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diff --git a/3492.txt b/3492.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ede63c --- /dev/null +++ b/3492.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8080 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Homespun Tales, by Kate Douglas Wiggin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Homespun Tales + +Author: Kate Douglas Wiggin + +Posting Date: February 1, 2009 [EBook #3492] +Release Date: October, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMESPUN TALES *** + + + + +Produced by A Elizabeth Warren + + + + + +HOMESPUN TALES + +By Kate Douglas Wiggin + + + + +Introduction + +These three stories are now brought together under one cover because +they have not quite outworn their welcome; but in their first estate +two of them appeared as gift-books, with decorative borders and wide +margins, a style not compatible with the stringent economies of +the present moment. Luckily they belong together by reason of their +background, which is an imaginary village, any village you choose, +within the confines, or on the borders of York County, in the State of +Maine. + +In the first tale the river, not "Rose," is the principal character; no +one realizes this better than I. If an author spends her summers on +the banks of Saco Water it fills the landscape. It flows from the White +Mountains to the Atlantic in a tempestuous torrent, breaking here and +there into glorious falls of amber glimpsed through snowy foam; its +rapids dash through rocky cliffs crowned with pine trees, under which +blue harebells and rosy columbines blossom in gay profusion. There is +the glint of the mirror-like lake above the falls, and the sound of the +surging floods below; the witchery of feathery elms reflected in its +clear surfaces, and the enchantment of the full moon on its golden +torrents, never twice alike and always beautiful! How is one to forget, +evade, scorn, belittle it, by leaving its charms untold; and who could +keep such a river out of a book? It has flowed through many of mine +and the last sound I expect to hear in life will be the faint, far-away +murmur of Saco Water! + +The old Tory Hill Meeting House bulks its way into the foreground of the +next story, and the old Peabody Pew (which never existed) has somehow +assumed a quasi-historical aspect never intended by its author. There +is a Dorcas Society, and there is a meeting house; my dedication assures +the reader of these indubitable facts; and the Dorcas Society, in a +season of temporary bankruptcy, succeeding a too ample generosity, +did scrub the pews when there was no money for paint. Rumors of our +strenuous, and somewhat unique, activities spread through our parish +to many others, traveling so far (even over seas) that we became +embarrassed at our easily won fame. The book was read and people +occasionally came to church to see the old Peabody Pew, rather resenting +the information that there had never been any Peabodys in the parish +and, therefore, there could be no Peabody Pew. Matters became worse +when I made, very reverently, what I suppose must be called a dramatic +version of the book, which we have played for several summers in the old +meeting house to audiences far exceeding our seating capacity. Inasmuch +as the imaginary love-tale of my so-called Nancy Wentworth and Justin +Peabody had begun under the shadow of the church steeple, and after the +ten years of parting the happy reunion had come to them in the selfsame +place, it was possible to present their story simply and directly, +without offense, in a church building. There was no curtain, no stage, +no scenery, no theatricalism. The pulpit was moved back, and four young +pine trees were placed in front of it for supposed Christmas decoration. +The pulpit platform, and the "wing pews" left vacant for the village +players, took the place of a stage; the two aisles served for exits and +entrances; and the sexton with three rings of the church bell, announced +the scenes. The Carpet Committee of the Dorcas Society furnished the +exposition of the first act, while sewing the last breadths of the new, +hardly-bought ingrain carpet. The scrubbing of the pews ends the act, +with dialogue concerning men, women, ministers, church-members and their +ways, including the utter failure of Justin Peabody, Nancy's hero, to +make a living anywhere, even in the West. The Dorcas members leave the +church for their Saturday night suppers of beans and brown bread, but +Nancy returns with her lantern at nightfall to tack down the carpet in +the old Peabody pew and iron out the tattered, dog's eared leaves of the +hymn-book from which she has so often sung "By cool Siloam's shady rill" +with her lover in days gone by. He, still a failure, having waited for +years for his luck to turn, has come back to spend Christmas in the home +of his boyhood; and seeing a dim light in the church, he enters quietly +and surprises Nancy at her task of carpeting the Peabody Pew, so that +it shall look as well as the others at next day's services. The rest +is easy to imagine. One can deny the reality of a book, but when two or +three thousand people have beheld Justin Peabody and Nancy Wentworth in +the flesh, and have seen the paint of the old Peabody Pew wiped with +a damp cloth, its cushion darned and its carpet tacked in place, it is +useless to argue; any more than it would be to deny the validity of the +egg of Columbus or the apple of William Tell. + +As for "Susanna and Sue" the story would never have been written had I +not as a child and girl been driven once a year to the Shaker meeting at +the little village of Alfred, sixteen miles distant. The services were +then open to the public, but eventually permission to attend them was +withdrawn, because of the careless and sometimes irreverent behavior +of young people who regarded the Shaker costumes, the solemn dances +or marches, the rhythmic movements of the hands, the almost hypnotic +crescendo of the singing, as a sort of humorous spectacle. I learned +to know the brethren and sisters, and the Elder, as years went by, +and often went to the main house to spend a day or two as the guest of +Eldress Harriet, a saint, if ever there was one, or, later, with dear +Sister Lucinda. + +The shining cleanliness and order, the frugality and industry, the +serenity and peace of these people, who had resigned the world and +"life on the plane of Adam," vowing themselves to celibacy, to public +confession of sins, and the holding of goods in common,--all this has +always had a certain exquisite and helpful influence upon my thought, +and Mr. W. D. Howells paid a far more beautiful tribute to them in "The +Undiscovered Country." + +It is needless to say that I read every word of the book to my Shaker +friends before it was published. They took a deep interest in it, +evincing keen delight in my rather facetious but wholly imaginary +portrait of "Brother Ansel," a "born Shaker," and sadly confessing that +my two young lovers, "Hetty" and "Nathan," who could not endure the +rigors of the Shaker faith and fled together in the night to marry and +join the world's people,--that this tragedy had often occurred in their +community. + +Here, then, are the three simple homespun tales. I believe they are true +to life as I see it. I only wish my readers might hear the ripple of the +Maine river running through them; breathe the fragrance of New England +for-ests, and though never for a moment getting, through my poor pen, +the atmosphere of Maine's rugged cliffs and the tang of her salt sea +air, they might at least believe for an instant that they had found a +modest Mayflower in her pine woods. + +KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN. July, 1920. + + + +CONTENTS + + + ROSE O' THE RIVER + + I. The Pine and the Rose + II. The "Old Kennebec" + III. The Edgewood "Drive" + IV. "Blasphemious Swearin'" + V. The Game of Jackstraws + VI. Hearts and Other Hearts + VII. The Little House + VIII. The Garden of Eden + IX. The Serpent + X. The Turquoise Ring + XI. Rose Sees the World + XII. Gold and Pinchbeck + XIII. A Country Chevalier + XIV. Housebreaking + XV. The Dream Room + + + THE OLD PEABODY PEW + + + SUSANNA AND SUE + + I. Mother Ann's Children + II. A Son of Adam + III. Divers Doctrines + IV. Louisa's Mind + V. the Little Quail Bird + VI. Susanna Speaks in Meeting + VII. "The Lower Plane" + VIII. Concerning Backsliders + IX. Love Manifold + X. Brother and Sister + XI. "The Open Door" + XII. The Hills of Home + + + + + +ROSE O' THE RIVER + + + + +I. The Pine And the Rose + + +It was not long after sunrise, and Stephen Waterman, fresh from his +dip in the river, had scrambled up the hillside from the hut in the +alder-bushes where he had made his morning toilet. + +An early ablution of this sort was not the custom of the farmers along +the banks of the Saco, but the Waterman house was hardly a stone's throw +from the water, and there was a clear, deep swimming-hole in the Willow +Cove that would have tempted the busiest man, or the least cleanly, in +York County. Then, too, Stephen was a child of the river, born, reared, +schooled on its very brink, never happy unless he were on it, or in it, +or beside it, or at least within sight or sound of it. + +The immensity of the sea had always silenced and overawed him, left him +cold in feeling. The river wooed him, caressed him, won his heart. +It was just big enough to love. It was full of charms and changes, of +varying moods and sudden surprises. Its voice stole in upon his ear with +a melody far sweeter and more subtle than the boom of the ocean. Yet it +was not without strength, and when it was swollen with the freshets of +the spring and brimming with the bounty of its sister streams, it could +dash and roar, boom and crash, with the best of them. + +Stephen stood on the side porch, drinking in the glory of the sunrise, +with the Saco winding like a silver ribbon through the sweet loveliness +of the summer landscape. + +And the river rolled on toward the sea, singing its morning song, +creating and nourishing beauty at every step of its onward path. Cradled +in the heart of a great mountain-range, it pursued its gleaming way, +here lying silent in glassy lakes, there rushing into tinkling little +falls, foaming great falls, and thundering cataracts. Scores of bridges +spanned its width, but no steamers flurried its crystal depths. Here and +there a rough little rowboat, tethered to a willow, rocked to and fro in +some quiet bend of the shore. Here the silver gleam of a rising perch, +chub, or trout caught the eye; there a pickerel lay rigid in the clear +water, a fish carved in stone: here eels coiled in the muddy bottom +of some pool; and there, under the deep shadows of the rocks, lay fat, +sleepy bass, old, and incredibly wise, quite untempted by, and wholly +superior to, the rural fisherman's worm. + +The river lapped the shores of peaceful meadows; it flowed along banks +green with maple, beech, sycamore, and birch; it fell tempestuously over +dams and fought its way between rocky cliffs crowned with stately firs. +It rolled past forests of pine and hemlock and spruce, now gentle, +now terrible; for there is said to be an Indian curse upon the Saco, +whereby, with every great sun, the child of a paleface shall be drawn +into its cruel depths. Lashed into fury by the stony reefs that impeded +its progress, the river looked now sapphire, now gold, now white, now +leaden gray; but always it was hurrying, hurrying on its appointed way +to the sea. + +After feasting his eyes and filling his heart with a morning draught +of beauty, Stephen went in from the porch and, pausing at the stairway, +called in stentorian tones: "Get up and eat your breakfast, Rufus! The +boys will be picking the side jams today, and I'm going down to work on +the logs. If you come along, bring your own pick-pole and peavey." Then, +going to the kitchen pantry, he collected, from the various shelves, +a pitcher of milk, a loaf of bread, half an apple pie, and a bowl of +blueberries, and, with the easy methods of a household unswayed by +feminine rule, moved toward a seat under an apple tree and took his +morning meal in great apparent content. Having finished, and washed his +dishes with much more thoroughness than is common to unsuperintended +man, and having given Rufus the second call to breakfast with the vigor +and acrimony that usually mark that unpleasant performance, he strode to +a high point on the riverbank and, shading his eyes with his hand, gazed +steadily downstream. + +Patches of green fodder and blossoming potatoes melted into soft fields +that had been lately mown, and there were glimpses of tasseling corn +rising high to catch the sun. Far, far down on the opposite bank of the +river was the hint of a brown roof, and the tip of a chimney that sent a +slender wisp of smoke into the clear air. Beyond this, and farther back +from the water, the trees apparently hid a cluster of other chimneys, +for thin spirals of smoke ascended here and there. The little brown +roof could never have revealed itself to any but a lover's eye; and that +discerned something even smaller, something like a pinkish speck, that +moved hither and thither on a piece of greensward that sloped to the +waterside. + +"She's up!" Stephen exclaimed under his breath, his eyes shining, his +lips smiling. His voice had a note of hushed exaltation about it, as if +"she," whoever she might be, had, in condescending to rise, conferred a +priceless boon upon a waiting universe. If she were indeed "up" (so his +tone implied), then the day, somewhat falsely heralded by the sunrise, +had really begun, and the human race might pursue its appointed tasks, +inspired and uplifted by the consciousness of her existence. It might +properly be grateful for the fact of her birth; that she had grown to +woman's estate; and, above all, that, in common with the sun, the lark, +the morning-glory, and other beautiful things of the early day, she was +up and about her lovely, cheery, heart-warming business. + +The handful of chimneys and the smoke-spirals rising here and there +among the trees on the river-bank belonged to what was known as the +Brier Neighborhood. There were only a few houses in all, scattered along +a side road leading from the river up to Liberty Center. There were no +great signs of thrift or prosperity, but the Wiley cottage, the only +one near the water, was neat and well cared for, and Nature had done her +best to conceal man's indolence, poverty, or neglect. + +Bushes of sweetbrier grew in fragrant little forests as tall as the +fences. Clumps of wild roses sprang up at every turn, and over all the +stone walls, as well as on every heap of rocks by the wayside, prickly +blackberry vines ran and clambered and clung, yielding fruit and thorns +impartially to the neighborhood children. + +The pinkish speck that Stephen Waterman had spied from his side of the +river was Rose Wiley of the Brier Neighborhood on the Edgewood side. As +there was another of her name on Brigadier Hill, the Edgewood minister +called one of them the climbing Rose and the other the brier Rose, or +sometimes Rose of the river. She was well named, the pinkish speck. She +had not only some of the sweetest attributes of the wild rose, but the +parallel might have been extended as far as the thorns, for she had +wounded her scores,--hearts, be it understood, not hands. The wounding +was, on the whole, very innocently done; and if fault could be imputed +anywhere, it might rightly have been laid at the door of the kind powers +who had made her what she was, since the smile that blesses a single +heart is always destined to break many more. + +She had not a single silk gown, but she had what is far better, a +figure to show off a cotton one. Not a brooch nor a pair of earrings was +numbered among her possessions, but any ordinary gems would have looked +rather dull and trivial when compelled to undergo comparison with her +bright eyes. As to her hair, the local milliner declared it impossible +for Rose Wiley to get an unbecoming hat; that on one occasion, being +in a frolicsome mood, Rose had tried on all the headgear in the village +emporium,--children's gingham "Shakers," mourning bonnets for aged +dames, men's haying hats and visored caps,--and she proved superior +to every test, looking as pretty as a pink in the best ones and simply +ravishing in the worst. In fact, she had been so fashioned and +finished by Nature that, had she been set on a revolving pedestal in a +show-window, the bystanders would have exclaimed, as each new charm came +into view: "Look at her waist! See her shoulders! And her neck and chin! +And her hair!" While the children, gazing with raptured admiration, +would have shrieked, in unison, "I choose her for mine." + +All this is as much as to say that Rose of the river was a beauty, yet +it quite fails to explain, nevertheless, the secret of her power. When +she looked her worst the spell was as potent as when she looked her +best. Hidden away somewhere was a vital spark which warmed every one +who came in contact with it. Her lovely little person was a trifle below +medium height, and it might as well be confessed that her soul, on the +morning when Stephen Waterman saw her hanging out the clothes on the +river-bank, was not large enough to be at all out of proportion; but +when eyes and dimples, lips and cheeks, enslave the onlooker, the soul +is seldom subjected to a close or critical scrutiny. Besides, Rose Wiley +was a nice girl, neat as wax, energetic, merry, amiable, economical. She +was a dutiful granddaughter to two of the most irritating old people +in the county; she never patronized her pug-nosed, pasty-faced girl +friends; she made wonderful pies and doughnuts; and besides, small +souls, if they are of the right sort, sometimes have a way of growing, +to the discomfiture of cynics and the gratification of the angels. + +So, on one bank of the river grew the brier rose, a fragile thing, +swaying on a slender stalk and looking at its pretty reflection in the +water; and on the other a sturdy pine tree, well rooted against wind and +storm. And the sturdy pine yearned for the wild rose; and the rose, so +far as it knew, yearned for nothing at all, certainly not for rugged +pine trees standing tall and grim in rocky soil. If, in its present +stage of development, it gravitated toward anything in particular, it +would have been a well-dressed white birch growing on an irreproachable +lawn. + +And the river, now deep, now shallow, now smooth, now tumultuous, +now sparkling in sunshine, now gloomy under clouds, rolled on to the +engulfing sea. It could not stop to concern itself with the petty +comedies and tragedies that were being enacted along its shores, else it +would never have reached its destination. Only last night, under a full +moon, there had been pairs of lovers leaning over the rails of all the +bridges along its course; but that was a common sight, like that of the +ardent couples sitting on its shady banks these summer days, looking +only into each other's eyes, but exclaiming about the beauty of the +water. Lovers would come and go, sometimes reappearing with successive +installments of loves in a way wholly mysterious to the river. Meantime +it had its own work to do and must be about it, for the side jams were +to be broken and the boom "let out" at the Edgewood bridge. + + + + +II. "Old Kennebec" + + +It was just seven o'clock that same morning when Rose Wiley smoothed the +last wrinkle from her dimity counterpane, picked up a shred of corn-husk +from the spotless floor under the bed, slapped a mosquito on the +window-sill, removed all signs of murder with a moist towel, and before +running down to breakfast cast a frowning look at her pincushion. +Almira, otherwise "Mite," Shapley had been in her room the afternoon +before and disturbed with her careless hand the pattern of Rose's pins. +They were kept religiously in the form of a Maltese cross; and if, while +she was extricating one from her clothing, there had been an alarm +of fire, Rose would have stuck the pin in its appointed place in the +design, at the risk of losing her life. + +Entering the kitchen with her light step, she brought the morning +sunshine with her. The old people had already engaged in differences of +opinion, but they commonly suspended open warfare in her presence. +There were the usual last things to be done for breakfast, offices that +belonged to her as her grandmother's assistant. She took yesterday's +soda biscuits out of the steamer where they were warming and softening; +brought an apple pie and a plate of seed cakes from the pantry; settled +the coffee with a piece of dried fish skin and an egg shell; and +transferred some fried potatoes from the spider to a covered dish. + +"Did you remember the meat, grandpa? We're all out," she said, as she +began buttoning a stiff collar around his reluctant neck. + +"Remember? Land, yes! I wish't I ever could forgit anything! The butcher +says he's 'bout tired o' travelin' over the country lookin' for critters +to kill, but if he finds anything he'll be up along in the course of a +week. He ain't a real smart butcher, Cyse Higgins ain't.--Land, Rose, +don't button that dickey clean through my epperdummis! I have to sport +starched collars in this life on account o' you and your gran'mother +bein' so chock full o' style; but I hope to the Lord I shan't have to +wear 'em in another world!" + +"You won't," his wife responded with the snap of a dish towel, "or if +you do, they'll wilt with the heat." + +Rose smiled, but the soft hand with which she tied the neckcloth about +the old man's withered neck pacified his spirit, and he smiled knowingly +back at her as she took her seat at the breakfast table spread near the +open kitchen door. She was a dazzling Rose, and, it is to be feared, +a wasted one, for there was no one present to observe her clean pink +calico and the still more subtle note struck in the green ribbon which +was tied round her throat,--the ribbon that formed a sort of calyx, out +of which sprang the flower of her face, as fresh and radiant as if it +had bloomed that morning. + +"Give me my coffee turrible quick," said Mr. Wiley; "I must be down to +the bridge 'fore they start dog-warpin' the side jam." + +"I notice you're always due at the bridge on churnin' days," remarked +his spouse, testily. + +"'T ain't me as app'ints drivin' dates at Edgewood," replied the old +man. "The boys'll hev a turrible job this year. The logs air ricked up +jest like Rose's jack-straws; I never see 'em so turrible ricked up in +all my exper'ence; an' Lije Dennett don' know no more 'bout pickin' a +jam than Cooper's cow. Turrible sot in his ways, too; can't take a +mite of advice. I was tellin' him how to go to work on that bung that's +formed between the gre't gray rock an' the shore,--the awfullest place +to bung that there is between this an' Biddeford,--and says he: 'Look +here, I've be'n boss on this river for twelve year, an' I'll be doggoned +if I'm goin' to be taught my business by any man!' 'This ain't no +river,' says I, 'as you'd know,' says I, 'if you'd ever lived on the +Kennebec.' 'Pity you hed n't stayed on it,' says he. 'I wish to the land +I hed,' says I. An' then I come away, for my tongue's so turrible spry +an' sarcustic that I knew if I stopped any longer I should stir up +strife. There's some folks that'll set on addled aigs year in an' year +out, as if there wa'n't good fresh ones bein' laid every day; an' Lije +Dennett's one of 'em, when it comes to river-drivin'." + +"There's lots o' folks as have made a good livin' by mindin' their own +business," observed the still sententious Mrs. Wiley, as she speared a +soda biscuit with her fork. + +"Mindin' your own business is a turrible selfish trade," responded +her husband loftily. "If your neighbor is more ignorant than what you +are,--partic'larly if he's as ignorant as Cooper's cow,--you'd ought, +as a Kennebec man an' a Christian, to set him on the right track, +though it's always a turrible risky thing to do." Rose's grandfather was +called, by the irreverent younger generation, sometimes "Turrible Wiley" +and sometimes "Old Kennebec," because of the frequency with which these +words appeared in his conversation. There were not wanting those of late +who dubbed him Uncle Ananias, for reasons too obvious to mention. After +a long, indolent, tolerably truthful, and useless life, he had, at +seventy-five, lost sight of the dividing line between fact and fancy, +and drew on his imagination to such an extent that he almost staggered +himself when he began to indulge in reminiscence. He was a feature of +the Edgewood "drive," being always present during the five or six days +that it was in progress, sometimes sitting on the river-bank, sometimes +leaning over the bridge, sometimes reclining against the butt-end of +a huge log, but always chewing tobacco and expectorating to incredible +distances as he criticized and damned impartially all the expedients in +use at the particular moment. + +"I want to stay down by the river this afternoon," said Rose. "Ever +so many of the girls will be there, and all my sewing is done up. If +grandpa will leave the horse for me, I'll take the drivers' lunch to +them at noon, and bring the dishes back in time to wash them before +supper." + +"I suppose you can go, if the rest do," said her grandmother, "though +it's an awful lazy way of spendin' an afternoon. When I was a girl there +was no such dawdlin' goin' on, I can tell you. Nobody thought o' lookin' +at the river in them days; there was n't time." + +"But it's such fun to watch the logs!" Rose exclaimed. "Next to dancing, +the greatest fun in the world." + +"'Specially as all the young men in town will be there, watchin', too," +was the grandmother's reply. "Eben Brooks an' Richard Bean got home +yesterday with their doctors' diplomas in their pockets. Mrs. Brooks +says Eben stood forty-nine in a class o' fifty-five, an' seemed +consid'able proud of him; an' I guess it is the first time he ever stood +anywheres but at the foot. I tell you when these fifty-five new doctors +git scattered over the country there'll be consid'able many folks +keepin' house under ground. Dick Bean's goin' to stop a spell with Rufe +an' Steve Waterman. That'll make one more to play in the river." + +"Rufus ain't hardly got his workin' legs on yit," allowed Mr. Wiley, +"but Steve's all right. He's a turrible smart driver, an' turrible +reckless, too. He'll take all the chances there is, though to a man +that's lived on the Kennebec there ain't what can rightly be called any +turrible chances on the Saco." + +"He'd better be 'tendin' to his farm," objected Mrs. Wiley. + +"His hay is all in," Rose spoke up quickly, "and he only helps on the +river when the farm work is n't pressing. Besides, though it's all play +to him, he earns his two dollars and a half a day." + +"He don't keer about the two and a half," said her grandfather. "He jest +can't keep away from the logs. There's some that can't. When I first +moved here from Gard'ner, where the climate never suited me--" + + +"The climate of any place where you hev regular work never did an' +never will suit you," remarked the old man's wife; but the interruption +received no comment: such mistaken views of his character were too +frequent to make any impression. + +"As I was sayin', Rose," he continued, "when we first moved here from +Gard'ner, we lived neighbor to the Watermans. Steve an' Rufus was little +boys then, always playin' with a couple o' wild cousins o' theirn, +consid'able older. Steve would scare his mother pretty nigh to death +stealin' away to the mill to ride on the 'carriage,' 'side o' the log +that was bein' sawed, hitchin' clean out over the river an' then jerkin' +back 'most into the jaws o' the machinery." + +"He never hed any common sense to spare, even when he was a young one," +remarked Mrs. Wiley; "and I don't see as all the 'cademy education +his father throwed away on him has changed him much." And with this +observation she rose from the table and went to the sink. + +"Steve ain't nobody's fool," dissented the old man; "but he's kind o' +daft about the river. When he was little he was allers buildin' dams in +the brook, an' sailin' chips, an' runnin' on the logs; allers choppin' +up stickins an' raftin' 'em together in the pond. I cai'late Mis' +Waterman died consid'able afore her time, jest from fright, lookin' out +the winders and seein' her boys slippin' between the logs an' gittin' +their daily dousin'. She could n't understand it, an' there's a heap o' +things women-folks never do an' never can understand,--jest because they +_air_ women-folks." + +"One o' the things is men, I s'pose," interrupted Mrs. Wiley. + +"Men in general, but more partic'larly husbands," assented Old Kennebec; +"howsomever, there's another thing they don't an' can't never take in, +an' that's sport. Steve does river-drivin' as he would horse-racin' or +tiger-shootin' or tight-rope dancin'; an' he always did from a boy. When +he was about twelve to fifteen, he used to help the river-drivers spring +and fall, reg'lar. He could n't do nothin' but shin up an' down the +rocks after hammers an' hatchets an' ropes, but he was turrible +pleased with his job. 'Stepanfetchit,' they used to call him them +days,--Stepanfetchit Waterman." + +"Good name for him yet," came in acid tones from the sink. "He's still +steppin' an' fetchin', only it's Rose that's doin' the drivin' now." + +"I'm not driving anybody, that I know of," answered Rose, with +heightened color, but with no loss of her habitual self-command. + +"Then, when he graduated from errants," went on the crafty old man, who +knew that when breakfast ceased, churning must begin, "Steve used to +get seventy-five cents a day helpin' clear up the river--if you can call +this here silv'ry streamlet a river. He'd pick off a log here an' there +an' send it afloat, an' dig out them that hed got ketched in the rocks, +and tidy up the banks jest like spring house-cleanin'. If he'd hed any +kind of a boss, an' hed be'n trained on the Kennebec, he'd 'a' made a +turrible smart driver, Steve would." + +"He'll be drownded, that's what'll become o' him," prophesied Mrs. Wiley; +"specially if Rose encourages him in such silly foolishness as ridin' +logs from his house down to ourn, dark nights." + +"Seein' as how Steve built ye a nice pigpen last month, 'pears to me +you might have a good word for him now an' then, mother," remarked Old +Kennebec, reaching for his second piece of pie. + +"I wa'n't a mite deceived by that pigpen, no more'n I was by Jed Towle's +hencoop, nor Ivory Dunn's well-curb, nor Pitt Packard's shed-steps. If +you hed ever kep' up your buildin's yourself, Rose's beaux would n't hev +to do their courtin' with carpenters' tools." + +"It's the pigpen an' the hencoop you want to keep your eye on, mother, +not the motives of them as made 'em. It's turrible onsettlin' to inspeck +folks' motives too turrible close." + +"Riding a log is no more to Steve than riding a horse, so he says," +interposed Rose, to change the subject; "but I tell him that a horse +does n't revolve under you, and go sideways at the same time that it is +going forwards." + +"Log-ridin' ain't no trick at all to a man of sperit," said Mr. Wiley. +"There's a few places in the Kennebec where the water's too shaller to +let the logs float, so we used to build a flume, an' the logs would whiz +down like arrers shot from a bow. The boys used to collect by the side +o' that there flume to see me ride a log down, an' I've watched 'em drop +in a dead faint when I spun by the crowd; but land! you can't drownd +some folks, not without you tie nail-kags to their head an' feet an' +drop 'em in the falls; I've rid logs down the b'ilin'est rapids o' the +Kennebec an' never lost my head. I remember well the year o' the gre't +freshet, I rid a log from--" + +"There, there, father, that'll do," said Mrs. Wiley, decisively. "I'll +put the cream in the churn, an' you jest work off' some o' your steam by +bringin' the butter for us afore you start for the bridge. It don't +do no good to brag afore your own women-folks; work goes consid'able +better'n stories at every place 'cept the loafers' bench at the tavern." + +And the baffled raconteur, who had never done a piece of work cheerfully +in his life, dragged himself reluctantly to the shed, where, before +long, one could hear him moving the dasher up and down sedately to his +favorite "churning tune" of + + Broad is the road that leads to death, + And thousands walk together there; + But Wisdom shows a narrow path, + With here and there a traveler. + + + + +III. The Edgewood "Drive" + + +Just where the bridge knits together the two little villages of Pleasant +River and Edgewood, the glassy mirror of the Saco broadens suddenly, +sweeping over the dam in a luminous torrent. Gushes of pure amber mark +the middle of the dam, with crystal and silver at the sides, and from +the seething vortex beneath the golden cascade the white spray dashes +up in fountains. In the crevices and hollows of the rocks the mad water +churns itself into snowy froth, while the foam-flecked torrent, deep, +strong, and troubled to its heart, sweeps majestically under the bridge, +then dashes between wooded shores piled high with steep masses of rock, +or torn and riven by great gorges. + +There had been much rain during the summer, and the Saco was very +high, so on the third day of the Edgewood drive there was considerable +excitement at the bridge, and a goodly audience of villagers from both +sides of the river. There were some who never came, some who had no +fancy for the sight, some to whom it was an old story, some who were +too busy, but there were many to whom it was the event of events, a +never-ending source of interest. + +Above the fall, covering the placid surface of the river, thousands of +logs lay quietly "in boom" until the "turning out" process, on the last +day of the drive, should release them and give them their chance +of display, their brief moment of notoriety, their opportunity of +interesting, amusing, exciting, and exasperating the onlookers by their +antics. + +Heaps of logs had been cast up on the rocks below the dam, where they +lay in hopeless confusion, adding nothing, however, to the problem of +the moment, for they too bided their time. If they had possessed wisdom, +discretion, and caution, they might have slipped gracefully over the +falls and, steering clear of the hidden ledges (about which it would +seem they must have heard whispers from the old pine trees along the +river), have kept a straight course and reached their destination +without costing the Edgewood Lumber Company a small fortune. Or, if +they had inclined toward a jolly and adventurous career, they could have +joined one of the various jams or "bungs," stimulated by the thought +that any one of them might be a key-log, holding for a time the entire +mass in its despotic power. But they had been stranded early in the +game, and, after lying high and dry for weeks, would be picked off one +by one and sent downstream. + +In the tumultuous boil, the foaming hubbub and flurry at the foot of +the falls, one enormous peeled log wallowed up and clown like a huge +rhinoceros, greatly pleasing the children by its clumsy cavortings. Some +conflict of opposing forces kept it ever in motion, yet never set it +free. Below the bridge were always the real battle-grounds, the scenes +of the first and the fiercest conflicts. A ragged ledge of rock, +standing well above the yeasty torrent, marked the middle of the +river. Stephen had been stranded there once, just at dusk, on a stormy +afternoon in spring. A jam had broken under the men, and Stephen, having +taken too great risks, had been caught on the moving mass, and, leaping +from log to log, his only chance for life had been to find a footing on +Gray Rock, which was nearer than the shore. + +Rufus was ill at the time, and Mrs. Waterman so anxious and nervous +that processions of boys had to be sent up to the River Farm, giving the +frightened mother the latest bulletins of her son's welfare. Luckily, +the river was narrow just at the Gray Rock, and it was a quite possible +task, though no easy one, to lash two ladders together and make a narrow +bridge on which the drenched and shivering man could reach the shore. +There were loud cheers when Stephen ran lightly across the slender +pathway that led to safety--ran so fast that the ladders had scarce time +to bend beneath his weight. He had certainly "taken chances," but when +did he not do that? The logger's life is one of "moving accidents by +flood and field," and Stephen welcomed with wild exhilaration every +hazard that came in his path. To him there was never a dull hour from +the moment that the first notch was cut in the tree (for he sometimes +joined the boys in the lumber camp just for a frolic) till the later +one when the hewn log reached its final destination. He knew nothing +of "tooling" a four-in-hand through narrow lanes or crowded +thoroughfares,--nothing of guiding a horse over the hedges and through +the pitfalls of a stiff bit of hunting country; his steed was the +rearing, plunging, kicking log, and he rode it like a river god. + +The crowd loves daring, and so it welcomed Stephen with bravos, but it +knew, as he knew, that he was only doing his duty by the Company, only +showing the Saco that man was master, only keeping the old Waterman name +in good repute. "Ye can't drownd some folks," Old Kennebec had said, as +he stood in a group on the shore; "not without you tie sand-bags to 'em +an' drop 'em in the Great Eddy. I'm the same kind; I remember when I was +stranded on jest sech a rock in the Kennebec, only they left me there +all night for dead, an' I had to swim the rapids when it come daylight." + +"We're well acquainted with that rock and them rapids," exclaimed one of +the river-drivers, to the delight of the company. + +Rose had reason to remember Stephen's adventure, for he had clambered +up the bank, smiling and blushing under the hurrahs of the boys, and, +coming to the wagon where she sat waiting for her grandfather, had +seized a moment to whisper: "Did you care whether I came across safe, +Rose? Say you did!" + +Stephen recalled that question, too, on this August morning; perhaps +because this was to be a red-letter day, and some time, when he had a +free moment,--some time before supper, when he and Rose were sitting +apart from the others, watching the logs,--he intended again to ask her +to marry him. This thought trembled in him, stirring the deeps of his +heart like a great wave, almost sweeping him off his feet when he held +it too close and let it have full sway. It would be the fourth time +that he had asked Rose this question of all questions, but there was +no unerceptible difference in his excitement, for there was always the +possible chance that she might change her mind and say yes, if only for +variety. Wanting a thing continuously, unchangingly, unceasingly, year +after year, he thought,--longing to reach it as the river longed to +reach the sea,--such wanting might, in course of time, mean having. + +Rose drove up to the bridge with the men's luncheon, and the under boss +came up to take the baskets and boxes from the back of the wagon. + +"We've had a reg'lar tussle this mornin', Rose," he said. "The logs +are determined not to move. Ike Billings, that's the han'somest and +fluentest all-round swearer on the Saco, has tried his best on the side +jam. He's all out o' cuss-words and there hain't a log budged. Now, stid +o' dog-warpin' this afternoon, an' lettin' the oxen haul off all them +stubborn logs by main force, we're goin' to ask you to set up on the +bank and smile at the jam. 'Land! she can do it!' says Ike a minute ago. +'When Rose starts smilin',' he says, 'there ain't a jam nor a bung in +_me_ that don't melt like wax and jest float right off same as the logs +do when they get into quiet, sunny water.'" + +Rose blushed and laughed, and drove up the hill to Mite Shapley's, where +she put up the horse and waited till the men had eaten their luncheon. +The drivers slept and had breakfast and supper at the Billings house, a +mile down-river, but for several years Mrs. Wiley had furnished the +noon meal, sending it down piping hot on the stroke of twelve. The boys +always said that up or down the whole length of the Saco there was +no such cooking as the Wileys', and much of this praise was earned by +Rose's serving. It was the old grandmother who burnished the tin +plates and dippers till they looked like silver; for--crotchety and +sharp-tongued as she was--she never allowed Rose to spoil her hands with +soft soap and sand: but it was Rose who planned and packed, Rose who +hemmed squares of old white table-cloths and sheets to line the baskets +and keep things daintily separate, Rose, also, whose tarts and cakes +were the pride and admiration of church sociables and sewing societies. + +Where could such smoking pots of beans be found? A murmur of ecstatic +approval ran through the crowd when the covers were removed. Pieces of +sweet home-fed pork glistened like varnished mahogany on the top of the +beans, and underneath were such deeps of fragrant juice as come only +from slow fires and long, quiet hours in brick ovens. Who else could +steam and bake such mealy loaves of brown bread, brown as plum-pudding, +yet with no suspicion of sogginess? Who such soda biscuits, big, +feathery, tasting of cream, and hardly needing butter? And green-apple +pies! Could such candied lower crusts be found elsewhere, or more +delectable filling? Or such rich, nutty doughnuts?--doughnuts that had +spurned the hot fat which is the ruin of so many, and risen from its +waves like golden-brown Venuses. + +"By the great seleckmen!" ejaculated Jed Towle, as he swallowed his +fourth, "I'd like to hev a wife, two daughters, and four sisters like +them Wileys, and jest set still on the river-bank an' hev 'em cook +victuals for me. I'd hev nothin' to wish for then but a mouth as big as +the Saco's." + +"And I wish this custard pie was the size o' Bonnie Eagle Pond," said +Ike Billings. "I'd like to fall into the middle of it and eat my way +out!" + +"Look at that bunch o' Chiny asters tied on t' the bail o' that +biscuit-pail!" said Ivory Dunn. "That's the girl's doin's, you bet; +women-folks don't seem to make no bo'quets after they git married. Let's +divide 'em up an' wear 'em drivin' this afternoon; mebbe they'll ketch +the eye so 't our rags won't show so bad. Land! it's lucky my hundred +days is about up! If I don't git home soon, I shall be arrested for +goin' without clo'es. I set up 'bout all night puttin' these blue +patches in my pants an' tryin' to piece together a couple of old +red-flannel shirts to make one whole one. That's the worst o' drivin' in +these places where the pretty girls make a habit of comin' down to the +bridge to see the fun. You hev to keep rigged up jest so stylish; you +can't git no chance at the rum bottle, an' you even hev to go a leetle +mite light on swearin'." + + + + +IV. "Blasphemious Swearin'" + +"Steve Waterman's an awful nice feller," exclaimed Ivory Dunn just +then. Stephen had been looking intently across the river, watching the +Shapleys' side door, from which Rose might issue at any moment; and at +this point in the discussion he had lounged away from the group, and, +moving toward the bridge, began to throw pebbles idly into the water. + +"He's an awful smart driver for one that don't foller drivin' the +year round," continued Ivory; "and he's the awfullest clean-spoken, +soft-spoken feller I ever see." + +"There's be'n two black sheep in his family a'ready, an' Steve kind +o' feels as if he'd ought to be extry white," remarked Jed Towle. "You +fellers that belonged to the old drive remember Pretty Quick Waterman +well enough? Steve's mother brought him up." + +Yes; most of them remembered the Waterman twins, Stephen's cousins, now +both dead,--Slow Waterman, so moderate in his steps and actions that you +had to fix a landmark somewhere near him to see if he moved; and Pretty +Quick, who shone by comparison with his twin. "I'd kind o' forgot that +Pretty Quick Waterman was cousin to Steve," said the under boss; "he +never worked with me much, but he wa'n't cut off the same piece o' goods +as the other Watermans. Great hemlock! but he kep' a cussin' dictionary, +Pretty Quick did! Whenever he heard any new words he must 'a' writ 'em +down, an' then studied 'em all up in the winter-time, to use in the +spring drive." + +"Swearin' 's a habit that hed ought to be practiced with turrible +caution," observed old Mr. Wiley, when the drivers had finished luncheon +and taken out their pipes. "There's three kinds o' swearin',--plain +swearin', profane swearin', an' blasphemious swearin'. Logs air jest +like mules: there's times when a man can't seem to rip up a jam in good +style 'thout a few words that's too strong for the infant classes in +Sunday-schools; but a man hed n't ought to tempt Providence. When he's +ridin' a log near the falls at high water, or cuttin' the key-log in a +jam, he ain't in no place for blasphemious swearin'; jest a little +easy, perlite 'damn' is 'bout all he can resk, if he don't want to git +drownded an' hev his ghost walkin' the river-banks till kingdom come. + +"You an' I, Long, was the only ones that seen Pretty Quick go, wa'n't +we?" continued Old Kennebec, glancing at Long Abe Dennett (cousin to +Short Abe), who lay on his back in the grass, the smoke-wreaths rising +from his pipe, and the steel spikes in his heavy, calked-sole boots +shining in the sun. + +"There was folks on the bridge," Long answered, "but we was the only +ones near enough to see an' hear. It was so onexpected, an' so soon +over, that them as was watchin' upstream, where the men was to work on +the falls, would n't 'a' hed time to see him go down. But I did, an' +nobody ain't heard me swear sence, though it's ten years ago. I allers +said it was rum an' bravadder that killed Pretty Quick Waterman that +day. The boys hed n't give him a 'dare' that he hed n't took up. He +seemed like he was possessed, an' the logs was the same way; they was +fairly wild, leapin' around in the maddest kind o' water you ever see. +The river was b'ilin' high that spring; it was an awful stubborn jam, +an' Pretty Quick, he'd be'n workin' on it sence dinner." + +"He clumb up the bank more'n once to have a pull at the bottle that was +hid in the bushes," interpolated Mr. Wiley. "Like as not; that was his +failin'. Well, most o' the boys were on the other side o' the river, +workin' above the bridge, an' the boss hed called Pretty Quick to come +off an' leave the jam till mornin', when they'd get horses an' dog-warp +it off, log by log. But when the boss got out o' sight, Pretty Quick +jest stood right still, swingin' his axe, an' blasphemin' so it would +freeze your blood, vowin' he would n't move till the logs did, if he +stayed there till the crack o' doom. Jest then a great, ponderous log, +that hed be'n churnin' up an' down in the falls for a week, got free an' +come blunderin' an' thunderin' down-river. Land! it was chock full o' +water, an' looked 'bout as big as a church! It come straight along, +butt-end foremost, an' struck that jam, full force, so 't every log in +it shivered. There was a crack,--the crack o' doom, sure enough, for +Pretty Quick,--an' one o' the logs le'p' right out an' struck him jest +where he stood, with his axe in the air, blasphemin'. The jam kind o' +melted an' crumbled up, an' in a second Pretty Quick was whirlin' in the +white water. He never riz,--at least where we could see him,--an' we did +n't find him for a week. That's the whole story, an' I guess Steve takes +it as a warnin'. Anyway, he ain't no friend to rum nor swearin', Steve +ain't. He knows Pretty Quick's ways shortened his mother's life, an' you +notice what a sharp lookout he keeps on Rufus." + +"He needs it," Ike Billings commented tersely. + +"Some men seem to lose their wits when they're workin' on logs," +observed Mr. Wiley, who had deeply resented Long Dennett's telling of a +story which he knew fully as well and could have told much better. "Now, +nat'rally, I've seen things on the Kennebec--" + +"Three cheers for the Saco! Hats off, boys!" shouted Jed Towle, and his +directions were followed with a will. + +"As I was sayin'," continued the old man, peacefully, "I've seen things +on the Kennebec that would n't happen on a small river, an' I've be'n in +turrible places an' taken turrible resks resks that would 'a' turned a +Saco River man's hair white; but them is the times when my wits work the +quickest. I remember once I was smokin' my pipe when a jam broke +under me. 'T was a small jam, or what we call a small jam on the +Kennebec,--only about three hundred thousand pine logs. The first thing +I knowed, I was shootin' back an' forth in the b'ilin' foam, hangin' on +t' the end of a log like a spider. My hands was clasped round the log, +and I never lost control o' my pipe. They said I smoked right along, +jest as cool an' placid as a pond-lily." + +"Why 'd you quit drivin'?" inquired Ivory. + +"My strength wa'n't ekal to it," Mr. Wiley responded sadly. "I was all +skin, bones, an' nerve. The Comp'ny would n't part with me altogether, +so they give me a place in the office down on the wharves." + +"That wa'n't so bad," said Jed Towle; "why did n't you hang on to it, +so's to keep in sight o' the Kennebec?" + +"I found I could n't be confined under cover. My liver give all out, +my appetite failed me, an' I wa'n't wuth a day's wages. I'd learned +engineerin' when I was a boy, an' I thought I'd try runnin' on the road +a spell, but it did n't suit my constitution. My kidneys ain't turrible +strong, an' the doctors said I'd have Bright's disease if I did n't git +some kind o' work where there wa'n't no vibrations." + +"Hard to find, Mr. Wiley; hard to find!" said Jed Towle. + +"You're right," responded the old man feelingly. "I've tried all kinds +o' labor. Some of 'em don't suit my liver, some disagrees with my +stomach, and the rest of 'em has vibrations; so here I set, high an' dry +on the banks of life, you might say, like a stranded log." + +As this well-known simile fell upon the ear, there was a general stir in +the group, for Turrible Wiley, when rhetorical, sometimes grew tearful, +and this was a mood not to be encouraged. + +"All right, boss," called Ike Billings, winking to the boys; "we'll be +there in a jiffy!" for the luncheon hour had flown, and the work of the +afternoon was waiting for them. "You make a chalk-mark where you left +off, Mr. Wiley, an' we'll hear the rest tomorrer; only don't you forgit +nothin'! Remember 't was the Kennebec you was talkin' about." + +"I will, indeed," responded the old man. "As I was sayin' when +interrupted, I may be a stranded log, but I'm proud that the mark o' the +Gard'ner Lumber Comp'ny is on me, so 't when I git to my journey's end +they'll know where I belong and send me back to the Kennebec. Before +I'm sawed up I'd like to forgit this triflin' brook in the sight of a +good-sized river, an' rest my eyes on some full-grown logs, 'stead o' +these little damn pipestems you boys are playin' with!" + + + + + +V. The Game of Jackstraws + +There was a roar of laughter at the old man's boast, but in a moment all +was activity. The men ran hither and thither like ants, gathering their +tools. There were some old-fashioned pick-poles, straight, heavy levers +without any "dog," and there were modern pick-poles and peaveys, for +every river has its favorite equipment in these things. There was no +dynamite in those days to make the stubborn jams yield, and the dog-warp +was in general use. Horses or oxen, sometimes a line of men, stood on +the river-bank. A long rope was attached by means of a steel spike +to one log after another, and it was dragged from the tangled mass. +Sometimes, after unloading the top logs, those at the bottom would rise +and make the task easier; sometimes the work would go on for hours with +no perceptible progress, and Mr. Wiley would have opportunity to tell +the bystanders of a "turrible jam" on the Kennebec that had cost the +Lumber Company ten thousand dollars to break. + +There would be great arguments on shore, among the villagers as well as +among the experts, as to the particular log which might be a key to the +position. The boss would study the problem from various standpoints, +and the drivers themselves would pass from heated discussion into long +consultations. + +"They're paid by the day," Old Kennebec would philosophize to the +doctor; "an' when they're consultin' they don't hev to be doggin', which +is a turrible sight harder work." + +Rose had created a small sensation, on one occasion, by pointing out to +the under boss the key-log in a jam. She was past mistress of the pretty +game of jackstraws, much in vogue at that time. The delicate little +lengths of polished wood or bone were shaken together and emptied on the +table. Each jackstraw had one of its ends fashioned in the shape of some +sort of implement,--a rake, hoe, spade, fork, or mallet. All the pieces +were intertwined by the shaking process, and they lay as they fell, in a +hopeless tangle. The task consisted in taking a tiny pick-pole, scarcely +bigger than a match, and with the bit of curved wire on the end lifting +off the jackstraws one by one without stirring the pile or making +it tremble. When this occurred, you gave place to your opponent, who +relinquished his turn to you when ill fortune descended upon him, the +game, which was a kind of river-driving and jam-picking in miniature, +being decided by the number of pieces captured and their value. No +wonder that the under boss asked Rose's advice as to the key-log. She +had a fairy's hand, and her cunning at deciding the pieces to be moved, +and her skill at extricating and lifting them from the heap, were looked +upon in Edgewood as little less than supernatural. It was a favorite +pastime; and although a man's hand is ill adapted to it, being +over-large and heavy, the game has obvious advantages for a lover in +bringing his head very close to that of his beloved adversary. The +jackstraws have to be watched with a hawk's eagerness, since the +"trembling" can be discerned only by a keen eye; but there were moments +when Stephen was willing to risk the loss of a battle if he could watch +Rose's drooping eyelashes, the delicate down on her pink cheek, and the +feathery curls that broke away from her hair. + +He was looking at her now from a distance, for she and Mite Shapley were +assisting Jed Towle to pile up the tin plates and tie the tin dippers +together. Next she peered into one of the bean-pots, and seemed pleased +that there was still something in its depths; then she gathered the +fragments neatly together in a basket, and, followed by her friend, +clambered down the banks to a shady spot where the Boomshers, otherwise +known as the Crambry family, were "lined up" expectantly. + +It is not difficult to find a single fool in any community, however +small; but a family of fools is fortunately somewhat rarer. Every +county, however, can boast of one fool-family, and York County is +always in the fashion, with fools as with everything else. The +unique, much-quoted, and undesirable Boomshers could not be claimed +as indigenous to the Saco valley, for this branch was an offshoot of a +still larger tribe inhabiting a distant township. Its beginnings were +shrouded in mystery. There was a French-Canadian ancestor somewhere, and +a Gypsy or Indian grandmother. They had always intermarried from time +immemorial. When one of the selectmen of their native place had been +asked why the Boomshers always married cousins, and why the habit was +not discouraged, he replied that he really did n't know; he s'posed they +felt it would be kind of odd to go right out and marry a stranger. + +Lest "Boomsher" seem an unusual surname, it must be explained that +the actual name was French and could not be coped with by Edgewood or +Pleasant River, being something as impossible to spell as to +pronounce. As the family had lived for the last few years somewhere +near the Killick Cranberry Meadows, they were called--and completely +described in the calling--the Crambry fool-family. A talented and much +traveled gentleman who once stayed over night at the Edgewood tavern, +proclaimed it his opinion that Boomsher had been gradually corrupted +from Beaumarchais. When he wrote the word on his visiting card and +showed it to Mr. Wiley, Old Kennebec had replied, that in the judgment +of a man who had lived in large places and seen a turrible lot o' life, +such a name could never have been given either to a Christian or a +heathen family, that the way in which the letters was thrown together +into it, and the way in which they was sounded when read out loud, was +entirely ag'in reason. It was true, he said, that Beaumarchais, bein' +such a fool-name, might 'a' be'n invented a-purpose for a fool-family, +but he would n't hold even with callin' 'em Boomsher; Crambry was well +enough for 'em an' a sight easier to speak. + +Stephen knew a good deal about the Crambrys, for he passed their +so-called habitation in going to one of his wood-lots. It was only +a month before that he had found them all sitting outside their +broken-down fence, surrounded by decrepit chairs, sofas, tables, +bedsteads, bits of carpet, and stoves. + +"What's the matter?" he called out from his wagon. + +"There ain't nothin' the matter," said Alcestis Crambry. "Father's +dead, an' we're dividin' up the furnerchure." + +Alcestis was the pride of the Crambrys, and the list of his attainments +used often to be on his proud father's lips. It was he who was the +largest, "for his size," in the family; he who could tell his brothers +Paul and Arcadus "by their looks"; he who knew a sour apple from a sweet +one the minute he bit it; he who, at the early age of ten, was bright +enough to point to the cupboard and say, "Puddin', dad!" + +Alcestis had enjoyed, in consequence of his unusual intellectual powers, +some educational privileges, and the Killick school-mistress well +remembered his first day at the village seat of learning. Reports of +what took place in this classic temple from day to day may have been +wafted to the dull ears of the boy, who was not thought ready for school +until he had attained the ripe age of twelve. It may even have been +that specific rumors of the signs, symbols, and hieroglyphics used +in educational institutions had reached him in the obscurity of his +cranberry meadows. At all events, when confronted by the alphabet chart, +whose huge black capitals were intended to capture the wandering eyes +of the infant class, Alcestis exhibited unusual, almost unnatural, +excitement. "That is 'A,' my boy," said the teacher genially, as she +pointed to the first character on the chart. "Good God, is that 'A'!" +cried Alcestis, sitting down heavily on the nearest bench. And neither +teacher nor scholars could discover whether he was agreeably surprised +or disappointed in the letter,--whether he had expected, if he ever +encountered it, to find it writhing in coils on the floor of a cage, or +whether it simply bore no resemblance to the ideal already established +in his mind. + +Mrs. Wiley had once tried to make something of Mercy, the oldest +daughter of the family, but at the end of six weeks she announced that +a girl who could n't tell whether the clock was going "forrards or +backwards," and who rubbed a pocket-handkerchief as long as she did a +sheet, would be no help in her household. + +The Crambrys had daily walked the five or six miles from their home to +the Edgewood bridge during the progress of the drive, not only for +the social and intellectual advantages to be gained from the company +present, but for the more solid compensation of a good meal. They all +adored Rose, partly because she gave them food, and partly because she +was sparkling and pretty and wore pink dresses that caught their dull +eyes. + + +The afternoon proved a lively one. In the first place, one of the +younger men slipped into the water between two logs, part of a lot +chained together waiting to be let out of the boom. The weight of +the mass higher up and the force of the current wedged him in rather +tightly, and when he had been "pried" out he declared that he felt like +an apple after it had been squeezed in the cider-mill, so he drove home, +and Rufus Waterman took his place. + +Two hours' hard work followed this incident, and at the end of that time +the "bung" that reached from the shore to Waterman's Ledge (the rock +where Pretty Quick met his fate) was broken up, and the logs that +composed it were started down-river. There remained now only the great +side jam at Gray Rock. This had been allowed to grow, gathering logs as +they drifted past, thus making higher water and a stronger current on +the other side of the rock, and allowing an easier passage for the logs +at that point. + +All was excitement now, for, this particular piece of work accomplished, +the boom above the falls would be "turned out," and the river would once +more be clear and clean at the Edgewood bridge. + +Small boys, perching on the rocks with their heels hanging, hands and +mouths full of red Astrakhan apples, cheered their favorites to the +echo, while the drivers shouted to one another and watched the signs and +signals of the boss, who could communicate with them only in that way, +so great was the roar of the water. + +The jam refused to yield to ordinary measures. It was a difficult +problem, for the rocky river-bed held many a snare and pitfall. There +was a certain ledge under the water, so artfully placed that every log +striking under its projecting edges would wedge itself firmly there, +attracting others by its evil example. + +"That galoot-boss ought to hev shoved his crew down to that jam this +mornin'," grumbled Old Kennebec to Alcestis Crambry, who was always his +most loyal and attentive listener. "But he would n't take no advice, not +if Pharaoh nor Boaz nor Herod nor Nicodemus come right out o' the Bible +an' give it to him. The logs air contrary today. Sometimes they'll go +along as easy as an old shoe, an' other times they'll do nothin' but +bung, bung, bung! There's a log nestlin' down in the middle o' that jam +that I've be'n watchin' for a week. It's a cur'ous one, to begin with; +an' then it has a mark on it that you can reco'nize it by. Did ye ever +hear tell o' George the Third, King of England, Alcestis, or ain't he +known over to the crambry medders? Well, once upon a time men used to +go through the forests over here an' slash a mark on the trunks o' the +biggest trees. That was the royal sign, as you might say, an' meant that +the tree was to be taken over to England to make masts an' yard-arms for +the King's ships. What made me think of it now is that the King's mark +was an arrer, an' it's an arrer that's on that there log I'm showin' +ye. Well, sir, I seen it fust at Milliken's Mills a Monday. It was in +trouble then, an' it's be'n in trouble ever sence. That's allers the +way; there'll be one pesky, crooked, contrary, consarne'd log that can't +go anywheres without gittin' into difficulties. You can yank it out an' +set it afloat, an' before you hardly git your doggin' iron off of it, +it'll be snarled up agin in some new place. From the time it's chopped +down to the day it gets to Saco, it costs the Comp'ny 'bout ten times +its pesky valler as lumber. Now they've sent over to Benson's for a team +of horses, an' I bate ye they can't git 'em. I wish i was the boss on +this river, Alcestis." + +"I wish I was," echoed the boy. + +"Well, your head-fillin' ain't the right kind for a boss, Alcestis, an' +you'd better stick to dry land. You set right down here while I go back +a piece an' git the pipe out o' my coat pocket. I guess nothin' ain't +goin' to happen for a few minutes." + +The surmise about the horses, unlike most of Old Kennebec's, proved +to be true. Benson's pair had gone to Portland with a load of hay; +accordingly the tackle was brought, the rope was adjusted to a log, and +five of the drivers, standing on the river-bank, attempted to drag it +from its intrenched position. It refused to yield the fraction of an +inch. Rufus and Stephen joined the five men, and the augmented crew of +seven were putting all their strength on the rope when a cry went up +from the watchers on the bridge. The "dog" had loosened suddenly, and +the men were flung violently to the ground. For a second they were +stunned both by the surprise and by the shock of the blow, but in the +same moment the cry of the crowd swelled louder. Alcestis Crambry had +stolen, all unnoticed, to the rope, and had attempted to use his feeble +powers for the common good. When the blow came he fell backward, and, +making no effort to control the situation, slid over the bank and into +the water. + +The other Crambrys, not realizing the danger, laughed audibly, but there +was no jeering from the bridge. + +Stephen had seen Alcestis slip, and in the fraction of a moment had +taken off his boots and was coasting down the slippery rocks behind him; +in a twinkling he was in the water, almost as soon as the boy himself. + +"Doggoned idjut!" exclaimed Old Kennebec, tearfully. "Wuth the hull +fool-family! If I hed n't 'a' be'n so old, I'd 'a' jumped in myself, for +you can't drownd a Wiley, not without you tie nail-kags to their head +an' feet an' drop 'em in the falls." + +Alcestis, who had neither brains, courage, nor experience, had, better +still, the luck that follows the witless. He was carried swiftly down +the current; but, only fifty feet away, a long, slender log, wedged +between two low rocks on the shore, jutted out over the water, almost +touching its surface. The boy's clothes were admirably adapted to the +situation, being full of enormous rents. In some way the end of the log +caught in the rags of Alcestis's coat and held him just seconds enough +to enable Stephen to swim to him, to seize him by the nape of the neck, +to lift him on the log, and thence to the shore. It was a particularly +bad place for a landing, and there was nothing to do but to lower ropes +and drag the drenched men to the high ground above. + +Alcestis came to his senses in ten or fifteen minutes, and seemed as +bright as usual, with a kind of added swagger at being the central +figure in a dramatic situation. + +"I wonder you hed n't stove your brains out, when you landed so turrible +suddent on that rock at the foot of the bank," said Mr. Wiley to him. + +"I should, but I took good care to light on my head," responded +Alcestis; a cryptic remark which so puzzled Old Kennebec that he mused +over it for some hours. + + + + + +VI. Hearts And Other Hearts + +Stephen had brought a change of clothes, as he had a habit of being +ducked once at least during the day; and since there was a halt in the +proceedings and no need of his services for an hour or two, he found +Rose and walked with her to a secluded spot where they could watch the +logs and not be seen by the people. + +"You frightened everybody almost to death, jumping into the river," +chided Rose. + +Stephen laughed. "They thought I was a fool to save a fool, I suppose." + +"Perhaps not as bad as that, but it did seem reckless." + +"I know; and the boy, no doubt, would be better off dead; but so should +I be, if I could have let him die." + +Rose regarded this strange point of view for a moment, and then silently +acquiesced in it. She was constantly doing this, and she often felt that +her mental horizon broadened in the act; but she could not be sure that +Stephen grew any dearer to her because of his moral altitudes. + +"Besides," Stephen argued, "I happened to be nearest to the river, and +it was my job." + +"How do you always happen to be nearest to the people in trouble, and +why is it always your 'job'?" + +"If there are any rewards for good conduct being distributed, I'm right +in line with my hand stretched out," Stephen replied, with meaning in +his voice. + +Rose blushed under her flowery hat as he led the way to a bench under a +sycamore tree that overhung the water. + +She had almost convinced herself that she was as much in love with +Stephen Waterman as it was in her nature to be with anybody. He was +handsome in his big way, kind, generous, temperate, well educated, and +well-to-do. No fault could be found with his family, for his mother had +been a teacher, and his father, though a farmer, a college graduate. +Stephen himself had had one year at Bowdoin, but had been recalled, as +the head of the house, when his father died. That was a severe blow; +but his mother's death, three years after, was a grief never to be quite +forgotten. Rose, too, was the child of a gently bred mother, and all her +instincts were refined. Yes; Stephen in himself satisfied her in all the +larger wants of her nature, but she had an unsatisfied hunger for the +world,--the world of Portland, where her cousins lived; or, better +still, the world of Boston, of which she heard through Mrs. Wealthy +Brooks, whose nephew Claude often came to visit her in Edgewood. Life +on a farm a mile and a half distant from post-office and stores; life +in the house with Rufus, who was rumored to be somewhat wild and +unsteady,--this prospect seemed a trifle dull and uneventful to the +trivial part of her, though to the better part it was enough. The better +part of her loved Stephen Waterman, dimly feeling the richness of his +nature, the tenderness of his affection, the strength of his character. +Rose was not destitute either of imagination or sentiment. She did not +relish this constant weighing of Stephen in the balance: he was too good +to be weighed and considered. She longed to be carried out of herself on +a wave of rapturous assent, but something seemed to hold her back,--some +seed of discontent with the man's environment and circumstances, some +germ of longing for a gayer, brighter, more varied life. No amount of +self-searching or argument could change the situation. She always loved +Stephen more or less: more when he was away from her, because she never +approved his collars nor the set of his shirt bosom; and as he naturally +wore these despised articles of apparel whenever he proposed to her, she +was always lukewarm about marrying him and settling down on the River +Farm. Still, today she discovered in herself, with positive gratitude, +a warmer feeling for him than she had experienced before. He wore a new +and becoming gray flannel shirt, with the soft turn-over collar that +belonged to it, and a blue tie, the color of his kind eyes. She knew +that he had shaved his beard at her request not long ago, and that when +she did not like the effect as much as she had hoped, he had meekly +grown a mustache for her sake; it did seem as if a man could hardly do +more to please an exacting ladylove. + +And she had admired him unreservedly when he pulled off his boots and +jumped into the river to save Alcestis Crambry's life, without giving a +single thought to his own. + +And was there ever, after all, such a noble, devoted, unselfish fellow, +or a better brother? And would she not despise herself for rejecting +him simply because he was countrified, and because she longed to see the +world of the fashion plates in the magazines? + +"The logs are so like people!" she exclaimed as they sat down. "I could +name nearly every one of them for somebody in the village. Look at Mite +Shapley, that dancing little one, slipping over the falls and skimming +along the top of the water, keeping out of all the deep places, and +never once touching the rocks." + +Stephen fell into her mood. "There's Squire Anderson coming down +crosswise and bumping everything in reach. You know he's always buying +lumber and logs without knowing what he is going to do with them. They +just lie and rot by the roadside. The boys always say that a toadstool +is the old Squire's 'mark' on a log." + +"And that stout, clumsy one is Short Dennett.--What are you doing, +Stephen?" + +"Only building a fence round this clump of harebells," Stephen replied. +"They've just got well rooted, and if the boys come skidding down the +bank with their spiked shoes, the poor things will never hold up their +heads again. Now they're safe.--Oh, look, Rose! There come the minister +and his wife!" + +A portly couple of peeled logs, exactly matched in size, came +ponderously over the falls together, rose within a second of each other, +joined again, and swept under the bridge side by side. + +"And--oh! oh!--Dr. and Mrs. Cram just after them! Isn't that funny?" +laughed Rose, as a very long, slender pair of pines swam down, as close +to each other as if they had been glued in that position. Rose thought, +as she watched them, who but Stephen would have cared what became of the +clump of delicate harebells. How gentle such a man would be to a woman! +How tender his touch would be if she were ill or in trouble! + +Several single logs followed,--crooked ones, stolid ones, adventurous +ones, feeble swimmers, deep divers. Some of them tried to start a small +jam on their own account; others stranded themselves for good and all, +as Rose and Stephen sat there side by side, with little Dan Cupid for an +invisible third on the bench. + +"There never was anything so like people," Rose repeated, leaning +forward excitedly. "And, upon my word, the minister and doctor couples +are still together. I wonder if they'll get as far as the fails at +Union? That would be an odd place to part, would n't it--Union?" + +Stephen saw his opportunity, and seized it. + +"There's a reason, Rose, why two logs go downstream better than one, and +get into less trouble. They make a wider path, create more force and a +better current. It's the same way with men and women. Oh, Rose, there +is n't a man in the world that's loved you as long, or knows how to love +you any better than I do. You're just like a white birch sapling, and +I'm a great, clumsy fir tree; but if you 'll only trust yourself to me, +Rose, I'll take you safely down-river." + +Stephen's big hand closed on Rose's little one; she returned its +pressure softly and gave him the kiss that with her, as with him, meant +a promise for all the years to come. The truth and passion in the man +had broken the girl's bonds for the moment. Her vision was clearer, and, +realizing the treasures of love and fidelity that were being offered +her, she accepted them, half unconscious that she was not returning +them in kind. How is the belle of two villages to learn that she should +"thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man's love"? + +And Stephen? He went home in the dusk, not knowing whether his feet were +touching the solid earth or whether he was treading upon rainbows. + +Rose's pink calico seemed to brush him as he walked in the path that was +wide enough only for one. His solitude was peopled again when he fed +the cattle, for Rose's face smiled at him from the haymow; and when he +strained the milk, Rose held the pans. + +His nightly tasks over, he went out and took his favorite seat under the +apple tree. All was still, save for the crickets' ceaseless chirp, +the soft thud of an August sweeting dropping in the grass, and the +swish-swash of the water against his boat, tethered in the Willow Cove. + +He remembered when he first saw Rose, for that must have been when he +began to love her, though he was only fourteen and quite unconscious +that the first seed had been dropped in the rich soil of his boyish +heart. + +He was seated on the kerosene barrel in the Edgewood post-office, which +was also the general country store, where newspapers, letters, molasses, +nails, salt codfish, hairpins, sugar, liver pills, canned goods, beans, +and ginghams dwelt in genial proximity. When she entered, just a +little pink-and-white slip of a thing with a tin pail in her hand and a +sunbonnet falling off her wavy hair, Stephen suddenly stopped swinging +his feet. She gravely announced her wants, reading them from a bit of +paper,--1 quart molasses, 1 package ginger, 1 lb. cheese, 2 pairs shoe +laces, 1 card shirt buttons. + +While the storekeeper drew off the molasses she exchanged shy looks with +Stephen, who, clean, well-dressed, and carefully mothered as he was, +felt all at once uncouth and awkward, rather as if he were some clumsy +lout pitch-forked into the presence of a fairy queen. He offered her the +little bunch of bachelor's buttons he held in his hand, augury of +the future, had he known it,--and she accepted them with a smile. She +dropped her memorandum; he picked it up, and she smiled again, doing +still more fatal damage than in the first instance. No words were +spoken, but Rose, even at ten, had less need of them than most of her +sex, for her dimples, aided by dancing eyes, length of lashes, and curve +of lips, quite took the place of conversation. The dimples tempted, +assented, denied, corroborated, deplored, protested, sympathized, while +the intoxicated beholder cudgeled his brain for words or deeds which +should provoke and evoke more and more dimples. + +The storekeeper hung the molasses pail over Rose's right arm and tucked +the packages under her left, and as he opened the mosquito-netting door +to let her pass out she looked back at Stephen, perched on the kerosene +barrel, just a little girl, a little glance, a little dimple, and +Stephen was never quite the same again. The years went on, and the boy +became man, yet no other image had ever troubled the deep, placid waters +of his heart. Now, after many denials, the hopes and longings of his +nature had been answered, and Rose had promised to marry him. He would +sacrifice his passion for logging and driving in the future, and become +a staid farmer and man of affairs, only giving himself a river holiday +now and then. How still and peaceful it was under the trees, and how +glad his mother would be to think that the old farm would wake from its +sleep, and a woman's light foot be heard in the sunny kitchen! + +Heaven was full of silent stars, and there was a moonglade on the water +that stretched almost from him to Rose. His heart embarked on that +golden pathway and sailed on it to the farther shore. The river was free +of logs, and under the light of the moon it shone like a silver mirror. +The soft wind among the fir branches breathed Rose's name; the river, +rippling against the shore, sang "Rose "; and as Stephen sat there +dreaming of the future, his dreams, too, could have been voiced in one +word, and that word "Rose." + + + + +VII. The Little House + + +The autumn days flew past like shuttles in a loom. The river reflected +the yellow foliage of the white birch and the scarlet of the maples. The +wayside was bright with goldenrod, with the red tassels of the sumac, +with the purple frost-flower and feathery clematis. + +If Rose was not as happy as Stephen, she was quietly content, and +felt that she had more to be grateful for than most girls, for Stephen +surprised her with first one evidence and then another of thoughtful +generosity. In his heart of hearts he felt that Rose was not wholly his, +that she reserved, withheld something; and it was the subjugation of +this rebellious province that he sought. He and Rose had agreed to wait +a year for their marriage, in which time Rose's cousin would finish +school and be ready to live with the old people; meanwhile Stephen had +learned that his maiden aunt would be glad to come and keep house for +Rufus. The work at the River Farm was too hard for a girl, so he had +persuaded himself of late, and the house was so far from the village +that Rose was sure to be lonely. He owned a couple of acres between +his place and the Edgewood bridge, and here, one afternoon only a month +after their engagement, he took Rose to see the foundations of a little +house he was building for her. It was to be only a story-and-a-half +cottage of six small rooms, the two upper chambers to be finished off +later on. Stephen had placed it well back from the road, leaving space +in front for what was to be a most wonderful arrangement of flower-beds, +yet keeping a strip at the back, on the river-brink, for a small +vegetable garden. There had been a house there years before-so many +years that the blackened ruins were entirely overgrown; but a few elms +and an old apple-orchard remained to shade the new dwelling and give +welcome to the coming inmates. + +Stephen had fifteen hundred dollars in bank, he could turn his hand to +almost anything, and his love was so deep that Rose's plumb-line had +never sounded bottom; accordingly he was able, with the help of two +steady workers, to have the roof on before the first of November. The +weather was clear and fine, and by Thanksgiving clapboards, shingles, +two coats of brown paint, and even the blinds had all been added. This +exhibition of reckless energy on Stephen's part did not wholly commend +itself to the neighborhood. + +"Steve's too turrible spry," said Rose's grandfather; "he'll trip +himself up some o' these times." + +"_You_ never will," remarked his better half, sagely. + +"The resks in life come along fast enough, without runnin' to meet 'em," +continued the old man. "There's good dough in Rose, but it ain't more'n +half riz. Let somebody come along an' drop in a little more yeast, or +set the dish a little mite nearer the stove, an' you'll see what 'll +happen." + +"Steve's kept house for himself some time, an' I guess he knows more +about bread-makin' than you do." + +"There don't nobody know more'n I do about nothin', when my pipe's +drawin' real good an' nobody's thornin' me to go to work," replied Mr. +Wiley; "but nobody's willin' to take the advice of a man that's seen +the world an' lived in large places, an' the risin' generation is in a +turrible hurry. I don' know how 't is: young folks air allers settin' +the clock forrard an' the old ones puttin' it back." + +"Did you ketch anything for dinner when you was out this mornin'?" asked +his wife. + +"No, I fished an' fished, till I was about ready to drop, an' I did git +a few shiners, but land, they wa'n't as big as the worms I was ketchin' +'em with, so i pitched 'em back in the water an' quit." + +During the progress of these remarks Mr. Wiley opened the door under the +sink, and from beneath a huge iron pot drew a round tray loaded with a +glass pitcher and half a dozen tumblers, which he placed carefully +on the kitchen table. "This is the last day's option I've got on this +lemonade-set," he said, "an' if I'm goin' to Biddeford tomorrer I've got +to make up my mind here an' now." + +With this observation he took off his shoes, climbed in his stocking +feet to the vantage ground of a kitchen chair, and lifted a stone china +pitcher from a corner of the highest cup-board shelf where it had been +hidden. "This lemonade's gittin' kind o' dusty," he complained. "I +cal'lated to hev a kind of a spree on it when I got through choosin' +Rose's weddin' present, but I guess the pig 'll hev to help me out." +The old man filled one of the glasses from the pitcher, pulled up the +kitchen shades to the top, put both hands in his pockets, and walked +solemnly round the table, gazing at his offering from every possible +point of view. There had been three lemonade-sets in the window of a +Biddeford crockery store when Mr. Wiley chanced to pass by, and he had +brought home the blue and green one on approval. To th': casual cyc it +would have appeared as quite uniquely hideous until the red and yellow +or the purple and orange ones had been seen; after that, no human +being could have made a decision, where each was so unparalleled in its +ugliness, and Old Kennebec's confusion of mind would have been perfectly +understood by the connoisseur. + +"How do you like it with the lemonade in, mother?" he inquired eagerly. +"The thing that plagues me most is that the red an' yaller one I hed +home last week lights up better'n this, an' I believe I'll settle on +that; for as I was thinkin' last night in bed, lemonade is mostly an +evenin' drink an' Rose won't be usin' the set much by daylight. Root +beer looks the han'somest in this purple set, but Rose loves lemonade +better'n beer, so I guess I'll pack up this one an' change it tomorrer. +Mebbe when I get it out o' sight an' give the lemonade to the pig I'll +be easier in my mind." + +In the opinion of the community at large Stephen's forehandedness in the +matter of preparations for his marriage was imprudence, and his desire +for neatness and beauty flagrant extravagance. The house itself was a +foolish idea, it was thought, but there were extenuating circumstances, +for the maiden aunt really needed a home, and Rufus was likely to marry +before long and take his wife to the River Farm. It was to be hoped +in his case that he would avoid the snares of beauty and choose a +good stout girl who would bring the dairy back to what it was in Mrs. +Waterman's time. + +All winter long Stephen labored on the inside of the cottage, mostly +by himself. He learned all trades in succession, Love being his only +master. He had many odd days to spare from his farm work, and if he had +not found days he would have taken nights. Scarcely a nail was driven +without Rose's advice; and when the plastering was hard and dry, the +wallpapers were the result of weeks of consultation. + +Among the quiet joys of life there is probably no other so deep, so +sweet, so full of trembling hope and delight, as the building and making +of a home,--a home where two lives are to be merged in one and flow on +together, a home full of mysterious and delicious possibilities, hidden +in a future which is always rose-colored. + +Rose's sweet little nature broadened under Stephen's influence; but she +had her moments of discontent and unrest, always followed quickly by +remorse. + +At the Thanksgiving sociable some one had observed her turquoise +engagement ring,--some one who said that such a hand was worthy of a +diamond, that turquoises were a pretty color, but that there was +only one stone for an engagement ring, and that was a diamond. At the +Christmas dance the same some one had said that her waltzing would make +her "all the rage" in Boston. She wondered if it were true, and wondered +whether, if she had not promised to marry Stephen, some splendid being +from a city would have descended from his heights, bearing diamonds +in his hand. Not that she would have accepted them; she only wondered. +These disloyal thoughts came seldom, and she put them resolutely away, +devoting herself with all the greater assiduity to her muslin curtains +and ruffled pillow-shams. Stephen, too, had his momentary pangs. There +were times when he could calm his doubts only by working on the little +house. The mere sight of the beloved floors and walls and ceilings +comforted his heart, and brought him good cheer. + +The winter was a cold one, so bitterly cold that even the rapid water at +the Gray Rock was a mass of curdled yellow ice, something that had +only occurred once or twice before within the memory of the oldest +inhabitant. + +It was also a very gay season for Pleasant River and Edgewood. Never had +there been so many card-parties, sleigh-rides, and tavern dances, and +never such wonderful skating. The river was one gleaming, glittering +thoroughfare of ice from Milliken's Mills to the dam at the Edgewood +bridge. At sundown bonfires were built here and there on the mirror-like +surface, and all the young people from the neighboring villages gathered +on the ice; while detachments of merry, rosy-cheeked boys and girls, +those who preferred coasting, met at the top of Brigadier Hill, from +which one could get a longer and more perilous slide than from any other +point in the township. + +Claude Merrill, in his occasional visits from Boston, was very much in +evidence at the Saturday evening ice parties. He was not an artist +at the sport himself, but he was especially proficient in the art of +strapping on a lady's skates, and murmuring,--as he adjusted the last +buckle,--"The prettiest foot and ankle on the river!" It cannot be +denied that this compliment gave secret pleasure to the fair village +maidens who received it, but it was a pleasure accompanied by electric +shocks of excitement. A girl's foot might perhaps be mentioned, if a +fellow were daring enough, but the line was rigidly drawn at the ankle, +which was not a part of the human frame ever alluded to in the polite +society of Edgewood at that time. + +Rose, in her red linsey-woolsey dress and her squirrel furs and cap, +was the life of every gathering, and when Stephen took her hand and they +glided upstream, alone together in the crowd, he used to wish that they +might skate on and on up the crystal ice-path of the river, to the moon +itself, whither it seemed to lead them. + + + + +VIII. The Garden of Eden + +But the Saco all this time was meditating one of its surprises. The +snapping cold weather and the depth to which the water was frozen were +aiding it in its preparation for the greatest event of the season. On +a certain gray Saturday in March, after a week of mild temperature, it +began to rain as if, after months of snowing, it really enjoyed a new +form of entertainment. Sunday dawned with the very flood-gates of heaven +opening, so it seemed. All day long the river was rising under its miles +of unbroken ice, rising at the threatening rate of four inches an hour. + +Edgewood went to bed as usual that night, for the bridge at that point +was set too high to be carried away by freshets, but at other villages +whose bridges were in less secure position there was little sleep and +much anxiety. + +At midnight a cry was heard from the men watching at Milliken's Mills. +The great ice jam had parted from Rolfe's Island and was swinging out +into the open, pushing everything before it. All the able-bodied men in +the village turned out of bed, and with lanterns in hand began to clear +the stores and mills, for it seemed that everything near the river-banks +must go before that avalanche of ice. + +Stephen and Rufus were there helping to save the property of their +friends and neighbors; Rose and Mite Shapley had stayed the night with +a friend, and all three girls were shivering with fear and excitement as +they stood near the bridge, watching the never-to-be-forgotten sight. +It is needless to say that the Crambry family was on hand, for whatever +instincts they may have lacked, the instinct for being on the spot +when anything was happening, was present in them to the most remarkable +extent. The town was supporting them in modest winter quarters somewhat +nearer than Killick to the center of civilization, and the first alarm +brought them promptly to the scene, Mrs. Crambry remarking at intervals: +"If I'd known there'd be so many out I'd ought to have worn my bunnit; +but I ain't got no bunnit, an' if I had they say I ain't got no head to +wear it on!" + +By the time the jam neared the falls it had grown with its +accumulations, until it was made up of tier after tier of huge ice +cakes, piled side by side and one upon another, with heaps of trees and +branches and drifting lumber holding them in place. Some of the blocks +stood erect and towered like icebergs, and these, glittering in the +lights of the twinkling lanterns, pushed solemnly forward, cracking, +crushing, and cutting everything in their way. When the great mass +neared the planing mill on the east shore the girls covered their eyes, +expecting to hear the crash of the falling building; but, impelled by +the force of some mysterious current, it shook itself ponderously, +and then, with one magnificent movement, slid up the river-bank, tier +following tier in grand confusion. This left a water way for the main +drift; the ice broke in every direction, and down, down, down, from +Bonnie Eagle and Moderation swept the harvest of the winter freezing. It +came thundering over the dam, bringing boats, farming implements, posts, +supports, and every sort of floating lumber with it; and cutting under +the flour mill, tipped it cleverly over on its side and went crashing on +its way down-river. At Edgewood it pushed colossal blocks of ice up the +banks into the roadway, piling them end upon end ten feet in air. Then, +tearing and rumbling and booming through the narrows, it covered the +intervale at Pleasant Point and made a huge ice bridge below Union +Falls, a bridge so solid that it stood there for days, a sight for all +the neighboring villages. + +This exciting event would have forever set apart this winter from all +others in Stephen's memory, even had it not been also the winter when +he was building a house for his future wife. But afterwards, in looking +back on the wild night of the ice freshet, Stephen remembered that +Rose's manner was strained and cold and evasive, and that when he had +seen her talking with Claude Merrill, it had seemed to him that that +whippersnapper had looked at her as no honorable man in Edgewood ever +looked at an engaged girl. He recalled his throb of gratitude that +Claude lived at a safe distance, and his subsequent pang of remorse at +doubting, for an instant, Rose's fidelity. + +So at length April came, the Saco was still high, turbid, and angry, +and the boys were waiting at Limington Falls for the "Ossipee drive" +to begin. Stephen joined them there, for he was restless, and the +river called him, as it did every spring. Each stubborn log that he +encountered gave him new courage and power of overcoming. The rush of +the water, the noise and roar and dash, the exposure and danger, all +made the blood run in his veins like new wine. When he came back to +the farm, all the cobwebs had been blown from his brain, and his first +interview with Rose was so intoxicating that he went immediately to +Portland, and bought, in a kind of secret penitence for his former +fears, a pale pink-flowered wall-paper for the bedroom in the new home. +It had once been voted down by the entire advisory committee. Mrs. Wiley +said that pink was foolish and was always sure to fade; and the +border, being a mass of solid roses, was five cents a yard, virtually +a prohibitive price. Mr. Wiley said he "should hate to hev a spell of +sickness an' lay abed in a room where there was things growin' all over +the place." He thought "rough-plastered walls, where you could lay an' +count the spots where the roof leaked, was the most entertainin' +in sickness." Rose had longed for the lovely pattern, but had sided +dutifully with the prudent majority, so that it was with a feeling +of unauthorized and illegitimate joy that Stephen papered the room at +night, a few strips at a time. + +On the third evening, when he had removed all signs of his work, he +lighted two kerosene lamps and two candles, finding the effect, under +this illumination, almost too brilliant and beautiful for belief. Rose +should never see it now, he determined, until the furniture was in +place. They had already chosen the kitchen and bedroom things, though +they would not be needed for some months; but the rest was to wait until +summer, when there would be the hay-money to spend. + +Stephen did not go back to the River Farm till one o'clock that night; +the pink bedroom held him in fetters too powerful to break. It looked +like the garden of Eden, he thought. To be sure, it was only fifteen +feet square; Eden might have been a little larger, possibly, but +otherwise the pink bedroom had every advantage. The pattern of roses +growing on a trellis was brighter than any flower-bed in June; and the +border--well, if the border had been five dollars a foot Stephen would +not have grudged the money when he saw the twenty running yards of rosy +bloom rioting under the white ceiling. + +Before he blew out the last light he raised it high above his head and +took one fond, final look. "It's the only place I ever saw," he thought, +"that is pretty enough for her. She will look just as if she was growing +here with all the other flowers, and I shall always think of it as the +garden of Eden. I wonder, if I got the license and the ring and took her +by surprise, whether she'd be married in June instead of August? I could +be all ready if I could only persuade her." + +At this moment Stephen touched the summit of happiness; and it is a +curious coincidence that as he was dreaming in his garden of Eden, the +serpent, having just arrived at Edgewood, was sleeping peacefully at the +house of Mrs. Brooks. + +It was the serpent's fourth visit that season, and he explained to +inquiring friends that his former employer had sold the business, and +that the new management, while reorganizing, had determined to enlarge +the premises, the three clerks who had been retained having two weeks' +vacation with half pay. + +It is extraordinary how frequently "wise serpents" are retained by the +management on half, or even full, salary, while the services of the +"harmless doves" are dispensed with, and they are set free to flutter +where they will. + + + + +IX. The Serpent + + +Rose Wiley had the brightest eyes in Edgewood. It was impossible to +look at her without realizing that her physical sight was perfect. What +mysterious species of blindness is it that descends, now and then, +upon human creatures, and renders them incapable of judgment or +discrimination? + +Claude Merrill was a glove salesman in a Boston fancy-goods store. The +calling itself is undoubtedly respectable, and it is quite conceivable +that a man can sell gloves and still be a man; but Claude Merrill was a +manikin. He inhabited a very narrow space behind a very short counter, +but to him it seemed the earth and the fullness thereof. + +When, irreproachably neat and even exquisite in dress, he gave a +Napoleonic glance at his array of glove-boxes to see if the female +assistant had put them in proper order for the day, when, with that +wonderful eye for detail that had wafted him to his present height +of power, he pounced upon the powder-sprinklers and found them, as +he expected, empty; when, with masterly judgment, he had made up and +ticketed a basket of misfits and odd sizes to attract the eyes of women +who were their human counterparts, he felt himself bursting with the +pride and pomp of circumstance. His cambric handkerchief adjusted in +his coat with the monogram corner well displayed, a last touch to +the carefully trained lock on his forehead, and he was ready for his +customers. + +"Six, did you say, miss? I should have thought five and three +quarters--Attend to that gentleman, Miss Dix, please; I am very busy." + +"Six-and-a-half gray sue'de? Here they are, an exquisite shade. Shall +I try them on? The right hand, if you will. Perhaps you'd better remove +your elegant ring; I should n't like to have anything catch in the +setting." + +"Miss Dix! Six-and-a-half black glace'--upper shelf, third box--for +this lady. She's in a hurry. We shall see you often after this, I hope, +madam." + +"No; we don't keep silk or lisle gloves. We have no call for them; our +customers prefer kid." + +Oh, but he was in his element, was Claude Merrill; though the glamour +that surrounded him in the minds of the Edgewood girls did not emanate +wholly from his finicky little person: something of it was the glamour +that belonged to Boston,--remote, fashionable, gay, rich, almost +inaccessible Boston, which none could see without the expenditure of +five or six dollars in railway fare, with the added extravagance of +a night in a hotel, if one would explore it thoroughly and come home +possessed of all its illimitable treasures of wisdom and experience. + +When Claude came to Edgewood for a Sunday, or to spend a vacation with +his aunt, he brought with him something of the magic of a metropolis. +Suddenly, to Rose's eye, Stephen looked larger and clumsier, his shoes +were not the proper sort, his clothes were ordinary, his neckties were +years behind the fashion. Stephen's dancing, compared with Claude's, was +as the deliberate motion of an ox to the hopping of a neat little robin. +When Claude took a girl's hand in the "grand right-and-left," it was +as if he were about to try on a delicate glove; the manner in which he +"held his lady" in the polka or schottische made her seem a queen. Mite +Shapley was so affected by it that when Rufus attempted to encircle her +for the mazurka she exclaimed, "Don't act as if you were spearing logs, +Rufus!" + +Of the two men, Stephen had more to say, but Claude said more. He was +thought brilliant in conversation; but what wonder, when one considered +his advantages and his dazzling experiences! He had customers who were +worth their thousands; ladies whose fingers never touched dish-water; +ladies who would n't buy a glove of anybody else if they went +bare-handed to the grave. He lived with his sister Maude Arthurlena in a +house where there were twenty-two other boarders who could be seated at +meals all at the same time, so immense was the dining-room. He ate his +dinner at a restaurant daily, and expended twenty-five cents for it +without blenching. He went to the theater once a week, and was often +accompanied by "lady friends" who were "elegant dressers." + +In a moment of wrath Stephen had called him a "counter-jumper," but it +was a libel. So short and rough a means of exit from his place of power +was wholly beneath Claude's dignity. It was with a "Pardon me, Miss +Dix," that, the noon hour having arrived, he squeezed by that slave and +victim, and raising the hinged board that separated his kingdom from +that of the ribbon department, passed out of the store, hat in hand, +serene in the consciousness that though other clerks might nibble +luncheon from a brown paper bag, he would speedily be indulging in an +expensive repast; and Miss Dix knew it, and it was a part of his almost +invincible attraction for her. + +It seemed flying in the face of Providence to decline the attentions of +such a gorgeous butterfly of fashion simply because one was engaged to +marry another man at some distant day. + +All Edgewood femininity united in saying that there never was such +a perfect gentleman as Claude Merrill; and during the time when his +popularity was at its height Rose lost sight of the fact that Stephen +could have furnished the stuff for a dozen Claudes and have had enough +left for an ordinary man besides. + +April gave place to May, and a veil hung between the lovers,--an +intangible, gossamer-like thing, not to be seen with the naked eye, but, +oh! so plainly to be felt. Rose hid herself thankfully behind it, +while Stephen had not courage to lift a corner. She had twice been seen +driving with Claude Merrill--that Stephen knew; but she had explained +that there were errands to be done, that her grandfather had taken +the horse, and that Mr. Merrill's escort had been both opportune and +convenient for these practical reasons. Claude was everywhere present, +the center of attraction, the observed of all observers. He was +irresistible, contagious, almost epidemic. Rose was now gay, now silent; +now affectionate, now distant, now coquettish; in fine, everything that +was capricious, mysterious, agitating, incomprehensible. + +One morning Alcestis Crambry went to the post-office for Stephen and +brought him back the newspapers and letters. He had hung about the River +Farm so much that Stephen finally gave him bed and food in exchange for +numberless small errands. Rufus was temporarily confined in a dark room +with some strange pain and trouble in his eyes, and Alcestis proved of +use in many ways. He had always been Rose's slave, and had often brought +messages and notes from the Brier Neighborhood, so that when Stephen saw +a folded note among the papers his heart gave a throb of anticipation. + +The note was brief, and when he had glanced through it he said: "This is +not mine, Alcestis; it belongs to Miss Rose. Go straight back and give +it to her as you were told; and another time keep your wits about you, +or I'll send you back to Killick." + +Alcestis Crambry's ideas on all subjects were extremely vague. Claude +Merrill had given him a letter for Rose, but his notion was that +anything that belonged to her belonged to Stephen, and the Waterman +place was much nearer than the Wileys', particularly at dinner-time! + +When the boy had slouched away, Stephen sat under the apple tree, now a +mass of roseate bloom, and buried his face in his hands. + +It was not precisely a love-letter that he had read, nevertheless it +blackened the light of the sun for him. Claude asked Rose to meet him +anywhere on the road to the station and to take a little walk, as he was +leaving that afternoon and could not bear to say good-bye to her in +the presence of her grandmother. "_Under the circumstances_," he wrote, +deeply underlining the words, "I cannot remain a moment longer in +Edgewood, where I have been so happy and so miserable!" He did not refer +to the fact that the time limit on his return-ticket expired that day, +for his dramatic instinct told him that such sordid matters have no +place in heroics. + +Stephen sat motionless under the tree for an hour, deciding on some plan +of action. He had work at the little house, but he did not dare go there +lest he should see the face of dead Love looking from the windows of the +pink bedroom; dead Love, cold, sad, merciless. His cheeks burned as he +thought of the marriage license and the gold ring hidden away upstairs +in the drawer of his shaving stand. What a romantic fool he had been, to +think he could hasten the glad day by a single moment! What a piece of +boyish folly it had been, and how it shamed him in his own eyes! + +When train time drew near he took his boat and paddled downstream. +If for the Finland lover's reindeer there was but one path in all the +world, and that the one that led to Her, so it was for Stephen's canoe, +which, had it been set free on the river by day or by night, might have +floated straight to Rose. + +He landed at the usual place, a bit of sandy shore near the Wiley house, +and walked drearily up the bank through the woods. Under the shade +of the pines the white stars of the hepatica glistened and the pale +anemones were coming into bloom. Partridge-berries glowed red under +their glossy leaves, and clumps of violets sweetened the air. Squirrels +chattered, woodpeckers tapped, thrushes sang; but Stephen was blind and +deaf to all the sweet harbingers of spring. + +Just then he heard voices, realizing with a throb of delight that, at +any rate, Rose had not left home to meet Claude, as he had asked her to +do. Looking through the branches, he saw the two standing together, Mrs. +Brooks's horse, with the offensive trunk in the back of the wagon, being +hitched to a tree near by. There was nothing in the tableau to stir +Stephen to fury, but he read between the lines and suffered as he +read--suffered and determined to sacrifice himself if he must, so that +Rose could have what she wanted, this miserable apology for a man. He +had never been the husband for Rose; she must take her place in a larger +community, worthy of her beauty and charm. + +Claude was talking and gesticulating ardently. Rose's head was bent and +the tears were rolling down her cheeks. Suddenly Claude raised his hat, +and with a passionate gesture of renunciation walked swiftly to the +wagon, and looking back once, drove off with the utmost speed of which +the Brooks's horse was capable,--Rose waving him a farewell with one +hand and wiping her eyes with the other. + + + + +X. The Turquoise Ring + + +Stephen stood absolutely still in front of the opening in the trees, and +as Rose turned she met him face to face. She had never dreamed his eyes +could be so stern, his mouth so hard, and she gave a sob like a child. + +"You seem to be in trouble," Stephen said in a voice so cold she thought +it could not be his. + +"I am not in trouble, exactly," Rose stammered, concealing her +discomfiture as well as possible. "I am a little unhappy because I +have made some one else unhappy; and now that you know it, you will be +unhappy too, and angry besides, I suppose, though you've seen everything +there was to see." + +"There is no occasion for sorrow," Stephen said. "I did n't mean to +break in on any interview; I came over to give you back your freedom. +If you ever cared enough for me to marry me, the time has gone by. I am +willing to own that I over-persuaded you, but I am not the man to take a +girl against her inclinations, so we will say good-bye and end the thing +here and now. I can only wish"--here his smothered rage at fate almost +choked him--"that, when you were selecting another husband, you had +chosen a whole man!" + +Rose quivered with the scorn of his tone. "Size is n't everything!" she +blazed. + +"Not in bodies, perhaps; but it counts for something in hearts and +brains, and it is convenient to have a sense of honor that's at least as +big as a grain of mustard-seed." + +"Claude Merrill is not dishonorable," Rose exclaimed impetuously; "or +at least he is n't as bad as you think: he has never asked me to marry +him." + +"Then he probably was not quite ready to speak, or perhaps you were not +quite ready to hear," retorted Stephen, bitterly; "but don't let us have +words,-there'll be enough to regret without adding those. I have seen, +ever since New Year's, that you were not really happy or contented; only +I would n't allow it to myself; I kept hoping against hope that I was +mistaken. There have been times when I would have married you, willing +or unwilling, but I did n't love you so well then; and now that there's +another man in the case, it's different, and I'm strong enough to do the +right thing. Follow your heart and be happy; in a year or two I shall be +glad I had the grit to tell you so. Good-bye, Rose!" + +Rose, pale with amazement, summoned all her pride, and drawing the +turquoise engagement ring from her finger, handed it silently to +Stephen, hiding her face as he flung it vehemently down the river-bank. +His dull eyes followed it and half uncomprehendingly saw it settle and +glisten in a nest of brown pine-needles. Then he put out his hand for a +last clasp and strode away without a word. + +Presently Rose heard first the scrape of his boat on the sand, then +the soft sound of his paddles against the water, then nothing but +the squirrels and the woodpeckers and the thrushes, then not even +these,--nothing but the beating of her own heart. + +She sat down heavily, feeling as if she were wide awake for the first +time in many weeks. How had things come to this pass with her? + +Claude Merrill had flattered her vanity and given her some moments of +restlessness and dissatisfaction with her lot; but he had not until +today really touched her heart or tempted her, even momentarily, from +her allegiance to Stephen. His eyes had always looked unspeakable +things; his voice had seemed to breathe feelings that he had never dared +put in words; but today he had really stirred her, for although he had +still been vague, it was easy to see that his love for her had passed +all bounds of discretion. She remembered his impassioned farewells, his +despair, his doubt as to whether he could forget her by plunging into +the vortex of business, or whether he had better end it all in the +river, as so many other broken-hearted fellows had done. She had been +touched by his misery, even against her better judgment; and she had +intended to confess it all to Stephen sometime, telling him that she +should never again accept attentions from a stranger, lest a tragedy +like this should happen twice in a lifetime. + +She had imagined that Stephen would be his large-minded, +great-hearted, magnanimous self, and beg her to forget this fascinating +will-o'-the-wisp by resting in his deeper, serener love. She had meant +to be contrite and faithful, praying nightly that poor Claude might live +down his present anguish, of which she had been the innocent cause. + +Instead, what had happened? She had been put altogether in the wrong. +Stephen had almost cast her off, and that, too, without argument. He +had given her her liberty before she had asked for it, taking it for +granted, without question, that she desired to be rid of him. Instead +of comforting her in her remorse, or sympathizing with her for so +nobly refusing to shine in Claude's larger world of Boston, Stephen had +assumed that she was disloyal in every particular. + +And pray how was she to cope with such a disagreeable and complicated +situation? + +It would not be long before the gossips rolled under their tongues the +delicious morsel of a broken engagement, and sooner or later she must +brave the displeasure of her grandmother. + +And the little house--that was worse than anything. Her tears flowed +faster as she thought of Stephen's joy in it, of his faithful labor, of +the savings he had invested in it. She hated and despised herself +when she thought of the house, and for the first time in her life she +realized the limitations of her nature, the poverty of her ideals. + +What should she do? She had lost Stephen and ruined his life. Now, in +order that she need not blight a second career, must she contrive to +return Claude's love? To be sure, she thought, it seemed indecent to +marry any other man than Stephen, when they had built a house together, +and chosen wallpapers, and a kitchen stove, and dining-room chairs; but +was it not the only way to evade the difficulties? + +Suppose that Stephen, in a fit of pique, should ask somebody else to +share the new cottage? + +As this dreadful possibility came into view, Rose's sobs actually +frightened the birds and the squirrels. She paced back and forth under +the trees, wondering how she could have been engaged to a man for eight +months and know so little about him as she seemed to know about Stephen +Waterman today. Who would have believed he could be so autocratic, so +severe, SS so unapproachable? Who could have foreseen that she, Rose +Wiley, would ever be given up to another man,--handed over as coolly as +if she had been a bale of cotton? She wanted to return Claude Merrill's +love because it was the only way out of the tangle; but at the moment +she almost hated him for making so much trouble, for hurting Stephen, +for abasing her in her own eyes, and, above all, for giving her rustic +lover the chance of impersonating an injured emperor. + +It did not simplify the situation to have Mite Shapley come in during +the evening and run upstairs, uninvited, to sit on the foot of her bed +and chatter. + +Rose had closed her blinds and lay in the dark, pleading a headache. +Mite was in high feather. She had met Claude Merrill going to the +station that afternoon. He was much too early for the train, which the +station agent reported to be behind time, so he had asked her to take +a drive. She did n't know how it happened, for he looked at his watch +every now and then; but, anyway, they got to laughing and "carrying on," +and when they came back to the station the train had gone. Was n't that +the greatest joke of the season? What did Rose suppose they did next? + +Rose did n't know and did n't care; her head ached too badly. + +Well, they had driven to Wareham, and Claude had hired a livery team +there, and had been taken into Portland with his trunk, and she had +brought Mrs. Brooks's horse back to Edgewood. Was n't that ridiculous? +And had n't she cut out Rose where she least expected? + +Rose was distinctly apathetic, and Mite Shapley departed after a very +brief call, leaving behind her an entirely new train of thought. + +If Claude Merrill were so love-blighted that he could only by the +greatest self-control keep from flinging himself into the river, how +could he conceal his sufferings so completely from Mite Shapley,--little +shallow-pated, scheming coquette? + + +"So that pretty Merrill feller has gone, has he, mother?" inquired Old +Kennebec that night, as he took off his wet shoes and warmed his feet +at the kitchen oven. "Well, it ain't a mite too soon. I allers distrust +that pink-an'-white, rosy-posy kind of a man. One of the most turrible +things that ever happened in Gard'ner was brought about by jest sech +a feller. Mothers hed n't hardly ought to name their boy babies Claude +without they expect 'em to play the dickens with the girls. I don' know +nothin' 'bout the fust Claude, there ain't none of 'em in the Bible, air +they, but whoever he was, I bate ye he hed a deceivin' tongue. If it +hed n't be'n for me, that Claude in Gard'ner would 'a' run away with +my brother's fust wife; an' I'll tell ye jest how I contrived to put a +spoke in his wheel." + +But Mrs. Wiley, being already somewhat familiar with the circumstances, +had taken her candle and retired to her virtuous couch. + + + + +XI. Rose Sees the World + + +Was this the world, after all? Rose asked herself; and, if so, what +was amiss with it, and where was the charm, the bewilderment, the +intoxication, the glamour? + +She had been glad to come to Boston, for the last two weeks in Edgewood +had proved intolerable. She had always been a favorite heretofore, from +the days when the boys fought for the privilege of dragging her sled +up the hills, and filling her tiny mitten with peppermints, down to +the year when she came home from the Wareham Female Seminary, an +acknowledged belle and beauty. Suddenly she had felt her popularity +dwindling. There was no real change in the demeanor of her +acquaintances, but there was a certain subtle difference of atmosphere. +Everybody sympathized tacitly with Stephen, and she did not wonder, for +there were times when she secretly took his part against herself. Only +a few candid friends had referred to the rupture openly in conversation, +but these had been blunt in their disapproval. + +It seemed part of her ill fortune that just at this time Rufus should +be threatened with partial blindness, and that Stephen's heart, already +sore, should be torn with new anxieties. She could hardly bear to see +the doctor's carriage drive by day after day, and hear night after night +that Rufus was unresigned, melancholy, half mad; while Stephen, as the +doctor said, was brother, mother, and father in one, as gentle as a +woman, as firm as Gibraltar. + +These foes to her peace of mind all came from within; but without was +the hourly reproach of her grandmother, whose scorching tongue touched +every sensitive spot in the girl's nature and burned it like fire. + +Finally a way of escape opened. Mrs. Wealthy Brooks, who had always been +rheumatic, grew suddenly worse. She had heard of a "magnetic" physician +in Boston, also of one who used electricity with wonderful effect, and +she announced her intention of taking both treatments impartially and +alternately. The neighbors were quite willing that Wealthy Ann Brooks +should spend the deceased Ezra's money in any way she pleased,--she +had earned it, goodness knows, by living with him for twenty-five +years,--but before the day for her departure arrived her right arm +and knee became so much more painful that it was impossible for her to +travel alone. + +At this juncture Rose was called upon to act as nurse and companion in +a friendly way. She seized the opportunity hungrily as a way out of her +present trouble; but, knowing what Mrs. Brooks's temper was in time of +health, she could see clearly what it was likely to prove when pain and +anguish wrung the brow. + +Rose had been in Boston now for some weeks, and she was sitting in the +Joy Street boarding-house,--Joy Street, forsooth! It was nearly bedtime, +and she was looking out upon a huddle of roofs and back yards, upon +a landscape filled with clothes-lines, ash-barrels, and ill-fed cats. +There were no sleek country tabbies, with the memory in their eyes of +tasted cream, nothing but city-born, city-bred, thin, despairing cats of +the pavement, cats no more forlorn than Rose herself. + +She had "seen Boston," for she had accompanied Mrs. Brooks in the +horse-cars daily to the two different temples of healing where that +lady worshiped and offered sacrifices. She had also gone with Maude +Arthurlena to Claude Merrill's store to buy a pair of gloves, and had +overheard Miss Dix (the fashionable "lady assistant" before mentioned) +say to Miss Brackett of the ribbon department, that she thought Mr. +Merrill must have worn his blinders that time he stayed so long in +Edgewood. This bit of polished irony was unintelligible to Rose at +first, but she mastered it after an hour's reflection. She was n't +looking her best that day, she knew; the cotton dresses that seemed +so pretty at home were common and countrified here, and her best black +cashmere looked cheap and shapeless beside Miss Dix's brilliantine. Miss +Dix's figure was her strong point, and her dressmaker was particularly +skillful in the arts of suggestion, concealment, and revelation. Beauty +has its chosen backgrounds. Rose in white dimity, standing knee deep in +her blossoming brier bushes, the river running at her feet, dark pine +trees behind her graceful head, sounded depths and touched heights of +harmony forever beyond the reach of the modish Miss Dix, but she was out +of her element and suffered accordingly. + +Rose had gone to walk with Claude one evening when she first arrived. He +had shown her the State House and the Park Street Church, and sat with +her on one of the benches in the Common until nearly ten. She knew that +Mrs. Brooks had told her nephew of the broken engagement, but he made no +reference to the matter, save to congratulate her that she was rid of +a man who was so clumsy, so dull and behind the times, as Stephen +Waterman, saying that he had always marveled she could engage herself to +anybody who could insult her by offering her a turquoise ring. + +Claude was very interesting that evening, Rose thought, but +rather gloomy and unlike his former self. He referred to his grave +responsibilities, to the frail health of Maude Arthurlena, and to the +vicissitudes of business. He vaguely intimated that his daily life in +the store was not so pleasant as it had been formerly; that there +were "those" (he would speak no more plainly) who embarrassed him with +undesired attentions, "those" who, without the smallest shadow of right, +vexed him with petty jealousies. + +Rose dared not ask questions on so delicate a topic, but she remembered +in a flash Miss Dix's heavy eyebrows, snapping eyes, and high color. +Claude seemed very happy that Rose had come to Boston, though he was +surprised, knowing what a trial his aunt must be, now that she was so +helpless. It was unfortunate, also, that Rose could not go on excursions +without leaving his aunt alone, or he should have been glad to offer his +escort. He pressed her hand when he left her at her door, telling her +she could never realize what a comfort her friendship was to him; +could never imagine how thankful he was that she had courageously freed +herself from ties that in time would have made her wretched. His heart +was full, he said, of feelings he dared not utter; but in the near +future, when certain clouds had rolled by, he would unlock its +treasures, and then--but no more tonight: he could not trust himself. + +Rose felt as if she were assuming one of the characters in a mysterious +romance, such as unfolded itself only in books or in Boston; but +thrilling as it was, it was nevertheless extremely unsatisfactory. + +Convinced that Claude Merrill was passionately in love with her, one of +her reasons for coming to Boston had been to fall more deeply in love +with him, and thus heal some, at least, of the wounds she had inflicted. +It may have been a foolish idea, but after three weeks it seemed still +worse,--a useless one; for after several interviews she felt herself +drifting farther and farther from Claude; and if he felt any burning +ambition to make her his own, he certainly concealed it with admirable +art. Given up, with the most offensive magnanimity, by Stephen, and not +greatly desired by Claude,--that seemed the present status of proud Rose +Wiley of the Brier Neighborhood. + +It was June, she remembered, as she leaned out of the open window; at +least it was June in Edgewood, and she supposed for convenience' sake +they called it June in Boston. Not that it mattered much what the poor +city prisoners called it. How beautiful the river would be at home, with +the trees along the banks in full leaf! How she hungered and thirsted +for the river,--to see it sparkle in the sunlight; to watch the +moonglade stretching from one bank to the other; to hear the soft lap +of the water on the shore, and the distant murmur of the falls at the +bridge! And the Brier Neighborhood would be at its loveliest, for the +wild roses were in blossom by now. And the little house! How sweet it +must look under the shade of the elms, with the Saco rippling at the +back! Was poor Rufus still lying in a darkened room, and was Stephen +nursing him,--disappointed Stephen, dear, noble old Stephen? + + + + +XII. Gold and Pinchbeck + + +Just then Mrs. Brooks groaned in the next room and called Rose, who went +in to minister to her real needs, or to condole with her fancied ones, +whichever course of action appeared to be the more agreeable at the +moment. + +Mrs. Brooks desired conversation, it seemed, or at least she desired an +audience for a monologue, for she recognized no antiphonal obligations +on the part of her listeners. The doctors were not doing her a speck of +good, and she was just squandering money in a miserable boarding-house, +when she might be enjoying poor health in her own home; and she did n't +believe her hens were receiving proper care, and she had forgotten +to pull down the shades in the spare room, and the sun would fade the +carpet out all white before she got back, and she did n't believe Dr. +Smith's magnetism was any more use than a cat's foot, nor Dr. Robinson's +electricity any better than a bumblebee's buzz, and she had a great mind +to go home and try Dr. Lord from Bonnie Eagle; and there was a letter +for Rose on the bureau, which had come before supper, but the shiftless, +lazy, worthless landlady had forgotten to send it up till just now. + +The letter was from Mite Shapley, but Rose could read only half of it to +Mrs. Brooks, little beside the news that the Waterman barn, the finest +barn in the whole township, had been struck by lightning and burned +to the ground. Stephen was away at the time, having taken Rufus to +Portland, where an operation on his eyes would shortly be performed at +the hospital, and one of the neighbors was sleeping at the River Farm +and taking care of the cattle; still the house might not have been saved +but for one of Alcestis Crambry's sudden bursts of common sense, which +occurred now quite regularly. He succeeded not only in getting the +horses out of the stalls, but gave the alarm so promptly that the whole +neighborhood was soon on the scene of action. Stephen was the only man, +Mite reminded Rose, who ever had any patience with, or took any pains to +teach, Alcestis, but he never could have expected to be rewarded in this +practical way. The barn was only partly insured; and when she had met +Stephen at the station next day, and condoled with him on his loss, +he had said: "Oh, well, Mite, a little more or less does n't make much +difference just now." + +"The rest would n't interest you, Mrs. Brooks," said Rose, precipitately +preparing to leave the room. + +"Something about Claude, I suppose," ventured that astute lady. "I think +Mite kind of fancied him. I don't believe he ever gave her any real +encouragement; but he'd make love to a pump, Claude Merrill would, and +so would his father before him. How my sister Abby made out to land him +we never knew, for they said he'd proposed to every woman in the town +of Bingham, not excepting the wooden Indian girl in front of the +cigar-store, and not one of 'em but our Abby ever got a chance to name +the day. Abby was as set as the everlastin' hills, and if she'd made up +her mind to have a man he could n't wriggle away from her nohow in +the world. It beats all how girls do run after these slick-haired, +sweet-tongued, Miss Nancy kind o' fellers, that ain't but little good as +beaux an' worth less than nothing as husbands." + +Rose scarcely noticed what Mrs. Brooks said, she was too anxious to read +the rest of Mite Shapley's letter in the quiet of her own room. + + Stephen looks thin and pale [so it ran on], but he does not allow anybody + to sympathize with him. I think you ought to know something that I have n't + told before for fear of hurting your feelings; but if I were in your place + I'd like to hear everything, and then you'll know how to act when you come + home. Just after you left, Stephen ploughed up all the land in front of + your new house,--every inch of it, all up and down the road, between the + fence and the front doorstep,--and then he planted corn where you were + going to have your flower-beds. He has closed all the blinds and hung a "To + Let" sign on the large elm at the gate. Stephen never was spiteful in his + life, but this looks a little like spite. Perhaps he only wanted to save + his self-respect and let people know that everything between you was over + forever. Perhaps he thought it would stop talk once and for all. But you + won't mind, you lucky girl, staying nearly three months in Boston! [So + Almira purled on in violet ink, with shaded letters.] How I wish it had + come my way, though I'm not good at rubbing rheumatic patients, even when + they are _his_ aunt. Is _he_ as devoted as ever? And when will _it_ be? How + do you like the theater? Mother thinks you won't attend; but, by what he + used to say, I am sure church members in Boston always go to amusements. + + Your loving friend, + Almira Shapley. + + P.S. They say Rufus's doctor's bills here, and the operation and hospital + expenses in Portland, will mount up to five hundred dollars. Of course + Stephen will be dreadfully hampered by the toss of his barn, and maybe he + wants to let your house that was to be, because he really needs money. In + that case the dooryard won't be very attractive to tenants, with corn + planted right up to the steps and no path left! It's two feet tall now, and + by August (just when you were intending to move in) it will hide the front + windows. Not that you'll care, with a diamond on your engagement finger! + + +The letter was more than flesh and blood could stand, and Rose flung +herself on her bed to think and regret and repent, and, if possible, to +sob herself to sleep. + +She knew now that she had never admired and respected Stephen so much +as at the moment when, under the reproach of his eyes, she had given him +back his ring. When she left Edgewood and parted with him forever she +had really loved him better than when she had promised to marry him. + +Claude Merrill, on his native Boston heath, did not appear the romantic, +inspiring figure he had once been in her eyes. A week ago she distrusted +him; tonight she despised him. + +What had happened to Rose was the dilation of her vision. She saw things +under a wider sky and in a clearer light. Above all, her heart was wrung +with pity for Stephen--Stephen, with no comforting woman's hand to help +him in his sore trouble; Stephen, bearing his losses alone, his burdens +and anxieties alone, his nursing and daily work alone. Oh, how she felt +herself needed! Needed! that was the magic word that unlocked her better +nature. "Darkness is the time for making roots and establishing plants, +whether of the soil or of the soul," and all at once Rose had become a +woman: a little one, perhaps, but a whole woman--and a bit of an angel, +too, with healing in her wings. When and how had this metamorphosis come +about? Last summer the fragile brier-rose had hung over the river and +looked at its pretty reflection in the placid surface of the water. Its +few buds and blossoms were so lovely, it sighed for nothing more. The +changes in the plant had been wrought secretly and silently. In some +mysterious way, as common to soul as to plant life, the roots had +gathered in more nourishment from the earth, they had stored up strength +and force, and all at once there was a marvelous fructifying of the +plant, hardiness of stalk, new shoots everywhere, vigorous leafage, and +a shower of blossoms. + +But everything was awry: Boston was a failure; Claude was a weakling and +a flirt; her turquoise ring was lying on the river-bank; Stephen did +not love her any longer; her flower-beds were ploughed up and planted in +corn; and the cottage that Stephen had built and she had furnished, that +beloved cottage, was to let. + +She was in Boston; but what did that amount to, after all? What was +the State House to a bleeding heart, or the Old South Church to a pride +wounded like hers? + +At last she fell asleep, but it was only by stopping her ears to the +noises of the city streets and making herself imagine the sound of +the river rippling under her bedroom windows at home. The backyards of +Boston faded, and in their place came the banks of the Saco, strewn +with pine-needles, fragrant with wild flowers. Then there was the bit of +sunny beach, where Stephen moored his boat. She could hear the sound of +his paddle. Boston lovers came a-courting in the horse-cars, but hers +had floated downstream to her just at dusk in a birch-bark canoe, or +sometimes, in the moonlight, on a couple of logs rafted together. + +But it was all over now, and she could see only Stephen's stern face as +he flung the despised turquoise ring down the river-bank. + + + + +XIII. A Country Chevalier + + +It was early in August when Mrs. Wealthy Brooks announced her speedy +return from Boston to Edgewood. + +"It's jest as well Rose is comin' back," said Mr. Wiley to his wife. "I +never favored her goin' to Boston, where that rosy-posy Claude feller +is. When he was down here he was kep' kind o' tied up in a box-stall, +but there he's caperin' loose round the pastur'." + +"I should think Rose would be ashamed to come back, after the way she's +carried on," remarked Mrs. Wiley, "but if she needed punishment I guess +she's got it bein' comp'ny-keeper to Wealthy Ann Brooks. Bein' a church +member in good an' reg'lar standin', I s'pose Wealthy Ann'll go to +heaven, but I can only say that it would be a sight pleasanter place for +a good many if she did n't." + +"Rose has be'n foolish an' flirty an' wrong-headed," allowed her +grandfather; "but it won't do no good to treat her like a hardened +criminile, same's you did afore she went away. She ain't hardly got her +wisdom teeth cut, in love affairs! She ain't broke the laws of the +State o' Maine, nor any o' the ten commandments; she ain't disgraced the +family, an' there's a chance for her to reform, seein' as how she ain't +twenty year old yet. I was turrible wild an' hot-headed myself afore you +ketched me an' tamed me down." + +"You ain't so tame now as I wish you was," Mrs. Wiley replied testily. + +"If you could smoke a clay pipe 't would calm your nerves, mother, an' +help you to git some philosophy inter you; you need a little philosophy +turrible bad." + +"I need patience consid'able more," was Mrs. Wiley's withering retort. + +"That's the way with folks," said Old Kennebec reflectively, as he went +on peacefully puffing. "If you try to indoose 'em to take an int'rest in +a bran'-new virtue, they won't look at it; but they 'll run down a side +street an' buy half a yard more o' some turrible old shop-worn trait +o' character that they've kep' in stock all their lives, an' that +everybody's sick to death of. There was a man in Gard'ner--" + +But alas! the experiences of the Gardiner man, though told in the same +delightful fashion that had won Mrs. Wiley's heart many years +before, now fell upon the empty air. In these years of Old Kennebec's +"anecdotage," his pipe was his best listener and his truest confidant. + +Mr. Wiley's constant intercessions with his wife made Rose's home-coming +somewhat easier, and the sight of her own room and belongings soothed +her troubled spirit, but the days went on, and nothing happened to +change the situation. She had lost a lover, that was all, and there were +plenty more to choose from, or there always had been; but the only one +she wanted was the one who made no sign. She used to think that she +could twist Stephen around her little finger; that she had only to +beckon to him and he would follow her to the ends of the earth. Now fear +had entered her heart. She no longer felt sure, because she no longer +felt worthy, of him, and feeling both uncertainty and unworthiness, her +lips were sealed and she was rendered incapable of making any bid for +forgiveness. + +So the little world of Pleasant River went on, to all outward seeming, +as it had ever gone. On one side of the stream a girl's heart was +longing, and pining, and sickening, with hope deferred, and growing, +too, with such astonishing rapidity that the very angels marveled! And +on the other, a man's whole vision of life and duty was widening and +deepening under the fructifying influence of his sorrow. + +The corn waved high and green in front of the vacant riverside cottage, +but Stephen sent no word or message to Rose. He had seen her once, but +only from a distance. She seemed paler and thinner, he thought,--the +result, probably, of her metropolitan gayeties. He heard no rumor of any +engagement and he wondered if it were possible that her love for Claude +Merrill had not, after all, been returned in kind. This seemed a wild +impossibility. His mind refused to entertain the supposition that any +man on earth could resist falling in love with Rose, or, having fallen +in, that he could ever contrive to climb out. So he worked on at his +farm harder than ever, and grew soberer and more careworn daily. Rufus +had never seemed so near and dear to him as in these weeks when he had +lived under the shadow of threatened blindness. The burning of the barn +and the strain upon their slender property brought the brothers together +shoulder to shoulder. + +"If you lose your girl, Steve," said the boy, "and I lose my eyesight, +and we both lose the barn, why, it'll be us two against the world, for a +spell!" + +The "To Let" sign on the little house was an arrant piece of hypocrisy. +Nothing but the direst extremity could have caused him to allow an alien +step on that sacred threshold. The ploughing up of the flower-beds and +planting of the corn had served a double purpose. It showed the too +curious public the finality of his break with Rose and her absolute +freedom; it also prevented them from suspecting that he still entered +the place. His visits were not many, but he could not bear to let the +dust settle on the furniture that he and Rose had chosen together; and +whenever he locked the door and went back to the River Farm, he thought +of a verse in the Bible: "Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the +Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." + + +It was now Friday of the last week in August. + +The river was full of logs, thousands upon thousands of them covering +the surface of the water from the bridge almost up to the Brier +Neighborhood. The Edgewood drive was late, owing to a long drought and +low water; but it was to begin on the following Monday, and Lije Dennett +and his under boss were looking over the situation and planning the +campaign. As they leaned over the bridge-rail they saw Mr. Wiley driving +clown the river road. When he caught sight of them he hitched the old +white horse at the corner and walked toward them, filling his pipe the +while in his usual leisurely manner. "We're not busy this forenoon," +said Lije Dennett. "S'pose we stand right here and let Old Kennebec have +his say out for once. We've never heard the end of one of his stories, +an' he's be'n talkin' for twenty years." + +"All right," rejoined his companion, with a broad grin at the idea. "I'm +willin', if you are; but who's goin' to tell our fam'lies the reason +we've deserted 'em? I bate yer we shan't budge till the crack o' doom. +The road commissioner'll come along once a year and mend the bridge +under our feet, but Old Kennebec'll talk straight on till the day o' +jedgment." + +Mr. Wiley had one of the most enjoyable mornings of his life, and felt +that after half a century of neglect his powers were at last appreciated +by his fellow citizens. + +He proposed numerous strategic movements to be made upon the logs, +whereby they would move more swiftly than usual. He described several +successful drives on the Kennebec, when the logs had melted down the +river almost by magic, owing to his generalship; and he paid a tribute, +in passing, to the docility of the boss, who on that occasion had never +moved a single log without asking his advice. + +From this topic he proceeded genially to narrate the life-histories +of the boss, the under boss, and several Indians belonging to the +crew,--histories in which he himself played a gallant and conspicuous +part. The conversation then drifted naturally to the exploits of +river-drivers in general, and Mr. Wiley narrated the sorts of feats in +log-riding, pick-pole-throwing, and the shooting of rapids that he had +done in his youth. These stories were such as had seldom been heard by +the ear of man; and, as they passed into circulation instantaneously, we +are probably enjoying some of them to this day. + +They were still being told when a Crambry child appeared on the bridge, +bearing a note for the old man. Upon reading it he moved off rapidly in +the direction of the store, ejaculating: "Bless my soul! I clean forgot +that saleratus, and mother's settin' at the kitchen table with the bowl +in her lap, waitin' for it! Got so int'rested in your list'nin' I never +thought o' the time." + +The connubial discussion that followed this breach of discipline began +on the arrival of the saleratus, and lasted through supper; and Rose +went to bed almost immediately afterward for very dullness and apathy. +Her life stretched out before her in the most aimless and monotonous +fashion. She saw nothing but heartache in the future; and that she +richly deserved it made it none the easier to bear. + +Feeling feverish and sleepless, she slipped on her gray Shaker cloak +and stole quietly downstairs for a breath of air. Her grandfather and +grandmother were talking on the piazza, and good humor seemed to have +been restored. "I was over to the tavern tonight," she heard him say, +as she sat down at a little distance. "I was over to the tavern tonight, +an' a feller from Gorham got to talkin' an' braggin' 'bout what a stock +o' goods they kep' in the store over there. 'An',' says I, 'I bate ye +dollars to doughnuts that there hain't a darn thing ye can ask for at +Bill Pike's store at Pleasant River that he can't go down cellar, or up +attic, or out in the barn chamber an' git for ye.' Well, sir, he took me +up, an' I borrered the money of Joe Dennett, who held the stakes, an' +we went right over to Bill Pike's with all the boys follerin' on behind. +An' the Gorham man never let on what he was going to ask for till the +hull crowd of us got inside the store. Then says he, as p'lite as a +basket o' chips, 'Mr. Pike, I'd like to buy a pulpit if you can oblige +me with one.' + +"Bill scratched his head an' I held my breath. Then says he, ''Pears to +me I'd ought to hev a pulpit or two, if I can jest remember where I keep +'em. I don't never cal'late to be out o' pulpits, but I'm so plagued for +room I can't keep 'em in here with the groc'ries. Jim (that's his new +store boy), you jest take a lantern an' run out in the far corner o' the +shed, at the end o' the hickory woodpile, an' see how many pulpits we've +got in stock!' Well, Jim run out, an' when he come back he says, 'We've +got two, Mr. Pike. Shall I bring one of 'em in?' + +"At that the boys all bust out laughin' an' hollerin' an' tauntin' the +Gorham man, an' he paid up with a good will, I tell ye!" + +"I don't approve of bettin'," said Mrs. Wiley grimly, "but I'll try to +sanctify the money by usin' it for a new wash-boiler." + +"The fact is," explained Old Kennebec, somewhat confused, "that the boys +made me spend every cent of it then an' there." + +Rose heard her grandmother's caustic reply, and then paid no further +attention until her keen ear caught the sound of Stephen's name. It was +a part of her unhappiness that since her broken engagement no one +would ever allude to him, and she longed to hear him mentioned, so that +perchance she could get some inkling of his movements. + +"I met Stephen tonight for the first time in a week," said Mr. Wiley. +"He kind o' keeps out o' my way lately. He's goin' to drive his span +into Portland tomorrow mornin' and bring Rufus home from the hospital +Sunday afternoon. The doctors think they've made a success of their job, +but Rufus has got to be bandaged up a spell longer. Stephen is goin' to +join the drive Monday mornin' at the bridge here, so I'll get the latest +news o' the boy. Land! I'll be turrible glad if he gets out with his +eyesight, if it's only for Steve's sake. He's a turrible good fellow, +Steve is! He said something tonight that made me set more store by him +than ever. I told you I hed n't heard an unkind word ag'in' Rose sence +she come home from Boston, an' no more I hev till this evenin'. There +was two or three fellers talkin' in the post-office, an' they did n't +suspicion I was settin' on the steps outside the screen door. That Jim +Jenkins, that Rose so everlastin'ly snubbed at the tavern dance, spoke +up, an' says he: 'This time last year Rose Wiley could 'a' hed the +choice of any man on the river, an' now I bet ye she can't get nary +one.' + +"Steve was there, jest goin' out the door, with some bags o' coffee an' +sugar under his arm. + +"'I guess you're mistaken about that,' he says, speakin' up jest like +lightnin'; 'so long as Stephen Waterman's alive, Rose Wiley can have +him, for one; and that everybody's welcome to know.' + +"He spoke right out, loud an' plain, jest as if he was readin' the +Declaration of Independence. I expected the boys would everlastin'ly +poke fun at him, but they never said a word. I guess his eyes flashed, +for he come out the screen door, slammin' it after him, and stalked by +me as if he was too worked up to notice anything or anybody. I did n't +foller him, for his long legs git over the ground too fast for me, but +thinks I, 'Mebbe I'll hev some use for my lemonade-set after all.'" + +"I hope to the land you will," responded Mrs. Wiley, "for I'm about sick +o' movin' it round when I sweep under my bed. And I shall be glad if +Rose an' Stephen do make it up, for Wealthy Ann Brooks's gossip is too +much for a Christian woman to stand." + + + + +XIV. Housebreaking + + +Where was the pale Rose, the faded Rose, that crept noiselessly down +from her room, wanting neither to speak nor to be spoken to? Nobody ever +knew. She vanished forever, and in her place a thing of sparkles and +dimples flashed up the stairway and closed the door softly. There was +a streak of moon-shine lying across the bare floor, and a merry ghost, +with dressing-gown held prettily away from bare feet, danced a gay +fandango among the yellow moonbeams. There were breathless flights to +the open window, and kisses thrown in the direction of the River Farm. +There were impressive declamations at the looking-glass, where a radiant +creature pointed to her reflection and whispered, "Worthless little pig, +he loves you, after all!" + +Then, when quiet joy had taken the place of mad delight, there was a +swoop down upon the floor, an impetuous hiding of brimming eyes in the +white counterpane, and a dozen impassioned promises to herself and to +something higher than herself, to be a better girl. + +The mood lasted, and deepened, and still Rose did not move. Her heart +was on its knees before Stephen's faithful love, his chivalry, his +strength. Her troubled spirit, like a frail boat tossed about in the +rapids, seemed entering a quiet harbor, where there were protecting +shores and a still, still evening star. Her sails were all torn +and drooping, but the harbor was in sight, and the poor little +weather-beaten craft could rest in peace. + +A period of grave reflection now ensued, under the bedclothes, where one +could think better. Suddenly an inspiration seized her, an inspiration +so original, so delicious, and above all so humble and praiseworthy, +that it brought her head from her pillow, and she sat bolt upright, +clapping her hands like a child. + +"The very thing!" she whispered to herself gleefully. "It will take +courage, but I'm sure of my ground after what he said before them all, +and I'll do it. Grandma in Biddeford buying church carpets, Stephen in +Portland--was ever such a chance?" + +The same glowing Rose came downstairs, two steps at a time, next +morning, bade her grandmother goodbye with suspicious pleasure, and sent +her grandfather away on an errand which, with attendant conversation, +would consume half the day. Then bundles after bundles and baskets after +baskets were packed into the wagon,--behind the seat, beneath the seat, +and finally under the lap-robe. She gave a dramatic flourish to the +whip, drove across the bridge, went through Pleasant River village, +and up the leafy road to the little house, stared the "To Let" sign +scornfully in the eye, alighted, and ran like a deer through the aisles +of waving corn, past the kitchen windows, to the back door. + +"If he has kept the big key in the old place under the stone, where +we both used to find it, then he has n't forgotten me--or anything," +thought Rose. + +The key was there, and Rose lifted it with a sob of gratitude. It was +but five minutes' work to carry all the bundles from the wagon to the +back steps, and another five to lead old Tom across the road into the +woods and tie him to a tree quite out of the sight of any passer-by. + +When, after running back, she turned the key in the lock, her heart +gave a leap almost of terror, and she started at the sound of her own +footfall. Through the open door the sunlight streamed into the dark +room. She flew to tables and chairs, and gave a rapid sweep of the hand +over their surfaces. + +"He has been dusting here,--and within a few days, too," she thought +triumphantly. + +The kitchen was perfection, as she always knew it would be, with one +door opening to the shaded road and the other looking on the river; +windows, too, framing the apple-orchard and the elms. She had chosen +the furniture, but how differently it looked now that it was actually +in place! The tiny shed had piles of split wood, with great boxes of +kindlings and shavings, all in readiness for the bride, who would do her +own cooking. Who but Stephen would have made the very wood ready for a +woman's home-coming; and why had he done so much in May, when they +were not to be married until August? Then the door of the bedroom was +stealthily opened, and here Rose sat down and cried for joy and shame +and hope and fear. The very flowered paper she had refused as too +expensive! How lovely it looked with the white chamber set! She brought +in her simple wedding outfit of blankets, bed-linen, and counterpanes, +and folded them softly in the closet; and then for the rest of the +morning she went from room to room, doing all that could remain +undiscovered, even to laying a fire in the new kitchen stove. + +This was the plan. Stephen must pass the house on his way from the River +Farm to the bridge, where he was to join the river-drivers on Monday +morning. She would be out of bed by the earliest peep of dawn, put on +Stephen's favorite pink calico, leave a note for her grandmother, run +like a hare down her side of the river and up Stephen's, steal into +the house, open blinds and windows, light the fire, and set the kettle +boiling. Then with a sharp knife she would cut down two rows of corn, +and thus make a green pathway from the front kitchen steps to the road. +Next, the false and insulting "To Let" sign would be forcibly tweaked +from the tree and thrown into the grass. She would then lay the table +in the kitchen, and make ready the nicest breakfast that two people ever +sat down to. And oh, would two people sit down to it; or would one go +off in a rage and the other die of grief and disappointment? + +Then, having done all, she would wait and palpitate, and palpitate and +wait, until Stephen came. Surely no property-owner in the universe could +drive along a road, observe his corn leveled to the earth, his sign +removed, his house open, and smoke issuing from his chimney, without +going in to surprise the rogue and villain who could be guilty of such +vandalism. + +And when he came in? + +Oh, she had all day Sunday in which to forecast, with mingled dread and +gladness and suspense, that all-important, all-decisive first moment! +All day Sunday to frame and unframe penitent speeches. All day Sunday! +Would it ever be Monday? If so, what would Tuesday bring? Would the sun +rise happy on Mrs. Stephen Waterman of Pleasant River, or miserable Miss +Rose Wiley of the Brier Neighborhood? + + + + +XV. The Dream Room + + +Long ago, when Stephen was a boy of fourteen or fifteen, he had gone +with his father to a distant town to spend the night. After an early +breakfast next morning his father had driven off for a business +interview, and left the boy to walk about during his absence. He +wandered aimlessly along a quiet side street, and threw himself down on +the grass outside a pretty garden to amuse himself as best he could. + +After a few minutes he heard voices, and, turning, peeped through the +bars of the gate in idle, boyish curiosity. It was a small brown house; +the kitchen door was open, and a table spread with a white cloth was set +in the middle of the room. There was a cradle in a far corner, and a man +was seated at the table as though he might be waiting for his breakfast. + +There is a kind of sentiment about the kitchen in New England, a kind of +sentiment not provoked by other rooms. Here the farmer drops in to spend +a few minutes when he comes back from the barn or field on an errand. +Here, in the great, clean, sweet, comfortable place, the busy housewife +lives, sometimes rocking the cradle, sometimes opening and shutting +the oven door, sometimes stirring the pot, darning stockings, paring +vegetables, or mixing goodies in a yellow bowl. The children sit on +the steps, stringing beans, shelling peas, or hulling berries; the cat +sleeps on the floor near the wood-box; and the visitor feels exiled if +he stays in sitting-room or parlor, for here, where the mother is always +busy, is the heart of the farmhouse. + +There was an open back door to this kitchen, a door framed in +morning-glories, and the woman (or was she only girl?) standing at the +stove was pretty,--oh, so pretty in Stephen's eyes! His boyish heart +went out to her on the instant. She poured a cup of coffee and +walked with it to the table; then an unexpected, interesting thing +happened--something the boy ought not to have seen, and never forgot. +The man, putting out his hand to take the cup, looked up at the pretty +woman with a smile, and she stooped and kissed him. + +Stephen was fifteen. As he looked, on the instant he became a man, with +a man's hopes, desires, ambitions. He looked eagerly, hungrily, and the +scene burned itself on the sensitive plate of his young heart, so that, +as he grew older, he could take the picture out in the dark, from time +to time, and look at it again. When he first met Rose, he did not know +precisely what she was to mean to him; but before long, when he closed +his eyes and the old familiar picture swam into his field of vision, +behold, by some spiritual chemistry, the pretty woman's face had given +place to that of Rose! + +All such teasing visions had been sternly banished during this sorrowful +summer, and it was a thoughtful, sober Stephen who drove along the road +on this mellow August morning. The dust was deep; the goldenrod waved +its imperial plumes, making the humble waysides gorgeous; the river +chattered and sparkled till it met the logs at the Brier Neighborhood, +and then, lapsing into silence, flowed steadily under them till it found +a vent for its spirits in the dashing and splashing of the falls. + +Haying was over; logging was to begin that day; then harvesting; then +wood-cutting; then eternal successions of ploughing, sowing, reaping, +haying, logging, harvesting, and so on, to the endless end of his days. +Here and there a red or a yellow branch, painted only yesterday, caught +his eye and made him shiver. He was not ready for winter; his heart +still craved the summer it had missed. + +Hello! What was that? Corn-stalks prone on the earth? Sign torn down and +lying flat in the grass? Blinds open, fire in the chimney? + +He leaped from the wagon, and, flinging the reins to Alcestis Crambry, +said, "Stay right here out of sight, and don't you move till I call +you!" And striding up the green pathway, he flung open the kitchen door. + +A forest of corn waving in the doorway at the back, morning-glories +clambering round and round the window-frames, the table with shining +white cloth, the kettle humming and steaming, something bubbling in a +pan on the stove, the fire throwing out sweet little gleams of welcome +through the open damper. All this was taken in with one incredulous, +rapturous twinkle of an eye; but something else, too: Rose of all roses, +Rose of the river, Rose of the world, standing behind a chair, with her +hand pressed against her heart, her lips parted, her breath coming and +going! She was glowing like a jewel--glowing with the extraordinary +brilliancy that emotion gives to some women. She used to be happy in a +gay, sparkling way, like the shallow part of the stream as it chatters +over white pebbles and bright sands. Now it was a broad, steady, full +happiness like the deeps of the river under the sun. + +"Don't speak, Stephen, till you hear what I have to say. It takes a good +deal of courage for a girl to do as I am doing; but I want to show how +sorry I am, and it's the only way." She was trembling, and the words +came faster and faster. "I've been very wrong and foolish, and made you +very unhappy, but I have n't done what you would have hated most. I have +n't been engaged to Claude Merrill; he has n't so much as asked me. I am +here to beg you to forgive me, to eat breakfast with me, to drive me to +the minister's and marry me quickly, quickly, before anything happens +to prevent us, and then to bring me home here to live all the days of my +life. Oh, Stephen dear, honestly, honestly, you have n't lost anything +in all this long, miserable summer. I've suffered, too, and I'm better +worth loving than I was. Will you take me back?" + +Rose had a tremendous power of provoking and holding love, and Stephen +of loving. His was too generous a nature for revilings and complaints +and reproaches. + +The shores of his heart were strewn with the wreckage of the troubled +summer, but if the tide of love is high enough, it washes such things +out of remembrance. He just opened his arms and took Rose to his heart, +faults and all, with joy and gratitude; and she was as happy as a child +who has escaped the scolding it richly deserves, and who determines, for +very thankfulness' sake, never to be naughty again. + +"You don't know what you've done for me, Stephen," she whispered, with +her face hidden on his shoulder. "I was just a common little prickly +rosebush when you came along like a good gardener and 'grafted in' +something better; the something better was your love, Stephen dear, and +it's made everything different. The silly Rose you were engaged to long +ago has disappeared somewhere; I hope you won't be able to find her +under the new leaves." + +"She was all I wanted," said Stephen. + +"You thought she was," the girl answered, "because you did n't see the +prickles, but you'd have felt them some time. The old Rose was a selfish +thing, not good enough for you; the new Rose is going to be your wife, +and Rufus's sister, and your mother's daughter, all in one." + +Then such a breakfast was spread as Stephen, in his sorry years of +bachelor existence, had forgotten could exist; but before he broke his +fast he ran out to the wagon and served the astonished Alcestis with his +wedding refreshments then and there, bidding him drive back to the +River Farm and bring him a package that lay in the drawer of his +shaving-stand,--a package placed there when hot youth and love and +longing had inspired him to hurry on the marriage day. + +"There's an envelope, Alcestis," he cried, "a long envelope, way, way +back in the corner, and a small box on top of it. Bring them both and my +wallet too, and if you find them all and get them to me safely you shall +be bridesmaid and groomsman and best man and usher and maid of honor at +a wedding, in less than an hour! Off with you! Drive straight and use +the whip on Dolly!" + +When he re-entered the kitchen, flushed with joy and excitement, Rose +put the various good things on the table and he almost tremblingly took +his seat, fearing that contact with the solid wood might wake him from +this entrancing vision. + +"I'd like to put you in your chair like a queen and wait on you," he +said with a soft boyish stammer; "but I am too dazed with happiness to +be of any use." + +"It's my turn to wait upon you, and I--Oh! how I love to have you +dazed," Rose answered. "I'll be at the table presently myself; but we +have been housekeeping only three minutes, and we have nothing but the +tin coffee-pot this morning, so I'll pour the coffee from the stove." + +She filled a cup with housewifely care and brought it to Stephen's side. +As she set it down and was turning, she caught his look,--a look so full +of longing that no loving woman, however busy, could have resisted it; +then she stooped and kissed him fondly, fervently. + +Stephen put his arm about her, and, drawing her down to his knee, rested +his head against her soft shoulder with a sigh of comfort, like that +of a tired child. He had waited for it ten years, and at last the dream +room had come true. + + + + + +THE OLD PEABODY PEW + +A Christmas Romance of a Country Church + + +DEDICATION + +To a certain handful of dear New England women of names unknown to the +world, dwelling in a certain quiet village, alike unknown:-- + +We have worked together to make our little corner of the great universe +a pleasanter place in which to live, and so we know, not only one +another's names, but something of one another's joys and sorrows, cares +and burdens, economies, hopes, and anxieties. + +We all remember the dusty uphill road that leads to the green church +common. We remember the white spire pointing upward against a background +of blue sky and feathery elms. We remember the sound of the bell +that falls on the Sabbath morning stillness, calling us across the +daisy-sprinkled meadows of June, the golden hayfields of July, or the +dazzling whiteness and deep snowdrifts of December days. The little +cabinet-organ that plays the Doxology, the hymn-books from which we sing +"Praise God from whom all blessings flow," the sweet freshness of the +old meeting-house, within and without,--how we have toiled to secure and +preserve these humble mercies for ourselves and our children! + +There really is a Dorcas Society, as you and I well know, and one +not unlike that in these pages; and you and I have lived through many +discouraging, laughable, and beautiful experiences while we emulated the +Bible Dorcas, that woman "full of good works and alms deeds." + +There never was a Peabody Pew in the Tory Hill Meeting-House, and +Nancy's love story and Justin's never happened within its century-old +walls, but I have imagined only one of the many romances that have had +their birth under the shadow of that steeple, did we but realize it. + +As you have sat there on open-windowed Sundays, looking across purple +clover-fields to blue distant mountains, watching the palm-leaf fans +swaying to and fro in the warm stillness before sermon time, did not the +place seem full of memories, for has not the life of two villages ebbed +and flowed beneath that ancient roof? You heard the hum of droning +bees and followed the airy wings of butterflies fluttering over +the grave-stones in the old churchyard, and underneath almost every +moss-grown tablet some humble romance lies buried and all but forgotten. + +If it had not been for you, I should never have written this story, so I +give it back to you tied with a sprig from Ophelia's nosegay; a sprig of +"rosemary, that's for remembrance." + +K. D. W. + +August, 1907 + + + + +I. The Old Peabody Pew + +Edgewood, like all the other villages along the banks of the Saco, +is full of sunny slopes and leafy hollows. There are little, rounded, +green-clad hillocks that might, like their scriptural sisters, "skip +with joy"; and there are grand, rocky hills tufted with gaunt pine +trees--these leading the eye to the splendid heights of a neighbor +State, where snow-crowned peaks tower in the blue distance, sweeping the +horizon in a long line of majesty. + +Tory Hill holds its own among the others for peaceful beauty and fair +prospect, and on its broad, level summit sits the white-painted Orthodox +Meeting-House. This faces a grassy common where six roads meet, as if +the early settlers had determined that no one should lack salvation +because of a difficulty in reaching its visible source. + +The old church has had a dignified and fruitful past, dating from that +day in 1761 when young Paul Coffin received his call to preach at a +stipend of fifty pounds sterling a year; answering "that never having +heard of any Uneasiness among the people about his Doctrine or manner of +life, he declared himself pleased to Settle as Soon as might be Judged +Convenient." + +But that was a hundred and fifty years ago, and much has happened since +those simple, strenuous old days. The chastening hand of time has been +laid somewhat heavily on the town as well as on the church. Some of +her sons have marched to the wars and died on the field of honor; some, +seeking better fortunes, have gone westward; others, wearying of village +life, the rocky soil, and rigors of farm-work, have become entangled +in the noise and competition, the rush and strife, of cities. When the +sexton rings the bell nowadays, on a Sunday morning, it seems to have +lost some of its old-time militant strength, something of its hope and +courage; but it still rings, and although the Davids and Solomons, +the Matthews, Marks, and Pauls of former congregations have left few +descendants to perpetuate their labors, it will go on ringing as long as +there is a Tabitha, a Dorcas, a Lois, or a Eunice left in the community. + +This sentiment had been maintained for a quarter of a century, but it +was now especially strong, as the old Tory Hill Meeting-House had been +undergoing for several years more or less extensive repairs. In point +of fact, the still stronger word, "improvements," might be used +with impunity; though whenever the Dorcas Society, being female, and +therefore possessed of notions regarding comfort and beauty, suggested +any serious changes, the finance committees, which were inevitably +male in their composition, generally disapproved of making any impious +alterations in a tabernacle, chapel, temple, or any other building used +for purposes of worship. The majority in these august bodies asserted +that their ancestors had prayed and sung there for a century and a +quarter, and what was good enough for their ancestors was entirely +suitable for them. Besides, the community was becoming less and less +prosperous, and church-going was growing more and more lamentably +uncommon, so that even from a business standpoint, any sums expended +upon decoration by a poor and struggling parish would be worse than +wasted. + +In the particular year under discussion in this story, the valiant +and progressive Mrs. Jeremiah Burbank was the president of the Dorcas +Society, and she remarked privately and publicly that if her ancestors +liked a smoky church, they had a perfect right to the enjoyment of it, +but that she did n't intend to sit through meeting on winter Sundays, +with her white ostrich feather turning gray and her eyes smarting and +watering, for the rest of her natural life. + +Whereupon, this being in a business session, she then and there proposed +to her already hypnotized constituents ways of earning enough money to +build a new chimney on the other side of the church. + +An awe-stricken community witnessed this beneficent act of vandalism, +and, finding that no thunderbolts of retribution descended from +the skies, greatly relished the change. If one or two aged persons +complained that they could not sleep as sweetly during sermon-time in +the now clear atmosphere of the church, and that the parson's eye +was keener than before, why, that was a mere detail, and could not +be avoided; what was the loss of a little sleep compared with the +discoloration of Mrs. Jere Burbank's white ostrich feather and the +smarting of Mrs. Jere Burbank's eyes? + +A new furnace followed the new chimney, in due course, and as a sense of +comfort grew, there was opportunity to notice the lack of beauty. +Twice in sixty years had some well-to-do summer parishioner painted the +interior of the church at his own expense; but although the roof had +been many times reshingled, it had always persisted in leaking, so that +the ceiling and walls were disfigured by unsightly spots and stains and +streaks. The question of shingling was tacitly felt to be outside the +feminine domain, but as there were five women to one man in the church +membership, the feminine domain was frequently obliged to extend its +limits into the hitherto unknown. Matters of tarring and waterproofing +were discussed in and out of season, and the very school-children +imbibed knowledge concerning lapping, over-lapping, and cross-lapping, +and first and second quality of cedar shingles. Miss Lobelia Brewster, +who had a rooted distrust of anything done by mere man, created strife +by remarking that she could have stopped the leak in the belfry tower +with her red flannel petticoat better than the Milltown man with his +new-fangled rubber sheeting, and that the last shingling could have been +more thoroughly done by a "female infant babe"; whereupon the person +criticized retorted that he wished Miss Lobelia Brewster had a few +infant babes to "put on the job he'd like to see 'em try." Meantime +several male members of the congregation, who at one time or another had +sat on the roof during the hottest of the dog-days to see that shingling +operations were conscientiously and skillfully performed, were very +pessimistic as to any satisfactory result ever being achieved. + +"The angle of the roof--what they call the 'pitch'--they say that that's +always been wrong," announced the secretary of the Dorcas in a business +session. + +"Is it that kind of pitch that the Bible says you can't touch without +being defiled? If not, I vote that we unshingle the roof and alter the +pitch!" This proposal came from a sister named Maria Sharp, who had +valiantly offered the year before to move the smoky chimney with her own +hands, if the "menfolks" would n't. + +But though the incendiary suggestion of altering the pitch was received +with applause at the moment, subsequent study of the situation proved +that such a proceeding was entirely beyond the modest means of the +society. Then there arose an ingenious and militant carpenter in +a neighboring village, who asserted that he would shingle the +meeting-house roof for such and such a sum, and agree to drink every +drop of water that would leak in afterward. This was felt by all parties +to be a promise attended by extraordinary risks, but it was accepted +nevertheless, Miss Lobelia Brewster remarking that the rash carpenter, +being already married, could not marry a Dorcas anyway, and even if he +died, he was not a resident of Edgewood, and therefore could be more +easily spared, and that it would be rather exciting, just for a change, +to see a man drink himself to death with rain-water. The expected +tragedy never occurred, however, and the inspired shingler fulfilled +his promise to the letter, so that before many months the Dorcas +Society proceeded, with incredible exertion, to earn more money, and the +interior of the church was neatly painted and made as fresh as a rose. +With no smoke, no rain, no snow nor melting ice to defile it, the good +old landmark that had been pointing its finger Heavenward for over a +century would now be clean and fragrant for years to come, and the weary +sisters leaned back in their respective rocking-chairs and drew deep +breaths of satisfaction. + +These breaths continued to be drawn throughout an unusually arduous +haying season; until, in fact, a visitor from a neighboring city was +heard to remark that the Tory Hill Meeting-House would be one of the +best preserved and pleasantest churches in the whole State of Maine, if +only it were suitably carpeted. + +This thought had secretly occurred to many a Dorcas in her hours +of pie-making, preserving, or cradle-rocking, but had been promptly +extinguished as flagrantly extravagant and altogether impossible. Now +that it had been openly mentioned, the contagion of the idea spread, and +in a month every sort of honest machinery for the increase of funds had +been set in motion: harvest suppers, pie sociables, old folks' concerts, +apron sales, and, as a last resort, a subscription paper, for the +church floor measured hundreds of square yards, and the carpet committee +announced that a good ingrain could not be purchased, even with the +church discount, for less than ninety-seven cents a yard. + +The Dorcases took out their pencils, and when they multiplied the +surface of the floor by the price of the carpet per yard, each Dorcas +attaining a result entirely different from all the others, there was a +shriek of dismay, especially from the secretary, who had included in her +mathematical operation certain figures in her possession representing +the cubical contents of the church and the offending pitch of the roof, +thereby obtaining a product that would have dismayed a Croesus. Time +sped and efforts increased, but the Dorcases were at length obliged to +clip the wings of their desire and content themselves with carpeting +the pulpit and pulpit steps, the choir, and the two aisles, leaving the +floor in the pews until some future year. + +How the women cut and contrived and matched that hardly-bought red +ingrain carpet, in the short December afternoons that ensued after its +purchase; so that, having failed to be ready for Thanksgiving, it could +be finished for the Christmas festivities! + +They were sewing in the church, and as the last stitches were being +taken, Maria Sharp suddenly ejaculated in her impulsive fashion:-- + +"Would n't it have been just perfect if we could have had the pews +repainted before we laid the new carpet!" + +"It would, indeed," the president answered; "but it will take us all +winter to pay for the present improvements, without any thought of fresh +paint. If only we had a few more men-folks to help along!" + +"Or else none at all!" was Lobelia Brewster's suggestion. "It's havin' +so few that keeps us all stirred up. If there wa'n't any anywheres, +we'd have women deacons and carpenters and painters, and get along first +rate; for somehow the supply o' women always holds out, same as it does +with caterpillars an' flies an' grasshoppers!" + +Everybody laughed, although Maria Sharp asserted that she for one was +not willing to be called a caterpillar simply because there were too +many women in the universe. + +"I never noticed before how shabby and scarred and dirty the pews are," +said the minister's wife, as she looked at them reflectively. + +"I've been thinking all the afternoon of the story about the poor old +woman and the lily," and Nancy Wentworth's clear voice broke into the +discussion. "Do you remember some one gave her a stalk of Easter lilies +and she set them in a glass pitcher on the kitchen table? After looking +at them for a few minutes, she got up from her chair and washed the +pitcher until the glass shone. Sitting down again, she glanced at +the little window. It would never do; she had forgotten how dusty and +blurred it was, and she took her cloth and burnished the panes. Then she +scoured the table, then the floor, then blackened the stove before she +sat down to her knitting. And of course the lily had done it all, just +by showing, in its whiteness, how grimy everything else was." + +The minister's wife, who had been in Edgewood only a few months, looked +admiringly at Nancy's bright face, wondering that five-and-thirty years +of life, including ten of school-teaching, had done so little to mar its +serenity. + +"The lily story is as true as the gospel!" she exclaimed, "and I can see +how one thing has led you to another in making the church comfortable. +But my husband says that two coats of paint on the pews would cost a +considerable sum." + +"How about cleaning them? I don't believe they've had a good hard +washing since the flood." The suggestion came from Deacon Miller's wife +to the president. + +"They can't even be scrubbed for less than fifteen or twenty dollars, +for I thought of that and asked Mrs. Simpson yesterday, and she said +twenty cents a pew was the cheapest she could do it for." + +"We've done everything else," said Nancy Wentworth, with a twitch of her +thread; "why don't we scrub the pews? There's nothing in the Orthodox +creed to forbid, is there?" + +"Speakin' o' creeds," and here old Mrs. Sargent paused in her work, +"Elder Ransom from Acreville stopped with us last night, an' he tells +me they recite the Euthanasian Creed every few Sundays in the Episcopal +Church. I did n't want him to know how ignorant I was, but I looked up +the word in the dictionary. It means easy death, and I can't see any +sense in that, though it's a terrible long creed, the Elder says, an' +if it's any longer 'n ourn, I should think anybody _might_ easy die +learnin' it!" + +"I think the word is Athanasian," ventured the minister's wife. + +"Elder Ransom's always plumb full o' doctrine," asserted Miss Brewster, +pursuing the subject. "For my part, I'm glad he preferred Acreville to +our place. He was so busy bein' a minister, he never got round to bein' +a human creeter. When he used to come to sociables and picnics, always +lookin' kind o' like the potato blight, I used to think how complete +he'd be if he had a foldin' pulpit under his coat-tails; they make +foldin' beds nowadays, an' I s'pose they could make foldin' pulpits, if +there was a call." + +"Land sakes, I hope there won't be!" exclaimed Mrs. Sargent. "An' +the Elder never said much of anything either, though he was always +preachin'! Now your husband, Mis' Baxter, always has plenty to say after +you think he's all through. There's water in his well when the others is +all dry!" + +"But how about the pews?" interrupted Mrs. Burbank. "I think Nancy's +idea is splendid, and I want to see it carried out. We might make it a +picnic, bring our luncheons, and work all together; let every woman in +the congregation come and scrub her own pew." + +"Some are too old, others live at too great a distance," and the +minister's wife sighed a little; "indeed, most of those who once owned +the pews or sat in them seem to be dead, or gone away to live in busier +places." + +"I've no patience with 'em, gallivantin' over the earth," and here +Lobelia rose and shook the carpet threads from her lap. "I should n't +want to live in a livelier place than Edgewood, seem's though! We wash +and hang out Mondays, iron Tuesdays, cook Wednesdays, clean house and +mend Thursdays and Fridays, bake Saturdays, and go to meetin' Sundays. I +don't hardly see how they can do any more'n that in Chicago!" + +"Never mind if we have lost members!" said the indomitable Mrs. Burbank. +"The members we still have left must work all the harder. We'll each +clean our own pew, then take a few of our neighbors', and then hire Mrs. +Simpson to do the wainscoting and floor. Can we scrub Friday and lay the +carpet Saturday? My husband and Deacon Miller can help us at the end of +the week. All in favor manifest it by the usual sign. Contrary-minded? +It is a vote." + +There never were any contrary-minded when Mrs. Jere Burbank was in the +chair. Public sentiment in Edgewood was swayed by the Dorcas Society, +but Mrs. Burbank swayed the Dorcases themselves as the wind sways the +wheat. + + + + +II. The old meeting-house wore an animated aspect when the eventful +Friday came, a cold, brilliant, sparkling December day, with good +sleighing, and with energy in every breath that swept over the dazzling +snowfields. The sexton had built a fire in the furnace on the way to +his morning work--a fire so economically contrived that it would last +exactly the four or five necessary hours, and not a second more. At +eleven o'clock all the pillars of the society had assembled, having +finished their own household work and laid out on their respective +kitchen tables comfortable luncheons for the men of the family, if they +were fortunate enough to number any among their luxuries. Water was +heated upon oil-stoves set about here and there, and there was a brave +array of scrubbing-brushes, cloths, soap, and even sand and soda, for it +had been decided and manifested-by-the-usual-sign-and-no-contrary- +minded-and-it-was--a-vote that the dirt was to come off, whether the +paint came with it or not. Each of the fifteen women present selected a +block of seats, preferably one in which her own was situated, and all +fell busily to work. + +"There is nobody here to clean the right-wing pews," said Nancy +Wentworth, "so I will take those for my share." + +"You're not making a very wise choice, Nancy," and the minister's wife +smiled as she spoke. "The infant class of the Sunday-School sits there, +you know, and I expect the paint has had extra wear and tear. Families +don't seem to occupy those pews regularly nowadays." + +"I can remember when every seat in the whole church was filled, +wings an' all," mused Mrs. Sargent, wringing out her washcloth in a +reminiscent mood. "The one in front o' you, Nancy, was always called the +'deef pew' in the old times, and all the folks that was hard o' hearin' +used to congregate there." + +"The next pew has n't been occupied since I came here," said the +minister's wife. + +"No," answered Mrs. Sargent, glad of any opportunity to retail +neighborhood news. "'Squire Bean's folks have moved to Portland to +be with the married daughter. Somebody has to stay with her, and her +husband won't. The 'Squire ain't a strong man, and he's most too old to +go to meetin' now. The youngest son just died in New York, so I hear." + +"What ailed him?" inquired Maria Sharp. + +"I guess he was completely wore out takin' care of his health," returned +Mrs. Sargent. "He had a splendid constitution from a boy, but he was +always afraid it would n't last him. The seat back o' 'Squire Bean's +is the old Peabody pew--ain't that the Peabody pew you're scrubbin', +Nancy?" + +"I believe so," Nancy answered, never pausing in her labors. "It's so +long since anybody sat there, it's hard to remember." + +"It is the Peabodys', I know it, because the aisle runs right up facin' +it. I can see old Deacon Peabody settin' in this end same as if 't was +yesterday." + +"He had died before Jere and I came back here to live," said Mrs. +Burbank. "The first I remember, Justin Peabody sat in the end seat; +the sister that died, next, and in the corner, against the wall, Mrs. +Peabody, with a crape shawl and a palmleaf fan. They were a handsome +family. You used to sit with them sometimes, Nancy; Esther was great +friends with you." + +"Yes, she was," Nancy replied, lifting the tattered cushion from its +place and brushing it; "and I with her. What is the use of scrubbing and +carpeting, when there are only twenty pew-cushions and six hassocks in +the whole church, and most of them ragged? How can I ever mend this?" + +"I should n't trouble myself to darn other people's cushions!" This +unchristian sentiment came in Mrs. Miller's ringing tones from the rear +of the church. + +"I don't know why," argued Maria Sharp. "I'm going to mend my Aunt +Achsa's cushion, and we haven't spoken for years; but hers is the next +pew to mine, and I'm going to have my part of the church look decent, +even if she is too stingy to do her share. Besides, there are n't +any Peabodys left to do their own darning, and Nancy was friends with +Esther." + +"Yes, it's nothing more than right," Nancy replied, with a note of +relief in her voice, "considering Esther." + +"Though he don't belong to the scrubbin' sex, there is one Peabody +alive, as you know, if you stop to think, Maria; for Justin's alive, and +livin' out West somewheres. At least, he's as much alive as ever he was; +he was as good as dead when he was twenty-one, but his mother was always +too soft-hearted to bury him." + +There was considerable laughter over this sally of the outspoken Mrs. +Sargent, whose keen wit was the delight of the neighborhood. + +"I know he's alive and doing business in Detroit, for I got his address +a week or ten days ago, and wrote, asking him if he'd like to give a +couple of dollars toward repairing the old church." + +Everybody looked at Mrs. Burbank with interest. + +"Has n't he answered?" asked Maria Sharp. Nancy Wentworth held her +breath, turned her face to the wall, and silently wiped the paint of the +wainscoting. The blood that had rushed into her cheeks at Mrs. Sargent's +jeering reference to Justin Peabody still lingered there for any one who +ran to read, but fortunately nobody ran; they were too busy scrubbing. + +"Not yet. Folks don't hurry about answering when you ask them for a +contribution," replied the president, with a cynicism common to persons +who collect funds for charitable purposes. "George Wickham sent me +twenty-five cents from Denver. When I wrote him a receipt, I said thank +you same as Aunt Polly did when the neighbors brought her a piece of +beef: 'Ever so much obleeged, but don't forget me when you come to kill +a pig.'--Now, Mrs. Baxter, you shan't clean James Bruce's pew, or what +was his before he turned Second Advent. I'll do that myself, for he used +to be in my Sunday-School class." + +"He's the backbone o' that congregation now," asserted Mrs. Sargent, +"and they say he's goin' to marry Mrs. Sam Peters, who sings in their +choir, as soon as his year is up. They make a perfect fool of him in +that church." + +"You can't make a fool of a man that nature ain't begun with," argued +Miss Brewster. "Jim Bruce never was very strong-minded, but I declare it +seems to me that when men lose their wives, they lose their wits! I +was sure Jim would marry Hannah Thompson that keeps house for him. I +suspected she was lookin' out for a life job when she hired out with +him." + +"Hannah Thompson may keep Jim's house, but she'll never keep Jim, that's +certain!" affirmed the president; "and I can't see that Mrs. Peters will +better herself much." + +"I don't blame her, for one!" came in no uncertain tones from the +left-wing pews, and the Widow Buzzell rose from her knees and approached +the group by the pulpit. "If there's anything duller than cookin' three +meals a day for yourself, and settin' down and eatin' 'em by yourself, +and then gettin' up and clearin' 'em away after yourself, I'd like to +know it! I should n't want any good-lookin', pleasant-spoken man to +offer himself to me without he expected to be snapped up, that's all! +But if you've made out to get one husband in York County, you can thank +the Lord and not expect any more favors. I used to think Tom was poor +comp'ny and complain I could n't have any conversation with him, but +land, I could talk at him, and there's considerable comfort in that. +And I could pick up after him! Now every room in my house is clean, and +every closet and bureau drawer, too; I can't start drawin' in another +rug, for I've got all the rugs I can step foot on. I dried so many +apples last year I shan't need to cut up any this season. My jelly and +preserves ain't out, and there I am; and there most of us are, in this +village, without a man to take steps for and trot 'round after! There's +just three husbands among the fifteen women scrubbin' here now, and the +rest of us is all old maids and widders. No wonder the men-folks die, or +move away, like Justin Peabody; a place with such a mess o' women-folks +ain't healthy to live in, whatever Lobelia Brewster may say." + + + + +III. Justin Peabody had once faithfully struggled with the practical +difficulties of life in Edgewood, or so he had thought, in those old +days of which Nancy Wentworth was thinking when she wiped the paint +of the Peabody pew. Work in the mills did not attract him; he had no +capital to invest in a stock of goods for store-keeping; school-teaching +offered him only a pittance; there remained then only the farm, if he +were to stay at home and keep his mother company. + +"Justin don't seem to take no holt of things," said the neighbors. + +"Good Heavens!" It seemed to him that there were no things to take hold +of! That was his first thought; later he grew to think that the trouble +all lay in himself, and both thoughts bred weakness. + +The farm had somehow supported the family in the old Deacon's time, but +Justin seemed unable to coax a competence from the soil. He could, and +did, rise early and work late; till the earth, sow crops; but he could +not make the rain fall nor the sun shine at the times he needed them, +and the elements, however much they might seem to favor his neighbors, +seldom smiled on his enterprises. The crows liked Justin's corn better +than any other in Edgewood. It had a richness peculiar to itself, a +quality that appealed to the most jaded palate, so that it was really +worth while to fly over a mile of intervening fields and pay it the +delicate compliment of preference. + +Justin could explain the attitude of caterpillars, worms, grasshoppers, +and potato-bugs toward him only by assuming that he attracted them as +the magnet in the toy boxes attracts the miniature fishes. + +"Land o' liberty! look at 'em congregate!" ejaculated Jabe Slocum, when +he was called in for consultation. "Now if you'd gone in for breedin' +insecks, you could be as proud as Cuffy an' exhibit 'em at the County +Fair! They'd give yer prizes for size an' numbers an' speed, I guess! +Why, say, they're real crowded for room--the plants ain't give 'em +enough leaves to roost on! Have you tried 'Bug Death'?" + +"It acts like a tonic on them," said Justin gloomily. + +"Sho! you don't say so! Now mine can't abide the sight nor smell of it. +What 'bout Paris green?" + +"They thrive on it; it's as good as an appetizer." + +"Well," said Jabe Slocum, revolving the quid of tobacco in his mouth +reflectively, "the bug that ain't got no objection to p'ison is a bug +that's got ways o' thinkin' an' feelin' an' reasonin' that I ain't able +to cope with! P'r'aps it's all a leadin' o' Providence. Mebbe it shows +you'd ought to quit farmin' crops an' take to raisin' live stock!" + +Justin did just that, as a matter of fact, a year or two later; but +stock that has within itself the power of being "live" has also rare +qualification for being dead when occasion suits, and it generally +did suit Justin's stock. It proved prone not only to all the general +diseases that cattle-flesh is heir to, but was capable even of suicide. +At least, it is true that two valuable Jersey calves, tied to stakes on +the hillside, had flung themselves violently down the bank and strangled +themselves with their own ropes in a manner which seemed to show that +they found no pleasure in existence, at all events on the Peabody farm. + +These were some of the little tragedies that had sickened young Justin +Peabody with life in Edgewood, and Nancy Wentworth, even then, realized +some of them and sympathized without speaking, in a girl's poor, +helpless way. + +Mrs. Simpson had washed the floor in the right wing of the church and +Nancy had cleaned all the paint. Now she sat in the old Peabody pew +darning the forlorn, faded cushion with gray carpet-thread; thread as +gray as her own life. + +The scrubbing-party had moved to its labors in a far corner of the +church, and two of the women were beginning preparations for the basket +luncheons. Nancy's needle was no busier than her memory. Long years ago +she had often sat in the Peabody pew, sometimes at first as a girl of +sixteen when asked by Esther, and then, on coming home from school at +eighteen, "finished," she had been invited now and again by Mrs. Peabody +herself, on those Sundays when her own invalid mother had not attended +service. + +Those were wonderful Sundays--Sundays of quiet, trembling peace and +maiden joy. + +Justin sat beside her, and she had been sure then, but had long since +grown to doubt the evidence of her senses, that he, too, vibrated with +pleasure at the nearness. Was there not a summer morning when his hand +touched her white lace mitt as they held the hymn-book together, and the +lines of the + + Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings, + Thy better portion trace, + +became blurred on the page and melted into something indistinguishable +for a full minute or two afterward? Were there not looks, and looks, +and looks? Or had she some misleading trick of vision in those days? +Justin's dark, handsome profile rose before her: the level brows and +fine lashes; the well-cut nose and lovable mouth--the Peabody mouth and +chin, somewhat too sweet and pliant for strength, perhaps. Then the eyes +turned to hers in the old way, just for a fleeting glance, as they had +so often done at prayer-meeting, or sociable, or Sunday service. Was +it not a man's heart she had seen in them? And oh, if she could only be +sure that her own woman's heart had not looked out from hers, drawn from +its maiden shelter in spite of all her wish to keep it hidden! + +Then followed two dreary years of indecision and suspense, when Justin's +eyes met hers less freely; when his looks were always gloomy and +anxious; when affairs at the Peabody farm grew worse and worse; when his +mother followed her husband, the old Deacon, and her daughter Esther to +the burying-ground in the churchyard. Then the end of all things came, +the end of the world for Nancy: Justin's departure for the West in a +very frenzy of discouragement over the narrowness and limitation and +injustice of his lot; over the rockiness and barrenness and unkindness +of the New England soil; over the general bitterness of fate and the +"bludgeonings of chance." + +He was a failure, born of a family of failures. If the world owed him a +living, he had yet to find the method by which it could be earned. All +this he thought and uttered, and much more of the same sort. In these +days of humbled pride self was paramount, though it was a self he +despised. There was no time for love. Who was he for a girl to lean +upon?--he who could not stand erect himself! + +He bade a stiff goodbye to his neighbors, and to Nancy he vouchsafed +little more. A handshake, with no thrill of love in it such as might +have furnished her palm, at least, some memories to dwell upon; a few +stilted words of leave-taking; a halting, meaningless sentence or +two about his "botch" of life--then he walked away from the Wentworth +doorstep. But halfway down the garden path, where the shriveled +hollyhocks stood like sentinels, did a wave of something different sweep +over him--a wave of the boyish, irresponsible past when his heart had +wings and could fly without fear to its mate--a wave of the past +that was rushing through Nancy's mind, wellnigh burying her in its +bitter-sweet waters. For he lifted his head, and suddenly retracing his +steps, he came toward her, and, taking her hand again, said forlornly: +"You 'll see me back when my luck turns, Nancy." + +Nancy knew that the words might mean little or much, according to the +manner in which they were uttered, but to her hurt pride and sore, +shamed woman-instinct, they were a promise, simply because there was a +choking sound in Justin's voice and tears in Justin's eyes. "You 'll see +me back when my luck turns, Nancy"; this was the phrase upon which she +had lived for more than ten years. Nancy had once heard the old parson +say, ages ago, that the whole purpose of life was the growth of the +soul; that we eat, sleep, clothe ourselves, work, love, all to give the +soul another day, month, year, in which to develop. She used to wonder +if her soul could be growing in the monotonous round of her dull duties +and her duller pleasures. She did not confess it even to herself; +nevertheless she knew that she worked, ate, slept, to live until +Justin's luck turned. Her love had lain in her heart a bird without +a song, year after year. Her mother had dwelt by her side and never +guessed; her father, too; and both were dead. The neighbors also, +lynx-eyed and curious, had never suspected. If she had suffered, no one +in Edgewood was any the wiser, for the maiden heart is not commonly worn +on the sleeve in New England. If she had been openly pledged to Justin +Peabody, she could have waited twice ten years with a decent show of +self-respect, for long engagements were viewed rather as a matter of +course in that neighborhood. The endless months had gone on since that +gray November day when Justin had said goodbye. It had been just before +Thanksgiving, and she went to church with an aching and ungrateful +heart. The parson read from the eighth chapter of St. Matthew, a most +unexpected selection for that holiday. "If you can't find anything else +to be thankful for," he cried, "go home and be thankful you are not a +leper!" + +Nancy took the drastic counsel away from the church with her, and it +was many a year before she could manage to add to this slender store +anything to increase her gratitude for mercies given, though all the +time she was outwardly busy, cheerful, and helpful. + +Justin had once come back to Edgewood, and it was the bitterest drop +in her cup of bitterness that she was spending that winter in Berwick +(where, so the neighbors told him, she was a great favorite in society, +and was receiving much attention from gentlemen), so that she had never +heard of his visit until the spring had come again. Parted friends +did not keep up with one another's affairs by means of epistolary +communication, in those days, in Edgewood; it was not the custom. Spoken +words were difficult enough to Justin Peabody, and written words were +quite impossible, especially if they were to be used to define his +half-conscious desires and his fluctuations of will, or to recount his +disappointments and discouragements and mistakes. + + + + +IV. It was Saturday afternoon, the 24th of December, and the weary +sisters of the Dorcas band rose from their bruised knees and removed +their little stores of carpet-tacks from their mouths. This was a +feminine custom of long standing, and as no village dressmaker had +ever died of pins in the digestive organs, so were no symptoms of +carpet-tacks ever discovered in any Dorcas, living or dead. Men wondered +at the habit and reviled it, but stood confounded in the presence of its +indubitable harmlessness. + +The red ingrain carpet was indeed very warm, beautiful, and comforting +to the eye, and the sisters were suitably grateful to Providence, and +devoutly thankful to themselves, that they had been enabled to buy, +sew, and lay so many yards of it. But as they stood looking at their +completed task, it was cruelly true that there was much left to do. + +The aisles had been painted dark brown on each side of the red strips +leading from the doors to the pulpit, but the rest of the church floor +was "a thing of shreds and patches." Each member of the carpet committee +had paid (as a matter of pride, however ill she could afford it) three +dollars and sixty-seven cents for sufficient carpet to lay in her own +pew; but these brilliant spots of conscientious effort only made the +stretches of bare, unpainted floor more evident. And that was not all. +Traces of former spasmodic and individual efforts desecrated the +present ideals. The doctor's pew had a pink-and-blue Brussels on it; the +lawyer's, striped stair-carpeting; the Browns from Deerwander sported +straw matting and were not abashed; while the Greens, the Whites, the +Blacks, and the Grays displayed floor coverings as dissimilar as their +names. + +"I never noticed it before!" exclaimed Maria Sharp, "but it ain't +Christian, that floor! it's heathenish and ungodly!" + +"For mercy's sake, don't swear, Maria," said Mrs. Miller nervously. +"We've done our best, and let's hope that folks will look up and not +down. It is n't as if they were going to set in the chandelier; they'll +have something else to think about when Nancy gets her hemlock branches +and white carnations in the pulpit vases. This morning my Abner picked +off two pinks from a plant I've been nursing in my dining-room for +weeks, trying to make it bloom for Christmas. I slapped his hands good, +and it's been haunting me ever since to think I had to correct him the +day before Christmas.--Come, Lobelia, we must be hurrying!" + +"One thing comforts me," exclaimed the Widow Buzzell, as she took her +hammer and tacks preparatory to leaving; "and that is that the Methodist +meetin'-house ain't got any carpet at all." + +"Mrs. Buzzell, Mrs. Buzzell!" interrupted the minister's wife, with a +smile that took the sting from her speech. "It will be like punishing +little Abner Miller; if we think those thoughts on Christmas Eve, we +shall surely be haunted afterward." + +"And anyway," interjected Maria Sharp, who always saved the situation, +"you just wait and see if the Methodists don't say they'd rather have +no carpet at all than have one that don't go all over the floor. I know +'em!" and she put on her hood and blanket-shawl as she gave one last +fond look at the improvements. + +"I'm going home to get my supper, and come back afterward to lay the +carpet in my pew; my beans and brown bread will be just right by now, +and perhaps it will rest me a little; besides, I must feed 'Zekiel." + +As Nancy Wentworth spoke, she sat in a corner of her own modest rear +seat, looking a little pale and tired. Her waving dark hair had +loosened and fallen over her cheeks, and her eyes gleamed from under it +wistfully. Nowadays Nancy's eyes never had the sparkle of gazing into +the future, but always the liquid softness that comes from looking +backward. + +"The church will be real cold by then, Nancy," objected Mrs. +Burbank.--"Good-night, Mrs. Baxter." + +"Oh, no! I shall be back by half-past six, and I shall not work long. +Do you know what I believe I'll do, Mrs. Burbank, just through the +holidays? Christmas and New Year's both coming on Sunday this year, +there'll be a great many out to church, not counting the strangers +that'll come to the special service tomorrow. Instead of putting down my +own pew carpet that'll never be noticed here in the back, I'll lay it +in the old Peabody pew, for the red aisle-strip leads straight up to it; +the ministers always go up that side, and it does look forlorn." + +"That's so! And all the more because my pew, that's exactly opposite in +the left wing, is new carpeted and cushioned," replied the president. +"I think it's real generous of you, Nancy, because the Riverboro folks, +knowing that you're a member of the carpet committee, will be sure to +notice, and think it's queer you have n't made an effort to carpet your +own pew." + +"Never mind!" smiled Nancy wearily. "Riverboro folks never go to bed on +Saturday nights without wondering what Edgewood is thinking about them!" + +The minister's wife stood at her window watching Nancy as she passed the +parsonage. + +"How wasted! How wasted!" she sighed. "Going home to eat her lonely +supper and feed 'Zekiel.... I can bear it for the others, but not for +Nancy.... Now she has lighted her lamp,... now she has put fresh pine +on the fire, for new smoke comes from the chimney. Why should I sit down +and serve my dear husband, and Nancy feed 'Zekiel?" + +There was some truth in Mrs. Baxter's feeling. Mrs. Buzzell, for +instance, had three sons; Maria Sharp was absorbed in her lame father +and her Sunday-School work; and Lobelia Brewster would not have +considered matrimony a blessing, even under the most favorable +conditions. But Nancy was framed and planned for other things, and +'Zekiel was an insufficient channel for her soft, womanly sympathy and +her bright activity of mind and body. + +'Zekiel had lost his tail in a mowing-machine; 'Zekiel had the asthma, +and the immersion of his nose in milk made him sneeze, so he was wont +to slip his paw in and out of the dish and lick it patiently for five +minutes together. Nancy often watched him pityingly, giving him kind +and gentle words to sustain his fainting spirit, but tonight she paid no +heed to him, although he sneezed violently to attract her attention. + +She had put her supper on the lighted table by the kitchen window and +was pouring out her cup of tea, when a boy rapped at the door. "Here's +a paper and a letter, Miss Wentworth," he said. "It's the second this +week, and they think over to the store that that Berwick widower must be +settin' up and takin' notice!" + +She had indeed received a letter the day before, an unsigned +communication, consisting only of the words,-- + + Second Epistle of John. Verse x2. + +She had taken her Bible to look out the reference and found it to be:-- + + Having many tilings to write unto you, I would not write + with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak + face to face, that our joy may be full. + +The envelope was postmarked New York, and she smiled, thinking that Mrs. +Emerson, a charming lady who had spent the summer in Edgewood, and +had sung with her in the village choir, was coming back, as she had +promised, to have a sleigh ride and see Edgewood in its winter dress. +Nancy had almost forgotten the first letter in the excitements of her +busy day, and now here was another, from Boston this time. She opened +the envelope and found again only a simple sentence, printed, not +written. (Lest she should guess the hand, she wondered?) + + Second Epistle of John. Verse 5.-- + And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment + unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one + another. + +Was it Mrs. Emerson? Could it be--any one else? Was it? No, it might +have been, years ago; but not now; not now!--And yet; he was always so +different from other people; and once, in church, he had handed her the +hymn-book with his finger pointing to a certain verse. + +She always fancied that her secret fidelity of heart rose from the +fact that Justin Peabody was "different." From the hour of their first +acquaintance, she was ever comparing him with his companions, and always +to his advantage. So long as a woman finds all men very much alike (as +Lobelia Brewster did, save that she allowed some to be worse!), she is +in no danger. But the moment in which she perceives and discriminates +subtle differences, marveling that there can be two opinions about a +man's superiority, that moment the miracle has happened. + + And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment + unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one + another. + +No, it could not be from Justin. She drank her tea, played with her +beans abstractedly, and nibbled her slice of steaming brown bread. + + Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee. + +No, not a new one; twelve, fifteen years old, that commandment! + + That we love one another. + +Who was speaking? Who had written these words? The first letter sounded +just like Mrs. Emerson, who had said she was a very poor correspondent, +but that she should just "drop down" on Nancy one of these days; but +this second letter never came from Mrs. Emerson.--Well, there would be +an explanation some time; a pleasant one; one to smile over, and tell +'Zekiel and repeat to the neighbors; but not an unexpected, sacred, +beautiful explanation, such a one as the heart of a woman could imagine, +if she were young enough and happy enough to hope. She washed her cup +and plate; replaced the uneaten beans in the brown pot, and put them +away with the round loaf, folded the cloth (Lobelia Brewster said +Nancy always "set out her meals as if she was entertainin' company from +Portland"), closed the stove dampers, carried the lighted lamp to a +safe corner shelf, and lifted 'Zekiel to his cushion on the high-backed +rocker, doing all with the nice precision of long habit. Then she +wrapped herself warmly, and locking the lonely little house behind her, +set out to finish her work in the church. + + + + +V. At this precise moment Justin Peabody was eating his own beans +and brown bread (articles of diet of which his Detroit landlady was +lamentably ignorant) at the new tavern, not far from the meeting-house. + +It would not be fair to him to say that Mrs. Burbank's letter had +brought him back to Edgewood, but it had certainly accelerated his +steps. + +For the first six years after Justin Peabody left home, he had drifted +about from place to place, saving every possible dollar of his uncertain +earnings in the conscious hope that he could go back to New England +and ask Nancy Wentworth to marry him. The West was prosperous and +progressive, but how he yearned, in idle moments, for the grimmer and +more sterile soil that had given him birth! + +Then came what seemed to him a brilliant chance for a lucky turn of his +savings, and he invested them in an enterprise which, wonderfully as +it promised, failed within six months and left him penniless. At that +moment he definitely gave up all hope, and for the next few years he put +Nancy as far as possible out of his mind, in the full belief that he was +acting an honorable part in refusing to drag her into his tangled and +fruitless way of life. If she ever did care for him,--and he could not +be sure, she was always so shy,--she must have outgrown the feeling long +since, and be living happily, or at least contentedly, in her own +way. He was glad in spite of himself when he heard that she had never +married; but at least he had n't it on his conscience that _he_ had kept +her single! + +On the 17th of December, Justin, his business day over, was walking +toward the dreary house in which he ate and slept. As he turned the +corner, he heard one woman say to another, as they watched a man +stumbling sorrowfully down the street: "Going home will be the worst of +all for him--to find nobody there!" That was what going home had meant +for him these ten years, but he afterward felt it strange that this +thought should have struck him so forcibly on that particular day. +Entering the boarding-house, he found Mrs. Burbank's letter with its +Edgewood postmark on the hall table, and took it up to his room. He +kindled a little fire in the air-tight stove, watching the flame creep +from shavings to kindlings, from kindlings to small pine, and from small +pine to the round, hardwood sticks; then when the result seemed certain, +he closed the stove door and sat down to read the letter. Whereupon all +manner of strange things happened in his head and heart and flesh and +spirit as he sat there alone, his hands in his pockets, his feet braced +against the legs of the stove. + +It was a cold winter night, and the snow and sleet beat against the +windows. He looked about the ugly room: at the washstand with its square +of oilcloth in front and its detestable bowl and pitcher; at the rigors +of his white iron bedstead, with the valley in the middle of the +lumpy mattress and the darns in the rumpled pillowcases; at the dull +photographs of the landlady's hideous husband and children enshrined on +the mantelshelf; looked at the abomination of desolation surrounding him +until his soul sickened and cried out like a child's for something more +like home. It was as if a spring thaw had melted his ice-bound heart, +and on the crest of a wave it was drifting out into the milder waters of +some unknown sea. He could have laid his head in the kind lap of a woman +and cried: "Comfort me! Give me companionship or I die!" + +The wind howled in the chimney and rattled the loose window-sashes; the +snow, freezing as it fell, dashed against the glass with hard, cutting +little blows; at least, that is the way in which the wind and snow +flattered themselves they were making existence disagreeable to Justin +Peabody when he read the letter; but never were elements more mistaken. + +It was a June Sunday in the boarding-house bedroom; and for that matter +it was not the boarding-house bedroom at all: it was the old Orthodox +church on Tory Hill in Edgewood. The windows were wide open, and the +smell of the purple clover and the humming of the bees were drifting +into the sweet, wide spaces within. Justin was sitting in the end of the +Peabody pew, and Nancy Wentworth was beside him; Nancy, cool and restful +in her white dress; dark-haired Nancy under the shadow of her shirred +muslin hat. + + Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings, + Thy better portion trace. + +The melodeon gave the tune, and Nancy and he stood to sing, taking the +book between them. His hand touched hers, and as the music of the hymn +rose and fell, the future unrolled itself before his eyes: a future in +which Nancy was his wedded wife; and the happy years stretched on and +on in front of them until there was a row of little heads in the old +Peabody pew, and mother and father could look proudly along the line at +the young things they were bringing into the house of the Lord. + +The recalling of that vision worked like magic in Justin's blood. +His soul rose and stretched its wings and "traced its better portion" +vividly, as he sprang to his feet and walked up and down the bedroom +floor. He would get a few days' leave and go back to Edgewood for +Christmas, to join, with all the old neighbors, in the service at the +meetinghouse; and in pursuance of this resolve, he shook his fist in +the face of the landlady's husband on the mantelpiece and dared him to +prevent. + +He had a salary of fifty dollars a month, with some very slight prospect +of an increase after January. He did not see how two persons could eat, +and drink, and lodge, and dress on it in Detroit, but he proposed +to give Nancy Wentworth the refusal of that magnificent future, that +brilliant and tempting offer. He had exactly one hundred dollars in +the bank, and sixty or seventy of them would be spent in the journeys, +counting two happy, blessed fares back from Edgewood to Detroit; and if +he paid only his own fare back, he would throw the price of the other +into the pond behind the Wentworth house. He would drop another ten +dollars into the plate on Christmas Day toward the repairs on the +church; if he starved, he would do that. He was a failure. Everything +his hand touched turned to naught. He looked himself full in the face, +recognizing his weakness, and in this supremest moment of recognition +he was a stronger man than he had been an hour before. His drooping +shoulders had straightened; the restless look had gone from his eyes; +his somber face had something of repose in it, the repose of a settled +purpose. He was a failure, but perhaps if he took the risks (and +if Nancy would take them--but that was the trouble, women were so +unselfish, they were always willing to take risks, and one ought not to +let them!), perhaps he might do better in trying to make a living for +two than he had in working for himself alone. He would go home, tell +Nancy that he was an unlucky good-for-naught, and ask her if she would +try her hand at making him over. + + + + +VI. These were the reasons that had brought Justin Peabody to Edgewood +on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas, and had taken him to the new +tavern on Tory Hill, near the meeting-house. + +Nobody recognized him at the station or noticed him at the tavern, and +after his supper he put on his overcoat and started out for a walk, +aimlessly hoping that he might meet a friend, or failing that, intending +to call on some of his old neighbors, with the view of hearing the +village news and securing some information which might help him to +decide when he had better lay himself and his misfortunes at Nancy +Wentworth's feet. They were pretty feet! He remembered that fact well +enough under the magical influence of familiar sights and sounds and +odors. He was restless, miserable, anxious, homesick--not for Detroit, +but for some heretofore unimagined good; yet, like Bunyan's shepherd boy +in the Valley of humiliation, he carried "the herb called Heartsease in +his bosom," for he was at last loving consciously. + +How white the old church looked, and how green the blinds! It must +have been painted very lately: that meant that the parish was fairly +prosperous. There were new shutters in the belfry tower, too; he +remembered the former open space and the rusty bell, and he liked the +change. Did the chimney use to be in that corner? No; but his father had +always said it would have drawn better if it had been put there in the +beginning. New shingles within a year: that was evident to a practiced +eye. He wondered if anything had been done to the inside of the +building, but he must wait until the morrow to see, for, of course, the +doors would be locked. No; the one at the right side was ajar. He opened +it softly and stepped into the tiny square entry that he recalled so +well--the one through which the Sunday-School children ran out to the +steps from their catechism, apparently enjoying the sunshine after a +spell of orthodoxy; the little entry where the village girls congregated +while waiting for the last bell to ring--they made a soft blur of pink +and blue and buff, a little flutter of curls and braids and fans and +sun-shades, in his mind's eye, as he closed the outer door behind him +and gently opened the inner one. The church was flooded with moon-light +and snowlight, and there was one lamp burning at the back of the pulpit; +a candle, too, on the pulpit steps. There was the tip-tap-tip of a +tack-hammer going on in a distant corner. Was somebody hanging Christmas +garlands? The new red carpet attracted his notice, and as he grew +accustomed to the dim light, it carried his eye along the aisle he had +trod so many years of Sundays, to the old familiar pew. The sound of the +hammer ceased, and a woman rose from her knees. A stranger was doing for +the family honor what he ought himself to have done. The woman turned +to shake her skirt, and it was Nancy Wentworth. He might have known it. +Women were always faithful; they always remembered old land-marks, old +days, old friends, old duties. His father and mother and Esther were all +gone; who but dear Nancy would have made the old Peabody pew right and +tidy for the Christmas festival? Bless her kind, womanly heart! + +She looked just the same to him as when he last saw her. Mercifully +he seemed to have held in remembrance all these years not so much +her youthful bloom as her general qualities of mind and heart: her +cheeriness, her spirit, her unflagging zeal, her bright womanliness. Her +gray dress was turned up in front over a crimson moreen petticoat. She +had on a cozy jacket, a fur turban of some sort with a red breast in it, +and her cheeks were flushed from exertion. "Sweet records, and promises +as sweet," had always met in Nancy's face, and either he had forgotten +how pretty she was, or else she had absolutely grown prettier during his +absence. + +Nancy would have chosen the supreme moment of meeting very differently, +but she might well have chosen worse. She unpinned her skirt and brushed +the threads off, smoothed the pew cushions carefully, and took a +last stitch in the ragged hassock. She then lifted the Bible and the +hymn-book from the rack, and putting down a bit of flannel on the pulpit +steps, took a flatiron from an oil-stove, and opening the ancient books, +pressed out the well-thumbed leaves one by one with infinite care. After +replacing the volumes in their accustomed place, she first extinguished +the flame of her stove, which she tucked out of sight, and then blew out +the lamp and the candle. The church was still light enough for objects +to be seen in a shadowy way, like the objects in a dream, and Justin did +not realize that he was a man in the flesh, looking at a woman; spying, +it might be, upon her privacy. He was one part of a dream and she +another, and he stood as if waiting, and fearing, to be awakened. + +Nancy, having done all, came out of the pew, and standing in the aisle, +looked back at the scene of her labors with pride and content. And as +she looked, some desire to stay a little longer in the dear old place +must have come over her, or some dread of going back to her lonely +cottage, for she sat down in Justin's corner of the pew with folded +hands, her eyes fixed dreamily on the pulpit and her ears hearing:-- + + Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that + which we had from the beginning. + +Justin's grasp on the latch tightened as he prepared to close the door +and leave the place, but his instinct did not warn him quickly enough, +after all, for, obeying some uncontrollable impulse, Nancy suddenly fell +on her knees in the pew and buried her face in the cushions. The dream +broke, and in an instant Justin was a man--worse than that, he was +an eavesdropper, ashamed of his unsuspected presence. He felt himself +standing, with covered head and feet shod, in the holy temple of a +woman's heart. + +But his involuntary irreverence brought abundant grace with it. +The glimpse and the revelation wrought their miracles silently and +irresistibly, not by the slow processes of growth which Nature demands +for her enterprises, but with the sudden swiftness of the spirit. In +an instant changes had taken place in Justin's soul which his so-called +"experiencing religion" twenty-five years back had been powerless to +effect. He had indeed been baptized then, but the recording angel could +have borne witness that this second baptism fructified the first, and +became the real herald of the new birth and the new creature. + + + + +VII. Justin Peabody silently closed the inner door, and stood in the +entry with his head bent and his heart in a whirl until he should hear +Nancy rise to her feet. He must take this Heaven-sent chance of telling +her all, but how do it without alarming her? + +A moment, and her step sounded in the stillness of the empty church. + +Obeying the first impulse, he passed through the outer door, and +standing on the step, knocked once, twice, three times; then, opening +it a little and speaking through the chink, he called, "Is Miss Nancy +Wentworth here?" + +"I'm here!" in a moment came Nancy's answer; and then, with a little +wondering tremor in her voice, as if a hint of the truth had already +dawned: "What's wanted?" + +"You're wanted, Nancy, wanted badly, by Justin Peabody, come back from +the West." + +The door opened wide, and Justin faced Nancy standing halfway down +the aisle, her eyes brilliant, her lips parted. A week ago Justin's +apparition confronting her in the empty meeting-house after nightfall, +even had she been prepared for it as now, by his voice, would have +terrified her beyond measure. Now it seemed almost natural and +inevitable. She had spent these last days in the church where both of +them had been young and happy together; the two letters had brought him +vividly to mind, and her labor in the old Peabody pew had been one +long excursion into the past in which he was the most prominent and the +best-loved figure. + +"I said I'd come back to you when my luck turned, Nancy." + +These were so precisely the words she expected him to say, should she +ever see him again face to face, that for an additional moment they but +heightened her sense of unreality. + +"Well, the luck hasn't turned, after all, but I could n't wait any +longer. Have you given a thought to me all these years, Nancy?" + +"More than one, Justin." For the very look upon his face, the tenderness +of his voice, the attitude of his body, outran his words and told her +what he had come home to say, told her that her years of waiting were +over at last. + +"You ought to despise me for coming back again with only myself and my +empty hands to offer you." + +How easy it was to speak his heart out in this dim and quiet place! How +tongue-tied he would have been, sitting on the black hair-cloth sofa in +the Wentworth parlor and gazing at the open soapstone stove! + +"Oh, men are such fools!" cried Nancy, smiles and tears struggling +together in her speech, as she sat down suddenly in her own pew and put +her hands over her face. + +"They are," agreed Justin humbly; "but I've never stopped loving you, +whenever I've had time for thinking or loving. And I was n't sure that +you really cared anything about me; and how could I have asked you when +I had n't a dollar in the world?" + +"There are other things to give a woman besides dollars, Justin." + +"Are there? Well, you shall have them all, every one of them, Nancy, if +you can make up your mind to do without the dollars; for dollars seem to +be just what I can't manage." + +Her hand was in his by this time, and they were sitting side by side, +in the cushionless, carpetless Wentworth pew. The door stood open; the +winter moon shone in upon them. That it was beginning to grow cold in +the church passed unnoticed. The grasp of the woman's hand seemed +to give the man new hope and courage, and Justin's warm, confiding, +pleading pressure brought balm to Nancy, balm and healing for the wounds +her pride had suffered; joy, too, half-conscious still, that her life +need not be lived to the end in unfruitful solitude. She had waited, +"as some gray lake lies, full and smooth, awaiting the star below the +twilight." + +Justin Peabody might have been no other woman's star, but he was +Nancy's! "Just you sitting beside me here makes me feel as if I'd been +asleep or dead all these years, and just born over again," said +Justin. "I've led a respectable, hard-working, honest life, Nancy," he +continued, "and I don't owe any man a cent; the trouble is that no man +owes me one. I've got enough money to pay two fares back to Detroit on +Monday, although I was terribly afraid you would n't let me do it. It'll +need a good deal of thinking and planning, Nancy, for we shall be very +poor." + +Nancy had been storing up fidelity and affection deep, deep in the hive +of her heart all these years, and now the honey of her helpfulness stood +ready to be gathered. + +"Could I keep hens in Detroit?" she asked. "I can always make them pay." + +"Hens--in three rooms, Nancy?" + +Her face fell. "And no yard?" + +"No yard." + +A moment's pause, and then the smile came. "Oh, well, I've had yards and +hens for thirty-five years. Doing without them will be a change. I can +take in sewing." + +"No, you can't, Nancy. I need your backbone and wits and pluck and +ingenuity, but if I can't ask you to sit with your hands folded for the +rest of your life, as I'd like to, you shan't use them for other people. +You're marrying me to make a man of me, but I'm not marrying you to make +you a drudge." + +His voice rang clear and true in the silence, and Nancy's heart vibrated +at the sound. + +"O Justin, Justin! there's something wrong somewhere," she whispered, +"but we'll find it out together, you and I, and make it right. You're +not like a failure. You don't even look poor, Justin; there is n't a man +in Edgewood to compare with you, or I should be washing his dishes and +darning his stockings this minute. And I am not a pauper! There'll be +the rent of my little house and a carload of my furniture, so you can +put the three-room idea out of your mind, and your firm will offer you a +larger salary when you tell them you have a wife to take care of. Oh, I +see it all, and it is as easy and bright and happy as can be!" + +Justin put his arm around her and drew her close, with such a throb of +gratitude for her belief and trust that it moved him almost to tears. +There was a long pause; then he said:-- + +"Now I shall call for you tomorrow morning after the last bell has +stopped ringing, and we will walk up the aisle together and sit in the +old Peabody pew. We shall be a nine days' wonder anyway, but this will +be equal to an announcement, especially if you take my arm. We don't +either of us like to be stared at, but this will show without a word +what we think of each other and what we've promised to be to each other, +and it's the only thing that will make me feel sure of you and settled +in my mind after all these mistaken years. Have you got the courage, +Nancy?" + +"I should n't wonder! I guess if I've had courage enough to wait for +you, I've got courage enough to walk up the aisle with you and marry +you besides!" said Nancy.--"Now it is too late for us to stay here any +longer, and you must see me only as far as my gate, for perhaps you have +n't forgotten yet how interested the Brewsters are in their neighbors." + +They stood at the little Wentworth gate for a moment, hand close clasped +in hand. The night was clear, the air was cold and sparkling, but with +nothing of bitterness in it, the sky was steely blue, and the evening +star glowed and burned like a tiny sun. Nancy remembered the shepherd's +song she had taught the Sunday-School children, and repeated softly:-- + + For I my sheep was watching + Beneath the silent skies, + When sudden, far to eastward, + I saw a star arise; + Then all the peaceful heavens + With sweetest music rang, + And glory, glory, glory! + The happy angels sang. + + So I this night am joyful, + Though I can scarce tell why, + It seemeth me that glory + Hath met us very nigh; + And we, though poor and humble, + Have part in heavenly plan, + For, born tonight, the Prince of Peace + Shall rule the heart of man. + +Justin's heart melted within him like wax to the woman's vision and the +woman's touch. + +"Oh, Nancy, Nancy!" he whispered. "If I had brought my bad luck to you +long, long ago, would you have taken me then, and have I lost years of +such happiness as this?" + +"There are some things it is not best for a man to be certain about," +said Nancy, with a wise smile and a last goodnight. + + + +VIII. Ring out, sweet bells + + + Ring out, sweet bells, + O'er woods and dells + Your lovely strains repeat, + While happy throngs + With joyous songs + Each accent gladly greet. + +Christmas morning in the old Tory Hill Meeting-House was felt by all +of the persons who were present in that particular year to be a most +exciting and memorable occasion. + +The old sexton quite outdid himself, for although he had rung the bell +for more than thirty years, he had never felt greater pride or joy in +his task. Was not his son John home for Christmas, and John's wife, +and a grand-child newly named Nathaniel for himself? Were there not +spareribs and turkeys and cranberries and mince pies on the pantry +shelves, and barrels of rosy Baldwins in the cellar and bottles of +mother's root beer just waiting to give a holiday pop? The bell itself +forgot its age and the suspicion of a crack that dulled its voice on +a damp day, and, inspired by the bright, frosty air, the sexton's +inspiring pull, and the Christmas spirit, gave out nothing but joyous +tones. + +_Ding-dong_! _Ding-dong_! It fired the ambitions of star scholars about +to recite hymns and sing solos. It thrilled little girls expecting dolls +before night. It excited beyond bearing dozens of little boys being +buttoned into refractory overcoats. _Ding-dong_! _Ding-dong_! Mothers' +fingers trembled when they heard it, and mothers' voices cried: "If that +is the second bell, the children will never be ready in time! Where +are the overshoes? Where are the mittens? Hurry, Jack! Hurry, Jennie!" +_Ding-dong_! _Ding-dong_! "Where's Sally's muff? Where's father's fur +cap? Is the sleigh at the door? Are the hot soapstones in? Have all of +you your money for the contribution box?" _Ding-dong_! _Ding-dong_! It +was a blithe bell, a sweet, true bell, a holy bell, and to Justin pacing +his tavern room, as to Nancy trembling in her maiden chamber, it rang a +Christmas message:-- + + Awake, glad heart! Arise and sing; + It is the birthday of thy King! + +The congregation filled every seat in the old meeting-house. As Maria +Sharp had prophesied, there was one ill-natured spinster from a rival +village who declared that the church floor looked like Joseph's coat +laid out smooth; but in the general chorus of admiration, approval, and +goodwill, this envious speech, though repeated from mouth to mouth, left +no sting. + +Another item of interest long recalled was the fact that on that august +and unapproachable day the pulpit vases stood erect and empty, though +Nancy Wentworth had filled them every Sunday since any one could +remember. This instance, though felt at the time to be of mysterious +significance if the cause were ever revealed, paled into nothingness +when, after the ringing of the last bell, Nancy Wentworth walked up the +aisle on Justin Peabody's arm, and they took their seats side by side in +the old family pew. + +("And consid'able close, too, though there was plenty o' room!") + +("And no one that I ever heard of so much as suspicioned that they had +ever kept company!") + +("And do you s'pose she knew Justin was expected back when she scrubbed +his pew a-Friday? ") + +("And this explains the empty pulpit vases! ") + +("And I always said that Nancy would make a real handsome couple if she +ever got anybody to couple with!") + +During the unexpected and solemn procession of the two up the aisle +the soprano of the village choir stopped short in the middle of the +Doxology, and the three other voices carried it to the end without any +treble. Also, among those present there were some who could not remember +afterward the precise petitions wafted upward in the opening prayer. + +And could it be explained otherwise than by cheerfully acknowledging the +bounty of an overruling Providence that Nancy Wentworth should have had +a new winter dress for the first time in five years--a winter dress of +dark brown cloth to match her beaver muff and victorine? The existence +of this toilette had been known and discussed in Edgewood for a month +past, and it was thought to be nothing more than a proper token +of respect from a member of the carpet committee to the general +magnificence of the church on the occasion of its reopening after +repairs. Indeed, you could have identified every member of the Dorcas +Society that Sunday morning by the freshness of her apparel. The brown +dress, then, was generally expected; but why the white cashmere waist +with collar and cuffs of point lace, devised only and suitable only for +the minister's wedding, where it first saw the light? + +"The white waist can only be explained as showing distinct hope!" +whispered the minister's wife during the reading of the church notices. + +"To me it shows more than hope; I am very sure that Nancy would never +take any wear out of that lace for hope; it means certainty!" answered +Maria, who was always strong in the prophetic line. + +Justin's identity had dawned upon most of the congregation by sermon +time. A stranger to all but one or two at first, his presence in the +Peabody pew brought his face and figure back, little by little, to the +minds of the old parishioners. + +When the contribution plate was passed, the sexton always began at the +right-wing pews, as all the sextons before him had done for a hundred +years. Every eye in the church was already turned upon Justin and +Nancy, and it was with almost a gasp that those in the vicinity saw a +ten-dollar bill fall in the plate. The sexton reeled, or, if that is too +intemperate a word for a pillar of the church, the good man tottered, +but caught hold of the pew rail with one hand, and, putting the thumb +of his other over the bill, proceeded quickly to the next pew, lest +the stranger should think better of his gift, or demand change, as had +occasionally been done in the olden time. + +Nancy never fluttered an eyelash, but sat quietly by Justin's side with +her bosom rising and falling under the beaver fur and her cold +hands clasped tight in the little brown muff. Far from grudging this +appreciable part of their slender resources, she thrilled with pride to +see Justin's offering fall in the plate. + +Justin was too absorbed in his own thoughts to notice anything, but +his munificent contribution had a most unexpected effect upon his +reputation, after all; for on that day, and on many another later one, +when his sudden marriage and departure with Nancy Wentworth were under +discussion, the neighbors said to one another:--"Justin must be making +money fast out West! He put ten dollars in the contribution plate +a-Sunday, and paid the minister ten more next day for marryin' him to +Nancy; so the Peabody luck has turned at last!"--which as a matter of +fact, it had. + +"And all the time," said the chairman of the carpet committee to the +treasurer of the Dorcas Society--"all the time, little as she realized +it, Nancy was laying the carpet in her own pew. Now she's married to +Justin, she'll be the makin' of him, or I miss my guess. You can't do a +thing with men-folks without they're right alongside where you can keep +your eye and hand on 'em. Justin's handsome and good and stiddy; all he +needs is some nice woman to put starch into him. The Edgewood Peabodys +never had a mite o' stiffenin' in 'em,--limp as dishrags, every blessed +one! Nancy Wentworth fairly rustles with starch. Justin had n't been +engaged to her but a few hours when they walked up the aisle together, +but did you notice the way he carried his head? I declare I thought 't +would fall off behind! I should n't wonder a mite but they prospered and +come back every summer to set in the Old Peabody Pew." + + + + + +SUSANNA AND SUE + + + + +I. Mother Ann's Children + + +It was the end of May, when "spring goeth all in white." The apple trees +were scattering their delicate petals on the ground, dropping them +over the stone walls to the roadsides, where in the moist places of the +shadows they fell on beds of snowy innocence. Here and there a single +tree was tinged with pink, but so faintly, it was as if the white were +blushing. Now and then a tiny white butterfly danced in the sun and +pearly clouds strayed across the sky in fleecy flocks. + +Everywhere the grass was of ethereal greenness, a greenness drenched +with the pale yellow of spring sunshine. Looking from earth to sky +and from blossom to blossom, the little world of the apple orchards, +shedding its falling petals like fair-weather snow, seemed made of +alabaster and porcelain, ivory and mother-of-pearl, all shimmering on a +background of tender green. + +After you pass Albion village, with its streets shaded by elms and +maples and its outskirts embowered in blossoming orchards, you wind +along a hilly country road that runs between grassy fields. Here the +whiteweed is already budding, and there are pleasant pastures dotted +with rocks and fringed with spruce and fir; stretches of woodland, +too, where the road is lined with giant pines and you lift your face +gratefully to catch the cool balsam breath of the forest. Coming from +out this splendid shade, this silence too deep to be disturbed by light +breezes or vagrant winds, you find yourself on the brow of a descending +hill. The first thing that strikes the eye is a lake that might be a +great blue sapphire dropped into the verdant hollow where it lies. When +the eye reluctantly leaves the lake on the left, it turns to rest +upon the little Shaker Settlement on the right--a dozen or so large +comfortable white barns, sheds, and houses, standing in the wide orderly +spaces of their own spreading acres of farm and timber land. There +again the spring goeth all in white, for there is no spot to fleck the +dazzling quality of Shaker paint, and their apple, plum, and pear trees +are so well cared for that the snowy blossoms are fairly hiding the +branches. + +The place is very still, although there are signs of labor in all +directions. From a window of the girls' building a quaint little +gray-clad figure is beating a braided rug; a boy in homespun, with his +hair slightly long in the back and cut in a straight line across the +forehead, is carrying milk-cans from the dairy to one of the Sisters' +Houses. Men in broad-brimmed hats, with clean-shaven, ascetic faces, are +ploughing or harrowing here and there in the fields, while a group of +Sisters is busy setting out plants and vines in some beds near a cluster +of noble trees. That cluster of trees, did the eye of the stranger +realize it, was the very starting-point of this Shaker Community, for +in the year 1785, the valiant Father James Whittaker, one of Mother Ann +Lee's earliest English converts, stopped near the village of Albion +on his first visit to Maine. As he and his Elders alighted from their +horses, they stuck into the ground the willow withes they had used as +whips, and now, a hundred years later, the trees that had grown from +these slender branches were nearly three feet in diameter. + +From whatever angle you look upon the Settlement, the first and +strongest impression is of quiet order, harmony, and a kind of austere +plenty. Nowhere is the purity of the spring so apparent. Nothing is +out of place; nowhere is any confusion, or appearance of loose ends, or +neglected tasks. As you come nearer, you feel the more surely that here +there has never been undue haste nor waste; no shirking, no putting off +till the morrow what should have been done today. Whenever a shingle or +a clapboard was needed it was put on, where paint was required it was +used,--that is evident; and a look at the great barns stored with hay +shows how the fields have been conscientiously educated into giving a +full crop. + +To such a spot as this might any tired or sinful heart come for +rest; hoping somehow, in the midst of such frugality and thrift, such +self-denying labor, such temperate use of God's good gifts, such shining +cleanliness of outward things, to regain and wear "the white flower of +a blameless life." The very air of the place breathed peace, so thought +Susanna Hathaway; and little Sue, who skipped by her side, thought +nothing at all save that she was with mother in the country; that it had +been rather a sad journey, with mother so quiet and pale, and that she +would be very glad to see supper, should it rise like a fairy banquet in +the midst of these strange surroundings. + +It was only a mile and a half from the railway station to the Shaker +Settlement, and Susanna knew the road well, for she had driven over it +more than once as child and girl. A boy would bring the little trunk +that contained their simple necessities later on in the evening, so +she and Sue would knock at the door of the house where visitors were +admitted, and be undisturbed by any gossiping company while they were +pleading their case. + +"Are we most there, Mardie?" asked Sue for the twentieth time. "Look at +me! I'm being a butterfly, or perhaps a white pigeon. No, I'd rather be +a butterfly, and then I can skim along faster and move my wings!" + +The airy little figure, all lightness and brightness, danced along the +road, the white cotton dress rising and falling, the white-stockinged +legs much in evidence, the arms outstretched as if in flight, straw hat +falling off yellow hair, and a little wisp of swansdown scarf floating +out behind like the drapery of a baby Mercury. + +"We are almost there," her mother answered. "You can see the buildings +now, if you will stop being a butterfly. Don't you like them?" + +"Yes, I 'specially like them all so white. Is it a town, Mardie?" + +"It is a village, but not quite like other villages. I have told you +often about the Shaker Settlement, where your grandmother brought me +once when I was just your age. There was a thunder-storm; they kept +us all night, and were so kind that I never forgot them. Then your +grandmother and I stopped off once when we were going to Boston. I was +ten then, and I remember more about it. The same sweet Eldress was there +both times." + +"What is an El-der-ess, Mardie?" + +"A kind of everybody's mother, she seemed to be," Susanna responded, +with a catch in her breath. + +"I'd 'specially like her; will she be there now, Mardie?" + +"I'm hoping so, but it is eighteen years ago. I was ten and she was +about forty, I should think." + +"Then o' course she'll be dead," said Sue, cheerfully, "or either she'll +have no teeth or hair." + +"People don't always die before they are sixty, Sue." + +"Do they die when they want to, or when they must?" + +"Always when they must; never, never when they want to," answered Sue's +mother. + +"But o' course they would n't ever want to if they had any little girls +to be togedder with, like you and me, Mardie?" And Sue looked up with +eyes that were always like two interrogation points, eager by turns and +by turns wistful, but never satisfied. + +"No," Susanna replied brokenly, "of course they would n't, unless +sometimes they were wicked for a minute or two and forgot." + +"Do the Shakers shake all the time, Mardie, or just once in a while? And +shall I see them do it?" + +"Sue, dear, I can't explain everything in the world to you while you are +so little; you really must wait until you're more grown up. The Shakers +don't shake and the Quakers don't quake, and when you're older, I'll +try to make you understand why they were called so and why they kept the +name." + +"Maybe the El-der-ess can make me understand right off now; I'd +'specially like it." And Sue ran breathlessly along to the gate where +the North Family House stood in its stately, white-and-green austerity. + +Susanna followed, and as she caught up with the impetuous Sue, the front +door of the house opened and a figure appeared on the threshold. Mother +and child quickened their pace and went up the steps, Susanna with +a hopeless burden of fear and embarrassment clogging her tongue and +dragging at her feet; Sue so expectant of new disclosures and fresh +experiences that her face beamed like a full moon. + +Eldress Abby (for it was Eldress Abby) had indeed survived the heavy +weight of her fifty-five or sixty summers, and looked as if she might +reach a yet greater age. She wore the simple Shaker afternoon dress of +drab alpaca; an irreproachable muslin surplice encircled her straight, +spare shoulders, while her hair was almost entirely concealed by the +stiffly wired, transparent white-net cap that served as a frame to the +tranquil face. The face itself was a network of delicate, fine wrinkles; +but every wrinkle must have been as lovely in God's sight as it was in +poor unhappy Susanna Hathaway's. Some of them were graven by self-denial +and hard work; others perhaps meant the giving up of home, of parents +and brothers or sisters; perhaps some worldly love, the love that Father +Adam bequeathed to the human family, had been slain in Abby's youth, and +the scars still remained to show the body's suffering and the spirit's +triumph. At all events, whatever foes had menaced her purity or her +tranquillity had been conquered, and she exhaled serenity as the rose +sheds fragrance. + +"Do you remember the little Nelson girl and her mother that stayed here +all night, years ago?" asked Susanna, putting out her hand timidly. + +"Why, seems to me I do," assented Eldress Abby, genially. "So many +comes and goes it's hard to remember all. Did n't you come once in a +thunder-storm?" + +"Yes, one of your barns was struck by lightning and we sat up all +night." "Yee, yee.(1) I remember well! Your mother was a beautiful +spirit. I could n't forget her." + + (1)"Yea" is always thus pronounced by the Shakers. + +"And we came once again, mother and I, and spent the afternoon with you, +and went strawberrying in the pasture." + +"Yee, yee, so we did; I hope your mother continues in health." + +"She died the very next year," Susanna answered in a trembling voice, +for the time of explanation was near at hand and her heart failed her. + +"Won't you come into the sittingroom and rest a while? You must be tired +walking from the deepot." + +"No, thank you, not just yet. I'll step into the front entry a +minute.--Sue, run and sit in that rocking-chair on the porch and watch +the cows going into the big barn.--Do you remember, Eldress Abby, the +second time I came, how you sat me down in the kitchen with a bowl of +wild strawberries to hull for supper? They were very small and ripe; I +did my best, for I never meant to be careless, but the bowl slipped and +fell, my legs were too short to reach the floor, and I could n't make a +lap, so in trying to pick up the berries I spilled juice on nay dress, +and on the white apron you had tied on for me. Then my fingers were +stained and wet and the hulls kept falling in with the soft berries, +and when you came in and saw me you held up your hands and said, 'Dear, +dear! you _have_ made a mess of your work!' Oh, Eldress Abby, they've +come back to me all day, those words. I've tried hard to be good, but +somehow I've made just such a mess of my life as I made of hulling the +berries. The bowl is broken, I have n't much fruit to show, and I am +all stained and draggled. I should n't have come to Albion on the five +o'clock train--that was an accident; I meant to come at noon, when you +could turn me away if you wanted to." + +"Nay, that is not the Shaker habit," remonstrated Abby. "You and the +child can sleep in one of the spare chambers at the Office Building and +be welcome." + +"But I want much more than that," said Susanna, tearfully. "I want to +come and live here, where there is no marrying nor giving in marriage. +I am so tired with my disappointments and discouragements and failures +that it is no use to try any longer. I am Mrs. Hathaway, and Sue is my +child, but I have left my husband for good and all, and I only want +to spend the rest of my days here in peace and bring up Sue to a more +tranquil life than I have ever had. I have a little money, so that I +shall not be a burden to you, and I will work from morning to night at +any task you set me." + +"I will talk to the Family," said Eldress Abby gravely; "but there are a +good many things to settle before we can say yee to all you ask." + +"Let me confess everything freely and fully," pleaded Susanna, "and if +you think I'm to blame, I will go away at once." + +"Nay, this is no time for that. It is our duty to receive all and try +all; then if you should be gathered in, you would unburden your heart to +God through the Sister appointed to receive your confession." + +"Will Sue have to sleep in the children's building away from me?" + +"Nay, not now; you are company, not a Shaker, and anyway you could keep +the child with you till she is a little older; that's not forbidden +at first, though there comes a time when the ties of the flesh must be +broken! All you've got to do now's to be 'pure and peaceable, gentle, +easy to be entreated, and without hypocrisy.' That's about all there is +to the Shaker creed, and that's enough to keep us all busy." + +Sue ran in from the porch excitedly and caught her mother's hand. + +"The cows have all gone into the barn," she chattered; "and the Shaker +gentlemen are milking them, and not one of them is shaking the least +bit, for I 'specially noticed; and I looked in through the porch window, +and there is nice supper on a table--bread and butter and milk and dried +apple sauce and gingerbread and cottage cheese. Is it for us, Mardie?" + +Susanna's lip was trembling and her face was pale. She lifted her +swimming eyes to the Sister's and asked, "Is it for us, Eldress Abby?" + +"Yee, it's for you," she answered; "there's always a Shaker supper on +the table for all who want to leave the husks and share the feast. Come +right in and help yourselves. I will sit down with you." + + +Supper was over, and Susanna and Sue were lying in a little upper +chamber under the stars. It was the very one that Susanna had slept in +as a child, or that she had been put to bed in, for there was little +sleep that night for any one. She had leaned on the windowsill with her +mother and watched the pillar of flame and smoke ascend from the burning +barn; and once in the early morning she had stolen out of bed, and, +kneeling by the open window, had watched the two silent Shaker brothers +who were guarding the smouldering ruins, fearful lest the wind should +rise and bear any spark to the roofs of the precious buildings they had +labored so hard to save. + +The chamber was spotless and devoid of ornament. The paint was robin's +egg blue and of a satin gloss. The shining floor was of the same color, +and neat braided rugs covered exposed places near the bureau, washstand, +and bed. Various useful articles of Shaker manufacture interested Sue +greatly: the exquisite straw-work that covered the whisk-broom; the +mending-basket, pincushion, needle-book, spool- and watch-cases, +hair-receivers, pin-trays, might all have been put together by fairy +fingers. + +Sue's prayers had been fervent, but a trifle disjointed, covering all +subjects from Jack and Fardie, to Grandma in heaven and Aunt Louisa +at the farm, with special references to El-der-ess Abby and the Shaker +cows, and petitions that the next day be fair so that she could see them +milked. Excitement at her strange, unaccustomed surroundings had put the +child's mind in a very whirl, and she had astonished her mother with a +very new and disturbing version of the Lord's Prayer, ending: "God give +us our debts and help us to forget our debtors and theirs shall be the +glory, Amen." Now she lay quietly on the wall side of the clean, narrow +bed, while her mother listened to hear the regular breathing that would +mean that she was off for the land of dreams. The child's sleep would +leave the mother free to slip out of bed and look at the stars; free to +pray and long and wonder and suffer and repent, not wholly, but in part, +for she was really at peace in all but the innermost citadel of her +conscience. She had left her husband, and for the moment, at all events, +she was fiercely glad; but she had left her boy, and Jack was only ten. +Jack was not the helpless, clinging sort; he was a little piece of his +father, and his favorite. Aunt Louisa would surely take him, and Jack +would scarcely feel the difference, for he had never shown any special +affection for anybody. Still he was her child, nobody could possibly +get around that fact, and it was a stumbling-block in the way of +forgetfulness or ease of mind. Oh, but for that, what unspeakable +content she could feel in this quiet haven, this self-respecting +solitude! To have her thoughts, her emotions, her words, her self, +to herself once more, as she had had them before she was married at +seventeen. To go to sleep in peace, without listening for a step she had +once heard with gladness, but that now sometimes stumbled unsteadily on +the stair; or to dream as happy women dreamed, without being roused by +the voice of the present John, a voice so different from that of the +past John that it made the heart ache to listen to it. + +Sue's voice broke the stillness: "How long are we going to stay here, +Mardie?" + +"I don't know, Sue; I think perhaps as long as they'll let us." + +"Will Fardie come and see us?" + +"I don't expect him." + +"Who'll take care of Jack, Mardie?" + +"Your Aunt Louisa." + +"She'll scold him awfully, but he never cries; he just says, 'Pooh! what +do I care?' Oh, I forgot to pray for that very nicest Shaker gentleman +that said he'd let me help him feed the calves! Had n't I better get out +of bed and do it? I'd 'specially like to." + +"Very well, Sue; and then go to sleep." + +Safely in bed again, there was a long pause, and then the eager little +voice began, "Who'll take care of Fardie now?" + +"He's a big man; he does n't need anybody." + +"What if he's sick?" + +"We must go back to him, I suppose." + +"Tomorrow 's Sunday; what if he needs us tomorrow, Mardie?" + +"I don't know, I don't know! Oh, Sue, Sue, don't ask your wretched +mother any more questions, for she cannot bear them tonight. Cuddle +up close to her; love her and forgive her and help her to know what's +right." + + + + +II. A Son of Adam + +When Susanna Nelson at seventeen married John Hathaway, she had the +usual cogent reasons for so doing, with some rather more unusual ones +added thereto. She was alone in the world, and her life with an uncle, +her mother's only relative, was an unhappy one. No assistance in the +household tasks that she had ever been able to render made her a welcome +member of the family or kept her from feeling a burden, and she belonged +no more to the little circle at seventeen than she did when she became a +part of it at twelve. The hope of being independent and earning her own +living had sustained her through the last year; but it was a very timid, +self-distrustful, love-starved little heart that John Hathaway stormed +and carried by assault. Her girl's life in a country school and her +uncle's very rigid and orthodox home had been devoid of emotion or +experience; still, her mother had early sown seeds in her mind and +spirit that even in the most arid soil were certain to flower into +beauty when the time for flowering came; and intellectually Susanna was +the clever daughter of clever parents. She was very immature, because, +after early childhood, her environment had not been favorable to her +development. At seventeen she began to dream of a future as bright +as the past had been dreary and uneventful. Visions of happiness, of +goodness, and of service haunted her, and sometimes, gleaming through +the mists of dawning womanhood, the figure, all luminous, of The Man! + +When John Hathaway appeared on the horizon, she promptly clothed him in +all the beautiful garments of her dreams; they were a grotesque misfit, +but when we intimate that women have confused the dream and the reality +before, and may even do so again, we make the only possible excuse for +poor little Susanna Nelson. + +John Hathaway was the very image of the outer world that lay beyond +Susanna's village. He was a fairly prosperous, genial, handsome young +merchant, who looked upon life as a place furnished by Providence in +which to have "a good time." His parents had frequently told him that +it was expedient for him to "settle down," and he supposed that he might +finally do so, if he should ever find a girl who would tempt him to +relinquish his liberty. (The line that divides liberty and license was +a little vague to John Hathaway!) It is curious that he should not +have chosen for his life-partner some thoughtless, rosy, romping young +person, whose highest conception of connubial happiness would have been +to drive twenty miles to the seashore on a Sunday, and having partaken +of all the season's delicacies, solid and liquid, to come home hilarious +by moonlight. That, however, is not the way the little love-imps do +their work in the world; or is it possible that they are not imps at all +who provoke and stimulate and arrange these strange marriages not imps, +but honest, chastening little character-builders? In any event, the +moment that John Hathaway first beheld Susanna Nelson was the moment +of his surrender; yet the wooing was as incomprehensible as that of a +fragile, dainty little hummingbird by a pompous, greedy, big-breasted +robin. + +Susanna was like a New England anemone. Her face was oval in shape and +as smooth and pale as a pearl. Her hair was dark, not very heavy, and as +soft as a child's. Her lips were delicate and sensitive, her eyes a cool +gray,--clear, steady, and shaded by darker lashes. When John Hathaway +met her shy, maidenly glance and heard her pretty, dovelike voice, it +is strange he did not see that there was a bit too much saint in her to +make her a willing comrade of his gay, roistering life. But as a matter +of fact, John Hathaway saw nothing at all; nothing but that Susanna +Nelson was a lovely girl and he wanted her for his own. The type was +one he had never met before, one that allured him by its mysteries and +piqued him by its shy aloofness. + +John had "a way with him," a way that speedily won Susanna; and after +all there was a best to him as well as a worst. He had a twinkling +eye, an infectious laugh, a sweet disposition, and while he was +over-susceptible to the charm of a pretty face, he had a chivalrous +admiration for all women, coupled, it must be confessed, with a decided +lack of discrimination in values. His boyish lightheartedness had a +charm for everybody, including Susanna; a charm that lasted until she +discovered that his heart was light not only when it ought to be light, +but when it ought to be heavy. He was very much in love with her, +but there was nothing particularly exclusive, unique, individual, or +interesting about his passion at that time. It was of the everyday sort +which carries a well-meaning man to the altar, and sometimes, in cases +of exceptional fervor and duration, even a little farther. Stock sizes +of this article are common and inexpensive, and John Hathaway's love +when he married Susanna was, judged by the highest standards, about +as trivial an affair as Cupid ever put upon the market or a man ever +offered to a woman. Susanna on the same day offered John, or the wooden +idol she was worshiping as John, her whole self--mind, body, heart, +and spirit. So the couple were united, and smilingly signed the +marriage-register, a rite by which their love for each other was +supposed to be made eternal. + + "Will you love me?" said he. + "Will you love me?" said she. + Then they answered together: + "Through foul and fair weather, + From sunrise to moonrise, + From moonrise to sunrise, + By heath and by harbour, + In orchard or arbour, + In the time of the rose, + In the time of the snows, + Through smoke and through smother + We'll love one another!" + +Cinderella, when the lover-prince discovers her and fits the crystal +slipper to her foot, makes short work of flinging away her rags; and +in some such pretty, airy, unthinking way did Susanna fling aside the +dullness, inhospitality, and ugliness of her uncle's home and depart in +a cloud of glory on her wedding journey. She had been lonely, now she +would have companionship. She had been of no consequence, now she would +be queen of her own small domain. She had been last with everybody, now +she would be first with one, at least. She had worked hard and received +neither compensation nor gratitude; henceforward her service would be +gladly rendered at an altar where votive offerings would not be taken +as a matter of course. She was only a slip of a girl now; marriage and +housewifely cares would make her a woman. Some time perhaps the last +great experience of life would come to her, and then what a crown of +joys would be hers,--love, husband, home, children! What a vision it +was, and how soon the chief glory of it faded! + +Never were two beings more hopelessly unlike than John Hathaway +single and John Hathaway married, but the bliss lasted a few years, +nevertheless: partly because Susanna's charm was deep and penetrating, +the sort to hold a false man for a time and a true man forever; partly +because she tried, as a girl or woman has seldom tried before, to do her +duty and to keep her own ideal unshattered. + +John had always been convivial, but Susanna at seventeen had been at +once too innocent and too ignorant to judge a man's tendencies truly, +or to rate his character at its real worth. As time went on, his earlier +leanings grew more definite; he spent on pleasure far more than he could +afford, and his conduct became a byword in the neighborhood. His boy +he loved. He felt on a level with Jack, could understand him, play +with him, punish him, and make friends with him; but little Sue was +different. She always seemed to him the concentrated essence of her +mother's soul, and when unhappy days came, he never looked in her +radiant, searching eyes without a consciousness of inferiority. The +little creature had loved her jolly, handsome, careless father at first, +even though she feared him; but of late she had grown shy, silent, and +timid, for his indifference chilled her and she flung herself upon +her mother's love with an almost unchildlike intensity. This unhappy +relation between the child and the father gave Susanna's heart new +pangs. She still loved her husband, not dearly, but a good deal; and +over and above that remnant of the old love which still endured she gave +him unstinted care and hopeful maternal tenderness. + +The crash came in course of time. John transcended the bounds of his +wife's patience more and more. She made her last protests; then she took +one passionate day to make up her mind, a day when John and the boy +were away together; a day of complete revolt against everything she was +facing in the present, and, so far as she could see, everything that she +had to face in the future. Prayer for light left her in darkness, and +she had no human creature to advise her. Conscience was overthrown; she +could see no duty save to her own outraged personality. Often and often +during the year just past she had thought of the peace, the grateful +solitude and shelter of that Shaker Settlement hidden among New England +orchards; that quiet haven where there was neither marrying nor giving +in marriage. Now her bruised heart longed for such a life of nunlike +simplicity and consecration, where men and women met only as brothers +and sisters, where they worked side by side with no thought of personal +passion or personal gain, but only for the common good of the community. + +Albion village was less than three hours distant by train. She hastily +gathered her plainest clothes and Sue's, packed them in a small +trunk, took her mother's watch, her own little store of money and the +twenty-dollar gold piece John's senior partner had given Sue on her last +birthday, wrote a letter of goodbye to John, and went out of her cottage +gate in a storm of feeling so tumultuous that there was no room for +reflection. Besides, she had reflected, and reflected, for months +and months, so she would have said, and the time had come for action. +Susanna was not unlettered, but she certainly had never read Meredith or +she would have learned that "love is an affair of two, and only for two +that can be as quick, as constant in intercommunication as are sun and +earth, through the cloud, or face to face. They take their breath of +life from each other in signs of affection, proofs of faithfulness, +incentives to admiration. But a solitary soul dragging a log must make +the log a God to rejoice in the burden." The demigod that poor, blind +Susanna married had vanished, and she could drag the log no longer, but +she made one mistake in judging her husband, in that she regarded him, +at thirty-two, as a finished product, a man who was finally this and +that, and behaved thus and so, and would never be any different. + +The "age of discretion" is a movable feast of extraordinary uncertainty, +and John Hathaway was a little behindhand in overtaking it. As a matter +of fact, he had never for an instant looked life squarely in the face. +He took a casual glance at it now and then, after he was married, but it +presented no very distinguishable features, nothing to make him stop +and think, nothing to arouse in him any special sense of responsibility. +Boys have a way of "growing up," however, sooner or later, at least +most of them have, and that possibility was not sufficiently in the +foreground of Susanna's mind when she finished what she considered an +exhaustive study of her husband's character. + +I am leaving you, John [she wrote], to see if I can keep the little love +I have left for you as the father of my children. I seem to have lost +all the rest of it living with you. I am not perfectly sure that I +am right in going, for everybody seems to think that women, mothers +especially, should bear anything rather than desert the home. I could +not take Jack away, for you love him and he will be a comfort to you. A +comfort to you, yes, but what will you be to him now that he is growing +older? That is the thought that troubles me, yet I dare not take him +with me when he is half yours. You will not miss me, nor will the loss +of Sue make any difference. Oh, John! how can you help loving that +blessed little creature, so much better and so much more gifted than +either of us that we can only wonder how we came to be her father and +mother? Your sin against her is greater than that against me, for at +least you are not responsible for bringing me into the world. I know +Louisa will take care of Jack, and she lives so near that you can see +him as often as you wish. I shall let her know my address, which I have +asked her to keep to herself. She will write to me if you or Jack should +be seriously ill, but not for any other reason. + +As for you, there is nothing more that I can say except to confess +freely that I was not the right wife for you and that mine was not the +only mistake. I have tried my very best to meet you in everything that +was not absolutely wrong, and I have used all the arguments I could +think of, but it only made matters worse. I thought I knew you, John, +in the old days. How comes it that we have traveled so far apart, we +who began together? It seems to me that some time you must come to your +senses and take up your life seriously, for this is not life, the sorry +thing you have lived lately, but I cannot wait any longer! I am tired, +tired, tired of waiting and hoping, too tired to do anything but drag +myself away from the sight of your folly. You have wasted our children's +substance, indulged your appetites until you have lost the respect of +your best friends, and you have made me--who was your choice, your wife, +the head of your house, the woman who brought your children into the +world--you have made me an object of pity; a poor, neglected thing who +could not meet her neighbors' eyes without blushing. + +When Jack and his father returned from their outing at eight o'clock in +the evening, having had supper at a wayside hotel, the boy went to bed +philosophically, lighting his lamp for himself, the conclusion being +that the two other members of the household were a little late, but +would be in presently. + +The next morning was bright and fair. Jack waked at cockcrow, and after +calling to his mother and Sue, jumped out of bed, ran into their rooms +to find them empty, then bounced down the stairs two at a time, going +through the sitting-room on his way to find Ellen in the kitchen. His +father was sitting at the table with the still-lighted student lamp on +it; the table where lessons had been learned, books read, stories told, +mending done, checkers and dominoes played; the big, round walnut table +that was the focus of the family life--but mother's table, not father's. + +John Hathaway had never left his chair nor taken off his hat. His cane +leaned against his knee, his gloves were in his left hand, while the +right held Susanna's letter. + +He was asleep, although his lips twitched and he stirred uneasily. His +face was haggard, and behind his closed lids, somewhere in the center +of thought and memory, a train of fiery words burned in an ever-widening +circle, round and round and round, ploughing, searing their way through +some obscure part of him that had heretofore been without feeling, but +was now all quick and alive with sensation. + +You have made me--who was your choice, your wife, the head of your +house, the woman who brought your children into the world--you have made +me an object of pity; a poor, neglected thing who could not meet her +neighbors' eyes without blushing. + +Any one who wished to pierce John Hathaway's armor at that period of his +life would have had to use a very sharp and pointed arrow, for he was +well wadded with the belief that a man has a right to do what he likes. +Susanna's shaft was tipped with truth and dipped in the blood of her +outraged heart. The stored-up force of silent years went into the +speeding of it. She had never shot an arrow before, and her skill was +instinctive rather than scientific, but the powers were on her side and +she aimed better than she knew--those who took note of John Hathaway's +behavior that summer would have testified willingly to that. It was the +summer in which his boyish irresponsibility slipped away from him +once and for all; a summer in which the face of life ceased to be an +indistinguishable mass of meaningless events and disclosed an order, +a reason, a purpose hitherto unseen and undefined. The boy "grew up," +rather tardily it must be confessed. His soul had not added a cubit to +its stature in sunshine, gayety, and prosperity; it took the shock of +grief, hurt pride, solitude, and remorse to make a man of John Hathaway. + + + + +III. Divers Doctrines + + +It was a radiant July morning in Albion village, and when Sue first +beheld it from the bedroom window at the Shaker Settlement, she had +wished ardently that it might never, never grow dark, and that Jack and +Fardie might be having the very same sunshine in Farnham. It was not +noon yet, but experience had in some way tempered the completeness of +her joy, for the marks of tears were on her pretty little face. She had +neither been scolded nor punished, but she had been dragged away from +a delicious play without any adequate reason. She had disappeared after +breakfast, while Susanna was helping Sister Tabitha with the beds and +the dishes, but as she was the most docile of children, her mother never +thought of anxiety. At nine o'clock Eldress Abby took Susanna to the +laundry house, and there under a spreading maple were Sue and the two +youngest little Shakeresses, children of seven and eight respectively. +Sue was directing the plays: chattering, planning, ordering, and +suggesting expedients to her slower-minded and less experienced +companions. They had dragged a large box from one of the sheds and set +it up under the tree. The interior had been quickly converted into +a commodious residence, one not in the least of a Shaker type. Small +bluing-boxes served for bedstead and dining-table, bits of broken +china for the dishes, while tiny flat stones were the seats, and four +clothes-pins, tastefully clad in handkerchiefs, surrounded the table. + +"Do they kneel in prayer before they eat, as all Believers do?" asked +Shaker Mary. + +"I don't believe Adam and Eve was Believers, 'cause who would have +taught them to be?" replied Sue; "still we might let them pray, anyway, +though clothespins don't kneel nicely." + +"I've got another one all dressed," said little Shaker Jane. + +"We can't have any more; Adam and Eve did n't have only two children in +my Sunday-School lesson, Cain and Abel," objected Sue. + +"Can't this one be a company?" pleaded Mary, anxious not to waste the +clothespin. + +"But where could comp'ny come from?" queried Sue. "There was n't any +more people anywheres but just Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. Put the +clothespin in your apron-pocket, Jane, and bimeby we'll let Eve have a +little new baby, and I'll get Mardie to name it right out of the Bible. +Now let's begin. Adam is awfully tired this morning; he says, 'Eve, I've +been workin' all night and I can't eat my breakfuss.' Now, Mary, you be +Cain, he's a little boy, and you must say, 'Fardie, play a little with +me, please!' and Fardie will say, 'Child'en should n't talk at the--'" + +What subjects of conversation would have been aired at the Adamic family +board before breakfast was finished will never be known, for Eldress +Abby, with a firm but not unkind grasp, took Shaker Jane and Mary by +their little hands and said, "Morning's not the time for play; run over +to Sister Martha and help her shell the peas; then there'll be your +seams to oversew." + +Sue watched the disappearing children and saw the fabric of her dream +fade into thin air; but she was a person of considerable individuality +for her years. Her lip quivered, tears rushed to her eyes and flowed +silently down her cheeks, but without a glance at Eldress Abby or a word +of comment she walked slowly away from the laundry, her chin high. + +"Sue meant all right, she was only playing the plays of the world," said +Eldress Abby, "but you can well understand, Susanna, that we can't let +our Shaker children play that way and get wrong ideas into their heads +at the beginning. We don't condemn an honest, orderly marriage as a +worldly institution, but we claim it has no place in Christ's kingdom; +therefore we leave it to the world, where it belongs. The world's people +live on the lower plane of Adam; the Shakers try to live on the Christ +plane, in virgin purity, longsuffering, meekness, and patience." + +"I see, I know," Susanna answered slowly, with a little glance at +injured Sue walking toward the house, "but we need n't leave the +children unhappy this morning, for I can think of a play that will +comfort them and please you. Come back, Sue! Wait a minute, Mary and +Jane, before you go to Sister Martha! We will play the story that Sister +Tabitha told us last week. Do you remember about Mother Ann Lee in the +English prison? The soapbox will be her cell, for it was so small she +could not lie down in it. Take some of the shingles, Jane, and close +up the open side of the box. Do you see the large brown spot in one of +them, Mary? Push that very hard with a clothespin and there 'll be a +hole through the shingle; that's right! Now, Sister Tabitha said that +Mother Ann was kept for days without food, for people thought she was a +wicked, dangerous woman, and they would have been willing to let her +die of starvation. But there was a great keyhole in the door, and James +Whittaker, a boy of nineteen, who loved Mother Ann and believed in her, +put the stem of a clay pipe in the hole and poured a mixture of wine and +milk through it. He managed to do this day after day, so that when the +jailer opened the cell door, expecting to find Mother Ann dying for lack +of food, she walked out looking almost as strong and well as when she +entered. You can play it all out, and afterwards you can make the ship +that brought Mother Ann and the other Shakers from Liverpool to New +York. The clothes-pins can be who will they be, Jane?" + +"William Lee, Nancy Lee, James Whittaker, and I forget the others," +recited Jane, like an obedient parrot. + +"And it will be splendid to have James Whittaker, for he really came to +Albion," said Mary. + +"Perhaps he stood on this very spot more than once," mused Abby. "It was +Mother Ann's vision that brought them to this land, a vision of a large +tree with outstretching branches, every leaf of which shone with the +brightness of a burning torch! Oh! if the vision would only come true! +If Believers would only come to us as many as the leaves on the tree," +she sighed, as she and Susanna moved away from the group of chattering +children, all as eager to play the history of Shakerism as they had been +to dramatize the family life of Adam and Eve. + +"There must be so many men and women without ties, living useless lives, +with no aim or object in them," Susanna said, "I wonder that more of +them do not find their way here. The peace and goodness and helpfulness +of the life sink straight into my heart. The Brothers and Sisters are so +friendly and cheery with one another; there is neither gossip nor hard +words; there is pleasant work, and your thoughts seem to be all so +concentrated upon right living that it is like heaven below, only I feel +that the cross is there, bravely as you all bear it." + + "There are roses on my cross most beautiful to see, + As I turn from all the dross from which it sets me free," + +quoted Eldress Abby, devoutly. + +"It is easy enough for me," continued Susanna, "for it was no cross +for me to give up my husband at the time; but oh, if a woman had a +considerate, loving man to live with, one who would strengthen her and +help her to be good, one who would protect and cherish her, one who +would be an example to his children and bring them up in the fear of the +Lord--that would be heaven below, too; and how could she bear to give +it all up when it seems so good, so true, so right? Might n't two people +walk together to God if both chose the same path?" + +"It's my belief that one can find the road better alone than when +somebody else is going alongside to distract them. Not that the Lord +is going to turn anybody away, not even when they bring Him a lot of +burned-out trash for a gift," said Eldress Abby, bluntly. "But don't you +believe He sees the difference between a person that comes to Him when +there is nowhere else to turn--a person that's tried all and found it +wanting--and one that gives up freely pleasure, and gain, and husband, +and home, to follow the Christ life?" + +"Yes, He must, He must," Susanna answered faintly. "But the children, +Eldress Abby! If you had n't any, you could perhaps keep yourself from +wanting them; but if you had, how could you give them up? Jesus was the +great Saviour of mankind, but next to Him it seems as if the children +had been the little saviours, from the time the first one was born until +this very day!" + +"Yee, I've no doubt they keep the worst of the world's people, those +that are living in carnal marriage without a thought of godliness, I've +no doubt children keep that sort from going to the lowest perdition," +allowed Eldress Abby; "and those we bring up in the Community make the +best converts; but to a Shaker, the greater the sacrifice, the greater +the glory. I wish you was gathered in, Susanna, for your hands and feet +are quick to serve, your face is turned toward the truth, and your heart +is all ready to receive the revelation." + +"I wish I need n't turn my back on one set of duties to take up +another," murmured Susanna, timidly. + +"Yee; no doubt you do. Your business is to find out which are the higher +duties, and then do those. Just make up your mind whether you'd rather +replenish earth, as you've been doing, or replenish heaven, as we're +trying to do. But I must go to my work; ten o'clock in the morning's +a poor time to be discussing doctrine! You're for weeding, Susanna, I +suppose?" + +Brother Ansel was seated at a grindstone under the apple trees, teaching +(intermittently) a couple of boys to grind a scythe, when Susanna came +to her work in the herb-garden, Sue walking discreetly at her heels. + +Ansel was a slow-moving, humorously-inclined, easygoing Brother, who was +drifting into the kingdom of heaven without any special effort on his +part. + +"I'd 'bout as lives be a Shaker as anything else," had been his rather +dubious statement of faith when he requested admittance into the band +of Believers. "No more crosses, accordin' to my notion, an' consid'able +more chance o' crowns!" + +His experience of life "on the Adamic plane," the holy estate of +matrimony, being the chief sin of this way of thought, had disposed +him to regard woman as an apparently necessary, but not especially +desirable, being. The theory of holding property in common had no +terrors for him. He was generous, unambitious, frugal-minded, somewhat +lacking in energy, and just as actively interested in his brother's +welfare as in his own, which is perhaps not saying much. Shakerism was +to him not a craving of the spirit, not a longing of the soul, but a +simple, prudent theory of existence, lessening the various risks that +man is exposed to in his journey through this vale of tears. + +"Womenfolks makes splendid Shakers," he was wont to say. "They're all +right as Sisters, 'cause their belief makes 'em safe. It kind o' shears +'em o' their strength; tames their sperits; takes the sting out of 'em +an' keeps 'em from bein' sassy an' domineerin'. Jest as long as they +think marriage is right, they'll marry ye spite of anything ye can do or +say--four of 'em married my father one after another, though he fit 'em +off as hard as he knew how. But if ye can once get the faith o' Mother +Ann into 'em, they're as good afterwards as they was wicked afore. +There's no stoppin' women-folks once ye get 'em started; they don't keer +whether it's heaven or the other place, so long as they get where they +want to go!" + +Elder Daniel Gray had heard Brother Ansel state his religious theories +more than once when he was first "gathered in," and secretly lamented +the lack of spirituality in the new convert. The Elder was an instrument +more finely attuned; sober, humble, pure-minded, zealous, consecrated to +the truth as he saw it, he labored in and out of season for the faith +he held so dear; yet as the years went on, he noted that Ansel, +notwithstanding his eccentric views, lived an honest, temperate, +Godfearing life, talking no scandal, dwelling in unity with his brethren +and sisters, and upholding the banner of Shakerism in his own peculiar +way. + +As Susanna approached him, Ansel called out, "The yairbs are all ready +for ye, Susanna; the weeds have been on the rampage sence yesterday's +rain. Seems like the more uselesser a thing is, the more it flourishes. +The yairbs grow; oh, yes, they make out to _grow_; but you don't see 'em +come leapin' an' tearin' out o' the airth like weeds. Then there's the +birds! I've jest been stoppin' my grindin' to look at 'em carry on. +Take 'em all in all, there ain't nothin' so lazy an' aimless an' +busy 'bout nothin' as birds. They go kitin' 'roun' from tree to tree, +hoppin' an' chirpin', flyin' here an' there 'thout no airthly objeck +'ceptin' to fly back ag'in. There's a heap o' useless critters in +the univarse, but I guess birds are 'bout the uselessest, 'less it's +grasshoppers, mebbe." + +"I don't care what you say about the grasshoppers, Ansel, but you shan't +abuse the birds," said Susanna, stooping over the beds of tansy and +sage, thyme and summer savory. "Weeds or no weeds, we're going to have a +great crop of herbs this year, Ansel!" + +"Yee, so we be! We sowed more'n usual so's to keep the two jiners at +work long's we could.--Take that scythe over to the barn, Jacob, an' +fetch me another, an' step spry." + +"What's a 'jiner,' Ansel?" + +"Winter Shakers, I call 'em. They're reg'lar constitooshanal +dyed-in-the-wool jiners, jinin' most anything an' hookin' on most +anywheres. They jine when it comes on too cold to sleep outdoors, an' +they onjine when it comes on spring. Elder Gray's always hopin' to +gather in new souls, so he gives the best of 'em a few months' trial. +How are ye, Hannah?" he called to a Sister passing through the orchard +to search for any possible green apples under the trees. "Make us a good +old-fashioned deep-dish pandowdy an' we'll all do our best to eat it!" + +"I suppose the 'jiners' get discouraged and fear they can't keep up to +the standard. Not everybody is good enough to lead a self-denying Shaker +life," said Susanna, pushing back the close sunbonnet from her warm +face, which had grown younger, smoother, and sweeter in the last few +weeks. + +"Nay, I s'pose likely; 'less they're same as me, a born Shaker," Ansel +replied. "I don't hanker after strong drink; don't like tobaccer +(always could keep my temper 'thout smokin'), ain't partic'lar 'bout +meat-eatin', don't keer 'bout heapin' up riches, can't 'stand the ways +o' worldly women-folks, jest as lives confess my sins to the Elder as +not, 'cause I hain't sinned any to amount to anything sence I made my +first confession; there I be, a natural follerer o' Mother Ann Lee." + +Susanna drew her Shaker bonnet forward over her eyes and turned her +back to Brother Ansel under the pretense of reaching over to the rows of +sweet marjoram. She had never supposed it possible that she could laugh +again, and indeed she seldom felt like it, but Ansel's interpretations +of Shaker doctrine were almost too much for her latent sense of humor. + +"What are you smiling at, and me so sad, Mardie?" quavered Sue, +piteously, from the little plot of easy weeding her mother had given her +to do. "I keep remembering my game! It was such a _Christian_ game, +too. Lots nicer than Mother Ann in prison; for Jane said her mother +and father was both Believers, and nobody was good enough to pour milk +through the keyhole but her. I wanted to give the clothes-pins story +names, like Hilda and Percy, but I called them Adam and Eve and Cain and +Abel just because I thought the Shakers would 'specially like a Bible +play. I love Elderess Abby, but she does stop my happiness, Mardie. +That's the second time today, for she took Moses away from me when I was +kissing him because he pinched his thumb in the window." + +"Why did you do that, Sue?" remonstrated her mother softly, remembering +Ansel's proximity. "You never used to kiss strange little boys at home +in Farnham." + +"Moses is n't a boy; he's only six, and that's a baby; besides, I like +him better than any little boys at home, and that's the reason I kissed +him; there's no harm in boy-kissing, is there, Mardie?" + +"You don't know anybody here very well yet; not well enough to +kiss them," Susanna answered, rather hopeless as to the best way of +inculcating the undesirability of the Adamic plane of thought at this +early age. "While we stay here, Sue, we ought both to be very careful to +do exactly as the Shakers do." + +By this time mother and child had reached the orchard end of a row, +and Brother Ansel was thirstily waiting to deliver a little more of the +information with which his mind was always teeming. + +"Them Boston people that come over to our public meetin' last Sunday," +he began, "they was dretful scairt 'bout what would become o' the human +race if it should all turn Shakers. 'I guess you need n't worry,' I +says; 'it'll take consid'able of a spell to convert all you city folks,' +I says, 'an' after all, what if the world should come to an end?' I +says. 'If half we hear is true 'bout the way folks carry on in New York +and Chicago, it's 'bout time it stopped,' I says, 'an' I guess the +Lord could do a consid'able better job on a second one,' I says, 'after +findin' out the weak places in this.' They can't stand givin' up their +possessions, the world's folks; that's the principal trouble with 'em! +If you don't have nothin' to give up, like some o' the tramps that +happen along here and convince the Elder they're jest bustin' with the +fear o' God, why, o' course 't ain't no trick at all to be a Believer." + +"Did you have much to give up, Brother Ansel?" Susanna asked. "'Bout's +much as any sinner ever had that jined this Community," replied Ansel, +complacently. "The list o' what I consecrated to this Society when I was +gathered in was: One horse, one wagon, one two-year-old heifer, one axe, +one saddle, one padlock, one bed and bedding, four turkeys, eleven hens, +one pair o' plough-irons, two chains, and eleven dollars in cash. Can +you beat that?" + +"Oh, yes, things," said Susanna, absent-mindedly. "I was thinking of +family and friends, pleasures and memories and ambitions and hopes." + +"I guess it don't pinch you any worse to give up a hope than it would a +good two-year-old heifer," retorted Ansel; "but there, you can't never +tell what folks'll hang on to the hardest! The man that drove them +Boston folks over here last Sunday, did you notice him? the one that had +the sister with a bright red dress an' hat on?--Land! I could think just +how hell must look whenever my eye lighted on that girl's gitup!--Well, +I done my best to exhort that driver, bein' as how we had a good chance +to talk while we was hitchin' an' unhitchin' the team; an' Elder Gray +always says I ain't earnest enough in preachin' the faith;--but he did +n't learn anything from the meetin'. Kep' his eye on the Shaker bunnits, +an' took notice o' the marchin' an' dancin', but he did n't care nothin' +'bout doctrine. + +"'I draw the line at bein' a cerebrate,' he says. 'I'm willin' to sell +all my goods an' divide with the poor,' he says, 'but I ain't goin' +to lie no cerebrate. If I don't have no other luxuries, I will have a +wife,' he says. 'I've hed three, an' if this one don't last me out, I'll +get another, if it's only to start the kitchen fire in the mornin' an' +put the cat in the shed nights!'" + + + + +IV. Louisa's Mind + + +Louisa, otherwise Mrs. Adlai Banks, the elder sister of Susanna s +husband, was a rock-ribbed widow of forty-five summers,--forty-five +winters would seem a better phrase in which to assert her age,--who +resided on a small farm twenty miles from the manufacturing town of +Farnham. + +When the Fates were bestowing qualities of mind and heart upon the +Hathaway babies, they gave the more graceful, genial, likable ones to +John, not realizing, perhaps, what bad use he would make of them,--and +endowed Louisa with great deposits of honesty, sincerity, energy, +piety, and frugality, all so mysteriously compounded that they turned to +granite in her hands. If she had been consulted, it would have been all +the same. She would never have accepted John's charm of personality at +the expense of being saddled with his weaknesses, and he would not have +taken her cast-iron virtues at any price whatsoever. + +She was sweeping her porch on that day in May when Susanna and Sue +had wakened in the bare upper chamber at the Shaker Settlement--Sue +clear-eyed, jubilant, expectant, unafraid; Susanna pale from her fitful +sleep, weary with the burden of her heart. + +Looking down the road, Mrs. Banks espied the form of her brother John +walking in her direction and leading Jack by the hand. + +This was a most unusual sight, for John's calls had been uncommonly few +of late years, since a man rarely visits a lady relative for the mere +purpose of hearing "a piece of her mind." This piece, large, solid, +highly flavored with pepper, and as acid as mental vinegar could make +it, was Louisa Banks's only contribution to conversation when she met +her brother. She could not stop for any airy persiflage about weather, +crops, or politics when her one desire was to tell him what she thought +of him. + +"Good-morning, Louisa. Shake hands with your aunt, Jack." + +"He can't till I'm through sweeping. Good-morning, John; what brings you +here?" + +John sat down on the steps, and Jack flew to the barn, where there +was generally an amiable hired man and a cheerful cow, both infinitely +better company than his highly respected and wealthy aunt. + +"I came because I had to bring the boy to the only relation I've got in +the world," John answered tersely. "My wife's left me." + +"Well, she's been a great while doing it," remarked Louisa, digging +her broom into the cracks of the piazza floor and making no pause for +reflection. "If she had n't had the patience of Job and the meekness of +Moses, she'd have gone long before. Where'd she go?" + +"I don't know; she did n't say." + +"Did you take the trouble to look through the house for her? I ain't +certain you fairly know her by sight nowadays, do you?" + +John flushed crimson, but bit his lip in an attempt to keep his temper. +"She left a letter," he said, "and she took Sue with her." + +"That was all right; Sue's a nervous little thing and needs at least +one parent; she has n't been used to more, so she won't miss anything. +Jack's like most of the Hathaways; he'll grow up his own way, without +anybody's help or hindrance. What are you going to do with him?" + +"Leave him with you, of course. What else could I do?" "Very well, I'll +take him, and while I'm about it I'd like to give you a piece of my +mind." + +John was fighting for selfcontrol, but he was too wretched and +remorseful for rage to have any real sway over him. + +"Is it the same old piece, or a different one?" he asked, setting his +teeth grimly. "I should n't think you'd have any mind left, you've given +so many pieces of it to me already." + +"I have some left, and plenty, too," answered Louisa, dashing into the +house, banging the broom into a corner, coming out again like a breeze, +and slamming the door behind her. "You can leave the boy here and +welcome; I'll take good care of him, and if you don't send me twenty +dollars a month for his food and clothes, I'll turn him outdoors. The +more responsibility other folks rid you of, the more you'll let 'em, +and I won't take a feather's weight off you for fear you'll sink into +everlasting perdition." + +"I did n't expect any sympathy from you," said John, drearily, pulling +himself up from the steps and leaning against the honeysuckle trellis. +"Susanna's just the same. Women are all as hard as the nether millstone. +They're hard if they're angels, and hard if they're devils; it does n't +make much difference." + +"I guess you've found a few soft ones, if report says true," returned +Louisa, bluntly. "You'd better go and get some of their sympathy, the +kind you can buy and pay for. The way you've ruined your life turns +me fairly sick. You had a good father and mother, good education and +advantages, enough money to start you in business, the best of wives, +and two children any man could be proud of, one of 'em especially. +You've thrown 'em all away, and what for? Horses and cards and gay +company, late suppers, with wine, and for aught I know, whiskey, you +the son of a man who did n't know the taste of ginger beer! You've spent +your days and nights with a pack of carousing men and women that would +take your last cent and not leave you enough for honest burial." + +"It's a pity we did n't make a traveling preacher of you!" exclaimed +John, bitterly. "Lord Almighty, I wonder how such women as you can live +in the world, you know so little about it, and so little about men." + +"I know all I want to about 'em," retorted Louisa, "and precious +little that's good. They 're a gluttonous, self-indulgent, extravagant, +reckless, pleasure-loving lot! My husband was one of the best of 'em, +and he would n't have amounted to a hill of beans if I had n't devoted +fifteen years to disciplining, uplifting, and strengthening him!" + +"You managed to strengthen him so that he died before he was fifty!" + +"It don't matter when a man dies," said the remorseless Mrs. Banks, "if +he's succeeded in living a decent, Godfearing life. As for you, John +Hathaway, I'll tell you the truth if you are my brother, for Susanna's +too much of a saint to speak out." + +"Don't be afraid; Susanna's spoken out at last, plainly enough to please +even you!" + +"I'm glad of it, for I did n't suppose she had spunk enough to resent +anything. I shall be sorry tomorrow, 's likely as not, for freeing +my mind as much as I have, but my temper's up and I'm going to be the +humble instrument of Providence and try to turn you from the error of +your ways. You've defaced and degraded the temple the Lord built for +you, and if He should come this minute and try to turn out the crowd of +evildoers you've kept in it, I doubt if He could!" + +"I hope He'll approve of the way you've used your 'temple,'" said John, +with stinging emphasis. "I should n't want to live in such a noisy one +myself; I'd rather be a bat in a belfry. Goodbye; I've had a pleasant +call, as usual, and you've been a real sister to me in my trouble. +You shall have the twenty dollars a month. Jack's clothes are in that +valise, and there'll be a trunk tomorrow. Susanna said she'd write and +let you know her whereabouts." + +So saying, John Hathaway strode down the path, closed the gate behind +him, and walked rapidly along the road that led to the station. It was +a quiet road and he met few persons. He had neither dressed nor shaved +since the day before; his face was haggard, his heart was like a lump of +lead in his breast. Of what use to go to the empty house in Farnham when +he could stifle his misery by a night with his friends? + +No, he could not do that, either! The very thought of them brought a +sense of satiety and disgust; the craving for what they would give him +would come again in time, no doubt, but for the moment he was sick +to the very soul of all they stood for. The feeling of complete +helplessness, of desertion, of being alone in mid-ocean without a sail +or a star in sight, mounted and swept over him. Susanna had been his +sail, his star, although he had never fully realized it, and he had +cut himself adrift from her pure, steadfast love, blinding himself with +cheap and vulgar charms. + +The next train to Farnham was not due for an hour. His steps faltered; +he turned into a clump of trees by the wayside and flung himself on the +ground to cry like a child, he who had not shed a tear since he was a +boy of ten. If Susanna could have seen that often longed-for burst of +despair and remorse, that sudden recognition of his sins against himself +and her, that gush of penitent tears, her heart might have softened +once again; a flicker of flame might have lighted the ashes of her dying +love; she might have taken his head on her shoulder, and said, "Never +mind, John! Let's forget, and begin all over again!" + + +Matters did not look any brighter for John the next week, for his senior +partner, Joel Atterbury, requested him to withdraw from the firm as soon +as matters could be legally arranged. He was told that he had not been +doing, nor earning, his share; that his way of living during the +year just past had not been any credit to "the concern," and that he, +Atterbury, sympathized too heartily with Mrs. John Hathaway to take any +pleasure in doing business with Mr. John. + +John's remnant of pride, completely humbled by this last withdrawal of +confidence, would not suffer him to tell Atterbury that he had come +to his senses and bidden farewell to the old life, or so he hoped and +believed. To lose a wife and child in a way infinitely worse than +death; to hear the unwelcome truth that as a husband you have grown so +offensive as to be beyond endurance; to have your own sister tell you +that you richly deserve such treatment; to be virtually dismissed from a +valuable business connection, all this is enough to sober any man above +the grade of a moral idiot, and John was not that; he was simply a +self-indulgent, pleasure-loving, thoughtless, willful fellow, without +any great amount of principle. He took his medicine, however, said +nothing, and did his share of the business from day to day doggedly, +keeping away from his partner as much as possible. + +Ellen, the faithful maid of all work, stayed on with him at the old +home; Jack wrote to him every week, and often came to spend Sunday with +him. + +"Aunt Louisa's real good to me," he told his father, "but she's not like +mother. Seems to me mother's kind of selfish staying away from us so +long. When do you expect her back?" + +"I don't know; not before winter, I'm afraid; and don't call her +selfish, I won't have it! Your mother never knew she had a self." + +"If she'd only left Sue behind, we could have had more good times, we +three together!" + +"No, our family is four, Jack, and we can never have any good times, +one, two, or three of us, because we're four! When one's away, whichever +it is, it's wrong, but it's the worst when it's mother. Does your Aunt +Louisa write to her?" + +"Yes, sometimes, but she never lets me post the letters." + +"Do you write to your mother? You ought to, you know, even if you don't +have time for me. You could ask your aunt to enclose your letters in +hers." + +"Do you write to her, father?" + +"Yes, I write twice a week," John answered, thinking drearily of the +semi-weekly notes posted in Susanna's empty worktable upstairs. Would +she ever read them? He doubted it, unless he died, and she came back to +settle his affairs; but of course he would n't die, no such good luck. +Would a man die who breakfasted at eight, dined at one, supped at six, +and went to bed at ten? Would a man die who worked in the garden an +hour every afternoon, with half a day Saturday; that being the task most +disagreeable to him and most appropriate therefore for penance? + +Susanna loved flowers and had always wanted a garden, but John had been +too much occupied with his own concerns to give her the needed help or +money so that she could carry out her plans. The last year she had lost +heart in many ways, so that little or nothing had been accomplished +of all she had dreamed. It would have been laughable, had it not been +pathetic, to see John Hathaway dig, delve, grub, sow, water, weed, +transplant, generally at the wrong moment, in that dream-garden +of Susanna's. He asked no advice and read no books. With feverish +intensity, with complete ignorance of Nature's laws and small sympathy +with their intricacies, he dug, hoed, raked, fertilized, and planted +during that lonely summer. His absentmindedness caused some expensive +failures, as when the wide expanse of Susanna's drying ground, which +was to be velvety lawn, "came up" curly lettuce; but he rooted out his +frequent mistakes and patiently planted seeds or roots or bulbs over and +over and over and over, until something sprouted in his beds, whether +it was what he intended or not. While he weeded the brilliant orange +nasturtiums, growing beside the magenta portulacca in a friendly +proximity that certainly would never have existed had the mistress of +the house been the head-gardener, he thought of nothing but his wife. He +knew her pride, her reserve, her sensitive spirit; he knew her love of +truth and honor and purity, the standards of life and conduct she had +tried to hold him to so valiantly, and which he had so dragged in the +dust during the blindness and the insanity of the last two years. + +He, John Hathaway, was a deserted husband; Susanna had crept away all +wounded and resentful. Where was she living and how supporting herself +and Sue, when she could not have had a hundred dollars in the world? +Probably Louisa was the source of income; conscientious, infernally +disagreeable Louisa! + +Would yet the rumor of his changed habit of life reach her by some means +in her place of hiding, sooner or later? Would she not yearn for a sight +of Jack? Would she not finally give him a chance to ask forgiveness, or +had she lost every trace of affection for him, as her letter seemed to +imply? He walked the garden paths, with these and other unanswerable +questions, and when he went to his lonely room at night, he held the +lamp up to a bit of poetry that he had cut from a magazine and pinned to +the looking-glass. If John Hathaway could be brought to the reading +of poetry, he might even glance at the Bible in course of time, Louisa +would have said. It was in May that Susanna had gone, and the first line +of verse held his attention. + + May comes, day comes, + One who was away comes; + All the earth is glad again, + Kind and fair to me. + + May comes, day comes, + One who was away comes; + Set her place at hearth and board + As it used to be. + + May comes, day comes, + One who was away comes; + Higher are the hills of home, + Bluer is the sea. + +The Hathaway house was in the suburbs, on a rise of ground, and as John +turned to the window he saw the full moon hanging yellow in the sky. +It shone on the verdant slopes and low wooded hills that surrounded the +town, and cast a glittering pathway on the ocean that bathed the beaches +of the nearby shore. + +"How long shall I have to wait," he wondered, "before my hills of home +look higher, and my sea bluer, because Susanna has come back to 'hearth +and board'!" + + + + +V. The Little Quail Bird + + +Susanna had helped at various household tasks ever since her arrival at +the Settlement, for there was no room for drones in the Shaker hive; but +after a few weeks in the kitchen with Martha, the herb-garden had been +assigned to her as her particular province, the Sisters thinking her +better fitted for it than for the preserving and pickling of fruit, or +the basket-weaving that needed special apprenticeship. + +The Shakers were the first people to raise, put up, and sell garden +seeds in our present-day fashion, and it was they, too, who began the +preparation of botanical medicines, raising, gathering, drying, and +preparing herbs and roots for market; and this industry, driven from +the field by modern machinery, was still a valuable source of income in +Susanna's day. Plants had always grown for Susanna, and she loved +them like friends, humoring their weakness, nourishing their strength, +stimulating, coaxing, disciplining them, until they could do no less +than flourish under her kind and hopeful hand. + +Oh, that sweet, honest, comforting little garden of herbs, with its +wholesome fragrances! Healing lay in every root and stem, in every leaf +and bud, and the strong aromatic odors stimulated her flagging spirit or +her aching head, after the sleepless nights in which she tried to decide +her future life and Sue's. + +The plants were set out in neat rows and clumps, and she soon learned to +know the strange ones--chamomile, lobelia, bloodroot, wormwood, lovage, +boneset, lemon and sweet balm, lavender and rue, as well as she knew +the old acquaintances familiar to every country-bred child--pennyroyal, +peppermint or spearmint, yellow dock, and thoroughwort. + +There was hoeing and weeding before the gathering and drying came; then +Brother Calvin, who had charge of the great press, would moisten the +dried herbs and press them into quarter- and half-pound cakes ready for +Sister Martha, who would superintend the younger Shakeresses in papering +and labeling them for the market. Last of all, when harvesting was over, +Brother Ansel would mount the newly painted seed-cart and leave on his +driving trip through the country. Ansel was a capital salesman, but +Brother Issachar, who once took his place and sold almost nothing, +brought home a lad on the seed-cart, who afterward became a shining +light in the Community. ("Thus," said Elder Gray, "does God teach us the +diversity of gifts, whereby all may be unashamed.") + +If the Albion Shakers were honest and ardent in faith, Susanna thought +that their "works" would indeed bear the strictest examination. The +Brothers made brooms, floor and dish-mops, tubs, pails, and churns, and +indeed almost every trade was represented in the various New England +Communities. Physicians there were, a few, but no lawyers, sheriffs, +policemen, constables, or soldiers, just as there were no courts or +saloons or jails. Where there was perfect equality of possession and no +private source of gain, it amazed Susanna to see the cheery labor, often +continued late at night from the sheer joy of it, and the earnest desire +to make the Settlement prosperous. While the Brothers were hammering, +nailing, planing, sawing, ploughing, and seeding, the Sisters were +carding and spinning cotton, wool, and flax, making kerchiefs of linen, +straw Shaker bonnets, and dozens of other useful marketable things, not +forgetting their famous Shaker apple sauce. + +Was there ever such a busy summer, Susanna wondered; yet with all the +early rising, constant labor, and simple fare, she was stronger and +hardier than she had been for years. The Shaker palate was never tickled +with delicacies, yet the food was well cooked and sufficiently varied. +At first there had been the winter vegetables: squash, yellow turnips, +beets, and parsnips, with once a week a special Shaker dinner of salt +codfish, potatoes, onions, and milk gravy. Each Sister served her +turn as cook, but all alike had a wonderful hand with flour, and the +wholewheat bread, cookies, ginger cake, and milk puddings were marvels +of lightness. Martha, in particular, could wean the novitiate Shaker +from a too riotous devotion to meat-eating better than most people, for +every dish she sent to the table was delicate, savory, and attractive. + +Dear, patient, devoted Martha! How Susanna learned to love her as +they worked together in the big sunny, shining kitchen, where the +cooking-stove as well as every tin plate and pan and spoon might have +served as a mirror! Martha had joined the Society in her mother's arms, +being given up to the Lord and placed in "the children's order" before +she was one year old. + +"If you should unite with us, Susanna," she said one night after the +early supper, when they were peeling apples together, "you'd be thankful +you begun early with your little Sue, for she's got a natural attraction +to the world, and for it. Not but that she's a tender, loving, obedient +little soul; but when she's among the other young ones, there's a +flyaway look about her that makes her seem more like a fairy than a +child." + +"She's having rather a hard time learning Shaker ways, but she'll do +better in time," sighed her mother. "She came to me of her own accord +yesterday and asked: 'Bettent I have my curls cut off, Mardie?'" + +"I never put that idea into her head," Martha interrupted. "She's a +visitor and can wear her hair as she's been brought up to wear it." + +"I know, but I fear Sue was moved by other than religious reasons. 'I +get up so early, Mardie,' she said, 'and it takes so long to unsnarl and +untangle me, and I get so hot when I'm helping in the hayfield, and then +I have to be curled for dinner, and curled again for supper, and so it +seems like wasting both our times!' Her hair would be all the stronger +for cutting, I thought, as it's so long for her age; but I could n't +put the shears to it when the time came, Martha. I had to take her to +Eldress Abby. She sat up in front of the little looking-glass as still +as a mouse, while the curls came off, but when the last one fell into +Abby's apron, she suddenly put her hands over her face and cried: +'Oh, Mardie, we shall never be the same togedder, you and I, after +this!'--She seemed to see her 'little past,' her childhood, slipping +away from her, all in an instant. I did n't let her know that I cried +over the box of curls last night!" + +"You did wrong," rebuked Martha. "You should n't make an idol of your +child or your child's beauty." + +"You don't think God might put beauty into the world just to give His +children joy, Martha?" + +Martha was no controversialist. She had taken her opinions, ready-made, +from those she considered her superiors, and although she was willing to +make any sacrifice for her religion, she did not wish to be confused by +too many opposing theories of God's intentions. + +"You know I never argue when I've got anything baking," she said; and +taking the spill of a corn-broom from a table-drawer, she opened the +oven door and delicately plunged it into the loaf. Then, gazing at the +straw as she withdrew it, she said: "You must talk doctrine with Eldress +Abby, Susanna, not with me; but I guess doctrine won't help you so much +as thinking out your life for yourself. + + "No one can sing my psalm for me, + Reward must come from labor, + I'll sow for peace, and reap in truth + God's mercy and his favor!" + +Martha was the chief musician of the Community, and had composed many +hymns and tunes--some of them under circumstances that she believed +might entitle them to be considered directly inspired. Her clear full +voice filled the kitchen and floated out into the air after Susanna, as +she called Sue and, darning-basket in hand, walked across the road to +the great barn. + +The herb-garden was one place where she could think out her life, +although no decision had as yet been born of those thoughtful mornings. + +Another spot for meditation was the great barn, relic of the wonderful +earlier days, and pride of the present Settlement. A hundred and +seventy-five feet long and three and a half stories high, it dominated +the landscape. First, there was the cellar, where all the refuse fell, +to do its duty later on in fertilizing the farm lands; then came the +first floor, where the stalls for horses, oxen, and cows lined the walls +on either side. Then came the second floor, where hay was kept, and to +reach this a bridge forty feet long was built on stone piers ten feet +in height, sloping up from the ground to the second story. Over the easy +slope of this bridge the full haycarts were driven, to add their several +burdens to the golden haymows. High at the top was an enormous grain +room, where mounds of yellow corn-ears reached from floor to ceiling; +and at the back was a great window opening on Massabesic Pond and +Knights' Hill, with the White Mountains towering blue or snow-capped in +the distance. There was an old-fashioned, list-bottomed, straight-backed +Shaker chair in front of the open window, a chair as uncomfortable as +Shaker doctrines to the daughter of Eve, and there Susanna often sat +with her sewing or mending, Sue at her feet building castles out of +corncobs, plaiting the husks into little mats, or taking out basting +threads from her mother's work. + +"My head feels awfully undressed without my curls, Mardie," she said. +"I'm most afraid Fardie won't like the looks of me; do you think we +ought to have asked him before we shingled me?--He does _despise_ +unpretty things so!" + +"I think if we had asked him he would have said, 'Do as you think +best.'" + +"He always says that when he does n't care what you do," observed Sue, +with one of her startling bursts of intuition. "Sister Martha has a +printed card on the wall in the children's diningroom, and I've got +to learn all the poetry on it because I need it worse than any of the +others:-- + + "What we deem good order, we're willing to state, + Eat hearty and decent, and clear out your plate; + Be thankful to heaven for what we receive, + And not make a mixture or compound to leave. + + "We often find left on the same China dish, + Meat, apple sauce, pickle, brown bread and minced fish: + Another's replenished with butter and cheese, + With pie, cake, and toast, perhaps, added to these." + +"You say it very nicely," commended Susanna. + +"There's more:-- + + "Now if any virtue in this can be shown, + By peasant, by lawyer, or king on the throne; + We freely will forfeit whatever we've said, + And call it a virtue to waste meat and bread. + +"There's a great deal to learn when you're being a Shaker," sighed Sue, +as she finished her rhyme. + +"There's a great deal to learn everywhere," her mother answered. "What +verse did Eldress Abby give you today?" + + "For little tripping maids may follow God + Along the ways that saintly feet have trod," + +quoted the child. "Am I a tripping maid, Mardie?" she continued. + +"Yes, dear." "If I trip too much, might n't I fall?" + +"Yes, I suppose so." + +"Is tripping the same as skipping?" + +"About the same." + +"Is it polite to trip an' skip when you're following God?" + +"It could n't be impolite if you meant to be good. A tripping maid means +just a young one." + +"What is a maid?" + +"A little girl." + +"When a maid grows up, what is she?" + +"Why she's a maiden, I suppose." + +"When a maiden grows up, what is she?" + +"Just a woman, Sue." + +"What is saintly feet?" + +"Feet like those of Eldress Abby or Elder Gray; feet of people who have +always tried to do right." + +"Are Brother Ansel's feet saintly?" + +"He's a good, kind, hardworking man." + +"Is good, kind, hardworking, same as saintly?" + +"Well, it's not so very different, perhaps. Now, Sue, I've asked you +before, don't let your mind grope, and your little tongue wag, every +instant; it is n't good for you, and it certainly is n't good for me!" + +"All right; but 'less I gropeanwag sometimes, I don't see how I'll ever +learn the things I 'specially want to know?" sighed Sue the insatiable. + +"Shall I tell you a Shaker story, one that Eldress Abby told me last +evening?" + +"Oh, do, Mardie!" cried Sue, crossing her feet, folding her hands, and +looking up into her mother's face expectantly. + +"Once there was a very good Shaker named Elder Calvin Green, and some +one wrote him a letter asking him to come a long distance and found +a Settlement in the western part of New York State. He and some other +Elders and Eldresses traveled five days, and stopped at the house of +a certain Joseph Pelham to spend Sunday and hold a meeting. On +Monday morning, very tired, and wondering where to stay and begin his +preaching, the Elder went out into the woods to pray for guidance. When +he rose from his knees, feeling stronger and lighter-hearted, a young +quail came up to him so close that he picked it up. It was not a bit +afraid, neither did the old parent birds who were standing near by +show any sign of fear, though they are very timid creatures. The Elder +smoothed the young bird's feathers a little while and then let it go, +but he thought an angel seemed to say to him, 'The quail is a sign; you +will know before night what it means, and before tomorrow people will be +coming to you to learn the way to God.' + +"Soon after, a flock of these shy little birds alighted on Joseph +Pelham's house, and the Elders were glad, and thought it signified the +flock of Believers that would gather in that place; for the Shakers see +more in signs than other people. Just at night a young girl of twelve +or thirteen knocked at the door and told Elder Calvin that she wanted to +become a Shaker, and that her father and mother were willing. + +"'Here is the little quail!' cried the Elder, and indeed she was the +first who flocked to the meetings and joined the new Community. + +"On their return to their old home across the state the Elders took +the little quail girl with them. It was November then, and the canals +through which they traveled were clogged with ice. One night, having +been ferried across the Mohawk River, they took their baggage and walked +for miles before they could find shelter. Finally, when they were within +three miles of their home, Elder Calvin shortened the way by going +across the open fields through the snow, up and down the hills and +through the gullies and over fences, till they reached the house at +midnight, safe and sound, the brave little quail girl having trudged +beside them the whole distance, carrying her tin pail." + +Sue was transported with interest, her lips parted, her eyes shining, +her hands clasped. "Oh, I wish I could be a brave little quail girl, +Mardie! What became of her?" + +"Her name was Polly Reed, and when she grew up, she became a teacher of +the Shaker school, then an Eldress, and even a preacher. I don't know +what kind of a little quail girl you would make, Sue; do you think you +could walk for miles through the ice and snow uncomplainingly?" + +"I don' know's I could," sighed Sue; "but," she added hopefully, +"perhaps I could teach or preach, and then I could gropeanwag as much +as ever I liked." Then, after a lengthy pause, in which her mind worked +feverishly, she said, "Mardie, I was just groping a little bit, but I +won't do it any more tonight. If the old quail birds in the woods where +Elder Calvin prayed, if those old birds had been Shaker birds, there +would n't have been any little quail birds, would there, because Shakers +don't have children, and then perhaps there would n't have been any +little Polly Reed." + +Susanna rose hurriedly from the list-bottomed chair and folded her work. +"I'll go up and help you undress now," she said; "it's seven o'clock, +and I must go to the family meeting." + + + + +VI. Susanna Speaks in Meeting + + +It was the Sabbath day and the Believers were gathered in the +meetinghouse, Brethren and Sisters seated quietly on their separate +benches, with the children by themselves in their own place. As the men +entered the room they removed their hats and coats and hung them upon +wooden pegs that lined the sides of the room, while the women took off +their bonnets; then, after standing for a moment of perfect silence, +they seated themselves. + +In Susanna's time the Sunday costume for the men included trousers of +deep blue cloth with a white line and a vest of darker blue, exposing +a full-bosomed shirt that had a wide turned-down collar fastened with +three buttons. The Sisters were in pure white dresses, with neck and +shoulders covered with snowy kerchiefs, their heads crowned with their +white net caps, and a large white pocket handkerchief hung over the +left arm. Their feet were shod with curious pointed-toed cloth shoes of +ultramarine blue--a fashion long since gone by. + +Susanna had now become accustomed to the curious solemn march or dance +in which of course none but the Believers ever joined, and found in +her present exalted mood the songs and the exhortations strangely +interesting and not unprofitable. + +Tabitha, the most aged of the group of Albion Sisters, confessed that +she missed the old times when visions were common, when the Spirit +manifested itself in extraordinary ways, and the gift of tongues +descended. Sometimes, in the Western Settlement where she was gathered +in, the whole North Family would march into the highway in the fresh +morning hours, and while singing some sacred hymn, would pass on to the +Center Family, and together in solemn yet glad procession they would +mount the hillside to "Jehovah's Chosen Square," there to sing and dance +before the Lord. + +"I wish we could do something like that now!" sighed Hetty Arnold, +a pretty young creature who had moments of longing for the pomps and +vanities. "If we have to give up all worldly pleasures, I think we might +have more religious ones!" + +"We were a younger church in those old times of which Sister Tabitha +speaks," said Eldress Abby. "You must remember, Hetty, that we were +children in faith, and needed signs and manifestations, pictures and +object-lessons. We've been trained to think and reason now, and we've +put away some of our picture-books. There have been revelations to tell +us we needed movements and exercises to quicken our spiritual powers, +and to give energy and unity to our worship, and there have been +revelations telling us to give them up; revelations bidding us to sing +more, revelations telling us to use wordless songs. Then anthems were +given us, and so it has gone on, for we have been led of the Spirit." + +"I'd like more picture-books," pouted Hetty under her breath. + +Today the service began with a solemn song, followed by speaking and +prayer from a visiting elder. Then, after a long and profound silence, +the company rose and joined in a rhythmic dance which signified the +onward travel of the soul to full redemption; the opening and closing of +the hands meaning the scattering and gathering of blessing. There was +no accompaniment, and both the music and the words were the artless +expression of fervent devotion. + +Susanna sat in her corner beside the aged Tabitha, who would never dance +again before the Lord, though her quavering voice joined in the chorus. +The spring floor rose and fell under the quick rhythmic tread of the +worshipers, and with each revolution about the room the song gained in +power and fervor. + + I am never weary bringing my life unto God, + I am never weary singing His way is good. + With the voice of an angel with power from above, + I would publish the blessing of soul-saving love. + +The steps grew slower and more sedate, the voices died away, the arms +sank slowly by the sides, and the hands ceased their movement. + +Susanna rose to her feet, she knew not how or why. Her cheeks were +flushed, her head bent. + +"Dear friends," she said, "I have now been among you for nearly three +months, sharing your life, your work, and your worship. You may well +wish to know whether I have made up my mind to join this Community, and +I can only say that although I have prayed for light, I cannot yet see +my way clearly. I am happy here with you, and although I have been +a church member for years, I have never before longed so ardently to +present my body and soul as a sacrifice unto the Lord. I have tried not +to be a burden to you. The small weekly sum that I put into the treasury +I will not speak of, lest I seem to think that the 'gift of God may be +purchased with money,' as the Scriptures say; but I have endeavored to +be loyal to your rules and customs, your aims and ideals, and to the +confidence you have reposed in me. Oh, my dear Sisters and Brothers, +pray for me that I be enabled to see my duty more plainly. It is not +the fleshpots that will call me back to the world; if I go, it will be +because the duties I have left behind take such shape that they draw me +out of his shelter in spite of myself. I thank you for the help you have +given me these last weeks; God knows my gratitude can never be spoken in +words." + +Elder Gray's voice broke the silence that followed Susanna's speech. +"I only echo the sentiments of the Family when I say that our Sister +Susanna shall have such time as she requires before deciding to unite +with this body of Believers. No pressure shall be brought to bear upon +her, and she will be, as she ever has been, a welcome guest under our +roof. She has been an inspiration to the children, a comfort and aid to +the Sisters, an intelligent comrade to the Brethren, and a sincere and +earnest student of the truth. May the Spirit draw her into the Virgin +Church of the New Creation!" + +"Yee and amen!" exclaimed Eldress Abby, devoutly: "'For thus saith the +Lord of hosts: I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, +and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all +nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the +Lord of hosts.'" + + "O Virgin Church, how great the light, + What cloud can dim thy way?" + +sang Martha from her place at the end of a bench; and all the voices +took up the hymn softly as the company sat with bowed heads. + +Then Brother Issachar rose from his corner, saying: "Jesus called upon +his disciples to give up everything: houses, lands, relationships, and +even the selfishness of their own lives. They could not call their +lives their own. 'Lo! we have left all and followed thee,' said Peter; +'fathers, mothers, wives, children, houses, lands, and even our own +lives also.' It is a great price to pay, but we buy Heaven with it!" + +"Yee, we do," said Brother Thomas Scattergood, devoutly. "To him that +overcometh shall the great prize be given." + +"God help the weaker brethren!" murmured young Brother Nathan, in so +low a voice that few could hear him. Moved by the same impulse, Tabitha, +Abby, and Martha burst into one of the most triumphant of the Shaker +songs, one that was never sung save when the meeting was "full of the +Spirit":-- + + "I draw no blank nor miss the prize, + I see the work, the sacrifice, + And I'll be loyal, I'll be wise, A faithful overcomer!" + +The company rose and began again to march in a circle around the center +of the room, the Brethren two abreast leading the column, the Sisters +following after. There was a waving movement of the hands by drawing +inward as if gathering in spiritual good and storing it up for future +need. In the marching and countermarching the worshipers frequently +changed their positions, ultimately forming into four circles, +symbolical of the four dispensations as expounded in Shakerism, the +first from Adam to Abraham; the second from Abraham to Jesus; the third +from Jesus to Mother Ann Lee; and the fourth the millennial era. + +The marching grew livelier; the bodies of the singers swayed lightly +with emotion, the faces glowed with feeling. + +Over and over the hymn was sung, gathering strength and fullness as +the Believers entered more and more into the spirit of their worship. +Whenever the refrain came in with its militant fervor, crude, but +sincere and effective, the singers seemed faith-intoxicated; and Sister +Martha in particular might have been treading the heavenly streets +instead of the meetinghouse floor, so complete was her absorption. The +voices at length grew softer, and the movement slower, and after a few +moments' reverent silence the company filed out of the room solemnly and +without speech. + + I am as sure that heav'n is mine + As though my vision could define + Or pencil draw the boundary line + Where love and truth shall conquer. + +"The Lord ain't shaken Susanna hard enough yet," thought Brother Ansel +shrewdly from his place in the rear. "She ain't altogether gathered +in, not by no manner o' means, because of that unregenerate son of Adam +she's left behind; but there's the makin's of a pow'ful good Shaker in +Susanna, if she finally takes holt!" + +"What manner of life is my husband living, now that I have deserted him? +Who is being a mother to Jack?" These were the thoughts that troubled +Susanna Hathaway's soul as she crossed the grass to her own building. + + + + +VII. "The Lower Plane" + + +Brother Nathan Bennett was twenty years old and Sister Hetty Arnold +was eighteen. They had been left with the Shakers by their respective +parents ten years before, and, growing up in the faith, they formally +joined the Community when they reached the age of discretion. Thus they +had known each other from early childhood, never in the familiar way +common to the children of the world, but with the cool, cheerful, +casual, wholly impersonal attitude of Shaker friendship, a relation +seemingly outside of and superior to sex, a relation more like that of +two astral bodies than the more intimate one of a budding Adam and Eve. + +When and where had this relationship changed its color and meaning? +Neither Nathan nor Hetty could have told. For years Nathan had sat at +his end of the young men's bench at the family or the public meeting, +with Hetty exactly opposite him at the end of the girls' row, and for +years they had looked across the dividing space at each other with +unstirred pulses. The rows of Sisters sat in serene dignity, one bench +behind another, and each Sister was like unto every other in Nathan's +vague, dreamy, boyishly indifferent eyes. Some of them were seventy +and some seventeen, but each modest figure sat in its place with quiet +folded hands. The stiff caps hid the hair, whether it was silver or +gold; the white surplices covered the shoulders and concealed beautiful +curves as well as angular outlines; the throats were scarcely visible, +whether they were yellow and wrinkled or young and white. The Sisters +were simply sisters to fair-haired Nathan, and the Brothers were but +brothers to little black-eyed Hetty. + +Once--was it on a Sunday morning?--Nathan glanced across the separating +space that is the very essence and sign of Shakerism. The dance had just +ceased, and there was a long, solemn stillness when God indeed seemed to +be in one of His holy temples and the earth was keeping silence before +Him. Suddenly Hetty grew to be something more than one of the figures in +a long row: she chained Nathan's eye and held it. + +"Through her garments the grace of her glowed." He saw that, in spite +of the way her hair had been cut and stretched back from the forehead, +a short dusky tendril, softened and coaxed by the summer heat, had made +its way mutinously beyond the confines of her cap. Her eyes were +cast down, but the lashes that swept her round young cheek were quite +different from any other lashes in the Sisters' row. Her breath came and +went softly after the exertion of the rhythmic movements, stirring the +white muslin folds that wrapped her from throat to waist. He looked and +looked, until his body seemed to be all eyes, absolutely unaware of any +change in himself; quite oblivious of the fact that he was regarding the +girl in any new and dangerous way. + +The silence continued, long and profound, until suddenly Hetty raised +her beautiful lashes and met Nathan's gaze, the gaze of a boy just +turned to man: ardent, warm, compelling. There was a startled moment of +recognition, a tremulous approach, almost an embrace, of regard; each +sent an electric current across the protective separating space, the +two pairs of eyes met and said, "I love you," in such clear tones that +Nathan and Hetty marveled that the Elder did not hear them. Somebody +says that love, like a scarlet spider, can spin a thread between two +hearts almost in an instant, so fine as to be almost invisible, yet it +will hold with the tenacity of an iron chain. The thread had been spun; +it was so delicate that neither Nathan nor Hetty had seen the scarlet +spider spinning it, but the strength of both would not avail to snap the +bond that held them together. + +The moments passed. Hetty's kerchief rose and fell, rose and fell +tumultuously, while her face was suffused with color. Nathan's knees +quivered under him, and when the Elder rose, and they began the sacred +march, the lad could hardly stand for trembling. He dreaded the moment +when the lines of Believers would meet, and he and Hetty would walk the +length of the long room almost beside each other. Could she hear his +heart beating, Nathan wondered; while Hetty was palpitating with fear +lest Nathan see her blushes and divine their meaning. Oh, the joy of it, +the terror of it, the strange exhilaration and the sudden sensation of +sin and remorse! + +The meeting over, Nathan flung himself on the haymow in the great barn, +while Hetty sat with her "Synopsis of Shaker Theology" at an open window +of the girls' building, seeing nothing in the lines of print but +visions that should not have been there. It was Nathan who felt most +and suffered most and was most conscious of sin, for Hetty, at first, +scarcely knew whither she was drifting. + +She went into the herb-garden with Susanna one morning during the +week that followed the fatal Sunday. Many of the plants to be used for +seasoning--sage, summer savory, sweet marjoram, and the like--were quite +ready for gathering. As the two women were busy at work, Susanna as full +of her thoughts as Hetty of hers, the sound of a step was heard brushing +the grass of the orchard. Hetty gave a nervous start; her cheeks grew so +crimson and her breath so short that Susanna noticed the change. + +"It will be Brother Ansel coming along to the grindstone," Hetty +stammered, burying her head in the leaves. + +"No," Susanna answered, "it is Nathan. He has a long pole with a saw on +the end. He must be going to take the dead branches off the apple trees; +I heard Ansel tell him yesterday to do it." + +"Yee, that will be it," said Hetty, bending over the plants as if she +were afraid to look elsewhere. + +Nathan came nearer to the herb-garden. He was a tall, stalwart, handsome +enough fellow, even in his quaint working garb. As the Sisters spun and +wove the cloth as well as cut and made the men's garments, and as the +Brothers themselves made the shoes, there was naturally no great air +of fashion about the Shaker raiment; but Nathan carried it better than +most. His skin was fair and rosy, the down on his upper lip showed +dawning manhood, and when he took off his broad-brimmed straw hat and +stretched to his full height to reach the upper branches of the apple +trees, he made a picture of clean, wholesome, vigorous youth. + +Suddenly Susanna raised her head and surprised Hetty looking at the lad +with all her heart in her eyes. At the same moment Nathan turned, and +before he could conceal the telltale ardor of his glance, it had sped to +Hetty. With the instinct of self-preservation he stooped instantly as if +to steady the saw on the pole, but it was too late to mend matters: his +tale was told so far as Susanna was concerned; but it was better she +should suspect than one of the Believers or Eldress Abby. + +Susanna worked on in silent anxiety. The likelihood of such crises as +this had sometimes crossed her mind, and knowing how frail human nature +is, she often marveled that instances seemed so infrequent. Her instinct +told her that in every Community the risk must exist, even though all +were doubly warned and armed against the temptations that flesh is heir +to; yet no hint of danger had showed itself during the months in which +she had been a member of the Shaker family. She had heard the Elder's +plea to the young converts to take up "a full cross against the flesh"; +she had listened to Eldress Abby when she told them that the natural +life, its thoughts, passions, feelings, and associations, must be turned +against once and forever; but her heart melted in pity for the two +poor young things struggling helplessly against instincts of which they +hardly knew the meaning, so cloistered had been the life they lived. +The kind, conscientious hands that had fed them would now seem hard and +unrelenting; the place that had been home would turn to a prison; the +life that Elder Gray preached, "the life of a purer godliness than can +be attained by marriage," had seemed difficult, perhaps, but possible; +and now how cold and hopeless it would appear to these two young, +undisciplined, flaming hearts! + +"Hetty dear, talk to me!" whispered Susanna, softly touching her +shoulder, and wondering if she could somehow find a way to counsel the +girl in her perplexity. + +Hetty started rebelliously to her feet as Nathan moved away farther into +the orchard. "If you say a single thing to me, or a word about me to +Eldress Abby, I'll run away this very day. Nobody has any right to speak +to me, and I just want to be let alone! It's all very well for you," +she went on passionately. "What have you had to give up? Nothing but a +husband you did n't love and a home you did n't want to stay in. Like +as not you'll be a Shaker, and they'll take you for a saint; but anyway +you'll have had your life." + +"You are right, Hetty," said Susanna, quietly; "but oh! my dear, the +world outside isn't such a Paradise for young girls like you, motherless +and fatherless and penniless. You have a good home here; can't you learn +to like it?" + +"Out in the world people can do as they like and nobody thinks of +calling them wicked!" sobbed Hetty, flinging herself down, and putting +her head in Susanna's aproned lap. "Here you've got to live like an +angel, and if you don't, you've got to confess every wrong thought +you've had, when the time comes." + +"Whatever you do, Hetty, be open and aboveboard; don't be hasty and +foolish, or you may be sorry forever afterwards." + +Hetty's mood changed again suddenly to one of mutiny, and she rose to +her feet. + +"You have n't got any right to interfere with me anyway, Susanna; and if +you think it's your duty to tell tales, you'll only make matters worse"; +and so saying she took her basket and fled across the fields like a +hunted hare. + +That evening, as Hetty left the infirmary, where she had been sent +with a bottle of liniment for the nursing Sisters, she came upon Nathan +standing gloomily under the spruce trees near the back of the building. +It was eight o'clock and quite dark. It had been raining during the late +afternoon and the trees were still dripping drearily. Hetty came upon +Nathan so suddenly, that, although he had been in her thoughts, she gave +a frightened little cry when he drew her peremptorily under the shadow +of the branches. The rules that govern the Shaker Community are very +strict, but in reality the true Believer never thinks of them as rules, +nor is trammeled by them. They are fixed habits of the blood, as common, +as natural, as sitting or standing, eating or drinking. No Brother is +allowed to hold any lengthy interview with a Sister, nor to work, walk, +or drive with her alone; but these protective customs, which all are +bound in honor to keep, are too much a matter of everyday life to be +strange or irksome. + +"I must speak to you, Hetty," whispered Nathan. "I cannot bear it any +longer alone. What shall we do?" + +"Do?" echoed Hetty, trembling. + +"Yes, _do_." There was no pretense of asking her if she loved or +suffered, or lived in torture and suspense. They had not uttered a word +to each other, but their eyes had "shed meanings." + +"You know we can't go on like this," he continued rapidly. "We can't eat +their food, stay alongside of them, pray their prayers and act a lie all +the time, we can't!" + +"Nay, we can't!" said Hetty. "Oh, Nathan, shall we confess all and see +if they will help us to resist temptation? I know that's what Susanna +would want me to do, but oh! I should dread it." + +"Nay, it is too late," Nathan answered drearily. "They could not help +us, and we should be held under suspicion forever after." + +"I feel so wicked and miserable and unfaithful, I don't know what to +do!" sobbed Hetty. + +"Yee, so do I!" the lad answered. "And I feel bitter against my father, +too. He brought me here to get rid of me, because he did n't dare leave +me on somebody's doorstep. He ought to have come back when I was grown +a man and asked me if I felt inclined to be a Shaker, and if I was good +enough to be one!" + +"And my stepfather would n't have me in the house, so my mother had to +give me away; but they're both dead, and I'm alone in the world, though +I've never felt it, because the Sisters are so kind. Now they will hate +me--though they don't hate anybody." + +"You've got me, Hetty! We must go away and be married. We'd better go +tonight to the minister in Albion." + +"What if he would n't do it?" + +"Why should n't he? Shakers take no vows, though I feel bound, hand and +foot, out of gratitude. If any other two young folks went to him, he +would marry them; and if he refuses, there are two other ministers in +Albion, besides two more in Buryfield, five miles farther. If they won't +marry us tonight, I'll leave you in some safe home and we 'll walk +to Portland tomorrow. I'm young and strong, and I know I can earn our +living somehow." + +"But we have n't the price of a lodging or a breakfast between us," +Hetty said tearfully. "Would it be sinful to take some of my basketwork +and send back the money next week?" + +"Yee, it would be so," Nathan answered sternly. "The least we can do is +to go away as empty-handed as we came. I can work for our breakfast." + +"Oh, I can't bear to disappoint Eldress Abby," cried Hetty, breaking +anew into tears. "She'll say we've run away to live on the lower plane +after agreeing to crucify Nature and follow the angelic life!" + +"I know; but there are five hundred people in Albion all living in +marriage, and we shan't be the only sinners!" Nathan argued. "Oh, Sister +Hetty, dear Hetty, keep up your spirits and trust to me!" + +Nathan's hand stole out and met Hetty's in its warm clasp, the first +hand touch that the two ignorant young creatures had ever felt. Nathan's +knowledge of life had been a journey to the Canterbury Shakers in New +Hampshire with Brother Issachar; Hetty's was limited to a few drives +into Albion village, and half a dozen chats with the world's people who +came to the Settlement to buy basketwork. + +"I am not able to bear the Shaker life!" sighed Nathan. "Elder Gray +allows there be such!" + +"Nor I," murmured Hetty. "Eldress Harriet knows I am no saint!" + +Hetty's head was now on Nathan's shoulder. The stiff Shaker cap +had resisted bravely, but the girl's head had yielded to the sweet +proximity. Youth called to youth triumphantly; the Spirit was unheard, +and all the theories of celibacy and the angelic life that had been +poured into their ears vanished into thin air. The thick shade of the +spruce tree hid the kiss that would have been so innocent, had they +not given themselves to the Virgin Church; the drip, drip, drip of the +branches on their young heads passed unheeded. + +Then, one following the other silently along the highroad, hurrying +along in the shadows of the tall trees, stealing into the edge of the +woods, or hiding behind a thicket of alders at the fancied sound of a +footstep or the distant rumble of a wagon, Nathan and Hetty forsook the +faith of Mother Ann and went out into the world as Adam and Eve left the +garden, with the knowledge of good and evil implanted in their hearts. +The voice of Eldress Abby pursued Hetty in her flight like the voice +in a dream. She could hear its clear impassioned accents, saying, "The +children of this world marry; but the children of the resurrection do +not marry, for they are as the angels." The solemn tones grew fainter +and fainter as Hetty's steps led her farther and farther away from the +quiet Shaker village and its drab-clad Sisters, and at last they almost +died into silence, because Nathan's voice was nearer and Nathan's voice +was dearer. + + + + +VIII. Concerning Backsliders + + +There was no work in the herb-garden now, but there was never a moment +from dawn till long after dusk when the busy fingers of the Shaker +Sisters were still. When all else failed there was the knitting: socks +for the Brothers and stockings for the Sisters and socks and stockings +of every size for the children. One of the quaint sights of the +Settlement to Susanna was the clump of young Sisters on the porch of the +girls' building, knitting, knitting, in the afternoon sun. Even little +Shaker Jane and Mary, Maria and Lucinda, had their socks in hand, and +plied their short knitting-needles soberly and not unskillfully. The +sight of their industry incited the impetuous Sue to effort, and under +the patient tutelage of Sister Martha she mastered the gentle art. +Susanna never forgot the hour when, coming from her work in the +seed-room, she crossed the grass with a message to Martha, and saw the +group of children and girls on the western porch, a place that caught +every ray of afternoon sun, the last glint of twilight, and the first +hint of sunset glow. Sister Martha had been reading the Sabbath-School +lesson for the next day, and as Susanna neared the building, Martha's +voice broke into a hymn. Falteringly the girls' voices followed the +lead, uncertain at first of words or tune, but gaining courage and +strength as they went on:-- + + "As the waves of the mighty ocean + Gospel love we will circulate, + And as we give, in due proportion, + We of the heavenly life partake. + Heavenly Life, Glorious Life, + Resurrecting, Soul-Inspiring, + Regenerating Gospel Life, + It leadeth away from all sin and strife." + +The clear, innocent treble sounded sweetly in the virgin stillness and +solitude of the Settlement, and as Susanna drew closer she stopped +under a tree to catch the picture--Sister Martha, grave, tall, discreet, +singing with all her soul and marking time with her hands, so accustomed +to the upward and downward movement of the daily service. The straight, +plain dresses were as fresh and smooth as perfect washing could make +them, and the round childlike faces looked quaint and sweet with the +cropped hair tucked under the stiff little caps. Sue was seated with +Mary and Jane on the steps, and Susanna saw with astonishment that her +needles were moving to and fro and she was knitting as serenely and +correctly as a mother in Israel; singing, too, in a delicate little +treble that was like a skylark's morning note. Susanna could hear her +distinctly as she delightedly flung out the long words so dear to her +soul and so difficult to dull little Jane and Mary:-- + + "Resurrecting, Soul-Inspiring, + Regenerating Gospel Life, + It leadeth away from all sin and strife." + +Jane's cap was slightly unsettled, causing its wearer to stop knitting +now and then and pull it forward or push it back; and in one of these +little feminine difficulties Susanna saw Sue reach forward and deftly +transfer the cap to her own head. Jane was horrified, but rather slow to +wrath and equally slow in ingenuity. Sue looked a delicious Shaker with +her delicate face, her lovely eyes, and her yellow hair grown into soft +rings; and quite intoxicated with her cap, her knitting, and the general +air of holiness so unexpectedly emanating from her, she moved her little +hands up and down, as the tune rose and fell, in a way that would +have filled Eldress Abby with joy. Susanna's heart beat fast, and she +wondered for a moment, as she went back to her room, whether she could +ever give Sue a worldly childhood more free from danger than the life +she was now living. She found letters from Aunt Louisa and Jack on +reaching her room, and they lay in her lap under a pile of towels, to +be read and reread while her busy needle flew over the coarse crash. Sue +stole in quietly, kissed her mother's cheek, and sat down on her stool +by the window, marveling, with every "under" of the needle and "over" of +the yarn, that it was she, Sue Hathaway, who was making a real stocking. + +Jack's pen was not that of an especially ready writer, but he had a +practical way of conveying considerable news. His present contributions, +when freed from their phonetic errors and spelled in Christian fashion, +read somewhat as follows: + +Father says I must write to you every week, even if I make him do +without, so I will. I am well, and so is Aunt Louisa, and any boy that +lives with her has to toe the mark, I tell you; but she is good and has +fine things to eat every meal. What did Sue get for her birthday? I got +a book from father and one from Aunt Louisa and the one from you that +you told her to buy. It is queer that people will give a boy books when +he has only one knife, and that a broken one. There's a book prize to +be given at the school, and I am pretty afraid I will get that, too; it +would be just my luck. Teachers think about nothing but books and what +good they do, but I heard of a boy that had a grand knife with five +sharp blades and a corkscrew, and in a shipwreck he cut all the ropes, +so the sail came down that was carrying them on to the rocks, and then +by boring a hole with his corkscrew all the water leaked out of the +ship that had been threatening to sink the sailors. I could use a little +pocket money, as Aunt Louisa keeps me short. ... I have been spending +Sunday with father, and had a pretty good time, not so very. Father will +take me about more when he stops going to the store, which will be +next week for good. The kitchen floor is new painted, and Ellen says it +sticks, and Aunt Louisa is going to make Ellen clean house in case +you come home. Do you like where you are? Our teacher told the girls' +teacher it seemed a long stay for any one who had a family, and the boys +at school call me a half orphan and say my mother has left me and so my +father has to board me in the country. My money is run out again. I sat +down in a puddle this afternoon, but it dried up pretty quick and +did n't hurt my clothes, so no more from your son + +JACK. + + +This was the sort of message that had been coming to Susanna of late, +bringing up little pictures of home duties and responsibilities, homely +tasks and trials. "John giving up the store for good"; what did that +mean? Had he gone from bad to worse in the solitude that she had hoped +might show him the gravity of his offenses, the error of his ways? +In case she should die, what then would become of the children? Would +Louisa accept the burden of Jack, for whom she had never cared? Would +the Shakers take Sue? She would be safe; perhaps she would always +be happy; but brother and sister would be divided and brought up as +strangers. Would little Sue, grown to big Sue, say some time or other, +"My mother renounced the world for herself, but what right had she to +renounce it for me? Why did she rob me of the dreams of girlhood and the +natural hopes of women, when I was too young to give consent?" These and +other unanswerable questions continually drifted through Susanna's mind, +disturbing its balance and leaving her like a shuttlecock bandied to and +fro between conflicting blows. + +"Mardie," came a soft little voice from across the room; "Mardie, what +is a backslider?" + +"Where did you hear that long word, Sue?" asked Susanna, rousing herself +from her dream. + +"'T is n't so long as 'regenerating' and more easier." + +"Regenerating means 'making over,' you know." + +"There'd ought to be children's words and grownup words,--that's what I +think," said Sue, decisively; "but what does 'backslider' mean?" + +"A backslider is one who has been climbing up a hill and suddenly begins +to slip back." + +"Does n't his feet take hold right, or why does he slip?" + +"Perhaps he can't manage his feet;--perhaps they just won't climb." 295 + +"Yes, or p'raps he just does n't want to climb any more; but it must be +frightensome, sliding backwards." + +"I suppose it is." + +"Is it wicked?" + +"Why, yes, it is, generally; perhaps always." + +"Brother Nathan and Sister Hetty were backsliders; Sister Tabitha said +so. She told Jane never to speak their names again any more than if they +was dead." + +"Then you had better not speak of them, either." + +"There's so many things better not to speak of in the world, sometimes I +think 't would be nicer to be an angel." + +"Nicer, perhaps, but one has to be very good to be an angel." + +"Backsliders could n't be angels, I s'pose?" + +"Not while they were backsliders; but perhaps they'd begin to climb +again, and then in time they might grow to be angels." + +"I should n't think likely," remarked Sue, decisively, clicking her +needles as one who could settle most spiritual problems in a jiffy. "I +think the sliding kind is diff'rent from the climbing kind, and they +don't make easy angels." + +A long pause followed this expression of opinion, this simple division +of the human race, at the start, into sheep and goats. Then presently +the untiring voice broke the stillness again. + +"Nathan and Hetty slid back when they went away from here. Did we +backslide when we left Fardie and Jack?" + +"I'm not sure but that we did," said poor Susanna. + +"There's children-Shakers, and brother-and-sister Shakers, but no +father-and-mother Shakers?" + +"No; they think they can do just as much good in the world without being +mothers and fathers." + +"Do you think so?" + +"Ye-es, I believe I do." + +"Well, are you a truly Shaker, or can't you be till you wear a cap?" + +"I'm not a Shaker yet, Sue." + +"You're just only a mother?" + +"Yes, that's about all." + +"Maybe we'd better go back to where there's not so many Sisters and more +mothers, so you 'll have somebody to climb togedder with?" + +"I could climb here, Sue, and so could you." + +"Yes, but who'll Fardie and Jack climb with? I wish they'd come and see +us. Brother Ansel would make Fardie laugh, and Jack would love farmwork, +and we'd all be so happy. I miss Fardie awfully! He did n't speak to +me much, but I liked to look at his curly hair and think how lovely it +would be if he did take notice of me and play with me." + +A sob from Susanna brought Sue, startled, to her side. + +"You break my heart, Sue! You break it every day with the things you +say. Don't you love me, Sue?" + +"More'n tongue can tell!" cried Sue, throwing herself into her mother's +arms. "Don't cry, darling Mardie! I won't talk any more, not for days +and days! Let me wipe your poor eyes. Don't let Elder Gray see you +crying, or he'll think I've been naughty. He's just going in downstairs +to see Eldress Abby. Was it wrong what I said about backsliding, or +what, Mardie? We'll help each udder climb, an' then we'll go home an' +help poor lonesome Fardie; shall we?" + + +"Abby!" called Elder Gray, stepping into the entry of the Office +Building. + +"Yee, I'm coming," Eldress Abby answered from the stairway. "Go right +out and sit down on the bench by the door, where I can catch a few +minutes' more light for my darning; the days seem to be growing +short all to once. Did Lemuel have a good sale of basket-work at the +mountains? Rosetta has n't done so well for years at Old Orchard. We +seem to be prospering in every material direction, Daniel, but my +heart is heavy somehow, and I have to be instant in prayer to keep from +discouragement." + +"It has n't been an altogether good year with us spiritually," confessed +Daniel; "perhaps we needed chastening." + +"If we needed it, we've received it," Abby ejaculated, as she pushed her +darning-ball into the foot of a stocking. "Nothing has happened since I +came here thirty years ago that has troubled me like the running away of +Nathan and Hetty. If they had been new converts, we should have thought +the good seed had n't got fairly rooted, but those children were brought +to us when Nathan was eleven and Hetty nine." + +"I well remember, for the boy's father and the girl's mother came on +the same train; a most unusual occurrence to receive two children in one +day." + +"I have cause to remember Hetty in her first month, for she was as wild +as a young hawk. She laughed in meeting the first Sunclay, and when she +came back, I told her to sit behind me in silence for half an hour while +I was reading my Bible. 'Be still now, Hetty, and labor to repent,' I +said. When the time was up, she said in a meek little mite of a +voice, 'I think I'm least in the Kingdom now, Eldress Abby!' 'Then run +outdoors,' I said. She kicked up her heels like a colt and was through +the door in a second. Not long afterwards I put my hands behind me to +tie my apron tighter, and if that child had n't taken my small scissors +lying on the table and cut buttonholes all up and down my strings, +hundreds of them, while she was 'laboring to repent.'" + +Elder Gray smiled reminiscently, though he had often heard the story +before. "Neither of the children came from godly families," he said, +"but at least the parents never interfered with us nor came here putting +false ideas into their children's heads." + +"That's what I say," continued Abby; "and now, after ten years' training +and discipline in the angelic life, Hetty being especially promising, +to think of their going away together, and worse yet, being married in +Albion village right at our very doors; I don't hardly dare to go to bed +nights for fear of hearing in the morning that some of the other young +folks have been led astray by this foolish performance of Hetty's; I +know it was Hetty's fault; Nathan never had ingenuity enough to think +and plan it all out." + +"Nay, nay, Abby, don't be too hard on the girl; I've watched Nathan +closely, and he has been in a dangerous and unstable state, even as long +ago as his last confession; but this piece of backsliding, grievous as +it is, does n't cause me as much sorrow as the fall of Brother Ephraim. +To all appearance he had conquered his appetite, and for five years he +has led a sober life. I had even great hopes of him for the ministry, +and suddenly, like a great cloud in the blue sky, has come this terrible +visitation, this reappearance of the old Adam. 'Ephraim has returned to +his idols.'" + +"How have you decided to deal with him, Daniel?" + +"It is his first offense since he cast in his lot with us; we must +rebuke, chastise, and forgive." + +"Yee, yee, I agree to that; but how if he makes us the laughing-stock of +the community and drags our sacred banner in the dust? We can't afford +to have one of our order picked up in the streets by the world's +people." + +"Have the world's people found an infallible way to keep those of their +order out of the gutters?" asked Elder Gray. "Ephraim seems repentant; +if he is willing to try again, we must be willing to do as much." + +"Yee, Daniel, you are right. Another matter that causes me anxiety is +Susanna. I never yearned for a soul as I yearn for hers! She has had the +advantage of more education and more reading than most of us have ever +enjoyed; she's gifted in teaching and she wins the children. She's +discreet and spiritually minded; her life in the world, even with +the influence of her dissipated husband, has n't really stained, only +humbled her; she would make such a Shaker, if she was once 'convinced,' +as we have n't gathered in for years and years; but I fear she's +slipping, slipping away, Daniel!" + +"What makes you feel so now, particularly?" + +"She's diff'rent as time goes on. She's had more letters from that place +where her boy is; she cries nights, and though she does n't relax a mite +with her work, she drags about sometimes like a bird with one wing." + +Elder Daniel took off his broadbrimmed hat to cool his forehead and +hair, lifting his eyes to the first pale stars that were trembling in +the sky, hesitating in silver and then quietly deepening into gold. + +Brother Ansel was a Believer because he had no particular love for the +world and no great susceptibility to its temptations; but what had drawn +Daniel Gray from the open sea into this quiet little backwater of a +Shaker Settlement? After an adventurous early life, in which, as if +youth-intoxicated, he had plunged from danger to danger, experience to +experience, he suddenly found himself in a society of which he had never +so much as heard, a company of celibate brothers and sisters holding all +goods and possessions in common, and trying to live the "angelic life" +on earth. Illness detained him for a month against his will, but at the +end of that time he had joined the Community; and although it had been +twenty-five years since his gathering in, he was still steadfast in the +faith. + +His character was of puritanical sternness; he was a strict +disciplinarian, and insisted upon obedience to the rules of Shaker life, +"the sacred laws of Zion," as he was wont to term them. He magnified +his office, yet he was of a kindly disposition easily approached by +children, and not without a quaint old-time humor. + +There was a long pause while the two faithful leaders of the little +flock were absorbed in thought; then the Elder said: "Susanna's all you +say, and the child, well, if she could be purged of her dross, I never +saw a creature better fitted to live the celestial life; but we must not +harbor any divided hearts here. When the time comes, we must dismiss her +with our blessing." + +"Yee, I suppose so," said Eldress Abby, loyally, but it was with a sigh. +Had she and Tabitha been left to their own instincts, they would have +gone out into the highways and hedges, proselyting with the fervor of +Mother Ann's day and generation. + +"After all, Abby," said the Elder, rising to take his leave, still in +a sort of mild trance, "after all, Abby, I suppose the Shakers don't +own the whole of heaven. I'd like to think so, but I can't. It's a big +place, and it belongs to God." + + + + +IX. Love Manifold + + +The woods on the shores of Massabesic Pond were stretches of tapestry, +where every shade of green and gold, olive and brown, orange and +scarlet, melted the one into the other. The somber pines made a +deep-toned background; patches of sumach gave their flaming crimson; +the goldenrod grew rank and tall in glorious profusion, and the maples +outside the Office Building were balls of brilliant carmine. The air was +like crystal, and the landscape might have been bathed in liquid amber, +it was so saturated with October yellow. + +Susanna caught her breath as she threw her chamber window wider open in +the early morning; for the greater part of the picture had been painted +during the frosty night. + +"Throw your little cape round your shoulders and come quickly, Sue!" she +exclaimed. + +The child ran to her side. "Oh, what a goldy, goldy morning!" she cried. + +One crimson leaf with a long heavy stem that acted as a sort of rudder, +came down to the windowsill with a sidelong scooping flight, while two +or three gayly painted ones, parted from the tree by the same breeze, +floated airily along as if borne on unseen wings, finally alighting on +Sue's head and shoulders like tropical birds. + +"You cried in the night, Mardie!" said Sue. "I heard you snifferling +and getting up for your hank'chief; but I did n't speak 'cause it's so +dreadful to be _catched_ crying." + +"Kneel down beside me and give me part of your cape," her mother +answered. "I'm going to let my sad heart fly right out of the window +into those beautiful trees." + +"And maybe a glad heart will fly right in!" the child suggested. + +"Maybe. Oh! we must cuddle close and be still; Elder Gray's going to sit +down under the great maple; and do you see, all the Brothers seem to be +up early this morning, just as we are?" + +"More love, Elder Gray!" called Issachar, on his way to the toolhouse. + +"More love, Brother Issachar!" + +"More love, Brother Ansel!" + +"More love, Brother Calvin!" + +"More love!.... More love!.... More love!" So the quaint but not +uncommon Shaker greeting passed from Brother to Brother; and as Tabitha +and Martha and Rosetta met on their way to dairy and laundry and +seed-house, they, too, hearing the salutation, took up the refrain, +and Susanna and Sue heard again from the women's voices that beautiful +morning wish, "More love! More love!" speeding from heart to heart and +lip to lip. + +Mother and child were very quiet. + +"More love, Sue!" said Susanna, clasping her closely. + +"More love, Mardie!" whispered the child, smiling and entering into the +spirit of the salutation. "Let's turn our heads Farnham way! I'll take +Jack and you take Fardie, and we'll say togedder, 'More love'; shall +we?" + +"More love, John." + +"More love, Jack." + +The words floated out over the trees in the woman's trembling voice and +the child's treble. + +"Elder Gray looks tired though he's just got up," Sue continued. + +"He is not strong," replied her mother, remembering Brother Ansel's +statement that the Elder "wa'n't diseased anywheres, but did n't have no +durability." + +"The Elder would have a lovely lap," Sue remarked presently. + +"_What_?" + +"A nice lap to sit in. Fardie has a nice lap, too, and Uncle Joel +Atterbury, but not Aunt Louisa; she lets you slide right off; it's a +bony, hard lap. I love Elder Gray, and I climbed on his lap one day. He +put me right down, but I'm sure he likes children. I wish I could take +right hold of his hand and walk all over the farm, but he would n't let +me, I s'pose.-- _More love, Elder Gray_!" she cried suddenly, bobbing +up above the windowsill and shaking her fairy hand at him. + +The Elder looked up at the sound of the glad voice. No human creature +could have failed to smile back into the roguish face or have treated +churlishly the sweet, confident little greeting. The heart of a real man +must have an occasional throb of the father, and when Daniel Gray rose +from his seat under the maple and called, "More love, child!" there was +something strange and touching in his tone. He moved away from the +tree to his morning labors with the consciousness of something new +to conquer. Long, long ago he had risen victorious above many of the +temptations that flesh is heir to. Women were his good friends, his +comrades, his sisters; they no longer troubled the waters of his soul; +but here was a child who stirred the depths; who awakened the potential +father in him so suddenly and so strongly that he longed for the +sweetness of a human tie that could bind him to her. But the current of +the Elder's being was set towards sacrifice and holiness, and the common +joys of human life he felt could never and must never be his; so he +went to the daily round, the common task, only a little paler, a little +soberer than was his wont. + +"More love, Martha!" said Susanna when she met Martha a little later in +the day. + +"More love, Susanna!" Martha replied cheerily. "You heard our Shaker +greeting, I see! It was the beautiful weather, the fine air and glorious +colors, that brought the inspiration this morning, I guess! It took us +all out of doors, and then it seemed to get into the blood. Besides, +tomorrow's the Day of Sacrifice, and that takes us all on to the +mountaintops of feeling. There have been times when I had to own up to a +lack of love." + +"You, Martha, who have such wonderful influence over the children, such +patience, such affection!" + +"It was n't always so. When I was first put in charge of the children, I +did n't like the work. They did n't respond to me somehow, and when they +were out of my sight they were ugly and disobedient. My natural mother, +Maria Holmes, took care of the girls' clothing. One day she said to me, +'Martha, do you love the girls?' + +"'Some of them are very unlovely,' I replied. + +"'I know that,' she said, 'but you can never help them unless you love +them.' + +"I thought mother very critical, for I strove scrupulously to do my +duty. A few days after this the Elder said to me: 'Martha, do you love +the girls?' I responded, 'Not very much.' + +"'You cannot save them unless you love them,' he said. Then I answered, +'I will labor for a gift of love.' + +"When the work of the day was over, and the girls were in bed, I would +take off my shoes and spend several hours of the night walking the +floor, kneeling in prayer that I might obtain the coveted gift. For five +weeks I did this without avail, when suddenly one night when the moon +was full and I was kneeling by the window, a glory seemed to overshadow +the crest of a high mountain in the distance. I thought I heard a voice +say: '_Martha, I baptize you into the spirit of love!_' I sat there +trembling for more than an hour, and when I rose, I felt that I could +love the meanest human being that ever walked the earth. I have never +had any trouble with children since that night of the vision. They seem +different to me, and I dare say I am different to them." + +"I wish I could see visions!" exclaimed Susanna. "Oh, for a glory +that would speak to me and teach me truth and duty! Life is all mist, +whichever way I turn. I'd like to be lifted on to a high place where I +could see clearly." + +She leaned against the frame of the open kitchen door, her delicate +face quivering with emotion and longing, her attitude simplicity and +unconsciousness itself. The baldest of Shaker prose turned to purest +poetry when Susanna dipped it in the alembic of her own imagination. + +"Labor for the gift of sight!" said Martha, who believed implicitly in +spirits and visions. "Labor this very night." + +It must be said for Susanna that she had never ceased laboring in her +own way for many days. The truth was that she felt herself turning from +marriage. She had lived now so long in the society of men and women who +regarded it as an institution not compatible with the highest spiritual +development that unconsciously her point of view had changed; changed +all the more because she had been so unhappy with the man she had +chosen. Curiously enough, and unfortunately enough for Susanna +Hathaway's peace of mind, the greater aversion she felt towards the +burden of the old life, towards the irksomeness of guiding a weaker +soul, towards the claims of husband on wife, the stronger those claims +appeared. If they had never been assumed!--Ah, but they had; there was +the rub! One sight of little Sue sleeping tranquilly beside her; one +memory of rebellious, faulty Jack; one vision of John, either as needing +or missing her, the rightful woman, or falling deeper in the wiles of +the wrong one for very helplessness;--any of these changed Susanna the +would-be saint, in an instant, into Susanna the wife and mother. + +"_Speak to me for Thy Compassion's sake_," she prayed from the little +book of Confessions that her mother had given her. "_I will follow after +Thy Voice!_" + +"Would you betray your trust?" asked conscience. + +"No, not intentionally." + +"Would you desert your post?" + +"Never, willingly." + +"You have divided the family; taken a little quail bird out of the +home-nest and left sorrow behind you. Would God justify you in that?" + +For the first time Susanna's "No" rang clearly enough for her to hear it +plainly; for the first time it was followed by no vague misgivings, no +bewilderment, no unrest or indecision. "_I turn hither and hither; Thy +purposes are hid from me, but I commend my soul to Thee_!" + +Then a sentence from the dear old book came into her memory: "_And thy +dead things shall revive, and thy weak things shall be made whole_." + +She listened, laying hold of every word, till the nervous clenching +of her hands subsided, her face relaxed into peace. Then she lay down +beside Sue, creeping close to her for the warmth and comfort and healing +of her innocent touch, and, closing her eyes serenely, knew no more till +the morning broke, the Sabbath morning of Confession Day. + + + + + +X. Brother and Sister + + +If Susanna's path had grown more difficult, more filled with anxieties, +so had John Hathaway's. The protracted absence of his wife made the +gossips conclude that the break was a final one. Jack was only half +contented with his aunt, and would be fairly mutinous in the winter, +while Louisa's general attitude was such as to show clearly that she +only kept the boy for Susanna's sake. + +Now and then there was a terrifying hint of winter in the air, and the +days of Susanna's absence seemed eternal to John Hathaway. Yet he was a +man about whom there would have been but one opinion: that when deprived +of a rather superior and high-minded wife and the steadying influence +of home and children, he would go completely "to the dogs," whither he +seemed to be hurrying when Susanna's wifely courage failed. That he had +done precisely the opposite and the unexpected thing, shows us perhaps +that men are not on the whole as capable of estimating the forces +of their fellow men as is God the maker of men, who probably expects +something of the worst of them up to the very last. + +It was at the end of a hopeless Sunday when John took his boy back to +his aunt's towards night. He wondered drearily how a woman dealt with a +ten-year-old boy who from sunrise to sunset had done every mortal thing +he ought not to have done, and had left undone everything that he had +been told to do; and, as if to carry out the very words of the church +service, neither was there any health in him; for he had an inflamed +throat and a whining, irritable, discontented temper that could be borne +only by a mother, a father being wholly inadequate and apparently never +destined for the purpose. + +It was a mild evening late in October, and Louisa sat on the porch with +her pepper-and-salt shawl on and a black wool "rigolette" tied over her +head. Jack, very sulky and unresigned, was dispatched to bed under the +care of the one servant, who was provided with a cupful of vinegar, +salt, and water, for a gargle. John had more than an hour to wait for +a returning train to Farnham, and although ordinarily he would have +preferred to spend the time in the silent and unreproachful cemetery +rather than in the society of his sister Louisa, he was too tired and +hopeless to do anything but sit on the steps and smoke fitfully in the +semidarkness. Louisa was much as usual. She well knew--who better?--her +brother's changed course of life, but neither encouragement nor +compliment were in her line. Why should a man be praised for living a +respectable life? That John had really turned a sort of moral somersault +and come up a different creature, she did not realize in the least, nor +the difficulties surmounted in such a feat; but she did give him credit +secretly for turning about face and behaving far more decently than she +could ever have believed possible. She had no conception of his mental +torture at the time, but if he kept on doing well, she privately +intended to inform Susanna and at least give her a chance of trying him +again, if absence had diminished her sense of injury. One thing that +she did not know was that John was on the eve of losing his partnership. +When Jack had said that his father was not going back to the store +the next week, she thought it meant simply a vacation. Divided hearts, +broken vows, ruined lives she could bear the sight of these with +considerable philosophy, but a lost income was a very different, a very +tangible thing. She almost lost her breath when her brother knocked the +ashes from his meerschaum and curtly told her of the proposed change in +his business relations. + +"I don't know what I shall do yet," he said, "whether I shall set up for +myself in a small way or take a position in another concern,--that is, +if I can get one--my stock of popularity seems to be pretty low just now +in Farnham. I'd move away tomorrow and cut the whole gossipy, deceitful, +hypocritical lot of 'em if I was n't afraid of closing the house and so +losing Susanna, if she should ever feel like coming back to us." + +These words and the thought back of them were too much for John's +self-control. The darkness helped him and his need of comfort was +abject. Suddenly he burst out, "Oh, Louisa, for heaven's sake, give me a +little crumb of comfort, if you have any! How can you stand like a stone +all these months and see a man suffering as I have suffered, without +giving him a word?" + +"You brought it on yourself," said Louisa, in self-exculpation. + +"Does that make it any easier to bear?" cried John. "Don't you suppose +I remember it every hour, and curse myself the more? You know perfectly +well that I'm a different man today. I don't know what made me change; +it was as if something had been injected into my blood that turned me +against everything I had liked best before. I hate the sight of the men +and the women I used to go with, not because they are any worse, but +because they remind me of what I have lost. I have reached the point now +where I have got to have news of Susanna or go and shoot myself." + +"That would be about the only piece of foolishness you have n't +committed already!" replied Louisa, with a biting satire that would +have made any man let go of the trigger in case he had gone so far as to +begin pulling it. + +"Where is she?" John went on, without anger at her sarcasm. "Where is +she, how is she, what is she living on, is she well, is she just as +bitter as she was at first, does she ever speak of coming back? Tell me +something, tell me anything. I will know something. I say I _will_!" + +Louisa's calm demeanor began to show a little agitation, for she was not +used to the sight of emotion. "I can't tell you where Susanna is, for I +made her a solemn promise I would n't unless you or Jack were in danger +of some kind; but I don't mind telling you this much, that she's well +and in the safest kind of a shelter, for she's been living from the +first in a Shaker Settlement." + +"Shaker Settlement!" cried John, starting up from his seat on the +steps. "What's that? I know Shaker egg-beaters and garden-seeds +and rocking-chairs and oh, yes, I remember their religion's against +marriage. That's the worst thing you could have told me; that ends all +hope; if they once get hold of a woman like Susanna, they'll never +let go of her; if they don't believe in a woman's marrying a good man, +they'd never let her go back to a bad one. Oh, if I had only known +this before; if only you'd told me, Louisa, perhaps I could have done +something. Maybe they take vows or sign contracts, and so I have lost +her altogether." + +"I don't know much about their beliefs, and Susanna never explained +them," returned Louisa, nervously "but now that you've got something +to offer her, why don't you write and ask her to come back to you? I'll +send your letter to her." + +"I don't dare, Louisa, I don't dare," groaned John, leaning his head +against one of the pillars of the porch. "I can't tell you the fear I +have of Susanna after the way I've neglected her this last year. If she +should come in at the gate this minute, I could n't meet her eyes; if +you'd read the letter she left me, you'd feel the same way. I deserved +it, to the last word, but oh, it was like so many separate strokes of +lightning, and every one of them burned. It was nothing but the truth, +but it was cut in with a sharp sword. Unless she should come back to me +of her own accord, and she never will, I have n't got the courage to +ask her; just have n't got the courage, that's all there is to say about +it." And here John buried his head in his hands. + +A very queer thing happened to Louisa Banks at this moment. A +half-second before she would have murmured: + + "This rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I!" + +when all at once, and without warning, a strange something occurred in +the organ which she had always regarded and her opinion had never yet +been questioned as a good, tough, love-tight heart. First there was a +flutter and a tremor running all along her spine; then her eyes filled; +then a lump rose in her throat and choked her; then words trembled on +her tongue and refused to be uttered; then something like a bird--could +it have been the highly respectable good-as-new heart?--throbbed under +her black silk Sunday waist; then she grew like wax from the crown +of her head to the soles of her feet; then in a twinkling, and so +unconsciously as to be unashamed of it, she became a sister. + +You have seen a gray November morning melt into an Indian summer noon? +Louisa Banks was like that, when, at the sight of a man in sore trouble, +sympathy was born in her to soften the rockiness of her original makeup. + +"There, there, John, don't be so downhearted," she stammered, drawing +her chair closer and putting her hand on his shoulder. "We'll bring it +round right, you see if we don't. You've done the most yourself already, +for I'm proud of the way you've acted, stiffening right up like an +honest man and showing you've got some good sensible Hathaway stuff in +you, after all, and ain't ashamed to turn your back on your evil ways. +Susanna ain't one to refuse forgiveness." + +"She forgave for a long time, but she refused at last. Why should she +change now?" John asked. + +"You remember she has n't heard a single word from you, nor about you, +in that out-of-the-way place where she's been living," said Louisa, +consolingly. "She thinks you're the same as you were, or worse, maybe. +Perhaps she's waiting for you to make some sign through me, for she +don't know that you care anything about her, or are pining to have her +back." + +"Such a woman as Susanna must know better than that!" cried John. "She +ought to know that when a man got used to living with anybody like her, +he could never endure any other kind." + +"How should she know all that? Jack's been writing to her and telling +her the news for the last few weeks, though I have n't said a word about +you because I did n't know how long your reformation was going to hold +out; but I won't let the grass grow under my feet now, till I tell her +just how things stand!" + +"You're a good woman, Louisa; I don't see why I never noticed it +before." + +"It's because I've been concealing my goodness too much. Stay here with +me tonight and don't go back to brood in that dismal, forsaken house. +We'll see how Jack is in the morning, and if he's all right, take him +along with you, so's to be all there together if Susanna comes back this +week, as I kind of hope she will. Make Ellen have the house all nice +and cheerful from top to bottom, with a good supper ready to put on the +table the night she comes. You'd better pick your asters and take 'em in +for the parlor, then I'll cut the chrysanthemums for you in the middle +of the week. The day she comes I'll happen in, and stay to dinner if +you find it's going to be mortifying for you; but if everything is as I +expect it will be, and the way Susanna always did have things, I'll +make for home and leave you to yourselves. Susanna ain't one to nag and +hector and triumph over a man when he's repented." + +John hugged Louisa, pepper-and-salt shawl, black rigolette, and all, +when she finished this unprecedented speech; and when he went to sleep +that night in the old north chamber, the one he and Louisa had been +born in, the one his father and mother had died in, it was with a little +smile of hope on his lips. + + Set her place at hearth and board + As it used to be! + +These were the last words that crossed his waking thoughts. +Before Louisa went to her own bed, she wrote one of her brief and +characteristic epistles to Susanna, but it did not reach her, for the +"hills of home" had called John's wife so insistently on that Sunday, +that the next day found her on her way back to Farnham. + + +Dear Susanna [so the letter read], There's a new man in your house at +Farnham. His name is John Hathaway, but he's made all over and it was +high time. I say it's the hand of God! He won't own up that it is, but +I'm letting him alone, for I've done quarreling, though I don't like to +see a man get religion and deny it, for all the world like Peter in +the New Testament. If you have n't used up the last one of your +seventy-times-sevens, I think you'd better come back and forgive your +husband. If you don't, you'd better send for your son. I'm willing to +bear the burdens the Lord intends specially for me, but Jack belongs to +you, and a good-sized heavy burden he is, too, for his age. I can't deny +that, if he is a Hathaway. I think he's the kind of a boy that ought to +be put in a barrel and fed through the bunghole till he grows up; but of +course I'm not used to children's ways. + +Be as easy with John at first as you can. I know you 'll say _I_ never +was with my husband, but he was different, he got to like a bracing +treatment, Adlai did. Many's the time he said to me, "Louisa, when you +make up our minds, I'm always contented." But John is n't made that way. +He's a changed man; now, what we've got to do is to _keep_ him changed. +He does n't bear you any grudge for leaving him, so he won't reproach +you. + +Hoping to see you before long, I am, + +Yours as usual, + +Louisa Banks. + + + + +XI. "The Open Door" + + +On the Saturday evening before the yearly Day of Sacrifice the spiritual +heads of each Shaker family called upon all the Believers to enter +heartily next day into the humiliations and blessings of open +confession. + +The Sabbath dawns upon an awed and solemn household. Footfalls are +hushed, the children's chatter is stilled, and all go to the morning +meal in silence. There is a strange quiet, but it is not sadness; it +is a hush, as when in Israel's camp the silver trumpets sounded and the +people stayed in their tents. "Then," Elder Gray explained to Susanna, +"a summons comes to each Believer, for all have been searching the heart +and scanning the life of the months past. Softly the one called goes +to the door of the one appointed by the Divine Spirit, the human +representative who is to receive the gift of the burdened soul. Woman +confesses to woman, man to man; it is the open door that leads to God." + +Susanna lifted Eldress Abby's latch and stood in her strong, patient +presence; then all at once she knelt impulsively and looked up into her +serene eyes. + +"Do you come as a Believer, Susanna?" tremblingly asked the Eldress. + +"No, Eldress Abby. I come as a child of the world who wants to go back +to her duty, and hopes to do it better than she ever did before. She +ought to be able to, because you have chastened her pride, taught her +the lesson of patience, strengthened her will, purified her spirit, and +cleansed her soul from bitterness and wrath. I waited till afternoon +when all the confessions were over. May I speak now?" + +Eldress Abby bowed, but she looked weak and stricken and old. + +"I had something you would have called a vision last night, but I think +of it as a dream, and I know just what led to it. You told me Polly +Reed's story, and the little quail bird had such a charm for Sue that +I've repeated it to her more than once. In my sleep I seemed to see a +mother quail with a little one beside her. The two were always together, +happily flying or hopping about under the trees; but every now and then +I heard a sad little note, as of a deserted bird somewhere in the wood. +I walked a short distance, and parting the branches, saw on the open +ground another parent bird and a young one by its side darting hither +and thither, as if lost; they seemed to be restlessly searching for +something, and always they uttered the soft, sad note, as if the nest +had disappeared and they had been parted from the little flock. Of +course my brain had changed the very meaning of the Shaker story and +translated it into different terms, but when I woke this morning, I +could think of nothing but my husband and my boy. The two of them seemed +to me to be needing me, searching for me in the dangerous open country, +while I was hidden away in the safe shelter of the wood--I and the other +little quail bird I had taken out of the nest." + +"Do you think you could persuade your husband to unite with us?" asked +Abby, wiping her eyes. + +The tension of the situation was too tightly drawn for mirth, or Susanna +could have smiled, but she answered soberly, "No; if John could develop +the best in himself, he could be a good husband and father, a good +neighbor and citizen, and an upright business man, but never a Shaker." + +"Did n't he insult your wifely honor and disgrace your home?" "Yes, in +the last few weeks before I left him. All his earlier offenses were more +against himself than me, in a sense. I forgave him many a time, but I am +not certain it was the seventy times seven that the Bible bids us. I +am not free from blame myself. I was hard the last year, for I had lost +hope and my pride was trailing in the dust. I left him a bitter letter, +one without any love or hope or faith in it, just because at the moment +I believed I ought, once in my life, to let him know how I felt toward +him." + +"How can you go back and live under his roof with that feeling? It's +degradation." + +"It has changed. I was morbid then, and so wounded and weak that I could +not fight any longer. I am rested now, and calm. My pluck has come back, +and my strength. I've learned a good deal here about casting out my own +devils; now I am going home and help him to cast out his. Perhaps he +won't be there; perhaps he does n't want me, though when he was his +very best self he loved me dearly; but that was long, long ago!" sighed +Susanna, drearily. + +"Oh, this thing the world's people call love!" groaned Abby. + +"There is love and love, even in the world outside; for if it is Adam's +world it is God's, too, Abby! The love I gave my husband was good, I +think, but it failed somewhere, and I am going back to try again. I am +not any too happy in leaving you and taking up, perhaps, heavier burdens +than those from which I escaped." + +"Night after night I've prayed to be the means of leading you to the +celestial life," said the Eldress, "but my plaint was not worthy to +be heard. Oh, that God would increase our numbers and so revive our +drooping faith! We work, we struggle, we sacrifice, we pray, we defy the +world and deny the flesh, yet we fail to gather in Believers." + +"Don't say you 've failed, dear, dear Abby!" cried Susanna, pressing +the Eldress's work-stained hands to her lips. "God speaks to you in one +voice, to me in another. Does it matter so much as long as we both hear +Him? Surely it's the hearing and the obeying that counts most! Wish me +well, dear friend, and help me to say goodbye to the Elder." + +The two women found Elder Gray in the office, and Abby, still +unresigned, laid Susanna's case before him. + +"The Great Architect has need of many kinds of workmen in His building," +said the Elder. "There are those who are willing to put aside the ties +of flesh for the kingdom of heaven's sake; 'he that is able to receive +it, let him receive it!'" + +"There may also he those who are willing to take up the ties of the +flesh for the kingdom of heaven's sake," answered Susanna, gently, but +with a certain courage. + +Her face glowed with emotion, her eyes shone, her lips were parted. It +was a new thought. Abby and Daniel gazed at her for a moment without +speaking, then Daniel said: "It's a terrible cross to some of the +Brethren and Sisters to live here outside of the world, but maybe it's +more of a cross for such as you to live in it, under such conditions as +have surrounded you of late years. To pursue good and resist evil, to +bear your cross cheerfully and to grow in grace and knowledge of truth +while you're bearing it that's the lesson of life, I suppose. If you +find you can't learn it outside, come back to us, Susanna." + +"I will," she promised, "and no words can speak my gratitude for what +you have all done for me. Many a time it will come back to me and keep +me from faltering." + +She looked back at him from the open doorway, timidly. + +"Don't forget us, Sue and me, altogether," she said, her eyes filling +with tears. "Come to Farnham, if you will, and see if I am a credit to +Shaker teaching! I shall never be here again, perhaps, and somehow it +seems to me as if you, Elder Gray, with your education and your gifts, +ought to be leading a larger life than this." + +"I've hunted in the wild Maine forests, in my young days; I've speared +salmon in her rivers and shot rapids ill a birchbark canoe," said the +Elder, looking up from the pine table that served as a desk. "I've been +before the mast and seen strange countries; I've fought Indians; I've +faced perils on land and sea; but this Shaker life is the greatest +adventure of all!" + +"Adventure?" echoed Susanna, uncomprehendingly. + +"Adventure!" repeated the Elder, smiling at his own thoughts. "Whether I +fail, or whether I succeed, it's a splendid adventure in ethics." + +Abby and Daniel looked at each other when Susanna passed out of the +office door. + +"'They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been +of us, they would have continued with us,'" he quoted quietly. + +Abby wiped her eyes with her apron. "It's a hard road to travel +sometimes, Daniel!" she said. + +"Yee; but think where it leads, Abby, think where it leads! You're not +going to complain of dust when you're treading the King's Highway!" + + +Susanna left the office with a drooping head, knowing the sadness that +she had left behind. Brother Ansel sat under the trees near by, and his +shrewd eye perceived the drift of coming events. + +"Well, Susanna," he drawled, "you're goin' to leave us, like most o' the +other 'jiners.' I can see that with one eye shut." + +"Yes," she replied with a half smile; "but you see, Ansel, I 'jined' +John Hathaway before I knew anything about Shaker doctrines." + +"Yee; but what's to prevent your onjinin' him? They used to tie up +married folks in the old times so't they could n't move an inch. When +they read the constitution and bylaws over 'em they used to put in 'till +death do us part.' That's the way my father was hitched to his three +wives, but death _did_ 'em part--fortunately for him!" + +"'Till death us do part' is still in the marriage service," Susanna +said, "and I think of it very often." + +"I want to know if that's there yit!" exclaimed Ansel, with apparent +surprise; "I thought they must be leavin' it out, there's so much +onjinin' nowadays! Well, accordin' to my notions, if there is anything +wuss 'n marriage, it's hevin' it hold till death, for then menfolks +don't git any chance of a speritual life till afterwards. They certainly +don't when they're being dragged down by women-folks an' young ones." + +"I think the lasting part of the bargain makes it all the more solemn," +Susanna argued. + +"Oh, yes, it's solemn enough, but so's a prayer meetin', an' consid'able +more elevatin' "; and here Ansel regarded the surrounding scenery with +frowning disapproval, as if it left much to be desired. + +"Don't you think that there are any agreeable and pleasant women, +Ansel?" ventured Susanna. + +"Land, yes; heaps of 'em; but they all wear Shaker bunnits!" + +"I suppose you know more about the women in the outside world than most +of the Brothers, on account of traveling so much?" + +"I guess anybody 't drives a seed-cart or peddles stuff along the +road knows enough o' women to keep clear of 'em. They 'll come out the +kitchen door, choose their papers o' seasonin' an' bottles o' flavorin', +worry you 'bout the price an' take the aidge off every dime, make up an' +then onmake their minds 'bout what they want, ask if it's pure, an' when +by good luck you git your cart out o' the yard, they come runnin' along +the road after ye to git ye to swap a bottle o' vanilla for some spruce +gum an' give 'em back the change." + +Susanna could not help smiling at Ansel's arraignment of her sex. "Do +you think they follow you for the pleasure of shopping, or the pleasure +of your conversation, Ansel?" she asked slyly. + +"A little o' both, mebbe; though the pleasure's all on their side," +returned the unchivalrous Ansel. "But take them same women, cut their +hair close to their heads (there's a heap o' foolishness in hair, +somehow), purge 'em o' their vanity, so they won't be lookin' in the +glass all the time, make 'em depend on one another for sassiety, so they +won't crave no conversation with menfolks, an' you git an article that's +'bout as good and 'bout as stiddy as a man!" + +"You never seem to remember that men are just as dangerous to +women's happiness and goodness as women are to men's," said Susanna, +courageously. + +"It don't seem so to me! Never see a man, hardly, that could stick to +the straight an' narrer if a woman wanted him to go the other way. Weak +an' unstable as water, menfolks are, an' women are pow'ful strong." + +"Have your own way, Ansel! I'm going back to the world, but no man shall +ever say I hindered him from being good. You'll see women clearer in +another world." + +"There'll be precious few of 'em to see!" retorted Ansel. "You're about +the best o' the lot, but even you have a kind of a managin' way with +ye, besides fillin' us all full o' false hopes that we'd gathered in a +useful Believer, one cal'lated to spread the doctrines o' Mother Ann!" + +"I know, I know, Ansel, and oh, how sorry I am! You would never believe +how I long to stay and help you, never believe how much you have helped +me! Goodbye, Ansel; you've made me smile when my heart was breaking. I +shan't forget you!" + + + + +XII. The Hills of Home + + +Susanna had found Sue in the upper chamber at the Office Building, and +began to make the simple preparations for her homeward journey. It was +the very hour when John Hathaway was saying:-- + + "Set her place at hearth and board + As it used to be." + +Sue interfered with the packing somewhat by darting to and fro, bringing +her mother sacred souvenirs given her by the Shaker sisters and +the children--needle-books, pin-balls, thimble-cases, packets of +flower-seeds, polished pebbles, bottles of flavoring extract. + +"This is for Fardie," she would say, "and this for Jack and this for +Ellen and this for Aunt Louisa--the needle-book, 'cause she's so useful. +Oh, I'm glad we're going home, Mardie, though I do love it here, and I +was most ready to be a truly Shaker. It's kind of pityish to have your +hair shingled and your stocking half-knitted and know how to say 'yee' +and then have it all wasted." + +Susanna dropped a tear on the dress she was folding. The child was going +home, as she had come away from it, gay, irresponsible, and merry; it +was only the mothers who hoped and feared and dreaded. The very universe +was working toward Susanna's desire at that moment, but she was all +unaware of the happiness that lay so near. She could not see the +freshness of the house in Farnham, the new bits of furniture here and +there; the autumn leaves in her own bedroom; her worktable full of +the records of John's sorrowful summer; Jack handsomer and taller, and +softer, also, in his welcoming mood; Ellen rosy and excited. She did not +know that Joel Atterbury had said to John that day, "I take it all back, +old man, and I hope you'll stay on in the firm!" nor that Aunt Louisa, +who was putting stiff, short-stemmed chrysanthemums in cups and tumblers +here and there through the house, was much more flexible and human than +was natural to her; nor that John, alternating between hope and despair, +was forever humming: + + "Set her place at hearth and board + As it used to be: + Higher are the hills of home, + Bluer is the sea!" + +It is often so. They who go weeping to look for the dead body of a +sorrow, find a vision of angels where the body has lain. + +"I hope Fardie 'll be glad to see us and Ellen will have gingerbread," +Sue chattered; then, pausing at the window, she added, "I'm sorry to +leave the hills, 'cause I 'specially like them, don't you, Mardie?" + +"We are leaving the Shaker hills, but we are going to the hills of +home," her mother answered cheerily. "Don't you remember the Farnham +hills, dear?" + +"Yes, I remember," and Sue looked thoughtful; "they were farther off and +covered with woods; these are smooth and gentle. And we shall miss the +lake, Mardie." + +"Yes; but we can look at the blue sea from your bedroom window, Sue!" + +"And we'll tell Fardie about Polly Reed and the little quail bird, won't +we?" + +"Yes; but he and Jack will have a great deal to say to us, and we must +n't talk all the time about the dear, kind Shakers, you know!" + +"You're all '_buts_,' Mardie!" at which Susanna smiled through her +tears. + +Twilight deepened into dusk, and dusk into dark, and then the moon rose +over the poplar trees outside the window where Susanna and Sue were +sleeping. The Shaker Brethren and Sisters were resting serenely after +their day of confession. It was the aged Tabitha's last Sabbath on +earth, but had she known, it would have made no difference; if ever a +soul was ready for heaven, it was Tabitha's. + +There was an Irish family at the foot of the long hill that lay between +the Settlement and the village of Albion; father, mother, and children +had prayed to the Virgin before they went to bed; and the gray-haired +minister in the low-roofed parsonage was writing his communion sermon on +a text sacred to the orthodox Christian world. The same moon shone over +all, and over millions of others worshiping strange idols and holding +strange beliefs in strange far lands, yet none of them owned the whole +of heaven; for as Elder Gray said, "It is a big place and belongs to +God." + +Susanna Hathaway went back to John thinking it her plain duty, and to me +it seems beautiful that she found waiting for her at the journey's end a +new love that was better than the old; found a husband to whom she could +say in that first sacred hour when they were alone together, "Never +mind, John! Let's forget, and begin all over again." + + +When Susanna and Sue alighted at the little railway station at Farnham, +and started to walk through the narrow streets that led to the suburbs, +the mother's heart beat more and more tumultuously as she realized that +the issues of four lives would be settled before nightfall. + +Little did Sue reck of life issues, skipping like a young roe from one +side of the road to the other. "There are the hills, not a bit changed, +Mardie!" she cried; "and the sea is just where it was!... Here's the +house with the parrot, do you remember? Now the place where the dog +barks and snarls is coming next... P'raps he'll be dead.., or p'raps +he'll be nicer... Keep close to me till we get past the gate... He did +n't come out, so p'raps he is dead or gone a-visiting.... There's that +'specially lazy cow that's always lying down in the Buxtons' field.... +I don't b'lieve she's moved since we came away.... Do you s'pose she +stands up to be milked, Mardie? There's the old bridge over the brook, +just the same, only the woodbine's red.... There's... There's... Oh, +Mardie, look, look!... I do b'lieve it's our Jacky!" + +Sue flew over the ground like a swallow, calling "Jack-y! Jack-y! It's +me and Mardie come home!" + +Jack extricated himself from his sister's strangling hug and settled his +collar. "I'm awful glad to see you, Sukey," he said, "but I'm getting +too big to be kissed. Besides, my pockets are full of angleworms and +fishhooks." + +"Are you too big to be kissed even by mother?" called Susanna, hurrying +to her boy, who submitted to her embrace with better grace. "O Jack, +Jack! say you're glad to see mother! Say it, say it; I can't wait, +Jack!" + +"'Course I'm glad! Why would n't I be? I tell you I'm tired of Aunt +Louisa, though she's easier than she was. Time and again I've packed my +lunch basket and started to run away, but I always made it a picnic and +went back again, thinking they'd make such a row over me." + +"Aunt Louisa is always kind when you're obedient," Susanna urged, "She +ain't so stiff as she was. Ellen is real worried about her and thinks +she's losing her strength, she's so easy to get along with." + +"How's... father...?" + +"Better'n he was." + +"Has n't he been well?" + +"Not so very; always quiet and won't eat, nor play, nor anything. I'm +home with him since Sunday." + +"What is the matter with your clothes?" asked Susanna, casting a +maternal eye over him while she pulled him down here and up there, with +anxious disapproving glances. "You look so patched, and wrinkled, and +grubby." + +"Aunt Louisa and father make me keep my best to put on for you, if you +should come. I clean up and dress every afternoon at train time, only I +forgot today and came fishing." + +"It's too cold to fish, sonny." + +"It ain't too cold to fish, but it's too cold for 'em to bite," +corrected Jack. + +"Why were you expecting us just now?" asked Susanna. "I did n't write +because... because, I thought... perhaps... it would be better to +surprise you." + +"Father's expecting you every day, not just this one," said Jack. + +Susanna sank down on a stone at the end of the bridge, and leaning her +head against the railing, burst into tears. In that moment the worst of +her fears rolled away from her heart like the stone from the mouth of a +sepulcher. If her husband had looked for her return, he must have missed +her, regretted her, needed her, just a little. His disposition was +sweet, even if it were thoughtless, and he might not meet her with +reproaches after all. There might not be the cold greeting she had often +feared--"_Well, you've concluded to come back, have you_? _It was about +time_!" If only John were a little penitent, a little anxious to meet +her on some common ground, she felt her task would be an easier one. + +"Have you got a pain, Mardie?" cried Sue, anxiously bending over her +mother. + +"No, dear," she answered, smiling through her tears and stretching a +hand to both children to help her to her feet. "No, dear, I've lost +one!" + +"I cry when anything aches, not when it stops," remarked Jack, as the +three started again on their walk. "Say, Sukey, you look bigger and +fatter than you did when you went away, and you've got short curls +'stead of long ones. Do you see how I've grown? Two inches!" + +"I'm inches and inches bigger and taller," Sue boasted, standing on +tiptoe and stretching herself proudly. "And I can knit, and pull maple +candy, and say Yee, and sing 'O Virgin Church, how great thy light.'" + +"Pooh," said Jack, "I can sing 'A sailor's life's the life for me, Yo +ho, yo ho!' Step along faster, mummy dear; it's 'most supper time. Aunt +Louisa won't scold if you're with me. There's the house, see? Father 'll +be working in the garden covering up the asters, so they won't freeze +before you come." + +"There is no garden, Jack. What do you mean?" "Wait till you see if +there's no garden! Hurrah! there's father at the window, side of Aunt +Louisa. Won't he be pleased I met you halfway and brought you home!" + + +Oh! it was beautiful, the autumn twilight, the smoke of her own +hearth-side rising through the brick chimneys! She thought she had left +the way of peace behind her, but no, the way of peace was here, where +her duty was, and her husband and children. + +The sea was deep blue; the home hills rolled softly along the horizon; +the little gate that Susanna had closed behind her in anger and misery +stood wide open; shrubs, borders, young hedgerows, beds of late autumn +flowers greeted her eyes and touched her heart. A foot sounded on the +threshold; the home door opened and smiled a greeting; and then a voice +choked with feeling, glad with welcome, called her name. + +Light-footed Sue ran with a cry of joy into her father's outstretched +arms, and then leaping down darted to Ellen, chattering like a magpie. +Husband and wife looked at each other for one quivering moment, and then +clasped each other close. + +"Forgive! O Susanna, forgive!" + +John's eyes and lips and arms made mute appeals, and it was then Susanna +said, "Never mind, John! Let's forget, and begin all over again!" + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Homespun Tales, by Kate Douglas Wiggin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOMESPUN TALES *** + +***** This file should be named 3492.txt or 3492.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/9/3492/ + +Produced by A Elizabeth Warren + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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