those who are forgotten by the +world. Mrs. Dow was the hostess and social lawgiver here, where she +remembered every inmate and every item of interest for nearly forty +years, besides an immense amount of town history and biography for +three or four generations back. + +She was the dear friend of the third woman, Betsey Lane; together they +led thought and opinion--chiefly opinion--and held sway, not only over +Byfleet Poor-farm, but also the selectmen and all others in authority. +Betsey Lane had spent most of her life as aid-in-general to the +respected household of old General Thornton. She had been much trusted +and valued, and, at the breaking up of that once large and flourishing +family, she had been left in good circumstances, what with legacies +and her own comfortable savings; but by sad misfortune and lavish +generosity everything had been scattered, and after much illness, +which ended in a stiffened arm and more uncertainty, the good soul had +sensibly decided that it was easier for the whole town to support her +than for a part of it. She had always hoped to see something of the +world before she died; she came of an adventurous, seafaring stock, +but had never made a longer journey than to the towns of Danby and +Northville, thirty miles away. + +They were all old women; but Betsey Lane, who was sixty-nine, and +looked much older, was the youngest. Peggy Bond was far on in the +seventies, and Mrs. Dow was at least ten years older. She made a great +secret of her years; and as she sometimes spoke of events prior to the +Revolution with the assertion of having been an eye-witness, she +naturally wore an air of vast antiquity. Her tales were an +inexpressible delight to Betsey Lane, who felt younger by twenty years +because her friend and comrade was so unconscious of chronological +limitations. + +The bushel basket of cranberry beans was within easy reach, and each +of the pickers had filled her lap from it again and again. The shed +chamber was not an unpleasant place in which to sit at work, with its +traces of seed corn hanging from the brown cross-beams, its spare +churns, and dusty loom, and rickety wool-wheels, and a few bits of old +furniture. In one far corner was a wide board of dismal use and +suggestion, and close beside it an old cradle. There was a battered +chest of drawers where the keeper of the poor-house kept his +garden-seeds, with the withered remains of three seed cucumbers +ornamenting the top. Nothing beautiful could be discovered, nothing +interesting, but there was something usable and homely about the +place. It was the favorite and untroubled bower of the bean-pickers, +to which they might retreat unmolested from the public apartments of +this rustic institution. + +Betsey Lane blew away the chaff from her handful of beans. The spring +breeze blew the chaff back again, and sifted it over her face and +shoulders. She rubbed it out of her eyes impatiently, and happened to +notice old Peggy holding her own handful high, as if it were an +oblation, and turning her queer, up-tilted head this way and that, to +look at the beans sharply, as if she were first cousin to a hen. + +"There, Miss Bond, 'tis kind of botherin' work for you, ain't it?" +Betsey inquired compassionately. + +"I feel to enjoy it, anything that I can do my own way so," responded +Peggy. "I like to do my part. Ain't that old Mis' Fales comin' up the +road? It sounds like her step." + +The others looked, but they were not far-sighted, and for a moment +Peggy had the advantage. Mrs. Fales was not a favorite. + +"I hope she ain't comin' here to put up this spring. I guess she won't +now, it's gettin' so late," said Betsey Lane. "She likes to go rovin' +soon as the roads is settled." + +"'Tis Mis' Fales!" said Peggy Bond, listening with solemn anxiety. +"There, do let's pray her by!" + +"I guess she's headin' for her cousin's folks up Beech Hill way," said +Betsey presently. "If she'd left her daughter's this mornin', she'd +have got just about as far as this. I kind o' wish she had stepped in +just to pass the time o' day, long's she wa'n't going to make no +stop." + +There was a silence as to further speech in the shed chamber; and even +the calves were quiet in the barnyard. The men had all gone away to +the field where corn-planting was going on. The beans clicked steadily +into the wooden measure at the pickers' feet. Betsey Lane began to +sing a hymn, and the others joined in as best they might, like +autumnal crickets; their voices were sharp and cracked, with now and +then a few low notes of plaintive tone. Betsey herself could sing +pretty well, but the others could only make a kind of accompaniment. +Their voices ceased altogether at the higher notes. + +"Oh my! I wish I had the means to go to the Centennial," mourned +Betsey Lane, stopping so suddenly that the others had to go on +croaking and shrilling without her for a moment before they could +stop. "It seems to me as if I can't die happy 'less I do," she added; +"I ain't never seen nothin' of the world, an' here I be." + +"What if you was as old as I be?" suggested Mrs. Dow pompously. +"You've got time enough yet, Betsey; don't you go an' despair. I +knowed of a woman that went clean round the world four times when she +was past eighty, an' enjoyed herself real well. Her folks followed the +sea; she had three sons an' a daughter married,--all shipmasters, and +she'd been with her own husband when they was young. She was left a +widder early, and fetched up her family herself,--a real stirrin', +smart woman. After they'd got married off, an' settled, an' was doing +well, she come to be lonesome; and first she tried to stick it out +alone, but she wa'n't one that could; an' she got a notion she hadn't +nothin' before her but her last sickness, and she wa'n't a person +that enjoyed havin' other folks do for her. So one on her boys--I +guess 'twas the oldest--said he was going to take her to sea; there +was ample room, an' he was sailin' a good time o' year for the Cape o' +Good Hope an' way up to some o' them tea-ports in the Chiny Seas. She +was all high to go, but it made a sight o' talk at her age; an' the +minister made it a subject o' prayer the last Sunday, and all the +folks took a last leave; but she said to some she'd fetch 'em home +something real pritty, and so did. An' then they come home t'other +way, round the Horn, an' she done so well, an' was such a sight o' +company, the other child'n was jealous, an' she promised she'd go a +v'y'ge long o' each on 'em. She was as sprightly a person as ever I +see; an' could speak well o' what she'd seen." + +"Did she die to sea?" asked Peggy, with interest. + +"No, she died to home between v'y'ges, or she'd gone to sea again. I +was to her funeral. She liked her son George's ship the best; 'twas +the one she was going on to Callao. They said the men aboard all +called her 'gran'ma'am,' an' she kep' 'em mended up, an' would go +below and tend to 'em if they was sick. She might 'a' been alive an' +enjoyin' of herself a good many years but for the kick of a cow; 'twas +a new cow out of a drove, a dreadful unruly beast." + +Mrs. Dow stopped for breath, and reached down for a new supply of +beans; her empty apron was gray with soft chaff. Betsey Lane, still +pondering on the Centennial, began to sing another verse of her hymn, +and again the old women joined her. At this moment some strangers came +driving round into the yard from the front of the house. The turf was +soft, and our friends did not hear the horses' steps. Their voices +cracked and quavered; it was a funny little concert, and a lady in an +open carriage just below listened with sympathy and amusement. + + +II. + +"Betsey! Betsey! Miss Lane!" a voice called eagerly at the foot of the +stairs that led up from the shed. "Betsey! There's a lady here wants +to see you right away." + +Betsey was dazed with excitement, like a country child who knows the +rare pleasure of being called out of school. "Lor', I ain't fit to go +down, be I?" she faltered, looking anxiously at her friends; but Peggy +was gazing even nearer to the zenith than usual, in her excited effort +to see down into the yard, and Mrs. Dow only nodded somewhat +jealously, and said that she guessed 'twas nobody would do her any +harm. She rose ponderously, while Betsey hesitated, being, as they +would have said, all of a twitter. "It is a lady, certain," Mrs. Dow +assured her; "'tain't often there's a lady comes here." + +"While there was any of Mis' Gen'ral Thornton's folks left, I wa'n't +without visits from the gentry," said Betsey Lane, turning back +proudly at the head of the stairs, with a touch of old-world pride and +sense of high station. Then she disappeared, and closed the door +behind her at the stair-foot with a decision quite unwelcome to the +friends above. + +"She needn't 'a' been so dreadful 'fraid anybody was goin' to listen. +I guess we've got folks to ride an' see us, or had once, if we hain't +now," said Miss Peggy Bond, plaintively. + +"I expect 't was only the wind shoved it to," said Aunt Lavina. +"Betsey is one that gits flustered easier than some. I wish 'twas +somebody to take her off an' give her a kind of a good time; she's +young to settle down 'long of old folks like us. Betsey's got a notion +o' rovin' such as ain't my natur', but I should like to see her +satisfied. She'd been a very understandin' person, if she had the +advantages that some does." + +"'Tis so," said Peggy Bond, tilting her chin high. "I suppose you +can't hear nothin' they're saying? I feel my hearin' ain't up to whar +it was. I can hear things close to me well as ever; but there, hearin' +ain't everything; 'tain't as if we lived where there was more goin' on +to hear. Seems to me them folks is stoppin' a good while." + +"They surely be," agreed Lavina Dow. + +"I expect it's somethin' particular. There ain't none of the Thornton +folks left, except one o' the gran'darters, an' I've often heard +Betsey remark that she should never see her more, for she lives to +London. Strange how folks feels contented in them strayaway places off +to the ends of the airth." + +The flies and bees were buzzing against the hot windowpanes; the +handfuls of beans were clicking into the brown wooden measure. A bird +came and perched on the windowsill, and then flitted away toward the +blue sky. Below, in the yard, Betsey Lane stood talking with the lady. +She had put her blue drilling apron over her head, and her face was +shining with delight. + +"Lor', dear," she said, for at least the third time, "I remember ye +when I first see ye; an awful pritty baby you was, an' they all said +you looked just like the old gen'ral. Be you goin' back to foreign +parts right away?" + +"Yes, I'm going back; you know that all my children are there. I wish +I could take you with me for a visit," said the charming young guest. +"I'm going to carry over some of the pictures and furniture from the +old house; I didn't care half so much for them when I was younger as I +do now. Perhaps next summer we shall all come over for a while. I +should like to see my girls and boys playing under the pines." + +"I wish you re'lly was livin' to the old place," said Betsey Lane. Her +imagination was not swift; she needed time to think over all that was +being told her, and she could not fancy the two strange houses across +the sea. The old Thornton house was to her mind the most delightful +and elegant in the world. + +"Is there anything I can do for you?" asked Mrs. Strafford +kindly,--"anything that I can do for you myself, before I go away? I +shall be writing to you, and sending some pictures of the children, +and you must let me know how you are getting on." + +"Yes, there is one thing, darlin'. If you could stop in the village +an' pick me out a pritty, little, small lookin'-glass, that I can keep +for my own an' have to remember you by. 'Tain't that I want to set me +above the rest o' the folks, but I was always used to havin' my own +when I was to your grandma's. There's very nice folks here, some on +'em, and I'm better off than if I was able to keep house; but sence +you ask me, that's the only thing I feel cropin' about. What be you +goin' right back for? ain't you goin' to see the great fair to +Pheladelphy, that everybody talks about?" + +"No," said Mrs. Strafford, laughing at this eager and almost +convicting question. "No; I'm going back next week. If I were, I +believe that I should take you with me. Good-by, dear old Betsey; you +make me feel as if I were a little girl again; you look just the +same." + +For full five minutes the old woman stood out in the sunshine, dazed +with delight, and majestic with a sense of her own consequence. She +held something tight in her hand, without thinking what it might be; +but just as the friendly mistress of the poor-farm came out to hear +the news, she tucked the roll of money into the bosom of her brown +gingham dress. "'Twas my dear Mis' Katy Strafford," she turned to say +proudly. "She come way over from London; she's been sick; they thought +the voyage would do her good. She said most the first thing she had on +her mind was to come an' find me, and see how I was, an' if I was +comfortable; an' now she's goin' right back. She's got two splendid +houses; an' said how she wished I was there to look after things,--she +remembered I was always her gran'ma's right hand. Oh, it does so carry +me back, to see her! Seems if all the rest on 'em must be there +together to the old house. There, I must go right up an' tell Mis' Dow +an' Peggy." + +"Dinner's all ready; I was just goin' to blow the horn for the +men-folks," said the keeper's wife. "They'll be right down. I expect +you've got along smart with them beans,--all three of you together;" +but Betsey's mind roved so high and so far at that moment that no +achievements of bean-picking could lure it back. + + +III. + +The long table in the great kitchen soon gathered its company of waifs +and strays,--creatures of improvidence and misfortune, and the +irreparable victims of old age. The dinner was satisfactory, and there +was not much delay for conversation. Peggy Bond and Mrs. Dow and +Betsey Lane always sat together at one end, with an air of putting the +rest of the company below the salt. Betsey was still flushed with +excitement; in fact, she could not eat as much as usual, and she +looked up from time to time expectantly, as if she were likely to be +asked to speak of her guest; but everybody was hungry, and even Mrs. +Dow broke in upon some attempted confidences by asking inopportunely +for a second potato. There were nearly twenty at the table, counting +the keeper and his wife and two children, noisy little persons who had +come from school with the small flock belonging to the poor widow, who +sat just opposite our friends. She finished her dinner before any one +else, and pushed her chair back; she always helped with the +housework,--a thin, sorry, bad-tempered-looking poor soul, whom grief +had sharpened instead of softening. "I expect you feel too fine to set +with common folks," she said enviously to Betsey. + +"Here I be a-settin'," responded Betsey calmly. "I don' know's I +behave more unbecomin' than usual." Betsey prided herself upon her +good and proper manners; but the rest of the company, who would have +liked to hear the bit of morning news, were now defrauded of that +pleasure. The wrong note had been struck; there was a silence after +the clatter of knives and plates, and one by one the cheerful town +charges disappeared. The bean-picking had been finished, and there was +a call for any of the women who felt like planting corn; so Peggy +Bond, who could follow the line of hills pretty fairly, and Betsey +herself, who was still equal to anybody at that work, and Mrs. Dow, +all went out to the field together. Aunt Lavina labored slowly up the +yard, carrying a light splint-bottomed kitchen chair and her +knitting-work, and sat near the stone wall on a gentle rise, where she +could see the pond and the green country, and exchange a word with her +friends as they came and went up and down the rows. Betsey vouchsafed +a word now and then about Mrs. Strafford, but you would have thought +that she had been suddenly elevated to Mrs. Strafford's own cares and +the responsibilities attending them, and had little in common with her +old associates. Mrs. Dow and Peggy knew well that these high-feeling +times never lasted long, and so they waited with as much patience as +they could muster. They were by no means without that true tact which +is only another word for unselfish sympathy. + +The strip of corn land ran along the side of a great field; at the +upper end of it was a field-corner thicket of young maples and walnut +saplings, the children of a great nut-tree that marked the boundary. +Once, when Betsey Lane found herself alone near this shelter at the +end of her row, the other planters having lagged behind beyond the +rising ground, she looked stealthily about, and then put her hand +inside her gown, and for the first time took out the money that Mrs. +Strafford had given her. She turned it over and over with an +astonished look: there were new bank-bills for a hundred dollars. +Betsey gave a funny little shrug of her shoulders, came out of the +bushes, and took a step or two on the narrow edge of turf, as if she +were going to dance; then she hastily tucked away her treasure, and +stepped discreetly down into the soft harrowed and hoed land, and +began to drop corn again, five kernels to a hill. She had seen the top +of Peggy Bond's head over the knoll, and now Peggy herself came +entirely into view, gazing upward to the skies, and stumbling more or +less, but counting the corn by touch and twisting her head about +anxiously to gain advantage over her uncertain vision. Betsey made a +friendly, inarticulate little sound as they passed; she was thinking +that somebody said once that Peggy's eyesight might be remedied if she +could go to Boston to the hospital; but that was so remote and +impossible an undertaking that no one had ever taken the first step. +Betsey Lane's brown old face suddenly worked with excitement, but in a +moment more she regained her usual firm expression, and spoke +carelessly to Peggy as she turned and came alongside. + +The high spring wind of the morning had quite fallen; it was a lovely +May afternoon. The woods about the field to the northward were full of +birds, and the young leaves scarcely hid the solemn shapes of a +company of crows that patiently attended the corn-planting. Two of the +men had finished their hoeing, and were busy with the construction of +a scarecrow; they knelt in the furrows, chuckling, and looking over +some forlorn, discarded garments. It was a time-honored custom to make +the scarecrow resemble one of the poor-house family; and this year +they intended to have Mrs. Lavina Dow protect the field in effigy; +last year it was the counterfeit of Betsey Lane who stood on guard, +with an easily recognized quilted hood and the remains of a valued +shawl that one of the calves had found airing on a fence and chewed to +pieces. Behind the men was the foundation for this rustic attempt at +statuary,--an upright stake and bar in the form of a cross. This stood +on the highest part of the field; and as the men knelt near it, and +the quaint figures of the corn-planters went and came, the scene gave +a curious suggestion of foreign life. It was not like New England; the +presence of the rude cross appealed strangely to the imagination. + + +IV. + +Life flowed so smoothly, for the most part, at the Byfleet Boor-farm, +that nobody knew what to make, later in the summer, of a strange +disappearance. All the elder inmates were familiar with illness and +death, and the poor pomp of a town-pauper's funeral. The comings and +goings and the various misfortunes of those who composed this strange +family, related only through its disasters, hardly served for the +excitement and talk of a single day. Now that the June days were at +their longest, the old people were sure to wake earlier than ever; but +one morning, to the astonishment of every one, Betsey Lane's bed was +empty; the sheets and blankets, which were her own, and guarded with +jealous care, were carefully folded and placed on a chair not too near +the window, and Betsey had flown. Nobody had heard her go down the +creaking stairs. The kitchen door was unlocked, and the old watchdog +lay on the step outside in the early sunshine, wagging his tail and +looking wise, as if he were left on guard and meant to keep the +fugitive's secret. + +"Never knowed her to do nothin' afore 'thout talking it over a +fortnight, and paradin' off when we could all see her," ventured a +spiteful voice. "Guess we can wait till night to hear 'bout it." + +Mrs. Dow looked sorrowful and shook her head. "Betsey had an aunt on +her mother's side that went and drownded of herself; she was a +pritty-appearing woman as ever you see." + +"Perhaps she's gone to spend the day with Decker's folks," suggested +Peggy Bond. "She always takes an extra early start; she was speakin' +lately o' going up their way;" but Mrs. Dow shook her head with a most +melancholy look. "I'm impressed that something's befell her," she +insisted. "I heard her a-groanin' in her sleep. I was wakeful the +forepart o' the night,--'tis very unusual with me, too." + +"'Twa'n't like Betsey not to leave us any word," said the other old +friend, with more resentment than melancholy. They sat together almost +in silence that morning in the shed chamber. Mrs. Dow was sorting and +cutting rags, and Peggy braided them into long ropes, to be made into +mats at a later date. If they had only known where Betsey Lane had +gone, they might have talked about it until dinner-time at noon; but +failing this new subject, they could take no interest in any of their +old ones. Out in the field the corn was well up, and the men were +hoeing. It was a hot morning in the shed chamber, and the woolen rags +were dusty and hot to handle. + + +V. + +Byfleet people knew each other well, and when this mysteriously absent +person did not return to the town-farm at the end of a week, public +interest became much excited; and presently it was ascertained that +Betsey Lane was neither making a visit to her friends the Deckers on +Birch Hill, nor to any nearer acquaintances; in fact, she had +disappeared altogether from her wonted haunts. Nobody remembered to +have seen her pass, hers had been such an early flitting; and when +somebody thought of her having gone away by train, he was laughed at +for forgetting that the earliest morning train from South Byfleet, the +nearest station, did not start until long after eight o'clock; and if +Betsey had designed to be one of the passengers, she would have +started along the road at seven, and been seen and known of all women. +There was not a kitchen in that part of Byfleet that did not have +windows toward the road. Conversation rarely left the level of the +neighborhood gossip: to see Betsey Lane, in her best clothes, at that +hour in the morning, would have been the signal for much exercise of +imagination; but as day after day went by without news, the curiosity +of those who knew her best turned slowly into fear, and at last Peggy +Bond again gave utterance to the belief that Betsey had either gone +out in the early morning and put an end to her life, or that she had +gone to the Centennial. Some of the people at table were moved to loud +laughter,--it was at supper-time on a Sunday night,--but others +listened with great interest. + +"She never'd put on her good clothes to drownd herself," said the +widow. "She might have thought 'twas good as takin' 'em with her, +though. Old folks has wandered off an' got lost in the woods afore +now." + +Mrs. Dow and Peggy resented this impertinent remark, but deigned to +take no notice of the speaker. "She wouldn't have wore her best +clothes to the Centennial, would she?" mildly inquired Peggy, bobbing +her head toward the ceiling. "'Twould be a shame to spoil your best +things in such a place. An' I don't know of her havin' any money; +there's the end o' that." + +"You're bad as old Mis' Bland, that used to live neighbor to our +folks," said one of the old men. "She was dreadful precise; an' she so +begretched to wear a good alapaca dress that was left to her, that it +hung in a press forty year, an' baited the moths at last." + +"I often seen Mis' Bland a-goin' in to meetin' when I was a young +girl," said Peggy Bond approvingly. "She was a good-appearin' woman, +an' she left property." + +"Wish she'd left it to me, then," said the poor soul opposite, +glancing at her pathetic row of children: but it was not good manners +at the farm to deplore one's situation, and Mrs. Dow and Peggy only +frowned. "Where do you suppose Betsey can be?" said Mrs. Dow, for the +twentieth time. "She didn't have no money. I know she ain't gone far, +if it's so that she's yet alive. She's b'en real pinched all the +spring." + +"Perhaps that lady that come one day give her some," the keeper's wife +suggested mildly. + +"Then Betsey would have told me," said Mrs. Dow, with injured dignity. + + +VI. + +On the morning of her disappearance, Betsey rose even before the pewee +and the English sparrow, and dressed herself quietly, though with +trembling hands, and stole out of the kitchen door like a plunderless +thief. The old dog licked her hand and looked at her anxiously; the +tortoise-shell cat rubbed against her best gown, and trotted away up +the yard, then she turned anxiously and came after the old woman, +following faithfully until she had to be driven back. Betsey was used +to long country excursions afoot. She dearly loved the early morning; +and finding that there was no dew to trouble her, she began to follow +pasture paths and short cuts across the fields, surprising here and +there a flock of sleepy sheep, or a startled calf that rustled out +from the bushes. The birds were pecking their breakfast from bush and +turf; and hardly any of the wild inhabitants of that rural world were +enough alarmed by her presence to do more than flutter away if they +chanced to be in her path. She stepped along, light-footed and eager +as a girl, dressed in her neat old straw bonnet and black gown, and +carrying a few belongings in her best bundle-handkerchief, one that +her only brother had brought home from the East Indies fifty years +before. There was an old crow perched as sentinel on a small, dead +pine-tree, where he could warn friends who were pulling up the +sprouted corn in a field close by; but he only gave a contemptuous caw +as the adventurer appeared, and she shook her bundle at him in +revenge, and laughed to see him so clumsy as he tried to keep his +footing on the twigs. + +"Yes, I be," she assured him. "I'm a-goin' to Pheladelphy, to the +Centennial, same's other folks. I'd jest as soon tell ye's not, old +crow;" and Betsey laughed aloud in pleased content with herself and +her daring, as she walked along. She had only two miles to go to the +station at South Byfleet, and she felt for the money now and then, and +found it safe enough. She took great pride in the success of her +escape, and especially in the long concealment of her wealth. Not a +night had passed since Mrs. Strafford's visit that she had not slept +with the roll of money under her pillow by night, and buttoned safe +inside her dress by day. She knew that everybody would offer advice +and even commands about the spending or saving of it; and she brooked +no interference. + +The last mile of the foot-path to South Byfleet was along the railway +track; and Betsey began to feel in haste, though it was still nearly +two hours to train time. She looked anxiously forward and back along +the rails every few minutes, for fear of being run over; and at last +she caught sight of an engine that was apparently coming toward her, +and took flight into the woods before she could gather courage to +follow the path again. The freight train proved to be at a standstill, +waiting at a turnout; and some of the men were straying about, eating +their early breakfast comfortably in this time of leisure. As the old +woman came up to them, she stopped too, for a moment of rest and +conversation. + +"Where be ye goin'?" she asked pleasantly; and they told her. It was +to the town where she had to change cars and take the great through +train; a point of geography which she had learned from evening talks +between the men at the farm. + +"What'll ye carry me there for?" + +"We don't run no passenger cars," said one of the young fellows, +laughing. "What makes you in such a hurry?" + +"I'm startin' for Pheladelphy, an' it's a gre't ways to go." + +"So't is; but you're consid'able early, if you're makin' for the +eight-forty train. See here! you haven't got a needle an' thread 'long +of you in that bundle, have you? If you'll sew me on a couple o' +buttons, I'll give ye a free ride. I'm in a sight o' distress, an' +none o' the fellows is provided with as much as a bent pin." + +"You poor boy! I'll have you seen to, in half a minute. I'm troubled +with a stiff arm, but I'll do the best I can." + +The obliging Betsey seated herself stiffly on the slope of the +embankment, and found her thread and needle with utmost haste. Two of +the train-men stood by and watched the careful stitches, and even +offered her a place as spare brakeman, so that they might keep her +near; and Betsey took the offer with considerable seriousness, only +thinking it necessary to assure them that she was getting most too old +to be out in all weathers. An express went by like an earthquake, and +she was presently hoisted on board an empty box-car by two of her new +and flattering acquaintances, and found herself before noon at the end +of the first stage of her journey, without having spent a cent, and +furnished with any amount of thrifty advice. One of the young men, +being compassionate of her unprotected state as a traveler, advised +her to find out the widow of an uncle of his in Philadelphia, saying +despairingly that he couldn't tell her just how to find the house; but +Miss Betsey Lane said that she had an English tongue in her head, and +should be sure to find whatever she was looking for. This unexpected +incident of the freight train was the reason why everybody about the +South Byfleet station insisted that no such person had taken passage +by the regular train that same morning, and why there were those who +persuaded themselves that Miss Betsey Lane was probably lying at the +bottom of the poor-farm pond. + + +VII. + +"Land sakes!" said Miss Betsey Lane, as she watched a Turkish person +parading by in his red fez, "I call the Centennial somethin' like the +day o' judgment! I wish I was goin' to stop a month, but I dare say +'twould be the death o' my poor old bones." + +She was leaning against the barrier of a patent pop-corn +establishment, which had given her a sudden reminder of home, and of +the winter nights when the sharp-kerneled little red and yellow ears +were brought out, and Old Uncle Eph Flanders sat by the kitchen stove, +and solemnly filled a great wooden chopping-tray for the refreshment +of the company. She had wandered and loitered and looked until her +eyes and head had grown numb and unreceptive; but it is only +unimaginative persons who can be really astonished. The imagination +can always outrun the possible and actual sights and sounds of the +world; and this plain old body from Byfleet rarely found anything rich +and splendid enough to surprise her. She saw the wonders of the West +and the splendors of the East with equal calmness and satisfaction; +she had always known that there was an amazing world outside the +boundaries of Byfleet. There was a piece of paper in her pocket on +which was marked, in her clumsy handwriting, "If Betsey Lane should +meet with accident, notify the selectmen of Byfleet;" but having made +this slight provision for the future, she had thrown herself boldly +into the sea of strangers, and then had made the joyful discovery that +friends were to be found at every turn. + +There was something delightfully companionable about Betsey; she had a +way of suddenly looking up over her big spectacles with a reassuring +and expectant smile, as if you were going to speak to her, and you +generally did. She must have found out where hundreds of people came +from, and whom they had left at home, and what they thought of the +great show, as she sat on a bench to rest, or leaned over the railings +where free luncheons were afforded by the makers of hot waffles and +molasses candy and fried potatoes; and there was not a night when she +did not return to her lodgings with a pocket crammed with samples of +spool cotton and nobody knows what. She had already collected small +presents for almost everybody she knew at home, and she was such a +pleasant, beaming old country body, so unmistakably appreciative and +interested, that nobody ever thought of wishing that she would move +on. Nearly all the busy people of the Exhibition called her either +Aunty or Grandma at once, and made little pleasures for her as best +they could. She was a delightful contrast to the indifferent, stupid +crowd that drifted along, with eyes fixed at the same level, and +seeing, even on that level, nothing for fifty feet at a time. "What be +you making here, dear?" Betsey Lane would ask joyfully, and the most +perfunctory guardian hastened to explain. She squandered money as she +had never had the pleasure of doing before, and this hastened the day +when she must return to Byfleet. She was always inquiring if there +were any spectacle-sellers at hand, and received occasional +directions; but it was a difficult place for her to find her way about +in, and the very last day of her stay arrived before she found an +exhibitor of the desired sort, an oculist and instrument-maker. + +"I called to get some specs for a friend that's upsighted," she +gravely informed the salesman, to his extreme amusement. "She's +dreadful troubled, and jerks her head up like a hen a-drinkin'. She's +got a blur a-growin' an' spreadin', an' sometimes she can see out to +one side on't, and more times she can't." + +"Cataracts," said a middle-aged gentleman at her side; and Betsey Lane +turned to regard him with approval and curiosity. + +"'Tis Miss Peggy Bond I was mentioning, of Byfleet Poor-farm," she +explained. "I count on gettin' some glasses to relieve her trouble, if +there's any to be found." + +"Glasses won't do her any good," said the stranger. "Suppose you come +and sit down on this bench, and tell me all about it. First, where is +Byfleet?" and Betsey gave the directions at length. + +"I thought so," said the surgeon. "How old is this friend of yours?" + +Betsey cleared her throat decisively, and smoothed her gown over her +knees as if it were an apron; then she turned to take a good look at +her new acquaintance as they sat on the rustic bench together. "Who be +you, sir, I should like to know?" she asked, in a friendly tone. + +"My name's Dunster." + +"I take it you're a doctor," continued Betsey, as if they had +overtaken each other walking from Byfleet to South Byfleet on a summer +morning. + +"I'm a doctor; part of one at least," said he. "I know more or less +about eyes; and I spend my summers down on the shore at the mouth of +your river; some day I'll come up and look at this person. How old is +she?" + +"Peggy Bond is one that never tells her age; 'tain't come quite up to +where she'll begin to brag of it, you see," explained Betsey +reluctantly; "but I know her to be nigh to seventy-six, one way or +t'other. Her an' Mrs. Mary Ann Chick was same year's child'n, and +Peggy knows I know it, an' two or three times when we've be'n in the +buryin'-ground where Mary Ann lays an' has her dates right on her +headstone, I couldn't bring Peggy to take no sort o' notice. I will +say she makes, at times, a convenience of being upsighted. But there, +I feel for her,--everybody does; it keeps her stubbin' an' trippin' +against everything, beakin' and gazin' up the way she has to." + +"Yes, yes," said the doctor, whose eyes were twinkling. "I'll come and +look after her, with your town doctor, this summer,--some time in the +last of July or first of August." + +"You'll find occupation," said Betsey, not without an air of +patronage. "Most of us to the Byfleet Farm has got our ails, now I +tell ye. You ain't got no bitters that'll take a dozen years right off +an ol' lady's shoulders?" + +The busy man smiled pleasantly, and shook his head as he went away. +"Dunster," said Betsey to herself, soberly committing the new name to +her sound memory. "Yes, I mustn't forget to speak of him to the +doctor, as he directed. I do' know now as Peggy would vally herself +quite so much accordin' to, if she had her eyes fixed same as other +folks. I expect there wouldn't been a smarter woman in town, though, +if she'd had a proper chance. Now I've done what I set to do for her, +I do believe, an' 'twa'n't glasses, neither. I'll git her a pritty +little shawl with that money I laid aside. Peggy Bond ain't got a +pritty shawl. I always wanted to have a real good time, an' now I'm +havin' it." + + +VIII. + +Two or three days later, two pathetic figures might have been seen +crossing the slopes of the poor-farm field, toward the low shores of +Byfield pond. It was early in the morning, and the stubble of the +lately mown grass was wet with rain and hindering to old feet. Peggy +Bond was more blundering and liable to stray in the wrong direction +than usual; it was one of the days when she could hardly see at all. +Aunt Lavina Dow was unusually clumsy of movement, and stiff in the +joints; she had not been so far from the house for three years. The +morning breeze filled the gathers of her wide gingham skirt, and +aggravated the size of her unwieldy figure. She supported herself with +a stick, and trusted beside to the fragile support of Peggy's arm. +They were talking together in whispers. + +"Oh, my sakes!" exclaimed Peggy, moving her small head from side to +side. "Hear you wheeze, Mis' Dow! This may be the death o' you; there, +do go slow! You set here on the sidehill, an' le' me go try if I can +see." + +"It needs more eyesight than you've got," said Mrs. Dow, panting +between the words. "Oh! to think how spry I was in my young days, an' +here I be now, the full of a door, an' all my complaints so aggravated +by my size. 'T is hard! 'tis hard! but I'm a-doin' of all this for +pore Betsey's sake. I know they've all laughed, but I look to see her +ris' to the top o' the pond this day,--'tis just nine days since she +departed; an' say what they may, I know she hove herself in. It run in +her family; Betsey had an aunt that done just so, an' she ain't be'n +like herself, a-broodin' an' hivin' away alone, an' nothin' to say to +you an' me that was always sich good company all together. Somethin' +sprung her mind, now I tell ye, Mis' Bond." + +"I feel to hope we sha'n't find her, I must say," faltered Peggy. It +was plain that Mrs. Dow was the captain of this doleful expedition. "I +guess she ain't never thought o' drowndin' of herself, Mis' Dow; she's +gone off a-visitin' way over to the other side o' South Byfleet; some +thinks she's gone to the Centennial even now!" + +"She hadn't no proper means, I tell ye," wheezed Mrs. Dow indignantly; +"an' if you prefer that others should find her floatin' to the top +this day, instid of us that's her best friends, you can step back to +the house." + +They walked on in aggrieved silence. Peggy Bond trembled with +excitement, but her companion's firm grasp never wavered, and so they +came to the narrow, gravelly margin and stood still. Peggy tried in +vain to see the glittering water and the pond-lilies that starred it; +she knew that they must be there; once, years ago, she had caught +fleeting glimpses of them, and she never forgot what she had once +seen. The clear blue sky overhead, the dark pine-woods beyond the +pond, were all clearly pictured in her mind. "Can't you see nothin'?" +she faltered; "I believe I'm wuss'n upsighted this day. I'm going to +be blind." + +"No," said Lavina Dow solemnly; "no, there ain't nothin' whatever, +Peggy. I hope to mercy she ain't"-- + +"Why, whoever'd expected to find you 'way out here!" exclaimed a brisk +and cheerful voice. There stood Betsey Lane herself, close behind +them, having just emerged from a thicket of alders that grew close by. +She was following the short way homeward from the railroad. + +"Why, what's the matter, Mis' Dow? You ain't overdoin', be ye? an' +Peggy's all of a flutter. What in the name o' natur' ails ye?" + +"There ain't nothin' the matter, as I knows on," responded the leader +of this fruitless expedition. "We only thought we'd take a stroll this +pleasant mornin'," she added, with sublime self-possession. "Where've +you be'n, Betsey Lane?" + +"To Pheladelphy, ma'am," said Betsey, looking quite young and gay, and +wearing a townish and unfamiliar air that upheld her words. "All ought +to go that can; why, you feel's if you'd be'n all round the world. I +guess I've got enough to think of and tell ye for the rest o' my days. +I've always wanted to go somewheres. I wish you'd be'n there, I do so. +I've talked with folks from Chiny an' the back o' Pennsylvany; and I +see folks way from Australy that 'peared as well as anybody; an' I see +how they made spool cotton, an' sights o' other things; an' I spoke +with a doctor that lives down to the beach in the summer, an' he +offered to come up 'long in the first of August, an' see what he can +do for Peggy's eyesight. There was di'monds there as big as pigeon's +eggs; an' I met with Mis' Abby Fletcher from South Byfleet depot; an' +there was hogs there that weighed risin' thirteen hunderd"-- + +"I want to know," said Mrs. Lavina Dow and Peggy Bond, together. + +"Well, 'twas a great exper'ence for a person," added Lavina, turning +ponderously, in spite of herself, to give a last wistful look at the +smiling waters of the pond. + +"I don't know how soon I be goin' to settle down," proclaimed the +rustic sister of Sindbad. "What's for the good o' one's for the good +of all. You just wait till we're setting together up in the old shed +chamber! You know, my dear Mis' Katy Strafford give me a han'some +present o' money that day she come to see me; and I'd be'n a-dreamin' +by night an' day o' seein' that Centennial; and when I come to think +on't I felt sure somebody ought to go from this neighborhood, if 'twas +only for the good o' the rest; and I thought I'd better be the one. I +wa'n't goin' to ask the selec'men neither. I've come back with +one-thirty-five in money, and I see everything there, an' I fetched ye +all a little somethin'; but I'm full o' dust now, an' pretty nigh beat +out. I never see a place more friendly than Pheladelphy; but 't ain't +natural to a Byfleet person to be always walkin' on a level. There, +now, Peggy, you take my bundle-handkercher and the basket, and let +Mis' Dow sag on to me. I 'll git her along twice as easy." + +With this the small elderly company set forth triumphant toward the +poor-house, across the wide green field. + + * * * * * + + + + +_The Gray Mills of Farley_ + + +The mills of Farley were close together by the river, and the gray +houses that belonged to them stood, tall and bare, alongside. They had +no room for gardens or even for little green side-yards where one +might spend a summer evening. The Corporation, as this compact village +was called by those who lived in it, was small but solid; you fancied +yourself in the heart of a large town when you stood mid-way of one of +its short streets, but from the street's end you faced a wide green +farming country. On spring and summer Sundays, groups of the young +folks of the Corporation would stray out along the country roads, but +it was very seldom that any of the older people went. On the whole, it +seemed as if the closer you lived to the mill-yard gate, the better. +You had more time to loiter on a summer morning, and there was less +distance to plod through the winter snows and rains. The last stroke +of the bell saw almost everybody within the mill doors. + +There were always fluffs of cotton in the air like great white bees +drifting down out of the picker chimney. They lodged in the cramped +and dingy elms and horse-chestnuts which a former agent had planted +along the streets, and the English sparrows squabbled over them in +eaves-corners and made warm, untidy great nests that would have +contented an Arctic explorer. Somehow the Corporation homes looked +like make-believe houses or huge stage-properties, they had so little +individuality or likeness to the old-fashioned buildings that made +homes for people out on the farms. There was more homelikeness in the +sparrows' nests, or even the toylike railroad station at the end of +the main street, for that was warmed by steam, and the station-master's +wife, thriftily taking advantage of the steady heat, brought her +house-plants there and kept them all winter on the broad window-sills. + +The Corporation had followed the usual fortunes of New England +manufacturing villages. Its operatives were at first eager young men +and women from the farms near by, these being joined quickly by pale +English weavers and spinners, with their hearty-looking wives and rosy +children; then came the flock of Irish families, poorer and simpler +than the others but learning the work sooner, and gayer-hearted; now +the Canadian-French contingent furnished all the new help, and stood +in long rows before the noisy looms and chattered in their odd, +excited fashion. They were quicker-fingered, and were willing to work +cheaper than any other workpeople yet. + +There were remnants of each of these human tides to be found as one +looked about the mills. Old Henry Dow, the overseer of the cloth-hall, +was a Lancashire man and some of his grandchildren had risen to wealth +and prominence in another part of the country, while he kept steadily +on with his familiar work and authority. A good many elderly Irishmen +and women still kept their places; everybody knew the two old +sweepers, Mary Cassidy and Mrs. Kilpatrick, who were looked upon as +pillars of the Corporation. They and their compatriots always held +loyally together and openly resented the incoming of so many French. + +You would never have thought that the French were for a moment +conscious of being in the least unwelcome. They came gayly into church +and crowded the old parishioners of St. Michael's out of their pews, +as on week-days they took their places at the looms. Hardly one of the +old parishioners had not taken occasion to speak of such aggressions +to Father Daley, the priest, but Father Daley continued to look upon +them all as souls to be saved and took continual pains to rub up the +rusty French which he had nearly forgotten, in order to preach a +special sermon every other Sunday. This caused old Mary Cassidy to +shake her head gravely. + +"Mis' Kilpatrick, ma'am," she said one morning. "Faix, they ain't +folks at all, 'tis but a pack of images they do be, with all their +chatter like birds in a hedge." + +"Sure then, the holy Saint Francis himself was after saying that the +little birds was his sisters," answered Mrs. Kilpatrick, a godly old +woman who made the stations every morning, and was often seen reading +a much-handled book of devotion. She was moreover always ready with a +friendly joke. + +"They ain't the same at all was in them innocent times, when there was +plenty saints living in the world," insisted Mary Cassidy. "Look at +them thrash, now!" + +The old sweeping-women were going downstairs with their brooms. It was +almost twelve o'clock, and like the old dray-horses in the mill yard +they slackened work in good season for the noonday bell. Three gay +young French girls ran downstairs past them; they were let out for the +afternoon and were hurrying home to dress and catch the 12:40 train to +the next large town. + +"That little one is Meshell's daughter; she's a nice child too, very +quiet, and has got more Christian tark than most," said Mrs. +Kilpatrick. "They live overhead o' me. There's nine o' themselves in +the two rooms; two does be boarders." + +"Those upper rooms bees very large entirely at Fitzgibbon's," said +Mary Cassidy with unusual indulgence. + +"'Tis all the company cares about is to get a good rent out of the +pay. They're asked every little while by honest folks 'on't they build +a trifle o' small houses beyond the church up there, but no, they'd +rather the money and kape us like bees in them old hives. Sure in +winter we're better for having the more fires, but summer is the +pinance!" + +"They all says 'why don't folks build their own houses'; they does +always be talking about Mike Callahan and how well he saved up and +owns a pritty place for himself convanient to his work. You might tell +them he'd money left him by a brother in California till you'd be +black in the face, they'd stick to it 'twas in the picker he earnt it +from themselves," grumbled Mary Cassidy. + +"Them French spinds all their money on their backs, don't they?" +suggested Mrs. Kilpatrick, as if to divert the conversation from +dangerous channels. "Look at them three girls now, off to Spincer with +their fortnight's pay in their pocket!" + +"A couple o' onions and a bag o' crackers is all they want and a pinch +o' lard to their butter," pronounced Mary Cassidy with scorn. "The +whole town of 'em 'on't be the worse of a dollar for steak the week +round. They all go back and buy land in Canada, they spend no money +here. See how well they forget their pocketbooks every Sunday for the +collection. They do be very light too, they've more laugh than +ourselves. 'Tis myself's getting old anyway, I don't laugh much now." + +"I like to see a pritty girl look fine," said Mrs. Kilpatrick. "No, +they don't be young but once--" + +The mill bell rang, and there was a moment's hush of the jarring, +racketing machinery and a sudden noise of many feet trampling across +the dry, hard pine floors. First came an early flight of boys bursting +out of the different doors, and chasing one another down the winding +stairs two steps at a time. The old sweepers, who had not quite +reached the bottom, stood back against the wall for safety's sake +until all these had passed, then they kept on their careful way, the +crowd passing them by as if they were caught in an eddy of the stream. +Last of all they kept sober company with two or three lame persons and +a cheerful delayed little group of new doffers, the children who +minded bobbins in the weave-room and who were young enough to be tired +and even timid. One of these doffers, a pale, pleasant-looking child, +was all fluffy with cotton that had clung to her little dark plaid +dress. When Mrs. Kilpatrick spoke to her she answered in a hoarse +voice that appealed to one's sympathy. You felt that the hot room and +dry cotton were to blame for such hoarseness; it had nothing to do +with the weather. + +"Where are you living now, Maggie, dear?" the old woman asked. + +"I'm in Callahan's yet, but they won't keep me after to-day," said the +child. "There's a man wants to get board there, they're changing round +in the rooms and they've no place for me. Mis' Callahan couldn't keep +me 'less I'd get my pay raised." + +Mrs. Kilpatrick gave a quick glance at Mary Cassidy. "Come home with +me then, till yez get a bite o' dinner, and we'll talk about it," she +said kindly to the child. "I'd a wish for company the day." + +The two old companions had locked their brooms into a three-cornered +closet at the stair-foot and were crossing the mill yard together. +They were so much slower than the rest that they could only see the +very last of the crowd of mill people disappearing along the streets +and into the boarding-house doors. It was late autumn, the elms were +bare, one could see the whole village of Farley, all its poverty and +lack of beauty, at one glance. The large houses looked as if they +belonged to a toy village, and had been carefully put in rows by a +childish hand; it was easy to lose all sense of size in looking at +them. A cold wind was blowing bits of waste and paper high into the +air; now and then a snowflake went swiftly by like a courier of +winter. Mary Cassidy and Mrs. Kilpatrick hugged their old woolen +shawls closer about their round shoulders, and the little girl +followed with short steps alongside. + + +II. + +The agent of the mills was a single man, keen and business-like, but +quietly kind to the people under his charge. Sometimes, in times of +peace, when one looks among one's neighbors wondering who would make +the great soldiers and leaders if there came a sudden call to war, one +knows with a flash of recognition the presence of military genius in +such a man as he. The agent spent his days in following what seemed +to many observers to be only a dull routine, but all his steadiness of +purpose, all his simple intentness, all his gifts of strategy and +powers of foresight, and of turning an interruption into an +opportunity, were brought to bear upon this dull routine with a keen +pleasure. A man in his place must know not only how to lead men, but +how to make the combination of their force with the machinery take its +place as a factor in the business of manufacturing. To master workmen +and keep the mills in running order and to sell the goods successfully +in open market is as easy to do badly as it is difficult to do well. + +The agent's father and mother, young people who lived for a short time +in the village, had both died when he was only three years old, and +between that time and his ninth year he had learned almost everything +that poverty could teach, being left like little Maggie to the mercy +of his neighbors. He remembered with a grateful heart those who were +good to him, and told him of his mother, who had married for love but +unwisely. Mrs. Kilpatrick was one of these old friends, who said that +his mother was a lady, but even Mrs. Kilpatrick, who was a walking +history of the Corporation, had never known his mother's maiden name, +much less the place of her birth. The first great revelation of life +had come when the nine-years-old boy had money in his hand to pay his +board. He was conscious of being looked at with a difference; the very +woman who had been hardest to him and let him mind her babies all the +morning when he, careful little soul, was hardly more than a baby +himself, and then pushed him out into the hungry street at dinner +time, was the first one who beckoned him now, willing to make the most +of his dollar and a quarter a week. It seemed easy enough to rise from +uttermost poverty and dependence to where one could set his mind upon +the highest honor in sight, that of being agent of the mills, or to +work one's way steadily to where such an honor was grasped at +thirty-two. Every year the horizon had set its bounds wider and wider, +until the mills of Farley held but a small place in the manufacturing +world. There were offers enough of more salary and higher position +from those who came to know the agent, but he was part of Farley +itself, and had come to care deeply about his neighbors, while a +larger mill and salary were not exactly the things that could tempt +his ambition. It was but a lonely life for a man in the old agent's +quarters where one of the widows of the Corporation, a woman who had +been brought up in a gentleman's house in the old country, kept house +for him with a certain show of propriety. Ever since he was a boy his +room was never without its late evening light, and books and hard +study made his chief companionship. + + +As Mrs. Kilpatrick went home holding little Maggie by the hand that +windy noon, the agent was sitting in the company's counting-room with +one of the directors and largest stockholders, and they were just +ending a long talk about the mill affairs. The agent was about forty +years old now and looked fifty. He had a pleasant smile, but one saw +it rarely enough, and just now he looked more serious than usual. + +"I am very glad to have had this long talk with you," said the old +director. "You do not think of any other recommendations to be made at +the meeting next week?" + +The agent grew a trifle paler and glanced behind him to be sure that +the clerks had gone to dinner. + +"Not in regard to details," he answered gravely. "There is one thing +which I see to be very important. You have seen the books, and are +clear that nine per cent. dividend can easily be declared?" + +"Very creditable, very creditable," agreed the director; he had +recognized the agent's ability from the first and always upheld him +generously. "I mean to propose a special vote of thanks for your +management. There isn't a minor corporation in New England that stands +so well to-day." + +The agent listened. "We had some advantages, partly by accident and +partly by lucky foresight," he acknowledged. "I am going to ask your +backing in something that seems to me not only just but important. I +hope that you will not declare above a six per cent. dividend at that +directors' meeting; at the most, seven per cent.," he said. + +"What, what!" exclaimed the listener. "No, sir!" + +The agent left his desk-chair and stood before the old director as if +he were pleading for himself. A look of protest and disappointment +changed the elder man's face and hardened it a little, and the agent +saw it. + +"You know the general condition of the people here," he explained +humbly. "I have taken great pains to keep hold of the best that have +come here; we can depend upon them now and upon the quality of their +work. They made no resistance when we had to cut down wages two years +ago; on the contrary, they were surprisingly reasonable, and you know +that we shut down for several weeks at the time of the alterations. We +have never put their wages back as we might easily have done, and I +happen to know that a good many families have been able to save little +or nothing. Some of them have been working here for three generations. +They know as well as you and I and the books do when the mills are +making money. Now I wish that we could give them the ten per cent. +back again, but in view of the general depression perhaps we can't do +that except in the way I mean. I think that next year we're going to +have a very hard pull to get along, but if we can keep back three per +cent., or even two, of this dividend we can not only manage to get on +without a shut-down or touching our surplus, which is quite small +enough, but I can have some painting and repairing done in the +tenements. They've needed it for a long time--" + +The old director sprang to his feet. "Aren't the stockholders going to +have any rights then?" he demanded. "Within fifteen years we have had +three years when we have passed our dividends, but the operatives +never can lose a single day's pay!" + +"That was before my time," said the agent, quietly. "We have averaged +nearly six and a half per cent. a year taking the last twenty years +together, and if you go back farther the average is even larger. This +has always been a paying property; we've got our new machinery now, +and everything in the mills themselves is just where we want it. I +look for far better times after this next year, but the market is +glutted with goods of our kind, and nothing is going to be gained by +cut-downs and forcing lower-cost goods into it. Still, I can keep +things going one way and another, making yarn and so on," he said +pleadingly. "I should like to feel that we had this extra surplus. I +believe that we owe it to our operatives." + +The director had walked heavily to the window and put his hands deep +into his side-pockets. He had an angry sense that the agent's hands +were in his pockets too. + +"I've got some pride about that nine per cent., sir," he said loftily +to the agent. + +"So have I," said the agent, and the two men looked each other in the +face. + +"I acknowledge my duty to the stockholders," said the younger man +presently. "I have tried to remember that duty ever since I took the +mills eight years ago, but we've got an excellent body of operatives, +and we ought to keep them. I want to show them this next year that we +value their help. If times aren't as bad as we fear we shall still +have the money--" + +"Nonsense. They think they own the mills now," said the director, but +he was uncomfortable, in spite of believing he was right. "Where's my +hat? I must have my luncheon now, and afterward there'll hardly be +time to go down and look at the new power-house with you--I must be +off on the quarter-to-two train." + +The agent sighed and led the way. There was no use in saying anything +more and he knew it. As they walked along they met old Mrs. Kilpatrick +returning from her brief noonday meal with little Maggie, whose +childish face was radiant. The old woman recognized one of the +directors and dropped him a decent curtsey as she had been taught to +salute the gentry sixty years before. + +The director returned the salutation with much politeness. This was +really a pleasant incident, and he took a silver half dollar from his +pocket and gave it to the little girl before he went on. + +"Kape it safe, darlin'," said the old woman; "you'll need it yet. +Don't be spending all your money in sweeties; 'tis a very cold world +to them that haves no pince in their pocket." + +The child looked up at Mrs. Kilpatrick apprehensively; then the +sunshine of hope broke out again through the cloud. + +"I am going to save fine till I buy a house, and you and me'll live +there together, Mrs. Kilpatrick, and have a lovely coal fire all the +time." + +"Faix, Maggie, I have always thought some day I'd kape a pig and live +pritty in me own house," said Mrs. Kilpatrick. "But I'm the old +sweeper yet in Number Two. 'Tis a worrld where some has and more +wants," she added with a sigh. "I got the manes for a good buryin', +the Lord be praised, and a bitteen more beside. I wouldn't have that +if Father Daley was as croping as some." + +"Mis' Mullin does always be scolding 'bout Father Daley having all the +collections," ventured Maggie, somewhat adrift in so great a subject. + +"She's no right then!" exclaimed the old woman angrily; "she'll get no +luck to be grudging her pince that way. 'Tis hard work anny priest +would have to kape the likes of hersilf from being haythens +altogether." + + +There was a nine per cent. annual dividend declared at the directors' +meeting the next week, with considerable applause from the board and +sincere congratulations to the agent. He looked thinner and more sober +than usual, and several persons present, whose aid he had asked in +private, knew very well the reason. After the meeting was over the +senior director, and largest stockholder, shook hands with him warmly. + +"About that matter you suggested to me the other day," he said, and +the agent looked up eagerly. "I consulted several of our board in +regard to the propriety of it before we came down, but they all agreed +with me that it was no use to cross a bridge until you come to it. +Times look a little better, and the operatives will share in the +accession of credit to a mill that declares nine per cent. this year. +I hope that we shall be able to run the mills with at worst only a +moderate cut-down, and they may think themselves very fortunate when +so many hands are being turned off everywhere." + +The agent's face grew dark. "I hope that times will take a better +turn," he managed to say. + +"Yes, yes," answered the director. "Good-bye to you, Mr. Agent! I am +not sure of seeing you again for some time," he added with unusual +kindliness. "I am an old man now to be hurrying round to board +meetings and having anything to do with responsibilities like these. +My sons must take their turn." + +There was an eager protest from the listeners, and presently the busy +group of men disappeared on their way to the train. A nine per cent. +dividend naturally made the Farley Manufacturing Company's stock go up +a good many points, and word came presently that the largest +stockholder and one or two other men had sold out. Then the stock +ceased to rise, and winter came on apace, and the hard times which the +agent had foreseen came also. + + +III. + +One noon in early March there were groups of men and women gathering +in the Farley streets. For a wonder, nobody was hurrying toward home +and dinner was growing cold on some of the long boarding-house tables. + +"They might have carried us through the cold weather; there's but a +month more of it," said one middle-aged man sorrowfully. + +"They'll be talking to us about economy now, some o' them big +thinkers; they'll say we ought to learn how to save; they always begin +about that quick as the work stops," said a youngish woman angrily. +She was better dressed than most of the group about her and had the +keen, impatient look of a leader. "They'll say that manufacturing is +going to the dogs, and capital's in worse distress than labor--" + +"How is it those big railroads get along? They can't shut down, +there's none o' them stops; they cut down sometimes when they have to, +but they don't turn off their help this way," complained somebody +else. + +"Faith then! they don't know what justice is. They talk about their +justice all so fine," said a pale-faced young Irishman--"justice is +nine per cent. last year for the men that had the money and no rise at +all for the men that did the work." + +"They say the shut-down's going to last all summer anyway. I'm going +to pack my kit to-night," said a young fellow who had just married and +undertaken with unusual pride and ambition to keep house. "The likes +of me can't be idle. But where to look for any work for a mule +spinner, the Lord only knows!" + +Even the French were sobered for once and talked eagerly among +themselves. Halfway down the street, in front of the French grocery, a +man was haranguing his compatriots from the top of a packing-box. +Everybody was anxious and excited by the sudden news. No work after a +week from to-morrow until times were better. There had already been a +cut-down, the mills had not been earning anything all winter. The +agent had hoped to keep on for at least two months longer, and then to +make some scheme about running at half time in the summer, setting +aside the present work for simple yarn-making. He knew well enough +that the large families were scattered through the mill rooms and that +any pay would be a help. Some of the young men could be put to other +work for the company; there was a huge tract of woodland farther back +among the hills where some timber could be got ready for shipping. His +mind was full of plans and anxieties and the telegram that morning +struck him like a blow. He had asked that he might keep the card-room +prices up to where the best men could make at least six dollars and a +half a week and was hoping for a straight answer, but the words on the +yellow paper seemed to dance about and make him dizzy. "Shut down +Saturday 9th until times are better!" he repeated to himself. "Shut +down until times are worse here in Farley!" + + +The agent stood at the counting-room window looking out at the +piteous, defenseless groups that passed by. He wished bitterly that +his own pay stopped with the rest; it did not seem fair that he was +not thrown out upon the world too. + +"I don't know what they're going to do. They shall have the last cent +I've saved before anybody suffers," he said in his heart. But there +were tears in his eyes when he saw Mrs. Kilpatrick go limping out of +the gate. She waited a moment for her constant companion, poor little +Maggie the doffer, and they went away up the street toward their poor +lodging holding each other fast by the hand. Maggie's father and +grandfather and great-grandfather had all worked in the Farley mills; +they had left no heritage but work behind them for this orphan child; +they had never been able to save so much that a long illness, a +prolonged old age, could not waste their slender hoards away. + + +IV. + +It would have been difficult for an outsider to understand the sudden +plunge from decent comfort to actual poverty in this small mill town. +Strange to say, it was upon the smaller families that the strain fell +the worst in Farley, and upon men and women who had nobody to look to +but themselves. Where a man had a large household of children and +several of these were old enough to be at work, and to put aside their +wages or pay for their board; where such a man was of a thrifty and +saving turn and a ruler of his household like old James Dow in the +cloth-hall, he might feel sure of a comfortable hoard and be fearless +of a rainy day. But with a young man who worked single-handed for his +wife and a little flock, or one who had an invalid to work for, that +heaviest of burdens to the poor, the door seemed to be shut and barred +against prosperity, and life became a test of one's power of +endurance. + + +The agent went home late that noon from the counting-room. The street +was nearly empty, but he had no friendly look or word for anyone whom +he passed. Those who knew him well only pitied him, but it seemed to +the tired man as if every eye must look at him with reproach. The long +mill buildings of gray stone with their rows of deep-set windows wore +a repellent look of strength and solidity. More than one man felt +bitterly his own personal weakness as he turned to look at them. The +ocean of fate seemed to be dashing him against their gray walls--what +use was it to fight against the Corporation? Two great forces were in +opposition now, and happiness could come only from their serving each +other in harmony. + +The stronger force of capital had withdrawn from the league; the +weaker one, labor, was turned into an utter helplessness of idleness. +There was nothing to be done; you cannot rebel against a shut-down, +you can only submit. + +A week later the great wheel stopped early on the last day of work. +Almost everyone left his special charge of machinery in good order, +oiled and cleaned and slackened with a kind of affectionate lingering +care, for one person loves his machine as another loves his horse. +Even little Maggie pushed her bobbin-box into a safe place near the +overseer's desk and tipped it up and dusted it out with a handful of +waste. At the foot of the long winding stairs Mrs. Kilpatrick was +putting away her broom, and she sighed as she locked the closet door; +she had known hard times before. "They'll be wanting me with odd jobs; +we'll be after getting along some way," she said with satisfaction. + +"March is a long month, so it is--there'll be plinty time for change +before the ind of it," said Mary Cassidy hopefully. "The agent will be +thinking whatever can he do; sure he's very ingenious. Look at him how +well he persuaded the directors to l'ave off wit' making cotton cloth +like everybody else, and catch a chance wit' all these new linings and +things! He's done very well, too. There bees no sinse in a shut-down +anny way, the looms and cards all suffers and the bands all slacks if +they don't get stiff. I'd sooner pay folks to tind their work whatever +it cost." + +"'Tis true for you," agreed Mrs. Kilpatrick. + +"What'll ye do wit' the shild, now she's no chance of pay, any more?" +asked Mary relentlessly, and poor Maggie's eyes grew dark with fright +as the conversation abruptly pointed her way. She sometimes waked up +in misery in Mrs. Kilpatrick's warm bed, crying for fear that she was +going to be sent back to the poorhouse. + +"Maggie an' me's going to kape together awhile yet," said the good old +woman fondly. "She's very handy for me, so she is. We 'on't part with +'ach other whativer befalls, so we 'on't," and Maggie looked up with a +wistful smile, only half reassured. To her the shut-down seemed like +the end of the world. + + +Some of the French people took time by the forelock and boarded the +midnight train that very Saturday with all their possessions. A little +later two or three families departed by the same train, under cover of +the darkness between two days, without stopping to pay even their +house rent. These mysterious flittings, like that of the famous Tartar +tribe, roused a suspicion against their fellow countrymen, but after a +succession of such departures almost everybody else thought it far +cheaper to stay among friends. It seemed as if at any moment the great +mill wheels might begin to turn, and the bell begin to ring, but day +after day the little town was still and the bell tolled the hours one +after another as if it were Sunday. The mild spring weather came on +and the women sat mending or knitting on the doorsteps. More people +moved away; there were but few men and girls left now in the quiet +boarding-houses, and the spare tables were stacked one upon another at +the end of the rooms. When planting-time came, word was passed about +the Corporation that the agent was going to portion out a field that +belonged to him a little way out of town on the South road, and let +every man who had a family take a good-sized piece to plant. He also +offered seed potatoes and garden seeds free to anyone who would come +and ask for them at his house. The poor are very generous to each +other, as a rule, and there was much borrowing and lending from house +to house, and it was wonderful how long the people seemed to continue +their usual fashions of life without distress. Almost everybody had +saved a little bit of money and some had saved more; if one could no +longer buy beefsteak he could still buy flour and potatoes, and a bit +of pork lent a pleasing flavor, to content an idle man who had nothing +to do but to stroll about town. + + +V. + +One night the agent was sitting alone in his large, half-furnished +house. Mary Moynahan, his housekeeper, had gone up to the church. +There was a timid knock at the door. + +There were two persons waiting, a short, thick-set man and a pale +woman with dark, bright eyes who was nearly a head taller than her +companion. + +"Come in, Ellen; I'm glad to see you," said the agent. "Have you got +your wheel-barrow, Mike?" Almost all the would-be planters of the +field had come under cover of darkness and contrived if possible to +avoid each other. + +"'Tisn't the potatoes we're after asking, sir," said Ellen. She was +always spokeswoman, for Mike had an impediment in his speech. "The +childher come up yisterday and got them while you'd be down at the +counting-room. 'Twas Mary Moynahan saw to them. We do be very thankful +to you, sir, for your kindness." + +"Come in," said the agent, seeing there was something of consequence +to be said. Ellen Carroll and he had worked side by side many a long +day when they were young. She had been a noble wife to Mike, whose +poor fortunes she had gladly shared for sake of his good heart, though +Mike now and then paid too much respect to his often infirmities. +There was a slight flavor of whisky now on the evening air, but it was +a serious thing to put on your Sunday coat and go up with your wife to +see the agent. + +"We've come wanting to talk about any chances there might be with the +mill," ventured Ellen timidly, as she stood in the lighted room; then +she looked at Mike for reassurance. "We're very bad off, you see," she +went on. "Yes, sir, I got them potaties, but I had to bake a little of +them for supper and more again the day, for our breakfast. I don't +know whatever we'll do whin they're gone. The poor children does be +entreating me for them, Dan!" + +The mother's eyes were full of tears. It was very seldom now that +anybody called the agent by his Christian name; there was a natural +reserve and dignity about him, and there had come a definite +separation between him and most of his old friends in the two years +while he had managed to go to the School of Technology in Boston. + +"Why didn't you let me know it was bad as that?" he asked. "I don't +mean that anybody here should suffer while I've got a cent." + +"The folks don't like to be begging, sir," said Ellen sorrowfully, +"but there's lots of them does be in trouble. They'd ought to go away +when the mills shut down, but for nobody knows where to go. Farley +ain't like them big towns where a man'd pick up something else to do. +I says to Mike: 'Come, Mike, let's go up after dark and tark to Dan; +he'll help us out if he can,' says I--" + +"Sit down, Ellen," said the agent kindly, as the poor woman began to +cry. He made her take the armchair which the weave-room girls had +given him at Christmas two years before. She sat there covering her +face with her hands, and trying to keep back her sobs and go quietly +on with what she had to say. Mike was sitting across the room with his +back to the wall anxiously twirling his hat round and round. "Yis, +we're very bad off," he contrived to say after much futile stammering. +"All the folks in the Corporation, but Mr. Dow, has got great bills +run up now at the stores, and thim that had money saved has lint to +thim that hadn't--'twill be long enough before anybody's free. Whin +the mills starts up we'll have to spind for everything at once. The +children is very hard on their clothes and they're all dropping to +pieces. I thought I'd have everything new for them this spring, they +do be growing so. I minds them and patches them the best I can." And +again Ellen was overcome by tears. "Mike an' me's always been +conthrivin' how would we get something laid up, so if anny one would +die or be long sick we'd be equal to it, but we've had great pride to +see the little gerrls go looking as well as anny, and we've worked +very steady, but there's so manny of us we've had to pay rint for a +large tenement and we'd only seventeen dollars and a little more when +the shut-down was. Sure the likes of us has a right to earn more than +our living, ourselves being so willing-hearted. 'Tis a long time now +that Mike's been steady. We always had the pride to hope we'd own a +house ourselves, and a pieceen o' land, but I'm thankful now--'tis as +well for us; we've no chances to pay taxes now." + +Mike made a desperate effort to speak as his wife faltered and began +to cry again, and seeing his distress forgot her own, and supplied the +halting words. "He wants to know if there's army work he could get, +some place else than Farley. Himself's been sixteen years now in the +picker, first he was one of six and now he is one of the four since +you got the new machines, yourself knows it well." + +The agent knew about Mike; he looked compassionate as he shook his +head. "Stay where you are, for a while at any rate. Things may look a +little better, it seems to me. We will start up as soon as anyone +does. I'll allow you twenty dollars a month after this; here are ten +to start with. No, no, I've got no one depending on me and my pay is +going on. I'm glad to share it with my friends. Tell the folks to come +up and see me, Ahern and Sullivan and Michel and your brother Con; +tell anybody you know who is really in distress. You've all stood by +me!" + +"'Tis all the lazy ones 'ould be coming if we told on the poor boy," +said Ellen gratefully, as they hurried home. "Ain't he got the good +heart? We'd ought to be very discrate, Mike!" and Mike agreed by a +most impatient gesture, but by the time summer had begun to wane the +agent was a far poorer man than when it had begun. Mike and Ellen +Carroll were only the leaders of a sorrowful procession that sought +his door evening after evening. Some asked for help who might have +done without it, but others were saved from actual want. There were a +few men who got work among the farms, but there was little steady +work. The agent made the most of odd jobs about the mill yards and +contrived somehow or other to give almost every household a lift. The +village looked more and more dull and forlorn, but in August, when a +traveling show ventured to give a performance in Farley, the +Corporation hall was filled as it seldom was filled in prosperous +times. This made the agent wonder, until he followed the crowd of +workless, sadly idle men and women into the place of entertainment and +looked at them with a sudden comprehension that they were spending +their last cent for a little cheerfulness. + + +VI. + +The agent was going into the counting-room one day when he met old +Father Daley and they stopped for a bit of friendly talk. + +"Could you come in for a few minutes, sir?" asked the younger man. +"There's nobody in the counting-room." + +The busy priest looked up at the weather-beaten clock in the mill +tower. + +"I can," he said. "'Tis not so late as I thought. We'll soon be having +the mail." + +The agent led the way and brought one of the directors' comfortable +chairs from their committee-room. Then he spun his own chair +face-about from before his desk and they sat down. It was a warm day +in the middle of September. The windows were wide open on the side +toward the river and there was a flicker of light on the ceiling from +the sunny water. The noise of the fall was loud and incessant in the +room. Somehow one never noticed it very much when the mills were +running. + +"How are the Duffys?" asked the agent. + +"Very bad," answered the old priest gravely. "The doctor sent for +me--he couldn't get them to take any medicine. He says that it isn't +typhoid; only a low fever among them from bad food and want of care. +That tenement is very old and bad, the drains from the upper tenement +have leaked and spoiled the whole west side of the building. I suppose +they never told you of it?" + +"I did the best I could about it last spring," said the agent. "They +were afraid of being turned out and they hid it for that reason. The +company allowed me something for repairs as usual and I tried to get +more; you see I spent it all before I knew what a summer was before +us. Whatever I have done since I have paid for, except what they call +legitimate work and care of property. Last year I put all Maple Street +into first-rate order--and meant to go right through the Corporation. +I've done the best I could," he protested with a bright spot of color +in his cheeks. "Some of the men have tinkered up their tenements and I +have counted it toward the rent, but they don't all know how to drive +a nail." + +"'Tis true for you; you have done the best you could," said the priest +heartily, and both the men were silent, while the river, which was +older than they and had seen a whole race of men disappear before they +came--the river took this opportunity to speak louder than ever. + +"I think that manufacturing prospects look a little brighter," said +the agent, wishing to be cheerful. "There are some good orders out, +but of course the buyers can take advantage of our condition. The +treasurer writes me that we must be firm about not starting up until +we are sure of business on a good paying margin." + +"Like last year's?" asked the priest, who was resting himself in the +armchair. There was a friendly twinkle in his eyes. + +"Like last year's," answered the agent. "I worked like two men, and I +pushed the mills hard to make that large profit. I saw there was +trouble coming, and I told the directors and asked for a special +surplus, but I had no idea of anything like this." + +"Nine per cent. in these times was too good a prize," said Father +Daley, but the twinkle in his eyes had suddenly disappeared. + +"You won't get your new church for a long time yet," said the agent. + +"No, no," said the old man impatiently. "I have kept the foundations +going as well as I could, and the talk, for their own sakes. It gives +them something to think about. I took the money they gave me in +collections and let them have it back again for work. 'Tis well to +lead their minds," and he gave a quick glance at the agent. "'Tis no +pride of mine for church-building and no good credit with the bishop +I'm after. Young men can be satisfied with those things, not an old +priest like me that prays to be a father to his people." + +Father Daley spoke as man speaks to man, straight out of an honest +heart. + +"I see many things now that I used to be blind about long ago," he +said. "You may take a man who comes over, him and his wife. They fall +upon good wages and their heads are turned with joy. They've been +hungry for generations back and they've always seen those above them +who dressed fine and lived soft, and they want a taste of luxury too; +they're bound to satisfy themselves. So they'll spend and spend and +have beefsteak for dinner every day just because they never had enough +before, but they'd turn into wild beasts of selfishness, most of 'em, +if they had no check. 'Tis there the church steps in. 'Remember your +Maker and do Him honor in His house of prayer,' says she. 'Be +self-denying, be thinking of eternity and of what's sure to come!' And +you will join with me in believing that it's never those who have +given most to the church who come first to the ground in a hard time +like this. Show me a good church and I'll show you a thrifty people." +Father Daley looked eagerly at the agent for sympathy. + +"You speak the truth, sir," said the agent. "Those that give most are +always the last to hold out with honest independence and the first to +do for others." + +"Some priests may have plundered their parishes for pride's sake; +there's no saying what is in poor human nature," repeated Father Daley +earnestly. "God forgive us all for unprofitable servants of Him and +His church. I believe in saying more about prayer and right living, +and less about collections, in God's house, but it's the giving hand +that's the rich hand all the world over." + +"I don't think Ireland has ever sent us over many misers; Saint +Patrick must have banished them all with the snakes," suggested the +agent with a grim smile. The priest shook his head and laughed a +little and then both men were silent again in the counting-room. + +The mail train whistled noisily up the road and came into the station +at the end of the empty street, then it rang its loud bell and puffed +and whistled away again. + +"I'll bring your mail over, sir," said the agent, presently. "Sit here +and rest yourself until I come back and we'll walk home together." + +The leather mail-bag looked thin and flat and the leisurely postmaster +had nearly distributed its contents by the time the agent had crossed +the street and reached the office. His clerks were both off on a long +holiday; they were brothers and were glad of the chance to take their +vacations together. They had been on lower pay; there was little to +do in the counting-room--hardly anybody's time to keep or even a +letter to write. + +Two or three loiterers stopped the agent to ask him the usual question +if there were any signs of starting up; an old farmer who sat in his +long wagon before the post-office asked for news too, and touched his +hat with an awkward sort of military salute. + +"Come out to our place and stop a few days," he said kindly. "You look +kind of pinched up and bleached out, Mr. Agent; you can't be needed +much here." + +"I wish I could come," said the agent, stopping again and looking up +at the old man with a boyish, expectant face. Nobody had happened to +think about him in just that way, and he was far from thinking about +himself. "I've got to keep an eye on the people that are left here; +you see they've had a pretty hard summer." + +"Not so hard as you have!" said the old man, as the agent went along +the street. "You've never had a day of rest more than once or twice +since you were born!" + +There were two letters and a pamphlet for Father Daley and a thin +handful of circulars for the company. In busy times there was often +all the mail matter that a clerk could bring. The agent sat down at +his desk in the counting-room and the priest opened a thick foreign +letter with evident pleasure. "'Tis from an old friend of mine; he's +in a monastery in France," he said. "I only hear from him once a +year," and Father Daley settled himself in his armchair to read the +close-written pages. As for the agent of the mills, he had quickly +opened a letter from the treasurer and was not listening to anything +that was said. + +Suddenly he whirled round in his desk chair and held out the letter to +the priest. His hand shook and his face was as pale as ashes. + +"What is it? What's the matter?" cried the startled old man, who had +hardly followed the first pious salutations of his own letter to their +end. "Read it to me yourself, Dan; is there any trouble?" + +"Orders--I've got orders to start up; we're going to start--I wrote +them last week--" + +But the agent had to spring up from his chair and go to the window +next the river before he could steady his voice to speak. He thought +it was the look of the moving water that made him dizzy. "We're going +to start up the mills as soon as I can get things ready." He turned to +look up at the thermometer as if it were the most important thing in +the world; then the color rushed to his face and he leaned a moment +against the wall. + +"Thank God!" said the old priest devoutly. "Here, come and sit down, +my boy. Faith, but it's good news, and I'm the first to get it from +you." + +They shook hands and were cheerful together; the foreign letter was +crammed into Father Daley's pocket, and he reached for his big cane. + +"Tell everybody as you go up the street, sir," said Dan. "I've got a +hurricane of things to see to; I must go the other way down to the +storehouses. Tell them to pass the good news about town as fast as +they can; 'twill hearten up the women." All the anxious look had gone +as if by magic from the agent's face. + + +Two weeks from that time the old mill bell stopped tolling for the +slow hours of idleness and rang out loud and clear for the +housekeepers to get up, and rang for breakfast, and later still for +all the people to go in to work. Some of the old hands were gone for +good and new ones must be broken in in their places, but there were +many familiar faces to pass the counting-room windows into the mill +yard. There were French families which had reappeared with surprising +promptness, Michel and his pretty daughter were there, and a household +of cousins who had come to the next tenement. The agent stood with his +hands in his pockets and nodded soberly to one group after another. It +seemed to him that he had never felt so happy in his life. + +"Jolly-looking set this morning," said one of the clerks whose desk +was close beside the window; he was a son of one of the directors, who +had sent him to the agent to learn something about manufacturing. + +"They've had a bitter hard summer that you know nothing about," said +the agent slowly. + +Just then Mrs. Kilpatrick and old Mary Cassidy came along, and little +Maggie was with them. She had got back her old chance at doffing and +the hard times were over. They all smiled with such blissful +satisfaction that the agent smiled too, and even waved his hand. + + + Transcriber's Note: This e-book was excerpted from a modern + reprint of works. The table of contents for "Selected Stories and + Sketches" has been editted to identify the source of each story + in the source work. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Country Doctor and Selected Stories +and Sketches, by Sarah Orne Jewett + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND *** + +***** This file should be named 15294.txt or 15294.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/2/9/15294/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Wendy Bertsch and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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