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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Little Girl in Old Salem, by Amanda Minnie
+Douglas
+
+
+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 Little Girl in Old Salem
+
+
+Author: Amanda Minnie Douglas
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 1, 2007  [eBook #20722]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SALEM***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, J. P. W. Fraser, Emmy, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net/c/)
+
+
+
+A Little Girl in Old Salem
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   THE "LITTLE GIRL" SERIES
+
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD NEW YORK.
+          HANNAH ANN; A SEQUEL.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD BOSTON.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD PHILADELPHIA.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD WASHINGTON.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD NEW ORLEANS.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD DETROIT.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD ST. LOUIS.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD CHICAGO.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SAN FRANCISCO.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD QUEBEC.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD BALTIMORE.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SALEM
+
+by
+
+AMANDA M. DOUGLAS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+New York
+Dodd, Mead and Company
+1908
+
+Copyright, 1908
+by Dodd, Mead and Company
+
+Published, September, 1908
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                   PAGE
+
+        I TWO LETTERS                            1
+
+       II THE LITTLE GIRL                       19
+
+      III A STRANGER, YET AT HOME               36
+
+       IV UNWELCOME                             52
+
+        V MAKING FRIENDS WITH THE LITTLE GIRL   68
+
+       VI GOING TO SCHOOL                       91
+
+      VII CHANGEFUL LIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD        108
+
+     VIII SORROW'S CROWN OF SORROW             128
+
+       IX LESSONS OF LIFE                      143
+
+        X A NEW DEPARTURE                      161
+
+       XI THE VOICE OF A ROSE                  180
+
+      XII CHANGES IN THE OLD HOUSE             194
+
+     XIII A TASTE OF PLEASURE                  213
+
+      XIV IN GAY OLD SALEM                     231
+
+       XV LOVERS AND LOVERS                    248
+
+      XVI PERILOUS PATHS                       270
+
+     XVII THE FLOWERING OF THE SOUL            288
+
+    XVIII THE PASSING OF OLD SALEM             296
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+TWO LETTERS
+
+
+The Leveretts were at their breakfast in the large sunny room in Derby
+Street. It had an outlook on the garden, and beyond the garden was a
+lane, well used and to be a street itself in the future. Then, at quite
+a distance, a strip of woods on a rise of ground, that still further
+enhanced the prospect. The sun slanted in at the windows on one side,
+there was nothing to shut it out. It would go all round the house now,
+and seem to end where it began, in the garden.
+
+Chilian was very fond of it. He always brought his book to the table; he
+liked to eat slowly, to gaze out and digest one or two thoughts at his
+leisure, as well as the delightful breakfast set before him. He was a
+man of delicate tastes and much refinement, for with all the New England
+sturdiness, hardness one might say, there was in many families a strain
+of what we might term high breeding. His face, with its clear-cut
+features, indicated this. His hair was rather light, fine, with a few
+waves in it that gave it a slightly tumbled look--far from any touch of
+disorder. His eyes were a deep, clear blue, his complexion fair enough
+for a woman.
+
+His father and grandfather had lived and died in this house. He had
+bought out his sister's share when she married, and she had gone to
+Providence. He had asked the two relatives of his father--termed cousins
+by courtesy--to continue housekeeping. They were the last of their
+family and in rather straitened circumstances. Miss Elizabeth was
+nearing sixty, tall, straight, fair, and rather austere-looking. Eunice
+was two years younger, shorter, a trifle stouter, with a rounder face,
+and a mouth that wore a certain sweetness when it did not actually
+smile.
+
+Chilian was past thirty. He was a Harvard graduate, and now went in two
+days each week for teaching classes. His father had left some business
+interests in Salem, rather distasteful to him, but he was a strictly
+conscientious person and attended to them, if with a sort of mental
+protest. For the rest, he was a bookworm and revelled in intellectual
+pursuits.
+
+The day previous had been desperately stormy, this late March morning
+was simply glorious. The mail, which came late in the afternoon, had not
+been delivered, causing no uneasiness, as letters were not daily
+visitors. But now the serving-man, with a gentle rap, opened the door
+and said briefly:
+
+"Letters."
+
+Eunice rose and took them.
+
+"An East Indian one for you, Chilian, and why--one from Boston--for you,
+Elizabeth. It is Cousin Giles' hand."
+
+Elizabeth reached for it. They were both so interested that they took
+no note of Chilian's missive. She cut carefully around the big wafer he
+had used. It was a large letter sheet, quite blue and not of over-fine
+quality. Envelopes had not come in and there was quite an art in folding
+a letter--unfolding it as well.
+
+"Really what has started Cousin Giles? I hope no one is dead----"
+
+"There would have been a black seal."
+
+"Oh, yes, m'm;" making a curious sound with closed lips. "They are well.
+Oh, the Thatchers have been visiting them and are coming out here for a
+week--why, on Saturday, and to-day is Thursday. Chilian, do you hear
+that?"
+
+"What?" he asked, closing his book over his own letter.
+
+"Why, the Thatchers are coming--on Saturday, not a long notice, and I
+don't know how many. They have had a nice time in Boston--and Cousin
+Giles has been beauing them round and seems to like it. He might have
+sent you word on Tuesday, when you were in;" and Elizabeth's tone
+expressed a grievance.
+
+"And the house not cleaned! It's been so cold."
+
+"The house is always clean. Don't, I beg of you, Cousin Bessy, turn it
+upside down and scrub and scour, and wear yourself out and take a bad
+cold. There are two guest chambers, and I suppose half a dozen more
+might be made ready."
+
+"That's the man of it. I don't believe a man would ever see dirt until
+some day when he had to dig himself out, or call upon the women folks to
+do it."
+
+Elizabeth always softened, in spite of her austerity, when he called her
+Bessy. The newer generation indulged in household diminutives
+occasionally.
+
+"Well, there is to be no regular house-cleaning. We shall want fires a
+good six weeks yet."
+
+"I don't see why Cousin Giles couldn't have said how many there were.
+Let me see, Rachel Leverett, who married the Thatcher, was your father's
+cousin. They went up in Vermont. Then they came to Concord. He"--which
+meant the head of the house--"went to the State Legislature after the
+war. He had some sons married. Why, I haven't seen them in years."
+
+"It will be just like meeting strangers," declared Eunice. "It's almost
+as if we kept an inn."
+
+Chilian turned. "When I am in Boston to-morrow I will hunt up Cousin
+Giles."
+
+"Oh, that will be good of you."
+
+He slipped his letter into the Latin book he had been going over, and
+with a slight inclination of the head left the room. The hall was wide,
+though it ended just beyond this door, where it led to the kitchen. The
+woodwork was of oak, darkened much by the years that had passed over it.
+The broad staircase showed signs of the many feet that had trodden up
+and down.
+
+Chilian's study was directly over the living-room, and next to the
+sleeping-chamber. This part had been added to the main house, but that
+was years ago. Bookshelves were ranged on two sides, but the windows
+interfered with their course around, two on each of the other sides.
+There was a wide fireplace between those at the west, and under them low
+closets, with cushions--ancestors of useful window-seats. A large
+easy-chair, covered with Cordovan leather, another curiously carved with
+a straight narrow strip up the back, set off by the side carving. The
+seat was broad and cushioned. Then one from France, as you could tell by
+the air and style, that had been in a palace. A low splint rocker, and
+one with a high back and comfortable cushions, inviting one to take a
+nap.
+
+The bookcases went about two-thirds of the way up and were ornamented by
+articles beautiful and grotesque from almost every land, for there had
+been seafaring men in the Leverett family, and more than one home in
+Salem could boast of treasures of this sort.
+
+Chilian stirred the fire, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney, and
+put on a fresh log. Then he settled himself in his chair and fingered
+his letter in an absent way. The last time Anthony wrote he vaguely
+suggested changes and chances and the uncertainty of life, rather
+despondent for a brisk business man who was always seeing opportunities
+at money-making. Had he been unfortunate in some of his ventures? And it
+was odd in him to write so soon again. Not that they were ever frequent
+correspondents.
+
+He opened the letter slowly. It was tied about with a thread of waxed
+silk and sealed, so he cut about the seal deliberately; he had a
+delicate carefulness in all his ways that was rather womanly. Then
+unfolding it, he began to read.
+
+Was this what the previous letter had meant? Was Anthony Leverett
+nearing the end, counting his days, finishing up his earthly work, and
+delegating it to other hands? There was something pathetic in it, and
+the trust in the uprightness and honor that Anthony Leverett reposed in
+him touched him keenly. But this part surprised and, at first, annoyed
+him. He drew his fine brows in a repellent sort of frown.
+
+          "Do you remember, Chilian, when you were a lad of
+          eighteen, in your second year at Harvard, you came
+          to Salem to recruit after a period of rather
+          severe study? And you met Alletta Orne, who was
+          four-and-twenty and engaged to me. In some sort of
+          fashion we were all related. Your father had been
+          like a father to me in my later boyhood. And, with
+          a young man's fervor, you fell in love with her. I
+          was sorry then for any pain you suffered, I am
+          glad now; for there is no one else in the wide
+          world I would as soon trust her child and mine to.
+
+          "We had been away nearly three years, when we came
+          back, and the baby was born in the house endeared
+          to me by many tender recollections. You were away
+          then, but on our second visit we were the most
+          congenial friends again. I did not think then it
+          would be our last meeting. I had meant, after
+          making my fortune, to return and end my days in my
+          birthplace. My greatest interest was in the
+          commercial house I had established. My first mate,
+          John Corwin, took my place and sailed the vessel.
+          Then my dear wife died, and I had only my little
+          girl left.
+
+          "I could hardly believe six months ago that I must
+          die. Should I return, or remain here and sleep
+          beside the one who had filled my soul with her
+          serene and lovely life and her blessed memory? I
+          could not endure the thought of leaving her
+          precious body here alone. So I chose to remain.
+          And now I send my little girl to your care and
+          guardianship without even consulting you. She is
+          amply provided for, though the business this side
+          of the world cannot be settled in some time. I
+          send her with a trusty maid and Captain Corwin,
+          because I do not want her to remember the end.
+          Some day you can tell her I am sleeping beside her
+          dear mother and that we are together in the Better
+          Land. She has been separated considerably from me
+          of late,--I have had to be journeying about on
+          business,--therefore it will not come so hard to
+          her, and though children do not forget, the sorrow
+          softens and has a tender vagueness from the hand
+          of time.
+
+          "So I give my little girl to you. If so be you
+          should marry and have children of your own, she
+          will not be crowded out, I know. In the course of
+          years,--for girls grow rapidly up to
+          womanhood,--she may love and marry. Direct her a
+          little here and see that no one takes her for the
+          mere money. I want her to know the sweetness and
+          richness of a true satisfying love."
+
+All important papers, and a sort of diary Anthony Leverett had kept,
+were to come in the vessel that would bring the little girl in the
+charge of Captain Corwin.
+
+Chilian Leverett sat for a long while with the letter in his hand, until
+the log broke in the middle and one end fell over the andiron. Then he
+started suddenly.
+
+Had he been dreaming of the sweetness of the woman who had so captivated
+his youthful fancy, almost a dozen years agone? He never thought she had
+led him astray, and had no blame for her. Perhaps the love for her
+betrothed had so permeated her whole being that she shed an exquisitely
+fascinating sweetness all about. He was to her as if he had been her
+betrothed's younger brother. And when the engagement was confessed he
+allowed himself no reprehensible longing for the woman so soon to be
+another's. All his instincts were pure and high, perhaps rather too
+idealized, though there was much strength and heroism in the old Puritan
+blood. Right was right in those days. Lines were sharply drawn among
+those of the old stock.
+
+But there had been years of what one might call living for self,
+indulgence in studious habits and tastes and the higher intellectual
+life, much solitary dreaming, although he was by no means a recluse. And
+to have a little girl come into his life! He would have liked a boy
+better, he thought. The boy would be out of doors, playing with mates.
+And now he bethought himself how few small children there were in his
+branch of the Leverett line. Some of the men and women had not married.
+His brother and one sister had died in childhood. The first cousins were
+nearly all older than he, many of them had dropped out of life. A little
+girl! No chance to decline the trust--well, he would hardly have done
+that. He knew Anthony Leverett had counted on a serene old age in his
+native town. And he was not much past middle life. What had befallen
+him?
+
+Well, there was nothing to be done. He read the letter over again. Then
+he turned to some papers to compose his mind. There was a stir in the
+next room, his sleeping-chamber. He always opened the windows and closed
+the door between. After the dishes were washed and the dining-room and
+hall brushed up, Elizabeth came upstairs and made the two beds. When he
+had gone to Cambridge she opened the door between. So she did not
+disturb him now, but crossed the hall and inspected the two
+guest-chambers. She had swept them a week or so ago and had settled in
+her mind that they would do until house-cleaning time. To be sure, if
+she cleaned them now they would need it when the guests were gone. And
+Chilian had a man's objection to house-cleaning. It was hardly time to
+put away blankets. She wished she knew how many guests there would be.
+
+The rooms were full of old Colonial furniture that had been in the
+family for generations. Every spring Elizabeth polished the mahogany
+until it shone. She dusted now, though there was hardly a speck visible.
+The snow through the winter had laid it, and the spring rains had not
+allowed it to rear its head.
+
+Chilian put on his coat presently and sallied out for his morning
+exercise. The family had been connected with shipbuilding to a certain
+extent, and there was the old warehouse where vessels came in with their
+precious cargoes from civilized and barbaric lands. For at the close of
+the Revolutionary War the men of note, many of whom had not disdained
+privateering, found themselves in possession of idle fleets, that with
+their able seamen could outsail almost anything afloat. So they struck
+out for new ventures in unknown seas and new channels of trade.
+Calcutta, Bombay, Zanzibar, Madagascar, Batavia, and other ports came to
+know the American flag and the busy enterprising traders.
+
+But the old Salem that was once the capital of the state, the Salem of
+John Endicott and Roger Williams, of stern Puritanism, of terrible
+witchcraft horrors, and then of the sturdy and vigorous stand in her
+differences with the mother country, her patriotism through the darkest
+days, was fast fading away, just as this grand commercial epoch was
+destined to merge into science and educational fame later on, and give
+to the world some master spirits. But as he wended his way hither and
+thither in a desultory fashion, one thought almost like spoken words
+kept running through his mind--"A little girl--a little girl in Old
+Salem"--for the almost two hundred years gave her the right to that
+eminence, and a little girl from a foreign land seemed incongruous. Not
+but that there were little girls in Salem, but their life-lines did not
+touch his. And this one came so near, for the sake of both parents he
+had loved.
+
+When he came in to dinner, he had made up his mind to say nothing of his
+letter until the guests had come and gone. He did not wish to be deluged
+with questions.
+
+He hunted up Cousin Giles the next day, who was quite a real-estate
+dealer, investing his own and other people's money in sound mortgages,
+who had been a widower so long that he had quite gone back to
+bachelorhood.
+
+And he found three Thatcher cousins--a widow, a married one, and a
+single one, the youngest of the family, but past girlhood. He was asked
+to take luncheon with them and they proved quite agreeable and
+intelligent, and much pleased at the prospect of seeing Elizabeth and
+Eunice Leverett.
+
+"We have been hunting up several of the Boston relatives," said Miss
+Thatcher, with a kind of winsome smile. "Cousin Giles has been a good
+directory. We've kept in with so few of them. Father hunted up some of
+them while he was in the Legislature, but they are so scattered about
+and many of them dead. Mother was your father's cousin, I believe."
+
+Chilian gave a graceful inclination of the head.
+
+"Elizabeth and Eunice visited us years ago, along after the war when I
+was first left a widow," explained Mrs. Brent. "Henry went all through
+it, but was worn out, and died in '88. But I've two nice sons, who are a
+great comfort. Father was very good to them and me. And they're both
+promising farmers."
+
+"I tell her that's a good deal to be thankful for," remarked Cousin
+Giles.
+
+"It is indeed," commented Chilian.
+
+"And I have a lad who is all for study and wants to come in to Harvard.
+He has been teaching school this winter. His father's quite set against
+it, and I don't know how it will end. He will be only nineteen in
+August, and his father thinks he has a hold on him two years longer."
+
+Mrs. Drayton looked up rather appealingly.
+
+"If his mind is made up to that, he will work his way through," said
+Chilian, and he thought he should like to know the boy.
+
+"You see the next two are girls and they can't help much about a farm.
+Father really needs him. And I seem to stand between two fires. His
+teaching term will end in May, but he has planned to take the school
+next winter. He has made quite a bit of money."
+
+Chilian thought he would be a lad fully worth helping, and made a mental
+note of it. He liked the mother.
+
+It was settled that they would reach Salem about noon in the stage, the
+only mode of conveyance, and they parted with a pleased friendliness.
+
+Chilian rehearsed the interview at home to the great delight of the
+household. Indeed, he had been very well pleased with the prospective
+visitors and he felt rather thankful for the respite from the shadow the
+coming event was casting. A little girl! It did annoy him.
+
+He did not allow it to interfere with his duties as host, however. The
+three ladies had a most delightful visit at Salem, looking up points of
+interest and hearing old history concerning the Leveretts. Chilian's
+father had jotted down many facts. There were seafaring uncles, who had
+brought home trophies; there were men in the family, who had died for
+their country if they had not filled eminent positions; others who had.
+How this branch of the family seemed to have dwindled away!
+
+Serena Thatcher was more than pleased with her cousin, though she felt
+somewhat awed by his attainments and his rather punctilious ways. Mrs.
+Brent set him down as a good deal of a Miss Nancy. But the ladies had a
+delightful time going over family histories and getting relationships
+disentangled.
+
+When the eventful day of parting came it brought a very real sorrow.
+They made promises that they would renew their meetings and keep each
+other in mind.
+
+It was Saturday evening when the Leverett household sat around the
+cheerful fire in the cozy room where the small family gathered on this
+evening of the week with their work all done, after the fashion of the
+past, still strictly observed by many of the older Puritan families. The
+industrious ladies sat with folded hands. Sometimes Chilian read aloud
+from a volume of the divines who had finished their good fight.
+
+This night he was gazing idly in the fire, the lines in his face
+deepening now and then.
+
+"I suppose he _is_ tired with all the talk, and rambles, and confusion
+of the week," Elizabeth thought, stealing furtive glances at him.
+
+He straightened himself presently and made a pretence of clearing his
+throat, as an embarrassed person often does.
+
+"I have something to tell you," he began. "I thought I would not disturb
+you while our relatives were here. We found enough to talk about;" with
+a short half-laugh.
+
+"And it tired you out, I know. We live so quietly that such an event
+quite upsets us," Eunice said in a gentle, deprecating tone.
+
+"It was very pleasant," he added. "I was a good deal interested in
+Anthony Drayton. But this is something quite different. Can you recall
+that I had a letter from the East Indies the morning the word came from
+Cousin Giles?"
+
+"Why, yes!" Elizabeth started in surprise. "I had really forgotten about
+it. Business, I suppose, with Anthony Leverett. Why, I think it is high
+time he came home."
+
+Chilian sighed. "I am afraid--though I cannot see why we should fear so
+much to enter the other portal, since it is the destiny of all, and we
+believe in a better world. He was hopelessly ill when he wrote and was
+winding up some business matters. He is a brave man to meet death so
+composedly. The only pang is parting from his child."
+
+"Oh, his little girl! Let me see--she must be eight or nine years old.
+What will become of her?"
+
+"He makes me executor and guardian of the child. She was to start three
+weeks after his letter with Captain Corwin in the _Flying Star_. That
+will be due, if it meets with no mishap, from the middle to the last of
+April."
+
+"But she doesn't come alone!" ejaculated Elizabeth in surprise.
+
+"Yes. He wishes to be buried there beside his wife. And he does not
+want her to have the remembrance of his death. So he sends her with the
+woman who has been her nurse and maid the last three years, an
+Englishwoman."
+
+"Of all things! I wonder what will come next! We seem in the line of
+surprises. And it's queer they should happen together. A little girl!
+Chilian, do _you_ like it? Why, it will fairly turn the house upside
+down!"
+
+There was an accent of protest in Elizabeth's tone, showing plainly her
+unwillingness to accept the situation.
+
+"One little girl can't move much furniture about;" with a sound of humor
+in his voice.
+
+"Oh, you know what I mean--not actually dragging sofas and tables about,
+but she will chairs, as you'll see. And lots of other things. Look at
+the Rendall children. The house always looks as if it had been stirred
+up with the pudding-stick, and Sally Rendall spends good half her time
+looking for things they have carted off. Tom and Anstice were digging up
+the path the day we called, and what do you suppose they had! The
+tablespoons. And I'll venture to say they were left out of doors."
+
+"There are so many of them," Chilian said, as if in apology.
+
+"And I don't see how we can keep this child away from them. It isn't as
+if they were low-down people. Sally's father having been a major in the
+war, and the Rendalls are good stock. Let me see--what's her name? Her
+mother was called Letty."
+
+"Cynthia. She was named for my mother." Chilian's voice had a reverent
+softness in it.
+
+"I always thought it a pretty name," said Eunice.
+
+"And I've heard people call it 'Cyn.' I do abominate nicknames."
+
+Elizabeth uttered this with a good deal of vigor. Then she remembered
+she quite liked Bessy.
+
+No one spoke for some moments. Chilian thought of the sister, whose
+brief married life had ended in her pretty home at Providence, and how
+she looked in her coffin with her baby sheltered by one arm. The picture
+came before him vividly.
+
+Elizabeth liked cleanliness and order. It was natural after a long
+practice in it. Chilian's particular ways suited her. Year after year
+had settled them--perhaps she had settled him more definitely, as he
+liked the way. Eunice was thinking of the little girl who had neither
+father or mother. She had some unfulfilled dreams. In her youth there
+had been a lover, and a wedding planned when he came home from his
+voyage. She had begun to "lay by" for housekeeping. And there were some
+pretty garments in the trunk upstairs, packed away with other articles.
+The lover was lost at sea, as befell many another New England coast
+woman.
+
+She had hoped against hope for several years--men were sometimes
+restored as by a miracle--but he never came. So she sometimes dreamed
+of what might have been, of home and children, and it kept her heart
+tender. Anthony's little girl would make a sight of trouble, she could
+see that, but a little girl about would be a great pleasure--to her at
+least. She glanced furtively at Elizabeth, then at Chilian. She could
+not comfort either of them with this sudden glow and warmth that
+thrilled through her veins.
+
+"Well, we will be through with house-cleaning before she comes," said
+the practical and particular housewife. Chilian simply sighed. It was
+the usual spring ordeal, and did end. But who could predict the ending
+of the other?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE LITTLE GIRL
+
+
+Down at the wharf there was much bustle and stir. Vessels were lading
+for various home ports, fishing craft were going out on their ventures,
+even a whaler had just fitted up for a long cruise, and the young as
+well as middle-aged sailors were shouting out farewells. White and black
+men were running to and fro, laughing, chaffing, and swearing at each
+other.
+
+There lay the East Indiaman, with her foreign flag as well as that of
+her country. She had come in about midnight and at early dawn
+preliminaries had begun. Captain Corwin had been ashore a time or two,
+looking up and down amid the motley throng, and now he touched his hat
+and nodded to Chilian Leverett, who picked his way over to him.
+
+"We are somewhat late," he began apologetically. "A little due to rough
+weather, but one can never fix an exact date."
+
+"All is well, I hope;" in an anxious tone.
+
+"Yes; the child proved a good sailor and was much interested in
+everything. I was afraid she would take it hard. But she is counting on
+her father's coming. I don't know how you will ever console her when she
+learns the truth."
+
+"And he----" Chilian looked intently into the captain's eyes.
+
+"I suppose the end has come before this. They thought he might last a
+month when we left. It's sad enough. He should have lived to be ninety.
+But matters went well with him, and he has been an honest, kindly,
+upright man with a large heart. I've lost my best friend and adviser."
+
+The captain drew his rough coat-sleeve across his face and looked past
+Chilian, winking hard.
+
+"There's a sight of business when we come to that, Mr. Leverett, but
+now--will you go on board? The maid is a most excellent and sensible
+person. They are in the cabin."
+
+"Yes," he answered and followed with a curious throb at his heart--pity
+for the orphaned child and a sense of responsibility he was conscious
+that he accepted unwillingly, yet he would do his duty to the uttermost.
+
+Already some officials were on hand, for at this period Salem was really
+a notable port. Chilian passed them with a bow, followed the captain
+down the gangplank, stared a little at the foreign deck-hands in their
+odd habiliments, stepped over boxes and bales in canvas and matting full
+of Oriental fragrance that from the closeness was almost stifling,
+coming from the clear air. Then he was ushered into the cabin, that was
+replete with Orientalism as well.
+
+A rather tall woman rose to meet him.
+
+"This is Mistress Rachel Winn, who has mothered the little girl for
+several years, Mr. Leverett, her relative and guardian,
+and--Cynthia----"
+
+The child threw herself down on the couch.
+
+"I want to go back home. I want to see my father, and Aymeer, and Babo,
+and Nalla. I can't stay here."
+
+"But perhaps your father will bring them when he comes. Don't you
+remember he told you he lived here when he was a little boy, and what
+nice times he had with the cousin he loved? And the cousin is here to
+bid you welcome. Come and speak to him. We cannot go back at once, the
+ship has to unload her cargo and take in ever so many other things. See,
+here is Cousin Leverett."
+
+She sat up, made a forward movement as if she would rise, but simply
+stared.
+
+"Yes, I am Cousin Leverett." He began advancing and held out his hand.
+
+"And very glad to see such an excellent traveller as you have been,"
+said the captain. "And such a nice little girl. You are an American
+girl; you know your father told you that. And this is your native town.
+Cousin Leverett remembers you when you were very little."
+
+"But I don't remember you;" taking no notice of the proffered hand.
+
+"Then you must get acquainted with me. And you must tell me about your
+life and your father, whom I have not seen in a long, long time. Let us
+shake hands."
+
+She held out hers then and raised herself to her feet.
+
+"Oh, how soft your hands are," she cried, "just like Nalla's. But they
+are very white. Nalla's were brown."
+
+"And who was Nalla?"
+
+"She used to come and play with me and make chains out of shells, and
+make bracelets and anklets, and dance. And she used to go to the Sahibs'
+house and dance with snakes. I'm afraid of them. Are you?"
+
+"Indeed I am, of the large ones," he said at a venture.
+
+He fancied that he felt a gentle pressure of sympathetic approval. She
+glanced up for an instant and her eyes transfixed him. They were a deep
+wonderful blue, almost black at the pupil, then raying off a little
+lighter. It made him think of a star in the winter midnight sky with a
+halo around it. The lashes were long and nearly black. Otherwise she had
+little claim to beauty just then. Her complexion had a tawny hue made by
+sun and wind, her hair was light, but it had a peculiar sunburned tint,
+though it was fine and abundant and hung in loose curls about her
+shoulders. Her nose was the only Leverett feature--it was straight,
+rather small, and had the flexibility that betrayed passing emotions.
+The Leverett lips were thin, hers were full in the middle, giving a
+certain roundness to the mouth.
+
+"Are there any where you live?" hesitatingly.
+
+"Any?" Then he recalled the subject they had touched upon. "Oh, no; you
+seldom see them, and they are mostly harmless."
+
+"Have you any little girls in your house?"
+
+"No, I am sorry to say."
+
+"There were two little English girls on shipboard at first. They went on
+board another vessel after a while. I liked them very much. They knew a
+great many things about countries. I can read, but I don't a great deal.
+Sometimes father would tell me about America. There are a great many
+countries in it, and once they had a big war. They had wars, too, in
+India. Why must people kill each other?"
+
+"There seem to be reasons. A little girl could not understand them all,
+I think;" and how could he explain them?
+
+"Oh, there is Captain Corwin!" She flew across the cabin with
+outstretched arms, which she clasped about him.
+
+"Well, have you been getting acquainted with--he will be your uncle, I
+suppose. What title are you going to take with the child, Mr. Leverett?"
+
+Chilian Leverett colored, without a cause he thought, and it annoyed
+him.
+
+"Are you going back to India to-day?" She was not interested in Chilian
+Leverett's answer.
+
+Captain Corwin laughed heartily and patted her shoulder.
+
+"Not to-day, nor even next week. The cargo will have to be taken off,
+little missy, and a new one stowed away. And I fancy there must be some
+repairs. I shall stay in town and run down to Marblehead. So you will
+see me quite often."
+
+"And you are coming back again from India?"
+
+"Oh, I hope so. More than once."
+
+"You will bring father then. It is such a long while to wait;" and she
+sighed.
+
+The men exchanged glances.
+
+"I want to see him so much. Couldn't I go back with you?"
+
+"Don't you remember I told you the other evening he might start before I
+reached India again? Don't you want to go ashore and see Salem? Ask Miss
+Rachel to get you ready."
+
+Rachel was beckoning to her. "Let us go up on deck," she said. "It's a
+strange country to me as well as to you. And I fancy the men want to
+talk."
+
+She crossed the cabin slowly, not quite certain what she did desire
+most, except to see her father.
+
+"You will have a rather sorry task. But Captain Ant'ny would have it so.
+He wanted to feel that she would be among friends. He had the fullest
+confidence that you could manage wisely. There is a great box of
+papers, instructions, etc. You are appointed her guardian and trustee.
+I've brought boxes of stuff that the officers will have to go through.
+But the legal matters you may take with you. He tried to make it as easy
+as he could. She will have considerable of a fortune, and more to come
+when matters get settled on the other side. A cousin of the Bannings
+came out,--English are great hands to keep things in the family. But it
+is one of the biggest importing houses out there and it owes its success
+to the long and wise head of Captain Anthony. They want young Banning in
+it and the matter was about settled when we came away, but the payments
+will run over several years. All these papers will be sent to you. The
+Bannings are upright business men, and I think you need have no fear.
+But the child's fortune is to be invested on this side of the water. Oh,
+you cannot realize what a trial it was to give up all thoughts of ending
+his days here."
+
+Captain Corwin brushed some tears from his honest, weather-beaten face.
+
+"But if he had started earlier----"
+
+"He would not believe the trouble would prove fatal. And when it was
+declared there was so much to put in order. Then he could not bear to
+think of leaving his wife alone there, though it's only the shell after
+all, and, if we believe the Good Book, we shall see the real part over
+there that was so much to us. But he could not explain the parting to
+the child, though death is such a common thing out there. Yet it _is_
+hard to believe our own can die. We are never ready for that. How you
+will manage----"
+
+The customs officers had come. Captain Corwin went out to meet them.
+Chilian Leverett dropped into the well-worn leather-covered chair that
+had been fine in its day. A heavy burthen had been laid upon him. He was
+not fond of business. Cousin Giles might be of some assistance; he
+grasped at the thought as if he had been a drowning man and this the
+straw. And the child, somehow, was different from the average child, he
+felt; though he was not certain what the average child would unfold day
+after day. What would Elizabeth think? Eunice he could count on. Though
+she yielded on many points in that tacit sort of way, she was by no
+means an echo of her sister.
+
+The three men entered the cabin. Chilian was no stranger to the
+officials, who greeted him cordially and who sympathized with Captain
+Anthony Leverett's untimely ending, as he was hardly past middle life.
+
+"Why, it will be quite a change to have a child in your household," said
+Josiah Ward. "But if she is like mine, I advise you not to give her the
+run of your study. But there are two ladies to look after her;" and he
+smiled.
+
+It was surmised that Mr. Ward, a widower of two years' standing, had
+glanced more than once in the direction of Miss Eunice Leverett.
+
+Rachel came back at this juncture. The little girl had an accession of
+shyness and would only nod to the strangers. Then they made ready to
+leave the vessel. Chilian took his japanned case of important papers;
+the rest of the luggage would be sent after inspection.
+
+A primitive street it was in those days, and the fine wharves of the
+present were rather rude if busy places. Over beyond they could see the
+river,--South River,--and that was alive with various small craft.
+
+"It seems almost like home," said Rachel Winn, pausing to take a survey.
+"You do not find this rural aspect in India."
+
+"How long were you there?" asked Chilian.
+
+"Seven years. I went out with my brother, who had just married my
+dearest friend. He died the third year, and she soon after married a
+military man. Then I took charge of a little lame boy and was mostly up
+in the mountains until he was sent to England, when Captain Leverett's
+hospitable doors opened to me. Believe me, I was sorry to leave him at
+this crisis. Yet it was his wish;" and she glanced at Cynthia.
+
+"Why did we come away?" demanded the child passionately. "Oh, Rachel,
+are you sure father will come? It takes so long, so long;" and there
+were tears in her voice.
+
+"Here we are!" exclaimed Chilian.
+
+There was a white picket fence across the sort of courtyard that had a
+broad paved path leading up to the front door, bordered by shrubs that
+would presently be in bloom, and spaces between for smaller plants.
+This was the delight of Eunice's heart. A square but rather ornate
+porch, with fluted columns, supporting the outer edge of the roof, and
+an elaborately carved hall-door with a fanlight overhead. The stoop
+stood up some five steps, and at the sides there were benches for
+out-of-doors comfort on summer nights. A brass knocker, with a lion's
+head, announced visitors. Chilian, however, let himself in with his
+latchkey. But both sisters met the party in the hall.
+
+"And this is Anthony's little girl!" said Elizabeth. "Child, let me look
+at you----"
+
+But the child had a perverse fit at that moment and turned away her
+head, to the elder's surprise and almost displeasure.
+
+"This is Miss Winn," interrupted Chilian. "My household guardians and
+cousins, Miss Elizabeth and Miss Eunice Leverett. I dare say our guests
+feel strange to be on land, after such a long journey."
+
+"It seems almost incredible that one can stand it, but we see them
+starting every few days for distant ports. My farthest journey has been
+to Providence; but, land alive! you don't know where that is, and it's
+no great distance. Will you not come and have a cup of tea or coffee?"
+
+"Thank you. We had breakfast not long ago, it seems."
+
+"Let me take you to your room," said Eunice. "And I hope you will soon
+feel at home with us. We are quiet people, but we shall endeavor to
+make you comfortable. Cynthia, will you not shake hands with me?"
+
+The soft, rather pleading voice attracted the child. She glanced up
+shyly and then held out a tiny hand hesitatingly.
+
+"She is rather backward at first," explained Rachel, who followed the
+hostess up the broad stairway.
+
+One of the guest-chambers had been set aside for their use after much
+discussion as to whether one or two would be needed. A smaller one
+opened into this, and a large closet was at the side.
+
+"You can take off your things--I suppose your boxes, or whatever you
+have, will be here presently. The bureau is empty and this chest of
+drawers. We are rather old-fashioned people, and the house is the same
+as it was in the time of Chilian's father. The captain made one visit
+here, when the little girl was about four. It must have been hard for
+him to lose his wife in a strange country like that. I suppose there are
+not many Americans?"
+
+"No; there are numbers of Englishwomen, wives of soldiers and traders,
+though I think most of them long to get home. They do not seem to take
+root easily."
+
+"I shouldn't think they would, in that idolatrous country. The accounts
+of heathendom are appalling. And that car of Juggernaut, and drowning
+their poor little babies! They do not seem to make much of girl
+children."
+
+"Indeed, they do not, only as in some families they are wanted for
+wives. But the devotion of mothers to their sons is wonderful."
+
+Rachel had laid aside a silk coat that filled Eunice with a sort of
+wonder, being brocaded with beautiful leaves and roses that seemed as if
+they must have been worked by hand, they stood out so clearly. The child
+appeared fantastically attired to her plainer eyes, and her slim arms
+were weighted with bracelets. In her dainty ears were some splendid
+sapphires.
+
+"I do hope you will soon feel at home," Eunice said from a full heart,
+if there was a rather awkward feeling about it. Yet she liked Miss
+Winn's face. It had a kindly and intelligent aspect and was medium in
+all respects. The social lines in the town, indeed in all the Eastern
+towns, were not sharply defined as to mistress and maid. True, many
+households preferred black servants; in not a few some elderly relative
+looked after the household, or a bound-out girl was trained in
+industrious ways.
+
+There had been some discussion as to what sphere this Miss Winn would
+occupy. If she was simply the attendant on an over-indulged child, an
+uneducated person, as many of the English maids were who came over to
+better their conditions or get husbands, it might be rather awkward. But
+the woman was certainly well-bred and used her English in a correct
+manner.
+
+"Perhaps you will get to feeling more at home if you come down to the
+sitting-room, since there is nothing to unpack;" with a faint smile.
+
+Cynthia had been looking out of the window. "How queer it all is!" she
+said. "I think I do not quite like it. And how funny one feels. I want
+to go this way;" and she swayed from side to side.
+
+"The motion of the vessel," interposed Rachel. "I have heard it took
+days to get over it."
+
+Meanwhile, downstairs Elizabeth had studied her Cousin Chilian.
+
+"The child is not at all pretty," she began rather sharply. "And her
+mother was considered a beautiful young woman, I believe."
+
+"Yes; but a long voyage and shipboard living may not be conducive to the
+development of beauty. And children seldom are at that age."
+
+"The Goodell children are pretty, I am sure, with their fine
+complexions. And the Bates girls. She has a furtive sort of look. Oh, I
+hope she isn't deceitful and untrue. Those heathen nations, I believe,
+are given largely to falsehood, and she has lived among them so long
+without any mother's care. It seems as if a pretty girl like Alletta
+Orne might have found some one at home to marry and reared her child in
+a Christian land."
+
+"Do not let us begin by borrowing trouble. It always comes fast enough."
+
+"And I can foresee that we shall have plenty of it. Well, I suppose it
+must be endured. There! my bread is light enough to go in the
+oven--running over, likely as not."
+
+So, when they came downstairs, Miss Elizabeth was in the kitchen,
+immersed in her baking interest.
+
+A large gray cat lay curled up on a cushion. Cynthia went straight over
+to it, but it glanced at her with wild eyes, jumped down, and
+disappeared through the doorway.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed in accents of disappointment, glancing up at
+Chilian.
+
+"Pussy is not used to children. He always runs away from them. But I
+think he will like you when he gets acquainted."
+
+She turned to the window with a swelling heart. It seemed so cold and
+strange. It was better on shipboard, she thought. She had come to know
+the sailors quite well and Missy had grown to be a great favorite with
+them. There was always something cheerful going on. They sang songs in
+their loud clear voices, or whistled merry tunes. They danced as well.
+She was quite used to the dancing-girls at Calcutta, and when they were
+at Hong Kong or other ports. But the Indian girls pleased her best.
+
+The sailors seemed always full of fun, even in the worst of times.
+During some fearful storms she was safely housed in the cabin, and it
+amused her to see the things pitch and roll as far as their chains would
+allow them. Sometimes, too, they had to hold the food in their hands,
+but she never knew the danger of the worst storms. Rachel would not
+admit that she was afraid, and the captain said, "Yes, we're having a
+stiff blow, but the _Flying Star_ has weathered many a gale before." And
+here it was so very quiet. It looked dreary outside, with the leafless
+trees. She liked the toss and tumult of the waves with their snowy,
+jewelled crests, and the clouds scudding along the sky, which she
+imagined was another sea full of ships. Often they went in port and
+there was nothing left but the blue sky above--a great hollow vault. And
+when the sun shone the real sea and ocean was in flames of such splendid
+colors. There was no end of curious people at ports where they stopped
+for supplies, there was always something strange, even when they were
+days alone on the water. For the sunset and sunrise were never twice
+alike. Then the moon from its tiny crescent to the great round globe
+that illumined the world with her fairy richness and scattered jewels on
+every crested wave. She had watched it turn the other way and grow
+smaller and smaller until you saw it vaguely in the morning.
+
+She was so interested in the stories they told about it, the signs and
+wonders they ascribed to it.
+
+"And was it ever a real world like that we have left behind?" she asked
+of the captain. "Were there people in it? And land, and rivers, and
+growing things, and flowers?" and her wondering eyes grew larger.
+
+"No one can tell now. Some astronomers believe it a burned-out world and
+the things we take for a man," laughing, "and the cow ready to jump
+off, are remnants of roads, and forests, and mountains."
+
+"You _can_ see the man in the moon," she returned decisively. "Sometimes
+he laughs. And the cow has great horns. I should be afraid of them if I
+met such a cow. Ours are so small and tame."
+
+"You will see large ones in Salem. But I think, for the most part, they
+are gentle."
+
+She never wearied talking over the strange things. And so she came to
+have her head filled with wonderful lore that indeed cropped out now and
+then all her life long until she felt as if she had really been in
+fairyland.
+
+It seemed stranger here than on shipboard. The others were going through
+the ceremony of getting acquainted. Rachel Winn's voice had a soft
+sound, with an almost foreign accent. Eunice's, though low-pitched, had
+a clear resonance. Now and then Chilian Leverett made a comment, or
+asked a question, but she was not heeding them. Her heart and mind had
+wandered back to her father and that wonderful land where nothing ever
+seemed bleak, though in long hot droughts it was arid. But there were
+always temples, and palaces, and picturesque huts, and women and
+children in gay attire, old men kneeling somewhere, praying but keeping
+a sharp lookout for alms.
+
+Chilian Leverett had been watching the small face and wondering at the
+changes passing over it. Now he saw some tears slowly coursing down the
+pale cheeks, and his heart was moved with infinite pity.
+
+Suddenly a robin alighted on the limb of a tree and began picking at the
+buds. Then he held his head up straight, swelled out his brownish red
+breast, and poured forth such a volume of melody that the effort fairly
+made him dance with joy. Spring had surely come! It was the time of love
+and joy, and all things made over new.
+
+She turned a trifle. Her face was transfigured with delight. Her eyes
+shone, though the tears were still wet on her cheek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A STRANGER, YET AT HOME
+
+
+Rachel Winn settled herself to the new order of things more readily than
+the Leveretts. Or rather she seemed to take the lead in arrangements for
+herself and her charge. She was after all a sort of nurse and
+waiting-maid, though she had a fine dignity about it that even Elizabeth
+could not gainsay. She was to be one of the family, there could be no
+objection to that in the simple New England living. Though it was true,
+times were changing greatly since the days of war and privation, and
+perhaps the mingling of people from other states, the growing
+responsibility of being part of a great commonwealth. Servants were
+being relegated to a different position. Boston in a certain fashion set
+the pace, though Salem held up her head proudly. Were not her seaports
+the busy mart of the Eastern shore? Stores of finery, silks and laces,
+and marvellous Indian embroidery went down to Boston and the houses were
+enriched with choice china that in the next hundred years was to be
+handed down as heirlooms. Fine houses were being built, choice woods
+came from southern ports by vessels that believed they could find
+fortunes nearer home than China or India. But they could grow no
+spices, or coffees, or teas, and they must come from the Orient. No
+looms could turn out such exquisite fabrics as yet, though housewives
+were to be proud of their home-made drapery for a generation or two.
+
+Chilian spent a large part of that first night inspecting his box of
+papers. There was a journal-like letter in which Anthony Leverett had
+jotted down many things he hardly dared say in his letter; indeed, there
+was not sufficient space. As soon as he had learned the serious nature
+of his disease, he had begun to put his house in order and consider the
+future welfare of his child. Some lines touched Chilian deeply, the
+trust and dependence he was not at all sure he could fulfil, but he felt
+he _must_ rouse himself to the earnest endeavor. The father had a
+passionate love for his child, he was making a fortune for her, counting
+the years when he should return and have a home of his own, when Cynthia
+would grow up and marry and there would be grandchildren to climb his
+knees. India was no place for a woman child to grow up in, there were no
+chances for education or accomplishment, and next to no society. After
+all there was not, and never would be, such a country as the new world
+that had struggled so long and bravely for her independence, and now had
+only to go on developing her grand theories. Crowned heads might look on
+doubtingly, but the foundation had been laid in justice and truth and
+equality of right. It quite thrilled him that this man, amassing money
+in a far-away land, could see so clearly and have no doubts about its
+future greatness.
+
+To Captain Corwin, his good, trusty friend, he had willed half the value
+of the _Flying Star_. The money from his part was to be invested, as the
+payments came in, in real estate in Salem, which was to be the shipping
+mart of the New England coast, at least, and run a race with New York,
+he thought. So with the stations at Calcutta and Hong Kong in the hands
+of the Bannings. And there were treasures that would answer for a
+wedding dowry when the time came. If possible, he would like Rachel Winn
+retained; he had the highest confidence in her, and she had no relatives
+to call her back to England. He had given her much of the family
+history, and described the town and the people, so that it would not
+seem so new and strange to her.
+
+He was not asking all this as a favor. Chilian was touched by the
+provision made for himself, which it would be quite impossible to
+decline, he saw. True it would break in upon his leisurely, student
+life, yet he felt he could not in honor refuse to accept the trust.
+
+Rachel Winn studied the arrangements of the rooms at their disposal. Her
+young mistress was not a child taken out of benevolence or relationship.
+She must have her standing from the very beginning, and she fancied
+Elizabeth was inclined to consider her a sort of interloper.
+
+"If it makes no difference, I will take the small room," she announced
+to her. "There are some pieces of furniture on the vessel that Captain
+Leverett particularly wished her to keep, and as she grows older she
+will cherish them----"
+
+"That great room for such a child!" In her amazement, Elizabeth spoke
+without thought. She was not used to seeing children set in the very
+forefront. In her day, indeed, yet in some families the large open
+garret was considered the place for children.
+
+"You see, she was used to it at home--over there, I mean;" with a nod of
+the head. "Her father's room was one side, mine on the other. Of course,
+in a way I shall share it with her. I will keep it in order and look
+after her clothes, and sew for her. But I prefer the smaller one."
+
+Elizabeth was aghast. One of the best spare chambers, with the
+furnishings that had come from England a hundred years before. On the
+other side she and Eunice shared a plainly appointed room with some of
+their very own belongings. There was still another, but the closet was
+small. She had asked Chilian where they should be placed and he had
+chosen this. It was his house, of course----
+
+Whether it would have ended in a discussion could not to be told, for at
+that moment a dray drove up with some boxes and a piece of furniture so
+wrapped and protected that it was quite impossible to guess at its
+name.
+
+Chilian came out and ran lightly down the stairs; and then called
+Elizabeth.
+
+"Where had the boxes better go? They will have to be unpacked, I
+suppose;" helplessly.
+
+"There are more to come," announced the man. "Enough to set up
+housekeeping, if the right sort of things are in them;" and he gave a
+short laugh.
+
+Miss Winn came downstairs. "Isn't there a garret to the house?" she
+asked, looking from one to the other. "I packed them up, but I can
+hardly tell----"
+
+"Yes; we could store half the vessel's contents in it. Well, not exactly
+that. A ship's hold is a capacious place. Yes, the boxes might go there.
+Have you any idea what this is?"
+
+"A sort of desk and bookcase. A very handsome thing the captain set
+great store by."
+
+The men shouldered the boxes and Elizabeth convoyed them. Silas was
+spading up the garden and came at the call.
+
+It was a work of some labor to get the article out of its secure
+casings. It disclosed a very handsome piece of furniture in the
+escritoire style, carved and inlaid not only with beautiful woods, but
+much silver. Chilian surveyed it with admiration.
+
+"That must stand in the parlor," he decided. "But some one must come and
+help. I'm afraid I am not sufficiently robust. Silas, see if you can't
+find the Uphams' man. He was working there a short time ago."
+
+"If there's more to come, it is hardly worth while to clear up," began
+Elizabeth. "I hope it will soon follow."
+
+Chilian directed the two men, who found it still quite a burthen.
+Elizabeth opened the parlor shutter unwillingly, and the men set it in
+the middle of the floor.
+
+There were two large rooms held almost sacred by both sisters. They were
+separated by an archway, apparently upheld on each end by a fluted
+column. Both rooms had a wide chimney-piece, the mantel and its supports
+elaborately carved and painted white. Two windows were in each end,
+draped with soft crimson curtains. The floor was polished, with a rug
+laid down in the centre. It was furnished in a manner that would have
+delighted a connoisseur, but Elizabeth did not admire the
+conglomeration. They were family relics and seemed to have little
+relation with one another, yet they were harmonious. There was a
+thin-legged spinet, with a Latin legend running across the front of the
+cover, which was always down. The chairs were not made for lounging,
+that was plain; and the sofa, with its rolling ends and claw feet, had
+been polished until the haircloth looked like satin. A dead and gone
+Leverett bride had imported that from London.
+
+When the East Indian article had been consigned to an appropriate space,
+it looked as much at home as if it had lived there half a century. Then
+the parlor was shut up again, the mat in the hall shaken out, the front
+door bolted. Miss Winn had asked for a hammer and chisel that she might
+open one of the boxes.
+
+"Take Silas. That is a man's work," said Chilian.
+
+Cynthia was in the sitting-room, where it was still chilly enough to
+have a fire. Eunice was knotting fringe for a bedspread, and it
+interested the child wonderfully. She was not a little shocked to find a
+child of nine knew nothing about sewing, had never hemmed ruffles, nor
+done overseam, or knit, or it seemed anything useful.
+
+"Why, when I was a little girl of your age I could spin in the little
+wheel."
+
+"What did you spin?"
+
+"Why, thread, of course, linen thread made from flax."
+
+"Were you a truly little girl?" in surprise.
+
+"Why, child, don't you know anything?" Then Miss Eunice laughed softly
+and patted the small shoulder, looking kindly into the wondering eyes.
+There was no hurt in her tone and the words rather amused.
+
+"I know a great many things. I can read some Latin, and I know about
+Greece and its splendid heroes who conquered a good deal of the world.
+There was Alexander the Great and Philip of Macedon. And Tamerlane, who
+conquered nearly all Asia. And--and Confucius, the great man of China,
+who was a wise philosopher, and wrote a bible----"
+
+"Oh, no; not a bible!" interrupted Miss Eunice, horrified. "There is
+only one Bible, my dear, and that is the Word of God."
+
+"But the other is the bible of the Chinese, and some of them believe
+Confucius was a god."
+
+"That is quite impossible, my dear;" in a rather decisive, but still
+gentle tone.
+
+"And there is Brahma, and Vishnu, and there are ever so many gods in
+India. The people pray to them. And temples. When they want anything
+very much, they go and pray for it. There was a woman whose little son
+was very ill, and if he lived he was going to be a great prince, or
+something, and she gathered up her precious stones and her necklace and
+took them to the temple for the god. Father sent an English doctor, but
+they wouldn't let him see the little boy. He was so pretty, too. I used
+to see him in the court."
+
+"And did he live?" Miss Eunice asked, much interested.
+
+"No; he didn't. And the father beat her for losing the jewels."
+
+"You see, those gods have no power."
+
+"Did you ever pray for anything you wanted very much?"
+
+Cynthia's bright eyes studied the placid face before her.
+
+"Yes," the lips murmured faintly.
+
+"And did you get it?"
+
+A flush stole over the puzzled countenance.
+
+"My dear, God doesn't see as we do. And He knows what is best for us,
+and gives us that. Maybe our prayer wasn't right."
+
+"How can you tell when a prayer is right or wrong?" inquired the young
+theologian.
+
+"Why, you have to leave that to God;" in a low, resigned tone.
+
+"I didn't want to come here. I wanted to stay with father. I didn't know
+there was any one beside, and I do not believe any one will ever love me
+so well. But he promised to come when the business was all done. So I
+prayed to the God of father's Bible, and I went to the temple with Nalla
+and put down a half-crown--it was all the money I had. But"--her eyes
+filled with tears and her voice had a break in it--"father begged so,
+and I came. But if Captain Corwin does not bring him next time I shall
+go back. I can't live without him."
+
+The mild blue eyes of Miss Eunice filled with tears as well. She was not
+sure this had been the wisest course. The absolute truth was always
+best. But she temporized also in a vague fashion.
+
+"Yes; you can tell then. And you may come to like us so well you may
+stay content."
+
+"Oh, if he comes! Then it will be all right. And you think I ought to
+pray for that?"
+
+It was a cruel strait for Miss Eunice and staggered her faith. She was
+not to lead astray or harm "one of the least of these." But the child
+_was_ a heathen with no real knowledge of the true God. Like a vision
+almost, Miss Eunice looked back at her own childhood, and the awful,
+overshadowing power she believed was God, who wrote down every wicked
+thought and wrong deed, and would confront her with them at the Judgment
+Day. She prayed nightly, often in the night, when she woke up, and she
+was no surer of God's love than this little heathen child.
+
+"It is right to pray for the things we want, but to be resigned if God
+doesn't see fit to give them to us."
+
+"Then the prayers are thrown away. And do you know just what God is?"
+
+"My dear!" in a shocked tone, "no one can tell. It is one of the
+mysteries to be revealed when we see Him as He truly is at the last day.
+A little girl cannot understand it. I do not, and I have sought the
+truth many years. Now I am trusting, because I feel assured He will do
+what is right. Tell me something about your life with your father."
+
+"Oh, things were so different there. Houses, and there were always
+servants, so you didn't ever need to fan yourself. Babo and Nalla were
+always about. Babo used to take me out in a chair that had curtains
+around and a big umbrella overhead. Sometimes Chandra went with him. And
+the streets were funny and crooked, and houses set anywhere in them. I
+liked going up in the mountains best, it wasn't so hot. And the trees
+were splendid, and beautiful vines and flowers of all sorts. Mrs. Dallas
+went the last time. She had two girls and a big boy. I did not like
+him. He would pinch my arms and then say he didn't. I liked the girls,
+one was larger than I. And we swung in the hammocks the vines made. Only
+I was afraid of the snakes, and there are so many everywhere. Alfred
+liked to kill them."
+
+She shuddered a little and glanced about the room with dilated eyes.
+
+"They come into your houses sometimes. Nalla used to catch them and
+sling them hard on the ground, and that stunned them. And we used to
+make wreaths of the beautiful flowers. Agnes Dallas knew so many stories
+about fairies, little people who come out at night, when the moon
+shines, and dance round in rings. They slip in houses, and the nice ones
+do some work, but the wicked ones sour the milk, and spoil the bread,
+and hide things. And, sometimes, they change children into a cat, or a
+rabbit, or something, and it is seven years before you can get your own
+shape again. Do you have them here?"
+
+"There is no such thing. That is all falsehood," was the decisive
+comment.
+
+"But--Agnes knew of their coming. And she had seen them dancing on the
+grass. But if you speak or go near them, they disappear."
+
+Miss Winn came out to the sitting-room.
+
+"Oh, you are here," she said. "I thought you were out of doors. You
+ought to take a run. What a wonderful garret you have upstairs, Miss
+Eunice. But I am afraid we shall fill it up sadly. There were so many
+things to bring. I do not believe we shall find use for half of them. I
+want a few mouthfuls of fresh air. I suppose I can walk up the street
+without danger of getting lost if I turn square around when I return?
+Don't you want to come, Cynthia?"
+
+Cynthia was ready.
+
+"You had better wrap up warm. It gets chilly towards night."
+
+"It was a long stretch on shipboard. We stopped at several ports,
+however. But I am glad to be on solid ground. Come, child."
+
+She had brought down a wrap and hood. Cynthia was glad of something new,
+though she liked Miss Eunice.
+
+They turned a rather rounding corner and went on to a sort of
+market-place, where sweepers were gathering up the débris after the
+day's sales. They glanced about the city. Salem had made rapid strides
+since the grand declaration of peace, but at the end of the century it
+was far from the grandeur the next twenty years would give it.
+
+"There are no palaces and no temples," said Cynthia, rather
+complainingly. "And how white all the people are. Do you suppose they
+have been ill?"
+
+"Oh, no; they have been housed up during the winter, and the climate is
+cold. And, you know, they are of a different race. This part, New
+England, was settled mostly from old England."
+
+"Are you going to like it, Rachel?"
+
+"Why--I don't quite know. You can't tell at once about a strange place."
+
+"Miss Eunice is nice. But she has some queer ideas."
+
+"Or is it a little girl, named Cynthia Leverett, who has queer ideas
+that she has brought largely from a far-off country?"
+
+The child laughed. Then she saw some girls and boys playing tag in the
+street, laughing and squealing when they were caught, or when they
+narrowly missed. And some empty carts went rattling by, with now and
+then a stately coach, or a man on horseback, attired in the fashion of
+the times. The sun suddenly dropped down.
+
+"We had better turn about," declared Miss Winn. "It will not do to be
+late for supper."
+
+The walk had not been straight, but her gift of locality was good. They
+passed the market-place again, made the winding turn, and found the
+lighted lamps gave the house a cheerful aspect.
+
+Miss Eunice had put away her knotting and begun to lay the cloth when
+Elizabeth entered, her face clouded over.
+
+"I'm sure I don't see why Providence should send this avalanche upon us
+to destroy our peace and comfort," she began almost angrily. "The
+Thatchers' visit was pleasant, though that made a sight of clearing up
+afterward. And we had hardly gotten over that when this must happen. I
+was going to put that white quilt in the frame, but the garret will be
+turned upside down for no one knows how long! Such a mess of stuff, and
+more coming. There's enough in this house without any more being added
+to it."
+
+"But it was natural Captain Anthony should want his child to have
+something belonging to him, maybe her mother, too. And goodness knows
+there's room enough in the garret. It isn't half full with his traps,
+and there's some of ours. And there's the loft over the kitchen."
+
+"Well, we want some place to dry clothes in rainy weather. And when I
+sweep I want to move things about, not sweep just in front of them, and
+have the dust settle in rows behind. Chilian didn't know what a lot
+there would be, though he might have looked it over on the ship. When it
+is all through, the house will need a thorough cleaning again. And what
+_do_ you think, Eunice! She's going to put the child in that big bed and
+she sleep in the little one! The best room in the house! I'm sorry they
+have it."
+
+Eunice was roused a little.
+
+"That doesn't seem the proper thing. But maybe she thought--I do suppose
+the child has had the best of everything."
+
+"I don't believe in pampering children. And I don't altogether like the
+woman. I do wonder if we will have to keep her. A girl of nine is old
+enough to look after herself, and begin to keep her own clothes and her
+room in order."
+
+"It's been very different out in India. And I do suppose Anthony was
+over-indulgent, she having no mother to train her."
+
+"We'll have our hands full, Eunice, when the tussle really begins."
+
+"Oh, I do not think she will be hard to manage. She seems rather
+shy----"
+
+"Those eyes of hers ain't so deep for nothing. She hasn't the Leverett
+mouth, and those full lips are wilful and saucy, generally speaking.
+Letty Orne was a pretty girl, as I remember. Strange, now, when you come
+to think of it, that the child should have been born in this house. But
+she'll never have any beauty to spare, that's certain. For the land
+sakes, Eunice, look at the time and you dawdling over the table. I'm
+tired as a dog after a long race."
+
+Elizabeth dropped into a chair. In her secret heart Eunice knew that
+when her sister was tired out she was fractious; she loved her too well
+to say cross words.
+
+"Shall we have fish or cold meat?" she asked mildly.
+
+"Oh, I don't care! Well, fish. There will be meat enough for to-morrow's
+dinner if it isn't meddled with."
+
+The fish was salted down in the season, soaked a little, laid in spiced
+vinegar for a few hours, cut in thin slices, and was very appetizing.
+Eunice went about with no useless flutter, she stepped lightly and
+never made any clatter with dishes. The tea china, thin and lovely, the
+piles of white bread and brown, molasses gingerbread and frosted sugar
+cake, stewed dried fruit and rich preserves, made an inviting-looking
+table. Chilian came in and made himself neat, as usual, then the guests.
+
+Cynthia was very quiet. Twice Miss Winn answered a question for her. She
+scarcely ate anything. Then she said wearily:
+
+"I am so tired and sleepy. Can't I go to bed?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+UNWELCOME
+
+
+Miss Winn and her charge went down to the ship the next morning with
+Chilian Leverett. Elizabeth inspected the rooms. She was not meddlesome,
+nor over-curious generally, but with a feeling of possessorship and
+responsibility in the house, she wanted to know how far she could trust
+the newcomers. The beds were well made, but closets and drawers were
+rather awry. She did begrudge the best chamber, and wondered whether it
+would not be possible to change them about presently. True, they seldom
+had guests.
+
+Then a new load of boxes came, with two trunks, and several more pieces
+of furniture. The latter were left standing in the hall. The garret had
+been a sort of fetich with Elizabeth. There were dried herbs hanging to
+the rafters in their muslin bags, so as not to make a litter and mostly
+for the fragrance. There was not a cobweb anywhere. On one side of the
+sloping roof were ranged their own trunks and chests, two of cedar, in
+which woollen clothes and blankets passed the summer, securely hidden
+from moths. In one gable were miscellaneous household articles, a few
+chairs good enough to be repaired, a more than century-old cherry table,
+spinning-wheels, a bedstead piled high with a feather bed, and
+numberless pillows, for Elizabeth thought it her duty to make a new pair
+every year, as they kept a flock of geese that spent their days in a
+small cove on South River.
+
+The interloper boxes could make a row down the cleared side. That left
+the centre, the highest part, clear for drying clothes, which probably
+would not be needed until winter. But careful Elizabeth planned ahead
+for every emergency. True, the emergency did not always fit the plans,
+but it gave her tense spirit a rest.
+
+The Salem air was fragrant, with all manner of sweet springtime
+odors--the ship was not. Things that had been stored in the hold came up
+with a certain old smell and a little mustiness. First, Cynthia held her
+nose and made a wry face. But it was delightful to run about and
+exchange greetings with the sailors, who seemed merry enough over their
+work.
+
+"Well, missy," said the captain, catching her in his arms as she ran,
+"how do you like living on dry land? You haven't lost your sea legs yet,
+that's plain."
+
+"It's very queer. There are just tiny leaves coming out on the trees,
+and a few curious white flowers, little bells, coming up in the garden,
+and crocus in pretty colors. But I don't like it very much. Miss Eunice
+is nice and has such a soft voice. And the houses are so funny and shut
+up, and there are no servants about, nor any one praying on the corners
+and holding out a basin for rice; and no piles of fruit for sale."
+
+"No; this isn't the time of year for fruit;" and there was a funny
+twinkle in the captain's eye. "Just wait until August and September."
+
+Cynthia considered. "That is three and four months away. Father will be
+here then;" with a child's confidence.
+
+"And there are berries earlier, and cherries, and then some sugar pears.
+Oh, you will be feasted. And you'll like Cousin Leverett, when you come
+to get acquainted with him. You will go to school, too, and know lots of
+little girls. You won't want to go back to India."
+
+"Unless father shouldn't come. Oh, he surely will, because, you see, I'm
+praying ever so many times a day."
+
+"That's right;" with a cheerful nod.
+
+"When are you going back?"
+
+"In about a month, I calculate."
+
+She sighed and looked out over the great stretch of waters. "What is
+that long point down there?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"That's Salem Neck, and there is Winter Island. They are always building
+ships down there and turn out some mighty fine ones. And fishing;
+there's a sight of cod, and haddock, and mackerel, and all the other
+fish in season. They salt them and take them half over the world. And
+there's a rope-walk you'd enjoy seeing, leastways you would if you were
+a boy. And there are some stores. We have lots of goods consigned to the
+Merrits. Salem's a big place, now I tell you!"
+
+"Bigger than Calcutta?"
+
+"Sho' now! Calcutta can't hold a candle to it."
+
+The captain's cabin was being dismantled for repairs and cleaning. She
+glanced in it. How many days she had spent here! Everything was in
+disorder, yet there was a certain home remembrance that touched the
+child's heart, and brought tears to her eyes.
+
+"Oh, are you here?" It was Chilian Leverett's voice, and he held out his
+hand. She looked so bright now and there was a little color in her
+cheeks, an eager interest about her. He was afraid she was going to be a
+rather dull child.
+
+"Yes; it's almost like home, you know; only when we lived here it wasn't
+so topsy-turvy."
+
+"Did you feel queer when you woke up this morning?" thinking it his duty
+to smile.
+
+"Oh, I didn't know where I was. It seemed as if I was being smothered in
+something. And it didn't toss and rock. Oh, there were some birds
+singing." She laughed gleefully. "Then I saw Rachel, and it came to me
+in little bits, but it seems such a long, long while since yesterday
+morning."
+
+"Where is Miss Winn? I want to see her a moment."
+
+"She has been looking over some things as they came up from the hold,"
+said the captain. "Oh, here she is!"
+
+Chilian took her aside for a moment. It was necessary for him to go in
+to Boston and he wanted to make a few suggestions, so that any of
+Elizabeth's strictures might not offend. He began to perceive the child
+and her attendant were not exactly welcome guests.
+
+"How long do you suppose she will stay?" Elizabeth had asked of him
+rather sharply. "For, when we are once settled, I do not think there
+will be any real necessity for keeping Miss Winn."
+
+She had been considering it at intervals through the night, and was
+impatient for what she called an understanding.
+
+Chilian had often given in to her on points that did not really affect
+him. He hated to bicker with any one, especially women.
+
+"My dear Elizabeth," he began, "the child has been consigned to my
+charge until she comes of age. I should not have chosen the
+guardianship, but it seems there is no other relative who can attend to
+all matters as well. She is to be no dependent, only for whatever love
+we choose to give her. Anthony has made an ample allowance for her,
+indeed such a generous one that it irks me to accept it. If it makes too
+much work for you and Eunice, we will have some help. Miss Winn is to
+look after her, that was her father's wish; so there will be no change.
+Of course, it alters our quiet mode of living, but perhaps we were
+getting in too much of a rut and needed some shaking up;" smiling
+gravely. "Try and make it as comfortable for them as you can. There is
+plenty of room in the house for us all."
+
+Then there was nothing before them but acceptance. In a way she had
+known it, but there was a vague idea seething in her mind that if the
+maid could be dismissed, she and her sister could train the child in a
+better manner, and instil some Salem virtues in her that yet held a
+little of the old Puritanic leaven; like industry, economy, forethought.
+She still believed in the strait and narrow pathway.
+
+That Chilian should take the matter so philosophically _did_ surprise
+her. To him there seemed something so pitiful in the hope held out to
+the little girl, yet after all could it have been managed any more
+wisely? She would not know what the acute pang of death was. And her
+longing would become less, there would be a vagueness in her sorrow that
+would help to heal it. This would be her home. He had been living all
+these years for himself, was it not time that he espoused some other
+motive? That he began to be of real service?
+
+He finished his talk with Miss Winn. Cynthia was hopping over some coils
+of cable, and he watched her agile, graceful movements, half smiling.
+
+"Come and tell me good-bye," he said, holding out his hand. "I am going
+in to Boston."
+
+"In a vessel?"
+
+"No; though I suppose that would be possible. I am late for the stage,
+and must go on horseback."
+
+"Where is Boston?"
+
+"Oh, some eighteen miles--rather southerly. It is a big city, and the
+capital."
+
+"When are you coming back?" with a daintily anxious air.
+
+"Oh, by supper-time."
+
+"Well;" nodding.
+
+"What shall I bring you?"
+
+"Nothing at all. We have twice too much now, Rachel says. Only--be sure
+to come back."
+
+"If I did not, what then?"
+
+"If you did not come back, I should go to India with Captain Corwin. I
+like Miss Eunice a little, but your other lady doesn't want me," she
+replied with a frankness that was amusing, it was so free from malice.
+
+"Good-bye until to-night, then."
+
+She put her hand in his. Then she reached up tiptoe. "Kiss me," she
+said. "Father always did and he said, 'Be a good girl.'"
+
+"Be a good girl." Chilian kissed the soft red lips and then went his
+way. There was not much caressing in the restrained New England nature
+of that day, especially among those who had grown up with few family
+ties. His mother had died while he was yet quite a boy.
+
+"Let us go back now," said Rachel presently. "I believe I have found all
+our goods. Miss Leverett will be appalled."
+
+The child repeated the word. "What does it mean?" she asked.
+
+"Astonished, surprised."
+
+"Why, _they_ have a houseful of things;" in protest.
+
+"Then there is the less room for ours."
+
+"But there is ever so much room in the garret."
+
+"I almost wish we were going to live by ourselves in a little house,
+like some we saw yesterday."
+
+"Who would cook the dinner and wash the dishes?"
+
+"Oh, I could;" laughing.
+
+"Only us two? It would be lonesome."
+
+"We are not likely to."
+
+"Don't go straight home. Let us find the market again. I didn't half see
+it last night."
+
+"It wasn't night exactly. Yes--we must learn to find our way about, for
+we cannot stay in all the time. This is Essex Street. Let us turn here."
+
+The market was in its glory this morning. The stalls were ornamented
+with branches of evergreens, the floors sifted over with sawdust. There
+were vegetables and meats, but no great variety. There was no sunny
+south, no swift train to send in delicious luxuries. The cold storage of
+that day was being buried in pits and being brought out to light as
+occasion required.
+
+There were other stalls, with various household stores. Iron-holders,
+tin kettles, whiskbrooms, pins (which were quite a luxury), crockery
+ware even. Wagons had come in from country places and customers were
+thronging about them.
+
+The people interested Miss Winn, and the chaffering, the beating down in
+prices, was quite amusing. Here a woman was measuring some cotton goods
+from her chin to the ends of her fingers; here sat a cobbler doing odd
+jobs while some one waited. Altogether it was very entertaining, and it
+was dinner-time when they reached home.
+
+"Mr. Leverett has gone to Boston," announced Miss Leverett. "We must
+have our dinner without him."
+
+"Yes, he was down on the ship," said Miss Winn. "Do you often go to
+Boston?"
+
+"I am much too busy to be gadding about," returned Elizabeth sharply;
+"though we have connections there, and I once spent several years in the
+city."
+
+"I don't suppose it is at all like London. Eastern cities are so
+different--and dirty," she added.
+
+"Boston is very nice, quite a superior place, but we do not consider it
+much above Salem," Miss Elizabeth said, with an air. "We have nearly all
+of the East India trade. To be sure, there is Harvard at Cambridge, and
+that calls students and professors. Cousin Chilian is a graduate. He
+could have been an accepted professor if he had chosen."
+
+Then the conversation languished. They were hardly through dinner when
+the next relay of goods arrived.
+
+"Cynthia's desk must go upstairs, I suppose. Her father had it made for
+her birthday. Will Silas unpack again? There is a small cabinet of
+teakwood that is beautifully carved. If you could find room in the
+parlor for that. There were many other fine pieces that will no doubt be
+sold, and it seems a great pity."
+
+Elizabeth acquiesced rather frigidly, adding, "It is fortunate the house
+is large, but one seems to accumulate a good deal through generations."
+
+Cynthia went up in the garret with Miss Winn and was full of interest
+over the old Leverett treasures. Here was the cradle in which Leverett
+babies had been rocked, an old bit of mahogany nearly black with age.
+
+"How funny!" cried Cynthia, springing into it, and making a clatter on
+the floor.
+
+"Don't, dear! Miss Elizabeth may not like it," said Miss Winn.
+
+"As if I should hurt it!" indignantly.
+
+"It is not ours."
+
+"But we sit on their chairs, and sleep in their beds, and eat at their
+table," returned the child. "Do you suppose they do not want us?"
+
+"Our coming is Mr. Leverett's affair, and he is your guardian, so
+whatever home he provides is right."
+
+"Well, we can have a home of our own when father comes?"
+
+"Oh, yes; when he comes."
+
+"Well, then I shall not mind;" decisively.
+
+Still she peered about among the old things. There were some iron
+fire-dogs, a much-tarnished frame, with a cracked glass that cut her
+face in a grotesque fashion, old dishes and kitchen furniture past
+using, or that had been supplanted by a newer and better kind.
+
+"Oh, dear! this is an undertaking!" declared Miss Winn, with a sigh. "I
+do not believe you will ever use half these things; there are stuffs
+enough to dress a queen."
+
+It was beginning to grow dusky before she was through, though the sky
+was overcast, and there would be no fine sunset. Indeed, the wind blew
+up stormily. Cynthia had been viewing the place from the windows in the
+four gables, though she had to stand on a box. There were South River
+and the Neck and the shipping--the men, hurrying to and fro, looking so
+much smaller that it puzzled Cynthia. And there was North River winding
+about, and over beyond the great ocean she had crossed. There was old
+St. Peter's Church, the new one was not built until long afterward, and
+smaller places of worship. There was the small beginning of things to be
+famous later on.
+
+The wind began to whistle about and it grew cool, so they were glad to
+go down to the cheerful sitting-room, where a fire was blazing on the
+hearth.
+
+"We shall have a storm to-night," said Miss Eunice, "our three days'
+storm that usually makes its appearance about this time. Didn't you
+'most perish upstairs? And what did you find to interest you?"
+
+Cynthia had brought a stool and sat close to Miss Eunice, leaning one
+arm on her knee.
+
+"Oh, so many queer things. You don't mind if I call them queer, do you?"
+
+"Oh, no; they _are_ queer. And when we are dead and gone some one will
+call ours queer, no doubt. But we haven't many. When father died we were
+on a farm just out of Marblehead. Things were mostly sold at a vendue,
+for the two boys were going in the army. That was back in '78. Mother
+and we two girls went to her mother's at Danvers. Elizabeth took up
+sewing, but there were hard times, for the war stretched out so long,
+and it did seem as if the Colonies would never gain their cause. But
+they did. Brother Linus was killed, and later on I had a dear friend
+lost at sea. Mother died, and we were sort of scattered about till we
+came here. Cousin Chilian was very good to us. So you see we haven't
+much to leave, but then we haven't any descendant;" and she gave a soft
+little laugh. "Elizabeth has mother's gold comb, set with amethysts, and
+a brooch, and I have the string of gold beads and some rings. A cousin
+in London sent them to grandmother."
+
+"Eunice, you might set the table," said Elizabeth, rather sharply. "I'm
+making some fritters. They will taste good this cold night."
+
+"Couldn't I help?" asked Rachel.
+
+"Oh, you must be tired enough without doing any more. It's a good thing
+you have all your belongings housed. The garret doesn't leak."
+
+"Yes, I am thankful. I really did not think there was so much."
+
+There was a savory fragrance in the sitting-room. Chilian came in,
+looking weary with his long ride.
+
+"It is almost wintry cold," he said, holding his hands to the fire.
+"Have you had a nice day, little girl?"
+
+"Yes;" glancing up with a smile.
+
+They did justice to Bessy's nice supper. Chilian had seen Cousin Giles,
+who sent remembrances to them all, and was coming up some day to see
+Letty Orne's little girl. Chilian found there was a good deal of
+business to do. For a while his days of leisure and ease would be over.
+
+Then he brought out a Boston paper and read them some of the news. Miss
+Eunice went on with her fringe. Elizabeth was knitting a sock for
+Chilian out of fine linen yarn, spun by herself, and she put pretty
+open-work stitches all up the instep. For imported articles were still
+dear, and there was a pride in the women to do all for themselves that
+they could. Cynthia leaned her head on Rachel's lap and went asleep.
+
+"Do hear that rain! The storm has begun in good earnest."
+
+It was rushing like a tramp of soldiers, flinging great sheets against
+the closed shutters, and the wind roared in the chimney like some
+prisoned spirit.
+
+"Wake up, Cynthia, and say good-night."
+
+Elizabeth watched the child. Her theory was that children should be put
+to bed early and not allowed to lie around on any one's lap. There was
+always a tussle of wills when you roused them. She drew herself up with
+a kind of severe mental bracing and awaited the result, glad Chilian was
+there.
+
+Rachel toyed with the hair, patted the soft flushed cheek, and took the
+hands in hers.
+
+"Cynthia," she said gently, "Cynthia, dear, wake up."
+
+The child roused, opened her eyes. "I'm so tired," she murmured. "Will
+we never be done crossing the wide, wide ocean? And where is Salem?"
+
+"We are there, dear, safe and housed from the storm. You have been
+asleep on my knee. Come to bed now. Say good-night."
+
+She stood the little girl up on her feet and put one arm around her.
+
+It was against Elizabeth Leverett's theories that any child should go
+off peaceably, with no snarling protest. Chilian raised his book a
+little, hoping in the depths of his soul there would be no scene.
+
+"Say good-night."
+
+No child of Puritan training, with the fear of the rod before her eyes,
+could have done better. She said good-night in a very sleepy tone, and
+slipped her arm about Rachel's waist as they left the room together.
+
+No one made any comment at first. Then Eunice said, in what she made a
+casual tone:
+
+"She seems a very tractable child."
+
+"You can't tell by one instance. Children of that age are always
+self-willed. And allowing a child to lie around one's lap, when she
+should have said her prayers and gone to bed at the proper hour, is a
+most reprehensible habit. And I don't suppose she ever says a prayer."
+
+Eunice thought of the daily prayers for her father's safe journey. Would
+that be set down as a sort of idolatry?
+
+Chilian picked up his papers; he had grown fastidious, and rarely left
+his belongings about to annoy Elizabeth. Eunice rolled up her work and
+dropped it in the bag that hung on the post of her chair, straightened
+up a few things, stood the logs in the corner and put up the wire
+fender, so there should be no danger of fire; while Elizabeth set all
+things straight in the kitchen.
+
+Cynthia meanwhile was undressed and mounted the steps to the high bed.
+Then she flung her arms about Rachel's neck.
+
+"Oh, come and sleep in my bed to-night!" she cried pleadingly. "It's so
+big and lonesome, that I am afraid. I wish it was like your little bed.
+They were so cunning on the ship. I don't like this one, where you have
+to go upstairs to get in it. Oh, do come!"
+
+And Elizabeth Leverett would have been shocked if she could have seen
+the child cuddled up in her attendant's arms. Theoretically, she
+believed Holy Writ--"He hath made of one blood all nations." Practically
+she made many exceptions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MAKING FRIENDS WITH THE LITTLE GIRL
+
+
+The northeast storm was terrific. The wind lashed the ocean until it
+writhed and groaned and sent great billows up on the land. The trees
+bent to the fierce blasts; many storms had toughened them and perhaps
+taught them the wisdom of yielding, since it must be break or bend.
+Silas sat in the barn mending tools and harness and clearing up
+generally; Elizabeth spent most of the first day clearing up the garret
+again, and looking with a grudging eye on the new accession of boxes,
+and sniffing up the queer smell disdainfully.
+
+"One can't have the windows open," she ruminated, "and the smell must go
+through the house. I don't believe it will ever get out."
+
+More than one family in Salem had stores from the Orient. Many of them
+liked the fragrance of sandalwood and strange perfumes. "God's fresh air
+was good enough for her," said Elizabeth.
+
+Eunice had finished her fringe and brought out some patchwork in the
+afternoon--a curious pattern, called basket-work. The basket was made of
+green chintz, with a small yellow figure here and there. It had a handle
+from side to side, neatly hemmed on a white half square. The upper edge
+of the basket was cut in points and between each one was a bit of color
+to represent or suggest a possible bud of some kind. One had pink,
+different shades of red, and a bright yellow. She had seven blocks
+finished and they were in the bottom of the box. Eunice took them out
+for the little girl, who spread them on the floor.
+
+No one was thinking at that day of the mills that would dot New England,
+where cotton cloths, calicoes, and cambrics would be turned out by the
+bale. These things had to be imported and were costly. One could dye
+plain colors that were used for frocks and gowns, and some of the hand
+looms wove ginghams that were dyed in the thread beforehand.
+
+"It will take forty-two blocks," said Miss Eunice. "Six one way, seven
+the other."
+
+"Then what are you going to do with it?" asked the child eagerly.
+
+"Why, quilt it. Put some cotton between this and the lining, and sew
+them together with fine stitches."
+
+"And then----"
+
+"Why"--Eunice wondered herself. There were chests of them piled away in
+the garret--Chilian's mother's, and those they had made to fill in the
+moments when housework was finished. She had a quiet sense of humor, and
+she smiled. What were they laying up these treasures for? Neither of
+them would be married, most of their relatives were well provided for.
+
+"Well, some one may like to have them;" after a pause. "You must learn
+to sew."
+
+"Patchwork?"
+
+It was absurd to pile up any more.
+
+"You see," said the child, "no one needed them over there;" inclining
+her head to the East. "You have a little bed and a pallet, and it is
+warm, so you do not need quilts. And the poor people and the servants
+have a mat they spread down anywhere and a blanket, but you see, they
+sleep with their clothes on."
+
+Eunice looked rather horrified.
+
+"But they change them! They would--why, there would be soil and vermin."
+
+"They go to the river and bathe and wash them out. They sling them on
+the stones in a queer way. But some of them are very dirty and ragged.
+They are not like the English and us, and don't wear many clothes.
+Sometimes they are wrapped up in a white sheet."
+
+"It is a very queer country. They are not civilized, or Christianized. I
+don't know what will become of them in the end."
+
+"It's their country and no one knows how old it is. China is the oldest
+country in the world."
+
+"But, my dear, there was the garden of Eden when God first created the
+world. Nothing could be older than that, you know. Two thousand years to
+the flood, and two thousand years to the coming of Christ, and some
+people think the world will end in another two thousand years."
+
+"I don't see any sense in burning it up, when there are so many lovely
+things in it;" and Cynthia's eyes took on a deep, inquiring expression.
+"That was what the chaplain used to say. Father thought it would go on
+and on, getting wiser and greater, and the people learning to be better
+and making wonderful things."
+
+"My dear, what the Bible says _must_ be true. And it will be burned up.
+You have a Bible?"
+
+"The chaplain gave me a pretty prayer-book. It is upstairs."
+
+"We do not believe in prayer-books, dear." The tone was soft, yet
+decided. "We came over here, at least our forefathers did, that we might
+worship God according to the dictates of our conscience. We tried to
+leave the prayer-books and the bishops behind, but we couldn't quite.
+You must have a Bible and read a chapter every day. Why, I had read it
+through once before I was as old as you."
+
+Cynthia simply stared. Then, after a pause, she said:
+
+"Did you sew patchwork, too?"
+
+"When I was eight I had finished a quilt. And I learned to knit. I knit
+my own stockings; I always have. And I braided rags for a mat. Mother
+sewed it together."
+
+"And your clothes--who made those?"
+
+"Well--mother made some. But a woman used to come round fall and spring
+and make for the girls and boys, though father bought his best suit. He
+had one when he was married; it was his freedom suit as well----"
+
+"Why, was he a prisoner?" the child interrupted.
+
+"Oh, no;" smiling a little. "Boys had to be subject to their fathers
+until they were twenty-one. Then they had a suit of clothes all the way
+through and their time, which meant they were at liberty to work for any
+one and ask wages. He had been courting mother and they were married
+soon after, so it was his wedding suit. He had outgrown it before he
+died, so he had to get a new one. Mother sold that to a neighbor that it
+just fitted."
+
+"Tell me some more about them." Cynthia was fond of stories. And this
+was about real folks, not the fantastic legends she had heard so often.
+
+"Well--he and mother worked, she had been living with a family. Girls
+did in those days, and were like daughters of the house. Father went to
+work there. They were married in the spring and in the fall he took a
+place on shares; that is, he had half of everything, and they divided up
+the house. A year or so afterward it was for sale, and he bought it, and
+we were all born there, and there was no change until he died. That was
+a sad thing for us. He'd been buying some more land, and the place
+wasn't clear. Another man stood ready to buy it, and mother thought it
+best to sell. You see there was a good deal of trouble between us and
+England, who wanted to get all the money she could out of the Colonies,
+and wasn't willing to send troops to protect us from the Indians, and we
+had to sell our produce and things to her, and presently the Colonies
+wouldn't stand it any longer, and there was war. Some people were
+bitterly opposed to it, some favored it. Then we wouldn't take the tea
+she insisted on our buying, and there was the Stamp Act. And Salem
+really made the first armed resistance. You must go out some nice day to
+North Bridge. The British troops marched up from Marblehead to seize
+some arms they heard were stored here. General Gage sent them. But the
+people had word, for a Major Pedrick rode up to give the alarm, and they
+hid them in a secure place. Colonel Leslie headed the British troops to
+make the search. But the people of Salem turned out strong and met the
+colonel and declared that he was marching on private property, not on
+the King's highway, that the lane and the bridge were private property,
+where he had no right. You see, war had not been declared and the people
+had a right to defend their own. So they would not allow them to cross
+the river and make a search. But, finally, they agreed, if the draw over
+the river could be lowered and they allowed to march a few rods, they
+would withdraw. Of course, they saw nothing suspicious and came back,
+keeping their word. Otherwise, I suppose, that would have been the first
+battle of the war. We were not living here then, but Cousin Chilian's
+father lived in this very house."
+
+"And the arms were really there!" Cynthia drew a long breath.
+
+"Oh, yes! They were ships' cannon going to be mounted for protection.
+Some day Cousin Chilian may take you over to the bridge and tell you all
+about it. There was a romance about a girl said to be in love with a
+British officer, but you are too young for such stories."
+
+If she had not been, the entrance of Elizabeth and Miss Winn would have
+checked the garrulity of Eunice. Cynthia had been laying down the small
+diamond-shaped pieces, making a block.
+
+"Why do you let the child muddle over those pieces, Eunice? The carpet
+may not be clean," said Elizabeth sharply.
+
+"And it is getting dark, so we had better put them all up. Mercy! how it
+still rains. Why, it seems as if there would be another flood."
+
+"That can never happen. We have the promise."
+
+"That the whole world will not be destroyed. But parts of it may suffer.
+You and Cynthia are fortunate not to be in it;" and Eunice raised her
+eyes to them, with a certain thankfulness.
+
+It had not stopped yet in the morning, but the wind was veering to the
+south, the air was not so cold and the rain much gentler. Cynthia
+wandered about like an unquiet spirit. It was cold up in their room.
+Chilian had proposed a fire, but Elizabeth had negatived it sharply.
+
+"There ought to be room enough in the dining-room and keeping-room for
+two extra people," she said decidedly.
+
+He felt sorry for the little girl with her downcast face, as he met her
+on the landing.
+
+"Don't you want to come and visit me?" he asked, in an inviting tone.
+
+"Oh, yes!" and the grave little face lightened.
+
+The blaze was brighter here than downstairs, she felt quite sure. And
+the room had a more cheerful look. The table was spread with books and
+papers, and, oh, the books that were on the shelves! The curious things
+above them suggested India. There really was the triple-faced god she
+had seen so often, carved in ivory, and another carving of a temple. She
+walked slowly round and inspected them. Then she paused at a window.
+
+"How much it rains!" she began. "I don't see how so much rain can be
+made. When is it going to stop?"
+
+"I think it will hold up this afternoon and be clear to-morrow, clear
+and sunny."
+
+"I like sunshine best. And little rains. This has been so long."
+
+"And we haven't much to amuse a child. When it clears up we must find
+some little folks. Does it seem very strange to you?"
+
+"I haven't lived with big women much, except Rachel. And the houses are
+so different. You get things about, and the servants pick them up. There
+are so many servants. Sometimes there are white children, but not many.
+Their mothers take them back to England. Or they die."
+
+She uttered the last sadly, and her long lashes drooped.
+
+He wondered a little how she had stood the climate. She looked more like
+a foreigner than a native of Salem town.
+
+"What did you do there?" He hardly knew how to talk to a little girl.
+
+"Oh, a great many things. I went to ride in a curious sort of cart--the
+natives pulled it. Then the children came and played in the court. They
+threw up balls and caught them, ever so many, and they played curious
+games on the stones, and acrobatic feats, and sung, and danced, and
+acted stories of funny things. Then father read to me, and told me about
+Salem when he was a little boy. You can't really think the grown-up
+people were little, like you."
+
+"And that one day you will be big like them."
+
+She pushed up her sleeve. They were large and made just big enough for
+her hand at the wrist, not at all like the straight, small sleeves of
+the Puritan children. After surveying it a moment, she said gravely:
+
+"I can't understand _how_ you grow. You must be pushed out all the time
+by something inside."
+
+"You have just hit it;" and he smiled approvingly. "It is the forces
+inside. There is a curious factory inside of us that keeps working, day
+and night, that supplies the blood, the warmth, the strength, and is
+always pushing out; it even enlarges the bones until one is grown and
+finished, as one may say. And the food you eat, the air you breathe, are
+the supplies."
+
+"But you go on eating and breathing. Why don't you go on growing?"
+
+There was a curious little knot in her forehead where the lines crossed,
+and she raised her eyes questioningly to him. What wonderful eyes they
+were!
+
+"I suppose it is partly this: You employ your mind and your body and
+they need more nourishment. Then--well, I think it is the restraining
+law of nature, else we should all be giants. In very hot countries and
+very cold countries they do not grow so large."
+
+He could not go into the intricacies of physiology, as he did with some
+of the students.
+
+"You did not go to school?"
+
+"Oh, no!" She laughed softly. "The native schools were funny. They sat
+on mats and did not have any books, but repeated after the teacher. And,
+sometimes, he beat them dreadfully. There were some English people had a
+school, but it was to teach the language to the natives. And then Mr.
+Cathcart came to stay with father. He had been the chaplain somewhere
+and wasn't well, so they gave him a--a----"
+
+"Furlough?" suggested Chilian.
+
+"Yes; father sent him out in one of the boats. He began to teach me some
+things. I could read, you know. And I could talk Hindostani some--with
+the children. Then I learned to spell and pronounce the words better. He
+had a few books of verses that were beautiful. I learned some of them by
+heart. And Latin."
+
+"Latin!" in surprise.
+
+"He had some books and a Testament. It was grand in the sound, and I
+liked it. There were many things, cases and such, that I couldn't get
+quite straight, but after a little I could read, and then make it over
+into English."
+
+When he was eight he was reading Latin and beginning French. Some of the
+Boston women he knew were very good French scholars, though education
+was not looked upon as a necessity for women. It seemed odd to him--this
+little girl in Calcutta learning Latin.
+
+"Let us see how far you have gone." Teaching never irked him when he
+once set about it.
+
+He hunted up a simple Latin primer.
+
+"Come around this side;" and he drew her nearer to him. There had been
+no little girls to train and teach, and for a moment he felt
+embarrassed. But she took it as a matter of course, and he could see
+she was all interest.
+
+It had been, as he supposed, rather desultory teaching. But she took the
+corrections and explanations with a sweetness that was quite enchanting.
+And she could translate quite well, in an idiomatic fashion. Really,
+with the right kind of training she would make a good scholar.
+
+"Oh, you must be tired of standing," he said presently. "How thoughtless
+of me. I have no little chairs, so I must hunt one up, but this will
+have to do now. That will be more comfortable. Now we can go on."
+
+She laughed at her own little blunders in a cheerful fashion, and made
+haste to correct them. And then he found that she knew several of the
+old Latin hymns by heart, as they had been favorites of the English
+clergyman.
+
+They were interrupted by a light tap at the door. He said "Come"; and
+turned his head.
+
+It was Miss Winn.
+
+"Pardon me. We couldn't imagine where Cynthia was. Hasn't she been an
+annoyance?"
+
+"Oh, no; we have had a very nice time."
+
+"But--had you not better come downstairs. Miss Eunice is sewing her
+pretty patchwork again."
+
+"Oh, let me stay," she pleaded. "Do I bother you?"
+
+It crossed his mind just then that in the years to come more than one
+man would yield to the sweet persuasiveness of those eyes.
+
+"Yes, let her stay. She is no trouble. Indeed, we are studying."
+
+Miss Winn was glad of his indorsement. Miss Elizabeth had been
+"worrying" for the last ten minutes. She had crept softly up to the
+garret, quite sure she should find the child in mischief. Then she had
+glanced into the "best chamber," but there was no sign of her there.
+
+"Very well," replied Miss Winn.
+
+Cynthia drew a long breath presently.
+
+"Oh, you are tired!" he exclaimed. "Run over to the window and tell me
+how the sky looks. I think it doesn't rain now."
+
+She slipped down, stood still for a moment, then turned and clapped her
+hands, laughing deliciously.
+
+"Oh, there is blue sky, and a great yellow streak. The clouds are trying
+to hide the sun, but they can't. Oh, see, see!"
+
+She danced up and down the room like a fairy in the long ray of sunshine
+that illumined the apartment.
+
+"Oh, are you not glad!" She turned such a joyous face to him that he
+smiled and came over to the window that nearly faced the west.
+
+"Better than the Latin?"
+
+"Well--I like both;" archly.
+
+He raised the window. A warm breath of delightful air rushed in, making
+the room with the fire seem chilly by contrast. He drew in long
+reviving breaths. Spring had truly come. To-morrow the swelling buds
+would burst.
+
+"We must have a little Latin every day. And occasionally a walk in the
+sunshine. Twice a week I go down to Boston, but the other days will be
+ours."
+
+"I like your room," she said frankly. "But what sights of books! Do you
+read them all?"
+
+"Not very often. I do not believe I have read them all through. But I
+need them for reference, and some I like very much."
+
+He wanted to add, "And some were a gift from your dear father," but he
+could not disturb her happy mood.
+
+"Suppose we go down on the porch. It is too wet to walk anywhere."
+
+"Oh, yes;" delightedly. "And to-morrow I will go down to the vessel
+again and see Captain Corwin. I do not want it to rain any more for
+weeks and weeks."
+
+"No, for days and days. Weeks would dry us all up, and we would have no
+lovely spring flowers."
+
+"And a famine maybe. Do the very poor people sometimes starve?"
+
+"I do not think we have any very poor people, as they do in India. We
+are not overcrowded yet."
+
+The rain had beaten the paths and the street hard, and it looked as if
+it had been swept clean. In spite of it all there were cheering
+evidences of spring.
+
+"There are some children in that house," she exclaimed, nodding her
+head.
+
+"Yes, the Uphams. There are two girls and two boys, the oldest and the
+youngest, who isn't much more than a baby. Bentley Upham must be about
+twelve. Polly is next, but she is a head taller than you. Then there's
+Betty. I am glad there will be some little girls for you to play with."
+
+She looked eager and interested.
+
+"Will you come in to supper? Chilian, you ought to know better than to
+be standing in this damp air. And that child with nothing around her!"
+
+"The air is reviving, after having been housed for two days." But he
+turned and went in, leading the child by the hand.
+
+The long, bleak New England coast winter was over, though it had
+lingered as if loath to go. Springs were seldom early, no one expected
+that. But this one came on with a rush. The willows donned their silver
+catkins and then threw them off for baby leaves, the lilac buds showed
+purple, the elms and maples came out in bloom, and the soft ones drew
+crowds of half-famished bees to their sweet tassels. The grass was
+vividly green, iridescent in the morning sun, with the dew still upon
+it. Snowdrop, crocus, hepatica, and coltsfoot, wild honeysuckle, were
+all about, the forsythia flared out her saucy yellow, the fruit buds
+swelled. Parties were out in the woods hunting trailing arbutus that has
+been called the darling of northern skies, that lies hidden in its nest
+of green leaves, silent, with no wind tossing it to and fro, but
+betrayed by its sweetness.
+
+There were other signs of spring at Salem. The whole town seemed to
+burst out in house-cleaning. Parlor shutters were thrown open and
+windows washed. Carpets were beaten, blankets hung out to air, those
+that had been in real use washed. Women were out in gardens with
+sunbonnets and gloves, a coat of tan not being held in much esteem, and
+snipped at roses and hardy plants. Men were spading and planting the
+vegetable gardens, painting or white-washing fences. All was stir and
+bustle, and tired folk excused themselves if they nodded in church on
+Sunday.
+
+Cynthia made pilgrimages to the _Flying Star_ that had been her home for
+so long. The storm had wrought great havoc with some of the shipping,
+and big boys were out gathering driftwood. The _Gazette_ had some
+melancholy news of "lost at sea." But Captain Corwin thought he had
+weathered worse storms.
+
+"She is picking up mightily," he said to Miss Winn, nodding toward
+Cynthia. "Shouldn't be surprised if she favored her mother, after all.
+Only them eyes ain't neither Orne nor Leverett. Don't let her grieve too
+much when the bad news comes."
+
+Eunice and Chilian had taken her to call on the Uphams. And though she
+was quite familiar at home, here she shrank into painful shyness and
+would not leave Eunice's sheltering figure.
+
+"Children get soonest acquainted by themselves," declared Mrs. Upham. "I
+suppose you will send her to school. If she's not very forward, Dame
+Wilby's is best. She and Betty can go together. Why, she isn't as tall
+as Betty--and nine, you said? Granny was talking the other day about the
+time she was born. She's a real little Salem girl after all, though
+she's got a foreign skin, and what odd-colored hair! We've started Polly
+to Miss Betts. I want her to learn sewing and needlework, and she's too
+big now to company with such children. Why, I was almost a woman at
+twelve, and could spin and knit with the best of them. Miss Eunice, I
+wish you'd teach her that pretty openwork stitch you do so handy.
+Imported stockings cost so much. They say there's women in Boston doing
+the fancy ones for customers. But I tell Polly if she wants any she must
+do them herself."
+
+Mrs. Upham had a tolerably pleasant voice. She always talked in
+monologues. Betty edged around presently and would have taken Cynthia's
+hand, but the child laid it in Miss Eunice's lap, and looked
+distrustful.
+
+Chilian was as glad as she when the call ended. He did not seek the
+society of women often enough to feel at home with them, though he was
+kindly polite when he did meet them.
+
+"Did you ask about the school?" was the inquiry of Elizabeth that
+evening.
+
+"Yes; she thinks Dame Wilby's the best for small children. And Cynthia
+knows so little that is of real importance, though she reads pretty
+well," said Eunice.
+
+"Yes, she must get started. I shall be glad when the _Flying Star_ is
+off and she isn't running down there with the men. I don't see what's
+got into Chilian to think of teaching her Latin. It had enough sight
+better be the multiplication table."
+
+So she proposed the school to Chilian. She had a queer feeling about his
+fancy for the child. She would have scouted the idea of jealousy, but
+she would have had much the same feeling if he had "begun to pay
+attention" to some woman. The other matters had reached a passable
+settlement. The "best chamber" was tidily kept, the little girl well
+looked after to see that she troubled no one. Miss Winn kept her clothes
+in order, but they had a decidedly foreign look, and of materials no one
+would think of buying for a child. But the goods were here, and might as
+well be used.
+
+Miss Winn had made a few alterations in the room--softened the aspect of
+it. She longed to take out the big carved bedstead, but she knew that
+would never do. She made herself useful in many unobtrusive ways,
+gardened a little, was neighborly yet reserved.
+
+"I don't know what we would do if she were a gossip," Elizabeth
+commented.
+
+She broached the subject of the school to Chilian.
+
+"Why, yes," he answered reluctantly. "I suppose she ought to go. She's
+curiously shy with other children."
+
+"She talks enough about that Nalla, as if they had been like sisters."
+
+"You can notice that she always preserves the distinction, though."
+
+"There's no use bothering with that Latin, Chilian. Next thing it will
+be French. And she won't know enough figuring to count change. Girls
+don't need that kind of education."
+
+"But some of them have to be Presidents' wives. And some of them wives
+to men who have to go abroad. French seems to be quite general among
+cultivated people."
+
+"It's hardly likely she'll go abroad. And she needs to be like other
+people. I don't see what you find so entertaining about her. And you
+couldn't bear children in your room!"
+
+"She isn't any annoyance. Then she is so deft, so dainty. She touches
+books with the lightest of fingers. She will sit and look at pictures,
+and it quite surprises me how much she knows about geography."
+
+"And nothing much about her native country. She can't tell the
+difference between Pilgrims and Puritans. And she didn't know why we
+came over here, and why it was not the same God in England, and if all
+the gods in India were idols. Chilian, you shouldn't encourage her
+irreverence. It looks pert in a child."
+
+"She will get over these ways as she grows older and mingles with other
+children."
+
+"That is what I am coming to. She ought to begin at once. Betty Upham
+goes to Dame Wilby. Her mother considers it excellent for small
+children. She could go with Betty and there would be no fear of her
+trailing off no one knows where."
+
+Of course, she ought to go to school. He could manage a big boy on the
+verge of manhood very well. But this woman-child puzzled him. She seemed
+very tractable, obedient in a certain sense, yet in the end she seemed
+to get, or to take, her own way. Suppressing one train of action opened
+another. She had a sweet way of yielding, but a strong way of holding
+on. A little thing made her happy, yet in her deepest happiness there
+was much gravity. His theories were that certain qualities brought to
+pass certain results. He forgot that there were no such things as pure
+temperaments, and that environments made second nature different from
+what the first might have been. The child puzzled him by her
+contrariety, yet she was not a troublesome child.
+
+"Well;" reluctantly.
+
+"I'll see the Dame. And we will start her on Monday."
+
+He nodded.
+
+Elizabeth had another point to gain. She looked over her trunk of
+pieces. Here were several yards of brown and white gingham, quite enough
+for a frock without any furbelows. With the roll in her hand she tapped
+at the partly open door. Rachel had laid out on the bed several white
+frocks, plain enough even for Salem tastes.
+
+"Cynthia's going to school on Monday," she announced. "And I thought
+this would make her a good school frock. It won't be dirtysome. You see
+children here _do_ dress differently. You'll get into the ways."
+
+Rachel looked at the gingham. "I shouldn't like it for her," she said
+quietly. "Her father always wanted to see her in white. That is new
+every time it is washed. These things fade and then look so wretched.
+Beside she will only outgrow these frocks."
+
+"Children here keep their white frocks for Sundays," was the decisive
+reply.
+
+"She may as well wear these out. They were made last summer. She has not
+grown much meanwhile. I should like to keep her in the way her father
+desired."
+
+"Then she must have a long-sleeved apron to cover her up. This will make
+two. For those white things make an endless sight of washing."
+
+"I have been considering that," said Rachel Winn quietly. "I wear white
+a good deal myself. I noticed a small house on Front Street where there
+were nearly always clothes on the lines, and I stopped in to inquire. I
+felt it was too much laundry-work for your woman through the summer.
+This Mrs. Pratt is very reasonable and does her work nicely. So I have
+made arrangements with her. Captain Leverett made a generous allowance
+for incidental expenses."
+
+What Elizabeth termed Miss Winn's "independence" grated sorely upon her
+ideas of what was owing to the head of the house, which was herself. It
+was always done so quietly and pleasantly one could hardly take umbrage.
+Cynthia was not exactly a child of the house. She was in no wise
+dependent on her newly found relatives. Chilian had made that understood
+in the beginning, when he had chosen the best chamber for them.
+
+"You don't need to take boarders," she had replied tartly.
+
+"I don't know as we are to call it that. I am the child's guardian and
+answerable for her comfort and her welfare. The perfect trust confided
+in me has touched me inexpressibly. I didn't know that Anthony Leverett
+held me in such high esteem. And if I choose to put this money by until
+she is grown--it will make such a little difference in our living----"
+
+"Chilian Leverett, you are justly entitled to it," she interrupted with
+sharp decision. "He's right enough in making a fair provision for
+them--no doubt he has plenty. But I don't quite like the boarder
+business, for all that."
+
+"We must get some one to help you with the work."
+
+"I don't want any more help than I have. Land sakes! Eunice and I have
+plenty of leisure on our hands. I wouldn't have a servant around wasting
+things, if she paid me wages."
+
+They had gone on very smoothly. Eunice had found her way to the child's
+heart. But then Eunice had lived with her dream children that might have
+been like Charles Lamb's "Children of Alice." Elizabeth might have
+married twice in her life, but there was no love in either case, rather
+a secret mortification that such incapables should dare to raise their
+thoughts to her. But she had some strenuous ideas on the rearing of
+children, quite of the older sort. Life was softening somewhat, even for
+childhood, but she did not approve of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GOING TO SCHOOL
+
+
+Elizabeth Leverett interviewed Dame Wilby beforehand. The woman came
+half a day on Monday to wash and she hardly knew how to spend half an
+hour, but when she found Miss Winn was going, she loftily relegated the
+whole business to her.
+
+Dame Wilby lived in an old rambling house, already an eyesore to the
+finer houses in Lafayette Street, but the Dame was obstinate and would
+not sell. "It was going to last her time out. She was born here when it
+was only a lane, and she meant to be buried from here." Once it had been
+quite a flourishing school; but newer methods had begun to supersede it.
+It was handy for the small children about the neighborhood, it took them
+over the troublesome times, it gave their mothers a rest, and kept them
+out of mischief. And the old dames were thorough, as far as they went.
+Indeed, some of the mothers had never gone any farther. They could cast
+up accounts, they could weigh and measure, for they had learned all the
+tables. They could spell and read clearly, they knew all the common arts
+of life, and how to keep on learning out of the greater than printed
+books--experience.
+
+Dame Wilby might have been eighty. No one remembered her being young.
+Her husband was lost at sea and she opened the school, worked in her
+garden, saved until she had cleared her small old home, and now was
+laying up a trifle every year. She was tall and somewhat bent in the
+shoulders, very much wrinkled, with clear, piercing light blue eyes and
+snowy hair. She always wore a cap and only a little line of it showed at
+the edge of her high forehead. Her frocks were made in the plainest
+style, skirts straight and narrow, and she always wore a little shoulder
+shawl, pinned across the bosom--white in the summer, home-dyed blue in
+the winter.
+
+Some children were playing tag in the unoccupied lot next door. The
+schoolroom door opened at the side. There were two rows of desks, with
+benches for the older children, two more with no desks for the A B C and
+spelling classes. The rest they learned in concert, orally. The dame had
+a table covered with a gray woollen cloth, some books, an inkstand, a
+holder for pens and pencils, and the never-failing switch.
+
+"Yes," she answered to Miss Winn's explanation. "Miss Leverett was
+telling about her. I was teaching school here when she was born, and
+then the captain took her away to the Ingies again." Most folks
+pronounced it that way. "Rather meachin' little thing--I s'pose it was
+the climate over there. They say it turns the skin yellow. Let's see how
+you read, sissy?"
+
+She read several verses out of the New Testament quite to the dame's
+satisfaction. Then about spelling. The second word, in two syllables,
+floored her. Had she ciphered? No. Did she know her tables? No. The
+capital of the state? That she could answer. When the war broke out?
+When peace was declared?
+
+"I'll ask Cousin Leverett," she answered, in nowise abashed by her
+ignorance. "He tells me a great many things."
+
+"You must study it out of books. I s'pose she's going to live here?
+She's not going back to the Ingies? I heard the captain was coming
+home."
+
+"He is settling up his affairs," was the quiet answer.
+
+Dame Wilby looked the child all over.
+
+"You'll sit on that bench," she said. Then she rang the bell and the
+children trooped in, staring at her. The little boys--four of them--were
+on the seat back of her, on her seat she made the fifth. Betty Upham was
+in the desk contingent.
+
+They repeated the Lord's prayer in concert. Then lessons were given out.
+The larger girls read.
+
+"You can come and read with this class;" nodding to Cynthia.
+
+She was not a regularly bashful child, but she flushed as the children
+stared at her. They sometimes wore their Sunday white frock one or two
+days at school. Cynthia was so used to her clothes, cared so little
+about them that they were rarely in her mind. But this universal
+attention annoyed her.
+
+"'Tend to your books, children."
+
+Cynthia acquitted herself finely, rather too much so, the dame thought.
+She would talk to her about it. A girl didn't want to read as if she was
+a minister preaching a sermon.
+
+Then she was given a very much "dog's-eared" spelling-book to study down
+a column. Another class read some easy lesson; a story about a dog that
+interested her so much that she forgot to study. While the older
+children were doing sums one little boy after another came up to the
+desk and spelled from a book. One's attention wandered and the dame hit
+him a sharp rap. Tables followed, eight and nine times; dry measure, and
+then questions were asked singly. Some few missed. Cynthia followed the
+spelling where they went up and down. Then the larger ones were
+dismissed for recess.
+
+"Cynthy Leverett, come up here and see how many words you can spell. You
+ought to be ashamed, a big girl like you staying behind in next to the
+baby class."
+
+Cynthia's face was scarlet. Alas! She had been so interested watching
+and listening she had not studied at all. But the words were rather easy
+and she did know all but two.
+
+"Now you take the next line and those two over again. See if you can't
+get them all learned by noon."
+
+The next little girl, who could not have been more than six, missed a
+number. She had a queer drawl in her voice.
+
+"What did I tell you, Jane Mason? And you have missed more than two.
+Hold out your hand!"
+
+The switch came down on the poor little hand with an angry swish.
+Cynthia winched.
+
+"Now you go back and study. No going out to play for you this morning.
+Jane Mason, you're the biggest dunce in school."
+
+The two other girls did better. Then the bell rang and the girls came in
+with flushed and laughing faces.
+
+Cynthia studied her two words over until they ceased to have any
+meaning. At twelve they were all dismissed.
+
+"Isn't she a hateful old thing?" said Janie Mason, when they were
+outside of the door. "I wish I was big enough to strike back. I don't
+like school anyhow. Do you?"
+
+"I--I don't know. I have never been before."
+
+Several of the other girls swarmed around her with curious eyes.
+
+"What a pretty frock!" began Betty Upham. "I suppose it's your Sunday
+best, with all that work."
+
+"Betty said you were an Injun," said another. "I never saw an Injun who
+didn't have coarse, straight, black hair, and yours is lightish and
+curls. I'd so love to have curly hair."
+
+"I'm not the kind of Indians you have here," she returned indignantly.
+"I was born right here in Salem. I've lived in Calcutta and in China,
+and been to Batavia, and ever so many places."
+
+"Then you ain't an Injun at all! Betty, how could you?"
+
+"Well, that's what some of them said. Maybe your mother was an Injun!"
+looking as if she had fixed the uncertain suspicion.
+
+"No, she wasn't. She lived here part of the time. She was born in
+Boston."
+
+They glanced at each other in a kind of upbraiding fashion.
+
+"And you had to be put with the little children! Aren't there any
+schools in that place you came from? It's a heathen country. Our
+minister prays for it. Don't you have any churches either? What do
+people do when they are grown up if they never go to school?"
+
+"Are you coming stiddy?"
+
+"Is Mr. Chilian Leverett your real relation?"
+
+"Oh, tell me--have you any other frock as pretty as this? My sister
+Hetty has a beautiful one, all lace and needlework. She's saving it to
+be married in."
+
+"Martha, I dare you to a race!"
+
+Two girls ran off as fast as they could. Betty Upham caught Cynthia's
+arm.
+
+"I didn't say you were a real Injun. Debby Strang always gets things
+mixed up. But it is something queer----"
+
+"East India;" in a tone of great dignity.
+
+"Where the ships are coming from all the time? Is it prettier than
+Salem?"
+
+"It's so different you can't tell. We do not have hardly any winter. And
+there are vines and flowers and temples to heathen gods, and the people
+_are_ yellow and brown."
+
+"Do you suppose you will ever grow clear white?"
+
+Cynthia had half a mind to be angry. Even Miss Elizabeth was fair, and
+Miss Eunice had such a soft, pretty skin.
+
+"There, that's your corner. You're coming this afternoon?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose so."
+
+Miss Elizabeth was all bustle and hurry. It was clouding up a little. It
+hadn't been a real fair day, and the hot sun had dried the clothes too
+quick. She liked them to bleach on the line, it was almost as good as
+the grass. And Miss Drake couldn't stay and iron, they had sickness over
+to the Appletons and she had to go there. Everything was out of gear.
+
+"I'd help with the ironing, if you would like," said Miss Winn.
+
+"Well, the ironing isn't so much;" rather ungraciously. "You see, there
+were four blankets. I never touch an iron to them, but shake them good
+and fold them, and let them lay one night, then hang them on the line in
+the garret. The bulk of it was large. And a good stiff breeze blows out
+wrinkles. The wind hasn't blown worth a Continental;" complainingly.
+
+"Did you like the school?" Miss Winn inquired in the hall.
+
+"No, I didn't. And I don't seem to know anything;" in a discouraged
+tone.
+
+"Oh, you will learn."
+
+It was warm in the afternoon. Two of the boys were decidedly bad and
+were punished. They positively roared. Cynthia spelled, and spelled, and
+studied--"One and one are two," "one and two are three," and after a
+while it dawned on her that it was just one more every time. Why, she
+had known that all the time, only it hadn't been put in a table.
+
+It grew very tiresome after a while. She asked if she couldn't have
+recess with the big girls, but was sharply refused. In truth the good
+dame grew very weary herself, and was glad when five o'clock came and
+she could go out in the garden and recruit her tired nerves.
+
+The stage was stopping at the door. Oh, how glad she was to see Cousin
+Leverett. He smiled down in the flushed face.
+
+"How did the school go?" he asked.
+
+She hung her head. "I don't like it. I have to be with the little class
+because I don't know tables, but I learned all the one times. That was
+easy enough when you came to see into it. But--nine and nine?"
+
+"Eighteen," he answered promptly.
+
+"And you answered it right offhand!" She gave a soft, cheerful laugh.
+"Oh, do you suppose I shall ever know so much?"
+
+"There was a time when I didn't know it."
+
+"Truly?" She looked incredulous.
+
+"Truly. And I had quite hard work remembering to spell correctly."
+
+"I studied two lines. This morning I missed two words, but this
+afternoon I knew them all. And I can't write on the slate. The pencil
+wabbles so, and then it gives an awful squeak that goes all over you.
+And I can't do sums. And there's all the tables to learn. And I don't
+like the teacher. I wish Miss Eunice could teach me. Or maybe Rachel
+might."
+
+"I might help you a little. But you read well?"
+
+"She said it was too--too"--she wrinkled up her forehead--"too affected,
+like a play-actor."
+
+"Nonsense!" he cried disapprovingly. "We will see about some other
+school presently. Would you like to take a walk with me? I'm tired of
+the long stage-ride."
+
+"Oh, so much!" She caught one hand in both of hers and gave a few skips
+of joy.
+
+"Let us go over to the river."
+
+Of course, he should have gone in and announced their resolve. But he
+was so used to considering only himself, and he realized that it must
+have been a tiresome day to her. They went over Lafayette Street, which
+was only a lane, and then turned up the stream.
+
+Oh, how sweet the air was with the odorous dampness and the smell of
+new growths, tree and grass. The sun, low in the west, slanted golden
+gleams through the tree branches which chased each other over the grassy
+spaces, as if they were quite alive and at merry-making. There were
+sedgy plants in bloom, jack-in-the-pulpit, and what might have been a
+lily, with a more euphonious name. Iridescent flies were skimming about,
+now and then a fish made a stir and dazzle. Squirrels ran up and down
+the trees and chattered, robins were singing joyously, the thrush with
+her soft, plaintive note. She glanced up now and then and caught his
+eye, and he felt she was happy. It was a delightful thing, after all, to
+render some one truly happy. Perhaps children were more easily
+satisfied, more responsive.
+
+"Oh," he said presently, "we must go back or we will lose our supper,
+and Cousin Elizabeth will scold."
+
+"I shouldn't think she would dare to scold you;" raising wondering eyes.
+
+"Why not?" He wondered what reason she would give.
+
+"Because you are a man."
+
+"She scolds Silas."
+
+"Oh, that is different."
+
+"How--different? We are both men. He is quite as tall as I."
+
+"But you see--well, he is something like a servant. She tells him what
+to do, and if he doesn't do it right she can find fault with it. But
+you are--well, the house is yours. You can do what pleases you."
+
+"Quite reasoned out, little one;" and he laughed with an approving
+sound.
+
+"It's curious that you scold people you like, and other people may do
+the same thing and--is it because you don't dare to? If it is wrong in
+the one place, why not in the other?"
+
+"Perhaps politeness restrains us."
+
+"I don't like people to scold. Miss Eunice never does."
+
+"Eunice has a sweet nature. Doesn't Miss Winn ever scold you?"
+
+"Well--I suppose I am bad and wilful sometimes, and then she has the
+right. But when you do things that do not matter----"
+
+Miss Winn was walking in the garden. Cynthia waved her hand, but walked
+leisurely forward.
+
+"I couldn't imagine what had become of you."
+
+"It was my fault," interposed Chilian. "I met her at the gate and asked
+her to go for a walk."
+
+"And with that soiled apron!"
+
+"That came off the slate. I hadn't any desk. It was hard to hold it on
+my knee."
+
+"You might have come in for a clean one. Run upstairs and change it."
+
+But she was destined to meet Cousin Elizabeth in the hall. The elder
+caught her arm roughly.
+
+"Where have you been gadding to, bad girl? Didn't you know you must
+come straight home from school? Here we have been worried half to death
+about you, and I'm tired as a dog, trotting 'round all day. You deserve
+a good whipping;" and she shook her. She would have enjoyed slapping her
+soundly. But Chilian entered at that instant.
+
+"She is going upstairs for a clean apron," he said. "I took her off for
+a walk."
+
+"She might have asked whether she could go or not," snapped Elizabeth.
+"She's the most lawless thing!"
+
+"It was my place. Don't blame the child!"
+
+"Well, supper's ready."
+
+She didn't have her apron on quite straight and her hair was a little
+frowsy. Elizabeth had proposed it should be cut short on the neck for
+the summer, but Miss Winn had objected.
+
+"Such a great mop! No child wears it!"
+
+Cynthia came in quietly and took her place. After her first cup of tea
+Elizabeth thawed a little, enough to announce that two of the Appleton
+children were ill, they thought with scarlet fever.
+
+Chilian expressed some sympathy.
+
+"And how was the school, Cynthia? We thought you might have been kept in
+for some of your good deeds, as children are so seldom bad."
+
+"I--I didn't like it," she answered simply.
+
+"Children can't have just what they like in this world," was Elizabeth's
+rejoinder.
+
+"Nor grown people either," was Chilian's softening comment. Then he
+changed the subject. He had seen Cousin Giles, who proposed to pay them
+a visit, coming on some Saturday.
+
+"Have you any lesson to learn?" he asked of Cynthia. "If so, bring your
+book and come to my room."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" Her face was radiant with delight.
+
+Where had she left her book? Dame Wilby had told her to take it home and
+study. Surely she had brought it--oh, yes! she had put it just inside
+the gate under the great clump of ribbon grass. If only Cousin
+Elizabeth's sharp eyes had not seen it. But there it was, safe enough.
+
+She was delighted to go to Cousin Chilian's room, though she never
+presumed. She seemed to have an innate sort of delicacy that he wondered
+at.
+
+The spelling was soon mastered. It was the rather unusual words that
+puzzled her. Then they attacked the tables and he practised her in
+making figures. Like most children left to themselves, she printed
+instead of writing.
+
+"Oh!" she cried with a wistful yet joyous emphasis, "I wish I could come
+to school to you. And I'd like to be the only scholar."
+
+"But you ought to be with little girls."
+
+"I don't like them very much."
+
+Then Miss Winn came for her. "You are very good to take so much
+trouble," she said.
+
+"Oh, I like you so much, so much!" she exclaimed with her sweet eyes as
+well as her lips.
+
+He recalled then the day on board the vessel, when she had besought in
+her impetuous fashion that he should kiss her. She had never offered the
+caress since. She was not an effusive child.
+
+Her position at school was rather anomalous. A younger woman might have
+managed differently. There was a new scholar that rather crowded them on
+the bench. And the boy back of her did some sly things that annoyed her.
+He gave her hair a twitch now and then. One day he dropped a little toad
+on her book, at which she screamed, though an instant after she was not
+at all afraid. Of course, he was whipped for that, and for once she did
+not feel sorry.
+
+"You're a great ninny to be afraid of a toad not bigger than a button,"
+he said scornfully. "I'll get you whipped some day to make up for it,
+see if I don't."
+
+Thursday was unfortunate and she was kept in for some rather saucy
+replies. When she returned they were in the sitting-room and had been
+discussing some household matters. She surveyed them with a courageous
+but indignant air.
+
+"I've quit," she exclaimed. "I'm not going there to school any more."
+
+She stood up very straight, her eyes flashing.
+
+"What!" ejaculated Cousin Elizabeth.
+
+"Why, I've quit! She wanted to make me say I was sorry and beg her
+pardon, and she threatened to keep me all night, but I knew some of you
+would come, at least Rachel."
+
+"And I suppose you were a saucy, naughty girl!"
+
+"What happened?" asked Chilian quietly.
+
+"Why, you see--I went up to her table with the figures I had been making
+on my slate. I'd done some of them over three times, for Tommy Marsh
+joggled my elbow. Then I went back to my seat. We're crowded now, and I
+went to sit down and sat on the floor. I do believe Sadie Green did it
+on purpose--moved so there wasn't room enough for me to sit. And Tom
+laughed, then all the children laughed, and Dame Wilby said, 'Get up,
+Cynthy Leverett,' and I said 'My name isn't Cynthy, if you please, and I
+haven't any seat to sit on if I do get up.' And then the children
+laughed again, and I don't quite know what did happen, but I was so
+angry. Then she said all the children should stay in for laughing. She
+called me to the desk and I went. The slate was broken and I laid it on
+the table. Then she said wasn't I sorry for being saucy, and I said I
+wasn't. It was bad enough to fall on the floor, for I might have hurt
+myself. Then she took up her switch, and I said: 'You strike me, if you
+dare!' Then she pushed me in a little closet place, and there I staid
+until after school was out. Then she said, 'Would I tell Miss Leverett
+to come over?' and I said Mr. Leverett was my guardian and I would tell
+him, but I wasn't coming to school any more, and that Tommy Marsh
+pinched me and pulled my hair, and called me wild Indian. And so--I've
+quit. You can't make me go again. I'll run away first and go on some of
+the boats."
+
+There was a blaze of scarlet on her cheeks and her eyes flashed fire,
+but she stood up straight and defiant, when another child might have
+broken down and cried. Chilian Leverett always remembered the picture
+she made--small, dark, and spirited.
+
+"No," he exclaimed, "you need not go back." Then he rose and took her
+hand that was cold and trembling. "You will not go back. Let us find
+Miss Winn----"
+
+"Chilian!" warned Elizabeth.
+
+He led Cynthia from the room, up the stairs. Miss Winn sat there sewing.
+She clasped her arms about him, he could fairly feel the throb in them.
+
+"Oh," she cried with a strange sort of sweetness. "I love you. You are
+so good to me, and I have told you just the truth."
+
+Then she buried her face on Miss Winn's bosom.
+
+Chilian went downstairs. He laughed, yet he was deeply touched by her
+audacity and bravery.
+
+"Elizabeth," he announced; "I will see Mrs. Wilby. Let the matter die
+out, do not refer to it. I did not think it quite the school for her. We
+will find something else."
+
+"Chilian, I must make one effort for you and her. Going on this way will
+be her ruin. I should insist upon her going back to school and
+apologizing to Mrs. Wilby. I wouldn't let a chit like that order what a
+household of grown people should do and make them bow down to her. You
+will be sorry for it in the end. You have had no experience with
+children, you have seen so few. And a man hasn't the judgment----"
+
+His usually serene temper was getting ruffled, and with such characters
+the end is often obstinacy.
+
+"If she is to make a disturbance here, become a bone of contention with
+us, I will send her away. Cousin Giles is taking a great interest in
+her. There are good boarding-schools in Boston, or she and Miss Winn
+could have a home together under his supervision. There is enough to
+provide for them."
+
+"And you would turn her over to that half-heathen woman!" in a horrified
+tone. "Then I wash my hands of the matter. Send her to perdition, if you
+will."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CHANGEFUL LIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD
+
+
+Elizabeth Leverett busied herself about the supper. She felt as one does
+in the threatening of a thunderstorm, when the clouds roll up and the
+rumbling is low and distant and one studies the sky with presentiments.
+Then it comes nearer, flirts a little with the elements, breaks open and
+shows the blue that the scurrying wind soon hides and the real storm
+bursts. She had believed all along that it must come.
+
+She was not an ungracious or a selfish woman outside of her own home.
+She was good to the sick and the needy, she gave of her time and
+strength. In the home there was a sense of ownership, of the
+self-appropriation so often termed duty. Everything had gone on smoothly
+for years. She had settled that Chilian would not marry. Such a bookish
+man, whose interests lay chiefly with men, did not need a wife when
+there was some one at hand to make him comfortable. And that he surely
+was. He understood and enjoyed it. He had only to suggest to have. Her
+affection for him was like that for a younger brother. Even Eunice could
+not minister so well for his comfort, though, like Mary of Bible lore,
+she often added a delicate pleasure in listening to matters or
+incidents that interested him.
+
+Elizabeth had settled to the idea of a little heathen soul that she was
+to lead aright. Missionary work in godless lands had not made much
+advance and, having no mother, who was there to warn her of the great
+peril of her soul? Seafaring men were not much given to thought of the
+other world. Perhaps there was some grace for them in the hours of
+peril, she had heard they prayed to God in an extremity; and there was
+the dying thief. But on land no one had a right to count on this.
+
+The child had changed everything. Even Eunice seemed to have lost the
+sharp distinction. Miss Winn belonged to the ungodly, that was
+clear--though she was upright, honest, neat, and in some ways sensible.
+But her ideas about the child were foreign and reprehensible--dangerous
+even. The child was no worse than others, not as bad as some, for she
+had either by nature or training a delicate respect for the property of
+others. She never meddled. She asked few questions even when she stood
+by the kitchen table and watched the mysteries of cake and pie making
+and the delicacies of cooking. It was the right to herself that annoyed
+Elizabeth. People had hardly begun to suspect that children had any
+rights.
+
+"But if she went away? If she was swallowed up in the vortex of the more
+populous city"--greater, Salem would not have admitted. "If the child's
+soul was finally lost, would she be quite clear? Would she have done all
+that she could for her salvation?"
+
+She thought of it as she prepared the supper. She surveyed the
+inviting-looking table and then rang the bell. Eunice brought in a
+handful of flowers. Chilian came--and Miss Winn.
+
+"Cynthia has gone to bed, she does not want any supper," was her quiet
+announcement.
+
+Elizabeth would have sent her to bed supperless, and approved of a
+severer punishment.
+
+Miss Winn asked some questions about Boston.
+
+"I have quite a desire to see it," she added.
+
+Yes, she would no doubt plan for a removal. Then the child would be
+forever lost. And a Leverett, too, come of a strong God-fearing family!
+
+The child, when she had hidden her face on Rachel's bosom, gave some
+dry, hard sobs that shook her small frame. Rachel smoothed her hair,
+patted the shoulder softly, and said "Dear" in a caressing tone. Then
+had come a torrent of tears, a wild hysterical weeping. She did not
+attempt to check it, but took Cynthia in her arms as if she had been a
+baby.
+
+"I'm not going to that school any more," she said brokenly, after a
+while.
+
+"What happened, dear?"
+
+Cynthia raised her head. "It was very mean, as if I had done it on
+purpose! Why, I might have hurt myself;" indignantly.
+
+"How was it?" gently.
+
+And then the story came tumbling out. She saw a certain ludicrous aspect
+in it now, and laughed a little herself. "I couldn't help being saucy.
+And I thought she was going to strike me. Tommy Marsh began to laugh
+first. The slate broke----"
+
+"Are you quite sure you were not hurt?"
+
+"Well, my arm hurt a little at first, but it is all well now. But I
+shan't go back to school,--no, not even to please Cousin Leverett, and I
+like him best of any one."
+
+"I'm going down to supper, dear. Shall I bring up yours?"
+
+"I don't want any. I couldn't eat anything. And I can't have Cousin
+Elizabeth's sharp eyes looking at me. Oh, I'm glad I am not her little
+girl! I like you a million times better, Rachel;" hugging her
+rapturously. "I think I'd like to have a glass of milk. And may I lie on
+your little bed?"
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+She was asleep when Rachel came up and it was past nine when she woke,
+drank her milk, and went to bed for the night.
+
+How gaily the birds were singing the next morning, and the sunbeams were
+playing hide-and-seek through the branches that dance in the soft wind.
+All the air was sweet and the little girl couldn't help being
+light-hearted. She sang, too; not measured hymns of sorrow and
+repentance, but a gay lilt that followed the bird voices. And she went
+down to breakfast and said her good-morning cheerfully.
+
+"That child has the assurance of the Evil One," Elizabeth thought.
+
+Cynthia waylaid Cousin Chilian as he was going down the path.
+
+"I meant what I said yesterday. I won't go to that school any more. If
+there was some other--only--only I wish you could teach me until I could
+get up straight in all the things, so the other children wouldn't laugh
+when I made blunders. I suppose it does sound funny;" and a smile
+hovered about the seriousness.
+
+"We will consider another school," he returned kindly, smiling himself
+at the remembrance of the tempest of yesterday.
+
+She persuaded Rachel to go out to walk and they went over to the bridge.
+She had been so interested in the story of it. Before it had faded from
+the minds of men it was to be splendidly commemorated as a point of
+interest in the old town.
+
+"I like real stories," she said. "I don't understand about the war, but
+it is fine to think the Salem men made the British soldiers go back when
+all the while the cannon and other arms were hidden away. You don't
+mind, Rachel, if the Colonists did beat England, do you? I'm a Colonist,
+you know."
+
+"That is long ago, and we are all friends now. I think the Colonists
+were very brave and persevering and they deserved their liberty. I have
+heard your father talk about the war."
+
+"Oh, when do you suppose he will come? It seems so long to wait."
+
+Rachel smiled to keep the tears out of her eyes.
+
+Chilian Leverett made a call and a brief explanation to Dame Wilby. She
+admitted she had been hasty, but the children were unusually trying. She
+was getting to be an old body and maybe she hadn't as much patience as
+years ago. Cynthia said so many odd things that the children _would_
+giggle. She was slow in some things, and it seemed hard for her to learn
+tables, but she was not a bad child.
+
+So the tempest blew over. Elizabeth preserved a rather injured silence,
+but Eunice was cheerful and ready to entertain Cynthia with stories of
+the time when she was a little girl. Chilian arranged for her to spend
+most of the mornings with him when he was at home. She liked so very
+much to hear him read. The histories of that time were rather dry and
+long spun out, but he had a way of skipping the moralizing and the
+endless disquisitions and adding a little more vividness to people and
+incidents. It inspired him to watch her face changing with every
+emotion, her eyes deepening or brightening, and the slight mark in her
+forehead where lines of perplexity crossed. Then they would talk it all
+over. Often he was puzzled with her endless "whys" that he could not
+rightly explain to a child's limited understanding. Sometimes she would
+say, "Why, I would have done so," and he found her course would be on
+the side of the finest right, if not what was considered feasible.
+
+The spelling was a trial when the words were a little obscure. And
+though she had a wonderful knack of guessing at things, she surely was
+not born for a mathematician. He had a fine, quick mind in that respect.
+But the Latin was a delight to her and she delved away at the difficult
+parts for the sake of what she called the grand and beautiful sound. His
+rendering of it enchanted her.
+
+"I don't see any sense in educating her like a boy," declared Elizabeth.
+"And she can't do a decent bit of hemming. She ought to work a sampler
+and learn the letters to mark her own clothes. We did it before we were
+her age. Chilian thinks you can hire people to do these things for you,
+but it seems so helpless not to be able to do them for yourself.
+Housekeeping is of more account than all this folderol. She can never be
+a college professor."
+
+"But women _are_ keeping schools," interposed Eunice.
+
+"They don't teach Latin and all kinds of nonsense. That Miss Miller was
+here a few days ago to see if we didn't want our niece--folks are
+beginning to call her that--to see if we did not want her to take
+lessons on the spinet. I was so glad she did not appeal to Chilian,
+though he was out. I said, 'No,' very decidedly, 'that she had a good
+many things to learn before she tackled that.' And she said she ought
+to be trained while her fingers were flexible, and I said I thought
+washing would make them flexible enough. And there's fine ironing."
+
+"There's no need of either for her," protested Eunice.
+
+"Oh, you don't know. There might be a war again. And a trouble about
+money. I'm sure there is talk enough and the country raising loans all
+the time, one party pulling one way, one the other. People are getting
+awfully extravagant nowadays. Patty Conant gave seven dollars a yard for
+her new black silk, and there were twelve yards. It broke pretty well
+into a hundred, and there was some fancy gimp and fringe and the making.
+Of course, there's going to be two weddings in the family, and I don't
+suppose Patty will ever buy another handsome gown at her time of life.
+Abner brought her home that elegant crape shawl, with the fringe and
+netting nearly half a yard deep. Maybe 'twas a present, she let it go
+that way."
+
+"Of course, there's money enough among the Conants," Eunice commented
+gently.
+
+"As I said--one can't always tell what will come to pass, nor how much
+need you may have for your money. But I'm thankful my heart is not set
+on the pomps and vanities of this world. And children ought to be
+brought up to some useful habits."
+
+It was a fact that Cynthia did not take to the useful branches of
+womanly living. She abhorred hemming--and such work as she made of it!
+Miss Eunice groaned over it.
+
+"But you ought to have seen what I did two or three weeks ago," and she
+laughed with a gay ring. "Such stitches! When I made them nice on the
+top, they were dreadful underneath, and the cotton thread was almost
+black. What is the use of taking such little bits of stitches?"
+
+"Why--they look prettier. And--it is the right thing to do."
+
+"But you know Rachel can hem all the ruffles. And Cousin Elizabeth said
+ruffles were vanity. I'd like my frocks just as well to be plain."
+
+"There would have to be nice stitches in the hem."
+
+"Rachel didn't sew when she was little. A great lady took her to
+Scotland, to wait on her, to get her shawl when she was a little cool,
+and fan her when she was warm, and carry messages, and drive out in the
+carriage with her. They had servants for everything. And then--she was
+ten years old--she sent her to a school, where she learned everything.
+But she doesn't know all the tables and a great many other things."
+
+"But she knows what fits her for her station in life."
+
+Cynthia looked puzzled. "What is your station in life?" she asked with
+an accent of curiosity.
+
+"Oh, child, it is where you are placed; and the work of life is the
+duties that grow out of it--and your duty towards God."
+
+Cynthia dropped into thought.
+
+"Then my duty now is to study. I like it; that is, I like a good many
+things in it. And when my father comes home it will be changed, I
+suppose. You can't stay a little girl always."
+
+"But you will have to learn to keep house," returned Eunice.
+
+"Oh, I'll have some one to do that. Men never have to cook or keep
+house. Oh, yes; all the cooks on the ship were men. Wasn't that funny!"
+she continued.
+
+She laughed with so much innocent merriment that Miss Eunice laughed
+too.
+
+"I suppose you have to do various things in your life," she sagely
+remarked, after a pause.
+
+"Then you must learn to do the various things now."
+
+"I believe I won't ever get married. I'll live with father always, and
+we will have some one to keep the house, and Rachel will make the
+clothes. And I'll read aloud to father. We'll have a carriage and go out
+riding, and talk about India. I remember so many things just by thinking
+them over. Isn't it queer, when for a long time they have gone out of
+your mind? Oh, dear Cousin Eunice, what makes you sigh?"
+
+Cousin Eunice took off her glasses, wiped them vigorously, and then
+wiped her eyes.
+
+"It is a bad habit I have." But she was thinking of the dream of the
+little girl that could never come true.
+
+The two days in the week that Chilian went into Boston were long to
+Cynthia. She sat in his room and studied. He had given her a small table
+to herself and a shelf in a sort of miscellaneous bookcase. He found
+that she never trespassed and that she did really study her two hours,
+sometimes longer when the task was not so easily mastered. There _was_
+some of the old Leverett blood in her, but it had a picturesque strain.
+She placed every book at its prettiest, and her papers were gathered up
+and taken down to the kitchen when she was done with them. She was
+beginning to write quite well.
+
+Then in the afternoon she went to walk with Rachel to show her the
+curious places Cousin Leverett had told her about. And there were still
+beautiful woods around the town, where they found wild flowers and
+sassafras buds.
+
+Elizabeth was very much engrossed. She had cleared the garret spick and
+span, scrubbed up the floor, wiped off her quilting frames, and put in
+her white quilt, rolling up both sides so she could get at the middle.
+There was to be a circle, with clover leaves on the outside. Then long
+leaves rayed off from the exact middle. She had all the patterns marked
+out. When that was done a wreath went around next--oak leaves and
+acorns.
+
+She had groaned over the time the little girl devoted to Latin, but she
+never thought all this a waste of precious hours. She would never need
+it and she could not decide upon any relative she would like to leave it
+to. There was one quilt of this pattern in Salem and, though white
+quilts were made, few could afford to spend so much time over them.
+There were knitted quilts, with ball fringe around four sides, and the
+tester fringed the same way. Old ladies kept up their habits of industry
+in this manner when they were past hard work.
+
+Eunice had finished her basket quilt and it was really a work of art.
+But she was out in the flower garden a good deal in the early morning
+and late afternoon. Cynthia sometimes kept her company, but she was not
+an expert in gardening science. In the evening they sat out on the
+porch, and a neighbor called perhaps. Or she walked over to South River
+if it was moonlight. And, oh, how beautiful everything was!
+
+But it was not all quilting with Miss Elizabeth. In July wild green
+grapes were gathered for preserves. Cynthia thought it quite fun to help
+"pit" them. You cut them through the middle and with a small pointed
+knife took out the seeds. She tired of it presently and did not cut them
+evenly, beside she was afraid of cutting her thumb.
+
+Cousin Elizabeth went about getting dinner, which was quite a simple
+thing when Chilian was away, and at night they had a high tea.
+
+"I'll cut them," said Eunice, "and you can pick out the seeds. But maybe
+you are tired;" with a glance of solicitude.
+
+"Yes, I'm tired, but I'm going to keep straight on until dinner-time,"
+she answered pluckily.
+
+"You are a brave little girl."
+
+But Cousin Elizabeth said, "Well, for once you have made yourself
+useful."
+
+There was a great point of interest just then for the people on this
+side of the town. Front Street was the old river path that had followed
+the shore line. One end was known now as Wharf Street, and was beginning
+to be lined with docks. Up farther to what is now Essex Street there had
+stood a house with a history. Its owner had been a Tory, and just before
+the war broke out he entertained Governor Gage and the civil and
+military staff. Timothy Pickering had been summoned to the Governor's
+presence, but he kept his Excellency so long in an indecent passion that
+the town-meeting had to be adjourned. Troops were ordered up from the
+Neck and for a while an encounter seemed imminent. Later, when the
+Colonists were in the ascendency, Colonel Browne's estate was
+confiscated, and after the close of the war it was turned over to Mr.
+Elias Derby. Now he was removing it to make way for a much finer
+residence and, being a notably patriotic citizen, he did not enjoy the
+stigma of a Tory house. Parts were carried away as curiosities, and
+there were some beautiful carvings and fine newel posts that found a
+place in new homes as mementoes. Afterward, Mr. Derby built the
+handsomest and costliest house in Salem, with grounds laid out
+magnificently.
+
+Then came a very busy time. There was preserving that every housewife
+attended to for winter use, pickling of various kinds, for there was no
+canning stock in those days to eke out. There were some queer fruits
+from India, and preserved ginger in curious jars that are highly
+esteemed to this day, but they were luxuries. Then a house-cleaning
+season, not as bad as the spring, but still bad enough. And flower seeds
+to be saved, garden seeds to be dried, so the beautiful quilt was rolled
+up in a thick sheet and put away for the present.
+
+The little girl had made quite friends with the Upham children and went
+over there to tea all alone, but she felt very strange. They played tag
+and blind-man's buff, but Cynthia thought puss in the corner the most
+fun. Bentley was a nice big boy and very well mannered. Polly talked
+over her school and brought out her needlework, which was to be the
+bottom of a white frock. It would be only two yards round and she had
+almost a yard worked. Then she was making a sampler, with an oak and
+acorn vine around it, and it was to have four different kinds of
+lettering on it.
+
+"I don't know when I shall get it done," she said with a sigh.
+
+Betty declared Dame Wilby was crosser than ever and Priscilla Lee wasn't
+coming back, nor Margaret Rand, and she was coaxing mother to let her go
+elsewhere.
+
+After a while Cynthia declared she must go home. Cousin Chilian had said
+he would come for her, but the clock was striking nine and he had not
+come. He sometimes _did_ forget.
+
+Bentley took his hat and walked beside her in quite a mannish way.
+
+"I do hope you will come again," he said. "You were so pleasant when you
+were caught, and I do hate to have girls saying all the time, 'Now that
+isn't fair,' and squirming out."
+
+"But if you're playing you must take the best and the worst. I liked
+puss in the corner and didn't mind being the left-out pussy. I thought
+it was quite fun to hunt a corner again."
+
+Then they met Cousin Chilian, who had been playing a rather prolonged
+game of chess with a visitor. But Bentley kept on with them, and said
+good-night with a polite bow, adding, "She must come again, Mr.
+Leverett, we had such a very nice time."
+
+"And wasn't he nice!" exclaimed the child eagerly. "He is like some of
+the grown-up men. I like big boys much better than the little ones."
+
+He smiled to himself at that.
+
+Now there came cool nights and mornings, but the world was beautiful in
+its turning leaves, the fragrance of ripening fruit, and the late
+gorgeous-colored flowers. They took delightful walks and found so many
+curious places. Sometimes Bentley Upham met them and joined in their
+walks and talks. He thought the little girl knew a great deal. And that
+she had been in India, and China, and ever so many of the islands, was
+wonderful.
+
+"Don't you ever sew?" he asked one afternoon, as they were rambling
+about.
+
+"I don't like it much;" and she glanced up with fascinating archness. "I
+suppose I shall have to some day, but Cousin Leverett thinks there is
+time enough."
+
+"I'm glad you don't," in a hearty tone. "I don't have any good of Polly
+any more. What with her white frock, and some lace she is making for a
+cape, and forty other things, she never has time for a game of anything,
+or a nice walk. And she doesn't care about study, though her lessons are
+so different. I don't know another girl who studies Latin, and it's so
+nice to talk it over. How rapidly you must have learned."
+
+He looked at her in admiration.
+
+"Oh, I knew some of it before I came here. There was a chaplain in
+Calcutta who was--well, not exactly ill, but not well; and father took
+him with us on the vessel when he went for certain things, and he staid
+with us afterward. He used to read aloud, and it sounded so splendid!
+Then he taught me. But Cousin Leverett said it wasn't quite right, so I
+am going over it. And he is teaching me a little French."
+
+"You know they think women don't need to know much beside housekeeping
+and sewing. I just hate to hear about ruffles cut on the straight or
+bias, and I couldn't tell what Dacca muslin, or jaconet, or dimity was
+to save myself. And eyelet work and French knots and run lace--that's
+what the big girls who come to see Polly talk about. But I like books,
+and studies, and different countries. I'd like to travel. But I don't
+know that I want to be a sea captain."
+
+They found some queer old houses that were odd enough. Mr. Leverett said
+they were almost two hundred years old, and that at first the place kept
+the old Indian name, Naumkeag. But the Reverend Francis Higginson gave
+it a new name out of the Bible--"In Salem also is His tabernacle." The
+early pilgrims built a chapel at once.
+
+"How close the houses are!"
+
+It was a row that had survived the hand of improvement. There was a huge
+central chimney-stack, big enough for a modern factory, and the house
+seemed built around it. The second story overhung the first, and in some
+of them were small dormer windows looking like bird houses. And the
+little panes of greenish glass seemed to make windows all framework.
+
+Cynthia was much interested in the Roger Williams house, and the story
+of the old minister.
+
+"Why, I thought religion made people good and pleasant----" Then she
+checked herself, for often Cousin Elizabeth was _not_ pleasant. And she
+seemed more religious than Cousin Eunice. And Cousin Chilian rarely
+scolded or said a cross word--he never talked about religion, but he
+went to church on Sunday; they all did. She studied the Catechism, she
+could learn easily when she had a mind to, but she didn't understand it
+at all. She shocked Elizabeth by her irreverent questions. There was the
+old horn-book primer with--
+
+          "In Adam's fall
+           We sinned all."
+
+"I don't see how that could be when we were not there!" she said almost
+defiantly.
+
+"It means the nature we inherited."
+
+"But I don't think that fair!"
+
+"You don't know, you never can understand until you are in a state of
+grace. Don't ask such impertinent questions. You are a little heathen
+child."
+
+Then she asked Cousin Chilian what "a state of grace" meant.
+
+"I think it is the willingness to do right, to be truthful, kindly,
+obliging. It is all comprised in the Golden Rule--to love God with all
+your heart and your neighbor as yourself, not to do anything to him that
+you would not like to have done to yourself, and to do to him whatever
+you would like him to do for you. That is enough for a little girl."
+
+"That sounds like Confucius," she said thoughtfully.
+
+But she went back to Roger Williams when Bentley said he was one of his
+heroes.
+
+"What did he do?" she asked, interested.
+
+"Well, he founded the City of Providence. And if William Penn is to be
+honored for founding a city of brotherly love, Roger Williams deserves
+it for establishing a city where different sects should agree without
+persecuting each other. You see, they banished him from Salem back to
+England because he thought a man had some right to his own opinions, so
+long as he worshipped God. So he went to Providence instead. He walked
+all the way with just his pocket compass to guide him, and how he must
+have worked to make a dwelling-place for himself and his friends in the
+dead of winter! There were some Quakers already there, who had been
+banished from other settlements, and they all resolved to be friendly.
+Yes, I call him a hero!"
+
+Cynthia studied the house with the little courtyard and the great tree
+shading it.
+
+"Polly said it was the Witch House," she remarked.
+
+"That was because there were trials for witchcraft. You are too young to
+hear about that," Chilian said decisively, with a glance at Bentley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SORROW'S CROWN OF SORROW
+
+
+Occasionally they went down to the warehouse, and while Chilian was busy
+some of the captains or mates would speak to her. They knew about her
+father and one sad fact she did not know. For she had settled in her
+mind that Captain Corwin would bring him back and that it would take a
+long, long while. So she tried to be content and if not teasing or
+fretting was one of the ways of being good, she tried her utmost to keep
+to that. She was too brave to tell falsehoods to shield herself from any
+inadvertent wrongdoing, even if Cousin Elizabeth did sometimes say:
+
+"You ought to be soundly whipped. To spare the rod is to spoil the
+child."
+
+She thought if anybody ever did whip her she should hate him all the
+rest of her life. Servants and workmen were beaten in India, and it
+seemed degrading. She did not know that Cousin Chilian had insisted that
+she should never be struck. He was understanding more every day how her
+father had loved her, and finding sweet traits in her unfolding.
+
+She liked these rough bronzed men to touch their odd hats to her and
+call her Missy. Some of them had seen her in Calcutta and knew her
+father. And when she said, "It takes a long, long while to go there and
+come back, but when Captain Corwin brings him he is going to live here
+and will never go to sea any more"--"No, that he never will, missy;" and
+the sailor drew his hand across his eyes.
+
+Oh, how full the wharves were with shipping! Flags and pennons waved,
+and white sails; others, gray with age and weather, flapped in the wind.
+She liked to see them start out; she always sent a message by them in
+the full faith of childhood. And there were the fishermen in the cove
+lower down. Fishing was quite a great business.
+
+Cousin Giles had made his visit and spent two whole days down in the
+warehouse, when they had not taken her. But she helped Cousin Eunice cut
+the stems of the sweet garden herbs for drying, and the others for
+perfumery. There was lavender, the blossoms had been gathered long ago,
+and sweet marjoram and sweet clover. She always gathered the full-blown
+rose leaves and sewed them up in little bags and laid them among the
+household stores. Everything was so fragrant. Cynthia thought she liked
+it better than sandalwood and the pungent Oriental perfumes.
+
+Then came the autumnal storms, when the vessels hugged the docks
+securely at anchor. The house was chilly all through and fires were in
+order. Some two or three miles below there was a wreck of an East
+Indiaman, and for days fragments floated around. Some lives were lost,
+and the little girl shuddered over the accounts.
+
+All the foliage began to turn and fall. The late flowers hung their
+heads. It had been a beautiful autumn, people said to pay up for the
+late spring.
+
+There had been a little discussion about a school again.
+
+"She seems so small, and in some things diffident," Chilian said. "The
+winters are long and cold, and she has not been used to them. Cousin
+Giles thinks her very delicate."
+
+"She isn't like children raised here, but she's quite as strong as
+common. She oughtn't be pampered and made any more finicking than she
+is. A girl almost ten. What is she going to be good for, I'd like to
+know?"
+
+Cousin Giles had not made much headway with her. He was large and strong
+with an emphatic voice, and a head of thick, strong white hair, a rather
+full face, and penetrating eyes. He had advised about investments,
+though he thought no place had the outlook of Boston. But Salem was
+ahead of her in foreign trade.
+
+Chilian Leverett felt very careful of the little girl. For if she died a
+large part of her fortune came to him. He really wished it had not been
+left that way. There was an East India Marine Society that had many
+curiosities--stored in rooms on the third floor of the Stearns building.
+It had a wider scope than that and was to assist widows and orphans of
+deceased members, who were all to be those "who had actually navigated
+the seas beyond Cape of Good Hope, or Cape Horn, as masters or
+supercargoes of vessels belonging to Salem." To this Anthony had
+bequeathed many curiosities and a gift. There was talk of enlarging its
+scope, which was begun shortly after this.
+
+Matters had settled to an amicable basis in the Leverett house. Rachel
+had won the respect of Elizabeth, who prayed daily for her conversion
+from heathendom and that she might see the claims the Christian religion
+had upon her. Eunice and she were more really friendly. She made some
+acquaintances outside and most people thought she must be some relation
+of the captain's. She had proved herself very efficient in several cases
+of illness, for in those days neighbors were truly neighborly.
+
+Cynthia did shrink from the cold, though there were good fires kept in
+the house. This winter Chilian had a stove put up in the hall, very much
+against Elizabeth's desires. Quite large logs could be slipped in and
+they would lie there and smoulder, lasting sometimes all night. It was a
+great innovation and extravagance, though wood seemed almost
+inexhaustible in those days. And it was considered unhealthy to sleep in
+warm rooms, though people would shut themselves up close and have no
+fresh air.
+
+Then the snow came, but it was a greater success in the inland towns,
+and there were sledding and sleigh-riding. The boys and girls had great
+times building forts and having snowballing contests. But the little
+girl caught a cold and had a cough that alarmed her guardian a good deal
+and made him more indulgent than ever, to Elizabeth's disgust.
+
+She was not really ill, only pale and languid and seemed to grow
+thinner. She was much fairer than any one could have supposed and her
+eyes looked large and wistful. Chilian put some pillows in the big
+rocking-chair and tilted it back so that she could almost lie down on
+it.
+
+"You are so good to me," she would say with her sweet, faint smile.
+
+Bentley came in now and then of an evening, and she liked to hear what
+they were doing at school. Polly, too, made visits; they had a
+half-holiday on Saturday. She always brought some work, and Elizabeth
+considered her a very industrious girl. She was going to a birthday
+party of one of her mates.
+
+"What do they do at parties?" inquired the little girl.
+
+"Oh, they play games. There's stagecoach. Everybody but one has a seat.
+He blows a horn and sings out, 'Stage for Boston,' or any place. Then
+every one has to change seats. Such a scrambling and scurrying time! and
+the one who gets left has to take the horn."
+
+"It's something like puss in the corner."
+
+"Only ever so many can play this. Then there's 'What's my thought like?'
+That's rather hard, but funny. I like twirling the platter. If you
+don't catch it when it comes near you, you must pay a forfeit. And
+redeeming them is lots of fun, for you are told to do all sorts of
+ridiculous things. Then there's some goodies and mottoes and you can
+exchange with a boy. But Kate Saltonstall's big sister had a party where
+they danced. Eliza wanted some dancing, but her mother said so many
+people did not approve of it for children."
+
+"And don't you have some one to come and dance for you?"
+
+"Oh, what a queer idea! The fun is in dancing yourself with a real nice
+boy. Some people think it awfully wrong. Do you, Miss Winn?"
+
+"No, indeed. When I was a child in England we went out and danced on the
+green. Everybody did. And when there were doings at the great
+houses--like Christmas, and weddings, and coming of age--the ladies, in
+their silks and satins and laces, came down in the servants' hall and
+danced with the butler and the footmen, and my lord took out some of the
+maids. I don't think dancing hurts any one."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say that, Miss Winn. They are talking of having a
+dancing-class in school. I hope mother will let me join it."
+
+"And they teach it in schools there."
+
+"And why shouldn't they here?" said Polly.
+
+To be sure. Cynthia was much interested and made Polly promise to come
+again and tell her all about it. Old Salem was awakening rapidly from
+her rigid torpor.
+
+"I wonder if I could ever have a party," she said to Cousin Leverett
+that evening. "When father comes home we might have what they did at the
+Perkinses when they went in their new place--a house-warming. Is that
+like a party?"
+
+"About the same thing."
+
+"Cousin Elizabeth thinks it wicked. Wouldn't she think dancing wicked?"
+
+"I am afraid she would."
+
+Cynthia sighed. No, she couldn't have a party here.
+
+She waited quite eagerly for Polly's account. The little girl was in her
+own room. Miss Winn had gone out to get some medicine. Cynthia tried to
+be well sometimes, so she would not have to take the nauseous stuff. No
+one had invented medicated sugar pills at that time. She liked Cousin
+Elizabeth's cough syrup.
+
+Polly was overflowing with spirits.
+
+"Oh, I want to be big, right away. Bella Saltonstall was there and she's
+going into company next winter, she says. And she showed us some of the
+dancing steps and they just bewitch you. It's like this"--and Polly
+picked up her frock in a dainty manner and whirled about the vacant
+spaces in the room.
+
+"But doesn't it tire you dreadfully? The girls in India stand still a
+great deal more and just sway about. They come in and dance for you."
+
+"Tire you! Oh, no. That's the great fun, to do it yourself. Bella said
+it was--ex--something, and the word is in the spelling-book, but I never
+can remember the long words. Oh, I just wish I was fifteen and wasn't
+going to school any more. And then there's keeping company and getting
+married, and having your setting out. School seems stupid. There were
+two boys who wanted to come home with me, but mother said Ben must. Then
+I wished--well, I wished he was in college. He wants to go. Father says
+Mr. Leverett has infected him with the craze."
+
+"If I was a boy, I'd like to go. Cousin Leverett is going to take me to
+Harvard next summer when they have their grand closing time."
+
+"I'd rather be a girl and have a nice beau."
+
+Plainly Polly had been saturated with dissipation.
+
+Spring was suggesting her advent. The days were longer. The snow was
+disappearing.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Leverett, look--there are some buds on the trees!" she
+cried.
+
+"Yes. You can see them at intervals through the winter. They are wise
+little things, and swell and then shrink back in the cold."
+
+"I'm so glad. I can soon go out. I get very tired some days. I like
+summer best."
+
+"Yes. I do hope we shall have an early spring."
+
+She looked up with smiling gladness.
+
+That afternoon she had fallen asleep in the big chair. How almost
+transparent she was. The long lashes lay on the whiteness of her
+cheek--yes, it was really white. And there was very little color in her
+lips.
+
+Abner Hayes came up from the warehouse with some papers the _Ulysses_
+had just brought in.
+
+"That the captain's poor little girl?"
+
+"Yes; she's asleep. She hasn't been very well this winter, but the first
+nice balmy day I shall take her out driving. I've been almost afraid to
+have the air blow on her."
+
+"Yes, she ought to live and enjoy all that big fortune. It's a thousand
+pities the captain couldn't have come back and enjoyed it with her. But
+we must all go when our time comes. You never hear a hard word said
+about him, and sure's there's a heaven he is in it."
+
+Chilian held up his finger. Then he signed a paper that had to go back,
+and asked if the cargo of the _Ulysses_ was in good shape.
+
+Elizabeth called him downstairs after that. There was a poor man wanting
+some sort of a position and Chilian promised to look out for him. He had
+been porter in a store, but the heavy lifting made him cough. He would
+have to get something lighter.
+
+When he returned Cynthia was standing by his table, white as a little
+ghost. He almost dropped into the chair.
+
+"Was I dreaming, or did that man say my father couldn't come back to
+Salem, that he--that he was----"
+
+She swayed almost as if she would fall. He drew her down on his knee and
+her head sank on his shoulder. She was so still that he was startled.
+How many times he had wondered how he would get her told. Perhaps it had
+been wrong to wait.
+
+"My little girl! My little Cynthia----"
+
+"Wait," she breathed, and he held her closer. He had come to love her
+very much, though he had taken her unwillingly.
+
+"Is it true? But no one would say such a thing if it were not. I had
+been asleep. I woke just as he said that. Perhaps I had been dreaming
+about our being together. And it seemed at first as if my tongue was
+stiff and I couldn't even make a sound. Did he go to heaven without me?"
+
+Oh, what should he say to comfort her! She had so many feelings far
+under the surface.
+
+"My little dear," and his voice was infinitely fond, "I want to tell you
+that he loved your mother tenderly. No one could have been better loved.
+In the course of a few hours she was snatched away from him. You were so
+little--five years ago. I doubt if there was ever a day in which he did
+not think of her. When you are grown and come to love some one with the
+strength of your whole heart, you will understand how great it is. And
+when the summons came for him his first thought was that he should see
+her, and with the next he must find a new home for his little girl, so
+he gave you to me. It is very hard just now, but you must think how
+happy they are together. Perhaps they both know you are here, where you
+will be cared for and made happy, for we all love you. Every one has not
+the same way of showing love, but Cousin Elizabeth has done everything
+she could for you this winter. And we don't want to lose you. You won't
+grudge them a few years together in that happy place?"
+
+"Oh, are you quite sure there _is_ a heaven?"
+
+Oh, Cynthia, you are not the first one who has asked to have it
+certified.
+
+"Yes, dear; very sure," in the tone of faith.
+
+"He loved mother very much?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+There was a long silence. He felt the slow beating of her little heart.
+
+"Then I ought to be content, since he gave me to you, when he knew he
+was going away."
+
+"It would have been very sad if you had been left alone there. Out of
+his great love he planned it this way, thinking the tidings would not
+come so hard after a while. And now you can always recall him as you saw
+him last and just think, in a moment of time God called and he stepped
+over the narrow space that seems such a mystery to us and met _her_. I
+wish we didn't invest death with so much that is painful, for it is
+God's way of calling us to a better land where there are no more
+partings. Sometime you and I will go over to them."
+
+"I shouldn't feel afraid with you," she commented simply.
+
+When the tea bell rang she asked to be carried to her room and laid on
+Rachel's little bed. He kissed her gently and turned away.
+
+The next was his day in Boston. But late in the afternoon, after Miss
+Eunice had been visiting her an hour or so, she went to the study and
+sat by the window, where she could see him come. He glanced up and she
+waved her hand daintily. All day he had been wondering how he should
+find her.
+
+"I haven't coughed but a very little to-day," she exclaimed. "Cousin
+Elizabeth made some new syrup. And the doctor was in. He said I was a
+little lazy, that I must be more energetic."
+
+"I've been ordering a new carriage to-day. The old one was hardly worth
+repairing. And when you are stronger I think I'll buy a gentle pony and
+we can go out riding. You would not be afraid after a little?"
+
+"Not with you."
+
+Her confidence was very sweet.
+
+"I'm going down to tea to-night. I was down at noon."
+
+"Oh, you are improving. I hope there will come some warm weather and
+balmy airs."
+
+"It was beautiful last spring. You know I never saw a real spring
+before."
+
+She was bearing her loss and her sorrow beautifully. All day she had
+been thinking of the joy of those two when they met on the confines of
+that beautiful world. It made heaven seem so near, so real. Sometimes
+the tears came to her eyes. She was Cousin Chilian's little girl, so why
+should she feel lonely!
+
+Once in a number of years spring comes early. It did this time, at the
+close of the century. People shook their heads and talked about
+"weather-breeders," and mentioned snow as late as May, when fruit trees
+had been in bloom. But nature had turned over a bright, clear leaf, that
+made the book of time fairly shine.
+
+The carriage came and Cynthia was taken out. Miss Elizabeth wrapped her
+up like a mummy, and would put a brick, swathed in coverings, in the
+bottom for her feet. He had taken the ladies out occasionally, but of
+late years the sisters had been so busy they had little time for
+pleasure, they thought.
+
+They crossed North Bridge and went up Danvers way. Oh, how lovely it was
+with the trees in baby leaf, and some wild things blossoming. And even
+then industry had planted itself. There on the farther bank of Waters
+River was the iron mill, where Dr. Nathan Read invented his scheme for
+cut nails. And he built a paddle-wheel steamboat that was a success
+before Robert Fulton tried his. And they passed the Page house, where
+General Gage had his office, and Madam Page had tea on the roof, because
+they had promised not to use tea in the house.
+
+That amused Cynthia and he also told her of the woman, when tea first
+came to the country, who boiled the leaves and seasoned them, passing
+them around to her guests, who didn't think they were anything much in
+the vegetable line and too expensive ever to become general.
+
+Birds sang about them, flocks of wild geese had started on their
+northward journey. What a wonderful world it was! And her father had
+been a boy here in Salem village, had lived in Cousin Chilian's house in
+the father's time, and her mother had been married in the stately
+parlor. Why, she could dream of their being real guests of the place.
+How odd she should come to live here. The life in India would be the
+dream presently.
+
+She was very tired when Chilian lifted her out of the carriage and took
+her upstairs. Rachel put her to bed for a while and gave her a cup of
+hot tea--mint and catnip--which was a great restorer, or so considered,
+in those days. She came down to supper and was quite bright.
+
+Every day she improved a little. Eunice said she was getting 'climated.
+
+Elizabeth wondered if she had any deep feeling. She had expected to see
+her "take on" terribly. Chilian begged her not to disturb the child's
+faith that both parents were in heaven.
+
+"Letty Orne, that was, might have been one of the elect, but sea
+captains are seldom considered safe in the fold, as children of grace. I
+never heard that he had any evidence. And 'tisn't safe to count on
+meeting them unless you've had some sign."
+
+"We must leave a good many of these things to God. His ways are better
+than our short-sighted wisdom."
+
+Elizabeth was never quite sure of Chilian. So much study, and reading,
+and college talk, and the new theories, and what they called
+discoveries, were enough to unsettle one's faith, and she feared for
+him. Younger children than Cynthia had gone through the throes of
+conviction--she had herself, and she longed to see her in this state.
+
+But the child was quite her olden self. What with the change of climate
+and her illness she was many shades fairer, and her hair was losing its
+queer sunburned color. Her thin frame began to fill out, her face grew
+rounder, and her smile was sweetness itself.
+
+"But she hasn't grown a mite since she came. Leverett people are all of
+a fair size. I don't know a little runt among them," persisted
+Elizabeth.
+
+"I wish I could grow," she sighed in confidence to Chilian.
+
+"Never mind. Then you will always be my little girl," he would answer
+consolingly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LESSONS OF LIFE
+
+
+Even Chilian wondered that the little girl took the death of her father
+so calmly. Elizabeth called it unnatural and questioned whether the
+child had any deep feeling.
+
+"I don't believe she's shed a tear. And, Eunice, the child ought to go
+in black."
+
+The child was trying to get used to changed ideas. If her mother was
+glad and happy, now that they were again united, why should she be
+sorry? It seemed selfish to her as if she grudged them the joy. And
+Cousin Chilian was trying every way to entertain her, to help her on to
+perfect recovery. Sometimes, when she sat alone in the study, the soft
+eyes would overflow and the tears course silently down her cheeks. She
+never cried in the tempestuous way of some children. But she knew now
+she had counted a good deal on their having a home together. Rachel
+would keep the house and she and her father would take walks and have a
+garden, where she could cut flowers and have them in the house. Cousin
+Elizabeth said they made a litter. And now she should never go down to
+the wharf and see him standing on the deck, and wave her hand to him,
+as she used when he went on short journeys in India. They would have a
+low carry-all and ride around, as she would tell him all she had learned
+about Salem. And they would have people in to drink tea and have pretty
+dishes on the table. Perhaps he would give her a party. But she didn't
+know any children, except the Uphams. It might be better to go to school
+so that she could get acquainted.
+
+Chilian was a good deal startled about the black garments.
+
+"She is so little and thin," he objected. "I never did like children in
+black; it seems as if you weighted them down with woe. And he has been
+dead so many months now."
+
+"But one ought to pay decent respect to a custom sanctioned by all
+civilized people. There will be a talk about it. Folks may think it our
+fault."
+
+"I do not believe half a dozen people would notice it. It's only a
+custom after all. I never did like it. We will see how she feels about
+it."
+
+"Chilian, you make that child of as much importance as if she was a
+woman grown. You will have your hands full by and by. She will think
+every one must bow down to her and consult her whims and fancies."
+
+"We will see;" nodding indifferently.
+
+He didn't want her around in garments of woe. Very gently he mentioned
+the subject.
+
+She glanced up out of sweet, entreating eyes. She had been standing by
+him, looking over a very choice book of engravings.
+
+"Yes," she returned. "Rachel spoke of it. And you know there are some
+people who wear white, and some who put on yellow. Black isn't a nice
+color. Do you like it?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It is the inside of me that aches now and then, when I think I shall
+never see him come sailing back, that I must be a long while without him
+until I go to their land. But he must be very happy with mother, and
+that is what I think of when I feel how hard it is;" and the tears stole
+softly down her cheeks. "I have Rachel and you, and he said you would
+always love me and care for me. But I try not to feel sorry, and if I
+had on a black frock I couldn't help but think of it all the time. Then
+I should be sorry inside and outside both, and is it right to make
+yourself unhappy when you believe people have gone to heaven?"
+
+She said it so simply that he was deeply moved. She had been alone with
+her sorrow all this time, when they had thought her indifferent.
+
+"You need not wear black--I wish you would not. I want you to get real
+well and happy. And you are a brave little girl to think of them and
+refrain from grief."
+
+She wiped away the tears lest they should fall on the book.
+
+"At first it was quite dreadful to me. I couldn't say anything. Then I
+remembered how we used to talk of mother, as if she was only in the next
+room. And then I sit here and think, when the sky is such a splendid
+blue and there come little white rifts in it, as if somewhere it opened,
+I can almost see them. Can't people come back for a few moments?"
+
+"Only in dreams, I imagine."
+
+"I can _almost_ see them. And they are so glad to be together. And I
+know father says, 'Cynthia will come by and by.' But twenty years, or
+thirty years, is a long while to wait."
+
+Perhaps she wouldn't need to wait so long, he thought, as he noted the
+transparent face.
+
+"And now I should be sorry to go away from you," she said, with grave
+sweetness.
+
+"I think your father meant you should stay a long while with me when he
+gave you to me;" and he pressed her closer to his heart.
+
+So she did not wear mourning, to Elizabeth's very real displeasure.
+There was no further talk about the school, but she did try to sew a
+little and began the sampler. Cousin Eunice was her guide here. She
+brought out hers that was over fifty years old, and all the colors were
+fading.
+
+"I wonder if I shall live fifty years," she mused.
+
+Driving about was her great entertainment. You could go to Marblehead,
+which was a peninsula. There were the fishery huts and the men curing
+and drying fish. Sometimes they took passage in one of the numerous
+sailing vessels and went in and out the irregular shore, and saw Boston
+from the bay. It seemed in those times as if it might get drowned out,
+there was so much water around it.
+
+"And if it should float off out to sea, some day," she half inquired,
+laughingly.
+
+He was glad to hear her soft, sweet laugh again.
+
+She thought she liked Salem best, and even now people began to talk of
+old Salem, there had been so many improvements since the time Governor
+Bradford had written:
+
+          "Almost ten years we lived here alone,--
+          In other places there were few or none;
+          For Salem was the next of any fame
+          That began to augment New England's name."
+
+And then it went by the old Indian name and was called Naumkeag. And she
+found that it was older than Boston, and had been the seat of government
+twice, and that Governor Burnett, finding Boston unmanageable, had
+convened the General Court here for two years. That was in 1728, and now
+it was 1800.
+
+"But no one lives a hundred years," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes; there are a number of persons who have lived that long. Now
+and then a person lives in three centuries, is born the last year of
+one, goes through a whole century, and dies in the next one."
+
+"What a long, long while!" she sighed.
+
+And there was the old Court House where the Stamp Act was denounced. She
+wanted to know all about that, and he was fond of explaining things,
+the sort of teacher habit, but there was nothing dogmatic about it. Here
+were houses where the Leveretts had lived, third or fourth cousins who
+had married with the Graingers, and the Lyndes, and the Saltonstalls,
+and the Hales. It is so in the course of a hundred or two years, when
+emigration does not come in to disturb the purity of the blood.
+
+The little girl really began to improve. Her hair was taking on a
+brighter tint and in the warm weather the uneven ends curled about her
+forehead in dainty rings, her complexion was many shades fairer, her
+cheeks rounded out, and her chin began to show the cleft in it. She was
+more like her olden self, quite merry at times.
+
+The summer went on as usual. Gardening, berry-picking, and she helped
+with the gooseberries, the briery vines she did not like. There were
+jars of jam and preserves, rose leaves to gather, and all the mornings
+were crowded full. Often in the afternoon she went up in the garret to
+see Miss Eunice spin--sometimes on the big wheel, at others with flax on
+the small wheel. She liked the whirring sound, and it was a mystery to
+her how the thread came out so fine and even.
+
+Elizabeth had taken the white quilt out of its wrappings, it did not get
+finished the summer before. A neighbor had let her copy a new pattern
+for the border that had come from New York. And she heard there had
+been imported white woven quilts with wonderful figures in them.
+
+"Then one wouldn't have to quilt any more. Shan't you be glad, Cousin
+Elizabeth?"
+
+"Glad!" She gave a kind of snort and pushed the needle into her finger,
+and had to stop lest a drop of blood might mar the whiteness. "Well, I'm
+not as lazy as that comes to, and I don't see how they can put much
+beauty in them. You can change blue and white and show a pattern, but
+where it is all white! Why, you couldn't tell it from a tablecloth."
+
+It was warm up in the garret, and what with drying herbs, and the sun
+pouring on the shingles, there was a rather close, peculiar air. Cynthia
+stood by the open window, where the sweet summer wind went by, laden
+with the fragrance of newly cut grasses and the silk of the corn that
+was just tasselling out. The hills rose up, tree-crowned; white clouds
+floated by overhead, and out beyond was the great ocean that led to
+other countries--to India she thought of so often.
+
+Oh, how the birds sang! She was so sorry Cousin Eunice had to sit and
+spin, when there was such a beautiful world all around, and Cousin
+Elizabeth pricked her fingers quilting. She heard her sigh, but she did
+not dare look around. She had that nice sense of delicacy, rather
+unusual in a child. But then she wasn't an everyday child.
+
+"Cynthia," called Rachel from the foot of the stairs, "don't you want to
+go out for a walk? They've been unloading the _Mingo_, and they have a
+store of new things at the Merrits'."
+
+That was the great East India emporium.
+
+"Oh, yes!" She skipped across the floor and ran downstairs lightly.
+
+"That child's like a whirlwind," exclaimed Elizabeth crossly.
+
+"But we ought to be glad she's so much better. I was really afraid in
+the spring we wouldn't have her long."
+
+"Oh, the Leverett stock is tough."
+
+"But her mother died young."
+
+"Of that horrid India fever. No, I didn't truly think she would die. If
+she had, I wonder where all the money would go? Chilian is awful
+close-mouthed about it. But it would have to go somewhere. 'Tisn't at
+all likely he'd leave word for it to be thrown back in the sea."
+
+"No; oh, no."
+
+"There's some talk about missionaries going out to try to convert the
+heathen. But Giles thinks it would cost more than it would amount to.
+Giles has got way off; seems to me religion's dying out since they've
+begun to preach easy ways of getting to heaven and letting the bars down
+here and there. There's no struggle and sense of conviction nowadays;
+you just take it up as a business. And that child talks about heaven as
+if she'd had a glimpse of it and saw her father and mother there. Letty
+Orne was a church member in her younger days, but I don't believe the
+captain ever was. And they who don't repent will surely perish."
+
+Eunice sighed. She could never get used to the thought that thousands of
+souls were brought into the world to perish eternally.
+
+Cynthia tied on her Leghorn hat. It did have some black ribbon on it,
+and the strings were passed under her chin and tied at one side. That
+and her silken gown gave her a quaint appearance, rather striking as
+well.
+
+They walked down the street and turned corners. There was quite a
+procession of ladies bound for the same place. If they had been all
+buyers, Mr. Merrit would have made quite a fortune. But he was glad to
+have them come. They would describe the stock to their neighbors, and
+perhaps decide on what they wanted for themselves.
+
+"Ah, Miss Winn!" exclaimed a pleasant-faced woman. "And that is Captain
+Leverett's little girl? Why, she looks as if she was quite well again.
+We heard of her being so poorly. I suppose the shock of her father's
+death was dreadful! Poor little thing! And she's to be quite an heiress,
+I heard. What are they going to do with her? Won't she be sent to Boston
+to school?"
+
+"Oh, I think not. Mr. Leverett has been teaching her a little."
+
+They had fairly to elbow their way in. Long counters were piled with
+goods. Silks, laces, sheerest of muslins embroidered beautifully, lace
+wraps, India shawls, jewelry, caps, collars, handkerchiefs, stockings,
+slippers that were dainty enough for a Cinderella.
+
+And all down one side were ranged tables, and jars, and vases, and
+articles one could hardly find a name for. Such exquisite carving, such
+odd figures painted and embroidered on silk, birds the like of which
+were never seen on land or sea, dragons that flew, and crawled, and
+climbed trees, and disported themselves on waves.
+
+"Oh, it looks like home," cried Cynthia, for the moment forgetting
+herself. And she kept sauntering round among the beautiful things, her
+heart growing strangely light, and her pulses throbbing with a sort of
+joy.
+
+She was almost hidden by a great pile of tapestry. The Indians had found
+some secrets of beauty as well as France, if they did make it with
+infinite pains. And this was made with the little hand-looms and joined
+together so neatly and the colors blended so harmoniously that it was
+like a dream. Only the little girl did not like the dragons and strange
+animals. She had never seen any real ones like them. They were in the
+stories Nalla used to tell.
+
+Then some one else spoke to Miss Winn. "Is your little charge here?" she
+asked. "I'm quite anxious to see her. I've called twice on the
+Leveretts, and really asked for her once when they said she was quite
+ill. But I saw her out in the carriage with--isn't it her uncle? No?
+And she's to be very well to do, I've heard. The idea of the Leverett
+women undertaking to bring up a child! They're good as gold and some of
+the best housekeepers in Salem, but I dare say they'll teach her to knit
+stockings, and make bedquilts, and braid rag mats, and do fifty-year-old
+things--make a regular little Puritan of her. I knew her mother quite
+well before she was married. Doesn't seem as if we were near of an age
+and went to school together. But some of the Ornes married in our line.
+And I was married when I was seventeen, and now I'm a grandmother. How
+the years do fly on! And she had to die out in that heathen land; he
+too. Wasn't it odd about sending her here beforehand? I do want to see
+her."
+
+"She is somewhere about, interested in all these foreign things." Miss
+Winn was not quite sure of the chattering woman. She had learned that
+the Leverett ladies were exclusive, whether from inclination or lack of
+time. They asked their minister and a few old family friends in to tea
+on rare occasions, and then it was cooking and baking and cleaning up
+the choice old silver and dusting and polishing, and the next day
+clearing up. Everything out of the routine made so much extra work.
+Among the few English-speaking people in India there had been a sort of
+free and easy sociability.
+
+Cynthia meanwhile had slipped around the end of the counter and came up
+to them. She wanted to see the woman who had been to school with her
+mother. Then her mother was a little girl, perhaps no older than she.
+Did she like it? Cynthia wondered.
+
+"This is Captain Leverett's little daughter," Rachel announced rather
+stiffly.
+
+"My--but you don't favor your mother at all. I'm Mrs. Turner and I knew
+her off and on. We lived about thirty miles above here. Then her folks
+died and she went to Boston, but she used to be at the Leveretts' a good
+deal. I married and came here. I'm living up North River way and have a
+house full of children--like steps--and one grandchild, and I'm just on
+the eve of thirty-seven. I've one little girl about your age, but she's
+ever so much bigger. I'd like you to be friends with her. The next older
+is a girl, too. Why, you'd have real nice times if the old aunties were
+willing. Do they keep her strict? And she's going to be a considerable
+heiress, I heard. I wonder where her eyes came from? They're not
+Leverett eyes, and her mother's were a clear blue, real china blue, but
+then there's different blues in china," and she laughed. "Sad about the
+captain, wasn't it? He should have lived to enjoy his fortune, and now
+his little girl will have it all. I must come and scrape acquaintance
+for the sake of my girls. You'd like them, I know, they're full of fun.
+We're not strait-laced people--that's going out of date."
+
+Then she passed on. They wandered about a little more among the vases
+and jars and the paintings on silk. The air was heavy with sandalwood,
+and attar of rose, and incense. The fragrance seemed never to die out of
+those old things that became family heirlooms.
+
+"Come," Rachel said, taking her by the hand. It was quite late in the
+afternoon now, and the shadows of everything were growing longer. She
+could not understand why it was at first, but now she knew. And the sun
+would be round there in Asia presently. In her secret heart she still
+believed the sun went round and the earth stood still, for in the
+movement people _must_ slip off. But then what held it in the air?
+Cousin Chilian had a globe, but you see there was a strong wire through
+the middle, fastened to the frame at both ends. Perhaps the earth was
+fastened somewhere! She liked to make it revolve on its axis, and in
+imagination she crossed the oceans, and seas, and capes, and found her
+father again.
+
+The stage had just come in. They paused on the corner, waiting for
+Cousin Chilian. Some one was with him--yes, it was Cousin Giles
+Leverett.
+
+"Well, little woman," he began, "so I find you out here meandering
+round, and so much improved that I hardly know you. We were afraid in
+the winter you were going to slip away and leave all this fortune behind
+you, never having had a bit of good of it. But you look now as if you
+had taken a new lease. And you are positively growing!"
+
+Chilian smiled at the remark. He had begun to think so himself. And she
+looked so pretty just now with the pink in her cheeks and the soft
+tendrils of hair about her forehead, the eager, luminous eyes. He
+reached out and took her hand.
+
+"Have you been inspecting old Salem, and did you find any queer things?"
+Cousin Giles asked.
+
+"Oh, there was a great shipload of goods from India and it seemed almost
+as if you were walking through the booths at home, only there were no
+natives and no beggars or holy men----"
+
+"Tut! tut! child; they are not holy men who are too lazy to move and
+waiting for other people to fill their mouths. If they were here we'd
+make them work or they'd have to starve. They're talking about
+missionaries being sent out to convert them. I heard a rousing sermon on
+Sunday, but it didn't loosen my purse-strings. Your greatest missionary
+is work, good hard labor, clearing up and planting. Suppose those old
+_Mayflower_ people had sat down and held out their hands for alms. Do
+you suppose our Indians would have filled 'em with their corn, and fish,
+and game? Not much. They'd tied 'em to a tree and set fire to 'em." When
+Cousin Giles was excited he made elisions of speech rather unusual for a
+Boston man. "They went to work and cut down trees, and built houses, and
+raised farm and garden truck, and made shoes and clothes, and roads and
+bridges, and built cities and towns, and shamed those countries
+thousands of years old. And now we're trying to help them by bringing
+over their goods and selling them."
+
+"And creating extravagance, Elizabeth would say," returned Chilian, with
+a sort of humorous smile.
+
+"Oh, you might as well keep the money going as to hoard it up in an old
+stocking, so long as it is honestly yours. We're getting to be quite a
+notable country, Chilian Leverett."
+
+They turned into Derby Street, and Cousin Giles paused to survey the
+garden.
+
+"You've lots of things to enjoy here," he said. "I don't know but it's a
+sensible thing to take the good of what you have as you go along. And
+little Miss here will have enough without your adding to the store. You
+men of Salem ought to begin to do some big things--build a college."
+
+"Oh, I think our young men would rather go to Harvard. We don't want to
+rival you. We shall be the biggest New England seaport. We'll divide up
+the glories."
+
+Elizabeth was so taken by surprise that she was rather cross. She liked
+things planned beforehand. Now the tablecloth must come off. This one
+had been on since Sunday and it had two darns in it. And the old silver
+must come out.
+
+"I don't believe Cousin Giles would ever notice," Eunice said. "And I do
+think the china prettier than that old silver."
+
+"Well, it has the crown mark on it and the Leveretts owned it before
+they came from England. Giles' folks had some of it, too, but the Lord
+only knows what he's done with his. I dare say servants have made way
+with it, or banged it out of shape. Anybody can have china. Come, do be
+spry, Eunice."
+
+Cynthia went upstairs and had her hair brushed and a clean apron put on,
+though the other was not soiled.
+
+"Rachel, what is an heiress?" she asked.
+
+"Why--some one, a woman, who inherits a good deal of money."
+
+"Does she have to wait until she is a woman?"
+
+"Why, no. Yes, in a way, too. She can have the money spent upon her, but
+she can't have it herself until she is twenty-one."
+
+Cynthia wondered how it would seem to go and spend money, buy ever so
+many things. But she really couldn't think of anything she wanted,
+unless it was a house of her very own, and books, and pretty pictures,
+not portraits of old-fashioned men and women. And a pony and a dainty
+chaise. But then--she was such a little girl, and she wouldn't want to
+leave Cousin Chilian.
+
+Elizabeth made delicious cream shortcake for supper. Cousin Giles said
+everything tasted better up here, perhaps it was the clear salt water.
+There were so many fresh ponds and streams around Boston. But there were
+big plans for drainage and for docking out. Then Elizabeth was such a
+fine cook.
+
+The two men sat out on the stoop in the summer moonlight and Cynthia
+thought Cousin Giles really quarrelled trying to establish the
+superiority of Boston. Then they talked about investments and Captain
+Leverett, and Giles said, "Cynthia will be one of the richest women of
+Salem. Chilian, you'll have to look sharp that some schemer doesn't
+marry her for her money."
+
+"You must come to bed, Cynthia," declared Rachel. Through the open
+window they could hear Cousin Giles' voice plainly.
+
+The men went the next morning to consider an investment Chilian had in
+view. It had been thought best to divide the sums coming in between
+Salem and Boston. Then they walked about and saw the improvements, the
+new docks being built to accommodate the shipping, the great fleet of
+boats, the busy ship-yard, the hurrying to and fro everywhere. It was
+not merely finery, but spices and articles used in the arts. Gum copal
+was brought from Zanzibar. Indigo came in, though they were trying to
+raise that at the South.
+
+And when Giles saw the new streets and fine houses, and Mr. Derby's,
+that was to cost eighty thousand dollars, he did open his eyes in
+surprise. Though he said rather grudgingly:
+
+"It's a shame for one little girl to have all that money. There should
+have been three or four children. Fifty years ago the Leveretts had such
+big families they bid fair to overrun the earth, and now they've
+dwindled down to next to nothing. Chilian, why don't you marry?"
+
+"The same to yourself. Are you clinging to any old memory?"
+
+"Well, not just that. I don't seem to have time. Now you are a fellow of
+leisure. Get about it, man, and hunt up a wife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NEW DEPARTURE
+
+
+Cynthia Leverett was making great improvement in every respect. She was
+no longer the thin, wan little thing that had come from India. She had
+outgrown her clothes, which was a good sign, Eunice said.
+
+Elizabeth made a stand for good wearing ginghams and plain cloths for
+winter.
+
+"There's that gray cloth of mine that's too nice to hack around for
+every day. I could have it dyed, I suppose, but I've two nice black
+stuff dresses beside my silk, and that other one Chilian gave me that
+must have cost a sight of money; it's thick enough to almost stand
+alone. I can't bear those sleazy stuffs that come from India. But I've
+wished more than once that I had the money it cost, out at interest. And
+the cloth----"
+
+"It isn't a very pretty color," ventured Eunice timidly.
+
+"What does that matter for a child? It won't show dirt easily. And it is
+settled that she is going to school, I'm thankful to say."
+
+The dress in question was not a clear, pretty gray, but had an ugly
+yellow tint.
+
+"She certainly is rich enough to buy her own clothes, or have them
+bought for her. I'd dip that dress over a good deal darker brown. You
+know Chilian didn't like it for you, and he will not for her."
+
+Eunice was amazed at her own protest. The child had always been prettily
+attired. And more attention was being paid to children's clothes she
+noticed in church on Sunday, and after she had indulged in such sinful
+wanderings, she read the chapter in Isaiah where the prophet denounced
+the "round tires like the moon, the bonnets and the head bands, the
+mantles, and wimples, and crisping pins, and changeable suits of
+apparel," and other vanities, and predicted dire punishments for them.
+
+Mrs. Turner had called according to her proposal. She brought her little
+daughter Arabella, commonly called Bella. Cousin Chilian was out in the
+garden with Cynthia, and received her with his usual kindly cordiality,
+inviting them to walk into the house. The parlor shutters were tightly
+closed, and Mrs. Turner abhorred state parlors. Hers was always open,
+for guests were no rarity.
+
+"Why can't we sit out here a spell? It is so delightful to have this
+garden in view. And your clematis is a perfect show. Then let the
+children run around and get acquainted. How are the ladies?"
+
+She seated herself on the bench at the side of the porch.
+
+"I will call them," he said. "But--hadn't you better walk in?"
+
+"Oh, we can't stay very long. I've been waiting for the ladies to return
+my last call, but we were down in this vicinity, so I stopped. You see,
+I don't always stand on ceremony. And we have been so interested in your
+little girl. I saw her in Merrit's with Miss Winn."
+
+He summoned the ladies, and then he returned to the guests. The children
+were both down the path--Bella talking and gesticulating, and Cynthia
+laughing.
+
+Mrs. Turner was in nowise formal. She talked of Mr. Turner's
+business--he was a shipbuilder--of the rapid strides Salem was making;
+indeed one would hardly know it for old Salem of the witch days. And
+people's ideas had broadened out so, softened from their rigidity,
+"though some of the old folks are thinking the very trade we are so
+proud of is going to ruin our character and morals, and fill us with
+pride and vanity. But I say to Mr. Turner the people did their hard work
+and bore their deprivations bravely all through the Revolution, and we
+can't go back and make their lot easier by depriving ourselves of
+comforts, or even pleasures."
+
+There might be some casuistry in that, but there was truth as well.
+
+Then he asked if she knew of any nice schools for girls. Where did hers
+go?
+
+"Oh, to Madam Torrey's. That's up Church Street. Maybe it would be too
+far in bad weather, though our girls don't mind it. Alice is thirteen,
+but she's been there since she was eight, and Bella has been going these
+two years. The boys are at the Bertram School, and your neighbor Bentley
+Upham goes there. He's a nice boy. But Madam Torrey is a fine woman. She
+has an assistant, and a woman comes in to teach the French class.
+Then--I don't suppose everybody will approve of this, but there is going
+to be a dancing-class out of school hours, yet no one is compelled to
+send their children to that. There's fine needlework, too, and fancy
+knitting, indeed about all that it is necessary for a girl to know. And
+the children are all from good families; that is quite an important
+point."
+
+"I think I must walk over and see her."
+
+"Do. I am sure you will be pleased. The walk will be the only objection.
+Isn't she delicate?"
+
+"She wasn't well last winter. She took a cold. She was not used to our
+bleak winters. And there was her father's death. She had counted so much
+on his return."
+
+"It was very sad. She looks well now."
+
+Then the ladies made their appearance. Elizabeth apologized for Chilian
+not asking her into the parlor. "It looked inhospitable."
+
+"It was my fault. The stoop was so tempting. A shady porch in the
+afternoon is a luxury. We take our sewing out there; that is, Alice and
+I, and sometimes the guests. How lovely your vines are! And your garden
+is a regular show place, quite worth coming to see if there were no
+other charm. And, Miss Leverett, I hear you have been making the most
+beautiful white quilt there is in Salem."
+
+"Oh, no. But as nice as any. And it was a sight of work. I don't know as
+I'd do it again. I've no chick or child to leave it to."
+
+"May I come over some day and see it? Not that I shall do anything of
+the kind. With four big boys to mend for and the two girls, I have my
+hands full."
+
+Then they talked about putting up fruit and making jellies, and Mrs.
+Turner said she must go over to the Uphams. She heard that Polly was
+getting to be such a nice, smart girl, and had worked the bottom of her
+white frock and a round cape to match. Then she called Bella.
+
+"Oh, can't I go over with them?" pleaded Cynthia.
+
+Cousin Chilian nodded. Elizabeth rose stiffly and went in. Eunice pulled
+out her knitting. It was so lovely here. There were the warmth and
+perfume of summer and the rich fragrance of ripening fruits and grass
+mown for feed, not snipped with a lawn-mower, such things had not been
+heard of even in the rapidly improving Salem.
+
+"There are some countries where people live out of doors nearly all the
+time," began Eunice reflectively. "Well, they do a good deal in India.
+But I think this is in Europe. And this is so lovely, so restful. But
+I'm afraid you have affronted Elizabeth by not insisting Mrs. Turner
+should walk into the parlor. Though really--we had not returned her last
+call. I do wish Elizabeth could find some time to get out. I don't see
+why there should be so much work."
+
+"Couldn't you have some one to help?"
+
+"Well, it isn't just the cooking and kitchenwork. And no one could suit
+her there. She's up in that old garret toiling, and moiling, and packing
+away enough things to furnish an inn. We shall never want them. And
+there's your mother's, and some of your grandmother's, blankets."
+
+"The New England thrift is rather too thrifty sometimes," he commented
+dryly.
+
+Cynthia staid after Mrs. Turner made her adieus. Indeed, as it was
+nearing supper-time, he walked over for her. She and Betty were in the
+wide-seated swing and Ben was swinging them so high that Betty, used as
+she was to it, gave now and then little squeals. Chilian held up his
+hand and Ben let the "cat die," which meant the swing stopping of
+itself.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Leverett, can't Cynthy stay to tea? I'll run and ask mother."
+
+"Not to-day. She had better come home now."
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Bentley disappointedly.
+
+"Yes, I had better go. And I've had such a lovely time. Cousin Chilian,
+can't I come over again?"
+
+How pretty she looked with her shining eyes, her rosy cheeks, and her
+entreating lips! What would she coax out of men as she grew older!
+
+"Oh, yes; any time they want you."
+
+"Well, we'd like her every day!" cried Ben eagerly. "And isn't it
+splendid that she's grown so well and strong, and can run and play, and
+have good out-of-doors times? Though I used to like it in the winter up
+in your room, and Mr. Price said he never knew a boy to improve so in
+Latin."
+
+Bentley made a graceful bow to Mr. Leverett.
+
+"Oh," said Cynthia, skipping along in exuberant joy, "children are nice,
+aren't they? You can't have much fun alone by yourself, and the days are
+so long when you go in to Boston."
+
+"I wonder if you would like to try school again?"
+
+"Yes, I think I would;" after a pause. "You see," with a gravity that
+sat oddly upon her, "I'm not so afraid as I was, and I have more sense.
+And I know things more evenly than I did. I can write now quite well,
+and I know most of the tables, though division does bother me. And I can
+spell all but the very difficult words. I don't think any one would
+laugh at me now."
+
+"No, they wouldn't," he answered decisively.
+
+"I shouldn't like little boys, but I wouldn't mind them as big as
+Bentley. And, oh, I wish we had a swing. And they have a real sailors'
+hammock, such as they have on shipboard. It's delightful under the
+trees."
+
+"I think we can manage that."
+
+"Well, if your head isn't tousled!" cried Elizabeth. "It looks like a
+brush heap. Get it fixed, for supper is all ready. Why didn't you stay?"
+the last ironically.
+
+"Cousin Chilian thought I had better not. They did want me to."
+
+"Are you sure they _wanted_ you to?"
+
+"Why, yes," she answered in ignorance of the sarcasm.
+
+She walked up and down the garden path with Cousin Chilian and asked
+about the school, was glad when she found Bella and her sister Alice
+went there. Now and then she gave two or three skips and pulled on the
+hand she held so tightly. He had never seen her in quite such glee, and
+how charming she was!
+
+"Chilian, bring that child in out of the dew. Next thing she'll be in
+for a winter's cold," said the severe voice.
+
+The interview with Madam Torrey was very satisfactory. Chilian asked
+Miss Winn to go out and buy what was needed and get it made. They went
+over to Mrs. Turner's one day and took the school in on their way.
+
+"When it rains Silas can take you and come for you. I think the walk
+will not tire you out."
+
+"Oh, no; I don't get tired out now."
+
+It was Miss Winn's place to look after the child, of course, but
+Elizabeth felt in some way defrauded. She wished Cynthia had been poor
+and dependent upon them. Then she would stand a chance to be brought up
+in a useful manner.
+
+Chilian took her to school the first morning. Miss Winn was to come for
+her. She had been rather shy at first. But Bella Turner told the girls
+about her, how she had been born in Salem, and gone to Calcutta when
+only a few months old, come and gone again in her father's ship, and he
+was Captain Leverett, and then returned to America. He was to come
+afterward, but he had died. And Mr. Chilian Leverett, who was something
+in Harvard College, was her guardian. And she was to have ever so much
+money when she was a young lady.
+
+Any other child might have been spoiled by the attentions lavished upon
+her. The girls thought her curly hair so pretty, and her hands were so
+small, with their dainty, tapering fingers. Then she found one of the
+girls, Lois Brinsmaid, lived in Central Avenue, so there was no further
+question of troubling any one. Cousin Chilian had given her a good
+foundation for study and she was eager for knowledge of all sorts,
+except that of the needle.
+
+Then autumn began to merge into winter and there were storms and bleak
+winds, and some days she staid at home. She caught light colds, but
+Chilian and Miss Winn were very watchful.
+
+She went to the Turners one afternoon and staid to tea, and the big boys
+hovered about her like bees. She was not forward or aggressive, but
+there was a sort of charming sweetness about her. When she raised her
+lovely eyes they seemed to appeal to every heart, though they never went
+very far with Cousin Elizabeth.
+
+One day she came home and found the house in a great state of
+excitement. Elizabeth had started to go down into the cellar with both
+hands full. She had been a little dizzy for several days, and meant to
+take a dose of herb tea, boneset being her great stand-by, when she
+could find time. Whether it was the vertigo, or she slipped, she lay
+there unconscious, and they sent for Doctor Prescott.
+
+Silas and the doctor carried her upstairs, and the latter brought her
+out of the faint. But when she started to stand up, she toppled over and
+fainted again.
+
+"There's something quite serious. Let us carry her up to her room, and
+you women undress her. Her legs are sound, so the trouble is higher up."
+
+Then he found her hip was broken, a bad thing at any time of life, but
+at her age doubly so. And he sent for Doctor Lapham to help him set it.
+It was very bad. They were still there when Chilian came home.
+
+"I'm afraid she's laid up for a year or so;" and the doctor shook his
+head ominously.
+
+"Do your very best for her," besought Chilian.
+
+He said to Eunice, "Now you must have some one. You can't carry on the
+house alone."
+
+"If it is the same to you, Chilian, I'd rather have a nurse. There's
+Mother Taft, who is good and strong, and used to nursing. She's willing
+to help about a little, too."
+
+"Just as you think best. I want every care taken of her."
+
+For a month it was a very serious matter. They thought the spine was
+somewhat injured as well. And Elizabeth knew they could never get on
+without her.
+
+"I expect I shall find the house in such a state when I do get about, it
+will take me all summer to right it. You never were as thorough as I
+could wish, Eunice."
+
+Miss Winn begged that she might be of service. She had so little to do,
+or to think about, that time hung heavy on her hands, now that Cynthia
+was in school. For then school hours were from nine to five. And the
+child was getting so handy caring for herself. She curled her hair and
+put on her clothes, brought her shoes down every evening for Silas to
+black, and sometimes wiped the tea dishes while Miss Winn washed them.
+Somehow there didn't seem so much work to do. Eunice didn't always have
+two kinds of cake for supper, nor a great shelf full of pies for Silas
+to take home. There was plenty of everything and no one complained.
+
+They found Mother Taft invaluable. She was about the average height, and
+had long arms, and strength according. Then she had a most excellent
+way with her. When Elizabeth groaned that they never could get on
+without her, and she must be up and about before everything went to
+"wrack and ruin," Mother Taft said:
+
+"The kitchen looks like a new pin. There's no signs of ruin that I can
+see. Meals are good, cake fine, house clean. When you get downstairs
+you'll think you haven't been out of the harness more'n a week."
+
+"A likely story," Elizabeth moaned.
+
+Cynthia went through March very successfully, but with the first warm
+spell in April she caught a cold and coughed, and Chilian was almost
+wild about her, his nerves having been worn somewhat by Elizabeth's
+mishap. But after ten days or so she came around all right and was eager
+for school again.
+
+She was sitting in her old place by the window late one afternoon and he
+had been reading some poems to her--a volume lately come from England.
+
+"Cousin Chilian," she said, "will you tell me what true relation we
+are?"
+
+"Why, what has put that in your head?"
+
+"I want to know." She said it persuasively.
+
+"Well, it isn't very near after all. My father and yours were cousins.
+My father was the son of the oldest brother, your father the son of the
+youngest, that stretched them quite far apart. When I wasn't much more
+than a baby Anthony came to live with us, and was like an elder brother
+to me. Father was very fond of him. But he would go to sea and he made
+a fine sailor and captain. Then he was married from here, and you were
+born here."
+
+"The girls sometimes say, 'your uncle.' I wonder if you would like to
+have me call you uncle?"
+
+Something in him protested. He could not tell what it was, unless an odd
+feeling that it made him seem older. He wished he were ten years
+younger, and he could give no reason for that either.
+
+"I think I like the 'cousin' best;" after some deliberation.
+
+"And it is so lovely to be dear to some one, very dear. I like Rachel,
+she's been almost a mother to me, and I like Cousin Eunice for her sweet
+ways. But I've no one of my very own, and so--I'm very glad to be dear
+to you. It is like a ship being anchored to something safe and strong."
+
+She came and put her arms about his neck and kissed him. He drew her
+down on his knee. She was her mother's child, and her mother had been
+dear to him, his first love, his only love so far.
+
+Oh, how would the garden get made and the house cleaned, the blankets
+and the winter clothing aired and put away, those in use washed? Eunice
+and Miss Winn went up in the garret one day and swept and dusted, not
+giving a whole week to it.
+
+"Now," said Mother Taft, "I'm going to take a holiday off. I'm tired of
+puttering round in the sick room, and she's so much better now that she
+doesn't keep one on the jump. And I'm going to wash them there blankets
+and you can pack them away, so there'll be one thing less to worry
+about."
+
+"But Silas' wife would come and do it. And a holiday! Why don't you go
+off somewhere----"
+
+"I want to do it."
+
+And do it she did. Some way the house did get cleaned. "After a
+fashion," Elizabeth said. And the garden was made. Chilian and Eunice
+trimmed up roses. Cynthia and Miss Winn planted seeds. There were always
+some things that wintered over--sweet Williams, lilies of various sorts,
+pinks, laurels, some spiræas, snowball and syringas, hosts of lilacs
+that made a fragrant hedge. Cynthia thought it had never been so lovely
+before. She wore a nosegay at her throat, and in her belt just a few;
+she had the fine taste that never overloaded. She and Cousin Chilian
+used to walk up and down the fragrant paths after supper and no one
+fretted at them about the dew. Sometimes Rachel or Eunice would bring
+out a dainty scarf. And how many things they found to talk about. She
+loved to dwell on the times with her father, and it seemed as if she
+remembered a great deal more about her mother than she did at first, but
+she never imagined it was Cousin Chilian's memory that helped out hers.
+
+She had enjoyed the school very much. There were no high up "isms" or
+"ologies" for girls in those days. She learned about her own country,
+for already there were some histories written, and the causes that led
+to the war. Some of the girls had grandmothers who had lived through
+those exciting years, and made the relation of incidents much more
+interesting than any dry written account that was mostly dates and
+names. What heroes they had been! And the old _Mayflower_ story and John
+Alden, and others who were to inspire a poet's pen.
+
+Then there was the dread story of the witchcraft that had led Salem
+astray. Cousin Chilian would never have it mentioned, and had taken away
+several books he did not want her to see. But the girls had gone to some
+of the old places, where witches had been taken from their homes and
+cast into jail, the Court House where they had been tried, and Gallows
+Hill, that most people shunned even now.
+
+One rainy evening, after her lessons had been studied, Cynthia went
+downstairs. Rachel had been fomenting her face for the toothache and was
+lying down. Cousin Chilian had gone to a town-meeting, and the house
+seemed so still that she almost believed she might see the ghost or
+witch of the stories she had heard. No one was in the sitting-room, or
+the kitchen proper, but she heard voices in what was called the summer
+kitchen, a roughly constructed place with a stone chimney and a great
+swinging crane. Here they did much of the autumn work, for Elizabeth was
+quite a stickler for having a common place to save something nicer.
+
+Mother Taft always smoked a pipe of tobacco in the evening. "It soothed
+her," she said, after her tussle of fixing her patient for the night,
+"and made her sleep better."
+
+"And it's my opinion if Miss 'Lisbeth could just have a good smoke at
+night 'twould do her more good than the doctor's powders."
+
+"Why, Cynthy!" Cousin Eunice exclaimed.
+
+"I was lonesome. Rachel's gone to sleep, Cousin Eunice--were there such
+things as witches over a hundred years ago?"
+
+Eunice glanced at Mother Taft. Witchcraft was a tabooed subject, yet it
+lingered in more than one imaginative mind, though few would confess a
+belief in it.
+
+"Well, people may talk as they like, but there's many queer things in
+the world. Now there's that falling sickness, as they call it. Jabez
+Green has two children that roll on the floor, and froth at the mouth,
+and their eyes bulge most out of their heads. They're lacking, we all
+know. But when they come out of the fit they tell queer things that they
+saw, and I do suppose it was that way then. They do act as if they were
+bewitched."
+
+We know this misfortune now as epilepsy, but medical science in the
+earlier century did not understand that, nor incipient insanity.
+
+"It was very strange," said Eunice rather awesomely. "And Mr. Parris
+was a minister and a good man, yet it broke out in his family."
+
+"But he had them slaves, and in their own land black people do awful
+things to each other. But it was strange; again, after his wife was
+accused, Governor Phipps ordered there should be no more punished and
+all set free, and then the thing stopped."
+
+"And it wasn't real witchcraft?" said Cynthia.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't undertake to say. There were witches in Bible times
+and they kept themselves mighty close, for they were not to be allowed
+to live. And Saul had a hard time getting anything out of the witch of
+Endor, you know, Miss Eunice."
+
+Eunice nodded. They were trenching on forbidden ground.
+
+"My grandmother believed in them and she was a good God-fearing woman,
+too. You see what made it worse for Salem was their sending so many here
+for trial from the places round. Grandfather lived way up above
+Topsfield, had a farm there and 'twas woods all around. No one troubled
+them then, but afterward--well, they'd cleared the woods and built a
+road and new houses were put up around, for some people were glad enough
+to get out of Salem. There was a woman named Martha Goodno, who had been
+in prison, and people were shy of her. Grandmother had two cows, and
+folks turned them out in the woods then. One of them went in Martha's
+garden, but she spied her out and drove her off before much damage was
+done. The fence had been broken down and she laid it to the cow, but
+people said it had been down for days. Well, something got the matter
+with the cow. She gave good rich milk and mother saved it for butter.
+But when she churned there came queer streaks in it that looked like
+blood. She doctored the cow, although it seemed well enough. One day a
+neighbor was in and the same thing happened. 'Throw some in the fire,'
+said the neighbor, 'and if you hear of any one being burned you'll know
+who is the witch.' So grandmother threw two dippers full in the fire and
+she said it made an awful smell. The rest she dumped out of doors, she
+wouldn't feed it to the pigs. About an hour afterward another neighbor
+came in. Grandmother made a salve that was splendid for burns and cuts.
+'Mis' Denfield,' she says, 'won't you come over to Martha Goodno's and
+bring your pot of salve. She's burned herself dreadfully drawin' the
+coals out of the oven, set her dress on fire just at the waist.' So
+mother went over and found it was a pretty bad, sure enough burn, and
+she was groaning just fit to die. Mother spread a piece of linen and
+laid it on and left her some salve. 'What did I tell you?' says mother's
+neighbor, and they nodded their heads. But the queer thing was that
+after that the cow was all right and she never had any more trouble.
+
+"After she was well she took a spite against another neighbor, who used
+to spin flax and sell the thread. Then her flax took to cutting up
+queer, and would break off, and turn yellow, and trouble her dreadfully.
+Mother was there one afternoon when it bothered so. 'Just throw a
+handful in the fire,' says mother. 'Fire's purifying;' and she did. They
+sent to mother again for salve, for Martha had scalded her right hand.
+Then the folks talked it over and a letter was written and tucked under
+her door, warning her to move, and the next-door man bought the place.
+I've heard grandmother tell this over--she lived to be ninety, and she
+was a good Christian woman, and she never added nor took away one iota.
+There, I oughtn't have told all this before the child; she's white as a
+ghost."
+
+"You must go to bed this minute," exclaimed Eunice. "I'll go up with
+you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE VOICE OF A ROSE
+
+
+There were some marvellous ghost stories in those days, and haunted
+houses as well. The society of Psychical Research would have found many
+queer things if it had existed at that time. The sailors spun strange
+yarns over the power we call telepathy now. Many of the families had a
+retired captain or disabled first mate, or supercargo, who had seen
+mysterious appearances and heard warning voices. And it recalled to the
+little girl some of the stories she had heard in India that she pieced
+out of vague fragments. Maybe there were curious influences no one could
+explain.
+
+Elizabeth improved a little. She had been moved from cot to bed, but now
+they packed her in a big chair and pushed her over to the window where
+she could see the vegetable garden and the chicken yard. They had not
+had very good luck at the hatching this season. The hens had missed
+Elizabeth's motherly care. She had trained them to an amusing habit of
+obedience, and the little chickens were her delight. Was she never to be
+out among them again?
+
+One day Cynthia came up with two roses in a glass, most exquisite ones
+at that.
+
+"Cousin Elizabeth," she began, "do you remember the little rosebush you
+put in my garden last summer? We thought it would die. It came out
+beautifully in the spring and these are the first roses that bloomed. I
+thought you ought to have them. Are you never going to get well enough
+to walk around the garden? Cousin Eunice has kept it so nice."
+
+Elizabeth Leverett's heart was touched and she swallowed over a lump in
+her throat. She had taken up the rose from a place where it had been
+smothered with those of larger growth and given it to the child who had
+begged for "a garden of her very own." She had not supposed it would
+live. And that Cynthia should bring her the firstfruits!
+
+"I'm obliged to you," she returned huskily. "They are very beautiful."
+And she wondered the child had not given them to Chilian.
+
+"I wish you liked a few flowers every day," the little girl said
+wistfully.
+
+"Well--I might;" reluctantly.
+
+"They are so lovely. The world is so beautiful. It's very hard to be ill
+in summer, in winter one wouldn't mind it so much. But I am glad you can
+sit up."
+
+Was it tears that Elizabeth winked away?
+
+She had many serious thoughts through these months of helplessness. She
+had always measured everything by the strict line of duty, of
+usefulness. There was a virtue in enduring hardness as a good soldier,
+and the harder it was the more virtue it held in it. Her room was plain,
+almost to bareness. There had been a faded patchwork top quilt at first,
+until Mother Taft insisted upon having something nicer. But it had to be
+folded up carefully at sundown, when the likelihood of calls was over.
+And she did put one of the new rugs on the floor.
+
+"That's beginning to go," Mrs. Taft said. "Some one will catch their
+foot in it and have a bad fall."
+
+"It could be mended, I suppose."
+
+"Yes. There's a new one needed in the kitchen. I'll sew it up for that.
+Land sakes! you've got enough in this house to last ten lifetimes!"
+
+Friends came in to sit with her and brought their work. Sometimes she
+sewed a little, but drawing out her needle hurt her back after a while.
+She read her Bible and Baxter's "Saints' Rest" And she wondered a little
+what the other world would be like. She had never thought of heaven with
+joy--there was the judgment first. And now that she could begin to sit
+up it did prefigure recovery.
+
+Most schools had kept open all the year round, but now the higher ones
+were giving a month's vacation. Altogether it had been a happy year to
+Cynthia. She had really been adored at school. Her frocks were admired,
+she let the girls curl her hair, usually she wore it tied in a bunch
+behind--not unlike the queue. Then she had some rings that she coaxed
+Rachel to let her wear, it was such a pleasure to lend them to the
+girls. She was learning what was considered necessary for a girl in
+those days; a good deal more with Cousin Chilian. She kept her love for
+the Latin and often read to him. She began to draw and paint flowers,
+she joined the dancing-class, which was a delight to her; but Chilian
+suggested she should not mention it to Elizabeth. She pirouetted up and
+down the path like a fairy, and he loved to watch her.
+
+There had been parties among the girls, but he would rather not have her
+go, it was a bad thing for children to be up so late. She went to take
+tea now and then. The Turners were very fond of her and the Uphams
+wanted her once a week. She wondered if she might ever ask any one to
+tea.
+
+Then they planned what they would do in this wonderful vacation. Go off
+for day's rides, take sails up and down, there were so many places. She
+was brimming over with joy.
+
+Chilian was called up in the night by Mother Taft.
+
+"She's had a stroke. And she seemed so smart yesterday. She even laughed
+over some school stories Cynthia told. That child's brought her flowers
+every morning, and she's softened so much to her. I really think she's
+been getting religion, as one may say, and being prepared."
+
+Chilian heard the stertorous breathing. The eyes were half open and
+rolled up, her face was drawn. He took the hand. It was cold and heavy.
+
+"I'll go for the doctor. I think the end has come."
+
+Dr. Prescott said the same thing, adding with a slow turn of the head,
+"She will not last long."
+
+What should he do with Cynthia? He remembered how careful her father had
+been to shield her. She must not see Elizabeth, she must not confront
+death in this awesome fashion.
+
+When they came to breakfast he said:
+
+"Cynthia, wouldn't you like to go in to Boston with me this morning?"
+
+"Oh, it would be splendid!" She clapped her hands in delight.
+
+"Well, Rachel must get you ready. We will take the stage. It goes early
+now."
+
+Of course, she was full of excitement. It had been planned as one of the
+month's outings, but to take it as the first! Cousin Chilian was always
+thinking up such nice things.
+
+"Oh," she cried, tying the big Leghorn hat down, making a great bow
+under her chin, "I must get my flowers for Cousin Elizabeth."
+
+When she came in she would have flown upstairs, but Rachel stopped her.
+
+"Miss Elizabeth is asleep. She had a bad spell in the night and the
+doctor doesn't want her disturbed. I'll take them."
+
+"Oh!" She looked disappointed. "Tell her good-bye and that I was sorry
+not to come in and say it. And give her the flowers. I hope she will be
+better to-night."
+
+What a great thing it was to go off in the stage! It was a fine morning
+with an easterly breeze. To be sure, the roads were dusty, but
+travellers were not so dainty in those days. Cynthia had a dust cloak of
+some thin material that shielded her white frock. There were three men
+and two women. They sat on the middle seat, two of the men on front with
+the driver, the other back with the ladies. Presently the driver blew a
+long toot on his horn and they came to a little town with a tavern, as
+they were called then, at its very entrance.
+
+Two of the passengers left, one came in. The horses had a drink and on
+they went over hill and dale, through great farms, where there were not
+more than two or three houses in sight. The stage stopped for a man who
+gave a loud halloo, and he climbed in. Then the horn gave another loud
+signal.
+
+So it went on. Some places were very pretty, great fields of corn waving
+in the sunshine, potatoes, stubble where grain had been cut, stretches
+of woodland, high, rather rough hills, then towns again. The sun went
+under a cloud, which made it pleasanter. The passengers changed now and
+then. One woman told her next neighbor "she was goin' in to Boston to
+shop, because things were cheaper now. She always went after the rush
+was over. There were cambrics, she heard, for one and ninepence, and
+cotton cloth home-made was so much cheaper than the imported, but you
+had to bleach it. And little traps that you couldn't get at a country
+store."
+
+Cynthia was tired and sleepy when they reached their journey's end,
+which was Marlborough Street, where Cousin Giles had an office.
+
+"Well! well! well!" he ejaculated in surprise. "Why, Miss Cynthia
+Leverett, I'm glad to see you. Have you come to town to shop?"
+
+Chilian made a little sign. "She has a whole month's vacation and we are
+going to fill it up with journeys, taking Boston first."
+
+"That's right. We shall have lots to show her. You'll hardly want to go
+back to Salem. It was a long warm ride, wasn't it? Chilian, take off her
+hat. Don't you want a drink?"
+
+"I am thirsty," she admitted.
+
+He fixed a glass of lemonade, and lemons were dear at that
+period--scarce, too. While she was sipping it, being refreshed in every
+pulse, the two men went down to the end of the room for a talk.
+
+"She's dreadfully disfigured," Chilian said in a low tone. "And
+Elizabeth wasn't a bad-looking woman. The doctor thinks she can't live
+but a few days, her body is growing cold rapidly. I'd like to have the
+child out of it all. Death is a great shock and very mysterious to a
+child."
+
+"Oh, I'll be glad to keep her, if she will stay content. I wish you
+could have brought that woman with you. Poor Elizabeth! How Eunice will
+miss her. Chilian, you've been like a son to those women. Women ought to
+marry and have children of their own, but children are not always kind.
+Yes. After you're rested we'll go home. I'm going to change my office,
+get nearer to the business centre, only this is so pleasant with a nice
+outlook."
+
+"You ought to retire."
+
+"Oh, what would I do? Like that Roman fellow, buy a farm? I don't know a
+bit about farming and don't want to. There's so much going on here."
+
+Presently they returned to the little girl, who was quite refreshed, and
+then they went out, as it would be dinner-time presently. Cousin Giles
+lived in Cambridge Street in quite an imposing row, though it had no
+such spacious grounds as at Salem.
+
+An immaculate black man opened the door and took the men's hats. "Ask
+Mrs. Stevens to come down," Cousin Giles said.
+
+Mrs. Stevens seemed a great lady. Eudora Castleton's mother was like
+this, always looking as if she was dressed for a party. She had a pretty
+silk gown, with some ruffles about the bottom, short enough to show her
+clocked silk stockings. The waist was short also, the square neck filled
+in with lace, and great balloon sleeves--so large at the top they came
+almost up to her ears.
+
+"This is the little girl who came from India, that I told you about, and
+who is going to be a great lady some day. When she gets older we'll have
+to have her down here to Boston, and give balls and parties for her, and
+pick out a fine lover for her; hey, Cynthia?"
+
+Cynthia turned scarlet.
+
+"I think you must be warm and tired with the long stage ride; wouldn't
+you like to come upstairs with me?"
+
+Cynthia rose as Cousin Chilian looked approval, and followed up the
+stairway, where her feet sank in the carpet. There were several rooms,
+with the air blowing through delightfully, and there was fragrance
+everywhere from vases of flowers.
+
+Mrs. Stevens took off her hat and inspected her. She was going to be a
+big heiress and a pretty girl in the bargain, piquant with a slightly
+foreign look, though perhaps it was more in her manner.
+
+"Susan," she called to a girl sewing in the next room, "come and wash
+this little visitor's hands and face. She has come all the way from
+Salem this morning. I wish we had a fresh frock for you, but we have no
+little girls."
+
+The voice was so soft and charming that Cynthia looked up with a kind of
+admiring smile.
+
+Susan took off her frock, bathed her face and hands with some perfumed
+water, brushed out her hair, and said, "What lovely hair you have, and
+so much of it. A queen might envy you!"
+
+The idea of a queen wanting anything she had! Oh, how nice and refreshed
+she felt.
+
+Susan shook out the frock and put it on again, pulled out the sleeves,
+smoothed the wrinkled skirt, and took her in the next room.
+
+"It rests one so much. Are you hungry? We shall have dinner in half an
+hour."
+
+"Oh, no," Cynthia said. "And--and I am very much obliged to Susan."
+
+"Come and sit here. Tell me how the aunties are--the one with the broken
+limb."
+
+"I think she isn't so well. Yesterday she was so much improved. The
+doctor was there this morning."
+
+"Poor lady! She has been ill a long while. And you are quite at home in
+Salem, I suppose? You had a long journey. Did you like India?"
+
+"Father was there;" with a sweet, attractive simplicity. "And some of it
+was very beautiful. Oh, I almost froze the first winter here, but last
+winter I didn't mind. And the sleigh-riding was splendid."
+
+"Are there many little girls to be friends with?"
+
+"Oh, I go to a nice school. And we have so many funny plays and dancing
+once a week. I didn't tease about it, though I wanted to go, and Cousin
+Chilian said I might. It's queer, but in India they come and dance for
+you, and you pay them. But it is lovely to do it for yourself;" and she
+made some graceful motions with her hands, while her beautiful eyes were
+alight with emotion, as if she heard the music.
+
+"Did you ever want to go back?"
+
+"At first. But when I heard that father had gone away, he had meant to
+come to Salem, but----" she made a pause, "mother was there in India.
+Only the bodies, you know, the other part that thinks and feels is in
+heaven. He wanted mother so much. He used to talk about her. And now I
+am going to live in Salem with Cousin Chilian all my life long."
+
+How simply sweet she was, with no self-consciousness.
+
+Then they were summoned to dinner. The elegant black servant waited on
+them, and that suggested India again. They went out on a back porch and
+sat in the shade. Cousin Giles found an opportunity to explain the
+matter to Mrs. Stevens, and after that the men went out for a while.
+
+Quite in the afternoon there were calls from stylishly-dressed ladies,
+and cake and cool drinks were brought in. Then Cousin Chilian told her
+that he would like her to stay all night and he would come in to-morrow.
+
+She didn't want to a bit. "Why, I would be very quiet and not disturb
+Cousin Elizabeth," she said, with beseeching eyes.
+
+"Will you not do it to please me?"
+
+She choked down a great lump. "Oh, yes," she answered in a low tone,
+without looking up. But it seemed very queer to her to be left this way.
+
+There was company in the evening--quite a party playing cards. She had
+a pretty story book to read until Susan came to put her to bed. And what
+a delightful little bed it was, like her little pallet at home, so much
+nicer than the big bed at Salem.
+
+She would not show that she was homesick, for so many nice things were
+being done for her. A note came from Chilian--Cousin Elizabeth was very
+ill, and he hoped she would be content. Some clothes were sent for her,
+some of her very best ones, and she was glad to have them.
+
+There were so many things to see in Boston, really much more than at
+Salem. They were putting up some fine public buildings. And there was
+Bunker Hill and Copp's Hill, and, down near the bay, Fort Hill. There
+seemed little rivers running all about and submerged lands.
+
+There were many other entertainments and her days were full. Mrs.
+Stevens sent out some cards and seven or eight young girls came in and
+chatted quite like the grown-up ladies, asking her about Salem, and
+being not a little surprised that she had lived in India. They had a
+pretty sort of half tea, cakes and delicacies after the thin bread and
+butter, and a most delightful cool drink that seemed to have all flavors
+in it. One of the girls played on the spinet afterward. So she had her
+first party at Cousin Giles', instead of Salem.
+
+Notes came from Cousin Chilian, and at last the welcome news that he was
+coming down for her.
+
+She had come to like Cousin Giles very much. He was so different from
+Chilian--breezy and rather teasing--and, oh, what would Cousin Elizabeth
+have said to his fashion of getting things about, putting papers or
+books on chairs, mislaying his glasses and his gloves, and she would
+think the fine furniture, and the servants, and the little feasts
+awfully extravagant.
+
+Poor Elizabeth! She had never come back to consciousness. She had shrunk
+intensely from the last moment when she would have to face death and the
+judgment, though she had been striving all her life to prepare for it.
+But God had mercifully spared her that, the two worlds had touched and
+merged with each other and left her to God.
+
+There had been a quiet funeral, though it was well attended, but the
+coffin was closed and a pall thrown over it, for the poor face had never
+recovered its natural look.
+
+All this was softened to Cynthia, as she sat with Cousin Chilian's arm
+about her. She had the sweet remembrance of that last day, and the smile
+that somehow had made the wrinkled face pretty. It had been thoughtful
+and tender in Cousin Chilian to spare her the rest.
+
+They went over to Cambridge and he took her through the place that was
+to be so much grander before she was done with life. And here was the
+house where he had lived through the week, going home to spend Sundays,
+for his father was alive then. And he told her stories about old Boston,
+some quaintly funny, but she was rather proud that Salem had been the
+first capital of the State.
+
+"I've had such a nice time," she said with her adieu. "Every day has
+been full of pleasure. I thank you both very much."
+
+She was to come again, and again, they rejoined cordially.
+
+"What a nice child!" Cousin Giles said. "She doesn't seem to consider
+what an heiress she is. And she's enough like Chilian to be his own
+child. He always had that dainty way with him, like a woman, and
+everything must be fine and nice, yet he never was ostentatious. She'll
+make a charming young woman. I wish I could persuade Chilian to come to
+Boston."
+
+Chilian had driven in with the carriage. There had been a shower in the
+night and the travelling was delightful. He had missed his little girl
+so much, yet he knew it had been better to save her the poignancy of the
+sad occurrence. So her father had thought in his trusting appeal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+CHANGES IN THE OLD HOUSE
+
+
+There was not as much change in household affairs as Cynthia supposed
+there would be. Elizabeth had been laid by so long that her place at the
+table had been filled by Eunice. Indeed, the former had an unfortunate
+habit of running out in the kitchen to see to something, then returning,
+pouring a cup of tea, passing some article of food, then disappearing
+again. It had grown on her, the belief that she must be everywhere or
+something would go wrong. It did annoy Chilian. And no one hustled up
+the dishes when you had eaten the last crumb of cake. He liked to linger
+over the table.
+
+Eunice was very glad to see her. Rachel took her wrap and her parcel
+upstairs, for supper had been waiting. Eunice poured the tea, Rachel
+passed the eatables, and they were both eager to hear how it had fared
+with the little girl.
+
+"It's been just splendid! Mrs. Stevens is--well, she is grand, and, oh,
+you ought to see the beautiful gowns she wears; but she doesn't hold you
+way off. You can come up close and lean on her shoulder or her lap. They
+were both so good. And, look! Cousin Giles would buy me these two
+rings;" and she held up her hand laughingly. "And an elegant necklace. I
+told him there were so many things here that were my mother's, but he
+wouldn't mind. And slippers! There's white, and a kind of gray, and a
+bronze, and a red pair. The little girls wear them when they come from
+school and go out to companies. Oh, Cousin Chilian, doesn't any one play
+on the spinet? I'd like to learn."
+
+"It's very old. It was mother's. I think we must have a new one. And you
+can learn."
+
+"Oh, I shall be so glad."
+
+Mrs. Taft was out in the kitchen. "Now you all go your ways," she began.
+"'Taint nothing to clear off the supper table."
+
+They sat out on the front porch. But through the talk Cynthia kept
+thinking of poor Cousin Elizabeth and feeling sorry she had not enjoyed
+more of the pleasures of life. Was there so much real virtue in making
+life hard and cold? But there were some girls in school who were very
+much afraid of dancing and reading story-books.
+
+Truth to tell, as Chilian listened, he came to experience a queer
+feeling--he would have scouted the idea of jealousy about Cousin Giles,
+but that he should have devoted himself so much to her and taken her
+about, wanted to buy trinkets for her and all that! There was still a
+week of vacation left. They would go somewhere to-morrow.
+
+He had asked Mrs. Taft to stay with them.
+
+"Well, I can't exactly promise. You see, I like to 'wrastle' with things
+and fight off the worst. Though I hadn't much hope of 'Lisbeth when the
+doctor said her spine was hurt. That's a kind of queer hidden thing that
+even doctors can't see into. And the poor creature suffered a good deal.
+My, but she was spunky and was bound not to die, and I fought for her
+all I could. But the last few weeks there was a change. She liked Cynthy
+to come in with the posies and say something bright. And now it's all
+done and over, and she was a good upright woman in the old-fashioned
+way. So I'll stay a spell till Miss Eunice gets used to the change, and
+when I see another good fight somewhere, you mustn't have hard feelings
+if I go."
+
+They went out the next morning and found a boat going up to Plum Island.
+It was like going to sea to go around Rockport Point. Captain Green
+declared "he wan't much on passengers, but he had a nice cabin and an
+awning on the for'ard deck, and there was a woman and some children
+whose husband living up there had bespoke passage."
+
+It was a fine day with the right sort of wind. Oh, how splendid it was
+as they went out oceanward. She had been on the water such a very little
+since her long voyage.
+
+Mrs. Halcom had three children and a baby. She was a plain, commonplace
+body, who had been living up to North Salem, but her folks were
+Newburyport people and she should be glad to get in sight and sound of
+them once again. Chilian had brought a book along, Ben Johnson's Plays,
+and now and then he met with such a charming line or two he must read it
+to her. There were some new poets coming to the fore as well, but he
+knew most of the older ones. Oh, he must get back his youth for her
+sake. Cousin Giles was ever so much older.
+
+She was interested in the ship as well and talked to Captain Green. He
+had so many funny nautical terms, provincialisms, that she had to
+inquire what some of the words meant. For most of the early people of
+New England had not dropped into the careless modes of speech that were
+to come later on and be adopted as a sort of patois. They read their
+Bibles a good deal and the older divines, and if their speech was a
+little stilted it had a certain correctness. Then Chilian Leverett was
+rather fastidious in this respect.
+
+The wind filled the sails and they skimmed along merrily. Now the sea
+was green and so clear you could see the fish disporting themselves.
+Then the sun tinted it with gold and threw up diamond, amethyst, and
+emeralds, taunting one with treasures.
+
+There are new names along the coast, though a few of the old ones
+remain. They passed Gloucester, Thatcher's Island, rounded Rockport,
+where in the inside harbor they had to unload part of their cargo. Then
+on to Plum Island, where the rest were set ashore and the woman and her
+children. Some few things were taken on board, but they were to stop at
+Gloucester, going down for the return cargo.
+
+They walked about a little and bought some ripe, luscious dewberries and
+fruit.
+
+"How queer it would be to live on an island and have to take your boat
+when you went anywhere," and Cynthia laughed gayly.
+
+"People do, farther up. There are a great many islands on the coast of
+Maine, and fishermen are living on them."
+
+"And in Boston Harbor Cousin Giles took us out. It's funny that they
+don't float off. Do they go 'way down to the bottom of the sea?"
+
+"I think they must. Sometimes one does disappear."
+
+"Suppose you were living on it. And you saw the water coming up all
+around you and you couldn't get away----"
+
+Her eyes filled with a kind of terror.
+
+"Oh, you would have some boats."
+
+"But if it happened in the night?"
+
+"We won't go and live on an island," he said with a smile.
+
+It was rougher going back, but not bad enough to cause any alarm. The
+wind had died down, but the swells were coming in. They stopped at
+Gloucester and took on some boxes and great planks, and several pieces
+of furniture.
+
+"There's enough old truck in Salem now," declared Captain Green
+ungraciously. "'F I had my way I'd turn it out on the Common and put a
+match to it. Now there's the Hibbins--came over in 1680 and brought
+their housen goods. There wan't any way of makin' 'em then but just
+outen rough logs. An' now the old granma'am's died and 'twas her
+mother's, I b'lieve, and Mis' Hibbins she's just gone crazy over it. And
+they're buildin' a fine new house. Strange how Salem's buildin' up!
+Those East Ingy traders do make lots of money. But before I'd have that
+old truck in my nice new house!" And the captain gave a snort of
+disdain.
+
+He did not dream that before another hundred years had passed there
+would be comparative fortunes made in the old truck.
+
+"We'll be a little late gettin' in, but there'll be a moon. Lucky wind
+ain't dead agin us."
+
+How good the supper tasted, for Cynthia was very hungry. And then they
+went on and on, hugging the shore, the captain said, until it was a kind
+of shadowy waving blur, but on the other side most beautiful. It made
+her think of coming from India, but she was glad to see the vague
+outline of the shore.
+
+The captain was much surprised that she had been such a traveller. He
+had been to New York and all around Long Island, and up as far as Nova
+Scotia. The Bay of Fundy was wonderful, with its strange dangerous
+tides.
+
+"We will go there another summer," Chilian said, holding her hand, and
+she returned the soft pressure.
+
+"I was 'most afraid something had happened." Eunice had gone down the
+street to meet them. "But it's clear as a bell and no wind to speak of,
+and the captains of the coasting vessels know every inch of the way."
+
+"Only just lovely things happened. It's been splendid. But I'm hungry
+again. Can't I have a second supper?"
+
+How different she looked from the little girl who had come to him for
+care and friendship. And he had been rather unwilling to accept her. She
+was growing tall, and--yes, really pretty.
+
+They had one more excursion to Winter Island. Why, it seemed as if they
+were building ships enough for the whole world. And there were the
+fisheries, and the curious musical singing, not really words, but sort
+of detached sounds that floated off in a weird kind of way.
+
+After that school again. She was glad to see the girls, and Madam Torrey
+gave her a warm welcome, saying, "Why, Miss Cynthia, how tall you have
+grown!"
+
+"I'm very glad," she said smilingly. "All the Leveretts are tall, but I
+don't ever want to be very large."
+
+"And she had really been to Boston! Was it so much handsomer than Salem?
+They had a real theatre, and parties, and balls. Sadie Adams' big
+sister was going to spend the whole winter there."
+
+Chilian Leverett decided to alter his house a little. The two rooms at
+the back had always seemed crowded up, though Elizabeth preferred a
+separate one so long as they connected. But he had the memory of the
+poor drawn face, as he had seen it the morning of her seizure. Wouldn't
+Eunice recall it as well?
+
+"I think I will make some alterations," he announced to her. "I'll push
+that upstairs room out over the summer kitchen and make it a good deal
+larger. While they are doing it, Eunice, you had better go over the
+other side and let Mrs. Taft take your room."
+
+She assented, though she thought the house and the rooms were large
+enough for the few people in it. Cynthia was interested in her studies,
+and the girls, and the new books coming in. For now Sir Walter Scott was
+having a great hearing, and there were some new poets.
+
+It was not expected that people would be at all gay when there had been
+a death in the family, so Cynthia felt compelled to decline her few
+invitations. The new room was finished and made much brighter with the
+two added windows. The walls were painted a soft gray, with a warm tint.
+There were yards and yards of new rag carpet up in the garret, sewed in
+bagging to keep out moths. Of course, it might as well be used. The old
+bedstead was taken out and though the one substituted was quite as old,
+it was very much prettier, with its carved posts and the tester frame
+from which depended white curtains. Some of the other furniture was
+changed and it made a very pretty room, so Eunice came back to it very
+much pleased, though not quite sure so much comeliness was best for the
+soul.
+
+At Christmas Chilian took the little girl down to Boston on a special
+invitation. There were two visitors a little older than herself, one
+whose father was a representative from the State, the other from New
+York.
+
+Washington was not much thought of in those days. Other cities had
+yielded their claims unwillingly, and there had been much talk of its
+being set in a morass. Mrs. President Adams had described her
+infelicities very graphically. The rooms were not finished, and she took
+one of the parlors for an adjunct to the laundry to dry the wash in. New
+York considered itself the great head for fashion and gayety, Boston for
+education and refinement, and she too, had quite an extensive port
+trade.
+
+But Giles Leverett thought the little girl from Salem was quite as
+pretty and well bred as Boston girls, and really she never seemed at
+loss now, and was seldom overtaken with a fit of shyness. They had a
+gay, happy time, with a regular dancing party, which filled Cynthia with
+the utmost delight.
+
+And though the winter seemed cold and bleak spring came again, as it
+always does. Mrs. Taft had gone away to another bad case. Eunice and
+Miss Winn kept the house. There had been quite an entertaining episode
+with Miss Winn. A very prosperous man, who lived up on the North side,
+and had a fine house and five children, asked her to be his wife,
+thinking she would make such an excellent mother for girls. It was
+supposed at that time that no woman could refuse a good offer of
+marriage.
+
+"Consider it well," said Mr. Leverett. "I don't know how we could give
+you up, and, of course, you could not take Cynthia. Her father made a
+generous provision for you, and I think he chose wisely for his child.
+But----"
+
+"I don't know that I want to begin over again," and she gave a peculiar
+smile. "Five seems quite an undertaking when you have had only one. And
+you have taken so much the charge of her."
+
+"But you see, now she will need a woman's guidance more than ever. She
+has outgrown childhood. I see the change in her every day. Eunice could
+not supervise her clothes and her pleasures, times have changed so much.
+I want her to be very happy and have a life like other girls----"
+
+She thought she could give up the prospect good as it was, won by that
+persuasive voice. And she had come to really love Miss Eunice, who was
+blossoming in a new phase now that there was nothing to restrain her
+natural sweetness.
+
+"I promised her father to do the best I could for her. I love her very
+much. I enjoy the home here. I do not think I could be any happier. And
+I am so used to owning myself that I do not feel disposed to give up my
+liberty. If I had no prospect, I might consider it. And Cynthia will
+need some one as she grows older to see that she makes the right sort of
+acquaintances and guide her a little."
+
+"Then since all is agreeable we can count on your staying. You cannot
+imagine my own thankfulness;" and he pressed her hand cordially.
+
+"Isn't it funny!" cried Cynthia. "Why, Margaret Plummer goes to Madam
+Torrey's, but she is very--well, I don't know just how to describe it,
+only she said once that they would all make the house too hot to hold a
+step-mother. And, oh, dear Rachel, I couldn't bear to have anybody ugly
+to you. And then you know we couldn't give you up. Cousin Chilian said
+so, and Miss Eunice cried."
+
+Miss Winn winked some tears out of her eyes, though she tried to smile.
+It was very comforting to a woman without kith or kin to feel so welcome
+in a household.
+
+Cynthia was sitting on the step of the porch one May night when the moon
+was making shifting shadows through the trees and silvering the paths.
+Chilian was studying the face, and wondering a little what was flitting
+through the brain that now and then gave it such intentness.
+
+"What are you thinking about?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Chilian!" She flushed a lovely, rosy glow. "Building an air
+castle."
+
+"Is it very airy? So far that it would be a journey for another person
+to reach it?"
+
+"Oh, part of it is near by. The other is what could be, maybe;"
+wistfully.
+
+"Can't I hear about it?"
+
+"Cousin Chilian, why are the parlors always shut up, and why don't you
+have people coming and going, and saying bright things, and talking
+about the improvements and--and Napoleon and the wars in Europe, and the
+new streets and houses, and, oh, ever so many things?"
+
+He looked at the tightly closed shutters. In his father's time there
+were visitors, discussions, playing at whist and loo, and little
+suppers. She wouldn't care for that, of course. Yet he remembered that
+she had been interested in the talks at Boston.
+
+"Why, yes; the rooms could be opened. Only we have grown so at home in
+the sitting-room, and you and I in the study."
+
+"At the Dearborns' they keep the house all open and lighted up, as they
+do in Boston. And they ask in young people and have plays, and charades,
+and funny conundrums----"
+
+Oh, she was young and should have this kind of life. How should he set
+about it? He must ask Miss Winn. But he ventured rather timidly, for a
+man.
+
+"Would you like--well, some girls in to tea? They ask you so often. And
+there is no reason why we should all be hermits."
+
+She sprang up and clasped her arms about his neck.
+
+"Oh, I just should. At first when Cousin Elizabeth went away, and the
+lessons were difficult, and it was winter, but now everything seems so
+joyous----"
+
+"Why, yes; we must talk to Miss Winn about it, Cynthia," and his voice
+dropped to a tender inflection. "I want you to feel this is your home
+and you must have all the joy and pleasures of youth. You need never be
+afraid. I've been a rather dull old fellow----"
+
+"Oh, you're not old. You're not as old as Cousin Giles, and ever so much
+handsomer. The girls at school think," she flushed and paused, "that you
+were so good to get me the pony and the pretty wagon." She was going to
+say something much more flattering, but delicacy stopped her.
+
+"My dear," he said gravely, "I was glad to make you the gift, but I want
+you to know that there is a considerable sum of money of your own, and
+your father wished you to enjoy it. Whatever you want and is proper for
+you to have, I shall be glad to get, and to do. For I have no little
+girl but you."
+
+"Would it be wicked and selfish if I said I was glad?"
+
+The arms tightened a little. How soft they were! And her hair brushed
+his cheek. It always seemed to have a delicate subtle perfume.
+
+"No, dear. You and I are curiously alone in the world. I haven't a first
+cousin, neither have you."
+
+"And a whole houseful of folks is so nice," she said wistfully.
+
+He had been very well content with his books and his college friends.
+But women were different, at least--those who shut out everybody
+narrowed their lives fearfully.
+
+"We will try and have some."
+
+"And you must like it. If you do not, the greatest pleasure will be
+taken out of it for me."
+
+"I shall like it;" encouragingly.
+
+"How good you are to me. Father said I must love you and obey you, for
+you would know what would be best for me."
+
+Then they sat in silence, the contentment of affection.
+
+He spoke to Miss Winn the next day. Afterward they went into the parlor
+and opened the shutters. It was stately, grand, and gloomy.
+
+Before Anthony Leverett had thought of sending his little girl to his
+care he had forwarded to Chilian a gift "for old remembrance' sake," he
+said, of a very handsome Oriental rug. Floors of the "best rooms" had
+been polished until you could see your shadow in them. Chilian did not
+like the noise or the continual trouble. So he laid down the rug and
+bought one for the other room. But the heavy curtains, with their silken
+linings, staid up year after year. He noticed those at Giles' house were
+much lighter and in soft colors. And his furniture was not so massive.
+
+"I wish we could change things a little. That old sofa might go up in
+the new room. It was grand enough in my father's time, with its borders
+of brass-headed tacks, and its flat, hard seat. Two of these chairs
+might come up in my room."
+
+"I wish we could find a place for the lovely sort of cabinet that
+Cynthia's father sent over. I keep it covered from dust and scratches.
+She will be glad to have it when she has a house of her own."
+
+"One of the rooms ought to be hers--well, both," he added reflectively.
+
+"The rugs are elegant. Yes, lighter curtains would change it a good
+deal. How very handsome the mantels are with all their carving."
+
+They would have adorned a modern house. They went nearly up to the
+ceiling with small shelves and nooks, on which were vases and ornaments
+such as bring fortunes now.
+
+"And--about the party?"
+
+"Oh, that will be only a girls' tea--her schoolmates where she has been.
+Next year will be time enough for the party;" with a little laugh.
+
+So the two spacious rooms were quite remodelled and modernized, and the
+gloomy appearance was a thing of the past. Why shouldn't he spend his
+money on her? There was no one else.
+
+He had not lost sight of Anthony Drayton. The father had been exigent.
+Anthony, being the eldest, must take the farm when he was done with it.
+The lad had worked his time out. Cousin Chilian had offered him enough
+to take him to a preparatory school where he would be fitted for
+college. He had come in to Boston and Chilian had been attracted to the
+manly young fellow.
+
+Cynthia was more than delighted with the privilege of the tea party.
+
+"Some of the girls have brothers, but I don't know them very well. I
+like Bentley, but he is away at school. And I'd rather have just girls."
+
+Her admiration of the parlor knew no bounds, and it gratified him.
+
+She had been taking lessons on the spinet, but the painting was a great
+rival. And this was old, thin, and creaky.
+
+"I have found a much better one in Boston, and the dealer wants this
+because it was made in London in 1680. How strenuous some people are
+over old things. It has no special interest that I know of, and is
+comparatively useless."
+
+The new ones were really the beginning of pianofortes and this one was
+very sweet in tone.
+
+Chilian had been very greatly interested in the changes. He began to
+cultivate his neighbors a little more. Indeed improvements were taking
+place in the town. New streets were laid out, old ones straightened,
+fine new houses built. There seemed a sudden outburst of commercial
+grandeur. Furnishings of the richest sort were eagerly caught up by the
+shoppers, who did not think it necessary to go to Boston and buy goods
+that had come in port here. Many of the old wooden houses were replaced
+with brick, and the beautiful doorways, windows, roofs, and porches
+still attract craftsmen and architects from different sections of the
+country, while illustrators find rich material in old Colonial doorways.
+
+Miss Winn consulted Mrs. Upham as to what was proper for a girls' tea.
+
+"Miss Cynthia is old enough now to begin with friends in a simple
+manner. The family have lived so quietly that I have not gained much
+experience in such matters, and Miss Eunice doesn't feel equal to
+managing it. Of course, Miss Cynthia is quite an heiress and will go in
+with the best people."
+
+"As the Leveretts always have. There's been many a cap set for Chilian
+Leverett and it's been a wonder to every one that he hasn't married. But
+there's time enough yet."
+
+She came over and admired the parlors without stint.
+
+"You see," she said confidentially, "Miss Elizabeth was no hand for
+company. Some of the older people did the same, shut up the best rooms
+lest they should get faded, or something scratched, or worn. And I
+suppose he kept giving in; then there was his going in to college, and
+that's a sort of man's life. I'm glad he has had something to stir him
+up. He has been to several town-meetings. They are talking up
+improvements. It's a fine thing to have so many vessels flying Salem
+flags in different ports; nigh on to two hundred registered, husband
+said. But I told him there ought to be some home interest as well. We
+must not let Boston get so far ahead of us, nor forget the young people
+are to be the next generation."
+
+"And young people want some pleasure. I do not see how they stood so
+much of the gloomy side twenty years ago. I was that surprised when I
+first came here."
+
+"Well, there had been a good many things, and all that witchcraft
+business. Puritan ways grew sterner and sterner. I can't say that people
+were really the better for it, in my way of thinking, and the Saviour
+talked a good deal about loving and helping people. He didn't stop to
+make them subscribe to all sorts of hard things before he worked a
+miracle. But we were going to talk about the tea."
+
+"Yes; about what time now? I want Cynthia to have it just right and
+proper;" laughing.
+
+"They come--we'll say about four. They will want to run around and see
+things, and I'd have supper about five and they'll sit over it, and
+talk, and laugh. Suppose I send my 'Mimy over to pass things and wait.
+You would not want Miss Eunice to do it, and you will have other things
+on your hands."
+
+"Oh, thank you. You are very kind about it."
+
+"Well, I've had a girl to grow up and be married, and Polly's to leave
+school this summer, and next winter she will be setting up for a young
+lady. Little cookies and spicenuts are nice and two kinds of cake. You
+never give them real tea, you know, though it's called a tea party. And
+some cold chicken, or sliced ham. I'd spread the plates of bread, it's
+so much less trouble. They'll be sure to enjoy everything. A lot of
+girls always do have a good time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A TASTE OF PLEASURE
+
+
+Cynthia was full of joy, running down to the gate to meet and greet
+guests. They came in groups of twos and threes, having called for each
+other. There were fifteen in all--the girls she knew best, who were
+nearest her own age, and at most of the houses she had been made a
+welcome guest. Indeed, more than one mother was glad to have her
+daughter good friends with Miss Cynthia Leverett, who was to be a rich
+young woman, and whose trustee in Boston lived in fine style.
+
+Yet it was not exactly that money was so much thought of either, though
+it was always esteemed an excellent thing. Somehow it was rather
+relegated to the men. A father had an idea that his daughters would
+marry well, so business opportunities, and often the homestead, went to
+the sons. Here was an undivided fortune. And now it was hardly likely
+Chilian Leverett would marry, so she might come in for that.
+
+The house had always been considered rather gloomy, as even on state
+occasions not much light was allowed in the parlors. Some of the girls
+had been gently advised to notice if there had been changes made.
+
+Cynthia led them upstairs to take off their things. They were rather
+particular about complexions in those days. Some of the summer hats were
+really ornate sunbonnets, others were the great poke shape with a big
+bow on top and wide strings that were allowed to float on a hot day, so
+as not to get crushed by the warmth under the chin. They had long muslin
+sleeves to pull over their arms, indeed some of them were finished with
+mittens, so that the hands might not get tanned.
+
+The girls wore rather scant straight skirts, tucked up to the waist, or
+with needlework at the bottom, or two or three tiny ruffles. The
+stockings were not always white, oftener they matched the color of the
+slippers that were laced across the instep. The necks were cut square,
+often finished with a lace berthe. Some old families have handed these
+down and kept them laid away in rose leaves and lavender, and they are
+so sweet that when they are shaken out they perfume the room.
+
+Cynthia wore a white gauzy frock made over blue silk that was soft as a
+pansy leaf. It had blue satin stripes and she was very glad she had the
+pretty blue slippers to match. Then almost every girl had a coral
+necklace, or was allowed to wear grandmother's gold beads. Some had
+their hair tied up high on their heads with a great bow, and maybe the
+family silver or gold comb put in artistically. Chilian liked the
+little girl's to hang loose, and now it was down to her waist.
+
+It was said the Holland wives of centuries ago took their visitors
+through their wardrobes and displayed their silk and velvet gowns. And
+when England passed some sumptuary laws that no one below titled rank
+should wear silk, the good wives of traders lined theirs with silk and
+hung them up in grand array to gratify their visitors or themselves.
+
+"You have so many lovely things," said a girl enviously. "I haven't but
+one silk frock, and that was Mary's until she outgrew it. And mother's
+so choice of it; she thinks it ought to last and go to Ruth."
+
+"Why, you see, so many things came from India," apologized Cynthia,
+almost ashamed of having so much. "And there's a boxful upstairs, but I
+think I like the white muslins best, they look so pretty when they are
+clean, and you don't have to be so careful."
+
+"Do you ever get scolded when accidents happen?"
+
+"Well, not much. Cousin Eunice is so sweet. Cousin Elizabeth was more
+particular."
+
+"And Miss Winn?"
+
+"Oh, my dear Rachel loves me too much," the child said laughingly.
+
+There were so many odd and pretty things that they staid up until all
+the girls had come--not one of them declined. Then they went down to the
+parlors.
+
+"Cousin Chilian said this back room was to be mine. That lovely desk
+and the cabinet were my own mother's. And the table is teakwood. The
+chair father had carved for me, and that big portrait is father. This
+case has miniatures of them both, but it is too big ever to wear."
+
+"What a pity!"
+
+It was a beautifully engraved gold case, set with jewels.
+
+"Well, you are a lucky girl! And you can have all these yourself. You
+just don't have to share them with anybody. Is the room truly yours?"
+
+"Why, it is to put my things in, but anybody can come in it, and we can
+go in the other room. Most of those articles were Cousin Chilian's
+father's and mother's, and the great clock in the hall came over in
+1640. It's funny;" and she laughed. "Old furniture and quilts and things
+never get cross and queer as folks sometimes do."
+
+"Well, they're not really alive."
+
+"And they last so much longer than folks."
+
+They had not inspected all the things when Miss Winn invited them out to
+supper. She took the head of the table, and began to talk so that they
+should not feel embarrassed. The lovely old china was on the table, and
+two vases of flowers that looked as if they were set with gems. 'Mimy
+passed the plates of bread and butter and cold meats and cottage cheese,
+and after a little they all began to talk as if it was recess at
+school.
+
+Mr. Chilian Leverett passed through the sitting-room and thought it was
+really an enchanting sight, and that Cynthia was the prettiest girl of
+them all.
+
+People had not thought up ice cream in those days, but they made lovely
+custards, baked in cups with handles, and a tiny spoon to eat them with.
+They were the last of the tea.
+
+Then they went into the front parlor, which was the larger and played
+fox and geese, and blind-man's buff in a ring. Oh, Elizabeth, it was
+enough to disturb your rest to have those merry feet twinkle over the
+beautiful rug, when you scarcely dared walk tiptoe for fear of crushing
+the soft pile. But they had a grand, good time.
+
+Then Mr. Leverett brought in Cousin Eunice, who had a bit of white at
+her neck and wrists, and a lavender bow on her cap. She had protested
+against the bow, but Miss Winn had carried her point.
+
+Mr. Leverett set them to doing some amusing things he had resurrected
+from his own boyhood. Catches on words, such as "Malaga grapes are very
+good grapes, but the grapes of Oporto are better." And then, "A hen, a
+hen, but not a rooster. Can you say _that_?" They were greatly puzzled
+and looked at Cynthia, who was silently smiling, saying it over in every
+manner, until at last one girl almost shrieked out, "_That_," and there
+was a chorus of laughter.
+
+At nine o'clock they were bidden to come home. Some of them were sent
+for and those who lived near together went in a group. Ben Upham came
+for his sisters.
+
+"I don't see why they couldn't have had boys," said Ben to Polly. "Ever
+so many of us would have been glad to come."
+
+"Well, we didn't have any real boys' plays. But the supper was elegant.
+And 'Mimy waited so nicely. Cynthia's going to have the back parlor for
+hers, and Mr. Leverett has bought a new spinet. And she has the most
+beautiful things----"
+
+"Oh, yes, I've seen those;" rather impatiently.
+
+"And Mr. Leverett's just splendid!"
+
+"I always told you so;" somewhat grumpily. "But I'd rather be up in the
+study with him and Cynthy than to go to half a dozen parties."
+
+"Oh, we weren't in the study at all."
+
+"No, that isn't for girls." So he had scored one, after all.
+
+It was the general verdict when the tea party was talked over that
+Cynthia Leverett was in a fair way of being spoiled. A man didn't know
+how to bring up a girl, and, of course, Miss Winn let her have her own
+way. Miss Eunice had given in to her sister so long that she gave in to
+every one else.
+
+Friends went to call and found the children had not exaggerated. Now and
+then a neighbor was asked in to supper, and found Cynthia a nice, modest
+girl, with no airs of superiority.
+
+They had some journeys about. They went up to the bay of Fundy and
+cruised around, chatting with fishermen and French settlers in their odd
+costumes, looked at their funny little huts, and were amazed at the
+children rolling round in the sand and the sun. Cousin Chilian talked to
+them, but their language was a sort of patois difficult to understand.
+
+After that Cynthia was much interested in the French and English war.
+And the whole country was watching the Corsican who had made himself
+master of half of Europe.
+
+"It is a wonderful world," Cynthia said when they were safe in the study
+again. "And I wonder if it is narrow and selfish to be glad that you are
+just you?"
+
+He was amused at the idea. But he couldn't recall that he had ever been
+anxious to change with any one.
+
+"And that _you_ are just _you_. I couldn't like any one else as well,
+not even Cousin Giles, and I do like him very much."
+
+Chilian felt a rise of color stealing up his cheek. The preference was
+sweet, for Cousin Giles was extremely indulgent to her, and he was not a
+child enthusiast either.
+
+In those days no one supposed parents and friends were put in the world
+purposely for children's pleasure. They didn't even consider they came
+for _their_ pleasure. It was right to have them, they were to be the
+future men and women, workers, legislators, and homemakers. They didn't
+always have easy times, nor their own way, and they were not thought to
+be wiser than their parents, even in the choice of professions for life.
+But there were many fine brave fellows among the boys, and the girls
+went on, making pretty good wives and mothers. If life did not bring
+them just what they wished, they accepted it and did the best they
+could.
+
+Anthony Drayton came to make Cousin Chilian a visit and pass an
+examination for Harvard. With a little help he had worked his way
+through the academy. He was one of the brave, resolute boys, and, though
+it grieved him to go against his father's wishes, he had decided for
+himself.
+
+"I really could not bury myself on a farm," he confessed. "I want a
+wider life, I want to mix with men and take an interest in the country.
+Not that I despise farming, and if one could branch out and do many new
+things, but to keep on year after year in the old rut, corn and
+potatoes, wheat and rye--just as grandfather did. What is the use of a
+man living if he can't strike out some new ways? Maybe I'd been willing
+to go to the new countries, but father was just as opposed to that."
+
+He was a fresh, fair lad, with eyes of the Leverett blue, a strong, fine
+face, not delicate as Cousin Chilian's. His hair was not very dark, but
+his brows well defined, and with the eyelashes much darker than the
+hair. His voice had such a cheerful uplift.
+
+"You have quite decided then?" Chilian wondered if he could ever have
+gone against his father's wishes, but in that case father and son had
+similar tastes.
+
+"Oh, yes; I've nothing farther to look for, and I'm willing to leave my
+share to the other children. I know I can make my way, and I'm ready to
+work and wait."
+
+His voice had such a nice wholesome ring that it inspired you with faith
+in him.
+
+Cousin Eunice took a great fancy to him. They talked over the visit of
+years ago. It seemed to her as if it had just been the beginning of
+things.
+
+One sister was grown up and "keeping company," the other a nice handy
+girl. The next brother would be a great help--he cared nothing for
+books. Both of the Brent cousins were married, one living on the farm
+with his mother, the other having struck out for himself. And Miss Eliza
+Leverett was weakly. Like many women of that period, when all hope of
+marrying and having a home of her own was past, she sank down into a
+gentle nonentity and dreamed of Cousin Chilian. Not that she had
+expected to captivate him, but life with some one like that would set
+one on the highest pinnacle.
+
+He thought Cousin Cynthia--they were always cousins, to the fourth
+generation--was the sweetest, daintiest, and most winsome thing he had
+ever seen--and so she was, for his acquaintance with girls had been
+limited. They looked over the old treasures in the house and thought it
+wonderful any one should ever go to India and return without being
+wrecked. They walked about the lovely garden, and he was amazed at her
+familiarity with flowers and plants he had never seen.
+
+Then she took him over to the Uphams, for an old friend came in to play
+checkers with Cousin Chilian. Polly was bright and merry, but somehow
+Ben seemed rather captious. Anthony listened with surprise at the bright
+sayings they flung at one another.
+
+The next day he and Cousin Chilian went over topics for examination. His
+reading had not been extensive but thorough. In mathematics he was
+excellent. But he found some time to chat with Cynthia, and they both
+walked down to the warehouse with Cousin Chilian.
+
+What a sight it was! He had read of such things, but to see the hundreds
+of busy men, the great fleet of vessels, the docks piled with all kinds
+of wares, the boxes and bales lying round in endless confusion. And the
+great ocean, lost over beyond in the far-off sky.
+
+When the two had gone up to Boston, Cynthia felt very lonely. She had
+been sipping the sweets of unspoken admiration. She saw it in the eyes,
+in the deference, as if he was almost afraid of her, in the sudden flush
+when she turned her eyes to him. It was a new kind of worship.
+
+She went over to the Uphams. Polly had been having her sampler framed.
+The acorn border was very pretty in its greens and browns. Then a stiff
+little tree grew up both sides, about like those that came in the Noah's
+Ark later on. And between these two trees was worked in cross-stitch:
+
+          "Mary Upham is my name,
+              America is my nation;
+           Salem is my dwelling place,
+              And Christ is my salvation."
+
+"Isn't the frame nice?" she asked. "I made father two shirts and he gave
+me the frame and the glass. Peter Daly made it. And the frame is oiled
+and polished until the grain shows--well, almost like watered silk.
+Gitty Sprague has a beautiful pelisse of gray watered silk. And now I
+have one thing for my house. I'm beginning to lay by."
+
+"Your house!" Cynthia ejaculated in surprise.
+
+"Why, yes--when I'm married. You have such lots of things, you'll never
+have to save up."
+
+Cynthia was wondering what she could give away. Not anything that was
+her father's or her mother's.
+
+"I'll paint you a picture. You do so much better needlework than I that
+I should be ashamed to offer you any."
+
+"And the girls will give me some, I know. I'd fifty times rather have
+the picture. What a nice young fellow that cousin is! I'm glad his name
+isn't Leverett. There's such a host of them. But I don't like Anthony so
+well."
+
+"That was father's name. It's quite a family name. It always sounds good
+to me."
+
+"And is he going to Harvard?"
+
+"Yes; even if he can't get in right away."
+
+"That's nice, too. It's quite the style for young men to go to college.
+Some of them put on a sight of airs, though. He doesn't look like that
+kind."
+
+"He isn't," she returned warmly. "He is going to work his way through."
+
+"Oh! Hasn't he any father?"
+
+"Yes; but his father will not do anything for him. I think it is real
+grand of him."
+
+Polly nodded, but she lost interest in the young man.
+
+Bentley walked home with Cynthia. It was afternoon, so he did not really
+need to.
+
+"I suppose that cousin isn't going to live with you?" he asked
+presently.
+
+"Oh, no; he will have to live in Boston."
+
+"And come up here for Sundays?"
+
+"Why, I don't know. That would be nice. I think I am growing fond of
+company."
+
+"Well, I can come over;" half jocosely.
+
+"Oh, I meant other people;" innocently.
+
+"Then you don't care for my coming?"
+
+"Yes, I do. Oh, do you remember that winter I was half sick and how you
+used to come over and read Latin? And I used to say it to myself after
+you."
+
+That delighted him. He didn't feel so cross about the young fellow, but
+he half hoped he wouldn't pass, and have to go back to New Hampshire for
+another year.
+
+They sat on the stoop and chatted until the old stage stopped and
+Chilian alighted.
+
+"Oh!" the young girl cried, "where did you leave Anthony?"
+
+"With Cousin Giles. The examinations will begin to-morrow."
+
+It was near supper-time and Ben rose to go. Sometimes they asked him to
+stay to supper, but to-night they did not.
+
+Then an event happened that took Cynthia's entire interest for a while.
+This was the return of Captain Corwin. He came up the walk one
+day--quite a grizzled old fellow it seemed, with the sailor's rolling
+gait--and looked at her so sharply that she had a mind to run away.
+
+"Oh, Captain Anthony's little girl," he cried. "You have forgotten me.
+And it ain't been so long either."
+
+She thought a moment and turned from red to white. Then she stretched
+out both hands and cried, her eyes and voice full of tears:
+
+"Oh, you couldn't bring him back!"
+
+"No, little Missy. He'd shipped for the last time before I'd reached
+there and gone to a better haven. He was the best friend I ever had. But
+he knew it long afore, and that was why he wanted you safe with
+friends."
+
+"I know now." She brushed the tears from her eyes.
+
+"And I hope you've been happy."
+
+"I waited and waited at first. Sometimes I wished I was a bird. Oh,
+wouldn't we have a lovely time if we could fly? And one time in the
+winter I was quite ill--it was so cold and I did get so tired of
+waiting. Then Cousin Chilian told me he had gone to mother and I knew
+how glad she would be to see him. I had some nice times. Cousin Chilian
+loved me very much. So did Cousin Eunice. I think Cousin Elizabeth would
+if she had lived longer, but she went away, too. Oh, I've done so many
+things--studied books, and taken journeys, and made friends, and painted
+pictures, flowers, and such. And I've tried to paint the sea, but I
+can't make it move and seem like a real sea."
+
+"Oh, Missy, how smart you must be!"
+
+"There are so many things I don't know," she laughed. "And now tell me
+about yourself and why you did not come back."
+
+"We had a pretty fair journey all along first. But as we were nearing
+Torres Strait an awful storm took us, and we were driven ashore almost a
+wreck and lost two of our men. After a while we got patched up and set
+sail again, but I was afraid we would never reach harbor. Howsomever we
+did, in a pretty bad condition. Poor _Flying Star_ seemed on its last
+legs and 'twasn't sea legs either. Then I went up to Hong Kong and
+cruised around, buying stuff and selling it elsewhere. The _Flying Star_
+was patched up again, but she wasn't thought safe for a long journey.
+But there was plenty of work near at hand. Of course, I knew all about
+your father, and that the word must have reached you, but I hated
+mortally to come back and face you. But after a while the hankerin' for
+old Salem grew upon me. And there was the _Aurora_ wantin' a captain,
+for the man who brought her out died of a fever. So says I, 'I'm your
+man, and I've been over often enough to know the ropes, the islands, and
+p'ints of danger and safe sailing.' So here I be once more. But jiminy
+Peter! I should hardly 'a' knowed little old Salem. Why, she looks as if
+she was going to outsail all creation!"
+
+"Oh, we're getting very grand. New streets, and splendid new houses, and
+stores, and churches. Why, Boston isn't very much finer."
+
+"Don't b'lieve Boston harbor can show tonnage with her! And where's
+first mate?"
+
+"I don't know, but he will be in soon. Oh, there's Rachel. Rachel, come
+here to an old friend."
+
+The captain shook hands heartily. "Why, you don't seem to have changed a
+mite, only to grow younger and plump as a partridge."
+
+It had all to be talked over again and in the midst of it supper was
+ready, and there was Miss Eunice's surprise. Cynthia could hardly eat,
+the long journey and the dangers seemed such a strange thing now. Had
+she really come from India, or was it all a dream?
+
+Yes, old Salem was almost fading out of the minds of even middle-aged
+people. There were curious stories told about witches and ghosts, but
+the real witchcraft was dying out of mind and the old houses that had
+been associated with it were looked upon as curiosities. Public spirit
+was being roused. In 1804 the East India Marine Society left the Stearns
+house and moved to the new Pickman Building in Essex Street. People
+began to send in curiosities that had been stored away in garrets:
+models of early vessels, articles from Calcutta, from the islands about
+the Central and South Pacific, cloths, and cloaks, and shawls, and
+implements.
+
+The captain was quite sure Winter Island had grown larger--perhaps it
+had, by docking out. And he declared the streets looked like London,
+with the gayly gowned women, the stores, the carriages, for a number of
+handsome late ones were to be seen. There were a few fine young men on
+the promenade and they were attired in the height of fashion, as the
+society men of New York and Philadelphia. They were still paying
+attention to business and devoting the evenings to pleasure. Descendants
+of the strict old Puritans met to play cards and have dances and gay
+times with the young ladies. In the afternoon a cup of tea would be
+offered to callers, or a piece of choice cake and a glass of
+wine--often home-made. There were few excesses.
+
+Many were still wearing the old Continental attire, yet you saw an old
+Puritan gentleman, with his long coat, his high-crowned hat, black silk
+stockings, and low shoes with great steel buckles.
+
+Anthony was very much interested in the captain, whose best friend had
+been Anthony Leverett. He was proud of the name, and Cynthia's story was
+like a romance to him. He was taken up quite cordially by Cousin Giles,
+and very cordially by Mrs. Stevens, who had a liking for young men when
+they were well-mannered. He had managed to enter Harvard, with some
+studies to make up. Chilian Leverett insisted he should do no teaching
+this year, and offered him enough to see him through, but he would only
+accept it as a loan.
+
+Bentley Upham was a year ahead and had a good standing, but he felt a
+little jealous of the young country fellow--"bumpkin" he would have
+liked to call him, but he was not that. A young man received at Mr.
+Giles Leverett's, and who sometimes escorted Mrs. Stevens to an
+entertainment, was not to be ignored.
+
+The captain staid in port nearly two months and Cynthia experienced her
+old fondness for him, if he was a little uncouth and rough. They went
+down to see the _Aurora_ off and she recalled the day she had said
+good-bye to the _Flying Star_, that was to bring back her father.
+
+As for her she was very busy learning to play and to paint. It was a
+young lady's accomplishment, but she really did very well. There were
+girls' teas, and now and then a small dance that began at seven and
+ended at nine, but boys were invited generally. Miss Polly Upham was
+quite in the swim, as we should say now. Mothers expected their
+daughters to marry, and how could they if they did not see young men?
+But there was a certain propriety observed, and very little playing fast
+and loose with the most sacred period of life, with the greatest
+God-given blessing--Love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+IN GAY OLD SALEM
+
+
+The next winter Cynthia was fairly launched on society. There was no
+regular coming out in almost bridal array, with a grand tea and a
+houseful of flowers. When a girl left school she expected to be invited
+out and to give little companies at home. Almost the first thing, she
+was asked to be one of the six bridesmaids at Laura Manning's wedding.
+
+The Mannings had one of the splendid new houses on Chestnut Street, with
+spacious grounds before the houses grew so close together. Avis Manning
+was still in school, Cynthia was between the two in age. Mr. Manning was
+connected with the East India trade and an old friend of the Leverett
+family. It had begun by Cynthia being invited to a girls' tea, and Mrs.
+Manning had taken a great fancy to her. Laura was not very tall, and
+they did not want any one to dwarf the bride.
+
+Every one was to be in white, the bride in a soft, thick silk, and she
+was to have a court train. The maids were to be in mull or gauze, as a
+very pretty thin material was called. The Empress Josephine had brought
+in new styles that certainly were very becoming to young people. The
+short waist and square neck, the sleeve puffs that had shrunk so much
+they no longer reached the ears, the short curls around the edge of the
+forehead arranged so the white parting showed, the dainty feet in
+elegant slippers and choice silk stockings that could not help showing,
+for the skirts were short. Pretty feet and slim ankles seemed to be a
+mark of good family.
+
+"Will I do?" Cynthia stood before Cousin Chilian with a half-saucy
+smile. Around her throat she wore a beautiful Oriental necklace, with
+pendants of different fine stones that sparkled with every turn of the
+head. There were match pendants in her ears, and just back of the rows
+of curls was a jewelled comb.
+
+She was a pretty girl without being a striking beauty. But her eyes
+would have redeemed almost any face, and now they were all aglow with a
+wonderful light.
+
+He looked his admiration.
+
+"Because if _you_ don't like me----"
+
+There was a charming half-coquettish way about her, but she never made a
+bid for compliments.
+
+"What then?" laughing.
+
+"I'd stay home and spoil the wedding party. I know they couldn't fill my
+place on a short notice."
+
+He thought they couldn't fill it at all, but he said almost merrily,
+"You need not stay at home."
+
+Cousin Eunice said she looked pretty enough for the bride. Miss Winn had
+attended to her toilette, and now she wrapped a soft silken cloak about
+her and Cousin Chilian put her in the carriage. He was all in his best,
+ruffled shirt-front, light brocaded silk waist-coat, and there were lace
+ruffles about his hands.
+
+One feels inclined to wonder at the extravagance of those days, when one
+sees some of the heirlooms that have come down to us. But their handsome
+gowns went through several seasons, and then were made over for the
+daughters. And they did not have their jewels reset every few months.
+
+Such a roomful of pretty girls! Youth and health and picturesque
+dressing make almost any one pretty. Miss Laura looked fine, but she
+paused to say, "Oh, Cynthia, what an elegant necklace!"
+
+"Father had it made for mother," she replied simply.
+
+They patted and pulled a little, powdered, too.
+
+Miss Willard, the great mantua-maker of that day, who superintended the
+dressing of brides, saw that everything was right. The young men came
+from their dressing-room, and they began to form the procession. Both
+halls were illuminated with no end of candles, and guests were standing
+about. Mr. Lynde Saltonstall took his bride-to-be, and they let the
+white train sweep down the broad stairway, then Avis Manning and Ed
+Saltonstall followed. They were not much on knick-names in those days,
+but he had been called Ed to distinguish him from some cousins.
+
+Cynthia and a cousin came next, and there were several other relatives.
+It was a beautiful sight. The bride walked up to the white satin cushion
+on which the couple would kneel during the prayer, the maids and
+attendants made a semicircle around her, and then the nearest relatives.
+The old white-haired minister had married her mother.
+
+Then there was kissing and congratulation and Mrs. Saltonstall had her
+new name, though Avis said she liked Manning a hundred times better.
+
+"Then you wouldn't accept my name?" said Ed, but he looked laughingly at
+Cynthia.
+
+"Indeed I wouldn't! I don't want any one's name at present. I'm going to
+be the only daughter of the house a while," she returned saucily.
+
+"I wonder if I ought to go on and ask all the maids?" There was such a
+funny anxiety in his face that it added to the merriment.
+
+"You needn't ask this one," said Ward Adams, and Cousin Lois Reade
+blushed scarlet, though they all knew she was engaged.
+
+"But I'm going to dance with every maid. And just at twelve I'm going to
+hunt for a glass slipper."
+
+His look at Cynthia said he needn't hunt very far, and she blushed,
+which made her more enchanting than before.
+
+They all laughed and talked, the older men teasing the bride a little
+and giving her advice as to how she should break in her new husband.
+Young people's weddings were expected to be gay and every one added his
+or her mite. The fine new house was duly admired. On one side it was all
+one long room, beautifully decorated. On the other a library, for books
+were beginning to come in fashion, even if you were not a clergyman or a
+student. Then a kind of family sitting-room, with a large dining-room at
+the back. Some of the fine old houses were taken for public purposes
+later on.
+
+They went out to refreshments and the bride cut the cake with a silver
+knife. Large suppers were no longer considered the style, but there was
+a bountiful supply of delicacies. They drank health and long life to the
+bride and groom, and good wishes of all kinds.
+
+The black waiter, in white gloves and white apron, stood in the hall to
+deliver boxes of wedding cake as the older people took their departure.
+And then the fiddlers began to tune up. There were two minuets to take
+in all the party. Cynthia and Mr. Jordan were in the head one, with the
+bride. He was a little stiff and excused himself, as he wasn't much
+given to dancing. It didn't matter so much in the minuet.
+
+Then they paired off any way. Mr. Ed Saltonstall caught Cynthia's hand.
+
+"I'm just dying to dance with you, and this is the basket quadrille.
+Jordan dances like a pump handle, but he's a good fellow. Now let us
+have something worth while. I know you dance beautifully."
+
+"How do you know?" piquantly.
+
+"I'd like to be nautical and impertinent, but I'm afraid you'd report
+me to Mr. Leverett. Oh, it's in you, in every motion. Aren't you glad
+you didn't live in those old Puritan days when you would have been put
+in the stocks if you had skipped across the room? Come."
+
+That _was_ dancing. Not a halt nor an ungraceful turn, but every curve
+and motion was as perfect as if they had danced together all their
+lives. She gave two or three happy sighs. Her cheeks were like the heart
+of a blush rose; she never turned very red when she ran or skipped, and
+never looked blowsy.
+
+Another person watched and thought her the prettiest thing in the room,
+and was very glad she belonged to him.
+
+"I'm sorry I have to dance with some one else and it's Lois Reade. Adams
+would like to kick me, I know, and she would be twice as happy with him.
+That is the price you pay for assisting your brother into matrimony.
+Next time there shall not be but one bridesmaid, and I'll dance with her
+all the evening."
+
+"Next time? Will he be married twice?" she asked demurely.
+
+"Oh, you witch! You are the most delicious dancer--it almost seems as if
+you were sipping some very fine wine----"
+
+"And it went to your head," she laughed.
+
+"Head and heels both. I'm extravagantly fond of it with a partner like
+you. You'll go to the assemblies this winter?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know."
+
+"Is Mr. Leverett very--he's your guardian, and somehow I stand just a
+little in awe of him. He is so polished, and knows so much, and is he
+going to be very exclusive?"
+
+"Why----" She didn't quite understand, but she looked out of such lovely
+eyes that all his pulses throbbed.
+
+"Take your places."
+
+She was standing there alone when Mr. Adams asked her. That was only
+fair play. Mr. Saltonstall was in the same set and he gave her hand a
+squeeze when he took her, crumpled it all up in his, and she flushed
+daintily.
+
+He could not dance with her again until the very last. That was a
+"circle" in which you balanced and turned your partner and went to the
+next couple, but some way you returned to your own. There were various
+pretty figures in it. Once or twice she was a little confused, but he
+seemed always on the watch for her.
+
+The music stopped and the fiddlers were locking their cases. The dancers
+went out to the supper-room again.
+
+"I'd rather dance than eat. I believe I could dance without music. Would
+you like to try?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, no!" with a frightened look that made him laugh.
+
+Mr. Leverett came, and Mr. Saltonstall was all polite deference. He
+wished he could be invited to call, but how was it to be managed?
+
+Then Cynthia went upstairs to put on her cloak. The bride kissed her,
+and said she was glad to have had her, and when they gave their
+house-warming she must be sure to come.
+
+"I've had such a lovely time. Thank you ever so much."
+
+"I'm the obliged one," was the reply.
+
+If she had not been in the carriage she must have danced all the way
+home. There was music in her head and a "spirit in her feet." She hardly
+heard what Cousin Chilian was saying, only after they entered the house
+and she slipped out of her wrap, with his good-night, he said, "You are
+a very pretty girl, Cynthia." Of course, he should have had more sense
+than to foster a girl's vanity.
+
+The next morning she asked him about the assemblies.
+
+"They are very nice dancing parties. Only the best people go and no sort
+of freedom or misbehavior is tolerated. I think I'll take out a
+membership."
+
+"Oh, do, please do," she entreated.
+
+The elegant wedding was talked of for days. Girls called on Miss
+Leverett--it seemed funny to be called that. She was asked to join a
+sewing society that made articles of clothing for the widows and
+children of drowned sailors, and there were many of them on the New
+England coast. Her tender heart was moved by the pathetic tales she
+heard.
+
+"Dear Cousin Eunice," she said one day, "I went with one of the
+committee to see a poor sick woman who is in awful destitution. There
+are three small children, and when she is well she goes out washing.
+They send her driftwood and old stuff from the ship-yards, and one of
+the companies pays her rent. But you should see the things! Such ragged
+quilts that hardly hold together, and one little boy was without
+stockings. There are so many things up in the garret that you will never
+use----"
+
+"Likely, dear, but they are Chilian's."
+
+"He said I might ask you, that he was willing. Can't we go up and find
+some? What is the use of their being piled up year after year, and
+people in need? Ah, if you could see the poor place!"
+
+Miss Eunice went unwillingly. The thrift of New England did often
+shrivel into penuriousness. She and Elizabeth were in the habit of
+putting away so many partly worn articles for the time of need.
+
+"Those old blankets and quilts----"
+
+"Elizabeth thought they would do to cover over."
+
+"But there are so many better ones. And some on the closet shelves that
+have never been used. Why, there is enough to last a hundred years."
+
+"Oh, no;" with an alarmed expression.
+
+"And even I shall not last a hundred years. No one does."
+
+"Oh, yes. I knew a woman who lived to be one hundred and four."
+
+"Did she come to want?"
+
+"She had a good son to take care of her."
+
+"And you have Cousin Chilian. I read somewhere in the Bible--I wish I
+could remember the chapters and verses, 'While we have time let us do
+good unto _all_ men.' I suppose that means those who haven't been frugal
+and careful, as well as the others."
+
+"We can't tell just what every sentence means."
+
+"But we can help them. And here is a poor woman who doesn't go to
+taverns;" smiling tenderly and with persuasive eyes.
+
+They picked out enough for a wagon-load. Some of Cousin Chilian's
+clothes that would do to cut over, old woollen blankets, and a variety
+of articles.
+
+"Let us put them all in this chest."
+
+"We might need the chest."
+
+"Oh, no, we won't. They will be so much easier to carry that way. Silas
+could drive down there. And, oh, you can't imagine how much good they
+will do."
+
+Cynthia went down to see afterward, and the poor woman's gratitude
+brought tears to her eyes.
+
+"They will be a perfect God-send this winter," she said. "I've been
+frettin' as to what we should do. I've never begged yet. Well, the Lord
+is good."
+
+Then there came another source of interest. Polly Upham was "keeping
+company." A nice, steady young man in the ship-chandlery business, with
+a little money saved up, whose folks lived at Portsmouth. He came
+regularly on Wednesday night and Sundays to tea. They went to church in
+the evening, and that certified it to the young people. Betty had left
+school and was trying her hand at housekeeping. Louis, the little
+fellow, was a big boy.
+
+Alice Turner was engaged also, and certainly very much in love if she
+considered the young man a paragon. Cynthia compared them all with
+Cousin Chilian, and it wasn't a bit fair.
+
+She met Mr. Saltonstall at a small party, where they played games and
+had forfeits.
+
+It was odd, she thought, how the girls chose him in everything. She
+didn't choose him once. He spoke of it afterward.
+
+"Why, I thought some of the others ought to have a chance," she
+explained with winning sweetness. "But if it had been dancing!" and she
+laughed, and that reconciled him.
+
+Then Mrs. Lynde Saltonstall gave her house-warming. It was a simple
+dwelling and not very large, but it was pretty as a picture. And young
+people didn't expect to rival their fathers and mothers in the start.
+
+They had dancing, and that was enough. They were all young people, and
+two of the fiddlers were there. They had a gay time and a nice supper.
+
+"I think Ed is smitten with Cynthia Leverett," Laura remarked to her
+husband. "He seemed to feel annoyed that they had sent Miss Winn in the
+carriage for her. She's a lovely dancer."
+
+"It wouldn't be a bad thing for Ed. She has lots of money that just
+turns itself over on interest. And her trustee has been buying up some
+choice Boston property for her. She's pretty and has charming manners
+and comes of a good family."
+
+Then Mrs. Stevens asked her to come in to Boston for a few days. She was
+going to have a little dancing party.
+
+"My dear, you'll dance yourself to death," said Cousin Eunice.
+
+"Oh, no. It isn't as hard as cleaning house or washing, as some of the
+poor women do. And it is tiresome to practise on the spinet, hour after
+hour--counting time and all that. If I was a girl of twenty years ago
+I'm afraid I should be chasing up and down some old garret, spinning on
+the big wheel."
+
+Cousin Eunice laughed, too. Cynthia always made commonplaces seem
+amusing, she accented them so with her bright face.
+
+They were very glad to have her in Boston. Chilian took her in on
+Saturday and staid with her until Monday morning. On Sunday Anthony
+Drayton was invited in to dinner. He had improved very much. The country
+air had been effaced. And he was a gentleman by instinct, and acquired
+cultivation readily.
+
+"And a fine fellow!" said Cousin Giles, rubbing his hands. "He's decided
+to go in for law presently, and it will be a most excellent thing. I
+don't know but I'll have to adopt him, as you did Cynthia."
+
+Anthony hovered about the young girl. She had been cultivating her voice
+the last year. It was a sweet parlor voice, adapted to the old-time
+songs. Mrs. Stevens had a book of them and she sang most cheerfully.
+
+"Oh, I wish you were going to stay over another Sunday," he exclaimed
+wistfully. "But I shall come in on Tuesday evening. I don't dance, but
+Mrs. Stevens is so kind to me, I've met several of the first men in the
+city here."
+
+"Oh, I am glad you are coming."
+
+It was a very sincere joy and she could not keep it out of her face, did
+not try to. And it was such a sweet face that she raised to his. He had
+a sudden unreasonable wish that he was five years older and settled in
+business, but then--she was very young.
+
+Mrs. Stevens said to her on Monday, after she had read a note over and
+glanced up at her rather furtively, "There's a friend of yours coming
+Tuesday night--a friend from Salem that I hope you will be glad to see."
+
+"From Salem----"
+
+"Mr. Saltonstall. He was in here a fortnight or so ago. His mother and I
+used to be great friends. I happened to ask him if he knew the
+Leveretts, and he told me about his brother's marriage, that you were
+one of the bridesmaids."
+
+"Oh, yes. Laura Manning was one of the older girls at Madam Torrey's.
+They had just gone in their new house and the wedding was splendid. And
+I liked Mr. Edward Saltonstall so much. He is a most beautiful dancer.
+I'm so glad he is coming. You see I don't know many of the new dances,
+and I shouldn't so much mind making a break with him."
+
+She looked up in her sweet, brave innocence as she uttered it.
+
+"You are not in love with him, little lady, and he is very much smitten
+with you," Mrs. Stevens ruminated. "But you shall have the chance."
+
+"I've always liked Ed," she continued. "He's a nice, frank, honest
+fellow, pretty gay at times, but not at all in the dissipated line, just
+full of fun and frolic. So I asked him down, and here he says he will
+come," waving her note. "I look out for men who dance. I do like to see
+young folks have a good time. The older people can play cards."
+
+It seemed rather odd that at eight o'clock not a soul had come. At home
+they would be beginning the fun by this time. Then a sudden influx of
+girls, some she had met before--two or three young men--and then young
+Saltonstall, who had been counting the moments the last half hour.
+
+"I am so glad to see you. It was such a surprise."
+
+He could see it in her face, hear it in her voice. He really was afraid
+of saying something foolish--something that would be no harm if they
+were alone.
+
+"I've known Mrs. Stevens a long while. And Mr. Giles Leverett. It's
+queer--well, not quite that either--that I've known you such a little
+while. I always thought of you as a child, though I've seen you drive
+your pony carriage."
+
+"Mrs. Stevens is delightful."
+
+Then there was another relay, quite a number of young gentlemen. The
+black fiddlers in the hall began to tune up.
+
+There were two very handsome girls and beautifully gowned. All of them
+looked pretty in dancing attire. Then a quadrille was called. There were
+just eight couples.
+
+Of course, Mr. Saltonstall took her. The rug was up and the floor had
+been polished. The dancing was elegant, harmonious.
+
+"The next is the Spanish dance. You will like that. The windings about
+are like the song words to the music."
+
+"But--I don't know it;" and she shrank back.
+
+"Oh, you'll get into it. You are the kind that could pick up any step.
+You make me think of a swallow as it darts round. If it made a mistake
+no one would know it."
+
+"Oh, I'd rather not;" entreatingly.
+
+"Don't spoil the set."
+
+She rose up and let him lead her out. She had a way of yielding so
+quickly, when it was right and best, very flattering to a man in love
+and easily misread.
+
+If dancing had been art instead of nature, something by rote instead of
+a segment of inner harmony, she could not have succeeded so well. He
+warded off the few blunders, and at the third change she had another
+well-bred partner. But she was glad to get back to him. The joy shone in
+her dangerous eyes.
+
+There were some new dances coming in. One of the girls from New York and
+her escort waltzed up and down the room in a slow-gliding manner that
+was the poetry of motion. She was fascinated, enchanted, and she knew
+she could do it herself.
+
+"We'll try it sometime," Saltonstall said.
+
+Mr. Leverett came in, bringing Anthony Drayton with him. He knew he was
+late, but he didn't dance, and he had earned five dollars copying that
+evening. But he must see Cynthia.
+
+"Oh, I thought you would not come!"
+
+Then she had been giving a thought to him out of her happy time!
+
+"I was detained. Are they all well, or didn't Cousin Chilian come down?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+They were being marshalled out to supper.
+
+"You'll have to content yourself with me," said Mrs. Stevens to Anthony,
+and he accepted smilingly. But she placed Cynthia next, so he could have
+a little talk with her. He was getting on so well, and she was glad for
+him.
+
+Some one wanted Miss Tracy to waltz again. Then they had a galop, and
+the party broke up. Anthony said good-night, and that he was coming up
+on Saturday. Then Saltonstall drew her into a little nook in the hall
+that made a connection with another room when it was open. Mrs. Stevens
+had smiled over its uses.
+
+"Cynthia, my darling, I must tell you this," and his voice seemed to
+throb with emotion. "I want the right to come and visit you as lovers
+have, for I love you, love you! I am coming to see Mr. Leverett and ask
+his permission. I do nothing but dream of you day and night. You are the
+sweetest, dearest----"
+
+"Oh, don't! don't!" She struggled in the clasp. "Oh, I can't--I----" and
+he felt her slight body tremble, so he loosed it.
+
+"Forgive me. I wanted you to know so no one can take you from me. I want
+to see you often. Oh, love, good-night, good-night!"
+
+He pressed a rapturous kiss upon her hand and was gone. She slipped
+through to the dining-room and took a glass of water.
+
+"You look tired to death, little country girl," said Uncle Giles, and he
+kissed her on the forehead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+LOVERS AND LOVERS
+
+
+"Take me home with you, Cousin Chilian," she pleaded, when he came in
+the next day.
+
+"But I thought"--he studied her in surprise.
+
+"I want to go home," she interrupted, and her under lip had a quiver in
+it that would have disarmed almost any one, persuaded as well.
+
+"Why, yes. Didn't you enjoy the party?" He felt suddenly at loss, he was
+not used to translating moods with all his knowledge.
+
+"Oh, it was delightful! And some such pretty girls. There were new
+dances. And Mrs. Stevens _is_ charming. Anthony came over a little
+while."
+
+In spite of inducements held out, she would go. Cousin Giles was almost
+cross about it.
+
+"I'm so glad to get back," she said to Rachel. "One feels so safe here."
+
+"Was there any danger?" laughed the elder.
+
+Cynthia's face was scarlet. It wasn't danger exactly, but she felt
+better under Cousin Chilian's wing. And she was her bright gay self all
+the evening.
+
+But how to get her story told? For if Mr. Saltonstall came and asked for
+her company, as they termed it then, and not being warned, he should
+consent----
+
+They sat by the study fire. It had turned out cold and cloudy, with
+indications of snow. He had a lamp near him on the small table, and read
+and thought, as his glance wandered dreamily over the leaping flashing
+blue and yellow flames. If it stormed for one or two days, she could not
+have come home.
+
+She rose presently and came and stood by him, laid her hand lightly on
+his shoulder. She was a young lady now, and it was hardly proper to draw
+her down on his knee.
+
+"Cousin Chilian;" hesitatingly.
+
+"Well, dear?" in an inquiring tone.
+
+"There is something I ought to tell you, and I want to ask you--to--to
+do--oh, I hardly know how to say it. Mr. Saltonstall came down; he and
+Mrs. Stevens are old friends----"
+
+Ah, he knew now. This young man had dared to invade the virginal
+sweetness of her soul, to trouble the quiet stream of girlhood. He was
+roused, strangely angry, for all his placid temperament.
+
+"I couldn't help it--just before he went away--and I couldn't have
+dreamed of such a thing----"
+
+Then she hid her head down on his shoulder and cried.
+
+"Dear--my dear little girl--oh, yes, it would have to happen sometime.
+And--he loves you."
+
+"Oh, that isn't the worst;" illogically, between her sobs. "He is coming
+to ask you if he may--and I don't want him to come that way. I just want
+it as it was before. Polly Upham can't think or talk of anything but her
+intended, and it gets tiresome. He doesn't seem so very wonderful to me.
+And wouldn't it weary you to hear me praising some one all the time?"
+
+"I think it would," he answered honestly, yet with some confusion of
+mind.
+
+"So I don't want it;" with more courage in her voice. "I want good times
+with them all. And I don't see how you can come to love any one all in a
+moment."
+
+Was he hearing aright? Didn't she really want the young man for a lover?
+He was unreasonably, fatuously glad, and the pulses, that were chilled a
+moment ago, seemed to race hot through his body.
+
+"It was not quite marriage?" a little huskily.
+
+"He wanted to ask if he might have the right to come, and he said he
+loved me, and, oh, I am afraid----"
+
+She was trembling. He could feel it where she leaned against him. He
+took sudden courage.
+
+"And you do not want him to come in that way? It would most likely lead
+to an engagement. And then I should have to listen to his praises
+continually. Yes, it would be rather hard on me;" and he laughed with a
+humorous sound.
+
+It heartened her a good deal. She was smiling now herself, but there
+were tears on her cheek.
+
+"And you won't mind telling him; that is not _very_ much, that----"
+
+"I think you are too young to decide such a grave matter, Cynthia," he
+began seriously. "And you ought to have a glad, sweet youth. There is no
+reason why you should rush into marriage. You have a pleasant home with
+those that love you----"
+
+"And I don't want to go away. I feel as if I would like to live here
+always. You are so good and indulgent, and Cousin Eunice is so nice, now
+that she doesn't seem afraid of any one. Were we all afraid of Cousin
+Elizabeth? And we have such nice talks. She tells me about the old times
+and what queer thoughts people had, and how hard they were. And about
+girls whose lovers went away to sea and never came back, and how they
+watched and waited, and sometimes we cry over them. And the house is so
+cheerful, and I can have all the flowers I want, and friends coming in,
+and, oh, I shall never want to go away, because I shall never love any
+one as well as you."
+
+That was very sweet, but it was a girl's innocence, and her face did not
+change color in the admission.
+
+"Well, I will explain the matter to Mr. Saltonstall. I am glad you told
+me, otherwise I should hardly have known your wishes on the subject. And
+now we will go on having good times together, and count out lovers."
+
+"Yes, yes." She gave his hand a squeeze and was her own happy self, not
+feeling half as sorry for the man who would come to be denied as he did.
+
+It snowed furiously the next morning, and sullenly the day after. Then
+it was cold, and she said half a dozen times a day she was so glad she
+came home.
+
+She did not see Mr. Saltonstall when he called, and she really did miss
+him at two little companies. Then she wondered if she oughtn't give one,
+she had gone to so many.
+
+"Why, yes," Cousin Chilian answered. She might have turned the house
+upside down so long as she was going to stay in it.
+
+Then she wondered if she ought to invite _him_. Mrs. Lynde and she were
+very good friends, and she should ask Avis, of course. They spoke--they
+were not ill friends.
+
+Chilian considered. "Yes, I think I would," he made answer.
+
+They had a merry time and danced on the beautiful rugs, and had a fine
+supper. And Mr. Saltonstall was glad to be friends. She _was_ young and
+presently she might think of lovers. He would try and keep his chance
+good.
+
+_Anthony came now_ and then and spent a Sunday with them. He loved to
+hear Cousin Chilian read Greek verses, but the pretty love odes seemed
+to mean Cynthia, and he used to watch her. Then Ben Upham was a visitor
+as well, and used to play checkers with her, as that was considered
+quite a good exercise for one's brains.
+
+Polly would be married in the spring, Alice Turner in June. The Turners
+were always besieging her for a two or three days' visit, and the Turner
+young men hovered round her. She never seemed to do anything, she never
+demanded attention, but when she glanced up at them, or smiled, they
+followed her as the children did the Pied Piper. She might have led them
+into dangerous places, but she was very simple of heart. Yet the danger
+was alluring to them.
+
+Polly came to her for a good deal of counsel. When there were two
+patterns of sleeves, which should she take?
+
+"Why, I'd have the India silk made with this and the English gingham
+with that--you see it will iron so much easier. Miss Grayson does up the
+puffs on a shirring cord, then you can let them out in the washing."
+
+"That's a fine idea. You do have such splendid ideas, Cynthy."
+
+"They are mostly Rachel Winn's," laughed the young girl.
+
+They had a capable woman in the kitchen now. Cynthia should have been
+mastering the high art of housekeeping, people thought, instead of
+running about so much and driving round in the pony carriage with Miss
+Winn, or a girl companion. Of course, there was plenty of money, but one
+never quite knew what would happen.
+
+John Loring was building his house as people who could did in those
+days. They would not be able to finish it all inside, and there was a
+nook left for an addition when they needed it. Polly was to have some of
+grandmother's furniture, and John's mother would provide a little.
+Corner cupboards were quite a substitute in those days for china
+closets, and window-seats answered for chairs. But there was bedding and
+napery, and no one thought of levying on friends. Relatives looked over
+their stock and bestowed a few articles. Cynthia thought of the stores
+in the old house and wished she might donate them. She did pick out some
+laces from her store, and two pretty scarfs, one of which Polly declared
+would be just the thing to trim her wedding hat, which was of fine
+Leghorn. So she would only have to buy the feather.
+
+They haunted the stores and occasionally picked up a real bargain. Even
+at that period shoppers did not throw their money broadcast.
+
+"Cynthia Leverett is the sweetest girl I know," Polly said daily, and
+Bentley was of the same opinion.
+
+They were to stand at the wedding.
+
+"And I want you to wear that beautiful frock that you had when Laura
+Manning was married. I shall only have two bridesmaids, you and Betty,
+but I want you to look your sweetest."
+
+And surely she did. They had a very nice wedding party and the next day
+Polly went to her own house and had various small tea-drinkings, and she
+arranged them for Saturday so Bentley could come up. They were
+wonderfully good friends, but Cynthia felt as if she had outgrown him.
+In her estimation he was just a big friendly boy that one could talk to
+familiarly. Anthony was more backward in the laughter and small-talk.
+
+Then there was the college degree. There was no such great fuss made
+over commencement then, no grand regattas, no inter-collegiate
+athletics, for it was a rather serious thing to begin a young man's life
+and look forward to marriage.
+
+He went straight to Mr. Chilian. It was the proper thing to be fortified
+with the elders' consent. Of course, he would not marry in some time
+yet, but if he could be her "company" and speak presently--they had been
+such friends.
+
+Chilian studied the honest young fellow, whose face was in a glow of
+hope. So young to dream of love and plan for the future!
+
+"You are both too young;" and his voice had a bit of sharpness in it.
+"Cynthia is not thinking of such things."
+
+"But one _can_ think of them. They begin somehow and go into your very
+life. I believe I've loved her a long while."
+
+"I think neither of you really know what love is. No, I cannot consent
+to it. I want her to go on having a good free time without any anxiety.
+I have some right to her, being her guardian."
+
+"But--I will wait--I didn't mean to ask her immediately."
+
+"We are going on a journey presently. I cannot have her disturbed with
+this. No, your attention must be devoted to business for the next two
+years."
+
+He drew a long breath. "But you don't mean I must break
+off--everything?" and there was an unsteadiness in his voice.
+
+"Oh, no. Not if you can keep to the old friendliness."
+
+Then Chilian Leverett dropped into his easy-chair and thought. The child
+had grown very dear to him, she was a gift from her father. A
+tumultuous, uncomprehended pain wrenched his very soul. To live without
+her--to miss her everywhere! To have lonely days, longer lonely evenings
+when the dreariness of winter set in. And yet she had a right to the
+sweet, rich draught of love. But she did not need it amid all the
+pleasures of youth. Let her have two or three years, even if it was
+blissful thoughtlessness. But he must put her on her guard. A young
+fellow soon changed his mind. The old couplet sang itself in his brain:
+
+          "If she be not fair for me,
+           What care I how fair she be?"
+
+Did he get over his early love and forget? We all say, "But ours was
+different."
+
+How to find the right moment? Ben did not come over. She was very busy
+with this friend and that, youth finds so _many_ interests. But one
+evening, when they were sitting on the porch in the moonlight, the young
+fellow walked slowly along, glanced at them, halted.
+
+She flew down to the gate.
+
+"Oh, Ben, what has happened?" she cried, the most bewitching anxiety in
+her face. "Why, you have not been in--for weeks."
+
+"Not quite two weeks." Had it seemed so long to her? To him it had been
+months.
+
+"Oh, come in. Cousin Chilian will be glad to see you."
+
+The radiant cordiality in her face unnerved him.
+
+"And you?" Yes, he must know.
+
+"Do you have to ask that question?"
+
+The sweet, dangerous eyes said too much, but the smile was that of
+amusement.
+
+So they walked up the path together. Mr. Leverett greeted him in a
+friendly manner.
+
+"I thought I ought to come in and say good-bye. I'm going off on some
+business for father, and may not be back for several weeks."
+
+"That sounds as if you needed an apology for coming at all," she
+commented with half-resentful gayety.
+
+He flushed and made no immediate reply.
+
+"And we are going to take a journey as well. Up somewhere in Maine. Mr.
+Giles Leverett insists we shall, for our health, but I think it is our
+delightful company. He has to go to look after a large estate where some
+people think of founding a town. Isn't it funny?" and she gave her
+bewitching laugh that was like the notes of silver bells, soft, yet
+clear. "They must go off and build up new places. And some people are
+going West, as if there wasn't room here. Have you noticed that we are
+overcrowded?"
+
+"Well, sometimes along the docks it looks that way."
+
+"I like a good many people. Often Merrits' is crowded, and it's funny to
+catch bits of sentences. And at Plummer's as well. Did you ever read
+right across the paper, one line in each column, and notice the odd and
+twisted-up sense it made? That's about the way it sounds."
+
+How bright and charming she was! Ben could not keep his eyes from her
+radiant face. Was she really a coquette, Chilian wondered. Yet she was
+so simple with it all, so seemingly careless of the effect. That was the
+danger of it.
+
+He lingered like one entranced. Poor young lad! Chilian began to feel
+sorry for him.
+
+She walked down to the gate with him, and hoped they would have a nice
+time when autumn came, if he meant to stay in Salem.
+
+A young man not in love would have called her a bright, merry, chatty
+girl. He went away with the consciousness that she liked him very much.
+Chilian asked her if she did.
+
+She glanced up wonderingly.
+
+"Why--he is nice, and being Polly's brother makes it--well, more
+familiar. Then we can talk about Anthony. I believe he didn't like him
+much at first, but he does now."
+
+Oh, how could he put her on her guard! She was not dreaming of love.
+Saltonstall's fancy had died out--no doubt this would, too. Lad's love.
+Was it worth ruffling up the sunny artlessness? But he would watch the
+young men closer now that he knew the danger line.
+
+He said simply to himself that he could not give her up to any one else
+so soon. There would be a long life of joy and satisfaction to her, and
+he knew she would not grudge him these few years. Then, too, he was
+quite certain she had not even had an imaginary fancy for these two
+men--Ben was nothing but a boy.
+
+Anthony Drayton was to join them. Miss Winn was to be Cynthia's
+companion. Mrs. Stevens had refused to trust her precious self to any
+wilds, and bear and wolf hunts, though Mr. Giles declared they were not
+going to take guns along. He was not an enthusiastic hunter. As for
+Chilian, such sport did not attract him.
+
+The journey was partly by stage, partly on horseback, and one or two
+days they left the ladies at the tavern where they stopped. Cynthia was
+charmed and amused at the uncouthness of the people and their dialect in
+some places, and positive good breeding in others. Anthony unearthed a
+college chum who was tally man at a sawmill. The new town was really
+making progress. A small chapel had been started, a schoolhouse built.
+And twenty years later it was a pretty town; in fifty years an
+enterprising city.
+
+"Anthony's going to be a first-class fellow. I should like to have such
+a son. Chilian, you and I should have married and have sons and
+daughters growing up. But at my time of life I should want them grown
+up. And smart, as well. I always feel sorry for the fathers of dull
+lads, when they have plenty of means to educate them. Yes, I should want
+mine to have a good supply of brains."
+
+Chilian Leverett enjoyed the change very much and the breath of spruce
+and pine was invigorating. But there was a little nervous feeling about
+Cynthia. Cousin Giles was somewhat of a lady's man, and he was on the
+continual lookout that Cynthia should not tire herself unduly, that she
+be assisted over the rough places, that she should have the best of
+everything. He was almost jealous at times.
+
+But Cynthia moved about gayly, serenely, full of merry little quips,
+seizing the small ridiculous events with such a sense of amusement that
+she inspirited them all. And he could not notice that she paid any more
+attention to Anthony than either of her seniors. There was such a
+genuine frankness in all she said and did, a charm of manner that was
+just herself, and had none of the arts of society, but came from a heart
+that overflowed with spontaneous warmth, but was not directed to any
+particular person.
+
+Cousin Giles declared he was sorry to get back to Boston. He could not
+remember when he had enjoyed such a good time. Then in a business way it
+had been a success, which added to his satisfaction.
+
+They really had to stay in Boston one night. They would fain have kept
+Cynthia for a week, but she said she was tired of just changing from one
+frock to another, and longed for more variety.
+
+"And I'm so glad to get back home again," she cried delightedly. "I've
+had a splendid time, and I like Anthony ever so much. Cousin Giles was
+so nice and fatherly. He ought to adopt Anthony and give him his name,
+and that would always make me think of father. But after all, home is
+best. Oh, suppose I was a waif, just being handed from one to another!"
+
+She looked frightened with the imaginary lot. She expressed emotions so
+easily.
+
+"You couldn't have been;" hoarsely.
+
+"Cousin Chilian, if you had not been in the world, or if you hadn't been
+willing to take me--I don't think father knew much about Cousin
+Giles--why, I must have gone to strangers."
+
+There were tears in her eyes, and a sweet melancholy in her voice.
+
+She had so much to tell Cousin Eunice that it seemed really as if she
+had taken the journey with them. She put on Jane's faded gingham
+sunbonnet and gave her voice a queer nasal twang, and talked as some of
+the women did up there in the wilderness, who thought a city "must be an
+awfully crowdy place an' she jes' didn't see how people managed to live
+in it. An' as fer the sea, give her dry land every time."
+
+Then she talked the French-English patois of the emigrants from Canada,
+and told of their funny attire, and their log huts, sometimes with only
+one big room, with a stone chimney in the centre, and sawed logs for
+seats.
+
+"They did that in Salem nigh on to two hundred years ago," said Cousin
+Eunice.
+
+"How much people do learn by living," remarked the little girl sagely.
+
+Then the olden round began. Being asked out to tea and inviting in
+return, sewing bees, quilting parties when some girl was making an
+outfit. And though the elders shook their heads at such a waste of time,
+they went out to walk in the afternoon and stopped in the shops that
+were making a show on Essex Street and Federal Street. There was Miss
+Rust's pretty millinery parlor--it had a sofa in the front room and a
+table with an embroidered cover that Cynthia had sent her. They talked
+of new styles and colors, and were aghast at the thought that royalty
+sometimes had as many as twenty hats and bonnets. She made pretty old
+lady caps as well, and she did love to hear the young girls chatter. And
+Molly Saunders was still baking gingerbread, that had delighted them as
+school children, and no one made such good spruce and sassafras beer.
+
+One evening at a dance she had a great surprise. Some one said, "Miss
+Cynthia Leverett, Mr. Marsh."
+
+A rather tall, ruddy, good-looking fellow, with laughing eyes and an
+unmistakable sailor air, held her dainty hand and studied her face.
+
+"Oh, you don't know me!" in the jolliest of tones. "And I should know
+you if you had been cast ashore on a rocky island and I were looking at
+you through a spyglass. You haven't changed in the main, only to grow
+prettier. You were a poor pale little thing then."
+
+"Oh, I can't think!" She flushed and smiled. Something in the hearty
+voice won her.
+
+"At Dame Wilby's school. And the bad boy who sat behind you--Tommy
+Marsh."
+
+"Oh! oh! And that day I sat on the floor!" She laughed gayly. She did
+not mind it a bit now.
+
+"Wasn't it funny? And the way you just sat still with the school in an
+uproar. You standing up there and 'sassing' back the old dame! Such a
+mite of a thing, too. My! but you were a plucky one!" in admiration.
+"And you never came to school after that. I ought to get down on my
+knees and beg your pardon for the sly pinches I gave you, and the times
+I tweaked your curly hair. I've half a mind to do it."
+
+"Oh, no!" and she made a funny gesture of alarm, and both laughed.
+
+"And I've been over there to India, where you came from, and found some
+people who knew your father. I've been to sea seven years, three on this
+last cruise, and when the _Vixen_ is repaired and refitted I'm going out
+again as first mate. One of these days I shall be a captain."
+
+How proud and strong he looked. Why, one couldn't help liking him.
+
+"I wonder if I might dance with you?"
+
+"Oh, do you dance? I thought sailors--and there are no girls----" and
+she blushed at her incoherence.
+
+"I think we do a little. Where did you get the Sailor's Hornpipe from?
+We're sorry about not having girls, but we make it answer. And when you
+get in the doldrums, or becalmed, it stirs up your blood. Oh, they are
+taking their places."
+
+Ben was in the same quadrille. Every time he touched her hand he gave it
+a pressure that made her cheeks rosier. Altogether it was a delightful
+evening.
+
+Cousin Chilian came for her. He had found she preferred it.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Chilian, I've had such a funny adventure. Perhaps you can
+recall the little boy I really hated that week I went to the dame's
+school. Well, he is a nice big fellow now, and we had a talk, and he
+has been to Calcutta and seen people who knew father. I want him to come
+so we can have a good long talk, and won't you ask him? You'll like him,
+I know. I'll find him and bring him to you, and you can ask him to come
+while I'm putting on my things."
+
+She hunted him up and he was very pleased to meet Mr. Leverett. She gave
+them quite a while, for she was chatting with the girls about some
+weddings on the tapis.
+
+She gave Mr. Marsh her hand and a smile that would have set almost any
+masculine heart beating. It must have been born with her, though it was
+pitifully appealing in the childhood days. Now the true, sweet nature
+shone through it, lending it a fascinating radiance.
+
+Mr. Leverett said he should be glad to have him call while he was in
+port, and the young man thanked him and said he should give himself the
+pleasure.
+
+"And when he does come," said the little lady in her half-coaxing,
+half-imperious way, "can't we have him up in the study? You see, it does
+very well for half a dozen of us to be down in the parlor, but it gets
+kind of stiff and not cheerful with just one. And you'll like to talk to
+him."
+
+He assented readily. Ben always came up in the study, though now he
+would rather have been alone with Cynthia. There were some things he
+meant to say, if he ever had a chance, in spite of youth and
+guardianship.
+
+Mr. Marsh did not lose much time considering. The very next week he
+called.
+
+They found him a nice, agreeable, well-informed young man, a true sailor
+lad, and like many a Yankee boy, he kept adding to his stock of
+knowledge where-ever he went. He had drawn some useful charts of
+seaports and islands he knew about, their products and climates, and
+really his descriptions were as good as a geography.
+
+"There's no doubt Salem has the lead in the foreign trade, but we're
+going to be pushed hard the next few years. Other cities have found out
+the profit in it. But we've some of the best captains, and that's what I
+mean to be myself."
+
+At Calcutta they still held a warm remembrance of Captain Anthony
+Leverett. And Marsh thought it quite a wonderful thing that the little
+girl had gone back and forth and braved all the perils. He told them of
+a pirate ship they had once battled with and the rich stores they had
+taken from her. The prisoners had been left on an island.
+
+"But--how would they get to their homes?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, that wasn't our lookout. They'd have done the same thing to us if
+they could, maybe worse. Occasionally vessels are wrecked, and sometimes
+it is months before a ship goes that way and sees their signal."
+
+Yes, she was glad nothing of the kind had happened to her. And Chilian,
+watching the little shiver, gave thanks also.
+
+Thomas Marsh enjoyed these evenings wonderfully. He was always glancing
+at Cynthia to see if what he said met with her approval. It seemed so
+strangely sweet to be thrilled at the tones of her voice and the touch
+of her hand. And when she looked up and smiled, the blood surged to his
+brain. He was quite a favorite with the girls, but no other one had that
+power over him.
+
+Of course, they met here and there at the different companies--he never
+went unless she was sure to be there, and if he asked she answered
+frankly. Cousin Chilian took her down to see the _Vixen_, which was
+nearly ready for her new cruise. He was very proud of her, so was
+Captain Langfelt, and they had some tea in the cabin. But some sudden
+knowledge came to Chilian Leverett, and he was sincerely glad the young
+man was going away.
+
+The evening Thomas Marsh came in to say good-bye, she was alone.
+
+"You'll find Miss Cynthia up in the study," said Jane, and thither he
+went two steps at a time. She had on a soft gown, and he thought she
+looked like some lovely flower as she rose to greet him.
+
+"I believe we are to sail to-morrow. Stores and cargo are all in, and
+now the captain is in haste to be off. Come down about eleven in the
+morning and wish me God-speed, a safe journey, and a happy return."
+
+"Yes. We were talking of it to-day. Oh, I hope you will have all, though
+a great many things happen in three years." Neither of them, indeed no
+one, could have predicted what was to happen in those eventful three
+years.
+
+They discussed the pleasant times, the girls and boys who had grown up
+and married during the whole seven years of his absence. Oh, how sweet
+and pretty she was! He envied the boys like Bentley Upham and two or
+three others who had business at home--but no, he never could have been
+anything but a sailor.
+
+Then he rose to go. He stood holding her hand and the red and white kept
+flitting over her face, her eyes were so soft and dark. They would haunt
+him many a night on the deck.
+
+"It's best that I am going so soon," he began in a rather tremulous
+voice. "Do you remember what your uncle was reading the other day about
+the man who wanted to be lashed to the mast when they passed the Syrens?
+It would be that way with me if I staid much longer. I--I wouldn't be
+able to help loving you, and I doubt whether it would be a good thing
+for either of us. I've tried all along to keep it to a plain, honest
+like, but I know now it is more than that. I shall take away with me the
+remembrance of the sweetest girl in all the world, and I have no right
+to spoil her life. But sometimes maybe you'll think of a far-away lad,
+who sends you his love and the best wishes for your happiness with the
+man you will love best of all."
+
+Then he pressed her hand to his lips and went slowly down the stairs.
+She heard the door shut. And, foolish girl, she sat down and cried, and
+there Cousin Chilian found her, and had to listen and absolve.
+
+"No," he said, "it would not do for you to have a sailor lad. Your
+tender heart would break with the anxiety. He's a nice, upright fellow,
+and he will never shirk a duty. But you----" What should he say to her?
+
+"I want to stay here. Oh, I wonder if you will like me when I get as old
+as Cousin Eunice, and the world will change and improve and I shall be
+queer and old-fashioned?"
+
+He held her in his arms, but he was shocked to find what was in his own
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+PERILOUS PATHS
+
+
+Avis Manning's "Company" was one of the events of the season. She was a
+full-fledged young lady, and knowing she could have her choice of the
+young men of Salem, was rather difficult to capture. She and her
+brother-in-law were very good friends, but not lovers. And Laura, who
+knew where his fancy lay, counselled him to go slowly, though she was
+quite sure he would win in the end.
+
+"You see, she is like a child to Mr. Chilian Leverett, and he is loath
+to part with her. But all girls do marry sooner or later, and he isn't
+selfish enough to want her to stay single. If he was not so much older
+he might marry her--they are not own cousins, you know."
+
+"He marry her! Why, he's getting to be quite an old man," and there was
+a touch of disdain in his tone. "But there's half a dozen others----"
+
+"It's queer, but she isn't a flirt. She's one of the sweetest of
+girls--she was, at school. And with her fortune she might hold herself
+high. They say the Boston trustee has doubled some of it that he
+invested."
+
+"I wish she hadn't a cent!" the young man flung out angrily.
+
+"Well, money is not to be despised. She'll get a little tired by and by,
+and long for a home and children of her own, as we all do. And if you
+haven't found any one else----"
+
+"I never shall find any one like her;" gloomily.
+
+"Oh, there are a great many nice girls in the world."
+
+Avis knew all the best people in Salem, it was not so large, after all.
+And they came to the beautiful house and made merry, played "guessing
+words"--what we call charades, quite a new thing then--and it made no
+end of merriment. Of course, Cynthia was in them, was arch and piquant,
+and delighted the audience. Then they had supper and more dancing. One
+of the Turner boys, Archibald, hovered about Cynthia like a shadow.
+There was Ben Upham, but Edward Saltonstall warded them off to her
+satisfaction. But Bella Turner was shortly to be married, and Archie
+would have her for that evening surely.
+
+She and Mr. Saltonstall were very good friends. He was a little older
+than the others, and grown wary by experience. But it was queer that
+half a dozen girls were pulling straws for him and here was one who did
+not care, would not raise a finger, but, oh, how sweet her smiles were.
+
+"If you are a bridesmaid the third time, you will never be a bride,"
+said some of the wiseacres.
+
+Cynthia tossed her proud, dainty head and laughed over it to Cousin
+Chilian. He looked a little grave.
+
+"Would you mind if I were an old maid? I wouldn't really be _old_ in a
+long while, you know. And you will always want some one. If anything
+should happen to Cousin Eunice, how lonely you would be."
+
+"Yes, if you went away."
+
+"I don't care for any of them very much. I like Mr. Saltonstall the
+best. He isn't quite so young, so--so sort of impetuous. And the boys
+get jealous."
+
+Then it was likely to be Mr. Saltonstall, after all! Was he going to be
+narrow and mean enough to keep her out of what was best in a woman's
+life? But he looked down the dreary years without her. He could not
+attach himself to the world of business as Cousin Giles did. Some of
+these young fellows might come into a sort of sonship with him--there
+was Anthony Drayton.
+
+Why was it his soul protested against them? He did not understand the
+deep underlying dissent that made a cruel discordance in his desire for
+her happiness.
+
+Mr. Saltonstall walked home from church with her and Miss Winn. And he
+came in one evening to ask some advice. He had cudgelled his brain for
+days to find just the right subject. That ended, they had a talk about
+chess--that was becoming quite an interest in some circles. There were
+several moves that puzzled him.
+
+"Come in some evening and talk them over," said Mr. Leverett.
+
+Edward Saltonstall wondered at the favor of the gods and accepted. Not
+as if he was in any vulgar hurry, but he dropped in, politely social,
+and asked if he should disturb them. Chilian had been reading Southey's
+"Thalaba."
+
+"Oh, no. We often read in the evening," said Cynthia.
+
+She was netting a bead bag, an industry all the rage then among the
+women. They really were prettier than the samplers. But she rose and
+brought the box of chessmen, while he rolled the table from its corner.
+
+"Will I disturb you if I stay?" she asked.
+
+"Not unless it interferes with Mr. Saltonstall's attention," said
+Chilian, then bit his lip.
+
+"Oh, I do not think it will;" smilingly.
+
+"You are very good to bother with a tyro. I'd like to be able to play a
+good game. Father is so fond of it, and Lynde seldom comes in
+nowadays--family cares;" laughingly.
+
+They led off very well. Saltonstall was wise enough to try his best,
+though out of one eye he watched the dainty fingers threading in and out
+among the colored beads, and could not help thinking he would rather be
+holding them and pressing kisses on the soft white hand. Then he made a
+wrong play.
+
+"We may as well turn back," said Mr. Leverett, "since the question at
+stake is not winning, but improving."
+
+"You are very good," returned the young man meekly.
+
+This time they went on a little further, but the result was the same. So
+with the third game.
+
+"Of course, I could let you win," Mr. Leverett began, "but that wouldn't
+conduce to the real science of the game which a good player desires. But
+you do very well for a young man. I should keep on, if I were you."
+
+"And annoy you with my shortcomings?"
+
+"Oh, it will not be annoyance, truly. Come in when you feel like it."
+
+"Thank you." Then he said good-night in a friendly, gentlemanly manner,
+and Cynthia rose and bowed.
+
+After that she gathered up her work and said good-night. Chilian sat and
+thought. Edward Saltonstall was a nice, steady young fellow; that is, he
+neither gamed, nor drank, nor went roystering round in the taverns
+jollying with the sailors, as some of the sons of really good families
+did. He would not have all his fortune to make, and his father's
+business was well established. The sons would take it. The two daughters
+were well married. What more could he ask for Cynthia? She was not so
+young now and would know her own mind.
+
+Yet it gave his heart a sharp, mysterious wrench, a longing for what he
+was putting away, the essence of the solemn ideals of love that run
+through the intricate meshes of the human soul. He knew that he loved
+her, that he wanted her for his very own, and his conscience told him it
+was not right. Of all her admirers he liked this one the best. Under
+other circumstances he would have considered him an admirable young man.
+
+Saltonstall dropped in now and then, not too often. He did not mean to
+startle any one with his purpose, but to let it grow gradually. Still,
+at the last assembly of the season, his attentions were somewhat
+pronounced. It was partly her doings, she was sheltering herself from
+other rather warm indications.
+
+A few days later she went over to Polly Loring's with her work. Polly's
+bag had somehow gone wrong. Cynthia had to cut the thread and ravel out
+a round. The baby was to be admired as well as the chair seat Polly had
+begun in worsted work, which was the new accomplishment. And they talked
+over various matters: who had new gowns, new lovers, and new babies. But
+every time she came almost to the subject so near her heart, Cynthia
+made an elusive detour. Then she ventured out straight with her
+question.
+
+"Cynthia, are you going to take Ed Saltonstall?"
+
+Cynthia's face was scarlet.
+
+"He hasn't asked me, he hasn't even asked Cousin Chilian," but her voice
+was not quite steady.
+
+"How do you know? It was talked of at the assembly--the two men were a
+good deal together. And if you don't mean anything, Cynthia, you'll get
+yourself gossiped about, and you'll spoil some lives," declared Polly
+spiritedly. This thing had been seething in her mind, and she was going
+to have it out at the risk of breaking friendship.
+
+"I don't want to spoil any one's life. And I've never really kept
+company with any one."
+
+The keeping company was the great test. When the young man came steady
+one night in the week, to Sunday tea, and went to church with the girl
+alone, the matter was as good as declared.
+
+"But--well, I don't know how you've done it, but they hang about you and
+it does upset them. First it's one, then it's another. You ought to
+know. You ought to settle upon one and let the others alone."
+
+Polly had acquired a good deal of married wisdom, and she really did
+love Cynthia. Ben loved her, too.
+
+"But suppose I didn't want any of them?" and Cynthia tried to laugh, but
+it was a poor shadowy attempt.
+
+"Oh, nonsense! You don't mean to be an old maid. No girl does. But it is
+time you stopped playing fast and loose with hearts. Now there's Ben.
+You know he's loved you this long while. And we all like you so. Last
+fall he quite gave up and went to see Jenny Willing. She'll make a good
+wife and she's a nice girl, though she hasn't your fortune. Mother's
+been trying to make him believe that you are looking higher."
+
+"Oh, Polly--I never scarcely think of my fortune," Cynthia interrupted,
+her face full of distressful color.
+
+"Well, I'm not saying that you do. Ben's getting along first-rate. He
+has a college degree and father isn't poor. I know several girls who
+would jump at a chance for him. Of course, we would _all_ rather have
+you. Then at Avis Manning's party you gave him the sweetest of your
+smiles, and lured him back."
+
+Oh, she recalled it with a kind of shame. It was to keep off Archie
+Turner and Mr. Saltonstall. And then for a while he had grown
+troublesome. If they could be merely friends!
+
+"The thing is just here, Cynthia. I know I'm speaking plainly and you
+may get angry. If you don't want Ben, let him alone. A young man begins
+to think of a home and a wife of his own, and when he likes a girl very
+much--yes, I will say it, she can make or mar. She can take him away
+from some other nice girl. And people now are beginning to say you are a
+flirt. I think Jenny will make Ben a nice wife, and if you don't want
+him----"
+
+"Oh, Polly, I don't want any of them. You can't think how delightful
+life is with Cousin Chilian. I couldn't be as happy anywhere else, or
+with any other person. I can't make myself fall in love as all of you
+girls have, and think this one or that one perfect. Something must be
+wrong with me. And I'm very sorry. I'm not a bit jealous when they take
+to other girls. Why, I'd be glad to be Jenny's bridesmaid if she wanted
+me to."
+
+Cynthia paused and mopped the tears from her cheeks. Polly was a little
+subdued. Cynthia was taking this so meekly. But she said rather
+spitefully, "You had better marry Mr. Leverett."
+
+Ah, Polly, it was a dangerous seed to fling at a young girl. And it
+dropped on a bit of out of the way fruitful soil.
+
+Cynthia rose quietly. She was very pale. She began to roll up her work.
+
+"Now I think you can go on with it," she said. "If you get in trouble
+again, let me know."
+
+Then the two friends looked at each other until the tears came into
+their eyes.
+
+"I'm very sorry," murmured Cynthia in a broken voice.
+
+"But you see----"
+
+"Yes. I understand. I hope Ben will be very happy."
+
+Afterward Polly sat down and cried. She knew Ben loved Cynthia so. They
+had counted on having her in the family. But she felt quite certain now
+that Ed Saltonstall would get her. And he was a flirt, going with every
+pretty girl, every new girl for a little while.
+
+Cynthia went home in a very sober mood. Why had they all cared so much
+about her? They had nice attractive qualities, but why could they not
+look at her just as she looked at them! She did not know very much about
+men and that with them pursuit often merged into the strong desire for
+possession, which she did not understand. But she did not want to be
+blamed. She would have none of them. Cousin Chilian was more to her. If
+he seldom danced and was never very gay, there were so many other
+requirements to life; there was something in his nature to which hers
+responded readily.
+
+Then suddenly she seemed to have lost the clue. She experienced a season
+of bewilderment. Was Cousin Chilian meaning she should take Mr.
+Saltonstall for a lover? He surely gave him opportunities he had given
+no other. Sometimes he excused himself and went out. There were some
+difficulties with the mother country that men were discussing. She
+really felt a little awkward at being left alone with Mr. Saltonstall.
+Not only that, but it awoke a strange terror in her soul that he should
+come so near; it was as if her whole being rose in arms.
+
+Occasionally Chilian spoke of her marriage--he had always said she was
+too young, in a protesting manner. So on one occasion she gained
+courage.
+
+"Do you mean--that is--you would like to--have me married, Cousin
+Chilian?"
+
+Married! It was as if she had given him a stab. And yet was not that
+just the thing he had been thinking of?
+
+"Why, you see, Cynthia," he made his voice purposely cold, "I am much
+older than you. I may die some day. Cousin Eunice will no doubt go
+before me, and you would not like to go on alone. Then Giles is older
+even than I. One has to think of these things. Yes, it would be nice to
+know you were happily settled."
+
+"And why couldn't a woman live alone as well as a man? I could have Miss
+Winn, and a housekeeper, and a man----"
+
+"It's a lonely life for a woman."
+
+"But why not for a man?"
+
+"Oh, well, that is different. Only a few men do. And they grow queer and
+opinionated."
+
+A fortnight ago she would have protested and said, "You are not old, you
+are not opinionated," in her eager, girlish manner. Now she was hurt,
+and she could not tell why; so she kept silent.
+
+And she began to note a change in him. The delightful harmony in which
+they had lived fell below the major key into minors, that touched and
+pierced her. He did not come so often to listen to her music, to ask her
+for a song, to watch while she painted some pretty flower, to go around
+with her training roses, or cutting them for the house. She put a few of
+them everywhere; she did not like great bunches, only such things as
+grew in clusters, lilacs and syringas and long sprays of clematis. She
+missed the little walks around, and the dear talks they used to have.
+
+She felt somewhat deceitful in planning adroitly. She made Miss Winn go
+to church with her, and when they came home with Mr. Saltonstall they
+sat on the porch together. A girl thinking of a lover would have asked
+him in. Then she went down to Boston, and Anthony came over as often as
+he could. Surely there was no danger with him.
+
+All this time Chilian Leverett was having a hard fight with himself. He
+was really ashamed of having been conquered by what he called a boy's
+romantic passion. He could excuse himself for the early lapse; he was a
+boy then. His honor and what he called good sense were mightily at war
+with this desire that well-nigh overmastered him. True, men older than
+he had married young wives. But this child had been entrusted to him in
+a sacred fashion by her dying father; he must place before her the best
+and richest of life, even if it condemned him to after-years of joyless
+solitude.
+
+For it was not as a father he loved her, though he had played a little
+at fatherhood in the beginning. She was so companionable, they had so
+many similar tastes. He was so fond of reading to an appreciative
+listener, and even as he sat in the darkness, when she did not know he
+was alone in the study, he could see her lovely eyes raised in their
+tender light. He thought this her unusual wisdom and discernment, never
+dreaming it had been mostly his training and her receptiveness. And to
+think of the house without her! Why, going out of it in her wedding gown
+would be almost as if she had been laid in her shroud and shut away. Of
+course, he could not have her here and see her love another.
+
+Giles Leverett's dream was much happier. In his mind he saved her for
+his favorite. When Anthony was through--and he was putting in law, with
+the classics--he would take him in his office, where he would find much
+business made to his hand. The house was big enough for them all, and he
+had grown curiously interested in young people. Anthony was very fond of
+his sweet, fascinating cousin--they all were. He did not know whether
+there was any one in Salem quite good enough for her. Saltonstall was a
+rather trifling fellow, whose fancies were evanescent.
+
+But Mr. Ed Saltonstall had a good friend in Mrs. Stevens, and she
+counselled him not to be too ardent in his pursuit. She said pleasant
+little things about him without any effusiveness. She considered his
+friendship with her very charming--young men were not generally devoted
+to middle-aged women. Once she shrewdly wondered why he had not made
+some errand down.
+
+Altogether it was a pleasant visit, though Cynthia kept revolving her
+duty, if such there was in the case. A blind, mysterious asking for
+something haunted her, something it would be sad to miss out of her
+life.
+
+Then she came home alone in the stage. There was a property dispute
+going on, where Mr. Leverett was an important witness for a friend. When
+the stage stopped, Rachel and Jane both ran out and gave her a joyful
+welcome.
+
+"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Cousin Eunice, "we are so glad to get you back.
+You are the light _of_ the house, isn't she?" glancing at the other.
+"Even Chilian has been mopey, though I think he isn't well. He is
+getting thin, too, and goodness knows he had no flesh to lose. Oh, my
+dear, I hope you will never go away again while I live;" and she gave a
+long sigh as the girl left the room.
+
+She came down presently in a cheerful light frock and began to tell
+Cousin Eunice and Jane what she had seen and heard. She was in the full
+tide of this, eager, bright, and flushing when Chilian entered. He
+greeted her rather languidly. Yes, he had grown thinner, and Cousin
+Giles was putting on too much flesh and growing jollier. Chilian did not
+look well and an ache went all over Cynthia's body, every nerve being
+sympathetic. He was not silent, however; he asked questions, but she
+thought he was hardly paying attention to the answers. He remained down
+in the sitting-room and read his _Gazette_, now and then making some
+comment, or answering some query of Cousin Eunice. It was not nine yet
+when he rose and said, "He was very tired; if they would excuse him, he
+would go to bed."
+
+They all went presently. She was glad to be alone in the room, glad
+there was no moon, and she turned her face over on the pillow and cried
+softly. After all, life was a riddle--two ways and not knowing which to
+take, both having a curiously lonely ending. Could she not bear it
+better alone? If he should go away as her father had done, if she should
+stay here in the old house, and then Cousin Eunice would fold her hands
+in that silent clasp, Rachel would slip into old womanhood, Jane would
+marry, she was keeping company now. There would be other Janes and
+she----
+
+On the other hand would be love, marriage, children maybe, a pleasant
+home. Living along side by side, as other people did.
+
+She did not try to shut out either vision. Which should she take? Was
+life just for one's self?
+
+She was not morbid. It was only in religion that people took out their
+very souls and examined them for lurking sins; the days' duties were
+what must be accomplished, whether or no. She knew she was not very
+religious, the deep things seemed beyond her grasp. And there was a
+certain joyousness in her love for sunshine, flowers, people, and all
+the attractive things of life. She was deeply grateful, she raised her
+heart in thankfulness to God for every good gift. And now she took up
+the daily duties cheerfully. It was not their fault the shadow had
+fallen over them.
+
+Some days afterward she was rambling around aimlessly, when she met a
+girl friend, and they chatted about various matters.
+
+"Oh," exclaimed the friend, "there'll be another wedding in the autumn,
+and Betty Upham is keeping steady company. I used to have an idea that
+you and Ben would make a match----"
+
+"It's Jenny Willing," she interrupted. "And I am heartily glad."
+
+"You were all such friends;" looking puzzled.
+
+"And I hope we will go on being friends. I have always liked Jenny."
+
+"She was awfully afraid you'd cut her out. You know he did fancy you
+first. I think she would have been very unhappy if she had missed him. I
+don't see what there is about you, Cynthia;" studying her intently. "You
+are pretty, but there are some handsome girls in Salem. And they run
+after Ed Saltonstall as if there was no other man in town. And my advice
+to you is to seize on him, for I think your chance best. He's an awful
+flirt, though. I think good-looking men always are."
+
+Cynthia flushed. Why should these things be profaned by foolish gossip.
+
+Polly came over one afternoon. She had accomplished the bag and was
+proud enough of it. And she announced Bentley's engagement.
+
+"They will be married in the early fall; they are not going to build,
+but have part of that double house of Nelsons'. She'll make a fine,
+economical wife, and that is what men need who are trying to get along.
+Assemblies and all that are not the thing for prudent married people."
+
+"And one gets tired of them." She had a feeling just then that she
+should never want to dance any more.
+
+Cynthia was glad to have him settled, glad Jenny Willing had the man she
+loved.
+
+And the last time he had come back to her she had held up her finger to
+him thoughtlessly, to shield herself from some other pointed attentions.
+It had been a mean thing to do. But she had only meant it for that
+evening, and he had gone on importunately. She was ashamed of it now.
+Yes, she had better marry; then no one would be pleading for favors,
+mistaking a simple smile for deeper meaning. Was her smile different
+from that of other girls?
+
+She watched Cousin Chilian narrowly. Was the old dear freedom between
+them gone? He seemed rather abstracted. He did not call her into the
+study, he went out oftener of an evening. Mr. Saltonstall would pass by,
+then turn and walk up the path and sit down on the step. This would
+occur several times a week. He asked her to ride with him, but she
+shrank from that. She went over one evening on special invitation, when
+Chilian was to play chess with the father. Mrs. Saltonstall took her in
+quite as if she was one of the family, and really was very sweet to her.
+And the old gentleman was fatherly.
+
+That seemed to settle it for her, rather the fact that sank deeper in
+her mind every day that Cousin Chilian wished her to marry and that this
+young man was his preference. She allowed him to come a little nearer,
+to hold her hand, to take nameless small freedoms, and he was always
+delicate.
+
+Would he be satisfied without all she could not help withholding? Would
+it be right to give him a half love? But then how could she help loving
+Cousin Chilian, who had been so tender to her in childhood? She would be
+gladly content to stay without any nearer tie between them; of course,
+that other could not be thought of.
+
+One night Mr. Saltonstall asked her in a manly fashion. And suddenly a
+great white light shot up in her heart, and loving one man she knew she
+had no right to deceive another, to live a deception all her life long,
+to cheat him--yes, it was that. Better a hundred times to live out her
+flawed life alone.
+
+"Oh, I cannot," she murmured. "I--I"--she choked down the strangling
+sob.
+
+"My little darling, give me the opportunity to teach you what love
+really is. You do not know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE FLOWERING OF THE SOUL
+
+
+Cynthia had said coldly that she did not wish to marry at present,
+perhaps never. "I have been trying to love you to--to please some one
+else, and it is a compliment for you to ask me. But any woman ought to
+be sure before she makes a life-long promise. I must be honest--with
+you, with myself."
+
+Something in the solemn tone awed him. He had not been looking at the
+serious side of love. She was pretty, bright, and winsome, with a good
+deal of Puritan simplicity, a great power of enjoyment and difficult to
+win. He liked to do the winning himself. He liked to find some new
+qualities in girls, and Cynthia, with all her daintiness, had many sides
+that surprised one. She had been brought up by a man--that made the
+difference.
+
+"We will wait a little," he said. "Talk to your cousin about it. I think
+it will all come right. You are the first woman I ever desired to marry,
+and I have been fond of girls, too."
+
+That would have flattered some women. She said good-night in a strained,
+breathless tone, and vanished through the door. He sat and thought.
+There was no other lover, he was quite sure.
+
+She went to bed at once. She did not cry, she was somehow stunned at
+this revelation about herself, for she had resolved to accept him and
+this sudden protest told her that it was quite impossible. If Cousin
+Chilian was disappointed, if he was tired of her, there was a warm
+welcome in Boston.
+
+She did not sleep much. Rachel noted her heavy eyes, and the expression
+as if she might be secretly upbraiding fate. What if Mr. Saltonstall had
+been trifling?
+
+Chilian went up to his study. He felt languid, he nearly always did now.
+He took a book and sat by the open window. Two tall trees hid the
+prospect, except a space of blooming garden. To-day a small outlook
+pleased him, for his life was to be made narrower. She would come and
+tell him--shut the golden gate forever. He could not, would not, enter
+their paradise. Let him keep quite on the outside.
+
+She came in a soft, white gown that clung to her virginal figure. The
+swelling-out period had passed, even sleeves had collapsed to a small
+puff, and for house wear the arms and neck were left bare.
+
+The book was a Greek play. The letters danced before her eyes as she
+stood there. He looked off the book, but not up at her.
+
+"Cousin Chilian, I want to tell you"--her voice had the peculiar
+softness that one uses to try to cover the hurt one cannot help
+giving--"Mr. Saltonstall was here last evening. He has asked me to marry
+him."
+
+It seemed to her the silence lasted moments. Then he said in an
+incurious tone, "Well?"
+
+"I--will you be angry or disappointed when I confess that I cannot, that
+I do not love him."
+
+"Oh, Cynthia, child; what do you know about love?" he said impatiently.
+
+"Enough to know that it would be wrong to take a man's love and give him
+nothing in return." Now her voice was steady, convincing.
+
+He had a sudden thought. Like a vision the stalwart form of the young
+sailor rose before him. He had carried admiration, yes, love in his
+eyes. What if he had carried more than that away?
+
+"Cynthia, is there some one else, some one you _could_ love----"
+
+"There is some one else." Her tone was very low, but brave. That
+admission would settle the matter.
+
+"Are you to wait three years for him?"
+
+"For whom?" in surprise.
+
+Then he glanced up. Her face, that had been lily-white, was flushed from
+brow to neck. What was there in the beautiful, entreating eyes?
+
+"Cynthia?" All his firmness gave way.
+
+His arm stole softly around her, drew her a trifle down. "Tell me! Tell
+me!" he cried, yet he had no idea he was asking her to lay her heart
+bare. There was still the boy Anthony.
+
+"Cousin Chilian, if a woman loved very much, would it be a shame to her
+if, unasked, she----"
+
+Her head sank down on his shoulder. He felt the warm, throbbing breath
+on his cheek. He drew her closer. Did the slim, palpitating body betray
+its secret?
+
+"Oh, Cynthia, child, the most precious thing in all the world to me,
+tell me that I will not have to give you to another, that I may keep you
+to myself. For I cannot comprehend how so great a joy could come to me.
+And whether I would have the right to take your sweet young life, that
+should be replete with the joys of youth, with the gladness that is its
+proper birthright."
+
+"If I gave it to you? If I could never have given it to any other?"
+
+He drew her down closer, and the gentle yielding, the sort of rapturous
+sigh, answered him better than any words. He pressed kisses on the
+unresisting lips, kisses that then were sacred to affianced lovers and
+husbands.
+
+Was it an hour or half a lifetime? He inclined her to his knee as he had
+when she was a little girl, but at length he came back to his senses.
+
+"Cynthia," he began with tender gravity, "there are many points to
+consider. Do you know that I am more than double your age----"
+
+"Don't tell that to me. Isn't love as sweet?"
+
+Could he deny it in the face of that ravishing smile, those appealing
+eyes.
+
+"Still--the world will think about it. And you are a rich young woman,
+you could take your pick of lovers----"
+
+"But they are all so troublesome," she interrupted. "And one gets
+affronted with the other. And if I picked very much I might be called a
+flirt, perhaps I have been. I didn't want them, only to dance and be
+merry with, and there are so many pretty girls in the world--enough for
+all of them."
+
+He smiled a little and it gave her a heartache to see how thin he had
+grown, and there were new creases in his forehead that had been so fair
+and smooth.
+
+"And if some day you should repent?"
+
+"I'm not going to repent. Why should one when one gets the thing one
+wanted?"
+
+There was a touch of the old brightness in her tone. Had she really
+wanted him?
+
+"I've been very naughty with all these lovers, haven't I? But no one
+came near enough to really ask me that question until last night, though
+Mr. Marsh thought he would if he were going to stay. And Cousin Chilian,
+I had made up my mind truly, I thought, for I liked Mr. Saltonstall very
+much, and it seemed to me you wanted me to----" Her voice died away in
+pathos.
+
+"I did. Oh, you must know the worst of me. When I found you were
+growing into my very heart, and I began to feel jealous of the young
+men, I took myself in hand as a most reprehensible old fellow. But I
+found you had entwined yourself in every fibre of my heart, and it was
+hard indeed to uproot you."
+
+"And you really tried?" Her tone was upbraiding.
+
+"I tried like an honest, upright man. I shall never be ashamed of the
+effort. I would not mar or spoil your life. You see you might have loved
+some of these brave young lads. You might have been very happy with
+them."
+
+"Oh, you can't have but one husband;" in laughing gayety.
+
+He flushed at her mischief.
+
+"I wonder when you began to love me? And what has made you so cold and
+distant, as if you were taking your affection away?"
+
+"I was--I was--Heaven forgive me! I was learning to live without you; to
+go back to a life more solitary than it was before you came. And,
+Cynthia, you were not altogether a welcome guest. I did not know what to
+do with a little girl. I was set in my ways. I did not like to be
+disturbed. I could have sent a boy off to school. And Elizabeth thought
+it a trouble, too. You must read your father's letter and see the trust
+he reposed in me. But you were such a strange, shy little thing, and so
+delicate in all your ways. You never touched an article without
+permission, you handled books so gently, you never made dog's-ears, or
+crumpled a page. And that winter you were ill--and the faith you had in
+his return. How many times my heart ached for you. After that I could
+not have given you up, and I fell into a sort of belief that it would go
+on this always. When the lovers began to come, I found I must awake from
+my delusion. And then I knew that an oldish fellow could love a sweet
+girl in her first bloom, but that it would be a selfish, unpardonable
+thing."
+
+"Not if she loved him!" She raised her face in all its sweet bravery of
+color.
+
+"But it was his duty to let her see what pleasure there was in the world
+for youth; it was the promise to her dead father, who had confided his
+treasure to him. And even now he hesitates, lest you shall not have the
+best of everything."
+
+"I shall have the best;" with winning confidence.
+
+"I loved your mother. I was a young lad, and she some five years older.
+I suppose I was like a young brother to her, because your father, her
+lover, had been here so much. And somehow, you slipped into the place
+where there never had been any other."
+
+"It must have been kept for me," she said gravely. "And now I give you
+warning that I shall never go out of it. No place could ever be so dear
+as this house with all its memories. I am glad you knew and loved my
+mother."
+
+It came noon before they were talked out, or before they had settled
+only one point, about which she would have her way. She wrote a pretty
+note to Mr. Saltonstall, reiterating some things she had said the
+evening before, and acknowledging that when she had tried to accept him,
+she had found her heart was another's, "and you are worthy of a woman's
+best love," she added, which did comfort him.
+
+Still it puzzled him a good deal, but he finally settled upon Anthony
+and thought it a rather foolish choice. No doubt but that Giles Leverett
+was back of it all.
+
+They told Cousin Eunice and Miss Winn. The former cried for sheer joy.
+She seemed older than her years, but she was well and bid fair to live
+years yet.
+
+"Then you will never go away. I could not live without you, and as for
+Chilian----"
+
+"It would only be half a life," returned the lover, and he kissed Cousin
+Eunice.
+
+Miss Winn hardly knew whether to be pleased or not. She liked Mr.
+Saltonstall very much for his gayety, good humor, and fine presence, and
+then he had the divine gift of youth to match hers. Would she not tire
+of Chilian Leverett's grave life?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE PASSING OF OLD SALEM
+
+
+After all, they were foolish lovers. She did not hoard up any sweetness.
+If he could not look forward to so many years, she must give him a
+double portion. That was her only regret about him, and she never
+confessed that.
+
+He was surprised at himself. If she had loved another, the wound of
+loneliness must have bled inwardly until it sapped his life. Oh, how
+daintily sweet she was! Every day he found some new trait.
+
+"You see," she explained to Miss Winn, "we shall all keep together.
+Father trusted you to the uttermost, and you have been nobly loyal. I
+couldn't do without you. And no one could look so well after Cousin
+Eunice, who will keep growing older."
+
+That was true enough. She was very well content in her home, and at her
+time of life did not care to try a new one. Cynthia was almost like a
+child to her.
+
+Meanwhile matters had not gone prosperously with old Salem, England had
+claimed her right of search, against which the country strongly
+protested. The British government issued orders, and the French Emperor
+decrees, forbidding ships of neutrals to enter the ports, or engage in
+trade with their respective enemies. This crippled the trade of Salem.
+Then there had been the embargo, which for a while closed the ports. But
+the town went on improving. Fortunes had been made and now were being
+spent. But much of the shipping lay idle. Yet the social life went on,
+there was marrying and giving in marriage.
+
+Of course, there was some gossip about the Saltonstall fiasco. No one,
+at least very few, supposed a sensible girl would give up such an
+opportunity to settle herself. Miss Cynthia would no doubt use her best
+efforts to get him back. She seemed superbly indifferent to the gossip.
+
+At first Chilian insisted upon an engagement of some length, so that she
+might be sure of the wisdom of the step. But she only laughed in her
+charming fashion, and declared she would not give up the old house, much
+more its owner.
+
+But they had a quiet wedding, with only the choicest friends, and then
+they went to Boston to escape the wonderings. Cousin Giles was really
+displeased.
+
+"It's an unfair thing for an old fellow like you to do. And you had
+money enough of your own; her fortune should have gone to help some nice
+young fellow along. Why, really Cynthia has hardly outgrown childhood.
+You might have been her father!"
+
+"Hardly!" returned Chilian dryly.
+
+On their return the house was opened and really crowded with guests.
+Cynthia was in her most splendid attire. Happiness had certainly
+improved Chilian Leverett, he had gained some flesh and looked younger.
+The most beautiful belongings had been brought out to decorate the
+rooms.
+
+"For I am not going to have them stored away for possible
+grandchildren," she declared gayly.
+
+And the guests had a charming welcome. The younger girls were truly glad
+she had made her election, and no one could deny that she was very much
+in love with her husband. Neither had need to marry for money, since
+both had fortunes. And they wished her health and happiness with all
+their hearts.
+
+Jane had said to her, "Mis' Leverett, there's an old adage:
+
+          "'Change the name and not the letter,
+           You marry for worse and not for better.'"
+
+Cynthia laughed. "I'm not going to let signs or omens trouble me. And I
+haven't even changed my name, so the letter cannot count. And it is one
+of the good old Salem names. It was my dear father's."
+
+One incident touched Cynthia deeply. Eunice took her up in the garret
+one day and exhumed from a chest the beautiful white quilt of
+Elizabeth's handiwork. Pinned to one corner was a card, "For my little
+Cynthia."
+
+"Only a few days before she had her stroke she made me write this and
+go up and pin it on the quilt. Maybe she'd had a warning, people do
+sometimes. I supposed she'd leave it to Chilian. Oh, my dear, she'd be
+so glad to have you go on in the old house if she could know."
+
+Eunice wiped the tears from her eyes. Cynthia bent over and kissed among
+the stitches the poor fingers had toiled at day after day, sorry for the
+toil, glad for the love that came at the last.
+
+The Leverett house opened its doors with a generous hospitality. People,
+men at least, began to think of something beside money-making, and some
+fine plans were broached. Chilian Leverett seemed to grow younger.
+Cynthia should not miss the joys of youth out of her life. He did
+something more than dance minuets, for her sake he essayed quadrilles.
+The exquisite motion with her, her dainty hand in his, or at times
+resting on his shoulder, filled him with an all-pervading delight.
+
+"Chilian, do you realize that you are a really beautiful dancer?" she
+said one evening after they had returned from a small company.
+
+"Then I must have caught it from you. In my youth dancing was considered
+frivolous."
+
+"And in India you hire the men and women to dance for you, and follow
+the enchanting motions with your eye. But it is so warm out there."
+
+She had been playing one evening when she started up, exclaiming, "Let
+us try that new thing--the waltz. It is just made for two people very
+much in love."
+
+"It is?" He smiled in the eager face. It was said that she could twist
+him around her finger. "Why, we have no music."
+
+"I can sing the measure, just la, la!" and she started the melody. There
+were two long paths of moonlight through the wide-open shutters.
+Moonlight and sunshine were welcome visitors. She held out her hands.
+Just that way she had charmed others, and he yielded to the seductive
+influence. For, oh, she was so young and sweet.
+
+It was a little awkward at first, but they soon found the steps. It was
+rather slow and graceful, not the mad whirl of later times. It _was_
+considered rather reprehensible, but between husband and wife it was
+right enough. They found it very fascinating.
+
+After a while a sort of grave, sweet seriousness came over her. She
+liked to sit in the study and have him read poetry to her while she
+sewed. She had never loved sewing, but now she had taken a fancy to it.
+Dainty little lacey things, with the softest of muslins, treasures that
+had come from India. For there were stacks of towels and sheets and
+useful articles, so why should she bother about them?
+
+Jane was married and a middle-aged, homeless widow was very glad to
+come. Miss Winn took the head of the housekeeping, and Cousin Eunice was
+very willing.
+
+Then there came to them both a little son. Women often dream of babies
+of their own, but men have so many outside interests. There really were
+people at that time who thought children a boon and blessing of the
+Lord. Chilian Leverett was amazed, rendered speechless with joy. His own
+little son, Cynthia's little son, the life and love of both hearts. His
+cup of joy and thankfulness ran over. For he had never imagined there
+could be such perfect bliss. He thought over the time when the little
+girl had come, and he had not wanted her. Now she had brought him life's
+choicest blessing.
+
+Meanwhile events ran on which were to thrill all hearts and make
+stirring history. For war had been declared.
+
+Handsome, pleasure-loving Edward Saltonstall volunteered in the army.
+Perilous times there were on the northern frontier, dreadful losses, few
+gains, until suddenly the Lake battles changed the aspect and won the
+splendid victories that thrilled every heart.
+
+But Salem's almost meteoric prosperity came to a sudden halt, for there
+was war on the high seas as well. The whole mercantile marine was
+refitted and turned out to win what it might in other channels.
+Privateering was held right enough in those days.
+
+There was the electrifying capture of the _Guerrière_ and her being
+towed into Boston with Captain Dacres as a prisoner, and another to be
+quite as famous, that of the _United States_ and the _Macedonia_, where
+the American loss seemed incredibly small. Other splendid victories as
+well. But it was not until February, 1815, after nearly four years of
+struggle and war, that peace was again declared with the Colonies as
+victorious. America had won her right to the liberty of the seas, as
+well as that of the land.
+
+But the supremacy of trade no longer could be claimed for Salem. Other
+ports were built up, other markets opened. Cities saw the advantage of
+foreign trade. American products were shipped hither and thither. No one
+city had the monopoly.
+
+But romances flourished all the same and were to be handed down to other
+generations. There was the old Forester house, with its legends, its
+lovely gardens, and fine pictures. And the beautiful house of Elias
+Hasket Derby, in which he had lived but such a short time. No one felt
+rich enough then to undertake such a costly establishment, and finally
+the estate came into possession of the city, and the big area was named
+Derby Square, and a commodious market built and a Town Hall. When that
+was opened President Monroe made a visit to Salem, and was
+enthusiastically received there, citizens thronging to see him. The next
+day Judge Story entertained him, and Mr. Stephen White, of Washington
+Square, gave a ball in his honor. The Leveretts were among the guests,
+and Captain Edward Saltonstall, who had won promotions by brave conduct
+under General Harrison, but was now a private citizen and a fine-looking
+man, with a new bevy of girls as eager for his attentions as the others
+were seven or eight years before.
+
+There was another guest who claimed, or at least received, a good share
+of attention. This was the naval Captain Marsh, who had been in the
+encounter between the _Macedonia_ and the frigate _United States_,
+Captain Decatur, which was considered one of the greatest of the naval
+battles. For his bravery then and afterward, he had been promoted and
+was now a captain in command of a fine vessel.
+
+Cynthia was delighted to see him; but she said he must visit them to
+talk over matters and the wonders that had happened to him. She would
+not dance any, although she was in the grand march with her husband. Mr.
+Saltonstall she saw quite frequently. His parents were quite old people
+and he was devoted to them.
+
+She wondered at times if any old fancy kept him single. If so, she was
+sincerely sorry. For she had been very, very happy with the husband of
+her love. And in the household there were two merry, frolicking boys,
+and a sweet little girl, with her mother's eyes.
+
+Captain Marsh did come and he was delighted with his visit. The little
+boys climbed over him as if they had known him always. He told the story
+of the terrific battle at the Canaries, and many another battle that had
+left him unscathed.
+
+"And I used to think if I came back to old Salem and found you
+unmarried, it would go hard with me if I could not win you," he said to
+Cynthia in his cordial, manly fashion. "And I confess to you now if Dame
+Wilby had struck you that day at school, I should have rushed at her
+like a tiger. I like that remembrance of you standing there so brave and
+defying."
+
+They both laughed over it.
+
+She had changed very little. Chilian said she grew younger with the
+birth of every baby. She was happy and merry, truly the light of the
+house, and Cousin Eunice was the happiest grandmother in all of Salem.
+Miss Winn shared their joys--so far there had been no sorrows.
+
+Chilian grew a little stouter with advancing years, which really
+improved him. He took a warm interest in the new projects. There was the
+Essex Historical Society, gathering portraits and relics of the older
+Salem, and the East India Marine Society was enlarging its scope. The
+new Salem was to be curiously intellectual, historic, and one might say
+antiquarian. Modernized and transformed in many respects, it still has
+the old-time fragrance of sandalwood and incense when the chests in the
+old garrets are turned over for fine things that came from India a
+century before.
+
+Cousin Giles aged more rapidly, but then he was considerably older than
+Chilian. He did adopt young Anthony, and insisted upon his taking the
+name of Leverett, and a share of the business burthens. And he married
+quite to the approval of the elder man, though not such an heiress as
+Cynthia.
+
+And no one was dreaming that the little boy born in Union Street in 1804
+was to add such interest and lustre to his native town that the scenes
+of his curious wizard-like romances were to be settled upon by those
+interested in them and handed down as actual occurrences. Do we not all
+know Hester Prynne and Mr. Dimmesdale, Phebe and Hephzibah and Judge
+Pyncheon, and weird old Dr. Grimshawe, and many another that have
+flitted through the pages of Hawthorne's strange romances, leaving Salem
+the richer by the memories?
+
+There was another little girl who was to grow up and take a great
+interest in all these things, and finally to see the old Leverett house
+pass away, after its more than two hundred years. But it was a new and
+doubly interesting Salem then, with its several evolutions that have
+passed and gone.
+
+She lived a long and happy life, this little girl who came back to her
+birthplace consigned to Chilian Leverett's care, and won his love that
+never changed, or grew any less. Her sons never tired of the old
+reminiscences. Many of the old houses were still standing. Here
+President Washington had been entertained; here the artist Copley had
+lived and painted portraits that are heirlooms; Justice Story and his
+gifted son, poet and artist; Prescott, the historian, and many another
+of whom the country is proud to-day, and civilians whose fine thought
+and noble work have made the city a Mecca for intellectual tourists, and
+a beautiful and interesting abiding-place for her citizens, a town of
+three striking epochs that linger not only in tradition but in history.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+   Table of Contents, the final "VIII" was changed to "XVIII".
+
+   Page 41, "spinnet" changed to "spinet". (a thin-legged spinet)
+
+   Page 148, "exlaining" changed to "explaining". (fond of explaining)
+
+   Page 174, "Chilan's" changed to "Chilian's". (Cousin Chilian's
+             memory)
+
+   Page 200, "detatched" changed to "detached". (of detached sounds)
+
+   Page 216, "beutifully" changed to "beautifully". (a beautifully
+             engraved)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SALEM***
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Little Girl in Old Salem, by Amanda Minnie Douglas</title>
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Little Girl in Old Salem, by Amanda Minnie
+Douglas</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: A Little Girl in Old Salem</p>
+<p>Author: Amanda Minnie Douglas</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 1, 2007  [eBook #20722]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SALEM***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by<br />
+    Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, J. P. W. Fraser, Emmy,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net/c/)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Front matter">
+<tr><td align='left'><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="257" height="400" alt="Cover" title="Cover" />
+</td><td align='center'><h1>A LITTLE GIRL IN<br />
+OLD SALEM</h1>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>AMANDA M. DOUGLAS</h2>
+
+
+<br /><br /><br />
+<img src="images/emblem.png" width="78" height="100" alt="Emblem" title="Emblem" />
+<br /><br /><br />
+
+NEW YORK<br />
+
+DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY<br />
+1908
+</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE "LITTLE GIRL" SERIES</h2>
+
+<hr style='width: 25%;' />
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="THE &quot;LITTLE GIRL&quot; SERIES">
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD NEW YORK.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>HANNAH ANN; A SEQUEL.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD BOSTON.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD PHILADELPHIA.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD WASHINGTON.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD NEW ORLEANS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD DETROIT.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD ST. LOUIS.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD CHICAGO.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SAN FRANCISCO.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD QUEBEC.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD BALTIMORE.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class='center'><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1908<br />
+
+<span class="smcap">By Dodd, Mead and Company</span><br />
+
+Published, September, 1908</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align='left' colspan='2'><span class="smcap">chapter</span></td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Two Letters</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Little Girl</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_19'>19</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Stranger, yet at Home</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Unwelcome</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_52'>52</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Making Friends with the Little Girl</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_68'>68</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Going to School</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_91'>91</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Changeful Lights of Childhood</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Sorrow's Crown of Sorrow</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_128'>128</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Lessons of Life</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_143'>143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A New Departure</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_161'>161</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Voice of a Rose</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_180'>180</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Changes in the Old House</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_194'>194</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Taste of Pleasure</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_213'>213</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In Gay Old Salem</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_231'>231</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XV</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Lovers and Lovers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_248'>248</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVI</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Perilous Paths</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_270'>270</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XVII</td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Flowering of the Soul</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_288'>288</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'><ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'VIII'">XVIII</ins></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Passing of Old Salem</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_296'>296</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>TWO LETTERS</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Leveretts were at their breakfast in the large
+sunny room in Derby Street. It had an outlook on
+the garden, and beyond the garden was a lane, well
+used and to be a street itself in the future. Then, at
+quite a distance, a strip of woods on a rise of ground,
+that still further enhanced the prospect. The sun
+slanted in at the windows on one side, there was nothing
+to shut it out. It would go all round the house
+now, and seem to end where it began, in the garden.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian was very fond of it. He always brought his
+book to the table; he liked to eat slowly, to gaze out and
+digest one or two thoughts at his leisure, as well as
+the delightful breakfast set before him. He was a man
+of delicate tastes and much refinement, for with all the
+New England sturdiness, hardness one might say, there
+was in many families a strain of what we might term
+high breeding. His face, with its clear-cut features,
+indicated this. His hair was rather light, fine, with a
+few waves in it that gave it a slightly tumbled look&mdash;far
+from any touch of disorder. His eyes were a deep,
+clear blue, his complexion fair enough for a woman.</p>
+
+<p>His father and grandfather had lived and died in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+this house. He had bought out his sister's share when
+she married, and she had gone to Providence. He
+had asked the two relatives of his father&mdash;termed
+cousins by courtesy&mdash;to continue housekeeping. They
+were the last of their family and in rather straitened
+circumstances. Miss Elizabeth was nearing sixty, tall,
+straight, fair, and rather austere-looking. Eunice was
+two years younger, shorter, a trifle stouter, with a
+rounder face, and a mouth that wore a certain sweetness
+when it did not actually smile.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian was past thirty. He was a Harvard graduate,
+and now went in two days each week for teaching
+classes. His father had left some business interests in
+Salem, rather distasteful to him, but he was a strictly
+conscientious person and attended to them, if with a
+sort of mental protest. For the rest, he was a bookworm
+and revelled in intellectual pursuits.</p>
+
+<p>The day previous had been desperately stormy, this
+late March morning was simply glorious. The mail,
+which came late in the afternoon, had not been delivered,
+causing no uneasiness, as letters were not daily
+visitors. But now the serving-man, with a gentle rap,
+opened the door and said briefly:</p>
+
+<p>"Letters."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice rose and took them.</p>
+
+<p>"An East Indian one for you, Chilian, and why&mdash;one
+from Boston&mdash;for you, Elizabeth. It is Cousin
+Giles' hand."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth reached for it. They were both so in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>terested
+that they took no note of Chilian's missive.
+She cut carefully around the big wafer he had used.
+It was a large letter sheet, quite blue and not of over-fine
+quality. Envelopes had not come in and there
+was quite an art in folding a letter&mdash;unfolding it as
+well.</p>
+
+<p>"Really what has started Cousin Giles? I hope no
+one is dead&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There would have been a black seal."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, m'm;" making a curious sound with
+closed lips. "They are well. Oh, the Thatchers have
+been visiting them and are coming out here for a week&mdash;why,
+on Saturday, and to-day is Thursday. Chilian,
+do you hear that?"</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he asked, closing his book over his own
+letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the Thatchers are coming&mdash;on Saturday, not
+a long notice, and I don't know how many. They have
+had a nice time in Boston&mdash;and Cousin Giles has been
+beauing them round and seems to like it. He might
+have sent you word on Tuesday, when you were in;"
+and Elizabeth's tone expressed a grievance.</p>
+
+<p>"And the house not cleaned! It's been so cold."</p>
+
+<p>"The house is always clean. Don't, I beg of you,
+Cousin Bessy, turn it upside down and scrub and
+scour, and wear yourself out and take a bad cold.
+There are two guest chambers, and I suppose half a
+dozen more might be made ready."</p>
+
+<p>"That's the man of it. I don't believe a man would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+ever see dirt until some day when he had to dig himself
+out, or call upon the women folks to do it."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth always softened, in spite of her austerity,
+when he called her Bessy. The newer generation indulged
+in household diminutives occasionally.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there is to be no regular house-cleaning. We
+shall want fires a good six weeks yet."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why Cousin Giles couldn't have said
+how many there were. Let me see, Rachel Leverett,
+who married the Thatcher, was your father's cousin.
+They went up in Vermont. Then they came to Concord.
+He"&mdash;which meant the head of the house&mdash;"went
+to the State Legislature after the war. He had
+some sons married. Why, I haven't seen them in
+years."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be just like meeting strangers," declared
+Eunice. "It's almost as if we kept an inn."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian turned. "When I am in Boston to-morrow
+I will hunt up Cousin Giles."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that will be good of you."</p>
+
+<p>He slipped his letter into the Latin book he had been
+going over, and with a slight inclination of the head
+left the room. The hall was wide, though it ended just
+beyond this door, where it led to the kitchen. The
+woodwork was of oak, darkened much by the years
+that had passed over it. The broad staircase showed
+signs of the many feet that had trodden up and down.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian's study was directly over the living-room,
+and next to the sleeping-chamber. This part had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+been added to the main house, but that was years ago.
+Bookshelves were ranged on two sides, but the windows
+interfered with their course around, two on each
+of the other sides. There was a wide fireplace between
+those at the west, and under them low closets, with
+cushions&mdash;ancestors of useful window-seats. A large
+easy-chair, covered with Cordovan leather, another
+curiously carved with a straight narrow strip up the
+back, set off by the side carving. The seat was broad
+and cushioned. Then one from France, as you could
+tell by the air and style, that had been in a palace.
+A low splint rocker, and one with a high back
+and comfortable cushions, inviting one to take a
+nap.</p>
+
+<p>The bookcases went about two-thirds of the way
+up and were ornamented by articles beautiful and
+grotesque from almost every land, for there had been
+seafaring men in the Leverett family, and more than
+one home in Salem could boast of treasures of this
+sort.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian stirred the fire, sending a shower of sparks
+up the chimney, and put on a fresh log. Then he
+settled himself in his chair and fingered his letter in
+an absent way. The last time Anthony wrote he
+vaguely suggested changes and chances and the uncertainty
+of life, rather despondent for a brisk business
+man who was always seeing opportunities at
+money-making. Had he been unfortunate in some of
+his ventures? And it was odd in him to write so soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+again. Not that they were ever frequent correspondents.</p>
+
+<p>He opened the letter slowly. It was tied about with
+a thread of waxed silk and sealed, so he cut about the
+seal deliberately; he had a delicate carefulness in all
+his ways that was rather womanly. Then unfolding
+it, he began to read.</p>
+
+<p>Was this what the previous letter had meant? Was
+Anthony Leverett nearing the end, counting his days,
+finishing up his earthly work, and delegating it to
+other hands? There was something pathetic in it,
+and the trust in the uprightness and honor that Anthony
+Leverett reposed in him touched him keenly.
+But this part surprised and, at first, annoyed him.
+He drew his fine brows in a repellent sort of frown.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Do you remember, Chilian, when you were a lad
+of eighteen, in your second year at Harvard, you came
+to Salem to recruit after a period of rather severe
+study? And you met Alletta Orne, who was four-and-twenty
+and engaged to me. In some sort of
+fashion we were all related. Your father had been
+like a father to me in my later boyhood. And, with
+a young man's fervor, you fell in love with her. I was
+sorry then for any pain you suffered, I am glad now;
+for there is no one else in the wide world I would as
+soon trust her child and mine to.</p>
+
+<p>"We had been away nearly three years, when we
+came back, and the baby was born in the house en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>deared
+to me by many tender recollections. You were
+away then, but on our second visit we were the most
+congenial friends again. I did not think then it
+would be our last meeting. I had meant, after making
+my fortune, to return and end my days in my birthplace.
+My greatest interest was in the commercial
+house I had established. My first mate, John
+Corwin, took my place and sailed the vessel. Then
+my dear wife died, and I had only my little girl
+left.</p>
+
+<p>"I could hardly believe six months ago that I must
+die. Should I return, or remain here and sleep beside
+the one who had filled my soul with her serene and
+lovely life and her blessed memory? I could not endure
+the thought of leaving her precious body here
+alone. So I chose to remain. And now I send my
+little girl to your care and guardianship without even
+consulting you. She is amply provided for, though
+the business this side of the world cannot be settled
+in some time. I send her with a trusty maid and
+Captain Corwin, because I do not want her to remember
+the end. Some day you can tell her I am sleeping
+beside her dear mother and that we are together in the
+Better Land. She has been separated considerably
+from me of late,&mdash;I have had to be journeying about
+on business,&mdash;therefore it will not come so hard to
+her, and though children do not forget, the sorrow
+softens and has a tender vagueness from the hand of
+time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"So I give my little girl to you. If so be you
+should marry and have children of your own, she will
+not be crowded out, I know. In the course of years,&mdash;for
+girls grow rapidly up to womanhood,&mdash;she may
+love and marry. Direct her a little here and see that
+no one takes her for the mere money. I want her to
+know the sweetness and richness of a true satisfying
+love."</p></div>
+
+<p>All important papers, and a sort of diary Anthony
+Leverett had kept, were to come in the vessel that
+would bring the little girl in the charge of Captain
+Corwin.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian Leverett sat for a long while with the letter
+in his hand, until the log broke in the middle and one
+end fell over the andiron. Then he started suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>Had he been dreaming of the sweetness of the
+woman who had so captivated his youthful fancy,
+almost a dozen years agone? He never thought she
+had led him astray, and had no blame for her. Perhaps
+the love for her betrothed had so permeated her whole
+being that she shed an exquisitely fascinating sweetness
+all about. He was to her as if he had been her
+betrothed's younger brother. And when the engagement
+was confessed he allowed himself no reprehensible
+longing for the woman so soon to be another's. All
+his instincts were pure and high, perhaps rather too
+idealized, though there was much strength and heroism
+in the old Puritan blood. Right was right in those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+days. Lines were sharply drawn among those of the
+old stock.</p>
+
+<p>But there had been years of what one might call
+living for self, indulgence in studious habits and
+tastes and the higher intellectual life, much solitary
+dreaming, although he was by no means a recluse.
+And to have a little girl come into his life! He would
+have liked a boy better, he thought. The boy would
+be out of doors, playing with mates. And now he
+bethought himself how few small children there were
+in his branch of the Leverett line. Some of the men
+and women had not married. His brother and one
+sister had died in childhood. The first cousins were
+nearly all older than he, many of them had dropped
+out of life. A little girl! No chance to decline the
+trust&mdash;well, he would hardly have done that. He
+knew Anthony Leverett had counted on a serene old
+age in his native town. And he was not much past
+middle life. What had befallen him?</p>
+
+<p>Well, there was nothing to be done. He read the
+letter over again. Then he turned to some papers to
+compose his mind. There was a stir in the next room,
+his sleeping-chamber. He always opened the windows
+and closed the door between. After the dishes were
+washed and the dining-room and hall brushed up,
+Elizabeth came upstairs and made the two beds.
+When he had gone to Cambridge she opened the door
+between. So she did not disturb him now, but crossed
+the hall and inspected the two guest-chambers. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span>
+had swept them a week or so ago and had settled in
+her mind that they would do until house-cleaning time.
+To be sure, if she cleaned them now they would need
+it when the guests were gone. And Chilian had a
+man's objection to house-cleaning. It was hardly time
+to put away blankets. She wished she knew how
+many guests there would be.</p>
+
+<p>The rooms were full of old Colonial furniture that
+had been in the family for generations. Every spring
+Elizabeth polished the mahogany until it shone. She
+dusted now, though there was hardly a speck visible.
+The snow through the winter had laid it, and the
+spring rains had not allowed it to rear its head.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian put on his coat presently and sallied out for
+his morning exercise. The family had been connected
+with shipbuilding to a certain extent, and there was
+the old warehouse where vessels came in with their
+precious cargoes from civilized and barbaric lands.
+For at the close of the Revolutionary War the men of
+note, many of whom had not disdained privateering,
+found themselves in possession of idle fleets, that with
+their able seamen could outsail almost anything afloat.
+So they struck out for new ventures in unknown seas
+and new channels of trade. Calcutta, Bombay, Zanzibar,
+Madagascar, Batavia, and other ports came to
+know the American flag and the busy enterprising
+traders.</p>
+
+<p>But the old Salem that was once the capital of the
+state, the Salem of John Endicott and Roger Williams,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+of stern Puritanism, of terrible witchcraft horrors, and
+then of the sturdy and vigorous stand in her differences
+with the mother country, her patriotism through
+the darkest days, was fast fading away, just as this
+grand commercial epoch was destined to merge into
+science and educational fame later on, and give to the
+world some master spirits. But as he wended his way
+hither and thither in a desultory fashion, one thought
+almost like spoken words kept running through his
+mind&mdash;"A little girl&mdash;a little girl in Old Salem"&mdash;for
+the almost two hundred years gave her the right to
+that eminence, and a little girl from a foreign land
+seemed incongruous. Not but that there were little
+girls in Salem, but their life-lines did not touch his.
+And this one came so near, for the sake of both parents
+he had loved.</p>
+
+<p>When he came in to dinner, he had made up his
+mind to say nothing of his letter until the guests had
+come and gone. He did not wish to be deluged with
+questions.</p>
+
+<p>He hunted up Cousin Giles the next day, who was
+quite a real-estate dealer, investing his own and other
+people's money in sound mortgages, who had been a
+widower so long that he had quite gone back to bachelorhood.</p>
+
+<p>And he found three Thatcher cousins&mdash;a widow, a
+married one, and a single one, the youngest of the
+family, but past girlhood. He was asked to take
+luncheon with them and they proved quite agreeable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+and intelligent, and much pleased at the prospect of
+seeing Elizabeth and Eunice Leverett.</p>
+
+<p>"We have been hunting up several of the Boston
+relatives," said Miss Thatcher, with a kind of winsome
+smile. "Cousin Giles has been a good directory.
+We've kept in with so few of them. Father hunted
+up some of them while he was in the Legislature, but
+they are so scattered about and many of them dead.
+Mother was your father's cousin, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian gave a graceful inclination of the head.</p>
+
+<p>"Elizabeth and Eunice visited us years ago, along
+after the war when I was first left a widow," explained
+Mrs. Brent. "Henry went all through it, but
+was worn out, and died in '88. But I've two nice sons,
+who are a great comfort. Father was very good to
+them and me. And they're both promising farmers."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell her that's a good deal to be thankful for,"
+remarked Cousin Giles.</p>
+
+<p>"It is indeed," commented Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>"And I have a lad who is all for study and wants
+to come in to Harvard. He has been teaching school
+this winter. His father's quite set against it, and I
+don't know how it will end. He will be only nineteen
+in August, and his father thinks he has a hold on him
+two years longer."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Drayton looked up rather appealingly.</p>
+
+<p>"If his mind is made up to that, he will work his
+way through," said Chilian, and he thought he should
+like to know the boy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You see the next two are girls and they can't help
+much about a farm. Father really needs him. And I
+seem to stand between two fires. His teaching term
+will end in May, but he has planned to take the school
+next winter. He has made quite a bit of money."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian thought he would be a lad fully worth
+helping, and made a mental note of it. He liked the
+mother.</p>
+
+<p>It was settled that they would reach Salem about
+noon in the stage, the only mode of conveyance, and
+they parted with a pleased friendliness.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian rehearsed the interview at home to the great
+delight of the household. Indeed, he had been very
+well pleased with the prospective visitors and he felt
+rather thankful for the respite from the shadow the
+coming event was casting. A little girl! It did annoy
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He did not allow it to interfere with his duties as
+host, however. The three ladies had a most delightful
+visit at Salem, looking up points of interest and hearing
+old history concerning the Leveretts. Chilian's
+father had jotted down many facts. There were seafaring
+uncles, who had brought home trophies; there
+were men in the family, who had died for their country
+if they had not filled eminent positions; others who
+had. How this branch of the family seemed to have
+dwindled away!</p>
+
+<p>Serena Thatcher was more than pleased with her
+cousin, though she felt somewhat awed by his attain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>ments
+and his rather punctilious ways. Mrs. Brent
+set him down as a good deal of a Miss Nancy. But
+the ladies had a delightful time going over family
+histories and getting relationships disentangled.</p>
+
+<p>When the eventful day of parting came it brought
+a very real sorrow. They made promises that they
+would renew their meetings and keep each other in
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>It was Saturday evening when the Leverett household
+sat around the cheerful fire in the cozy room
+where the small family gathered on this evening of
+the week with their work all done, after the fashion of
+the past, still strictly observed by many of the older
+Puritan families. The industrious ladies sat with
+folded hands. Sometimes Chilian read aloud from a
+volume of the divines who had finished their good
+fight.</p>
+
+<p>This night he was gazing idly in the fire, the lines
+in his face deepening now and then.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose he <i>is</i> tired with all the talk, and rambles,
+and confusion of the week," Elizabeth thought, stealing
+furtive glances at him.</p>
+
+<p>He straightened himself presently and made a pretence
+of clearing his throat, as an embarrassed person
+often does.</p>
+
+<p>"I have something to tell you," he began. "I
+thought I would not disturb you while our relatives
+were here. We found enough to talk about;" with a
+short half-laugh.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And it tired you out, I know. We live so quietly
+that such an event quite upsets us," Eunice said in a
+gentle, deprecating tone.</p>
+
+<p>"It was very pleasant," he added. "I was a good
+deal interested in Anthony Drayton. But this is something
+quite different. Can you recall that I had a
+letter from the East Indies the morning the word
+came from Cousin Giles?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes!" Elizabeth started in surprise. "I had
+really forgotten about it. Business, I suppose, with
+Anthony Leverett. Why, I think it is high time he
+came home."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian sighed. "I am afraid&mdash;though I cannot see
+why we should fear so much to enter the other portal,
+since it is the destiny of all, and we believe in a better
+world. He was hopelessly ill when he wrote and was
+winding up some business matters. He is a brave man
+to meet death so composedly. The only pang is parting
+from his child."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, his little girl! Let me see&mdash;she must be eight
+or nine years old. What will become of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"He makes me executor and guardian of the child.
+She was to start three weeks after his letter with Captain
+Corwin in the <i>Flying Star</i>. That will be due, if it
+meets with no mishap, from the middle to the last of
+April."</p>
+
+<p>"But she doesn't come alone!" ejaculated Elizabeth
+in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. He wishes to be buried there beside his wife.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+And he does not want her to have the remembrance of
+his death. So he sends her with the woman who has
+been her nurse and maid the last three years, an
+Englishwoman."</p>
+
+<p>"Of all things! I wonder what will come next!
+We seem in the line of surprises. And it's queer they
+should happen together. A little girl! Chilian, do
+<i>you</i> like it? Why, it will fairly turn the house upside
+down!"</p>
+
+<p>There was an accent of protest in Elizabeth's tone,
+showing plainly her unwillingness to accept the
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>"One little girl can't move much furniture about;"
+with a sound of humor in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you know what I mean&mdash;not actually dragging
+sofas and tables about, but she will chairs, as you'll
+see. And lots of other things. Look at the Rendall
+children. The house always looks as if it had been
+stirred up with the pudding-stick, and Sally Rendall
+spends good half her time looking for things they have
+carted off. Tom and Anstice were digging up the path
+the day we called, and what do you suppose they had!
+The tablespoons. And I'll venture to say they were
+left out of doors."</p>
+
+<p>"There are so many of them," Chilian said, as if in
+apology.</p>
+
+<p>"And I don't see how we can keep this child away
+from them. It isn't as if they were low-down people.
+Sally's father having been a major in the war, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+Rendalls are good stock. Let me see&mdash;what's her
+name? Her mother was called Letty."</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia. She was named for my mother." Chilian's
+voice had a reverent softness in it.</p>
+
+<p>"I always thought it a pretty name," said Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>"And I've heard people call it 'Cyn.' I do abominate
+nicknames."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth uttered this with a good deal of vigor.
+Then she remembered she quite liked Bessy.</p>
+
+<p>No one spoke for some moments. Chilian thought
+of the sister, whose brief married life had ended in
+her pretty home at Providence, and how she looked
+in her coffin with her baby sheltered by one arm. The
+picture came before him vividly.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth liked cleanliness and order. It was natural
+after a long practice in it. Chilian's particular
+ways suited her. Year after year had settled them&mdash;perhaps
+she had settled him more definitely, as he
+liked the way. Eunice was thinking of the little girl
+who had neither father or mother. She had some
+unfulfilled dreams. In her youth there had been a
+lover, and a wedding planned when he came home
+from his voyage. She had begun to "lay by" for
+housekeeping. And there were some pretty garments
+in the trunk upstairs, packed away with other articles.
+The lover was lost at sea, as befell many another New
+England coast woman.</p>
+
+<p>She had hoped against hope for several years&mdash;men
+were sometimes restored as by a miracle&mdash;but he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+never came. So she sometimes dreamed of what
+might have been, of home and children, and it kept her
+heart tender. Anthony's little girl would make a sight
+of trouble, she could see that, but a little girl about
+would be a great pleasure&mdash;to her at least. She
+glanced furtively at Elizabeth, then at Chilian. She
+could not comfort either of them with this sudden
+glow and warmth that thrilled through her veins.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we will be through with house-cleaning before
+she comes," said the practical and particular
+housewife. Chilian simply sighed. It was the usual
+spring ordeal, and did end. But who could predict the
+ending of the other?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE LITTLE GIRL</h3>
+
+
+<p>Down at the wharf there was much bustle and stir.
+Vessels were lading for various home ports, fishing
+craft were going out on their ventures, even a whaler
+had just fitted up for a long cruise, and the young
+as well as middle-aged sailors were shouting out
+farewells. White and black men were running to
+and fro, laughing, chaffing, and swearing at each
+other.</p>
+
+<p>There lay the East Indiaman, with her foreign flag
+as well as that of her country. She had come in about
+midnight and at early dawn preliminaries had begun.
+Captain Corwin had been ashore a time or two, looking
+up and down amid the motley throng, and now he
+touched his hat and nodded to Chilian Leverett, who
+picked his way over to him.</p>
+
+<p>"We are somewhat late," he began apologetically.
+"A little due to rough weather, but one can never fix
+an exact date."</p>
+
+<p>"All is well, I hope;" in an anxious tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; the child proved a good sailor and was much
+interested in everything. I was afraid she would take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+it hard. But she is counting on her father's coming.
+I don't know how you will ever console her when she
+learns the truth."</p>
+
+<p>"And he&mdash;&mdash;" Chilian looked intently into the captain's
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose the end has come before this. They
+thought he might last a month when we left. It's sad
+enough. He should have lived to be ninety. But
+matters went well with him, and he has been an honest,
+kindly, upright man with a large heart. I've lost
+my best friend and adviser."</p>
+
+<p>The captain drew his rough coat-sleeve across his
+face and looked past Chilian, winking hard.</p>
+
+<p>"There's a sight of business when we come to that,
+Mr. Leverett, but now&mdash;will you go on board? The
+maid is a most excellent and sensible person. They
+are in the cabin."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he answered and followed with a curious
+throb at his heart&mdash;pity for the orphaned child and a
+sense of responsibility he was conscious that he
+accepted unwillingly, yet he would do his duty to the
+uttermost.</p>
+
+<p>Already some officials were on hand, for at this
+period Salem was really a notable port. Chilian passed
+them with a bow, followed the captain down the gangplank,
+stared a little at the foreign deck-hands in their
+odd habiliments, stepped over boxes and bales in canvas
+and matting full of Oriental fragrance that from
+the closeness was almost stifling, coming from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+clear air. Then he was ushered into the cabin, that
+was replete with Orientalism as well.</p>
+
+<p>A rather tall woman rose to meet him.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Mistress Rachel Winn, who has mothered
+the little girl for several years, Mr. Leverett, her
+relative and guardian, and&mdash;Cynthia&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The child threw herself down on the couch.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go back home. I want to see my father,
+and Aymeer, and Babo, and Nalla. I can't stay here."</p>
+
+<p>"But perhaps your father will bring them when he
+comes. Don't you remember he told you he lived here
+when he was a little boy, and what nice times he had
+with the cousin he loved? And the cousin is here to
+bid you welcome. Come and speak to him. We cannot
+go back at once, the ship has to unload her cargo
+and take in ever so many other things. See, here is
+Cousin Leverett."</p>
+
+<p>She sat up, made a forward movement as if she
+would rise, but simply stared.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am Cousin Leverett." He began advancing
+and held out his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"And very glad to see such an excellent traveller
+as you have been," said the captain. "And such a
+nice little girl. You are an American girl; you know
+your father told you that. And this is your native
+town. Cousin Leverett remembers you when you
+were very little."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't remember you;" taking no notice of
+the proffered hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Then you must get acquainted with me. And you
+must tell me about your life and your father, whom
+I have not seen in a long, long time. Let us shake
+hands."</p>
+
+<p>She held out hers then and raised herself to her
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how soft your hands are," she cried, "just
+like Nalla's. But they are very white. Nalla's were
+brown."</p>
+
+<p>"And who was Nalla?"</p>
+
+<p>"She used to come and play with me and make
+chains out of shells, and make bracelets and anklets,
+and dance. And she used to go to the Sahibs' house
+and dance with snakes. I'm afraid of them. Are
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I am, of the large ones," he said at a
+venture.</p>
+
+<p>He fancied that he felt a gentle pressure of sympathetic
+approval. She glanced up for an instant and her
+eyes transfixed him. They were a deep wonderful
+blue, almost black at the pupil, then raying off a little
+lighter. It made him think of a star in the winter
+midnight sky with a halo around it. The lashes were
+long and nearly black. Otherwise she had little claim
+to beauty just then. Her complexion had a tawny hue
+made by sun and wind, her hair was light, but it had
+a peculiar sunburned tint, though it was fine and
+abundant and hung in loose curls about her shoulders.
+Her nose was the only Leverett feature&mdash;it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+straight, rather small, and had the flexibility that betrayed
+passing emotions. The Leverett lips were thin,
+hers were full in the middle, giving a certain roundness
+to the mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Are there any where you live?" hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Any?" Then he recalled the subject they had
+touched upon. "Oh, no; you seldom see them, and
+they are mostly harmless."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any little girls in your house?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I am sorry to say."</p>
+
+<p>"There were two little English girls on shipboard at
+first. They went on board another vessel after a while.
+I liked them very much. They knew a great many
+things about countries. I can read, but I don't a great
+deal. Sometimes father would tell me about America.
+There are a great many countries in it, and once they
+had a big war. They had wars, too, in India. Why
+must people kill each other?"</p>
+
+<p>"There seem to be reasons. A little girl could not
+understand them all, I think;" and how could he explain
+them?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there is Captain Corwin!" She flew across
+the cabin with outstretched arms, which she clasped
+about him.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, have you been getting acquainted with&mdash;he
+will be your uncle, I suppose. What title are you
+going to take with the child, Mr. Leverett?"</p>
+
+<p>Chilian Leverett colored, without a cause he thought,
+and it annoyed him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Are you going back to India to-day?" She was
+not interested in Chilian Leverett's answer.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Corwin laughed heartily and patted her
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-day, nor even next week. The cargo will
+have to be taken off, little missy, and a new one
+stowed away. And I fancy there must be some repairs.
+I shall stay in town and run down to Marblehead.
+So you will see me quite often."</p>
+
+<p>"And you are coming back again from India?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I hope so. More than once."</p>
+
+<p>"You will bring father then. It is such a long
+while to wait;" and she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>The men exchanged glances.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to see him so much. Couldn't I go back
+with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you remember I told you the other evening
+he might start before I reached India again? Don't
+you want to go ashore and see Salem? Ask Miss
+Rachel to get you ready."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel was beckoning to her. "Let us go up on
+deck," she said. "It's a strange country to me as
+well as to you. And I fancy the men want to talk."</p>
+
+<p>She crossed the cabin slowly, not quite certain what
+she did desire most, except to see her father.</p>
+
+<p>"You will have a rather sorry task. But Captain
+Ant'ny would have it so. He wanted to feel that she
+would be among friends. He had the fullest confidence
+that you could manage wisely. There is a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+box of papers, instructions, etc. You are appointed
+her guardian and trustee. I've brought boxes of stuff
+that the officers will have to go through. But the legal
+matters you may take with you. He tried to make it
+as easy as he could. She will have considerable of a
+fortune, and more to come when matters get settled on
+the other side. A cousin of the Bannings came out,&mdash;English
+are great hands to keep things in the family.
+But it is one of the biggest importing houses out there
+and it owes its success to the long and wise head of
+Captain Anthony. They want young Banning in it
+and the matter was about settled when we came away,
+but the payments will run over several years. All
+these papers will be sent to you. The Bannings are
+upright business men, and I think you need have no
+fear. But the child's fortune is to be invested on this
+side of the water. Oh, you cannot realize what a trial
+it was to give up all thoughts of ending his days here."</p>
+
+<p>Captain Corwin brushed some tears from his honest,
+weather-beaten face.</p>
+
+<p>"But if he had started earlier&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He would not believe the trouble would prove
+fatal. And when it was declared there was so much
+to put in order. Then he could not bear to think of
+leaving his wife alone there, though it's only the shell
+after all, and, if we believe the Good Book, we shall
+see the real part over there that was so much to us.
+But he could not explain the parting to the child,
+though death is such a common thing out there. Yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+it <i>is</i> hard to believe our own can die. We are never
+ready for that. How you will manage&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The customs officers had come. Captain Corwin
+went out to meet them. Chilian Leverett dropped
+into the well-worn leather-covered chair that had been
+fine in its day. A heavy burthen had been laid upon
+him. He was not fond of business. Cousin Giles
+might be of some assistance; he grasped at the thought
+as if he had been a drowning man and this the
+straw. And the child, somehow, was different from
+the average child, he felt; though he was not certain
+what the average child would unfold day after day.
+What would Elizabeth think? Eunice he could count
+on. Though she yielded on many points in that tacit
+sort of way, she was by no means an echo of her sister.</p>
+
+<p>The three men entered the cabin. Chilian was no
+stranger to the officials, who greeted him cordially
+and who sympathized with Captain Anthony Leverett's
+untimely ending, as he was hardly past middle
+life.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it will be quite a change to have a child in
+your household," said Josiah Ward. "But if she is
+like mine, I advise you not to give her the run of your
+study. But there are two ladies to look after her;"
+and he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>It was surmised that Mr. Ward, a widower of two
+years' standing, had glanced more than once in the
+direction of Miss Eunice Leverett.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel came back at this juncture. The little girl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+had an accession of shyness and would only nod to the
+strangers. Then they made ready to leave the vessel.
+Chilian took his japanned case of important papers;
+the rest of the luggage would be sent after inspection.</p>
+
+<p>A primitive street it was in those days, and the fine
+wharves of the present were rather rude if busy places.
+Over beyond they could see the river,&mdash;South River,&mdash;and
+that was alive with various small craft.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems almost like home," said Rachel Winn,
+pausing to take a survey. "You do not find this rural
+aspect in India."</p>
+
+<p>"How long were you there?" asked Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>"Seven years. I went out with my brother, who
+had just married my dearest friend. He died the third
+year, and she soon after married a military man.
+Then I took charge of a little lame boy and was mostly
+up in the mountains until he was sent to England,
+when Captain Leverett's hospitable doors opened to
+me. Believe me, I was sorry to leave him at this crisis.
+Yet it was his wish;" and she glanced at Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>"Why did we come away?" demanded the child
+passionately. "Oh, Rachel, are you sure father will
+come? It takes so long, so long;" and there were
+tears in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Here we are!" exclaimed Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>There was a white picket fence across the sort of
+courtyard that had a broad paved path leading up
+to the front door, bordered by shrubs that would presently
+be in bloom, and spaces between for smaller<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+plants. This was the delight of Eunice's heart. A
+square but rather ornate porch, with fluted columns,
+supporting the outer edge of the roof, and an elaborately
+carved hall-door with a fanlight overhead. The
+stoop stood up some five steps, and at the sides there
+were benches for out-of-doors comfort on summer
+nights. A brass knocker, with a lion's head, announced
+visitors. Chilian, however, let himself in with
+his latchkey. But both sisters met the party in the
+hall.</p>
+
+<p>"And this is Anthony's little girl!" said Elizabeth.
+"Child, let me look at you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But the child had a perverse fit at that moment and
+turned away her head, to the elder's surprise and almost
+displeasure.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Miss Winn," interrupted Chilian. "My
+household guardians and cousins, Miss Elizabeth and
+Miss Eunice Leverett. I dare say our guests feel
+strange to be on land, after such a long journey."</p>
+
+<p>"It seems almost incredible that one can stand it,
+but we see them starting every few days for distant
+ports. My farthest journey has been to Providence;
+but, land alive! you don't know where that is, and it's
+no great distance. Will you not come and have a cup
+of tea or coffee?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you. We had breakfast not long ago, it
+seems."</p>
+
+<p>"Let me take you to your room," said Eunice.
+"And I hope you will soon feel at home with us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+We are quiet people, but we shall endeavor to make
+you comfortable. Cynthia, will you not shake hands
+with me?"</p>
+
+<p>The soft, rather pleading voice attracted the child.
+She glanced up shyly and then held out a tiny hand
+hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"She is rather backward at first," explained Rachel,
+who followed the hostess up the broad stairway.</p>
+
+<p>One of the guest-chambers had been set aside for
+their use after much discussion as to whether one or
+two would be needed. A smaller one opened into
+this, and a large closet was at the side.</p>
+
+<p>"You can take off your things&mdash;I suppose your
+boxes, or whatever you have, will be here presently.
+The bureau is empty and this chest of drawers. We
+are rather old-fashioned people, and the house is the
+same as it was in the time of Chilian's father. The
+captain made one visit here, when the little girl was
+about four. It must have been hard for him to lose
+his wife in a strange country like that. I suppose there
+are not many Americans?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; there are numbers of Englishwomen, wives of
+soldiers and traders, though I think most of them long
+to get home. They do not seem to take root easily."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't think they would, in that idolatrous
+country. The accounts of heathendom are appalling.
+And that car of Juggernaut, and drowning their poor
+little babies! They do not seem to make much of girl
+children."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, they do not, only as in some families they
+are wanted for wives. But the devotion of mothers
+to their sons is wonderful."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel had laid aside a silk coat that filled Eunice
+with a sort of wonder, being brocaded with beautiful
+leaves and roses that seemed as if they must have been
+worked by hand, they stood out so clearly. The child
+appeared fantastically attired to her plainer eyes, and
+her slim arms were weighted with bracelets. In her
+dainty ears were some splendid sapphires.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope you will soon feel at home," Eunice
+said from a full heart, if there was a rather awkward
+feeling about it. Yet she liked Miss Winn's face. It
+had a kindly and intelligent aspect and was medium in
+all respects. The social lines in the town, indeed in all
+the Eastern towns, were not sharply defined as to mistress
+and maid. True, many households preferred
+black servants; in not a few some elderly relative
+looked after the household, or a bound-out girl was
+trained in industrious ways.</p>
+
+<p>There had been some discussion as to what sphere
+this Miss Winn would occupy. If she was simply the
+attendant on an over-indulged child, an uneducated
+person, as many of the English maids were who came
+over to better their conditions or get husbands, it
+might be rather awkward. But the woman was certainly
+well-bred and used her English in a correct
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps you will get to feeling more at home if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+you come down to the sitting-room, since there is
+nothing to unpack;" with a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia had been looking out of the window.
+"How queer it all is!" she said. "I think I do not
+quite like it. And how funny one feels. I want to go
+this way;" and she swayed from side to side.</p>
+
+<p>"The motion of the vessel," interposed Rachel. "I
+have heard it took days to get over it."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, downstairs Elizabeth had studied her
+Cousin Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>"The child is not at all pretty," she began rather
+sharply. "And her mother was considered a beautiful
+young woman, I believe."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but a long voyage and shipboard living may
+not be conducive to the development of beauty. And
+children seldom are at that age."</p>
+
+<p>"The Goodell children are pretty, I am sure, with
+their fine complexions. And the Bates girls. She has
+a furtive sort of look. Oh, I hope she isn't deceitful
+and untrue. Those heathen nations, I believe, are
+given largely to falsehood, and she has lived among
+them so long without any mother's care. It seems
+as if a pretty girl like Alletta Orne might have found
+some one at home to marry and reared her child in a
+Christian land."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not let us begin by borrowing trouble. It
+always comes fast enough."</p>
+
+<p>"And I can foresee that we shall have plenty of it.
+Well, I suppose it must be endured. There! my bread<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+is light enough to go in the oven&mdash;running over, likely
+as not."</p>
+
+<p>So, when they came downstairs, Miss Elizabeth was
+in the kitchen, immersed in her baking interest.</p>
+
+<p>A large gray cat lay curled up on a cushion. Cynthia
+went straight over to it, but it glanced at her with
+wild eyes, jumped down, and disappeared through the
+doorway.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she exclaimed in accents of disappointment,
+glancing up at Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>"Pussy is not used to children. He always runs
+away from them. But I think he will like you when
+he gets acquainted."</p>
+
+<p>She turned to the window with a swelling heart. It
+seemed so cold and strange. It was better on shipboard,
+she thought. She had come to know the sailors
+quite well and Missy had grown to be a great favorite
+with them. There was always something cheerful
+going on. They sang songs in their loud clear voices,
+or whistled merry tunes. They danced as well. She
+was quite used to the dancing-girls at Calcutta, and
+when they were at Hong Kong or other ports. But
+the Indian girls pleased her best.</p>
+
+<p>The sailors seemed always full of fun, even in the
+worst of times. During some fearful storms she was
+safely housed in the cabin, and it amused her to see the
+things pitch and roll as far as their chains would allow
+them. Sometimes, too, they had to hold the food in
+their hands, but she never knew the danger of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+worst storms. Rachel would not admit that she was
+afraid, and the captain said, "Yes, we're having a stiff
+blow, but the <i>Flying Star</i> has weathered many a gale
+before." And here it was so very quiet. It looked
+dreary outside, with the leafless trees. She liked the
+toss and tumult of the waves with their snowy, jewelled
+crests, and the clouds scudding along the sky,
+which she imagined was another sea full of ships.
+Often they went in port and there was nothing left but
+the blue sky above&mdash;a great hollow vault. And when
+the sun shone the real sea and ocean was in flames of
+such splendid colors. There was no end of curious
+people at ports where they stopped for supplies, there
+was always something strange, even when they were
+days alone on the water. For the sunset and sunrise
+were never twice alike. Then the moon from its tiny
+crescent to the great round globe that illumined the
+world with her fairy richness and scattered jewels on
+every crested wave. She had watched it turn the other
+way and grow smaller and smaller until you saw it
+vaguely in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>She was so interested in the stories they told about
+it, the signs and wonders they ascribed to it.</p>
+
+<p>"And was it ever a real world like that we have left
+behind?" she asked of the captain. "Were there people
+in it? And land, and rivers, and growing things,
+and flowers?" and her wondering eyes grew larger.</p>
+
+<p>"No one can tell now. Some astronomers believe
+it a burned-out world and the things we take for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+man," laughing, "and the cow ready to jump off, are
+remnants of roads, and forests, and mountains."</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>can</i> see the man in the moon," she returned
+decisively. "Sometimes he laughs. And the cow has
+great horns. I should be afraid of them if I met such
+a cow. Ours are so small and tame."</p>
+
+<p>"You will see large ones in Salem. But I think,
+for the most part, they are gentle."</p>
+
+<p>She never wearied talking over the strange things.
+And so she came to have her head filled with wonderful
+lore that indeed cropped out now and then all her
+life long until she felt as if she had really been in
+fairyland.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed stranger here than on shipboard. The
+others were going through the ceremony of getting
+acquainted. Rachel Winn's voice had a soft sound,
+with an almost foreign accent. Eunice's, though
+low-pitched, had a clear resonance. Now and then
+Chilian Leverett made a comment, or asked a question,
+but she was not heeding them. Her heart and
+mind had wandered back to her father and that wonderful
+land where nothing ever seemed bleak, though
+in long hot droughts it was arid. But there were always
+temples, and palaces, and picturesque huts, and
+women and children in gay attire, old men kneeling
+somewhere, praying but keeping a sharp lookout for
+alms.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian Leverett had been watching the small face
+and wondering at the changes passing over it. Now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+he saw some tears slowly coursing down the pale
+cheeks, and his heart was moved with infinite pity.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a robin alighted on the limb of a tree and
+began picking at the buds. Then he held his head up
+straight, swelled out his brownish red breast, and
+poured forth such a volume of melody that the effort
+fairly made him dance with joy. Spring had surely
+come! It was the time of love and joy, and all things
+made over new.</p>
+
+<p>She turned a trifle. Her face was transfigured with
+delight. Her eyes shone, though the tears were still
+wet on her cheek.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>A STRANGER, YET AT HOME</h3>
+
+
+<p>Rachel Winn settled herself to the new order of
+things more readily than the Leveretts. Or rather
+she seemed to take the lead in arrangements for herself
+and her charge. She was after all a sort of nurse
+and waiting-maid, though she had a fine dignity about
+it that even Elizabeth could not gainsay. She was to
+be one of the family, there could be no objection to
+that in the simple New England living. Though it
+was true, times were changing greatly since the days
+of war and privation, and perhaps the mingling of
+people from other states, the growing responsibility
+of being part of a great commonwealth. Servants
+were being relegated to a different position. Boston
+in a certain fashion set the pace, though Salem held
+up her head proudly. Were not her seaports the busy
+mart of the Eastern shore? Stores of finery, silks
+and laces, and marvellous Indian embroidery went
+down to Boston and the houses were enriched with
+choice china that in the next hundred years was
+to be handed down as heirlooms. Fine houses were
+being built, choice woods came from southern ports
+by vessels that believed they could find fortunes nearer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+home than China or India. But they could grow no
+spices, or coffees, or teas, and they must come from
+the Orient. No looms could turn out such exquisite
+fabrics as yet, though housewives were to be proud of
+their home-made drapery for a generation or two.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian spent a large part of that first night inspecting
+his box of papers. There was a journal-like
+letter in which Anthony Leverett had jotted down
+many things he hardly dared say in his letter; indeed,
+there was not sufficient space. As soon as he had
+learned the serious nature of his disease, he had begun
+to put his house in order and consider the future welfare
+of his child. Some lines touched Chilian deeply,
+the trust and dependence he was not at all sure he
+could fulfil, but he felt he <i>must</i> rouse himself to the
+earnest endeavor. The father had a passionate love
+for his child, he was making a fortune for her, counting
+the years when he should return and have a home
+of his own, when Cynthia would grow up and marry
+and there would be grandchildren to climb his knees.
+India was no place for a woman child to grow up in,
+there were no chances for education or accomplishment,
+and next to no society. After all there was not,
+and never would be, such a country as the new world
+that had struggled so long and bravely for her independence,
+and now had only to go on developing her
+grand theories. Crowned heads might look on doubtingly,
+but the foundation had been laid in justice and
+truth and equality of right. It quite thrilled him that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+this man, amassing money in a far-away land, could see
+so clearly and have no doubts about its future greatness.</p>
+
+<p>To Captain Corwin, his good, trusty friend, he had
+willed half the value of the <i>Flying Star</i>. The money
+from his part was to be invested, as the payments came
+in, in real estate in Salem, which was to be the shipping
+mart of the New England coast, at least, and run a
+race with New York, he thought. So with the stations
+at Calcutta and Hong Kong in the hands of the
+Bannings. And there were treasures that would answer
+for a wedding dowry when the time came. If
+possible, he would like Rachel Winn retained; he had
+the highest confidence in her, and she had no relatives
+to call her back to England. He had given her much
+of the family history, and described the town and the
+people, so that it would not seem so new and strange
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>He was not asking all this as a favor. Chilian was
+touched by the provision made for himself, which it
+would be quite impossible to decline, he saw. True it
+would break in upon his leisurely, student life, yet he
+felt he could not in honor refuse to accept the trust.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel Winn studied the arrangements of the rooms
+at their disposal. Her young mistress was not a child
+taken out of benevolence or relationship. She must
+have her standing from the very beginning, and she
+fancied Elizabeth was inclined to consider her a sort
+of interloper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If it makes no difference, I will take the small
+room," she announced to her. "There are some pieces
+of furniture on the vessel that Captain Leverett particularly
+wished her to keep, and as she grows older
+she will cherish them&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"That great room for such a child!" In her
+amazement, Elizabeth spoke without thought. She
+was not used to seeing children set in the very forefront.
+In her day, indeed, yet in some families the large
+open garret was considered the place for children.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, she was used to it at home&mdash;over there,
+I mean;" with a nod of the head. "Her father's
+room was one side, mine on the other. Of course,
+in a way I shall share it with her. I will keep it in
+order and look after her clothes, and sew for her. But
+I prefer the smaller one."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth was aghast. One of the best spare chambers,
+with the furnishings that had come from England
+a hundred years before. On the other side she and
+Eunice shared a plainly appointed room with some of
+their very own belongings. There was still another,
+but the closet was small. She had asked Chilian
+where they should be placed and he had chosen this.
+It was his house, of course&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Whether it would have ended in a discussion could
+not to be told, for at that moment a dray drove up
+with some boxes and a piece of furniture so wrapped
+and protected that it was quite impossible to guess at
+its name.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Chilian came out and ran lightly down the stairs;
+and then called Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Where had the boxes better go? They will have
+to be unpacked, I suppose;" helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>"There are more to come," announced the man.
+"Enough to set up housekeeping, if the right sort of
+things are in them;" and he gave a short laugh.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn came downstairs. "Isn't there a garret
+to the house?" she asked, looking from one to the
+other. "I packed them up, but I can hardly tell&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; we could store half the vessel's contents in it.
+Well, not exactly that. A ship's hold is a capacious
+place. Yes, the boxes might go there. Have you any
+idea what this is?"</p>
+
+<p>"A sort of desk and bookcase. A very handsome
+thing the captain set great store by."</p>
+
+<p>The men shouldered the boxes and Elizabeth convoyed
+them. Silas was spading up the garden and
+came at the call.</p>
+
+<p>It was a work of some labor to get the article out
+of its secure casings. It disclosed a very handsome
+piece of furniture in the escritoire style, carved and
+inlaid not only with beautiful woods, but much silver.
+Chilian surveyed it with admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"That must stand in the parlor," he decided. "But
+some one must come and help. I'm afraid I am not
+sufficiently robust. Silas, see if you can't find the Uphams'
+man. He was working there a short time ago."</p>
+
+<p>"If there's more to come, it is hardly worth while<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+to clear up," began Elizabeth. "I hope it will soon
+follow."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian directed the two men, who found it still
+quite a burthen. Elizabeth opened the parlor shutter
+unwillingly, and the men set it in the middle of the
+floor.</p>
+
+<p>There were two large rooms held almost sacred by
+both sisters. They were separated by an archway, apparently
+upheld on each end by a fluted column. Both
+rooms had a wide chimney-piece, the mantel and its
+supports elaborately carved and painted white. Two
+windows were in each end, draped with soft crimson
+curtains. The floor was polished, with a rug laid
+down in the centre. It was furnished in a manner that
+would have delighted a connoisseur, but Elizabeth did
+not admire the conglomeration. They were family
+relics and seemed to have little relation with one
+another, yet they were harmonious. There was a thin-legged
+<ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'spinnet'">spinet</ins>, with a Latin legend running across the
+front of the cover, which was always down. The
+chairs were not made for lounging, that was plain;
+and the sofa, with its rolling ends and claw feet, had
+been polished until the haircloth looked like satin. A
+dead and gone Leverett bride had imported that from
+London.</p>
+
+<p>When the East Indian article had been consigned to
+an appropriate space, it looked as much at home as if
+it had lived there half a century. Then the parlor was
+shut up again, the mat in the hall shaken out, the front<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+door bolted. Miss Winn had asked for a hammer and
+chisel that she might open one of the boxes.</p>
+
+<p>"Take Silas. That is a man's work," said Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was in the sitting-room, where it was still
+chilly enough to have a fire. Eunice was knotting
+fringe for a bedspread, and it interested the child wonderfully.
+She was not a little shocked to find a child
+of nine knew nothing about sewing, had never hemmed
+ruffles, nor done overseam, or knit, or it seemed anything
+useful.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, when I was a little girl of your age I could
+spin in the little wheel."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you spin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, thread, of course, linen thread made from
+flax."</p>
+
+<p>"Were you a truly little girl?" in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, child, don't you know anything?" Then
+Miss Eunice laughed softly and patted the small
+shoulder, looking kindly into the wondering eyes.
+There was no hurt in her tone and the words rather
+amused.</p>
+
+<p>"I know a great many things. I can read some
+Latin, and I know about Greece and its splendid
+heroes who conquered a good deal of the world.
+There was Alexander the Great and Philip of Macedon.
+And Tamerlane, who conquered nearly all Asia.
+And&mdash;and Confucius, the great man of China, who
+was a wise philosopher, and wrote a bible&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; not a bible!" interrupted Miss Eunice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+horrified. "There is only one Bible, my dear, and
+that is the Word of God."</p>
+
+<p>"But the other is the bible of the Chinese, and some
+of them believe Confucius was a god."</p>
+
+<p>"That is quite impossible, my dear;" in a rather
+decisive, but still gentle tone.</p>
+
+<p>"And there is Brahma, and Vishnu, and there are
+ever so many gods in India. The people pray to them.
+And temples. When they want anything very much,
+they go and pray for it. There was a woman whose
+little son was very ill, and if he lived he was going to
+be a great prince, or something, and she gathered up
+her precious stones and her necklace and took them to
+the temple for the god. Father sent an English doctor,
+but they wouldn't let him see the little boy. He
+was so pretty, too. I used to see him in the court."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he live?" Miss Eunice asked, much interested.</p>
+
+<p>"No; he didn't. And the father beat her for losing
+the jewels."</p>
+
+<p>"You see, those gods have no power."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever pray for anything you wanted very
+much?"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia's bright eyes studied the placid face before
+her.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," the lips murmured faintly.</p>
+
+<p>"And did you get it?"</p>
+
+<p>A flush stole over the puzzled countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, God doesn't see as we do. And He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+knows what is best for us, and gives us that. Maybe
+our prayer wasn't right."</p>
+
+<p>"How can you tell when a prayer is right or
+wrong?" inquired the young theologian.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you have to leave that to God;" in a low,
+resigned tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't want to come here. I wanted to stay with
+father. I didn't know there was any one beside, and
+I do not believe any one will ever love me so well. But
+he promised to come when the business was all done.
+So I prayed to the God of father's Bible, and I went
+to the temple with Nalla and put down a half-crown&mdash;it
+was all the money I had. But"&mdash;her eyes filled
+with tears and her voice had a break in it&mdash;"father
+begged so, and I came. But if Captain Corwin does
+not bring him next time I shall go back. I can't live
+without him."</p>
+
+<p>The mild blue eyes of Miss Eunice filled with tears
+as well. She was not sure this had been the wisest
+course. The absolute truth was always best. But she
+temporized also in a vague fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; you can tell then. And you may come to
+like us so well you may stay content."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if he comes! Then it will be all right. And
+you think I ought to pray for that?"</p>
+
+<p>It was a cruel strait for Miss Eunice and staggered
+her faith. She was not to lead astray or harm "one
+of the least of these." But the child <i>was</i> a heathen
+with no real knowledge of the true God. Like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+vision almost, Miss Eunice looked back at her own
+childhood, and the awful, overshadowing power she
+believed was God, who wrote down every wicked
+thought and wrong deed, and would confront her
+with them at the Judgment Day. She prayed nightly,
+often in the night, when she woke up, and she was no
+surer of God's love than this little heathen child.</p>
+
+<p>"It is right to pray for the things we want, but to be
+resigned if God doesn't see fit to give them to us."</p>
+
+<p>"Then the prayers are thrown away. And do you
+know just what God is?"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear!" in a shocked tone, "no one can tell.
+It is one of the mysteries to be revealed when we see
+Him as He truly is at the last day. A little girl cannot
+understand it. I do not, and I have sought the
+truth many years. Now I am trusting, because I
+feel assured He will do what is right. Tell me something
+about your life with your father."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, things were so different there. Houses, and
+there were always servants, so you didn't ever need
+to fan yourself. Babo and Nalla were always about.
+Babo used to take me out in a chair that had curtains
+around and a big umbrella overhead. Sometimes
+Chandra went with him. And the streets were funny
+and crooked, and houses set anywhere in them. I
+liked going up in the mountains best, it wasn't so hot.
+And the trees were splendid, and beautiful vines and
+flowers of all sorts. Mrs. Dallas went the last time.
+She had two girls and a big boy. I did not like him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+He would pinch my arms and then say he didn't. I
+liked the girls, one was larger than I. And we swung
+in the hammocks the vines made. Only I was afraid
+of the snakes, and there are so many everywhere.
+Alfred liked to kill them."</p>
+
+<p>She shuddered a little and glanced about the room
+with dilated eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"They come into your houses sometimes. Nalla
+used to catch them and sling them hard on the ground,
+and that stunned them. And we used to make wreaths
+of the beautiful flowers. Agnes Dallas knew so many
+stories about fairies, little people who come out at
+night, when the moon shines, and dance round in
+rings. They slip in houses, and the nice ones do some
+work, but the wicked ones sour the milk, and spoil the
+bread, and hide things. And, sometimes, they change
+children into a cat, or a rabbit, or something, and it
+is seven years before you can get your own shape
+again. Do you have them here?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is no such thing. That is all falsehood,"
+was the decisive comment.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;Agnes knew of their coming. And she had
+seen them dancing on the grass. But if you speak or
+go near them, they disappear."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn came out to the sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you are here," she said. "I thought you were
+out of doors. You ought to take a run. What a
+wonderful garret you have upstairs, Miss Eunice.
+But I am afraid we shall fill it up sadly. There were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+so many things to bring. I do not believe we shall
+find use for half of them. I want a few mouthfuls of
+fresh air. I suppose I can walk up the street without
+danger of getting lost if I turn square around when I
+return? Don't you want to come, Cynthia?"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was ready.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better wrap up warm. It gets chilly
+towards night."</p>
+
+<p>"It was a long stretch on shipboard. We stopped
+at several ports, however. But I am glad to be on
+solid ground. Come, child."</p>
+
+<p>She had brought down a wrap and hood. Cynthia
+was glad of something new, though she liked Miss
+Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>They turned a rather rounding corner and went
+on to a sort of market-place, where sweepers were
+gathering up the d&eacute;bris after the day's sales. They
+glanced about the city. Salem had made rapid strides
+since the grand declaration of peace, but at the end of
+the century it was far from the grandeur the next
+twenty years would give it.</p>
+
+<p>"There are no palaces and no temples," said Cynthia,
+rather complainingly. "And how white all the
+people are. Do you suppose they have been ill?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; they have been housed up during the
+winter, and the climate is cold. And, you know, they
+are of a different race. This part, New England, was
+settled mostly from old England."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you going to like it, Rachel?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;I don't quite know. You can't tell at once
+about a strange place."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Eunice is nice. But she has some queer
+ideas."</p>
+
+<p>"Or is it a little girl, named Cynthia Leverett, who
+has queer ideas that she has brought largely from a
+far-off country?"</p>
+
+<p>The child laughed. Then she saw some girls and
+boys playing tag in the street, laughing and squealing
+when they were caught, or when they narrowly missed.
+And some empty carts went rattling by, with now and
+then a stately coach, or a man on horseback, attired in
+the fashion of the times. The sun suddenly dropped
+down.</p>
+
+<p>"We had better turn about," declared Miss Winn.
+"It will not do to be late for supper."</p>
+
+<p>The walk had not been straight, but her gift of
+locality was good. They passed the market-place
+again, made the winding turn, and found the lighted
+lamps gave the house a cheerful aspect.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Eunice had put away her knotting and begun
+to lay the cloth when Elizabeth entered, her face
+clouded over.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure I don't see why Providence should send
+this avalanche upon us to destroy our peace and comfort,"
+she began almost angrily. "The Thatchers'
+visit was pleasant, though that made a sight of clearing
+up afterward. And we had hardly gotten over
+that when this must happen. I was going to put that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+white quilt in the frame, but the garret will be turned
+upside down for no one knows how long! Such a
+mess of stuff, and more coming. There's enough in
+this house without any more being added to it."</p>
+
+<p>"But it was natural Captain Anthony should want
+his child to have something belonging to him, maybe
+her mother, too. And goodness knows there's room
+enough in the garret. It isn't half full with his traps,
+and there's some of ours. And there's the loft over
+the kitchen."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we want some place to dry clothes in rainy
+weather. And when I sweep I want to move things
+about, not sweep just in front of them, and have the
+dust settle in rows behind. Chilian didn't know what
+a lot there would be, though he might have looked it
+over on the ship. When it is all through, the house
+will need a thorough cleaning again. And what <i>do</i>
+you think, Eunice! She's going to put the child in
+that big bed and she sleep in the little one! The best
+room in the house! I'm sorry they have it."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice was roused a little.</p>
+
+<p>"That doesn't seem the proper thing. But maybe
+she thought&mdash;I do suppose the child has had the best
+of everything."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe in pampering children. And I
+don't altogether like the woman. I do wonder if we
+will have to keep her. A girl of nine is old enough
+to look after herself, and begin to keep her own
+clothes and her room in order."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It's been very different out in India. And I do
+suppose Anthony was over-indulgent, she having no
+mother to train her."</p>
+
+<p>"We'll have our hands full, Eunice, when the tussle
+really begins."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do not think she will be hard to manage.
+She seems rather shy&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Those eyes of hers ain't so deep for nothing. She
+hasn't the Leverett mouth, and those full lips are wilful
+and saucy, generally speaking. Letty Orne was
+a pretty girl, as I remember. Strange, now, when you
+come to think of it, that the child should have been
+born in this house. But she'll never have any beauty
+to spare, that's certain. For the land sakes, Eunice,
+look at the time and you dawdling over the table.
+I'm tired as a dog after a long race."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth dropped into a chair. In her secret heart
+Eunice knew that when her sister was tired out she
+was fractious; she loved her too well to say cross
+words.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we have fish or cold meat?" she asked
+mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't care! Well, fish. There will be meat
+enough for to-morrow's dinner if it isn't meddled
+with."</p>
+
+<p>The fish was salted down in the season, soaked a
+little, laid in spiced vinegar for a few hours, cut in
+thin slices, and was very appetizing. Eunice went
+about with no useless flutter, she stepped lightly and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+never made any clatter with dishes. The tea china,
+thin and lovely, the piles of white bread and brown,
+molasses gingerbread and frosted sugar cake, stewed
+dried fruit and rich preserves, made an inviting-looking
+table. Chilian came in and made himself neat, as
+usual, then the guests.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was very quiet. Twice Miss Winn answered
+a question for her. She scarcely ate anything.
+Then she said wearily:</p>
+
+<p>"I am so tired and sleepy. Can't I go to bed?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>UNWELCOME</h3>
+
+
+<p>Miss Winn and her charge went down to the ship the
+next morning with Chilian Leverett. Elizabeth inspected
+the rooms. She was not meddlesome, nor
+over-curious generally, but with a feeling of possessorship
+and responsibility in the house, she wanted to
+know how far she could trust the newcomers. The
+beds were well made, but closets and drawers were
+rather awry. She did begrudge the best chamber,
+and wondered whether it would not be possible to
+change them about presently. True, they seldom had
+guests.</p>
+
+<p>Then a new load of boxes came, with two trunks,
+and several more pieces of furniture. The latter were
+left standing in the hall. The garret had been a sort
+of fetich with Elizabeth. There were dried herbs
+hanging to the rafters in their muslin bags, so as not
+to make a litter and mostly for the fragrance. There
+was not a cobweb anywhere. On one side of the sloping
+roof were ranged their own trunks and chests, two
+of cedar, in which woollen clothes and blankets passed
+the summer, securely hidden from moths. In one
+gable were miscellaneous household articles, a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+chairs good enough to be repaired, a more than
+century-old cherry table, spinning-wheels, a bedstead
+piled high with a feather bed, and numberless pillows,
+for Elizabeth thought it her duty to make a new pair
+every year, as they kept a flock of geese that spent
+their days in a small cove on South River.</p>
+
+<p>The interloper boxes could make a row down the
+cleared side. That left the centre, the highest part,
+clear for drying clothes, which probably would not be
+needed until winter. But careful Elizabeth planned
+ahead for every emergency. True, the emergency did
+not always fit the plans, but it gave her tense spirit a
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>The Salem air was fragrant, with all manner of
+sweet springtime odors&mdash;the ship was not. Things
+that had been stored in the hold came up with a certain
+old smell and a little mustiness. First, Cynthia held
+her nose and made a wry face. But it was delightful
+to run about and exchange greetings with the sailors,
+who seemed merry enough over their work.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, missy," said the captain, catching her in his
+arms as she ran, "how do you like living on dry land?
+You haven't lost your sea legs yet, that's plain."</p>
+
+<p>"It's very queer. There are just tiny leaves coming
+out on the trees, and a few curious white flowers, little
+bells, coming up in the garden, and crocus in pretty
+colors. But I don't like it very much. Miss Eunice is
+nice and has such a soft voice. And the houses are so
+funny and shut up, and there are no servants about,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+nor any one praying on the corners and holding out a
+basin for rice; and no piles of fruit for sale."</p>
+
+<p>"No; this isn't the time of year for fruit;" and
+there was a funny twinkle in the captain's eye. "Just
+wait until August and September."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia considered. "That is three and four
+months away. Father will be here then;" with a
+child's confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"And there are berries earlier, and cherries, and
+then some sugar pears. Oh, you will be feasted. And
+you'll like Cousin Leverett, when you come to get acquainted
+with him. You will go to school, too, and
+know lots of little girls. You won't want to go back
+to India."</p>
+
+<p>"Unless father shouldn't come. Oh, he surely will,
+because, you see, I'm praying ever so many times a
+day."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right;" with a cheerful nod.</p>
+
+<p>"When are you going back?"</p>
+
+<p>"In about a month, I calculate."</p>
+
+<p>She sighed and looked out over the great stretch of
+waters. "What is that long point down there?" she
+asked suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"That's Salem Neck, and there is Winter Island.
+They are always building ships down there and turn
+out some mighty fine ones. And fishing; there's a
+sight of cod, and haddock, and mackerel, and all the
+other fish in season. They salt them and take them
+half over the world. And there's a rope-walk you'd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+enjoy seeing, leastways you would if you were a boy.
+And there are some stores. We have lots of goods
+consigned to the Merrits. Salem's a big place, now I
+tell you!"</p>
+
+<p>"Bigger than Calcutta?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sho' now! Calcutta can't hold a candle to it."</p>
+
+<p>The captain's cabin was being dismantled for repairs
+and cleaning. She glanced in it. How many
+days she had spent here! Everything was in disorder,
+yet there was a certain home remembrance that
+touched the child's heart, and brought tears to her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, are you here?" It was Chilian Leverett's
+voice, and he held out his hand. She looked so bright
+now and there was a little color in her cheeks, an
+eager interest about her. He was afraid she was
+going to be a rather dull child.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it's almost like home, you know; only when
+we lived here it wasn't so topsy-turvy."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you feel queer when you woke up this morning?"
+thinking it his duty to smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I didn't know where I was. It seemed as if
+I was being smothered in something. And it didn't toss
+and rock. Oh, there were some birds singing." She
+laughed gleefully. "Then I saw Rachel, and it came
+to me in little bits, but it seems such a long, long
+while since yesterday morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Miss Winn? I want to see her a
+moment."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She has been looking over some things as they
+came up from the hold," said the captain. "Oh, here
+she is!"</p>
+
+<p>Chilian took her aside for a moment. It was necessary
+for him to go in to Boston and he wanted to
+make a few suggestions, so that any of Elizabeth's
+strictures might not offend. He began to perceive the
+child and her attendant were not exactly welcome
+guests.</p>
+
+<p>"How long do you suppose she will stay?" Elizabeth
+had asked of him rather sharply. "For, when we
+are once settled, I do not think there will be any real
+necessity for keeping Miss Winn."</p>
+
+<p>She had been considering it at intervals through
+the night, and was impatient for what she called an
+understanding.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian had often given in to her on points that did
+not really affect him. He hated to bicker with any
+one, especially women.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Elizabeth," he began, "the child has been
+consigned to my charge until she comes of age. I
+should not have chosen the guardianship, but it seems
+there is no other relative who can attend to all matters
+as well. She is to be no dependent, only for whatever
+love we choose to give her. Anthony has made an
+ample allowance for her, indeed such a generous one
+that it irks me to accept it. If it makes too much
+work for you and Eunice, we will have some help.
+Miss Winn is to look after her, that was her father's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+wish; so there will be no change. Of course, it alters
+our quiet mode of living, but perhaps we were getting
+in too much of a rut and needed some shaking up;"
+smiling gravely. "Try and make it as comfortable
+for them as you can. There is plenty of room in the
+house for us all."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was nothing before them but acceptance.
+In a way she had known it, but there was a vague idea
+seething in her mind that if the maid could be dismissed,
+she and her sister could train the child in a
+better manner, and instil some Salem virtues in her
+that yet held a little of the old Puritanic leaven; like
+industry, economy, forethought. She still believed in
+the strait and narrow pathway.</p>
+
+<p>That Chilian should take the matter so philosophically
+<i>did</i> surprise her. To him there seemed something
+so pitiful in the hope held out to the little girl,
+yet after all could it have been managed any more
+wisely? She would not know what the acute pang
+of death was. And her longing would become less,
+there would be a vagueness in her sorrow that would
+help to heal it. This would be her home. He had
+been living all these years for himself, was it not time
+that he espoused some other motive? That he began
+to be of real service?</p>
+
+<p>He finished his talk with Miss Winn. Cynthia
+was hopping over some coils of cable, and
+he watched her agile, graceful movements, half
+smiling.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Come and tell me good-bye," he said, holding out
+his hand. "I am going in to Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"In a vessel?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; though I suppose that would be possible. I
+am late for the stage, and must go on horseback."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Boston?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, some eighteen miles&mdash;rather southerly. It is
+a big city, and the capital."</p>
+
+<p>"When are you coming back?" with a daintily anxious
+air.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, by supper-time."</p>
+
+<p>"Well;" nodding.</p>
+
+<p>"What shall I bring you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing at all. We have twice too much now,
+Rachel says. Only&mdash;be sure to come back."</p>
+
+<p>"If I did not, what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"If you did not come back, I should go to India
+with Captain Corwin. I like Miss Eunice a little, but
+your other lady doesn't want me," she replied with a
+frankness that was amusing, it was so free from
+malice.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye until to-night, then."</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand in his. Then she reached up tiptoe.
+"Kiss me," she said. "Father always did and
+he said, 'Be a good girl.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Be a good girl." Chilian kissed the soft red lips
+and then went his way. There was not much caressing
+in the restrained New England nature of that day,
+especially among those who had grown up with few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
+family ties. His mother had died while he was yet
+quite a boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go back now," said Rachel presently. "I
+believe I have found all our goods. Miss Leverett will
+be appalled."</p>
+
+<p>The child repeated the word. "What does it
+mean?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Astonished, surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, <i>they</i> have a houseful of things;" in protest.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is the less room for ours."</p>
+
+<p>"But there is ever so much room in the garret."</p>
+
+<p>"I almost wish we were going to live by ourselves
+in a little house, like some we saw yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"Who would cook the dinner and wash the
+dishes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I could;" laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"Only us two? It would be lonesome."</p>
+
+<p>"We are not likely to."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go straight home. Let us find the market
+again. I didn't half see it last night."</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't night exactly. Yes&mdash;we must learn to
+find our way about, for we cannot stay in all the time.
+This is Essex Street. Let us turn here."</p>
+
+<p>The market was in its glory this morning. The
+stalls were ornamented with branches of evergreens,
+the floors sifted over with sawdust. There were vegetables
+and meats, but no great variety. There was
+no sunny south, no swift train to send in delicious
+luxuries. The cold storage of that day was being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+buried in pits and being brought out to light as occasion
+required.</p>
+
+<p>There were other stalls, with various household
+stores. Iron-holders, tin kettles, whiskbrooms, pins
+(which were quite a luxury), crockery ware even.
+Wagons had come in from country places and customers
+were thronging about them.</p>
+
+<p>The people interested Miss Winn, and the chaffering,
+the beating down in prices, was quite amusing.
+Here a woman was measuring some cotton goods from
+her chin to the ends of her fingers; here sat a cobbler
+doing odd jobs while some one waited. Altogether it
+was very entertaining, and it was dinner-time when
+they reached home.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Leverett has gone to Boston," announced
+Miss Leverett. "We must have our dinner without
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he was down on the ship," said Miss Winn.
+"Do you often go to Boston?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am much too busy to be gadding about," returned
+Elizabeth sharply; "though we have connections
+there, and I once spent several years in the
+city."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose it is at all like London. Eastern
+cities are so different&mdash;and dirty," she added.</p>
+
+<p>"Boston is very nice, quite a superior place, but we
+do not consider it much above Salem," Miss Elizabeth
+said, with an air. "We have nearly all of the East
+India trade. To be sure, there is Harvard at Cam<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>bridge,
+and that calls students and professors. Cousin
+Chilian is a graduate. He could have been an accepted
+professor if he had chosen."</p>
+
+<p>Then the conversation languished. They were
+hardly through dinner when the next relay of goods
+arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia's desk must go upstairs, I suppose. Her
+father had it made for her birthday. Will Silas unpack
+again? There is a small cabinet of teakwood
+that is beautifully carved. If you could find room in
+the parlor for that. There were many other fine pieces
+that will no doubt be sold, and it seems a great pity."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth acquiesced rather frigidly, adding, "It is
+fortunate the house is large, but one seems to accumulate
+a good deal through generations."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia went up in the garret with Miss Winn and
+was full of interest over the old Leverett treasures.
+Here was the cradle in which Leverett babies had been
+rocked, an old bit of mahogany nearly black with age.</p>
+
+<p>"How funny!" cried Cynthia, springing into it,
+and making a clatter on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, dear! Miss Elizabeth may not like it,"
+said Miss Winn.</p>
+
+<p>"As if I should hurt it!" indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"It is not ours."</p>
+
+<p>"But we sit on their chairs, and sleep in their beds,
+and eat at their table," returned the child. "Do you
+suppose they do not want us?"</p>
+
+<p>"Our coming is Mr. Leverett's affair, and he is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+your guardian, so whatever home he provides is
+right."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we can have a home of our own when
+father comes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; when he comes."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then I shall not mind;" decisively.</p>
+
+<p>Still she peered about among the old things. There
+were some iron fire-dogs, a much-tarnished frame,
+with a cracked glass that cut her face in a grotesque
+fashion, old dishes and kitchen furniture past using,
+or that had been supplanted by a newer and better
+kind.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear! this is an undertaking!" declared Miss
+Winn, with a sigh. "I do not believe you will ever
+use half these things; there are stuffs enough to dress
+a queen."</p>
+
+<p>It was beginning to grow dusky before she was
+through, though the sky was overcast, and there would
+be no fine sunset. Indeed, the wind blew up stormily.
+Cynthia had been viewing the place from the windows
+in the four gables, though she had to stand on a box.
+There were South River and the Neck and the shipping&mdash;the
+men, hurrying to and fro, looking so much
+smaller that it puzzled Cynthia. And there was North
+River winding about, and over beyond the great ocean
+she had crossed. There was old St. Peter's Church,
+the new one was not built until long afterward, and
+smaller places of worship. There was the small beginning
+of things to be famous later on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The wind began to whistle about and it grew
+cool, so they were glad to go down to the cheerful
+sitting-room, where a fire was blazing on the
+hearth.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall have a storm to-night," said Miss Eunice,
+"our three days' storm that usually makes its
+appearance about this time. Didn't you 'most perish
+upstairs? And what did you find to interest you?"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia had brought a stool and sat close to Miss
+Eunice, leaning one arm on her knee.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, so many queer things. You don't mind if I
+call them queer, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; they <i>are</i> queer. And when we are dead
+and gone some one will call ours queer, no doubt.
+But we haven't many. When father died we were
+on a farm just out of Marblehead. Things were
+mostly sold at a vendue, for the two boys were going
+in the army. That was back in '78. Mother and we
+two girls went to her mother's at Danvers. Elizabeth
+took up sewing, but there were hard times, for
+the war stretched out so long, and it did seem as if the
+Colonies would never gain their cause. But they did.
+Brother Linus was killed, and later on I had a dear
+friend lost at sea. Mother died, and we were sort of
+scattered about till we came here. Cousin Chilian was
+very good to us. So you see we haven't much to leave,
+but then we haven't any descendant;" and she gave
+a soft little laugh. "Elizabeth has mother's gold
+comb, set with amethysts, and a brooch, and I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+the string of gold beads and some rings. A cousin in
+London sent them to grandmother."</p>
+
+<p>"Eunice, you might set the table," said Elizabeth,
+rather sharply. "I'm making some fritters. They
+will taste good this cold night."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't I help?" asked Rachel.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you must be tired enough without doing any
+more. It's a good thing you have all your belongings
+housed. The garret doesn't leak."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am thankful. I really did not think there
+was so much."</p>
+
+<p>There was a savory fragrance in the sitting-room.
+Chilian came in, looking weary with his long ride.</p>
+
+<p>"It is almost wintry cold," he said, holding his
+hands to the fire. "Have you had a nice day, little
+girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes;" glancing up with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>They did justice to Bessy's nice supper. Chilian
+had seen Cousin Giles, who sent remembrances to
+them all, and was coming up some day to see Letty
+Orne's little girl. Chilian found there was a good deal
+of business to do. For a while his days of leisure and
+ease would be over.</p>
+
+<p>Then he brought out a Boston paper and read them
+some of the news. Miss Eunice went on with her
+fringe. Elizabeth was knitting a sock for Chilian out
+of fine linen yarn, spun by herself, and she put pretty
+open-work stitches all up the instep. For imported
+articles were still dear, and there was a pride in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+women to do all for themselves that they could.
+Cynthia leaned her head on Rachel's lap and went
+asleep.</p>
+
+<p>"Do hear that rain! The storm has begun in good
+earnest."</p>
+
+<p>It was rushing like a tramp of soldiers, flinging
+great sheets against the closed shutters, and the wind
+roared in the chimney like some prisoned spirit.</p>
+
+<p>"Wake up, Cynthia, and say good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth watched the child. Her theory was that
+children should be put to bed early and not allowed
+to lie around on any one's lap. There was always a
+tussle of wills when you roused them. She drew herself
+up with a kind of severe mental bracing and
+awaited the result, glad Chilian was there.</p>
+
+<p>Rachel toyed with the hair, patted the soft flushed
+cheek, and took the hands in hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia," she said gently, "Cynthia, dear, wake
+up."</p>
+
+<p>The child roused, opened her eyes. "I'm so tired,"
+she murmured. "Will we never be done crossing the
+wide, wide ocean? And where is Salem?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are there, dear, safe and housed from the
+storm. You have been asleep on my knee. Come to
+bed now. Say good-night."</p>
+
+<p>She stood the little girl up on her feet and put one
+arm around her.</p>
+
+<p>It was against Elizabeth Leverett's theories that any
+child should go off peaceably, with no snarling protest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+Chilian raised his book a little, hoping in the depths
+of his soul there would be no scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Say good-night."</p>
+
+<p>No child of Puritan training, with the fear of the
+rod before her eyes, could have done better. She
+said good-night in a very sleepy tone, and slipped
+her arm about Rachel's waist as they left the room
+together.</p>
+
+<p>No one made any comment at first. Then Eunice
+said, in what she made a casual tone:</p>
+
+<p>"She seems a very tractable child."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't tell by one instance. Children of that
+age are always self-willed. And allowing a child to
+lie around one's lap, when she should have said her
+prayers and gone to bed at the proper hour, is a most
+reprehensible habit. And I don't suppose she ever
+says a prayer."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice thought of the daily prayers for her father's
+safe journey. Would that be set down as a sort of
+idolatry?</p>
+
+<p>Chilian picked up his papers; he had grown fastidious,
+and rarely left his belongings about to annoy
+Elizabeth. Eunice rolled up her work and dropped it
+in the bag that hung on the post of her chair, straightened
+up a few things, stood the logs in the corner and
+put up the wire fender, so there should be no danger
+of fire; while Elizabeth set all things straight in the
+kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia meanwhile was undressed and mounted the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+steps to the high bed. Then she flung her arms about
+Rachel's neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come and sleep in my bed to-night!" she
+cried pleadingly. "It's so big and lonesome, that I am
+afraid. I wish it was like your little bed. They were
+so cunning on the ship. I don't like this one, where
+you have to go upstairs to get in it. Oh, do come!"</p>
+
+<p>And Elizabeth Leverett would have been shocked
+if she could have seen the child cuddled up in her attendant's
+arms. Theoretically, she believed Holy Writ&mdash;"He
+hath made of one blood all nations." Practically
+she made many exceptions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>MAKING FRIENDS WITH THE LITTLE GIRL</h3>
+
+
+<p>The northeast storm was terrific. The wind lashed
+the ocean until it writhed and groaned and sent great
+billows up on the land. The trees bent to the fierce
+blasts; many storms had toughened them and perhaps
+taught them the wisdom of yielding, since it must be
+break or bend. Silas sat in the barn mending tools and
+harness and clearing up generally; Elizabeth spent
+most of the first day clearing up the garret again, and
+looking with a grudging eye on the new accession of
+boxes, and sniffing up the queer smell disdainfully.</p>
+
+<p>"One can't have the windows open," she ruminated,
+"and the smell must go through the house. I
+don't believe it will ever get out."</p>
+
+<p>More than one family in Salem had stores from the
+Orient. Many of them liked the fragrance of sandalwood
+and strange perfumes. "God's fresh air was
+good enough for her," said Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>Eunice had finished her fringe and brought out
+some patchwork in the afternoon&mdash;a curious pattern,
+called basket-work. The basket was made of green
+chintz, with a small yellow figure here and there. It
+had a handle from side to side, neatly hemmed on a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+white half square. The upper edge of the basket was
+cut in points and between each one was a bit of color
+to represent or suggest a possible bud of some kind.
+One had pink, different shades of red, and a bright
+yellow. She had seven blocks finished and they were
+in the bottom of the box. Eunice took them out for
+the little girl, who spread them on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>No one was thinking at that day of the mills that
+would dot New England, where cotton cloths, calicoes,
+and cambrics would be turned out by the bale. These
+things had to be imported and were costly. One could
+dye plain colors that were used for frocks and gowns,
+and some of the hand looms wove ginghams that were
+dyed in the thread beforehand.</p>
+
+<p>"It will take forty-two blocks," said Miss Eunice.
+"Six one way, seven the other."</p>
+
+<p>"Then what are you going to do with it?" asked
+the child eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, quilt it. Put some cotton between this and
+the lining, and sew them together with fine stitches."</p>
+
+<p>"And then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why"&mdash;Eunice wondered herself. There were
+chests of them piled away in the garret&mdash;Chilian's
+mother's, and those they had made to fill in the moments
+when housework was finished. She had a quiet
+sense of humor, and she smiled. What were they laying
+up these treasures for? Neither of them would be
+married, most of their relatives were well provided
+for.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, some one may like to have them;" after a
+pause. "You must learn to sew."</p>
+
+<p>"Patchwork?"</p>
+
+<p>It was absurd to pile up any more.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," said the child, "no one needed them
+over there;" inclining her head to the East. "You
+have a little bed and a pallet, and it is warm, so you
+do not need quilts. And the poor people and the
+servants have a mat they spread down anywhere
+and a blanket, but you see, they sleep with their
+clothes on."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice looked rather horrified.</p>
+
+<p>"But they change them! They would&mdash;why, there
+would be soil and vermin."</p>
+
+<p>"They go to the river and bathe and wash them out.
+They sling them on the stones in a queer way. But
+some of them are very dirty and ragged. They are
+not like the English and us, and don't wear many
+clothes. Sometimes they are wrapped up in a white
+sheet."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a very queer country. They are not civilized,
+or Christianized. I don't know what will become of
+them in the end."</p>
+
+<p>"It's their country and no one knows how old it is.
+China is the oldest country in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear, there was the garden of Eden when
+God first created the world. Nothing could be older
+than that, you know. Two thousand years to the
+flood, and two thousand years to the coming of Christ,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+and some people think the world will end in another
+two thousand years."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see any sense in burning it up, when there
+are so many lovely things in it;" and Cynthia's eyes
+took on a deep, inquiring expression. "That was what
+the chaplain used to say. Father thought it would
+go on and on, getting wiser and greater, and the
+people learning to be better and making wonderful
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, what the Bible says <i>must</i> be true. And
+it will be burned up. You have a Bible?"</p>
+
+<p>"The chaplain gave me a pretty prayer-book. It
+is upstairs."</p>
+
+<p>"We do not believe in prayer-books, dear." The
+tone was soft, yet decided. "We came over here, at
+least our forefathers did, that we might worship God
+according to the dictates of our conscience. We tried
+to leave the prayer-books and the bishops behind, but
+we couldn't quite. You must have a Bible and read a
+chapter every day. Why, I had read it through once
+before I was as old as you."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia simply stared. Then, after a pause, she
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you sew patchwork, too?"</p>
+
+<p>"When I was eight I had finished a quilt. And I
+learned to knit. I knit my own stockings; I always
+have. And I braided rags for a mat. Mother sewed
+it together."</p>
+
+<p>"And your clothes&mdash;who made those?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;mother made some. But a woman used to
+come round fall and spring and make for the girls
+and boys, though father bought his best suit. He had
+one when he was married; it was his freedom suit as
+well&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, was he a prisoner?" the child interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no;" smiling a little. "Boys had to be subject
+to their fathers until they were twenty-one. Then
+they had a suit of clothes all the way through and
+their time, which meant they were at liberty to work
+for any one and ask wages. He had been courting
+mother and they were married soon after, so it was
+his wedding suit. He had outgrown it before he died,
+so he had to get a new one. Mother sold that to a
+neighbor that it just fitted."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell me some more about them." Cynthia was
+fond of stories. And this was about real folks, not the
+fantastic legends she had heard so often.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;he and mother worked, she had been living
+with a family. Girls did in those days, and were like
+daughters of the house. Father went to work there.
+They were married in the spring and in the fall he
+took a place on shares; that is, he had half of everything,
+and they divided up the house. A year or so afterward
+it was for sale, and he bought it, and we were
+all born there, and there was no change until he died.
+That was a sad thing for us. He'd been buying some
+more land, and the place wasn't clear. Another man
+stood ready to buy it, and mother thought it best to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+sell. You see there was a good deal of trouble between
+us and England, who wanted to get all the money she
+could out of the Colonies, and wasn't willing to send
+troops to protect us from the Indians, and we had to
+sell our produce and things to her, and presently the
+Colonies wouldn't stand it any longer, and there was
+war. Some people were bitterly opposed to it, some
+favored it. Then we wouldn't take the tea she insisted
+on our buying, and there was the Stamp Act. And
+Salem really made the first armed resistance. You
+must go out some nice day to North Bridge. The
+British troops marched up from Marblehead to seize
+some arms they heard were stored here. General
+Gage sent them. But the people had word, for a
+Major Pedrick rode up to give the alarm, and they hid
+them in a secure place. Colonel Leslie headed the
+British troops to make the search. But the people of
+Salem turned out strong and met the colonel and declared
+that he was marching on private property, not
+on the King's highway, that the lane and the bridge
+were private property, where he had no right. You
+see, war had not been declared and the people had a
+right to defend their own. So they would not allow
+them to cross the river and make a search. But,
+finally, they agreed, if the draw over the river could be
+lowered and they allowed to march a few rods, they
+would withdraw. Of course, they saw nothing suspicious
+and came back, keeping their word. Otherwise,
+I suppose, that would have been the first battle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+of the war. We were not living here then, but Cousin
+Chilian's father lived in this very house."</p>
+
+<p>"And the arms were really there!" Cynthia drew
+a long breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes! They were ships' cannon going to be
+mounted for protection. Some day Cousin Chilian
+may take you over to the bridge and tell you all about
+it. There was a romance about a girl said to be in love
+with a British officer, but you are too young for such
+stories."</p>
+
+<p>If she had not been, the entrance of Elizabeth and
+Miss Winn would have checked the garrulity of Eunice.
+Cynthia had been laying down the small diamond-shaped
+pieces, making a block.</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you let the child muddle over those pieces,
+Eunice? The carpet may not be clean," said Elizabeth
+sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is getting dark, so we had better put them
+all up. Mercy! how it still rains. Why, it seems as
+if there would be another flood."</p>
+
+<p>"That can never happen. We have the promise."</p>
+
+<p>"That the whole world will not be destroyed. But
+parts of it may suffer. You and Cynthia are fortunate
+not to be in it;" and Eunice raised her eyes to them,
+with a certain thankfulness.</p>
+
+<p>It had not stopped yet in the morning, but the wind
+was veering to the south, the air was not so cold and
+the rain much gentler. Cynthia wandered about like
+an unquiet spirit. It was cold up in their room. Chil<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>ian
+had proposed a fire, but Elizabeth had negatived
+it sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"There ought to be room enough in the dining-room
+and keeping-room for two extra people," she
+said decidedly.</p>
+
+<p>He felt sorry for the little girl with her downcast
+face, as he met her on the landing.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you want to come and visit me?" he asked,
+in an inviting tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes!" and the grave little face lightened.</p>
+
+<p>The blaze was brighter here than downstairs, she
+felt quite sure. And the room had a more cheerful
+look. The table was spread with books and papers,
+and, oh, the books that were on the shelves! The
+curious things above them suggested India. There
+really was the triple-faced god she had seen so often,
+carved in ivory, and another carving of a temple. She
+walked slowly round and inspected them. Then she
+paused at a window.</p>
+
+<p>"How much it rains!" she began. "I don't see
+how so much rain can be made. When is it going to
+stop?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it will hold up this afternoon and be clear
+to-morrow, clear and sunny."</p>
+
+<p>"I like sunshine best. And little rains. This has
+been so long."</p>
+
+<p>"And we haven't much to amuse a child. When
+it clears up we must find some little folks. Does it
+seem very strange to you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I haven't lived with big women much, except
+Rachel. And the houses are so different. You get
+things about, and the servants pick them up. There
+are so many servants. Sometimes there are white
+children, but not many. Their mothers take them back
+to England. Or they die."</p>
+
+<p>She uttered the last sadly, and her long lashes
+drooped.</p>
+
+<p>He wondered a little how she had stood the climate.
+She looked more like a foreigner than a native of
+Salem town.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you do there?" He hardly knew how
+to talk to a little girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, a great many things. I went to ride in a
+curious sort of cart&mdash;the natives pulled it. Then the
+children came and played in the court. They threw
+up balls and caught them, ever so many, and they
+played curious games on the stones, and acrobatic
+feats, and sung, and danced, and acted stories of funny
+things. Then father read to me, and told me about
+Salem when he was a little boy. You can't really
+think the grown-up people were little, like you."</p>
+
+<p>"And that one day you will be big like
+them."</p>
+
+<p>She pushed up her sleeve. They were large and
+made just big enough for her hand at the wrist, not
+at all like the straight, small sleeves of the Puritan
+children. After surveying it a moment, she said
+gravely:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I can't understand <i>how</i> you grow. You must be
+pushed out all the time by something inside."</p>
+
+<p>"You have just hit it;" and he smiled approvingly.
+"It is the forces inside. There is a curious factory inside
+of us that keeps working, day and night, that supplies
+the blood, the warmth, the strength, and is always
+pushing out; it even enlarges the bones until one is
+grown and finished, as one may say. And the food
+you eat, the air you breathe, are the supplies."</p>
+
+<p>"But you go on eating and breathing. Why don't
+you go on growing?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a curious little knot in her forehead
+where the lines crossed, and she raised her eyes
+questioningly to him. What wonderful eyes they
+were!</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is partly this: You employ your mind
+and your body and they need more nourishment. Then&mdash;well,
+I think it is the restraining law of nature, else
+we should all be giants. In very hot countries and
+very cold countries they do not grow so large."</p>
+
+<p>He could not go into the intricacies of physiology,
+as he did with some of the students.</p>
+
+<p>"You did not go to school?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" She laughed softly. "The native
+schools were funny. They sat on mats and did not
+have any books, but repeated after the teacher. And,
+sometimes, he beat them dreadfully. There were
+some English people had a school, but it was to teach
+the language to the natives. And then Mr. Cathcart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+came to stay with father. He had been the chaplain
+somewhere and wasn't well, so they gave him a&mdash;a&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Furlough?" suggested Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; father sent him out in one of the boats. He
+began to teach me some things. I could read, you
+know. And I could talk Hindostani some&mdash;with the
+children. Then I learned to spell and pronounce the
+words better. He had a few books of verses that were
+beautiful. I learned some of them by heart. And
+Latin."</p>
+
+<p>"Latin!" in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"He had some books and a Testament. It was grand
+in the sound, and I liked it. There were many things,
+cases and such, that I couldn't get quite straight, but
+after a little I could read, and then make it over into
+English."</p>
+
+<p>When he was eight he was reading Latin and beginning
+French. Some of the Boston women he knew
+were very good French scholars, though education
+was not looked upon as a necessity for women. It
+seemed odd to him&mdash;this little girl in Calcutta learning
+Latin.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us see how far you have gone." Teaching
+never irked him when he once set about it.</p>
+
+<p>He hunted up a simple Latin primer.</p>
+
+<p>"Come around this side;" and he drew her nearer
+to him. There had been no little girls to train and
+teach, and for a moment he felt embarrassed. But she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+took it as a matter of course, and he could see she was
+all interest.</p>
+
+<p>It had been, as he supposed, rather desultory teaching.
+But she took the corrections and explanations
+with a sweetness that was quite enchanting. And she
+could translate quite well, in an idiomatic fashion.
+Really, with the right kind of training she would make
+a good scholar.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you must be tired of standing," he said presently.
+"How thoughtless of me. I have no little
+chairs, so I must hunt one up, but this will have to
+do now. That will be more comfortable. Now we
+can go on."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed at her own little blunders in a cheerful
+fashion, and made haste to correct them. And then he
+found that she knew several of the old Latin hymns
+by heart, as they had been favorites of the English
+clergyman.</p>
+
+<p>They were interrupted by a light tap at the door.
+He said "Come"; and turned his head.</p>
+
+<p>It was Miss Winn.</p>
+
+<p>"Pardon me. We couldn't imagine where Cynthia
+was. Hasn't she been an annoyance?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; we have had a very nice time."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;had you not better come downstairs. Miss
+Eunice is sewing her pretty patchwork again."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, let me stay," she pleaded. "Do I bother
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>It crossed his mind just then that in the years to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+come more than one man would yield to the sweet
+persuasiveness of those eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, let her stay. She is no trouble. Indeed, we
+are studying."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn was glad of his indorsement. Miss
+Elizabeth had been "worrying" for the last ten minutes.
+She had crept softly up to the garret, quite sure
+she should find the child in mischief. Then she had
+glanced into the "best chamber," but there was no
+sign of her there.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well," replied Miss Winn.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia drew a long breath presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you are tired!" he exclaimed. "Run over
+to the window and tell me how the sky looks. I think
+it doesn't rain now."</p>
+
+<p>She slipped down, stood still for a moment, then
+turned and clapped her hands, laughing deliciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there is blue sky, and a great yellow streak.
+The clouds are trying to hide the sun, but they can't.
+Oh, see, see!"</p>
+
+<p>She danced up and down the room like a fairy in
+the long ray of sunshine that illumined the apartment.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, are you not glad!" She turned such a joyous
+face to him that he smiled and came over to the window
+that nearly faced the west.</p>
+
+<p>"Better than the Latin?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;I like both;" archly.</p>
+
+<p>He raised the window. A warm breath of delightful
+air rushed in, making the room with the fire seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+chilly by contrast. He drew in long reviving breaths.
+Spring had truly come. To-morrow the swelling buds
+would burst.</p>
+
+<p>"We must have a little Latin every day. And occasionally
+a walk in the sunshine. Twice a week I
+go down to Boston, but the other days will be
+ours."</p>
+
+<p>"I like your room," she said frankly. "But what
+sights of books! Do you read them all?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not very often. I do not believe I have read them
+all through. But I need them for reference, and some
+I like very much."</p>
+
+<p>He wanted to add, "And some were a gift from
+your dear father," but he could not disturb her happy
+mood.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose we go down on the porch. It is too wet
+to walk anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes;" delightedly. "And to-morrow I will go
+down to the vessel again and see Captain Corwin. I
+do not want it to rain any more for weeks and weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"No, for days and days. Weeks would dry us all
+up, and we would have no lovely spring flowers."</p>
+
+<p>"And a famine maybe. Do the very poor people
+sometimes starve?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think we have any very poor people, as
+they do in India. We are not overcrowded yet."</p>
+
+<p>The rain had beaten the paths and the street hard,
+and it looked as if it had been swept clean. In spite
+of it all there were cheering evidences of spring.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There are some children in that house," she exclaimed,
+nodding her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the Uphams. There are two girls and two
+boys, the oldest and the youngest, who isn't much
+more than a baby. Bentley Upham must be about
+twelve. Polly is next, but she is a head taller than
+you. Then there's Betty. I am glad there will be
+some little girls for you to play with."</p>
+
+<p>She looked eager and interested.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come in to supper? Chilian, you ought
+to know better than to be standing in this damp air.
+And that child with nothing around her!"</p>
+
+<p>"The air is reviving, after having been housed for
+two days." But he turned and went in, leading the
+child by the hand.</p>
+
+<p>The long, bleak New England coast winter was over,
+though it had lingered as if loath to go. Springs were
+seldom early, no one expected that. But this one came
+on with a rush. The willows donned their silver
+catkins and then threw them off for baby leaves, the
+lilac buds showed purple, the elms and maples came
+out in bloom, and the soft ones drew crowds of half-famished
+bees to their sweet tassels. The grass was
+vividly green, iridescent in the morning sun, with
+the dew still upon it. Snowdrop, crocus, hepatica,
+and coltsfoot, wild honeysuckle, were all about, the
+forsythia flared out her saucy yellow, the fruit buds
+swelled. Parties were out in the woods hunting trailing
+arbutus that has been called the darling of north<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>ern
+skies, that lies hidden in its nest of green leaves,
+silent, with no wind tossing it to and fro, but betrayed
+by its sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>There were other signs of spring at Salem. The
+whole town seemed to burst out in house-cleaning.
+Parlor shutters were thrown open and windows
+washed. Carpets were beaten, blankets hung out to
+air, those that had been in real use washed. Women
+were out in gardens with sunbonnets and gloves, a
+coat of tan not being held in much esteem, and snipped
+at roses and hardy plants. Men were spading and
+planting the vegetable gardens, painting or white-washing
+fences. All was stir and bustle, and tired
+folk excused themselves if they nodded in church on
+Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia made pilgrimages to the <i>Flying Star</i> that
+had been her home for so long. The storm had
+wrought great havoc with some of the shipping, and
+big boys were out gathering driftwood. The <i>Gazette</i>
+had some melancholy news of "lost at sea." But
+Captain Corwin thought he had weathered worse
+storms.</p>
+
+<p>"She is picking up mightily," he said to Miss Winn,
+nodding toward Cynthia. "Shouldn't be surprised if
+she favored her mother, after all. Only them eyes
+ain't neither Orne nor Leverett. Don't let her grieve
+too much when the bad news comes."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice and Chilian had taken her to call on the
+Uphams. And though she was quite familiar at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+home, here she shrank into painful shyness and would
+not leave Eunice's sheltering figure.</p>
+
+<p>"Children get soonest acquainted by themselves,"
+declared Mrs. Upham. "I suppose you will send her
+to school. If she's not very forward, Dame Wilby's
+is best. She and Betty can go together. Why, she
+isn't as tall as Betty&mdash;and nine, you said? Granny was
+talking the other day about the time she was born.
+She's a real little Salem girl after all, though she's
+got a foreign skin, and what odd-colored hair! We've
+started Polly to Miss Betts. I want her to learn sewing
+and needlework, and she's too big now to company
+with such children. Why, I was almost a woman
+at twelve, and could spin and knit with the best of
+them. Miss Eunice, I wish you'd teach her that
+pretty openwork stitch you do so handy. Imported
+stockings cost so much. They say there's women
+in Boston doing the fancy ones for customers.
+But I tell Polly if she wants any she must do them
+herself."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Upham had a tolerably pleasant voice. She
+always talked in monologues. Betty edged around
+presently and would have taken Cynthia's hand, but
+the child laid it in Miss Eunice's lap, and looked distrustful.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian was as glad as she when the call ended.
+He did not seek the society of women often enough
+to feel at home with them, though he was kindly polite
+when he did meet them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did you ask about the school?" was the inquiry of
+Elizabeth that evening.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; she thinks Dame Wilby's the best for small
+children. And Cynthia knows so little that is of
+real importance, though she reads pretty well," said
+Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she must get started. I shall be glad when
+the <i>Flying Star</i> is off and she isn't running down there
+with the men. I don't see what's got into Chilian to
+think of teaching her Latin. It had enough sight better
+be the multiplication table."</p>
+
+<p>So she proposed the school to Chilian. She had a
+queer feeling about his fancy for the child. She
+would have scouted the idea of jealousy, but she would
+have had much the same feeling if he had "begun to
+pay attention" to some woman. The other matters
+had reached a passable settlement. The "best chamber"
+was tidily kept, the little girl well looked after
+to see that she troubled no one. Miss Winn kept her
+clothes in order, but they had a decidedly foreign look,
+and of materials no one would think of buying for a
+child. But the goods were here, and might as well be
+used.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn had made a few alterations in the room&mdash;softened
+the aspect of it. She longed to take out
+the big carved bedstead, but she knew that would
+never do. She made herself useful in many unobtrusive
+ways, gardened a little, was neighborly yet
+reserved.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what we would do if she were a
+gossip," Elizabeth commented.</p>
+
+<p>She broached the subject of the school to Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," he answered reluctantly. "I suppose
+she ought to go. She's curiously shy with other
+children."</p>
+
+<p>"She talks enough about that Nalla, as if they had
+been like sisters."</p>
+
+<p>"You can notice that she always preserves the distinction,
+though."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no use bothering with that Latin, Chilian.
+Next thing it will be French. And she won't know
+enough figuring to count change. Girls don't need
+that kind of education."</p>
+
+<p>"But some of them have to be Presidents' wives.
+And some of them wives to men who have to go
+abroad. French seems to be quite general among
+cultivated people."</p>
+
+<p>"It's hardly likely she'll go abroad. And she needs
+to be like other people. I don't see what you find so
+entertaining about her. And you couldn't bear children
+in your room!"</p>
+
+<p>"She isn't any annoyance. Then she is so deft, so
+dainty. She touches books with the lightest of fingers.
+She will sit and look at pictures, and it quite
+surprises me how much she knows about geography."</p>
+
+<p>"And nothing much about her native country. She
+can't tell the difference between Pilgrims and Puritans.
+And she didn't know why we came over here,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+and why it was not the same God in England, and if
+all the gods in India were idols. Chilian, you shouldn't
+encourage her irreverence. It looks pert in a child."</p>
+
+<p>"She will get over these ways as she grows older
+and mingles with other children."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I am coming to. She ought to begin
+at once. Betty Upham goes to Dame Wilby. Her
+mother considers it excellent for small children. She
+could go with Betty and there would be no fear of
+her trailing off no one knows where."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, she ought to go to school. He could
+manage a big boy on the verge of manhood very well.
+But this woman-child puzzled him. She seemed very
+tractable, obedient in a certain sense, yet in the end
+she seemed to get, or to take, her own way. Suppressing
+one train of action opened another. She had a
+sweet way of yielding, but a strong way of holding on.
+A little thing made her happy, yet in her deepest happiness
+there was much gravity. His theories were that
+certain qualities brought to pass certain results. He
+forgot that there were no such things as pure temperaments,
+and that environments made second nature
+different from what the first might have been. The
+child puzzled him by her contrariety, yet she was not
+a troublesome child.</p>
+
+<p>"Well;" reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see the Dame. And we will start her on
+Monday."</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth had another point to gain. She looked
+over her trunk of pieces. Here were several yards of
+brown and white gingham, quite enough for a frock
+without any furbelows. With the roll in her hand she
+tapped at the partly open door. Rachel had laid out
+on the bed several white frocks, plain enough even
+for Salem tastes.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia's going to school on Monday," she announced.
+"And I thought this would make her a
+good school frock. It won't be dirtysome. You see
+children here <i>do</i> dress differently. You'll get into the
+ways."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel looked at the gingham. "I shouldn't like it
+for her," she said quietly. "Her father always wanted
+to see her in white. That is new every time it is
+washed. These things fade and then look so wretched.
+Beside she will only outgrow these frocks."</p>
+
+<p>"Children here keep their white frocks for Sundays,"
+was the decisive reply.</p>
+
+<p>"She may as well wear these out. They were made
+last summer. She has not grown much meanwhile.
+I should like to keep her in the way her father desired."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she must have a long-sleeved apron to cover
+her up. This will make two. For those white things
+make an endless sight of washing."</p>
+
+<p>"I have been considering that," said Rachel Winn
+quietly. "I wear white a good deal myself. I noticed
+a small house on Front Street where there were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+nearly always clothes on the lines, and I stopped in
+to inquire. I felt it was too much laundry-work for
+your woman through the summer. This Mrs. Pratt is
+very reasonable and does her work nicely. So I have
+made arrangements with her. Captain Leverett made
+a generous allowance for incidental expenses."</p>
+
+<p>What Elizabeth termed Miss Winn's "independence"
+grated sorely upon her ideas of what was owing
+to the head of the house, which was herself. It was
+always done so quietly and pleasantly one could hardly
+take umbrage. Cynthia was not exactly a child of the
+house. She was in no wise dependent on her newly
+found relatives. Chilian had made that understood in
+the beginning, when he had chosen the best chamber
+for them.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't need to take boarders," she had replied
+tartly.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know as we are to call it that. I am the
+child's guardian and answerable for her comfort and
+her welfare. The perfect trust confided in me has
+touched me inexpressibly. I didn't know that Anthony
+Leverett held me in such high esteem. And if
+I choose to put this money by until she is grown&mdash;it
+will make such a little difference in our living&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Chilian Leverett, you are justly entitled to it," she
+interrupted with sharp decision. "He's right enough
+in making a fair provision for them&mdash;no doubt he has
+plenty. But I don't quite like the boarder business, for
+all that."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We must get some one to help you with the work."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want any more help than I have. Land
+sakes! Eunice and I have plenty of leisure on our
+hands. I wouldn't have a servant around wasting
+things, if she paid me wages."</p>
+
+<p>They had gone on very smoothly. Eunice had
+found her way to the child's heart. But then Eunice
+had lived with her dream children that might have
+been like Charles Lamb's "Children of Alice." Elizabeth
+might have married twice in her life, but there
+was no love in either case, rather a secret mortification
+that such incapables should dare to raise their
+thoughts to her. But she had some strenuous ideas
+on the rearing of children, quite of the older sort.
+Life was softening somewhat, even for childhood, but
+she did not approve of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>GOING TO SCHOOL</h3>
+
+
+<p>Elizabeth Leverett interviewed Dame Wilby beforehand.
+The woman came half a day on Monday
+to wash and she hardly knew how to spend half an
+hour, but when she found Miss Winn was going, she
+loftily relegated the whole business to her.</p>
+
+<p>Dame Wilby lived in an old rambling house, already
+an eyesore to the finer houses in Lafayette Street, but
+the Dame was obstinate and would not sell. "It was
+going to last her time out. She was born here when it
+was only a lane, and she meant to be buried from
+here." Once it had been quite a flourishing school; but
+newer methods had begun to supersede it. It was
+handy for the small children about the neighborhood, it
+took them over the troublesome times, it gave their
+mothers a rest, and kept them out of mischief. And the
+old dames were thorough, as far as they went. Indeed,
+some of the mothers had never gone any farther.
+They could cast up accounts, they could weigh and
+measure, for they had learned all the tables. They
+could spell and read clearly, they knew all the common
+arts of life, and how to keep on learning out of the
+greater than printed books&mdash;experience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dame Wilby might have been eighty. No one remembered
+her being young. Her husband was lost at
+sea and she opened the school, worked in her garden,
+saved until she had cleared her small old home, and
+now was laying up a trifle every year. She was tall and
+somewhat bent in the shoulders, very much wrinkled,
+with clear, piercing light blue eyes and snowy hair.
+She always wore a cap and only a little line of it
+showed at the edge of her high forehead. Her frocks
+were made in the plainest style, skirts straight and
+narrow, and she always wore a little shoulder shawl,
+pinned across the bosom&mdash;white in the summer, home-dyed
+blue in the winter.</p>
+
+<p>Some children were playing tag in the unoccupied
+lot next door. The schoolroom door opened at the
+side. There were two rows of desks, with benches
+for the older children, two more with no desks for the
+A B C and spelling classes. The rest they learned
+in concert, orally. The dame had a table covered with
+a gray woollen cloth, some books, an inkstand, a holder
+for pens and pencils, and the never-failing switch.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she answered to Miss Winn's explanation.
+"Miss Leverett was telling about her. I was teaching
+school here when she was born, and then the captain
+took her away to the Ingies again." Most folks pronounced
+it that way. "Rather meachin' little thing&mdash;I
+s'pose it was the climate over there. They say it
+turns the skin yellow. Let's see how you read, sissy?"</p>
+
+<p>She read several verses out of the New Testament<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+quite to the dame's satisfaction. Then about spelling.
+The second word, in two syllables, floored her. Had
+she ciphered? No. Did she know her tables? No.
+The capital of the state? That she could answer.
+When the war broke out? When peace was declared?</p>
+
+<p>"I'll ask Cousin Leverett," she answered, in nowise
+abashed by her ignorance. "He tells me a great
+many things."</p>
+
+<p>"You must study it out of books. I s'pose she's
+going to live here? She's not going back to the
+Ingies? I heard the captain was coming home."</p>
+
+<p>"He is settling up his affairs," was the quiet answer.</p>
+
+<p>Dame Wilby looked the child all over.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll sit on that bench," she said. Then she rang
+the bell and the children trooped in, staring at her.
+The little boys&mdash;four of them&mdash;were on the seat back
+of her, on her seat she made the fifth. Betty Upham
+was in the desk contingent.</p>
+
+<p>They repeated the Lord's prayer in concert. Then
+lessons were given out. The larger girls read.</p>
+
+<p>"You can come and read with this class;" nodding
+to Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>She was not a regularly bashful child, but she
+flushed as the children stared at her. They sometimes
+wore their Sunday white frock one or two days at
+school. Cynthia was so used to her clothes, cared so
+little about them that they were rarely in her mind.
+But this universal attention annoyed her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"'Tend to your books, children."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia acquitted herself finely, rather too much so,
+the dame thought. She would talk to her about it.
+A girl didn't want to read as if she was a minister
+preaching a sermon.</p>
+
+<p>Then she was given a very much "dog's-eared"
+spelling-book to study down a column. Another class
+read some easy lesson; a story about a dog that interested
+her so much that she forgot to study. While the
+older children were doing sums one little boy after
+another came up to the desk and spelled from a book.
+One's attention wandered and the dame hit him a
+sharp rap. Tables followed, eight and nine times; dry
+measure, and then questions were asked singly. Some
+few missed. Cynthia followed the spelling where
+they went up and down. Then the larger ones were
+dismissed for recess.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthy Leverett, come up here and see how many
+words you can spell. You ought to be ashamed, a
+big girl like you staying behind in next to the baby
+class."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia's face was scarlet. Alas! She had been so
+interested watching and listening she had not studied
+at all. But the words were rather easy and she did
+know all but two.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you take the next line and those two over
+again. See if you can't get them all learned by
+noon."</p>
+
+<p>The next little girl, who could not have been more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+than six, missed a number. She had a queer drawl in
+her voice.</p>
+
+<p>"What did I tell you, Jane Mason? And you have
+missed more than two. Hold out your hand!"</p>
+
+<p>The switch came down on the poor little hand with
+an angry swish. Cynthia winched.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you go back and study. No going out to
+play for you this morning. Jane Mason, you're the
+biggest dunce in school."</p>
+
+<p>The two other girls did better. Then the bell rang
+and the girls came in with flushed and laughing faces.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia studied her two words over until they
+ceased to have any meaning. At twelve they were all
+dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't she a hateful old thing?" said Janie Mason,
+when they were outside of the door. "I wish I was
+big enough to strike back. I don't like school anyhow.
+Do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I don't know. I have never been before."</p>
+
+<p>Several of the other girls swarmed around her with
+curious eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What a pretty frock!" began Betty Upham. "I
+suppose it's your Sunday best, with all that work."</p>
+
+<p>"Betty said you were an Injun," said another. "I
+never saw an Injun who didn't have coarse, straight,
+black hair, and yours is lightish and curls. I'd so love
+to have curly hair."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not the kind of Indians you have here," she
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>returned indignantly. "I was born right here in
+Salem. I've lived in Calcutta and in China, and been
+to Batavia, and ever so many places."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you ain't an Injun at all! Betty, how could
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's what some of them said. Maybe
+your mother was an Injun!" looking as if she had
+fixed the uncertain suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>"No, she wasn't. She lived here part of the time.
+She was born in Boston."</p>
+
+<p>They glanced at each other in a kind of upbraiding
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"And you had to be put with the little children!
+Aren't there any schools in that place you came from?
+It's a heathen country. Our minister prays for it.
+Don't you have any churches either? What do people
+do when they are grown up if they never go to
+school?"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you coming stiddy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Chilian Leverett your real relation?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, tell me&mdash;have you any other frock as pretty
+as this? My sister Hetty has a beautiful one, all lace
+and needlework. She's saving it to be married in."</p>
+
+<p>"Martha, I dare you to a race!"</p>
+
+<p>Two girls ran off as fast as they could. Betty Upham
+caught Cynthia's arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't say you were a real Injun. Debby Strang
+always gets things mixed up. But it is something
+queer&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"East India;" in a tone of great dignity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Where the ships are coming from all the time?
+Is it prettier than Salem?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's so different you can't tell. We do not have
+hardly any winter. And there are vines and flowers
+and temples to heathen gods, and the people <i>are</i> yellow
+and brown."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose you will ever grow clear white?"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia had half a mind to be angry. Even Miss
+Elizabeth was fair, and Miss Eunice had such a soft,
+pretty skin.</p>
+
+<p>"There, that's your corner. You're coming this
+afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I suppose so."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Elizabeth was all bustle and hurry. It was
+clouding up a little. It hadn't been a real fair day, and
+the hot sun had dried the clothes too quick. She liked
+them to bleach on the line, it was almost as good as the
+grass. And Miss Drake couldn't stay and iron, they
+had sickness over to the Appletons and she had to go
+there. Everything was out of gear.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd help with the ironing, if you would like," said
+Miss Winn.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the ironing isn't so much;" rather ungraciously.
+"You see, there were four blankets. I never
+touch an iron to them, but shake them good and fold
+them, and let them lay one night, then hang them on
+the line in the garret. The bulk of it was large. And
+a good stiff breeze blows out wrinkles. The wind
+hasn't blown worth a Continental;" complainingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did you like the school?" Miss Winn inquired
+in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I didn't. And I don't seem to know anything;"
+in a discouraged tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you will learn."</p>
+
+<p>It was warm in the afternoon. Two of the boys
+were decidedly bad and were punished. They positively
+roared. Cynthia spelled, and spelled, and
+studied&mdash;"One and one are two," "one and two
+are three," and after a while it dawned on her that
+it was just one more every time. Why, she had
+known that all the time, only it hadn't been put in a
+table.</p>
+
+<p>It grew very tiresome after a while. She asked if
+she couldn't have recess with the big girls, but was
+sharply refused. In truth the good dame grew very
+weary herself, and was glad when five o'clock came
+and she could go out in the garden and recruit her
+tired nerves.</p>
+
+<p>The stage was stopping at the door. Oh, how glad
+she was to see Cousin Leverett. He smiled down in
+the flushed face.</p>
+
+<p>"How did the school go?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>She hung her head. "I don't like it. I have to be
+with the little class because I don't know tables, but I
+learned all the one times. That was easy enough when
+you came to see into it. But&mdash;nine and nine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Eighteen," he answered promptly.</p>
+
+<p>"And you answered it right offhand!" She gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+a soft, cheerful laugh. "Oh, do you suppose I shall
+ever know so much?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was a time when I didn't know it."</p>
+
+<p>"Truly?" She looked incredulous.</p>
+
+<p>"Truly. And I had quite hard work remembering
+to spell correctly."</p>
+
+<p>"I studied two lines. This morning I missed two
+words, but this afternoon I knew them all. And I
+can't write on the slate. The pencil wabbles so, and
+then it gives an awful squeak that goes all over you.
+And I can't do sums. And there's all the tables to
+learn. And I don't like the teacher. I wish Miss
+Eunice could teach me. Or maybe Rachel might."</p>
+
+<p>"I might help you a little. But you read well?"</p>
+
+<p>"She said it was too&mdash;too"&mdash;she wrinkled up her
+forehead&mdash;"too affected, like a play-actor."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense!" he cried disapprovingly. "We will
+see about some other school presently. Would you
+like to take a walk with me? I'm tired of the long
+stage-ride."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, so much!" She caught one hand in both of
+hers and gave a few skips of joy.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us go over to the river."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, he should have gone in and announced
+their resolve. But he was so used to considering only
+himself, and he realized that it must have been a tiresome
+day to her. They went over Lafayette Street,
+which was only a lane, and then turned up the stream.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how sweet the air was with the odorous damp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>ness
+and the smell of new growths, tree and grass.
+The sun, low in the west, slanted golden gleams
+through the tree branches which chased each other over
+the grassy spaces, as if they were quite alive and at
+merry-making. There were sedgy plants in bloom,
+jack-in-the-pulpit, and what might have been a lily,
+with a more euphonious name. Iridescent flies were
+skimming about, now and then a fish made a stir and
+dazzle. Squirrels ran up and down the trees and chattered,
+robins were singing joyously, the thrush with
+her soft, plaintive note. She glanced up now and then
+and caught his eye, and he felt she was happy. It was
+a delightful thing, after all, to render some one truly
+happy. Perhaps children were more easily satisfied,
+more responsive.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," he said presently, "we must go back or
+we will lose our supper, and Cousin Elizabeth will
+scold."</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't think she would dare to scold you;"
+raising wondering eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not?" He wondered what reason she would
+give.</p>
+
+<p>"Because you are a man."</p>
+
+<p>"She scolds Silas."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that is different."</p>
+
+<p>"How&mdash;different? We are both men. He is quite
+as tall as I."</p>
+
+<p>"But you see&mdash;well, he is something like a servant.
+She tells him what to do, and if he doesn't do it right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+she can find fault with it. But you are&mdash;well, the
+house is yours. You can do what pleases you."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite reasoned out, little one;" and he laughed
+with an approving sound.</p>
+
+<p>"It's curious that you scold people you like, and
+other people may do the same thing and&mdash;is it because
+you don't dare to? If it is wrong in the one place,
+why not in the other?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps politeness restrains us."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like people to scold. Miss Eunice never
+does."</p>
+
+<p>"Eunice has a sweet nature. Doesn't Miss Winn
+ever scold you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;I suppose I am bad and wilful sometimes,
+and then she has the right. But when you do things
+that do not matter&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn was walking in the garden. Cynthia
+waved her hand, but walked leisurely forward.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't imagine what had become of you."</p>
+
+<p>"It was my fault," interposed Chilian. "I met her
+at the gate and asked her to go for a walk."</p>
+
+<p>"And with that soiled apron!"</p>
+
+<p>"That came off the slate. I hadn't any desk. It
+was hard to hold it on my knee."</p>
+
+<p>"You might have come in for a clean one. Run
+upstairs and change it."</p>
+
+<p>But she was destined to meet Cousin Elizabeth in
+the hall. The elder caught her arm roughly.</p>
+
+<p>"Where have you been gadding to, bad girl?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+Didn't you know you must come straight home from
+school? Here we have been worried half to death
+about you, and I'm tired as a dog, trotting 'round all
+day. You deserve a good whipping;" and she shook
+her. She would have enjoyed slapping her soundly.
+But Chilian entered at that instant.</p>
+
+<p>"She is going upstairs for a clean apron," he said.
+"I took her off for a walk."</p>
+
+<p>"She might have asked whether she could go or
+not," snapped Elizabeth. "She's the most lawless
+thing!"</p>
+
+<p>"It was my place. Don't blame the child!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, supper's ready."</p>
+
+<p>She didn't have her apron on quite straight and her
+hair was a little frowsy. Elizabeth had proposed it
+should be cut short on the neck for the summer, but
+Miss Winn had objected.</p>
+
+<p>"Such a great mop! No child wears it!"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia came in quietly and took her place. After
+her first cup of tea Elizabeth thawed a little, enough
+to announce that two of the Appleton children were ill,
+they thought with scarlet fever.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian expressed some sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>"And how was the school, Cynthia? We thought
+you might have been kept in for some of your good
+deeds, as children are so seldom bad."</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I didn't like it," she answered simply.</p>
+
+<p>"Children can't have just what they like in this
+world," was Elizabeth's rejoinder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nor grown people either," was Chilian's softening
+comment. Then he changed the subject. He had seen
+Cousin Giles, who proposed to pay them a visit, coming
+on some Saturday.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you any lesson to learn?" he asked of Cynthia.
+"If so, bring your book and come to my room."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you!" Her face was radiant with delight.</p>
+
+<p>Where had she left her book? Dame Wilby had
+told her to take it home and study. Surely she had
+brought it&mdash;oh, yes! she had put it just inside the gate
+under the great clump of ribbon grass. If only Cousin
+Elizabeth's sharp eyes had not seen it. But there it
+was, safe enough.</p>
+
+<p>She was delighted to go to Cousin Chilian's room,
+though she never presumed. She seemed to have an
+innate sort of delicacy that he wondered at.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling was soon mastered. It was the rather
+unusual words that puzzled her. Then they attacked
+the tables and he practised her in making figures.
+Like most children left to themselves, she printed instead
+of writing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" she cried with a wistful yet joyous emphasis,
+"I wish I could come to school to you. And I'd
+like to be the only scholar."</p>
+
+<p>"But you ought to be with little girls."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like them very much."</p>
+
+<p>Then Miss Winn came for her. "You are very
+good to take so much trouble," she said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I like you so much, so much!" she exclaimed
+with her sweet eyes as well as her lips.</p>
+
+<p>He recalled then the day on board the vessel, when
+she had besought in her impetuous fashion that he
+should kiss her. She had never offered the caress
+since. She was not an effusive child.</p>
+
+<p>Her position at school was rather anomalous. A
+younger woman might have managed differently.
+There was a new scholar that rather crowded them on
+the bench. And the boy back of her did some sly
+things that annoyed her. He gave her hair a twitch
+now and then. One day he dropped a little toad on her
+book, at which she screamed, though an instant after
+she was not at all afraid. Of course, he was whipped
+for that, and for once she did not feel sorry.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a great ninny to be afraid of a toad not
+bigger than a button," he said scornfully. "I'll get
+you whipped some day to make up for it, see if I
+don't."</p>
+
+<p>Thursday was unfortunate and she was kept in for
+some rather saucy replies. When she returned they
+were in the sitting-room and had been discussing some
+household matters. She surveyed them with a courageous
+but indignant air.</p>
+
+<p>"I've quit," she exclaimed. "I'm not going there
+to school any more."</p>
+
+<p>She stood up very straight, her eyes flashing.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" ejaculated Cousin Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I've quit! She wanted to make me say I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+was sorry and beg her pardon, and she threatened to
+keep me all night, but I knew some of you would come,
+at least Rachel."</p>
+
+<p>"And I suppose you were a saucy, naughty girl!"</p>
+
+<p>"What happened?" asked Chilian quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you see&mdash;I went up to her table with the
+figures I had been making on my slate. I'd done some
+of them over three times, for Tommy Marsh joggled
+my elbow. Then I went back to my seat. We're
+crowded now, and I went to sit down and sat on the
+floor. I do believe Sadie Green did it on purpose&mdash;moved
+so there wasn't room enough for me to sit.
+And Tom laughed, then all the children laughed, and
+Dame Wilby said, 'Get up, Cynthy Leverett,' and I
+said 'My name isn't Cynthy, if you please, and I
+haven't any seat to sit on if I do get up.' And then the
+children laughed again, and I don't quite know what
+did happen, but I was so angry. Then she said all
+the children should stay in for laughing. She called
+me to the desk and I went. The slate was broken and
+I laid it on the table. Then she said wasn't I sorry
+for being saucy, and I said I wasn't. It was bad enough
+to fall on the floor, for I might have hurt myself.
+Then she took up her switch, and I said: 'You strike
+me, if you dare!' Then she pushed me in a little
+closet place, and there I staid until after school was
+out. Then she said, 'Would I tell Miss Leverett to
+come over?' and I said Mr. Leverett was my guardian
+and I would tell him, but I wasn't coming to school<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+any more, and that Tommy Marsh pinched me and
+pulled my hair, and called me wild Indian. And so&mdash;I've
+quit. You can't make me go again. I'll run
+away first and go on some of the boats."</p>
+
+<p>There was a blaze of scarlet on her cheeks and her
+eyes flashed fire, but she stood up straight and defiant,
+when another child might have broken down and cried.
+Chilian Leverett always remembered the picture she
+made&mdash;small, dark, and spirited.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he exclaimed, "you need not go back."
+Then he rose and took her hand that was cold and
+trembling. "You will not go back. Let us find Miss
+Winn&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Chilian!" warned Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>He led Cynthia from the room, up the stairs. Miss
+Winn sat there sewing. She clasped her arms about
+him, he could fairly feel the throb in them.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she cried with a strange sort of sweetness.
+"I love you. You are so good to me, and I have told
+you just the truth."</p>
+
+<p>Then she buried her face on Miss Winn's bosom.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian went downstairs. He laughed, yet he was
+deeply touched by her audacity and bravery.</p>
+
+<p>"Elizabeth," he announced; "I will see Mrs.
+Wilby. Let the matter die out, do not refer to it. I
+did not think it quite the school for her. We will find
+something else."</p>
+
+<p>"Chilian, I must make one effort for you and her.
+Going on this way will be her ruin. I should insist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+upon her going back to school and apologizing to Mrs.
+Wilby. I wouldn't let a chit like that order what a
+household of grown people should do and make them
+bow down to her. You will be sorry for it in the end.
+You have had no experience with children, you have
+seen so few. And a man hasn't the judgment&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>His usually serene temper was getting ruffled, and
+with such characters the end is often obstinacy.</p>
+
+<p>"If she is to make a disturbance here, become a
+bone of contention with us, I will send her away.
+Cousin Giles is taking a great interest in her. There
+are good boarding-schools in Boston, or she and Miss
+Winn could have a home together under his supervision.
+There is enough to provide for them."</p>
+
+<p>"And you would turn her over to that half-heathen
+woman!" in a horrified tone. "Then I wash my
+hands of the matter. Send her to perdition, if you
+will."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>CHANGEFUL LIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD</h3>
+
+
+<p>Elizabeth Leverett busied herself about the supper.
+She felt as one does in the threatening of a thunderstorm,
+when the clouds roll up and the rumbling is
+low and distant and one studies the sky with presentiments.
+Then it comes nearer, flirts a little with the
+elements, breaks open and shows the blue that the
+scurrying wind soon hides and the real storm bursts.
+She had believed all along that it must come.</p>
+
+<p>She was not an ungracious or a selfish woman outside
+of her own home. She was good to the sick and
+the needy, she gave of her time and strength. In the
+home there was a sense of ownership, of the self-appropriation
+so often termed duty. Everything had gone
+on smoothly for years. She had settled that Chilian
+would not marry. Such a bookish man, whose interests
+lay chiefly with men, did not need a wife when
+there was some one at hand to make him comfortable.
+And that he surely was. He understood and enjoyed
+it. He had only to suggest to have. Her affection for
+him was like that for a younger brother. Even Eunice
+could not minister so well for his comfort, though,
+like Mary of Bible lore, she often added a delicate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+pleasure in listening to matters or incidents that interested
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth had settled to the idea of a little heathen
+soul that she was to lead aright. Missionary work in
+godless lands had not made much advance and, having
+no mother, who was there to warn her of the great
+peril of her soul? Seafaring men were not much
+given to thought of the other world. Perhaps there
+was some grace for them in the hours of peril, she
+had heard they prayed to God in an extremity; and
+there was the dying thief. But on land no one had a
+right to count on this.</p>
+
+<p>The child had changed everything. Even Eunice
+seemed to have lost the sharp distinction. Miss Winn
+belonged to the ungodly, that was clear&mdash;though she
+was upright, honest, neat, and in some ways sensible.
+But her ideas about the child were foreign and reprehensible&mdash;dangerous
+even. The child was no worse
+than others, not as bad as some, for she had either by
+nature or training a delicate respect for the property of
+others. She never meddled. She asked few questions
+even when she stood by the kitchen table and watched
+the mysteries of cake and pie making and the delicacies
+of cooking. It was the right to herself that annoyed
+Elizabeth. People had hardly begun to suspect that
+children had any rights.</p>
+
+<p>"But if she went away? If she was swallowed up
+in the vortex of the more populous city"&mdash;greater,
+Salem would not have admitted. "If the child's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+soul was finally lost, would she be quite clear?
+Would she have done all that she could for her
+salvation?"</p>
+
+<p>She thought of it as she prepared the supper. She
+surveyed the inviting-looking table and then rang the
+bell. Eunice brought in a handful of flowers. Chilian
+came&mdash;and Miss Winn.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia has gone to bed, she does not want any
+supper," was her quiet announcement.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth would have sent her to bed supperless,
+and approved of a severer punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn asked some questions about Boston.</p>
+
+<p>"I have quite a desire to see it," she added.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, she would no doubt plan for a removal. Then
+the child would be forever lost. And a Leverett, too,
+come of a strong God-fearing family!</p>
+
+<p>The child, when she had hidden her face on Rachel's
+bosom, gave some dry, hard sobs that shook her small
+frame. Rachel smoothed her hair, patted the shoulder
+softly, and said "Dear" in a caressing tone. Then
+had come a torrent of tears, a wild hysterical weeping.
+She did not attempt to check it, but took Cynthia in
+her arms as if she had been a baby.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to that school any more," she said
+brokenly, after a while.</p>
+
+<p>"What happened, dear?"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia raised her head. "It was very mean, as if
+I had done it on purpose! Why, I might have hurt
+myself;" indignantly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"How was it?" gently.</p>
+
+<p>And then the story came tumbling out. She saw a
+certain ludicrous aspect in it now, and laughed a little
+herself. "I couldn't help being saucy. And I thought
+she was going to strike me. Tommy Marsh began to
+laugh first. The slate broke&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Are you quite sure you were not hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my arm hurt a little at first, but it is all well
+now. But I shan't go back to school,&mdash;no, not even to
+please Cousin Leverett, and I like him best of any
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going down to supper, dear. Shall I bring
+up yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want any. I couldn't eat anything. And
+I can't have Cousin Elizabeth's sharp eyes looking at
+me. Oh, I'm glad I am not her little girl! I like you
+a million times better, Rachel;" hugging her rapturously.
+"I think I'd like to have a glass of milk.
+And may I lie on your little bed?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear."</p>
+
+<p>She was asleep when Rachel came up and it was
+past nine when she woke, drank her milk, and went to
+bed for the night.</p>
+
+<p>How gaily the birds were singing the next morning,
+and the sunbeams were playing hide-and-seek through
+the branches that dance in the soft wind. All the air
+was sweet and the little girl couldn't help being light-hearted.
+She sang, too; not measured hymns of sorrow
+and repentance, but a gay lilt that followed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+bird voices. And she went down to breakfast and said
+her good-morning cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"That child has the assurance of the Evil One,"
+Elizabeth thought.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia waylaid Cousin Chilian as he was going
+down the path.</p>
+
+<p>"I meant what I said yesterday. I won't go to that
+school any more. If there was some other&mdash;only&mdash;only
+I wish you could teach me until I could get
+up straight in all the things, so the other children
+wouldn't laugh when I made blunders. I suppose it
+does sound funny;" and a smile hovered about the
+seriousness.</p>
+
+<p>"We will consider another school," he returned
+kindly, smiling himself at the remembrance of the
+tempest of yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>She persuaded Rachel to go out to walk and they
+went over to the bridge. She had been so interested
+in the story of it. Before it had faded from the minds
+of men it was to be splendidly commemorated as a
+point of interest in the old town.</p>
+
+<p>"I like real stories," she said. "I don't understand
+about the war, but it is fine to think the Salem men
+made the British soldiers go back when all the while
+the cannon and other arms were hidden away. You
+don't mind, Rachel, if the Colonists did beat England,
+do you? I'm a Colonist, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"That is long ago, and we are all friends now. I
+think the Colonists were very brave and persevering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+and they deserved their liberty. I have heard your
+father talk about the war."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, when do you suppose he will come? It seems
+so long to wait."</p>
+
+<p>Rachel smiled to keep the tears out of her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian Leverett made a call and a brief explanation
+to Dame Wilby. She admitted she had been hasty,
+but the children were unusually trying. She was
+getting to be an old body and maybe she hadn't as
+much patience as years ago. Cynthia said so many
+odd things that the children <i>would</i> giggle. She was
+slow in some things, and it seemed hard for her to
+learn tables, but she was not a bad child.</p>
+
+<p>So the tempest blew over. Elizabeth preserved a
+rather injured silence, but Eunice was cheerful and
+ready to entertain Cynthia with stories of the time
+when she was a little girl. Chilian arranged for her
+to spend most of the mornings with him when he was
+at home. She liked so very much to hear him read.
+The histories of that time were rather dry and long
+spun out, but he had a way of skipping the moralizing
+and the endless disquisitions and adding a little more
+vividness to people and incidents. It inspired him to
+watch her face changing with every emotion, her eyes
+deepening or brightening, and the slight mark in her
+forehead where lines of perplexity crossed. Then
+they would talk it all over. Often he was puzzled with
+her endless "whys" that he could not rightly explain
+to a child's limited understanding. Sometimes she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+would say, "Why, I would have done so," and he
+found her course would be on the side of the finest
+right, if not what was considered feasible.</p>
+
+<p>The spelling was a trial when the words were a little
+obscure. And though she had a wonderful knack of
+guessing at things, she surely was not born for a
+mathematician. He had a fine, quick mind in that respect.
+But the Latin was a delight to her and she
+delved away at the difficult parts for the sake of what
+she called the grand and beautiful sound. His rendering
+of it enchanted her.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see any sense in educating her like a boy,"
+declared Elizabeth. "And she can't do a decent bit
+of hemming. She ought to work a sampler and learn
+the letters to mark her own clothes. We did it before
+we were her age. Chilian thinks you can hire people
+to do these things for you, but it seems so helpless not
+to be able to do them for yourself. Housekeeping is of
+more account than all this folderol. She can never be
+a college professor."</p>
+
+<p>"But women <i>are</i> keeping schools," interposed Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>"They don't teach Latin and all kinds of nonsense.
+That Miss Miller was here a few days ago to see if we
+didn't want our niece&mdash;folks are beginning to call her
+that&mdash;to see if we did not want her to take lessons on
+the spinet. I was so glad she did not appeal to Chilian,
+though he was out. I said, 'No,' very decidedly,
+'that she had a good many things to learn before she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+tackled that.' And she said she ought to be trained
+while her fingers were flexible, and I said I thought
+washing would make them flexible enough. And
+there's fine ironing."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no need of either for her," protested Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you don't know. There might be a war again.
+And a trouble about money. I'm sure there is talk
+enough and the country raising loans all the time, one
+party pulling one way, one the other. People are
+getting awfully extravagant nowadays. Patty Conant
+gave seven dollars a yard for her new black silk, and
+there were twelve yards. It broke pretty well into a
+hundred, and there was some fancy gimp and fringe
+and the making. Of course, there's going to be two
+weddings in the family, and I don't suppose Patty
+will ever buy another handsome gown at her time of
+life. Abner brought her home that elegant crape
+shawl, with the fringe and netting nearly half a yard
+deep. Maybe 'twas a present, she let it go that
+way."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, there's money enough among the
+Conants," Eunice commented gently.</p>
+
+<p>"As I said&mdash;one can't always tell what will come to
+pass, nor how much need you may have for your
+money. But I'm thankful my heart is not set on the
+pomps and vanities of this world. And children
+ought to be brought up to some useful habits."</p>
+
+<p>It was a fact that Cynthia did not take to the useful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+branches of womanly living. She abhorred hemming&mdash;and
+such work as she made of it! Miss Eunice
+groaned over it.</p>
+
+<p>"But you ought to have seen what I did two or
+three weeks ago," and she laughed with a gay ring.
+"Such stitches! When I made them nice on the top,
+they were dreadful underneath, and the cotton thread
+was almost black. What is the use of taking such little
+bits of stitches?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;they look prettier. And&mdash;it is the right
+thing to do."</p>
+
+<p>"But you know Rachel can hem all the ruffles. And
+Cousin Elizabeth said ruffles were vanity. I'd like my
+frocks just as well to be plain."</p>
+
+<p>"There would have to be nice stitches in the
+hem."</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel didn't sew when she was little. A great
+lady took her to Scotland, to wait on her, to get her
+shawl when she was a little cool, and fan her when
+she was warm, and carry messages, and drive out in
+the carriage with her. They had servants for everything.
+And then&mdash;she was ten years old&mdash;she sent her
+to a school, where she learned everything. But she
+doesn't know all the tables and a great many other
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"But she knows what fits her for her station in
+life."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia looked puzzled. "What is your station in
+life?" she asked with an accent of curiosity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, child, it is where you are placed; and the work
+of life is the duties that grow out of it&mdash;and your duty
+towards God."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia dropped into thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Then my duty now is to study. I like it; that is,
+I like a good many things in it. And when my father
+comes home it will be changed, I suppose. You can't
+stay a little girl always."</p>
+
+<p>"But you will have to learn to keep house," returned
+Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll have some one to do that. Men never
+have to cook or keep house. Oh, yes; all the cooks on
+the ship were men. Wasn't that funny!" she continued.</p>
+
+<p>She laughed with so much innocent merriment that
+Miss Eunice laughed too.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you have to do various things in your
+life," she sagely remarked, after a pause.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you must learn to do the various things
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"I believe I won't ever get married. I'll live with
+father always, and we will have some one to keep the
+house, and Rachel will make the clothes. And I'll
+read aloud to father. We'll have a carriage and go
+out riding, and talk about India. I remember so
+many things just by thinking them over. Isn't it
+queer, when for a long time they have gone out of your
+mind? Oh, dear Cousin Eunice, what makes you
+sigh?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cousin Eunice took off her glasses, wiped them vigorously,
+and then wiped her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a bad habit I have." But she was thinking
+of the dream of the little girl that could never come
+true.</p>
+
+<p>The two days in the week that Chilian went into
+Boston were long to Cynthia. She sat in his room
+and studied. He had given her a small table to herself
+and a shelf in a sort of miscellaneous bookcase.
+He found that she never trespassed and that she did
+really study her two hours, sometimes longer when
+the task was not so easily mastered. There <i>was</i> some
+of the old Leverett blood in her, but it had a picturesque
+strain. She placed every book at its prettiest,
+and her papers were gathered up and taken down to
+the kitchen when she was done with them. She was
+beginning to write quite well.</p>
+
+<p>Then in the afternoon she went to walk with Rachel
+to show her the curious places Cousin Leverett had
+told her about. And there were still beautiful woods
+around the town, where they found wild flowers and
+sassafras buds.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth was very much engrossed. She had
+cleared the garret spick and span, scrubbed up the
+floor, wiped off her quilting frames, and put in her
+white quilt, rolling up both sides so she could get at
+the middle. There was to be a circle, with clover
+leaves on the outside. Then long leaves rayed off
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>from the exact middle. She had all the patterns
+marked out. When that was done a wreath went
+around next&mdash;oak leaves and acorns.</p>
+
+<p>She had groaned over the time the little girl devoted
+to Latin, but she never thought all this a waste of
+precious hours. She would never need it and she
+could not decide upon any relative she would like to
+leave it to. There was one quilt of this pattern in
+Salem and, though white quilts were made, few could
+afford to spend so much time over them. There were
+knitted quilts, with ball fringe around four sides, and
+the tester fringed the same way. Old ladies kept up
+their habits of industry in this manner when they were
+past hard work.</p>
+
+<p>Eunice had finished her basket quilt and it was
+really a work of art. But she was out in the flower
+garden a good deal in the early morning and late afternoon.
+Cynthia sometimes kept her company, but she
+was not an expert in gardening science. In the evening
+they sat out on the porch, and a neighbor called
+perhaps. Or she walked over to South River if it was
+moonlight. And, oh, how beautiful everything was!</p>
+
+<p>But it was not all quilting with Miss Elizabeth. In
+July wild green grapes were gathered for preserves.
+Cynthia thought it quite fun to help "pit" them. You
+cut them through the middle and with a small pointed
+knife took out the seeds. She tired of it presently and
+did not cut them evenly, beside she was afraid of
+cutting her thumb.</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Elizabeth went about getting dinner, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+was quite a simple thing when Chilian was away, and
+at night they had a high tea.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll cut them," said Eunice, "and you can pick out
+the seeds. But maybe you are tired;" with a glance
+of solicitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I'm tired, but I'm going to keep straight on
+until dinner-time," she answered pluckily.</p>
+
+<p>"You are a brave little girl."</p>
+
+<p>But Cousin Elizabeth said, "Well, for once you have
+made yourself useful."</p>
+
+<p>There was a great point of interest just then for the
+people on this side of the town. Front Street was the
+old river path that had followed the shore line. One
+end was known now as Wharf Street, and was beginning
+to be lined with docks. Up farther to what is
+now Essex Street there had stood a house with a history.
+Its owner had been a Tory, and just before the
+war broke out he entertained Governor Gage and the
+civil and military staff. Timothy Pickering had been
+summoned to the Governor's presence, but he kept
+his Excellency so long in an indecent passion that the
+town-meeting had to be adjourned. Troops were ordered
+up from the Neck and for a while an encounter
+seemed imminent. Later, when the Colonists were in
+the ascendency, Colonel Browne's estate was confiscated,
+and after the close of the war it was turned
+over to Mr. Elias Derby. Now he was removing it
+to make way for a much finer residence and, being
+a notably patriotic citizen, he did not enjoy the stigma<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+of a Tory house. Parts were carried away as curiosities,
+and there were some beautiful carvings and fine
+newel posts that found a place in new homes as mementoes.
+Afterward, Mr. Derby built the handsomest
+and costliest house in Salem, with grounds laid out
+magnificently.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a very busy time. There was preserving
+that every housewife attended to for winter use, pickling
+of various kinds, for there was no canning stock
+in those days to eke out. There were some queer
+fruits from India, and preserved ginger in curious jars
+that are highly esteemed to this day, but they were
+luxuries. Then a house-cleaning season, not as bad as
+the spring, but still bad enough. And flower seeds to
+be saved, garden seeds to be dried, so the beautiful
+quilt was rolled up in a thick sheet and put away for
+the present.</p>
+
+<p>The little girl had made quite friends with the Upham
+children and went over there to tea all alone, but
+she felt very strange. They played tag and blind-man's
+buff, but Cynthia thought puss in the corner
+the most fun. Bentley was a nice big boy and very
+well mannered. Polly talked over her school and
+brought out her needlework, which was to be the bottom
+of a white frock. It would be only two yards
+round and she had almost a yard worked. Then she
+was making a sampler, with an oak and acorn vine
+around it, and it was to have four different kinds of
+lettering on it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I don't know when I shall get it done," she said
+with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>Betty declared Dame Wilby was crosser than ever
+and Priscilla Lee wasn't coming back, nor Margaret
+Rand, and she was coaxing mother to let her go elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>After a while Cynthia declared she must go home.
+Cousin Chilian had said he would come for her, but
+the clock was striking nine and he had not come. He
+sometimes <i>did</i> forget.</p>
+
+<p>Bentley took his hat and walked beside her in quite
+a mannish way.</p>
+
+<p>"I do hope you will come again," he said. "You
+were so pleasant when you were caught, and I do
+hate to have girls saying all the time, 'Now that isn't
+fair,' and squirming out."</p>
+
+<p>"But if you're playing you must take the best and
+the worst. I liked puss in the corner and didn't mind
+being the left-out pussy. I thought it was quite fun to
+hunt a corner again."</p>
+
+<p>Then they met Cousin Chilian, who had been
+playing a rather prolonged game of chess with a
+visitor. But Bentley kept on with them, and said
+good-night with a polite bow, adding, "She must
+come again, Mr. Leverett, we had such a very nice
+time."</p>
+
+<p>"And wasn't he nice!" exclaimed the child eagerly.
+"He is like some of the grown-up men. I like big
+boys much better than the little ones."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He smiled to himself at that.</p>
+
+<p>Now there came cool nights and mornings, but the
+world was beautiful in its turning leaves, the fragrance
+of ripening fruit, and the late gorgeous-colored flowers.
+They took delightful walks and found so many
+curious places. Sometimes Bentley Upham met them
+and joined in their walks and talks. He thought the
+little girl knew a great deal. And that she had been
+in India, and China, and ever so many of the islands,
+was wonderful.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you ever sew?" he asked one afternoon, as
+they were rambling about.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like it much;" and she glanced up with
+fascinating archness. "I suppose I shall have to
+some day, but Cousin Leverett thinks there is time
+enough."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad you don't," in a hearty tone. "I don't
+have any good of Polly any more. What with her
+white frock, and some lace she is making for a cape,
+and forty other things, she never has time for a game
+of anything, or a nice walk. And she doesn't care
+about study, though her lessons are so different. I
+don't know another girl who studies Latin, and it's so
+nice to talk it over. How rapidly you must have
+learned."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her in admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I knew some of it before I came here. There
+was a chaplain in Calcutta who was&mdash;well, not exactly
+ill, but not well; and father took him with us on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+vessel when he went for certain things, and he staid
+with us afterward. He used to read aloud, and it
+sounded so splendid! Then he taught me. But
+Cousin Leverett said it wasn't quite right, so I am
+going over it. And he is teaching me a little
+French."</p>
+
+<p>"You know they think women don't need to know
+much beside housekeeping and sewing. I just hate to
+hear about ruffles cut on the straight or bias, and I
+couldn't tell what Dacca muslin, or jaconet, or dimity
+was to save myself. And eyelet work and French
+knots and run lace&mdash;that's what the big girls who
+come to see Polly talk about. But I like books,
+and studies, and different countries. I'd like to
+travel. But I don't know that I want to be a sea
+captain."</p>
+
+<p>They found some queer old houses that were odd
+enough. Mr. Leverett said they were almost two
+hundred years old, and that at first the place kept the
+old Indian name, Naumkeag. But the Reverend Francis
+Higginson gave it a new name out of the Bible&mdash;"In
+Salem also is His tabernacle." The early pilgrims
+built a chapel at once.</p>
+
+<p>"How close the houses are!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a row that had survived the hand of improvement.
+There was a huge central chimney-stack,
+big enough for a modern factory, and the house
+seemed built around it. The second story overhung
+the first, and in some of them were small dormer win<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>dows
+looking like bird houses. And the little panes
+of greenish glass seemed to make windows all framework.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was much interested in the Roger Williams
+house, and the story of the old minister.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I thought religion made people good and
+pleasant&mdash;&mdash;" Then she checked herself, for often
+Cousin Elizabeth was <i>not</i> pleasant. And she seemed
+more religious than Cousin Eunice. And Cousin Chilian
+rarely scolded or said a cross word&mdash;he never
+talked about religion, but he went to church on Sunday;
+they all did. She studied the Catechism, she
+could learn easily when she had a mind to, but she
+didn't understand it at all. She shocked Elizabeth by
+her irreverent questions. There was the old horn-book
+primer with&mdash;</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="In Adam's fall">
+<tr><td align='left'>"In Adam's fall</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">We sinned all."</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>"I don't see how that could be when we were not
+there!" she said almost defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"It means the nature we inherited."</p>
+
+<p>"But I don't think that fair!"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know, you never can understand
+until you are in a state of grace. Don't ask such
+impertinent questions. You are a little heathen
+child."</p>
+
+<p>Then she asked Cousin Chilian what "a state of
+grace" meant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I think it is the willingness to do right, to be truthful,
+kindly, obliging. It is all comprised in the Golden
+Rule&mdash;to love God with all your heart and your neighbor
+as yourself, not to do anything to him that you
+would not like to have done to yourself, and to do to
+him whatever you would like him to do for you. That
+is enough for a little girl."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds like Confucius," she said thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>But she went back to Roger Williams when Bentley
+said he was one of his heroes.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he do?" she asked, interested.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he founded the City of Providence. And if
+William Penn is to be honored for founding a city of
+brotherly love, Roger Williams deserves it for establishing
+a city where different sects should agree without
+persecuting each other. You see, they banished
+him from Salem back to England because he thought
+a man had some right to his own opinions, so long as
+he worshipped God. So he went to Providence instead.
+He walked all the way with just his pocket
+compass to guide him, and how he must have worked
+to make a dwelling-place for himself and his friends
+in the dead of winter! There were some Quakers
+already there, who had been banished from other settlements,
+and they all resolved to be friendly. Yes, I
+call him a hero!"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia studied the house with the little courtyard
+and the great tree shading it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Polly said it was the Witch House," she remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"That was because there were trials for witchcraft.
+You are too young to hear about that," Chilian said
+decisively, with a glance at Bentley.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>SORROW'S CROWN OF SORROW</h3>
+
+
+<p>Occasionally they went down to the warehouse, and
+while Chilian was busy some of the captains or mates
+would speak to her. They knew about her father and
+one sad fact she did not know. For she had settled
+in her mind that Captain Corwin would bring him back
+and that it would take a long, long while. So she tried
+to be content and if not teasing or fretting was one of
+the ways of being good, she tried her utmost to keep
+to that. She was too brave to tell falsehoods to shield
+herself from any inadvertent wrongdoing, even if
+Cousin Elizabeth did sometimes say:</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to be soundly whipped. To spare the
+rod is to spoil the child."</p>
+
+<p>She thought if anybody ever did whip her she
+should hate him all the rest of her life. Servants
+and workmen were beaten in India, and it seemed degrading.
+She did not know that Cousin Chilian had
+insisted that she should never be struck. He was understanding
+more every day how her father had loved
+her, and finding sweet traits in her unfolding.</p>
+
+<p>She liked these rough bronzed men to touch their
+odd hats to her and call her Missy. Some of them had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+seen her in Calcutta and knew her father. And when
+she said, "It takes a long, long while to go there and
+come back, but when Captain Corwin brings him he is
+going to live here and will never go to sea any more"&mdash;"No,
+that he never will, missy;" and the sailor
+drew his hand across his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how full the wharves were with shipping!
+Flags and pennons waved, and white sails; others,
+gray with age and weather, flapped in the wind. She
+liked to see them start out; she always sent a message
+by them in the full faith of childhood. And there were
+the fishermen in the cove lower down. Fishing was
+quite a great business.</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Giles had made his visit and spent two whole
+days down in the warehouse, when they had not taken
+her. But she helped Cousin Eunice cut the stems of
+the sweet garden herbs for drying, and the others for
+perfumery. There was lavender, the blossoms had
+been gathered long ago, and sweet marjoram and
+sweet clover. She always gathered the full-blown rose
+leaves and sewed them up in little bags and laid them
+among the household stores. Everything was so fragrant.
+Cynthia thought she liked it better than sandalwood
+and the pungent Oriental perfumes.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the autumnal storms, when the vessels
+hugged the docks securely at anchor. The house was
+chilly all through and fires were in order. Some two
+or three miles below there was a wreck of an East
+Indiaman, and for days fragments floated around.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+Some lives were lost, and the little girl shuddered over
+the accounts.</p>
+
+<p>All the foliage began to turn and fall. The late
+flowers hung their heads. It had been a beautiful
+autumn, people said to pay up for the late spring.</p>
+
+<p>There had been a little discussion about a school
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"She seems so small, and in some things diffident,"
+Chilian said. "The winters are long and cold, and she
+has not been used to them. Cousin Giles thinks her
+very delicate."</p>
+
+<p>"She isn't like children raised here, but she's quite
+as strong as common. She oughtn't be pampered and
+made any more finicking than she is. A girl almost
+ten. What is she going to be good for, I'd like to
+know?"</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Giles had not made much headway with her.
+He was large and strong with an emphatic voice, and
+a head of thick, strong white hair, a rather full face,
+and penetrating eyes. He had advised about investments,
+though he thought no place had the outlook of
+Boston. But Salem was ahead of her in foreign trade.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian Leverett felt very careful of the little girl.
+For if she died a large part of her fortune came to him.
+He really wished it had not been left that way. There
+was an East India Marine Society that had many
+curiosities&mdash;stored in rooms on the third floor of the
+Stearns building. It had a wider scope than that and
+was to assist widows and orphans of deceased mem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>bers,
+who were all to be those "who had actually navigated
+the seas beyond Cape of Good Hope, or Cape
+Horn, as masters or supercargoes of vessels belonging
+to Salem." To this Anthony had bequeathed many
+curiosities and a gift. There was talk of enlarging its
+scope, which was begun shortly after this.</p>
+
+<p>Matters had settled to an amicable basis in the Leverett
+house. Rachel had won the respect of Elizabeth,
+who prayed daily for her conversion from heathendom
+and that she might see the claims the Christian religion
+had upon her. Eunice and she were more really
+friendly. She made some acquaintances outside and
+most people thought she must be some relation of the
+captain's. She had proved herself very efficient in
+several cases of illness, for in those days neighbors
+were truly neighborly.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia did shrink from the cold, though there were
+good fires kept in the house. This winter Chilian had
+a stove put up in the hall, very much against Elizabeth's
+desires. Quite large logs could be slipped in
+and they would lie there and smoulder, lasting sometimes
+all night. It was a great innovation and extravagance,
+though wood seemed almost inexhaustible in
+those days. And it was considered unhealthy to sleep
+in warm rooms, though people would shut themselves
+up close and have no fresh air.</p>
+
+<p>Then the snow came, but it was a greater success in
+the inland towns, and there were sledding and sleigh-riding.
+The boys and girls had great times building<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+forts and having snowballing contests. But the little
+girl caught a cold and had a cough that alarmed her
+guardian a good deal and made him more indulgent
+than ever, to Elizabeth's disgust.</p>
+
+<p>She was not really ill, only pale and languid and
+seemed to grow thinner. She was much fairer than
+any one could have supposed and her eyes looked
+large and wistful. Chilian put some pillows in the big
+rocking-chair and tilted it back so that she could almost
+lie down on it.</p>
+
+<p>"You are so good to me," she would say with her
+sweet, faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>Bentley came in now and then of an evening, and
+she liked to hear what they were doing at school.
+Polly, too, made visits; they had a half-holiday on
+Saturday. She always brought some work, and Elizabeth
+considered her a very industrious girl. She was
+going to a birthday party of one of her mates.</p>
+
+<p>"What do they do at parties?" inquired the little
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they play games. There's stagecoach. Everybody
+but one has a seat. He blows a horn and
+sings out, 'Stage for Boston,' or any place. Then
+every one has to change seats. Such a scrambling and
+scurrying time! and the one who gets left has to take
+the horn."</p>
+
+<p>"It's something like puss in the corner."</p>
+
+<p>"Only ever so many can play this. Then there's
+'What's my thought like?' That's rather hard, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+funny. I like twirling the platter. If you don't catch
+it when it comes near you, you must pay a forfeit.
+And redeeming them is lots of fun, for you are told
+to do all sorts of ridiculous things. Then there's some
+goodies and mottoes and you can exchange with a boy.
+But Kate Saltonstall's big sister had a party where
+they danced. Eliza wanted some dancing, but her
+mother said so many people did not approve of it for
+children."</p>
+
+<p>"And don't you have some one to come and dance
+for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what a queer idea! The fun is in dancing
+yourself with a real nice boy. Some people think it
+awfully wrong. Do you, Miss Winn?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. When I was a child in England we
+went out and danced on the green. Everybody did.
+And when there were doings at the great houses&mdash;like
+Christmas, and weddings, and coming of age&mdash;the
+ladies, in their silks and satins and laces, came down
+in the servants' hall and danced with the butler and
+the footmen, and my lord took out some of the maids.
+I don't think dancing hurts any one."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm glad to hear you say that, Miss Winn. They
+are talking of having a dancing-class in school. I
+hope mother will let me join it."</p>
+
+<p>"And they teach it in schools there."</p>
+
+<p>"And why shouldn't they here?" said Polly.</p>
+
+<p>To be sure. Cynthia was much interested and made
+Polly promise to come again and tell her all about it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+Old Salem was awakening rapidly from her rigid
+torpor.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if I could ever have a party," she said
+to Cousin Leverett that evening. "When father
+comes home we might have what they did at the Perkinses
+when they went in their new place&mdash;a house-warming.
+Is that like a party?"</p>
+
+<p>"About the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Elizabeth thinks it wicked. Wouldn't she
+think dancing wicked?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid she would."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia sighed. No, she couldn't have a party here.</p>
+
+<p>She waited quite eagerly for Polly's account. The
+little girl was in her own room. Miss Winn had gone
+out to get some medicine. Cynthia tried to be well
+sometimes, so she would not have to take the nauseous
+stuff. No one had invented medicated sugar pills at
+that time. She liked Cousin Elizabeth's cough syrup.</p>
+
+<p>Polly was overflowing with spirits.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I want to be big, right away. Bella Saltonstall
+was there and she's going into company next winter,
+she says. And she showed us some of the dancing
+steps and they just bewitch you. It's like this"&mdash;and
+Polly picked up her frock in a dainty manner and
+whirled about the vacant spaces in the room.</p>
+
+<p>"But doesn't it tire you dreadfully? The girls in
+India stand still a great deal more and just sway about.
+They come in and dance for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Tire you! Oh, no. That's the great fun, to do it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+yourself. Bella said it was&mdash;ex&mdash;something, and the
+word is in the spelling-book, but I never can remember
+the long words. Oh, I just wish I was fifteen and
+wasn't going to school any more. And then there's
+keeping company and getting married, and having
+your setting out. School seems stupid. There were
+two boys who wanted to come home with me, but
+mother said Ben must. Then I wished&mdash;well, I wished
+he was in college. He wants to go. Father says Mr.
+Leverett has infected him with the craze."</p>
+
+<p>"If I was a boy, I'd like to go. Cousin Leverett is
+going to take me to Harvard next summer when they
+have their grand closing time."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather be a girl and have a nice beau."</p>
+
+<p>Plainly Polly had been saturated with dissipation.</p>
+
+<p>Spring was suggesting her advent. The days were
+longer. The snow was disappearing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Cousin Leverett, look&mdash;there are some buds
+on the trees!" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You can see them at intervals through the
+winter. They are wise little things, and swell and then
+shrink back in the cold."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad. I can soon go out. I get very tired
+some days. I like summer best."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I do hope we shall have an early spring."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up with smiling gladness.</p>
+
+<p>That afternoon she had fallen asleep in the big chair.
+How almost transparent she was. The long lashes
+lay on the whiteness of her cheek&mdash;yes, it was really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>
+white. And there was very little color in her
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>Abner Hayes came up from the warehouse with
+some papers the <i>Ulysses</i> had just brought in.</p>
+
+<p>"That the captain's poor little girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; she's asleep. She hasn't been very well this
+winter, but the first nice balmy day I shall take her
+out driving. I've been almost afraid to have the air
+blow on her."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, she ought to live and enjoy all that big fortune.
+It's a thousand pities the captain couldn't have
+come back and enjoyed it with her. But we must all
+go when our time comes. You never hear a hard word
+said about him, and sure's there's a heaven he is
+in it."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian held up his finger. Then he signed a paper
+that had to go back, and asked if the cargo of the
+<i>Ulysses</i> was in good shape.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth called him downstairs after that. There
+was a poor man wanting some sort of a position and
+Chilian promised to look out for him. He had been
+porter in a store, but the heavy lifting made him cough.
+He would have to get something lighter.</p>
+
+<p>When he returned Cynthia was standing by his
+table, white as a little ghost. He almost dropped into
+the chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Was I dreaming, or did that man say my father
+couldn't come back to Salem, that he&mdash;that he
+was&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She swayed almost as if she would fall. He drew
+her down on his knee and her head sank on his shoulder.
+She was so still that he was startled. How many
+times he had wondered how he would get her told.
+Perhaps it had been wrong to wait.</p>
+
+<p>"My little girl! My little Cynthia&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Wait," she breathed, and he held her closer. He
+had come to love her very much, though he had taken
+her unwillingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true? But no one would say such a thing if
+it were not. I had been asleep. I woke just as he said
+that. Perhaps I had been dreaming about our being
+together. And it seemed at first as if my tongue was
+stiff and I couldn't even make a sound. Did he go to
+heaven without me?"</p>
+
+<p>Oh, what should he say to comfort her! She had so
+many feelings far under the surface.</p>
+
+<p>"My little dear," and his voice was infinitely fond,
+"I want to tell you that he loved your mother tenderly.
+No one could have been better loved. In the course of
+a few hours she was snatched away from him. You
+were so little&mdash;five years ago. I doubt if there was
+ever a day in which he did not think of her. When
+you are grown and come to love some one with the
+strength of your whole heart, you will understand how
+great it is. And when the summons came for him his
+first thought was that he should see her, and with the
+next he must find a new home for his little girl, so he
+gave you to me. It is very hard just now, but you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+must think how happy they are together. Perhaps
+they both know you are here, where you will be cared
+for and made happy, for we all love you. Every one
+has not the same way of showing love, but Cousin
+Elizabeth has done everything she could for you this
+winter. And we don't want to lose you. You won't
+grudge them a few years together in that happy
+place?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, are you quite sure there <i>is</i> a heaven?"</p>
+
+<p>Oh, Cynthia, you are not the first one who has asked
+to have it certified.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear; very sure," in the tone of faith.</p>
+
+<p>"He loved mother very much?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence. He felt the slow beating
+of her little heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I ought to be content, since he gave me to
+you, when he knew he was going away."</p>
+
+<p>"It would have been very sad if you had been left
+alone there. Out of his great love he planned it this
+way, thinking the tidings would not come so hard
+after a while. And now you can always recall him as
+you saw him last and just think, in a moment of time
+God called and he stepped over the narrow space that
+seems such a mystery to us and met <i>her</i>. I wish we
+didn't invest death with so much that is painful, for it
+is God's way of calling us to a better land where there
+are no more partings. Sometime you and I will go
+over to them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't feel afraid with you," she commented
+simply.</p>
+
+<p>When the tea bell rang she asked to be carried to
+her room and laid on Rachel's little bed. He kissed
+her gently and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>The next was his day in Boston. But late in the
+afternoon, after Miss Eunice had been visiting her an
+hour or so, she went to the study and sat by the window,
+where she could see him come. He glanced up
+and she waved her hand daintily. All day he had
+been wondering how he should find her.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't coughed but a very little to-day," she
+exclaimed. "Cousin Elizabeth made some new syrup.
+And the doctor was in. He said I was a little lazy,
+that I must be more energetic."</p>
+
+<p>"I've been ordering a new carriage to-day. The old
+one was hardly worth repairing. And when you are
+stronger I think I'll buy a gentle pony and we can go
+out riding. You would not be afraid after a little?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not with you."</p>
+
+<p>Her confidence was very sweet.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going down to tea to-night. I was down at
+noon."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you are improving. I hope there will come
+some warm weather and balmy airs."</p>
+
+<p>"It was beautiful last spring. You know I never
+saw a real spring before."</p>
+
+<p>She was bearing her loss and her sorrow beautifully.
+All day she had been thinking of the joy of those two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+when they met on the confines of that beautiful world.
+It made heaven seem so near, so real. Sometimes the
+tears came to her eyes. She was Cousin Chilian's little
+girl, so why should she feel lonely!</p>
+
+<p>Once in a number of years spring comes early. It
+did this time, at the close of the century. People shook
+their heads and talked about "weather-breeders," and
+mentioned snow as late as May, when fruit trees
+had been in bloom. But nature had turned over a
+bright, clear leaf, that made the book of time fairly
+shine.</p>
+
+<p>The carriage came and Cynthia was taken out.
+Miss Elizabeth wrapped her up like a mummy, and
+would put a brick, swathed in coverings, in the bottom
+for her feet. He had taken the ladies out occasionally,
+but of late years the sisters had been so busy they had
+little time for pleasure, they thought.</p>
+
+<p>They crossed North Bridge and went up Danvers
+way. Oh, how lovely it was with the trees in baby
+leaf, and some wild things blossoming. And even
+then industry had planted itself. There on the farther
+bank of Waters River was the iron mill, where Dr.
+Nathan Read invented his scheme for cut nails. And
+he built a paddle-wheel steamboat that was a success
+before Robert Fulton tried his. And they passed the
+Page house, where General Gage had his office, and
+Madam Page had tea on the roof, because they had
+promised not to use tea in the house.</p>
+
+<p>That amused Cynthia and he also told her of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+woman, when tea first came to the country, who boiled
+the leaves and seasoned them, passing them around to
+her guests, who didn't think they were anything much
+in the vegetable line and too expensive ever to become
+general.</p>
+
+<p>Birds sang about them, flocks of wild geese had
+started on their northward journey. What a wonderful
+world it was! And her father had been a boy here
+in Salem village, had lived in Cousin Chilian's house
+in the father's time, and her mother had been married
+in the stately parlor. Why, she could dream of their
+being real guests of the place. How odd she should
+come to live here. The life in India would be the
+dream presently.</p>
+
+<p>She was very tired when Chilian lifted her out of
+the carriage and took her upstairs. Rachel put her
+to bed for a while and gave her a cup of hot tea&mdash;mint
+and catnip&mdash;which was a great restorer, or so
+considered, in those days. She came down to supper
+and was quite bright.</p>
+
+<p>Every day she improved a little. Eunice said she
+was getting 'climated.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth wondered if she had any deep feeling.
+She had expected to see her "take on" terribly. Chilian
+begged her not to disturb the child's faith that
+both parents were in heaven.</p>
+
+<p>"Letty Orne, that was, might have been one of the
+elect, but sea captains are seldom considered safe in
+the fold, as children of grace. I never heard that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+had any evidence. And 'tisn't safe to count on meeting
+them unless you've had some sign."</p>
+
+<p>"We must leave a good many of these things to
+God. His ways are better than our short-sighted
+wisdom."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth was never quite sure of Chilian. So much
+study, and reading, and college talk, and the new
+theories, and what they called discoveries, were enough
+to unsettle one's faith, and she feared for him.
+Younger children than Cynthia had gone through the
+throes of conviction&mdash;she had herself, and she longed
+to see her in this state.</p>
+
+<p>But the child was quite her olden self. What with
+the change of climate and her illness she was many
+shades fairer, and her hair was losing its queer sunburned
+color. Her thin frame began to fill out, her
+face grew rounder, and her smile was sweetness itself.</p>
+
+<p>"But she hasn't grown a mite since she came. Leverett
+people are all of a fair size. I don't know a little
+runt among them," persisted Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I could grow," she sighed in confidence to
+Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind. Then you will always be my little
+girl," he would answer consolingly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>LESSONS OF LIFE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Even Chilian wondered that the little girl took the
+death of her father so calmly. Elizabeth called it unnatural
+and questioned whether the child had any deep
+feeling.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe she's shed a tear. And, Eunice, the
+child ought to go in black."</p>
+
+<p>The child was trying to get used to changed ideas.
+If her mother was glad and happy, now that they were
+again united, why should she be sorry? It seemed
+selfish to her as if she grudged them the joy. And
+Cousin Chilian was trying every way to entertain her,
+to help her on to perfect recovery. Sometimes, when
+she sat alone in the study, the soft eyes would overflow
+and the tears course silently down her cheeks.
+She never cried in the tempestuous way of some children.
+But she knew now she had counted a good deal
+on their having a home together. Rachel would keep
+the house and she and her father would take walks
+and have a garden, where she could cut flowers and
+have them in the house. Cousin Elizabeth said they
+made a litter. And now she should never go down to
+the wharf and see him standing on the deck, and wave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+her hand to him, as she used when he went on short
+journeys in India. They would have a low carry-all
+and ride around, as she would tell him all she had
+learned about Salem. And they would have people
+in to drink tea and have pretty dishes on the table.
+Perhaps he would give her a party. But she didn't
+know any children, except the Uphams. It might be
+better to go to school so that she could get acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian was a good deal startled about the black
+garments.</p>
+
+<p>"She is so little and thin," he objected. "I never
+did like children in black; it seems as if you weighted
+them down with woe. And he has been dead so many
+months now."</p>
+
+<p>"But one ought to pay decent respect to a custom
+sanctioned by all civilized people. There will be a talk
+about it. Folks may think it our fault."</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe half a dozen people would notice
+it. It's only a custom after all. I never did like it.
+We will see how she feels about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Chilian, you make that child of as much importance
+as if she was a woman grown. You will have
+your hands full by and by. She will think every
+one must bow down to her and consult her whims and
+fancies."</p>
+
+<p>"We will see;" nodding indifferently.</p>
+
+<p>He didn't want her around in garments of woe.
+Very gently he mentioned the subject.</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up out of sweet, entreating eyes. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+had been standing by him, looking over a very choice
+book of engravings.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she returned. "Rachel spoke of it. And
+you know there are some people who wear white, and
+some who put on yellow. Black isn't a nice color.
+Do you like it?"</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the inside of me that aches now and then,
+when I think I shall never see him come sailing back,
+that I must be a long while without him until I go to
+their land. But he must be very happy with mother,
+and that is what I think of when I feel how hard it
+is;" and the tears stole softly down her cheeks. "I
+have Rachel and you, and he said you would always
+love me and care for me. But I try not to feel sorry,
+and if I had on a black frock I couldn't help but think
+of it all the time. Then I should be sorry inside and
+outside both, and is it right to make yourself unhappy
+when you believe people have gone to heaven?"</p>
+
+<p>She said it so simply that he was deeply moved. She
+had been alone with her sorrow all this time, when
+they had thought her indifferent.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not wear black&mdash;I wish you would not.
+I want you to get real well and happy. And you are a
+brave little girl to think of them and refrain from
+grief."</p>
+
+<p>She wiped away the tears lest they should fall on
+the book.</p>
+
+<p>"At first it was quite dreadful to me. I couldn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+say anything. Then I remembered how we used to
+talk of mother, as if she was only in the next room.
+And then I sit here and think, when the sky is such
+a splendid blue and there come little white rifts in it,
+as if somewhere it opened, I can almost see them.
+Can't people come back for a few moments?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only in dreams, I imagine."</p>
+
+<p>"I can <i>almost</i> see them. And they are so glad to
+be together. And I know father says, 'Cynthia will
+come by and by.' But twenty years, or thirty years, is
+a long while to wait."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps she wouldn't need to wait so long, he
+thought, as he noted the transparent face.</p>
+
+<p>"And now I should be sorry to go away from you,"
+she said, with grave sweetness.</p>
+
+<p>"I think your father meant you should stay a long
+while with me when he gave you to me;" and he
+pressed her closer to his heart.</p>
+
+<p>So she did not wear mourning, to Elizabeth's very
+real displeasure. There was no further talk about the
+school, but she did try to sew a little and began the
+sampler. Cousin Eunice was her guide here. She
+brought out hers that was over fifty years old, and all
+the colors were fading.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if I shall live fifty years," she mused.</p>
+
+<p>Driving about was her great entertainment. You
+could go to Marblehead, which was a peninsula.
+There were the fishery huts and the men curing and
+drying fish. Sometimes they took passage in one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+the numerous sailing vessels and went in and out the
+irregular shore, and saw Boston from the bay. It
+seemed in those times as if it might get drowned out,
+there was so much water around it.</p>
+
+<p>"And if it should float off out to sea, some day,"
+she half inquired, laughingly.</p>
+
+<p>He was glad to hear her soft, sweet laugh again.</p>
+
+<p>She thought she liked Salem best, and even now people
+began to talk of old Salem, there had been so many
+improvements since the time Governor Bradford had
+written:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Almost ten years we lived here alone">
+<tr><td align='left'>"Almost ten years we lived here alone,&mdash;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>In other places there were few or none;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>For Salem was the next of any fame</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>That began to augment New England's name."</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>And then it went by the old Indian name and was
+called Naumkeag. And she found that it was older
+than Boston, and had been the seat of government
+twice, and that Governor Burnett, finding Boston unmanageable,
+had convened the General Court here for
+two years. That was in 1728, and now it was 1800.</p>
+
+<p>"But no one lives a hundred years," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; there are a number of persons who have
+lived that long. Now and then a person lives in three
+centuries, is born the last year of one, goes through a
+whole century, and dies in the next one."</p>
+
+<p>"What a long, long while!" she sighed.</p>
+
+<p>And there was the old Court House where the
+Stamp Act was denounced. She wanted to know all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+about that, and he was fond of <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'exlaining'">explaining</ins> things, the
+sort of teacher habit, but there was nothing dogmatic
+about it. Here were houses where the Leveretts had
+lived, third or fourth cousins who had married with
+the Graingers, and the Lyndes, and the Saltonstalls,
+and the Hales. It is so in the course of a hundred
+or two years, when emigration does not come in to
+disturb the purity of the blood.</p>
+
+<p>The little girl really began to improve. Her hair
+was taking on a brighter tint and in the warm weather
+the uneven ends curled about her forehead in dainty
+rings, her complexion was many shades fairer, her
+cheeks rounded out, and her chin began to show the
+cleft in it. She was more like her olden self, quite
+merry at times.</p>
+
+<p>The summer went on as usual. Gardening, berry-picking,
+and she helped with the gooseberries, the
+briery vines she did not like. There were jars of jam
+and preserves, rose leaves to gather, and all the mornings
+were crowded full. Often in the afternoon she
+went up in the garret to see Miss Eunice spin&mdash;sometimes
+on the big wheel, at others with flax on the small
+wheel. She liked the whirring sound, and it was a
+mystery to her how the thread came out so fine and
+even.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth had taken the white quilt out of its wrappings,
+it did not get finished the summer before. A
+neighbor had let her copy a new pattern for the border
+that had come from New York. And she heard there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+had been imported white woven quilts with wonderful
+figures in them.</p>
+
+<p>"Then one wouldn't have to quilt any more.
+Shan't you be glad, Cousin Elizabeth?"</p>
+
+<p>"Glad!" She gave a kind of snort and pushed the
+needle into her finger, and had to stop lest a drop of
+blood might mar the whiteness. "Well, I'm not as lazy
+as that comes to, and I don't see how they can put much
+beauty in them. You can change blue and white and
+show a pattern, but where it is all white! Why, you
+couldn't tell it from a tablecloth."</p>
+
+<p>It was warm up in the garret, and what with drying
+herbs, and the sun pouring on the shingles, there was
+a rather close, peculiar air. Cynthia stood by the open
+window, where the sweet summer wind went by, laden
+with the fragrance of newly cut grasses and the silk of
+the corn that was just tasselling out. The hills rose up,
+tree-crowned; white clouds floated by overhead, and
+out beyond was the great ocean that led to other countries&mdash;to
+India she thought of so often.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how the birds sang! She was so sorry Cousin
+Eunice had to sit and spin, when there was such a
+beautiful world all around, and Cousin Elizabeth
+pricked her fingers quilting. She heard her sigh, but
+she did not dare look around. She had that nice sense
+of delicacy, rather unusual in a child. But then she
+wasn't an everyday child.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia," called Rachel from the foot of the stairs,
+"don't you want to go out for a walk? They've been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+unloading the <i>Mingo</i>, and they have a store of new
+things at the Merrits'."</p>
+
+<p>That was the great East India emporium.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes!" She skipped across the floor and ran
+downstairs lightly.</p>
+
+<p>"That child's like a whirlwind," exclaimed Elizabeth
+crossly.</p>
+
+<p>"But we ought to be glad she's so much better. I
+was really afraid in the spring we wouldn't have her
+long."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the Leverett stock is tough."</p>
+
+<p>"But her mother died young."</p>
+
+<p>"Of that horrid India fever. No, I didn't truly
+think she would die. If she had, I wonder where all
+the money would go? Chilian is awful close-mouthed
+about it. But it would have to go somewhere. 'Tisn't
+at all likely he'd leave word for it to be thrown back
+in the sea."</p>
+
+<p>"No; oh, no."</p>
+
+<p>"There's some talk about missionaries going out
+to try to convert the heathen. But Giles thinks it
+would cost more than it would amount to. Giles has
+got way off; seems to me religion's dying out since
+they've begun to preach easy ways of getting to heaven
+and letting the bars down here and there. There's no
+struggle and sense of conviction nowadays; you just
+take it up as a business. And that child talks about
+heaven as if she'd had a glimpse of it and saw her
+father and mother there. Letty Orne was a church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+member in her younger days, but I don't believe the
+captain ever was. And they who don't repent will
+surely perish."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice sighed. She could never get used to the
+thought that thousands of souls were brought into the
+world to perish eternally.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia tied on her Leghorn hat. It did have some
+black ribbon on it, and the strings were passed under
+her chin and tied at one side. That and her silken
+gown gave her a quaint appearance, rather striking
+as well.</p>
+
+<p>They walked down the street and turned corners.
+There was quite a procession of ladies bound for the
+same place. If they had been all buyers, Mr. Merrit
+would have made quite a fortune. But he was glad
+to have them come. They would describe the stock
+to their neighbors, and perhaps decide on what they
+wanted for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Miss Winn!" exclaimed a pleasant-faced
+woman. "And that is Captain Leverett's little girl?
+Why, she looks as if she was quite well again. We
+heard of her being so poorly. I suppose the shock of
+her father's death was dreadful! Poor little thing!
+And she's to be quite an heiress, I heard. What are
+they going to do with her? Won't she be sent to Boston
+to school?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I think not. Mr. Leverett has been teaching
+her a little."</p>
+
+<p>They had fairly to elbow their way in. Long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+counters were piled with goods. Silks, laces, sheerest
+of muslins embroidered beautifully, lace wraps, India
+shawls, jewelry, caps, collars, handkerchiefs, stockings,
+slippers that were dainty enough for a Cinderella.</p>
+
+<p>And all down one side were ranged tables, and jars,
+and vases, and articles one could hardly find a name
+for. Such exquisite carving, such odd figures painted
+and embroidered on silk, birds the like of which were
+never seen on land or sea, dragons that flew, and
+crawled, and climbed trees, and disported themselves
+on waves.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it looks like home," cried Cynthia, for the
+moment forgetting herself. And she kept sauntering
+round among the beautiful things, her heart growing
+strangely light, and her pulses throbbing with a sort
+of joy.</p>
+
+<p>She was almost hidden by a great pile of tapestry.
+The Indians had found some secrets of beauty as well
+as France, if they did make it with infinite pains. And
+this was made with the little hand-looms and joined
+together so neatly and the colors blended so harmoniously
+that it was like a dream. Only the little girl
+did not like the dragons and strange animals. She had
+never seen any real ones like them. They were in the
+stories Nalla used to tell.</p>
+
+<p>Then some one else spoke to Miss Winn. "Is your
+little charge here?" she asked. "I'm quite anxious to
+see her. I've called twice on the Leveretts, and really
+asked for her once when they said she was quite ill.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+But I saw her out in the carriage with&mdash;isn't it her
+uncle? No? And she's to be very well to do, I've
+heard. The idea of the Leverett women undertaking
+to bring up a child! They're good as gold and some
+of the best housekeepers in Salem, but I dare say
+they'll teach her to knit stockings, and make bedquilts,
+and braid rag mats, and do fifty-year-old things&mdash;make
+a regular little Puritan of her. I knew her mother
+quite well before she was married. Doesn't seem as if
+we were near of an age and went to school together.
+But some of the Ornes married in our line. And I was
+married when I was seventeen, and now I'm a grandmother.
+How the years do fly on! And she had to
+die out in that heathen land; he too. Wasn't it odd
+about sending her here beforehand? I do want to see
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"She is somewhere about, interested in all these
+foreign things." Miss Winn was not quite sure
+of the chattering woman. She had learned that the
+Leverett ladies were exclusive, whether from inclination
+or lack of time. They asked their minister and a
+few old family friends in to tea on rare occasions, and
+then it was cooking and baking and cleaning up the
+choice old silver and dusting and polishing, and the
+next day clearing up. Everything out of the routine
+made so much extra work. Among the few English-speaking
+people in India there had been a sort of free
+and easy sociability.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia meanwhile had slipped around the end of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+the counter and came up to them. She wanted to see
+the woman who had been to school with her mother.
+Then her mother was a little girl, perhaps no older
+than she. Did she like it? Cynthia wondered.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Captain Leverett's little daughter," Rachel
+announced rather stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"My&mdash;but you don't favor your mother at all. I'm
+Mrs. Turner and I knew her off and on. We lived
+about thirty miles above here. Then her folks died
+and she went to Boston, but she used to be at the Leveretts'
+a good deal. I married and came here. I'm
+living up North River way and have a house full of
+children&mdash;like steps&mdash;and one grandchild, and I'm
+just on the eve of thirty-seven. I've one little girl
+about your age, but she's ever so much bigger. I'd
+like you to be friends with her. The next older is a
+girl, too. Why, you'd have real nice times if the old
+aunties were willing. Do they keep her strict? And
+she's going to be a considerable heiress, I heard. I
+wonder where her eyes came from? They're not
+Leverett eyes, and her mother's were a clear blue, real
+china blue, but then there's different blues in china,"
+and she laughed. "Sad about the captain, wasn't it?
+He should have lived to enjoy his fortune, and now his
+little girl will have it all. I must come and scrape
+acquaintance for the sake of my girls. You'd like
+them, I know, they're full of fun. We're not strait-laced
+people&mdash;that's going out of date."</p>
+
+<p>Then she passed on. They wandered about a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+more among the vases and jars and the paintings on
+silk. The air was heavy with sandalwood, and attar
+of rose, and incense. The fragrance seemed never to
+die out of those old things that became family heirlooms.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," Rachel said, taking her by the hand. It
+was quite late in the afternoon now, and the shadows
+of everything were growing longer. She could not understand
+why it was at first, but now she knew. And
+the sun would be round there in Asia presently. In
+her secret heart she still believed the sun went round
+and the earth stood still, for in the movement people
+<i>must</i> slip off. But then what held it in the air?
+Cousin Chilian had a globe, but you see there was a
+strong wire through the middle, fastened to the frame
+at both ends. Perhaps the earth was fastened somewhere!
+She liked to make it revolve on its axis, and
+in imagination she crossed the oceans, and seas, and
+capes, and found her father again.</p>
+
+<p>The stage had just come in. They paused on the
+corner, waiting for Cousin Chilian. Some one was
+with him&mdash;yes, it was Cousin Giles Leverett.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, little woman," he began, "so I find you out
+here meandering round, and so much improved that I
+hardly know you. We were afraid in the winter you
+were going to slip away and leave all this fortune behind
+you, never having had a bit of good of it. But
+you look now as if you had taken a new lease. And
+you are positively growing!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Chilian smiled at the remark. He had begun to
+think so himself. And she looked so pretty just now
+with the pink in her cheeks and the soft tendrils of hair
+about her forehead, the eager, luminous eyes. He
+reached out and took her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been inspecting old Salem, and did you
+find any queer things?" Cousin Giles asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there was a great shipload of goods from
+India and it seemed almost as if you were walking
+through the booths at home, only there were no natives
+and no beggars or holy men&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Tut! tut! child; they are not holy men who are
+too lazy to move and waiting for other people to fill
+their mouths. If they were here we'd make them
+work or they'd have to starve. They're talking about
+missionaries being sent out to convert them. I heard
+a rousing sermon on Sunday, but it didn't loosen my
+purse-strings. Your greatest missionary is work,
+good hard labor, clearing up and planting. Suppose
+those old <i>Mayflower</i> people had sat down and held out
+their hands for alms. Do you suppose our Indians
+would have filled 'em with their corn, and fish, and
+game? Not much. They'd tied 'em to a tree and set
+fire to 'em." When Cousin Giles was excited he made
+elisions of speech rather unusual for a Boston man.
+"They went to work and cut down trees, and built
+houses, and raised farm and garden truck, and made
+shoes and clothes, and roads and bridges, and built
+cities and towns, and shamed those countries thousands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+of years old. And now we're trying to help them
+by bringing over their goods and selling them."</p>
+
+<p>"And creating extravagance, Elizabeth would say,"
+returned Chilian, with a sort of humorous smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you might as well keep the money going as to
+hoard it up in an old stocking, so long as it is honestly
+yours. We're getting to be quite a notable country,
+Chilian Leverett."</p>
+
+<p>They turned into Derby Street, and Cousin Giles
+paused to survey the garden.</p>
+
+<p>"You've lots of things to enjoy here," he said. "I
+don't know but it's a sensible thing to take the good
+of what you have as you go along. And little Miss
+here will have enough without your adding to the
+store. You men of Salem ought to begin to do some
+big things&mdash;build a college."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I think our young men would rather go to
+Harvard. We don't want to rival you. We shall be
+the biggest New England seaport. We'll divide up the
+glories."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth was so taken by surprise that she was
+rather cross. She liked things planned beforehand.
+Now the tablecloth must come off. This one had been
+on since Sunday and it had two darns in it. And the
+old silver must come out.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe Cousin Giles would ever notice,"
+Eunice said. "And I do think the china prettier than
+that old silver."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it has the crown mark on it and the Lev<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>eretts
+owned it before they came from England. Giles'
+folks had some of it, too, but the Lord only knows
+what he's done with his. I dare say servants have
+made way with it, or banged it out of shape. Anybody
+can have china. Come, do be spry, Eunice."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia went upstairs and had her hair brushed and
+a clean apron put on, though the other was not soiled.</p>
+
+<p>"Rachel, what is an heiress?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;some one, a woman, who inherits a good
+deal of money."</p>
+
+<p>"Does she have to wait until she is a woman?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, no. Yes, in a way, too. She can have the
+money spent upon her, but she can't have it herself
+until she is twenty-one."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia wondered how it would seem to go and
+spend money, buy ever so many things. But she really
+couldn't think of anything she wanted, unless it was a
+house of her very own, and books, and pretty pictures,
+not portraits of old-fashioned men and women. And
+a pony and a dainty chaise. But then&mdash;she was such
+a little girl, and she wouldn't want to leave Cousin
+Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth made delicious cream shortcake for supper.
+Cousin Giles said everything tasted better up
+here, perhaps it was the clear salt water. There were
+so many fresh ponds and streams around Boston. But
+there were big plans for drainage and for docking
+out. Then Elizabeth was such a fine cook.</p>
+
+<p>The two men sat out on the stoop in the summer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+moonlight and Cynthia thought Cousin Giles really
+quarrelled trying to establish the superiority of Boston.
+Then they talked about investments and Captain Leverett,
+and Giles said, "Cynthia will be one of the richest
+women of Salem. Chilian, you'll have to look sharp
+that some schemer doesn't marry her for her money."</p>
+
+<p>"You must come to bed, Cynthia," declared Rachel.
+Through the open window they could hear Cousin
+Giles' voice plainly.</p>
+
+<p>The men went the next morning to consider an investment
+Chilian had in view. It had been thought
+best to divide the sums coming in between Salem and
+Boston. Then they walked about and saw the improvements,
+the new docks being built to accommodate
+the shipping, the great fleet of boats, the busy ship-yard,
+the hurrying to and fro everywhere. It was not
+merely finery, but spices and articles used in the arts.
+Gum copal was brought from Zanzibar. Indigo came
+in, though they were trying to raise that at the South.</p>
+
+<p>And when Giles saw the new streets and fine houses,
+and Mr. Derby's, that was to cost eighty thousand
+dollars, he did open his eyes in surprise. Though he
+said rather grudgingly:</p>
+
+<p>"It's a shame for one little girl to have all that
+money. There should have been three or four children.
+Fifty years ago the Leveretts had such big
+families they bid fair to overrun the earth, and now
+they've dwindled down to next to nothing. Chilian,
+why don't you marry?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"The same to yourself. Are you clinging to any
+old memory?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not just that. I don't seem to have time.
+Now you are a fellow of leisure. Get about it, man,
+and hunt up a wife."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>A NEW DEPARTURE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Cynthia Leverett was making great improvement
+in every respect. She was no longer the thin,
+wan little thing that had come from India. She had
+outgrown her clothes, which was a good sign, Eunice
+said.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth made a stand for good wearing ginghams
+and plain cloths for winter.</p>
+
+<p>"There's that gray cloth of mine that's too nice to
+hack around for every day. I could have it dyed, I
+suppose, but I've two nice black stuff dresses beside
+my silk, and that other one Chilian gave me that must
+have cost a sight of money; it's thick enough to almost
+stand alone. I can't bear those sleazy stuffs that come
+from India. But I've wished more than once that I
+had the money it cost, out at interest. And the
+cloth&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't a very pretty color," ventured Eunice timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"What does that matter for a child? It won't show
+dirt easily. And it is settled that she is going to
+school, I'm thankful to say."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The dress in question was not a clear, pretty gray,
+but had an ugly yellow tint.</p>
+
+<p>"She certainly is rich enough to buy her own
+clothes, or have them bought for her. I'd dip that
+dress over a good deal darker brown. You know
+Chilian didn't like it for you, and he will not for
+her."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice was amazed at her own protest. The child
+had always been prettily attired. And more attention
+was being paid to children's clothes she noticed in
+church on Sunday, and after she had indulged in such
+sinful wanderings, she read the chapter in Isaiah where
+the prophet denounced the "round tires like the moon,
+the bonnets and the head bands, the mantles, and wimples,
+and crisping pins, and changeable suits of apparel,"
+and other vanities, and predicted dire punishments
+for them.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Turner had called according to her proposal.
+She brought her little daughter Arabella, commonly
+called Bella. Cousin Chilian was out in the garden
+with Cynthia, and received her with his usual kindly
+cordiality, inviting them to walk into the house. The
+parlor shutters were tightly closed, and Mrs. Turner
+abhorred state parlors. Hers was always open, for
+guests were no rarity.</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't we sit out here a spell? It is so delightful
+to have this garden in view. And your clematis is
+a perfect show. Then let the children run around and
+get acquainted. How are the ladies?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She seated herself on the bench at the side of the
+porch.</p>
+
+<p>"I will call them," he said. "But&mdash;hadn't you better
+walk in?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we can't stay very long. I've been waiting for
+the ladies to return my last call, but we were down in
+this vicinity, so I stopped. You see, I don't always
+stand on ceremony. And we have been so interested in
+your little girl. I saw her in Merrit's with Miss
+Winn."</p>
+
+<p>He summoned the ladies, and then he returned to
+the guests. The children were both down the
+path&mdash;Bella talking and gesticulating, and Cynthia
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Turner was in nowise formal. She talked of
+Mr. Turner's business&mdash;he was a shipbuilder&mdash;of the
+rapid strides Salem was making; indeed one would
+hardly know it for old Salem of the witch days. And
+people's ideas had broadened out so, softened from
+their rigidity, "though some of the old folks are thinking
+the very trade we are so proud of is going to ruin
+our character and morals, and fill us with pride and
+vanity. But I say to Mr. Turner the people did
+their hard work and bore their deprivations bravely all
+through the Revolution, and we can't go back and
+make their lot easier by depriving ourselves of comforts,
+or even pleasures."</p>
+
+<p>There might be some casuistry in that, but there
+was truth as well.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then he asked if she knew of any nice schools for
+girls. Where did hers go?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, to Madam Torrey's. That's up Church Street.
+Maybe it would be too far in bad weather, though our
+girls don't mind it. Alice is thirteen, but she's been
+there since she was eight, and Bella has been going
+these two years. The boys are at the Bertram School,
+and your neighbor Bentley Upham goes there. He's
+a nice boy. But Madam Torrey is a fine woman. She
+has an assistant, and a woman comes in to teach the
+French class. Then&mdash;I don't suppose everybody will
+approve of this, but there is going to be a dancing-class
+out of school hours, yet no one is compelled to
+send their children to that. There's fine needlework,
+too, and fancy knitting, indeed about all that it is
+necessary for a girl to know. And the children are
+all from good families; that is quite an important
+point."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I must walk over and see her."</p>
+
+<p>"Do. I am sure you will be pleased. The walk
+will be the only objection. Isn't she delicate?"</p>
+
+<p>"She wasn't well last winter. She took a cold. She
+was not used to our bleak winters. And there was
+her father's death. She had counted so much on his
+return."</p>
+
+<p>"It was very sad. She looks well now."</p>
+
+<p>Then the ladies made their appearance. Elizabeth
+apologized for Chilian not asking her into the parlor.
+"It looked inhospitable."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It was my fault. The stoop was so tempting. A
+shady porch in the afternoon is a luxury. We take our
+sewing out there; that is, Alice and I, and sometimes
+the guests. How lovely your vines are! And your
+garden is a regular show place, quite worth coming
+to see if there were no other charm. And, Miss Leverett,
+I hear you have been making the most beautiful
+white quilt there is in Salem."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. But as nice as any. And it was a sight
+of work. I don't know as I'd do it again. I've no
+chick or child to leave it to."</p>
+
+<p>"May I come over some day and see it? Not that
+I shall do anything of the kind. With four big boys
+to mend for and the two girls, I have my hands
+full."</p>
+
+<p>Then they talked about putting up fruit and making
+jellies, and Mrs. Turner said she must go over to the
+Uphams. She heard that Polly was getting to be such
+a nice, smart girl, and had worked the bottom of her
+white frock and a round cape to match. Then she
+called Bella.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, can't I go over with them?" pleaded Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Chilian nodded. Elizabeth rose stiffly and
+went in. Eunice pulled out her knitting. It was so
+lovely here. There were the warmth and perfume of
+summer and the rich fragrance of ripening fruits and
+grass mown for feed, not snipped with a lawn-mower,
+such things had not been heard of even in the rapidly
+improving Salem.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There are some countries where people live out of
+doors nearly all the time," began Eunice reflectively.
+"Well, they do a good deal in India. But I think this
+is in Europe. And this is so lovely, so restful. But
+I'm afraid you have affronted Elizabeth by not insisting
+Mrs. Turner should walk into the parlor. Though
+really&mdash;we had not returned her last call. I do wish
+Elizabeth could find some time to get out. I don't see
+why there should be so much work."</p>
+
+<p>"Couldn't you have some one to help?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it isn't just the cooking and kitchenwork.
+And no one could suit her there. She's up in that old
+garret toiling, and moiling, and packing away enough
+things to furnish an inn. We shall never want them.
+And there's your mother's, and some of your grandmother's,
+blankets."</p>
+
+<p>"The New England thrift is rather too thrifty
+sometimes," he commented dryly.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia staid after Mrs. Turner made her adieus.
+Indeed, as it was nearing supper-time, he walked over
+for her. She and Betty were in the wide-seated swing
+and Ben was swinging them so high that Betty, used
+as she was to it, gave now and then little squeals.
+Chilian held up his hand and Ben let the "cat die,"
+which meant the swing stopping of itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Leverett, can't Cynthy stay to tea? I'll
+run and ask mother."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-day. She had better come home now."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear!" cried Bentley disappointedly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I had better go. And I've had such a lovely
+time. Cousin Chilian, can't I come over again?"</p>
+
+<p>How pretty she looked with her shining eyes, her
+rosy cheeks, and her entreating lips! What would she
+coax out of men as she grew older!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; any time they want you."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we'd like her every day!" cried Ben eagerly.
+"And isn't it splendid that she's grown so well and
+strong, and can run and play, and have good out-of-doors
+times? Though I used to like it in the winter
+up in your room, and Mr. Price said he never knew a
+boy to improve so in Latin."</p>
+
+<p>Bentley made a graceful bow to Mr. Leverett.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," said Cynthia, skipping along in exuberant
+joy, "children are nice, aren't they? You can't have
+much fun alone by yourself, and the days are so long
+when you go in to Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if you would like to try school again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think I would;" after a pause. "You see,"
+with a gravity that sat oddly upon her, "I'm not so
+afraid as I was, and I have more sense. And I know
+things more evenly than I did. I can write now quite
+well, and I know most of the tables, though division
+does bother me. And I can spell all but the very difficult
+words. I don't think any one would laugh at me
+now."</p>
+
+<p>"No, they wouldn't," he answered decisively.</p>
+
+<p>"I shouldn't like little boys, but I wouldn't mind
+them as big as Bentley. And, oh, I wish we had a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+swing. And they have a real sailors' hammock, such
+as they have on shipboard. It's delightful under the
+trees."</p>
+
+<p>"I think we can manage that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if your head isn't tousled!" cried Elizabeth.
+"It looks like a brush heap. Get it fixed, for supper is
+all ready. Why didn't you stay?" the last ironically.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Chilian thought I had better not. They
+did want me to."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure they <i>wanted</i> you to?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," she answered in ignorance of the
+sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>She walked up and down the garden path with
+Cousin Chilian and asked about the school, was glad
+when she found Bella and her sister Alice went there.
+Now and then she gave two or three skips and pulled
+on the hand she held so tightly. He had never seen
+her in quite such glee, and how charming she was!</p>
+
+<p>"Chilian, bring that child in out of the dew. Next
+thing she'll be in for a winter's cold," said the severe
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>The interview with Madam Torrey was very satisfactory.
+Chilian asked Miss Winn to go out and buy
+what was needed and get it made. They went over to
+Mrs. Turner's one day and took the school in on their
+way.</p>
+
+<p>"When it rains Silas can take you and come for
+you. I think the walk will not tire you out."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; I don't get tired out now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was Miss Winn's place to look after the child, of
+course, but Elizabeth felt in some way defrauded.
+She wished Cynthia had been poor and dependent upon
+them. Then she would stand a chance to be brought
+up in a useful manner.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian took her to school the first morning. Miss
+Winn was to come for her. She had been rather shy
+at first. But Bella Turner told the girls about her,
+how she had been born in Salem, and gone to Calcutta
+when only a few months old, come and gone again in
+her father's ship, and he was Captain Leverett, and
+then returned to America. He was to come afterward,
+but he had died. And Mr. Chilian Leverett, who was
+something in Harvard College, was her guardian.
+And she was to have ever so much money when she
+was a young lady.</p>
+
+<p>Any other child might have been spoiled by the attentions
+lavished upon her. The girls thought her
+curly hair so pretty, and her hands were so small, with
+their dainty, tapering fingers. Then she found one of
+the girls, Lois Brinsmaid, lived in Central Avenue, so
+there was no further question of troubling any one.
+Cousin Chilian had given her a good foundation for
+study and she was eager for knowledge of all sorts,
+except that of the needle.</p>
+
+<p>Then autumn began to merge into winter and there
+were storms and bleak winds, and some days she
+staid at home. She caught light colds, but Chilian and
+Miss Winn were very watchful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She went to the Turners one afternoon and staid
+to tea, and the big boys hovered about her like bees.
+She was not forward or aggressive, but there was a
+sort of charming sweetness about her. When she
+raised her lovely eyes they seemed to appeal to every
+heart, though they never went very far with Cousin
+Elizabeth.</p>
+
+<p>One day she came home and found the house in a
+great state of excitement. Elizabeth had started to go
+down into the cellar with both hands full. She had
+been a little dizzy for several days, and meant to take
+a dose of herb tea, boneset being her great stand-by,
+when she could find time. Whether it was the vertigo,
+or she slipped, she lay there unconscious, and they sent
+for Doctor Prescott.</p>
+
+<p>Silas and the doctor carried her upstairs, and the
+latter brought her out of the faint. But when she
+started to stand up, she toppled over and fainted again.</p>
+
+<p>"There's something quite serious. Let us carry her
+up to her room, and you women undress her. Her
+legs are sound, so the trouble is higher up."</p>
+
+<p>Then he found her hip was broken, a bad thing at
+any time of life, but at her age doubly so. And he sent
+for Doctor Lapham to help him set it. It was very
+bad. They were still there when Chilian came
+home.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid she's laid up for a year or so;" and the
+doctor shook his head ominously.</p>
+
+<p>"Do your very best for her," besought Chilian.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He said to Eunice, "Now you must have some one.
+You can't carry on the house alone."</p>
+
+<p>"If it is the same to you, Chilian, I'd rather have a
+nurse. There's Mother Taft, who is good and strong,
+and used to nursing. She's willing to help about a little,
+too."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you think best. I want every care taken
+of her."</p>
+
+<p>For a month it was a very serious matter. They
+thought the spine was somewhat injured as well. And
+Elizabeth knew they could never get on without her.</p>
+
+<p>"I expect I shall find the house in such a state when
+I do get about, it will take me all summer to right it.
+You never were as thorough as I could wish, Eunice."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn begged that she might be of service.
+She had so little to do, or to think about, that time
+hung heavy on her hands, now that Cynthia was in
+school. For then school hours were from nine to five.
+And the child was getting so handy caring for herself.
+She curled her hair and put on her clothes, brought
+her shoes down every evening for Silas to black, and
+sometimes wiped the tea dishes while Miss Winn
+washed them. Somehow there didn't seem so much
+work to do. Eunice didn't always have two kinds of
+cake for supper, nor a great shelf full of pies for
+Silas to take home. There was plenty of everything
+and no one complained.</p>
+
+<p>They found Mother Taft invaluable. She was about
+the average height, and had long arms, and strength<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+according. Then she had a most excellent way with
+her. When Elizabeth groaned that they never could
+get on without her, and she must be up and about
+before everything went to "wrack and ruin," Mother
+Taft said:</p>
+
+<p>"The kitchen looks like a new pin. There's no signs
+of ruin that I can see. Meals are good, cake fine,
+house clean. When you get downstairs you'll think
+you haven't been out of the harness more'n a week."</p>
+
+<p>"A likely story," Elizabeth moaned.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia went through March very successfully, but
+with the first warm spell in April she caught a cold and
+coughed, and Chilian was almost wild about her, his
+nerves having been worn somewhat by Elizabeth's
+mishap. But after ten days or so she came around all
+right and was eager for school again.</p>
+
+<p>She was sitting in her old place by the window late
+one afternoon and he had been reading some poems to
+her&mdash;a volume lately come from England.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Chilian," she said, "will you tell me what
+true relation we are?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what has put that in your head?"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to know." She said it persuasively.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it isn't very near after all. My father and
+yours were cousins. My father was the son of the
+oldest brother, your father the son of the youngest,
+that stretched them quite far apart. When I wasn't
+much more than a baby Anthony came to live with us,
+and was like an elder brother to me. Father was very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+fond of him. But he would go to sea and he made a
+fine sailor and captain. Then he was married from
+here, and you were born here."</p>
+
+<p>"The girls sometimes say, 'your uncle.' I wonder
+if you would like to have me call you uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>Something in him protested. He could not tell what
+it was, unless an odd feeling that it made him seem
+older. He wished he were ten years younger, and he
+could give no reason for that either.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I like the 'cousin' best;" after some deliberation.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is so lovely to be dear to some one, very
+dear. I like Rachel, she's been almost a mother to me,
+and I like Cousin Eunice for her sweet ways. But
+I've no one of my very own, and so&mdash;I'm very glad
+to be dear to you. It is like a ship being anchored to
+something safe and strong."</p>
+
+<p>She came and put her arms about his neck and
+kissed him. He drew her down on his knee. She was
+her mother's child, and her mother had been dear to
+him, his first love, his only love so far.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how would the garden get made and the house
+cleaned, the blankets and the winter clothing aired and
+put away, those in use washed? Eunice and Miss
+Winn went up in the garret one day and swept and
+dusted, not giving a whole week to it.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said Mother Taft, "I'm going to take a
+holiday off. I'm tired of puttering round in the sick
+room, and she's so much better now that she doesn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+keep one on the jump. And I'm going to wash them
+there blankets and you can pack them away, so there'll
+be one thing less to worry about."</p>
+
+<p>"But Silas' wife would come and do it. And a holiday!
+Why don't you go off somewhere&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I want to do it."</p>
+
+<p>And do it she did. Some way the house did get
+cleaned. "After a fashion," Elizabeth said. And the
+garden was made. Chilian and Eunice trimmed up
+roses. Cynthia and Miss Winn planted seeds. There
+were always some things that wintered over&mdash;sweet
+Williams, lilies of various sorts, pinks, laurels, some
+spir&aelig;as, snowball and syringas, hosts of lilacs that
+made a fragrant hedge. Cynthia thought it had never
+been so lovely before. She wore a nosegay at her
+throat, and in her belt just a few; she had the fine
+taste that never overloaded. She and Cousin Chilian
+used to walk up and down the fragrant paths after
+supper and no one fretted at them about the dew.
+Sometimes Rachel or Eunice would bring out a dainty
+scarf. And how many things they found to talk about.
+She loved to dwell on the times with her father, and
+it seemed as if she remembered a great deal more
+about her mother than she did at first, but she never
+imagined it was Cousin <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'Chilan's'">Chilian's</ins> memory that helped
+out hers.</p>
+
+<p>She had enjoyed the school very much. There were
+no high up "isms" or "ologies" for girls in those
+days. She learned about her own country, for already<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+there were some histories written, and the causes that
+led to the war. Some of the girls had grandmothers
+who had lived through those exciting years, and made
+the relation of incidents much more interesting than
+any dry written account that was mostly dates and
+names. What heroes they had been! And the old
+<i>Mayflower</i> story and John Alden, and others who were
+to inspire a poet's pen.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was the dread story of the witchcraft
+that had led Salem astray. Cousin Chilian would
+never have it mentioned, and had taken away several
+books he did not want her to see. But the girls had
+gone to some of the old places, where witches had
+been taken from their homes and cast into jail, the
+Court House where they had been tried, and Gallows
+Hill, that most people shunned even now.</p>
+
+<p>One rainy evening, after her lessons had been studied,
+Cynthia went downstairs. Rachel had been fomenting
+her face for the toothache and was lying
+down. Cousin Chilian had gone to a town-meeting,
+and the house seemed so still that she almost believed
+she might see the ghost or witch of the stories she had
+heard. No one was in the sitting-room, or the kitchen
+proper, but she heard voices in what was called the
+summer kitchen, a roughly constructed place with a
+stone chimney and a great swinging crane. Here they
+did much of the autumn work, for Elizabeth was
+quite a stickler for having a common place to save
+something nicer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mother Taft always smoked a pipe of tobacco in the
+evening. "It soothed her," she said, after her tussle
+of fixing her patient for the night, "and made her
+sleep better."</p>
+
+<p>"And it's my opinion if Miss 'Lisbeth could just
+have a good smoke at night 'twould do her more good
+than the doctor's powders."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Cynthy!" Cousin Eunice exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"I was lonesome. Rachel's gone to sleep, Cousin
+Eunice&mdash;were there such things as witches over a
+hundred years ago?"</p>
+
+<p>Eunice glanced at Mother Taft. Witchcraft was a
+tabooed subject, yet it lingered in more than one imaginative
+mind, though few would confess a belief
+in it.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, people may talk as they like, but there's
+many queer things in the world. Now there's that
+falling sickness, as they call it. Jabez Green has two
+children that roll on the floor, and froth at the mouth,
+and their eyes bulge most out of their heads. They're
+lacking, we all know. But when they come out of the
+fit they tell queer things that they saw, and I do suppose
+it was that way then. They do act as if they were
+bewitched."</p>
+
+<p>We know this misfortune now as epilepsy, but medical
+science in the earlier century did not understand
+that, nor incipient insanity.</p>
+
+<p>"It was very strange," said Eunice rather awe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>somely.
+"And Mr. Parris was a minister and a good
+man, yet it broke out in his family."</p>
+
+<p>"But he had them slaves, and in their own land
+black people do awful things to each other. But it
+was strange; again, after his wife was accused, Governor
+Phipps ordered there should be no more punished
+and all set free, and then the thing stopped."</p>
+
+<p>"And it wasn't real witchcraft?" said Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I wouldn't undertake to say. There were
+witches in Bible times and they kept themselves mighty
+close, for they were not to be allowed to live. And
+Saul had a hard time getting anything out of the witch
+of Endor, you know, Miss Eunice."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice nodded. They were trenching on forbidden
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>"My grandmother believed in them and she was a
+good God-fearing woman, too. You see what made it
+worse for Salem was their sending so many here for
+trial from the places round. Grandfather lived way
+up above Topsfield, had a farm there and 'twas woods
+all around. No one troubled them then, but afterward&mdash;well,
+they'd cleared the woods and built a road and
+new houses were put up around, for some people were
+glad enough to get out of Salem. There was a woman
+named Martha Goodno, who had been in prison, and
+people were shy of her. Grandmother had two
+cows, and folks turned them out in the woods then.
+One of them went in Martha's garden, but she spied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+her out and drove her off before much damage was
+done. The fence had been broken down and she laid
+it to the cow, but people said it had been down for
+days. Well, something got the matter with the cow.
+She gave good rich milk and mother saved it for butter.
+But when she churned there came queer streaks
+in it that looked like blood. She doctored the cow,
+although it seemed well enough. One day a neighbor
+was in and the same thing happened. 'Throw some
+in the fire,' said the neighbor, 'and if you hear of any
+one being burned you'll know who is the witch.' So
+grandmother threw two dippers full in the fire and she
+said it made an awful smell. The rest she dumped out
+of doors, she wouldn't feed it to the pigs. About an
+hour afterward another neighbor came in. Grandmother
+made a salve that was splendid for burns and
+cuts. 'Mis' Denfield,' she says, 'won't you come
+over to Martha Goodno's and bring your pot of salve.
+She's burned herself dreadfully drawin' the coals out
+of the oven, set her dress on fire just at the waist.'
+So mother went over and found it was a pretty bad,
+sure enough burn, and she was groaning just fit to die.
+Mother spread a piece of linen and laid it on and left
+her some salve. 'What did I tell you?' says mother's
+neighbor, and they nodded their heads. But the queer
+thing was that after that the cow was all right and she
+never had any more trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"After she was well she took a spite against another
+neighbor, who used to spin flax and sell the thread.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+Then her flax took to cutting up queer, and would
+break off, and turn yellow, and trouble her dreadfully.
+Mother was there one afternoon when it bothered so.
+'Just throw a handful in the fire,' says mother.
+'Fire's purifying;' and she did. They sent to mother
+again for salve, for Martha had scalded her right hand.
+Then the folks talked it over and a letter was written
+and tucked under her door, warning her to move, and
+the next-door man bought the place. I've heard
+grandmother tell this over&mdash;she lived to be ninety, and
+she was a good Christian woman, and she never added
+nor took away one iota. There, I oughtn't have told
+all this before the child; she's white as a ghost."</p>
+
+<p>"You must go to bed this minute," exclaimed Eunice.
+"I'll go up with you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE VOICE OF A ROSE</h3>
+
+
+<p>There were some marvellous ghost stories in those
+days, and haunted houses as well. The society of
+Psychical Research would have found many queer
+things if it had existed at that time. The sailors spun
+strange yarns over the power we call telepathy now.
+Many of the families had a retired captain or disabled
+first mate, or supercargo, who had seen mysterious
+appearances and heard warning voices. And it recalled
+to the little girl some of the stories she had heard
+in India that she pieced out of vague fragments.
+Maybe there were curious influences no one could
+explain.</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth improved a little. She had been moved
+from cot to bed, but now they packed her in a big
+chair and pushed her over to the window where she
+could see the vegetable garden and the chicken yard.
+They had not had very good luck at the hatching this
+season. The hens had missed Elizabeth's motherly
+care. She had trained them to an amusing habit of
+obedience, and the little chickens were her delight.
+Was she never to be out among them again?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>One day Cynthia came up with two roses in a glass,
+most exquisite ones at that.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Elizabeth," she began, "do you remember
+the little rosebush you put in my garden last summer?
+We thought it would die. It came out beautifully in
+the spring and these are the first roses that bloomed.
+I thought you ought to have them. Are you never
+going to get well enough to walk around the garden?
+Cousin Eunice has kept it so nice."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth Leverett's heart was touched and she
+swallowed over a lump in her throat. She had taken
+up the rose from a place where it had been smothered
+with those of larger growth and given it to the child
+who had begged for "a garden of her very own." She
+had not supposed it would live. And that Cynthia
+should bring her the firstfruits!</p>
+
+<p>"I'm obliged to you," she returned huskily. "They
+are very beautiful." And she wondered the child had
+not given them to Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish you liked a few flowers every day," the
+little girl said wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;I might;" reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"They are so lovely. The world is so beautiful.
+It's very hard to be ill in summer, in winter one
+wouldn't mind it so much. But I am glad you can
+sit up."</p>
+
+<p>Was it tears that Elizabeth winked away?</p>
+
+<p>She had many serious thoughts through these
+months of helplessness. She had always measured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+everything by the strict line of duty, of usefulness.
+There was a virtue in enduring hardness as a good
+soldier, and the harder it was the more virtue it held
+in it. Her room was plain, almost to bareness. There
+had been a faded patchwork top quilt at first, until
+Mother Taft insisted upon having something nicer.
+But it had to be folded up carefully at sundown, when
+the likelihood of calls was over. And she did put one
+of the new rugs on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"That's beginning to go," Mrs. Taft said. "Some
+one will catch their foot in it and have a bad fall."</p>
+
+<p>"It could be mended, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. There's a new one needed in the kitchen.
+I'll sew it up for that. Land sakes! you've got enough
+in this house to last ten lifetimes!"</p>
+
+<p>Friends came in to sit with her and brought their
+work. Sometimes she sewed a little, but drawing out
+her needle hurt her back after a while. She read her
+Bible and Baxter's "Saints' Rest" And she wondered
+a little what the other world would be like. She had
+never thought of heaven with joy&mdash;there was the
+judgment first. And now that she could begin to sit
+up it did prefigure recovery.</p>
+
+<p>Most schools had kept open all the year round, but
+now the higher ones were giving a month's vacation.
+Altogether it had been a happy year to Cynthia. She
+had really been adored at school. Her frocks were
+admired, she let the girls curl her hair, usually she
+wore it tied in a bunch behind&mdash;not unlike the queue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+Then she had some rings that she coaxed Rachel to
+let her wear, it was such a pleasure to lend them to
+the girls. She was learning what was considered
+necessary for a girl in those days; a good deal more
+with Cousin Chilian. She kept her love for the Latin
+and often read to him. She began to draw and
+paint flowers, she joined the dancing-class, which
+was a delight to her; but Chilian suggested she
+should not mention it to Elizabeth. She pirouetted
+up and down the path like a fairy, and he loved to
+watch her.</p>
+
+<p>There had been parties among the girls, but he
+would rather not have her go, it was a bad thing for
+children to be up so late. She went to take tea
+now and then. The Turners were very fond of her
+and the Uphams wanted her once a week. She wondered
+if she might ever ask any one to tea.</p>
+
+<p>Then they planned what they would do in this wonderful
+vacation. Go off for day's rides, take sails up
+and down, there were so many places. She was brimming
+over with joy.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian was called up in the night by Mother
+Taft.</p>
+
+<p>"She's had a stroke. And she seemed so smart
+yesterday. She even laughed over some school stories
+Cynthia told. That child's brought her flowers every
+morning, and she's softened so much to her. I really
+think she's been getting religion, as one may say, and
+being prepared."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Chilian heard the stertorous breathing. The eyes
+were half open and rolled up, her face was drawn.
+He took the hand. It was cold and heavy.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go for the doctor. I think the end has come."</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Prescott said the same thing, adding with a
+slow turn of the head, "She will not last long."</p>
+
+<p>What should he do with Cynthia? He remembered
+how careful her father had been to shield her. She
+must not see Elizabeth, she must not confront death in
+this awesome fashion.</p>
+
+<p>When they came to breakfast he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia, wouldn't you like to go in to Boston with
+me this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it would be splendid!" She clapped her
+hands in delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Rachel must get you ready. We will take
+the stage. It goes early now."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, she was full of excitement. It had been
+planned as one of the month's outings, but to take it
+as the first! Cousin Chilian was always thinking up
+such nice things.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she cried, tying the big Leghorn hat down,
+making a great bow under her chin, "I must get my
+flowers for Cousin Elizabeth."</p>
+
+<p>When she came in she would have flown upstairs,
+but Rachel stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Elizabeth is asleep. She had a bad spell in
+the night and the doctor doesn't want her disturbed.
+I'll take them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" She looked disappointed. "Tell her good-bye
+and that I was sorry not to come in and say it.
+And give her the flowers. I hope she will be better
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>What a great thing it was to go off in the stage!
+It was a fine morning with an easterly breeze. To be
+sure, the roads were dusty, but travellers were not
+so dainty in those days. Cynthia had a dust cloak of
+some thin material that shielded her white frock.
+There were three men and two women. They sat on
+the middle seat, two of the men on front with the
+driver, the other back with the ladies. Presently the
+driver blew a long toot on his horn and they came to a
+little town with a tavern, as they were called then, at
+its very entrance.</p>
+
+<p>Two of the passengers left, one came in. The horses
+had a drink and on they went over hill and dale,
+through great farms, where there were not more than
+two or three houses in sight. The stage stopped for a
+man who gave a loud halloo, and he climbed in. Then
+the horn gave another loud signal.</p>
+
+<p>So it went on. Some places were very pretty, great
+fields of corn waving in the sunshine, potatoes, stubble
+where grain had been cut, stretches of woodland, high,
+rather rough hills, then towns again. The sun went
+under a cloud, which made it pleasanter. The passengers
+changed now and then. One woman told
+her next neighbor "she was goin' in to Boston to shop,
+because things were cheaper now. She always went<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+after the rush was over. There were cambrics, she
+heard, for one and ninepence, and cotton cloth home-made
+was so much cheaper than the imported, but you
+had to bleach it. And little traps that you couldn't
+get at a country store."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was tired and sleepy when they reached
+their journey's end, which was Marlborough Street,
+where Cousin Giles had an office.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! well! well!" he ejaculated in surprise.
+"Why, Miss Cynthia Leverett, I'm glad to see you.
+Have you come to town to shop?"</p>
+
+<p>Chilian made a little sign. "She has a whole
+month's vacation and we are going to fill it up with
+journeys, taking Boston first."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right. We shall have lots to show her.
+You'll hardly want to go back to Salem. It was a
+long warm ride, wasn't it? Chilian, take off her hat.
+Don't you want a drink?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am thirsty," she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>He fixed a glass of lemonade, and lemons were dear
+at that period&mdash;scarce, too. While she was sipping it,
+being refreshed in every pulse, the two men went
+down to the end of the room for a talk.</p>
+
+<p>"She's dreadfully disfigured," Chilian said in a low
+tone. "And Elizabeth wasn't a bad-looking woman.
+The doctor thinks she can't live but a few days, her
+body is growing cold rapidly. I'd like to have the child
+out of it all. Death is a great shock and very mysterious
+to a child."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'll be glad to keep her, if she will stay content.
+I wish you could have brought that woman with
+you. Poor Elizabeth! How Eunice will miss her.
+Chilian, you've been like a son to those women.
+Women ought to marry and have children of their
+own, but children are not always kind. Yes. After
+you're rested we'll go home. I'm going to change my
+office, get nearer to the business centre, only this is so
+pleasant with a nice outlook."</p>
+
+<p>"You ought to retire."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, what would I do? Like that Roman fellow,
+buy a farm? I don't know a bit about farming and
+don't want to. There's so much going on here."</p>
+
+<p>Presently they returned to the little girl, who was
+quite refreshed, and then they went out, as it would be
+dinner-time presently. Cousin Giles lived in Cambridge
+Street in quite an imposing row, though it had no such
+spacious grounds as at Salem.</p>
+
+<p>An immaculate black man opened the door and took
+the men's hats. "Ask Mrs. Stevens to come down,"
+Cousin Giles said.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stevens seemed a great lady. Eudora Castleton's
+mother was like this, always looking as if she was
+dressed for a party. She had a pretty silk gown, with
+some ruffles about the bottom, short enough to show
+her clocked silk stockings. The waist was short also,
+the square neck filled in with lace, and great balloon
+sleeves&mdash;so large at the top they came almost up to her
+ears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"This is the little girl who came from India, that I
+told you about, and who is going to be a great lady
+some day. When she gets older we'll have to have her
+down here to Boston, and give balls and parties for her,
+and pick out a fine lover for her; hey, Cynthia?"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia turned scarlet.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you must be warm and tired with the long
+stage ride; wouldn't you like to come upstairs with
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia rose as Cousin Chilian looked approval, and
+followed up the stairway, where her feet sank in the
+carpet. There were several rooms, with the air blowing
+through delightfully, and there was fragrance everywhere
+from vases of flowers.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stevens took off her hat and inspected her.
+She was going to be a big heiress and a pretty girl in
+the bargain, piquant with a slightly foreign look,
+though perhaps it was more in her manner.</p>
+
+<p>"Susan," she called to a girl sewing in the next
+room, "come and wash this little visitor's hands and
+face. She has come all the way from Salem this
+morning. I wish we had a fresh frock for you, but we
+have no little girls."</p>
+
+<p>The voice was so soft and charming that Cynthia
+looked up with a kind of admiring smile.</p>
+
+<p>Susan took off her frock, bathed her face and hands
+with some perfumed water, brushed out her hair, and
+said, "What lovely hair you have, and so much of it.
+A queen might envy you!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The idea of a queen wanting anything she had! Oh,
+how nice and refreshed she felt.</p>
+
+<p>Susan shook out the frock and put it on again,
+pulled out the sleeves, smoothed the wrinkled skirt,
+and took her in the next room.</p>
+
+<p>"It rests one so much. Are you hungry? We shall
+have dinner in half an hour."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," Cynthia said. "And&mdash;and I am very
+much obliged to Susan."</p>
+
+<p>"Come and sit here. Tell me how the aunties are&mdash;the
+one with the broken limb."</p>
+
+<p>"I think she isn't so well. Yesterday she was so
+much improved. The doctor was there this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor lady! She has been ill a long while. And
+you are quite at home in Salem, I suppose? You had
+a long journey. Did you like India?"</p>
+
+<p>"Father was there;" with a sweet, attractive simplicity.
+"And some of it was very beautiful. Oh, I
+almost froze the first winter here, but last winter I
+didn't mind. And the sleigh-riding was splendid."</p>
+
+<p>"Are there many little girls to be friends with?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I go to a nice school. And we have so many
+funny plays and dancing once a week. I didn't tease
+about it, though I wanted to go, and Cousin Chilian
+said I might. It's queer, but in India they come and
+dance for you, and you pay them. But it is lovely to
+do it for yourself;" and she made some graceful motions
+with her hands, while her beautiful eyes were
+alight with emotion, as if she heard the music.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever want to go back?"</p>
+
+<p>"At first. But when I heard that father had gone
+away, he had meant to come to Salem, but&mdash;&mdash;" she
+made a pause, "mother was there in India. Only the
+bodies, you know, the other part that thinks and feels
+is in heaven. He wanted mother so much. He used
+to talk about her. And now I am going to live in
+Salem with Cousin Chilian all my life long."</p>
+
+<p>How simply sweet she was, with no self-consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>Then they were summoned to dinner. The elegant
+black servant waited on them, and that suggested India
+again. They went out on a back porch and sat in
+the shade. Cousin Giles found an opportunity to explain
+the matter to Mrs. Stevens, and after that the
+men went out for a while.</p>
+
+<p>Quite in the afternoon there were calls from stylishly-dressed
+ladies, and cake and cool drinks were
+brought in. Then Cousin Chilian told her that he
+would like her to stay all night and he would come in
+to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>She didn't want to a bit. "Why, I would be very
+quiet and not disturb Cousin Elizabeth," she said, with
+beseeching eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you not do it to please me?"</p>
+
+<p>She choked down a great lump. "Oh, yes," she
+answered in a low tone, without looking up. But it
+seemed very queer to her to be left this way.</p>
+
+<p>There was company in the evening&mdash;quite a party<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+playing cards. She had a pretty story book to read
+until Susan came to put her to bed. And what a delightful
+little bed it was, like her little pallet at home,
+so much nicer than the big bed at Salem.</p>
+
+<p>She would not show that she was homesick, for so
+many nice things were being done for her. A note
+came from Chilian&mdash;Cousin Elizabeth was very ill,
+and he hoped she would be content. Some clothes
+were sent for her, some of her very best ones, and
+she was glad to have them.</p>
+
+<p>There were so many things to see in Boston, really
+much more than at Salem. They were putting up
+some fine public buildings. And there was Bunker
+Hill and Copp's Hill, and, down near the bay, Fort Hill.
+There seemed little rivers running all about and submerged
+lands.</p>
+
+<p>There were many other entertainments and her days
+were full. Mrs. Stevens sent out some cards and
+seven or eight young girls came in and chatted quite
+like the grown-up ladies, asking her about Salem, and
+being not a little surprised that she had lived in India.
+They had a pretty sort of half tea, cakes and delicacies
+after the thin bread and butter, and a most delightful
+cool drink that seemed to have all flavors in it. One of
+the girls played on the spinet afterward. So she had
+her first party at Cousin Giles', instead of Salem.</p>
+
+<p>Notes came from Cousin Chilian, and at last the
+welcome news that he was coming down for her.</p>
+
+<p>She had come to like Cousin Giles very much. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+was so different from Chilian&mdash;breezy and rather teasing&mdash;and,
+oh, what would Cousin Elizabeth have said
+to his fashion of getting things about, putting papers
+or books on chairs, mislaying his glasses and his
+gloves, and she would think the fine furniture, and the
+servants, and the little feasts awfully extravagant.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Elizabeth! She had never come back to consciousness.
+She had shrunk intensely from the last
+moment when she would have to face death and the
+judgment, though she had been striving all her life to
+prepare for it. But God had mercifully spared her
+that, the two worlds had touched and merged with
+each other and left her to God.</p>
+
+<p>There had been a quiet funeral, though it was well
+attended, but the coffin was closed and a pall thrown
+over it, for the poor face had never recovered its natural
+look.</p>
+
+<p>All this was softened to Cynthia, as she sat with
+Cousin Chilian's arm about her. She had the sweet
+remembrance of that last day, and the smile that somehow
+had made the wrinkled face pretty. It had been
+thoughtful and tender in Cousin Chilian to spare her
+the rest.</p>
+
+<p>They went over to Cambridge and he took her
+through the place that was to be so much grander before
+she was done with life. And here was the house
+where he had lived through the week, going home to
+spend Sundays, for his father was alive then. And he
+told her stories about old Boston, some quaintly funny,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+but she was rather proud that Salem had been the first
+capital of the State.</p>
+
+<p>"I've had such a nice time," she said with her adieu.
+"Every day has been full of pleasure. I thank you
+both very much."</p>
+
+<p>She was to come again, and again, they rejoined
+cordially.</p>
+
+<p>"What a nice child!" Cousin Giles said. "She
+doesn't seem to consider what an heiress she is. And
+she's enough like Chilian to be his own child. He always
+had that dainty way with him, like a woman,
+and everything must be fine and nice, yet he never
+was ostentatious. She'll make a charming young
+woman. I wish I could persuade Chilian to come to
+Boston."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian had driven in with the carriage. There had
+been a shower in the night and the travelling was delightful.
+He had missed his little girl so much, yet he
+knew it had been better to save her the poignancy of
+the sad occurrence. So her father had thought in his
+trusting appeal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>CHANGES IN THE OLD HOUSE</h3>
+
+
+<p>There was not as much change in household affairs as
+Cynthia supposed there would be. Elizabeth had been
+laid by so long that her place at the table had been
+filled by Eunice. Indeed, the former had an unfortunate
+habit of running out in the kitchen to see to
+something, then returning, pouring a cup of tea, passing
+some article of food, then disappearing again. It
+had grown on her, the belief that she must be everywhere
+or something would go wrong. It did annoy
+Chilian. And no one hustled up the dishes when you
+had eaten the last crumb of cake. He liked to linger
+over the table.</p>
+
+<p>Eunice was very glad to see her. Rachel took her
+wrap and her parcel upstairs, for supper had been
+waiting. Eunice poured the tea, Rachel passed the
+eatables, and they were both eager to hear how it had
+fared with the little girl.</p>
+
+<p>"It's been just splendid! Mrs. Stevens is&mdash;well,
+she is grand, and, oh, you ought to see the beautiful
+gowns she wears; but she doesn't hold you way off.
+You can come up close and lean on her shoulder or
+her lap. They were both so good. And, look! Cousin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+Giles would buy me these two rings;" and she held up
+her hand laughingly. "And an elegant necklace. I
+told him there were so many things here that were my
+mother's, but he wouldn't mind. And slippers!
+There's white, and a kind of gray, and a bronze, and
+a red pair. The little girls wear them when they
+come from school and go out to companies. Oh,
+Cousin Chilian, doesn't any one play on the spinet?
+I'd like to learn."</p>
+
+<p>"It's very old. It was mother's. I think we must
+have a new one. And you can learn."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I shall be so glad."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Taft was out in the kitchen. "Now you all
+go your ways," she began. "'Taint nothing to clear
+off the supper table."</p>
+
+<p>They sat out on the front porch. But through the
+talk Cynthia kept thinking of poor Cousin Elizabeth
+and feeling sorry she had not enjoyed more of the
+pleasures of life. Was there so much real virtue in
+making life hard and cold? But there were some
+girls in school who were very much afraid of dancing
+and reading story-books.</p>
+
+<p>Truth to tell, as Chilian listened, he came to experience
+a queer feeling&mdash;he would have scouted the idea
+of jealousy about Cousin Giles, but that he should
+have devoted himself so much to her and taken her
+about, wanted to buy trinkets for her and all that!
+There was still a week of vacation left. They would
+go somewhere to-morrow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had asked Mrs. Taft to stay with them.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't exactly promise. You see, I like to
+'wrastle' with things and fight off the worst.
+Though I hadn't much hope of 'Lisbeth when the
+doctor said her spine was hurt. That's a kind of queer
+hidden thing that even doctors can't see into. And
+the poor creature suffered a good deal. My, but she
+was spunky and was bound not to die, and I fought
+for her all I could. But the last few weeks there was
+a change. She liked Cynthy to come in with the posies
+and say something bright. And now it's all done and
+over, and she was a good upright woman in the old-fashioned
+way. So I'll stay a spell till Miss Eunice
+gets used to the change, and when I see another good
+fight somewhere, you mustn't have hard feelings if
+I go."</p>
+
+<p>They went out the next morning and found a boat
+going up to Plum Island. It was like going to sea
+to go around Rockport Point. Captain Green declared
+"he wan't much on passengers, but he had a
+nice cabin and an awning on the for'ard deck, and
+there was a woman and some children whose husband
+living up there had bespoke passage."</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine day with the right sort of wind. Oh,
+how splendid it was as they went out oceanward. She
+had been on the water such a very little since her long
+voyage.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Halcom had three children and a baby. She
+was a plain, commonplace body, who had been living<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+up to North Salem, but her folks were Newburyport
+people and she should be glad to get in sight and
+sound of them once again. Chilian had brought a
+book along, Ben Johnson's Plays, and now and then
+he met with such a charming line or two he must read
+it to her. There were some new poets coming to the
+fore as well, but he knew most of the older ones. Oh,
+he must get back his youth for her sake. Cousin Giles
+was ever so much older.</p>
+
+<p>She was interested in the ship as well and talked
+to Captain Green. He had so many funny nautical
+terms, provincialisms, that she had to inquire what
+some of the words meant. For most of the early people
+of New England had not dropped into the careless
+modes of speech that were to come later on and be
+adopted as a sort of patois. They read their Bibles a
+good deal and the older divines, and if their speech
+was a little stilted it had a certain correctness. Then
+Chilian Leverett was rather fastidious in this respect.</p>
+
+<p>The wind filled the sails and they skimmed along
+merrily. Now the sea was green and so clear you
+could see the fish disporting themselves. Then the
+sun tinted it with gold and threw up diamond, amethyst,
+and emeralds, taunting one with treasures.</p>
+
+<p>There are new names along the coast, though a few
+of the old ones remain. They passed Gloucester,
+Thatcher's Island, rounded Rockport, where in the
+inside harbor they had to unload part of their cargo.
+Then on to Plum Island, where the rest were set<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+ashore and the woman and her children. Some few
+things were taken on board, but they were to stop at
+Gloucester, going down for the return cargo.</p>
+
+<p>They walked about a little and bought some ripe,
+luscious dewberries and fruit.</p>
+
+<p>"How queer it would be to live on an island and
+have to take your boat when you went anywhere," and
+Cynthia laughed gayly.</p>
+
+<p>"People do, farther up. There are a great many
+islands on the coast of Maine, and fishermen are living
+on them."</p>
+
+<p>"And in Boston Harbor Cousin Giles took us out.
+It's funny that they don't float off. Do they go 'way
+down to the bottom of the sea?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think they must. Sometimes one does disappear."</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose you were living on it. And you saw the
+water coming up all around you and you couldn't get
+away&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes filled with a kind of terror.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you would have some boats."</p>
+
+<p>"But if it happened in the night?"</p>
+
+<p>"We won't go and live on an island," he said with
+a smile.</p>
+
+<p>It was rougher going back, but not bad enough to
+cause any alarm. The wind had died down, but the
+swells were coming in. They stopped at Gloucester
+and took on some boxes and great planks, and several
+pieces of furniture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"There's enough old truck in Salem now," declared
+Captain Green ungraciously. "'F I had my way I'd
+turn it out on the Common and put a match to it. Now
+there's the Hibbins&mdash;came over in 1680 and brought
+their housen goods. There wan't any way of makin'
+'em then but just outen rough logs. An' now the old
+granma'am's died and 'twas her mother's, I b'lieve,
+and Mis' Hibbins she's just gone crazy over it. And
+they're buildin' a fine new house. Strange how
+Salem's buildin' up! Those East Ingy traders do
+make lots of money. But before I'd have that old
+truck in my nice new house!" And the captain gave
+a snort of disdain.</p>
+
+<p>He did not dream that before another hundred years
+had passed there would be comparative fortunes made
+in the old truck.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll be a little late gettin' in, but there'll be a
+moon. Lucky wind ain't dead agin us."</p>
+
+<p>How good the supper tasted, for Cynthia was very
+hungry. And then they went on and on, hugging the
+shore, the captain said, until it was a kind of shadowy
+waving blur, but on the other side most beautiful. It
+made her think of coming from India, but she was
+glad to see the vague outline of the shore.</p>
+
+<p>The captain was much surprised that she had been
+such a traveller. He had been to New York and all
+around Long Island, and up as far as Nova Scotia.
+The Bay of Fundy was wonderful, with its strange
+dangerous tides.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"We will go there another summer," Chilian said,
+holding her hand, and she returned the soft pressure.</p>
+
+<p>"I was 'most afraid something had happened." Eunice
+had gone down the street to meet them. "But
+it's clear as a bell and no wind to speak of, and the
+captains of the coasting vessels know every inch of
+the way."</p>
+
+<p>"Only just lovely things happened. It's been splendid.
+But I'm hungry again. Can't I have a second
+supper?"</p>
+
+<p>How different she looked from the little girl who
+had come to him for care and friendship. And he had
+been rather unwilling to accept her. She was growing
+tall, and&mdash;yes, really pretty.</p>
+
+<p>They had one more excursion to Winter Island.
+Why, it seemed as if they were building ships enough
+for the whole world. And there were the fisheries,
+and the curious musical singing, not really words, but
+sort of <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'detatched'">detached</ins> sounds that floated off in a weird
+kind of way.</p>
+
+<p>After that school again. She was glad to see the
+girls, and Madam Torrey gave her a warm welcome,
+saying, "Why, Miss Cynthia, how tall you have
+grown!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very glad," she said smilingly. "All the
+Leveretts are tall, but I don't ever want to be very
+large."</p>
+
+<p>"And she had really been to Boston! Was it
+so much handsomer than Salem? They had a real<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+theatre, and parties, and balls. Sadie Adams' big
+sister was going to spend the whole winter there."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian Leverett decided to alter his house a little.
+The two rooms at the back had always seemed
+crowded up, though Elizabeth preferred a separate
+one so long as they connected. But he had the memory
+of the poor drawn face, as he had seen it the morning
+of her seizure. Wouldn't Eunice recall it as well?</p>
+
+<p>"I think I will make some alterations," he announced
+to her. "I'll push that upstairs room out
+over the summer kitchen and make it a good deal
+larger. While they are doing it, Eunice, you had better
+go over the other side and let Mrs. Taft take your
+room."</p>
+
+<p>She assented, though she thought the house and the
+rooms were large enough for the few people in it.
+Cynthia was interested in her studies, and the girls,
+and the new books coming in. For now Sir Walter
+Scott was having a great hearing, and there were some
+new poets.</p>
+
+<p>It was not expected that people would be at all gay
+when there had been a death in the family, so Cynthia
+felt compelled to decline her few invitations. The new
+room was finished and made much brighter with the
+two added windows. The walls were painted a soft
+gray, with a warm tint. There were yards and yards
+of new rag carpet up in the garret, sewed in bagging
+to keep out moths. Of course, it might as well be
+used. The old bedstead was taken out and though the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+one substituted was quite as old, it was very much
+prettier, with its carved posts and the tester frame
+from which depended white curtains. Some of the
+other furniture was changed and it made a very pretty
+room, so Eunice came back to it very much pleased,
+though not quite sure so much comeliness was best for
+the soul.</p>
+
+<p>At Christmas Chilian took the little girl down to
+Boston on a special invitation. There were two visitors
+a little older than herself, one whose father was a
+representative from the State, the other from New
+York.</p>
+
+<p>Washington was not much thought of in those days.
+Other cities had yielded their claims unwillingly, and
+there had been much talk of its being set in a morass.
+Mrs. President Adams had described her infelicities
+very graphically. The rooms were not finished, and
+she took one of the parlors for an adjunct to the laundry
+to dry the wash in. New York considered itself
+the great head for fashion and gayety, Boston for education
+and refinement, and she too, had quite an extensive
+port trade.</p>
+
+<p>But Giles Leverett thought the little girl from Salem
+was quite as pretty and well bred as Boston girls, and
+really she never seemed at loss now, and was seldom
+overtaken with a fit of shyness. They had a gay,
+happy time, with a regular dancing party, which filled
+Cynthia with the utmost delight.</p>
+
+<p>And though the winter seemed cold and bleak spring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+came again, as it always does. Mrs. Taft had gone
+away to another bad case. Eunice and Miss Winn
+kept the house. There had been quite an entertaining
+episode with Miss Winn. A very prosperous man,
+who lived up on the North side, and had a fine house
+and five children, asked her to be his wife, thinking
+she would make such an excellent mother for girls.
+It was supposed at that time that no woman could
+refuse a good offer of marriage.</p>
+
+<p>"Consider it well," said Mr. Leverett. "I don't
+know how we could give you up, and, of course, you
+could not take Cynthia. Her father made a generous
+provision for you, and I think he chose wisely for his
+child. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know that I want to begin over again,"
+and she gave a peculiar smile. "Five seems quite an
+undertaking when you have had only one. And you
+have taken so much the charge of her."</p>
+
+<p>"But you see, now she will need a woman's guidance
+more than ever. She has outgrown childhood.
+I see the change in her every day. Eunice could not
+supervise her clothes and her pleasures, times have
+changed so much. I want her to be very happy and
+have a life like other girls&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She thought she could give up the prospect good as
+it was, won by that persuasive voice. And she had
+come to really love Miss Eunice, who was blossoming
+in a new phase now that there was nothing to restrain
+her natural sweetness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I promised her father to do the best I could for
+her. I love her very much. I enjoy the home here.
+I do not think I could be any happier. And I am so
+used to owning myself that I do not feel disposed to
+give up my liberty. If I had no prospect, I might
+consider it. And Cynthia will need some one as she
+grows older to see that she makes the right sort of
+acquaintances and guide her a little."</p>
+
+<p>"Then since all is agreeable we can count on your
+staying. You cannot imagine my own thankfulness;"
+and he pressed her hand cordially.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't it funny!" cried Cynthia. "Why, Margaret
+Plummer goes to Madam Torrey's, but she is very&mdash;well,
+I don't know just how to describe it, only she said
+once that they would all make the house too hot to
+hold a step-mother. And, oh, dear Rachel, I couldn't
+bear to have anybody ugly to you. And then you
+know we couldn't give you up. Cousin Chilian said so,
+and Miss Eunice cried."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn winked some tears out of her eyes,
+though she tried to smile. It was very comforting to
+a woman without kith or kin to feel so welcome in a
+household.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was sitting on the step of the porch one
+May night when the moon was making shifting shadows
+through the trees and silvering the paths. Chilian
+was studying the face, and wondering a little what was
+flitting through the brain that now and then gave it
+such intentness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"What are you thinking about?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Cousin Chilian!" She flushed a lovely, rosy
+glow. "Building an air castle."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it very airy? So far that it would be a journey
+for another person to reach it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, part of it is near by. The other is what could
+be, maybe;" wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't I hear about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Chilian, why are the parlors always shut
+up, and why don't you have people coming and going,
+and saying bright things, and talking about the improvements
+and&mdash;and Napoleon and the wars in Europe,
+and the new streets and houses, and, oh, ever so
+many things?"</p>
+
+<p>He looked at the tightly closed shutters. In his
+father's time there were visitors, discussions, playing at
+whist and loo, and little suppers. She wouldn't care
+for that, of course. Yet he remembered that she had
+been interested in the talks at Boston.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes; the rooms could be opened. Only we
+have grown so at home in the sitting-room, and you
+and I in the study."</p>
+
+<p>"At the Dearborns' they keep the house all open and
+lighted up, as they do in Boston. And they ask in
+young people and have plays, and charades, and funny
+conundrums&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Oh, she was young and should have this kind of
+life. How should he set about it? He must ask Miss
+Winn. But he ventured rather timidly, for a man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Would you like&mdash;well, some girls in to tea? They
+ask you so often. And there is no reason why we
+should all be hermits."</p>
+
+<p>She sprang up and clasped her arms about his
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I just should. At first when Cousin Elizabeth
+went away, and the lessons were difficult, and it was
+winter, but now everything seems so joyous&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes; we must talk to Miss Winn about it,
+Cynthia," and his voice dropped to a tender inflection.
+"I want you to feel this is your home and you must
+have all the joy and pleasures of youth. You need
+never be afraid. I've been a rather dull old fellow&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you're not old. You're not as old as Cousin
+Giles, and ever so much handsomer. The girls at
+school think," she flushed and paused, "that you were
+so good to get me the pony and the pretty wagon."
+She was going to say something much more flattering,
+but delicacy stopped her.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," he said gravely, "I was glad to make
+you the gift, but I want you to know that there is a
+considerable sum of money of your own, and your
+father wished you to enjoy it. Whatever you want and
+is proper for you to have, I shall be glad to get, and to
+do. For I have no little girl but you."</p>
+
+<p>"Would it be wicked and selfish if I said I was
+glad?"</p>
+
+<p>The arms tightened a little. How soft they were!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+And her hair brushed his cheek. It always seemed
+to have a delicate subtle perfume.</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear. You and I are curiously alone in
+the world. I haven't a first cousin, neither have
+you."</p>
+
+<p>"And a whole houseful of folks is so nice," she
+said wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>He had been very well content with his books and
+his college friends. But women were different, at
+least&mdash;those who shut out everybody narrowed their
+lives fearfully.</p>
+
+<p>"We will try and have some."</p>
+
+<p>"And you must like it. If you do not, the greatest
+pleasure will be taken out of it for me."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall like it;" encouragingly.</p>
+
+<p>"How good you are to me. Father said I must love
+you and obey you, for you would know what would be
+best for me."</p>
+
+<p>Then they sat in silence, the contentment of affection.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke to Miss Winn the next day. Afterward
+they went into the parlor and opened the shutters. It
+was stately, grand, and gloomy.</p>
+
+<p>Before Anthony Leverett had thought of sending
+his little girl to his care he had forwarded to Chilian
+a gift "for old remembrance' sake," he said, of a very
+handsome Oriental rug. Floors of the "best rooms"
+had been polished until you could see your shadow in
+them. Chilian did not like the noise or the continual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+trouble. So he laid down the rug and bought one for
+the other room. But the heavy curtains, with their
+silken linings, staid up year after year. He noticed
+those at Giles' house were much lighter and in soft
+colors. And his furniture was not so massive.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we could change things a little. That old
+sofa might go up in the new room. It was grand
+enough in my father's time, with its borders of brass-headed
+tacks, and its flat, hard seat. Two of these
+chairs might come up in my room."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we could find a place for the lovely sort of
+cabinet that Cynthia's father sent over. I keep it
+covered from dust and scratches. She will be glad to
+have it when she has a house of her own."</p>
+
+<p>"One of the rooms ought to be hers&mdash;well, both,"
+he added reflectively.</p>
+
+<p>"The rugs are elegant. Yes, lighter curtains would
+change it a good deal. How very handsome the mantels
+are with all their carving."</p>
+
+<p>They would have adorned a modern house. They
+went nearly up to the ceiling with small shelves and
+nooks, on which were vases and ornaments such as
+bring fortunes now.</p>
+
+<p>"And&mdash;about the party?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that will be only a girls' tea&mdash;her schoolmates
+where she has been. Next year will be time enough
+for the party;" with a little laugh.</p>
+
+<p>So the two spacious rooms were quite remodelled
+and modernized, and the gloomy appearance was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+thing of the past. Why shouldn't he spend his money
+on her? There was no one else.</p>
+
+<p>He had not lost sight of Anthony Drayton. The
+father had been exigent. Anthony, being the eldest,
+must take the farm when he was done with it. The
+lad had worked his time out. Cousin Chilian had
+offered him enough to take him to a preparatory
+school where he would be fitted for college. He had
+come in to Boston and Chilian had been attracted to
+the manly young fellow.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was more than delighted with the privilege
+of the tea party.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the girls have brothers, but I don't know
+them very well. I like Bentley, but he is away at
+school. And I'd rather have just girls."</p>
+
+<p>Her admiration of the parlor knew no bounds, and
+it gratified him.</p>
+
+<p>She had been taking lessons on the spinet, but the
+painting was a great rival. And this was old, thin,
+and creaky.</p>
+
+<p>"I have found a much better one in Boston, and the
+dealer wants this because it was made in London in
+1680. How strenuous some people are over old things.
+It has no special interest that I know of, and is comparatively
+useless."</p>
+
+<p>The new ones were really the beginning of pianofortes
+and this one was very sweet in tone.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian had been very greatly interested in the
+changes. He began to cultivate his neighbors a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+more. Indeed improvements were taking place in the
+town. New streets were laid out, old ones straightened,
+fine new houses built. There seemed a sudden
+outburst of commercial grandeur. Furnishings of the
+richest sort were eagerly caught up by the shoppers,
+who did not think it necessary to go to Boston and
+buy goods that had come in port here. Many of the
+old wooden houses were replaced with brick, and the
+beautiful doorways, windows, roofs, and porches still
+attract craftsmen and architects from different sections
+of the country, while illustrators find rich material
+in old Colonial doorways.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn consulted Mrs. Upham as to what was
+proper for a girls' tea.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Cynthia is old enough now to begin with
+friends in a simple manner. The family have lived so
+quietly that I have not gained much experience in
+such matters, and Miss Eunice doesn't feel equal to
+managing it. Of course, Miss Cynthia is quite an
+heiress and will go in with the best people."</p>
+
+<p>"As the Leveretts always have. There's been
+many a cap set for Chilian Leverett and it's been a
+wonder to every one that he hasn't married. But
+there's time enough yet."</p>
+
+<p>She came over and admired the parlors without
+stint.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," she said confidentially, "Miss Elizabeth
+was no hand for company. Some of the older
+people did the same, shut up the best rooms lest they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+should get faded, or something scratched, or worn.
+And I suppose he kept giving in; then there was his
+going in to college, and that's a sort of man's life.
+I'm glad he has had something to stir him up. He has
+been to several town-meetings. They are talking up
+improvements. It's a fine thing to have so many vessels
+flying Salem flags in different ports; nigh on to
+two hundred registered, husband said. But I told
+him there ought to be some home interest as well. We
+must not let Boston get so far ahead of us, nor forget
+the young people are to be the next generation."</p>
+
+<p>"And young people want some pleasure. I do not
+see how they stood so much of the gloomy side twenty
+years ago. I was that surprised when I first came
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, there had been a good many things, and all
+that witchcraft business. Puritan ways grew sterner
+and sterner. I can't say that people were really the
+better for it, in my way of thinking, and the Saviour
+talked a good deal about loving and helping people.
+He didn't stop to make them subscribe to all sorts of
+hard things before he worked a miracle. But we were
+going to talk about the tea."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; about what time now? I want Cynthia to
+have it just right and proper;" laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"They come&mdash;we'll say about four. They will want
+to run around and see things, and I'd have supper
+about five and they'll sit over it, and talk, and laugh.
+Suppose I send my 'Mimy over to pass things and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+wait. You would not want Miss Eunice to do it, and
+you will have other things on your hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, thank you. You are very kind about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I've had a girl to grow up and be married,
+and Polly's to leave school this summer, and next
+winter she will be setting up for a young lady. Little
+cookies and spicenuts are nice and two kinds of cake.
+You never give them real tea, you know, though it's
+called a tea party. And some cold chicken, or sliced
+ham. I'd spread the plates of bread, it's so much less
+trouble. They'll be sure to enjoy everything. A lot
+of girls always do have a good time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>A TASTE OF PLEASURE</h3>
+
+
+<p>Cynthia was full of joy, running down to the gate to
+meet and greet guests. They came in groups of
+twos and threes, having called for each other. There
+were fifteen in all&mdash;the girls she knew best, who were
+nearest her own age, and at most of the houses she
+had been made a welcome guest. Indeed, more than
+one mother was glad to have her daughter good
+friends with Miss Cynthia Leverett, who was to be a
+rich young woman, and whose trustee in Boston lived
+in fine style.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it was not exactly that money was so much
+thought of either, though it was always esteemed an
+excellent thing. Somehow it was rather relegated
+to the men. A father had an idea that his daughters
+would marry well, so business opportunities, and often
+the homestead, went to the sons. Here was an undivided
+fortune. And now it was hardly likely Chilian
+Leverett would marry, so she might come in for that.</p>
+
+<p>The house had always been considered rather
+gloomy, as even on state occasions not much light was
+allowed in the parlors. Some of the girls had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+gently advised to notice if there had been changes
+made.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia led them upstairs to take off their things.
+They were rather particular about complexions in
+those days. Some of the summer hats were really
+ornate sunbonnets, others were the great poke shape
+with a big bow on top and wide strings that were allowed
+to float on a hot day, so as not to get crushed
+by the warmth under the chin. They had long muslin
+sleeves to pull over their arms, indeed some of them
+were finished with mittens, so that the hands might
+not get tanned.</p>
+
+<p>The girls wore rather scant straight skirts, tucked
+up to the waist, or with needlework at the bottom, or
+two or three tiny ruffles. The stockings were not always
+white, oftener they matched the color of the
+slippers that were laced across the instep. The necks
+were cut square, often finished with a lace berthe.
+Some old families have handed these down and kept
+them laid away in rose leaves and lavender, and they
+are so sweet that when they are shaken out they perfume
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia wore a white gauzy frock made over blue
+silk that was soft as a pansy leaf. It had blue satin
+stripes and she was very glad she had the pretty blue
+slippers to match. Then almost every girl had a coral
+necklace, or was allowed to wear grandmother's gold
+beads. Some had their hair tied up high on their
+heads with a great bow, and maybe the family silver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+or gold comb put in artistically. Chilian liked the
+little girl's to hang loose, and now it was down to her
+waist.</p>
+
+<p>It was said the Holland wives of centuries ago took
+their visitors through their wardrobes and displayed
+their silk and velvet gowns. And when England
+passed some sumptuary laws that no one below titled
+rank should wear silk, the good wives of traders lined
+theirs with silk and hung them up in grand array to
+gratify their visitors or themselves.</p>
+
+<p>"You have so many lovely things," said a girl enviously.
+"I haven't but one silk frock, and that was
+Mary's until she outgrew it. And mother's so choice
+of it; she thinks it ought to last and go to Ruth."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you see, so many things came from India,"
+apologized Cynthia, almost ashamed of having so
+much. "And there's a boxful upstairs, but I think
+I like the white muslins best, they look so pretty when
+they are clean, and you don't have to be so careful."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you ever get scolded when accidents happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, not much. Cousin Eunice is so sweet.
+Cousin Elizabeth was more particular."</p>
+
+<p>"And Miss Winn?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my dear Rachel loves me too much," the
+child said laughingly.</p>
+
+<p>There were so many odd and pretty things that they
+staid up until all the girls had come&mdash;not one of them
+declined. Then they went down to the parlors.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Chilian said this back room was to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+mine. That lovely desk and the cabinet were my own
+mother's. And the table is teakwood. The chair
+father had carved for me, and that big portrait is
+father. This case has miniatures of them both, but it
+is too big ever to wear."</p>
+
+<p>"What a pity!"</p>
+
+<p>It was a <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'beutifully'">beautifully</ins> engraved gold case, set with
+jewels.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you are a lucky girl! And you can have all
+these yourself. You just don't have to share them
+with anybody. Is the room truly yours?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, it is to put my things in, but anybody can
+come in it, and we can go in the other room. Most
+of those articles were Cousin Chilian's father's and
+mother's, and the great clock in the hall came over in
+1640. It's funny;" and she laughed. "Old furniture
+and quilts and things never get cross and queer as
+folks sometimes do."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, they're not really alive."</p>
+
+<p>"And they last so much longer than folks."</p>
+
+<p>They had not inspected all the things when Miss
+Winn invited them out to supper. She took the head
+of the table, and began to talk so that they should not
+feel embarrassed. The lovely old china was on the
+table, and two vases of flowers that looked as if they
+were set with gems. 'Mimy passed the plates of bread
+and butter and cold meats and cottage cheese, and
+after a little they all began to talk as if it was recess at
+school.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Chilian Leverett passed through the sitting-room
+and thought it was really an enchanting sight,
+and that Cynthia was the prettiest girl of them all.</p>
+
+<p>People had not thought up ice cream in those days,
+but they made lovely custards, baked in cups with
+handles, and a tiny spoon to eat them with. They were
+the last of the tea.</p>
+
+<p>Then they went into the front parlor, which was the
+larger and played fox and geese, and blind-man's buff
+in a ring. Oh, Elizabeth, it was enough to disturb
+your rest to have those merry feet twinkle over the
+beautiful rug, when you scarcely dared walk tiptoe
+for fear of crushing the soft pile. But they had a
+grand, good time.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mr. Leverett brought in Cousin Eunice, who
+had a bit of white at her neck and wrists, and a lavender
+bow on her cap. She had protested against the
+bow, but Miss Winn had carried her point.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Leverett set them to doing some amusing things
+he had resurrected from his own boyhood. Catches
+on words, such as "Malaga grapes are very good
+grapes, but the grapes of Oporto are better." And
+then, "A hen, a hen, but not a rooster. Can you say
+<i>that?</i>" They were greatly puzzled and looked at Cynthia,
+who was silently smiling, saying it over in every
+manner, until at last one girl almost shrieked out,
+"<i>That</i>," and there was a chorus of laughter.</p>
+
+<p>At nine o'clock they were bidden to come home.
+Some of them were sent for and those who lived near<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+together went in a group. Ben Upham came for his
+sisters.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see why they couldn't have had boys," said
+Ben to Polly. "Ever so many of us would have been
+glad to come."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we didn't have any real boys' plays. But
+the supper was elegant. And 'Mimy waited so nicely.
+Cynthia's going to have the back parlor for hers, and
+Mr. Leverett has bought a new spinet. And she has
+the most beautiful things&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I've seen those;" rather impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"And Mr. Leverett's just splendid!"</p>
+
+<p>"I always told you so;" somewhat grumpily.
+"But I'd rather be up in the study with him and Cynthy
+than to go to half a dozen parties."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we weren't in the study at all."</p>
+
+<p>"No, that isn't for girls." So he had scored one,
+after all.</p>
+
+<p>It was the general verdict when the tea party was
+talked over that Cynthia Leverett was in a fair way
+of being spoiled. A man didn't know how to bring up
+a girl, and, of course, Miss Winn let her have her own
+way. Miss Eunice had given in to her sister so long
+that she gave in to every one else.</p>
+
+<p>Friends went to call and found the children had
+not exaggerated. Now and then a neighbor was
+asked in to supper, and found Cynthia a nice, modest
+girl, with no airs of superiority.</p>
+
+<p>They had some journeys about. They went up to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+the bay of Fundy and cruised around, chatting with
+fishermen and French settlers in their odd costumes,
+looked at their funny little huts, and were amazed at
+the children rolling round in the sand and the sun.
+Cousin Chilian talked to them, but their language was
+a sort of patois difficult to understand.</p>
+
+<p>After that Cynthia was much interested in the
+French and English war. And the whole country was
+watching the Corsican who had made himself master
+of half of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>"It is a wonderful world," Cynthia said when they
+were safe in the study again. "And I wonder if it is
+narrow and selfish to be glad that you are just you?"</p>
+
+<p>He was amused at the idea. But he couldn't recall
+that he had ever been anxious to change with any
+one.</p>
+
+<p>"And that <i>you</i> are just <i>you</i>. I couldn't like any
+one else as well, not even Cousin Giles, and I do like
+him very much."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian felt a rise of color stealing up his cheek.
+The preference was sweet, for Cousin Giles was extremely
+indulgent to her, and he was not a child enthusiast
+either.</p>
+
+<p>In those days no one supposed parents and friends
+were put in the world purposely for children's pleasure.
+They didn't even consider they came for <i>their</i>
+pleasure. It was right to have them, they were to be
+the future men and women, workers, legislators, and
+homemakers. They didn't always have easy times, nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+their own way, and they were not thought to be wiser
+than their parents, even in the choice of professions
+for life. But there were many fine brave fellows
+among the boys, and the girls went on, making pretty
+good wives and mothers. If life did not bring them
+just what they wished, they accepted it and did the
+best they could.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony Drayton came to make Cousin Chilian a
+visit and pass an examination for Harvard. With a
+little help he had worked his way through the academy.
+He was one of the brave, resolute boys, and,
+though it grieved him to go against his father's
+wishes, he had decided for himself.</p>
+
+<p>"I really could not bury myself on a farm," he
+confessed. "I want a wider life, I want to mix with
+men and take an interest in the country. Not that I
+despise farming, and if one could branch out and do
+many new things, but to keep on year after year in
+the old rut, corn and potatoes, wheat and rye&mdash;just
+as grandfather did. What is the use of a man living
+if he can't strike out some new ways? Maybe I'd
+been willing to go to the new countries, but father was
+just as opposed to that."</p>
+
+<p>He was a fresh, fair lad, with eyes of the Leverett
+blue, a strong, fine face, not delicate as Cousin Chilian's.
+His hair was not very dark, but his brows well
+defined, and with the eyelashes much darker than the
+hair. His voice had such a cheerful uplift.</p>
+
+<p>"You have quite decided then?" Chilian wondered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+if he could ever have gone against his father's wishes,
+but in that case father and son had similar tastes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes; I've nothing farther to look for, and I'm
+willing to leave my share to the other children. I
+know I can make my way, and I'm ready to work and
+wait."</p>
+
+<p>His voice had such a nice wholesome ring that it
+inspired you with faith in him.</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Eunice took a great fancy to him. They
+talked over the visit of years ago. It seemed to her as
+if it had just been the beginning of things.</p>
+
+<p>One sister was grown up and "keeping company,"
+the other a nice handy girl. The next brother would
+be a great help&mdash;he cared nothing for books. Both of
+the Brent cousins were married, one living on the farm
+with his mother, the other having struck out for himself.
+And Miss Eliza Leverett was weakly. Like
+many women of that period, when all hope of marrying
+and having a home of her own was past, she sank
+down into a gentle nonentity and dreamed of Cousin
+Chilian. Not that she had expected to captivate him,
+but life with some one like that would set one on the
+highest pinnacle.</p>
+
+<p>He thought Cousin Cynthia&mdash;they were always
+cousins, to the fourth generation&mdash;was the sweetest,
+daintiest, and most winsome thing he had ever seen&mdash;and
+so she was, for his acquaintance with girls had
+been limited. They looked over the old treasures in
+the house and thought it wonderful any one should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+ever go to India and return without being wrecked.
+They walked about the lovely garden, and he was
+amazed at her familiarity with flowers and plants he
+had never seen.</p>
+
+<p>Then she took him over to the Uphams, for an old
+friend came in to play checkers with Cousin Chilian.
+Polly was bright and merry, but somehow Ben seemed
+rather captious. Anthony listened with surprise at the
+bright sayings they flung at one another.</p>
+
+<p>The next day he and Cousin Chilian went over
+topics for examination. His reading had not been extensive
+but thorough. In mathematics he was excellent.
+But he found some time to chat with Cynthia,
+and they both walked down to the warehouse with
+Cousin Chilian.</p>
+
+<p>What a sight it was! He had read of such things,
+but to see the hundreds of busy men, the great fleet
+of vessels, the docks piled with all kinds of wares, the
+boxes and bales lying round in endless confusion.
+And the great ocean, lost over beyond in the far-off
+sky.</p>
+
+<p>When the two had gone up to Boston, Cynthia felt
+very lonely. She had been sipping the sweets of unspoken
+admiration. She saw it in the eyes, in the
+deference, as if he was almost afraid of her, in the
+sudden flush when she turned her eyes to him. It
+was a new kind of worship.</p>
+
+<p>She went over to the Uphams. Polly had been having
+her sampler framed. The acorn border was very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+pretty in its greens and browns. Then a stiff little
+tree grew up both sides, about like those that
+came in the Noah's Ark later on. And between these
+two trees was worked in cross-stitch:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Mary Upham is my name">
+<tr><td align='left'>"Mary Upham is my name,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">America is my nation;</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Salem is my dwelling place,</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">And Christ is my salvation."</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>"Isn't the frame nice?" she asked. "I made father
+two shirts and he gave me the frame and the glass.
+Peter Daly made it. And the frame is oiled and polished
+until the grain shows&mdash;well, almost like watered
+silk. Gitty Sprague has a beautiful pelisse of gray
+watered silk. And now I have one thing for my house.
+I'm beginning to lay by."</p>
+
+<p>"Your house!" Cynthia ejaculated in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes&mdash;when I'm married. You have such
+lots of things, you'll never have to save up."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was wondering what she could give away.
+Not anything that was her father's or her mother's.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll paint you a picture. You do so much better
+needlework than I that I should be ashamed to offer
+you any."</p>
+
+<p>"And the girls will give me some, I know. I'd
+fifty times rather have the picture. What a nice young
+fellow that cousin is! I'm glad his name isn't Leverett.
+There's such a host of them. But I don't like
+Anthony so well."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That was father's name. It's quite a family name.
+It always sounds good to me."</p>
+
+<p>"And is he going to Harvard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; even if he can't get in right away."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nice, too. It's quite the style for young
+men to go to college. Some of them put on a sight of
+airs, though. He doesn't look like that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"He isn't," she returned warmly. "He is going to
+work his way through."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Hasn't he any father?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but his father will not do anything for him.
+I think it is real grand of him."</p>
+
+<p>Polly nodded, but she lost interest in the young
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Bentley walked home with Cynthia. It was afternoon,
+so he did not really need to.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose that cousin isn't going to live with
+you?" he asked presently.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no; he will have to live in Boston."</p>
+
+<p>"And come up here for Sundays?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I don't know. That would be nice. I
+think I am growing fond of company."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can come over;" half jocosely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I meant other people;" innocently.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't care for my coming?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do. Oh, do you remember that winter I
+was half sick and how you used to come over and
+read Latin? And I used to say it to myself after
+you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>That delighted him. He didn't feel so cross about
+the young fellow, but he half hoped he wouldn't pass,
+and have to go back to New Hampshire for another
+year.</p>
+
+<p>They sat on the stoop and chatted until the old
+stage stopped and Chilian alighted.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" the young girl cried, "where did you leave
+Anthony?"</p>
+
+<p>"With Cousin Giles. The examinations will begin
+to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>It was near supper-time and Ben rose to go. Sometimes
+they asked him to stay to supper, but to-night
+they did not.</p>
+
+<p>Then an event happened that took Cynthia's entire
+interest for a while. This was the return of Captain
+Corwin. He came up the walk one day&mdash;quite a
+grizzled old fellow it seemed, with the sailor's rolling
+gait&mdash;and looked at her so sharply that she had a mind
+to run away.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Captain Anthony's little girl," he cried.
+"You have forgotten me. And it ain't been so long
+either."</p>
+
+<p>She thought a moment and turned from red to
+white. Then she stretched out both hands and cried,
+her eyes and voice full of tears:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you couldn't bring him back!"</p>
+
+<p>"No, little Missy. He'd shipped for the last time
+before I'd reached there and gone to a better haven.
+He was the best friend I ever had. But he knew it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+long afore, and that was why he wanted you safe with
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>"I know now." She brushed the tears from her
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"And I hope you've been happy."</p>
+
+<p>"I waited and waited at first. Sometimes I wished
+I was a bird. Oh, wouldn't we have a lovely time if
+we could fly? And one time in the winter I was quite
+ill&mdash;it was so cold and I did get so tired of waiting.
+Then Cousin Chilian told me he had gone to mother
+and I knew how glad she would be to see him. I had
+some nice times. Cousin Chilian loved me very much.
+So did Cousin Eunice. I think Cousin Elizabeth
+would if she had lived longer, but she went away, too.
+Oh, I've done so many things&mdash;studied books, and
+taken journeys, and made friends, and painted pictures,
+flowers, and such. And I've tried to paint the
+sea, but I can't make it move and seem like a real sea."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Missy, how smart you must be!"</p>
+
+<p>"There are so many things I don't know," she
+laughed. "And now tell me about yourself and why
+you did not come back."</p>
+
+<p>"We had a pretty fair journey all along first. But
+as we were nearing Torres Strait an awful storm took
+us, and we were driven ashore almost a wreck and lost
+two of our men. After a while we got patched up and
+set sail again, but I was afraid we would never reach
+harbor. Howsomever we did, in a pretty bad condition.
+Poor <i>Flying Star</i> seemed on its last legs and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+'twasn't sea legs either. Then I went up to Hong
+Kong and cruised around, buying stuff and selling it
+elsewhere. The <i>Flying Star</i> was patched up again,
+but she wasn't thought safe for a long journey. But
+there was plenty of work near at hand. Of course, I
+knew all about your father, and that the word must
+have reached you, but I hated mortally to come back
+and face you. But after a while the hankerin' for old
+Salem grew upon me. And there was the <i>Aurora</i>
+wantin' a captain, for the man who brought her out
+died of a fever. So says I, 'I'm your man, and I've
+been over often enough to know the ropes, the islands,
+and p'ints of danger and safe sailing.' So here I be
+once more. But jiminy Peter! I should hardly 'a'
+knowed little old Salem. Why, she looks as if she
+was going to outsail all creation!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we're getting very grand. New streets, and
+splendid new houses, and stores, and churches. Why,
+Boston isn't very much finer."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't b'lieve Boston harbor can show tonnage
+with her! And where's first mate?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, but he will be in soon. Oh,
+there's Rachel. Rachel, come here to an old friend."</p>
+
+<p>The captain shook hands heartily. "Why, you don't
+seem to have changed a mite, only to grow younger
+and plump as a partridge."</p>
+
+<p>It had all to be talked over again and in the midst
+of it supper was ready, and there was Miss Eunice's
+surprise. Cynthia could hardly eat, the long journey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+and the dangers seemed such a strange thing now.
+Had she really come from India, or was it all a
+dream?</p>
+
+<p>Yes, old Salem was almost fading out of the minds
+of even middle-aged people. There were curious
+stories told about witches and ghosts, but the real
+witchcraft was dying out of mind and the old houses
+that had been associated with it were looked upon as
+curiosities. Public spirit was being roused. In 1804
+the East India Marine Society left the Stearns house
+and moved to the new Pickman Building in Essex
+Street. People began to send in curiosities that had
+been stored away in garrets: models of early vessels,
+articles from Calcutta, from the islands about the Central
+and South Pacific, cloths, and cloaks, and shawls,
+and implements.</p>
+
+<p>The captain was quite sure Winter Island had
+grown larger&mdash;perhaps it had, by docking out. And
+he declared the streets looked like London, with the
+gayly gowned women, the stores, the carriages, for a
+number of handsome late ones were to be seen. There
+were a few fine young men on the promenade and
+they were attired in the height of fashion, as the society
+men of New York and Philadelphia. They were
+still paying attention to business and devoting the
+evenings to pleasure. Descendants of the strict old
+Puritans met to play cards and have dances and gay
+times with the young ladies. In the afternoon a cup
+of tea would be offered to callers, or a piece of choice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+cake and a glass of wine&mdash;often home-made. There
+were few excesses.</p>
+
+<p>Many were still wearing the old Continental attire,
+yet you saw an old Puritan gentleman, with his long
+coat, his high-crowned hat, black silk stockings, and
+low shoes with great steel buckles.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony was very much interested in the captain,
+whose best friend had been Anthony Leverett. He
+was proud of the name, and Cynthia's story was like
+a romance to him. He was taken up quite cordially
+by Cousin Giles, and very cordially by Mrs. Stevens,
+who had a liking for young men when they were well-mannered.
+He had managed to enter Harvard, with
+some studies to make up. Chilian Leverett insisted
+he should do no teaching this year, and offered him
+enough to see him through, but he would only accept
+it as a loan.</p>
+
+<p>Bentley Upham was a year ahead and had a good
+standing, but he felt a little jealous of the young country
+fellow&mdash;"bumpkin" he would have liked to call
+him, but he was not that. A young man received at
+Mr. Giles Leverett's, and who sometimes escorted Mrs.
+Stevens to an entertainment, was not to be ignored.</p>
+
+<p>The captain staid in port nearly two months and
+Cynthia experienced her old fondness for him, if he
+was a little uncouth and rough. They went down to
+see the <i>Aurora</i> off and she recalled the day she had
+said good-bye to the <i>Flying Star</i>, that was to bring
+back her father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As for her she was very busy learning to play and
+to paint. It was a young lady's accomplishment, but
+she really did very well. There were girls' teas, and
+now and then a small dance that began at seven and
+ended at nine, but boys were invited generally. Miss
+Polly Upham was quite in the swim, as we should say
+now. Mothers expected their daughters to marry,
+and how could they if they did not see young men?
+But there was a certain propriety observed, and very
+little playing fast and loose with the most sacred
+period of life, with the greatest God-given blessing&mdash;Love.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>IN GAY OLD SALEM</h3>
+
+
+<p>The next winter Cynthia was fairly launched on
+society. There was no regular coming out in almost
+bridal array, with a grand tea and a houseful of
+flowers. When a girl left school she expected to be
+invited out and to give little companies at home. Almost
+the first thing, she was asked to be one of the
+six bridesmaids at Laura Manning's wedding.</p>
+
+<p>The Mannings had one of the splendid new houses
+on Chestnut Street, with spacious grounds before the
+houses grew so close together. Avis Manning was
+still in school, Cynthia was between the two in age.
+Mr. Manning was connected with the East India trade
+and an old friend of the Leverett family. It had begun
+by Cynthia being invited to a girls' tea, and Mrs. Manning
+had taken a great fancy to her. Laura was not
+very tall, and they did not want any one to dwarf the
+bride.</p>
+
+<p>Every one was to be in white, the bride in a soft,
+thick silk, and she was to have a court train. The
+maids were to be in mull or gauze, as a very pretty
+thin material was called. The Empress Josephine had
+brought in new styles that certainly were very becom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>ing
+to young people. The short waist and square
+neck, the sleeve puffs that had shrunk so much they no
+longer reached the ears, the short curls around the
+edge of the forehead arranged so the white parting
+showed, the dainty feet in elegant slippers and choice
+silk stockings that could not help showing, for the
+skirts were short. Pretty feet and slim ankles seemed
+to be a mark of good family.</p>
+
+<p>"Will I do?" Cynthia stood before Cousin Chilian
+with a half-saucy smile. Around her throat she wore
+a beautiful Oriental necklace, with pendants of different
+fine stones that sparkled with every turn of the
+head. There were match pendants in her ears, and
+just back of the rows of curls was a jewelled comb.</p>
+
+<p>She was a pretty girl without being a striking
+beauty. But her eyes would have redeemed almost
+any face, and now they were all aglow with a wonderful
+light.</p>
+
+<p>He looked his admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Because if <i>you</i> don't like me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>There was a charming half-coquettish way about
+her, but she never made a bid for compliments.</p>
+
+<p>"What then?" laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd stay home and spoil the wedding party. I
+know they couldn't fill my place on a short notice."</p>
+
+<p>He thought they couldn't fill it at all, but he said
+almost merrily, "You need not stay at home."</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Eunice said she looked pretty enough for
+the bride. Miss Winn had attended to her toilette,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+and now she wrapped a soft silken cloak about her and
+Cousin Chilian put her in the carriage. He was all in
+his best, ruffled shirt-front, light brocaded silk waist-coat,
+and there were lace ruffles about his hands.</p>
+
+<p>One feels inclined to wonder at the extravagance of
+those days, when one sees some of the heirlooms that
+have come down to us. But their handsome gowns
+went through several seasons, and then were made
+over for the daughters. And they did not have their
+jewels reset every few months.</p>
+
+<p>Such a roomful of pretty girls! Youth and health
+and picturesque dressing make almost any one pretty.
+Miss Laura looked fine, but she paused to say, "Oh,
+Cynthia, what an elegant necklace!"</p>
+
+<p>"Father had it made for mother," she replied
+simply.</p>
+
+<p>They patted and pulled a little, powdered, too.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Willard, the great mantua-maker of that day,
+who superintended the dressing of brides, saw that
+everything was right. The young men came from
+their dressing-room, and they began to form the procession.
+Both halls were illuminated with no end of
+candles, and guests were standing about. Mr. Lynde
+Saltonstall took his bride-to-be, and they let the white
+train sweep down the broad stairway, then Avis Manning
+and Ed Saltonstall followed. They were not
+much on knick-names in those days, but he had been
+called Ed to distinguish him from some cousins.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia and a cousin came next, and there were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+several other relatives. It was a beautiful sight. The
+bride walked up to the white satin cushion on which
+the couple would kneel during the prayer, the maids
+and attendants made a semicircle around her, and
+then the nearest relatives. The old white-haired minister
+had married her mother.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was kissing and congratulation and Mrs.
+Saltonstall had her new name, though Avis said she
+liked Manning a hundred times better.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you wouldn't accept my name?" said Ed,
+but he looked laughingly at Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed I wouldn't! I don't want any one's name
+at present. I'm going to be the only daughter of the
+house a while," she returned saucily.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if I ought to go on and ask all the
+maids?" There was such a funny anxiety in his face
+that it added to the merriment.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't ask this one," said Ward Adams, and
+Cousin Lois Reade blushed scarlet, though they all
+knew she was engaged.</p>
+
+<p>"But I'm going to dance with every maid. And
+just at twelve I'm going to hunt for a glass slipper."</p>
+
+<p>His look at Cynthia said he needn't hunt very far,
+and she blushed, which made her more enchanting
+than before.</p>
+
+<p>They all laughed and talked, the older men teasing
+the bride a little and giving her advice as to how she
+should break in her new husband. Young people's
+weddings were expected to be gay and every one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+added his or her mite. The fine new house was duly
+admired. On one side it was all one long room, beautifully
+decorated. On the other a library, for books
+were beginning to come in fashion, even if you were
+not a clergyman or a student. Then a kind of family
+sitting-room, with a large dining-room at the back.
+Some of the fine old houses were taken for public purposes
+later on.</p>
+
+<p>They went out to refreshments and the bride cut the
+cake with a silver knife. Large suppers were no
+longer considered the style, but there was a bountiful
+supply of delicacies. They drank health and long life
+to the bride and groom, and good wishes of all kinds.</p>
+
+<p>The black waiter, in white gloves and white apron,
+stood in the hall to deliver boxes of wedding cake as
+the older people took their departure. And then the
+fiddlers began to tune up. There were two minuets to
+take in all the party. Cynthia and Mr. Jordan were
+in the head one, with the bride. He was a little stiff
+and excused himself, as he wasn't much given to dancing.
+It didn't matter so much in the minuet.</p>
+
+<p>Then they paired off any way. Mr. Ed Saltonstall
+caught Cynthia's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm just dying to dance with you, and this is the
+basket quadrille. Jordan dances like a pump handle,
+but he's a good fellow. Now let us have something
+worth while. I know you dance beautifully."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?" piquantly.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to be nautical and impertinent, but I'm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+afraid you'd report me to Mr. Leverett. Oh, it's in
+you, in every motion. Aren't you glad you didn't live
+in those old Puritan days when you would have been
+put in the stocks if you had skipped across the room?
+Come."</p>
+
+<p>That <i>was</i> dancing. Not a halt nor an ungraceful
+turn, but every curve and motion was as perfect as if
+they had danced together all their lives. She gave
+two or three happy sighs. Her cheeks were like the
+heart of a blush rose; she never turned very red when
+she ran or skipped, and never looked blowsy.</p>
+
+<p>Another person watched and thought her the prettiest
+thing in the room, and was very glad she belonged
+to him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry I have to dance with some one else and
+it's Lois Reade. Adams would like to kick me, I
+know, and she would be twice as happy with him.
+That is the price you pay for assisting your brother
+into matrimony. Next time there shall not be but one
+bridesmaid, and I'll dance with her all the evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Next time? Will he be married twice?" she
+asked demurely.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you witch! You are the most delicious
+dancer&mdash;it almost seems as if you were sipping some
+very fine wine&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And it went to your head," she laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Head and heels both. I'm extravagantly fond of
+it with a partner like you. You'll go to the assemblies
+this winter?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Leverett very&mdash;he's your guardian, and
+somehow I stand just a little in awe of him. He is so
+polished, and knows so much, and is he going to be
+very exclusive?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;&mdash;" She didn't quite understand, but she
+looked out of such lovely eyes that all his pulses
+throbbed.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your places."</p>
+
+<p>She was standing there alone when Mr. Adams
+asked her. That was only fair play. Mr. Saltonstall
+was in the same set and he gave her hand a squeeze
+when he took her, crumpled it all up in his, and she
+flushed daintily.</p>
+
+<p>He could not dance with her again until the very
+last. That was a "circle" in which you balanced and
+turned your partner and went to the next couple, but
+some way you returned to your own. There were
+various pretty figures in it. Once or twice she was a
+little confused, but he seemed always on the watch
+for her.</p>
+
+<p>The music stopped and the fiddlers were locking
+their cases. The dancers went out to the supper-room
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather dance than eat. I believe I could
+dance without music. Would you like to try?" he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" with a frightened look that made him
+laugh.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Leverett came, and Mr. Saltonstall was all
+polite deference. He wished he could be invited to
+call, but how was it to be managed?</p>
+
+<p>Then Cynthia went upstairs to put on her cloak.
+The bride kissed her, and said she was glad to have
+had her, and when they gave their house-warming she
+must be sure to come.</p>
+
+<p>"I've had such a lovely time. Thank you ever so
+much."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm the obliged one," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>If she had not been in the carriage she must have
+danced all the way home. There was music in her
+head and a "spirit in her feet." She hardly heard
+what Cousin Chilian was saying, only after they entered
+the house and she slipped out of her wrap, with
+his good-night, he said, "You are a very pretty girl,
+Cynthia." Of course, he should have had more sense
+than to foster a girl's vanity.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning she asked him about the assemblies.</p>
+
+<p>"They are very nice dancing parties. Only the best
+people go and no sort of freedom or misbehavior is
+tolerated. I think I'll take out a membership."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do, please do," she entreated.</p>
+
+<p>The elegant wedding was talked of for days. Girls
+called on Miss Leverett&mdash;it seemed funny to be called
+that. She was asked to join a sewing society that
+made articles of clothing for the widows and children
+of drowned sailors, and there were many of them on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+the New England coast. Her tender heart was
+moved by the pathetic tales she heard.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Cousin Eunice," she said one day, "I went
+with one of the committee to see a poor sick woman
+who is in awful destitution. There are three small
+children, and when she is well she goes out washing.
+They send her driftwood and old stuff from the ship-yards,
+and one of the companies pays her rent. But
+you should see the things! Such ragged quilts that
+hardly hold together, and one little boy was without
+stockings. There are so many things up in the garret
+that you will never use&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Likely, dear, but they are Chilian's."</p>
+
+<p>"He said I might ask you, that he was willing.
+Can't we go up and find some? What is the use of
+their being piled up year after year, and people in need?
+Ah, if you could see the poor place!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Eunice went unwillingly. The thrift of New
+England did often shrivel into penuriousness. She
+and Elizabeth were in the habit of putting away so
+many partly worn articles for the time of need.</p>
+
+<p>"Those old blankets and quilts&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Elizabeth thought they would do to cover over."</p>
+
+<p>"But there are so many better ones. And some on
+the closet shelves that have never been used. Why,
+there is enough to last a hundred years."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no;" with an alarmed expression.</p>
+
+<p>"And even I shall not last a hundred years. No
+one does."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. I knew a woman who lived to be one
+hundred and four."</p>
+
+<p>"Did she come to want?"</p>
+
+<p>"She had a good son to take care of her."</p>
+
+<p>"And you have Cousin Chilian. I read somewhere
+in the Bible&mdash;I wish I could remember the chapters
+and verses, 'While we have time let us do good unto
+<i>all</i> men.' I suppose that means those who haven't
+been frugal and careful, as well as the others."</p>
+
+<p>"We can't tell just what every sentence means."</p>
+
+<p>"But we can help them. And here is a poor
+woman who doesn't go to taverns;" smiling tenderly
+and with persuasive eyes.</p>
+
+<p>They picked out enough for a wagon-load. Some
+of Cousin Chilian's clothes that would do to cut over,
+old woollen blankets, and a variety of articles.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us put them all in this chest."</p>
+
+<p>"We might need the chest."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, we won't. They will be so much easier to
+carry that way. Silas could drive down there. And,
+oh, you can't imagine how much good they will do."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia went down to see afterward, and the poor
+woman's gratitude brought tears to her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"They will be a perfect God-send this winter," she
+said. "I've been frettin' as to what we should do.
+I've never begged yet. Well, the Lord is good."</p>
+
+<p>Then there came another source of interest. Polly
+Upham was "keeping company." A nice, steady
+young man in the ship-chandlery business, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+little money saved up, whose folks lived at Portsmouth.
+He came regularly on Wednesday night and
+Sundays to tea. They went to church in the evening,
+and that certified it to the young people. Betty had
+left school and was trying her hand at housekeeping.
+Louis, the little fellow, was a big boy.</p>
+
+<p>Alice Turner was engaged also, and certainly very
+much in love if she considered the young man a paragon.
+Cynthia compared them all with Cousin Chilian,
+and it wasn't a bit fair.</p>
+
+<p>She met Mr. Saltonstall at a small party, where
+they played games and had forfeits.</p>
+
+<p>It was odd, she thought, how the girls chose him
+in everything. She didn't choose him once. He spoke
+of it afterward.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I thought some of the others ought to have
+a chance," she explained with winning sweetness.
+"But if it had been dancing!" and she laughed, and
+that reconciled him.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mrs. Lynde Saltonstall gave her house-warming.
+It was a simple dwelling and not very large, but
+it was pretty as a picture. And young people didn't
+expect to rival their fathers and mothers in the
+start.</p>
+
+<p>They had dancing, and that was enough. They
+were all young people, and two of the fiddlers were
+there. They had a gay time and a nice supper.</p>
+
+<p>"I think Ed is smitten with Cynthia Leverett,"
+Laura remarked to her husband. "He seemed to feel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+annoyed that they had sent Miss Winn in the carriage
+for her. She's a lovely dancer."</p>
+
+<p>"It wouldn't be a bad thing for Ed. She has lots
+of money that just turns itself over on interest. And
+her trustee has been buying up some choice Boston
+property for her. She's pretty and has charming manners
+and comes of a good family."</p>
+
+<p>Then Mrs. Stevens asked her to come in to Boston
+for a few days. She was going to have a little dancing
+party.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear, you'll dance yourself to death," said
+Cousin Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. It isn't as hard as cleaning house or
+washing, as some of the poor women do. And it is
+tiresome to practise on the spinet, hour after hour&mdash;counting
+time and all that. If I was a girl of twenty
+years ago I'm afraid I should be chasing up and down
+some old garret, spinning on the big wheel."</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Eunice laughed, too. Cynthia always made
+commonplaces seem amusing, she accented them so
+with her bright face.</p>
+
+<p>They were very glad to have her in Boston. Chilian
+took her in on Saturday and staid with her until
+Monday morning. On Sunday Anthony Drayton was
+invited in to dinner. He had improved very much.
+The country air had been effaced. And he was a gentleman
+by instinct, and acquired cultivation readily.</p>
+
+<p>"And a fine fellow!" said Cousin Giles, rubbing
+his hands. "He's decided to go in for law presently,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+and it will be a most excellent thing. I don't know but
+I'll have to adopt him, as you did Cynthia."</p>
+
+<p>Anthony hovered about the young girl. She had
+been cultivating her voice the last year. It was a
+sweet parlor voice, adapted to the old-time songs.
+Mrs. Stevens had a book of them and she sang most
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I wish you were going to stay over another
+Sunday," he exclaimed wistfully. "But I shall come
+in on Tuesday evening. I don't dance, but Mrs.
+Stevens is so kind to me, I've met several of the first
+men in the city here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I am glad you are coming."</p>
+
+<p>It was a very sincere joy and she could not keep it
+out of her face, did not try to. And it was such a
+sweet face that she raised to his. He had a sudden unreasonable
+wish that he was five years older and settled
+in business, but then&mdash;she was very young.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Stevens said to her on Monday, after she had
+read a note over and glanced up at her rather furtively,
+"There's a friend of yours coming Tuesday
+night&mdash;a friend from Salem that I hope you will be
+glad to see."</p>
+
+<p>"From Salem&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Saltonstall. He was in here a fortnight or so
+ago. His mother and I used to be great friends. I
+happened to ask him if he knew the Leveretts, and he
+told me about his brother's marriage, that you were
+one of the bridesmaids."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes. Laura Manning was one of the older
+girls at Madam Torrey's. They had just gone in their
+new house and the wedding was splendid. And I
+liked Mr. Edward Saltonstall so much. He is a
+most beautiful dancer. I'm so glad he is coming.
+You see I don't know many of the new dances, and I
+shouldn't so much mind making a break with him."</p>
+
+<p>She looked up in her sweet, brave innocence as she
+uttered it.</p>
+
+<p>"You are not in love with him, little lady, and he is
+very much smitten with you," Mrs. Stevens ruminated.
+"But you shall have the chance."</p>
+
+<p>"I've always liked Ed," she continued. "He's a
+nice, frank, honest fellow, pretty gay at times, but not
+at all in the dissipated line, just full of fun and frolic.
+So I asked him down, and here he says he will come,"
+waving her note. "I look out for men who dance. I
+do like to see young folks have a good time. The
+older people can play cards."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed rather odd that at eight o'clock not a soul
+had come. At home they would be beginning the fun
+by this time. Then a sudden influx of girls, some she
+had met before&mdash;two or three young men&mdash;and then
+young Saltonstall, who had been counting the moments
+the last half hour.</p>
+
+<p>"I am so glad to see you. It was such a surprise."</p>
+
+<p>He could see it in her face, hear it in her voice.
+He really was afraid of saying something foolish&mdash;something
+that would be no harm if they were alone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I've known Mrs. Stevens a long while. And Mr.
+Giles Leverett. It's queer&mdash;well, not quite that either&mdash;that
+I've known you such a little while. I always
+thought of you as a child, though I've seen you drive
+your pony carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Stevens is delightful."</p>
+
+<p>Then there was another relay, quite a number of
+young gentlemen. The black fiddlers in the hall began
+to tune up.</p>
+
+<p>There were two very handsome girls and beautifully
+gowned. All of them looked pretty in dancing
+attire. Then a quadrille was called. There were just
+eight couples.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, Mr. Saltonstall took her. The rug was
+up and the floor had been polished. The dancing was
+elegant, harmonious.</p>
+
+<p>"The next is the Spanish dance. You will like that.
+The windings about are like the song words to the
+music."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;I don't know it;" and she shrank back.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you'll get into it. You are the kind that could
+pick up any step. You make me think of a swallow
+as it darts round. If it made a mistake no one would
+know it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I'd rather not;" entreatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't spoil the set."</p>
+
+<p>She rose up and let him lead her out. She had a
+way of yielding so quickly, when it was right and best,
+very flattering to a man in love and easily misread.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>If dancing had been art instead of nature, something
+by rote instead of a segment of inner harmony,
+she could not have succeeded so well. He warded off
+the few blunders, and at the third change she had
+another well-bred partner. But she was glad to get
+back to him. The joy shone in her dangerous eyes.</p>
+
+<p>There were some new dances coming in. One of
+the girls from New York and her escort waltzed up
+and down the room in a slow-gliding manner that was
+the poetry of motion. She was fascinated, enchanted,
+and she knew she could do it herself.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll try it sometime," Saltonstall said.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Leverett came in, bringing Anthony Drayton
+with him. He knew he was late, but he didn't dance,
+and he had earned five dollars copying that evening.
+But he must see Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I thought you would not come!"</p>
+
+<p>Then she had been giving a thought to him out of
+her happy time!</p>
+
+<p>"I was detained. Are they all well, or didn't Cousin
+Chilian come down?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no."</p>
+
+<p>They were being marshalled out to supper.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to content yourself with me," said
+Mrs. Stevens to Anthony, and he accepted smilingly.
+But she placed Cynthia next, so he could have a little
+talk with her. He was getting on so well, and she
+was glad for him.</p>
+
+<p>Some one wanted Miss Tracy to waltz again. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+they had a galop, and the party broke up. Anthony
+said good-night, and that he was coming up on Saturday.
+Then Saltonstall drew her into a little nook in
+the hall that made a connection with another room
+when it was open. Mrs. Stevens had smiled over its
+uses.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia, my darling, I must tell you this," and his
+voice seemed to throb with emotion. "I want the
+right to come and visit you as lovers have, for I love
+you, love you! I am coming to see Mr. Leverett and
+ask his permission. I do nothing but dream of you
+day and night. You are the sweetest, dearest&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, don't! don't!" She struggled in the clasp.
+"Oh, I can't&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;" and he felt her slight body
+tremble, so he loosed it.</p>
+
+<p>"Forgive me. I wanted you to know so no one can
+take you from me. I want to see you often. Oh, love,
+good-night, good-night!"</p>
+
+<p>He pressed a rapturous kiss upon her hand and
+was gone. She slipped through to the dining-room
+and took a glass of water.</p>
+
+<p>"You look tired to death, little country girl," said
+Uncle Giles, and he kissed her on the forehead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>LOVERS AND LOVERS</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Take me home with you, Cousin Chilian," she
+pleaded, when he came in the next day.</p>
+
+<p>"But I thought"&mdash;he studied her in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go home," she interrupted, and her under
+lip had a quiver in it that would have disarmed almost
+any one, persuaded as well.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes. Didn't you enjoy the party?" He felt
+suddenly at loss, he was not used to translating moods
+with all his knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it was delightful! And some such pretty girls.
+There were new dances. And Mrs. Stevens <i>is</i> charming.
+Anthony came over a little while."</p>
+
+<p>In spite of inducements held out, she would go.
+Cousin Giles was almost cross about it.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad to get back," she said to Rachel.
+"One feels so safe here."</p>
+
+<p>"Was there any danger?" laughed the elder.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia's face was scarlet. It wasn't danger
+exactly, but she felt better under Cousin Chilian's
+wing. And she was her bright gay self all the
+evening.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But how to get her story told? For if Mr. Saltonstall
+came and asked for her company, as they termed
+it then, and not being warned, he should consent&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>They sat by the study fire. It had turned out cold
+and cloudy, with indications of snow. He had a lamp
+near him on the small table, and read and thought, as
+his glance wandered dreamily over the leaping flashing
+blue and yellow flames. If it stormed for one or
+two days, she could not have come home.</p>
+
+<p>She rose presently and came and stood by him, laid
+her hand lightly on his shoulder. She was a young
+lady now, and it was hardly proper to draw her down
+on his knee.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Chilian;" hesitatingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, dear?" in an inquiring tone.</p>
+
+<p>"There is something I ought to tell you, and I want
+to ask you&mdash;to&mdash;to do&mdash;oh, I hardly know how to say
+it. Mr. Saltonstall came down; he and Mrs. Stevens
+are old friends&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Ah, he knew now. This young man had dared to
+invade the virginal sweetness of her soul, to trouble
+the quiet stream of girlhood. He was roused, strangely
+angry, for all his placid temperament.</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't help it&mdash;just before he went away&mdash;and
+I couldn't have dreamed of such a thing&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Then she hid her head down on his shoulder and
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear&mdash;my dear little girl&mdash;oh, yes, it would have to
+happen sometime. And&mdash;he loves you."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that isn't the worst;" illogically, between her
+sobs. "He is coming to ask you if he may&mdash;and I
+don't want him to come that way. I just want it as it
+was before. Polly Upham can't think or talk of anything
+but her intended, and it gets tiresome. He
+doesn't seem so very wonderful to me. And wouldn't
+it weary you to hear me praising some one all the
+time?"</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would," he answered honestly, yet with
+some confusion of mind.</p>
+
+<p>"So I don't want it;" with more courage in her
+voice. "I want good times with them all. And I
+don't see how you can come to love any one all in a
+moment."</p>
+
+<p>Was he hearing aright? Didn't she really want the
+young man for a lover? He was unreasonably,
+fatuously glad, and the pulses, that were chilled a moment
+ago, seemed to race hot through his body.</p>
+
+<p>"It was not quite marriage?" a little huskily.</p>
+
+<p>"He wanted to ask if he might have the right to
+come, and he said he loved me, and, oh, I am
+afraid&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>She was trembling. He could feel it where she
+leaned against him. He took sudden courage.</p>
+
+<p>"And you do not want him to come in that way?
+It would most likely lead to an engagement. And then
+I should have to listen to his praises continually. Yes,
+it would be rather hard on me;" and he laughed with a
+humorous sound.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It heartened her a good deal. She was smiling now
+herself, but there were tears on her cheek.</p>
+
+<p>"And you won't mind telling him; that is not <i>very</i>
+much, that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are too young to decide such a grave
+matter, Cynthia," he began seriously. "And you
+ought to have a glad, sweet youth. There is no reason
+why you should rush into marriage. You have a
+pleasant home with those that love you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And I don't want to go away. I feel as if I would
+like to live here always. You are so good and indulgent,
+and Cousin Eunice is so nice, now that she
+doesn't seem afraid of any one. Were we all afraid
+of Cousin Elizabeth? And we have such nice talks.
+She tells me about the old times and what queer
+thoughts people had, and how hard they were. And
+about girls whose lovers went away to sea and never
+came back, and how they watched and waited, and
+sometimes we cry over them. And the house is so
+cheerful, and I can have all the flowers I want, and
+friends coming in, and, oh, I shall never want to go
+away, because I shall never love any one as well as
+you."</p>
+
+<p>That was very sweet, but it was a girl's innocence,
+and her face did not change color in the
+admission.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will explain the matter to Mr. Saltonstall.
+I am glad you told me, otherwise I should hardly have
+known your wishes on the subject. And now we will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+go on having good times together, and count out
+lovers."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes." She gave his hand a squeeze and was
+her own happy self, not feeling half as sorry for the
+man who would come to be denied as he did.</p>
+
+<p>It snowed furiously the next morning, and sullenly
+the day after. Then it was cold, and she said half a
+dozen times a day she was so glad she came home.</p>
+
+<p>She did not see Mr. Saltonstall when he called, and
+she really did miss him at two little companies. Then
+she wondered if she oughtn't give one, she had gone
+to so many.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes," Cousin Chilian answered. She might
+have turned the house upside down so long as she was
+going to stay in it.</p>
+
+<p>Then she wondered if she ought to invite <i>him</i>. Mrs.
+Lynde and she were very good friends, and she should
+ask Avis, of course. They spoke&mdash;they were not ill
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian considered. "Yes, I think I would," he
+made answer.</p>
+
+<p>They had a merry time and danced on the beautiful
+rugs, and had a fine supper. And Mr. Saltonstall
+was glad to be friends. She <i>was</i> young and presently
+she might think of lovers. He would try and keep his
+chance good.</p>
+
+<p><i>Anthony came now</i> and then and spent a Sunday
+with them. He loved to hear Cousin Chilian read
+Greek verses, but the pretty love odes seemed to mean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+Cynthia, and he used to watch her. Then Ben Upham
+was a visitor as well, and used to play checkers with
+her, as that was considered quite a good exercise for
+one's brains.</p>
+
+<p>Polly would be married in the spring, Alice Turner
+in June. The Turners were always besieging her for
+a two or three days' visit, and the Turner young men
+hovered round her. She never seemed to do anything,
+she never demanded attention, but when she glanced
+up at them, or smiled, they followed her as the children
+did the Pied Piper. She might have led them
+into dangerous places, but she was very simple of
+heart. Yet the danger was alluring to them.</p>
+
+<p>Polly came to her for a good deal of counsel. When
+there were two patterns of sleeves, which should she
+take?</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I'd have the India silk made with this and
+the English gingham with that&mdash;you see it will iron so
+much easier. Miss Grayson does up the puffs on a
+shirring cord, then you can let them out in the washing."</p>
+
+<p>"That's a fine idea. You do have such splendid
+ideas, Cynthy."</p>
+
+<p>"They are mostly Rachel Winn's," laughed the
+young girl.</p>
+
+<p>They had a capable woman in the kitchen now.
+Cynthia should have been mastering the high art of
+housekeeping, people thought, instead of running about
+so much and driving round in the pony carriage with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+Miss Winn, or a girl companion. Of course, there was
+plenty of money, but one never quite knew what would
+happen.</p>
+
+<p>John Loring was building his house as people who
+could did in those days. They would not be able to
+finish it all inside, and there was a nook left for an
+addition when they needed it. Polly was to have some
+of grandmother's furniture, and John's mother would
+provide a little. Corner cupboards were quite a substitute
+in those days for china closets, and window-seats
+answered for chairs. But there was bedding and
+napery, and no one thought of levying on friends.
+Relatives looked over their stock and bestowed a few
+articles. Cynthia thought of the stores in the old house
+and wished she might donate them. She did pick out
+some laces from her store, and two pretty scarfs, one
+of which Polly declared would be just the thing to trim
+her wedding hat, which was of fine Leghorn. So she
+would only have to buy the feather.</p>
+
+<p>They haunted the stores and occasionally picked up
+a real bargain. Even at that period shoppers did not
+throw their money broadcast.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia Leverett is the sweetest girl I know,"
+Polly said daily, and Bentley was of the same opinion.</p>
+
+<p>They were to stand at the wedding.</p>
+
+<p>"And I want you to wear that beautiful frock that
+you had when Laura Manning was married. I shall
+only have two bridesmaids, you and Betty, but I want
+you to look your sweetest."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>And surely she did. They had a very nice wedding
+party and the next day Polly went to her own house
+and had various small tea-drinkings, and she arranged
+them for Saturday so Bentley could come up. They
+were wonderfully good friends, but Cynthia felt as if
+she had outgrown him. In her estimation he was just
+a big friendly boy that one could talk to familiarly.
+Anthony was more backward in the laughter and
+small-talk.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was the college degree. There was no
+such great fuss made over commencement then, no
+grand regattas, no inter-collegiate athletics, for it was
+a rather serious thing to begin a young man's life and
+look forward to marriage.</p>
+
+<p>He went straight to Mr. Chilian. It was the proper
+thing to be fortified with the elders' consent. Of
+course, he would not marry in some time yet, but if he
+could be her "company" and speak presently&mdash;they
+had been such friends.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian studied the honest young fellow, whose face
+was in a glow of hope. So young to dream of love
+and plan for the future!</p>
+
+<p>"You are both too young;" and his voice had a bit
+of sharpness in it. "Cynthia is not thinking of such
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"But one <i>can</i> think of them. They begin somehow
+and go into your very life. I believe I've loved her a
+long while."</p>
+
+<p>"I think neither of you really know what love is.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+No, I cannot consent to it. I want her to go on having
+a good free time without any anxiety. I have some
+right to her, being her guardian."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;I will wait&mdash;I didn't mean to ask her immediately."</p>
+
+<p>"We are going on a journey presently. I cannot
+have her disturbed with this. No, your attention
+must be devoted to business for the next two
+years."</p>
+
+<p>He drew a long breath. "But you don't mean I
+must break off&mdash;everything?" and there was an unsteadiness
+in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. Not if you can keep to the old friendliness."</p>
+
+<p>Then Chilian Leverett dropped into his easy-chair
+and thought. The child had grown very dear to him,
+she was a gift from her father. A tumultuous, uncomprehended
+pain wrenched his very soul. To live without
+her&mdash;to miss her everywhere! To have lonely
+days, longer lonely evenings when the dreariness of
+winter set in. And yet she had a right to the sweet,
+rich draught of love. But she did not need it amid all
+the pleasures of youth. Let her have two or three
+years, even if it was blissful thoughtlessness. But he
+must put her on her guard. A young fellow soon
+changed his mind. The old couplet sang itself in his
+brain:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="If she be not fair for me">
+<tr><td align='left'>"If she be not fair for me,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">What care I how fair she be?"</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Did he get over his early love and forget? We all
+say, "But ours was different."</p>
+
+<p>How to find the right moment? Ben did not come
+over. She was very busy with this friend and that,
+youth finds so <i>many</i> interests. But one evening, when
+they were sitting on the porch in the moonlight, the
+young fellow walked slowly along, glanced at them,
+halted.</p>
+
+<p>She flew down to the gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ben, what has happened?" she cried, the most
+bewitching anxiety in her face. "Why, you have not
+been in&mdash;for weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite two weeks." Had it seemed so long to
+her? To him it had been months.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, come in. Cousin Chilian will be glad to see
+you."</p>
+
+<p>The radiant cordiality in her face unnerved him.</p>
+
+<p>"And you?" Yes, he must know.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you have to ask that question?"</p>
+
+<p>The sweet, dangerous eyes said too much, but the
+smile was that of amusement.</p>
+
+<p>So they walked up the path together. Mr. Leverett
+greeted him in a friendly manner.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I ought to come in and say good-bye.
+I'm going off on some business for father, and may not
+be back for several weeks."</p>
+
+<p>"That sounds as if you needed an apology for coming
+at all," she commented with half-resentful gayety.</p>
+
+<p>He flushed and made no immediate reply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"And we are going to take a journey as well. Up
+somewhere in Maine. Mr. Giles Leverett insists we
+shall, for our health, but I think it is our delightful
+company. He has to go to look after a large estate
+where some people think of founding a town. Isn't it
+funny?" and she gave her bewitching laugh that was
+like the notes of silver bells, soft, yet clear. "They
+must go off and build up new places. And some people
+are going West, as if there wasn't room here.
+Have you noticed that we are overcrowded?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sometimes along the docks it looks that
+way."</p>
+
+<p>"I like a good many people. Often Merrits' is
+crowded, and it's funny to catch bits of sentences. And
+at Plummer's as well. Did you ever read right across
+the paper, one line in each column, and notice the odd
+and twisted-up sense it made? That's about the way
+it sounds."</p>
+
+<p>How bright and charming she was! Ben could not
+keep his eyes from her radiant face. Was she really
+a coquette, Chilian wondered. Yet she was so simple
+with it all, so seemingly careless of the effect. That
+was the danger of it.</p>
+
+<p>He lingered like one entranced. Poor young lad!
+Chilian began to feel sorry for him.</p>
+
+<p>She walked down to the gate with him, and hoped
+they would have a nice time when autumn came, if he
+meant to stay in Salem.</p>
+
+<p>A young man not in love would have called her a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+bright, merry, chatty girl. He went away with the
+consciousness that she liked him very much. Chilian
+asked her if she did.</p>
+
+<p>She glanced up wonderingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;he is nice, and being Polly's brother makes
+it&mdash;well, more familiar. Then we can talk about Anthony.
+I believe he didn't like him much at first, but
+he does now."</p>
+
+<p>Oh, how could he put her on her guard! She was
+not dreaming of love. Saltonstall's fancy had died out&mdash;no
+doubt this would, too. Lad's love. Was it worth
+ruffling up the sunny artlessness? But he would watch
+the young men closer now that he knew the danger
+line.</p>
+
+<p>He said simply to himself that he could not give her
+up to any one else so soon. There would be a long life
+of joy and satisfaction to her, and he knew she would
+not grudge him these few years. Then, too, he was
+quite certain she had not even had an imaginary fancy
+for these two men&mdash;Ben was nothing but a boy.</p>
+
+<p>Anthony Drayton was to join them. Miss Winn
+was to be Cynthia's companion. Mrs. Stevens had
+refused to trust her precious self to any wilds, and
+bear and wolf hunts, though Mr. Giles declared they
+were not going to take guns along. He was not an
+enthusiastic hunter. As for Chilian, such sport did not
+attract him.</p>
+
+<p>The journey was partly by stage, partly on horseback,
+and one or two days they left the ladies at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+tavern where they stopped. Cynthia was charmed
+and amused at the uncouthness of the people and their
+dialect in some places, and positive good breeding in
+others. Anthony unearthed a college chum who was
+tally man at a sawmill. The new town was really
+making progress. A small chapel had been started,
+a schoolhouse built. And twenty years later it was a
+pretty town; in fifty years an enterprising city.</p>
+
+<p>"Anthony's going to be a first-class fellow. I
+should like to have such a son. Chilian, you and I
+should have married and have sons and daughters
+growing up. But at my time of life I should want
+them grown up. And smart, as well. I always feel
+sorry for the fathers of dull lads, when they have
+plenty of means to educate them. Yes, I should want
+mine to have a good supply of brains."</p>
+
+<p>Chilian Leverett enjoyed the change very much and
+the breath of spruce and pine was invigorating. But
+there was a little nervous feeling about Cynthia.
+Cousin Giles was somewhat of a lady's man, and he
+was on the continual lookout that Cynthia should not
+tire herself unduly, that she be assisted over the rough
+places, that she should have the best of everything.
+He was almost jealous at times.</p>
+
+<p>But Cynthia moved about gayly, serenely, full of
+merry little quips, seizing the small ridiculous events
+with such a sense of amusement that she inspirited
+them all. And he could not notice that she paid any
+more attention to Anthony than either of her seniors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+There was such a genuine frankness in all she said
+and did, a charm of manner that was just herself, and
+had none of the arts of society, but came from a heart
+that overflowed with spontaneous warmth, but was not
+directed to any particular person.</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Giles declared he was sorry to get back to
+Boston. He could not remember when he had enjoyed
+such a good time. Then in a business way it had been
+a success, which added to his satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>They really had to stay in Boston one night. They
+would fain have kept Cynthia for a week, but she said
+she was tired of just changing from one frock to
+another, and longed for more variety.</p>
+
+<p>"And I'm so glad to get back home again," she cried
+delightedly. "I've had a splendid time, and I like
+Anthony ever so much. Cousin Giles was so nice
+and fatherly. He ought to adopt Anthony and give
+him his name, and that would always make me think
+of father. But after all, home is best. Oh, suppose I
+was a waif, just being handed from one to another!"</p>
+
+<p>She looked frightened with the imaginary lot. She
+expressed emotions so easily.</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't have been;" hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Chilian, if you had not been in the world,
+or if you hadn't been willing to take me&mdash;I don't
+think father knew much about Cousin Giles&mdash;why, I
+must have gone to strangers."</p>
+
+<p>There were tears in her eyes, and a sweet melancholy
+in her voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>She had so much to tell Cousin Eunice that it
+seemed really as if she had taken the journey with
+them. She put on Jane's faded gingham sunbonnet
+and gave her voice a queer nasal twang, and talked as
+some of the women did up there in the wilderness, who
+thought a city "must be an awfully crowdy place an'
+she jes' didn't see how people managed to live in it.
+An' as fer the sea, give her dry land every time."</p>
+
+<p>Then she talked the French-English patois of the
+emigrants from Canada, and told of their funny attire,
+and their log huts, sometimes with only one big room,
+with a stone chimney in the centre, and sawed logs
+for seats.</p>
+
+<p>"They did that in Salem nigh on to two hundred
+years ago," said Cousin Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>"How much people do learn by living," remarked
+the little girl sagely.</p>
+
+<p>Then the olden round began. Being asked out to
+tea and inviting in return, sewing bees, quilting parties
+when some girl was making an outfit. And though
+the elders shook their heads at such a waste of time,
+they went out to walk in the afternoon and stopped
+in the shops that were making a show on Essex Street
+and Federal Street. There was Miss Rust's pretty
+millinery parlor&mdash;it had a sofa in the front room and
+a table with an embroidered cover that Cynthia had
+sent her. They talked of new styles and colors, and
+were aghast at the thought that royalty sometimes had
+as many as twenty hats and bonnets. She made pretty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
+old lady caps as well, and she did love to hear the
+young girls chatter. And Molly Saunders was still
+baking gingerbread, that had delighted them as school
+children, and no one made such good spruce and sassafras
+beer.</p>
+
+<p>One evening at a dance she had a great surprise.
+Some one said, "Miss Cynthia Leverett, Mr.
+Marsh."</p>
+
+<p>A rather tall, ruddy, good-looking fellow, with laughing
+eyes and an unmistakable sailor air, held her dainty
+hand and studied her face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you don't know me!" in the jolliest of tones.
+"And I should know you if you had been cast ashore
+on a rocky island and I were looking at you through
+a spyglass. You haven't changed in the main, only to
+grow prettier. You were a poor pale little thing
+then."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can't think!" She flushed and smiled.
+Something in the hearty voice won her.</p>
+
+<p>"At Dame Wilby's school. And the bad boy who
+sat behind you&mdash;Tommy Marsh."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! oh! And that day I sat on the floor!" She
+laughed gayly. She did not mind it a bit now.</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't it funny? And the way you just sat still
+with the school in an uproar. You standing up there
+and 'sassing' back the old dame! Such a mite of a
+thing, too. My! but you were a plucky one!" in admiration.
+"And you never came to school after that.
+I ought to get down on my knees and beg your pardon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+for the sly pinches I gave you, and the times I
+tweaked your curly hair. I've half a mind to do it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no!" and she made a funny gesture of alarm,
+and both laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"And I've been over there to India, where you came
+from, and found some people who knew your father.
+I've been to sea seven years, three on this last cruise,
+and when the <i>Vixen</i> is repaired and refitted I'm going
+out again as first mate. One of these days I shall be a
+captain."</p>
+
+<p>How proud and strong he looked. Why, one
+couldn't help liking him.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder if I might dance with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do you dance? I thought sailors&mdash;and there
+are no girls&mdash;&mdash;" and she blushed at her incoherence.</p>
+
+<p>"I think we do a little. Where did you get the
+Sailor's Hornpipe from? We're sorry about not having
+girls, but we make it answer. And when you get
+in the doldrums, or becalmed, it stirs up your blood.
+Oh, they are taking their places."</p>
+
+<p>Ben was in the same quadrille. Every time he
+touched her hand he gave it a pressure that made her
+cheeks rosier. Altogether it was a delightful evening.</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Chilian came for her. He had found she
+preferred it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Cousin Chilian, I've had such a funny adventure.
+Perhaps you can recall the little boy I really
+hated that week I went to the dame's school. Well,
+he is a nice big fellow now, and we had a talk, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+has been to Calcutta and seen people who knew father.
+I want him to come so we can have a good long talk,
+and won't you ask him? You'll like him, I know. I'll
+find him and bring him to you, and you can ask him to
+come while I'm putting on my things."</p>
+
+<p>She hunted him up and he was very pleased to meet
+Mr. Leverett. She gave them quite a while, for she
+was chatting with the girls about some weddings on
+the tapis.</p>
+
+<p>She gave Mr. Marsh her hand and a smile that
+would have set almost any masculine heart beating.
+It must have been born with her, though it was pitifully
+appealing in the childhood days. Now the true,
+sweet nature shone through it, lending it a fascinating
+radiance.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Leverett said he should be glad to have him call
+while he was in port, and the young man thanked him
+and said he should give himself the pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>"And when he does come," said the little lady in
+her half-coaxing, half-imperious way, "can't we have
+him up in the study? You see, it does very well for
+half a dozen of us to be down in the parlor, but it gets
+kind of stiff and not cheerful with just one. And
+you'll like to talk to him."</p>
+
+<p>He assented readily. Ben always came up in the
+study, though now he would rather have been alone
+with Cynthia. There were some things he meant to
+say, if he ever had a chance, in spite of youth and
+guardianship.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. Marsh did not lose much time considering. The
+very next week he called.</p>
+
+<p>They found him a nice, agreeable, well-informed
+young man, a true sailor lad, and like many a Yankee
+boy, he kept adding to his stock of knowledge where-ever
+he went. He had drawn some useful charts of
+seaports and islands he knew about, their products and
+climates, and really his descriptions were as good as a
+geography.</p>
+
+<p>"There's no doubt Salem has the lead in the foreign
+trade, but we're going to be pushed hard the next
+few years. Other cities have found out the profit in it.
+But we've some of the best captains, and that's what I
+mean to be myself."</p>
+
+<p>At Calcutta they still held a warm remembrance of
+Captain Anthony Leverett. And Marsh thought it
+quite a wonderful thing that the little girl had gone
+back and forth and braved all the perils. He told them
+of a pirate ship they had once battled with and the rich
+stores they had taken from her. The prisoners had
+been left on an island.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;how would they get to their homes?" she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that wasn't our lookout. They'd have done
+the same thing to us if they could, maybe worse. Occasionally
+vessels are wrecked, and sometimes it is
+months before a ship goes that way and sees their
+signal."</p>
+
+<p>Yes, she was glad nothing of the kind had happened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+to her. And Chilian, watching the little shiver, gave
+thanks also.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas Marsh enjoyed these evenings wonderfully.
+He was always glancing at Cynthia to see if what he
+said met with her approval. It seemed so strangely
+sweet to be thrilled at the tones of her voice and the
+touch of her hand. And when she looked up and
+smiled, the blood surged to his brain. He was quite a
+favorite with the girls, but no other one had that power
+over him.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, they met here and there at the different
+companies&mdash;he never went unless she was sure to be
+there, and if he asked she answered frankly. Cousin
+Chilian took her down to see the <i>Vixen</i>, which was
+nearly ready for her new cruise. He was very proud
+of her, so was Captain Langfelt, and they had some tea
+in the cabin. But some sudden knowledge came to
+Chilian Leverett, and he was sincerely glad the young
+man was going away.</p>
+
+<p>The evening Thomas Marsh came in to say good-bye,
+she was alone.</p>
+
+<p>"You'll find Miss Cynthia up in the study," said
+Jane, and thither he went two steps at a time. She
+had on a soft gown, and he thought she looked like
+some lovely flower as she rose to greet him.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe we are to sail to-morrow. Stores and
+cargo are all in, and now the captain is in haste to be
+off. Come down about eleven in the morning and wish
+me God-speed, a safe journey, and a happy return."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes. We were talking of it to-day. Oh, I hope
+you will have all, though a great many things happen
+in three years." Neither of them, indeed no one, could
+have predicted what was to happen in those eventful
+three years.</p>
+
+<p>They discussed the pleasant times, the girls and boys
+who had grown up and married during the whole seven
+years of his absence. Oh, how sweet and pretty she
+was! He envied the boys like Bentley Upham and two
+or three others who had business at home&mdash;but no, he
+never could have been anything but a sailor.</p>
+
+<p>Then he rose to go. He stood holding her hand and
+the red and white kept flitting over her face, her eyes
+were so soft and dark. They would haunt him many a
+night on the deck.</p>
+
+<p>"It's best that I am going so soon," he began in a
+rather tremulous voice. "Do you remember what
+your uncle was reading the other day about the man
+who wanted to be lashed to the mast when they passed
+the Syrens? It would be that way with me if I staid
+much longer. I&mdash;I wouldn't be able to help loving
+you, and I doubt whether it would be a good thing for
+either of us. I've tried all along to keep it to a plain,
+honest like, but I know now it is more than that. I
+shall take away with me the remembrance of the sweetest
+girl in all the world, and I have no right to spoil her
+life. But sometimes maybe you'll think of a far-away
+lad, who sends you his love and the best wishes for
+your happiness with the man you will love best of all."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then he pressed her hand to his lips and went slowly
+down the stairs. She heard the door shut. And, foolish
+girl, she sat down and cried, and there Cousin Chilian
+found her, and had to listen and absolve.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, "it would not do for you to have a
+sailor lad. Your tender heart would break with the
+anxiety. He's a nice, upright fellow, and he will never
+shirk a duty. But you&mdash;&mdash;" What should he say to
+her?</p>
+
+<p>"I want to stay here. Oh, I wonder if you will like
+me when I get as old as Cousin Eunice, and the world
+will change and improve and I shall be queer and old-fashioned?"</p>
+
+<p>He held her in his arms, but he was shocked to find
+what was in his own heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>PERILOUS PATHS</h3>
+
+
+<p>Avis Manning's "Company" was one of the events
+of the season. She was a full-fledged young lady, and
+knowing she could have her choice of the young men
+of Salem, was rather difficult to capture. She and her
+brother-in-law were very good friends, but not lovers.
+And Laura, who knew where his fancy lay, counselled
+him to go slowly, though she was quite sure he would
+win in the end.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, she is like a child to Mr. Chilian Leverett,
+and he is loath to part with her. But all girls do marry
+sooner or later, and he isn't selfish enough to want her
+to stay single. If he was not so much older he might
+marry her&mdash;they are not own cousins, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"He marry her! Why, he's getting to be quite an
+old man," and there was a touch of disdain in his tone.
+"But there's half a dozen others&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It's queer, but she isn't a flirt. She's one of the
+sweetest of girls&mdash;she was, at school. And with her
+fortune she might hold herself high. They say the
+Boston trustee has doubled some of it that he invested."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish she hadn't a cent!" the young man flung
+out angrily.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, money is not to be despised. She'll get a
+little tired by and by, and long for a home and children
+of her own, as we all do. And if you haven't found
+any one else&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I never shall find any one like her;" gloomily.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, there are a great many nice girls in the world."</p>
+
+<p>Avis knew all the best people in Salem, it was not
+so large, after all. And they came to the beautiful
+house and made merry, played "guessing words"&mdash;what
+we call charades, quite a new thing then&mdash;and it
+made no end of merriment. Of course, Cynthia was in
+them, was arch and piquant, and delighted the audience.
+Then they had supper and more dancing. One
+of the Turner boys, Archibald, hovered about Cynthia
+like a shadow. There was Ben Upham, but Edward
+Saltonstall warded them off to her satisfaction. But
+Bella Turner was shortly to be married, and Archie
+would have her for that evening surely.</p>
+
+<p>She and Mr. Saltonstall were very good friends.
+He was a little older than the others, and grown wary
+by experience. But it was queer that half a dozen girls
+were pulling straws for him and here was one who did
+not care, would not raise a finger, but, oh, how sweet
+her smiles were.</p>
+
+<p>"If you are a bridesmaid the third time, you will
+never be a bride," said some of the wiseacres.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia tossed her proud, dainty head and laughed
+over it to Cousin Chilian. He looked a little grave.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind if I were an old maid? I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+wouldn't really be <i>old</i> in a long while, you know. And
+you will always want some one. If anything should
+happen to Cousin Eunice, how lonely you would
+be."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you went away."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care for any of them very much. I like Mr.
+Saltonstall the best. He isn't quite so young, so&mdash;so
+sort of impetuous. And the boys get jealous."</p>
+
+<p>Then it was likely to be Mr. Saltonstall, after all!
+Was he going to be narrow and mean enough to keep
+her out of what was best in a woman's life? But he
+looked down the dreary years without her. He could
+not attach himself to the world of business as Cousin
+Giles did. Some of these young fellows might come
+into a sort of sonship with him&mdash;there was Anthony
+Drayton.</p>
+
+<p>Why was it his soul protested against them? He
+did not understand the deep underlying dissent that
+made a cruel discordance in his desire for her happiness.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Saltonstall walked home from church with her
+and Miss Winn. And he came in one evening to ask
+some advice. He had cudgelled his brain for days to
+find just the right subject. That ended, they had a talk
+about chess&mdash;that was becoming quite an interest in
+some circles. There were several moves that puzzled
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Come in some evening and talk them over," said
+Mr. Leverett.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Edward Saltonstall wondered at the favor of the
+gods and accepted. Not as if he was in any vulgar
+hurry, but he dropped in, politely social, and asked if
+he should disturb them. Chilian had been reading
+Southey's "Thalaba."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no. We often read in the evening," said
+Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>She was netting a bead bag, an industry all the
+rage then among the women. They really were prettier
+than the samplers. But she rose and brought the
+box of chessmen, while he rolled the table from its
+corner.</p>
+
+<p>"Will I disturb you if I stay?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Not unless it interferes with Mr. Saltonstall's attention,"
+said Chilian, then bit his lip.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do not think it will;" smilingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very good to bother with a tyro. I'd like
+to be able to play a good game. Father is so fond of it,
+and Lynde seldom comes in nowadays&mdash;family cares;"
+laughingly.</p>
+
+<p>They led off very well. Saltonstall was wise enough
+to try his best, though out of one eye he watched the
+dainty fingers threading in and out among the colored
+beads, and could not help thinking he would rather be
+holding them and pressing kisses on the soft white
+hand. Then he made a wrong play.</p>
+
+<p>"We may as well turn back," said Mr. Leverett,
+"since the question at stake is not winning, but improving."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You are very good," returned the young man
+meekly.</p>
+
+<p>This time they went on a little further, but the result
+was the same. So with the third game.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, I could let you win," Mr. Leverett began,
+"but that wouldn't conduce to the real science of
+the game which a good player desires. But you do
+very well for a young man. I should keep on, if I
+were you."</p>
+
+<p>"And annoy you with my shortcomings?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it will not be annoyance, truly. Come in when
+you feel like it."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you." Then he said good-night in a
+friendly, gentlemanly manner, and Cynthia rose and
+bowed.</p>
+
+<p>After that she gathered up her work and said good-night.
+Chilian sat and thought. Edward Saltonstall
+was a nice, steady young fellow; that is, he neither
+gamed, nor drank, nor went roystering round in the
+taverns jollying with the sailors, as some of the sons
+of really good families did. He would not have all his
+fortune to make, and his father's business was well established.
+The sons would take it. The two daughters
+were well married. What more could he ask for Cynthia?
+She was not so young now and would know her
+own mind.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it gave his heart a sharp, mysterious wrench, a
+longing for what he was putting away, the essence of
+the solemn ideals of love that run through the intri<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>cate
+meshes of the human soul. He knew that he loved
+her, that he wanted her for his very own, and his conscience
+told him it was not right. Of all her admirers
+he liked this one the best. Under other circumstances
+he would have considered him an admirable young
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Saltonstall dropped in now and then, not too often.
+He did not mean to startle any one with his purpose,
+but to let it grow gradually. Still, at the last assembly
+of the season, his attentions were somewhat pronounced.
+It was partly her doings, she was sheltering
+herself from other rather warm indications.</p>
+
+<p>A few days later she went over to Polly Loring's
+with her work. Polly's bag had somehow gone wrong.
+Cynthia had to cut the thread and ravel out a round.
+The baby was to be admired as well as the chair seat
+Polly had begun in worsted work, which was the new
+accomplishment. And they talked over various matters:
+who had new gowns, new lovers, and new babies.
+But every time she came almost to the subject so near
+her heart, Cynthia made an elusive detour. Then she
+ventured out straight with her question.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia, are you going to take Ed Saltonstall?"</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia's face was scarlet.</p>
+
+<p>"He hasn't asked me, he hasn't even asked Cousin
+Chilian," but her voice was not quite steady.</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know? It was talked of at the assembly&mdash;the
+two men were a good deal together. And
+if you don't mean anything, Cynthia, you'll get your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>self
+gossiped about, and you'll spoil some lives," declared
+Polly spiritedly. This thing had been seething
+in her mind, and she was going to have it out at the
+risk of breaking friendship.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to spoil any one's life. And I've
+never really kept company with any one."</p>
+
+<p>The keeping company was the great test. When
+the young man came steady one night in the week, to
+Sunday tea, and went to church with the girl alone,
+the matter was as good as declared.</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;well, I don't know how you've done it, but
+they hang about you and it does upset them. First it's
+one, then it's another. You ought to know. You
+ought to settle upon one and let the others alone."</p>
+
+<p>Polly had acquired a good deal of married wisdom,
+and she really did love Cynthia. Ben loved her, too.</p>
+
+<p>"But suppose I didn't want any of them?" and Cynthia
+tried to laugh, but it was a poor shadowy attempt.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nonsense! You don't mean to be an old maid.
+No girl does. But it is time you stopped playing fast
+and loose with hearts. Now there's Ben. You know
+he's loved you this long while. And we all like you so.
+Last fall he quite gave up and went to see Jenny Willing.
+She'll make a good wife and she's a nice girl,
+though she hasn't your fortune. Mother's been trying
+to make him believe that you are looking higher."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Polly&mdash;I never scarcely think of my fortune,"
+Cynthia interrupted, her face full of distressful color.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I'm not saying that you do. Ben's getting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+along first-rate. He has a college degree and father
+isn't poor. I know several girls who would jump at
+a chance for him. Of course, we would <i>all</i> rather have
+you. Then at Avis Manning's party you gave him the
+sweetest of your smiles, and lured him back."</p>
+
+<p>Oh, she recalled it with a kind of shame. It was to
+keep off Archie Turner and Mr. Saltonstall. And then
+for a while he had grown troublesome. If they could
+be merely friends!</p>
+
+<p>"The thing is just here, Cynthia. I know I'm speaking
+plainly and you may get angry. If you don't want
+Ben, let him alone. A young man begins to think of a
+home and a wife of his own, and when he likes a girl
+very much&mdash;yes, I will say it, she can make or mar.
+She can take him away from some other nice girl.
+And people now are beginning to say you are a flirt.
+I think Jenny will make Ben a nice wife, and if you
+don't want him&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Polly, I don't want any of them. You can't
+think how delightful life is with Cousin Chilian. I
+couldn't be as happy anywhere else, or with any other
+person. I can't make myself fall in love as all of you
+girls have, and think this one or that one perfect.
+Something must be wrong with me. And I'm very
+sorry. I'm not a bit jealous when they take to other
+girls. Why, I'd be glad to be Jenny's bridesmaid if she
+wanted me to."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia paused and mopped the tears from her
+cheeks. Polly was a little subdued. Cynthia was tak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>ing
+this so meekly. But she said rather spitefully,
+"You had better marry Mr. Leverett."</p>
+
+<p>Ah, Polly, it was a dangerous seed to fling at a
+young girl. And it dropped on a bit of out of the way
+fruitful soil.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia rose quietly. She was very pale. She began
+to roll up her work.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I think you can go on with it," she said. "If
+you get in trouble again, let me know."</p>
+
+<p>Then the two friends looked at each other until the
+tears came into their eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very sorry," murmured Cynthia in a broken
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"But you see&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I understand. I hope Ben will be very
+happy."</p>
+
+<p>Afterward Polly sat down and cried. She knew Ben
+loved Cynthia so. They had counted on having her in
+the family. But she felt quite certain now that Ed
+Saltonstall would get her. And he was a flirt, going
+with every pretty girl, every new girl for a little
+while.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia went home in a very sober mood. Why had
+they all cared so much about her? They had nice attractive
+qualities, but why could they not look at her
+just as she looked at them! She did not know very
+much about men and that with them pursuit often
+merged into the strong desire for possession, which
+she did not understand. But she did not want to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+blamed. She would have none of them. Cousin Chilian
+was more to her. If he seldom danced and was
+never very gay, there were so many other requirements
+to life; there was something in his nature to
+which hers responded readily.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly she seemed to have lost the clue.
+She experienced a season of bewilderment. Was
+Cousin Chilian meaning she should take Mr. Saltonstall
+for a lover? He surely gave him opportunities
+he had given no other. Sometimes he excused himself
+and went out. There were some difficulties with
+the mother country that men were discussing. She
+really felt a little awkward at being left alone with
+Mr. Saltonstall. Not only that, but it awoke a strange
+terror in her soul that he should come so near; it was
+as if her whole being rose in arms.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally Chilian spoke of her marriage&mdash;he had
+always said she was too young, in a protesting manner.
+So on one occasion she gained courage.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean&mdash;that is&mdash;you would like to&mdash;have
+me married, Cousin Chilian?"</p>
+
+<p>Married! It was as if she had given him a stab.
+And yet was not that just the thing he had been thinking
+of?</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you see, Cynthia," he made his voice purposely
+cold, "I am much older than you. I may die
+some day. Cousin Eunice will no doubt go before me,
+and you would not like to go on alone. Then Giles
+is older even than I. One has to think of these things.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+Yes, it would be nice to know you were happily settled."</p>
+
+<p>"And why couldn't a woman live alone as well as a
+man? I could have Miss Winn, and a housekeeper,
+and a man&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It's a lonely life for a woman."</p>
+
+<p>"But why not for a man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, that is different. Only a few men do.
+And they grow queer and opinionated."</p>
+
+<p>A fortnight ago she would have protested and said,
+"You are not old, you are not opinionated," in her
+eager, girlish manner. Now she was hurt, and she
+could not tell why; so she kept silent.</p>
+
+<p>And she began to note a change in him. The delightful
+harmony in which they had lived fell below the
+major key into minors, that touched and pierced her.
+He did not come so often to listen to her music, to ask
+her for a song, to watch while she painted some pretty
+flower, to go around with her training roses, or cutting
+them for the house. She put a few of them everywhere;
+she did not like great bunches, only such things
+as grew in clusters, lilacs and syringas and long sprays
+of clematis. She missed the little walks around, and
+the dear talks they used to have.</p>
+
+<p>She felt somewhat deceitful in planning adroitly.
+She made Miss Winn go to church with her, and when
+they came home with Mr. Saltonstall they sat on the
+porch together. A girl thinking of a lover would have
+asked him in. Then she went down to Boston, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+Anthony came over as often as he could. Surely there
+was no danger with him.</p>
+
+<p>All this time Chilian Leverett was having a hard
+fight with himself. He was really ashamed of having
+been conquered by what he called a boy's romantic passion.
+He could excuse himself for the early lapse; he
+was a boy then. His honor and what he called good
+sense were mightily at war with this desire that well-nigh
+overmastered him. True, men older than he had
+married young wives. But this child had been entrusted
+to him in a sacred fashion by her dying father;
+he must place before her the best and richest of life,
+even if it condemned him to after-years of joyless
+solitude.</p>
+
+<p>For it was not as a father he loved her, though he
+had played a little at fatherhood in the beginning. She
+was so companionable, they had so many similar tastes.
+He was so fond of reading to an appreciative listener,
+and even as he sat in the darkness, when she did not
+know he was alone in the study, he could see her
+lovely eyes raised in their tender light. He thought
+this her unusual wisdom and discernment, never
+dreaming it had been mostly his training and her receptiveness.
+And to think of the house without her!
+Why, going out of it in her wedding gown would be
+almost as if she had been laid in her shroud and shut
+away. Of course, he could not have her here and see
+her love another.</p>
+
+<p>Giles Leverett's dream was much happier. In his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+mind he saved her for his favorite. When Anthony
+was through&mdash;and he was putting in law, with the
+classics&mdash;he would take him in his office, where he
+would find much business made to his hand. The
+house was big enough for them all, and he had grown
+curiously interested in young people. Anthony was
+very fond of his sweet, fascinating cousin&mdash;they all
+were. He did not know whether there was any one in
+Salem quite good enough for her. Saltonstall was a
+rather trifling fellow, whose fancies were evanescent.</p>
+
+<p>But Mr. Ed Saltonstall had a good friend in Mrs.
+Stevens, and she counselled him not to be too ardent
+in his pursuit. She said pleasant little things about
+him without any effusiveness. She considered his
+friendship with her very charming&mdash;young men were
+not generally devoted to middle-aged women. Once
+she shrewdly wondered why he had not made some
+errand down.</p>
+
+<p>Altogether it was a pleasant visit, though Cynthia
+kept revolving her duty, if such there was in the case.
+A blind, mysterious asking for something haunted her,
+something it would be sad to miss out of her life.</p>
+
+<p>Then she came home alone in the stage. There was
+a property dispute going on, where Mr. Leverett was
+an important witness for a friend. When the stage
+stopped, Rachel and Jane both ran out and gave her a
+joyful welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Cousin Eunice, "we are
+so glad to get you back. You are the light <i>of</i> the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+house, isn't she?" glancing at the other. "Even Chilian
+has been mopey, though I think he isn't well. He
+is getting thin, too, and goodness knows he had no
+flesh to lose. Oh, my dear, I hope you will never go
+away again while I live;" and she gave a long sigh as
+the girl left the room.</p>
+
+<p>She came down presently in a cheerful light frock
+and began to tell Cousin Eunice and Jane what she
+had seen and heard. She was in the full tide of this,
+eager, bright, and flushing when Chilian entered. He
+greeted her rather languidly. Yes, he had grown
+thinner, and Cousin Giles was putting on too much
+flesh and growing jollier. Chilian did not look well
+and an ache went all over Cynthia's body, every nerve
+being sympathetic. He was not silent, however; he
+asked questions, but she thought he was hardly paying
+attention to the answers. He remained down in the
+sitting-room and read his <i>Gazette</i>, now and then making
+some comment, or answering some query of
+Cousin Eunice. It was not nine yet when he rose and
+said, "He was very tired; if they would excuse him,
+he would go to bed."</p>
+
+<p>They all went presently. She was glad to be alone
+in the room, glad there was no moon, and she turned
+her face over on the pillow and cried softly. After
+all, life was a riddle&mdash;two ways and not knowing
+which to take, both having a curiously lonely ending.
+Could she not bear it better alone? If he should go
+away as her father had done, if she should stay here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+in the old house, and then Cousin Eunice would fold
+her hands in that silent clasp, Rachel would slip into
+old womanhood, Jane would marry, she was keeping
+company now. There would be other Janes and
+she&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand would be love, marriage, children
+maybe, a pleasant home. Living along side by side,
+as other people did.</p>
+
+<p>She did not try to shut out either vision. Which
+should she take? Was life just for one's self?</p>
+
+<p>She was not morbid. It was only in religion that
+people took out their very souls and examined them
+for lurking sins; the days' duties were what must be
+accomplished, whether or no. She knew she was not
+very religious, the deep things seemed beyond her
+grasp. And there was a certain joyousness in her love
+for sunshine, flowers, people, and all the attractive
+things of life. She was deeply grateful, she raised
+her heart in thankfulness to God for every good
+gift. And now she took up the daily duties cheerfully.
+It was not their fault the shadow had fallen
+over them.</p>
+
+<p>Some days afterward she was rambling around
+aimlessly, when she met a girl friend, and they chatted
+about various matters.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," exclaimed the friend, "there'll be another
+wedding in the autumn, and Betty Upham is keeping
+steady company. I used to have an idea that you and
+Ben would make a match&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It's Jenny Willing," she interrupted. "And I am
+heartily glad."</p>
+
+<p>"You were all such friends;" looking puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>"And I hope we will go on being friends. I have
+always liked Jenny."</p>
+
+<p>"She was awfully afraid you'd cut her out. You
+know he did fancy you first. I think she would have
+been very unhappy if she had missed him. I don't see
+what there is about you, Cynthia;" studying her intently.
+"You are pretty, but there are some handsome
+girls in Salem. And they run after Ed Saltonstall
+as if there was no other man in town. And my
+advice to you is to seize on him, for I think your
+chance best. He's an awful flirt, though. I think
+good-looking men always are."</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia flushed. Why should these things be profaned
+by foolish gossip.</p>
+
+<p>Polly came over one afternoon. She had accomplished
+the bag and was proud enough of it. And she
+announced Bentley's engagement.</p>
+
+<p>"They will be married in the early fall; they are
+not going to build, but have part of that double house
+of Nelsons'. She'll make a fine, economical wife, and
+that is what men need who are trying to get along.
+Assemblies and all that are not the thing for prudent
+married people."</p>
+
+<p>"And one gets tired of them." She had a feeling
+just then that she should never want to dance any
+more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was glad to have him settled, glad Jenny
+Willing had the man she loved.</p>
+
+<p>And the last time he had come back to her she had
+held up her finger to him thoughtlessly, to shield herself
+from some other pointed attentions. It had been
+a mean thing to do. But she had only meant it for
+that evening, and he had gone on importunately.
+She was ashamed of it now. Yes, she had better
+marry; then no one would be pleading for favors, mistaking
+a simple smile for deeper meaning. Was her
+smile different from that of other girls?</p>
+
+<p>She watched Cousin Chilian narrowly. Was the
+old dear freedom between them gone? He seemed
+rather abstracted. He did not call her into the study,
+he went out oftener of an evening. Mr. Saltonstall
+would pass by, then turn and walk up the path and
+sit down on the step. This would occur several times
+a week. He asked her to ride with him, but she shrank
+from that. She went over one evening on special invitation,
+when Chilian was to play chess with the
+father. Mrs. Saltonstall took her in quite as if she
+was one of the family, and really was very sweet to
+her. And the old gentleman was fatherly.</p>
+
+<p>That seemed to settle it for her, rather the fact that
+sank deeper in her mind every day that Cousin Chilian
+wished her to marry and that this young man was
+his preference. She allowed him to come a little
+nearer, to hold her hand, to take nameless small freedoms,
+and he was always delicate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Would he be satisfied without all she could not help
+withholding? Would it be right to give him a half
+love? But then how could she help loving Cousin
+Chilian, who had been so tender to her in childhood?
+She would be gladly content to stay without any nearer
+tie between them; of course, that other could not be
+thought of.</p>
+
+<p>One night Mr. Saltonstall asked her in a manly
+fashion. And suddenly a great white light shot up in
+her heart, and loving one man she knew she had no
+right to deceive another, to live a deception all her life
+long, to cheat him&mdash;yes, it was that. Better a hundred
+times to live out her flawed life alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I cannot," she murmured. "I&mdash;I"&mdash;she
+choked down the strangling sob.</p>
+
+<p>"My little darling, give me the opportunity to teach
+you what love really is. You do not know."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FLOWERING OF THE SOUL</h3>
+
+
+<p>Cynthia had said coldly that she did not wish to
+marry at present, perhaps never. "I have been trying
+to love you to&mdash;to please some one else, and it is a
+compliment for you to ask me. But any woman ought
+to be sure before she makes a life-long promise. I
+must be honest&mdash;with you, with myself."</p>
+
+<p>Something in the solemn tone awed him. He had
+not been looking at the serious side of love. She was
+pretty, bright, and winsome, with a good deal of Puritan
+simplicity, a great power of enjoyment and difficult
+to win. He liked to do the winning himself. He
+liked to find some new qualities in girls, and Cynthia,
+with all her daintiness, had many sides that surprised
+one. She had been brought up by a man&mdash;that made
+the difference.</p>
+
+<p>"We will wait a little," he said. "Talk to your
+cousin about it. I think it will all come right. You
+are the first woman I ever desired to marry, and I
+have been fond of girls, too."</p>
+
+<p>That would have flattered some women. She said
+good-night in a strained, breathless tone, and vanished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+through the door. He sat and thought. There was
+no other lover, he was quite sure.</p>
+
+<p>She went to bed at once. She did not cry, she was
+somehow stunned at this revelation about herself, for
+she had resolved to accept him and this sudden protest
+told her that it was quite impossible. If Cousin Chilian
+was disappointed, if he was tired of her, there was
+a warm welcome in Boston.</p>
+
+<p>She did not sleep much. Rachel noted her heavy
+eyes, and the expression as if she might be secretly
+upbraiding fate. What if Mr. Saltonstall had been
+trifling?</p>
+
+<p>Chilian went up to his study. He felt languid, he
+nearly always did now. He took a book and sat by
+the open window. Two tall trees hid the prospect,
+except a space of blooming garden. To-day a small
+outlook pleased him, for his life was to be made narrower.
+She would come and tell him&mdash;shut the
+golden gate forever. He could not, would not, enter
+their paradise. Let him keep quite on the outside.</p>
+
+<p>She came in a soft, white gown that clung to her
+virginal figure. The swelling-out period had passed,
+even sleeves had collapsed to a small puff, and for
+house wear the arms and neck were left bare.</p>
+
+<p>The book was a Greek play. The letters danced before
+her eyes as she stood there. He looked off the
+book, but not up at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Chilian, I want to tell you"&mdash;her voice
+had the peculiar softness that one uses to try to cover<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+the hurt one cannot help giving&mdash;"Mr. Saltonstall
+was here last evening. He has asked me to marry
+him."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to her the silence lasted moments. Then
+he said in an incurious tone, "Well?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;will you be angry or disappointed when I confess
+that I cannot, that I do not love him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Cynthia, child; what do you know about
+love?" he said impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>"Enough to know that it would be wrong to take
+a man's love and give him nothing in return." Now
+her voice was steady, convincing.</p>
+
+<p>He had a sudden thought. Like a vision the stalwart
+form of the young sailor rose before him. He
+had carried admiration, yes, love in his eyes. What
+if he had carried more than that away?</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia, is there some one else, some one you
+<i>could</i> love&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There is some one else." Her tone was very
+low, but brave. That admission would settle the
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you to wait three years for him?"</p>
+
+<p>"For whom?" in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>Then he glanced up. Her face, that had been lily-white,
+was flushed from brow to neck. What was
+there in the beautiful, entreating eyes?</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia?" All his firmness gave way.</p>
+
+<p>His arm stole softly around her, drew her a trifle
+down. "Tell me! Tell me!" he cried, yet he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+no idea he was asking her to lay her heart bare. There
+was still the boy Anthony.</p>
+
+<p>"Cousin Chilian, if a woman loved very much,
+would it be a shame to her if, unasked, she&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Her head sank down on his shoulder. He felt the
+warm, throbbing breath on his cheek. He drew her
+closer. Did the slim, palpitating body betray its
+secret?</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Cynthia, child, the most precious thing in all
+the world to me, tell me that I will not have to give
+you to another, that I may keep you to myself. For I
+cannot comprehend how so great a joy could come to
+me. And whether I would have the right to take your
+sweet young life, that should be replete with the joys
+of youth, with the gladness that is its proper birthright."</p>
+
+<p>"If I gave it to you? If I could never have given
+it to any other?"</p>
+
+<p>He drew her down closer, and the gentle yielding,
+the sort of rapturous sigh, answered him better than
+any words. He pressed kisses on the unresisting lips,
+kisses that then were sacred to affianced lovers and
+husbands.</p>
+
+<p>Was it an hour or half a lifetime? He inclined her
+to his knee as he had when she was a little girl, but at
+length he came back to his senses.</p>
+
+<p>"Cynthia," he began with tender gravity, "there
+are many points to consider. Do you know that I am
+more than double your age&mdash;&mdash;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Don't tell that to me. Isn't love as sweet?"</p>
+
+<p>Could he deny it in the face of that ravishing smile,
+those appealing eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Still&mdash;the world will think about it. And you are
+a rich young woman, you could take your pick of
+lovers&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But they are all so troublesome," she interrupted.
+"And one gets affronted with the other. And if I
+picked very much I might be called a flirt, perhaps
+I have been. I didn't want them, only to dance and
+be merry with, and there are so many pretty girls in
+the world&mdash;enough for all of them."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled a little and it gave her a heartache to see
+how thin he had grown, and there were new creases
+in his forehead that had been so fair and smooth.</p>
+
+<p>"And if some day you should repent?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not going to repent. Why should one when
+one gets the thing one wanted?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a touch of the old brightness in her tone.
+Had she really wanted him?</p>
+
+<p>"I've been very naughty with all these lovers,
+haven't I? But no one came near enough to really ask
+me that question until last night, though Mr. Marsh
+thought he would if he were going to stay. And
+Cousin Chilian, I had made up my mind truly, I
+thought, for I liked Mr. Saltonstall very much, and it
+seemed to me you wanted me to&mdash;&mdash;" Her voice died
+away in pathos.</p>
+
+<p>"I did. Oh, you must know the worst of me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+When I found you were growing into my very heart,
+and I began to feel jealous of the young men, I took
+myself in hand as a most reprehensible old fellow.
+But I found you had entwined yourself in every fibre
+of my heart, and it was hard indeed to uproot you."</p>
+
+<p>"And you really tried?" Her tone was upbraiding.</p>
+
+<p>"I tried like an honest, upright man. I shall never
+be ashamed of the effort. I would not mar or spoil
+your life. You see you might have loved some of these
+brave young lads. You might have been very happy
+with them."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you can't have but one husband;" in laughing
+gayety.</p>
+
+<p>He flushed at her mischief.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder when you began to love me? And what
+has made you so cold and distant, as if you were
+taking your affection away?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was&mdash;I was&mdash;Heaven forgive me! I was learning
+to live without you; to go back to a life more solitary
+than it was before you came. And, Cynthia, you
+were not altogether a welcome guest. I did not know
+what to do with a little girl. I was set in my ways.
+I did not like to be disturbed. I could have sent a boy
+off to school. And Elizabeth thought it a trouble, too.
+You must read your father's letter and see the trust
+he reposed in me. But you were such a strange, shy
+little thing, and so delicate in all your ways. You
+never touched an article without permission, you han<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>dled
+books so gently, you never made dog's-ears, or
+crumpled a page. And that winter you were ill&mdash;and
+the faith you had in his return. How many times my
+heart ached for you. After that I could not have
+given you up, and I fell into a sort of belief that it
+would go on this always. When the lovers began
+to come, I found I must awake from my delusion.
+And then I knew that an oldish fellow could love a
+sweet girl in her first bloom, but that it would be a
+selfish, unpardonable thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Not if she loved him!" She raised her face in all
+its sweet bravery of color.</p>
+
+<p>"But it was his duty to let her see what pleasure
+there was in the world for youth; it was the promise to
+her dead father, who had confided his treasure to him.
+And even now he hesitates, lest you shall not have the
+best of everything."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall have the best;" with winning confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"I loved your mother. I was a young lad, and she
+some five years older. I suppose I was like a young
+brother to her, because your father, her lover, had
+been here so much. And somehow, you slipped into
+the place where there never had been any other."</p>
+
+<p>"It must have been kept for me," she said gravely.
+"And now I give you warning that I shall never go
+out of it. No place could ever be so dear as this
+house with all its memories. I am glad you knew and
+loved my mother."</p>
+
+<p>It came noon before they were talked out, or before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+they had settled only one point, about which she
+would have her way. She wrote a pretty note to Mr.
+Saltonstall, reiterating some things she had said the
+evening before, and acknowledging that when she had
+tried to accept him, she had found her heart was
+another's, "and you are worthy of a woman's best
+love," she added, which did comfort him.</p>
+
+<p>Still it puzzled him a good deal, but he finally settled
+upon Anthony and thought it a rather foolish
+choice. No doubt but that Giles Leverett was back
+of it all.</p>
+
+<p>They told Cousin Eunice and Miss Winn. The
+former cried for sheer joy. She seemed older than
+her years, but she was well and bid fair to live years
+yet.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will never go away. I could not live
+without you, and as for Chilian&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"It would only be half a life," returned the lover,
+and he kissed Cousin Eunice.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Winn hardly knew whether to be pleased or
+not. She liked Mr. Saltonstall very much for his
+gayety, good humor, and fine presence, and then he
+had the divine gift of youth to match hers. Would
+she not tire of Chilian Leverett's grave life?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PASSING OF OLD SALEM</h3>
+
+
+<p>After all, they were foolish lovers. She did not hoard
+up any sweetness. If he could not look forward to
+so many years, she must give him a double portion.
+That was her only regret about him, and she never
+confessed that.</p>
+
+<p>He was surprised at himself. If she had loved
+another, the wound of loneliness must have bled inwardly
+until it sapped his life. Oh, how daintily
+sweet she was! Every day he found some new trait.</p>
+
+<p>"You see," she explained to Miss Winn, "we shall
+all keep together. Father trusted you to the uttermost,
+and you have been nobly loyal. I couldn't do
+without you. And no one could look so well after
+Cousin Eunice, who will keep growing older."</p>
+
+<p>That was true enough. She was very well content
+in her home, and at her time of life did not care to
+try a new one. Cynthia was almost like a child to
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile matters had not gone prosperously with
+old Salem, England had claimed her right of search,
+against which the country strongly protested. The
+British government issued orders, and the French<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+Emperor decrees, forbidding ships of neutrals to enter
+the ports, or engage in trade with their respective
+enemies. This crippled the trade of Salem. Then
+there had been the embargo, which for a while closed
+the ports. But the town went on improving. Fortunes
+had been made and now were being spent. But
+much of the shipping lay idle. Yet the social life went
+on, there was marrying and giving in marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there was some gossip about the Saltonstall
+fiasco. No one, at least very few, supposed a sensible
+girl would give up such an opportunity to settle
+herself. Miss Cynthia would no doubt use her best
+efforts to get him back. She seemed superbly indifferent
+to the gossip.</p>
+
+<p>At first Chilian insisted upon an engagement of
+some length, so that she might be sure of the wisdom
+of the step. But she only laughed in her charming
+fashion, and declared she would not give up the old
+house, much more its owner.</p>
+
+<p>But they had a quiet wedding, with only the choicest
+friends, and then they went to Boston to escape the
+wonderings. Cousin Giles was really displeased.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an unfair thing for an old fellow like you to
+do. And you had money enough of your own;
+her fortune should have gone to help some nice
+young fellow along. Why, really Cynthia has
+hardly outgrown childhood. You might have been
+her father!"</p>
+
+<p>"Hardly!" returned Chilian dryly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On their return the house was opened and really
+crowded with guests. Cynthia was in her most splendid
+attire. Happiness had certainly improved Chilian
+Leverett, he had gained some flesh and looked younger.
+The most beautiful belongings had been brought out
+to decorate the rooms.</p>
+
+<p>"For I am not going to have them stored away for
+possible grandchildren," she declared gayly.</p>
+
+<p>And the guests had a charming welcome. The
+younger girls were truly glad she had made her election,
+and no one could deny that she was very much
+in love with her husband. Neither had need to marry
+for money, since both had fortunes. And they wished
+her health and happiness with all their hearts.</p>
+
+<p>Jane had said to her, "Mis' Leverett, there's an old
+adage:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Change the name and not the letter">
+<tr><td align='left'>"'Change the name and not the letter,</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">You marry for worse and not for better.'"</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p>Cynthia laughed. "I'm not going to let signs or
+omens trouble me. And I haven't even changed my
+name, so the letter cannot count. And it is one of the
+good old Salem names. It was my dear father's."</p>
+
+<p>One incident touched Cynthia deeply. Eunice took
+her up in the garret one day and exhumed from a
+chest the beautiful white quilt of Elizabeth's handiwork.
+Pinned to one corner was a card, "For my
+little Cynthia."</p>
+
+<p>"Only a few days before she had her stroke she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>
+made me write this and go up and pin it on the quilt.
+Maybe she'd had a warning, people do sometimes. I
+supposed she'd leave it to Chilian. Oh, my dear, she'd
+be so glad to have you go on in the old house if she
+could know."</p>
+
+<p>Eunice wiped the tears from her eyes. Cynthia bent
+over and kissed among the stitches the poor fingers
+had toiled at day after day, sorry for the toil, glad for
+the love that came at the last.</p>
+
+<p>The Leverett house opened its doors with a generous
+hospitality. People, men at least, began to think
+of something beside money-making, and some fine
+plans were broached. Chilian Leverett seemed to
+grow younger. Cynthia should not miss the joys of
+youth out of her life. He did something more than
+dance minuets, for her sake he essayed quadrilles.
+The exquisite motion with her, her dainty hand in his,
+or at times resting on his shoulder, filled him with an
+all-pervading delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Chilian, do you realize that you are a really beautiful
+dancer?" she said one evening after they had returned
+from a small company.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I must have caught it from you. In my
+youth dancing was considered frivolous."</p>
+
+<p>"And in India you hire the men and women to
+dance for you, and follow the enchanting motions with
+your eye. But it is so warm out there."</p>
+
+<p>She had been playing one evening when she started
+up, exclaiming, "Let us try that new thing&mdash;the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+waltz. It is just made for two people very much in
+love."</p>
+
+<p>"It is?" He smiled in the eager face. It was said
+that she could twist him around her finger. "Why,
+we have no music."</p>
+
+<p>"I can sing the measure, just la, la!" and she
+started the melody. There were two long paths of
+moonlight through the wide-open shutters. Moonlight
+and sunshine were welcome visitors. She held
+out her hands. Just that way she had charmed others,
+and he yielded to the seductive influence. For, oh,
+she was so young and sweet.</p>
+
+<p>It was a little awkward at first, but they soon found
+the steps. It was rather slow and graceful, not the
+mad whirl of later times. It <i>was</i> considered rather
+reprehensible, but between husband and wife it was
+right enough. They found it very fascinating.</p>
+
+<p>After a while a sort of grave, sweet seriousness
+came over her. She liked to sit in the study and have
+him read poetry to her while she sewed. She had
+never loved sewing, but now she had taken a fancy
+to it. Dainty little lacey things, with the softest of
+muslins, treasures that had come from India. For
+there were stacks of towels and sheets and useful articles,
+so why should she bother about them?</p>
+
+<p>Jane was married and a middle-aged, homeless
+widow was very glad to come. Miss Winn took the
+head of the housekeeping, and Cousin Eunice was very
+willing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Then there came to them both a little son. Women
+often dream of babies of their own, but men have so
+many outside interests. There really were people at
+that time who thought children a boon and blessing
+of the Lord. Chilian Leverett was amazed, rendered
+speechless with joy. His own little son, Cynthia's
+little son, the life and love of both hearts. His cup of
+joy and thankfulness ran over. For he had never
+imagined there could be such perfect bliss. He
+thought over the time when the little girl had come,
+and he had not wanted her. Now she had brought him
+life's choicest blessing.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile events ran on which were to thrill all
+hearts and make stirring history. For war had been
+declared.</p>
+
+<p>Handsome, pleasure-loving Edward Saltonstall volunteered
+in the army. Perilous times there were on
+the northern frontier, dreadful losses, few gains, until
+suddenly the Lake battles changed the aspect and won
+the splendid victories that thrilled every heart.</p>
+
+<p>But Salem's almost meteoric prosperity came to a
+sudden halt, for there was war on the high seas as
+well. The whole mercantile marine was refitted and
+turned out to win what it might in other channels.
+Privateering was held right enough in those days.</p>
+
+<p>There was the electrifying capture of the <i>Guerri&egrave;re</i>
+and her being towed into Boston with Captain Dacres
+as a prisoner, and another to be quite as famous, that
+of the <i>United States</i> and the <i>Macedonia</i>, where the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+American loss seemed incredibly small. Other splendid
+victories as well. But it was not until February,
+1815, after nearly four years of struggle and war, that
+peace was again declared with the Colonies as victorious.
+America had won her right to the liberty of
+the seas, as well as that of the land.</p>
+
+<p>But the supremacy of trade no longer could be
+claimed for Salem. Other ports were built up, other
+markets opened. Cities saw the advantage of foreign
+trade. American products were shipped hither and
+thither. No one city had the monopoly.</p>
+
+<p>But romances flourished all the same and were to
+be handed down to other generations. There was the
+old Forester house, with its legends, its lovely gardens,
+and fine pictures. And the beautiful house of Elias
+Hasket Derby, in which he had lived but such a short
+time. No one felt rich enough then to undertake such
+a costly establishment, and finally the estate came into
+possession of the city, and the big area was named
+Derby Square, and a commodious market built and a
+Town Hall. When that was opened President Monroe
+made a visit to Salem, and was enthusiastically received
+there, citizens thronging to see him. The next
+day Judge Story entertained him, and Mr. Stephen
+White, of Washington Square, gave a ball in his
+honor. The Leveretts were among the guests, and
+Captain Edward Saltonstall, who had won promotions
+by brave conduct under General Harrison, but was
+now a private citizen and a fine-looking man, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>
+new bevy of girls as eager for his attentions as the
+others were seven or eight years before.</p>
+
+<p>There was another guest who claimed, or at least
+received, a good share of attention. This was the
+naval Captain Marsh, who had been in the encounter
+between the <i>Macedonia</i> and the frigate <i>United States</i>,
+Captain Decatur, which was considered one of the
+greatest of the naval battles. For his bravery then
+and afterward, he had been promoted and was now a
+captain in command of a fine vessel.</p>
+
+<p>Cynthia was delighted to see him; but she said he
+must visit them to talk over matters and the wonders
+that had happened to him. She would not dance any,
+although she was in the grand march with her husband.
+Mr. Saltonstall she saw quite frequently. His
+parents were quite old people and he was devoted to
+them.</p>
+
+<p>She wondered at times if any old fancy kept him
+single. If so, she was sincerely sorry. For she had
+been very, very happy with the husband of her love.
+And in the household there were two merry, frolicking
+boys, and a sweet little girl, with her mother's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Marsh did come and he was delighted with
+his visit. The little boys climbed over him as if they
+had known him always. He told the story of the terrific
+battle at the Canaries, and many another battle
+that had left him unscathed.</p>
+
+<p>"And I used to think if I came back to old Salem
+and found you unmarried, it would go hard with me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+if I could not win you," he said to Cynthia in his cordial,
+manly fashion. "And I confess to you now if
+Dame Wilby had struck you that day at school, I
+should have rushed at her like a tiger. I like that
+remembrance of you standing there so brave and
+defying."</p>
+
+<p>They both laughed over it.</p>
+
+<p>She had changed very little. Chilian said she grew
+younger with the birth of every baby. She was happy
+and merry, truly the light of the house, and Cousin
+Eunice was the happiest grandmother in all of Salem.
+Miss Winn shared their joys&mdash;so far there had been
+no sorrows.</p>
+
+<p>Chilian grew a little stouter with advancing years,
+which really improved him. He took a warm interest
+in the new projects. There was the Essex Historical
+Society, gathering portraits and relics of the older
+Salem, and the East India Marine Society was enlarging
+its scope. The new Salem was to be curiously
+intellectual, historic, and one might say antiquarian.
+Modernized and transformed in many respects, it still
+has the old-time fragrance of sandalwood and incense
+when the chests in the old garrets are turned
+over for fine things that came from India a century
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Cousin Giles aged more rapidly, but then he was
+considerably older than Chilian. He did adopt young
+Anthony, and insisted upon his taking the name of
+Leverett, and a share of the business burthens. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+he married quite to the approval of the elder man,
+though not such an heiress as Cynthia.</p>
+
+<p>And no one was dreaming that the little boy born
+in Union Street in 1804 was to add such interest
+and lustre to his native town that the scenes of his
+curious wizard-like romances were to be settled upon
+by those interested in them and handed down as actual
+occurrences. Do we not all know Hester Prynne and
+Mr. Dimmesdale, Phebe and Hephzibah and Judge
+Pyncheon, and weird old Dr. Grimshawe, and many
+another that have flitted through the pages of Hawthorne's
+strange romances, leaving Salem the richer
+by the memories?</p>
+
+<p>There was another little girl who was to grow up
+and take a great interest in all these things, and finally
+to see the old Leverett house pass away, after its more
+than two hundred years. But it was a new and doubly
+interesting Salem then, with its several evolutions that
+have passed and gone.</p>
+
+<p>She lived a long and happy life, this little girl who
+came back to her birthplace consigned to Chilian Leverett's
+care, and won his love that never changed, or
+grew any less. Her sons never tired of the old reminiscences.
+Many of the old houses were still standing.
+Here President Washington had been entertained; here
+the artist Copley had lived and painted portraits that
+are heirlooms; Justice Story and his gifted son, poet
+and artist; Prescott, the historian, and many another
+of whom the country is proud to-day, and civilians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+whose fine thought and noble work have made the city
+a Mecca for intellectual tourists, and a beautiful and
+interesting abiding-place for her citizens, a town of
+three striking epochs that linger not only in tradition
+but in history.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 65%;' />
+<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3>
+<p>Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections.
+Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SALEM***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Little Girl in Old Salem, by Amanda Minnie
+Douglas
+
+
+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 Little Girl in Old Salem
+
+
+Author: Amanda Minnie Douglas
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 1, 2007  [eBook #20722]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SALEM***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, J. P. W. Fraser, Emmy, and
+the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(http://www.pgdp.net/c/)
+
+
+
+A Little Girl in Old Salem
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   THE "LITTLE GIRL" SERIES
+
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD NEW YORK.
+          HANNAH ANN; A SEQUEL.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD BOSTON.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD PHILADELPHIA.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD WASHINGTON.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD NEW ORLEANS.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD DETROIT.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD ST. LOUIS.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD CHICAGO.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SAN FRANCISCO.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD QUEBEC.
+          A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD BALTIMORE.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SALEM
+
+by
+
+AMANDA M. DOUGLAS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+New York
+Dodd, Mead and Company
+1908
+
+Copyright, 1908
+by Dodd, Mead and Company
+
+Published, September, 1908
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                   PAGE
+
+        I TWO LETTERS                            1
+
+       II THE LITTLE GIRL                       19
+
+      III A STRANGER, YET AT HOME               36
+
+       IV UNWELCOME                             52
+
+        V MAKING FRIENDS WITH THE LITTLE GIRL   68
+
+       VI GOING TO SCHOOL                       91
+
+      VII CHANGEFUL LIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD        108
+
+     VIII SORROW'S CROWN OF SORROW             128
+
+       IX LESSONS OF LIFE                      143
+
+        X A NEW DEPARTURE                      161
+
+       XI THE VOICE OF A ROSE                  180
+
+      XII CHANGES IN THE OLD HOUSE             194
+
+     XIII A TASTE OF PLEASURE                  213
+
+      XIV IN GAY OLD SALEM                     231
+
+       XV LOVERS AND LOVERS                    248
+
+      XVI PERILOUS PATHS                       270
+
+     XVII THE FLOWERING OF THE SOUL            288
+
+    XVIII THE PASSING OF OLD SALEM             296
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+TWO LETTERS
+
+
+The Leveretts were at their breakfast in the large sunny room in Derby
+Street. It had an outlook on the garden, and beyond the garden was a
+lane, well used and to be a street itself in the future. Then, at quite
+a distance, a strip of woods on a rise of ground, that still further
+enhanced the prospect. The sun slanted in at the windows on one side,
+there was nothing to shut it out. It would go all round the house now,
+and seem to end where it began, in the garden.
+
+Chilian was very fond of it. He always brought his book to the table; he
+liked to eat slowly, to gaze out and digest one or two thoughts at his
+leisure, as well as the delightful breakfast set before him. He was a
+man of delicate tastes and much refinement, for with all the New England
+sturdiness, hardness one might say, there was in many families a strain
+of what we might term high breeding. His face, with its clear-cut
+features, indicated this. His hair was rather light, fine, with a few
+waves in it that gave it a slightly tumbled look--far from any touch of
+disorder. His eyes were a deep, clear blue, his complexion fair enough
+for a woman.
+
+His father and grandfather had lived and died in this house. He had
+bought out his sister's share when she married, and she had gone to
+Providence. He had asked the two relatives of his father--termed cousins
+by courtesy--to continue housekeeping. They were the last of their
+family and in rather straitened circumstances. Miss Elizabeth was
+nearing sixty, tall, straight, fair, and rather austere-looking. Eunice
+was two years younger, shorter, a trifle stouter, with a rounder face,
+and a mouth that wore a certain sweetness when it did not actually
+smile.
+
+Chilian was past thirty. He was a Harvard graduate, and now went in two
+days each week for teaching classes. His father had left some business
+interests in Salem, rather distasteful to him, but he was a strictly
+conscientious person and attended to them, if with a sort of mental
+protest. For the rest, he was a bookworm and revelled in intellectual
+pursuits.
+
+The day previous had been desperately stormy, this late March morning
+was simply glorious. The mail, which came late in the afternoon, had not
+been delivered, causing no uneasiness, as letters were not daily
+visitors. But now the serving-man, with a gentle rap, opened the door
+and said briefly:
+
+"Letters."
+
+Eunice rose and took them.
+
+"An East Indian one for you, Chilian, and why--one from Boston--for you,
+Elizabeth. It is Cousin Giles' hand."
+
+Elizabeth reached for it. They were both so interested that they took
+no note of Chilian's missive. She cut carefully around the big wafer he
+had used. It was a large letter sheet, quite blue and not of over-fine
+quality. Envelopes had not come in and there was quite an art in folding
+a letter--unfolding it as well.
+
+"Really what has started Cousin Giles? I hope no one is dead----"
+
+"There would have been a black seal."
+
+"Oh, yes, m'm;" making a curious sound with closed lips. "They are well.
+Oh, the Thatchers have been visiting them and are coming out here for a
+week--why, on Saturday, and to-day is Thursday. Chilian, do you hear
+that?"
+
+"What?" he asked, closing his book over his own letter.
+
+"Why, the Thatchers are coming--on Saturday, not a long notice, and I
+don't know how many. They have had a nice time in Boston--and Cousin
+Giles has been beauing them round and seems to like it. He might have
+sent you word on Tuesday, when you were in;" and Elizabeth's tone
+expressed a grievance.
+
+"And the house not cleaned! It's been so cold."
+
+"The house is always clean. Don't, I beg of you, Cousin Bessy, turn it
+upside down and scrub and scour, and wear yourself out and take a bad
+cold. There are two guest chambers, and I suppose half a dozen more
+might be made ready."
+
+"That's the man of it. I don't believe a man would ever see dirt until
+some day when he had to dig himself out, or call upon the women folks to
+do it."
+
+Elizabeth always softened, in spite of her austerity, when he called her
+Bessy. The newer generation indulged in household diminutives
+occasionally.
+
+"Well, there is to be no regular house-cleaning. We shall want fires a
+good six weeks yet."
+
+"I don't see why Cousin Giles couldn't have said how many there were.
+Let me see, Rachel Leverett, who married the Thatcher, was your father's
+cousin. They went up in Vermont. Then they came to Concord. He"--which
+meant the head of the house--"went to the State Legislature after the
+war. He had some sons married. Why, I haven't seen them in years."
+
+"It will be just like meeting strangers," declared Eunice. "It's almost
+as if we kept an inn."
+
+Chilian turned. "When I am in Boston to-morrow I will hunt up Cousin
+Giles."
+
+"Oh, that will be good of you."
+
+He slipped his letter into the Latin book he had been going over, and
+with a slight inclination of the head left the room. The hall was wide,
+though it ended just beyond this door, where it led to the kitchen. The
+woodwork was of oak, darkened much by the years that had passed over it.
+The broad staircase showed signs of the many feet that had trodden up
+and down.
+
+Chilian's study was directly over the living-room, and next to the
+sleeping-chamber. This part had been added to the main house, but that
+was years ago. Bookshelves were ranged on two sides, but the windows
+interfered with their course around, two on each of the other sides.
+There was a wide fireplace between those at the west, and under them low
+closets, with cushions--ancestors of useful window-seats. A large
+easy-chair, covered with Cordovan leather, another curiously carved with
+a straight narrow strip up the back, set off by the side carving. The
+seat was broad and cushioned. Then one from France, as you could tell by
+the air and style, that had been in a palace. A low splint rocker, and
+one with a high back and comfortable cushions, inviting one to take a
+nap.
+
+The bookcases went about two-thirds of the way up and were ornamented by
+articles beautiful and grotesque from almost every land, for there had
+been seafaring men in the Leverett family, and more than one home in
+Salem could boast of treasures of this sort.
+
+Chilian stirred the fire, sending a shower of sparks up the chimney, and
+put on a fresh log. Then he settled himself in his chair and fingered
+his letter in an absent way. The last time Anthony wrote he vaguely
+suggested changes and chances and the uncertainty of life, rather
+despondent for a brisk business man who was always seeing opportunities
+at money-making. Had he been unfortunate in some of his ventures? And it
+was odd in him to write so soon again. Not that they were ever frequent
+correspondents.
+
+He opened the letter slowly. It was tied about with a thread of waxed
+silk and sealed, so he cut about the seal deliberately; he had a
+delicate carefulness in all his ways that was rather womanly. Then
+unfolding it, he began to read.
+
+Was this what the previous letter had meant? Was Anthony Leverett
+nearing the end, counting his days, finishing up his earthly work, and
+delegating it to other hands? There was something pathetic in it, and
+the trust in the uprightness and honor that Anthony Leverett reposed in
+him touched him keenly. But this part surprised and, at first, annoyed
+him. He drew his fine brows in a repellent sort of frown.
+
+          "Do you remember, Chilian, when you were a lad of
+          eighteen, in your second year at Harvard, you came
+          to Salem to recruit after a period of rather
+          severe study? And you met Alletta Orne, who was
+          four-and-twenty and engaged to me. In some sort of
+          fashion we were all related. Your father had been
+          like a father to me in my later boyhood. And, with
+          a young man's fervor, you fell in love with her. I
+          was sorry then for any pain you suffered, I am
+          glad now; for there is no one else in the wide
+          world I would as soon trust her child and mine to.
+
+          "We had been away nearly three years, when we came
+          back, and the baby was born in the house endeared
+          to me by many tender recollections. You were away
+          then, but on our second visit we were the most
+          congenial friends again. I did not think then it
+          would be our last meeting. I had meant, after
+          making my fortune, to return and end my days in my
+          birthplace. My greatest interest was in the
+          commercial house I had established. My first mate,
+          John Corwin, took my place and sailed the vessel.
+          Then my dear wife died, and I had only my little
+          girl left.
+
+          "I could hardly believe six months ago that I must
+          die. Should I return, or remain here and sleep
+          beside the one who had filled my soul with her
+          serene and lovely life and her blessed memory? I
+          could not endure the thought of leaving her
+          precious body here alone. So I chose to remain.
+          And now I send my little girl to your care and
+          guardianship without even consulting you. She is
+          amply provided for, though the business this side
+          of the world cannot be settled in some time. I
+          send her with a trusty maid and Captain Corwin,
+          because I do not want her to remember the end.
+          Some day you can tell her I am sleeping beside her
+          dear mother and that we are together in the Better
+          Land. She has been separated considerably from me
+          of late,--I have had to be journeying about on
+          business,--therefore it will not come so hard to
+          her, and though children do not forget, the sorrow
+          softens and has a tender vagueness from the hand
+          of time.
+
+          "So I give my little girl to you. If so be you
+          should marry and have children of your own, she
+          will not be crowded out, I know. In the course of
+          years,--for girls grow rapidly up to
+          womanhood,--she may love and marry. Direct her a
+          little here and see that no one takes her for the
+          mere money. I want her to know the sweetness and
+          richness of a true satisfying love."
+
+All important papers, and a sort of diary Anthony Leverett had kept,
+were to come in the vessel that would bring the little girl in the
+charge of Captain Corwin.
+
+Chilian Leverett sat for a long while with the letter in his hand, until
+the log broke in the middle and one end fell over the andiron. Then he
+started suddenly.
+
+Had he been dreaming of the sweetness of the woman who had so captivated
+his youthful fancy, almost a dozen years agone? He never thought she had
+led him astray, and had no blame for her. Perhaps the love for her
+betrothed had so permeated her whole being that she shed an exquisitely
+fascinating sweetness all about. He was to her as if he had been her
+betrothed's younger brother. And when the engagement was confessed he
+allowed himself no reprehensible longing for the woman so soon to be
+another's. All his instincts were pure and high, perhaps rather too
+idealized, though there was much strength and heroism in the old Puritan
+blood. Right was right in those days. Lines were sharply drawn among
+those of the old stock.
+
+But there had been years of what one might call living for self,
+indulgence in studious habits and tastes and the higher intellectual
+life, much solitary dreaming, although he was by no means a recluse. And
+to have a little girl come into his life! He would have liked a boy
+better, he thought. The boy would be out of doors, playing with mates.
+And now he bethought himself how few small children there were in his
+branch of the Leverett line. Some of the men and women had not married.
+His brother and one sister had died in childhood. The first cousins were
+nearly all older than he, many of them had dropped out of life. A little
+girl! No chance to decline the trust--well, he would hardly have done
+that. He knew Anthony Leverett had counted on a serene old age in his
+native town. And he was not much past middle life. What had befallen
+him?
+
+Well, there was nothing to be done. He read the letter over again. Then
+he turned to some papers to compose his mind. There was a stir in the
+next room, his sleeping-chamber. He always opened the windows and closed
+the door between. After the dishes were washed and the dining-room and
+hall brushed up, Elizabeth came upstairs and made the two beds. When he
+had gone to Cambridge she opened the door between. So she did not
+disturb him now, but crossed the hall and inspected the two
+guest-chambers. She had swept them a week or so ago and had settled in
+her mind that they would do until house-cleaning time. To be sure, if
+she cleaned them now they would need it when the guests were gone. And
+Chilian had a man's objection to house-cleaning. It was hardly time to
+put away blankets. She wished she knew how many guests there would be.
+
+The rooms were full of old Colonial furniture that had been in the
+family for generations. Every spring Elizabeth polished the mahogany
+until it shone. She dusted now, though there was hardly a speck visible.
+The snow through the winter had laid it, and the spring rains had not
+allowed it to rear its head.
+
+Chilian put on his coat presently and sallied out for his morning
+exercise. The family had been connected with shipbuilding to a certain
+extent, and there was the old warehouse where vessels came in with their
+precious cargoes from civilized and barbaric lands. For at the close of
+the Revolutionary War the men of note, many of whom had not disdained
+privateering, found themselves in possession of idle fleets, that with
+their able seamen could outsail almost anything afloat. So they struck
+out for new ventures in unknown seas and new channels of trade.
+Calcutta, Bombay, Zanzibar, Madagascar, Batavia, and other ports came to
+know the American flag and the busy enterprising traders.
+
+But the old Salem that was once the capital of the state, the Salem of
+John Endicott and Roger Williams, of stern Puritanism, of terrible
+witchcraft horrors, and then of the sturdy and vigorous stand in her
+differences with the mother country, her patriotism through the darkest
+days, was fast fading away, just as this grand commercial epoch was
+destined to merge into science and educational fame later on, and give
+to the world some master spirits. But as he wended his way hither and
+thither in a desultory fashion, one thought almost like spoken words
+kept running through his mind--"A little girl--a little girl in Old
+Salem"--for the almost two hundred years gave her the right to that
+eminence, and a little girl from a foreign land seemed incongruous. Not
+but that there were little girls in Salem, but their life-lines did not
+touch his. And this one came so near, for the sake of both parents he
+had loved.
+
+When he came in to dinner, he had made up his mind to say nothing of his
+letter until the guests had come and gone. He did not wish to be deluged
+with questions.
+
+He hunted up Cousin Giles the next day, who was quite a real-estate
+dealer, investing his own and other people's money in sound mortgages,
+who had been a widower so long that he had quite gone back to
+bachelorhood.
+
+And he found three Thatcher cousins--a widow, a married one, and a
+single one, the youngest of the family, but past girlhood. He was asked
+to take luncheon with them and they proved quite agreeable and
+intelligent, and much pleased at the prospect of seeing Elizabeth and
+Eunice Leverett.
+
+"We have been hunting up several of the Boston relatives," said Miss
+Thatcher, with a kind of winsome smile. "Cousin Giles has been a good
+directory. We've kept in with so few of them. Father hunted up some of
+them while he was in the Legislature, but they are so scattered about
+and many of them dead. Mother was your father's cousin, I believe."
+
+Chilian gave a graceful inclination of the head.
+
+"Elizabeth and Eunice visited us years ago, along after the war when I
+was first left a widow," explained Mrs. Brent. "Henry went all through
+it, but was worn out, and died in '88. But I've two nice sons, who are a
+great comfort. Father was very good to them and me. And they're both
+promising farmers."
+
+"I tell her that's a good deal to be thankful for," remarked Cousin
+Giles.
+
+"It is indeed," commented Chilian.
+
+"And I have a lad who is all for study and wants to come in to Harvard.
+He has been teaching school this winter. His father's quite set against
+it, and I don't know how it will end. He will be only nineteen in
+August, and his father thinks he has a hold on him two years longer."
+
+Mrs. Drayton looked up rather appealingly.
+
+"If his mind is made up to that, he will work his way through," said
+Chilian, and he thought he should like to know the boy.
+
+"You see the next two are girls and they can't help much about a farm.
+Father really needs him. And I seem to stand between two fires. His
+teaching term will end in May, but he has planned to take the school
+next winter. He has made quite a bit of money."
+
+Chilian thought he would be a lad fully worth helping, and made a mental
+note of it. He liked the mother.
+
+It was settled that they would reach Salem about noon in the stage, the
+only mode of conveyance, and they parted with a pleased friendliness.
+
+Chilian rehearsed the interview at home to the great delight of the
+household. Indeed, he had been very well pleased with the prospective
+visitors and he felt rather thankful for the respite from the shadow the
+coming event was casting. A little girl! It did annoy him.
+
+He did not allow it to interfere with his duties as host, however. The
+three ladies had a most delightful visit at Salem, looking up points of
+interest and hearing old history concerning the Leveretts. Chilian's
+father had jotted down many facts. There were seafaring uncles, who had
+brought home trophies; there were men in the family, who had died for
+their country if they had not filled eminent positions; others who had.
+How this branch of the family seemed to have dwindled away!
+
+Serena Thatcher was more than pleased with her cousin, though she felt
+somewhat awed by his attainments and his rather punctilious ways. Mrs.
+Brent set him down as a good deal of a Miss Nancy. But the ladies had a
+delightful time going over family histories and getting relationships
+disentangled.
+
+When the eventful day of parting came it brought a very real sorrow.
+They made promises that they would renew their meetings and keep each
+other in mind.
+
+It was Saturday evening when the Leverett household sat around the
+cheerful fire in the cozy room where the small family gathered on this
+evening of the week with their work all done, after the fashion of the
+past, still strictly observed by many of the older Puritan families. The
+industrious ladies sat with folded hands. Sometimes Chilian read aloud
+from a volume of the divines who had finished their good fight.
+
+This night he was gazing idly in the fire, the lines in his face
+deepening now and then.
+
+"I suppose he _is_ tired with all the talk, and rambles, and confusion
+of the week," Elizabeth thought, stealing furtive glances at him.
+
+He straightened himself presently and made a pretence of clearing his
+throat, as an embarrassed person often does.
+
+"I have something to tell you," he began. "I thought I would not disturb
+you while our relatives were here. We found enough to talk about;" with
+a short half-laugh.
+
+"And it tired you out, I know. We live so quietly that such an event
+quite upsets us," Eunice said in a gentle, deprecating tone.
+
+"It was very pleasant," he added. "I was a good deal interested in
+Anthony Drayton. But this is something quite different. Can you recall
+that I had a letter from the East Indies the morning the word came from
+Cousin Giles?"
+
+"Why, yes!" Elizabeth started in surprise. "I had really forgotten about
+it. Business, I suppose, with Anthony Leverett. Why, I think it is high
+time he came home."
+
+Chilian sighed. "I am afraid--though I cannot see why we should fear so
+much to enter the other portal, since it is the destiny of all, and we
+believe in a better world. He was hopelessly ill when he wrote and was
+winding up some business matters. He is a brave man to meet death so
+composedly. The only pang is parting from his child."
+
+"Oh, his little girl! Let me see--she must be eight or nine years old.
+What will become of her?"
+
+"He makes me executor and guardian of the child. She was to start three
+weeks after his letter with Captain Corwin in the _Flying Star_. That
+will be due, if it meets with no mishap, from the middle to the last of
+April."
+
+"But she doesn't come alone!" ejaculated Elizabeth in surprise.
+
+"Yes. He wishes to be buried there beside his wife. And he does not
+want her to have the remembrance of his death. So he sends her with the
+woman who has been her nurse and maid the last three years, an
+Englishwoman."
+
+"Of all things! I wonder what will come next! We seem in the line of
+surprises. And it's queer they should happen together. A little girl!
+Chilian, do _you_ like it? Why, it will fairly turn the house upside
+down!"
+
+There was an accent of protest in Elizabeth's tone, showing plainly her
+unwillingness to accept the situation.
+
+"One little girl can't move much furniture about;" with a sound of humor
+in his voice.
+
+"Oh, you know what I mean--not actually dragging sofas and tables about,
+but she will chairs, as you'll see. And lots of other things. Look at
+the Rendall children. The house always looks as if it had been stirred
+up with the pudding-stick, and Sally Rendall spends good half her time
+looking for things they have carted off. Tom and Anstice were digging up
+the path the day we called, and what do you suppose they had! The
+tablespoons. And I'll venture to say they were left out of doors."
+
+"There are so many of them," Chilian said, as if in apology.
+
+"And I don't see how we can keep this child away from them. It isn't as
+if they were low-down people. Sally's father having been a major in the
+war, and the Rendalls are good stock. Let me see--what's her name? Her
+mother was called Letty."
+
+"Cynthia. She was named for my mother." Chilian's voice had a reverent
+softness in it.
+
+"I always thought it a pretty name," said Eunice.
+
+"And I've heard people call it 'Cyn.' I do abominate nicknames."
+
+Elizabeth uttered this with a good deal of vigor. Then she remembered
+she quite liked Bessy.
+
+No one spoke for some moments. Chilian thought of the sister, whose
+brief married life had ended in her pretty home at Providence, and how
+she looked in her coffin with her baby sheltered by one arm. The picture
+came before him vividly.
+
+Elizabeth liked cleanliness and order. It was natural after a long
+practice in it. Chilian's particular ways suited her. Year after year
+had settled them--perhaps she had settled him more definitely, as he
+liked the way. Eunice was thinking of the little girl who had neither
+father or mother. She had some unfulfilled dreams. In her youth there
+had been a lover, and a wedding planned when he came home from his
+voyage. She had begun to "lay by" for housekeeping. And there were some
+pretty garments in the trunk upstairs, packed away with other articles.
+The lover was lost at sea, as befell many another New England coast
+woman.
+
+She had hoped against hope for several years--men were sometimes
+restored as by a miracle--but he never came. So she sometimes dreamed
+of what might have been, of home and children, and it kept her heart
+tender. Anthony's little girl would make a sight of trouble, she could
+see that, but a little girl about would be a great pleasure--to her at
+least. She glanced furtively at Elizabeth, then at Chilian. She could
+not comfort either of them with this sudden glow and warmth that
+thrilled through her veins.
+
+"Well, we will be through with house-cleaning before she comes," said
+the practical and particular housewife. Chilian simply sighed. It was
+the usual spring ordeal, and did end. But who could predict the ending
+of the other?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE LITTLE GIRL
+
+
+Down at the wharf there was much bustle and stir. Vessels were lading
+for various home ports, fishing craft were going out on their ventures,
+even a whaler had just fitted up for a long cruise, and the young as
+well as middle-aged sailors were shouting out farewells. White and black
+men were running to and fro, laughing, chaffing, and swearing at each
+other.
+
+There lay the East Indiaman, with her foreign flag as well as that of
+her country. She had come in about midnight and at early dawn
+preliminaries had begun. Captain Corwin had been ashore a time or two,
+looking up and down amid the motley throng, and now he touched his hat
+and nodded to Chilian Leverett, who picked his way over to him.
+
+"We are somewhat late," he began apologetically. "A little due to rough
+weather, but one can never fix an exact date."
+
+"All is well, I hope;" in an anxious tone.
+
+"Yes; the child proved a good sailor and was much interested in
+everything. I was afraid she would take it hard. But she is counting on
+her father's coming. I don't know how you will ever console her when she
+learns the truth."
+
+"And he----" Chilian looked intently into the captain's eyes.
+
+"I suppose the end has come before this. They thought he might last a
+month when we left. It's sad enough. He should have lived to be ninety.
+But matters went well with him, and he has been an honest, kindly,
+upright man with a large heart. I've lost my best friend and adviser."
+
+The captain drew his rough coat-sleeve across his face and looked past
+Chilian, winking hard.
+
+"There's a sight of business when we come to that, Mr. Leverett, but
+now--will you go on board? The maid is a most excellent and sensible
+person. They are in the cabin."
+
+"Yes," he answered and followed with a curious throb at his heart--pity
+for the orphaned child and a sense of responsibility he was conscious
+that he accepted unwillingly, yet he would do his duty to the uttermost.
+
+Already some officials were on hand, for at this period Salem was really
+a notable port. Chilian passed them with a bow, followed the captain
+down the gangplank, stared a little at the foreign deck-hands in their
+odd habiliments, stepped over boxes and bales in canvas and matting full
+of Oriental fragrance that from the closeness was almost stifling,
+coming from the clear air. Then he was ushered into the cabin, that was
+replete with Orientalism as well.
+
+A rather tall woman rose to meet him.
+
+"This is Mistress Rachel Winn, who has mothered the little girl for
+several years, Mr. Leverett, her relative and guardian,
+and--Cynthia----"
+
+The child threw herself down on the couch.
+
+"I want to go back home. I want to see my father, and Aymeer, and Babo,
+and Nalla. I can't stay here."
+
+"But perhaps your father will bring them when he comes. Don't you
+remember he told you he lived here when he was a little boy, and what
+nice times he had with the cousin he loved? And the cousin is here to
+bid you welcome. Come and speak to him. We cannot go back at once, the
+ship has to unload her cargo and take in ever so many other things. See,
+here is Cousin Leverett."
+
+She sat up, made a forward movement as if she would rise, but simply
+stared.
+
+"Yes, I am Cousin Leverett." He began advancing and held out his hand.
+
+"And very glad to see such an excellent traveller as you have been,"
+said the captain. "And such a nice little girl. You are an American
+girl; you know your father told you that. And this is your native town.
+Cousin Leverett remembers you when you were very little."
+
+"But I don't remember you;" taking no notice of the proffered hand.
+
+"Then you must get acquainted with me. And you must tell me about your
+life and your father, whom I have not seen in a long, long time. Let us
+shake hands."
+
+She held out hers then and raised herself to her feet.
+
+"Oh, how soft your hands are," she cried, "just like Nalla's. But they
+are very white. Nalla's were brown."
+
+"And who was Nalla?"
+
+"She used to come and play with me and make chains out of shells, and
+make bracelets and anklets, and dance. And she used to go to the Sahibs'
+house and dance with snakes. I'm afraid of them. Are you?"
+
+"Indeed I am, of the large ones," he said at a venture.
+
+He fancied that he felt a gentle pressure of sympathetic approval. She
+glanced up for an instant and her eyes transfixed him. They were a deep
+wonderful blue, almost black at the pupil, then raying off a little
+lighter. It made him think of a star in the winter midnight sky with a
+halo around it. The lashes were long and nearly black. Otherwise she had
+little claim to beauty just then. Her complexion had a tawny hue made by
+sun and wind, her hair was light, but it had a peculiar sunburned tint,
+though it was fine and abundant and hung in loose curls about her
+shoulders. Her nose was the only Leverett feature--it was straight,
+rather small, and had the flexibility that betrayed passing emotions.
+The Leverett lips were thin, hers were full in the middle, giving a
+certain roundness to the mouth.
+
+"Are there any where you live?" hesitatingly.
+
+"Any?" Then he recalled the subject they had touched upon. "Oh, no; you
+seldom see them, and they are mostly harmless."
+
+"Have you any little girls in your house?"
+
+"No, I am sorry to say."
+
+"There were two little English girls on shipboard at first. They went on
+board another vessel after a while. I liked them very much. They knew a
+great many things about countries. I can read, but I don't a great deal.
+Sometimes father would tell me about America. There are a great many
+countries in it, and once they had a big war. They had wars, too, in
+India. Why must people kill each other?"
+
+"There seem to be reasons. A little girl could not understand them all,
+I think;" and how could he explain them?
+
+"Oh, there is Captain Corwin!" She flew across the cabin with
+outstretched arms, which she clasped about him.
+
+"Well, have you been getting acquainted with--he will be your uncle, I
+suppose. What title are you going to take with the child, Mr. Leverett?"
+
+Chilian Leverett colored, without a cause he thought, and it annoyed
+him.
+
+"Are you going back to India to-day?" She was not interested in Chilian
+Leverett's answer.
+
+Captain Corwin laughed heartily and patted her shoulder.
+
+"Not to-day, nor even next week. The cargo will have to be taken off,
+little missy, and a new one stowed away. And I fancy there must be some
+repairs. I shall stay in town and run down to Marblehead. So you will
+see me quite often."
+
+"And you are coming back again from India?"
+
+"Oh, I hope so. More than once."
+
+"You will bring father then. It is such a long while to wait;" and she
+sighed.
+
+The men exchanged glances.
+
+"I want to see him so much. Couldn't I go back with you?"
+
+"Don't you remember I told you the other evening he might start before I
+reached India again? Don't you want to go ashore and see Salem? Ask Miss
+Rachel to get you ready."
+
+Rachel was beckoning to her. "Let us go up on deck," she said. "It's a
+strange country to me as well as to you. And I fancy the men want to
+talk."
+
+She crossed the cabin slowly, not quite certain what she did desire
+most, except to see her father.
+
+"You will have a rather sorry task. But Captain Ant'ny would have it so.
+He wanted to feel that she would be among friends. He had the fullest
+confidence that you could manage wisely. There is a great box of
+papers, instructions, etc. You are appointed her guardian and trustee.
+I've brought boxes of stuff that the officers will have to go through.
+But the legal matters you may take with you. He tried to make it as easy
+as he could. She will have considerable of a fortune, and more to come
+when matters get settled on the other side. A cousin of the Bannings
+came out,--English are great hands to keep things in the family. But it
+is one of the biggest importing houses out there and it owes its success
+to the long and wise head of Captain Anthony. They want young Banning in
+it and the matter was about settled when we came away, but the payments
+will run over several years. All these papers will be sent to you. The
+Bannings are upright business men, and I think you need have no fear.
+But the child's fortune is to be invested on this side of the water. Oh,
+you cannot realize what a trial it was to give up all thoughts of ending
+his days here."
+
+Captain Corwin brushed some tears from his honest, weather-beaten face.
+
+"But if he had started earlier----"
+
+"He would not believe the trouble would prove fatal. And when it was
+declared there was so much to put in order. Then he could not bear to
+think of leaving his wife alone there, though it's only the shell after
+all, and, if we believe the Good Book, we shall see the real part over
+there that was so much to us. But he could not explain the parting to
+the child, though death is such a common thing out there. Yet it _is_
+hard to believe our own can die. We are never ready for that. How you
+will manage----"
+
+The customs officers had come. Captain Corwin went out to meet them.
+Chilian Leverett dropped into the well-worn leather-covered chair that
+had been fine in its day. A heavy burthen had been laid upon him. He was
+not fond of business. Cousin Giles might be of some assistance; he
+grasped at the thought as if he had been a drowning man and this the
+straw. And the child, somehow, was different from the average child, he
+felt; though he was not certain what the average child would unfold day
+after day. What would Elizabeth think? Eunice he could count on. Though
+she yielded on many points in that tacit sort of way, she was by no
+means an echo of her sister.
+
+The three men entered the cabin. Chilian was no stranger to the
+officials, who greeted him cordially and who sympathized with Captain
+Anthony Leverett's untimely ending, as he was hardly past middle life.
+
+"Why, it will be quite a change to have a child in your household," said
+Josiah Ward. "But if she is like mine, I advise you not to give her the
+run of your study. But there are two ladies to look after her;" and he
+smiled.
+
+It was surmised that Mr. Ward, a widower of two years' standing, had
+glanced more than once in the direction of Miss Eunice Leverett.
+
+Rachel came back at this juncture. The little girl had an accession of
+shyness and would only nod to the strangers. Then they made ready to
+leave the vessel. Chilian took his japanned case of important papers;
+the rest of the luggage would be sent after inspection.
+
+A primitive street it was in those days, and the fine wharves of the
+present were rather rude if busy places. Over beyond they could see the
+river,--South River,--and that was alive with various small craft.
+
+"It seems almost like home," said Rachel Winn, pausing to take a survey.
+"You do not find this rural aspect in India."
+
+"How long were you there?" asked Chilian.
+
+"Seven years. I went out with my brother, who had just married my
+dearest friend. He died the third year, and she soon after married a
+military man. Then I took charge of a little lame boy and was mostly up
+in the mountains until he was sent to England, when Captain Leverett's
+hospitable doors opened to me. Believe me, I was sorry to leave him at
+this crisis. Yet it was his wish;" and she glanced at Cynthia.
+
+"Why did we come away?" demanded the child passionately. "Oh, Rachel,
+are you sure father will come? It takes so long, so long;" and there
+were tears in her voice.
+
+"Here we are!" exclaimed Chilian.
+
+There was a white picket fence across the sort of courtyard that had a
+broad paved path leading up to the front door, bordered by shrubs that
+would presently be in bloom, and spaces between for smaller plants.
+This was the delight of Eunice's heart. A square but rather ornate
+porch, with fluted columns, supporting the outer edge of the roof, and
+an elaborately carved hall-door with a fanlight overhead. The stoop
+stood up some five steps, and at the sides there were benches for
+out-of-doors comfort on summer nights. A brass knocker, with a lion's
+head, announced visitors. Chilian, however, let himself in with his
+latchkey. But both sisters met the party in the hall.
+
+"And this is Anthony's little girl!" said Elizabeth. "Child, let me look
+at you----"
+
+But the child had a perverse fit at that moment and turned away her
+head, to the elder's surprise and almost displeasure.
+
+"This is Miss Winn," interrupted Chilian. "My household guardians and
+cousins, Miss Elizabeth and Miss Eunice Leverett. I dare say our guests
+feel strange to be on land, after such a long journey."
+
+"It seems almost incredible that one can stand it, but we see them
+starting every few days for distant ports. My farthest journey has been
+to Providence; but, land alive! you don't know where that is, and it's
+no great distance. Will you not come and have a cup of tea or coffee?"
+
+"Thank you. We had breakfast not long ago, it seems."
+
+"Let me take you to your room," said Eunice. "And I hope you will soon
+feel at home with us. We are quiet people, but we shall endeavor to
+make you comfortable. Cynthia, will you not shake hands with me?"
+
+The soft, rather pleading voice attracted the child. She glanced up
+shyly and then held out a tiny hand hesitatingly.
+
+"She is rather backward at first," explained Rachel, who followed the
+hostess up the broad stairway.
+
+One of the guest-chambers had been set aside for their use after much
+discussion as to whether one or two would be needed. A smaller one
+opened into this, and a large closet was at the side.
+
+"You can take off your things--I suppose your boxes, or whatever you
+have, will be here presently. The bureau is empty and this chest of
+drawers. We are rather old-fashioned people, and the house is the same
+as it was in the time of Chilian's father. The captain made one visit
+here, when the little girl was about four. It must have been hard for
+him to lose his wife in a strange country like that. I suppose there are
+not many Americans?"
+
+"No; there are numbers of Englishwomen, wives of soldiers and traders,
+though I think most of them long to get home. They do not seem to take
+root easily."
+
+"I shouldn't think they would, in that idolatrous country. The accounts
+of heathendom are appalling. And that car of Juggernaut, and drowning
+their poor little babies! They do not seem to make much of girl
+children."
+
+"Indeed, they do not, only as in some families they are wanted for
+wives. But the devotion of mothers to their sons is wonderful."
+
+Rachel had laid aside a silk coat that filled Eunice with a sort of
+wonder, being brocaded with beautiful leaves and roses that seemed as if
+they must have been worked by hand, they stood out so clearly. The child
+appeared fantastically attired to her plainer eyes, and her slim arms
+were weighted with bracelets. In her dainty ears were some splendid
+sapphires.
+
+"I do hope you will soon feel at home," Eunice said from a full heart,
+if there was a rather awkward feeling about it. Yet she liked Miss
+Winn's face. It had a kindly and intelligent aspect and was medium in
+all respects. The social lines in the town, indeed in all the Eastern
+towns, were not sharply defined as to mistress and maid. True, many
+households preferred black servants; in not a few some elderly relative
+looked after the household, or a bound-out girl was trained in
+industrious ways.
+
+There had been some discussion as to what sphere this Miss Winn would
+occupy. If she was simply the attendant on an over-indulged child, an
+uneducated person, as many of the English maids were who came over to
+better their conditions or get husbands, it might be rather awkward. But
+the woman was certainly well-bred and used her English in a correct
+manner.
+
+"Perhaps you will get to feeling more at home if you come down to the
+sitting-room, since there is nothing to unpack;" with a faint smile.
+
+Cynthia had been looking out of the window. "How queer it all is!" she
+said. "I think I do not quite like it. And how funny one feels. I want
+to go this way;" and she swayed from side to side.
+
+"The motion of the vessel," interposed Rachel. "I have heard it took
+days to get over it."
+
+Meanwhile, downstairs Elizabeth had studied her Cousin Chilian.
+
+"The child is not at all pretty," she began rather sharply. "And her
+mother was considered a beautiful young woman, I believe."
+
+"Yes; but a long voyage and shipboard living may not be conducive to the
+development of beauty. And children seldom are at that age."
+
+"The Goodell children are pretty, I am sure, with their fine
+complexions. And the Bates girls. She has a furtive sort of look. Oh, I
+hope she isn't deceitful and untrue. Those heathen nations, I believe,
+are given largely to falsehood, and she has lived among them so long
+without any mother's care. It seems as if a pretty girl like Alletta
+Orne might have found some one at home to marry and reared her child in
+a Christian land."
+
+"Do not let us begin by borrowing trouble. It always comes fast enough."
+
+"And I can foresee that we shall have plenty of it. Well, I suppose it
+must be endured. There! my bread is light enough to go in the
+oven--running over, likely as not."
+
+So, when they came downstairs, Miss Elizabeth was in the kitchen,
+immersed in her baking interest.
+
+A large gray cat lay curled up on a cushion. Cynthia went straight over
+to it, but it glanced at her with wild eyes, jumped down, and
+disappeared through the doorway.
+
+"Oh!" she exclaimed in accents of disappointment, glancing up at
+Chilian.
+
+"Pussy is not used to children. He always runs away from them. But I
+think he will like you when he gets acquainted."
+
+She turned to the window with a swelling heart. It seemed so cold and
+strange. It was better on shipboard, she thought. She had come to know
+the sailors quite well and Missy had grown to be a great favorite with
+them. There was always something cheerful going on. They sang songs in
+their loud clear voices, or whistled merry tunes. They danced as well.
+She was quite used to the dancing-girls at Calcutta, and when they were
+at Hong Kong or other ports. But the Indian girls pleased her best.
+
+The sailors seemed always full of fun, even in the worst of times.
+During some fearful storms she was safely housed in the cabin, and it
+amused her to see the things pitch and roll as far as their chains would
+allow them. Sometimes, too, they had to hold the food in their hands,
+but she never knew the danger of the worst storms. Rachel would not
+admit that she was afraid, and the captain said, "Yes, we're having a
+stiff blow, but the _Flying Star_ has weathered many a gale before." And
+here it was so very quiet. It looked dreary outside, with the leafless
+trees. She liked the toss and tumult of the waves with their snowy,
+jewelled crests, and the clouds scudding along the sky, which she
+imagined was another sea full of ships. Often they went in port and
+there was nothing left but the blue sky above--a great hollow vault. And
+when the sun shone the real sea and ocean was in flames of such splendid
+colors. There was no end of curious people at ports where they stopped
+for supplies, there was always something strange, even when they were
+days alone on the water. For the sunset and sunrise were never twice
+alike. Then the moon from its tiny crescent to the great round globe
+that illumined the world with her fairy richness and scattered jewels on
+every crested wave. She had watched it turn the other way and grow
+smaller and smaller until you saw it vaguely in the morning.
+
+She was so interested in the stories they told about it, the signs and
+wonders they ascribed to it.
+
+"And was it ever a real world like that we have left behind?" she asked
+of the captain. "Were there people in it? And land, and rivers, and
+growing things, and flowers?" and her wondering eyes grew larger.
+
+"No one can tell now. Some astronomers believe it a burned-out world and
+the things we take for a man," laughing, "and the cow ready to jump
+off, are remnants of roads, and forests, and mountains."
+
+"You _can_ see the man in the moon," she returned decisively. "Sometimes
+he laughs. And the cow has great horns. I should be afraid of them if I
+met such a cow. Ours are so small and tame."
+
+"You will see large ones in Salem. But I think, for the most part, they
+are gentle."
+
+She never wearied talking over the strange things. And so she came to
+have her head filled with wonderful lore that indeed cropped out now and
+then all her life long until she felt as if she had really been in
+fairyland.
+
+It seemed stranger here than on shipboard. The others were going through
+the ceremony of getting acquainted. Rachel Winn's voice had a soft
+sound, with an almost foreign accent. Eunice's, though low-pitched, had
+a clear resonance. Now and then Chilian Leverett made a comment, or
+asked a question, but she was not heeding them. Her heart and mind had
+wandered back to her father and that wonderful land where nothing ever
+seemed bleak, though in long hot droughts it was arid. But there were
+always temples, and palaces, and picturesque huts, and women and
+children in gay attire, old men kneeling somewhere, praying but keeping
+a sharp lookout for alms.
+
+Chilian Leverett had been watching the small face and wondering at the
+changes passing over it. Now he saw some tears slowly coursing down the
+pale cheeks, and his heart was moved with infinite pity.
+
+Suddenly a robin alighted on the limb of a tree and began picking at the
+buds. Then he held his head up straight, swelled out his brownish red
+breast, and poured forth such a volume of melody that the effort fairly
+made him dance with joy. Spring had surely come! It was the time of love
+and joy, and all things made over new.
+
+She turned a trifle. Her face was transfigured with delight. Her eyes
+shone, though the tears were still wet on her cheek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A STRANGER, YET AT HOME
+
+
+Rachel Winn settled herself to the new order of things more readily than
+the Leveretts. Or rather she seemed to take the lead in arrangements for
+herself and her charge. She was after all a sort of nurse and
+waiting-maid, though she had a fine dignity about it that even Elizabeth
+could not gainsay. She was to be one of the family, there could be no
+objection to that in the simple New England living. Though it was true,
+times were changing greatly since the days of war and privation, and
+perhaps the mingling of people from other states, the growing
+responsibility of being part of a great commonwealth. Servants were
+being relegated to a different position. Boston in a certain fashion set
+the pace, though Salem held up her head proudly. Were not her seaports
+the busy mart of the Eastern shore? Stores of finery, silks and laces,
+and marvellous Indian embroidery went down to Boston and the houses were
+enriched with choice china that in the next hundred years was to be
+handed down as heirlooms. Fine houses were being built, choice woods
+came from southern ports by vessels that believed they could find
+fortunes nearer home than China or India. But they could grow no
+spices, or coffees, or teas, and they must come from the Orient. No
+looms could turn out such exquisite fabrics as yet, though housewives
+were to be proud of their home-made drapery for a generation or two.
+
+Chilian spent a large part of that first night inspecting his box of
+papers. There was a journal-like letter in which Anthony Leverett had
+jotted down many things he hardly dared say in his letter; indeed, there
+was not sufficient space. As soon as he had learned the serious nature
+of his disease, he had begun to put his house in order and consider the
+future welfare of his child. Some lines touched Chilian deeply, the
+trust and dependence he was not at all sure he could fulfil, but he felt
+he _must_ rouse himself to the earnest endeavor. The father had a
+passionate love for his child, he was making a fortune for her, counting
+the years when he should return and have a home of his own, when Cynthia
+would grow up and marry and there would be grandchildren to climb his
+knees. India was no place for a woman child to grow up in, there were no
+chances for education or accomplishment, and next to no society. After
+all there was not, and never would be, such a country as the new world
+that had struggled so long and bravely for her independence, and now had
+only to go on developing her grand theories. Crowned heads might look on
+doubtingly, but the foundation had been laid in justice and truth and
+equality of right. It quite thrilled him that this man, amassing money
+in a far-away land, could see so clearly and have no doubts about its
+future greatness.
+
+To Captain Corwin, his good, trusty friend, he had willed half the value
+of the _Flying Star_. The money from his part was to be invested, as the
+payments came in, in real estate in Salem, which was to be the shipping
+mart of the New England coast, at least, and run a race with New York,
+he thought. So with the stations at Calcutta and Hong Kong in the hands
+of the Bannings. And there were treasures that would answer for a
+wedding dowry when the time came. If possible, he would like Rachel Winn
+retained; he had the highest confidence in her, and she had no relatives
+to call her back to England. He had given her much of the family
+history, and described the town and the people, so that it would not
+seem so new and strange to her.
+
+He was not asking all this as a favor. Chilian was touched by the
+provision made for himself, which it would be quite impossible to
+decline, he saw. True it would break in upon his leisurely, student
+life, yet he felt he could not in honor refuse to accept the trust.
+
+Rachel Winn studied the arrangements of the rooms at their disposal. Her
+young mistress was not a child taken out of benevolence or relationship.
+She must have her standing from the very beginning, and she fancied
+Elizabeth was inclined to consider her a sort of interloper.
+
+"If it makes no difference, I will take the small room," she announced
+to her. "There are some pieces of furniture on the vessel that Captain
+Leverett particularly wished her to keep, and as she grows older she
+will cherish them----"
+
+"That great room for such a child!" In her amazement, Elizabeth spoke
+without thought. She was not used to seeing children set in the very
+forefront. In her day, indeed, yet in some families the large open
+garret was considered the place for children.
+
+"You see, she was used to it at home--over there, I mean;" with a nod of
+the head. "Her father's room was one side, mine on the other. Of course,
+in a way I shall share it with her. I will keep it in order and look
+after her clothes, and sew for her. But I prefer the smaller one."
+
+Elizabeth was aghast. One of the best spare chambers, with the
+furnishings that had come from England a hundred years before. On the
+other side she and Eunice shared a plainly appointed room with some of
+their very own belongings. There was still another, but the closet was
+small. She had asked Chilian where they should be placed and he had
+chosen this. It was his house, of course----
+
+Whether it would have ended in a discussion could not to be told, for at
+that moment a dray drove up with some boxes and a piece of furniture so
+wrapped and protected that it was quite impossible to guess at its
+name.
+
+Chilian came out and ran lightly down the stairs; and then called
+Elizabeth.
+
+"Where had the boxes better go? They will have to be unpacked, I
+suppose;" helplessly.
+
+"There are more to come," announced the man. "Enough to set up
+housekeeping, if the right sort of things are in them;" and he gave a
+short laugh.
+
+Miss Winn came downstairs. "Isn't there a garret to the house?" she
+asked, looking from one to the other. "I packed them up, but I can
+hardly tell----"
+
+"Yes; we could store half the vessel's contents in it. Well, not exactly
+that. A ship's hold is a capacious place. Yes, the boxes might go there.
+Have you any idea what this is?"
+
+"A sort of desk and bookcase. A very handsome thing the captain set
+great store by."
+
+The men shouldered the boxes and Elizabeth convoyed them. Silas was
+spading up the garden and came at the call.
+
+It was a work of some labor to get the article out of its secure
+casings. It disclosed a very handsome piece of furniture in the
+escritoire style, carved and inlaid not only with beautiful woods, but
+much silver. Chilian surveyed it with admiration.
+
+"That must stand in the parlor," he decided. "But some one must come and
+help. I'm afraid I am not sufficiently robust. Silas, see if you can't
+find the Uphams' man. He was working there a short time ago."
+
+"If there's more to come, it is hardly worth while to clear up," began
+Elizabeth. "I hope it will soon follow."
+
+Chilian directed the two men, who found it still quite a burthen.
+Elizabeth opened the parlor shutter unwillingly, and the men set it in
+the middle of the floor.
+
+There were two large rooms held almost sacred by both sisters. They were
+separated by an archway, apparently upheld on each end by a fluted
+column. Both rooms had a wide chimney-piece, the mantel and its supports
+elaborately carved and painted white. Two windows were in each end,
+draped with soft crimson curtains. The floor was polished, with a rug
+laid down in the centre. It was furnished in a manner that would have
+delighted a connoisseur, but Elizabeth did not admire the
+conglomeration. They were family relics and seemed to have little
+relation with one another, yet they were harmonious. There was a
+thin-legged spinet, with a Latin legend running across the front of the
+cover, which was always down. The chairs were not made for lounging,
+that was plain; and the sofa, with its rolling ends and claw feet, had
+been polished until the haircloth looked like satin. A dead and gone
+Leverett bride had imported that from London.
+
+When the East Indian article had been consigned to an appropriate space,
+it looked as much at home as if it had lived there half a century. Then
+the parlor was shut up again, the mat in the hall shaken out, the front
+door bolted. Miss Winn had asked for a hammer and chisel that she might
+open one of the boxes.
+
+"Take Silas. That is a man's work," said Chilian.
+
+Cynthia was in the sitting-room, where it was still chilly enough to
+have a fire. Eunice was knotting fringe for a bedspread, and it
+interested the child wonderfully. She was not a little shocked to find a
+child of nine knew nothing about sewing, had never hemmed ruffles, nor
+done overseam, or knit, or it seemed anything useful.
+
+"Why, when I was a little girl of your age I could spin in the little
+wheel."
+
+"What did you spin?"
+
+"Why, thread, of course, linen thread made from flax."
+
+"Were you a truly little girl?" in surprise.
+
+"Why, child, don't you know anything?" Then Miss Eunice laughed softly
+and patted the small shoulder, looking kindly into the wondering eyes.
+There was no hurt in her tone and the words rather amused.
+
+"I know a great many things. I can read some Latin, and I know about
+Greece and its splendid heroes who conquered a good deal of the world.
+There was Alexander the Great and Philip of Macedon. And Tamerlane, who
+conquered nearly all Asia. And--and Confucius, the great man of China,
+who was a wise philosopher, and wrote a bible----"
+
+"Oh, no; not a bible!" interrupted Miss Eunice, horrified. "There is
+only one Bible, my dear, and that is the Word of God."
+
+"But the other is the bible of the Chinese, and some of them believe
+Confucius was a god."
+
+"That is quite impossible, my dear;" in a rather decisive, but still
+gentle tone.
+
+"And there is Brahma, and Vishnu, and there are ever so many gods in
+India. The people pray to them. And temples. When they want anything
+very much, they go and pray for it. There was a woman whose little son
+was very ill, and if he lived he was going to be a great prince, or
+something, and she gathered up her precious stones and her necklace and
+took them to the temple for the god. Father sent an English doctor, but
+they wouldn't let him see the little boy. He was so pretty, too. I used
+to see him in the court."
+
+"And did he live?" Miss Eunice asked, much interested.
+
+"No; he didn't. And the father beat her for losing the jewels."
+
+"You see, those gods have no power."
+
+"Did you ever pray for anything you wanted very much?"
+
+Cynthia's bright eyes studied the placid face before her.
+
+"Yes," the lips murmured faintly.
+
+"And did you get it?"
+
+A flush stole over the puzzled countenance.
+
+"My dear, God doesn't see as we do. And He knows what is best for us,
+and gives us that. Maybe our prayer wasn't right."
+
+"How can you tell when a prayer is right or wrong?" inquired the young
+theologian.
+
+"Why, you have to leave that to God;" in a low, resigned tone.
+
+"I didn't want to come here. I wanted to stay with father. I didn't know
+there was any one beside, and I do not believe any one will ever love me
+so well. But he promised to come when the business was all done. So I
+prayed to the God of father's Bible, and I went to the temple with Nalla
+and put down a half-crown--it was all the money I had. But"--her eyes
+filled with tears and her voice had a break in it--"father begged so,
+and I came. But if Captain Corwin does not bring him next time I shall
+go back. I can't live without him."
+
+The mild blue eyes of Miss Eunice filled with tears as well. She was not
+sure this had been the wisest course. The absolute truth was always
+best. But she temporized also in a vague fashion.
+
+"Yes; you can tell then. And you may come to like us so well you may
+stay content."
+
+"Oh, if he comes! Then it will be all right. And you think I ought to
+pray for that?"
+
+It was a cruel strait for Miss Eunice and staggered her faith. She was
+not to lead astray or harm "one of the least of these." But the child
+_was_ a heathen with no real knowledge of the true God. Like a vision
+almost, Miss Eunice looked back at her own childhood, and the awful,
+overshadowing power she believed was God, who wrote down every wicked
+thought and wrong deed, and would confront her with them at the Judgment
+Day. She prayed nightly, often in the night, when she woke up, and she
+was no surer of God's love than this little heathen child.
+
+"It is right to pray for the things we want, but to be resigned if God
+doesn't see fit to give them to us."
+
+"Then the prayers are thrown away. And do you know just what God is?"
+
+"My dear!" in a shocked tone, "no one can tell. It is one of the
+mysteries to be revealed when we see Him as He truly is at the last day.
+A little girl cannot understand it. I do not, and I have sought the
+truth many years. Now I am trusting, because I feel assured He will do
+what is right. Tell me something about your life with your father."
+
+"Oh, things were so different there. Houses, and there were always
+servants, so you didn't ever need to fan yourself. Babo and Nalla were
+always about. Babo used to take me out in a chair that had curtains
+around and a big umbrella overhead. Sometimes Chandra went with him. And
+the streets were funny and crooked, and houses set anywhere in them. I
+liked going up in the mountains best, it wasn't so hot. And the trees
+were splendid, and beautiful vines and flowers of all sorts. Mrs. Dallas
+went the last time. She had two girls and a big boy. I did not like
+him. He would pinch my arms and then say he didn't. I liked the girls,
+one was larger than I. And we swung in the hammocks the vines made. Only
+I was afraid of the snakes, and there are so many everywhere. Alfred
+liked to kill them."
+
+She shuddered a little and glanced about the room with dilated eyes.
+
+"They come into your houses sometimes. Nalla used to catch them and
+sling them hard on the ground, and that stunned them. And we used to
+make wreaths of the beautiful flowers. Agnes Dallas knew so many stories
+about fairies, little people who come out at night, when the moon
+shines, and dance round in rings. They slip in houses, and the nice ones
+do some work, but the wicked ones sour the milk, and spoil the bread,
+and hide things. And, sometimes, they change children into a cat, or a
+rabbit, or something, and it is seven years before you can get your own
+shape again. Do you have them here?"
+
+"There is no such thing. That is all falsehood," was the decisive
+comment.
+
+"But--Agnes knew of their coming. And she had seen them dancing on the
+grass. But if you speak or go near them, they disappear."
+
+Miss Winn came out to the sitting-room.
+
+"Oh, you are here," she said. "I thought you were out of doors. You
+ought to take a run. What a wonderful garret you have upstairs, Miss
+Eunice. But I am afraid we shall fill it up sadly. There were so many
+things to bring. I do not believe we shall find use for half of them. I
+want a few mouthfuls of fresh air. I suppose I can walk up the street
+without danger of getting lost if I turn square around when I return?
+Don't you want to come, Cynthia?"
+
+Cynthia was ready.
+
+"You had better wrap up warm. It gets chilly towards night."
+
+"It was a long stretch on shipboard. We stopped at several ports,
+however. But I am glad to be on solid ground. Come, child."
+
+She had brought down a wrap and hood. Cynthia was glad of something new,
+though she liked Miss Eunice.
+
+They turned a rather rounding corner and went on to a sort of
+market-place, where sweepers were gathering up the debris after the
+day's sales. They glanced about the city. Salem had made rapid strides
+since the grand declaration of peace, but at the end of the century it
+was far from the grandeur the next twenty years would give it.
+
+"There are no palaces and no temples," said Cynthia, rather
+complainingly. "And how white all the people are. Do you suppose they
+have been ill?"
+
+"Oh, no; they have been housed up during the winter, and the climate is
+cold. And, you know, they are of a different race. This part, New
+England, was settled mostly from old England."
+
+"Are you going to like it, Rachel?"
+
+"Why--I don't quite know. You can't tell at once about a strange place."
+
+"Miss Eunice is nice. But she has some queer ideas."
+
+"Or is it a little girl, named Cynthia Leverett, who has queer ideas
+that she has brought largely from a far-off country?"
+
+The child laughed. Then she saw some girls and boys playing tag in the
+street, laughing and squealing when they were caught, or when they
+narrowly missed. And some empty carts went rattling by, with now and
+then a stately coach, or a man on horseback, attired in the fashion of
+the times. The sun suddenly dropped down.
+
+"We had better turn about," declared Miss Winn. "It will not do to be
+late for supper."
+
+The walk had not been straight, but her gift of locality was good. They
+passed the market-place again, made the winding turn, and found the
+lighted lamps gave the house a cheerful aspect.
+
+Miss Eunice had put away her knotting and begun to lay the cloth when
+Elizabeth entered, her face clouded over.
+
+"I'm sure I don't see why Providence should send this avalanche upon us
+to destroy our peace and comfort," she began almost angrily. "The
+Thatchers' visit was pleasant, though that made a sight of clearing up
+afterward. And we had hardly gotten over that when this must happen. I
+was going to put that white quilt in the frame, but the garret will be
+turned upside down for no one knows how long! Such a mess of stuff, and
+more coming. There's enough in this house without any more being added
+to it."
+
+"But it was natural Captain Anthony should want his child to have
+something belonging to him, maybe her mother, too. And goodness knows
+there's room enough in the garret. It isn't half full with his traps,
+and there's some of ours. And there's the loft over the kitchen."
+
+"Well, we want some place to dry clothes in rainy weather. And when I
+sweep I want to move things about, not sweep just in front of them, and
+have the dust settle in rows behind. Chilian didn't know what a lot
+there would be, though he might have looked it over on the ship. When it
+is all through, the house will need a thorough cleaning again. And what
+_do_ you think, Eunice! She's going to put the child in that big bed and
+she sleep in the little one! The best room in the house! I'm sorry they
+have it."
+
+Eunice was roused a little.
+
+"That doesn't seem the proper thing. But maybe she thought--I do suppose
+the child has had the best of everything."
+
+"I don't believe in pampering children. And I don't altogether like the
+woman. I do wonder if we will have to keep her. A girl of nine is old
+enough to look after herself, and begin to keep her own clothes and her
+room in order."
+
+"It's been very different out in India. And I do suppose Anthony was
+over-indulgent, she having no mother to train her."
+
+"We'll have our hands full, Eunice, when the tussle really begins."
+
+"Oh, I do not think she will be hard to manage. She seems rather
+shy----"
+
+"Those eyes of hers ain't so deep for nothing. She hasn't the Leverett
+mouth, and those full lips are wilful and saucy, generally speaking.
+Letty Orne was a pretty girl, as I remember. Strange, now, when you come
+to think of it, that the child should have been born in this house. But
+she'll never have any beauty to spare, that's certain. For the land
+sakes, Eunice, look at the time and you dawdling over the table. I'm
+tired as a dog after a long race."
+
+Elizabeth dropped into a chair. In her secret heart Eunice knew that
+when her sister was tired out she was fractious; she loved her too well
+to say cross words.
+
+"Shall we have fish or cold meat?" she asked mildly.
+
+"Oh, I don't care! Well, fish. There will be meat enough for to-morrow's
+dinner if it isn't meddled with."
+
+The fish was salted down in the season, soaked a little, laid in spiced
+vinegar for a few hours, cut in thin slices, and was very appetizing.
+Eunice went about with no useless flutter, she stepped lightly and
+never made any clatter with dishes. The tea china, thin and lovely, the
+piles of white bread and brown, molasses gingerbread and frosted sugar
+cake, stewed dried fruit and rich preserves, made an inviting-looking
+table. Chilian came in and made himself neat, as usual, then the guests.
+
+Cynthia was very quiet. Twice Miss Winn answered a question for her. She
+scarcely ate anything. Then she said wearily:
+
+"I am so tired and sleepy. Can't I go to bed?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+UNWELCOME
+
+
+Miss Winn and her charge went down to the ship the next morning with
+Chilian Leverett. Elizabeth inspected the rooms. She was not meddlesome,
+nor over-curious generally, but with a feeling of possessorship and
+responsibility in the house, she wanted to know how far she could trust
+the newcomers. The beds were well made, but closets and drawers were
+rather awry. She did begrudge the best chamber, and wondered whether it
+would not be possible to change them about presently. True, they seldom
+had guests.
+
+Then a new load of boxes came, with two trunks, and several more pieces
+of furniture. The latter were left standing in the hall. The garret had
+been a sort of fetich with Elizabeth. There were dried herbs hanging to
+the rafters in their muslin bags, so as not to make a litter and mostly
+for the fragrance. There was not a cobweb anywhere. On one side of the
+sloping roof were ranged their own trunks and chests, two of cedar, in
+which woollen clothes and blankets passed the summer, securely hidden
+from moths. In one gable were miscellaneous household articles, a few
+chairs good enough to be repaired, a more than century-old cherry table,
+spinning-wheels, a bedstead piled high with a feather bed, and
+numberless pillows, for Elizabeth thought it her duty to make a new pair
+every year, as they kept a flock of geese that spent their days in a
+small cove on South River.
+
+The interloper boxes could make a row down the cleared side. That left
+the centre, the highest part, clear for drying clothes, which probably
+would not be needed until winter. But careful Elizabeth planned ahead
+for every emergency. True, the emergency did not always fit the plans,
+but it gave her tense spirit a rest.
+
+The Salem air was fragrant, with all manner of sweet springtime
+odors--the ship was not. Things that had been stored in the hold came up
+with a certain old smell and a little mustiness. First, Cynthia held her
+nose and made a wry face. But it was delightful to run about and
+exchange greetings with the sailors, who seemed merry enough over their
+work.
+
+"Well, missy," said the captain, catching her in his arms as she ran,
+"how do you like living on dry land? You haven't lost your sea legs yet,
+that's plain."
+
+"It's very queer. There are just tiny leaves coming out on the trees,
+and a few curious white flowers, little bells, coming up in the garden,
+and crocus in pretty colors. But I don't like it very much. Miss Eunice
+is nice and has such a soft voice. And the houses are so funny and shut
+up, and there are no servants about, nor any one praying on the corners
+and holding out a basin for rice; and no piles of fruit for sale."
+
+"No; this isn't the time of year for fruit;" and there was a funny
+twinkle in the captain's eye. "Just wait until August and September."
+
+Cynthia considered. "That is three and four months away. Father will be
+here then;" with a child's confidence.
+
+"And there are berries earlier, and cherries, and then some sugar pears.
+Oh, you will be feasted. And you'll like Cousin Leverett, when you come
+to get acquainted with him. You will go to school, too, and know lots of
+little girls. You won't want to go back to India."
+
+"Unless father shouldn't come. Oh, he surely will, because, you see, I'm
+praying ever so many times a day."
+
+"That's right;" with a cheerful nod.
+
+"When are you going back?"
+
+"In about a month, I calculate."
+
+She sighed and looked out over the great stretch of waters. "What is
+that long point down there?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"That's Salem Neck, and there is Winter Island. They are always building
+ships down there and turn out some mighty fine ones. And fishing;
+there's a sight of cod, and haddock, and mackerel, and all the other
+fish in season. They salt them and take them half over the world. And
+there's a rope-walk you'd enjoy seeing, leastways you would if you were
+a boy. And there are some stores. We have lots of goods consigned to the
+Merrits. Salem's a big place, now I tell you!"
+
+"Bigger than Calcutta?"
+
+"Sho' now! Calcutta can't hold a candle to it."
+
+The captain's cabin was being dismantled for repairs and cleaning. She
+glanced in it. How many days she had spent here! Everything was in
+disorder, yet there was a certain home remembrance that touched the
+child's heart, and brought tears to her eyes.
+
+"Oh, are you here?" It was Chilian Leverett's voice, and he held out his
+hand. She looked so bright now and there was a little color in her
+cheeks, an eager interest about her. He was afraid she was going to be a
+rather dull child.
+
+"Yes; it's almost like home, you know; only when we lived here it wasn't
+so topsy-turvy."
+
+"Did you feel queer when you woke up this morning?" thinking it his duty
+to smile.
+
+"Oh, I didn't know where I was. It seemed as if I was being smothered in
+something. And it didn't toss and rock. Oh, there were some birds
+singing." She laughed gleefully. "Then I saw Rachel, and it came to me
+in little bits, but it seems such a long, long while since yesterday
+morning."
+
+"Where is Miss Winn? I want to see her a moment."
+
+"She has been looking over some things as they came up from the hold,"
+said the captain. "Oh, here she is!"
+
+Chilian took her aside for a moment. It was necessary for him to go in
+to Boston and he wanted to make a few suggestions, so that any of
+Elizabeth's strictures might not offend. He began to perceive the child
+and her attendant were not exactly welcome guests.
+
+"How long do you suppose she will stay?" Elizabeth had asked of him
+rather sharply. "For, when we are once settled, I do not think there
+will be any real necessity for keeping Miss Winn."
+
+She had been considering it at intervals through the night, and was
+impatient for what she called an understanding.
+
+Chilian had often given in to her on points that did not really affect
+him. He hated to bicker with any one, especially women.
+
+"My dear Elizabeth," he began, "the child has been consigned to my
+charge until she comes of age. I should not have chosen the
+guardianship, but it seems there is no other relative who can attend to
+all matters as well. She is to be no dependent, only for whatever love
+we choose to give her. Anthony has made an ample allowance for her,
+indeed such a generous one that it irks me to accept it. If it makes too
+much work for you and Eunice, we will have some help. Miss Winn is to
+look after her, that was her father's wish; so there will be no change.
+Of course, it alters our quiet mode of living, but perhaps we were
+getting in too much of a rut and needed some shaking up;" smiling
+gravely. "Try and make it as comfortable for them as you can. There is
+plenty of room in the house for us all."
+
+Then there was nothing before them but acceptance. In a way she had
+known it, but there was a vague idea seething in her mind that if the
+maid could be dismissed, she and her sister could train the child in a
+better manner, and instil some Salem virtues in her that yet held a
+little of the old Puritanic leaven; like industry, economy, forethought.
+She still believed in the strait and narrow pathway.
+
+That Chilian should take the matter so philosophically _did_ surprise
+her. To him there seemed something so pitiful in the hope held out to
+the little girl, yet after all could it have been managed any more
+wisely? She would not know what the acute pang of death was. And her
+longing would become less, there would be a vagueness in her sorrow that
+would help to heal it. This would be her home. He had been living all
+these years for himself, was it not time that he espoused some other
+motive? That he began to be of real service?
+
+He finished his talk with Miss Winn. Cynthia was hopping over some coils
+of cable, and he watched her agile, graceful movements, half smiling.
+
+"Come and tell me good-bye," he said, holding out his hand. "I am going
+in to Boston."
+
+"In a vessel?"
+
+"No; though I suppose that would be possible. I am late for the stage,
+and must go on horseback."
+
+"Where is Boston?"
+
+"Oh, some eighteen miles--rather southerly. It is a big city, and the
+capital."
+
+"When are you coming back?" with a daintily anxious air.
+
+"Oh, by supper-time."
+
+"Well;" nodding.
+
+"What shall I bring you?"
+
+"Nothing at all. We have twice too much now, Rachel says. Only--be sure
+to come back."
+
+"If I did not, what then?"
+
+"If you did not come back, I should go to India with Captain Corwin. I
+like Miss Eunice a little, but your other lady doesn't want me," she
+replied with a frankness that was amusing, it was so free from malice.
+
+"Good-bye until to-night, then."
+
+She put her hand in his. Then she reached up tiptoe. "Kiss me," she
+said. "Father always did and he said, 'Be a good girl.'"
+
+"Be a good girl." Chilian kissed the soft red lips and then went his
+way. There was not much caressing in the restrained New England nature
+of that day, especially among those who had grown up with few family
+ties. His mother had died while he was yet quite a boy.
+
+"Let us go back now," said Rachel presently. "I believe I have found all
+our goods. Miss Leverett will be appalled."
+
+The child repeated the word. "What does it mean?" she asked.
+
+"Astonished, surprised."
+
+"Why, _they_ have a houseful of things;" in protest.
+
+"Then there is the less room for ours."
+
+"But there is ever so much room in the garret."
+
+"I almost wish we were going to live by ourselves in a little house,
+like some we saw yesterday."
+
+"Who would cook the dinner and wash the dishes?"
+
+"Oh, I could;" laughing.
+
+"Only us two? It would be lonesome."
+
+"We are not likely to."
+
+"Don't go straight home. Let us find the market again. I didn't half see
+it last night."
+
+"It wasn't night exactly. Yes--we must learn to find our way about, for
+we cannot stay in all the time. This is Essex Street. Let us turn here."
+
+The market was in its glory this morning. The stalls were ornamented
+with branches of evergreens, the floors sifted over with sawdust. There
+were vegetables and meats, but no great variety. There was no sunny
+south, no swift train to send in delicious luxuries. The cold storage of
+that day was being buried in pits and being brought out to light as
+occasion required.
+
+There were other stalls, with various household stores. Iron-holders,
+tin kettles, whiskbrooms, pins (which were quite a luxury), crockery
+ware even. Wagons had come in from country places and customers were
+thronging about them.
+
+The people interested Miss Winn, and the chaffering, the beating down in
+prices, was quite amusing. Here a woman was measuring some cotton goods
+from her chin to the ends of her fingers; here sat a cobbler doing odd
+jobs while some one waited. Altogether it was very entertaining, and it
+was dinner-time when they reached home.
+
+"Mr. Leverett has gone to Boston," announced Miss Leverett. "We must
+have our dinner without him."
+
+"Yes, he was down on the ship," said Miss Winn. "Do you often go to
+Boston?"
+
+"I am much too busy to be gadding about," returned Elizabeth sharply;
+"though we have connections there, and I once spent several years in the
+city."
+
+"I don't suppose it is at all like London. Eastern cities are so
+different--and dirty," she added.
+
+"Boston is very nice, quite a superior place, but we do not consider it
+much above Salem," Miss Elizabeth said, with an air. "We have nearly all
+of the East India trade. To be sure, there is Harvard at Cambridge, and
+that calls students and professors. Cousin Chilian is a graduate. He
+could have been an accepted professor if he had chosen."
+
+Then the conversation languished. They were hardly through dinner when
+the next relay of goods arrived.
+
+"Cynthia's desk must go upstairs, I suppose. Her father had it made for
+her birthday. Will Silas unpack again? There is a small cabinet of
+teakwood that is beautifully carved. If you could find room in the
+parlor for that. There were many other fine pieces that will no doubt be
+sold, and it seems a great pity."
+
+Elizabeth acquiesced rather frigidly, adding, "It is fortunate the house
+is large, but one seems to accumulate a good deal through generations."
+
+Cynthia went up in the garret with Miss Winn and was full of interest
+over the old Leverett treasures. Here was the cradle in which Leverett
+babies had been rocked, an old bit of mahogany nearly black with age.
+
+"How funny!" cried Cynthia, springing into it, and making a clatter on
+the floor.
+
+"Don't, dear! Miss Elizabeth may not like it," said Miss Winn.
+
+"As if I should hurt it!" indignantly.
+
+"It is not ours."
+
+"But we sit on their chairs, and sleep in their beds, and eat at their
+table," returned the child. "Do you suppose they do not want us?"
+
+"Our coming is Mr. Leverett's affair, and he is your guardian, so
+whatever home he provides is right."
+
+"Well, we can have a home of our own when father comes?"
+
+"Oh, yes; when he comes."
+
+"Well, then I shall not mind;" decisively.
+
+Still she peered about among the old things. There were some iron
+fire-dogs, a much-tarnished frame, with a cracked glass that cut her
+face in a grotesque fashion, old dishes and kitchen furniture past
+using, or that had been supplanted by a newer and better kind.
+
+"Oh, dear! this is an undertaking!" declared Miss Winn, with a sigh. "I
+do not believe you will ever use half these things; there are stuffs
+enough to dress a queen."
+
+It was beginning to grow dusky before she was through, though the sky
+was overcast, and there would be no fine sunset. Indeed, the wind blew
+up stormily. Cynthia had been viewing the place from the windows in the
+four gables, though she had to stand on a box. There were South River
+and the Neck and the shipping--the men, hurrying to and fro, looking so
+much smaller that it puzzled Cynthia. And there was North River winding
+about, and over beyond the great ocean she had crossed. There was old
+St. Peter's Church, the new one was not built until long afterward, and
+smaller places of worship. There was the small beginning of things to be
+famous later on.
+
+The wind began to whistle about and it grew cool, so they were glad to
+go down to the cheerful sitting-room, where a fire was blazing on the
+hearth.
+
+"We shall have a storm to-night," said Miss Eunice, "our three days'
+storm that usually makes its appearance about this time. Didn't you
+'most perish upstairs? And what did you find to interest you?"
+
+Cynthia had brought a stool and sat close to Miss Eunice, leaning one
+arm on her knee.
+
+"Oh, so many queer things. You don't mind if I call them queer, do you?"
+
+"Oh, no; they _are_ queer. And when we are dead and gone some one will
+call ours queer, no doubt. But we haven't many. When father died we were
+on a farm just out of Marblehead. Things were mostly sold at a vendue,
+for the two boys were going in the army. That was back in '78. Mother
+and we two girls went to her mother's at Danvers. Elizabeth took up
+sewing, but there were hard times, for the war stretched out so long,
+and it did seem as if the Colonies would never gain their cause. But
+they did. Brother Linus was killed, and later on I had a dear friend
+lost at sea. Mother died, and we were sort of scattered about till we
+came here. Cousin Chilian was very good to us. So you see we haven't
+much to leave, but then we haven't any descendant;" and she gave a soft
+little laugh. "Elizabeth has mother's gold comb, set with amethysts, and
+a brooch, and I have the string of gold beads and some rings. A cousin
+in London sent them to grandmother."
+
+"Eunice, you might set the table," said Elizabeth, rather sharply. "I'm
+making some fritters. They will taste good this cold night."
+
+"Couldn't I help?" asked Rachel.
+
+"Oh, you must be tired enough without doing any more. It's a good thing
+you have all your belongings housed. The garret doesn't leak."
+
+"Yes, I am thankful. I really did not think there was so much."
+
+There was a savory fragrance in the sitting-room. Chilian came in,
+looking weary with his long ride.
+
+"It is almost wintry cold," he said, holding his hands to the fire.
+"Have you had a nice day, little girl?"
+
+"Yes;" glancing up with a smile.
+
+They did justice to Bessy's nice supper. Chilian had seen Cousin Giles,
+who sent remembrances to them all, and was coming up some day to see
+Letty Orne's little girl. Chilian found there was a good deal of
+business to do. For a while his days of leisure and ease would be over.
+
+Then he brought out a Boston paper and read them some of the news. Miss
+Eunice went on with her fringe. Elizabeth was knitting a sock for
+Chilian out of fine linen yarn, spun by herself, and she put pretty
+open-work stitches all up the instep. For imported articles were still
+dear, and there was a pride in the women to do all for themselves that
+they could. Cynthia leaned her head on Rachel's lap and went asleep.
+
+"Do hear that rain! The storm has begun in good earnest."
+
+It was rushing like a tramp of soldiers, flinging great sheets against
+the closed shutters, and the wind roared in the chimney like some
+prisoned spirit.
+
+"Wake up, Cynthia, and say good-night."
+
+Elizabeth watched the child. Her theory was that children should be put
+to bed early and not allowed to lie around on any one's lap. There was
+always a tussle of wills when you roused them. She drew herself up with
+a kind of severe mental bracing and awaited the result, glad Chilian was
+there.
+
+Rachel toyed with the hair, patted the soft flushed cheek, and took the
+hands in hers.
+
+"Cynthia," she said gently, "Cynthia, dear, wake up."
+
+The child roused, opened her eyes. "I'm so tired," she murmured. "Will
+we never be done crossing the wide, wide ocean? And where is Salem?"
+
+"We are there, dear, safe and housed from the storm. You have been
+asleep on my knee. Come to bed now. Say good-night."
+
+She stood the little girl up on her feet and put one arm around her.
+
+It was against Elizabeth Leverett's theories that any child should go
+off peaceably, with no snarling protest. Chilian raised his book a
+little, hoping in the depths of his soul there would be no scene.
+
+"Say good-night."
+
+No child of Puritan training, with the fear of the rod before her eyes,
+could have done better. She said good-night in a very sleepy tone, and
+slipped her arm about Rachel's waist as they left the room together.
+
+No one made any comment at first. Then Eunice said, in what she made a
+casual tone:
+
+"She seems a very tractable child."
+
+"You can't tell by one instance. Children of that age are always
+self-willed. And allowing a child to lie around one's lap, when she
+should have said her prayers and gone to bed at the proper hour, is a
+most reprehensible habit. And I don't suppose she ever says a prayer."
+
+Eunice thought of the daily prayers for her father's safe journey. Would
+that be set down as a sort of idolatry?
+
+Chilian picked up his papers; he had grown fastidious, and rarely left
+his belongings about to annoy Elizabeth. Eunice rolled up her work and
+dropped it in the bag that hung on the post of her chair, straightened
+up a few things, stood the logs in the corner and put up the wire
+fender, so there should be no danger of fire; while Elizabeth set all
+things straight in the kitchen.
+
+Cynthia meanwhile was undressed and mounted the steps to the high bed.
+Then she flung her arms about Rachel's neck.
+
+"Oh, come and sleep in my bed to-night!" she cried pleadingly. "It's so
+big and lonesome, that I am afraid. I wish it was like your little bed.
+They were so cunning on the ship. I don't like this one, where you have
+to go upstairs to get in it. Oh, do come!"
+
+And Elizabeth Leverett would have been shocked if she could have seen
+the child cuddled up in her attendant's arms. Theoretically, she
+believed Holy Writ--"He hath made of one blood all nations." Practically
+she made many exceptions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MAKING FRIENDS WITH THE LITTLE GIRL
+
+
+The northeast storm was terrific. The wind lashed the ocean until it
+writhed and groaned and sent great billows up on the land. The trees
+bent to the fierce blasts; many storms had toughened them and perhaps
+taught them the wisdom of yielding, since it must be break or bend.
+Silas sat in the barn mending tools and harness and clearing up
+generally; Elizabeth spent most of the first day clearing up the garret
+again, and looking with a grudging eye on the new accession of boxes,
+and sniffing up the queer smell disdainfully.
+
+"One can't have the windows open," she ruminated, "and the smell must go
+through the house. I don't believe it will ever get out."
+
+More than one family in Salem had stores from the Orient. Many of them
+liked the fragrance of sandalwood and strange perfumes. "God's fresh air
+was good enough for her," said Elizabeth.
+
+Eunice had finished her fringe and brought out some patchwork in the
+afternoon--a curious pattern, called basket-work. The basket was made of
+green chintz, with a small yellow figure here and there. It had a handle
+from side to side, neatly hemmed on a white half square. The upper edge
+of the basket was cut in points and between each one was a bit of color
+to represent or suggest a possible bud of some kind. One had pink,
+different shades of red, and a bright yellow. She had seven blocks
+finished and they were in the bottom of the box. Eunice took them out
+for the little girl, who spread them on the floor.
+
+No one was thinking at that day of the mills that would dot New England,
+where cotton cloths, calicoes, and cambrics would be turned out by the
+bale. These things had to be imported and were costly. One could dye
+plain colors that were used for frocks and gowns, and some of the hand
+looms wove ginghams that were dyed in the thread beforehand.
+
+"It will take forty-two blocks," said Miss Eunice. "Six one way, seven
+the other."
+
+"Then what are you going to do with it?" asked the child eagerly.
+
+"Why, quilt it. Put some cotton between this and the lining, and sew
+them together with fine stitches."
+
+"And then----"
+
+"Why"--Eunice wondered herself. There were chests of them piled away in
+the garret--Chilian's mother's, and those they had made to fill in the
+moments when housework was finished. She had a quiet sense of humor, and
+she smiled. What were they laying up these treasures for? Neither of
+them would be married, most of their relatives were well provided for.
+
+"Well, some one may like to have them;" after a pause. "You must learn
+to sew."
+
+"Patchwork?"
+
+It was absurd to pile up any more.
+
+"You see," said the child, "no one needed them over there;" inclining
+her head to the East. "You have a little bed and a pallet, and it is
+warm, so you do not need quilts. And the poor people and the servants
+have a mat they spread down anywhere and a blanket, but you see, they
+sleep with their clothes on."
+
+Eunice looked rather horrified.
+
+"But they change them! They would--why, there would be soil and vermin."
+
+"They go to the river and bathe and wash them out. They sling them on
+the stones in a queer way. But some of them are very dirty and ragged.
+They are not like the English and us, and don't wear many clothes.
+Sometimes they are wrapped up in a white sheet."
+
+"It is a very queer country. They are not civilized, or Christianized. I
+don't know what will become of them in the end."
+
+"It's their country and no one knows how old it is. China is the oldest
+country in the world."
+
+"But, my dear, there was the garden of Eden when God first created the
+world. Nothing could be older than that, you know. Two thousand years to
+the flood, and two thousand years to the coming of Christ, and some
+people think the world will end in another two thousand years."
+
+"I don't see any sense in burning it up, when there are so many lovely
+things in it;" and Cynthia's eyes took on a deep, inquiring expression.
+"That was what the chaplain used to say. Father thought it would go on
+and on, getting wiser and greater, and the people learning to be better
+and making wonderful things."
+
+"My dear, what the Bible says _must_ be true. And it will be burned up.
+You have a Bible?"
+
+"The chaplain gave me a pretty prayer-book. It is upstairs."
+
+"We do not believe in prayer-books, dear." The tone was soft, yet
+decided. "We came over here, at least our forefathers did, that we might
+worship God according to the dictates of our conscience. We tried to
+leave the prayer-books and the bishops behind, but we couldn't quite.
+You must have a Bible and read a chapter every day. Why, I had read it
+through once before I was as old as you."
+
+Cynthia simply stared. Then, after a pause, she said:
+
+"Did you sew patchwork, too?"
+
+"When I was eight I had finished a quilt. And I learned to knit. I knit
+my own stockings; I always have. And I braided rags for a mat. Mother
+sewed it together."
+
+"And your clothes--who made those?"
+
+"Well--mother made some. But a woman used to come round fall and spring
+and make for the girls and boys, though father bought his best suit. He
+had one when he was married; it was his freedom suit as well----"
+
+"Why, was he a prisoner?" the child interrupted.
+
+"Oh, no;" smiling a little. "Boys had to be subject to their fathers
+until they were twenty-one. Then they had a suit of clothes all the way
+through and their time, which meant they were at liberty to work for any
+one and ask wages. He had been courting mother and they were married
+soon after, so it was his wedding suit. He had outgrown it before he
+died, so he had to get a new one. Mother sold that to a neighbor that it
+just fitted."
+
+"Tell me some more about them." Cynthia was fond of stories. And this
+was about real folks, not the fantastic legends she had heard so often.
+
+"Well--he and mother worked, she had been living with a family. Girls
+did in those days, and were like daughters of the house. Father went to
+work there. They were married in the spring and in the fall he took a
+place on shares; that is, he had half of everything, and they divided up
+the house. A year or so afterward it was for sale, and he bought it, and
+we were all born there, and there was no change until he died. That was
+a sad thing for us. He'd been buying some more land, and the place
+wasn't clear. Another man stood ready to buy it, and mother thought it
+best to sell. You see there was a good deal of trouble between us and
+England, who wanted to get all the money she could out of the Colonies,
+and wasn't willing to send troops to protect us from the Indians, and we
+had to sell our produce and things to her, and presently the Colonies
+wouldn't stand it any longer, and there was war. Some people were
+bitterly opposed to it, some favored it. Then we wouldn't take the tea
+she insisted on our buying, and there was the Stamp Act. And Salem
+really made the first armed resistance. You must go out some nice day to
+North Bridge. The British troops marched up from Marblehead to seize
+some arms they heard were stored here. General Gage sent them. But the
+people had word, for a Major Pedrick rode up to give the alarm, and they
+hid them in a secure place. Colonel Leslie headed the British troops to
+make the search. But the people of Salem turned out strong and met the
+colonel and declared that he was marching on private property, not on
+the King's highway, that the lane and the bridge were private property,
+where he had no right. You see, war had not been declared and the people
+had a right to defend their own. So they would not allow them to cross
+the river and make a search. But, finally, they agreed, if the draw over
+the river could be lowered and they allowed to march a few rods, they
+would withdraw. Of course, they saw nothing suspicious and came back,
+keeping their word. Otherwise, I suppose, that would have been the first
+battle of the war. We were not living here then, but Cousin Chilian's
+father lived in this very house."
+
+"And the arms were really there!" Cynthia drew a long breath.
+
+"Oh, yes! They were ships' cannon going to be mounted for protection.
+Some day Cousin Chilian may take you over to the bridge and tell you all
+about it. There was a romance about a girl said to be in love with a
+British officer, but you are too young for such stories."
+
+If she had not been, the entrance of Elizabeth and Miss Winn would have
+checked the garrulity of Eunice. Cynthia had been laying down the small
+diamond-shaped pieces, making a block.
+
+"Why do you let the child muddle over those pieces, Eunice? The carpet
+may not be clean," said Elizabeth sharply.
+
+"And it is getting dark, so we had better put them all up. Mercy! how it
+still rains. Why, it seems as if there would be another flood."
+
+"That can never happen. We have the promise."
+
+"That the whole world will not be destroyed. But parts of it may suffer.
+You and Cynthia are fortunate not to be in it;" and Eunice raised her
+eyes to them, with a certain thankfulness.
+
+It had not stopped yet in the morning, but the wind was veering to the
+south, the air was not so cold and the rain much gentler. Cynthia
+wandered about like an unquiet spirit. It was cold up in their room.
+Chilian had proposed a fire, but Elizabeth had negatived it sharply.
+
+"There ought to be room enough in the dining-room and keeping-room for
+two extra people," she said decidedly.
+
+He felt sorry for the little girl with her downcast face, as he met her
+on the landing.
+
+"Don't you want to come and visit me?" he asked, in an inviting tone.
+
+"Oh, yes!" and the grave little face lightened.
+
+The blaze was brighter here than downstairs, she felt quite sure. And
+the room had a more cheerful look. The table was spread with books and
+papers, and, oh, the books that were on the shelves! The curious things
+above them suggested India. There really was the triple-faced god she
+had seen so often, carved in ivory, and another carving of a temple. She
+walked slowly round and inspected them. Then she paused at a window.
+
+"How much it rains!" she began. "I don't see how so much rain can be
+made. When is it going to stop?"
+
+"I think it will hold up this afternoon and be clear to-morrow, clear
+and sunny."
+
+"I like sunshine best. And little rains. This has been so long."
+
+"And we haven't much to amuse a child. When it clears up we must find
+some little folks. Does it seem very strange to you?"
+
+"I haven't lived with big women much, except Rachel. And the houses are
+so different. You get things about, and the servants pick them up. There
+are so many servants. Sometimes there are white children, but not many.
+Their mothers take them back to England. Or they die."
+
+She uttered the last sadly, and her long lashes drooped.
+
+He wondered a little how she had stood the climate. She looked more like
+a foreigner than a native of Salem town.
+
+"What did you do there?" He hardly knew how to talk to a little girl.
+
+"Oh, a great many things. I went to ride in a curious sort of cart--the
+natives pulled it. Then the children came and played in the court. They
+threw up balls and caught them, ever so many, and they played curious
+games on the stones, and acrobatic feats, and sung, and danced, and
+acted stories of funny things. Then father read to me, and told me about
+Salem when he was a little boy. You can't really think the grown-up
+people were little, like you."
+
+"And that one day you will be big like them."
+
+She pushed up her sleeve. They were large and made just big enough for
+her hand at the wrist, not at all like the straight, small sleeves of
+the Puritan children. After surveying it a moment, she said gravely:
+
+"I can't understand _how_ you grow. You must be pushed out all the time
+by something inside."
+
+"You have just hit it;" and he smiled approvingly. "It is the forces
+inside. There is a curious factory inside of us that keeps working, day
+and night, that supplies the blood, the warmth, the strength, and is
+always pushing out; it even enlarges the bones until one is grown and
+finished, as one may say. And the food you eat, the air you breathe, are
+the supplies."
+
+"But you go on eating and breathing. Why don't you go on growing?"
+
+There was a curious little knot in her forehead where the lines crossed,
+and she raised her eyes questioningly to him. What wonderful eyes they
+were!
+
+"I suppose it is partly this: You employ your mind and your body and
+they need more nourishment. Then--well, I think it is the restraining
+law of nature, else we should all be giants. In very hot countries and
+very cold countries they do not grow so large."
+
+He could not go into the intricacies of physiology, as he did with some
+of the students.
+
+"You did not go to school?"
+
+"Oh, no!" She laughed softly. "The native schools were funny. They sat
+on mats and did not have any books, but repeated after the teacher. And,
+sometimes, he beat them dreadfully. There were some English people had a
+school, but it was to teach the language to the natives. And then Mr.
+Cathcart came to stay with father. He had been the chaplain somewhere
+and wasn't well, so they gave him a--a----"
+
+"Furlough?" suggested Chilian.
+
+"Yes; father sent him out in one of the boats. He began to teach me some
+things. I could read, you know. And I could talk Hindostani some--with
+the children. Then I learned to spell and pronounce the words better. He
+had a few books of verses that were beautiful. I learned some of them by
+heart. And Latin."
+
+"Latin!" in surprise.
+
+"He had some books and a Testament. It was grand in the sound, and I
+liked it. There were many things, cases and such, that I couldn't get
+quite straight, but after a little I could read, and then make it over
+into English."
+
+When he was eight he was reading Latin and beginning French. Some of the
+Boston women he knew were very good French scholars, though education
+was not looked upon as a necessity for women. It seemed odd to him--this
+little girl in Calcutta learning Latin.
+
+"Let us see how far you have gone." Teaching never irked him when he
+once set about it.
+
+He hunted up a simple Latin primer.
+
+"Come around this side;" and he drew her nearer to him. There had been
+no little girls to train and teach, and for a moment he felt
+embarrassed. But she took it as a matter of course, and he could see
+she was all interest.
+
+It had been, as he supposed, rather desultory teaching. But she took the
+corrections and explanations with a sweetness that was quite enchanting.
+And she could translate quite well, in an idiomatic fashion. Really,
+with the right kind of training she would make a good scholar.
+
+"Oh, you must be tired of standing," he said presently. "How thoughtless
+of me. I have no little chairs, so I must hunt one up, but this will
+have to do now. That will be more comfortable. Now we can go on."
+
+She laughed at her own little blunders in a cheerful fashion, and made
+haste to correct them. And then he found that she knew several of the
+old Latin hymns by heart, as they had been favorites of the English
+clergyman.
+
+They were interrupted by a light tap at the door. He said "Come"; and
+turned his head.
+
+It was Miss Winn.
+
+"Pardon me. We couldn't imagine where Cynthia was. Hasn't she been an
+annoyance?"
+
+"Oh, no; we have had a very nice time."
+
+"But--had you not better come downstairs. Miss Eunice is sewing her
+pretty patchwork again."
+
+"Oh, let me stay," she pleaded. "Do I bother you?"
+
+It crossed his mind just then that in the years to come more than one
+man would yield to the sweet persuasiveness of those eyes.
+
+"Yes, let her stay. She is no trouble. Indeed, we are studying."
+
+Miss Winn was glad of his indorsement. Miss Elizabeth had been
+"worrying" for the last ten minutes. She had crept softly up to the
+garret, quite sure she should find the child in mischief. Then she had
+glanced into the "best chamber," but there was no sign of her there.
+
+"Very well," replied Miss Winn.
+
+Cynthia drew a long breath presently.
+
+"Oh, you are tired!" he exclaimed. "Run over to the window and tell me
+how the sky looks. I think it doesn't rain now."
+
+She slipped down, stood still for a moment, then turned and clapped her
+hands, laughing deliciously.
+
+"Oh, there is blue sky, and a great yellow streak. The clouds are trying
+to hide the sun, but they can't. Oh, see, see!"
+
+She danced up and down the room like a fairy in the long ray of sunshine
+that illumined the apartment.
+
+"Oh, are you not glad!" She turned such a joyous face to him that he
+smiled and came over to the window that nearly faced the west.
+
+"Better than the Latin?"
+
+"Well--I like both;" archly.
+
+He raised the window. A warm breath of delightful air rushed in, making
+the room with the fire seem chilly by contrast. He drew in long
+reviving breaths. Spring had truly come. To-morrow the swelling buds
+would burst.
+
+"We must have a little Latin every day. And occasionally a walk in the
+sunshine. Twice a week I go down to Boston, but the other days will be
+ours."
+
+"I like your room," she said frankly. "But what sights of books! Do you
+read them all?"
+
+"Not very often. I do not believe I have read them all through. But I
+need them for reference, and some I like very much."
+
+He wanted to add, "And some were a gift from your dear father," but he
+could not disturb her happy mood.
+
+"Suppose we go down on the porch. It is too wet to walk anywhere."
+
+"Oh, yes;" delightedly. "And to-morrow I will go down to the vessel
+again and see Captain Corwin. I do not want it to rain any more for
+weeks and weeks."
+
+"No, for days and days. Weeks would dry us all up, and we would have no
+lovely spring flowers."
+
+"And a famine maybe. Do the very poor people sometimes starve?"
+
+"I do not think we have any very poor people, as they do in India. We
+are not overcrowded yet."
+
+The rain had beaten the paths and the street hard, and it looked as if
+it had been swept clean. In spite of it all there were cheering
+evidences of spring.
+
+"There are some children in that house," she exclaimed, nodding her
+head.
+
+"Yes, the Uphams. There are two girls and two boys, the oldest and the
+youngest, who isn't much more than a baby. Bentley Upham must be about
+twelve. Polly is next, but she is a head taller than you. Then there's
+Betty. I am glad there will be some little girls for you to play with."
+
+She looked eager and interested.
+
+"Will you come in to supper? Chilian, you ought to know better than to
+be standing in this damp air. And that child with nothing around her!"
+
+"The air is reviving, after having been housed for two days." But he
+turned and went in, leading the child by the hand.
+
+The long, bleak New England coast winter was over, though it had
+lingered as if loath to go. Springs were seldom early, no one expected
+that. But this one came on with a rush. The willows donned their silver
+catkins and then threw them off for baby leaves, the lilac buds showed
+purple, the elms and maples came out in bloom, and the soft ones drew
+crowds of half-famished bees to their sweet tassels. The grass was
+vividly green, iridescent in the morning sun, with the dew still upon
+it. Snowdrop, crocus, hepatica, and coltsfoot, wild honeysuckle, were
+all about, the forsythia flared out her saucy yellow, the fruit buds
+swelled. Parties were out in the woods hunting trailing arbutus that has
+been called the darling of northern skies, that lies hidden in its nest
+of green leaves, silent, with no wind tossing it to and fro, but
+betrayed by its sweetness.
+
+There were other signs of spring at Salem. The whole town seemed to
+burst out in house-cleaning. Parlor shutters were thrown open and
+windows washed. Carpets were beaten, blankets hung out to air, those
+that had been in real use washed. Women were out in gardens with
+sunbonnets and gloves, a coat of tan not being held in much esteem, and
+snipped at roses and hardy plants. Men were spading and planting the
+vegetable gardens, painting or white-washing fences. All was stir and
+bustle, and tired folk excused themselves if they nodded in church on
+Sunday.
+
+Cynthia made pilgrimages to the _Flying Star_ that had been her home for
+so long. The storm had wrought great havoc with some of the shipping,
+and big boys were out gathering driftwood. The _Gazette_ had some
+melancholy news of "lost at sea." But Captain Corwin thought he had
+weathered worse storms.
+
+"She is picking up mightily," he said to Miss Winn, nodding toward
+Cynthia. "Shouldn't be surprised if she favored her mother, after all.
+Only them eyes ain't neither Orne nor Leverett. Don't let her grieve too
+much when the bad news comes."
+
+Eunice and Chilian had taken her to call on the Uphams. And though she
+was quite familiar at home, here she shrank into painful shyness and
+would not leave Eunice's sheltering figure.
+
+"Children get soonest acquainted by themselves," declared Mrs. Upham. "I
+suppose you will send her to school. If she's not very forward, Dame
+Wilby's is best. She and Betty can go together. Why, she isn't as tall
+as Betty--and nine, you said? Granny was talking the other day about the
+time she was born. She's a real little Salem girl after all, though
+she's got a foreign skin, and what odd-colored hair! We've started Polly
+to Miss Betts. I want her to learn sewing and needlework, and she's too
+big now to company with such children. Why, I was almost a woman at
+twelve, and could spin and knit with the best of them. Miss Eunice, I
+wish you'd teach her that pretty openwork stitch you do so handy.
+Imported stockings cost so much. They say there's women in Boston doing
+the fancy ones for customers. But I tell Polly if she wants any she must
+do them herself."
+
+Mrs. Upham had a tolerably pleasant voice. She always talked in
+monologues. Betty edged around presently and would have taken Cynthia's
+hand, but the child laid it in Miss Eunice's lap, and looked
+distrustful.
+
+Chilian was as glad as she when the call ended. He did not seek the
+society of women often enough to feel at home with them, though he was
+kindly polite when he did meet them.
+
+"Did you ask about the school?" was the inquiry of Elizabeth that
+evening.
+
+"Yes; she thinks Dame Wilby's the best for small children. And Cynthia
+knows so little that is of real importance, though she reads pretty
+well," said Eunice.
+
+"Yes, she must get started. I shall be glad when the _Flying Star_ is
+off and she isn't running down there with the men. I don't see what's
+got into Chilian to think of teaching her Latin. It had enough sight
+better be the multiplication table."
+
+So she proposed the school to Chilian. She had a queer feeling about his
+fancy for the child. She would have scouted the idea of jealousy, but
+she would have had much the same feeling if he had "begun to pay
+attention" to some woman. The other matters had reached a passable
+settlement. The "best chamber" was tidily kept, the little girl well
+looked after to see that she troubled no one. Miss Winn kept her clothes
+in order, but they had a decidedly foreign look, and of materials no one
+would think of buying for a child. But the goods were here, and might as
+well be used.
+
+Miss Winn had made a few alterations in the room--softened the aspect of
+it. She longed to take out the big carved bedstead, but she knew that
+would never do. She made herself useful in many unobtrusive ways,
+gardened a little, was neighborly yet reserved.
+
+"I don't know what we would do if she were a gossip," Elizabeth
+commented.
+
+She broached the subject of the school to Chilian.
+
+"Why, yes," he answered reluctantly. "I suppose she ought to go. She's
+curiously shy with other children."
+
+"She talks enough about that Nalla, as if they had been like sisters."
+
+"You can notice that she always preserves the distinction, though."
+
+"There's no use bothering with that Latin, Chilian. Next thing it will
+be French. And she won't know enough figuring to count change. Girls
+don't need that kind of education."
+
+"But some of them have to be Presidents' wives. And some of them wives
+to men who have to go abroad. French seems to be quite general among
+cultivated people."
+
+"It's hardly likely she'll go abroad. And she needs to be like other
+people. I don't see what you find so entertaining about her. And you
+couldn't bear children in your room!"
+
+"She isn't any annoyance. Then she is so deft, so dainty. She touches
+books with the lightest of fingers. She will sit and look at pictures,
+and it quite surprises me how much she knows about geography."
+
+"And nothing much about her native country. She can't tell the
+difference between Pilgrims and Puritans. And she didn't know why we
+came over here, and why it was not the same God in England, and if all
+the gods in India were idols. Chilian, you shouldn't encourage her
+irreverence. It looks pert in a child."
+
+"She will get over these ways as she grows older and mingles with other
+children."
+
+"That is what I am coming to. She ought to begin at once. Betty Upham
+goes to Dame Wilby. Her mother considers it excellent for small
+children. She could go with Betty and there would be no fear of her
+trailing off no one knows where."
+
+Of course, she ought to go to school. He could manage a big boy on the
+verge of manhood very well. But this woman-child puzzled him. She seemed
+very tractable, obedient in a certain sense, yet in the end she seemed
+to get, or to take, her own way. Suppressing one train of action opened
+another. She had a sweet way of yielding, but a strong way of holding
+on. A little thing made her happy, yet in her deepest happiness there
+was much gravity. His theories were that certain qualities brought to
+pass certain results. He forgot that there were no such things as pure
+temperaments, and that environments made second nature different from
+what the first might have been. The child puzzled him by her
+contrariety, yet she was not a troublesome child.
+
+"Well;" reluctantly.
+
+"I'll see the Dame. And we will start her on Monday."
+
+He nodded.
+
+Elizabeth had another point to gain. She looked over her trunk of
+pieces. Here were several yards of brown and white gingham, quite enough
+for a frock without any furbelows. With the roll in her hand she tapped
+at the partly open door. Rachel had laid out on the bed several white
+frocks, plain enough even for Salem tastes.
+
+"Cynthia's going to school on Monday," she announced. "And I thought
+this would make her a good school frock. It won't be dirtysome. You see
+children here _do_ dress differently. You'll get into the ways."
+
+Rachel looked at the gingham. "I shouldn't like it for her," she said
+quietly. "Her father always wanted to see her in white. That is new
+every time it is washed. These things fade and then look so wretched.
+Beside she will only outgrow these frocks."
+
+"Children here keep their white frocks for Sundays," was the decisive
+reply.
+
+"She may as well wear these out. They were made last summer. She has not
+grown much meanwhile. I should like to keep her in the way her father
+desired."
+
+"Then she must have a long-sleeved apron to cover her up. This will make
+two. For those white things make an endless sight of washing."
+
+"I have been considering that," said Rachel Winn quietly. "I wear white
+a good deal myself. I noticed a small house on Front Street where there
+were nearly always clothes on the lines, and I stopped in to inquire. I
+felt it was too much laundry-work for your woman through the summer.
+This Mrs. Pratt is very reasonable and does her work nicely. So I have
+made arrangements with her. Captain Leverett made a generous allowance
+for incidental expenses."
+
+What Elizabeth termed Miss Winn's "independence" grated sorely upon her
+ideas of what was owing to the head of the house, which was herself. It
+was always done so quietly and pleasantly one could hardly take umbrage.
+Cynthia was not exactly a child of the house. She was in no wise
+dependent on her newly found relatives. Chilian had made that understood
+in the beginning, when he had chosen the best chamber for them.
+
+"You don't need to take boarders," she had replied tartly.
+
+"I don't know as we are to call it that. I am the child's guardian and
+answerable for her comfort and her welfare. The perfect trust confided
+in me has touched me inexpressibly. I didn't know that Anthony Leverett
+held me in such high esteem. And if I choose to put this money by until
+she is grown--it will make such a little difference in our living----"
+
+"Chilian Leverett, you are justly entitled to it," she interrupted with
+sharp decision. "He's right enough in making a fair provision for
+them--no doubt he has plenty. But I don't quite like the boarder
+business, for all that."
+
+"We must get some one to help you with the work."
+
+"I don't want any more help than I have. Land sakes! Eunice and I have
+plenty of leisure on our hands. I wouldn't have a servant around wasting
+things, if she paid me wages."
+
+They had gone on very smoothly. Eunice had found her way to the child's
+heart. But then Eunice had lived with her dream children that might have
+been like Charles Lamb's "Children of Alice." Elizabeth might have
+married twice in her life, but there was no love in either case, rather
+a secret mortification that such incapables should dare to raise their
+thoughts to her. But she had some strenuous ideas on the rearing of
+children, quite of the older sort. Life was softening somewhat, even for
+childhood, but she did not approve of it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+GOING TO SCHOOL
+
+
+Elizabeth Leverett interviewed Dame Wilby beforehand. The woman came
+half a day on Monday to wash and she hardly knew how to spend half an
+hour, but when she found Miss Winn was going, she loftily relegated the
+whole business to her.
+
+Dame Wilby lived in an old rambling house, already an eyesore to the
+finer houses in Lafayette Street, but the Dame was obstinate and would
+not sell. "It was going to last her time out. She was born here when it
+was only a lane, and she meant to be buried from here." Once it had been
+quite a flourishing school; but newer methods had begun to supersede it.
+It was handy for the small children about the neighborhood, it took them
+over the troublesome times, it gave their mothers a rest, and kept them
+out of mischief. And the old dames were thorough, as far as they went.
+Indeed, some of the mothers had never gone any farther. They could cast
+up accounts, they could weigh and measure, for they had learned all the
+tables. They could spell and read clearly, they knew all the common arts
+of life, and how to keep on learning out of the greater than printed
+books--experience.
+
+Dame Wilby might have been eighty. No one remembered her being young.
+Her husband was lost at sea and she opened the school, worked in her
+garden, saved until she had cleared her small old home, and now was
+laying up a trifle every year. She was tall and somewhat bent in the
+shoulders, very much wrinkled, with clear, piercing light blue eyes and
+snowy hair. She always wore a cap and only a little line of it showed at
+the edge of her high forehead. Her frocks were made in the plainest
+style, skirts straight and narrow, and she always wore a little shoulder
+shawl, pinned across the bosom--white in the summer, home-dyed blue in
+the winter.
+
+Some children were playing tag in the unoccupied lot next door. The
+schoolroom door opened at the side. There were two rows of desks, with
+benches for the older children, two more with no desks for the A B C and
+spelling classes. The rest they learned in concert, orally. The dame had
+a table covered with a gray woollen cloth, some books, an inkstand, a
+holder for pens and pencils, and the never-failing switch.
+
+"Yes," she answered to Miss Winn's explanation. "Miss Leverett was
+telling about her. I was teaching school here when she was born, and
+then the captain took her away to the Ingies again." Most folks
+pronounced it that way. "Rather meachin' little thing--I s'pose it was
+the climate over there. They say it turns the skin yellow. Let's see how
+you read, sissy?"
+
+She read several verses out of the New Testament quite to the dame's
+satisfaction. Then about spelling. The second word, in two syllables,
+floored her. Had she ciphered? No. Did she know her tables? No. The
+capital of the state? That she could answer. When the war broke out?
+When peace was declared?
+
+"I'll ask Cousin Leverett," she answered, in nowise abashed by her
+ignorance. "He tells me a great many things."
+
+"You must study it out of books. I s'pose she's going to live here?
+She's not going back to the Ingies? I heard the captain was coming
+home."
+
+"He is settling up his affairs," was the quiet answer.
+
+Dame Wilby looked the child all over.
+
+"You'll sit on that bench," she said. Then she rang the bell and the
+children trooped in, staring at her. The little boys--four of them--were
+on the seat back of her, on her seat she made the fifth. Betty Upham was
+in the desk contingent.
+
+They repeated the Lord's prayer in concert. Then lessons were given out.
+The larger girls read.
+
+"You can come and read with this class;" nodding to Cynthia.
+
+She was not a regularly bashful child, but she flushed as the children
+stared at her. They sometimes wore their Sunday white frock one or two
+days at school. Cynthia was so used to her clothes, cared so little
+about them that they were rarely in her mind. But this universal
+attention annoyed her.
+
+"'Tend to your books, children."
+
+Cynthia acquitted herself finely, rather too much so, the dame thought.
+She would talk to her about it. A girl didn't want to read as if she was
+a minister preaching a sermon.
+
+Then she was given a very much "dog's-eared" spelling-book to study down
+a column. Another class read some easy lesson; a story about a dog that
+interested her so much that she forgot to study. While the older
+children were doing sums one little boy after another came up to the
+desk and spelled from a book. One's attention wandered and the dame hit
+him a sharp rap. Tables followed, eight and nine times; dry measure, and
+then questions were asked singly. Some few missed. Cynthia followed the
+spelling where they went up and down. Then the larger ones were
+dismissed for recess.
+
+"Cynthy Leverett, come up here and see how many words you can spell. You
+ought to be ashamed, a big girl like you staying behind in next to the
+baby class."
+
+Cynthia's face was scarlet. Alas! She had been so interested watching
+and listening she had not studied at all. But the words were rather easy
+and she did know all but two.
+
+"Now you take the next line and those two over again. See if you can't
+get them all learned by noon."
+
+The next little girl, who could not have been more than six, missed a
+number. She had a queer drawl in her voice.
+
+"What did I tell you, Jane Mason? And you have missed more than two.
+Hold out your hand!"
+
+The switch came down on the poor little hand with an angry swish.
+Cynthia winched.
+
+"Now you go back and study. No going out to play for you this morning.
+Jane Mason, you're the biggest dunce in school."
+
+The two other girls did better. Then the bell rang and the girls came in
+with flushed and laughing faces.
+
+Cynthia studied her two words over until they ceased to have any
+meaning. At twelve they were all dismissed.
+
+"Isn't she a hateful old thing?" said Janie Mason, when they were
+outside of the door. "I wish I was big enough to strike back. I don't
+like school anyhow. Do you?"
+
+"I--I don't know. I have never been before."
+
+Several of the other girls swarmed around her with curious eyes.
+
+"What a pretty frock!" began Betty Upham. "I suppose it's your Sunday
+best, with all that work."
+
+"Betty said you were an Injun," said another. "I never saw an Injun who
+didn't have coarse, straight, black hair, and yours is lightish and
+curls. I'd so love to have curly hair."
+
+"I'm not the kind of Indians you have here," she returned indignantly.
+"I was born right here in Salem. I've lived in Calcutta and in China,
+and been to Batavia, and ever so many places."
+
+"Then you ain't an Injun at all! Betty, how could you?"
+
+"Well, that's what some of them said. Maybe your mother was an Injun!"
+looking as if she had fixed the uncertain suspicion.
+
+"No, she wasn't. She lived here part of the time. She was born in
+Boston."
+
+They glanced at each other in a kind of upbraiding fashion.
+
+"And you had to be put with the little children! Aren't there any
+schools in that place you came from? It's a heathen country. Our
+minister prays for it. Don't you have any churches either? What do
+people do when they are grown up if they never go to school?"
+
+"Are you coming stiddy?"
+
+"Is Mr. Chilian Leverett your real relation?"
+
+"Oh, tell me--have you any other frock as pretty as this? My sister
+Hetty has a beautiful one, all lace and needlework. She's saving it to
+be married in."
+
+"Martha, I dare you to a race!"
+
+Two girls ran off as fast as they could. Betty Upham caught Cynthia's
+arm.
+
+"I didn't say you were a real Injun. Debby Strang always gets things
+mixed up. But it is something queer----"
+
+"East India;" in a tone of great dignity.
+
+"Where the ships are coming from all the time? Is it prettier than
+Salem?"
+
+"It's so different you can't tell. We do not have hardly any winter. And
+there are vines and flowers and temples to heathen gods, and the people
+_are_ yellow and brown."
+
+"Do you suppose you will ever grow clear white?"
+
+Cynthia had half a mind to be angry. Even Miss Elizabeth was fair, and
+Miss Eunice had such a soft, pretty skin.
+
+"There, that's your corner. You're coming this afternoon?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose so."
+
+Miss Elizabeth was all bustle and hurry. It was clouding up a little. It
+hadn't been a real fair day, and the hot sun had dried the clothes too
+quick. She liked them to bleach on the line, it was almost as good as
+the grass. And Miss Drake couldn't stay and iron, they had sickness over
+to the Appletons and she had to go there. Everything was out of gear.
+
+"I'd help with the ironing, if you would like," said Miss Winn.
+
+"Well, the ironing isn't so much;" rather ungraciously. "You see, there
+were four blankets. I never touch an iron to them, but shake them good
+and fold them, and let them lay one night, then hang them on the line in
+the garret. The bulk of it was large. And a good stiff breeze blows out
+wrinkles. The wind hasn't blown worth a Continental;" complainingly.
+
+"Did you like the school?" Miss Winn inquired in the hall.
+
+"No, I didn't. And I don't seem to know anything;" in a discouraged
+tone.
+
+"Oh, you will learn."
+
+It was warm in the afternoon. Two of the boys were decidedly bad and
+were punished. They positively roared. Cynthia spelled, and spelled, and
+studied--"One and one are two," "one and two are three," and after a
+while it dawned on her that it was just one more every time. Why, she
+had known that all the time, only it hadn't been put in a table.
+
+It grew very tiresome after a while. She asked if she couldn't have
+recess with the big girls, but was sharply refused. In truth the good
+dame grew very weary herself, and was glad when five o'clock came and
+she could go out in the garden and recruit her tired nerves.
+
+The stage was stopping at the door. Oh, how glad she was to see Cousin
+Leverett. He smiled down in the flushed face.
+
+"How did the school go?" he asked.
+
+She hung her head. "I don't like it. I have to be with the little class
+because I don't know tables, but I learned all the one times. That was
+easy enough when you came to see into it. But--nine and nine?"
+
+"Eighteen," he answered promptly.
+
+"And you answered it right offhand!" She gave a soft, cheerful laugh.
+"Oh, do you suppose I shall ever know so much?"
+
+"There was a time when I didn't know it."
+
+"Truly?" She looked incredulous.
+
+"Truly. And I had quite hard work remembering to spell correctly."
+
+"I studied two lines. This morning I missed two words, but this
+afternoon I knew them all. And I can't write on the slate. The pencil
+wabbles so, and then it gives an awful squeak that goes all over you.
+And I can't do sums. And there's all the tables to learn. And I don't
+like the teacher. I wish Miss Eunice could teach me. Or maybe Rachel
+might."
+
+"I might help you a little. But you read well?"
+
+"She said it was too--too"--she wrinkled up her forehead--"too affected,
+like a play-actor."
+
+"Nonsense!" he cried disapprovingly. "We will see about some other
+school presently. Would you like to take a walk with me? I'm tired of
+the long stage-ride."
+
+"Oh, so much!" She caught one hand in both of hers and gave a few skips
+of joy.
+
+"Let us go over to the river."
+
+Of course, he should have gone in and announced their resolve. But he
+was so used to considering only himself, and he realized that it must
+have been a tiresome day to her. They went over Lafayette Street, which
+was only a lane, and then turned up the stream.
+
+Oh, how sweet the air was with the odorous dampness and the smell of
+new growths, tree and grass. The sun, low in the west, slanted golden
+gleams through the tree branches which chased each other over the grassy
+spaces, as if they were quite alive and at merry-making. There were
+sedgy plants in bloom, jack-in-the-pulpit, and what might have been a
+lily, with a more euphonious name. Iridescent flies were skimming about,
+now and then a fish made a stir and dazzle. Squirrels ran up and down
+the trees and chattered, robins were singing joyously, the thrush with
+her soft, plaintive note. She glanced up now and then and caught his
+eye, and he felt she was happy. It was a delightful thing, after all, to
+render some one truly happy. Perhaps children were more easily
+satisfied, more responsive.
+
+"Oh," he said presently, "we must go back or we will lose our supper,
+and Cousin Elizabeth will scold."
+
+"I shouldn't think she would dare to scold you;" raising wondering eyes.
+
+"Why not?" He wondered what reason she would give.
+
+"Because you are a man."
+
+"She scolds Silas."
+
+"Oh, that is different."
+
+"How--different? We are both men. He is quite as tall as I."
+
+"But you see--well, he is something like a servant. She tells him what
+to do, and if he doesn't do it right she can find fault with it. But
+you are--well, the house is yours. You can do what pleases you."
+
+"Quite reasoned out, little one;" and he laughed with an approving
+sound.
+
+"It's curious that you scold people you like, and other people may do
+the same thing and--is it because you don't dare to? If it is wrong in
+the one place, why not in the other?"
+
+"Perhaps politeness restrains us."
+
+"I don't like people to scold. Miss Eunice never does."
+
+"Eunice has a sweet nature. Doesn't Miss Winn ever scold you?"
+
+"Well--I suppose I am bad and wilful sometimes, and then she has the
+right. But when you do things that do not matter----"
+
+Miss Winn was walking in the garden. Cynthia waved her hand, but walked
+leisurely forward.
+
+"I couldn't imagine what had become of you."
+
+"It was my fault," interposed Chilian. "I met her at the gate and asked
+her to go for a walk."
+
+"And with that soiled apron!"
+
+"That came off the slate. I hadn't any desk. It was hard to hold it on
+my knee."
+
+"You might have come in for a clean one. Run upstairs and change it."
+
+But she was destined to meet Cousin Elizabeth in the hall. The elder
+caught her arm roughly.
+
+"Where have you been gadding to, bad girl? Didn't you know you must
+come straight home from school? Here we have been worried half to death
+about you, and I'm tired as a dog, trotting 'round all day. You deserve
+a good whipping;" and she shook her. She would have enjoyed slapping her
+soundly. But Chilian entered at that instant.
+
+"She is going upstairs for a clean apron," he said. "I took her off for
+a walk."
+
+"She might have asked whether she could go or not," snapped Elizabeth.
+"She's the most lawless thing!"
+
+"It was my place. Don't blame the child!"
+
+"Well, supper's ready."
+
+She didn't have her apron on quite straight and her hair was a little
+frowsy. Elizabeth had proposed it should be cut short on the neck for
+the summer, but Miss Winn had objected.
+
+"Such a great mop! No child wears it!"
+
+Cynthia came in quietly and took her place. After her first cup of tea
+Elizabeth thawed a little, enough to announce that two of the Appleton
+children were ill, they thought with scarlet fever.
+
+Chilian expressed some sympathy.
+
+"And how was the school, Cynthia? We thought you might have been kept in
+for some of your good deeds, as children are so seldom bad."
+
+"I--I didn't like it," she answered simply.
+
+"Children can't have just what they like in this world," was Elizabeth's
+rejoinder.
+
+"Nor grown people either," was Chilian's softening comment. Then he
+changed the subject. He had seen Cousin Giles, who proposed to pay them
+a visit, coming on some Saturday.
+
+"Have you any lesson to learn?" he asked of Cynthia. "If so, bring your
+book and come to my room."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" Her face was radiant with delight.
+
+Where had she left her book? Dame Wilby had told her to take it home and
+study. Surely she had brought it--oh, yes! she had put it just inside
+the gate under the great clump of ribbon grass. If only Cousin
+Elizabeth's sharp eyes had not seen it. But there it was, safe enough.
+
+She was delighted to go to Cousin Chilian's room, though she never
+presumed. She seemed to have an innate sort of delicacy that he wondered
+at.
+
+The spelling was soon mastered. It was the rather unusual words that
+puzzled her. Then they attacked the tables and he practised her in
+making figures. Like most children left to themselves, she printed
+instead of writing.
+
+"Oh!" she cried with a wistful yet joyous emphasis, "I wish I could come
+to school to you. And I'd like to be the only scholar."
+
+"But you ought to be with little girls."
+
+"I don't like them very much."
+
+Then Miss Winn came for her. "You are very good to take so much
+trouble," she said.
+
+"Oh, I like you so much, so much!" she exclaimed with her sweet eyes as
+well as her lips.
+
+He recalled then the day on board the vessel, when she had besought in
+her impetuous fashion that he should kiss her. She had never offered the
+caress since. She was not an effusive child.
+
+Her position at school was rather anomalous. A younger woman might have
+managed differently. There was a new scholar that rather crowded them on
+the bench. And the boy back of her did some sly things that annoyed her.
+He gave her hair a twitch now and then. One day he dropped a little toad
+on her book, at which she screamed, though an instant after she was not
+at all afraid. Of course, he was whipped for that, and for once she did
+not feel sorry.
+
+"You're a great ninny to be afraid of a toad not bigger than a button,"
+he said scornfully. "I'll get you whipped some day to make up for it,
+see if I don't."
+
+Thursday was unfortunate and she was kept in for some rather saucy
+replies. When she returned they were in the sitting-room and had been
+discussing some household matters. She surveyed them with a courageous
+but indignant air.
+
+"I've quit," she exclaimed. "I'm not going there to school any more."
+
+She stood up very straight, her eyes flashing.
+
+"What!" ejaculated Cousin Elizabeth.
+
+"Why, I've quit! She wanted to make me say I was sorry and beg her
+pardon, and she threatened to keep me all night, but I knew some of you
+would come, at least Rachel."
+
+"And I suppose you were a saucy, naughty girl!"
+
+"What happened?" asked Chilian quietly.
+
+"Why, you see--I went up to her table with the figures I had been making
+on my slate. I'd done some of them over three times, for Tommy Marsh
+joggled my elbow. Then I went back to my seat. We're crowded now, and I
+went to sit down and sat on the floor. I do believe Sadie Green did it
+on purpose--moved so there wasn't room enough for me to sit. And Tom
+laughed, then all the children laughed, and Dame Wilby said, 'Get up,
+Cynthy Leverett,' and I said 'My name isn't Cynthy, if you please, and I
+haven't any seat to sit on if I do get up.' And then the children
+laughed again, and I don't quite know what did happen, but I was so
+angry. Then she said all the children should stay in for laughing. She
+called me to the desk and I went. The slate was broken and I laid it on
+the table. Then she said wasn't I sorry for being saucy, and I said I
+wasn't. It was bad enough to fall on the floor, for I might have hurt
+myself. Then she took up her switch, and I said: 'You strike me, if you
+dare!' Then she pushed me in a little closet place, and there I staid
+until after school was out. Then she said, 'Would I tell Miss Leverett
+to come over?' and I said Mr. Leverett was my guardian and I would tell
+him, but I wasn't coming to school any more, and that Tommy Marsh
+pinched me and pulled my hair, and called me wild Indian. And so--I've
+quit. You can't make me go again. I'll run away first and go on some of
+the boats."
+
+There was a blaze of scarlet on her cheeks and her eyes flashed fire,
+but she stood up straight and defiant, when another child might have
+broken down and cried. Chilian Leverett always remembered the picture
+she made--small, dark, and spirited.
+
+"No," he exclaimed, "you need not go back." Then he rose and took her
+hand that was cold and trembling. "You will not go back. Let us find
+Miss Winn----"
+
+"Chilian!" warned Elizabeth.
+
+He led Cynthia from the room, up the stairs. Miss Winn sat there sewing.
+She clasped her arms about him, he could fairly feel the throb in them.
+
+"Oh," she cried with a strange sort of sweetness. "I love you. You are
+so good to me, and I have told you just the truth."
+
+Then she buried her face on Miss Winn's bosom.
+
+Chilian went downstairs. He laughed, yet he was deeply touched by her
+audacity and bravery.
+
+"Elizabeth," he announced; "I will see Mrs. Wilby. Let the matter die
+out, do not refer to it. I did not think it quite the school for her. We
+will find something else."
+
+"Chilian, I must make one effort for you and her. Going on this way will
+be her ruin. I should insist upon her going back to school and
+apologizing to Mrs. Wilby. I wouldn't let a chit like that order what a
+household of grown people should do and make them bow down to her. You
+will be sorry for it in the end. You have had no experience with
+children, you have seen so few. And a man hasn't the judgment----"
+
+His usually serene temper was getting ruffled, and with such characters
+the end is often obstinacy.
+
+"If she is to make a disturbance here, become a bone of contention with
+us, I will send her away. Cousin Giles is taking a great interest in
+her. There are good boarding-schools in Boston, or she and Miss Winn
+could have a home together under his supervision. There is enough to
+provide for them."
+
+"And you would turn her over to that half-heathen woman!" in a horrified
+tone. "Then I wash my hands of the matter. Send her to perdition, if you
+will."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CHANGEFUL LIGHTS OF CHILDHOOD
+
+
+Elizabeth Leverett busied herself about the supper. She felt as one does
+in the threatening of a thunderstorm, when the clouds roll up and the
+rumbling is low and distant and one studies the sky with presentiments.
+Then it comes nearer, flirts a little with the elements, breaks open and
+shows the blue that the scurrying wind soon hides and the real storm
+bursts. She had believed all along that it must come.
+
+She was not an ungracious or a selfish woman outside of her own home.
+She was good to the sick and the needy, she gave of her time and
+strength. In the home there was a sense of ownership, of the
+self-appropriation so often termed duty. Everything had gone on smoothly
+for years. She had settled that Chilian would not marry. Such a bookish
+man, whose interests lay chiefly with men, did not need a wife when
+there was some one at hand to make him comfortable. And that he surely
+was. He understood and enjoyed it. He had only to suggest to have. Her
+affection for him was like that for a younger brother. Even Eunice could
+not minister so well for his comfort, though, like Mary of Bible lore,
+she often added a delicate pleasure in listening to matters or
+incidents that interested him.
+
+Elizabeth had settled to the idea of a little heathen soul that she was
+to lead aright. Missionary work in godless lands had not made much
+advance and, having no mother, who was there to warn her of the great
+peril of her soul? Seafaring men were not much given to thought of the
+other world. Perhaps there was some grace for them in the hours of
+peril, she had heard they prayed to God in an extremity; and there was
+the dying thief. But on land no one had a right to count on this.
+
+The child had changed everything. Even Eunice seemed to have lost the
+sharp distinction. Miss Winn belonged to the ungodly, that was
+clear--though she was upright, honest, neat, and in some ways sensible.
+But her ideas about the child were foreign and reprehensible--dangerous
+even. The child was no worse than others, not as bad as some, for she
+had either by nature or training a delicate respect for the property of
+others. She never meddled. She asked few questions even when she stood
+by the kitchen table and watched the mysteries of cake and pie making
+and the delicacies of cooking. It was the right to herself that annoyed
+Elizabeth. People had hardly begun to suspect that children had any
+rights.
+
+"But if she went away? If she was swallowed up in the vortex of the more
+populous city"--greater, Salem would not have admitted. "If the child's
+soul was finally lost, would she be quite clear? Would she have done all
+that she could for her salvation?"
+
+She thought of it as she prepared the supper. She surveyed the
+inviting-looking table and then rang the bell. Eunice brought in a
+handful of flowers. Chilian came--and Miss Winn.
+
+"Cynthia has gone to bed, she does not want any supper," was her quiet
+announcement.
+
+Elizabeth would have sent her to bed supperless, and approved of a
+severer punishment.
+
+Miss Winn asked some questions about Boston.
+
+"I have quite a desire to see it," she added.
+
+Yes, she would no doubt plan for a removal. Then the child would be
+forever lost. And a Leverett, too, come of a strong God-fearing family!
+
+The child, when she had hidden her face on Rachel's bosom, gave some
+dry, hard sobs that shook her small frame. Rachel smoothed her hair,
+patted the shoulder softly, and said "Dear" in a caressing tone. Then
+had come a torrent of tears, a wild hysterical weeping. She did not
+attempt to check it, but took Cynthia in her arms as if she had been a
+baby.
+
+"I'm not going to that school any more," she said brokenly, after a
+while.
+
+"What happened, dear?"
+
+Cynthia raised her head. "It was very mean, as if I had done it on
+purpose! Why, I might have hurt myself;" indignantly.
+
+"How was it?" gently.
+
+And then the story came tumbling out. She saw a certain ludicrous aspect
+in it now, and laughed a little herself. "I couldn't help being saucy.
+And I thought she was going to strike me. Tommy Marsh began to laugh
+first. The slate broke----"
+
+"Are you quite sure you were not hurt?"
+
+"Well, my arm hurt a little at first, but it is all well now. But I
+shan't go back to school,--no, not even to please Cousin Leverett, and I
+like him best of any one."
+
+"I'm going down to supper, dear. Shall I bring up yours?"
+
+"I don't want any. I couldn't eat anything. And I can't have Cousin
+Elizabeth's sharp eyes looking at me. Oh, I'm glad I am not her little
+girl! I like you a million times better, Rachel;" hugging her
+rapturously. "I think I'd like to have a glass of milk. And may I lie on
+your little bed?"
+
+"Yes, dear."
+
+She was asleep when Rachel came up and it was past nine when she woke,
+drank her milk, and went to bed for the night.
+
+How gaily the birds were singing the next morning, and the sunbeams were
+playing hide-and-seek through the branches that dance in the soft wind.
+All the air was sweet and the little girl couldn't help being
+light-hearted. She sang, too; not measured hymns of sorrow and
+repentance, but a gay lilt that followed the bird voices. And she went
+down to breakfast and said her good-morning cheerfully.
+
+"That child has the assurance of the Evil One," Elizabeth thought.
+
+Cynthia waylaid Cousin Chilian as he was going down the path.
+
+"I meant what I said yesterday. I won't go to that school any more. If
+there was some other--only--only I wish you could teach me until I could
+get up straight in all the things, so the other children wouldn't laugh
+when I made blunders. I suppose it does sound funny;" and a smile
+hovered about the seriousness.
+
+"We will consider another school," he returned kindly, smiling himself
+at the remembrance of the tempest of yesterday.
+
+She persuaded Rachel to go out to walk and they went over to the bridge.
+She had been so interested in the story of it. Before it had faded from
+the minds of men it was to be splendidly commemorated as a point of
+interest in the old town.
+
+"I like real stories," she said. "I don't understand about the war, but
+it is fine to think the Salem men made the British soldiers go back when
+all the while the cannon and other arms were hidden away. You don't
+mind, Rachel, if the Colonists did beat England, do you? I'm a Colonist,
+you know."
+
+"That is long ago, and we are all friends now. I think the Colonists
+were very brave and persevering and they deserved their liberty. I have
+heard your father talk about the war."
+
+"Oh, when do you suppose he will come? It seems so long to wait."
+
+Rachel smiled to keep the tears out of her eyes.
+
+Chilian Leverett made a call and a brief explanation to Dame Wilby. She
+admitted she had been hasty, but the children were unusually trying. She
+was getting to be an old body and maybe she hadn't as much patience as
+years ago. Cynthia said so many odd things that the children _would_
+giggle. She was slow in some things, and it seemed hard for her to learn
+tables, but she was not a bad child.
+
+So the tempest blew over. Elizabeth preserved a rather injured silence,
+but Eunice was cheerful and ready to entertain Cynthia with stories of
+the time when she was a little girl. Chilian arranged for her to spend
+most of the mornings with him when he was at home. She liked so very
+much to hear him read. The histories of that time were rather dry and
+long spun out, but he had a way of skipping the moralizing and the
+endless disquisitions and adding a little more vividness to people and
+incidents. It inspired him to watch her face changing with every
+emotion, her eyes deepening or brightening, and the slight mark in her
+forehead where lines of perplexity crossed. Then they would talk it all
+over. Often he was puzzled with her endless "whys" that he could not
+rightly explain to a child's limited understanding. Sometimes she would
+say, "Why, I would have done so," and he found her course would be on
+the side of the finest right, if not what was considered feasible.
+
+The spelling was a trial when the words were a little obscure. And
+though she had a wonderful knack of guessing at things, she surely was
+not born for a mathematician. He had a fine, quick mind in that respect.
+But the Latin was a delight to her and she delved away at the difficult
+parts for the sake of what she called the grand and beautiful sound. His
+rendering of it enchanted her.
+
+"I don't see any sense in educating her like a boy," declared Elizabeth.
+"And she can't do a decent bit of hemming. She ought to work a sampler
+and learn the letters to mark her own clothes. We did it before we were
+her age. Chilian thinks you can hire people to do these things for you,
+but it seems so helpless not to be able to do them for yourself.
+Housekeeping is of more account than all this folderol. She can never be
+a college professor."
+
+"But women _are_ keeping schools," interposed Eunice.
+
+"They don't teach Latin and all kinds of nonsense. That Miss Miller was
+here a few days ago to see if we didn't want our niece--folks are
+beginning to call her that--to see if we did not want her to take
+lessons on the spinet. I was so glad she did not appeal to Chilian,
+though he was out. I said, 'No,' very decidedly, 'that she had a good
+many things to learn before she tackled that.' And she said she ought
+to be trained while her fingers were flexible, and I said I thought
+washing would make them flexible enough. And there's fine ironing."
+
+"There's no need of either for her," protested Eunice.
+
+"Oh, you don't know. There might be a war again. And a trouble about
+money. I'm sure there is talk enough and the country raising loans all
+the time, one party pulling one way, one the other. People are getting
+awfully extravagant nowadays. Patty Conant gave seven dollars a yard for
+her new black silk, and there were twelve yards. It broke pretty well
+into a hundred, and there was some fancy gimp and fringe and the making.
+Of course, there's going to be two weddings in the family, and I don't
+suppose Patty will ever buy another handsome gown at her time of life.
+Abner brought her home that elegant crape shawl, with the fringe and
+netting nearly half a yard deep. Maybe 'twas a present, she let it go
+that way."
+
+"Of course, there's money enough among the Conants," Eunice commented
+gently.
+
+"As I said--one can't always tell what will come to pass, nor how much
+need you may have for your money. But I'm thankful my heart is not set
+on the pomps and vanities of this world. And children ought to be
+brought up to some useful habits."
+
+It was a fact that Cynthia did not take to the useful branches of
+womanly living. She abhorred hemming--and such work as she made of it!
+Miss Eunice groaned over it.
+
+"But you ought to have seen what I did two or three weeks ago," and she
+laughed with a gay ring. "Such stitches! When I made them nice on the
+top, they were dreadful underneath, and the cotton thread was almost
+black. What is the use of taking such little bits of stitches?"
+
+"Why--they look prettier. And--it is the right thing to do."
+
+"But you know Rachel can hem all the ruffles. And Cousin Elizabeth said
+ruffles were vanity. I'd like my frocks just as well to be plain."
+
+"There would have to be nice stitches in the hem."
+
+"Rachel didn't sew when she was little. A great lady took her to
+Scotland, to wait on her, to get her shawl when she was a little cool,
+and fan her when she was warm, and carry messages, and drive out in the
+carriage with her. They had servants for everything. And then--she was
+ten years old--she sent her to a school, where she learned everything.
+But she doesn't know all the tables and a great many other things."
+
+"But she knows what fits her for her station in life."
+
+Cynthia looked puzzled. "What is your station in life?" she asked with
+an accent of curiosity.
+
+"Oh, child, it is where you are placed; and the work of life is the
+duties that grow out of it--and your duty towards God."
+
+Cynthia dropped into thought.
+
+"Then my duty now is to study. I like it; that is, I like a good many
+things in it. And when my father comes home it will be changed, I
+suppose. You can't stay a little girl always."
+
+"But you will have to learn to keep house," returned Eunice.
+
+"Oh, I'll have some one to do that. Men never have to cook or keep
+house. Oh, yes; all the cooks on the ship were men. Wasn't that funny!"
+she continued.
+
+She laughed with so much innocent merriment that Miss Eunice laughed
+too.
+
+"I suppose you have to do various things in your life," she sagely
+remarked, after a pause.
+
+"Then you must learn to do the various things now."
+
+"I believe I won't ever get married. I'll live with father always, and
+we will have some one to keep the house, and Rachel will make the
+clothes. And I'll read aloud to father. We'll have a carriage and go out
+riding, and talk about India. I remember so many things just by thinking
+them over. Isn't it queer, when for a long time they have gone out of
+your mind? Oh, dear Cousin Eunice, what makes you sigh?"
+
+Cousin Eunice took off her glasses, wiped them vigorously, and then
+wiped her eyes.
+
+"It is a bad habit I have." But she was thinking of the dream of the
+little girl that could never come true.
+
+The two days in the week that Chilian went into Boston were long to
+Cynthia. She sat in his room and studied. He had given her a small table
+to herself and a shelf in a sort of miscellaneous bookcase. He found
+that she never trespassed and that she did really study her two hours,
+sometimes longer when the task was not so easily mastered. There _was_
+some of the old Leverett blood in her, but it had a picturesque strain.
+She placed every book at its prettiest, and her papers were gathered up
+and taken down to the kitchen when she was done with them. She was
+beginning to write quite well.
+
+Then in the afternoon she went to walk with Rachel to show her the
+curious places Cousin Leverett had told her about. And there were still
+beautiful woods around the town, where they found wild flowers and
+sassafras buds.
+
+Elizabeth was very much engrossed. She had cleared the garret spick and
+span, scrubbed up the floor, wiped off her quilting frames, and put in
+her white quilt, rolling up both sides so she could get at the middle.
+There was to be a circle, with clover leaves on the outside. Then long
+leaves rayed off from the exact middle. She had all the patterns marked
+out. When that was done a wreath went around next--oak leaves and
+acorns.
+
+She had groaned over the time the little girl devoted to Latin, but she
+never thought all this a waste of precious hours. She would never need
+it and she could not decide upon any relative she would like to leave it
+to. There was one quilt of this pattern in Salem and, though white
+quilts were made, few could afford to spend so much time over them.
+There were knitted quilts, with ball fringe around four sides, and the
+tester fringed the same way. Old ladies kept up their habits of industry
+in this manner when they were past hard work.
+
+Eunice had finished her basket quilt and it was really a work of art.
+But she was out in the flower garden a good deal in the early morning
+and late afternoon. Cynthia sometimes kept her company, but she was not
+an expert in gardening science. In the evening they sat out on the
+porch, and a neighbor called perhaps. Or she walked over to South River
+if it was moonlight. And, oh, how beautiful everything was!
+
+But it was not all quilting with Miss Elizabeth. In July wild green
+grapes were gathered for preserves. Cynthia thought it quite fun to help
+"pit" them. You cut them through the middle and with a small pointed
+knife took out the seeds. She tired of it presently and did not cut them
+evenly, beside she was afraid of cutting her thumb.
+
+Cousin Elizabeth went about getting dinner, which was quite a simple
+thing when Chilian was away, and at night they had a high tea.
+
+"I'll cut them," said Eunice, "and you can pick out the seeds. But maybe
+you are tired;" with a glance of solicitude.
+
+"Yes, I'm tired, but I'm going to keep straight on until dinner-time,"
+she answered pluckily.
+
+"You are a brave little girl."
+
+But Cousin Elizabeth said, "Well, for once you have made yourself
+useful."
+
+There was a great point of interest just then for the people on this
+side of the town. Front Street was the old river path that had followed
+the shore line. One end was known now as Wharf Street, and was beginning
+to be lined with docks. Up farther to what is now Essex Street there had
+stood a house with a history. Its owner had been a Tory, and just before
+the war broke out he entertained Governor Gage and the civil and
+military staff. Timothy Pickering had been summoned to the Governor's
+presence, but he kept his Excellency so long in an indecent passion that
+the town-meeting had to be adjourned. Troops were ordered up from the
+Neck and for a while an encounter seemed imminent. Later, when the
+Colonists were in the ascendency, Colonel Browne's estate was
+confiscated, and after the close of the war it was turned over to Mr.
+Elias Derby. Now he was removing it to make way for a much finer
+residence and, being a notably patriotic citizen, he did not enjoy the
+stigma of a Tory house. Parts were carried away as curiosities, and
+there were some beautiful carvings and fine newel posts that found a
+place in new homes as mementoes. Afterward, Mr. Derby built the
+handsomest and costliest house in Salem, with grounds laid out
+magnificently.
+
+Then came a very busy time. There was preserving that every housewife
+attended to for winter use, pickling of various kinds, for there was no
+canning stock in those days to eke out. There were some queer fruits
+from India, and preserved ginger in curious jars that are highly
+esteemed to this day, but they were luxuries. Then a house-cleaning
+season, not as bad as the spring, but still bad enough. And flower seeds
+to be saved, garden seeds to be dried, so the beautiful quilt was rolled
+up in a thick sheet and put away for the present.
+
+The little girl had made quite friends with the Upham children and went
+over there to tea all alone, but she felt very strange. They played tag
+and blind-man's buff, but Cynthia thought puss in the corner the most
+fun. Bentley was a nice big boy and very well mannered. Polly talked
+over her school and brought out her needlework, which was to be the
+bottom of a white frock. It would be only two yards round and she had
+almost a yard worked. Then she was making a sampler, with an oak and
+acorn vine around it, and it was to have four different kinds of
+lettering on it.
+
+"I don't know when I shall get it done," she said with a sigh.
+
+Betty declared Dame Wilby was crosser than ever and Priscilla Lee wasn't
+coming back, nor Margaret Rand, and she was coaxing mother to let her go
+elsewhere.
+
+After a while Cynthia declared she must go home. Cousin Chilian had said
+he would come for her, but the clock was striking nine and he had not
+come. He sometimes _did_ forget.
+
+Bentley took his hat and walked beside her in quite a mannish way.
+
+"I do hope you will come again," he said. "You were so pleasant when you
+were caught, and I do hate to have girls saying all the time, 'Now that
+isn't fair,' and squirming out."
+
+"But if you're playing you must take the best and the worst. I liked
+puss in the corner and didn't mind being the left-out pussy. I thought
+it was quite fun to hunt a corner again."
+
+Then they met Cousin Chilian, who had been playing a rather prolonged
+game of chess with a visitor. But Bentley kept on with them, and said
+good-night with a polite bow, adding, "She must come again, Mr.
+Leverett, we had such a very nice time."
+
+"And wasn't he nice!" exclaimed the child eagerly. "He is like some of
+the grown-up men. I like big boys much better than the little ones."
+
+He smiled to himself at that.
+
+Now there came cool nights and mornings, but the world was beautiful in
+its turning leaves, the fragrance of ripening fruit, and the late
+gorgeous-colored flowers. They took delightful walks and found so many
+curious places. Sometimes Bentley Upham met them and joined in their
+walks and talks. He thought the little girl knew a great deal. And that
+she had been in India, and China, and ever so many of the islands, was
+wonderful.
+
+"Don't you ever sew?" he asked one afternoon, as they were rambling
+about.
+
+"I don't like it much;" and she glanced up with fascinating archness. "I
+suppose I shall have to some day, but Cousin Leverett thinks there is
+time enough."
+
+"I'm glad you don't," in a hearty tone. "I don't have any good of Polly
+any more. What with her white frock, and some lace she is making for a
+cape, and forty other things, she never has time for a game of anything,
+or a nice walk. And she doesn't care about study, though her lessons are
+so different. I don't know another girl who studies Latin, and it's so
+nice to talk it over. How rapidly you must have learned."
+
+He looked at her in admiration.
+
+"Oh, I knew some of it before I came here. There was a chaplain in
+Calcutta who was--well, not exactly ill, but not well; and father took
+him with us on the vessel when he went for certain things, and he staid
+with us afterward. He used to read aloud, and it sounded so splendid!
+Then he taught me. But Cousin Leverett said it wasn't quite right, so I
+am going over it. And he is teaching me a little French."
+
+"You know they think women don't need to know much beside housekeeping
+and sewing. I just hate to hear about ruffles cut on the straight or
+bias, and I couldn't tell what Dacca muslin, or jaconet, or dimity was
+to save myself. And eyelet work and French knots and run lace--that's
+what the big girls who come to see Polly talk about. But I like books,
+and studies, and different countries. I'd like to travel. But I don't
+know that I want to be a sea captain."
+
+They found some queer old houses that were odd enough. Mr. Leverett said
+they were almost two hundred years old, and that at first the place kept
+the old Indian name, Naumkeag. But the Reverend Francis Higginson gave
+it a new name out of the Bible--"In Salem also is His tabernacle." The
+early pilgrims built a chapel at once.
+
+"How close the houses are!"
+
+It was a row that had survived the hand of improvement. There was a huge
+central chimney-stack, big enough for a modern factory, and the house
+seemed built around it. The second story overhung the first, and in some
+of them were small dormer windows looking like bird houses. And the
+little panes of greenish glass seemed to make windows all framework.
+
+Cynthia was much interested in the Roger Williams house, and the story
+of the old minister.
+
+"Why, I thought religion made people good and pleasant----" Then she
+checked herself, for often Cousin Elizabeth was _not_ pleasant. And she
+seemed more religious than Cousin Eunice. And Cousin Chilian rarely
+scolded or said a cross word--he never talked about religion, but he
+went to church on Sunday; they all did. She studied the Catechism, she
+could learn easily when she had a mind to, but she didn't understand it
+at all. She shocked Elizabeth by her irreverent questions. There was the
+old horn-book primer with--
+
+          "In Adam's fall
+           We sinned all."
+
+"I don't see how that could be when we were not there!" she said almost
+defiantly.
+
+"It means the nature we inherited."
+
+"But I don't think that fair!"
+
+"You don't know, you never can understand until you are in a state of
+grace. Don't ask such impertinent questions. You are a little heathen
+child."
+
+Then she asked Cousin Chilian what "a state of grace" meant.
+
+"I think it is the willingness to do right, to be truthful, kindly,
+obliging. It is all comprised in the Golden Rule--to love God with all
+your heart and your neighbor as yourself, not to do anything to him that
+you would not like to have done to yourself, and to do to him whatever
+you would like him to do for you. That is enough for a little girl."
+
+"That sounds like Confucius," she said thoughtfully.
+
+But she went back to Roger Williams when Bentley said he was one of his
+heroes.
+
+"What did he do?" she asked, interested.
+
+"Well, he founded the City of Providence. And if William Penn is to be
+honored for founding a city of brotherly love, Roger Williams deserves
+it for establishing a city where different sects should agree without
+persecuting each other. You see, they banished him from Salem back to
+England because he thought a man had some right to his own opinions, so
+long as he worshipped God. So he went to Providence instead. He walked
+all the way with just his pocket compass to guide him, and how he must
+have worked to make a dwelling-place for himself and his friends in the
+dead of winter! There were some Quakers already there, who had been
+banished from other settlements, and they all resolved to be friendly.
+Yes, I call him a hero!"
+
+Cynthia studied the house with the little courtyard and the great tree
+shading it.
+
+"Polly said it was the Witch House," she remarked.
+
+"That was because there were trials for witchcraft. You are too young to
+hear about that," Chilian said decisively, with a glance at Bentley.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SORROW'S CROWN OF SORROW
+
+
+Occasionally they went down to the warehouse, and while Chilian was busy
+some of the captains or mates would speak to her. They knew about her
+father and one sad fact she did not know. For she had settled in her
+mind that Captain Corwin would bring him back and that it would take a
+long, long while. So she tried to be content and if not teasing or
+fretting was one of the ways of being good, she tried her utmost to keep
+to that. She was too brave to tell falsehoods to shield herself from any
+inadvertent wrongdoing, even if Cousin Elizabeth did sometimes say:
+
+"You ought to be soundly whipped. To spare the rod is to spoil the
+child."
+
+She thought if anybody ever did whip her she should hate him all the
+rest of her life. Servants and workmen were beaten in India, and it
+seemed degrading. She did not know that Cousin Chilian had insisted that
+she should never be struck. He was understanding more every day how her
+father had loved her, and finding sweet traits in her unfolding.
+
+She liked these rough bronzed men to touch their odd hats to her and
+call her Missy. Some of them had seen her in Calcutta and knew her
+father. And when she said, "It takes a long, long while to go there and
+come back, but when Captain Corwin brings him he is going to live here
+and will never go to sea any more"--"No, that he never will, missy;" and
+the sailor drew his hand across his eyes.
+
+Oh, how full the wharves were with shipping! Flags and pennons waved,
+and white sails; others, gray with age and weather, flapped in the wind.
+She liked to see them start out; she always sent a message by them in
+the full faith of childhood. And there were the fishermen in the cove
+lower down. Fishing was quite a great business.
+
+Cousin Giles had made his visit and spent two whole days down in the
+warehouse, when they had not taken her. But she helped Cousin Eunice cut
+the stems of the sweet garden herbs for drying, and the others for
+perfumery. There was lavender, the blossoms had been gathered long ago,
+and sweet marjoram and sweet clover. She always gathered the full-blown
+rose leaves and sewed them up in little bags and laid them among the
+household stores. Everything was so fragrant. Cynthia thought she liked
+it better than sandalwood and the pungent Oriental perfumes.
+
+Then came the autumnal storms, when the vessels hugged the docks
+securely at anchor. The house was chilly all through and fires were in
+order. Some two or three miles below there was a wreck of an East
+Indiaman, and for days fragments floated around. Some lives were lost,
+and the little girl shuddered over the accounts.
+
+All the foliage began to turn and fall. The late flowers hung their
+heads. It had been a beautiful autumn, people said to pay up for the
+late spring.
+
+There had been a little discussion about a school again.
+
+"She seems so small, and in some things diffident," Chilian said. "The
+winters are long and cold, and she has not been used to them. Cousin
+Giles thinks her very delicate."
+
+"She isn't like children raised here, but she's quite as strong as
+common. She oughtn't be pampered and made any more finicking than she
+is. A girl almost ten. What is she going to be good for, I'd like to
+know?"
+
+Cousin Giles had not made much headway with her. He was large and strong
+with an emphatic voice, and a head of thick, strong white hair, a rather
+full face, and penetrating eyes. He had advised about investments,
+though he thought no place had the outlook of Boston. But Salem was
+ahead of her in foreign trade.
+
+Chilian Leverett felt very careful of the little girl. For if she died a
+large part of her fortune came to him. He really wished it had not been
+left that way. There was an East India Marine Society that had many
+curiosities--stored in rooms on the third floor of the Stearns building.
+It had a wider scope than that and was to assist widows and orphans of
+deceased members, who were all to be those "who had actually navigated
+the seas beyond Cape of Good Hope, or Cape Horn, as masters or
+supercargoes of vessels belonging to Salem." To this Anthony had
+bequeathed many curiosities and a gift. There was talk of enlarging its
+scope, which was begun shortly after this.
+
+Matters had settled to an amicable basis in the Leverett house. Rachel
+had won the respect of Elizabeth, who prayed daily for her conversion
+from heathendom and that she might see the claims the Christian religion
+had upon her. Eunice and she were more really friendly. She made some
+acquaintances outside and most people thought she must be some relation
+of the captain's. She had proved herself very efficient in several cases
+of illness, for in those days neighbors were truly neighborly.
+
+Cynthia did shrink from the cold, though there were good fires kept in
+the house. This winter Chilian had a stove put up in the hall, very much
+against Elizabeth's desires. Quite large logs could be slipped in and
+they would lie there and smoulder, lasting sometimes all night. It was a
+great innovation and extravagance, though wood seemed almost
+inexhaustible in those days. And it was considered unhealthy to sleep in
+warm rooms, though people would shut themselves up close and have no
+fresh air.
+
+Then the snow came, but it was a greater success in the inland towns,
+and there were sledding and sleigh-riding. The boys and girls had great
+times building forts and having snowballing contests. But the little
+girl caught a cold and had a cough that alarmed her guardian a good deal
+and made him more indulgent than ever, to Elizabeth's disgust.
+
+She was not really ill, only pale and languid and seemed to grow
+thinner. She was much fairer than any one could have supposed and her
+eyes looked large and wistful. Chilian put some pillows in the big
+rocking-chair and tilted it back so that she could almost lie down on
+it.
+
+"You are so good to me," she would say with her sweet, faint smile.
+
+Bentley came in now and then of an evening, and she liked to hear what
+they were doing at school. Polly, too, made visits; they had a
+half-holiday on Saturday. She always brought some work, and Elizabeth
+considered her a very industrious girl. She was going to a birthday
+party of one of her mates.
+
+"What do they do at parties?" inquired the little girl.
+
+"Oh, they play games. There's stagecoach. Everybody but one has a seat.
+He blows a horn and sings out, 'Stage for Boston,' or any place. Then
+every one has to change seats. Such a scrambling and scurrying time! and
+the one who gets left has to take the horn."
+
+"It's something like puss in the corner."
+
+"Only ever so many can play this. Then there's 'What's my thought like?'
+That's rather hard, but funny. I like twirling the platter. If you
+don't catch it when it comes near you, you must pay a forfeit. And
+redeeming them is lots of fun, for you are told to do all sorts of
+ridiculous things. Then there's some goodies and mottoes and you can
+exchange with a boy. But Kate Saltonstall's big sister had a party where
+they danced. Eliza wanted some dancing, but her mother said so many
+people did not approve of it for children."
+
+"And don't you have some one to come and dance for you?"
+
+"Oh, what a queer idea! The fun is in dancing yourself with a real nice
+boy. Some people think it awfully wrong. Do you, Miss Winn?"
+
+"No, indeed. When I was a child in England we went out and danced on the
+green. Everybody did. And when there were doings at the great
+houses--like Christmas, and weddings, and coming of age--the ladies, in
+their silks and satins and laces, came down in the servants' hall and
+danced with the butler and the footmen, and my lord took out some of the
+maids. I don't think dancing hurts any one."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say that, Miss Winn. They are talking of having a
+dancing-class in school. I hope mother will let me join it."
+
+"And they teach it in schools there."
+
+"And why shouldn't they here?" said Polly.
+
+To be sure. Cynthia was much interested and made Polly promise to come
+again and tell her all about it. Old Salem was awakening rapidly from
+her rigid torpor.
+
+"I wonder if I could ever have a party," she said to Cousin Leverett
+that evening. "When father comes home we might have what they did at the
+Perkinses when they went in their new place--a house-warming. Is that
+like a party?"
+
+"About the same thing."
+
+"Cousin Elizabeth thinks it wicked. Wouldn't she think dancing wicked?"
+
+"I am afraid she would."
+
+Cynthia sighed. No, she couldn't have a party here.
+
+She waited quite eagerly for Polly's account. The little girl was in her
+own room. Miss Winn had gone out to get some medicine. Cynthia tried to
+be well sometimes, so she would not have to take the nauseous stuff. No
+one had invented medicated sugar pills at that time. She liked Cousin
+Elizabeth's cough syrup.
+
+Polly was overflowing with spirits.
+
+"Oh, I want to be big, right away. Bella Saltonstall was there and she's
+going into company next winter, she says. And she showed us some of the
+dancing steps and they just bewitch you. It's like this"--and Polly
+picked up her frock in a dainty manner and whirled about the vacant
+spaces in the room.
+
+"But doesn't it tire you dreadfully? The girls in India stand still a
+great deal more and just sway about. They come in and dance for you."
+
+"Tire you! Oh, no. That's the great fun, to do it yourself. Bella said
+it was--ex--something, and the word is in the spelling-book, but I never
+can remember the long words. Oh, I just wish I was fifteen and wasn't
+going to school any more. And then there's keeping company and getting
+married, and having your setting out. School seems stupid. There were
+two boys who wanted to come home with me, but mother said Ben must. Then
+I wished--well, I wished he was in college. He wants to go. Father says
+Mr. Leverett has infected him with the craze."
+
+"If I was a boy, I'd like to go. Cousin Leverett is going to take me to
+Harvard next summer when they have their grand closing time."
+
+"I'd rather be a girl and have a nice beau."
+
+Plainly Polly had been saturated with dissipation.
+
+Spring was suggesting her advent. The days were longer. The snow was
+disappearing.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Leverett, look--there are some buds on the trees!" she
+cried.
+
+"Yes. You can see them at intervals through the winter. They are wise
+little things, and swell and then shrink back in the cold."
+
+"I'm so glad. I can soon go out. I get very tired some days. I like
+summer best."
+
+"Yes. I do hope we shall have an early spring."
+
+She looked up with smiling gladness.
+
+That afternoon she had fallen asleep in the big chair. How almost
+transparent she was. The long lashes lay on the whiteness of her
+cheek--yes, it was really white. And there was very little color in her
+lips.
+
+Abner Hayes came up from the warehouse with some papers the _Ulysses_
+had just brought in.
+
+"That the captain's poor little girl?"
+
+"Yes; she's asleep. She hasn't been very well this winter, but the first
+nice balmy day I shall take her out driving. I've been almost afraid to
+have the air blow on her."
+
+"Yes, she ought to live and enjoy all that big fortune. It's a thousand
+pities the captain couldn't have come back and enjoyed it with her. But
+we must all go when our time comes. You never hear a hard word said
+about him, and sure's there's a heaven he is in it."
+
+Chilian held up his finger. Then he signed a paper that had to go back,
+and asked if the cargo of the _Ulysses_ was in good shape.
+
+Elizabeth called him downstairs after that. There was a poor man wanting
+some sort of a position and Chilian promised to look out for him. He had
+been porter in a store, but the heavy lifting made him cough. He would
+have to get something lighter.
+
+When he returned Cynthia was standing by his table, white as a little
+ghost. He almost dropped into the chair.
+
+"Was I dreaming, or did that man say my father couldn't come back to
+Salem, that he--that he was----"
+
+She swayed almost as if she would fall. He drew her down on his knee and
+her head sank on his shoulder. She was so still that he was startled.
+How many times he had wondered how he would get her told. Perhaps it had
+been wrong to wait.
+
+"My little girl! My little Cynthia----"
+
+"Wait," she breathed, and he held her closer. He had come to love her
+very much, though he had taken her unwillingly.
+
+"Is it true? But no one would say such a thing if it were not. I had
+been asleep. I woke just as he said that. Perhaps I had been dreaming
+about our being together. And it seemed at first as if my tongue was
+stiff and I couldn't even make a sound. Did he go to heaven without me?"
+
+Oh, what should he say to comfort her! She had so many feelings far
+under the surface.
+
+"My little dear," and his voice was infinitely fond, "I want to tell you
+that he loved your mother tenderly. No one could have been better loved.
+In the course of a few hours she was snatched away from him. You were so
+little--five years ago. I doubt if there was ever a day in which he did
+not think of her. When you are grown and come to love some one with the
+strength of your whole heart, you will understand how great it is. And
+when the summons came for him his first thought was that he should see
+her, and with the next he must find a new home for his little girl, so
+he gave you to me. It is very hard just now, but you must think how
+happy they are together. Perhaps they both know you are here, where you
+will be cared for and made happy, for we all love you. Every one has not
+the same way of showing love, but Cousin Elizabeth has done everything
+she could for you this winter. And we don't want to lose you. You won't
+grudge them a few years together in that happy place?"
+
+"Oh, are you quite sure there _is_ a heaven?"
+
+Oh, Cynthia, you are not the first one who has asked to have it
+certified.
+
+"Yes, dear; very sure," in the tone of faith.
+
+"He loved mother very much?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+There was a long silence. He felt the slow beating of her little heart.
+
+"Then I ought to be content, since he gave me to you, when he knew he
+was going away."
+
+"It would have been very sad if you had been left alone there. Out of
+his great love he planned it this way, thinking the tidings would not
+come so hard after a while. And now you can always recall him as you saw
+him last and just think, in a moment of time God called and he stepped
+over the narrow space that seems such a mystery to us and met _her_. I
+wish we didn't invest death with so much that is painful, for it is
+God's way of calling us to a better land where there are no more
+partings. Sometime you and I will go over to them."
+
+"I shouldn't feel afraid with you," she commented simply.
+
+When the tea bell rang she asked to be carried to her room and laid on
+Rachel's little bed. He kissed her gently and turned away.
+
+The next was his day in Boston. But late in the afternoon, after Miss
+Eunice had been visiting her an hour or so, she went to the study and
+sat by the window, where she could see him come. He glanced up and she
+waved her hand daintily. All day he had been wondering how he should
+find her.
+
+"I haven't coughed but a very little to-day," she exclaimed. "Cousin
+Elizabeth made some new syrup. And the doctor was in. He said I was a
+little lazy, that I must be more energetic."
+
+"I've been ordering a new carriage to-day. The old one was hardly worth
+repairing. And when you are stronger I think I'll buy a gentle pony and
+we can go out riding. You would not be afraid after a little?"
+
+"Not with you."
+
+Her confidence was very sweet.
+
+"I'm going down to tea to-night. I was down at noon."
+
+"Oh, you are improving. I hope there will come some warm weather and
+balmy airs."
+
+"It was beautiful last spring. You know I never saw a real spring
+before."
+
+She was bearing her loss and her sorrow beautifully. All day she had
+been thinking of the joy of those two when they met on the confines of
+that beautiful world. It made heaven seem so near, so real. Sometimes
+the tears came to her eyes. She was Cousin Chilian's little girl, so why
+should she feel lonely!
+
+Once in a number of years spring comes early. It did this time, at the
+close of the century. People shook their heads and talked about
+"weather-breeders," and mentioned snow as late as May, when fruit trees
+had been in bloom. But nature had turned over a bright, clear leaf, that
+made the book of time fairly shine.
+
+The carriage came and Cynthia was taken out. Miss Elizabeth wrapped her
+up like a mummy, and would put a brick, swathed in coverings, in the
+bottom for her feet. He had taken the ladies out occasionally, but of
+late years the sisters had been so busy they had little time for
+pleasure, they thought.
+
+They crossed North Bridge and went up Danvers way. Oh, how lovely it was
+with the trees in baby leaf, and some wild things blossoming. And even
+then industry had planted itself. There on the farther bank of Waters
+River was the iron mill, where Dr. Nathan Read invented his scheme for
+cut nails. And he built a paddle-wheel steamboat that was a success
+before Robert Fulton tried his. And they passed the Page house, where
+General Gage had his office, and Madam Page had tea on the roof, because
+they had promised not to use tea in the house.
+
+That amused Cynthia and he also told her of the woman, when tea first
+came to the country, who boiled the leaves and seasoned them, passing
+them around to her guests, who didn't think they were anything much in
+the vegetable line and too expensive ever to become general.
+
+Birds sang about them, flocks of wild geese had started on their
+northward journey. What a wonderful world it was! And her father had
+been a boy here in Salem village, had lived in Cousin Chilian's house in
+the father's time, and her mother had been married in the stately
+parlor. Why, she could dream of their being real guests of the place.
+How odd she should come to live here. The life in India would be the
+dream presently.
+
+She was very tired when Chilian lifted her out of the carriage and took
+her upstairs. Rachel put her to bed for a while and gave her a cup of
+hot tea--mint and catnip--which was a great restorer, or so considered,
+in those days. She came down to supper and was quite bright.
+
+Every day she improved a little. Eunice said she was getting 'climated.
+
+Elizabeth wondered if she had any deep feeling. She had expected to see
+her "take on" terribly. Chilian begged her not to disturb the child's
+faith that both parents were in heaven.
+
+"Letty Orne, that was, might have been one of the elect, but sea
+captains are seldom considered safe in the fold, as children of grace. I
+never heard that he had any evidence. And 'tisn't safe to count on
+meeting them unless you've had some sign."
+
+"We must leave a good many of these things to God. His ways are better
+than our short-sighted wisdom."
+
+Elizabeth was never quite sure of Chilian. So much study, and reading,
+and college talk, and the new theories, and what they called
+discoveries, were enough to unsettle one's faith, and she feared for
+him. Younger children than Cynthia had gone through the throes of
+conviction--she had herself, and she longed to see her in this state.
+
+But the child was quite her olden self. What with the change of climate
+and her illness she was many shades fairer, and her hair was losing its
+queer sunburned color. Her thin frame began to fill out, her face grew
+rounder, and her smile was sweetness itself.
+
+"But she hasn't grown a mite since she came. Leverett people are all of
+a fair size. I don't know a little runt among them," persisted
+Elizabeth.
+
+"I wish I could grow," she sighed in confidence to Chilian.
+
+"Never mind. Then you will always be my little girl," he would answer
+consolingly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LESSONS OF LIFE
+
+
+Even Chilian wondered that the little girl took the death of her father
+so calmly. Elizabeth called it unnatural and questioned whether the
+child had any deep feeling.
+
+"I don't believe she's shed a tear. And, Eunice, the child ought to go
+in black."
+
+The child was trying to get used to changed ideas. If her mother was
+glad and happy, now that they were again united, why should she be
+sorry? It seemed selfish to her as if she grudged them the joy. And
+Cousin Chilian was trying every way to entertain her, to help her on to
+perfect recovery. Sometimes, when she sat alone in the study, the soft
+eyes would overflow and the tears course silently down her cheeks. She
+never cried in the tempestuous way of some children. But she knew now
+she had counted a good deal on their having a home together. Rachel
+would keep the house and she and her father would take walks and have a
+garden, where she could cut flowers and have them in the house. Cousin
+Elizabeth said they made a litter. And now she should never go down to
+the wharf and see him standing on the deck, and wave her hand to him,
+as she used when he went on short journeys in India. They would have a
+low carry-all and ride around, as she would tell him all she had learned
+about Salem. And they would have people in to drink tea and have pretty
+dishes on the table. Perhaps he would give her a party. But she didn't
+know any children, except the Uphams. It might be better to go to school
+so that she could get acquainted.
+
+Chilian was a good deal startled about the black garments.
+
+"She is so little and thin," he objected. "I never did like children in
+black; it seems as if you weighted them down with woe. And he has been
+dead so many months now."
+
+"But one ought to pay decent respect to a custom sanctioned by all
+civilized people. There will be a talk about it. Folks may think it our
+fault."
+
+"I do not believe half a dozen people would notice it. It's only a
+custom after all. I never did like it. We will see how she feels about
+it."
+
+"Chilian, you make that child of as much importance as if she was a
+woman grown. You will have your hands full by and by. She will think
+every one must bow down to her and consult her whims and fancies."
+
+"We will see;" nodding indifferently.
+
+He didn't want her around in garments of woe. Very gently he mentioned
+the subject.
+
+She glanced up out of sweet, entreating eyes. She had been standing by
+him, looking over a very choice book of engravings.
+
+"Yes," she returned. "Rachel spoke of it. And you know there are some
+people who wear white, and some who put on yellow. Black isn't a nice
+color. Do you like it?"
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"It is the inside of me that aches now and then, when I think I shall
+never see him come sailing back, that I must be a long while without him
+until I go to their land. But he must be very happy with mother, and
+that is what I think of when I feel how hard it is;" and the tears stole
+softly down her cheeks. "I have Rachel and you, and he said you would
+always love me and care for me. But I try not to feel sorry, and if I
+had on a black frock I couldn't help but think of it all the time. Then
+I should be sorry inside and outside both, and is it right to make
+yourself unhappy when you believe people have gone to heaven?"
+
+She said it so simply that he was deeply moved. She had been alone with
+her sorrow all this time, when they had thought her indifferent.
+
+"You need not wear black--I wish you would not. I want you to get real
+well and happy. And you are a brave little girl to think of them and
+refrain from grief."
+
+She wiped away the tears lest they should fall on the book.
+
+"At first it was quite dreadful to me. I couldn't say anything. Then I
+remembered how we used to talk of mother, as if she was only in the next
+room. And then I sit here and think, when the sky is such a splendid
+blue and there come little white rifts in it, as if somewhere it opened,
+I can almost see them. Can't people come back for a few moments?"
+
+"Only in dreams, I imagine."
+
+"I can _almost_ see them. And they are so glad to be together. And I
+know father says, 'Cynthia will come by and by.' But twenty years, or
+thirty years, is a long while to wait."
+
+Perhaps she wouldn't need to wait so long, he thought, as he noted the
+transparent face.
+
+"And now I should be sorry to go away from you," she said, with grave
+sweetness.
+
+"I think your father meant you should stay a long while with me when he
+gave you to me;" and he pressed her closer to his heart.
+
+So she did not wear mourning, to Elizabeth's very real displeasure.
+There was no further talk about the school, but she did try to sew a
+little and began the sampler. Cousin Eunice was her guide here. She
+brought out hers that was over fifty years old, and all the colors were
+fading.
+
+"I wonder if I shall live fifty years," she mused.
+
+Driving about was her great entertainment. You could go to Marblehead,
+which was a peninsula. There were the fishery huts and the men curing
+and drying fish. Sometimes they took passage in one of the numerous
+sailing vessels and went in and out the irregular shore, and saw Boston
+from the bay. It seemed in those times as if it might get drowned out,
+there was so much water around it.
+
+"And if it should float off out to sea, some day," she half inquired,
+laughingly.
+
+He was glad to hear her soft, sweet laugh again.
+
+She thought she liked Salem best, and even now people began to talk of
+old Salem, there had been so many improvements since the time Governor
+Bradford had written:
+
+          "Almost ten years we lived here alone,--
+          In other places there were few or none;
+          For Salem was the next of any fame
+          That began to augment New England's name."
+
+And then it went by the old Indian name and was called Naumkeag. And she
+found that it was older than Boston, and had been the seat of government
+twice, and that Governor Burnett, finding Boston unmanageable, had
+convened the General Court here for two years. That was in 1728, and now
+it was 1800.
+
+"But no one lives a hundred years," she said.
+
+"Oh, yes; there are a number of persons who have lived that long. Now
+and then a person lives in three centuries, is born the last year of
+one, goes through a whole century, and dies in the next one."
+
+"What a long, long while!" she sighed.
+
+And there was the old Court House where the Stamp Act was denounced. She
+wanted to know all about that, and he was fond of explaining things,
+the sort of teacher habit, but there was nothing dogmatic about it. Here
+were houses where the Leveretts had lived, third or fourth cousins who
+had married with the Graingers, and the Lyndes, and the Saltonstalls,
+and the Hales. It is so in the course of a hundred or two years, when
+emigration does not come in to disturb the purity of the blood.
+
+The little girl really began to improve. Her hair was taking on a
+brighter tint and in the warm weather the uneven ends curled about her
+forehead in dainty rings, her complexion was many shades fairer, her
+cheeks rounded out, and her chin began to show the cleft in it. She was
+more like her olden self, quite merry at times.
+
+The summer went on as usual. Gardening, berry-picking, and she helped
+with the gooseberries, the briery vines she did not like. There were
+jars of jam and preserves, rose leaves to gather, and all the mornings
+were crowded full. Often in the afternoon she went up in the garret to
+see Miss Eunice spin--sometimes on the big wheel, at others with flax on
+the small wheel. She liked the whirring sound, and it was a mystery to
+her how the thread came out so fine and even.
+
+Elizabeth had taken the white quilt out of its wrappings, it did not get
+finished the summer before. A neighbor had let her copy a new pattern
+for the border that had come from New York. And she heard there had
+been imported white woven quilts with wonderful figures in them.
+
+"Then one wouldn't have to quilt any more. Shan't you be glad, Cousin
+Elizabeth?"
+
+"Glad!" She gave a kind of snort and pushed the needle into her finger,
+and had to stop lest a drop of blood might mar the whiteness. "Well, I'm
+not as lazy as that comes to, and I don't see how they can put much
+beauty in them. You can change blue and white and show a pattern, but
+where it is all white! Why, you couldn't tell it from a tablecloth."
+
+It was warm up in the garret, and what with drying herbs, and the sun
+pouring on the shingles, there was a rather close, peculiar air. Cynthia
+stood by the open window, where the sweet summer wind went by, laden
+with the fragrance of newly cut grasses and the silk of the corn that
+was just tasselling out. The hills rose up, tree-crowned; white clouds
+floated by overhead, and out beyond was the great ocean that led to
+other countries--to India she thought of so often.
+
+Oh, how the birds sang! She was so sorry Cousin Eunice had to sit and
+spin, when there was such a beautiful world all around, and Cousin
+Elizabeth pricked her fingers quilting. She heard her sigh, but she did
+not dare look around. She had that nice sense of delicacy, rather
+unusual in a child. But then she wasn't an everyday child.
+
+"Cynthia," called Rachel from the foot of the stairs, "don't you want to
+go out for a walk? They've been unloading the _Mingo_, and they have a
+store of new things at the Merrits'."
+
+That was the great East India emporium.
+
+"Oh, yes!" She skipped across the floor and ran downstairs lightly.
+
+"That child's like a whirlwind," exclaimed Elizabeth crossly.
+
+"But we ought to be glad she's so much better. I was really afraid in
+the spring we wouldn't have her long."
+
+"Oh, the Leverett stock is tough."
+
+"But her mother died young."
+
+"Of that horrid India fever. No, I didn't truly think she would die. If
+she had, I wonder where all the money would go? Chilian is awful
+close-mouthed about it. But it would have to go somewhere. 'Tisn't at
+all likely he'd leave word for it to be thrown back in the sea."
+
+"No; oh, no."
+
+"There's some talk about missionaries going out to try to convert the
+heathen. But Giles thinks it would cost more than it would amount to.
+Giles has got way off; seems to me religion's dying out since they've
+begun to preach easy ways of getting to heaven and letting the bars down
+here and there. There's no struggle and sense of conviction nowadays;
+you just take it up as a business. And that child talks about heaven as
+if she'd had a glimpse of it and saw her father and mother there. Letty
+Orne was a church member in her younger days, but I don't believe the
+captain ever was. And they who don't repent will surely perish."
+
+Eunice sighed. She could never get used to the thought that thousands of
+souls were brought into the world to perish eternally.
+
+Cynthia tied on her Leghorn hat. It did have some black ribbon on it,
+and the strings were passed under her chin and tied at one side. That
+and her silken gown gave her a quaint appearance, rather striking as
+well.
+
+They walked down the street and turned corners. There was quite a
+procession of ladies bound for the same place. If they had been all
+buyers, Mr. Merrit would have made quite a fortune. But he was glad to
+have them come. They would describe the stock to their neighbors, and
+perhaps decide on what they wanted for themselves.
+
+"Ah, Miss Winn!" exclaimed a pleasant-faced woman. "And that is Captain
+Leverett's little girl? Why, she looks as if she was quite well again.
+We heard of her being so poorly. I suppose the shock of her father's
+death was dreadful! Poor little thing! And she's to be quite an heiress,
+I heard. What are they going to do with her? Won't she be sent to Boston
+to school?"
+
+"Oh, I think not. Mr. Leverett has been teaching her a little."
+
+They had fairly to elbow their way in. Long counters were piled with
+goods. Silks, laces, sheerest of muslins embroidered beautifully, lace
+wraps, India shawls, jewelry, caps, collars, handkerchiefs, stockings,
+slippers that were dainty enough for a Cinderella.
+
+And all down one side were ranged tables, and jars, and vases, and
+articles one could hardly find a name for. Such exquisite carving, such
+odd figures painted and embroidered on silk, birds the like of which
+were never seen on land or sea, dragons that flew, and crawled, and
+climbed trees, and disported themselves on waves.
+
+"Oh, it looks like home," cried Cynthia, for the moment forgetting
+herself. And she kept sauntering round among the beautiful things, her
+heart growing strangely light, and her pulses throbbing with a sort of
+joy.
+
+She was almost hidden by a great pile of tapestry. The Indians had found
+some secrets of beauty as well as France, if they did make it with
+infinite pains. And this was made with the little hand-looms and joined
+together so neatly and the colors blended so harmoniously that it was
+like a dream. Only the little girl did not like the dragons and strange
+animals. She had never seen any real ones like them. They were in the
+stories Nalla used to tell.
+
+Then some one else spoke to Miss Winn. "Is your little charge here?" she
+asked. "I'm quite anxious to see her. I've called twice on the
+Leveretts, and really asked for her once when they said she was quite
+ill. But I saw her out in the carriage with--isn't it her uncle? No?
+And she's to be very well to do, I've heard. The idea of the Leverett
+women undertaking to bring up a child! They're good as gold and some of
+the best housekeepers in Salem, but I dare say they'll teach her to knit
+stockings, and make bedquilts, and braid rag mats, and do fifty-year-old
+things--make a regular little Puritan of her. I knew her mother quite
+well before she was married. Doesn't seem as if we were near of an age
+and went to school together. But some of the Ornes married in our line.
+And I was married when I was seventeen, and now I'm a grandmother. How
+the years do fly on! And she had to die out in that heathen land; he
+too. Wasn't it odd about sending her here beforehand? I do want to see
+her."
+
+"She is somewhere about, interested in all these foreign things." Miss
+Winn was not quite sure of the chattering woman. She had learned that
+the Leverett ladies were exclusive, whether from inclination or lack of
+time. They asked their minister and a few old family friends in to tea
+on rare occasions, and then it was cooking and baking and cleaning up
+the choice old silver and dusting and polishing, and the next day
+clearing up. Everything out of the routine made so much extra work.
+Among the few English-speaking people in India there had been a sort of
+free and easy sociability.
+
+Cynthia meanwhile had slipped around the end of the counter and came up
+to them. She wanted to see the woman who had been to school with her
+mother. Then her mother was a little girl, perhaps no older than she.
+Did she like it? Cynthia wondered.
+
+"This is Captain Leverett's little daughter," Rachel announced rather
+stiffly.
+
+"My--but you don't favor your mother at all. I'm Mrs. Turner and I knew
+her off and on. We lived about thirty miles above here. Then her folks
+died and she went to Boston, but she used to be at the Leveretts' a good
+deal. I married and came here. I'm living up North River way and have a
+house full of children--like steps--and one grandchild, and I'm just on
+the eve of thirty-seven. I've one little girl about your age, but she's
+ever so much bigger. I'd like you to be friends with her. The next older
+is a girl, too. Why, you'd have real nice times if the old aunties were
+willing. Do they keep her strict? And she's going to be a considerable
+heiress, I heard. I wonder where her eyes came from? They're not
+Leverett eyes, and her mother's were a clear blue, real china blue, but
+then there's different blues in china," and she laughed. "Sad about the
+captain, wasn't it? He should have lived to enjoy his fortune, and now
+his little girl will have it all. I must come and scrape acquaintance
+for the sake of my girls. You'd like them, I know, they're full of fun.
+We're not strait-laced people--that's going out of date."
+
+Then she passed on. They wandered about a little more among the vases
+and jars and the paintings on silk. The air was heavy with sandalwood,
+and attar of rose, and incense. The fragrance seemed never to die out of
+those old things that became family heirlooms.
+
+"Come," Rachel said, taking her by the hand. It was quite late in the
+afternoon now, and the shadows of everything were growing longer. She
+could not understand why it was at first, but now she knew. And the sun
+would be round there in Asia presently. In her secret heart she still
+believed the sun went round and the earth stood still, for in the
+movement people _must_ slip off. But then what held it in the air?
+Cousin Chilian had a globe, but you see there was a strong wire through
+the middle, fastened to the frame at both ends. Perhaps the earth was
+fastened somewhere! She liked to make it revolve on its axis, and in
+imagination she crossed the oceans, and seas, and capes, and found her
+father again.
+
+The stage had just come in. They paused on the corner, waiting for
+Cousin Chilian. Some one was with him--yes, it was Cousin Giles
+Leverett.
+
+"Well, little woman," he began, "so I find you out here meandering
+round, and so much improved that I hardly know you. We were afraid in
+the winter you were going to slip away and leave all this fortune behind
+you, never having had a bit of good of it. But you look now as if you
+had taken a new lease. And you are positively growing!"
+
+Chilian smiled at the remark. He had begun to think so himself. And she
+looked so pretty just now with the pink in her cheeks and the soft
+tendrils of hair about her forehead, the eager, luminous eyes. He
+reached out and took her hand.
+
+"Have you been inspecting old Salem, and did you find any queer things?"
+Cousin Giles asked.
+
+"Oh, there was a great shipload of goods from India and it seemed almost
+as if you were walking through the booths at home, only there were no
+natives and no beggars or holy men----"
+
+"Tut! tut! child; they are not holy men who are too lazy to move and
+waiting for other people to fill their mouths. If they were here we'd
+make them work or they'd have to starve. They're talking about
+missionaries being sent out to convert them. I heard a rousing sermon on
+Sunday, but it didn't loosen my purse-strings. Your greatest missionary
+is work, good hard labor, clearing up and planting. Suppose those old
+_Mayflower_ people had sat down and held out their hands for alms. Do
+you suppose our Indians would have filled 'em with their corn, and fish,
+and game? Not much. They'd tied 'em to a tree and set fire to 'em." When
+Cousin Giles was excited he made elisions of speech rather unusual for a
+Boston man. "They went to work and cut down trees, and built houses, and
+raised farm and garden truck, and made shoes and clothes, and roads and
+bridges, and built cities and towns, and shamed those countries
+thousands of years old. And now we're trying to help them by bringing
+over their goods and selling them."
+
+"And creating extravagance, Elizabeth would say," returned Chilian, with
+a sort of humorous smile.
+
+"Oh, you might as well keep the money going as to hoard it up in an old
+stocking, so long as it is honestly yours. We're getting to be quite a
+notable country, Chilian Leverett."
+
+They turned into Derby Street, and Cousin Giles paused to survey the
+garden.
+
+"You've lots of things to enjoy here," he said. "I don't know but it's a
+sensible thing to take the good of what you have as you go along. And
+little Miss here will have enough without your adding to the store. You
+men of Salem ought to begin to do some big things--build a college."
+
+"Oh, I think our young men would rather go to Harvard. We don't want to
+rival you. We shall be the biggest New England seaport. We'll divide up
+the glories."
+
+Elizabeth was so taken by surprise that she was rather cross. She liked
+things planned beforehand. Now the tablecloth must come off. This one
+had been on since Sunday and it had two darns in it. And the old silver
+must come out.
+
+"I don't believe Cousin Giles would ever notice," Eunice said. "And I do
+think the china prettier than that old silver."
+
+"Well, it has the crown mark on it and the Leveretts owned it before
+they came from England. Giles' folks had some of it, too, but the Lord
+only knows what he's done with his. I dare say servants have made way
+with it, or banged it out of shape. Anybody can have china. Come, do be
+spry, Eunice."
+
+Cynthia went upstairs and had her hair brushed and a clean apron put on,
+though the other was not soiled.
+
+"Rachel, what is an heiress?" she asked.
+
+"Why--some one, a woman, who inherits a good deal of money."
+
+"Does she have to wait until she is a woman?"
+
+"Why, no. Yes, in a way, too. She can have the money spent upon her, but
+she can't have it herself until she is twenty-one."
+
+Cynthia wondered how it would seem to go and spend money, buy ever so
+many things. But she really couldn't think of anything she wanted,
+unless it was a house of her very own, and books, and pretty pictures,
+not portraits of old-fashioned men and women. And a pony and a dainty
+chaise. But then--she was such a little girl, and she wouldn't want to
+leave Cousin Chilian.
+
+Elizabeth made delicious cream shortcake for supper. Cousin Giles said
+everything tasted better up here, perhaps it was the clear salt water.
+There were so many fresh ponds and streams around Boston. But there were
+big plans for drainage and for docking out. Then Elizabeth was such a
+fine cook.
+
+The two men sat out on the stoop in the summer moonlight and Cynthia
+thought Cousin Giles really quarrelled trying to establish the
+superiority of Boston. Then they talked about investments and Captain
+Leverett, and Giles said, "Cynthia will be one of the richest women of
+Salem. Chilian, you'll have to look sharp that some schemer doesn't
+marry her for her money."
+
+"You must come to bed, Cynthia," declared Rachel. Through the open
+window they could hear Cousin Giles' voice plainly.
+
+The men went the next morning to consider an investment Chilian had in
+view. It had been thought best to divide the sums coming in between
+Salem and Boston. Then they walked about and saw the improvements, the
+new docks being built to accommodate the shipping, the great fleet of
+boats, the busy ship-yard, the hurrying to and fro everywhere. It was
+not merely finery, but spices and articles used in the arts. Gum copal
+was brought from Zanzibar. Indigo came in, though they were trying to
+raise that at the South.
+
+And when Giles saw the new streets and fine houses, and Mr. Derby's,
+that was to cost eighty thousand dollars, he did open his eyes in
+surprise. Though he said rather grudgingly:
+
+"It's a shame for one little girl to have all that money. There should
+have been three or four children. Fifty years ago the Leveretts had such
+big families they bid fair to overrun the earth, and now they've
+dwindled down to next to nothing. Chilian, why don't you marry?"
+
+"The same to yourself. Are you clinging to any old memory?"
+
+"Well, not just that. I don't seem to have time. Now you are a fellow of
+leisure. Get about it, man, and hunt up a wife."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A NEW DEPARTURE
+
+
+Cynthia Leverett was making great improvement in every respect. She was
+no longer the thin, wan little thing that had come from India. She had
+outgrown her clothes, which was a good sign, Eunice said.
+
+Elizabeth made a stand for good wearing ginghams and plain cloths for
+winter.
+
+"There's that gray cloth of mine that's too nice to hack around for
+every day. I could have it dyed, I suppose, but I've two nice black
+stuff dresses beside my silk, and that other one Chilian gave me that
+must have cost a sight of money; it's thick enough to almost stand
+alone. I can't bear those sleazy stuffs that come from India. But I've
+wished more than once that I had the money it cost, out at interest. And
+the cloth----"
+
+"It isn't a very pretty color," ventured Eunice timidly.
+
+"What does that matter for a child? It won't show dirt easily. And it is
+settled that she is going to school, I'm thankful to say."
+
+The dress in question was not a clear, pretty gray, but had an ugly
+yellow tint.
+
+"She certainly is rich enough to buy her own clothes, or have them
+bought for her. I'd dip that dress over a good deal darker brown. You
+know Chilian didn't like it for you, and he will not for her."
+
+Eunice was amazed at her own protest. The child had always been prettily
+attired. And more attention was being paid to children's clothes she
+noticed in church on Sunday, and after she had indulged in such sinful
+wanderings, she read the chapter in Isaiah where the prophet denounced
+the "round tires like the moon, the bonnets and the head bands, the
+mantles, and wimples, and crisping pins, and changeable suits of
+apparel," and other vanities, and predicted dire punishments for them.
+
+Mrs. Turner had called according to her proposal. She brought her little
+daughter Arabella, commonly called Bella. Cousin Chilian was out in the
+garden with Cynthia, and received her with his usual kindly cordiality,
+inviting them to walk into the house. The parlor shutters were tightly
+closed, and Mrs. Turner abhorred state parlors. Hers was always open,
+for guests were no rarity.
+
+"Why can't we sit out here a spell? It is so delightful to have this
+garden in view. And your clematis is a perfect show. Then let the
+children run around and get acquainted. How are the ladies?"
+
+She seated herself on the bench at the side of the porch.
+
+"I will call them," he said. "But--hadn't you better walk in?"
+
+"Oh, we can't stay very long. I've been waiting for the ladies to return
+my last call, but we were down in this vicinity, so I stopped. You see,
+I don't always stand on ceremony. And we have been so interested in your
+little girl. I saw her in Merrit's with Miss Winn."
+
+He summoned the ladies, and then he returned to the guests. The children
+were both down the path--Bella talking and gesticulating, and Cynthia
+laughing.
+
+Mrs. Turner was in nowise formal. She talked of Mr. Turner's
+business--he was a shipbuilder--of the rapid strides Salem was making;
+indeed one would hardly know it for old Salem of the witch days. And
+people's ideas had broadened out so, softened from their rigidity,
+"though some of the old folks are thinking the very trade we are so
+proud of is going to ruin our character and morals, and fill us with
+pride and vanity. But I say to Mr. Turner the people did their hard work
+and bore their deprivations bravely all through the Revolution, and we
+can't go back and make their lot easier by depriving ourselves of
+comforts, or even pleasures."
+
+There might be some casuistry in that, but there was truth as well.
+
+Then he asked if she knew of any nice schools for girls. Where did hers
+go?
+
+"Oh, to Madam Torrey's. That's up Church Street. Maybe it would be too
+far in bad weather, though our girls don't mind it. Alice is thirteen,
+but she's been there since she was eight, and Bella has been going these
+two years. The boys are at the Bertram School, and your neighbor Bentley
+Upham goes there. He's a nice boy. But Madam Torrey is a fine woman. She
+has an assistant, and a woman comes in to teach the French class.
+Then--I don't suppose everybody will approve of this, but there is going
+to be a dancing-class out of school hours, yet no one is compelled to
+send their children to that. There's fine needlework, too, and fancy
+knitting, indeed about all that it is necessary for a girl to know. And
+the children are all from good families; that is quite an important
+point."
+
+"I think I must walk over and see her."
+
+"Do. I am sure you will be pleased. The walk will be the only objection.
+Isn't she delicate?"
+
+"She wasn't well last winter. She took a cold. She was not used to our
+bleak winters. And there was her father's death. She had counted so much
+on his return."
+
+"It was very sad. She looks well now."
+
+Then the ladies made their appearance. Elizabeth apologized for Chilian
+not asking her into the parlor. "It looked inhospitable."
+
+"It was my fault. The stoop was so tempting. A shady porch in the
+afternoon is a luxury. We take our sewing out there; that is, Alice and
+I, and sometimes the guests. How lovely your vines are! And your garden
+is a regular show place, quite worth coming to see if there were no
+other charm. And, Miss Leverett, I hear you have been making the most
+beautiful white quilt there is in Salem."
+
+"Oh, no. But as nice as any. And it was a sight of work. I don't know as
+I'd do it again. I've no chick or child to leave it to."
+
+"May I come over some day and see it? Not that I shall do anything of
+the kind. With four big boys to mend for and the two girls, I have my
+hands full."
+
+Then they talked about putting up fruit and making jellies, and Mrs.
+Turner said she must go over to the Uphams. She heard that Polly was
+getting to be such a nice, smart girl, and had worked the bottom of her
+white frock and a round cape to match. Then she called Bella.
+
+"Oh, can't I go over with them?" pleaded Cynthia.
+
+Cousin Chilian nodded. Elizabeth rose stiffly and went in. Eunice pulled
+out her knitting. It was so lovely here. There were the warmth and
+perfume of summer and the rich fragrance of ripening fruits and grass
+mown for feed, not snipped with a lawn-mower, such things had not been
+heard of even in the rapidly improving Salem.
+
+"There are some countries where people live out of doors nearly all the
+time," began Eunice reflectively. "Well, they do a good deal in India.
+But I think this is in Europe. And this is so lovely, so restful. But
+I'm afraid you have affronted Elizabeth by not insisting Mrs. Turner
+should walk into the parlor. Though really--we had not returned her last
+call. I do wish Elizabeth could find some time to get out. I don't see
+why there should be so much work."
+
+"Couldn't you have some one to help?"
+
+"Well, it isn't just the cooking and kitchenwork. And no one could suit
+her there. She's up in that old garret toiling, and moiling, and packing
+away enough things to furnish an inn. We shall never want them. And
+there's your mother's, and some of your grandmother's, blankets."
+
+"The New England thrift is rather too thrifty sometimes," he commented
+dryly.
+
+Cynthia staid after Mrs. Turner made her adieus. Indeed, as it was
+nearing supper-time, he walked over for her. She and Betty were in the
+wide-seated swing and Ben was swinging them so high that Betty, used as
+she was to it, gave now and then little squeals. Chilian held up his
+hand and Ben let the "cat die," which meant the swing stopping of
+itself.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Leverett, can't Cynthy stay to tea? I'll run and ask mother."
+
+"Not to-day. She had better come home now."
+
+"Oh, dear!" cried Bentley disappointedly.
+
+"Yes, I had better go. And I've had such a lovely time. Cousin Chilian,
+can't I come over again?"
+
+How pretty she looked with her shining eyes, her rosy cheeks, and her
+entreating lips! What would she coax out of men as she grew older!
+
+"Oh, yes; any time they want you."
+
+"Well, we'd like her every day!" cried Ben eagerly. "And isn't it
+splendid that she's grown so well and strong, and can run and play, and
+have good out-of-doors times? Though I used to like it in the winter up
+in your room, and Mr. Price said he never knew a boy to improve so in
+Latin."
+
+Bentley made a graceful bow to Mr. Leverett.
+
+"Oh," said Cynthia, skipping along in exuberant joy, "children are nice,
+aren't they? You can't have much fun alone by yourself, and the days are
+so long when you go in to Boston."
+
+"I wonder if you would like to try school again?"
+
+"Yes, I think I would;" after a pause. "You see," with a gravity that
+sat oddly upon her, "I'm not so afraid as I was, and I have more sense.
+And I know things more evenly than I did. I can write now quite well,
+and I know most of the tables, though division does bother me. And I can
+spell all but the very difficult words. I don't think any one would
+laugh at me now."
+
+"No, they wouldn't," he answered decisively.
+
+"I shouldn't like little boys, but I wouldn't mind them as big as
+Bentley. And, oh, I wish we had a swing. And they have a real sailors'
+hammock, such as they have on shipboard. It's delightful under the
+trees."
+
+"I think we can manage that."
+
+"Well, if your head isn't tousled!" cried Elizabeth. "It looks like a
+brush heap. Get it fixed, for supper is all ready. Why didn't you stay?"
+the last ironically.
+
+"Cousin Chilian thought I had better not. They did want me to."
+
+"Are you sure they _wanted_ you to?"
+
+"Why, yes," she answered in ignorance of the sarcasm.
+
+She walked up and down the garden path with Cousin Chilian and asked
+about the school, was glad when she found Bella and her sister Alice
+went there. Now and then she gave two or three skips and pulled on the
+hand she held so tightly. He had never seen her in quite such glee, and
+how charming she was!
+
+"Chilian, bring that child in out of the dew. Next thing she'll be in
+for a winter's cold," said the severe voice.
+
+The interview with Madam Torrey was very satisfactory. Chilian asked
+Miss Winn to go out and buy what was needed and get it made. They went
+over to Mrs. Turner's one day and took the school in on their way.
+
+"When it rains Silas can take you and come for you. I think the walk
+will not tire you out."
+
+"Oh, no; I don't get tired out now."
+
+It was Miss Winn's place to look after the child, of course, but
+Elizabeth felt in some way defrauded. She wished Cynthia had been poor
+and dependent upon them. Then she would stand a chance to be brought up
+in a useful manner.
+
+Chilian took her to school the first morning. Miss Winn was to come for
+her. She had been rather shy at first. But Bella Turner told the girls
+about her, how she had been born in Salem, and gone to Calcutta when
+only a few months old, come and gone again in her father's ship, and he
+was Captain Leverett, and then returned to America. He was to come
+afterward, but he had died. And Mr. Chilian Leverett, who was something
+in Harvard College, was her guardian. And she was to have ever so much
+money when she was a young lady.
+
+Any other child might have been spoiled by the attentions lavished upon
+her. The girls thought her curly hair so pretty, and her hands were so
+small, with their dainty, tapering fingers. Then she found one of the
+girls, Lois Brinsmaid, lived in Central Avenue, so there was no further
+question of troubling any one. Cousin Chilian had given her a good
+foundation for study and she was eager for knowledge of all sorts,
+except that of the needle.
+
+Then autumn began to merge into winter and there were storms and bleak
+winds, and some days she staid at home. She caught light colds, but
+Chilian and Miss Winn were very watchful.
+
+She went to the Turners one afternoon and staid to tea, and the big boys
+hovered about her like bees. She was not forward or aggressive, but
+there was a sort of charming sweetness about her. When she raised her
+lovely eyes they seemed to appeal to every heart, though they never went
+very far with Cousin Elizabeth.
+
+One day she came home and found the house in a great state of
+excitement. Elizabeth had started to go down into the cellar with both
+hands full. She had been a little dizzy for several days, and meant to
+take a dose of herb tea, boneset being her great stand-by, when she
+could find time. Whether it was the vertigo, or she slipped, she lay
+there unconscious, and they sent for Doctor Prescott.
+
+Silas and the doctor carried her upstairs, and the latter brought her
+out of the faint. But when she started to stand up, she toppled over and
+fainted again.
+
+"There's something quite serious. Let us carry her up to her room, and
+you women undress her. Her legs are sound, so the trouble is higher up."
+
+Then he found her hip was broken, a bad thing at any time of life, but
+at her age doubly so. And he sent for Doctor Lapham to help him set it.
+It was very bad. They were still there when Chilian came home.
+
+"I'm afraid she's laid up for a year or so;" and the doctor shook his
+head ominously.
+
+"Do your very best for her," besought Chilian.
+
+He said to Eunice, "Now you must have some one. You can't carry on the
+house alone."
+
+"If it is the same to you, Chilian, I'd rather have a nurse. There's
+Mother Taft, who is good and strong, and used to nursing. She's willing
+to help about a little, too."
+
+"Just as you think best. I want every care taken of her."
+
+For a month it was a very serious matter. They thought the spine was
+somewhat injured as well. And Elizabeth knew they could never get on
+without her.
+
+"I expect I shall find the house in such a state when I do get about, it
+will take me all summer to right it. You never were as thorough as I
+could wish, Eunice."
+
+Miss Winn begged that she might be of service. She had so little to do,
+or to think about, that time hung heavy on her hands, now that Cynthia
+was in school. For then school hours were from nine to five. And the
+child was getting so handy caring for herself. She curled her hair and
+put on her clothes, brought her shoes down every evening for Silas to
+black, and sometimes wiped the tea dishes while Miss Winn washed them.
+Somehow there didn't seem so much work to do. Eunice didn't always have
+two kinds of cake for supper, nor a great shelf full of pies for Silas
+to take home. There was plenty of everything and no one complained.
+
+They found Mother Taft invaluable. She was about the average height, and
+had long arms, and strength according. Then she had a most excellent
+way with her. When Elizabeth groaned that they never could get on
+without her, and she must be up and about before everything went to
+"wrack and ruin," Mother Taft said:
+
+"The kitchen looks like a new pin. There's no signs of ruin that I can
+see. Meals are good, cake fine, house clean. When you get downstairs
+you'll think you haven't been out of the harness more'n a week."
+
+"A likely story," Elizabeth moaned.
+
+Cynthia went through March very successfully, but with the first warm
+spell in April she caught a cold and coughed, and Chilian was almost
+wild about her, his nerves having been worn somewhat by Elizabeth's
+mishap. But after ten days or so she came around all right and was eager
+for school again.
+
+She was sitting in her old place by the window late one afternoon and he
+had been reading some poems to her--a volume lately come from England.
+
+"Cousin Chilian," she said, "will you tell me what true relation we
+are?"
+
+"Why, what has put that in your head?"
+
+"I want to know." She said it persuasively.
+
+"Well, it isn't very near after all. My father and yours were cousins.
+My father was the son of the oldest brother, your father the son of the
+youngest, that stretched them quite far apart. When I wasn't much more
+than a baby Anthony came to live with us, and was like an elder brother
+to me. Father was very fond of him. But he would go to sea and he made
+a fine sailor and captain. Then he was married from here, and you were
+born here."
+
+"The girls sometimes say, 'your uncle.' I wonder if you would like to
+have me call you uncle?"
+
+Something in him protested. He could not tell what it was, unless an odd
+feeling that it made him seem older. He wished he were ten years
+younger, and he could give no reason for that either.
+
+"I think I like the 'cousin' best;" after some deliberation.
+
+"And it is so lovely to be dear to some one, very dear. I like Rachel,
+she's been almost a mother to me, and I like Cousin Eunice for her sweet
+ways. But I've no one of my very own, and so--I'm very glad to be dear
+to you. It is like a ship being anchored to something safe and strong."
+
+She came and put her arms about his neck and kissed him. He drew her
+down on his knee. She was her mother's child, and her mother had been
+dear to him, his first love, his only love so far.
+
+Oh, how would the garden get made and the house cleaned, the blankets
+and the winter clothing aired and put away, those in use washed? Eunice
+and Miss Winn went up in the garret one day and swept and dusted, not
+giving a whole week to it.
+
+"Now," said Mother Taft, "I'm going to take a holiday off. I'm tired of
+puttering round in the sick room, and she's so much better now that she
+doesn't keep one on the jump. And I'm going to wash them there blankets
+and you can pack them away, so there'll be one thing less to worry
+about."
+
+"But Silas' wife would come and do it. And a holiday! Why don't you go
+off somewhere----"
+
+"I want to do it."
+
+And do it she did. Some way the house did get cleaned. "After a
+fashion," Elizabeth said. And the garden was made. Chilian and Eunice
+trimmed up roses. Cynthia and Miss Winn planted seeds. There were always
+some things that wintered over--sweet Williams, lilies of various sorts,
+pinks, laurels, some spiraeas, snowball and syringas, hosts of lilacs
+that made a fragrant hedge. Cynthia thought it had never been so lovely
+before. She wore a nosegay at her throat, and in her belt just a few;
+she had the fine taste that never overloaded. She and Cousin Chilian
+used to walk up and down the fragrant paths after supper and no one
+fretted at them about the dew. Sometimes Rachel or Eunice would bring
+out a dainty scarf. And how many things they found to talk about. She
+loved to dwell on the times with her father, and it seemed as if she
+remembered a great deal more about her mother than she did at first, but
+she never imagined it was Cousin Chilian's memory that helped out hers.
+
+She had enjoyed the school very much. There were no high up "isms" or
+"ologies" for girls in those days. She learned about her own country,
+for already there were some histories written, and the causes that led
+to the war. Some of the girls had grandmothers who had lived through
+those exciting years, and made the relation of incidents much more
+interesting than any dry written account that was mostly dates and
+names. What heroes they had been! And the old _Mayflower_ story and John
+Alden, and others who were to inspire a poet's pen.
+
+Then there was the dread story of the witchcraft that had led Salem
+astray. Cousin Chilian would never have it mentioned, and had taken away
+several books he did not want her to see. But the girls had gone to some
+of the old places, where witches had been taken from their homes and
+cast into jail, the Court House where they had been tried, and Gallows
+Hill, that most people shunned even now.
+
+One rainy evening, after her lessons had been studied, Cynthia went
+downstairs. Rachel had been fomenting her face for the toothache and was
+lying down. Cousin Chilian had gone to a town-meeting, and the house
+seemed so still that she almost believed she might see the ghost or
+witch of the stories she had heard. No one was in the sitting-room, or
+the kitchen proper, but she heard voices in what was called the summer
+kitchen, a roughly constructed place with a stone chimney and a great
+swinging crane. Here they did much of the autumn work, for Elizabeth was
+quite a stickler for having a common place to save something nicer.
+
+Mother Taft always smoked a pipe of tobacco in the evening. "It soothed
+her," she said, after her tussle of fixing her patient for the night,
+"and made her sleep better."
+
+"And it's my opinion if Miss 'Lisbeth could just have a good smoke at
+night 'twould do her more good than the doctor's powders."
+
+"Why, Cynthy!" Cousin Eunice exclaimed.
+
+"I was lonesome. Rachel's gone to sleep, Cousin Eunice--were there such
+things as witches over a hundred years ago?"
+
+Eunice glanced at Mother Taft. Witchcraft was a tabooed subject, yet it
+lingered in more than one imaginative mind, though few would confess a
+belief in it.
+
+"Well, people may talk as they like, but there's many queer things in
+the world. Now there's that falling sickness, as they call it. Jabez
+Green has two children that roll on the floor, and froth at the mouth,
+and their eyes bulge most out of their heads. They're lacking, we all
+know. But when they come out of the fit they tell queer things that they
+saw, and I do suppose it was that way then. They do act as if they were
+bewitched."
+
+We know this misfortune now as epilepsy, but medical science in the
+earlier century did not understand that, nor incipient insanity.
+
+"It was very strange," said Eunice rather awesomely. "And Mr. Parris
+was a minister and a good man, yet it broke out in his family."
+
+"But he had them slaves, and in their own land black people do awful
+things to each other. But it was strange; again, after his wife was
+accused, Governor Phipps ordered there should be no more punished and
+all set free, and then the thing stopped."
+
+"And it wasn't real witchcraft?" said Cynthia.
+
+"Well, I wouldn't undertake to say. There were witches in Bible times
+and they kept themselves mighty close, for they were not to be allowed
+to live. And Saul had a hard time getting anything out of the witch of
+Endor, you know, Miss Eunice."
+
+Eunice nodded. They were trenching on forbidden ground.
+
+"My grandmother believed in them and she was a good God-fearing woman,
+too. You see what made it worse for Salem was their sending so many here
+for trial from the places round. Grandfather lived way up above
+Topsfield, had a farm there and 'twas woods all around. No one troubled
+them then, but afterward--well, they'd cleared the woods and built a
+road and new houses were put up around, for some people were glad enough
+to get out of Salem. There was a woman named Martha Goodno, who had been
+in prison, and people were shy of her. Grandmother had two cows, and
+folks turned them out in the woods then. One of them went in Martha's
+garden, but she spied her out and drove her off before much damage was
+done. The fence had been broken down and she laid it to the cow, but
+people said it had been down for days. Well, something got the matter
+with the cow. She gave good rich milk and mother saved it for butter.
+But when she churned there came queer streaks in it that looked like
+blood. She doctored the cow, although it seemed well enough. One day a
+neighbor was in and the same thing happened. 'Throw some in the fire,'
+said the neighbor, 'and if you hear of any one being burned you'll know
+who is the witch.' So grandmother threw two dippers full in the fire and
+she said it made an awful smell. The rest she dumped out of doors, she
+wouldn't feed it to the pigs. About an hour afterward another neighbor
+came in. Grandmother made a salve that was splendid for burns and cuts.
+'Mis' Denfield,' she says, 'won't you come over to Martha Goodno's and
+bring your pot of salve. She's burned herself dreadfully drawin' the
+coals out of the oven, set her dress on fire just at the waist.' So
+mother went over and found it was a pretty bad, sure enough burn, and
+she was groaning just fit to die. Mother spread a piece of linen and
+laid it on and left her some salve. 'What did I tell you?' says mother's
+neighbor, and they nodded their heads. But the queer thing was that
+after that the cow was all right and she never had any more trouble.
+
+"After she was well she took a spite against another neighbor, who used
+to spin flax and sell the thread. Then her flax took to cutting up
+queer, and would break off, and turn yellow, and trouble her dreadfully.
+Mother was there one afternoon when it bothered so. 'Just throw a
+handful in the fire,' says mother. 'Fire's purifying;' and she did. They
+sent to mother again for salve, for Martha had scalded her right hand.
+Then the folks talked it over and a letter was written and tucked under
+her door, warning her to move, and the next-door man bought the place.
+I've heard grandmother tell this over--she lived to be ninety, and she
+was a good Christian woman, and she never added nor took away one iota.
+There, I oughtn't have told all this before the child; she's white as a
+ghost."
+
+"You must go to bed this minute," exclaimed Eunice. "I'll go up with
+you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE VOICE OF A ROSE
+
+
+There were some marvellous ghost stories in those days, and haunted
+houses as well. The society of Psychical Research would have found many
+queer things if it had existed at that time. The sailors spun strange
+yarns over the power we call telepathy now. Many of the families had a
+retired captain or disabled first mate, or supercargo, who had seen
+mysterious appearances and heard warning voices. And it recalled to the
+little girl some of the stories she had heard in India that she pieced
+out of vague fragments. Maybe there were curious influences no one could
+explain.
+
+Elizabeth improved a little. She had been moved from cot to bed, but now
+they packed her in a big chair and pushed her over to the window where
+she could see the vegetable garden and the chicken yard. They had not
+had very good luck at the hatching this season. The hens had missed
+Elizabeth's motherly care. She had trained them to an amusing habit of
+obedience, and the little chickens were her delight. Was she never to be
+out among them again?
+
+One day Cynthia came up with two roses in a glass, most exquisite ones
+at that.
+
+"Cousin Elizabeth," she began, "do you remember the little rosebush you
+put in my garden last summer? We thought it would die. It came out
+beautifully in the spring and these are the first roses that bloomed. I
+thought you ought to have them. Are you never going to get well enough
+to walk around the garden? Cousin Eunice has kept it so nice."
+
+Elizabeth Leverett's heart was touched and she swallowed over a lump in
+her throat. She had taken up the rose from a place where it had been
+smothered with those of larger growth and given it to the child who had
+begged for "a garden of her very own." She had not supposed it would
+live. And that Cynthia should bring her the firstfruits!
+
+"I'm obliged to you," she returned huskily. "They are very beautiful."
+And she wondered the child had not given them to Chilian.
+
+"I wish you liked a few flowers every day," the little girl said
+wistfully.
+
+"Well--I might;" reluctantly.
+
+"They are so lovely. The world is so beautiful. It's very hard to be ill
+in summer, in winter one wouldn't mind it so much. But I am glad you can
+sit up."
+
+Was it tears that Elizabeth winked away?
+
+She had many serious thoughts through these months of helplessness. She
+had always measured everything by the strict line of duty, of
+usefulness. There was a virtue in enduring hardness as a good soldier,
+and the harder it was the more virtue it held in it. Her room was plain,
+almost to bareness. There had been a faded patchwork top quilt at first,
+until Mother Taft insisted upon having something nicer. But it had to be
+folded up carefully at sundown, when the likelihood of calls was over.
+And she did put one of the new rugs on the floor.
+
+"That's beginning to go," Mrs. Taft said. "Some one will catch their
+foot in it and have a bad fall."
+
+"It could be mended, I suppose."
+
+"Yes. There's a new one needed in the kitchen. I'll sew it up for that.
+Land sakes! you've got enough in this house to last ten lifetimes!"
+
+Friends came in to sit with her and brought their work. Sometimes she
+sewed a little, but drawing out her needle hurt her back after a while.
+She read her Bible and Baxter's "Saints' Rest" And she wondered a little
+what the other world would be like. She had never thought of heaven with
+joy--there was the judgment first. And now that she could begin to sit
+up it did prefigure recovery.
+
+Most schools had kept open all the year round, but now the higher ones
+were giving a month's vacation. Altogether it had been a happy year to
+Cynthia. She had really been adored at school. Her frocks were admired,
+she let the girls curl her hair, usually she wore it tied in a bunch
+behind--not unlike the queue. Then she had some rings that she coaxed
+Rachel to let her wear, it was such a pleasure to lend them to the
+girls. She was learning what was considered necessary for a girl in
+those days; a good deal more with Cousin Chilian. She kept her love for
+the Latin and often read to him. She began to draw and paint flowers,
+she joined the dancing-class, which was a delight to her; but Chilian
+suggested she should not mention it to Elizabeth. She pirouetted up and
+down the path like a fairy, and he loved to watch her.
+
+There had been parties among the girls, but he would rather not have her
+go, it was a bad thing for children to be up so late. She went to take
+tea now and then. The Turners were very fond of her and the Uphams
+wanted her once a week. She wondered if she might ever ask any one to
+tea.
+
+Then they planned what they would do in this wonderful vacation. Go off
+for day's rides, take sails up and down, there were so many places. She
+was brimming over with joy.
+
+Chilian was called up in the night by Mother Taft.
+
+"She's had a stroke. And she seemed so smart yesterday. She even laughed
+over some school stories Cynthia told. That child's brought her flowers
+every morning, and she's softened so much to her. I really think she's
+been getting religion, as one may say, and being prepared."
+
+Chilian heard the stertorous breathing. The eyes were half open and
+rolled up, her face was drawn. He took the hand. It was cold and heavy.
+
+"I'll go for the doctor. I think the end has come."
+
+Dr. Prescott said the same thing, adding with a slow turn of the head,
+"She will not last long."
+
+What should he do with Cynthia? He remembered how careful her father had
+been to shield her. She must not see Elizabeth, she must not confront
+death in this awesome fashion.
+
+When they came to breakfast he said:
+
+"Cynthia, wouldn't you like to go in to Boston with me this morning?"
+
+"Oh, it would be splendid!" She clapped her hands in delight.
+
+"Well, Rachel must get you ready. We will take the stage. It goes early
+now."
+
+Of course, she was full of excitement. It had been planned as one of the
+month's outings, but to take it as the first! Cousin Chilian was always
+thinking up such nice things.
+
+"Oh," she cried, tying the big Leghorn hat down, making a great bow
+under her chin, "I must get my flowers for Cousin Elizabeth."
+
+When she came in she would have flown upstairs, but Rachel stopped her.
+
+"Miss Elizabeth is asleep. She had a bad spell in the night and the
+doctor doesn't want her disturbed. I'll take them."
+
+"Oh!" She looked disappointed. "Tell her good-bye and that I was sorry
+not to come in and say it. And give her the flowers. I hope she will be
+better to-night."
+
+What a great thing it was to go off in the stage! It was a fine morning
+with an easterly breeze. To be sure, the roads were dusty, but
+travellers were not so dainty in those days. Cynthia had a dust cloak of
+some thin material that shielded her white frock. There were three men
+and two women. They sat on the middle seat, two of the men on front with
+the driver, the other back with the ladies. Presently the driver blew a
+long toot on his horn and they came to a little town with a tavern, as
+they were called then, at its very entrance.
+
+Two of the passengers left, one came in. The horses had a drink and on
+they went over hill and dale, through great farms, where there were not
+more than two or three houses in sight. The stage stopped for a man who
+gave a loud halloo, and he climbed in. Then the horn gave another loud
+signal.
+
+So it went on. Some places were very pretty, great fields of corn waving
+in the sunshine, potatoes, stubble where grain had been cut, stretches
+of woodland, high, rather rough hills, then towns again. The sun went
+under a cloud, which made it pleasanter. The passengers changed now and
+then. One woman told her next neighbor "she was goin' in to Boston to
+shop, because things were cheaper now. She always went after the rush
+was over. There were cambrics, she heard, for one and ninepence, and
+cotton cloth home-made was so much cheaper than the imported, but you
+had to bleach it. And little traps that you couldn't get at a country
+store."
+
+Cynthia was tired and sleepy when they reached their journey's end,
+which was Marlborough Street, where Cousin Giles had an office.
+
+"Well! well! well!" he ejaculated in surprise. "Why, Miss Cynthia
+Leverett, I'm glad to see you. Have you come to town to shop?"
+
+Chilian made a little sign. "She has a whole month's vacation and we are
+going to fill it up with journeys, taking Boston first."
+
+"That's right. We shall have lots to show her. You'll hardly want to go
+back to Salem. It was a long warm ride, wasn't it? Chilian, take off her
+hat. Don't you want a drink?"
+
+"I am thirsty," she admitted.
+
+He fixed a glass of lemonade, and lemons were dear at that
+period--scarce, too. While she was sipping it, being refreshed in every
+pulse, the two men went down to the end of the room for a talk.
+
+"She's dreadfully disfigured," Chilian said in a low tone. "And
+Elizabeth wasn't a bad-looking woman. The doctor thinks she can't live
+but a few days, her body is growing cold rapidly. I'd like to have the
+child out of it all. Death is a great shock and very mysterious to a
+child."
+
+"Oh, I'll be glad to keep her, if she will stay content. I wish you
+could have brought that woman with you. Poor Elizabeth! How Eunice will
+miss her. Chilian, you've been like a son to those women. Women ought to
+marry and have children of their own, but children are not always kind.
+Yes. After you're rested we'll go home. I'm going to change my office,
+get nearer to the business centre, only this is so pleasant with a nice
+outlook."
+
+"You ought to retire."
+
+"Oh, what would I do? Like that Roman fellow, buy a farm? I don't know a
+bit about farming and don't want to. There's so much going on here."
+
+Presently they returned to the little girl, who was quite refreshed, and
+then they went out, as it would be dinner-time presently. Cousin Giles
+lived in Cambridge Street in quite an imposing row, though it had no
+such spacious grounds as at Salem.
+
+An immaculate black man opened the door and took the men's hats. "Ask
+Mrs. Stevens to come down," Cousin Giles said.
+
+Mrs. Stevens seemed a great lady. Eudora Castleton's mother was like
+this, always looking as if she was dressed for a party. She had a pretty
+silk gown, with some ruffles about the bottom, short enough to show her
+clocked silk stockings. The waist was short also, the square neck filled
+in with lace, and great balloon sleeves--so large at the top they came
+almost up to her ears.
+
+"This is the little girl who came from India, that I told you about, and
+who is going to be a great lady some day. When she gets older we'll have
+to have her down here to Boston, and give balls and parties for her, and
+pick out a fine lover for her; hey, Cynthia?"
+
+Cynthia turned scarlet.
+
+"I think you must be warm and tired with the long stage ride; wouldn't
+you like to come upstairs with me?"
+
+Cynthia rose as Cousin Chilian looked approval, and followed up the
+stairway, where her feet sank in the carpet. There were several rooms,
+with the air blowing through delightfully, and there was fragrance
+everywhere from vases of flowers.
+
+Mrs. Stevens took off her hat and inspected her. She was going to be a
+big heiress and a pretty girl in the bargain, piquant with a slightly
+foreign look, though perhaps it was more in her manner.
+
+"Susan," she called to a girl sewing in the next room, "come and wash
+this little visitor's hands and face. She has come all the way from
+Salem this morning. I wish we had a fresh frock for you, but we have no
+little girls."
+
+The voice was so soft and charming that Cynthia looked up with a kind of
+admiring smile.
+
+Susan took off her frock, bathed her face and hands with some perfumed
+water, brushed out her hair, and said, "What lovely hair you have, and
+so much of it. A queen might envy you!"
+
+The idea of a queen wanting anything she had! Oh, how nice and refreshed
+she felt.
+
+Susan shook out the frock and put it on again, pulled out the sleeves,
+smoothed the wrinkled skirt, and took her in the next room.
+
+"It rests one so much. Are you hungry? We shall have dinner in half an
+hour."
+
+"Oh, no," Cynthia said. "And--and I am very much obliged to Susan."
+
+"Come and sit here. Tell me how the aunties are--the one with the broken
+limb."
+
+"I think she isn't so well. Yesterday she was so much improved. The
+doctor was there this morning."
+
+"Poor lady! She has been ill a long while. And you are quite at home in
+Salem, I suppose? You had a long journey. Did you like India?"
+
+"Father was there;" with a sweet, attractive simplicity. "And some of it
+was very beautiful. Oh, I almost froze the first winter here, but last
+winter I didn't mind. And the sleigh-riding was splendid."
+
+"Are there many little girls to be friends with?"
+
+"Oh, I go to a nice school. And we have so many funny plays and dancing
+once a week. I didn't tease about it, though I wanted to go, and Cousin
+Chilian said I might. It's queer, but in India they come and dance for
+you, and you pay them. But it is lovely to do it for yourself;" and she
+made some graceful motions with her hands, while her beautiful eyes were
+alight with emotion, as if she heard the music.
+
+"Did you ever want to go back?"
+
+"At first. But when I heard that father had gone away, he had meant to
+come to Salem, but----" she made a pause, "mother was there in India.
+Only the bodies, you know, the other part that thinks and feels is in
+heaven. He wanted mother so much. He used to talk about her. And now I
+am going to live in Salem with Cousin Chilian all my life long."
+
+How simply sweet she was, with no self-consciousness.
+
+Then they were summoned to dinner. The elegant black servant waited on
+them, and that suggested India again. They went out on a back porch and
+sat in the shade. Cousin Giles found an opportunity to explain the
+matter to Mrs. Stevens, and after that the men went out for a while.
+
+Quite in the afternoon there were calls from stylishly-dressed ladies,
+and cake and cool drinks were brought in. Then Cousin Chilian told her
+that he would like her to stay all night and he would come in to-morrow.
+
+She didn't want to a bit. "Why, I would be very quiet and not disturb
+Cousin Elizabeth," she said, with beseeching eyes.
+
+"Will you not do it to please me?"
+
+She choked down a great lump. "Oh, yes," she answered in a low tone,
+without looking up. But it seemed very queer to her to be left this way.
+
+There was company in the evening--quite a party playing cards. She had
+a pretty story book to read until Susan came to put her to bed. And what
+a delightful little bed it was, like her little pallet at home, so much
+nicer than the big bed at Salem.
+
+She would not show that she was homesick, for so many nice things were
+being done for her. A note came from Chilian--Cousin Elizabeth was very
+ill, and he hoped she would be content. Some clothes were sent for her,
+some of her very best ones, and she was glad to have them.
+
+There were so many things to see in Boston, really much more than at
+Salem. They were putting up some fine public buildings. And there was
+Bunker Hill and Copp's Hill, and, down near the bay, Fort Hill. There
+seemed little rivers running all about and submerged lands.
+
+There were many other entertainments and her days were full. Mrs.
+Stevens sent out some cards and seven or eight young girls came in and
+chatted quite like the grown-up ladies, asking her about Salem, and
+being not a little surprised that she had lived in India. They had a
+pretty sort of half tea, cakes and delicacies after the thin bread and
+butter, and a most delightful cool drink that seemed to have all flavors
+in it. One of the girls played on the spinet afterward. So she had her
+first party at Cousin Giles', instead of Salem.
+
+Notes came from Cousin Chilian, and at last the welcome news that he was
+coming down for her.
+
+She had come to like Cousin Giles very much. He was so different from
+Chilian--breezy and rather teasing--and, oh, what would Cousin Elizabeth
+have said to his fashion of getting things about, putting papers or
+books on chairs, mislaying his glasses and his gloves, and she would
+think the fine furniture, and the servants, and the little feasts
+awfully extravagant.
+
+Poor Elizabeth! She had never come back to consciousness. She had shrunk
+intensely from the last moment when she would have to face death and the
+judgment, though she had been striving all her life to prepare for it.
+But God had mercifully spared her that, the two worlds had touched and
+merged with each other and left her to God.
+
+There had been a quiet funeral, though it was well attended, but the
+coffin was closed and a pall thrown over it, for the poor face had never
+recovered its natural look.
+
+All this was softened to Cynthia, as she sat with Cousin Chilian's arm
+about her. She had the sweet remembrance of that last day, and the smile
+that somehow had made the wrinkled face pretty. It had been thoughtful
+and tender in Cousin Chilian to spare her the rest.
+
+They went over to Cambridge and he took her through the place that was
+to be so much grander before she was done with life. And here was the
+house where he had lived through the week, going home to spend Sundays,
+for his father was alive then. And he told her stories about old Boston,
+some quaintly funny, but she was rather proud that Salem had been the
+first capital of the State.
+
+"I've had such a nice time," she said with her adieu. "Every day has
+been full of pleasure. I thank you both very much."
+
+She was to come again, and again, they rejoined cordially.
+
+"What a nice child!" Cousin Giles said. "She doesn't seem to consider
+what an heiress she is. And she's enough like Chilian to be his own
+child. He always had that dainty way with him, like a woman, and
+everything must be fine and nice, yet he never was ostentatious. She'll
+make a charming young woman. I wish I could persuade Chilian to come to
+Boston."
+
+Chilian had driven in with the carriage. There had been a shower in the
+night and the travelling was delightful. He had missed his little girl
+so much, yet he knew it had been better to save her the poignancy of the
+sad occurrence. So her father had thought in his trusting appeal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+CHANGES IN THE OLD HOUSE
+
+
+There was not as much change in household affairs as Cynthia supposed
+there would be. Elizabeth had been laid by so long that her place at the
+table had been filled by Eunice. Indeed, the former had an unfortunate
+habit of running out in the kitchen to see to something, then returning,
+pouring a cup of tea, passing some article of food, then disappearing
+again. It had grown on her, the belief that she must be everywhere or
+something would go wrong. It did annoy Chilian. And no one hustled up
+the dishes when you had eaten the last crumb of cake. He liked to linger
+over the table.
+
+Eunice was very glad to see her. Rachel took her wrap and her parcel
+upstairs, for supper had been waiting. Eunice poured the tea, Rachel
+passed the eatables, and they were both eager to hear how it had fared
+with the little girl.
+
+"It's been just splendid! Mrs. Stevens is--well, she is grand, and, oh,
+you ought to see the beautiful gowns she wears; but she doesn't hold you
+way off. You can come up close and lean on her shoulder or her lap. They
+were both so good. And, look! Cousin Giles would buy me these two
+rings;" and she held up her hand laughingly. "And an elegant necklace. I
+told him there were so many things here that were my mother's, but he
+wouldn't mind. And slippers! There's white, and a kind of gray, and a
+bronze, and a red pair. The little girls wear them when they come from
+school and go out to companies. Oh, Cousin Chilian, doesn't any one play
+on the spinet? I'd like to learn."
+
+"It's very old. It was mother's. I think we must have a new one. And you
+can learn."
+
+"Oh, I shall be so glad."
+
+Mrs. Taft was out in the kitchen. "Now you all go your ways," she began.
+"'Taint nothing to clear off the supper table."
+
+They sat out on the front porch. But through the talk Cynthia kept
+thinking of poor Cousin Elizabeth and feeling sorry she had not enjoyed
+more of the pleasures of life. Was there so much real virtue in making
+life hard and cold? But there were some girls in school who were very
+much afraid of dancing and reading story-books.
+
+Truth to tell, as Chilian listened, he came to experience a queer
+feeling--he would have scouted the idea of jealousy about Cousin Giles,
+but that he should have devoted himself so much to her and taken her
+about, wanted to buy trinkets for her and all that! There was still a
+week of vacation left. They would go somewhere to-morrow.
+
+He had asked Mrs. Taft to stay with them.
+
+"Well, I can't exactly promise. You see, I like to 'wrastle' with things
+and fight off the worst. Though I hadn't much hope of 'Lisbeth when the
+doctor said her spine was hurt. That's a kind of queer hidden thing that
+even doctors can't see into. And the poor creature suffered a good deal.
+My, but she was spunky and was bound not to die, and I fought for her
+all I could. But the last few weeks there was a change. She liked Cynthy
+to come in with the posies and say something bright. And now it's all
+done and over, and she was a good upright woman in the old-fashioned
+way. So I'll stay a spell till Miss Eunice gets used to the change, and
+when I see another good fight somewhere, you mustn't have hard feelings
+if I go."
+
+They went out the next morning and found a boat going up to Plum Island.
+It was like going to sea to go around Rockport Point. Captain Green
+declared "he wan't much on passengers, but he had a nice cabin and an
+awning on the for'ard deck, and there was a woman and some children
+whose husband living up there had bespoke passage."
+
+It was a fine day with the right sort of wind. Oh, how splendid it was
+as they went out oceanward. She had been on the water such a very little
+since her long voyage.
+
+Mrs. Halcom had three children and a baby. She was a plain, commonplace
+body, who had been living up to North Salem, but her folks were
+Newburyport people and she should be glad to get in sight and sound of
+them once again. Chilian had brought a book along, Ben Johnson's Plays,
+and now and then he met with such a charming line or two he must read it
+to her. There were some new poets coming to the fore as well, but he
+knew most of the older ones. Oh, he must get back his youth for her
+sake. Cousin Giles was ever so much older.
+
+She was interested in the ship as well and talked to Captain Green. He
+had so many funny nautical terms, provincialisms, that she had to
+inquire what some of the words meant. For most of the early people of
+New England had not dropped into the careless modes of speech that were
+to come later on and be adopted as a sort of patois. They read their
+Bibles a good deal and the older divines, and if their speech was a
+little stilted it had a certain correctness. Then Chilian Leverett was
+rather fastidious in this respect.
+
+The wind filled the sails and they skimmed along merrily. Now the sea
+was green and so clear you could see the fish disporting themselves.
+Then the sun tinted it with gold and threw up diamond, amethyst, and
+emeralds, taunting one with treasures.
+
+There are new names along the coast, though a few of the old ones
+remain. They passed Gloucester, Thatcher's Island, rounded Rockport,
+where in the inside harbor they had to unload part of their cargo. Then
+on to Plum Island, where the rest were set ashore and the woman and her
+children. Some few things were taken on board, but they were to stop at
+Gloucester, going down for the return cargo.
+
+They walked about a little and bought some ripe, luscious dewberries and
+fruit.
+
+"How queer it would be to live on an island and have to take your boat
+when you went anywhere," and Cynthia laughed gayly.
+
+"People do, farther up. There are a great many islands on the coast of
+Maine, and fishermen are living on them."
+
+"And in Boston Harbor Cousin Giles took us out. It's funny that they
+don't float off. Do they go 'way down to the bottom of the sea?"
+
+"I think they must. Sometimes one does disappear."
+
+"Suppose you were living on it. And you saw the water coming up all
+around you and you couldn't get away----"
+
+Her eyes filled with a kind of terror.
+
+"Oh, you would have some boats."
+
+"But if it happened in the night?"
+
+"We won't go and live on an island," he said with a smile.
+
+It was rougher going back, but not bad enough to cause any alarm. The
+wind had died down, but the swells were coming in. They stopped at
+Gloucester and took on some boxes and great planks, and several pieces
+of furniture.
+
+"There's enough old truck in Salem now," declared Captain Green
+ungraciously. "'F I had my way I'd turn it out on the Common and put a
+match to it. Now there's the Hibbins--came over in 1680 and brought
+their housen goods. There wan't any way of makin' 'em then but just
+outen rough logs. An' now the old granma'am's died and 'twas her
+mother's, I b'lieve, and Mis' Hibbins she's just gone crazy over it. And
+they're buildin' a fine new house. Strange how Salem's buildin' up!
+Those East Ingy traders do make lots of money. But before I'd have that
+old truck in my nice new house!" And the captain gave a snort of
+disdain.
+
+He did not dream that before another hundred years had passed there
+would be comparative fortunes made in the old truck.
+
+"We'll be a little late gettin' in, but there'll be a moon. Lucky wind
+ain't dead agin us."
+
+How good the supper tasted, for Cynthia was very hungry. And then they
+went on and on, hugging the shore, the captain said, until it was a kind
+of shadowy waving blur, but on the other side most beautiful. It made
+her think of coming from India, but she was glad to see the vague
+outline of the shore.
+
+The captain was much surprised that she had been such a traveller. He
+had been to New York and all around Long Island, and up as far as Nova
+Scotia. The Bay of Fundy was wonderful, with its strange dangerous
+tides.
+
+"We will go there another summer," Chilian said, holding her hand, and
+she returned the soft pressure.
+
+"I was 'most afraid something had happened." Eunice had gone down the
+street to meet them. "But it's clear as a bell and no wind to speak of,
+and the captains of the coasting vessels know every inch of the way."
+
+"Only just lovely things happened. It's been splendid. But I'm hungry
+again. Can't I have a second supper?"
+
+How different she looked from the little girl who had come to him for
+care and friendship. And he had been rather unwilling to accept her. She
+was growing tall, and--yes, really pretty.
+
+They had one more excursion to Winter Island. Why, it seemed as if they
+were building ships enough for the whole world. And there were the
+fisheries, and the curious musical singing, not really words, but sort
+of detached sounds that floated off in a weird kind of way.
+
+After that school again. She was glad to see the girls, and Madam Torrey
+gave her a warm welcome, saying, "Why, Miss Cynthia, how tall you have
+grown!"
+
+"I'm very glad," she said smilingly. "All the Leveretts are tall, but I
+don't ever want to be very large."
+
+"And she had really been to Boston! Was it so much handsomer than Salem?
+They had a real theatre, and parties, and balls. Sadie Adams' big
+sister was going to spend the whole winter there."
+
+Chilian Leverett decided to alter his house a little. The two rooms at
+the back had always seemed crowded up, though Elizabeth preferred a
+separate one so long as they connected. But he had the memory of the
+poor drawn face, as he had seen it the morning of her seizure. Wouldn't
+Eunice recall it as well?
+
+"I think I will make some alterations," he announced to her. "I'll push
+that upstairs room out over the summer kitchen and make it a good deal
+larger. While they are doing it, Eunice, you had better go over the
+other side and let Mrs. Taft take your room."
+
+She assented, though she thought the house and the rooms were large
+enough for the few people in it. Cynthia was interested in her studies,
+and the girls, and the new books coming in. For now Sir Walter Scott was
+having a great hearing, and there were some new poets.
+
+It was not expected that people would be at all gay when there had been
+a death in the family, so Cynthia felt compelled to decline her few
+invitations. The new room was finished and made much brighter with the
+two added windows. The walls were painted a soft gray, with a warm tint.
+There were yards and yards of new rag carpet up in the garret, sewed in
+bagging to keep out moths. Of course, it might as well be used. The old
+bedstead was taken out and though the one substituted was quite as old,
+it was very much prettier, with its carved posts and the tester frame
+from which depended white curtains. Some of the other furniture was
+changed and it made a very pretty room, so Eunice came back to it very
+much pleased, though not quite sure so much comeliness was best for the
+soul.
+
+At Christmas Chilian took the little girl down to Boston on a special
+invitation. There were two visitors a little older than herself, one
+whose father was a representative from the State, the other from New
+York.
+
+Washington was not much thought of in those days. Other cities had
+yielded their claims unwillingly, and there had been much talk of its
+being set in a morass. Mrs. President Adams had described her
+infelicities very graphically. The rooms were not finished, and she took
+one of the parlors for an adjunct to the laundry to dry the wash in. New
+York considered itself the great head for fashion and gayety, Boston for
+education and refinement, and she too, had quite an extensive port
+trade.
+
+But Giles Leverett thought the little girl from Salem was quite as
+pretty and well bred as Boston girls, and really she never seemed at
+loss now, and was seldom overtaken with a fit of shyness. They had a
+gay, happy time, with a regular dancing party, which filled Cynthia with
+the utmost delight.
+
+And though the winter seemed cold and bleak spring came again, as it
+always does. Mrs. Taft had gone away to another bad case. Eunice and
+Miss Winn kept the house. There had been quite an entertaining episode
+with Miss Winn. A very prosperous man, who lived up on the North side,
+and had a fine house and five children, asked her to be his wife,
+thinking she would make such an excellent mother for girls. It was
+supposed at that time that no woman could refuse a good offer of
+marriage.
+
+"Consider it well," said Mr. Leverett. "I don't know how we could give
+you up, and, of course, you could not take Cynthia. Her father made a
+generous provision for you, and I think he chose wisely for his child.
+But----"
+
+"I don't know that I want to begin over again," and she gave a peculiar
+smile. "Five seems quite an undertaking when you have had only one. And
+you have taken so much the charge of her."
+
+"But you see, now she will need a woman's guidance more than ever. She
+has outgrown childhood. I see the change in her every day. Eunice could
+not supervise her clothes and her pleasures, times have changed so much.
+I want her to be very happy and have a life like other girls----"
+
+She thought she could give up the prospect good as it was, won by that
+persuasive voice. And she had come to really love Miss Eunice, who was
+blossoming in a new phase now that there was nothing to restrain her
+natural sweetness.
+
+"I promised her father to do the best I could for her. I love her very
+much. I enjoy the home here. I do not think I could be any happier. And
+I am so used to owning myself that I do not feel disposed to give up my
+liberty. If I had no prospect, I might consider it. And Cynthia will
+need some one as she grows older to see that she makes the right sort of
+acquaintances and guide her a little."
+
+"Then since all is agreeable we can count on your staying. You cannot
+imagine my own thankfulness;" and he pressed her hand cordially.
+
+"Isn't it funny!" cried Cynthia. "Why, Margaret Plummer goes to Madam
+Torrey's, but she is very--well, I don't know just how to describe it,
+only she said once that they would all make the house too hot to hold a
+step-mother. And, oh, dear Rachel, I couldn't bear to have anybody ugly
+to you. And then you know we couldn't give you up. Cousin Chilian said
+so, and Miss Eunice cried."
+
+Miss Winn winked some tears out of her eyes, though she tried to smile.
+It was very comforting to a woman without kith or kin to feel so welcome
+in a household.
+
+Cynthia was sitting on the step of the porch one May night when the moon
+was making shifting shadows through the trees and silvering the paths.
+Chilian was studying the face, and wondering a little what was flitting
+through the brain that now and then gave it such intentness.
+
+"What are you thinking about?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Chilian!" She flushed a lovely, rosy glow. "Building an air
+castle."
+
+"Is it very airy? So far that it would be a journey for another person
+to reach it?"
+
+"Oh, part of it is near by. The other is what could be, maybe;"
+wistfully.
+
+"Can't I hear about it?"
+
+"Cousin Chilian, why are the parlors always shut up, and why don't you
+have people coming and going, and saying bright things, and talking
+about the improvements and--and Napoleon and the wars in Europe, and the
+new streets and houses, and, oh, ever so many things?"
+
+He looked at the tightly closed shutters. In his father's time there
+were visitors, discussions, playing at whist and loo, and little
+suppers. She wouldn't care for that, of course. Yet he remembered that
+she had been interested in the talks at Boston.
+
+"Why, yes; the rooms could be opened. Only we have grown so at home in
+the sitting-room, and you and I in the study."
+
+"At the Dearborns' they keep the house all open and lighted up, as they
+do in Boston. And they ask in young people and have plays, and charades,
+and funny conundrums----"
+
+Oh, she was young and should have this kind of life. How should he set
+about it? He must ask Miss Winn. But he ventured rather timidly, for a
+man.
+
+"Would you like--well, some girls in to tea? They ask you so often. And
+there is no reason why we should all be hermits."
+
+She sprang up and clasped her arms about his neck.
+
+"Oh, I just should. At first when Cousin Elizabeth went away, and the
+lessons were difficult, and it was winter, but now everything seems so
+joyous----"
+
+"Why, yes; we must talk to Miss Winn about it, Cynthia," and his voice
+dropped to a tender inflection. "I want you to feel this is your home
+and you must have all the joy and pleasures of youth. You need never be
+afraid. I've been a rather dull old fellow----"
+
+"Oh, you're not old. You're not as old as Cousin Giles, and ever so much
+handsomer. The girls at school think," she flushed and paused, "that you
+were so good to get me the pony and the pretty wagon." She was going to
+say something much more flattering, but delicacy stopped her.
+
+"My dear," he said gravely, "I was glad to make you the gift, but I want
+you to know that there is a considerable sum of money of your own, and
+your father wished you to enjoy it. Whatever you want and is proper for
+you to have, I shall be glad to get, and to do. For I have no little
+girl but you."
+
+"Would it be wicked and selfish if I said I was glad?"
+
+The arms tightened a little. How soft they were! And her hair brushed
+his cheek. It always seemed to have a delicate subtle perfume.
+
+"No, dear. You and I are curiously alone in the world. I haven't a first
+cousin, neither have you."
+
+"And a whole houseful of folks is so nice," she said wistfully.
+
+He had been very well content with his books and his college friends.
+But women were different, at least--those who shut out everybody
+narrowed their lives fearfully.
+
+"We will try and have some."
+
+"And you must like it. If you do not, the greatest pleasure will be
+taken out of it for me."
+
+"I shall like it;" encouragingly.
+
+"How good you are to me. Father said I must love you and obey you, for
+you would know what would be best for me."
+
+Then they sat in silence, the contentment of affection.
+
+He spoke to Miss Winn the next day. Afterward they went into the parlor
+and opened the shutters. It was stately, grand, and gloomy.
+
+Before Anthony Leverett had thought of sending his little girl to his
+care he had forwarded to Chilian a gift "for old remembrance' sake," he
+said, of a very handsome Oriental rug. Floors of the "best rooms" had
+been polished until you could see your shadow in them. Chilian did not
+like the noise or the continual trouble. So he laid down the rug and
+bought one for the other room. But the heavy curtains, with their silken
+linings, staid up year after year. He noticed those at Giles' house were
+much lighter and in soft colors. And his furniture was not so massive.
+
+"I wish we could change things a little. That old sofa might go up in
+the new room. It was grand enough in my father's time, with its borders
+of brass-headed tacks, and its flat, hard seat. Two of these chairs
+might come up in my room."
+
+"I wish we could find a place for the lovely sort of cabinet that
+Cynthia's father sent over. I keep it covered from dust and scratches.
+She will be glad to have it when she has a house of her own."
+
+"One of the rooms ought to be hers--well, both," he added reflectively.
+
+"The rugs are elegant. Yes, lighter curtains would change it a good
+deal. How very handsome the mantels are with all their carving."
+
+They would have adorned a modern house. They went nearly up to the
+ceiling with small shelves and nooks, on which were vases and ornaments
+such as bring fortunes now.
+
+"And--about the party?"
+
+"Oh, that will be only a girls' tea--her schoolmates where she has been.
+Next year will be time enough for the party;" with a little laugh.
+
+So the two spacious rooms were quite remodelled and modernized, and the
+gloomy appearance was a thing of the past. Why shouldn't he spend his
+money on her? There was no one else.
+
+He had not lost sight of Anthony Drayton. The father had been exigent.
+Anthony, being the eldest, must take the farm when he was done with it.
+The lad had worked his time out. Cousin Chilian had offered him enough
+to take him to a preparatory school where he would be fitted for
+college. He had come in to Boston and Chilian had been attracted to the
+manly young fellow.
+
+Cynthia was more than delighted with the privilege of the tea party.
+
+"Some of the girls have brothers, but I don't know them very well. I
+like Bentley, but he is away at school. And I'd rather have just girls."
+
+Her admiration of the parlor knew no bounds, and it gratified him.
+
+She had been taking lessons on the spinet, but the painting was a great
+rival. And this was old, thin, and creaky.
+
+"I have found a much better one in Boston, and the dealer wants this
+because it was made in London in 1680. How strenuous some people are
+over old things. It has no special interest that I know of, and is
+comparatively useless."
+
+The new ones were really the beginning of pianofortes and this one was
+very sweet in tone.
+
+Chilian had been very greatly interested in the changes. He began to
+cultivate his neighbors a little more. Indeed improvements were taking
+place in the town. New streets were laid out, old ones straightened,
+fine new houses built. There seemed a sudden outburst of commercial
+grandeur. Furnishings of the richest sort were eagerly caught up by the
+shoppers, who did not think it necessary to go to Boston and buy goods
+that had come in port here. Many of the old wooden houses were replaced
+with brick, and the beautiful doorways, windows, roofs, and porches
+still attract craftsmen and architects from different sections of the
+country, while illustrators find rich material in old Colonial doorways.
+
+Miss Winn consulted Mrs. Upham as to what was proper for a girls' tea.
+
+"Miss Cynthia is old enough now to begin with friends in a simple
+manner. The family have lived so quietly that I have not gained much
+experience in such matters, and Miss Eunice doesn't feel equal to
+managing it. Of course, Miss Cynthia is quite an heiress and will go in
+with the best people."
+
+"As the Leveretts always have. There's been many a cap set for Chilian
+Leverett and it's been a wonder to every one that he hasn't married. But
+there's time enough yet."
+
+She came over and admired the parlors without stint.
+
+"You see," she said confidentially, "Miss Elizabeth was no hand for
+company. Some of the older people did the same, shut up the best rooms
+lest they should get faded, or something scratched, or worn. And I
+suppose he kept giving in; then there was his going in to college, and
+that's a sort of man's life. I'm glad he has had something to stir him
+up. He has been to several town-meetings. They are talking up
+improvements. It's a fine thing to have so many vessels flying Salem
+flags in different ports; nigh on to two hundred registered, husband
+said. But I told him there ought to be some home interest as well. We
+must not let Boston get so far ahead of us, nor forget the young people
+are to be the next generation."
+
+"And young people want some pleasure. I do not see how they stood so
+much of the gloomy side twenty years ago. I was that surprised when I
+first came here."
+
+"Well, there had been a good many things, and all that witchcraft
+business. Puritan ways grew sterner and sterner. I can't say that people
+were really the better for it, in my way of thinking, and the Saviour
+talked a good deal about loving and helping people. He didn't stop to
+make them subscribe to all sorts of hard things before he worked a
+miracle. But we were going to talk about the tea."
+
+"Yes; about what time now? I want Cynthia to have it just right and
+proper;" laughing.
+
+"They come--we'll say about four. They will want to run around and see
+things, and I'd have supper about five and they'll sit over it, and
+talk, and laugh. Suppose I send my 'Mimy over to pass things and wait.
+You would not want Miss Eunice to do it, and you will have other things
+on your hands."
+
+"Oh, thank you. You are very kind about it."
+
+"Well, I've had a girl to grow up and be married, and Polly's to leave
+school this summer, and next winter she will be setting up for a young
+lady. Little cookies and spicenuts are nice and two kinds of cake. You
+never give them real tea, you know, though it's called a tea party. And
+some cold chicken, or sliced ham. I'd spread the plates of bread, it's
+so much less trouble. They'll be sure to enjoy everything. A lot of
+girls always do have a good time."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A TASTE OF PLEASURE
+
+
+Cynthia was full of joy, running down to the gate to meet and greet
+guests. They came in groups of twos and threes, having called for each
+other. There were fifteen in all--the girls she knew best, who were
+nearest her own age, and at most of the houses she had been made a
+welcome guest. Indeed, more than one mother was glad to have her
+daughter good friends with Miss Cynthia Leverett, who was to be a rich
+young woman, and whose trustee in Boston lived in fine style.
+
+Yet it was not exactly that money was so much thought of either, though
+it was always esteemed an excellent thing. Somehow it was rather
+relegated to the men. A father had an idea that his daughters would
+marry well, so business opportunities, and often the homestead, went to
+the sons. Here was an undivided fortune. And now it was hardly likely
+Chilian Leverett would marry, so she might come in for that.
+
+The house had always been considered rather gloomy, as even on state
+occasions not much light was allowed in the parlors. Some of the girls
+had been gently advised to notice if there had been changes made.
+
+Cynthia led them upstairs to take off their things. They were rather
+particular about complexions in those days. Some of the summer hats were
+really ornate sunbonnets, others were the great poke shape with a big
+bow on top and wide strings that were allowed to float on a hot day, so
+as not to get crushed by the warmth under the chin. They had long muslin
+sleeves to pull over their arms, indeed some of them were finished with
+mittens, so that the hands might not get tanned.
+
+The girls wore rather scant straight skirts, tucked up to the waist, or
+with needlework at the bottom, or two or three tiny ruffles. The
+stockings were not always white, oftener they matched the color of the
+slippers that were laced across the instep. The necks were cut square,
+often finished with a lace berthe. Some old families have handed these
+down and kept them laid away in rose leaves and lavender, and they are
+so sweet that when they are shaken out they perfume the room.
+
+Cynthia wore a white gauzy frock made over blue silk that was soft as a
+pansy leaf. It had blue satin stripes and she was very glad she had the
+pretty blue slippers to match. Then almost every girl had a coral
+necklace, or was allowed to wear grandmother's gold beads. Some had
+their hair tied up high on their heads with a great bow, and maybe the
+family silver or gold comb put in artistically. Chilian liked the
+little girl's to hang loose, and now it was down to her waist.
+
+It was said the Holland wives of centuries ago took their visitors
+through their wardrobes and displayed their silk and velvet gowns. And
+when England passed some sumptuary laws that no one below titled rank
+should wear silk, the good wives of traders lined theirs with silk and
+hung them up in grand array to gratify their visitors or themselves.
+
+"You have so many lovely things," said a girl enviously. "I haven't but
+one silk frock, and that was Mary's until she outgrew it. And mother's
+so choice of it; she thinks it ought to last and go to Ruth."
+
+"Why, you see, so many things came from India," apologized Cynthia,
+almost ashamed of having so much. "And there's a boxful upstairs, but I
+think I like the white muslins best, they look so pretty when they are
+clean, and you don't have to be so careful."
+
+"Do you ever get scolded when accidents happen?"
+
+"Well, not much. Cousin Eunice is so sweet. Cousin Elizabeth was more
+particular."
+
+"And Miss Winn?"
+
+"Oh, my dear Rachel loves me too much," the child said laughingly.
+
+There were so many odd and pretty things that they staid up until all
+the girls had come--not one of them declined. Then they went down to the
+parlors.
+
+"Cousin Chilian said this back room was to be mine. That lovely desk
+and the cabinet were my own mother's. And the table is teakwood. The
+chair father had carved for me, and that big portrait is father. This
+case has miniatures of them both, but it is too big ever to wear."
+
+"What a pity!"
+
+It was a beautifully engraved gold case, set with jewels.
+
+"Well, you are a lucky girl! And you can have all these yourself. You
+just don't have to share them with anybody. Is the room truly yours?"
+
+"Why, it is to put my things in, but anybody can come in it, and we can
+go in the other room. Most of those articles were Cousin Chilian's
+father's and mother's, and the great clock in the hall came over in
+1640. It's funny;" and she laughed. "Old furniture and quilts and things
+never get cross and queer as folks sometimes do."
+
+"Well, they're not really alive."
+
+"And they last so much longer than folks."
+
+They had not inspected all the things when Miss Winn invited them out to
+supper. She took the head of the table, and began to talk so that they
+should not feel embarrassed. The lovely old china was on the table, and
+two vases of flowers that looked as if they were set with gems. 'Mimy
+passed the plates of bread and butter and cold meats and cottage cheese,
+and after a little they all began to talk as if it was recess at
+school.
+
+Mr. Chilian Leverett passed through the sitting-room and thought it was
+really an enchanting sight, and that Cynthia was the prettiest girl of
+them all.
+
+People had not thought up ice cream in those days, but they made lovely
+custards, baked in cups with handles, and a tiny spoon to eat them with.
+They were the last of the tea.
+
+Then they went into the front parlor, which was the larger and played
+fox and geese, and blind-man's buff in a ring. Oh, Elizabeth, it was
+enough to disturb your rest to have those merry feet twinkle over the
+beautiful rug, when you scarcely dared walk tiptoe for fear of crushing
+the soft pile. But they had a grand, good time.
+
+Then Mr. Leverett brought in Cousin Eunice, who had a bit of white at
+her neck and wrists, and a lavender bow on her cap. She had protested
+against the bow, but Miss Winn had carried her point.
+
+Mr. Leverett set them to doing some amusing things he had resurrected
+from his own boyhood. Catches on words, such as "Malaga grapes are very
+good grapes, but the grapes of Oporto are better." And then, "A hen, a
+hen, but not a rooster. Can you say _that_?" They were greatly puzzled
+and looked at Cynthia, who was silently smiling, saying it over in every
+manner, until at last one girl almost shrieked out, "_That_," and there
+was a chorus of laughter.
+
+At nine o'clock they were bidden to come home. Some of them were sent
+for and those who lived near together went in a group. Ben Upham came
+for his sisters.
+
+"I don't see why they couldn't have had boys," said Ben to Polly. "Ever
+so many of us would have been glad to come."
+
+"Well, we didn't have any real boys' plays. But the supper was elegant.
+And 'Mimy waited so nicely. Cynthia's going to have the back parlor for
+hers, and Mr. Leverett has bought a new spinet. And she has the most
+beautiful things----"
+
+"Oh, yes, I've seen those;" rather impatiently.
+
+"And Mr. Leverett's just splendid!"
+
+"I always told you so;" somewhat grumpily. "But I'd rather be up in the
+study with him and Cynthy than to go to half a dozen parties."
+
+"Oh, we weren't in the study at all."
+
+"No, that isn't for girls." So he had scored one, after all.
+
+It was the general verdict when the tea party was talked over that
+Cynthia Leverett was in a fair way of being spoiled. A man didn't know
+how to bring up a girl, and, of course, Miss Winn let her have her own
+way. Miss Eunice had given in to her sister so long that she gave in to
+every one else.
+
+Friends went to call and found the children had not exaggerated. Now and
+then a neighbor was asked in to supper, and found Cynthia a nice, modest
+girl, with no airs of superiority.
+
+They had some journeys about. They went up to the bay of Fundy and
+cruised around, chatting with fishermen and French settlers in their odd
+costumes, looked at their funny little huts, and were amazed at the
+children rolling round in the sand and the sun. Cousin Chilian talked to
+them, but their language was a sort of patois difficult to understand.
+
+After that Cynthia was much interested in the French and English war.
+And the whole country was watching the Corsican who had made himself
+master of half of Europe.
+
+"It is a wonderful world," Cynthia said when they were safe in the study
+again. "And I wonder if it is narrow and selfish to be glad that you are
+just you?"
+
+He was amused at the idea. But he couldn't recall that he had ever been
+anxious to change with any one.
+
+"And that _you_ are just _you_. I couldn't like any one else as well,
+not even Cousin Giles, and I do like him very much."
+
+Chilian felt a rise of color stealing up his cheek. The preference was
+sweet, for Cousin Giles was extremely indulgent to her, and he was not a
+child enthusiast either.
+
+In those days no one supposed parents and friends were put in the world
+purposely for children's pleasure. They didn't even consider they came
+for _their_ pleasure. It was right to have them, they were to be the
+future men and women, workers, legislators, and homemakers. They didn't
+always have easy times, nor their own way, and they were not thought to
+be wiser than their parents, even in the choice of professions for life.
+But there were many fine brave fellows among the boys, and the girls
+went on, making pretty good wives and mothers. If life did not bring
+them just what they wished, they accepted it and did the best they
+could.
+
+Anthony Drayton came to make Cousin Chilian a visit and pass an
+examination for Harvard. With a little help he had worked his way
+through the academy. He was one of the brave, resolute boys, and, though
+it grieved him to go against his father's wishes, he had decided for
+himself.
+
+"I really could not bury myself on a farm," he confessed. "I want a
+wider life, I want to mix with men and take an interest in the country.
+Not that I despise farming, and if one could branch out and do many new
+things, but to keep on year after year in the old rut, corn and
+potatoes, wheat and rye--just as grandfather did. What is the use of a
+man living if he can't strike out some new ways? Maybe I'd been willing
+to go to the new countries, but father was just as opposed to that."
+
+He was a fresh, fair lad, with eyes of the Leverett blue, a strong, fine
+face, not delicate as Cousin Chilian's. His hair was not very dark, but
+his brows well defined, and with the eyelashes much darker than the
+hair. His voice had such a cheerful uplift.
+
+"You have quite decided then?" Chilian wondered if he could ever have
+gone against his father's wishes, but in that case father and son had
+similar tastes.
+
+"Oh, yes; I've nothing farther to look for, and I'm willing to leave my
+share to the other children. I know I can make my way, and I'm ready to
+work and wait."
+
+His voice had such a nice wholesome ring that it inspired you with faith
+in him.
+
+Cousin Eunice took a great fancy to him. They talked over the visit of
+years ago. It seemed to her as if it had just been the beginning of
+things.
+
+One sister was grown up and "keeping company," the other a nice handy
+girl. The next brother would be a great help--he cared nothing for
+books. Both of the Brent cousins were married, one living on the farm
+with his mother, the other having struck out for himself. And Miss Eliza
+Leverett was weakly. Like many women of that period, when all hope of
+marrying and having a home of her own was past, she sank down into a
+gentle nonentity and dreamed of Cousin Chilian. Not that she had
+expected to captivate him, but life with some one like that would set
+one on the highest pinnacle.
+
+He thought Cousin Cynthia--they were always cousins, to the fourth
+generation--was the sweetest, daintiest, and most winsome thing he had
+ever seen--and so she was, for his acquaintance with girls had been
+limited. They looked over the old treasures in the house and thought it
+wonderful any one should ever go to India and return without being
+wrecked. They walked about the lovely garden, and he was amazed at her
+familiarity with flowers and plants he had never seen.
+
+Then she took him over to the Uphams, for an old friend came in to play
+checkers with Cousin Chilian. Polly was bright and merry, but somehow
+Ben seemed rather captious. Anthony listened with surprise at the bright
+sayings they flung at one another.
+
+The next day he and Cousin Chilian went over topics for examination. His
+reading had not been extensive but thorough. In mathematics he was
+excellent. But he found some time to chat with Cynthia, and they both
+walked down to the warehouse with Cousin Chilian.
+
+What a sight it was! He had read of such things, but to see the hundreds
+of busy men, the great fleet of vessels, the docks piled with all kinds
+of wares, the boxes and bales lying round in endless confusion. And the
+great ocean, lost over beyond in the far-off sky.
+
+When the two had gone up to Boston, Cynthia felt very lonely. She had
+been sipping the sweets of unspoken admiration. She saw it in the eyes,
+in the deference, as if he was almost afraid of her, in the sudden flush
+when she turned her eyes to him. It was a new kind of worship.
+
+She went over to the Uphams. Polly had been having her sampler framed.
+The acorn border was very pretty in its greens and browns. Then a stiff
+little tree grew up both sides, about like those that came in the Noah's
+Ark later on. And between these two trees was worked in cross-stitch:
+
+          "Mary Upham is my name,
+              America is my nation;
+           Salem is my dwelling place,
+              And Christ is my salvation."
+
+"Isn't the frame nice?" she asked. "I made father two shirts and he gave
+me the frame and the glass. Peter Daly made it. And the frame is oiled
+and polished until the grain shows--well, almost like watered silk.
+Gitty Sprague has a beautiful pelisse of gray watered silk. And now I
+have one thing for my house. I'm beginning to lay by."
+
+"Your house!" Cynthia ejaculated in surprise.
+
+"Why, yes--when I'm married. You have such lots of things, you'll never
+have to save up."
+
+Cynthia was wondering what she could give away. Not anything that was
+her father's or her mother's.
+
+"I'll paint you a picture. You do so much better needlework than I that
+I should be ashamed to offer you any."
+
+"And the girls will give me some, I know. I'd fifty times rather have
+the picture. What a nice young fellow that cousin is! I'm glad his name
+isn't Leverett. There's such a host of them. But I don't like Anthony so
+well."
+
+"That was father's name. It's quite a family name. It always sounds good
+to me."
+
+"And is he going to Harvard?"
+
+"Yes; even if he can't get in right away."
+
+"That's nice, too. It's quite the style for young men to go to college.
+Some of them put on a sight of airs, though. He doesn't look like that
+kind."
+
+"He isn't," she returned warmly. "He is going to work his way through."
+
+"Oh! Hasn't he any father?"
+
+"Yes; but his father will not do anything for him. I think it is real
+grand of him."
+
+Polly nodded, but she lost interest in the young man.
+
+Bentley walked home with Cynthia. It was afternoon, so he did not really
+need to.
+
+"I suppose that cousin isn't going to live with you?" he asked
+presently.
+
+"Oh, no; he will have to live in Boston."
+
+"And come up here for Sundays?"
+
+"Why, I don't know. That would be nice. I think I am growing fond of
+company."
+
+"Well, I can come over;" half jocosely.
+
+"Oh, I meant other people;" innocently.
+
+"Then you don't care for my coming?"
+
+"Yes, I do. Oh, do you remember that winter I was half sick and how you
+used to come over and read Latin? And I used to say it to myself after
+you."
+
+That delighted him. He didn't feel so cross about the young fellow, but
+he half hoped he wouldn't pass, and have to go back to New Hampshire for
+another year.
+
+They sat on the stoop and chatted until the old stage stopped and
+Chilian alighted.
+
+"Oh!" the young girl cried, "where did you leave Anthony?"
+
+"With Cousin Giles. The examinations will begin to-morrow."
+
+It was near supper-time and Ben rose to go. Sometimes they asked him to
+stay to supper, but to-night they did not.
+
+Then an event happened that took Cynthia's entire interest for a while.
+This was the return of Captain Corwin. He came up the walk one
+day--quite a grizzled old fellow it seemed, with the sailor's rolling
+gait--and looked at her so sharply that she had a mind to run away.
+
+"Oh, Captain Anthony's little girl," he cried. "You have forgotten me.
+And it ain't been so long either."
+
+She thought a moment and turned from red to white. Then she stretched
+out both hands and cried, her eyes and voice full of tears:
+
+"Oh, you couldn't bring him back!"
+
+"No, little Missy. He'd shipped for the last time before I'd reached
+there and gone to a better haven. He was the best friend I ever had. But
+he knew it long afore, and that was why he wanted you safe with
+friends."
+
+"I know now." She brushed the tears from her eyes.
+
+"And I hope you've been happy."
+
+"I waited and waited at first. Sometimes I wished I was a bird. Oh,
+wouldn't we have a lovely time if we could fly? And one time in the
+winter I was quite ill--it was so cold and I did get so tired of
+waiting. Then Cousin Chilian told me he had gone to mother and I knew
+how glad she would be to see him. I had some nice times. Cousin Chilian
+loved me very much. So did Cousin Eunice. I think Cousin Elizabeth would
+if she had lived longer, but she went away, too. Oh, I've done so many
+things--studied books, and taken journeys, and made friends, and painted
+pictures, flowers, and such. And I've tried to paint the sea, but I
+can't make it move and seem like a real sea."
+
+"Oh, Missy, how smart you must be!"
+
+"There are so many things I don't know," she laughed. "And now tell me
+about yourself and why you did not come back."
+
+"We had a pretty fair journey all along first. But as we were nearing
+Torres Strait an awful storm took us, and we were driven ashore almost a
+wreck and lost two of our men. After a while we got patched up and set
+sail again, but I was afraid we would never reach harbor. Howsomever we
+did, in a pretty bad condition. Poor _Flying Star_ seemed on its last
+legs and 'twasn't sea legs either. Then I went up to Hong Kong and
+cruised around, buying stuff and selling it elsewhere. The _Flying Star_
+was patched up again, but she wasn't thought safe for a long journey.
+But there was plenty of work near at hand. Of course, I knew all about
+your father, and that the word must have reached you, but I hated
+mortally to come back and face you. But after a while the hankerin' for
+old Salem grew upon me. And there was the _Aurora_ wantin' a captain,
+for the man who brought her out died of a fever. So says I, 'I'm your
+man, and I've been over often enough to know the ropes, the islands, and
+p'ints of danger and safe sailing.' So here I be once more. But jiminy
+Peter! I should hardly 'a' knowed little old Salem. Why, she looks as if
+she was going to outsail all creation!"
+
+"Oh, we're getting very grand. New streets, and splendid new houses, and
+stores, and churches. Why, Boston isn't very much finer."
+
+"Don't b'lieve Boston harbor can show tonnage with her! And where's
+first mate?"
+
+"I don't know, but he will be in soon. Oh, there's Rachel. Rachel, come
+here to an old friend."
+
+The captain shook hands heartily. "Why, you don't seem to have changed a
+mite, only to grow younger and plump as a partridge."
+
+It had all to be talked over again and in the midst of it supper was
+ready, and there was Miss Eunice's surprise. Cynthia could hardly eat,
+the long journey and the dangers seemed such a strange thing now. Had
+she really come from India, or was it all a dream?
+
+Yes, old Salem was almost fading out of the minds of even middle-aged
+people. There were curious stories told about witches and ghosts, but
+the real witchcraft was dying out of mind and the old houses that had
+been associated with it were looked upon as curiosities. Public spirit
+was being roused. In 1804 the East India Marine Society left the Stearns
+house and moved to the new Pickman Building in Essex Street. People
+began to send in curiosities that had been stored away in garrets:
+models of early vessels, articles from Calcutta, from the islands about
+the Central and South Pacific, cloths, and cloaks, and shawls, and
+implements.
+
+The captain was quite sure Winter Island had grown larger--perhaps it
+had, by docking out. And he declared the streets looked like London,
+with the gayly gowned women, the stores, the carriages, for a number of
+handsome late ones were to be seen. There were a few fine young men on
+the promenade and they were attired in the height of fashion, as the
+society men of New York and Philadelphia. They were still paying
+attention to business and devoting the evenings to pleasure. Descendants
+of the strict old Puritans met to play cards and have dances and gay
+times with the young ladies. In the afternoon a cup of tea would be
+offered to callers, or a piece of choice cake and a glass of
+wine--often home-made. There were few excesses.
+
+Many were still wearing the old Continental attire, yet you saw an old
+Puritan gentleman, with his long coat, his high-crowned hat, black silk
+stockings, and low shoes with great steel buckles.
+
+Anthony was very much interested in the captain, whose best friend had
+been Anthony Leverett. He was proud of the name, and Cynthia's story was
+like a romance to him. He was taken up quite cordially by Cousin Giles,
+and very cordially by Mrs. Stevens, who had a liking for young men when
+they were well-mannered. He had managed to enter Harvard, with some
+studies to make up. Chilian Leverett insisted he should do no teaching
+this year, and offered him enough to see him through, but he would only
+accept it as a loan.
+
+Bentley Upham was a year ahead and had a good standing, but he felt a
+little jealous of the young country fellow--"bumpkin" he would have
+liked to call him, but he was not that. A young man received at Mr.
+Giles Leverett's, and who sometimes escorted Mrs. Stevens to an
+entertainment, was not to be ignored.
+
+The captain staid in port nearly two months and Cynthia experienced her
+old fondness for him, if he was a little uncouth and rough. They went
+down to see the _Aurora_ off and she recalled the day she had said
+good-bye to the _Flying Star_, that was to bring back her father.
+
+As for her she was very busy learning to play and to paint. It was a
+young lady's accomplishment, but she really did very well. There were
+girls' teas, and now and then a small dance that began at seven and
+ended at nine, but boys were invited generally. Miss Polly Upham was
+quite in the swim, as we should say now. Mothers expected their
+daughters to marry, and how could they if they did not see young men?
+But there was a certain propriety observed, and very little playing fast
+and loose with the most sacred period of life, with the greatest
+God-given blessing--Love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+IN GAY OLD SALEM
+
+
+The next winter Cynthia was fairly launched on society. There was no
+regular coming out in almost bridal array, with a grand tea and a
+houseful of flowers. When a girl left school she expected to be invited
+out and to give little companies at home. Almost the first thing, she
+was asked to be one of the six bridesmaids at Laura Manning's wedding.
+
+The Mannings had one of the splendid new houses on Chestnut Street, with
+spacious grounds before the houses grew so close together. Avis Manning
+was still in school, Cynthia was between the two in age. Mr. Manning was
+connected with the East India trade and an old friend of the Leverett
+family. It had begun by Cynthia being invited to a girls' tea, and Mrs.
+Manning had taken a great fancy to her. Laura was not very tall, and
+they did not want any one to dwarf the bride.
+
+Every one was to be in white, the bride in a soft, thick silk, and she
+was to have a court train. The maids were to be in mull or gauze, as a
+very pretty thin material was called. The Empress Josephine had brought
+in new styles that certainly were very becoming to young people. The
+short waist and square neck, the sleeve puffs that had shrunk so much
+they no longer reached the ears, the short curls around the edge of the
+forehead arranged so the white parting showed, the dainty feet in
+elegant slippers and choice silk stockings that could not help showing,
+for the skirts were short. Pretty feet and slim ankles seemed to be a
+mark of good family.
+
+"Will I do?" Cynthia stood before Cousin Chilian with a half-saucy
+smile. Around her throat she wore a beautiful Oriental necklace, with
+pendants of different fine stones that sparkled with every turn of the
+head. There were match pendants in her ears, and just back of the rows
+of curls was a jewelled comb.
+
+She was a pretty girl without being a striking beauty. But her eyes
+would have redeemed almost any face, and now they were all aglow with a
+wonderful light.
+
+He looked his admiration.
+
+"Because if _you_ don't like me----"
+
+There was a charming half-coquettish way about her, but she never made a
+bid for compliments.
+
+"What then?" laughing.
+
+"I'd stay home and spoil the wedding party. I know they couldn't fill my
+place on a short notice."
+
+He thought they couldn't fill it at all, but he said almost merrily,
+"You need not stay at home."
+
+Cousin Eunice said she looked pretty enough for the bride. Miss Winn had
+attended to her toilette, and now she wrapped a soft silken cloak about
+her and Cousin Chilian put her in the carriage. He was all in his best,
+ruffled shirt-front, light brocaded silk waist-coat, and there were lace
+ruffles about his hands.
+
+One feels inclined to wonder at the extravagance of those days, when one
+sees some of the heirlooms that have come down to us. But their handsome
+gowns went through several seasons, and then were made over for the
+daughters. And they did not have their jewels reset every few months.
+
+Such a roomful of pretty girls! Youth and health and picturesque
+dressing make almost any one pretty. Miss Laura looked fine, but she
+paused to say, "Oh, Cynthia, what an elegant necklace!"
+
+"Father had it made for mother," she replied simply.
+
+They patted and pulled a little, powdered, too.
+
+Miss Willard, the great mantua-maker of that day, who superintended the
+dressing of brides, saw that everything was right. The young men came
+from their dressing-room, and they began to form the procession. Both
+halls were illuminated with no end of candles, and guests were standing
+about. Mr. Lynde Saltonstall took his bride-to-be, and they let the
+white train sweep down the broad stairway, then Avis Manning and Ed
+Saltonstall followed. They were not much on knick-names in those days,
+but he had been called Ed to distinguish him from some cousins.
+
+Cynthia and a cousin came next, and there were several other relatives.
+It was a beautiful sight. The bride walked up to the white satin cushion
+on which the couple would kneel during the prayer, the maids and
+attendants made a semicircle around her, and then the nearest relatives.
+The old white-haired minister had married her mother.
+
+Then there was kissing and congratulation and Mrs. Saltonstall had her
+new name, though Avis said she liked Manning a hundred times better.
+
+"Then you wouldn't accept my name?" said Ed, but he looked laughingly at
+Cynthia.
+
+"Indeed I wouldn't! I don't want any one's name at present. I'm going to
+be the only daughter of the house a while," she returned saucily.
+
+"I wonder if I ought to go on and ask all the maids?" There was such a
+funny anxiety in his face that it added to the merriment.
+
+"You needn't ask this one," said Ward Adams, and Cousin Lois Reade
+blushed scarlet, though they all knew she was engaged.
+
+"But I'm going to dance with every maid. And just at twelve I'm going to
+hunt for a glass slipper."
+
+His look at Cynthia said he needn't hunt very far, and she blushed,
+which made her more enchanting than before.
+
+They all laughed and talked, the older men teasing the bride a little
+and giving her advice as to how she should break in her new husband.
+Young people's weddings were expected to be gay and every one added his
+or her mite. The fine new house was duly admired. On one side it was all
+one long room, beautifully decorated. On the other a library, for books
+were beginning to come in fashion, even if you were not a clergyman or a
+student. Then a kind of family sitting-room, with a large dining-room at
+the back. Some of the fine old houses were taken for public purposes
+later on.
+
+They went out to refreshments and the bride cut the cake with a silver
+knife. Large suppers were no longer considered the style, but there was
+a bountiful supply of delicacies. They drank health and long life to the
+bride and groom, and good wishes of all kinds.
+
+The black waiter, in white gloves and white apron, stood in the hall to
+deliver boxes of wedding cake as the older people took their departure.
+And then the fiddlers began to tune up. There were two minuets to take
+in all the party. Cynthia and Mr. Jordan were in the head one, with the
+bride. He was a little stiff and excused himself, as he wasn't much
+given to dancing. It didn't matter so much in the minuet.
+
+Then they paired off any way. Mr. Ed Saltonstall caught Cynthia's hand.
+
+"I'm just dying to dance with you, and this is the basket quadrille.
+Jordan dances like a pump handle, but he's a good fellow. Now let us
+have something worth while. I know you dance beautifully."
+
+"How do you know?" piquantly.
+
+"I'd like to be nautical and impertinent, but I'm afraid you'd report
+me to Mr. Leverett. Oh, it's in you, in every motion. Aren't you glad
+you didn't live in those old Puritan days when you would have been put
+in the stocks if you had skipped across the room? Come."
+
+That _was_ dancing. Not a halt nor an ungraceful turn, but every curve
+and motion was as perfect as if they had danced together all their
+lives. She gave two or three happy sighs. Her cheeks were like the heart
+of a blush rose; she never turned very red when she ran or skipped, and
+never looked blowsy.
+
+Another person watched and thought her the prettiest thing in the room,
+and was very glad she belonged to him.
+
+"I'm sorry I have to dance with some one else and it's Lois Reade. Adams
+would like to kick me, I know, and she would be twice as happy with him.
+That is the price you pay for assisting your brother into matrimony.
+Next time there shall not be but one bridesmaid, and I'll dance with her
+all the evening."
+
+"Next time? Will he be married twice?" she asked demurely.
+
+"Oh, you witch! You are the most delicious dancer--it almost seems as if
+you were sipping some very fine wine----"
+
+"And it went to your head," she laughed.
+
+"Head and heels both. I'm extravagantly fond of it with a partner like
+you. You'll go to the assemblies this winter?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know."
+
+"Is Mr. Leverett very--he's your guardian, and somehow I stand just a
+little in awe of him. He is so polished, and knows so much, and is he
+going to be very exclusive?"
+
+"Why----" She didn't quite understand, but she looked out of such lovely
+eyes that all his pulses throbbed.
+
+"Take your places."
+
+She was standing there alone when Mr. Adams asked her. That was only
+fair play. Mr. Saltonstall was in the same set and he gave her hand a
+squeeze when he took her, crumpled it all up in his, and she flushed
+daintily.
+
+He could not dance with her again until the very last. That was a
+"circle" in which you balanced and turned your partner and went to the
+next couple, but some way you returned to your own. There were various
+pretty figures in it. Once or twice she was a little confused, but he
+seemed always on the watch for her.
+
+The music stopped and the fiddlers were locking their cases. The dancers
+went out to the supper-room again.
+
+"I'd rather dance than eat. I believe I could dance without music. Would
+you like to try?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, no!" with a frightened look that made him laugh.
+
+Mr. Leverett came, and Mr. Saltonstall was all polite deference. He
+wished he could be invited to call, but how was it to be managed?
+
+Then Cynthia went upstairs to put on her cloak. The bride kissed her,
+and said she was glad to have had her, and when they gave their
+house-warming she must be sure to come.
+
+"I've had such a lovely time. Thank you ever so much."
+
+"I'm the obliged one," was the reply.
+
+If she had not been in the carriage she must have danced all the way
+home. There was music in her head and a "spirit in her feet." She hardly
+heard what Cousin Chilian was saying, only after they entered the house
+and she slipped out of her wrap, with his good-night, he said, "You are
+a very pretty girl, Cynthia." Of course, he should have had more sense
+than to foster a girl's vanity.
+
+The next morning she asked him about the assemblies.
+
+"They are very nice dancing parties. Only the best people go and no sort
+of freedom or misbehavior is tolerated. I think I'll take out a
+membership."
+
+"Oh, do, please do," she entreated.
+
+The elegant wedding was talked of for days. Girls called on Miss
+Leverett--it seemed funny to be called that. She was asked to join a
+sewing society that made articles of clothing for the widows and
+children of drowned sailors, and there were many of them on the New
+England coast. Her tender heart was moved by the pathetic tales she
+heard.
+
+"Dear Cousin Eunice," she said one day, "I went with one of the
+committee to see a poor sick woman who is in awful destitution. There
+are three small children, and when she is well she goes out washing.
+They send her driftwood and old stuff from the ship-yards, and one of
+the companies pays her rent. But you should see the things! Such ragged
+quilts that hardly hold together, and one little boy was without
+stockings. There are so many things up in the garret that you will never
+use----"
+
+"Likely, dear, but they are Chilian's."
+
+"He said I might ask you, that he was willing. Can't we go up and find
+some? What is the use of their being piled up year after year, and
+people in need? Ah, if you could see the poor place!"
+
+Miss Eunice went unwillingly. The thrift of New England did often
+shrivel into penuriousness. She and Elizabeth were in the habit of
+putting away so many partly worn articles for the time of need.
+
+"Those old blankets and quilts----"
+
+"Elizabeth thought they would do to cover over."
+
+"But there are so many better ones. And some on the closet shelves that
+have never been used. Why, there is enough to last a hundred years."
+
+"Oh, no;" with an alarmed expression.
+
+"And even I shall not last a hundred years. No one does."
+
+"Oh, yes. I knew a woman who lived to be one hundred and four."
+
+"Did she come to want?"
+
+"She had a good son to take care of her."
+
+"And you have Cousin Chilian. I read somewhere in the Bible--I wish I
+could remember the chapters and verses, 'While we have time let us do
+good unto _all_ men.' I suppose that means those who haven't been frugal
+and careful, as well as the others."
+
+"We can't tell just what every sentence means."
+
+"But we can help them. And here is a poor woman who doesn't go to
+taverns;" smiling tenderly and with persuasive eyes.
+
+They picked out enough for a wagon-load. Some of Cousin Chilian's
+clothes that would do to cut over, old woollen blankets, and a variety
+of articles.
+
+"Let us put them all in this chest."
+
+"We might need the chest."
+
+"Oh, no, we won't. They will be so much easier to carry that way. Silas
+could drive down there. And, oh, you can't imagine how much good they
+will do."
+
+Cynthia went down to see afterward, and the poor woman's gratitude
+brought tears to her eyes.
+
+"They will be a perfect God-send this winter," she said. "I've been
+frettin' as to what we should do. I've never begged yet. Well, the Lord
+is good."
+
+Then there came another source of interest. Polly Upham was "keeping
+company." A nice, steady young man in the ship-chandlery business, with
+a little money saved up, whose folks lived at Portsmouth. He came
+regularly on Wednesday night and Sundays to tea. They went to church in
+the evening, and that certified it to the young people. Betty had left
+school and was trying her hand at housekeeping. Louis, the little
+fellow, was a big boy.
+
+Alice Turner was engaged also, and certainly very much in love if she
+considered the young man a paragon. Cynthia compared them all with
+Cousin Chilian, and it wasn't a bit fair.
+
+She met Mr. Saltonstall at a small party, where they played games and
+had forfeits.
+
+It was odd, she thought, how the girls chose him in everything. She
+didn't choose him once. He spoke of it afterward.
+
+"Why, I thought some of the others ought to have a chance," she
+explained with winning sweetness. "But if it had been dancing!" and she
+laughed, and that reconciled him.
+
+Then Mrs. Lynde Saltonstall gave her house-warming. It was a simple
+dwelling and not very large, but it was pretty as a picture. And young
+people didn't expect to rival their fathers and mothers in the start.
+
+They had dancing, and that was enough. They were all young people, and
+two of the fiddlers were there. They had a gay time and a nice supper.
+
+"I think Ed is smitten with Cynthia Leverett," Laura remarked to her
+husband. "He seemed to feel annoyed that they had sent Miss Winn in the
+carriage for her. She's a lovely dancer."
+
+"It wouldn't be a bad thing for Ed. She has lots of money that just
+turns itself over on interest. And her trustee has been buying up some
+choice Boston property for her. She's pretty and has charming manners
+and comes of a good family."
+
+Then Mrs. Stevens asked her to come in to Boston for a few days. She was
+going to have a little dancing party.
+
+"My dear, you'll dance yourself to death," said Cousin Eunice.
+
+"Oh, no. It isn't as hard as cleaning house or washing, as some of the
+poor women do. And it is tiresome to practise on the spinet, hour after
+hour--counting time and all that. If I was a girl of twenty years ago
+I'm afraid I should be chasing up and down some old garret, spinning on
+the big wheel."
+
+Cousin Eunice laughed, too. Cynthia always made commonplaces seem
+amusing, she accented them so with her bright face.
+
+They were very glad to have her in Boston. Chilian took her in on
+Saturday and staid with her until Monday morning. On Sunday Anthony
+Drayton was invited in to dinner. He had improved very much. The country
+air had been effaced. And he was a gentleman by instinct, and acquired
+cultivation readily.
+
+"And a fine fellow!" said Cousin Giles, rubbing his hands. "He's decided
+to go in for law presently, and it will be a most excellent thing. I
+don't know but I'll have to adopt him, as you did Cynthia."
+
+Anthony hovered about the young girl. She had been cultivating her voice
+the last year. It was a sweet parlor voice, adapted to the old-time
+songs. Mrs. Stevens had a book of them and she sang most cheerfully.
+
+"Oh, I wish you were going to stay over another Sunday," he exclaimed
+wistfully. "But I shall come in on Tuesday evening. I don't dance, but
+Mrs. Stevens is so kind to me, I've met several of the first men in the
+city here."
+
+"Oh, I am glad you are coming."
+
+It was a very sincere joy and she could not keep it out of her face, did
+not try to. And it was such a sweet face that she raised to his. He had
+a sudden unreasonable wish that he was five years older and settled in
+business, but then--she was very young.
+
+Mrs. Stevens said to her on Monday, after she had read a note over and
+glanced up at her rather furtively, "There's a friend of yours coming
+Tuesday night--a friend from Salem that I hope you will be glad to see."
+
+"From Salem----"
+
+"Mr. Saltonstall. He was in here a fortnight or so ago. His mother and I
+used to be great friends. I happened to ask him if he knew the
+Leveretts, and he told me about his brother's marriage, that you were
+one of the bridesmaids."
+
+"Oh, yes. Laura Manning was one of the older girls at Madam Torrey's.
+They had just gone in their new house and the wedding was splendid. And
+I liked Mr. Edward Saltonstall so much. He is a most beautiful dancer.
+I'm so glad he is coming. You see I don't know many of the new dances,
+and I shouldn't so much mind making a break with him."
+
+She looked up in her sweet, brave innocence as she uttered it.
+
+"You are not in love with him, little lady, and he is very much smitten
+with you," Mrs. Stevens ruminated. "But you shall have the chance."
+
+"I've always liked Ed," she continued. "He's a nice, frank, honest
+fellow, pretty gay at times, but not at all in the dissipated line, just
+full of fun and frolic. So I asked him down, and here he says he will
+come," waving her note. "I look out for men who dance. I do like to see
+young folks have a good time. The older people can play cards."
+
+It seemed rather odd that at eight o'clock not a soul had come. At home
+they would be beginning the fun by this time. Then a sudden influx of
+girls, some she had met before--two or three young men--and then young
+Saltonstall, who had been counting the moments the last half hour.
+
+"I am so glad to see you. It was such a surprise."
+
+He could see it in her face, hear it in her voice. He really was afraid
+of saying something foolish--something that would be no harm if they
+were alone.
+
+"I've known Mrs. Stevens a long while. And Mr. Giles Leverett. It's
+queer--well, not quite that either--that I've known you such a little
+while. I always thought of you as a child, though I've seen you drive
+your pony carriage."
+
+"Mrs. Stevens is delightful."
+
+Then there was another relay, quite a number of young gentlemen. The
+black fiddlers in the hall began to tune up.
+
+There were two very handsome girls and beautifully gowned. All of them
+looked pretty in dancing attire. Then a quadrille was called. There were
+just eight couples.
+
+Of course, Mr. Saltonstall took her. The rug was up and the floor had
+been polished. The dancing was elegant, harmonious.
+
+"The next is the Spanish dance. You will like that. The windings about
+are like the song words to the music."
+
+"But--I don't know it;" and she shrank back.
+
+"Oh, you'll get into it. You are the kind that could pick up any step.
+You make me think of a swallow as it darts round. If it made a mistake
+no one would know it."
+
+"Oh, I'd rather not;" entreatingly.
+
+"Don't spoil the set."
+
+She rose up and let him lead her out. She had a way of yielding so
+quickly, when it was right and best, very flattering to a man in love
+and easily misread.
+
+If dancing had been art instead of nature, something by rote instead of
+a segment of inner harmony, she could not have succeeded so well. He
+warded off the few blunders, and at the third change she had another
+well-bred partner. But she was glad to get back to him. The joy shone in
+her dangerous eyes.
+
+There were some new dances coming in. One of the girls from New York and
+her escort waltzed up and down the room in a slow-gliding manner that
+was the poetry of motion. She was fascinated, enchanted, and she knew
+she could do it herself.
+
+"We'll try it sometime," Saltonstall said.
+
+Mr. Leverett came in, bringing Anthony Drayton with him. He knew he was
+late, but he didn't dance, and he had earned five dollars copying that
+evening. But he must see Cynthia.
+
+"Oh, I thought you would not come!"
+
+Then she had been giving a thought to him out of her happy time!
+
+"I was detained. Are they all well, or didn't Cousin Chilian come down?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+They were being marshalled out to supper.
+
+"You'll have to content yourself with me," said Mrs. Stevens to Anthony,
+and he accepted smilingly. But she placed Cynthia next, so he could have
+a little talk with her. He was getting on so well, and she was glad for
+him.
+
+Some one wanted Miss Tracy to waltz again. Then they had a galop, and
+the party broke up. Anthony said good-night, and that he was coming up
+on Saturday. Then Saltonstall drew her into a little nook in the hall
+that made a connection with another room when it was open. Mrs. Stevens
+had smiled over its uses.
+
+"Cynthia, my darling, I must tell you this," and his voice seemed to
+throb with emotion. "I want the right to come and visit you as lovers
+have, for I love you, love you! I am coming to see Mr. Leverett and ask
+his permission. I do nothing but dream of you day and night. You are the
+sweetest, dearest----"
+
+"Oh, don't! don't!" She struggled in the clasp. "Oh, I can't--I----" and
+he felt her slight body tremble, so he loosed it.
+
+"Forgive me. I wanted you to know so no one can take you from me. I want
+to see you often. Oh, love, good-night, good-night!"
+
+He pressed a rapturous kiss upon her hand and was gone. She slipped
+through to the dining-room and took a glass of water.
+
+"You look tired to death, little country girl," said Uncle Giles, and he
+kissed her on the forehead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+LOVERS AND LOVERS
+
+
+"Take me home with you, Cousin Chilian," she pleaded, when he came in
+the next day.
+
+"But I thought"--he studied her in surprise.
+
+"I want to go home," she interrupted, and her under lip had a quiver in
+it that would have disarmed almost any one, persuaded as well.
+
+"Why, yes. Didn't you enjoy the party?" He felt suddenly at loss, he was
+not used to translating moods with all his knowledge.
+
+"Oh, it was delightful! And some such pretty girls. There were new
+dances. And Mrs. Stevens _is_ charming. Anthony came over a little
+while."
+
+In spite of inducements held out, she would go. Cousin Giles was almost
+cross about it.
+
+"I'm so glad to get back," she said to Rachel. "One feels so safe here."
+
+"Was there any danger?" laughed the elder.
+
+Cynthia's face was scarlet. It wasn't danger exactly, but she felt
+better under Cousin Chilian's wing. And she was her bright gay self all
+the evening.
+
+But how to get her story told? For if Mr. Saltonstall came and asked for
+her company, as they termed it then, and not being warned, he should
+consent----
+
+They sat by the study fire. It had turned out cold and cloudy, with
+indications of snow. He had a lamp near him on the small table, and read
+and thought, as his glance wandered dreamily over the leaping flashing
+blue and yellow flames. If it stormed for one or two days, she could not
+have come home.
+
+She rose presently and came and stood by him, laid her hand lightly on
+his shoulder. She was a young lady now, and it was hardly proper to draw
+her down on his knee.
+
+"Cousin Chilian;" hesitatingly.
+
+"Well, dear?" in an inquiring tone.
+
+"There is something I ought to tell you, and I want to ask you--to--to
+do--oh, I hardly know how to say it. Mr. Saltonstall came down; he and
+Mrs. Stevens are old friends----"
+
+Ah, he knew now. This young man had dared to invade the virginal
+sweetness of her soul, to trouble the quiet stream of girlhood. He was
+roused, strangely angry, for all his placid temperament.
+
+"I couldn't help it--just before he went away--and I couldn't have
+dreamed of such a thing----"
+
+Then she hid her head down on his shoulder and cried.
+
+"Dear--my dear little girl--oh, yes, it would have to happen sometime.
+And--he loves you."
+
+"Oh, that isn't the worst;" illogically, between her sobs. "He is coming
+to ask you if he may--and I don't want him to come that way. I just want
+it as it was before. Polly Upham can't think or talk of anything but her
+intended, and it gets tiresome. He doesn't seem so very wonderful to me.
+And wouldn't it weary you to hear me praising some one all the time?"
+
+"I think it would," he answered honestly, yet with some confusion of
+mind.
+
+"So I don't want it;" with more courage in her voice. "I want good times
+with them all. And I don't see how you can come to love any one all in a
+moment."
+
+Was he hearing aright? Didn't she really want the young man for a lover?
+He was unreasonably, fatuously glad, and the pulses, that were chilled a
+moment ago, seemed to race hot through his body.
+
+"It was not quite marriage?" a little huskily.
+
+"He wanted to ask if he might have the right to come, and he said he
+loved me, and, oh, I am afraid----"
+
+She was trembling. He could feel it where she leaned against him. He
+took sudden courage.
+
+"And you do not want him to come in that way? It would most likely lead
+to an engagement. And then I should have to listen to his praises
+continually. Yes, it would be rather hard on me;" and he laughed with a
+humorous sound.
+
+It heartened her a good deal. She was smiling now herself, but there
+were tears on her cheek.
+
+"And you won't mind telling him; that is not _very_ much, that----"
+
+"I think you are too young to decide such a grave matter, Cynthia," he
+began seriously. "And you ought to have a glad, sweet youth. There is no
+reason why you should rush into marriage. You have a pleasant home with
+those that love you----"
+
+"And I don't want to go away. I feel as if I would like to live here
+always. You are so good and indulgent, and Cousin Eunice is so nice, now
+that she doesn't seem afraid of any one. Were we all afraid of Cousin
+Elizabeth? And we have such nice talks. She tells me about the old times
+and what queer thoughts people had, and how hard they were. And about
+girls whose lovers went away to sea and never came back, and how they
+watched and waited, and sometimes we cry over them. And the house is so
+cheerful, and I can have all the flowers I want, and friends coming in,
+and, oh, I shall never want to go away, because I shall never love any
+one as well as you."
+
+That was very sweet, but it was a girl's innocence, and her face did not
+change color in the admission.
+
+"Well, I will explain the matter to Mr. Saltonstall. I am glad you told
+me, otherwise I should hardly have known your wishes on the subject. And
+now we will go on having good times together, and count out lovers."
+
+"Yes, yes." She gave his hand a squeeze and was her own happy self, not
+feeling half as sorry for the man who would come to be denied as he did.
+
+It snowed furiously the next morning, and sullenly the day after. Then
+it was cold, and she said half a dozen times a day she was so glad she
+came home.
+
+She did not see Mr. Saltonstall when he called, and she really did miss
+him at two little companies. Then she wondered if she oughtn't give one,
+she had gone to so many.
+
+"Why, yes," Cousin Chilian answered. She might have turned the house
+upside down so long as she was going to stay in it.
+
+Then she wondered if she ought to invite _him_. Mrs. Lynde and she were
+very good friends, and she should ask Avis, of course. They spoke--they
+were not ill friends.
+
+Chilian considered. "Yes, I think I would," he made answer.
+
+They had a merry time and danced on the beautiful rugs, and had a fine
+supper. And Mr. Saltonstall was glad to be friends. She _was_ young and
+presently she might think of lovers. He would try and keep his chance
+good.
+
+_Anthony came now_ and then and spent a Sunday with them. He loved to
+hear Cousin Chilian read Greek verses, but the pretty love odes seemed
+to mean Cynthia, and he used to watch her. Then Ben Upham was a visitor
+as well, and used to play checkers with her, as that was considered
+quite a good exercise for one's brains.
+
+Polly would be married in the spring, Alice Turner in June. The Turners
+were always besieging her for a two or three days' visit, and the Turner
+young men hovered round her. She never seemed to do anything, she never
+demanded attention, but when she glanced up at them, or smiled, they
+followed her as the children did the Pied Piper. She might have led them
+into dangerous places, but she was very simple of heart. Yet the danger
+was alluring to them.
+
+Polly came to her for a good deal of counsel. When there were two
+patterns of sleeves, which should she take?
+
+"Why, I'd have the India silk made with this and the English gingham
+with that--you see it will iron so much easier. Miss Grayson does up the
+puffs on a shirring cord, then you can let them out in the washing."
+
+"That's a fine idea. You do have such splendid ideas, Cynthy."
+
+"They are mostly Rachel Winn's," laughed the young girl.
+
+They had a capable woman in the kitchen now. Cynthia should have been
+mastering the high art of housekeeping, people thought, instead of
+running about so much and driving round in the pony carriage with Miss
+Winn, or a girl companion. Of course, there was plenty of money, but one
+never quite knew what would happen.
+
+John Loring was building his house as people who could did in those
+days. They would not be able to finish it all inside, and there was a
+nook left for an addition when they needed it. Polly was to have some of
+grandmother's furniture, and John's mother would provide a little.
+Corner cupboards were quite a substitute in those days for china
+closets, and window-seats answered for chairs. But there was bedding and
+napery, and no one thought of levying on friends. Relatives looked over
+their stock and bestowed a few articles. Cynthia thought of the stores
+in the old house and wished she might donate them. She did pick out some
+laces from her store, and two pretty scarfs, one of which Polly declared
+would be just the thing to trim her wedding hat, which was of fine
+Leghorn. So she would only have to buy the feather.
+
+They haunted the stores and occasionally picked up a real bargain. Even
+at that period shoppers did not throw their money broadcast.
+
+"Cynthia Leverett is the sweetest girl I know," Polly said daily, and
+Bentley was of the same opinion.
+
+They were to stand at the wedding.
+
+"And I want you to wear that beautiful frock that you had when Laura
+Manning was married. I shall only have two bridesmaids, you and Betty,
+but I want you to look your sweetest."
+
+And surely she did. They had a very nice wedding party and the next day
+Polly went to her own house and had various small tea-drinkings, and she
+arranged them for Saturday so Bentley could come up. They were
+wonderfully good friends, but Cynthia felt as if she had outgrown him.
+In her estimation he was just a big friendly boy that one could talk to
+familiarly. Anthony was more backward in the laughter and small-talk.
+
+Then there was the college degree. There was no such great fuss made
+over commencement then, no grand regattas, no inter-collegiate
+athletics, for it was a rather serious thing to begin a young man's life
+and look forward to marriage.
+
+He went straight to Mr. Chilian. It was the proper thing to be fortified
+with the elders' consent. Of course, he would not marry in some time
+yet, but if he could be her "company" and speak presently--they had been
+such friends.
+
+Chilian studied the honest young fellow, whose face was in a glow of
+hope. So young to dream of love and plan for the future!
+
+"You are both too young;" and his voice had a bit of sharpness in it.
+"Cynthia is not thinking of such things."
+
+"But one _can_ think of them. They begin somehow and go into your very
+life. I believe I've loved her a long while."
+
+"I think neither of you really know what love is. No, I cannot consent
+to it. I want her to go on having a good free time without any anxiety.
+I have some right to her, being her guardian."
+
+"But--I will wait--I didn't mean to ask her immediately."
+
+"We are going on a journey presently. I cannot have her disturbed with
+this. No, your attention must be devoted to business for the next two
+years."
+
+He drew a long breath. "But you don't mean I must break
+off--everything?" and there was an unsteadiness in his voice.
+
+"Oh, no. Not if you can keep to the old friendliness."
+
+Then Chilian Leverett dropped into his easy-chair and thought. The child
+had grown very dear to him, she was a gift from her father. A
+tumultuous, uncomprehended pain wrenched his very soul. To live without
+her--to miss her everywhere! To have lonely days, longer lonely evenings
+when the dreariness of winter set in. And yet she had a right to the
+sweet, rich draught of love. But she did not need it amid all the
+pleasures of youth. Let her have two or three years, even if it was
+blissful thoughtlessness. But he must put her on her guard. A young
+fellow soon changed his mind. The old couplet sang itself in his brain:
+
+          "If she be not fair for me,
+           What care I how fair she be?"
+
+Did he get over his early love and forget? We all say, "But ours was
+different."
+
+How to find the right moment? Ben did not come over. She was very busy
+with this friend and that, youth finds so _many_ interests. But one
+evening, when they were sitting on the porch in the moonlight, the young
+fellow walked slowly along, glanced at them, halted.
+
+She flew down to the gate.
+
+"Oh, Ben, what has happened?" she cried, the most bewitching anxiety in
+her face. "Why, you have not been in--for weeks."
+
+"Not quite two weeks." Had it seemed so long to her? To him it had been
+months.
+
+"Oh, come in. Cousin Chilian will be glad to see you."
+
+The radiant cordiality in her face unnerved him.
+
+"And you?" Yes, he must know.
+
+"Do you have to ask that question?"
+
+The sweet, dangerous eyes said too much, but the smile was that of
+amusement.
+
+So they walked up the path together. Mr. Leverett greeted him in a
+friendly manner.
+
+"I thought I ought to come in and say good-bye. I'm going off on some
+business for father, and may not be back for several weeks."
+
+"That sounds as if you needed an apology for coming at all," she
+commented with half-resentful gayety.
+
+He flushed and made no immediate reply.
+
+"And we are going to take a journey as well. Up somewhere in Maine. Mr.
+Giles Leverett insists we shall, for our health, but I think it is our
+delightful company. He has to go to look after a large estate where some
+people think of founding a town. Isn't it funny?" and she gave her
+bewitching laugh that was like the notes of silver bells, soft, yet
+clear. "They must go off and build up new places. And some people are
+going West, as if there wasn't room here. Have you noticed that we are
+overcrowded?"
+
+"Well, sometimes along the docks it looks that way."
+
+"I like a good many people. Often Merrits' is crowded, and it's funny to
+catch bits of sentences. And at Plummer's as well. Did you ever read
+right across the paper, one line in each column, and notice the odd and
+twisted-up sense it made? That's about the way it sounds."
+
+How bright and charming she was! Ben could not keep his eyes from her
+radiant face. Was she really a coquette, Chilian wondered. Yet she was
+so simple with it all, so seemingly careless of the effect. That was the
+danger of it.
+
+He lingered like one entranced. Poor young lad! Chilian began to feel
+sorry for him.
+
+She walked down to the gate with him, and hoped they would have a nice
+time when autumn came, if he meant to stay in Salem.
+
+A young man not in love would have called her a bright, merry, chatty
+girl. He went away with the consciousness that she liked him very much.
+Chilian asked her if she did.
+
+She glanced up wonderingly.
+
+"Why--he is nice, and being Polly's brother makes it--well, more
+familiar. Then we can talk about Anthony. I believe he didn't like him
+much at first, but he does now."
+
+Oh, how could he put her on her guard! She was not dreaming of love.
+Saltonstall's fancy had died out--no doubt this would, too. Lad's love.
+Was it worth ruffling up the sunny artlessness? But he would watch the
+young men closer now that he knew the danger line.
+
+He said simply to himself that he could not give her up to any one else
+so soon. There would be a long life of joy and satisfaction to her, and
+he knew she would not grudge him these few years. Then, too, he was
+quite certain she had not even had an imaginary fancy for these two
+men--Ben was nothing but a boy.
+
+Anthony Drayton was to join them. Miss Winn was to be Cynthia's
+companion. Mrs. Stevens had refused to trust her precious self to any
+wilds, and bear and wolf hunts, though Mr. Giles declared they were not
+going to take guns along. He was not an enthusiastic hunter. As for
+Chilian, such sport did not attract him.
+
+The journey was partly by stage, partly on horseback, and one or two
+days they left the ladies at the tavern where they stopped. Cynthia was
+charmed and amused at the uncouthness of the people and their dialect in
+some places, and positive good breeding in others. Anthony unearthed a
+college chum who was tally man at a sawmill. The new town was really
+making progress. A small chapel had been started, a schoolhouse built.
+And twenty years later it was a pretty town; in fifty years an
+enterprising city.
+
+"Anthony's going to be a first-class fellow. I should like to have such
+a son. Chilian, you and I should have married and have sons and
+daughters growing up. But at my time of life I should want them grown
+up. And smart, as well. I always feel sorry for the fathers of dull
+lads, when they have plenty of means to educate them. Yes, I should want
+mine to have a good supply of brains."
+
+Chilian Leverett enjoyed the change very much and the breath of spruce
+and pine was invigorating. But there was a little nervous feeling about
+Cynthia. Cousin Giles was somewhat of a lady's man, and he was on the
+continual lookout that Cynthia should not tire herself unduly, that she
+be assisted over the rough places, that she should have the best of
+everything. He was almost jealous at times.
+
+But Cynthia moved about gayly, serenely, full of merry little quips,
+seizing the small ridiculous events with such a sense of amusement that
+she inspirited them all. And he could not notice that she paid any more
+attention to Anthony than either of her seniors. There was such a
+genuine frankness in all she said and did, a charm of manner that was
+just herself, and had none of the arts of society, but came from a heart
+that overflowed with spontaneous warmth, but was not directed to any
+particular person.
+
+Cousin Giles declared he was sorry to get back to Boston. He could not
+remember when he had enjoyed such a good time. Then in a business way it
+had been a success, which added to his satisfaction.
+
+They really had to stay in Boston one night. They would fain have kept
+Cynthia for a week, but she said she was tired of just changing from one
+frock to another, and longed for more variety.
+
+"And I'm so glad to get back home again," she cried delightedly. "I've
+had a splendid time, and I like Anthony ever so much. Cousin Giles was
+so nice and fatherly. He ought to adopt Anthony and give him his name,
+and that would always make me think of father. But after all, home is
+best. Oh, suppose I was a waif, just being handed from one to another!"
+
+She looked frightened with the imaginary lot. She expressed emotions so
+easily.
+
+"You couldn't have been;" hoarsely.
+
+"Cousin Chilian, if you had not been in the world, or if you hadn't been
+willing to take me--I don't think father knew much about Cousin
+Giles--why, I must have gone to strangers."
+
+There were tears in her eyes, and a sweet melancholy in her voice.
+
+She had so much to tell Cousin Eunice that it seemed really as if she
+had taken the journey with them. She put on Jane's faded gingham
+sunbonnet and gave her voice a queer nasal twang, and talked as some of
+the women did up there in the wilderness, who thought a city "must be an
+awfully crowdy place an' she jes' didn't see how people managed to live
+in it. An' as fer the sea, give her dry land every time."
+
+Then she talked the French-English patois of the emigrants from Canada,
+and told of their funny attire, and their log huts, sometimes with only
+one big room, with a stone chimney in the centre, and sawed logs for
+seats.
+
+"They did that in Salem nigh on to two hundred years ago," said Cousin
+Eunice.
+
+"How much people do learn by living," remarked the little girl sagely.
+
+Then the olden round began. Being asked out to tea and inviting in
+return, sewing bees, quilting parties when some girl was making an
+outfit. And though the elders shook their heads at such a waste of time,
+they went out to walk in the afternoon and stopped in the shops that
+were making a show on Essex Street and Federal Street. There was Miss
+Rust's pretty millinery parlor--it had a sofa in the front room and a
+table with an embroidered cover that Cynthia had sent her. They talked
+of new styles and colors, and were aghast at the thought that royalty
+sometimes had as many as twenty hats and bonnets. She made pretty old
+lady caps as well, and she did love to hear the young girls chatter. And
+Molly Saunders was still baking gingerbread, that had delighted them as
+school children, and no one made such good spruce and sassafras beer.
+
+One evening at a dance she had a great surprise. Some one said, "Miss
+Cynthia Leverett, Mr. Marsh."
+
+A rather tall, ruddy, good-looking fellow, with laughing eyes and an
+unmistakable sailor air, held her dainty hand and studied her face.
+
+"Oh, you don't know me!" in the jolliest of tones. "And I should know
+you if you had been cast ashore on a rocky island and I were looking at
+you through a spyglass. You haven't changed in the main, only to grow
+prettier. You were a poor pale little thing then."
+
+"Oh, I can't think!" She flushed and smiled. Something in the hearty
+voice won her.
+
+"At Dame Wilby's school. And the bad boy who sat behind you--Tommy
+Marsh."
+
+"Oh! oh! And that day I sat on the floor!" She laughed gayly. She did
+not mind it a bit now.
+
+"Wasn't it funny? And the way you just sat still with the school in an
+uproar. You standing up there and 'sassing' back the old dame! Such a
+mite of a thing, too. My! but you were a plucky one!" in admiration.
+"And you never came to school after that. I ought to get down on my
+knees and beg your pardon for the sly pinches I gave you, and the times
+I tweaked your curly hair. I've half a mind to do it."
+
+"Oh, no!" and she made a funny gesture of alarm, and both laughed.
+
+"And I've been over there to India, where you came from, and found some
+people who knew your father. I've been to sea seven years, three on this
+last cruise, and when the _Vixen_ is repaired and refitted I'm going out
+again as first mate. One of these days I shall be a captain."
+
+How proud and strong he looked. Why, one couldn't help liking him.
+
+"I wonder if I might dance with you?"
+
+"Oh, do you dance? I thought sailors--and there are no girls----" and
+she blushed at her incoherence.
+
+"I think we do a little. Where did you get the Sailor's Hornpipe from?
+We're sorry about not having girls, but we make it answer. And when you
+get in the doldrums, or becalmed, it stirs up your blood. Oh, they are
+taking their places."
+
+Ben was in the same quadrille. Every time he touched her hand he gave it
+a pressure that made her cheeks rosier. Altogether it was a delightful
+evening.
+
+Cousin Chilian came for her. He had found she preferred it.
+
+"Oh, Cousin Chilian, I've had such a funny adventure. Perhaps you can
+recall the little boy I really hated that week I went to the dame's
+school. Well, he is a nice big fellow now, and we had a talk, and he
+has been to Calcutta and seen people who knew father. I want him to come
+so we can have a good long talk, and won't you ask him? You'll like him,
+I know. I'll find him and bring him to you, and you can ask him to come
+while I'm putting on my things."
+
+She hunted him up and he was very pleased to meet Mr. Leverett. She gave
+them quite a while, for she was chatting with the girls about some
+weddings on the tapis.
+
+She gave Mr. Marsh her hand and a smile that would have set almost any
+masculine heart beating. It must have been born with her, though it was
+pitifully appealing in the childhood days. Now the true, sweet nature
+shone through it, lending it a fascinating radiance.
+
+Mr. Leverett said he should be glad to have him call while he was in
+port, and the young man thanked him and said he should give himself the
+pleasure.
+
+"And when he does come," said the little lady in her half-coaxing,
+half-imperious way, "can't we have him up in the study? You see, it does
+very well for half a dozen of us to be down in the parlor, but it gets
+kind of stiff and not cheerful with just one. And you'll like to talk to
+him."
+
+He assented readily. Ben always came up in the study, though now he
+would rather have been alone with Cynthia. There were some things he
+meant to say, if he ever had a chance, in spite of youth and
+guardianship.
+
+Mr. Marsh did not lose much time considering. The very next week he
+called.
+
+They found him a nice, agreeable, well-informed young man, a true sailor
+lad, and like many a Yankee boy, he kept adding to his stock of
+knowledge where-ever he went. He had drawn some useful charts of
+seaports and islands he knew about, their products and climates, and
+really his descriptions were as good as a geography.
+
+"There's no doubt Salem has the lead in the foreign trade, but we're
+going to be pushed hard the next few years. Other cities have found out
+the profit in it. But we've some of the best captains, and that's what I
+mean to be myself."
+
+At Calcutta they still held a warm remembrance of Captain Anthony
+Leverett. And Marsh thought it quite a wonderful thing that the little
+girl had gone back and forth and braved all the perils. He told them of
+a pirate ship they had once battled with and the rich stores they had
+taken from her. The prisoners had been left on an island.
+
+"But--how would they get to their homes?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, that wasn't our lookout. They'd have done the same thing to us if
+they could, maybe worse. Occasionally vessels are wrecked, and sometimes
+it is months before a ship goes that way and sees their signal."
+
+Yes, she was glad nothing of the kind had happened to her. And Chilian,
+watching the little shiver, gave thanks also.
+
+Thomas Marsh enjoyed these evenings wonderfully. He was always glancing
+at Cynthia to see if what he said met with her approval. It seemed so
+strangely sweet to be thrilled at the tones of her voice and the touch
+of her hand. And when she looked up and smiled, the blood surged to his
+brain. He was quite a favorite with the girls, but no other one had that
+power over him.
+
+Of course, they met here and there at the different companies--he never
+went unless she was sure to be there, and if he asked she answered
+frankly. Cousin Chilian took her down to see the _Vixen_, which was
+nearly ready for her new cruise. He was very proud of her, so was
+Captain Langfelt, and they had some tea in the cabin. But some sudden
+knowledge came to Chilian Leverett, and he was sincerely glad the young
+man was going away.
+
+The evening Thomas Marsh came in to say good-bye, she was alone.
+
+"You'll find Miss Cynthia up in the study," said Jane, and thither he
+went two steps at a time. She had on a soft gown, and he thought she
+looked like some lovely flower as she rose to greet him.
+
+"I believe we are to sail to-morrow. Stores and cargo are all in, and
+now the captain is in haste to be off. Come down about eleven in the
+morning and wish me God-speed, a safe journey, and a happy return."
+
+"Yes. We were talking of it to-day. Oh, I hope you will have all, though
+a great many things happen in three years." Neither of them, indeed no
+one, could have predicted what was to happen in those eventful three
+years.
+
+They discussed the pleasant times, the girls and boys who had grown up
+and married during the whole seven years of his absence. Oh, how sweet
+and pretty she was! He envied the boys like Bentley Upham and two or
+three others who had business at home--but no, he never could have been
+anything but a sailor.
+
+Then he rose to go. He stood holding her hand and the red and white kept
+flitting over her face, her eyes were so soft and dark. They would haunt
+him many a night on the deck.
+
+"It's best that I am going so soon," he began in a rather tremulous
+voice. "Do you remember what your uncle was reading the other day about
+the man who wanted to be lashed to the mast when they passed the Syrens?
+It would be that way with me if I staid much longer. I--I wouldn't be
+able to help loving you, and I doubt whether it would be a good thing
+for either of us. I've tried all along to keep it to a plain, honest
+like, but I know now it is more than that. I shall take away with me the
+remembrance of the sweetest girl in all the world, and I have no right
+to spoil her life. But sometimes maybe you'll think of a far-away lad,
+who sends you his love and the best wishes for your happiness with the
+man you will love best of all."
+
+Then he pressed her hand to his lips and went slowly down the stairs.
+She heard the door shut. And, foolish girl, she sat down and cried, and
+there Cousin Chilian found her, and had to listen and absolve.
+
+"No," he said, "it would not do for you to have a sailor lad. Your
+tender heart would break with the anxiety. He's a nice, upright fellow,
+and he will never shirk a duty. But you----" What should he say to her?
+
+"I want to stay here. Oh, I wonder if you will like me when I get as old
+as Cousin Eunice, and the world will change and improve and I shall be
+queer and old-fashioned?"
+
+He held her in his arms, but he was shocked to find what was in his own
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+PERILOUS PATHS
+
+
+Avis Manning's "Company" was one of the events of the season. She was a
+full-fledged young lady, and knowing she could have her choice of the
+young men of Salem, was rather difficult to capture. She and her
+brother-in-law were very good friends, but not lovers. And Laura, who
+knew where his fancy lay, counselled him to go slowly, though she was
+quite sure he would win in the end.
+
+"You see, she is like a child to Mr. Chilian Leverett, and he is loath
+to part with her. But all girls do marry sooner or later, and he isn't
+selfish enough to want her to stay single. If he was not so much older
+he might marry her--they are not own cousins, you know."
+
+"He marry her! Why, he's getting to be quite an old man," and there was
+a touch of disdain in his tone. "But there's half a dozen others----"
+
+"It's queer, but she isn't a flirt. She's one of the sweetest of
+girls--she was, at school. And with her fortune she might hold herself
+high. They say the Boston trustee has doubled some of it that he
+invested."
+
+"I wish she hadn't a cent!" the young man flung out angrily.
+
+"Well, money is not to be despised. She'll get a little tired by and by,
+and long for a home and children of her own, as we all do. And if you
+haven't found any one else----"
+
+"I never shall find any one like her;" gloomily.
+
+"Oh, there are a great many nice girls in the world."
+
+Avis knew all the best people in Salem, it was not so large, after all.
+And they came to the beautiful house and made merry, played "guessing
+words"--what we call charades, quite a new thing then--and it made no
+end of merriment. Of course, Cynthia was in them, was arch and piquant,
+and delighted the audience. Then they had supper and more dancing. One
+of the Turner boys, Archibald, hovered about Cynthia like a shadow.
+There was Ben Upham, but Edward Saltonstall warded them off to her
+satisfaction. But Bella Turner was shortly to be married, and Archie
+would have her for that evening surely.
+
+She and Mr. Saltonstall were very good friends. He was a little older
+than the others, and grown wary by experience. But it was queer that
+half a dozen girls were pulling straws for him and here was one who did
+not care, would not raise a finger, but, oh, how sweet her smiles were.
+
+"If you are a bridesmaid the third time, you will never be a bride,"
+said some of the wiseacres.
+
+Cynthia tossed her proud, dainty head and laughed over it to Cousin
+Chilian. He looked a little grave.
+
+"Would you mind if I were an old maid? I wouldn't really be _old_ in a
+long while, you know. And you will always want some one. If anything
+should happen to Cousin Eunice, how lonely you would be."
+
+"Yes, if you went away."
+
+"I don't care for any of them very much. I like Mr. Saltonstall the
+best. He isn't quite so young, so--so sort of impetuous. And the boys
+get jealous."
+
+Then it was likely to be Mr. Saltonstall, after all! Was he going to be
+narrow and mean enough to keep her out of what was best in a woman's
+life? But he looked down the dreary years without her. He could not
+attach himself to the world of business as Cousin Giles did. Some of
+these young fellows might come into a sort of sonship with him--there
+was Anthony Drayton.
+
+Why was it his soul protested against them? He did not understand the
+deep underlying dissent that made a cruel discordance in his desire for
+her happiness.
+
+Mr. Saltonstall walked home from church with her and Miss Winn. And he
+came in one evening to ask some advice. He had cudgelled his brain for
+days to find just the right subject. That ended, they had a talk about
+chess--that was becoming quite an interest in some circles. There were
+several moves that puzzled him.
+
+"Come in some evening and talk them over," said Mr. Leverett.
+
+Edward Saltonstall wondered at the favor of the gods and accepted. Not
+as if he was in any vulgar hurry, but he dropped in, politely social,
+and asked if he should disturb them. Chilian had been reading Southey's
+"Thalaba."
+
+"Oh, no. We often read in the evening," said Cynthia.
+
+She was netting a bead bag, an industry all the rage then among the
+women. They really were prettier than the samplers. But she rose and
+brought the box of chessmen, while he rolled the table from its corner.
+
+"Will I disturb you if I stay?" she asked.
+
+"Not unless it interferes with Mr. Saltonstall's attention," said
+Chilian, then bit his lip.
+
+"Oh, I do not think it will;" smilingly.
+
+"You are very good to bother with a tyro. I'd like to be able to play a
+good game. Father is so fond of it, and Lynde seldom comes in
+nowadays--family cares;" laughingly.
+
+They led off very well. Saltonstall was wise enough to try his best,
+though out of one eye he watched the dainty fingers threading in and out
+among the colored beads, and could not help thinking he would rather be
+holding them and pressing kisses on the soft white hand. Then he made a
+wrong play.
+
+"We may as well turn back," said Mr. Leverett, "since the question at
+stake is not winning, but improving."
+
+"You are very good," returned the young man meekly.
+
+This time they went on a little further, but the result was the same. So
+with the third game.
+
+"Of course, I could let you win," Mr. Leverett began, "but that wouldn't
+conduce to the real science of the game which a good player desires. But
+you do very well for a young man. I should keep on, if I were you."
+
+"And annoy you with my shortcomings?"
+
+"Oh, it will not be annoyance, truly. Come in when you feel like it."
+
+"Thank you." Then he said good-night in a friendly, gentlemanly manner,
+and Cynthia rose and bowed.
+
+After that she gathered up her work and said good-night. Chilian sat and
+thought. Edward Saltonstall was a nice, steady young fellow; that is, he
+neither gamed, nor drank, nor went roystering round in the taverns
+jollying with the sailors, as some of the sons of really good families
+did. He would not have all his fortune to make, and his father's
+business was well established. The sons would take it. The two daughters
+were well married. What more could he ask for Cynthia? She was not so
+young now and would know her own mind.
+
+Yet it gave his heart a sharp, mysterious wrench, a longing for what he
+was putting away, the essence of the solemn ideals of love that run
+through the intricate meshes of the human soul. He knew that he loved
+her, that he wanted her for his very own, and his conscience told him it
+was not right. Of all her admirers he liked this one the best. Under
+other circumstances he would have considered him an admirable young man.
+
+Saltonstall dropped in now and then, not too often. He did not mean to
+startle any one with his purpose, but to let it grow gradually. Still,
+at the last assembly of the season, his attentions were somewhat
+pronounced. It was partly her doings, she was sheltering herself from
+other rather warm indications.
+
+A few days later she went over to Polly Loring's with her work. Polly's
+bag had somehow gone wrong. Cynthia had to cut the thread and ravel out
+a round. The baby was to be admired as well as the chair seat Polly had
+begun in worsted work, which was the new accomplishment. And they talked
+over various matters: who had new gowns, new lovers, and new babies. But
+every time she came almost to the subject so near her heart, Cynthia
+made an elusive detour. Then she ventured out straight with her
+question.
+
+"Cynthia, are you going to take Ed Saltonstall?"
+
+Cynthia's face was scarlet.
+
+"He hasn't asked me, he hasn't even asked Cousin Chilian," but her voice
+was not quite steady.
+
+"How do you know? It was talked of at the assembly--the two men were a
+good deal together. And if you don't mean anything, Cynthia, you'll get
+yourself gossiped about, and you'll spoil some lives," declared Polly
+spiritedly. This thing had been seething in her mind, and she was going
+to have it out at the risk of breaking friendship.
+
+"I don't want to spoil any one's life. And I've never really kept
+company with any one."
+
+The keeping company was the great test. When the young man came steady
+one night in the week, to Sunday tea, and went to church with the girl
+alone, the matter was as good as declared.
+
+"But--well, I don't know how you've done it, but they hang about you and
+it does upset them. First it's one, then it's another. You ought to
+know. You ought to settle upon one and let the others alone."
+
+Polly had acquired a good deal of married wisdom, and she really did
+love Cynthia. Ben loved her, too.
+
+"But suppose I didn't want any of them?" and Cynthia tried to laugh, but
+it was a poor shadowy attempt.
+
+"Oh, nonsense! You don't mean to be an old maid. No girl does. But it is
+time you stopped playing fast and loose with hearts. Now there's Ben.
+You know he's loved you this long while. And we all like you so. Last
+fall he quite gave up and went to see Jenny Willing. She'll make a good
+wife and she's a nice girl, though she hasn't your fortune. Mother's
+been trying to make him believe that you are looking higher."
+
+"Oh, Polly--I never scarcely think of my fortune," Cynthia interrupted,
+her face full of distressful color.
+
+"Well, I'm not saying that you do. Ben's getting along first-rate. He
+has a college degree and father isn't poor. I know several girls who
+would jump at a chance for him. Of course, we would _all_ rather have
+you. Then at Avis Manning's party you gave him the sweetest of your
+smiles, and lured him back."
+
+Oh, she recalled it with a kind of shame. It was to keep off Archie
+Turner and Mr. Saltonstall. And then for a while he had grown
+troublesome. If they could be merely friends!
+
+"The thing is just here, Cynthia. I know I'm speaking plainly and you
+may get angry. If you don't want Ben, let him alone. A young man begins
+to think of a home and a wife of his own, and when he likes a girl very
+much--yes, I will say it, she can make or mar. She can take him away
+from some other nice girl. And people now are beginning to say you are a
+flirt. I think Jenny will make Ben a nice wife, and if you don't want
+him----"
+
+"Oh, Polly, I don't want any of them. You can't think how delightful
+life is with Cousin Chilian. I couldn't be as happy anywhere else, or
+with any other person. I can't make myself fall in love as all of you
+girls have, and think this one or that one perfect. Something must be
+wrong with me. And I'm very sorry. I'm not a bit jealous when they take
+to other girls. Why, I'd be glad to be Jenny's bridesmaid if she wanted
+me to."
+
+Cynthia paused and mopped the tears from her cheeks. Polly was a little
+subdued. Cynthia was taking this so meekly. But she said rather
+spitefully, "You had better marry Mr. Leverett."
+
+Ah, Polly, it was a dangerous seed to fling at a young girl. And it
+dropped on a bit of out of the way fruitful soil.
+
+Cynthia rose quietly. She was very pale. She began to roll up her work.
+
+"Now I think you can go on with it," she said. "If you get in trouble
+again, let me know."
+
+Then the two friends looked at each other until the tears came into
+their eyes.
+
+"I'm very sorry," murmured Cynthia in a broken voice.
+
+"But you see----"
+
+"Yes. I understand. I hope Ben will be very happy."
+
+Afterward Polly sat down and cried. She knew Ben loved Cynthia so. They
+had counted on having her in the family. But she felt quite certain now
+that Ed Saltonstall would get her. And he was a flirt, going with every
+pretty girl, every new girl for a little while.
+
+Cynthia went home in a very sober mood. Why had they all cared so much
+about her? They had nice attractive qualities, but why could they not
+look at her just as she looked at them! She did not know very much about
+men and that with them pursuit often merged into the strong desire for
+possession, which she did not understand. But she did not want to be
+blamed. She would have none of them. Cousin Chilian was more to her. If
+he seldom danced and was never very gay, there were so many other
+requirements to life; there was something in his nature to which hers
+responded readily.
+
+Then suddenly she seemed to have lost the clue. She experienced a season
+of bewilderment. Was Cousin Chilian meaning she should take Mr.
+Saltonstall for a lover? He surely gave him opportunities he had given
+no other. Sometimes he excused himself and went out. There were some
+difficulties with the mother country that men were discussing. She
+really felt a little awkward at being left alone with Mr. Saltonstall.
+Not only that, but it awoke a strange terror in her soul that he should
+come so near; it was as if her whole being rose in arms.
+
+Occasionally Chilian spoke of her marriage--he had always said she was
+too young, in a protesting manner. So on one occasion she gained
+courage.
+
+"Do you mean--that is--you would like to--have me married, Cousin
+Chilian?"
+
+Married! It was as if she had given him a stab. And yet was not that
+just the thing he had been thinking of?
+
+"Why, you see, Cynthia," he made his voice purposely cold, "I am much
+older than you. I may die some day. Cousin Eunice will no doubt go
+before me, and you would not like to go on alone. Then Giles is older
+even than I. One has to think of these things. Yes, it would be nice to
+know you were happily settled."
+
+"And why couldn't a woman live alone as well as a man? I could have Miss
+Winn, and a housekeeper, and a man----"
+
+"It's a lonely life for a woman."
+
+"But why not for a man?"
+
+"Oh, well, that is different. Only a few men do. And they grow queer and
+opinionated."
+
+A fortnight ago she would have protested and said, "You are not old, you
+are not opinionated," in her eager, girlish manner. Now she was hurt,
+and she could not tell why; so she kept silent.
+
+And she began to note a change in him. The delightful harmony in which
+they had lived fell below the major key into minors, that touched and
+pierced her. He did not come so often to listen to her music, to ask her
+for a song, to watch while she painted some pretty flower, to go around
+with her training roses, or cutting them for the house. She put a few of
+them everywhere; she did not like great bunches, only such things as
+grew in clusters, lilacs and syringas and long sprays of clematis. She
+missed the little walks around, and the dear talks they used to have.
+
+She felt somewhat deceitful in planning adroitly. She made Miss Winn go
+to church with her, and when they came home with Mr. Saltonstall they
+sat on the porch together. A girl thinking of a lover would have asked
+him in. Then she went down to Boston, and Anthony came over as often as
+he could. Surely there was no danger with him.
+
+All this time Chilian Leverett was having a hard fight with himself. He
+was really ashamed of having been conquered by what he called a boy's
+romantic passion. He could excuse himself for the early lapse; he was a
+boy then. His honor and what he called good sense were mightily at war
+with this desire that well-nigh overmastered him. True, men older than
+he had married young wives. But this child had been entrusted to him in
+a sacred fashion by her dying father; he must place before her the best
+and richest of life, even if it condemned him to after-years of joyless
+solitude.
+
+For it was not as a father he loved her, though he had played a little
+at fatherhood in the beginning. She was so companionable, they had so
+many similar tastes. He was so fond of reading to an appreciative
+listener, and even as he sat in the darkness, when she did not know he
+was alone in the study, he could see her lovely eyes raised in their
+tender light. He thought this her unusual wisdom and discernment, never
+dreaming it had been mostly his training and her receptiveness. And to
+think of the house without her! Why, going out of it in her wedding gown
+would be almost as if she had been laid in her shroud and shut away. Of
+course, he could not have her here and see her love another.
+
+Giles Leverett's dream was much happier. In his mind he saved her for
+his favorite. When Anthony was through--and he was putting in law, with
+the classics--he would take him in his office, where he would find much
+business made to his hand. The house was big enough for them all, and he
+had grown curiously interested in young people. Anthony was very fond of
+his sweet, fascinating cousin--they all were. He did not know whether
+there was any one in Salem quite good enough for her. Saltonstall was a
+rather trifling fellow, whose fancies were evanescent.
+
+But Mr. Ed Saltonstall had a good friend in Mrs. Stevens, and she
+counselled him not to be too ardent in his pursuit. She said pleasant
+little things about him without any effusiveness. She considered his
+friendship with her very charming--young men were not generally devoted
+to middle-aged women. Once she shrewdly wondered why he had not made
+some errand down.
+
+Altogether it was a pleasant visit, though Cynthia kept revolving her
+duty, if such there was in the case. A blind, mysterious asking for
+something haunted her, something it would be sad to miss out of her
+life.
+
+Then she came home alone in the stage. There was a property dispute
+going on, where Mr. Leverett was an important witness for a friend. When
+the stage stopped, Rachel and Jane both ran out and gave her a joyful
+welcome.
+
+"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Cousin Eunice, "we are so glad to get you back.
+You are the light _of_ the house, isn't she?" glancing at the other.
+"Even Chilian has been mopey, though I think he isn't well. He is
+getting thin, too, and goodness knows he had no flesh to lose. Oh, my
+dear, I hope you will never go away again while I live;" and she gave a
+long sigh as the girl left the room.
+
+She came down presently in a cheerful light frock and began to tell
+Cousin Eunice and Jane what she had seen and heard. She was in the full
+tide of this, eager, bright, and flushing when Chilian entered. He
+greeted her rather languidly. Yes, he had grown thinner, and Cousin
+Giles was putting on too much flesh and growing jollier. Chilian did not
+look well and an ache went all over Cynthia's body, every nerve being
+sympathetic. He was not silent, however; he asked questions, but she
+thought he was hardly paying attention to the answers. He remained down
+in the sitting-room and read his _Gazette_, now and then making some
+comment, or answering some query of Cousin Eunice. It was not nine yet
+when he rose and said, "He was very tired; if they would excuse him, he
+would go to bed."
+
+They all went presently. She was glad to be alone in the room, glad
+there was no moon, and she turned her face over on the pillow and cried
+softly. After all, life was a riddle--two ways and not knowing which to
+take, both having a curiously lonely ending. Could she not bear it
+better alone? If he should go away as her father had done, if she should
+stay here in the old house, and then Cousin Eunice would fold her hands
+in that silent clasp, Rachel would slip into old womanhood, Jane would
+marry, she was keeping company now. There would be other Janes and
+she----
+
+On the other hand would be love, marriage, children maybe, a pleasant
+home. Living along side by side, as other people did.
+
+She did not try to shut out either vision. Which should she take? Was
+life just for one's self?
+
+She was not morbid. It was only in religion that people took out their
+very souls and examined them for lurking sins; the days' duties were
+what must be accomplished, whether or no. She knew she was not very
+religious, the deep things seemed beyond her grasp. And there was a
+certain joyousness in her love for sunshine, flowers, people, and all
+the attractive things of life. She was deeply grateful, she raised her
+heart in thankfulness to God for every good gift. And now she took up
+the daily duties cheerfully. It was not their fault the shadow had
+fallen over them.
+
+Some days afterward she was rambling around aimlessly, when she met a
+girl friend, and they chatted about various matters.
+
+"Oh," exclaimed the friend, "there'll be another wedding in the autumn,
+and Betty Upham is keeping steady company. I used to have an idea that
+you and Ben would make a match----"
+
+"It's Jenny Willing," she interrupted. "And I am heartily glad."
+
+"You were all such friends;" looking puzzled.
+
+"And I hope we will go on being friends. I have always liked Jenny."
+
+"She was awfully afraid you'd cut her out. You know he did fancy you
+first. I think she would have been very unhappy if she had missed him. I
+don't see what there is about you, Cynthia;" studying her intently. "You
+are pretty, but there are some handsome girls in Salem. And they run
+after Ed Saltonstall as if there was no other man in town. And my advice
+to you is to seize on him, for I think your chance best. He's an awful
+flirt, though. I think good-looking men always are."
+
+Cynthia flushed. Why should these things be profaned by foolish gossip.
+
+Polly came over one afternoon. She had accomplished the bag and was
+proud enough of it. And she announced Bentley's engagement.
+
+"They will be married in the early fall; they are not going to build,
+but have part of that double house of Nelsons'. She'll make a fine,
+economical wife, and that is what men need who are trying to get along.
+Assemblies and all that are not the thing for prudent married people."
+
+"And one gets tired of them." She had a feeling just then that she
+should never want to dance any more.
+
+Cynthia was glad to have him settled, glad Jenny Willing had the man she
+loved.
+
+And the last time he had come back to her she had held up her finger to
+him thoughtlessly, to shield herself from some other pointed attentions.
+It had been a mean thing to do. But she had only meant it for that
+evening, and he had gone on importunately. She was ashamed of it now.
+Yes, she had better marry; then no one would be pleading for favors,
+mistaking a simple smile for deeper meaning. Was her smile different
+from that of other girls?
+
+She watched Cousin Chilian narrowly. Was the old dear freedom between
+them gone? He seemed rather abstracted. He did not call her into the
+study, he went out oftener of an evening. Mr. Saltonstall would pass by,
+then turn and walk up the path and sit down on the step. This would
+occur several times a week. He asked her to ride with him, but she
+shrank from that. She went over one evening on special invitation, when
+Chilian was to play chess with the father. Mrs. Saltonstall took her in
+quite as if she was one of the family, and really was very sweet to her.
+And the old gentleman was fatherly.
+
+That seemed to settle it for her, rather the fact that sank deeper in
+her mind every day that Cousin Chilian wished her to marry and that this
+young man was his preference. She allowed him to come a little nearer,
+to hold her hand, to take nameless small freedoms, and he was always
+delicate.
+
+Would he be satisfied without all she could not help withholding? Would
+it be right to give him a half love? But then how could she help loving
+Cousin Chilian, who had been so tender to her in childhood? She would be
+gladly content to stay without any nearer tie between them; of course,
+that other could not be thought of.
+
+One night Mr. Saltonstall asked her in a manly fashion. And suddenly a
+great white light shot up in her heart, and loving one man she knew she
+had no right to deceive another, to live a deception all her life long,
+to cheat him--yes, it was that. Better a hundred times to live out her
+flawed life alone.
+
+"Oh, I cannot," she murmured. "I--I"--she choked down the strangling
+sob.
+
+"My little darling, give me the opportunity to teach you what love
+really is. You do not know."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE FLOWERING OF THE SOUL
+
+
+Cynthia had said coldly that she did not wish to marry at present,
+perhaps never. "I have been trying to love you to--to please some one
+else, and it is a compliment for you to ask me. But any woman ought to
+be sure before she makes a life-long promise. I must be honest--with
+you, with myself."
+
+Something in the solemn tone awed him. He had not been looking at the
+serious side of love. She was pretty, bright, and winsome, with a good
+deal of Puritan simplicity, a great power of enjoyment and difficult to
+win. He liked to do the winning himself. He liked to find some new
+qualities in girls, and Cynthia, with all her daintiness, had many sides
+that surprised one. She had been brought up by a man--that made the
+difference.
+
+"We will wait a little," he said. "Talk to your cousin about it. I think
+it will all come right. You are the first woman I ever desired to marry,
+and I have been fond of girls, too."
+
+That would have flattered some women. She said good-night in a strained,
+breathless tone, and vanished through the door. He sat and thought.
+There was no other lover, he was quite sure.
+
+She went to bed at once. She did not cry, she was somehow stunned at
+this revelation about herself, for she had resolved to accept him and
+this sudden protest told her that it was quite impossible. If Cousin
+Chilian was disappointed, if he was tired of her, there was a warm
+welcome in Boston.
+
+She did not sleep much. Rachel noted her heavy eyes, and the expression
+as if she might be secretly upbraiding fate. What if Mr. Saltonstall had
+been trifling?
+
+Chilian went up to his study. He felt languid, he nearly always did now.
+He took a book and sat by the open window. Two tall trees hid the
+prospect, except a space of blooming garden. To-day a small outlook
+pleased him, for his life was to be made narrower. She would come and
+tell him--shut the golden gate forever. He could not, would not, enter
+their paradise. Let him keep quite on the outside.
+
+She came in a soft, white gown that clung to her virginal figure. The
+swelling-out period had passed, even sleeves had collapsed to a small
+puff, and for house wear the arms and neck were left bare.
+
+The book was a Greek play. The letters danced before her eyes as she
+stood there. He looked off the book, but not up at her.
+
+"Cousin Chilian, I want to tell you"--her voice had the peculiar
+softness that one uses to try to cover the hurt one cannot help
+giving--"Mr. Saltonstall was here last evening. He has asked me to marry
+him."
+
+It seemed to her the silence lasted moments. Then he said in an
+incurious tone, "Well?"
+
+"I--will you be angry or disappointed when I confess that I cannot, that
+I do not love him."
+
+"Oh, Cynthia, child; what do you know about love?" he said impatiently.
+
+"Enough to know that it would be wrong to take a man's love and give him
+nothing in return." Now her voice was steady, convincing.
+
+He had a sudden thought. Like a vision the stalwart form of the young
+sailor rose before him. He had carried admiration, yes, love in his
+eyes. What if he had carried more than that away?
+
+"Cynthia, is there some one else, some one you _could_ love----"
+
+"There is some one else." Her tone was very low, but brave. That
+admission would settle the matter.
+
+"Are you to wait three years for him?"
+
+"For whom?" in surprise.
+
+Then he glanced up. Her face, that had been lily-white, was flushed from
+brow to neck. What was there in the beautiful, entreating eyes?
+
+"Cynthia?" All his firmness gave way.
+
+His arm stole softly around her, drew her a trifle down. "Tell me! Tell
+me!" he cried, yet he had no idea he was asking her to lay her heart
+bare. There was still the boy Anthony.
+
+"Cousin Chilian, if a woman loved very much, would it be a shame to her
+if, unasked, she----"
+
+Her head sank down on his shoulder. He felt the warm, throbbing breath
+on his cheek. He drew her closer. Did the slim, palpitating body betray
+its secret?
+
+"Oh, Cynthia, child, the most precious thing in all the world to me,
+tell me that I will not have to give you to another, that I may keep you
+to myself. For I cannot comprehend how so great a joy could come to me.
+And whether I would have the right to take your sweet young life, that
+should be replete with the joys of youth, with the gladness that is its
+proper birthright."
+
+"If I gave it to you? If I could never have given it to any other?"
+
+He drew her down closer, and the gentle yielding, the sort of rapturous
+sigh, answered him better than any words. He pressed kisses on the
+unresisting lips, kisses that then were sacred to affianced lovers and
+husbands.
+
+Was it an hour or half a lifetime? He inclined her to his knee as he had
+when she was a little girl, but at length he came back to his senses.
+
+"Cynthia," he began with tender gravity, "there are many points to
+consider. Do you know that I am more than double your age----"
+
+"Don't tell that to me. Isn't love as sweet?"
+
+Could he deny it in the face of that ravishing smile, those appealing
+eyes.
+
+"Still--the world will think about it. And you are a rich young woman,
+you could take your pick of lovers----"
+
+"But they are all so troublesome," she interrupted. "And one gets
+affronted with the other. And if I picked very much I might be called a
+flirt, perhaps I have been. I didn't want them, only to dance and be
+merry with, and there are so many pretty girls in the world--enough for
+all of them."
+
+He smiled a little and it gave her a heartache to see how thin he had
+grown, and there were new creases in his forehead that had been so fair
+and smooth.
+
+"And if some day you should repent?"
+
+"I'm not going to repent. Why should one when one gets the thing one
+wanted?"
+
+There was a touch of the old brightness in her tone. Had she really
+wanted him?
+
+"I've been very naughty with all these lovers, haven't I? But no one
+came near enough to really ask me that question until last night, though
+Mr. Marsh thought he would if he were going to stay. And Cousin Chilian,
+I had made up my mind truly, I thought, for I liked Mr. Saltonstall very
+much, and it seemed to me you wanted me to----" Her voice died away in
+pathos.
+
+"I did. Oh, you must know the worst of me. When I found you were
+growing into my very heart, and I began to feel jealous of the young
+men, I took myself in hand as a most reprehensible old fellow. But I
+found you had entwined yourself in every fibre of my heart, and it was
+hard indeed to uproot you."
+
+"And you really tried?" Her tone was upbraiding.
+
+"I tried like an honest, upright man. I shall never be ashamed of the
+effort. I would not mar or spoil your life. You see you might have loved
+some of these brave young lads. You might have been very happy with
+them."
+
+"Oh, you can't have but one husband;" in laughing gayety.
+
+He flushed at her mischief.
+
+"I wonder when you began to love me? And what has made you so cold and
+distant, as if you were taking your affection away?"
+
+"I was--I was--Heaven forgive me! I was learning to live without you; to
+go back to a life more solitary than it was before you came. And,
+Cynthia, you were not altogether a welcome guest. I did not know what to
+do with a little girl. I was set in my ways. I did not like to be
+disturbed. I could have sent a boy off to school. And Elizabeth thought
+it a trouble, too. You must read your father's letter and see the trust
+he reposed in me. But you were such a strange, shy little thing, and so
+delicate in all your ways. You never touched an article without
+permission, you handled books so gently, you never made dog's-ears, or
+crumpled a page. And that winter you were ill--and the faith you had in
+his return. How many times my heart ached for you. After that I could
+not have given you up, and I fell into a sort of belief that it would go
+on this always. When the lovers began to come, I found I must awake from
+my delusion. And then I knew that an oldish fellow could love a sweet
+girl in her first bloom, but that it would be a selfish, unpardonable
+thing."
+
+"Not if she loved him!" She raised her face in all its sweet bravery of
+color.
+
+"But it was his duty to let her see what pleasure there was in the world
+for youth; it was the promise to her dead father, who had confided his
+treasure to him. And even now he hesitates, lest you shall not have the
+best of everything."
+
+"I shall have the best;" with winning confidence.
+
+"I loved your mother. I was a young lad, and she some five years older.
+I suppose I was like a young brother to her, because your father, her
+lover, had been here so much. And somehow, you slipped into the place
+where there never had been any other."
+
+"It must have been kept for me," she said gravely. "And now I give you
+warning that I shall never go out of it. No place could ever be so dear
+as this house with all its memories. I am glad you knew and loved my
+mother."
+
+It came noon before they were talked out, or before they had settled
+only one point, about which she would have her way. She wrote a pretty
+note to Mr. Saltonstall, reiterating some things she had said the
+evening before, and acknowledging that when she had tried to accept him,
+she had found her heart was another's, "and you are worthy of a woman's
+best love," she added, which did comfort him.
+
+Still it puzzled him a good deal, but he finally settled upon Anthony
+and thought it a rather foolish choice. No doubt but that Giles Leverett
+was back of it all.
+
+They told Cousin Eunice and Miss Winn. The former cried for sheer joy.
+She seemed older than her years, but she was well and bid fair to live
+years yet.
+
+"Then you will never go away. I could not live without you, and as for
+Chilian----"
+
+"It would only be half a life," returned the lover, and he kissed Cousin
+Eunice.
+
+Miss Winn hardly knew whether to be pleased or not. She liked Mr.
+Saltonstall very much for his gayety, good humor, and fine presence, and
+then he had the divine gift of youth to match hers. Would she not tire
+of Chilian Leverett's grave life?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE PASSING OF OLD SALEM
+
+
+After all, they were foolish lovers. She did not hoard up any sweetness.
+If he could not look forward to so many years, she must give him a
+double portion. That was her only regret about him, and she never
+confessed that.
+
+He was surprised at himself. If she had loved another, the wound of
+loneliness must have bled inwardly until it sapped his life. Oh, how
+daintily sweet she was! Every day he found some new trait.
+
+"You see," she explained to Miss Winn, "we shall all keep together.
+Father trusted you to the uttermost, and you have been nobly loyal. I
+couldn't do without you. And no one could look so well after Cousin
+Eunice, who will keep growing older."
+
+That was true enough. She was very well content in her home, and at her
+time of life did not care to try a new one. Cynthia was almost like a
+child to her.
+
+Meanwhile matters had not gone prosperously with old Salem, England had
+claimed her right of search, against which the country strongly
+protested. The British government issued orders, and the French Emperor
+decrees, forbidding ships of neutrals to enter the ports, or engage in
+trade with their respective enemies. This crippled the trade of Salem.
+Then there had been the embargo, which for a while closed the ports. But
+the town went on improving. Fortunes had been made and now were being
+spent. But much of the shipping lay idle. Yet the social life went on,
+there was marrying and giving in marriage.
+
+Of course, there was some gossip about the Saltonstall fiasco. No one,
+at least very few, supposed a sensible girl would give up such an
+opportunity to settle herself. Miss Cynthia would no doubt use her best
+efforts to get him back. She seemed superbly indifferent to the gossip.
+
+At first Chilian insisted upon an engagement of some length, so that she
+might be sure of the wisdom of the step. But she only laughed in her
+charming fashion, and declared she would not give up the old house, much
+more its owner.
+
+But they had a quiet wedding, with only the choicest friends, and then
+they went to Boston to escape the wonderings. Cousin Giles was really
+displeased.
+
+"It's an unfair thing for an old fellow like you to do. And you had
+money enough of your own; her fortune should have gone to help some nice
+young fellow along. Why, really Cynthia has hardly outgrown childhood.
+You might have been her father!"
+
+"Hardly!" returned Chilian dryly.
+
+On their return the house was opened and really crowded with guests.
+Cynthia was in her most splendid attire. Happiness had certainly
+improved Chilian Leverett, he had gained some flesh and looked younger.
+The most beautiful belongings had been brought out to decorate the
+rooms.
+
+"For I am not going to have them stored away for possible
+grandchildren," she declared gayly.
+
+And the guests had a charming welcome. The younger girls were truly glad
+she had made her election, and no one could deny that she was very much
+in love with her husband. Neither had need to marry for money, since
+both had fortunes. And they wished her health and happiness with all
+their hearts.
+
+Jane had said to her, "Mis' Leverett, there's an old adage:
+
+          "'Change the name and not the letter,
+           You marry for worse and not for better.'"
+
+Cynthia laughed. "I'm not going to let signs or omens trouble me. And I
+haven't even changed my name, so the letter cannot count. And it is one
+of the good old Salem names. It was my dear father's."
+
+One incident touched Cynthia deeply. Eunice took her up in the garret
+one day and exhumed from a chest the beautiful white quilt of
+Elizabeth's handiwork. Pinned to one corner was a card, "For my little
+Cynthia."
+
+"Only a few days before she had her stroke she made me write this and
+go up and pin it on the quilt. Maybe she'd had a warning, people do
+sometimes. I supposed she'd leave it to Chilian. Oh, my dear, she'd be
+so glad to have you go on in the old house if she could know."
+
+Eunice wiped the tears from her eyes. Cynthia bent over and kissed among
+the stitches the poor fingers had toiled at day after day, sorry for the
+toil, glad for the love that came at the last.
+
+The Leverett house opened its doors with a generous hospitality. People,
+men at least, began to think of something beside money-making, and some
+fine plans were broached. Chilian Leverett seemed to grow younger.
+Cynthia should not miss the joys of youth out of her life. He did
+something more than dance minuets, for her sake he essayed quadrilles.
+The exquisite motion with her, her dainty hand in his, or at times
+resting on his shoulder, filled him with an all-pervading delight.
+
+"Chilian, do you realize that you are a really beautiful dancer?" she
+said one evening after they had returned from a small company.
+
+"Then I must have caught it from you. In my youth dancing was considered
+frivolous."
+
+"And in India you hire the men and women to dance for you, and follow
+the enchanting motions with your eye. But it is so warm out there."
+
+She had been playing one evening when she started up, exclaiming, "Let
+us try that new thing--the waltz. It is just made for two people very
+much in love."
+
+"It is?" He smiled in the eager face. It was said that she could twist
+him around her finger. "Why, we have no music."
+
+"I can sing the measure, just la, la!" and she started the melody. There
+were two long paths of moonlight through the wide-open shutters.
+Moonlight and sunshine were welcome visitors. She held out her hands.
+Just that way she had charmed others, and he yielded to the seductive
+influence. For, oh, she was so young and sweet.
+
+It was a little awkward at first, but they soon found the steps. It was
+rather slow and graceful, not the mad whirl of later times. It _was_
+considered rather reprehensible, but between husband and wife it was
+right enough. They found it very fascinating.
+
+After a while a sort of grave, sweet seriousness came over her. She
+liked to sit in the study and have him read poetry to her while she
+sewed. She had never loved sewing, but now she had taken a fancy to it.
+Dainty little lacey things, with the softest of muslins, treasures that
+had come from India. For there were stacks of towels and sheets and
+useful articles, so why should she bother about them?
+
+Jane was married and a middle-aged, homeless widow was very glad to
+come. Miss Winn took the head of the housekeeping, and Cousin Eunice was
+very willing.
+
+Then there came to them both a little son. Women often dream of babies
+of their own, but men have so many outside interests. There really were
+people at that time who thought children a boon and blessing of the
+Lord. Chilian Leverett was amazed, rendered speechless with joy. His own
+little son, Cynthia's little son, the life and love of both hearts. His
+cup of joy and thankfulness ran over. For he had never imagined there
+could be such perfect bliss. He thought over the time when the little
+girl had come, and he had not wanted her. Now she had brought him life's
+choicest blessing.
+
+Meanwhile events ran on which were to thrill all hearts and make
+stirring history. For war had been declared.
+
+Handsome, pleasure-loving Edward Saltonstall volunteered in the army.
+Perilous times there were on the northern frontier, dreadful losses, few
+gains, until suddenly the Lake battles changed the aspect and won the
+splendid victories that thrilled every heart.
+
+But Salem's almost meteoric prosperity came to a sudden halt, for there
+was war on the high seas as well. The whole mercantile marine was
+refitted and turned out to win what it might in other channels.
+Privateering was held right enough in those days.
+
+There was the electrifying capture of the _Guerriere_ and her being
+towed into Boston with Captain Dacres as a prisoner, and another to be
+quite as famous, that of the _United States_ and the _Macedonia_, where
+the American loss seemed incredibly small. Other splendid victories as
+well. But it was not until February, 1815, after nearly four years of
+struggle and war, that peace was again declared with the Colonies as
+victorious. America had won her right to the liberty of the seas, as
+well as that of the land.
+
+But the supremacy of trade no longer could be claimed for Salem. Other
+ports were built up, other markets opened. Cities saw the advantage of
+foreign trade. American products were shipped hither and thither. No one
+city had the monopoly.
+
+But romances flourished all the same and were to be handed down to other
+generations. There was the old Forester house, with its legends, its
+lovely gardens, and fine pictures. And the beautiful house of Elias
+Hasket Derby, in which he had lived but such a short time. No one felt
+rich enough then to undertake such a costly establishment, and finally
+the estate came into possession of the city, and the big area was named
+Derby Square, and a commodious market built and a Town Hall. When that
+was opened President Monroe made a visit to Salem, and was
+enthusiastically received there, citizens thronging to see him. The next
+day Judge Story entertained him, and Mr. Stephen White, of Washington
+Square, gave a ball in his honor. The Leveretts were among the guests,
+and Captain Edward Saltonstall, who had won promotions by brave conduct
+under General Harrison, but was now a private citizen and a fine-looking
+man, with a new bevy of girls as eager for his attentions as the others
+were seven or eight years before.
+
+There was another guest who claimed, or at least received, a good share
+of attention. This was the naval Captain Marsh, who had been in the
+encounter between the _Macedonia_ and the frigate _United States_,
+Captain Decatur, which was considered one of the greatest of the naval
+battles. For his bravery then and afterward, he had been promoted and
+was now a captain in command of a fine vessel.
+
+Cynthia was delighted to see him; but she said he must visit them to
+talk over matters and the wonders that had happened to him. She would
+not dance any, although she was in the grand march with her husband. Mr.
+Saltonstall she saw quite frequently. His parents were quite old people
+and he was devoted to them.
+
+She wondered at times if any old fancy kept him single. If so, she was
+sincerely sorry. For she had been very, very happy with the husband of
+her love. And in the household there were two merry, frolicking boys,
+and a sweet little girl, with her mother's eyes.
+
+Captain Marsh did come and he was delighted with his visit. The little
+boys climbed over him as if they had known him always. He told the story
+of the terrific battle at the Canaries, and many another battle that had
+left him unscathed.
+
+"And I used to think if I came back to old Salem and found you
+unmarried, it would go hard with me if I could not win you," he said to
+Cynthia in his cordial, manly fashion. "And I confess to you now if Dame
+Wilby had struck you that day at school, I should have rushed at her
+like a tiger. I like that remembrance of you standing there so brave and
+defying."
+
+They both laughed over it.
+
+She had changed very little. Chilian said she grew younger with the
+birth of every baby. She was happy and merry, truly the light of the
+house, and Cousin Eunice was the happiest grandmother in all of Salem.
+Miss Winn shared their joys--so far there had been no sorrows.
+
+Chilian grew a little stouter with advancing years, which really
+improved him. He took a warm interest in the new projects. There was the
+Essex Historical Society, gathering portraits and relics of the older
+Salem, and the East India Marine Society was enlarging its scope. The
+new Salem was to be curiously intellectual, historic, and one might say
+antiquarian. Modernized and transformed in many respects, it still has
+the old-time fragrance of sandalwood and incense when the chests in the
+old garrets are turned over for fine things that came from India a
+century before.
+
+Cousin Giles aged more rapidly, but then he was considerably older than
+Chilian. He did adopt young Anthony, and insisted upon his taking the
+name of Leverett, and a share of the business burthens. And he married
+quite to the approval of the elder man, though not such an heiress as
+Cynthia.
+
+And no one was dreaming that the little boy born in Union Street in 1804
+was to add such interest and lustre to his native town that the scenes
+of his curious wizard-like romances were to be settled upon by those
+interested in them and handed down as actual occurrences. Do we not all
+know Hester Prynne and Mr. Dimmesdale, Phebe and Hephzibah and Judge
+Pyncheon, and weird old Dr. Grimshawe, and many another that have
+flitted through the pages of Hawthorne's strange romances, leaving Salem
+the richer by the memories?
+
+There was another little girl who was to grow up and take a great
+interest in all these things, and finally to see the old Leverett house
+pass away, after its more than two hundred years. But it was a new and
+doubly interesting Salem then, with its several evolutions that have
+passed and gone.
+
+She lived a long and happy life, this little girl who came back to her
+birthplace consigned to Chilian Leverett's care, and won his love that
+never changed, or grew any less. Her sons never tired of the old
+reminiscences. Many of the old houses were still standing. Here
+President Washington had been entertained; here the artist Copley had
+lived and painted portraits that are heirlooms; Justice Story and his
+gifted son, poet and artist; Prescott, the historian, and many another
+of whom the country is proud to-day, and civilians whose fine thought
+and noble work have made the city a Mecca for intellectual tourists, and
+a beautiful and interesting abiding-place for her citizens, a town of
+three striking epochs that linger not only in tradition but in history.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+   Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+   Table of Contents, the final "VIII" was changed to "XVIII".
+
+   Page 41, "spinnet" changed to "spinet". (a thin-legged spinet)
+
+   Page 148, "exlaining" changed to "explaining". (fond of explaining)
+
+   Page 174, "Chilan's" changed to "Chilian's". (Cousin Chilian's
+             memory)
+
+   Page 200, "detatched" changed to "detached". (of detached sounds)
+
+   Page 216, "beutifully" changed to "beautifully". (a beautifully
+             engraved)
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LITTLE GIRL IN OLD SALEM***
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