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<H1>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Story of Waitstill Baxter</H1>
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Title: The Story of Waitstill Baxter
Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin
Release Date: April, 1999 [EBook #1701]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE STORY OF WAITSTILL BAXTER ***
</pre><div align="center">
<p align="left"> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>THE STORY OF WAITSTILL BAXTER </p>
</div>
<p align="center">by KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN</p>
<h4 align="center"></h4>
<p align="center">CONTENTS</p>
<p>SPRING</p>
<p>I. SACO WATER<br>
II. THE SISTERS<br>
III. DEACON BAXTER'S WIVES<br>
IV. SOMETHING OF A HERO<br>
V. PATIENCE AND IMPATIENCE<br>
VI. A KISS<br>
VII. WHAT DREAMS MAY COME</p>
<p>SUMMER</p>
<p>VIII. THE JOINER'S SHOP<br>
IX. CEPHAS SPEAKS<br>
X. ON TORY HILL<br>
XI. A JUNE SUNDAY<br>
XII. THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER<br>
XIII. HAYING TIME<br>
XIV. UNCLE BART DISCOURSES<br>
XV. IVORY'S MOTHER<br>
XVI. LOCKED OUT</p>
<p></p>
<p>AUTUMN</p>
<p>XVII. A BRACE OF LOVERS<br>
XVIII. A STATE O' MAINE PROPHET<br>
XIX. AT THE BRICK STORE<br>
XX. THE ROD THAT BLOSSOMED<br>
XXI. LOIS BURIES HER DEAD<br>
XXII. HARVEST-TIME<br>
XXIII. AUNT ABBY'S WINDOW<br>
XXIV. PHOEBE TRIUMPHS<br>
XXV. LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM</p>
<p>WINTER</p>
<p>XXVI. A WEDDING-RING<br>
XXVII. THE CONFESSIONAL<br>
XXVIII.PATTY IS SHOWN THE DOOR<br>
XXIX. WAITSTILL SPEAKS HER MIND<br>
XXX. A CLASH OF WILLS<br>
XXXI. SENTRY DUTY<br>
XXXII. THE HOUSE OF AARON<br>
XXXIII.AARON'S ROD<br>
XXXIV. THE DEACON'S WATERLOO<br>
XXXV. TWO HEAVENS</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<h1 align="center">THE STORY OF WAITSTILL BAXTER</h1>
<h3 align="center"> </h3>
<h2 align="center">SPRING</h2>
<p align="left"></p>
<p align="left">THE STORY OF WAITSTILL BAXTER</p>
<p>I</p>
<p>SACO WATER</p>
<p>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 </p>
<p>
"Through Bartlett's vales its tuneful way,
Or hides in Conway's fragrant brakes,
Retreating from the glare of day."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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! "</p>
<p>"Who was the big man at the head, mother? "</p>
<p>"His name is Jacob Cochrane, but you mustn't think or talk about
him; he is very wicked."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I played with a nice boy over to Boynton's," mused the child. </p>
<p>"That was Ivory, their only child. He is a good little fellow,
but his mother and father will spoil him with their crazy ways."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"Don't talk about loving him," chided the woman. "If your father
should hear you, he'd send you to bed without your porridge."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p>II</p>
<p>THE SISTERS</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I wish you weren't quite so free with your tongue, Patty."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"What is it?" asked Waitstill, relenting at the sight of the
girl's eager, roguish face.</p>
<p>"PIERCE MY EARS!" cried Patty. "Say you will!"</p>
<p>"Oh! Patty, Patty, I am afraid you are given over to vanity! I
daren't let you wear eardrops without father's permission."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>
"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"Ivory Boynton never speaks a word of my looks, nor a word that
father and all the world mightn't hear." And Waitstill flushed.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>Waitstill paused a moment in her task of bread-kneading. "Well,"
she answered critically, "at least we know where our father is."</p>
<p>"We do, indeed! We also know that he is thoroughly alive!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Of course, we are motherless," continued Patty wistfully, "but
poor Ivory is worse than motherless."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"She is a terrible care for him, and like to spoil his life,"
said Patty.</p>
<p>"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. </p>
<p>Love lightens Ivory's afflictions but that is something you and I
have to do without, so it seems."</p>
<p>"I suppose little Rodman is some comfort to the Boyntons, even if
he is only ten." Patty suggested.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"You've forgot to name our one great blessing, Waity, and I
believe, anyway, you're talking to keep my mind off the
earrings!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p></p>
"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."
<p>"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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>III</p>
<p>DEACON BAXTER'S WIVES</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Do you mean I'm to take your place, be a mother to Patience, and
keep house, and everything?" asked Waitstill quaveringly. </p>
<p>"I don't see but you'll have to, unless your father marries
again. He'll never hire help, you know that!"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."
</p>
"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."
<p>Mrs. Baxter turned her pale, tired face away from Waitstill's
appealing eyes.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I'll be careful," promised Waitstill, sobbing quietly; "I'll
do
my best."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>IV</p>
<p>SOMETHING OF A HERO</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>Lois Boynton took the handful of budding things and sniffed their
fragrance.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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." </p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"Probably not, mother," remarked Ivory dryly.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"She didn't stay a baby; she is seventeen years old to-day,
mother."</p>
<p>"You surprise me, but children do grow very fast. She had a
strange name, but I cannot recall it."</p>
<p>"Her name is Patience, but nobody but her father calls her
anything but Patty, which suits her much better."</p>
<p>"No, the name wasn't Patience, not the one I mean."</p>
<p>"The older sister is Waitstill, perhaps you mean her?"-and Ivory
sat down by the fire with his book and his pipe.</p>
<p>"Waitstill! Waitstill! that is it! Such a beautiful name!"</p>
<p>"She's a beautiful girl."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."
</p>
"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.
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"It's about time for Rod to be coming back, isn't it? " asked
Ivory.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Why do you talk of Rod's visiting us when he is one of the
family?" Ivory asked quietly.</p>
<p>"Is he one of the family? I didn't know it," replied his mother
absently.</p>
<p>"Look at me, mother, straight in the eye; that's right: now
listen, dear, to what I say."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I was nearly twelve years old; do you think I escaped all the
gossip, mother?"</p>
<p>"You never spoke of it to me, Ivory." </p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"Yes," she answered uncertainly.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I didn't remember I had a sister. Is she dead, Ivory? " asked
Mrs. Boynton vaguely.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Ivory's pipe went out, and his book slipped from his knee
unnoticed.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.
</p>
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.
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>V</p>
<p>PATIENCE AND IMPATIENCE</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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:--</p>
<p>
"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. "</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Spunk, real, Simon-pure spunk, started some-where in Patty and
coursed through her blood like wine.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"'T was a Sabbath-School hymn that I was whistling!" This with a
creditable imitation of defiance.</p>
<p>"That don't make it any better. Sing your hymns if you must make
a noise while you're workin'."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Can't I go up to Ellen's, then?"</p>
<p>"What's goin' on up there?"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"'Just a frolic.' Land o' Goshen, hear the girl! 'Sight of a big,
rich house,' indeed!--Will there be any boys at the party?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"To hear you with, father," Patty replied, with honey-sweet voice
and eyes that blazed.</p>
<p>"Well, I hope they'll never hear anything worse," replied her
father, flinging a bucket of water over the last of the wagon
wheels.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>Waitstill was busy with her Saturday morning cooking, but she
turned in alarm.</p>
<p>"Patty, what have you said and done? Tell me quickly!"</p>
<p>"I 'argyfied,' but it didn't do any good; he won't let me go to
Ellen's party."</p>
<p>Waitstill wiped her floury hands and put them on her sister's
shoulders.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I don't believe I can go on for years, holding in, Waitstill!"
Patty whimpered.</p>
<p>"Yes, you can. I have!"</p>
<p>"You're different, Waitstill."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"I wish it could be me," exclaimed Patty vindictively, and with
an equal disregard of grammar.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Waitstill bent over the girl as she flung herself down beside the
table and smoothed her shoulder gently.</p>
<p>"There, there, dear; it isn't like my gay little sister to cry.
What is the matter with you to-day, Patty?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Don't you feel well as common?"</p>
<p>"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!"
</p>
"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!"
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>"There'll be SOMEthing in heav-en for chil-dren to do,<br>
None are idle in that bless-ed land: <br>
There'll be WORK for the heart. There'll be WORK for the mind, <br>
And emPLOYment for EACH little hand. <br>
"There'll be SOME-thing to do, <br>
There'll be SOME-thing to do, <br>
There'll be SOME-thing for CHIL-dren to do! <br>
On that bright blessed shore where there's joy evermore,<br>
There'll be SOME-thing for CHIL-DREN to do."<br>
</p>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<p> 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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"There's a place for everything," he said when he came back, "and
the place for flowers is outdoors."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"You certainly must have got rid of a good deal of temper this
morning, by the way your voice sounded."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>
"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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."'</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>VI</p>
<p>A KISS</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>
"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Do you eat meals together over to your house?" asked the boy.</p>
<p>"We're all three at the table if that means together."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"No, Rodman."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Neither does it to me," said Patty.</p>
<p>"I'm good at marbles and checkers and back-gammon and
jack-straws, though."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Your father doesn't like you to go any-wheres, 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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"It's too bad; I'm sorry, but after all you couldn't help it."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Patty sped down the long lane, crept under the bars, and flew
like a lapwing over the high-road.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"He's a regular old skinflint!" cried Mark, getting out of the
wagon and walking beside her.</p>
<p>"You mustn't call him names," Patty interposed with some dignity.
"I call him a good many myself, but I'm his daughter."</p>
<p>"You don't look it," said Mark admiringly. " Come and have a
little ride, Won't you?"</p>
<p>"Oh, I couldn't possibly, thank you. Some one would be sure to
see us, and father's so strict."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Mark alighted notwithstanding her objections, saying gallantly,
"I don't miss this pleasure, not by a jugful! Come along! Jump!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"I'll be home in a few minutes," said Patty, "I got delayed
and
am a little behindhand."</p>
<p>"I'11 turn right round if you'11 git in and lemme take you
back-along a piece; it'll save you a good five minutes," begged
Cephas, abjectly.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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 dite too
yaller. Folks that ain't never handled a brush allers think they
can mix paint better 'n them that knows their trade."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I never think," returned Patty with a tantalizing laugh.
"Good-night, Cephas; thank you for giving me a lift!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>VII</p>
<p>"WHAT DREAMS MAY COME</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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'11 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.
</p>
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'11 tell father
how it was, Uncle Bart, won't you?"
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<h2 align="center"></h2>
<h2 align="center">SUMMER</h2>
<p></p>
<p>VIII</p>
<p>THE JOINER'S SHOP</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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 he 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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'11 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."</p>
<p>
"The whole day spoiled!" wailed Patty, flinging herself down in
the kitchen rocker. "Father's powers of invention beat anything I
ever saw! </p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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 substracted 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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>IX</p>
<p>CEPHAS SPEAKS </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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'!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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-"</p>
<p>Her blush and her evident embarrassment gave Cephas a new fear.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I haven't promised anything or anybody," </p>
<p>Patty answered sedately, gaining her self-control by degrees,
"but I won't deny that I'm considering; that's true!"</p>
<p>"Considerin' who?" asked Cephas, turning pale.</p>
<p>"Oh,--SEVERAL, if you must know the truth"; and Patty's tone was
cruel in its jauntiness.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Good Gosh! It's Mis' Morrill's molasses!" cried Cephas, brought
to his senses suddenly.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>X</p>
<p>ON TORY HILL</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>
"We've had a lovely picnic!" called Patty; "I wish you had been
with us!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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:-- </p>
<blockquote>
<p>'The breaking waves dashed high <br>
<p>On a stern and rock-bound coast'--</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
"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,"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I'11 say good-bye now, Ivory, but I'11 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."</p>
<p>"I have my horse here; let me drive you up to the church."</p>
<p>"I can't, Ivory, thank you. Father's orders are against my
driving out with any one, you know."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>They sat down on the grass underneath one of the elms and
Waitstill took off her hat and leaned back against the
tree-trunk.</p>
<p>"Tell me more," she said; "it is so long since we talked together
quietly and we have never really spoken of your mother."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"Then you think it was your father's disappearance that really
caused her mind to waver? " asked Waitstill.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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:</p>
<p>'One said it thundered . . . another that an angel spake'"</p>
<p>"Do you feel as if your father was dead, Ivory?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XI</p>
<p>A JUNE SUNDAY</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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'!" </p>
<p>
"But, Foxwell, my Sunday dress is worn completely to threads,"
urged the second Mrs. Baxter.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Do you think you shall like that dull red right close to the
yellow, Patty? " Waitstill asked anxiously.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"She's innnocent as a kitten," observed Mrs. Day impartially.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I wonder if he ever puts anything into the plate," said Mrs.
Day. "No one ever saw him, that I know of."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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."</p>
<p>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:-</p>
<blockquote>
<p> "While Thee I seek, protecting Power, <br>
<p>Be my vain wishes stilled! <br>
<p>And may this consecrated hour <br>
<p>With better hopes be filled."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>"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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p> "Father, whate'er of earthly bliss <br>
Thy sov'reign will denies, <br>
Accepted at Thy Throne of grace <br>
Let this petition rise!</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
"Give me a calm, a thankful heart, <br>
From every murmur free! <br>
The blessing of Thy grace impart <br>
And let me live to Thee!"<br>
</blockquote>
<p>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!</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XII</p>
<p>THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER</p>
<p>"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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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!)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>Patty and Waitsill, 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"No one thinks so but you!" Patty responded dolefully, although
she wiped her eyes as if a bit consoled.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XIII</p>
<p>HAYING -TIME </p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XIV</p>
<p>UNCLE BART DISCOURSES</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Uncle Bart might somehow guess where I am going," she thought,
"but even if he did he would never tell any one."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>
"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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'."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I want to settle down," insisted Cephas doggedly.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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'11 have her troopin' in an' out, in an'
out, the whole 'durin' time."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I've asked her once a'ready," Cephas allowed, with a burning
face. "I don't s'pose you know the one I mean?"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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?</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"How are you goin' to live with 'em, then?" Cephas inquired,
looking up with interest coupled with some incredulity.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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,--</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XV</p>
<p>IVORY'S MOTHER</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"'WAITSTILL!"' she repeated softly; "'WAITSTILL!' Does Ivory
know
you?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Mrs. Boynton smiled "Come and look!" she whispered. "There is
always a humming-bird's nest in our lilac. How did you remember?"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"No," answered Waitstill, surprised and confused, "but I didn't
really notice; I was thinking of a cool place for my horse to
stand."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I should not think of asking questions, Mrs. Boynton."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Tell me if it will help you; I will try to understand," said
Waitstill brokenly.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XVI</p>
<p>LOCKED OUT</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>"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'."</p>
<p>"I haven't been 'prowling' anywhere, father," answered Waitstill;
"I've been out in the garden cooling off; it's only eight
o'clock."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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'11 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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'11 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!"</p>
<p>Waitstill wiped her eyes. "Let us go farther away where we can
talk," she whispered.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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'11
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!</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I was too unhappy to think of fear and I was chiefly nervous
about you, all alone in the house with father."</p>
<p>"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'?"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"How does the house look,--dreadful?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"If she appears so like other people, why don't the neighbors go
to see her once in a while?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"What does she talk about?" asked Patty.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"That's queer!" said Patty, smiling fondly and giving Waitstill's
hair the hasty brush of a kiss.</p>
<p>"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--</p>
<p>"Oh! Waity, weren't you terrified?"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p> </p>
<h2 align="center"></h2>
<h2 align="center">AUTUMN</h2>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XVII</p>
<p>A BRACE OF LOVERS</p>
<p>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</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"The red pennons of the cardinal flowers <br>
Hung motionless upon their upright staves." </p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I guess it's so!" Cephas responded gloomily. "It's nip an'
tuck
'tween him an' Mark Wilson.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"I s'pose a girl like Phoebe Day'd be consid'able less trouble to
live with?" ventured Uncle Bart.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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:--</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"My thoughts on awful subjects roll, <br>
Damnation and the dead. <br>
What horrors seize the guilty soul <br>
Upon a dying bed."</p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>
(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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!</p>
<p>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 savinges
permitted the best in the market; and the more impersonal the
husband the more delightedly Patty rolled the phrase under her
tongue.</p>
<p>"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.'"</p>
<p>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--</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XVIII</p>
<p>A STATE O' MAINE PROPHET</p>
<p>SUMMER was dying hard, for although it had passed, by the
calendar, Mother Nature was still keeping up her customary
attitude.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>
MY DEAR WAITSTILL:--</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p> IVORY BOYNTON</p>
</blockquote>
<p> 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.
</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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:--</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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:--</p>
<p>"Madam, you needn't touch your silver. I don't want it. I am a
gentleman."</p>
<p>Whereupon the bewildered Betsy scuttled back to her mother and
told her the strange guest was indeed a fortune-teller.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.'"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p> "'He spread his arms full wide abroad <br>
His works are ever before his God, <br>
His name on earth shall long remain, <br>
<p>Through envious sinners fret in vain.'"</p>
</blockquote>
<p>"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." </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XIX</p>
<p>AT THE BRICK STORE</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"'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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Oh!" said Bill, "that was easy enough; we jest unyoked 'em
an'
turned 'em out o' the primin'-hole!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"'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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"If things was a little mite dif'rent all round, I could
prognosticate who Waitstill could keep house for," was Peter
Morrill's opinion.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"How's that?" inquired Uncle Bart.</p>
<p>"She beareth all things," chuckled Jed.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Yes, but Rodman ain't no kin to the Boyntons," Abel reminded
him. "He inhails from the other side o' the house."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Why do they call 'em the dead languages, Tim?" asked Rish Bixby.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"I bet yer they never tried to wallop these here United States,"
interpolated Bill Dunham from the dark corner by the molasses
hogs-head.</p>
<p>"Is Ivory in here?" The door opened and Rodman Boynton appeared
on the threshold.</p>
<p>"No, sonny, Ivory ain't been in this evening replied Ezra Simms.
"I hope there ain't nothin' the matter over to your house?"</p>
<p>"No, nothing particular," the boy answered hesitatingly; "only
Aunt Boynton don't seem so well as common and I can't find Ivory
anywhere."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Speakin' o' Husshons," said Bill Dunham from his corner, "I
remember--"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Don't seem an easy death to me," argued Okra, "but I ain't
no
scholard. What college did thou attend to, Tim?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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--"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XX</p>
<p>THE ROD THAT BLOSSOMED</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I never heard that you had a middle name; you must ask Ivory,"
said his aunt abstractedly. </p>
<p>"Did my father name me Rod, or my mother?'</p>
<p>"I don't really know; perhaps it was your mother, but don't ask
questions, please."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Oh! I thought they were like the singing-teacher's stick he
keeps time with."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"Stand near me and read," said Mrs. Boynton. "I like to hear
the
Bible read aloud!"</p>
<p>Rodman took his Bible and read, slowly and haltingly, but with
clearness and understanding:</p>
<p>1. AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES, SAYING,</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>The boy continued, but without raising his eyes from the Bible.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>4. AND THOU SHALT LAY THEM UP IN THE TABERNACLE OF THE
CONGREGATION BEFORE THE TESTIMONY, WHERE I WILL MEET WITH YOU.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>7. AND MOSES LAID UP THE RODS BEFORE THE LORD IN THE TABERNACLE
OF WITNESS.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Oh! Aunt Boynton!" cried the boy, "I love my name after I've
heard about the almond rod! </p>
<p>Aren't you proud that it's Uncle's name that was written on the
one that blossomed?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Are you better, Aunt dear?" Rod asked in a very wavering and
tearful voice.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I want Ivory!" came in a feeble voice from the bedroom.</p>
<p>"Does your side ache worse?" Rod asked, tip-toeing to the door.</p>
<p>"No, I am quite free from pain."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"No, I will sleep," she whispered, closing her eyes. "Bring
him
quickly before I forget what I want to say to him."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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'11 have to go for Dr. Perry."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"We won't wake her, Rod. I'll watch a while, then sleep on the
sitting-room lounge."</p>
<p>"Let me watch, Ivory! I'd feel better if you'd let me, honest I
would!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I did the best I knew how; was anything wrong?" asked the boy,
as Ivory stood regarding him with a friendly smile.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p></p>
"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!"
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXI</p>
<p>LOIS BURIES HER DEAD</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"If you can get her to comprehend it," he said, "it is bound
to
be a relief from this terrible suspense."</p>
<p>"Will there be any danger of making her worse? Mightn't the shock
Cause too violent emotion?" asked Ivory anxiously.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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 hint these last
weeks. I must have known that it was no use!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXII</p>
<p>HARVEST-TIME</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
"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!</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Why, my dear, dear Waity, did you tumble and hurt yourself?" the
boy cried.</p>
<p>"Yes, dreadfully, but I'm better now, so walk along with me and
tell me the news, Rod."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"No, Ivory didn't tell me. I haven't seen him lately."</p>
<p>"I said if the big brother kept school, the little brother ought
to keep house," laughed the boy.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I didn't think you had any idea of marrying Patty," laughed
Waitstill through her tears. "Is this something new?"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I do, indeed!" cried Waitstill to herself as she turned the
words over and over trying to feed her hungry heart with them.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"Put your arms round me and give me a good hug, Patty! Love me
hard, HARD, for, oh! I need it badly just now!"</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXIII</p>
<p>AUNT ABBY'S WINDOW</p>
<p>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 land-
scape with eagle eyes in the intervals of making patchwork.</p>
<p>"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." </p>
<p>
"There's plenty goin' on," Mrs. Day answered unctuously; "some
of
it aboveboard an' some underneath it."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"The Deacon; Cephas is paintin' up to the Mills."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"It made me kind o' nervous," allowed Mrs. Day.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXIV</p>
<p>PHOEBE TRIUMPHS</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXV</p>
<p>LOVE'S YOUNG DREAMS</p>
<p>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:</p>
<blockquote>
<p> "Where the rain might rain upon them, <br>
Where the sun might shine upon them, <br>
Where the wind might sigh upon them, <br>
And the snow might die upon them."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"The night before will do. I will watch the house every evening
till you hang a white signal from your window."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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'11
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 '11 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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Patty's praise was bestowed none too frequently, and it sounded
very sweet in the young man's ears.</p>
<p>"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'11 work up together. I can see you in a yellow satin
dress, stiff enough to stand alone!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"I'11 get you anything you want in Portland to-morrow."</p>
<p>"Certainly not; I'd rather be married in rags than have you spend
your money upon me beforehand!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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. </p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"There never was a creature born into the world that wouldn't
love you, Patty!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"So was I with you! I hadn't grown up, Patty."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"She will forgive us, Patty darling; don't fret, and cry, and
make your pretty eyes all red. I'11 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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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'11 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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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!"
</p>
"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!"
<p>"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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<h2 align="center"></h2>
<h2 align="center">WINTER</h2>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXVI</p>
<p>A WEDDING-RING</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXVII</p>
<p>THE CONFESSIONAL</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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!" </p>
<p>
"Stop, dear, stop, and let me tell you!"</p>
<p>"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!</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Who is the husband?" asked Waitstill dryly, as she wiped her
eyes and leaned her elbow on the table.</p>
<p>"Who could it be but Mark? Has there ever been any one but Mark?"</p>
<p>"I should have said that there were several, in these past few
months."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"You are both of you only a few months older than when you were
'young and foolish,'" objected Waitstill.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"Never in the world--never!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"You are both so young, you could well have bided awhile."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Waitstill waived this point as too impossible for discussion.
"When and where were you married, Patty?" she asked.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"You thought of all that before, didn't you, child?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Does a New Hampshire marriage hold good in Maine?" asked
Waitstill, still intent on the bare facts at the bottom of the
romance.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"When is Mark coming back to arrange all this?"</p>
<p>"Late to-night or early to-morrow morning.
283
"Where did you go after you were married?" </p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"My poor, foolish dear!" sighed Waitstill.</p>
<p>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:--</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"Where have you seen your husband from that day to this?"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"We do," sobbed Patty. "No two people ever loved each other
better than we; but it's been all spoiled for fear of father."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I was expecting him every moment"; and Waitstill rose and
stirred the fire." He took the pung and went to the Mills for
grain."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXVIII</p>
<p>PATTY IS SHOWN THE DOOR</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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:--</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>
The time had come, then, and by some strange fatality, when Mark
was too far away to be of service.</p>
<p>"Tell me what you heard, father, and I can give you a better
answer," Patty replied, hedging to gain time, and shaking
inwardly.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>There seemed but one reply to this, so Patty answered
tremblingly: "He says what's true; I was there."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"If you ask me a plain question, I've got to tell you the truth,
father: I was."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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'11 stand by you."</p>
<p>"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'!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"Hush, Patty! Let him call me anything that he likes; it makes no
difference at such a time."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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--"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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'11 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."</p>
<p>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'11 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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Patty had a good share of the Baxter temper, not under such
control as Waitstill's, and the blood mounted into her face.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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." </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"My own dear sister," she said. "I don't mind anything, so long
as you stand up for us."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"She'11 not take anything from my house. It's her husband's
business to find her in clothes."</p>
<p>"They'll be better ones than ever you found me," was Patty's
response.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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'11 do what I said I'd do."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>Both girls were trembling with excitement; Waitstill pale as a
ghost, Patty flushed and tearful, with defiant eyes and lips that
quivered rebelliously.</p>
<p>"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'11 not let father
prevent your seeing Mark and me to-morrow, will you? Are you
afraid to stay alone? I'11 sit on the steps all night if you say
the word."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXIX</p>
<p>WAITSTILL SPEAKS HER MIND</p>
<p>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.
</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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, Wait still? "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." </p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"You are goin' out, then, spite o' what I said?" the Deacon
inquired sternly.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>Waitstill's voice trembled a trifle, but other-wise she was quite
calm and free from heroics of any sort.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>The old man was decidedly nervous, and intended to keep his
temper until there was a safer chance to let it fly.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"You gave me my life, and I'm thankful to you for that, but
you've given me little since, father."</p>
<p>"Hain't I fed an' clothed you?"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXX</p>
<p>A CLASH OF WILLS</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>This was enough to stir the blood of the Deacon into one last
fury.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"You've never taken pains to make anything but enemies, so what
could we do?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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'11 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Here his breath failed, and he stumbled out into the barn
whimpering between his broken sentences like a whipped child.</p>
<p>"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'11 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.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXXI</p>
<p>SENTRY DUTY</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 out-side the banqueting-table, he wondered,
and see others feasting while he hungered</p>
<p>
Now the little speck bounded from the fence, flew down the road
to meet the sleigh, and jumped in by the driver's side.</p>
<p>"I knew you'd come to-night," Rodman cried eagerly. "I told
Aunt
Boynton you'd come."</p>
<p>"How is she, well as common?"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"If I could have been there, maybe we could have got more. I'm
good at shinning up trees."</p>
<p>"Yes, sometime we'11 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."</p>
<p>"'Cause I knew you'd come to-night," said Rodman. "I felt it
in
my bones. We're going to have a splendid supper."</p>
<p>"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." </p>
<p>"She's hot, Aunt Boynton is, hot and restless, but Mrs. Mason
thinks that's all."</p>
<p>Ivory found his mother feverish, and her eyes were unnaturally
bright; but she was clear in X mind and cheerful, too, sitting up
in bed to r^ breathe the better, while the Maltese eat snuggled
under her arm and purred peacefully </p>
<p>"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
eat myself but she gives me more comfort than all the medicine."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Drop work a minute and come here, Rod," he said at length. "Can
you keep a secret?"</p>
<p>"'Course I can! I'm chock full of 'em now, and nobody could dig
one of 'em out o' me with a pickaxe!"</p>
<p>"Oh, well! If you're full you naturally couldn't hold another!"</p>
<p>"I could try to squeeze it in, if it's a nice one," coaxed the
boy.</p>
<p>"I don't know whether you'11 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."</p>
<p>"Patty! Married!" cried Rod, then hastily putting his hand over
his mouth to hush his too-loud speaking.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Did he look married, and all different?" asked Rod curiously.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Sympathetic tears dimmed Rodman's eyes. "I can't bear to see
girls cry, Ivory. I just can't bear it, especially Patty."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Isn't Patty's being married the point?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"She's too grand for anybody, Rod. There isn't a man alive that's
worthy to strap on her skates."</p>
<p>"Well, she's too grand for anybody except--" and here Rod's shy,
wistful voice trailed off into discreet silence.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"It's dreadful lonesome on Town-House Hill," said the boy in a
hushed tone </p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"There are only two of us, Rod. You're rather young for this
piece of work, but you're trusty--you 're trusty!"</p>
<p>"Am I to keep watch on the Deacon?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Rod's eyes grew bigger and bigger: "Shall I talk to her?" he
asked; "and what'll I say?"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>"I'll go. I'll remember everything," cried Rodman, in the seventh
heaven of delight at the responsibilities Ivory was heaping upon
him.
318</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"You couldn't hear Waitstill, even if she called," Rod said.</p>
<p>"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'11 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.</p>
<p>"Are you going to the barn? " asked Rodman.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>Which, however, depends a good deal upon circumstances, and somewhat on the
point of view.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXXII</p>
<p>THE HOUSE OF AARON</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Climbing Saco Hill was like climbing the hill of her dreams; life
and love beckoned to her across the snowy slopes.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Ivory was bewildered, indeed, but not so much so that he failed
to apprehend, and instantly, too, the real significance of this
speech.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>How glorious to hear all this delicious poetry of love, and to
feel Ivory's arms about her, making the dream seem surer!</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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." </p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>"You're too late, Ivory! You showed me your heart first, and now
you are searching your mind for bugbears to frighten me."</p>
<p>"I am a poor man."</p>
<p>"No girl could be poorer than I am."</p>
<p>"After what you've endured, you ought to have rest and comfort."</p>
<p>"I shall have both--in you!" This with eyes, all wet, lifted to
Ivory's.</p>
<p>"My mother is a great burden--a very dear and precious, but a
grievous one."</p>
<p>"She needs a daughter. It is in such things that I shall be your
helpmate."</p>
<p>"Will not the boy trouble you and add to your cares?"</p>
<p>"Rod? I love him; he shall be my little brother."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Mine is such a gloomy house!"</p>
<p>"Will it be gloomy when I am in it?" and Waitstill, usually so
grave, laughed at last like a care-free child.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.'"</p>
<p>"I only suggested mills in case you did not want to marry me,"
said Waitstill.</p>
<p>
"Walk up to the door with me," begged Ivory.</p>
<p>"The horse is all harnessed, and Rod will slip him into the
sleigh in a jiffy."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Is she really going to stay with us for always, Ivory?" he
asked.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"Patty didn't wait a fortnight."</p>
<p>"Patty never waited for anything," Ivory responded with a smile;
"but she had a good reason, and, alas! we haven't, or they'11 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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"I haven't had you for so long, so long!" she said, touching the
girl's cheek with her frail hand.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXXIII</p>
<p>AARON'S ROD</p>
<p>"IVORY! IVORY!"</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>
"Ivory! Ivory!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"That must have been the night that she fainted," thought Ivory.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"You remember the winter I was here at the farm alone, when you
were at the Academy?"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"'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.' </p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"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.'</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'But what do you expect me to do?' I asked angrily, for she was
stabbing me with every word.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'He'll go to something very like that if he comes to mine,' I
said.</p>
<p>"'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.'"</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"'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.'</p>
<p>"'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 wi11 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.</p>
<p>"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'11 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'11 be easy enough for you to say he
belongs to some of your own folks.'</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Poor, poor mother! My poor, gentle little mother!" murmured
Ivory brokenly, as he asked her hand.</p>
<p>"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'11
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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"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.'</p>
<p>"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.'</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"Mother, I can hardly bear to hear any more; it is too terrible!"
cried Ivory, rising from his chair and pacing the floor.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"I can try," he answered. "God knows I ought to be able to if
you
can!"</p>
<p>"And will it turn you away from Rod?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"His boyish belief in me, his companionship, have kept the breath
of hope alive in me--that's all I can say."</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>And as Ivory kissed his mother and blew out the candle, she whispered to herself:
"Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXXIV</p>
<p>THE DEACON'S WATERLOO</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p> 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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 l
refuse to housekeep, whether I '11 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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>This, indeed, was not a pleasant prospect, but Jane Tillman had
faced worse ones in her time.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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." </p>
<p>"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?</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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'11 be to git her out
o' their meetin' an' into ourn!"</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p>XXXV</p>
<p>TWO HEAVENS</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>As the Mason house faded from view, Patty having waved her muff
until the last moment, turned in her seat and said:--</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 Waits ill 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 Eve 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. </p>
<p>"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?"</p>
<p>"Stop, Waitstill!" cried Ivory. "Don't put hope into us until
you
are ready to satisfy it; we can't bear it!"</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>". . . There are two heavens . . . <br>
Both made of love,--one, inconceivable <br>
Ev'n by the other, so divine it is; <br>
The other, far on this side of the stars, <br>
<p>By men called home."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And these two heavens met, over at Boyntons', during these cold,
white, glistening December days.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>
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,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>". . . there fell from out the skies <br>
A feathery whiteness over all the land; <br>
A strange, soft, spotless something, pure as light."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Mrs. Boynton's Book of books was open on the bed and her finger
marked a passage in her favorite Bible-poet.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Truly the second heaven, the one on "this side of the stars, by
men called home," was very present over at Boyntons'.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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?"</p>
<p>Ivory looked up from his book quietly shaking his head, while
Waitstill put her arm around the boy and drew him closer.</p>
<p>"Our little brother is never in the way," she said, as she bent
and kissed him.</p>
<p>
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. </p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>End of The Project Gutenberg Etext Story Of Waitstill Baxter, by Wiggin</p>
<p> </p>
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<p></p>
<p></p>
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<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p> </p>
<PRE>
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