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diff --git a/1701.txt b/1701.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f822b34 --- /dev/null +++ b/1701.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8446 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Story Of Waitstill Baxter, by By Kate Douglas Wiggin + +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: The Story Of Waitstill Baxter + +Author: By Kate Douglas Wiggin + +Posting Date: November 20, 2008 [EBook #1701] +Release Date: April, 1999 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF WAITSTILL BAXTER *** + + + + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE STORY OF WAITSTILL BAXTER + +By Kate Douglas Wiggin + + + +CONTENTS + + SPRING + + I. SACO WATER + II. THE SISTERS + III. DEACON BAXTER'S WIVES + IV. SOMETHING OF A HERO + V. PATIENCE AND IMPATIENCE + VI. A KISS + VII. WHAT DREAMS MAY COME + + SUMMER + + VIII. THE JOINER'S SHOP + IX. CEPHAS SPEAKS + X. ON TORY HILL + XI. A JUNE SUNDAY + XII. THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER + XIII. HAYING TIME + XIV. UNCLE BART DISCOURSES + XV. IVORY'S MOTHER + XVI. LOCKED OUT + + + + AUTUMN + + XVII. A BRACE OF LOVERS + XVIII. A STATE O' MAINE PROPHET + XIX. AT THE BRICK STORE + XX. THE ROD THAT BLOSSOMED + XXI. LOIS BURIES HER DEAD + XXII. HARVEST-TIME + XXIII. AUNT ABBY'S WINDOW + XXIV. PHOEBE TRIUMPHS + XXV. LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM + + WINTER + + XXVI. A WEDDING-RING + XXVII. THE CONFESSIONAL + XXVIII.PATTY IS SHOWN THE DOOR + XXIX. WAITSTILL SPEAKS HER MIND + XXX. A CLASH OF WILLS + XXXI. SENTRY DUTY + XXXII. THE HOUSE OF AARON + XXXIII.AARON'S ROD + XXXIV. THE DEACON'S WATERLOO + XXXV. TWO HEAVENS + + + + +THE STORY OF WAITSTILL BAXTER + + + + +SPRING + + + + +I. SACO WATER + +FAR, far up, in the bosom of New Hampshire's granite hills, the Saco has +its birth. As the mountain rill gathers strength it takes + + "Through Bartlett's vales its tuneful way, + Or hides in Conway's fragrant brakes, + Retreating from the glare of day." + +Now it leaves the mountains and flows through "green Fryeburg's woods +and farms." In the course of its frequent turns and twists and bends, it +meets with many another stream, and sends it, fuller and stronger, along +its rejoicing way. When it has journeyed more than a hundred miles and +is nearing the ocean, it greets the Great Ossipee River and accepts its +crystal tribute. Then, in its turn, the Little Ossipee joins forces, +and the river, now a splendid stream, flows onward to Bonny Eagle, to +Moderation and to Salmon Falls, where it dashes over the dam like a +young Niagara and hurtles, in a foamy torrent, through the ragged defile +cut between lofty banks of solid rock. + +Widening out placidly for a moment's rest in the sunny reaches near +Pleasant Point, it gathers itself for a new plunge at Union Falls, after +which it speedily merges itself in the bay and is fresh water no more. + +At one of the falls on the Saco, the two little hamlets of Edgewood and +Riverboro nestle together at the bridge and make one village. The stream +is a wonder of beauty just here; a mirror of placid loveliness above +the dam, a tawny, roaring wonder at the fall, and a mad, white-flecked +torrent as it dashes on its way to the ocean. + +The river has seen strange sights in its time, though the history of +these two tiny villages is quite unknown to the great world outside. +They have been born, waxed strong, and fallen almost to decay while +Saco Water has tumbled over the rocks and spent itself in its impetuous +journey to the sea. + +It remembers the yellow-moccasined Sokokis as they issued from the +Indian Cellar and carried their birchen canoes along the wooded shore. +It was in those years that the silver-skinned salmon leaped in its +crystal depths; the otter and the beaver crept with sleek wet skins +upon its shore; and the brown deer came down to quench his thirst at its +brink while at twilight the stealthy forms of bear and panther and wolf +were mirrored in its glassy surface. + +Time sped; men chained the river's turbulent forces and ordered it +to grind at the mill. Then houses and barns appeared along its banks, +bridges were built, orchards planted, forests changed into farms, +white-painted meetinghouses gleamed through the trees and distant bells +rang from their steeples on quiet Sunday mornings. + +All at once myriads of great hewn logs vexed its downward course, +slender logs linked together in long rafts, and huge logs drifting down +singly or in pairs. Men appeared, running hither and thither like ants, +and going through mysterious operations the reason for which the river +could never guess: but the mill-wheels turned, the great saws buzzed, +the smoke from tavern chimneys rose in the air, and the rattle and +clatter of stage-coaches resounded along the road. + +Now children paddled with bare feet in the river's sandy coves and +shallows, and lovers sat on its alder-shaded banks and exchanged their +vows just where the shuffling bear was wont to come down and drink. + +The Saco could remember the "cold year," when there was a black frost +every month of the twelve, and though almost all the corn along its +shores shrivelled on the stalk, there were two farms where the vapor +from the river saved the crops, and all the seed for the next season +came from the favored spot, to be known as "Egypt" from that day +henceforward. + +Strange, complex things now began to happen, and the river played its +own part in some of these, for there were disastrous freshets, the +sudden breaking-up of great jams of logs, and the drowning of men who +were engulfed in the dark whirlpool below the rapids. + +Caravans, with menageries of wild beasts, crossed the bridge now every +year. An infuriated elephant lifted the side of the old Edgewood Tavern +barn, and the wild laughter of the roistering rum-drinkers who were +tantalizing the animals floated down to the river's edge. The roar of +a lion, tearing and chewing the arm of one of the bystanders, and the +cheers of the throng when a plucky captain of the local militia thrust +a stake down the beast's throat,--these sounds displaced the former +war-whoop of the Indians and the ring of the axe in the virgin forests +along the shores. + +There were days, and moonlight nights, too, when strange sights and +sounds of quite another nature could have been noted by the river as it +flowed under the bridge that united the two little villages. + +Issuing from the door of the Riverboro Town House, and winding down +the hill, through the long row of teams and carriages that lined the +roadside, came a procession of singing men and singing women. Convinced +of sin, but entranced with promised pardon; spiritually intoxicated by +the glowing eloquence of the latter-day prophet they were worshipping, +the band of "Cochranites" marched down the dusty road and across the +bridge, dancing, swaying, waving handkerchiefs, and shouting hosannas. + +God watched, and listened, knowing that there would be other prophets, +true and false, in the days to come, and other processions following +them; and the river watched and listened too, as it hurried on towards +the sea with its story of the present that was sometime to be the +history of the past. + +When Jacob Cochrane was leading his overwrought, ecstatic band across +the river, Waitstill Baxter, then a child, was watching the strange, +noisy company from the window of a little brick dwelling on the top of +the Town-House Hill. + +Her stepmother stood beside her with a young baby in her arms, but when +she saw what held the gaze of the child she drew her away, saying: "We +mustn't look, Waitstill; your father don't like it!" + +"Who was the big man at the head, mother?" + +"His name is Jacob Cochrane, but you mustn't think or talk about him; he +is very wicked." + +"He doesn't look any wickeder than the others," said the child. "Who was +the man that fell down in the road, mother, and the woman that knelt and +prayed over him? Why did he fall, and why did she pray, mother?" + +"That was Master Aaron Boynton, the schoolmaster, and his wife. He only +made believe to fall down, as the Cochranites do; the way they carry on +is a disgrace to the village, and that's the reason your father won't +let us look at them." + +"I played with a nice boy over to Boynton's," mused the child. + +"That was Ivory, their only child. He is a good little fellow, but his +mother and father will spoil him with their crazy ways." + +"I hope nothing will happen to him, for I love him," said the child +gravely. "He showed me a humming-bird's nest, the first ever I saw, and +the littlest!" + +"Don't talk about loving him," chided the woman. "If your father should +hear you, he'd send you to bed without your porridge." + +"Father couldn't hear me, for I never speak when he's at home," said +grave little Waitstill. "And I'm used to going to bed without my +porridge." + + + + +II. THE SISTERS + +THE river was still running under the bridge, but the current of time +had swept Jacob Cochrane out of sight, though not out of mind, for he +had left here and there a disciple to preach his strange and uncertain +doctrine. Waitstill, the child who never spoke in her father's presence, +was a young woman now, the mistress of the house; the stepmother was +dead, and the baby a girl of seventeen. + +The brick cottage on the hilltop had grown only a little shabbier. +Deacon Foxwell Baxter still slammed its door behind him every morning at +seven o'clock and, without any such cheerful conventions as good-byes to +his girls, walked down to the bridge to open his store. + +The day, properly speaking, had opened when Waitstill and Patience had +left their beds at dawn, built the fire, fed the hens and turkeys, and +prepared the breakfast, while the Deacon was graining the horse and +milking the cows. Such minor "chores" as carrying water from the well, +splitting kindling, chopping pine, or bringing wood into the kitchen, +were left to Waitstill, who had a strong back, or, if she had not, had +never been unwise enough to mention the fact in her father's presence. +The almanac day, however, which opened with sunrise, had nothing to do +with the real human day, which always began when Mr. Baxter slammed +the door behind him, and reached its high noon of delight when he +disappeared from view. + +"He's opening the store shutters!" chanted Patience from the heights of +a kitchen chair by the window. "Now he's taken his cane and beaten off +the Boynton puppy that was sitting on the steps as usual,--I don't mean +Ivory's dog" (here the girl gave a quick glance at her sister), "but +Rodman's little yellow cur. Rodman must have come down to the bridge +on some errand for Ivory. Isn't it odd, when that dog has all the other +store steps to sit upon, he should choose father's, when every bone +in his body must tell him how father hates him and the whole Boynton +family." + +"Father has no real cause that I ever heard of; but some dogs never +know when they've had enough beating, nor some people either." said +Waitstill, speaking from the pantry. + +"Don't be gloomy when it's my birthday, Sis!--Now he's opened the door +and kicked the cat! All is ready for business at the Baxter store." + +"I wish you weren't quite so free with your tongue, Patty." + +"Somebody must talk," retorted the girl, jumping down from the chair +and shaking back her mop of red-gold curls. "I'll put this hateful, +childish, round comb in and out just once more, then it will disappear +forever. This very after-noon up goes my hair!" + +"You know it will be of no use unless you braid it very plainly and +neatly. Father will take notice and make you smooth it down." + +"Father hasn't looked me square in the face for years; besides, my +hair won't braid, and nothing can make it quite plain and neat, thank +goodness! Let us be thankful for small mercies, as Jed Morrill said when +the lightning struck his mother-in-law and skipped his wife." + +"Patty, I will not permit you to repeat those tavern stories; they are +not seemly on the lips of a girl!" And Waitstill came out of the pantry +with a shadow of disapproval in her eyes and in her voice. + +Patty flung her arms round her sister tempestuously, and pulled out the +waves of her hair so that it softened her face.--"I'll be good," she +said, "and oh, Waity! let's invent some sort of cheap happiness for +to-day! I shall never be seventeen again and we have so many troubles! +Let's put one of the cows in the horse's stall and see what will happen! +Or let's spread up our beds with the head at the foot and put the chest +of drawers on the other side of the room, or let's make candy! Do you +think father would miss the molasses if we only use a cupful? Couldn't +we strain the milk, but leave the churning and the dishes for an hour or +two, just once? If you say 'yes' I can think of something wonderful to +do!" + +"What is it?" asked Waitstill, relenting at the sight of the girl's +eager, roguish face. + +"PIERCE MY EARS!" cried Patty. "Say you will!" + +"Oh! Patty, Patty, I am afraid you are given over to vanity! I daren't +let you wear eardrops without father's permission." + +"Why not? Lots of church members wear them, so it can't be a mortal sin. +Father is against all adornments, but that's because he doesn't want to +buy them. You've always said I should have your mother's coral pendants +when I was old enough. Here I am, seventeen today, and Dr. Perry says I +am already a well-favored young woman. I can pull my hair over my ears +for a few days and when the holes are all made and healed, even father +cannot make me fill them up again. Besides, I'll never wear the earrings +at home!" + +"Oh! my dear, my dear!" sighed Waitstill, with a half-sob in her voice. +"If only I was wise enough to know how we could keep from these little +deceits, yet have any liberty or comfort in life!" + +"We can't! The Lord couldn't expect us to bear all that we bear," +exclaimed Patty, "without our trying once in a while to have a good +time in our own way. We never do a thing that we are ashamed of, or that +other girls don't do every day in the week; only our pleasures always +have to be taken behind father's back. It's only me that's ever wrong, +anyway, for you are always an angel. It's a burning shame and you only +twenty-one yourself. I'll pierce your ears if you say so, and let you +wear your own coral drops!" + +"No, Patty; I've outgrown those longings years ago. When your mother +died and left father and you and the house to me, my girlhood died, too, +though I was only thirteen." + +"It was only your inside girlhood that died," insisted Patty stoutly, +"The outside is as fresh as the paint on Uncle Barty's new ell. You've +got the loveliest eyes and hair in Riverboro, and you know it; besides, +Ivory Boynton would tell you so if you didn't. Come and bore my ears, +there's a darling!" + +"Ivory Boynton never speaks a word of my looks, nor a word that father +and all the world mightn't hear." And Waitstill flushed. + +"Then it's because he's shy and silent and has so many troubles of his +own that he doesn't dare say anything. When my hair is once up and the +coral pendants are swinging in my ears, I shall expect to hear something +about MY looks, I can tell you. Waity, after all, though we never have +what we want to eat, and never a decent dress to our backs, nor a young +man to cross the threshold, I wouldn't change places with Ivory Boynton, +would you?" Here Patty swept the hearth vigorously with a turkey wing +and added a few corncobs to the fire. + +Waitstill paused a moment in her task of bread-kneading. "Well," she +answered critically, "at least we know where our father is." + +"We do, indeed! We also know that he is thoroughly alive!" + +"And though people do talk about him, they can't say the things they say +of Master Aaron Boynton. I don't believe father would ever run away and +desert us." + +"I fear not," said Patty. "I wish the angels would put the idea into his +head, though, of course, it wouldn't be the angels; they'd be above it. +It would have to be the 'Old Driver,' as Jed Morrill calls the Evil One; +but whoever did it, the result would be the same: we should be deserted, +and live happily ever after. Oh! to be deserted, and left with you alone +on this hilltop, what joy it would be!" + +Waitstill frowned, but did not interfere further with Patty's +intemperate speech. She knew that she was simply serving as an +escape-valve, and that after the steam was "let off" she would be more +rational. + +"Of course, we are motherless," continued Patty wistfully, "but poor +Ivory is worse than motherless." + +"No, not worse, Patty," said Waitstill, taking the bread-board and +moving towards the closet. "Ivory loves his mother and she loves him, +with all the mind she has left! She has the best blood of New England +flowing in her veins, and I suppose it was a great come down for her to +marry Aaron Boynton, clever and gifted though he was. Now Ivory has to +protect her, poor, daft, innocent creature, and hide her away from the +gossip of the village. He is surely the best of sons, Ivory Boynton!" + +"She is a terrible care for him, and like to spoil his life," said +Patty. + +"There are cares that swell the heart and make it bigger and warmer, +Patty, just as there are cares that shrivel it and leave it tired and +cold. Love lightens Ivory's afflictions but that is something you and I +have to do without, so it seems." + +"I suppose little Rodman is some comfort to the Boyntons, even if he is +only ten." Patty suggested. + +"No doubt. He's a good little fellow, and though it's rather hard for +Ivory to be burdened for these last five years with the support of a +child who's no nearer kin than a cousin, still he's of use, minding Mrs. +Boynton and the house when Ivory's away. The school-teacher says he is +wonderful at his books and likely to be a great credit to the Boyntons +some day or other." + +"You've forgot to name our one great blessing, Waity, and I believe, +anyway, you're talking to keep my mind off the earrings!" + +"You mean we've each other? No, Patty, I never forget that, day or +night. 'Tis that makes me willing to bear any burden father chooses +to put upon us.--Now the bread is set, but I don't believe I have the +courage to put a needle into your tender flesh, Patty; I really don't." + +"Nonsense! I've got the waxed silk all ready and chosen the right-sized +needle and I'll promise not to jump or screech more than I can help. +We'll make a tiny lead-pencil dot right in the middle of the lobe, then +you place the needle on it, shut your eyes, and JAB HARD! I expect to +faint, but when I 'come to,' we can decide which of us will pull the +needle through to the other side. Probably it will be you, I'm such a +coward. If it hurts dreadfully, I'll have only one pierced to-day and +take the other to-morrow; and if it hurts very dreadfully, perhaps I'll +go through life with one ear-ring. Aunt Abby Cole will say it's just odd +enough to suit me!" + +"You'll never go through life with one tongue at the rate you use it +now," chided Waitstill, "for it will never last you. Come, we'll take +the work-basket and go out in the barn where no one will see or hear +us." + +"Goody, goody! Come along!" and Patty clapped her hands in triumph. +"Have you got the pencil and the needle and the waxed silk? Then bring +the camphor bottle to revive me, and the coral pendants, too, just to +give me courage. Hurry up! It's ten o'clock. I was born at sun-rise, so +I'm 'going on' eighteen and can't waste any time!" + + + + +III. DEACON BAXTER'S WIVES + +FOXWELL BAXTER was ordinarily called "Old Foxy" by the boys of the +district, and also, it is to be feared, by the men gathered for evening +conference at the various taverns, or at one of the rival village +stores. + +He had a small farm of fifteen or twenty acres, with a pasture, a wood +lot, and a hay-field, but the principal source of his income came +from trading. His sign bore the usual legend: "WEST INDIA GOODS AND +GROCERIES," and probably the most profitable articles in his stock were +rum, molasses, sugar, and tobacco; but there were chests of rice, tea, +coffee, and spices, barrels of pork in brine, as well as piles of cotton +and woolen cloth on the shelves above the counters. His shop window, +seldom dusted or set in order, held a few clay pipes, some glass jars of +peppermint or sassafras lozenges, black licorice, stick-candy, and sugar +gooseberries. These dainties were seldom renewed, for it was only a very +bold child, or one with an ungovernable appetite for sweets, who would +have spent his penny at Foxy Baxter's store. + +He was thought a sharp and shrewd trader, but his honesty was never +questioned; indeed, the only trait in his character that ever came up +for general discussion was his extraordinary, unbelievable, colossal +meanness. This so eclipsed every other passion in the man, and loomed +so bulkily and insistently in the foreground, that had he cherished a +second vice no one would have observed it, and if he really did possess +a casual virtue, it could scarcely have reared its head in such ugly +company. + +It might be said, to defend the fair name of the Church, that Mr. +Baxter's deaconhood did not include very active service in the courts of +the Lord. He had "experienced religion" at fifteen and made profession +of his faith, but all well-brought-up boys and girls did the same +in those days; their parents saw to that! If change of conviction or +backsliding occurred later on, that was not their business! At the +ripe age of twenty-five he was selected to fill a vacancy and became a +deacon, thinking it might be good for trade, as it was, for some years. +He was very active at the time of the "Cochrane craze," since any +defence of the creed that included lively detective work and incessant +spying on his neighbors was particularly in his line; but for many years +now, though he had been regular in attendance at church, he had never +officiated at communion, and his diaconal services had gradually lapsed +into the passing of the contribution-box, a task of which he never +wearied; it was such a keen pleasure to make other people yield their +pennies for a good cause, without adding any of his own! + +Deacon Baxter had now been a widower for some years and the community +had almost relinquished the idea of his seeking a fourth wife. This was +a matter of some regret, for there was a general feeling that it would +be a good thing for the Baxter girls to have some one to help with the +housework and act as a buffer between them and their grim and irascible +parent. As for the women of the village, they were mortified that the +Deacon had been able to secure three wives, and refused to believe that +the universe held anywhere a creature benighted enough to become his +fourth. + +The first, be it said, was a mere ignorant girl, and he a beardless +youth of twenty, who may not have shown his true qualities so early in +life. She bore him two sons, and it was a matter of comment at the +time that she called them, respectively, Job and Moses, hoping that the +endurance and meekness connected with these names might somehow help +them in their future relations with their father. Pneumonia, coupled +with profound discouragement, carried her off in a few years to make +room for the second wife, Waitstill's mother, who was of different fibre +and greatly his superior. She was a fine, handsome girl, the orphan +daughter of up-country gentle-folks, who had died when she was eighteen, +leaving her alone in the world and penniless. + +Baxter, after a few days' acquaintance, drove into the dooryard of the +house where she was a visitor and, showing her his two curly-headed +boys, suddenly asked her to come and be their stepmother. She assented, +partly because she had nothing else to do with her existence, so far as +she could see, and also because she fell in love with the children at +first sight and forgot, as girls will, that it was their father whom she +was marrying. + +She was as plucky and clever and spirited as she was handsome, and she +made a brave fight of it with Foxy; long enough to bring a daughter into +the world, to name her Waitstill, and start her a little way on her life +journey,--then she, too, gave up the struggle and died. Typhoid fever it +was, combined with complete loss of illusions, and a kind of despairing +rage at having made so complete a failure of her existence. + +The next year, Mr. Baxter, being unusually busy, offered a man a good +young heifer if he would jog about the country a little and pick him +up a housekeeper; a likely woman who would, if she proved energetic, +economical, and amiable, be eventually raised to the proud position of +his wife. If she was young, healthy, smart, tidy, capable, and a good +manager, able to milk the cows, harness the horse, and make good butter, +he would give a dollar and a half a week. The woman was found, and, +incredible as it may seem, she said "yes" when the Deacon (whose ardor +was kindled at having paid three months' wages) proposed a speedy +marriage. The two boys by this time had reached the age of discretion, +and one of them evinced the fact by promptly running away to parts +unknown, never to be heard from afterwards; while the other, a reckless +and unhappy lad, was drowned while running on the logs in the river. Old +Foxy showed little outward sign of his loss, though he had brought the +boys into the world solely with the view of having one of them work on +the farm and the other in the store. + +His third wife, the one originally secured for a housekeeper, bore him +a girl, very much to his disgust, a girl named Patience, and great was +Waitstill's delight at this addition to the dull household. The mother +was a timid, colorless, docile creature, but Patience nevertheless was a +sparkling, bright-eyed baby, who speedily became the very centre of the +universe to the older child. So the months and years wore on, drearily +enough, until, when Patience was nine, the third Mrs. Baxter succumbed +after the manner of her predecessors, and slipped away from a life that +had grown intolerable. The trouble was diagnosed as "liver complaint," +but scarcity of proper food, no new frocks or kind words, hard work, and +continual bullying may possibly have been contributory causes. Dr. Perry +thought so, for he had witnessed three most contented deaths in +the Baxter house. The ladies were all members of the church and had +presumably made their peace with God, but the good doctor fancied that +their pleasure in joining the angels was mild compared with their relief +at parting with the Deacon. + +"I know I hadn't ought to put the care on you, Waitstill, and you only +thirteen," poor Mrs. Baxter sighed, as the young girl was watching with +her one night when the end seemed drawing near. "I've made out to live +till now when Patience is old enough to dress herself and help round, +but I'm all beat out and can't try any more." + +"Do you mean I'm to take your place, be a mother to Patience, and keep +house, and everything?" asked Waitstill quaveringly. + +"I don't see but you'll have to, unless your father marries again. He'll +never hire help, you know that!" + +"I won't have another mother in this house," flashed the girl. "There's +been three here and that's enough! If he brings anybody home, I'll take +Patience and run away, as Job did; or if he leaves me alone, I'll wash +and iron and scrub and cook till Patience grows up, and then we'll go +off together and hide somewhere. I'm fourteen; oh, mother, how soon +could I be married and take Patience to live with me? Do you think +anybody will ever want me?" + +"Don't marry for a home, Waitstill! Your own mother did that, and so did +I, and we were both punished for it! You've been a great help and I've +had a sight of comfort out of the baby, but I wouldn't go through it +again, not even for her! You're real smart and capable for your age and +you've done your full share of the work every day, even when you were at +school. You can get along all right." + +"I don't know how I'm going to do everything alone," said the girl, +forcing back her tears. "You've always made the brown bread, and mine +will never suit father. I suppose I can wash, but don't know how to iron +starched clothes, nor make pickles, and oh! I can never kill a rooster, +mother, it's no use to ask me to! I'm not big enough to be the head of +the family." + +Mrs. Baxter turned her pale, tired face away from Waitstill's appealing +eyes. + +"I know," she said faintly. "I hate to leave you to bear the brunt +alone, but I must!... Take good care of Patience and don't let her get +into trouble.... You won't, will you?" + +"I'll be careful," promised Waitstill, sobbing quietly; "I'll do my +best." + +"You've got more courage than ever I had; don't you s'pose you can +stiffen up and defend yourself a little mite?... Your father'd ought to +be opposed, for his own good... but I've never seen anybody that dared +do it." Then, after a pause, she said with a flash of spirit,--"Anyhow, +Waitstill, he's your father after all. He's no blood relation of mine, +and I can't stand him another day; that's the reason I'm willing to +die." + + + + +IV. SOMETHING OF A HERO + +IVORY BOYNTON lifted the bars that divided his land from the highroad +and walked slowly toward the house. It was April, but there were still +patches of snow here and there, fast melting under a drizzling rain. It +was a gray world, a bleak, black-and-brown world, above and below. The +sky was leaden; the road and the footpath were deep in a muddy ooze +flecked with white. The tree-trunks, black, with bare branches, were +lined against the gray sky; nevertheless, spring had been on the way for +a week, and a few sunny days would bring the yearly miracle for which +all hearts were longing. + +Ivory was season-wise and his quick eye had caught many a sign as he +walked through the woods from his schoolhouse. A new and different color +haunted the tree-tops, and one had only to look closely at the elm +buds to see that they were beginning to swell. Some fat robins had been +sunning about in the school-yard at noon, and sparrows had been chirping +and twittering on the fence-rails. Yes, the winter was over, and Ivory +was glad, for it had meant no coasting and skating and sleighing for +him, but long walks in deep snow or slush; long evenings, good for +study, but short days, and greater loneliness for his mother. He could +see her now as he neared the house, standing in the open doorway, her +hand shading her eyes, watching, always watching, for some one who never +came. + +"Spring is on the way, mother, but it isn't here yet, so don't stand +there in the rain," he called. "Look at the nosegay I gathered for +you as I came through the woods. Here are pussy willows and red maple +blossoms and Mayflowers, would you believe it?" + +Lois Boynton took the handful of budding things and sniffed their +fragrance. + +"You're late to-night, Ivory," she said. "Rod wanted his supper early +so that he could go off to singing-school, but I kept something warm for +you, and I'll make you a fresh cup of tea." + +Ivory went into the little shed room off the kitchen, changed his muddy +boots for slippers, and made himself generally tidy; then he came back +to the living-room bringing a pine knot which he flung on the fire, +waking it to a brilliant flame. + +"We can be as lavish as we like with the stumps now, mother, for spring +is coming," he said, as he sat down to his meal. + +"I've been looking out more than usual this afternoon," she replied. +"There's hardly any snow left, and though the walking is so bad I've +been rather expecting your father before night. You remember he +said, when he went away in January, that he should be back before the +Mayflowers bloomed?" + +It did not do any good to say: "Yes, mother, but the Mayflowers have +bloomed ten times since father went away." He had tried that, gently and +persistently when first her mind began to be confused from long grief +and hurt love, stricken pride and sick suspense. + +Instead of that, Ivory turned the subject cheerily, saying, "Well, we're +sure of a good season, I think. There's been a grand snow-fall, and +that, they say, is the poor man's manure. Rod and I will put in more +corn and potatoes this year. I shan't have to work single-handed very +long, for he is growing to be quite a farmer." + +"Your father was very fond of green corn, but he never cared for +potatoes," Mrs. Boynton said, vaguely, taking up her knitting. "I always +had great pride in my cooking, but I could never get your father to +relish my potatoes." + +"Well, his son does, anyway," Ivory replied, helping himself plentifully +from a dish that held one of his mother's best concoctions, potatoes +minced fine and put together into the spider with thin bits of pork and +all browned together. + +"I saw the Baxter girls to-day, mother," he continued, not because +he hoped she would give any heed to what he said, but from the sheer +longing for companionship. "The Deacon drove off with Lawyer Wilson, who +wanted him to give testimony in some case or other down in Milltown. The +minute Patty saw him going up Saco Hill, she harnessed the old starved +Baxter mare and the girls started over to the Lower Corner to see some +friends. It seems it's Patty's birthday and they were celebrating. I +met them just as they were coming back and helped them lift the rickety +wagon out of the mud; they were stuck in it up to the hubs of the +wheels. I advised them to walk up the Town-House Hill if they ever +expected to get the horse home." + +"Town-House Hill!" said Ivory's mother, dropping her knitting. "That was +where we had such wonderful meetings! Truly the Lord was present in +our midst, and oh, Ivory! the visions we saw in that place when Jacob +Cochrane first unfolded his gospel to us. Was ever such a man!" + +"Probably not, mother," remarked Ivory dryly. + +"You were speaking of the Baxters. I remember their home, and the little +girl who used to stand in the gateway and watch when we came out of +meeting. There was a baby, too; isn't there a Baxter baby, Ivory?" + +"She didn't stay a baby; she is seventeen years old to-day, mother." + +"You surprise me, but children do grow very fast. She had a strange +name, but I cannot recall it." + +"Her name is Patience, but nobody but her father calls her anything but +Patty, which suits her much better." + +"No, the name wasn't Patience, not the one I mean." + +"The older sister is Waitstill, perhaps you mean her?"--and Ivory sat +down by the fire with his book and his pipe. + +"Waitstill! Waitstill! that is it! Such a beautiful name!" + +"She's a beautiful girl." + +"Waitstill! 'They also serve who only stand and wait.' 'Wait, I say, on +the Lord and He will give thee the desires of thy heart.'--Those were +wonderful days, when we were caught up out of the body and mingled +freely in the spirit world." Mrs. Boynton was now fully started on the +topic that absorbed her mind and Ivory could do nothing but let her tell +the story that she had told him a hundred times. + +"I remember when first we heard Jacob Cochrane speak." (This was her +usual way of beginning.) "Your father was a preacher, as you know, +Ivory, but you will never know what a wonderful preacher he was. My +grandfather, being a fine gentleman, and a governor, would not give his +consent to my marriage, but I never regretted it, never! Your father +saw Elder Cochrane at a revival meeting of the Free Will Baptists in +Scarboro', and was much impressed with him. A few days later we went to +the funeral of a child in the same neighborhood. No one who was there +could ever forget it. The minister had made his long prayer when a man +suddenly entered the room, came towards the coffin, and placed his hand +on the child's forehead. The room, in an instant, was as still as +the death that had called us together. The stranger was tall and +of commanding presence; his eyes pierced our very hearts, and his +marvellous voice penetrated to depths in our souls that had never been +reached before." + +"Was he a better speaker than my father?" asked Ivory, who dreaded +his mother's hours of complete silence even more than her periods of +reminiscence. + +"He spoke as if the Lord of Hosts had given him inspiration; as if the +angels were pouring words into his mouth just for him to utter," replied +Mrs. Boynton. "Your father was spell-bound, and I only less so. When he +ceased speaking, the child's mother crossed the room, and swaying to and +fro, fell at his feet, sobbing and wailing and imploring God to forgive +her sins. They carried her upstairs, and when we looked about after the +confusion and excitement the stranger had vanished. But we found him +again! As Elder Cochrane said: 'The prophet of the Lord can never be +hid; no darkness is thick enough to cover him!' There was a six weeks' +revival meeting in North Saco where three hundred souls were converted, +and your father and I were among them. We had fancied ourselves true +believers for years, but Jacob Cochrane unstopped our ears so that we +could hear the truths revealed to him by the Almighty!--It was all so +simple and easy at the beginning, but it grew hard and grievous +afterward; hard to keep the path, I mean. I never quite knew whether God +was angry with me for backsliding at the end, but I could not always +accept the revelations that Elder Cochrane and your father had!" + +Lois Boynton's hands were now quietly folded over the knitting that lay +forgotten in her lap, but her low, thrilling voice had a note in it that +did not belong wholly to earth. + +There was a long silence; one of many long silences at the Boynton +fireside, broken only by the ticking of the clock, the purring of the +cat, and the clicking of Mrs. Boynton's needles, as, her paroxysm of +reminiscence over, she knitted ceaselessly, with her eyes on the window +or the door. + +"It's about time for Rod to be coming back, isn't it?" asked Ivory. + +"He ought to be here soon, but perhaps he is gone for good; it may be +that he thinks he has made us a long enough visit. I don't know whether +your father will like the boy when he comes home. He never did fancy +company in the house." + +Ivory looked up in astonishment from his Greek grammar. This was an +entirely new turn of his mother's mind. Often when she was more than +usually confused he would try to clear the cobwebs from her brain by +gently questioning her until she brought herself back to a clearer +understanding of her own thought. Thus far her vagaries had never made +her unjust to any human creature; she was uniformly sweet and gentle in +speech and demeanor. + +"Why do you talk of Rod's visiting us when he is one of the family?" +Ivory asked quietly. + +"Is he one of the family? I didn't know it," replied his mother +absently. + +"Look at me, mother, straight in the eye; that's right: now listen, +dear, to what I say." + +Mrs. Boynton's hair that had been in her youth like an aureole of +corn-silk was now a strange yellow-white, and her blue eyes looked out +from her pale face with a helpless appeal. + +"You and I were living alone here after father went away," Ivory began. +"I was a little boy, you know. You and father had saved something, there +was the farm, you worked like a slave, I helped, and we lived, somehow, +do you remember?" + +"I do, indeed! It was cold and the neighbors were cruel. Jacob Cochrane +had gone away and his disciples were not always true to him. When the +magnetism of his presence was withdrawn, they could not follow all his +revelations, and they forgot how he had awakened their spiritual life +at the first of his preaching. Your father was always a stanch believer, +but when he started on his mission and went to Parsonsfield to help +Elder Cochrane in his meetings, the neighbors began to criticize him. +They doubted him. You were too young to realize it, but I did, and it +almost broke my heart." + +"I was nearly twelve years old; do you think I escaped all the gossip, +mother?" + +"You never spoke of it to me, Ivory." + +"No, there is much that I never spoke of to you, mother, but sometime +when you grow stronger and your memory is better we will talk +together.--Do you remember the winter, long after father went away, that +Parson Lane sent me to Fairfield Academy to get enough Greek and Latin +to make me a schoolmaster?" + +"Yes," she answered uncertainly. + +"Don't you remember I got a free ride down-river one Friday and came +home for Sunday, just to surprise you? And when I got here I found you +ill in bed, with Mrs. Mason and Dr. Perry taking care of you. You could +not speak, you were so ill, but they told me you had been up in New +Hampshire to see your sister, that she had died, and that you had +brought back her boy, who was only four years old. That was Rod. I took +him into bed with me that night, poor, homesick little fellow, and, as +you know, mother, he's never left us since." + +"I didn't remember I had a sister. Is she dead, Ivory?" asked Mrs. +Boynton vaguely. + +"If she were not dead, do you suppose you would have kept Rodman with us +when we hadn't bread enough for our own two mouths, mother?" questioned +Ivory patiently. + +"No, of course not. I can't think how I can be so forgetful. It's worse +sometimes than others. It 's worse to-day because I knew the Mayflowers +were blooming and that reminded me it was time for your father to come +home; you must forgive me, dear, and will you excuse me if I sit in the +kitchen awhile? The window by the side door looks out towards the road, +and if I put a candle on the sill it shines quite a distance. The lane +is such a long one, and your father was always a sad stumbler in the +dark! I shouldn't like him to think I wasn't looking for him when he's +been gone since January." + +Ivory's pipe went out, and his book slipped from his knee unnoticed. + +His mother was more confused than usual, but she always was when spring +came to remind her of her husband's promise. Somehow, well used as he +was to her mental wanderings, they made him uneasy to-night. His +father had left home on a fancied mission, a duty he believed to be a +revelation given by God through Jacob Cochrane. The farm did not miss +him much at first, Ivory reflected bitterly, for since his fanatical +espousal of Cochranism his father's interest in such mundane matters +as household expenses had diminished month by month until they had no +meaning for him at all. Letters to wife and boy had come at first, +but after six months--during which he had written from many places, +continually deferring the date of his return-they had ceased altogether. +The rest was silence. Rumors of his presence here or there came from +time to time, but though Parson Lane and Dr. Perry did their best, none +of them were ever substantiated. + +Where had those years of wandering been passed, and had they all been +given even to an imaginary and fantastic service of God? Was his father +dead? If he were alive, what could keep him from writing? Nothing but a +very strong reason, or a very wrong one, so his son thought, at times. + +Since Ivory had grown to man's estate, he understood that in the +later days of Cochrane's preaching, his "visions," "inspirations," and +"revelations" concerning the marriage bond were a trifle startling from +the old-fashioned, orthodox point of view. His most advanced disciples +were to hold themselves in readiness to renounce their former vows and +seek "spiritual consorts," sometimes according to his advice, sometimes +as their inclinations prompted. + +Had Aaron Boynton forsaken, willingly, the wife of his youth, the +mother of his boy? If so, he must have realized to what straits he +was subjecting them. Ivory had not forgotten those first few years of +grinding poverty, anxiety, and suspense. His mother's mind had stood the +strain bravely, but it gave way at last; not, however, until that fatal +winter journey to New Hampshire, when cold, exposure, and fatigue +did their worst for her weak body. Religious enthusiast, exalted and +impressionable, a natural mystic, she had probably always been, far more +so in temperament, indeed, than her husband; but although she left home +on that journey a frail and heartsick woman, she returned a different +creature altogether, blurred and confused in mind, with clouded memory +and irrational fancies. + +She must have given up hope, just then, Ivory thought, and her love was +so deep that when it was uprooted the soil came with it. Now hope had +returned because the cruel memory had faded altogether. She sat by the +kitchen window in gentle expectation, watching, always watching. + +And this is the way many of Ivory Boynton's evenings were spent, while +the heart of him, the five-and-twenty-year-old heart of him, was longing +to feel the beat of another heart, a girl's heart only a mile or more +away. The ice in Saco Water had broken up and the white blocks sailed +majestically down towards the sea; sap was mounting and the elm trees +were budding; the trailing arbutus was blossoming in the woods; the +robins had come;-everything was announcing the spring, yet Ivory saw +no changing seasons in his future; nothing but winter, eternal winter +there! + + + + +V. PATIENCE AND IMPATIENCE + +PATTY had been searching for eggs in the barn chamber, and coming down +the ladder from the haymow spied her father washing the wagon by the +well-side near the shed door. Cephas Cole kept store for him at meal +hours and whenever trade was unusually brisk, and the Baxter yard was so +happily situated that Old Foxy could watch both house and store. + +There never was a good time to ask Deacon Baxter a favor, therefore this +moment would serve as well as any other, so, approaching him near enough +to be heard through the rubbing and splashing, but no nearer than was +necessary Patty said:-- + +"Father, can I go up to Ellen Wilson's this afternoon and stay to tea? I +won't start till I've done a good day's work and I'll come home early." + +"What do you want to go gallivantin' to the neighbors for? I never saw +anything like the girls nowadays; highty-tighty, flauntin', traipsin', +triflin' trollops, ev'ry one of 'em, that's what they are, and Ellen +Wilson's one of the triflin'est. You're old enough now to stay to home +where you belong and make an effort to earn your board and clothes, +which you can't, even if you try." + +Spunk, real, Simon-pure spunk, started somewhere in Patty and coursed +through her blood like wine. + +"If a girl's old enough to stay at home and work, I should think she +was old enough to go out and play once in a while." Patty was still too +timid to make this remark more than a courteous suggestion, so far as +its tone was concerned. + +"Don't answer me back; you're full of new tricks, and you've got to stop +'em, right where you are, or there'll be trouble. You were whistlin' +just now up in the barn chamber; that's one of the things I won't have +round my premises,--a whistlin' girl." + +"'T was a Sabbath-School hymn that I was whistling!" This with a +creditable imitation of defiance. + +"That don't make it any better. Sing your hymns if you must make a noise +while you're workin'." + +"It's the same mouth that makes the whistle and sings the song, so I +don't see why one's any wickeder than the other." + +"You don't have to see," replied the Deacon grimly; "all you have to do +is to mind when you're spoken to. Now run 'long 'bout your work." + +"Can't I go up to Ellen's, then?" + +"What's goin' on up there?" + +"Just a frolic. There's always a good time at Ellen's, and I would so +like the sight of a big, rich house now and then!" + +"'Just a frolic.' Land o' Goshen, hear the girl! 'Sight of a big, rich +house,' indeed!--Will there be any boys at the party?" + +"I s'pose so, or 't wouldn't be a frolic," said Patty with awful daring; +"but there won't be many; only a few of Mark's friends." + +"Well, there ain't goin' to be no more argyfyin'! I won't have any girl +o' mine frolickin' with boys, so that's the end of it. You're kind +o' crazy lately, riggin' yourself out with a ribbon here and a flower +there, and pullin' your hair down over your ears. Why do you want to +cover your ears up? What are they for?" + +"To hear you with, father," Patty replied, with honey-sweet voice and +eyes that blazed. + +"Well, I hope they'll never hear anything worse," replied her father, +flinging a bucket of water over the last of the wagon wheels. + +"THEY COULDN'T!" These words were never spoken aloud, but oh! how Patty +longed to shout them with a clarion voice as she walked away in perfect +silence, her majestic gait showing, she hoped, how she resented the +outcome of the interview. + +"I've stood up to father!" she exclaimed triumphantly as she entered the +kitchen and set down her yellow bowl of eggs on the table. "I stood up +to him, and answered him back three times!" + +Waitstill was busy with her Saturday morning cooking, but she turned in +alarm. + +"Patty, what have you said and done? Tell me quickly!" + +"I 'argyfied,' but it didn't do any good; he won't let me go to Ellen's +party." + +Waitstill wiped her floury hands and put them on her sister's shoulders. + +"Hear what I say, Patty: you must not argue with father, whatever he +says. We don't love him and so there isn't the right respect in our +hearts, but at least there can be respect in our manners." + +"I don't believe I can go on for years, holding in, Waitstill!" Patty +whimpered. + +"Yes, you can. I have!" + +"You're different, Waitstill." + +"I wasn't so different at sixteen, but that's five years ago, and I've +got control of my tongue and my temper since then. Sometime, perhaps, +when I have a grievance too great to be rightly borne, sometime when you +are away from here in a home of your own, I shall speak out to father; +just empty my heart of all the disappointment and bitterness and +rebellion. Somebody ought to tell him the truth, and perhaps it will be +me!" + +"I wish it could be me," exclaimed Patty vindictively, and with an equal +disregard of grammar. + +"You would speak in temper, I'm afraid, Patty, and that would spoil all. +I'm sorry you can't go up to Ellen's," she sighed, turning back to her +work; "you don't have pleasure enough for one of your age; still, don't +fret; something may happen to change things, and anyhow the weather is +growing warmer, and you and I have so many more outings in summer-time. +Smooth down your hair, child; there are straws in it, and it's all rough +with the wind. I don't like flying hair about a kitchen." + +"I wish my hair was flying somewhere a thousand miles from here; or at +least I should wish it if it did not mean leaving you; for oh. I'm so +miserable and disappointed and unhappy!" + +Waitstill bent over the girl as she flung herself down beside the table +and smoothed her shoulder gently. + +"There, there, dear; it isn't like my gay little sister to cry. What is +the matter with you to-day, Patty?" + +"I suppose it's the spring," she said, wiping her eyes with her apron +and smiling through her tears. "Perhaps I need a dose of sulphur and +molasses." + +"Don't you feel well as common?" + +"Well? I feel too well! I feel as if I was a young colt shut up in an +attic. I want to kick up my heels, batter the door down, and get out +into the pasture. It's no use talking, Waity;--I can't go on living +without a bit of pleasure and I can't go on being patient even for +your sake. If it weren't for you, I'd run away as Job did; and I never +believed Moses slipped on the logs; I'm sure he threw himself into the +river, and so should I if I had the courage!" + +"Stop, Patty, stop, dear! You shall have your bit of pasture, at least. +I'll do some of your indoor tasks for you, and you shall put on your +sunbonnet and go out and dig the dandelion greens for dinner. Take the +broken knife and a milkpan and don't bring in so much earth with them as +you did last time. Dry your eyes and look at the green things growing. +Remember how young you are and how many years are ahead of you! Go +along, dear!" + +Waitstill went about her work with rather a heavy heart. Was life going +to be more rather than less difficult, now that Patty was growing up? +Would she he able to do her duty both by father and sister and keep +peace in the household, as she had vowed, in her secret heart, always to +do? She paused every now and then to look out of the window and wave an +encouraging hand to Patty. The girl's bonnet was off, and her uncovered +head blazed like red gold in the sunlight. The short young grass was +dotted with dandelion blooms, some of them already grown to huge disks +of yellow, and Patty moved hither and thither, selecting the younger +weeds, deftly putting the broken knife under their roots and popping +them into the tin pan. Presently, for Deacon Baxter had finished the +wagon and gone down the hill to relieve Cephas Cole at the counter, +Patty's shrill young whistle floated into the kitchen, but with a +mischievous glance at the open window she broke off suddenly and began +to sing the words of the hymn with rather more emphasis and gusto than +strict piety warranted. + + "There'll be SOMEthing in heav-en for chil-dren to do, + None are idle in that bless-ed land: + There'll be WORK for the heart. There'll be WORK for the mind, + And emPLOYment for EACH little hand. + "There'll be SOME-thing to do, + There'll be SOME-thing to do, + There'll be SOME-thing for CHIL-dren to do! + On that bright blessed shore where there's joy evermore, + There'll be SOME-thing for CHIL-DREN to do." + +Patty's young existence being full to the brim of labor, this view of +heaven never in the least appealed to her and she rendered the hymn with +little sympathy. The main part of the verse was strongly accented by +jabs at the unoffending dandelion roots, but when the chorus came she +brought out the emphatic syllables by a beat of the broken knife on the +milkpan. + +This rendition of a Sabbath-School classic did not meet Waitstill's +ideas of perfect propriety, but she smiled and let it pass, planning +some sort of recreation for a stolen half-hour of the afternoon. It +would have to be a walk through the pasture into the woods to see what +had grown since they went there a fortnight ago. Patty loved people +better than Nature, but failing the one she could put up with the other, +for she had a sense of beauty and a pagan love of color. There would +be pale-hued innocence and blue and white violets in the moist places, +thought Waitstill, and they would have them in a china cup on the +supper-table. No, that would never do, for last time father had knocked +them over when he was reaching for the bread, and in a silent protest +against such foolishness got up from the table and emptied theirs into +the kitchen sink. + +"There's a place for everything," he said when he came back, "and the +place for flowers is outdoors." + +Then in the pine woods there would be, she was sure, Star of Bethlehem, +Solomon's Seal, the white spray of groundnuts and bunchberries. Perhaps +they could make a bouquet and Patty would take it across the fields +to Mrs. Boynton's door. She need not go in, and thus they would not +be disobeying their father's command not to visit that "crazy Boynton +woman." + +Here Patty came in with a pan full of greens and the sisters sat down in +the sunny window to get them ready for the pot. + +"I'm calmer," the little rebel allowed. "That's generally the way it +turns out with me. I get into a rage, but I can generally sing it off!" + +"You certainly must have got rid of a good deal of temper this morning, +by the way your voice sounded." + +"Nobody can hear us in this out-of-the-way place. It's easy enough to +see that the women weren't asked to say anything when the men settled +where the houses should be built! The men weren't content to stick them +on the top of a high hill, or half a mile from the stores, but put them +back to the main road, taking due care to cut the sink-window where +their wives couldn't see anything even when they were washing dishes." + +"I don't know that I ever thought about it in that way"; and Waitstill +looked out of the window in a brown study while her hands worked with +the dandelion greens. "I've noticed it, but I never supposed the men did +it intentionally." + +"No, you wouldn't," said Patty with the pessimism of a woman of ninety, +as she stole an admiring glance at her sister. Patty's own face, +irregular, piquant, tantalizing, had its peculiar charm, and her +brilliant skin and hair so dazzled the masculine beholder that he took +note of no small defects; but Waitstill was beautiful; beautiful even +in her working dress of purple calico. Her single braid of hair, the +Foxwell hair, that in her was bronze and in Patty pale auburn, was wound +once around her fine head and made to stand a little as it went across +the front. It was a simple, easy, unconscious fashion of her own, quite +different from anything done by other women in her time and place, and +it just suited her dignity and serenity. It looked like a coronet, but +it was the way she carried her head that gave you the fancy, there was +such spirit and pride in the poise of it on the long graceful neck. Her +eyes were as clear as mountain pools shaded by rushes, and the strength +of the face was softened by the sweetness of the mouth. + +Patty never let the conversation die out for many seconds at a time and +now she began again. "My sudden rages don't match my name very well, +but, of course, mother didn't know how I was going to turn out when she +called me Patience, for I was nothing but a squirming little bald, red +baby; but my name really is too ridiculous when you think about it." + +Waitstill laughed as she said: "It didn't take you long to change it! +Perhaps Patience was a hard word for a baby to say, but the moment you +could talk you said, 'Patty wants this' and 'Patty wants that."' + +"Did Patty ever get it? She never has since, that's certain! And look +at your name: it's 'Waitstill,' yet you never stop a moment. When you're +not in the shed or barn, or chicken-house, or kitchen or attic, or +garden-patch, you are working in the Sunday School or the choir." + +It seemed as if Waitstill did not intend to answer this arraignment of +her activities. She rose and crossed the room to put the pan of greens +in the sink, preparing to wash them. + +Taking the long-handled dipper from the nail, she paused a moment before +plunging it into the water pail; paused, and leaning her elbow on a +corner of the shelf over the sink, looked steadfastly out into the +orchard. + +Patty watched her curiously and was just going to offer a penny for +her thoughts when Waitstill suddenly broke the brief silence by saying: +"Yes, I am always busy; it's better so, but all the same, Patty, I'm +waiting,--inside! I don't know for what, but I always feel that I am +waiting!" + + + + +VI. A KISS + +"SHALL we have our walk in the woods on the Edgewood side of the river, +just for a change, Patty?" suggested her sister. "The water is so high +this year that the river will be splendid. We can gather our flowers in +the hill pasture and then you'll be quite near Mrs. Boynton's and can +carry the nosegay there while I come home ahead of you and get supper. +I'll take to-day's eggs to father's store on the way and ask him if he +minds our having a little walk. I've an errand at Aunt Abby's that would +take me down to the bridge anyway." + +"Very well," said Patty, somewhat apathetically. "I always like a walk +with you, but I don't care what becomes of me this afternoon if I can't +go to Ellen's party." + +The excursion took place according to Waitstill's plan, and at four +o'clock she sped back to her night work and preparations for supper, +leaving Patty with a great bunch of early wildflowers for Ivory's +mother. Patty had left them at the Boyntons' door with Rodman, who was +picking up chips and volunteered to take the nosegay into the house at +once. + +"Won't you step inside?" the boy asked shyly, wishing to be polite, +but conscious that visitors, from the village very seldom crossed the +threshold. + +"I'd like to, but I can't this afternoon, thank you. I must run all the +way down the hill now, or I shan't be in time to supper." + +"Do you eat meals together over to your house?" asked the boy. + +"We're all three at the table if that means together." + +"We never are. Ivory goes off early and takes lunch in a pail. So do +I when I go to school. Aunt Boynton never sits down to eat; she just +stands at the window and takes a bite of something now 'and then. You +haven't got any mother, have you?" + +"No, Rodman." + +"Neither have I, nor any father, nor any relations but Aunt Boynton +and Ivory. Ivory is very good to me, and when he's at home I'm never +lonesome." + +"I wish you could come over and eat with sister and me," said Patty +gently. "Perhaps sometime, when my father is away buying goods and we +are left alone, you could join us in the woods, and we would have +a picnic? We would bring enough for you; all sorts of good things; +hard-boiled eggs, doughnuts, apple-turnovers, and bread spread with +jelly." + +"I'd like it fine!" exclaimed Rodman, his big dark eyes sparkling with +anticipation. "I don't have many boys to play with, and I never went to +a picnic Aunt Boynton watches for uncle 'most all the time; she doesn't +know he has been away for years and years. When she doesn't watch, she +prays. Sometimes she wants me to pray with her, but praying don't come +easy to me." + +"Neither does it to me," said Patty. + +"I'm good at marbles and checkers and back-gammon and jack-straws, +though." + +"So am I," said Patty, laughing, "so we should be good friends. I'll try +to get a chance to see you soon again, but perhaps I can't; I'm a good +deal tied at home." + +"Your father doesn't like you to go anywheres, I guess," interposed +Rodman. "I've heard Ivory tell Aunt Boynton things, but I wouldn't +repeat them. Ivory's trained me years and years not to tell anything, so +I don't." + +"That's a good boy!" approved Patty. Then as she regarded him more +closely, she continued, "I'm sorry you're lonesome, Rodman, I'd like to +see you look brighter." + +"You think I've been crying," the boy said shrewdly. "So I have, but +not because I've been punished. The reason my eyes are so swollen up is +because I killed our old toad by mistake this morning. I was trying to +see if I could swing the scythe so's to help Ivory in haying-time. I've +only 'raked after' and I want to begin on mowing soon's I can. Then +somehow or other the old toad came out from under the steps; I didn't +see him, and the scythe hit him square. I cried for an hour, that's what +I did, and I don't care who knows it except I wouldn't like the boys +at school to hector me. I've buried the toad out behind the barn, and I +hope Ivory'll let me keep the news from Aunt Boynton. She cries enough +now without my telling her there's been a death in the family. She set +great store by the old toad, and so did all of us." + +"It's too bad; I'm sorry, but after all you couldn't help it." + +"No, but we should always look round every-wheres when we're cutting; +that's what Ivory says. He says folks shouldn't use edged tools till +they're old enough not to fool with 'em." + +And Rodman looked so wise and old-fashioned for his years that Patty +did not know whether to kiss him or cry over him, as she said: "Ivory's +always right, and now good-bye; I must go this very minute. Don't forget +the picnic." + +"I won't!" cried the boy, gazing after her, wholly entranced with +her bright beauty and her kindness. "Say, I'll bring something, +too,--white-oak acorns, if you like 'em; I've got a big bagful up +attic!" + +Patty sped down the long lane, crept under the bars, and flew like a +lapwing over the high-road. + +"If father was only like any one else, things might be so different!" +she sighed, her thoughts running along with her feet. "Nobody to make +a home for that poor lonesome little boy and that poor lonesome big +Ivory.... I am sure that he is in love with Waitstill. He doesn't know +it; she doesn't know it; nobody does but me, but I'm clever at guessing. +I was the only one that surmised Jed Morrill was going to marry +again.... I should almost like Ivory for myself, he is so tall and +handsome, but of course he can never marry anybody; he is too poor and +has his mother to look after. I wouldn't want to take him from Waity, +though, and then perhaps I couldn't get him, anyway.... If I couldn't, +he'd be the only one! I've never tried yet, but I feel in my bones, +somehow, that I could have any boy in Edgewood or Riverboro, by just +crooking my forefinger and beckoning to him.. .. I wish--I wish--they +were different! They don't make me want to beckon to them! My forefinger +just stays straight and doesn't feel like crooking!... There's Cephas +Cole, but he's as stupid as an owl. I don't want a husband that keeps +his mouth wide open whenever I'm talking, no matter whether it's sense +or nonsense. There's Phil Perry, but he likes Ellen, and besides he's +too serious for me; and there's Mark Wilson; he's the best dressed, +and the only one that's been to college. He looks at me all the time in +meeting, and asked me if I wouldn't take a walk some Sunday afternoon. I +know he planned Ellen's party hoping I'd be there!--Goodness gracious, +I do believe that is his horse coming behind me! There's no other in the +village that goes at such a gait!" + +It was, indeed, Mark Wilson, who always drove, according to Aunt Abby +Cole, "as if he was goin' for a doctor." He caught up with Patty almost +in the twinkling of an eye, but she was ready for him. She had taken +off her sunbonnet just to twirl it by the string, she was so warm with +walking, and in a jiffy she had lifted the clustering curls from her +ears, tucked them back with a single expert movement, and disclosed two +coral pendants just the color of her ear-tips and her glowing cheeks. + +"Hello, Patty!" the young man called, in brusque country fashion, as he +reined up beside her. "What are you doing over here? Why aren't you on +your way to the party? I've been over to Limington and am breaking my +neck to get home in time myself." + +"I am not going; there are no parties for me!" said Patty plaintively. +"Not going! Oh! I say, what's the matter? It won't be a bit of fun +without you! Ellen and I made it up expressly for you, thinking your +father couldn't object to a candy-pull!" + +"I can't help it; I did the best I could. Wait-still always asks father +for me, but I wouldn't take any chances to-day, and I spoke to him +myself; indeed I almost coaxed him!" + +"He's a regular old skinflint!" cried Mark, getting out of the wagon and +walking beside her. + +"You mustn't call him names," Patty interposed with some dignity. "I +call him a good many myself, but I'm his daughter." + +"You don't look it," said Mark admiringly. "Come and have a little ride, +Won't you?" + +"Oh, I couldn't possibly, thank you. Some one would be sure to see us, +and father's so strict." + +"There isn't a building for half a mile! Just jump in and have a spin +till we come to the first house; then I'll let you out and you can walk +the rest of the way home. Come, do, and make up to me a little for my +disappointment. I'll skip the candy-pull if you say the word." + +It was an incredibly brief drive, at Mark's rate of speed; and as +exciting and blissful as it was brief and dangerous, Patty thought. +Did she imagine it, or did Mark help her into the wagon differently +from--old Dr. Perry, for instance? + +The fresh breeze lifted the gold thread of her curls and gave her cheeks +a brighter color, while her breath came fast through her parted lips and +her eyes sparkled at the unexpected, unaccustomed pleasure. She felt so +grown up, so conscious of a new power as she sat enthroned on the little +wagon seat (Mark Wilson always liked his buggies "courtin' size" so the +neighbors said), that she was almost courageous enough to agree to make +a royal progress through the village; almost, but not quite. + +"Come on, let's shake the old tabbies up and start 'em talking, shall +we?" Mark suggested. "I'll give you the reins and let Nero have a flick +of the whip." + +"No, I'd rather not drive," she said. "I'd be afraid of this horse, and, +anyway, I must get out this very minute; yes, I really must. If you hold +Nero I can just slip down between the wheels; you needn't help me." + +Mark alighted notwithstanding her objections, saying gallantly, "I don't +miss this pleasure, not by a jugful! Come along! Jump!" + +Patty stretched out her hands to be helped, but Mark forestalled her by +putting his arms around her and lifting her down. A second of time only +was involved, but in that second he held; her close and kissed her warm +cheek, her cheek that had never felt the touch of any lips but those of +Waitstill. She pulled her sunbonnet over her flaming face, while Mark, +with a gay smile of farewell, sprang into the wagon and gave his horse a +free rein. + +Patty never looked up from the road, but walked faster and faster, her +heart beating at breakneck speed. It was a changed world that spun past +her; fright, triumph, shame, delight, a gratified vanity swam over her +in turn. + +A few minutes later she heard once more the rumble of wheels on the +road. It was Cephas Cole driving towards her over the brow of Saco Hill. +"He'll have seen Mark," she thought, "but he can't know I've talked and +driven with him. Ugh! how stupid and common he looks!" "I heard your +father blowin' the supper-horn jest as I come over the bridge," remarked +Cephas, drawing up in the road. "He stood in the door-yard blowin' like +Bedlam. I guess you 're late to supper." + +"I'll be home in a few minutes," said Patty, "I got delayed and am a +little behindhand." + +"I'll turn right round if you'll git in and lemme take you back-along a +piece; it'll save you a good five minutes," begged Cephas, abjectly. + +"All right; much obliged; but it's against the rules and you must drop +me at the foot of our hill and let me walk up." + +"Certain; I know the Deacon 'n' I ain't huntin' for trouble any more'n +you be; though I 'd take it quick enough if you jest give me leave! I +ain't no coward an' I could tackle the Deacon to-morrow if so be I had +anything to ask him." + +This seemed to Patty a line of conversation distinctly to be discouraged +under all the circumstances, and she tried to keep Cephas on the subject +of his daily tasks and his mother's rheumatism until she could escape +from his over-appreciative society. + +"How do you like my last job?" he inquired as they passed his father's +house. "Some think I've got the ell a little mite too yaller. Folks that +ain't never handled a brush allers think they can mix paint better 'n +them that knows their trade." + +"If your object was to have everybody see the ell a mile away, you've +succeeded," said Patty cruelly. She never flung the poor boy a civil +word for fear of getting something warmer than civility in return. + +"It'll tone down," Cephas responded, rather crestfallen. "I wanted a +good bright lastin' shade. 'T won't look so yaller when father lets me +paint the house to match, but that won't be till next year. He makes +fun of the yaller color same as you; says a home's something you want +to forget when you're away from it. Mother says the two rooms of the +ell are big enough for somebody to set up housekeepin' in. What do you +think?" + +"I never think," returned Patty with a tantalizing laugh. "Good-night, +Cephas; thank you for giving me a lift!" + + + + +VII. "WHAT DREAMS MAY COME" + +SUPPER was over and the work done at last; the dishes washed, the beans +put in soak, the hens shut up for the night, the milk strained and +carried down cellar. Patty went up to her little room with the +one window and the slanting walls and Waitstill followed and said +good-night. Her father put out the lights, locked the doors, and came up +the creaking stairs. There was never any talk between the sisters before +going to bed, save on nights when their father was late at the store, +usually on Saturdays only, for the good talkers of the village, as well +as the gossips and loafers, preferred any other place to swap stories +than the bleak atmosphere provided by old Foxy at his place of business. + +Patty could think in the dark; her healthy young body lying not +uncomfortably on the bed of corn husks, and the patchwork comforter +drawn up under her chin. She could think, but for the first time she +could not tell her thoughts to Waitstill. She had a secret; a dazzling +secret, just like Ellen Wilson and some of the other girls who were +several years older. Her afternoon's experience loomed as large in her +innocent mind as if it had been an elopement. + +"I hope I'm not engaged to be married to him, EVEN IF HE DID--" The +sentence was too tremendous to be finished, even in thought. "I don't +think I can be; men must surely say something, and not take it for +granted you are in love with them and want to marry them. It is what +they say when they ask that I should like much better than being +married, when I'm only just past seventeen. I wish Mark was a little +different; I don't like his careless ways! He admires me, I can tell +one; that by the way he looks, but he admires himself just as much, and +expects me to do the same; still, I suppose none of them are perfect, +and girls have to forgive lots of little things when they are engaged. +Mother must have forgiven a good many things when she took father. +Anyway, Mark is going away for a month on business, so I shan't have +to make up my mind just yet!" Here sleep descended upon the slightly +puzzled, but on the whole delightfully complacent, little creature, +bringing her most alluring and untrustworthy dreams. + +The dear innocent had, indeed, no need of haste! Young Mr. Marquis de +Lafayette Wilson, Mark for short, was not in the least a gay deceiver or +ruthless breaker of hearts, and, so far as known, no scalps of village +beauties were hung to his belt. He was a likable, light-weight young +chap, as indolent and pleasure-loving as the strict customs of the +community would permit; and a kiss, in his mind, most certainly +never would lead to the altar, else he had already been many times a +bridegroom. Miss Patience Baxter's maiden meditations and uncertainties +and perplexities, therefore, were decidedly premature. She was a +natural-born, unconsciously artistic, highly expert, and finished +coquette. She was all this at seventeen, and Mark at twenty-four was by +no means a match for her in this field of effort, yet!--but sometimes, +in getting her victim into the net, the coquette loses her balance and +falls in herself. There wasn't a bit of harm in Marquis de Lafayette, +but he was extremely agile in keeping out of nets! + +Waitstill was restless, too, that night, although she could not have +told the reason. She opened her window at the back of the house and +leaned out. The evening was mild with a soft wind blowing. She could +hear the full brook dashing through the edge of the wood-lot, and even +the "ker-chug" of an occasional bull-frog. There were great misty stars +in the sky, but no moon. + +There was no light in Aunt Abby Cole's kitchen, but a faint glimmer +shone through the windows of Uncle Bart's joiner's shop, showing that +the old man was either having an hour of peaceful contemplation with +no companion but his pipe, or that there might be a little group of +privileged visitors, headed by Jed Morrill, busily discussing the +affairs of the nation. + +Waitstill felt troubled and anxious to-night; bruised by the little +daily torments that lessened her courage but never wholly destroyed it. +Any one who believed implicitly in heredity might have been puzzled, +perhaps, to account for her. He might fantastically picture her as +making herself out of her ancestors, using a free hand, picking +and choosing what she liked best, with due care for the effect of +combinations; selecting here and there and modifying, if advisable, +a trait of Grandpa or Grandma Foxwell, of Great-Uncle or Great-Aunt +Baxter; borrowing qualities lavishly from her own gently born and +gently bred mother, and carefully avoiding her respected father's +Stock, except, perhaps, to take a dash of his pluck and an ounce of his +persistence. Jed Morrill remarked of Deacon Baxter once: "When Old Foxy +wants anything he'll wait till hell freezes over afore he'll give up." +Waitstill had her father's firm chin, but there the likeness ended. The +proud curve of her nostrils, the clear well-opened eye with its deep +fringe of lashes, the earnest mouth, all these came from the mother who +was little more than a dim memory. + +Waitstill disdained any vague, dreary, colorless theory of life and +its meaning. She had joined the church at fifteen, more or less because +other girls did and the parson had persuaded her; but out of her hard +life she had somehow framed a courageous philosophy that kept her erect +and uncrushed, no matter how great her difficulties. She had no idea +of bringing a poor, weak, draggled soul to her Maker at the last day, +saying "Here is all I have managed to save out of what you gave me!" +That would be something, she allowed, immeasurably something; but +pitiful compared with what she might do if she could keep a brave, +vigorous spirit and march to the last tribunal strengthened by battles, +struggles, defeats, victories; by the defense of weaker human creatures, +above all, warmed and vitalized by the pouring out and gathering in of +love. + +Patty slept sweetly on the other side of the partition, the +contemplation of her twopenny triumphs bringing a smile to her childish +lips: but even so a good heart was there (still perhaps in the process +of making), a quick wit, ready sympathy, natural charm; plenty, indeed, +for the stronger sister to cherish, protect, and hold precious, as she +did, with all her mind and soul. + +There had always been a passionate loyalty in Waitstill's affection, +wherever it had been bestowed. Uncle Bart delighted in telling an +instance of it that occurred when she was a child of five. Maine had +just separated amicably from her mother, Massachusetts, and become an +independent state. It was in the middle of March, but there was no snow +on the ground and the village boys had built a bonfire on a plot of +land near Uncle Bart's joiner's shop. There was a large gathering in +celebration of the historic event and Waitstill crept down the hill with +her homemade rag doll in her arms. She stood on the outskirts of the +crowd, a silent, absorbed little figure clad in a shabby woollen coat, +with a blue knit hood framing her rosy face. Deborah, her beloved, her +only doll, was tightly clasped in her arms, for Debby, like her parent, +had few pleasures and must not be denied so great a one as this. +Suddenly, one of the thoughtless young scamps in the group, wishing to +create a new sensation and add to the general excitement, caught the +doll from the child's arms, and running forward with a loud war-whoop, +flung it into the flames. Waitstill did not lose an instant. She gave +a scream Of anguish, and without giving any warning of her intentions, +probably without realizing them herself, she dashed through the little +crowd into the bonfire and snatched her cherished offspring from the +burning pile. The whole thing was over in the twinkling of an eye, for +Uncle Bart was as quick as the child and dragged her out of the imminent +danger with no worse harm done than a good scorching. + +He led the little creature up the hill to explain matters and protect +her from a scolding. She still held the doll against her heaving breast, +saying, between her sobs: "I couldn't let my Debby burn up! I couldn't, +Uncle Bart; she's got nobody but me! Is my dress scorched so much I +can't wear it? You'll tell father how it was, Uncle Bart, won't you?" + +Debby bore the marks of her adventure longer than her owner, for she had +been longer in the fire, but, stained and defaced as she was, she was +never replaced, and remained the only doll of Waitstill's childhood. At +this very moment she lay softly and safely in a bureau drawer ready +to be lifted out, sometime, Waitstill fancied, and shown tenderly to +Patty's children. Of her own possible children she never thought. There +was but one man in the world who could ever be the father of them and +she was separated from him by every obstacle that could divide two human +beings. + + + + +SUMMER + + + + +VIII. THE JOINER'S SHOP + +VILLAGE "Aunts" and "Uncles" were elected to that relationship by the +common consent of the community; their fitness being established by +great age, by decided individuality or eccentricity of character, by +uncommon lovableness, or by the possession of an abundant wit and humor. +There was no formality about the thing; certain women were always called +"Aunt Sukie," or "Aunt Hitty," or what not, while certain men were +distinguished as "Uncle Rish," or "Uncle Pel," without previous +arrangement, or the consent of the high contracting parties. + +Such a couple were Cephas Cole's father and mother, Aunt Abby and Uncle +Bart. Bartholomew Cole's trade was that of a joiner; as for Aunt Abby's, +it can only be said that she made all trades her own by sovereign +right of investigation, and what she did not know about her neighbor's +occupations was unlikely to be discovered on this side of Jordan. One of +the villagers declared that Aunt Abby and her neighbor, Mrs. Abel Day, +had argued for an hour before they could make a bargain about the method +of disseminating a certain important piece of news, theirs by exclusive +right of discovery and prior possession. Mrs. Day offered to give Mrs. +Cole the privilege of Saco Hill and Aunt Betty-Jack's, she herself to +take Guide-Board and Town-House Hills. Aunt Abby quickly proved the +injustice of this decision, saying that there were twice as many +families living in Mrs. Day's chosen territory as there were in that +allotted to her, so the river road to Milliken's Mills was grudgingly +awarded to Aunt Abby by way of compromise, and the ladies started on +what was a tour of mercy in those days, the furnishing of a subject of +discussion for long, quiet evenings. + +Uncle Bart's joiner's shop was at the foot of Guide-Board Hill on the +Riverboro side of the bridge, and it was the pleasantest spot in +the whole village. The shop itself had a cheery look, with its +weather-stained shingles, its small square windows, and its hospitable +door, half as big as the front side of the building. The step was an +old millstone too worn for active service, and the piles of chips +and shavings on each side of it had been there for so many years that +sweet-williams, clove pinks, and purple phlox were growing in among them +in the most irresponsible fashion; while a morning-glory vine had crept +up and curled around a long-handled rake that had been standing against +the front of the house since early spring. There was an air of cosy +and amiable disorder about the place that would have invited friendly +confabulation even had not Uncle Bart's white head, honest, ruddy face, +and smiling welcome coaxed you in before you were aware. A fine Nodhead +apple tree shaded the side windows, and underneath it reposed all summer +a bright blue sleigh, for Uncle Bart always described himself as being +"plagued for shed room" and kept things as he liked at the shop, having +a "p'ison neat" wife who did exactly the opposite at his house. + +The seat of the sleigh was all white now with scattered fruit blossoms, +and one of Waitstill's earliest remembrances was of going downhill with +Patty toddling at her side; of Uncle Bart's lifting them into the sleigh +and permitting them to sit there and eat the ripe red apples that had +fallen from the tree. Uncle Bart's son, Cephas (Patty's secret adorer), +was a painter by trade, and kept his pots and cans and brushes in a +little outhouse at the back, while Uncle Bart himself stood every day +behind his long joiner's bench almost knee-deep in shavings. How the +children loved to play with the white, satiny rings, making them into +necklaces, hanging them to their ears and weaving them into wreaths. + +Wonderful houses could always be built in the corner of the shop, out of +the little odds and ends and "nubbins" of white pine, and Uncle Bart was +ever ready to cut or saw a special piece needed for some great purpose. + +The sound of the plane was sweet music in the old joiner's ears. "I +don't hardly know how I'd a made out if I'd had to work in a mill," +he said confidentially to Cephas. "The noise of a saw goin' all day, +coupled with your mother's tongue mornin's an' evenin's, would 'a' been +too much for my weak head. I'm a quiet man, Cephas, a man that needs a +peaceful shop where he can get away from the comforts of home now and +then, without shirkin' his duty nor causin' gossip. If you should ever +marry, Cephas,--which don't look to me likely without you pick out a +dif'rent girl,--I 'd advise you not to keep your stock o' paints in the +barn or the shed, for it's altogether too handy to the house and the +women-folks. Take my advice and have a place to yourself, even if it's +a small one. A shop or a barn has saved many a man's life and reason +Cephas, for it's ag'in' a woman's nature to have you underfoot in the +house without hectorin' you. Choose a girl same's you would a horse +that you want to hitch up into a span; 't ain't every two that'll stan' +together without kickin'. When you get the right girl, keep out of her +way consid'able an' there'll be less wear an' tear." + +It was June and the countryside was so beautiful it seemed as if no +one could be unhappy, however great the cause. That was what Waitstill +Baxter thought as she sat down on the millstone step for a word with the +old joiner, her best and most understanding friend in all the village. + +"I've come to do my mending here with you," she said brightly, as she +took out her well-filled basket and threaded her needle. "Isn't it a +wonderful morning? Nobody could look the world in the face and do a +wrong thing on such a day, could they, Uncle Bart?" + +The meadows were a waving mass of golden buttercups; the shallow water +at the river's edge just below the shop was blue with spikes of +arrow-weed; a bunch of fragrant water-lilies, gathered from the +mill-pond's upper levels, lay beside Waitstill's mending-basket, and +every foot of roadside and field within sight was swaying with +long-stemmed white and gold daisies. The June grass, the friendly, +humble, companionable grass, that no one ever praises as they do the +flowers, was a rich emerald green, a velvet carpet fit for the feet of +the angels themselves. And the elms and maples! Was there ever such a +year for richness of foliage? And the sky, was it ever so blue or so +clear, so far away, or so completely like heaven, as you looked at its +reflection in the glassy surface of the river? + +"Yes, it's a pretty good day," allowed Uncle Bart judicially as he took +a squint at his T-square. "I don' know's I should want to start out an' +try to beat it! The Lord can make a good many kinds o' weather in the +course of a year, but when He puts his mind on to it, an' kind o' gives +Himself a free hand, He can turn out a June morning that must make the +Devil sick to his stomach with envy! All the same, Waity, my cow ain't +behavin' herself any better'n usual. She's been rampagin' since sun-up. +I've seen mother chasin' her out o' Mis' Day's garden-patch twice +a'ready!--It seems real good an' homey to see you settin' there sewin' +while I'm workin' at the bench. Cephas is down to the store, so I s'pose +your father's off somewheres?" + +Perhaps the June grass was a little greener, the buttercups yellower, +the foliage more lacey, the sky bluer, because Deacon Baxter had +taken his luncheon in a pail under the wagon seat, and departed on +an unwilling journey to Moderation, his object being to press the +collection of some accounts too long overdue. There was something +tragic in the fact, Waitstill thought, that whenever her father left +the village for a whole day, life at once grew brighter, easier, more +hopeful. One could breathe freely, speak one's heart out, believe in the +future, when father was away. + +The girls had harbored many delightful plans at early breakfast. As it +was Saturday, Patty could catch little Rod Boynton, if he came to the +bridge on errands as usual; and if Ivory could spare him for an hour +at noon they would take their luncheon and eat it together on the +river-bank as Patty had promised him. At the last moment, however, +Deacon Baxter had turned around in the wagon and said: "Patience, you go +down to the store and have a regular house-cleanin' in the stock-room. +Git Cephas to lift what you can't lift yourself, move everything in the +place, sweep and dust it, scrub the floor, wash the winder, and make +room for the new stuff that they'll bring up from Mill-town 'bout noon. +If you have any time left over, put new papers on the shelves out front, +and clean up and fix the show winder. Don't stand round gabbin' with +Cephas, and see't he don't waste time that's paid for by me. Tell him he +might clean up the terbaccer stains round the stove, black it, and cover +it up for the summer if he ain't too busy servin' cust'mers." + +"The whole day spoiled!" wailed Patty, flinging herself down in the +kitchen rocker. "Father's powers of invention beat anything I ever saw! +That stock-room could have been cleaned any time this month and it's +too heavy work for me anyway; it spoils my hands, grubbing around those +nasty, sticky, splintery boxes and barrels. Instead of being out +of doors, I've got to be shut up in that smelly, rummy, tobacco-y, +salt-fishy, pepperminty place with Cephas Cole! He won't have a pleasant +morning, I can tell you! I shall snap his head off every time he speaks +to me." + +"So I would!" Waitstill answered composedly. "Everything is so clearly +his fault that I certainly would work off my temper on Cephas! Still, +I can think of a way to make matters come out right. I've got a great +basket of mending that must be done, and you remember there's a choir +rehearsal for the new anthem this afternoon, but anyway I can help a +little on the cleaning. Then you can make Rodman do a few of the odd +jobs, it will be a novelty to him; and Cephas will work his fingers +to the bone for you, as you well know, if you treat him like a human +being." + +"All right!" cried Patty joyously, her mood changing in an instant. +"There's Rod coming over the bridge now! Toss me my gingham apron and +the scrubbing-brush, and the pail, and the tin of soft soap, and +the cleaning cloths; let's see, the broom's down there, so I've got +everything. If I wave a towel from the store, pack up luncheon for +three. You come down and bring your mending; then, when you see how I'm +getting on, we can consult. I'm going to take the ten cents I've saved +and spend it in raisins. I can get a good many if Cephas gives me +wholesale price, with family discount subtracted from that. Cephas +would treat me to candy in a minute, but if I let him we'd have to ask +him to the picnic! Good-bye!" And the volatile creature darted down the +hill singing, "There'll be something in heaven for children to do," at +the top of her healthy young lungs. + + + + +IX. CEPHAS SPEAKS + +THE waving signal, a little later on, showed that Rodman could go to the +picnic, the fact being that he was having a holiday from eleven o'clock +until two, and Ivory was going to drive to the bridge at noon, anyway, +so his permission could then be asked. + +Patty's mind might have been thought entirely on her ugly task as she +swept and dusted and scrubbed that morning, but the reverse was true. +Mark Wilson had gone away without saying good-bye to her. This was not +surprising, perhaps, as she was about as much sequestered in her hilltop +prison as a Turkish beauty in a harem; neither was it astonishing that +Mark did not write to her. He never had written to her, and as her +father always brought home the very infrequent letters that came to the +family, Mark knew that any sentimental correspondence would be fraught +with danger. No, everything was probably just as it should be, and +yet,--well, Patty had expected during the last three weeks that +something would happen to break up the monotony of her former existence. +She hardly knew what it would be, but the kiss dropped so lightly on her +cheek by Mark Wilson still burned in remembrance, and made her sure that +it would have a sequel, or an explanation. + +Mark's sister Ellen and Phil Perry were in the midst of some form of +lover's quarrel, and during its progress Phil was paying considerable +attention to Patty at Sabbath School and prayer-meeting, occasions, it +must be confessed, only provocative of very indirect and long-distance +advances. Cephas Cole, to the amazement of every one but his +(constitutionally) exasperated mother, was "toning down" the ell of the +family mansion, mitigating the lively yellow, and putting another fresh +coat of paint on it, for no conceivable reason save that of pleasing the +eye of a certain capricious, ungrateful young hussy, who would probably +say, when her verdict was asked, that she didn't see any particular +difference in it, one way or another. + +Trade was not especially brisk at the Deacon's emporium this sunny June +Saturday morning. Cephas may have possibly lost a customer or two by +leaving the store vacant while he toiled and sweated for Miss Patience +Baxter in the stockroom at the back, overhanging the river, but no +man alive could see his employer's lovely daughter tugging at a keg of +shingle nails without trying to save her from a broken back, although +Cephas could have watched his mother move the house and barn without +feeling the slightest anxiety in her behalf. If he could ever get the +"heft" of the "doggoned" cleaning out of the way so that Patty's mind +could be free to entertain his proposition; could ever secure one +precious moment of silence when she was not slatting and banging, +pushing and pulling things about, her head and ears out of sight under a +shelf, and an irritating air of absorption about her whole demeanor; +if that moment of silence could ever, under Providence, be simultaneous +with the absence of customers in the front shop, Cephas intended to +offer himself to Patience Baxter that very morning. + +Once, during a temporary lull in the rear, he started to meet his fate +when Rodman Boynton followed him into the back room, and the boy was at +once set to work by Patty, who was the most consummate slave-driver +in the State of Maine. After half an hour there was another Heavensent +chance, when Rodman went up to Uncle Bart's shop with a message for +Waitstill, but, just then, in came Bill Morrill, a boy of twelve, with a +request for a gallon of molasses; and would Cephas lend him a stone jug +over Sunday, for his mother had hers soakin' out in soap-suds 'cause 't +wa'n't smellin' jest right. Bill's message given, he hurried up the road +on another errand, promising to call for the molasses later. + +Cephas put the gallon measure under the spigot of the molasses hogshead +and turned on the tap. The task was going to be a long one and he grew +impatient, for the stream was only a slender trickle, scarcely more than +the slow dripping of drops, so the molasses must be very never low, and +with his mind full of weightier affairs he must make a note to tell the +Deacon to broach a new hogshead. Cephas feared that he could never make +out a full gallon, in which case Mrs. Morrill would be vexed, for she +kept mill boarders and baked quantities of brown bread and gingerbread +and molasses cookies for over Sunday. He did wish trade would languish +altogether on this particular morning. The minutes dragged by and again +there was perfect quiet in the stock-room. As the door opened, Cephas, +taking his last chance, went forward to meet Patty, who was turning down +the skirt of her dress, taking the cloth off her head, smoothing her +hair, and tying on a clean white ruffed apron, in which she looked as +pretty as a pink. + +"Patty!" stammered Cephas, seizing his golden opportunity, "Patty, keep +your mind on me for a minute. I've put a new coat o' paint on the ell +just to please you; won't you get married and settle down with me? I +love you so I can't eat nor drink nor 'tend store nor nothin'!" + +"Oh, I--I--couldn't, Cephas, thank you; I just couldn't,--don't ask me," +cried Patty, as nervous as Cephas himself now that her first offer had +really come; "I'm only seventeen and I don't feel like settling down, +Cephas, and father wouldn't think of letting me get married." + +"Don't play tricks on me, Patty, and keep shovin' me off so, an' givin' +wrong reasons," pleaded Cephas. "What's the trouble with me? I know +mother's temper's onsartain, but we never need go into the main house +daytimes and father'd allers stand up ag'in' her if she didn't treat +you right. I've got a good trade and father has a hundred dollars o' my +savin's that I can draw out to-morrer if you'll have me." + +"I can't, Cephas; don't move; stay where you are; no, don't come any +nearer; I'm not fond of you that way, and, besides,--and, besides--" + +Her blush and her evident embarrassment gave Cephas a new fear. + +"You ain't promised a'ready, be you?" he asked anxiously; "when there +ain't a feller anywheres around that's ever stepped foot over your +father's doorsill but jest me?" + +"I haven't promised anything or anybody," + +Patty answered sedately, gaining her self-control by degrees, "but I +won't deny that I'm considering; that's true!" + +"Considerin' who?" asked Cephas, turning pale. + +"Oh,--SEVERAL, if you must know the truth"; and Patty's tone was cruel +in its jauntiness. + +"SEVERAL!" The word did not sound like ordinary work-a-day Riverboro +English in Cephas's ears. He knew that "several" meant more than one, +but he was too stunned to define the term properly in its present +strange connection. + +"Whoever 't is wouldn't do any better by you'n I would. I'd take a +lickin' for you any day," Cephas exclaimed abjectly, after a long pause. + +"That wouldn't make any difference, Cephas," said Patty firmly, moving +towards the front door as if to end the interview. "If I don't love you +UNlicked, I couldn't love you any better licked, now, could I?--Goodness +gracious, what am I stepping in? Cephas, quick! Something has been +running all over the floor. My feet are sticking to it." + +"Good Gosh! It's Mis' Morrill's molasses!" cried Cephas, brought to his +senses suddenly. + +It was too true! Whatever had been the small obstruction in the tap, +it had disappeared. The gallon measure had been filled to the brim ten +minutes before, and ever since, the treacly liquid had been overflowing +the top and spreading in a brown flood, unnoticed, over the floor. +Patty's feet were glued to it, her buff calico skirts lifted high to +escape harm. + +"I can't move," she cried. "Oh! You stupid, stupid Cephas, how could you +leave the molasses spigot turned on? See what you've done! You've wasted +quarts and quarts! What will father say, and how will you ever clean up +such a mess? You never can get the floor to look so that he won't notice +it, and he is sure to miss the molasses. You've ruined my shoes, and I +simply can't bear the sight of you!" + +At this Cephas all but blubbered in the agony of his soul. It was bad +enough to be told by Patty that she was "considering several," but +his first romance had ended in such complete disaster that he saw in +a vision his life blasted; changed in one brief moment from that of a +prosperous young painter to that of a blighted and despised bungler, +whose week's wages were likely to be expended in molasses to make good +the Deacon's loss. + +"Find those cleaning-cloths I left in the hack room," ordered Patty with +a flashing eye. "Get some blocks, or bits of board, or stones, for me to +walk on, so that I can get out of your nasty mess. Fill Bill Morrill's +jug, quick, and set it out on the steps for him to pick up. I don't know +what you'd do without me to plan for you! Lock the front door and hang +father's sign that he's gone to dinner on the doorknob. Scoop up all the +molasses you can with one of those new trowels on the counter. Scoop, +and scrape, and scoop, and scrape; then put a cloth on your oldest +broom, pour lots of water on, pail after pail, and swab! When you've +swabbed till it won't do any more good, then scrub! After that, I +shouldn't wonder if you had to fan the floor with a newspaper or it'll +never get dry before father comes home. I'll sit on the flour barrel a +little while and advise, but I can't stay long because I'm going to a +picnic. Hurry up and don't look as if you were going to die any minute! +It's no use crying over spilt molasses. You don't suppose I'm going to +tell any tales after you've made me an offer of marriage, do you? I'm +not so mean as all that, though I may have my faults." + +It was nearly two o'clock before the card announcing Deacon Baxter's +absence at dinner was removed from the front doorknob, and when the +store was finally reopened for business it was a most dejected clerk who +dealt out groceries to the public. The worst feature of the affair was +that every one in the two villages suddenly and contemporaneously wanted +molasses, so that Cephas spent the afternoon reviewing his misery by +continually turning the tap and drawing off the fatal liquid. Then, too, +every inquisitive boy in the neighborhood came to the back of the store +to view the operation, exclaiming: "What makes the floor so wet? Hain't +been spillin' molasses, have yer? Bet yer have! Good joke on Old Foxy!" + + + + +X. ON TORY HILL + +It had been a heavenly picnic the little trio all agreed as to that; and +when Ivory saw the Baxter girls coming up the shady path that led along +the river from the Indian Cellar to the bridge, it was a merry group and +a transfigured Rodman that caught his eye. The boy, trailing on behind +with the baskets and laden with tin dippers and wildflowers, seemed +another creature from the big-eyed, quiet little lad he saw every day. +He had chattered like a magpie, eaten like a bear, is torn his jacket +getting wild columbines for Patty, been nicely darned by Waitstill, and +was in a state of hilarity that rendered him quite unrecognizable. + +"We've had a lovely picnic!" called Patty; "I wish you had been with +us!" + +"You didn't ask me!" smiled Ivory, picking up Waitstill's mending-basket +from the nook in the trees where she had hidden it for safe-keeping. + +"We've played games, Ivory," cried the boy. "Patty made them up herself. +First we had the 'Landing of the Pilgrims,' and Waitstill made believe +be the figurehead of the Mayflower. She stood on a great boulder and +sang:-- + + 'The breaking waves dashed high + On a stern and rock-bound coast'-- + +and, oh! she was splendid! Then Patty was Pocahontas and I was Cap'n +John Smith, and look, we are all dressed up for the Indian wedding!" + +Waitstill had on a crown of white birch bark and her braid of hair, +twined with running ever-green, fell to her waist. Patty was wreathed +with columbines and decked with some turkey feathers that she had put +in her basket as too pretty to throw away. Waitstill looked rather +conscious in her unusual finery, but Patty sported it with the reckless +ease and innocent vanity that characterized her. + +"I shall have to run into father's store to put myself tidy," Waitstill +said, "so good-bye, Rodman, we'll have another picnic some day. Patty, +you must do the chores this afternoon, you know, so that I can go to +choir rehearsal." + +Rodman and Patty started up the hill gayly with their burdens, and Ivory +walked by Waitstill's side as she pulled off her birch-bark crown and +twisted her braid around her head with a heightened color at being +watched. + +"I'll say good-bye now, Ivory, but I'll see you at the meeting-house," +she said, as she neared the store. "I'll go in here and brush the pine +needles off, wash my hands, and rest a little before rehearsal. That's a +puzzling anthem we have for to-morrow." + +"I have my horse here; let me drive you up to the church." + +"I can't, Ivory, thank you. Father's orders are against my driving out +with any one, you know." + +"Very well, the road is free, at any rate. I'll hitch my horse down here +in the woods somewhere and when you start to walk I shall follow and +catch up with you. There's luckily only one way to reach the church from +here, and your father can't blame us if we both take it!" + +And so it fell out that Ivory and Waitstill walked together in the cool +of the afternoon to the meeting-house on Tory Hill. Waitstill kept the +beaten path on one side and Ivory that on the other, so that the width +of the country road, deep in dust, was between them, yet their nearness +seemed so tangible a thing that each could feel the heart beating in +the other's side. Their talk was only that of tried friends, a talk +interrupted by long beautiful silences; silences that come only to a +man and woman whose understanding of each other is beyond question and +answer. Not a sound broke the stillness, yet the very air, it seemed +to them, was shedding meanings: the flowers were exhaling a love +secret with their fragrances, the birds were singing it boldly from the +tree-tops, yet no word passed the man's lips or the girl's. Patty would +have hung out all sorts of signals and lures to draw the truth from +Ivory and break through the walls of his self-control, but Waitstill, +never; and Ivory Boynton was made of stuff so strong that he would not +speak a syllable of love to a woman unless he could say all. He was only +five-and-twenty, but he had been reared in a rigorous school, and had +learned in its poverty, loneliness, and anxiety lessons of self-denial +and self-control that bore daily fruit now. He knew that Deacon Baxter +would never allow any engagement to exist between Waitstill and himself; +he also knew that Waitstill would never defy and disobey her father if +it meant leaving her younger sister to fight alone a dreary battle for +which she was not fitted. If there was little hope on her side there +seemed even less on his. His mother's mental illness made her peculiarly +dependent upon him, and at the same time held him in such strict bondage +that it was almost impossible for him to get on in the world or even to +give her the comforts she needed. In villages like Riverboro in those +early days there was no putting away, even of men or women so demented +as to be something of a menace to the peace of the household; but Lois +Boynton was so gentle, so fragile, so exquisite a spirit, that she +seemed in her sad aloofness simply a thing to be sheltered and shielded +somehow in her difficult life journey. Ivory often thought how sorely +she needed a daughter in her affliction. If the baby sister had only +lived, the home might have been different; but alas! there was only a +son,--a son who tried to be tender and sympathetic, but after all was +nothing but a big, clumsy, uncomprehending man-creature, who ought to +be felling trees, ploughing, sowing, reaping, or at least studying law, +making his own fortune and that of some future wife. Old Mrs. Mason, a +garrulous, good-hearted grandame, was their only near neighbor, and her +visits always left his mother worse rather than better. How such a girl +as Waitstill would pour comfort and beauty and joy into a lonely house +like his, if only he were weak enough to call upon her strength and put +it to so cruel a test. God help him, he would never do that, especially +as he could not earn enough to keep a larger family, bound down as he +was by inexorable responsibilities. Waitstill, thus far in life, had +suffered many sorrows and enjoyed few pleasures; marriage ought to bring +her freedom and plenty, not carking care and poverty. He stole long +looks at the girl across the separating space that was so helpless to +separate,--feeding his starved heart upon her womanly graces. Her quick, +springing step was in harmony with the fire and courage of her +mien. There was a line or two in her face,--small wonder; but an +"unconquerable soul" shone in her eyes; shone, too, in no uncertain +way, but brightly and steadily, expressing an unshaken joy in living. +Valiant, splendid, indomitable Waitstill! He could never tell her, alas! +but how he gloried in her! + +It is needless to say that no woman could be the possessor of such a +love as Ivory Boynton's and not know of its existence. Waitstill never +heard a breath of it from Ivory's lips; even his eyes were under control +and confessed nothing; nor did his hand ever clasp hers, to show by a +tell-tale touch the truth he dared not utter; nevertheless she felt that +she was beloved. She hid the knowledge deep in her heart and covered it +softly from every eye but her own; taking it out in the safe darkness +sometimes to wonder over and adore in secret. Did her love for Ivory +rest partly on a sense of vocation?--a profound, inarticulate divining +of his vast need of her? He was so strong, yet so weak because of the +yoke he bore, so bitterly alone in his desperate struggle with life, +that her heart melted like wax whenever she thought of him. When she +contemplated the hidden mutiny in her own heart, she was awestruck +sometimes at the almost divine patience of Ivory's conduct as a son. + +"How is your mother this summer, Ivory?" she asked as they sat down on +the meeting-house steps waiting for Jed Morrill to open the door. "There +is little change in her from year to year, Waitstill.--By the way, why +don't we get out of this afternoon sun and sit in the old graveyard +under the trees? We are early and the choir won't get here for half an +hour.--Dr. Perry says that he does not understand mother's case in the +least, and that no one but some great Boston physician could give a +proper opinion on it; of course, that is impossible at present." + +They sat down on the grass underneath one of the elms and Waitstill took +off her hat and leaned back against the tree-trunk. + +"Tell me more," she said; "it is so long since we talked together +quietly and we have never really spoken of your mother." + +"Of course," Ivory continued, "the people of the village all think and +speak of mother's illness as religious insanity, but to me it seems +nothing of the sort. I was only a child when father first fell ill with +Jacob Cochrane, but I was twelve when father went away from home on +his 'mission,' and if there was any one suffering from delusions in our +family it was he, not mother. She had altogether given up going to the +Cochrane meetings, and I well remember the scene when my father told her +of the revelation he had received about going through the state and into +New Hampshire in order to convert others and extend the movement. She +had no sympathy with his self-imposed mission, you may be sure, though +now she goes back in her memory to the earlier days of her married life, +when she tried hard, poor soul, to tread the same path that father was +treading, so as to be by his side at every turn of the road. + +"I am sure" (here Ivory's tone was somewhat dry and satirical) "that +father's road had many turns, Waitstill! He was a schoolmaster in Saco, +you know, when I was born but he soon turned from teaching to preaching, +and here my mother followed with entire sympathy, for she was intensely, +devoutly religious. I said there was little change in her, but there is +one new symptom. She has ceased to refer to her conversion to Cochranism +as a blessed experience. Her memory of those first days seems to +have faded, As to her sister's death and all the circumstances of her +bringing Rodman home, her mind is a blank. Her expectation of father's +return, on the other hand, is much more intense than ever." + +"She must have loved your father dearly, Ivory, and to lose him in this +terrible way is much worse than death. Uncle Bart says he had a great +gift of language!" + +"Yes, and it was that, in my mind, that led him astray. I fear that the +Spirit of God was never so strong in father as the desire to influence +people by his oratory. That was what drew him to preaching in the first +place, and when he found in Jacob Cochrane a man who could move an +audience to frenzy, lift them out of the body, and do with their spirits +as he willed, he acknowledged him as master. Whether his gospel was a +pure and undefiled religion I doubt, but he certainly was a master of +mesmeric control. My mother was beguiled, entranced, even bewitched at +first, I doubt not, for she translated all that Cochrane said into her +own speech, and regarded him as the prophet of a new era. But Cochrane's +last 'revelations' differed from the first, and were of the earth, +earthy. My mother's pure soul must have revolted, but she was not strong +enough to drag father from his allegiance. Mother was of better family +than father, but they were both well educated and had the best schooling +to be had in their day. So far as I can judge, mother always had more +'balance' than father, and much better judgment,--yet look at her now!" + +"Then you think it was your father's disappearance that really caused +her mind to waver?" asked Waitstill. + +"I do, indeed. I don't know what happened between them in the way of +religious differences, nor how much unhappiness these may have caused. I +remember she had an illness when we first came here to live and I was +a little chap of three or four, but that was caused by the loss of a +child, a girl, who lived only a few weeks. She recovered perfectly, and +her head was as clear as mine for a year or two after father went away. +As his letters grew less frequent, as news of him gradually ceased to +come, she became more and more silent, and retired more completely into +herself. She never went anywhere, nor entertained visitors, because she +did not wish to hear the gossip and speculation that were going on +in the village. Some of it was very hard for a wife to bear, and she +resented it indignantly; yet never received a word from father with +which to refute it. At this time, as nearly as I can judge, she was +a recluse, and subject to periods of profound melancholy, but nothing +worse. Then she took that winter journey to her sister's deathbed, +brought home the boy, and, hastened by exposure and chill and grief, I +suppose, her mind gave way,--that's all!" And Ivory sighed drearily +as he stretched himself on the greensward, and looked off towards the +snow-clad New Hampshire hills. "I've meant to write the story of the +'Cochrane craze' sometime, or such part of it as has to do with my +family history, and you shall read it if you like. I should set down my +child-hood and my boyhood memories, together with such scraps of village +hearsay as seem reliable. You were not so much younger than I, but I +was in the thick of the excitement, and naturally I heard more than +you, having so bitter a reason for being interested. Jacob Cochrane has +altogether disappeared from public view, but there's many a family in +Maine and New Hampshire, yes, and in the far West, that will feel his +influence for years to come." + +"I should like very much to read your account. Aunt Abby's version, for +instance, is so different from Uncle Bart's that one can scarcely find +the truth between the two; and father's bears no relation to that of any +of the others." + +"Some of us see facts and others see visions," replied Ivory, "and these +differences of opinion crop up in the village every day when anything +noteworthy is discussed. I came upon a quotation in my reading last +evening that described it: + + 'One said it thundered... another that an angel spake'" + +"Do you feel as if your father was dead, Ivory?" + +"I can only hope so! That thought brings sadness with it, as one +remembers his disappointment and failure, but if he is alive he is a +traitor." + +There was a long pause and they could see in the distance Humphrey +Barker with his clarionet and Pliny Waterhouse with his bass viol +driving up to the churchyard fence to hitch their horses. The sun was +dipping low and red behind the Town-House Hill on the other side of the +river. + +"What makes my father dislike the very mention of yours?" asked +Waitstill. "I know what they say: that it is because the two men had +high words once in a Cochrane meeting, when father tried to interfere +with some of the exercises and was put out of doors. It doesn't seem as +if that grievance, seventeen or eighteen years ago, would influence his +opinion of your mother, or of you." + +"It isn't likely that a man of your father's sort would forget or +forgive what he considered an injury; and in refusing to have anything +to do with the son of a disgraced man and a deranged woman, he is well +within his rights." + +Ivory's cheeks burned red under the tan, and his hand trembled a little +as he plucked bits of clover from the grass and pulled them to pieces +absent-mindedly. "How are you getting on at home these days, Waitstill?" +he asked, as if to turn his own mind and hers from a too painful +subject. + +"You have troubles enough of your own without hearing mine, Ivory, and +anyway they are not big afflictions, heavy sorrows, like those you have +to bear. Mine are just petty, nagging, sordid, cheap little miseries, +like gnat-bites;--so petty and so sordid that I can hardly talk to God +about them, much less to a human friend. Patty is my only outlet and +I need others, yet I find it almost impossible to escape from the +narrowness of my life and be of use to any one else." The girl's +voice quivered and a single tear-drop on her cheek showed that she was +speaking from a full heart. "This afternoon's talk has determined me in +one thing," she went on. "I am going to see your mother now and then. I +shall have to do it secretly, for your sake, for hers, and for my own, +but if I am found out, then I will go openly. There must be times when +one can break the lower law, and yet keep the higher. Father's law, in +this case, is the lower, and I propose to break it." + +"I can't have you getting into trouble, Waitstill," Ivory objected. +"You're the one woman I can think of who might help my mother; all the +same, I would not make your life harder; not for worlds!" + +"It will not be harder, and even if it was I should 'count it all joy' +to help a woman bear such sorrow as your mother endures patiently day +after day"; and Waitstill rose to her feet and tied on her hat as one +who had made up her mind. + +It was almost impossible for Ivory to hold his peace then, so full of +gratitude was his soul and so great his longing to pour out the feeling +that flooded it. He pulled himself together and led the way out of the +churchyard. To look at Waitstill again would be to lose his head, but to +his troubled heart there came a flood of light, a glory from that lamp +that a woman may hold up for a man; a glory that none can take from him, +and none can darken; a light by which he may walk and live and die. + + + + +XI. A JUNE SUNDAY + +IT was a Sunday in June, and almost the whole population of +Riverboro and Edgewood was walking or driving in the direction of the +meeting-house on Tory Hill. + +Church toilettes, you may well believe, were difficult of attainment by +Deacon Baxter's daughters, as they had been by his respective helpmates +in years gone by. When Waitstill's mother first asked her husband to buy +her a new dress, and that was two years after marriage, he simply said: +"You look well enough; what do you want to waste money on finery for, +these hard times? If other folks are extravagant, that ain't any +reason you should be. You ain't obliged to take your neighbors for an +example:--take 'em for a warnin'!" + +"But, Foxwell, my Sunday dress is worn completely to threads," urged the +second Mrs. Baxter. + +"That's what women always say; they're all alike; no more idea o' savin' +anything than a skunk-blackbird! I can't spare any money for gew-gaws, +and you might as well understand it first as last. Go up attic and open +the hair trunk by the winder; you'll find plenty there to last you for +years to come." + +The second Mrs. Baxter visited the attic as commanded, and in turning +over the clothes in the old trunk, knew by instinct that they had +belonged to her predecessor in office. Some of the dresses were neat, +though terribly worn and faded, but all were fortunately far too short +and small for a person of her fine proportions. Besides, her very soul +shrank from wearing them, and her spirit revolted both from the insult +to herself and to the poor dead woman she had succeeded, so she came +downstairs to darn and mend and patch again her shabby wardrobe. +Waitstill had gone through the same as her mother before her, but in +despair, when she was seventeen, she began to cut over the old garments +for herself and Patty. Mercifully there were very few of them, and they +had long since been discarded. At eighteen she had learned to dye yarns +with yellow oak or maple bark and to make purples from elder and sumac +berries; she could spin and knit as well as any old "Aunt" of the +village, and cut and shape a garment as deftly as the Edgewood +tailoress, but the task of making bricks without straw was a hard one, +indeed. + +She wore a white cotton frock on this particular Sunday. It was starched +and ironed with a beautiful gloss, while a touch of distinction was +given to her costume by a little black sleeveless "roundabout" made +out of the covering of an old silk umbrella. Her flat hat had a single +wreath of coarse daisies around the crown, and her mitts were darned in +many places, nevertheless you could not entirely spoil her; God had used +a liberal hand in making her, and her father's parsimony was a sort of +boomerang that flew back chiefly upon himself. + +As for Patty, her style of beauty, like Cephas Cole's ell had to be +toned down rather than up, to be effective, but circumstances had been +cruelly unrelenting in this process of late. Deacon Baxter had given the +girls three or four shopworn pieces of faded yellow calico that had been +repudiated by the village housewives as not "fast" enough in color +to bear the test of proper washing. This had made frocks, aprons, +petticoats, and even underclothes, for two full years, and Patty's +weekly objurgations when she removed her everlasting yellow dress from +the nail where it hung were not such as should have fallen from the lips +of a deacon's daughter. Waitstill had taken a piece of the same yellow +material, starched and ironed it, cut a curving, circular brim from it, +sewed in a pleated crown, and lo! a hat for Patty! What inspired Patty +to put on a waist ribbon of deepest wine color, with a little band of +the same on the pale yellow hat, no one could say. + +"Do you think you shall like that dull red right close to the yellow, +Patty?" Waitstill asked anxiously. + +"It looks all right on the columbines in the Indian Cellar," replied +Patty, turning and twisting the hat on her head. "If we can't get a peek +at the Boston fashions, we must just find our styles where we can!" + +The various roads to Tory Hill were alive with vehicles on this bright +Sunday morning. Uncle Bart and Abel Day, with their respective wives on +the back seat of the Cole's double wagon, were passed by Deacon Baxter +and his daughters, Waitstill being due at meeting earlier than others by +reason of her singing in the choir. The Deacon's one-horse, two-wheeled +"shay" could hold three persons, with comfort on its broad seat, and +the twenty-year-old mare, although she was always as hollow as a gourd, +could generally do the mile, uphill all the way, in half an hour, if +urged continually, and the Deacon, be it said, if not good at feeding, +was unsurpassed at urging. + +Aunt Abby Cole could get only a passing glimpse of Patty in the depths +of the "shay," but a glimpse was always enough for her, as her opinion +of the girl's charms was considerably affected by the forlorn condition +of her son Cephas, whom she suspected of being hopelessly in love +with the young person aforesaid, to whom she commonly alluded as "that +red-headed bag-gage." + +"Patience Baxter's got the kind of looks that might do well enough at a +tavern dance, or a husking, but they're entirely unsuited to the Sabbath +day or the meetin'-house," so Aunt Abby remarked to Mrs. Day in the +way of backseat confidence. "It's unfortunate that a deacon's daughter +should be afflicted with that bold style of beauty! Her hair's all but +red; in fact, you might as well call it red, when the sun shines on it: +but if she'd ever smack it down with bear's grease she might darken it +some; or anyhow she'd make it lay slicker; but it's the kind of hair +that just matches that kind of a girl,--sort of up an' comin'! Then her +skin's so white and her cheeks so pink and her eyes so snappy that she'd +attract attention without half trying though I guess she ain't above +makin' an effort." + +"She's innocent as a kitten," observed Mrs. Day impartially. + +"Oh, yes, she's innocent enough an' I hope she'll keep so! Waitstill's +a sight han'somer, if the truth was told; but she's the sort of girl +that's made for one man and the rest of em never look at her. The other +one's cut out for the crowd, the more the merrier. She's a kind of +man-trap, that girl is!--Do urge the horse a little mite, Bartholomew! +It makes me kind o' hot to be passed by Deacon Baxter. It's Missionary +Sunday, too, when he gen'ally has rheumatism too bad to come out." + +"I wonder if he ever puts anything into the plate," said Mrs. Day. "No +one ever saw him, that I know of." + +"The Deacon keeps the Thou Shalt Not commandments pretty well," was Aunt +Abby's terse response. "I guess he don't put nothin' into the plate, +but I s'pose we'd ought to be thankful he don't take nothin' out. The +Baptists are gettin' ahead faster than they'd ought to, up to the Mills. +Our minister ain't no kind of a proselyter, Seems as if he didn't care +how folks got to heaven so long as they got there! The other church is +havin' a service this afternoon side o' the river, an' I'd kind o' like +to go, except it would please 'em too much to have a crowd there to +see the immersion. They tell me, but I don't know how true, that that +Tillman widder woman that come here from somewheres in Vermont wanted to +be baptized to-day, but the other converts declared THEY wouldn't be, if +she was!" + +"Jed Morrill said they'd have to hold her under water quite a spell to +do any good," chuckled Uncle Bart from the front seat. + +"Well, I wouldn't repeat it, Bartholomew, on the Sabbath day; not if he +did say it. Jed Morrill's responsible for more blasphemious jokes +than any man in Edgewood. I don't approve of makin' light of anybody's +religious observances if they're ever so foolish," said Aunt Abby +somewhat enigmatically. "Our minister keeps remindin' us that the +Baptists and Methodists are our brethren, but I wish he'd be a little +more anxious to have our S'ceity keep ahead of the others." + +"Jed's 'bout right in sizin' up the Widder Tillman," was Mr. Day's timid +contribution to the argument. "I ain't a readin' man, but from what +folks report I should think she was one o' them critters that set on +rocks bewilderin' an' bedevilin' men-folks out o' their senses--SYREENS, +I think they call 'em; a reg'lar SYREEN is what that woman is, I guess!" + +"There, there, Abel, you wouldn't know a syreen if you found one in your +baked beans, so don't take away a woman's character on hearsay." And +Mrs. Day, having shut up her husband as was her bounden duty as a wife +and a Christian, tied her bonnet strings a little tighter and looked +distinctly pleased with herself. + +"Abel ain't startin' any new gossip," was Aunt Abby's opinion, as she +sprung to his rescue. "One or two more holes in a colander don't make +much dif'rence.--Bartholomew, we're certainly goin' to be late this +mornin'; we're about the last team on the road"; and Aunt Abby glanced +nervously behind. "Elder Boone ain't begun the openin' prayer, though, +or we should know it. You can hear him pray a mile away, when the wind's +right. I do hate to be late to meetin'. The Elder allers takes notice; +the folks in the wing pews allers gapes an' stares, and the choir peeks +through the curtain, takin' notes of everything you've got on your back. +I hope to the land they'll chord and keep together a little mite better +'n they've done lately, that's all I can say! If the Lord is right in +our midst as the Bible says, He can't think much of our singers this +summer!" + +"They're improvin', now that Pliny Waterhouse plays his fiddle," Mrs. +Day remarked pacifically. "There was times in the anthem when they kept +together consid'able well last Sunday. They didn't always chord, but +there, they chorded some!--we're most there now, Abby, don't fret! +Cephas won't ring the last bell till he knows his own folks is crossin' +the Common!" + +Those were days of conscientious church-going and every pew in the house +was crowded. The pulpit was built on pillars that raised it six feet +higher than the floor; the top was cushioned and covered with red velvet +surmounted by a huge gilt-edged Bible. There was a window in the tower +through which Cephas Cole could look into the church, and while tolling +the bell could keep watch for the minister. Always exactly on time, he +would come in, walk slowly up the right-hand aisle, mount the pulpit +stairs, enter and close the door after him. Then Cephas would give +one tremendous pull to warn loiterers on the steps; a pull that meant, +"Parson's in the pulpit!" and was acted upon accordingly. Opening the +big Bible, the minister raised his right hand impressively, and saying, +"Let us pray," the whole congregation rose in their pews with a great +rustling and bowed their heads devoutly for the invocation. + + +Next came the hymn, generally at that day one of Isaac Watts's. The +singers, fifteen or twenty in number, sat in a raised gallery opposite +the pulpit, and there was a rod in front hung with red curtains to +hide them when sitting down. Any one was free to join, which perhaps +accounted for Aunt Abby's strictures as to time and tune. Jed Morrill, +"blasphemious" as he was considered by that acrimonious lady, was the +leader, and a good one, too. There would be a great whispering and +buzzing when Deacon Sumner with his big fiddle and Pliny Waterhouse with +his smaller one would try to get in accord with Humphrey Baker and +his clarionet. All went well when Humphrey was there to give the sure +key-note, but in his absence Jed Morrill would use his tuning-fork. When +the key was finally secured by all concerned, Jed would raise his +stick, beat one measure to set the time, and all joined in, or fell in, +according to their several abilities. It was not always a perfect thing +in the way of a start, but they were well together at the end of the +first line, and when, as now, the choir numbered a goodly number of +voices, and there were three or four hundred in the pews, nothing more +inspiring in its peculiar way was ever heard, than the congregational +singing of such splendid hymns as "Old Hundred," "Duke Street," or +"Coronation." + +Waitstill led the trebles, and Ivory was at the far end of the choir in +the basses, but each was conscious of the other's presence. This morning +he could hear her noble voice rising a little above, or, perhaps from +its quality, separating itself somehow, ever so little, from the others. +How full of strength and hope it was, her voice! How steadfast to the +pitch; how golden its color; how moving in its crescendos! How the words +flowed from her lips; not as if they had been written years ago, but +as if they were the expression of her own faith. There were many in the +congregation who were stirred, they knew not why, when there chanced to +be only a few "carrying the air" and they could really hear Waitstill +Baxter singing some dear old hymn, full of sacred memories, like:-- + + "While Thee I seek, protecting Power, + Be my vain wishes stilled! + And may this consecrated hour + With better hopes be filled." + +"There may be them in Boston that can sing louder, and they may be able +to run up a little higher than Waitstill, but the question is, could any +of 'em make Aunt Abby Cole shed tears?" This was Jed Morrill's tribute +to his best soprano. + +There were Sunday evening prayer-meetings, too, held at "early +candlelight," when Waitstill and Lucy Morrill would make a duet of "By +cool Siloam's Shady Rill," or the favorite "Naomi," and the two fresh +young voices, rising and falling in the tender thirds of the old tunes, +melted all hearts to new willingness of sacrifice. + + "Father, whate'er of earthly bliss + Thy sov'reign will denies, + Accepted at Thy Throne of grace + Let this petition rise! + + "Give me a calm, a thankful heart, + From every murmur free! + The blessing of Thy grace impart + And let me live to Thee!" + +How Ivory loved to hear Waitstill sing these lines! How they eased his +burden as they were easing hers, falling on his impatient, longing heart +like evening dew on thirsty grass! + + + + +XII. THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER + +"WHILE Thee I seek, protecting Power," was the first hymn on this +particular Sunday morning, and it usually held Patty's rather vagrant +attention to the end, though it failed to do so to-day. The Baxters +occupied one of the wing pews, a position always to be envied, as one +could see the singers without turning around, and also observe everybody +in the congregation,--their entrance, garments, behavior, and especially +their bonnets,--without being in the least indiscreet, or seeming to +have a roving eye. + +Lawyer Wilson's pew was the second in front of the Baxters in the same +wing, and Patty, seated decorously but unwillingly beside her father, +was impatiently awaiting the entrance of the family, knowing that Mark +would be with them if he had returned from Boston. Timothy Grant, the +parish clerk, had the pew in between, and afforded a most edifying +spectacle to the community, as there were seven young Grants of a +church-going age, and the ladies of the congregation were always +counting them, reckoning how many more were in their cradles at home +and trying to guess from Mrs. Grant's lively or chastened countenance +whether any new ones had been born since the Sunday before. + +Patty settled herself comfortably, and put her foot on the wooden +"cricket," raising her buff calico a little on the congregation side, +just enough to show an inch or two of petticoat. The petticoat was +as modestly long as the frock itself, and disclosing a bit of it was +nothing more heinous than a casual exhibition of good needlework. +Deacon Baxter furnished only the unbleached muslin for his daughters' +undergarments; but twelve little tucks laboriously done by hand, +elaborate inch-wide edging, crocheted from white spool cotton, and days +of bleaching on the grass in the sun, will make a petticoat that can be +shown in church with some justifiable pride. + +The Wilsons came up the aisle a moment later than was their usual +habit, just after the parson had ascended the pulpit. Mrs. Wilson always +entered the pew first and sat in the far end. Patty had looked at her +admiringly, and with a certain feeling of proprietorship, for several +Sundays. There was obviously no such desirable mother-in-law in the +meeting-house. Her changeable silk dress was the latest mode; her shawl +of black llama lace expressed wealth in every delicate mesh, and her +bonnet had a distinction that could only have emanated from Portland or +Boston. Ellen Wilson usually came in next, with as much of a smile to +Patty in passing as she dared venture in the Deacon's presence, and +after her sidled in her younger sister Selina, commonly called "Silly," +and with considerable reason. + +Mark had come home! Patty dared not look up, but she felt his approach +behind the others, although her eyes sought the floor, and her cheeks +hung out signals of abashed but certain welcome. She heard the family +settle in their seats somewhat hastily, the click of the pew door and +the sound of Lawyer Wilson's cane as he stood it in the corner; then +the parson rose to pray and Patty closed her eyes with the rest of the +congregation. + +Opening them when Elder Boone rose to announce the hymn, they +fell--amazed, resentful, uncomprehending--on the spectacle of Mark +Wilson finding the place in the book for a strange young woman who sat +beside him. Mark himself had on a new suit and wore a seal ring that +Patty had never observed before; while the dress, pelisse, and hat +of the unknown were of a nature that no girl in Patty's position, and +particularly of Patty's disposition, could have regarded without a +desire to tear them from her person and stamp them underfoot; or better +still, flaunt them herself and show the world how they should be worn! + +Mark found the place in the hymn-book for the--creature, shared it with +her, and once, when the Grant twins wriggled and Patty secured a better +view, once, Mark shifted his hand on the page so that his thumb touched +that of his pretty neighbor, who did not remove hers as if she found +the proximity either unpleasant or improper. Patty compared her own +miserable attire with that of the hated rival in front, and also +contrasted Lawyer Wilson's appearance with that of her father; the +former, well dressed in the style of a gentleman of the time, in +broadcloth, with fine linen, and a tall silk hat carefully placed on the +floor of the pew; while Deacon Baxter wore homespun made of wool from +his own sheep, spun and woven, dyed and finished, at the fulling-mill in +the village, and carried a battered felt hat that had been a matter of +ridicule these dozen years. (The Deacon would be buried in two coats, +Jed Morrill always said, for he owned just that number, and would be too +mean to leave either of 'em behind him!) + +The sermon was fifty minutes long, time enough for a deal of thinking. +Many a housewife, not wholly orthodox, cut and made over all her +children's clothes, in imagination; planned the putting up of her fruit, +the making of her preserves and pickles, and arranged her meals for +the next week, during the progress of those sermons. Patty watched the +parson turn leaf after leaf until the final one was reached. Then came +the last hymn, when the people stretched their aching limbs, and rising, +turned their backs on the minister and faced the choir. Patty looked +at Waitstill and wished that she could put her throbbing head on her +sisterly shoulder and cry,--mostly with rage. The benediction was said, +and with the final "Amen" the pews were opened and the worshippers +crowded into the narrow aisles and moved towards the doors. + +Patty's plans were all made. She was out of her pew before the Wilsons +could possibly leave theirs, and in her progress down the aisle securely +annexed her great admirer, old Dr. Perry, as well as his son Philip. +Passing the singing-seats she picked up the humble Cephas and carried +him along in her wake, chatting and talking with her little party while +her father was at the horse-sheds, making ready to go home between +services as was his habit, a cold bite being always set out on the +kitchen table according to his orders. By means of these clever +manoeuvres Patty made herself the focus of attention when the Wilson +party came out on the steps, and vouchsafed Mark only a nonchalant nod, +airily flinging a little greeting with the nod,--just a "How d'ye do, +Mark? Did you have a good time in Boston?" + +Patty and Waitstill, with some of the girls who had come long distances, +ate their luncheon in a shady place under the trees behind the +meeting-house, for there was an afternoon service to come, a service +with another long sermon. They separated after the modest meal to walk +about the Common or stray along the road to the Academy, where there was +a fine view. + +Two or three times during the summer the sisters always went quietly +and alone to the Baxter burying-lot, where three grassgrown graves lay +beside one another, unmarked save by narrow wooden slabs so short that +the initials painted on them were almost hidden by the tufts of clover. +The girls had brought roots of pansies and sweet alyssum, and with a +knife made holes in the earth and planted them here and there to make +the spot a trifle less forbidding. They did not speak to each other +during this sacred little ceremony; their hearts were too full when they +remembered afresh the absence of headstones, the lack of care, in the +place where the three women lay who had ministered to their father, +borne him children, and patiently endured his arbitrary and loveless +rule. Even Cleve Flanders' grave,--the Edgewood shoemaker, who lay +next,--even his resting-place was marked and, with a touch of some one's +imagination marked by the old man's own lapstone twenty-five pounds in +weight, a monument of his work-a-day life. + +Waitstill rose from her feet, brushing the earth from her hands, and +Patty did the same. The churchyard was quiet, and they were alone with +the dead, mourned and unmourned, loved and unloved. + +"I planted one or two pansies on the first one's grave," said Waitstill +soberly. "I don't know why we've never done it before. There are no +children to take notice of and remember her; it's the least we can do, +and, after all, she belongs to the family." + +"There is no family, and there never was!" suddenly cried Patty. "Oh! +Waity, Waity, we are so alone, you and I! We've only each other in all +the world, and I'm not the least bit of help to you, as you are to me! +I'm a silly, vain, conceited, ill-behaved thing, but I will be better, +I will! You won't ever give me up, will you, Waity, even if I'm not like +you? I haven't been good lately!" + +"Hush, Patty, hush!" And Waitstill came nearer to her sister with a +motherly touch of her hand. "I'll not have you say such things; you +that are the helpfullest and the lovingest girl that ever was, and the +cleverest, too, and the liveliest, and the best company-keeper!" + +"No one thinks so but you!" Patty responded dolefully, although she +wiped her eyes as if a bit consoled. + +It is safe to say that Patty would never have given Mark Wilson a second +thought had he not taken her to drive on that afternoon in early May. +The drive, too, would have quickly fled from her somewhat fickle memory +had it not been for the kiss. The kiss was, indeed, a decisive factor +in the situation, and had shed a rosy, if somewhat fictitious light of +romance over the past three weeks. Perhaps even the kiss, had it never +been repeated, might have lapsed into its true perspective, in due +course of time, had it not been for the sudden appearance of the +stranger in the Wilson pew. The moment that Patty's gaze fell upon that +fashionably dressed, instantaneously disliked girl, Marquis Wilson's +stock rose twenty points in the market. She ceased, in a jiffy, to weigh +and consider and criticize the young man, but regarded him with wholly +new eyes. His figure was better than she had realized, his smile more +interesting, his manners more attractive, his eyelashes longer; in +a word, he had suddenly grown desirable. A month ago she could have +observed, with idle and alien curiosity, the spectacle of his thumb +drawing nearer to another (feminine) thumb, on the page of the Watts and +Select Hymn book; now, at the morning service, she had wished nothing so +much as to put Mark's thumb back into his pocket where it belonged, and +slap the girl's thumb smartly and soundly as it deserved. + +The ignorant cause of Patty's distress was a certain Annabel Franklin, +the daughter of a cousin of Mrs. Wilson's. Mark had stayed at the +Franklin house during his three weeks' visit in Boston, where he had +gone on business for his father. The young people had naturally seen +much of each other and Mark's inflammable fancy had been so kindled by +Annabel's doll-like charms that he had persuaded her to accompany him to +his home and get a taste of country life in Maine. Such is man, such is +human nature, and such is life, that Mark had no sooner got the whilom +object of his affections under his own roof than she began to pall. + +Annabel was twenty-three, and to tell the truth she had palled before, +more than once. She was so amiable, so well-finished,--with her smooth +flaxen hair, her neat nose, her buttonhole of a mouth, and her trim +shape,--that she appealed to the opposite sex quite generally and +irresistibly as a worthy helpmate. The only trouble was that she began +to bore her suitors somewhat too early in the game, and they never +got far enough to propose marriage. Flaws in her apparent perfection +appeared from day to day and chilled the growth of the various young +loves that had budded so auspiciously. She always agreed with everybody +and everything in sight, even to the point of changing her mind on the +instant, if circumstances seemed to make it advisable. Her instinctive +point of view, when she went so far as to hold one, was somewhat cut and +dried; in a word, priggish. She kept a young man strictly on his good +behavior, that much could be said in her favor; the only criticism that +could be made on this estimable trait was that no bold youth was ever +tempted to overstep the bounds of discretion when in her presence. No +unruly words of love ever rose to his lips; his hand never stole out +involuntarily and imprudently to meet her small chilly one; the sight of +her waist never even suggested an encircling arm; and as a fellow never +desired to kiss her, she was never obliged to warn or rebuke or strike +him off her visiting list. Her father had an ample fortune and some +one would inevitably turn up who would regard Annabel as an altogether +worthy and desirable spouse. That was what she had seemed to Mark Wilson +for a full week before he left the Franklin house in Boston, but there +were moments now when he regretted, fugitively, that he had ever removed +her from her proper sphere. She did not seem to fit in to the conditions +of life in Edgewood, and it may even be that her most glaring fault +had been to describe Patty Baxter's hair at this very Sunday dinner +as "carroty," her dress altogether "dreadful," and her style of beauty +"unladylike." Ellen Wilson's feelings were somewhat injured by these +criticisms of her intimate friend, and in discussing the matter +privately with her brother he was inclined to agree with her. + +And thus, so little do we know of the prankishness of the blind god, +thus was Annabel Franklin working for her rival's best interests; and +instead of reviling her in secret, and treating her with disdain in +public, Patty should have welcomed her cordially to all the delights of +Riverboro society. + + + + +XIII. HAYING-TIME + +EVERYBODY in Riverboro, Edgewood, Milliken's Mills, Spruce Swamp, Duck +Pond, and Moderation was "haying." There was a perfect frenzy of haying, +for it was the Monday after the "Fourth," the precise date in July when +the Maine farmer said good-bye to repose, and "hayed" desperately and +unceasingly, until every spear of green in his section was mowed down +and safely under cover. If a man had grass of his own, he cut it, and +if he had none, he assisted in cutting that of some other man, for "to +hay," although an unconventional verb, was, and still is, a very active +one, and in common circulation, although not used by the grammarians. + +Whatever your trade, and whatever your profession, it counted as naught +in good weather. The fish-man stopped selling fish, the meat-man ceased +to bring meat; the cobbler, as well as the judge, forsook the bench; and +even the doctor made fewer visits than usual. The wage for work in the +hay-fields was a high one, and every man, boy, and horse in a village +was pressed into service. + +When Ivory Boynton had finished with his own small crop, he commonly +went at once to Lawyer Wilson, who had the largest acreage of hay-land +in the township. Ivory was always in great demand, for he was a mighty +worker in the field, and a very giant at "pitching," being able to pick +up a fair-sized hay-cock at one stroke of the fork and fling it on +to the cart as if it were a feather. Lawyer Wilson always took a hand +himself if signs of rain appeared, and Mark occasionally visited the +scene of action when a crowd in the field made a general jollification, +or when there was an impending thunderstorm. In such cases even women +and girls joined the workers and all hands bent together to the task of +getting a load into the barn and covering the rest. + +Deacon Baxter was wont to call Mark Wilson a "worthless, whey-faced, +lily-handed whelp," but the description, though picturesque, was +decidedly exaggerated. Mark disliked manual labor, but having imbibed +enough knowledge of law in his father's office to be an excellent clerk, +he much preferred travelling about, settling the details of small cases, +collecting rents and bad bills, to any form of work on a farm. This sort +of life, on stage-coaches and railway trains, or on long driving trips +with his own fast trotter, suited his adventurous disposition and gave +him a sense of importance that was very necessary to his peace of mind. +He was not especially intimate with Ivory Boynton, who studied law with +his father during all vacations and in every available hour of leisure +during term time, as did many another young New England schoolmaster. +Mark's father's praise of Ivory's legal ability was a little too warm +to please his son, as was the commendation of one of the County Court +judges on Ivory's preparation of a brief in a certain case in the Wilson +office. Ivory had drawn it up at Mr. Wilson's request, merely to show +how far he understood the books and cases he was studying, and he had no +idea that it differed in any way from the work of any other student; all +the same, Mark's own efforts in a like direction had never received any +special mention. When he was in the hay-field he also kept as far as +possible from Ivory, because there, too, he felt a superiority that +made him, for the moment, a trifle discontented. It was no particular +pleasure for him to see Ivory plunge his fork deep into the heart of a +hay-cock, take a firm grasp of the handle, thrust forward his foot to +steady himself, and then raise the great fragrant heap slowly, and swing +it up to the waiting haycart amid the applause of the crowd. Rodman +would be there, too, helping the man on top of the load and getting +nearly buried each time, as the mass descended upon him, but doing his +slender best to distribute and tread it down properly, while his young +heart glowed with pride at Cousin Ivory's prowess. + +Independence Day had passed, with its usual gayeties for the young +people, in none of which the Baxter family had joined, and now, at +eleven o'clock on this burning July morning, Waitstill was driving the +old mare past the Wilson farm on her way to the river field. Her father +was working there, together with the two hired men whom he took on for a +fortnight during the height of the season. If mowing, raking, pitching, +and carting of the precious crop could only have been done at odd times +during the year, or at night, he would not have embittered the month +of July by paying out money for labor: but Nature was inexorable in the +ripening of hay and Old Foxy was obliged to succumb to the inevitable. +Waitstill had a basket packed with luncheon for three and a great +demijohn of cool ginger tea under the wagon seat. Other farmers +sometimes served hard cider, or rum, but her father's principles were +dead against this riotous extravagance. Temperance, in any and all +directions, was cheap, and the Deacon was a very temperate man, save in +language. + +The fields on both sides of the road were full of haymakers and +everywhere there was bustle and stir. There would be three or four men, +one leading, the others following, slowly swinging their way through a +noble piece of grass, and the smell of the mown fields in the sunshine +was sweeter than honey in the comb. There were patches of black-eyed +Susans in the meadows here and there, while pink and white hardhack grew +by the road, with day lilies and blossoming milkweed. The bobolinks were +fluting from every tree; there were thrushes in the alder bushes and +orioles in the tops of the elms, and Waitstill's heart overflowed with +joy at being in such a world of midsummer beauty, though life, during +the great heat and incessant work of haying-time, was a little more +rigorous than usual. The extra food needed for the hired men always +kept her father in a state of mind closely resembling insanity. Coming +downstairs to cook breakfast she would find the coffee or tea measured +out for the pot. The increased consumption of milk angered him beyond +words, because it lessened the supply of butter for sale. Everything +that could be made with buttermilk was ordered so to be done, and +nothing but water could be used in mixing the raised bread. The corncake +must never have an egg; the piecrust must be shortened only with lard, +or with a mixture of beef-fat and dripping; and so on, and so on, +eternally. + +When the girls were respectively seventeen and thirteen, Waitstill +had begged a small plot of ground for them to use as they liked, and +beginning at that time they had gradually made a little garden, with a +couple of fruit trees and a thicket of red, white, and black currants +raspberry and blackberry bushes. For several summers now they had sold +enough of their own fruit to buy a pair of shoes or gloves, a scarf or +a hat, but even this tiny income was beginning to be menaced. The Deacon +positively suffered as he looked at that odd corner of earth, not any +bigger than his barn floor, and saw what his girls had done with no +tools but a spade and a hoe and no help but their own hands. He had +no leisure (so he growled) to cultivate and fertilize ground for small +fruits, and no money to pay a man to do it, yet here was food grown +under his very eye, and it did not belong to him! The girls worked in +their garden chiefly at sunrise in spring and early summer, or after +supper in the evening; all the same Waitstill had been told by her +father the day before that she was not only using ground, but time, that +belonged to him, and that he should expect her to provide "pie-filling" +out of her garden patch during haying, to help satisfy the ravenous +appetites of that couple of "great, gorming, greedy lubbers" that he was +hiring this year. He had stopped the peeling of potatoes before boiling +because he disapproved of the thickness of the parings he found in the +pig's pail, and he stood over Patty at her work in the kitchen until +Waitstill was in daily fear of a tempest of some sort. + +Coming in from the shed one morning she met her father just issuing from +the kitchen where Patty was standing like a young Fury in front of the +sink. "Father's been spying at the eggshells I settled the coffee with, +and said I'd no business to leave so much good in the shell when I broke +an egg. I will not bear it; he makes me feel fairly murderous! You'd +better not leave me alone with him when I'm like this. Oh! I know that +I'm wicked, but isn't he wicked too, and who was wicked first?" + +Patty's heart had been set on earning and saving enough pennies for a +white muslin dress and every day rendered the prospect more uncertain; +this was a sufficient grievance in itself to keep her temper at the +boiling point had there not been various other contributory causes. +Waitstill's patience was flagging a trifle, too, under the stress of the +hot days and the still hotter, breathless nights. The suspicion crossed +her mind now and then that her father's miserliness and fits of temper +might be caused by a mental malady over which he now had little or no +control, having never mastered himself in all his life. Her power of +endurance would be greater, she thought, if only she could be certain +that this theory was true, though her slavery would be just as galling. + +It would be so easy for her to go away and earn a living; she who had +never had a day of illness in her life; she who could sew, knit, spin, +weave, and cook. She could make enough money in Biddeford or Portsmouth +to support herself, and Patty, too, until the proper work was found for +both. But there would be a truly terrible conflict of wills, and such +fierce arraignment of her unfilial conduct, such bitter and caustic +argument from her father, such disapproval from the parson and the +neighbors, that her very soul shrank from the prospect. If she could go +alone, and have no responsibility over Patty's future, that would be a +little more possible, but she must think wisely for two. + +And how could she leave Ivory when there might perhaps come a crisis in +his life where she could be useful to him? How could she cut herself off +from those Sundays in the choir, those dear fugitive glimpses of him in +the road or at prayer-meeting? They were only sips of happiness, +where her thirsty heart yearned for long, deep draughts, but they were +immeasurably better than nothing. Freedom from her father's heavy yoke, +freedom to work, and read, and sing, and study, and grow,--oh! how she +longed for this, but at what a cost would she gain it if she had to +harbor the guilty conscience of an undutiful and rebellious daughter, +and at the same time cut herself off from the sight of the one being she +loved best in all the world. + +She felt drawn towards Ivory's mother to-day. Three weeks had passed +since her talk with Ivory in the churchyard, but there had been no +possibility of an hour's escape from home. She was at liberty this +afternoon--relatively at liberty; for although her work, as usual, was +laid out for her, it could be made up somehow or other before nightfall. +She could drive over to the Boynton's place, hitch her horse in the +woods near the house, make her visit, yet be in plenty of time to go up +to the river field and bring her father home to supper. Patty was over +at Mrs. Abel Day's, learning a new crochet stitch and helping her to +start a log-cabin quilt. Ivory and Rodman, she new, were both away in +the Wilson hay-field; no time would ever be more favorable; so instead +of driving up Town-House Hill when she returned to the village she kept +on over the bridge. + + + + +XIV. UNCLE BART DISCOURSES + +UNCLE BART and Cephas were taking their nooning hour under the Nodhead +apple tree as Waitstill passed the joiner's shop and went over the +bridge. + +"Uncle Bart might somehow guess where I am going," she thought, "but +even if he did he would never tell any one." + +"Where's Waitstill bound this afternoon, I wonder?" drawled Cephas, +rising to his feet and looking after the departing team. "That reminds +me, I'd better run up to Baxter's and see if any-thing's wanted before I +open the store." + +"If it makes any dif'rence," said his father dryly, as he filled his +pipe, "Patty's over to Mis' Day's spendin' the afternoon. Don't s'pose +you want to call on the pig, do you? He's the only one to home." + +Cephas made no remark, but gave his trousers a hitch, picked up a chip, +opened his jack-knife, and sitting down on the greensward began idly +whittling the bit of wood into shape. + +"I kind o' wish you'd let me make the new ell two-story, father; 't +wouldn't be much work, take it in slack time after hayin'." + +"Land o' Liberty! What do you want to do that for, Cephas? You 'bout +pestered the life out o' me gittin' me to build the ell in the first +place, when we didn't need it no more'n a toad does a pocketbook. Then +nothin' would do but you must paint it, though I shan't be able to have +the main house painted for another year, so the old wine an' the +new bottle side by side looks like the Old Driver, an' makes us a +laughin'-stock to the village;--and now you want to change the thing +into a two-story! Never heerd such a crazy idee in my life." + +"I want to settle down," insisted Cephas doggedly. + +"Well, settle; I'm willin'! I told you that, afore you painted the ell. +Ain't two rooms, fourteen by fourteen, enough for you to settle down in? +If they ain't, I guess your mother'd give you one o' the chambers in the +main part." + +"She would if I married Phoebe Day, but I don't want to marry Phoebe," +argued Cephas. "And mother's gone and made a summer kitchen for herself +out in the ell, a'ready. I bet yer she'll never move out if I should +want to move in on a 'sudden." + +"I told you you was takin' that risk when you cut a door through from +the main part," said his father genially. "If you hadn't done that, your +mother would 'a' had to gone round outside to git int' the ell and mebbe +she'd 'a' stayed to home when it stormed, anyhow. Now your wife'll have +her troopin' in an' out, in an' out, the whole 'durin' time." + +"I only cut the door through to please so't she'd favor my gittin' +married, but I guess 't won't do no good. You see, father, what I was +thinkin' of is, a girl would mebbe jump at a two-story, four-roomed ell +when she wouldn't look at a smaller place." + +"Pends upon whether the girl's the jumpin' kind or not! Hadn't you +better git everything fixed up with the one you've picked out, afore you +take your good savin's and go to buildin' a bigger place for her?" + +"I've asked her once a'ready," Cephas allowed, with a burning face. "I +don't s'pose you know the one I mean?" + +"No kind of an idee," responded his father, with a quizzical wink that +was lost on the young man, as his eyes were fixed upon his whittling. +"Does she belong to the village?" + +"I ain't goin' to let folks know who I've picked out till I git a little +mite forrarder," responded Cephas craftily. "Say, father, it's all right +to ask a girl twice, ain't it? + +"Certain it is, my son. I never heerd there was any special limit to +the number o' times you could ask 'em, and their power o' sayin' 'No' is +like the mercy of the Lord; it endureth forever.--You wouldn't consider +a widder, Cephas? A widder'd be a good comp'ny-keeper for your mother." + +"I hain't put my good savin's into an ell jest to marry a comp'ny-keeper +for mother," responded Cephas huffily. "I want to be number one with my +girl and start right in on trainin' her up to suit me." + +"Well, if trainin' 's your object you'd better take my advice an' keep +it dark before marriage, Cephas. It's astonishin' how the female sect +despises bein' trained; it don't hardly seem to be in their nature to +make any changes in 'emselves after they once gits started." + +"How are you goin' to live with 'em, then?" Cephas inquired, looking up +with interest coupled with some incredulity. + +"Let them do the training," responded his father, peacefully puffing out +the words with his pipe between his lips. "Some of 'em's mild and gentle +in discipline, like Parson Boone's wife or Mis' Timothy Grant, and +others is strict and firm like your mother and Mis' Abel Day. If you +happen to git the first kind, why, do as they tell you, and thank the +Lord 't ain't any worse. If you git the second kind, jest let 'em put +the blinders on you and trot as straight as you know how, without shying +nor kickin' over the traces, nor bolting 'cause they've got control o' +the bit and 't ain't no use fightin' ag'in' their superior strength.--So +fur as you can judge, in the early stages o' the game, my son,--which +ain't very fur,--which kind have you picked out?" + +Cephas whittled on for some moments without a word, but finally, with a +sigh drawn from the very toes of his boots, he responded gloomily,-- + +"She's awful spunky, the girl is, anybody can see that; but she's a +young thing, and I thought bein' married would kind o' tame her down!" + +"You can see how much marriage has tamed your mother down," observed +Uncle Bart dispassionately; "howsomever, though your mother can't be +called tame, she's got her good p'ints, for she's always to be counted +on. The great thing in life, as I take it, Cephas, is to know exactly +what to expect. Your mother's gen'ally credited with an onsartin +temper, but folks does her great injustice in so thinking for in a long +experience I've seldom come across a temper less onsartin than your +mother's. You know exactly where to find her every mornin' at sun-up and +every night at sundown. There ain't nothin' you can do to put her out +o' temper, cause she's all out aforehand. You can jest go about your +reg'lar business 'thout any fear of disturbin' her any further than +she's disturbed a'ready, which is consid'rable. I don't mind it a mite +nowadays, though, after forty years of it. It would kind o' gall me to +keep a stiddy watch of a female's disposition day by day, wonderin' +when she was goin' to have a tantrum. A tantrum once a year's an awful +upsettin' kind of a thing in a family, my son, but a tantrum every +twenty-four hours is jest part o' the day's work." There was a moment's +silence during which Uncle Bart puffed his pipe and Cephas whittled, +after which the old man continued: "Then, if you happen to marry a +temper like your mother's, Cephas, look what a pow'ful worker you +gen'ally get! Look at the way they sweep an' dust an' scrub an' clean! +Watch 'em when they go at the dish-washin', an' how they whack the +rollin'-pin, an' maul the eggs, an' heave the wood int' the stove, an' +slat the flies out o' the house! The mild and gentle ones enough, will +be settin' in the kitchen rocker read-in' the almanac when there ain't +no wood in the kitchen box, no doughnuts in the crock, no pies on the +swing shelf in the cellar, an' the young ones goin' round without a +second shift to their backs!" + +Cephas's mind was far away during this philosophical dissertation on the +ways of women. He could see only a sunny head fairly rioting with curls; +a pair of eyes that held his like magnets, although they never gave him +a glance of love; a smile that lighted the world far better than the +sun; a dimple into which his heart fell headlong whenever he looked at +it! + +"You're right, father; 'tain't no use kickin' ag'in 'em," he said as he +rose to his feet preparatory to opening the Baxter store. "When I said +that 'bout trainin' up a girl to suit me, I kind o' forgot the one I've +picked out. I'm considerin' several, but the one I favor most-well, +I believe she'd fire up at the first sight o' training and that's the +gospel truth." + +"Considerin' several, be you, Cephas?" laughed Uncle Bart. "Well, all +I hope is, that the one you favor most--the girl you've asked once +a'ready--is considerin' you!" + +Cephas went to the pump, and wetting a large handkerchief put it in the +crown of his straw hat and sauntered out into the burning heat of the +open road between his father's shop and Deacon Baxter's store. + +"I shan't ask her the next time till this hot spell's over," he thought, +"and I won't do it in that dodgasted old store ag'in, neither; I ain't +so tongue-tied outdoors an' I kind o' think I'd be more in the sperit of +it after sundown, some night after supper!" + + + + +XV. IVORY'S MOTHER + +WAITSTILL found a cool and shady place in which to hitch the old mare, +loosening her check-rein and putting a sprig of alder in her headstall +to assist her in brushing off the flies. + +One could reach the Boynton house only by going up a long grass-grown +lane that led from the high-road. It was a lonely place, and Aaron +Boynton had bought it when he moved from Saco, simply because he secured +it at a remarkable bargain, the owner having lost his wife and gone +to live in Massachusetts. Ivory would have sold it long ago had +circumstances been different, for it was at too great a distance from +the schoolhouse and from Lawyer Wilson's office to be at all convenient, +but he dreaded to remove his mother from the environment to which she +was accustomed, and doubted very much whether she would be able to care +for a house to which she had not been wonted before her mind became +affected. Here in this safe, secluded corner, amid familiar and +thoroughly known conditions, she moved placidly about her daily tasks, +performing them with the same care and precision that she had used from +the beginning of her married life. All the heavy work was done for her +by Ivory and Rodman; the boy in particular being the fleetest-footed, +the most willing, and the neatest of helpers; washing dishes, sweeping +and dusting, laying the table, as deftly and quietly as a girl. Mrs. +Boynton made her own simple dresses of gray calico in summer, or dark +linsey-woolsey in winter by the same pattern that she had used when +she first came to Edgewood: in fact there were positively no external +changes anywhere to be seen, tragic and terrible as had been those that +had wrought havoc in her mind. + +Waitstill's heart beat faster as she neared the Boynton house. She had +never so much as seen Ivory's mother for years. How would she be met? +Who would begin the conversation, and what direction would it take? What +if Mrs. Boynton should refuse to talk to her at all? She walked slowly +along the lane until she saw a slender, gray-clad figure stooping over +a flower-bed in front of the cottage. The woman raised her head with a +fawn-like gesture that had something in it of timidity rather than fear, +picked some loose bits of green from the ground, and, quietly turning +her back upon the on coming stranger, disappeared through the open front +door. + +There could be no retreat on her own part now, thought Waitstill. She +wished for a moment that she had made this first visit under Ivory's +protection, but her idea had been to gain Mrs. Boynton's confidence and +have a quiet friendly talk, such a one as would be impossible in the +presence of a third person. Approaching the steps, she called through +the doorway in her clear voice: "Ivory asked me to come and see you one +day, Mrs. Boynton. I am Waitstill Baxter, the little girl on Town House +Hill that you used to know." + +Mrs. Boynton came from an inner room and stood on the threshold. The +name "Waitstill" had always had a charm for her ears, from the time she +first heard it years ago, until it fell from Ivory's lips this summer; +and again it caught her fancy. + +"'WAITSTILL!"' she repeated softly; "'WAITSTILL!' Does Ivory know you?" + +"We've known each other for ever so long; ever since we went to the +brick school together when we were girl and boy. And when I was a child +my stepmother brought me over here once on an errand and Ivory showed me +a humming-bird's nest in that lilac bush by the door." + +Mrs. Boynton smiled "Come and look!" she whispered. "There is always a +humming-bird's nest in our lilac. How did you remember?" + +The two women approached the bush and Mrs. Boynton carefully parted the +leaves to show the dainty morsel of a home thatched with soft gray-green +and lined with down. "The birds have flown now," she said. "They were +like little jewels when they darted off in the sunshine." + +Her voice was faint and sweet, as if it came from far away, and her eyes +looked, not as if they were seeing you, but seeing something through +you. Her pale hair was turned back from her paler face, where the +veins showed like blue rivers, and her smile was like the flitting of a +moonbeam. She was standing very close to Waitstill, closer than she +had been to any woman for many years, and she studied her a little, +wistfully, yet courteously, as if her attention was attracted by +something fresh and winning. She looked at the color, ebbing and flowing +in the girl's cheeks; at her brows and lashes; at her neck, as white +as swan's-down; and finally put out her hand with a sudden impulse and +touched the knot of wavy bronze hair under the brimmed hat. + +"I had a daughter once," she said. "My second baby was a girl, but she +lived only a few weeks. I need her very much, for I am a great care to +Ivory. He is son and daughter both, now that Mr. Boynton is away from +home.--You did not see any one in the road as you turned in from the +bars, I suppose?" + +"No," answered Waitstill, surprised and confused, "but I didn't really +notice; I was thinking of a cool place for my horse to stand." + +"I sit out here in these warm afternoons," Mrs. Boynton continued, +shading her eyes and looking across the fields, "because I can see so +far down the lane. I have the supper-table set for my husband already, +and there is a surprise for him, a saucer of wild strawberries I picked +for him this morning. If he does not come, I always take away the plate +and cup before Ivory gets here; it seems to make him unhappy." + +"He doesn't like it when you are disappointed, I suppose," Waitstill +ventured. "I have brought my knitting, Mrs. Boynton, so that I needn't +keep you idle if you wish to work. May I sit down a few minutes? And +here is a cottage cheese for Ivory and Rodman, and a jar of plums for +you, preserved from my own garden." + +Mrs. Boynton's eyes searched the face of this visitor from a world she +had almost forgotten and finding nothing but tenderness there, said with +just a trace of bewilderment: "Thank you yes, do sit down; my workbasket +is just inside the door. Take that rocking-chair; I don't have another +one out here because I have never been in the habit of seeing visitors." + +"I hope I am not intruding," stammered Waitstill, seating herself and +beginning her knitting, to see if it would lessen the sense of strain +between them. + +"Not at all. I always loved young and beautiful people, and so did my +husband. If he comes while you are here, do not go away, but sit with +him while I get his supper. If Elder Cochrane should be with him, +you would see two wonderful men. They went away together to do some +missionary work in Maine and New Hampshire and perhaps they will come +back together. I do not welcome callers because they always ask so many +difficult questions, but you are different and have asked me none at +all." + +"I should not think of asking questions, Mrs. Boynton." + +"Not that I should mind answering them," continued Ivory's mother, +"except that it tires my head very much to think. You must not imagine I +am ill; it is only that I have a very bad memory, and when people ask me +to remember something, or to give an answer quickly, it confuses me the +more. Even now I have forgotten why you came, and where you live; but I +have not forgotten your beautiful name." + +"Ivory thought you might be lonely, and I wanted so much to know you +that I could not keep away any longer, for I am lonely and unhappy too. +I am always watching and hoping for what has never come yet. I have no +mother, you have lost your daughter; I thought--I thought--perhaps we +could be a comfort to each other!" And Waitstill rose from her chair +and put out her hand to help Mrs. Boynton down the steps, she looked +so frail, so transparent, so prematurely aged. "I could not come very +often--but if I could only smooth your hair sometimes when your head +aches, or do some cooking for you, or read to you, or any little thing +like that, as I would fer my own mother--if I could, I should be so +glad!" + +Waitstill stood a head higher than Ivory's mother and the glowing health +of her, the steadiness of her voice, the warmth of her hand-clasp must +have made her seem like a strong refuge to this storm-tossed derelict. +The deep furrow between Lois Boynton's eyes relaxed a trifle, the blood +in her veins ran a little more swiftly under the touch of the young hand +that held hers so closely. Suddenly a light came into her face and her +lip quivered. + +"Perhaps I have been remembering wrong all these years," she said. "It +is my great trouble, remembering wrong. Perhaps my baby did not die as I +thought; perhaps she lived and grew up; perhaps" (her pale cheek burned +and her eyes shone like stars) "perhaps she has come back!" + +Waitstill could not speak; she put her arm round the trembling figure, +holding her as she was wont to hold Patty, and with the same protective +instinct. The embrace was electric in its effect and set altogether +new currents of emotion in circulation. Something in Lois Boynton's +perturbed mind seemed to beat its wings against the barriers that had +heretofore opposed it, and, freeing itself, mounted into clearer air and +went singing to the sky. She rested her cheek on the girl's breast with +a little sob. "Oh! let me go on remembering wrong," she sighed, from +that safe shelter. "Let me go on remembering wrong! It makes me so +happy!" + +Waitstill gently led her to the rocking-chair and sat down beside her +on the lowest step, stroking her thin hand. Mrs. Boynton's eyes were +closed, her breath came and went quickly, but presently she began to +speak hurriedly, as if she were relieving a surcharged heart. + +"There is something troubling me," she began, "and it would ease my mind +if I could tell it to some one who could help. Your hand is so warm and +so firm! Oh, hold mine closely and let me draw in strength as long +as you can spare it; it is flowing, flowing from your hand into mine, +flowing like wine.... My thoughts at night are not like my thoughts by +day, these last weeks.... I wake suddenly and feel that my husband has +been away a long time and will never come back.... Often, at night, too, +I am in sore trouble about something else, something I have never told +Ivory, the first thing I have ever hidden from my dear son, but I think +I could tell you, if only I could be sure about it." + +"Tell me if it will help you; I will try to understand," said Waitstill +brokenly. + +"Ivory says Rodman is the child of my dead sister. Some one must have +told him so; could it have been I? It haunts me day and night, for +unless I am remembering wrong again, I never had a sister. I can call to +mind neither sister nor brother." + +"You went to New Hampshire one winter," Waitstill reminded her gently, +as if she were talking to a child. "It was bitter cold for you to take +such a hard journey. Your sister died, and you brought her little boy, +Rodman, back, but you were so ill that a stranger had to take care of +you on the stage-coach and drive you to Edgewood next day in his own +sleigh. It is no wonder you have forgotten something of what happened, +for Dr. Perry hardly brought you through the brain fever that followed +that journey." + +"I seem to think, now, that it is not so!" said Mrs. Boynton, opening +her eyes and looking at Waitstill despairingly. "I must grope and grope +in the dark until I find out what is true, and then tell Ivory. God will +punish false speaking! His heart is closed against lies and evil-doing!" + +"He will never punish you if your tired mind remembers wrong," said +Waitstill. "He knows, none better, how you have tried to find Him and +hold Him, through many a tangled path. I will come as often as I can and +we will try to frighten away these worrying thoughts." + +"If you will only come now and then and hold my hand," said Ivory's +mother,--"hold my hand so that your strength will flow into my weakness, +perhaps I shall puzzle it all out, and God will help me to remember +right before I die." + +"Everything that I have power to give away shall be given to you," +promised Waitstill. "Now that I know you, and you trust me, you shall +never be left so alone again,--not for long, at any rate. When I stay +away you will remember that I cannot help it, won't you?" + +"Yes, I shall think of you till I see you again I shall watch the long +lane more than ever now. Ivory sometimes takes the path across the +fields but my dear husband will come by the old road, and now there will +be you to look for!" + + + + +XVI. LOCKED OUT + +AT the Baxters the late supper was over and the girls had not sat at the +table with their father, having eaten earlier, by themselves. The hired +men had gone home to sleep. Patty had retired to the solitude of her +bedroom almost at dusk, quite worn out with the heat, and Waitstill sat +under the peach tree in the corner of her own little garden, tatting, +and thinking of her interview with Ivory's mother. She sat there until +nearly eight o'clock, trying vainly to put together the puzzling details +of Lois Boynton's conversation, wondering whether the perplexities that +vexed her mind were real or fancied, but warmed to the heart by the +affection that the older woman seemed instinctively to feel for her. +"She did not know me, yet she cared for me at once," thought Waitstill +tenderly and proudly; "and I for her, too, at the first glance." + +She heard her father lock the barn and shed and knew that he would be +going upstairs immediately, so she quickly went through the side yard +and lifted the latch of the kitchen door. It was fastened. She went to +the front door and that, too, was bolted, although it had been standing +open all the evening, so that if a breeze should spring up, it might +blow through the house. Her father supposed, of course, that she was +in bed, and she dreaded to bring him downstairs for fear of his anger; +still there was no help for it and she rapped smartly at the side +door. There was no answer and she rapped again, vexed with her own +carelessness. Patty's face appeared promptly behind her screen of +mosquito netting in the second story, but before she could exchange a +word with her sister, Deacon Baxter opened the blinds of his bedroom +window and put his head out. + +"You can try sleepin' outdoors, or in the barn to-night," he called. "I +didn't say anything to you at supper-time because I wanted to see where +you was intendin' to prowl this evenin'." + +"I haven't been 'prowling' anywhere, father," answered Waitstill; "I've +been out in the garden cooling off; it's only eight o'clock." + +"Well, you can cool off some more," he shouted, his temper now fully +aroused; "or go back where you was this afternoon and see if they'll +take you in there! I know all about your deceitful tricks! I come home +to grind the scythes and found the house and barn empty Cephas said +you'd driven up Saco Hill and I took his horse and followed you and saw +where you went Long's you couldn't have a feller callin' on you here to +home, you thought you'd call on him, did yer, you bold-faced hussy?" + +"I am nothing of the sort," the girl answered him quietly; "Ivory +Boynton was not at his house, he was in the hay-field. You know it, and +you know that I knew it. I went to see a sick, unhappy woman who has no +neighbors. I ought to have gone long before. I am not ashamed of it, and +I don't regret it. If you ask unreasonable things of me, you must expect +to be disobeyed once in a while. + +"Must expect to be disobeyed, must I?" the old man cried, his face +positively terrifying in its ugliness. "We'll see about that! If you +wa'n't callin' on a young man, you were callin' on a crazy woman, and I +won't have it, I tell you, do you hear? I won't have a daughter o' mine +consortin' with any o' that Boynton crew. Perhaps a night outdoors will +teach you who's master in this house, you imperdent, shameless girl! +We'll try it, anyway!" And with that he banged down the window and +disappeared, gibbering and jabbering impotent words that she could hear +but not understand. + +Waitstill was almost stunned by the suddenness of this catastrophe. She +stood with her feet rooted to the earth for several minutes and then +walked slowly away out of sight of the house. There was a chair beside +the grindstone under the Porter apple tree and she sank into it, crossed +her arms on the back, and bowing her head on them, burst into a fit of +weeping as tempestuous and passionate as it was silent, for although her +body fairly shook with sobs no sound escaped. + +The minutes passed, perhaps an hour; she did not take account of time. +The moon went behind clouds, the night grew misty and the stars faded +one by one. There would be rain to-morrow and there was a great deal of +hay cut, so she thought in a vagrant sort of way. + +Meanwhile Patty upstairs was in a state of suppressed excitement and +terror. It was a quarter of an hour before her father settled him-self +in bed; then an age, it seemed to her, before she heard his heavy +breathing. When she thought it quite safe, she slipped on a print +wrapper, took her shoes in her hand, and crept noiselessly downstairs, +out through the kitchen and into the shed. Lifting the heavy bar that +held the big doors in place she closed them softly behind her, stepped +out, and looked about her in the darkness. Her quick eye espied in the +distance, near the barn, the bowed figure in the chair, and she flew +through the wet grass without a thought of her bare feet till she +reached her sister's side and held her in a close embrace. + +"My darling, my own, own, poor darling!" she cried softly, the tears +running down her cheeks. "How wicked, how unjust to serve my dearest +sister so! Don't cry, my blessing, don't cry; you frighten me! I'll take +care of you, dear! Next time I'll interfere; I'll scratch and bite; yes, +I'll strangle anybody that dares to shame you and lock you out of the +house! You, the dearest, the patientest, the best!" + +Waitstill wiped her eyes. "Let us go farther away where we can talk," +she whispered. + +"Where had we better sleep?" Patty asked. "On the hay, I think, though +we shall stifle with the heat"; and Patty moved towards the barn. + +"No, you must go back to the house at once, Patty dear; father might +wake and call you, and that would make matters worse. It's beginning to +drizzle, or I should stay out in the air. Oh! I wonder if father's mind +is going, and if this is the beginning of the end! If he is in his sober +senses, he could not be so strange, so suspicious, so unjust." + +"He could be anything, say anything, do anything," exclaimed Patty. +"Perhaps he is not responsible and perhaps he is; it doesn't make much +difference to us. Come along, blessed darling! I'll tuck you in, and +then I'll creep back to the house, if you say I must. I'll go down and +make the kitchen fire in the morning; you stay out here and see what +happens. A good deal will happen, I'm thinking, if father speaks to +me of you! I shouldn't be surprised to see the fur flying in all +directions; I'll seize the first moment to bring you out a cup of coffee +and we'll consult about what to do. I may tell you now, I'm all for +running away!" + +Waitstill's first burst of wretchedness had subsided and she had +recovered her balance. "I'm afraid we must wait a little longer, Patty," +she advised. "Don't mention my name to father, but see how he acts in +the morning. He was so wild, so unlike himself, that I almost hope he +may forget what he said and sleep it off. Yes, we must just wait." + +"No doubt he'll be far calmer in the morning if he remembers that, if he +turns you out, he faces the prospect of three meals a day cooked by me," +said Patty. "That's what he thinks he would face, but as a matter of +fact I shall tell him that where you sleep I sleep, and where you eat +I eat, and when you stop cooking I stop! He won't part with two unpaid +servants in a hurry, not at the beginning of haying." And Patty, giving +Waitstill a last hug and a dozen tearful kisses, stole reluctantly back +to the house by the same route through which he had left it. + +Patty was right. She found the fire lighted when she went down into the +kitchen next morning, and without a word she hurried breakfast on to the +table as fast as she could cook and serve it. Waitstill was safe in the +barn chamber, she knew, and would be there quietly while her father was +feeding the horse and milking the cows; or perhaps she might go up in +the woods and wait until she saw him driving away. + +The Deacon ate his breakfast in silence, looking and acting very much +as usual, for he was generally dumb at meals. When he left the house, +however, and climbed into the wagon, he turned around and said in his +ordinary gruff manner: "Bring the lunch up to the field yourself to-day, +Patience. Tell your sister I hope she's come to her senses in the course +of the night. You've got to learn, both of you, that my 'say-so' must be +law in this house. You can fuss and you can fume, if it amuses you any, +but 't won't do no good. Don't encourage Waitstill in any whinin' nor +blubberin'. Jest tell her to come in and go to work and I'll overlook +what she done this time. And don't you give me any more of your +eye-snappin' and lip-poutin' and head-in-the-air imperdence! You're +under age, and if you don't look out, you'll get something that's good +for what ails you! You two girls jest aid an' abet one another that's +what you do, aid an' abet one another, an if you carry it any further +I'll find some way o' separatin' you, do you hear?" + +Patty spoke never a word, nor fluttered an eyelash. She had a proper +spirit, but now her heart was cold with a new fear, and she felt, with +Waitstill, that her father must be obeyed and his temper kept within +bounds, until God provided them a way of escape. + +She ran out to the barn chamber and, not finding Waitstill, looked +across the field and saw her coming through the path from the woods. +Patty waved her hand, and ran to meet her sister, joy at the mere fact +of her existence, of being able to see her again, and of hearing her +dear voice, almost choking her in its intensity. When they reached the +house she helped her upstairs as if she were a child, brought her cool +water to wash away the dust of the haymow, laid out some clean clothes +for her, and finally put her on the lounge in the darkened sitting-room. + +"I won't let anybody come near the house," she said, "and you must have +a cup of tea and a good sleep before I tell you all that father said. +Just comfort yourself with the thought that he is going to 'overlook it' +this time! After I carry up his luncheon, I shall stop at the store and +ask Cephas to come out on the river bank for a few minutes. Then I shall +proceed to say what I think of him for telling father where you went +yesterday afternoon." + +"Don't blame Cephas!" Waitstill remonstrated. "Can't you see just how +it happened? He and Uncle Bart were sitting in front of the shop when I +drove by. When father came home and found the house empty and the horse +not in the stall, of course he asked where I was, and Cephas probably +said he had seen me drive up Saco Hill. He had no reason to think that +there was any harm in that." + +"If he had any sense he might know that he shouldn't tell anything to +father except what happens in the store," Patty insisted. "Were you +frightened out in the barn alone last night, poor dear?" + +"I was too unhappy to think of fear and I was chiefly nervous about you, +all alone in the house with father." + +"I didn't like it very much, myself! I buttoned my bedroom door and sat +by the window all night, shivering and bristling at the least sound. +Everybody calls me a coward, but I'm not! Courage isn't not being +frightened; it's not screeching when you are frightened. Now, what +happened at the Boyntons'?" + +"Patty, Ivory's mother is the most pathetic creature I ever saw!" And +Waitstill sat up on the sofa, her long braids of hair hanging over her +shoulders, her pale face showing the traces of her heavy weeping. "I +never pitied any one so much in my whole life! To go up that long, long +lane; to come upon that dreary house hidden away in the trees; to feel +the loneliness and the silence; and then to know that she is living +there like a hermit-thrush in a forest, without a woman to care for her, +it is heart-breaking!" + +"How does the house look,--dreadful?" + +"No: everything is as neat as wax. She isn't 'crazy,' Patty, as we +understand the word. Her mind is beclouded somehow and it almost seems +as if the cloud might lift at any moment. She goes about like somebody +in a dream, sewing or knitting or cooking. It is only when she talks, +and you notice that her eyes really see nothing, but are looking beyond +you, that you know there is anything wrong." + +"If she appears so like other people, why don't the neighbors go to see +her once in a while?" + +"Callers make her unhappy, she says, and Ivory told me that he dared not +encourage any company in the house for fear of exciting her, and making +her an object of gossip, besides. He knows her ways perfectly and that +she is safe and content with her fancies when she is alone, which is +seldom, after all." + +"What does she talk about?" asked Patty. + +"Her husband mostly. She is expecting him to come back daily. We knew +that before, of course, but no one can realize it till they see her +setting the table for him and putting a saucer of wild strawberries by +his plate; going about the kitchen softly, like a gentle ghost." + +"It gives me the shudders!" said Patty. "I couldn't bear it! If she +never sees strangers, what in the world did she make of you? How did you +begin?" + +"I told her I had known Ivory ever since we were school children. She +was rather strange and indifferent at first, and then she seemed to take +a fancy to me." + +"That's queer!" said Patty, smiling fondly and giving Waitstill's hair +the hasty brush of a kiss. + +"She told me she had had a girl baby, born two or three years after +Ivory, and that she had always thought it died when it was a few weeks +old. Then suddenly she came closer to me-- + +"Oh! Waity, weren't you terrified?" + +"No, not in the least. Neither would you have been if you had been +there. She put her arms round me and all at once I understood that the +poor thing mistook me just for a moment for her own daughter come back +to life. It was a sudden fancy and I don't think it lasted, but I didn't +know how to deal with it, or contradict it, so I simply tried to soothe +her and let her ease her heart by talking to me. She said when I left +her: 'Where is your house? I hope it is near! Do come again and sit with +me. Strength flows into my weakness when you hold my hand!' I somehow +feel, Patty, that she needs a woman friend even more than a doctor. And +now, what am I to do? How can I forsake her; and yet here is this new +difficulty with father?" + +"I shouldn't forsake her; go there when you can, but be more careful +about it. You told father that you didn't regret what you had done, and +that when he ordered you to do unreasonable things, you should disobey +him. After all, you are not a black slave. Father will never think of +that particular thing again, perhaps, any more than he ever alluded to +my driving to Saco with Mrs. Day after you had told him it was necessary +for one of us to go there occasionally. He knows that if he is too hard +on us, Dr. Perry or Uncle Bart would take him in hand. They would have +done it long ago if we had ever given any one even a hint of what we +have to endure. You will be all right, because you only want to do kind, +neighborly things. I am the one that will always have to suffer, because +I can't prove that it's a Christian duty to deceive father and steal off +to a dance or a frolic. Yet I might as well be a nun in a convent for +all the fun I get! I want a white book-muslin dress; I want a pair of +thin shoes with buckles; I want a white hat with a wreath of yellow +roses; I want a volume of Byron's poems; and oh! nobody knows--nobody +but the Lord could understand--how I want a string of gold beads." + +"Patty, Patty! To hear you chatter anybody would imagine you thought of +nothing but frivolities. I wish you wouldn't do yourself such injustice; +even when nobody hears you but me, it is wrong." + +"Sometimes when you think I'm talking nonsense it's really the gospel +truth," said Patty. "I'm not a grand, splendid character, Waitstill, +and it's no use your deceiving yourself about me; if you do, you'll be +disappointed." + +"Go and parboil the beans and get them into the pot, Patty. Pick up some +of the windfalls and make a green-apple pie, and I'll be with you in the +kitchen myself before long. I never expect to be disappointed in you, +Patty, only continually surprised and pleased." + +"I thought I'd begin making some soft soap to-day," said Patty +mischievously, as she left the room. "We have enough grease saved up. We +don't really need it yet, but it makes such a disgusting smell that +I'd rather like father to have it with his dinner. It's not much of a +punishment for our sleepless night." + + + + +AUTUMN + + + + +XVII. A BRACE OF LOVERS + +HAYING was over, and the close, sticky dog-days, too, and August was +slipping into September. There had been plenty of rain all the season +and the countryside was looking as fresh and green as an emerald. The +hillsides were already clothed with a verdant growth of new grass and + + "The red pennons of the cardinal flowers + Hung motionless upon their upright staves." + +How they gleamed in the meadow grasses and along the brooksides like +brilliant flecks of flame, giving a new beauty to the nosegays that +Waitstill carried or sent to Mrs. Boynton every week. + +To the eye of the casual observer, life in the two little villages by +the river's brink went on as peacefully as ever, but there were subtle +changes taking place nevertheless. Cephas Cole had "asked" the second +time and again had been refused by Patty, so that even a very idiot for +hopefulness could not urge his father to put another story on the ell. + +"If it turns out to be Phoebe Day," thought Cephas dolefully, "two rooms +is plenty good enough, an' I shan't block up the door that leads from +the main part, neither, as I thought likely I should. If so be it's got +to be Phoebe, not Patty, I shan't care whether mother troops out 'n' in +or not." And Cephas dealt out rice and tea and coffee with so languid an +air, and made such frequent mistakes in weighing the sugar, that he drew +upon himself many a sharp rebuke from the Deacon. + +"Of course I'd club him over the head with a salt fish twice a day under +ord'nary circumstances," Cephas confided to his father with a valiant +air that he never wore in Deacon Baxter's presence; "but I've got a +reason, known to nobody but myself, for wantin' to stan' well with the +old man for a spell longer. If ever I quit wantin' to stan' well with +him, he'll get his comeuppance, short an sudden!" + +"Speakin' o' standin' well with folks, Phil Perry's kind o' makin' up to +Patience Baxter, ain't he, Cephas?" asked Uncle Bart guardedly. "Mebbe +you wouldn't notice it, hevin' no partic'lar int'rest, but your +mother's kind o got the idee into her head lately, an' she's turrible +far-sighted." + +"I guess it's so!" Cephas responded gloomily. "It's nip an' tuck 'tween +him an' Mark Wilson. That girl draws 'em as molasses does flies! She +does it 'thout liftin' a finger, too, no more 'n the molasses does. She +just sets still an' IS! An' all the time she's nothin' but a flighty +little red-headed spitfire that don't know a good husband when she sees +one. The feller that gits her will live to regret it, that's my opinion!" +And Cephas thought to himself: "Good Lord, don't I wish I was +regrettin' it this very minute!" + +"I s'pose a girl like Phoebe Day'd be consid'able less trouble to live +with?" ventured Uncle Bart. + +"I never could take any fancy to that tow hair o' hern! I like the color +well enough when I'm peeling it off a corn cob, but I don't like it on a +girl's head," objected Cephas hypercritically. "An' her eyes hain't +got enough blue in 'em to be blue: they're jest like skim-milk. An' she +keeps her mouth open a little mite all the time, jest as if there wa'n't +no good draught through, an' she was a-tryin' to git air. An' 't was +me that begun callin' her 'Feeble Phoebe in school, an' the scholars'll +never forgit it; they'd throw it up to me the whole 'durin' time if I +should go to work an' keep company with her!" + +"Mebbe they've forgot by this time," Uncle Bart responded hopefully; +"though 't is an awful resk when you think o' Companion Pike! Samuel he +was baptized and Samuel he continued to be, 'till he married the Widder +Bixby from Waterboro. Bein' as how there wa'n't nothin' partic'ly +attractive 'bout him,--though he was as nice a feller as ever +lived,--somebody asked her why she married him, an' she said her cat +hed jest died an' she wanted a companion. The boys never let go o' that +story! Samuel Pike he ceased to be thirty year ago, an' Companion Pike +he's remained up to this instant minute!" + +"He ain't lived up to his name much," remarked Cephas. "He's to home for +his meals, but I guess his wife never sees him between times." + +"If the cat hed lived mebbe she'd 'a' been better comp'ny on the +whole," chuckled Uncle Bart. "Companion was allers kind o' dreamy +an' absent-minded from a boy. I remember askin' him what his wife's +Christian name was (she bein' a stranger to Riverboro) an' he said he +didn't know! Said he called her Mis' Bixby afore he married her an' Mis' +Pike afterwards!" + +"Well, there 's something turrible queer 'bout this marryin' business," +and Cephas drew a sigh from the heels of his boots. "It seems's if a man +hedn't no natcheral drawin' towards a girl with a good farm 'n' stock +that was willin' to have him! Seems jest as if it set him ag'in' her +somehow! And yet, if you've got to sing out o' the same book with a girl +your whole lifetime, it does seem's if you'd ought to have a kind of a +fancy for her at the start, anyhow!" + +"You may feel dif'rent as time goes on, Cephas, an' come to see +Feeble--I would say Phoebe--as your mother does. 'The best fire don't +flare up the soonest,' you know." But old Uncle Bart saw that his son's +heart was heavy and forbore to press the subject. + +Annabel Franklin had returned to Boston after a month's visit and to her +surprise had returned as disengaged as she came. Mark Wilson, thoroughly +bored by her vacuities of mind, longed now for more intercourse with +Patty Baxter, Patty, so gay and unexpected; so lively to talk with, so +piquing to the fancy, so skittish and difficult to manage, so temptingly +pretty, with a beauty all her own, and never two days alike. + +There were many lions in the way and these only added to the zest +of pursuit. With all the other girls of the village opportunities +multiplied, but he could scarcely get ten minutes alone with Patty. The +Deacon's orders were absolute in regard to young men. His daughters were +never to drive or walk alone with them, never go to dances or "routs" of +any sort, and never receive them at the house; this last mandate +being quite unnecessary, as no youth in his right mind would have gone +a-courtin' under the Deacon's forbidding gaze. And still there were +sudden, delicious chances to be seized now and then if one had his +eyes open and his wits about him. There was the walk to or from the +singing-school, when a sentimental couple could drop a few feet, +at least, behind the rest and exchange a word or two in comparative +privacy; there were the church "circles" and prayer-meetings, and the +intervals between Sunday services when Mark could detach Patty a moment +from the group on the meeting-house steps. More valuable than all +these, a complete schedule of Patty's various movements here and there, +together with a profound study of Deacon Baxter's habits, which were +ordinarily as punctual as they were disagreeable, permitted Mark many +stolen interviews, as sweet as they were brief. There was never a second +kiss, however, in these casual meetings and partings. The first, in +springtime, had found Patty a child, surprised, unprepared. She was a +woman now; for it does not take years to achieve that miracle; months +will do it, or days, or even hours. Her summer's experience with Cephas +Cole had wonderfully broadened her powers, giving her an assurance sadly +lacking before, as well as a knowledge of detail, a certain finished +skill in the management of a lover, which she could ably use on any one +who happened to come along. And, at the moment, any one who happened to +come along served the purpose admirably, Philip Perry as well as Marquis +Wilson. + +Young Perry's interest in Patty, as we have seen, began with his +alienation from Ellen Wilson, the first object of his affections, and +it was not at the outset at all of a sentimental nature. Philip was a +pillar of the church, and Ellen had proved so entirely lacking in the +religious sense, so self-satisfied as to her standing with the heavenly +powers, that Philip dared not expose himself longer to her society, +lest he find himself "unequally yoked together with an unbeliever," thus +defying the scriptural admonition as to marriage. + +Patty, though somewhat lacking in the qualities that go to the making +of trustworthy saints, was not, like Ellen, wholly given over to the +fleshpots and would prove a valuable convert, Philip thought; one who +would reflect great credit upon him if he succeeded in inducing her to +subscribe to the stern creed of the day. + +Philip was a very strenuous and slightly gloomy believer, dwelling +considerably on the wrath of God and the doctrine of eternal punishment. +There was an old "pennyroyal" hymn much in use which describes the +general tenor of his meditation:-- + + "My thoughts on awful subjects roll, + Damnation and the dead. + What horrors seize the guilty soul + Upon a dying bed." + +(No wonder that Jacob Cochrane's lively songs, cheerful, hopeful, +militant, and bracing, fell with a pleasing sound upon the ear of the +believer of that epoch.) The love of God had, indeed, entered Philip's +soul, but in some mysterious way had been ossified after it got there. +He had intensely black hair, dark skin, and a liver that disposed him +constitutionally to an ardent belief in the necessity of hell for most +of his neighbors, and the hope of spending his own glorious immortality +in a small, properly restricted, and prudently managed heaven. He was +eloquent at prayer-meeting and Patty's only objection to him there was +in his disposition to allude to himself as a "rebel worm," with frequent +references to his "vile body." Otherwise, and when not engaged in +theological discussion, Patty liked Philip very much. His own father, +although an orthodox member of the fold in good and regular standing, +had "doctored" Phil conscientiously for his liver from his youth up, +hoping in time to incite in him a sunnier view of life, for the doctor +was somewhat skilled in adapting his remedies to spiritual maladies. Jed +Morrill had always said that when old Mrs. Buxton, the champion convert +of Jacob Cochrane, was at her worst,--keeping her whole family awake +nights by her hysterical fears for their future,--Dr. Perry had given +her a twelfth of a grain of tartar emetic, five times a day until she +had entire mental relief and her anxiety concerning the salvation of her +husband and children was set completely at rest. + +The good doctor noted with secret pleasure his son's growing fondness +for the society of his prime favorite, Miss Patience Baxter. "He'll +begin by trying to save her soul," he thought; "Phil always begins that +way, but when Patty gets him in hand he'll remember the existence of +his heart, an organ he has never taken into consideration. A love affair +with a pretty girl, good but not too pious, will help Phil considerable, +however it turns out." + +There is no doubt but that Phil was taking his chances and that under +Patty's tutelage he was growing mellower. As for Patty, she was only +amusing herself, and frisking, like a young lamb, in pastures where she +had never strayed before. Her fancy flew from Mark to Phil and from Phil +back to Mark again, for at the moment she was just a vessel of emotion, +ready to empty herself on she knew not what. Temperamentally, she would +take advantage of currents rather than steer at any time, and it would +be the strongest current that would finally bear her away. Her idea +had always been that she could play with fire without burning her own +fingers, and that the flames she kindled were so innocent and mild that +no one could be harmed by them. She had fancied, up to now, that she +could control, urge on, or cool down a man's feeling forever and a day, +if she chose, and remain mistress of the situation. Now, after some +weeks of weighing and balancing her two swains, she found herself +confronting a choice, once and for all. Each of them seemed to be +approaching the state of mind where he was likely to say, somewhat +violently: "Take me or leave me, one or the other!" But she did not wish +to take them, and still less did she wish to leave them, with no other +lover in sight but Cephas Cole, who was almost, though not quite, worse +than none. + +If matters, by lack of masculine patience and self-control, did come to +a crisis, what should she say definitely to either of her suitors? Her +father despised Mark Wilson a trifle more than any young man on the +river, and while he could have no objection to Phil Perry's character +or position in the world, his hatred of old Dr. Perry amounted to a +disease. When the doctor had closed the eyes of the third Mrs. Baxter, +he had made some plain and unwelcome statements that would rankle in +the Deacon's breast as long as he lived. Patty knew, therefore, that the +chance of her father's blessing falling upon her union with either +of her present lovers was more than uncertain, and of what use was an +engagement, if there could not be a marriage? + +If Patty's mind inclined to a somewhat speedy departure from her +father's household, she can hardly be blamed, but she felt that she +could not carry any of her indecisions and fears to her sister for +settlement. Who could look in Waitstill's clear, steadfast eyes and +say: "I can't make up my mind which to marry"? Not Patty. She felt, +instinctively, that Waitstill's heart, if it moved at all, would rush +out like a great river to lose itself in the ocean, and losing itself +forget the narrow banks through which it had flowed before. Patty knew +that her own love was at the moment nothing more than the note of a +child's penny flute, and that Waitstill was perhaps vibrating secretly +with a deeper, richer music than could ever come to her. Still, music +of some sort she meant to feel. "Even if they make me decide one way or +another before I am ready," she said to herself, "I'll never say 'yes' +till I'm more in love than I am now!" + +There were other reasons why she did not want to ask Waitstill's advice. +Not only did she shrink from the loving scrutiny of her sister's eyes, +and the gentle probing of her questions, which would fix her own motives +on a pin-point and hold them up unbecomingly to the light; but she had +a foolish, generous loyalty that urged her to keep Waitstill quite aloof +from her own little private perplexities. + +"She will only worry herself sick," thought Patty. "She won't let me +marry without asking father's permission, and she'd think she ought not +to aid me in deceiving him, and the tempest would be twice as dreadful +if it fell upon us both! Now, if anything happens, I can tell father +that I did it all myself and that Waitstill knew nothing about it +whatever. Then, oh, joy! if father is too terrible, I shall be a married +woman and I can always say: 'I will not permit such cruelty! Waitstill +is dependent upon you no longer, she shall come at once to my husband +and me!'" + +This latter phrase almost intoxicated Patty, so that there were moments +when she could have run up to Milliken's Mills and purchased herself a +husband at any cost, had her slender savings permitted the best in the +market; and the more impersonal the husband the more delightedly Patty +rolled the phrase under her tongue. + +"I can never be 'published' in church," she thought, "and perhaps nobody +will ever care enough about me to brave father's displeasure and insist +on running away with me. I do wish somebody would care 'frightfully' +about me, enough for that; enough to help me make up my mind; so that I +could just drive up to father's store some day and say: 'Good afternoon, +father! I knew you'd never let me marry--'" (there was always a dash +here, in Patty's imaginary discourses, a dash that could be filled in +with any Christian name according to her mood of the moment)"'so I just +married him anyway; and you needn't be angry with my sister, for she +knew nothing about it. My husband and I are sorry if you are displeased, +but there's no help for it; and my husband's home will always be open to +Waitstill, whatever happens.'" + +Patty, with all her latent love of finery and ease, did not weigh the +worldly circumstances of the two men, though the reflection that she +would have more amusement with Mark than with Philip may have crossed +her mind. She trusted Philip, and respected his steady-going, serious +view of life; it pleased her vanity, too, to feel how her nonsense and +fun lightened his temperamental gravity, playing in and out and over it +like a butterfly in a smoke bush. She would be safe with Philip always, +but safety had no special charm for one of her age, who had never +been in peril. Mark's superior knowledge of the world, moreover, his +careless, buoyant manner of carrying himself, his gay, boyish audacity, +all had a very distinct charm for her;--and yet-- + +But there would be no "and yet" a little later. Patty's heart would +blaze quickly enough when sufficient heat was applied to it, and Mark +was falling more and more deeply in love every day. As Patty vacillated, +his purpose strengthened; the more she weighed, the more he ceased to +weigh, the difficulties of the situation; the more she unfolded herself +to him, the more he loved and the more he respected her. She began by +delighting his senses; she ended by winning all that there was in him, +and creating continually the qualities he lacked, after the manner of +true women even when they are very young and foolish. + + + + +XVIII. A STATE O' MAINE PROPHET + +SUMMER was dying hard, for although it had passed, by the calendar, +Mother Nature was still keeping up her customary attitude. + +There had been a soft rain in the night and every spear of grass was +brilliantly green and tipped with crystal. The smoke bushes in the +garden plot, and the asparagus bed beyond them, looked misty as the sun +rose higher, drying the soaked earth and dripping branches. Spiders' +webs, marvels of lace, dotted the short grass under the apple trees. +Every flower that had a fragrance was pouring it gratefully into the +air; every bird with a joyous note in its voice gave it more joyously +from a bursting throat; and the river laughed and rippled in the +distance at the foot of Town House Hill. Then dawn grew into full +morning and streams of blue smoke rose here and there from the Edgewood +chimneys. The world was alive, and so beautiful that Waitstill felt like +going down on her knees in gratitude for having been born into it and +given a chance of serving it in any humble way whatsoever. + +Wherever there was a barn, in Riverboro or Edgewood, one could have +heard the three-legged stools being lifted from the pegs, and then +would begin the music of the milk-pails; first the resonant sound of the +stream on the bottom of the tin pail, then the soft delicious purring of +the cascade into the full bucket, while the cows serenely chewed their +cuds and whisked away the flies with swinging tails. Deacon Baxter was +taking his cows to a pasture far over the hill, the feed having grown +too short in his own fields. Patty was washing dishes in the kitchen and +Waitstill was in the dairy-house at the butter-making, one of her chief +delights. She worked with speed and with beautiful sureness, patting, +squeezing, rolling the golden mass, like the true artist she was, then +turning the sweet-scented waxen balls out of the mould on to the big +stone-china platter that stood waiting. She had been up early and for +the last hour she had toiled with devouring eagerness that she might +have a little time to herself. It was hers now, for Patty would be busy +with the beds after she finished the dishes, so she drew a folded +paper from her pocket, the first communication she had ever received in +Ivory's handwriting, and sat down to read it. + + +MY DEAR WAITSTILL:-- + +Rodman will take this packet and leave it with you when he finds +opportunity. It is not in any real sense a letter, so I am in no danger +of incurring your father's displeasure. You will probably have heard new +rumors concerning my father during the past few days, for Peter Morrill +has been to Enfield, New Hampshire, where he says letters have been +received stating that my father died in Cortland, Ohio, more than five +years ago. I shall do what I can to substantiate this fresh report as I +have always done with all the previous ones, but I have little hope of +securing reliable information at this distance, and after this length +of time. I do not know when I can ever start on a personal quest myself, +for even had I the money I could not leave home until Rodman is much +older, and fitted for greater responsibility. Oh! Waitstill, how you +have helped my poor, dear mother! Would that I were free to tell you how +I value your friendship! It is something more than mere friendship! What +you are doing is like throwing a life-line to a sinking human being. +Two or three times, of late, mother has forgotten to set out the supper +things for my father. Her ten years' incessant waiting for him seems to +have subsided a little, and in its place she watches for you. [Ivory +had written "watches for her daughter" but carefully erased the last two +words.] You come but seldom, but her heart feeds on the sight of you. +What she needed, it seems, was the magical touch of youth and health and +strength and sympathy, the qualities you possess in such great measure. + +If I had proof of my father's death I think now, perhaps, that I might +try to break it gently to my mother, as if it were fresh news, and see +if possibly I might thus remove her principal hallucination. You see +now, do you not, how sane she is in many, indeed in most ways,--how +sweet and lovable, even how sensible? + +To help you better to understand the influence that has robbed me of +both father and mother and made me and mine the subject of town and +tavern gossip for years past, I have written for you just a sketch of +the "Cochrane craze"; the romantic story of a man who swayed the +wills of his fellow-creatures in a truly marvellous manner. Some local +historian of his time will doubtless give him more space; my wish is to +have you know something more of the circumstances that have made me +a prisoner in life instead of a free man; but prisoner as I am at the +moment, I am sustained just now by a new courage. I read in my copy of +Ovid last night: "The best of weapons is the undaunted heart." This will +help you, too, in your hard life, for yours is the most undaunted heart +in all the world. + +IVORY BOYNTON + + +The chronicle of Jacob Cochrane's career in the little villages near +the Saco River has no such interest for the general reader as it had for +Waitstill Baxter. She hung upon every word that Ivory had written and +realized more clearly than ever before the shadow that had followed him +since early boyhood; the same shadow that had fallen across his mother's +mind and left, continual twilight there. + +No one really knew, it seemed, why or from whence Jacob Cochrane had +come to Edgewood. He simply appeared at the old tavern, a stranger, with +satchel in hand, to seek entertainment. Uncle Bart had often described +this scene to Waitstill, for he was one of those sitting about the great +open fire at the time. The man easily slipped into the group and +soon took the lead in conversation, delighting all with his agreeable +personality, his nimble tongue and graceful speech. At supper-time the +hostess and the rest of the family took their places at the long table, +as was the custom, and he astonished them by his knowledge not only of +town history, but of village matters they had supposed unknown to any +one. + +When the stranger had finished his supper and returned to the bar-room, +he had to pass through a long entry, and the landlady, whispering to her +daughter, said:-- + +"Betsy, you go up to the chamber closet and get the silver and bring it +down. This man is going to sleep there and I am afraid of him. He must +be a fortune-teller, and the Lord only knows what else!" + +In going to the chamber the daughter had to pass through the bar-room. +As she was moving quietly through, hoping to escape the notice of the +newcomer, he turned in his chair, and looking her full in the face, +suddenly said:-- + +"Madam, you needn't touch your silver. I don't want it. I am a +gentleman." + +Whereupon the bewildered Betsy scuttled back to her mother and told her +the strange guest was indeed a fortune-teller. + +Of Cochrane's initial appearance as a preacher Ivory had told Waitstill +in their talk in the churchyard early in the summer. It was at a child's +funeral that the new prophet created his first sensation and there, +too, that Aaron and Lois Boynton first came under his spell. The whole +countryside had been just then wrought up to a state of religious +excitement by revival meetings and Cochrane gained the benefit of this +definite preparation for his work. He claimed that all his sayings +were from divine inspiration and that those who embraced his doctrine +received direct communication from the Almighty. He disdained formal +creeds and all manner of church organizations, declaring sectarian names +to be marks of the beast and all church members to be in Babylon. He +introduced re-baptism as a symbolic cleansing from sectarian stains, and +after some months advanced a proposition that his flock hold all things +in common. He put a sudden end to the solemn "deaconing-out" and droning +of psalm tunes and grafted on to his form of worship lively singing +and marching accompanied by clapping of hands and whirling in circles; +during the progress of which the most hysterical converts, or the most +fully "Cochranized," would swoon upon the floor; or, in obeying their +leader's instructions to "become as little children," would sometimes go +through the most extraordinary and unmeaning antics. + +It was not until he had converted hundreds to the new faith that he +added more startling revelations to his gospel. He was in turn bold, +mystical, eloquent, audacious, persuasive, autocratic; and even when his +self-styled communications from the "Almighty" controverted all that his +hearers had formerly held to be right, he still magnetized or hypnotized +them into an unwilling assent to his beliefs. There was finally a +proclamation to the effect that marriage vows were to be annulled when +advisable and that complete spiritual liberty was to follow; a liberty +in which a new affinity might be sought, and a spiritual union begun +upon earth, a union as nearly approximate to God's standards as faulty +human beings could manage to attain. + +Some of the faithful fell away at this time, being unable to accept the +full doctrine, but retained their faith in Cochrane's original power to +convert sinners and save them from the wrath of God. Storm-clouds began +to gather in the sky however, as the delusion spread, month by month +and local ministers everywhere sought to minimize the influence of the +dangerous orator, who rose superior to every attack and carried +himself like some magnificent martyr-at-will among the crowds that now +criticized him here or there in private and in public. + +"What a picture of splendid audacity he must have been," wrote Ivory, +"when he entered the orthodox meeting-house at a huge gathering where +he knew that the speakers were to denounce his teachings. Old Parson +Buzzell gave out his text from the high pulpit: Mark XIII, 37, 'AND WHAT +I SAY UNTO YOU I SAY UNTO ALL, WATCH!' Just here Cochrane stepped in at +the open door of the church and heard the warning, meant, he knew, for +himself, and seizing the moment of silence following the reading of +the text, he cried in his splendid sonorous voice, without so much as +stirring from his place within the door-frame: "'Behold I stand at the +door and knock. If any man hear my voice I will come in to him and will +sup with him,--I come to preach the everlasting gospel to every one that +heareth, and all that I want here is my bigness on the floor.'" + +"I cannot find," continued Ivory on another page, "that my father or +mother ever engaged in any of the foolish and childish practices which +disgraced the meetings of some of Cochrane's most fanatical followers +and converts. By my mother's conversations (some of which I have +repeated to you, but which may be full of errors, because of her +confusion of mind), I believe she must have had a difference of opinion +with my father on some of these views, but I have no means of knowing +this to a certainty; nor do I know that the question of choosing +spiritual consorts' ever came between or divided them. This part of the +delusion always fills me with such unspeakable disgust that I have never +liked to seek additional light from any of the older men and women who +might revel in giving it. That my mother did not sympathize with my +father's going out to preach Cochrane's gospel through the country, this +I know, and she was so truly religious, so burning with zeal, that had +she fully believed in my father's mission she would have spurred him on, +instead of endeavoring to detain him." + +"You know the retribution that overtook Cochrane at last," wrote Ivory +again, when he had shown the man's early victories and his enormous +influence. "There began to be indignant protests against his doctrines +by lawyers and doctors, as well as by ministers; not from all sides +however; for remember, in extenuation of my father's and my mother's +espousal of this strange belief, that many of the strongest and wisest +men, as well as the purest and finest women in York county came under +this man's spell for a time and believed in him implicitly, some of them +even unto the end. + +"Finally there was Cochrane's arrest and examination, the order for him +to appear at the Supreme Court, his failure to do so, his recapture and +trial, and his sentence of four years imprisonment on several counts, in +all of which he was proved guilty. Cochrane had all along said that the +Anointed of the Lord would never be allowed to remain in jail, but +he was mistaken, for he stayed in the State's Prison at Charlestown, +Massachusetts, for the full duration of his sentence. Here (I am again +trying to plead the cause of my father and mother), here he received +much sympathy and some few visitors, one of whom walked all the way from +Edgewood to Boston, a hundred and fifteen miles, with a petition for +pardon, a petition which was delivered, and refused, at the Boston State +House. Cochrane issued from prison a broken and humiliated man, but +if report says true, is still living, far out of sight and knowledge, +somewhere in New Hampshire. He once sent my father an epitaph of his own +selection, asking him to have it carved upon his gravestone should he +die suddenly when away from his friends. My mother often repeats it, not +realizing how far from the point it sounds to us who never knew him in +his glory, but only in his downfall. + + "'He spread his arms full wide abroad + His works are ever before his God, + His name on earth shall long remain, + Through envious sinners fret in vain.'" + +"We are certain," concluded Ivory, "that my father preached with +Cochrane in Limington, Limerick, and Parsonsfield; he also wrote from +Enfield and Effingham in New Hampshire; after that, all is silence. +Various reports place him in Boston, in New York, even as far west as +Ohio, whether as Cochranite evangelist or what not, alas! we can never +know. I despair of ever tracing his steps. I only hope that he died +before he wandered too widely, either from his belief in God or his +fidelity to my mother's long-suffering love." + +Waitstill read the letter twice through and replaced it in her dress +to read again at night. It seemed the only tangible evidence of Ivory's +love that she had ever received and she warmed her heart with what she +felt that he had put between the lines. + +"Would that I were free to tell you how I value your friendship!" "My +mother's heart feeds on the sight of you!" "I want you to know something +of the circumstances that have made me a prisoner in life, instead of a +free man." "Yours is the most undaunted heart in all the world!" These +sentences Waitstill rehearsed again and again and they rang in her ears +like music, converting all the tasks of her long day into a deep and +silent joy. + + + + +XIX. AT THE BRICK STORE + +THERE were two grand places for gossip in the community; the old tavern +on the Edgewood side of the bridge and the brick store in Riverboro. The +company at the Edgewood Tavern would be a trifle different in character, +more picturesque, imposing, and eclectic because of the transient guests +that gave it change and variety. Here might be found a judge or lawyer +on his way to court; a sheriff with a handcuffed prisoner; a farmer or +two, stopping on the road to market with a cartful of produce; and +an occasional teamster, peddler, and stage-driver. On winter nights +champion story-tellers like Jed Morrill and Rish Bixby would drop in +there and hang their woollen neck-comforters on the pegs along the +wall-side, where there were already hats, topcoats, and fur mufflers, +as well as stacks of whips, canes, and ox-goads standing in the corners. +They would then enter the room, rubbing their hands genially, and, +nodding to Companion Pike, Cephas Cole, Phil Perry and others, ensconce +themselves snugly in the group by the great open fireplace. The landlord +was always glad to see them enter, for their stories, though old to him, +were new to many of the assembled company and had a remarkable greet on +the consumption of liquid refreshment. + +On summer evenings gossip was languid in the village, and if any +occurred at all it would be on the loafer's bench at one or the other +side of the bridge. When cooler weather came the group of local wits +gathered in Riverboro, either at Uncle Bart's joiner's shop or at +the brick store, according to fancy. The latter place was perhaps the +favorite for Riverboro talkers. It was a large, two-story, square, brick +building with a big-mouthed chimney and an open fire. When every house +in the two villages had six feet of snow around it, roads would always +be broken to the brick store, and a crowd of ten or fifteen men would be +gathered there talking, listening, betting, smoking, chewing, bragging, +playing checkers, singing, and "swapping stories." + +Some of the men had been through the War of 1812 and could display +wounds received on the field of valor; others were still prouder of +scars won in encounters with the Indians, and there was one old codger, +a Revolutionary veteran, Bill Dunham by name, who would add bloody +tales of his encounters with the "Husshons." His courage had been so +extraordinary and his slaughter so colossal that his hearers marvelled +that there was a Hessian left to tell his side of the story, and Bill +himself doubted if such were the case. + +"'T is an awful sin to have on your soul," Bill would say from his place +in a dark corner, where he would sit with his hat pulled down over his +eyes till the psychological moment came for the "Husshons" to be trotted +out. "'T is an awful sin to have on your soul,--the extummination of +a race o' men; even if they wa'n't nothin' more 'n so many ignorant +cockroaches. Them was the great days for fightin'! The Husshons was +the biggest men I ever seen on the field, most of 'em standin' six feet +eight in their stockin's,--but Lord! how we walloped 'em! Once we had a +cannon mounted an' loaded for 'em that was so large we had to draw the +ball into it with a yoke of oxen!" + +Bill paused from force of habit, just as he had paused for the last +twenty years. There had been times when roars of incredulous laughter +had greeted this boast, but most of this particular group had heard the +yarn more than once and let it pass with a smile and a wink, remembering +the night that Abel Day had asked old Bill how they got the oxen out of +the cannon on that most memorable occasion. + +"Oh!" said Bill, "that was easy enough; we jest unyoked 'em an' turned +'em out o' the primin'-hole!" + +It was only early October, but there had been a killing frost, and Ezra +Simms, who kept the brick store, flung some shavings and small wood on +the hearth and lighted a blaze, just to induce a little trade and start +conversation on what threatened to be a dull evening. Peter Morrill, +Jed's eldest brother, had lately returned from a long trip through the +state and into New Hampshire, and his adventures by field and flood were +always worth listening to. He went about the country mending clocks, and +many an old time-piece still bears his name, with the date of repairing, +written in pencil on the inside of its door. + +There was never any lack of subjects at the brick store, the +idiosyncrasies of the neighbors being the most prolific source of +anecdote and comment. Of scandal about women there was little, though +there would be occasional harmless pleasantries concerning village love +affairs; prophecies of what couple would be next "published" in the +black-walnut frame up at the meeting-house; a genial comment on the +number and chances of Patience Baxter's various beaux; and whenever all +else failed, the latest story of Deacon Baxter's parsimony, in which the +village traced the influence of heredity. + +"He can't hardly help it, inheritin' it on both sides," was Abel Day's +opinion. "The Baxters was allers snug, from time 'memorial, and Foxy's +the snuggest of 'em. When I look at his ugly mug an' hear his snarlin' +voice, I thinks to myself, he's goin' the same way his father did. When +old Levi Baxter was left a widder-man in that house o' his'n up river, +he grew wuss an' wuss, if you remember, till he wa'n't hardly human +at the last; and I don't believe Foxy even went up to his own father's +funeral." + +"'T would 'a' served old Levi right if nobody else had gone," said Rish +Bixby. "When his wife died he refused to come into the house till the +last minute. He stayed to work in the barn until all the folks had +assembled, and even the men were all settin' down on benches in the +kitchen. The parson sent me out for him, and I'm blest if the old skunk +didn't come in through the crowd with his sleeves rolled up,--went to +the sink and washed, and then set down in the room where the coffin was, +as cool as a cowcumber." + +"I remember that funeral well," corroborated Abel Day. "An' Mis' Day +heerd Levi say to his daughter, as soon as they'd put poor old Mrs. +Baxter int' the grave: 'Come on, Marthy; there 's no use cryin' over +spilt milk; we'd better go home an' husk out the rest o' that corn.' +Old Foxy could have inherited plenty o' meanness from his father, that's +certain, an' he's added to his inheritance right along, like the thrifty +man he is. I hate to think o' them two fine girls wearin' their fingers +to the bone for his benefit." + +"Oh, well! 't won't last forever," said Rish Bixby. "They're the +handsomest couple o' girls on the river an' they'll get husbands afore +many years. Patience'll have one pretty soon, by the looks. She never +budges an inch but Mark Wilson or Phil Perry are follerin' behind, with +Cephas Cole watchin' his chance right along, too. Waitstill don't seem +to have no beaux; what with flyin' around to keep up with the Deacon, +an' bein' a mother to Patience, her hands is full, I guess." + +"If things was a little mite dif'rent all round, I could prognosticate +who Waitstill could keep house for," was Peter Morrill's opinion. + +"You mean Ivory Boynton? Well, if the Deacon was asked he'd never give +his consent, that's certain; an' Ivory ain't in no position to keep +a wife anyways. What was it you heerd 'bout Aaron Boynton up to New +Hampshire, Peter?" asked Abel Day. + +"Consid'able, one way an' another; an' none of it would 'a' been any +comfort to Ivory. I guess Aaron 'n' Jake Cochrane was both of 'em more +interested in savin' the sisters' souls than the brothers'! Aaron was a +fine-appearin' man, and so was Jake for that matter, 'n' they both had +the gift o' gab. There's nothin' like a limber tongue if you want to +please the women-folks! If report says true, Aaron died of a fever out +in Ohio somewheres; Cortland's the place, I b'lieve. Seems's if he hid +his trail all the way from New Hampshire somehow, for as a usual thing, +a man o' book-larnin' like him would be remembered wherever he went. +Wouldn't you call Aaron Boynton a turrible larned man, Timothy?" + +Timothy Grant, the parish clerk, had just entered the store on an +errand, but being directly addressed, and judging that the subject under +discussion was a discreet one, and that it was too early in the evening +for drinking to begin, he joined the group by the fireside. He had +preached in Vermont for several years as an itinerant Methodist +minister before settling down to farming in Edgewood, only giving up +his profession because his quiver was so full of little Grants that a +wandering life was difficult and undesirable. When Uncle Bart Cole +had remarked that Mis' Grant had a little of everything in the way +of baby-stock now,--black, red, an' yaller-haired, dark and light +complected, fat an' lean, tall an' short, twins an' singles,--Jed +Morrill had observed dryly: "Yes, Mis' Grant kind o' reminds me of +charity." + +"How's that?" inquired Uncle Bart. + +"She beareth all things," chuckled Jed. + +"Aaron Boynton was, indeed, a man of most adhesive larnin'," agreed +Timothy, who had the reputation of the largest and most unusual +vocabulary in Edgewood. "Next to Jacob Cochrane I should say Aaron had +more grandeloquence as an orator than any man we've ever had in these +parts. It don't seem's if Ivory was goin' to take after his father that +way. The little feller, now, is smart's a whip, an' could talk the tail +off a brass monkey." + +"Yes, but Rodman ain't no kin to the Boyntons," Abel reminded him. "He +inhails from the other side o' the house." + +"That's so; well, Ivory does, for certain, an' takes after his mother, +right enough, for she hain't spoken a dozen words in as many years, I +guess. Ivory's got a sight o' book-knowledge, though, an' they do say he +could talk Greek an' Latin both, if we had any of 'em in the community +to converse with. I've never paid no intention to the dead languages, +bein' so ocker-pied with other studies." + +"Why do they call 'em the dead languages, Tim?" asked Rish Bixby. + +"Because all them that ever spoke 'em has perished off the face o' the +land," Timothy answered oracularly. "Dead an' gone they be, lock, stock, +an' barrel; yet there was a time when Latins an' Crustaceans an' Hebrews +an' Prooshians an' Australians an' Simesians was chatterin' away in +their own tongues, an' so pow'ful that they was wallopin' the whole +earth, you might say." + +"I bet yer they never tried to wallop these here United States," +interpolated Bill Dunham from the dark corner by the molasses hogs-head. + +"Is Ivory in here?" The door opened and Rodman Boynton appeared on the +threshold. + +"No, sonny, Ivory ain't been in this evening," replied Ezra Simms. "I hope +there ain't nothin' the matter over to your house?" + +"No, nothing particular," the boy answered hesitatingly; "only Aunt +Boynton don't seem so well as common and I can't find Ivory anywhere." + +"Come along with me; I'll help you look for him an' then I'll go as fur +as the lane with yer if we don't find him." And kindly Rish Bixby took +the boy's hand and left the store. + +"Mis' Boynton had a spell, I guess!" suggested the storekeeper, peering +through the door into the darkness. "'T ain't like Ivory to be out +nights and leave her to Rod." + +"She don't have no spells," said Abel Day. "Uncle Bart sees consid'able +of Ivory an' he says his mother is as quiet as a lamb.--Couldn't you git +no kind of a certif'cate of Aaron's death out o' that Enfield feller, +Peter? Seems's if that poor woman'd oughter be stopped watchin' for a +dead man; tuckerin' herself all out, an' keepin' Ivory an' the boy all +nerved up." + +"I've told Ivory everything I could gether up in the way of information, +and give him the names of the folks in Ohio that had writ back to +New Hampshire. I didn't dialate on Aaron's goin's-on in Effingham an' +Portsmouth, cause I dassay 't was nothin' but scandal. Them as hates +the Cochranites'll never allow there's any good in 'em, whereas I've met +some as is servin' the Lord good an' constant, an' indulgin' in no kind +of foolishness an' deviltry whatsoever." + +"Speakin' o' Husshons," said Bill Dunham from his corner, "I remember--" + +"We wa'n't alludin' to no Husshons," retorted Timothy Grant. "We was +dealin' with the misfortunes of Aaron Boynton, who never fit valoriously +on the field o' battle, but perished out in Ohio of scarlit fever, if +what they say in Enfield is true." + +"Tis an easy death," remarked Bill argumentatively. "Scarlit fever don't +seem like nothin' to me! Many's the time I've been close enough to +fire at the eyeball of a Husshon, an' run the resk o' bein' blown to +smithereens!--calm and cool I alters was, too! Scarlit fever is an easy +death from a warrior's p'int o' view!" + +"Speakin' of easy death," continued Timothy, "you know I'm a great one +for words, bein' something of a scholard in my small way. Mebbe you +noticed that Elder Boone used a strange word in his sermon last Sunday? +Now an' then, when there's too many yawnin' to once in the congregation, +Parson'll out with a reg'lar jaw-breaker to wake 'em up. The word as +near as I could ketch it was 'youthinasia.' I kep' holt of it till +noontime an' then I run home an' looked through all the y's in the +dictionary without findin' it. Mebbe it's Hebrew, I thinks, for Hebrew's +like his mother's tongue to Parson, so I went right up to him at +afternoon meetin' an' says to him: 'What's the exact meanin' of +"youthinasia"? There ain't no sech word in the Y's in my Webster,' says +I. 'Look in the E's, Timothy; "euthanasia"' says he, 'means easy death'; +an' now, don't it beat all that Bill Dunham should have brought that +expression of 'easy death' into this evenin's talk?" + +"I know youth an' I know Ashy," said Abel Day, "but blessed if I know +why they should mean easy death when they yoke 'em together." "That's +because you ain't never paid no 'tention to entomology," said Timothy. +"Aaron Boynton was master o' more 'ologies than you could shake a stick +at, but he used to say I beat him on entomology. Words air cur'ous +things sometimes, as I know, hevin' had consid'able leisure time to read +when I was joggin' 'bout the country an' bein' brought into contack with +men o' learnin'. The way I worked it out, not wishin' to ask Parson any +more questions, bein' something of a scholard myself, is this: The youth +in Ashy is a peculiar kind o' youth, 'n' their religion disposes 'em to +lay no kind o' stress on huming life. When anything goes wrong with +'em an' they get a set-back in war, or business, or affairs with +women-folks, they want to die right off; so they take a sword an' stan' +it straight up wherever they happen to be, in the shed or the barn, or +the henhouse, an' they p'int the sharp end right to their waist-line, +where the bowels an' other vital organisms is lowcated; an' then they +fall on to it. It runs 'em right through to the back an' kills 'em like +a shot, and that's the way I cal'late the youth in Ashy dies, if my +entomology is correct, as it gen'ally is." + +"Don't seem an easy death to me," argued Okra, "but I ain't no scholard. +What college did thou attend to, Tim?" + +"I don't hold no diaploma," responded Timothy, "though I attended to +Wareham Academy quite a spell, the same time as your sister was goin' to +Wareham Seminary where eddication is still bein' disseminated though of +an awful poor kind, compared to the old times." + +"It's live an' larn," said the storekeeper respectfully. "I never +thought of a Seminary bein' a place of dissemination before, but you can +see the two words is near kin." + +"You can't alters tell by the sound," said Timothy instructively. +"Sometimes two words'll start from the same root, an' branch out +diff'rent, like 'critter' an' 'hypocritter.' A 'hypocritter' must +natcherally start by bein' a 'critter,' but a critter ain't obliged to +be a 'hypocritter' 'thout he wants to." + +"I should hope not," interpolated Abel Day, piously. "Entomology must be +an awful interest-in' study, though I never thought of observin' words +myself, kept to avoid vulgar language an' profanity." + +"Husshon's a cur'ous word for a man," inter-jected Bill Dunham with a +last despairing effort. "I remember seein' a Husshon once that--" + +"Perhaps you ain't one to observe closely, Abel," said Timothy, not +taking note of any interruption, simply using the time to direct a +stream of tobacco juice to an incredible distance, but landing it neatly +in the exact spot he had intended. "It's a trade by itself, you might +say, observin' is, an' there's another sing'lar corraption! The Whigs +in foreign parts, so they say, build stone towers to observe the evil +machinations of the Tories, an' so the word 'observatory' come into +general use! All entomology; nothin' but entomology." + +"I don't see where in thunder you picked up so much larnin', Timothy!" +It was Abel Day's exclamation, but every one agreed with him. + + + + +XX. THE ROD THAT BLOSSOMED + +IVORY BOYNTON had taken the horse and gone to the village on an errand, +a rare thing for him to do after dark, so Rod was thinking, as he sat +in the living-room learning his Sunday-School lesson on the same evening +that the men were gossiping at the brick store. His aunt had required +him, from the time when he was proficient enough to do so, to read +at least a part of a chapter in the Bible every night. Beginning with +Genesis he had reached Leviticus and had made up his mind that the Bible +was a much more difficult book than "Scottish Chiefs," not withstanding +the fact that Ivory helped him over most of the hard places. At the +present juncture he was vastly interested in the subject of "rods" +as unfolded in the book of Exodus, which was being studied by his +Sunday-School class. What added to the excitement was the fact that +his uncle's Christian name, Aaron, kept appearing in the chronicle, as +frequently as that of the great lawgiver Moses himself; and there were +many verses about the wonder-working rods of Moses and Aaron that had a +strange effect upon the boy's ear, when he read them aloud, as he loved +to do whenever he was left alone for a time. When his aunt was in the +room his instinct kept him from doing this, for the mere mention of the +name of Aaron, he feared, might sadden his aunt and provoke in her that +dangerous vein of reminiscence that made Ivory so anxious. + +"It kind o' makes me nervous to be named 'Rod,' Aunt Boynton," said the +boy, looking up from the Bible. "All the rods in these Exodus chapters +do such dreadful things! They become serpents, and one of them swallows +up all the others: and Moses smites the waters with a rod and they +become blood, and the people can't drink the water and the fish die! +Then they stretch a rod across the streams and ponds and bring a plague +of frogs over the land, with swarms of flies and horrible insects." + +"That was to show God's power to Pharaoh, and melt his hard heart to +obedience and reverence," explained Mrs. Boynton, who had known the +Bible from cover to cover in her youth and could still give chapter and +verse for hundreds of her favorite passages. + +"It took an awful lot of melting, Pharaoh's heart!" exclaimed the boy. +"Pharaoh must have been worse than Deacon Baxter! I wonder if they ever +tried to make him good by being kind to him! I've read and read, but I +can't find they used anything on him but plagues and famines and boils +and pestilences and thunder and hail and fire!--Have I got a middle +name, Aunt Boynton, for I don't like Rod very much?" + +"I never heard that you had a middle name; you must ask Ivory," said his +aunt abstractedly. + +"Did my father name me Rod, or my mother?' + +"I don't really know; perhaps it was your mother, but don't ask +questions, please." + +"I forgot, Aunt Boynton! Yes, I think perhaps my mother named me. +Mothers 'most always name their babies, don't they? My mother wasn't +like you; she looked just like the picture of Pocahontas in my History. +She never knew about these Bible rods, I guess." + +"When you go a little further you will find pleasanter things about +rods," said his aunt, knitting, knitting, intensely, as was her habit, +and talking as if her mind were a thousand miles away. "You know they +were just little branches of trees, and it was only God's power that +made them wonderful in any way." + +"Oh! I thought they were like the singing-teacher's stick he keeps time +with." + +"No; if you look at your Concordance you'll finds it gives you a +chapter in Numbers where there's something beautiful about rods. I have +forgotten the place; it has been many years since I looked at it. +Find it and read it aloud to me." The boy searched his Concordance and +readily found the reference in the seventeenth chapter of Numbers. + +"Stand near me and read," said Mrs. Boynton. "I like to hear the Bible +read aloud!" + +Rodman took his Bible and read, slowly and haltingly, but with clearness +and understanding: + +1. AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING, + +2. SPEAK UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AND TAKE OF EVERY ONE OF THEM +A ROD ACCORDING TO THE HOUSE OF THEIR FATHERS, OF ALL THEIR PRINCES +ACCORDING TO THE HOUSE OF THEIR FATHERS TWELVE RODS: WRITE THOU EVERY +MAN'S NAME UPON HIS ROD. + +Through the boy's mind there darted the flash of a thought, a sad +thought. He himself was a Rod on whom no man's name seemed to be +written, orphan that he was, with no knowledge of his parents! + +Suddenly he hesitated, for he had caught sight of the name of Aaron in +the verse that he was about to read, and did not wish to pronounce it in +his aunt's hearing. + +"This chapter is most too hard for me to read out loud, Aunt Boynton," +he stammered. "Can I study it by myself and read it to Ivory first?" "Go +on, go on, you read very sweetly; I can not remember what comes and I +wish to hear it." + +The boy continued, but without raising his eyes from the Bible. + +3. AND THOU SHALT WRITE AARON'S NAME UPON THE ROD OF LEVI: FOR ONE ROD +SHALL BE FOR THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE OF THEIR FATHERS. + +4. AND THOU SHALT LAY THEM UP IN THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION +BEFORE THE TESTIMONY, WHERE I WILL MEET WITH YOU. + +5. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT THE MAN'S ROD, WHOM I SHALL CHOOSE, +SHALL BLOSSOM: AND I WILL MAKE TO CEASE FROM ME THE MURMURINGS OF THE +CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WHEREBY THEY MURMUR AGAINST YOU. + +Rodman had read on, absorbed in the story and the picture it presented +to his imagination. He liked the idea of all the princes having a rod +according to the house of their fathers; he liked to think of the little +branches being laid on the altar in the tabernacle, and above all he +thought of the longing of each of the princes to have his own rod chosen +for the blossoming. + +6. AND MOSES SPOKE UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AND EVERY ONE OF THEIR +PRINCES GAVE HIM A ROD A PIECE, FOR EACH PRINCE ONE, ACCORDING TO THEIR +FATHER'S HOUSES, EVEN TWELVE RODS; AND THE ROD OF AARON WAS AMONG THEIR +RODS. + +Oh! how the boy hoped that Aaron's branch would be the one chosen to +blossom! He felt that his aunt would be pleased, too; but he read on +steadily, with eyes that glowed and breath that came and went in a very +palpitation of interest. + +7. AND MOSES LAID UP THE RODS BEFORE THE LORD IN THE TABERNACLE OF +WITNESS. + +8. AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT ON THE MORROW MOSES WENT INTO THE +TABERNACLE OF WITNESS; AND, BEHOLD, THE ROD OF AARON WAS BUDDED AND +BROUGHT FORTH BUDS, AND BLOOMED BLOSSOMS, AND YIELDED ALMONDS. + +It was Aaron's rod, then, and was an almond branch! How beautiful, +for the blossoms would have been pink; and how the people must have +marvelled to see the lovely blooming thing on the dark altar; first +budding, then blossoming, then bearing nuts! And what was the rod chosen +for? He hurried on to the next verse. + +9. AND MOSES BROUGHT OUT ALL THE RODS FROM BEFORE THE LORD UNTO ALL THE +CHILDREN OF ISRAEL: AND THEY LOOKED, AND TOOK EVERY MAN HIS ROD. + +10. AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, BRING AARON'S ROD AGAIN BEFORE THE +TESTIMONY TO BE KEPT FOR A TOKEN AGAINST THE REBELS; AND THOU SHALT +QUITE TAKE AWAY THEIR MURMURINGS FROM ME, THAT THEY DIE NOT. + +"Oh! Aunt Boynton!" cried the boy, "I love my name after I've heard +about the almond rod! Aren't you proud that it's Uncle's name that was +written on the one that blossomed?" + +He turned swiftly to find that his aunt's knitting had slipped on the +floor; her nerveless hands drooped by her side as if there were no life +in them, and her head had fallen against the back of her chair. The boy +was paralyzed with fear at the sight of her closed eyes and the deathly +pallor of her face. He had never seen her like this before, and Ivory +was away. He flew for a bottle of spirit, always kept in the kitchen +cupboard for emergencies, and throwing wood on the fire in passing, he +swung the crane so that the tea-kettle was over the flame. He knew only +the humble remedies that he had seen used here or there in illness, +and tried them timidly, praying every moment that he might hear Ivory's +step. He warmed a soapstone in the embers, and taking off Mrs. Boynton's +shoes, put it under her cold feet. He chafed her hands and gently poured +a spoonful of brandy between her pale lips. Then sprinkling camphor on +a handkerchief he held it to her nostrils and to his joy she stirred in +her chair; before many minutes her lids fluttered, her lips moved, and +she put her hand to her heart. + +"Are you better, Aunt dear?" Rod asked in a very wavering and tearful +voice. + +She did not answer; she only opened her eyes and looked at him. At +length she whispered faintly, "I want Ivory; I want my son." + +"He's out, Aunt dear. Shall I help you to bed the way Ivory does? If +you'll let me, then I'll run to the bridge 'cross lots, like lightning, +and bring him back." + +She assented, and leaning heavily on his slender shoulder, walked feebly +into her bedroom off the living-room. Rod was as gentle as a mother +and he was familiar with all the little offices that could be of any +comfort; the soapstone warmed again for her feet, the bringing of her +nightgown from the closet, and when she was in bed, another spoonful +of brandy in hot milk; then the camphor by her side, an extra homespun +blanket over her, and the door left open so that she could see the open +fire that he made into a cheerful huddles contrived so that it would not +snap and throw out dangerous sparks in his absence. + +All the while he was doing this Mrs. Boynton lay quietly in the bed +talking to herself fitfully, in the faint murmuring tone that was +habitual to her. He could distinguish scarcely anything, only enough to +guess that her mind was still on the Bible story that he was reading to +her when she fainted. "THE ROD OF AARON WAS AMONG THE OTHER RODS," he +heard her say; and, a moment later, "BRING AARON'S ROD AGAIN BEFORE THE +TESTIMONY." + +Was it his uncle's name that had so affected her, wondered the boy, +almost sick with remorse, although he had tried his best to evade her +command to read the chapter aloud? What would Ivory, his hero, his +pattern and example, say? It had always seen Rod's pride to carry his +little share of every burden that fell to Ivory, to be faithful and +helpful in every task given to him. He could walk through fire without +flinching, he thought, if Ivory told him to, and he only prayed that he +might not be held responsible for this new calamity. + +"I want Ivory!" came in a feeble voice from the bedroom. + +"Does your side ache worse?" Rod asked, tip-toeing to the door. + +"No, I am quite free from pain." + +"Would you be afraid to stay alone just for a while if I lock both doors +and run to find Ivory and bring him back?" + +"No, I will sleep," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Bring him quickly +before I forget what I want to say to him." + +Rod sped down the lane and over the fields to the brick store where +Ivory usually bought his groceries. His cousin was not there, but one of +the men came out and offered to take his horse and drive over the bridge +to see if he were at one of the neighbors' on that side of the river. +Not a word did Rod breathe of his aunt's illness; he simply said that +she was lonesome for Ivory, and so he came to find him. In five minutes +they saw the Boynton horse hitched to a tree by the road-side, and in a +trice Rod called him and, thanking Mr. Bixby, got into Ivory's wagon to +wait for him. He tried his best to explain the situation as they drove +along, but finally concluded by saying: "Aunt really made me read the +chapter to her, Ivory. I tried not to when I saw Uncle's name in most +every verse, but I couldn't help it." + +"Of course you couldn't! Now you jump out and hitch the horse while I +run in and see that nothing has happened while she's been left alone. +Perhaps you'll have to go for Dr. Perry." + +Ivory went in with fear and trembling, for there was no sound save the +ticking of the tall clock. The fire burned low upon the hearth, and the +door was open into his mother's room. He lifted a candle that Rod +had left ready on the table and stole softly to her bedside. She was +sleeping like a child, but exhaustion showed itself in every line of her +face. He felt her hands and feet and found the soapstone in the bed; saw +the brandy bottle and the remains of a cup of milk on the light-stand; +noted the handkerchief, still strong of camphor on the counterpane, and +the blanket spread carefully over her knees, and then turned approvingly +to meet Rod stealing into the room on tiptoe, his eyes big with fear. + +"We won't wake her, Rod. I'll watch a while, then sleep on the +sitting-room lounge." + +"Let me watch, Ivory! I'd feel better if you'd let me, honest I would!" + +The boy's face was drawn with anxiety. Ivory's attention was attracted +by the wistful eyes and the beauty of the forehead under the dark +hair. He seemed something more than the child of yesterday--a care and +responsibility and expense, for all his loving obedience; he seemed all +at once different to-night; older, more dependable, more trustworthy; in +fact, a positive comfort and help in time of trouble. + +"I did the best I knew how; was anything wrong?" asked the boy, as Ivory +stood regarding him with a friendly smile. + +"Nothing wrong, Rod! Dr. Perry couldn't have done any better with what +you had on hand. I don't know how I should get along without you, boy!" +Here Ivory patted Rod's shoulder. "You're not a child any longer, Rod; +you're a man and a brother, that's what you are; and to prove it I'll +take the first watch and call you up at one o'clock to take the second, +so that I can be ready for my school work to-morrow! How does that suit +you?" + +"Tip-top!" said the boy, flushing with pride. "I'll lie down with my +clothes on; it's only nine o'clock and I'll get four hours' sleep; +that's a lot more than Napoleon used to have!" + +He carried the Bible upstairs and just before he blew out his candle +he looked again at the chapter in Numbers, thinking he would show it to +Ivory privately next day. Again the story enchanted him, and again, like +a child, he put his own name and his living self among the rods in the +tabernacle. + +"Ivory would be the prince of our house," he thought. "Oh! how I'd like +to be Ivory's rod and have it be the one that was chosen to blossom and +keep the rebels from murmuring!" + + + + +XXI. LOIS BURIES HER DEAD + +THE replies that Ivory had received from his letters of inquiry +concerning his father's movements since leaving Maine, and his possible +death in the West, left no reasonable room for doubt. Traces of Aaron +Boynton in New Hampshire, in Massachusetts, in New York, and finally +in Ohio, all pointed in one direction, and although there were gaps and +discrepancies in the account of his doings, the fact of his death seemed +to be established by two apparently reliable witnesses. + +That he was not unaccompanied in his earliest migrations seemed clear, +but the woman mentioned as his wife disappeared suddenly from the +reports, and the story of his last days was the story of a broken-down, +melancholy, unfriended man, dependent for the last offices on strangers. +He left no messages and no papers, said Ivory's correspondent, and never +made mention of any family connections whatsoever. He had no property +and no means of defraying the expenses of his illness after he was +stricken with the fever. No letters were found among his poor effects +and no article that could prove his identity, unless it were a small +gold locket, which bore no initials or marks of any kind, but which +contained two locks of fair and brown hair, intertwined. The tiny +trinket was enclosed in the letter, as of no value, unless some one +recognized it as a keepsake. Ivory read the correspondence with a heavy +heart, inasmuch as it corroborated all his worst fears. He had sometimes +secretly hoped that his father might return and explain the reason of +his silence; or in lieu of that, that there might come to light +the story of a pilgrimage, fanatical, perhaps, but innocent of evil +intention, one that could be related to his wife and his former friends, +and then buried forever with the death that had ended it. + +Neither of these hopes could now ever be realized, nor his father's +memory made other than a cause for endless regret, sorrow, and shame. +His father, who had begun life so handsomely, with rare gifts of mind +and personality, a wife of unusual beauty and intelligence, and while +still young in years, a considerable success in his chosen profession. +His poor father! What could have been the reasons for so complete a +downfall? + +Ivory asked Dr. Perry's advice about showing one or two of the briefer +letters and the locket to his mother. After her fainting fit and the +exhaustion that followed it, Ivory begged her to see the old doctor, but +without avail. Finally, after days of pleading he took her hands in his +and said: "I do everything a mortal man can do to be a good son to you, +mother; won't you do this to please me, and trust that I know what is +best?" Whereupon she gave a trembling assent, as if she were agreeing +to something indescribably painful, and indeed this sight of a former +friend seemed to frighten her strangely. + +After Dr. Perry had talked with her for a half-hour and examined her +sufficiently to make at least a reasonable guess as to her mental and +physical condition, he advised Ivory to break the news of her husband's +death to her. + +"If you can get her to comprehend it," he said, "it is bound to be a +relief from this terrible suspense." + +"Will there be any danger of making her worse? Mightn't the shock Cause +too violent emotion?" asked Ivory anxiously. + +"I don't think she is any longer capable of violent emotion," the doctor +answered. "Her mind is certainly clearer than it was three years ago, but +her body is nearly burned away by the mental conflict. There is scarcely +any part of her but is weary; weary unto death, poor soul. One cannot +look at her patient, lovely face without longing to lift some part of +her burden. Make a trial, Ivory; it's a justifiable experiment and +I think it will succeed. I must not come any oftener myself than is +absolutely necessary; she seemed afraid of me." + +The experiment did succeed. Lois Boynton listened breathlessly, with +parted lips, and with apparent comprehension, to the story Ivory told +her. Over and over again he told her gently the story of her husband's +death, trying to make it sink into her mind clearly, so that there +should be no consequent bewilderment She was calm and silent, though her +face showed that she was deeply moved. She broke down only when Ivory +showed her the locket. + +"I gave it to my husband when you were born, my son!" she sobbed. "After +all, it seems no surprise to me that your father is dead. He said he +would come back when the Mayflowers bloomed, and when I saw the autumn +leaves I knew that six months must have gone and he would never stay +away from us for six months without writing. That is the reason I have +seldom watched for him these last weeks. I must have known that it was +no use!" + +She rose from her rocking-chair and moved feebly towards her bedroom. +"Can you spare me the rest of the day, Ivory?" she faltered, as she +leaned on her son and made her slow progress from the kitchen. "I must +bury the body of my grief and I want to be alone at first... If only +I could see Waitstill! We have both thought this was coming: she has a +woman's instinct... she is younger and stronger than I am, and she said +it was braver not to watch and pine and fret as I have done... but to +have faith in God that He would send me a sign when He was ready.... She +said if I could manage to be braver you would be happier too... ." +Here she sank on to her bed exhausted, but still kept up her murmuring +faintly and feebly, between long intervals of silence. + +"Do you think Waitstill could come to-morrow?" she asked. "I am so much +braver when she is here with me.... After supper I will put away your +father's cup and plate once and for all, Ivory, and your eyes need never +fill with tears again, as they have, sometimes, when you have seen me +watching.... You needn't worry about me; I am remembering better these +days, and the bells that ring in my ears are not so loud. If only the +pain in my side were less and I were not so pressed for breath, I should +be quite strong and could see everything clearly at last. ... There is +something else that remains to be remembered. I have almost caught it +once and it must come to me again before long.... Put the locket under +my pillow, Ivory; close the door, please, and leave me to myself.... I +can't make it quite clear, my feeling about it, but it seems just as if +I were going to bury your father and I want to be alone." + + + + +XXII. HARVEST-TIME + +NEW ENGLAND'S annual pageant of autumn was being unfolded day by day in +all its accustomed splendor, and the feast and riot of color, the almost +unimaginable glory, was the common property of the whole countryside, +rich and poor, to be shared alike if perchance all eyes were equally +alive to the wonder and the beauty. + +Scarlet days and days of gold followed fast one upon the other; Saco +Water flowing between quiet woodlands that were turning red and russet +and brown, and now plunging through rocky banks all blazing with +crimson. + +Waitstill Baxter went as often as she could to the Boynton farm, though +never when Ivory was at home, and the affection between the younger +and the older woman grew closer and closer, so that it almost broke +Waitstill's heart to leave the fragile creature, when her presence +seemed to bring such complete peace and joy. + +"No one ever clung to me so before," she often thought as she was +hurrying across the fields after one of her half-hour visits. "But the +end must come before long. Ivory does not realize it yet, nor Rodman, +but it seems as if she could never survive the long winter. Thanksgiving +Day is drawing nearer and nearer, and how little I am able to do for a +single creature, to prove to God that I am grateful for my existence! I +could, if only I were free, make such a merry day for Patty and Mark and +their young friends. Oh! what joy if father were a man who would let me +set a bountiful table in our great kitchen; would sit at the head and +say grace, and we could bow our heads over the cloth, a united family! +Or, if I had done my duty in my home and could go to that other where I +am so needed--go with my father's blessing! If only I could live in that +sad little house and brighten it! I would trim the rooms with evergreen +and creeping-Jenny; I would put scarlet alder berries and white +ever-lastings and blue fringed gentians in the vases! I would put the +last bright autumn leaves near Mrs. Boynton's bed and set out a tray +with a damask napkin and the best of my cooking; then I would go out to +the back door where the woodbine hangs like a red waterfall and blow the +dinner-horn for my men down in the harvest-field! All the woman in me is +wasting, wasting! Oh! my dear, dear man, how I long for him! Oh! my own +dear man, my helpmate, shall I ever live by his side? I love him, I want +him, I need him! And my dear little unmothered, unfathered boy, how +happy I could make him! How I should love to cook and sew for them all +and wrap them in comfort! How I should love to smooth my dear mother's +last days,--for she is my mother, in spirit, in affection, in desire, +and in being Ivory's!" + +Waitstill's longing, her discouragement, her helplessness, overcame her +wholly, and she flung herself down under a tree in the pasture in a very +passion of sobbing, a luxury in which she could seldom afford to indulge +herself. The luxury was short-lived, for in five minutes she heard +Rodman's voice, and heard him running to meet her as he often did when +she came to their house or went away from it, dogging her footsteps or +Patty's whenever or wherever he could waylay them. + +"Why, my dear, dear Waity, did you tumble and hurt yourself?" the boy +cried. + +"Yes, dreadfully, but I'm better now, so walk along with me and tell me +the news, Rod." + +"There isn't much news. Ivory told you I'd left school and am studying +at home? He helps me evenings and I'm 'way ahead of the class." + +"No, Ivory didn't tell me. I haven't seen him lately." + +"I said if the big brother kept school, the little brother ought to keep +house," laughed the boy. + +"He says I can hire out as a cook pretty soon! Aunt Boynton's 'most +always up to get dinner and supper, but I can make lots of things now,-- +things that Aunt Boynton can eat, too." + +"Oh, I cannot bear to have you and Ivory cooking for yourselves!" +exclaimed Waitstill, the tears starting again from her eyes. "I must +come over the next time when you are at home, Rod, and I can help you +make something nice for supper. + +"We get along pretty well," said Rodman contentedly. "I love +book-learning like Ivory and I'm going to be a schoolmaster or a +preacher when Ivory's a lawyer. Do you think Patty'd like a schoolmaster +or a preacher best, and do you think I'd be too young to marry her by +and by, if she would wait for me?" + +"I didn't think you had any idea of marrying Patty," laughed Waitstill +through her tears. "Is this something new?" + +"It's not exactly new," said Rod, jumping along like a squirrel in the +path. "Nobody could look at Patty and not think about marrying her. +I'd love to marry you, too, but you re too big and grand for a boy. Of +course, I'm not going to ask Patty yet. Ivory said once you should never +ask a girl until you can keep her like a queen; then after a minute +he said: 'Well, maybe not quite like a queen, Rod, for that would mean +longer than a man could wait. Shall we say until he could keep her like +the dearest lady in the land?' That 's the way he said it.--You do cry +dreadfully easy to-day, Waity; I'm sure you barked your leg or skinned +your knee when you fell down.--Don't you think the 'dearest lady in the +land' is a nice-sounding sentence?" + +"I do, indeed!" cried Waitstill to herself as she turned the words over +and over trying to feed her hungry heart with them. + +"I love to hear Ivory talk; it's like the stories in the books. We have +our best times in the barn, for I'm helping with the milking, now. Our +yellow cow's name is Molly and the red cow used to be Dolly, but we +changed her to Golly, 'cause she's so troublesome. Molly's an easy cow +to milk and I can get almost all there is, though Ivory comes after me +and takes the strippings. Golly swishes her tail and kicks the minute +she hears us coming; then she stands stiff-legged and grits her teeth +and holds on to her milk HARD, and Ivory has to pat and smooth and coax +her every single time. Ivory says she's got a kind of an attachment +inside of her that she shuts down when he begins to milk." + +"We had a cross old cow like that, once," said Waitstill absently, +loving to hear the boy's chatter and the eternal quotations from his +beloved hero. + +"We have great fun cooking, too," continued Rod. "When Aunt Boynton was +first sick she stayed in bed more, and Ivory and I hadn't got used to +things. One morning we bound up each other's burns. Ivory had three +fingers and I two, done up in buttery rags to take the fire out. Ivory +called us 'Soldiers dressing their Wounds after the Battle.' Sausages +spatter dreadfully, don't they? And when you turn a pancake it flops on +top of the stove. Can you flop one straight, Waity?" + +"Yes, I can, straight as a die; that's what girls are made for. Now run +along home to your big brother, and do put on some warmer clothes under +your coat; the weather's getting colder." + +"Aunt Boynton hasn't patched our thick ones yet, but she will soon, and +if she doesn't, Ivory'll take this Saturday evening and do them himself; +he said so." + +"He shall not!" cried Waitstill passionately. "It is not seemly for +Ivory to sew and mend, and I will not allow it. You shall bring me those +things that need patching without telling any one, do you hear, and I +will meet you on the edge of the pasture Saturday afternoon and give +them back to you. You are not to speak of it to any one, you understand, +or perhaps I shall pound you to a jelly. You'd make a sweet rosy jelly +to eat with turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, you dear, comforting little +boy!" + +Rodman ran towards home and Waitstill hurried along, scarcely noticing +the beauties of the woods and fields and waysides, all glowing masses +of goldenrod and purple frost flowers. The stone walls were covered +with wild-grape and feathery clematis vines. Everywhere in sight the +cornfields lay yellow in the afternoon sun and ox carts heavily loaded +with full golden ears were going home to the barns to be ready for +husking. + +A sudden breeze among the orchard boughs as she neared the house was +followed by a shower of russets, and everywhere the red Baldwins gleamed +on the apple-tree boughs, while the wind-falls were being gathered and +taken to the cider mills. There was a grove of maples on the top of +Town-House Hill and the Baxters' dooryard was a blaze of brilliant +color. To see Patty standing under a little rock maple, her brown +linsey-woolsey in I one with the landscape, and the hood of her brown +cape pulled over her bright head, was a welcome for anybody. She looked +flushed and excited as she ran up to her sister and said, "Waity, +darling, you've been crying! Has father been scolding you?" + +"No, dear, but my heart is aching to-day so that I can scarcely bear +it. A wave of discouragement came over me as I was walking through +the woods, and I gave up to it a bit. I remembered how soon it will be +Thanksgiving Day, and I'll so like to make it happier for you and a few +others that I love." + +Patty could have given a shrewd guess as to the chief cause of the +heartache, but she forebore to ask any questions. "Cheer up, Waity," she +cried. "You never can tell; we may have a thankful Thanksgiving, after +all! Who knows what may happen? I'm 'strung up' this afternoon and in +a fighting mood. I've felt like a new piece of snappy white elastic +all day; it's the air, just like wine, so cool and stinging and full +of courage! Oh, yes, we won't give up hope yet awhile, Waity, not until +we're snowed in!" + +"Put your arms round me and give me a good hug, Patty! Love me hard, +HARD, for, oh! I need it badly just now!" + +And the two girls clung together for a moment and then went into the +house with hands close-locked and a kind of sad, desperate courage in +their young hearts. What would either of them have done, each of them +thought, had she been forced to endure alone the life that went on day +after day in Deacon Baxter's dreary house? + + + + +XXIII. AUNT ABBY'S WINDOW + +MRS. ABEL DAY had come to spend the afternoon with Aunt Abby Cole and +they were seated at the two sitting-room windows, sweeping the landscape +with eagle eyes in the intervals of making patchwork. + +"The foliage has been a little mite too rich this season," remarked Aunt +Abby. "I b'lieve I'm glad to see it thinin' out some, so 't we can have +some kind of an idee of what's goin' on in the village." + +"There's plenty goin' on," Mrs. Day answered unctuously; "some of it +aboveboard an' some underneath it." + +"An' that's jest where it's aggravatin' to have the leaves so thick and +the trees so high between you and other folks' houses. Trees are good +for shade, it's true, but there's a limit to all things. There was a +time when I could see 'bout every-thing that went on up to Baxters', +and down to Bart's shop, and, by goin' up attic, consid'able many things +that happened on the bridge. Bart vows he never planted that plum tree +at the back door of his shop; says the children must have hove out plum +stones when they was settin' on the steps and the tree come up of its +own accord. He says he didn't take any notice of it till it got quite a +start and then 't was such a healthy young bush he couldn't bear to root +it out. I tell him it's kind O' queer it should happen to come up jest +where it spoils my view of his premises. Men folks are so exasperatin' +that sometimes I wish there was somebody different for us to marry, but +there ain't,--so there we be!" + +"They are an awful trial," admitted Mrs. Day. "Abel never sympathizes +with my head-aches. I told him a-Sunday I didn't believe he'd mind if I +died the next day, an' all he said was: 'Why don't you try it an' see, +Lyddy?' He thinks that's humorous." + +"I know; that's the way Bartholomew talks; I guess they all do. You can +see the bridge better 'n I can, Lyddy; has Mark Wilson drove over sence +you've been settin' there? He's like one o' them ostriches that hides +their heads in the sand when the bird-catchers are comin' along, +thinkin' 'cause they can't see anything they'll never BE seen! He knows +folks would never tell tales to Deacon Baxter, whatever the girls done; +they hate him too bad. Lawyer Wilson lives so far away, he can't keep +any watch o' Mark, an' Mis' Wilson's so cityfied an' purse-proud nobody +ever goes to her with any news, bad or good; so them that's the most +concerned is as blind as bats. Mark's consid'able stiddier'n he used to +be, but you needn't tell me he has any notion of bringin' one o' that +Baxter tribe into his family. He's only amusin' himself." + +"Patty'll be Mrs. Wilson or nothin'," was Mrs. Day's response. "Both o' +them girls is silk purses an' you can't make sows' ears of 'em. We +ain't neither of us hardly fair to Patty, an' I s'pose it 's because she +didn't set any proper value on Cephas." + +"Oh, she's good enough for Mark, I guess, though I ain't so sure of his +intentions as you be. She's nobody's fool, Patty ain't, I allow that, +though she did treat Cephas like the dirt in the road. I'm thankful he's +come to his senses an' found out the diff'rence between dross an' gold." + +"It's very good of you to put it that way, Abby," Mrs. Day responded +gratefully, for it was Phoebe, her own offspring, who was alluded to as +the most precious of metals. "I suppose we'd better have the publishing +notice put up in the frame before Sunday? There'll be a great crowd out +that day and at Thanksgiving service the next Thursday too!" + +"Cephas says he don't care how soon folks hears the news, now all's +settled," said his mother. "I guess he's kind of anxious that the +village should know jest how little truth there is in the gossip 'bout +him bein' all upset over Patience Baxter. He said they took consid'able +notice of him an' Phoebe settin' together at the Harvest Festival last +evenin'. He thought the Baxter girls would be there for certain, but I +s'pose Old Foxy wouldn't let 'em go up to the Mills in the evenin', nor +spend a quarter on their tickets." + +"Mark could have invited Patty an' paid for her ticket, I should think; +or passed her in free, for that matter, when the Wilsons got up the +entertainment; but, of course, the Deacon never allows his girls to go +anywheres with men-folks." + +"Not in public; so they meet 'em side o' the river or round the corner +of Bart's shop, or anywhere they can, when the Deacon's back's turned. +If you tied a handkerchief over Waitstill's eyes she could find her way +blindfold to Ivory Boynton's house, but she's good as gold, Waitstill +is; she'll stay where her duty calls her, every time! If any misfortune +or scandal should come near them two girls, the Deacon will have no-body +but himself to thank for it, that's one sure thing!" + +"Young folks can't be young but once," sighed Mrs. Day. "I thought we +had as handsome a turn-out at the entertainment last evenin' as any +village on the Saco River could 'a' furnished: an' my Phoebe an' your +Cephas, if I do say so as shouldn't, was about the best-dressed an' +best-appearin' couple there was present. Also, I guess likely, they're +startin' out with as good prospects as any bride an' groom that's walked +up the middle aisle o' the meetin'-house for many a year.... How'd you +like that Boston singer that the Wilsons brought here, Abby?--Wait a +minute, is Cephas, or the Deacon, tendin' store this after-noon?" + +"The Deacon; Cephas is paintin' up to the Mills." + +"Well, Mark Wilson's horse an' buggy is meanderin' slowly down Aunt +Betty-Jack's hill, an' Mark is studyin' the road as if he was lookin' +for a four-leafed clover." + +"He'll hitch at the tavern, or the Edgewood store, an' wait his chance +to get a word with Patience," said Aunt Abby. "He knows when she takes +milk to the Morrills', or butter to the parsonage; also when she eats +an' drinks an' winks her eye an' ketches her breath an' lifts her +foot. Now he's disappeared an' we'll wait.. .. Why, as to that Boston +singer,--an' by the way, they say Ellen Wilson's goin' to take lessons +of her this winter,--she kind o' bewildered me, Lyddy! Of course, I +ain't never been to any cities, so I don't feel altogether free to +criticise; but what did you think of her, when she run up so high there, +one time? I don't know how high she went, but I guess there wa'n't no +higher to go!" + +"It made me kind o' nervous," allowed Mrs. Day. + +"Nervous! Bart' an' I broke out in a cold sweat! He said she couldn't +hold a candle to Waitstill Baxter. But it's that little fly-away Wilson +girl that'll get the lessons, an' Waitstill will have to use her voice +callin' the Deacon home to dinner. Things ain't divided any too well in +this world, Lyddy." + +"Waitstill's got the voice, but she lacks the trainin'. The Boston +singer knows her business, I'll say that for her," said Mrs. Day. + +"She's got good stayin' power," agreed Aunt Abby. "Did you notice how +she held on to that high note when she'd clumb where she wanted to git? +She's got breath enough to run a gristmill, that girl has! And how'd she +come down, when she got good and ready to start? Why, she zig-zagged an' +saw-toothed the whole way! It kind o' made my flesh creep!" + +"I guess part o' the trouble's with us country folks," Mrs. Day +responded, "for folks said she sung runs and trills better'n any woman +up to Boston." + +"Runs an' trills," ejaculated Abby scornfully. "I was talkin' 'bout +singin' not runnin'. My niece Ella up to Parsonfield has taken three +terms on the pianner an' I've heerd her practise. Scales has got to be +done, no doubt, but they'd ought to be done to home, where they belong; +a concert ain't no place for 'em... . There, what did I tell yer? +Patience Baxter's crossin' the bridge with a pail in her hand. She's got +that everlastin' yeller-brown, linsey-woolsey on, an' a white 'cloud' +wrapped around her head with con'sid'able red hair showin' as usual. You +can always see her fur's you can a sunrise! And there goes Rod Boynton, +chasin' behind as usual. Those Baxter girls make a perfect fool o' that +boy, but I don't s'pose Lois Boynton's got wit enough to make much fuss +over the poor little creeter!" + +Mark Wilson could certainly see Patty Baxter as far as he could a +sunrise, although he was not intimately acquainted with that natural +phenomenon. He took a circuitous route from his watch-tower, and, +knowing well the point from which there could be no espionage from +Deacon Baxter's store windows, joined Patty in the road, took the pail +from her hand, and walked up the hill beside her. Of course, the village +could see them, but, as Aunt Abby had intimated, there wasn't a man, +woman, or child on either side of the river who wouldn't have taken the +part of the Baxter girls against their father. + + + + +XXIV. PHOEBE TRIUMPHS + +MEANTIME Feeble Phoebe Day was driving her father's horse up to the +Mills to bring Cephas Cole home. It was a thrilling moment, a sort of +outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual tie, for their +banns were to be published the next day, so what did it matter if the +community, nay, if the whole universe, speculated as to why she was +drawing her beloved back from his daily toil? It had been an eventful +autumn for Cephas. After a third request for the hand of Miss Patience +Baxter, and a refusal of even more than common decision and energy, +Cephas turned about face and employed the entire month of September in a +determined assault upon the affections of Miss Lucy Morrill, but with no +better avail. His heart was not ardently involved in this second wooing, +but winter was approaching, he had moved his mother out of her summer +quarters back to the main house, and he doggedly began papering the ell +and furnishing the kitchen without disclosing to his respected parents +the identity of the lady for whose comfort he was so hospitably +preparing. + +Cephas's belief in the holy state of matrimony as being the only one +proper for a man, really ought to have commended him to the opposite +(and ungrateful) sex more than it did, and Lucy Morrill held as +respectful an opinion of the institution and its manifold advantages as +Cephas himself, but she was in a very unsettled frame of mind and not at +all susceptible to wooing. She had a strong preference for Philip Perry, +and held an opinion, not altogether unfounded in human experience, that +in course of time, when quite deserted by Patty Baxter, his heart might +possibly be caught on the rebound. It was only a chance, but Lucy would +almost have preferred remaining unmarried, even to the withering age +of twenty-five, rather than not be at liberty to accept Philip Perry in +case she should be asked. + +Cephas therefore, by the middle of October, could be picturesquely and +alliteratively described as being raw from repeated rejections. +His bruised heart and his despised ell literally cried out for the +appreciation so long and blindly withheld. Now all at once Phoebe +disclosed a second virtue; her first and only one, hitherto, in the eyes +of Cephas, having been an ability to get on with his mother, a feat in +which many had made an effort and few indeed had succeeded. Phoebe, it +seems, had always secretly admired, respected, and loved Cephas Cole! +Never since her pale and somewhat glassy blue eye had opened on life had +she beheld a being she could so adore if encouraged in the attitude. + +The moment this unusual and unexpected poultice was really applied to +Cephas's wounds, they began to heal. In the course of a month the most +ordinary observer could have perceived a physical change in him. He +cringed no more, but held his head higher; his back straightened; his +voice developed a gruff, assertive note, like that of a stern Roman +father; he let his moustache grow, and sometimes, in his most reckless +moments, twiddled the end of it. Finally he swaggered; but that was only +after Phoebe had accepted him and told him that if a girl traversed the +entire length of the Saco River (which she presumed to be the longest in +the world, the Amazon not being familiar to her), she could not hope to +find his equal as a husband. + +And then congratulations began to pour in! Was ever marriage so +fortuitous! The Coles' farm joined that of the Days and the union +between the two only children would cement the friendship between the +families. The fact that Uncle Bart was a joiner, Cephas a painter, and +Abel Day a mason and bricklayer made the alliance almost providential in +its business opportunities. Phoebe's Massachusetts aunt sent a complete +outfit of gilt-edged china, a clock, and a mahogany chamber set. Aunt +Abby relinquished to the young couple a bedroom and a spare chamber in +the "main part," while the Days supplied live-geese feathers and table +and bed-linen with positive prodigality. Aunt Abby trod the air like one +inspired. "Balmy" is the only adjective that could describe her. + +"If only I could 'a' looked ahead," smiled Uncle Bart quizzically to +himself, "I'd 'a' had thirteen sons and daughters an' married off one +of 'em every year. That would 'a' made Abby's good temper kind o' +permanent." + +Cephas was content, too. There was a good deal in being settled and +having "the whole doggoned business" off your hands. Phoebe looked a +very different creature to him in these latter days. Her eyes were just +as pale, of course, but they were brighter, and they radiated love +for him, an expression in the female eye that he had thus far been +singularly unfortunate in securing. She still held her mouth slightly +open, but Cephas thought that it might be permissible, perhaps after +three months of wedded bliss, to request her to be more careful in +closing it. He believed, too, that she would make an effort to do so +just to please him; whereas a man's life or property would not be safe +for a single instant if he asked Miss Patience Baxter to close her +mouth, not if he had been married to her for thirty times three months! + +Cephas did not think of Patty any longer with bitterness, in these days, +being of the opinion that she was punished enough in observing his own +growing popularity and prosperity. + +"If she should see that mahogany chamber set going into the ell I guess +she'd be glad enough to change her tune!" thought Cephas, exultingly; +and then there suddenly shot through his mind the passing fancy--"I +wonder if she would!" He promptly banished the infamous suggestion +however, reinforcing his virtue with the reflection that the chamber +set was Phoebe's, anyway, and the marriage day appointed, and the +invitations given out, and the wedding-cake being baked, a loaf at a +time, by his mother and Mrs. Day. + +As a matter of fact Patty would have had no eyes for Phoebe's +magnificent mahogany, even had the cart that carried it passed her on +the hill where she and Mark Wilson were walking. Her promise to marry +him was a few weeks old now, and his arm encircled her slender waist +under the brown homespun cape. That in itself was a new sensation and +gave her the delicious sense of belonging to somebody who valued her +highly, and assured her of his sentiments clearly and frequently, both +by word and deed. Life, dull gray life, was going to change its hue for +her presently, and not long after, she hoped, for Waitstill, too! It +needed only a brighter, a more dauntless courage; a little faith that +nettles, when firmly grasped, hurt the hand less, and a fairer future +would dawn for both of them. The Deacon was a sharper nettle than she +had ever meddled with before, but in these days, when the actual contact +had not yet occurred, she felt sure of herself and longed for the moment +when her pluck should be tested and proved. + +The "publishing" of Cephas and his third choice, their dull walk up the +aisle of the meeting-house before an admiring throng, on the Sunday when +Phoebe would "appear bride," all this seemed very tame as compared with +the dreams of this ardent and adventurous pair of lovers who had gone +about for days harboring secrets greater and more daring, they thought, +than had ever been breathed before within the hearing of Saco Water. + + + + +XXV. LOVE'S YOUNG DREAMS + +IT was not an afternoon for day-dreams, for there was a chill in the air +and a gray sky. Only a week before the hills along the river might have +been the walls of the New Jerusalem, shining like red gold; now the +glory had departed and it was a naked world, with empty nests hanging to +boughs that not long ago had been green with summer. The old elm by the +tavern, that had been wrapped in a bright trail of scarlet woodbine, was +stripped almost bare of its autumn beauty. Here and there a maple showed +a remnant of crimson, and a stalwart oak had some rags of russet still +clinging to its gaunt boughs. The hickory trees flung out a few yellow +flags from the ends of their twigs, but the forests wore a tattered and +dishevelled look, and the withered leaves that lay in dried heaps upon +the frozen ground, driven hither and thither by every gust of the north +wind, gave the unthinking heart a throb of foreboding. Yet the glad +summer labor of those same leaves was finished according to the law +that governed them, and the fruit was theirs and the seed for the coming +year. No breeze had been strong enough to shake them from the tree till +they were ready to forsake it. Now they had severed the bond that had +held them so tightly and fluttered down to give the earth all their +season's earnings. On every hillside, in every valley and glen, the +leaves that had made the summer landscape beautiful, lay contentedly: + + "Where the rain might rain upon them, + Where the sun might shine upon them, + Where the wind might sigh upon them, + And the snow might die upon them." + +Brown, withered, dead, buried in snow they might be, yet they were +ministering to all the leaves of the next spring-time, bequeathing to +them in turn the beauty that had been theirs; the leafy canopies for +countless song birds, the grateful shade for man and beast. + +Young love thought little of Nature's miracles, and hearts that beat +high and fast were warm enough to forget the bleak wind and gathering +clouds. If there were naked trees, were there not full barrels of apples +in every cellar? If there was nothing but stubble in the frozen fields, +why, there was plenty of wheat and corn at the mill all ready for +grinding. The cold air made one long for a cheery home and fireside, the +crackle of a hearth-log, the bubbling of a steaming kettle; and Patty +and Mark clung together as they walked along, making bright images of a +life together, snug, warm, and happy. + +Patty was a capricious creature, but all her changes were sudden and +endearing ones, captivating those who loved her more than a monotonous +and unchanging virtue. Any little shower, with Patty, always ended with +a rainbow that made the landscape more enchanting than before. Of late +her little coquetries and petulances had disappeared as if by magic. She +had been melted somehow from irresponsible girlhood into womanhood, and +that, too, by the ardent affection of a very ordinary young man who had +no great gift save that of loving Patty greatly. The love had served its +purpose, in another way, too, for under its influence Mark's own manhood +had broadened and deepened. He longed to bind Patty to him for good and +all, to capture the bright bird whose fluttering wings and burnished +plumage so captured his senses and stirred his heart, but his longings +had changed with the quality of his love and he glowed at the thought +of delivering the girl from her dreary surroundings and giving her the +tenderness, the ease and comfort, the innocent gayety, that her nature +craved. + +"You won't fail me, Patty darling?" he was saying at this moment. "Now +that our plans are finally made, with never a weak point any where as +far as I can see, my heart is so set upon carrying them out that every +hour of waiting seems an age!" + +"No, I won't fail, Mark; but I never know the day that father will go +to town until the night before. I can always hear him making his +preparations in the barn and the shed, and ordering Waitstill here +and there. He is as excited as if he was going to Boston instead of +Milltown." + +"The night before will do. I will watch the house every evening till you +hang a white signal from your window." + +"It won't be white," said Patty, who would be mischievous on her +deathbed; "my Sunday-go-to-meetin' petticoat is too grand, and +everything else that we have is yellow." + +"I shall see it, whatever color it is, you can be sure of that!" said +Mark gallantly. "Then it's decided that next morning I'll wait at the +tavern from sunrise, and whenever your father and Waitstill have driven +up Saco Hill, I'll come and pick you up and we 'll be off like a streak +of lightning across the hills to New Hampshire. How lucky that Riverboro +is only thirty miles from the state line!--It looks like snow, and how +I wish it would be something more than a flurry; a regular whizzing, +whirring storm that would pack the roads and let us slip over them with +our sleigh-bells ringing!" + +"I should like that, for they would be our only wedding-bells. Oh! Mark! +What if Waitstill shouldn't go, after all: though I heard father tell +her that he needed her to buy things for the store, and that they +wouldn't be back till after nightfall. Just to think of being married +without Waitstill!" + +"You can do without Waitstill on this one occasion, better than you can +without me," laughed Mark, pinching Patty's cheek. "I've given the town +clerk due notice and I have a friend to meet me at his office. He is +going to lend me his horse for the drive home, and we shall change back +the next week. That will give us a fresh horse each way, and we'll fly +like the wind, snow or no snow, When we come down Guide Board Hill that +night, Patty, we shall be man and wife; isn't that wonderful?" + +"We shall be man and wife in New Hampshire, but not in Maine, you say," +Patty reminded him dolefully. "It does seem dreadful that we can't be +married in our own state, and have to go dangling about with this secret +on our minds, day and night; but it can't be helped! You'll try not to +even think of me as your wife till we go to Portsmouth to live, won't +you?" + +"You're asking too much when you say I'm not to think of you as my +wife, for I shall think of nothing else, but I've given you my solemn +promise," said Mark stoutly, "and I'll keep it as sure as I live. We'll +be legally married by the laws of New Hampshire, but we won't think of +it as a marriage till I tell your father and mine, and we drive away +once more together. That time it will be in the sight of everybody, with +our heads in the air. I've got the little house in Portsmouth all ready, +Patty: it's small, but it's in a nice part of the town. Portsmouth is a +pretty place, but it'll be a great deal prettier when it has Mrs. Mark +Wilson living in it. We can be married over again in Maine, afterwards, +if your heart is set upon it. I'm willing to marry you in every state of +the Union, so far as I am concerned." + +"I think you've been so kind and good and thoughtful, Mark dear," said +Patty, more fondly and meltingly than she had ever spoken to him before, +"and so clever too! I do respect you for getting that good position +in Portsmouth and being able to set up for yourself at your age. I +shouldn't wonder a bit if you were a judge some day, and then what a +proud girl I shall be!" + +Patty's praise was bestowed none too frequently, and it sounded very +sweet in the young man's ears. + +"I do believe I can get on, with you to help me, Patty," he said, +pressing her arm more closely to his side, and looking down ardently +into her radiant face. "You're a great deal cleverer than I am, but I +have a faculty for the business of the law, so my father says, and a +faculty for money-making, too. And even if we have to begin in a small +way, my salary will be a certainty, and we'll work up together. I can +see you in a yellow satin dress, stiff enough to stand alone!" + +"It must be white satin, if you please, not yellow! After having used +a hundred and ten yards of shop-worn yellow calico on myself within two +years, I never want to wear that color again. If only I could come to +you better provided," she sighed, with the suggestion of tears in her +voice. "If I'd been a common servant I could have saved something from +my wages to be married on; I haven't even got anything to be married +IN!" + +"I'll get you anything you want in Portland to-morrow." + +"Certainly not; I'd rather be married in rags than have you spend your +money upon me beforehand!" + +"Remember to have a box of your belongings packed and slipped under the +shed somewhere. You can't be certain what your father will say or do +when the time comes for telling him, and I want you to be ready to leave +on a moment's notice." + +"I will; I'll do everything you say, Mark, but are you sure that we have +thought of every other way? I do so hate being underhanded." + +"Every other way! I am more than willing to ask your father, but we know +he would treat me with contempt, for he can't bear the sight of me! He +would probably lock you up and feed you on bread and water. That being +the state of things, how can I tell our plans to my own father? He never +would look with favor on my running away with you; and mother is, by +nature, set upon doing things handsomely and in proper order. Father +would say our elopement would be putting us both wrong before the +community, and he'd advise me to wait. 'You are both young'--I can hear +him announcing his convictions now, as clearly as if he was standing +here in the road--'You are both young and you can well afford to wait +until something turns up.' As if we hadn't waited and waited from all +eternity!" + +"Yes, we have been engaged to be married for at least five weeks," said +Patty, with an upward glance peculiar to her own sparkling face,--one +that always intoxicated Mark. "I am seventeen and a half; your father +couldn't expect a confirmed old maid like me to waste any more time. +But I never would do this--this--sudden, unrespectable thing, if there +was any other way. Everything depends on my keeping it secret from +Waitstill, but she doesn't suspect anything yet. She thinks of me as +nothing but a child still. Do you suppose Ellen would go with us, just +to give me a little comfort?" + +"She might," said Mark, after reflecting a moment. "She is very devoted +to you, and perhaps she could keep a secret; she never has, but there's +always a first time. You can't go on adding to the party, though, as +if it was a candy-pull! We cannot take Lucy Morrill and Phoebe Day and +Cephas Cole, because it would be too hard on the horse; and besides, +I might get embarrassed at the town clerk's office and marry the wrong +girl; or you might swop me off for Cephas! But I'll tell Ellen if you +say so; she's got plenty of grit." + +"Don't joke about it, Mark, don't. I shouldn't miss Waitstill so much if +I had Ellen, and how happy I shall be if she approves of me for a sister +and thinks your mother and father will like me in time." + +"There never was a creature born into the world that wouldn't love you, +Patty!" + +"I don't know; look at Aunt Abby Cole!" said Patty pensively. "Well, it +does not seem as if a marriage that isn't good in Riverboro was really +decent! How tiresome of Maine to want all those days of public notice; +people must so often want to get married in a minute. If I think about +anything too long I always get out of the notion." + +"I know you do; that's what I'm afraid of!"--and Mark's voice showed +decided nervousness. "You won't get out of the notion of marrying me, +will you, Patty dear?" + +"Marrying you is more than a 'notion,' Mark," said Patty soberly. +"I'm only a little past seventeen, but I'm far older because of the +difficulties I've had. I don't wonder you speak of my 'notions.' I was +as light as a feather in all my dealings with you at first." + +"So was I with you! I hadn't grown up, Patty." + +"Then I came to know you better and see how you sympathized with +Waitstill's troubles and mine. I couldn't love anybody, I couldn't marry +anybody, who didn't feel that things at our house can't go on as they +are! Father has had a good long trial! Three wives and two daughters +have done their best to live with him, and failed. I am not willing to +die for him, as my mother did, nor have Waitstill killed if I can help +it. Sometimes he is like a man who has lost his senses and sometimes +he is only grim and quiet and cruel. If he takes our marriage without a +terrible scene, Mark, perhaps it will encourage Waitstill to break her +chains as I have mine." + +"There's sure to be an awful row," Mark said, as one who had forecasted +all the probabilities. "It wouldn't make any difference if you married +the Prince of Wales; nothing would suit your father but selecting the +man and making all the arrangements; and then he would never choose any +one who wouldn't tend the store and work on the farm for him without +wages." + +"Waitstill will never run away; she isn't like me. She will sit and sit +there, slaving and suffering, till doomsday; for the one that loves her +isn't free like you!" + +"You mean Ivory Boynton? I believe he worships the ground she walks on. +I like him better than I used, and I understand him better. Oh! but I'm +a lucky young dog to have a kind, liberal father and a bit of money put +by to do with as I choose. If I hadn't, I'd be eating my heart out like +Ivory!" + +"No, you wouldn't eat your heart out; you'd always get what you wanted +somehow, and you wouldn't wait for it either; and I'm just the same. I'm +not built for giving up, and enduring, and sacrificing. I'm naturally +just a tuft of thistle-down, Mark; but living beside Waitstill all +these years I've grown ashamed to be so light, blowing about hither and +thither. I kept looking at her and borrowing some of her strength, just +enough to make me worthy to be her sister. Waitstill is like a bit of +Plymouth Rock, only it's a lovely bit on the land side, with earth in +the crevices, and flowers blooming all over it and hiding the granite. +Oh! if only she will forgive us, Mark, I won't mind what father says or +does." + +"She will forgive us, Patty darling; don't fret, and cry, and make your +pretty eyes all red. I'll do nothing in all this to make either of you +girls ashamed of me, and I'll keep your father and mine ever before my +mind to prevent my being foolish or reckless; for, you know, Patty, I'm +heels over head in love with you, and it's only for your sake I'm taking +all these pains and agreeing to do without my own wedded wife for weeks +to come!" + +"Does the town clerk, or does the justice of the peace give a +wedding-ring, just like the minister?" Patty asked. "I shouldn't feel +married without a ring." + +"The ring is all ready, and has 'M.W. to P.B.' engraved in it, with the +place for the date waiting; and here is the engagement ring if you'll +wear it when you're alone, Patty. My mother gave it to me when she +thought there would be something between Annabel Franklin and me. The +moment I looked at it--you see it's a topaz stone--and noticed the +yellow fire in it, I said to myself: 'It is like no one but Patty +Baxter, and if she won't wear it, no other girl shall!' It's the color +of the tip ends of your curls and it's just like the light in your eyes +when you're making fun!" + +"It's heavenly!" cried Patty. "It looks as if it had been made of the +yellow autumn leaves, and oh! how I love the sparkle of it! But never +will I take your mother's ring or wear it, Mark, till I've proved myself +her loving, dutiful daughter. I'll do the one wrong thing of running +away with you and concealing our marriage, but not another if I can help +it." + +"Very well," sighed Mark, replacing the ring in his pocket with rather +a crestfallen air. "But the first thing you know you'll be too good for +me, Patty! You used to be a regular will-o'-the-wisp, all nonsense and +fun, forever laughing and teasing, so that a fellow could never be sure +of you for two minutes together." + +"It's all there underneath," said Patty, putting her hand on his arm and +turning her wistful face up to his. "It will come again; the girl in me +isn't dead; she isn't even asleep; but she's all sobered down. She +can't laugh just now, she can only smile; and the tears are waiting +underneath, ready to spring out if any one says the wrong word. This +Patty is frightened and anxious and her heart beats too fast from +morning till night. She hasn't any mother, and she cannot say a word to +her dear sister, and she's going away to be married to you, that's +almost a stranger, and she isn't eighteen, and doesn't know what's +coming to her, nor what it means to be married. She dreads her father's +anger, and she cannot rest till she knows whether your family will love +her and take her in; and, oh! she's a miserable, worried girl, not a bit +like the old Patty." + +Mark held her close and smoothed the curls under the loose brown hood. +"Don't you fret, Patty darling! I'm not the boy I was last week. Every +word you say makes me more of a man. At first I would have run away just +for the joke; anything to get you away from the other fellows and prove +I was the best man, but now' I'm sobered down, too. I'll do nothing +rash; I'll be as staid as the judge you want me to be twenty years +later. You've made me over, Patty, and if my love for you wasn't the +right sort at first, it is now. I wish the road to New Hampshire was +full of lions and I could fight my way through them just to show you how +strong I feel!" + +"There'll be lions enough," smiled Patty through her tears, "though they +won't have manes and tails; but I can imagine how father will roar, and +how my courage will ooze out of the heels of my boots!" + +"Just let me catch the Deacon roaring at my wife!" exclaimed Mark with +a swelling chest. "Now, run along, Patty dear, for I don't want you +scolded on my account. There's sure to be only a day or two of waiting +now, and I shall soon see the signal waving from your window. I'll sound +Ellen and see if she's brave enough to be one of the eloping party. +Good-night! Good-night! Oh! How I hope our going away will be to-morrow, +my dearest, dearest Patty!" + + + + +WINTER + + + + +XXVI. A WEDDING-RING + +THE snow had come. It had begun to fall softly and steadily at the +beginning of the week, and now for days it had covered the ground deeper +and deeper, drifting about the little red brick house on the hilltop, +banking up against the barn, and shrouding the sheds and the smaller +buildings. There had been two cold, still nights; the windows were +covered with silvery landscapes whose delicate foliage made every +pane of glass a leafy bower, while a dazzling crust bediamonded the +hillsides, so that no eye could rest on them long without becoming +snow-blinded. + +Town-House Hill was not as well travelled as many others, and Deacon +Baxter had often to break his own road down to the store, without +waiting for the help of the village snow-plough to make things easier +for him. Many a path had Waitstill broken in her time, and it was by +no means one of her most distasteful tasks--that of shovelling into the +drifts of heaped-up whiteness, tossing them to one side or the other, +and cutting a narrow, clean-edged track that would pack down into the +hardness of marble. + +There were many "chores" to be done these cold mornings before any +household could draw a breath of comfort. The Baxters kept but one cow +in winter, killed the pig,--not to eat, but to sell,--and reduced the +flock of hens and turkeys; but Waitstill was always as busy in the +barn as in her own proper domain. Her heart yearned for all the dumb +creatures about the place, intervening between them and her father's +scanty care; and when the thermometer descended far below zero she +would be found stuffing hay into the holes and cracks of the barn +and hen-house, giving the horse and cow fresh beddings of straw and a +mouthful of extra food between the slender meals provided by the Deacon. + +It was three o'clock in the afternoon and a fire in the Baxters' kitchen +since six in the morning had produced a fairly temperate climate in +that one room, though the entries and chambers might have been used for +refrigerators, as the Deacon was as parsimonious in the use of fuel +as in all other things, and if his daughters had not been hardy young +creatures, trained from their very birth to discomforts and exposures of +every sort, they would have died long ago. + +The Baxter kitchen and glittered in all its accustomed cleanliness and +order. Scrubbing and polishing were cheap amusements, and nobody grudged +them to Waitstill. No tables in Riverboro were whiter, no tins more +lustrous, no pewter brighter, no brick hearths ruddier than hers. The +beans and brown bread and Indian pudding were basking in the warmth of +the old brick oven, and what with the crackle and sparkle of the fire, +the gleam of the blue willow-ware on the cupboard shelves, and the +scarlet geraniums blooming on the sunny shelf above the sink, there were +few pleasanter place to be found in the village than that same Baxter +kitchen. Yet Waitstill was ill at ease this afternoon; she hardly knew +why. Her father had just put the horse into the pung and driven up +to Milliken's Mills for some grain, and Patty was down at the store +instructing Bill Morrill (Cephas Cole's successor) in his novel task +of waiting on customers and learning the whereabouts of things; no easy +task in the bewildering variety of stock in a country store; where +pins, treacle, gingham, Epsom salts, Indian meal, shoestrings, shovels, +brooms, sulphur, tobacco, suspenders, rum, and indigo may be demanded in +rapid succession. + +Patty was quiet and docile these days, though her color was more +brilliant than usual and her eyes had all their accustomed sparkle. She +went about her work steadily, neither ranting nor railing at fate, nor +bewailing her lot, but even in this Waitstill felt a sense of change and +difference too subtle to be put in words. She had noted Patty's summer +flirtations, but regarded them indulgently, very much as if they had +been the irresponsible friskings of a lamb in a meadow. Waitstill had +more than the usual reserve in these matters, for in New England at that +time, though the soul was a subject of daily conversation, the heart +was felt to be rather an indelicate topic, to be alluded to as seldom as +possible. Waitstill certainly would never have examined Patty closely +as to the state of her affections, intimate as she was with her sister's +thoughts and opinions about life; she simply bided her time until +Patty should confide in her. She had wished now and then that Patty's +capricious fancy might settle on Philip Perry, although, indeed, when +she considered it seriously, it seemed like an alliance between a +butterfly and an owl. Cephas Cole she regarded as quite beneath Patty's +rightful ambitions, and as for Mark Wilson, she had grown up in the +belief, held in the village generally, that he would marry money and +position, and drift out of Riverboro into a gayer, larger world. Her +devotion to her sister was so ardent, and her admiration so sincere, +that she could not think it possible that Patty would love anywhere +in vain; nevertheless, she had an instinct that her affections were +crystallizing somewhere or other, and when that happened, the uncertain +and eccentric temper of her father would raise a thousand obstacles. + +While these thoughts coursed more or less vagrantly through Waitstill's +mind, she suddenly determined to get her cloak and hood and run over +to see Mrs. Boynton. Ivory had been away a good deal in the woods since +early November chopping trees and helping to make new roads. He could +not go long distances, like the other men, as he felt constrained to +come home every day or two to look after his mother and Rodman, but the +work was too lucrative to be altogether refused. With Waitstill's help, +he had at last overcome his mother's aversion to old Mrs. Mason, +their nearest neighbor; and she, being now a widow with very slender +resources, went to the Boyntons' several times each week to put the +forlorn household a little on its feet. + +It was all uphill and down to Ivory's farm, Waitstill reflected, and +she could take her sled and slide half the way, going and coming, or she +could cut across the frozen fields on the crust. She caught up her shawl +from a hook on the kitchen door, and, throwing it over her head and +shoulders to shield herself from the chill blasts on the stairway, ran +up to her bedroom to make herself ready for the walk. + +She slipped on a quilted petticoat and warmer dress, braided her hair +freshly, while her breath went out in a white cloud to meet the freezing +air; snatched her wraps from her closet, and was just going down the +stairs when she remembered that an hour before, having to bind up a cut +finger for her father, she had searched Patty's bureau drawer for an old +handkerchief, and had left things in disorder while she ran to answer +the Deacon's impatient call and stamp upon the kitchen floor. + +"Hurry up and don't make me stan' here all winter!" he had shouted. "If +you ever kept things in proper order, you wouldn't have to hunt all over +the house for a piece of rag when you need it!" + +Patty was very dainty about her few patched and darned belongings; +also very exact in the adjustment of her bits of ribbon, her collars of +crocheted thread, her adored coral pendants, and her pile of neat cotton +handkerchiefs, hem-stitched by her own hands. Waitstill, accordingly, +with an exclamation at her own unwonted carelessness, darted into +her sister's room to replace in perfect order the articles she +had disarranged in her haste. She knew them all, these poor little +trinkets,--humble, pathetic evidences of Patty's feminine vanity and +desire to make her bright beauty a trifle brighter. + +Suddenly her hand and her eye fell at the same moment on something +hidden in a far corner under a white "fascinator," one of those +head-coverings of filmy wool, dotted with beads, worn by the girls of +the period. She drew the glittering, unfamiliar object forward, and then +lifted it wonderingly in her hand. It was a string of burnished gold +beads, the avowed desire of Patty's heart; a string of beads with +a brilliant little stone in the fastening. And, as if that were not +mystery enough, there was something slipped over the clasped necklace +and hanging from it, as Waitstill held it up to the light--a circlet of +plain gold, a wedding-ring! + +Waitstill stood motionless in the cold with such a throng of bewildering +thoughts, misgivings, imaginings, rushing through her head that they +were like a flock of birds beating their wings against her ears. The +imaginings were not those of absolute dread or terror, for she knew her +Patty. If she had seen the necklace alone she would have been anxious, +indeed, for it would have meant that the girl, urged on by ungoverned +desire for the ornament, had accepted present from one who should not +have given it to her secretly; but the wedding-ring meant some-thing +different for Patty,--something more, something certain, something +unescapable, for good or ill. A wedding-ring could stand for nothing but +marriage. Could Patty be married? How, when, and where could so great a +thing happen without her knowledge? It seemed impossible. How had such a +child surmounted the difficulties in the path? Had she been led away +by the attractions of some stranger? No, there had been none in the +village. There was only one man who had the worldly wisdom or the means +to carry Patty off under the very eye of her watchful sister; only one +with the reckless courage to defy her father; and that was Mark Wilson. +His name did not bring absolute confidence to Waitstill's mind. He +was gay and young and thoughtless; how had he managed to do this wild +thing?--and had he done all decently and wisely, with consideration for +the girl's good name? The thought of all the risks lying in the train +of Patty's youth and inexperience brought a wail of anguish from +Waitstill's lips, and, dropping the beads and closing the drawer, she +stumbled blindly down the stairway to the kitchen, intent upon one +thought only--to find her sister, to look in her eyes, feel the touch of +her hand, and assure herself of her safety. + +She gave a dazed look at the tall clock, and was beginning to put on her +cloak when the door opened and Patty entered the kitchen by way of the +shed; the usual Patty, rosy, buoyant, alert, with a kind of childlike +innocence that could hardly be associated with the possession of +wedding-rings. + +"Are you going out, Waity? Wrap up well, for it's freezing cold. Waity, +Waity, dear! What's the matter?" she cried, coming closer to her sister +in alarm. + +Waitstill's face had lost its clear color, and her eyes had the look +of some dumb animal that has been struck and wounded. She sank into the +flag-bottomed rocker by the window, and leaning back her head, uttered +no word, but closed her eyes and gave one long, shivering sigh and a dry +sob that seemed drawn from the very bottom of her heart. + + + + +XXVII. THE CONFESSIONAL + +"WAITY, I know what it is; you have found out about me! Who has been +wicked enough to tell you before I could do so--tell me, who?" + +"Oh, Patty, Patty!" cried Waitstill, who could no longer hold back her +tears. "How could you deceive me so? How could you shut me out of your +heart and keep a secret like this from me, who have tried to be mother +and sister in one to you ever since the day you were born? God has sent +me much to bear, but nothing so bitter as this--to have my sister take +the greatest step of her life without my knowledge or counsel!" + +"Stop, dear, stop, and let me tell you!" + +"All is told, and not by you as it should have been. We've never had +anything separate from each other in all our lives, and when I looked in +your bureau drawer for a bit of soft cotton--it was nothing more than +I have done a hundred times--you can guess now what I stumbled upon; +a wedding-ring for a hand I have held ever since it was a baby's. My +sister has a husband, and I am not even sure of his name! + +"Waity, Waity, don't take it so to heart!" and Patty flung herself on +her knees beside Waitstill's chair. "Not till you hear everything! When +I tell you all, you will dry your eyes and smile and be happy about me, +and you will know that in the whole world there is no one else in my +love or my life but you and my--my husband." + +"Who is the husband?" asked Waitstill dryly, as she wiped her eyes and +leaned her elbow on the table. + +"Who could it be but Mark? Has there ever been any one but Mark?" + +"I should have said that there were several, in these past few months." + +Waitstill's tone showed clearly that she was still grieved and hurt +beyond her power to conceal. "I have never thought of marrying any one +but Mark, and not even of marrying him till a little while ago," said +Patty. "Now do not draw away from me and look out of the window as if we +were not sisters, or you will break my heart. Turn your eyes to mine and +believe in me, Waity, while I tell you everything, as I have so longed +to do all these nights and days. Mark and I have loved each other for +a long, long time. It was only play at first, but we were young and +foolish and did not understand what was really happening between us." + +"You are both of you only a few months older than when you were 'young +and foolish,'" objected Waitstill. + +"Yes, we are--years and years! Five weeks ago I promised Mark that I +would marry him; but how was I ever to keep my word publicly? You +have noticed how insultingly father treats him of late, passing him by +without a word when he meets him in the street? You remember, too, that +he has never gone to Lawyer Wilson for advice, or put any business in +his hands since spring?" + +"The Wilsons are among father's aversions, that is all you can say; +it is no use to try and explain them or rebel against them," Waitstill +answered wearily. + +"That is all very well, and might be borne like many another cross; but +I wanted to marry this particular 'aversion,'" argued Patty. "Would you +have helped me to marry Mark secretly if I had confided in you?" + +"Never in the world--never!" + +"I knew it," exclaimed Patty triumphantly. "We both said so! And what +was Mark to do? He was more than willing to come up here and ask for me +like a man, but he knew that he would be ordered off the premises as if +he were a thief. That would have angered Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, and made +matters worse. We talked and talked until we were hoarse; we thought and +thought until we nearly had brain fever from thinking, but there seemed +to be no way but to take the bull by the horns." + +"You are both so young, you could well have bided awhile." + +"We could have bided until we were gray, nothing would have changed +father; and just lately I couldn't make Mark bide," confessed Patty +ingenuously. "He has been in a rage about father's treatment of you and +me. He knows we haven't the right food to eat, nothing fit to wear, and +not an hour of peace or freedom. He has even heard the men at the store +say that our very lives might be in danger if we crossed father's will, +or angered him beyond a certain point. You can't blame a man who loves +a girl, if he wants to take her away from such a wretched life. His love +would be good for nothing if he did not long to rescue her!" + +"I would never have left you behind to bear your slavery alone, while I +slipped away to happiness and comfort--not for any man alive would I +I have done it!" This speech, so unlike Waitstill in its ungenerous +reproach, was repented of as soon as it left her tongue. "Oh, I did not +mean that, my darling!" she cried. "I would have welcomed any change for +you, and thanked God for it, if only it could have come honorably and +aboveboard." + +"But, don't you see, Waity, how my marriage helps everything? That +is what makes me happiest; that now I shall have a home and it can be +yours. Father has plenty of money and can get a housekeeper. He is only +sixty-five, and as hale and hearty as a man can be. You have served your +time, and surely you need not be his drudge for the rest of your life. +Mark and I thought you would spend half the year with us." + +Waitstill waived this point as too impossible for discussion. "When and +where were you married, Patty?" she asked. + +"In Allentown, New Hampshire, last Monday, the day you and father went +to Saco. Ellen went with us. You needn't suppose it was much fun for me! +Girls that think running away to be married is nothing but a lark, do +not have to deceive a sister like you, nor have a father such as mine to +reckon with afterwards." + +"You thought of all that before, didn't you, child?" + +"Nobody that hasn't already run away to be married once or twice could +tell how it was going to feel! Never did I pass so unhappy a day! If +Mark was not everything that is kind and gentle, he would have tipped me +out of the sleigh into a snowbank and left me by the roadside to +freeze. I might have been murdered instead of only married, by the way I +behaved; but Mark and Ellen understood. Then, the very next day, +Mark's father sent him up to Bridgton on business, and he had to go to +Allentown first to return a friend's horse, so he couldn't break the +news to father at once, as he intended." + +"Does a New Hampshire marriage hold good in Maine?" asked Waitstill, +still intent on the bare facts at the bottom of the romance. + +"Well, of course," stammered Patty, some-what confused, "Maine has +her own way of doing things, and wouldn't be likely to fancy New +Hampshire's. But nothing can make it wicked or anything but according +to law. Besides, Mark considered all the difficulties. He is wonderfully +clever, and he has a clerkship in a Portsmouth law office waiting for +him; and that's where we are going to live, in New Hampshire, where we +were married, and my darling sister will come soon and stay months and +months with us." + +"When is Mark coming back to arrange all this?" + +"Late to-night or early to-morrow morning. Where did you go after +you were married?" + +"Where did I go?" echoed Patty, in a childish burst of tears. "Where +could I go? It took all day to be married--all day long, working and +driving hard from sunrise to seven o'clock in the evening. Then when we +reached the bridge, Mark dropped me, and I walked up home in the dark, +and went to bed without any supper, for fear that you and father would +come back and catch me at it and ask why I was so late." + +"My poor, foolish dear!" sighed Waitstill. + +Patty's tears flowed faster at the first sound of sympathy in +Waitstill's voice, for self-pity is very enfeebling. She fairly sobbed +as she continued:-- + +"So my only wedding-journey was the freezing drive back from Allentown, +with Ellen crying all the way and wishing that she hadn't gone with us. +Mark and I both say we'll never be married again so long as we live!" + +"Where have you seen your husband from that day to this?" + +"I haven't laid eyes on him!" said Patty, with a fresh burst of woe. "I +have a certificate-thing, and a wedding-ring and a beautiful frock and +hat that Mark bought in Boston, but no real husband. I'm no more married +than ever I was! Don't you remember I said that Mark was sent away on +Tuesday morning? And this is Thursday. I've had three letters from him; +but I don't know, till we see how father takes it, when we can tell +the Wilsons and start for Portsmouth. We shan't really call ourselves +married till we get to Portsmouth; we promised each other that from the +first. It isn't much like being a bride, never to see your bridegroom; +to have a father who will fly into a passion when he hears that you are +married; not to know whether your new family will like or despise you; +and to have your only sister angered with you for the first time in her +life!" + +Waitstill's heart melted, and she lifted Patty's tear-stained face to +hers and kissed it. "Well, dear, I would not have had you do this for +the world, but it is done, and Mark seems to have been as wise as a man +can be when he does an unwise thing. You are married, and you love each +other. That's the comforting thing to me." + +"We do," sobbed Patty. "No two people ever loved each other better than +we; but it's been all spoiled for fear of father." + +"I must say I dread to have him hear the news"; and Waitstill knitted +her brows anxiously. "I hope it may be soon, and I think I ought to be +here when he is told. Mark will never under-stand or bear with him, and +there may be trouble that I could avert." + +"I'll be here, too, and I'm not afraid!" And Patty raised her head +defiantly. "Father can unmarry us, that's why we acted in this +miserable, secret, underhanded way. Somehow, though I haven't seen Mark +since we went to Allentown, I am braver than I was last week, for now +I've got somebody to take my part. I've a good mind to go upstairs and +put on my gold beads and my wedding-ring, just to get used to them and +to feel a little more married.--No: I can't, after all, for there is +father driving up the hill now, and he may come into the house. What +brings him home at this hour?" + +"I was expecting him every moment"; and Waitstill rose and stirred the +fire. "He took the pung and went to the Mills for grain." + +"He hasn't anything in the back of the pung--and, oh, Waity! he is +standing up now and whipping the horse with all his might. I never saw +him drive like that before: what can be the matter? He can't have seen +my wedding-ring, and only three people in all the world know about my +being married." + +Waitstill turned from the window, her heart beating a little faster. +"What three people know, three hundred are likely to know sooner or +later. It may be a false alarm, but father is in a fury about something. +He must not be told the news until he is in a better humor!" + + + + +XXVIII. PATTY IS SHOWN THE DOOR + +DEACON BAXTER drove into the barn, and flinging a blanket over the +wheezing horse, closed the door behind him and hurried into the house +without even thinking to lay down his whip. + +Opening the kitchen door and stopping outside long enough to kick the +snow from his heavy boots, he strode into the kitchen and confronted +the two girls. He looked at them sharply before he spoke, scanning their +flushed faces and tear-stained eyes; then he broke out savagely:-- + +"Oh! you're both here; that's lucky. Now stan' up and answer to me. +What's this I hear at the Mills about Patience,--common talk outside the +store?" + +The time had come, then, and by some strange fatality, when Mark was too +far away to be of service. + +"Tell me what you heard, father, and I can give you a better answer," +Patty replied, hedging to gain time, and shaking inwardly. + +"Bill Morrill says his brother that works in New Hampshire reports you +as ridin' through the streets of Allentown last Monday with a young +man." + +There seemed but one reply to this, so Patty answered tremblingly: "He +says what's true; I was there." + +"WHAT!" And it was plain from the Deacon's voice that he had really +disbelieved the rumor. A whirlwind of rage swept through him and shook +him from head to foot. + +"Do you mean to stan' there an' own up to me that you was thirty miles +away from home with a young man?" he shouted. + +"If you ask me a plain question, I've got to tell you the truth, father: +I was." + +"How dare you carry on like that and drag my name into scandal, you +worthless trollop, you? Who went along with you? I'll skin the hide off +him, whoever 't was!" + +Patty remained mute at this threat, but Waitstill caught her hand and +whispered: "Tell him all, dear; it's got to come out. Be brave, and I'll +stand by you." + +"Why are you interferin' and puttin' in your meddlesome oar?" the Deacon +said, turning to Waitstill. "The girl would never 'a' been there if +you'd attended to your business. She's nothin' but a fool of a young +filly, an' you're an old cart-horse. It was your job to look out for +her as your mother told you to. Anybody might 'a' guessed she needed +watchin'!" + +"You shall not call my sister an old cart-horse! I'll not permit it!" +cried Patty, plucking up courage in her sister's defence, and as usual +comporting herself a trifle more like a spitfire than a true heroine of +tragedy. + +"Hush, Patty! Let him call me anything that he likes; it makes no +difference at such a time." + +"Waitstill knew nothing of my going away till this afternoon," continued +Patty. "I kept it secret from her on purpose, because I was afraid she +would not approve. I went with Mark Wilson, and--and--I married him in +New Hampshire because we couldn't do it at home without every-body's +knowledge. Now you know all." + +"Do you mean to tell me you've gone an' married that reckless, wuthless, +horse-trottin', card-playin' sneak of a Wilson boy that's courted every +girl in town? Married the son of a man that has quarrelled with me and +insulted me in public? By the Lord Harry, I'll crack this whip over your +shoulders once before I'm done with you! If I'd used it years ago you +might have been an honest woman to-day, instead of a--" + +Foxwell Baxter had wholly lost control of himself, and the temper, that +had never been governed or held in check, lashed itself into a fury that +made him for the moment unaccountable for his words or actions. + +Waitstill took a step forward in front of Patty. "Put down that whip, +father, or I'll take it from you and break it across my knee!" Her eyes +blazed and she held her head high. "You've made me do the work of a +man, and, thank God, I've got the muscle of one. Don't lift a finger to +Patty, or I'll defend her, I promise you! The dinner-horn is in the side +entry and two blasts will bring Uncle Bart up the hill, but I'd rather +not call him unless you force me to." + +The Deacon's grasp on the whip relaxed, and he fell back a little in +sheer astonishment at the bravado of the girl, ordinarily so quiet +and self-contained. He was speechless for a second, and then recovered +breath enough to shout to the terrified Patty: "I won't use the whip +till I hear whether you've got any excuse for your scandalous behavior. +Hear me tell you one thing: this little pleasure-trip o' yourn won't do +you no good, for I'll break the marriage! I won't have a Wilson in my +family if I have to empty a shot-gun into him; but your lies and your +low streets are so beyond reason I can't believe my ears. What's your +excuse, I say?" + +"Stop a minute, Patty, before you answer, and let me say a few things +that ought to have been said before now," interposed Waitstill. "If +Patty has done wrong, father, you've no one but yourself to thank for +it, and it's only by God's grace that nothing worse has happened to her. +What could you expect from a young thing like that, with her merry heart +turned into a lump in her breast every day by your cruelty? Did she +deceive you? Well, you've made her afraid of you ever since she was a +baby in the cradle, drawing the covers over her little head when she +heard your step. Whatever crop you sow is bound to come up, father; +that's Nature's law, and God's, as well." + +"You hold your tongue, you,--readin' the law to your elders an' +betters," said the old man, choking with wrath. "My business is with +this wuthless sister o' yourn, not with you!--You've got your coat and +hood on, miss, so you jest clear out o' the house; an' if you're too +slow about it, I'll help you along. I've no kind of an idea you're +rightly married, for that young Wilson sneak couldn't pay so high for +you as all that; but if it amuses you to call him your husband, go an' +find him an' stay with him. This is an honest house, an' no place for +such as you!" + +Patty had a good share of the Baxter temper, not under such control as +Waitstill's, and the blood mounted into her face. + +"You shall not speak to me so!" she said intrepidly, while keeping a +discreet eye on the whip. "I'm not a--a--caterpillar to be stepped on, +I'm a married woman, as right as a New Hampshire justice can make me, +with a wedding-ring and a certificate to show, if need be. And you shall +not call my husband names! Time will tell what he is going to be, and +that's a son-in-law any true father would be proud to own!" + +"Why are you set against this match, father?" argued Waitstill, striving +to make him hear reason. "Patty has married into one of the best +families in the village. Mark is gay and thought-less, but never has he +been seen the worse for liquor, and never has he done a thing for +which a wife need hang her head. It is something for a young fellow +of four-and-twenty to be able to provide for a wife and keep her in +comfort; and when all is said and done, it is a true love-match." + +Patty seized this inopportune moment to forget her father's presence, +and the tragic nature of the occasion, and, in her usual impetuous +fashion, flung her arms around Waitstill's neck and gave her the hug of +a young bear. + +"My own dear sister," she said. "I don't mind anything, so long as you +stand up for us." + +"Don't make her go to-night, father," pleaded Waitstill. "Don't send +your own child out into the cold. Remember her husband is away from +home." + +"She can find another up at the Mills as good as he is, or better. Off +with you, I say, you trumpery little baggage, you!" + +"Go, then, dear, it is better so; Uncle Bart will keep you overnight; +run up and get your things"; and Waitstill sank into a chair, realizing +the hopelessness of the situation. + +"She'll not take anything from my house. It's her husband's business to +find her in clothes." + +"They'll be better ones than ever you found me," was Patty's response. + +No heroics for her; no fainting fits at being disowned; no hysterics at +being turned out of house and home; no prayers for mercy, but a quick +retort for every gibe from her father; and her defiant attitude enraged +the Deacon the more. + +"I won't speak again," he said, in a tone that could not be mistaken. +"Into the street you go, with the clothes you stand up in, or I'll do +what I said I'd do." + +"Go, Patty, it's the only thing to be done. Don't tremble, for nobody +shall touch a hair of your head. I can trust you to find shelter +to-night, and Mark will take care of you to-morrow." + +Patty buttoned her shabby coat and tied on her hood as she walked from +the kitchen through the sitting-room towards the side door, her heart +heaving with shame and anger, and above all with a child's sense of +helplessness at being parted from her sister. + +"Don't tell the neighbors any more lies than you can help," called her +father after her retreating form; "an' if any of 'em dare to come up +here an' give me any of their imperdence, they'll be treated same as +you. Come back here, Waitstill, and don't go to slobberin' any good-byes +over her. She ain't likely to get out o' the village for some time if +she's expectin' Mark Wilson to take her away." + +"I shall certainly go to the door with my sister," said Waitstill +coldly, suiting the action to the word, and following Patty out on the +steps. "Shall you tell Uncle Bart everything, dear, and ask him to let +you sleep at his house?" + +Both girls were trembling with excitement; Waitstill pale as a ghost, +Patty flushed and tearful, with defiant eyes and lips that quivered +rebelliously. + +"I s'pose so," she answered dolefully; "though Aunt Abby hates me, on +account of Cephas. I'd rather go to Dr. Perry's, but I don't like to +meet Phil. There doesn't seem to be any good place for me, but it 's +only for a night. And you'll not let father prevent your seeing Mark and +me to-morrow, will you? Are you afraid to stay alone? I'll sit on the +steps all night if you say the word." + +"No, no, run along. Father has vented his rage upon you, and I shall not +have any more trouble. God bless and keep you, darling. Run along!" + +"And you're not angry with me now, Waity? You still love me? And you'll +forgive Mark and come to stay with us soon, soon, soon?" + +"We'll see, dear, when all this unhappy business is settled, and you are +safe and happy in your own home. I shall have much to tell you when we +meet to-morrow." + + + + +XXIX. WAITSTILL SPEAKS HER MIND + +Patty had the most ardent love for her elder sister, and something that +resembled reverence for her unselfishness, her loyalty, and her strength +of character; but if the truth were told she had no great opinion of +Waitstill's ability to feel righteous wrath, nor of her power to avenge +herself in the face of rank injustice. It was the conviction of her own +superior finesse and audacity that had sustained patty all through her +late escapade. She felt herself a lucky girl, indeed, to achieve liberty +and happiness for herself, but doubly lucky if she had chanced to open a +way of escape for her more docile and dutiful sister. + +She would have been a trifle astonished had she surmised the existence +of certain mysterious waves that had been sweeping along the coasts of +Waitstill's mind that afternoon, breaking down all sorts of defences +and carrying her will along with them by sheer force: but it is a truism +that two human beings can live beside each other for half a century and +yet continue strangers. + +Patty's elopement with the youth of her choice, taking into account all +its attendant risks, was Indeed an exhibition of courage and initiative +not common to girls of seventeen; but Waitstill was meditating a mutiny +more daring yet--a mutiny, too, involving a course of conduct most +unusual in maidens of puritan descent. + +She walked back into the kitchen to find her father sitting placidly in +the rocking-chair by the window. He had lighted his corn-cob pipe, in +which he always smoked a mixture of dried sweet-fern as being cheaper +than tobacco, and his face wore something resembling a smile--a foxy +smile--as he watched his youngest-born ploughing down the hill through +the deep snow, while the more obedient Waitstill moved about the room, +setting supper on the table. + +Conversation was not the Deacon's forte, but it seemed proper for +some one to break the ice that seemed suddenly to be very thick in the +immediate vicinity. + +"That little Jill-go-over-the-ground will give the neighbors a pleasant +evenin' tellin' 'em 'bout me," he chuckled. "Aunt Abby Cole will run the +streets o' the three villages by sun-up to-morrer; but nobody pays any +'tention to a woman whose tongue is hung in the middle and wags at both +ends. I wa'n't intending to use the whip on your sister, Waitstill," +continued the Deacon, with a crafty look at his silent daughter, "though +a trouncin' would 'a' done her a sight o' good; but I was only tryin' +to frighten her a little mite an' pay her up for bringin' disgrace on +us the way she's done, makin' us the talk o' the town. Well, she's gone, +an' good riddance to bad rubbish, say I! One less mouth to feed, an' one +less body to clothe. You'll miss her jest at first, on account o' there +bein' no other women-folks on the hill, but 't won't last long. I'll +have Bill Morrill do some o' your outside chores, so 't you can take on +your sister's work, if she ever done any." + +This was a most astoundingly generous proposition on the Deacon's part, +and to tell the truth he did not himself fully understand his mental +processes when he made it; but it seemed to be drawn from him by a kind +of instinct that he was not standing well in his elder daughter's books. +Though the two girls had never made any demonstration of their affection +in his presence, he had a fair idea of their mutual dependence upon each +other. Not that he placed the slightest value on Waitstill's opinion of +him, or cared in the smallest degree what she, or any one else in +the universe, thought of his conduct; but she certainly did appear to +advantage when contrasted with the pert little hussy who had just left +the premises. Also, Waitstill loomed large in his household comforts +and economies, having a clear head, a sure hand, and being one of the +steady-going, reliable sort that can be counted on in emergencies, not, +like Patty, going off at half-cock at the smallest provocation. Yes, +Waitstill, as a product of his masterly training for the last seven +years, had settled down, not without some trouble and friction, into a +tolerably dependable pack-horse, and he intended in the future to use +some care in making permanent so valuable an aid and ally. She did not +pursue nor attract the opposite sex, as his younger daughter apparently +did; so by continuing his policy of keeping all young men rigidly at +a distance he could count confidently on having', Waitstill serve +his purposes for the next fifteen or twenty years, or as long as he, +himself, should continue to ornament and enrich the earth. He would go +to Saco the very next day, and cut Patty out of his will, arranging his +property so that Waitstill should be the chief legatee as long as she +continued to live obediently under his roof. He intended to make the +last point clear if he had to consult every lawyer in York County; for +he wouldn't take risks on any woman alive. + +If he must leave his money anywhere--and it was with a bitter pang that +he faced the inexorable conviction that he could neither live forever, +nor take his savings with him to the realms of bliss prepared for +members of the Orthodox Church in good and regular standing--if he must +leave his money behind him, he would dig a hole in the ground and +bury it, rather than let it go to any one who had angered him in his +lifetime. + +These were the thoughts that caused him to relax his iron grip and smile +as he sat by the window, smoking his corn-cob pipe and taking one of his +very rare periods of rest. + +Presently he glanced at the clock. "It's only quarter-past four," he +said. "I thought 't was later, but the snow makes it so light you can't +jedge the time. The moon fulls to-night, don't it? Yes; come to think +of it, I know it does. Ain't you settin' out supper a little mite early, +Waitstill?" This was a longer and more amiable speech than he had +made in years, but Waitstill never glanced at him as she said: "It is a +little early, but I want to get it ready before I leave." + +"Be you goin' out? Mind, I won't have you follerin' Patience round; +you'll only upset what I've done, an' anyhow I want you to keep away +from the neighbors for a few days, till all this blows over." + +He spoke firmly, though for him mildly, for he still had the uneasy +feeling that he stood on the brink of a volcano; and, as a matter of +fact, he tumbled into it the very next moment. + +The meagre supper was spread; a plate of cold; soda biscuits, a +dried-apple pie, and the usual brown teapot were in evidence; and as her +father ceased speaking Waitstill opened the door of the brick oven where +the bean-pot reposed, set a chair by the table, and turning, took up +her coat (her mother's old riding-cloak, it was), and calmly put it on, +reaching then for her hood and her squirrel tippet. + +"You are goin' out, then, spite o' what I said?" the Deacon inquired +sternly. + +"Did you really think, father, that I would sleep under your roof after +you had turned my sister out into the snow to lodge with whoever might +take her in--my seventeen year-old-sister that your wife left to my +care; my little sister, the very light of my life?" + +Waitstill's voice trembled a trifle, but other-wise she was quite calm +and free from heroics of any sort. + +The Deacon looked up in surprise. "I guess you're kind o' hystericky," +he said. "Set down--set down an' talk things over. I ain't got nothin' +ag'in' you, an' I mean to treat you right. Set down!" + +The old man was decidedly nervous, and intended to keep his temper until +there was a safer chance to let it fly. + +Waitstill sat down. "There's nothing to talk over," she said. "I have +done all that I promised my stepmother the night she died, and now I am +going. If there's a duty owed between daughter and father, it ought to +work both ways. I consider that I have done my share, and now I intend +to seek happiness for myself. I have never had any, and I am starving +for it." + +"An' you'd leave me to git on the best I can, after what I've done +for you?" burst out the Deacon, still trying to hold down his growing +passion. + +"You gave me my life, and I'm thankful to you for that, but you've given +me little since, father." + +"Hain't I fed an' clothed you?" + +"No more than I have fed and clothed you. You've provided the raw food, +and I've cooked and served it. You've bought and I have made shirts and +overalls and coats for you, and knitted your socks and comforters and +mittens. Not only have I toiled and saved and scrimped away my girlhood +as you bade me, but I've earned for you. Who made the butter, and took +care of the hens, and dried the apples, and 'drew in' the rugs? Who +raised and ground the peppers for sale, and tended the geese that you +might sell the feathers? No, father, I don't consider that I'm in your +debt!" + + + + +XXX. A CLASH OF WILLS + +DEACON FOXWELL BAXTER was completely non-plussed for the first time in +his life. He had never allowed "argyfyin'" in his household, and there +had never been a clash of wills before this when he had not come off +swiftly and brutally triumphant. This situation was complicated by the +fact that he did not dare to apply the brakes as usual, since there +were more issues involved than ever before. He felt too stunned to deal +properly with this daughter, having emptied all the vials of his wrath +upon the other one, and being, in consequence, somewhat enfeebled. It +was always easy enough to cope with Patty, for her impertinence evoked +such rage that the argument took care of itself; but this grave young +woman was a different matter. There she sat composedly on the edge of +her wooden chair, her head lifted high, her color coming and going, +her eyes shining steadily, like fixed stars; there she sat, calmly +announcing her intention of leaving her father to shift for himself; +yet the skies seemed to have no thought of falling! He felt that he must +make another effort to assert his authority. + +"Now, you take off your coat," he said, the pipe in his hand trembling +as he stirred nervously in his chair. "You take your coat right off +an' set down to the supper-table, same as usual, do you hear? Eat +your victuals an' then go to your bed an' git over this crazy fit that +Patience has started workin' in you. No more nonsense, now; do as I tell +you!" + +"I have made up my mind, father, and it's no use arguing. All who try to +live with you fail, sooner or later. You have had four children, father. +One boy ran away; the other did not mind being drowned, I fear, since +life was so hard at home. You have just turned the third child out for +a sin of deceit and disobedience she would never have committed--for her +nature is as clear as crystal--if you had ever loved her or considered +her happiness. So I have done with you, unless in your old age God +should bring you to such a pass that no one else will come to your +assistance; then I'd see somehow that you were cared for and nursed and +made comfortable. You are not an old man; you are strong and healthy, +and you have plenty of money to get a good house-keeper. I should decide +differently, perhaps, if all this were not true." + +"You lie! I haven't got plenty of money!" And the Deacon struck the +table a sudden blow that made the china in the cupboard rattle. "You've +no notion what this house costs me, an' the feed for the stock, an' you +two girls, an' labor at the store, an' the hay-field, an' the taxes an' +insurance! I've slaved from sunrise to sunset but I ain't hardly been +able to lay up a cent. I s'pose the neighbors have been fillin' you full +o' tales about my mis'able little savin's an' makin' 'em into a fortune. +Well, you won't git any of 'em, I promise you that!" + +"You have plenty laid away; everybody knows, so what's the use of +denying it? Anyway, I don't want a penny of your money, father, so +good-bye. There's enough cooked to keep you for a couple of days"; and +Waitstill rose from her chair and drew on her mittens. + +Father and daughter confronted each other, the secret fury of the man +met by the steady determination of the girl. The Deacon was baffled, +almost awed, by Waitstill's quiet self-control; but at the very moment +that he was half-uncomprehendingly glaring at her, it dawned upon him +that he was beaten, and that she was mistress of the situation. + +Where would she go? What were her plans?--for definite plans she had, +or she could not meet his eye with so resolute a gaze. If she did leave +him, how could he contrive to get her back again, and so escape the +scorn of the village, the averted look, the lessened trade? + +"Where are you goin' now?" he asked, and though he tried his best he +could not for the life of him keep back one final taunt. "I s'pose, +like your sister, you've got a man in your eye?" He chose this, to him, +impossible suggestion as being the most insulting one that he could +invent at the moment. + +"I have," replied Waitstill, "a man in my eye and in my heart. We should +have been husband and wife before this had we not been kept apart by +obstacles too stubborn for us to overcome. My way has chanced to open +first, though it was none of my contriving." + +Had the roof fallen in upon him, the Deacon could not have been more +dumbfounded. His tongue literally clove to the roof of his mouth; his +face fell, and his mean, piercing eyes blinked under his shaggy brows as +if seeking light. + +Waitstill stirred the fire, closed the brick oven and put the teapot on +the back of the stove, hung up the long-handled dipper on its accustomed +nail over the sink, and went to the door. + +Her father collected his scattered wits and pulled himself to his feet +by the arms of the high-backed rocker. "You shan't step outside this +306 room till you tell me where you're goin'," he said when he found his +voice. + +"I have no wish to keep it secret: I am going to see if Mrs. Mason will +keep me to-night. To-morrow I shall walk down river and get work at the +mills, but on my way I shall stop at the Boyntons' to tell Ivory I am +ready to marry him as soon as he's ready to take me." + +This was enough to stir the blood of the Deacon into one last fury. + +"I might have guessed it if I hadn't been blind as a bat an' deaf as an +adder!" And he gave the table another ringing blow before he leaned on +it to gather strength. "Of course, it would be one o' that crazy Boynton +crew you'd take up with," he roared. "Nothin' would suit either o' you +girls but choosin' the biggest enemies I've got in the whole village!" + +"You've never taken pains to make anything but enemies, so what could we +do?" + +"You might as well go to live on the poor-farm! Aaron Boynton was a +disrep'table hound; Lois Boynton is as crazy as a loon; the boy is a +no-body's child, an' Ivory's no better than a common pauper." + +"Ivory's a brave, strong, honorable man, and a scholar, too. I can work +for him and help him earn and save, as I have you." + +"How long's this been goin' on?" The Deacon was choking, but he meant to +get to the bottom of things while he had the chance. + +"It has not gone on at all. He has never said a word to me, and I have +always obeyed your will in these matters; but you can't hide love, any +more than you can hide hate. I know Ivory loves me, so I'm going to tell +him that my duty is done here and I am ready to help him." + +"Goin' to throw yourself at his head, be you?" sneered the Deacon. +"By the Lord, I don' know where you two girls got these loose ways o' +think-in' an' acting mebbe he won't take you, an' then where'll you be? +You won't git under my roof again when you've once left it, you can make +up your mind to that!" + +"If you have any doubts about Ivory's being willing to take me, you'd +better drive along behind me and listen while I ask him." + +Waitstill's tone had an exultant thrill of certainty in it. She threw +up her head, glorying in what she was about to do. If she laid aside her +usual reserve and voiced her thoughts openly, it was not in the hope of +convincing her father, but for the bliss of putting them into words and +intoxicating herself by the sound of them. + +"Come after me if you will, father, and watch the welcome I shall get. +Oh! I have no fear of being turned out by Ivory Boynton. I can hardly +wait to give him the joy I shall be bringing! It 's selfish to rob him +of the chance to speak first, but I'll do it!" And before Deacon Baxter +could cross the room, Waitstill was out of the kitchen door into the +shed, and flying down Town-House Hill like an arrow shot free from the +bow. + +The Deacon followed close behind, hardly knowing why, but he was no +match for the girl, and at last he stood helpless on the steps of the +shed, shaking his fist and hurling terrible words after her, words that +it was fortunate for her peace of mind she could not hear. + +"A curse upon you both!" he cried savagely. "Not satisfied with +disobeyin' an' defyin' me, you've put me to shame, an' now you'll +be settin' the neighbors ag'in' me an' ruinin' my trade. If you was +freezin' in the snow I wouldn't heave a blanket to you! If you was +starvin' I wouldn't fling either of you a crust! Never shall you darken +my doors again, an' never shall you git a penny o' my money, not if I +have to throw it into the river to spite you!" + +Here his breath failed, and he stumbled out into the barn whimpering +between his broken sentences like a whipped child. + +"Here I am with nobody to milk, nor feed the hens; nobody to churn +to-morrow, nor do the chores; a poor, mis'able creeter, deserted by my +children, with nobody to do a hand's turn 'thout bein' paid for every +step they take! I'll give 'em what they deserve; I don' know what, but +I'll be even with 'em yet." And the Deacon set his Baxter jaw in a way +that meant his determination to stop at nothing. + + + + +XXXI. SENTRY DUTY + +IVORY BOYNTON drove home from the woods that same afternoon by way of +the bridge, in order to buy some provisions at the brick store. When he +was still a long distance from the bars that divided the lane from +the highroad, he espied a dark-clad little speck he knew to be +Rodman leaning over the fence, waiting and longing as usual for his +home-coming, and his heart warmed at the thought of the boyish welcome +that never failed. + +The sleigh slipped quickly over the hard-packed, shining road, and the +bells rang merrily in the clear, cold air, giving out a joyous sound +that had no echo in Ivory's breast that day. He had just had a vision +of happiness through another man's eyes. Was he always to stand outside +the banqueting-table, he wondered, and see others feasting while he +hungered. + +Now the little speck bounded from the fence, flew down the road to meet +the sleigh, and jumped in by the driver's side. + +"I knew you'd come to-night," Rodman cried eagerly. "I told Aunt Boynton +you'd come." + +"How is she, well as common?" + +"No, not a bit well since yesterday morning, but Mrs. Mason says it's +nothing worse than a cold. Mrs. Mason has just gone home, and we've had +a grand house-cleaning to-day. She's washed and ironed and baked, and +we've put Aunt Boynton in clean sheets and pillow-cases, and her room's +nice and warm, and I carried the eat in and put it on her bed to keep +her company while I came to watch for you. Aunt Boynton let Mrs. Mason +braid her hair, and seemed to like her brushing it. It's been dreadful +lonesome, and oh! I am glad you came back, Ivory. Did you find any more +spruce gum where you went this time?" + +"Pounds and pounds, Rod; enough to bring me in nearly a hundred dollars. +I chanced on the greatest place I've found yet. I followed the wake of +an old whirlwind that had left long furrows in the forest,--I've told +you how the thing works,--and I tracked its course by the gum that had +formed wherever the trees were wounded. It's hard, lonely work, Rod, but +it pays well." + +"If I could have been there, maybe we could have got more. I'm good at +shinning up trees." + +"Yes, sometime we'll go gum-picking together. We'll climb the trees like +a couple of cats, and take our knives and serape off the precious lumps +that are worth so much money to the druggists. You've let down the bars, +I see." + +"'Cause I knew you'd come to-night," said Rodman. "I felt it in my +bones. We're going to have a splendid supper." + +"Are we? That's good news." Ivory tried to make his tone bright and +interested, though his heart was like a lump of lead in his breast. +"It's the least I can do for the poor little chap," he thought, "when +he stays as caretaker in this lonely spot.--I wonder if I hadn't better +drive into the barn, Rod, and leave the harness on Nick till I go in and +see mother? Guess I will." + +"She's hot, Aunt Boynton is, hot and restless, but Mrs. Mason thinks +that's all." + +Ivory found his mother feverish, and her eyes were unnaturally bright; +but she was clear in her mind and cheerful, too, sitting up in bed to +breathe the better, while the Maltese cat snuggled under her arm and +purred peacefully. + +"The cat is Rod's idea," she said smilingly but in a very weak voice. +"He is a great nurse I should never have thought of the cat myself but +she gives me more comfort than all the medicine." + +Ivory and Rodman drew up to the supper table, already set in the +kitchen, but before Ivory took his seat he softly closed the door that +led into the living-room. They ate their beans and brown bread and the +mince pie that had been the "splendid" feature of the meal, as reported +by the boy; and when they had finished, and Rodman was clearing the +table, Ivory walked to the window, lighting his pipe the while, and +stood soberly looking out on the snowy landscape. One could scarcely +tell it was twilight, with such sweeps of whiteness to catch every gleam +of the dying day. + +"Drop work a minute and come here, Rod," he said at length. "Can you +keep a secret?" + +"'Course I can! I'm chock full of 'em now, and nobody could dig one of +'em out o' me with a pickaxe!" + +"Oh, well! If you're full you naturally couldn't hold another!" + +"I could try to squeeze it in, if it's a nice one," coaxed the boy. + +"I don't know whether you'll think it's a nice one, Rod, for it breaks +up one of your plans. I'm not sure myself how nice it is, but it's a +very big, unexpected, startling one. What do you think? Your favorite +Patty has gone and got married." + +"Patty! Married!" cried Rod, then hastily putting his hand over his +mouth to hush his too-loud speaking. + +"Yes, she and Mark Wilson ran away last Monday, drove over to Allentown, +New Hampshire, and were married without telling a soul. Deacon Baxter +discovered everything this afternoon, like the old fox that he is, and +turned Patty out of the house." + +"Mean old skinflint!" exclaimed Rod excitedly, all the incipient +manhood rising in his ten-year-old breast. "Is she gone to live with the +Wilsons?" + +"The Wilsons don't know yet that Mark is married to her, but I met him +driving like Jehu, just after I had left Patty, and told him everything +that had happened, and did my best to cool him down and keep him from +murdering his new father-in-law by showing him it would serve no real +purpose now." + +"Did he look married, and all different?" asked Rod curiously. + +"Yes, he did, and more like a man than ever he looked before in his +life. We talked everything over together, and he went home at once +to break the news to his family, without even going to take a peep at +Patty. I couldn't bear to have them meet till he had something cheerful +to say to the poor little soul. When I met her by Uncle Bart's shop, +she was trudging along in the snow like a draggled butterfly, and crying +like a baby." + +Sympathetic tears dimmed Rodman's eyes. "I can't bear to see girls cry, +Ivory. I just can't bear it, especially Patty." + +"Neither can I, Rod. I came pretty near wiping her eyes, but pulled up, +remembering she wasn't a child but a married lady. Well, now we come to +the point." + +"Isn't Patty's being married the point?" + +"No, only part of it. Patty's being sent away from home leaves Waitstill +alone with the Deacon, do you see? And if Patty is your favorite, +Waitstill is mine--I might as well own up to that." + +"She's mine, too," cried Rod. "They're both my favorites, but I always +thought Patty was the suitablest for me to marry if she'd wait for me. +Waitstill is too grand for a boy!" + +"She's too grand for anybody, Rod. There isn't a man alive that's worthy +to strap on her skates." + +"Well, she's too grand for anybody except--" and here Rod's shy, wistful +voice trailed off into discreet silence. + +"Now I had some talk with Patty, and she thinks Waitstill will have no +trouble with her father just at present. She says he lavished so much +rage upon her that there'll be none left for anybody else for a day +or two. And, moreover, that he will never dare to go too far with +Waitstill, because she's so useful to him. I'm not afraid of his beating +or injuring her so long as he keeps his sober senses, if he's ever +rightly had any; but I don't like to think of his upbraiding her and +breaking her heart with his cruel talk just after she's lost the sister +that's been her only companion." And Ivory's hand trembled as he +filled his pipe. He had no confidant but this quaint, tender-hearted, +old-fashioned little lad, to whom he had grown to speak his mind as if +he were a man of his own age; and Rod, in the same way, had gradually +learned to understand and sympathize. + +"It's dreadful lonesome on Town-House Hill," said the boy in a hushed +tone. + +"Dreadful lonesome," echoed Ivory with a sigh; "and I don't dare leave +mother until her fever dies down a bit and she sleeps. Now do you +remember the night that she was taken ill, and we shared the watch?" + +Rodman held his breath. "Do you mean you 're going to let me help just +as if I was big?" he asked, speaking through a great lump in his throat. + +"There are only two of us, Rod. You're rather young for this piece of +work, but you're trusty--you 're trusty!" + +"Am I to keep watch on the Deacon?" + +"That's it, and this is my plan: Nick will have had his feed; you 're +to drive to the bridge when it gets a little darker and hitch in Uncle +Bart's horse-shed, covering Nick well. You're to go into the brick +store, and while you're getting some groceries wrapped up, listen to +anything the men say, to see if they know what's happened. When you've +hung about as long as you dare, leave your bundle and say you'll call +in again for it. Then see if Baxter's store is open. I don't believe it +will be, and if it Isn't, look for a light in his kitchen window, and +prowl about till you know that Waitstill and the Deacon have gone up to +their bedrooms. Then go to Uncle Bart's and find out if Patty is there." + +Rod's eyes grew bigger and bigger: "Shall I talk to her?" he asked; "and +what'll I say?" + +"No, just ask if she's there. If she's gone, Mark has made it right with +his family and taken her home. If she hasn't, why, God knows how that +matter will be straightened out. Anyhow, she has a husband now, and he +seems to value her; and Waitstill is alone on the top of that wind-swept +hill!" + +"I'll go. I'll remember everything," cried Rodman, in the seventh heaven +of delight at the responsibilities Ivory was heaping upon him. + +"Don't stay beyond eight o'clock; but come back and tell me everything +you've learned. Then, if mother grows no worse, I'll walk back to Uncle +Bart's shop and spend the night there, just--just to be near, that's +all." + +"You couldn't hear Waitstill, even if she called," Rod said. + +"Couldn't I? A man's ears are very sharp under certain circumstances. I +believe if Waitstill needed help I could hear her--breathe! Besides, +I shall be up and down the hill till I know all's well; and at sunrise +I'll go up and hide behind some of Baxter's buildings till I see him +get his breakfast and go to the store. Now wash your dishes"; and Ivory +caught up his cap from a hook behind the door. + +"Are you going to the barn?" asked Rodman. + +"No, only down to the gate for a minute. Mark said that if he had a +good chance he'd send a boy with a note, and get him to put it under the +stone gate-post. It's too soon to expect it, perhaps, but I can't seem +to keep still." + +Rodman tied a gingham apron round his waist, carried the tea-kettle to +the sink, and poured the dishpan full of boiling water; then dipped the +cups and plates in and out, wiped them and replaced them on the table' +gave the bean-platter a special polish, and set the half mince pie and +the butter-dish in the cellar-way. + +"A boy has to do most everything in this family!" He sighed to himself. +"I don't mind washing dishes, except the nasty frying-pan and the sticky +bean-pot; but what I'm going to do to-night is different." Here he +glowed and tingled with anticipation. "I know what they call it in the +story-books--it's sentry duty; and that's braver work for a boy than +dish-washing!" + +Which, however, depends a good deal upon circumstances, and somewhat on +the point of view. + + + + +XXXII. THE HOUSE OF AARON + +A FEELING that the day was to bring great things had dawned upon +Waitstill when she woke that morning, and now it was coming true. + +Climbing Saco Hill was like climbing the hill of her dreams; life and +love beckoned to her across the snowy slopes. + +At rest about Patty's future, though troubled as to her sorry plight +at the moment, she was conscious chiefly of her new-born freedom. She +revelled in the keen air that tingled against her cheek, and drew in +fresh hope with every breath. As she trod the shining pathway she was +full of expectancy, her eyes dancing, her heart as buoyant as her step. +Not a vestige of confusion or uncertainty vexed her mind. She knew Ivory +for her true mate, and if the way to him took her through dark places it +was lighted by a steadfast beacon of love. + +At the top of the hill she turned the corner breathlessly, and faced +the length of road that led to the Boynton farm. Mrs. Mason's house was +beyond, and oh, how she hoped that Ivory would be at home, and that she +need not wait another day to tell him all, and claim the gift she knew +was hers before she asked it. She might not have the same exaltation +to-morrow, for now there were no levels in her heart and soul. She had a +sense of mounting from height to height and lighting fires on every peak +of her being. She took no heed of the road she was travelling; she was +conscious only of a wonderful inward glow. + +The house was now in sight, and a tall figure was issuing from the side +door, putting on a fur cap as it came out on the steps and down the +lane. Ivory was at home, then, and, best of all, he was unconsciously +coming to meet her--although their hearts had been coming to meet each +other, she thought, ever since they first began to beat. + +As she neared the bars she called Ivory's name. His hands were in the +pockets of his great-coat, and his eyes were fixed on the ground. Sombre +he was, distinctly sombre, in mien and gait; could she make him smile +and flush and glow, as she was smiling and flushing and glowing? As he +heard her voice he raised his head quickly and uncomprehendingly. + +"Don't come any nearer," she said, "until I have told you something!" +His mind had been so full of her that the sight of her in the flesh, +standing twenty feet away, bewildered him. + +She took a few steps nearer the gate, near enough now for him to see her +rosy face framed in a blue hood, and to catch the brightness of her +eyes under their lovely lashes. Ordinarily they were cool and limpid and +grave, Waitstill's eyes; now a sunbeam danced in each of them. And her +lips, almost always tightly closed, as if she were holding back her +natural speech,--her lips were red and parted, and the soul of her, free +at last, shone through her face, making it luminous with a new beauty. + +"I have left home for good and all," she said. "I'll tell you more of +this later on, but I have left my father's house with nothing to my name +but the clothes I stand in. I am going to look for work in the mills +to-morrow, but I stopped here to say that I'm ready to marry you +whenever you want me--if you do want me." + +Ivory was bewildered, indeed, but not so much so that he failed to +apprehend, and instantly, too, the real significance of this speech. + +He took a couple of long strides, and before Waitstill had any idea of +his intentions he vaulted over the bars and gathered her in his arms. + +"Never shall you go to the mills, never shall you leave my sight for +a single hour again, my one-woman-in-all-the-world! Come to me, to be +loved and treasured all your life long! I've worshipped you ever since I +was a boy; I've kept my heart swept and garnished for you and no other, +hoping I might win you at last." + +How glorious to hear all this delicious poetry of love, and to feel +Ivory's arms about her, making the dream seem surer! + +"Oh, how like you to shorten the time of my waiting!" he went on, his +words fairly chasing one another in their eagerness to be spoken. "How +like you to count on me, to guess my hunger for your love, to realize +the chains that held me back, and break them yourself with your own +dear, womanly hands! How like you, oh, wonderful Waitstill!" + +Ivory went on murmuring phrases that had been lying in his heart unsaid +for years, scarcely conscious of what he was saying, realizing only that +the miracle of miracles had happened. + +Waitstill, for her part, was almost dumb with joy to be lying so close +to his heart that she could hear it beating; to feel the passionate +tenderness of his embrace and his kiss falling upon her hair. + +"I did not know a girl could be so happy!" she whispered. "I've dreamed +of it, but it was nothing like this. I am all a-tremble with it." + +Ivory held her off at arm's length for a moment, reluctantly, +grudgingly. "You took me fairly off my feet, dearest," he said, "and +forgot everything but the one supreme fact you were telling me. Had I +been on guard I should have told you that I am no worthy husband for +you, Waitstill. I haven't enough to offer such a girl as you." + +"You're too late, Ivory! You showed me your heart first, and now you are +searching your mind for bugbears to frighten me." + +"I am a poor man." + +"No girl could be poorer than I am." + +"After what you've endured, you ought to have rest and comfort." + +"I shall have both--in you!" This with eyes, all wet, lifted to Ivory's. + +"My mother is a great burden--a very dear and precious, but a grievous +one." + +"She needs a daughter. It is in such things that I shall be your +helpmate." + +"Will not the boy trouble you and add to your cares?" + +"Rod? I love him; he shall be my little brother." + +"What if my father were not really dead?--I think of this sometimes in +the night!--What if he should wander back, broken in spirit, feeble in +body, empty in purse?" + +"I do not come to you free of burdens. If my father is deserted by +all, I must see that he is made comfortable. He never treated me like a +daughter, but I acknowledge his claim." + +"Mine is such a gloomy house!" + +"Will it be gloomy when I am in it?" and Waitstill, usually so grave, +laughed at last like a care-free child. + +Ivory felt himself hidden in the beautiful shelter of the girl's love. +It was dark now, or as dark as the night ever is that has moonlight and +snow. He took Waitstill in his arms again reverently, and laid his cheek +against her hair. "I worship God as well as I know how," he whispered; +"worship him as the maker of this big heaven and earth that surrounds +us. But I worship you as the maker of my little heaven and earth, and my +heart is saying its prayers to you at this very moment!" + +"Hush, my dear! hush! and don't value me too much, or I shall lose my +head--I that have never known a sweet word in all my life save those +that my sister has given me.--I must tell you all about Patty now." + +"I happen to know more than you, dear. I met her at the bridge when I +was coming home from the woods, and I saw her safely to Uncle Bart's +door.--I don't know why we speak of it as Uncle Bart's when it is really +Aunt Abby's!--I next met Mark, who had fairly flown from Bridgton on the +wings of love, arriving hours ahead of time. I managed to keep him from +avenging the insults heaped upon his bride, and he has driven to +the Mills to confide in his father and mother. By this time Patty is +probably the centre of the family group, charming them all as is her +custom." + +"Oh, I am so glad Mark is at home! Now I can be at rest about Patty. And +I must not linger another moment, for I am going to ask Mrs. Mason to +keep me overnight," cried Waitstill, bethinking herself suddenly of time +and place. + +"I will take you there myself and explain everything. And the moment +I've lighted a fire in Mrs. Mason's best bedroom and settled you there, +what do you think I am going to do? I shall drive to the town clerk's +house, and if he is in bed, rout him out and have the notice of our +intended marriage posted in a public place according to law. Perhaps +I shall save a day out of the fourteen I've got to wait for my wife. +'Mills,' indeed! I wonder at you, Waitstill! As if Mrs. Mason's house +was not far enough away, without your speaking of 'mills.'" + +"I only suggested mills in case you did not want to marry me," said +Waitstill. + + +"Walk up to the door with me," begged Ivory. + +"The horse is all harnessed, and Rod will slip him into the sleigh in a +jiffy." + +"Oh, Ivory! do you realize what this means?"--and Waitstill clung to his +arm as they went up the lane together--"that whatever sorrow, whatever +hardship comes to us, neither of us will ever have to bear it alone +again?" + +"I believe I do realize it as few men could, for never in my +five-and-twenty years have I had a human creature to whom I could pour +myself out, in whom I could really confide, with whom I could take +counsel. You can guess what it will be to have a comprehending woman +at my side. Shall we tell my mother? Do say 'yes'; I believe she will +understand.--Rod, Rod! come and see who's stepping in the door this very +minute!" + +Rodman was up in his bedroom, attiring himself elaborately for sentry +duty. His delight at seeing Waitstill was perhaps slightly tempered +by the thought that flashed at once through his mind,--that if she was +safe, he would not be required to stand guard in the snow for hours +as he had hoped. But this grief passed when he fully realized what +Waitstill's presence at the farm at this unaccustomed hour really +meant. After he had been told, he hung about her like the child that he +was,--though he had a bit of the hero in him, at bottom, too,--embracing +her waist fondly, and bristling with wondering questions. + +"Is she really going to stay with us for always, Ivory?" he asked. + +"Every day and all the days; every night and all the nights. 'Praise God +from whom all blessings flow!'" said Ivory, taking off his fur cap and +opening the door of the living-room. "But we've got to wait for her a +whole fortnight, Rod. Isn't that a ridiculous snail of a law?" + +"Patty didn't wait a fortnight." + +"Patty never waited for anything," Ivory responded with a smile; "but +she had a good reason, and, alas! we haven't, or they'll say that we +haven't. And I am very grateful to the same dear little Patty, for when +she got herself a husband she found me a wife!" + +Rodman did not wholly understand this, but felt that there were many +mysteries attending the love affairs of grown-up people that were too +complicated for him to grasp; and it did not seem to be just the right +moment for questions. + +Waitstill and Ivory went into Mrs. Boynton's room quietly, hand in hand, +and when she saw Waitstill she raised herself from her pillow and held +out her arms with a soft cry of delight. + +"I haven't had you for so long, so long!" she said, touching the girl's +cheek with her frail hand. + +"You are going to have me every day now, dear," whispered Waitstill, +with a sob in her voice; for she saw a change in the face, a new +transparency, a still more ethereal look than had been there before. + +"Every day?" she repeated, longingly. Waitstill took off her hood, and +knelt on the floor beside the bed, hiding her face in the counterpane to +conceal the tears. + +"She is coming to live with us, dear.--Come in, Rod, and hear me tell +her.--Waitstill is coming to live with us: isn't that a beautiful +thing to happen to this dreary house?" asked Ivory, bending to take his +mother's hand. + +"Don't you remember what you thought the first time I ever came here, +mother?" and Waitstill lifted her head, and looked at Mrs. Boynton with +swimming eyes and lips that trembled. "Ivory is making it all come true, +and I shall be your daughter!" + +Mrs. Boynton sank farther back into her pillows, and closing her eyes, +gave a long sigh of infinite content. Her voice was so faint that +they had to stoop to catch the words, and Ivory, feeling the strange +benediction that seemed to be passing from his mother's spirit to +theirs, took Rod's hand and knelt beside Waitstill. + +The verse of a favorite psalm was running through Lois Boynton's mind, +and in a moment the words came clearly, as she opened her eyes, lifted +her hands, and touched the bowed heads. "Let the house of Aaron now say +that his mercy endureth forever!" she said, slowly and reverently; and +Ivory, with all his heart, responded, "Amen!" + + + + +XXXIII. AARON'S ROD + +"IVORY! IVORY!" + +Ivory stirred in a sleep that had been troubled by too great happiness. +To travel a dreary path alone, a path leading seemingly nowhere, and +then suddenly to have a companion by one's side, the very sight of whom +enchanted the eye, the very touch of whom delighted the senses--what joy +unspeakable! Who could sleep soundly when wakefulness brought a train of +such blissful thoughts? + +"Ivory! Ivory!" + +He was fully awake now, for he knew his mother's voice. In all the +years, ever thoughtful of his comfort and of the constant strain upon +his strength, Lois had never wakened her son at night. + +"Coming, mother, coming!" he said, when he realized she was calling him; +and hastily drawing on some clothing, for the night was bitterly cold, +he came out of his room and saw his mother standing at the foot of the +stairway, with a lighted candle in her hand. + +"Can you come down, Ivory? It is a strange hour to call you but I have +something to tell you; something I have been piecing together for weeks; +something I have just clearly remembered." + +"If it's something that won't keep till morning, mother, you creep back +into bed and we'll hear it comfortably," he said, coming downstairs +and leading her to her room. "I'll smooth the covers, so; beat up the +pillows,--there, and throw another log on the sitting-room fire. Now, +what's the matter? Couldn't you sleep?" + +"All summer long I have been trying to remember something; something +untrue that you have been believing, some falsehood for which I was +responsible. I have pursued and pursued it, but it has always escaped +me. Once it was clear as daylight, for Rodman read me from the Bible a +plain answer to all the questions that tortured me." + +"That must have been the night that she fainted," thought Ivory. + +"When I awoke next morning from my long sleep, the old puzzle had come +back, a thousand times worse than before, for then I knew that I had +held the clue in my own hand and had lost it. Now, praise God! I know +the truth, and you, the only one to whom I can tell it, are close at +hand." + +Ivory looked at his mother and saw that the veil that had separated them +mentally seemed to five vanished in the night that had passed. Often and +often it had blown away, as it were, for the fraction of a moment and +then blown back again. Now her eyes met his with an altogether new +clearness that startled him, while her health came with ease and she +seemed stronger than for many days. + +"You remember the winter I was here at the farm alone, when you were at +the Academy?" + +"Yes; it was then that I came home and found you so terribly ill. Do you +think we need go back to that old time now, mother dear?" + +"Yes, I must, I must! One morning I received a strange letter, bearing +no signature, in which the writer said that if I wished to see my +husband I had only to go to a certain address in Brentville, New +Hampshire. The letter went on to say that Mr. Aaron Boynton was ill and +longed for nothing so much as to speak with me; but there were reasons +why he did not wish to return to Edgewood,--would I come to him without +delay." + +Ivory now sat straight in his chair and listened keenly, feeling that +this was to be no vague, uncertain, and misleading memory, but something +true and tangible. + +"The letter excited me greatly after your father's long absence and +silence. I knew it could mean nothing but sorrow, but although I was +half ill at the time, my plain duty was to go, so I thought, and go +without making any explanation in the village." + +All this was new to Ivory and he hung upon his mother's words, dreading +yet hoping for the light that they might shed upon the past. + +"I arrived at Brentville quite exhausted with the journey and weighed +down by anxiety and dread. I found the house mentioned in the letter +at seven o'clock in the evening, and knocked at the door. A common, +hard-featured woman answered the knock and, seeming to expect me, +ushered me in. I do not remember the room; I remember only a child +leaning patiently against the window-sill looking out into the dark, and +that the place was bare and cheerless. + +"I came to call upon Mr. Aaron Boynton,' I said, with my heart sinking +lower and lower as I spoke. The woman opened a door into the next room +and when I walked in, instead of seeing your father, I confronted a +haggard, death-stricken young woman sitting up in bed, her great eyes +bright with pain, her lips as white as her hollow cheeks, and her long, +black hair streaming over the pillow. The very sight of her struck a +knell to the little hope I had of soothing your father's sick bed and +forgiving him if he had done me any wrong. + +"'Well, you came, as I thought you would,' said the girl, looking me +over from head to foot in a way that somehow made me burn with shame. +'Now sit down in that chair and hear what I've got to say while I've got +the strength to say it. I haven't the time nor the desire to put a gloss +on it. Aaron Boynton isn't here, as you plainly see, but that's not my +fault, for he belongs here as much as anywhere, though he wouldn't have +much interest in a dying woman. If you have suffered on account of him, +so have I and you haven't had this pain boring into you and eating your +life away for months, as I have.' + +"I pitied her, she seemed so distraught, but I was in terror of her all +the same, and urged her to tell her story calmly and I would do my best +to hear it in the same way. + +"'Calm,' she exclaimed, 'with this agony tearing me to pieces! Well, to +make beginning and end in one, Aaron Boynton was my husband for three +years.' + +"I caught hold of the chair to keep myself from falling and cried: 'I do +not believe it!' 'Believe it or not, she answered scornfully, 'it +makes no difference to me, but I can give you twenty proofs in as many +seconds. We met at a Cochrane meeting and he chose me from all the +others as his true wife. For two years we travelled together, but long +before they came to an end there was no happiness for either of us. +He had a conscience--not much of a one, but just enough to keep him +miserable. At last I felt he was not believing the doctrines he preached +and I caught him trying to get news of you and your boy, just because +you were out of reach, and neglecting my boy and me, who had given up +everything to wander with him and live on whatever the brethren and +sisters chose to give us.' + +"'So there was a child, a boy,' I gasped. 'Did--did he live?' 'He's +in the next room,' she answered, 'and it's him I brought you here for. +Aaron Boynton has served us both the same. He left you for me and me +for Heaven knows who. If I could live I wouldn't ask any favors, of you +least of all, but I haven't a penny in the world, though I shan't need +one very long. My friend that's nursing me hasn't a roof to her head +and she wouldn't share it with the boy if she had--she's a bigoted +Orthodox.' + +"'But what do you expect me to do?' I asked angrily, for she was +stabbing me with every word. + +"'The boy is your husband's child and he always represented you as a +saint upon earth. I expect you to take him home and provide for him. +He doesn't mean very much to me--just enough so that I don't relish his +going to the poorhouse, that's all.' + +"'He'll go to something very like that if he comes to mine,' I said. + +"'Don't worry me with talk, for I can't stand it,' she wailed, clutching +at her nightgown and flinging back her hair. 'Either you take the child +or I send somebody to Edgewood with him, somebody to tell the whole +story. Some of the Cochranites can support him if you won't; or, at the +worst, Aaron Boynton's town can take care of his son. The doctor has +given me two days to live. If it's a minute longer I've warned him and I +warn you, that I'll end it myself; and if you don't take the boy I'll do +the same for him. He's a good sight better off dead than knocking +about the world alone; he's innocent and there's no sense in his being +punished for the sins of other folks.'" + +"I see it all! Why did I never think of it before; my poor, poor Rod!" +said Ivory, clenching his hands and burying his head in them. + +"Don't grieve, Ivory; it has all turned out so much better than we could +have hoped; just listen to the end. She was frightful to hear and to +look at, the girl was, though all the time I could feel that she must +have had a gipsy beauty and vigor that answered to something in your +father. + +"'Go along out now,' she cried suddenly. 'I can't stand anybody near. +The doctor never gives me half enough medicine and for the hour before +he comes I fairly die for lack of it--though little he cares! Go +upstairs and have your sleep and to-morrow you can make up your mind.' + +"'You don't leave me much freedom to do that,' I tried to answer; but +she interrupted me, rocking her body to and fro. 'Neither of us will +ever see Aaron Boynton again; you no more than I. He's in the West, and +a man with two families and no means of providing for them doesn't come +back where he's known.--Come and take her away, Eliza! Take her away, +quick!' she called. + +"I stumbled out of the room and the woman waved me upstairs. 'You +mustn't mind Hetty,' she apologized; 'she never had a good disposition +at the best, but she's frantic with the pain now, and good reason, too. +It's about over and I'll be thankful when it is. You'd better swallow +the shame and take the child; I can't and won't have him and it'll be +easy enough for you to say he belongs to some of your own folks.' + +"By this time I was mentally bewildered. When the iron first entered my +soul, when I first heard the truth about your father, at that moment my +mind gave way--I know it now." + +"Poor, poor mother! My poor, gentle little mother!" murmured Ivory +brokenly, as he asked her hand. + +"Don't cry, my son; it is all past; the sorrow and the bitterness and +the struggle. I will just finish the story and then we'll close the book +forever. The woman gave me some bread and tea, and I flung myself on the +bed without undressing. I don't know how long afterward it was, but the +door opened and a little boy stole in; a sad, strange, dark-eyed little +boy who said: 'Can I sleep up here? Mother's screaming and I'm afraid.' +He climbed to the couch. I covered him with a blanket, and I soon heard +his deep breathing. But later in the night, when I must have fallen +asleep myself, I suddenly awoke and felt him lying beside me. He had +dragged the blanket along and crept up on the bed to get close to my +side for the warmth I could give, or the comfort of my nearness. The +touch of him almost broke my heart; I could not push the little creature +away when he was lying there so near and warm and confiding--he, all +unconscious of the agony his mere existence was to me. I must have slept +again and when the day broke I was alone. I thought the presence of the +child in the night was a dream and I could not remember where I was, nor +why I was there." + +"Mother, dear mother, don't tell me any more to-night. I fear for your +strength," urged Ivory, his eyes full of tears at the remembrance of her +sufferings. + +"There is only a little more and the weight will be off my heart and on +yours, my poor son. Would that I need not tell you! The house was still +and I thought at first that no one was awake, but when I opened the +sitting-room door the child ran towards me and took my hand as the woman +came in from the sick-room. 'Go into the kitchen, Rodman,' she said, +'and lace up your boots; you're going right out with this lady. Hetty +died in the night,' she continued impassively. 'The doctor was here +about ten o'clock and I've never seen her so bad. He gave her a big dose +of sleeping powder and put another in the table drawer for me to mix for +her towards morning. She was helpless to move, we thought, but all the +same she must have got out of bed when my back was turned and taken +the powder dry on her tongue, for it was gone when I looked for it. It +didn't hasten things much and I don't blame her. If ever there was a +wild, reckless creature it was Hetty Rodman, but I, who am just the +opposite, would have done the same if I'd been her.' + +"She hurriedly gave me a cup of coffee, and, putting a coat and a cap +on the boy, literally pushed me out of the house. 'I've got to report +things to the doctor,' she said, 'and you're better out of the way. Go +down that side street to the station and mind you say the boy belonged +to your sister who died and left him to you. You're a Cochranite, ain't +you? So was Hetty, and they're all sisters, so you'll be telling no +lies. Good-bye, Rodman, be a good boy and don't be any trouble to the +lady.' + +"How I found the station I do not know, nor how I made the journey, nor +where I took the stage-coach. The snow began to fall and by noon there +was a drifting storm. I could not remember where I was going, nor +who the boy was, for just as the snow was whirling outside, so it was +whirling in my brain." + +"Mother, I can hardly bear to hear any more; it is too terrible!" cried +Ivory, rising from his chair and pacing the floor. + +"I can recall nothing of any account till I awoke in my own bed weeks +afterwards. The strange little boy was there, but Mrs. Day and Dr. Perry +told me what I must have told them--that he was the child of my dead +sister. Those were the last words uttered by the woman in Brentville; +I carried them straight through my illness and brought them out on the +other side more firmly intrenched than ever." + +"If only the truth had come back to you sooner!" sighed Ivory, coming +back to her bedside. "I could have helped you to bear it all these +years. Sorrow is so much lighter when you can share it with some one +else. And the girl who died was called Hetty Rodman, then, and she +simply gave the child her last name?" + +"Yes, poor suffering creature. I feel no anger against her now; it +has burned itself all away. Nor do I feel any bitterness against your +father. I forgot all this miserable story for so long, loving and +watching for him all the time, that it is as if it did not belong to +my own life, but had to do with some unhappy stranger. Can you forgive, +too, Ivory?" + +"I can try," he answered. "God knows I ought to be able to if you can!" + +"And will it turn you away from Rod?" + +"No, it draws me nearer to him than ever. He shall never know the +truth--why should he? Just as he crept close to you that night, all +unconscious of the reason you had for shrinking from him, so he has +crept close to me in these years of trial, when your mind has been +wandering." + +"Life is so strange. To think that this child, of all others, should +have been a comfort to you. The Lord's hand is in it!" whispered Mrs. +Boynton feebly. + +"His boyish belief in me, his companionship, have kept the breath of +hope alive in me--that's all I can say." + +"The Bible story is happening over again in our lives, then. Don't you +remember that Aaron's rod budded and blossomed and bore fruit, and that +the miracle kept the rebels from murmuring?" + +"This rebel never will murmur again, mother," and Ivory rose to leave +the room. "Now that you have shed your burden you will grow stronger +and life will be all joy, for Waitstill will come to us soon and we can +shake off these miseries and be a happy family once more." + +"It is she who has helped me most to find the thread; pouring sympathy +and strength into me, nursing me, loving me, because she loved my +wonderful son. Oh! how blest among women I am to have lived long enough +to see you happy!" + +And as Ivory kissed his mother and blew out the candle, she whispered to +herself: "Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!" + + + + +XXXIV. THE DEACON'S WATERLOO + +MRS. MASON'S welcome to Waitstill was unexpectedly hearty--much heartier +than it would have been Six months before, when she regarded Mrs. +Boynton as little less than a harmless lunatic, of no use as a neighbor; +and when she knew nothing more of Ivory than she could gather by his +occasional drive or walk past her door with a civil greeting. Rodman +had been until lately the only member of the family for whom she had a +friendly feeling; but all that had changed in the last few weeks, when +she had been allowed to take a hand in the Boyntons' affairs. As to this +newest development in the life of their household, she had once been +young herself, and the veriest block of stone would have become human +when the two lovers drove up to the door and told their exciting story. + +Ivory made himself quickly at home, and helped the old lady to get a +room ready for Waitstill before he drove back for a look at his mother +and then on to carry out his impetuous and romantic scheme of routing +out the town clerk and announcing his intended marriage. 345 + +Waitstill slept like the shepherd boy in "The Pilgrim's Progress," with +the "herb called Heart's Ease" in her bosom. She opened her eyes next +morning from the depths of Mrs. Mason's best feather bed, and looked +wonderingly about the room, with all its unaccustomed surroundings. +She heard the rattle of fire-irons and the flatter of dishes below; the +first time in all her woman's life that preparations for breakfast had +ever greeted her ears when she had not been an active participator in +them. + +She lay quite still for a quarter of an hour, tired in body and mind, +but incredibly happy in spirit, marvelling at the changes wrought in +her during the day preceding, the most eventful one in her history. Only +yesterday her love had been a bud, so closely folded that she scarcely +recognized its beauty or color or fragrance; only yesterday, and now +she held in her hand a perfect flower. When and how had it grown, and by +what magic process? + +The image of Ivory had been all through the night in the foreground of +her dreams and in her moments of wakefulness, both made blissful by the +heaven of anticipation that dawned upon her. Was ever man so wise, +so tender and gentle, so strong, so comprehending? What mattered the +absence of worldly goods, the presence of care and anxiety, when n woman +had a steady hand to hold, a steadfast heart to trust, a man who would +love her and stand by her, whate'er befell? + +Then the face of Ivory's mother would swim into the mental picture; the +pale face, as white as the pillow it lay upon; the face with its aureole +of ashen hair, and the wistful blue eyes that begged of God and her +children some peace before they closed on life. + +The vision of her sister was a joyful one, and her heart was at peace +about her, the plucky little princess who had blazed the way out of the +ogre's castle. + +She saw Patty clearly as a future fine lady, in velvets and satins and +furs, bewitching every-body by her gay spirits, her piquant vivacity, +and the loving heart that lay underneath all the nonsense and gave it +warmth and color. + +The remembrance of her father alone on the hilltop did indeed trouble +Waitstill. Self-reproach, in the true sense of the word, she did not, +could not, feel. Never since the day she was born had she been fathered, +and daughterly love was absent; but she suffered when she thought of +the fierce, self-willed old man, cutting himself off from all possible +friendships, while his vigor was being sapped daily and hourly by his +terrible greed of money. + +True housewife that Waitstill was, her mind reverted to every separate +crock and canister in her cupboards, every article of her baking or +cooking that reposed on the swing-sheh in the cellar, thinking how long +her father could be comfortable without her ministrations, and so, how +long he would delay before engaging the u inevitable housekeeper. She +revolved the number of possible persons to whom the position would be +offered, and wished that Mrs. Mason, who so needed help, might be the +chosen one: but the fact of her having been friendly to the Boyntons +would strike her at once from the list. + +When she was thankfully eating her breakfast with Mrs. Mason a little +later, and waiting for Ivory to call for them both and take them to the +Boynton farm, she little knew what was going on at her old home in these +very hours, when to tell the truth she would have liked to slip in, had +it been possible, wash the morning dishes, skim the cream, do the +week's churning, make her father's bed, and slip out again into the dear +shelter of love that awaited her. + +The Deacon had passed a good part of the night in scheming and +contriving, and when he drank his self-made cup of muddy coffee at +seven o'clock next morning he had formed several plans that were to +be immediately frustrated, had he known it, by the exasperating and +suspicious nature of the ladies involved in them. + +At eight he had left the house, started Bill Morrill at the store, +and was on the road in search of vengeance and a housekeeper. Old Mrs. +Atkins of Deerwander sniffed at the wages offered. Miss Peters, of Union +Falls, an aged spinster with weak lungs, had the impertinence to tell +him that she feared she couldn't stand the cold in his house; she had +heard he was very particular about the amount of wood that was burned. +A four-mile drive brought him to the village poetically named the Brick +Kiln, where he offered to Mrs. Peter Upham an advance of twenty-five +cents a week over and above the salary with which he had sought to tempt +Mrs. Atkins. Far from being impressed, Mrs. Uphill, being of a high +temper and candid turn of mind, told him she'd prefer to starve at home. +There was not another free woman within eight miles, and the Deacon was +chafing under t e mortification of being continually obliged to state +the reason for his needing a housekeeper. The only hope, it seemed, lay +in going to Saco and hiring a stranger, a plan not at all to his liking, +as it was sure to involve him in extra expense. + +Muttering threats against the universe in general, he drove home by way +of Milliken's Mills, thinking of the unfed hens, the unmilked cow, the +unwashed dishes, the unchurned cream and above all of his unchastened +daughters; his rage increasing with every step until it was nearly at +the white heat of the night before. + +A long stretch of hill brought the tired old mare to a slow walk, and +enabled the Deacon to see the Widow Tillman clipping the geraniums that +stood in tin cans on the shelf of her kitchen window. + +Now, Foxwell Baxter had never been a village Lothario at any age, nor +frequented the society of such. Of late years, indeed, he had frequented +no society of any kind, so that he had missed, for instance, Abel +Day's description of the Widow Tillman as a "reg'lar syreen," though he +vaguely remembered that some of the Baptist sisters had questioned the +authenticity of her conversion by their young and attractive minister. +She made a pleasant picture at the window; she was a free woman (a +little too free, the neighbors would have said; but the Deacon didn't +know that); she was a comparative newcomer to the village, and her +mind had not been poisoned with feminine gossip--in a word, she was a +distinctly hopeful subject, and, acting on a blind and sudden impulse, +he turned into the yard, 'dung the reins over the mare's neck, and +knocked at the back door. + +"Her character 's no worse than mine by now if Aunt Abby Cole's on the +road," he thought grimly, "an' if the Wilsons see my sleigh inside of +widder's fence, so much the better; it'll give 'em a jog.--Good morning +Mis' Tillman," he said to the smiling lady. "I'll come to the p'int at +once. My youngest daughter has married Mark Wilson against my will, an' +gone away from town, an' the older one's chosen a husband still less to +my likin'. Do you want to come and housekeep for me?" + +"I surmised something was going on," re-turned Mrs. Tillman. "I saw +Patty and Mark drive away early this morning, with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson +wrapping the girl up and putting a hot soapstone in the sleigh, and +consid'able kissing and hugging thrown in." + +This knowledge added fuel to the flame that was burning fiercely in the +Deacon's breast. "Well, how about the housekeeping he asked, trying +not to show his eagerness, and not recognizing himself at all in the +enterprise in which he found himself indulging. + +"I 'm very comfortable here," the lady responded artfully, "and I don't +know 's I care to make any change, thank you. I didn't like the village +much at first, after living in larger places, but now I'm acquainted, it +kind of gains on me." + +Her reply was carefully framed, for her mind worked with great rapidity, +and she was mistress of the situation almost as soon as she saw the +Deacon alighting from his sleigh. He was not the sort of man to be +a casual caller, and his manner bespoke an urgent errand. She had a +pension of six dollars a month, but over and above that sum her living +was precarious. She made coats, and she had never known want, for she +was a master hand at dealing with the opposite sex. Deacon Baxter, +according to common report, had ten or fifteen thousand dollars stowed +away in the banks, so the situation would be as simple as possible under +ordinary circumstances; it was as easy to turn out one man's pockets as +all-other's when he was a normal human being; but Deacon Baxter was a +different proposition. + +"I wonder how long he's likely to live," she thought, glancing at him +covertly, out of the tail of her eye. "His evil temper must have driven +more than one nail in his coffin. I wonder, if I refuse to housekeep, +whether I 'll get--a better offer. I wonder if I could manage him if +I got him! I'd rather like to sit in the Baxter pew at the Orthodox +meeting-house after the way some of the Baptist sisters have snubbed me +since I come here." + +Not a vestige of these incendiary thoughts showed in her comely +countenance, and her soul might have been as white as the high-bibbed +apron that covered it, to judge by her genial smile. + +"I'd make the wages fair," urged the Deacon, looking round the clean +kitchen, with the break-fast-table sitting near the sunny window and the +odor of corned beef and cabbage issuing temptingly from a boiling pot on +the fire. "I hope she ain't a great meat-eater," he thought, "but it's +too soon to cross that bridge yet a while." + +"I've no doubt of it," said the widow, wondering if her voice rang true; +"but I've got a pension, and why should I leave this cosy little home? +Would I better myself any, that's the question? I'm kind of lonesome +here, that's the only reason I'd consider a move." + +"No need o' bein' lonesome down to the Falls," said the Deacon. "And I'm +in an' out all day, between the barn an' the store." + +This, indeed, was not a pleasant prospect, but Jane Tillman had faced +worse ones in her time. + +"I'm no hand at any work outside the house," she observed, as if +reflecting. "I can truthfully say I'm a good cook, and have a great +faculty for making a little go a long ways." (She considered this a +master-stroke, and in fact it was; for the Deacon's mouth absolutely +watered at this apparently unconscious comprehension of his +disposition.) "But I'm no hand at any chores in the barn or shed," she +continued. "My first husband would never allow me to do that kind of +work." + +"Perhaps I could git a boy to help out; I've been kind o' thinkin' o' +that lately. What wages would you expect if I paid a boy for the rough +work?" asked the Deacon tremulously. "Well, to tell the truth, I don't +quite fancy the idea of taking wages. Judge Dickinson wants me to go to +Alfred and housekeep for him, and I'd named twelve dollars a month. It's +good pay, and I haven't said 'No'; but my rent is small here, I'm my own +mistress, and I don't feel like giving up my privileges." + +"Twelve dollars a month!" He had never thought of approaching that sum; +and he saw the heap of unwashed dishes growing day by day, and the cream +souring on the milk-pans. Suddenly an idea sprang full-born into the +Deacon's mind (Jed Morrill's "Old Driver" must have been close at +hand!). Would Jane Tillman marry him? No woman in the three villages +would be more obnoxious to his daughters; that in itself was a distinct +gain. She was a fine, robust figure of a woman in her early forties, +and he thought, after all, that the hollow-chested, spindle-shanked kind +were more ex-pensive to feed, on the whole, than their better-padded +sisters. He had never had any difficulty in managing wives, and thought +himself quite equal to one more bout, even at sixty-five, though he +had just the faintest suspicion that the high color on Mrs. Tillman's +prominent cheek-bones, the vigor shown in the coarse black hair and +handsome eyebrows, might make this task a little more difficult than his +previous ones. But this fear vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, +for he kept saying to himself: "A judge of the County Court wants her at +twelve dollars a month; hadn't I better bid high an' git settled? + +"If you'd like to have a home o' your own 'thout payin' rent, you've +only got to say the word an' I'll make you Mis' Baxter," said the +Deacon. "There'll be nobody to interfere with you, an' a handsome legacy +if I die first; for none o' my few savin's is goin' to my daughters, I +can promise you that!" + +The Deacon threw out this tempting bait advisedly, for at this moment he +would have poured his hoard into the lap of any woman who would help him +to avenge his fancied wrongs. + +This was information, indeed! The "few savings" alluded to amounted to +some thousands, Jane Tillman knew. Had she not better burn her ships +behind her, take the risks, and have faith in her own powers? She was +getting along in ears, and her charms of person were lessening with +every day that passed over her head. If the Deacon's queer ways grew +too queer, she thought an appeal to the doctor and the minister might +provide a way of escape and a neat little income to boot; so, on the +whole, the marriage, though much against her natural inclinations, +seemed to be providentially arranged. + +The interview that succeeded, had it been reported verbatim, deserved +to be recorded in local history. Deacon Baxter had met in Jane Tillman a +foeman more than worthy of his steel. She was just as crafty as he, and +in generalship as much superior to him as Napoleon Bonaparte to Cephas +Cole. Her knowledge of and her experiences with men, all very humble, it +is true, but decidedly varied, enabled her to play on every weakness of +this particular one she had in hand, and at the same time skilfully to +avoided alarming him. + +Heretofore, the women with whom the Deacon had come in contact had +timidly steered away from the rocks and reefs in his nature, and had +been too ignorant or too proud to look among them for certain softer +places that were likely to be there--since man is man, after all, even +when he is made on a very small pattern. + +If Jane Tillman became Mrs. Baxter, she intended to get the whip hand +and keep it; but nothing was further from her intention than to make the +Deacon miserable if she could help it. That was not her disposition; and +so, when the deluded man left her house, he had made more concessions in +a single hour than in all the former years of his life. + +His future spouse was to write out a little paper for his signature; +just a friendly little paper to be kept quite private and confidential +between themselves, stating that she was to do no work outside of the +house; that her pension was to be her own; that she was to have five +dollars in cash on the first of every month in lieu of wages; and that +in ease of his death occurring first she was to have a third of his +estate, and the whole of it if at the time of his decease he was still +pleased with his bargain. The only points in this contract that the +Deacon really understood were that he was paying only five dollars a +month for a housekeeper to whom a judge had offered twelve; that, as he +had expected to pay at least eight, he could get a boy for the remaining +three, and so be none the worse in pocket; also, that if he could keep +his daughters from getting his money, he didn't care a hang who had +it, as he hated the whole human race with entire impartiality. If Jane +Tillman didn't behave herself, he had pleasing visions of converting +most of his fortune into cash and having it dropped off the bridge +some dark night, when the doctor had given him up and proved to his +satisfaction that death would occur in the near future. + +All this being harmoniously settled, the Deacon drove away, and caused +the announcement of his immediate marriage to be posted directly below +that of Waitstill and Ivory Boynton. + +"Might as well have all the fat in the fire to once," he chuckled. +"There won't be any house-work done in this part of the county for a +week to come. If we should have more snow, nobody'll have to do any +shovellin', for the women-folks'll keep all the paths in the village +trod down from door to door, travellin' round with the news." + +A "spite match," the community in general called the Deacon's marriage; +and many a man, and many a woman, too, regarding the amazing publishing +notice in the frame up at the meeting-house, felt that in Jane Tillman +Deacon Baxter had met his Waterloo. + +"She's plenty good enough for him," said Aunt Abby Cole, "though I know +that's a terrible poor compliment. If she thinks she'll ever break into +s'ciety here at the Falls, she'll find herself mistaken! It's a mystery +to me why the poor deluded man ever done it; but ain't it wonderful the +ingenuity the Lord shows in punishin' sinners? I couldn't 'a' thought +out such a good comeuppance myself for Deacon Baxter, as marryin' Jane +Tillman! The thing that troubles me most, is thinkin' how tickled the +Baptists'll be to git her out o' their meetin' an' into ourn!" + + + + +XXXV. TWO HEAVENS + +AT the very moment that Deacon Baxter was I starting out on his quest +for a housekeeper, Patty and Mark drove into the Mason dooryard and the +sisters flew into each other's arms. The dress that Mark had bought +for Patty was the usual charting and unsuitable offering of a man's +spontaneous affection, being of dark violet cloth with a wadded cape +lined with satin. A little brimmed hat of violet velvet tied under her +chin with silk ribbons completed the costume, and before the youthful +bride and groom had left the ancestral door Mrs. Wilson had hung her own +ermine victorine (the envy of all Edgewood) around Patty's neck and put +her ermine willow muff into her new daughter's hands; thus she was as +dazzling a personage, and as improperly dressed for the journey, as she +could well be. + +Waitstill, in her plain linsey-woolsey, was entranced with Patty's +beauty and elegance, and the two girls had a few minutes of sisterly +talk, of interchange of radiant hopes and confidences before Mark tore +them apart, their cheeks wet with happy tears. + +As the Mason house faded from view, Patty having waved her muff until +the last moment, turned in her seat and said:-- + +"Mark, dear, do you think your father would care if I spent the +twenty-dollar gold-piece he gave me, for Waitstill? She will be married +in a fortnight, and if my father does not give her the few things she +owns she will go to her husband more ill-provided even than I was. I +have so much, dear Mark, and she so little." + +"It's your own wedding-present to use as you wish," Mark answered, "and +it's exactly like you to give it away. Go ahead and spend it if you want +to; I can always earn enough to keep you, without anybody's help!" and +Mark, after cracking the whip vaingloriously, kissed his wife just over +the violet ribbons, and with sleigh-bells jingling they sped over the +snow towards what seemed Paradise to them, the New Hampshire village +where they had been married and where-- + +So a few days later, Waitstill received a great parcel which relieved +her of many feminine anxieties and she began to shape and cut and stitch +during all the hours she had to herself. They were not many, for every +day she trudged to the Boynton farm and began with youthful enthusiasm +the household tasks that were so soon to be hers by right. + +"Don't waste too much time and strength here, my dearest," said Ivory. +"Do you suppose for a moment I shall keep you long on this lonely farm? +I am ready for admission to the Bar or I am fitted to teach in the best +school in New England. Nothing has held me here but my mother, and in +her present condition of mind we can safely take her anywhere. We will +never live where there are so many memories and associations to sadden +and hamper us, but go where the best opportunity offers, and as soon as +may be. My wife will be a pearl of great price," he added fondly, "and I +intend to provide a right setting for her!" + +This was all said in a glow of love and joy, pride and ambition, as +Ivory paced up and down before the living-room fireplace while Waitstill +was hanging the freshly laundered curtains. + +Ivory was right; Waitstill Baxter was, indeed, a jewel of a woman. She +had little knowledge, but much wisdom, and after all, knowledge stands +for the leaves on a tree and wisdom for the fruit. There was infinite +richness in the girl, a richness that had been growing and ripening +through the years that she thought so gray and wasted. The few books +she owned and loved had generally lain unopened, it is true, upon her +bedroom table, and she held herself as having far too little learning to +be a worthy companion for Ivory Boynton; but all the beauty and cheer +a comfort that could ever be pressed into the arid life of the Baxter +household had come from Waitstill's heart, and that heart had grown in +warmth and plenty year by year. + +Those lonely tasks, too hard for a girl's hands, those unrewarded +drudgeries, those days of faithful labor in and out of doors, those +evenings of self-sacrifice over the mending-basket; the quiet avoidance +of all that might vex her father's crusty temper, her patience with his +miserly exactions; the hourly holding back of the hasty word,--all these +had played their part; all these had been somehow welded into a strong, +sunny, steady, life-wisdom, there is no better name for it; and so +she had unconsciously the best of all harvests to bring as dower to +a husband who was worthy of her. Ivory's strength called to hers and +answered it, just as his great need awoke such a power of helpfulness in +her as she did not know she possessed. She loved the man, but she loved +the task that beckoned her, too. The vision of it was like the breath +of wind from a hill-top, putting salt and savor into the new life that +opened before her. + +These were quietly happy days at the farm, for Mrs. Boynton took a new, +if transient, hold upon life that deceived even the doctor. Rodman +was nearly as ardent a lover as Ivory, hovering about Waitstill and +exclaiming, "You never stay to supper and it's so lonesome evenings +without you! Will it never be time for you to come and live with us, +Waity dear? The days crawl so slowly!" At which Ivory would laugh, push +him away and draw Waitstill nearer to his own side, saying: "If you are +in a hurry, you young cormorant, what do you think of me?" And Waitstill +would look from one to the other and blush at the heaven of love that +surrounded her on every side. + +"I believe you are longing to begin on my cooking, you two big greedy +boys!" she said teasingly. "What shall we have for New Year's dinner, +Rod? Do you like a turkey, roasted brown and crispy, with giblet gravy +and cranberry jelly? Do you fancy an apple dumpling afterwards,--an +apple dumpling with potato crust,--or will you have a suet pudding with +foamy sauce?" + +"Stop, Waitstill!" cried Ivory. "Don't put hope into us until you are +ready to satisfy it; we can't bear it!" + +"And I have a box of goodies from my own garden safely stowed away in +Uncle Bart's shop," Waitstill went on mischievously. "They were to be +sold in Portland, but I think they'll have to be my wedding-present +to my husband, though a very strange one, indeed! There are peaches +floating in sweet syrup; there are tumblers of quince jelly; there are +jars of tomato and citron preserves, and for supper you shall eat them +with biscuits as light as feathers and white as snowdrifts." + +"We can never wait two more days, Rod; let us kidnap her! Let us take +the old bob-sled and run over to New Hampshire where one can be married +the minute one feels like it. We could do it between sunrise and +moonrise and be at home for a late supper. Would she be too tired to +bake the biscuits for us, do you think? What do you say, Rod, will +you be best man?" And there would be youthful, unaccustomed laughter +floating out from the kitchen or living-room, bringing a smile of +content to Lois Boynton's face as she lay propped up in bed with her +open Bible beside her. "He binds up the broken-hearted," she whispered +to herself. "He gives unto them a garland for ashes; the oil of joy for +mourning; the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." + +The quiet wedding was over. There had been neither feasting, nor finery, +nor presents, nor bridal journey; only a home-coming that meant deep and +sacred a joy, as fervent gratitude as any four hearts ever contained +in all the world. But the laughter ceased, though the happiness flowed +silently underneath, almost forgotten in the sudden sorrow that overcame +them, for it fell out that Lois Boynton had only waited, as it were, for +the marriage, and could stay no longer. + + "... There are two heavens... + Both made of love,--one, inconceivable + Ev'n by the other, so divine it is; + The other, far on this side of the stars, + By men called home." + +And these two heavens met, over at Boyntons', during these cold, white, +glistening December days. + +Lois Boynton found hers first. After a windy moonlit night a morning +dawned in which a hush seemed to be on the earth. The cattle huddled +together in the farmyards and the fowls shrank into their feathers. The +sky was gray, and suddenly the first white heralds came floating down +like scouts seeking for paths and camping-places. + +Waitstill turned Mrs. Boynton's bed so that she could look out of +the window. Slope after slope, dazzling in white crust, rose one upon +another and vanished as they slipped away into the dark green of the +pine forests. Then, + + "... there fell from out the skies + A feathery whiteness over all the land; + A strange, soft, spotless something, pure as light." + +It could not be called a storm, for there had been no wind since +sunrise, no whirling fury, no drifting; only a still, steady, solemn +fall of crystal flakes, hour after hour, hour after hour. + +Mrs. Boynton's Book of books was open on the bed and her finger marked a +passage in her favorite Bible-poet. + +"Here it is, daughter," she whispered. "I have found it, in the same +chapter where the morning stars sing together and the sons of God shout +for joy. The Lord speaks to Job out of the whirlwind and says: 'HAST +THOU ENTERED INTO THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW? OR HAST THOU SEEN THE +TREASURES OF THE HAIL?' Sit near me, Waitstill, and look out on the +hills. 'HAST THOU ENTERED INTO THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW?' No, not yet, +but please God, I shall, and into many other treasures, soon"; and she +closed her eyes. + +All day long the air-ways were filled with the glittering army of the +snowflakes; all day long the snow grew deeper and deeper on the ground; +and on the breath of some white-winged wonder that passed Lois Boynton's +window her white soul forsook its "earth-lot" and took flight at last. + +They watched beside her, but never knew the moment of her going; it was +just a silent flitting, a ceasing to be, without a tremor, or a flutter +that could be seen by mortal eye. Her face was so like an angel's in its +shining serenity that the few who loved her best could not look upon her +with anything but reverent joy. On earth she had known nothing but the +"broken arcs," but in heaven she would find the "perfect round"; there +at last, on the other side of the stars, she could remember right, poor +Lois Boynton! + + +For weeks afterwards the village was shrouded in snow as it had never +been before within memory, but in every happy household the home-life +deepened day by day. The books came out in the long evenings; the +grandsires told old tales under the inspiration of the hearth-fire: the +children gathered on their wooden stools to roast apples and pop corn; +and hearts came closer together than when summer called the housemates +to wander here and there in fields and woods and beside the river. + +Over at Boyntons', when the snow was whirling and the wind howling round +the chimneys of the high-gabled old farmhouse; when every window had its +frame of ermine and fringe of icicles, and the sleet rattled furiously +against the glass, then Ivory would throw a great back log on the bank +of coals between the fire-dogs, the kettle would begin to sing, and +the eat come from some snug corner to curl and purr on the braided +hearth-rug. + +School was in session, and Ivory and Rod had their textbooks of an +evening, but oh! what a new and strange joy to study when there was a +sweet woman sitting near with her workbasket; a woman wearing a shining +braid of hair as if it were a coronet; a woman of clear eyes and tender +lips, one who could feel as well as think, one who could be a man's +comrade as well as his dear love. + +Truly the second heaven, the one on "this side of the stars, by men +called home," was very present over at Boyntons'. + +Sometimes the broad-seated old haircloth sofa would be drawn in front of +the fire, and Ivory, laying his pipe and his Greek grammar on the table, +would take some lighter book and open it on his knee. Waitstill would +lift her eyes from her sewing to meet her husband's glance that spoke +longing for her closer companionship, and gladly leaving her work, and +slipping into the place by his side, she would put her elbow on his +shoulder and read with him. + +Once, Rod, from his place at a table on the other side of the room, +looked and looked at them with a kind of instinct beyond his years, and +finally crept up to Waitstill, and putting an arm through hers, nestled +his curly head on her shoulder with the quaint charm and grace that +belonged to him. + +It was a young and beautiful shoulder, Waitstill's, and there had always +been, and would always be, a gracious curve in it where a child's head +might lie in comfort. Presently with a shy pressure, Rod whispered: +"Shall I sit in the other room, Waitstill and Ivory?--Am I in the way?" + +Ivory looked up from his book quietly shaking his head, while Waitstill +put her arm around the boy and drew him closer. + +"Our little brother is never in the way," she said, as she bent and +kissed him. + + +Men may come and men may go; Saco Water still tumbles tumultuously over +the dam and rushes under the Edgewood bridge on its way to the sea; +and still it listens to the story of to-day that will sometime be the +history of yesterday. + +On midsummer evenings the windows of the old farmhouse over at Boyntons' +gleam with unaccustomed lights and voices break the stillness, lessening +the gloom of the long grass-grown lane of Lois Boynton's watching in +days gone by. On sunny mornings there is a merry babel of children's +chatter, mingled with gentle maternal warnings, for this is a new brood +of young things and the river is calling them as it has called all +the others who ever came within the circle of its magic. The fragile +harebells hanging their blue heads from the crevices of the rocks; +the brilliant columbines swaying to and fro on their tall stalks; the +patches of gleaming sand in shallow places beckoning little bare feet +to come and tread them; the glint of silver minnows darting hither +and thither in some still pool; the tempestuous journey of some +weather-beaten log, fighting its way downstream;--here is life in +abundance, luring the child to share its risks and its joys. + +When Waitstill's boys and Patty's girls come back to the farm, they play +by Saco Water as their mothers and their fathers did before them. The +paths through the pine woods along the river's brink are trodden smooth +by their restless, wandering feet; their eager, curious eyes search the +waysides for adventure, but their babble and laughter are oftenest heard +from the ruins of an old house hidden by great trees. The stones of +the cellar, all overgrown with blackberry vines, are still there; and +a fragment of the brick chimney, where swallows build their nests from +year to year. A wilderness of weeds, tall and luxuriant, springs up to +hide the stone over which Jacob Cochrane stepped daily when he issued +from his door; and the polished stick with which three-year-old Patty +beats a tattoo may be a round from the very chair in which he sat, +expounding the Bible according to his own vision. The thickets of sweet +clover and red-tipped grasses, of waving ferns and young alder bushes +hide all of ugliness that belongs to the deserted spot and serve as a +miniature forest in whose shade the younglings foreshadow the future +at their play of home-building and housekeeping. In a far corner, +altogether concealed from the passer-by, there is a secret treasure, a +wonderful rosebush, its green leaves shining with health and vigor. When +the July sun is turning the hay-fields yellow, the children part the +bushes in the leafy corner and little Waitstill Boynton steps cautiously +in, to gather one splendid rose, "for father and mother." + +Jacob Cochrane's heart, with all its faults and frailties has long been +at peace. On a chill, dreary night in November, all that was mortal of +him was raised from its unhonored resting-place not far from the ruins +of his old abode, and borne by three of his disciples far away to +another state. The gravestones were replaced, face downward, deep, deep +in the earth, and the sod laid back upon them, so that no man thence +forward could mark the place of the prophet's transient burial amid the +scenes of his first and only triumphant ministry. + +"It is a sad story, Jacob Cochrane's," Waitstill said to her husband +when she first discovered that her children had chosen the deserted spot +for their play; "and yet, Ivory, the red rose blooms and blooms in the +ruins of the man's house, and perhaps, somewhere in the world, he has +left a message that matches the rose." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Story Of Waitstill Baxter, by +By Kate Douglas Wiggin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF WAITSTILL BAXTER *** + +***** This file should be named 1701.txt or 1701.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/0/1701/ + +Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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